May 12, 2025 • 22 mins
Two-time Emmy and Three-time NAACP Image Award-winning, television Executive Producer Rushion McDonald interviewed Celebrity Chef Jernard Wells.
Chef Jernard shares insights from his new book, Southern Inspired, along with his marketing strategies, brand-building journey, and culinary success. He also offers expert tips on preparing big meals and mastering outdoor cooking. Rushion joins in on the fun by sharing some of his famous recipes. Don’t miss this delicious and inspiring conversation about food, business, and passion!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
I am Rushan McDonald, a host of weekly Money Making
Conversation Masterclass show. The interviews and information that this show
provides are for everyone. It's time to stop reading other
people's success stories and start living your own. If you
want to be a guest on my show, please visit
our website, Moneymaking Conversations dot com and click the be
a Guest button. Press submit and information will come directly
(00:23):
to me. Now let's get this show started. My guess
is the author of a very popular cookbook entitled Southern
Inspired more than one hundred delicious dishes from My American
Table to yours. He is renowned for using food to
promote positive family images and has captivated television and live
audience with his infectious personality and more importantly.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Culinary expertise.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
If you haven't seen them on TV, he owes New
Soul Kitchen and New Soul Kitchen Remix on CLEOTV. That's
a lot, but he's here today. Please welcome to Money
Making Conversation Masterclass. Chef genard E. Chef, how you doing?
Speaker 1 (01:01):
I am doing good? How about yourself? I'm taking some chef.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
First time we met twenty seventeen. Well, those credits around back.
Speaker 4 (01:08):
Then I've been working What made a difference because I
remember the first time we met, it was on my
radio show in Houston, Texas, and he was talking about
seasoning your seasoning out there, and he was talking about how.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
You use that technique to start selling your product. Marketing
techniques ain't like what that's built on your brand. Since
twenty seventeen to today, Oh.
Speaker 5 (01:33):
You know, I've successfully built a lot into my brand.
I was really intentional starting off with just a season
line and these were recipes that I had inherited over
the years. Then we branched into making hot sauces and
barbecue sauces from recipes that I learned from my father,
(01:53):
and landing that first opportunity and Whole Foods opened up
a bigger door than out me to scale as well
as stepp into other arenas from the culinary aspect. We're
looking at TV now, you know, cookbooks, all these things.
I wanted to be inclusive to the shift. You know,
we're building my brand to where.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
It is now.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
We're just wanting to make a conversation master. Okay. When
I hear seasoning in my mind, I don't hear a lot.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Of money in my mind. Okay, we hear hot sauce,
I don't hear a lot of money. You know, you're
selling millions of bottles of hot sauce like they do
down a Louisiana.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Okay, do you look at from a.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Budget plan a business plan when you talk about seasoning,
talk about hot sauce. How do you come to the
idea that I'm gonna do this and what business model
do you apply when you're doing these different products.
Speaker 5 (02:49):
One of the things that I applies as I'm in
the culinary feel, but there are so many different fastests
to the culinary feeling.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
And I talked to a lot of young chelves about this.
Speaker 5 (02:59):
Is you have the entertainment side, which is TV, you
have the restaurant side, you have the catering side, and
then you also have the food and manufacturer and bevers
side of things. So what I focused on was how
can I buld from the extension of who chef jeniority is.
Once I garnered that opportunity to first appear on Food Network,
(03:23):
I thought to myself, it's not about being on the TV.
It's about what happens after the TV goes off, And
so I started using myself as that branding platform for
everything that I had. Although I was going on those
shows cut Through Kitching, winning on those shows Food Network Star,
(03:46):
I always thought about when the television goes off, how
can I direct them to a brand. Because my biggest
thing is from a business standpoint, is I focus on volume.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
See yes, And in the sauce and.
Speaker 5 (04:01):
Spice industry, the profit or percentage margin is low, so
you have to focus on volume. So focusing on volume
benefits me from having nationwide distribution and whole food stores
to supply. After I go out and build the demand
for it volume moving numbers, then that then those small
(04:25):
increments of a percentage then start becoming a bigger increment.
Second stage website branding is where do you direct people to?
And everything when it comes to me is all chef
generis so it's easy for people to find. And we
focus on volume, and that's how we make our money
off of moving numbers, but more importantly moving quality product
(04:47):
see see that's the key when we create. When I
create a spice, I use quality and greets and I
use some of the freshes earth that are source right.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
We know the thing about it because I want to
make sure people understand that you know it's watching that
growth watching twenty seventeen.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
I didn't know you.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
You were just enthusiastic as you are enthusiastic today about
the culinary feel and watching you on television. You know
today's show, it's live. What's running through your head? You
have a short window. You can't make a mistake your
TV celebrity hosts who may or may not know how
(05:25):
to cook the general public. It has to be simplified,
but look fantastic. How do you pull it off every time?
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Yefter?
Speaker 3 (05:34):
Well, how do you pull it off?
Speaker 1 (05:35):
You know?
Speaker 5 (05:35):
To be honest with you, Although I've done it so
many times, every time I go in front of a camera,
I feel the same nervous, jittery feelings as if it's
my first time, except I understand and know what the
mission and what the goal is.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
Right, yeah, so it makes me feel human.
