14 Celebrity Chefs And Their Favorite Comfort Foods

At the end of the day, celebrity chefs are people like us, with their own hopes, dreams, and probably some disappointments that sometimes call for a comforting meal. This is usually something familiar that warms the heart and makes the disappointment or a bad day a little more bearable. But we can also assume that a comforting meal for a celebrity chef might be a bit different from what we typically associate with comfort food. For instance, they might never get so disconsolate to grab a box of Twinkies off the shelf (or they might, who knows).

What we expect is that celebrity chefs will have a specific comforting dish in mind, but we also assume that they all have a signature recipe up their sleeve, something that is simple yet flavorful. While everyone's version of comfort food is unique, drawing inspiration from renowned chefs can help us find something new or simply help us elevate these beloved classics. Accomplished chefs bring creativity, technique, and global perspective to the table, transforming everyday dishes into extraordinary without sacrificing that comforting character. We scanned the internet to find the favorite comfort foods of popular celebrity chefs, and we bring them to you in one glorious list.

One could argue that everything Ina Garten makes is comforting. Her vast repertoire of baked goods alone could provide enough comfort to mend a broken heart. Yet, as she told Today, her go-to comfort meal, especially in the fall, is butternut squash and apple soup. Something that will warm you up, literally and figuratively.

Garten shared the version of this rich and satisfying soup on her website. She starts with a combination of butter and olive oil and incorporates curry powder to add color and warmth. The apples are added with the squash and are meant to provide sweetness and more texture. Once the soup is cooked, it's blended in a food processor, and Garten recommends to finish the whole thing with apple cider or apple juice to balance things out, and give the soup more character. This is a soup that is best served warm, but the comforting effects go beyond just its temperature.

Whether you're stress eating, need a pick-me-up after a bad day, or had a little too much to drink the night before, you may find that few foods are better at hitting the spot than New York's iconic bacon, egg, and cheese breakfast sandwich. And Bobby Flay agrees with this! As much as you may love a fancy dish like tuna sashimi or caviar on blinis, there are times when the best thing to get your stomach back in order is a big fat, greasy meal.

And why wait until the next day? This juicy sandwich is Flay's favorite as a classic hangover cure in the morning or as a late-night food available at local delis that become go-to places when the clubs close and you're ready to go home. And if you don't happen to live in a major metropolis, you can whip one at home, as Flay does. In an Instagram post, Flay shared his upgraded version of this classic. He uses brioche buns and adds spicy harissa paste to make the ultimate version of bacon, egg, and cheese breakfast sandwich. It's easy to see why Flay considers this dish a comfort food. As he says in his Instagram post, "It's one of the things I grew up eating...That's one of the most satisfying bites you can have in food, period."

Italian food is not typically known for its outlandish flavor combinations. It's usually defined by simplicity, good quality ingredients, and lots of pasta. Yet, aside from the carby element, Giada De Laurentiis' go-to comfort food seems to make use of a highly unusual ingredient combination in Italian or any national cuisine: pasta and chocolate.

In an Instagram post De Laurentiis explained her appreciation for this unique combination. "This started when I was a kid," she says. "My mom used to do it with Nutella or chocolate chips." Nowadays, De Laurentiis uses a premium chocolate-hazelnut spread that she carries on her website, Giadzy. She simply mixes it into her bowl of cooked pasta and tops it off with some shaved gianduiotti, which are typical chocolate-hazelnut chocolates from Turin. Now we know you might be thinking that this is way too questionable to try, but De Laurentiis has a response for you: "I'm also the kid who had chocolate sandwiches for breakfast, so I don't think it's that weird." Ultimately, whatever you may think of this combination, perhaps De Laurentiis may convince you to try it. As she puts it, "Nothing is more comforting and more of a hug."

Alex Guarnaschelli worked at high-end Michelin-starred restaurants, but you'll also see her cooking some truly satisfying dishes that many can easily make at home. When high-end doesn't hit the spot and when she needs some comfort, Guarnaschelli turns to spaghetti and meatballs as the ultimate comforting classic. When asked about her favorite late-night snack Guarnaschelli shared with FN Dish that it comes down to "cold spaghetti and meatballs."

