Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Entrepreneur: Chef Marcus Samuelsson discusses how Black cooks have played a major role in shaping the landscape of America’s culinary culture.

Transcript

Entrepreneur: Chef Marcus Samuelsson discusses how Black cooks have played a major role in shaping the landscape of America’s culinary culture. · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: If you're about to make a change in your life
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: and you feel uncomfortable, that's the best feeling you can
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: have because for the first time in your life, you'll
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: make a new decision that's going to be best for
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: you and not what somebody told you to do. And
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: that's when all bets are off. Welcome to Money Making
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: Conversation Masterclass. I'm your host, Rashwan MacDonald. Our theme is
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: there's no perfect time to start following your dreams. I
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: recognize that we all have different definitions of success. For
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: you and maybe decide to your jam, it's time to
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: stop reading other people's success stories to start living your
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: own keep winning. My next guest is Mark Chef put
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: the Worst Chef in front of him Marcus Samuelson. He's
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: an award winning chef, restaurant tour best selling author, TV personality, philanthropists,
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: and food activists. His culinary career spans over twenty five years.
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: Has numerous restaurants in the US and internationally, including The
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: Red Rooster, Marcus, B and B in Order, Marcus Montreal,
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: and more. His book is called The Rise Black Cooks
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: and the Soul of American Food. The book is celebrating
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: contemporary Black cooking, highlighting the food culture and history and
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: stories and recipes. The book covers the diverse contributions and
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: traditions that influence Black cooking and American culture from African
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: continent to the Caribbean and US. We have a lot
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: of talk about the process of creating the book, naming
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: it the Rise Black Cooks and the Soul of American Food.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: Why did he write the book, how did he decide
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: this was the next book that he wanted to do.
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: So he's here, y'all, please welcome to the Money Making Conversation.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: Chef Marcus Samuelson.
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: be here.
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: My man, I'm gonna tell you something when you write
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: a book like that. First of all, you love food,
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: don't you, Chef. You just love food. Let's get that out.
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: Let's get that out front, because I see when I've
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: read past books and I've just followed you on TV,
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: that's like a twinkle in your eye because I love
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: the way you dressed too. So I'm a clothes man
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: and so so you got a look. See. I've interviewed
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: a lot of chefs over the years. You are probably
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: the best dressed chef I've sued to date.
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: Can you take to say that I also love food
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: than more than anybody else. That is, the kitchener has
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: give me license to travel in my dream all over
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: the world. And I'm very very grateful for that. And
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: of course, as a black man, you got to bring
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: you stop with it.
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: I ever had to do some chef. Give yourself your due, man,
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: because everybody don't have that style. You got the hats,
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: you got the vest, you like light colors, green, yellow,
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: you know, you know how to put it together, patterns, squares. See,
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: I weire a lot of tailor clothes and so so
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: you're much more daring. But I just say that in
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: a in a complimentary way because I'm a you know,
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: I wear a lot of suits.
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: My neighbor, you know, my blog is amazing living in Harlem.
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: You know this, It's take an amazing village, you know.
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: So my neighbor is mister dapper dad.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: A right, right.
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: So whatever I put on, I'm still far behind because everything.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: You know what I mean, because I lived in New York.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: I lived last time I was up in New York,
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: I was up Steve Harvey and I was up there
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: from two thousand and five to two thousand and seven,
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: and I lived in forty thirty ninth and first, and
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: then previously when I was up there was the eighty
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: six and first, so I was all always up in
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: the Harlem. And I've been by your restaurant, by the way,
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: I've not met you, but I've been by your because
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: when it opened, it was always it was always hard
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: to get in. It was always hard to get in, Okay,
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: always hard, which is a compliment. It's a compliment, okay.
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: And in the book that we're about to discuss is
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: called The Rise, Black Cooks and the Soul of American Food.
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: Now I'm from Houston, Texas, so I like to consider
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: that one of the heart of the South Cities. And
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: I also lived in Atlanta, Georgia. Atlanta, Georgia, so so,
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: and i've lived in Chicago. I'm just give you the
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: range of who you're talking to here, Marcus. I've lived
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: in Chicago four years. I lived in New York two years.
