Courtesy of Food Network
Slice a banana in half lengthwise, and spread a good dollop of Duke’s Mayonnaise across the pale yellow fruit. Sprinkle it with cinnamon, and—do we have your attention?
It’s one of four “Don’t Knock It ’Til You Try It” recipes some 200 pages into Martina’s Kitchen Mix: My Recipe Playlist for Real Life, the second cookbook from country music icon Martina McBride. The “Banana Mayo Thing,” as it’s called, is a treasure from the singer’s childhood, and one “strange, but delicious,” recipe among 150 that welcome you into her kitchen.
A feast for the eyes, the entire cookbook is exquisitely styled and photographed, highlighting tastes of home—her mom’s seasoned pot roast and thickened gravy, fried cornmeal “mush,” and Grandma’s cinnamon rolls. It’s all balanced with what she’s cooking now—maybe a baked French toast with pecan crumble and blackberry maple syrup when hosting brunch; experimental finds, like garlic-roasted cabbage “steaks;” her husband (of 30 years) John’s bacon-wrapped olives; or an easy braised chicken in sun-dried tomato cream sauce for dinner.
“I have just stockpiled all these recipes that I wanted to share with people—it's really just like making another album,” McBride says. “Why do you make a second album? You make a second album because you have something different to say.”
The Kansas native’s heartland recipes aren’t culinarily intrinsic; they’re the work of a home cook and entertaining sage who’s been polishing, and perfecting them so others can do the same.
“That’s something I love about it, it's constantly evolving,” she says, of a cooking process that’s become meditative. “For me [cooking is] just another way to be creative, and it's also, I would say, my love language. That’s how I take care of people.”
Since Around the Table, McBride’s first cookbook, the Grammy-nominated artist has taken one especially organic step out of music and in front of the camera. Martina’s Table, a new Food Network show that premiered in November, puts her cooking chops and nurturing personality on display, preparing meals for family and friends—think Sheryl Crow, Faith Hill, and Little Big Town's Karen Fairchild and Kimberly Schlapman.
“There's been a lot of things in my career that I've turned down because they would have been so outside the norm, but this one just felt authentic,” she says. “It didn’t feel like I was doing it to, you know, grow my brand. I wanted to do it because it was fun. I’ve always been detail-oriented and hands on, and I think that's why my fans feel like they know me really well, because, well, it is me. It's not some management or image person creating what they feel will work.”
A new skill set (and challenge, she says), McBride is tackling cooking in front of a camera, monitors, and producers. She’s talking, relating, chopping, smiling—“And keeping it all straight! I’ll never understand why on camera it's so hard to get stuff out of a bowl,” she laughs.
“But it’s like performing on stage, there's a bit of figuring it out: How you want to relate and how you want people to relate to you? But I love it. And I love that I don’t always know what I'm doing.”
Outside of the music (and Food Network) studio, McBride keeps herself running at full-speed—it’s creatively demanding, but it’s also a life that doesn’t feel like work because it’s one she loves. For a quarter of a century, she has dominated an industry with powerhouse vocals. And this fall, on the day that her second holiday album, It’s the Holiday Season, was released, McBride reflected.
“For me to be 25-plus years into my career and have the opportunity to learn something new, that's exciting, and hopefully, watch something grow again and build on it—a lot of people don't get that chance twice. I'm really grateful. And I'm grateful that I have fans who want to go on my journey, whatever I do next.”