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“Honey, I always like a challenge,” Gisele Bündchen tells AD. She’s talking about writing her first cookbook. Nourish: Simple Recipes to Empower Your Body and Feed Your Soul: A Healthy Lifestyle Cookbook hits shelves on March 26, and it is the world-renowned supermodel’s second book, a follow-up to 2018’s memoir, Lessons: My Path to a Meaningful Life, but putting her recipes on paper was an entirely new task for the 43-year-old environmentalist. “I’m always living and learning,” she says with a laugh. “That’s for sure. That’s my motto.”
Someone who eats and lives thoughtfully, Bündchen is as passionate about food waste as she is about healthy ingredients, but she was more of a cook-from-instinct-and-experimentation type of person than a recipe writer. The work of recording her recipes exercised an entirely new muscle, but instead of letting the process of going back through years of her cooking wear her down, she just took it as a lesson for her next book. “It made me change. Now when I’m going to create new recipes, I’m going to start writing them [as I go] because holy cow, that was a lot of work.”
If writing a new book wasn’t enough, she’s also in the midst of a major renovation at the home where she lives with her two children, 14-year-old Benjamin and 11-year-old Vivian, whom she shares with her ex-husband, NFL star Tom Brady. The project was supposed to wrap up six months ago (construction timelines come for us all) but for now she is enjoying pared-back living and having her kids close at hand. “They have selected hearing, you know kids, but here they don’t have that excuse,” she jokes.
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We caught up with Bündchen about how she stays healthy at home (she is full of hot tips, like washing your vegetables as soon as you get them), what she loves most in her space, and how she reached a compromise with her kids over the thermostat.
AD: What city do you live in primarily?
Gisele Bündchen: Miami.
How would you describe the style of your home in one sentence?
Construction zone! I’m currently living in our 1,200 square foot home because our house was supposed to be finished nine months ago, but I’m feeling zen, there’s no clutter, only what’s necessary.
What is one kitchen item you use every single day?
My teapot. I’m a tea drinker. Tea all day.
What is your favorite gadget or appliance?
Vitamix.
What is your bedtime ritual?
I try my best to get everyone’s electronics out of their rooms at 9:00 p.m. including mine. I have this ritual with my kids, I’ve done it since they were little, where I do aromatherapy massages on their feet. It takes me 10, 15 minutes in each room—I stay longer with my daughter because my son is a teenager now, so most of the time he just wants me to give him his space. Then it’s around 10:00 p.m. and I just go to sleep. I like to go to sleep early because I wake up super early.
What is your ideal bedding setup?
Comfy soft sheets, white, clean, I don’t like extra pillows. I like linen on top of the bed because it always looks nice. In this house we only have one thermostat so we have to agree on the temperature. My daughter likes it cold, 66 or 67 degrees, but that’s too cold for me. And quite frankly, I don’t even like air-conditioning. If I could, I would just leave the windows open all the time and not have any AC. I grew up that way. But they were born in Boston, so she likes the cold.
Which room in your house is your favorite and why?
The kitchen, because all the magic happens. It’s where we get to share all the most beautiful moments, it’s where I have memories of not only sharing a meal with people I love, but it’s just where everyone kind of hangs out. I feel like the kitchen is the heart of the house.
Describe one item in your home that you brought back from a trip.
The last trip I went on my sister gave me Brazilian olive oil, basically half of my suitcase was olive oil, if you can imagine. For Christmas, she gave me basically every olive oil that had been awarded something in Brazil. They’re mostly from the south, where I’m from. And now I’m obsessed, I don’t have any more and I have to go to Brazil and get them. They’re delicious.
What object in your home has extra sentimental value?
I’m a Cancer, so everything is sort of sentimental. But the crystals my mom gave me. Every birthday she’ll give me a crystal. And, of course, I value my kids’ art because I just think they’re the most amazing artists.
What is the oldest thing that you own in your house?
They’re in storage now, but these stools that I bought in New York City. I paid $100 for four stools, back in 1999, I was 19. And I’ve been carrying them with me to all my houses. And I actually took them in the subway with a friend of mine—I carried two and she carried two—from an old flea market on Lafayette Street. And they look good because I stained them. I just did it by myself and I had no idea what I was doing, but I got the sandpaper and I was just so proud of myself.
And what is the newest thing in your house?
My Nourish cookbook! I literally just got it delivered! And it was a work of love. It was something different from what I’ve done in the past. It was a lot more work than I thought it was going to be, because I’m not the type of person who writes recipes, you know? I just go around making stuff. So sitting down and having to write out measurements, let me tell you, it took a lot out of me. So I was so happy when it came out!
Do you have a room or area that serves an unusual purpose?
In this little house I have right now, the hallway is the only place I can fit my yoga mat, where I do my yoga and meditation. It’s the only place I’m not hitting something so it has become a little entry hall–slash–yoga and meditation room. Bringing my ’90s New York life back.
What would you change about your home if you could only choose one thing?
Hmm, I love this little house, because the most important thing for me is light. I am greeted by the sun and I have that golden hour sun at the end of the day in my backyard. So I love it. It’s perfect.
