The Fruit Alton Brown Thinks Ruins Every Dish It Touches

Rivalries and notoriety are commonplace in the world of sports and can lead to a lot of smack talk and takedowns amongst fans. You could never seat a true Boston Red Sox fan next to a true New York Yankees fan at a dinner party if you want to keep the peace. Nor could you invite a University of Texas Longhorn fan and an Oklahoma Sooner fan to sit side-by-side to watch the Red River rivalry together — that is, unless you were hoping for conversational fireworks. Similarly, when it comes to certain ingredients, they too have their own base of both fans and haters, and when served up, these ingredients can invoke equally passionate feelings and trash talk that can leave you red in the face. Don't believe us? 

Alton Brown is a case in point. The celebrity chef and host of Food Network's Good Eats has some strong feelings when it comes to various foods. In an interview with Food Network, Brown revealed that he isn't a fan of calf's liver, regardless if he prepares it or someone else does the honors; he doesn't like to cook artichokes; and, he is "addicted" to canned sardines. But Brown is also quite opinionated when it comes to a particular fruit. In fact, he took to Twitter to share his disdain for this tropical ingredient and said it ruins every dish.

Via Twitter, Brown shared, "#CulinaryTruth Pineapple destroys 72.6% of every dish it touches." But realizing the grammar conundrum of his tweet, Brown clarified typing, "What I meant is that pineapple destroys 72.6% of the dishes it touches, not 72.6% of every dish it touches. Damnit, you knew what I meant!" 

The Twitterverse was quick to react and draw the proverbial line in the sand, with lovers of the fruit coming to its defense and haters hurling their words of stone. Pizza seemed to be the primary target, with a responder to Brown's tweet (which garnered almost 2.5k likes) sharing, "As a Canadian I feel that I have to apologize for that whole pineapple on pizza thing." And another Tweeter responded, "I don't hate pineapple on pizza. Come at me if you must." It did set Brown into referee mode, noting that he, "supports culinary freedom."

What remains unclear from Brown is what those 72.6% of recipes that require pineapple are that he dislikes and what the 27.6% of recipes that use it that he likes. It actually sparked a debate about what dishes you should use pineapple in. Some chimed in that tacos al pastor wouldn't be the same without pineapple, while others rallied around the fruit and said that pineapple upside down cake had to be an exception. Hopefully Brown will share, but one thing is for certain: if you invite him to dinner, don't serve pineapple.