If Bobby Flay Is Cooking He's Probably Using This Butter Brand

One of the easiest ways to make your home cooking more like the pros is to use the ingredients they use. This goes for everything from exotic spices and sauces to everyday staples like butter. For chef and TV personality Bobby Flay, there's one butter in particular that serves as a critical part of his deliciously sophisticated and unique dishes. That's Kerrygold, the iconic Irish brand beloved by cooks around the globe.

Flay described the flavor to AllRecipes as "good and grassy in the best way", noting, "I have some Irish blood in me." The description of grassy is apt, as one of the reasons Kerrygold stands out over ordinary butter is the 100% grass-fed cows that produce the milk in it, contributing to the more intense yellow hue. These premium dairy cows also aren't treated with controversial antibiotics or growth hormones.

It's also vital to point out that Flay only uses Kerrygold's unsalted butter. Like many professional chefs, he prefers to add the salt on his own, allowing him to dial in the salt at precisely the right level for the dish.

Aside from its grass-fed origins, Kerrygold and other European butters also have one other critical difference that makes them a chef's favorite. They're produced with at least 82% butterfat, 2% higher than typical American brands. This small difference results in a noticeably creamier, more flavorful final product. This is likely among the reasons Flay mentioned the French brand Plugrà as another quality choice when Kerrygold isn't available.

Flay also noted his preference for organic butter. This is achieved when the butter is made from the milk of cows grazed in pastures not treated with synthetic pesticides and fertilizers, and filled with non-genetically-engineered plants. In addition to the lack of antibiotics and hormones mentioned earlier, organic dairy cows also enjoy better living conditions than their non-organic counterparts. 

To be sure, Bobby Flay isn't alone in his passion for Kerrygold. Chefs often use the butter to elevate classic scrambled eggs. Still, when a food figure as well-known as Flay throws his support behind a particular brand of a kitchen staple, it's worth listening — and then stocking up.