Welp, I'm Self-Conscious In Restaurants Now Because I Like All 21 Of These Dishes Chefs Say They Hate Making

Recently, I made a post sharing airports that pilots thought were difficult to land at, and was delighted when I looked at the comments of the post and the top one said this:

That got me thinking about other aspects of jobs people dread, and how interesting it is to hear about the ~little gripes~. It was then that I came across a couple of Quora threads from professional chefs about dishes they hate preparing. I had no idea I've been a chef's least favorite person this whole time.

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1."Gnocchi! I worked as a prep/line cook at an Italian restaurant in NY, and making those tiny little ‘pillows’ would sometimes take all day (thank god we weren’t much of a lunch place). Boiling huge amounts of potatoes, rolling them out with flour into perfectly sized ribbons, and cutting and shaping each one was the most mundane, seemingly endless tasks I had to complete on a regular basis. I still will not order gnocchi at a restaurant because I feel bad for whoever has to make them!"

2."When I had my first restaurant job, the least favorite menu item was the Monte Cristo sandwich. It was an egg batter-dipped and griddled ham, turkey, and gruyere sandwich served with raspberry jam and dusted with powdered sugar. Totally ridiculous food, and a favorite of closing managers and bartenders. It required more containers and products be re-opened at the end of the night than any other menu item. It also required flat-top cooking (or pan sauté if you were crafty), and fried accompaniments. I fucking hated those days."

3."Roasted peppers are one of my top 10 most hated items. You must char the skin so it’s as black as coal, then wrap in plastic bags so they steam as they cool. Then, remove every scrap of blackened skin, then cut in half and meticulously remove the core and each and every seed. Then slice into thin batons. You're tempted to wash that off under the tap, but doing so washes away the flavor too. Of course, when roasting peppers, we’re doing a hundred at a time.'

4."Poached eggs. There are seemingly dozens of tricks that all result in nearly perfect poached eggs…almost. Once a cook masters an attractive, properly cooked poached egg, some customers want soft poached or hard poached. There is no fast, easy, perfect way to poach an egg. It can be fast or easy or perfect, but not all three."

5."RISOTTO! What a pain in the butt! Even though most kitchens par cook risotto to about 80% ahead of time, it still takes a cook to be dedicated to finishing it without distraction. That’s why (IMO) many restaurant kitchens don’t do risotto very well. It doesn’t meld well into the workflow of a modern kitchen. Make it at home!"

6."Cheese plates, hands down. Every time one of those orders comes through, it’s a show stopper where the person making it needs to stop doing everything else they’re doing and focus only on that for several minutes, which in the kitchen is a really long time."

7."Eggs Benedict. As a diner operator with heavy breakfast counts on weekends, it ties up the line, especially when a party of four orders it during heavy days. Took it out of our menu. If it was a slow morning, and a guest asked nicely, I'd do it."

8."My least favorite dish to prepare would most likely be my homemade french fries. My grandfather was a successful chef and restaurateur in Los Angeles and taught me a few secrets of making fabulous fries. I made some minor adaptations during the past decade. They’re absolutely delicious, and my family requests them often. But they’re a lot of work over the course of 24 hours, require a lot of oil, and one mistake will completely ruin the batch."

9."Wiener Schnitzel, hands down. I've worked in kitchens where it was a favorite for 15 out of 20 years. Prepared about 50 to 100,000-ish. I can do a very decent one blindfolded, one hand tied behind my back, and seriously hungover. There just isn't any passion at all left in it. At all."

10."Polenta. It takes forever, and you can’t leave it while it’s being prepared. You develop strong arms when you have to make this dish once a week. Roasted poblano polenta was on the menu at the time I was dealing with this dish. People think it's easy, and it’s not if followed by the old-school ways of preparation and presentation. It has to have the perfect consistency, creamy yet firm. [It's a] hard one to nail every single time. If you walk away from it, it will scorch, and you will have to start all over again. Pasta, at least, I can walk away from for a few minutes, but not polenta."

11."Brussels sprouts. Pa loved them, but even the smell of them cooking turns my stomach to the point where I can’t even eat dinner. I just leave the house and get away from the smell ASAP."

12."I don't like making waffles... The thing I don't like about making waffles is that they take five minutes to cook and we have only three waffle irons. If three waffles walk in, that's no problem. We can bang out three waffles in five minutes. If six waffles walk in, then the last three checks are going out after 10 minutes no matter what. If you are the seventh person to order a waffle, it'll be 15 minutes before your stupid waffle is done. All of the other food for your table is dying in the window before your waffle is even cooking."

13."Eggplant carpaccio. Although a crowd favorite, cooking eggplants over gas/in the oven makes everything sticky and oily. After that, peeling the burnt shell using gloves usually leaves the kitchen a mess, with black pieces of burnt shell all over the counter and sink, not to mention they're notoriously known to stick to everything."

14."I have a special burning hatred for lemon posset. I hate the smell of it, I hate how it looks, and I hate how it tastes."

15."I dislike making finger sandwiches... Making finger sandwiches is deceivingly time consuming. Think about making turkey finger sandwiches. First, I have to slice turkey and cheese (and clean the machine I just sliced this stuff on). Then, I have to take bread, put mayo on both pieces of bread, and put the turkey and cheese on the bread. I have to take the crust off and cut the sandwich in quarters. Now, I plate the finger sandwiches. Imagine the same process for three other, different sandwich types, each one just as involved. Lots of work."

16."Lasagna. I don’t like casseroles to begin with. Secondly I’d rather use the meat and sauce to make a great Bolognese. Not to mention, to make it properly, it should be baked off the first day and allow it to cool down and ‘marry.' Then, you cut it into portions, cheese, and then heat to serve. All that work...and time…and mess…not worth it to me."

17."As much as I enjoy eating them, I HATE making hamburgers. They are my Achilles heel. I don’t mind making my own annatto oil, gnocchi, polenta (my favorite winter ritual actually), or to whip up a portion for a single serving of fresh pasta, but I can’t cook a hamburger. I can season the meat to perfection, shape the patties so they don’t balloon while cooking, but cooking them? Nightmares. I admit that I keep a bag of precooked frozen burger patties for those times I crave a burger (like for lunch today)."

18."In all my time cooking, the only thing I truly hated was making egg white omelets. I can’t even explain it to this day, but they ruin a pan or griddle for several other omelets or egg dishes. So, when working on an omelet/breakfast station, that egg white omelet order makes the next five dishes almost impossible to make correctly. They will make a non-stick teflon coated pan 'full stick.' I don’t know what it is about egg whites when being cooked solo, but god they are horrible on cookware. In the rare events where we were using single pans for omelets and eggs, I would just remove the pan I used from the equation for the rest of the day if I had to do an egg white one."

19."Paella. I have NEVER succeeded in making that perfect paella with the delicious, crunchy rice bits on the bottom and all the different meats and seafood at their best temperature. I’ve EATEN perfect paella but I’ve never pulled one off. Compared to paella, risotto is like kindergarten."

20."Frascarelli. I hate, hate, hate making frascarelli. I didn’t even know what it was before I started working in Italy, but it’s a traditional dish from the Marches sometimes referred to as 'white polenta,' usually comprised of flour and water with a tomato-based sauce."

21.Finally, "The one thing I hate doing in the kitchen more than anything else: toasting nuts. First 10 minutes of toasting nuts, nothing happens. Then seemingly in the next 20 seconds, the nuts burn."

Note: Submissions have been edited for length and clarity.