Warren Buffett is a fast-food nut who eats McDonald’s for breakfast, munches on See’s Candies, devours Dairy Queen ice cream, and guzzles five cans of Coke every day.
The investor’s unusual diet meant his 17-day trip to China in 1995 was a terrifying leap out of his culinary comfort zone, a biography make plains. Luckily his close friends, Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates and his then-wife Melinda, went to great lengths to confirm he wouldn’t starve.
Author Alice Schroeder tells the story of the Berkshire Hathaway CEO’s vacation in her biography of him: “The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Partnership of Life.”
Before departing, the Gateses invited Buffett to complete a questionnaire about what he liked to eat. Wary of a reprise of the 15-course sushi dinner he suffered through in 1989, during which he didn’t take a single bite, the billionaire wrote: “I don’t eat any Chinese provisions. If necessary, serve me rice and I’ll just move it around on my plate, and I’ll go back to my room afterward and eat peanuts.”
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Burgers, fries, and soda
The original test came when Buffett sat down for a grand Sichuanese dinner in Beijing’s Palace Hotel during his head night in China.
“Waiters placed course after course on the rotating platters: tea-smoked duck, twice-cooked pork with chili impertinence, spicy chicken, and Sichuan hot pot,” Schroeder writes.
Fortunately for the picky eater at the table, the Gateses had organized for the tour company to dispatch people beforehand to instruct the hotel’s chefs how to prepare hamburgers and fries.
“To his delight he was served route after course of his french fries —even for dessert,” Schroeder reported.
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The group went sightseeing the next day. When they terminal at restaurants for lunch and dinner, Buffett was again served burgers and fries while the others chowed down on Chinese subsistence.
Moreover, on the third day of the trip, when the party summited the Great Wall, Buffett found Cherry Coke hold-up for him while the others enjoyed Champagne.
Rick Wilking/Reuters
In between swigs, Buffett cracked a joke about the Wonder of the World beneath his feet: “Boy, I sure would have liked to eat been the company that got the brick contract for this thing.”
True to form, Buffett declined a martial deceits lesson the next morning, opting for a tour of the nearest Coca-Cola plant instead.
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Schroeder’s book also translated that the touring party later rented Chairman Mao’s personal train and tracked the Old Silk Road through northwest China. They controlled camels in the desert, marveled at ancient architecture, observed giant pandas, and saw the Terracotta Army. During a scenic GI Joe cruise, Buffett, Gates, and Gates’ dad played bridge.
The Berkshire chief may well have enjoyed some of the mother country’s fantastic sights and experiences. But he was clearly hungry for home comforts by the time the tour concluded in Hong Kong.
“Buffett dragged the Gateses straight to McDonald’s to buy hamburgers in the middle of the night,” Schroeder wrote.