What Does Horror Director Eli Roth Eat for Breakfast?

That's how horror maven Eli Roth begins his days, thanks to the wisdom of a mixed martial arts champion

July 30, 2013

Image may contain Analog Clock and Clock

Welcome to My Morning Routine, where we take a look at how people kick-start the day. And by "people" we mean celebrities.

(Credit: Matt Duckor)

Eli Roth is a Hollywood force of nature. On the one side, he's become a modern-day Wes Craven, writing and directing movies like Hostel, Hostel 2, The Man with the Iron Fists, and, most recently, Aftershock and The Green Inferno. On the other, he made a name for himself as the unforgettable "Bear Jew" in Quentin Tarantino's WWII epic Inglourious Basterds. Unsurprisingly, it takes a pretty intense morning routine (inspired by the the MMA fighter Cung Le, no less!) and a vintage espresso machine to keep this guy going through his insane days. --Sam Dean

I try to get up in a perfect case scenario around 7 in the morning. If I'm writing late, I'll let myself sleep in.

I just got a new puppy, a French bulldog, so feeding the dog and walking the dog has gotten worked into my morning routine. Her name is Monkey, she's adorable, I'm obsessed.

For breakfast, I have a cold-pressed juicer, so I get the organic grapefruits from Erewhon, which are like the best grapefruits in L.A., and have fresh-squeezed grapefruit juice. And the rest of my morning routine really comes from Cung Le, this amazing MMA fighter. When I was working on The Man with the Iron Fist in China, there were all these terrific fighters in the movie, and Cung Le and I became very friendly. His first thing was alkaline water, so I got a Kangen water filter, and I drink alkaline water, and I wash my face with alkaline water. Cung Le is like, "That's the secret to staying young, is wash your face with alkaline water." This is a guy who can kick anyone's ass--he's one of the best fighters in the world--and he looks great. Alkaline water, that's the secret.

For breakfast I have yams--they're amazing for you, it's the best food. At the beginning of the week I'll bake yams for every day of the week. I used to eat oatmeal, loaded with lots of stuff, but the best thing you can have is yams and black rice. I will steam black rice for the entire week, so every morning I can take a yam and black rice, put that in the microwave while I'm making two eggs, sunny-side up. I used to do just egg whites, but the yolk is actually good for you--it helps you synthesize protein--and it makes the rice taste better. What you want are complex carbohydrates. You want stuff that's gonna be low-fat, that's going to burn, that's going to give you energy for the entire day.

And then my favorite part of my morning is my Gaggia coffee machine. I got a beautiful old machine that was probably from 1971 or '72. I order the beans from Graffeo in San Rafael and Blue Mountain Coffee, depending on what mood I'm in. I have a grinder, I'll grind the beans fresh, pack the espresso--this is a beautiful hand pump machine, a gorgeous piece of machinery, the centerpiece of the kitchen. It's like a 20-minute exercise to make the coffee, clean it, change it, but it's part of my morning ritual. I always feel better after I do it.

The espresso machine was from George Folsey, my editor on Hostel and Hostel 2. He's a coffee nut, and he has a guy named Sergio who has a company that refurbishes these old machines. I didn't start drinking coffee until I was like 33 or 34 years old, and was like wow, this stuff tastes great! I was in Prague shooting, and the European coffee was so good I got addicted, and thought: how can I replicate this in Los Angeles? I spent a good amount of time learning--talking to George and Sergio, and every time I went to someone's house with a really really nice coffee machine, I would ask them about it. It was about a year before I started making coffee for other people, because it took me so long to get it right.

Then, after my morning coffee, I can maybe catch up on some emails, or take the dog out for a walk while I'm digesting, and then I'll work out. People say you burn more fat if you work out on an empty stomach, but I've had episodes where I pass out in gyms before, because I just go crazy and don't think about it, so I try to not faint while I'm working out. In a perfect world if I can get all of this done by 10 o'clock.

After that, my days are so weird. My day could be, alright then you're going to get on a boat and go up the Amazon and film a village in the middle of nowhere, or you're going to sit and think of a really insane disgusting werewolf transformation, or on Aftershock, now you'll go to work and get covered head to toe in fake blood. My days are so insane that I try to keep my morning routine as normal and simple and almost boring as possible. I try to maintain a constant breakfast, because I know exactly what kind of energy it's going to give me, I know how it's going to make me feel, I have to have it. It's weird, it's only in recent years that I've really become like this, but I need that morning routine to be exactly the same every day.