August 1, 2025 • 23 mins
She is the First Female Iron Chef, and a Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award winner, Cat Cora sits down at Luke’s Diner this week!
She’s cooked for the Obama’s but hear her surprising answer to who she thinks is the pickiest eater…
Plus, the classic comfort food she would order at Luke’s Diner.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
I am all in again.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
How lets you.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
Luke's Diner with Scott Patterson an iHeartRadio podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Hey everybody, Scott Patterson, I Am all in podcast one
on one interview Luke's Diner with Kat Cora.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
If you have not heard of Cat.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Cora, you are living under a rock.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
She is.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
One of the great chefs in the world. Celebrated, world
renown chef, author, restaurant or, television host, phil philanthropist, and
a proud mother of six. Jackson, Mississippi native who graduated
from the CIA What No the Colony Institut Culinary Institute
(00:59):
of America and went on to cook at two, not
just one, but two three star restaurants in France. Was
crowned the first female Iron Chef and was also the
first female inducted into the Culinary Hall of Fame. She
pioneered the Food Network and broke the glass ceiling in
(01:21):
the culinary industry. Cat is Greek American. She trailblazes in
Mediterranean food space. She has opened more than eighteen restaurants
across the United States. It's unbelievable what this woman has
done and she's basically just getting started. She just told me,
I'm just getting started. This is like, you know, this
isn't even chapter one yet. What are we doing here?
(01:42):
She's got a platform for health, wellness, sustainability outside the kitchen.
She's the president founder of Chefs with Humanity, a nonprofit
dedicated reducing worldwide hunger. Let's just welcome her cat. You
also received a Lifetime Achievement Award and a Volunteer Service
Award from President Barack Obama. To say that you're accomplished
(02:06):
is an understatement. Welcome to Luke Steiner.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
Thanks, I'm so happy to be in Luke Steiner.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
How you doing, man, I'm doing great. We're just rocking
and rolling in here.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
There is lots of stuff.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Going on being made, meals being served. You made history
as the first female Iron Chef. How did that opportunity
come about and what it was and mean to you?
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (02:29):
I mean well it was literally it was really a
tipping point for my career. I was already on Fee
Network since nineteen ninety nine. I was doing various shows.
My first show was Worth Baracko to Spirito Melting Pot,
and then we just continued creating shows and it was
with I just created shows with Free Network, and then
one day they came to me and said, hey, you
have television chops, you got the street cred. You know,
(02:54):
we want to do this show called Iron Chef America.
We want to bring it from Japan. We have the
rights to it. Would you want to be the first
female Iron Chef? And I said yes before I even
knew what it entailed, because I didn't care. It just
sounded really cool. It sounded big, so I was like, absolutely,
I'd love to. What do I you know, where do
we start? How do we start? And that was really
(03:16):
how it happened. I was on my first first book
tour in New York. I was walking around New York.
I was actually just walking out of the Today Show
at Rockefeller Center and I got the call from the
executive producer and I was just thrilled. I think we
met like a few hours later, and it was going
so fast. It was like just a freight train, you know,
they were already rolling and we were about to start,
(03:38):
and I think I had two weeks to prepare and
get going. Wow, it was amazing. It's just one of
those amazing tipping point, those moments where all the planets aligned,
and you know, we have those rare moments in our
career where we're not chasing something, it just comes to
us and God just brings it to you and says,
here you go, I'm giving you something pretty magical. And
(04:00):
it was and it was a great opportunity for me
to to inspire a lot of young chefs, especially females,
a lot of females around the world. It got me
got it was a chance for me to break a
glass ceiling and show that, you know, never we were
the first cooking you know, competitive cooking show on tea
television of any kind, and so we really broke that
(04:22):
glass ceiling as well, and for cooking shows for all
the shows to come, Master Chef, Top Chef, all of them,
and so, you know, it was a pretty amazing time.
It was such a heady time for all of us
and the four of us that started as Iron chefs,
and it was awesome. I mean, it was just a
great time. I mean, you know, when you're walking, you know,
people see you and you're in so and they're so
(04:44):
inspired to cook. But also it was a chance for
me to for the first time ever to show that
women could cook as fast and hard and take the
heat like men could in kitchens and that had never
been done before. So that was pretty amazing aspect of it.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
How did you first get inspired to become a chef
in the first place? I mean, and when did you
know it could be more than just a hobby.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
Well, you know, I always loved to cook. I mean
I was thrown into the kitchen early in my career.
I mean in my life, I mean really young. I mean, well,
I have pictures of me doing I always loved to
do tea parties. That was my thing when I was
really little, and so I always baked and we set
the whole thing up and I would have everybody, you know,
the whole family had to participate. I can imagine everybody's
(05:31):
you know, stop work to come and you know, participate
in a or whatever you were doing. But they were game.
