Top chefs reveal the guilty pleasure foods they are ashamed to eat
'I used to be addicted to steak slices'
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Your support makes all the difference.Chefs aren't slobs like you or I, right? If you had carved out a career by making some of the world's most delectable, mouth-watering food then there's no way you would be tempted by a packet of crisps loaded with processed flavourings or takeaway food swimming in MSGs? But it turns out that top chefs are just are gross as the rest of us.
Crisps, pizza, burgers - they all rank highly in the guilty pleasures of chefs we asked to reveal the junk food they can't live without.
Simon Rogan is chef and owner of L'Enclume and Rogan & Co in Cumbria
Now, I do not eat junk food at all. However, I used to be addicted to Ginsters steak slices, which I am really quite ashamed of!
Tilesh Chudasama, founder and chef at London’s Indian street food restaurant Chai Naasto
“All I will say is this: never leave a bag of crisps or a packet of biscuits unattended anywhere in my vicinity. I seem to be a human homing device when it comes to them. It rarely ends well for those crunchy critters, or the bottomless pit in which they will inevitably be gobbled-up into.”
Tom Cenci, executive head chef of Duck & Waffle, London which specialises in British cuisine with continental European influences
Twinkies, they are so wrong but somehow I love eating them. My guilty pleasure for sure.
Helena Poulakka is the executive chef at London's Nordic-French restaurant Aster
Triple cooked chips. They have to be crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside. My absolute guilty pleasure.
Mary Sue Milliken the co-chef and owner of Border Grill restaurants and trucks in Los Angeles
The junk food that I can't resist is popcorn at the movies.
Richard Bainbridge, chef and proprietor of British restaurant Benedicts in Norwich
My guilty pleasure is a packet of Monster Munch and a beer
Shrimoyee Chakraborty is the owner of the Calcutta Street Bengali restaurant
Chinatown chow mein. Every time. The kind that comes in a plastic box. It's so greasy and so good. I put lots and lots of sriracha on mine.
Ani Arora, the head chef at Nirvana Kitchen, an Asian fusion restaurant in London
A packet of crisps in front of the TV.
Dan Doherty, chef director of Duck & Waffle and Duck & Waffle Local, which specialises in British cuisine with continental European influences
Where do I start? I'm a big fan of junk food, especially if dealing with a hangover. If it's not a Mc Donald’s feast to heal me, it’s a crisp sandwich.
Paul Wedgwood is head chef and co-owner of Wedgwood in Edinburgh, which specalises in Scottish produce with occasional Asian touches
I'm really quite good when it comes to junk food, but I suppose pizza. I am lucky to have a wood burning pizza oven at my home so I do make pizzas with friends when they are round.
When I was young enough to be able to eat anything without thought of consequences I did really enjoy gyros!
Daniel Fletcher, head chef at Fenchurch Restaurant, in Sky Garden, London
A Wispa Gold. I just can’t resist one when I walk past a shop. Maybe it’s a manifestation of my deep-rooted love for caramel…
Eric Guignard, the head chef at The French Table in Surbiton
I can't resist a Kinder Bueno
Hamish Brown, the group executive chef of Japanese restaurant Roka
Steak and cheese pie is the first thing I go for when I get home to New Zealand, 100 per cent without fail!
Andrew Dargue, the head chef of vegetarian restaurant Vanilla Black in London
Pizza, easily.
Claudio Cardoso, executive chef of Japanese-Brazilian-Peruvia fusion restaurant Sushisamba in London
I’m always trying to avoid it, but I do love pizza and fried chicken.
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