Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Chef Edouardo Jordan Full Interview
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: My next guest. He's an owner executive chef Thats means
- 0:04Speaker 1: food of several very popular restaurants. He was born and
- 0:08Speaker 1: raised in St. Petersburg, Florida, and attended college at the
- 0:11Speaker 1: University of Florida. That means he's a He's the Gator.
- 0:15Speaker 1: He's he's the Gator. Okay, all right, sec okay cool.
- 0:20Speaker 1: After graduating with a dual degree in business administration and
- 0:23Speaker 1: sports management, he decided to enroll in culinary school. Okay,
- 0:28Speaker 1: now that's a that's a switch. Now, please working. He's
- 0:31Speaker 1: here to tell his story and all the success he's
- 0:34Speaker 1: had over the years since he's graduated with that culinary degree.
- 0:38Speaker 1: Please welcome to money making Conversation. Ed wardle Jordan's thank
- 0:43Speaker 1: you for having me. Oh pretty good? Where you Where
- 0:47Speaker 1: are you at right now? Where are you calling from?
- 0:48Speaker 1: Right now? I'm in Seattle, Washington. I'm home before I'm
- 0:52Speaker 1: headed to work. Seattle, Washington. Now, I've been to Seattle
- 0:55Speaker 1: a couple of times, as you do stand up comedy.
- 0:57Speaker 1: I went up there way back in the day. This
- 1:00Speaker 1: some jokes up there. I stopped in there when I
- 1:01Speaker 1: was going to Vancouver for a cruisiness. So but I'm
- 1:05Speaker 1: gonna tell you something. Let's let's talk a little bit
- 1:06Speaker 1: about you before we get to this this, this menu,
- 1:09Speaker 1: that that that that really and I'm already told I'm
- 1:12Speaker 1: gonna just tell you this at Waddle, UM, I'm you're
- 1:16Speaker 1: gonna see me before the year out, brother, that you're
- 1:20Speaker 1: gonna see me for they let everybody know, you're gonna
- 1:23Speaker 1: find out why why I'm gonna go up there with
- 1:26Speaker 1: my wife. She's already, she's already signed off. She's gonna
- 1:30Speaker 1: be coming up there with who got together day? Do
- 1:31Speaker 1: you have a chef table at your restaurants? And we
- 1:34Speaker 1: were there, you go, okay, cool, Let's talk about the
- 1:38Speaker 1: beginning because I talked about uh, we talked about the
- 1:42Speaker 1: degrees and the business administration and that still that still
- 1:45Speaker 1: helps you out now because you're you're you know, your
- 1:48Speaker 1: your owner, your entrepreneur, So that degree, that business administration
- 1:51Speaker 1: does help you out. Then you went into sports management.
- 1:54Speaker 1: How did the whole culinary part of your life start
- 1:58Speaker 1: to rise to the top. Well, you know, I I
- 2:02Speaker 1: honestly I started with food at the age of nine. Um.
- 2:05Speaker 1: You know, food has always been um an intimate part
- 2:08Speaker 1: of like, uh, my experience growing up. Um, you know,
- 2:12Speaker 1: when I was nine years old, my mom put me
- 2:14Speaker 1: in the kitchen because she noticed that I had an
- 2:16Speaker 1: interest for food, because I was always asking my grandmother questions.
- 2:20Speaker 1: My grandmother's a Southerner, She's originally from Kiro, Georgia, and um,
- 2:24Speaker 1: you know, her specialty was cooking big old lavish meals
- 2:27Speaker 1: for the family and friends to come over and hang
- 2:29Speaker 1: out her at her house. Um, you know, for family unions,
- 2:33Speaker 1: after church, you know, all the holidays. Um, it was
- 2:36Speaker 1: all about grandma. And so you know, I took an
- 2:38Speaker 1: interest into foods then and there. And I guess that
- 2:42Speaker 1: kind of you know, played a role in my life
- 2:44Speaker 1: later on when I was decided onto the real direction
- 2:47Speaker 1: that I wanted to go in on my true passion. Um.
- 2:50Speaker 1: So it was all about like that that foundation with
- 2:53Speaker 1: mom and grandmother of like hospitality and food. Mom showing
- 2:56Speaker 1: me around the kitchen, my mom giving me my first cookbook.
