The Breakfast Food Larry King Absolutely Hated

Only a name like King could capture the stature of the man whose broadcasting career spanned nearly 50 years and included 50,000 interviews (via the BBC). Larry King, the bespectacled, suspenders-wearing legend who hosted his own show for a quarter-century, became a star by letting his guests shine. He aimed to "make the camera disappear" by being a good questioner and a great listener. All the while, he spoke with some of history's most influential figures – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Gerald Ford (and every subsequent sitting president across his TV tenure), and Lebron James, to name a very few. He made TV-ratings history by hosting a debate between Al Gore and Ross Perot. For so many viewers, he became a camera-like lens through which to view current events.

On the 25th anniversary of his show, Larry King Live, King declared that it was "time to hang up my nightly suspenders" (via the Australian Broadcasting Corporation). The broadcasting icon died on January 23rd. As of this writing, no official cause of death has been disclosed, but he had recently been hospitalized with COVID-19. While King will always be remembered for giving the public food for thought – the brain's most important meal of the day – he also shared his thoughts on a breakfast food he despised.

Eggs didn't pass Larry King's smell test

There's a good chance that if Larry King was stranded on a desert island with nothing but eggs to eat, he would have rather eaten sand or maybe devoured Wilson the volleyball from Cast Away. In a 2015 tweet, Larry King voiced his revulsion succinctly: "I wouldn't eat an egg if I were starving..." While it's easy to assume he was cracking a joke, his hatred of eggs was apparently no laughing matter to him. From the sound of things, being within sniffing distance of an egg was enough to scramble his appetite.

King explained in a 2015 interview, "I hate eggs. I won't go near an egg. I hate the smell of an egg. It must go a long time because I can't tell you the last time I tasted an egg" (via The Hill). While eggs go over easily with many bellies, eggs stink. That's especially true of overcooked eggs, which unleash the stench of sulfur compounds (via MyRecipes). Rotten eggs also launch an onslaught of sulfurous odors, per The Daily Meal.

Maybe King just never had a perfectly cooked egg or maybe he was too busy enjoying his favorite food, lamb chops. "I like steak and I like swordfish," he added. "But if I'm down to it, the electric chair, lamb chops."