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Bobby Flay And Michael Symon Strongly Disagree On This Tomato Sauce Technique By Ashley M. Jacobs Nov. 15, 2025 10:00 am EST

Food Network chefs Bobby Flay and Michael Symon are friends in real life, but they disagree when it comes to adding sugar to tomato sauce. Flay is Team Sugar, while Symon is Team Natural. Tomatoes are both inherently sweet and acidic, but when cooked down, they can sometimes taste a little too tangy. Some people, including celebrated chefs, add a pinch of sugar to tomato sauce to temper the flavors and create more balance.

The inclination to add sugar to your sauce actually goes back centuries, when the Italians first got tomatoes and couldn't stand how acidic they were at that time (the plants have since evolved). Sugar was a quick

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