Ep.11 - World Central Kitchen's Mission in Crisis, Comfort & Humanity

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Join us as we uncover the extraordinary power of food to forge deep connections and bring communities together during the most challenging times, restoring dignity and hope in the midst of disaster. Our guest, Monica Majors from Chef Jose Andres’ relief organization, World Central Kitchen, takes us behind the scenes of their emergency food relief operations, sharing her inspiring experiences from disaster zones like the Surfside Condo Collapse and hurricanes Dorian, Ida and Idalia. Her stories illustrate how food transcends sustenance, becoming a beacon of comfort and humanity for those affected by crisis, which began in the aftermath of the 2010 Haiti earthquake. 
 
Explore the fascinating logistics and heartwarming tales that define Chef Jose Andres’ passion and World Central Kitchen's mission as we discuss their ability to rapidly mobilize and provide tens of thousands of meals in the wake of global disasters. We unravel how local partnerships, culinary expertise, and innovative solutions like mobile kitchens are at the heart of their success. You'll hear about the cultural relevance of meals prepared during these efforts, highlighting the crucial role local chefs play in ensuring that the food served not only nourishes but also respects cultural preferences and traditions.
 
Finally, we reflect on the poignant moments that unfold during disaster response efforts, emphasizing the power of comfort food to provide solace and a sense of normalcy. From the touching stories of resilience at the Ukraine-Poland border to the nostalgic tastes of dishes like the Haitian-Bahamian dish ‘Fire Engine’, this episode celebrates the communal spirit inspired by food. With humor and genuine dialogue, we invite you to connect with the heartwarming stories that showcase the incredible impact of food on humanity in its hour of need.

https://www.instagram.com/wckitchen/ 

https://www.instagram.com/chefjoseandres/  

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
We're all inspired by our human connection that
arises when we share food withothers.
So what's on your heart becomesa hub for truly heartfelt
conversation.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
Tertulia, as they say in Spanish, fostering genuine
bonds between individuals,creating that sense of community
and connection.

Speaker 1 (00:16):
I'm Paul Jacobs, your podcast co-host, ready to
inspire you by conversationsthat nourish the soul as we go
beyond the plate.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
I'm Daniel Patino, welcoming you to join us for
some truly inspiring tertulia.
Get ready to satisfy thatcraving for connection and
inspiration as we dive intotopics that aren't only broaden
your perspective but also deepenyour understanding of lives of
families in Latin America, theCaribbean or even in your own
backyard.
So, wherever our conversationstake us, come along for the ride
and let's go Beyond the Platetogether.

(00:45):
All right?
So I've seen a little list herethat I want to share with you
guys.
People talk about the mostcommon jobs in America, the
industries that are most indemand and the gigs that pay the
most.
So I'm going to share this withyou.
So here's a list of the leastcommon jobs in America, the
industries that are most indemand and the gigs that pay the

(01:05):
most.
So I'm going to share this withyou.
Here's a list of the leastcommon jobs in America, and, of
course, it's a list, so Ishortened the list just for time
purposes, right, because wedon't have all day.
I want to get to our guests.
This episode is like threehours.

Speaker 1 (01:19):
It is, we got time to spare.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
So here's a list, along with the number of people
employed in them and the averagesalaries that come with it.
So, number one wood patternmakers, wood patterns, wood
pattern makers.
You've seen it the live, laugh,love signs that all come in one
.

Speaker 3 (01:38):
I was thinking pallets.
I'm thinking there's somebodyout there saying it has to be
exactly this measurement.

Speaker 2 (01:43):
I'm thinking carpenter, don't they just call
them carpenters?
That's a fancy way to saycarpenter, right?
I mean wood pattern maker.
So there's 260 people employedin the US.
Like that, average salary 52K.

Speaker 1 (01:56):
Okay, what about that ?
What about that?
There you go.

Speaker 2 (01:57):
Interesting.
Here's another one Clock andtimer precision technicians what
Sounds like they're in chargeof the time-space continuum.
I am the clock and timerprecision technician.
I would work with those people,just for the record Right.
I would absolutely they go backin time, just in case something
happens right.
400 people are employed in thatposition right now 400 people

(02:18):
are paid to change the time on aclock.
That's right.
That's the most important.
I mean, if you're looking atthe clock of the microwave, the
VCR, your watch, your phone, oneof those things has got to be
on time right, that's highpressure.

Speaker 1 (02:29):
I want my money back from college.

Speaker 2 (02:32):
I'm early If I look at the microwave.
I'm late If I look at my VCR.
And one more Furnace and kilnrepair technicians, Okay, Okay
yeah, they're worth that's right540 people are a part of that
initiative.
49k a year, right, the one, Ithink, job that's not listed on
here and it's the least commonjob and you want to take a stab

(02:53):
at it, Paul, I think it would bethe title of response corps
member.

Speaker 1 (03:00):
Response corps member is correct.
100 points for you, paul.
100 points for you, 100 points.
All right, so we have one ofthose response core members here
with us today, all right.
So, first of all, you've been.
You got a little sneak peek atthe voice.
You're wondering, okay, why?
Why is danny and paul throwingtheir voice into a, you know,
like a little higher pitch?

(03:20):
No, that doesn't sound.
No, it's not that there's dannyand paul doing, uh, imitations.
We actually have a guest,monica Majors, welcome to Beyond
the Plate.

Speaker 3 (03:28):
Hello, thank you, sorry, cannot be contained.
Apparently You'll find thatthat comes in handy in certain
high-stress situations.

Speaker 1 (03:35):
Yes, I assure you, there are no standard operating
procedures on this podcast, asyou can see, so far, so okay.
First of all, let's go over.
I really want to just sharesome of your highlights, your
resume.
Really.
You've worked with WorldCentral Kitchen now since
Hurricane Dorian hit the Bahamasin 2019.

(03:56):
You've been on 13 responses.
Has that number grown since I?

Speaker 3 (04:00):
It is 14 now and, yeah, probably likely to
continue.

Speaker 1 (04:03):
yes, this is what really stood out to me Five
international, eight domestic,but there were five here in
South Florida, namely, and whatreally hits home for all of us
here in South Florida, theSurfside Condo Collapse,
champlain Towers, hurricanes,ida and Idalia I mean, that is

(04:29):
to us, us very close to home andvery personal.
You worked in what you calldistribution, which is the
fulfillment of food needs intodistressed or affected
communities after natural andclimate or humanitarian related
disasters.
Danny, would you like me to saythat in English.

Speaker 2 (04:40):
I think Monica just says that to everybody she walks
up to In.
English I am part of thefulfillment of food needs and to
distress or affect thecommunities after unnatural
climate or humanitarian relateddisasters.
Yeah, if somebody eats food andthey don't get it.

Speaker 3 (04:52):
It's my fault.

Speaker 2 (04:54):
Because you're still describing that whole thing to
them.
Yes, exactly, they're waitingfor it, sorry.
Yes, let me finish, sir.
We have a process in place forthis.

Speaker 3 (05:01):
She trends.

Speaker 1 (05:01):
Let me finish sir, we have a process in place for
this.
We need an acronym.

Speaker 2 (05:04):
We need an acronym for this, guys, oh that would be
.
We'll get to it.
We'll get to it soon.

Speaker 1 (05:09):
It's like that scene from Shield right.

Speaker 3 (05:11):
Listen, we call it distro.
You can come at.
You know, with ourcolloquialisms.

Speaker 2 (05:18):
I'm distro, you're distro.
I'm not the villain from'mdistro Chromedome.

