Famous names may have access to elaborate meals, but some of their most interesting recipes rely on supermarket shortcuts, leftovers, and ingredients already sitting in the refrigerator.
Across several celebrity recipe taste tests, familiar faces went up against experienced cooks including Ina Garten, Martha Stewart, Ree Drummond, and Giada De Laurentiis. The results were not always what their culinary résumés might suggest.
One actor transformed a basic salad with an ingredient normally associated with sushi. A former first lady skipped homemade pastry, while another star’s dessert came within two-tenths of a perfect score.
Matthew McConaughey Raids the Refrigerator
Matthew McConaughey’s approach to tuna salad is about as far from a rigid recipe as it gets. He uses what is available in his refrigerator and pantry, but several ingredients form the backbone of his version.
In an Allrecipes taste test of nine celebrity tuna salads, McConaughey finished in third place. That put him ahead of professional food personalities including Kardea Brown, Giada De Laurentiis, Martha Stewart, and Ina Garten.
His version begins with tuna, mayonnaise, white wine vinegar, and wasabi paste. Then come peas, corn, pickles, and crispy jalapeño chips. The result was the spiciest tuna salad in the test, according to Allrecipes.
The reviewer found a mix of sweet, savory, tangy, and hot flavors rather than one ingredient dominating the bowl. McConaughey explained his less-than-formal process during an appearance on the “2 Bears, 1 Cave” podcast.
His routine starts on Sunday nights, when he uses the opportunity to clear out food he already has. The actor starts with what he considers good tuna, then watches the amount of lemon and vinegar he adds.
He mixes mayonnaise with wasabi before adding it to the tuna so the fish absorbs that base first. From there, McConaughey adds chopped red onion and finely sliced dill pickles. Crispy jalapeño pieces provide another layer of heat and, importantly, crunch.
Then things get sweeter. Apple and a little agave help balance the wasabi. Corn is another regular addition, and frozen green peas go in near the end. EatingWell’s account of the recipe also notes another ingredient in his version: Italian dressing.
The actor does not necessarily consider the salad finished when he mixes it. He prefers it after it has spent time covered in the refrigerator, allowing the ingredients to sit together overnight.
Matthew McConaughey’s Tuna Salad Recipe
Ingredients:
• Good-quality canned tuna
• Mayonnaise
• Wasabi
• Lemon
• Vinegar
• Italian dressing
• Red onion, chopped
• Dill pickles, finely sliced
• Crispy jalapeño pieces
• Apple
• Agave
• Corn
• Frozen green peas
How to make it:
Mix the mayonnaise with wasabi, then add it to the tuna. Add a small amount of lemon and vinegar, followed by the remaining ingredients. Refrigerate overnight if possible so the flavors have time to come together.
McConaughey did not provide exact measurements, so quantities should be adjusted to taste. His recipe is less about precise measurements than balancing heat, sweetness, acidity, creaminess, and crunch. It also turns leftovers into the basis of his weekly meal.
Yet another celebrity took a much more familiar American classic and used an equally practical shortcut.
Michelle Obama Skips Homemade Crust
Michelle Obama’s apple dessert entered an Allrecipes comparison alongside recipes from several people far more closely associated with professional cooking.
The six-recipe apple pie taste test included Ina Garten, Kardea Brown, Martha Stewart, Ree Drummond, Obama, and Gordon Ramsay. Obama finished third. That placed her behind Ramsay and Drummond, but ahead of Stewart, Brown, and Garten.
There is an important distinction in what Obama actually calls her dish. It is her “Ultimate Apple Cobbler,” although Allrecipes included it in the apple pie comparison because of its use of pie crust. Her shortcut is simple: The crust comes from the store.
The official Obama Foundation recipe calls for three sheets of refrigerated pie crust rather than pastry made from scratch. The shortcut does not make this a last-minute dessert, however.
Obama’s method calls for combining the filling ingredients and leaving them in the refrigerator overnight so the spices work through the apples. The next day, a large baking dish is buttered and floured.
The refrigerated crust is rolled as thin as possible, with one and a half sheets forming the bottom. The apples and their liquid go over that crust, followed by three-quarters of a stick of butter dotted around the fruit.
The remaining pastry covers the filling completely, and its edges are pinched around the sides of the pan. The final quarter-stick of butter is melted and brushed across the top. Then comes another unusual part: the baking time.
