Just because they cook for a living doesn’t mean the city’s talented chefs are immune to temperamental taste buds. We challenged a few to lean into their least favorite ingredients and create original recipes that left our mouths watering—and that even they find (relatively) easy to swallow.

Chef Nick Dixon of Lincoln Tavern & Restaurant has loathed broccoli rabe ever since he first tried it in culinary school, where he recoiled at what he describes as a medicinal bitterness. He’s not shy about his feelings on the subject. “People know how adamant I am about not putting that on the menu,” he says, and that includes no fewer than three chefs de cuisine who have made valiant attempts to serve it at the South Boston eatery. Here, Dixon’s own kung pao treatment sees the star ingredient charred and mixed with a sweet chili sauce, honey roasted peanuts and Szechuan peppercorns, plus the “intense” flavors of soy sauce and sesame oil. “The sweet, the salty, the spiciness—it all kind of melds together to mask that bitter taste,” Dixon says. But don’t expect a change of heart. “It still does taste like Advil,” he says. “No matter what.”

Charred Kung Pao Broccoli Rabe

2 bunches broccoli rabe
Sea salt to taste
1 tablespoon sesame oil, plus more for brushing the rabe
1 tablespoon ginger, chopped
1 tablespoon garlic, chopped
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
1 1/2 cups soy sauce
2 tablespoons sambal oelek
1/2 cup lemon juice
1 1/2 cups Mae Ploy chili sauce
1 cup peanuts
1/4 cup honey
1 tablespoon confectioners’ sugar
Pinch of Szechuan peppercorns, ground

• · Boil a medium pot three-quarters full of salted water. (Water should be salty like the sea.) Have a bowl of ice water ready. Drop the broccoli rabe in the boiling water for 1 minute. Remove it with tongs or a strainer and place it into the ice water to cool. Remove and pat dry with a paper towel. Set the broccoli rabe aside on a towel.
• · In a small saucepot, sauté the sesame oil, ginger and garlic for about 3 minutes on medium heat. Add the sugar and vinegar and simmer for 2 minutes until the sugar dissolves. Add the soy sauce, sambal and lemon juice, and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the Mae Ploy chili sauce and bring to a boil.
• · In a 375-degree oven, roast the peanuts for 7 minutes or until golden brown. Place the hot peanuts in a bowl and drizzle with honey. Add in the confectioners’ sugar and a pinch of sea salt. After the peanuts cool, grind them in a food processor.
• · On a hot grill, brush the broccoli rabe with sesame oil and lightly season with salt. Place the broccoli rabe on a hot spot on the grill and char for about 3 minutes on one side. Flip and char for 1 minute. Place the broccoli rabe in a medium bowl and toss with a few spoonfuls of sauce. Place the broccoli rabe onto a plate and garnish with honey-roasted peanuts and Szechuan peppercorns.

Since joining Brookline’s The Regal Beagle this fall, chef Erika Rosario has added dishes like eggplant rollatini and a veggie bowl with aubergine, but you won’t often catch her eating them. She traces her distaste back to growing up with her grandmother, who used to down an eggplant concoction. “My sister and I would watch her drink it and gag,” Rosario recalls, citing the vegetable’s seeds and mushy texture as the source of her aversion. “I will admit in the early stages of my pregnancy, I had a weird craving for it. Glad to say that went away after eating it twice.” That hankering was short-lived, but Rosario did once eat an eggplant parmesan à la Latina dish her roommate made using sweet fried plantains—and had no idea she’d eaten eggplant until her roommate fessed up. She followed her lead for this lasagna recipe, swapping noodles for plantains, which “give the dish a sweet and savory play.” As for the results? Thanks to the thin slices and zesty sauce, “If I scarf it down, I don’t think about it,” Rosario says. “But if I see the eggplant, I still move it to the edge of my plate.”

Eggplant Plantain Lasagna

For the sauce:

5 heirloom tomatoes, diced
5 plum tomatoes, diced
1 pint cherry tomatoes, diced
5 cloves garlic
1 red onion, diced
2 roasted red peppers, chopped
3 tablespoons sugar
5 basil leaves
Salt and pepper to taste
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

• · Simmer all ingredients over medium heat with extra-virgin olive oil until cooked down. Then use a food processor to blend the marinara.

1 pound ground beef
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons tomato paste

• · In a separate pan, add the ground beef, salt and pepper to taste, garlic and tomato paste and cook until brown. Mix with the marinara sauce and set aside.

For the lasagna:

2 large eggplants, thinly sliced
4 ripe plantains, thinly sliced
1 quart ricotta
1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
1 ball of mozzarella
2 basil leaves, sliced

• · Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl, mix ricotta and shredded Parmesan. In a casserole dish, layer thin slices of plantain and eggplant, sauce and the cheese mixture. Repeat the process three times, cover with aluminum foil and bake for 45 minutes. Uncover and layer with fresh mozzarella. Bake for another 10 minutes. Add sliced basil to finish.

