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Audrey Hepburn featured in more than 25 films, and she’s one of the most well-known actresses of all time. The fame isn’t just based on her onscreen work, though. From the 1980s until her death in 1993, Hepburn served as an active ambassador for UNICEF, visiting children all around the world and campaigning on their behalf. In addition to winning an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony, she also earned the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1992 — the highest civilian honor in the United States.
In her youth, however, Hepburn lived under Nazi occupation in the Netherlands, often facing food deprivation and other hardships.
That period of intense starvation gave her great compassion for people living in difficult situations. It may have also been responsible for her thin frame. Indeed, the beloved actress was not into celebrity fad diets. Luca Dotti, Hepburn’s son, even noted that his mother loved to cook and eat. She apparently believed in eating “a little bit of everything,” according to Luca in Readers’ Digest. Self-denial was not a thing she endorsed.
If you’d like to eat like Audrey (and who wouldn’t?), here’s where to start.
Although we think of Audrey Hepburn as a Hollywood star with a British accent, the actress was actually born in Brussels. She split her time between England and the Netherlands as a child. And Hutspot is a Dutch dish made from a puree of potatoes, carrots, onions, and the occasional meat like beef, bacon or rookworst (a smoked Dutch sausage.) In his book Audrey at Home: Memories of My Mother’s Kitchen, Luca Dotti wrote that Hepburn prepared this Dutch dish for herself and Robert Wolders, her partner. Wolders grew up in the Netherlands just a few miles away from Audrey’s hometown of Arnhem.
No, this wasn’t part of a crash diet. In 1939, when Hepburn was 10 and attending boarding school in England, World War II broke out. Her mother, a Dutch baroness and former Hitler supporter, pulled the young girl out of school so they could reunite in Arnhem. The Nazis violently invaded the Netherlands in 1940, though, and attempted to starve the country’s citizens by cutting off food supplies. According to Dotti, Hepburn and her family ate nettles, grass, and tulips to feel full.
Of course, there’s more pasta. But this dish had a very unauthentic twist. Luca Dotti says that while his mother typically preferred fresh, organic vegetables, every now and then, she wanted to relax. Consequently, she served penne pasta with ketchup and cheese, and the family ate it right in front of the TV. Dotti added that Audrey Hepburn especially loved classic films with big song and dance numbers because she trained as a ballerina as a child.
In Luca Dotti’s book, he mentioned that his mother firmly believed in the health benefits of certain foods to treat particular illnesses. He added that Audrey Hepburn suffered through two miscarriages before giving birth to her oldest son Sean (his half brother), in 1960, and two more after that. When Hepburn got pregnant again nine years later, doctors put her on bed rest and recommended that she eat liver (which is now known to be potentially harmful to unborn babies). Consequently, Hepburn’s husband, Andrea Dotti, made an Italian dish called fegato alla Veneziana — calf’s liver with onions — to make the medicine a bit more appetizing.
Audrey Hepburn wasn’t pretentious when it came to breakfast foods. In fact, she kept the first meal of the day very simple and filling. According to a 1959 Good Housekeeping magazine, the vibrant star always preferred to have two boiled eggs served with seven-grain whole wheat toast for breakfast when she was in her 30s.
Along with her eggs and toast, Audrey Hepburn loved coffee. According to Good Housekeeping, she often drank three or four cups of the caffeinated beverage with hot milk. Luca Dotti mentioned in his book, Audrey at Home, that he often chatted with his mother over morning lattes. And it’s no wonder Hepburn needed a boost. She apparently got out of bed between 4 AM and 5 AM to practice her lines and prepare for work.
Like most people, Audrey Hepburn experienced a few different changes in taste over the years. Her love for breakfast, however, never wavered. Hepburn’s partner, Robert Wolders, probably knew better than anyone exactly how the actress liked to start her days. Moreover, Wolders noted that during their relationship, Hepburn liked to eat a simple daily breakfast of toast and jam.
Audrey Hepburn had a very personal history with her favorite comfort food. In Audrey at Home, Dottie wrote that his mother would eat chocolate when she got into arguments as a child. It helped alleviate stress. And when Allied soldiers liberated Arnhem in 1945, a Dutch soldier gave Hepburn seven candy bars and a meal that included condensed milk. She ate everything quickly and got a stomachache soon after. For the rest of her life, though, the actress always kept chocolate on hand. In fact, Hepburn joked that old age helped her go from eating every piece of chocolate in a box immediately to eating every candy in the span of two hours!
And spaghetti in tomato sauce was her one of her all-time favorite meals. In fact, Luca Dotti remembered that his mom politely asked for it at even the most elaborate restaurants. And she definitely indulged in big portions and multiple helpings. Hepburn also made batches of spaghetti for her favorite people. After marrying Italian Andrea Dotti (Luca’s dad) and moving to Rome, Hepburn considered herself Italian. She even hated to go more than a few days without eating pasta. In Audrey at Home, Luca shared that during one trip, Hepburn packed her suitcase with spaghetti, olive oil, and Italian cheese.
This Italian sauce started out as a topping on Neapolitan pizzas, and at some point, people started adding meat to it. In fact, the name translates to something like “meat in the style of the pizzaiola.” According to Luca Dotti, the dish was intended for children, but Audrey Hepburn’s husband loved it. When Hepburn made the sauce, she always swapped in chicken instead of the traditional beef.
Luca Dotti explained that his mother would have what one might call a detox day about once a month. She usually scheduled these days after long plane journeys. On the detoxing occasions, Hepburn switched out her usual toast and jam breakfast for plain yogurt and grated apple, followed with lots of fruit and vegetables and plenty of water.
