Ingredients award-winning chefs would never use

James Martin recently caused a stir by claiming that a ‘horrendous’ product should be banned from the kitchen completely.

And he’s not the only famous chef who has launched a blistering attack on ingredients that are probably sitting in your fridge or cupboard.

Universally beloved Julia Child, who penned The Joy of Cooking, said there’s a particular herb she would never add to a dish, and that should be thrown on the floor.

Meanwhile, there’s a particular oil Gordon Ramsay would like to see the back off, because people never use it in the proper quantities.

Here FEMAIL reveals the ingredients you should also ban from your cupboards if you want to follow in the culinary steps of these famous chefs.

JAMES MARTIN: MARGARINE

TV chef James Martin called for margarine ingredient be banned from cooking saying it is ‘dreadful’

The former Saturday Kitchen chef, 50, said that margarine is horrendous and that it tastes like plastic. (Stock picture)

James Martin issues a heartfelt plea to stop using margarine in a recent interview with the The Sunday Post.

The Saturday Kitchen star who wrote a book about butter in 2021, explained how he grew up always having ‘full-fat milk, butter and cream’ at home.

As such, the chef said margarine is not an acceptable substitute for a slab of butter and argued that supermarkets to stop selling it altogether.

He fumed: ‘Margarine should be banned. It’s dreadful, dreadful stuff, it’s two elements away from plastic, it’s horrendous stuff.’

While butter is made from cream or milk, margarine uses a blend of oils without any saturated fats.

For people wanting to live a healthier lifestyle, the chef recommended taking a closer look at the ‘hidden salt and fat’ in readymade foods rather than swapping butter for margarine.

What do these award-winning chefs have to say?

Judy Joo, founder of Seoul Bird in London and Las Vegas: Pre chopped garlic or ginger.

‘I avoid cooking with pre-chopped garlic or ginger. Even though it seems easier, it just doesn’t compare to the real thing and the taste is substandard.

‘You lose a lot of the natural goodness and they are usually full of additives and artificial preservatives.’

Aktar Islam, Chef Patron of Opheem in Birmingham: Ready-made BBQ sauce

‘I love BBQ sauce as a marinade for meats or a condiment, but the ready-made ones are way too sweet and usually masks the flavour of whatever I’m pairing it with. I prefer to make my own as it’s so simple to do.

‘I use ketchup as a base, apples, cider vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, cumin, garlic, smoked paprika, chilli, muscovado sugar and pomegranate molasses. Super easy to make and tastes so much nicer.

Tommy Heaney, founder of Heaneys in Cardiff: Tinned vegetables

‘I can’t stand tinned veg. I like to say it tastes like Nan’s food but fortunately my nan was a good cook! The only vegetable in a tin that you may find in my cupboard is sweetcorn.

‘We are lucky to have some amazing vegetables growing in the UK, there is simply no reason to buy canned. If you need to buy vegetables that will last then ditch the canned stuff and reach for the frozen peas.’

He added: ‘It’s the ready-made food, it’s the packet food, the hidden salt, hidden fat.

‘That’s the problem in this country. It’s not the butter in a butter block or butter you put on your toast. It’s the fact that not as many people cook in the UK as they do in France or Italy or Spain.’

The chef previously advised people not to use semi-skimmed milk as he revealed the recipe for his giant Yorkshire pudding during a TV cooking segment.

Appearing on This Morning last December, the chef said it would be waste not to use full-fat milk.

‘You take all the goodness out of milk [when it’s semi-skimmed],’ he said, adding using the lighter product was a waste of time.

GORDON RAMSAY: TRUFFLE OIL

Gordon Ramsay has been vocal about his dislike of truffle oil, which he said people don’t dose properly

The Kitchen nightmare chef said that truffle oil is ‘the worst thing’ and that people shouldn’t be using it (stock image)

The British chef never minces his words, and has been very vocal about his disdain for white truffle oil.

He called the condiment ‘one of the most pungent, ridiculous ingredients ever known to chefs’ in an episode of US MasterChef in 2011, and made a contestant swear she’d never use the product again.

Ramsay hasn’t banned truffle oil from his restaurant, however, he still thinks it is ‘the worst thing’, as he told PopSugar in 2021.

His enmity with the oil stems from the fact that most people don’t know how to use it in the right quantities.

He said of the trendy condiment: ‘When [people] use it, they use the same f***ing top [as any other oil]. So they pour it, and it comes out in abundance. This thing needs to be let out in tiny, tiny, little [amounts].’

RACHAEL RAY: COOKED SALMON, MAYO AND DRIED BASIL

Food Network star Rachael Ray admitted she ‘loathes’ cooked salmon and doesn’t use dried basil

Rachael did not specify why she bans dried basil from her kitchen, but it might have to do with its taste or consistency (stock picture)

There are a few ingredients that Rachael Ray has spoken out against over time.

The New York cook said she ‘loathed’ cooked salmon.

‘I can’t stand it. I’m sorry, I know it’s really popular,’ she said in the Rachael Ray show in 2020.

On her website, she also said she would never use dried basil into her concoctions, even though she didn’t explain why.

It might be due to the difference in taste and texture between fresh basil and its dried version.

And while she adds it to dishes and will occasionally eat it, the Food Network star also revealed she had a fear of mayonnaise and will avoid it when she can.

‘We did not grow up with mayonnaise in my house,” Rach explained on her show. ‘We just didn’t have it around. It’s weird to me.’

JULIA CHILD: CORIANDER

The late Julia Child was famous for her dislike of coriander, and banned it from her kitchen and restaurants

The chef famously said that the best way to deal with coriander was to ‘throw it on the floor’ (stock picture)

The colourful chef brought French cuisine to American plates, but if there is one ingredient she left out of all her recipes, it had to be coriander.

She hated the herb so much that she banned it from her kitchen at home and in her restaurants, and forbade her cooking staff from using it in their recipes.

Child famously said she had the perfect solution to deal with coriander, and it was: ‘Pick it out and throw it on the floor.’

That might be because she was part of the 10 per cent for whom the ingredient tastes like soap.

These people have a variation in a group of olfactory-receptor genes that allows them to strongly perceive the soapy-flavoured aldehydes in cilantro leaves.

INA GARTEN: PRE-GRATED PARMESAN CHEESE

Ina Garten is a champion of store-bought foods, but she said prated parmesan is the one thing she will never buy (pictured in 2009)

Ina didn’t reveal why she has banned the pre-grated ingredient, but it might because pre-grated parmesan is not as fresh as a black of the Italian cheese (stock picture)

As the Barefoot Contessa, Ina Garten has published several cookbooks on her go-to foods and easy recipes to do at home.

But there is one ingredients the chef recommends not cutting corners with, and it’s parmesan cheese.

The cookbook author told Time magazine that the pre-grated piece of dairy is the one ingredient she wouldn’t buy.

However, she did not reveal why she would abstain, though it might have to do with the fact that it is believed that the taste of cheese is altered when it’s stored grated, and that is also spoils more quickly.

So grating your parmesan as you go is the best way to keep it fresh and tasty.

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