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Viva La Eva!
With a flair for fashion and a passion for life, EVA LONGORIA can heat up almost any room — including a kitchen. By Elaine Glusac
“White to ivory is her ‘black,’ ” says Robert Verdi, Eva Longoria’s stylist for years. He tells me she looks incredible in this color, in case you hadn’t picked up on that in the stunning opening photograph by Greg Lotus. “This woman is definitely tuned in to style. What’s magical about her is that she’ll wear a $5 bangle one minute, and the next she’s in an $85,000 dress ... she’s comfortable with who she is and with her body,” Verdi adds. “The key to her style is basically body conscious, colorful, with sparkle. She gravitates to clothes with a fanciful flavor that have a certain flair.”
In addition to her model-like attributes, a few other things you probably know about actress Eva Longoria: famous for her role as cheating wife Gabrielle Solis on TV’s Desperate Housewives; recently married to basketball star Tony Parker in a paparazzi-flocked wedding; thin and fit, even by Hollywood standards.
Which leads us to the paradox you likely don’t know: This woman has a serious passion for cooking.
The yoga-practicing, fashion-loving, 33-year-old celebrity claims a love of food that goes back to her childhood in Corpus Christi, Texas, and extends all the way to this year’s opening of Beso. The Los Angeles restaurant, featuring cooking by famed chef Todd English, is her first.
“I wanted to open Beso because I love the art of cooking,” she explains. “I have such a respect for my partner, Todd English ... he’s a genius in the kitchen. I think we make a great pair when it comes to cooking. I cook for my friends every week and so I feel like Beso is just an extension of my home. Everyone is always invited.”
 Shrugging off suggestions that the star is a figurehead for the restaurant, chef English vouches for her foodie credentials, crediting her with putting a personal stamp on the romantic, 150-seat space. “Eva has been extremely involved in all aspects of the restaurant, from selecting chandeliers to incorporating family recipes into the menu,” says English, the Food Network celebrity who began his restaurant empire with Olives in Boston. “A mutual friend introduced me to Eva and told me that she was passionate about food and was interested in opening her own restaurant. I knew that she had wanted a South American/Spanish feel to the restaurant, but she really liked the Mediterranean cooking that I am known for, so we were able to incorporate both techniques and really make it work.”
On the menu at Beso, already a Hollywood hotspot where Desperate Housewife Felicity Huffman and rocker Sheryl Crow have been spotted, are several dishes credited to Longoria, including tortilla soup. “I love to cook,” she declares. “Everything! But my specialty is Mexican food. I’m famous to my friends for my guacamole and tortilla soup.”
Considering her Texas upbringing, it’s no surprise that Tex-Mex is her first food love. “That’s what I miss the most about home, the Tex-Mex food,” says the actress, who spends much of her time in Los Angeles. “There’s nothing else like it in the world.”
Raised on a rural ranch, the youngest of four sisters in a Mexican- American family, Longoria first gained local fame as Miss Corpus Christi in 1998. After graduating from Texas A&M-Kingsville with a degree in kinesiology — anyone who’s seen the actress in her more risqué outfits on Desperate Housewives knows Longoria is a fitness buff — she headed to L.A., where a talent agent quickly signed her.
Her first professional break came in 2001 when she landed a regular role on the daytime soap opera The Young and the Restless. She later worked on a revival of the classic detective show Dragnet, but it was the role as scheming, spoiled, and very sexy Gabrielle on the hit Desperate Housewives that vaulted Longoria into the celebrity spotlight in 2004.
 This face of L’Oreal and Hollywood A-lister has used her mainstream success to benefit the greater Latino community. She’s the national spokesperson for PADRES Contra El Cancer, helping to raise $1 million and donating her salary from one Desperate Housewives episode to the group that works to improve the lives of cancer-stricken Latino children. She also works closely with several other Latin causes.
This fall she will host and executive produce the ALMA Awards, which recognize the achievements of Latinos in television, music, and film. “The Latino culture has contributed so much to pop culture from Ricky Martin to Jennifer Lopez,” she enthuses. “I am very proud to be a part of the ALMA show this year, which airs in September during Hispanic Heritage month.”
While Hispanic issues are close to her heart, Longoria has proven generous across the board. Her foundation, Eva’s Heroes, helps children with special needs participate in sports. She donated an entire house to a Hurricane Katrina victim through the Oprah Angel Network launched by daytime talk show diva Oprah Winfrey. And she gamely served Frostys at the Wendy’s drive-through window in her hometown for charity.
Serially named to People magazine’s “Most Beautiful” list and Maxim magazine’s “Hot 100,” Longoria combines sex appeal and good humor both on television as well as on the big screen. This year she co-stars in Lower Learning, an upcoming comedy about a failing elementary school rescued by its vice principal, played by American Pie star Jason Biggs. She also voices the role of Lady X, the conniving generic Brand X, looking to take over the grocery store shelves that come to life after hours in Foodfight!, the 2008 animated film also featuring Hilary Duff, Charlie Sheen, and Wayne Brady.
Off-screen, Longoria recently celebrated her one-year anniversary with San Antonio Spurs point guard Tony Parker. The 7/7/07 marriage in Paris to the Belgium-born, France-raised Parker drew a star-studded guest list including Housewives co-stars Nicolette Sheridan and Teri Hatcher, Sheryl Crow, Jessica Alba, Michael Douglas, Catherine Zeta- Jones, Ryan Seacrest, Victoria Beckham, and Tony’s Spurs teammates.
 When not working, Longoria professes a wanderlust fueled by curiosity about the world. “Tony and I are big travelers,” says Longoria. “I love the idea of jumping on a plane and ending up around the world in a day. We love vacationing anywhere that has a beach. We also love history, so any place that has culture and history interests us immensely, which is most of Europe.”
She may be from Texas, but Longoria fits the red wine paradox popularized in the book French Women Don’t Get Fat, which espouses a European variety of moderation, combining doses of daily wine and walking. “Tony and I are huge wine drinkers,” she says. “We love red wine. We are very into pinot noirs right now. We love the pinot noirs from California and burgundies from France.”
But when she gets the chance to get in the kitchen, she finds cooking is good therapy, a craft of love that testifies to a generous spirit. “It’s very meditative for me to cook. I love cooking for Tony. I think it’s a great gift to know how to cook, and it’s a special thing to share with people you love.”
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