15 Foods And Drinks That Paul McCartney Loves

Paul McCartney is best known, of course, for his time in The Beatles and his subsequent hugely successful solo career. But when he's not on stage or releasing new albums, you'll usually find him enjoying some good, hearty, vegetarian food. The musical icon is a huge foodie (as long as it's meat-free). In fact, he even founded a vegetarian food brand with his late wife, Linda McCartney (aptly titled Linda McCartney Foods).

The former Beatle doesn't just like eating food, he also enjoys preparing it, too, and has developed many of his own recipes. He's also a big cocktail lover and has even created his own signature boozy recipe (warning, before you try it, it is seriously alcoholic). Keep reading to find out many of the foods and drinks that Paul McCartney loves, from simple humble sandwiches to fluffy cheesy quiche to macaroni turkey (yes, that's really what it's called, and no, it doesn't include any actual turkey).

Brits love sandwiches. It's not a huge surprise, considering the lunchtime staple was actually popularized in the U.K. in the 18th century by the Earl of Sandwich (yes, really). Paul McCartney might have achieved worldwide fame since his time in The Beatles, but at heart, he's still an average Brit. So, of course, one of his go-to meals is a simple sandwich. And his filling of choice is another British favorite: cheese and pickle.

If you're picturing two slices of bread layered up with cheddar cheese and dill pickles, you're halfway there. But actually, the kind of pickle McCartney loves in his sandwich isn't cucumber that has been fermented in brine. Nope, the musical icon loves Branston Pickle. If you've never tried it before, prepare to be surprised. Branston Pickle is nothing like the kind of pickle you've been served in America. In fact, this popular condiment doesn't actually contain any pickled cucumbers at all. The chutney-like, vinegary spread is filled with diced vegetables like carrots, onions, and cauliflower.

While you can enjoy Branston Pickle with quiche, pasties, or Ploughman's lunches, most Brits, like McCartney, opt for the classic sandwich option. Although, this is where the rockstar separates from the herd, because he usually has his on his tour bus after he's finished performing to crowds of thousands. "It's so basic and simple," McCartney told Meat Free Monday in 2024, "but it hits the spot!"

Most Brits wash their sandwiches down with tea or coffee, but then again, most aren't eating theirs in the evening after they've performed a sold-out show. According to Paul McCartney, the best accompaniment to his favorite nighttime snack is a margarita cocktail. But he doesn't just sip them on tour; the former Beatle likes to enjoy them when he's having downtime with his family, too. In fact, he even has his own recipe, which he's affectionately dubbed the Maccarita. 

The singer-songwriter starts his recipe with three shots of tequila, before adding a dash of triple sec and shot of another orange liqueur into the mix. He then combines it with a splash of freshly squeezed orange or clementine juice, lime juice, and, of course, he finishes the glass with salt around the rim and plenty of ice. When Paul made the Maccarita with his daughter, Mary McCartney, for his YouTube channel in 2022, the star warned that you need to be careful not to overindulge on his signature cocktail recipe. "It tastes so good," he said. "It's very moreish."

Paul McCartney loves to perform, of course, but he also loves his downtime. And one of his favorite places to wind down, seemingly, is Italy. The musical icon has spent a lot of time in Sardinia, a large island to the west of the country, and he's also a fan of the Amalfi Coast, too. And when in Italy, you must do as the Italians do: eat delicious food. 

Italy is likely where McCartney picked up his love for pasta aglio e olio, a very simple Neapolitan pasta dish made with garlic and olive oil. Per the musician's aforementioned Meat Free Monday interview, it's one of the dinners he enjoys on tour (post cheese and pickle sandwich). While the traditional version of pasta aglio e olio is made with very few ingredients, McCartney likes to jazz his up a little bit. His rendition includes several different vegetables, including broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots, and some vegetarian chicken. We'll hazard an educated guess that the vegetarian chicken comes from the Linda McCartney Foods brand.

Brits love to pair various different foods with chips. And by chips, we, of course, mean fries (not potato chips, which would be crisps). There's fish and chips, curry sauce and chips, gravy and chips, and even bread and chips (which is called a chip butty). But for Paul McCartney, nothing beats egg and chips.

And yes, this dish, which has been a staple in homes, cafes, and pubs since the 19th century, really is as simple as it sounds. It usually just consists of fried eggs with salty chips, but some people like to add some ham and peas into the mix, too. But while McCartney likes to jazz up his pasta aglio e olio with extra ingredients, he's an egg and chips purist. 

We know this because the musician contributed his own recipe to a 1970s cookbook titled "Favourite Foods of the Famous," in which he noted, "I know this is hardly a Cordon Bleu dish, but it really is my favourite." Indeed, the dish literally consists of peeled potatoes, cut into thick slices, and then fried in a frying basket, before being served with two fried eggs and a sprinkle of salt and pepper.

As we mentioned earlier, Paul McCartney is a proud vegetarian, and he's a huge advocate for meat-free living. To help more people reduce their meat intake, he even founded the Meat Free Monday campaign in 2009 with two of his daughters, Mary and Stella McCartney.

