You might have seen Chrissy Teigen's McDonald's commercial first air during the Golden Globes in January. It features her leaving the show, only to return with some burgers and McChicken sandwiches. I mean, if you follow her on any social media platform, it probably seems like a pretty Chrissy thing to do. Just last week she took a casserole through TSA. No shame, though at all.
Unfortunately, it turns out that leaving for McD's during a show IRL is much easier said than done. I had a chance to chat with Chrissy over the phone about her ad promoting the new McDonald's $1, $2, $3 Dollar Menu and about her love for the burger chain. Here she tells me about her go-to McDonald's orders, her love of hot mustard, one of Luna's first words, and her obsession with garlic. And yes, she is super nice and as funny as she seems online.
So I saw your McDonald's ad. It was hilarious.
Thank you!
Obviously, it would probably be hard in real life though to leave the Oscars to go get McDonald’s, but if you could, what Dollar Menu item would you sneak in?
It’s hard to do anything at those awards shows. If you leave, you can’t come back in. I mean, you’re going through metal detectors, you have the tiniest purse possible—you’d never fit anything in it. And you just sit, and you wait. You just wait to eat. That’s basically the whole event for three and half hours. But, if I could stuff something in there, it would definitely be... Gosh, let’s see. I’m such a breakfast at all hours type of person, which is why I got so excited when they extended breakfast. I love a Sausage McMuffin with Egg. That would be my $3 choice.
And I just really love reheating cheeseburgers. Like I order them in bulk, put them in the fridge, put them in the microwave with the paper on for 35 seconds, and then like a warm soft pillow, they’re so, so delicious. I love hot mustard dipping sauce, the French fries are a staple for me and Luna, and I mean, a McFlurry. There’s really nothing like having fries dipped into ice cream. There’s nothing like it.
What's your late night, post-after party go to? Anything different?
I tend to do chicken nuggets later at night. I think during the day, I’m always down for a sandwich, but then the nuggets at night. I definitely stop at McDonald’s and like, I have a nickname. It's "40 Nugz," and it was on the back of my jersey once when I was throwing the first pitch [at a baseball game], and everyone thinks it's something naughty, and they have no idea where it's from. I'm like, no, it's really just 40 chicken nuggets. Because I will go down in history as somebody who ate 40 chicken nuggets in one sitting once. So my late night is definitely nuggets.
So I know the Dollar Menu is now split up into $1, $2, and $3 price points. What is your favorite menu item from each price point?
Well, I don't have it memorized. All I know is my $3 is 1000 percent the Sausage McMuffin with Egg. And of course it’s a $3 one. I literally love that sandwich so much, at anytime of day, too. And I love just a regular old cheeseburger and a fry. There’s just things like that that don’t change. They’re always going to be delicious, they’re always going to be hot, they’re always going to be fresh. Those are my babies.
So I know you made news recently because you renamed Panera’s soup Delicious Cream Times…
Yeah. Yeah and they sent me so much soup, and now I have way too much.
Well if you were to create a new McDonald's menu item, and call it the McTeigen, or whatever, what would you create?
Oh my God. I think that’s why I love traveling international so much. To go to a McDonald’s in Japan, or to go in Thailand, seeing all the international different menu items is just so cool. There will be like there will be a corn pie, or a spicy chicken sandwich. Mine would definitely be spicy. I love, gosh I love, like some kid of spicy McChicken with like a Sriracha mayo.
Creating a sauce would be really, really fun, though... the Schezuan sauce is doing so well now. But I would love to create my own sauce, or my own version of a McChicken for sure. Because the hamburger is like, you can't be better than that. They perfected it already. I mean, what can you do with that? But, I would create my own McFlurry maybe…? No, I’d go for like a spicy Thai chicken sandwich.
Actually, in Thailand, I think there’s like a kee mao burger, which is like this kind of spice—it’s like a different kind of hot. You know how there’s like peppery hot, and then there’s chili hot? This one is more of like, it kind of fills your mouth with heat, but then it’s kind of gone. I’d do like a kee mao chicken burger.
