Gordon Ramsay’s mac and cheese starts with milk infused with onion, garlic, bay and one star anise, whisked into a Comté and Cheddar sauce. The macaroni bakes under mozzarella, Parmesan and garlicky toasted crumbs at 200°C for 20 minutes. Four cheeses, one gratin dish, feeds eight.
This is the recipe from his Bread Street Kitchen book, the mac and cheese his own restaurant actually serves, and the headnote dares you: “we defy you not to go back for seconds!” Nobody at my table has ever passed that test. Everyone asks me about the Hell’s Kitchen version too, and I’ll get to that below, because the honest answer surprised me.
The step that changed how mine tastes is the 30-minute milk infusion, with a single star anise in there alongside the onion and bay. The first time I added it I stood over the pan convinced I was ruining milk. It doesn’t taste of liquorice at all, it just makes the cheese taste louder.
Gordon Ramsay Mac and Cheese (Four-Cheese Bread Street Kitchen Recipe)
Course: DinnerCuisine: BritishDifficulty: Medium8
20
minutes40
minutes750
kcal1 hr 30 min
The four-cheese bake from his Bread Street Kitchen cookbook: star anise-infused milk, Comté and Cheddar in the sauce, mozzarella and Parmesan up top, garlic and parsley crumbs over everything. The restaurant dish scaled for a home gratin dish, and the thing I get asked to bring.
Ingredients
- For the mac and cheese:
1.3 litres whole milk
¼ onion
2 garlic cloves, peeled and left whole
1 bay leaf
1 star anise
100g butter
100g plain flour
100g Comté cheese, grated
100g mature Cheddar cheese, grated
500g dried macaroni
2 x 150g mozzarella balls, drained and sliced or torn
30g Parmesan, grated
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
- For the breadcrumb topping:
25g butter
2 garlic cloves, crushed
100g fresh white breadcrumbs
4 tbsp finely chopped flat leaf parsley
Directions
- Infuse the milk: Pour the milk into a saucepan with the onion, garlic cloves, bay leaf and star anise. Bring almost to the boil, remove from the heat, cover and leave to infuse for 30 minutes. Strain into a jug and discard the flavourings.
- Heat the oven: Preheat to 200°C/180°C fan/Gas 6.
- Make the sauce: Melt the butter in a large saucepan over low heat, stir in the flour and cook the roux for 1 minute. Gradually whisk in the warm infused milk until smooth, bring slowly to the boil whisking constantly, then simmer gently for 5 minutes. Off the heat, whisk in the Comté and Cheddar until smooth and season.
- Cook the macaroni: Boil the macaroni 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 stir in the breadcrumbs and toast over low heat for about 8 minutes until pale golden, stirring so they don’t catch. Stir in the parsley.
- Assemble and bake: Mix the macaroni through the cheese sauce and pour into a large, wide gratin dish. Scatter the mozzarella over, then the Parmesan, then the toasted crumbs. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes until golden and crisp, and serve with a crisp salad.
FAQs
What is the Hell’s Kitchen mac and cheese?
The dish at the Hell’s Kitchen restaurants is a smoked Gouda and crispy prosciutto baked macaroni and cheese, and here’s what I found when I went hunting for it: the restaurant has never published the recipe. Every “Hell’s Kitchen mac and cheese recipe” online is someone’s reverse-engineering of a plate they ate in Vegas, which is why no two agree on anything.
The only restaurant mac and cheese he’s actually put in print is the Bread Street version above. If you want the HK flavour at home, swap the Comté for smoked Gouda and crisp a few prosciutto slices for the top. That’s my workaround, not his recipe, and at least I’m telling you which is which.
Why does he put star anise in the milk?
It works like a volume knob, not a flavour. One pod in 1.3 litres doesn’t make anything taste of aniseed, it deepens the savoury notes the way it does in his braises, and with the onion, garlic and bay it turns plain milk into something closer to a stock before any cheese arrives.
It’s also why this sauce needs none of the usual béchamel rescue tricks, no mustard, no nutmeg. The milk turns up already interesting, and the cheese only has to be cheese.
What are the four cheeses, and can you swap them?
Comté and mature Cheddar melt into the sauce, mozzarella and Parmesan sit on top, and each has a job: Comté brings the nutty depth, Cheddar the bite, mozzarella the pull, Parmesan the salty crust. Gruyère stands in for Comté perfectly, same Alpine family, often easier to find.
The one rule I won’t bend on: grate everything yourself. Pre-grated bags are dusted with anti-caking starch that turns a sauce grainy, and four cheeses deep, you’d taste it.
Does Gordon Ramsay make a truffle mac and cheese?
Yes, officially: his restaurant group’s website publishes a Bread Street Kitchen truffle version, which is this same recipe with 50g of fresh black truffle through it and extra crumbs on top. They call it an autumnal classic, because that’s fresh truffle season.
At home, a restrained drizzle of truffle oil at the table gets you most of the way for a fraction of the price. Add it after baking, never before, since the oven kills the aroma you paid for.
Does he have a quicker version without the roux?
Two, and they share the same shortcut: no flour at all. In Make It Easy it’s macaroni with 200ml of double cream heated through with crumbled Beenleigh Blue, fried mushrooms on top, 2 to 3 minutes under a hot grill. Beenleigh is a Devon sheep’s cheese, and Stilton makes it punchier, Saint Agur creamier. It’s the one I make when it’s just us two on a Tuesday.
On The F Word he goes even further: cream reduced with shallots, thyme and girolle mushrooms, no flour anywhere, then an egg yolk stirred in because, as he says in the video, it helps the top glaze as it bakes. That yolk trick works on any cream-based mac and cheese, including the blue one above.
What’s the breast milk mac and cheese story?
A MasterChef audition contestant served him a baked mac and cheese “with a major twist,” and the twist was her own breast milk. He told James Corden it was the worst thing he’s ever eaten: “it was sweet, and I thought this lady had made it with almond milk… She said, ‘It’s my breast milk.’ Not good.”
My favourite detail buried under the horror: his actual critique was that it needed salt. The worst dish of his life, and he was still judging the seasoning.
Does he make lobster or cauliflower versions?
Both, and they grow from this same base. His lobster mac and cheese is the celebration route, the comfort food carrying poached lobster, and his cauliflower mac and cheese folds roasted florets through for the slightly lighter night. I think of this four-cheese one as the base camp they both climb from.
One hosting tip that’s saved me twice: assemble the whole dish a day ahead, fridge it unbaked, and add 10 minutes to the bake. Leftovers come back best in a 180°C oven with a splash of milk stirred in. It usually plays the side next to his famous burger at a cookout, quietly stealing the show, and the best side dishes guide covers what else belongs on that table.