Speaker 5 (05:56):
But my biggest thing on pulling off every time is
knowing it's ain't true to my culinary point of view.
See every show you go on, they're gonna always ask
you what it is that you want to create or
what do you envision?
Speaker 1 (06:08):
What do you what do you have in mind?
Speaker 5 (06:09):
So always set myself up for sucuccess for success, because
cooking is about bringing the people into my world right
and getting them to experience and and see whether it's
you're watching me create this recipe or you're actually indulging
in it when I'm when I'm side by side with
somebody on the Today Show or Gmail, one of those.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
But it's about bringing them into my world.
Speaker 5 (06:33):
So once you understand yourself, you can always win when
you go on there, because I'm really bringing you into
my dream.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
I'm not going into yours.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Now, let's talk about, Okay, different things you can use
on the outdoor before we go indoor.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
Okay, like I got a green egg.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
Oh, now when you we're not saying that anything we're
talking about is bad. But everybody have their preferences. Okay,
what is your preference for outdoor cooking?
Speaker 1 (06:59):
Oh?
Speaker 5 (06:59):
My preference for outdoor cooking is give me something nice
to drink when I fied the grill.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
And some good music and I'm good to go.
Speaker 5 (07:13):
It don't matter whether I got the big green nagg
got a little smoky Joe.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
I'm gonna have a time outside. You know, I grew
up with the yes. My dad will cheers, my dad
will get that fifty five gallup drum, cut it, put
the little Yeah, we will barbecued.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
Yes, yes, that thing.
Speaker 5 (07:33):
You love it just hanging around watching your dad do it.
And that's the same thing that I do with my friends,
family and kids now because I get an enjoyment out
of it. But I say, if you if you're planning
on smoking or grilling anything this week, what you want
to do is you want to make sure you select
the right wood wooch key. Yeah, wood is key, because
(07:56):
that's gonna determine your holiday flavor. Whether it's your turkey,
your ham, so, whether you want hickory, cherry, apple, mesquite, peach,
pecan wood, that's gonna determine your overall flavored thing. Because
remember that primary dish that you're doing on the grill
is typically at the focal point. So I say start
(08:17):
off with thinking what flavor wood would I like to
experience this year? Okay, and once you get that damn packed,
then just determine what you're gonna do with your turkey.
Me always say a nice, good injected turkey is really good.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
I'm an injecting guy. Yes, I go, I'm gonna lotch you.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
I go and get tony c give either the butter
sometime the Cajun yes injected and different makes that turkey
swoll up with the flavor. They slide that bad boy
in that. Now let's talk about the turkey. Okay, Well
we're gonna have turkey or spiral hand. I just made
a dish spiral hand with the little brown sugar glaze
over it. Now the turkey. Now, I did this all
(08:57):
in roughly five hours. I did that turkey, I did ham,
I did pe and onion saddle. I did the yams,
and then the macaroni and cheese. I did the you know,
I did my old cranberry sauce. I gotta have that
jam that's classic for me. And then I did also,
I did corn bread, I did I did bunk cake,
(09:18):
banana butter, pecan bunk cake, and peach cobbler, all within
a five hour window.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
Well, we're talking about in the show, is doing it right?
Doing it? Fanst Why are people out there cooking for
twelve hours?
Speaker 5 (09:32):
Always say they're in the kitchen cooking for twelve hours
because they want to be away from the family.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
That's the only reason.
Speaker 5 (09:39):
Because nothing should take you that long to cook right,
regardless whether it's for the holidays, us for a big family.
And I always say the biggest key to reducing your time.
You already know what your menu is, right, so just
take all your ingredients out. Have everything got laid out
in sections in your kits, saying okay, I got the
ingredients from a yam's here, I got the ingredients from
(10:02):
a peace salar. Here, my mac and cheese here. That
way you can flow seamlessly. Because we are a refrigerator
and pantry cooks. Instead of taking everything out, we know
we won't, but we run, continue to run back and
forth on the refrigerator, racking back and forth on the pantry.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
Then the kitchen look chaotic.
Speaker 5 (10:22):
You got spices and everything everywhere, and then we end
up forgetting some ingreeding.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
It takes a whirl of wind. So see when you
your me. Some plots is.
Speaker 5 (10:31):
What the culinary French name for it. I paid over
fifty grand to go to culinary school just to learn
that one word. But tell me some plots mean to
get everything in the order. If you do that, you
will you will reduce your time by half.
Speaker 6 (10:47):
Please don't go anywhere, We'll be right back with more
money making conversations. Masterclass Welcome back to the Making Conversations Masterclass,
hosted by Rashaan McDonald. Money Making Conversations Masterclass continues online
at Moneymakingconversations dot com and follow Money Making Conversations Masterclass
(11:12):
on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
Wow Wow because because because on the show to day,
I want to talk about it stuff. If people compliment
me on eat my food on a regular basis and
go okay, how did you make this?
Speaker 5 (11:25):
Now?
