#RolandMartinUnfiltered - #RolandMartinUnfiltered dinner party honoring the life of the 'Queen of Creole Cuisine' Leah Chase

Episode Date: June 8, 2019

In a special 2 hour edition of #RolandMartinUnfiltered, we pay tribute to the "Queen of Creole Cuisine", Leah Chase. Our guests include: Chef Rock Harper, host of The Chef Rock XPerimen; Chef Kwame Onwuachi, Owner of Kith and Kin; Chef Joe Randall, African American Chefs Hall of Fame Inductee; Jawn Murray, Pop Culture Commentator and Expert; Food Historian Michael Twitte author of The Cooking Gene; Marc Morial, former Mayor of New Orleans and Civil Rights Activist, Rev. Jesse Jackson. - #RolandMartinUnfiltered partner: 420 Real Estate, LLC To invest in 420 Real Estate’s legal Hemp-CBD Crowdfunding Campaign go to http://marijuanastock.org Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Thank you. Martin! Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Martin! Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Hey folks, today is Wednesday, June 5th, 2019. Welcome to a special edition of Roland Martin Unfiltered. Today, we are celebrating the life and legacy of the queen of Creole cuisine, Leah Chase. We're going to have a jam-packed show for you, Carla Hall. Many of you know her. She is going to share her thoughts about cooking with the Queen just three months ago also joining us in studio will be a Hell's Kitchen winner Rock Harper also shift Kwame will join us we've got a number of other people who loved and adored

Leah Chase who's gonna be calling into the show we're gonna be looking back and I'm gonna play for you the interview that I did with her just a couple years ago, where we talked in her kitchen. Also had a sit-down interview talking about food, talking about marriage, and also, again, the importance of living life and loving it. Folks, this is a special edition of Roland Martin Unfiltered, celebrating the acclaimed

chef Leah Chase. It's time to bring the funk on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Let's go. He's got it. Whatever the piss, he's on it. Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the fine. And when it breaks, he's right on time.

And it's rolling. Best believe he's knowing. Putting it down from sports to news to politics. With entertainment just for kicks he's he's fresh, he's real, the best You know he's rolling, Montana Montana All right, folks, glad to have you with us today on June 5th.

It was about five days ago we lost the great chef chef Leah Chase. Of course, the Queen of Creole cuisine passed away surrounded by family members in the city of New Orleans where she is from where she cooked for so many years. Of course we know her from Dookie Chase's restaurant. Of course, the restaurant she had there

with her longtime husband who passed away. 70 years they were married. He passed away just a couple of years ago she was an acclaimed chef of course she served presidents every single major figure you can think of they of course were came through her restaurant in fact I'm gonna show you a video later in the show Quincy Jones talking about going through her restaurant so what we have here is y'all come on in so what we decided to do was versus to have a normal show we decided to have a dinner party for leah chase and so uh my man uh john murray is here of course he dined there on many occasions uh we got chef kwame in the house

i don't want to mispronounce his last name so you could go ahead and say what do you say chef kwame uh rock harper is going to be joining us uh of course yesterday carla hall wanted to be here she's traveling but i interviewed her yesterday we're going to play joining us. Of course, yesterday, Carla Hall wanted to be here. She's traveling, but I interviewed her yesterday. I'm going to play for her, play for you that interview that I had with her as well. And we got a bunch of other people, a number of other chefs who would love and adore her, who are going to be calling into the show, sharing their thoughts about Leah Chase. And, you know, look, when news went down, you guys remember, even Washington Watch, we had various tributes when African-Americans who passed, who died, we did the shows on them.

Also, Rock here, tell Rock, let me know when Rock gets here. See, again, it's like a dinner party, so you don't worry about it. So, of course, Greg Carr, chair Afro-American, said it's a Howard University. He dropped by. Greg, why don't you pop over here, just sit down down there. And we were going to be joined by Tanya Lombard, of course, the niece of Chef Chase, but she's still grieving, and so she couldn't be with us. But again, we got a great show lined up for you folks. But first, we want to start this thing out. First of all, let me set

this thing up. So when I interviewed Leah Chase a couple of years ago at her restaurant, it was great. And she talked about fried chicken. She talked about gumbo. She talked about her favorite spaghetti and meatballs. She talked about all that sort of stuff. And so I said, well, what the heck? Rock, come on in. And so Rock Harper is here. Of course, he runs Hell Kitchen.

Rock is bringing in the fried chicken. So he literally is walking to the door. And so he's got the fried chicken wrapped up. Chef Kwame, he brought the jollof rice, and so we got that. We're going to bring that out here in a second. I fixed the gumbo and went ahead and made the spaghetti, and so, matter of fact. And Roland, I brought Tupperware. Wow, really?

And aluminum foil. Really? And Ziploc. I'm black, so when I come for a good meal, I come to take a good meal home with me as well. Really? That's real black. I'm prepared. Really? That's real black. I'm prepared, yes. That's real black.

