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Chef Marcus Samuelsson on Black Cooks & Best Soul Food Spots in America · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

0:06
Speaker 1: Welcome to Money Making Conversations. It's to show that she
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Speaker 1: Brandon expert Rashan McDonald. I will know he's giving me
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Speaker 1: my man, Rashan McDonald. Money Making Conversations. Here we come.
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Speaker 1: Welcome to money Making Conversations. I'm your host, Rashan McDonald.
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Speaker 1: I recognized that we all have different definitions of success.
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Speaker 1: For some suscisable paycheck. Mine is helping people wake up
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Speaker 1: and inspiring them to accomplish their goals and live their
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Speaker 1: very best life. These are my passion that that's what
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Speaker 1: I'm going to do for you for listening to Money
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Speaker 1: Making Conversations, I want you to stop tripping over small
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Speaker 1: challenges and prepare to rise above the bigger obstacles that
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Speaker 1: life will present to you. My next guest is Mark Chef,
1:00
Speaker 1: but the word chef in front of him Marcus Samuelson.
1:02
Speaker 1: He's an award winning chef, restaurant tour, bestselling author, TV personality, philanthropists,
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Speaker 1: and food activists. His callingary career spans over twenty five years.
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Speaker 1: Has numerous restaurants in the US and internationally, including The
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Speaker 1: Red Rooster, Marcus BnB, in Order, Marcus Marcus Montreal, and more.
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Speaker 1: His newest book is called The Rise, Black Cooks and
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Speaker 1: the Soul of American Food. The book is celebrating contemporary
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Speaker 1: Black cooking, highlighting the food culture and history and stories
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Speaker 1: and recipes. The book covers the diverse contributions and and
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Speaker 1: traditions that influenced Black cooking and American culture from African
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Speaker 1: African continent to the Caribbean and US. Where a lot
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Speaker 1: of talked about about the process of creating the book,
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Speaker 1: calling it naming it The Rise Black Cooks and the
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Speaker 1: Soul of American Food. Why did he write the book?
1:51
Speaker 1: How did he decide this was the next book that
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Speaker 1: he wanted to do. So he's here, y'all. Please welcome
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Speaker 1: to Money Making Conversation. Chef Marcus Samuelson. Thank you so
2:00
Speaker 1: much for having me. I'm excited to be here. My man,
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Speaker 1: I don't tell you something when you write a book
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Speaker 1: like that. First of all, you love food, don't you, chef?
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Speaker 1: You just love food. Let's get that out. Let's get
2:11
Speaker 1: that out front, because when I see, when I've read
2:14
Speaker 1: past books and just followed your TV, that's like a
2:17
Speaker 1: twinkle in your eye because you you're you. I love
2:20
Speaker 1: the way you dressed too, So I'm a I'm a
2:22
Speaker 1: clothed man. So so I see, I've interviewed a lot
2:26
Speaker 1: of chefs over the years. You're probably the best dress
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Speaker 1: chef of food to date, can you. I can say
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Speaker 1: that I also love food that more than anybody else.
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Speaker 1: That is the kitchen. Give me likely to travel them
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Speaker 1: in my dream all over the world. And I'm very
2:45
Speaker 1: very grateful for that. And of course that's a black man.
2:47
Speaker 1: You gotta bring you stop with it. I'm chef, give yourself,
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Speaker 1: you do, man, because everybody don't have that style. You got,
2:56
Speaker 1: the hats, you got the vast you like light colors, green, yellow,
3:01
Speaker 1: you know you know how to put it together, patterns
3:03
Speaker 1: squares say, I wire a lot of tailor clothes and
3:07
Speaker 1: so so you're much more daring. But I just say
3:10
Speaker 1: that in a in a complimentary way, because I'm you know,
3:13
Speaker 1: I wear a lot of suits. You know my blog
3:16
Speaker 1: is amazing, right, living in Hall, you know this, it's
3:19
Speaker 1: took an amazing village. You know my neighbor is right right.
3:23
Speaker 1: So whatever I put on, I'm still far behind because
3:26
Speaker 1: the man everything. You know what I mean, because I
3:31
Speaker 1: lived in New York. I lived last time I was
3:33
Speaker 1: up in New York, I was up Steve Harvey. I
3:34
Speaker 1: was up there from two thousand five to two thousand seven,
3:38
Speaker 1: and I lived at forty thirty nine in First and
3:41
Speaker 1: then previously when I was up there was an eighty
3:42
Speaker 1: six and First, so I was all always up in
3:44
Speaker 1: the hallm And I've been buying your restaurant, by the way,
3:47
Speaker 1: I've not met you, but I've been by because when
3:48
Speaker 1: they opened, it was always it was always hard to
3:51
Speaker 1: get in. It was always hard to get in, Okay,
3:53
Speaker 1: always like which is a compliment. It's a compliment. Okay.
