8 Foods That Bette Davis Loved

In 1943, American writer and journalist Janet Flanner wrote a profile on movie star Bette Davis for The New Yorker. In it, she writes about the esteemed Hollywood actress' difficult start in the movie business (she was let go from Universal Studios after her first contract) and her impressive rise to the top (she would star in 100 movies during her career, and by the 1940s, she had already scooped two Oscar wins), but also, her opinions on cooking. "Like many women who work, she detests cooking," Flanner wrote. "She says that a husband who won't fry an egg for his wife when she comes home tired doesn't love her."

That may have been true of Davis in the 1940s, but there is plenty of evidence that before and after this decade, the Hollywood icon enjoyed cooking. She contributed to multiple cookbooks in the 1930s, and in the 1960s, she spoke to The Evening Independent at length about how much she enjoyed cooking for her family. "It's so much fun to cook," she said to the newspaper." Too many women just don't know what fun they're missing."

But what, exactly, did Davis enjoy cooking and eating? We've investigated, and it turns out, her tastes were pretty standard. You might think a Hollywood star would be indulging in caviar and steak regularly, but the records show that Davis loved simple dishes like boiled eggs, potatoes, corn beef, and fish. Keep reading to find out some of her most beloved meals.

In an interview with The Evening Independent in 1965, Bette Davis revealed her love for croquettes. This deep-fried comfort food usually consists of meat, cheese, or vegetables — even a combination of these ingredients would work — that are rolled into a ball or a small log, coated in breadcrumbs, and then fried until golden and crispy. The dish is likely French in origin, but it has been popular item in the United States since the 1800s.

Davis doesn't reveal much detail about what kind of croquettes she enjoys, but it's likely they included some form of potato. She shared that potatoes were her favorite food, and that she used to eat "quarts" of them as a child, earning a nickname Spuds. As leftover mashed potatoes make amazing fried croquettes, it's reasonable to assume that her favorite food was somehow incorporated in this crispy treat.

In her interview with The Evening Independent, Bette Davis explained that making vegetables more interesting was important to her. She tried to make sure there was always a variety of vegetables on the table, which were always cooked in different ways to make them more interesting. For example, one way she used to serve spinach was stuffed in a fish fillet.

The movie star even shared her own recipe for spinach-stuffed fillets with the newspaper. Her method involved cooking onion and spinach and then spreading the mixture on a sole or flounder fillet. Lastly, the fillets were then rolled and speared with a skewer. Then, she would make a very simple cheese sauce to bake the fillets in.

And when we say simple, we really mean it. Like many working women of the time, Davis didn't shy away from using convenience foods in her cooking. Her sauce was just packaged cheese soup mixed with milk and sprinkled with nutmeg.

If you known that her nickname was Spuds, it's easy to see why Bette Davis loved red flannel hash. Potatoes are the key ingredient in this vintage New England dish. Besides potatoes, this simple dish features beets and corned beef. Davis loved this breakfast dish so much, she even had her own recipe for it.

We know this because it's included in "The American Celebrity Cookbook", a collection of recipes curated by singer and TV personality Dinah Shore that was published in 1967. In her handwriting, Davis instructs cookbook readers to chop cooked corned beef, cold boiled potatoes, and cooked beets. The instructions then suggest seasoning the mix and adding some cream before frying everything in a pan. To serve, Davis recommends putting poached egg on top.

Fun fact: This recipe book also included several other celebrity recipes (as the name indicates). For example, Dean Martin shared how to make so-called Martin burgers (with ground beef and bourbon), Lucille Ball contributed her permission cake recipe, and Natalie Wood chose to share her beef Stroganoff recipe.

Dinah Shore's "The American Celebrity Cookbook" wasn't the first recipe book Bette Davis was featured in. She also contributed a recipe for split pea soup to "Famous Recipes by Famous People," a 1933 cookbook published in Austin, Texas by Cook Printing Co. This goes to show that she was cooking before her career in Hollywood took off, which was one year after the release of the cookbook, with the movie "Of Human Bondage."