And so we got the, of course, the Rock got the fried chicken down there. And, Rock, you may want to hold on to the bowl there down there. So what I did was, so you got the meatballs in there, but also I make what I call Texas spaghetti. So I do a different little thing with barbecue sauce, Italian sausage. And so that's what I have down there. As a matter of fact, that's the one right in front of you, Rock. That's that one right there.

And so, so the meat, so Chef Chase, her meatballs in there, just tip it a little bit, so here we can get a shot of it there on the camera. So we got that going over there. Again, we got the gumbo here. And so, we wanted to say, you know, versus your traditional show,

we said, look, if you're going to honor a chef, and you're going to celebrate her know versus your traditional show we said look if you're gonna honor a chef that's it and you're gonna celebrate her life let's have a dinner party now some of y'all out there saying why all these dudes up here literally at least eight different women we invited folks were traveling they couldn't be here so don't sweat some people gonna be on the phone we got carla hall so don't even try to trip but bottom line is that's who could be at Jonah Sunset so we're gonna start this thing off uh first off so uh two years ago June 29, 2017 I went to New Orleans for Essence Festival and of course as I always did I stopped by Dookie Chase's to see Leah Chase and so I want to share with you again a portion of the interview so here's how we gonna do this here we're gonna play some of the interview. So here's how we're going to do this. We're going to play some of the interview. We're going to come back, talk with our guests,

and then we go back to the interview. So we're going to open this thing up again with my visit to Dookie Chase's. All right. I got you. There we go. Don't trust your own. Look, my son was in the military. Uh-huh. I got you right here.

There we go. Hold it rolling. Don't you let me fall on this floor. I got you. I told you I got you. You got me. That's a funny interview. Oh, y'all, that's the wrong interview.

Okay, so here's the piece. That's the second part of the interview. The first part of the interview was when I was actually meeting her in the kitchen. So I want y'all to get that queued up so we can have that ready. That's the second part of the interview was when I was actually meeting her in the kitchen. So I want y'all to get that queued up so we can have that ready. That's the second part of the interview. No, it's not. No, that's wrong. So I'm just trying to tell you. Okay, all right. So here's what we're going to do.

We're going to first do this here. We're going to go to our guests first. I'm going to set this whole thing up, and then we'll get this thing straight. But first, go around the table. So first off, people at the table, who actually met little chase who met leah chase yeah um let's first talk about her uh just um the fact that here's a woman who loved and celebrated but who took traditional food there in new orleans and again, y'all, this is the dinner part. Y'all can serve plates.

Is there somebody going to say the grace? Lord God, we thank you for the food. Thank you for the opportunity of fellowship. May the food be nourished to your bodies and the words nourished to your spirit. In the name of the Son, Jesus, amen. There you go. All right.

So who took food that in New Orleans, she talked about it where it was always about French food, where she's like, no, no, no. Now we're going to do the Creole food, which has now become the thing in New Orleans. Dookie Chase has flipped the switch for the entire city. It was interesting, Roland, thinking about her life. One of the beautiful things about Nada Chase was that she brought all the black culture together. I mean, even though she's called Creole, it's interesting to see within her family her mother's side of the family how she

battled even her aunties and grandmother about that notion she said i'm not quite sure what creole is we shouldn't have black people getting away from us so you got fried chicken here she she said if you're going to cook in our community i want it all there because our people work hard and i want to serve it with a table cloth and stuff. I mean, ultimately, when we taste her food, we're tasting the culture of our people. It seems to me when I see you brothers and my friend Carla Hall, who I went to high school with, actually, you know, I look at this, you all are the next generation of people who have said our people created some of the greatest foods in the history of the world and they should be able to enjoy that food and introduce that food, all of it, to the world.

So I'm going to get the interview set up. Y'all go ahead and have a conversation. I'll be right back. I love to eat the food that our people have created. There's no shame in my game. I was excited when Carla Hall put out her soul food book because I love soul food. Everybody says, oh, I love breakfast food.

Give me sushi. No, I love soul food. And so I first got to eat at Leah Chase's restaurant, Dookie Chase, about a decade ago. It was maybe right after Hurricane Katrina. She was only opening up for lunch hours. And a diversity executive named Joycelyn Allen had taken me to Essence for an opportunity. And so it was the first time she had opened a restaurant up. And so Joycelyn's professional group went in and had the very first meal after Hurricane Katrina opened the restaurant up and so joyce lynn's uh professional group uh went in and had

the very first meal after hurricane katrina in the restaurant took her two years to get it back two years so you were that first group that we were the first group that went there and so um and and prior to that opportunity i didn't know a lot of her story but the the first time you meet her and the first time you eat that food you become immersed in her and her legacy and her history and then learning that she was the inspiration for uh disney's princess tiana and the first time you eat that food, you become immersed in her and her legacy and her history and then learning that she was the inspiration for Disney's Princess Tiana and the Princess and the Frog and just all the elite and dignitaries and stuff

that ate at that restaurant. It was a pleasure to go there. And literally for the last 10 years, I dined in that restaurant every year while I was there for Estes Festival. Wow. Did you pick up anything while you were there? Yeah yeah probably some weight john you can cook though you can cook though well listen i got a great way that i've learned from cabbage and uh kale recipe that i've

