John Wayne Loved These 11 Foods And Drinks

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Why are we so fascinated by what some of the most iconic stars of times gone by used to eat? We're not quite sure — but it's pretty undeniable. From Elvis Presley's go-to restaurants to Frank Sinatra's favorite dishes and drinks, there's a real appeal to knowing the tastes of the biggest names in showbiz, and in finding out that, really, they're just like us. John Wayne is no different. An icon of Hollywood's Golden Age and of the Western genre, Wayne simultaneously projected an action hero and an everyman image. So we imagine that, even while he was saving the day, he'd be craving something down-to-earth, home-cooked, and easy to make at home (or while sitting around a campfire). Was he, though?

The reality was actually a little more complicated. Duke's tastes definitely erred on the side of straightforward, with all the typical cowboy classics favorites of his. Elsewhere, they were a little more unpredictable; Wayne was a noted fan of seafood in all forms, including some surprisingly bougie dishes. Oh, and as it turns out, his taste in drinks was both nuanced and wide-ranging. Saddle up your horse, and let's find out what the most famous cowboy liked to tuck into.

What does an all-American movie star who leads tales about the Old West eat? If you're saying anything other than steak, then we'd kindly ask you to reconsider. Big slabs of grilled red meat are standard fare for Western icons, and John Wayne didn't buck the trend with that one. The star was a noted fan of steak, and his favorite cut was an ode to the Wild West: cowboy steak, or bone-in ribeye. According to his daughter, Marisa Wayne, he was also more than happy to prepare it himself. "He loved a delicious grilled steak," said Wayne, in an interview with Cowboys & Indians. "We even had a huge indoor grill at home that we used daily."

As for how he liked his steaks cooked, Duke preferred them to be cooked well. He would fire them on a super high heat until they were almost blackened on the outside. He wouldn't fuss around too much with bizarre flavors on his meat, either; John Wayne kept his steak seasonings classic, while also introducing enough flavor to ensure that the meat really sang. Black pepper, lemon pepper, and ground red pepper were all go-tos, as were thyme, garlic powder, parsley flakes, and salt. Wayne would opt for steaks for either lunch or dinner — they were never far from his plate.

John Wayne was a noted drinker, and while whiskey wasn't his favorite tipple, it was definitely up there — and is perhaps the beverage that people most associate with him. Wayne would often reach for a whiskey, specifically a bourbon, at the end of a long day of shooting. Although he was loyal to American whiskey, that didn't mean that he wouldn't drink other types. He apparently enjoyed a late-night Scotch whisky when visiting The Formosa Café in West Hollywood.

It must be said that Wayne's love of whiskey wasn't always moderate: Former co-star Bruce Dern, who starred alongside Wayne in "The Cowboys," stated in an interview that he could once smell the scent of Wild Turkey 101 on the actor's breath while shooting a scene in the early morning. Wild Turkey was, incidentally, his favorite bourbon brand, and the legacy of his taste would live on through his son, Ethan. Ethan Wayne would go on to co-found Legendary Duke, a bourbon produced by Duke Spirits, founded in memory of his father. The mash bill for Legendary Duke is the same as one used by Wild Turkey, and there may well have been involvement from the distillery in the drink's creation.

Although John Wayne's tastes tended towards the savory, he liked a sweet treat. In fact, he loved one. Perhaps at odds with his rugged, leading man status is the fact that Wayne was a noted candy fan and a big lover of Abba Zaba bars. One thing he tended towards time and time again, though, was dark chocolate — especially the kind made by Gowell's Homemade Candy, a New England producer that Wayne crossed paths with. 

