10 Canned Foods Celebrity Chefs Avoid At All Costs

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The general opinion of canned foods tends to vary. While the long shelf life, relatively affordability, and convenience of these food items naturally appeals to many professionals and home cooks, there are also plenty of renowned chefs, food authors, and restaurateurs who've openly voiced their disdain for canned foods.

There's a number of reasons why people may find canned goods unappealing. Some canned foods tend to be less flavorful and nutritious than their fresh or frozen counterparts; they may be lower in water-soluble vitamins, or contain various additives or BPA.

Now, there are some canned foods that celebrity chefs regularly use; Giada De Laurentiis, for instance, typically stocks up on canned anchovies and cherry tomatoes. On the other hand, certain famous chefs — including Ina Garten and Alton Brown — prefer to skip specific canned ingredients entirely. Whether it's canned cranberry sauce, chicken, or boiled peanuts, we present a list of canned foods that celebrity chefs avoid at all costs.

Any extravagant Thanksgiving meal isn't possibly complete without an essential dish like cranberry sauce. Of course, people typically run around on the holiday to secure, season, and bake a turkey, as well as prepare traditional side dishes (such as a green bean casserole and mashed potatoes). Consequently, many opt for canned cranberry sauce for convenience's sake. But while the uniform, jelly-like texture and sweetened flavor of canned cranberry sauce rarely disappoints in the eyes of some, that sentiment isn't echoed by Alton Brown.

Indeed, the food television personality, producer, and author would never serve canned cranberry sauce and has come up with a recipe that is both easy to follow and super tart. Other than fresh cranberries, it includes honey, agave syrup, 100% cranberry juice, and freshly squeezed orange juice. More than that, in a cranberry sauce recipe shared by Brown, he revealed he enjoys pranking guests by molding his famous homemade cranberry sauce in a leftover 14-ounce size can.

Beets have a reputation for causing a colorful mess in the kitchen, as well as taking excessively long to peel and cook. Therefore, the canned version is often considered one of the best canned veggies for salads and soups. Yet as far as cooking guru and best-selling author Ina Garten is concerned, canned beets aren't worth using.

As Garten told The New Yorker Radio Hour in 2022, canned Harvard beets are among her "least favorite things in the world." Prepared with vinegar, butter, and sugar, Harvard beets taste tangier than regular beets. Garten's aversion for canned Harvard beets stems from the childhood memory, in fact, where she was regularly forced to consume them by her mother (a would-be dietician).

Since the beloved celebrity famously relies on fresh produce and herbs in her recipes, her dislike of canned Harvard beets isn't surprising. Garten grows her own tomatoes, figs, and herbs in a beautifully designed garden, after all. Then again, the Barefoot Contessa doesn't avoid all canned or tinned ingredients. For instance, her crostini with tuna tapenade recipe calls for canned or jarred Italian tuna.

Short for "spiced ham," Spam is cooked luncheon meat that comes in many flavors, including classic, hickory smoke, teriyaki, and maple. You can incorporate these ground pork or turkey slices into sandwiches, scrambled eggs, or even as a leftover ingredient in fried rice. Overall, it's a versatile and filling food with surprising nutritious benefits, containing zinc, iron, copper, potassium, magnesium, and vitamin C. Then again, Spam is a highly processed meat that may increase the risk of diabetes and life-threatening diseases, which is why Andrew Zimmern has waged a fierce public war against it.

Spam is essentially just ground pork or turkey cooked at high heat with a lot of salt and additives, which is why many people, including the world-famous chef, refrain from adding it to their pantry. In an interview with KITV in 2014, Zimmern expressed his utter disgust with the beloved canned food, stating loud and clear that he believes it's his "mission in life to rid the world of Spam."

Zimmern also noted the canned food is "loaded with more salt, sugar, and fat that you should eat in an entire week." In that sense, we hear what Zimmern is saying — even if we also feel a simple, quick dish like Spam musubi is a guilty pleasure.

Evidently, peas and corn are some of the most commonly stocked canned veggies in home and restaurant pantries. Unlike fresh corn on the cob, canned corn kernels offer a quick and affordable option that plays well in salads, soups, casseroles, pastas, and soufflés. Canned peas, meanwhile, can make a starchy addition to stews, salads, and sides, and you can sweeten canned peas up with some brown sugar if you find them bland. Yet Emmy-Award-winning restaurateur, author, and chef Guy Fieri prefers these pantry staples frozen, rather than canned.

Now, there's no denying that canned peas and corn are much more practical, and generally have a longer shelf life. But these canned vegetables can get "mushier when they sit in the liquid the entire time," as Fieri explained to Variety in 2020. Of course, just because he snubs canned corn and peas doesn't mean he avoids all canned foods. After all, his famous dragon's breath chili recipe (which serves 15) calls for two 15.5-ounce cans of kidney beans along with two 15.5-ounce cans of pinto beans — juice included.

