Nothing says “fancy” like some truffle oil in your food, right? The oil has become ubiquitous, being drizzled on everything from burgers to salads to mac and cheese. But there is one group of people who seem to absolutely loathe this very popular cooking oil—chefs, some of whom have made their feelings very clear about this trendy product. Here’s what they have to say.
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Martha Stewart Says No Thank You
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Martha Stewart has been blunt about her truffle oil dislike for quite some time now. “Oh, I would never use truffle oil, oh never," she told TODAY. “It’s bad. They've done many studies on truffle oil. It’s synthetic, it’s fake, it’s horrible. It clings to your tastebuds, it’s a hideous thing. Forget truffle oil.” She reiterated these feelings in a Reddit AMA. “I think truffle oil is one of the few ingredients that doesn't belong in anyone's kitchen. It is ruinous of most recipes,” Stewart said.
Anthony Bourdain Was Not a Fan
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The late, great Anthony Bourdain was characteristically scathing about truffle oil, calling it horrible. “It’s not even food. It’s about as edible as Astroglide and made from the same stuff,” he told The Tonight Show.
Gordon Ramsay Doesn’t Hold Back
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Gordon Ramsay really, really hates truffle oil. "The worst thing, for me, is truffle oil. That thing needs to be let down,” he told PopSugar. “When [people] use it, they use the same [bleep] top [as any other oil], so they pour it, and it comes out in abundance. This thing needs to be let out in tiny, tiny, little [amounts]."
Truffles Vs Truffle Oil
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Chef Ken Frank of the Michelin-starred La Toque says truffle oil desensitizes people to the real deal. “It’s a huge rip off. It’s bad oil,” he told Napa Truffle Festival. “The problem is that if your palate becomes accustomed to truffle oil, you will no longer be able to appreciate the real thing. Consequently, when you dine on dishes with real truffles, you may not recognize the true flavor and think the truffles are flawed. Not so! Truffle oil is to truffles what Tang is to orange juice.”
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No Actual Truffles In the Oil
ShutterstockThe truth is, truffle oil doesn’t contain actual truffles—it has synthetic compounds (2,4-dithiapentane) that mimic the smell and taste of truffles. "Fake truffle flavoring is one of those things that's especially upsetting, because not only does it taste like a bad chemical version of the real thing, it's the flavor that almost everyone now associates with truffles," late food critic Jonathan Gold said. Avoid at all costs!
Bad For Food
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Synthetic truffle oil can ruin your food and overpower the dish, and is no substitute for the real thing “Using real truffles like the wild Perigord or the white Alba gives chefs an opportunity to play and shine, which cannot be done using less-than ingredients or fake chemicals like dithiapentane,” chef Florence Bertheau tells Reader’s Digest.
