Trisha Yearwood, country music star and host of Trisha’s Southern Kitchen, joins host Jaymee Sire to share her journey to country music and home cook superstar. Trisha gives her twenty-six year old younger self advice and shares why she relates to her astrological sign. She talks about her creative process and the “pinch me” moments of her career so far and offers advice for aspiring music artists. Trisha talks about her marriage to fellow country music star Garth Brooks and what they do on a typical date night. She shares the family recipes that inspire her own and who in her life is the best food critic to test her recipes on. Trisha shares the kitchen tools that she can’t live without and her favorite parts of filming Trisha’s Southern Kitchen with the people she loves. She then gives her itinerary for a day in Nashville and explains the meaning of the Southern phrase “bless your heart.”
Trisha Yearwood, country music star and host of Trisha’s Southern Kitchen, joins host Jaymee Sire to share her journey to country music and home cook superstar. Trisha gives her twenty-six year old younger self advice and shares why she relates to her astrological sign. She talks about her creative process and the “pinch me” moments of her career so far and offers advice for aspiring music artists. Trisha talks about her marriage to fellow country music star Garth Brooks and what they do on a typical date night. She shares the family recipes that inspire her own and who in her life is the best food critic to test her recipes on. Trisha shares the kitchen tools that she can’t live without and her favorite parts of filming Trisha’s Southern Kitchen with the people she loves. She then gives her itinerary for a day in Nashville and explains the meaning of the Southern phrase “bless your heart.”
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Find episode transcript here: https://food-network-obsessed.simplecast.com/episodes/trisha-yearwood-reveals-her-best-food-critic-advice-for-her-younger-self
[THEME MUSIC] JAYMEE SIRE: Hello and welcome to Food Network Obsessed. This is the podcast where we dish on all things Food Network with your favorite Food Network stars. I'm your host, Jaymee Sire, and today, we have a country music legend on the podcast to talk about her path from country music superstardom to her beloved and Emmy-award-winning Food Network series.
Plus, we hear what comfort food means to her, and she shares her go-to food spots in Nashville. She is a Grammy-award-winning artist, cookbook author, and star of Trisha's Southern Kitchen. It's, of course, Trisha Year wood.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Trisha, welcome to the podcast. And first of all, happy belated birthday.
TRISHA YEARWOOD: Thank you very much.
JAYMEE SIRE: I know your birthday is September 19, so that makes you a fellow Virgo. How much do you identify with your astrological sign?
TRISHA YEARWOOD: A lot.
[LAUGHTER]
It's all the good and all the bad.
JAYMEE SIRE: What's the main good thing and the main bad thing you identify with?
TRISHA YEARWOOD: Well, it's a blessing and a curse to be organized, and it's also a blessing and a curse to kind of be a perfectionist. So I am definitely one of those people that, if I start off my day and something goes wrong, I'm like, oh, day shot. And everything has to go perfectly right. But nobody's perfect, so you're set yourself up for failure every single day.
But I definitely think that those organized and kind of controlling-- controlling is a bad way to say it, but it's just the truth.
JAYMEE SIRE: [LAUGHS] I agree with you. I'm the same way, and I think we're going to get along just fine over the course of this conversation. Well, welcome again to Food Network Obsessed. We are so excited to have you with us. We're going to talk all about your show on the network, of course, Trisha's Southern Kitchen, and your brand new cookbook, Trisha's Kitchen, Easy Comfort Food for Friends and Family.
But before we dive into all things food related, we have, of course, have to start with the fact that you are a music superstar. You've received countless awards for your work, and 30 years ago released "She's in Love with the Boy," which hit number one on the Billboard charts and skyrocketed your decades-long career in country music.
When you think back to 26-year-old Trisha, what advice would you give her?
TRISHA YEARWOOD: Oh, my gosh. I mean, you don't have time.
JAYMEE SIRE: [LAUGHS]
TRISHA YEARWOOD: Don't sweat the small stuff, honestly. It's like, we worry, especially us, girls. I think we worry about so many things that don't end up mattering. And when you're in high school, you're 26-year-old self wants to say the things you're worried about when you were 16, don't worry about.
I'm 57 now. I just turned. I feel so much more comfortable in my skin than I ever have, and I think it's such a gift. You're going to get older, you got wrinkles, so you might as well get some good stuff out of it. The good part for me is, that I would just tell myself to really trust my gut and my instincts.
And I really did, most of my career, but I've made some choices that I probably would go back and change. Most of those are more personal choices than career choices, but really, just to not worry so much about things. Because everything really does work out the way it's supposed to.
JAYMEE SIRE: Yeah, I think that's great advice for anyone. When you think back to growing up and your love, your interest in music, what was the moment when you really decided that's what you wanted to pursue as a career?
