🍴 Chef JJ Johnson on The Cookout in NYC, Top Food Cities, Black & Brown Restaurants, and Kitchen Controversies
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Happy with what's up?
Speaker 2 (00:05):
His way up at Angela Gee, my girl Tella eight
his hair from Chicago and my guy chef JJ is
here with me.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
What listen? You know it's about that time, Yes, it is.
We're getting ready for the cookout.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
And this is something that independently you're doing now, so
we have to extra extra extra come out. So yeah,
and you know I'm out, So let's talk about the cookout.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
You know, the cookout is a celebration for black culture.
Speaker 4 (00:32):
You know, wherever you're from in the US, do you
always have had a cookout?
Speaker 3 (00:36):
But which in your backyard?
Speaker 4 (00:38):
But what I've tried to do is celebrate black and
now Brown chefs in communities that need awareness, restaurants that
you might never heard of, chefs you don't know, caterers,
and I wanted to take it on on my own
to shed a different light. You know, this year we
only have twelve chefs. Some chefs that might have worked
for me in the past, I have their own restaurants now,
(00:58):
like Oh Martake coming from Philly from Honeysuckle, or a
college roommate Justin Gains from New Jersey Montclair who's showing
up and everybody gets to cook where they want to cook.
It's gonna be a lot of live entertainment. But the
biggest thing is, like I think in society right now
when we're talking about the culture, is like who is
(01:19):
supporting the culture? And we know we're only supporting each other.
So that's what it's really about, is to show support
in the New York City community around restaurants. I might
need some support right now.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
It's tough. It's tough.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
I was talking about how tough the restaurant businesses in general,
and how so many places have been closing down, like
places that have been staples in communities. And you know,
fun fact about the cookout and I, you know, Chef
JJ brought me in to this and now I'm hosting
with you. I'm co hosting alongside you. My job is
(01:52):
really just to eat, so you know, we all have
a place in this. That's my responsibility. But here's a
fun story of my really good friends. I met as
one of the chefs that you had at the cookout previously,
Jasmine who owns Jasmin's Caribbean. I actually met her at
at you know, when you did the cookout in New
York before, and she came up to me, like, oh,
(02:14):
I own a restaurant in the city, and I really
went and checked it out. And now that's like one
of my really good friends, Like we go on vacations together.
Speaker 4 (02:21):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Yeah, it's like my homegirl. But she also you know,
I love somebody that has good food.
Speaker 4 (02:26):
Well that's what the cookout is, right, It brings you,
brings people together, and it also shines light. Like I mean,
I invited Jasmine to pull up. I've been there once
and I think when I called you the last time,
you were.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Jamans when we were having a meeting about this.
Speaker 4 (02:42):
So I mean that's I mean, that's what it's about.
I mean, Black restaurants around the counry just don't get
enough light. Like they're the anchors of communities. They're making
sure people are staying employed. They're putting people's families through college.
Like you said, there's a lot of restaurants in Brooklyn, Harlem,
the Bronx.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
Closing Chicago right.
Speaker 4 (03:00):
Because margins, food cost is too high, labors a lot
rent went up or right now the economy.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
People are not trying to spend trying to spend.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
Money like that.
Speaker 4 (03:10):
So I'm hoping people come out to the cookout, knowing
like it's not just for JJ, not just for Angela,
It's for these restaurants. And also your tickets go to
a great organization called Reathing Food. That's feeding community, feeding
your community. So we're going to be feeding every borough
in New York City after the cookout with ten percent
(03:30):
of your ticket price, that's going to go to Rethink,
and you're going to know what restaurants were feeding people
in your community.
Speaker 5 (03:36):
That's what's up.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
Now, this might be controversial. We got to talk about this.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Cities that have the best food now, you know, tell
it represents Chicago here.
Speaker 5 (03:44):
This is a fact.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
And they recently put out a list. I'm gonna put
up the bag exactly.
Speaker 5 (03:53):
A ninety six year old New York.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
And I didn't say it wasn't New York because you know,
there's always the beef of pizza.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
Yes, between New York and Chicago.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
I don't know why I entered the picture on that too.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
Connecticuts in it now too, ye, Connecticut?
Speaker 1 (04:07):
Now is Chicago?
Speaker 5 (04:08):
I mean New York.
Speaker 6 (04:10):
Y'all got the fashion. I get y'all that, but when
it comes to food, we got it.
Speaker 5 (04:14):
And that's that.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
No, not pizza, Okay, talk to me about the pizza Chicago.
Speaker 6 (04:19):
Well, we got everybody be like Deep Dish, but it's
not just about deep like we got all the good
pizza restaurants period. So when you come, I'm gonna get
come with Angie, and I'm gonna get.
Speaker 5 (04:28):
Y'all a tour, all right.
Speaker 4 (04:30):
So like so it's not deep Dish, it's like regular,
like New York City round pizza.
Speaker 6 (04:34):
So I don't like to say New York City pizza
because when I think a New York City piecea it
gives like bread and light cheese.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
We got to take you on a pizza tour like aout.
Speaker 5 (04:44):
She's gotten me.
Speaker 6 (04:45):
Nothing compares to Chicago pizza than crust regular crusts.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
You know, Okay with neighborhood were pulling up to in Chicago.
Speaker 6 (04:53):
We're pulling up to have part, so we pulling up.
Speaker 5 (04:57):
I can name all the rest of it. I want
to name my people, but.
Speaker 6 (05:04):
For show, we love Home Run and we love lou Ms.
Speaker 5 (05:08):
We love all the pizzas.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
We gotta do.
Speaker 4 (05:10):
We gotta do, like maybe we should do like the
cookout of pizza for sure.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
Pizza cookout because.
Speaker 4 (05:18):
Yeah, the piz Some friends in the city that like
dominate the pizza game. Have you ever been to louke
Cali's or Mama's too?
Speaker 1 (05:26):
Oh yeah, she never been there.
Speaker 5 (05:27):
Lou Cally's.
Speaker 6 (05:33):
It gives Now it's okay, I haven't been there, but
it doesn't compare.
Speaker 5 (05:38):
And it's okay, y'all can't have everything. They already got
you in.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
But okay, So besides New York, and let's say Chicago's
number two, where else would you say for when it
comes to being a foodie for restaurants? What are some
of the give me the top five? So we'll put
Chicago and New York as two of What are the
other three?
Speaker 3 (05:58):
The city food?
Speaker 5 (06:00):
Okay, so in Chicago, because.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
We're talking about cities Chicago, we said that.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
Where's the last place you traveled besides Chicago?
Speaker 6 (06:08):
The last place I went to Miami. We know Miami
is not in the game for food.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
They've been stepping their food game up.
Speaker 6 (06:16):
It doesn't compare to Chicago. You gotta think when you
come from Chicago, you have the best food.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Tell it, we get it. But I'm saying and New York, Now,
three more cities?
Speaker 5 (06:26):
Where have I been?
Speaker 1 (06:27):
I'm gonna tell you what The New York Times said.
Speaker 4 (06:29):
I mean, tell me what New York Times said. You know,
I think Houston is strong, but.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
New Orleans is strong. I mean, look, New Orleans.
Speaker 4 (06:40):
I got to get big up to a restaurant named
the car Is on the made the World's Fifty Worlds.
North America's fifty Best list this year, number six for
Cenic Leaves Food.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
That was a shocker.
Speaker 4 (06:52):
So I think the whole you know, food community, and
that's the New Orleans. He's cooking amazing food.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
I think I met them also at a cookout.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
Yeah, but you got to go.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
See when I tell you all that, because I have
to get to New Orleans to go, but and I
heard it's like really hard to get I got you
to the restaurant. Okay, I'm gonna hit you up. But yeah,
I want to say that too, that like when you
name these places, they all show up for you, because
I feel like there's a certain respect that restaurant owners
and chefs have for each other when you guys know,
like only y'all know the grind that you had to
(07:25):
get to where you got to.
Speaker 4 (07:27):
No, yeah, I mean it's I mean, I think you're right.
We all know what it takes in the industry. Especially
like to get some notoriety, to get written about, maybe
being the New York Times. People like you to show
up to our restaurants, but so we know what the
grind is. And I think in an industry that is
a well considered a blue collar industry or working class
industry that's now getting a lot of light to be
(07:49):
able to get awards is a pad on the back
that say you worked really hard. So to see a
restaurant like the Car, small restaurant in New Orleans with
a lot of great restaurants around it making lists, winning
a lot of awards, that chef has its head down,
working really hard and showcasing Senegalese food.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
So it's great to see that.
