Nicole Taylor: A voice to listen for!!!

For those of you that aren't familiar with Heritage Radio Network it was started in March of 2009 by Patrick Martins and Heritage Foods USA with a handful of shows and a skeleton staff. Built into two re-purposed shipping containers, the station is located in the back garden of Roberta’s Restaurant in Bushwick, Brooklyn.

I am a huge fan of all of the shows on the network, but in my opinion the coolest and most profound voices belongs to Nicole Taylor host of Hot Grease. She takes listeners on a journey through the foodways of the United States, whether its talking southern cooking, digital recipes, or food policy Nicole is always right out in front of the latest in the food world.



I had the pleasure of chatting at length with Nicole last night and I have to say that this woman is a so amazing and is really entrenched on the front lines of the multi dimensional fight for food justice in our community. Aside from hosting her brilliant show Nicole is also a member of Food Systems Network NYC, Slow Food USA, and a frequent speaker at New York City food events. She is a community outreach consultant for the Brooklyn Food Coalition and raises funds for the Urban Justice Center through the Vendy Awards. On top of all of that she is the author a very cool blog called the food culturist and is in the works of relaunching that site with renewed passion!!! l told her that she reminds me of this amazing hyhbrid of majora carter, dr. jessica harris because of her passion, her extensive knowledge and her tireless grassroots work!! This woman is definitely one to watch so please check out everything Nicole Taylor has going on and reach out to her to show your love and support for her fantastic work!!


http://twitter.com/foodculturist

http://www.foodculturist.com

http://vimeo.com/12768243

Once in a lifetime

Around this time last year I had the honor of traveling to Jacksonville, Fl to be with the executive board of Culinary Wonders USA. Chef Erika Davis and the amazing men on her board were preparing for their first "Night on The Hill" wine dinner in support of the Rhoda L. Martin Cultural Heritage Center and I was had the pleasure of meeting and interviewing the chefs.

I wasn’t sure what I would leave with. Indeed, I wasn't sure what i would experience walking into a kitchen of over 100 years of culinary experience. I was nervous and anxious with so many thought and questions hoping for some insight and some better understanding of the qualities necessary to be a great chef, so I went into the kitchen with my camera, notebook, and pen ready to absorb whatever came my way.

From the gravitas that Chef Joe Randall lends to any room to the fun free spirit of Chef Amadeus I left the kitchen that day with a feeling of community, some very delicious food for thought, and a better insight into the minds of some of our country’s most brilliant and talented black chefs.

What follows are my thoughts on each of the chefs, a bit of the what they each had to say on the topic of being a black chef, and what i think each one lends to the examination of the qualities imperative to becoming a great chef.

I hope that you find these chefs as interesting as I did and that as they all get prepared for their second annual "Night on the Hill" dinner this January 17th, 2011 that you reach out for each of them and let them know they are supported and appreciated.

Chef Erika Davis: The Heart

Of all the Culinary Wonders Chef Erika Davis is what I would consider the heartbeat of the group. She is the Founder and President of Culinary Wonders USA and the glue and is the spirit of the organization. To know Erika is to be inspired and impressed because she backs up her kind heart and hard work ethic with some of the most exquisite pastry skills around and has lead a career that should serve as a muse to every female chef in the industry.

To examine Chef Erika’s 20 year career you have to start at the beginning and understand that her love of food was elemental. She grew up on a street with five houses in a row filled with immediate and extended family and where her grandmother was at the center of her life. She grew up with strawberry patches and walnut trees as her backdrop, so ice cream making was a big catalyst in drawing her to the pastry industry.

Her professional career has taken her across the country with some of the most prestigious hotel and resort brands where she’s held positions as either kitchen manager or executive pastry chef for almost the whole of her career. Humbly she cites her mentors and the properties she’s worked for as the reasons for her elegant pastry talent but, as we all know, true talent is ingrained in the individual.