gotten for you my brothers listen well you know i'm pretty sure you perfected it by now listen it's pretty good well she is um i mean you, I had the opportunity to meet her for the first time this past October. Howard Conyers and my friend Adrian Miller and Zella Palmer, they had, Howard hosted Gumbo Jubilee, where it was a celebration of, you know, black food ways and, you know, gumbo. Yeah. And just a bunch of sort of people chefs authors and just different tastemakers in in the industry we're all down and we were brainstorming we had some workshops and one of the workshops was at Dookie Chase and she

came out she was just she may was she was gonna come out maybe she wasn't first of all I got a sort of before i go into that story i drove from cape cod massachusetts all the way down to new orleans wow um i was staying up in cape cod and i wanted to do this thing and i drove and i was on a uh a fried chicken tour i think come on man no i think i know i'm proud of my fried chicken come on this bird right here it's the best bird ever right there so well you don't know you pass it down listen hold on hold on hold on i thought it was the best bird and then i i was eating everywhere everywhere in about six or eight different states a lot of places and and then when i got the doogie chases i said yeah we gotta go back to the drawing board and i'm'm serious. It was just amazing.

And I love how she, you know, really didn't apologize, not confrontational space for just cooking black food. We often want to reframe and call it something other than it is. I'm going to do the, y'all can pass the spaghetti on down. Go ahead, keep talking, keep talking. I think what what what she Was so important for me what I got out of is how there's no need to sort of apologize or over explain

This is just what we are who we are what I love to do and let's just let's just cook some it's good It's great food with a tremendous amount of pride and culture and you know in history behind it So and she was just so full of life. Yeah, that was the cake. I'm like, 93, you know, Kwame, it's tough to get into a kitchen sometimes. And I'm like, 93, Slim, I can't excuse. There's no excuse. You know what I mean?

None. That was the cool thing about eating in her restaurant during the Essence Festival is that she would get really excited because most people don't realize this, but from an economic standpoint, the Essence Festival would take New Orleans and put it in the black for the entire year and so that was a weekend that was once uh isolated in New Orleans and you know it was too hot to be there but you know Essence brought all these black folks down there it's the largest festival in the world and so she loved the influx of people that would come and the fact that every time I was there over the last 10 years except for maybe once she was actually in the kitchen helping them cook the food she was most

of the food yeah she it was a privilege and we would eat family style and the food was always great and get a little itis afterwards so it was just really not a little itis a whole lot of itis whole lot but then you get to the concert and you know you dance it all off so you'd feel good about yourself when it was all set in all right so we have the interview, the right one, queued up. So here's me, June 29, 2017, talking to great Leah Chase. For 76 years, this has been the place in New Orleans to get some of the best food in the city. No, forget that. In the country. And so every time I come here, I got to go see Leah Chase.

And so let's go on in here and check out, see what she's doing, and get some of this good food. Damn, door was locked. Had to do a lot. We in Dookie Chase. Where's the chef of the house? I know she cooking something, because every time I come here, I find her in the kitchen. Where she at?

Y'all know I'm looking for her. She ain't that tall, so. Let's see. How you doing? What's going on? How you doing? Welcome. You all good? Dukie Chase is real. What's happening on? How you doing? You all good?

What's happening? Where the lady at the house? She's in her kitchen. Where's her kitchen? This way. All right, y'all, we going to her kitchen. She got her own kitchen. All right.

Here we go. What's happening? What's happening? What's happening? You know I can't come. You happening. You know I can't come to the city and not see you. Well, I was wondering if you put me down like all the other men. No, no, darling.

How you doing? All the other men put me down. You know, when you get old, they put you down. Well, darling, every time I come here, I got to come say hey. All right. I just had to bring the cameras this time. You always bring your intimidating machines. They're not intimidating.

They're just always there. They tell the truth. That's right. That's right. What you up to? Everything, man. Everything I'm up to. I'm getting ready to make a big patch of gumbo.

All right. I cook my lunch. Got some tomato basil soup over there. All right. Is this cabbage? Cabbage. All right then. One of the few vegetables I actually eat. Oh, no, don't tell me you eat cabbage.

I eat cabbage. I eat cabb- I only eat like three of them. Oh, shame on you. Nothing like a good vegetable. Well, you know. And see, it is perfect too, because I've been on this 10 day green smoothie cleanse for the last 10 days. So it officially ends tomorrow so I can actually eat real food.

All right. So, yeah, time to coincide with coming to New Orleans. All right. But in New Orleans, you know, we don't serve calories. You can eat whatever you want. All the rice, all the gumbo, all the fried chicken and baked macaroni, the jambalaya. Yeah, but then the problem is the clothes you brought,

you're not gonna be able to fit to wear to the concert. Well, who's problem is that? It looks like your problem, because you got that before you left home. We don't put that. Oh, uh-huh. You see? Uh-huh. And you see all those nice shoulders? We put that under your belt.

We don't like men with big shoulders. Give a big stomach. That means we fed them good. Well, good one. Yeah, you got it going here. So what's that? I see some corn and sausage. Oh, I know you like corn.