Guarnaschelli believes there are many ways how you can make spaghetti and meatballs. The recipe published on her website suggests ground sirloin, panko breadcrumbs, Parmesan cheese, salt, chili flakes, and chopped parsley (okay, so maybe it is a bit fancier than your typical spaghetti with meatballs). And while we can all guess why such a meal might feel comforting — give it's high carb content and filling meaty element — for Guarnaschelli, it's more than that. "This recipe is a complete throwback to childhood for me," she wrote. Though we rarely think about plating when talking about comforting meals, there are some beautiful ways you can plate spaghetti and meatballs. This will add to the aesthetics, but it won't take away from the satisfying element.

Baked beans on toast is a quintessential British comfort food, so it's no surprise that Gordon Ramsay, who is from the Glasgow area, would choose this food to munch on as a midnight snack. But Ramsay also has high expectations for his food, which is why his version of this classic snack is a little more elevated. As he told Bon Appétit, he likes to make baked beans with "chili flakes, garlic, Tabasco sauce, hot sauce. Sourdough bread — grilled — baked beans on top, with a duck egg, covered with Parmesan and gratinated under the grill."

Although that is hardly your usual baked beans, it certainly seems like it would bring a fair amount of comfort. Between the warmth of the hot sauces, the carby goodness of the sourdough, and the familiarity of baked beans, this dish is the trifecta of comfort foods, and it's not even that hard to make a simpler version at home. Just heat up a can of beans, spice them up, and scoop them onto grilled sourdough slices before topping them off with eggs and cheese.

Most items on this list require some type of preparation, whether it's done by a restaurant, the bodega shop, or at home. However, Alton Brown apparently likes to keep things as simple as possible when it comes to comfort food. His favorite comforting option is an item that anyone can just pluck off a shelf at the grocery store: We're talking about potato chips.

In particular, as Brown posted on Facebook, he likes kettle-style potato chips, which he pairs with a nice gin martini adorned with an olive garnish "because it's important to get your greens." Another top comfort item of his, which he may or may not pair with the chips, is coffee, which he says "helps me maintain a sense of routine and keeps me alert during late night TV binging," which, one might argue, is another activity that brings many of us immense comfort.

Nigella Lawson straddles cultures in her recipes, but when it comes to the one comfort food she always makes for herself and her family, she sticks to the known and familiar and opts for lasagna. This widely popular and relatively simple dish can take many forms, including vegetarian versions made with zucchini, or those that use various cheese varieties. Most typically, it calls for layering of familiar childhood flavors and textures that include pasta, tomato sauce, beef, and cheese.

But Lawson's version is not just any lasagna. It's a dish she calls the "lasagna of love," as she told Eating Well. She further specified that eating the lasagna is not the only thing that gives her comfort. For Lawson, even the preparation, which she calls "a labor of love," is equally comforting. As she described, "as evenings get darker, sometimes an afternoon pottering about in the kitchen, preparing a lasagna, is such an enjoyable thing to do."

Given that Ree Drummond staked her career on a wholesome Midwestern image, it might come as a surprise that one of her favorite comfort foods is cashew chicken, a classic Chinese-American dish. But the heart wants what it wants, and there is certainly nothing wrong with branching out.

In a post on her website, Drummond calls this food "a lifelong comfort food," explaining that "I could eat it weekly for the rest of my life and never get tired of it." In short, there is no doubt that she likes the flavors, but there is also an element of nostalgia to it, which is so often the case with comfort foods. In the same post, she explains that she always ordered cashew chicken when she went out for Chinese in her hometown, and "Whenever I eat it, I think of Jeep Wagoneers, Giorgio perfume, Stiff Stuff hairspray, toe shoes, Pontiac Fieros, and size 6 Guess jeans." Ahh, those were the days. To try this nostalgic comfort food yourself, you can find it at many Chinese restaurants across the country, or you can make this slow cooker cashew chicken at home.

If you're looking for a genuine comfort food, an expensive meal is probably not going to fit the bill, literally and figuratively. If you're stressed or fretting about something, the last thing you'll want to do is drop loads of cash on something that will disappear in an instant. Which is why Rachael Ray's favorite comfort food is all the more comforting. Her favorite is tuna melt that costs less than $10 to make and is often pretty cheap to buy, too.

That said, Ray prefers to make this comfort food herself, according to an interview she gave to Allrecipes. First of all, she prefers to use tuna in olive oil in the tuna salad, which may not be the go-to ingredient for tuna melts in most restaurants. Then she adds lemon juice, more olive oil, and when in the mood, escarole, shaved fennel, celery, capers, and fresh herbs like dill or parsley. To assemble the sandwich, she uses stale bread, which she then presses along with the tuna salad and Fontina cheese.