Speaker 1 (05:22):
Okay, but you said it in English.
Yeah, we get chef-preparedmeals into awaiting bellies.
Yes, I love that.
Yeah absolutely, I love that.
But you know, Monica, tell us alittle bit about just kind of
your day-to-day role.
I mean, when you are enteredinto the field, you get into the
field and you start day one.

Speaker 3 (05:47):
What's that like for you?
Absolutely Well, I think thatto go back a step and just in
terms of, there's really fourmain tracks that happen with
World Central Kitchen inemergency response, and so that
is a community outreach, that isthe assessment of who is hungry
, who is displaced, who do weneed to reach and make sure that
we're giving them hot food, hotnourishment.
Then we have our culinary team,of course, cooking the meals A

(06:08):
lot of the time.
Sometimes we employ arestaurant model where we use
food truck partners in lieu ofthat, depending on if the damage
is pocketed, for example, andthen we have distribution that
connects those two.
And so, in real time, you know,is making sure that we have an
ability to grow the numbers ofoutput, of what our kitchen
might be making, whether we needto grow from a couple thousand
to 10,000, to 35,000 meals perday, to 55,000 meals per day or

(06:33):
more per day.
Right, 55,000 meals per day iswhat we were putting out of the
Atlantis kitchen in Nassau forHurricane Dorian, for example
55,000 meals.
Correct.

Speaker 1 (06:45):
How many?

Speaker 3 (06:45):
people in the kitchen In addition to a pretty good
workforce of several dozens ofvolunteers, consistent culinary
team experts and chef stewardsand then loading that into an
array of helicopters or localdelivery on Nassau Island.
That's also not in addition tothe 25,000 to 30,000 meals being

(07:07):
put out of the kitchen on Abacoand then also in Freeport.
So there were other fuelkitchens that were set up to
address those pocketed needs.

Speaker 1 (07:15):
That's like a stadium of people per day coming to get
a meal.

Speaker 2 (07:20):
At our height, yes, 50,000.

Speaker 1 (07:22):
And when I think of okay, so all right, so we think
of like a football game,professional football game, and
all of those vendors feedingthose tens of thousands of
people in one game yeah.
It's one unit, right, butthey're hot dogs and nachos and
burgers.

Speaker 3 (07:39):
I'm not.
I mean, and those are go-tos.
You can't mess up a burger.
You can't mess up a burger.

Speaker 1 (07:42):
You can't mess up a hot dog.
You can't mess up a nacho.

Speaker 3 (07:43):
We're talking chef prepared, chef prepared.

Speaker 2 (07:50):
And this is like a mobile restaurant, fancy
restaurant on wheels, right, andit's almost.
There's a chef, there's a souschef, where everybody probably
is equal right, because we'reall, we're part of a mission,
right.

Speaker 3 (08:05):
To feed a hungry belly, and so you know so, to go
back to in early days, right,there's really there's a couple
of different types of responses.
So let's talk about one where,like a hurricane, really where
we were born out of HurricaneMaria in Puerto Rico, you've
seen us here.
For Hurricane Ian in Fort Myers, especially Ida in New Orleans,
adalia here, the list goes onHurricane Michael as well.

(08:27):
In the case of a hurricane, weare often pre-positioning our
team in advance of that stormand riding it out.
Sometimes we get caught offguard.
Beryl caught us off guard.
We did not have a team so muchpre-positioned in St Vincent,
grenada, or in Jamaica, so weresponded in hindsight to that.
But so in that case, where wehave the liberty of time, we're

(08:52):
going into an area and we'resetting up where we think is
going to be the epicenter of themost damage, but also, let's
say, in a place that needs to beour center for providing those
meals outwards.
Right, we can't be cut off.
So, for example, with HurricaneIan, we wanted to make sure
that we were not per se on StPete Island, but that we had the
provisions if needed, if it wasoriginally following that track

(09:14):
, that we would get meals outthere.
So we're often taking up apartnership with a culinary
institute, a hotel, a cateringcenter, something large facility
Right.
Institute, a hotel, a cateringcenter, something large facility
right On the back heels of thatwe may be also bringing in our
own food trucks that have largescale tilt kitchens that can

(09:35):
cook, and or if we then see thatdamage is pocketed in the case
of Adalia, where you have moresort of just rural centers that
were affected, or in the case oftornadoes that really sort of
they jump then we may beemploying a restaurant partner
or a food truck model that wecall so, whereby we're calling
out onto our long-term partnersof South Florida.
We have dozens to and then,throughout Florida and the state
, hundreds of food trucks thatwe've worked with previously,

(09:57):
whereby we were coaching them upon the right menu and then
paying them for the food thatgoes out there as opposed to
cooking it ourselves.
So the early days is reallyunderstanding where people are
pulling in relationships thatour community outreach has
created, whether that's withother agencies, with other NGOs
and nonprofits, or if that'swith community centers, churches

(10:19):
on the ground or people that wejust know in that community,
and we don't wait for anybody totell us where to go.
We are happy to play well withothers and we do play well with
others, but we get in there andwe get hot food into hungry
bellies.

Speaker 1 (10:35):
Now you mentioned about Hurricane Beryl in Jamaica
and some of the key areas thatyou were in is very near and
dear to Food for the Poor'sHeart.
We'll talk a little bit aboutthat Rocky Point and Portland
Cottage and South Clarendon butthere's a term you used and I
want to kind of take us back alittle bit early days.
In the early days and it wasinteresting when we were talking

(11:01):
about having you here andsharing your story and sharing
some of the things that you'vedone and experienced with World
Central Kitchen story andsharing some of the things that
you've done and experienced withWorld Central Kitchen I thought
about the early days of WorldCentral Kitchen, which basically
began in the 2010 earthquake inHaiti.
Now so it's January 2010.
I'm sitting in an officeworking an office job and a

(11:21):
number of my friends and familymembers were or are Haitian
right Extended family members,and so I'm watching this play
out and I'm just my mouth isdropped because it was at the
end of a workday and we'reseeing this on the news and I'm
saying this is not real.
Nine months later, here I amworking at Food for the Poor.

(11:43):
It's just surreal that I'm hereand experiencing, but I want to
read something.
I want to know if you recognizethis quote from Instagram.
This was September 2019.
Last week I grabbed somecolleagues, headed over to
volunteer at WC Kitchen and wastransformed this is my favorite
at WC Kitchen and wastransformed this is my favorite.

(12:04):
I'm not cut out for humanhumanitarian relief, but for
sure I'll be back in the kitchennext week.
You recognize that quote.

Speaker 3 (12:12):
I do, I sure do.
Who wrote that yeah, that wasme.
Yeah, that was me walking backfrom that first day.

Speaker 1 (12:24):
What happened in September 2019 that changed you
seeing the devastation inHurricane Dorian, seeing the
work of World Central Kitchenand it completely changed the
whole trajectory of your life.
I mean, mine was seeing itfirsthand and then, nine months
later, I'm here at Food for thePoor, but for you, you were on
the ground in the Bahamas.

Speaker 3 (12:41):
Yeah, so I was working on Paradise Island at
the time and so had a closeconnection with Atlantis and
actually had spoken with somemembers from World Central
Kitchen just to understand whattheir needs were in that kitchen
.
And then, yes, grabbed many ofthe managers from the hotel that

(13:01):
I worked at and we went overand I was transformed by the
power of food.
I think first and foremost byhow high quality and how
delicious and flavored and trulylike really good food.
We're not talking, and there'sa time and a place for MREs meal
ready right.
And there's a time and a placefor a quick ration style food

(13:25):
and you know and no disrespectto agencies that excel at that
kind of hot dog or, you know,quick turnaround there is a time
and a place for that.

