10 Dishes with Celebrity Chef John Tesar
After a shift, what is your favorite guilty pleasure to eat? “Probably sake and frozen pizza. By the time I’m leaving work there’s no good pizza available, so it’s easier for me to grab a glass of sake, because we have sake on tap at Knife, and then, believe it or not, I’ll have a DiGiorno spinach-and-garlic pizza once I get home.”
Is there one dish you won’t cook? “No. If anything I like to be challenged by things that I don’t understand or don’t like. But that doesn’t mean I’ll serve it to people, unless I really think it tastes good.”
All-time favorite spice. “White pepper has got to be my favorite spice. I think it’s very underrated and I believe it makes food taste better than black pepper, for the most part, except maybe on red meat. It’s essential to a great friend chicken as well as most seafood dishes, and, of course, on mashed potatoes.”