Speaker 4 (08:09):
But yeah, I show my respect, like like you're talking
about Chicago.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
When I come to Chicago, I pull up to Virtue.
Speaker 6 (08:16):
Have been, I have been to Virtue, I have been,
so I like Virtue. I like Virtue. When it comes
to Chicago, it's like y'all for y'all know Chemistry, s
to Bronx, bil Panani, soul food, Lode, I've been like, yeah,
the best, so we got the best.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
And when it comes to Italian food, I want you
to go to Monte Verde.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
I will, okay, see and take his advice.
Speaker 5 (08:40):
Will you know what you're talking about?
Speaker 2 (08:43):
You know, I'm gonna say there's a blogger and these
food bloggers are like the celebrities.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
I want to say that also, but Black people Eats.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
I don't know if anybody follows that page, you know,
Black people Eats. Whenever I was in Scottsdale and I
heard about a restaurant out there that was like impossible
to get into. I i went on the page for
the restaurant, saw that they follow him, and then I
hit him up like hey, I'm trying to get in,
and he made it happen.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
He made it happen for you.
Speaker 4 (09:07):
He's like super cool. He's actually really mad. He's not
coming to the cookout.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
Why is he coming?
Speaker 3 (09:11):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
He said, you go.
Speaker 4 (09:12):
He got a different obligation. I say, you got the
wrong obligations going on. But yeah, no, he's he's like
a cool cat. We've hung out in the Bahamas at
Atlantas together. He's always given like really great recommendation. That's
great that he got your Listen.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
When I come to Chicago, I also will hit him
up and be like and I go to the places
that he tells me to go to also, so.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
We should call him about a pizza tour.
Speaker 5 (09:34):
Yeah, and I.
Speaker 6 (09:34):
Got to take you to Left Taco and Solvabs. I
never took you there. They can't believe it's not meat.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
Okay, Oh yeah, you tell me about It'll take you though. Vegans,
we got it on the rest.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
Do you think that let's talk about vegan restaurants for
a second.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
What let's talk about it.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Let's talk about it, because I do feel like that's
a hard business. The restaurant business is already hard, but
to have like a really successful vegan restaurant, that feels
like that's really difficult.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (10:01):
I think when you think, I mean, are there are
from vegan spots that are that are solid? Like dirt
Candy mandicunt She's been doing for twenty years here in
New York City. I don't know how she's been doing
it and getting the money out of the people, But
you're right. You know, when you're a meat eater and
you're gonna go spend the same amount of money on vegetables,
A lot of people don't have that respect. So I
(10:23):
think you when you're if you have a vegan spot.
It's like I want to eat vegetables, right, I want
to eat grains, I want to eat rice. I don't
I maybe other people I don't really want to eat
imitation me, right, that tells me like, oh this, oh
you're eating a burger, but it's not a burger. But
if I wanted a burger, Like, why would I just
use like glentils, rice, quinoha, black bean.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
Back bean, right, jack fruit, jackfruit and it'd be super
tasty chef yan in the building.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
Why wouldn't I just do that?
Speaker 4 (10:54):
So? But I do think like from a margin perspective
on the business side, your margins are you can you
can make more money, but you got to get people
to buy in. You got to build up the trust
and just got to be really delicious.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
To seasonally well, because that's that's the thing that's like
tofu I can't really not in a minute, it's not
really a thing for me. How has it been though,
now that you're doing this on your owner this is
the first out of many because I know this is
going to continue on. What has the process been like
for you? Like as you've been putting it all together
(11:26):
on your own, you know.
Speaker 4 (11:29):
When you when you're trying to do something, you got
to reach into the pot of like friendship, and I've
reached reached into my pot of friends that I feel
are experts in spaces and ask them to come on
to help me to produce the cookout. So you see
a lot of people that have real jobs, running really
big brands helping me produce the cookout, which means a
(11:52):
lot to me or a testimony to me like what
friendship is. So that's how it really started. But I
never done like ticket sales before. Like the last time
I sold the ticket was like when I threw parties
in college.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
It's a different beasts that was.
Speaker 4 (12:05):
I had a knife on my wrist one day, like
come on, y'all, y'alling me get blood.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Because everybody wants to ask for a free and I
find that for myself too, Like if I'm doing something
or like I invite somebody to something, like say I'm,
you know, getting honored at something, and you want people
to like buy a ticket for They're like, yeah, I'll come.
You have a space at your table.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
And You're like, dang, yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
It was.
Speaker 4 (12:26):
It was interesting because, like you know, I was talking
to my mom about it, and she was like, who's
mying tickets? Who's bing tickets? And I was like, you
know a lot of people here I don't know, And
I know my friends are going to show up two
days before and the events can be sold out and
they're going to be looking at me like where's the tickets.
I'm trying to buy tickets and I won't have any
tickets for you because the venue's small and you in
(12:48):
the group chat, so you ready know it exists that
what's happening.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
So this is all to say, get your ticket now
because they are going to sell out, and so don't
try to show up the day of as like, don't
text chef JJ.
Speaker 4 (12:59):
The day of my phone my phone will completely like
my phone once my dad enters the building, my phone
will be off just because he has a walker and
I got to make sure he can get in. But
but once my dad enters, like I'm not really concerned,
my mom, my dad entered. The rest of y'all like
on your own you if you know you know who
to talk to, do not disturb. Don't call Andrea, like
(13:23):
my chief of staff, like don't people got jobs to do.
Don't call Angelauye, Like you know I talked to JJ
and really I'm co hosting.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
I'm work for hires, not my event. I just want
to put that out there. It's not my event. Like
I don't have no tickets.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
Earlier, you mentioned Atlantis, So can we talk about the
expansion of Field Trip also and what that process has
been like for you. I've I've also been to the
one right here in Midtown as well, But just talk
to me about like expanding the brand, because sometimes I
think there's a balance between wanting to make sure that
you can do that but also at a pace that
(13:59):
you feel like it can be maintained, you know.
Speaker 4 (14:03):
I think like I look at a lot of like
fast casual brands. Have a rice bowl shop called field Trip.
I brought some food for you. We do things like Jerk,
We do things like Jerk salmon. We have a new
chopped cheese egg roll. But we believe in rice. I
brought you some chicken. That's great, and we try to
keep it really affordable. We started in Harlem and then
(14:23):
we expanded during the pandemic.
Speaker 3 (14:25):
I've opened I've won a Rockfeller Center.
Speaker 4 (14:28):
We've opened one in the Atlantis, which was probably the
biggest moment in the Light.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
You know, we licensed the brand out to them.
Speaker 4 (14:34):
They internationally and it's touched a lot of people in
communities that we don't know, a lot of people from Texas,
North Carolina, Chicago, a lot of people from those places.
And it has brought a lot of brand awareness which
in that brand that that location actually is leading us
open up in the airport in the top of the
year in JFK and Delta. So it is like a
(14:58):
slow grind of building a brand, and there's times where
I'm like, how did this how did this brand open
up five six this year?
Speaker 3 (15:05):
Like I never heard of? How did they get all
this money? Right?
Speaker 4 (15:09):
So you have to stay really focused and then I
think you find your mark of like acceleration. And I'm
not the guy too, And I'll be honest with you,
I'm a chef, Like I'm not the guy to accelerate
the brand.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
I'm the guy.
Speaker 4 (15:20):
I'm the person that is building the brand. And then
I'm hoping in this next go round, I'll be able
to bring in the experts that will then accelerate the
brand very different than how I would do it.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
The food will still stay consistent.
Speaker 4 (15:33):
The culture will still be there, but they'll be able
to execute it from it from a different skill set,
and that's what I'm looking looking at doing next. I
think a lot of people take on a little bit
too much because your pride gets in the way.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
Right, and opportunities come and you feel like you can't
turn it down, especially.
Speaker 3 (15:50):
When you black, like yo, am I going to get
that again? Right? And then you find you wind up
doing something You're like, come on, like my lawyer told me,
I shouldn't do this.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
You gotta listen, And.
