He creates dishes called "Cold Shrimpin'" with two cheerleaders in the kitchen for company. He is a natural comedian whose language is peppered with obscenity. Suddenly, and for no particular reason, he will shout "Shaka Zulu!" (his catchphrase). The careworn look around his eyes hints at a life lived to the limit. He makes the television chef Jamie Oliver look like a schoolboy.
The cookery show of the Grammy-winning rapper Coolio is not like other cookery shows. Cookin' With Coolio goes out on YouTube and has proved successful enough for the 44-year-old hip-hop star to publish a new cookbook entitled: Cookin' With Coolio: Five Star Meals at a One Star Price.
It's quite a turnaround for the rapper. In March Coolio - real name, Artis Leon Ivey Jr - was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport for alleged possession of drugs.
As might be expected of a man who had hits in the 1990s with Gangsta's Paradise and Fantastic Voyage as well as six children by four women, his cooking show reflects his singular take on life.
"I am the Ghetto Gourmet, and my style of cooking is ghetto fusion," he told The Boston Globe last week. "Instead of saying African-American and Asian, I say Blasian. Instead of saying urban and Italian, I say Ghettalian."
But there is a serious message behind Coolio's hip-hop posturing. In his new cookbook he writes: "I want people to know that just because you're poor, you don't have to eat fast food every day."
Given the epidemic levels of obesity in America, this is a radical message. According to Gillian Carter, editor of the BBC's Good Food Magazine, Coolio is perfectly on trend elsewhere, too.
"Budget cooking, thrifty cooking is a massive publishing trend," says Carter. "Shed-loads of cookery books to do with saving money have come out this year. The economy has been a really big driver of a new mood in cookery."
Coolio's is by no means the only celebrity cookbook to hit the shelves recently. In the UK, the model Sophie Dahl (granddaughter of author Roald Dahl) writes for Waitrose Food Illustrated magazine and will publish a cookery book this year. Meanwhile, the British actress Fay Ripley has already enjoyed success with Fay's Family Food. A quick click through Barnes and Noble's online store reveals hundreds more: Spain: A Culinary Road Trip with Mario Batali and Gwyneth Paltrow, The Sopranos Family Cookbook, Georgia Cooking in an Oklahoma Kitchen by the country star Trisha Yearwood, Patti Labelle's Lite Cuisine - the list goes on.
The reason? Celebrity sells.
"In a crowded marketplace with books marked down in price before they are even released, publishers need to shift a lot of books to make money," says Carter. "Celebrity makes you stand out. It's hard for cookbooks without a celebrity on the cover to get a look in."
Jenna Helwig, a personal chef and culinary instructor from New York, says: "Cookbooks by celebrities make readers believe they are getting closer to the celebrity. 'This is what Coolio's really like.' It seems it's their authentic selves."
As well as focusing on the recipes their mothers cooked, many celebrity cookbooks seem to offer lots of recipes for comfort food.
"Well, who doesn't like comfort food? It's an easily understandable promise," says Jenny McIvor, the deputy editor of Waitrose Food Illustrated. The psychological component of why people buy cookery books is important, says McIvor. Recent studies have shown that while cookery books generally contain about 40 recipes, most people only try five of them.
"The kind of cookery book we buy says a lot about the kind of person we are," says McIvor.
If that's the case, one can only guess why so many fall short. The 1995 cookbook A Musical Feast, for example, is a typically hastily packaged offering.
It features a host of absurd recipes offered by musicians who seem to have been less than committed to the project. The Beach Boys' Bruce Johnston recommends his "surf potato" and Madonna trumpets her cherry torte. Whitney Houston's recipe for candied yams and the Grateful Dead's smoked corn chowder both sound unappetising, while Randy Newman's cheese sandwich contains nothing but cheese and bread.
By Lou Reed's standards, however, that represents hours slaving over a hot stove. The ex-Velvet Underground singer's suggestion for making a hot pastrami on rye sandwich entails going into a deli and ordering a hot pastrami on rye sandwich.
But the king of the silly celebrity cookbook is the King himself, Elvis Presley. For although he never penned one, he inspired scores of books from the grave, including Are You Hungry Tonight?, Fit for a King and All Cooked Up.
