10 Chefs Reveal Ingredients They Dislike (But Have to Cook With Anyway)

Every food lover has at least one ingredient they aren't particularly fond of, but when it's your job to cook, serve, and make a dish that you like out of an ingredient you hate, what's a chef to do? One professional professed he wears gloves when handling pureed pumpkin, another hates shelling sea urchin, and another chef, to ensure he isn't being biased, gets others to taste and evaluate how a dish comes out. What ingredients do you dislike? Let us know in the comments.

[Also see: 30 Under 30: LA's Hottest Up-and-Comers]

 

Comments

[hemiram]

05:36 AM on 03/11/2012

Never had Sea Robin, in fact I've never heard of it, but the rest of the stuff, except for coconut, I would avoid at almost all costs. Blue Cheese...the most disgusting of all cheeses, and all cheeses(IMHO) are disgusting.

[Superelitesmartmedia]

12:48 AM on 03/07/2012

Coconut is so yummy in everything....seafood on the other hand, absolutely repellant. Can't be in the same room as any smelly seafood or meat.

[Paintio]

03:07 PM on 03/05/2012

Um, what we eat of sea urchin isn't meat at all. They are unpleasant to clean though, and smelly. They obviously use the shells or wouldn't bother.
I've got an idea for that dish (which sounds delicious)......I think I'm gonna' call it a, um, "bowl." How does that sound? And....what, what if it was also oven-proof? Am I on to something here?

[ginadeoliveira2008]

11:49 AM on 03/05/2012

I can't even accept the photo of a coconut linked with the word Dislike! I'm nuts abot coconut milk, I'd use it in everything if not for the fact it has saturated fat. To be honest also because I process it to extract the milk at home, and it's annoying. But there's no other way to get the real flavor.

[SimonBao]

04:47 PM on 03/03/2012

A sea robin is really not that difficult to deal with, once one does it several times. I can think of countless fish that are far more challenging to clean or fillet or butcher (monkfish, shad, etc.)

Sea robin (or gurnard) is actually very tasty and is a perfectly suitable replacement for the rascasse, or scorpionfish, in bouillabaisse. They simply LOOK alarming, with their armor plated heads, giant wing-like fins, and creepy crawly little "legs."

[OdinsEye]

03:55 PM on 03/03/2012

Capers are OK if used sparingly. Got to agree about the coconut and the sea urchins -- I can do without them. Not familiar with the sea robin. The rest I like.

[trumbull desi]

08:10 PM on 03/02/2012

For me it's salmon. I love all kinds of other fish but salmon makes me scream and run in the opposite direction. And when I visit the grandkids in Oregon ... it's EVERYWHERE.

[tainteddr34ms]

04:05 PM on 03/02/2012

Nutmeg, blue cheese and balsamic vinager are all pretty awesome in their own way.

[Mitzi Toney]

06:37 PM on 03/13/2012

I kinda wanna try them together now.

[Happy Kine]

03:48 PM on 03/02/2012

I never got Fois gras or Caviar . You just got to laugh at the stupid folks eating garbage and pocket the money.

I hate working with fish sauce, love what it adds, hate the smell. I used to carmelize it, shudder.

[PunKinPai]

03:29 PM on 03/02/2012

I'm with the chef who hates bleu cheese. Smells like five-day-old gym socks.

[trumbull desi]

08:07 PM on 03/02/2012

It certainly is a love it or hate it proposition, I'm on the pro side myself.

(nice kitty!)

[llisa]

02:25 PM on 03/02/2012

Hey, aside from the pumpkin, artichoke and balsamic vinegar--I'd like all chefs to stop using these ingredients.

[HowlingVoyager]

01:58 PM on 03/02/2012

Green peppers if they're not cooked properly. Sauteed, they lose that overwhelming taste and become sweet and savory, especially with onions. Over-used, too, in many places.

And lets not forget cilantro. Soap. Liquid, dish washing soap. VERY over used.

[OdinsEye]

03:57 PM on 03/03/2012

With you on cilantro. If you don't like green Bell peppers, try the orange or yellow ones -- they are sweeter and have less of the bitterness.

[hemiram]

05:47 AM on 03/11/2012

I've never had green peppers that didn't totally ruin whatever they were put in. I went to a Chinese place about 30 years ago that had them in the fried rice! I really thought it was a mistake, and asked the waiter about it. He made a face, and said, "People complain about it all the time!". The egg rolls were blah, the shrimp and pea pods had an odd, slightly bitter taste. It was the second worst Chinese food I have ever had, only a place in one of the Los Angeles suburbs was worse. The egg rolls made me retch, they were full of tomatoes, and after I smelled the shrimp and broccoli, I was done eating for a while. It smelled like Alpo. That place soon closed up. I don't get the cilantro at all. It's not the worst thing I've ever eaten (That would be ranch dressing), but the soapy taste is just gross.

[mangohombre]

01:57 PM on 03/02/2012

For me it's Lemongrass. Lemongrass is sometimes hard to find. Sometimes pricey for the ammount you get and when all is said and done the food didn't turn out tasting all that great anyway. (I'm not blaming the lemongrass). So now I have lemongrass in my fridge that I'll never use and I'm just going to throw it out.

[Mitzi Toney]

06:39 PM on 03/13/2012

I've got frozen lemongrass in my freezer...that I'll never use. I think I just like the name.

[Xavier Jumbo G]

01:37 PM on 03/02/2012

Green peppers, kidneys,calamari. Anything not fresh and ripe.

[llisa]

02:26 PM on 03/02/2012

Oh yeah, I would absolutely add green peppers to the list. I am allergic to them, and that sometimes severely limits what I can order in a restaurant. They put them in things I would never dream of putting them in.

[derrickhoyle]

01:21 PM on 03/02/2012

All this time I thought a sea robin was a wacky lyric made up by the B-52s. Must be an east coast fish.