Caribbean Flavors with a Paleo Twist: Althea Brown’s Culinary Journey from Guyana to the US

Episode Transcript
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Chris Spear (00:00):
One of the things I really love about this show is
the opportunity to talk topeople that I can learn from.
Today's guest is Althea brownwho's from Guyana. It's a
country that's located in SouthAmerica bordered by Brazil and
Venezuela. But the people thereidentify as Caribbean. Maybe you
knew this, but I didn't. Andthat's just one of the many
things you'll learn on thisweek's show. This is Chris spear

(00:22):
and you're listening to ChefsWithout Restaurants, the show
where I speak with culinaryentrepreneurs and people working
in the food and beverageindustry outside of a
traditional restaurant setting.
I have 31 years of working inkitchens but not restaurants and
currently operate a personalchef business throwing dinner
parties in the Washington DCarea. After moving from Guyana
to the United States, Altheastarted a blog called met mg

(00:44):
where she shares traditionalGuyanese recipes. The blog has
been going strong now for morethan 10 years. During that time
due to health reasons, Altheastarted on a whole 30 diet, and
now currently follows a paleodiet. If you don't know anything
about a paleo diet, we'll getinto that on the show. But this
episode isn't really aboutdiets, and you don't have to be

(01:04):
paleo to enjoy her recipes. Infact, one of the things I found
interesting is that Althea hasboth traditional recipes and
paleo remixes on her website,and in her new book, Caribbean
paleo, we dive into the bloggingbest practices that Althea
swears by from SEO strategies toengage in content to gain
insights into her approach totaking and sometimes ignoring

(01:25):
blogging advice to stay true toher vision while navigating the
digital space. Althea alsoshares tips for aspiring food
bloggers on how to find theirunique voice, create compelling
content, and make an impact inthe crowded food blogging
landscape. And as always, I'lllink to all of her info in the
show notes, you'll be able tofind her really fantastic
YouTube page, as well as herbook and all of her social media

(01:48):
accounts. I hope you enjoy thisweek's episode, and the show
will be coming up after a wordfrom this week's sponsor.
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(02:41):
So we just started talking sonow you were born and raised in
Guyana.

Althea Brown (02:46):
Yes, I was born and raised in Georgetown,
Guyana. I've now lived in the USlonger than I lived in Guyana,
which sometimes is mind blowing.
But also like, wow, you know,America has become my home. But
Guyana will also just always bemy home. As a guy, nice person.
I also identify as a Caribbeanperson. Sometimes that's a

(03:07):
little bit tricky, becauseGuyana is in South America. And
people are always like, whatcome again,

I was I was wondering that. So it's on. It's
in South America, it borders theAtlantic Ocean. And so it's not
technically Caribbean. But thereseems to be this overflow and
you have a book that we'reobviously going to get into
called Caribbean. Paleo. Right.
So but but I don't think of itas a Caribbean country. So can
Yeah, I'd love to hear a littlebit about that how you come to

(03:33):
kind of identify with theCaribbean culture.

Yeah, so Guyana, geographically is on South
America. So you're right. We areright on the northern coast.
We're right above Brazil, wehave Venezuela as our neighbor,
and then we have Suriname as ourother neighbor. But
historically, and culturally,we've always identified as
Caribbean people, because wehave a history of British

(04:00):
colonization, which meant thatwe were more connected to the
British colonies in theCaribbean than we were to our
South American neighbors. And sothe things that we eat look very
similar to other Englishspeaking British colonies or
former British colonies. So likeTrinidad and Jamaica, Barbados,

(04:21):
all of our foods have similarties, also, because of the way
the British moved people throughtheir colonies.

Are there any other countries that you know of in
South America that are likethat? Because I, I'm sure a lot
of people, myself included, kindof lumped them together. Like if
you had a dish, you couldidentify and say, Oh, that's
South American. But if I were totry your food, I would not guess
that it would be from SouthAmerica. So are there any other
countries that you see who havea similar tie to the Caribbean?

There are other countries that are like that.
There is Suriname, which is ourneighbor to the right of us. If
you look at a map, and they alsohad a little bit of British
colonization, but So we'recolonized by the Dutch. And so
during that time of likeplantation agriculture and the
sugarcane boom, and, you know,slavery and needing to, like,

(05:11):
fill your sugar estate withlabor, they have a similar kind
of history. So they haveAfricans that were coming there
from enslaved Africans that werebrought there. They have Indians
that came to work, they havesome Chinese, and that shaped
what their food and what theirculture looks like. So if you
meet someone for Suriname,they'll say that they're Dutch.

(05:33):
But they'll also say that we'reCaribbean, which will be wild
for people because they're like,well, which part of the
Caribbean are you from? Youknow, and then you're like,
Well, I'm on this lineman onSouth America, but our culture
is very Caribbean.

I love this stuff.
One of the things I love aboutthe podcast is just learning
because, you know, I think youstop learning things like this,
once you get out of traditionalschool, I look at the stuff my
kids are learning right now. Andit's a good reminder for me, I'm
like, Oh, I didn't either knowthat or remember that. And I
think as adults, we start tothink about the things in our
wheelhouse, you know, whetherthat's food or business, and,
you know, you get to be my ageof 47. And I didn't even realize

(06:08):
there was a country in SouthAmerica that was, you know,
Caribbean. So I think that'sinteresting. And your husband is
from there as well. Now, did youknow each other there, or did
you make connections here in theUS?

Yeah. So my husband and I actually went to
high school together. We weren'thighschool sweethearts, I always
have to say this, because wewere like, oh, high school
sweetheart. So cute. We could doexactly what we reconnected once
we found ourselves in the US.
And we've been together for along time. And I love that my
husband is from Guyana, becauseI'm so into the food and the

(06:43):
culture. And I think I would beeven if he wasn't, but to be
able to share things and havehim say, Oh, my God, this was
also part of my childhood. Andsome things that I share that
were part of my childhood arenot part of his childhood. So
that's also while he's like,yeah, no, I've never had that
dish. And then to like, talkabout, like, how my mom made it
and why she made it. And we grewup in different parts of Grands.

(07:06):
So I grew up in Georgetown,which is a capital city, and he
grew up in Wales, which is inthe country. So across the
Demerara River and a littlefarther out. And so he had a
more like rural country life.
And I had this like semi urban,not quite city, but like a

(07:26):
suburb of the city life. And sokind of different worlds same
place. But just differentexperiences. Is

he is into the traditional foods and cooking as
you or is he just like I justwant a hamburger and a salad.