So you mentioned dipping sauces. What are your top three favorite dipping sauces at McDonald’s?
I love hot mustard. That will always be number one for me. Barbecue for sure. And sweet and sour. Sweet and sour I’m recently getting into, but I will say, hot mustard and barbecue are my favorites. And I believe there’s like a buttermilk ranch, but I’ll only do that with chicken tenders. I’m very specific with the type of sauces.
I feel like the sweet and sour sauce is kind of underrated. Like people forget that it’s there. You always think of like barbecue and ranch. I always forget about it!
Yeah, I know. I know. And I recently realized that some don’t have hot mustard now. I didn’t realize that, so I was taking it for granted. I’m very spoiled at my local Sunset Boulevard McDonald’s. It has everything.
Yeah, they've got the hook up! So, I have this one co-worker, she's great, but whenever I let her know that I’m going to get fries and ask her if she wants any, she always says, “No, I’ll just have one of yours.” And I’m like, I’m not really up for that.
No, I don’t allow that.
OK I was gonna ask, do you share fries?
I’m not good with sharing. I just don’t like when I offer it and then you say no, and then you eat mine. But I’m so down to share if you just admit it first.
Totally. So three rapid questions, one answer. Here we go:
Coke or Sprite?
Coke!
Breakfast Burrito or Breakfast Sandwich?
Breakfast Sandwich. Oh God, that’s hard, I do love breakfast burritos, too. Breakfast sandwich, though.
Iced or Hot Coffee?
Iced. But I’m very bad with caffeine. Like caffeine doesn’t get me going, I just like the taste of it. I don’t know what it is, but like for some people, it works for them. I just, I don’t know. Whatever it is, it’s just not strong enough.
I know you mentioned that Luna and you love fries and ice cream?
Yes, I turned her onto it the other day. It took a little bit of work because she’s so ketchup based. She’s so into ketchup. It was one of her first words. Like, “Ketchup? Ketchup? Ketchup?” And she'll dip anything in it. Like if she gets ketchup within her eye site, the whole dinner changes, and then she only eats ketchup for dinner. But yeah, I think I really changed her world. She loved it.
So does she usually go for a Happy Meal?
I mean, I really love seeing her love food. But you know, I know like it’s not the healthiest thing for them, but it’s really nice to be able to give them the chance to love it, and then like see how happy they get, like they’re so innocent and so pure and like her eyes light up. It’s such a treat for her, because she doesn’t get to have it that often, so she loves it so much.
There’s like a wide range of things that she loves, like she loves hamburgers. She doesn’t know about McDonald’s toys yet though, so I think when she realized that can happen, that that might be a problem. Because she definitely loves little things, she calls them her guys. We have so many tiny plastic guys all around the house, and they all to sit in a different way, and she is definitely going to become a collector of McDonald’s toys for sure. But for now, she’s pretty set with fries and hamburgers.
OK, so I know that this is probably a weird question. But like, obviously you’re pregnant with your second baby, and congratulations! But if you were to birth a food baby, like if you were to literally give birth to a food, what would it be?
Oh my gosh, like something that I ate so much of that my child becomes that?
Yeah, like for example, I eat so many chicken nuggets, that I would probably birth a chicken nugget. One girl at work said her baby would probably be a croquette.
Oh my God, I swear it would be like a bulb of garlic. Like nobody eats garlic like me and my family. We get those, like Whole Foods has these cloves of peeled garlic, and they’re just ridiculously overpriced. But they’re huge cloves of garlic, and we go through tubs, like a half-pound tub maybe every one or two days. We have to order it.
The branzino I love making so much is 25 cloves of garlic onto one fish. Every recipe I have is like that ... If you ever eat dinner at my house, the garlic will be overwhelming. Because I think we’re just so numb to it now, I would have a garlic baby. It would be just one dry bulb of garlic.
Catch Chrissy's McDonald's ad this Sunday during the Oscars. Unlike her, you can get up out of your seat to get a McChicken, or bring fries into your friend's viewing party.