Chef Ina Garten Reveals The 4 Foods She Will Never Eat

Food

Chef Ina Garten Reveals The 4 Foods She Will Never Eat

As a successful chef and host of one of the longest running shows on Food Network, Ina Garten has created and sampled countless dishes, but there are still some foods that make her look the other way.

The Barefoot Contessa recently sat down with Time magazine for a candid interview during which she revealed some interesting details about her culinary preferences, drink of choice, and the one recipe she struggles to perfect.

If you've paid close attention to the meals Ina whips up for Jeffrey, you'll notice that there's one ingredient she NEVER uses in her recipes. Can you take a guess?

It's cilantro! While lots of chefs love to use the herb for flavor or garnish, Ina absolutely hates it.

"I just won't go near it," she told Time.

We can definitely understand her disdain for cilantro because for some, the overpowering herb can supposedly taste soapy.

If there's anything the Hampton-based chef hates more than cilantro, it's dishes with anatomical features.

"I'm not big on things with eyeballs," Ina said. She didn't delve into a detailed explanation of what this constitutes, but we'll go ahead and assume that fish head and spit fire roasted animals are off the table.

The queen of comfort cooking has two more culinary faux-pas on her list. Click on the next page to find out what they are.

Caffeine lovers will tell you that foam is one of the most important features of a great latte. Well, hate to break it to you, but Chef Garten disagrees. The food expert isn't a fan of "foam," which probably means she doesn't indulge in frothy hot drinks and cocktails, but she still has coffee on the list of things we all MUST perfect.

Her final and most surprising cooking no-no? "Grated Parmesan," she told the magazine.

Ina may be known for reassuring us that "store-bought is fine" if we can't come up with freshly-picked ingredients, but this doesn't apply to parmesan cheese because nothing compares to freshly-grated cheese from the block.

Wall of fromage! #paris #cheese #comté #saveme

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Aside from being a little picky with her food, there's another way in which the celebrity chef is more like us than you'd think. She told Time that despite being a professional, she still struggles in the kitchen sometimes.

"I've been working on Boston cream pie for about three books, and I haven't gotten the balance and flavors and textures quite right," she confessed.

When she's not busy perfecting a recipe, Ina likes to indulge in a whiskey sour, "homemade, with fresh juice and good bourbon- Knob Creek" or Sinskey Vineyards rosé.

Bourbon sours @ my favorite bar in Paris! #toasted

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What foods will you never eat? Let us know in the comments!

Blair isn't a bestselling author, but she has a knack for beautiful prose. When she isn't writing for Shared, she enjoys listening to podcasts.