I studied to be a chef as a side thing, a little hobby that I enjoyed doing, but I ended up falling madly in love with the food and the lifestyle.
Kelis
There's a difference between a pop star and an artist. Pop stars have to be perfect all the time; an artist is allowed, on occasion, to suck. And I put myself in that category because I sometimes suck. I'm not trying to please the masses. It's not going to happen, so I don't try.
For me, saying 'I'm bossy' is a cute, tongue-in-cheek way of saying that I'm in control of my life.
The music industry is a world of smoke and mirrors: they tell you exactly what they think you want to hear. And they are bare-faced lying. I tend to stay away from that.
I had always been a fan of Nas, but I never met him. This is the one guy in the industry who's, like, the phantom rapper.
As a chef, if I can taste something, I can basically figure out what's in it.
Everyone's attention span is getting shorter. As a result, everything - films, music, art - gets watered down and dumber. Every now and again, you get something great, but not often.
I was never an R&B artist. People coined me one, but that's because, especially if you're in the States, if you're black and you sing, then you're R&B.
I don't ever want to part with any of my shoes. They all have a special place in my heart because they say something about who you are today.
As a black artist in America, you know, it is so segregated as far as the radio goes and how they position music on the radio.
There's a point where you think, 'What else will I do if I don't do music?' It becomes your identity when it never should have been. But food ignited a fire in me, and I came right back to music because it no longer felt like a job. It was a really powerful thing for me.
In my life, looking at other women who have been pregnant while writing, I always feel like it's kind of their most musical or the closest to themselves. I think for me it's such a validating moment, you know. I always knew I wanted to have kids, and I've been making music all my life.
I can't live without Eucerin cream, lip gloss, gum, nail polish, and sparkly things.
As a child, I'd help my mum cook, and it was ridiculous - she had the correct gadget or utensil for everything. 'Stop! Don't use that, I have exactly the right utensil.' After I left home, I survived on cup-a-meals and never saw myself as being like her. Now I've become her.
I've done a lot of different tours. For me, I try to go on tours that I think are gonna be fun. It's, like, grueling, and it's hard, and there's got to be an element to it that's exciting.
My audience is made up of such bizarre, rare people. They're very sparse and scattered; it's not like a huge body of people.
Everything I do has a certain quality, a certain flair, a certain flavor. I like to eat the way I like to dress, the way I listen to music: put it all together, and it's a great party.
Am I R&B because I'm black? Am I pop because I have a song called 'Milkshake'? Or can I just be who the hell I am? Good Lord, people make it seem like we're doing heart transplants here, but we're just making music!
My last supper would be a charcuterie smorgasbord with every kind of meat, and sauces to dip them in.
Growing up, my mom had a catering business. I used to help her pretty early on and loved doing it. My mom is an amazing cook, and she helped me cultivate a love for food. She taught me that food can be beautiful. We eat not just for survival, but we survive to eat. It's part of who I am.
My mom was concerned that us four little black girls have a really well-balanced life. She wanted us to be around people like us, but we also went to private school and traveled all the time. Now I fit in most places because I've been most places.
The key to sauces is having patience. I'm not a patient woman, but I learned with sauces that you have to get everything on a slow roll and layer the flavors. That's where you get robust tastes: it starts one way and ends another.
Being the ideal of a strong woman means utilizing all the things that God gives you. People are always saying to me, 'You're a strong female, so why are you wearing a bikini on the cover of that magazine?' Being a strong woman is misconstrued to be something evil and ugly.
I love lifestyle stuff, I love housewares. I'm really a homebody, honestly. Anything to do with my kitchen, or my house, I'm all about it. I'm working on a sauce line, so that's kind of exciting. I'm a saucier.
In food, it's really, like, either you're right, or you're wrong. You know, people's taste buds kind of vary, but there's a technique. Either you do it right, or you don't.
I don't think people know me at all. At the end of the day, if you see me in sequins and glitter out at a club, you might think that's all there is. But, you know, it's just glitter. My friends who I've known since I was 17 - they know who I am.
I'm a multi-platinum recording artist; my passion is food.
The album 'Kelis Was Here' sucked the life out of me, and so I went off and studied to be a Cordon Bleu chef. What's great about food is that it's less about who you know and what you look like, and more about if you're any good.
After 'Kelis Was Here,' I was done. I was like, 'I will never put out another record again; I hate this business; I hate all these people.' I was in this race that I didn't even realise that I was in.
I needed a break, and going to culinary school turned a lightbulb on that I didn't have to make music. The people in the music business forget that not only is there an entire world of people out there who do not care what we do, we are not creating the wheel.
My desire was never to put out albums; it was to do musical theatre!
People know 'Milkshake' like a jingle, but they don't really know who I am.
The business of music. You know, it's an oxymoron in a sense. It's like the two things. Although we both need each other, they really don't go together.