They cannot help but dwell on his peculiar eating habits in the last years of his life when, his appetite sent haywire by an addiction to pills, he managed to consume 100,000 calories a day, a figure the British Nutrition Foundation described as "impossibly appalling".
COMPANY%20PROFILE
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EName%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESmartCrowd%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E2018%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounder%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESiddiq%20Farid%20and%20Musfique%20Ahmed%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EDubai%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ESector%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EFinTech%20%2F%20PropTech%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInitial%20investment%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E%24650%2C000%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ECurrent%20number%20of%20staff%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%2035%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestment%20stage%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESeries%20A%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EVarious%20institutional%20investors%20and%20notable%20angel%20investors%20(500%20MENA%2C%20Shurooq%2C%20Mada%2C%20Seedstar%2C%20Tricap)%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
How it works
Each player begins with one of the great empires of history, from Julius Caesar's Rome to Ramses of Egypt, spread over Europe and the Middle East.
Round by round, the player expands their empire. The more land they have, the more money they can take from their coffers for each go.
As unruled land and soldiers are acquired, players must feed them. When a player comes up against land held by another army, they can choose to battle for supremacy.
A dice-based battle system is used and players can get the edge on their enemy with by deploying a renowned hero on the battlefield.
Players that lose battles and land will find their coffers dwindle and troops go hungry. The end goal? Global domination of course.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
Mobile phone packages comparison
Our legal consultant
Name: Dr Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
The%20specs
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EEngine%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%203.0-litre%20six-cylinder%20turbo%20(BMW%20B58)%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPower%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20340hp%20at%206%2C500rpm%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETorque%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20500Nm%20from%201%2C600-4%2C500rpm%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETransmission%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20ZF%208-speed%20auto%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3E0-100kph%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%204.2sec%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETop%20speed%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20267kph%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EOn%20sale%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Now%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPrice%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20From%20Dh462%2C189%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EWarranty%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%2030-month%2F48%2C000k%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, (Leon banned).
Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.
Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.
The specs: 2018 BMW R nineT Scrambler
Price, base / as tested Dh57,000
Engine 1,170cc air/oil-cooled flat twin four-stroke engine
Transmission Six-speed gearbox
Power 110hp) @ 7,750rpm
Torque 116Nm @ 6,000rpm
Fuel economy, combined 5.3L / 100km
LAST-16 FIXTURES
Sunday, January 20
3pm: Jordan v Vietnam at Al Maktoum Stadium, Dubai
6pm: Thailand v China at Hazza bin Zayed Stadium, Al Ain
9pm: Iran v Oman at Mohamed bin Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi
Monday, January 21
3pm: Japan v Saudi Arabia at Sharjah Stadium
6pm: Australia v Uzbekistan at Khalifa bin Zayed Stadium, Al Ain
9pm: UAE v Kyrgyzstan at Zayed Sports City Stadium, Abu Dhabi
Tuesday, January 22
5pm: South Korea v Bahrain at Rashid Stadium, Dubai
8pm: Qatar v Iraq at Al Nahyan Stadium, Abu Dhabi
The specs
Engine: 3-litre twin-turbo V6
Power: 400hp
Torque: 475Nm
Transmission: 9-speed automatic
Price: From Dh215,900
On sale: Now
At a glance
Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year
Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month
Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30
Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse
Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth
Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances
Electoral College Victory
Trump has so far secured 295 Electoral College votes, according to the Associated Press, exceeding the 270 needed to win. Only Nevada and Arizona remain to be called, and both swing states are leaning Republican. Trump swept all five remaining swing states, North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, sealing his path to victory and giving him a strong mandate.
Popular Vote Tally
The count is ongoing, but Trump currently leads with nearly 51 per cent of the popular vote to Harris’s 47.6 per cent. Trump has over 72.2 million votes, while Harris trails with approximately 67.4 million.
Specs
Engine: 51.5kW electric motor
Range: 400km
Power: 134bhp
Torque: 175Nm
Price: From Dh98,800
Available: Now
In the Restaurant: Society in Four Courses
Christoph Ribbat
Translated by Jamie Searle Romanelli
Pushkin Press
Specs
Engine: Dual-motor all-wheel-drive electric
Range: Up to 610km
Power: 905hp
Torque: 985Nm
Price: From Dh439,000
Available: Now
Brief scores:
England: 290 & 346
Sri Lanka: 336 & 243