Speaker 3 (11:26):
Macron and cheese, now that's a stable.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
You know.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
I know everybody listen to the show, but black people
they you you're going to all the day to get
mad at the macaroni and G's ain't right now. Some
people bake it. I just you know, this is my
recipe for macaron cheese. I getst some elbow, I give
me some chear cheese, some belveto, I put some bad.
I put some alfredo white Affredo sauce. That's my macaroni
g And ain't nobody ever complaining about my macaron j Now.
(11:53):
I see people, my sisters, they be in the kitchen
five hours, man, working on this macaron geese. I'm just
trying to kill some room there, Chiff. Why are people
just doing it? I'm not saying wrong, but so long
for all the wrong reasons, because all the want is
a good meal.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
Yes true.
Speaker 5 (12:10):
I think what has happened with with Americans today? We
have romanticized mac and cheese. You know, we go to
the extreme to.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
Get in your Cigare would you do because you knew
abut recipes?
Speaker 1 (12:25):
Yes?
Speaker 5 (12:26):
Me for my mac and cheese, I start off with,
of course, a I like using kvatopie pasta. Okay, cavatoppee
pasta looks almost similar to the elbow magazef It's a
corkscrew summer and it's designed to really hold onto the cheese.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
Secondly, mac and cheese.
Speaker 5 (12:43):
Is all about the cheese at the end of the day,
and what flavors you choose for your cheese. Me. I
really love a good sharp cheddar and smoke, gooda blended together,
so it's beichamel, sauce, butter, flour and cream. Bring get together,
add my cheese, and then I always say the kids
(13:03):
some fresh nutmeg to a good mac.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Because now you know the story.
Speaker 5 (13:07):
For those that don't know, mac and cheese was created
by the African Americans, that was actually created by us.
The first family in Philadelphia who started off with mac
and cheese, because you know, Thomas Jefferson was addicted to cheese,
and his chef was said to be the first chef
who created mac and cheese for him here in the
(13:28):
United States.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
Because while Thomas Jefferson.
Speaker 5 (13:30):
Would travel all around the where, he would take this
African American chef slash slave with him everywhere. So when
he would go back overseas to England, this chef is
in there learning and working with all the chefs there,
bringing that knowledge back here started creating mac and cheese
(13:51):
from them here. So it's a part of our heritage
and our culture. When we see it, we tend to
think when we see it that, oh, it's just a
French dish and somelfing. No, that comes from us. It
comes from this stock. That's one of the reasons why
we take so much pride in it. But when you
make that dish andmeal cheese sauce and fold the cheese
in blended with your pasta, bake it off. To me,
(14:15):
it's one of the best things. But I always say
mac and cheese is in the eye of older. There
are a ton of amazed mac and cheese and people.
Speaker 3 (14:22):
Will fight you yeah, I know right, and fight you
on that mac and cheese, you know.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
And I've tried. I tried to bake.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
But I'm always a guy.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
Like I said when I talked about cooking, I always
try to keep it good but simple, you know. And
you've shown me that over the years. How you told
me how to do cabbage. Now you do cabbage like
three hours do cabbage. He came my kitchen that did
cabbages in fifteen minutes. I was mad, I said, fifteen minutes.
I do cabbages for three hours. But when you learned,
but I realized that you have to learn to grow.
(14:50):
And then if you don't learn, do you don't understand
how to make your life better? Now, Candy dams another staple.
If you go to any buffety, I always jack up
the price on the yams. There's always seventy five bowl
with your candy m. Now candy am is all I
do you know? Ball that candy am?
Speaker 1 (15:07):
Get it soft? Of course, you know.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
Then I peel it in there and then I dropped
me some butter in there. I put me some nutmeg
and some uh ground cinnamon and that bad boy. And
then I then I come back with me like a
cup of sugar depends on how many piles, just about
four or five candy chopping up, chopping up. I'm mixing
my candy ams and my sweepy tato pies. I apologize, y'all,
(15:31):
chop it up, and then I chop it up first.
Then I put in the pot ball until it gets tender.
Then I put the Then I drain it a little
bit because you don't want all that liquid in there, because.
Speaker 5 (15:41):
You got some of the stars at the bottle of
that that's flavored to blend with it.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
And then I then I come back with the brown sugar,
the white sugar, the nutmeg, and the cinema.
Speaker 5 (15:51):
I'm done, Yes, yes, why wow?
Speaker 1 (15:55):
Looking at me like I'm crazy now, chef talked to me.
Speaker 5 (15:58):
Him, our chef, we're over complicating the kitchen. What you
just named off makes a perfectly good candy yam staple
in at home. You know, of course they won't if
they want to get all exotic and go over boyd,
you got those that are adding cognac to it and flambay.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
And and stuff.
Speaker 5 (16:17):
But a perfect a perfectly good candy jam is ash
is what you said. Start off with those jams you
want to part ball and get them nice good tender idea.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
Yeah exactly.
Speaker 5 (16:30):
Then you want to go in for making your your base,
your sauce, which is your butter.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
I also I love using molasses and.