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: I've been living in Atlanta since two thousand and seven.
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: I lived in Los Angeles fifth ten years. And I
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: was born and raised in Houston, Texas. So I have
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: and I have been all over this country. In eight
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: Fantastic Food, I still believe Chicago is the best place
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: to eat across the board. Were talking about variety, can't
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: about top Chicago. That's my estimate. Now, what do you
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: think is the best place in this country to eat
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: before we get into your book.
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: Well, well, I'll tell you what. There is a couple
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: of places that people might not have as number one,
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: but I'll tell you it is the great foods because
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: it's very diverse. It's one of the most diverse cities
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: in America, and people don't know about that because it's
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: in Texas. I said food, the Vietnamese food, of course,
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: the Black food that comes out out of Houston, but
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: also amazing Indian food and Mexican Mexican American food. Of course,
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: Houston don't keep great food.
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: Well, but I didn't want to sound selfish. You know,
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: people don't he from Houston. He will say that, you know,
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: but Houston. I'm telling you something. Dining out in Houston
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: is amazing because of the fact that, like you said,
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: textam X, don't Bobby C you don't, my goodness, you know.
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: Then you got this just down the road in New Orleans.
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: So you've got that flavor coming into Houston and they
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: fish all the because we're in the golf of Mexico.
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: So you got all those varieties that you were talking about,
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: and it is a very diverse city from from the
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: type of from Indian food is fantastic there and and
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: so so yes, you're you're right. So I will, I
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: will put I always put a crown on my my
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: born city because it does deliver. But you're absolutely right.
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: So now we're now we're talking about this this book
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: here that you've written, that you created. Why this book markus?
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: Why did you write this book?
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: Well, we we had to because you know, just as
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: American history around black culture is not great, so it's
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: the same with food. And for me, it was very
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: important with the chef with a big platform, it was
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: important to me to connect the dogs that black excellence
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: when it comes to food needs to be documented and
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: there needs to be hats off to the incredible legacy
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: what black chefs has done before us to set up
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: this moment, right you have. You know, even from Devi
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: Thomas Jefferson's time, you know the black chefs that he
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: had going up to Miss Lee at Chase that you
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: know ran her restaurant. You could chase still going on
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: in Orleans for seventy years, you know what I mean.
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: Even some people that are not as known, like someone
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: like Georgia Gilmore that you know was raised money for
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: more MLK for the movement. For example, that you have
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: chefs like Superior Right that worked for chef Linda B. Johnson,
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: and she was the one that was convincing him that
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: for the Black rights to vote, for example, in nineteen
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: sixty four. So chefs, black chefs has contributed in so
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: many different ways. And then of course you look at
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: southern food, what we call today's sole food. You can't
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: talk about American food without the black contribution. Think about
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: creole cooking, right, think about barbecue. But wherever you find
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: in American history book, you can't find us. And for me,
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: it's real. It's all of value we have added. Of course,
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: we have a value proposition that is not cannot be monolithic.
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: We've added so much and it was important to document
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: it and present it in a new way.
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: Wow, we're talking to I'm talking to chef Marcus Samuelson.
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: His book The Rise Black Cooks and the Soul of
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: American Food. Now it's the book is broken up to
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: five chapters, correct, you said, in the next the remix,
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: the migration, the legacy, and the origin, and like I said,
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: his little subtitles tied to each to like the next
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: where black food is headed. And then on the remix,
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: black cooking integrates many cultures, which is so true. The
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: migration influence of the American South where I'm from, then
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: the legacy, all the new journeys from Africa to America.
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: Let's talk right there. Because the diaspora, hopefully I said
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: that correctly, has been a type of meal that is
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: suddenly appearing across this country. All right. I will tell
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: you I was first exposed to it when I used
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: to take my family down to Disney World in Orlando,
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: and they had a menu that's completely in an African menu.
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: In fact, they have a buffet, and that's what I
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: was exposed to, that amazing, spicy, diverse menu of African food.