Everybody supported, everybody was cool, and so you know, I
just always loved that. And I was always in the
kitchen with my mom being Greek American and from the South,
having two really incredibly strong food cultures around me, being
Greek Orthodox, so we went to Greek church. We you know,
(05:55):
everybody in our community was Greek and so and in
the South, the first white tablecloth restaurants were from Italian
and Greek immigrants. I mean, those are the ones, those
are the people who started white tablecloth dining in the South.
And so it was pretty amazing to see all of these.
Every great restaurant in Jackson was run by people I
(06:18):
saw at church every Sunday, so it was all of
our friends and it was pretty amazing. And then we
always had these big, you know, church barbecues and things.
So cooking was always My dad was a grill meister.
He showed me how to smoke meats, marinate meats, dry
you do dry rubs, and you know, grill properly. And
(06:38):
so that was, you know, from the very as long
as I can remember, I was outside grilling with my dad,
my mom, and grandmother. My mom was an Air Force brat,
so they lived all over the world, Tokyo, Honolulu, all
over the country, and so they had a very what
we call very global, you know palette. They had a
lot of you know, incredible recipes that global up their sleeve,
(07:01):
whether it was strawg and off or sweet and sour
pork or you know whatever, lasagna, amazing lavangna, you know,
just great Italian Greek kind of just global type dishes.
And that was served a lot in our house along
with Greek food. So I really grew up in a
very you know, amazing you know, really being in the
(07:26):
Deep South. You know, when my other friends were having
fried okra and you know that, you know, the fried
catfish on the table, which we ate too, by the way,
I love Southern food and barbecue, but we were having
steamed artichokes with lemon and extra virgin olive oil in
our house, so, you know, or sue blackie or spina
copada or grape leaves, you know, things like that. So
(07:50):
it was really that's where I really, I think began.
My grandfather had restaurants. He was an immigrant that came
through Ellis Island and settled in the South. He had restaurants.
My godfather had restaurants when I was growing up. So
it was just in my dna I really got.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
But speaking of that, you went on to open restaurants
all over the world. What's been your favorite project so far?
Speaker 2 (08:16):
Why?
Speaker 3 (08:17):
Oh, you know, I have to say opening. What I've
done is really opened in a lot of partner with
a lot of partners that have restaurants. You know, we
have restaurants, airport restaurants, stadium restaurants, restaurants on university camp campuses,
corporate restaurants, I've had standalone restaurants. I've had a restaurant
(08:38):
in Singapore, which that probably I have to say, just
because I got to go to Singapore in Southeast Asia.
A lot was probably one of my favorites. And it
was very had a very per se, you know, kind
of French laundry. It was very very high end and
it was exactly what you expect in a restaurant in
(08:58):
Singapore and in a venue such as that I had.
So I think that that was probably one of my
very favorites. But you know, I just they're all my babies,
you know, whether it's an airport restaurant, a corporate restaurant,
a standalone I mean, so I've had very I've pretty
much done almost every iteration you can think of of
airport of restaurants.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
How do you balance business and food? Are there times
when you feel more administrative than a classic show? I mean,
just pile up on you O the business.
Speaker 3 (09:39):
Stuff sometimes, you know, I mean I have you know,
a great team around me too that help, and that's
really that's very helpful. But I'm very hands on with
all of it. So I like to I like to
look at contracts. I like to I like to create concepts.
I like to visualize and conceptual life things. I'm very
(10:02):
much an artist in that and also a business woman,
and you know, with my craft. So I think it's
you know, it's left brain, right brain. You know. I
love all that and stimulates me. It helps me grow,
it helps me evolve, It helps me become a better
business woman. And I understand my businesses. So there's not
a business that I'm going, wait, what do we what
(10:22):
are the financials or what did that contract say. I'm
in pretty hands on and I think you have to
be in this day and age, you really have to
know your businesses. But it is it does take a
little village. And so I have a small orbit. I
have an incredible small orbit of a team that I
trust implicitly and balancing it. It's really just having to
(10:47):
you know, you have to be very versatile, You have
to be very you have to be able to multitask,
which chefs are great at. By the way, we have
to do the restaurants every day anyway, So we learned
very quickly how to multitask and balance it and I
love that. That's why I was never a chef that
was just going to be very linear. I knew that
I loved having a lot of balls in the air,
(11:09):
and I love that feeling. And that's a little bit
of an adrenaline rush. It's it's exciting. You never know
when you open your email or you get a text
of what's going to be next, and so it's very
it's very exciting, and yes, it's very it can be
very stressful at times, and you have to That's why
I work out, I meditate, I do other things to
counteract that. And then you know, listen, I thought it
(11:33):
was more stressful being in a restaurant day to day
and having to be do you know when you're an
executive chef in one restaurant, you're still busy because you're
doing scheduling, you're doing you're dealing with vendors, you're dealing
with so it's a you know, either way, I think
that if you do what you love, you you enjoy
(11:53):
that part. Although it can be stressful in some days
you're like, oh my gosh, what's happening. How I got
to get the through this? And you do, you know,
you get on the other side of it. But I
can tell you what's more stressful. It's six teenage sons driving.