TRISHA YEARWOOD: I just knew. From the time I can remember having a memory-- so probably I knew. I always say five years old. If you ask me at five what I was going to do when I grew up, I was like, I'm going to be a singer. I think it's sometimes I said I was going to be Cher-- and I still want to be Cher, of course-- but I think--
JAYMEE SIRE: Who doesn't?
TRISHA YEARWOOD: Right, we all do. But I think I just always-- I never felt like I made a choice. I always felt like I was a singer, and I was going to figure out how to do it. And when you're a kid, you don't know how hard things are. I thought, well, that's what I want to be, so that's what I'm going to be.
And I'm lucky that I was never smart enough to know how hard it was really going to be. Because when I moved to town, I was 19, and I thought, well, if someone's got to get played on the radio, why can't it be me? And I think that it was a blessing to not know the rate of failure or whatever it is in this town. It's pretty high. And I do believe it's what I was supposed to do.
JAYMEE SIRE: I mean, confidence is a Virgo trait as well, right?
TRISHA YEARWOOD: It is.
[LAUGHTER]
JAYMEE SIRE: So no backup plan. You just knew that was what you were going to do, and you're not going to take no for an answer.
TRISHA YEARWOOD: Correct? And I did finish college because my parents were not going to take no for an answer on college. And it was really actually great because I found a place in Nashville that I could finish my degree, be in the town that was making the music I wanted to make. And it was a great transition to get me here.
I got to live in the dorm, so I wasn't, like, waiting tables and trying to pay bills and an apartment. I got to live in the dorm, finish school, and work on singing.
JAYMEE SIRE: What is your creative process like when it comes to your music?
TRISHA YEARWOOD: It's a very gut-based thing. I grew up on-- one of my biggest musical influences is Linda Ronstadt. And that led me to Emmylou Harris and Bonnie Raitt. And I think it's so emotionally driven by a song meaning something to me. So I'd like to tell people that I like songs for the same reason you like songs.
Sometimes you'll hear a song that you just can't get out of your head, and you don't know why. Sometimes you hear a song and you're, like, I feel like someone's spying on me because this is my life. And those are all the reasons I record songs. I try to please myself first when it comes to those songs because I have to love them. And then if I sing those songs, like, I believe them, then hopefully, you will get something out of it, too.
So it's a really organic process. It's very subjective. And you never know. Anybody who tells you, we knew this was a hit when we recorded it. They don't know.
JAYMEE SIRE: [LAUGHS] It's so funny that you say that about not being able to get a song out of your head, because as I was prepping for this interview all morning long, I'm just singing, "She's in Love with the Boy," in my head. And I hadn't heard that song in a long time, and it just immediately came back.
It kind of took me back to growing up in Montana, riding in a truck with my dad, listening to the country music station. You were on there a lot, obviously. Your husband was on there a lot, too. But looking back over the course of your career, do you have pinch-me moments that really stand out to you?
TRISHA YEARWOOD: Yeah, I do. A lot. There was a song that I recorded called "Wrong Side of Memphis," and there's a lyric in that song about having this dream from a tender age, seeing myself on the Opry stage. And the first time I played the Opry, because I had seen myself on that stage in my mind since I was a little kid, that was definitely a pinch-me moment.
And then I think of some things that I got to do that were never on the list. Like, you knew you wanted to be a singer, you knew you wanted to play the Opry, you knew you hopefully would win an award for female vocalist someday, all that stuff, but standing on a stage in Italy, singing with Pavarotti-- like that was not on the list, right?
So I remember standing there, having that conversation in my head of the pinch-me moment, like, make sure you're in this moment, because you're going to be able to look back on this and take yourself right there. And if you don't do that, if you don't really make yourself be in the present-- you have a memory of it, but it's almost like you're watching somebody else's life.
And I think that performance with Pavarotti was when I said to myself, you've got to really make sure you're in this moment. Now, when I think about it, I can put myself right back there.
JAYMEE SIRE: Would you give that same advice to other aspiring country music singers, or do you have something else that you would advise to them as they're looking to come up and make a name for their own selves?
TRISHA YEARWOOD: Well, now that I've been doing this for a long time, I've gotten a chance to get to know some of the next generation of chick singers, and I'm friends with a lot of these girls. And they do ask me those kinds of questions.
And I think what I tell them that I think is the most important thing is to really trust your gut, because when you move to town, and you're young, and you want this so badly for yourself, you tend to think, well, maybe these guys know more than I do. I should listen to what they're saying even if I don't feel really comfortable about it.
But there. Is that still, small voice in you, you know what's right for you. And you just need to trust it. And like somebody telling you what you should look like, what you should sound like, the songs you should sing, what you should dress like, you know what's right for you. And you'll thank yourself later for following your gut.