Speaker 5 (16:38):
Brown sugar, which the brown sugar has the molasses conting
in it, some green granulaated cinnamon, none mag all those
things really bring those flavors together. And then I also
like adding some fresh vanilla bean paste to mine. Okay,
vanilla bean paste, or you can use vanilla ass strake.
You have to go on a hunt, but normally I
(17:00):
have some vanilla.
Speaker 3 (17:02):
Well, so I would pick no less from you.
Speaker 5 (17:05):
Okay, but yeah, but that's a that's a good candy
yeam for me.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
And so so now we go to your book.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
You know something is by one hundred recipes from your
table to ours, give us at least three that you
recommend from your book that they could try.
Speaker 5 (17:24):
So first one my creole barbecue shrimp, which is amazing
and it's a really simple. Get get some nice, good
large shrimp of jumbo prawns. You want to start off
with minced garlic, wooster, share of sauce, butter, smoke, paprika,
little brown sugar, lemon juice and fresh lemons. And you
(17:44):
want to put you want to put your shrimp in
a cast down skill in and give it a bath
in this, put a lid on it or foil, pop
it in the oven three twenty five and let it
just bake for twenty minutes. And all this it is
a shrimp peeled if you want. Okay, now me personally,
all I do is I leave the shell on and
(18:05):
I divein them. Okay, the veinum split the top of
the veinum, because what happens is the shell is stocked
it's flavor.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
So remember this broth.
Speaker 5 (18:15):
You got wooster shower, you got butter you got brown sugar,
you got fresh garlic, you got Bayley creole season, all this,
and you got the shrimp still in butterfly in the shells.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
Laying in here. And you're gonna bake this.
Speaker 5 (18:28):
And as you're baking it, the sauce is gonna start
to reduce and thicken up. But also the flavor from
the shrimp shells is releasing into the flavor of their broths.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
Some of the most amazing tasting.
Speaker 5 (18:41):
It's the dish is awesome, and I always like serving
that with some nice, good fresh garlic toes.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
So that's my first one. My next one.
Speaker 5 (18:51):
If we're playing on the grill, my cranberry glaze ribs,
my whiskey cranberry glaze ribs. You can do these and
point or be so it doesn't matter what's watching.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
The beeches too bid exactly.
Speaker 5 (19:03):
So get your nice Saint Louis, Saint Louis rib trimming
down the cranberry whiskey. And this is a play also
because if you I love cranberries, especially with my dressing
and anything else, So get you some cranberry juice or
fresh cranberries and process them down.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
Use your cranberry juice.
Speaker 3 (19:20):
You're talking about the creber juice you can drink.
Speaker 5 (19:22):
Yes, the cranberry juices you can drink. Because what you're
gonna do is you're gonna make a sauce with it.
Cranberry juices, you can drink your favorite brandy or whiskey
that you like. You're gonna fold those in and I
give you these recipes in the book with your browns
to cook it down, add a little smoke flavor to it,
you add some chipotle to it. But you're making this
glaze and as those ribs are smoking on your grill.
(19:44):
You're just brushing it with their glaze, allowing their flavor
to really go on, and it gives a nice, good
fester flavor.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
Number three from the book, Southern Inspired. It's in the
stores right now, Yes it is.
Speaker 5 (19:54):
They can get it in all stores and on Amazon.
Cool proud to say that we hit the best sellers
listen couple of times. So the book has been doing
amazingly well. Because these are two recipes that are from
my dinner table and I'm sharing.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
It with the world. But my third one, my seafood
mac and cheese.
Speaker 5 (20:13):
What I was talking about, Yes, yes, And so the
maga cheese I made, Yes, okay, and take take.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
That maga cheese. You make it. Go ahead and get
you some lobster. Get you some lobster. Get you some shrimp.
Speaker 5 (20:25):
We're gonna saltee it up with some nice good garlic butter.
We're gonna fold it in and we're gonna do a
nice good bread crumb over the top of this.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
Man About the shrimp, though, do you chop the shrimp
up or what are you doing with you?
Speaker 1 (20:37):
Yes?
Speaker 5 (20:37):
I always when I'm incorporating them in, I always chop
it up. Because I wanted to beat because it also
got lump lump lobster and crab meat, and I want
tead bitch of the shrimp you get in every bike
with some nice good chicken eatbster and lobster. Yes, and
chicken and dewey sausage. That's yes, that's look mac.
Speaker 3 (21:02):
So man, I will thank you for helping me walk
through some.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
Steps learn more about the business because it is Money
Making Conversations master Class, but more important, your book's fantastic.
Thanks for coming on Money Making Conversations Masterclass, helping people
go through some pain moments. You don't have to be
in the kitchen for twelve hours, MCA cheese if you're
doing the right for yourself to worry about what else
is doing it and candy gams are the easiest thing
(21:27):
to make.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
Keep it simple, But boy, I'm gonna.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
Have to do that seafood, Mac and cheese. Yes, you
got your poor smile at bit. Trust me, I won't
let you down. Appreciate it again another episode of Money
Making Conversations Masterclass, this time with chefs.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
You know it well. Thank you.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
This has been another edition of Money Making Conversations Masterclass
posted by me Rashaun McDonald, Thank you to our guests
on the show today and thank you listening to audience now.
