The Real Reason Ina Garten Rarely Uses These 2 Ingredients

Every chef has their favorite ingredients to cook with. Giada de Laurentiis told Cooking Light that she puts lemon juice or zest on almost everything she makes for added brightness and flavor. The Pioneer Woman, Ree Drummond, confessed to TODAY that she can't live without (or cook without) butter, cream, or bacon. And Bobby Flay sprinkles panko bread crumbs on his final dishes for that extra texture. But just as each cook has their favorites, they also have their least favorites.

In the case of Ina Garten, there are two specific ingredients that she not only doesn't like to use but she often refuses to put in her recipes altogether: spinach and poppy seeds. They may seem like random ingredients that have nothing to do with each other but there's a specific reason that the Food Network star rarely includes the two in her cooking. Here's why Garten stays away from them.

Have you ever ordered a spinach salad on a date and been horrified when you get home and looked in the mirror only to realize you had a piece of leafy greens stuck in your teeth the whole time? Or eaten a lemon poppyseed muffin and desperately needed a piece of floss to fish all the seeds out from between your molars? Those two common issues are exactly why Ina Garten stays far away from both ingredients. "I tend not to make things with spinach so people don't get spinach in their teeth. Or poppy seeds," she confessed in an interview with Food Network.

Those aren't the only things Garten can't stand. Cilantro is also on the Barefoot Contessa's no-go list. She says it's the taste of the leafy green herb that's a big turn-off. "Hate it!" she said on the Munchies podcast (via Cooking Light). "I know people love it, and you can add it to the recipe. I just hate it. To me it's so strong — and it actually tastes like soap to me — but it's so strong it overpowers every other flavor."