- 2:59Speaker 1: That's probably like the age of Pano eleven. I don't
- 3:01Speaker 1: remember the exact time period. Um. What the question that
- 3:05Speaker 1: will pop out is that you said, it's just nine,
- 3:08Speaker 1: Why didn't you immediately go into that direction? Why did
- 3:11Speaker 1: you go to oh man? Um, you know it was.
- 3:15Speaker 1: It was kind of like, you know, the reality is, um,
- 3:19Speaker 1: you know, my mom and my dad wanted me to
- 3:21Speaker 1: go to college. Was the first person in my family
- 3:25Speaker 1: to go to college. And we're talking about extended family too. Um.
- 3:30Speaker 1: And so their mission wants to make sure that I,
- 3:33Speaker 1: you know, get an education, also get a degree that
- 3:36Speaker 1: is gonna send me in the path that they thought
- 3:39Speaker 1: and believe it's going to be great for me, and
- 3:41Speaker 1: you know, become a doctor, become a lawyer, become a
- 3:43Speaker 1: sports agent or something that dictated high paying, well all
- 3:49Speaker 1: established job with benefits, etcetera. So, um, their mission was
- 3:53Speaker 1: just point me in the right direction. And cooking was
- 3:56Speaker 1: definitely not the direction they assumed that I should be going,
- 4:00Speaker 1: because that's gonna be real. You know, you've got a
- 4:02Speaker 1: lot of cooks out there, but don't have a lot
- 4:03Speaker 1: of chiefs of color out there exactly. And in the
- 4:07Speaker 1: reality is, you know, um, the pot in their world
- 4:10Speaker 1: is a very hard world. I mean, you're working, you know,
- 4:12Speaker 1: thirteen fourteen hours a day, um, not getting paid the
- 4:16Speaker 1: highest wages and um, you know, dollar for dollar per hour,
- 4:20Speaker 1: you're definitely working way more than most doctors and most
- 4:22Speaker 1: lawyers for you know, far less. So they saw, you know,
- 4:26Speaker 1: me going to college as a as a better direction
- 4:31Speaker 1: for me, and they definitely encouraged me, like, you know,
- 4:33Speaker 1: follow my dreams and everything, like cook, enjoy it still,
- 4:36Speaker 1: become a doctor and then one day you can own
- 4:37Speaker 1: your own restaurant while you're a doctor. Kind of thing.
- 4:40Speaker 1: Now with Florida having a good time, that's big football, powerhouse,
- 4:45Speaker 1: basketball house. So you so you then the cooking really
- 4:50Speaker 1: is what you want to do. You you've satisfied their expectations,
- 4:53Speaker 1: their dreams. I always tell people, you can't report degree.
- 4:56Speaker 1: So I love it. I love the fact my degree
- 4:58Speaker 1: is a mathematics You can't they coming and go, you
- 5:00Speaker 1: know something, that degree after, we're gonna take that degree, after,
- 5:03Speaker 1: we're gonna take the way from No, you can't do that,
- 5:05Speaker 1: you can't do it. Why don't that degree? Here's that wall?
- 5:07Speaker 1: And you say, I'm out. We're good. We're good. Okay,
- 5:10Speaker 1: I don't care what that college loan is. We're good,
- 5:12Speaker 1: we're good. And so so the beauty of what you
- 5:15Speaker 1: at right now is that I love this conversation because
- 5:19Speaker 1: it talks about defining your path. It talks about understanding
- 5:23Speaker 1: that I can, I can accomplish many things, but all
- 5:27Speaker 1: those are things that I really want to do, and
- 5:29Speaker 1: so cooking is what you really wanted to do. And
- 5:32Speaker 1: so I always here's the thing that we want to
- 5:34Speaker 1: talk about, because climbing the ladder to be a chef, humbleness,
- 5:39Speaker 1: low pay long ourls again, homeleness. You know, sometimes you're
- 5:45Speaker 1: being bullied because people have power over you and you
- 5:48Speaker 1: have to be able to navigate that. And then you're
- 5:50Speaker 1: a person of color, so there's a lot of questions.
