Elvis Presley: Graceland Cook Admits ‘He Wouldn’t Let Us’ Put Him on a Diet and ‘Ate What He Wanted to Eat’
Elvis Presley‘s diet has fascinated to the king of rock and roll’s fans. He craved Southern classics and enjoyed them when he returned to Memphis, TN. However, one of Graceland’s cooks admitted that despite their best efforts to try and get Elvis to eat healthily, “he wouldn’t let us” put him on a diet.
Graceland’s cook reveals Elvis Presley ‘ate what he wanted to eat’
Nancy Rooks worked directly for Elvis Presley at his Graceland home from 1967 through his death in 1977. She had firsthand knowledge about the king of rock and roll’s dietary habits.
In an interview with Classic Bands, Rooks explained the concern some members of the Presley household had with Elvis’ overall diet. She claimed that there were some non-negotiable elements of working for the entertainer.
“At that time when we were fixin’ food for him, a lot of it was fat, sure,” Rooks said of the southern meals Elvis loved and craved when he returned home to Memphis, TN. “We would try to put him on a diet, but he wouldn’t let us.”
She continued, “He wanted what he wanted to eat. You couldn’t make any suggestions.”
Rooks claimed that while working at Graceland, Elvis watched her on a security camera as she took food off his plate. “He would see me on the camera and tell me to go back and put that food on his plate. He’d be upset. I’d have to come back downstairs and put it back.”
Elvis Presley’s mealtimes were flipped due to his sleep schedule
Historically, Elvis Presley was a night owl. He enjoyed staying up all night and retiring in the morning when others were beginning their day.
Therefore, his meals reflected that adjusted schedule. He would eat dinner very early in the morning and breakfast around dinnertime.
Nancy Rooks explained what Elvis would eat when she worked at Graceland. “He would breakfast at this time (5 PM) in the evening. This would be his breakfast time. He didn’t eat in the morning like maybe you or I would eat breakfast ’cause he would be asleep most of the time in the morning.”
She revealed that when she arrived at Graceland at six a.m. Elvis would just be heading to bed. “I would get there maybe six o’clock in the morning or close to seven. And at that time, most of the time, he would just be going upstairs to go to bed.”
“I would probably get him some orange juice up there, some water, or try to get him to eat something before he would lay down. Sometimes we would take some orange juice, an egg omelet, a biscuit, and some bacon up there. Sometime he would eat a little something. Maybe a cup of coffee,” she continued.
Nancy Rooks tried to feed Elvis healthy food
As his cook along with Mary Jenkins, Nancy Rooks attempted to find ways to sneak healthy food into Elvis Presley’s diet. Mostly, these additions were in the form of snacks.
“He might wake up sometime during the day upstairs, so we would probably take him some water. Or we would have a bowl of fruit up there,” Rooks revealed.
“I had some honeydew melons, watermelons, some cantaloupes, all cut up in pieces,” she claimed. However, if those choices didn’t satisfy the king of rock and roll’s sweet tooth, there were other options.
“We’d have chocolate ice box pie, lemon ice box pie, coconut pie, not all at once. We’d have one of them in the refrigerator up there, and he could snack on it if he wanted to,” she concluded.
Nancy Rooks authored a cookbook alongside Vester Presley, Elvis’ uncle, titled The Presley Family Cookbook. Many of the recipes included in this book reflected the meals Rooks prepared at Graceland.
