Tag Archives: Ayesha Curry

Mother of All Media

Ayesha Curry is everywhere lately, as a lifestyle expert, a blogger, a magazine contributor and now, an author and a TV personality. We caught up with her ahead of her appearance at the Philadelphia Taste Festival this month to discuss all that she’s got cooking.

By Jessica Downey

It’s already been a whirlwind fall for Ayesha Curry. Aside from holding down the homefront with her husband, reigning NBA MVP Steph Curry, she’s been promoting her first cookbook and shooting her new Food Network show. She’s also likely been squeezing in some shooting practice. Video of a three-pointer Curry sank during a pickup game last August in China promptly went viral. And there’s more to come. Later this month, she’ll be headlining the Philadelphia Taste Festival of Food, Wine and Spirits October 22 at the Valley Forge Casino Resort.

If you’re already on familiar terms with the 26-year-old Canadian-born, Charlotte, North Carolina-raised mom of two daughters, just wait. You haven’t seen anything yet. This may be that elusive moment when we’re able to pinpoint the precise turn when someone becomes a household name.

Her cookbook, The Seasoned Life: Food, Family, Faith, and the Joy of Eating Well, published in September, and her show, “Ayesha’s Homemade,” is scheduled to debut this month.

Already, Curry’s lifestyle blog and YouTube channel, Little Lights of Mine, where she shares her love of food, family and her approach to living a balanced life, have quickly become go-to resources for millions looking for a lift in and out of the kitchen. Curry also contributes to TheBump.com and CALLED magazine, and she’s been featured in Food & Wine, Time, InStyle, People, USA Today, Brides, POPSUGAR, Hello Beautiful and Diablo Magazine. And, she launched her own brand of extra-virgin olive oil in 2014.

Before her trip to Valley Forge, Home + Table talked with the San Francisco resident about growing up in a foodie household, how she makes her family her top priority and her cookbook, a collection of about 100 of her favorite recipes, many of which she learned growing up, including Cast Iron Biscuits and Smoked Salmon Scramble.

And, of course, we asked if she’s hiding some serious game in deference to Steph.

What were you first introductions to food, growing up in Canada with a Jamaican mom?

AC  At my house, we always had ginormous family get-togethers with incredibly flavorful food.

What kind of influences did your mom’s heritage play on what you ate as a kid?

I think all those flavors really helped to broaden my palate and my taste buds.

What was your favorite thing to eat growing up?

I loved my mom’s oven-roasted, brown-sugar chicken, which I made this spring on “Rachel Ray.”

The food industry has been revolutionized in the last decade by so many celebrity chefs and cooking shows. Where do you fit in?

I’m a young mom of two whose passion for food really stems from family togetherness. My whole message is about cooking with love in an effort to gather your family together. I hope it will help people communicate with each other and keep their sense of family alive.

What do you love most about cooking, especially now that you have your own family?

I absolutely love getting the family involved in making the meals and then seeing the smiles on everyone’s faces when we’re done.

During the NBA season, which is pretty long, are you able to have regular dinners together as a family?

Yes! It’s actually the time when life is the most normal for us. We try to keep an everyday-regimen in place. Most nights are spent together unless there’s a game.

What made you want to write a cookbook?

I really wanted to put my love for food into words. I also wanted to share my joy of cooking for my family and getting everyone to gather together in hopes that one day they would do the same. And I wanted to leave a legacy for my girls.

How does your family-first approach translate to the recipes?

Many of them are family favorites that have been passed down from generation to generation. The others are some that I created over the years. Everything that went into this book is meant to be quick, easy and approachable.

We can’t let you go, of course, without discussing that three-pointer. Was it a fluke, or are you hiding some serious game?

In my dream, it goes in every time. But that shot was a little luck along with some pointers I got from someone I know.

Photo courtesy Little, Brown and Company / Coeur de la Photography

How to Eat Your Way Through Festival Season

FIELD GUIDE

Beginning this weekend, you’re not going to be able to turn around without running into some kind of street fair. Which means more-than-ample opportunity for eating with your hands. But you need to be smart about it. You can only consume so many calories. Allow us to show you the way.

By Christine Olley

 

phoenixville-food-festival-04The old saying goes, “The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach,” but with the overloaded slate of festivals, and their smorgasbord-like food courts, on the horizon, it would be downright wrong to discriminate. Here, a rundown of the most appetizing gatherings across the region over the coming weeks.

Chester County’s playing host to two major food-centric festivals over the next month, the long-running Kennett Square Mushroom Festival this weekend and the biannual Phoenixville Food Festival October 1.

The former is a bit of everything—demos, cook-offs, eating (of course), even exhibits—packed into one nonstop weekend. Whether you go for an hour or set up camp, just don’t forget to buy mushrooms to go. They’ll be sold in front of the east and west gates and the growers’ exhibit. The latter is far more straightforward, though way more diverse: 30 trucks (and counting), covering every conceivable niche, from Caribbean-American soul food to Liege-style waffles.

Don’t be deceived by the name. Hit the Doylestown Arts Festival this weekend for the local art and the artisanal goods, but stay for the food. Two food courts will be crammed with the usual festival fare—sausages, fries and ice cream, oh, my—along with samplings from Doylestown’s textured restaurant scene and a bevy of food trucks. This may be the one street festival that doesn’t disappoint a vegetarian.

Yardley Harvest Day, the following Saturday, Sept. 17, is evolving into the ultimate collection of the region’s most promising small-batch foodstuff makers, from Bucks County Cookie Company and Carol’s Pizzelles to Gourmet Jelly and Jak Jeckel Pepper Sauce. There’ll be Brewscuits, too, for your four-legged best friend. You’ll owe him for panting patiently at your side throughout this shopping/tasting spree.

Peddler’s Village, in Lahaska, can always be counted on for some seasonal gorging. OctoberFEAST, October 15 and 16, delivers an onslaught of German specialties, including, most notably, bratwurst pork schnitzel and the ever-delectable Bavarian crème pie. A couple weekends later, on November 5 and 6, it’s Apple Festival, complete with a pie-eating contest, which’ll be divided by age, naturally. I mean, what satisfaction is there in out-eating an eight-year-old—again?

Not enough to eat local? You need to see where it comes from, too? Then plan to head to Bethlehem Sept. 17 for the Monocacy Farm Food Festival, where you’ll be able to munch on a smattering of stuff grown on the 10-acre organic farm as you tour the grounds. The Monocacy Farm Project, which the festival benefits, was established a few years ago. Under its umbrella resides a CSA, community gardens, all-ages educational programming and a community service garden dedicated to supporting low-income families, soup kitchens and homeless shelters.

And we’d be remiss if we didn’t include the TASTE Philadelphia Festival of Food, Wine and Spirits October 21 through Oct. 23 at the Valley Forge Casino Resort in King of Prussia, because, full disclosure, we’re a media sponsor. Every day’s loaded with celebrity chef demos, featuring the likes of Charles Oakley (yep, that Charles Oakley), Ashley Sherman (lead cook from “Hell’s Kitchen,” season 13) and Will Brown (a frequent enabler on “The Real Housewives of Atlanta”). And they’re not even the headliners. That’d be Ayesha Curry, whose demo is Oct. 22, and Kevin O’Leary, who’ll be hosting a tasting of his wines Oct. 21.