When Martha Stewart calls an ingredient "hideous," we take notice.
TODAY Food caught up with Stewart at Mohegan Sun’s Wine and Food Festival, where she was hosting a live cooking demonstration with Snoop Dogg, her cohost of Martha and Snoop's Potluck Dinner Party. We asked the domestic guru if there are any ingredients she would never cook with. “Oh, I would never use truffle oil, oh never," Stewart said without hesitation.
Why the hate? The problem is not truffles themselves — those are still prized by chefs and can cost a thousand dollars a pound — but most of the stuff that's marketed as truffle oil often contains no actual truffles at all, but rather a truffle "aroma" or "essence" created with chemicals.
“It’s bad," Stewart continued. "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.”
Stewart is not alone in the culinary world in her hatred for truffle oil. Anthony Bourdain has called it “about as edible as Astroglide and made from the same stuff,” reports Eater. Gordon Ramsay has also railed against it, and Serious Eats' J. Kenji López-Alt rounded up numerous top chefs for his rant about the stuff.
Doing as Martha Stewart says and steering clear of truffle oil is easy enough, but her other dislike is a little harder to avoid — and a little easier to argue with. It's the healthy option on many restaurant menus around the country: the seemingly innocuous grilled chicken salad.
“I would never have a salad with grilled chicken at my house," said Stewart, explaining that it's just not her style.
So if you ever have Martha Stewart over for dinner, maybe don't serve a grilled chicken salad drizzled with truffle oil — and definitely don't put any pumpkin spice on anything.