Now he is like super into traditional food. And
it's also why I started my blog.
After I got married. I had livedin New York, when I first came
to the US lived in New York,lived home and went to school in
New York, always had my mom'scooking always had a cook shop
to go to if I felt like eatinganything that was remotely
Guyanese or Caribbean. And thenI got married and moved to

(08:03):
Denver. And suddenly I was like,I don't like I can't, I have to
make everything I want. Also,not only do I have to make
everything I want, I can't findthe ingredients. I can't like
just go into supermarket andfind like some Dainese spice
blend that my mom always usesand suddenly found myself

(08:26):
calling my mom and saying, Well,I have a craving for this. How
how can I make this or saying myhusband's name is Shawn and
saying, Shawn was just asking meif I knew how to make this. How
can I make this for him? Andlike going through it on the
phone, my mom and you know,Caribbean moms, ethnic moms
aren't gonna measure anything,right? Like they're not

(08:46):
measuring a thing. And so thefirst couple of tries of my mom
walking me through something onthe phone, it's like a pinch of
this opinion that you'll knowwhen it's ready, like But how,
like, what am I looking for? Oh,you will just know, you've seen
me do it many times, you'll justknow, right? And I was like, I
don't know. And a pinch notgonna work.

Yeah, it's hard.
It's hard when one you havethat, but then they're not there
to try it with you or cook itwith you. It's like I love
Ethiopian food. And I'll read arecipe online. And it sounds so
basic, like this recipe is justlike saute onions and peppers
and add the beef. I'm like I'veeaten this 100 times. There's no
way it's just, you know, likethat. So I have a friend who's a

(09:30):
chef and Ethiopian restaurant.
And I asked him, he said, well,like, well, we carmelize the
onions for like, almost sevenhours. I'm like, Okay, well,
like that's the thing. They'reright. But they're not telling
you to do that at home becauseare people necessarily going to
do that. But those are thethings where it's like okay, now
I can kind of see where some ofthese things are coming out or

(09:50):
it's like, oh, well we add thisspice but it's not available in
most grocery stores. So recipesjust omitted like those things
that you know, you kind of wantto Pull on and figure out what
they're doing.

Yeah, exactly. And so I remember like the first
recipe I posted was actuallysomething I made for my husband
and it was baked custard, whichthere are tons of big custom
recipes, but somehow becausethere has a chokehold on
Guyanese people, and so theylike make it any random time my
husband's like, just like an eggcustard like a traditional egg
custard going out for brunch inAmerica, like Southern baked

(10:25):
custard like classic. And Ididn't know how to make it. And
I didn't think to like, look itup on it. And I just called my
mom, because she makes it allthe time. So I said, How do I
make this and she's like,walking me through it. And I was
like, Well, that seems simpleenough. And then I went to make
it. And I didn't actually put itin a water bath. Like I just put
it in the oven and baked. Okay,they come out that crate. So I

(10:49):
said, like, Mom, something'smissing leg is missing. And
she's like, oh, yeah, you know,you have to put it on about and
bake it. And I was like, Wait,will you tell me that you know.
And so I started writing thesethings down and like really
tweaking whatever she said, andmaking it how she made it. And
when I finally made it, and ittasted exactly the way she made
it, I shared it with my friends.
And they were like, wow, this islike the best vape custard I've

(11:09):
ever tried. It's a basic, simplerecipe, but somehow whatever my
mom was doing was really great.
And they were like, get morerecipes from your mom and write
it. Tell us. So I started doingactual Guyanese recipes. Now
like hardcore Guyanese recipes,like her roti, her curries, how
do you make this and writing itdown. And once I nailed it, and

(11:31):
it tasted exactly like hers, Ishared it with friends. And
that's how my blog started. What

year was that with

the blog. So that was in 2013, I was just like,
newly married, just had a baby.
And really like, wanting to nailthese foods and flavors so that
when I'm sharing it for myfamily, it's really the same
experience that I would havewhen I'm eating it from my mom.

That's a long time to be blogging. I mean, I'm
similarly I'm thinking about Iwas probably about the same time
and I don't consistently bloganymore. But before my personal
chef business was a business, itwas a blog. And it was just kind
of like, some of it was hardcorerecipes. Some of it was you
know, stream of thoughts, justlike ideas that I wanted to put
out there. And it was more forculinary Ian's or people who

(12:13):
wanted to cook. And now it'sjust a component of my business
website. And I've been thinkingabout how much I want to get
back into doing it, because it'sa lot. It's really funny. I'm
sure you have a relationshipwith your, you know, readers,
but people will still email methings. And I had a recipe that
didn't quite work. And it was Italked about, like how it didn't
work. And I think it was like 14years ago, and someone last week

(12:37):
commented and wanted to know ifI tried this other thing. I'm
like, dude, like that was 14years ago. I wanted to make a
graham cracker flavored waffle.
And I just couldn't get it. AndI put what I had done, and it
just didn't work out. And thisguy was like, Oh, but I came on
the internet looking for arecipe for that. Can't you help
me out here? I'm like, I'msorry. Like, that was 14 years
ago, like I gave up on this. Butit was just funny that people

(12:58):
are still finding those oldposts and even going so far as
to comment on them.

Yeah. And I think like when blogs, like in 2013,
that's what blogs were like youlike food blogs were all about
you trying different things,experimenting, giving credit and
saying like, Hey, I found thisrecipe, but I tweak these kinds
of things. But you know, go readwith this person said about it.
And that's how my recipes werewritten. Like, some of them were

(13:25):
like, Hey, there's this recipein this classic Guyanese
cookbook. When I tried to makeit filled a couple of times, I
realized that it's missing acouple steps. I've inserted the
steps based on what I did. Itcomes out perfect. Now you guys
try it, people try it. And theywould be like, blown away. And
then I started making video. Andthe first video I made was with
my iPad, like, just with myiPad, no sound because my baby

(13:48):
was like crying in thebackground the whole time, and
dislike caption and it had likea million views. And a million
views back then was like, holyshit. Like I have a million
views. That's crazy, right? Andso I think that's how it
started. My blog is verydifferent now. There's less
storytelling in the actualroadmap and more like, a little

(14:09):
bit of history, the steps, whydo the steps I've tested that
kind of stuff? And I think,because Google and the algorithm
requires these things. And quitehonestly, sometimes it's so
boring, right? It's the samepattern for all of the recipes,
and you have to resign. It's,it's missing all of that, like
trial and error thing, becausealso nobody wants to say that,
like I failed when I made thisrecipe like No, it's the most

(14:31):
perfect recipe you've evertried, like, try mine. And
sometimes I struggled with thattoo, because I started in a
place where I was like, here's afail so even on my social media
every once in a while I'll belike, and here's a fail that I
had this week and people will belike blown away that oh my god
you shared a fail like yes,because we all

I don't know if you've ever seen ideas and food
or know anything about them andthey were the ones who inspired
me to blog and they've it'sprobably almost like 20 years,
but their their blog posts aresometimes two lines like now
it's all about SEO andoptimizing for headings and
subheadings, and anchor text andall this. And I just loved that
it was basically like theirculinary journal that they

(15:13):
shared with the world, and wouldjust say, today, I thought about
what would happen if I marinatedchicken in, you know, yogurt,
and like that was it or what, orwhatever. And that was the post,
and the comments section wouldkind of go on and people would
interact, and then they'd sharethat idea on Twitter. And like
20, people would engage. And Ilove that. And now it's this