After initially preheating the oven to 325 degrees F, the recipe instructs cooks to reduce it to 300 degrees and bake the cobbler for up to three hours. It recommends beginning to check it after two and a half hours to prevent burning.
The long bake is intended to produce a flaky crust — specifically, the kind Barack Obama likes.
Michelle Obama’s Ultimate Apple Cobbler Recipe
For the filling:
• 8 Granny Smith apples, peeled and sliced, or a bag of frozen peeled apples
• 1 1/2 to 2 cups brown sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup white flour
For the crust:
• 3 sheets refrigerated pie crust
• 1 stick butter
How to make it:
• Mix the filling ingredients and refrigerate overnight. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F, then butter and flour a large baking dish.
• Roll the crusts very thin and use 1 1/2 sheets to cover the bottom, then prick several holes in the pastry. Add the apples and their liquid and dot with 3/4 stick of butter.
• Cover completely with the remaining crust and pinch the edges. Melt the remaining 1/4 stick of butter and brush it over the top.
• Reduce the oven to 300 degrees F and bake for up to three hours, checking after 2 1/2 hours. The recipe serves eight to 10.
In Allrecipes’ test, the overnight preparation preserved the distinct flavor and tartness of the Granny Smith apples while allowing the cinnamon and nutmeg to come through.
Obama’s recipe therefore combines two ideas that seem almost contradictory: a time-saving packaged crust and a preparation process that stretches across two days. The next celebrity dish is far faster — and far cheesier.
Dolly Parton’s Family Recipe Goes Heavy on Cheese
The late Dolly Parton’s family mac and cheese came from “Good Lookin’ Cookin’,” the cookbook she co-authored with her sister Rachel Parton George.
The mac and cheese recipe was published before her death and combines cheddar, Monterey Jack, and Velveeta with milk, eggs, sour cream, butter, and mustard powder. An Allrecipes comparison of five celebrity mac and cheese recipes gave Parton’s version a score of 7.9/10.
That put her just behind Patti LaBelle’s 8/10 and below Ina Garten’s winning 9/10. However, Parton’s mac and cheese still beat Giada De Laurentiis’ 7/10 and Trisha Yearwood’s 6.9/10. The dish was built for people who do not mind a lot of cheese.
The tester found the ratio so generous that the problem was not too much cheese, but rather that there was not quite enough pasta for all of it. The full recipe, shared by ABC News, shows just how much went into the sisters’ version.
Dolly Parton’s Mac and Cheese
Ingredients:
• Butter, for greasing
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups elbow macaroni
• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
• 2 1/2 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese
• 2 eggs, beaten1 cup whole milk, room temperature
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1 teaspoon mustard powder
• 8-ounce block Velveeta, cubed
How to make it:
• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and grease a 9-by-13-inch baking pan with butter.
• Cook the macaroni for two to three minutes less than the package directions specify. Do not overcook or rinse it. Drain well, return it to the pot, and coat it with the olive oil.
• Reserve 1/4 cup each of the cheddar and Monterey Jack for the topping.
• Combine the eggs, milk, sour cream, melted butter, and mustard powder. Stir in the Velveeta and remaining cheddar and Monterey Jack, then add the macaroni and mix until well coated.
• Transfer the mixture to the prepared pan and sprinkle the reserved cheeses over the top. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the cheese is bubbly.
• Let the dish rest for 15 to 20 minutes before serving. The recipe makes six to eight servings.
Parton and her sister specifically credited the Velveeta with giving their version its creamy texture. The family recipe remains one of the dishes Parton shared during the final years of her life, and in the Allrecipes test, it finished ahead of recipes from De Laurentiis and Yearwood.
It was a straightforward comfort-food recipe, but another celebrity found success with a dish in which how the main ingredient is handled matters as much as what gets mixed into it.
Bethenny Frankel Has One Rule for Chicken
Bethenny Frankel finished second in an Allrecipes test of seven celebrity chicken salad recipes. Kardea Brown took first place, but Frankel still finished ahead of Matthew McConaughey, Ree Drummond, Martha Stewart, Ina Garten, and Alex Guarnaschelli.
Frankel’s method begins with rotisserie chicken, and she is particular about its texture. “I believe in shredding, I do not believe in chopping,” she said while demonstrating her recipe. “You do not need to food process this. Do it by hand.”
