Chrissy Teigen has a best-selling cookbook and another one that's set to be released later this year. She's also constantly making our mouths water with Instagram and Snapchat videos of her current cooking experiments. Yet, even with those impressive foodie credentials, Teigen still apparently faces kitchen conundrums. Over the weekend, the model found herself in the middle of a serious dish dilemma, and later confessed she was almost afraid to ask for help.
On Saturday evening, Teigen created a Twitter poll to help her figure out not the answer to her cooking question, but whether or not she should even bother asking it. She tweeted: "I have a question I am ashamed to ask. Also I’ll get so many different answers I don’t even know if it’s worth it. DO I ASK." The two options in this poll were "ASK" and "DON'T DO IT YOURSELF." In the end, 92% of voters wanted get on with it and find out what her question was, so she summoned the courage and inquired. It was, we now know, about lasagna.
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I have a question I am ashamed to ask. Also I’ll get so many different answers I don’t even know if it’s worth it. DO I ASK
— christine teigen (@chrissyteigen) May 6, 2018
It’s about lasagna.
— christine teigen (@chrissyteigen) May 6, 2018
In a video also shared on Twitter, Teigen asked how she was supposed to prepare the noodles for said lasagna. "Okay, so I have these fresh lasagna noodles from Eataly," she explained. "They're fresh, they're like dough. Do I boil them before layering them in the lasagna or do I layer them like this?"
I present to you: my dumb question. pic.twitter.com/PVX02xOEZN
— christine teigen (@chrissyteigen) May 6, 2018
Teigen's video received over 1,300 responses, and many of them gave contradictory advice. Some Twitter users insisted that boiling the noodles would make the lasagna too watery, while others asserted that boiling is key to ensuring your sauce won't be "glue-y."
You layer them and the sauce will absorb them. Boiling will make your lasagna too watery.
— Tony Posnanski (@tonyposnanski) May 6, 2018
Boil for a couple minutes, then shock in ice bath to stop cooking. This will also help remove excess starch and prevent lasagna sauce from becoming too glue-y.
— The Cad @er (@rustyventura) May 6, 2018
But within the hour, she received an official response from Eataly, the store from where she purchased the noodles. Their recipe suggests boiling the fresh noodles for about 1 minute, then transferring them into an ice bath. After spending some time sifting through the many lasagna-cooking methods that were tweeted at her, Teigen declared Eataly's advice to be her "VERDICT!"
Ciao @chrissyteigen! Use this recipe to help - we suggest boiling the freshly made pasta. Hope you enjoy it! ?? https://t.co/z9FkMZDSU1 https://t.co/UyvEzcK6V3
— Eataly NYC Downtown (@EatalyDowntown) May 6, 2018
VERDICT! https://t.co/eowJ47bsvD
— christine teigen (@chrissyteigen) May 6, 2018
In addition to revealing the myriad approaches to lasagna preparation (who knew?), Teigen's Twitter confession reminded us that cooking is learning process that continues forever — no matter how many copies of a cookbook you sell or how many dishes you average per night. Which means next time we find ourselves wondering if there's actually a difference between sweet potatoes and yams or what al dente really means, we shouldn't be afraid to ask. Who knows, Chrissy Teigen might be wondering too.