Top chefs confess their guilty pleasure weaknesses – and we're not judging

Ever wondered what culinary legends snack on when the aprons come off? We asked nine renowned chefs, from Yotam Ottolenghi to Alasdair Gill, to spill their delicious secrets.

Yotam Ottolenghi

Yotam is a chef and restaurateur

"It's not a guilty pleasure, but I am obsessed with chocolate. I have a bunch of different kinds of dark chocolate. Not only dark, but also milk. Wherever I go, I bring back chocolate. The trouble is that my kids always steal the good ones I want to keep to myself, and it's wasted on them because they could be eating something way trashier. They don't appreciate how good they are!"

Yotam Ottolenghi headshot

Poppy O' Toole

Poppy is a chef and content creator

“I don't know if it's a guilty pleasure, but I absolutely love tinned sardines at the minute. I'll eat whatever it comes in. It's really good for babies, you give them sardines because of the iron for brain health and all that sort of stuff. I hadn't really had that many sardines before. I was more of a tinned mackerel kind of girl.

But now, if I'm a little bit peckish, it's tinned sardines. I don't know if it's a guilty pleasure, but it is a pleasure that I'm having at the minute. I'm always wearing a white t-shirt, and I've ruined two t-shirts opening fancy tinned fish from the tinned fish market..."

Alasdair Gill

Alasdair is a chef and writer 

"I love really tacky chocolate. I just love a good Lion Bar. Or Snickers. And a lot of people look down on that stuff. Picnic, Star Bar, Boost... those are my go-tos."

Alasdair Gill in his kitchen and living room of his flat

Clare Smyth

Clare is a Michelin-starred chef

“Crisps. Salt and vinegar, but to be honest, any flavour. There are some very good posh ham ones now, but I also like the flaming grilled steak, a Monster Munch I'd go for as well. I would literally go for anything.”

Clare Smyth headshot

Vivek Singh

Vivek is a chef and restaurateur

"It used to be Jammy Dodgers. Now, I think it's a Five Guys salted caramel peanut and banana milkshake. They are the best. I haven't had another shake that's hit the spot as much as the one from Five Guys."

Vivek Singh

Andrej Urosevic aka AndrejCooksFish

Andrej is a fishmonger and content creator 

"KFC family bucket, 24 pieces. I will do that twice a year, buy the bucket, go home, sit in my shower, cry and eat. So good. It's so good, but so wrong. It's my one outlet."

Andrej Urosevic headshot

Donna Hay

Donna is a food stylist and author

"Ice cream. I love a mixed granita – the icy thing that you scrape that annoys people. But then if you make a lovely lime, or pineapple and lime, or mango or something, with a little bit of whipped coconut cream or just cream, then you have that lovely fruity, crystal with cream on the side. Oh, it's just delightful."

Donna Hay headshot

Nigel Ng aka Uncle Roger

Nigel is a cookbook author, restaurateur and content creator

“Sometimes I cook with olive oil in Asian dishes. Sometimes you can't help it. My wife likes to eat healthy, and it's a very Californian thing as well. Every house will have olive oil, but sometimes Asian food requires an oil with a high smoke point, so we usually try to use avocado oil if we can, but if we're out of avocado oil, I'm like, okay, fine. The heat's not that strong in this home stove. Let's just use olive oil and turn the label away, so on camera you don't see it."

Nigel Ng headshot

 Itamar Srulovich and Sarit Packer

 Itamar and Sarit are co-founders of restaurant Honey & Co

Sarit: "Several, sadly. Doritos, Cool Ranch. We don't eat a lot of it, but occasionally that's what you need. It's like something very salty. But that'll be dinner. Sometimes you need it for dinner instead. Not with a dip either. Just like that. And then it's dinner because you've eaten the whole packet. Which is why you have to buy the small ones, because the bigger the packet, the more you eat of it. I'm sorry, but it's not a stoppable thing."

Itamar: "I think about McDonald's milkshakes a lot. Chocolate. I really like milkshakes. The strawberry is great, the vanilla is great, the banana is good as well... There's something about a McDonald's milkshake that is kind of like the taste of evil. It's so bad. You know, there's nothing natural about it. It's just kind of like from hell. But that's why it's so good!"

Sarit Packer headshot

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source https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/news-trends/guilty-pleasures

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