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In an effort to expose the fructose- and sodium-laced underbelly of the Bay Area foodie scene, SFist asked famous gastronomic types to reveal their junk food habits of choice.
In order of inbox arrival, here's how they responded.
- Jamie Lauren (Absinthe, executive chef; season 5 Top Chef): "Nacho cheese pretzel Combos. I'm obsessed. They're delicious."
- Michael Bauer (SF Chronicle, food critic): "I'd say my guilty pleasure is fried chicken (yes, even Popeye's), potato chips (particularly Kettle), In-N-Out Burger, movie popcorn (I don't care if the butter is fake), and anything pickled (olives, okra, cauliflower, carrots, you name it.)"
- Elizabeth Faulkner (Orson, executive chef): "On the upcoming Top Chef Masters, I mentioned I like Peanut M&Ms. I pretty much love chocolate and have a recent obsession with how to make my own Cheetos or cheese puffs -- only with blue cheese and cayenne!"
- Gary Danko (Gary Danko, executive chef): "Gummy worms."
- Marcia Gagliardi (Tablehopper): "I always look forward to buying cans of Pringles and Tecate to bring to Burning Man. Jerky too. The desert is like my hall pass. And about once a year I’ll hit the McDonalds drive-thru for an Egg McMuffin and hash browns -- I feel terrible about it before and after, but while I’m snarfing it? Uh, no guilt at all. No sir."
- Joanne Weir (famed chef, "Tequila: A Guide to Types, Flights, Cocktails and Bites"; KQED's Joanne Weir's Cooking Class): "I am absolutely crazy about potato chips. I can't have them in my house because they'd be calling my name to eat them. I would eat the whole bag. The saltier, the greasier, the better. I also love Ghiradelli's peanut butter chocolates. I'd kill for one right now!"
- Elizabeth Binder:(Bar Bambino executive chef): "This is hard one as I don't really eat junk food, believe it or not, but I do love Coca Cola. It's the only soda I'll drink, but it has to be the real thing; no Pepsi or diet for me."
- Sara Deseran (7x7 Magazine, senior editor): "Well, I can really go for a Louisiana hot link topped with sauerkraut, ketchup and spicy brown mustard, from Fatt Dog around the corner from my office, paired with chili-cheese fries—although I never actually order the fries myself (that’s my guilt at work). I let someone else order them and then I eat most of it myself."
- Paolo Lucchesi (Eater, editor): "I am all about In-N-Out. And also the classic hot dogs at the ballpark. Oh, and those old Flintstone's pushpops from the ice cream man. Those were fun."
- Mark Sullivan (Spruce, executive chef): "Jamon Iberico. I would choose this over foie gras and caviar any day; home made apricot pie (nothing beats a homemade pie prepared from sun ripened tree fruits. Nnoll farms apricots are worth their weight in gold!); and a perfectly prepared Dark and Stormy on a warm summer day."
- Patty Unterman (SF Examiner, food critic; owner of Hayes Valley Grill): "Chicago-style hot dogs. I just ate two of them at O'Hare airport in Chicago waiting for a connect back to SF from Paris."
- Leslie Sbrocco (Check, Please! Bay Area, host): "I have so many guilty pleasure foods: Cheetos (crunchy), In-N-Out burgers, Oreo Cakesters..."
- Jan Newberry (SF Magazine, food critic): "I'm nuts for any kind of red hot candy: Hot Tamales, Atomic Fire Balls, Cinnamon gummi bears. I'm bored to tears with high-percentage chocolates and olive oil-sea salt desserts. Give me cinnamon candy any day."
- Lessley Anderson (CHOW, senior editor): "I am a HUGE snacker if I come home and have had a few drinks, so for this reason I try not to keep anything unhealthy in the house to prevent binges. Therefore, I have been known to eat weird shit that's the only thing available in those moments -- ie: raisins, soymilk, and Brazil nuts mixed together with honey in a dirty coffee mug that I don't even bother to wash out, four-day old pancakes saved in a plastic baggy, shelf-stable hot chocolate out of the work vending machine, curly fries...."
- Meredith Brody (SF Weekly, food writer): "Skippy extra-crunchy peanut butter, Campbell's chicken noodle soup, Orange Milano cookies, and canned chili (which I admittedly tart up with grated cheese, chopped onions, sliced avocado, fresh cilantro leaves, and sour cream, until the original product is nearly unrecognizable). I also love Popeye's fried chicken, extra spicy, and their red beans and rice, and probably eat a Double Double In-N-Out burger (with extra onions) about once a month. The pleasure that others are trying make guilty is my hunger for foie gras."
- Alice Waters (Chez Panisse, philosopher, mafia Donna): "Alice is traveling on a very tight schedule for the next couple of weeks so she will have to pass." -- Waters' assistant, Varun Mehra
Fret not, overlooked foodies of note! We will make this a semi-regular feature. And a special thanks goes out to Marcia G. for helping us out.
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WOW, THEY'RE JUST LIKE US!!!
I'm in a mood, sorry.
Popeye's fried spicy chicken and some cajun rice is wonderful ... just don't let them open a restaurant nearby my home in Rincon Hill ... I don't think I'd have the willpower to stay away.
I'm lovin' it.
For what it's worth, the Egg McMuffin is really only 300 calories. I eat one once a week for breakfast and I've survived.
hey bro drop the mood
Someone ought to advise Mark Sullivan to remove the rod from his ass: fancy ham imported from Spain and homemade apricot pie (with specifically sourced apricots no less!) hardly qualify as junk food...