Speaker 4 (16:01):
Sometimes you gotta listen because they've been through it so
many times. But yeah, I've I've been grown field Trip,
I've been grown the JJ brand. You know, you you
mostly get my food at field Trip. You also can
get my food now in Wonder, which is which is
a digital food haul, which is a different concept called
bank Side. But fild Trip is my baby, and I
(16:23):
hope I can get it to a point where I
can sell it.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
I don't know if that's real or not.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
Yes, I think so, because I also like the concept
of you know, you can make what you want to make,
so when I go, I'm able to customize because I'm
a picky eater.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
Let's keep it real. I'm picky.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
There's a lot of things I don't eat period, but
it's also healthy, Like it feels like when I'm eating this,
and you know you're not supposed to walk away from
eating feeling full and exhausted, right, You're supposed to feel
like good.
Speaker 4 (16:51):
Yes, filter makes you feel good? Yeah, or what I
call like complete, Like it's a complete meal. There's vegetables
in there, right, there's rice in there. Everything is like
really so worse than like ethically, and you know it's
not slop.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
We're throwing rights, right.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
How is it for you branding yourself too?
Speaker 2 (17:11):
Because you have the show on Cleo TV just eats
a chef JJ and sometimes, like you know, you want
to do your job as a chef, But then it's
also this whole other beast of having to be front
and center and be the face of something and make
appearances and do that.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
Do you enjoy that part of it?
Speaker 2 (17:27):
Because some people do it because they know it's important
to do it, and some people really enjoy it.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
Where do you fall?
Speaker 5 (17:34):
Well?
Speaker 4 (17:34):
I big up to big up to Cleo TV. I
just got renewed for next season. We're going to start shooting.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
I've been on here y'all yeah, we got to get
you so you can talk about we maybe do some
Chicago pizza. Uh.
Speaker 4 (17:49):
You know when I was when I was younger, I
used to say I was gonna be like Ema Lagasi
and not knowing like with all that entailed. It was
kind of just like, oh, I see this chef on
TV cooks you really well, he inspires me.
Speaker 3 (18:03):
But I do like it. I like the connection standpoint
of it. I like them.
Speaker 4 (18:07):
I look at it as like marketing that I'm able
to push meet somebody and then they come back to
the restaurant, they taste of food, or they meet me
and in the future maybe you cook with my sauce
at home, or you I show you how to cook
some I show you how to cut some onions and
now you're like, ooh that's how I cut the onions
and JJ way. So it's really, you know, spreading kind
of the the JJ ether out there into the world.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
But I do like doing it.
Speaker 4 (18:31):
I think also for me, I try to keep the
industry honest and if I'm able to do an event
like the cookout, or I'm able to host something at
a corporate in corporate America, hopefully that will let that
let people know like, oh I can do that, or
that corporate company is like I'm a book somebody else
like JJ because that food was really good and he
really gave us some inspiring words. I'm not going to
(18:53):
still stay in this kind of same genre of cooking
the same genre of folks.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
So I do it a lot for me, but I
also do it a lot for the community, for the
food community.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
Do you think that our food, like let's say Caribbean
food because this has a Caribbean twist to it? Also,
do you think that, you know, food that comes from
like black and brown places gets the respect that it
deserves when it comes to conversations about Michelin stars or
being on these lists of top restaurants.
Speaker 4 (19:23):
I think that it's it's still not there right. I
think we're starting to see a change around it. I
think every every state now has a restaurant that's Afro
Caribbean or some type of part of the diaspora cooking
at the high level, right tablecloths, you know, marking the table,
(19:45):
some type of cocktail program, wine program, And you're seeing
people feeling comfortable cooking their food and putting it out there,
and you're seeing it like you're seeing it in New
York in a place like Lincoln Center with Tatiana, or
you're seeing Kawaba downtown and he's made number four New
(20:05):
York Times list, Or you're seeing Dakar New Orleans, or
you're seeing Paul, you're seeing Kahn in Portland, like you're
seeing restaurants, you're seeing you know, Mashammbaile in Paris now
like cooking Southern food.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
You're seeing it.
Speaker 4 (20:17):
And I think the industry, the guys Michelin Star New
York Times, James Beard World's fifty Best, I don't think
they can really turn their back on it, right because
people that are investing or people that are sitting on
boards also have some type of influence in these in
these places that are like heo, you need to go
taste this food, like you need to go pull up
(20:38):
to Virtue, right, they need to go. You need to go,
You need to go check out, You need to check
out these places because the food is actually really good
and these chefs actually are doing more than just cooking,
like they're supporting a community.
Speaker 5 (20:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (20:52):
So so that's what goes through my mind on that,
and you know, potentially, you know, or soon I'll probably
enter back into that realm of black and brown people,
food and cooking from who I am, like from my diaspora,
which I've never really done before.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
Right, I mean you have you know to uh, you
have just two books, right, it's just two books, just
to make sure I didn't miss it, because because they're
best selling books are and so for people to understand,
Like because listen me, even you've changed my view on
Rice because I've always and I told you this last time. Right,
(21:33):
as far as cooking Rice, I have his cookbook at
home and I honestly because I love cooking in a
walk also at home, so that helped me.
Speaker 3 (21:41):
But I used to think Rice was not good.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
No, I'm not going to bed.
Speaker 6 (21:46):
I'm just waiting to taste anything in a walk. I
don't know, you don't know what, Okay, I want to
walk is.
Speaker 5 (21:51):
I'll never.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
Have the easiest thing to cook in though, because you
could throw anything in the walk and like cut up
whatever vegetables you like, whatever protein you like, and kind
of mix it together.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
Right, That's how I love you.
Speaker 3 (22:04):
Know you're right.
Speaker 4 (22:04):
It's the one vessel that will boil water faster than
any other pot in the kitchen.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
Thank you, chef.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
But anyway, you know so so I think it's also
just amazing. I have to also give you your props
for that, just making sure that like people can take
your recipes and make them at home, and it's really simple.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
You know, it's silent.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
But you made me realize that rice is healthy, because
you know there's this like, oh too much rice.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
Don't eat rice. You know it's not good for you.
Speaker 2 (22:30):
For a period of time, I really did try to
like cut it out of my diet.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
It's just the way rice produce. I gotta do you
wash your rice? Okay, we're cool, We cool.
Speaker 5 (22:39):
Yeah, I definitely do.
Speaker 6 (22:40):
And I love jazz. I'm a riser. My rice was
the best.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
Give me some for.
Speaker 3 (22:50):
You'll be the judge of my rice. Then today we got.
Speaker 4 (22:58):
Anybody that can make rice out home, and he is
not scared of making rice because so many people are
scared of what they want.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
Why I feel like that's such an easy thing to make.
Speaker 4 (23:05):
I say, like, drinse to rice, get the right sized
potted doubles in size, and make sure you buy whole
grain rice. That's not buying this bleached and rich rice.
That's why it's not good for us.
Speaker 3 (23:18):
By Jasmin rice.
Speaker 5 (23:19):
You jaman do it, but I'll be eating a fat
men and rice too.
Speaker 3 (23:23):
I mean, I understand.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
Oh my gosh, you put a little packet they're boiling.
Speaker 5 (23:27):
Not the package, you just boil it. But you got
to make sure people be serring. They rice too much.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
That's what they messed up at.
Speaker 5 (23:34):
They don't know.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
I've never had Tail's cooking, so I'm really interested. As
a matter of fact, at my house, why don't we
pull out the cookbook so we can make a rice
dish at home and let's put it on.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
Tell me how that the kitchen is beautiful, and the
kitchen is gorgeous.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
It's just a lot of people have been coming over
my house to cook lately.
Speaker 3 (23:52):
Oh that's great. She saw the shade you say. She
looked at me like, when are you coming there?
Speaker 1 (23:56):
Came down. I'm not gonna lie.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
I didn't think he really could cook like that, and
he came in threw it down. It got a little
testy because my other friend Robinson, had been there cooking
the other day, so he came over to eat and
they had like a little like stare down. Oh wow,
very competitive when it comes here.
Speaker 4 (24:11):
You know, like you know these cooking shows got people
thinking they're doing it at home.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
But anyway, I'm really excited for this cookout event. I'm
gonna be here. I'm gonna be in Detroit right before that.
I'm flying back in. I know it starts at three,
but I'm flying back in at like eight am. I
just want to make sure nothing.
Speaker 3 (24:29):
Goes Appreciate that. That's a quick flight.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
Yeah, it's a quick fight.
Speaker 3 (24:31):
I was just there tail getting for University of Michigan.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
Games and Arbor.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
That's why I said you also, so talk to me
about the ann Arbor restaurant.
Speaker 4 (24:38):
That the Adope Jazz Club and then Arbor called Blue Lama.
