Chrissy Teigen Once Used Bacon to Fix a Sewer Malfunction, & Other Insights We Learned From Her New Cookbook

Because it's not just about recipes...

By Seija Rankin Feb 23, 2016 5:00 PMTags
Chrissy Teigen

Chrissy Teigen is an open book. She posts on Instagram about her bedtime routines, she tweets about what it feels like to be pregnant, and she reveals marital advice in interviews. But even someone as talkative and outgoing as Chrissy Teigen has secrets. Deep, dark secrets. And that's where her book release comes in.

Okay so sure, it's a cookbook. And sure, "deep" and "dark" may be overstatements. But either way, the model is revealing all sorts of personal insights in the new Cravings, out today. 

First and foremost we should mention the food—because that's why we're having this conversation in the first place. After what feels like decades of teasing the public with shots of her home-cooked meals and dinner party grub, Teigen decided to grace the world with her very favorite recipes. There's something for everybody here, so long as you don't care about, like, nutrition. The meals are broken down into categories—there's breakfast, soups, salads, noodles and carbs, Thai specialties, party recipes and fancier varieties like homemade pastas and roast chicken. If you don't page through the thing and come away with a laundry list of cheat meals to try, we don't know what's wrong with you.

Courtesy Penguin Random House

But now let's get to the good stuff. Like any good cookbook, Chrissy weaves in personal stories with each recipe, explaining why fish tacos means so much to her or just how she came to love breakfast sandwiches so darn much. We found ourselves letting out oohs and ahhs just about every other page, so ahead are our favorite little tidbits that we gleaned from Cravings.

1. Chrissy grew up dreaming about cooking—and not just daydreaming, she actually slept in a chef's hat, her mom's chili pepper apron and oven mitts.

2. She once cooked bacon to cover up the smell of a sewer system malfunction. In other words, that's some very strong-smelling bacon.

3. If Chrissy calls you, and you don't put her through to voicemail, you're dead.

4. The first song that husband John Legend wrote about her is "Good Morning" from the album Revolver. It's not exactly about breakfast, if you know what we mean.

5. They didn't just get married in Italy; they actually fell in love while visiting Lake Como.

6. But their first date (and, later, their first fight) was at Il Buco in New York City.

7. Her biggest pet peeve is when restaurants call it "hashbrowns" but really mean "home fries." The shred is very important.

8. Chrissy's friend once helped her out of an emotional breakdown by telling her to floss every day. And, even better, it worked.

9. Her real therapist is her dog Puddy. 

10. The most-asked question she gets from fans is what her death row meal would be.

11. And for the record, it's her mom's scalloped potatoes. (Don't worry, the recipe's in the book).

12. But if she's eating before a shoot, it's Thai Papaya Salad all the way.

13. The only thing that stopped her from constant crying after a move from Seattle to Huntington Beach at the end of high school was discovering Wahoo's Fish Tacos. 

14. She had an overwhelming distaste for weird LA guru doctors. 

15. The key to a successful dinner parties is to start hours late, so that your guests are good and drunk by the time they start eating.

PHOTOS: Chrissy Teigen and John Legend's hottest food pics