The Zendaya (29) Kitchen Confession That Tom Holland Probably Wasn’t Supposed to Hear

Zendaya has conquered fashion weeks, blockbuster franchises, and prestige television, but the kitchen turns out to be its own kind of challenge. The actress has been refreshingly candid about her complicated relationship with food and cooking, and when she finally admitted who the better cook is between her and her fiancé Tom Holland, the answer came with a very deliberate mock cough.

A Vegetarian Who Would Rather Skip the Vegetables

Zendaya became a vegetarian at age 11 after passing a slaughterhouse on a road trip with her father, a decision rooted entirely in her love for animals rather than any particular fondness for plant-based food. The twist, which she has made no effort to hide, is that she does not actually enjoy vegetables very much.

She told Cosmopolitan with characteristic bluntness that being a vegetarian who doesn’t like vegetables makes things pretty challenging. The result is a diet built around carbs, comfort, and the occasional creative workaround rather than anything resembling a traditional plant-based spread.

What She Actually Eats

On a typical day, Zendaya tends to skip breakfast entirely, though she has a well-documented soft spot for pancakes with berries and Nutella when she does eat in the morning. Lunch on set is usually instant ramen jazzed up with hot sauce, a habit her friends regularly try to talk her out of on sodium grounds.

When she’s back in Oakland, her favorite place to eat is Arizmendi Bakery, a worker-owned cooperative on Lakeshore Avenue known for its sourdough, scones, and gourmet daily pizzas. She is known to go in for scones when she’s not ordering pizza, which fits the pattern of someone who has found a way to be vegetarian almost entirely on her own terms.

Her Signature Dish

When Zendaya does cook, she keeps it focused. Her standout recipe is a spicy vodka fusilli, a pasta dish that Tom Holland has praised repeatedly and enthusiastically, calling it her “spicy vodka fusilli thingamajiggy” and confirming it is genuinely delicious.

She has acknowledged on record that she has a small rotation of dishes she does well and sticks firmly to that list. The spicy vodka pasta is the crown jewel, and it is hard to argue with the results given how loudly her fiancé talks about it.

Tom Picks Up the Spatula

When Zendaya was filming in Boston, Tom took on dinner duty and leaned hard into vegetarian cooking to accommodate her diet. He admitted on the Dish podcast in December 2024 that the results were mixed, confessing that several evenings ended with the two of them ordering in instead.

His brother Sam Holland, a professional chef and cookbook author, stepped in to help by sending Tom a curated set of vegetarian recipes from his debut book ‘Kitchen Kickstart’. Sam told The Times that Tom went through the plant-based recipes one by one and genuinely enjoyed cooking them, though Sam also noted that all the Holland brothers are “probably a bit worse than beginner cooks.”

So, Who Actually Wins?

On The Jennifer Hudson Show, Zendaya was asked point-blank who the better cook was, and she delivered her answer with the reluctance of someone handing over a trophy she had not planned to give up. She admitted that Tom is probably the better cook, then immediately softened the blow by noting that he has an unfair advantage: he can call his professional chef brother at any time.

She made clear that her spicy vodka pasta holds its own and that she has a few reliable things in her repertoire. But the verdict, delivered with a mock cough and a grin, was Tom’s to keep. At least until someone makes the pasta.