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: And I also have another restaurant there which is one
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: of the restaurants, which is a menu driven restaurant as well.
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: So that's what I got exposed to that food. Why
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: has there been such an explosion of the African menu
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: in America?
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: Well, I think because I think a couple of things
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: Internet and opportunity to link and bridge like you can.
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: Now you know a lot of my chef friends they're
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: going to Legos to learn about too now the way
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: they used to go to France or Italy. Right, that
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: wasn't possible sixteen twenty years ago. And I think about
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: there's always been a back and forth between the continent
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: of Africa and Black excellent. You think about music, right,
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: think about how Fella and all the African American deficians
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: used to go to Africa, stev everybody went to Africa
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: to learn, and now you have you know, afrobeats, and
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: you have hip hop that tech influences from that. So
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: in music, the links blues. Everyone knows where the blues
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: truly come from, for example. But guess what it wasn't
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: just music that problem like that, It was also food,
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: so okra right, how did it get here? Of course
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: it's the history with enslaved and slavery, right, very difficult
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: history talk about, but it also brought us the food
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: that we have. So just as much as the music
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: came from Africa and came to America as part of
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: our black narrative, there's also linkage with the food. You know, Okrah,
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: the states of American cooking comes from Africa, and for
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: us it's not today. It's an opportunity to share and
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: talk about it and take take something that was very
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: dark and difficult to something positive.
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: Well, yeah, it really is, and it's a it's an
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: interesting taste, a lot of colors, you know, I want,
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: I think purple ams. Come on that. Brother, I I
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: got to tell I'm a food. Now, I'm a food
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: that I love eating great food. Now let's did you
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: say legos? And I ran across that planteing menu. It's
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: in your book. I believe it's in that next next chapter. Now, see,
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: I'm a guy. The reason I got excited about that
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: because I'm a guy.
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: You know.
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: I go into the store and I buy it in
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: the store, just reheat it. That's what I do. You know, boy,
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: your brand was one of the brands, popular brands that
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: I always had in my house. Okay, Now I see
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: a nice little simple recipe in your book now, which
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: you know, like I said, you know, when you when
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: you get these recipe books, sometimes they can be so daunting.
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: Sometimes chef that is you like, man, I can't cook
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: nothing in this book, but your book is different. And
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: also the way you stylized your book because you're you're
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: you're honoring chefs and restaurants across the country, and that
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: was a unique take that I've never seen any any
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: restaurant book. Because your boy my boy, I wanted to say,
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: I won't call them my boy. Because I went up there.
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: I interviewed don't want the show, and I told him
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: my wife and I was a fly to Seattle and
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: spin an we did yeah, and he was shocked. I say, hey, man,
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: I said, look, brother, look, I said, I go for
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: good food. I looked online. I said, man, you got
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: some food that I want to eat. And I went
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: up to June Baby in Seattle. And you're very familiar
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: with that. D Walo Jordan straight out of Florida, Florida
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: bar Okay.
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: Love, we love Eduardo. I talk what we wanted to highlight, right,
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: I wanted, I want to blast there's so many black
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: chefs in this country that are amazing, and then the
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: Jordan is one of them, and so is someone like
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: Corla Hall, and so is someone like Ninsha Arrington. And
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: what you ending up doing when you read the book,
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: you can look good. It as two ways you can
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: look forward to go to Seattle and go to Eduardo's
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: West Point. You can look at this book as hey,
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: I live in Atlanta. Okay, who in Atlanta should I
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: link up with? Maybe your company wants to do a
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: corporate buyout? Okay?
• 11:52
  Speaker 3: Good.
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: So this book not only did I do deeper down
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: on forty chefs for sword tellers across the country, I
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: also added another two hundred black chefs and food writers
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: in the back with their Instagram handled, so no one
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: can say to me, well, how do I find them?
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: It's hard to find them. It's not hard to find them.
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: In the rise. You can. You can find every single one.
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: And wherever your community is, I can guarantee someone is
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: in wherever you live in the country is an amazing
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: local black chef.
