Movies

Olivia Wilde may have just revealed her special salad recipe

October 19, 2022

Director Olivia Wilde.
Photo: Stefanie Keenan/Getty Images for the Academy Film Museum

One thing Olivia Wilde has in common with Florence Pugh’s Alice, the protagonist of her film don’t worry darling? They both make a damn good salad. At least that’s according to a new Daily mail report on her split from Jason Sudeikis. The couple’s former nanny, who says she was abruptly fired without severance pay, told the outlet that things came to a head after Wilde left their house with a salad for her new pal, Harry Styles, made with what Sudeikis allegedly called “his special dressing.” The nanny claimed that Sudeikis lay down in front of Wilde’s car to prevent him from going to eat the salad with Styles. Both Wilde and Sudeikis attempt to distance themselves from this nanny with a joint statement to Vulture. “As parents, it is incredibly heartbreaking to learn that a former nanny of our two young children would choose to publicly make such false and slanderous accusations about us,” they said, describing the story as the “unhappy climax” of a “campaign that has now been going on for 18 months to harass us, our loved ones, our close friends and our colleagues”. The statement continued: “We will continue to focus on nurturing and protecting our children with the sincere hope that she will now choose to leave our family alone.” No official word on the salad, however. The report raises many questions, but let’s focus on the simplest: what is Wilde’s special salad recipe?

Wilde’s social media doesn’t give many clues about how she prepares a salad. In 2010, she tweeted about a vegetable salad with grilled tofu she made for Meatless Monday, but the photo was lost due to link rot. In 2015, she tweeted about his affinity for tater tots with ranch dressing. She didn’t seem interested in the salad in a 2013 food diary for Food & Wine, preferring pasta and fried peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. (Ditto.) Her foodie boyfriend Styles didn’t slip any lyrics about the salad in his latest, Harry’s house. Her salad-loving ex Sudeikis praised the salad options on film sets during a chat with Michael Keaton for Interview in 2013, saying they have “the most beautiful cherry tomatoes you’ve ever seen”. Could this also be the secret of Wilde’s salads? You may question the veracity of Daily mail report, but Wilde seemed to have salad in mind while reporting for her vanity lounge cover profile, when she made “a beautiful salad bowl worthy of display” in a pottery class.

One of the best clues might be Wilde’s appearance on the 2020 Food Network special. Questlove’s Potluck, on which she made a salad of roasted salmon with zucchini and potatoes. According to an online recipe, she dressed it quite simply with red wine vinegar, Dijon mustard, honey, garlic, and olive oil. Basically, it’s a riff on a classic French dressing, which sounds great but probably isn’t much different from those salads on the platter that the Sudeikis used to love. It doesn’t seem very special to us – certainly not “worth being run over by a car” special.

A day later, Wilde finally decided to preview what his special dressing might be. Or most likely, she’s just dragging us on because why not at this point? On instagram stories On Tuesday night, she posted a single page from Nora Ephron’s novel Stomach pains which detailed a vinaigrette with red wine vinegar, Gray Poupon mustard and olive oil. She hasn’t confirmed if the recipe was, in fact, the rumor that led her to her relationship with Styles, so the official recipe remains a mystery for now. But hey, Olivia, if you ever want to drop the recipe in a “Grub Street Diet”, we’re sure we can help you organize something.

This post has been updated throughout.