They may know how to cook a sensational five-star meal but most world-famous chefs prefer to eat some of the most basic dishes and foods around. From macaroni and cheese to a pastrami sandwich, here’s a list of what celebrity chefs eat after a hard day’s work in the kitchen.

Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver is known for his home-style cooking and introducing healthy foods into schools and homes around the world. So it comes as no surprise that one of his favourite dishes is a simple spaghetti all’Arrabiata with three types of chillies. He’s even admitted that it would be the meal he’d choose if it were his last, followed with rice pudding with caramelised roast peaches for dessert.

Sticking true to his New York roots, Anthony Bourdain’s all-time favourite basic meal is a humble pastrami sandwich. The world-renowned chef has eaten just about anything imaginable but one of the foods he craves most when away from New York is just pastrami between two slices of bread.

Heston Blumenthal’s favourite dish is one he shares the recipe for. It’s gratin of macaroni, a creamy macaroni casserole with mornay sauce and cheese sauce. He serves a version of it at his world-famous restaurant the Fat Duck. Blumenthal said what makes his macaroni cheese that much better is using Gruyère instead of Cheddar.

American chef, restaurateur and cookbook writer Thomas Keller loves a traditional roast chicken. It reminds him of wonderful moments he’s had in his life, and by eating a great roast chicken brings him back to those emotions and warm memories.

A favourite dish of American celebrity chef Emeril Lagasse is the classic Portuguese caldo verde or kale soup. One of his earliest memories is of his mother making this soup. He makes it himself and admits that his recipe has evolved, having even made it for Top Chef contestants one season.

Ina Garten’s favorite meal is maple-roasted carrot salad that can be made mostly in advance to help hurried meal planners. While not everyone would choose to make and eat this dish at home, it’s simple enough to do and a great way to add a different recipe to weekly meals. The Barefoot Contessa makes it with roasted carrots, olive oil, salt and pepper, maple syrup, cranberries, orange juice, sherry wine vinegar, garlic, baby rocket/arugula, goat’s cheese and almonds.

One of America’s top-earning chefs, Wolfgang Puck’s favourite food is macarons. Traditionally not simple or easy to make, things like packet mixes and basic macaron recipes have made these easier to make at home.

Los Angeles-based chef Kevin Meehan enjoys a good deli roll-up. He always has deli meats on hand, usually a turkey breast slice, so he’ll make a basic sandwich with that on white bread. He usually adds sliced cheese and mustard and rolls it up before he runs out the door. Sometimes he bypasses the bread all together.

Famous for ripping apart young proteges on his TV shows, Gordon Ramsay prefers to dig into a roast dinner when at home. His choice of meat is roast beef paired with a Yorkshire pudding and red wine gravy.

When skies are grey or spirits are down, Nigella Lawson turns to her chickpea and pasta soup recipe. Her recipe calls for simple ingredients that most people would already have in their pantry. On top of pasta and chickpeas, you’ll need baking soda, flour, salt, a broth of your choosing, rosemary, garlic, olive oil and tomatoes. It’s a hearty and warm dish, just like Nigella herself.

While three of his restaurants each have a Michelin star, Marco Pierre White is happy settling for a less fancy dish while he’s at home. While he is known to serve authentically rich Italian dishes at some of his UK restaurants, the celebrity chef’s favourite bite is a ham sandwich with English mustard.

When in a hurry at home, New York chef Jesse Schenker always cooks up an omelette. Details magazine’s America’s Best Young Chef goes for ease and variety of ingredients, chucking them together and whacking them in a pan. His favourite 10-minute omelette usually includes burrata, rocket/arugula, fresh lemon and smoked paprika.

Although she’s known for her Southern-style of cooking, Paula Deen’s favourite recipe she makes at home is Italian: meatballs that she cooks in beef broth before adding them to a marinara sauce. The Southern Belle and friend of Oprah Winfrey vows they’re the most moist and flavoursome meatballs you’ll ever try.

Mario Batali may have classical culinary training and about 26 restaurants across the US but his weakness at home is nowhere near gourmet. He loves Doritos and salsa. While not a meal, he snacks on them at home more often than not. He’s also partial to a good basic bruschetta, drawing in flavours from his time on the Amalfi coast in Italy.