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Speaker 1: And now, so tell us about the restaurant uh in
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Speaker 1: in Halem and uh and tell us how the let's
4:03
Speaker 1: let's talk about the reality of where we live in today,
4:05
Speaker 1: the COVID nineteen and how these country has been shut
4:08
Speaker 1: down in New York State is still dealing with a
4:10
Speaker 1: lot of issues talking about that in your business. Yeah, No,
4:13
Speaker 1: we had to on much root team. We had a
4:15
Speaker 1: big decision to make. We had to pivot from being
4:17
Speaker 1: a traditional Western to be the community kitchen. Got partnered
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Speaker 1: with my man jos Andre's from Away Center Kitchen and
4:24
Speaker 1: we started third a thousand people, twelve hundred people, fifteen
4:27
Speaker 1: hundred people a day. So the six months rate from
4:30
Speaker 1: Marches team until just last week we served over two
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Speaker 1: hundred thousand meals. We did the same in a red
4:40
Speaker 1: roostern overtown in Miami, and we did the same in
4:43
Speaker 1: Newark where actually it might be Jordan's helpless to do
4:46
Speaker 1: to do that because you know where restaurants are gone
4:50
Speaker 1: in our community, so is our neighborhood, right, So it's
4:53
Speaker 1: very important for me to really go back to what
4:55
Speaker 1: what what What can we imagine chefs that's for responders,
5:01
Speaker 1: imagine us out there and and saving them be part
5:04
Speaker 1: of restoring the community. And that's what we did and
5:07
Speaker 1: it was a powerful and then I read about that
5:09
Speaker 1: and because of the fact that you know, black restaurants
5:12
Speaker 1: in general, a lot of more than ready for the
5:16
Speaker 1: for the for the business model, the new business model
5:19
Speaker 1: to go Uber Eats and all that service because there
5:23
Speaker 1: was traditional city and dining facilities and so so a
5:26
Speaker 1: lot of suffered, a lot of them didn't get the
5:28
Speaker 1: P P P check that enabled them to keep the
5:30
Speaker 1: doors open. But then out of all that, you've been
5:33
Speaker 1: able to publish a book. And in the book that
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Speaker 1: came out that we're about to discuss is called The Rise,
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Speaker 1: Black Cooks and the Soul of American Food. Now from Houston, Texas.
5:42
Speaker 1: So someone I like to consider that one of the
5:44
Speaker 1: hearts of the South Cities. And I also lived in Atlanta, Georgia, Atlanta,
5:47
Speaker 1: Georgia so so, and I've lived in Chicago. I'm just
5:50
Speaker 1: getting the range of who you're talking to here. Marcus
5:53
Speaker 1: lived in Chicago four years. I lived in New York
5:56
Speaker 1: two years. I've been living in Atlanta since two thousand seven.
5:59
Speaker 1: I lived in Los Angeles fifteen years. And I was
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Speaker 1: born and raised in Houston, Texas. So I have and
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Speaker 1: I have been all over this country and eight fantastic food.
6:08
Speaker 1: I still believe Chicago is the best place to eat
6:11
Speaker 1: across the board. We're talking about variety the Chicago that's
6:15
Speaker 1: my estimate. Now, one who think it is the best
6:18
Speaker 1: place in this country to eat before we get into
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Speaker 1: your book. Well, well, I said, I'll tell you what.
6:23
Speaker 1: There is a couple of places that people might not
6:25
Speaker 1: have that number one, But I tell you Houston it's
6:27
Speaker 1: a great frusy because it's very diverse. It's one of
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Speaker 1: the most diverse cities in America, and people don't know
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Speaker 1: about that because it's in Texas. Will food, diet, the
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Speaker 1: nice food of course, the black food that's comes out
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Speaker 1: of Houston, but also amazing Indian food and Mexican Mexican
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Speaker 1: American of course. So used it's a don't people in
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Speaker 1: great food as well. But I didn't want to sound selfish.