(13:58):
First of all, watching Chef JoseAndres actually walk into the
kitchen there and addressingeveryone and just this sense of
urgency that, despite notnecessarily knowing the
geography of the islands orunderstanding where we needed to
go with Key and speaking topeople on the ground and then
getting up in the air again andthen transplanting to another
key or another island, that wasright.
So I was truly blown away bythis process and the system in

(14:19):
place, but also knowing that itwas all just us, with a passion
and going heads down and doingthat work.
Doing the work, either, cookinggreat food, sandwiches that are
a little bit more temperaturecontrolled, and we're also just
getting up in the air gettingfood out into the islands and
then returning Wow, becauseessentially you cannot do

(14:41):
anything if you're hungry.
You can't rebuild, you can'tgrieve, and so it's really a
first, just sort ofreestablishment into being human
and returning that dignity toanybody after an inclement event
or a disaster.

Speaker 1 (15:01):
Chef Jose Andres was quoted and I read this in the
book and we'll talk a little bitabout the World Central Kitchen
cookbook Feeding Humanity andFeeding Hope.
He said cooks like me can showup and start feeding anybody.
I love that.
First of all, the humility inthat statement.
Second of all, the readiness todo whatever it takes.

(15:23):
What was it like to see himcome in and just his personality
?
What was he like?

Speaker 3 (15:29):
Yeah, is he?

Speaker 1 (15:30):
like.

Speaker 3 (15:31):
I actually didn't recognize him the very first
time he came into the kitchenbecause he had his beard and you
know, at that time 2019, he wasstill all this outward facing.
That's a lovely beard, mighteven call majestic.
I'm looking at it.

Speaker 2 (15:42):
I just focus on that beard every time I see him.
I watch his podcast once in awhile and I just look at it.
It's just this fancy silver foxlooking beard.
That's a nice looking beard.

Speaker 1 (15:52):
You just called one of the most recognizable chefs
in the world silver fox.
I love that.

Speaker 2 (15:56):
He likes it.

Speaker 3 (15:57):
It fits him very well , I understood that he had this
demeanor and this command andconfidence to him.
But it sort of took me a secondinitially to understand that he
was, you know, sort of chef incharge.
But there is a humility to itthat it carries to local chefs
most of the time that we bringon to then adjust the menu, make

(16:29):
it relevant, because thatunderstanding of what tastes
good, what tastes you know isseasoned well, what is going to
allow us to continue to comeback and nourish these.
You know, some of these areas.
I have seen other agencieschased out of towns, rural areas

(16:51):
, because they just simplyhaven't had the wherewithal or
the ability to understand andevery single response in every
single country that we are in wehear that the food is great and
if we don't get that responseinitially, then we bring on as
many neighbors, local chefs thatwe can to make sure that it is

(17:16):
that way.

Speaker 1 (17:17):
I remember reading about the response in Ukraine.
You were there.

Speaker 3 (17:22):
I was to be clear.
I in poland, on the on theborder, yes, yes, yes, thank you
, and the borscht yeah, I, I wassurprised, honestly, that I
enjoy hot beet stew um I thinkit's the pickles winter
afternoon.

Speaker 1 (17:40):
I think calling is so much more eclectic than hot
meat stew.
It really is.

Speaker 3 (17:46):
And it's different from soup.

Speaker 2 (17:49):
So again very early days.

Speaker 3 (17:52):
I mean on those borders the Medica borders is
one of the larger crossings,also heavily pictured in the
media, but also Khrushchenko anda number of the other borders
that we had between Poland andUkraine.
We had team members on site theday after Putin's events had
invaded Ukraine and so thosevery early days we were cooking

(18:15):
hot chocolate and borscht andsoup, so more like consomme or
bouillon type style, but yes,borscht is delicious.
I highly encourage you to try it.
And so we have these massive.
We call them paella pans, butto be fair, they're actually
deeper than that.
They can cook about 250 mealsper batch, Wow.

(18:35):
And so it is pretty fun to geton the big paddle and stir that
up and scrape up the fond on thebottom of those pans and stuff.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (18:45):
Before I kick it to Danny, I just got to ask what
probably is your most memorablemoment, humanity.
The most memorable moment ofhumanity Because we talked a
little bit about the work, wetalked a lot about the food and
you know we're all gettingexcited about hot beet stew, got
it but it boils down to thathumanity, that one human story,

(19:08):
that for you, whether it wasDorian, whether it was on the
border with Poland and Borscht,wherever you've been in West
Central Florida.
what's that one human story thatresonates for you?
Sure, All of this.

Speaker 3 (19:25):
Yeah, what's that one human story that resonates for
you in all of this?
Yeah, I think, when back tosort of where my quote, if you
will, on my Instagram post I'mnot cut out for humanitarian
work At the end of the day, mostI don't know if it's nine out
of 10, but most of us in theresponse corps are civilians in
our day to day, and we foundWorld Central kitchen through
organic or forced, you know,means.

(19:46):
Something happened to our area,and so I think that for any of
us, on any response, there aresnapshots of, of a particular
moment, something that carrieswith you, something that you may
have to work through later,something that just warms, warms
your heart.
Um and so, um, a couple came tomind, but I'll share one that's
close to here.
It was in Surfside, and so theSurfside condo building

(20:09):
collapsed, and so we were theresame day, we being myself and a
teammate, and we had three foodtrucks that were providing meals
to the people who weredisplaced from the adjacent
building and also the familymembers of those at that time
that we were hoping to rescue,that the task force was hoping
to rescue.
We were inside the media event,so we were working very closely

(20:30):
with the Benevolent Association.
So both the police made me dateand also fire rescue, and I was
speaking with the president ofthe Fire Rescue Benevolent
Association and out of thecorner of my eye I was sort of
able to see half of the building, the pile of rubble, and I see
a member of one of the Floridatask force units coming down

(20:53):
from the back Obviously there'sa safety protocol and so he's
coming around the side andcoming out sort of towards in
our direction and he has astuffed animal in his hand and
he has a stuffed animal in hishand and he walks past us to at
that time, on whatever isadjacent to Collins it escapes
me, but there was a memorial setup on the chain link fence with

(21:17):
photos and belongings and hejust with you know, with tears
in his eyes, through the dust onhis face, put that moment, that
memento and that memory, justdown on the wall and that I had
to excuse myself for a momentafter that.
And then you take these momentsto, you know, provide, you hope
that the food provides and itjust allows, in that case,

(21:38):
emergency responders to focus onthe job ahead of them, to clear
the rubble, to to work onsearch and rescue, or search and
recovery um, in the case of theukraine border, um just
families bringing their petsacross.
I was astounded by the sheernumber of people carrying their
dogs and their cats and so thissort of like re.

(21:58):
you know, this hope of humanitythat they have at home with them
, despite having been displaced.
So there's snapshots that stickwith you, but also just at the
very core of it, that we allcome together and you're trying
to provide comfort food.
A lot of times.

Speaker 2 (22:13):
I think one of us has a comfort food to go to.
If it's a cloudy day, I usuallyprobably go for a bowl of soup
or something like that and whatI also sense about the Chef Jose
Andres initiative, WorldCentral Kitchen Initiative, is
not only response, it's alsorespect.
Like you just mentioned, we'llmake a soup that tastes

(22:34):
something close to somethingfamiliar to your own family.
It's not like we make one mealand if you don't like it, sorry,
come back tomorrow, orsomething like that.
No, it's actually respect aboutyour culture or the place that
you're in, and I think WorldCentral Kitchen is the very
heart of Chef Jose Andres andthe life and the mission and his
passion, his dedication.
It shines through you, itshines through everyone who's in

(22:56):
that kitchen providing themeals.
And it's not just that itdoesn't, it's not a job.

Speaker 3 (22:59):
Right, it's not a job .

