It's completely wrong, but we always seem to treat death as a more tragic incident when it occurs to someone who's particularly young and beautiful. Perhaps it's telling of how we feel about potential. When someone dies in their 40s or 50s, it's still sad, but they've at least experienced a lot of life. When someone's in their 20s or 30s, they've barely had a chance to settle at all. In any event, the profile of Anna Loginova in death was higher than it had ever been in life, and she was a 29-year-old model.
She was, however, more than just a model. Loginova had noted how much hassle and harassment models in her native Russia had to put up with, and so trained as a bodyguard, eventually starting an agency of female bodyguards to protect Russia's rich and famous. She was killed on duty trying to prevent a carjacking in January 2008. This photo was taken only weeks earlier, at her final-ever photoshoot.
Chefs made their way into celebrity land a while ago. But how many celebrities that weren’t trained as professional cooks are actually whizzes in the kitchen? Here are several that come to mind.
Actress Julia Roberts is confident about her cooking skills. “I’m quite a good cook,” she told E! News. “I’m like a closet home ec teacher…I can really cook anything.” Roberts has said she often cooks fish for herself and her kids. And speaking of her three children, “They think that I’m a good cook,” Roberts told People. “They actually told me that I should open a restaurant.” She also relishes cooking for the holidays, particularly shredded Brussel sprouts. Roberts hasn’t published a cookbook, but we did find recipes attributed to her for peach crisp and banana hemp muffins. Or you can make the same summer salad the actress supposedly eats.
Chrissy Teigen started off as a supermodel. Then her love of cooking filtered into her professional life too. At this point, she’s created recipes for a limited Blue Apron release and also just launched her own home and cooking line at Target named “Cravings,” after the two cookbooks she’s released. Teigen describes cooking as “a time of peace” for herself. So maybe peace out to her tuna melt sandwich or the fried chicken wings that are a favorite of her husband, John Legend.
Lady Gaga, whose real name is Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, comes from a cooking Italian family. Her father started his own restaurant in New York and also published a cookbook. And apparently, Lady Gaga has inherited the family’s cooking genes. Her Instagram account occasionally features photos of her culinary activities. Sure, sometimes it’s topless cooking. But other times it’s more poignant like in the post she shared about her bringing food to the family of her dear friend who passed away. Want to try a Gaga/Germanotta family favorite? Check out her recipe for whole wheat pasta with a sweet fennel sauce.