Famous People and Food
“How can you govern a country which has 246 varieties of cheese?”
Charles de Gaulle
Health food may be good for the conscience but Oreos taste a hell of a lot better.
Robert Redford
Betty White
“I should follow better eating health rules. But hot dogs and Red Vines and potato chips and French fries are my favorite foods.” — People, August 2012
Tilly: I had to look online for Red Vines – hoped it was a wine I hadn’t heard of … but red liquorice is good, but not with hot dogs, chips and fries …
Andrew Wyeth
“Andrew Wyeth is still alive. He proved it the other day by ordering a Bloody Mary, a shrimp cocktail (‘Five shrimp, please’) and sweet-potato fries.”
—“Still Sovereign of His Own Art World,” Ralph Blumenthal, New York Times, February 18, 1997
Tilly: A Bloody Mary releases the creative juices, obviously!
Aretha Franklin
Ham hocks, black-eyed peas, spaghetti, fried chicken…
Tilly: Soul food …
Harry Houdini
His favorites–Hungarian chicken, spätzles, and custard bread pudding with Bing cherries.”
Tilly: Food escapism?
Helen Keller
Ice cream, bread and butter, raisins, Christmas cakes/cookies
Tilly: Ice cream sarnies!
Howard Hughes
Favorite food was tenderloin filet and a beef stroganoff.
Tilly: Not a lot to beef about here.
John D. Rockefeller, Sr.
“Meat and potatoes” man who dined out as little as possible. He favored a glass of milk and an apple before retiring.
Tilly: He may have had a lot of money, but what a lot of life’s pleasures he missed.
Thomas Edison:
Apple dumplings
Tilly: With custard or cream?
Rolling Stones
Hot Dogs on The Rocks
(Serves five Stones)
10 frankfurters
5 potatoes, or enough instant mashed potatoes to serve five. Prepare instant potatoes, or boil and mash the potatoes. (Use milk and butter, making regular, every-day mashed potatoes.) Cook the frankfurters according to the package directions and heat the baked beans. On each plate, serve a mound of creamy mashed potatoes ringed by heated canned baked beans. Over the top of all this, slice up the frankfurters in good-sized chunks.
This is not—repeat, not—a recipe for calorie counters. “Singers & Swingers in the Kitchen, Roberta Ashley [Parallax Publishing Co. New York] 1967 (p. 39)
Tilly: How boring …
Sarah Bernhardt:
Lobster and Bread and Milk
Tilly: Together?
Catherine de Medici:
Loved spinach so much that when she married Prince Henry and moved to France, she continued to insist that spinach be served with many meals, leading food served with wilted spinach to be named Florentine.
Tilly: Eternal gratitude is due to that lady.
President Jefferson
Macaroni and cheese, which he discovered on a trip to France.
Tilly: I like mine with garlic, herbs, and lots of sauce.
Mussolini:
Loved raw garlic
Tilly: Hmm … excellent for keeping Dracula away.
Dolly Madison:
Popularized ice cream
Tilly: Given all the junk chucked into ice cream these days, it has to be homemade.
Sophia Loren
Alfredo sauce and pasta in America. She is often quoted to say she has a “body by pasta”.
Tilly: Pasta in any form is a must.
Lincoln
Apples, Coffee, and Bacon
Tilly: A bacon and apple sandwich with hot, back coffee. Yes.
FDR’s:
Go to comfort food was a grilled cheese
Tilly: Depends on the cheese and the bread …
Winston Churchill:
Turtle Soup
Tilly: Really?
Herbert Hoover:
Sweet Potatoes
Tilly: But not with every dish.
Napoleon Bonaparte:
Marengo Chicken
Tilly: Haven’t made this for YEARS.
Charles Darwin:
Armadillo
Tilly: Naturally.
Frederick II:
Candied Violets
Tilly: Did he have bad breath?
Oscar Wilde:
Roast Duck
Tilly: “Nature is a wet place where large numbers of ducks fly overhead uncooked.” — Attributed to Oscar Wilde
Alfred Hitchcock:
Ham Pies
Mark Twain:
Oysters
Tilly: Can’t keep fresh oysters down … but lurve smoked oysters, especially stuffed into a beef joint and roasted.
Mozart:
Liver Dumplings and Sauerkraut
Tilly: Overcooked liver doesn’t do it for me … but sauerkraut is great.
Virginia Woolfe:
Boeuf en Daube a la Niçoise
Tilly: Ingredients for 8 servings of daube Nicoise: 2kg beef (4lb) (braising beef such as shin); 3 onions sliced thinly; 3 cloves of garlic, 6 carrots – peeled and cut into rings or lengthwise; 500g tomatoes, peeled (1lb); 200g mushrooms (6oz) dried porcini mushrooms also work well (soak them first); Olive oil; bottle of red wine; 1 litre beef stock (4 cups); Salt and pepper; Optional Bouquet garni (herbes de Provence – thyme, rosemary, bayleaf)
Ludwig Van Beethoven:
Soup OR Mac N’ Cheese
Tilly: Oh, come on … Mac’n’cheese!
Charlie Chaplin:
Lamb Stew OR Curry
Tilly: But limited. Given his versatility, one might imagine he’d be more adventurous.
Queen Elizabeth II
Jam pennies–tiny, crustless sandwiches made with white bread, strawberry jam, and butter.
Tilly: And definitely never any garlic with any dish.
Queen Elizabeth I
Sweetened wine or cider blended with milk and sugar and whipped into a light, sweet foam, as well as marchpane, an almond paste candy most often known to us as marzipan.
Tilly: Not sure I’d fancy that.
Harry Truman:
Cornmeal Dumplings with Turnip Greens.
Tilly: Gravy?
‘My weaknesses have always been food and men – in that order.’ – Dolly Parton.
“Food is everything we are. It’s an extension of nationalist feeling, ethnic feeling, your personal history, your province, your region, your tribe, your grandma. It’s inseparable from those from the get-go.” “Good food is very often, even most often, simple food.” Jan 2025 – Anthony Bourdain.
Olive and Tilly