Speaker 2 (23:01):
It's literally just like I know this is going to
fill a belly, that's going tohelp somebody recover an item.
Keep, keep the.
You know, like you said, it wasa small little stuffed animal,
that's going to keep the life ofsomebody who passed away.
Keep going on the the memoryright.
And we were also looking at thebook and I had a sense of that

(23:23):
because Paul and I were goingthrough the book and I was
reading the book to my daughterlast night instead of our
regular book.
I was reading the book and I gohoney, you better look at this
one, because this is somethingvery interesting, and most of it
that stood out to me was aboutit all started with the
earthquake in Haiti and back in2010.
And the first chapter we taggedon was urgency Right and the
urgency of now, which was aquote from Dr Martin Luther King

(23:44):
, and the urgency of now is oneof the driving forces right of
responding to disasters and thepeople who are displaced because
of these disasters.
Can you tell us a little bitmore about?

Speaker 3 (23:55):
that?
Yes, I think it's certainly atthe foundation of our model of
just how we work and how you'llfind us there very early and,
like I said, sometimes that'sjust from pre-positioning and
sometimes that's also from ournetwork right and so that we're
able to get to an area that hasbeen devastated very quickly
Because, simply put, when peopleare hungry, it cannot wait.

(24:17):
In the case, earthquakes arevery difficult response models.
You have horrible air quality,you have a lack of resources
available to you, you haveseveral um recovery agencies,
hopefully rescue agencies thatare in there as well, trying to
work right and so and here weare trying to ensure that we've
got clean water or cooking,without access to potable water,

(24:41):
without power.
Um, I was on the response forthe turkish earthquakes, the
earthquakes that happened inturkey and northern syria, um,
and so where we, where I was setup with our team in adiamond,
far east, we initial days didn't.
We had no hot water.
We had no, we had very littleaccess to power, and so we have
to bring in, through ourprocurement and logistics team,

(25:03):
ways to create that, ways tofilter water for ourselves so
that we can cook.
We can cook without power.
We do it a lot after hurricanes.
It's hot, it's loud, it's notfun, but you certainly can't
cook without, without potablewater, right, it's your point
we're talking about, um, wecomfort food.
Uh, a lot of there's.
There's a nourishment,nutritional look lens that we

(25:23):
put this into, because sometimesit might be you only getting
one meal, and so, while Iappreciate, um, macaroni and
cheese and chicken tenders mightbe the that's a page six high
on demand.
Can you find it for me?
It's page seven and you knowyou could argue the color, the
high cal demand.
That's page six in thatcookbook.

Speaker 1 (25:40):
Can you find it?
For me it's page seven and youcan argue the high caloric
intake on that one.
Wait, tamales, First of all.
My wife is from Guatemala.
Okay, Tamales, at Christmastime there is no better comfort
food.
Page 83 for those who aregetting the book.
Okay, listen to this.
I'm talking about, if anythingunites latin america and
connects modern modernity Ihaven't ever heard of this word

(26:01):
modernity to ancient tradition.
It's the tamal, and it's true,I'm talking about tamal.
It's everywhere and tamal islike the kinder toy of comfort
food.

Speaker 2 (26:11):
Right, because you get to that little meat, and
that's oh, it's so good, andthere's a couple places in Latin
America that have their ownversion of it.
Like I mentioned to you earlier, I have a Colombian background.
We have our own tamale,guatemala has their own tamale,
mexico has their own tamale.

Speaker 3 (26:28):
And the list goes on and on and on.

Speaker 2 (26:36):
So, yeah, you find a little bit of comfort food
because it becomes a staple inyour house year after year,
during Christmas time orThanksgiving or what have you.
And, yeah, it becomes that like, ah, this feels like home
before this disaster hit myhouse you know, or before this
all happened, bringing back thememories.

Speaker 3 (26:45):
Yeah, and we've been known to do that.
In addition, it might not bethe very first couple of days
that go out there, but althougha lot of the times when we're
first going I say going outthere we're understanding where
people are pocketed or cut off.
We really specialize in lastmile meal sort of delivery, if
you will.
So people who are shut, peoplewho are shut ins, people who
were truly cut off, who eitherdidn't choose, they chose not to

(27:08):
evacuate, they couldn'tevacuate, for whatever reason,
so perhaps a non-governmentshelter or a government shelter
isn't able to provide for them,wow, in early, in, immediate
response, we're feedingeverybody and anybody.
Of course People are hungry.
That can include linemen, youknow.
It can include first responders.

(27:28):
It can include your churches,your community centers, but
through those inroads that wemake with those community
members, we're looking forpeople that are hard to reach,
that are particularlydisenfranchised, are
marginalized, and so and that'swhere we want to we want to get
in Again.
The power of food allows us todo that and that humility allows
us to do that.
But we oftentimes are scouting,as we call it, with sandwiches

(27:53):
or hot patties.
You know as it might be, youknow, jamaican patties might be
the more appropriate route.
Wow, in Turkey, once we weresort of in Adyman, at least once
, we were sort of set up with acadence of coming back to a lot
of these tented communities thathad to pop up.
As you know, as the city wasleveled right, we're able to
come back with more comfort fooditems was leveled right, we're

(28:16):
able to come back with morecomfort food items.
So, like a sandwich that is,you know, really local, with
like pickled onions and sort oflike a donor kebab, right, that
wouldn't nutritionally count forus and especially for our data
recollection, as a full mealwe're really looking for, you
know, particular 10 to 12 ouncesof protein.
You know 16 ounce meal, forexample, right, some starch and
you know, veggies in there.

Speaker 1 (28:39):
But we're also yeah, we're also very.
We're not above, um, you know,ice cream on the 4th of July, so
I love it.
So I used to work in thecatering business right Matter
of fact, just like minutes awayfrom here where we're recording
and I remember passing horsd'oeuvres was my favorite.
Like if they, if they gave meany other assignment besides
passing hors d'oeuvres, I'd bebummed out.
But when I got to pass horsd'oeuvres my favorite comfort
food, quiche, no Pegs in ablanket.

Speaker 3 (29:01):
Pegs in a blanket.
Yes, was it a give one take,one sort of situation?

Speaker 1 (29:06):
I would get.
So the statute of limitationsis gone now, okay, so no one can
come after me for any money ortake any money out of my old
paycheck yet.

Speaker 2 (29:20):
So I would, I would, I'd pop one in on the way to the
dining room.
Or or the cocktail.

Speaker 1 (29:21):
Quality assurance right, yes, and I'd always
guarantee I'd start turning backto the kitchen when I had three
left.
Why?
Because I'd always encounterone or two guests who always
wanted to grab the last onebefore I had back to the kitchen
, which made sure at least I hadone pig in a blanket before I
got back to the kitchen.
You'd dodge them.

Speaker 3 (29:39):
Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (29:40):
Favorite comfort food .
14 responses.
Favorite comfort food what wasthe one if you had it?

Speaker 3 (29:46):
Right here, yeah, oh yeah.

Speaker 1 (29:47):
Out of all those places.

Speaker 3 (29:50):
Oh, that is a good question.
So Chef Jose's ham and cheesesandwich is when we say we're
making sandwiches, that's astaple, and I have to say I've.
I don't ever crave one outsideof response, but I absolutely go
on to that.
You know the volunteer sort ofassembly line and we'll snag one
for myself.
I'm not going to lie, becausewe have the secret sauce that

(30:11):
goes on it's white bread, it'swhite bread, it's American
cheese, it's white bread, it'swhite bread, it's American
cheese, it's sliced ham.
Oh, and it's.
You know, our secret sauce,which is not unlike, you know,
Big Mac, sort of like secretsauce, right, or whatever,
especially, yeah, there's that,and then the borscht was
probably it's actually the perot, the borscht, it was cold.