I think it is one of the most beautiful jazz
clubs in America. Seventy five seeds. They bring Grammy Award
winning artists. But last week from University of Michigan game
because I feel like I'm a Michigan fan now because
I'm there all the time. So we tailgated with the
farm that I'm a culinary ambassador with called Edible Garden,
(25:00):
and we did, you know, tailgating food with all their
herbs or pickles. It was super fun. Everybody came out.
We made some like pickle Bloody Mary's.
Speaker 3 (25:09):
And but no, it was cool. Okay, it was good.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
It was good.
Speaker 3 (25:15):
It was funny.
Speaker 4 (25:16):
It is always for me, like tapping into communities and
understanding other communities. Culture I think is really important. And
I always say to people, like work with me or
I work with It's like if you, if you, if
you understand culture, then I could work with you. You
might not have to understand my culture what I'm doing,
but if you understand other people's culture, we're going to
work out. And I think I understand, Like I feel
(25:38):
like I understand like football culture now like college football coach.
Speaker 1 (25:41):
Okay, it's a whole different thing.
Speaker 4 (25:42):
It's a whole it's a whole different game of like
what you cook, how you cook. I want to go
on like a tailgate tour, Like I want to go
to New Orleans and tailgate like LSU.
Speaker 3 (25:51):
I want to go to Alabama and just see the food, right.
Speaker 4 (25:57):
Because like where will we tailgate in New York besides
like a giant jack game.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (26:03):
Oh, Syracuse, yeah, not New York City. Buffalo too cold
for me?
Speaker 1 (26:08):
Yeah? I do want to say you asked about washing
rice before you do? Do you wash your chicken?
Speaker 3 (26:15):
Of course. Okay, I ain't doctor us.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
I ain't gonna lie Mircus. Samuelson was up here, he
his chicken.
Speaker 3 (26:20):
Stop it. Find my phone right now.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
Everybody you d doesn't wash you chicken.
Speaker 5 (26:26):
First, hold on, let me let you know what that's something.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
Don't do it.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
Let him. I think I'm gonna put it to you
like this.
Speaker 4 (26:38):
Any piece of meat that is in plastic, that's cryal
backed needs to be washed, like you can't. It's sitting
in its own juices like in there, it needs to
be rinsed. Nobody's saying like it's soap and water, but
it needs to be rinsed. And also like the processing
of the system is like somebody broke down the chicken,
then it went into something, then they got cried, then
(26:59):
it went on the truck, then it went here, like
you need to just you don't know what's underneath the plastic.
You don't know it's there, Like besides all the the
heat will kill the germs.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
But it's different.
Speaker 4 (27:10):
You know, we as a culture washed chicken, and we
really don't even like when when you when when your
grandma your auntie was hitting it with like the apple
cider vinegar and all that was like a quick It
was like a quick brine. It's basically brinding it, but
it was like a quickness. But it also is like
pulling out all this quote unquote bacteria.
Speaker 3 (27:29):
I rinted my lamb.
Speaker 2 (27:32):
A turkey burger. Would you You can't do that. No,
you can't do that because that's sitting in his juices.
Speaker 3 (27:36):
You can't do that. Yeah, you can't do that.
Speaker 5 (27:39):
You gotta wash.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
I'm sure he just trust me. He doesn't.
Speaker 5 (27:44):
So you just take it out the pack and just
cook it and salt.
Speaker 3 (27:49):
Oh, pad dried? Okay, Okay, at least you pad tried.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
Well. Listen, so get ready for this.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
As you can see, if you wash your chicken, even
if you don't, you're welcome to come.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
To the cookout.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
What I love is that, as everybody has been, there's
been people hitting me up because we do have a
contest where people can win tickets. Yes I can, so
I just want to put that out there too. But
you don't have a lot of time to make this happen.
Speaker 4 (28:11):
No, I'll be honest, like, there's not many tickets left. No,
I'm actually like really proud of it. The team has
done really well of like spread spreading the holy grail
of chef. JJ presents the cookout with Angeliue's, and I
feel like the streets of New York are talking and
people are just trying to figure out, like, am I
going to spend this one fifty because you don't got
to spend two hundred.
Speaker 3 (28:32):
VIP's already sold out. Am I going to spend this
one fifty?
Speaker 2 (28:35):
But you get to eat for free after you come in,
get to drink yeah twelve Yeah, everything is.
Speaker 3 (28:40):
You know, so we don't have French martini.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
You get to listen to some good music.
Speaker 4 (28:44):
Yeah, we got wet. I think we have some of
the some of the best DJs in New York. We
got Mixed, we got He's amazing, We have Mucci. We
even have Mahogany, who I met at she opens up
for Black Coffee. I met her at the Met Gala
party and I was like, I'm a booky.
Speaker 3 (28:57):
For the cookout.
Speaker 4 (28:58):
Amazing, And I don't think she I think she thought
I'll just talking trash and you really did.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
No, it's going to be a complete Like I'm really
excited for it. Yeah, And ladies, when you see a
guy that just know he paid right to come in
there or maybe you should tell him to get you
some tickets.
Speaker 4 (29:16):
Now I've been saying this is like it's a perfect
place to like, but there are a lot of single
ticket holders. Like when I do glance on the back,
you can tell there's like single ticket holders. There's like
a group of women, and then there's like people on dates. Okay, right,
but I think it's a good place, like if you're
looking to get courted, if they're trying to get courted.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
You ain't got to spend no money on food. Once
you get in, get the drink, just bring the drink something. Yeah,
but we do want to see you tip the bartenders.
I pay attention to things like that. Right, even if
you go into an event when they drink's dire free,
make sure you still tip the bartender.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
So I just want to say that.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
Okay, So if you follow at eat okra, the app
right and Chef JJ, then you can actually win some
free tickets. But just make sure you go and look
so you can see how the giveaway works. Because we
are giving away two free VIP tickets and like chef
JJ said, you can't buy these anymore.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
So the only way you'll be able to get VIP
tickets at all is to.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
Win them and then win it will be announced on Tuesday,
October fourteenth.
Speaker 3 (30:20):
If you said it, that's when it's gonna happen.
Speaker 1 (30:21):
Yeah, I'm just reading.
Speaker 3 (30:24):
No, I don't listen. If that's what they said, you
gonna get it. I try not to get involved in
all that anything and.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
On the logistics because like I weren't in the meeting,
Like okay, so the fourteen was in the.
Speaker 3 (30:33):
Meeting, but then I've told them my team, like you
guys got to.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
See handle that part. I'm gonna handle the chefs because
you have twelve chefs coming.
Speaker 1 (30:40):
He's handling the chefs. He handled the venue.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
And honestly, if sef JJ calls you and it's like
I need you to sponsor my event, do it okay,
because he never calls me to ask for anything.
Speaker 3 (30:50):
I tried not to.
Speaker 4 (30:51):
I worked for a person that used to tell me like,
wh if you ask somebody for something, just know they're
coming back at you.
Speaker 3 (30:56):
So Sam, I think I'm tending you got it. I
think so. I'm very fortunate in it.
Speaker 4 (31:00):
To the to the people that have stepped up to sponsor,
like Cleo TV, Door Dash Resorts World yes, you know so,
and you can, and you can. You're gonna be able
to gamble at the cookout, but all your money you
throw in is gonna go to reathing food.
Speaker 1 (31:16):
I didn't even know that. I didn't even know that
you can't gamble.
Speaker 4 (31:19):
We're gonna have donate, We're gonna have We're gonna have
a little blackjack, little crap tables.
Speaker 3 (31:24):
You can throw your money.
Speaker 4 (31:25):
Let's say you give twenty dollars, you get two hundreds
and chips, and that's twenty dollars ago right to rethink
to help feed people in need. And then at the end,
whoever has the most chips will give them a prize.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
Okay, I'm really competitive, so I feel like and I'm
great at blackjack. I will play all day and they
can as long as they bringing drinks to the table.
Speaker 3 (31:43):
I'm already the table. Yeah, yeah, got feel like you
in Vegas.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
All right, Well, I'm really excited for this. This is
the first time this is happening. So come be part
of history with us, you know, and congratulations step Dad.
I'm glad that you didn't cut me out of this,
and then I never yeah that I'd be right there
with you. But make sure you guys come out. We
are so excited. This is going down on the eighteenth
October eighteenth, so not a lot of tickets left, so
(32:10):
make sure you get them on event right, So make
sure you don't miss this. Follow the cookout on social
media platforms and get your tickets.
Speaker 5 (32:17):
You're going, you know what, I'm gonna come back, even
if I don't stay.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
Okay to Chicago, come out. I will, I will, all right,
his way up
Happy with what's up?
