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The Desperate Housewives' actress knows a simple way to feel happy: being in the kitchen, preferably alone and making some delicious dishes while waiting for friends to come over, to enjoy her gourmet recipes.
«I'm very different from Gabrielle, my character in Desperate Housewives», says Eva, 36. «She's a little crazy, she's a party girl, she wants to go out. I'm just the opposite, I love to stay home and cook dinner for friends and family».
Her love for food is a private passion, but Eva has been able to transform it in something profitable. She opened a restaurant in Los Angeles, called Beso, and she published a very successful cookbook: Eva's Kitchen: Cooking with Love for Family and Friends.
«I grew up with Mexican cuisine, so I have a lot of Mexican dishes in my cookbook.» Says the beautiful actress. «I also have been able to travel to so many places in the world and my cookbook reflects my trips: there is also some European and American cuisine in it. I can cook just about anything and I always say: 'if you can read, you can cook'. If you follow a recipe, you 'll be able to do wonderful dishes, just like me».
But let's be honest: cookbooks are for amateurs... great chefs know what to do in a kitchen without reading anything. What's Eva Longoria's style?
My cooking is very personal, therefore it's not so easy to me to share it with somebody. Cooking is an intimate process. It helps to create a deep relationship between people. That's why for me, it was hard to write a cookbook, because I am like: 'A pinch of this and a dash of that and a little bit of this', I don't measure anything, I just cook with love.
Another way to express your artistic creativity.
Exactly. I think that cooking is so creative because you start with all these separate ingredients and then the outcome is one beautiful dish. I think that's a piece of art.
You often say that you like to cook for as many people as possible.
Some people find entertaining at a dinner party very stressful, but it is therapeutic for me; I find it relaxing. I love to cook for my friends, I cook weekly, almost daily, for them. My friends would call me and say: 'What's for dinner?' So I have to go to the supermarket and figure out what I am going to buy for dinner tonight.
Supermarket or Farmer's Market?
Anywhere i can find good stuff. I grew up on a ranch in Corpus Christi, Texas. I know good fruits and vegetables when I see them.
Suppose you have to cook for your friends and you are running late. Will you call your Beso Restaurant chef and have the dinner delivered or will you cook something quick and easy?
I cook gourmet very fast. Everybody says I cook so fast...so, to answer the question, i'm not gonna call anybody. I'm going to do the job all by myself!
What's your signature dish?
Tortilla soup. I found a tortilla-soup recipe in a magazine when I was a teenager and never left it! I cannot live without Mexican food.
A few days ago the production company of Desperate Housewives announced that next season will be the last.
Yes, finally they found a way to make me desperate. In all those years I really learned to love Gaby, my character. I'm gonna miss her.
What did you learn from her?
How to dress. I've learned a lot about fashion from Gabrielle. She pushes the envelope on that and she definitely has more dresses than me.
But she cannot cook.
Yes, in all those years I've never been able to teach her how to properly cook.