(15:34):
very sterile, like, how do weinteract with AI, like, let me
write this thing and put it inthe AI. And it'll optimize for
all these things. And then youjust read these things that all
sound the same, it's all in thesame voice. And it's all
formatted the same way. And Idon't mind good storytelling,
you know, there's the wholeconversation about like, just
jump to the recipe, I don't needto hear your story. But I think

(15:54):
that's because so many of thestories are boring, like you
read them, you know, you'resharing a recipe for a
margarita, which in my opinionis, you know, three ingredients
that was made a long time ago,you didn't do anything new. But
now, you know, you took moneyfrom the tequila company, so you
have to do something. So youwrite this, like 800 word
dissertation on a margarita thatnobody needs, because you're not

(16:15):
adding anything new to theconversation. And if you're not
adding anything new to theconversation, in my opinion,
it's just noise. But if you havea distinct point of view, if you
have a great writing style, thenI love that when I get to a
website, but you know, it's it'skind of where we're at with
social media and blogging andeverything today. Yeah,

no, you're you're preaching to the choir. And this
is exactly how I feel. I feellike for a long time, my blog, I
always said like, I don't careabout SEO, I just want to tell
the story. I just want to putthis stuff out, right. And my
blog was a hobby. And so youknow, I had this corporate job,
my blog was a hobby. I didn'tneed to make money, I was just
doing my thing. And so I keptdoing that. And in 2019, so from

(16:56):
2013 to 2019. I'm just bloggingwhenever I feel like I have an
interesting recipe to share,right? Like I made something Oh,
wow, actually tweak, somethingcame on amazing. I'm gonna share
that with you guys hair, youknow, here's the story,
whatever. And I would share thewhole blog and email and people
would read it and then go to mywebsite for the thing. And then
in 2019, I had my third kid, I'mhome again, I'm thinking I don't

(17:20):
want to go back to work. And Ihave this blog, it gets good
traffic on the once a month postthat I do, how can I make this
into more and be consistent, andthen I start learning, SEO and
all that stuff. And at first itwas against my being right? to
like have these pre set headersand kind of go in and plug

(17:43):
things in there. And like everypost, you have to say what the
ingredients are and why you wantto use these ingredients above
law. And I realized, though,that in order to play the game,
like these are the rules, right?
And so kind of fallen into that.
But I was also adamant that I dowant to keep why this recipe is

(18:03):
important to me because it iscoming. It's a recipe for my
grandmother or my mother, orlike something that I tried.
It's not something I'm pullingoff of the internet, and
tweaking two things and callingit my own. Like, these are
recipes I'm calling my aunt for.
And she's walking me through it.
And then I'm trying to measurethese things and get it right,
you know, and I want that inthere. So I started putting, but

(18:25):
then I get comments like you'resaying like people are like,
Well, I didn't want to hear thatthat was a whole lot of
unnecessary information. And bythe way, there is a jump to
recipe at the top of the page.
So help yourself to that, youknow, so it's just it's very
challenging. But what I do loveis for social media in my
stories, I still get to do that.

(18:45):
I've built a community, I stillget to share what my day to day
experiments look like, I stillget to say, I tried this dish
today it failed. Stay tuned tosee if it actually makes it on
the blog, or what it looks like,what am I doing wrong? And
occasionally I'll try otherbloggers stuff like something
that goes viral and like, Itried this viral two ingredient

(19:07):
cake. Here's what happened, itflopped. It doesn't work. But
maybe I'm doing something wrong.
You guys telling me and thoseconversations I really, really
love.

And you have a pretty good following number
wise on social media. How andwhen did that happen? Was it
like a slow build? Because youhad followers on the blog? Did
you have some content that wentviral? Like, you know, we have a
lot of listeners to the show whoare in the content creation
space. So do you have? I don'tknow, I don't wanna say any
tips. But like, what was yourexperience with that and how you

(19:36):
attracted people? Yeah,

it was very slow and steady. In fact, sometimes I
look at my numbers and I'm like,I should have more like I do so
much as everyone feels. And thenyou know, Comparison is the
thief of joy. And so you look atsome people and you're like they
just started and they blew upand you've been at this for a
while. But I think what I loveAbout my following is that like

(20:02):
I said, I built a community.
These are people for the mostpart that had show up for me all
the time. No me. They're instories I get a lot of I get
very high story views, which I'mgrateful for, and interaction,
and I tried my best to interactwith people and answer the
questions and keep that going.
And I think when I startedsaying that I'm gonna be like a

(20:25):
full time blogger, I'm gonnatake this seriously, in 2019, I
only had 3000 followers onInstagram, I had no like Tiktok
presence and my YouTube, myYouTube was okay, it was like
10,000 followers and makingdecent money. So it was feeling
really good. And I decided tolike put my effort into short
form and like really build up myInstagram, I do have quite a few

(20:47):
things that go viral. Anytime Ido any roti recipe, it just goes
viral. People love flour, theylove anything that's flour and
butter. Okay? Unfortunately,that's I can't do my whole five
for one that and starting tobuild up like the Paleo part of
it, the gluten free part of itand showing people that, yes, I

(21:08):
do love to talk about a lot oftraditional Guyanese food, and
what that look like. Butpersonally in my life, I
actually can't even eat half thethings I'm making, I'm making it
for my family. So also sharingthat side and kind of building
it up and very, very slowly from2019. From 3000. to Now it's
grown to about 120 on Instagram.
And so that feels really good.

(21:33):
And the engagement feels likeit's at the right point. And
like, I've only had like onepost I made that was completely
out of the normal that kind ofdied on Instagram. And I was
like, oh, no, what's happeninghere, but again, it was like a
day in the life. Nobody wants tosee that for me. Apparently,
it's just did it. But for themost part recipes do really

(21:56):
well, I'm doing a wholeporridge, a series on porridge
and different types of porridge.
And it's doing really well rightnow. So it's

so hard because everyone talks about the
algorithm and what works. Andright now, you know, on threads,
a lot of people are griping thatthe engagement is down and the
views are down. And so manypeople are getting in this trap
where they're just you know,like trying to create something
to fit what they think, youknow, some computer algorithm
wants to show people and thenyou're just you know, then you

(22:23):
stop doing what made you specialor the things you love, and
you're trying to chase the veryfleeting thing, which I think
they do intentionally, right,like, they want you to keep
coming back, they want you tokeep trying. And I don't think
it necessarily benefits us thatdoesn't benefit us. Obviously,
if you have a large following,you can get some great, you

(22:43):
know, business prospects or makesome great connections. So, you
know, it's something I'm tryingto find a balance with,
especially as we're early on in2020. For like, what my
relationship with social mediaand the internet looks like this
year. You touched you touched ondiet, and I don't want to get in
the weeds because diet is awhole thing. It's almost like
religion. Right? So you've gonethrough the whole, I was gonna

(23:06):
say the whole the whole 30program, and ultimately, are
doing a paleo diet. In fact,your new cookbook is Caribbean
paleo. I guess maybe as astarting point, can you give a
very brief overview of whatpaleo is for those who have
maybe heard the term but don'tknow kind of what the main
tenets are of a paleo diet?

