The first time I heard Sam Cooke was in the 'Malcom X' film. I was with my father, and that's the first time I heard his song. I remember my father telling me the story of Sam Cooke.
I want people to see an honesty within me. I'm not trying to be the next Sam Cooke or Otis Redding.
I think maybe the vehicle for me was 'Sam Cooke's Greatest Hits.' It has a song called, 'Touch the Hem of His Garment.' Do you know that song? I kind of got obsessed with that song and started exploring and getting more of his old recordings with the Soul Stirrers and really getting into that super, super deeply.
I grew up in a household in which they'd always play old skool classic R&B love songs - Al Green, Sam Cooke, Marvin Gaye... And my mom has even said that, when I was in her womb, she'd put the headphones to her stomach and play those songs to me!
My sister and I cooked a lot together; my sister was a very healthy vegetarian. She was always a real good teacher for me about organics, recycling, composting -whenever you hear me talk about it, it's usually because of my sister's influence.
Me personally, I'm real close to my mom. She raised me. It was a single-parent home situation. She did everything: cooked, worked two jobs, came home late, but she loved me to death.
Growing up, I was aware of the kids-don't-like-vegetables trope, but it didn't make much sense to me. I never had any choice; all the traditional Iranian dishes my mom cooked teemed with herbs and vegetables.
Mom cooked a lot of turkey when I was growing up. Turkey meatloaf, turkey burgers, ground turkey shepherd's pie - my childhood was the Bubba Gump of turkey. You'd think I would be sick of it, but when I find gems like Gwyneth Paltrow's turkey meatball recipe, it's as though the fowl is no longer foul to me.
Syria and Iran have always had a pretty tight relationship, and it looks to me like they just cooked up a press release to put out to sort of restate the obvious. They're both problem countries; we know that. And this doesn't change anything.
I'm just very grateful that the media has been so kind to me, because there's nothing unusual about me. I'm just a mum and a granny who is teaching cookery on TV. Basically, I'm very ordinary.
I was always drawn to the blues. Alberta Hunter at the Cookery was a life-changing experience. I only wanted to get enriched as a performer as I got older, to have an audience which got older, too, and would come to see me when I'm 80.
I used to have a monthly cookery column, and am a big cook, so that whole sense of connecting what one does with food to one's cultural identity has always been fascinating to me.
I think cookery shows have become so sophisticated, and everyone's so marvellous at it, but there are people like me who aren't into the cooking malarkey, who still don't know how to boil an egg for three minutes.
I found out when I did the Oprah Winfrey show that there was a cookie jar of me. So she gave it to me. I had no idea prior to that that it even existed.
When people tell me they are going to go scrapbooking, I say, 'Why don't you make it yourself.' It's like chocolate-chip cookies. People buy the cookie-dough roll and slice it, and then they lay it on a cookie sheet. That's not making chocolate-chip cookies.
If you know cookies are your weakness, don't even bring them in the house because, like me, you will eat them.
Cooking certain dishes, like roast pork, reminds me of my mother.
As long as they want me modeling, I'll be here. But I hope to maybe have a cooking show one day or host a talk show when I'm older and have a developed brand. That would be really fun.
Whenever anyone asked me what I'd do if I wasn't a singer, I'd say, 'Oh, I'd have a cooking show.'
I could lie and say my wife cooks for me, but she doesn't. My wife has never learnt cooking but she has great cooks at home.
