Posted by on Jan 24, 2011 in blog | 55 comments

We all know that Fabio Viviani hates cilantro passionately. As it became a topic of interest here in your comments I decided to do a quick, fun interview with Fabio to get him to explain this hate of cilantro to us. Enjoy!

Ok fabio it’s time to get to the bottom of your hate for cilantro once and for all. few foods seem to divide people quite the same way that cilantro does. Some people love and it some people swear it tastes like soap or makes them feel like they’ve accidentally gotten some kind of foul perfume in their mouth.

does cilantro taste like soap to you?

Cilantro is the only herbs im aware of the look like Parsley, smell like soap and taste like shit, not i mean , really…. every time there is a tiny bit, a small leaf in something i accidentally eat (cause im like a bomb squad dog in smelling cilantro in food) i have an irreversible gag reflex that most of the time leads me in the bathroom with the head in the toilet.

you know that you’re not supposed to eat the stems, right?

I honestly i believe you’re not suppose to eat that foul herbs at all, one things i can think of to do with it is to leave every cilantro field im aware off in California dired out without water, its california, we have water problem and i think that this solution could help a little

is it just fresh cilantro that is offensive to you or do you hate it dried and in coriander seed form as well?

If it spell cilantro all i hear is ‚Äúcrap‚Äù, dried, fresh, marinated, polished, refurbished, i hate cilantro whats not clear about it ?? Coriander ?? the seeds dont smell like, dont taste like, dont look like cilantro….. out of side out of mind i guess…..

have you always hated cilantro or was it something that you grew to dislike? what is your earliest memory of encountering cilantro?

I went in vacation to Mauritius Island and Seychelles and i recall thos F**knuts put cilantro everywere, i mean EVERYWHERE, even in the omelette in the morning, i mean it was soo bad that i recall to get a bungalow with the upgrade of a little kitchen and cook for myself even thought we had a kickass all inclusive vacation…. now, i dont know if that was the cause but i remember a great amount of time there in the bathroom not feeling too hot


i have noted that a lot of people ‘inherit’ or learn to dislike certain food from from parents. for example, if a child sees a parent turn down mushrooms they might begin to turn down mushrooms as well. do you have a relative that hates cilantro?

Not really, also because in italy i never recall finding cilantro?? I got to be honest, i dont think that even goats eat colantro in italy…. we have pretty smart goats there, and they definitely wont touch cilantro with a fishing pool ?? What i think about people that like cilantro ?? Bunch of Kamikazee…. good luck guys, you have stronger guts than me.

FYI my mom loooooove mushrooms.

there are some kinds of cuisine that feature cilantro heavily. thai food, mexican food, and many south american cuisines are big on your least favorite herb. do you avoid eating these foods?

No i dont avoid those cuicine, im actually a big fan of mexican cuicine, i always say that if i wasnt italian i wouldve be mexican, cause just like in italy with wine in mexico when something goes wrong all we need to do is to get a beer, we drink wine instead J, but in cilantro speaking i tent to avoide foods that i know has in it….. i mean , im not asking you guys to drop cilantro, im only saying to dont feed it to me…. certain people are weird, i saw once a video of a person that for fun was getting kicked in the n**s…. hey, if you like ti go for it !!!!

what are some dishes that you wish did not have cilantro because you would otherwise enjoy them?

Most Salsa in mexican restaurant, Chicke BBQ pizza at California pizza Kitchen (WTF ?? really ???), coconuts Thain soup, Wolfang Puck chinese chiken salad, now good news is that im a chef i can fix those without the need of the nasty herb, i hate it sooo much that i bet if i go to hell instead of roasting my butt in flame they will have me lie on Cilantro bunches !!!!

in a recipe that calls for cilantro what do you replace it with? do you have a salsa recipe that you can share with your fellow cilantro haters?

ANYTHING can replace cilantro !!! Its nasty !!!! Look original salsa dont even feature Cilantro….so here you go !!!!!

1 can diced tomatoes no water, smahed with your hand

2 fresh jalapeno pepper, seeded and diced

2 chipotle chile in sauce adobo

1 clove garlic

½ cup chopped onion

2 tablespoon lemon juice

2 tbsp green onion thinly sliced

Salt

Place all of them in a blender and pulse till obtain an organic salsa

tell us some funny stories involving cilantro. i’m sure someone has tried to serve you food with cilantro in it.

When i got Married my mom, dad, grandma, grandpa came here and my mom wanted to cook for me and my ex-wife family soo bad ok?….so she goes to the farmer market and she buys all kinds of ingredients, i mean EVERYTHING, like a kid in a candy store, she cook for the biggest part of the day and so in the evening we get back to my house and we all sit at dinner table…. Clams & Mussels, Spaghetti with seafood, Branzino, Seabass, Lamb shank, Ossobuco, they all start to eat and i notice ( io was feeding my dog so i was slightly late at dinner table ) that my dad and my grandpa are making funny faces…. now we arer all italian in my family right ?? we KNOW BETTER that you cant talk shit about mom and grandma’s food right ??? so i look at my dad and i go…. ‚ÄúDad ?? What that face for ??‚Äù he look at me and he goes ‚Äú Fabio i dont know but there is something in this food that doesnt taste right…..????‚Äù

MY MOM PICKED CILANTRO instead of Parsley and SHE USED IN EVERY AND ALL THE DISHES…. now my mom is such a good cook and she does the same stuff over and over that she dont really need to taste her food as she is making it….. she didnt realize that she was using CILANTRO instead of PARSLEY……. we pretty much throw away the whole dinner and after 4 hour and 1500$ at Mastro’s Steak House we all had a good laugh about it. After 5 years i think is funny, right there and then i was miserable….. i hate Cilantro.

any closing words about your least favorite herb?

No one but two. F#*K IT !!!!