Yeah, so the main so the Paleo diet is really
trying to get you back to aWhole Foods, lifestyle, right.
So less convenience, food,processed food, and more like
whole vegetables, whole proteinsources, nuts, and really the
things that support good guthealth and just a good wholesome

(23:49):
lifestyle, right. And thosesorts of principles. There are
also some things that are highlyinflammatory, that have been
proven proven to cause majorillness illnesses aren't right
is some of the cancers, acidreflux, all those kinds of
things, that they're basicallysaying, like stay away from

(24:12):
these things because they'veknown to be counter to what
we're trying to promote. So inpure layman's term, what I look
at as for my paleo lifestyle isjust choosing whole foods. So
choosing to load my plate upwith vegetables and protein, and
some nuts, maybe some fats likeavocados or coconut oil, or even

(24:35):
if you want to make yourselfsome mayo or some ranch
dressing, to eat with your food,that's where you're, that's how
your plates gonna look. And thenyou kind of stay away from
highly processed things andthings that cause inflammation,
so gluten and grains andprocessed sugars, and like
legumes have been known to bewildly inflammatory, and so

(24:57):
really just staying away fromthose things in your diet. So I
always say that I'm paleo ish.
Because it's so hard to likehave an all or nothing
lifestyle. I don't eat glutenbecause it actually makes me
sick. And so for that one thing,like I'm all or like nothing all
or nothing for that, because itmakes me sick. Although,
sometimes if my mom comes overand she makes something, I'll

(25:18):
take a little bite and deal withthe consequences. Do not
recommend, but that's my life.

And sometimes you just have to go for those
things. Sometimes,

the aroma and the like memories, and you're like,
I just want a little taste ofit. And so, you know, I have a
little taste. Ideally, I do thatless now because I've remixed a
lot of the things that she makesto be gluten free. So I don't
even I'm like, Yeah, I can justgo make my own gluten free
version of that. And I feel likegluten free has come so far. And

(25:48):
gluten free flours and well,yeah.

I love you know, like the King Arthur Flour
chocolate brownie mix. Like, Ialmost prefer those to regular
if I'm not making my own, youknow, because I cook for people.
I do dinner parties as apersonal chef. And one of the
nice things and one of thereasons people hire me is
because I can accommodate anydiet, right? Because you're not
going to a restaurant, I'm justcooking for you and your friends

(26:12):
tonight. But that being said, Icould have a party of 10 where
it's 10, nine people who eateverything in one person's
gluten free and then I just haveto decide, like, is everyone
eating gluten free? Or do I doone or two portions. But when
you get to something like abrownie for dessert, it's just
easier for everyone to have thesame. And I let everyone know
like, these are delicious. Likethey're, they're gluten free.
And they're amazing. And justbeing able to buy like the cup

(26:35):
for cup or whatever, keeping thegluten free. Like I used to make
my own. And I still thinksometimes there's a benefit to
making your own. But it's alsoreally easy to just buy like a
good yes, you know, gluten freeflour, blend. That's an all
purpose keeping the kids andit's so

accessible and helps you and it helps you. What
I love about that is it helps meto still participate in my
cultural foods without feelinglike, well, I can't eat that
anymore. And I have to just havethis boring diet or I have to
like just eat this way and missout on those experiences and
participate in a part of myculture that's so important to

(27:12):
me, you know. And so, for paleowas the same thing. That's kind
of how we ended up withCaribbean paleo. While I was on
this paleo journey and beinglike exclusively paleo, I
started tweaking things thatwere like part of my everyday
meals to make them paleo. Well,rice is a big part of the

(27:32):
Caribbean diet, and you're gonnatell me for the rest of my life,
I can't eat rice. Well, that'snot gonna work for me. So I have
to figure out like, what's gonnabe really good substitute. And
at first people will be like,try cauliflower rice, and I
tried to like this is terrible,like, it tastes like wishy cut
flour. And then I startedexperimented on ways to toasted
ways to roast the cauliflowerfirst, then puree it in Milan.

(27:54):
And then Paul said, Maybe addsome coconut milk and make a
coconut cauliflower rice, usingall the principles I knew from
traditional cooking andtransferring it into these new
ingredients, seemingly newingredients and transforming
them in a different way. And Igotta tell you, like a win for
me was when I made this likecauliflower cukup rice cooker

(28:15):
price is a one pot rice dishthat we make in Guyana with
coconut milk, and peas and allthese other things, right. And I
made it for my dad, but I usecauliflower rice and he had no
idea. No idea. He was like therice is kind of different,
right? Like what kind of riceyou use, but ate it up and had
no idea and my dad's such acritic, right? Like older folks,
they will not give it not giveyou a pass out. All right.

I used to cook in a retirement community for like
750 people. So that was likethree meals a day, seven days a
week just taking a beating thatit wasn't how their wife,
mother, whoever made it forthem. So yeah, to your point is

this, you know, and so like that, when my when
that happened, I was like, okay,yes, I feel good. I'm on the
right path. I feel confidentenough to share this with other
people. Because that's the otherthing too. Like, I didn't want
Caribbean people to feel like Iwas bastardizing our cultural
food and a saying that wasunhealthy and needed to be

(29:14):
tweaked. And be then using allthese things that maybe they
don't even have access to. So Iwas very cautious about what
that looks like for theserecipes and how I did it. And
actually, a lot of the recipesin the book are actually
hardcore Caribbean traditionalrecipes that I didn't have to
tweak I just didn't includerecipes that were like rice and

(29:34):
peas, you know all thevegetables. Exactly the way my
mom makes it. The stews exactlythe way my mom makes it, you
know, the only thing was like inthe dessert section. Those
things I actually tweakedbecause I use like coconut
sugar, maple syrup, honey, andan alternative flowers but for
the most part, unless I'mswapping out rice for
cauliflower rice. The recipesare legit traditional recipes

(30:00):
has made authentic flavors, what

I thought was interesting in the book, you
have a recipe and it talks aboutin the heading about using
frozen cauliflower rice, becausein your opinion, they use more
stock. So you have more of thetextural as opposed to the
motion. I thought that was greatbecause I'm someone who goes
back and forth of like, do Ijust buy a bag of frozen
cauliflower rice? Or do I blitzit in the food processor, and

(30:22):
I've done both mostly based onyou know, time and convenience.
And, and price. I mean, like awhole head of cauliflower
sometimes 350. And a bag is like$1.29. It's like, oh, this is
less expensive. It's alreadydone for me. When

people go on a whole food journey, and they're
choosing healthy things, like afrozen item feels like counter
right? You're like, ah, butmaybe I should get the organic,
fresh cauliflower and go throughthis process. Because now I'm
going to like really be in thekitchen all the time. You know,
in 2016 When I first triedcauliflower rice, I tried it

(30:57):
with a whole cauliflower. And itwas just so mushy because you
get all the florets, and notpart really has a lot of water.
And then it gets really soggy.
And I couldn't get behind it.
And then I was in a supermarket.
I saw a frozen one. I was like,I'm going to try this. I
remember blogging about this, Ireally said like, why is this so
much better? Why is this socrunchy and like the texture of
it's so much better. And someoneI shared this on a in a Facebook

(31:20):
group and someone said, I workfor a processing plant. And I'm
going to tell you first we chopoff the florets. And we put
those in a bag. And then we takethe stock and we put those in
the like grinder. And that's thecauliflower rice. And I was like
blown away. And I was like oh mygod, this makes so much sense to
me texturally like what I wasfeeling in my mouth. And how I

(31:43):
was experiences this makes somuch sense. I always say that.
Or if you cook caulifloweroften, if you like roasted up,
roast your florets, save yourstock and make the rice out of
that.