I was lucky that I had that instinct, but I also had good people around me that helped me with those things, and I wasn't ever put in a position, really, of having to make a choice and making somebody angry. A couple of times, I was. That's my best advice, I think, it's just to be true to yourself.
Because your name is on the bottom line. Your name is on the records. It's your reputation and your name no matter what anybody else is telling you to do.
JAYMEE SIRE: That's great. I mentioned your husband, Garth Brooks. You guys have been married since 2005. I love watching your guys' relationship develop and get even stronger over the years. What does a date night look like for the two of you? And more importantly, what are you guys eating?
TRISHA YEARWOOD: The first time that I went to Oklahoma to Garth for a weekend when we were dating, this is, I think, when I knew I was going to marry him. Because I went to see him. He was living in a little cowboy bunkhouse on this ranch.
We eventually built a house. I'm like, I love you, but we're going to have to move out of the bunkhouse.
JAYMEE SIRE: [LAUGHS]
TRISHA YEARWOOD: We were watching television, and he said, would you like some pizza? And I was like, yeah. I love pizza. So he went in the kitchen. He was gone for a little bit. And he came back in-- first of all, they were the frozen "two for $5" pizzas. No lie. And he still loves those. But he came in with a pizza for him and a pizza for me. And I was like, oh, I love this guy. I do. I really do.
But now date night is really-- it's so easy to be with him. It's not "I need to have a meal on the table at 6 o'clock." It's really like, do you want to cook tonight? Do you want to go out and get fast food? Are we done for the day? We ate at 4:00, we're not hungry.
But we have this chair-- this sounds so crazy-- but we have this chair in the middle of this big living room with all these couches, but we have this chair that seats two people, and that's our chair. If you come over to my house, and you want to come visit me, you're not going to sit in our chair. Because we have to sit-- we like to sit next to each other. And just a blanket and a football game, that's the perfect date night for me.
JAYMEE SIRE: Sitting close to each other. I love that. So the first thing he ever cooked for you was frozen pizza? What was the first thing you ever cooked for him?
TRISHA YEARWOOD: I made him fettuccine alfredo, and it was my sister's recipe. I don't know, I got crazy with the butter, and the Parmesan, and the cream, and it was so heavy. You could barely get it on the fork. And then he honestly-- this is the honest truth, he fell asleep almost in his plate.
He's the guy who can also fall asleep like [SNAPS FINGERS] that, but I didn't really know that at the time. And I'm like, this date night, I'm cooking for him for the first time. It's going to be really nice. And he got up from the table and walked over to a couch and sat down. And he was gone. He's out.
JAYMEE SIRE: [LAUGHS]
TRISHA YEARWOOD: And I'm like, all right, well, this is a fun date. [LAUGHS]
JAYMEE SIRE: I mean, obviously, he liked it. He ate that much of it, and it put him to sleep.
TRISHA YEARWOOD: He did. He said it was a little heavy, so I lightened it up. And that was long before the first book. So it's in the first book, but it's not quite as crazy as it was.
JAYMEE SIRE: He does cook a lot, right? He joins you in the kitchen from time to time?
TRISHA YEARWOOD: He does. And he's got some things. He makes a really good breakfast bowl for my birthday, actually. I got up and I slept in, and he had an entire everything. He had bacon, and sausage, and biscuits, and eggs, and everything.
The only thing that's funny is that he's from Oklahoma, I'm from Georgia. He doesn't cook things that he wouldn't eat. So like, I love grits for breakfast, he couldn't make a grit if he had to. He doesn't understand.
So I'll usually sneak in after he's made this huge spread and make myself a little thing of grits to go with everything. He has a couple of recipes in this book that were inspired by him. One is a breakfast lasagna, because he came to me and said, could we?
I'm doing do a breakfast casserole, but he's like, no I want a full-on lasagna with the noodles and everything. But we just replace everything with breakfast foods, and it came out really, really nice. So I gave him credit for that because he inspired that dish.
JAYMEE SIRE: Well, you're both cooking, you're jamming out to some music in the kitchen. What's on the playlist?
TRISHA YEARWOOD: I say like the crazy music that I love, like Prince and Lizzo for poolside. But if I'm in the kitchen, I like soothing music. So I'll play Sinatra, or Dean Martin, or James Taylor, the Linda Ronstadt channel. So that kind of stuff is what normally is happening in the kitchen when we're cooking.
JAYMEE SIRE: I love the "Shallow" cover, by the way. What inspired you guys to get back into the recording studio together?
TRISHA YEARWOOD: We were all in lockdown. And the very beginning of the pandemic, everybody was trying to figure out what are we going to-- like, how long is this going to last, and what are we going to do? And we were doing some Facebook lives, and we were doing some request shows and just playing music for folks. Because we felt as pent up as everybody else did.
