The Surprising Favorite Meals Of US Presidents
Presidents aren't so different from the rest of us. Well, let's backtrack a little bit. Presidents have Secret Service details and lives completely unlike ours. That said, there's something that everyone — president and non-president alike — has in common: A favorite food.
From the simple to the sophisticated, from the delicious to the disgusting, you'll find all manner of intriguing details when you delve into the details of presidential eating habits.
George Washington was all about the hoecakes.
We'll start out, appropriately enough, with the very first president. Washington's favorite meal was a breakfast known as hoecakes. Yes, hoecakes. It might sound like some sort of antiquated recipe, but it's actually something that would be fairly familiar for modern palates.
Hoecakes are essentially just a version of pancakes — in this case, it was a variant made with cornmeal mush that was associated with poorer and working class people. Washington enjoyed his hoecakes with honey.
Zachary Taylor would have loved donut holes.
Whether you call them donut holes or Timbits, those little morsels of fried dough are a treat with some staying power, as variants of them have existed for centuries.
Case in point: Zachary Taylor loved calas tous chauds, or simply calas. They may have a fancy name, but they were essentially a 19th century version of these modern day treats. Nowadays, the fancy version of these is typically known as beignets.
Abraham Lincoln really loved corn cake.
One of the most popular and tragic presidents is associated with a type of almond cake that Mary Todd apparently would make for him. But while the president may have enjoyed this cake, he was most effusive in his praise for something far simpler.
Honest Abe liked corn cakes, just like many other Americans (and American presidents) of the 19th century. He reportedly once said, "I could eat corn cakes as fast as two women can make them!"
Just call Theodore Roosevelt the Colonel.
Teddy Roosevelt is a legendary president, one who truly embodies the swagger of America. His favorite dish was pretty American as well. Decades before KFC, Roosevelt was a staunch advocate for the deliciousness of fried chicken.
Roosevelt preferred his fried chicken with white gravy — a simple, delicious meal that would still be familiar today. His voracious appetite ensured that he'd sometimes eat an entire chicken in one sitting (though we're not sure if it was fried or not).
William Henry Harrison wasn't afraid of a little roadkill.
William Henry Harrison was scarcely president long enough to introduce any culinary traditions to the White House, but there is one noteworthy food-related story that's tied to his short-lived presidency.
Harrison handed out bountiful quantities of squirrel and possum stew at his rallies in the run-up to his election. It might seem like a bold strategy, but the results speak for themselves. It's impossible to discount the role that squirrel stew played in his win.
James Garfield was a little squirrelly, too.
William Henry Harrison served squirrel soup to win votes, but Garfield just straight-up loved squirrel soup. How do we know? Garfield himself submitted his special squirrel soup recipe to The Original White House Cookbook.
Garfield also was known for eating raw beef on stale bread. It sounds weird, and it is, but he did it on his doctor's orders. It was during a time when he was battling a bout of dyspepsia.
John F. Kennedy was true to his roots.
The Kennedys are synonymous with New England, and JFK enjoyed much of the same meat and potatoes fare as many other men in the mid-20th century. One of his favorites was fish chowder, like the kind he'd eat back home in Massachusetts.
Kennedy did expand his tastes as president, though, and was known to embrace French cuisine when it was made available. But when ordering his own food, he mostly kept it simple.
Thomas Jefferson liked his desserts frozen.
Ice cream is ubiquitous in the 21st century. While it's still regarded as a treat, it certainly isn't rare in the age of freezers. But a few hundred years ago, freezing anything had to be done with ice.
It was within this context that we have to consider Jefferson's preference for french vanilla ice cream. He was such a specialist, in fact, that he developed his own recipe for the treat.
George H.W. Bush was a snacker.
When it comes to food, George H.W. Bush is known for a couple of things: Throwing up at a state dinner and being adamant in his hatred for broccoli.
When Bush was able to keep his dinner down, one of his favorite snacks was pork rinds with tabasco sauce. It's simple and messy, but it sounds like a legitimately tasty snack (even if it isn't fit for state functions).
Martin Van Buren went medieval.
Grandiose and elaborate dinners are nothing new when it comes to heads of state, but Martin Van Buren's chosen favorite of boar's head must have turned at least a few eyebrows during his time in the White House.
