What Chrissy Teigen Really Eats

Chrissy Teigen is known for many things. She's a prolific tweeter, covering topics from family to politics and everything in between. She's a television host, cookbook author, and model. She's wife of John Legend and mother to Luna. And she is one serious food lover. Combine her love of food with her love for Twitter, and you're in for posts that are both informative and highly entertaining. Whether it's her favorite eateries, useful cooking hacks, or what she's making for dinner that night, you can bet you'll find Teigen talking about all things delicious (and not so delicious). 

Fans appreciate her candor and realness — she's down to nosh at both five-star restaurants or hit up a drive-thru; she balances a diet of healthy choices with comfort food, refusing to apologize or count calories. Refreshing, isn't it? While it can sometimes be hard to determine what's real and what's not on social media, Teigen's tweets seem to paint an accurate picture of how the star really eats, and it all sounds as mouthwatering as you'd expect it to be. Here's more insight into her daily habits. Prepare to drool...

While it's obvious that Chrissy Teigen knows her way around a kitchen — her cookbook, Cravings, is a New York Times bestseller — she's never going to pass up her mom's home cooking. In fact, she told Refinery29 that she will happily eat the matriarch's branzino every day, saying, "I swear to god, if you watch my Snapchat she brings it to me every single night. I have one whole fish every night, covered in garlic and olive oil, stuffed with lemons and rosemary. And I eat it every single night. So I go, 'Mom! Guess what time it is?' And she gets all sad and she goes: 'Fish timeeee.' Cuz she knows she has to finely mince the garlic, which takes forever."

Thankfully, branzino, or European sea bass, is listed as a "best choice" by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch because Teigen also admits that she has been known to eat more than one a day, confessing on Twitter, "I have a garlic covered whole branzino a day. Sometimes two. I know. I can't stop. It's a problem." Sounds like a tasty problem to have, doesn't it?

Teigen is no stranger to Internet trolls, but some of her food preferences seem to rile them up more than others. 

While pregnant with daughter Luna, Teigen made the grave error of posting of her bowl of Cap'n Crunch mixed with Fruity Pebbles (her nightly craving). While her fun cereal combinations aren't new — she has also been known to eat Cap'n Crunch mixed with Frosted Flakes — commenters took exception to the dye used in the cereal, and the effect it might have on the baby. She responded, in the most Chrissy Teigen way possible, saying, "Yes I am living off dyed food. Tuna too!! Gonna try to dye my tuna actually. Then have an icy, dyed vodka soda and that's just lunch." Gotta love her.

In another controversial move, she admitted to putting cheese in her guacamole. Gasp! As you can imagine, that did not sit well with guac purists. Teigen told Delish, "I had an ex-boyfriend of mine whose father would shred up cheddar cheese and fold it into guacamole, and I was like, 'oh my god, I cannot have guacamole any other way now.' I posted about it on my blog a few years ago, and people were like, 'this is a travesty; my grandmother is rolling in her grave thinking about your guacamole!" She didn't back down though, even re-posting a cover story about her recipe, telling followers, "Everyone make my damn guac it's bommmmmb because CHEESE."

Once again, Teigen found herself at the center of controversy when she dropped her Dorito-eating hack during an interview. She explained, "I lick off the nacho cheese seasoning and put the chips back in the bag. You still get all the flavor, not all the carbs!" Now, most people wouldn't assume Teigen was saying that she lives off of Dorito seasoning, or that she endorses this as a proper diet. But, because this is the Internet, the trolls came out in force accusing her of doing just that.

Teigen took to Twitter to address the accusations, saying, "I can't believe I have to address this but my quote about licking the seasoning off Doritos isn't 'promoting eating disorders,' it's a hobby." She further clarified, "I wasn't honestly saying licking the seasoning off Doritos is my idea of diet, you morons." Next time she'll probably keep her snack licking habits to herself.

When it comes to snack time, Teigen tries to make a habit of opting for healthy choices, telling Shape that some of the bites she might reach for in a day include avocado with salt and pepper, raw, unsalted almonds and roasted, salted cashews, wasabi-flavored seaweed sheets to satisfy her salty chip craving, and sashimi. She dishes, ""I LOOOOOOVE sashimi, mainly tuna sashimi. I will buy six pieces or so a day and just snack on them. Sometimes I wrap them up in my mini seaweed sheets." Teigen says she also sips on green juice, just not the ones that taste too good: "I love green juices — the ones that include lots of actual greens and don't include too much apple. Because those are just meant to be yummy and we all know things that are too yummy aren't the best for us unfortunately." 