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Speaker 1: You know, people are here from Houston. He would say that,
6:55
Speaker 1: you know, but Houston, I'm telling something. Dining out in
6:58
Speaker 1: Houston is amazing because of the fact, like you said
7:01
Speaker 1: in a text, Mets don't, Bobby Q, you don't. Oh
7:04
Speaker 1: my goodness. You know. Then you got to just down
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Speaker 1: the road in New Orleans. So you've got that flavor
7:08
Speaker 1: coming into Houston. And they fish all the because we're
7:12
Speaker 1: in the Gulf of Mexico, so you've got all those
7:14
Speaker 1: varieties that you were talking about, and it is a
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Speaker 1: very diverse city from from the type of from Indian
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Speaker 1: food is fantastic there and and so so yes, you're
7:24
Speaker 1: you're right. So I will I will put I always
7:27
Speaker 1: put a crown on my my my born city because
7:30
Speaker 1: it does deliver. But you're absolutely right. So now we're
7:33
Speaker 1: now we're talking about this this book here that you've written,
7:36
Speaker 1: that you created. And why this book, Marcus? Why did
7:39
Speaker 1: you write this book? What we had we had to
7:41
Speaker 1: because you know, just as American history around black culture,
7:45
Speaker 1: it's not great, so it's the same with food. And
7:48
Speaker 1: for me it was very important with the chef with
7:50
Speaker 1: a big platform, it was important to me to connect
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Speaker 1: the dogs that black excellence when it comes to food
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Speaker 1: needs to be documented and there needs to be as
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Speaker 1: off to the incredible legacy of black chefts has done
8:03
Speaker 1: before us to set up this moment, right you have
8:07
Speaker 1: you know, even from d Thomas Jefferson's time, but you
8:11
Speaker 1: know the black chefs that he had going up Commissilea
8:15
Speaker 1: Chase that you know, ran her restaurant, you could Chase
8:17
Speaker 1: still going on in Orleanst for seventy years, you know
8:20
Speaker 1: what I mean. Even some people that are not as known,
8:23
Speaker 1: like something like Georgia Gilmore that you know was raised
8:27
Speaker 1: money from ok for the movements. For example, that you
8:31
Speaker 1: have chefs like Superior Right that work for chef Linda B. Johnson,
8:35
Speaker 1: and she was the one convincing him that for the
8:39
Speaker 1: black right to vote for example four. So chef's black
8:44
Speaker 1: chefts have contributed in so many different ways. And then
8:47
Speaker 1: of course you look at something food, what we call
8:50
Speaker 1: today's stole food. You can't talk about American food without
8:53
Speaker 1: the black contribution. Thank about creole cooking, right, think about barbecue.
8:57
Speaker 1: But wherever you find in American history books you can't angles.
9:00
Speaker 1: For me, it's really it's all of value publicistion. We
9:04
Speaker 1: have added. Course, we have a value proposition that it's
9:07
Speaker 1: not cannot be monolithtic. We've added so much and it
9:12
Speaker 1: was important to document it and presented in any way. Wow,
9:16
Speaker 1: we're talking to I'm t I'm talking to chef Marcus
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Speaker 1: Samuelson his book They Rise, Black Cooks and the Soul
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Speaker 1: of American Food. Now it's the book is broken up
9:26
Speaker 1: to five chapters, correct, you said the next, the remix,
9:30
Speaker 1: the migration, the legacy, and the origin. And like I
9:33
Speaker 1: said that get little subtitles tied each of like the
9:36
Speaker 1: next where black food is headed. And then on the remix,
9:39
Speaker 1: black cooking integrates many cultures, which is so true, the
9:42
Speaker 1: migration influence of the American South where I'm from, then
9:46
Speaker 1: the legacy all the new journeys from Africa to America.
9:49
Speaker 1: Let's talk right there. Because the that sporow I hopefully
9:53
Speaker 1: I said that correctly, has been a type of meal
9:56
Speaker 1: that is suddenly appearing across this country. All right. I
10:00
Speaker 1: will tell you I was first exposed to it when
10:02
Speaker 1: I used to take my family down to uh to
10:05
Speaker 1: Disney World in Orlando, and they, uh, they had a
10:08
Speaker 1: menu that's completely in an African menu. In fact, they
10:10
Speaker 1: have a buffaith and that's what I was exposed to,
10:12
Speaker 1: that amazing spicy, diverse menu of African food. And also
10:18
Speaker 1: have another restaurant there which is one of the the restaurant
10:20
Speaker 1: which is a menu driven restaurant as well. So that's
10:22
Speaker 1: what I got exposed to that food. Why has that
10:24
Speaker 1: been such an explosion of of the African menu in America? Well,
10:30
Speaker 1: I think because I think a couple of things. Internet
10:33
Speaker 1: and opportunity to link and bridge like you can. Now
10:36
Speaker 1: you know a lot of my chef friends they're going
10:39
Speaker 1: to lago us to learn about two now the way
10:41
Speaker 1: they used to go to France or or or Italy. Right,
10:45
Speaker 1: that wasn't possible fixting twenty years ago. And I think
10:47
Speaker 1: about there's always been a black and forth between the
10:51
Speaker 1: continent of Africa and Black excellent. You think about music, right,
10:54
Speaker 1: think about how Fella and all the African American desticians
10:58
Speaker 1: used to go to Africa, stev everybody went to Africa
11:01
Speaker 1: to learn, and now you have you know, afrobeats, and
11:04
