What Steve Carell Eats When No One’s Watching (And Yes, It Involves a Lot of Pizza)
He makes you laugh until it hurts. He makes you cry in ways you didn’t expect. But what does Steve Carell actually eat when the cameras stop rolling and someone hands him a fork? The answer is more delicious and more specific than you might think.
The Pizza Devotion Is Very Real
If you know one thing about Steve Carell’s food life, let it be this: the man is serious about pizza. His pizza of choice is plain cheese or a half-cheese, half-mushroom-and-pepperoni combo — and he’ll tell you so without a moment’s hesitation. His co-stars weren’t even slightly surprised, having already known his love of pizza long before anyone officially asked.
And the pizza love goes deeper than toppings. Carell recently sat down with co-star Charly Clive for an HBO Max taste test of different pizza styles, proving that for him, this isn’t just a preference. It’s practically a lifestyle.
His Go-To Dish in the Kitchen
So can Steve Carell actually cook? The answer, happily, is yes. When it’s his turn to make dinner, he goes straight for spaghetti bolognese, and he’s confident enough to say he makes a pretty good sauce. It’s the kind of answer that somehow makes perfect sense for a guy who comes across as effortlessly down-to-earth.
He may not be hosting dinner parties with a twelve-course tasting menu, but a solid, homemade bolognese is nothing to dismiss. It takes patience, technique, and genuine care — which, if you’ve watched enough Steve Carell interviews, tracks completely.
The Chicago Chapter That Shaped His Palate
A huge chunk of what Carell loves to eat traces back to Chicago, where he lived for a decade and performed with The Second City. He called the Taste of Chicago “THE food festival of the world,” raving about the ribs, Polish food, and comfort classics, saying he literally remembered eating his way through it every single year.
That love for Chicago food never faded. When WGN surprised him with a spread of Chicago classics including Garrett Popcorn, Portillo’s hot dogs, Eli’s Cheesecake, and Lou Malnati’s deep-dish pizza, he called it his “dream table.” The man looked genuinely moved by a bucket of popcorn. Respect.
The Crisco Incident
Not all of Carell’s food moments have been quite so dreamy. During a bit on ‘The Daily Show’, he was handed a spoonful of actual Crisco and chose to eat the real thing rather than a vanilla frosting stand-in. He figured Jon Stewart’s horrified reaction would make it funnier — and he was right.
Dessert? Classic All the Way
When it comes to sweets, Carell keeps it simple and unapologetic. His go-to dessert is a hot fudge sundae, with classics always winning out over anything too adventurous. He’s made it very clear he is not a gummy worms and pistachio ice cream type of person.
There’s something refreshing about a man who has eaten in great restaurants all over the world and still chooses a hot fudge sundae. Steve Carell’s food life is exactly what you’d hope for: a little bit Italian, a lot Chicago, deeply pizza-loyal, and completely, warmly, himself.
