Paul Rudd Admits to a Perplexing Hatred of Condiments

It's a little-known secret that Paul Rudd is apparently a picky eater who has an aversion to most sauces and condiments. And this week, the 54-year-old finally opened up his hatred of mayonnaise, mustard, and even ketchup during a recent appearance on the Off Menu podcast (recorded before the SAG-AFTRA strike) with British comedians James Acaster and Ed Gamble.

Before he even appeared, Gamble and Acaster—who is currently working with Rudd on the forthcoming Ghostbusters: Afterlife sequel— admitted that their guest's dislike of condiments has been the stuff of legends. Irish actress and comedian Aisling Bea, who costarred with Rudd in the 2019 Netflix series Living with Yourself, first revealed that he "only likes dry food" in one of the early podcast episodes, and the subject has apparently comes up several times throughout the years.

So when first sitting down with Rudd, the pair got down to it, asking him to please explain himself. "I love that I'm here and we're going to get to the bottom of this," Rudd teased.

"I'm gonna put all my card on the table, I like sauce," he initially admitted. As he explained, he grew up in Kansas City, where barbecue is a staple. He also says he likes hot sauce, as evidenced by his appearance on Hot Ones a few years back.

However, he says that he "loathes" ketchup and mustard. "And mayonnaise, I just don't know what that is," Rudd said of the popular sandwich spread, eliciting chuckles from the hosts. "Even the idea of it, I find repugnant." However, he will eat foods like coleslaw, which has mayo in it.

As Rudd explained, he was one of those kids who would eat only three or four things, and even avoided going to people's houses for dinner. He even recalled one particularly traumatic memory of going to McDonald's with a friend, and when his burger arrived with mustard and ketchup on it, the friend's dad forced him to eat it.

"By the way, this was my friend's dad, like what a jerk," he recalled. "So I had to—I remember eating this burger and crying like Coco from Fame ... and I'm eating this burger that I hate."

While he hates the smell of mustard, Rudd says that he finds ketchup "sugary and tangy and nasty."

"I like a burger, like a cheeseburger, but I don't want ketchup on it," he continued. "Still, it's like, sometimes a burger will show up and it's, like, ugh, I gotta look under the bun of this thing. And the worse is when it’s like a pinkish-orange, that’s a thousand-island something or other, it's like a mix of mayonnaise and ketchup, some other nonsense I don’t want. I have to try to scrape it off."

"Again, it took me awhile to come around, because I did like things really dry," Rudd elaborated. "I loved the salad, like I've always loved vegetables ... but I never even put salad dressing on a salad. That's even weirder, by the way. And it wasn’t until I was in high school or something that I [was like], 'Alright, I'll try it.' And I was like, 'I can deal with this.' But the idea of just dressings or sauces, during the first part of my life? Yeah, I avoided it."

He added that now he'll eat pretty much anything, just so long "as it’s not ketchup, mustard, or mayonnaise." Well, more for the rest of us, then!