Move over, Carmy Berzatto—Punkie Johnson is about to put The Bear out of business.
When Johnson’s not telling jokes, the SNL star can be found cooking up a storm in her dressing room. Her Instagram features “diner dressing room” dishes ranging from comfort fare like lobster mac n’ cheese to entrées like lasagna and yakamein, a Chinese-Creole beef soup that’s popular in New Orleans. She keeps her dressing room stocked with all the essentials: a crock-pot, cutlery, an army of spices and seasonings, a juicer—you know, just your basics.
Johnson doesn’t keep her cooking limited to the dressing room, either. “Seafood boil anybody??” she posted to Instagram in May, with video of her preparing a large pot of crawfish outdoors. “I don’t always cook in my dressing room, sometimes I cook outside.”
Food has always been a major part of the comedian’s life—and work. “I love to cook. It’s therapy for me,” she told the Grub Street Diet column in 2022. “I can think about sketches or characters or just think about, ‘What am I going to do this week?’”
The one ingredient she can’t pass up? Onions. On an episode of the Best Friends podcast, Johnson revealed that she eats an onion or two a day.
“Whatever I’m cooking, I always use a whole onion,” she said. “Sometimes as a midnight snack, I’ll throw some onions in the pot, sauté ’em, and eat ’em as sautéed onion rings with ketchup.”
That tracks, considering Johnson always stops at Taco Bell for the same very onion-y order after every SNL show. “I get the same thing,” she told Grub Street. “Mexican pizza with extra Mexican-pizza sauce, extra onions, and replace the beef with chicken.”
Johnson’s reels have become so popular that commenters have even suggested she get her own food show. Since CBS has its eye on cooking shows, perhaps Johnson’s Dressing Room has a nice ring to it?
