November 12, 2025 • 40 mins
Today on The Breakfast Club, Kardea Brown Talks New Cookbook 'Make Do With What You Have', Charleston Cuisine, Emmys. Listen For More!
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@BreakfastClubPower1051FM
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Every day a week ago.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Click your ass up the Breakfast Club, finish for y'all.
Done morning.
Speaker 3 (00:07):
Everybody is the j Envy Jess hilarious, Charlamagne the guy.
We are the Breakfast Club. Lona Roses here as well.
We got a special guest in the building. Yes, indeed,
Cardea Brown.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Welcome.
Speaker 4 (00:17):
Hi.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
How are you feeling this morning?
Speaker 4 (00:18):
I'm feeling good.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
How y'all feeling black and holly favored?
Speaker 5 (00:21):
That's right?
Speaker 6 (00:22):
Let me tell you what what it took to get here. Okay,
so my flight was canceled from Charleston, Oh right, but
I knew it was going to be canceled, so something
told me just go ahead and book a trip on
the Amtrak.
Speaker 4 (00:35):
Y'all fourteen hours watching it.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
We should be cooking for you.
Speaker 4 (00:42):
A breakfast, but and then the train got stuck in DC.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
So would you fly in?
Speaker 4 (00:46):
I didn't fly in?
Speaker 2 (00:48):
But when was you scheduled to fly in?
Speaker 4 (00:50):
I was scheduled to fly in yesterday at two fifty
five this morning, and they can't.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
They already had canceled day.
Speaker 4 (00:56):
I heard cancel.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Yikes, he was going on.
Speaker 4 (00:58):
I made sure I came.
Speaker 7 (00:59):
You made it.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
I made sure I was here.
Speaker 7 (01:01):
That's because you're supposed to be here about this.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
How are you feeling. I'm feeling good, feeling good.
Speaker 4 (01:06):
I feel like great.
Speaker 7 (01:07):
I could have cooked you breakfast. You could, book says,
use what you got exactly?
Speaker 4 (01:13):
You know what I mean? What did you have?
Speaker 5 (01:15):
You could have did eggs, bacon, pancakes? I do with
fried apples? You know apple my grandmother does. Yep, that's
the thing from my grandma from Virginia.
Speaker 6 (01:23):
Okay, so yeah that makes sense. So like you just
like take the apples, slice them up, cut them in
and put them in a pan with like some butter
or something.
Speaker 7 (01:29):
And the cinnamon brown little brown sugar. Yeah, oh, I
definitely could have. That's our favorite meal.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
That's an easy breakfast, you know, because you know, since
since your name been on this the list that you
were coming up here, Charlemagne has been salivating, right or
like just come to just thro all down the mouth.
So let's lit'sten because let's how did you get into cooking? Like,
let's got from the beginning. It's your first time? How
did you get into cooking?
Speaker 1 (01:53):
What made you? We got some time?
Speaker 6 (01:56):
Okay, So my grandmother and my mother are excellent cooks.
My grandmother on My father's side was known for her
red rice in Charleston. Hey, you know you know about
that red rice.
Speaker 4 (02:07):
So she was a cook at the Pigle Wiggly on
meat and street.
Speaker 8 (02:13):
Stuff.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Are you up? Okay?
Speaker 6 (02:15):
So she was a cook, a long time cook there.
But I get it from both sides of my family.
I do not have any professional background experience. I did
not go to culinary school. It was just something I
always loved to do.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
I was to be so good and it still is.
Speaker 6 (02:30):
The one on Savannah Highway. It's delicious, that fried chicken.
You know Callie Greens red rice on Fridays. My husband
now knows about it. But so I started out with
just like I'm My background is in social work. I
went to school for psychology. I just thought I was
going to do something in the nonprofit world, which I did.
I worked at Big Brothers, Bicks Sisters I did. I
(02:53):
did removal of children from homes, and I did child placement.
Speaker 4 (02:58):
I did all of that.
Speaker 6 (02:59):
So in the miss of doing that, because it's just
a very hard job. You know, it's rewarding, but it's hard.
So I use cooking as an outlet for me my
entire life. I've just always done exactly. So I was
living in Jersey at the time, in twenty fifteen, and
I was dating this guy who one day was like
recording me. I was like, I don't know why he's
(03:20):
recording me. I thought he was just gonna put it
on Instagram. I get a call maybe a few days
later from a producer who's like, your boyfriend sent in
a video of you cooking.
Speaker 7 (03:28):
He was cooking, I was cooking.
Speaker 6 (03:40):
I was I was cooking, recording me cooking, and I
got a call from a producer.
Speaker 4 (03:46):
My bad let me back up.
Speaker 6 (03:48):
So I got a call from a producer said, hey,
we are featuring home cooks on this new show on
the Cooking Channel, and we want to feature you. We
like your style of cooking, like your personality.
Speaker 4 (03:57):
I thought it was a joke. I'm like, y'all are
not about to come.
Speaker 6 (04:00):
I'm living in Jersey. I'm just cooking, you know, for fun.
This is not serious. You can't be They were serious.
They filmed the show over course of like a weekend,
and on the last day of filming, the producer came
up to me and said, I think you have what
it takes to be like a food personality.
Speaker 4 (04:16):
I think you should try it.
Speaker 6 (04:17):
I mean, listen, I don't know what kind of jokes
you got going on here, but this was fun. I'm
going to go back to my cubicle on Monday and
go back to.
Speaker 4 (04:24):
My regular life.
Speaker 6 (04:25):
He was like, I really think you should give this
a shot. You're natural at this. I know you've never
been on TV before, but if you, if you let
us pitch you, we want to pitch you to the
Food Network.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
Wow.
Speaker 6 (04:35):
So they pitched me, and well before that, something in me.
It was just like, God, you wouldn't bring me this
far and show me this if it wasn't something behind it.
So the following week I put in my resignation letter
at work.
Speaker 9 (04:49):
Ooh, so you just like your discernment just said, you
know what, it's time to step on faith.
Speaker 6 (04:54):
Nothing ever felt right as that weekend did, and so
I stepped out on faith, sold all of my belongings,
got on the Amtrak, and moved back down to Charleston and.
Speaker 4 (05:07):
Said this is what is going to be.
Speaker 6 (05:08):
I started a supper club called the New Gulla Supper Club,
where it featured all of the Gullageeche dishes, and I
honed it on my skills and eventually they we did
a sizzle reel and Food Network kind of gave in,
was like, oh, we'll give you a shot. And it
took about four or five years before that. Yes, because
I did get a no again. I got a few notes,
but I didn't take it as no, it's not for you.
(05:29):
I heard it as no, not right now. So I
kept kept honing in on my skills, kept doing my thing.
I did my supper club, and I had little appearances
here and there on the Cooking Channel and Food Network,
and eventually they gave me my shot, and with a
proof of concept, they saw the proof of concept and
greenlit the first season of Delicious.
Speaker 8 (05:49):
Delicious ms Brown. Wow, and you've won two Emmys for
that so far.
Speaker 9 (05:53):
Wow, out Standing Culinary Instructional Series and Outstanding Culinary.
Speaker 4 (05:57):
Hosts and the first black woman to do something.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Wow.
Speaker 9 (06:01):
Man, it's so interesting, right because you know you and Sonny.
Sonny was the first black woman that I know from culture, right,
Sonny Anderson who broke through on the Food Network. How
hard is that for a black woman to break through
on the Food Network?
Speaker 2 (06:14):
And I only know y'all do, right, that's it?
Speaker 6 (06:18):
You know, I think over the years they've gotten better
with diversity and inclusion on the network, but for a
long time, it was just Sonny the Neely's yes, and
Chef Aaron with Big Daddy's House. And but as far
as a black woman, back then, all I knew was
b Smith and yes, God bless her so, but Sonny
(06:43):
was the only one, and Sonny was you know, I like.
Speaker 4 (06:45):
I tell anybody, Sonny is who I looked up to.
Speaker 6 (06:47):
And I saw her on there and I saw her
being her authentic self, and I was like, if she
can do it, you know I can do But yeah,
it's it's just really been us. And then now Carla
Hall is on the network as well, but it's it's
it's it's hard. You know, it's a white male dominated
field in and out of television. Even with the culinary
(07:09):
world in general. You know, most executive chefs, head chefs
are white men.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
I do have one question before we go into the
chef something that just just made me think.
Speaker 10 (07:17):
When you used to work at CPS, what was the
reason why you would take a child from a home
like because usually they say it takes a long time,
it has to be almost like to the words, So
what would be that reason like how far does it
go because it just just.
Speaker 6 (07:30):
Can deplorable environments, like if you you know, I've said
before that sometimes CPS can let things slip through the
cracks and on my watch, you know, any any notices
anything like coming in and seeing multiple reports of abuse
and you walk into a home and you see that
they're clearly living in deplorable and environments. After that, in
(07:55):
multiple cases and multiple write ups, then it would would
would warrant a removal from the home, Like there's emergency
removal where there's clear abuse and then there's some that
it takes some cases and some write ups before that happens.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
I know a lot of parents are always scared that
my kids are gonna come to school and say, my
mama hit me or my dad hit me. Yeah, but
this dad doesn't get your kid taken out?
Speaker 4 (08:14):
Okay, not immediately.
Speaker 6 (08:15):
No, we always want we always want reunification, and we
always want children to be in their homes. But if
it's clear and there's multiple signs of something going on,
then there has to be an investigation first before a
child is just removed.
Speaker 8 (08:30):
Did a child ever complained that their parents couldn't cook,
they wanted to be.
Speaker 4 (08:34):
Of course that happens.
Speaker 6 (08:36):
That used to happen, like oh I didn't want this,
or kids would complain like, oh, I didn't get a
chance to wear it is I wanted to wear those sneakers.
They took my game from me or something that's you know, don't.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
You get mad when they call you to the house
and you'd be like, you call them you cause your
mama took your game.
Speaker 6 (08:49):
Or even when I was, even when I was a
social worker and I had like, you know, kids on beyond,
like them being with their their birthright families, like when
I did child placement and they were with their temporary households,
and I would get calls on the and I can
hear the phone now, the on call phone, And I
would get some of my clients who would be like, well,
(09:09):
I'm on punishments, so why are you unpunishment?
Speaker 2 (09:11):
What happened?
Speaker 6 (09:12):
I got a couple of f's and so you decided
to punch holes in the wall and do crazy stuff
because you got f's on your report card? Now, how
does that in three o'clock in the morning, Like I
got to go remove a child and play put him
in another home because of crazies.
Speaker 4 (09:27):
But you know, kids will be kids.
Speaker 5 (09:29):
I was, did those two worlds ever like collide at all?
Like did any of the kids that you helped find
like placement homes or whatever. Now they watch you on
a Food Network you run into them, Like, did that
ever happen?
Speaker 6 (09:39):
Like that recently just happened. I also worked for Big
Brothers Big Sisters in Newark while I was living in Jersey,
and I recently hosted a Big Brothers Big Sisters meet
and greet at my restaurant in Charleston, which was really
nice as a full circle moment, going from being a
mentor manager at Big Brothers Bi Sisters to hosting them
at my restaurant and.
Speaker 9 (10:01):
Cardier Brown's Southern Restaurant, Yes, in Charleston Airport.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
The restaurant, Yes, came full So.
