25 of our favorite foods featured in “The Office”

“I like waking up to the smell of bacon — sue me,” Michael Scott says in the Season 2 episode “The Injury.” That injury, of course, was caused by Michael accidentally stepping on his George Foreman Grill. As Michael explained, his morning routine involves him waking up, turning on his grill, laying a few strips of bacon across it, going back to sleep, and then waking a second time to the pleasant scent of cooking bacon.

Who can forget the classic scene in Season 7’s “Ultimatum” when Michael — upset about Holly still dating A.J. — force-feeds Kevin a large stalk of broccoli to help him fulfill his New Year’s resolution of eating more vegetables? People don’t usually just take a bite out of a huge, raw piece of broccoli, but at least it’s slightly better than Kevin’s stem-first method.

When the staff of Dunder Mifflin is worried about downsizing in the Season 1 episode “The Alliance,” Michael decides to distract them by throwing a birthday party for Meredith, complete with a mint chocolate chip ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins. (Even though Meredith’s birthday is a month away, and she’s allergic to dairy.) There’s also a cake dispute in Season 4’s “Survivor Man,” when Jim tries to celebrate three office birthdays at once but can’t decide on a dessert. Meredith wants a devil’s food cake, Creed wants a peach cobbler, and Andy — despite it not being his birthday — suggests Fudgie the Whale.

The cold open for Season 5’s “Heavy Competition” features Michael, Pam, and Ryan — the employees of the new Michael Scott Paper Company — throwing cheese balls into each others’ mouths for a full minute, including a lot of tricky shots. The cast says those shots are all 100% real, and the scene was mostly an excuse for the exhausted writers to give themselves a break.

In the cold open for the Season 5 episode “Company Picnic,” Michael had chicken pot pie for lunch. “Actually, let me rephrase that,” Jim said. “Michael had an entire chicken pot pie for lunch, and — let me be more specific: Michael ate an entire family-sized chicken pot pie for lunch, and then he promptly fell asleep.” His employees then turn the clock ahead to 5:00 and start to leave, tricking their boss into thinking he slept through the workday. 

The most famous food scene in “The Office” is also arguably the best cold open in all nine seasons of the show. That’s the scene in which Kevin describes making his famous chili, which includes the line, “The trick is to undercook the onions; everybody is going to get to know each other in the pot.” While Kevin’s voiceover continues, he is shown spilling the entire enormous pot of chili as he walks into the office and desperately but unsuccessfully tries to save it. The voiceover ends with him saying, “It’s probably the thing I do best.”

In order to carbo-load before Michael Scott's Dunder Mifflin Scranton Meredith Palmer Memorial Celebrity Rabies Awareness Fun Run Pro-Am Race for the Cure, Michael consumes a big plate of fettuccine alfredo, which just slowed him down and made him vomit in the classic Season 4 episode “Fun Run.” “Finishing that 5K was the hardest thing I have ever had to do,” Michael said. “I ate more fettuccine alfredo and drank less water than I have in my entire life.”

In the Season 6 episode “Mafia,” Michael thought he was being intimidated by a mobster masquerading as an insurance salesman (it was actually just an insurance salesman) and, while out to lunch, attempted to order “the gabagool.” The server had no idea what Michael was asking for, as “gabagool” is actually capicola (a cured meat similar to salami or prosciutto) said in an Americanized version of a Southern Italian accent. We’re guessing Michael was just parroting something he heard on “The Sopranos.”

Jim Halpert eats a lot of ham sandwiches throughout the nine seasons of “The Office.” Jim has worked at the same place for five years,” Ryan Howard notes early in the show’s run. “Jim eats the same ham and cheese sandwich daily for lunch.” And it’s not limited to sack lunches either. When Michael takes Jim to Hooţers in Season 2’s “The Secret,” Jim still orders the ham & cheese sandwich. (Bonus: Michael initially asks for a “chicken breast hold the chicken,” before ordering the gourmet hot dog.)

The Season 6 two-part wedding episode “Niagara” opens with a newly pregnant Pam asking her coworkers to avoid eating or wearing things with strong scents. In defiance, Dwight eats a hard-boiled egg in front of Pam, and she vomits while maintaining eye contact with him. This sets off a chain of vomiting, with Andy, Erin, Phyllis, Oscar, Meredith, and Angela all throwing up. Not Creed, though — he just looks around at his coworkers while eating a bowl of ramen.

The Season 3 episode “Grief Counseling” is mostly about Michael coping with the death of his former boss and pondering his own legacy. However, there’s a subplot set in the Stamford office that involves Jim helping Karen find a bag of her favorite potato chips, Herr’s Salt & Vinegar. In the end, after much effort, Jim discovers they sell them at the office building across the street.

“Quick announcement: New year, new candy,” Pam says in Season 5’s “The Duel” while putting out a bowl of treats on the reception desk and cautioning Kevin that they’re kind of spicy — even though she knows that won’t stop or slow him in the least. “Hot Tamales,” Kevin replies while taking a handful. “Uh-oh.”