And somebody requested that we do "Shallow." And we did just a little piece of it on this live broadcast. Didn't even have the whole song down, at all, but I loved the song. And then of course, the next live that came up, they're like, do more of "Shallow," and you should record "Shallow," and we're, like, it just came out with Bradley Cooper and Gaga. We're not going to go record "Shallow."
And then just kept at it. And so we thought, let's go record it for fun. We're not going to put it out. We're not going to play it. No one's going to hear it. And we recorded it, and we loved how it came out. And so we thought, all right, I'm really glad we did because it's so fun to sing. It's such a great song. I mean, the Gaga part is so fun because you just get to wail.
JAYMEE SIRE: [LAUGH]
TRISHA YEARWOOD: So it's really fun song to sing. And we added it on that Every Girl deluxe album that we just put out just to have it on my album, as well as his.
JAYMEE SIRE: I love that. Garth also wrote an incredibly touching forward for your brand new cookbook. Trisha's Kitchen, Easy Comfort Food for Friends and Family. It definitely brought some tears to my eyes. Apparently, this is your most personal cookbook, yet. Why is that, and what inspired the approach to this particular one?
TRISHA YEARWOOD: It's interesting because I would have said before this that the first book was probably the most personal because it's kind of, like, your first album. You pour everything into it, and then you get busy, and you go on the road. And then the next album you make, you're doing it when you're off the road, so it doesn't feel as cohesive.
And I guess that's the way this felt because I was home, and I was waking up every morning at my house, in my kitchen. It just felt like I got to really focus on that. And because it was just me and my sister, who lived next door, so we just cooked for our husbands. And we tweak things.
And I have a friend named Michelle who works on the show who is an amazing chef but understands me, understands that my exotic spices are salt and pepper, and she understands my style of cooking. So she helped me when I go, hey, we have plenty of appetizers, but we need to add-- we've got a jam-and-jelly section this time. We never had that before. We need an extra sauce, help me figure out that. Helping me kind of spin some classic recipes into new things.
And then Beth and I, my sister, we found a lot of recipes that we thought were lost. There's a recipe in here for something called Jack's fried pies, and my dad's name was Jack. And he used to always talk about these fried pies that his mother used to make. And we couldn't find the recipe anywhere. Never found it. My mother never could find it.
And Beth and I uncovered this tiny little cookbook of our grandmothers with all handwritten things in there, and we found the fried pies. So it was really cool. And also because I do write the books, I write all the stories, every head note, every introduction, to sit down with the recipes and really think about why does this recipe matter to me? What do I love about it, and why is it important in my family? It was cool to really remember why do I love this, and to share that with everybody.
JAYMEE SIRE: I love the stories because I like to read cookbooks like they're regular books. I do gravitate towards the ones that have the story behind it. And it seems like food in your family was really important growing up. Can you share some of those first memories of food and kind of what made you fall in love with that aspect of your life?
TRISHA YEARWOOD: Yeah. I grew up in not a big family but everybody cooked. My dad was a good cook, my mom, my mother's family. She grew up on a big dairy farm in South Georgia, and her mother cooked for everybody that worked on that farm.
So at lunch time every day, she would not only work in the field herself, but then she'd come back. And my mom was the daughter-- there were two boys and my mom, so she would help her mother prepare the meal for, sometimes, 20 people. And everything was always homemade, and it was always great, and always done.
My memories of going to visit them were of a big, round table with a lot of laughter, and always homemade biscuits, and always sweet tea. So to me, the food was so intertwined with the memories of just how much fun around the table. And the kids would leave and go play, but the adults would sit around the table for hours and just chat, and visit.
And I found that that's what we did as kids, learning from our mom and dad. Especially after we got older, we would sit around the table with them long after the meal was finished. And my mom, she did most of the cooking. My dad was the breakfast on the weekends guy, and he could grill, and we lived in a very small town. So if there was a fundraiser, Jack would cook the chickens. And he would make Brunswick stew, and so it was a thing.
So that love of food that intertwine with family has just always been there. And now that my folks are both gone, it's really important, because for me, every time I make something that they made, they're with me. And even the show, the show has been such a wonderful gift for me and my sister to carry their traditions on. And now, everybody in the country who watches the show says, oh, I made your mom's, blah, blah, blah, or whatever. And now we make it every Thanksgiving. And it makes me feel so good that their food is now in other people's homes.
JAYMEE SIRE: That's so cool. What would your parents think about that, your mom, knowing that people were making her recipes?
