You know when you're watching late night TV and an ad pops up desperately begging you to try out their new brand of fancy toothpaste? And you know how at the end of that commercial they always say 9 out of 10 dentists agree that it's basically the best toothpaste ever?

Well… what’s the deal with that 10th test? What's his problem? Why doesn't he just jump on the bandwagon and agree with his professional colleagues? Is he just a contrarian jerk?

The point is, sometimes a professional in their field has a professional disagreement with his colleagues. It’s hard to argue with him because, after all, he’s a professional. However, it’s weird that he doesn’t agree with the majority.

Anyway, when it comes to cooking, I’m that 10th dentist. There are some things that happen in the kitchen that I have a strong opinion about, yet I’m squarely in the minority of cooks that feel that way. And frankly, I’m comfortable with it. There’s just a small number of things that I’m totally confident saying “yes, everyone else is wrong; my way is the right way.”

And you know what? I thought there was nothing better to do with my time than to air out some of these opinions even though they’re destined to ruffle some feathers. So if you feel like getting a wee bit angry with me, let’s dive in.

Bacon doesn’t belong on a burger: We’re starting off strong with my most controversial opinion. I’ve never once said this out loud in front of a group of people without getting audible scoffs. “But bacon is the best thing ever!” says the uninformed burger grunt. “It’s practically my personality!”

Listen, I love ground beef, and I love bacon. The problem is, I find their flavors don't complement each other as much as they just compete with each other. So if the burger is really really good, bacon just distracts from it. On the other hand, if the bacon makes the burger noticeably better, it’s usually because it just isn’t a high-quality burger to begin with (looking at you, Wendy’s Baconator).

If you love burger on your bacon, go right on ahead. But I’m solidly of the opinion that it flies in the face of traditional flavor pairing, and not in a way that’s creative or cool (like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich).

Garlic is generally overrated: Let me caveat this statement by saying I love garlic. I've written about it before. However, it doesn't need to be in every dish. I think when we start cooking and immediately season with garlic powder, we're making a mistake.

Some recipes require garlic. But in other recipes, just like bacon on a burger, the garlic is distracting and actually detracts from the experience. However, if I ever do use garlic, I use a ton of it.

American food deserves a lot more love than it gets: Hopefully by now the whole Cook’n family is on the same page with me about American food, but boy oh boy, I find myself in arguments about this on the regular. It is way too popular to bash on American food.

The general idea is that America has no authentic, innovative foods at all—we’ve only “stolen” from other countries. Everything we have is overly processed and gross, and any shred of success we have is just because we’re riding on the backs of superior cuisines like French, Mexican, or Italian cooking.

If you’ve read just a sample of my articles, hopefully you know by now just how untrue that is. Not only do we have some incredible, authentic foods (burgers come to mind, but I won’t pull out my list of American foods again), but we have also taken a whole array of ethnic foods and given them a very American twist. Sure, American pizza is nothing like an Italian pizza… but that’s kind of the point. I love a good New York slice, just as I love a Chicago deep dish as well as a Neapolitan.

If people who hate American food held the rest of the world to the same standards that they hold American food, then nothing with tomato in it can be called Italian food and nothing with potatoes can be called Irish, German or Nordic.

I’m not going to beat this point to death any more than I already have, but good grief, this is an argument we need to put to bed.

If truffles costed the same as any other spice, no one would care about them: If you’re not sure what truffles are, I’m not talking about the chocolate. I’m referring to the highly pungent fungus that grow underground around the roots of certain trees. They’re almost impossible to cultivate because farmers don’t know the conditions that make them thrive, and since they grow underground, harvesters train special hogs to help them hunt for and harvest them.

Truffles are incredibly expensive. The main reason for this is because they’re so hard to harvest and come in limited quantities. Thus, supply is super low compared to demand.

But let’s be real… truffles are more of a status symbol than a delicacy.

If you think you're missing out because you haven't had authentic white truffles, then don't worry about it. They can be fun, but they're not life altering. And if you like to buy truffle oil and truffle flavored things, maybe reconsider the purchase. They're generally a synthetic gimmick, not the real thing—and if they are the real thing, they should have been eaten fresh. Their flavor profile degrades rapidly after being cut into, so those canned truffles or fancy truffle oil are nothing like the fancy stuff we pretend they are.