The Controversial Chicken Prep Step Jacques Pépin Disagreed With Julia Child On

For decades, Julia Child and Jacques Pépin were practically always mentioned in the same sentence, so you'd think they'd have agreed on most, if not all, their cooking techniques. But there was one basic bit of kitchen preparation that they didn't quite see eye-to-eye on, and it all centered around one ingredient: chicken. When it came to getting started, Child belonged to the school of thought that washing chicken was the cleanliest of practices, while Pépin didn't bother with the step.

They once spoke about this during their cooking show, "Julia & Jacques Cooking at Home." During an episode about roast chicken, Child says she washes her chicken with hot water since she's concerned about potential salmonella contamination. Pépin laughed, insisting that he doesn't wash his chicken. He said, cheekily, "I feel it's going to go into a 425 degree oven for like an hour or so, and at that point, if the bacteria are still living they deserve to live." At the time, that may have come across as cheeky, but these days Jacques' opinion is now widely considered the wiser one.

Today, washing chicken isn't a recommended practice. It's been found that washing chicken actually has the tendency to splatter unwanted bacteria onto various kitchen surfaces, increasing your chances of getting sick. Though Jacques Pépin found it worth joking about, he wasn't wrong about the heat during the cooking process killing the bacteria in (and on) chicken because that's exactly what it does. Cooking meat to the proper temperature by gauging it using a meat thermometer will ensure you've got the safest scenario rather than accidentally spreading bacteria in your sink and on whatever else might be situated around it.

Despite this more modern stance on the subject, some people, including other celebrity chefs, still wash their chicken. Surprisingly, it's something TV chef Bobby Flay does, so perhaps some habits are hard to break. Though perhaps his version of cleaning up after dinner could be more rigorous than my haphazard one. Chicken is a regular source of kitchen paranoia when it comes to food safety, but thankfully you don't have to wash it; even if Julia Child swore by doing so.