Ayesha Curry talks weight loss and her new cookbook
“The Full Plate” includes quick and easy recipes for busy families, Curry tells us.
Typically, blood, sweat and tears is just an expression. But the creation of one recipe featured in Ayesha Curry’s new cookbook actually resulted in a bloody injury she describes as “horrifying.”
● The dish is her gnocchi with pancetta and fig jam, one of the “quick and easy recipes” from “The Full Plate: Flavor-Filled, Easy Recipes for Families with No Time and a Lot to Do” (out now). Among the sections are those devoted to drinks and snacks, seafood, meats, salads and vegetable dishes, but you won’t find one on breakfast. ● “I honestly don’t have a ton of hacks for getting elaborate breakfasts on the table in no time,” she writes. “With our lives these days, that just doesn’t happen – and I want to keep it real with you all.
“Some (recipes) take 15 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes,” she tells USA TODAY of the items in her follow-up to 2016’s “The Seasoned Life.” “But nothing’s ever over an hour.”
So, it makes sense that Curry, 31, created her gnocchi while emulating the Food Network’s “Chopped,” a competition cooking series where chefs are tasked with turning random ingredients into gourmet dishes while up against a ticking clock. Curry’s at-home rendition took place after she’d “enjoyed a couple margaritas,” she writes.
She was 28 at the time and says her kids and her husband, NBA star Stephen Curry, were not home, sleeping over at her parents’. The couple have two daughters – Riley, now 8, and Ryan, now 5. Son Canon wasn’t born yet, but is now 2.
“We’re pulling stuff out of the fridge ... and we’re cutting away,” she remembers. “I literally almost sliced my finger off. It was painful and horrifying.
“It was just a huge deep gash. Everybody was sure I was going to have to get stitches, but I didn’t.” Curry says she took care of her injury by doing “the chef thing. I put a little paper towel, put pressure put on the wound, put a Band-Aid, and I kept it moving. I had to change the Band-Aid like five times that night, but I was for sure gonna get the meal on the table.”
That’s just one of the memories Curry shares in “The Full Plate.” One of the reasons she loves food is because “it holds so much nostalgia.”
She writes of dates at Outback Steakhouse with Stephen, which inspired her pancake-battered coconut shrimp “fried until golden brown.” Yes, Curry, who recently revealed she’d lost 35 pounds, eats fried shrimp and hush puppies (also featured in the book) and has dubbed herself the “bread pudding princess” of her family. So how does she maintain that fit figure she showed off in bikini photos in May? Sensible servings.
“Honestly, I’ve tried every diet you could imagine – nothing was ever working for me, and I’ve personally found what works for me is portion control,” she says. “I eat what I feel like I eating, but I just balance that out by having smaller portions. Sometimes. I’ll add in an extra workout if I’m being really bad.”
Of course, Curry’s focus these days is on more than just food. Her inclusive lifestyle magazine, Sweet July, created with women of color in mind, launched this year with its spring issue. She also mentors female business owners in the Ellentube digital series “Fempire.” Curry says they’re trying to figure out how to produce the show amid the COVID-19 pandemic, but that she plans to continue the series.
Curry says she has not been spoken with Ellen DeGeneres since allegations of racism, sexual harassment and workplace toxicity were leveled by unnamed former staffers at “Ellen.”
“I have not personally been in touch, but this is one of those situations where you value what people have to say and their feelings and their thoughts,” Curry says. “What I can speak on is my experience, and I’ve had nothing but a wonderful experience with her.
“Even pre me doing ‘Fempire’ on Ellentube ... she was always very kind and sweet and generous. So, I have nothing, personally, but good things to say.”
“Honestly, I’ve tried every diet you could imagine – nothing was ever working for me, and I’ve personally found what works for me is portion control.”
Ayesha Curry