Her amazing work has named her one of our country’s most talented chefs by Black Enterprise magazine, has gotten her national recognition in television and print, and has made her a frequent guest chef at various charity and culinary dinners most notably the Taste of Ebony event and a few months ago at the Charleston Food and Wine Festival. Erika is currently at the helm of the historic Ponte Verde Resort and Golf Course in Jacksonville Fl where she is responsible for multiple outlets and has a mostly female crew. Erika also took time last year away from her kitchen to compete on bravo tv's Top Chef" Just Desserts where she was one of the most bubbly and talented in the group!!

In getting to know Chef Erika over the past few years the thing I am most struck by is her passion for mentorship. Culinary Wonders USA is a not- for-profit organization and at the core of why she began the organization is young people. Erika along with her board are making sure that students are connected to the high end work black chefs are doing and that they have a link and a network of black culinary mentors. She is famous for her passionate stance that there is always a way to give back even in small ways and through Culinary Wonders she creates opportunities like supporting a dinner like " Night on the Hill.

One of the truest ways I’ve found to know if you’re dealing with an honestly good and decent person is to talk to those close to them. As I sat in the company of 85 other guest at last year's "Night on the Hill" dinner and spoke with her friends, her amazing and gracious mother, and other guests, I was overwhelmed by the number of people who said they were there because it was Erika’s event. One lesson you learn from such a great person is that in this life you get out what you put in. The event was supported by the venue, major food purveyors, community leaders, and local artists on the strength of Erika and her spirit. Her charm and kindness are undeniable, but it’s also backed up by her talent and tenacity.

Erika loves for chefs to reach out to her and I promise if you do you will not be disappointed by her warmth and generosity. For more information on Culinary Wonders and Chef Erika’s career and background check out the following links. and there is still time to support "A Night On the Hill" on January 17, 2011 at the Casa Marina hotel in Jacksonville Beach Fl.

http://www.culinarywondersusa.com

http://hstrial-culinarywonde.intuitwebsites.com/ErikaDavis.html

http://twitter.com/cwusacheferika

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Culinary-Wonders-USA/167155539623

http://www.bravotv.com/top-chef-just-desserts/bio/erika-davis



Chef Earlest Bell: The Chameleon

When I met Chef Earlest Bell I was immediately struck by his tall lean stature and his intelligent eyes that seemed to be observing everything so intensely. His appearance was every bit that of a serious chef in his crisp whites and knotted neckerchief, but the cool black man twist came with his clean white Kangol hat. This mix of culinary tradition and black culture was the perfect image to begin to understand the brilliance of this man, his work, and what his career represents. Our talk was entertaining, though provoking, and most definitely unique.

Chef Earlest Bell was born in Covington, Louisiana and is very serious about his personal lineage. Right away he told me about his very in-depth research and how he was able to traced his family back five generation throughout the Caribbean. This link to the south was evident when he began to discuss his dish for the evening while he was cleaning Glory® brand collard greens. He was excited and proud of the fact that his course would not only feature a southern staple, that the greens were from a black owned food brand, but also that his dish would contain PORK!! Throughout our discussion I was impressed by the depth of knowledge he had on a wide variety of topics from nutrition and southern food to black culture and genealogy. When you examine Chef Earlest's career more closely you can understand where his approach to cooking comes from.

Chef Bell was classically trained through his course work at Harold Washington College, Washburn Trade School (one of the oldest Culinary Schools in the country), and at the Culinary Institute of America. Professionally Chef Bell has held management positions with hospitality heavyweights like Disney and Marriott where he has won numerous awards, traveled extensively around the world, and received national recognition for his work. In 2001, he joined Gaylord Hotels group to become executive chef of the Convention Center at the Gaylord Palms Resort. He currently oversees the preparation of as many as 1.8 million meals a year in one of the country’s most celebrated and complex convention centers. His commitment to perfection and the highest quality service for each event, no matter the size, has been rewarded with dozens of accolades, most notably the AAA four diamond award. In addition to his award-winning work, Chef Bell is a board member of Culinary Wonders USA, has competed in various ACF and culinary trade competitions, and frequently lends his expertise to local charity events throughout central Florida.

