Kelis

Growing up, my mom had a catering business. I used to help her pretty early on and loved doing it. My mom is an amazing cook, and she helped me cultivate a love for food. She taught me that food can be beautiful. We eat not just for survival, but we survive to eat. It's part of who I am.

The key to sauces is having patience. I'm not a patient woman, but I learned with sauces that you have to get everything on a slow roll and layer the flavors. That's where you get robust tastes: it starts one way and ends another.

My dad, being a jingle writer, and my mom, being a jingle singer, they hooked me up with some people when I was a kid that worked with children's jingle singing groups. I used to sing jingles as a kid.

At the 2012 Olympics, there was a nutritionist in the food hall telling us, 'Eat that. And eat that.' After winning my gold, I went to McDonald's for chicken nuggets and a strawberry milkshake, but that was just for the hell of it. I don't feel hungry after a match, to be honest.