Speaker 2 (00:05):
His way up at Angela Gee, my girl Tella eight
his hair from Chicago and my guy chef JJ is
here with me.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
What listen? You know it's about that time, Yes, it is.
We're getting ready for the cookout.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
And this is something that independently you're doing now, so
we have to extra extra extra come out. So yeah,
and you know I'm out, So let's talk about the cookout.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
You know, the cookout is a celebration for black culture.
Speaker 4 (00:32):
You know, wherever you're from in the US, do you
always have had a cookout?
Speaker 3 (00:36):
But which in your backyard?
Speaker 4 (00:38):
But what I've tried to do is celebrate black and
now Brown chefs in communities that need awareness, restaurants that
you might never heard of, chefs you don't know, caterers,
and I wanted to take it on on my own
to shed a different light. You know, this year we
only have twelve chefs. Some chefs that might have worked
for me in the past, I have their own restaurants now,
(00:58):
like Oh Martake coming from Philly from Honeysuckle, or a
college roommate Justin Gains from New Jersey Montclair who's showing
up and everybody gets to cook where they want to cook.
It's gonna be a lot of live entertainment. But the
biggest thing is, like I think in society right now
when we're talking about the culture, is like who is
(01:19):
supporting the culture? And we know we're only supporting each other.
So that's what it's really about, is to show support
in the New York City community around restaurants. I might
need some support right now.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
It's tough. It's tough.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
I was talking about how tough the restaurant businesses in general,
and how so many places have been closing down, like
places that have been staples in communities. And you know,
fun fact about the cookout and I, you know, Chef
JJ brought me in to this and now I'm hosting
with you. I'm co hosting alongside you. My job is
(01:52):
really just to eat, so you know, we all have
a place in this. That's my responsibility. But here's a
fun story of my really good friends. I met as
one of the chefs that you had at the cookout previously,
Jasmine who owns Jasmin's Caribbean. I actually met her at
at you know, when you did the cookout in New
York before, and she came up to me, like, oh,
(02:14):
I own a restaurant in the city, and I really
went and checked it out. And now that's like one
of my really good friends, Like we go on vacations together.
Speaker 4 (02:21):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Yeah, it's like my homegirl. But she also you know,
I love somebody that has good food.
Speaker 4 (02:26):
Well that's what the cookout is, right, It brings you,
brings people together, and it also shines light. Like I mean,
I invited Jasmine to pull up. I've been there once
and I think when I called you the last time,
you were.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Jamans when we were having a meeting about this.
Speaker 4 (02:42):
So I mean that's I mean, that's what it's about.
I mean, Black restaurants around the counry just don't get
enough light. Like they're the anchors of communities. They're making
sure people are staying employed. They're putting people's families through college.
Like you said, there's a lot of restaurants in Brooklyn, Harlem,
the Bronx.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
Closing Chicago right.
Speaker 4 (03:00):
Because margins, food cost is too high, labors a lot
rent went up or right now the economy.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
People are not trying to spend trying to spend.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
Money like that.
Speaker 4 (03:10):
So I'm hoping people come out to the cookout, knowing
like it's not just for JJ, not just for Angela,
It's for these restaurants. And also your tickets go to
a great organization called Reathing Food. That's feeding community, feeding
your community. So we're going to be feeding every borough
in New York City after the cookout with ten percent
(03:30):
of your ticket price, that's going to go to Rethink,
and you're going to know what restaurants were feeding people
in your community.
Speaker 5 (03:36):
That's what's up.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
Now, this might be controversial. We got to talk about this.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Cities that have the best food now, you know, tell
it represents Chicago here.
Speaker 5 (03:44):
This is a fact.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
And they recently put out a list. I'm gonna put
up the bag exactly.
Speaker 5 (03:53):
A ninety six year old New York.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
And I didn't say it wasn't New York because you know,
there's always the beef of pizza.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
Yes, between New York and Chicago.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
I don't know why I entered the picture on that too.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
Connecticuts in it now too, ye, Connecticut?
Speaker 1 (04:07):
Now is Chicago?
Speaker 5 (04:08):
I mean New York.
Speaker 6 (04:10):
Y'all got the fashion. I get y'all that, but when
it comes to food, we got it.
Speaker 5 (04:14):
And that's that.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
No, not pizza, Okay, talk to me about the pizza Chicago.
Speaker 6 (04:19):
Well, we got everybody be like Deep Dish, but it's
not just about deep like we got all the good
pizza restaurants period. So when you come, I'm gonna get
come with Angie, and I'm gonna get.
Speaker 5 (04:28):
Y'all a tour, all right.
Speaker 4 (04:30):
So like so it's not deep Dish, it's like regular,
like New York City round pizza.
Speaker 6 (04:34):
So I don't like to say New York City pizza
because when I think a New York City piecea it
gives like bread and light cheese.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
We got to take you on a pizza tour like aout.
Speaker 5 (04:44):
She's gotten me.
Speaker 6 (04:45):
Nothing compares to Chicago pizza than crust regular crusts.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
You know, Okay with neighborhood were pulling up to in Chicago.
Speaker 6 (04:53):
We're pulling up to have part, so we pulling up.
Speaker 5 (04:57):
I can name all the rest of it. I want
to name my people, but.
Speaker 6 (05:04):
For show, we love Home Run and we love lou Ms.
Speaker 5 (05:08):
We love all the pizzas.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
We gotta do.
Speaker 4 (05:10):
We gotta do, like maybe we should do like the
cookout of pizza for sure.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
Pizza cookout because.
Speaker 4 (05:18):
Yeah, the piz Some friends in the city that like
dominate the pizza game. Have you ever been to louke
Cali's or Mama's too?
Speaker 1 (05:26):
Oh yeah, she never been there.
Speaker 5 (05:27):
Lou Cally's.
Speaker 6 (05:33):
It gives Now it's okay, I haven't been there, but
it doesn't compare.
Speaker 5 (05:38):
And it's okay, y'all can't have everything. They already got
you in.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
But okay, So besides New York, and let's say Chicago's
number two, where else would you say for when it
comes to being a foodie for restaurants? What are some
of the give me the top five? So we'll put
Chicago and New York as two of What are the
other three?
Speaker 3 (05:58):
The city food?
Speaker 5 (06:00):
Okay, so in Chicago, because.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
We're talking about cities Chicago, we said that.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
Where's the last place you traveled besides Chicago?
Speaker 6 (06:08):
The last place I went to Miami. We know Miami
is not in the game for food.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
They've been stepping their food game up.
Speaker 6 (06:16):
It doesn't compare to Chicago. You gotta think when you
come from Chicago, you have the best food.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Tell it, we get it. But I'm saying and New York, Now,
three more cities?
Speaker 5 (06:26):
Where have I been?
Speaker 1 (06:27):
I'm gonna tell you what The New York Times said.
Speaker 4 (06:29):
I mean, tell me what New York Times said. You know,
I think Houston is strong, but.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
New Orleans is strong. I mean, look, New Orleans.
Speaker 4 (06:40):
I got to get big up to a restaurant named
the car Is on the made the World's Fifty Worlds.
North America's fifty Best list this year, number six for
Cenic Leaves Food.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
That was a shocker.
Speaker 4 (06:52):
So I think the whole you know, food community, and
that's the New Orleans. He's cooking amazing food.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
I think I met them also at a cookout.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
Yeah, but you got to go.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
See when I tell you all that, because I have
to get to New Orleans to go, but and I
heard it's like really hard to get I got you
to the restaurant. Okay, I'm gonna hit you up. But yeah,
I want to say that too, that like when you
name these places, they all show up for you, because
I feel like there's a certain respect that restaurant owners
and chefs have for each other when you guys know,
like only y'all know the grind that you had to
(07:25):
get to where you got to.
Speaker 4 (07:27):
No, yeah, I mean it's I mean, I think you're right.
We all know what it takes in the industry. Especially
like to get some notoriety, to get written about, maybe
being the New York Times. People like you to show
up to our restaurants, but so we know what the
grind is. And I think in an industry that is
a well considered a blue collar industry or working class
industry that's now getting a lot of light to be
(07:49):
able to get awards is a pad on the back
that say you worked really hard. So to see a
restaurant like the Car, small restaurant in New Orleans with
a lot of great restaurants around it making lists, winning
a lot of awards, that chef has its head down,
working really hard and showcasing Senegalese food.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
So it's great to see that.
