Hugh Hefner's Strict Food Rules Were As Unique As His Lifestyle

Hugh Hefner, publisher of the adult lifestyle magazine Playboy, still lives on as an icon even after he died in 2017. In addition to extravagant parties and beautiful girls, Hefner enjoyed the food he ate, though in his specific way. 

Hugh Hefner was private when it came to his enjoyment of food. JJ Reinhart, Hefner's chef for eight years, recalled him ducking away for his meals rather than eating out with guests, Playmates, or girlfriends. Thanksgiving dinner was the only time Hefner would come out and eat with those around him. Even whenever Hefner would head out to a restaurant, he would have his chefs prep a meal at home to have the restaurant staff cook. The prepped food would include specific instructions for the restaurant's cooks so that his food was made and presented as he liked, which some may consider as going beyond the amount you should customize a dinner order before it's considered rude.

Though if Hefner were to actually eat out at a restaurant, it would have been at his favorite, The Melting Pot. Hefner even loved this national chain of fondue restaurants so much that the Playboy-centric reality series "The Girls Next Door," devoted an entire episode to it. In the episode, the production turned the Playboy Mansion into a Melting Pot (which was plotting a comeback in 2024) for his and his wife's fifth anniversary.

In terms of meals at the Playboy Mansion, Hefner could choose from 31 items on its menu, no matter the time of day. Each meal correlated to a number so that Hefner could quickly call in his order. Some of the meals were simple comfort food, such as grilled cheese and potato chips or chicken strips and baked potato. Many of the items related to Hefner's Midwestern background and love for the region's food, like fried chicken and mashed potatoes. For dinner, Hefner was known to dine on lamb chops, so much so that his chef William Bloxsom-Carter even shared the recipe for Hugh Hefner's Lamb Chop Dinner with Gourmet. 

Possibly the quirkiest of Hefner's food habits, though, was his daily grapefruit. Every single day, Hefner would eat half a grapefruit. which weighs around four ounces.  Eating half a grapefruit for 365 days would equate to eating more than 91 pounds of the citrus fruit per year. By way of comparison, the average American only eats around 1 ½ pounds of grapefruit in a year (or, at least they did, until people stopped eating grapefruit for breakfast). So, it goes without saying that when it came to food, Hefner had his quirks.