- 5:53Speaker 1: Then you stigmatize. Yeah, you stigmatize, you know what, especially
- 5:57Speaker 1: if you want to go outside of what they think
- 5:59Speaker 1: you can you you know what I'm saying. So, so
- 6:02Speaker 1: just talk about that journey a little bit there. Yeah,
- 6:05Speaker 1: I mean it was a it was a it was
- 6:06Speaker 1: a hard, very strenuous, humbling journey. You know. I ended
- 6:11Speaker 1: up going to culinary school UM after graduating from the
- 6:14Speaker 1: University of Florida. So I was a little bit older
- 6:16Speaker 1: than most people in culinary school. I think it was
- 6:19Speaker 1: like twenty five years old. UM, so, so I'm looking
- 6:22Speaker 1: like an elder compared to seventeen year old. UM. But
- 6:26Speaker 1: I was extremely focused and and I realized, like in
- 6:28Speaker 1: culinary school that was a reality check, you know. It
- 6:31Speaker 1: was we probably had ten percent of people of color there,
- 6:35Speaker 1: and out of that ten percent, probably five percent graduated.
- 6:39Speaker 1: Of that five percent that graduated, two percent ended up
- 6:43Speaker 1: finding a decent job. And out of that two percent
- 6:47Speaker 1: you got me the one percent that is still remaining
- 6:49Speaker 1: that I know of. Um. And so that was pretty
- 6:52Speaker 1: much my my journey in my path because as I
- 6:55Speaker 1: ended up going, you know, to get you know, distinguished
- 6:59Speaker 1: jobs that distinguished locations. I ended up becoming an intern
- 7:02Speaker 1: or apprenticeship at the French Laundry and Napple Valley, you know,
- 7:06Speaker 1: one of the most prestigious restaurants in the in the
- 7:08Speaker 1: in the world, I should say, but definitely in this country. UM.
- 7:12Speaker 1: You know, that was that was that was the stepping
- 7:14Speaker 1: stone to my career. But at that at the same
- 7:16Speaker 1: time I realized that, you know, I was again of
- 7:21Speaker 1: that organization. You know, it wasn't many people of color there.
- 7:25Speaker 1: And as I progressed in my career, you know, I
- 7:27Speaker 1: had to humble myself more because I was in the
- 7:29Speaker 1: fine dining world. And as you move up in that
- 7:32Speaker 1: ladder of cuisine, the style of cuisine, you know, the
- 7:35Speaker 1: level of restaurants you realize that that precentage trinkles down
- 7:42Speaker 1: more and more with people of color, women, minorities of etcetera. Um.
- 7:47Speaker 1: And the reality check was that, you know, it was
- 7:50Speaker 1: a white chef's world for me, I was running them.
- 7:53Speaker 1: And that's a that's an honest statement to talk about,
- 7:55Speaker 1: you know, not not because you know, because of the
- 7:57Speaker 1: fact that the reality is is the we don't know
- 8:00Speaker 1: what goes on behind closed doors, and that's what can't
- 8:04Speaker 1: you go. You see, you see food being brought out,
- 8:06Speaker 1: and even then people complaining. And sometimes that's when a
- 8:10Speaker 1: lot of for some reason, chiefs always come to my table.
- 8:12Speaker 1: You know, I guess because I just love food. They
- 8:14Speaker 1: go like, is your meal good? Go? Yes, it's fine, fine,
- 8:18Speaker 1: and I will send food back now if I don't
- 8:21Speaker 1: like it, I said, hey, dude, I'm sorry, it's just
- 8:22Speaker 1: not working for me. To not work for me, absolutely absolutely.
- 8:28Speaker 1: Now let's talk about because I wanted to get that
- 8:30Speaker 1: part of the story out, that part of the journey out,
- 8:33Speaker 1: because we want to talk about the uniqueness of your
- 8:36Speaker 1: success story. And then it continues to grow. Explain everybody
- 8:40Speaker 1: the James Beard Award, oh man, so you know, think
- 8:45Speaker 1: about the Emmys and the oscars UM and the James
- 8:48Speaker 1: Beard is just as equal for the culinary world UM
- 8:52Speaker 1: as those prestigious awards. UM. It's the foundation one started,
- 8:57Speaker 1: you know, to recognize culinary arts, world chefs, restaurant tours, um,
- 9:03Speaker 1: industry movements and shakers by distinguishing them with once a
- 9:08Speaker 1: year honoring the best of the best. And you know,
- 9:12Speaker 1: I'm I can say I'm fairly blessed with the fact.