I do. So what's that dish called? That's called makchoo, just a little corn makchoo. Right. You know, that's a Cajun thing. Okay. But you know,

if you can't beat them, join them. Right, right. So in New Orleans, in the Creole community, we just call that stewed corn. But they say makchoo, okay, it's makchoo.

All right then. And then we have the cabbage with a tomato basil soup. Okay. And we're going to give you a lot of fried chicken. And what's the other man, what do you got going right here? Turkey necks. Turkey necks. Everybody likes a good turkey neck.

And that's what the, what's this here that's raw? That's chicken gizzards that we're going to put in the gumbo. Okay, all right. You know, you have to have some gizzards in your gumbo. Really? Yeah, oh, yeah, you can't have gumbo. Like, first we do the ham shanks in there. You see, I'm going to make that much gumbo.

Right. That's going to be about 30 gallons. Right there? 30 what? 30 gallons. 30 gallons. Uh-huh. Now, see, I have, see I have,

I can't make small pots of gumbo in my house. You can't? I can't, I can't. That little five quart pot, I can't. So I have a 20 quart pot, I have two 40 quart pots, and the 60 quart, we have to cook that outside. Yeah, because you don't have big enough kitchen to make enough stove.

Oh yeah, no, no, if I cooked it outside with the buns and burn it. But do you know how to make a gumbo? You know how to make gumbo. All right. Oh, my goodness. Absolutely. All right.

I like mine spicy. Okay, well, gumbo is always spicy. Now, we had a fierce fight on Twitter. So comedian David Allen Greer swears that you must put Oprah in gumbo. Now, I told him no, because my grandmother from Appaloosa, Louisiana, my grandfather as well, I said, the problem with okra you put in gumbo, okra is slimy.

I said, so if you want it, you fix it separate, then put it in that bowl, but you don't put it in the big pot. Well, that all depends on what you're going to do. Okay. And don't go around here telling people okra gumbo is slimy. It is not. It's because you do not know how to cook it.

Well, if it stays, I'm saying, like, after it's in the pot. No, it will not. You just got to slow cook it and cook the okra good. And I cook okra every day, not slimy. But do you put okra in your gumbo? Not in this gumbo. Ah. But tomorrow I will make that much okra gumbo.

Okay. So all I will have in that okra gumbo tomorrow is shrimp. Okay. And maybe I'll put some crab. But you can make okra gumbo, but okra is a thickener. Right. So we don't use that, we use filet. Okay.

Which is the ground sassafras leaves. Right. See, I use filet. So you... And see, also, I like to keep mine simple. So I use sausage, chicken, shrimp. Now, my grandmother used hen. Oh, cool.

Only problem with that hen, that hen got tough. But it boils in that gumbo, and boy, does it give the flavor. That's true. Your grandma was right. Now, what my dad does when he makes gumbo, and he taught me this, so he likes, some people like to have frozen shrimp because it's bigger and quicker.

But what he does is, he also gets the fresh shrimp. With the heads. Well, now what he does is, we devein it, take the shells off, we then boil the shells, and then take the juice from that and put that in the pot. That's good. But you know, you always take the juice from that and put that in the pot. That's good, but you know,

you always take that head of that shrimp and boil it with your shells. Okay. Because that's where your flavor is. So you're saying get shrimp with the heads already on it. Heads already on it. Slice that head off. Take that, just break the head off.

Break the head off, put that in the pot, put the shells, boil that, then pot with the shells. Boil that. Then get you a strainer and keep that juice and put that juice in the gumbo pot. I'll tell you one thing better that I do, telling him everything, that he'll be running me out of business after a while. I take those shells and those heads,

put them in a pot with a little butter, and let them cook down. Put a little water in them. Then I put them in a pot with a little butter and let them cook down. Put a little water in them. Then I put them in a blender. Shells, everything in a blender. Let them blend, then strain it off. That is life. You blend the heads and the shells? And then you strain it. You put it in the strainer. Wow!

And then you got powerful flavor there. You can do that. No, I haven't tried that. Because you don't know how to cook. Your grandmother knows how to cook, but you don't know how to cook. My grandmother, God rest her soul, she actually could burn in the kitchen, my grandfather too.

Yeah, oh really? Oh yeah. Well, in my neck of the woods, men didn't cook. Oh, no, no, no, no. All the men cook in my family. We don't want women in our kitchen. Oh, really? Oh, yeah. Well, in my neck of the woods, men didn't cook. Oh, no, no, no, no. All the men cook in my family. We don't want women in our kitchen. Oh, do we? No, no.

My mom taught my dad how to make gumbo and dirty rice. She can't even touch him now. She doesn't even, she doesn't, oh, no, she doesn't even. If my mama cook now, that's a miracle. My dad does all the cooking. Isn't that wonderful? That's right. I think that's a nice thing to men to do,

but in my day, men were not allowed in the kitchen. Oh, no, no, no. Go out there, plow the field, dig the ground, do whatever you got to do. My grandmother did the catering business, so my dad cooked. My brother now runs our family catering business. He's an executive chef in Houston.