Also, I tell people like the greens are totally
edible too. And you watch mostpeople and they peel the greens
and they go in the trash andthey cut off the thick woody
stock thrown in the trash. Andthen they cut off all the
florets. And then they throw thegnarly stock in the compost. And
I'm always trying to sharerecipes of what to do with the
stock I like to slice it then ona mandolin and pickle it and

(32:17):
there's some cool things you cando. But I do love the idea of
just reserving that and doingthe cauliflower rice. This

stuff like makes me go crazy in my like my heads
like oh my god, this is sogreat. Um, but I love it. And
there's so many good ways to useup all that stuff. Even with
broccoli, right? You can makeyour own broccoli rice and do
the same thing. But that'sawesome. Going

back to kind of like diets, people sometimes get
really preachy, and they expecteveryone to be doing it. And you
know, your your website is notif you go to your website, you
have recipes that havetraditional rice and your
YouTube videos and things thatare not paleo Have you from
content airco perspective, haveyou thought about that, like you

(33:02):
know, because always talkingabout niching down and finding
your specialty and I'm sure ifyou had someone giving you
business advice, they'd say,Well, now you're the Paleo
person, get rid of everythingoff your website, scrub it,
that's not paleo, and that youshould go super niche and that
have you thought about that, oryou know where you are with that
continuing to share traditionalrecipes, or I guess non paleo

(33:23):
versus paleo.

I've definitely gotten that advice. As soon as
things started to take off,people were like, that's your
niche. That's where you need tobe, you need to do a lot of that
I used to share a lot of whole30 recipes. And they will do
really well. I've created someamazing content for an actual
whole 30 group. And they doalways go viral and do really
well well. And I created anotherInstagram page called wholesome

(33:49):
Caribbean where I only sharepaleo and gluten free things.
And I was like, I'll separatethe noise and like half that
over there for other people. ButI realized that people actually
love the traditional stories. Ithink the traditional stories
validate what I do with thepaleo and gluten free world,
right? I'm not this just randomperson who is going and looking

(34:12):
up recipes for Caribbean foodand then transforming it into
paleo and gluten free withouthaving any context or
background. I am a Caribbeanperson, who if I could would eat
straight up Caribbean food. Andso I'm not preaching to you and
telling you to put this away,it's not gonna make you it
doesn't work for me. But by God,if it did, I would want nothing

(34:36):
to do with this stuff. Like, Ijust happen to need to eat this
way. And so I always say, for myfamily, we still eat traditional
stuff. I make roti all the timefor my kids. I make breads and
all the grains and stuff forthem. They don't have they're
not showing that they have anysort of symptoms of things I
have. So let them enjoy thatthey're thriving. They're doing

(34:58):
well. I'm making the stuff fromscotch, I know it's going into
it. And it's all great anddelicious food. But for me
personally, I'll tweak a fewthings so that I remain healthy.
And I continue to thrive. Andthat's always been my story in
my platform. And that's why whenyou go on to mettam g.com, you
will still see all of thetraditional recipes. Now it's
just organized in a really niceway. So if you wanted to get

(35:20):
just straight Dinis recipe, youclick on that, and you get into
a part of the blog. That's justChinese recipes, and you'll
never encounter anything paleo.
And the same way, if you wantedto just get the Paleo remixes or
the gluten free your whole 30remixes, you click on that part,
and you go into that. And thatwas my way of settling and not
losing, you know, a part of me,that's very important. And one

(35:41):
of the cool things I did lastsummer was I was able to go to
Guyana, and participate in anexpo at the invitation of the
government and do Guyanese PaleoFood with traditional focus. So
keeping all of the like hardcoreingredients and flavors and
things that people love andknow, but using non traditional

(36:04):
paleo ingredients, and it wasamazing. And I thought to
myself, like, I'm so glad Ididn't, you know, give up that
part of who I am to chase this,like, you probably move faster
if you just niche down kind ofdream, you know.

But I do think one of the benefits is that paleo is
a, I don't want to use the, I'mgonna use the term normal. Like
it's not a weird diet. It'slike, if you look at keto, you
look at some of those recipes.
It's like they're not using anysugar. So there's a lot of sugar
alcohols, and you're eatingguacamole, but with like
processed pork rinds, likethat's not how I think a Yeah,

(36:48):
traditional regular normalperson would eat. But yours I
mean, it's a cookbook, you'renot putting processed foods in
it. I think sometimes when youget into a specialized diet,
it's like you need to totallyrejigger your whole pantry with
new things. And this is justlike, No, you know, you're
really focusing on what'sprobably we could all agree on
the best things to eat, andyou're just eliminating some.

(37:10):
So, you know, if I were to lookat your book and not know that
it was paleo, I don't know thatI'd necessarily pick up on it,
except for maybe not havingrice, and clearly not having
like gluten. But for the moststuff. It's things that I think
would be, you know, just likeeveryone would enjoy making i
But I do think sometimes italmost is like exclusionary,
like someone who doesn't followa paleo diet would look at that

(37:32):
and say, Well, I'm not getting apaleo cookbook. So this is me
highly encouraging everyone topick it up. Because I have the
book, I've seen it, the recipesare great in there. And if
people aren't convinced by me,just go to the website and check
it out. And I think you'llreally enjoy these recipes.

Oh, thank you so much. And you know, like,
originally, I wasn't going tocall up a Caribbean paleo. And
again, you get into thesespaces, and the people and the
powers that do this for a livingare like, well, you need to be
niche so that you know, yourbook gets picked up, and people
know what's in it. And so youkind of go with that. And you're
like, alright, and you you know,fingers crossed that it works.

(38:09):
But what I say to my communityis exactly what you said, like
you don't have to be paleo tobuy this book. If you love good
Caribbean food, and you want tolean more into like whole
ingredients. And instead ofgetting some sort of a seasoning
blend or something that has lotsof fillers, you get onion and
garlic and tomatoes, and youstart there, and then work your

(38:31):
way up through recipe, then thisis a book for you. And there's
so many really greatfundamental, like, foundational
Caribbean recipes in there thatyou can then build off of the
chicken and asparagus. I lovethat recipe. It's basically my
mom's chicken stew, but becausewe moved to America, and she saw
asparagus in the supermarket andwas like, What is this new

(38:52):
vegetable I've never seen. I'mgoing to cook it exactly the way
I cook every other vegetable.
And we got chicken andasparagus.