TRISHA YEARWOOD: I think she would be totally thrilled. My dad passed right before we wrote the first book, so we dedicated it to him. But he never got to see us do this thing. My mom was in on the first two books, and she's been gone almost 10 years. But she-- right before the show started-- but I think she would have had her own show. Like, she was on it.
She had it going on, and she was so much fun in the kitchen. She taught me confidence in the kitchen. She was not afraid to try anything. I think that they both are looking down and going, this is good.
JAYMEE SIRE: You mentioned some of these recipes in the book that are special to you. But what are the ones that are at every family gathering? If you guys are having something, what's that dish that's always there?
TRISHA YEARWOOD: I think it changes a little bit. I mean, there's the traditional meals like Thanksgiving and Christmas, but I think things that were very traditional in my family like chicken pot pie, comfort food for sure. And then spinning that in the new book into a chicken pot pie burger, that's now kind of become the new tradition.
So all the things that go in the burger-- you saute the vegetables, and you put it in the ground chicken, you make the burger, and you put it on a bun, and then the sauce is a gravy, that is what would be in the pie. It tastes just like a chicken pot pie, but it's a burger. And I wonder sometimes, I'm like, OK, this is what I had growing up, but not, and I wonder what my mom would think of that. But I think she would approve.
JAYMEE SIRE: I think she would, too. You mentioned comfort food, which is, obviously, a big part of your cooking, your recipes. What does comfort food mean to you?
TRISHA YEARWOOD: Comfort food is whatever that is for you. So people, I think, a lot of times associate comfort food and decadent food as the same thing. And also, Southern food as being more decadent. But it really is, you were talking about Montana, and how you grew up and your family, we all have those memories. And we all have that thing that our mom made, or our grandmother made, or our dad made, that brings us comfort.
And when my parents are still living, and I moved to Nashville, and I missed home, and I missed her cooking, that's really when I learned to cook. Because if I could make her dishes and they tasted like hers, that was comforting to me. So I think it's different for everybody, but to me, it really truly is the definition of the word. It's whatever makes you feel good. It's whatever that dish is that comforts you.
JAYMEE SIRE: I think it's the best part about food is that, it's the one thing that we all have in common. We can connect with each other. And even those comfort dishes, if it's the same dish, it's still slightly different. Because your mom might have added almonds to this casserole, or whatever the case may be. And so we all might have the same comfort food dishes, but they're all slightly different, which is why it's so fun to collect cookbooks, as well. Who do you test your recipes on when you're developing them for a cookbook?
TRISHA YEARWOOD: My neighbors, my friends, my husband, for sure. Garth is really a great food critic because he will be honest. At first, you don't want that. I want him to say, oh, everything you make is so amazing. But the truth is, you want feedback, especially if you're working on new things.
Usually if he makes a comment about a dish, I will instantly get mad. But then I think about it, and I'm, like, he's right about that. It needs more, whatever. It needs more salt or pepper. Or texture, he's a big texture guy. But I love it because if he really loves something, he can't even speak, really. Like it's the yummy sounds, right? So you know you've got a winner there. So I trust him because I know that he's going to tell me the truth.
JAYMEE SIRE: He's been your food critic from day one, right? Told you to lighten up the fettuccine alfredo.
[LAUGHTER]
TRISHA YEARWOOD: That's right.
JAYMEE SIRE: What are some of your must-have kitchen tools that make cooking easy and make your recipes really easy, as well?
TRISHA YEARWOOD: The first thing I learned when I first started doing the show was a sharp knife. I'm like most people that cook, I don't take my knives to get them sharp, and I just cook. And I use the same knives forever. And when I first started doing the show, I would cut myself on camera a lot, because I was used to having to saw into a tomato, right? So they said, you guys, you need to get your knives sharpened.
So when the knives for the show went to get sharpened, I sent my personal [INAUDIBLE] knives with them. It makes it easier to do your job in the kitchen. And people are like, man, I'm not going to pay more than 10 bucks for a knife. It's like one really good knife is all you need. One really good chef's knife will get you through. You can make anything. I really do believe that.
I don't do a lot of gadgets in the kitchen. I don't like a lot of appliances sitting around. But I do love an electric mixer. And my mother had one in the corner of her kitchen, and she made a lot of cakes. And she even pulled her meatloaf together in the mixer, and cookie-- there's so many things that the mixer makes life easier for. That's my go-to gift. When people send me a wedding invitation, you're getting a mixer.
JAYMEE SIRE: [LAUGHS]
TRISHA YEARWOOD: You just need one.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
JAYMEE SIRE: Coming up, Trisha gives us the inside scoop on Trisha's Southern Kitchen, and reveals her favorite food spots in Nashville.
You mentioned the show, Trisha's Southern Kitchen, where we've seen a lot of your home cooking for almost a decade now. Let's go back to the beginning. What sparked the idea to become a Food Network star in addition to a country music star? How did the show come to be?