Tomato soup, tomato sauce, fried green tomatoes—all good in Bergamot chef/co-owner Keith Pooler’s eyes. But uncooked tomatoes? Those hit a raw nerve. “I can visualize liking them, but can never get over the hump,” says Pooler, who finds the flavor tolerable, though he can’t stand the texture of the flesh and skin. That made for a memorably tricky evening plating an heirloom tomato salad while staging at New York’s Chanterelle. “It was a rough couple of hours,” recalls Pooler, “and the only way I made it through was drinking a lot of water.” His distaste hasn’t stopped him from dreaming up tomato-centric dishes at his Somerville restaurant every August. “I am very particular on how we treat tomatoes, from the moment we receive them to the moment they go on the plate,” he says, explaining they’re carefully set on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper and checked every day until ripe. For this recipe, he looks to a (nearly) universally liked sandwich, the BLT, and suggests opting for heartier heirloom varietals, like brandy wine, Genovese or black zebra. “I like the dish and can see someone enjoying it,” he says, noting that chefs learn to evaluate plates even when they’re not pleasing to their own palates. “You are taught to taste everything, and I can in my head. I watched an instructor that had dietary restrictions in culinary school critique each dish by sight alone. Boy, was he accurate.”

Tomato Salad

For the herb aioli:

1 egg, plus 1 egg white
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 lemon
Salt to taste
1 1/2 cups canola oil
2 tablespoons basil, lightly chopped
1 teaspoon marjoram, lightly chopped
1 teaspoon mint, lightly chopped

• · Add eggs, Dijon mustard, one squeeze of lemon juice, salt and a splash of water to a food processor and pulse until smooth, adding a steady stream of canola oil while running. Transfer the thick aioli to a bowl and add the basil, marjoram and mint. Pulse with an immersion blender, leaving pieces of herbs intact. Adjust the consistency of the aioli with water; it should be thick.

For the breadcrumbs:

2 cups slightly stale bread
1/2 cup canola oil
1/4 cup garlic, finely chopped
1 teaspoon thyme, chopped
Pinch of salt

• · Tear bread to dry it out and then pulse into large pieces. In a frying pan over medium heat with oil, lightly brown breadcrumbs. Add garlic and cook until golden and fragrant. Finish with thyme and a pinch of salt, straining extra oil through a China cap.

For the red onion vinaigrette:

1 cup red wine
1 medium red onion, diced
Pinch of sugar
1 teaspoon thyme, minced
Small pinch of mace
1/3 cup red wine vinegar
Salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste
2/3–1 cup canola oil

• · Reduce wine to a 1/4 cup. Then add in all ingredients except the oil and marinate for 10 minutes. Strain dressing and set aside. Whisk in oil and then add back in the strained contents.

For the salad:

Salt to taste
3 thick slices of tomatoes
Olive oil
1 thick slice of maple-smoked bacon
Assorted greens

• · Five minutes before plating, salt room-temperature tomato slices. Place a few dollops of the aioli onto a plate and smear with an offset spatula. Set tomato slices on top of the aioli and squeeze a little olive oil on the tomatoes. Cut smoked bacon into 1-inch pieces and place on the plate. Sprinkle breadcrumbs over the top. Toss a mix of greens with a tablespoon of the dressing and place strands of greens around the plate. Spoon a little of the garnish and vinaigrette around the plate.

A neighborhood pool-hopping adventure in high school turned into an unfortunate experience for chef/owner William Kovel of Cambridge’s Catalyst, who helped himself to one property’s vegetable garden. “I ate a bunch of raw green peppers like apples, right off the plant. When I got home, I ended up getting really sick,” he says. “I think it is the memory of getting sick that keeps me away.” Kovel finds the smell of raw green peppers so distinctive he even picked it up in cabernet franc when he was studying for his sommelier exam. But he says roasting the vegetable makes all the difference for use in dishes like his lamb kebabs with green harissa. “Roasted with the addition of jalapeno pepper, spices and herbs, it makes a beautiful green sauce,” one perfect for pairing with grilled ground lamb. But still, he adds, “You will not find them on my salad for lunch!”

Lamb Kebabs with Green Harissa

For the green harissa:

4 green peppers
1 jalapeno pepper
1 cup salt
1 cup sugar
1-2 lemons
1 bunch mint
1 bunch parsley
2 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon toasted ground cumin
1 tablespoon toasted ground coriander
1/2 tablespoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 cup olive oil

• · On a hot grill or in an oven, roast the green peppers and jalapeno pepper until the skins blister and blacken. Reserve in a bowl and cover tightly with plastic wrap or a clean towel. Let sit for 10 minutes and then peel the skin off using a clean towel. Remove the stems and seeds.
• · Bring a pot of water to boil and add the salt and sugar. Blanch the lemons in the water for 30-45 seconds and shock in an ice bath. Slice the lemons 1/4-inch thick, discarding seeds, and grill gently until marks form.
• · Combine the peppers, herbs, garlic and spices in a food processor and pulse until all ingredients are well chopped and mixed. Transfer to a bowl that is set in another bowl filled with ice. Roughly chop the charred lemon slices and stir into the harissa while slowly drizzling in the olive oil. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

For the lamb kebabs:

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
2-3 ice cubes
2 pounds ground lamb
1/4 cup parsley, finely chopped
2 tablespoons mint, finely chopped
1/4 cup onion, minced
2 tablespoons garlic, minced
1 tablespoon crushed red pepper or aleppo chili flakes
Zest of 1 lemon
2-3 tablespoons salt
1 tablespoon pepper
1 tablespoon toasted ground cumin
1 tablespoon toasted ground coriander

• · Combine vinegar and ice cubes and chill. Combine the rest of the ingredients in a stand mixer with a paddle attachment. Mix on low, slowly adding in the vinegar until the mixture becomes sticky and looks almost creamy. Divide into 2-ounce balls and form into log shapes. Grill to desired doneness and top with green harissa. Garnish with a charred lemon if desired.