Yeah, I saw that and was thinking hmm, I wouldn't
think of this as a Caribbeanrecipe. But the marketing, the
marketing definitely makessense. Because you know, I'm
sure the wall is not as wide abreadth of cookbooks that say
like Italian or French. I'm surethere's already a ton of
Caribbean cookbooks out there.
And you just put out a book thatsaid, you know, your name, the
Caribbean recipes. Yes. Whatwould make you stand out. So

(39:21):
having something that clearlydifferentiates you from the
pack, I think is is great. Butagain, we're living in the age
of marketing and niching downand, you know, finding your
thing. You know, I'm trying toeat better this year. I say that
every year and I think I'vegotten better every year just
kind of figuring out what thatlooks like. For me. It's the
processed foods like reallyshaking off the prepackaged

(39:41):
things, especially things thathave more than you know, four
ingredients and the added sugarsand stuff. It's just it's so
challenging, and I don't think Ican't personally like just go
cold turkey with that. You know,I think it's really hard to just
like, I think that's what peoplehave trouble with when they
change their diet is like, youknow, New Year New you I'm going
to stop drinking alcohol andstop consuming sugar and not

(40:04):
have processed foods and gopaleo and all this. And it's
like, yeah, it's not necessarilysustainable. I feel like there's
sometimes an easing in process.

No, I think you're 100%. Right, right. Because in
your normal, everyday life, youare not making every single meal
that you eat. And if you are,that's amazing, like, keep doing
that. But most people aren'tright, you might make breakfast
one week, and then one day, andthen tomorrow, you might have
something some cereal, you mighthave some oatmeal, and those

(40:35):
things are sustainable. And it'sgood to like, keep that in mind
when you start a new diet,right? Like even like, if you're
going to do the whole 30 all,when it first started, you
really have to make all of thethings that you're going to eat.
So it was really hard, becausesuddenly it's lunchtime, and
you're like, I gotta go makeanother meal. And then I gotta
make another meal. And then youstart thinking about like, Well,

(40:58):
how do I meal, plan this andprep it, so I have things in the
fridge, but then that meansyou're buying this, you're
making this big pot of thing andyou're eating it over and over
again, you get bored, and thenyou fall off because you're
like, This is not sustainable.
This is not how I eat. So if youhave a diet, diet, meaning the
way that you eat and notnecessarily eating to lose
weight, you have to have someplant parts of it, where you can

(41:22):
have something that storebought, where you can have
something that maybe you grabbedfrom the freezer section that
you have a little cheap for, I'mgonna go to a restaurant and I
need to get something Well, hey,you can get some steak, you can
get some salmon and somevegetables. And that's paleo,
you know, and you've you figurethat out. And I think that

(41:44):
that's why this works for me,because I don't feel like again,
I don't feel like my diet is allor nothing and people who are
like hardcore paleo are gonnalike this girl is talking
nonsense. It shouldn't be. Butfor me, it's not like I need the
flexibility. I need to be ableto get takeout at some point in
the week because I amchauffeuring three kids all

(42:06):
around. And that day, when Icome in, I'm dead to the world,
you know, I don't have energy tolike, make anything else. And so
that's kind of how I flexbetween, you know, making really
good meals that my family enjoy,and also having a bag of chips,
because I've read theingredients and everything in
here works with my diet, youknow, it's a

lot. I mean, I, you know, I'll get the kitchen
cleaned up by like, say fouro'clock and then work on dinner,
my in laws live with us. Sothere's six of us here. And then
when we clean the table, Mike,how is the kitchen destroyed,
and the sink, both sinks arefull just for dinner. And then
it's like, by the way, we got toclean this up, do all our stuff
for the kids. And then it's likemaking school lunches for

(42:49):
tomorrow and getting ready. Andit's a lot and I empathize with
anyone. I mean, anyone who'strying to just cook at home, but
the more people you have, itgets to be really challenging.
So you have to have a littlegrace with yourself.

And then you're cooking is your day job. So even
that, like

I know people always say like, you must eat so
great at home. It's like, well,if I'm at your house talking to
you right now, I probably didn'tdo the dinner at my house,
right? Yes. Had to get up in themorning and prep that out for
them. Do you have entry recipesfor people like okay, they've
never cooked anything? They'venow no have you? You've got your
blog, maybe they have your book?
What do you recommend peopletry? Like, is there kind of a

(43:29):
gateway recipe or two that you'drecommend people start with?

Yeah, so from the book, definitely write any
upfront where it says, you know,my Caribbean favorite. Take a
look at does the braised oxtailit's pretty simple. It does
require like just put it in theoven, leaving it alone for four
hours. So I feel like it'sdoable. Don't let that it's
still scary. You just

feel so expensive.
Now it used to be reasonableisn't expensive, where you want
it and

everything. It's so expensive. People are putting
it in everything. I want to saylike Guess what? Short, sharp,
sharp ribs do the exact samething that oxtail does like?

No, no, no dough dough. Short ribs was my number
one thing on my menu. I actuallydid a Instagram video on this.
They crapped last year from 899a pound to 1499 a pad I've
documented it I took pictures onthe labels of where it was and
like what month and like it isliterally crept from 899 to 14

(44:31):
Nine which is insane becausethat was for me my that was my
less expensive people wereordering filet mignon all the
time and roasted tenderloin, andthen they wanted ribeye, I was
like, no do short ribs. There'sso much more delicious. They're
better. And now that's thepremium and I'm paying more for
short ribs than for ribeyesteak. So I don't know like

(44:52):
again, it's the same thing asthe oxtail. It's like we're
gonna take this thing that'sreasonably priced on the market,
you know, for the stores to buyand then they're just going to
jack the heck out of it. Ican't. I mean,

no one was buying oxtail. It used to be like 499 a
pound you'd get like really niceoxtail. You'd make Sunday dinner
I used to make I used to buyfour pounds of oxtail, and make
Sunday dinner was like a kingsfeast. No coupons. It was like
100. It's not I'm not makingthat at all anymore, like,
though, but um, okay, well, I'llstop telling people to buy me

(45:26):
counting issue, but I am toanswer your question. I would
also recommend you try thepumpkin cauliflower rice. That
one's a really favorite of mine,it comes together really quickly
on the stovetop, it's loadedwith lots of flavor. If you
can't find dried shrimp, itseems like a very unusual
ingredient you can get on Asianmarkets. I've even seen a little

(45:46):
like Walmart and that stuff inthe Mexican section. But you can
use fresh shrimp in there, it'snot going to have exactly the
same flavor, but will have thesame similar texture. Try that
one. It's really, really simpleand easy to make. And then any
of the stews are really good.
The pumpkin and sweet potatostew. It's winter now. So you
want that like coziness. It'sactually pumpkin and sweet

(46:08):
potato curry. So it has a littlebit of heat, a little bit of
that like warm spices reallydelicious. When asparagus season
comes back around, try that asfar as and chickens do. Like,
it's really good.