If you want to listen to any episode I want
to be a guest on the show, visit Moneymaking Conversations
dot com. Social media is money Making Conversations. Join us
next week and remember to always.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
Leave with your gifts.
Speaker 3 (22:05):
Keep winning, mm hmm
Hi.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
I am Rushan McDonald, a host of weekly Money Making
Conversation Masterclass show. The interviews and information that this show
provides are for everyone. It's time to stop reading other
people's success stories and start living your own. If you
want to be a guest on my show, please visit
our website, Moneymaking Conversations dot com and click the be
a Guest button. Press submit and information will come directly
(00:23):
to me. Now let's get this show started. My guess
is the author of a very popular cookbook entitled Southern
Inspired more than one hundred delicious dishes from My American
Table to yours. He is renowned for using food to
promote positive family images and has captivated television and live
audience with his infectious personality and more importantly.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Culinary expertise.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
If you haven't seen them on TV, he owes New
Soul Kitchen and New Soul Kitchen Remix on CLEOTV. That's
a lot, but he's here today. Please welcome to Money
Making Conversation Masterclass. Chef genard E. Chef, how you doing?
Speaker 1 (01:01):
I am doing good? How about yourself? I'm taking some chef.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
First time we met twenty seventeen. Well, those credits around back.
Speaker 4 (01:08):
Then I've been working What made a difference because I
remember the first time we met, it was on my
radio show in Houston, Texas, and he was talking about
seasoning your seasoning out there, and he was talking about how.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
You use that technique to start selling your product. Marketing
techniques ain't like what that's built on your brand. Since
twenty seventeen to today, Oh.
Speaker 5 (01:33):
You know, I've successfully built a lot into my brand.
I was really intentional starting off with just a season
line and these were recipes that I had inherited over
the years. Then we branched into making hot sauces and
barbecue sauces from recipes that I learned from my father,
(01:53):
and landing that first opportunity and Whole Foods opened up
a bigger door than out me to scale as well
as stepp into other arenas from the culinary aspect. We're
looking at TV now, you know, cookbooks, all these things.
I wanted to be inclusive to the shift. You know,
we're building my brand to where.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
It is now.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
We're just wanting to make a conversation master. Okay. When
I hear seasoning in my mind, I don't hear a lot.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Of money in my mind. Okay, we hear hot sauce,
I don't hear a lot of money. You know, you're
selling millions of bottles of hot sauce like they do
down a Louisiana.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Okay, do you look at from a.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Budget plan a business plan when you talk about seasoning,
talk about hot sauce. How do you come to the
idea that I'm gonna do this and what business model
do you apply when you're doing these different products.
Speaker 5 (02:49):
One of the things that I applies as I'm in
the culinary feel, but there are so many different fastests
to the culinary feeling.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
And I talked to a lot of young chelves about this.
Speaker 5 (02:59):
Is you have the entertainment side, which is TV, you
have the restaurant side, you have the catering side, and
then you also have the food and manufacturer and bevers
side of things. So what I focused on was how
can I buld from the extension of who chef jeniority is.
Once I garnered that opportunity to first appear on Food Network,
(03:23):
I thought to myself, it's not about being on the TV.
It's about what happens after the TV goes off, And
so I started using myself as that branding platform for
everything that I had. Although I was going on those
shows cut Through Kitching, winning on those shows Food Network Star,
(03:46):
I always thought about when the television goes off, how
can I direct them to a brand. Because my biggest
thing is from a business standpoint, is I focus on volume.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
See yes, And in the sauce and.
Speaker 5 (04:01):
Spice industry, the profit or percentage margin is low, so
you have to focus on volume. So focusing on volume
benefits me from having nationwide distribution and whole food stores
to supply. After I go out and build the demand
for it volume moving numbers, then that then those small
(04:25):
increments of a percentage then start becoming a bigger increment.
Second stage website branding is where do you direct people to?
And everything when it comes to me is all chef
generis so it's easy for people to find. And we
focus on volume, and that's how we make our money
off of moving numbers, but more importantly moving quality product
(04:47):
see see that's the key when we create. When I
create a spice, I use quality and greets and I
use some of the freshes earth that are source right.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
We know the thing about it because I want to
make sure people understand that you know it's watching that
growth watching twenty seventeen.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
I didn't know you.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
You were just enthusiastic as you are enthusiastic today about
the culinary feel and watching you on television. You know
today's show, it's live. What's running through your head? You
have a short window. You can't make a mistake your
TV celebrity hosts who may or may not know how
(05:25):
to cook the general public. It has to be simplified,
but look fantastic. How do you pull it off every time?
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Yefter?
Speaker 3 (05:34):
Well, how do you pull it off?
Speaker 1 (05:35):
You know?
Speaker 5 (05:35):
To be honest with you, Although I've done it so
many times, every time I go in front of a camera,
I feel the same nervous, jittery feelings as if it's
my first time, except I understand and know what the
mission and what the goal is.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
Right, yeah, so it makes me feel human.
Speaker 5 (05:56):
But my biggest thing on pulling off every time is
knowing it's ain't true to my culinary point of view.