Speaker 1: you have hip hop that takes influences on that. So
11:07
Speaker 1: in music, the link blues everyone knows where the blues
11:11
Speaker 1: truly come from, for example. But guess what it wasn't
11:13
Speaker 1: just music that traveled like that. It was also food,
11:17
Speaker 1: So Okra, right, how did he get here? Of course
11:20
Speaker 1: it's a history with enslaved enslavery, right, very difficult history
11:24
Speaker 1: talk about, but it also brought us the food that
11:26
Speaker 1: we had. So just as much as the music came
11:29
Speaker 1: from Africa and came to America as part of our
11:32
Speaker 1: black narrative, there's also linkish with the food. You know, peanuts, Okra,
11:37
Speaker 1: You states of American cooking comes from Africa, and for
11:41
Speaker 1: us it's not today it's an opportunity to share and
11:45
Speaker 1: talk about it and take take something that was very
11:47
Speaker 1: dark and difficult to something positive. Well, here it really
11:51
Speaker 1: is and it's a it's a it's an interesting taste,
11:53
Speaker 1: a lot of colors. You know, I wanted my favor
11:56
Speaker 1: I think purple yams eaten. Come on that, brother, I
12:01
Speaker 1: gotta tell I'm a fooding. Now I'm a food and
12:02
Speaker 1: now I love eating great food. Now let's as you say,
12:05
Speaker 1: legos and I ran across that plant team men. You
12:11
Speaker 1: it's in your book. I believe it's in the next
12:13
Speaker 1: next chapter. Now see, I'm a guy. The reason I
12:16
Speaker 1: got excited about that because I'm a guy. You know,
12:18
Speaker 1: I go into the store, I buy it in the store,
12:20
Speaker 1: just reheat it. That's what I do. You know? Or
12:23
Speaker 1: your brand was one of the brand's popular brands that
12:25
Speaker 1: I always had in my house. Okay, now I see
12:28
Speaker 1: a nice little simple recipe in your book. Now what
12:34
Speaker 1: what you know? Like I said, when you can When
12:35
Speaker 1: you get these recipe books, sometimes they can be so
12:38
Speaker 1: daunting sometimes chef that that you're like, oh man, I
12:40
Speaker 1: can't cook nothing in this. But but your book is different.
12:43
Speaker 1: And also you the way you stylized your book because
12:47
Speaker 1: you're you're honoring chefs and restaurants across the country. And
12:51
Speaker 1: that was unique tape that I've never seen any any
12:54
Speaker 1: restaurant book. Because your boy my boy, I wanted to say.
12:57
Speaker 1: I wouldn't call him my boar because I went up
12:58
Speaker 1: there interviewed the Mother Show and I told him my
13:01
Speaker 1: wife and I was gonna fly to Seattle and the
13:04
Speaker 1: anniversary we did. Yeah, and he was shocked. I say, hey,
13:08
Speaker 1: man said look brother, look, I said, I go for
13:10
Speaker 1: good food. I looked online. I said, man, you've got
13:12
Speaker 1: some food that I want to be And I went
13:14
Speaker 1: up to June Baby in Seattle. And you're hear from
13:17
Speaker 1: me with that Nordwado Jordan's straight out of Florida. Florida
13:20
Speaker 1: bar Okay, love, we love talk. What we wanted to highlight, right,
13:24
Speaker 1: I wanted I want to black. There's so many black
13:28
Speaker 1: chefs in this country that are amazing, and Edward the
13:31
Speaker 1: Jordan is one of them, and so is someone like
13:34
Speaker 1: Corlor Hall, and so is someone Ansia Arrington. And what
13:37
Speaker 1: you ended up doing when you read the book, you
13:39
Speaker 1: can look at it a two ways. Hey, when we
13:41
Speaker 1: start the world up and open up again and we're
13:43
Speaker 1: gonna start traveling. You can look forward to go to
13:46
Speaker 1: Seattle and go to the Wardle's West Park. You can
13:48
Speaker 1: look at this book at hey, I live in Atlanta. Okay,
13:51
Speaker 1: who in Atlanta should link up with? Maybe your company
13:55
Speaker 1: wants to do a corporate buyout? Okay, good? Who is?
13:59
Speaker 1: Because the book after COVID, black businesses, black food entrepreneurs
14:04
Speaker 1: going to need our business more than ever. So this
14:07
Speaker 1: book not only did do a deeper dive on forty
14:10
Speaker 1: chefs of story tellers across the country, I also added
14:13
Speaker 1: another two black chefs and food writers in the back
14:17
Speaker 1: with their Instagram handle show no one can say to me, well,
14:21
Speaker 1: how do I find them? It's hard to find them.
14:23
Speaker 1: It's not hard to find them. In the ride you can.
14:26
Speaker 1: You can find every single one. And and wherever your
14:30
Speaker 1: community is, I can guarantee if someone is in wherever
14:33
Speaker 1: you live in the country is an amazing local black chefs.
14:37
Speaker 1: Look her up, look him up. He will need you
14:40
Speaker 1: more than ever. All right, you know here, here's the
14:42
Speaker 1: beauty of it. Like Beyonce, one of the big things
14:45
Speaker 1: she did over COVID where she called the parade, and
14:48
Speaker 1: parade was just basically the black shopping zone, okay, and
14:51
Speaker 1: it just blew up young entrepreneurs who be basically Beyonce
14:56
Speaker 1: just to touch you and anted your business as incredible
14:59
Speaker 1: and used at least, like you said, supported during these
15:01
Speaker 1: pandemic times. Now I'm hearing what you're doing because I
15:05
Speaker 1: follow you a little bit there, you know, because you're
15:07
Speaker 1: great chef. And when I saw what you're doing it,
15:10
Speaker 1: what do you do? Because this sounds something like I
15:12
Speaker 1: would if you need my support on social media to
15:15
Speaker 1: get the word out because of a natural foodie and so,
15:17
Speaker 1: but I've never heard of anybody doing what you're doing
15:21
Speaker 1: with a national platform kind of like uh phone book
15:27
Speaker 1: of restaurants that you can go and go and die in.
