Emeli Sandé: ‘I loved spaghetti so much as a child that I’d eat it from the garden drain’

The singer on her dad’s Zambian dishes, eating noodles with Alicia Keys and writing songs about Angel Delight

My mother told me I loved spaghetti so much as a kid that she’d find me pulling spaghetti from the drain in the back garden to eat. She said: “You were two or three years old, and I caught and mostly stopped you.”

My dad was studying engineering at Sunderland University and my mum was studying religions. He came from Zambia, she came from Cumbria. They were soon to complete their studies when I happened. I guess it was love. I’d like to think I was a love child. Mum made very typically British food. Rhubarb crumble, shepherd’s pie, jacket potatoes. Dad would cook traditional Zambian marinated meat dishes with nshima [cornmeal porridge], especially on Sundays, and they had salt, flavour, soul and everything I loved at the time. Except his mushrooms. I hated mushrooms.