See every show you go on, they're gonna always ask
you what it is that you want to create or
what do you envision?
Speaker 1 (06:08):
What do you what do you have in mind?
Speaker 5 (06:09):
So always set myself up for sucuccess for success, because
cooking is about bringing the people into my world right
and getting them to experience and and see whether it's
you're watching me create this recipe or you're actually indulging
in it when I'm when I'm side by side with
somebody on the Today Show or Gmail, one of those.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
But it's about bringing them into my world.
Speaker 5 (06:33):
So once you understand yourself, you can always win when
you go on there, because I'm really bringing you into
my dream.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
I'm not going into yours.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Now, let's talk about, Okay, different things you can use
on the outdoor before we go indoor.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
Okay, like I got a green egg.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
Oh, now when you we're not saying that anything we're
talking about is bad. But everybody have their preferences. Okay,
what is your preference for outdoor cooking?
Speaker 1 (06:59):
Oh?
Speaker 5 (06:59):
My preference for outdoor cooking is give me something nice
to drink when I fied the grill.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
And some good music and I'm good to go.
Speaker 5 (07:13):
It don't matter whether I got the big green nagg
got a little smoky Joe.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
I'm gonna have a time outside. You know, I grew
up with the yes. My dad will cheers, my dad
will get that fifty five gallup drum, cut it, put
the little Yeah, we will barbecued.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
Yes, yes, that thing.
Speaker 5 (07:33):
You love it just hanging around watching your dad do it.
And that's the same thing that I do with my friends,
family and kids now because I get an enjoyment out
of it. But I say, if you if you're planning
on smoking or grilling anything this week, what you want
to do is you want to make sure you select
the right wood wooch key. Yeah, wood is key, because
(07:56):
that's gonna determine your holiday flavor. Whether it's your turkey,
your ham, so, whether you want hickory, cherry, apple, mesquite, peach,
pecan wood, that's gonna determine your overall flavored thing. Because
remember that primary dish that you're doing on the grill
is typically at the focal point. So I say start
(08:17):
off with thinking what flavor wood would I like to
experience this year? Okay, and once you get that damn packed,
then just determine what you're gonna do with your turkey.
Me always say a nice, good injected turkey is really good.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
I'm an injecting guy. Yes, I go, I'm gonna lotch you.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
I go and get tony c give either the butter
sometime the Cajun yes injected and different makes that turkey
swoll up with the flavor. They slide that bad boy
in that. Now let's talk about the turkey. Okay, Well
we're gonna have turkey or spiral hand. I just made
a dish spiral hand with the little brown sugar glaze
over it. Now the turkey. Now, I did this all
(08:57):
in roughly five hours. I did that turkey, I did ham,
I did pe and onion saddle. I did the yams,
and then the macaroni and cheese. I did the you know,
I did my old cranberry sauce. I gotta have that
jam that's classic for me. And then I did also,
I did corn bread, I did I did bunk cake,
(09:18):
banana butter, pecan bunk cake, and peach cobbler, all within
a five hour window.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
Well, we're talking about in the show, is doing it right?
Doing it? Fanst Why are people out there cooking for
twelve hours?
Speaker 5 (09:32):
Always say they're in the kitchen cooking for twelve hours
because they want to be away from the family.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
That's the only reason.
Speaker 5 (09:39):
Because nothing should take you that long to cook right,
regardless whether it's for the holidays, us for a big family.
And I always say the biggest key to reducing your time.
You already know what your menu is, right, so just
take all your ingredients out. Have everything got laid out
in sections in your kits, saying okay, I got the
ingredients from a yam's here, I got the ingredients from
(10:02):
a peace salar. Here, my mac and cheese here. That
way you can flow seamlessly. Because we are a refrigerator
and pantry cooks. Instead of taking everything out, we know
we won't, but we run, continue to run back and
forth on the refrigerator, racking back and forth on the pantry.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
Then the kitchen look chaotic.
Speaker 5 (10:22):
You got spices and everything everywhere, and then we end
up forgetting some ingreeding.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
It takes a whirl of wind. So see when you
your me. Some plots is.
Speaker 5 (10:31):
What the culinary French name for it. I paid over
fifty grand to go to culinary school just to learn
that one word. But tell me some plots mean to
get everything in the order. If you do that, you
will you will reduce your time by half.
Speaker 6 (10:47):
Please don't go anywhere, We'll be right back with more
money making conversations. Masterclass Welcome back to the Making Conversations Masterclass,
hosted by Rashaan McDonald. Money Making Conversations Masterclass continues online
at Moneymakingconversations dot com and follow Money Making Conversations Masterclass
(11:12):
on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
Wow Wow because because because on the show to day,
I want to talk about it stuff. If people compliment
me on eat my food on a regular basis and
go okay, how did you make this?
Speaker 5 (11:25):
Now?
Speaker 3 (11:26):
Macron and cheese, now that's a stable.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
You know.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
I know everybody listen to the show, but black people
they you you're going to all the day to get
mad at the macaroni and G's ain't right now. Some
people bake it. I just you know, this is my
recipe for macaron cheese. I getst some elbow, I give
me some chear cheese, some belveto, I put some bad.