Nothing's more stressful than that.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
You had all boys, all boys.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
Oh wow, blended family, all boys. They're amazing young men,
and they just blow me away there. I'm in all
every day.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
That's what they do.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
And I'll tell you that that gen the generation coming up.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
Man.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
They are smart. Yeah, in all kinds of ways. So yeah, yeah,
pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
Let's talk about the charitable side of what you're doing.
You launch Chefs for Humanity in the waker Hurricane Katrina.
What made you do that?
Speaker 3 (12:43):
Actually I launched it before that in twenty fourteen in
the tsunami when we had the tsunami that hit Thailand,
Fuquet and so that was when things is kind of
you know, everybody was you know, that was such a
tragic I mean, if anybody remembers that, that was such
a tragic, tragic moment, and I think that, uh, you know,
(13:07):
we were still we were already we were just getting
all of you know, this is when we were getting
all the news feeds and social media with everything was
starting to happen, you know, and you were getting instantaneous information.
So a lot of chefs were calling me because they
knew I did a lot of charity work. I was
one of the leading chefs that was doing a lot
of charity work at the time, and a lot of
hunger initiatives and a lot of emergency feeding relief with
(13:30):
other organizations like World Food Program, International Red Cross and
care dot org things like that and charities like that.
So they started calling me. I was inundated with chefs
calling me. What can we do? What can we go?
Where can we go? What can we do? How can
we roll our sleeves up? And I realized that chefs
will write a check, but they also want to be
hands on and we can be the great thing about chefs.
(13:52):
And we're seeing that with a lot of my friends
now that you know Jusean Dress, Guy Fieri, a lot
of my friends that are doing and a lot of
incredible you know, they kind of took the torch and
you know, ran with it because we were one of
Chess for Humanity, was the first chef driven emergency feeding
relief at the time, and so I'm happy to see
(14:14):
them take the torch and run. But yeah, it's like
we are able to get in and the one thing
that people have to do and no matter what kind
of emergency or crisis or mother nature is, they have
to eat and they have to have shelter, and it's
in super basic, you know. And so that was one
of the areas that was important for me, and we
(14:36):
were there for her. We were set up by the
time Hurricane Katrina happen. Thankfully, We've been all over the
world and you know, we were there when hate that
earthquake happened in Haiti. We flew to Haiti. We were
there with many many of the other catastrophes that happened,
whether it was you know, in other areas we've done
you know, not only that, but just just hunger initiatives
(14:58):
in Guatemala, Ecuador, Theiopia and other places, so Mozambique. So
we've been around the world and I'm so proud that
we launched something that actually was a catalyst for many
other big you know arms to go out and continue
that work.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
Well, congratulations and all that you do and much needed.
So you've fed president's celebrities, your kids. Who's the pickiest
eater you've ever cooked for?
Speaker 3 (15:28):
Oh gosh, oh I have to I'm not sure, like
that's a that's a tough one. I'm trying to remember
everybody I've cooked for. I haven't run across. I mean,
obviously you have to. I think, you know when people say,
I get a lot of people saying how do I
get my kids to eat? And I always say, start
them as early as possible. So this isn't answering your question.
(15:49):
But I'm gonna come back around to that. I say,
start them as early as possible. And you know, one
of the ways you can get kids. And that's why
I started. One of the reasons I was got on
board with Little Kitchen Academy, it's because this is a
great you know, Little Kitchen Academy that we started with
Brian and Felicity uh Current is such an amazing project
(16:12):
for me. This is one of my love projects, you know,
that I got involved with because it's teaching kids how
to cook from scratch. It's teaching kids how to get
in the kitchen, and they're learning skills that they'll take
for the rest of their lives, whether it's stem, whether
it's you know, organizational skills, whether it's socialization skills, what
have you. And it's such an independence and so I
(16:38):
find that when you start kids in our school is
three year olds all the way to teens. And so
I find when you start kids young and you get
them involved with where does food come from? Let them
get involved with when I used to when my kids
were little, I used to say, Okay, here's two options
for dinner. We're gonna salmon her chicken at amami or broccoli.
You know, carrots are this? You know, and like it's
(17:00):
a five minute it's a two minute conversation, you know.
