Anthony Bourdain Absolutely Hated This Kitchen Tool

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Anthony Bourdain was never one to mince words. He revered garlic for its versatility, calling the pungent bulb "divine." He preached that garlic should be treated with the respect it deserves, and so he abhorred the garlic press, which, in his seminal memoir "Kitchen Confidential," he called an abomination. "I don't know what that junk is that squeezes out the end of those things, but it ain't garlic," Bourdain groused.

There are mistakes that people make when using a garlic press, but even when using the device as directed, many chefs have a full-blown disdain for the popular kitchen tool. Perhaps it has to do with garlic's unusual propensity for getting more potent the more it's chopped. Garlic doesn't have its signature odor until it's cut or smashed. But once the garlic's cells are broken down by a garlic press or a knife, a complex chemical reaction releases diallyl sulfide, a compound that gives garlic its powerful scent and taste. In effect, the more you bruise garlic, the more intense its flavor. Pressed garlic, then, is extra-garlicky, and it can overpower the other flavors of the dish you're cooking if used in excess.

Bourdain preferred to either thinly slice garlic or smash it with the flat side of a chef's knife, which releases only a small amount of the garlic-smelling sulfur compound. The smashed clove could then be tossed into a pot of Italian Sunday Sauce to add garlic's perfume but not its sharp bite.

Bourdain wasn't the only chef who loathed the garlic press. British writer and chef Elizabeth David called it "diabolical" in a piece for Tatler and famously refused to stock them in her London cookware store. She even considered the garlic press, which can contain reactive metals that can alter how food tastes, "utterly useless."

Martha Stewart has no love for the garlic press either, with her website stating that cleaning the device can be time-consuming. Alton Brown said on Facebook that he vehemently hates the gadget because there are always dried bits of old garlic stuck in it. (His wife, though, is a fan, so a garlic press hasn't been totally banned from their home kitchen).

But don't let Bourdain's and other famous chefs' opinions sway you to toss your garlic press into the trash. Julia Child, for one, was emphatically pro-garlic press, which she announced on an episode of "The French Chef," joking, "I know that some people feel that it's a sin." It's true that a garlic press pulverizes garlic to a pulp, and thus it's particularly pungent, but that's what makes the tool so ideal for when you want garlic at its full force for garlic bread, compound butter, or pistou and pesto sauce. And despite Brown's gripe that it can only do one thing, the garlic press actually does have other uses, like crushing ginger, cracking walnuts, or pitting olives, which makes it a versatile and valuable tool in your kitchen arsenal.