Frankel uses the white meat from a rotisserie chicken and recommends working with chicken that is around room temperature or slightly warm. According to her method, warmer chicken absorbs the mayonnaise better.
If the meat is cold, she suggests briefly warming it before shredding. She also removes tougher outside pieces from the chicken before breaking the meat apart by hand. Celery gets similarly close attention.
Frankel minces one stalk very finely because she does not want too much crunch. Her reasoning is that finely chopped celery releases more liquid. That moisture brings celery flavor into the chicken while helping keep the salad from becoming dry.
Frankel then adds ordinary jarred mayonnaise rather than a specialty version. Salt, black pepper, Dijon mustard, and finely minced dill follow. She adjusts the mayonnaise as she mixes rather than treating the initial amount as final.
There is one more addition that takes the moisture idea further: a tiny splash of celery juice. Frankel said the extra liquid provides celery flavor and can reduce the amount of mayonnaise needed.
Bethenny Frankel’s Chicken Salad Recipe
Ingredients:
• White meat from 1 rotisserie chicken breast
• 1 celery stalk, very finely minced
• Regular jarred mayonnaise, about 2 large spoonfuls to start, plus more as needed
• Salt
• Black pepper
• Dijon mustard
• Fresh dill, finely minced
• Tiny splash of celery juice
• Optional: Grapes are sometimes added to Frankel’s chicken salad.
How to make it:
• Bring the chicken close to room temperature or warm it very briefly if cold. Remove tougher outer pieces and shred the meat thoroughly by hand rather than chopping or processing it.
• Mince the celery as finely as possible and add it to the chicken. Mix in the mayonnaise, salt, pepper, Dijon, and dill, adjusting the mayonnaise as needed.
• Finish with a very small splash of celery juice for extra moisture and celery flavor.
In the Allrecipes test, the hand-shredded approach produced a tender, creamy chicken salad. The tester also added wasabi-flavored tobiko, following another topping Frankel has used with chicken salad.
The result did not quite beat Brown’s winning recipe, but it put Frankel ahead of several major culinary names. Still, none of those scores approached what happened when Reese Witherspoon’s Southern dessert was tested.
Reese Witherspoon Nearly Gets a Perfect Score
Witherspoon was one of six celebrities whose desserts were put through an Allrecipes taste test. The field was strong.
Snoop Dogg’s buttermilk pound cake scored 3.5/10. Willie Nelson’s banana bread earned 8.5/10, Taylor Swift’s chai sugar cookies received 8.8/10, and Al Roker’s sweet potato dessert scored 9/10.
Benny Blanco’s banana pudding came close to the top with 9.2/10. Then came Witherspoon’s Derby Pie. It scored 9.8/10. The Southern-style dessert combines elements associated with pecan pie with both walnuts and chocolate.
The tester used a store-bought crust, par-baked it, and then added the filling. One feature stood out when the finished dessert was cut: the filling held together cleanly rather than collapsing. It was also described as buttery and sweet without becoming excessively sugary.
The result impressed tester Nicole McLaughlin enough that the pie earned a place on her Thanksgiving menu. Witherspoon’s published chocolate Derby pecan pie recipe shows just how simple the preparation is.
Reese Witherspoon’s Chocolate Derby Pecan Pie Recipe
Ingredients:
• 3 large eggs, slightly beaten
• 110 grams unsalted butter, melted
• 100 grams plain flour
• 170 grams sugar
• 45 grams brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 200 grams semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 75 grams pecans, chopped
• 75 grams walnuts, chopped
• 23-centimeter ready-baked pastry case
• Whipped cream or ice cream, optional
How to make it:
• Heat the oven to 160 degrees C fan, or 180 degrees C non-fan. Whisk the eggs, melted butter, flour, sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla until smooth.
• Stir in the chocolate chips, pecans, and walnuts, then spread the filling into the pastry case. Bake for about 35 minutes, until the filling is set and the top and crust are golden.
• Serve with whipped cream or ice cream if desired. The pie can also be made a day ahead and chilled.
The outlet notes that U.S. ready-baked pastry cases tend to be deeper and use puff pastry, so there may be filling left over. Witherspoon’s dessert won decisively, but the final recipe in this group produced a different kind of upset.
Its ingredient list is short, its cooking time is brief, and the person who tested it admitted it was not the recipe she expected to love.