Speaker 6 (10:07):
It came full circle to have them, you know there,
And I remember being a struggling social worker, you know,
rubbing pennies together to make ends meet, to having the
same organization that kind of that's that's organization I left
before I started the Food Network show, and so to
have them at my restaurant, gosh, almost ten years later,
it meant a lot.
Speaker 9 (10:26):
You know, I've heard you say that you're cooking is
a love letter to the low Country where we're from.
Speaker 8 (10:31):
What's what's one dish that best tells the story of.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Where we're from.
Speaker 4 (10:34):
You thinkrimp and grits.
Speaker 6 (10:36):
Yes, absolutely, it's my it's my favorite. You know, it's nothing.
And I tell people every time you come to Charleston,
you have to have Charleston shrimp like it's it's it's
it's like none other. You can go anywhere in the
world and have seafood. There is nothing like low country seafood.
That that's my that's my favorite.
Speaker 7 (10:53):
I gotta go.
Speaker 4 (10:54):
I've got to come and a red rice and a
red rice.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
But see you don't.
Speaker 4 (10:58):
You don't even porking your red rice.
Speaker 8 (11:00):
But a lot of people cooking out with turkey though turkey.
Speaker 4 (11:02):
You know you can do turkey. Some people do it.
Speaker 6 (11:04):
Vegan, who is what's the what's the guy's name that's
from Charleston that has the late night show, Stephen Colbert.
Speaker 4 (11:14):
His wife put anchovies in her red rice.
Speaker 9 (11:18):
Yeah that sounds like you know, I love you, But god,
damn god.
Speaker 8 (11:28):
You know.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
So the holidays are coming up, right, yes, Thanksgiving?
Speaker 3 (11:31):
So for people that are not cookers, right, because there's
a lot of a lot of women, a lot of
men out there.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
That don't cook.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
What's an easy dish for people to.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
Make that can still impress some type of people, like,
for instance, Lauren has a new founded man, right, she
really doesn't know how to cook. So what would you
suggest her to cook to impress this gentleman.
Speaker 4 (11:49):
Don't do shrimp chicken alfredo. We don't for Thanksgiving.
Speaker 7 (11:52):
I would never know, but.
Speaker 4 (11:54):
I see everything.
Speaker 6 (11:55):
Every time I see something on social media, everyone's like, oh,
you gotta do the the alfredo for you know, it's
for a day.
Speaker 4 (12:01):
We're not doing alfred though.
Speaker 6 (12:03):
For Thanksgiving. I would say a spash cock turkey. That's
super simple. People think that that takes a lot to make,
and it really doesn't. You just take the backbone out
out the turkey or chicken. If you don't want to
do a big chicken, I mean to a big turkey,
smash it flat down, season it injected with some you know,
some butter and some creole juices, bake it off, and
(12:24):
it's like the tastiest, juiciest turkey you will ever have.
Speaker 4 (12:28):
There's some other recipes in there.
Speaker 6 (12:32):
I mean, it's so simple, like you don't have to
do a lot to impress someone, I say, do something
simple that takes a little less step so you don't
get all flustered and stuff.
Speaker 4 (12:42):
And just make it taste good and that's it. Presentation too.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
Has has your husband ever hurt your feelings? Right, because
you are a chef?
Speaker 4 (12:48):
Right?
Speaker 8 (12:48):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (12:49):
Have you ever said nah, that's not it and you'd
be like what yes?
Speaker 4 (12:52):
Several times?
Speaker 7 (12:53):
That's the last meal. He was like, baby, you gotta
go try that again.
Speaker 6 (12:58):
I made so I made this. I try to make
this like jerk chicken and dumpling thing, and I made
the dumplings with like frozen biscuits.
Speaker 8 (13:07):
It usually works.
Speaker 6 (13:10):
I didn't have much time and the dumplings just kind
of like it. It did something in there. It was
it was it was yucky, it was thick, it was slimy. Also,
he is a is a dessert snob, and he will
call somebody's cake dry and a heartbeat dry? Is it
not me sitting on these like I am a judge
(13:32):
on Holiday Baking Championship Spring Bacon.
Speaker 4 (13:35):
I know desserts. So I made a red velvet cake.
One time. He took a slice of the cake and.
Speaker 7 (13:41):
I need water.
Speaker 4 (13:42):
It's a little dry, dry, wear.
Speaker 6 (13:47):
I said, do you if you put your finger, I said,
the crumb on it? Do you see the crummies? I
don't know about. All that I know is my aunt Pam.
Speaker 4 (13:57):
Pam in there.
Speaker 6 (13:58):
Pam make a good red velvet cake, and hers be
a little buttery. In this it's a little dry. I
don't know what you want me to tell you something
I thought I did right. I put my stick of
butter in there, a little oil for me, technically stick,
but I guess, I guess I'm pampa about two or
three sticks. I thought one stick would be enough, twelve
(14:19):
tablespoons I'm measuring.
Speaker 4 (14:20):
He was like, nah, it is dry.
Speaker 3 (14:22):
What happens after that? After he tells you is too
dry or don't taste too what?
Speaker 5 (14:26):
What?
Speaker 1 (14:26):
What's your next move?
Speaker 4 (14:27):
Mumbling across the house, he threw it away.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
Damn, that's cold.
Speaker 6 (14:36):
But and but but then I thought about it too,
because I did go get another slice later on that
day and it was reading a little dry. So you know,
he's he he's not gonna fake it, you know.
Speaker 9 (14:47):
I want to ask you about when you started Delicious,
Miss Brown, did you ever imagine you'd be representing like
an entire region on National TV?
Speaker 4 (14:54):
Absolutely not.
Speaker 6 (14:55):
I just thought I was coming in there and you know,
just and you know, growing up in the Low Country
and being of Golah descent, you really don't think about it.
It's just a way of living. It's just like we're Geechee.
That's it, you know, that's all we know. And then
but seeing the interests from other people and like genuine
interests of the Gullah Geechee culture, then I started to
(15:16):
realize the importance of what I was doing. It's not
only just cooking Southern food and fry and fish and
making red rice. It was really about preserving a culture.
Speaker 9 (15:24):
How how is your Goulah Geechee heritage shape? Not just
your recipes, but just the way you see community and success?
Speaker 6 (15:31):
Oh man, you know, just coming from being of Gully
Geechee descent, it's like, you know, it's not many of us.
It's it's a particular region and era and area, and
there's not many of us that make it out of Charleston,
out of South Carolina, and and so being one of
the very few it means a lot to me. But
it also means that I have I have work to
(15:54):
do because we're not gonna be just us. We have
to pave the way for other gullageeche folks, black folks
to be able to do this too. I don't want
to keep saying that it's only one or two women,
black women in general that are on the Food Network.
Why is that all these years later?
Speaker 4 (16:12):
Why is that?
Speaker 6 (16:13):
You know, there should be more of us we I mean,
the fabric of American cuisine comes from African American people
on the slaves, on the backs of enslaved people, So
why isn't there more representation across the board with our food?
Speaker 8 (16:26):
Yeah, Pam need to showtabbing today.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
I wanted to ask.
Speaker 4 (16:37):
The restaurant Cartier Brown Southern Kitchen.
Speaker 3 (16:40):
You know, when you hear people talk about entering the
restaurant business, it says one of the hardest.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
Things to do. Most of them don't last.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
So talk about how difficult that is to make sure
that it's last thing. It's not trendy because a lot
of restaurants are trendy two years everybody goes whatever.
Speaker 7 (16:53):
Today now this is the age we got food at home.
Speaker 6 (16:56):
That it's definitely that, you know, And so I think
what gives me a upperhand is that I'm in the airport.
Speaker 4 (17:01):
So I automatically have like put traffic.
Speaker 6 (17:04):
In people, and so I keep getting oh, Cardier can
bring bring the restaurant down to King Street or downtown
or Summerville or wherever, and it is hard. A lot
of my colleagues are like, stay away from it. If
you can stay in the airport and keep doing like
airport licensing things like that, it's easier to do that.
But in this day and time, it's like a lot
of my friends who own restaurants are like, you know,
(17:26):
we have to struggle between the cost of groceries, the
cost of ingredients, paying our staff a livable wage, and
trying to turn a profit. A lot of our friends
are not making profits right now. They're just breaking even.
But I wouldn't say discourage discourage you from doing that
if you have something really great to offer, Like you said,
don't overthink it. The trendy stuff, it dies quickly. We
(17:50):
make regular food for regular folks at my At my restaurant,
we got pork chops, we got fry fish, we got chicken,
you know, stuff like what you would normally find in Charleston,
South Carolina.
Speaker 9 (18:01):
And you just do it good, and you do do
it well. When you're out there early in the morning,
that meeting three platter.
Speaker 8 (18:06):
Yeah, you know what I'm.
Speaker 4 (18:10):
Bus that's all you mean, How.
Speaker 5 (18:12):
Has everything going on with the airports and all that stuff?
Has that affected your business in a negative way? I
mean people are still in the airports.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
It just stuck.
Speaker 6 (18:18):
The business is booming, boom.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
That restaurant.
Speaker 8 (18:24):
That restaurant.
Speaker 7 (18:24):
I can't wait to come down there, And you.
Speaker 6 (18:26):
Got to grow while you're there. You got to come
to my house. I gotta actually cook for you too,
because I mean, I believe in that.
Speaker 4 (18:33):
I like to eat. Listen, I got you, I got
you covered.
Speaker 5 (18:35):
Charlagne was telling me that because I love seafood, I
didn't know that there was so much seafood like this
for real, because being from I'm from Delaware, so like
up here you think of Maryland for like crabs and
seafood and all of that.
Speaker 7 (18:49):
No, not even that, I just don't think that.
Speaker 4 (18:50):
I mean, I know everywhere, but I just.
Speaker 5 (18:54):
Didn't know that there was like an area in South
Carolina that specialized in that.
Speaker 4 (19:00):
That's all. That's That's what the.
Speaker 7 (19:01):
First person ever told me about any of this stuff.
Speaker 4 (19:03):
Oh so now you got to really come and see
it for yourself. We do crabs.
Speaker 6 (19:06):
We do crabs similar to you all, but we do
like our crab cracks where we put paper down on
the on the table and pull out bushels of crab
and we you know, see that's it's so similar. It's
so or that too big ross, you know, BJ just
BJ Dennis as it a lot back home.
Speaker 4 (19:26):
But yeah, we get down the same way.
Speaker 9 (19:29):
Yeah, you talked about being nervous when you first filmed
at Home, right, what was the moment you realized I
belong here?
Speaker 4 (19:35):
Mm hmm, I think it was. It wasn't.
Speaker 6 (19:39):
It wasn't long until the first season where it kind
of hit me like, oh, this is happening. But later
on down the line, I'm in my ten season out
of the show and recently winning the Emmys, winning two Emmy's.
I think before then it's not really the validation of it,
but it's like having your peers recognize you in a sense,
because there's been so many time where I've sat at
(20:00):
tables and people are like, well, how many restaurants do
you own? You know, so what what culinary school did
you go to? And I never really have an answer, like, no,
I didn't go to culinary school.
Speaker 4 (20:10):
No, I did. I don't own at the time, I
didn't own any restaurants.
