Anna Wintour's 'Go-To' Lunch Is Very Unique

A caprese salad without the tomatoes? Weird, but that's apparently the 'Vogue' editor's thing
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted May 12, 2022 8:10 AM CDT
Anna Wintour's 'Go-To' Lunch Is Very Unique
Anna Wintour attends the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute Benefit gala on May 2, 2022, in New York.   (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

The reviews are out for the new Anna Wintour biography, but one in particular has picked up on a rather odd tidbit from the Vogue editor-in-chief's life. Writing about Anna, Amy Odell's 400-page-plus deep dive into Wintour, for the Grub Street blog, Emilia Petrarca said one specific line has "haunted" her: "Wintour's go-to lunch, after Conde Nast moved offices to 1 World Trade Center, was a steak and caprese salad without the tomatoes from the nearby Palm restaurant." As Petrarca explains for those not in the know, that's kind of a strange thing, as a traditional caprese salad consists of just tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil.

"To lose the tomatoes is like ordering fish and chips without the fish, or macaroni and cheese, hold the macaroni," Petrarca writes of Wintour's "deeply confusing" culinary preference. The columnist was so perturbed by this revelation that she went so far as to order the same exact tomato-less dish from NYC's Palm steakhouse, which left the host on the other end of the line sounding "confused and mildly distressed" (read Petrarca's hilarious full account here of what she thought about her Wintour-style dish).

Petrarca does find at least one hint in the biography as to why Wintour de-capreses her caprese. "Miranda Brooks, Wintour's landscape designer for her house in Mastic, Long Island, told Odell that she tried to convince Wintour to plant a vegetable garden on her property, but she wouldn't because 'she doesn't like vegetables.'" Petrarca notes that tomatoes are a fruit, but that "it's possible Wintour's aversion extends to eating food that might be considered vegetable-adjacent." (More Anna Wintour stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X