So I used to cook more, but I'm too busy now. So that way, when I go home... In Houston. They do all the I go home in Houston they do all the cooking nothing in Houston but oxtails oh no no no I'm trying to tell you my daddy okay I'm gonna bring my daddy I'm gonna bring my daddy back next time I come and I'm telling you you're gonna say let him cook with me I would see how good he can I. I'm trying to tell you. I'm trying to tell you. OK. That's a check. That's a bet. That's a bet.

That's a bet. I'll see if he can cook. But oxtails and chitlins, that's Houston. Oh, I can't do chitlins. I'll cuss you out if you do some chitlins. I can't do that. You know, man, I had a man who wanted me to do chitlins. And he was a prominent attorney.

And he wanted to do chitlins and all kinds of things, you know. So I don't do chitlins. So you know what I did? I had chicken necks. So when you take the skin off the chicken necks, strip them up, you thought it was chitlins. With chicken skin. See, that's how you do it.

That's how I do it. Make mock chitlins. Well, look, you and I are going to sit down and chat in the dining room. We're going to talk about food and you being here. I'm proud of you. Well, I appreciate it. I'm really proud of you. You look good.

Well, I appreciate it. You're looking great. You got the pink on. I got a pink jacket as well. I'm going to wear a couple of knives with some white pants. Go ahead. About time a man put some color in it. Oh, yeah, I ain't afraid of color now.

Don't be afraid of color. That's why I tell my... They told me, they said, you know, it's hot in the kitchen. I said, yo, I grew up in the kitchen. I said, we cook with suits on. That's right. I love that. You look good. Well, I appreciate it.

Oh, no, gotta do the ass guy. Gotta do the ass guy. You know, I gotta be a little different. Well, that's good. Oh, he's a sedentary ass guy. Got to do the ass guy. You know, I got to be a little different. Well, that's good. All we need is a center trend. I got a friend that's a chef. You may know Marcus. Marcus Sandwich. Yeah, absolutely.

Marcus wears the weirdest combinations you ever saw. Oh, yeah. So I have another friend, John Bash. I say, John, look at Marcus. Don't dress him like him. Put some color in your life. There you go. But it's fun. Absolutely. All right, we're going to head out there and chat. OK't dress it like him. Put some color in your life. There you go.

But it's fun. Absolutely. All right, we're going to head out there and chat. Okay, thank you so much. We're going to the dining room. All right. We'll be back. Okay. All y'all, of course, this is our Leah Chase Celebration Dinner Party.

Y'all heard her challenging me on my gumbo. Yes. Like I didn't know what I was doing. Yeah. She looked at you crazy when you started talking about her okra. But see, look, my mama loves okra and gumbo. I don't like okra and gumbo. What, you like it in gumbo or don't?

I only like my mom's gumbo. That's it. You say you only like your mama's gumbo? You don't eat nobody else's gumbo except your mama's? Good Lord. Nope. My family has a gumbo recipe, and that's what I associate gumbo with. And I think everyone in New Orleans is like that.

It's like the best gumbo is in someone's house. Sure. So that's the gumbo that I love. So if you don't eat that, you don't eat gumbo? Sure. I'm kind of like that about potato salad. I know Roland doesn't eat any cold food. Hell no.

Hell no. My mother makes the best potato salad. So it is the standard in which I judge everybody else's potato salad by. You know, and I love the Caucasian side of my family. You know, and they often like to put raisins and peas and... Hell no! And other things like that in their potato salad. Y'all heard John.

He just said the Cajun side of his family. I said the Caucasian. The Caucasian. That's Cajun. That's the same thing. My clear cousins, you know, they... Because my side is the Creole. We That's Cajun. That's the same thing. My clear cousins. Because my side is the Creole. We ain't Cajun.

But, Roland, I think Leah Chase was a little sweet on you. What was happening there in that kitchen? Charming. It was a little of the heat was on. And I don't mean on the stove. Until he mentioned them oxtails and chitlins. Listen, I don't do chitlins. I don't do chitlins. I can't do chitlins.

She doesn't either. You seriously? Love chitlins. I love chitlins. You love chitlins? It's so good. I had a birthday dinner one time and the gospel singer Richard Dillard ordered chitlins at Carolina Kitchen. See, right there. That's the limitation.

Y'all, my grandmother, Lord of the Soul, Mel Lamar. They live eight blocks from us. So I go to her house. I walk, open the door, go into the house. The funk of those chitlins... Oh, yeah. Hit me. No, you don't understand.

I turned right around. I was like, no! I was in the front yard. I was like, yo, what you need? I could not stand in that house with the funk of those chitlins. It ain't happening. I had a chef that cooked chitlin loaf, like, every Christmas in a restaurant.

It's so delicious. And I grew up Muslim, so just pork for me was, you know, a non-factor. So it took me maybe 30 years to eat pork once I started really cooking. And then, like, the chitlins,lins I still I can't do it man. It's that's the intestine. That's one of my favorite parts of the animal Oh my god, I'm mad at it No, just kidding growing up my aunt and taught me how to cook and she used to make me wash pig feet Oh, I was about to say I have to create a pig Yes I ain't going to clean the pig feet before. Pig ears. Hog balls. Hog balls. Yes. Oh. But you know, it's interesting.

