Marilyn Monroe, a name synonymous with Hollywood glamour and timeless beauty, captivated audiences with her on-screen presence and charm. Beyond the spotlight, Monroe possessed a well-documented love for food, a passion that offers a unique window into her personal life. This article delves into Marilyn Monroe's diet plan, exploring her diverse culinary preferences, from her penchant for classic American treats to her appreciation for sophisticated French cuisine. By examining accounts of her dining experiences and her own revelations about her favorite foods, we can piece together a picture of the diet that fueled this iconic star.
A Love Affair with Food
Marilyn Monroe's appreciation for a good quality meal was no secret. The starlet's love affair with food is widely published, and fans lap up the intimate knowledge of what her favorites were. Monroe's culinary preferences were as eclectic as her on-screen roles. She savored traditional American dishes like sundaes and chili yet also took delight in the sophistication of French cuisine.
Breakfast: An Unusual Concoction
How we start the day is important, which is why some people consider breakfast the most important meal of the day. Consume too little, and you'll be left hangry until lunchtime. Consume too much, and you might fall prey to lethargy, leading to an unproductive afternoon. In short, it's important to get this meal right according to your own personal needs.
Monroe started her day with an unusual concoction of raw eggs and milk. Indeed, as she told Pageant magazine, "I've been told that my eating habits are absolutely bizarre,"(via Into the Gloss). In her morning routine, she would heat up a cup of milk, "break two raw eggs into the milk, whip them up with a fork, and drink them" as she dressed.
She also valued a nutritious diet. For instance, this can be surmised by her consumption of one multivitamin pill with her breakfast each morning.
Read also: Secrets of a Hollywood Icon's Diet
Lunch: Spaghetti and a Student's Perspective
Marilyn sometimes skipped her midday meal. Taking note of Marilyn’s favorites, one might opt for a spaghetti dish with butter and tomato sauce. While sounding eerily like Mama June’s “sketti,” this lunch was actually quite nutritious. Overall, this lunch was a big win and took little time to prepare. Despite the availability of cheap pasta around campuses, it’s a dish generally less suited to students on-the-go. As a comforting home-cooked meal on calm weekends, this gets five stars. Reading that Marilyn was also partial to noodles, her diet seems far more feasible for the common student and serves as a needed reminder that carbs are not the enemy.
Dinner: A Paleo-Inspired Feast
There are multiple accounts of Marilyn Monroe's preference for following a paleo diet, at least when cooking at home. Many of her dinners comprised nothing more than a slab of meat and some raw vegetables without any grains, sugar, or other paleo diet no-nos.
One of those slabs of meat was steak. As she told Pageant and as reported by Harper's Bazaar, "Every night I stop at the market near my hotel and pick up a steak …" One might even say that she loved carrots more than steak. In the same interview, she joked, "I must be part rabbit; I never get bored with raw carrots." Whatever the case, you can follow in her footsteps by adopting any broiled steak recipe, but we recommended this marinated London broil.
Marilyn Monroe may have followed a paleo diet at times, but that doesn't mean she ate the same thing every night. While lamb chops aren't exactly rare, they're not as ubiquitous as chicken or beef, so you'd be forgiven if you told us you had no idea how to cook them. Luckily, we have no shortage of delicious lamb chop recipes for you. For instance, this garlicky pan-seared lamb chops recipe requires no special equipment, only takes about 10 minutes to prepare, and is packed with flavor.
Dessert: Indulging in Sweet Treats
Everyone has a favorite dessert or a few guilty pleasures they like to indulge in after lunch or dinner. For Marilyn Monroe, that was ice cream sundaes and rice pudding. Although few people can say they dislike ice cream sundaes, Marilyn Monroe was especially keen on them and would regularly stop at an ice cream parlor in Beverly Hills after her acting classes. Other than that, she said her diet was mostly made up of high-protein foods, so she was fine allowing herself this "indulgence." But, for anyone who would like to do the same today, know that Wil Wright's is long gone, replaced by a perfectly respectable pastry shop called Pascal on Beverly.
Read also: The Hoxsey Diet
For instance, this classic baked rice pudding recipe can serve as an illustration of what the actress might have actually eaten back in the day. This one is made with white rice, whole milk, sugar, evaporated milk, vanilla, cinnamon, and salt - all of which are fairly expected ingredients. But there are more ways than one to enjoy this dish.
Cocktails and Culinary Creations
While raw eggs and milk might not be the first thing one thinks of in connection to the glitz and glamour that was Marilyn Monroe, Champagne is another story. She favored Dom Pérignon or Piper-Heidsiek, which she claimed she would drink as soon as she woke up in the morning. Not only that, but she famously took a bath, at least once, in the contents of 350 bottles of Champagne instead of using water. The Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York can lay claim to this delicious invention, which also combined apple brandy and grenadine - its red color, of course, meant to evoke the bright red lipstick the actress often wore.
