Long before she was a beach volleyball star, TV personality and one of "Elle" magazine’s Five Most Beautiful Women in the World, Gabrielle Reece was a little girl in a kitchen on an island, helping her grandmother cook. At just 7 years old, she was learning to make the meal that remains her favorite dish today: seafood paella.
“I call seafood paella ‘happy food,’” Reece says. “It reminds me of my childhood, and my abuelita [grandmother], who was always in the kitchen. That’s where I’d spend time with her. The dish brings me comfort.”
Their recipe combined saffron, rice, garlic and onions with plump shrimp and fresh mussels pulled straight from the crystal blue waters surrounding the family’s home on St. Thomas. (Reece was born in California but lived in the Caribbean until moving to Florida when she was in the 11th grade.) The recipe was mild, not spicy, which allowed Reece to appreciate the seafood flavors and surprising textures of the dish.
“It’s like a treasure hunt,” Reece says. “No two bites are the same.”
After moving to the mainland and becoming a professional athlete and model, Reece met her husband, Laird Hamilton, a champion surfer who shares her experimental palate. Together with their daughters,Hamilton and Reece prepare the paella a few times a year, always serving it with cooked bananas and black beans on the side.
“I think food is an exploration, it’s supposed to be fun,” Reece says. “Our paella is made with a great deal of creativity. No one’s thinking about calories or fat content. It’s about enjoyment -- and because I don’t get paella often, it’s a real treat.”
