To trigger memories of a gig, I first ask: "What did I eat?" Unless I'm really busy, I don't stop thinking about food. The first thing I did after I found out my best friend had died was cook. I ate five meals that day.

I remember at primary school being horrified when I bit into a sandwich from my packed lunch and the bread was soggy. Just talking about it now I can feel the texture on my tongue and it bugs me out. I'll pretty much eat anything – chicken- foot soup, stewed peas with pigs' tails, whatever – but I can't handle moist bread.

I was gutting fish from an early age. In Jamaican homes, children get no special treatment – they have to cook and clean like adults. Just washing the dishes was never an option for me as a child. Because next, as Mum instilled, the stove had to be cleaned, then the work surfaces, then the floor swept. When I lived in hostels for a while I wouldn't cook if the communal kitchen was dirty.

At weekends I helped my gran grow fruit and veg in her garden in south London: apples, blackberries, courgettes, marrows, peas, tomatoes, mint… I loved eating food fresh from the ground. Nowadays I normally buy organic and the best, but it never tastes as good as what we grew at Gran's.

I don't think I've ever written and recorded a song without alcohol to loosen the emotions. I went through a Baileys stage, then thankfully let it go. Now I love gin and tonic. It's a crisp, clean, refreshing drink which doesn't leave you feeling thirstier than you started. But my favourite cocktail is an Old Fashioned. Ordering one feels like being part of a special club – and it puts hairs on the chest.

I have posted pictures and recipes of my cooking on Facebook. There's a folder of food eaten on tour. I'm planning to make some cookery shows for YouTube, titled Cooking with Speech. I'll probably start with my homemade jerk seasoning, to help spread the knowledge that jerk seasoning can be put in everything.

If you like fried fish you have to put up with oil splashes on your arms. It's a fact of life and the price you have to pay for a beautiful fried-fish escovitch.

I held a dinner party on my last birthday and did an amuse-bouche of roasted sea scallops, and I made a pea purée and toasted some parmesan and put it on the top. And for a starter, I got massive king prawns and crowned them with rocket and made a vinaigrette. For the main course I made curried goat, curried mutton and rice and peas, and for dessert we had cupcakes that my mum got me. It's not a strain for me. As long as everyone chips in to wash up, I'm fine.

Speech Debelle's Freedom of Speech is out now. For her cooking videos go to speechdebelle.com