Like many proponents of the vegetarian lifestyle, Paul is adamant that going meat-free doesn't mean having to miss out. He still enjoys barbecued burgers with plenty of toppings in the summer, for example — only instead of beef, the burgers are made with soya protein. Linda McCartney Foods burgers are a staple in his fridge all year round. When the weather isn't suitable for the outdoor grill, he resorts to the oven to create his own Macca burgers (are you spotting a theme here?).

To make his signature Macca burgers, Paul starts by cooking the patties in the oven, wrapping them in tinfoil to seal in the moisture. A few minutes before they're cooked, he adds a slice of cheese to each burger and waits for it to melt. He then cuts the buns and lightly toasts them until golden, before covering them in relish. To finish up, the former Beatle loads up the buns with sliced gherkins, iceberg lettuce, and more relish. He then serves them with chips, of course. What else?

Like most of us, Paul McCartney loves a bagel. But while many Americans choose to smother their bagels in cream cheese and layer them up with maybe some bacon or avocado, Paul has his own way of preparing the chewy, savory baked treat. He starts with the British staple: marmite. A layer of the umami-rich, thick, salty spread goes on the bottom of the bagel, before being covered up with lettuce. The lettuce is essential, as it stops the spreads from leaking through the hole. And yes, we do mean plural spreads, because he isn't done yet. The musical icon then adds a middle layer of bagel (Paul cuts his rolls into three to make the ultimate stacked sandwich) before slathering it with hummus, and covering that with cheese, tomato, pickle, and more lettuce. On the top layer, he adds honey mustard.

For Paul, this is one of the best ways to make a bagel sandwich. He isn't alone. In fact, he's passed his love of condiments on to his children. As Mary McCartney once told The Guardian, all of the McCartneys like to be liberal with the spreads when they're preparing a sandwich.

Unlike with his beloved cheese and pickle sandwiches, Paul McCartney doesn't usually wash his bagels down with a cocktail. Instead, he opts for another British favorite: tea. Well, he does when he's working, anyway. According to an interview posted on his website, when he's in his office or recording music in his studio, he often stops for a tea and bagel break. In fact, and this is unusual for a Brit, this is often the only time he actually drinks tea, which he takes with a dash of soya milk and sugar. According to the musician, he's not actually a huge fan of the British favorite the rest of the time.

When he's not drinking tea or Maccaritas, McCartney is also partial to a cup of coffee, which he likely takes with nondairy milk, too. The star feels very strongly about nondairy milk in coffee — particularly about the added cost. In March 2025, he wrote to Peet's Coffee on behalf of the animal rights organization PETA, urging the chain to drop its surcharge for dairy-free milks in their beverages. And guess what? A few weeks later, Peet's Coffee did just that.

As we've established, Paul McCartney is a big fan of a vegetable-laden pasta dish. But if he had to pick between that and pizza, he'd choose the latter every time. And let's be honest, he's not alone. Pizza is one of those foods that unites pretty much everyone — rockstar or not.

Like many of us, Paul has loved pizza for much of his life. Before he decided to embrace a vegetarian lifestyle, he used to eat pizza with plenty of meat and fish. According to the 1972 cookbook "Cool Cooking: Recipes of Your Favorite Rock Stars," during their downtime, Paul and Linda McCartney used to enjoy relaxing in Scotland and eating pizza in front of the fire. They would top it with plenty of mozzarella and anchovies, or maybe Italian sausage, pepperoni, or salami, before finishing it off with oregano and chopped parsley.

These days, Paul probably opts for a vegetarian version. Perhaps he goes for just the cheese, oregano, and parsley, or maybe he chops up some Linda McCartney Foods vegan sausages for his meatless topping. After all, these sausages are one of his favorites, and he often keeps them on-hand in his freezer all-year-round.

Paul McCartney is one of the richest people on Earth. In 2024, he even became the first-ever British musician to reach billionaire status. But the former Beatle didn't come from a wealthy background. In fact, he actually grew up in a working-class family in Liverpool, where he has fond childhood memories of saving up his pocket money to buy records in the city center and eating sugar butties. Wait, what? 

For the uninitiated, a sugar butty is basically a sugar sandwich. It's similar to a chip butty, but instead of processed potatoes, the bread is filled with a layer of butter topped with sugar. According to the musical icon, he was obsessed with them when he was younger. And he's not alone, many people who grew up in Liverpool in the 1950s and 1960s remember sugar butties. Some say they would try to sneak them behind their parents' backs, while others used to enjoy them alongside their moms and dads. In a clip shared by Food Network's Facebook page, Paul told daughter Mary McCartney that sugar butties were "seriously decadent and not good for you at all." He added: "As kids, that was like, love that."

When Linda McCartney died of breast cancer in 1998, it was, of course, devastating for the entire McCartney family. But, in a way, she has lived on with them, partly through the food they eat. All of the family is still vegetarian, and they often enjoy the recipes that she used to make for them. According to Paul McCartney, he misses Linda's quiches the most. The former Beatle told The Guardian in 2007 that they were incredibly "fluffy and light," while also being "very, very rich" at the same time. He recalled that Linda actually introduced him to quiche, because he hadn't eaten it during his childhood. "Hers were big and lusty like a soufflé," Paul added.

