Martha Stewart Will Never Cook With This Oil: ‘It’s a Hideous Thing’
There are plenty of infamous celebrity chefs, but Martha Stewart’s recipes are some of the most well-known around. Stewart paved her way to success through the years, and despite her various setbacks, she continues to make a killing with her incredible work in the home and kitchen. And she’s gotten quite candid when it comes to foods and ingredients she hates. Here’s one oil she absolutely can’t stand to cook with.
Martha Stewart has a few recipes for various oils
Whether fans prefer to cook with butter or oil, Martha Stewart’s recipes have them covered. She has various ways of cooking with olive oil, and she even has her own recipe for chile oil.
On Stewart’s website, she notes chile oil is having a particularly popular moment in 2021, as it’s absolutely delicious and goes well with a variety of dishes. “The chile (or chili) oil trend is inspired by Sichuan chile oil, a staple from the southwestern Chinese region of Sichuan, and it’s one you can try at home,” she writes. After following her directions for the oil, she recommends using it on “noodle dishes, soups, stir-fries, fried rice, tacos, and so much more.”
Stewart is also a fan of herb-infused olive oil. Her recipe from 2012 recommends heating olive oil and adding in fresh rosemary and thyme for just a few minutes to complete the infusion.
She said she’d never cook with this ‘hideous’ oil
While Martha Stewart’s recipes call for olive oil, canola oil, and other oils, there’s one she won’t touch. Today reports she and Snoop Dogg cooked together at Mohegan Sun’s Wine and Food Festival for a live demonstration in 2018. And Today asked her how she feels about truffle oil.
“Oh, I would never use truffle oil, oh never,” she said. “It’s bad. They’ve done many studies on truffle oil. It’s synthetic, it’s fake, it’s horrible. It’s clings to your tastebuds, it’s a hideous thing. Forget truffle oil.”
It seems Stewart may have a point. Most of the “truffle oils” on the market don’t contain actual truffles. They instead typically have synthetic aromas. Both Gordon Ramsay and Anthony Bourdain agree with Stewart on this point as well. They’ve made it known they don’t cook with the ingredient.
“It all tastes synthetic, and the flavor is too artificial,” Chef Ken Oringer also noted, according to Serious Eats.
Martha Stewart has a tip for how to stomach food she hates
While none of Martha Stewart’s recipes will ever contain truffle oil, she might still try a dish that contains it, as she has a tried-and-true method for stomaching foods she can’t stand.
Food52 notes Stewart spoke with chef Geoffrey Zakarian in an interview, and she noted how she stomaches bad food. “If you don’t see the whole thing, and if you put a clothespin on your nose, you can eat it,” she explained. It seems this is how she was able to eat durian, a tropical fruit known for its distinct (and often hated) smell and taste.
As for other foods Stewart won’t eat, it seems she’s not a fan of pumpkin spice, either. Her October Starbucks order likely looks a lot different than many others, that’s for sure.
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