Curtis Stone is taking Us on a trip down memory lane to revisit some of his favorite meals over the years.
“The first recipe I ever made … I thought I invented it, but I’d gone through my mom’s women’s weekly cookbooks,” the celebrity chef, 48, exclusively reveals in the latest issue of Us Weekly. “I took the base of a caramel bar and the top part of a different caramel bar recipe and I combined them, and then I called it mine.”
Stone jokes the move was “total plagiarism” but it’s still a beloved menu item for him.
“That was my first ever caramel bar or caramel slice recipe, which was actually really good,” he gushes.
While Stone got inspired from his mother’s cookbook, he also remembers the dinner she would make on his birthday. His go-to meal on his special day was a roast lamb with crispy potatoes and gravy.
Another important food moment in Stone’s life revolved around his first date with wife Lindsay Price. He brought Price to an Italian restaurant in Toronto called Terroni. Stone had plans to impress her that evening, but they didn’t pan out like he expected.
“I kind of ordered lots of things: pasta and pizza and salads,” he recalls. “I took her to a restaurant where my mate was the chef because I thought it would make me look good, but she was so late that my mate had already left, so it kind of backfired.”
Now, Stone and Price, 47, focus on making fun memories with their two sons, Hudson, 12, and Emerson, 9. However, it’s his little ones who are introducing him to the latest food trends and snacks … such as his current obsession, “nut thins.”
“They’re made from almonds and they’re covered in cheese dust,” he tells Us. “I’m sure they’re not great for you. My kids snack on them, and I go deep on those.”
Stone confesses he has “no shame” when it comes to indulging in his favorite foods.
“I eat all of it in front of anyone. I don’t care whether they’re watching,” he quips. “I love tacos, I love ice cream and caramel sauce.”
However, there’s one food that Stone despised as a kid that he still hates to this day — and that’s licorice, both red and black.
Currently Stone is a judge on the Fox series, Crime Scene Kitchen, alongside Yolanda Gampp. The cooking competition, which is hosted by Joel McHale, follows a series of bakers who are tasked with solving a kitchen whodunit. The competitors, who are vying for a $100,000 prize, must identify a type of dessert based on just a few clues and then prepare it.
“Sometimes these guys are baking for five, six hours and there’s so much love, energy, stress that goes into whatever they’re baking,” Stone tells Us about the series. “And I think we’re the only cooking show on television that you could just not even be in the running because you’re totally baking the wrong thing.”
Crime Scene Kitchen airs on Fox Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET.
For more on Stone, pick up the latest issue of Us Weekly, which now includes 12 additional pages, on stands now.