Of all the answers Chef Earlest gave during our conversation, his thoughts on pride and heritage in relationship to the work were by far the most interesting. We had come to the end of our talk and I explained that the night before a member of BCH had posted a question about whether as black chefs we should reject soul food as slave food and not even entertain clients that assume we have a connection to it simply because we're black. His response was an emphatic “of course we should be connected to soul food and I’d like to talk to the black chef who thinks otherwise”. He explained how he feels soul food is who we are as a culture; how it’s the food of our struggle, of our triumph, and the foundation of American cooking. One of the things he mentioned being crucial to young black chefs is a blend of technical ability coupled with a tie to heritage that grounds that technical ability to something tangible. Chef Earlest himself is a complex mix of black pride and culinary classicism that begs the question “why should black chefs have to choose between the two?”. I walked away from our chat feeling more surely that we don’t have to abandon our heritage to prove a point because the work will always come first; that the ability to be rooted in our culture is one of the most important qualities a well rounded chef can have no matter the country of origin. I was honored to talk with and be entertained by Chef Earlest Bell and his cool, laid back persona, but I was also so enlightened by the depth of his culinary genius.

If you would like to know more about the specifics of his career, his decades of experience and what he’s up to currently please check out these links. Also Chef Bell will be cooking again at this years "Night on the Hill" dinner hosted by Culinary Wonders USA at the Casa Marina Hotel this January 17th, 2011 in Jacksonville Beach Fl.

http://hstrial-culinarywonde.intuitwebsites.com/EarlestBwll.html

http://www.worldfoodllc.com/earlest-bell.aspx

http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/signature-chefs-of-orlando/id349263512

Chef Joe Randall: The Legend

When I walked into the kitchen I was automatically in awe. Who wouldn't be when faced with the task of interviewing a man who's culinary life spans more that 4 decades and who's accomplishments place him in the sphere of master chef, however I was immediately put as ease as I observes him working alongside a young girl who couldn't have been more than 17 or 18 years old. He was teaching this child how to form this delicate shrimp mousaline into croquettes while easily chatting and joking with the other chefs. That's when it struck me that this man must obviously be a great deal more than his list of accomplishments and that nervousness had no place in the conversation. As I got the opportunity to chat with Chef Joe Randall I found out that not only was this the case, but that his commitment to lifting up and protecting young black chefs is more than a passion project, but is what has defined his culinary life. My chat with Chef Randall was transformational, eye opening, and what he had to say on a variety of topics from soul food to culinary history is important for every black chef to consider.

It would be strange to me for you not to know Chef Randall's amazing resume. He has been a chef instructor, executive chef, and cookbook author. His work has garnered him recognition in the form of magazine and newspaper articles nationwide and has placed him on television as both star and culinary and historical expert on various programs. He has been the deserving recipient of numerous honors and awards from some of our industry's most prestigious organizations and while all this is impressive to be sure, what I found in my research and chat with him was that his educational and philanthropic work is much more central to who he is as a person.

The most shining example of this would be the Taste Of Heritage Foundation which was the result of his passion for education. Chef Randall had a simple idea; he would call on other black chefs to show up and give back to the next generation of black chefs through cooking. He set up elaborate, multiple course dinners all over the country showcasing the work of black chefs, and in the process raised tens of thousands of scholarship dollars for student interested in culinary education. Throughout the 80's and 90’s chefs like Leah Chase, Edna Lewis, and Patrick Clarke, would all come out, cook, and fellowship while ensuring that more black students were classically trained and prepared to compete and flourish in the culinary arts. The thought makes me want to cry because it’s such an honest and tangible idea that promoted the ideals of family and community that our culture has always fostered. Taste of Heritage has basically been reborn through Culinary Wonders USA where Chef Erika Davis has accepted the baton handed off by Chef Randall and with his guidance and mentorship will continue the works he started.

