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Annie Smithers

All the Foods I Really Don’t Like To Eat – Including Vegemite

Article author Annie Smithers
Annie Smithers

Photo: Samantha Schultz

In this extract from her gorgeous new memoir, Kitchen Sentimental, leading chef Annie Smithers shares her cheat sheet of what not to serve if you invite her to dinner.

Annie Smithers is a renowned chef, whose restaurant Du Fermier in Trentham, Victoria, has been at the forefront of paddock-to-plate cooking since it opened in 2012.

At Du Fermier, Smithers – who trained under pioneering chef Stephanie Alexander – cooks every element of every meal. The menu changes daily, depending on what she’s pulled up from her kitchen garden that morning. Her just-released memoir Kitchen Sentimental shares the story of her life, through the kitchens she’s cooked in, as well as 77 recipes. In this extract, she outlines the foods she won’t eat.


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[Here] are all the foods I really don’t like to eat – and my wife will tell you there are many! Here’s a cheat sheet of what not to cook if you invite me over for dinner.

Tuna mornay

I cannot think of anything more vile. As much as I love a bit of mornay sauce over ham crepes or in a pork and fennel seed ragu-based lasagne, the thought of it with tinned tuna makes my stomach churn. To be honest, I think it must be the tuna, as I cannot stand the smell of it or the texture of it and I think it has only entered my mouth on a couple of occasions in my lifetime. And even then it was by mistake.

Corned beef

I know not why. I have a great penchant for pickling and brining meats, and am exceptionally fond of pickled, grilled ox tongue, but corned beef? It’s a big no from me.

Broccoli and cauliflower

I struggle with these vegetables. More than happy to eat the stalks but the feel of the florets in my mouth makes me cringe.

Pumpkin and sweet potato

Two orange vegetables I just don’t like. It’s odd, as I really, really love carrots, but not these two.

Tofu or tempeh

I’m not big on either of these, which makes living with a vegan a bit tricky.

Tripe

Oh the smell of it cooking! It seems attached to a memory that I can’t shake. Nothing about tripe appeals to me – the raw product, the soaking, the cooking. It’s all bad in my book. I love cooking liver, brains and sweetbreads. But not tripe, never tripe.

Vegemite

The one I hate the most. I remember my sister smearing it on my lips when I was four or five. I will never eat it. I will never kiss someone if they have been eating it. It is disgusting.

Kitchen Sentimental by Annie Smithers, published by Thames & Hudson Australia, $34, available 27 August 2024.

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