15:31
Speaker 1: Fantastic And because I travel a lot, I'm very familiar
15:34
Speaker 1: with what you were talking about. And so I I
15:37
Speaker 1: have a call Rushawn Eats. Okay, and so on my
15:40
Speaker 1: social media, I got like almost a million Facebook followers.
15:44
Speaker 1: I love. I start supporting these on my my my
15:47
Speaker 1: post and say go here and get volted and that
15:49
Speaker 1: what I do is I will. What I do is
15:51
Speaker 1: I do it every every Wednesday. I do it Rushawn Eats,
15:55
Speaker 1: and I just go to a restaurant or hear by
15:57
Speaker 1: the restaurant that's been recommended to me. I get about
15:59
Speaker 1: ten all those from the restaurant, and I just tell
16:02
Speaker 1: people that should try it. And so if you if
16:04
Speaker 1: you like me to, I support the calls and make
16:07
Speaker 1: all my selections black owned restaurants from your book. I
16:10
Speaker 1: love that. But that's that's what we need, right, Like
16:12
Speaker 1: we're in a moment. Think about this. Most books and
16:17
Speaker 1: content that is out there, we're not in it because
16:20
Speaker 1: it was not for us. Right, So, the way we
16:22
Speaker 1: can actually navigate through this very challenging period, because you know,
16:26
Speaker 1: COVID's going to stay in our communities longer than in others.
16:30
Speaker 1: You know, it's impacted us more than any other community
16:33
Speaker 1: because a lot of healthcare and so on. The only
16:36
Speaker 1: way we're gonna be able to have black entrepreneurship in
16:40
Speaker 1: the food spake less, he's by actually supporting each other.
16:43
Speaker 1: So what you're doing here with your platform, you're highlighting
16:47
Speaker 1: your broadcast and black excellent when comfort food and that
16:50
Speaker 1: was what really wasn't inspired me, Like it's like no market,
16:53
Speaker 1: you can't d roosters up. It's doing okay, it's doing well,
16:57
Speaker 1: you know, we're opening in Miami in a couple of weeks. Right,
16:59
Speaker 1: so we're good. But it's not about me. This is
17:02
Speaker 1: really about the legacies that we leave behind. And there
17:04
Speaker 1: has to be a worse and the value system to
17:07
Speaker 1: working through that I didn't. I'll give you an example.
17:09
Speaker 1: Right when you think about brother Nearest Green Green. Nearest
17:14
Speaker 1: Green is the one that came up with the recipe
17:17
Speaker 1: for Jack Daniels. He never got one dollar for coming
17:22
Speaker 1: up with the recipe for Jack Dance. Now probably the
17:24
Speaker 1: most famous liquor brand in the world. How five famous
17:27
Speaker 1: with the brand in the world. Now, imagine if you
17:29
Speaker 1: would have gotten ten cents on the dollar to you know,
17:32
Speaker 1: his family, his his extended family, maybe there would have
17:36
Speaker 1: been the Nearest Green Museum, etcetera. Right, when we get
17:39
Speaker 1: written out out of the authorship of what we create,
17:45
Speaker 1: there's no link backs to us, and it does many
17:48
Speaker 1: things as economically be it also tells other black people
17:52
Speaker 1: that it's not there's no value to be in food. Right.
17:56
Speaker 1: You know, we brought barbecue to this countree, we came
17:59
Speaker 1: up with the Bourbons respe for this in this country,
18:02
Speaker 1: and yet completely listen out the ownership and the authorship
18:06
Speaker 1: of that, and so we have to stop that. You
18:09
Speaker 1: have to support each other and find each other because
18:13
Speaker 1: only economy we can sustain black businesses and restaurants by
18:16
Speaker 1: supporting each other. I know that absolutely and I agree,
18:20
Speaker 1: and that's that's why I when I I on my
18:23
Speaker 1: show Money Making Conversations show about entrepreneurship, and I get
18:26
Speaker 1: the interview CEOs and uh celebrities, entertainers and influencers, and
18:31
Speaker 1: I have chefs on my show more than anything because
18:34
Speaker 1: I know that the core of what we do in
18:37
Speaker 1: the black community is food, good food and being able
18:40
Speaker 1: to support and make you guys really out of stars.
18:43
Speaker 1: You know, you just stars are the other plate. You
18:45
Speaker 1: the stars of the kitchen, and it doesn't get recognized
18:48
Speaker 1: enough because people kind of just see you cooking and you,
18:51
Speaker 1: like you said earlier, there's so much more influence that
18:54
Speaker 1: comes out of the kitchen based on who you talk to,
18:57
Speaker 1: who you serve, and who you communicate with that sometimes
19:00
Speaker 1: it changes the outlook of the world. Yeah, no, it is.
