JFK Jr. and Wife Carolyn Loved Ordering KFC but She Really Wanted Martha Stewart to Teach Her to Cook

Elizabeth Beller’s upcoming biography 'Once Upon a Time' details Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy’s private life — including her cooking skills

Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy's sophisticated style didn’t always extend to her taste in food.

Elizabeth Beller details the life of John F. Kennedy Jr.'s late wife in an upcoming biography, Once Upon a Time: The Captivating Life of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, excerpted in this week’s issue of PEOPLE. Amongst the private stories about the ​​stylish New Yorker, the author shares snippets of normalcy and relatability in Carolyn’s lifestyle.

“She had one recipe... and it was how to make a roast chicken, and otherwise they would order out,” Beller tells PEOPLE. “It was often Kentucky Fried Chicken when they would order out."

Carolyn’s small culinary repertoire was not for a lack of trying, Beller explains. She reveals in the book that the fashion icon once wanted to reach out to Martha Stewart for cooking tips. The Los Angeles Times reported in 1996 that she did in fact call on Stewart for culinary and decorating advice.

Carolyn, a Boston University alum, moved to New York in 1989, where she began working in VIP sales for Calvin Klein. It was at this job that she met John. The world was abuzz with tabloid stories and paparazzi shots of Carolyn, especially after she married John in 1996. But, the woman, who was 33 when she died, still remains a mystery in many ways, having never given an interview.

Related: Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy and JFK Jr.: Inside Their Tempestuous Love Affair and Final Days: New Book (Exclusive)

Her grace and sense of style continue to have influence, 25 years after her death on July 16, 1999, when a plane piloted by John, 38, also carrying her sister Lauren, 34, crashed off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard.

Beller hopes her book will remind people of Carolyn's warmth and kindness.

“People wrote about her so harshly and cast her as icy,” says Beller, “but she was a lioness, effervescent, warm and so full of life.”

Once Upon a Time: The Captivating Life of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy by Elizabeth Beller is on sale May 21 and available for preorder now, wherever books are sold.

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Read the original article on People.