The One Food Item Geoffrey Zakarian Always Buys Store-Bought

From Four Seasons chefs buying ingredients like octopus frozen rather than fresh to chefs at the JW Marriott who prefer store-bought french fries, some culinary experts have started to reveal that not every one of their creations comes from scratch. Take Geoffrey Zakarian, for example. The well-known chef, restaurant-owner, and writer won "The Next Iron Chef: Super Chefs" over a decade ago, and often appears as a judge on "Chopped" and other food-based series. Most recently, he opened Point Royal and Counter Point, located at The Diplomat Beach Resort in Hollywood, Florida. Like many chefs who dedicate a portion of their time to working within the hospitality industry, Zakarian admits that when it comes to certain foods, others can make them better. 

What item does Zakarian prefer to purchase? Bread. Reader's Digest shared Zakarian's reasoning for preferring to buy bread. "There are much better bakers than I," he said. While Zakarian may not make every item from scratch, he told TotalFoodService, "My mother made everything from scratch," something that encouraged him to pursue cooking. In a Reddit thread, the chef agreed to respond to users' questions. One user asked him how to start creating recipes, rather than just following them, to which Zakarian responded: "There is no such thing as an original recipe. If you are brutally honest, every recipe has a point of reference to something you had, ate, read, or saw."  

Although Geoffrey Zakarian admits that he does not believe in original recipes and prefers items like bread to be store-bought, you may be surprised to learn that in 2020, he debuted a new product; the Zakarian bread maker. Zakarian shared with E!News that the bread maker has one dozen presets and can make up to 1 and 1/2 pounds of bread. The product also includes 10 different recipes customers can try, "from gluten free sandwich bread to artisan olive sourdough." "There's nothing like fresh, warm bread and my breadmaker does all the work for you," he said.  

In a clip Zakarian shared on his Instagram channel — which previously aired on QVC — his wife, Margaret Zakarian, is shown testing out the breadmaker. After she removes the bread from the product, she adds, "During COVID, everyone was on a bread making craze, which we're not, but now our new breadmaker has arrived, and I'm dedicated to being a bread making queen." While his family may use the bread maker, it can be assumed that the bread customers enjoy at Zakarian's restaurants is store-bought. Zakarian tweeted, "Tip: use sore [sic] bought biscuit bread to make any monkey bread flavor you can think of – cinnamon sugar, pizza, antipasti...#TheKitchen." At his restaurant Point Royal "breakfast breads" and "seven-grain bread" are available, and Counter Point provides lemon on multigrain bread.

Although Zakarian may not make the bread that appears at his restaurants from scratch, his breadmaker suggests that the chef has a lot of ideas when it comes to good bread recipes. Similarly, there are a few other products he has strong opinions on when determining whether or not they should be store-bought. 

He shared with Food Network that he dislikes most of the butter that is offered at the supermarket. "Buy the most expensive butter on the shelf," he said. According to Zakarian, producers who create cheaper butter are likely to put water into it, causing its contents to fly everywhere if placed in a hot pan. He recommends Plugra, a European-based butter. 

In addition, he shared that he typically refuses to buy store-bought ice cream for similar reasons. He said that even the manufacturers of top brands blow air into them, which causes them to become enlarged in a freezer. Generally, he believes local ice cream shops provide superior ice cream. Between his own kitchen line and opinions on store-bought products like bread, in the future, perhaps the chef will continue dishing out advice on how to avoid serving "crumby" recipes.