Salt, pepper, garlic. Those are the three seasonings people are told to put on almost anything they cook. But if you’re Mariska Hargitay, you’ll be skipping that second one. 

You see, Hargitay is not a fan of peppercorns. In fact, she despises them — so much so that when Vanity Fair asked her in 2024 what she “most dislikes,” she answered, “Peppercorns.”

For clarification, the question was not what food she most dislikes. It was simply “what she most dislikes.” Out of everything on this planet. And Hargitay said peppercorns.

Mariska Hargitay’s favorite (and least favorite) foods 

The Law & Order Special Victims Unit star’s strong hatred of peppercorns begs the question: What does she use to season her food? If pepper is off the table, what’s in its place? Oregano? Dill? Onion? Lemon? We need answers immediately.

Mariska Hargitay attends Variety’s 2024 Power of Women: New York event on May 02, 2024 in New York City. Photo: Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images

As for Hargitay’s other culinary proclivities, if this 2009 Bon Appétit interview still stands, the actress is a big fan of mac and cheese. “There does seem to be a magical component to a good plate of mac and cheese that can cure whatever my current ailment might be,” she said at the time.

When asked what her most memorable meal is, Hargitay said in the same interview, “I was on the Amalfi Coast one summer, and a friend ordered a caprese salad at a restaurant on the beach called La Conca del Sogno. I took a bite of a tomato, and suddenly I was eating Italy—the sunshine, the ocean, Rome, Tuscany, the cliffs in Sicily, and all the rest of it—in a single bite. The meal couldn’t have been simpler, but it was sublime.”

You can currently catch Hargitay on Season 26 of Law & Order: SVU, airing Thursdays at 9/8c on NBC. The show just celebrated its historic 25th season last year.

“I love my job,” Hargitay told NBC Insider. “I love going to work every day. I love the community that I’m in. I love my cast, my crew, and I love the intimacy of it all and the fact that we work in a culture that says, ‘Let’s do the work, let’s have a fun time, and best idea wins.’ It is such a team. It is such an incredible team, and we rely so much on each other. We’re a unit. It’s so sacred to me.”