I put some alfredo white Affredo sauce. That's my macaroni
g And ain't nobody ever complaining about my macaron j Now.
(11:53):
I see people, my sisters, they be in the kitchen
five hours, man, working on this macaron geese. I'm just
trying to kill some room there, Chiff. Why are people
just doing it? I'm not saying wrong, but so long
for all the wrong reasons, because all the want is
a good meal.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
Yes true.
Speaker 5 (12:10):
I think what has happened with with Americans today? We
have romanticized mac and cheese. You know, we go to
the extreme to.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
Get in your Cigare would you do because you knew
abut recipes?
Speaker 1 (12:25):
Yes?
Speaker 5 (12:26):
Me for my mac and cheese, I start off with,
of course, a I like using kvatopie pasta. Okay, cavatoppee
pasta looks almost similar to the elbow magazef It's a
corkscrew summer and it's designed to really hold onto the cheese.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
Secondly, mac and cheese.
Speaker 5 (12:43):
Is all about the cheese at the end of the day,
and what flavors you choose for your cheese. Me. I
really love a good sharp cheddar and smoke, gooda blended together,
so it's beichamel, sauce, butter, flour and cream. Bring get together,
add my cheese, and then I always say the kids
(13:03):
some fresh nutmeg to a good mac.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Because now you know the story.
Speaker 5 (13:07):
For those that don't know, mac and cheese was created
by the African Americans, that was actually created by us.
The first family in Philadelphia who started off with mac
and cheese, because you know, Thomas Jefferson was addicted to cheese,
and his chef was said to be the first chef
who created mac and cheese for him here in the
(13:28):
United States.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
Because while Thomas Jefferson.
Speaker 5 (13:30):
Would travel all around the where, he would take this
African American chef slash slave with him everywhere. So when
he would go back overseas to England, this chef is
in there learning and working with all the chefs there,
bringing that knowledge back here started creating mac and cheese
(13:51):
from them here. So it's a part of our heritage
and our culture. When we see it, we tend to
think when we see it that, oh, it's just a
French dish and somelfing. No, that comes from us. It
comes from this stock. That's one of the reasons why
we take so much pride in it. But when you
make that dish andmeal cheese sauce and fold the cheese
in blended with your pasta, bake it off. To me,
(14:15):
it's one of the best things. But I always say
mac and cheese is in the eye of older. There
are a ton of amazed mac and cheese and people.
Speaker 3 (14:22):
Will fight you yeah, I know right, and fight you
on that mac and cheese, you know.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
And I've tried. I tried to bake.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
But I'm always a guy.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
Like I said when I talked about cooking, I always
try to keep it good but simple, you know. And
you've shown me that over the years. How you told
me how to do cabbage. Now you do cabbage like
three hours do cabbage. He came my kitchen that did
cabbages in fifteen minutes. I was mad, I said, fifteen minutes.
I do cabbages for three hours. But when you learned,
but I realized that you have to learn to grow.
(14:50):
And then if you don't learn, do you don't understand
how to make your life better? Now, Candy dams another staple.
If you go to any buffety, I always jack up
the price on the yams. There's always seventy five bowl
with your candy m. Now candy am is all I
do you know? Ball that candy am?
Speaker 1 (15:07):
Get it soft? Of course, you know.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
Then I peel it in there and then I dropped
me some butter in there. I put me some nutmeg
and some uh ground cinnamon and that bad boy. And
then I then I come back with me like a
cup of sugar depends on how many piles, just about
four or five candy chopping up, chopping up. I'm mixing
my candy ams and my sweepy tato pies. I apologize, y'all,
(15:31):
chop it up, and then I chop it up first.
Then I put in the pot ball until it gets tender.
Then I put the Then I drain it a little
bit because you don't want all that liquid in there, because.
Speaker 5 (15:41):
You got some of the stars at the bottle of
that that's flavored to blend with it.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
And then I then I come back with the brown sugar,
the white sugar, the nutmeg, and the cinema.
Speaker 5 (15:51):
I'm done, Yes, yes, why wow?
Speaker 1 (15:55):
Looking at me like I'm crazy now, chef talked to me.
Speaker 5 (15:58):
Him, our chef, we're over complicating the kitchen. What you
just named off makes a perfectly good candy yam staple
in at home. You know, of course they won't if
they want to get all exotic and go over boyd,
you got those that are adding cognac to it and flambay.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
And and stuff.
Speaker 5 (16:17):
But a perfect a perfectly good candy jam is ash
is what you said. Start off with those jams you
want to part ball and get them nice good tender idea.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
Yeah exactly.
Speaker 5 (16:30):
Then you want to go in for making your your base,
your sauce, which is your butter.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
I also I love using molasses and.
Speaker 5 (16:38):
Brown sugar, which the brown sugar has the molasses conting
in it, some green granulaated cinnamon, none mag all those
things really bring those flavors together. And then I also
like adding some fresh vanilla bean paste to mine. Okay,
vanilla bean paste, or you can use vanilla ass strake.
You have to go on a hunt, but normally I
(17:00):
have some vanilla.