When it comes to everyday home cooking, Australian-born chef Curtis Stone turns to lasagne. It’s a simple dish that the 2016 Eater LA's Chef of the Year says his wife loves. As the former head chef at Quo Vadis in London, lasagne is Curtis’ go-to dish when he and his wife are lost for dinner ideas.

Celebrity cook Rachael Ray’s standout dish hales from Naples, Italy. It’s spaghetti aglio e olio with large amounts of anchovies, garlic, parsley, chilli and olive oil. It’s a simple dish, especially for the Food Network chef, with very few ingredients but ever so tasty.

Okay, so maybe it’s not a dish but Noma restaurant founder René Redzepi’s favourite food is watermelon and anything with watermelon in it. The restauranteur from Copenhagen, Denmark loves it so much because you can eat it, drink it and wipe your mouth and be done. A very basic food for the founder of the restaurant recognised as the best in the world by the San Pellegrino Awards three times between 2010 and 2014.

If in a rush, New York restauranteur Jimmy Bradley would put together an Italian-style tuna melt with olive oil, cucumber and red onion melted with fontina. The Harrison and The Red Cat chef and owner would warm it up and top it with tomatoes if they’re in season.

Although trained at Le Cordon Bleu in Pasadena, California, Ted Hopkins didn’t need any lessons on how to make his favourite meal. When he’s pressed for time, the executive chef at Father's Office reaches for cheese and bread. He always has about seven different types of cheese to choose from that he’ll put on a buttered piece of bread and chow down on that.

Internationally-renowned culinary force Tony Mantuano, who runs the only four-star Italian restaurant in Chicago, reaches for mushrooms and eggs when hungry at home. He sautés the mushrooms with garlic, chili peppers, parsley and olive oil. He then cracks an egg over the mushrooms. Quick, easy and tasty.

It should come as no surprise that French chef Alain Ducasse, whose restaurants including The Dorchester in London hold 19 Michelin stars, turns to one of his own recipes to fill his hunger. The seasonal vegetable cook pot is his signature dish that can easily enough be recreated at home. It’s similar to a vegetable casserole bake with cheese, eggs, garlic and seasonings.

Keeping it simple, American chef Bobby Flay’s top pick for a simple meal is the good old cheeseburger. The star of numerous Food Network shows, including Emmy award-winning Bobby Flay’s Barbecue Addiction, has gone as far to say he’d be happy to have a cheeseburger if it were his last supper. He’d add chipotle ketchup, jalapeños and put potato chips on top of the meat to give it an added crunch.

At the age of 13, French-born Jacques Pepin apprenticed at the Grand Hotel de L'Europe in Lyon and as an adult worked on food programmes with cooking legend Julia Child. But to cook his favourite food there’s no need for first-class training. Jacques, who’s been a guest judge on Top Chef, loves eggs. He loves them in any form: scrambled, poached, fried or boiled.

One of chef Giada De Laurentiis’ favourite and most simple recipes to cook at home comes from one of the 16 cookbooks she’s written. It’s the Food Network star’s pasta pizza that she’s rated as a beginner-level recipe and takes a total of just 20 minutes to prepare and cook. Essentially it’s meat spaghetti with parmesan cheese and peas cooked in the shape of a pizza.

Known as the godfather of Italian gastronomy in the UK, Antonio Carluccio believes cooking should be simple but that simple doesn’t always mean easy. Just like his go-to at-home meal of spaghetti alle vongole, or spaghetti with clams, which is a nod to his Italian heritage. The dish is flavoured with butter, shallots, white pepper, chilli and white wine.

Sandra Lee's ideal meal at home is a medium-rare rib-eye steak. Known for her Semi-Homemade cooking concept, which uses using 70% pre-packaged products and 30% fresh items, Sandra likes her steak paired with vegetables and a sauce.

The owner of acclaimed NYC Greek restaurant Loi Estiatorio, Maria Loi still loves food from her childhood in Greece. Sticking to her heritage, she loves freshly-baked crusty bread with Greek extra virgin olive oil. She mixes in feta cheese, a perfectly ripe tomato and different spices including oregano.