When you. I ain't going to y'all house. No. But what you. I'm not. None of us eat that. No, I eat his stuff. And she would talk about that.

She would say, you know, the best food is in the house. Yeah. So if you come into Dookie Chase's. I mean, in the early days, she said, our people didn't really have money to dine out. It was, you know, she talked about, you know, what's my man, Mark Morial's father, Dutch. She said it was a few lawyers. We'll be talking to Mark Morial later.

But she said, for the most part, our people didn't have money to dine. They would come out to drink. And so it took a while for them to bring the food of the house into that space. She said people weren't earning lunch and things like that. If anybody, the musicians, like Duke Ellington and them,

and they would eat late. She said sometimes we'd open until 2, 3 o'clock in the morning. Speaking of musicians, do y'all have the Quincy Jones video ready? Oh, wow. Yeah. Do y'all have that video ready? Let me know you have it ready. So I was on Instagram today, and Quincy Jones posted this about Leah Chase. When I owned WNOL, Channel 38,

the TV station down there, every restaurant I went to, they'd order from Leah Chase, Stooky Chase restaurant first because they knew I wouldn't eat anything but hers. And then she taught me how to make it. And I put a layer of white rice, sauteed soft-shell crab on that,

put the gumbo on top of that she taught me that she sent me the natural ingredients from the Gulf of Mexico one of the greatest ladies I've ever known forget just a cuisine you know she was an activist big activist something let's talk about the activist piece we're gonna do so later, folks. We're going to be joined by former New Orleans Mayor Mark Morial, Reverend Jesse Jackson Sr. We're trying to get Andrew Young on the phone as well.

I think he's from New Orleans. And that's the other piece. Beyond being this great chef, and we talked with her about it, she's going to mention, we're going to play a little bit later in the interview, where she fed the movement uh many of those meetings in new orleans those freedom riders those snick workers those scl were lc sclc workers if you were in her that dining room right on the other side of that wall that's where they met plotted strategize she would feed them and they would go out and do work. Yeah, absolutely.

I mean, it's... Oh, go ahead. No, I think that's amazing. You know, when we talk about, you know, Nipsey Hussle and the marathon continuing, you know, well, I question my impact. Well, I recalibrate my impact in this. We're sort of having a food, you know, re you know Renaissance especially in black food and black culture right now um to look at her I mean you talk about a marathon I mean there was no Glory like you know National you know there was no TV behind I'm gonna feed these folks my food and have all these she was just doing it for the love of her her food and and her community and her country essentially I mean I've read a a quote yesterday where she was talking about, she said she changed

the world. The world was changed over gumbo and fried chicken. And I just, so when you think about that moment, I mean, she, as a black woman, right, in food during segregation or, you know, post-segregation, you just think about, I mean, that's just really impactful for me, just having that sort of influence and wanting to do that. She really stepped into her calling. It was very empowering. Absolutely. I mean, she, and like you say, black women,

a black woman who took the baton from another black woman, her mother-in-law. Right. I mean, her mother-in-law basically ran the small little takeout place kind of sitting out restaurant They had while her father-in-law was out moving policy as they called it. They won't call the number in New Orleans We're moving policy And then she robbed kind of robbed the cradle right she's 23 I think when she writes her husband and in fact and the fact she talked about

She talked she talked about the mother-in-law, the numbers running, and this whole idea of how she was not smitten with Dookie Chase when she first met him. All right. No problem. Wait. I got you. There we go. Don't trust your own.

Look, my son was in the military. Uh-huh. I got you right here. There we go. Hold it, Roland. Don't you let me fall on this floor. I got you. I told you I got you.

You got me. I got you. Got the chair. Okay, she got the chair. We good. Okay, what is all this? No, my son was in the military, and he had a major. And you know, my son is one of those goody two-shoes.

I don't know how he made it to be a captain in a Marine Corps. Because he wants everybody to have good treatment, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So Major told him, look, Captain Chase, don't trust your mama. So he calls me Major Hartley because I tell him, don't trust your mama. Don't trust anybody. So how are things with you? Things are great with me. I am really a blessed woman, Roland, thanks to people like you

and people in the media who help me. And it's a wonderful thing that you do. I know you get criticized right and left for everything you do. Don't faze me. Don't let it faze you because the media is so important. It tells the world where everything is, how it is. Now, you may tell it like we don't like it, that's another thing. We'll deal with it. But keep telling it. Absolutely. Will do. Now, I was here, I think it was January, I spoke at Dillard University. And shortly after I left, you experienced a loss. Yep. Yep. I lost loss yep yep i lost dookie you know dookie and i were married 70 years 70 years 70 years that's a lifetime and it's too funny people used to say when we got married they told my mother oh this is not going to work this girl is going to ruin your business because i was five years

old dookie was only 18. i was 23. so this is not going to work. But Dick had been on the road since he's 16 years old with a big band, 17 piece band. So he was kind of mature for his age. But we made it for 70 years. 70 years. Wow. And that's easy. And I tell that to all women. It's easy. You know how men are. No, how are we? You know, don't worry about them. Sometimes they stupid. So you just ignore them. Let them go.