There was one specific chocolate bark from Gowell's that Wayne couldn't get enough of. The story goes that when Wayne was in Massachusetts General Hospital in 1978 for open-heart surgery, he met Marshall Berger, a fellow patient, whose wife had brought over a few boxes of Gowell's dark chocolate bark. While visiting Wayne in the hospital, one of his children gave him a piece of the bark, and he liked it so much that he ran to Berger's room to enquire where the candy came from. Berger's wife, Marilyn Berger, then went back to Gowell's to stock up on the candy for Wayne, buying a dozen boxes for him. When he was discharged, Gowell's would continue to ship the dark chocolate bark to the actor at his home in California.

Every iconic movie star has to have a dish named after them, and John Wayne is no different. Duke's Soufflé, though, didn't start off bearing the actor's nickname. Apparently, Wayne was first served this dish at a brunch held to honor Mexican president Miguel Aleman. He fell for the soufflé so much that he would subsequently have a copy of the recipe on his person whenever he was on set, and would whip it up for his castmates and crew members. His wife, Pilar Wayne, would also make the dish for him and would subsequently include it in her cookbook, "Pilar Wayne's Favorite and Fabulous Recipes."

So, what was Duke's Soufflé? It was essentially a cheese soufflé with two cans of green chilies mixed in. It's a pretty simple addition, but these chilies help to differentiate it from a regular soufflé and imbue it with some Western-style spice and flavor. It's then baked with some sliced tomatoes in a ring on top, in a moment of visual flair that feels distinctly '70s. It's simple, straightforward, but with a little twist of something different — much like the movie star himself.

John Wayne's culinary image may be closely linked to steak, but he was a big seafood fan — and apparently, he was into almost everything that the sea provided. The action star loved lots of different types of seafood and was a fan of grilling salmon and crab when on vacation with his family in British Columbia. When the Waynes would visit Cabo, they'd stop at nearby fishing villages and trade things like T-shirts or magazines for lobster, one of the family's favorite dishes.

This all sounds pretty rustic, right? Well, Wayne wasn't averse to the finer things in life, either. He was a major movie actor, after all, and so he had access to the best caviar around, which he would duly introduce his friends to while footing the bill. On one occasion in 1976, he spent nearly $1,000 (the equivalent of about $6,000 today) on caviar in just one restaurant sitting. But given that the star was a multimillionaire, this amount probably didn't unsettle him too much.

John Wayne projects an image of a guy who'd only drink his liquor neat, with no adornments or extra ingredients, and probably from whatever glass he could get his hands on in the moment. The truth was slightly different. Wayne was a liquor connoisseur, and he knew the value of a premium mixed drink. As such, he was a big fan of classic cocktails, which he'd enjoy after filming. Notably, he didn't do this in a member's bar; when he was on location, he would join the cast and crew for a cocktail, often while grilling up some meat.

As for which cocktails he'd go for, Wayne's tastes leaned towards whiskey-based ones. An Old Fashioned was a frequent staple, which the actor would cut slightly with club soda to lighten it up. This recipe, incidentally, made it into "The John Wayne Official Cocktail Book," a book released by his estate which celebrates his favorite drinks. He was also partial to a martini, too. It's said that he'd enjoy these with Monica Flin, owner of the El Charro Café in Tucson, Arizona. The pair would drink them out of teacups while they played cards during breaks in his filming schedule.

The line between Wayne's public image and his private one feels pretty thin as far as diet is concerned. He usually leaned towards classic American foods — and cornbread was no exception. The actor would whip up a classic cornbread made with cornmeal, flour, buttermilk, sugar, and eggs. And, crucially, Wayne would cook his cornbread using a cowboy-approved method: Baking it in a cast-iron skillet. In fact, his cornbread recipe later ended up in "The John Wayne Cast Iron Official Cookbook," which would also feature recipes and tales from his family about his life.

The use of a cast-iron skillet here was not only crucial for Wayne, but honestly, it's crucial to the success of a good cornbread — so we understand why he'd insist on doing this. Cast-iron skillets have the necessary conductive power to gain enough heat to give cornbread a seriously crispy bottom, and they also ensure that it's cooked evenly. While Wayne's base recipe was simple, he wasn't shy about throwing in extra ingredients to jazz it up, too. While we're not 100% sure what he'd eat it with, we'd imagine it went pretty well with those seared steaks he loved.

