10 Foods And Drinks That Elizabeth Taylor Loved

Elizabeth Taylor left quite a legacy. The Hollywood icon died in March 2011, but she is still just as loved as ever, renowned for her looks, her movies, and her charitable work. In between acting work, Taylor even wrote her own books, including one about her life with her pet chipmunk Nibbles, and one about dieting.

Even though she wrote a book about her own weight loss and rules around food, Taylor wasn't a fan of restriction. She told one journalist for the LA Times that she found dieting incredibly boring. It makes sense, given that the star was a huge foodie. According to one of her close friends, fashion designer Vicky Tiel — who met Taylor in 1964 and lived with her and her husband, Richard Burton for 10 years — the film star's favorite activity was eating, drinking, and just hanging out with friends. Sometimes she would spend up to four hours just eating lunch.

But what type of foods did she eat? Well, anything and everything it seems. This film star was far from fussy. From burgers to caviar, find out more about what Taylor liked to eat below, as well as the drinks she liked to wash it all down with.

To say Americans love bacon is an understatement. In 2024, a survey by Smithfield Culinary revealed that more than 70% of diners in the U.S. believe that pretty much any food tastes better with bacon, while nearly 60% say they could eat it every single day. If Taylor was still alive today and had taken this survey, we can make an educated guess that she'd very much be in that 60%. While she mostly curbed her bacon-loving ways to lose weight in the 1980s (opting to start most days with fresh fruit and dry toast), before this, she seemed to have bacon multiple times a day.

Vicky Tiel notes the actress loved scrambled eggs and bacon for breakfast, and she also recalls seeing her indulge in peanut butter and bacon sandwiches. New York Times journalist Liz Smith, who recalls spending time with the actress in Paris while she was filming the 1970 movie "The Only Game in Town," also noticed Taylor's love for bacon. She remembers seeing the actress waiting by the stove for American bacon to be fried as an afternoon snack. For breakfast, Smith says Taylor had bacon with pancakes and strawberry syrup.

Peanut butter and jelly. That's a match made in heaven, right? Many Americans think so, anyway. According to the National Peanut Board, the average American adult eats a PB&J at least three times a month. But to state the obvious in many ways, Taylor wasn't your average American, and so she didn't enjoy the average sandwich. This icon loved peanut butter sandwiches, sure, but she preferred them with French bread and her beloved bacon. 

In 2011, Vicky Tiel told the Village Voice that Taylor had her own way of making this particular sandwich, and would scoop out the extra bread inside to make more room for the filling. To wash it all down, she would often opt for a glass of red wine — specifically Chateau Margaux 1945. Tiel wasn't the only person to witness Taylor's love for peanut butter and bacon. NY Times journalist Liz Smith also recalled seeing Taylor happily carrying a plate with a peanut butter and bacon sandwich while on set.

The mimosa is a classic and widely loved brunch cocktail today, but the drink has some pretty glamorous roots. There are a few different theories about its origin, but it is widely believed to have been first served at The Ritz Hotel in Paris in 1925 by Austrian bartender Frank Meier. It was very similar to the Buck's Fizz, which had been created a few years earlier in London, only it was a little more refined. While the Buck's Fizz was made with mostly Champagne, a little orange juice, and occasionally orange liqueur, Meier's version was simple and elegant: Just equal parts Champagne and orange juice.

Given its glamor, the mimosa had some very famous fans, including Ernest Hemingway and, you guessed it, Elizabeth Taylor. According to Tiel, Taylor would often wash down her morning scrambled eggs and bacon with a mimosa on the side. But her days off starting the day off with Champagne didn't last. When she started dieting in the 1980s, she swapped the tipple for a cup of plain tea or coffee with skimmed milk. She probably didn't give up mimosas all together though. The actress told The New York Times in 1986 that, in order for her diet to be sustainable, she had to allow herself one day a week to indulge without rules.

Caviar has long been a dish for the rich and famous. It was loved by Ancient Greek scholars and Russian Tsars. Notorious 18th century Venetian lover Giacomo Girolamo Casanova even allegedly used it as an aphrodisiac. By the time the 20th century rolled around, it tracks that caviar became a favorite of the Hollywood elite. And for A-list royalty Taylor, only the very best caviar would do.

According to Tiel, Elizabeth Taylor had a particular penchant for beluga caviar. As the name suggests, this caviar comes from beluga sturgeon, and it is the most expensive and luxurious caviar on the market, renowned for its large, soft eggs. They can be black, but Taylor loved the grey variety. In fact, the designer recalls that Taylor even had her own nickname for beluga caviar. She called it "grey babies."

Tiel remembers dining on caviar (with Champagne, of course) for the Millennium New Year's Eve in Paris with Taylor. She says that she and her husband watched the fireworks with the actress from the window of their apartment, before retiring to enjoy Champagne, Parisian pastries, macaroons, and caviar sandwiches. Tiel says Taylor had her own recipe for caviar sandwiches, which involved layering up two slices of bread with three tablespoons of her "grey babies" with chopped white onions, Idaho potato skins, and crème fraîche. Serve everything on a silver platter, of course.

We've already established that Elizabeth Taylor had quite the appetite for Champagne. That's hardly surprising in Hollywood, where fizz is always free flowing. The icon loved this classic French drink in breakfast mimosas, with caviar, and just on its own, of course.

Of the many different types of Champagne, Taylor loved vintage Champagne, especially. Again, that tracks. Vintage is arguably the most sought after, and most expensive, variety of Champagne on the market. Speaking to Town and Country Mag for its Christmas issue in 1968, Taylor and Richard Burton revealed that their favorite brand of Champagne was Dom Pérignon. In particular, they enjoyed its vintage blends from 1961, 1964, and 1959, and not just during the holidays, but all year round. 

