Guy Fieri Will Never Use This Store-Bought Product – Even On Camping Trips

Guy Fieri made a name for himself promoting other people's cooking on his show, "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives." However, the Food Network personality is a chef first and foremost, and there are some things he still insists on making himself. In an interview with The Kitchn, the "Guy's Grocery Games" host shared what he likes to eat on camping trips, including hot dogs, burgers, Chinese food, and pasta. But he made it very clear that he'll never serve store-bought pasta sauce, regardless of whether he's camping. According to Fieri, "Cooking is my favorite pastime and how I spend time with family and friends. I don't want to shortchange myself or them." As such, he's "still making that pasta sauce" himself.

Fieri is Italian American, and it's a tradition among many in this community to make and jar large quantities of sauce during tomato season to enjoy throughout the rest of the year. Like many consumers, the TV personality may also be averse to the additives and preservatives found in many commercially made pasta sauces. But Fieri's ban on store-bought sauce might not be written in stone. He has his own line of "Old Skool" jarred pasta sauce with an ingredient list that reads like a home recipe. In fact, it's not all that different from the high-quality store brands that other celebrity chefs openly use — and love. Maybe jarred is okay as long as he made it.

Many of us probably didn't grow up helping Nonna pack cauldrons of fresh tomato sauce into jars. I certainly didn't, and I grew up with Hunt's, an American brand that can retail for under $2 and is widely available at most grocery stores. But this budget-friendly option does include some ingredients that may not be present in homemade sauce, such as high-fructose corn syrup and citric acid, which is used as a preservative in many canned foods. Slightly more expensive brands, like Bertolli, also include ingredients such as calcium chloride and citric acid.

Higher-end sauces are often a different story. Many of the selections at Eataly, a chain of upscale Italian grocery stores, do not include added chemicals or preservatives. However, these sauces tend to cost much more than a can of Hunt's, with many options priced at more than $10. Even widely available supermarket brands like Rao's Homemade can retail for around $9, but they largely contain ingredients you can find in your home kitchen. When it comes to jarred sauces, you really do get what you pay for.

Creamy sauces can present a whole other problem. Rao's Alfredo sauce, for instance, includes disodium phosphate, which helps neutralize the pH of dairy and prevent it from curdling, and xanthan gum, a common thickener in many processed foods. This is the price to pay for turning something that spoils quickly into a shelf-stable pantry item. If you want creamy pasta, you're better off getting these types of sauces from the refrigerated section of your grocery store or making your own fettuccine Alfredo. You can also make a vodka sauce with a jar of tomato sauce, some heavy cream, and as much booze as you can handle.