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: Now I'm hearing what you're doing because I'll follow you
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: a little bit there, you know, because you're a great chef.
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: And when I saw what you're doing it, what do
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: you do? Because this sounds something like I would if
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: you need my support and social media to get the
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: word out because of a natural foodie and so, but
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: I've never heard of anybody doing what you're doing with
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: a national platform kind of like a U a phone
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: book of restaurants that you can go and go and die. Fantastic,
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: And because I travel a lot, I'm very familiar with
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: what you're talking about.
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: That's that's what we need. Right, Like we're in a
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: moment think about this. Most books and content that is
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: out there, we're not in it because it was not
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: for us, right, But it's not about me. This is
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: really about the legacy that we leave behind, and there
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: has to be a worse and a value system to
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: working through that. I'll give you an example. Right when
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: you think about brother Nearest Green Green, Nearest Green is
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: the one that came up with the recipeople Jackpans. He
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: never got one dollar for coming up with the rest
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: of people. Jackpans now probably the most famous liquor brand
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: in the world, Top five famous liqui brand in the world.
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: No imagine if you would have gotten ten cents on
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: the dollar to you know, his family, his extended family,
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: maybe there would have been the Nearest Gremuseum, et cetera.
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: Right when we get written out out of the authorship
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: of what we create, there's no link backs to us,
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: and it doesn't many things. A, it hits economically. B.
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: It also tells other black people that it's not there's
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: no value to be in food, right. You know, we
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: brought barbecue to this country. We came up with a
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: Bourbon's recipe for this in this country. But yet we're
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: completely honest announce outs the ownership and the authorship of that.
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: And so we have to stop that. You have to
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: support each other and find each other because our own
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: economy we can sustain like businesses and restaurants by supporting
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: each other.
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: I know that absolutely and at one hundred percent agree,
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: and that's that's why I I when I on my
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: show Money Making Conversations, the show about entrepreneurship, and I
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: get the interview CEOs and celebrities, entertainers and influencers, and
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: I have chefs on my show more than anything because
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: I know that the core of what we do in
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: a black community is food, good food and being able
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: to support and make you guys really out of stars.
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: You know, you just stars of the of the plate,
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: You just stars of the kitchen. And it doesn't get
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: recognized enough because people kind of just see you cooking
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: and you, like you said earlier, there's so much more
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: influence that comes out of the kitchen based on who
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: you talk to, who you serve, and who you communicate with.
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: That sometimes it changes the outlook of the world.
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah, no, it is. And it's also important because think
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: about food. Our food rituals are old, right, like it's
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: important to keep those in our community right. The other
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: part is also help we can do better than that.
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: We need to know teach our community to eat healthier
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: but also environmental, you know what I mean. We're going
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: to leave leave off the world in a better place
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: than we got it. Cooking has a lot to do
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: with that. How do you consume food? Where do we
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: buy it? How can we do any agree in a context? Now?
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: Can we make sure, for example, diabetes in our community
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: is going to go down?
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: Well?
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: How we cook, how we is the answer to that.
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: Absolutely. I'm talking to a chef, Marcus Samuelson. His fantastic book,
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: The Rise, Black Cooks and the Soul of American Food
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: is who I'm talking to right now. A couple of
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: things from the book, like I said that left me
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: mouth war around the coconut fried chicken. Because I'm gonna
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: tell you something, brother, coconut is my number one thing
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: I love to cook with. I've never ever made coconut
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: fried chicken. And then then you hit me with this
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: right here, chef, the oxtail pepper pot with dumplings. Is
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: that your take on chicken and dumplings with a spin
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: with the ox.
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: Tails come within exactly? You know, we don't love an oxtail.
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: Don't love that.
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: You have been around out the hugs and chef, when
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: I saw that oxtail pepper pot with dumpless that's that's good, man,
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: that's good. And then and then and then see I'm
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: I'm from Houston, Texas. And wild berries. When I was
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: a kid, my parents used to take me out and
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: we just go out and picked wild berries. Man, they
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: did put some sugar on them, and boy, that was
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: the best dessert we ever had. Just put some sugar
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: on some on some wild berrys. And brother, I tell
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: you that's a dessert right there. Now in this book
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: you have the sweet wow berry. Tell us about that.