She's also a self-declared "huge" banana chip fan, which falls into the "healthy" snack category. But it isn't all superfoods, dried fruit, and nutritious elixirs for this food lover...

It would be more surprising to learn that Chrissy Teigen never veered from her healthy snack habits than to learn that she also indulges in carbs, chips, and candy, right? Well, she does veer, and her choices don't disappoint. 

Keeping her fans up to date on her tasty concoctions, Teigen tweeted about a delicious discovery, saying, "New favorite snack: toasted bread with prosciutto, avocado, tomato, and red onion, and perhaps a slice of American cheese if I'm feelin' nasty." She also instructed her followers to try this go-to bagel preparation: "Everything bagel with butter until it melts and forms pools and pepperoncinis on the side. Try it. Oh baby." And in one more carb-tastic tweet, she implored us all to try another favorite, tweeting, "Toasted bagel with butter, cream cheese and jelly. GET ON BOARD. Butter and cream cheese are friends." American cheese and pools of butter... two more reasons to love Chrissy Teigen.

We've already established that Chrissy Teigen will chow down on carbs with no apologies (as she should), but she does try to maintain somewhat of a balanced diet. She let MyRecipes in on her method, explaining, "John and I always try to eat kind of low carb. We eat a lot of protein and a lot of vegetables. And if we want a pasta, then we're going to share a pasta. It's really about the little decisions you make that you know work for your body type. And, of course, there are always going to be decadent times where you're going to be like, 'I can't believe I ate that.' You want to be able to indulge and enjoy life and enjoy flavors." 

Teigen has plenty of smart ways to cut carbs without sacrificing flavor. She shared some of her healthy cooking tips with Elle, saying, "If I want mashed potatoes, I make cauliflower mashed potatoes, which taste exactly the same. I basically just take all of my cravings and make them low carb. I love Thai boat noodles: They are kind of like pho, but with a very hearty broth. I will make the broth and just do no noodles and more bean sprouts. I need to be able to eat what I want to eat, so I just get rid of as many carbs as possible that go into it."

As we've established, Chrissy Teigen eats whatever the heck she wants, be it carbs or no carbs; green juice or candy. So how does she feel about fast food? She happens to adore it, spilling to Delish, "I eat fast food a few times a week. Sometimes I go a little crazy, especially when things get nuts and I'm in L.A. I'm used to living in New York and I myself would never ever venture into a Taco Bell or McDonald's. But there's something about L.A., with the drive-thru — it's too easy. I get haters who ask why I would eat that kind of meat? There's a balance with anything. When I cook, everything is organic and very clean; I'm meticulous and kind of insane about it. But sometimes you just want a Doritos Locos Taco."

And to drink? Teigen professes to Food & Wine, "There's nothing like a McDonald's Dr. Pepper. Even with breakfast. I used to do the Minute Maid orange juice thing, now I'm just like, screw it."

As much as Teigen loves fast food, everyone has to have a favorite chain — and depending on your loyalties, you may or may not agree when it comes to her picks. She laid it out for Refinery29, saying, "[Top:] Obviously Taco Bell, McDonald's always a classic. I'm gonna go ahead and say Shake Shack over In-N-Out. Bottom: Oh god, let's see, that's tough because there are a lot of middle ones I love. I love Wendy's. I love Chick-fil-A, I do think Chick-Fil-A is slightly overrated, though. Especially cuz they won't just like f**king put the s**t on the burger for you. Like, my god, put it on the f**king burger. So that's why it loses points for me."

She holds a soft spot for McDonald's (she did happen to represent the company in a television commercial), and swears by its cheeseburgers, telling Food & Wine, "Nothing reheats better than a McDonald's cheeseburger. I put it in for 35 seconds, still in the paper, and it comes out like a soft, delicious, warm pillow. It's perfect. I swear, anytime I order them, I get four at a time and keep them in the fridge and then just heat them up, and it is truly the perfect snack. I get it with hot mustard because hot mustard is my favorite McDonald's dipping sauce."

Chrissy Teigen obviously loves food — a lot — but is there any dish that she loves more than sex?

She has often waxed poetic about her husband's fried chicken, and when asked if there was a food she couldn't control herself around, she told Bon Appétit, "John's fried chicken. It's just chicken wings soaked in Lawry's seasoned salt, water, and garlic powder, then shaken around in a bag of flour and shoved in the fryer. I eat them naked without hot sauce."