Cameron Diaz’s Salad Delivers the Biggest Surprise
Cameron Diaz faced Reese Witherspoon, Ree Drummond, and Pepper Teigen in an Allrecipes corn salad taste test. Witherspoon’s family recipe finished fourth. Her grandmother Dorothea’s salad uses raw corn with basil, cilantro, chives, tarragon, parsley, and a shallot-Dijon vinaigrette.
Keeping the corn raw made it especially quick and allowed its natural sweetness to remain prominent. However, the tester felt the salad needed something rich, such as cheese or bacon, to balance its acidity.
Ree Drummond took third place with a heartier salad containing grilled corn, sweet onion, pinto beans, avocado, yellow tomatoes, pimiento peppers, and cilantro dressing.
The tester used a cast-iron skillet instead of a grill and found that the char added savory depth. The avocado supplied richness, though the final salad was still judged to be missing a salty or crunchy element. Pepper Teigen came much closer to winning.
Her second-place recipe sautés corn in bacon fat and adds cherry tomatoes, bacon, chilies, avocado, and fish sauce. The tester found that the fish sauce strengthened the smoky, sweet, and salty qualities without overpowering the dish.
Then came Diaz. Her recipe required only a few minutes of actual cooking and less than 15 minutes from start to finish when the Allrecipes tester followed along with Diaz’s video. The corn is pan-fried over high heat with olive oil until the kernels begin to brown and pop.
The goal is not to turn them into popcorn but to give them crisp exteriors while keeping the centers creamy. Diaz combines that warm corn with chopped raw sugar snap peas. She likes the contrast between the roasted ingredient and the cool, crisp vegetable.
The vinaigrette starts with champagne vinegar and olive oil. Garlic and salt also enter the mixture. But one ingredient changes the balance. Diaz adds fresh orange juice. Rather than adding sugar to offset the vinegar’s acidity, she uses the natural sweetness of the citrus.
In her recipe demonstration, Diaz explained the idea plainly: “The key to the vinaigrette is just a little bit of orange.” She said the orange provides enough sweetness to cut the acidity of the vinegar without adding sugar.
After the warm corn and raw snap peas are combined, Diaz drizzles the vinaigrette over them. Crumbled feta brings a creamy, salty component, while flaky finishing salt and pepper complete the salad.
That combination gave the dish what the other contenders had been missing. The Allrecipes tester found it salty, sweet, crunchy, and creamy, with a balance of temperatures and textures.
She had already made it several more times by the time she wrote about the test. Diaz’s salad therefore took first place, ahead of Teigen, Drummond, and Witherspoon.
It also makes roughly one serving as a light lunch or snack, though the quantities can be increased for a barbecue, potluck, or family meal. Diaz suggested pairing it with chicken thigh or grilled chicken breast as well.
Cameron Diaz’s Corn and Snap Pea Salad Recipe
Ingredients:
• Fresh corn, cut from the cob
• Sugar snap peas, chopped
• Olive oil
• Kosher salt
• Feta cheese, crumbled
• Flaky finishing salt
• Black pepper
For the vinaigrette:
• Champagne vinegar
• Olive oil
• Fresh orange juice
• A small amount of garlic
• Salt
How to make it:
• Make the vinaigrette first so it can sit while the rest of the salad comes together. Combine champagne vinegar, olive oil, a little fresh orange juice, garlic, and salt.
• Pan-fry the corn in a little olive oil over high heat, seasoning with kosher salt. Keep the pan uncovered so the corn roasts rather than steams, moving it around as needed until the kernels begin to brown and pop.
• Chop the snap peas into pieces roughly comparable in size to the corn. Combine the hot corn with the raw snap peas, drizzle with vinaigrette, then add crumbled feta, black pepper, and a small amount of flaky finishing salt.
Diaz demonstrated the recipe without exact measurements. Across all six celebrity recipes, there is no single formula behind the strongest results.
McConaughey builds tuna salad around refrigerator leftovers, wasabi, and crispy jalapeños. Obama combines packaged pastry with an overnight apple filling and an unusually long bake.
Parton relies on three cheeses, sour cream, and eggs for an especially rich mac and cheese. Frankel argues that chicken salad should be shredded by hand rather than chopped or processed. Witherspoon turns chocolate, pecans, and walnuts into a dessert that scored 9.8/10.
And Cameron Diaz took the simplest-looking contender of the bunch and won her entire taste test with browned corn, crisp snap peas, feta, and a vinaigrette whose most important twist was something as ordinary as a little orange juice.