But it gives them, It gives them a little power,
and it gives them, you know, a little independence in
choosing what they're going to eat. And you know, we
I cook one thing, this is dinner, but we all
have a say in it. And I think that that
just gets kids. It gets kids excited to eat and
(17:22):
gives them a gives some investment in it. And so
I think that that's one of the way the ways
that I've helped people understand how to begin and get
them cooking, get them in the kitchen.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
And that's a little kitchen academy, Right, that's a little
kitchen academy.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:37):
Yeah. That we've been expanding not only all over the US,
but globally and we have one at Century City here
in Los Angeles is the one that's right down the
street from me. And I think that that's a really
big picky eaters. You know, when I cook for the Obamas,
they weren't picky. They loved whatever I cooked. When I
poked Royalty, they've you know, enjoyed it. So I don't.
(17:59):
I haven't. I really can't answer that because I haven't.
You know, I don't know all.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
What's your cooking style when no one's watching, you know,
your typical night in the kitchen at home? What are
you preparing?
Speaker 3 (18:10):
Oh, I mean it's real simple, like I prepare, like
we do tacos at home.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
We do.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
It's a lot of I eat very healthy. I eat
pretty healthy. So and my kids are really good. They're
all kind of you know, have learned through that is
eating healthier, even though we have our indulgences. Of course,
we love, you know, a great pizza night on Friday
nights or you know, pizza and movie nights, things like that.
But you know, it's real simple. It could just be
(18:39):
some you know tacos, great tacos where I just kind
of lay everything out, you know, girls, some chicken do
a little we do a little homemade walk together. That's
one of the things that kids love to make together
is big bowl of gualk and chips and you know,
just put all the fixens out and something like that.
It's like it's like a typical weeknight.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
Right right easy, and.
Speaker 3 (18:59):
Everybody customize so it's not there's no special it's not
a short order kind of situation where you know, I'm
taking your order. It's just everybody can make their own
and it's perfect. Right.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
And now you're part of something called cook Unity, making
healthy meals accessible nationwide.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
Tell us about that.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
Yeah, cook Comunity is a fantastic platform. I mean, there's
something on there for everybody, and I love we you know,
we joined it a year ago. We've been you know,
really working hard. It's probably something I've put a lot
more energy into lately than anything. And it's just an
amazing platform. I mean, and we cover every gamut of
(19:41):
every whether it's medically crafted meals, whether it's it's all
chef driven, it's all my friends are on the platform,
and I mean we really put our heart and soul
into the meals that we make, and a lot of
them are meals we've been making our whole career. Some
of them are restaurants, some of them are things that
we love to look at home that now our customers
(20:03):
get to have at home as well. And we just
put our heart and soul into it. It's a great
platform and everyone should be and it's affordable, so everyone
should be ordering from it. And there's any anything in
everything you want you can find.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
There, right, fantastic. Do you have a restaurant in La
I don't.
Speaker 3 (20:21):
I don't know in La not yet. I mean not yet, huh,
not yet, not you know. I mean I've consulted on
a couple of things here and you never know. I mean,
that's the beauty of this industry is that you just
never know. I mean we're you know, we've this industry
has grown so tremendously in a beautiful way that there's
(20:42):
so many avenues that you can be in and I
love that. That's exciting to me. Whether it's television, movies,
you know, whether it's you know, platforms where it's fresh
delivery or you know, what have you products things like that.
I mean, it's just exciting. It's an exciting time, you know,
in our industry.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
Well, we're down to the last segment. Here the last question,
and this is a big.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
Question.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
It's a huge question. All right, if you were to
come into Luke's diner, what would you order and where
would you sit? Cat Cora all.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
Right, Well, if I'm going to come into Luke's Diner,
I want to know how good your burger is. I
want to know how good you a diner. I'm going
to get some comfort food, so we're going to bring
it to all right, Okay, okay, all right, I want
some good burgers. I like my fries really crisp, yep,
me too nice and salt like sea salt on it.
(21:42):
You can cost a little you know, cracked pepper on
there too, Uh huh. Good ketch up? Not too sweet.
You know, it's got to be a certain brand right
where we just say you know what I love And
my kids when I say this, when I remember I'm
eating a fry, I always dip it in the ketchup
up and I always say, you know what, French fries
(22:03):
just a vehicle for the catch up. That's one of
my favorite sayings, just a vehicle for the catch up.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
It has been a delight. Thank you for your time.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
And amazing what.
Speaker 1 (22:21):
Cooking has done for your life and what you've given
back to the world a true inspiration and keep on
keeping on. Honor to talk to you.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
Thanks so much for having me on.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
Please come back and.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
Just be well and remember everybody, keep those cards and
letters coming. Best fans on the planet cat Correl, ladies
and gentlemen. Where you lead, we will follow. Stay safe everyone.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
Hey everybody, and don't forget.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
Follow us on Instagram at I Am all In podcast
and email us at Gilmore at iHeartRadio dot com.