Chef Randall spoke with me at length about blacks in this work. He told me about the 80’s and 90’s when publications like Nations Restaurant News and the New York Times were not only overlooking black chefs, but were convinced that we weren’t even viable in this work. He told of his efforts to showcase black chefs in television and print media. He talked about his fight for representation in national culinary organizations like ACF that were under servicing their minority members. He gave me a history lesson on how the government didn't even recognize this work as a profession until 1977, and how absurd it is to ask the question “where are all the black chefs” since this country’s culinary foundation was built on the backs of black cooks.

I left my talk with Chef Randall feeling a sense of belonging and of pride in the legacy that he helped pave for my generation of cooks. I felt a renewed sense of responsibility to learn more about our history in food and to make sure that I contribute to the discourse. Chef Randall joined Erika Davis and the other Culinary Wonders chefs in their amazing journey to foster fellowship among black chefs because that is what his life and career have always been about. He is our link to heritage, our generation’s champion, and a beautiful man that has a spirit that effects everyone he touches making them better people. A trip to his cooking school in Savannah, Ga. is described as a culinary pilgrimage because when you sit at his table you not only get fed delicious food, you feast on heritage in a way so substantive that you can't help but leave different than when you came. If you want to learn more about Chef Randall, The Chef Joe Randall Cooking School, and Culinary Wonder USA follow these links.

http://www.chefjoerandall.com/

http://hstrial-culinarywonde.intuitwebsites.com/JoeRandall.html

http://chefjoerandall.blogspot.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zo1Fm4RbkM



Chef Wayne Johnson: The Journeyman

Before I met Chef Johnson I felt intimidated. Having read his bio I thought so traveled and serious a chef wouldn’t be relatable to my decade of membership in this work, but as I approached and I got through my first question it was clear that while Chef Wayne takes this work very seriously, he is also a very kind and grounded person who just loves and respects food and wants to share that passion in any way possible.


Chef Wayne Johnson is a 30 year culinary veteran with connections all over the world. Born in Kentucky as the son of a military family he acquired a love for travel and an expanded palate along the way. His career began after working his way through an accounting degree from the University of Colorado. Post grad he moved to Vail, Co. and realized that his true calling was in the kitchen, so he abandoned his accounting future and joined Marriott to begin the road he mapped out to becoming the executive chef of his own property.

I was struck by the mental process Chef Wayne adopted with his career. So often there is this picture of the chef as this wild, cigarette smoking, bohemian with no plan except to cook and party, and while that image is one that is definitely perpetuated by some, Chef Wayne, even in his early years, had specific and measured goals in mind for his career. He talked with me at length about the virtues of a blueprint. He talked about how as you move along with a career goal life invariably happens, but that the map helps you to adjust and still move efficiently toward your goal. Even now, after almost 30 years of work, Chef Wayne has plenty of new goals for his career that life and experience has taught him how to navigate toward.

One of the most profound statements he made was about how he measures success. He said” I don’t measure my career by the position I hold, but by how many chefs I can see leave my kitchen and become sous chefs, executive chefs, etc…That’s the goal, to produce greatness from my kitchens”. How brilliant is that? How cool is it for a man with so much knowledge and talent to be so connected and invested in the culinary lives of others. Chef Wayne is what I consider the thinking man’s chef with his culinary style a collection of worldwide experiences, personal study, and tireless work. He brings a global palate and the principals of community, so central to black culture, to his life and work in a way that makes it easy to understand why he joined Erika in the Culinary Wonders journey. It also explains why he’s so committed to the black chefs in his own community through a project called ‘Food as Art’ he hosts in Seattle, WA. that showcases the work of local black chefs.

Chef Wayne is hardly slowing down at this point in his career and his story is one that every student should consider as they make the journey through culinary school. This is a career, and while there will be many experiences along the way that may be unexpected and challenging a clear blueprint of where you’d like to end up will always keep you headed in the right direction. Chef Wayne Johnson is simply a genius and is someone that has so much good knowledge to share so to learn more about what he’s doing and about his career follow these links.

http://www.chefwaynejohnson.com/chefwaynejohnson.com/Blog/Blog.html

http://hstrial-culinarywonde.intuitwebsites.com/WayneJohnson.html

http://andaluca.com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1BFCN6JFiQ

http://www.thegreenmagazine.com/content/chef-wayne-johnson

2010 Manefesto!!

Hello everyone.

