They may be the ultimate foodies, but celebrity chefs are more like us mere mortals than you
would ever believe.
You would probably never classify a well-known chef as a picky eater, but even the most famous
celebrity chefs have foods they just can't stand and some of them are definitely not
what you would expect.
Truffles might be right up there at the top of the list when it comes to classy foods,
but truffle oil?
Given that it's not made from real truffles, not so much.
Gordon Ramsay and Joe Bastianich both made their feelings about truffle oil perfectly
clear in one tense episode of MasterChef.
When one contestant drizzled her dish in white truffle oil, they didn't pull any punches.
Bastianich walked over to her station and threw the cylinder of truffle oil in the garbage
after saying any restaurant who had it on the menu wasn't worth it.
Ramsay called it:
"One of the most pungent, ridiculous ingredients ever known to chef."
They're not the only ones that refuse to have anything to do with truffle oil.
Alton Brown once told Grub Street:
"Truffle oil sucks."
And when Today asked Martha Stewart what was on her naughty list, she had this to say:
"Oh, I would never use truffle oil, oh never.
It's bad.
They've done many studies on truffle oil.
It's synthetic, it's fake, it's horrible.
It clings to your tastebuds, it's a hideous thing."
Anthony Bourdain was on the list of truffle oil-haters, too, once calling it:
"About as edible as Astroglide and made from the same stuff."
It's an old joke.
The customer asks the server: "What's the soup du jour?"
And they respond: "The soup of the day."
According to Gordon Ramsay, though, the soup du jour isn't actually a laughing matter.
It's one of the items on a restaurant's menu that he absolutely wants nothing to do with.
When Town & Country asked him what he recommended never, ever ordering at a restaurant, he had
this bit of wisdom to offer:
"Ask what yesterday's soup du jour was before today's special.
It may be the case that it's the soup do month."
The idea of getting something served up that's been reheated and reused for days suddenly
doesn't sound so good.
The idea of "soup of the day" makes it sound like it's going to be super fresh, but take
it from Ramsay.
You should probably follow in his footsteps and opt for something else.
Every so often, we hear something about our favorite celebrity chefs that really serves
to remind you that they live in an entirely different world.
Take Mary Berry.
She's written more than 70 cookbooks and made the world fall in love with her on the Great
British Bake Off, but if you think that after a long day of filming she might grab some
takeout on the way home, you'd be mistaken.
On James Martin's Christmas With Friends, she remarked:
"You won't believe this, but I haven't ever had a takeaway."
Berry has been vocal about her belief that Britain, quote, "orders in and eats out" way
too much, and should start making more home-cooked meals.
It's entirely possible she's the only person in Britain who's never ordered out for a pizza,
a curry, or even fish and chips.
And according to The Telegraph, that's not just a shame, it's a sign that she's missing
out on an entire section of British cuisine and culture.
Store-bought mayonnaise is weird.
It's shelf-stable, but it's filled with all kinds of things that definitely aren't.
Do you know who else thinks so?
Rachael Ray.
She said on The Rachael Ray Show:
"We did not grow up with mayonnaise in my house.
You know…
We just didn't have it around.
It's weird to me.
The consistency is weird to me."
But she's fine with mayo and aioli as long as she makes it fresh.
And according to The Huffington Post, there's a lot of people who can't stomach the idea
of mayo.
They chalked it up to a few reasons.
It's an inanimate object that shouldn't wiggle, but does, that whole "room temperature" thing,
and it just looks like something that's going to make us sick.
Yum!
Lentils are basically edible seeds, according to Healthline.
They're a part of the legume family, and extremely nutritious.
While they're packed full of vitamins, nutrients, protein and iron that they're a perfect thing
to add to a vegetarian diet, none of that will ever convince Bobby Flay to put them
on his menus.
He told The New York Times:
"Whenever I tell somebody I hate lentils, they're shocked.
There are a lot of lentil fans out there."
And it's not just a personal hate.
Flay dislikes lentils so much that when he opened Bar Americain, he vetoed a beet and
goat cheese salad, and it got the axe based solely on the fact that it contained lentils.
That's not to say you'll never get lentils at one of his restaurants.
When the boss is away, it turns out that the chefs will, indeed, play.
He stated:
"When I go on vacation, they run specials on lentils."
Now you know how to tell if he's out of town.
Carrots might seem like an odd thing to swear off, but according to The New York Times,
it's one thing that Alex Guarnaschelli wants absolutely nothing to do with.
She stated:
"I will serve baby carrots.
But once it gets over two inches long, I break into a cold sweat."
Why?
Early in her career, she was a sous-chef at an upscale Paris restaurant, julienne carrots
were always on the menu.
Like, always.
Permanently.
And that meant she was responsible for julienning a lot of carrots.
It's understandable how little carrots might be something that she'd never want to see
again.
She said:
"Now, I have a panic attack when I see shredded carrot in a salad.''
It doesn't matter how much of a foodie you are, everyone keeps a few frozen pizzas in
their fridge for those nights where they just can't.
They're quick, they're easy, and if you happen to have some extra cheese and toppings to
throw on, they're usually not terrible.
But Ted Allen says that he absolutely won't eat a frozen pizza.
He told Time:
"People should not eat frozen pizza.
Ever.
It's terrible.
All of it's awful, just packed with the lowest quality ingredients, lousy sauces, and they're
overpriced for what they are.
It's not a good product.
There's so much sodium, so many calories, and artificial crap, and preservatives."
"And it's not exactly pizza either, it's Almost Pizza."
"Come on, that's pizza!"
"Nope, it's very nearly pizza, but not quite."
But sometimes you just want something that will cook itself in the time it'll take you
to find something on Netflix.
Allen has a suggestion, and it's pretty brilliant: next time you order out for a pizza, order
an extra one, individually wrap the slices, and freeze them.
If there's one thing that American cuisine does right, it's breakfast.
There are just so many options, from breakfast sandwiches to yogurt parfaits to stacks of
pancakes with a side of bacon.
But there's one chef that refuses to eat any of those things, and that's Ina Garten.
She told Bon Appetit:
"I've had the same thing for breakfast every single day for ten years: coffee and McCann's
quick-cooking Irish oatmeal with lots of salt.
I don't want it to taste like wallpaper paste."
That was in 2017, so by now, she's had well over 4,000 cups of coffee and bowls of oatmeal.
That's a lot of oats!
At least they're good for you!
The Barefoot Contessa might not have any doughnuts hanging around her house, but for all the
breakfast foods she doesn't eat, there's four things that she says are always in her freezer:
homemade stock, soup, vanilla Haagen-Dazs, and Grey Goose vodka.
Sounds like a party.
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