The One Food Ina Garten Simply Can't Stand - Mashed (2024)

FAQs

The One Food Ina Garten Simply Can't Stand - Mashed? ›

The divisive herb cilantro

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." Cilantro is a must-have for some home cooks, especially in dishes like tacos, guacamole, soups and sauces—but Garten puts forward recipes that often call for the herb, well, without it.

Her fame may be relatively quiet — she doesn't have a line of cookware, there isn't a namesake restaurant — but make no mistake: Ina Garten is a powerhouse celeb chef. Fans know her story well: From a White House budget analyst to specialty food-store owner, her path to stardom has been slow and steady.

what she'll never eat. You won't find cilantro in Ina's vegetable or herb gardens. "I just won't go near it," she told Time. Which is understandable.

After her husband had completed his military service, the couple went on a four-month camping vacation in Europe including time in France which sparked her love for French cuisine. During this trip, she was introduced to open-air markets, produce stands, and fresh cooking ingredients.

Barefoot Contessa hasn't produced new episodes since 2021, and anyone who still has cable knows that Food Network doesn't show Garten's TV shows as often as we'd like. However, Garten recently announced that she's working on new episodes for the cooking network.

The divisive herb cilantro

During an interview on Vice's "Munchies: The Podcast", Garten revealed that cilantro is actually one of her most hated foods. While she hates the flavor of cilantro, she also feels it steals too much of the spotlight. "I know people love it and you can add it to the recipe. I just hate it.

Ina and Jeffrey Garten have been married for over 50 years, having tied the knot in 1968. Throughout their marriage, the couple have lived in many places together including Paris, Washington, D.C., Manhattan and East Hampton, New York.

Instead of a chicken pot pie, Ina Garten likes to make a chicken stew and top it with flaky biscuits. She names it as one of her all-time favorite comfort foods, and we can easily see why. We think she would approve of this soup version on a cold night.

In a new interview for Julia Louis-Dreyfus' podcast, Wiser Than Me, Garten admitted that it "wasn't a struggle at all" to decide against having children. "I had no interest in having children," she told Louis-Dreyfus. "I had a terrible childhood, and it was nothing I wanted to recreate.

Why do Mexicans eat cilantro? ›

Cilantro has found its home in Mexican cuisine. Its bright, fresh flavor blends perfectly with the bold flavors of popular Mexican dishes. Mexican dishes are often associated with spice, turning up the heat to provide an unmatched flavor profile. Cilantro turned out to be the best herb to pair with these bold flavors.

As a cold-hardy herb, cilantro companion plants are often grown with other cool-weather crops, including carrots, broccoli, spinach, and radishes, since its scent keeps insects from destroying plants.

Oxo Good Grips Food Scale

Ina uses this Oxo food scale to keep everything precise — and delicious.

Garten is Jewish by birth and heritage, as is her husband, but rarely refers to her religion and ethnicity, though they are showcased through the inclusion of classic Jewish cooking in her television show and cookbooks, when she makes such dishes as rugelach, challah, and brisket.

One of those places was Washington, D.C., where Garten worked as a budget analyst for presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter.

Several years ago, Garten built a second kitchen in a barn on her property so she could have somewhere to film episodes of Barefoot Contessa (she told Oprah Daily all about it in 2021). But Garten's home kitchen, where she still cooks meals for friends and family, has remained untouched for 25 years—at least until now.

Of course some of this dislike may come down to simple preference, but for those cilantro-haters for whom the plant tastes like soap, the issue is genetic. These people have a variation in a group of olfactory-receptor genes that allows them to strongly perceive the soapy-flavored aldehydes in cilantro leaves.

The late Julia Child declared her disdain for cilantro pretty vocally during a 2002 interview with Larry King, according to The New York Times, declaring that she "...would pick it out if [she] saw it and throw it on the floor." This may seem a little extreme; however, anyone averse to the herb is sure to share Child's ...

Julia Child hated cilantro

One of the most famous celebrity chefs had one of the most widespread food aversions: that's right, Julia Child couldn't abide cilantro.

Cilantro is Guy's favorite herb, which means he'd love any of these fresh and flavorful recipes.