The One Fast Food Chain Pepper Teigen Can't Stay Away From - Exclusive

Trust us when we say that Pepper Teigen's love for cooking isn't an Instagram ploy dreamt up to give her 430,000 followers Thai food-infused fever dreams. "Sometimes Chrissy says, 'No mom, you don't have to cook,'" Pepper admitted in an exclusive interview with Mashed. "But, 'no, no, no. I got it," she added. The Teigen family matriarch is arguably the reason that Chrissy grew up to become such a ringmaster of our food-related "cravings" and conductor of all things culinary on social media.

Pepper started teaching her daughters Chrissy and Tina to cook when they were children. "Making sausage, making egg rolls, spring rolls — [those recipes needed] a lot of hands for helping," Pepper recounted to Mashed. "That's what brings back my memories that I have with my two girls." Now, Pepper is passing on her cooking prowess to a third generation: Chrissy's daughter Luna, who, as proud grandma says, happily "helps out [with] anything." 

As for Pepper Teigen's cheat days? Yup — like daughter, like mother — she's got them. Chrissy's love for Taco Bell is well-documented on Twitter. Her mom, however, has a special place in her heart for another fast food classic. 

Luna and Miles Legend, by the way, take after their mama's cravings. No — not Taco Bell, but Mickey' D's. Chrissy, you might remember, survived on so much McDonald's at the beginning of her career, that she knew how much her orders would cost before the cashier even told her. As she once told Vanity Fair, "I knew exactly how much it was with tax to get a McDouble and fries." But these days, when Pepper Teigen takes her grandkids to the Golden Arches, it's a treat, not a budgetary choice. "Sometimes [Luna and Miles] have a special day [when] I'm not into cooking and we have a full day of activities," Pepper dished exclusively to Mashed. "We'll stop at McDonald's and they love to go to [the] drive-thru [and] get kids meals with the toy. They love it! I mean, Luna can down two burgers!" Respect, Luna, respect.

As for Pepper? "If John {Legend]'s not home, and I'm not cooking, I'm getting KFC!" she admitted. "I always get a big bucket ... sometimes two because the kids love it, too! It's easy sometimes to cut up some tender parts for the kids' meals." Pepper uses her fried chicken leftovers to make Thai dishes, too. Take, for example, the Fried Chicken Larb she showed Giada De Laurentiis how to make — and, in the process, she tricked De Laurentiis into trying KFC for the first time ever. (Relive the moment here on Instagram.) 

Pepper Teigen makes her famous Fried Chicken Larb and other delicious Teigen family classics on a recently-aired Food Network special, "Getting Spicy With Pepper Teigen." If you missed it, you can still stream it on Discovery +.