12 Old Hollywood Stars' Favorite Ways To Eat Steak

Steak is one of those foods that never goes out of fashion — the dish has been enjoyed across countless cultures, prepared in many different ways, and for hundreds of years. Something about it seems to fill us up and satisfy our bellies and taste buds in a primordial way. So long as there are cows, humans will likely be eating steak. One subculture of steak aficionados was Old Hollywood, which boasted a number of famous actors who loved to eat steak in its various forms.

From the simplicity of a classic grilled ribeye to more elaborate presentations like steak au poivre, the variety of cuts and cooking techniques made it a favorite among famous meat lovers. In fact, we've put together a list of Old Hollywood actors and their favorite ways to eat steak to prove it. Some of these steaks were consumed in famous restaurants that are still around today, while others were prepared at home in the company of family and friends. Whatever the case, steak was the name of the game.

Frank Sinatra famously patronized a number of restaurants across the United States, many of which were in southern California. One of these was Melvyn's restaurant in Palm Springs, which is still up and running today and still serves Sinatra's favorite steak dish: steak Diane, which contains mushrooms, Dijon mustard, Worcestershire sauce, and cognac.

Steak Diane is lit up table-side, with the help of the cognac, right before it is served to diners. In addition to being a delicious dish, it is also quite a show. Sinatra liked to partake in it while dining at Table 13, which was always on hold for him in case he wanted to stop by. Order this steak with Jack Daniels and water on the side, and you'll be walking right in the footsteps of the great crooner.

When dining out, Marylin Monroe was known to enjoy some sophisticated food, such as the chocolate soufflé from the now-defunct Romanoff's in Los Angeles. But at home, it was an entirely different story. As Meatrition reports, Monroe told "Pageant Magazine" in a 1952 interview, "My dinners at home are startlingly simple. Every night, I stop at the market near my hotel and pick up a steak, lamb chops, or some liver, which I broil in the electric oven in my room."

Monroe especially liked to pair her broiled steak, lamb, or liver with raw carrots, which she said she couldn't get enough of. Startlingly simple, indeed, though it may also be true that she didn't have a lot of options to prepare elaborate meals at home. Between one film and the next, she often lived in spaces like hotel rooms, where cooking with an electric oven was the best she could do.

Elizabeth Taylor famously had a prodigious appetite and strong culinary preferences. It is said, for instance, that she liked chili so much (and not just any chili, but specifically that from Chasen's) that she had it shipped all the way from Los Angeles to Rome while she was filming "Cleopatra."

Another food Taylor loved was sirloin steak with mashed potatoes, a side of peas, and mixed salad with Russian dressing. She enjoyed this type of meal so much that she even allowed herself to eat it during her dieting periods. And indeed, it's easy to see why. While she enjoyed mashed potatoes no matter what, a good sirloin steak, cooked to perfection, is hard to turn down. Not only that, but while it abounds in calories, it contains zero carbohydrates, which can be pretty handy for some diets. Steak is also a pretty filling meal, no matter how it's cooked.

The name John Wayne instantly conjures images of cowboys in the Wild West. And what did those cowboys eat? Probably some fresh cow meat, whenever they could get their hands on it. We certainly know that Wayne (as an actor, and not as an actual cowboy) enjoyed a good grilled steak, especially when he was the one in charge of making it.

Actually, grilling was one of Wayne's hobbies — to the point where he even had a large indoor grill installed in his home. This may seem like it defeats the point — part of the enjoyment of grilling, for many, is being outside rain or shine (mostly shine). But when one grills meal after meal, an indoor grill might start to make sense. And while Wayne grilled all sorts of foodstuffs, steak was known to be his favorite. Want to walk in Wayne's shoes for a day and try your hand at grilling steak? We have a few recipe ideas: Try this tasty grilled balsamic flank steak or this grilled tomahawk rib-eye with fines herb compound butter.

When it comes to Alfred Hitchcock, the question is not so much how he liked his steak served but how big a steak he could shovel down in one meal. Indeed, he is known to have enjoyed a double-thick steak, especially when dining at Club 21 in New York, where he ordered one such dish, followed it up with ice cream parfait, then ordered a second portion of the meal. By now, you might be thinking that would be quite enough, and he was probably ready for the check. Not so. He ordered a third double-thick steak, again followed by an ice cream. Perhaps steaks were smaller back then.

Another establishment Hitchcock liked to dine at was Chasen's in Los Angeles, where he also often ordered steak. And like a true steak aficionado, he enjoyed drinking his steaks with red wine, particularly a nice Burgundy, of which he had many bottles in his home cellar.

Another prodigious eater who could even rival Alfred Hitchcock — if not surpass him — was Orson Welles. He would typically order two steaks at a restaurant along with a pint of Scotch — perhaps enough to feed four people. This may explain Welles' quote, as reported by Vice, saying, "My doctor told me to stop having intimate dinners for four unless there are three other people."