(30:32):
It was very cold in those days.
We're talking, snow fallingoutside.
The hot chocolate Chef, carlaHoyos, is also Miami 305 here.
She was responsible for the hotchocolate, wow.
And then sometimes you also tryand see, because we were also
in Poland, the pierogies Adumpling for me.

Speaker 1 (30:52):
Just any dough folded over.

Speaker 3 (30:53):
Yeah, steamed those are.
Yeah, do you want all 14?
Because now I see.

Speaker 2 (31:01):
Sure, please Number 12.
That's good, that's good,excellent.

Speaker 3 (31:05):
And then we're also looking to provide fruit too.
So Chef always, chef Josealways talks about bananas are
like his favorite becausethey're, you know, wrapped right
.
But same thing, oranges workgreat, and so we're generally
also trying to provide.
We'll come out with crates andcrates of fruit.
Apples can be difficult,because not everybody can eat an
apple well, so, yeah, orangesor, you know, plums or something

(31:27):
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(32:36):
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All right, monica, I got aquestion.
There's a scripture in theBible, I think it's in Proverbs
13,.
It says hope deferred makes theheart sick.
And in the World centralkitchen cookbook there was a

(33:02):
quote we're introduced to uhhope by and it says of all the
things you can lose, the saddestmay be hope.
You've been in the Bahamas,you've been on the border of
Poland responding after Ukrainewas invaded.
There have been a number ofplaces.
Ironically, as we go throughthe list of places that World

(33:23):
Central Kitchen has been, it'salmost like a list of where food
for the poor through ourpartnerships or we ourselves
have been.
But you've witnessed firsthandour neighbors on the West coast
of Florida I mean, you're aFloridian, so it's our neighbors
spend days, weeks recoveringand trying to figure out a
reason to get back up and to getback with their life again.

(33:48):
So I guess my question is whatis it like to demonstrate this
hope?
With this warm, wholesome meal,right?
What have you seen?
What has it been for you on theground and you're trying to
renew this hope so that theydon't lose the one thing that's
going to get them to tomorrow.

Speaker 3 (34:05):
Right.
So we, you know, sort ofmentioned that you can't really
do anything if you're hungry,and so not only is the you know,
chef-prepared meal that we'reproviding enabling someone to
have that literal nourishment,to be able to turn around and
take care of their family orsort of put one foot in front of

(34:27):
the other just to understandwhat comes next, a lot of the
times it is also what isallowing them simply the time to
rehabilitate their house.
In the case of last year, theVermont flooding was once in a
thousand year flooding Kentuckyas well.
The year before that had oncein a thousand year flooding.

(34:48):
So we have people that aremucking and gutting their homes,
that are cut off from theelectricity grid.
They don't have the time, theydon't have the propane, the
power to cook for themselveseither, and so our meals are
providing them with somesemblance of stability so that
they can turn to the next pageof what does it look like to get

(35:11):
back to home?
What does it look like to getback to, you know, a fun family
night or experience?
But it can be hard for peopleto take charity.
I found it's particularly hardfor Americans to take charity,
and I'm just also finding, asthe years continue, I'm running

(35:37):
into and I'm encountering moreand more people who are
individual donors, who havegiven and sponsored meals
through a financial donation toworld central kitchen, um,
because they've seen the effectsof the earthquakes in haiti,
they've seen the damage inturkey, they've seen, um, seen

(35:57):
the need for humanitarian aidaround the world, but then they
themselves, all of a sudden, areaffected by, you know,
climate-related disaster, ahurricane.

Speaker 1 (36:08):
I overheard a conversation earlier before we
started talking here.
You know exactly how many mealswere served in Jamaica.
Don't say it, yeah, because Ithink I overheard you say the
exact number of meals.

Speaker 2 (36:21):
Okay, all right, and I think you have to, because
it's not like I'm making acouple sandwiches.
No, you know a loaf of breadRight, I'm making tens and
thousands.
That's a cliffhanger.
I'll leave you for a littlelater.

Speaker 3 (36:32):
Stick around folks, but I'll leave you for a little
later.

Speaker 2 (36:33):
Stick around folks.
But going back to what you said, a village, it's more like a
community, absolutely Right.
So a quote from Chef JoseAndres from the World Central
Kitchen cookbook which, by theway, if you sign up for our Best
Bite, you can actually get achance to win this same cookbook
that Paul is holding.
Paul, can you show us what yougot in your hand?

Speaker 1 (36:53):
I'll be Vanna.
Yeah, you'll be Vanna JamesBeard Award winning cookbook.

Speaker 2 (36:56):
We've been talking about the cookbook for a while
now.

Speaker 1 (36:57):
You see it's earmarked.
Yeah, because it's like allover the place.

Speaker 2 (37:02):
And we put some of those pages We've creased the
corners so that way, just toshow you our favorites.
We'll put them back for youonce you get it back Again
beyond the plate.
So one of the quotes Chef JoseAndres says is we the people,
not I the person.
Right, we the people, not I theperson.
And, for example, once again Iforget to mention, and, Paul, I

(37:25):
forget to tell you we'respeaking with Monica Majors.
That's me Response.

Speaker 3 (37:29):
Corps.

Speaker 2 (37:30):
That's right Response Corps member of World Central
Kitchen and of course we'll comeback Food for the Port as well
has some guiding principles andthe acronym is CRUISE right and
the C stands for collaboration,and at World Central Kitchen you
have a community right.
And what makes communities soimportant?
Once these disasters hit, howimportant is community?

Speaker 3 (37:53):
Yeah, it's so important and it's ingrained
into the four sort of tenets ofour response team.
Right, we have a communityoutreach team that is ahead of a
pre-planned event, like ahurricane, or immediately after
we've heard something a tornado,touchdown or an earthquake
happens is calling upon alreadyestablished relationships that

(38:14):
we have with those and quitesimply that looks like any from
anywhere, from other agencies orother nonprofits, but also
friends and family.
One of and we're going to talka little bit more about the
Jamaican response for HurricaneBeryl but one of the locations
that ended up turning into whatwe call Social kitchen was

(38:34):
actually a referral from awell-respected and
well-partnered food truck hereand actually in Coral Springs.
So it really is about thatconnection and you'll see on any
number of our beacons and oursigns and we say food is hope,
food is community and there'salso the understanding that's

(38:56):
always served with that level ofdignity.
But community is so intrinsicto what we do that it's baked
into our actual response model.

Speaker 2 (39:05):
And I think you probably have a name for them,
right?
I've heard of the band the FooFighters some of my favorite
songs.
The best, simply the best yeah.

Speaker 3 (39:15):
Learning to fly.

Speaker 1 (39:17):
Learn to fly.
That's your favorite, yourfavorite, right yeah?
Because I love the video, oh mythat's the other food fighters.

Speaker 2 (39:22):
But uh, monica, what or who are the food fighters?

Speaker 3 (39:26):
food fighters yes, as chef jose is named.
I think that that monica reallycame out of, especially the
work that's being done inukraine, and so ukraine is our,
is our um only resiliencyprogram that we have currently
going at the time, and so, to beclear, is most of where you'll
find us, and almost exclusively,is in that emergency response
model, and so that can look likedays to weeks to months,
depending on the size and thescale of a disaster event.

(39:49):
Beyond that, there are normallyprograms or agencies or
partners that come in specializein resiliency, meaning that
there is, especially if we're inareas where it's a food desert
to begin with or there's foodinsecurity, regardless of an
inclement event, right, and soagain initiate like we're
feeding everybody and anybody,but then there are usually
longer-term programs to takethat over.

