Patti LaBelle Has a Cooking Show Coming, We Rejoice!

Your favorite sassy auntie Patti Labelle has a cooking special coming soon. The show will also have Whoopi Goldberg, Michelle Williams of Destiny’s Child and Patti’s old Dancing with the Stars partner Artem Chigvintsev over for dinner.

Patti LaBelle’s Place debuts on Sunday on the Cooking Channel and the iconic singer and cookbook author spoke to Rolling Stone about what’s she’s got on her plate. Here are the highlights:

If you love Patti’s voice, you’ll die for her food.

As a child, I started coming up with recipes for hot sauces and barbecue sauces and ketchup… I cook so well, and I’m not bragging, not patting myself on the back, but I cook, I think, better than I sing. I cook my face off, honey.

She’s on a mission to talk Whoopi, notorious vegetable hater, into green things.

I made kale for her, and they were very, very good. So she said, “You know, I don’t do vegetables, but for you, I’ll taste them, Patti.” So she tasted my kale… ate two forkfuls and she said, “Mmm … no.” I said, “Well, next time I see you, I’ll do some String Beans Patti LaBelle, or something with mozzarella cheese and garlic,” and she’ll probably like that.

Patti figured out “Lady Marmalade” was about sex work from angry nuns.

And after it became such a hit, we found out from the nuns. Some nuns were upset: “How could they sing about a lady of the evening?” And I said, “Oh my goodness, that’s what “Voulez-vous coucher” means: ‘Will you sleep with me tonight?’” [Laughs]

She thinks Christina Aguilera’s “Lady Marmalade” version is cute.

I was honored. And Christina Aguilera is one of the best singers around. And I love Pink and Mya and Lil Kim and Missy Elliott. They were all involved in that recording. Whenever people say, “Well, how do you like the fact that they did really well, and they sold?” I said, “Honey, I did it first.”