I am all in again.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
How lets you.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
Luke's Diner with Scott Patterson an iHeartRadio podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Hey everybody, Scott Patterson, I Am all in podcast one
on one interview Luke's Diner with Kat Cora.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
If you have not heard of Cat.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Cora, you are living under a rock.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
She is.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
One of the great chefs in the world. Celebrated, world
renown chef, author, restaurant or, television host, phil philanthropist, and
a proud mother of six. Jackson, Mississippi native who graduated
from the CIA What No the Colony Institut Culinary Institute
(00:59):
of America and went on to cook at two, not
just one, but two three star restaurants in France. Was
crowned the first female Iron Chef and was also the
first female inducted into the Culinary Hall of Fame. She
pioneered the Food Network and broke the glass ceiling in
(01:21):
the culinary industry. Cat is Greek American. She trailblazes in
Mediterranean food space. She has opened more than eighteen restaurants
across the United States. It's unbelievable what this woman has
done and she's basically just getting started. She just told me,
I'm just getting started. This is like, you know, this
isn't even chapter one yet. What are we doing here?
(01:42):
She's got a platform for health, wellness, sustainability outside the kitchen.
She's the president founder of Chefs with Humanity, a nonprofit
dedicated reducing worldwide hunger. Let's just welcome her cat. You
also received a Lifetime Achievement Award and a Volunteer Service
Award from President Barack Obama. To say that you're accomplished
(02:06):
is an understatement. Welcome to Luke Steiner.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
Thanks, I'm so happy to be in Luke Steiner.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
How you doing, man, I'm doing great. We're just rocking
and rolling in here.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
There is lots of stuff.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Going on being made, meals being served. You made history
as the first female Iron Chef. How did that opportunity
come about and what it was and mean to you?
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (02:29):
I mean well it was literally it was really a
tipping point for my career. I was already on Fee
Network since nineteen ninety nine. I was doing various shows.
My first show was Worth Baracko to Spirito Melting Pot,
and then we just continued creating shows and it was
with I just created shows with Free Network, and then
one day they came to me and said, hey, you
have television chops, you got the street cred. You know,
(02:54):
we want to do this show called Iron Chef America.
We want to bring it from Japan. We have the
rights to it. Would you want to be the first
female Iron Chef? And I said yes before I even
knew what it entailed, because I didn't care. It just
sounded really cool. It sounded big, so I was like, absolutely,
I'd love to. What do I you know, where do
we start? How do we start? And that was really
(03:16):
how it happened. I was on my first first book
tour in New York. I was walking around New York.
I was actually just walking out of the Today Show
at Rockefeller Center and I got the call from the
executive producer and I was just thrilled. I think we
met like a few hours later, and it was going
so fast. It was like just a freight train, you know,
they were already rolling and we were about to start,
(03:38):
and I think I had two weeks to prepare and
get going. Wow, it was amazing. It's just one of
those amazing tipping point, those moments where all the planets aligned,
and you know, we have those rare moments in our
career where we're not chasing something, it just comes to
us and God just brings it to you and says,
here you go, I'm giving you something pretty magical. And
(04:00):
it was and it was a great opportunity for me
to to inspire a lot of young chefs, especially females,
a lot of females around the world. It got me
got it was a chance for me to break a
glass ceiling and show that, you know, never we were
the first cooking you know, competitive cooking show on tea
television of any kind, and so we really broke that
(04:22):
glass ceiling as well, and for cooking shows for all
the shows to come, Master Chef, Top Chef, all of them,
and so, you know, it was a pretty amazing time.
It was such a heady time for all of us
and the four of us that started as Iron chefs,
and it was awesome. I mean, it was just a
great time. I mean, you know, when you're walking, you know,
people see you and you're in so and they're so
(04:44):
inspired to cook. But also it was a chance for
me to for the first time ever to show that
women could cook as fast and hard and take the
heat like men could in kitchens and that had never
been done before. So that was pretty amazing aspect of it.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
How did you first get inspired to become a chef
in the first place? I mean, and when did you
know it could be more than just a hobby.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
Well, you know, I always loved to cook. I mean
I was thrown into the kitchen early in my career.
I mean in my life, I mean really young. I mean, well,
I have pictures of me doing I always loved to
do tea parties. That was my thing when I was
really little, and so I always baked and we set
the whole thing up and I would have everybody, you know,
the whole family had to participate. I can imagine everybody's
(05:31):
you know, stop work to come and you know, participate
in a or whatever you were doing. But they were game.