(40:10):
So Ukraine has we have aresiliency program there, and
that is where really Chef Josecame up with the adage of food.

Speaker 2 (40:18):
The food fighters, the food fighters exactly.
Yeah, once I heard foodfighters, I think it's like a
medieval fight Everybody'sdressed as knights.
And then they got to fight thisbig dragon, which is hunger,
you know right, yeah exactly.

Speaker 3 (40:31):
Chef Jose Andres is sitting on the white horse in
the front leading the army witheverybody.
Yeah, we've worked with a lotof celebrities With forks and
spoons or sporks.
Right, You're not wrong?
That sounds like an awkwarddream I probably had on one of
his responses.
To be honest, You're notentirely wrong.
Hunger is really our only enemy.
Hen and hench.

Speaker 1 (40:47):
You know it's interesting.
In the time I've been with Foodfor the Poor, I've seen this
personally myself and Ispecifically remember one
particular community justoutside of Port-au-Prince, by
about.
I mean, you know, anything istwo or three hours away from
Port-au-Prince, even if it'sacross the street.
I mean, it's just so difficultto get anywhere.
And that's not an insult, it'sjust.
That's just the reality ofHaiti and the communication,

(41:11):
excuse me, the transportationand whatnot, but anyway, I'm in
a community called Cadua.
You couldn't find it on a map,I mean, it's just such a small
place, but it was a community ofreal people with real needs and
we happen upon this village,this community, and we happen
upon this home and this mom.

(41:32):
I'll never forget her, fida,two small children.
You know you get emotional,just.

Speaker 2 (41:40):
I mean, I'm there again, right.

Speaker 1 (41:42):
Just thinking about Fida, two-year-old, kenya, and
her little brother sharing fromthis metal bowl with a few
grains of rice bowl with a fewgrains of rice.
And I remember her saying to methat the only other thing I

(42:04):
have came from my neighbor andshe was boiling this little
breadfruit because if anythingelse didn't come in, that's all
that she had.
But it was the thing that stuckout to me the most was that
neighbor.
Yeah, what have you seen inthat, your 14 responses?
You've seen the neighborresponse.
You've seen the families cometogether.
You've seen community cometogether.

(42:25):
What's been your experience?

Speaker 3 (42:26):
Yeah, I think, especially when we're even just
looking here domesticallywhether it's Kentucky, it's the
panhandle in Florida, it's partsof Texas, it's out West with
wildfires like Navajo Nation oryou know, or California, for a
country that at any given timecan seem so divided, none of

(42:48):
that matters when you justdistill yourself down to what's
right in front of you and so,yeah, you have neighbors helping
neighbors, regardless of wherearound you know the nation that
we are and then, when you'relooking at all of you encounter
such beautiful cultures.

(43:09):
You're really, you know, avisitor in these communities.
In the case of Morocco, orTurkey, or Poland or the Bahamas
, it's a matter of we do have totake a moment to so, as you can
tell, we're ready to come in,we're ready to go, we're ready
to go Urgency now.
We'll get the donkeys lined up,let's get the.

(43:31):
You know, we've gotten airboatsin Florida, everything at our
disposal, and it just takes us aparticular moment to sort of
stop and make sure that you'rebeing culturally relevant, right
, we're working a lot of thetimes across cultures.
In the case of Turkey, we workedinto Ramadan, the holy month of
Ramadan, and so adjusting,making sure that we're being

(43:53):
respectful about how much we canexpect of our teams, because we
also endeavor as quickly aspossible to bring on local,
independent or workforce, trainthem up again, get them really
helping themselves and helpingneighbors.
But regardless of where we arein the world, there I've never
come across someone who isunwilling to extend their hand

(44:16):
to the person that's next tothem.
And it's a little bit easier toextend their hand to the person
that's next to them, and it's alittle bit easier when you've
got a delicious meal in yourhand, I suppose.
But you still have to berespectful and humble.

Speaker 2 (44:31):
Who wouldn't do anything for a bowl of borscht.
Oh, I'm telling you, the linestarts behind Monica, I guess I
repeat it's the pickles, it'sthe pickles that make it
Polarizing, polarizing, I cantaste that.

Speaker 1 (44:47):
So all right, so let's fast forward.
We're back to this unexpected,early, once in a hundred year
hurricane barrel.
I mean the alphabet goes.
Hundred year hurricane barrel.
I mean the alphabet goes from Ato Z.
Obviously we're in the secondletter of the alphabet, early in

(45:10):
the hurricane season, and thisstorm just literally tears
through four of the southernparishes in Jamaica, communities
that are very near and dear toFood for the Poor Rocky Point,
portland Cottage.
I met a woman that came tovolunteer here at Food for the
Poor from Portland Cottage.
She showed me a photo of herfather's.

(45:30):
Basically, he has a house whichhad no roof, and then he has a
business, and that business wasa small little building, but
when she showed me the picturethat day of what it looked like,
it was three walls left in afoundation.
That's it.
What it was so impressive forus as an organization is we
encountered World CentralKitchen working in the same

(45:54):
communities in the samedirection, not overlapping, not
getting in each other's way Infact it was I believe it was
Global Medic from Canada, out ofCanada, that provided a lot of
the water filtration that wasneeded in some of those kitchens
with World Central Kitchen.
And I love that we ended upworking in unison and that's

(46:16):
what we're going for, right?
If we're going to scale, we'vegot to basically do what food
for the poor does well, and thenwork with partnerships are
going to help us scale and whatthey excel in, and so I, we.
I overheard you talking aboutthe number of meals that were
provided in jamaica in thisparticular area and and I have

(46:37):
to know how and really tell ouraudience how many meals did you
kick out in that just thatresponse in Jamaica alone.

Speaker 3 (46:47):
Yeah, so we're still there to be to be clear.
At the time, so at that timeand this morning and this
morning it was 38,193 meals plus5,200 patties.
Wow, and really across thoseright, all the way from
Manchester and Clarendon over,and so all the way over the four

(47:08):
parishes, but so stretchingfrom Treasure Beach down to
Alligator Pond to PortlandCottage and Rocky Point, and so
we have 12 what we callrecipient, basically 12 spots
where we're either droppingmeals at a common community
center for pickup to feed aneighborhood there where we also
have social kitchens wherebythey were where there's, they're

(47:30):
feeding the community there onsort of through our sponsorship
there.

Speaker 2 (47:34):
Wow, you've had anybody follow you through all
this.
I know it's kind of hard tofollow the services that you
provide throughout, you know,because I'm thinking all right,
in a disaster you might want tostick close to home, but I'm
imagining somebody following youthroughout Jamaica going hey,
it's me again and you helped meout in, you know, one of the
parishes.
Back, you know, two days agoI'm still here, your food is
delicious.

Speaker 3 (47:54):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (47:54):
You ever had somebody just go around and eventually
become a volunteer?

Speaker 3 (48:08):
No, I was going to say that then we'll bring those
people on as volunteers.
We often need to.
So with what with the Jamaicanresponse, we didn't end up
setting up a kitchen ourselvesand we're not cooking any meals
ourselves.
It was a combination of thesize of of the response and how
many meals were needed daily,and also the fact that it was so
spread out Right.
So to have a centralizedlocation and then a network of
delivery drivers to send themout, it didn't make sense, and
so we were working with localrestaurants and a couple of
catering companies to providethose meals.

(48:28):
Right, and then already yourmenu is appropriate.
But so a lot of the time, weneed an armada of volunteers.
Go to our website and sign upand when something, hopefully
you never see us and you neverhave to hear from us, but if
something does and there areopportunities for volunteers, we
absolutely send out that allcall.
So, yes, we have people sort oflike you know come up to us and

(48:50):
in the case of sometimes we evenbring them on in more, so many
permanent relationship orpositions for a response that we
have, especially if we're there, if we're going to be there for
weeks or months.