- 9:15Speaker 1: Come talk to tell us what you got man to
- 9:22Speaker 1: with two distinguished awards in one year, which is unheard of,
- 9:26Speaker 1: you know, for one, for one minority to UM achieved
- 9:30Speaker 1: that award in one year, it's it's a feat on
- 9:32Speaker 1: his own. But to to achieve two recognitions for Best
- 9:37Speaker 1: Chefs UM Northwest and Best New Restaurant in the Country
- 9:41Speaker 1: James for um Um June Baby, it's you know that
- 9:46Speaker 1: which is mind blowing. It was out of the universe.
- 9:48Speaker 1: It was unheard of, you know, the first time that
- 9:50Speaker 1: ever has happened. You know, I have a lot of
- 9:53Speaker 1: I have a lot of first in my in my
- 9:55Speaker 1: in my career, and I and I strived and pride
- 9:57Speaker 1: myself on being first. I was the first black chefs
- 10:00Speaker 1: ever to grate the cover of Food and Wine Magazine
- 10:03Speaker 1: as Bestial Chefs two thousand and sixteen. You know that
- 10:07Speaker 1: that's that's pretty huge. You think about at least some
- 10:10Speaker 1: of the culinary um dignitaries that have have walked walked
- 10:14Speaker 1: around here you go. You know, you got Marcus Samuson Clark.
- 10:17Speaker 1: You know, you've got some very distinguished life chefs that
- 10:21Speaker 1: have done great things that have not ever made it
- 10:24Speaker 1: to that cover of that magazine. And that's that's now.
- 10:27Speaker 1: That was a big honer. And that was a big,
- 10:29Speaker 1: big piece in the start of of of people recognizing
- 10:32Speaker 1: and and and realizing the talent that I had. How
- 10:36Speaker 1: many restaurants you are right now? How many restaurants? I
- 10:38Speaker 1: have three restaurants, um and My first restaurant was opened
- 10:42Speaker 1: four years ago in the name of its Solari Restaurants
- 10:45Speaker 1: um and and the significance about Salaria Restaurant it was
- 10:49Speaker 1: um As an African American, you know, people expected and
- 10:53Speaker 1: assumed that I was going to open eight particular restaurants,
- 10:57Speaker 1: uh and and And that was a misconception because you know,
- 11:02Speaker 1: I I am a culinary professional. I went to culinary school.
- 11:06Speaker 1: I trained with the best of the best. I've I've
- 11:09Speaker 1: worked in the same number of hours as some of
- 11:11Speaker 1: the best I've worked. I've put in the amount of
- 11:13Speaker 1: years I've cried, I bled, I've sweated, I stressed out.
- 11:17Speaker 1: I've done all of that. And the last thing I
- 11:19Speaker 1: needed someone to do is that make their own assumption
- 11:22Speaker 1: of send me down their own rabbit hole or the
- 11:24Speaker 1: pigeon picture, holding me into what they assumed. And so
- 11:28Speaker 1: I opened up Salary Restaurant to actually kind of flex
- 11:31Speaker 1: my culinary muscles. Because I'm trained in French cuisine, I've
- 11:36Speaker 1: studied a tight cuisine. I have a Southern background. I
- 11:39Speaker 1: have a foundation that's better than most chefs because I
- 11:42Speaker 1: actually know how to taste in season because I come
- 11:44Speaker 1: from Southern Southern dialect, you know. So it's very, very
- 11:52Speaker 1: very important for me to actually express who I was
- 11:55Speaker 1: as a culinary professional, as a chef, and not necessarily
- 11:58Speaker 1: a chef of color. You know, that came came in
- 12:01Speaker 1: through the time that was coming in due times. I
- 12:03Speaker 1: should say um and so um. Salary Restaurant, my first
- 12:08Speaker 1: restaurant was hold that thought, right quick, We're gonna go
- 12:10Speaker 1: to the next We're gonna go to the break water,
- 12:12Speaker 1: and we're gonna talk about the next two restaurants. We're
- 12:14Speaker 1: gonna save June Baby for lads. Okay, we're gonna bring
- 12:16Speaker 1: it back and talk about that third restaurant, but June
- 12:19Speaker 1: Baby is gonna be the restaurant. I'm coming up to
- 12:21Speaker 1: Seattle to visit you for Okay, be right back with
- 12:25Speaker 1: more money making conversations. My maid, James Beard, the cover
- 12:31Speaker 1: culinary Jane. Yes, Hi, this is Roshan mcdownald. You're listening
- 12:39Speaker 1: to money making conversations, my guests. We we I was speaking.