Everybody supported, everybody was cool, and so you know, I
just always loved that. And I was always in the
kitchen with my mom being Greek American and from the South,
having two really incredibly strong food cultures around me, being
Greek Orthodox, so we went to Greek church. We you know,
(05:55):
everybody in our community was Greek and so and in
the South, the first white tablecloth restaurants were from Italian
and Greek immigrants. I mean, those are the ones, those
are the people who started white tablecloth dining in the South.
And so it was pretty amazing to see all of these.
Every great restaurant in Jackson was run by people I
(06:18):
saw at church every Sunday, so it was all of
our friends and it was pretty amazing. And then we
always had these big, you know, church barbecues and things.
So cooking was always My dad was a grill meister.
He showed me how to smoke meats, marinate meats, dry
you do dry rubs, and you know, grill properly. And
(06:38):
so that was, you know, from the very as long
as I can remember, I was outside grilling with my dad,
my mom, and grandmother. My mom was an Air Force brat,
so they lived all over the world, Tokyo, Honolulu, all
over the country, and so they had a very what
we call very global, you know palette. They had a
lot of you know, incredible recipes that global up their sleeve,
(07:01):
whether it was strawg and off or sweet and sour
pork or you know whatever, lasagna, amazing lavangna, you know,
just great Italian Greek kind of just global type dishes.
And that was served a lot in our house along
with Greek food. So I really grew up in a
very you know, amazing you know, really being in the
(07:26):
Deep South. You know, when my other friends were having
fried okra and you know that, you know, the fried
catfish on the table, which we ate too, by the way,
I love Southern food and barbecue, but we were having
steamed artichokes with lemon and extra virgin olive oil in
our house, so, you know, or sue blackie or spina
copada or grape leaves, you know, things like that. So
(07:50):
it was really that's where I really, I think began.
My grandfather had restaurants. He was an immigrant that came
through Ellis Island and settled in the South. He had restaurants.
My godfather had restaurants when I was growing up. So
it was just in my dna I really got.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
But speaking of that, you went on to open restaurants
all over the world. What's been your favorite project so far?
Speaker 2 (08:16):
Why?
Speaker 3 (08:17):
Oh, you know, I have to say opening. What I've
done is really opened in a lot of partner with
a lot of partners that have restaurants. You know, we
have restaurants, airport restaurants, stadium restaurants, restaurants on university camp campuses,
corporate restaurants, I've had standalone restaurants. I've had a restaurant
(08:38):
in Singapore, which that probably I have to say, just
because I got to go to Singapore in Southeast Asia.
A lot was probably one of my favorites. And it
was very had a very per se, you know, kind
of French laundry. It was very very high end and
it was exactly what you expect in a restaurant in
(08:58):
Singapore and in a venue such as that I had.
So I think that that was probably one of my
very favorites. But you know, I just they're all my babies,
you know, whether it's an airport restaurant, a corporate restaurant,
a standalone I mean, so I've had very I've pretty
much done almost every iteration you can think of of
airport of restaurants.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
How do you balance business and food? Are there times
when you feel more administrative than a classic show? I mean,
just pile up on you O the business.
Speaker 3 (09:39):
Stuff sometimes, you know, I mean I have you know,
a great team around me too that help, and that's
really that's very helpful. But I'm very hands on with
all of it. So I like to I like to
look at contracts. I like to I like to create concepts.
I like to visualize and conceptual life things. I'm very
(10:02):
much an artist in that and also a business woman,
and you know, with my craft. So I think it's
you know, it's left brain, right brain. You know. I
love all that and stimulates me. It helps me grow,
it helps me evolve, It helps me become a better
business woman. And I understand my businesses. So there's not
a business that I'm going, wait, what do we what
(10:22):
are the financials or what did that contract say. I'm
in pretty hands on and I think you have to
be in this day and age, you really have to
know your businesses. But it is it does take a
little village. And so I have a small orbit. I
have an incredible small orbit of a team that I
trust implicitly and balancing it. It's really just having to
(10:47):
you know, you have to be very versatile, You have
to be very you have to be able to multitask,
which chefs are great at. By the way, we have
to do the restaurants every day anyway, So we learned
very quickly how to multitask and balance it and I
love that. That's why I was never a chef that
was just going to be very linear. I knew that
I loved having a lot of balls in the air,
(11:09):
and I love that feeling. And that's a little bit
of an adrenaline rush. It's it's exciting. You never know
when you open your email or you get a text
of what's going to be next, and so it's very
it's very exciting, and yes, it's very it can be
very stressful at times, and you have to That's why
I work out, I meditate, I do other things to
counteract that. And then you know, listen, I thought it
(11:33):
was more stressful being in a restaurant day to day
and having to be do you know when you're an
executive chef in one restaurant, you're still busy because you're
doing scheduling, you're doing you're dealing with vendors, you're dealing
with so it's a you know, either way, I think
that if you do what you love, you you enjoy
(11:53):
that part. Although it can be stressful in some days
you're like, oh my gosh, what's happening. How I got
to get the through this? And you do, you know,
you get on the other side of it. But I
can tell you what's more stressful. It's six teenage sons driving.
