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You may have thought about partying like your favorite rock stars to honor their legacies, but have you ever considered making their favorite recipe instead? Many celebrities enjoy the finer things in life, food included. Others like to dine on foods that speak to their heritage and bring them comfort. When a well-known artist passes unexpectedly and leaves us with a sense of emptiness, trying one of their favorite recipes may help fill that void.
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The history of rock and roll is filled with culinary anecdotes
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From Van Halen's hyper-specific M&M preferences, to Spinal Tap's backstage cold-cut catastrophe
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to Motley Crue's extremely questionable traditions involving takeout burritos. Uh, you don't want to Google that
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But most of them are nothing more than tall tales from the road. When they're at home, many musicians actually prefer cooking for themselves
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Or at least pay someone to cook for them while they watch. Today on Our Weird History, we're taking a look at the favorite recipes of some musical legends
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Okay, order up! Perhaps no figure in rock history is more iconic than Elvis Presley
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so it's fitting that no other rock star is more closely associated with a specific favorite food
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Presley's love of the peanut butter sandwich is legendary and has remained a subject of pop culture fascination for decades
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But there remained some controversy over the specific ingredients that Presley preferred with his peanut butter
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Elvis' famously doting mother, Gladys, once said that her son's favorite sandwich featured a combination of peanut butter, sliced bananas, and a hunk-a-hunk of crispy bacon
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However, different sources maintain that the king liked mashed bananas on his sandwich
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And other accounts suggest that Elvis specifically preferred caramelized bananas on grilled Hawaiian bread, which sounds like a lot of work
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Have you ever tried to caramelize a banana? No one has that kind of time. But that is nothing compared to the story of the Fool's Gold Loaf
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a unique and massive sandwich designed by the Denver restaurant, the Colorado Mine Company
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This sandwich slash Little League banquet consists of a warmed, hollowed out loaf of bread filled with an entire jar of creamy peanut butter
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a jar of grape jelly, and a pound of bacon, which sounds like less of a sandwich and more like a foot race between a stroke and a heart attack
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According to the 1991 book The Life and Cuisine of Elvis Presley by David Adler
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on the night of February 1st, 1976, Presley was at his Graceland mansion in Memphis, Tennessee
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entertaining some guests. Somehow, the fool's gold halof came up, and the king decided he needed to
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try one right away. Honestly, after hearing that list of ingredients, anyone would want to see that
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sandwich in action. So he piled two of his guests onto his private jet, the Lisa Marie, and flew two
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hours from Memphis to Denver on the spot. The king had phoned ahead so that Colorado Mine Company
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co-owner Buck Scott and his wife Cindy met the trio at the Denver airport with 22 fresh fool's
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gold lobes, which they all shared together along with the pilots and nearby ground crew. When the
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meal was finished, Presley flew with his guests immediately back to Memphis without ever setting
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foot outside the Denver airport. I mean, he did already eat the sandwich. What else is there to
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do in Colorado. We know a lot about the foods favored by country music legends Johnny Cash
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and June Carter, thanks to a cookbook published by their son, record producer John Carter Cash
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The Cash and Carter Family Cookbook gives readers a thorough overview of the southern cuisine preferred by Cash and Carter whose home often served as a gathering place for a diverse array of country music performers and legends
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The man in black, in particular, was a lifelong advocate for southern comfort food he'd grown up enjoying
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and frequently joked that the reason he always dressed in black was because it was slimming
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Huh, maybe the lyric was originally, I shot a man in Reno just to watch him fry some potatoes, maybe
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One of Cash's most famous personal recipes was his iron pot chili with cuts of either sirloin or venison that were slow cooked for hours
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He'd also add a handful of cornmeal to the mix to give the chili some added thickness and texture
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Additionally, the book includes Cash's personal recipe for pan fried okra prepared with cornmeal along with yellow onion, flour, salt and either vegetable oil or bacon drippings, whichever you have handy
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Although if you're low on bacon drippings, you probably can borrow some from Elvis
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No way. Stay away from my bacon droppings. We also have a cookbook to thank for insights into the favorite meals of another country music legend, Tammy Wynette
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The so-called first lady of country music put out a collection of her favorite recipes in 1990, including a concoction she referred to as dump salad
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Kind of sounds like something you'd leave at a rest stop. The retro fruit dish contains pineapple and mandarin orange chunks, along with cottage cheese, orange jello, and Cool Whip
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Might be tough to stand by your man if you brought that to the potluck. David Bowie was one of the 20th century's true iconoclasts
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a rock star whose ever-shifting looks and public personas received just about as much attention as his actual music
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As with so many other aspects of his personal life, rumors about Bowie's eating habits tended toward the bizarre
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which makes sense. If you call yourself Ziggy Stardust, people are going to talk
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In the 1970s, it was said that he subsisted on a diet of nothing but red bell peppers, milk, and nose candy
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which might be enough for a star man, but would probably make most human beings very ill
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In point of fact, Bowie's tastes apparently leaned toward comfort food over more exotic fare
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His favorite dish, which he'd ask wife Amon to prepare for him
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whenever he had significant downtime at home, was shepherd's pie, a tried and true classic of British cuisine
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Bowie's preferred version featured the traditional ground lamb. Technically, you can make shepherd's pie with ground beef
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though this is sometimes known as cottage pie instead. Man, how embarrassing would it be to serve a shepherd a pie meant for a cottage
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You'd never let that down. Singer-songwriter John Denver is most associated these days
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with the dangers of owning small aircraft and with West Virginia. The state he sings about memorably in the iconic hit
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Take Me Home, Country Roads. Despite the lyrics, he wasn't actually from there
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Denver grew up in Roswell, New Mexico, where his father worked as an Air Force pilot
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There's just something less romantic about driving home on New Mexico roads
