Gordon Ramsay’s lobster mac and cheese is butter-poached lobster folded through his four-cheese macaroni, baked under mozzarella and garlicky toasted crumbs. It uses Comté, Cheddar, mozzarella and Parmesan, serves 6, and takes about 1 hour 10 minutes.
I built this from two recipes Ramsay did publish. The four-cheese mac comes from his Bread Street Kitchen book, the one his own restaurant serves, and the lobster is cooked using his butter-poaching method from Passion for Seafood. He has never printed a lobster mac himself, so this is the closest thing to one with real sources.
The technique that makes it work is keeping the lobster out of the oven. Baked lobster turns rubbery, so the tails poach gently in butter first, then sit on top at the end. The poaching butter goes into the sauce before it bakes.
Cooked this recipe? Send a photo or tell me what you changed at fans@gordonramsayrecipes.uk and I’ll share your experience live on this page.
Gordon Ramsay’s Lobster Mac and Cheese
Course: DinnersCuisine: British, AmericanDifficulty: Intermediate6
servings10
minutes1
hour750
kcal1 hr 10 min
Built from two recipes Ramsay put in print: the four-cheese macaroni from his Bread Street Kitchen book and the butter-poaching rules from Passion for Seafood. The lobster poaching butter ends up in the cheese sauce.
Ingredients
- For the lobster:
2 raw lobster tails, about 170g (6 oz) each
150g (5 oz) unsalted butter, cubed
2 tbsp dry white wine
1 garlic clove, lightly crushed
2 sprigs fresh thyme
1 sprig fresh tarragon
- For the mac and cheese:
800ml (3⅓ cups) whole milk
¼ onion
2 garlic cloves, peeled and left whole
1 bay leaf
1 star anise
60g (2 oz) butter
60g (2 oz) plain flour (all-purpose)
75g (2.5 oz) Comté cheese, grated
75g (2.5 oz) mature Cheddar, grated
300g (10.5 oz) dried macaroni
1 x 150g mozzarella ball, drained and torn
20g (¾ oz) Parmesan, grated
- For the topping:
25g (1 oz) butter
2 garlic cloves, crushed
75g (2.5 oz) fresh white breadcrumbs
2 tbsp flat leaf parsley, chopped
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Directions
- Infuse the milk: Pour the milk into a saucepan with the onion, garlic, bay leaf and star anise. Bring almost to the boil, remove from the heat and leave to infuse for 30 minutes. Strain.
- Poach the lobster: Meanwhile, cut along the top of each shell and pull out the tail meat in one piece. Pat dry. Melt the cubed butter over the lowest heat with the wine, garlic, thyme and tarragon. Slide in the tails and poach for 5-6 minutes, turning once, until just opaque. The butter must never bubble. Lift the tails out and set aside with a spoonful of the butter over them.
- Make the sauce: Melt the butter over low heat, stir in the flour and cook the roux for 1 minute. Gradually whisk in the warm infused milk until smooth and thickened. Off the heat, stir in the Comté, the Cheddar and 2 tablespoons of the lobster poaching butter. Season.
- Cook the macaroni: Boil in salted water until al dente, about 9 minutes. Drain, refresh briefly under cold water and drain again.
- Toast the crumbs: Melt the butter in a frying pan, soften the garlic for a minute without colouring, then toast the breadcrumbs until golden. Stir in the parsley.
- Assemble and bake: Preheat the oven to 200C (400F/Gas 6). Mix the macaroni through the cheese sauce, pour into a gratin dish, scatter over the mozzarella, Parmesan and crumbs. Bake for 20 minutes until bubbling and golden.
- Finish with the lobster: Slice the poached tails into thick medallions. Lay them over the baked mac, spoon over a little more of the warm poaching butter and serve straight away.
Notes
- The poaching butter is the whole trick, so do not skip straining and saving it. Strained and chilled it keeps a week, and my UK to US conversions guide covers any cup measures you need.
FAQs
Why poach the lobster instead of baking it in?
Lobster protein tightens fast, and 20 minutes in a 200C oven turns it to rubber. Poaching in barely-warm butter cooks the tails in 5-6 minutes and they stay soft, the same rules as my butter poached lobster tails.
The bonus is the butter itself. It picks up garlic, thyme, tarragon and lobster flavour while the tails cook. Two spoonfuls go into the cheese sauce, so the lobster taste runs through every bite, not just the pieces.
Where does this recipe actually come from?
Two of his books. The sauce is the four-cheese mac and cheese printed in Bread Street Kitchen, baked the same way with mozzarella and garlic crumbs. The lobster follows his poaching rules from Passion for Seafood.
His Hell’s Kitchen restaurants serve a smoked Gouda and crispy prosciutto mac, never published, and every “Ramsay lobster mac recipe” online is reverse-engineered from a restaurant plate. This one is built from his printed techniques instead, which is as close to the real thing as it gets.
Can I use frozen or pre-cooked lobster instead?
Frozen raw tails work well. Thaw them overnight in the fridge and pat them completely dry, the same tails his grilled lobster tail recipe uses. Water makes the poach spit.
Pre-cooked lobster meat needs even less. Skip the poach, warm the meat in the melted herb butter for a minute, then lay it over the baked mac. Poaching cooked meat for the full time cooks it twice and toughens it.
Do the four cheeses matter, or can I swap them?
The Comté is the one worth hunting down, because it gives the sauce its nutty depth. If your supermarket doesn’t stock it, Gruyère is the closest swap and usually sits on the same shelf.
Ramsay himself proves the sauce is flexible though. His cauliflower mac and cheese from the Ultimate Cookery Course swaps in three English cheeses instead: Cheddar, Lancashire and Cheshire. A good melting cheese matters more than the exact name.
Does lobster mac and cheese keep?
Honestly, not well. The mac base reheats fine with a splash of milk, but reheated lobster toughens no matter how gently you do it. This is a make-and-eat dish.
If you want to get ahead, make the cheese sauce and toast the crumbs a day early, then bake and poach fresh. Leftover plain mac keeps 2 days in the fridge. Pick the lobster out and eat it cold instead.