John Wayne's love of food was evident to all who knew him, but it was also indicative of his general approach to life and health. It's fair to say that he favored flavor over nutrition a lot of the time, and some of the dietary choices he made would likely be considered slightly contentious by health professionals nowadays, what with his taste for burnt foods and fatty profiles. One dish, milktoast, encapsulates this approach. A recipe that Wayne created himself, milktoast was a kind of French toast, except one that took slightly less work. Wayne would toast a piece of white bread before dipping it in milk and covering it in sugar. He would then top the bread with a fried egg.

Wayne would tend to limit foods like milktoast to when he wasn't shooting a movie; when he was, he would moderate his diet slightly more. However, those close to him suggest, in retrospect, that his inclination for foods like milktoast (and high volumes of alcohol) perhaps contributed to his ill health later in life. Wayne died at 72 years old from stomach cancer, leaving behind a cultural legacy, but also a culinary one.

Wayne's status as perhaps the quintessential American movie star would lead a lot of people to believe that he loved that quintessentially American drink — whiskey — more than anything. That wasn't the case. In fact, his favorite alcohol was actually tequila, which he would drink more than any other liquor. Wayne's love of tequila stemmed from the time he spent shooting movies in Durango, Mexico, and his subsequent admiration of the country. "The tequila connection really arose from John Wayne's love of Mexico," said Chris Radomski, co-founder of Duke Spirits alongside Ethan Wayne. Radomski claims Wayne had a deep appreciation for the people of Mexico.

Duke Spirits, incidentally, would release its own line of tequilas in Wayne's honor, and focus on sipping versions of the drink. This is in line with Wayne's style of drinking it; instead of mixing it, he'd prefer to slowly drink tequila over crushed ice, with a slice of lemon as a garnish and to provide a pop of flavor. In his own lifetime, Wayne drank and highly respected Sauza Conmemorativo Añejo tequila, a beverage that comes from the heart of Jalisco.

As anyone who's ever gone on vacation knows, sometimes a love of a food can be awakened by a visit to a new location, where you happen upon a food that quickly becomes a new favorite. For John Wayne, that happened in Ouray, Colorado. He wasn't on holiday, though: Wayne was shooting his 1969 classic "True Grit," and was staying in the area at the time when he chanced upon the Ouray Café. It was there that Wayne was served huevos rancheros by the chef, and he promptly fell in love with the café's combination of tortilla, pork, pinto beans, egg, and green chili.

However, Wayne's relationship with the town and the café ran a little deeper than just eating there. The star made it his mission to get to know the people of Ouray and extend his own hospitality to the folks who had made him feel welcome in the town. Upon being served huevos rancheros at the Ouray Café, Wayne subsequently invited Phil "Bombie" Martinez, the son of the café's chef, to visit him on set whenever he'd like. The recipe that Wayne was served at Ouray Café remains unchanged to this day.

It's probably not a huge surprise that John Wayne liked coffee. After all, he was a pretty busy man. This was one of the most in-demand stars on the planet, and he needed something to keep him awake through his gruelling shooting schedules. As a result, coffee was a must for Wayne on set, and he very much valued the ritual of pouring a good cup of joe and enjoying it during a much-needed pause.

He also appreciated passing that sense of ritual onto others. At the end of shooting, Wayne would gift his co-stars a coffee mug, with each one bearing a personal inscription and a hand-drawn image relating to the film they had just finished shooting. The mugs would also have a 24-carat gold painted handle, setting them apart from being a mere piece of crockery. Apparently, Wayne started this tradition in 1951 after filming his movie "Flying Leathernecks," and he kept it up for many years beyond that. The Wayne estate would later found the John Wayne Gold Handle Coffee Company in memory of this unique practice.