TRISHA YEARWOOD: Well, the first book, honestly, when I moved to Oklahoma to be with Garth, I stopped touring, really. I was helping him raise three daughters, and I needed to be there if I was going to do that. And so I really started to write the book with my mom and my sister as a way to be creative in a different way.
I really had no idea that it would be a success. I really just had no idea. After that, I'm like, well, there won't be a second book because we put all the recipes in the first book.
JAYMEE SIRE: [LAUGHS]
TRISHA YEARWOOD: But then we kind of widen the net. We did more like a family reunion book. And all those things that my aunts, and uncles, and cousins brought to family reunions, which are great, went in that second book. Around that time was when we started getting some asks about maybe doing a show. And honestly, I remember saying, I don't think that would be fun. I feel like telling people to add the butter is not my thing. Like, I just don't know that's what I want to do.
And I met with a producer who said, your books tell the story of your family. You can tell that story however you want to. And I said, well, I'd do better if I can interact with somebody else. Because I'm an entertainer. I don't want to be in the kitchen by myself. So if I can have my sister on, and my friends on, I think that would be fun.
And I remember the first season was six episodes. And I remember saying, well, if I do six and I don't like it, can I not do anymore? And they're like, OK. I don't think he might ever ask about before, but I loved it. It was fun. It was really fun. And I learned a lot.
I mean, that was a real learning curve, because I'd done a lot of performing, but I've never done anything like that kind of television show, you know? We're 17 seasons, we do about two a year. As long as it's fun, I hope I get to keep doing it.
JAYMEE SIRE: What is your favorite part about filming?
TRISHA YEARWOOD: I think it's the people. Honestly, we have a pretty loyal crew. So we have guys that work on, and gals that work on a lot of other shows. But this is like camp, because we don't take anything too seriously. We laugh a lot. We have a lot of fun. There's a lot of love and respect on this set.
So I think people look forward to the couple of weeks, three weeks that it takes to shoot a season. That's my favorite part, is getting back together with hair and makeup and wardrobe, and Michelle and Jenny in the kitchen, who are culinary goddesses. And it's just a good vibe. So I just look forward to the camaraderie.
The hardest thing about the pandemic for me was that we didn't shoot for a year and a half, and we shot this new season in July. And it was just so great to just be with everybody and just see everybody.
JAYMEE SIRE: Yeah. A lot of people have said that we've had on the podcast, just the crew becomes really your family, which I think says a lot about the approach you and Food Network has to creating these types of shows. And you mentioned the friends, the family, fellow country music stars, get to come on and cook with you. Do you have a favorite guest of all time, or is that too hard to ask?
TRISHA YEARWOOD: It is a tough ask. But I have a lot of favorites. My favorite guest in the kitchen is my sister only because she and I have this exact same memories, and it's so easy with her because we've been in the kitchen together our whole lives.
I had Reba on once, and I love Reba, and she doesn't cook much. She will tell you that. But she was willing, and she's going to do anything. And I remember how nervous she made the crew because I asked her to slice some apples or potatoes, I think, for a casserole. And she's just slicing and dicing. And I think they were like, don't do a close up of her hands. Something's going to go terribly wrong here. But she did fine. She did fine.
But she was just fine. When you have somebody in the kitchen who's also an entertainer and they're used to-- knowing about that energy you need, to have them in the kitchen is fun. Jeff Morrow is one of my favorite guests to have on the show. He's been on several times. That guy is so fun. The outtakes are my favorite part with him, because it's just always over the top and fun.
JAYMEE SIRE: He wrote us a song for the podcast when we had him on. I'm sure there's a lot of music involved when Jaff saw it as well, I'm sure.
TRISHA YEARWOOD: Yes, he writes me a song every time he comes on the show.
JAYMEE SIRE: He does. OK, so I shouldn't feel that special, then.
TRISHA YEARWOOD: Well, yeah, you shouldn't.
[LAUGHTER]
JAYMEE SIRE: Do you have a dream guest that you haven't had on yet?
TRISHA YEARWOOD: Well, we talked about Cher earlier. I think Cher needs to come on the show.
JAYMEE SIRE: Now, she would be great. Anyone else?
TRISHA YEARWOOD: I don't know. I've been pretty lucky so far. I don't know. There's a ton of people I'd love to have on the show. I don't know. I'm blanking. You should be on the show.
JAYMEE SIRE: OK, I'm in. I'm in. I'll be, like, in Nashville knocking at your door with just that invitation. We talked a lot about recipes from the book. Do you have a recipe from the show that is an all-time favorite? Or are there's just too many to come through in your mind?
