With 27 Grammy nominations and three wins, Trisha Yearwood is a bona fide country music
superstar.
But for many people, she's even more famous for hosting the hit Food Network show Trisha's
Southern Kitchen since 2012.
"Hey, I'm Trisha Yearwood.
Most of you know me as a singer, but what you don't know is that among my family and
friends I'm equally known for my cooking"
So how did the star, who is married to fellow country legend Garth Brooks, make the transition
to professional foodie?
Here's a look at the the untold truth of Trisha's Southern Kitchen.
She's a control freak
Although it might be tempting to sit back and let the "professionals" do all the heavy
lifting, Yearwood is not content to watch from the sidelines, especially when it comes
to the creative direction of Trisha's Southern Kitchen.
She even spends her days off scouring her cookbooks for recipes to use on the show,
telling the Lincoln Journal Star,
"I think it's important, especially for this show, to maintain its authenticity, for it
to really be what I want to do.
[…] We work with this incredible culinary kitchen at Food Network, and they're great.
But they know what they know and they're all classically trained chefs and I'm not.
So simple things […] like what utensils you're going to use, how you would do it,
what bowl you're going to put it in."
It's not her real kitchen
Though the first season of Trisha's Southern Kitchen was actually filmed at her house,
subsequent seasons have been filmed in a rental home.
She told Wendy Williams that it was simply logistics, as her kitchen wasn't designed
to accommodate the demands of a 30 person filming crew.
So they found a house with a kitchen better suited to the show's needs.
"There's this little house that's around the corner from my house that's been for sale
for a while and it's beautiful and it's big and has this gorgeous kitchen."
"So we'll just rent it out for the show.
It's perfect."
Finding a comfortable kitchen was also important because filming each episode is a grueling
process.
Yearwood told Cowboys & Indians they film twelve hours a day.
We're tired just thinking about it!
Reluctant TV star
Yearwood's obvious dedication to the show paid off in a big way in 2013 when Trisha's
Southern Kitchen won a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Culinary Program.
So it may come as a surprise to fans that Yearwood didn't even want to do the show!
Yep, it's true.
After her 2008 cookbook Georgia Cooking in an Oklahoma Kitchen unexpectedly became a
new York Times Bestseller, Yearwood was approached about doing a sequel - and eventually, a cooking
show.
"I didn't want to do it because I didn't want it to be 'and now you add a cup of sugar.
. and just be boring.
And I said, if I can have my sister and my friends and my peeps on there we can laugh
and have fun."
All in the family
Cooking is a family affair for Yearwood.
She credits her mother for teaching her how to cook, while Georgia Cooking in an Oklahoma
Kitchen was written as a tribute to her late father.
But it's her husband's appearances on the show that make for some of the best moments,
as he hams it up for the camera to the delight of his wife.
So what is Garth Brooks really like in the kitchen, once the cameras are gone?
Does he get his hands dirty?
Yearwood told Cowboys & Indians that Brooks is happy to step in and get cooking.
"Garth's a really good cook, and he's not afraid to try anything.
I do love to cook, and I would say I do the majority of the cooking, but he's definitely
got his specialties."
Revamping southern classics
While southern cooking is Yearwood's specialty, she recognizes that the traditional dishes
aren't always the best choice, and wants the recipes on her show to reflect that.
She told Cowboys & Indians,
"I agree wholeheartedly that traditional Southern cooking isn't the healthiest way to eat.
It's important to tell people that eating this food isn't a daily way of life.
But when you want that comfort food fix, this is how you do it."
Her fans apparently agree, as she told Today that her most popular recipe is her Crock-Pot
mac and cheese.
Yum!
Still a singer at heart
Let's hope that nobody ever forces Tricia Yearwood to choose just one career, because
fans of Trisha's Southern Kitchen would be devastated.
When asked by CBS News' Jeff Glor if she'd rather people thought of her as a singer or
a cook, Yearwood responded,
"If you said Trisha you have to pick one thing that you have to do for the rest of your life
I'd pick music - absolutely."
Luckily, though, she doesn't have to choose one or the other.
After completing a three-year run of the Garth Brooks World Tour Featuring Trisha Yearwood
in 2017, Yearwood told One Country that she is working on a new record in 2018, but has
no plans to stop making Trisha's Country Kitchen.
"The cooking show is still going on, so I'll have that.
That's the plan right now."
Sounds like a great plan to us!
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