Meghan Trainor is the host of Peacock’s new Top Chef spinoff, Top Chef: Family Style, where talented kid chefs team up with a family member to compete. The show, whose first two episodes hit the streaming service today, features celebrity chef Marcus Samuelsson as the judge, because, as Meghan admits, she knew nothing about food when she took the job.
“The first week, I would try to guess what Marcus would think. I would say, ‘Don’t tell me, don’t tell me! I’m going to try to guess,'” Meghan tells ABC Audio about offering comments on the contestants’ food. “And a lot of times I was right. So then I started trusting myself more and I would [give more] input, and Marcus would be so proud, because I was really learning!”
The Grammy-winner says by doing the show, she was introduced to many foods she’d never tasted before, like mole [MOE-lay] and sea urchin. “I learned about flavors, texture…every bite should be magical!” she explains. “I learned how to appreciate…I had no idea. I was just shovin’ it down!”
Meghan filmed the show when her baby son, Riley, was three months old, and he spent most of the time hanging out with her husband, Daryl Sabara. But Meghan reveals with a laugh, “Any time I had a break, I would tell the guest chefs, like, ‘Do you want to see a baby?’…[So Riley] had a lot of visitors.”
Between this program and her upcoming show Clash of the Cover Bands, some fans might feel that Meghan’s abandoned her music career — but don’t worry.
“I did those shows when I was recovering from the C-section and being a new mom,” she says. “And now I’m finally in my studio mode and I’m writing songs for my fourth album.”
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