Speaker 4 (08:09):
But yeah, I show my respect, like like you're talking
about Chicago.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
When I come to Chicago, I pull up to Virtue.
Speaker 6 (08:16):
Have been, I have been to Virtue, I have been,
so I like Virtue. I like Virtue. When it comes
to Chicago, it's like y'all for y'all know Chemistry, s
to Bronx, bil Panani, soul food, Lode, I've been like, yeah,
the best, so we got the best.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
And when it comes to Italian food, I want you
to go to Monte Verde.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
I will, okay, see and take his advice.
Speaker 5 (08:40):
Will you know what you're talking about?
Speaker 2 (08:43):
You know, I'm gonna say there's a blogger and these
food bloggers are like the celebrities.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
I want to say that also, but Black people Eats.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
I don't know if anybody follows that page, you know,
Black people Eats. Whenever I was in Scottsdale and I
heard about a restaurant out there that was like impossible
to get into. I i went on the page for
the restaurant, saw that they follow him, and then I
hit him up like hey, I'm trying to get in,
and he made it happen.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
He made it happen for you.
Speaker 4 (09:07):
He's like super cool. He's actually really mad. He's not
coming to the cookout.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
Why is he coming?
Speaker 3 (09:11):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
He said, you go.
Speaker 4 (09:12):
He got a different obligation. I say, you got the
wrong obligations going on. But yeah, no, he's he's like
a cool cat. We've hung out in the Bahamas at
Atlantas together. He's always given like really great recommendation. That's
great that he got your Listen.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
When I come to Chicago, I also will hit him
up and be like and I go to the places
that he tells me to go to also, so.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
We should call him about a pizza tour.
Speaker 5 (09:34):
Yeah, and I.
Speaker 6 (09:34):
Got to take you to Left Taco and Solvabs. I
never took you there. They can't believe it's not meat.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
Okay, Oh yeah, you tell me about It'll take you though. Vegans,
we got it on the rest.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
Do you think that let's talk about vegan restaurants for
a second.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
What let's talk about it.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Let's talk about it, because I do feel like that's
a hard business. The restaurant business is already hard, but
to have like a really successful vegan restaurant, that feels
like that's really difficult.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (10:01):
I think when you think, I mean, are there are
from vegan spots that are that are solid? Like dirt
Candy mandicunt She's been doing for twenty years here in
New York City. I don't know how she's been doing
it and getting the money out of the people, But
you're right. You know, when you're a meat eater and
you're gonna go spend the same amount of money on vegetables,
A lot of people don't have that respect. So I
(10:23):
think you when you're if you have a vegan spot.
It's like I want to eat vegetables, right, I want
to eat grains, I want to eat rice. I don't
I maybe other people I don't really want to eat
imitation me, right, that tells me like, oh this, oh
you're eating a burger, but it's not a burger. But
if I wanted a burger, Like, why would I just
use like glentils, rice, quinoha, black bean.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
Back bean, right, jack fruit, jackfruit and it'd be super
tasty chef yan in the building.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
Why wouldn't I just do that?
Speaker 4 (10:54):
So? But I do think like from a margin perspective
on the business side, your margins are you can you
can make more money, but you got to get people
to buy in. You got to build up the trust
and just got to be really delicious.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
To seasonally well, because that's that's the thing that's like
tofu I can't really not in a minute, it's not
really a thing for me. How has it been though,
now that you're doing this on your owner this is
the first out of many because I know this is
going to continue on. What has the process been like
for you? Like as you've been putting it all together
(11:26):
on your own, you know.
Speaker 4 (11:29):
When you when you're trying to do something, you got
to reach into the pot of like friendship, and I've
reached reached into my pot of friends that I feel
are experts in spaces and ask them to come on
to help me to produce the cookout. So you see
a lot of people that have real jobs, running really
big brands helping me produce the cookout, which means a
(11:52):
lot to me or a testimony to me like what
friendship is. So that's how it really started. But I
never done like ticket sales before. Like the last time
I sold the ticket was like when I threw parties
in college.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
It's a different beasts that was.
Speaker 4 (12:05):
I had a knife on my wrist one day, like
come on, y'all, y'alling me get blood.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Because everybody wants to ask for a free and I
find that for myself too, Like if I'm doing something
or like I invite somebody to something, like say I'm,
you know, getting honored at something, and you want people
to like buy a ticket for They're like, yeah, I'll come.
You have a space at your table.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
And You're like, dang, yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
It was.
Speaker 4 (12:26):
It was interesting because, like you know, I was talking
to my mom about it, and she was like, who's
mying tickets? Who's bing tickets? And I was like, you
know a lot of people here I don't know, And
I know my friends are going to show up two
days before and the events can be sold out and
they're going to be looking at me like where's the tickets.
I'm trying to buy tickets and I won't have any
tickets for you because the venue's small and you in
(12:48):
the group chat, so you ready know it exists that
what's happening.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
So this is all to say, get your ticket now
because they are going to sell out, and so don't
try to show up the day of as like, don't
text chef JJ.
Speaker 4 (12:59):
The day of my phone my phone will completely like
my phone once my dad enters the building, my phone
will be off just because he has a walker and
I got to make sure he can get in. But
but once my dad enters, like I'm not really concerned,
my mom, my dad entered. The rest of y'all like
on your own you if you know you know who
to talk to, do not disturb. Don't call Andrea, like
(13:23):
my chief of staff, like don't people got jobs to do.
Don't call Angelauye, Like you know I talked to JJ
and really I'm co hosting.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
I'm work for hires, not my event. I just want
to put that out there. It's not my event. Like
I don't have no tickets.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
Earlier, you mentioned Atlantis, So can we talk about the
expansion of Field Trip also and what that process has
been like for you. I've I've also been to the
one right here in Midtown as well, But just talk
to me about like expanding the brand, because sometimes I
think there's a balance between wanting to make sure that
you can do that but also at a pace that
(13:59):
you feel like it can be maintained, you know.
Speaker 4 (14:03):
I think like I look at a lot of like
fast casual brands. Have a rice bowl shop called field Trip.
I brought some food for you. We do things like Jerk,
We do things like Jerk salmon. We have a new
chopped cheese egg roll. But we believe in rice. I
brought you some chicken. That's great, and we try to
keep it really affordable. We started in Harlem and then
(14:23):
we expanded during the pandemic.
Speaker 3 (14:25):
I've opened I've won a Rockfeller Center.
Speaker 4 (14:28):
We've opened one in the Atlantis, which was probably the
biggest moment in the Light.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
You know, we licensed the brand out to them.
Speaker 4 (14:34):
They internationally and it's touched a lot of people in
communities that we don't know, a lot of people from Texas,
North Carolina, Chicago, a lot of people from those places.
And it has brought a lot of brand awareness which
in that brand that that location actually is leading us
open up in the airport in the top of the
year in JFK and Delta. So it is like a
(14:58):
slow grind of building a brand, and there's times where
I'm like, how did this how did this brand open
up five six this year?
Speaker 3 (15:05):
Like I never heard of? How did they get all
this money? Right?
Speaker 4 (15:09):
So you have to stay really focused and then I
think you find your mark of like acceleration. And I'm
not the guy too, And I'll be honest with you,
I'm a chef, Like I'm not the guy to accelerate
the brand.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
I'm the guy.
Speaker 4 (15:20):
I'm the person that is building the brand. And then
I'm hoping in this next go round, I'll be able
to bring in the experts that will then accelerate the
brand very different than how I would do it.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
The food will still stay consistent.
Speaker 4 (15:33):
The culture will still be there, but they'll be able
to execute it from it from a different skill set,
and that's what I'm looking looking at doing next. I
think a lot of people take on a little bit
too much because your pride gets in the way.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
Right, and opportunities come and you feel like you can't
turn it down, especially.
Speaker 3 (15:50):
When you black, like yo, am I going to get
that again? Right? And then you find you wind up
doing something You're like, come on, like my lawyer told me,
I shouldn't do this.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
You gotta listen, And.
Speaker 4 (16:01):
Sometimes you gotta listen because they've been through it so
many times. But yeah, I've I've been grown field Trip,
I've been grown the JJ brand. You know, you you
mostly get my food at field Trip. You also can
get my food now in Wonder, which is which is
a digital food haul, which is a different concept called
bank Side. But fild Trip is my baby, and I
(16:23):
hope I can get it to a point where I
can sell it.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
I don't know if that's real or not.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
Yes, I think so, because I also like the concept
of you know, you can make what you want to make,
so when I go, I'm able to customize because I'm
a picky eater.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
Let's keep it real. I'm picky.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
There's a lot of things I don't eat period, but
it's also healthy, Like it feels like when I'm eating this,
and you know you're not supposed to walk away from
eating feeling full and exhausted, right, You're supposed to feel
like good.
