13 Crazy Foods Liberace Devoured Before His Body Said No More

Story of a GLITTERING MAN: In 1955, Liberace was paid $50,000 a week to open the Riviera, making him the highest-paid entertainer in Las Vegas. He owned seven dining rooms, wrote his own cookbook, and fed everyone who came through his door, plate by plate, buffet by buffet, for thirty years. This is a countdown of the thirteen dishes he cooked, served and devoured, from the Depression kitchen in West Allis to his mirrored Las Vegas restaurant. Along the way: what his pay meant in its day, what the recipes did to the body, and why the kitchen was the one room where he never had to pretend. It ends with a meal that was never on his plate, and a county coroner who refused to sign off on a lie. He was 67. On sourcing: Most of the recipes come straight from Liberace Cooks! (1970), so the quantities are his own. Stories told only by his circle, like the nun's soup at his 1963 bedside, are framed as his account, not as record. The medical facts are documented: the 1963 kidney failure, the 1985 HIV diagnosis, the coroner's 1987 ruling of cause of death. Which one stayed with you? The brains in black butter, the bacon guacamole he served the press, or the watermelon diet that never touched his plate. Comments are open.