3 hours ago
3
Hospitality professionals – like the rest of us – play favourites. But some of their pantry likes and dislikes might not be what you expect.
You might be forgiven for thinking most chefs would be open to eating anything. After all, an adventurous palate is key to enjoying and cooking food. But even in the top echelons of the country’s restaurants, hospitality staff often nominate their icks and irks.
Neil Perry is quick to pick his no-go ingredient, an unsuspecting kitchen villain. “I’m not a massive fan of kiwifruit. I don’t think it tastes of anything,” the veteran chef says.
While you won’t find the furry fruit on the menu at Perry’s Margaret restaurant in Double Bay, or up the street at Gran Torino, where he is also behind the wheel, the kiwi does sneak into his fruit bowl at home.
“Sam [Perry’s wife] is always trying to make me eat them … for longevity, trying to keep me alive,” he says. “Apparently it’s good for digestion and sleep.”
Perry’s swipe at the humble kiwi (which, despite its name, has origins in China) illustrates that hospitality professionals – like the rest of us – play favourites. There are pantry likes and dislikes, many expected, some less so.
Who doesn’t like honey? Mark Best, that’s who. One of the Australia’s leading chefs, Best steered the three-hat Marque restaurant in Surry Hills before jumping back in the kitchen in 2025 at Sydney Tower’s Infinity by Mark Best restaurant. “Honey is a good ingredient – I just don’t like it,” he says.
Is there some sort of early trauma at play – was he stung by a bee as a child? “I have a lot of baggage from back then – honey isn’t one of them,” Best says. “I just find it cloying.”
Avocados have become a staple in Australian diets, but they don’t belong in desserts, said Rhiann Mead, head pastry chef at The Charles Brasserie & Bar.
“I love it on toast, but when it’s used as a cream alternative in cakes or mousses, it completely loses me,” Mead said. “I feel like it makes any texture thick and sludgy, and no amount of chocolate can disguise the grassy flavour.”
But there’s nothing Mead dislikes more than saffron in dessert. Though she has worked in some of Sydney’s most elite kitchens, including Quay and Bennelong, she’s yet to see anyone pull it off successfully.
“[Saffron] sounds luxurious, but to me, the flavour overwhelms the subtlety that desserts need,” she said. “Personally, it tastes like plastic ... [but] I’m open to being proven wrong.”
It’s the humble banana that turns the stomach of Big Sam Young, chef and co-owner at S’more Bistro in Castlecrag and Young’s Palace at Potts Point.
He also has a famously divisive tropical fruit in his sights. “I cannot do durian,” Young says. In a moment of self-intervention, he attempted to overcome his dislike of the fruit, loading up at a buffet in Malaysia. “I’m like, what the f---.”
Young has a more love-hate relationship with the banana. “I don’t eat [them]. I like the flavour, I don’t like the texture,” he said. Restaurant owner Peter Lew, of Fei Jai in Potts Point and Rose Bay, has a similar textural and taste relationship with another kitchen staple: “I’m not an eggplant guy.”
Sometimes, the aversion is a little more serious. You won’t often find hazelnuts or pine nuts in a dessert created by Lauren Eldridge, the Paisano and Daughters (Osteria Mucca, Mister Grotto) pastry chef who was named The Sydney Morning Herald 2025 Good Food Guide Chef of the Year. It’s not that she hates them. Rather, she’s allergic.
“It means I don’t enjoy the taste or smell so it makes it difficult to create dishes,” Eldridge says. “[But] I know how many customers love hazelnuts. We served hazelnut gelato at Osteria Mucca and it was very popular.”
Eldridge has found ways to work around it: “I [trust] the chefs and teams around me to … check that the flavour is coming through and that the dish is balanced. They often need to do certain prep elements for me too because the smell of roasting nuts makes me feel dizzy and nauseous.”
Like Eldridge, Daerun Kang pushes herself to work with ingredients, regardless of her personal feelings towards them. Kang, who leads the kitchen at French-Japanese fine-diner Oborozuki, isn’t fond of game meats like kangaroo or venison.
“The flavour is just too strong for my personal palate … but I’m happy to cook game and I still enjoy trying it when other chefs serve it,” she said.
“Even if it’s not my favourite ingredient, I taste it with curiosity, not judgement.”
Popular cookbook author and chef Joel Bennetts, who has a large social media following, has a restaurant pin-up on his hit list: truffles. “Taste, texture and price,” he says of his aversion. “Also, another one – miso paste made with things other than soybeans.”
Juggling personal taste with the greater good of a menu is a balancing act. Aaron Ward, executive chef at Bathers’ Pavilion, is a fan of avocados, but feels they are overexposed so steers clear of them at Bathers’. “Leave them to breakfast menus,” he says.
Quay restaurant, at the Overseas Passenger Terminal, famously ignored oysters for many years due to chef Peter Gilmore’s childhood aversion to their texture. However, Gilmore, a fan of the flavour of oysters, developed a dish named oyster intervention, which leant in on what he loved about oysters without the bits he didn’t.
“I don’t like capsicum, which is strange for [an] Italian,” says chef Giovanni Pilu of the recently opened Flaminia and stalwart Pilu at Freshwater. “I’m not allergic to it. I just don’t like it, but I use it [on the menu].”
Sven Almenning, the restaurateur and bar operator with a stable of venues that includes The Sanderson and Eau de Vie in Sydney’s CBD, always tells his team “to ignore what I dislike”. He tries not to let personal preference interfere with creative choice. “With one exception,” Almenning said. “Maraschino cherries – they’re the worst.”
Tomislav Martinovic has worked alongside chefs such as Heston Blumenthal in England and ran his own restaurant in Sydney before branching out into hospitality consultancy, where he gets to peek inside Australia’s restaurant and cafe kitchens.
“I’m amazed at chefs at tastings who won’t eat raw fish,” he says. Constantly scouring menus, he has a pet dislike among widespread trends: “I’ll tell you what I’m really against – chefs coming up with a great dessert and putting herb oil on top.”
Overplaying luxury ingredients is a widespread dislike. With caviar topping everything from fried chicken to potato gems in recent years, there’s a mood for restraint.
“I don’t like using caviar without any reason,” Insup Kim, executive chef at Black restaurant, at The Star in Pyrmont, says. “When it’s balanced – great, but when it’s just used for the sake of luxury, it doesn’t make sense.”
Sydney chef Morgan McGlone agrees. Co-owner of a stable of restaurants that includes Bar Copains, Bessie’s and Vin-Cenzo’s in Darlinghurst, McGlone says chefs need to think about overusing a hot ingredient, manage their own dislikes and forge fresh territory. “It used to be Brussels sprouts,” McGlone says of his own early food hurdle. “Now I love them, pan-fried with bacon.”
“As much as I love caviar, it’s overdone,” he warns. “Let’s see what you can do with a turnip.”
– with Bianca Hrovat
Restaurant reviews, news and the hottest openings served to your inbox.