- 12:43Speaker 1: I've been speaking to is the owner executive chef of
- 12:46Speaker 1: several very popping three in particular in the Seattle area. Um,
- 12:52Speaker 1: we've been speaking about this history. We've been speaking about
- 12:54Speaker 1: this journey, about finding focused as to who he is today.
- 12:59Speaker 1: You know, as you go through life, people will have
- 13:01Speaker 1: a plan for you. And his plan from his parents
- 13:04Speaker 1: and from his relatives and his extended family was to
- 13:07Speaker 1: go to school. He did that business administration, sports management.
- 13:11Speaker 1: But along the way he realized that really wasn't where
- 13:14Speaker 1: his heart was at. Since nine years old, he had
- 13:16Speaker 1: been he had been invested in the food, the whole process,
- 13:20Speaker 1: and just watching and observing it. Twenty five years of age,
- 13:23Speaker 1: he went to colinary school, which is now led to
- 13:26Speaker 1: him having three restaurants, having a James being honored by
- 13:30Speaker 1: James Beard. Uh. This is really important because he's a
- 13:34Speaker 1: person of color. Please welcome back to the call, Eduardo
- 13:38Speaker 1: Jordan's thank you. Now let's talk about Lucienda Alias used
- 13:43Speaker 1: Cienda grain Bar. Let's talk about that, Yeah, bar, apologies.
- 13:49Speaker 1: It's my third restaurant. Uh, and it's an extension of
- 13:54Speaker 1: my first two restaurants. It is um my my pastry
- 13:59Speaker 1: kids in my commissary kitchen and also a full service
- 14:03Speaker 1: bar and restaurant. And um, we focused on ancient greens there. Um,
- 14:07Speaker 1: we're talking about like hind corn and spelled and burley
- 14:10Speaker 1: rights and various pseudo grains millet and yeah spelled starting
- 14:16Speaker 1: millet and sorghum, you know, things of that nature, very
- 14:20Speaker 1: old world grains. We're focused on, um serving there and
- 14:25Speaker 1: um and so now then then it leads us to
- 14:27Speaker 1: the third restaurant. June Baby, let's talk about the name.
- 14:31Speaker 1: Where did that the name of the restaurant? When we
- 14:33Speaker 1: get into the men, let's talk about that first. Yeah, totally,
- 14:36Speaker 1: I mean, Jim Baby, it's it's my dad's that's my
- 14:39Speaker 1: dad's nickname, that was his childhood nickname. Um, he'll run
- 14:43Speaker 1: through the streets and you know you'll you'll hear from
- 14:46Speaker 1: stories I've been told. You know they're yells him jew Baby,
- 14:49Speaker 1: come on back. If that ain't South, if that ain't South,
- 14:55Speaker 1: I'll tell you how over here there you go. Were
- 15:00Speaker 1: gonna leave you to We're gonna leave some words out
- 15:02Speaker 1: when he was late, Joe. You don't get Joe exactly.
- 15:08Speaker 1: So you know, I really wanted to have a restaurant
- 15:12Speaker 1: that represented, um, my family, my history, my culture, my dad.
- 15:16Speaker 1: I really talked about my dad when I talked about flu.
- 15:19Speaker 1: But my dad has played a very intimate party and um,
- 15:22Speaker 1: you know, teaching me how to cook and I was
- 15:24Speaker 1: outside clicking over fire and smoking meats and um, butchering um.
- 15:29Speaker 1: And so you know, I wanted to pay homage to
- 15:31Speaker 1: him when I created June Baby Restaurant, which is um
- 15:36Speaker 1: more tells the culinary story of my grandma and my mom. Um.
