Ayesha Curry, a Jamaican-Chinese-Polish-African American Californian by way of Toronto and North Carolina, has scooped up the best ingredients and traditions from her heritage and collected them in her first cookbook, The Seasoned Life.
A contributor to publications including Food & Wine and USA Today, Curry has appeared on Rachael Ray and hosts Cookin' with the Currys on Comcast SportsNet Bay Area. To foodies, her name connotes quick, creative family meals. To sports fans, she's better known as the wife of Golden State Warriors basketball superstar and MVP Steph Curry.
"Good food has the power to make the moment," she writes, and her goal is to share the recipes that "encompass all the precious moments that season my life." Her spicy "yardie" (Caribbean expat) dishes, including fried plantains and Jamaican Chicken Curry and Fried Dumplings, recall her mother's roots; and "all-out Southern" recipes--Pork Chops and Apples, Carolina Chowder, Deep-Fried Oreos (she confesses to an "extremely mean sweet tooth")--honor her days in the southeast, Steph's home. "Cooking with the Littles" includes foods their two little girls love. Restaurant-inspired dishes and California-style salads reflect Curry's evolving menu. Anecdotes and photos lend a family-album feel.
What sustains an MVP? Vegetable-rich Game Day Pasta is Steph Curry's traditional pre-game meal, and when it's his turn to cook: Five Ingredient Pasta. Drinks (cocktails and mocktails), a short chapter on homemade healthy beauty products, and a succinct "What's in My Pantry" section make The Seasoned Life accessible to any food--or basketball--fan. --Cheryl Krocker McKeon, manager, Book Passage, San Francisco