Michael Bublé Says His Happy Place Is 'Everybody in the Kitchen Making a Mess' (Exclusive)

The singer and father of 4 is featured in this year's Sexiest Man Alive issue

Michael Bublé takes charge on the stage, but at home, he lets his family call the shots.

The singer admits that his wife Luisana Lopilato leads the charge when it comes to cooking. “Mommy’s the cook, [the kids] want mommy’s food,” Bublé, 48, tells PEOPLE in the “Yes Chef” section of this week’s Sexiest Man Alive 2023 issue. “I think a big part of my wife falling in love with me was me on our honeymoon saying to her, ‘I'm going to cook things for you.’ At the time she was young, and now she out-cooks me.”

“She out-everything's me,” he adds of his wife of 12 years, whom he shares sons Noah, 10, and Elias, 7, and daughters Vida, 5, and Cielo, 1.

“In the kitchen, she has this thing where she tells me to get out,” he says about trying to assist with food duties, joking that she does the same thing “in the bedroom, too, sometimes.”

Bublé refers to his partner as “not only the master chef, but the boss of everything,” praising her abilities to bring the family together around the dining table. “She's brave and experimental in the kitchen and it's a joy,” he gushes. “Every day is this new, beautiful event that she's planned.”

The crooner most often cooks breakfast for his kids before school. On set of his PEOPLE photo shoot, Noah teased that his dad’s signature dish is “cereal” — but quickly notes that he’s also a fan of his dad’s eggs.

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Regardless of his family’s opinions, Bublé is proud of his talents in the kitchen, picking up classic Italian recipes like risotto from his “Nonna and Nonno,” the Italian terms for grandmother and grandfather, as a child. “I was really lucky to have a really beautiful, close relationship with my grandparents and food brings us a lot of joy in our house,” says Bublé. “It also brings back a lot of the memories of our happiest times of being together.”

The Fraser & Thompson whiskey line founder has a mug in his kitchen adorned with a photo of his late grandparents, keeping their spirits alive in his home. “There's not a day that goes by that I don't miss him,” he says. “I start off every single morning by kissing them twice and having some coffee.”

Bublé hopes to shape similar experiences for his own children that they will carry with them for the rest of their lives. “My job as a father, as a husband, as a son is to create memories,” he explains. “This life is really short and so part of creating those memories is the smell of beautiful food cooking in the house and laughter.”

"It doesn't matter what you're doing and where you are, as long as you're together, I think you have the ability to build a life,” he adds. “I'm lucky to be able to do it.”

A crowded house and busy schedule don't leave the Grammy-winner with much time to cook for anyone but himself, usually “really late at night,” but he still makes time for kitchen-based activities. “The other day, we made Play-Doh out of dough, making flour with food coloring,” he recalls. “Just that experience of everybody in the kitchen making a mess and having fun, again, creating memories is really what it's all about.”

“The positive of that was having so much fun together and experimenting and creating this thing for the classroom,” he continues, joking that the experience also took a blow to his ego. “I realized that my five-year-old had a better idea of what colors to mix to make the colors we needed to make, so my five-year-old is smarter than me. Awesome.”

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With his career showing no signs of slowing down, Bublé believes he feels most “rich” from his family. “My wife loves me so much and she keeps me grounded and keeps it real for me,” he muses about what the next decade of his life looks like. “My family does that for me and my friends do that for me, and I hope I'm smart enough to understand how lucky I am to have those people that never let me get ahead of myself.”

“If I can do that and I can keep focused on what's important, then hopefully, no matter what happens, I'm going to be a happy guy.”

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