Ayesha Curry talks family, dishes out food with John Ash at Sonoma County Women in Conversation event

On game days, Warriors golden boy Stephen Curry eats pasta. That’s a given 99 percent of the time, said his wife, Ayesha, at an event in Santa Rosa on Friday night.

But, during the NBA playoffs this year, instead of the usual - pasta with a vegetable-packed sauce - Steph got avocado toast with a fried egg.

“I am not making that for him ever again,” she said, laughing. For those unaware, the playoffs didn’t end so well for the Golden State Warriors, who blew a 3-1 lead in the NBA Finals last June and lost to the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Ayesha Curry was there in front of a packed audience of about 400 people at the Luther Burbank Center for the Arts to talk about her family, her cookbook, “The Seasoned Life,” and her new Food Network Show, “Ayesha’s Homemade,” which premieres Oct. 22 and was filmed at the Currys’ home.

Curry was the second speaker in this fall’s series of Sonoma County Women in Conversation, produced by Sonoma Media Investments, which owns The Press Democrat. She took the stage just after 6 p.m. with Sonoma County chef John Ash, and together the two created a pair of recipes from her new cookbook. The first was island ahi tuna, a sort of ceviche for which she asked Ash to help her cube the fish.

“I didn’t hear you say, ‘Yes Chef!’?” Curry told him, laughing.

Next up was a holiday smoothie, which she offered up as a nonalcoholic, healthy alternative to eggnog - though, Ash joked at the end about adding alcohol.

“Absolutely!” Curry said, the crowd erupting in fits of laughter. “Rum would be great in here!”

Once the kitchen portion wrapped up, Curry headed off to the “living room” portion of the stage for a more personal interview with Terri Dente, vice president of mission integration at St. Joseph Health, another sponsor of the event.

“What’s your secret sauce?” Dente asked, asking Curry what drew the packed and diverse audience - old, young, male, female - to Friday’s program.

“Well, let’s address the elephant in the room,” Curry said. “I think people enjoy a nice game of basketball. And maybe one person in particular, who I think is super sweet, just happens to be good at his job.”

The crowd loved it, laughing and clapping throughout.

But, Curry was sure to note, it’s not just her husband’s fame that has fueled her popularity. As a family, she said, they work really hard at being good, honest, human beings. At working hard and being transparent and genuine.

“I would hope that’s why people are so interested,” she said.

She also addressed the difficulty she had in landing her Food Network show.

“It’s like the opposite of what people think,” she said. “A lot of people think this was handed to me because of (being married to Stephen Curry).”

But that actually caused problems for her.

The first meetings with Food Network went really well, she thought.

“Everything seemed so great,” she said. “We waited, waited, waited, waited, and then we got the call back and it was a no. They thought I was too green, I was too young and that I wasn’t relatable because of my husband, and that really hurt.”

In the end, clearly, it worked out. An executive came back from maternity leave, having watched Ayesha’s YouTube channel, “Little Lights of Mine,” the whole time, and demanded she get the show.

“It’s about just not taking ‘no’ for an answer,” she said. “If you have to go another way, then go another way.

“Whatever you have a passion for, don’t be afraid to pursue that passion. … I was told many times not to give this a try, but lucky enough, I have the drive and the passion to not take ‘no’ for an answer.”

The final event of this fall’s Sonoma County Women in Conversation series is Nov. 10 and will feature Serafina Palandech and Jennifer Johnson of Sebastopol’s Hip Chick Farms. For more information, visit socowomenevents.com.

You can reach Staff Writer Christi Warren at 707-521-5205 or christi.warren@pressdemocrat.com.