Alice Waters is best known for introducing farm-to-table philosophy at Chez Panisse, a restaurant in Berkley, California that pioneered Californian cuisine. For this legendary chef, grilled cheese sandwiches are among the most comforting foods. That said, her grilled cheeses are not exactly the kind the rest of us mortals might make on the fly.

In 2017, Waters released a memoir titled "Coming to My Senses: The Making of a Counterculture Cook," in which she wrote about her upbringing and what led her to open Chez Panisse. We also find out that grilled cheese is the ultimate comfort food for Waters and how she likes to prepare it. "These days I make them with Cantal, a mountain cheese from France that's a little like a Swiss — I like my cheese to be a bit tangy." Her bread choice is no less elevated, as she opts for levain bread from Acme Bread Company, an artisanal bakery in Berkeley. The rest is pretty much as you'd expect, except for the small but very important detail of the olive oil, which goes inside and outside of the sandwich, in moderation. Salad, pickles, or sauerkraut are her favorite accompaniments to serve with grilled cheese.

If you've ever visited David Chang's Momofuku Noodle Bar in New York City, one of the restaurants from his New York Momofuku empire that remains operational, you'll know that pretty much all his noodle dishes are comforting. But what he finds most comforting seems to be are hand torn noodles, known as sujebi, which, as he says in his Instagram post, is a classic Korean comfort food and one of his favorite kinds of noodles to make.

These noodles can be paired with whatever you love the most, but in his post, Chang describes how to make them with chicken soup, zucchini, and potatoes. As he explains, "cooking the noodles in the soup makes it luxurious in texture because the flour thickens the broth." Interestingly, Chang also notes that this dish is similar to chicken and dumplings, a Southern classic widely seen as a comfort dish in the U.S.

Few would dispute the notion that mac and cheese is a favorite American comfort food, so there was bound to be at least one on this list. Chef Michael Symon considers mac and cheese one of the best comfort foods, as he said in a recent Instagram post. And funnily enough, he doesn't even need to use cheese to make it, which is ideal for those with dairy intolerance, like him. In fact, Symon explains how to make a vegan version with pureed cauliflower and nutritional yeast, which mimic the taste, feel, and how the cheese looks. He also adds onions, fresh garlic, and a homemade faux Parmesan cheese.

But one thing Symon says again and again in his post, is that it's okay to substitute. You want a more yellowish look for your cheese sauce? Add some pureed carrots or pumpkins to the cauliflower mixture. Have no problem with dairy and want to add cheese? By all means, go ahead and include a few bites of chorizo while you're at it, if you don't want this dish to be vegetarian. Indeed, that may be one of the most comforting aspects of this dish. You can make it with your favorite ingredients and it will still be delicious. In other words, it's hard to get it wrong.

Andrew Zimmern's favorite comfort meal, as he said in a recent YouTube post, is twenty-four cherry stone clams on the half shell, fresh from the ocean. He loves these little critters so much he'd want them as his last meal and if even willing to shuck them himself. But that's not all. Indeed, the clams are just the appetizer, because after that, his favorite comfort entree is his grandmother's roast chicken with gravy paired with "a little root vegetable mash, a little bit of sauteed spinach –- something simple." And for dessert? Zimmern's comfort dessert is a really good espresso ice cream.

Nevertheless, Zimmern poses a very interesting question: Can one pick just one comfort food or meal? Because toward the end of his post, he seems to have second thoughts, suggesting other foods might also fit the category. In particular, he mentions his meatloaf recipe, his chicken and dumplings with creamy sauce and vegetables, or Chinese three-cup chicken with rice. If he doesn't know the answer, we might venture a guess: Given the number of times Zimmern mentioned chicken in his video, it might be safe to say that it's one of his favorite comfort foods, in all its forms.

Anne Burrell may munch on chips and other easily attainable goodies when the spirit moves her, but ultimately, Burrell's favorite comfort food of all seems to be pasta with Bolognese sauce. As she told Restaurant Hospitality, "It took me forever to learn how to make it properly. Now, it's always the number one recipe of mine that people come up to me and say they love."

It seems that putting all that time and effort into her Bolognese recipe paid off. It also may be the very dish that helped launch her successful career as a chef and television personality, as it was the first dish she ever made on the Food Network. This personal connection, along with the warm and comforting flavors inherent in Bolognese, may be why this dish tops her list of favorite comfort foods. Just beware that this isn't the fastest dish to make if you need something comforting ASAP: Bolognese can take up to five hours to make, as the flavors need time to blend together and build a robust profile.