The Van Burens enjoyed boar's head every Christmas at the White House after first sampling it during a trip to England earlier in his life. His companion on the trip, Washington Irving, wrote fondly of boar's head as an old-fashioned English Christmas tradition.
Harry Truman longed for the simple times.
Truman came into office during a tumultuous time, and didn't seem to care for the fancy state dinners that came with the presidency. His breakfast, which was the same nearly every day, consisted of juice, cereal, toast, and milk.
Outside of breakfast, Truman referred to himself as a "meat and potatoes man," with his favorite dishes being simple in nature. One favorite was sorghum molasses, which he'd eat on cornbread.
Ronald Reagan was a kid at heart.
Anyone who's ever quit smoking knows that stuff like gum and candy can help reduce cravings. Ronald Reagan took this to heart when he was quitting smoking by getting heavily into the jelly bean scene.
While Reagan developed his jelly bean habit during his time as governor of California, he carried it into the White House. He was known for handing out red (cherry), white (coconut), and blue (blueberry) jelly beans, though his personal favorite flavor was black licorice.
William Howard Taft had a big appetite.
While Taft made history as the only person to serve as chief justice and president of the United States, he also made history as the most rotund president — tipping the scales at well over 300 pounds.
Taft maintained this by starting each day with a massive 12-ounce steak (later reduced by half on his doctor's orders). He'd usually eat this with a simple starch like hashed brown potatoes.
Millard Fillmore was practical.
Fillmore didn't have exotic tastes, as his food choices seemed to be driven by pragmatism. He installed the first 'modern' kitchen in the White House (prior cooking had been done over an open hearth). In that kitchen, he stuck mostly to simple fare.
His biographer notes that "plain food" was the go-to for the Fillmores — stuff like meat, potatoes, and veggies with perhaps some sweet cornbread for dessert.
John Adams kept it simple.
Adams was not opposed to more luxurious fare — the kind that might be served at state dinners — but he and his wife Abigail mostly adhered to something that might be described as a kind of proto-hundred-mile diet.
John and Abigail would serve simple meals at the White House, the kind that they ate while growing up in New England. A typical meal would include one type of meat with a variety of root vegetables.
Jimmy Carter enjoyed dairy.
Carter is synonymous with peanuts thanks to his time running a peanut farm, but his culinary tastes leaned more in the dairy direction. A profile in the New York Times noted that he enjoyed milk, buttermilk, butter and cheese.
Cheese was the centerpiece of one of his favorites — one that stays true to Carter's Georgia roots. His daughter Amy said that he'd make up a big batch of grits, add some eggs, and then a bunch of cheese.
FDR loved a lazy staple.
Grilled cheese sandwiches have to be up there when it comes to top comfort foods, and Franklin D. Roosevelt would certainly agree. FDR's housekeeper Henrietta Nesbitt prepared his meals, and said that one of his favorites was grilled cheese sandwiches.
Perhaps this should be taken with a grain of salt, however, as Nesbitt is generally regarded as one of the worst cooks in White House history — and only stuck around because she was a friend of Eleanor Roosevelt.
William McKinley didn't eat shirts, but it sure sounds like he did.
Historians agree that McKinley enjoyed plain food — a breakfast of eggs, bread, potatoes and steak, with similarly protein — and starch-rich fare for their other meals. This is all pretty mundane, but one of their favorites sounds a little odd.
Red flannel hash — yes, red flannel hash — was a favorite in the McKinley-era White House. It's a kind of hash made from potatoes and beets. The different red hues make the dish look like red flannel.
Franklin Pierce threw a lousy dinner party.
Franklin Pierce had enough charisma to win the presidency, but apparently not enough to put on a halfway decent dinner party. The Pierce family was not known to entertain at the White House, and when they were forced to host a state dinner, they were generally seen as not being up to par.
Pierce hailed from New Hampshire, and what little is known of his eating habits seems to confirm that he liked...non-specified foods from New Hampshire.
James Madison is an enigma.
Oddly enough, historians don't know a whole lot about Madison's carefully guarded private life. They do know that First Lady Dolley Madison would dream up elaborate feasts that combined local and European fare, though.
In the absence of an official favorite, most biographers have settled on a meal of honey ham and apple pie — a typical favorite in Madison's native Virginia — as the type of fare he would have enjoyed.