Speaker 2 (49:01):
And you should put that in the description.
Perks are you get paid inJamaican patties.
I would sign up right away Outof those 5,000, I think 4,900
would be all the way for me forhelping.
Please.
No cash, no cash.
Oh, jamaican patty, yes please.
My parents always know at least.
I'll be fed when I'm onresponse right, yeah, jamaican
patty in the morning, jamaicanpatty at night, right before a

(49:22):
workout.
Jamaican patty, it's my thing.

Speaker 3 (49:25):
Get that curry beef.

Speaker 1 (49:28):
I love it.
I love this quote because itreally encapsulates everything
you just said, especiallywhether it's the work in Jamaica
, or anywhere else in the world,or in the United States.
Jose Andres said, chef JoseAndres, in the worst of human
excuse me in the worst momentsof humanity, the best of

(49:50):
humanity shows up.
I mean.
I've seen it firsthand in mytime here at Food for the Poor
and I've seen it over and overand over again, because it's
where, really, where things justit's the darkest moments where

(50:10):
people realize when we talkabout the inception of World
Central Kitchen in the 2010earthquake in Haiti, we lost a
number of employees and many ofour employees lost family
members in that earthquake.
But it was the worst momentsand the best of humanity showed

(50:31):
up and we look back every yearat the amazing stories of
resilience and survival and Ijust love it.
But there was some you kind ofpointed out.
There was one recipe in herethat you wanted us.
We've earmarked it here.
You want to take a look andshare with us.

Speaker 3 (50:48):
Well, yeah, so it's fire engine and we talk about
fire engine.

Speaker 1 (50:52):
Fire engine Sounds good, it's hot, it's hot, it has
some spice to it?

Speaker 3 (50:56):
We never, I think we, because we are often feeding
the masses and, quite frankly,fire engine came up.
So this is a Haitian dish, butit's Haitian Bahamian.

Speaker 1 (51:05):
Okay.

Speaker 3 (51:06):
Is sort of the recipe that you have in here, and we
cooked much of this in for thesome of the shelters that were
set up in Nassau, because somany Haitians were displaced
from Hurricane Dorian and thenhad to seek shelter on the
island of Nassau.

Speaker 1 (51:20):
What's in it?

Speaker 3 (51:22):
It's.

Speaker 1 (51:24):
I'm hoping we get like a surge in firefighters
listening to our Beyond the.
Plate podcast as a result ofthis, not to mention Haitian and
Bahamians.

Speaker 3 (51:31):
So it should have spice, but again, we're often
feeding elderly or children,right, so we're not spicing it
up.
But it's corned beef.
It's basically a corned beefhash you had me at corned beef.
Yeah, over a white rice you hadme at white rice.
The recipe here calls for agoat pepper.
If we're doing it right, ifwe're doing it Bahamian style.

Speaker 1 (51:51):
Wait, wait, freeze Goat peppers.
I've heard of ghost pepper, butwhat's a goat pepper?

Speaker 3 (51:55):
Oh, no, yeah, and you should.
This would be a good good tossback to Chef Jose Andres.
Yeah, the goat pepper is.
It's about this.
It looks similar to a habaneroin that it's usually brightly
colored and it's kind of squat.
Looks almost like a tiny, tinybell pepper intense.
I do not recommend.
I want it now.

Speaker 2 (52:12):
She lit it up.
So perfect, there's a twist.
Wait, wait, hold on see, thisis what you did.

Speaker 1 (52:17):
Now my inner 10-year-old said okay, I want it
.
Now you said you shouldn't, no,you shouldn't want.
No, see, now I want it.
All right, here's the deal.

Speaker 3 (52:24):
This is like the cinnamon challenge all over
again.
I'm going out on a limb rightnow.

Speaker 1 (52:27):
The first ever.
See, this is the first.
I am making an offer right nowfor goat pepper Chef Jose Ramon
Andres Puerta.
Paul Jacobs of Beyond the Platewill cook you a three-course

(52:49):
meal of your choosing, as longas it has goat pepper.
If you come on this, wow, Iwill cook this.
I'm not kidding you.
I don't know how to cook a lick, but I've got a cookbook that's
going to help me and I'm goingto make, if he comes on this
podcast.
Monica, you get him on thispodcast.
I will make a three course mealand put goat pepper in that
meal.

(53:09):
I'm telling you I'm going to doit.

Speaker 2 (53:13):
And he's going to react to it.
You know he's going to react toit.

Speaker 3 (53:16):
No, don't say that he has a lot to he's going to.
Does he go around some of thesewhen you guys are?

Speaker 2 (53:20):
cooking for the masses.
Does he go around and go?
No, no, no, no.
And he just tosses everything.
Start over again.
I'm making him out like he'smean.
We sure hope not.
He's not a Gordon Ramsay type,he's not the actual chef in the
kitchen, right?

Speaker 3 (53:32):
You know they're going to keep him far, far far
away from the tasting spoon.
But with this recipe this wasreally born out of so we had.
There were a number of peoplewho were bored in the shelter
day in and day out, and we werecoming there to feed them two
meals a day, and so they weresort of like you know, can I

(53:54):
help?
And then that turned into thembeing in the kitchen providing
for their neighbors in thatsituation, right, and then also
amending the menu so that asespecially as more of the
Bahamians went back to theirhomes or the extended family or
left, and we were really feedingjust the people that were left
in the shelters and making surethat what was there was

(54:14):
absolutely relevant, and so FireEngine was one of those things.
It's absolutely comfort food.
I think it's delicious, but Idon't know that I would have
ever stumbled upon it in anyother circumstance.

Speaker 2 (54:25):
What's the meetings like?
I don't know, if you're a partof them, great.
If you're not, let's all justtheater of the mind, right?
So what kind of what are themeetings like that?
We go, all right, guys, we justlanded now in jamaica, so we're
gonna.
We're looking at this boardhere with five items right.

Speaker 1 (54:38):
I've seen it in the book jamaican patty uh, goat
curry.

Speaker 2 (54:42):
And then what are the things that are left out?
Because I mean some of thesemeals that you provide again,
like you mentioned, they're notchicken tenders and mac and
cheese yeah, no, no dip onchicken tenders, mac and cheese
on a rainy day, but but still,these are way, way steps above
all that.
so what's some of the meals thatyou're like oh, we couldn't do
it because of X reason, or weshould have done this, but we
ended up doing this because ofone of our volunteers.

(55:04):
Do you remember any of thosemeals?
Yeah, I mean, we could have putit in the book.

Speaker 3 (55:08):
We could have put it in the book.
I think there's a lot ofrecipes that come out where
we'll find now.
So we're about to launch arapid response vehicle, which is
a behemoth of a truck.
Calling it a truck requires aClass B CDL to drive this thing.
It's 26,000 pounds, but onboard, and so the idea is that it can

(55:32):
deploy immediately after aninclement event, a disaster.
So perhaps we pre-positioned itahead of a hurricane.
As soon as outer bands arepassed, as soon as it's
obviously safe for our team togo out, it can go out and clear
its path Quite literally.
There's chainsaws on board,it's got Starlink, it's got
solar panels this thing is likethe Millennium Falcon it's a
beast.

Speaker 2 (55:52):
It can recover itself .

Speaker 3 (55:53):
It's got winches on board, yeah, on board, yeah it
sounds like hurricanes,tornadoes, zombie apocalypse.

Speaker 2 (55:58):
It belongs in.

Speaker 3 (55:58):
Twister.
It belongs in the Twister movie.