Davis' split pea soup recipe shows that she had simple taste before the glamour of her (exceptionally long) movie career came along. The dish, which was popular during the Great Depression mainly for its affordability, is made with a mix of split peas, ham, broth, vegetables, and seasonings. Davis' version makes things even simpler: Her recipe is made with ham bone, ham bits, onions, celery, evaporated milk, mint, salt, and pepper. For some extra crunch, Davis served croutons on top. 

Bette Davis was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, which is only about 30 miles from Boston. So it makes sense that she grew up eating Boston baked beans — one of the region's most famous dishes. Some people think of candy when they think of Boston baked beans, but Davis' beloved dish did not consist of red sugar-coated peanuts. Her recipe followed the traditional format that made baked beans into one of must-try classic Boston dishes.

According to a recipe she shared with Photoplay magazine in 1940, Davis' version involved soaking pea or navy beans overnight, before draining them in the morning and cooking them in fresh water until the skins broke. The beans would then be mixed with fat salt pork, salt, molasses, and mustard. Everything would be left to bake for another eight hours before it was ready to serve.

According to another report in 1940, this time from the Reading Eagle, Davis once had 21 pounds of baked beans flown over from Boston to Hollywood so she could enjoy them at a party. Besides beans, the plane was also full of Boston scrod, which is boiled and breaded baby cod.

It turns out that Bette Davis didn't just contribute her split pea soup to "Famous Recipes by Famous People." She also sent in a recipe for cranberry mousse. Davis' recipe involves pulping cranberries with a potato ricer, before combining them with sugar and cooking for 10 minutes. The remaining jelly is then left to cool down in the fridge, before it's combined with whipped cream, lemon, and orange juice. The mix is then frozen until set.

Davis wasn't alone in making mousse in the 1930s. This is also the same decade when chocolate mousse became all the rage. And not much has changed since then as people still enjoy mousse as a classic, silky dessert. Though variations with cranberries are not that popular anymore, some people still make cranberry mousse, often serving it as a part of their Thanksgiving spread. However, decadent chocolate mousse and its variations — you can make it with cherries and even whip one up with olive oil — is still a popular dessert commonly featured on restaurant menus or served at home.

Another 1930s cookbook, called "What Actors Eat When They Eat!" also features a compilation of recipes from Hollywood stars. Published in 1939, it includes a foreword from actress and writer Anita Loos. The author of the 1920s comedic novel "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" writes that men tend to prefer women who cook, regardless of their hair color. She added that the authors of the book, Kenneth Harlan and Rex Lease, were helping woman with romance by curating the recipes.

It seems Bette Davis was onboard with this mission, too, because she contributed her recipe for the Scottish dish finnan haddie to the book. Above the printed recipe, Davis notes that the fish dish is her favorite thing to eat on a Sunday morning. But this is by no means a quick breakfast. It involves soaking two pounds of finnan haddie (smoked haddock) in cold water, before boiling it for 30 minutes and then separating it into flakes. After that, you cook it in a sauce of onions, peppers, butter, paprika, flour, and milk, and serve the dish with toast. 

Besides haddie, the cookbook "What Actors Eat When They Eat!" features many other interesting recipes. You can find Cary Grant's recipe for barbecued chicken (which he admits he robbed from another cookbook), as well as Mary Pickford's Gnocckis a la Romaine and Judy Garland's vegetable salad.

Bette Davis' favorite foods didn't follow a set theme. She was happy to feast on easy, cheap recipes just as much as she was a fan of slightly more sophisticated dishes. But according to the actress' former assistant, Kathryn Sermack, one of her go-to recipes was the simplest of all: A three-minute egg. It doesn't get easier than that.

In fact, in an interview with Hollywood Reporter, Sermack shared that one of the first things that Davis ever asked her was if she knew how to cook a three-minute egg — probably because it was the breakfast she ate most regularly. At the time, the young assistant thought it was a silly question, but it actually ended up bringing the pair together. In fact, Davis even taught her to make a simple recipe (which involved just boiling an egg in water for three minutes) in a hotel room using just a coffee pot.