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The Flavorful Addition That Makes Restaurant Steak Taste So Good By Joe Hoeffner Nov. 13, 2025 6:00 am EST

Why does the steak you eat at a restaurant taste better than the steak you cook at home? This is a question many people have asked themselves, and there's a simple, if rather glib, answer: the chefs that staff restaurant kitchens cook for a living (while the rest of us likely do not). After all, they may have even gone to school specifically to train for it. But what techniques, exactly, elevate their delicious steaks above your meager pan sears? We asked Jeffrey Williams, executive chef at the DC restaurant Willowsong who told us to make use of some combination of fats and aromatics when searing steak to maximize flavor.

"We use all kinds of fats," Williams

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