Speaker 6 (20:13):
I had a traveling supper club, and so it was
always trying to fight for that I belong here. I
don't know why, y'all don't understand that. God would not
put me in this seat if it wasn't a thing
for me. And so winning the Emmy was like, oh,
I guess you do kind of got something going on here.
But but before that, I think I realized it kind
of it wasn't too long until I was.
Speaker 4 (20:35):
Like, all right, this is it?
Speaker 7 (20:36):
Did it take?
Speaker 5 (20:37):
It took all that time until you won the Emmy?
Just because you are one of only for a long
time in the food network? Is that why the kind
of ampost syndrome was there?
Speaker 8 (20:45):
You know?
Speaker 6 (20:46):
That's that's funny. I was just talking about someone. I
was just talking to someone about that the other day.
The imposter syndrome of feeling like, Okay, I don't have
all of these accolades and all of this the schooling
to back up what I do, but I know I
can cook, and I know I can cook with the
best of them, and just kind of reminding yourself that too,
and especially when your pay doesn't equal your skill, that is,
(21:10):
you know something that that kind of puts you in
that in that whole of thinking, like do I belong here?
Speaker 4 (21:14):
Like why am I ten season?
Speaker 8 (21:16):
Then?
Speaker 6 (21:16):
Why am I still fighting for a decent salary? Or
why am I still fighting for the same contracts as
my colleagues? You know, like that that I think affects
that imposter syndrome.
Speaker 4 (21:28):
It kind of amplifies it.
Speaker 5 (21:29):
Something who helped you navigate that world in the beginning,
Like you have these people that you name now, but
it was very few far in between. So when you
come in and you're figuring out them contracts and dealing
with all these execs, who was your person you picked
up the phone a call?
Speaker 2 (21:41):
No one?
Speaker 4 (21:42):
I had no one.
Speaker 8 (21:43):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (21:44):
No.
Speaker 6 (21:45):
I started off with the agent. I did start off
with W and me and I and they did help
me in a sense. But there was a lot of
things that I did not know, even taxes wise, I
did not know. And you know, turning you know yourself
in till your business until an LLC and becoming an
escorp and all of that stuff, and there was no
(22:05):
one really to help me. I kind of had to
teach myself contracts and asking for what I what, I'm
what I deserve, you know, and and kind of figuring
out on my own. So I had agents, but you know,
agents are also there to get there.
Speaker 9 (22:22):
You made a lot of mistakes early on business wise,
I don't think you know what I didn't.
Speaker 6 (22:28):
And I think that it came from my grandmother being
a very business savvy woman. She was the first person
in our family to go to college and get an education,
and and so she always instilled in me the idea
of business and saving and reading and understanding and acquiring
knowledge on your own and not waiting for someone to
tell you what it is. And my mom is also
(22:49):
very very good with that as well. So and I
also never wanted to be broke again, so you know,
I know the feeling of of of not having and
I didn't want to go back, and so I figured
out ways to say okay. And then I started asking
questions from like, you know, on set, like hey, who's
your lawyer or who's your accountant? Can you can you
(23:10):
you know, refer someone to me or you know, and
it's like, I see you doing well, I see you
have multiple businesses and stocks and whatever have you, So
can you refer me to that person, and that's kind
of how I learned.
Speaker 9 (23:23):
I feel like your book is so timely, and I
love the date of eleven eleven because that just means
everything is in divine alignment. But it's called make do
with what you have in this era right now where
you know, you got federal workers who haven't been paid
in forty plus days. You know, when you got people
losing snap benefits. This is going to be a holiday
season where people really got to make do with what
(23:45):
they have.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
What made you want to lean into that aspect of.
Speaker 6 (23:49):
Well, the thing is, this is how I grew up.
This is all I know. Even to this day. I
had someone mentioned to me the other day, She's like, oh,
well in the comments of because I did it like
a or of my fridge and someone in the common said,
I noticed you use a lot of store brand.
Speaker 4 (24:04):
Things, and I do you know?
Speaker 6 (24:07):
There was like I know a Public's bottle when I
see I shop at publics.
Speaker 4 (24:11):
I shopped at Harris Teeter.
Speaker 6 (24:13):
But the reason for me making this book was because
the first book, my first book, The Way Home, was
all about like getting to know who I am and
where I'm from and the foods of the of the region,
and then now this book is a continuation of my
mother being a single parent working three jobs at one time,
my grandmother helping to raise me, and there were times,
(24:35):
more often than not where we really just had to
have food at home, like McDonald's will pass by, like
mom wants some you know, philaggraph seriously, like and McDonald's
at the house was a pot of rice and some
beans or something like that. But it's like, we have
food at home and that's.
Speaker 8 (24:53):
The white A piece of hamburg meat, that's.
Speaker 6 (24:58):
What, right, And you know, maybe some handcut fries if
you were lucky. But it's just the way that I
grew up eating, and it's my style of cooking, even
on Delicious Miss Brown, Like if you watch the show,
you'll see that I never reach for a lot of
fancy ingredients. It's always things that you can find in
your pantry, in your in your refrigerator, things that you know,
you go to a grocery store and you do your
(25:18):
your haul for the first, you know, two weeks of
the month, and you can make meals out of those things.
And I think this is new to some people who
aren't used to struggle, But this is what I know
you know, like this is how I grew up, and
so I'm helping people maybe who don't understand, like, hey, now,
times are a little iffy and you got to figure
out things at home. Like as a as a business
(25:41):
owner and a restaurant owner, I would love for you
to come out and travel and eat, but I also
know the reality of it, and it's not It's not
feasible for everyone. So I want you to be able
to open your fridge and not look in there and say, man,
we don't got nothing eating here, which I did a
lot as a child, But you'll see your refrigerator and
your pantry in a different light, like, Okay, the other
day I walked in. I was like, I got some onions,
(26:02):
some celery, got a little sausage here. I got some
beans in the cabinet. Oh, I can make red beans
and rice. Always keep rice on hand, Always keep grits
on hand, Always keep eggs on hand, sugar, all of
those things.
Speaker 4 (26:14):
And you can make something out of nothing.
Speaker 6 (26:16):
You can without you know, having it be a struggle
and having you know, when people looking at a refrigerator
and they get kind of bogged down or disappointed that
I don't have certain things like that. That's all right,
you can still make a decent meal with the stuff
that you have.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
Say, what's a cheap meal that you can make?
Speaker 8 (26:32):
Right?
Speaker 3 (26:32):
So let's say there's a mom listening right now, right,
they just picked up their kids from school. Okay, they
need to make a quick meal that's inexpensive that the
kids are like, go, what do you go to?
Speaker 4 (26:42):
Ooh, that would be my chicken bog.
Speaker 6 (26:44):
That's like getting like whatever meat cut of chicken you
got in your house, even some drumsticks and wings, breast,
whatever you take that, you season it, you make some
you get some celery and some onions and stuff. You
cook that down in the pot, and you put the
chicken in. You cook the chicken. Then you add rice
to the pot. Right, you cook that all together. So
all the you know, the fragrant, fragrant vegetables, and the
(27:07):
seasoning and the juices and the natural fasts from the
chicken all coming together in this one pot. So you
got a meal in one pot.
Speaker 9 (27:13):
Yeah, it's so funny because all of these My stomach
is over here ground because I'm just thinking about all
of these meals that feel like hugs, right, like little things,
grits and eggs for breakfast is always flap. My grandma
used to take toast and she would just put cheese
on it and give you a cup of tea.
Speaker 4 (27:28):
Oh yeah, oh my god, a little butter on it.
I love that.
Speaker 9 (27:33):
What's one recipe that always brings your family together, no
matter how busy everybody is.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
No, we're going to.
Speaker 4 (27:41):
A recipe or a meal, a meal fried fish and
red rice.
Speaker 5 (27:45):
Look at him, man, but you're making me so hungry.
Speaker 4 (27:49):
You got you gotta actually try the food.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
Should have.
Speaker 4 (27:51):
I wish I was like next time.
Speaker 7 (27:53):
That means you got to come back.
Speaker 4 (27:54):
I have to come back.
Speaker 6 (27:55):
Red beans and rice, all of that gumbos collar green,
gumbo fish all.
Speaker 7 (28:00):
Why is that the meal?
Speaker 6 (28:02):
It's just what we were known for in Charleston. Like
on Fridays, you know, you get paid Fridays, you go
get your fried bushy. Yeah, you go get your fried
push and your your your your red rice, lama beans
sometimes and piece of toasted cheap white bread, you know,
and and that's how you and that's that's how you
(28:24):
get down.
Speaker 3 (28:24):
It's so crazy listening to like different areas of the country,
right because we didn't really cook like that, Like my
mom did pork and beans like porking beans was like
the cheap mail, right.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
She cut it up with some hot dogs. She cut
the hot dogs in it. That was that was our meal, right.
I hated when my mom cooked meatloaf like meat loaf,
I was hated.
Speaker 3 (28:42):
I hated the way it looked. I hated New Year's
even my mom used to cook on chip lists.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
But anyway.
Speaker 2 (28:50):
You do.
Speaker 5 (28:53):
That's that's the two things that my grandmother still she's
not supposed to have them, but my my family still
does though.
Speaker 7 (29:00):
Those those are the two things that.
Speaker 4 (29:01):
I like to give. Your family's originally from Delaware and
they eat fat back, Well.
Speaker 5 (29:04):
No, there, My grandmother and her sisters are originally from Virginia, Lynchburg.
Speaker 7 (29:08):
Yeah, but then they move to Delaware. That's not everything
so country.
Speaker 4 (29:10):
So that's something. So I'm like her fat backs in
a while. But yeah, porking. We eat pork and beans too.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
But you know what I was saying is like here
it was we were we're so Caribbean food like for
us as beef patties for us, as jerk chicken for us,
it's oxtail, it's curry gold, it's you know, those are
the meals that we eat and it's like, I love those,
but it always takes long. When my wife cooks oxtail,
it just seems like it's a procedure. It is, and
I'm like.
Speaker 4 (29:34):
I'm hungry.
Speaker 1 (29:35):
She's like, you want the bone, you want to meet
the fall off the bone.
Speaker 8 (29:37):
Don't.
Speaker 3 (29:37):
But it's just it just takes so long. What's the
longest meal it takes for you to prepare?
Speaker 4 (29:42):
I would be it would be a short rib or
an oxtail, and it takes about four or five hours
at two seventy five, and it's got to sit in
that Dutch oven or over that crock pot and just
low and slow.
Speaker 2 (29:52):
I'll cook it a whole hole. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4 (29:55):
Could they do?
Speaker 6 (29:57):
My uncles and them in the country, do I I've
not graduated to that yet. I just can't. I can't
see myself, you know, opening the hall. No, I'm not
that country yet.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
Oh I want to ask you yet.
Speaker 7 (30:07):
I love in your book you have tips for saving money.
Speaker 5 (30:10):
You help people get there, like cookwear together, and you
talk about how you can do it for the low
as well too. But the tips for saving money, I
never think it's very personal to you. What was like
the tip that you were like, I want to put
this in, but I got to leave out that didn't
make the cut in the book.
Speaker 4 (30:24):
Oh manager specials.
