11 Celebrity Chefs And The Foods They Hate

We all have foods that we'd rather avoid. Broccoli, Brussels sprouts, or horseradish are some common foods that many people seem to dislike. But, even some of the world's biggest celebrity chefs have foods they downright refuse to eat. Despite their passionate love for food and cooking with different flavors, some chefs prefer to leave certain ingredients out of their kitchens altogether — and they're often quite vocal about it.

One of America's first celebrity chefs, Julia Child, started off the trend by railing against cilantro, telling Larry King she "would pick it out if I saw it and throw it on the floor," (via The New York Times). Nowadays, chefs have followed in Julia's footsteps and found their own foods to criticize publicly. Some food aversions make sense, and some are certainly very unique. Whether it's a matter of personal distaste, distrust, or even a few self-prescribed phobias, the following 11 celebrity chefs and cooking show hosts have all publicly declared a major dislike for common foods you'll likely find in your kitchen. 

Emeril Lagasse was, at one point, the most famous celebrity chef in the world. Before Bobby Flay or The Barefoot Contessa, there was Emeril Lagasse and his trademark "BAM!" The cook turned TV star turned restauranteur helped create the Food Network and was one of the first chefs to host their own show on the channel. Despite being a master of the kitchen he still gives one ingredient a big swerve: salted bouillon.

Bullion is a type of dehydrated stock often added to broths or stews as a shortcut to add more flavoring. It comes in a variety of types and textures, including powders or cubes. Bullion tends to be relatively high in sodium, as the flavoring and ingredients are concentrated into a small amount. 

Speaking to GrubStreet in 2011, Lagasse explains he doesn't mind taking some shortcuts stating, "Sometimes I do things like buy chicken stock instead of making it homemade. But I draw the line at salted bouillons; I'd never do that!"

Emeril grew up eating a lot of Portuguese food in his hometown of Fall River, Massachusetts, where the first dish he learned to make was his mother's vegetable soup. It seems that he learned at a young age the importance of using a rich and hearty broth. 

Carla Hall simply sticks with water when she wakes up. In a video diary for Harper's BAZAAR, the chef and author admits she doesn't like coffee and steers clear from caffeine altogether — especially in the morning.

"I don't drink coffee or tea in the morning, the first thing I drink is water," Hall explains in the video. Besides making a healthier beverage decision, Carla substitutes water for her morning cup of joe because she just isn't a fan of the roasted beans. "I don't like coffee, but when I'm drinking tea it's really to enjoy the beverage with a cookie or a sweet." 

Fans of Carla's many television shows might be surprised to learn that she can juggle so much without being heavily caffeinated. "Surprise. It probably seems like I drink a lot of caffeine, which I do not," the chef further explains. If she can manage all she does without caffeine, the mind boggles at what she could do if she started knocking back nitro cold brews. 

Ree Drummond is decisively against bananas. Writing about it in her recipe for bananas foster, the Pioneer Woman starts with a disclaimer that she hates the "weird slimy things" most English speaking people call bananas (which are actually berries). Unfortunately for the bananas, the roasting only starts here. 

The author and food writer explains how her dislike for bananas stems from childhood, when she had a distaste for them even as a baby. Other members of the Pioneer family, including Ree's father and brother, are quiet supporters of Ree's anti-banana campaign as they, too, dislike the fruit. Ree's dislike for bananas is so strong she claims to "hate, abhor, loathe, and recoil at the sight of bananas."

Despite having a recipe for banana bread on her website, Ree claims to not enjoy the banana-based dessert — notwithstanding one instance in her life. In fact, she claims to never have finished a whole banana in one sitting. "I've had accidental bites here and there, half of which were promptly spit out into a napkin." 

It's fitting that Ayesha Curry tells this fun food fact about herself to Harper's BAZAAR, because this dislike is truly a bizarre one. The actress turned cooking show explains that she drinks hot water throughout the day to stay hydrated. Curry simply says, "I'm not a huge fan of ice water. I don't know why,"

Ice water may cause pain or discomfort for people with sensitive teeth or gums, which is a reasonable explanation for avoiding it. But Ayesha Curry doesn't mention anything about potential gum disease in her video diary of everything she eats in a day. Her dislike for ice water, though, seems to be a semi-recent development. Or at least a seasonal issue. Back in 2015, when X was still Twitter, Ayesha tweeted, "Ice water on my bedside table is a must at this point!!! I always feel hot!" That's certainly more relatable than strictly sticking to hot water. 

No matter what it is, or at what restaurant he's dining at, Gordon Ramsay is betting the special soup of the day isn't going to be good. "It may be the case that it's the soup du month," he tells Town & Country, insinuating that some restaurants use whatever old, spare ingredients they have left to make a specialty soup.

The chef advises asking what yesterday's soup of the day was to see if the restaurant truly switches up their specialties daily. He does exactly that in an episode of his show "Kitchen Nightmares," where a server admits that their restaurant's soup of the day was a jalapeño corn chowder the day of the episode, the day before, and even the week before that. However, if the soup of the day is different everyday (which is what a soup of the day should be) then it's probably a safer bet. 

