Why Kevin Bacon ‘No Longer’ Eats Bacon — or Any Pig or Goat Products (Exclusive)
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
The 'Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon' podcast host — and enthusiastic home cook — says his farm-to-table philosophy has some limits
Kevin Bacon may be a fantastic home cook, but there are certain ingredients that are no-fly zones, including one that might surprise fans of the Leave the World Behind star: bacon.
“I no longer eat goat and I no longer eat pig, because I have goats and I have pigs,” says the actor, 65, who is featured in People’s Sexiest Man Alive issue, out Friday. “My wife [actress Kyra Sedgwick] is like, ‘We can’t get any more animals, because you’re going to stop eating everything.”
It’s a valid point, considering the couple has a farm in Connecticut where the aforementioned goats and pigs reside (as well as 3 alpacas and 3 miniature horses that are not part of the food chain).
”I love animals, they are a joy to be around, and they’re very, very calming for me,” he says. “But we also really love to go into the garden and get fresh herbs or tomatoes or basil or peppers or zucchini.
He adds: "Taking something hot off the vine that feels warm and smells like it’s been created by all these natural forces of the sun and air and water and earth and dirt, and then putting it back into your body to sustain yourself…it’s a great lesson in terms of just how important it is to do our best to try to protect this boat that we’re all riding in.”
Bacon’s love of food and cooking took root while he was a struggling young actor in New York City.
“I would take anything that I had and put it into a pan and just fry it up, and then eat it with a fork out of the pan, because it would also cut down on the minimum amount of dishes for me to have to clean,” he recalls of some of his early egg-onion-leftover-pasta concoctions.
And though his frugal days are behind him, the star still prefers cooking over fancy restaurant meals most of the time. “I feel like if you’re always eating out or you’re always getting something to go, then you’re always giving your power over to the people that are going to prepare the food for you,” he explains. “I can’t do that my whole life. I need to have a little bit more control over what I’m putting in my body.”
The actor believes he and Sedgwick taught their now-grown children Travis, 34, and Sosie, 31, the importance of kitchen skills by modeling them, noting that his wife prefers to follow recipes, while his own culinary style is more loosey goosey.
"I rarely follow a recipe," he says. "I love recipes because I learn something new, I get inspired by something. I like that stuff, but I generally adjust it."
Despite his freewheeling cooking style, Bacon is pretty strict when it comes to cleaning up.
"I clean up as I go along. My wife does not. I clean up as she goes along," he says. "I want to sit down and know that the cleanup is not going to be longer than the dinner."
For more from 2023's Sexiest Man Alive issue, pick up this week's People, on newsstands Friday.
For more People news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!
Read the original article on People.