Speaker 6 (30:27):
The you know growing up, you know you remember the
pack of meat that might have been expired or close
to it, Like, don't be afraid to use those like
because I mean the supermarket has to buy law kind
of put things on sale or get it out of
there right before it goes bad. But there a lot
of stuff are more shelf stable than you actually know.
Speaker 4 (30:49):
They are. Like beans.
Speaker 6 (30:51):
If you see like a pack of dry beans and
it says, oh, it expires on twenty twenty five, and
well January twenty twenty five beans, dry beans will last
in your pantry indefinitely. So doing things like that, like
getting things that are you know, maybe discounted because it
is going to expire in a day or two. Go
ahead and get that and you can pop it in
(31:11):
your freezer. They can't keep it on the shelf because
it's not frozen, but you can get those cuts of
meats and you can put it in your freezer and
thaw it out and use it whenever you.
Speaker 1 (31:19):
Want to do that.
Speaker 3 (31:20):
In college, chicken, in college, I would wait till the
day about the expire and they go half price at
the supermarket.
Speaker 2 (31:24):
Yeah, we cook it up.
Speaker 6 (31:26):
That's a that's that is definitely a hack people, A
lot of people do, and you don't realize it because
you can go get you know, a ribby for half
the price because they're about to put it on sales.
So if you see that, like maybe it's going to
expire in about two or three days, go ahead and
get it.
Speaker 4 (31:39):
While I was on sailing, put it in your freezer.
Speaker 1 (31:41):
How should you eat your meat?
Speaker 8 (31:42):
Right?
Speaker 2 (31:43):
God?
Speaker 9 (31:43):
Dang, yeah, my god.
Speaker 3 (31:56):
When I was when I was younger, right, and I
used to eat it was well done right because that's
what we're told you gotta eat well double Now it
is medium?
Speaker 1 (32:08):
So how should somebody eat their steak? Pause?
Speaker 2 (32:11):
Eat their meat?
Speaker 6 (32:12):
I would say medium? Well, I like, I'm a medium,
Well girl, like I want a little bit of brown
and just till it gets to the center.
Speaker 5 (32:20):
Thing.
Speaker 1 (32:20):
Pink is soft and just juicy melts in your mouth
by way.
Speaker 4 (32:28):
But see I don't want the cowles to be moving,
you know.
Speaker 1 (32:31):
Not moving, but pink's it got to melt in your mouth. Medium.
Speaker 6 (32:34):
Medium is okay. I go with medium for like my
my like lamb chops or pork. Yes, I'll do that,
but like for as far as stay scared.
Speaker 1 (32:43):
Of the pork, medium man, because I don't know growing
up it a little bounce to it. He is sick. Right,
My mom used to get the porky eat salmonella whatever
it's called.
Speaker 6 (32:49):
Yeah, five is okay for pork. Yeah, and then salmon too,
if you eat salmon. I like my medium.
Speaker 2 (32:56):
Yes.
Speaker 9 (32:57):
I want want to ask you right in the intro,
you got these mantras you already talked about you got
McDonald's money.
Speaker 8 (33:01):
I just want to say some of these mantras and
you tell me what.
Speaker 9 (33:04):
They mean to you, right, And you said these are
mantras your mother and grandmother instilled in you. And I
also want to know which one of the most relevant
to you where you are in life right now. If
you want to act grown, be grown.
Speaker 4 (33:14):
Now?
Speaker 6 (33:14):
That was you know, you think you've grown, well, then
go ahead and take your stuff and get out and
do it on your own.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
Damn.
Speaker 4 (33:21):
Yeah, my mom, is you remember the first time you
heard that?
Speaker 6 (33:23):
Yeah, I was about fourteen or fifteen, and I guess
I had got you know, started feeling myself a little
bit and I said something back to her. She was like,
all right, if you want to act grown, you can
be grown. Pack your stuff up, call your grandmother and
telling you on the porch you need to go. I
was like, what you mean Like she actually had me
pack my stuff up and put me outside and called
(33:47):
my grandmother, said you can come get her. She could
figure out what she's doing, said she want to be
so grown here, and I said, you can't do that.
Speaker 4 (33:52):
You can't put me.
Speaker 6 (33:53):
But that I mean back then, like I mean, I
kind of felt I guess I was feeling myself.
Speaker 4 (33:57):
A little bit.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
I'm gonna get you.
Speaker 6 (33:59):
No, she was like absolutely not, like Patty, let it
back in the house.
Speaker 4 (34:03):
Don't don't do it like that.
Speaker 6 (34:05):
You know, she didn't mean, she didn't mean any harm,
but you know, it took about an hour or two,
but she let me back in. But I at that
point I realized I was not grown.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
The Lord will make a way out of no way.
Speaker 6 (34:14):
Every single time, and I say that with conviction, every
single time. I am a living testimony of making God
would bring you through the darkest storms. I was homeless
at one point. So to be here today talking about
my second cookbook and being here with you all as
a testament that God will will bring you out.
Speaker 4 (34:34):
The darkest situation was that the moment because we all, you.
Speaker 9 (34:36):
Know, we all are believers and we all have faith,
but we always had that one real moment where we
like Lord, God, I know that was God.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
Yeah, I don't.
Speaker 6 (34:46):
I feel like it happens on a daily you know,
like just driving to work or flying on a plane
or just doing it like when you land like that
that was nothing but God. Or you know, getting home
to your your house and your family. That that had
to be and God, because anything could have happened in
between times.
Speaker 4 (35:02):
So I you know, you see that on a on
a daily.
Speaker 2 (35:06):
He will never give you more than you can bear.
Speaker 6 (35:09):
Never, And I think as as humans, we underestimate how
much we can actually take and deal with, and God
shows us like, Okay, yeah, this may be a very
trying time, but I'm given this to you because I
know you can handle it. And once you handle it,
and if it happens again, you know that I've been
here before, I've handled this. So this coming the next
(35:32):
thing coming in, you know, it's easy, it's nothing.
Speaker 9 (35:35):
And I think this is when people need to really
understand in this era, don't be penny wise and pound foolish.
Speaker 7 (35:41):
Yeah, my grandma be saying it to me.
Speaker 6 (35:43):
Yeah, don't be penny wise and pound foolish means that
you don't don't think you know more than what you
actually do. You know, be open and receptive to feedback
and criticism and constructive criticism. And you don't know everything.
You don't and there's somebody that's going to know a
little bit more than you, or somebody's going to help
(36:04):
you understand this. But be open and receptive to to criticism,
constructive feedback, and just advice.
Speaker 9 (36:12):
What's next for the Delicious Miss Brown brand? You know,
we got cookbooks, we got restaurants, we got products.
Speaker 4 (36:18):
Yes, you know.
Speaker 6 (36:21):
Right now I am looking forward to I'm hosting Kids
Baking Championship with Duff Goldman at the top of the year.
Holiday Baking Championship is on now, you know I'm at
this time. I'm I'm the type of person that's always
like I got to have everything in control, Like I
got to have my next plan written down. I know
I'm doing this, I know I'm going to do that next.
(36:42):
I am allowing the universe to do what it is. Oh, okay,
whatever God has for me. I'm not gonna limit myself
to anything given you in work that has given me
so much because it so oftentimes and social media is
and I'm sorry, You're fine social media and I'm and
(37:03):
I am very I do it to this day, I'm
guilty of comparing to other people's where they are in
their life, their their point c to my point. A.
Speaker 9 (37:14):
We was talking about that this morning and I was like, Yo,
they got people got to stop doing that because niggas
be lying, they on social media.
Speaker 6 (37:21):
Lying every all day long, especially to people that you
know that you know, I know you don't live like that,
but I I, you know, get caught up with that.
And social media makes it really easy to get caught
up with comparing your journey to someone else's. And I've
I've caught myself saying that, Okay, I you know, if
(37:43):
this book doesn't get New York Times bestseller, but why
did their books? You know, why is their book? Why
is this book not selling? It's fine, And I'm tired.
Speaker 4 (37:50):
You get tired of.
Speaker 6 (37:51):
That because at the end of the day, what what
my pieces, my slow mornings being with my husband, having
the freedom to get up and do what I love
to do every day. That's the older you get, the
more those things matter to you. So it's a peace
of mind of knowing just like, hey, whatever happens, happens,
but I know it's going to always be for my
greater good.
Speaker 2 (38:12):
I got one more. You dedicated the book to your husband.
Speaker 5 (38:15):
I did.
Speaker 8 (38:15):
Why did you dedicated to your.
Speaker 6 (38:17):
He's the reason why I cook. He's I enjoy cooking
for myself, you know. But it's nothing like, babe, what
you're feeling like today, you know, or like you know,
with seeing his face when he's excited about something that
I'm making, and when he walks in the house and
I'm cooking and he's like, oh, it's smell good in here.
That that makes me feel good. So I get. I
(38:37):
get gratification and satisfaction from It's my love language feeding
you know, not only his body, but his soul too.
Speaker 9 (38:44):
So that's what And I also want to say, uh,
you know, we always say we're losing recipes. You do
you think cookbooks are spiritual?
Speaker 4 (38:54):
Because absolutely, especially.
Speaker 6 (38:57):
Coming from you know, black and brown households where recipes
are not written down. It's only like word of mouth.
And so God forbid if big Mama goes and y'all
didn't get that sweet potato pie recipe or that fat
bag recipe, and nobody wrote it down and nobody can
call her, you know. So having recipes written down and
the stories that follow the recipes are so important because
(39:20):
eventually all of us are gonna leave this place one day,
and you got something, gotta have something left to talk about.
Speaker 1 (39:26):
Well, thank you for joining.
Speaker 4 (39:27):
Us, Thank you so much.
Speaker 9 (39:29):
And listen, I'm over the holidays. What's the date we're
gonna be with Chris Kalen?
Speaker 4 (39:34):
Yes day after given?
Speaker 9 (39:37):
So yeah, November twenty eighth, actually November twenty eighth, will
be at the Magnolia Room. Myself, Cardia, I said it
right right, Cardier Cardier like the glasses, like the Cardio Cardier, Cardier, Myself,
Cardier and AJ from the We Talk Back podcast will
be with Chris Kalen at the Magnolia Room in Charleston
(39:57):
seven to twenty magnoliar road Man. So tick it's all
available for that now, I believe, I don't know. I'm
just reading this on Chris Kellen's page.
Speaker 1 (40:05):
Cardia Brown to.
Speaker 9 (40:07):
Cardier Brown, Suverurn Kitchen and Charleston Airport Man I'm telling you,
somebody is listening to me right now, and they're like,
you know what, on flight is delayed for two hours.
Hook yourself up right path the Chick fil A and
going the summer kitchen.
Speaker 1 (40:21):
That's right, it's the Breakfast Club. Good morning, hold on
every day.
Speaker 2 (40:25):
Up weak Ago, click your ass up the Breakfast Club.
Y'all done,
Every day a week ago.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Click your ass up the Breakfast Club, finish for y'all.
Done morning.
Speaker 3 (00:07):
Everybody is the j Envy Jess hilarious, Charlamagne the guy.
We are the Breakfast Club. Lona Roses here as well.
We got a special guest in the building. Yes, indeed,
Cardea Brown.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Welcome.
Speaker 4 (00:17):
Hi.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
How are you feeling this morning?