But when talking to Delish, Teigen had to make the tough call, ultimately deciding on something else she thinks is even better than sex. "John's fried chicken is really, really amazing — I'm a fried chicken nut — but is it better than sex? That's a hard one; the sex is pretty good! Actually, my mom's scalloped potatoes are better than sex — final answer," she said. These are the same potatoes that she took as her carry-on — still warm — aboard a flight, so they must be pretty darn amazing.  

One thing's for sure: Chrissy Teigen loves condiments. You're always going to find hot sauce, steak sauce, pickled peppers, and even a secret ingredient in her refrigerator.

She explained her hot sauce preferences to Bon Appétit, saying, "For breakfast, Cholula. For dinner, Sriracha. And I could drink A.1." Just how serious is she about the Cholula? Very. "I'm obsessed with Cholula. I bring packets on the airplane. People get jealous and ask the flight attendant for some and they say I brought them myself. I have them upstairs in my hotel room right now!" she told Delish.

We already know how Teigen prefers to top her bagel, so it's no surprise that you'll find pickled peppers in her fridge. She says, "They're my go-to. Pickled green hot peppers, deli-style pickled jalapeños, pepperoncinis. I put them in certain dishes, like tuna casserole, when I want that crunchy bite of heat, but I mainly just munch on them. I love intense spice, and sour, too — anything super acidic."

And her must-have secret ingredient? She told Food & Wine that it's garlic oil, explaining, "[It] is one of my favorite things on the planet. You can roast 20 cloves of garlic in oil and use it in everything — you can even slide those soft whole cloves into a dish of hot mashed potatoes."

Though she probably has the means and opportunity to eat at five-star restaurants every night, Teigen appreciates home cooking, comfort food, and generally unpretentious eats (hello, fast food).

She described one of her and John's favorite dishes to make for guests, telling MyRecipes, "We love Frito Pie, which is a tailgating-style dish. We make John's chili, dump it into a little bag of Fritos, and then have an entire buffet of all of these accouterments for it like shredded cheddar, green onion, and sour cream.... When you see these little bags of Fritos with their tops rolled down and this pot of crazy-flavorful, bold chili, and then all these little bowls of toppings for people to jazz it up however they want, it really sets the tone for a party."

Teigen even uses pre-packaged ramen in her cookbook recipes with no shame. She posted on Instagram, "Mom's Tom Yum soup has been completed for book two! We added Top Ramen instant noodles to her homemade broth to make it like my favorite 'mama' noodles (basically Thai flavored instant ramen) from childhood. SOOOOOO good!!!"

And one more favorite we can all relate to? Hot Pockets. She admitted to Vogue that the frozen delights are her go-to late night snack. Same, Chrissy.

We know all about Teigen's penchant for sugary cereal, but what else does she crave when she has a bun in the oven? Turns out it's all pretty usual stuff. She told Food & Wine, "I think with Luna, they were much more specific. I really wanted meat and milk with her. I wanted sour candy. Now I'm entering that phase with crazy acid reflux. It's not a bad thing because I can only eat pasta and potatoes. I can do hamburgers, but I can't have Thai food and I love crazy spicy food. I definitely am craving sandwiches a lot, like deli sandwiches. I feel like little boy isn't as picky as Luna was."

Of course, her love of fast food shows through while pregnant, too. About two hours after tweeting that nothing but Hooters sounded good, she updated followers with a picture of their curly fries and a burger, captioning the scene, "I hate myself." Probably tasted good at the time though.

Though Chrissy Teigen seems to be pretty open to most foods, there are a few things she just won't eat.

In a crushing blow to Nutella lovers, she took to Twitter to voice her disdain for the beloved spread, which happens to make her "do not like" list. Not only did she profess that "Nutella is s**t," she also elaborated to say that Bush's baked beans were better than the chocolate-hazelnut condiment. Fighting words?

Aside from Nutella, she also admits to hating parsley, fennel, capers, and beets. And innards. "I'm not a big innards person," she confessed to Refinery29, "like even if it's fried and delicious I'm not doing liver or bone marrow. I don't need to pretend that I have taste."

As for pizza? She dished, "You know what's weird is I really hate sun-dried tomatoes. I really do not like a sun-dried tomato, but I'll put anything else on a pizza... I'm not a big olive person because of the whole caper aversion... but anything kinda goes for a pizza."