'Milkshake' singer Kelis launches first new cookbook

She may have a song entitled Milkshake, but Kelis' new cookbook, launched in the UK on Thursday 3 September, contains no recipes for the smooth, frothy drink. My Life on a Plate does, however, capture the singer-songwriter's love affair with food, which started as a young native New Yorker watching her mother run her own catering business out of their home in Harlem.

Having got involved in the kitchen as a child, Kelis signed her first recording contract aged 17, when she began to travel the world and discover local outdoor markets and tiny hole-in-the-wall restaurants that were hidden treasures of her journeys.

Ten years later the I Hate You So Much Right Now singer decided to attend the world-renowned culinary school Le Cordon Bleu. Now she calls herself a chef and has penned her first cookbook.

This kitchen tome is sure to be a favourite with the star's fans as it's a collection of her favourite recipes and features a mix of foods from her Puerto Rican heritage, such as pernil (Puerto Rican pork shoulder), arroz con gandules and shrimp alcapurias.

Also heavily featured are dishes inspired by her travels around the world, such as Malay curry chicken and Swedish meatballs, as well as those influenced by her mum’s cooking growing up in New York.

More tempting recipes include shredded beef sliders with root beer espresso barbecue sauce, and pineapple beef served in a hollowed out pineapple.

Kelis is the latest in a long line of celebrities to pen their foodie favourites – British radio and TV personality Fearne Cotton recently announced her first cookbook will be out in 2016. Gwyneth Paltrow has written a series of healthy cookbooks, and Sadie Frost, Eva Longoria, Kris Jenner, have also made their debuts in the culinary world.

My Life on a Plate by Kelis is out now (Kyle Books, ￡19.99), photography by David Loftus.