Let's be honest: The idea of bland, colorless bits of chicken soaking in a BPA-lined can's salty chemical mixture for months (and even years) couldn't possibly make anyone salivate. Then again, some varieties of this high-protein canned poultry may contain a variety of essential vitamins and minerals. It's also a quick and easy way to bulk up your soups and stews, particularly if you don't have the time or energy to cook raw or frozen chicken. However, celebrity chef and nutritionist Serena Poon doesn't think canned chicken is worth keeping or using.

Poon believes canning chicken — especially at a factory farm — is inhumane, with the process itself strongly affecting the chicken's texture, flavor, and nutritional value. What's worse, industrial chickens are more likely to suffer from infectious diseases, which can potentially be transferred to humans. If you're looking for a healthy and easy option to incorporate into your diet, Poon instead recommends keeping frozen fruits and veggies, as well as canned beans on hand.

As a world-famous television personality who lovingly grows her own tomatoes, Ina Garten tends to skip the canned kind as often as she can. For instance, she only uses fresh heirloom cherry tomatoes on garlicky toasted baguette in her tomatoes and burrata recipe. And her roasted tomato caprese salad favors plum tomatoes, halved lengthwise with the seeds removed.

Her enthusiasm for the fresh version of this versatile veggie-fruit was apparent in a 2014 Facebook post, when she declared, "I just planted my summer tomatoes and was dreaming about my favorite tomato, mozzarella, and basil salad. I actually found that you can roast plum tomatoes any time of the year, and it brings out their full summer sweetness."

Oddly enough, though, when it comes to the juicy and meaty San Marzano tomato, Garten is willing to make an exception at times. In fact, she uses canned San Marzano tomatoes in her recipe for tomato and eggplant soup.

The preparation of fresh or dehydrated beans can be a long and tedious process. As a result, many people resort to the canned varieties given they're available throughout the year, and often boast a very long shelf life. Some of the most popular types of canned legumes typically stocked in pantries include cannellini beans, red beans, chickpeas, and black-eyed peas. Unfortunately, some canned beans and legumes aren't always the smartest choice budget-wise, which is why Rachael Ray avoids these canned goods.

While giving out tips for grocery shopping that's both healthy and budget-friendly, Ray and her guest, Max Lugavere — author of "Genius Foods: Become Smarter, Happier, and More Productive While Protecting Your Brain for Life" — agreed that canned legumes are more hydrated, more expensive, and heavier than the bagged, dried kind. In short, you're essentially paying more for a smaller quantity of beans with canned options. Consequently, Ray tends to steer clear canned beans and legumes, and recommends instead buying fresh ones, then drying and bagging them yourself.

You can find a wide array of canned seafood products at any supermarket, including tuna, sardines, anchovies, mackerel, oysters, crab, and salmon. Since some types of fish can be quite expensive when bought fresh, particularly tuna, canned varieties offer a much more affordable option that's usually packed in oil or water. But the latter version isn't recommended by celebrity chef Michael Proietti.

Proietti finds that both tuna and sardines canned in water have an overwhelming flavor. Conversely, when tuna and sardines are packed in olive oil, it tends to tamper the fishiness and elevate the taste. While Proietti specifically avoids water-packed tuna and sardines, some celebrity chefs avoid canned seafood altogether, with Robert Irvine telling Tasting Table in 2023 that he virtually never uses canned seafood when cooking.

Even if tuna packed in water is preferred by many because it's less calorific that the oil variety, the latter has an undeniably richer flavor and a softer texture. Given this, consider Proietti's advice, and go with the olive oil canned varieties.

Soup is such a nourishing comfort food, especially on cold days or when you feel a little under the weather. Some of the most popular, heartiest, and delicious soups include minestrone, chicken noodle, broccoli cheddar, cream of mushroom, and gazpacho. That said, these all taste much better when they're made from scratch (and with love). Since you can adjust the saltiness and seasonings per your dietary restrictions and personal preference, Ina Garten thinks it's best to avoid canned soups in favor of making your own.

Garten generally prefers to make her own soups, or purchase the food item from a select few restaurants and businesses. When it comes to canned soup, however, the Barefoot Contessa appears categorically against this option. This is largely because many brands of canned soup available at stores worldwide are considered unhealthy. Whether the flavor is chicken and rice, dumpling, cheddar cheese, or a chowder, the oft-unhealthy production process for canned soups keeps the celebrity chef from using them.

As a notoriously sarcastic TV personality and producer, Alton Brown is not afraid to openly express his disgust or poke fun at certain canned or boxed foods, especially ingredients or dishes that are considered beloved staples in certain US states. Case in point: when he made fun of canned boiled peanuts in a Facebook post from September 2022 regarding a gas station stop during a road trip.

Indeed, boiled peanuts may be a popular snack in Georgia and other southern states, but the celebrity chef prefers making them himself. The recipe is quite simple, as well. All you need to do is wash some raw and shelled Virginia or Valencia peanuts, and store them in cool water for 30 minutes. You then drain them, and cook the peanuts in a pot of water on high temperature for a few hours. They'll last you about a week in a refrigerated container.