Around a year ago my life changed when I started this group. I was at a transformative crossroads in my life and career, and needed an outlet for culinary catharsis that would feed my spirit as a chef, but would also connect me with other chefs in a substantive way. Cut to today where the group has grown to over 450 members that include culinary legends like Chef Joe Randall, some new school brilliance like our brother-Chef Bryant Terry, and countless other beautiful spirits invested in our history in food.

The goal last year was pretty simple. I had this very personal manifesto that I put out to some folks about what I was feeling as a chef and how I thought we could begin a dialogue. Over time I have come to realize that what this group has to be is the voice of our collective culinary legacy. It has to be our daily connection to why we each chose this work, and why those of you outside the work have taken an interest in this topic. I feel proud of the group and the progress that’s come, but I feel that in order to grow there has to be an expansion of the original premise. This group has to be about more than putting our history down for preservation, it has to be about us being a living legacy in our daily work. Over the next year the goal is really to get down to business and provide the tools to facilitate this!! There are three areas that the group will focus on.

The first is visibility. There are hundreds of you that I’ve met, chatted with, become friends with that are doing work that everyone needs to know about. There are hundreds still that through networking, research and good old fellowship I will come to know about, so profiling everyone and creating a sort of BCH muse moment space to feed us daily and keep us excited and inspired is going to be my commitment to you all!!

The second point of focus this year is on mentorship. When I began the main thing I was motivated by was the fact that, on average, five percent of culinary students are African American competing for jobs in environments were they will undoubtedly be represented even less than that. The idea is that we have to be the bridge over this gap in perspective. Our kids have to know that they are part of a bigger legacy than the one they are taught in school and have to be fortified with our support and guidance. What I’m working on is a sort of big brother/big sister program for chefs!! More to come on that!!

The third area that this year is going to focus on is fellowship. One thing this group has taught me is that you folks are some of the coolest, most talented, and inspirational chefs and hospitality professionals and that we have to take our fellowship beyond the online group. One of the things I’m working on is a traveling underground dining series that will showcase the talents of our chefs, restaurant owners, wine makers, and purveyors in a way that is restorative, creative and honors the spirit of our ancestors. Also some culinary town halls that will be similar to the tavis smiley 'state of black america' where we have panels of professionals putting issues like representation, history, work ethic, and business ownership and operation out in the open to be sure that we are all as sharp and informed about whats really going on in the industry as possible.

These are the things that I feel will take the group to the next phase of evolution and its your support for the vision that has helped me to refocus and to feel so inspired, so I just want to say thank you all for being part of my dream. What I need now is your input. These projects are all in the planning stages and need fresh eyes so those of you who want to roll up your sleeves and lend your time and support please let me know. This is going to be a great year and my hope is that our numbers grow both here and at our ning.com group and that next year we are in an even more exciting place than we are now. Thanks again for your support and Happy Holidays, with much optimism and excitement for the New Year!!

Best wishes!!

Therese Nelson
Founder
Black Culinary History

Living legacy!!

A very cool chef friend of mine had an experience today that is at the heart of this project. She sat down with some living legends and some brilliant contemporary black culinary minds at a sort of underground round table and left feeling changed not only as a chef, but as a black person.

It got me thinking about the importance of a living legacy and how each of us can create our own. In the next few weeks I will be putting together a series on blogtlk radio to create these intimate conversations with chefs we all need to hear from as a the starting point for BCH's contribution to that living legacy so plese if your interested in joining in the conversation, or have a chef you think should be included please let me know. I am feeling so inspired and so elated that so many chefs see the need for this work and are pitching in to make sure they are contributing But I need your help to keep this momentum going so i look forward to hearing from you!!