- 15:40Speaker 1: But the name it comes from my father. Awesome. Awesome. Now, yeah,
- 15:46Speaker 1: I'm always you know, the question is always sent to
- 15:49Speaker 1: me for the interview, but I always do extra, always
- 15:52Speaker 1: trying to really personalize my approach, and so I went
- 15:55Speaker 1: on lie and I went to his social media, and
- 15:57Speaker 1: I saw some pig feet you see. Okay, now now
- 16:05Speaker 1: you're hitting home with no food that I grew up
- 16:09Speaker 1: with and so so. But then three like so he
- 16:14Speaker 1: wasn't scared, uh not at bringing back and bringing back memories.
- 16:20Speaker 1: So I'm let me talk a little bit. Let me
- 16:22Speaker 1: talk a little bit about June Baby first. So when
- 16:27Speaker 1: I opened up June Baby, people people thought that was
- 16:30Speaker 1: the restaurant that I should have opened up first, But
- 16:33Speaker 1: I opened up so Lauri, what made me open up
- 16:36Speaker 1: a second restaurant second restaurant, which was June Baby, was
- 16:39Speaker 1: actually a business decision and not not a desire to
- 16:42Speaker 1: actually showcase my cuisine, my food, my culture. Um. But
- 16:47Speaker 1: when I came to the conclusion that I'm going to
- 16:49Speaker 1: open up a restaurant, a second restaurant focused on my
- 16:53Speaker 1: Southern background, um, something really struck me. And the fact
- 16:57Speaker 1: that like southern food, what's the cool thing now? Like
- 17:00Speaker 1: it was trending, everyone's like craving southern food. And when
- 17:03Speaker 1: I looked at all the culinary folks out there serving
- 17:08Speaker 1: color uh southern foods, nine seven percent of them were white. Chefs.
- 17:13Speaker 1: And it struck my heart and struck my soul that
- 17:16Speaker 1: there wasn't many restaurants of the calibery restaurants that I
- 17:20Speaker 1: wanted to create that was ran playing and and and
- 17:24Speaker 1: organized by a chef of color and hold by a
- 17:27Speaker 1: cheffer's color. Because a chef of color cuisine is a
- 17:31Speaker 1: lot different than a cheffil no color cuisine. And so
- 17:35Speaker 1: there's a story that I needed to tell about Southern foods.
- 17:39Speaker 1: But so food from my perspective, and brother, you have
- 17:44Speaker 1: you are telling that story. Let me just I'm gonna
- 17:46Speaker 1: just rattle off some of the items that we're gonna
- 17:48Speaker 1: go back in detail in his menu. Port Crackling grew
- 17:53Speaker 1: up on that. Crackling grew up on that. Then he
- 17:56Speaker 1: got chicken gethers. I've never seen chicken garges anywhere. Chicken
- 18:00Speaker 1: gets him right there. Okay, okay. Then he goes to
- 18:03Speaker 1: traditional oxtail and brisk and bricks, risk is stew, got that,
- 18:07Speaker 1: got that fried catfish. You know you got something keep
- 18:09Speaker 1: you keep, you keep your stable just because you're not
- 18:11Speaker 1: ready for everything there. Then he comes on down to
- 18:13Speaker 1: College Greens. He got your stable there right there. Ben
- 18:16Speaker 1: Ya's now the Bens gotta be right. Now, I'm all
- 18:21Speaker 1: this bore the Ben's gotta be right. Then you go
- 18:24Speaker 1: on the next page of oxtails again, you know Mama
- 18:27Speaker 1: Jordan's oxtails smoked turkey hog mall. Now, yes, sir, I'm
- 18:33Speaker 1: tell you some brother. But what you know about what
- 18:36Speaker 1: do you know? You know you might be faking them
- 18:38Speaker 1: out up there. That's why I'm coming up there. You
- 18:41Speaker 1: might be selling up some bad hog. Mom. You know,
- 18:43Speaker 1: some home maid hog, some hog. Did you think it's
- 18:46Speaker 1: a hog? Mall? When we show down come up to Seattle,
- 18:50Speaker 1: I'm gonna tell you if your hug mom is right,
- 18:53Speaker 1: tell you a little something something brother's a hog more
- 18:57Speaker 1: And then all of a sudden, we scared me that
- 19:00Speaker 1: when I saw chiding chiplings, baby, that is that is
- 19:05Speaker 1: the story of June. Baby man, it's it's food that
- 19:08Speaker 1: I grew up on. Um. We ain't a lot of
- 19:10Speaker 1: chipling's in my in my household, not in my mom,
- 19:13Speaker 1: my grand My mom atee chipless, but my grandmother and
- 19:16Speaker 1: my dad, you know, chipling was the thing. And I
- 19:18Speaker 1: grew up on a lot of chipman's, and I strayed
- 19:20Speaker 1: away from chiplings and telling the story of children's for
- 19:22Speaker 1: many years because I had like an incident in school.