And your blog is named after a traditional dish,
correct. It's what a rootvegetable soup or stew. Yes,

so mettam G is our root vegetable soup, our stew
depending on how you definethose things. It's really root
vegetables cooked down incoconut milk. It's innately
vegan. And so you know, like youhave your aromatics. And then
you just have this coconut broththat it's just cooked in until

(46:51):
the oil separates from thecoconut mill. So you see like
little kernels in it. That's thetelltale sign of a good mettam
G. And mostly, there's there thesteamed dumplings in there that
are not looking for you. But Ihave a free version on my site.
And then it's topped off withfried fish. And sometimes people

(47:12):
add a boiled egg. And so it'ssometimes a Sunday afternoon
meal in Guyana. And mygrandmother made that meal. It
was one of the things that shemade. She's no longer with us,
but that I absolutely absolutelylove. And when I was writing,
started my blog, one of myfriends said, Well, why don't

(47:33):
you just name it after a dishthat you love. And I jokingly
said, You think I'm going tocall it mettam G. And they were
like you shut it. What was greatabout that is it gave me a lot
of traffic. Because anytimepeople were actually looking for
that dish, they would find myblog. And for a long time, I

(47:54):
didn't even have a meth mgrecipe. So it was a running
joke. Like, people would messageme I came on here looking for
meth mg and there isn't even arecipe but I'm glad I found you.
And when I finally shared methmg recipe was when I actually
got it to come out of the way mygrandmother makes it. She had
already passed and it was kindof like to honor her. And so now
I have the meds mg recipe onthere. And I jokingly like

(48:17):
finally I made it the way shemakes it. And maybe she was with
me when I was doing it. So itreally, really, really is
something that is important tome. And I don't think I'll ever
change the name. Even though atsome points, I kept thinking I
should make it like somethingthat people understand versus
like having to go through thiswhole explanation every time. I

love that SEO tip of like, if you're starting a
blog, maybe like what do youwant people to find you for and
create that name around thatthat's a that's a great way to
do it. Do you ever do any nontraditional like whether we want
to call it fusion orexperimental where you're taking
maybe the flavors or techniqueand trying something a little

(49:01):
different in a non traditionalway or a different protein? Or
are you really just stickingkind of with the the traditional
classic ways of making thesedishes except for maybe
adjustments for paleo.

So I think right now there's so many traditional
dishes that I haven't evenshared on my blog. So I'm really
trying to cover those off. Ireally am trying to be the place
where Guyanese people go first.
Because the recipes are highquality, the steps are really
laid out, and that they go thereand get their recipe. A lot of
the things that people say to meis that they will remember a

(49:35):
dish that their mom made ortheir grandmother passed and
they come to my blog for themeasurements. But then they do
whatever little tweak theirgrandmother would have done in
the background or they addwhatever ingredient that she
might have added and made aspecial for them. And I love
that so I want to keep doingmore of that. I want to get all
of those traditional recipes onthere in my personal life things

(49:56):
that don't make it to the blog.
I make all sorts to foods, I tryall sorts of cooking techniques.
I see a real just like anybodyelse. And I'm like, Whoa, what?
100 layer? potato cake. I'm onit. And I'll do I don't share
that, because that's not what aplatform is about. But I want to
try that. And I want to seedifferent techniques, I have all

(50:18):
sorts of gadgets that I want totry out. And my my, like
creative mind just goes reallywild, because then I think
about, okay, 100 layer potatofried potato, right? Can I do
that with with EDOs? EDOs iskind of like a Tarot route, and
so smaller like belongia, like,can I do with that? And what

(50:40):
would that look like? So then Iwant to try it with that. Those
things. Don't ever make it tothe blog. But if I ever have a
dinner party, that's the stuffI'm sharing, I the stuff I'm
making is all of the fusionstuff, because I love to show
off things like that. So for theblog, definitely going to keep
on the traditional path until Ihit like a level of recipes

(51:00):
where I'm like, Yeah, I thinkI'm good. I think I covered off
things. There's nobody asking mefor anything. I have a long
waiting list of recipes, wherepeople are like, Hey, I didn't
see this on your blog. Can youget to that? And I'm like, I'm
adding it to the list and likeworking through it. But for the
most part, I'm just stickingwith traditional except for the
remixes. And except for someoneasked me for a remix that they

(51:24):
have some I can't have this onething I noticed you used it in
this, then I'll try and and I'lladd that as a note. I know
personally, what it feels liketo not be able to eat something
because I'm an ingredient thatyou are allergic to. And so if
someone asked me for that Ialmost dropped anything and say,
okay, hold on. Let me go try itout. Yep, it works. Here's your
thing.

Do you think you're a creative person?

I think I'm a highly creative person. I didn't
for a long time, I thought I wasjust in my like, corporate
world. I think I'm a highlycreative person. I think if
people put a couple ofingredients in front of me, my
brain goes, we could do this,this, this, this this. And then
I start like, going to work Idid a tasting the other day

(52:08):
where I did some plantain tacos.
Last year, I created theseplants and tortillas where you
just use plantain. You boilthem, you crushed them, you mash
them into tortillas and you cookthem. single ingredient. You
need nothing else. It's paleo.
It's whole 30 All that stuff.
Well, it kind of went viral. Andeverybody's making them now and
but they're adding all sorts offlowers and all this stuff into

(52:30):
it. Great. It's good. But I hadthis opportunity to create these
kind of little bites for aparty. And I did for an expo
actually. And I did theseplantain street tacos. So I made
that same tortilla really tiny.
I made it out of booth in aplace. I made like this chicken
tacos made a quick pickle withlocal ingredients. Like added

(52:53):
some jam for sweetener. Like, Idon't even know where this thing
came from. People kept sayinglike, is this on your blog?
Where can I get this recipe? I'mlike, you can't cuz I literally
just made this with theseingredients that I was given and
tasted it. And it was like, Wow,this worked out so great. And I
think it's because like I said,like when I see something, I'll
go play around with it. Like mymind still on the fact that you

(53:16):
said you make pickles out ofcauliflower stock. So I'm
thinking now I bet that would begreat with kimchi, right? Like I
bet that could be a greatkimchi. And so now when we get
off of here, I'm like gonna gomake kimchi like, and I'll never
make it to my blog or my socialmedia, but that's just

totally sure, you need to have a place for that. I
know, it's so hard because likeyou already do this thing, cuz I
do the same with like, I have somany interests outside of food
and cooking. And again, you'resupposed to niche down and your
Instagrams always supposed to bethis thing. But like I love
photography, as some of it wouldcreep onto my page, just like I
guess I just need to start likemy own Instagram, just for that