Speaker 4 (00:18):
I'm feeling good.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
How y'all feeling black and holly favored?
Speaker 5 (00:21):
That's right?
Speaker 6 (00:22):
Let me tell you what what it took to get here. Okay,
so my flight was canceled from Charleston, Oh right, but
I knew it was going to be canceled, so something
told me just go ahead and book a trip on
the Amtrak.
Speaker 4 (00:35):
Y'all fourteen hours watching it.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
We should be cooking for you.
Speaker 4 (00:42):
A breakfast, but and then the train got stuck in DC.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
So would you fly in?
Speaker 4 (00:46):
I didn't fly in?
Speaker 2 (00:48):
But when was you scheduled to fly in?
Speaker 4 (00:50):
I was scheduled to fly in yesterday at two fifty
five this morning, and they can't.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
They already had canceled day.
Speaker 4 (00:56):
I heard cancel.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Yikes, he was going on.
Speaker 4 (00:58):
I made sure I came.
Speaker 7 (00:59):
You made it.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
I made sure I was here.
Speaker 7 (01:01):
That's because you're supposed to be here about this.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
How are you feeling. I'm feeling good, feeling good.
Speaker 4 (01:06):
I feel like great.
Speaker 7 (01:07):
I could have cooked you breakfast. You could, book says,
use what you got exactly?
Speaker 4 (01:13):
You know what I mean? What did you have?
Speaker 5 (01:15):
You could have did eggs, bacon, pancakes? I do with
fried apples? You know apple my grandmother does. Yep, that's
the thing from my grandma from Virginia.
Speaker 6 (01:23):
Okay, so yeah that makes sense. So like you just
like take the apples, slice them up, cut them in
and put them in a pan with like some butter
or something.
Speaker 7 (01:29):
And the cinnamon brown little brown sugar. Yeah, oh, I
definitely could have. That's our favorite meal.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
That's an easy breakfast, you know, because you know, since
since your name been on this the list that you
were coming up here, Charlemagne has been salivating, right or
like just come to just thro all down the mouth.
So let's lit'sten because let's how did you get into cooking? Like,
let's got from the beginning. It's your first time? How
did you get into cooking?
Speaker 1 (01:53):
What made you? We got some time?
Speaker 6 (01:56):
Okay, So my grandmother and my mother are excellent cooks.
My grandmother on My father's side was known for her
red rice in Charleston. Hey, you know you know about
that red rice.
Speaker 4 (02:07):
So she was a cook at the Pigle Wiggly on
meat and street.
Speaker 8 (02:13):
Stuff.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Are you up? Okay?
Speaker 6 (02:15):
So she was a cook, a long time cook there.
But I get it from both sides of my family.
I do not have any professional background experience. I did
not go to culinary school. It was just something I
always loved to do.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
I was to be so good and it still is.
Speaker 6 (02:30):
The one on Savannah Highway. It's delicious, that fried chicken.
You know Callie Greens red rice on Fridays. My husband
now knows about it. But so I started out with
just like I'm My background is in social work. I
went to school for psychology. I just thought I was
going to do something in the nonprofit world, which I did.
I worked at Big Brothers, Bicks Sisters I did. I
(02:53):
did removal of children from homes, and I did child placement.
Speaker 4 (02:58):
I did all of that.
Speaker 6 (02:59):
So in the miss of doing that, because it's just
a very hard job. You know, it's rewarding, but it's hard.
So I use cooking as an outlet for me my
entire life. I've just always done exactly. So I was
living in Jersey at the time, in twenty fifteen, and
I was dating this guy who one day was like
recording me. I was like, I don't know why he's
(03:20):
recording me. I thought he was just gonna put it
on Instagram. I get a call maybe a few days
later from a producer who's like, your boyfriend sent in
a video of you cooking.
Speaker 7 (03:28):
He was cooking, I was cooking.
Speaker 6 (03:40):
I was I was cooking, recording me cooking, and I
got a call from a producer.
Speaker 4 (03:46):
My bad let me back up.
Speaker 6 (03:48):
So I got a call from a producer said, hey,
we are featuring home cooks on this new show on
the Cooking Channel, and we want to feature you. We
like your style of cooking, like your personality.
Speaker 4 (03:57):
I thought it was a joke. I'm like, y'all are
not about to come.
Speaker 6 (04:00):
I'm living in Jersey. I'm just cooking, you know, for fun.
This is not serious. You can't be They were serious.
They filmed the show over course of like a weekend,
and on the last day of filming, the producer came
up to me and said, I think you have what
it takes to be like a food personality.
Speaker 4 (04:16):
I think you should try it.
Speaker 6 (04:17):
I mean, listen, I don't know what kind of jokes
you got going on here, but this was fun. I'm
going to go back to my cubicle on Monday and
go back to.
Speaker 4 (04:24):
My regular life.
Speaker 6 (04:25):
He was like, I really think you should give this
a shot. You're natural at this. I know you've never
been on TV before, but if you, if you let
us pitch you, we want to pitch you to the
Food Network.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
Wow.
Speaker 6 (04:35):
So they pitched me, and well before that, something in me.
It was just like, God, you wouldn't bring me this
far and show me this if it wasn't something behind it.
So the following week I put in my resignation letter
at work.
Speaker 9 (04:49):
Ooh, so you just like your discernment just said, you
know what, it's time to step on faith.
Speaker 6 (04:54):
Nothing ever felt right as that weekend did, and so
I stepped out on faith, sold all of my belongings,
got on the Amtrak, and moved back down to Charleston and.
Speaker 4 (05:07):
Said this is what is going to be.
Speaker 6 (05:08):
I started a supper club called the New Gulla Supper Club,
where it featured all of the Gullageeche dishes, and I
honed it on my skills and eventually they we did
a sizzle reel and Food Network kind of gave in,
was like, oh, we'll give you a shot. And it
took about four or five years before that. Yes, because
I did get a no again. I got a few notes,
but I didn't take it as no, it's not for you.
(05:29):
I heard it as no, not right now. So I
kept kept honing in on my skills, kept doing my thing.
I did my supper club, and I had little appearances
here and there on the Cooking Channel and Food Network,
and eventually they gave me my shot, and with a
proof of concept, they saw the proof of concept and
greenlit the first season of Delicious.
Speaker 8 (05:49):
Delicious ms Brown. Wow, and you've won two Emmys for
that so far.
Speaker 9 (05:53):
Wow, out Standing Culinary Instructional Series and Outstanding Culinary.
Speaker 4 (05:57):
Hosts and the first black woman to do something.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Wow.
Speaker 9 (06:01):
Man, it's so interesting, right because you know you and Sonny.
Sonny was the first black woman that I know from culture, right,
Sonny Anderson who broke through on the Food Network. How
hard is that for a black woman to break through
on the Food Network?
Speaker 2 (06:14):
And I only know y'all do, right, that's it?
Speaker 6 (06:18):
You know, I think over the years they've gotten better
with diversity and inclusion on the network, but for a
long time, it was just Sonny the Neely's yes, and
Chef Aaron with Big Daddy's House. And but as far
as a black woman, back then, all I knew was
b Smith and yes, God bless her so, but Sonny
(06:43):
was the only one, and Sonny was you know, I like.
Speaker 4 (06:45):
I tell anybody, Sonny is who I looked up to.
Speaker 6 (06:47):
And I saw her on there and I saw her
being her authentic self, and I was like, if she
can do it, you know I can do But yeah,
it's it's just really been us. And then now Carla
Hall is on the network as well, but it's it's
it's it's hard. You know, it's a white male dominated
field in and out of television. Even with the culinary
(07:09):
world in general. You know, most executive chefs, head chefs
are white men.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
I do have one question before we go into the
chef something that just just made me think.
Speaker 10 (07:17):
When you used to work at CPS, what was the
reason why you would take a child from a home
like because usually they say it takes a long time,
it has to be almost like to the words, So
what would be that reason like how far does it
go because it just just.
Speaker 6 (07:30):
Can deplorable environments, like if you you know, I've said
before that sometimes CPS can let things slip through the
cracks and on my watch, you know, any any notices
anything like coming in and seeing multiple reports of abuse
and you walk into a home and you see that
they're clearly living in deplorable and environments. After that, in
(07:55):
multiple cases and multiple write ups, then it would would
would warrant a removal from the home, Like there's emergency
removal where there's clear abuse and then there's some that
it takes some cases and some write ups before that happens.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
I know a lot of parents are always scared that
my kids are gonna come to school and say, my
mama hit me or my dad hit me. Yeah, but
this dad doesn't get your kid taken out?
Speaker 4 (08:14):
Okay, not immediately.
Speaker 6 (08:15):
No, we always want we always want reunification, and we
always want children to be in their homes. But if
it's clear and there's multiple signs of something going on,
then there has to be an investigation first before a
child is just removed.
Speaker 8 (08:30):
Did a child ever complained that their parents couldn't cook,
they wanted to be.
Speaker 4 (08:34):
Of course that happens.
Speaker 6 (08:36):
That used to happen, like oh I didn't want this,
or kids would complain like, oh, I didn't get a
chance to wear it is I wanted to wear those sneakers.
They took my game from me or something that's you know, don't.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
You get mad when they call you to the house
and you'd be like, you call them you cause your
mama took your game.
Speaker 6 (08:49):
Or even when I was, even when I was a
social worker and I had like, you know, kids on beyond,
like them being with their their birthright families, like when
I did child placement and they were with their temporary households,
and I would get calls on the and I can
hear the phone now, the on call phone, And I
would get some of my clients who would be like, well,
(09:09):
I'm on punishments, so why are you unpunishment?
Speaker 2 (09:11):
What happened?
Speaker 6 (09:12):
I got a couple of f's and so you decided
to punch holes in the wall and do crazy stuff
because you got f's on your report card? Now, how
does that in three o'clock in the morning, Like I
got to go remove a child and play put him
in another home because of crazies.
Speaker 4 (09:27):
But you know, kids will be kids.
Speaker 5 (09:29):
I was, did those two worlds ever like collide at all?
Like did any of the kids that you helped find
like placement homes or whatever. Now they watch you on
a Food Network you run into them, Like, did that
ever happen?
Speaker 6 (09:39):
Like that recently just happened. I also worked for Big
Brothers Big Sisters in Newark while I was living in Jersey,
and I recently hosted a Big Brothers Big Sisters meet
and greet at my restaurant in Charleston, which was really
nice as a full circle moment, going from being a
mentor manager at Big Brothers Bi Sisters to hosting them
at my restaurant and.
Speaker 9 (10:01):
Cardier Brown's Southern Restaurant, Yes, in Charleston Airport.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
The restaurant, Yes, came full So.
Speaker 6 (10:07):
It came full circle to have them, you know there,
And I remember being a struggling social worker, you know,
rubbing pennies together to make ends meet, to having the
same organization that kind of that's that's organization I left
before I started the Food Network show, and so to
have them at my restaurant, gosh, almost ten years later,
it meant a lot.
Speaker 9 (10:26):
You know, I've heard you say that you're cooking is
a love letter to the low Country where we're from.
Speaker 8 (10:31):
What's what's one dish that best tells the story of.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Where we're from.
Speaker 4 (10:34):
You thinkrimp and grits.
Speaker 6 (10:36):
Yes, absolutely, it's my it's my favorite. You know, it's nothing.
