Tina Turner Loved This American Food With A Passion, According To Her Chef

Tina Turner was a worldwide icon in a way that few celebrities ever achieve. With her career spanning several decades and including dozens of awards, Turner's soulful voice and electrifying stage presence dazzled generations all over the world. But despite all of her success, this global superstar was, in a lot of ways, still just Anna Mae from Nutbush, Tennessee, including her humble pick for a favorite meal.

In 2023, Scottish newspaper The Herald interviewed John Quigley, a Glaswegian chef who joined Turner on the road for her 1990 "Foreign Affairs" tour and cooked for her at over 120 stops throughout Europe. According to Quigley, "She loved a cheeseburger, Tina." Turner also enjoyed other dishes, like Thai curry and hot and sour soup, but cheeseburgers were a standout favorite.

A cold burger served toward the end of the tour was the only time Quigley saw the musician lose her temper, which he suggested may have been nervousness over Princess Diana attending the show. But Turner generally didn't want to make a fuss with her food. He remembered that "she ate everything the crew ate, there was nobody coming into the kitchen telling me 'Tina wants this, Tina wants that.'" And whenever burgers were on the menu, her choice was pretty clear.

In 2020, John Quigley wrote about Tina Turner's burger in the Glasgow Times, noting that she preferred it with "no airs, no graces, just straight up — much like herself." He began her burger by blending diced beef with at least an 80/20 meat-to-fat ratio — adding extra fat when grinding meat (or in this case, blending) is essential for flavor. Once the patty was cooked, Quigley would then serve it on a toasted bun with fries, tomato ketchup, and a salad.

Curiously, even though Turner loved cheese on her burger, Quigley hasn't revealed which cheese she liked most. Judging from her other no-frills preferences, however, the classic American cheese is a likely candidate as one of the best cheeses for cheeseburgers, period.

Of course, there are many underrated cheeses you can add to your next burger, including Muenster, which actually melts similarly well to American cheese for the stalwart fans of this standby topping. And while Turner was touring Europe in the early 1990s, it's possible that Muenster was sometimes the closest she could get to American cheese. Lucky for her and chef Quigley, though, the queen of rock and roll was easy to please.