(53:55):
stuff, where it's like I followpeople who are in music and
artists and things a place toshare that other stuff. Because
there's so much more that I feellike I want to be creating for
the world that you're notsupposed to put into your
carefully curated social mediafeeds in your niche business
space, right. So I have foundthat there had to be a place for

(54:18):
me to let some of this stuffcreep out. So yeah,

and you know what, I had a Content Manager person
who, when I was like, really,really growing, I said, I want
to know, like, what am I doingand what I should keep doing.
And you know, you see all ofthese people are like, do this
say this follow this trend,follow this here are these
tricks. And what she said to mewas that I could share all these

(54:43):
things, but as part of thepillars that I share for social
media, but just be consistent.
So if I have five things I wantto share once a week I share
each of them then people whofollow me know that like this is
who I am as a whole. The problemwith that is I spent so much
time already creating contentfor the main thing that I liked

(55:05):
to not have a camera on, whenI'm doing my little experiments
and figuring out, I like to befree, I like to not think about,
well, I need to pour this. Butif I poured with this hand, it's
gonna block it and have ashadow. So I gotta pour it with
this. Like, I like to not haveto be thinking about that when
I'm doing the need to just doyou know, and so it's so like,

(55:27):
I'm perfectly okay, with thatbeing a different part of me
that I get to like, be in myspace and make these nice meals
for friends and family that arevery different. But then come
back to the thing that you know,people that are really helping
people, and do that really,really well.

Is the blog, the main thing? Yeah,

so my blog is the main thing. Social media is like
a vessel to get people to theblog and to try the recipes.
Although I spend so much time onsocial media now, maybe that's
the main thing. But yeah, Ijust, I love having a place
where these recipes live on andanyone, whether you are of
Guyanese heritage, or Caribbeanheritage, can come to it and

(56:15):
say, Oh, I've never heard ofGuyana. Oh, their foot looks
kind of interesting. What can Itry and try something and say
they've nailed it. I've had alot of people who are like, I'm
dating a guy, a nice guy. And Iwant to impress him with a meal.
So I went to your blog, and Imade this and oh my god, he said
it tastes like his mom's like,that's, that makes me feel
amazing. I don't even care inthe next

year they were married because

I'm invited me to her wedding. Okay, yes. But like
those things make me feel reallygood. And that's I keep doing
it. You know?

Do you have any resolutions for the year? And
it's okay, if you don't, becausea lot of people don't believe in
that, or any goals or thingsthat you can share with us that
you maybe have coming up besidesthe you know, business as usual.
Yeah,

so I do have resolutions for a long time I
was anti resolutions, but Irealized that they really do
help you to like refocus. Andeven if they don't work out, at
least you start off with like,here are things that I want to
do. For my own personal goal, Ineed to drink more water. So
that's my like, goal. I have abig cup here. It's the one that
everyone's killing themselvesfor right now.

But that's a whole thing. But like, good, I've

had mine for like three years. And so I was like,
why is this a thing, suddenly,the only reason I have is
because it was 40 ounces. And Idon't have to fill it up. And I
struggle to drink water. And solike that's my goal, like every
day, I'm just trying to drinkthis 140 ounce tumbler of water.
And so far, I've been doingreally good. That's my only like
health related goal, because Ifeel like I don't want to just

(57:48):
have all these goals, and then Ican't get to it. In terms of my
business, I do want to keepgrowing and be very strategic
about the recipes that I share,I want to do more serious
because I feel like they reallyget you going and talking about
a group of a food group. And solike I'm doing this plant in
series, right now, I might doone on flat breads and rotis.

(58:11):
And I want to try a dish from adifferent culture at the end of
the series. So right now I'mdoing plant in series, I've had
a lot of Asian people come onand say, we make something very
similar to that we add adifferent ingredient. At the end
of the series, I'm going tochoose one of those and then
make it and be like, now I knownow I've learned a new dish from

(58:31):
a different culture and thengive credit to whoever recipe
I'm using, right? And thatrecipe will never end up on my
blog, because I don't need tosaturate that person's, you
know, niche, but I can, youknow, try their food and
highlight it. So that's kind ofwhere I am in terms of my blog
and my business. And what how Isee things going with that.

What's your routine for like blog recipe creation? I
guess what I'm trying to say islike, how often are you
releasing things? Do you have aset schedule of like, yeah, once
a week, every other week? What'sthat look like?

So last year, I didn't do a lot of new recipes,
because I was really justworking on the book. And then I
did a lot of media and a lot oflike, I did a book tour and all
that kind of stuff. So I wasreally like stressed out. So I
did a lot of re sharing of oldcontent, repurposing things
pushing to things that always dowell. But this year, I'm trying
to do one new recipe a week, andthen just kind of get that going

(59:27):
because I really do need to getthose recipes I have on that
list off that list. And thenreally wanting to share more
like recipes that are aroundspecial traditions and holidays.
So really going through that andgetting that up and I try to
batch my recipes. So if on aMonday I'm like okay, we're

(59:50):
going to do some recordingtoday. Let's try to do at
minimum two recipes. If we do athird one, that's bonus. I also
I'm only one working betweenhours when my kids are in
school, so still got a shortwindow to get everything done.
So just kind of doing that, andthen I edit at another time and
then post as I need to.

Chris Spear (01:00:11):
Well, it sounds like there will be a lot of
great stuff for people to findthis year. Well, I loved having
you on the show. I always linkeverything in the show notes. So
people will be able to find yoursocial media, the blog, the
book, all of that. Is thereanything you want to leave us
with that we didn't, anything wedidn't get into today. Any last
words? Just

Althea Brown (01:00:29):
to say, you know, thank you for having me on and
try Caribbean food, even if it'snot my food, even if you're just
go out and you're like, hey, Ihave a Jamaican restaurant in my
neighborhood. I'm gonna go trysomething for there. And if you
are a home cook, please go to myblog. Look for something in a
category that you really enjoy.
And just go for it. And I'm veryresponsive. So if you run into

(01:00:52):
any trouble, respond, shoot me amessage and I'll respond.
Awesome.

Chris Spear (01:00:59):
Well, thanks again for coming on the show. And to
all of our listeners. This hasbeen Chris with the Chefs
Without Restaurants podcast.
Thanks for listening and have agreat week. You're still here,
the podcast is over. If you areindeed still here, thanks for
taking the time to listen to theshow. I'd love to direct you to
one place and that's chefswithout restaurants.org. From
there, you'll be able to joinour email newsletter. Get

(01:01:19):
connected in our free Facebookgroup, and join our personal
chef catering and food truckdatabase so I can help get you
more job leads. And you'll alsofind a link to our sponsor page
where you'll find products andservices I love. You pay nothing
additional to use these links,but I may get a small commission
which helps keep the ChefsWithout Restaurants podcast and
organization running. You mighteven get a discount for using

(01:01:41):
some of these links. As always,you can reach out to me on
Instagram at Chefs WithoutRestaurants or send me an email
at chefs withoutrestaurants@gmail.com Thanks so
much.

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