Marilyn Monroe seemed to love the combination of eggs and dairy. In addition to her morning routine, she also ended her day with an eggnog nightcap. To that end, here are a few recipes we think you'll like: This easy homemade eggnog recipe uses eggs, milk, heavy cream, rum, nutmeg, and sugar and takes about 25 minutes to prepare in total. Enjoy it on its own or with spiced cookies. But if you think all that sounds way too heavy to consume right before bedtime, we wouldn't blame you. Rather, here's a vegan version of eggnog that is slightly lighter due to the nut-based milk. But with all the spices and the inclusion of dates, the flavor is no less enticing.
Beef bourguignon, or boeuf bourguignon as it's more commonly known, requires nearly 20 ingredients and almost three hours of cooking, during which time you will have to be hard at work. Only after a series of browning and braising steps have been completed, and the main ingredients have been carefully cooked under very specific conditions, can you rest a little, while the meat softens and the sauce thickens. In other words, it seems like Monroe was no slouch when it came to cooking, and we can only hope that she enjoyed some of that red wine that goes in the dish as a reward for her hard work.
Barney's Beanery in Los Angeles, which is still open today, is known for its chili and drew in quite the crowd, as it was a hot spot for Hollywood celebrities, including Quentin Tarantino and Marilyn Monroe. The latter often stopped there to order some chili while filming "Some Like it Hot," which is very fitting. For a classic Marilyn experience, head on over to Barneys Beanery and order yourself a comforting serving of chili. Don't be afraid to branch out and try the different chili options on top of the classic.
Read also: Walnut Keto Guide
It's no secret that Marilyn Monroe loved Champagne, but perhaps she knew that when one has too much of a good thing, of that same good, one will soon be bereft - to paraphrase William Shakespeare. While there is no shortage of rum and cokes in bars across the country, most of these are just comprised of cheap rum poured into a glass of Coke or Pepsi from the soda fountain. A more elevated version can be prepared by following our rum and cola recipe, which calls for a good rum, namely Bacardi Facundo Neo, cola syrup, fernet, Orinoco bitters, Champagne, and a lemon twist.
But while Monroe's recipe may have been packed with flavor, for all we know, most bone broths can be elevated to taste even better. This is why we recommend trying this beef, barley, and bone soup instead, which has the added benefit of being filling, thanks to the barley. Make sure you don't skip the part where you roast the bones. This will best draw out the marrow's flavor.
Romanoff's restaurant in Beverly Hills, which opened in 1939, was the place for Hollywood celebrities for many years. One of those stars was Marilyn Monroe, who was partial to the restaurant's chocolate soufflé. But in the spirit of emulating her food preferences, we have a great chocolate soufflé recipe with orange sauce that is not to be missed. This recipe by legendary chef Jacques Pépin is simple - as far as soufflés go - and delivers its best results when made with good quality bittersweet chocolate, which pairs beautifully with an orange topping made with orange juice, zest, and sugar.
Other Diets and Views
For as long as she can remember, Renée Taylor has been on a diet. “I think I was 11 when the teacher called my mother and said I couldn’t go five minutes without having a bagel in my mouth,” the Bronx native tells The Post. They never did look like that, but their efforts launched Taylor on a lifetime of ups and downs and dress sizes, all the way to 20-plus. These days, she looks quite dippable, thanks to some newfound restraint. That pretty much sums up her diets, including the regimens recommended by Marilyn Monroe. “I asked, ‘What do you eat, to look like that?’ ” Taylor recalls. Grapes, Monroe told her. So Taylor ate grapes. Lots and lots of them. Next came Monroe’s “master-cleanse diet,” a mix of lemon juice, cayenne pepper and maple syrup. “All you could have was 2 ounces of liquid protein, three times a day,” Taylor says. She’s not sure how long she lasted, but she lost 40 pounds. That wasn’t the only time death ended a diet. Taylor says she followed Dr. Stuart Berger’s “Southampton Diet” until she heard he’d regained some 150 pounds and then died. Then came the “Scarsdale Diet,” whose author, Dr. There are no real diets. It’s really a lifestyle. Eat less! There was “The Beverly Hills Diet,” which let her eat pineapple all day (“Boring!”), and the Champagne diet, which had her downing two glassfuls before every breakfast, lunch and dinner. “And it had to be expensive Champagne,” since that has fewer calories, Taylor says. Meanwhile, she and the perennially lean Bologna (“He’d never eat dinner!”) lived amid the thin and glamorous. “First she took three peas and sat down,” Taylor jokes. “Then she went up and came back with two string beans . . . Gradually, Taylor says, she discovered it wasn’t hunger she felt, just an emptiness she tried filling with food. That realization - coupled with a “10-Day Belly Slimdown” touted on “The Dr. “There are no real diets,” Taylor says. “It’s really a lifestyle. Eat less!