Of course, we have to include Jell-O, which is one of the first foods seen on “The Office.” In the pilot episode, Dwight complains to Michael that Jim put his stuff (a stapler, in this case) in Jell-O again. The episode ends with Jim putting Michael’s “World’s Best Boss” mug in Jell-O. Later in the series, when Jim starts working at the Stamford office, he puts Andy’s calculator in Jell-O. However, the prank backfires when Andy completely loses his cool and viewers first realize he has anger management issues.

In our favorite post-Michael episode, Season 8’s “Garden Party,” Robert California calls Andy to offer one of two gifts for the manager’s shindig: a pot of marmalade or a basil plant. Andy expresses excitement about the marmalade, even though Robert indicates his sister is also interested in that gift. Despite Andy saying the basil plant is fine, Robert says he’ll have his assistant get another marmalade and abruptly hangs up. He brings the basil plant.

In the cold open for Season 8’s “Pool Party,” Jim thinks he has found a prank that will make Stanley laugh, which involves surprising Dwight with meatballs hidden in weird places and Stanley shouting, “You’ve been meatballed!” However, it turns out that the whole thing was a ruse planned by Stanley and Dwight to get free meatballs from Jim.

Anytime we press many buttons on a microwave, we think of Phyllis doing the same thing while the Finer Things Club (Pam, Oscar, and Toby) are trying to hold a meeting in the break room in the Season 4 episode “Branch Wars.” “What are you microwaving?!” Oscar snaps. Phyllis says popcorn, and Pam asks why she doesn’t use the microwave in the kitchen. “Someone needs to clean it,” Phyllis replies, “It smells like popcorn.”

In Season 2’s “Conflict Resolution,” the Dunder Mifflin employees are going over various complaints that have been filed against one another. Ryan once complained that Creed has a “distinct old man smell,” which Creed claims is actually the smell of the mung beans that he sprouts on a damp paper towel in his desk. “Very nutritious,” Creed says, “But they smell like death.”

Season 4’s “Dinner Party” is often referred to as one of the greatest episodes of “The Office.” In it, Michael & Jan invite a few couples from Dunder Mifflin to their home for an excruciatingly awkward and cringy night of forced conversation, games, and arguing. It wasn’t destined to be a short night, either, as Jan reveals that the osso buco (veal shanks) “needs to braise for about three hours.” Pam expressed disdain for this timeline, to which Jan replied, “You know, Pam, in Spain, they often don't even start eating until midnight.” Eek!

Here’s another food from a cold open. Michael comes into the office one morning with gum he got stuck in his hair while investigating a shiny object under Stanley’s car. (It was foil.) Dwight then uses peanut butter — the “good peanut butter,” against Pam’s pleas — to get it out. Tasting a bit from atop Michael’s head, Dwight claims it tastes good but has a lot of calories. “Well, just don’t leave it on too long,” Michael says.

Oftentimes when discussing where to order pizza, we reference “Launch Party,” the Season 4 episode of “The Office.” In this episode, Michael orders lunch from Pizza by Alfredo, but realizes that the Dunder Mifflin employees actually prefer Alfredo’s Pizza Cafe. Making matters worse, the delivery person from Pizza by Alfredo refuses to accept Michael’s coupon, and Michael accidentally takes him hostage.

Not only does Michael show up excessively early to David Wallace’s upscale cocktail party, bring a container of potato salad like it’s a potluck, and try to pass off a store-bought side dish as his own creation, but the salad isn’t even fit for human consumption. “It's been sitting in my car all day,” Michael says. “Sun beating down on the mayonnaise.”

Pretzel Day — an annual occurrence when the building manager provides free soft-baked pretzels to all employees — is such a revered holiday that it even excites the grumpy, work-loathing Stanley. “I wake up every morning in a bed that's too small, drive my daughter to a school that's too expensive, and then I go to work to a job for which I get paid too little,” the salesman says in Season 4’s “Initiation.” “But on Pretzel Day? Well, I like Pretzel Day.”

Nellie Bertram goes through quite the character arc on “The Office.” She was initially not well received by the Dunder Mifflin employees (and “The Office” fans), but first becomes likable when she tries to befriend Darryl by showing enthusiasm for his desire to get some tacos while at a silent auction event. Darryl realizes she knows nothing about tacos and he takes more money from her than needed. When she makes a failed attempt to eat one (by shoveling the filling into her mouth), Darryl ends the prank because he recognizes her earnest effort to bond with her coworkers. 

After finding out the chair model of his dreams is deceased, Michael asks his employees to fix him up with people they know. Kevin apparently gives Michael the number for a “hot & juicy redhead” named Wendy, but when Michael calls, he realizes it’s actually a Wendy’s restaurant. He attempts to order a baked potato and a Frosty, but is told he can’t place an order ahead of time because the fast food is already ready. “Well, put it aside,” Michael says.

We can’t resist including another reference from Season 2’s “The Injury.” To cheer himself up, Michael asks Ryan to get him several foods, including chocolate pudding that he finds at a gas station convenience store. When Michael asks if he got the yams he requested, Ryan replied, “No, the gas station in Carbondale did not have fresh yams.” Michael finally gets less fussy when Ryan grinds up four aspirin and mixes them into the pudding—like he does to get his dog to take heartworm medicine.