Southern Fried Elvis: New Orleans museum exhibits cookbooks with Presley's fave foods

Southern Fried Elvis, an exhibition of cookbooks that focus on the food eaten by Elvis Presley, opens at the Southern Food and Beverage Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana on April 24, 2009. The small exhibition, on display through mid-summer 2009, features eight cookbooks that contain recipes of the foods that Elvis enjoyed, as well as other memorabilia. One of the highlights is an extravagant pop-up book that features the rooms of Graceland, including the kitchen.

All of the books except one feature photos of Elvis, but only when he was thin. Chris Smith, Director of Collections for the museum, says that particular book (which isn't fan-based or Graceland-based) has some shots of a heavy Elvis. Smith said the books don't make fun of Elvis' eating habits, but try to describe the foods he liked. "Elvis was a classic Southern boy who liked all the hard core foods," said Smith. "Meat loaf, mashed potatoes, pork chops, fried chicken, white bread with gravy, cheeseburgers, the whole nine yards." His legendary favorites included banana pudding and the infamous fried peanut butter and banana sandwiches.

"I think one of the things that people find interesting about Elvis is that he did not change his eating habits once he became famous," said Smith. "Even though he had the money to eat anywhere he wanted, he did not like restaurants. He preferred the food he grew up with. He loved Southern food as well as fast food."

According to Smith, Elvis' eating habits are well documented:

Elvis did not like to eat fish
He loved watermelon and cantaloupe
He said his favorite meal was breakfast
Elvis ate a lot of sandwiches because he said he didn't have a lot of time to eat
Elvis liked his meat cooked very well done
When Elvis cooked, he generally fixed eggs and bacon
One item to be hand-made each night at Graceland was banana pudding
Elvis did not drink alcohol
Elvis drank milk and would say, "Milk makes 'ya sexy!"