If you want to live like Taylor, you can still buy many of her favorite vintages today, but they'll cost you a pretty penny. One online wine seller currently lists a bottle of 1961 Dom Pérignon Brut for just under $3500.

Taylor undeniably had expensive tastes, but she also loved hearty, down-to-earth food, too. One of her favorite dinner meals was Rosalie's stew, for example. You won't find the recipe for this nourishing dish in a recipe book, because Rosalie was actually the mother of one of Taylor's private chefs, Neil Zevnik, and the stew was her own recipe. According to Zevnik, Taylor would frequently request the stew when he was working for her in the 1990s. The star even told him to tell his mother how much she loved it. Rosalie, understandably, was over the moon with the news.

So what, exactly, did Rosalie's stew entail? Well, according to Zevnik, his mother created the dish to use up the leftovers from a Sunday roast. The recipe combines cooked roast beef, onions, yellow potatoes, frozen vegetables, condensed vegetable soup, and a mixture of seasonings, like Worcestershire sauce and dried thyme, all in one pot. Everything is lightly boiled and then baked in the oven for an hour, before being dished up with sour cream and horseradish.

It's perhaps unsurprising, given that she was evidently a big foodie, that Elizabeth Taylor loved to dine out. The star had many favorite restaurants, including Melvyn's Restaurant in Palm Springs, Sardi's in New York, and Chasen's in Los Angeles. The latter is gone now, but it was once a popular haunt for Hollywood's A-list crowd. Famed horror director Alfred Hitchcock even had a booth there and his own waiter; Hitchcock reportedly loved ordering a feast with steak, as well as shrimp cocktail, baked potato, ice cream, and more. Taylor, however, was more interested in the chili than the steak. 

In fact, the Hollywood icon reportedly loved Chasen's chili so much, she even requested that 10 quarts of the dish be shipped to her while she was filming "Cleopatra" in Rome in 1962. You might not be able to visit Chasen's to find out what Taylor loved so much about its chili, but there are a few recipes floating about on the internet that likely come pretty close to the real deal. The 1996 cookbook "Chasen's — Where Hollywood Dined," explains that the restaurant's signature chili recipe combined ingredients like pinto beans, diced tomatoes, onions, herbs, garlic, with beef chunks, pork shoulder, and Gebhardt's chili powder.

As well as vintage Champagne, Taylor was also partial to a glass of whiskey. Tiel told the Village Voice that in the 1960s, one of Taylor's favorite dinners involved crispy fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, cornbread, biscuits and gray, green peas, and trifle, and she would usually enjoy this epic feast with a glass of Jack Daniels on the rocks.

A bartender called James Rosin also recalls serving Taylor Jack Daniels on the rocks at the Beverly Hills Hotel on Sunset Boulevard. He remembers that the film star was upset that her 16-year-old son had run away to India. Before handing her the drink, he consoled Taylor and offered her advice on the situation. New York Times writer Liz Smith also remembers Taylor drinking Jack Daniels, which she handed to her to hold right before she went out to an onslaught of reporters and photographers in Paris in 1968.

Taylor was far from alone in her love of whiskey. The tipple was a hit with her contemporaries, too. Frank Sinatra also loved Jack Daniels, which he'd drink "Sinatra-style" (that's two fingers of Jack with three rocks and a little water). Ava Gardner was another big fan of whiskey, and John Wayne even distilled his own bourbon (his son still sells that recipe through his whiskey brand, Duke Spirits).

Much like bacon, cheeseburgers are a regular treat for many Americans. In fact, people love it so much, there is even a National Cheeseburger Day (September 18th, in case you were interested). She might have enjoyed beluga caviar and champagne, but when it came to burgers, Taylor was just like everyone else. She couldn't get enough.

One photo from 1949 shows a teenage Taylor leaning over a fence with a burger clasped in both hands. Another photo from 1947 shows her jokingly sharing a burger with her co-star Jimmy Lydon on the set of "Cynthia."

Taylor's love for burgers seemed to stay with her throughout her life. She was reportedly a big fan of Hamburger Hamlet, an old upmarket burger chain that was beloved by several celebrities, including Sinatra, Hitchcock, and Tony Curtis. According to Liz Smith, Richard Burton said when they were in Paris in the late 1960s, he and Taylor often waxed poetic about their favorite American foods that were inaccessible in Europe. Meanwhile, Tony Curtis explained that the duo would talk about food, including burgers, more than they would talk about their friends.

We've established by now that Elizabeth Taylor loved to indulge. She loved burgers and bacon and peanut butter, but she also had a sweet tooth. Like most, she had a love for chocolate. When she started losing weight in the 1980s, she still allowed herself to eat chocolate cake once a week. But Taylor also loved to enjoy chocolate in liquid form. In fact, she even invented her own chocolate cocktail: The chocolate martini.

While Taylor was on set filming "Giant" in Texas in 1955, she and her co-star Rock Hudson decided to get together and drink vodka martinis. Both in the mood for experimenting, they added some chocolate syrup to their drinks, and it was a hit. Taylor once told biographer Mark Griffin that working with Hudson was incredibly playful. The two would embrace silliness, make chocolate martinis, and run around laughing.

While nobody doubts that Taylor and Hudson had fun creating their chocolate cocktail, Forbes reports that many people have likely done the same thing on countless occasions. The chocolate martini is probably one of those drinks that has been "invented" time and time again during fun evenings with friends. Still, it's fun to imagine Taylor and Hudson creating their own version, and they definitely helped make it popular.