Linda's go-to quiche was a simple Lorraine, just without the bacon. So, it's likely that her signature recipe was pulled together with ingredients like cheddar cheese, tomatoes, eggs, milk, cream, and herbs. Today, she might have added some plant-based bacon into the mix, given the range of options on the shelves. That said, if Paul's review is anything to go by, it sounds like it was perfect without it.

As is evident from one of their favorite pizza recipes from the 1970s, Paul and Linda McCartney weren't always vegetarian. During their time in Scotland, the couple also used to enjoy traditional English Sunday dinners, complete with roast lamb. But one day, while tucking into the roast, they looked out the window and saw lambs running around outside. Long story short, the experience pulled their cognitive dissonance into sharp focus, and it eventually put them off meat for life.

But while these days you can find plenty of meat alternatives on the shelves, decades ago, the McCartneys didn't have this luxury. So, Linda got creative. For the holidays, she started making her own answer to turkey, with an interesting mix of macaroni, vegetarian sausages, spices, eggs, milk, and stuffing. According to Paul's 2007 chat with The Guardian, she would leave it all to set, and then it would be carved up, and the slices would be fried. While their daughters weren't huge fans of the macaroni turkey, the former Beatle remembers the concoction fondly.

Paul McCartney might have enjoyed the macaroni turkey, but evidently, he doesn't love it enough to keep making it. These days, he much prefers to cook up a vegetarian roast from Linda McCartney Foods (of course) for the holidays. The vegetarian food brand, founded by the McCartneys in 1991, has offered several roast options over the years, including the vegan chicken roast, for example, and the vegetarian beef roast with red wine and shallot glaze. But in 2019, Paul told The Sunday Times that one of his favorite options was the vegetarian roast wellington with mushroom duxelles.

Of course, he combines the roast with all of the classic trimmings, like broccoli (his favorite vegetable, more on that below), Brussels sprouts with chestnuts, vegetarian stuffing, and red wine gravy. The musician also adds in a childhood favorite: carrot and turnip mash. Paul is a bit of a mash connoisseur. As well as turnip and carrot, he's also pretty good at classic potato mash, which he makes extra creamy with a splash of semi-skimmed milk and melted margarine.

When PaulMcCartney.com asked the former Beatle what his favorite vegetable was in 2024, he said chips (via Meat Free Monday). Okay, that's not entirely fair. He actually answered with broccoli first, and then sweet potato, before adding that, actually, chips would always come in at number one. Listen, it makes sense. McCartney is a Brit, and we bring you back to our earlier point: Brits love chips with anything and everything. 

But we have to be real: Chips don't really count as a vegetable. And it's unlikely that McCartney has made it to the grand old age of 80+ by eating nothing but processed, fried potatoes. He does genuinely eat a lot of broccoli, and has claimed it's his favorite vegetable on more than one occasion. He has this in common with his fellow Beatle Ringo Starr. In April 2026, the drummer told Rolling Stone that the green cruciferous vegetable is the secret to his long life, saying, "All the good things about me, I blame broccoli for."

Most Brits eat Yorkshire puddings (which are basically baked savory puddings made with a batter of milk, eggs, and flour) with a Sunday roast dinner, slathered in gravy. But as we've established a few times in this list, Paul McCartney likes to do things his own way. When he was growing up in Liverpool, he remembers eating Yorkshire puddings for dessert, covered in plenty of treacle. And honestly, it makes sense. Yorkshire puddings are very similar to pancakes, only thicker. They're the perfect blank canvas for any flavor you like. While most choose savory, sweet works, too. McCartney isn't alone. Many people from Yorkshire (which is only about 85 miles from Liverpool) spent their childhoods pairing their Yorkshire puddings with jam, for example, or chocolate sauce. 

That said, his family still loves to eat Yorkshire puddings the traditional way. Mary McCartney, for example, makes hers vegan with aquafaba (the liquid from chickpeas) and chickpea flour, before serving them with plenty of gravy.

As you've likely gathered from his love of literal sugar sandwiches, Paul McCartney has an incredibly sweet tooth. So, of course, he's a chocolate fiend. In fact, the musician once told daughter Mary McCartney that he would eat anything that comes covered in chocolate. In fact, if it wasn't for Paul's love of chocolate, The Beatles might never have formed. Yep, seriously. According to the icon, he first bonded with John Lennon after the soon-to-be Earth-shatteringly famous singer-songwriter shared half of a chocolate bar with him. Like Paul, Lennon was also a big chocolate fan, and he had a particular penchant for Chocolate Olivers (which are basically cookies covered in intense dark chocolate).

Paul passed his love of the sweet treat on to his children, too. Mary once shared her recipe for super chocolate-y brownies on Instagram, and explained that they were a big favorite in the McCartney household when she was growing up.