And I tell people every time you come to Charleston,
you have to have Charleston shrimp like it's it's it's
it's like none other. You can go anywhere in the
world and have seafood. There is nothing like low country seafood.
That that's my that's my favorite.
Speaker 7 (10:53):
I gotta go.
Speaker 4 (10:54):
I've got to come and a red rice and a
red rice.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
But see you don't.
Speaker 4 (10:58):
You don't even porking your red rice.
Speaker 8 (11:00):
But a lot of people cooking out with turkey though turkey.
Speaker 4 (11:02):
You know you can do turkey. Some people do it.
Speaker 6 (11:04):
Vegan, who is what's the what's the guy's name that's
from Charleston that has the late night show, Stephen Colbert.
Speaker 4 (11:14):
His wife put anchovies in her red rice.
Speaker 9 (11:18):
Yeah that sounds like you know, I love you, But god,
damn god.
Speaker 8 (11:28):
You know.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
So the holidays are coming up, right, yes, Thanksgiving?
Speaker 3 (11:31):
So for people that are not cookers, right, because there's
a lot of a lot of women, a lot of
men out there.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
That don't cook.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
What's an easy dish for people to.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
Make that can still impress some type of people, like,
for instance, Lauren has a new founded man, right, she
really doesn't know how to cook. So what would you
suggest her to cook to impress this gentleman.
Speaker 4 (11:49):
Don't do shrimp chicken alfredo. We don't for Thanksgiving.
Speaker 7 (11:52):
I would never know, but.
Speaker 4 (11:54):
I see everything.
Speaker 6 (11:55):
Every time I see something on social media, everyone's like, oh,
you gotta do the the alfredo for you know, it's
for a day.
Speaker 4 (12:01):
We're not doing alfred though.
Speaker 6 (12:03):
For Thanksgiving. I would say a spash cock turkey. That's
super simple. People think that that takes a lot to make,
and it really doesn't. You just take the backbone out
out the turkey or chicken. If you don't want to
do a big chicken, I mean to a big turkey,
smash it flat down, season it injected with some you know,
some butter and some creole juices, bake it off, and
(12:24):
it's like the tastiest, juiciest turkey you will ever have.
Speaker 4 (12:28):
There's some other recipes in there.
Speaker 6 (12:32):
I mean, it's so simple, like you don't have to
do a lot to impress someone, I say, do something
simple that takes a little less step so you don't
get all flustered and stuff.
Speaker 4 (12:42):
And just make it taste good and that's it. Presentation too.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
Has has your husband ever hurt your feelings? Right, because
you are a chef?
Speaker 4 (12:48):
Right?
Speaker 8 (12:48):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (12:49):
Have you ever said nah, that's not it and you'd
be like what yes?
Speaker 4 (12:52):
Several times?
Speaker 7 (12:53):
That's the last meal. He was like, baby, you gotta
go try that again.
Speaker 6 (12:58):
I made so I made this. I try to make
this like jerk chicken and dumpling thing, and I made
the dumplings with like frozen biscuits.
Speaker 8 (13:07):
It usually works.
Speaker 6 (13:10):
I didn't have much time and the dumplings just kind
of like it. It did something in there. It was
it was it was yucky, it was thick, it was slimy. Also,
he is a is a dessert snob, and he will
call somebody's cake dry and a heartbeat dry? Is it
not me sitting on these like I am a judge
(13:32):
on Holiday Baking Championship Spring Bacon.
Speaker 4 (13:35):
I know desserts. So I made a red velvet cake.
One time. He took a slice of the cake and.
Speaker 7 (13:41):
I need water.
Speaker 4 (13:42):
It's a little dry, dry, wear.
Speaker 6 (13:47):
I said, do you if you put your finger, I said,
the crumb on it? Do you see the crummies? I
don't know about. All that I know is my aunt Pam.
Speaker 4 (13:57):
Pam in there.
Speaker 6 (13:58):
Pam make a good red velvet cake, and hers be
a little buttery. In this it's a little dry. I
don't know what you want me to tell you something
I thought I did right. I put my stick of
butter in there, a little oil for me, technically stick,
but I guess, I guess I'm pampa about two or
three sticks. I thought one stick would be enough, twelve
(14:19):
tablespoons I'm measuring.
Speaker 4 (14:20):
He was like, nah, it is dry.
Speaker 3 (14:22):
What happens after that? After he tells you is too
dry or don't taste too what?
Speaker 5 (14:26):
What?
Speaker 1 (14:26):
What's your next move?
Speaker 4 (14:27):
Mumbling across the house, he threw it away.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
Damn, that's cold.
Speaker 6 (14:36):
But and but but then I thought about it too,
because I did go get another slice later on that
day and it was reading a little dry. So you know,
he's he he's not gonna fake it, you know.
Speaker 9 (14:47):
I want to ask you about when you started Delicious,
Miss Brown, did you ever imagine you'd be representing like
an entire region on National TV?
Speaker 4 (14:54):
Absolutely not.
Speaker 6 (14:55):
I just thought I was coming in there and you know,
just and you know, growing up in the Low Country
and being of Golah descent, you really don't think about it.
It's just a way of living. It's just like we're Geechee.
That's it, you know, that's all we know. And then
but seeing the interests from other people and like genuine
interests of the Gullah Geechee culture, then I started to
(15:16):
realize the importance of what I was doing. It's not
only just cooking Southern food and fry and fish and
making red rice. It was really about preserving a culture.
Speaker 9 (15:24):
How how is your Goulah Geechee heritage shape? Not just
your recipes, but just the way you see community and success?
Speaker 6 (15:31):
Oh man, you know, just coming from being of Gully
Geechee descent, it's like, you know, it's not many of us.
It's it's a particular region and era and area, and
there's not many of us that make it out of Charleston,
out of South Carolina, and and so being one of
the very few it means a lot to me. But
it also means that I have I have work to
(15:54):
do because we're not gonna be just us. We have
to pave the way for other gullageeche folks, black folks
to be able to do this too. I don't want
to keep saying that it's only one or two women,
black women in general that are on the Food Network.
Why is that all these years later?
Speaker 4 (16:12):
Why is that?
Speaker 6 (16:13):
You know, there should be more of us we I mean,
the fabric of American cuisine comes from African American people
on the slaves, on the backs of enslaved people, So
why isn't there more representation across the board with our food?
Speaker 8 (16:26):
Yeah, Pam need to showtabbing today.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
I wanted to ask.
Speaker 4 (16:37):
The restaurant Cartier Brown Southern Kitchen.
Speaker 3 (16:40):
You know, when you hear people talk about entering the
restaurant business, it says one of the hardest.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
Things to do. Most of them don't last.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
So talk about how difficult that is to make sure
that it's last thing. It's not trendy because a lot
of restaurants are trendy two years everybody goes whatever.
Speaker 7 (16:53):
Today now this is the age we got food at home.
Speaker 6 (16:56):
That it's definitely that, you know, And so I think
what gives me a upperhand is that I'm in the airport.
Speaker 4 (17:01):
So I automatically have like put traffic.
Speaker 6 (17:04):
In people, and so I keep getting oh, Cardier can
bring bring the restaurant down to King Street or downtown
or Summerville or wherever, and it is hard. A lot
of my colleagues are like, stay away from it. If
you can stay in the airport and keep doing like
airport licensing things like that, it's easier to do that.
But in this day and time, it's like a lot
of my friends who own restaurants are like, you know,
(17:26):
we have to struggle between the cost of groceries, the
cost of ingredients, paying our staff a livable wage, and
trying to turn a profit. A lot of our friends
are not making profits right now. They're just breaking even.
But I wouldn't say discourage discourage you from doing that
if you have something really great to offer, Like you said,
don't overthink it. The trendy stuff, it dies quickly. We
(17:50):
make regular food for regular folks at my At my restaurant,
we got pork chops, we got fry fish, we got chicken,
you know, stuff like what you would normally find in Charleston,
South Carolina.
Speaker 9 (18:01):
And you just do it good, and you do do
it well. When you're out there early in the morning,
that meeting three platter.
Speaker 8 (18:06):
Yeah, you know what I'm.
Speaker 4 (18:10):
Bus that's all you mean, How.
Speaker 5 (18:12):
Has everything going on with the airports and all that stuff?
Has that affected your business in a negative way? I
mean people are still in the airports.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
It just stuck.
Speaker 6 (18:18):
The business is booming, boom.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
That restaurant.
Speaker 8 (18:24):
That restaurant.
Speaker 7 (18:24):
I can't wait to come down there, And you.
Speaker 6 (18:26):
Got to grow while you're there. You got to come
to my house. I gotta actually cook for you too,
because I mean, I believe in that.
Speaker 4 (18:33):
I like to eat. Listen, I got you, I got
you covered.
Speaker 5 (18:35):
Charlagne was telling me that because I love seafood, I
didn't know that there was so much seafood like this
for real, because being from I'm from Delaware, so like
up here you think of Maryland for like crabs and
seafood and all of that.
Speaker 7 (18:49):
No, not even that, I just don't think that.
Speaker 4 (18:50):
I mean, I know everywhere, but I just.
Speaker 5 (18:54):
Didn't know that there was like an area in South
Carolina that specialized in that.
Speaker 4 (19:00):
That's all. That's That's what the.
Speaker 7 (19:01):
First person ever told me about any of this stuff.
Speaker 4 (19:03):
Oh so now you got to really come and see
it for yourself. We do crabs.
Speaker 6 (19:06):
We do crabs similar to you all, but we do
like our crab cracks where we put paper down on
the on the table and pull out bushels of crab
and we you know, see that's it's so similar. It's
so or that too big ross, you know, BJ just
BJ Dennis as it a lot back home.
Speaker 4 (19:26):
But yeah, we get down the same way.
Speaker 9 (19:29):
Yeah, you talked about being nervous when you first filmed
at Home, right, what was the moment you realized I
belong here?
Speaker 4 (19:35):
Mm hmm, I think it was. It wasn't.
Speaker 6 (19:39):
It wasn't long until the first season where it kind
of hit me like, oh, this is happening. But later
on down the line, I'm in my ten season out
of the show and recently winning the Emmys, winning two Emmy's.
I think before then it's not really the validation of it,
but it's like having your peers recognize you in a sense,
because there's been so many time where I've sat at
(20:00):
tables and people are like, well, how many restaurants do
you own? You know, so what what culinary school did
you go to? And I never really have an answer, like, no,
I didn't go to culinary school.
Speaker 4 (20:10):
No, I did. I don't own at the time, I
didn't own any restaurants.
Speaker 6 (20:13):
I had a traveling supper club, and so it was
always trying to fight for that I belong here. I
don't know why, y'all don't understand that. God would not
put me in this seat if it wasn't a thing
for me. And so winning the Emmy was like, oh,
I guess you do kind of got something going on here.
But but before that, I think I realized it kind
of it wasn't too long until I was.
Speaker 4 (20:35):
Like, all right, this is it?
Speaker 7 (20:36):
Did it take?
Speaker 5 (20:37):
It took all that time until you won the Emmy?
Just because you are one of only for a long
time in the food network? Is that why the kind
of ampost syndrome was there?
Speaker 8 (20:45):
You know?