- 19:24Speaker 1: I told someone what I ate and they found it
- 19:27Speaker 1: up and made made fun of me and talk bad
- 19:29Speaker 1: about like my food. And I literally like to stop
- 19:32Speaker 1: talking about my my history. And now I have an
- 19:36Speaker 1: outlet to tell people the story and studdn food what
- 19:39Speaker 1: I grew up on the reality is the good and
- 19:41Speaker 1: bad of so food, sun food, Southern ingredients, and and
- 19:46Speaker 1: it's a beautiful thing. Now you know, I'm able to
- 19:49Speaker 1: express myself truly, and you're expressing it in a very
- 19:52Speaker 1: tasteful culinary way because like I said, you know, I
- 19:56Speaker 1: go so food places to get to chipling's. Okay, now
- 20:00Speaker 1: do you put you bring it out serving with white rice?
- 20:03Speaker 1: I do, hossa, David, we make out. We make Oh
- 20:11Speaker 1: you scam and gotta have that, yes, and we we
- 20:17Speaker 1: were the real deal. We're so far away from the South.
- 20:20Speaker 1: You you you got me here and telling my story
- 20:23Speaker 1: and and people question also like my Southern background because
- 20:27Speaker 1: I'm from Florida. They're like, boy, that's not the South.
- 20:29Speaker 1: Don't let me tell you something. Man. You know how
- 20:30Speaker 1: many people migrated just to escape the South, and their
- 20:33Speaker 1: story is still being cold everywhere. You know, we got
- 20:36Speaker 1: we got Southerners from Georgia that go all the way
- 20:38Speaker 1: to Texas. You got southerns from from North Carolina to
- 20:41Speaker 1: go down to New Orleans and Louisiana. So the migration
- 20:45Speaker 1: is real. And so I'm almost something of that migrated
- 20:48Speaker 1: all the way to Seattle, and I'm still able to
- 20:49Speaker 1: tell my story. So it makes me feel good that
- 20:52Speaker 1: I'm able to educate people here in Seattle and also
- 20:54Speaker 1: give people who are traveling some some comfort, something some
- 20:59Speaker 1: from my some some comics. You know, it's really it's
- 21:02Speaker 1: really great. Just hearing the food selection. It's really bad.
- 21:06Speaker 1: I'm just fantasizing because you're you're taking me back to
- 21:08Speaker 1: my childhood because of the fact that, again, these are
- 21:11Speaker 1: selections that are rare in a in a in a
- 21:13Speaker 1: restaurant if you go to definitely a restaurant in my caliber,
- 21:17Speaker 1: absolutely unheard of. First of all, let's unheard of. Let's
- 21:20Speaker 1: gonna put it be there. But like I said, when
- 21:22Speaker 1: he got deserted to y'all, because I'm a dessert I'm
- 21:25Speaker 1: a dessert nut. He got the apple peach ice cream sandwich.
- 21:29Speaker 1: He got the peach and blueberry blueberries, I'm gonna tell
- 21:32Speaker 1: you something, man. So you got me a blueberry right there.
- 21:36Speaker 1: My dad used to take me out man, and we
- 21:38Speaker 1: used to go pool blueberries and come on that we
- 21:41Speaker 1: go out there, pick up. If you watch that snake
- 21:43Speaker 1: over the board, don't go over there. Snake spit over there,
- 21:46Speaker 1: don't go over there. He's gonna gonna get bit. You know,
- 21:50Speaker 1: you know what I'm talking about. You know, you know,
- 21:53Speaker 1: to think about the process. It feels like when I
- 21:55Speaker 1: when I talk about your story, I talk about the restaurant.
- 21:58Speaker 1: I talked about the experience. Do you get a lot
- 22:00Speaker 1: of that from your customers who come into your restaurant? Um?
