The Kitchen's Katie Lee Loves Spice, But Hates This Surprising Ingredient
Katie Lee has found herself in the kitchen since the young age of 4 years old, per her website, when she acted as sous-chef for her grandmother as she made biscuits. These days, the 39-year-old — who now goes by Katie Lee Biegel — has taken over at the helm of the meals, putting together some delicious recipes in her many cookbooks, as well as the audience of Food Network's cooking show-talk show hybrid program The Kitchen, which she co-hosts with fellow chefs Sunny Anderson, Jeff Mauro, and Geoffrey Zakarian.
Having been in the kitchen for so long and so often, you would think that Lee is ready to chow down on just about everything. And to an extent, she is. She's even eaten a meal of grasshopper tacos while filming an episode of her Cooking Channel show Beach Bites With Katie Lee, which she admitted to SheKnows that she not only liked, but would be willing to munch on again. But despite labeling herself as "not a very picky eater" (via SheKnows), there is one particular ingredient that Lee can't seem to bring herself to eat: wasabi.
Katie Lee's hate for wasabi was the subject of a Jeopardy! question
Yes, it's true. Katie Lee, who keeps both her refrigerator and her purse stocked with hot sauce (via Food Network), cannot stand the taste of wasabi, the green, Japanese paste-like condiment that is often served up with a plate of sushi.
"I love spicy food, so I'm not really sure why I have an aversion to wasabi, but I really detest it," she explained to Food Network, also noting that wasabi-flavored foods such as mashed potatoes are also on her no-no list.
She's not alone in her distaste for wasabi either. As one Redditor put it, the condiment is a "horrible mix of sour, salty and spicy" that not only made them "almost throw up," but avoid sushi altogether for a few years until they could bring themselves to try it again sans wasabi. Other users chimed in with agreement as well, with one person who said it "destroys and overpowers all the other flavors."
While there are clearly plenty of people out there that agree with the chef and mother-of-one, Lee's hatred for wasabi might be the most well-known. In fact, her opinion on the stuff is so widespread that it was even the subject of a Jeopardy! question last month, which she commemorated with a permanent spot on her Instagram grid.