Guy Fieri eats some wild concoctions on his television shows "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives" or "Guy's Big Bite,'" but one common food he steers away from is the egg. Though he does admit to using eggs regularly in various forms of cooking, he seldom will eat one on it's own — regardless if it's scrambled, boiled, or over easy.

"There is just something about a scrambled egg, it just doesn't work," Fieri tells the Food Network. "Texturally, visually, it's liquid chicken." His colorful comparison is just the tip of the iceberg for why Guy doesn't eat eggs. In an interview with Extra Crispy, he shares that his dislike for eggs stems from a bad experience when he was younger. 

"When I was about ten years old, I came to a very clear understanding of how chickens grow," the host explains. Though learning the anatomy of the egg didn't turn him off from them completely, it's a memory that sticks with him today. Fieri then shares the final straw that put him off eggs for good by explaining, "I had a bad hard-boiled egg. It was the chalky yolk." Even though hard-boiled eggs last longer than you think in the fridge, it's still a good idea to know how long you can store them, so you don't end up putting someone off them for life. 

On his podcast, The Dave Chang Show, celebrity chef David Chang lambasts the idea of summer backyard barbecues. Chang explains his view by stating, "We have assumed as a culture that in the summer, we eat a burger, and it's grilled. I actually think the grill is a horrible thing for a hamburger." It's a hot take, and an especially unusual one. But the Michelin-star chef stands by it. "The only flavor that's being imparted is the carbonized crap that's on the grill." 

The restauranteur goes on to say that "you would need to cook [a burger] for 12 hours to get that charcoal smoky flavor," calling grilled burgers "a marketing lie." Besides the flavoring, he says that using grills also greatly increase your chance of having a grease fire. 

Later in the podcast, Chang advises to cook burgers on an electric griddle instead of a gas or charcoal grill. In his own burger recipe on his Momofuku website, the chef suggests broiling your homemade burgers in the oven for a few minutes instead of cracking open the grill. Whatever method you choose for your burgers, experts say you still can't beat the grill in terms of flavor for other dishes like yakitori. 

Martha Stewart likes truffles, but never cooks with truffle oil. In a 2018 interview with Today, the TV chef and all around lifestyle guru openly slammed the trendy ingredient.

"I would never use truffle oil, oh never," says the chef, whose love for actual truffles is shown across several of her recipes. She told Today, "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. Forget truffle oil."

In 2017, a year before Martha's interview with Today, Trader Joe's — among other companies – was the subject of a class-action lawsuit claiming that some of their truffle products did not contain actual truffles, but instead truffle aroma mixed with olive oil. One popular (and expensive) brand confirms this on their website, stating that a lot of truffle oil is often synthetic or chemical. 

The host of The Rachael Ray Show says in one of her cooking segments that she doesn't like store-bought mayonnaise. "It's weird to me," she tells her co-host, and honestly, she may have a point. 

She clarifies that she does eat and enjoy mayo or aioli when she makes it fresh at home. "I will eat it if I make it," she says, "something about a shelf-stable egg freaks me out," going as far to say she has " a fear of mayonnaise." The TV chef explains that she didn't grow up with store-bought mayonnaise in her house, so she wasn't exposed to it until later in life. "I have a fear of mayonnaise," she goes as far to say. While store-bought mayonnaise is perfectly safe to eat — and it's a good idea to know how long you can store it once it's open – it does also include preservatives that homemade mayonnaise would not. 

Rachael, to her credit, is one of the very few chefs on this list that actually face their fear on camera. At the end of her anti-mayonnaise segment, she eats a piece of fish "slathered" in store-bought mayonnaise. I probably would stick to a nice sandwich for an introduction to mayo, but respect Rachael's commitment.

Nobody hates anything as much as Alton Brown seemingly hates pineapples. Over the years, the host of "Cutthroat Kitchen" has continuously gone on X (formerly Twitter) to rant about the sweet fruits. 

"I'm blaming pineapple...for everything. EVERYTHING," he said in November of 2020. Less than a year later, he came back to the social media platform to state "#CulinaryTruth Pineapple destroys 72.6% of every dish it touches." Responding to a comment Brown clarifies that the juices in pineapples contain enzymes that break down and can "turn meat to mush." 

Surprisingly, Alton apparently stands in favor of pineapple in the divisive pineapple on pizza debate. In 2017, he tweeted "if I want pineapple on my pizza, I'll by God have it." He doubled down years later, tweeting "And if I wanted to put pineapple on my pizza you would do what exactly?" Based on his sentiment, though, Alton may just not like people telling him what he can and can't eat.

British TV star Paul Hollywood isn't a fan of the classic American Twinkie. He tried one of them for the first time in a video for Bon Appetit, along with other American snacks, and his bad experience was so memorable that he told Page Six nearly six months later that the sponge cake treats were  "awful. They're really bad!"

"I've heard of people mentioning Twinkies on movies and stuff," he says to fellow celebrity cook Chef Prue Leith upon trying the Hostess snacks for the first time. His instant reaction to the treat is a look of disgust. The taste and texture seemingly leaves him speechless for a moment. "It'll probably last another 10 years and remain exactly the same," he says, pointing out the preservatives and artificial taste and texture of the creamy filling. Still, though, together the British chefs initially declare the Twinkie better than fellow Hostess snack HoHos.