Push them back. Know where to push them out, where to pull them in. That's how you got to 70? That's how I got to 70. Well, my parents been married 50 years this year, so. They know how to do it. Yeah. You know, they know what to do.

You don't sit up there and go toe to toe with a man. That's stupid. You running the show anyway. You're the big boss anyway, so just cool it. Let him make believe he's having his way. Now, this place has been here 76 years. How did this start? Well, it started with my mother-in-law.

My mother-in-law was another go-getter. My father-in-law did what you call, in your neck of the woods, you call them a numbers runner. But in New Orleans, we are very sophisticated. So we call it a lottery vendor. Doesn't that sound good? That sounds very good.

He was a lottery vendor. And he sold the numbers all around. That's how he made all his money. And, you know, in those days, you played what they call a gig, three numbers for a nickel. Now if those numbers came out on this 12 number list, you won nine dollars for your nickel. But Dookie, Big Dookie we used to call my father-in-law, he didn't play for a nickel. He would be bet maybe 10, $15 on his numbers. Wow.

His numbers was three, five, and eight. When three, five, and eight came out, everybody knew Duke hit. So that's how he started. My mother-in-law borrowed $600 from a brewery to start. And every time the man would bring his beer, she'd pay him back a little bit at a time. Try that today. You can't do that. You can't do that. Now, obviously, it didn't start this size. We were just a bar on the corner. Just on the corner. We had the bar and tables on the bar. But my father-in-law was... This is the original location. Uh-huh. This corner is the original location.

Uh-huh. But she started there selling her sandwiches because then he... My father-in-law was very sickly and also terrible. And he was always sick, so he couldn't go out to his customers. You know, you had your customers you'd go out to. So she opened up a little sandwich shop,

and she would take the numbers in the sandwich shop and sell her sandwiches so it started with her so how did you get into this thing you know i don't know how i got in here were you a dude Look, I was waiting as a waitress in a French quarter, 1940, 41. And I said, oh, boy, I like this. You know, you try. I'm the top of the line. My mother had 14 children. She raised 11 of us.

So here I'm the top of the line. When they got me through high school at 16 years old, I was graduating from St. Mary's Academy. So I had to find something to do. I didn't know what to do other than housework or cleaning. So I came here and I got this job as a waitress. Had never seen the inside of a restaurant in my life. But the lady put me on the floor, she told me what to do and the next day she put me

by myself. so here I am trying to wait tables that I don't know lady comes in in the morning she orders hot cakes I said would you like some toast with your hot cakes you know what you know what hot cakes were what toast with hotcakes? So you learn as you go. And then you know I would be in the flow but I would move to the kitchen. In those days people stretched themselves a little bit more. I would even go in the kitchen and wash dishes and look at the chef.

And I always ask him, well I don't see any ladies in this kitchen, no women in here, he said, because they can't pick up the pots. Oh, I said, wait a minute, I don't see him picking up pots. He's the executive chef, he's not picking up pots, somebody else is picking up those pots. But then I began to really like it, and in 1945 I met Tookie. And it was unbelievable because I didn't like musicians at all. I hated musicians. I didn't like them at all. I liked people like boxers and people with physical strength. And here comes this little musician. And then we came in here, and I just came in with my mother-in-law

and tried to, I said, no, on this side of town, we're going to do just what we did on the other side of town. Only difference in people is the color of their skin. I rule, and that was so stupid. Because you have different cultures. Right. You eat different things you you different don't and it I like being there's no wrong being different

I'm gonna be different I like being different so I said we can change first thing I put on the menu like lobster thermidor and black folks said, where y'all get her from? Yeah, that's what they'd say. Oh, she's going to ruin you, Emily. My mother-in-law's name was Emily. Emily, she's just going to ruin you. Who in the world wants this? I had to back up and start doing the things that I knew how to do, like stuffed chicken breast, maybe with oyster dressing,

and jambalaya, shrimp creoles and things that people like to eat then after integration came then we were allowed to go another restaurant and they learned to eat more things you know to me that was the worst thing that segregation did to us. Kept us from learning. Look what you lost. Right. Look at the resources they lost by not educating black people, by not training them, by not showing them things. Look all the resources we lost.

What was the first thing you ever remember cooking? Even as a kid, what was the first thing? Here, here in the restaurant, I worked in the fresh quarters when I worked at the coffee pot. After she,

Ms. Moore was scaling down, she was getting older and she didn't want this dining room with the tablecloths and all that. She trying to downsize so she opened up this place called the coffee pot and it still exists so we went to the coffee pot selling hamburgers and breakfast and things like that so we said you know Mrs. O'Rourke we would like to put on one hot. People are tired of hamburgers and they're tired of sandwiches. She said, well, if you think you can do it, there were three girls.