Indeed, along with that scotch and those steaks, which Welles liked rare, he also partook in a baked potato (one for each steak), an entire pineapple, and triple-pistachio ice cream. One would be forgiven for assuming he could never manage to eat anything else throughout the day. But one would be wrong. Indeed, while a typical dinner consisted of two steaks, a typical lunch was just as indulgent, often consisting of a whole chicken plus fois gras. Whatever the case, his diet seemed to reflect his larger-than-life personality.

Judy Garland was a sophisticated star who appeared in some truly classic movies, such as the timeless "The Wizard of Oz," so it might surprise you that her favorite food of all time was a commonplace steak and kidney pie. She also enjoyed mashed potato and gravy and Coca-Cola, which she drank very cold. She also liked a slew of other hearty foods, like spaghetti, fettuccine Alfredo and cheeseburgers.

In other words, her cinematic tastes may have been sophisticated, but her culinary preferences made her one of us common folks. But she didn't just eat heavy wintery foods. Garland was also known to enjoy her mother's vegetable salad recipe, which was made with watercress, celery, grated carrots, tomatoes, peas, and endive and drizzled with a light French dressing. But ultimately, food would prove to be her undoing. Like many Hollywood stars, she was under a lot of pressure to maintain her figure, a pressure that may have contributed to her drug addiction and subsequent death from an overdose.

Gary Cooper was reportedly a man of simple taste, at least when it came to food. He enjoyed grilling steaks on Sundays, in the garden at his home in Los Angeles. Other favorite foods of his — many of which were prepared by the family cook, Lilly — included cheese soufflé and the all-time favorite of the entire Cooper family, including Gary himself: spareribs and sauerkraut with green applesauce.

Apparently, he also loved buttermilk griddle cakes so much that he put the recipe forward for a recipe book published in 1931 detailing the favorite meals of Hollywood stars. The recipe was his mother's, and he'd grown up eating it for breakfast on the family farm in Helena, Montana. And that wasn't the only time a recipe of his appeared in a cookbook. In 1929, he'd also provided a recipe for chicken and liver timbales, though it turned out to have been plagiarized — it's a good thing he never quit his day job.

Steak and potatoes are a classic combination, and you might be hard-pressed to find a menu at a restaurant in the U.S. that doesn't include some version of this dish. One famous person who liked this steak and potatoes combination was Gregory Peck, who ate it alongside some greens, followed by a bit of chocolate. According to Tulsa World, he once said, " ... When I go out, I love a good steak dinner." 

One such instance was at a benefit dinner he and his wife hosted for the Los Angeles Library in 1999. Steak was definitely on the menu, and the dish in question was even named after the famous actor. "Caramelized onion steak Peck," as it was called, per Tulsa World, was made with marinated sirloin steaks, which were then broiled and topped with caramelized onions. True to Peck's preferences, another dish served at the dinner that night was a good old plate of "twice-baked potatoes Gregory."

Judy Garland was not the only star from Old Hollywood who enjoyed steak and kidney pie. Kidneys were far more popular in home kitchens and restaurants back in those days, so it stands to reason that the palates of the era were particularly attuned to them. Indeed, Charlie Chaplin seemed to enjoy steak and kidney pie and even published his own recipe in a cookbook. The recipe called for two pounds of lean steak, one beef kidney, flour, pie crust, and one small onion. Other recipes he published include one for an apple roll and one for his favorite breakfast: sour cream hotcakes, which were made with nothing more than sour cream, eggs, flour, and soda.

It should come as no surprise that Chaplin was a big lover of food. In addition to publishing his recipes in cookbooks multiple times over the years, he also partook in eating during scenes in his movies.

When Richard Burton wrote about his diet in his diary, as reported by Prospect, he didn't seem to mean what most of us consider going on a diet, which is typically some form of restriction on highly caloric or high-carb foods. Instead, he described sticking to his diet and having a whisky and soda before lunch, and then a half dozen belons, a steak au poivre, a salad with French dressing, and a hefty lump of cheese. This was followed by a number of drinks and cheese, though, to be fair, he did take his coffee without cream or sugar.

He concludes his assessment with, "Apart from water, that is all I took in that day." Ironically, after the steak au poivre and other foods and drinks, he reports that the following morning, he seemed to have lost five pounds. 

The Rock Hudson Project reports that "Mirabelle" magazine once interviewed Rock Hudson concerning his favorite way to eat steaks — and some other matters. It found that he liked them rare, but that he might have been even more smitten with the idea that his then-girlfriend, Phyllis Gates, liked hers well-done. As the story goes, when he told her, "I like my steaks rare, and you like yours well-done. We're so different, you and I," she replied, "That's what makes it such fun, Rock. That's why we'll never bore each other," without missing a beat.

They married soon after that, which may have had more to do with Hudson's famous cannoli recipe than their disagreement over steak. Indeed, the actor was known for having a knack for making desserts, one of which was the Italian cannoli, which he prepared with ricotta, cinnamon, chocolate chips, citron, plenty of sugar, and Italian red wine.