Copyright TODAY
Sheinelle Jones can’t stop eating a snack she bought for her kids. “The world’s gonna judge me if I give you this,” she jokes. The TODAY show anchor and mother to Kayin, Clara and Uche is mingling with fans before guiding an audience through a cooking demo at the TODAY Fan Fest event Taste of TODAY, hosted at Platform by the James Beard Foundation. Alongside anchors Craig Melvin, Savannah Guthrie, Jenna Bush Hager and Dylan Dreyer, three chefs make their dishes from the “TODAY Loves Food” cookbook. When asked what her current go-to snack is, Sheinelle sets the scene at her kitchen counter. “My weakness right now is this mixture of chocolate chip Teddy Grahams and chocolate Teddy Grahams,” she says, sheepishly. “I get it for my kids and I put them out in those little jars, trying to be all cute with the clear containers on the counter. But then when you walk by, how do you not just do a little handful? You’re tempted.” But recently, TODAY’s nutrition and healthy lifestyle expert Joy Bauer showed Sheinelle a healthier option to satisfy her sweet tooth. “Interestingly enough, the other day Joy made somewhat of a healthy cookie with just pumpkin, bananas and a few chocolate chips at the top,” she says. “They went fast in my house. And so if I just can sit down and do that, I would do that because it was healthy and yummy.” At the event, Sheinelle and Jenna assist Katie Lee Beigel as she makes her Chopped Dill Pickle Salad for the audience. Shenielle says great food is a common occurrence on the show. “I tell people off-camera, ‘Iif you’re invited to a pop-up, you bring your best thing, right? So when chefs come on the TODAY show, they’re bringing their best thing,” she says. “We’re lucky, because it seems like day-in and day-out, we’re getting to try the best food. My mom and my kids are always like, ‘Mom, stop flexing.’” Sheneille says that while dishes like Brian Lewis’ Roasted Beet and Burrata Salad or chef Joo’s Crispy Korean Fried Chicken Bites were transcendent to her and her co-hosts, she has taken home food she loves from the show that her kids would not eat. “My kids don’t like their food to touch, so they’re still in the like, ‘We like chicken, we like potatoes,’ so sometimes I’ll bring something home, and they’re like, ‘I’m not sure.” But sometimes, her little ones surprise her.
