Joanna Gaines Reveals Her Pregnancy Cravings, Why She Started Cooking

It's hard to believe that anything Joanna Gaines does isn't completely perfect. The 40-year-old star is a renovation master and successful restaurateur, and now she's a cookbook author. In conjunction with the release of her new cookbook, The Magnolia Table: A Collection of Recipes for Gathering, The Daily Meal had lunch with Joanna Gaines in Manhattan and got the inside scoop on how she got in to the kitchen in the first place and what foods she's suspecting her fifth child will love.

Despite her perceived perfection, Gaines dismissed perfection as boring (and unattainable) in the kitchen. "Don't be so hard on yourself, and when you get in the kitchen, don't have the expectation of perfection," she said. "Don't worry about failing! Have fun, be creative. Have fun modifying the recipes to your palate."

Though she may seem like a domestic goddess now, when Gaines first married her husband Chip, she was a less-than-stellar cook. "I tried to make spaghetti for Chip, and he was a bit of a brat. I was all excited about cooking for my husband, we just moved into our house. He was a brat and compared my spaghetti to his mom's spaghetti, and I didn't cook for a while," she said. "It was also hard to cook for two people."

So, the newlyweds would frequent local "homestyle" restaurants. That is, until their brood expanded. (You try taking four kids out to eat while you're on a very popular HGTV show.) That brought Joanna Gaines into the kitchen. "When you get into this whole new experience, it's nice to feel normal once in a while and get elbow-deep in some flour," Gaines said.

Gaines is in for yet another whole new experience: five-time motherhood. The mother of four is pregnant again and revealed the only thing that's different for her this go-around is that "I'm older." Well, that and some intense sugar cravings. Though Gaines already has a notorious sweet tooth, she suspects her new baby boy will have an even bigger one. "I've been craving cereal, but not the healthy kind. It's children's cereal, the really sugary stuff you're not supposed to eat," she revealed. "It's that and candy." And who doesn't crave candy? We find that so relatable! Well, that and these 15 other food cravings.