Benny Blanco is hitting the spotlight, not for his songwriting finesse, not for his affair with Selena Gomez, but for his first cookbook this time. Open Wide: A Cookbook for Friends was released on Tuesday, April 30 and fans already love it. Blanco, who is a massive food enthusiast, also loves hosting his artists friends, and collaborators at his house.
Blanco claims his music-making endeavors are incomplete without food. SZA, who has collaborated with the songwriter multiple times, is personally hooked on two Blanco-helmed delicacies, lasagna and banana pudding. Blanco narrated how the hitmaker refused to come over without him keeping the dishes ready for her at the studio.
Benny Blanco narrates SZA’s banana pudding story
The 36-year-old artist, who has been awarded the 2013 Hal David Starlight Award from the Songwriters Hall of Fame, is simultaneously making waves in the cooking sphere. Upon the release of his cookbook, Benny Blanco revealed SZA’s conditions to come over to his house ever since she had a bite of his left-over banana pudding and lasagna while working on music.
Probably his most memorable story, Blanco has treasured the encounter with SZA in his cookbook. Open Wide bears the secret recipes to all his culinary creations with amusing titles, the likes of “I Hope We Didn’t Make A Baby” Breakfast Burrito or “Lose Your Mind” Lobster Rolls.
In his book, Blanco narrated, “One day I was working with SZA at my studio, and she was a little hungry. She went into my refrigerator and there was a little bit of banana pudding left. She took a bite and immediately let out an involuntary scream. Ever since that moment she refused to come into the studio without a full sheet tray of banana budding ready, and within two hours it’s completely gone.” He believes the 34-year-old pop star would stop talking to him if he doesn’t cook for her again.
While SZA is upfront about her condition to relish lasagna or banana pudding when at Blanco’s place, the songwriter recently told People that all his artist friends have the same approach when paying him a visit, asking him to cook up Bolognese or kebabs. “So it’s kind of a gift and a curse,” he joked. Benny Blanco has worked with SZA on songs like Special, and Nobody Gets Me
Benny Blanco explains food as the perfect introduction
For a songwriter of his stature, Benny Blanco’s Instagram is filled with food collabs and snippets of him dishing out mouth-watering homemade meals. However, during his debut appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, the artist revealed that food also complements his professional endeavors with artists as it “is the best introduction” when writing songs.
“Basically, I’m a therapist. So, immediately the artist comes in. I gotta figure out, I gotta pull out their deepest darkest secrets and then make them feel comfortable enough to tell me. Then we have to write a song about it,” Blanco, who is quite the entertainer, told Fallon on Wednesday, May 1.
Blanco’s never-ending roster of artist collaborations includes Rihanna, Ed Sheeran, Halsey, Camilla Cabello, the Weeknd, Khalid, belle Selena Gomez, and SZA among many others.