Grover Cleveland enjoyed an Irish staple.
Cleveland endured through many luxurious, hours-long state dinners. We use the term 'endured' because it was at one of these dinners when the exasperated president announced that he'd rather have a plate of corned beef and cabbage.
Indeed, this simple dish was one of his favorites, and he even brought his personal chef to the White House to ensure that this dish — and all of his other favorites — would be made just right.
Gerald Ford was all-American.
Ford's favored dishes were numerous, but none were particularly exotic. The president and his family had a simple breakfast of fruit and English muffins with tea, sometimes treating themselves to waffles on Sundays.
For dinner, the Fords particularly enjoyed a simple pot roast dinner, typically accompanied with sides like potatoes, green beans, and salad. For dessert, they'd have ice cream, or sometimes German apple pie.
Herbert Hoover caramelized the wrong fruit.
Caramel apples are a tried and true treat. Herbert Hoover enjoyed something similar, but also very different, during his time as president. Hoover was fond of caramel tomatoes, a dish made by his personal cook Mary Rattley.
While variants of the recipe go back to the 19th century, and modern recipes are available today, it never caught on — despite the endorsement of the sitting president of the United States.
James Buchanan wasn't afraid to get inventive.
Early presidents are a split between diets that largely consisted of meat and cornbread, and dandies who'd sampled the exotic fare of Europe. Buchanan belonged to the latter category.
Buchanan's enjoyed entertaining at the White House with grand meals of French delicacies. He balanced this out with the simpler fare of his childhood. While he wasn't from a German family, he enjoyed sauerkraut, which was a popular dish in the Pennsylvania Dutch community near where he grew up.
You can call James Monroe the Spoonman.
Like George Washington, Monroe enjoyed a simple cake made of cornmeal mush and water. Unlike Washington, Monroe may have just invented the dish. Legend has it that the dish known as spoonbread was invented accidentally at Monroe's home when cornmeal was baked in the oven.
The end result was a kind of soft pudding with a crispy top, and it remained a favorite of the Founding Father and fifth president.
Andrew Johnson was into the hoppin' john.
Johnson had largely utilitarian tastes in food. He enjoyed a good apple and chestnut roast, but mostly stuck to the kind of cuisine that he ate growing up in rural Tennessee — stuff like duck, wild turkey, and sweet potatoes.
One intriguingly-named specialty that Johnson particularly enjoyed was hoppin' john. It's a kind of jambalaya consisting of peppers, black-eyed peas, tomatoes, and rice. While the name may have fallen out of usage, this kind of dish remains a staple.
Richard Nixon was baffling.
While Nixon did eat some normal food like a normal person, his culinary habits are more associated with weirdness than anything. Notably, Nixon liked cottage cheese topped with ketchup.
Nixon's love of mushy foods extended to curds and whey. Just like cottage cheese, he saw fit to add a garnish. In this case, he'd eat his curds and whey with either pineapple or ketchup. In all, it seems like the Nixons mostly ate fruit and cottage cheese.
Calvin Coolidge enjoyed jelly rolls.
Coolidge was known as 'Silent Cal,' but the 30th president was anything but silent when it came time to profess his love for dessert. White House chef Ling P. Quan said that Coolidge liked his sweets, and was a noted fan of a jelly roll — white cake filled with jam and topped with icing.
Outside of the dessert realm, Coolidge was also known to be a fan of pickles and chicken.
Benjamin Harrison wanted his figgy pudding.
Just like the old Christmas song, Benjamin Harrison wanted some figgy pudding — and since he was president of the United States, he'd usually get it. There isn't much to add to this, other than the fact that he apparently enjoyed the full Christmas spread.
Harrison and his family reportedly ate a Christmas feast of oysters, chicken, stuffed roast turkey with cranberry jelly, potatoes, and celery. Several desserts were served, including — naturally — figgy pudding.
John Quincy Adams was an orchard man at heart.
John Quincy Adams was the sixth president, and the second president with the name of John Adams. Like his predecessor, John Quincy Adams enjoyed food that was simple, local, and wholesome.
John Quincy Adams was an avid gardener, and he put this skill to good use by cultivating an impressive array of fruit-bearing trees. He was known to grow peach, apple, apricot and plum trees at home in Massachusetts.
