As a chef I'm apparently supposed to like all foods. Or at least that's the little covenant us white hat wearing purists are supposed to present to the world. Perhaps hate is too strong a word, it just seemed more concise than "selectively dislike for a varying array of reasons". There's no real food that I’m completely against, but as a chef I look at foods through a different set of eyes - not just flavor. There’s shelf life, value, versatility, nutritional value and plain ol’ BS factor. Take a look at these and see if you agree…

1. LETTUCE
Most lettuce is over 96% water, have almost zero flavour and a very limited shelf-life. They’re also not as cheap as they once were. In a blind taste test I’m confident you couldn’t tell one lettuce from from another. For this reason I lean towards arugula, spinach or watercress; jam packed with nutrition, slightly longer shelf-life and they have flavour.

2. ANGUS GROUND BEEF (hamburger)
Angus is not a quality designation of beef. It is a breed of cattle developed in Scotland in the 1870’s. It is consistently known to have better marbling, but when you put meat through a mincer its marbling is now a moot point. Fat is added individually to minced beef to accurately control the fat percentage. No single human being on earth can taste the difference between regular ground beef and Angus beef. Save your money.

3. MOZZARELLA CHEESE
You know where I’m going with this one. It’s not cheap and it taste like rubber. Of all the fresh cheeses I find this to be the least interesting. If you're going to make the effort to buy mozzarella I suggest taking extra step and grabbing burrata. It's slightly salty and has a beautiful creamy centre.

4. SALT GRINDERS
These things are a pure scam. The reason we use grinders for peppercorns is because pepper is a spice, it contains essential oils and those oils have a shelf life. The act of grounding them at the table releases them in all their flavourful glory then and there. Salt is a mineral. The flavour capability of salt is identical whether it’s fresh cracked or cracked 20 years ago. Save yourself the elbow grease.

5. EGGPLANT
I’ll admit, there’s not a lot dislike regarding this simple little fruit, but here-in lays the problem. Eggplant is the tofu of the fruit world. It doesn’t taste much like anything until you add a lot to it… and that means typically a lot of salt and/or oil to make it decent. I love Baba ghanoush and moussaka as much as the next guy but at the end of the day I’m often wondering what is eggplant itself bringing to the party?