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: Tell us about well, you know berries. You know, I
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: remember going with my grandmother picking berries. But you know,
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: you never know what would you would get, you know,
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: when that's my whole point foraging was. You know, it's
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: not something to put on Facebook. It was actually something.
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: You know, if you didn't pick the berries, I might.
• 17:24
  Speaker 3: Get something on my neck from my grandmother, right, you know,
• 17:28
  Speaker 3: you know those berries up, just bring them back home
• 17:32
  Speaker 3: and then you make a jam. And then you know,
• 17:35
  Speaker 3: if you were lucky lot left over, then you can
• 17:37
  Speaker 3: you know, do a pie crust and make it. And
• 17:39
  Speaker 3: that was the best pie ever, right because as a child,
• 17:42
  Speaker 3: you were part of that. Whether that was blueberry, whether
• 17:45
  Speaker 3: that was a black currants, whatever it was, right, and
• 17:48
  Speaker 3: us going out foraging, we didn't know what was going
• 17:51
  Speaker 3: out for. We were looking with fund blueberries with fine ring.
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: And then watch out for them snakes. Then watch out
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: for those snakes. Am I tell a little truth, Marcus?
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: Am I telling little truth?
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: Of course? I was always scared about it. My grandmother,
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: my grandmother, she cut the head off.
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: Yes yet yeah, yeah, oh my god, this is great
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: talking to you, right. I hope we maintain this relationship, man,
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: because you're you're you're a strong spirit. And uh and
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: uh these recipes like I'm gonna tell you, uh, I
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: would call it the meal or something, but this is
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: something I've become, I've fallen in love with and it's
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: in your book, and I never for years, I would
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: just pass it up. Cous cous I love that. I
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: love it. And you have a recipe called cous cous
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: and roasted fig and I love it. I grew up
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: I had a fig tree in my backyard, fair tree
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: in the backyard, and we just go and if anybody
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: has a fig tree, you have figs forever. If you
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: have a fig tree, you're like a plump tree. It's
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: just they're just there forever. And so but I've never
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: seen this mixed before, talk about this couscous and roasted fig.
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: Well, you know, we got to think about it healthier
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: and pus is so light and bright, you know what
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: I mean. And then just you can add any fruit,
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: like if you're in the South, you can also add
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: peaches to that you need, you know that nuts. That's
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: it's very easy, right. Sometimes we have so much great
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: food here because it's so easy to cook. Right, you
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: can soak it or just cook it for five minutes
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: and steam it and then just folding your peach or
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: your figs, for example, some nuts, some beautiful freshure, and
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: you have a snack. You have a lunch. If you
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: roll some chicken Mber that now you have dinner, you know,
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: so we've got to call. You know, we always have
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: to sort of mix up our sides, and that's really
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: the key being to buy being introduced to different foods.
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: But you know, that's the key for us to change
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: our diets so we're not always eating the same.
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: And that's really important. And when I go through this book,
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: like I said, you've heard me mentioned the plantain, is,
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: the coconut fried chicken, pepper pie with dumplings, many more.
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: I'm just I just picked out a few of my favorites. Okay,
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: the cous cous and roasted fig you hear me talk
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: about here, here's something I was I wanted to talk
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: about at the Dookie Chase that's in New Orleans. I've
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: been there several times.
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: Uh.
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: Like I said, I lived from Houston, Texas. So my
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: best friend who's my best man and my wedding, he's
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: from New Orleans. So I was always in New Orleans.
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: So I'm very familiar with Dukie Chase. Now lit Chase
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: has a gumbo recipe in now yeah, Now, I want
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: to get this straight here because see I'm being honest
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: with you. I didn't see anything people always here to
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: say the word rue. You got to have a root
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: for a gumbo. I don't know what that is. I'm
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: just gonna let you know, I just I cook it,
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: just like Liz Chase does you know, I just put
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: I put it all in the pot. It all goes well.