Speaker 6 (20:46):
That's that's funny. I was just talking about someone. I
was just talking to someone about that the other day.
The imposter syndrome of feeling like, Okay, I don't have
all of these accolades and all of this the schooling
to back up what I do, but I know I
can cook, and I know I can cook with the
best of them, and just kind of reminding yourself that too,
and especially when your pay doesn't equal your skill, that is,
(21:10):
you know something that that kind of puts you in
that in that whole of thinking, like do I belong here?
Speaker 4 (21:14):
Like why am I ten season?
Speaker 8 (21:16):
Then?
Speaker 6 (21:16):
Why am I still fighting for a decent salary? Or
why am I still fighting for the same contracts as
my colleagues? You know, like that that I think affects
that imposter syndrome.
Speaker 4 (21:28):
It kind of amplifies it.
Speaker 5 (21:29):
Something who helped you navigate that world in the beginning,
Like you have these people that you name now, but
it was very few far in between. So when you
come in and you're figuring out them contracts and dealing
with all these execs, who was your person you picked
up the phone a call?
Speaker 2 (21:41):
No one?
Speaker 4 (21:42):
I had no one.
Speaker 8 (21:43):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (21:44):
No.
Speaker 6 (21:45):
I started off with the agent. I did start off
with W and me and I and they did help
me in a sense. But there was a lot of
things that I did not know, even taxes wise, I
did not know. And you know, turning you know yourself
in till your business until an LLC and becoming an
escorp and all of that stuff, and there was no
(22:05):
one really to help me. I kind of had to
teach myself contracts and asking for what I what, I'm
what I deserve, you know, and and kind of figuring
out on my own. So I had agents, but you know,
agents are also there to get there.
Speaker 9 (22:22):
You made a lot of mistakes early on business wise,
I don't think you know what I didn't.
Speaker 6 (22:28):
And I think that it came from my grandmother being
a very business savvy woman. She was the first person
in our family to go to college and get an education,
and and so she always instilled in me the idea
of business and saving and reading and understanding and acquiring
knowledge on your own and not waiting for someone to
tell you what it is. And my mom is also
(22:49):
very very good with that as well. So and I
also never wanted to be broke again, so you know,
I know the feeling of of of not having and
I didn't want to go back, and so I figured
out ways to say okay. And then I started asking
questions from like, you know, on set, like hey, who's
your lawyer or who's your accountant? Can you can you
(23:10):
you know, refer someone to me or you know, and
it's like, I see you doing well, I see you
have multiple businesses and stocks and whatever have you, So
can you refer me to that person, and that's kind
of how I learned.
Speaker 9 (23:23):
I feel like your book is so timely, and I
love the date of eleven eleven because that just means
everything is in divine alignment. But it's called make do
with what you have in this era right now where
you know, you got federal workers who haven't been paid
in forty plus days. You know, when you got people
losing snap benefits. This is going to be a holiday
season where people really got to make do with what
(23:45):
they have.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
What made you want to lean into that aspect of.
Speaker 6 (23:49):
Well, the thing is, this is how I grew up.
This is all I know. Even to this day. I
had someone mentioned to me the other day, She's like, oh,
well in the comments of because I did it like
a or of my fridge and someone in the common said,
I noticed you use a lot of store brand.
Speaker 4 (24:04):
Things, and I do you know?
Speaker 6 (24:07):
There was like I know a Public's bottle when I
see I shop at publics.
Speaker 4 (24:11):
I shopped at Harris Teeter.
Speaker 6 (24:13):
But the reason for me making this book was because
the first book, my first book, The Way Home, was
all about like getting to know who I am and
where I'm from and the foods of the of the region,
and then now this book is a continuation of my
mother being a single parent working three jobs at one time,
my grandmother helping to raise me, and there were times,
(24:35):
more often than not where we really just had to
have food at home, like McDonald's will pass by, like
mom wants some you know, philaggraph seriously, like and McDonald's
at the house was a pot of rice and some
beans or something like that. But it's like, we have
food at home and that's.
Speaker 8 (24:53):
The white A piece of hamburg meat, that's.
Speaker 6 (24:58):
What, right, And you know, maybe some handcut fries if
you were lucky. But it's just the way that I
grew up eating, and it's my style of cooking, even
on Delicious Miss Brown, Like if you watch the show,
you'll see that I never reach for a lot of
fancy ingredients. It's always things that you can find in
your pantry, in your in your refrigerator, things that you know,
you go to a grocery store and you do your
(25:18):
your haul for the first, you know, two weeks of
the month, and you can make meals out of those things.
And I think this is new to some people who
aren't used to struggle, But this is what I know
you know, like this is how I grew up, and
so I'm helping people maybe who don't understand, like, hey, now,
times are a little iffy and you got to figure
out things at home. Like as a as a business
(25:41):
owner and a restaurant owner, I would love for you
to come out and travel and eat, but I also
know the reality of it, and it's not It's not
feasible for everyone. So I want you to be able
to open your fridge and not look in there and say, man,
we don't got nothing eating here, which I did a
lot as a child, But you'll see your refrigerator and
your pantry in a different light, like, Okay, the other
day I walked in. I was like, I got some onions,
(26:02):
some celery, got a little sausage here. I got some
beans in the cabinet. Oh, I can make red beans
and rice. Always keep rice on hand, Always keep grits
on hand, Always keep eggs on hand, sugar, all of
those things.
Speaker 4 (26:14):
And you can make something out of nothing.
Speaker 6 (26:16):
You can without you know, having it be a struggle
and having you know, when people looking at a refrigerator
and they get kind of bogged down or disappointed that
I don't have certain things like that. That's all right,
you can still make a decent meal with the stuff
that you have.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
Say, what's a cheap meal that you can make?
Speaker 8 (26:32):
Right?
Speaker 3 (26:32):
So let's say there's a mom listening right now, right,
they just picked up their kids from school. Okay, they
need to make a quick meal that's inexpensive that the
kids are like, go, what do you go to?
Speaker 4 (26:42):
Ooh, that would be my chicken bog.
Speaker 6 (26:44):
That's like getting like whatever meat cut of chicken you
got in your house, even some drumsticks and wings, breast,
whatever you take that, you season it, you make some
you get some celery and some onions and stuff. You
cook that down in the pot, and you put the
chicken in. You cook the chicken. Then you add rice
to the pot. Right, you cook that all together. So
all the you know, the fragrant, fragrant vegetables, and the
(27:07):
seasoning and the juices and the natural fasts from the
chicken all coming together in this one pot. So you
got a meal in one pot.
Speaker 9 (27:13):
Yeah, it's so funny because all of these My stomach
is over here ground because I'm just thinking about all
of these meals that feel like hugs, right, like little things,
grits and eggs for breakfast is always flap. My grandma
used to take toast and she would just put cheese
on it and give you a cup of tea.
Speaker 4 (27:28):
Oh yeah, oh my god, a little butter on it.
I love that.
Speaker 9 (27:33):
What's one recipe that always brings your family together, no
matter how busy everybody is.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
No, we're going to.
Speaker 4 (27:41):
A recipe or a meal, a meal fried fish and
red rice.
Speaker 5 (27:45):
Look at him, man, but you're making me so hungry.
Speaker 4 (27:49):
You got you gotta actually try the food.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
Should have.
Speaker 4 (27:51):
I wish I was like next time.
Speaker 7 (27:53):
That means you got to come back.
Speaker 4 (27:54):
I have to come back.
Speaker 6 (27:55):
Red beans and rice, all of that gumbos collar green,
gumbo fish all.
Speaker 7 (28:00):
Why is that the meal?
Speaker 6 (28:02):
It's just what we were known for in Charleston. Like
on Fridays, you know, you get paid Fridays, you go
get your fried bushy. Yeah, you go get your fried
push and your your your your red rice, lama beans
sometimes and piece of toasted cheap white bread, you know,
and and that's how you and that's that's how you
(28:24):
get down.
Speaker 3 (28:24):
It's so crazy listening to like different areas of the country,
right because we didn't really cook like that, Like my
mom did pork and beans like porking beans was like
the cheap mail, right.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
She cut it up with some hot dogs. She cut
the hot dogs in it. That was that was our meal, right.
I hated when my mom cooked meatloaf like meat loaf,
I was hated.
Speaker 3 (28:42):
I hated the way it looked. I hated New Year's
even my mom used to cook on chip lists.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
But anyway.
Speaker 2 (28:50):
You do.
Speaker 5 (28:53):
That's that's the two things that my grandmother still she's
not supposed to have them, but my my family still
does though.
Speaker 7 (29:00):
Those those are the two things that.
Speaker 4 (29:01):
I like to give. Your family's originally from Delaware and
they eat fat back, Well.
Speaker 5 (29:04):
No, there, My grandmother and her sisters are originally from Virginia, Lynchburg.
Speaker 7 (29:08):
Yeah, but then they move to Delaware. That's not everything
so country.
Speaker 4 (29:10):
So that's something. So I'm like her fat backs in
a while. But yeah, porking. We eat pork and beans too.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
But you know what I was saying is like here
it was we were we're so Caribbean food like for
us as beef patties for us, as jerk chicken for us,
it's oxtail, it's curry gold, it's you know, those are
the meals that we eat and it's like, I love those,
but it always takes long. When my wife cooks oxtail,
it just seems like it's a procedure. It is, and
I'm like.
Speaker 4 (29:34):
I'm hungry.
Speaker 1 (29:35):
She's like, you want the bone, you want to meet
the fall off the bone.
Speaker 8 (29:37):
Don't.
Speaker 3 (29:37):
But it's just it just takes so long. What's the
longest meal it takes for you to prepare?
Speaker 4 (29:42):
I would be it would be a short rib or
an oxtail, and it takes about four or five hours
at two seventy five, and it's got to sit in
that Dutch oven or over that crock pot and just
low and slow.
Speaker 2 (29:52):
I'll cook it a whole hole. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4 (29:55):
Could they do?
Speaker 6 (29:57):
My uncles and them in the country, do I I've
not graduated to that yet. I just can't. I can't
see myself, you know, opening the hall. No, I'm not
that country yet.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
Oh I want to ask you yet.
Speaker 7 (30:07):
I love in your book you have tips for saving money.
Speaker 5 (30:10):
You help people get there, like cookwear together, and you
talk about how you can do it for the low
as well too. But the tips for saving money, I
never think it's very personal to you. What was like
the tip that you were like, I want to put
this in, but I got to leave out that didn't
make the cut in the book.
Speaker 4 (30:24):
Oh manager specials.
Speaker 6 (30:27):
The you know growing up, you know you remember the
pack of meat that might have been expired or close
to it, Like, don't be afraid to use those like
because I mean the supermarket has to buy law kind
of put things on sale or get it out of
there right before it goes bad. But there a lot
of stuff are more shelf stable than you actually know.
Speaker 4 (30:49):
They are. Like beans.
Speaker 6 (30:51):
If you see like a pack of dry beans and
it says, oh, it expires on twenty twenty five, and
well January twenty twenty five beans, dry beans will last
in your pantry indefinitely. So doing things like that, like
getting things that are you know, maybe discounted because it
is going to expire in a day or two. Go
ahead and get that and you can pop it in
(31:11):
your freezer. They can't keep it on the shelf because
it's not frozen, but you can get those cuts of
meats and you can put it in your freezer and
thaw it out and use it whenever you.
