Yara Shahidi on the Family Meals Worth Deferring College For
Yara Shahidi, the star of Black-ish and its new spin-off, Grown-ish, might be the only teen who doesn’t want to leave home (and we don’t blame her). She deferred her acceptance to Harvard this year because her family dinners are just that good. Okay, okay, and she’s got a lot of other stuff going on. Here, she talks about her dad’s vegetable garden, her mom’s chocolate chip cookies, and who in the house does the dishes.
What’s a typical Shahidi family meal?
Being half black and half Iranian, I’d like to think that I hit the cultural food jackpot. Growing up we ate a lot of chicken kebab and my baba—which means dad in Farsi—always kept a vegetable garden, so we also ate a lot of fresh salads. There’s no such thing as a bad meal in our house.
What’s in the garden?
Basil, carrots, rosemary, mint, snap peas, and avocado. One time we even grew corn! But tomatoes are definitely our biggest crop. We used to grow so many that I would show up to playdates with bags of them for my friends’ parents. And while we haven’t had time for a garden in the past couple of years, because of how busy everything has been, I think just the introduction to fresh foods has left an everlasting impact.
You must have developed some high standards as a kid.
My uncle made fun of me because one time at a restaurant—I couldn’t have been more than seven—I asked the waiter if the salmon was wild caught or farm-raised.
What was your favorite recipe that you guys would put together with the tomatoes?
Fresh pizza from scratch! It’s a two-day process: My brothers and I handpick tomatoes and make the sauce with my mama while my baba mixes the dough and watches it rise all day. No one besides him can touch it.
What’s the situation with doing the dishes?
I mean, we have a dishwasher. But it’s also a collective effort. Home cooked meals for a family of five can really tear up the kitchen, so each person has their own job. One person will set the table, another will clear the table, and one of us will rinse the dishes and put them in the dishwasher. We have a little assembly line.
YARA SHAHIDI
Does your mom have a culinary specialty?
She’s the baker in the family. We have every crazy contraption you can think of in our kitchen—a doughnut fryer, an ice cream maker, a bread machine. She’s always trying something new, but her chocolate chip cookies are a total Shahidi classic. The other classic is my great-grandmother’s sweet potato pie recipe, which comes out during the holidays and makes my heart warm.
Are you ready to take off cooking for yourself when you get to college?
Many of my friends started college this year, so I’ve been asking them if they think I’ll have enough space and the ability to prep Blue Apron in my dorm. I’m trying to suss it out. I’m pretty spoiled in terms of ending my day with a home-cooked meal. Right now I have no intention of moving.
What will you miss most about living with your parents?
Having their soup anytime I’m not feeling well. During the first couple of weeks on the set of Grown-ish, I got really bad allergies and would come home to a different delicious flavor each day. I’ll definitely miss that. But what’s nice is that Cambridge is a university town, so I’ll have lots of options. I’ve been collecting a list of restaurants to go to.
