Meet Ayesha Curry, The Newest Domestic Goddess You Should Be Following Right Now
Everything about her Is #goals!
To start, she's published a best-selling cookbook, owns successful lines of kitchenware and food products, manages a healthy meal kit service, maintains a massively popular YouTube cooking channel, hosts her own cooking show, boasts five million Instagram followers, is an active philanthropist, is the loving wife to NBA legend Stephen Curry, and a super mom to two (soon to be three) crazy cute kids—all of which she accomplished before turning 29.
READ: Hip And Unique Gift Ideas For Domestic Divas
While her meteoric rise to fame seems to have happened in an instant, this domestic goddess insists that her life as we know it was a slow-cooked recipe of hard work, passion, and persistence paired with a healthy appetite for risk-taking. None of her achievements, she guarantees, came easy.
READ: Cook with Turmeric To Benefit From Its Touted Health Properties And Golden Flavors
But despite the many delays and detours along the way, Ayesha has ticked off all the items on her career checklist while nurturing a family and achieving personal fulfillment—in other words, she inspires other women to believe that it is possible to have it all!
Fortunately for us, Ayesha's cooking show, Ayesha's Home Kitchen, that features all her best recipes and cooking advice will air on the Metro Channel beginning in April.
READ: Delicious Recipes For Your Kid's Birthday Party
Here's how Ayesha transformed from a food-loving teenager to world-famous cooking scene maven:
The origin story
It all began when Ayesha's parents threw her a cooking-themed 13th birthday party. While knowing that their daughter often fell asleep to Rachel Ray's cooking shows, they thought it would be a unique idea to let her live out her dreams of becoming a "chef" herself. Little did they know that it would be the hands-on experience that a young Ayesha needed to realize her true passion.
READ: Cook Some Fabulous One-Dish Meals That Won’t Break the Bank
She then became more involved in the kitchen, religiously practicing with cooking show demos while also experimenting with her own tastes and techniques and serving up her creations at home. She never failed to impress.
Adding that to the fact that Ayesha had a rich family history that exposed her to many different cuisines (her mother is of Chinese-Jamaican decent, and her father has Afro-Polish American heritage), she quickly learned she was born with a mission to please palates and tickle taste buds.
The secret ingredient
Even with her blossoming talent, Ayesha simply believed that cooking was her hobby, albeit one she took seriously. It was only a year after when things truly took off, when she met a young Stephen Curry at church service.
READ: Love Japanese? Try These Delicious Japanese Seafood Recipes Easy Enough To Cook At Home
While their romance bloomed, so did her confidence and dreams of turning her passion into a living. Of all the supportive people who surrounded her, it was Stephen who pushed her to start a blog and YouTube channel, which she named Little Lights of Mine, in 2014. (The name was born out of Stephen's advice for her to share with the world the things that made her "light up." How cute is that?). On her blog and her channel would be playlists of her cooking adventures and other domestic endeavors.
People loved all of it, and people loved her.
The catapult
Her huge success was a surprise to everyone, including Ayesha herself! Eventually, what she learned set her apart from other women with a passion for cooking were her genuine presentations and relatable approaches to her videos and photos. She positioned herself as a real woman living a real life who sometimes stained her crisp white apron on-screen while making a big pot of stew or thick special salad sauce (and who was able to laugh about it)—as opposed to being a polished personality who followed a script and got hair and makeup retouches in between cuts.
READ: Coconut Milk And Cream Are The Stars Of These Homecooked Provincial Dishes
Just like her food, Ayesha herself was unpretentious and an overall honest-to-goodness wife and mom (she married Stephen in 2011 and gave birth to two daughters a few years later) who simply wanted to share what she loved with like-minded people, and those looking to up their food game.
Her blog, YouTube channel, and most recently her Instagram account, amassed millions of followers collectively. The noise Ayesha was making certainly did not go by unnoticed, and eventually, industry partnerships started cropping up left and right to open up tons of opportunities. Amazingly, each one proved to be a goldmine.
The rest, as is often said of unexpected successes, is history.
READ: Pressed For time? Cook These Delightful Dishes With Six Ingredients Or Less
The long (and growing) line of successes, outlined
- At present, Ayesha's social media accounts are propped by no less than five million Instagram followers and half a million YouTube subscribers.
- Her first foray into business were her partnerships with San Francisco-based companies in 2014. First there was Lundy Way that helped her come up with adorable matching parent and child aprons and other cooking merchandise, and next there came the launch of her own brand of extra-virgin olive oil made from locally grown olives. (10% of the proceeds of the olive oil go to foundation No Kid Hungry).
READ: Casa Artusi Teaches Us How To Make Fresh Pasta Like Italians Do
- Two years later, in 2016, she saw herself side-by-side with Chef Michael Mina to create pop restaurant International Smoke. The casual joint became well-loved by diners for its fusion cuisine, and when you're seen in (business) cahoots with a legitimate restaurateur, your credibility as a food authority is solidified.
- Within the same year, Ayesha found the time to develop and launch Zupa Noma, her first line of bottled ready-to-eat food products. Zupa Noma became a go-to brand for healthy soups, and would pave the way for her next venture into healthy meal prepping.
READ: The Ultimate List: 8 Cookies So Good You’ll Keep A Box For Yourself!
- Still in 2016, Ayesha's New York Times best-selling cookbook hit the stands. Titled The Seasoned Life: Food, Family, Faith, and the Joy of Eating Well, the book wasn't only full of awesome recipes, but also of little endearing anecdotes from her life and that of her family's. It was a highly personal creation that struck a chord in her audience's hearts.
- Within months, Ayesha's many media appearances began. Finally, she wasn't only watching her favorite cooking shows, but also guesting on many of them. Being featured on the spreads of glossies also became a common occurrence for this rising lifestyle superstar.
READ: Our Childhood Favorite Polvoron Tweaked For Even More Flavor
- And then she hit the jackpot: Ayesha landed her very own show on the Food Network, still in 2016. What a year that was for her! The show debuted in the fall of that year and was called Ayesha's Home Kitchen. The best part was that many episodes would be filmed in her actual home, which meant lots of cameos by her husband and kids!
- Early in 2017, Ayesha took a chance with healthy meal kits. She started her own line that featured essential Insta-worthy food and called it Homemade. To call it a success is a huge understatement, considering that subscriptions to the meal delivery service filled up on the very first day they were offered.
READ: The Kids Hungry But You've No Time To Cook? Worry not.
- Most recently, and most notably, Ayesha struck a major deal with Meyer Corporation, a company known for producing quality cooking and kitchen ware, late in 2017. When the collection finally made its way to stores, people were absolutely thrilled to find that it included both basic items for the beginner chef, and more advanced cooking essentials for those that have made a career and living of off food.
The future
Right now, Ayesha shows no signs of slowing down.
Aside from preoccupied as a full-time business and career woman, she also announced just last month that she and Stephen are expecting their third child! We can't wait to see what a third angel will bring to Ayesha's table, but we're sure it will be nothing short of special.
Catch Ayesha and her family on the Metro Channel in April and be inspired by her life; believe that hard work definitely pays off, and that dreams do come true!
Photos from @ayeshacurry
Top Stories
Metro Beauty Picks Of The Week
BEAUTYMar 14, 2023