Chester A. Arthur enjoyed a cheap hotel staple.
Like modern-day Holiday Inn guests, Chester A. Arthur often started his day with a continental breakfast. It should be noted that this was a classy kind of continental breakfast — back when the term truly meant something.
Outside of his classy/not classy breakfast, the 21st president enjoyed a light lunch of oatmeal, fish and fruit, and favored mutton chops and ale for dinner. All in all, there aren't too many staple foods that Arthur didn't enjoy.
LBJ was the grillmaster.
Lyndon B. Johnson hailed from Texas, and amid the many larger-than-life stories that surround LBJ, one of the tamer ones was that he was the first president to bring Texas barbecue to the White House.
He enjoyed the whole spread, not just the ribs. So a typical meal might include beans, corn, potato salad, coleslaw, dill pickles, sweet onions, sourdough bread, and fried apple pie. It sounds like an absolute feast.
Warren G. Harding kept things hearty.
Harding came from midwestern stock, so it makes sense that his favorite meal came from Ohio. The First Lady would prepare a meal of knockwurst and sauerkraut, along with frankfurters. Breakfast was a straightforward affair of grapefruit, cereal, eggs, and bacon.
While Harding was president during Prohibition, he was known to host poker nights in which he'd serve his guests not just knockwurst and sauerkraut, but also illegal gin.
Ulysses S. Grant enjoyed a simple dessert.
Grant endured through battlefield meals during his time in the Civil War, so he never developed particularly expensive tastes even after assuming the highest office in the land. Grant's favorite food was a straightforward pleasure: Rice pudding.
A famous story holds that no matter how many times the New York restaurant Delmonico's tried to concoct a special dessert for Grant, he would favor a simple, unadorned rice pudding every time.
Andrew Jackson was a true carnivore.
The dish most associated with Andrew Jackson has a distinct name: Tenderloin with jezebel sauce. While tenderloin is straightforward enough, jezebel sauce is clearly something that fell out of favor at some point over the past couple of centuries.
What is jezebel sauce? Recipes vary, but it's a kind of tangy, sweet hot sauce that incorporates horseradish, mustard powder, and fruit preserves. It's a rather adventurous choice of seasoning for a 19th century American.
Dwight Eisenhower was quite a cook.
Eisenhower was more than just an accomplished World War II general and president — he was also pretty good in the kitchen, and was known for preparing tasty meals for his friends and family.
Eisenhower's signature dish was beef stew, made with a tomato broth and a bit of cayenne. Ahead of his ultimately successful presidential run in 1956, he made the recipe freely available to anyone who wanted it.
Woodrow Wilson contained multitudes.
Biographers can't seem to agree on Woodrow Wilson's culinary preferences. On one hand, he once wrote to a friend, "I am very fond of country hams, peach cobblers, butter and buttermilk, fresh eggs, hot biscuits, homemade ice cream and plain white cake."
While this is all well and good, a contemporary report said that his favorite meal was a weird one: Two raw eggs in grape juice. He was also known to have a periodic disinterest in food.
Rutherford B. Hayes believed in moderation.
Hayes and his wife Lucy were known to be buzzkills, as neither one drank — and would not indulge their guests by serving alcohol, either. His food habits were straightforward and sparse: One cup of coffee at breakfast and one cup of tea at lunch, along with predictable meals.
In his diaries, Hayes does seem to show a fondness for corn and all of its variants: Breads, fritters, and soup. He mentions corn more than a dozen times.
James K. Polk was another cornbread fan.
It seems like there was something about the combination of cornmeal and water, cooked in a pan, that early presidents couldn't get enough of — or maybe there just wasn't much variety in terms of comfort foods back then.
James K. Polk's favorite meal was said to be corn pone — a simple cornbread that's typically cooked in some kind of fat. It's still a favorite in the south.
John Tyler has a signature dessert.
John Tyler entered the history books not only by serving as the tenth president, but also by giving his name to a type of pie...one that's largely been supplanted by a different pie. Tyler's favorite dessert came to be known as Tyler pudding.
It was a pudding in name only (in the sense that most desserts were known as puddings), as its profile — essentially a sweet butterscotch cream pie in a pie shell — is virtually identical to chess pie.