19:04
Speaker 1: And it's also important because think about food. Our food
19:08
Speaker 1: rituals are old, right, like it's important to keep those
19:12
Speaker 1: in our community. Right. The other part is also health.
19:16
Speaker 1: We can do better than that. We need to know
19:19
Speaker 1: teach our community eat healthier but also environmental. You know
19:22
Speaker 1: what I mean, We're gonna leave leave off the world
19:25
Speaker 1: in a better place that we got it. Cooking has
19:28
Speaker 1: a lot to do with that. How do you consume food?
19:31
Speaker 1: Where do we buy it? How can we do any
19:33
Speaker 1: greener context? How can we make sure, for example, diabetes
19:36
Speaker 1: in our community is going to go down? Well? How
19:39
Speaker 1: we cook? How we just answer to that? Absolutely? Um
19:42
Speaker 1: talking to chef Marcus Samuels on his fantastic book, The Rise,
19:47
Speaker 1: Black Cooks and the Soul of American Food. Is who
19:49
Speaker 1: I'm talking to right now. A couple of things from
19:51
Speaker 1: the book, like I said that left me mouth water
19:54
Speaker 1: in the coconut fried chicken, because I'm gonna tell you
19:57
Speaker 1: some brother, coconut is my number one thing I love
20:00
Speaker 1: to cook with. I've never ever made coconut fried chicken.
20:03
Speaker 1: And then then you didn't you hit me with this
20:06
Speaker 1: right here? Chef the oxtail pepper pot with dumplings? Is
20:12
Speaker 1: that your cake on chicken? And dumplets with a spin
20:15
Speaker 1: with the oxtails? Come on the exactly you We all
20:20
Speaker 1: love an oxtail for you to be around about the hug,
20:27
Speaker 1: that's all that oxtail pepper pote with dumpless you. That's
20:34
Speaker 1: that's good man, that's good. And then and then and
20:37
Speaker 1: then so I'm from Houston, Texas and wild berries. When
20:41
Speaker 1: I was a kid, my parents used to take me
20:43
Speaker 1: out and we just go out and picked wild berries. Man,
20:46
Speaker 1: you did put some sugar on them, and boy, that
20:49
Speaker 1: was the best dessert we ever had, just put some sugar.
20:52
Speaker 1: It was a wild berries and brother, I'll tell you
20:54
Speaker 1: that's a dessert right there. Now in this book you
20:58
Speaker 1: have the sweet berry. Tell us about that. Well, you
21:04
Speaker 1: know berries. You know, I remember going with my grandmother
21:08
Speaker 1: picking berries, but you know, you never know what you
21:11
Speaker 1: would get, you know when that's my whole point foraging
21:13
Speaker 1: with you know, it's not something to put on Facebook.
21:16
Speaker 1: It was actually something. You know, if you didn't pick
21:18
Speaker 1: the barris, I might get something on my neck for
21:20
Speaker 1: my grandma. Right, you know, you know the berries up,
21:25
Speaker 1: just bring them back home and then you make a jam.
21:28
Speaker 1: And then you know, if you're lucky you are a
21:30
Speaker 1: lot left over, then you can you know, do a
21:32
Speaker 1: pie crust and pick it. And that was the best
21:35
Speaker 1: pie ever. Right, Because as a child you were part
21:37
Speaker 1: of that. Whether there was peeberries, whether that was a
21:40
Speaker 1: black currents, whatever it was right, and us going out touraging,
21:44
Speaker 1: we didn't know what we're going out for. We were
21:46
Speaker 1: looking with fine blueberries were fine, remember and the snakes. Yeah,
21:54
Speaker 1: telling the truth? Market Am I telling the truth? Of
21:57
Speaker 1: course because I was always scared about it. I have
22:00
Speaker 1: my grandmother, my grandmother she cut the head off. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
22:06
Speaker 1: Oh my god. That's great talking to you, right. I
22:08
Speaker 1: hope we maintain this relationship, man, because you're you're your
22:11
Speaker 1: strong spirit and um and uh, these recipes like I'm
22:15
Speaker 1: gonna tell you, um what we call it the mill
22:18
Speaker 1: or something that. But this is something I've become, I've
22:21
Speaker 1: fallen in love with and it's in your book and
22:24
Speaker 1: I never and for years I'll just pass it up.
22:27
Speaker 1: Cous coups. I love that. I love it. And you
22:33
Speaker 1: have a recipe called cous coups and roasted fig and
22:36
Speaker 1: I look, I grew up. I had a fig tree
22:37
Speaker 1: in my backyard. Fig tree in the backyard, and we
22:41
Speaker 1: just go and if anybody has a fig tree, you
22:43
Speaker 1: have figs forever. If you have a fig tree and
22:46
Speaker 1: you're like a plump tree, they're just they're just there
22:47
Speaker 1: forever and so. But I've never seen this mix before.