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: And because my wife the other day, you know, she
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: was looking at the recipe. She was over there, you know,
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: trying to I got to get my root, right, I said,
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: what are you talking about?
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: Yes, yes, yes, Well this is the thing that both said.
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: You guys are right right. The root is really the
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: flour and the butter makes of the flower, and that
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: you cook out and you get that a little brown, right.
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: For what's happened how a recipe has evolved. Back in
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: the day, you couldn't afford a lot of vegetables and
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: a lot of seafood. So the way something was thicket
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: was with a thick root, which everybody could afford oil
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: and flour. But as today, as cooking is now asked,
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: we can afford more things. We've actually cut down on
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: the root and adding more oakrah, more more vegetables, and
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: more seafood into it. Because the root itself doesn't really
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: have a great taste. So that's why the modern recipes
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: the root is kind of cut out because the sol
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: it is it's flower. But you know your white is
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: right traditionally go way back, a root is definitely there
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: for that. I mean, you're right, is always.
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: Right, right, She's right, but look at her. I can't.
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: I can't waste my time with that root O taste
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: as I was just like my girl Chase, I just
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: I just put it together just like that. She uses
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: fish stock, I use chicken stock. I'm gonna try to
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: fish and chicken stock this time. And sounded like a
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: good thing because that fish probably bring me a little
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: natural salt into that, which is really good from a
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: natural cooking. But I know we're running out of time here,
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: but I want to bring up something that growing up, man,
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: I grew up in the hood, and so you know,
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: my daughter, my father was truck driver, and my mom
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: used to make hot water corn break, okay, and to
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: this day I cannot get that. And then I ran
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: across these recipe ho cakes in your book.
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: Yes, yes, you know. And that's the whole point about
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: bringing out things quick things. I mean, think about it.
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: How incredible our ancestor work, right, that had very little
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: but we still two hundred, three hundred years later, still
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: trading on these incredible recipes that our ancestors has ingenieus.
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: It is black cooking. You can't take it for credit.
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: You got to appreciate it. And the only way to
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: do that is to document, to share it and tell stories. Right.
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: So this this is you were really deep in the
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: book when you find recipes like that and it's like
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: we did that, We did that, you know what I mean.
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: And that's what's really what this book is about. It's
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: about celebrated black chefs, past, pressure and future.
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: And that's what I wanted to tell you a little
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: bit about me in here because I wanted to let
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: you know how passionate and how detailed this book is
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: because it hit home so many ways with me because
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: my wife is from Belize, Okay, so that get that
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: culture from there, you know what I'm saying. And so
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: I've been fortunate to travel the world, especially in the Caribbean,
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: so I'm very familiar with the food down there. You know. Uh,
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: pork is still was the coolest meat for meat for me.
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: And so and when I come across a book, you know,
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: popa AEDs, shrimp and grids, the fried Chicken, wastle, pair
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: of par of sauce. I'm going like, man, this is
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: a fantastic book. But on top of that, you know,
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: the book I'm talking about is The Rise Black Cooks
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: and the Solo American who is broken up in the
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: five chapters next remixes one chapter migration is one chapter
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: of legacy and origin. But the fact that you are
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: willing to promote the brand of black restaurants throughout this country,
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: and the fact that you are taking the time to
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: show support and strong support for these black restaurants across
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: the country. Your books. You amazing. I know the first
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: time we've ever talked, man, and I appreciate you and
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: I value what you're trying to bring to the game
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: of But also, let's trade numbers, man, because you need
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: to do a documentary. Brother, That's what I do.
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: Yes, yet, that's what I do.
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: I don't know you know who I am, but that's
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: what I do.
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: But yeah, I know.
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: Hey, I want to thank you for coming on Money
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: Making Conversation. You keep winning.
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much them too.
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: If you want to hear more Money Making Conversations interviews,
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: please go with money Making Conversation dot com. I'm with
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: Sean McDonald. I'm your host,