Some Westerners made their fortunes by selling Indian spices. And Audrey Hepburn’s ancestors gained an immense amount of wealth through trade in the Dutch colonies. Luca Dotti noted that Hepburn’s baroness mother (pictured above with Hepburn) ate curry every day, treating it as a household staple. The Hollywood starlet loved it because she believed colorful dishes were healthier and more appealing than bland ones. According to Dotti, Hepburn even shared her personal recipe for a quick curry with her close friends.
One of Audrey Hepburn’s best friends was Connie Wald, who was a star in her own right. A model who married an Oscar-winning movie producer, Wald took Hollywood by storm with her dinner parties. Apparently, Wald’s guest list included Fred Astaire, Gregory Peck, and Joan Crawford. Hepburn was especially close with the hostess, so Luca Dotti remembers when Wald cooked delicious comfort food for him and his mother. Apple crumble, bread pudding and roast chicken were among her specialties.
When Audrey Hepburn married her second husband Andrea Dotti on January 18, 1969, she was still in very popular demand in Hollywood. She was ready to retire from making nonstop movies and to live blissfully as a housewife and mother, though. In fact, Hepburn loved to cook for her small family. And while gnocchi is usually made with potatoes, the actress’s variation used semolina. According to Hepburn’s son’s book, the choice was an odd one. But she always prepared the dish for guests.
We already know Audrey Hepburn was a chocoholic, and Luca Dotti reported that chocolate cake really helped her get her fix. Hepburn’s flourless chocolate cake was “thin and moist” with a slight crust, according to the recipe in Dotti’s book. She served the dessert with freshly whipped cream and prepared it for her family on special occasions like birthdays or small reunions. Apparently, it tasted even better the next day.
When Luca Dotti was young, he spent New Years at Audrey Hepburn’s chalet in the Swiss town of Gstaad with his family. Dotti noted that they squeezed about eight people around the table, eating Swiss cheese and dried beef with baked potatoes. And, the foil-wrapped spuds were filled with smoked salmon! Two regular guests were Julie Andrews and her husband Blake Edwards. Dotti said that while he wasn’t often phased by his mom’s movie star friends, he was nervous to meet Mary Poppins until she proved to be a lot of fun. Andrews even taught him to whistle through his lower teeth!
Luca Dotti recalled that when Audrey Hepburn’s friend, Valentino Garavani (yes, the Valentino) visited for dinner, his mother was determined to welcome him with a hearty pasta dish (so Audrey). She specifically wanted to make pesto, but fresh basil wasn’t exactly easy to find in their Swiss Alps town. According to Dotti, Hepburn forced her partner, Robert Wolders, to drive around the mountains to find the herb. When they still couldn’t locate enough, she compromised by substituting some of the basil with parsley. Even though Hepburn’s version was totally different from traditional pesto, the recipe was a hit.
This photo is from Roman Holiday — the film that won Audrey Hepburn her Oscar — but the actor’s passion for ice cream continued off-screen. According to Luca Dotti, Hepburn loved ice cream nearly as much as she loved chocolate and pasta. Her favorite flavor was vanilla, which was totally on brand for someone so effortlessly elegant. Dotti also mentioned that his mother liked to eat the dessert with her best friends Connie Wald and Doris Brynner. Wald liked hers with coconut and apple confit, and Doris added caramel or fudge.
According to Luca Dotti, Audrey Hepburn loved to treat herself to breakfast in bed on Sundays. She ate quince jelly or cherry jam with toast and homemade madeleines. For those of you who haven’t caught The Great British Baking Show yet, a madeleine is a small, spongey, shell-shaped cake. But in Audrey at Home, Dotti admits that the kinds Audrey made were closer to American-style muffins.
According to Robert Wolders, Audrey Hepburn often ate soup for dinner. The veggies in the broth came straight from her own garden. Hepburn picked up the gardening habit after mostly retiring from Hollywood. In fact, she even won an Emmy for her TV miniseries Gardens of the World with Audrey Hepburn. When she bought her Swiss home near Tolochenaz, in 1965, Hepburn helped transform the garden with different fruits and vegetables.
Between ballet lessons and a war-ravaged childhood, Audrey Hepburn learned strict self-discipline. But her son, Luca Dotti, keenly noted that she wasn’t a saint! Two of her few vices were cigarettes and Scotch. And apparently, actor Robert Wagner praised Hepburn’s excellent taste in the strong spirit. According to her partner, Robert Wolders, the couple spoke on the phone every night, ans Hepburn savored the moment by smoking a cigarette and drinking a small glass of whiskey while they talked.
This chocolate mousse was on the menu when Audrey Hepburn and Robert Wolders dined at the White House on December 4, 1981. According to a copy of the menu in Luca Dotti’s book, the couple also ate shrimp bisque, chicken breast with red peppers, rice, sugar peas, and champagne. But given Hepburn’s love of chocolate, the dessert probably caught her eye first! She actually worked in Hollywood with President Ronald Reagan and First Lady Nancy years before, but she didn’t see herself as political. She was more interested in helping children around the world on behalf of UNICEF.
For Audrey Hepburn’s 60th birthday dinner at La Paisible, her cook prepared this time-intensive beef stew. It also happened to be a favorite of Hepburn’s friend, designer Hubert de Givenchy. According to Luca Dotti’s Audrey at Home book, when Giovanna tried to serve the birthday stew, the lid slipped and a large piece of beef flew from the pan and landed on Hepburn’s friend Capucine, a French actress who played the Pink Panther’s wife! Dotti couldn’t recall if they salvaged the dish that night, but he never attempted to make it himself after the incident.
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