22:51
Speaker 1: Talk about this cous coups and roasted fig well, you know,
22:57
Speaker 1: we gotta think about it. Eat healthier and postally so
23:00
Speaker 1: light and bright, you know what I mean. And then
23:02
Speaker 1: just you can add any fruit, like if you're in
23:05
Speaker 1: the South, you can all say peaches to that you need,
23:08
Speaker 1: you know, said nuts. That's it's very easy, right, Sometimes
23:11
Speaker 1: we have so much great food here and couse because
23:13
Speaker 1: it's so easy to cook, right you can soak it
23:15
Speaker 1: or just cook it for five minutes and steam it
23:17
Speaker 1: and then just folding your peach or or your figs
23:20
Speaker 1: for example some not some some beautiful pressure and you
23:23
Speaker 1: have a snack, you have a lunch. If you roll
23:26
Speaker 1: some chicken number that now you have dinner. You know,
23:28
Speaker 1: so we've got to call. You know, we always have
23:31
Speaker 1: to sort of mix up our sides. And that's really
23:34
Speaker 1: the key being to by being introduced to different foods.
23:38
Speaker 1: But you know that's the key for us to change
23:41
Speaker 1: our diets so we're not always eating the same and
23:45
Speaker 1: that's really important. And when I go through this book,
23:47
Speaker 1: like I said, you've already mentioned the plantings the coconut
23:50
Speaker 1: fried chicken, each purple pot with dumplings, many more recipes.
23:54
Speaker 1: I'm just I just picked out a few of my favorites. Okay,
23:57
Speaker 1: and the cous cous and roasted fig. You know me
23:59
Speaker 1: talking about here. Here's something I was I wanted to
24:02
Speaker 1: talk about at the Dukey Chase that's in New Orleans.
24:05
Speaker 1: I've been there several times. Like I said, I live
24:08
Speaker 1: from Houston, Texas. So my best friend, who's my best man,
24:11
Speaker 1: my wed and he's from New Orleans. So I was
24:13
Speaker 1: always in New Orleans. So I'm very for me with
24:15
Speaker 1: Dukeye Chase. Now little Chase has a gumbo recipe in
24:18
Speaker 1: now yeah, Now, I want to get this straight here
24:23
Speaker 1: because see, I'll be honest with you, I didn't see anything.
24:26
Speaker 1: People were here to say the world rude. You gotta
24:28
Speaker 1: have a route for gumbo. I don't know what that is.
24:33
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna let you know. I just I cook it,
24:35
Speaker 1: just like lear Chase, does you know. I just put
24:38
Speaker 1: I put it all in the pot. It all goes well.
24:41
Speaker 1: And because my wife the other day, you know, she
24:43
Speaker 1: was looking at the recipe. She was over there, you know,
24:45
Speaker 1: trying to get my rue right. I said, what are
24:47
Speaker 1: you talking about? Yes, yes, yes, Well this is the
24:51
Speaker 1: thing that both say, you guys are right right. The
24:53
Speaker 1: rute is really the flower and the butter makes of
24:57
Speaker 1: the flower that you cook out and you get that
25:00
Speaker 1: lame brown. Right. But what's happened how the recipe has
25:03
Speaker 1: haves Well, be back in the day, you couldn't afford
25:05
Speaker 1: a lot of vegetables and a lot of seafood to
25:08
Speaker 1: the way something was thicket was with a thick rule
25:10
Speaker 1: which everybody could afford oil and flour. But asked today
25:14
Speaker 1: as cooking is now asked, we can afford more things.
25:17
Speaker 1: We've actually cut down on the rule and adding more oak,
25:21
Speaker 1: more more vegetables, and more seafoot into it. Because the
25:24
Speaker 1: root itself doesn't really have a great taste. So that's
25:27
Speaker 1: why the modern recipes the rule is kind of cut
25:30
Speaker 1: out because that's what it is. It's flower. But but
25:33
Speaker 1: you know, you're white, is white traditionally go way back,
25:36
Speaker 1: a rule was definitely there for that. I mean, you're right,
25:40
Speaker 1: it's always right right. We look at I can't I
25:46
Speaker 1: can't waste my time with that route. I'll taste some
25:49
Speaker 1: I was just like my girl Chase, I just I
25:51
Speaker 1: just put it together just like that. She uses fish stock,
25:54
Speaker 1: I use chicken stock. I'm gonna trying to fish and
25:57
Speaker 1: chicken stock this time. That sounds like a good thing
26:00
Speaker 1: because the fish probably bring me a little natural salt
26:02
Speaker 1: into that, which is really good for my natural cooking.
