3 min read
Love Island summer is coming to a close. But even after 35 episodes about the islanders and their messy love lives, many viewers may still leave with some unanswered questions. How do they keep their manicures so fresh? When do they lift up the bedroom blinds? And, most importantly, what are they all eating?
The boys fight for stove space every morning to make breakfast for their ladies. Islanders raid the villa kitchen for snacks and late-night grilled cheese sandwiches. And, of course, we’ve watched challenges that force islanders to eat hot dogs hands-free and pass food into each other’s mouths like baby birds. (I think most of us wish we could unsee those, TBH.)
But aside from what we see on screen, how else does the cast stay fed? We’re breaking down everything we know about the food and drinks on Love Island so you can know what really goes down in the villa every summer.
Breakfast
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The Love Island experience wouldn’t be complete without arguing over undercooked pancakes, getting food shoved into your face by scorned lovers, and fumbling with the espresso machine. It has become a rite of passage for male islanders to make breakfast for their connections while the ladies get ready upstairs.
According to contestants from previous seasons, breakfast is the only meal that they cook for themselves. And because not everybody is a trained chef, the options are pretty simple—think eggs, bacon, pancake mix, cereal, and fresh fruit.
The limited menu can get a bit monotonous after six weeks in the villa. But, according to Paul Knops of Love Island UK Season 4, production takes food requests. “You can actually request food, and they’ll put it in the fridge overnight,” he told Closer Magazine.
It is worth noting, however, that these sunny summer retreats in Fiji often lack access to the same ingredients that islanders enjoy at home. For example, this season, Sincere told fellow Islander Caleb that the villa only had chicken sausage, “because they don’t have turkeys here.”
Lunch & Dinner
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Breakfast may be the only meal we watch on our screens, but the islanders still eat other meals each day. Lunches and dinners are catered and delivered from outside the villa. Unlike the flirtation and fanfare that comes with breakfast, these meals are strictly business.
“It’s not glamorous,” UK Season 8 winner Ekin-Su Cülcüloğlu told Us Weekly. “It comes in a silver tray like school dinner. You sit in the kitchen—boys on one side, girls on the other side. We’re not allowed to talk about the show. We’re not allowed to talk to each other.”
Some islanders use mealtimes as an opportunity to decompress away from the cameras. Producers, on the other hand, handle some housekeeping. “When we have dinner, it’s like them telling us we need to clean the bedroom and that laundry day is tomorrow, and asking us what we want for our breakfast the next day—all just things that make the house run smoothly,” Olivia Attwood of UK Season 3 told The Sun.
Details about the lunch and dinner menU.S. haven’t been uncovered, but by almost all accounts, the food isn’t good. U.S. Season 6 winner Serena Page appeared on Angel Reese’s podcast and revealed that the food was so gross she left the villa over 10 pounds lighter. Carsten “Bergie” Bergersen from US Season 5 wrote on Reddit: “Food in Fiji is the worst food I have ever had in my life.”
The villa kitchen keeps some other ingredients on hand for snacking in case islanders want something besides catering. That might explain why we’re always seeing people eating their late-night cheese toasties.
Drinks
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The first two seasons of Love Island UK had free-flowing alcohol. But the islanders ended up getting so rowdy that franchises worldwide have placed pretty strict limits ever since. Every night, each islander is limited to just one, maybe two glasses of wine.
There are occasions, such as challenge wins or off-site dates, when islanders are treated to Champagne or cocktails. But according to Phoebe Siegel of U.S. Season 4, it’s not as luxurious as you’d think. In a TikTok, Siegel revealed that the drinks were “completely watered down” and the islanders’ nightly glass of wine was “not a generous pour.”
Based on insights from former islanders, it doesn’t seem like the ideal scenario. But sacrificing alcohol seems like a small price to pay for a summer of love in Fiji.