Issue date: November 12, 2000

Interview:

Cooking with Issac Hayes

Long before he began cooking with music, Isaac Hayes was a food lover. The Academy Award-winning composer (Shaft) practically grew up in his grandmother's Tennessee kitchen and later worked as a short-order cook. Then there's his cartoon TV character "Chef" in South Park. In his new book, Cooking With Heart & Soul (G.P. Putnam's Sons, $27.95) -- part memoir, part cookbook -- Hayes, 58, dishes it out with style. He recently talked to us.

What kind of music do you listen to when you're cooking?

I like to listen to jazz, and sometimes, if I'm doing a quick dish, some R&B uptempo. When I'm just cooking and concentrating, jazz is good.

Do you get the same satisfaction out of cooking you found in music?

For me, cooking is still great therapy. It relaxes me.

How old were you when you prepared your first meal?

I was 9 or 10. I made some biscuits for the fellas. I tell ya, they were hard as nails. But I forced them to eat it.

Ouch. Now that you're all grown up, what do you cook to please someone?

On a Sunday morning, an omelet with fresh peaches, [and] a little maple syrup -- that'll get a woman.

Hmm ... What's comfort food to you?

Corn is my favorite dish. I eat corn a lot of different ways. Boiled and deep-fried and all that stuff.

Sounds like something Chef would sing about. What's his favorite menu?

Salisbury steak, mashed potatoes and green peas.

If you and he had a cookoff, who would win and with what recipe?

I would win. I got an arsenal. Chef cooks for the kids, so there are limitations on what he can do. I could really do a number with my omelet. And then, dessert-wise, I got a lemon meringue pie. Oh, oh, oh, it's exotic! It's a winner.

You've done so many things in your career. Anything else you'd like to try?

I think I'm going to enroll in a cooking school here in New York. I want to be a certified chef. Other than that, my passion is in Africa, where I just built a school. I'm a huge advocate of literacy and I thought it was time to do something.