Pickle ice cream! Crush the sandwiches! Maltesers in wine! 21 weird snacks loved by top chefs

Chefs are grazing animals, endlessly playing with ingredients, munching on leftovers, then, returning home at 1am, trying to conjure up a quick bite of everything who is there. In these moments of curiosity and urgency, bizarre snacking habits are born. "People think we're going home and having elaborate dinners, but give me some string cheese, chili sauce, a Fab and a Stella and I'll be happy," says Jack Stein, the chef manager of the group Rick Stein. At work, chefs are surrounded by the best ingredients. At home, they often crave "simple things," he says.

"You never think about your own fridge and what you're going to feed yourself" , says Meriel Armitage. , the founder of Club Mexicana restaurants in London. So when the chefs arrive home "very late and really hungry", they improvise - in an extraordinary way. "I guess we're sure we can put together weird combos that most people would be afraid of," she says.

She's not wrong. From Pot Noodle hacks to radical fusions of sweet and savory, chefs often eat things they never dreamed of putting on a menu - as the following examples show.

Vanilla Ice Cream and Peas wasabi

The origin of this curve ball is one that many will recognize. “I was bored during confinement,” says Ramael Scully. A chef with too much free time and too many wasabi peas in his cupboards, the co-owner of Scully's restaurant in St James's, central London, decided to mash them up and sprinkle them over vanilla ice cream. "The simple, smooth vanilla flavor works beautifully with the uplifting wasabi," he says. "Close your eyes and you could be eating cream and horseradish, one of my favorite flavor combos. And the color contrast is superb."