Chopped Judge Scott Conant Really Can't Stomach This Popular Vegetable

Scott Conant is best known for being a long-time judge on "Chopped," as well as one of the Food Network celebrities with popular restaurants: He oversees the Leola Baha Mar in the Bahamas, The Americano in Georgia, and Cellaio Steak in New York. For someone who has extensive experience in the food industry, you would think that he has a non-discriminating palate for all tastes and flavors. That is, until you hear about his strong aversion to red onion, and specifically, those served raw.

Conant couldn't hide his dislike for the root vegetable on the "Chopped" Season 3 episode "Judge Knows Best." Despite warning the chefs ("I have a real aversion to raw onions," he said, adding, "Don't go too far"), they didn't seem to take the hint. After being served multiple dishes that featured raw red onions, including a hamachi kebab with arugula salad and hamachi crudo with quail yolk vinaigrette, Contant had to speak his mind. 

"I don't understand why the onions are there after we told you — especially myself, I didn't like raw onions — and you used them in the first course already, and yet they're here," he said. "And I taste them, and it kinda makes me angry." You can't say he didn't warn them.

While most discussions about onions revolve around tricks on how to chop them without crying and how to infuse their flavor into any dish, there's very little talk about some people aren't fond of their raw taste. Though they are a staple of Western diets, highlighting meals like hamburgers, sandwiches, and pizza, red onion has a reputation for being spicier and sharper in taste than white and yellow onions. "Raw, red is the spiciest, followed by white, [and] then yellow," said Jay Weinstein, chef-instructor of Plant-Based Culinary Arts at the Institute of Culinary Education (via Simply Recipes). Red onion also has a certain sweetness to it, but most people may find its pungent smell and certain notes of its peppery flavors too intimidating.

In Scott Conant's case, he did not specify in the "Chopped" episode what it was about the ingredient that irked him. This led to online discussions and backlash on how a chef like him should know better than to complain about a component that is vital in the flavor profile of many dishes. In response to the commission, he took to X (formerly Twitter) to clarify that it's not necessarily the taste of the bulb that set him off. "For the record, I love onions. I have no problem with them. It's bad technique and/or poorly cooking them that bothers me," he wrote.