You’re cooking your steak all wrong! Great British Menu winner Kate Austen shares her top tips for serving meat and fish at home

A professional chef has revealed the most common mistakes people make when cooking steak; You are probably guilty of these mistakes too.

Chef Kate Austen, winner of this year’s Great British Menu, has shared her top tips for preparing meat at home, including cooking steak so it comes out tender, juicy and delicious every time.

According to Austen, the easiest way to ruin a piece of steak is to take it straight from the refrigerator.

While it may be tempting to throw a chilled ribeye straight into the pan, he said bringing the meat to room temperature is a crucial first step, especially when you’re in a rush.

This will help the meat cook evenly all the way through, soAn expensive piece of steak turned an unappetizing shade of grey.

Another small misstep that made a big difference, he added, was cooking the steak in a pan that wasn’t too hot.

Austen explained: ‘Beef is pretty tough… it can stand the heat and you want that nice, dark caramelization.’

The London-based chef said that by following these two simple steps, you can probably prepare a restaurant-quality steak for a fraction of the price.

Earlier this month, Austen made history on the Great British Menu, becoming the first female chef to serve the main course of stuffed quail, truffle toast and scotch eggs at the banquet in the show’s 19 seasons.

The 30-year-old actor was appointed head chef of the two-Michelin-starred Restaurant AOC in Copenhagen, Denmark, before competing on the BBC Two show.

At that time, she was the youngest two-Michelin-starred female head chef in the world.

He also served as sous chef at the three-Michelin-starred restaurant Restaurant Frantzen in Sweden, before taking up a position as Gordon Ramsay’s senior development chef.

Austen has now joined forces with Asda to ease the reluctance of many Brits to cook and prepare meat at home.

The collaboration represents the launch of the retailer’s new line of Exceptional premium meat and fish products, including sirloin, fillet, ribeye and rump steaks, pork and leek sausages and smoked sea bass fillet.

Research commissioned by Asda has found that one in seven Brits say they would never attempt to cook a steak at home. One in five people admitted to throwing away a piece of meat because it didn’t turn out right.

When asked to choose the meat they fear most, a group of 2,000 people surveyed said ribeye steak was the hardest meat to cook, followed by sirloin and then rump.

Surprisingly, 20 percent of respondents said they had never tried cooking fish at home, while almost 40 percent revealed they had never tried preparing whole shrimp.

More than a third of people surveyed aged 18-44 said they actively avoid buying and cooking quality meat products for fear of ruining the product and wasting money.

Asda has launched a Culinary Advisory service in collaboration with Austen, who will share her best tips and tricks for cooking meat with hobbyists and home cooks alike.

For example, the secret to getting the best pork crackling is to salt the pork for 20-30 minutes to remove some of the excess water from the meat. Austen recommends using twice the amount you would use to salt a vegetable.

Then bring a large pot of water to a boil and let the joint simmer for five minutes.

Drain and pat dry before placing in an oven heated to 220 degrees Celsius for 25 minutes (Austen explained that you can never get crispy skin from wet skin). For the remaining time, reduce the temperature to 160 degrees Celsius.

Other common mistakes Brits make when preparing meat include puncturing the skin of sausages for fear of them ‘exploding’. This squeezes out all the moisture, resulting in dry and chewy eggplants, Austen said.

He’ll be on hand to help with expert advice on cooking different types of poultry and fish products as part of Asda’s Culinary Concierge service, which runs from Thursday 24 October until Sunday 27 October.

Whether you want to try the viral ‘Marry Me’ chicken to impress your date or head downstairs to prepare your first Sunday roast, you can book a five-minute consultation with a private chef.

You can register your interest for a five-minute conversation with Austen. Here; Slots will be allocated on a first come, first served basis.