NEED TO KNOW
- Regina King cherishes her grandmother’s framed pound cake recipe, preserved for over 40 years.
- She launched MianU, an orange wine inspired by late son Ian’s introduction to the blend.
- King says naming the label after Ian ensures his memory lives on through every bottle.
Regina King is opening up about her kitchen adventures — from passed-down recipes to her latest debut as a wine entrepreneur.
During an appearance on Food & Wine’s Tinfoil Swans podcast, published on Tuesday, Aug. 19, the Oscar-winning actress, 54, explained how she preserves her family’s most cherished dishes.
“I have a recipe of my grandmother’s that I have framed – her pound cake recipe,” she told host Kat Kinsman. “There [has] sugar on it. It’s her writing. Her sugar, butter – might be a little piece of dried Crisco or something.”
King goes on to say that the handwritten recipe has become so tattered over the years, she’s taken to framing it to keep it intact, hanging in her home so that it’s ready to recreate when needed. “That recipe that she had written down has got to be probably 40 years old,” King said.
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King has also become a recipe creator in her own right, recently debuting her own wine label, MianU. “I’d never ever thought about being in this space,” she said, “but this is where I’m supposed to be.”
King says creating the wine, which is an orange wine blend of Gewürztraminer and Chardonnay from California’s Mendocino County, was a “labor of love” that also has given her “an opportunity to continue creating new memories” with her late son Ian, who died in 2022.
“Thinking about the first time I tried orange wine — Ian had introduced me to orange wine,” she recalled. “Of course, the epiphany would be, we’re going to make an orange wine. It was literally that simple.”
King also explained on the podcast why she chose to incorporate Ian’s name into the naming of the new label. “I was told that in life, the only way a person fully leaves this place is if they’re forgotten. So I’m always trying to find ways to make sure Ian’s name is said,” she said. “This wine is in celebration of him. It’s honoring him.”
Ian died by suicide in January 2022, a little after his 26th birthday. He is King’s only child who she shares with her ex-husband and record producer, Ian Alexander Sr.
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