TRISHA YEARWOOD: When you said that, what came into my head was we did a Halloween special a couple of years ago, and we made the craziest food. We made this pizza tentacle creature coming out of this bucket for one of the dishes. And everything had a scare to it. I had try to convince the viewer, like, this taste amazing.
Because they were kind of like calzones, but we had stuffed them with cheese that we had dyed green so when you slice into it, it's green. And then we put little mini pepperonis on top for tentacles. So they just kind of looked weird--
JAYMEE SIRE: That's really cool.
TRISHA YEARWOOD: --but they tasted really, really good.
JAYMEE SIRE: I like that. Any funny moments or bloopers you can share from behind the scenes?
TRISHA YEARWOOD: Oh, my gosh. So many. Most of them we've shown. They're just the best. Sometimes, my friends who work on the show end up getting roped into being a guest. Usually, we have the glam squad who I do a lot of stuff with in episode almost every season.
And the guy who does my hair, his name is Earl, and his husband's name is James, and they came on the show while were doing an outside, like glamping episode, in the backyard. And while we were working in the kitchen on something else, they were outside shooting some B-roll and James got in this hammock we had set up.
And the minute he got in the hammock, he just flipped out. And he actually hurt himself, which I should not be laughing about. And so, they wouldn't show him because he scraped his elbow, or whatever.
But I convinced them in the [INAUDIBLE] to do sort of a best of for this time that we were all at home. And I said, you've got to put that. You've got to show that blooper of him falling out of the hammock. So we did.
JAYMEE SIRE: I love that. Well, you filmed in Nashville where, of course, as you've mentioned, you've lived for quite a while now. Obviously, it's known for country music. But what else makes Nashville so special?
TRISHA YEARWOOD: You know what's really cool about Nashville? Since I've lived here, we've gotten two professional sports teams that-- we had minor league baseball, which is awesome. We have the Nashville sounds. But we got the Titans, and then we got the Nashville Predators, the hockey team.
So this town has become really a cool sports town to be in, and I'm a big fan of both of those teams. So it's really fun to go, there's always something to do here. Nashville also has a lot of different kinds of music. There is country music, but there is also any kind of music you like, you can find here?
And it's also got one of the most highly-acclaimed hospitals Vanderbilt's here. There's just a lot. It's a great place to live.
JAYMEE SIRE: And a great food scene, as well, which has kind of been coming into its own I feel like over the last five years or so. What are some of your go-to food spots there?
TRISHA YEARWOOD: Well, when I moved here, we didn't even have a Starbucks.
[LAUGHTER]
There was really, when I moved here we had the Pancake Pantry, which was a breakfast spot, but you get breakfast all day. It's still one of my favorite spots. It's still here, and it's still in business. Those are kind of my favorites, are kind of the places that have survived. Because we're truly a growing city, and there is so much, so much good to do here.
Nashville hot chicken is a thing, but there's a place that was the original hot chicken called Prince's Hot Chicken. Still my go-to for if I'm going to do hot chicken, that's where I want to go. So I guess my favorite places are sort of the older places.
JAYMEE SIRE: I love it.
TRISHA YEARWOOD: There's a place here called for 4 Kitchen. They inspired a cheesy skillet cornbread. That's in this new book. They did individual cornbread that are amazing. You could go every night of the week out and not hit all the new places. There's so much. There's so much. Kayne Prime has a candied bacon that is served with cotton candy. I can't even talk about it.
JAYMEE SIRE: I love it. I love that your favorite spot is still one from back in the day. What is your order at the pancake place? Is it pancakes?
TRISHA YEARWOOD: It's pancakes, yeah. Because it's a big stack of pancakes, and always a side of bacon. Because I got to have salt and sweet together.
JAYMEE SIRE: I agree. And also, you always just have to have bacon. So if I'm in Nashville for a day, I only have 24 hours. What's the itinerary? Or is there sports, and food, and music. What is the ideal Nashville itinerary for the day?
TRISHA YEARWOOD: When I moved to town, Broadway was really not happening. But now, it's the place to be. And even though you don't want to hang out all night at a bar and in Broadway, you probably need to go down there, and see the scene. And it's right next to the arena where you can watch a hockey game.
I grew up in Georgia. Didn't play hockey, not really a big hockey fan. But once the Predators came, I've never heard a crowd louder than a Predators game. They're such fun games. They're very audience participation games. We have to go to a game.
And then if we have time, I would probably take you out to The Loveless Cafe. It's a little dry, but these women make over 200 homemade biscuits every morning. It's all home-cooked country ham. it's like the true country place to go eat, and it's beautiful.
JAYMEE SIRE: All right, that sounds like a pretty solid itinerary. I'm already plotting my next trip. This has been so much fun. We're going to wrap things up with some rapid fire questions. And then we have one final question for you.
