Tia Mowry is living her purpose. As the host and producer of the new television series Not Like Mama, she is giving amateur cooks the platform to showcase their talents, and is also highlighting the cuisine of regions around the world.
Families pass down cherished recipes from generation to generation from memory. These dishes are often the cornerstone of family gatherings. During each episode, these contestants will attempt to craft meals under the watchful eyes of their family members.
“I wanted to create a show that put a spotlight on all of the many beautiful delicacies from different cultures,” Mowry says. “For me, food is not just about food. There’s an experience, there’s history, there’s lessons and learnings, there’s memories and experiences that come with it as well. When you learn more about the history of these dishes, there’s so much power and influence in that when you see and understand the why.”
Amidst the success of Not Like Mama—which is available now on major platforms including Tubi, YouTube, The Roku Channel, and FilmRise streaming apps—Mowry sat down with ESSENCE to discuss the new show, when her love for the kitchen began, and more.
ESSENCE: You’re a cookbook author, you host a cooking show, you’re appearing on a cooking show as well too. Can you tell me when and how your affinity for cooking and food culture began?
Tia Mowry: It began for me when I was my mother’s sous chef in the kitchen. During the holidays when she felt that I was old enough to hold a knife, she invited me into the kitchen. And I don’t know, I feel like even now that I’m a parent, they can always sense something that their kids love or that they’re going to be good at. So I think my mom was like, “she ready,” with that perspective. So I was in the kitchen and I remember just washing the collard greens, and she always makes her greens without the rib. So she would have me roll it up. First of all, we would cut the ribs out and then roll them up like a little cigar and just start slicing away.
So I would help her prep that dish. I would also help her prep fried chicken. My mother cooks fried chicken in a cast iron skillet. That was one thing that she just would do. She cooked everything in that cast iron skillet. She’d make gravy in that cast iron skillet. But she would, I remember when she basically gave me the duty of seasoning the chicken. I felt so honored because you know, you can mess up a whole dish, especially some fried chicken if it is not seasoned well.
So I would wash the chicken in the sink and then she would just place the seasoning. It was Lawry’s seasoning salt with the garlic sauce, and she would just place it right there next to the sink. And she didn’t say anything like “season the chicken,” I just knew that once she placed that right next to me, that is what I was supposed to start doing. And so it was an honor for her to trust me to do that. And since then, I would just help her with more meals and recipes. And then when she really saw that I could maneuver and navigate myself well in the kitchen, it became a chore. And so it was a responsibility for me in my teens to actually make the meals for the whole family—breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I would even have to pack the school lunches and all of that, and I would have that responsibility for the whole week. And so that was when my love for cooking was nurtured and really began.
Speaking of motherhood, did that heighten your passion for cooking at all?
Yeah, I think what changed was more about the intention behind cooking. Becoming a mother, it was more about nurturing, right? I am definitely a nurturer at heart, and it was just how I expressed love and showed my love for my children—putting a smile on their faces and then creating these bonding moments with them and creating these experiences with them and hoping that they would hold onto these memories like I had done with my mom. So I think it became just more intentional, and that is where the pure joy and fun really started to take off for me in the kitchen.
Can you talk to me about the meaning of the show’s title Not Like Mama, and also how it came to you to become the host?
So the title was very important to me because I always feel like—with my personal experience, and as you can see even with the guests or the participants in the show—there’s always that one person in the family that is the center of the family that knows how to throw down. And that person is usually mama.
The recipes that have been passed down to me came from my great-grandmother, and that was passed down to my grandmother that was passed down to my mother, that was now passed down to me. So there’s weight to that. There’s history to that. I think of culture, right, I think of hierarchy when it comes to the word “mama.” And so I really wanted to, there’s history to that. I really wanted to embody that with the title of the show. And with me being the producer, I felt that it was awesome to be able to create your own or be a part of your own projects.
I just feel very blessed to be able to take the reins and make decisions about my career and to create vehicles and projects myself. I think everybody wants that, especially when you’re an actor. Most of the time it’s about waiting on that next project. And that is where a lot of anxiety comes into play. But I didn’t want to live in that space anymore. I really understand my audience. I understand my community. I’ve built my community. I’m passionate about my community. So, I said, why not take a stab at this? But I thought it was going to start with some sort of television show.I thought it was going to be a scripted thing first when it came to creating my own projects. But it’s crazy how a lot of my projects that I have created and have been a part of have been non-scripted, which has just been even more exciting to me because I don’t have to play a character. I could just be myself.
In one of your previous answers, you talked about the history of food and the dishes that are in the show and the families and cultures that are highlighted in this show. Can you tell me how you chose the families and dishes that you were going to highlight this season?
It was very, very important for me to spotlight different cultures. And the backstory behind that is I’m so passionate about traveling, and I’m passionate about introducing travel to my children at a young age, introducing them to different cuisines, learning about different cultures, learning about different ways of life. I think it just builds character. And quite frankly, it leaves us not so narrow-minded. And so the older that I’ve gotten, and just even in this industry, everything that I do, it has to be purposeful and with intention and inspiring. Right. I don’t want to do it if I’m not feeling any of that. Like what for? It’s not just about me.
So I wanted to put a spotlight and create a show that showcased all of the many beautiful delicacies from different cultures. And for me, food is not just about food. Right. There’s an experience, there’s history, there’s lessons and learnings, there’s memories and experiences that come with food. And when you learn more about the history of these dishes, there’s so much power and influence in that when you see and understand the why. And it could just be even as simple as geography.
Where they lived, where they’re from, and how that ingredient was so valued because it was a part of some sort of religious act within the family, or it was a part of some memory that brought the family together. And the way it’s passed on from generation to generation, again, it’s about building community. Those are the things that I’m very passionate about. So I wanted to embody those pillars, should I say, with the show, and showcase dishes that I’d never heard of before. You know what I mean? There were some dishes that they had to tell me over and over and over again, how to pronounce, because I had never heard of it. I’ve never experienced it before. And that’s what I’m saying, this is like a dream job. And to be able to have a job where you get to eat and then just experience these wonderful flavors and ingredients and dishes, and then to understand the story and the why and how it brought families together; I think it’s beautiful.
With us being in the holidays, do you have a favorite holiday dish or a holiday dish that means the most to you?
That’s a really, really good question—I’m going to say my collard greens. They’re my favorite dish, and it means the most to me and I’ll tell you why. Again, the dish is amazing and it’s delicious and it’s wonderful, but it’s the why. This is a dish that is a part of my culture. It’s a dish that has been passed down from generation to generation. It’s a dish where my mother even explained to me that when she was making this dish with her great-grandmother, that they would go to the fields. They would go out to the crop fields and get the ingredients.
And it wasn’t the grocery store. And again, to understand the hard work that was put into it, the stories that were put into it, it does something to you. You know what I mean? Again, and that’s what I mean by whenever you’re making a dish and you’re eating it as a family unit, it becomes magical. It becomes meaningful. And I want to continue to create those memories and those moments for my kids. And that’s why food and the holidays and just tradition are so important to me because I know how important that was and that representation was to me, and that’s how food became a part of my life. But yeah, so I’m going to say those collard greens, but I’ll tell you this thing right now or I’ll tell you this right now. I would be shaking in my bones if I had to go up against my mother, like a competition situation with the collard greens. Oh my God. Oh my God. Having somebody compare the two. Hell no. So kudos to these participants because it takes a lot of courage.