Eating for a living might sound like a dream job, and for chefs — especially celebrity chefs — it’s a huge part of what they do. But working with food on a daily basis doesn’t mean their taste buds are accepting of every flavor. Famous chefs have tried some of the weirdest, barely palatable things on earth, yet many of them still have a strong aversion to certain everyday foods we eat without a second thought.
Here are 10 foods famous chefs hate with a burning passion.
Few foods are as polarizing as the herb that some people love, and others swear to Bob, tastes like soap. The “Barefoot Contessa” herself supposedly falls into the latter category. Ina Garten, author of 10 New York Times-bestselling cookbooks, in 2017 told Vice's Munchies podcast
https://www.vice.com/en/article/munchies-the-podcast-an-afternoon-at-ina-gartens-house/
that she absolutely hates cilantro.
“I know people love it, and you can add it to the recipe. I just hate it. To me, it's so strong — and it actually tastes like soap to me — but it's so strong it overpowers every other flavor," the Food Network host revealed.
For someone who chows down on all kinds of, at times, highly questionable foods for a living, you’d think Guy Fieri’s taste buds would be game for anything. And they mostly are — except for one thing: eggs. The spiky-haired Mayor of Flavortown has been vocal about his sheer hatred for the breakfast staple for years. The aversion reportedly comes from a traumatic eggsperience Fieri had as a kid when he ate a rotten egg.
“I’m not a big egg fan,” the Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives host admitted during an appearance on The Tonight Show. “They’re great for different parts of the menu, and as a chef, I use them all the time, but I’d rather have some corned beef hash or just a sandwich.”
Truffle oil is your ingredient to make food instantly classy—or, more accurately, expensive. However, its rather pungent flavor isn’t for everyone, and it’s especially not for Martha Stewart. “Oh, I would never use truffle oil, oh never," the domestic guru told Today when asked which ingredient tops her no-no list. And it’s not just the overpowering taste that makes Stewart detest this ingredient — it’s how fake it is. “It’s bad," Stewart told Today. “It’s synthetic, it’s fake, it’s horrible. It clings to your taste buds; it’s a hideous thing. Forget truffle oil.”
Stewart isn’t alone in the truffle-oil haters’ club. Celebrity chefs like Gordon Ramsay and Anthony Bourdain have also bashed the fancy ingredient mercilessly, with Bourdain famously calling it “the ketchup of the middle class.”
The most prized of all steaks — "the Rolls-Royce of beef” — Japanese Wagyu seems to be adored by everyone — or at least everyone who can afford it. Everyone except Wolfgang Puck. The Austrian-born celebrity restaurateur steers clear from the fatty steak no matter how much praise it receives from chefs.
“The Japanese Wagyu is really fatty, and you’re not meant to eat a lot of it,” he told The Telegraph in an interview. “I wouldn’t eat steak like that… because of the fat.”
The sharp-tongued celebrity chef rarely shies away from sharing his opinion, and given that he has 17 Michelin stars in total, he knows a thing or two about food. Gordon Ramsay has tried everything from a cobra's beating heart to tar. Eating disgusting food was central to his almost two decades running Kitchen Nightmares, so it’s safe to say the British chef has an experienced palate.
While Ramsay’s list of foods he detests is rather long, the one food the MasterChef judge would never touch is what’s served on airplanes.
“I worked for airlines for 10 years, so I know where this food’s been and where it goes and how long it took before it got on board,” he told Time magazine.
Rachael Ray is a huge proponent of homemade food and fresh ingredients — she’s practically built an empire on that ethos. So, it’s no shocker that the TV personality has a strong aversion to the grocery store version of mayo. “I hate store-bought mayonnaise,” Ray told EatingWell. “I will eat aioli or mayonnaise all day long if I make it or if I know the person who made it, but I do not want shelf-stable.”
You’ve probably seen The Pioneer Woman host Ree Drummond cook and bake with virtually anything. But if you’re a true fan of the Food Network star, you probably know she avoids bananas like the plague. “In my entire 42 years on this earth, I’ve never eaten a whole banana. I’ve had accidental bites here and there, half of which were promptly spit out into a napkin,” Ree wrote on her blog in 2011.
Although you’ll find plenty of recipes on her blog that include the potassium-rich fruit, she keeps her distance. “I have a restaurant in my small town, and there’s not a single banana in the joint anywhere,” she said in an interview with Fox.
British baking legend Mary Berry said in 2020 that she had never had a takeaway (as they call takeout in the U.K.) in her 84 years (at the time). Considering the former Great British Bake Off host has penned over 70 cookbooks, it’s no surprise she knows her way around the kitchen and has never felt the need to order in.
“We want to get people cooking at home. We’re a nation that orders in and eats out,” she told My Weekly magazine. “I have never had a takeaway. Why should I? I can muster up things very quickly, and there are many things you can buy to help if you’re busy, and which don’t cost that much extra, like grated cheese.”
While Julia Child, like Ina Garten, detested the taste of cilantro, there was another leafy green she hated with burning rage: arugula. The legendary chef and TV personality, who taught America how to cook French food, lumped the cruciferous veggie — also known as rocket — into the category of foods she’d pick out “and throw on the floor.”
Anthony Bourdain was far from a snobby chef who looked down on fast food. He loved fast food, with In-N-Out being his favorite. But there is one McDonald’s menu item he hated with a burning passion: McNuggets.
The late TV personality called McNuggets the worst thing he’d ever tried. This comes from a man who once ate warthog rectum in Namibia. “Given the choice between reliving the warthog experience and eating a McNugget, I’m surely eating the McNugget.” Bourdain once said. “ But at least I knew what the warthog was. Whereas with the McNugget, I think that’s still an open question. Scientists are still wondering.”
