Elizabeth Taylor's Favorite Food Was This American Comfort Classic

Violet-eyed Dame Elizabeth Taylor was a London girl by birth, but her best-beloved dinner was an American classic. When she wasn't stunning on the silver screen — or carrying on one of her many highly-publicized, jet-setting romances — Taylor was a great lover of good food. She was known to savor a nice PB&J just as much as beluga caviar, but her special passion was fried chicken. We previously ran down the best fried chicken restaurants in every state, and, for Taylor, California was her home base and the locale for some of her favorite chicken dishes.

Singer Lionel Richie told the hosts of "The View" (via ABC) that, when he hosted Liz Taylor and her then-beau George Hamilton for dinner in the '80s, he was so intimidated by the thought of serving La Liz that he asked her directly what she wanted. He was directed to fabled Los Angeles soul food eatery Maurice's Snack 'N Chat, where Maurice Prince herself knew Taylor's order: fried chicken with all the fixings. At the Beverly Hills Hotel, where Taylor's favorite bungalow has been renamed after her since her death, she would frequent the Polo Lounge restaurant and sup on fried chicken with mashed potatoes and lashings of gravy. 

Perhaps it boggles your mind to think of Elizabeth Taylor touching a stove — the actress's very name does evoke an otherworldly glamor not usually associated with plebeian tasks like food prep. However, it's been documented that Taylor actually knew how to fry up her own chicken. Designer Vicky Tiel, who penned a memoir in 2011, reported (via Middleburg Life) that Taylor took a high-low approach to her dinner parties, pairing the most humble eats with the loftiest Champagne and priceless bottles of wine. 

Fried chicken, Tiel reflects, was served with Chateau Lafite Rothschild. Tiel also reported that Liz adored fried chicken, and would prepare it in her home after shopping at the local grocer just like a member of the common folk. In the 1970s, Dame Liz was photographed cooking fried chicken in the kitchen of her sprawling Atoka Farm estate in Virginia, where she lived with then-husband, Senator John Warren and entertained American politicos.

There's a whole slew of mistakes that people often make when cooking fried chicken, which is why we rely on tips for preparing the dish that celebrity chefs have given the world. We bet that Liz was a champ at cooking her favorite meal, though — no tips needed.