Nothing's more stressful than that.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
You had all boys, all boys.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
Oh wow, blended family, all boys. They're amazing young men,
and they just blow me away there. I'm in all
every day.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
That's what they do.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
And I'll tell you that that gen the generation coming up.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
Man.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
They are smart. Yeah, in all kinds of ways. So yeah, yeah,
pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
Let's talk about the charitable side of what you're doing.
You launch Chefs for Humanity in the waker Hurricane Katrina.
What made you do that?
Speaker 3 (12:43):
Actually I launched it before that in twenty fourteen in
the tsunami when we had the tsunami that hit Thailand,
Fuquet and so that was when things is kind of
you know, everybody was you know, that was such a
tragic I mean, if anybody remembers that, that was such
a tragic, tragic moment, and I think that, uh, you know,
(13:07):
we were still we were already we were just getting
all of you know, this is when we were getting
all the news feeds and social media with everything was
starting to happen, you know, and you were getting instantaneous information.
So a lot of chefs were calling me because they
knew I did a lot of charity work. I was
one of the leading chefs that was doing a lot
of charity work at the time, and a lot of
hunger initiatives and a lot of emergency feeding relief with
(13:30):
other organizations like World Food Program, International Red Cross and
care dot org things like that and charities like that.
So they started calling me. I was inundated with chefs
calling me. What can we do? What can we go?
Where can we go? What can we do? How can
we roll our sleeves up? And I realized that chefs
will write a check, but they also want to be
hands on and we can be the great thing about chefs.
(13:52):
And we're seeing that with a lot of my friends
now that you know Jusean Dress, Guy Fieri, a lot
of my friends that are doing and a lot of
incredible you know, they kind of took the torch and
you know, ran with it because we were one of
Chess for Humanity, was the first chef driven emergency feeding
relief at the time, and so I'm happy to see
(14:14):
them take the torch and run. But yeah, it's like
we are able to get in and the one thing
that people have to do and no matter what kind
of emergency or crisis or mother nature is, they have
to eat and they have to have shelter, and it's
in super basic, you know. And so that was one
of the areas that was important for me, and we
(14:36):
were there for her. We were set up by the
time Hurricane Katrina happen. Thankfully, We've been all over the
world and you know, we were there when hate that
earthquake happened in Haiti. We flew to Haiti. We were
there with many many of the other catastrophes that happened,
whether it was you know, in other areas we've done
you know, not only that, but just just hunger initiatives
(14:58):
in Guatemala, Ecuador, Theiopia and other places, so Mozambique. So
we've been around the world and I'm so proud that
we launched something that actually was a catalyst for many
other big you know arms to go out and continue
that work.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
Well, congratulations and all that you do and much needed.
So you've fed president's celebrities, your kids. Who's the pickiest
eater you've ever cooked for?
Speaker 3 (15:28):
Oh gosh, oh I have to I'm not sure, like
that's a that's a tough one. I'm trying to remember
everybody I've cooked for. I haven't run across. I mean,
obviously you have to. I think, you know when people say,
I get a lot of people saying how do I
get my kids to eat? And I always say, start
them as early as possible. So this isn't answering your question.
(15:49):
But I'm gonna come back around to that. I say,
start them as early as possible. And you know, one
of the ways you can get kids. And that's why
I started. One of the reasons I was got on
board with Little Kitchen Academy, it's because this is a
great you know, Little Kitchen Academy that we started with
Brian and Felicity uh Current is such an amazing project
(16:12):
for me. This is one of my love projects, you know,
that I got involved with because it's teaching kids how
to cook from scratch. It's teaching kids how to get
in the kitchen, and they're learning skills that they'll take
for the rest of their lives, whether it's stem, whether
it's you know, organizational skills, whether it's socialization skills, what
have you. And it's such an independence and so I
(16:38):
find that when you start kids in our school is
three year olds all the way to teens. And so
I find when you start kids young and you get
them involved with where does food come from? Let them
get involved with when I used to when my kids
were little, I used to say, Okay, here's two options
for dinner. We're gonna salmon her chicken at amami or broccoli.
You know, carrots are this? You know, and like it's
(17:00):
a five minute it's a two minute conversation, you know.