Chef Bryant Terry

As an eco-chef, food justice activist, and author Bryant Terry is a chef making a big difference in a unique and soulful way.

Early on Bryant made the choice to focus his culinary career on sustainability and socially conscious eating. A graduate of the Chef’s Training Program at the Natural Gourmet Institute for Health and Culinary Arts, New York University with an M.A. in American History, and Xavier University with a B.A. with honors in English Bryant is not only brilliant but well rounded.

"

As a writer, Terry offered Grub: Ideas for an Urban Organic Kitchen as a sort of manifesto for the vegan/organic food movement. It’s part cookbook, part social critique and all brilliant insight and instruction into how simple the idea of eating well is at its core. His next book, The Vegan Soul Kitchen, will be out some time in March as a love letter to soul food rethought for the vegan kitchen. If you cant wait for it he’ll be offering a teaser called Getcha Grub On: The Mix Cookbook, a free downloadable (PDF) compilation of his recipes that have been published in magazines and on websites from 2006 until 2008

If all this isn’t enough for a crush Bryant is also serious about giving back and to that end founded the Black and Green Food Justice Fund, b-healthy! (Build Healthy Eating and Lifestyles to Help Youth), The Southern Organic Kitchen project, and is a fellow with the Food and Society Policy Fellows Program.

These are just a few reasons this man is the coolest, but you can find many more if you check out his site www.bryant-terry.com.

Potential!!!

I was thinking today about how many applications this industry has to offer and how as professional chefs we have a responsibility to the expansion of our industry and to explore as many of those ways as possible. I sit here as a young chef armed with all the tools to make magic happen and its really only a matter of how far I'm willing to stretch my mind or how hard I'm willing to work. Its a beautiful thing to know your potential is only limited by you!! That's my though for today, its a simple one and one that I'm sure I'll need to use as inspiration as I go into the next phase of this history project and the need to convince people of its importance begins to drain me, but as of this moment I'm fired up in a pretty spectacular way to make all the ideas I have swimming around in my mind flourish into great things!!!!

A thought on Edna Lewis

I was looking at the picture of her that I use as this project's muse and it struck me how beautiful she was, how soulful and all knowing she seems to have been. So often as women in this industry we feel the need to deny our femininity to be taken seriously, don the whites and play like the boys, but it occurs to me that we miss something. I'm not saying women should sex up the uniform or start piling on makeup in the kitchen (femininity is much more than aesthetic anyway), I'm just saying that when I see her picture I'm immediately reminded of womanhood in this work and how it doesn't have to be lost or considered a liability, but more how it can strengthen of our points of reference.

Manefesto!!!

Has it ever occurred to you that there really isn’t a soulful or substantive analysis of black people in the culinary world? While I am the first to be proud of our inclusion in this field as a given and of the fact that race has little to do with our ability as black people to bring culinary fire wherever and however we like, it occurs to me that it’s dangerous not to look back and pay homage to the fact that that hasn’t always been the case.

I feel a sense of responsibility as black culinary professional, being blessed with the ability to freely and profitably lay down my mark on this industry, to in some way put something meaningful back out into the universe for my little sisters and brothers to be inspired by. My idea is pretty simple. We all have verbal family history which has been passed down though great meals and stories from parents and grandparents. I’m sure you’ve felt as starved for pockets of inspiration as I have so you’ve looked to whatever information you could find on chefs like Leah Chase or Jefferson Evans and the books you could ferret out by visionaries like Edna Lewis, but what I’m talking about is a reference point for all these things in a clear and concise format; as a staring point for our predecessors.

What I want is to compile in depth interviews with interesting chefs who are doing great work. I want to know about your background, culinary point of view, and where you draw inspiration from. Once I compile enough insight I want to layer these thoughts and observations with a rolling and robust history of our emergence in this industry from slavery to now weaving in pictures, poetry, and recipes. The staring point is you. I hope you'll share information with me and keep current with the information I put out because again this project is for all of us!!!