Speaker 1 (56:01):
Monica Majors, we have had an amazing time with
you here on Beyond the Plate,but we're going to start
something with you because we'vehad so much fun, called our
lightning round.

Speaker 3 (56:13):
We just came up with that right now.
That's how lightning thethoughts are Okay, let's go.
It sounds branded.

Speaker 2 (56:19):
It sounds registered.

Speaker 1 (56:21):
Danny, go for it, it's our problem.

Speaker 2 (56:23):
You said paper rock scissors.

Speaker 1 (56:24):
I thought you were going to oh, but I'll go, I'll
go, you go, you go, because Igot to think a little bit, I got
to get ready for the question,all so.

Speaker 2 (56:34):
Monica, think about this You're on a deserted island
.
Well, it's not deserted anymore, because you're on it.
So, a population of one isdeserted island right One is the
loneliest, yes.
And you have one meal that youhave to eat for the rest of your
life on that island.

Speaker 3 (56:51):
What is it?
It's sushi, sushi.

Speaker 2 (56:54):
It's sushi, all right , so a population of two,
because now you're going to havea sushi.

Speaker 3 (56:57):
A sous chef, sous chef, that's going to make it
for you.

Speaker 2 (57:00):
So the population of two on this deserter line is
sushi.
Oh, that's good.
On an island, you got freshfish coming up.

Speaker 3 (57:04):
That's what I'm thinking.
I feel like I don't have to.
Yeah, I'm not stressing toomuch.

Speaker 2 (57:12):
Seaweed.
It's already there, Sea,because the process is supposed
to.
I think you were supposed towait a day for that rice.
But that's fried rice.

Speaker 3 (57:19):
Is that fried rice?
I think that's fried rice.
I got to look at that cookbookagain.
Don't be leaving your rice outtoo long, yeah, hold on.
The food hygiene alerts aregoing off Right away.
You don't want that rice.
Don't be leaving your rice out.

Speaker 2 (57:31):
It really brings the flavor out of the sushi it adds
to when you leave it off for toolong.
Mine would actually besomething very simple.
It's called a bandeja paisa andit's from Colombia.
This bandeja paisa typicallyincludes these ingredients.
This is my one meal on mydessert line and I'll have it
forever, because I'm good withit, because the ingredients is
as listed.
If you want a pen's on paper,I'll bring it for you.

(57:52):
It starts off with ground meat,fried pork belly or pork brine.
Right here we go Chorizo, blackbeans, rice, fried egg,
plantains, arepas, which is thatcornmeal patty this is all in
the same meal.
This is still a meal.
This is still a meal.
A little sauce to you know, washthat thing down Avocado and a

(58:17):
little lemon to is like thecoffee region of Colombia, and
this is like a farmer's tray, sothe farmers usually eat this to
tackle a day's worth of work.
So I think I can have avariation of meals that might be
the whole food pyramid alltogether.
Yeah, it encompasses everythingand it's all for one day.
I'm going to step it up here.
You want to go back again?

Speaker 3 (58:37):
No, no, no, that's fine, I'll keep my sushi.
Sushi is good, it's fancy.

Speaker 1 (58:41):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (58:41):
It's so fancy.
Fancy to have sushi andsomebody pretty sure serves you
on a tray.
Now we're talking fancy, butwatch out with Paul because
he'll snag a couple of sushiplates off your tray.

Speaker 1 (58:55):
No, thank you, and real crab or imitation, my thing
is tempura.

Speaker 3 (59:00):
The imitation crab is like a weird nostalgic thing.
I grew up, I think, and itslaps.

Speaker 2 (59:08):
I just snag at it.

Speaker 3 (59:10):
String cheese in your sushi.

Speaker 2 (59:11):
No, I eat it like string cheese.
Oh, you eat it like stringcheese.

Speaker 1 (59:13):
I see Do you eat the peeling, the little pink?

Speaker 3 (59:16):
flares off.
I see who eats string cheese,just biting it like a piece of
celery.

Speaker 2 (59:21):
Me, not me.
I'm sorry Me, not me.
I don't have time for it, Ijust bite it off the top.
That was really judging.

Speaker 3 (59:26):
I apologize.

Speaker 2 (59:28):
If I'm sharing, I'll then strip it down for you, but
if I'm eating it by myself andnobody's looking around.

Speaker 3 (59:33):
I'm not here to yuck your yum.

Speaker 2 (59:36):
Paul, your go-to meal , if you aren't a dessert and
I'm in population of one.

Speaker 1 (59:40):
You said it 50 million times during this entire
episode Jamaican patties allday.
It's my childhood.
I get it, both my parents fromKingston, jamaica.
Yeah.
So growing up, you know somekids go.
Mom, can we have McDonald's?
No, I want to go to the pattyshop.
I want to go to the patty shop.
I wanted to go to the pattyshop.
I'm talking about listen, I'mtalking about beefy patties,
beef and cheese patties, chicken, jerk chicken, lobster,

(01:00:04):
callaloo, veggie patty, you nameit, you give me the patty.
And then here's the best partabout the jamaican patty if you
do not know, the best patty hasthe crust that falls all over
your shirt, all over your plate,all over the paper bag, the
little paper bag that it's inright and you leave the best for
last right.
Because that's a meal for later.

(01:00:24):
All right, you never throw thelittle extra flakes away.
You eat it for later.
Jamaican patty all day, everyday.
That's right.
That's the one meal.
Well, as always on Beyond thePlate, we end on a positive note
.
Today's positive note comesfrom an obvious source, chef

(01:00:45):
Jose Andres, and I think thisreally sums up everything that
we've been talking about.
This quote is from the book theWorld Central Kitchen Cookbook
Feeding Humanity, Feeding Hope.
Well, we'll get to that alittle bit in a second.
I got to read this quote becausewhen I first read it at the
beginning of the book, I had totake a pause and just kind of

(01:01:09):
really let this ruminate.
It said the book you areholding in your hands is filled
with the heart and soul of themost amazing people you'll ever
meet.
They're from every corner ofthe globe and from all walks of
life.
When they come together in thekitchen, united for one purpose,

(01:01:29):
they do something truly amazing.
They show how much they care.
It may sound simple, but in ourworld sometimes the simple act
of caring is the most importantthing we can do.
Monica Majors, thank you forbeing a guest on Beyond the

(01:01:51):
Plate.
We've enjoyed you.

Speaker 3 (01:01:52):
Thank you.
Thank you very much, fist bump.

Speaker 1 (01:01:56):
Fist bump, all right very much Fist bump, fist bump.
All right, you've just beenwatching Beyond the Plate with
our guest Monica Majors fromWorld Central Kitchen, where we
featured principles and a lot ofcool stuff, including recipes
from the World Central Kitchencookbook.

Speaker 2 (01:02:11):
But if you want, some of them just text best bite to
51555.
Once again, text BESTBITE to51555 and make sure BESTBITE are
together.
And if you're watching us onYouTube, it's at the bottom of
your screen.
Just text BESTBITE to 51555.
And we have a surprise for onelucky fan of the podcast.

(01:02:32):
So if you sign up at theBESTBITE right now, you're going
to get a little something,something.
Hey, everyone, thanks forlistening to beyond the plate.
We love having you here.
Keep up with us on instagram andtiktok at beyond the plate dot

(01:02:56):
podcast and if you enjoy theshow, don't forget to subscribe
to our YouTube channel and giveour videos a like.
Just search Food for the Poor.

Speaker 1 (01:03:04):
Beyond the Plate.

Speaker 2 (01:03:05):
Your support means the world to us All right folks,
we'll see you on the nextBeyond the Plate episode.
I'm waving.