Speaker 4 (16:51):
Yes, filter makes you feel good? Yeah, or what I
call like complete, Like it's a complete meal. There's vegetables
in there, right, there's rice in there. Everything is like
really so worse than like ethically, and you know it's
not slop.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
We're throwing rights, right.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
How is it for you branding yourself too?
Speaker 2 (17:11):
Because you have the show on Cleo TV just eats
a chef JJ and sometimes, like you know, you want
to do your job as a chef, But then it's
also this whole other beast of having to be front
and center and be the face of something and make
appearances and do that.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
Do you enjoy that part of it?
Speaker 2 (17:27):
Because some people do it because they know it's important
to do it, and some people really enjoy it.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
Where do you fall?
Speaker 5 (17:34):
Well?
Speaker 4 (17:34):
I big up to big up to Cleo TV. I
just got renewed for next season. We're going to start shooting.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
I've been on here y'all yeah, we got to get
you so you can talk about we maybe do some
Chicago pizza. Uh.
Speaker 4 (17:49):
You know when I was when I was younger, I
used to say I was gonna be like Ema Lagasi
and not knowing like with all that entailed. It was
kind of just like, oh, I see this chef on
TV cooks you really well, he inspires me.
Speaker 3 (18:03):
But I do like it. I like the connection standpoint
of it. I like them.
Speaker 4 (18:07):
I look at it as like marketing that I'm able
to push meet somebody and then they come back to
the restaurant, they taste of food, or they meet me
and in the future maybe you cook with my sauce
at home, or you I show you how to cook
some I show you how to cut some onions and
now you're like, ooh that's how I cut the onions
and JJ way. So it's really, you know, spreading kind
of the the JJ ether out there into the world.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
But I do like doing it.
Speaker 4 (18:31):
I think also for me, I try to keep the
industry honest and if I'm able to do an event
like the cookout, or I'm able to host something at
a corporate in corporate America, hopefully that will let that
let people know like, oh I can do that, or
that corporate company is like I'm a book somebody else
like JJ because that food was really good and he
really gave us some inspiring words. I'm not going to
(18:53):
still stay in this kind of same genre of cooking
the same genre of folks.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
So I do it a lot for me, but I
also do it a lot for the community, for the
food community.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
Do you think that our food, like let's say Caribbean
food because this has a Caribbean twist to it? Also,
do you think that, you know, food that comes from
like black and brown places gets the respect that it
deserves when it comes to conversations about Michelin stars or
being on these lists of top restaurants.
Speaker 4 (19:23):
I think that it's it's still not there right. I
think we're starting to see a change around it. I
think every every state now has a restaurant that's Afro
Caribbean or some type of part of the diaspora cooking
at the high level, right tablecloths, you know, marking the table,
(19:45):
some type of cocktail program, wine program, And you're seeing
people feeling comfortable cooking their food and putting it out there,
and you're seeing it like you're seeing it in New
York in a place like Lincoln Center with Tatiana, or
you're seeing Kawaba downtown and he's made number four New
(20:05):
York Times list, Or you're seeing Dakar New Orleans, or
you're seeing Paul, you're seeing Kahn in Portland, like you're
seeing restaurants, you're seeing you know, Mashammbaile in Paris now
like cooking Southern food.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
You're seeing it.
Speaker 4 (20:17):
And I think the industry, the guys Michelin Star New
York Times, James Beard World's fifty Best, I don't think
they can really turn their back on it, right because
people that are investing or people that are sitting on
boards also have some type of influence in these in
these places that are like heo, you need to go
taste this food, like you need to go pull up
(20:38):
to Virtue, right, they need to go. You need to go,
You need to go check out, You need to check
out these places because the food is actually really good
and these chefs actually are doing more than just cooking,
like they're supporting a community.
Speaker 5 (20:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (20:52):
So so that's what goes through my mind on that,
and you know, potentially, you know, or soon I'll probably
enter back into that realm of black and brown people,
food and cooking from who I am, like from my diaspora,
which I've never really done before.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
Right, I mean you have you know to uh, you
have just two books, right, it's just two books, just
to make sure I didn't miss it, because because they're
best selling books are and so for people to understand,
Like because listen me, even you've changed my view on
Rice because I've always and I told you this last time. Right,
(21:33):
as far as cooking Rice, I have his cookbook at
home and I honestly because I love cooking in a
walk also at home, so that helped me.
Speaker 3 (21:41):
But I used to think Rice was not good.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
No, I'm not going to bed.
Speaker 6 (21:46):
I'm just waiting to taste anything in a walk. I
don't know, you don't know what, Okay, I want to
walk is.
Speaker 5 (21:51):
I'll never.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
Have the easiest thing to cook in though, because you
could throw anything in the walk and like cut up
whatever vegetables you like, whatever protein you like, and kind
of mix it together.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
Right, That's how I love you.
Speaker 3 (22:04):
Know you're right.
Speaker 4 (22:04):
It's the one vessel that will boil water faster than
any other pot in the kitchen.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
Thank you, chef.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
But anyway, you know so so I think it's also
just amazing. I have to also give you your props
for that, just making sure that like people can take
your recipes and make them at home, and it's really simple.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
You know, it's silent.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
But you made me realize that rice is healthy, because
you know there's this like, oh too much rice.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
Don't eat rice. You know it's not good for you.
Speaker 2 (22:30):
For a period of time, I really did try to
like cut it out of my diet.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
It's just the way rice produce. I gotta do you
wash your rice? Okay, we're cool, We cool.
Speaker 5 (22:39):
Yeah, I definitely do.
Speaker 6 (22:40):
And I love jazz. I'm a riser. My rice was
the best.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
Give me some for.
Speaker 3 (22:50):
You'll be the judge of my rice. Then today we got.
Speaker 4 (22:58):
Anybody that can make rice out home, and he is
not scared of making rice because so many people are
scared of what they want.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
Why I feel like that's such an easy thing to make.
Speaker 4 (23:05):
I say, like, drinse to rice, get the right sized
potted doubles in size, and make sure you buy whole
grain rice. That's not buying this bleached and rich rice.
That's why it's not good for us.
Speaker 3 (23:18):
By Jasmin rice.
Speaker 5 (23:19):
You jaman do it, but I'll be eating a fat
men and rice too.
Speaker 3 (23:23):
I mean, I understand.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
Oh my gosh, you put a little packet they're boiling.
Speaker 5 (23:27):
Not the package, you just boil it. But you got
to make sure people be serring. They rice too much.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
That's what they messed up at.
Speaker 5 (23:34):
They don't know.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
I've never had Tail's cooking, so I'm really interested. As
a matter of fact, at my house, why don't we
pull out the cookbook so we can make a rice
dish at home and let's put it on.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
Tell me how that the kitchen is beautiful, and the
kitchen is gorgeous.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
It's just a lot of people have been coming over
my house to cook lately.
Speaker 3 (23:52):
Oh that's great. She saw the shade you say. She
looked at me like, when are you coming there?
Speaker 1 (23:56):
Came down. I'm not gonna lie.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
I didn't think he really could cook like that, and
he came in threw it down. It got a little
testy because my other friend Robinson, had been there cooking
the other day, so he came over to eat and
they had like a little like stare down. Oh wow,
very competitive when it comes here.
Speaker 4 (24:11):
You know, like you know these cooking shows got people
thinking they're doing it at home.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
But anyway, I'm really excited for this cookout event. I'm
gonna be here. I'm gonna be in Detroit right before that.
I'm flying back in. I know it starts at three,
but I'm flying back in at like eight am. I
just want to make sure nothing.
Speaker 3 (24:29):
Goes Appreciate that. That's a quick flight.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
Yeah, it's a quick fight.
Speaker 3 (24:31):
I was just there tail getting for University of Michigan.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
Games and Arbor.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
That's why I said you also, so talk to me
about the ann Arbor restaurant.
Speaker 4 (24:38):
That the Adope Jazz Club and then Arbor called Blue Lama.
