Ever since he was a kid, he's loved the kitchen. The cooking. The baking. Ah, the baking. His mother first let him work with an oven when he was eleven years old. "Before that I was the mixer, egg-cracker, and bowl-licker," Scott Reeves, age 32, recalls. "Bowl-licking was my favorite part."
He ain't lickin' no more. In fact, what was once a recipe for his grandmother's beloved meat lasagna now tells folks how to make a fat-free turkey lasagna. "I love rich food, and Italian is probably my favorite," he says. "I twisted around the recipe and made it as fat-free as it can get."
He blames his job.
"I have to watch my figure," says Reeves, who plays Ryan McNeil, an aggressive business executive, on The Young and Restless. TV adds a few extra pounds, he explains, and his fans have come to expect a svelte McNeil. A svelte Reeves has been nominated twice for a Daytime Emmy. He keeps his waistline trim and his dishes tasty by working up his own recipes. "I'm not your stereotypical soap stud," he claims. "I go home and I cook. It's another creative outlet for me."
When Reeves was growing up in the San Fernando Valley, his family didn't go out much. So he and his mother cooked up some hearty, if not necessarily healthy, meals. "And as I got out on my own and got more health conscious, I started to gear things more to my [health] regimen," he says.
Hence the do-it-yourself dishes, which he shares with his wife and two kids. His turkey lasagna recipe is included in Cooking With the Young and the Restless, a cookbook featuring cast recipes. He'll whip up dishes and sign copies of the book during the Creative Cooking Expo, which takes place at the Fashion Mall in Plantation Saturday and Sunday. Reeves will appear at noon and 2 p.m. Saturday.
Galloping Gourmet star Graham Kerr and Food Network host Curtis Aikens will also take part in the expo, and local chefs will prepare fare for the International Taste Fest. In the Kids Kookin' Korner, aspiring young chefs will learn simple recipes and get tips on a healthy diet and eating etiquette.
Reeves has done the mall-appearance thing before. "But I've never taught anybody how to cook," he says. "This will be a chance for [fans] to see another side of me, something human about me."
Spoken like a true bowl-licker.
-- John Ferri
The Creative Cooking Expo will take place May 16-17 in the Fashion Mall at Plantation, 321 N. University Dr., Plantation. Admission is free, but food-sample tickets cost $1 and will benefit Share Our Strength, a national hunger-relief charity. Hours are 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and noon to 6 p.m. Sunday. Call 954-370-1884.