26:05
Speaker 1: But but but I know we're running out of time here,
26:07
Speaker 1: But I want to bring up something that growing up, man,
26:10
Speaker 1: I grew up in in the hood. Right, six brothers,
26:13
Speaker 1: two sisters. Both my parents say that we lived in
26:15
Speaker 1: a two bedroom shotgun house. Okay, And and so you
26:19
Speaker 1: know my daughter, my father was truck driver, and my
26:22
Speaker 1: mom used to make hot water corn break, okay, And
26:26
Speaker 1: to this day I cannot get that. And then I
26:30
Speaker 1: ran across the recipe hocakes in your book. Yes, yes,
26:36
Speaker 1: you know. And if that's the whole point about bringing
26:39
Speaker 1: out things quick things, I mean, think about it. Think
26:43
Speaker 1: about this. How incredible our ancestor work. Right, they had
26:47
Speaker 1: very little, but we still two three hundred years later,
26:51
Speaker 1: still trading on these incredible recipes that our ancestors has
26:56
Speaker 1: the engenious it in black cooking. You can't take it
26:59
Speaker 1: for credit. You gott to appreciate it. And the only
27:02
Speaker 1: to do that is to document it, share it and
27:05
Speaker 1: tell stories. Right, So this this is you're really deep
27:09
Speaker 1: in the book when you shop buying the recipes like that,
27:11
Speaker 1: it's like we did that, We did that, you know
27:14
Speaker 1: what I mean. And that's what's really what this book
27:16
Speaker 1: is about. It is about celebrating block chefs past, present
27:20
Speaker 1: and future. And that's what I wanted to tell you
27:23
Speaker 1: a little bit about me and here because I wanted
27:25
Speaker 1: to let you know how passionate and how detailed this
27:29
Speaker 1: book is because it hit home so many ways with
27:31
Speaker 1: me because if my wife is from Police, okay, so
27:33
Speaker 1: that get that culture from there, you know what I'm saying.
27:36
Speaker 1: And so I've been fortunate to travel the world, especially
27:38
Speaker 1: in the Caribbean, so I'm very for me with the
27:40
Speaker 1: food down there. You know, uh, jerk pork is still
27:43
Speaker 1: was the coolest for meat for me. And so and
27:47
Speaker 1: when I come across a book, you know, Papa as
27:49
Speaker 1: stripping grids and fried chicken wattles, a pair of pair
27:52
Speaker 1: of sauce, I'm going like, man, this is a fantastic book.
27:55
Speaker 1: But on top of that, you know, the book I'm
27:57
Speaker 1: talking about is The Rise Black Cooks and the Solo
27:59
Speaker 1: American food is broken up into five chapters. Next remixes
28:03
Speaker 1: one chapter Migration is one chapter legacy and Origin. But
28:06
Speaker 1: the fact that you're willing to promote the brand of
28:10
Speaker 1: black restaurants throughout this country. I'm a champion your cars, Marcus.
28:14
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be right there with you, man, and I'm
28:16
Speaker 1: gonna start posting it every week in my social media,
28:19
Speaker 1: you know, and just and in this writing this book.
28:21
Speaker 1: I just want to tell a little bit of my
28:22
Speaker 1: life to show you how impactful this books affects me.
28:26
Speaker 1: I'm from the inner City. I've been fortunate to travel
28:28
Speaker 1: all over this world and I eat amazing food. A
28:31
Speaker 1: lot of the restaurant, uh Chef that you mentioned, a
28:34
Speaker 1: lot of the restaurants I've been in. And the fact
28:36
Speaker 1: that you're taking the time to show support and strong
28:39
Speaker 1: support for these black restaurants across the country, I'm gonna
28:41
Speaker 1: show my I'm gonna piggyback on you. Every Wednesday, I'm
28:44
Speaker 1: gonna start I'm gonna start tagging and and contacting them,
28:47
Speaker 1: getting ten photos and and say this Rushawn eats this restaurant,
28:51
Speaker 1: I'm recommending this black owned supported and uh and we
28:54
Speaker 1: go from there, man, Because your books You're amazing. I
28:59
Speaker 1: know the first time we've ever talk man, and UH.
29:01
Speaker 1: I appreciate you and I value what you're trying to
29:03
Speaker 1: bring to the game of UH. But also, let's let's
29:07
Speaker 1: trade numbers, man, because you need to do a documentar bro.
29:10
Speaker 1: That's what I do. Yes, that's what I do. I
29:13
Speaker 1: don't know you know who I am, but that's what
29:15
Speaker 1: I do. But yeah, okay, this is you three oh
29:17
Speaker 1: five yea, no, I would I got that nine one
29:21
Speaker 1: seven number. I'm gonna call you back on there. I'm
29:23
Speaker 1: gonna text you on that and the appreciate Hey, man,
29:26
Speaker 1: I want to thank you for coming on Money Making Conversation.
29:28
Speaker 1: I'm gonna put this book in my newsletter, promoted on
29:30
Speaker 1: my social media. But more importantly, don't you change chef. Okay,
29:33
Speaker 1: you keep winning. Thank you so much. If you want
29:38
Speaker 1: to hear more money Making Conversation interviews, please go with
29:40
Speaker 1: money Making Conversation dot com. I'm with Sean McDonald. I'm
29:43
Speaker 1: your host.