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although he probably could have written a serious banger about UFOs. Denver favorite dessert similarly had its origins far outside of the Appalachian region he helped make famous His recipe for Flemish apple cake echoes a tradition brought to the New World by Dutch settlers and serves as an ideal close to any cozy and traditional fall meal
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His concoction calls for two pounds of apples and over one cup of butter
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which is a little over two whole sticks. Listen, comfort food is big on excess
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What else would you expect from the guy who wrote, Thank God I'm a Country Boy. Freddie Mercury was born Farouk Bulsara in the East African nation of Zanzibar to Parsi Indian parents
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And though he became an international icon as frontman to the arena rock ensemble Queen, he never lost touch with his roots
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According to his personal assistant Peter Freestone, one of Mercury's favorite entrees was a traditional Parsi curry dish known as chicken donask
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featuring tender chunks of chicken in a tangy, rich, and slightly spicy sauce
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made with red lentils for a taste that's dynamite with a laser beam
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Some westernized versions of the dish add extra ingredients for more sweetness
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such as pineapple. But Mercury favored a more traditional take, spiced with eggplant, cumin, cardamom, coriander, turmeric, and fenugreek seeds
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Should have called it Freddy's Myrrh Curry. Real missed opportunity there. The profusely coiffed singer Amy Winehouse loved good food and highly valued the importance of having her favorite chef on hand
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Try to make her go to Arby's and she won't go, go, go
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In 2009, following a sojourn to the Caribbean to work on new material, Winehouse apparently refused to return to the UK without her new favorite chef, whom she'd met on the island of St. Lucia
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She feared that many of the dishes she'd discovered and fallen in love with during the sojourn
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including smoked flying fish, crab cakes, and chicken roti, would be too difficult to find back in her native London
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Winehouse's love of Caribbean food was, by that point, already well documented
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Among her favorite recipes was a take on the classic jerk chicken
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spiced with molasses, ginger nutmeg, cinnamon, and a splash of dark rum
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A lyrical snippet from her never-released third album apparently featured a running list of her favorite foods to prepare for herself
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including chicken soup and meatballs, along with a good jerk chicken and fried
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Eh, wonder who they give the Grammy to in that situation, Winehouse or The Chef
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Reggae legend and Caribbean native Bob Marley, who was born and raised on the island of Jamaica
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stuck largely to what's known in Rastafarianism as an idle diet, as in vital without the V
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Because the letter I represents unity with all of nature in Rastafari culture
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The Eitel diet emphasizes eating foods that enhance the body's life energy rather than reducing it
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Although that doesn't mean you should pound Red Bulls. Rastafarians believe that you accomplish this by eating only fresh, natural, pure foods
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That come directly from the earth and avoiding anything chemically modified. Or containing additives such as artificial color or flavorings
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So yeah definitely no Red Bull Most Rastafarians also keep to a vegetarian diet and believe that eating meat decreases the body vitality level Though Marley sometimes ate beef and chicken
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he stuck mainly to an idle diet at home. According to his personal chefs
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one of Marley's favorite comfort food recipes, which he'd often request after performances
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was a hearty stew made with potatoes, carrots, cauliflower, cabbage, butter beans, and coconut milk
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Eh, considering the amount of vegetables Marley smoked, it's surprising there aren't any cheese fries in that recipe
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Thanks to two of Michael Jackson's personal chefs, we have some insight into the late King of Pop's favorite foods and recipes
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And despite the fact that Jackson's home, Neverland Ranch, was essentially the world's biggest state fair
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corn dogs and fried Snickers were apparently not among his favorites, As befitting his eccentric public persona, Jackson had very specific tastes and requirements around his diet
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and was something of a finicky eater. Oakland chef and baker Manny Nile went on tour with Jackson in the 1980s
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around the peak of Jackson's superstardom, and noted that the singer often worked for hours on end
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forgetting to eat until the point he was famished. Listen, you don't come up with smooth criminal by sitting around eating burgers
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That kind of work gets done in the trenches. Jackson kept to a fairly strict vegetarian diet
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but was also very particular about what kinds of vegetables he would eat
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making meal planning somewhat difficult. According to Niall, some of Jackson's favorite foods included Mexican dishes
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such as spicy red chili enchiladas, and Moroccan classics, including grilled tofu shish kebabs
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And pizza was a recurring favorite of Jackson's. Niall frequently used it to cover the taste of some of the vitamin and mineral-rich fungi
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and veggies the Pop King needed for sustenance. such as Japanese eggplant or shiitake mushrooms
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Further proving that pizza is so delicious, it can mask the flavor of any ingredient
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Jackson was equally particular about his desserts. He had a major sweet tooth, but he didn't like chocolate
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and also tried to avoid eating foods with excessive sugar. Hey, how does that work
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Don't worry, we're about to tell you. The baker prepared cookies flavored with pecans and maple syrup instead of sugar
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which Jackson's bodyguard nicknamed bookies. You know there's a ton of sugar and maple syrup, right, Michael
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Years later, Jackson worked with a personal chef named Kai Chase, who shared some of the pop star's favorite dishes with The Today Show
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These recipes included an organic juice mix prepared with beets, carrots, celery, and red apple
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along with an organic seared ahi tuna niçoise salad. Basically, fancy V8 and a fresh fish salad
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It's the kind of low-fat, high-protein diet for someone who probably danced the equivalent of several miles
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during every performance. Finally, Jackson's daughter, Paris, has described him as an accomplished home cook in his own right
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She's publicly revealed the recipe for sweet potato pie that her dad passed down to her
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flavored with ground cinnamon, vanilla extract, nutmeg, and fresh lemon and orange juices, and no sugar
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Now, if she only knew the recipe of whatever transformed Jackson into that panther
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