|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Celebrity hairstylist Monaé Everett can usually be found creating red-carpet-ready coifs for stars ranging from, among others, music superstar Mariah Carey and The Real Housewives of Atlanta’s Kenya Moore to Transformers movie’s Dominique Fishback and five-time Grammy winner Brittany Howard.
Or you can admire her editorial work in media ranging from Harper’s BAZAAR and Yahoo! to Essence magazine. It’s safe to say the hair industry is where the Washington, DC native excels creatively and gives back by mentoring and celebrating other hair professionals via her annual Texture Style Awards competition.
But for the Brooklyn-based mane pro, it’s in the kitchen where she shines even brighter. “I would not say I am a chef, but I am a great cook,” shares Everett, whose specialty is classic soul food cuisine. “I enjoy cooking because it’s my way of showing love to the people I care about.”
One way she’s passing on that passion for the food presented at the family table is by documenting favorite recipes. “I came up with this idea from going to business courses and finding out the importance of traditions, [having] systems in place, taking pride in what you do…We talked about things that are passed on and how they don’t always have to be monetary. So I racked my brain. ‘What are some of the things we can pass down?’ And I thought about family recipes.”
Recipes For the Soul
The 25-plus hairstyling veteran recalls a basic soup recipe her grandmother would make when money was tight. “I remember asking my grandmother for it [the soup] and her making it for me. But I realized my siblings didn’t have that same memory! I thought, ‘We’re rich in so many ways. We need to pass that down to our children and their children.”’
It was then the star stylist made it her goal to document her family’s recipes. Here, Everett shares her motivation behind the project and some of the techniques she uses so you can do the same with your family’s beloved recipes.
- Get cooperation for the project. “The first thing you want to do is get family buy-in. You want to get them to understand it is important to pass down traditions,” notes Everett, who believes working together is key.
“You want to ask [family] if they are comfortable sharing the recipe. Or, ask them if you can watch them while they cook.” Make it a fun experience, suggests Everett. Pour a cocktail during the cooking process to help keep everyone relaxed and happy while writing down notes about the recipe being made.
- In the Kitchen with Belle Collective’s Sophia “So Gucci” Williams
- Jody Watley Finds Her Sanctuary in the Kitchen Amidst the Pandemic
“If this is something you want to do, you may more than likely have to take a strong lead in the situation.” Be prepared for a lot of conversations, coaches Everett. Cherish time spent with family and the history behind each dish as you untangle each recipe.
- Expect there will be “secrets.” “Most people have things that they hold near and dear to their heart, and believe it or not, recipes are a part of that. Everyone loves when they’re the person who’s responsible for making the best pineapple upside-down cake. Who wants to have someone else show them up with their own recipe,” observes Everett about a common thought process.
This is where trust, collaboration and reinforcement about the shared goal of preserving family history through food will come into play again. “I had to promise that I wouldn’t publish [the recipes],” says Everett, who’s the author of successful hair care and business books. “The first thing they said was, ‘You already have two books out. What are you going to do, make a cookbook?’ And I’m like, no, it’s for us. This is for our family book, our family tradition.”
- Be creative when unraveling measurements. “It goes to the tradition with many Black cooks; we don’t measure anything. We season until the ancestors say, ‘That’s enough,’” laughs Everett about the difficulty she’s had with pinning down exact recipe ingredient measurements, especially from her mother.
“There’s no getting past when they won’t measure. So we have measurements like, ‘two pinches of’ or ‘add this amount and then taste it. If you need more, add a little more.’ It was easier to watch [my mom] work and ask her in the end, ‘Do you think you did this or that?’ And she would say yes or no, and I would go from there.”
The stylist suggests approaching the measurements given as a guideline. As for filming a video of the food prep process to get accurate measurements, well, that depends on who’s cooking. “We love all things video, but my mom’s generation does not. So I was able to sneak a clip here and there but never enough to get a whole recipe.”
- Grocery lists are gold. “One way that has helped me gather the most recipes is when we’re going away for a family holiday,” recalls Everett, who employed a little sleuthing to get at the recipes.
“One time, we went away for Easter and we had to have a grocery list for each person’s recipe. So I was able to go through the grocery lists and say, ‘OK, you need this to make that meal—now I know what’s in it. And now we can go from there to break down measurements and timing.”
- Go digital. As the self-described “techie” in the family, Everett will often ask family members to send her phone voice memos to recount recipes which she then transcribes into a document on her laptop.
“Right now, the recipes are in Google Drive because that’s the simplest way for me to compile everything,” she shares. The recipes are then available for everyone in the family to easily access.
- Be prepared to put in the time. Everett estimates it takes about 90 minutes to get each recipe transcribed. Also, include the time to actually prepare the recipe. “Now when you have more detailed recipes like Thanksgiving Turkey or Christmas Ham, that takes longer because you have to do the entire process and taste it at the end. It’s not something you can taste throughout the process to see if you’re on the right track,” she notes.
Taking a photo of the finished dish is also something she’s working on having family members do. “I take photos of my finished recipes. I can’t quite get [the family] to take their photos yet, so we’re doing one step at a time.”
How It’s Going
Currently, Everett counts 18 family recipes gathered for her project, the majority from her mother, and includes multiple fried chicken recipes, cakes, a green bean casserole, creme spinach, as well as a vegetable stir-fry and a healthier version of the family’s Thanksgiving turkey.
“The ones from mom are family favorites. The ones from me are the ones I’m requested to make and the ones from my siblings are the ones that their families request to make,” says Everett, who’s famous for making the family macaroni and cheese dish.
“I have updated some of the recipes to include more healthy aspects of it. Soul food is not known to be the most healthy form of eating, but there’s ways you can re-invent recipes, like by adding more veggies,” she notes.
Monaé Everett’s Family Legacy
Coming from a large family, Everett fondly recalls Sunday dinners with at least ten people surrounding the table and the effort and care put into the food prepared and served. “Most people who cook, cook with a form of pride. They do it to show love,” she shares.
This is why this personal passion project of documenting family recipes is especially important to her. “Even if you’re not a chef, there’s something you make that you feel good about. There’s something you make where when you look at your family eating [it] and you feel really proud—and it’s not just the day-to-day meals. Everybody likes to be known for contributing something.”
Everett observes the popularity of tracing family histories via DNA tests and other methods, which offer ways for individuals to reconnect with their past. “We’re trying to piece together the past. Let’s make it easier for future generations to piece together what we were doing around this time,” she says. And as this hairstylist-to-the-stars believes, one of the best ways of linking each generation may just be by sharing the foods we make for each other.
RELATED: Why Xcape’s LaTocha Scott-Bivens Wants to “Veganize” Your Menu
For more on Monaé Everett, visit www.TheMonaeLife.com and follow her on IG @MonaeArtistry and @TextureStyleAwards.
For more on the Texture Style Awards, a competition celebrating the beauty of all hair textures and honoring the artists who have mastered those styling techniques, visit www.texturestyleawards.com. Entries are open to professional and student hairstylists as well as non-professional hair enthusiasts in the US and Canada. The call for entries ends June 30th.