Oh, and Lessley Anderson for the win... I'm looking for a dirty coffee cup right now...
It's not even junk food in Spain.
Yeah, was thinking that some of these folks have weird ideas about what is and isn't junk food, and homemade apricot pie, uh, no, Failchef.
Same goes for Elizabeth Faulker's homemade Cheetos with blue cheese and cayenne. (Sounds delish, though!)
On the other hand, this Leslie Sbrocco character sounds like a woman after my own heart.
I'm a huge Mark Sullivan fan -- like, big time -- so if he says it's his guilty pleasure, i'll take his word for it.
Not saying his choices don't sound good, Brock, just that they don't qualify as "junk food" amongst us plebs. Fancy ham from Spain and apricot pie sound like a nice dinner, not something that someone would grab from around the corner and stuff their face with while they watch Intervention.
I agree with this wholeheartedly. I'm sure his restaurant is very nice, but someone who thinks Jamon Iberico and home made apricot pie "prepared from sun ripened tree fruits" = junk food is obviously a moron. I don't like to give my money to stupid people, thus I will have to avoid his restaurant.
Sullivan is from Minnesota. In reality, his preferred junk food is probably similar to that frightening cookie salad recipe icbalaam shared. He's just too ashamed to admit it.
Number One with Extra Grilled Onions. It's not junk food if it's fresh!
weird how people used guilty pleasure interchangeably with junk food.
they don't have to be the same thing.
Great idea, this post.
Lessley Anderson is my kind of guilty snacker. That mess reminds me of this potluck staple: Cookie Salad.
In a large bowl mix together:
1 giant bag of multicolored mini marshmallows
3 cans of crushed pineapple, just add the juice at this point
2 packages of strawberry Jell-O, the kind with real sugar already in it
2 generous tablespoons of Yoshida's Teriyaki sauce
2 cups of raisins
2 cups of butterscotch chips
2 cups of sweetened coconut
Mix well with a large spoon. Make sure the marshmallows are nice and wet. Wrap the top of the bowl in plastic wrap and stick it in the refrigerator overnight.
The next day pull it out and add:
1/2 cup of chopped pecans,
1/2 cup of chopped red licorice, and,
1/2 cup of Junior Mints.
Now take one full package of Oreo Cookies, put them in a food processor and grind them up. Add to the bowl and mix well.
Take the reserved crushed pineapple from the day before and spread it over the top of the "salad". Drizzle chocolate syrup, hot fudge or whatever else will give you diabetes quicker on the top.
Put back in the refrigerator for a couple of hours until ready to serve.
Perfect for any potluck where you want the people to die faster by contributing to their obesity.
Sadly, this cookie salad really is delicious.
Is this an actual for real recipe?
Yes, I found it in a Mormon cookbook, naturally.
This is better than my world famous tic tac pie. I'm going to have to make it and then inflict it upon unsuspecting party guests...
NO FAIR TEASING WITH THE TIC TAC PIE
SHARE SHARE SHARE
I'm going to make both these recipes. Fuck yes, I am.
You've been warned....
The Angry Young Man's World Famous Tic Tac Pie
Ingredients:
1 prepackaged graham cracker or oreo pie crust
2 8-ounce packages of cream cheese
2 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
6 boxes of tic tacs (flavor of your choice)
Preheat oven to 350. Beat cream cheese, eggs, sugar, and vanilla, until smooth. Add five boxes of tic tacs and mix lightly. Pour into crust. Bake 25 minutes or until until firm. Remove from oven and decorate with tic tacs (they will melt slightly, no worries, you don't want whoever will eat this to break a tooth). Refrigerate overnight.
I made it for a friend's birthday as a joke and wrote his age on top in tic tacs. To my surprise and horror, some square staters were at this party and they ate the entire thing with great slurping gusto. Unbelievable.
I knew this was gonna come back to "planets with hair."
Given Spruce's ridiculous prices you'd think that Mark Sullivan could have hired a proofreader to ensure his correct use of the word "their" (not "there"). More importantly, he seems to have missed the spirit of this exercise entirely.
to be fair, i used the terms "guilty pleasure" when referring to "junk food" -- which i know is incorrect, but that's my own strange issues with food; i digress -- but i am thrilled he took the time to respond.
Yes, a significant distinction... I am willing to give Chef Sullivan a pass, as his answer certainly qualifies as "guilty pleasure" - though I'd still like to know his views on Oreo Cakesters...
Wait a minute... are you telling me there really is such a thing as Oreo Cakesters?
/attempts to hide erection
How can someone not have 30 seconds free while traveling to answer this question? It's not like it requires research at the library and a page of calculations.
"Alice has a mouthful of Chips Ahoy, so she will be unable to comment."
I love that the "pass" was posted nonetheless. Pffft!
Re: Alice Waters
Big surprise from the woman who announced in the Ruth Reichl/Calvin Trillin Commonwealth Club event that she didn't even know what Buffalo wings were and that she gets her airplane "take out" from the Chez Panisse kitchens.
Word to the wise, Alice, watch "The Queen" and learn a little about scrabbling down here with the rest of us plebes. Keeping yourself so high on the shelf doesn't endear you or your cause to anyone.
This woman is so pretentious and annoying she makes me want to eat genetically modified, non-organic, high fructose syrup, transfat laced everything.
Sorry, off topic I know - but your comment reminded me of a fine retort my sister gave years ago...
When I was giving her a hard time after she indicated she was voting for Nader in 2000, she later changed her mind and advised me that, "Not only am I not voting for Ralph Nader - I'm buying a 1963 Corvair."
Love this! Too funny.