Speaker 1 (31:19):
Want to do that.
Speaker 3 (31:20):
In college, chicken, in college, I would wait till the
day about the expire and they go half price at
the supermarket.
Speaker 2 (31:24):
Yeah, we cook it up.
Speaker 6 (31:26):
That's a that's that is definitely a hack people, A
lot of people do, and you don't realize it because
you can go get you know, a ribby for half
the price because they're about to put it on sales.
So if you see that, like maybe it's going to
expire in about two or three days, go ahead and
get it.
Speaker 4 (31:39):
While I was on sailing, put it in your freezer.
Speaker 1 (31:41):
How should you eat your meat?
Speaker 8 (31:42):
Right?
Speaker 2 (31:43):
God?
Speaker 9 (31:43):
Dang, yeah, my god.
Speaker 3 (31:56):
When I was when I was younger, right, and I
used to eat it was well done right because that's
what we're told you gotta eat well double Now it
is medium?
Speaker 1 (32:08):
So how should somebody eat their steak? Pause?
Speaker 2 (32:11):
Eat their meat?
Speaker 6 (32:12):
I would say medium? Well, I like, I'm a medium,
Well girl, like I want a little bit of brown
and just till it gets to the center.
Speaker 5 (32:20):
Thing.
Speaker 1 (32:20):
Pink is soft and just juicy melts in your mouth
by way.
Speaker 4 (32:28):
But see I don't want the cowles to be moving,
you know.
Speaker 1 (32:31):
Not moving, but pink's it got to melt in your mouth. Medium.
Speaker 6 (32:34):
Medium is okay. I go with medium for like my
my like lamb chops or pork. Yes, I'll do that,
but like for as far as stay scared.
Speaker 1 (32:43):
Of the pork, medium man, because I don't know growing
up it a little bounce to it. He is sick. Right,
My mom used to get the porky eat salmonella whatever
it's called.
Speaker 6 (32:49):
Yeah, five is okay for pork. Yeah, and then salmon too,
if you eat salmon. I like my medium.
Speaker 2 (32:56):
Yes.
Speaker 9 (32:57):
I want want to ask you right in the intro,
you got these mantras you already talked about you got
McDonald's money.
Speaker 8 (33:01):
I just want to say some of these mantras and
you tell me what.
Speaker 9 (33:04):
They mean to you, right, And you said these are
mantras your mother and grandmother instilled in you. And I
also want to know which one of the most relevant
to you where you are in life right now. If
you want to act grown, be grown.
Speaker 4 (33:14):
Now?
Speaker 6 (33:14):
That was you know, you think you've grown, well, then
go ahead and take your stuff and get out and
do it on your own.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
Damn.
Speaker 4 (33:21):
Yeah, my mom, is you remember the first time you
heard that?
Speaker 6 (33:23):
Yeah, I was about fourteen or fifteen, and I guess
I had got you know, started feeling myself a little
bit and I said something back to her. She was like,
all right, if you want to act grown, you can
be grown. Pack your stuff up, call your grandmother and
telling you on the porch you need to go. I
was like, what you mean Like she actually had me
pack my stuff up and put me outside and called
(33:47):
my grandmother, said you can come get her. She could
figure out what she's doing, said she want to be
so grown here, and I said, you can't do that.
Speaker 4 (33:52):
You can't put me.
Speaker 6 (33:53):
But that I mean back then, like I mean, I
kind of felt I guess I was feeling myself.
Speaker 4 (33:57):
A little bit.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
I'm gonna get you.
Speaker 6 (33:59):
No, she was like absolutely not, like Patty, let it
back in the house.
Speaker 4 (34:03):
Don't don't do it like that.
Speaker 6 (34:05):
You know, she didn't mean, she didn't mean any harm,
but you know, it took about an hour or two,
but she let me back in. But I at that
point I realized I was not grown.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
The Lord will make a way out of no way.
Speaker 6 (34:14):
Every single time, and I say that with conviction, every
single time. I am a living testimony of making God
would bring you through the darkest storms. I was homeless
at one point. So to be here today talking about
my second cookbook and being here with you all as
a testament that God will will bring you out.
Speaker 4 (34:34):
The darkest situation was that the moment because we all, you.
Speaker 9 (34:36):
Know, we all are believers and we all have faith,
but we always had that one real moment where we
like Lord, God, I know that was God.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
Yeah, I don't.
Speaker 6 (34:46):
I feel like it happens on a daily you know,
like just driving to work or flying on a plane
or just doing it like when you land like that
that was nothing but God. Or you know, getting home
to your your house and your family. That that had
to be and God, because anything could have happened in
between times.
Speaker 4 (35:02):
So I you know, you see that on a on
a daily.
Speaker 2 (35:06):
He will never give you more than you can bear.
Speaker 6 (35:09):
Never, And I think as as humans, we underestimate how
much we can actually take and deal with, and God
shows us like, Okay, yeah, this may be a very
trying time, but I'm given this to you because I
know you can handle it. And once you handle it,
and if it happens again, you know that I've been
here before, I've handled this. So this coming the next
(35:32):
thing coming in, you know, it's easy, it's nothing.
Speaker 9 (35:35):
And I think this is when people need to really
understand in this era, don't be penny wise and pound foolish.
Speaker 7 (35:41):
Yeah, my grandma be saying it to me.
Speaker 6 (35:43):
Yeah, don't be penny wise and pound foolish means that
you don't don't think you know more than what you
actually do. You know, be open and receptive to feedback
and criticism and constructive criticism. And you don't know everything.
You don't and there's somebody that's going to know a
little bit more than you, or somebody's going to help
(36:04):
you understand this. But be open and receptive to to criticism,
constructive feedback, and just advice.
Speaker 9 (36:12):
What's next for the Delicious Miss Brown brand? You know,
we got cookbooks, we got restaurants, we got products.
Speaker 4 (36:18):
Yes, you know.
Speaker 6 (36:21):
Right now I am looking forward to I'm hosting Kids
Baking Championship with Duff Goldman at the top of the year.
Holiday Baking Championship is on now, you know I'm at
this time. I'm I'm the type of person that's always
like I got to have everything in control, Like I
got to have my next plan written down. I know
I'm doing this, I know I'm going to do that next.
(36:42):
I am allowing the universe to do what it is. Oh, okay,
whatever God has for me. I'm not gonna limit myself
to anything given you in work that has given me
so much because it so oftentimes and social media is
and I'm sorry, You're fine social media and I'm and
(37:03):
I am very I do it to this day, I'm
guilty of comparing to other people's where they are in
their life, their their point c to my point. A.
Speaker 9 (37:14):
We was talking about that this morning and I was like, Yo,
they got people got to stop doing that because niggas
be lying, they on social media.
Speaker 6 (37:21):
Lying every all day long, especially to people that you
know that you know, I know you don't live like that,
but I I, you know, get caught up with that.
And social media makes it really easy to get caught
up with comparing your journey to someone else's. And I've
I've caught myself saying that, Okay, I you know, if
(37:43):
this book doesn't get New York Times bestseller, but why
did their books? You know, why is their book? Why
is this book not selling? It's fine, And I'm tired.
Speaker 4 (37:50):
You get tired of.
Speaker 6 (37:51):
That because at the end of the day, what what
my pieces, my slow mornings being with my husband, having
the freedom to get up and do what I love
to do every day. That's the older you get, the
more those things matter to you. So it's a peace
of mind of knowing just like, hey, whatever happens, happens,
but I know it's going to always be for my
greater good.
Speaker 2 (38:12):
I got one more. You dedicated the book to your husband.
Speaker 5 (38:15):
I did.
Speaker 8 (38:15):
Why did you dedicated to your.
Speaker 6 (38:17):
He's the reason why I cook. He's I enjoy cooking
for myself, you know. But it's nothing like, babe, what
you're feeling like today, you know, or like you know,
with seeing his face when he's excited about something that
I'm making, and when he walks in the house and
I'm cooking and he's like, oh, it's smell good in here.
That that makes me feel good. So I get. I
(38:37):
get gratification and satisfaction from It's my love language feeding
you know, not only his body, but his soul too.
Speaker 9 (38:44):
So that's what And I also want to say, uh,
you know, we always say we're losing recipes. You do
you think cookbooks are spiritual?
Speaker 4 (38:54):
Because absolutely, especially.
Speaker 6 (38:57):
Coming from you know, black and brown households where recipes
are not written down. It's only like word of mouth.
And so God forbid if big Mama goes and y'all
didn't get that sweet potato pie recipe or that fat
bag recipe, and nobody wrote it down and nobody can
call her, you know. So having recipes written down and
the stories that follow the recipes are so important because
(39:20):
eventually all of us are gonna leave this place one day,
and you got something, gotta have something left to talk about.
Speaker 1 (39:26):
Well, thank you for joining.
Speaker 4 (39:27):
Us, Thank you so much.
Speaker 9 (39:29):
And listen, I'm over the holidays. What's the date we're
gonna be with Chris Kalen?
Speaker 4 (39:34):
Yes day after given?
Speaker 9 (39:37):
So yeah, November twenty eighth, actually November twenty eighth, will
be at the Magnolia Room. Myself, Cardia, I said it
right right, Cardier Cardier like the glasses, like the Cardio Cardier, Cardier, Myself,
Cardier and AJ from the We Talk Back podcast will
be with Chris Kalen at the Magnolia Room in Charleston
(39:57):
seven to twenty magnoliar road Man. So tick it's all
available for that now, I believe, I don't know. I'm
just reading this on Chris Kellen's page.
Speaker 1 (40:05):
Cardia Brown to.
Speaker 9 (40:07):
Cardier Brown, Suverurn Kitchen and Charleston Airport Man I'm telling you,
somebody is listening to me right now, and they're like,
you know what, on flight is delayed for two hours.
Hook yourself up right path the Chick fil A and
going the summer kitchen.
Speaker 1 (40:21):
That's right, it's the Breakfast Club. Good morning, hold on
every day.
Speaker 2 (40:25):
Up weak Ago, click your ass up the Breakfast Club.
Y'all done,
The Breakfast Club News
Hosts And Creators
Charlamagne Tha God
DJ Envy
Jess Hilarious
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Medal of Honor: Stories of Courage
Rewarded for bravery that goes above and beyond the call of duty, the Medal of Honor is the United States’ top military decoration. The stories we tell are about the heroes who have distinguished themselves by acts of heroism and courage that have saved lives. From Judith Resnik, the second woman in space, to Daniel Daly, one of only 19 people to have received the Medal of Honor twice, these are stories about those who have done the improbable and unexpected, who have sacrificed something in the name of something much bigger than themselves. Every Wednesday on Medal of Honor, uncover what their experiences tell us about the nature of sacrifice, why people put their lives in danger for others, and what happens after you’ve become a hero. Special thanks to series creator Dan McGinn, to the Congressional Medal of Honor Society and Adam Plumpton. Medal of Honor begins on May 28. Subscribe to Pushkin+ to hear ad-free episodes one week early. Find Pushkin+ on the Medal of Honor show page in Apple or at Pushkin.fm. Subscribe on Apple: apple.co/pushkin Subscribe on Pushkin: pushkin.fm/plus
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com