- 22:05Speaker 1: We do? I do? I UM you know, I get
- 22:07Speaker 1: people that have migrated from the South and they live
- 22:10Speaker 1: here in Seattle, and and they just they're they're over
- 22:13Speaker 1: the top. I've had people with tears and the us
- 22:15Speaker 1: saying how they remember their auntie, their grandma and mom
- 22:18Speaker 1: and the last time they had a sweet potato pot
- 22:21Speaker 1: like this. It was like, you know, the last time
- 22:23Speaker 1: they saw their grandma, um and and and and it's
- 22:26Speaker 1: it's it's that's the kind of hospitality I wouldn't give.
- 22:29Speaker 1: I want to make you feel like you're in my
- 22:31Speaker 1: home and you you're actually eating eating at my table,
- 22:35Speaker 1: you know, and these are actually my table. So I
- 22:36Speaker 1: just want this to be extension of my home. So yeah,
- 22:39Speaker 1: we get that, you know. I also had to educate
- 22:42Speaker 1: a lot of people about the food because people have
- 22:44Speaker 1: their misconception of what Southern food and so food was
- 22:47Speaker 1: as of you know, one meet and three size and
- 22:50Speaker 1: dropped on the trade. And that's not the truth. You know.
- 22:54Speaker 1: That's so much more to it, the truth. I'm gonna
- 22:56Speaker 1: tell you something, you know. I'm gonna start out. I
- 22:58Speaker 1: love cornbrea. I'm I'm sure you're serving it warm. So
- 23:01Speaker 1: I'm gonna start out with my cast i flint corn bread.
- 23:04Speaker 1: I got gotta start out with that right there. I
- 23:07Speaker 1: gotta roll into the gizze. It's okay. And I'm also
- 23:09Speaker 1: telling this. I'm gonna tell you this, tell you this
- 23:11Speaker 1: about me. I always eat my dessert first. So I'm
- 23:13Speaker 1: gonna get those beans. I'm gonna get those Benyer's up front.
- 23:15Speaker 1: I'm get those beaniers up front. Okay, I'm gonna get
- 23:18Speaker 1: the bean years up front. And I'm gonna grab that
- 23:20Speaker 1: peach and blueberry Betty, get that up front. We're gonna
- 23:24Speaker 1: be rocking and rolling right there then, because I'm I'm
- 23:26Speaker 1: a sampler, so you know, you see me, you know,
- 23:29Speaker 1: you go, how do you eat all that food? But
- 23:32Speaker 1: but I'm I'm I'm I'm gonna take care of this, okay,
- 23:35Speaker 1: And I gotta get the childlings and the rice and
- 23:37Speaker 1: the white rice. You always got the corn breads, so
- 23:39Speaker 1: you're just gonna drop that. You're gonna drop me some
- 23:41Speaker 1: old corn breads. And then you always got the collar greens.
- 23:44Speaker 1: Gonna get that mac and cheese, that mac and cheese.
- 23:46Speaker 1: And see what I forgot to mention about the collar greens.
- 23:49Speaker 1: It comes with hamhocks. Yeah, we're ham hocks. See see,
- 23:55Speaker 1: I'm just throwing out I'm just throwing out a little
- 23:57Speaker 1: a little extra love to this menu because just let
- 24:00Speaker 1: him know I got the menu. Just letting you know.
- 24:03Speaker 1: At war though I printed out this menu, I came
- 24:07Speaker 1: in here and let you know I love what you do.
- 24:10Speaker 1: Keep doing what you're doing. You will see me this year. Uh,
- 24:14Speaker 1: Samantha will reach out to you. Gonna it's gonna be
- 24:16Speaker 1: on the weekend. I'm gonna come up there. We're gonna
- 24:19Speaker 1: have a good time. We're gonna laugh man, and uh,
- 24:21Speaker 1: I'm gonna eat and we're gonna tell stories, and I'm
- 24:23Speaker 1: gonna support your bread and congratulations for packing glass ceiling
- 24:27Speaker 1: and uh and I'm gonna keep supporting you man. And
- 24:30Speaker 1: you've got something going on that special and you are
- 24:32Speaker 1: very special. Thank you for doing my show, Money making Conversations.