Speaker 3 (17:02):
Well, so I would pick no less from you.
Speaker 5 (17:05):
Okay, but yeah, but that's a that's a good candy
yeam for me.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
And so so now we go to your book.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
You know something is by one hundred recipes from your
table to ours, give us at least three that you
recommend from your book that they could try.
Speaker 5 (17:24):
So first one my creole barbecue shrimp, which is amazing
and it's a really simple. Get get some nice, good
large shrimp of jumbo prawns. You want to start off
with minced garlic, wooster, share of sauce, butter, smoke, paprika,
little brown sugar, lemon juice and fresh lemons. And you
(17:44):
want to put you want to put your shrimp in
a cast down skill in and give it a bath
in this, put a lid on it or foil, pop
it in the oven three twenty five and let it
just bake for twenty minutes. And all this it is
a shrimp peeled if you want. Okay, now me personally,
all I do is I leave the shell on and
(18:05):
I divein them. Okay, the veinum split the top of
the veinum, because what happens is the shell is stocked
it's flavor.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
So remember this broth.
Speaker 5 (18:15):
You got wooster shower, you got butter you got brown sugar,
you got fresh garlic, you got Bayley creole season, all this,
and you got the shrimp still in butterfly in the shells.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
Laying in here. And you're gonna bake this.
Speaker 5 (18:28):
And as you're baking it, the sauce is gonna start
to reduce and thicken up. But also the flavor from
the shrimp shells is releasing into the flavor of their broths.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
Some of the most amazing tasting.
Speaker 5 (18:41):
It's the dish is awesome, and I always like serving
that with some nice, good fresh garlic toes.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
So that's my first one. My next one.
Speaker 5 (18:51):
If we're playing on the grill, my cranberry glaze ribs,
my whiskey cranberry glaze ribs. You can do these and
point or be so it doesn't matter what's watching.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
The beeches too bid exactly.
Speaker 5 (19:03):
So get your nice Saint Louis, Saint Louis rib trimming
down the cranberry whiskey. And this is a play also
because if you I love cranberries, especially with my dressing
and anything else, So get you some cranberry juice or
fresh cranberries and process them down.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
Use your cranberry juice.
Speaker 3 (19:20):
You're talking about the creber juice you can drink.
Speaker 5 (19:22):
Yes, the cranberry juices you can drink. Because what you're
gonna do is you're gonna make a sauce with it.
Cranberry juices, you can drink your favorite brandy or whiskey
that you like. You're gonna fold those in and I
give you these recipes in the book with your browns
to cook it down, add a little smoke flavor to it,
you add some chipotle to it. But you're making this
glaze and as those ribs are smoking on your grill.
(19:44):
You're just brushing it with their glaze, allowing their flavor
to really go on, and it gives a nice, good
fester flavor.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
Number three from the book, Southern Inspired. It's in the
stores right now, Yes it is.
Speaker 5 (19:54):
They can get it in all stores and on Amazon.
Cool proud to say that we hit the best sellers
listen couple of times. So the book has been doing
amazingly well. Because these are two recipes that are from
my dinner table and I'm sharing.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
It with the world. But my third one, my seafood
mac and cheese.
Speaker 5 (20:13):
What I was talking about, Yes, yes, And so the
maga cheese I made, Yes, okay, and take take.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
That maga cheese. You make it. Go ahead and get
you some lobster. Get you some lobster. Get you some shrimp.
Speaker 5 (20:25):
We're gonna saltee it up with some nice good garlic butter.
We're gonna fold it in and we're gonna do a
nice good bread crumb over the top of this.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
Man About the shrimp, though, do you chop the shrimp
up or what are you doing with you?
Speaker 1 (20:37):
Yes?
Speaker 5 (20:37):
I always when I'm incorporating them in, I always chop
it up. Because I wanted to beat because it also
got lump lump lobster and crab meat, and I want
tead bitch of the shrimp you get in every bike
with some nice good chicken eatbster and lobster. Yes, and
chicken and dewey sausage. That's yes, that's look mac.
Speaker 3 (21:02):
So man, I will thank you for helping me walk
through some.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
Steps learn more about the business because it is Money
Making Conversations master Class, but more important, your book's fantastic.
Thanks for coming on Money Making Conversations Masterclass, helping people
go through some pain moments. You don't have to be
in the kitchen for twelve hours, MCA cheese if you're
doing the right for yourself to worry about what else
is doing it and candy gams are the easiest thing
(21:27):
to make.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
Keep it simple, But boy, I'm gonna.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
Have to do that seafood, Mac and cheese. Yes, you
got your poor smile at bit. Trust me, I won't
let you down. Appreciate it again another episode of Money
Making Conversations Masterclass, this time with chefs.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
You know it well. Thank you.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
This has been another edition of Money Making Conversations Masterclass
posted by me Rashaun McDonald, Thank you to our guests
on the show today and thank you listening to audience now.
If you want to listen to any episode I want
to be a guest on the show, visit Moneymaking Conversations
dot com. Social media is money Making Conversations. Join us
next week and remember to always.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
Leave with your gifts.
Speaker 3 (22:05):
Keep winning, mm hmm
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