August 29, 2022 at 2:09 pm

12 Chefs Get Real About the Different Dishes They Don’t Like to Make

by Matthew Gilligan

You better believe that chefs get sick and tired of making certain dishes for customers.

And these 12 professionals admitted the meals they’re sick and tired of making.

Let’s see what they had to say.

1. A sticky mess.

“Eggplant carpaccio.

Although a crowd favorite, cooking eggplants over gas/in the oven makes everything sticky and oily.

After that, peeling the burnt shell using gloves usually leaves the kitchen a mess, with black pieces of burnt shell all over the counter and sink, not to mention they’re notoriously known to stick to everything.”

2. No more of that.

“I have a special burning hatred for lemon posset.

I h**e the smell of it, I h**e how it looks, and I h**e how it tastes.”

3. Time-consuming.

“I dislike making finger sandwiches. It is deceivingly time consuming.

Think about making turkey finger sandwiches. First, I have to slice turkey and cheese (and clean the machine I just sliced this stuff on).

Then, I have to take bread, put mayo on both pieces of bread, and put the turkey and cheese on the bread. I have to take the crust off and cut the sandwich in quarters.

Now, I plate the finger sandwiches. Imagine the same process for three other, different sandwich types, each one just as involved. Lots of work.”

4. Not worth it.

“Lasagna. I don’t like casseroles to begin with.

Secondly I’d rather use the meat and sauce to make a great Bolognese. And to make it properly, it should be baked off the first day and allow it to cool down and ‘marry.’

Then, you cut it into portions, cheese, and then heat to serve. All that work…and time…and mess…not worth it to me.”

5. Surprising.

“As much as I enjoy eating them, I H**E making hamburgers. They are my Achilles heel.

I don’t mind making my own annatto oil, gnocchi, polenta (my favorite winter ritual actually), or to whip up a portion for a single serving of fresh pasta, but I can’t cook a hamburger.

I can season the meat to perfection, shape the patties so they don’t balloon while cooking, but cooking them? Nightmares. I admit that I keep a bag of precooked frozen burger patties for those times I crave a burger (like for lunch today).”

6. Never again…

“In all my time cooking, the only thing I truly h**ed was making egg white omelets. I can’t even explain it to this day, but they ruin a pan or griddle for several other omelets or egg dishes.

So, when working on an omelet/breakfast station, that egg white omelet order makes the next five dishes almost impossible to make correctly. They will make a non-stick teflon coated pan ‘full stick.’ I don’t know what it is about egg whites when being cooked solo, but god they are horrible on cookware.

In the rare events where we were using single pans for omelets and eggs, I would just remove the pan I used from the equation for the rest of the day if I had to do an egg white one.”

7. Can’t figure it out.

“Paella.

I have NEVER succeeded in making that perfect paella with the delicious, crunchy rice bits on the bottom and all the different meats and seafood at their best temperature.

I’ve EATEN perfect paella but I’ve never pulled one off. Compared to paella, risotto is like kindergarten.”

8. No passion for it.

“Wiener Schnitzel, hands down.

I’ve worked in kitchens where it was a favorite for 15 out of 20 years. Prepared about 50 to 100,000-ish. I can do a very decent one blindfolded, one hand tied behind my back, and seriously hungover.

There just isn’t any passion at all left in it. At all.”

9. Takes forever.

“Polenta.

It takes forever, and you can’t leave it while it’s being prepared. You develop strong arms when you have to make this dish once a week. Roasted poblano polenta was on the menu at the time I was dealing with this dish.

People think it’s easy, and it’s not if followed by the old-school ways of preparation and presentation. It has to have the perfect consistency, creamy yet firm. [It’s a] hard one to nail every single time.

If you walk away from it, it will scorch, and you will have to start all over again. Pasta, at least, I can walk away from for a few minutes, but not polenta.”

10. Waffles!

“I don’t like making waffles… The thing I don’t like about making waffles is that they take five minutes to cook and we have only three waffle irons.

If three waffles walk in, that’s no problem. We can bang out three waffles in five minutes. If six waffles walk in, then the last three checks are going out after 10 minutes no matter what. If you are the seventh person to order a waffle, it’ll be 15 minutes before your stupid waffle is done.

All of the other food for your table is dying in the window before your waffle is even cooking.”

11. Hands down.

“Cheese plates, hands down.

Every time one of those orders comes through, it’s a show stopper where the person making it needs to stop doing everything else they’re doing and focus only on that for several minutes, which in the kitchen is a really long time.”

12. Get it off the menu!

“Eggs Benedict.

As a diner operator with heavy breakfast counts on weekends, it ties up the line, especially when a party of four orders it during heavy days.

Took it out of our menu. If it was a slow morning, and a guest asked nicely, I’d do it.”

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