Howard Hughes' Favorite Food Was A Very Precise Dish

Howard Hughes is best known for being a billionaire movie mogul, playboy, and aeronautics engineer. He produced the films "Hell's Angels," "The Front Page," and "The Outlaw" in the 1930s and 1940s, was associated with Hollywood starlets such as Jean Harlow and Katherine Hepburn, and created the world's fastest racing airplane of the time. While these are likely the first things that come to mind when thinking of Hughes, it is lesser known that he lived with undiagnosed obsessive-compulsive disorder, which was reflected in his work, and eventually in some very specific eating habits.

Although he ran in the same circles as celebrities, he likely did not experience these old Hollywood stars' favorite foods with them, as he routinely requested his own favorite meal: a butterfly steak with 12 peas of the same size. Hughes' mother was obsessive, a hypochondriac, and had a fixation on cleanliness — all of which were characteristics she passed down to her son. Some of these compulsions helped Hughes in his career, like his need for perfection and his desire to constantly review his work, but some of his habits and requests became odd. His fear of germs coupled with his compulsive nature resulted in very specific instructions for his staff regarding food handling, including a lengthy manual on how to wash and open a can of fruit, and these rigid guidelines extended right to the dining table.

Hughes took his meal request very seriously. While there are a few mistakes everyone seems to make with peas, such as overcooking them, there was no mistake as bad as serving Hughes peas that weren't exactly uniform, because if they were, he would send them back to the kitchen to be replaced. He was even said to have used a special fork to organize the dozen little green spheres. This habit is represented in the movie "The Aviator," where Hughes' character is shown at a restaurant where he orders "the usual," with his peas neatly lined up in three rows. He also wanted his idea of the perfect steak every time, which was sliced in half butterfly-style and cooked medium-rare. When Hughes moved to Las Vegas, he continued to have his former personal chef in California slice steaks according to his instructions, then have them flown to Nevada every few days.

In his later life, Hughes preferred to dine alone. This was especially true during the four months he spent by himself in the screening room of a movie studio, living off of only chocolate bars and milk. Despite his quirks, Hughes was a very successful man in both aviation and cinema.