Remove your steak from the fridge at least an hour before cooking so it can come to room temperature. If you skip this step you will get an overcooked outside and undercooked inside – so basically a wasted steak. You want the steak to cook evenly through – a cold steak just won’t do. Obviously if it’s a 45 degree day, then this doesn’t apply. But you just don’t want to start with a cool steak.

I’ve never met someone who enjoys a grey steak, so don’t cook your steak in a warm pan – this will cause it to stew. You need serious heat and some oil on the steak! Cooking in a heavy based pan, chargrill or bbq is the best – as long as you preheat the metal for a long time until smoking.

Stop touching the steak! It doesn’t need your encouragement to cook, just let it do its thing. Don’t press down, it weighs enough and stop turning it every 5 seconds – it needs time to caramelise.

Different cuts will take different times to cook. Meat with a bone (t-bone or rib-eye) will need to cook for slightly longer than a fillet or something thin like a skirt steak. Avoid cuts reserved for slow-cooking, like chuck or blade. Get a chargrill piping hot – as in let it heat up for 10 minutes kind of piping hot. Alternatively make sure your bbq grill is preheated to high. There is no point in rushing and having a grey steak. Dress your steak with olive oil and season. If you are not going crazy with rubs or marinades, then just a coating of extra virgin olive oil and a generous amount of salt and pepper will do the trick to season. If you do this ahead, don’t salt the meat and let it sit around for ages and this can toughen the meat. Don’t overcrowd your cooking surface. Make sure there is enough surface area to keep hot – otherwise you will just end up simmering your steak and ending up with meat chewing gum. For a 3-4cm thick steak, cook the steak for about 3 ½ minutes on one side turning once halfway about 90 degrees to gain maximum caramelisation. Now you can flip and repeat. Your result will be medium-rare. Have a feel of the steak, the more you get familiar with the touch of a rare, medium and well done steak, the better cook you will become! Remember it’s a muscle, so if its firm to touch, you’ve gone to far. If it feels like a raw steak, well, you do the math. Make sure you rest your steak for half as long as you cooked it, so about 4 minutes, lightly covered in foil. This allows the juices to settle and the muscle fibres to relax, which ensures the steak is tender.