Shaq mixes it up

Shaquille O’Neal scores with a cookbook filled with his favorite family-style recipes

Four-time NBA champion and Hall of Famer, businessman and entertainer Shaquille O’Neal can now add cookbook author to his list of feats. “I’ve always loved food, especially when it brings people together. Some of my best childhood memories came gathered around the dinner table, and I wanted to share some of those home-cooked meals with the world,” O’Neal tells the Connection. “Writing this book meant rediscovering those easy and delicious dinners from my past.”

Written with editor Rachel Holtzman and O’Neal’s executive chef partners Matthew Silverman and Matthew Piekarski, Shaq’s Family Style: Championship Recipes for Feeding Family and Friends shares simple family-style recipes with big flavor.

“My love of food and cooking came from my mom,” O’Neal says. “She taught me how important it is to have meals with your family. It’s something that I took to heart and tried to pass on to my kids.”

O’Neal says he drew inspiration from his mother Lucille O’Neal’s recipes for macaroni and cheese, fried chicken (he prefers thighs), meatloaf and banana pudding.

“Cooking is an important life skill. When I got to college, I realized I should’ve been paying more attention to my mom doing her thing in the kitchen,” he says, adding that now, at 50 years old, he can’t live without his air fryer. “If kids can try to learn early to at least make what they like, they won’t be eating ramen three times a week when they become an adult, like I did.”

The cookbook also highlights meals from places visited during his 19-year basketball career, including loaded waffles from Atlanta, St. Louis ribs, Louisiana jambalaya and Latin American cuisine from San Antonio, Los Angeles and Miami.

In addition to comfort food, the cookbook also provides some healthier options, such as air-fryer Brussels sprouts.

“Every athlete knows that you get out of your body what you put into it,” says the 7-foot-1-inch O’Neal, who weighs 325 pounds. “When I was younger, I could burn all of those mac ’n’ cheese calories off with ease, but as I got further into my career, I needed some healthier options to make sure that I always felt my best.”