Lifestyle maven Gwyneth Paltrow appeared on the popular hot-wings-eating web series Hot Ones this week, and boy did she have some hot opinions to share about… herbs? In an interview with host Sean Evans, Paltrow said that while she loves almost all fresh herbs, dill, those beautiful green fronds that make pickles delicious, “should be illegal.” What?
Paltrow is, of course, known for having questionable opinions, especially when it comes to food. She insists that salmon salads can “detoxify” the body (they can’t) and has recommended that people put jade eggs in their vaginas (they shouldn’t). She’s told her followers that they should eliminate basically everything — including coffee, alcohol, dairy, sugar, shellfish, deepwater fish, potatoes, bell peppers, eggplant, corn, wheat, meat, gluten, and soy — from their diets to achieve better health. (That’s not how it works.) But insulting dill is a bridge too far.
Dill is a perfect herb. It’s the essential garnish for a bowl of matzo ball soup and lends its characteristic tang to ranch dressing and tzatziki. You can chop its tender fronds into a salad, throw a pile on top of roasted vegetables, or use a little to marinate your salmon. No plate of pierogi or bowl of borscht is complete without it. And if that weren’t enough of a testament to dill’s versatility, it also flavors an entire category of pickles. Honestly, even if it were only ever used for pickles, that would be enough.
I recognize that dill can be controversial. There’s an entire subreddit dedicated to dill hatred, a collection of deeply misguided people complaining about its “repulsive taste and gag-inducing smell.” Even some of my own beloved collegues at Eater feel that it is too overpowering for most dishes. Fresh herbs, generally, are contentious, perhaps because we’re so used to experiencing their muted flavors in the dried form.
But I must insist that there is a true herbal villain lurking behind the scenes, one that pops up in dishes when you least expect it and ruins everything with its grassy, licorice-y flavor, and that villain is tarragon. Tarragon is always an unwelcome visitor in this house. Keep it away from my green goddess dressing. Don’t you dare ruin hollandaise, a perfectly delightful food, with its presence and call it bearnaise. I know that tarragon is a staple in classic French cuisine and also common in Eastern European dishes, but if I had may way, I’d replace it all with dill, an objectively better herb.
Am I surprised that Paltrow, a woman who calls a bowl of bone broth “lunch,” is wrong about dill? Absolutely not. What does surprise me, though, is that people are capable of drumming up so much hate for delicious, perfect dill, when tarragon is allowed to fly under the radar without attack.