I think it is one of the most beautiful jazz
clubs in America. Seventy five seeds. They bring Grammy Award
winning artists. But last week from University of Michigan game
because I feel like I'm a Michigan fan now because
I'm there all the time. So we tailgated with the
farm that I'm a culinary ambassador with called Edible Garden,
(25:00):
and we did, you know, tailgating food with all their
herbs or pickles. It was super fun. Everybody came out.
We made some like pickle Bloody Mary's.
Speaker 3 (25:09):
And but no, it was cool. Okay, it was good.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
It was good.
Speaker 3 (25:15):
It was funny.
Speaker 4 (25:16):
It is always for me, like tapping into communities and
understanding other communities. Culture I think is really important. And
I always say to people, like work with me or
I work with It's like if you, if you, if
you understand culture, then I could work with you. You
might not have to understand my culture what I'm doing,
but if you understand other people's culture, we're going to
work out. And I think I understand, Like I feel
(25:38):
like I understand like football culture now like college football coach.
Speaker 1 (25:41):
Okay, it's a whole different thing.
Speaker 4 (25:42):
It's a whole it's a whole different game of like
what you cook, how you cook. I want to go
on like a tailgate tour, Like I want to go
to New Orleans and tailgate like LSU.
Speaker 3 (25:51):
I want to go to Alabama and just see the food, right.
Speaker 4 (25:57):
Because like where will we tailgate in New York besides
like a giant jack game.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (26:03):
Oh, Syracuse, yeah, not New York City. Buffalo too cold
for me?
Speaker 1 (26:08):
Yeah? I do want to say you asked about washing
rice before you do? Do you wash your chicken?
Speaker 3 (26:15):
Of course. Okay, I ain't doctor us.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
I ain't gonna lie Mircus. Samuelson was up here, he
his chicken.
Speaker 3 (26:20):
Stop it. Find my phone right now.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
Everybody you d doesn't wash you chicken.
Speaker 5 (26:26):
First, hold on, let me let you know what that's something.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
Don't do it.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
Let him. I think I'm gonna put it to you
like this.
Speaker 4 (26:38):
Any piece of meat that is in plastic, that's cryal
backed needs to be washed, like you can't. It's sitting
in its own juices like in there, it needs to
be rinsed. Nobody's saying like it's soap and water, but
it needs to be rinsed. And also like the processing
of the system is like somebody broke down the chicken,
then it went into something, then they got cried, then
(26:59):
it went on the truck, then it went here, like
you need to just you don't know what's underneath the plastic.
You don't know it's there, Like besides all the the
heat will kill the germs.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
But it's different.
Speaker 4 (27:10):
You know, we as a culture washed chicken, and we
really don't even like when when you when when your
grandma your auntie was hitting it with like the apple
cider vinegar and all that was like a quick It
was like a quick brine. It's basically brinding it, but
it was like a quickness. But it also is like
pulling out all this quote unquote bacteria.
Speaker 3 (27:29):
I rinted my lamb.
Speaker 2 (27:32):
A turkey burger. Would you You can't do that. No,
you can't do that because that's sitting in his juices.
Speaker 3 (27:36):
You can't do that. Yeah, you can't do that.
Speaker 5 (27:39):
You gotta wash.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
I'm sure he just trust me. He doesn't.
Speaker 5 (27:44):
So you just take it out the pack and just
cook it and salt.
Speaker 3 (27:49):
Oh, pad dried? Okay, Okay, at least you pad tried.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
Well. Listen, so get ready for this.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
As you can see, if you wash your chicken, even
if you don't, you're welcome to come.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
To the cookout.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
What I love is that, as everybody has been, there's
been people hitting me up because we do have a
contest where people can win tickets. Yes I can, so
I just want to put that out there too. But
you don't have a lot of time to make this happen.
Speaker 4 (28:11):
No, I'll be honest, like, there's not many tickets left. No,
I'm actually like really proud of it. The team has
done really well of like spread spreading the holy grail
of chef. JJ presents the cookout with Angeliue's, and I
feel like the streets of New York are talking and
people are just trying to figure out, like, am I
going to spend this one fifty because you don't got
to spend two hundred.
Speaker 3 (28:32):
VIP's already sold out. Am I going to spend this
one fifty?
Speaker 2 (28:35):
But you get to eat for free after you come in,
get to drink yeah twelve Yeah, everything is.
Speaker 3 (28:40):
You know, so we don't have French martini.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
You get to listen to some good music.
Speaker 4 (28:44):
Yeah, we got wet. I think we have some of
the some of the best DJs in New York. We
got Mixed, we got He's amazing, We have Mucci. We
even have Mahogany, who I met at she opens up
for Black Coffee. I met her at the Met Gala
party and I was like, I'm a booky.
Speaker 3 (28:57):
For the cookout.
Speaker 4 (28:58):
Amazing, And I don't think she I think she thought
I'll just talking trash and you really did.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
No, it's going to be a complete Like I'm really
excited for it. Yeah, And ladies, when you see a
guy that just know he paid right to come in
there or maybe you should tell him to get you
some tickets.
Speaker 4 (29:16):
Now I've been saying this is like it's a perfect
place to like, but there are a lot of single
ticket holders. Like when I do glance on the back,
you can tell there's like single ticket holders. There's like
a group of women, and then there's like people on dates. Okay, right,
but I think it's a good place, like if you're
looking to get courted, if they're trying to get courted.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
You ain't got to spend no money on food. Once
you get in, get the drink, just bring the drink something. Yeah,
but we do want to see you tip the bartenders.
I pay attention to things like that. Right, even if
you go into an event when they drink's dire free,
make sure you still tip the bartender.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
So I just want to say that.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
Okay, So if you follow at eat okra, the app
right and Chef JJ, then you can actually win some
free tickets. But just make sure you go and look
so you can see how the giveaway works. Because we
are giving away two free VIP tickets and like chef
JJ said, you can't buy these anymore.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
So the only way you'll be able to get VIP
tickets at all is to.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
Win them and then win it will be announced on Tuesday,
October fourteenth.
Speaker 3 (30:20):
If you said it, that's when it's gonna happen.
Speaker 1 (30:21):
Yeah, I'm just reading.
Speaker 3 (30:24):
No, I don't listen. If that's what they said, you
gonna get it. I try not to get involved in
all that anything and.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
On the logistics because like I weren't in the meeting,
Like okay, so the fourteen was in the.
Speaker 3 (30:33):
Meeting, but then I've told them my team, like you
guys got to.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
See handle that part. I'm gonna handle the chefs because
you have twelve chefs coming.
Speaker 1 (30:40):
He's handling the chefs. He handled the venue.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
And honestly, if sef JJ calls you and it's like
I need you to sponsor my event, do it okay,
because he never calls me to ask for anything.
Speaker 3 (30:50):
I tried not to.
Speaker 4 (30:51):
I worked for a person that used to tell me like,
wh if you ask somebody for something, just know they're
coming back at you.
Speaker 3 (30:56):
So Sam, I think I'm tending you got it. I
think so. I'm very fortunate in it.
Speaker 4 (31:00):
To the to the people that have stepped up to sponsor,
like Cleo TV, Door Dash Resorts World yes, you know so,
and you can, and you can. You're gonna be able
to gamble at the cookout, but all your money you
throw in is gonna go to reathing food.
Speaker 1 (31:16):
I didn't even know that. I didn't even know that
you can't gamble.
Speaker 4 (31:19):
We're gonna have donate, We're gonna have We're gonna have
a little blackjack, little crap tables.
Speaker 3 (31:24):
You can throw your money.
Speaker 4 (31:25):
Let's say you give twenty dollars, you get two hundreds
and chips, and that's twenty dollars ago right to rethink
to help feed people in need. And then at the end,
whoever has the most chips will give them a prize.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
Okay, I'm really competitive, so I feel like and I'm
great at blackjack. I will play all day and they
can as long as they bringing drinks to the table.
Speaker 3 (31:43):
I'm already the table. Yeah, yeah, got feel like you
in Vegas.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
All right, Well, I'm really excited for this. This is
the first time this is happening. So come be part
of history with us, you know, and congratulations step Dad.
I'm glad that you didn't cut me out of this,
and then I never yeah that I'd be right there
with you. But make sure you guys come out. We
are so excited. This is going down on the eighteenth
October eighteenth, so not a lot of tickets left, so
(32:10):
make sure you get them on event right, So make
sure you don't miss this. Follow the cookout on social
media platforms and get your tickets.
Speaker 5 (32:17):
You're going, you know what, I'm gonna come back, even
if I don't stay.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
Okay to Chicago, come out. I will, I will, all right,
his way up
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