But it gives them, It gives them a little power,
and it gives them, you know, a little independence in
choosing what they're going to eat. And you know, we
I cook one thing, this is dinner, but we all
have a say in it. And I think that that
just gets kids. It gets kids excited to eat and
(17:22):
gives them a gives some investment in it. And so
I think that that's one of the way the ways
that I've helped people understand how to begin and get
them cooking, get them in the kitchen.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
And that's a little kitchen academy, Right, that's a little
kitchen academy.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:37):
Yeah. That we've been expanding not only all over the US,
but globally and we have one at Century City here
in Los Angeles is the one that's right down the
street from me. And I think that that's a really
big picky eaters. You know, when I cook for the Obamas,
they weren't picky. They loved whatever I cooked. When I
poked Royalty, they've you know, enjoyed it. So I don't.
(17:59):
I haven't. I really can't answer that because I haven't.
You know, I don't know all.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
What's your cooking style when no one's watching, you know,
your typical night in the kitchen at home? What are
you preparing?
Speaker 3 (18:10):
Oh, I mean it's real simple, like I prepare, like
we do tacos at home.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
We do.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
It's a lot of I eat very healthy. I eat
pretty healthy. So and my kids are really good. They're
all kind of you know, have learned through that is
eating healthier, even though we have our indulgences. Of course,
we love, you know, a great pizza night on Friday
nights or you know, pizza and movie nights, things like that.
But you know, it's real simple. It could just be
(18:39):
some you know tacos, great tacos where I just kind
of lay everything out, you know, girls, some chicken do
a little we do a little homemade walk together. That's
one of the things that kids love to make together
is big bowl of gualk and chips and you know,
just put all the fixens out and something like that.
It's like it's like a typical weeknight.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
Right right easy, and.
Speaker 3 (18:59):
Everybody customize so it's not there's no special it's not
a short order kind of situation where you know, I'm
taking your order. It's just everybody can make their own
and it's perfect. Right.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
And now you're part of something called cook Unity, making
healthy meals accessible nationwide.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
Tell us about that.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
Yeah, cook Comunity is a fantastic platform. I mean, there's
something on there for everybody, and I love we you know,
we joined it a year ago. We've been you know,
really working hard. It's probably something I've put a lot
more energy into lately than anything. And it's just an
amazing platform. I mean, and we cover every gamut of
(19:41):
every whether it's medically crafted meals, whether it's it's all
chef driven, it's all my friends are on the platform,
and I mean we really put our heart and soul
into the meals that we make, and a lot of
them are meals we've been making our whole career. Some
of them are restaurants, some of them are things that
we love to look at home that now our customers
(20:03):
get to have at home as well. And we just
put our heart and soul into it. It's a great
platform and everyone should be and it's affordable, so everyone
should be ordering from it. And there's any anything in
everything you want you can find.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
There, right, fantastic. Do you have a restaurant in La
I don't.
Speaker 3 (20:21):
I don't know in La not yet. I mean not yet, huh,
not yet, not you know. I mean I've consulted on
a couple of things here and you never know. I mean,
that's the beauty of this industry is that you just
never know. I mean we're you know, we've this industry
has grown so tremendously in a beautiful way that there's
(20:42):
so many avenues that you can be in and I
love that. That's exciting to me. Whether it's television, movies,
you know, whether it's you know, platforms where it's fresh
delivery or you know, what have you products things like that.
I mean, it's just exciting. It's an exciting time, you know,
in our industry.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
Well, we're down to the last segment. Here the last question,
and this is a big.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
Question.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
It's a huge question. All right, if you were to
come into Luke's diner, what would you order and where
would you sit? Cat Cora all.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
Right, Well, if I'm going to come into Luke's Diner,
I want to know how good your burger is. I
want to know how good you a diner. I'm going
to get some comfort food, so we're going to bring
it to all right, Okay, okay, all right, I want
some good burgers. I like my fries really crisp, yep,
me too nice and salt like sea salt on it.
(21:42):
You can cost a little you know, cracked pepper on
there too, Uh huh. Good ketch up? Not too sweet.
You know, it's got to be a certain brand right
where we just say you know what I love And
my kids when I say this, when I remember I'm
eating a fry, I always dip it in the ketchup
up and I always say, you know what, French fries
(22:03):
just a vehicle for the catch up. That's one of
my favorite sayings, just a vehicle for the catch up.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
It has been a delight. Thank you for your time.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
And amazing what.
Speaker 1 (22:21):
Cooking has done for your life and what you've given
back to the world a true inspiration and keep on
keeping on. Honor to talk to you.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
Thanks so much for having me on.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
Please come back and.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
Just be well and remember everybody, keep those cards and
letters coming. Best fans on the planet cat Correl, ladies
and gentlemen. Where you lead, we will follow. Stay safe everyone.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
Hey everybody, and don't forget.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
Follow us on Instagram at I Am all In podcast
and email us at Gilmore at iHeartRadio dot com.
Hosts And Creators
Amy Sugarman
Danielle Romo
Scott Patterson
Tara Soudbaksh
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