TRISHA YEARWOOD: OK.
JAYMEE SIRE: All right. So favorite Southern phrase.
TRISHA YEARWOOD: Bless your heart.
[LAUGHTER]
We all know what that really means.
JAYMEE SIRE: For anyone that doesn't know, what does that mean?
TRISHA YEARWOOD: It's not a compliment. Usually, it's like, oh, bless his heart. It means you're dumb, or you're wrong, or you're just not-- it's not a compliment.
JAYMEE SIRE: Just know that. It's a great one, though. I love it. Still said with a smile.
TRISHA YEARWOOD: Always, oh, bless his heart.
JAYMEE SIRE: Fried or baked cornbread?
TRISHA YEARWOOD: Baked.
JAYMEE SIRE: OK. Favorite Garth Brooks song?
TRISHA YEARWOOD: "Papa Loved Mama." I know, it's not a romantic ballad. But it's I love it, it's fun. And I sang on it. So that's why it was the number one record, but whatever.
JAYMEE SIRE: Of course, obviously. Grits or oatmeal? I feel like I already know the answer.
TRISHA YEARWOOD: Yeah, grits, that's for sure.
JAYMEE SIRE: Favorite collaborator in your career so far?
TRISHA YEARWOOD: Well, I have to say Garth. But two would be Don Henley.
JAYMEE SIRE: Favorite Southern dessert.
TRISHA YEARWOOD: Lemon meringue pie.
JAYMEE SIRE: You have a recipe for that in any of the books?
TRISHA YEARWOOD: I do. I think it's in the second book. I forget which ones they're in. but yes, it's a really good one.
JAYMEE SIRE: Favorite Food Network show besides your own.
TRISHA YEARWOOD: Oh, it's a tie between the kitchen? And also, anything [INAUDIBLE] here. Like, if you travel and cook, I want to see where you're going and what you're doing.
JAYMEE SIRE: I think that's a fan favorite for sure, as well. So our final question that we ask all of our guests on "Food Network Obsessed," what would be on the menu for your perfect food day? So we want to know what you're eating for breakfast and lunch, dinner, dessert. You can throw in some snacks, if you want. You don't have to.
You can time travel, you can-- just regular travel, like supersonic jets. There are no rules, it's your day, and we want to hear about it.
TRISHA YEARWOOD: OK. In real life, my day starts with coffee, and that's it. And as long as I have coffee, I don't really need anything else to live.
JAYMEE SIRE: How do you take your coffee?
TRISHA YEARWOOD: Just cream. It used to not even be warm. I would use so much stuff in it that it wasn't even hot by the time I finished with all the human sugar. But I've graduated to just a little bit of cream. But if I was going to have breakfast, I would definitely have-- there's this breakfast burger that I've been doing lately. It's in the New book that has maple pork in it, and also ground beef.
And then it's on a French toast bun, and it has avocado, and it has some maple butter on it. It's just so decadent. You really wouldn't need to eat again. But I would eat again. I'm not really a snacker, so I would go straight to dinner. And my go-to dinner is something my mom would always Sunday lunch for us after church, and it's slow-cooked roast beef. And she would make, instead of mashed potatoes and gravy, she'd make rice and gravy. And so that's the thing for me.
Probably, bacon-wrapped asparagus bundles in a homemade biscuit. That's all I need. Oh, a big glass of sweet tea. And that's all I need in life.
JAYMEE SIRE: That's all you need at life. Are having dessert, or--
TRISHA YEARWOOD: Yeah. If I was going to have dessert, I'd probably do double-stuffed brownies, which was something I dreamed up last year when I tried to figure out what went inside the Oreo. And I'm like, why don't you put that between two brownies? That's what we did.
JAYMEE SIRE: Oh, my gosh! That sounds very decadent and very perfect for your food day. Thank you so much for the stories, for the conversation. Best of luck with the brand new cookbook. And of course, the new season of the show. Thank you.
TRISHA YEARWOOD: I enjoyed talking with you. It's fun.
JAYMEE SIRE: Thank you.
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Well, I don't know about you, but my country music heart is singing right now. And I also have a craving for a chicken pot pie burger. That sounded insane. We hope you enjoyed this conversation with Trisha. You can catch her on the newest season of Trisha's Southern Kitchen on Food Network's Saturdays at 12:11 central. And you can catch up on past seasons on Discovery Plus.
Also, be sure to pick up a copy of her brand new cookbook, Trisha's Kitchen, Easy Comfort Food for Friends and Family, out now. Thanks so much for listening and make sure to follow us wherever you listen to podcasts so you don't miss a thing. And if you enjoy today's episode, please rate and review. We do love it when you do that.
That's all for now. We'll catch you foodies next Friday.
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