Megan O'Neill

EVERYONE EATS        |        JAN 28, 2021

Megan O'Neill

GOOP SENIOR BEAUTY EDITOR & CO-HOST
OF THE BEAUTY CLOSET GOOP PODCAST

Megan O’Neill is a native New Yorker, who began her journalism career at Lucky magazine as a beauty editor. She then landed at ELLE magazine as the Senior Beauty and Fitness Editor. Currently, O’Neill is cohost of goop’s beauty podcast The Beauty Closet, and senior beauty editor at goop, where she continues to intrepidly explore the vast world of wellness in her column Megan Tries It. She investigates all things health-supporting, from turmeric-probiotic sleep potions to midnight sound baths to adaptogenic lattes. She has been featured on E!, NY1, and ABC’s Strahan and Sara as a beauty expert and has starred on Netflix’s The goop Lab.

O’Neill graduated from Amherst college and currently lives in Brooklyn. She lives for food, dancing, summer—and 4-mile jogs through Brooklyn in the sweltering heat, yoga, walking absolutely everywhere on weekends and striving to live a long healthy life.

INTERVIEW BY LARA SOUTHERN
PHOTOGRAPHS BY JUSTIN KANEPS

MEGAN'S NEW YORK CITY APARTMENT

You can't help but notice the vibrant colors throughout Megan's kitchen and the delicate jars and bottles in line around the perimeter. We were also lucky enough to be treated to some plantains upon our arrival.

BREAKFAST

Lately, since I’ve been pregnant, I’ve gotten these horrible breakouts so, although I hate carrot juice, I juice a vat of carrots that I get at the farmer’s market on Saturdays (the kind that still have dirt clinging to them so you know they’re the best carrots ever) and I choke down a cup of that every morning, which has helped my skin, I have to say. Then I wait about an hour and make myself a latte with my coffee grinder and oat milk. My mother-in-law bought us a milk steamer which has been a total game changer, and totally brought my latte making skills up to near coffee shop level. I sprinkle some Burlap & Barrel cinnamon on top.

After my drinks I have this homemade granola that I make using the NYTimes recipe from Eleven Madison Park with apple juice-sweetened dried cherries, pistachios and coconut, with some Elmhurst Almond Milk (which I love because they don’t use additives, or gums, just almonds and water. It goes bad in about five days which is a bummer, but that’s how you know it’s good).

LUNCH

Lately it’s been a plantain that I fry up in a cast-iron skillet with olive oil and a sprinkle of salt, with a tomato and cucumber salad, with balsamic vinegar and olive oil and salt.

It’s strange, I love food so much but I have so many aversions now that I’m pregnant. Like, I just hate everyone except cake and pizza, and sour straws (weirdly). Each week I like to change up my lunch and sort of have it every single day. I’m a creature of habit. So that’s been the past week. Before that it was a sweet potato with broccolini, or this delicious Ottolenghi tomato curry lentil soup that I make, which is like the best thing ever.

DINNER

This pregnancy stuff is really cramping my food style, like, I don’t want anything but bready things, (which can be awesome). My husband makes sourdough bread and though it’s totally delicious but one of my best friend’s fiancé has started making mind-blowing sourdough. I told my husband, “his are so much better, I’m sorry” and luckily he agreed. Our friend gave us one of these superior sourdoughs and we’ve been working that into everything this week. So we’ll have my lentil soup with toasted sourdough and totally too-expensive, delicious, salted French butter or a goat gouda omelet with tomatoes or mushrooms with the sourdough too. I love a breakfast for dinner sometimes. I’ve also been making a chicken tikka masala a lot.

DESSERT

I’m a big baker and the thing I’ve been obsessed with lately are these brown butter chocolate chip cookies from Bon Appetit (the brown butter takes it to a whole other level, they’re so good). So I’ll do those or I’m also really into the Levain Bakery coffee cake, which my friend just introduced me to and is insane.

SPEED ROUND

Dream dinner guest?
Cher. I’m not so concerned with what she eats, but I want to know what she’s wearing. (Variety Show era Cher.) And maybe Norma Kamali too because she looks so amazing and is legendary and I know is also big on health and nourishing food.

Go-to comfort food?
Curry roast chicken, with a baked sweet potato and sauteed broccoli with olive oil.

 

Last thing you ordered for delivery?

Oh, it was so disgusting, I ordered pizza three times last weekend: Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

 

Cooking playlist?
Either Z-100, just pop music trash – I love a Bieber or a Harry Styles track. Or ‘90s on 9 on Sirius radio because I love nineties music.

Most overrated food trend?
Poke bowls (but only when they’re here in New York – they’re just not good here). I want one from Kauai.

Guilty pleasure?
The really fat puffy cheese Cheetos. (Not the little crsipy ones but the fat ones.)

Caffeine of choice?
My oat milk latte (with a milk frother).

Weirdest eating habit?
I love peanut butter. Everyone eats it out of the jar, of course, it’s the best thing ever. But I love to get creative with it - like putting a rogue chocolate chip I find in the fridge on the spoon or dipping it in ice cream. I turn peanut butter into a full dessert somehow.

Whose routine would you love to see on Everyone Eats?
J Lo looks so good and isn’t emaciated, she just looks glowy and strong, so I imagine she must eat really well. Maybe Gisele too - she does seem a little extreme to me with the no nightshades but, I mean, look at her.

Favorite restaurant in the world?
Hartwood in Tulum. It is magical. It’s outside, everything is cooked on a wood plank - it’s so rustic and beautiful and beachy.

Celebrity chef crush?
Kristin Kish. She’s gorgeous and cool and has tattoos.

Five items always in your kitchen:
Good olive oil. Burlap & Barrel cinnamon. Honeycrisp apples. Sweet potatoes. And I guess carrots, these days.

Favorite NYC restaurants?
Farro in Bushwick – this delicious farm-to-table Italian place. They make their own pasta, bake their own bread, and make the best margaritas in town.

Roberta’s, which is so hyped, but even with the hype it’s the best.

Pastis in the Meatpacking District, for their fries and bread basket.

Favorite food family tradition?
Back when my mom used to host Thanksgiving, the night before we feasted we’d have cheese omelettes or sardines on toast. Also a lot of citrusy salmon and rice (might be a Jessie Seinfeld recipe).

Go-to cookbooks?
The Violet Bakery Cookbook (she did the royal wedding cake).
Sweet and Plenty by Ottolenghi.
The Cherry Bombe Cookbook because it’s so fun to look at.

 

What’s the best dish you make?

My goat cheese and tomato quiche.

 

Recent food discovery?
Burlap & Barrel cinnamon is maybe the best cinnamon ever. They shorten the supply chain so they source the best spices directly from the farmer and instead of having them degrading in a warehouse for ten years, they ship them immediately. It’s like you’ve never had spices before when you taste these for the first time.

Rodolphe Le Meunier Beurre de Baratte. The best salted French butter.

La Gritona Tequila in this beautiful green bottle that’s made from sea glass, made by a woman in Mexico City.

Any vitamins or supplements?
Normally ashwagandha. I’ve been taking it for about four years, which makes a huge difference in my energy and I haven’t had a cold since I started taking it. Also, Vitamin D. There are all these studies that are showing people deficient in Vitamin D are around twice as likely to contract covid. And a lot of Black people are deficient because our darker skin and higher levels of melanin decrease the body’s ability to make vitamin D in response to sunlight exposure, so I like that one.

Cocktail of choice?
Margarita, with agave and salt on the rocks.

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