1. What’s the story behind your cooking journey?
I started cooking when I was in third grade. My parents both worked so they would put me in all kinds of afterschool programs and my school hosted a Mexican cooking class. I was so excited to learn about the culture and we made tortillas from scratch. The feeling was exhilarating and I still feel it today when I cook. After that I started cooking at home with my grandma when she would get off work and kept taking after school classes. I think the most important thing to me is remaining excited. I still feel that youthful excitement whenever it comes time to start prep.
2. What’s the essence of your cooking?
The essence is definitely my family's experiences that led me to this point. On my fathers side, his grandma came to California during the Great Migration from Arkansas and really hadn't been free from slavery for more than a couple of generations. My generation and my fathers were raised to still eat Southern food but with ingredients you could find locally in the Bay Area—which are basically the best of the best—so taking Southern classics and making them seasonal is really important to my ethos. My grandparents on my mothers side are both Holocaust survivors from Budapest, Hungary. Their ability to persevere and make an amazing life for themselves after what they've been through is deeply inspiring to me. I feel like my "essence" can only be described as strength from those who've come before me. I truly strive to make food that's reflective of my ancestral knowledge and pays homage to all that my family has sacrificed and the hard work that has gone into me making it this far.
3. Which is your most cooked dish?
I think gumbo is my most cooked dish for sure. My grandma would make it once a year and it was always my favorite meal of hers. Her name in my phone is gumbo and my first solo pop up was making gumbo and Southern sides in CDMX. I also fry a whole lot of fish because my dad is an elite fisherman.
4. What are your cooking goals ?
My biggest goal is to expand people's understanding of what Black American food looks and tastes like. I love dismantling this idea that traditional Black dishes are bad for you, or full of unhealthy fats, and additives. They call it soul food for a reason. Black American food is American food... because who do you think did all the cooking as America was being created? Exactly.
5. Who or what is your biggest inspiration?
I've been lucky enough to have a few amazing women that I can call my mentors. I think what has helped me lean into the culinary world and approach certain opportunities with a sense of fearlessness is having such a strong foundation built up by women who have guided me and help offer me advice and inspiration. Those women are old employers, managers, my family of course, and even my friends who work hard alongside me.
6. Last meal?
I recently decided my last meal would be steak au poivre and frites from Bistrot Paul Bert in Paris... maybe I'm basic... or maybe they've just perfected my favorite dish in the world—you be the judge.
7. Your must have ingredient in your fridge/pantry.
Butter. Must have good butter, ideally French but since I've been living in NYC there are some good dairy farms upstate that make great salted butter. Also probably a can or tube of tomato paste.
8. A dish that brings you to your childhood.
On my fathers side there's a way that my great grandma used to make me buttered rice to go with fried chicken. She was a really unique and special person and sometimes we would spend weekends at her house. She would always have a cast iron of oil going ready to fry some chicken and a pot of rice boiling. The rice would have a combination of margarine and butter and would leave a little yellow ring on the plate that would mix with the hot chicken, but what really made it special was the sugar. She would put sugar in the rice but it was never too sweet. I've tried to remake it when I miss her but I haven't been able to get it right.
9. What’s the perfect pair to olive oil?
I started out baking before I got into the savory side of things and went through a phase in high school where I couldn't stop making olive oil cakes. So I think to not be basic and say bread I'm going to say cake!
10. How would you describe Psyche Organic Olive oil in one word?
HOT !