I was 18, the other girl was 19, one was 16. Three of us, we were in that restaurant. She let us do it. Now, we don't know what the heck we're doing. We don't know what to put on. So first thing we put on was what we ate at home, Creole wieners and spaghetti. THE HECK WE DOING? WE DON'T KNOW WHAT TO PUT ON. SO FIRST THING WE PUT ON WAS WHAT WE ATE AT HOME, CREO WEINERS AND SPAGHETTI.

CREO WEINERS AND SPAGHETTI ON THE MENU. ON THE MENU. CREO WEINERS. THAT MEANT YOU MAKE A GOOD TOMATO SAUCE, PUT THOSE WEINERS IN THERE AND PUT THEM OVER SPAGHETTI.

THAT'S WHAT WE ATE AT HOME. BUT, YOU KNOW, IT WORKED. IT WORKED? IT WORKED. IT WORKED. That's what we ate at home. But, you know, it worked. It worked? It worked. It worked. So sometimes I say, here we go back to the depression. Creole wieners and spaghetti. Creole wieners and spaghetti.

You put that on the menu now, they'll say, I think she's lost it, y'all. I think she's lost it. I hope y'all see why I wanted to do this, because it was just so much fun sitting and talking to her, because of all her different stories. Joining us right now, folks, is someone who knew leah chase very well uh he of course uh a lieutenant a reverend dr martin luther king jr uh welcome to roller button unfiltered reverend jesse jackson senior reverend how you doing rolling god bless you rolling this interview is a piece of artwork it should be in the afric Museum in Washington, because it was more than food at Duke of Chase.

You know, it was between Houston and Atlanta. And Atlanta, of course, was Beeman's and H&H and Pascoe's. And Washington was Simpson's. And New York was Red Rooster. And these were our watering holes, our stopping places. So people in New Orleans like Mahalia Jackson and Reverend Bishop Jackson and Dr. King and Mark Morial's father and all of us would always gather.

And the thing about the outstanding food and service at Dr. Chase, it survived integration. Many restaurants were out of business. They did not have the appeal or the stature. In fact, there's other stuff that goes with a restaurant. And it became a frame of reference even for white people. Sometimes you couldn't get into a place for white people. it became a frame of reference even for white people. You know, sometimes you couldn't get into a place for white people. It became a frame of reference. And it recalls me, I'm in Baba Blue Land, I had dinner there. And B.B. King and I had breakfast there. And Jenna Taylor and Sam Cook, AT DICKY CHASE. MID STATE WAS ALWAYS FIRST OFF

SERVICE AND FOOD. AND WHEN WE WERE IN THE DEEPEST DOG POPSERVATION, COULDN'T EAT OUT. COULDN'T EAT OUT. WE ALWAYS WOULD DO IT AND FEEL GOOD ABOUT IT. WE WERE IN THE FIRST, LAST

PLACE, AND IT WAS. REV. THAT'S ONE OF THE REASONS WHY I WANTED TO DO THIS. FIRST OF ALL, THAT'S WHY ALSO I CREATED THIS SHOW, IS BECAUSE I created this show is because I still contend that our heroes and sheroes, when they pass away, unless they are an Aretha Franklin or someone who has been accepted by mainstream media, they don't necessarily get their just dessert so luckily we had a reason for you to see there and I'm father of a senior friend you see that all of us we made the difference we ate there we met them we organized strategy there we Dutch morel organized his campaign

for the mayor there that was a big deal when Dutch became mayor of New Orleans that was a big big deal at that time when the first meals in the deep south my god and the mobilized all of New Orleans and the design housing project across the street. Reverend Paul Morton, when he was in his early beginning years, always eating at Dr. Chase. It was the place. It became like passing the letter, passing a frame of reference. In many ways, like Gladys was for a long time in Chicago, I THINK IT'S A GREAT IDEA. I THINK IT'S A GREAT IDEA. I THINK IT'S A GREAT IDEA. I THINK IT'S A GREAT IDEA. I THINK IT'S A GREAT IDEA.

I THINK IT'S A GREAT IDEA. I THINK IT'S A GREAT IDEA. I THINK IT'S A GREAT IDEA. I THINK IT'S A GREAT IDEA. I THINK IT'S A GREAT IDEA. I THINK IT'S A GREAT IDEA. I THINK IT'S A GREAT IDEA. I THINK IT'S A GREAT IDEA. I THINK IT'S A GREAT IDEA. to keep telling these stories, to remembering these ancestors,

because nobody arrived where we are today on our own. Well, the Bible says, remove not the ancient landmarks our mother and father set. And if you don't have a frame of reference, you are lost. I mean, if it's like a boat in the dark without the lighthouse, you don't have a frame of reference. I live in Chicago now. You have a generation of African Americans who are more educated.

They've been to the big 10 schools. But now we've lost all the back banks, lost the key restaurants. Everything except for Central Montreal, Central Drive. Miss Chase, she's looking for a way to start business, not just to eat downtown, but to have a place of business. She hired people. And people who came out of jail, men of that world, of course, couldn't eat. They could work for her. It was a place of second chances. Everything about Dr. Chase made and makes sense. I can't wait to know about being there again and remembering'll remember and I'll honor.

Reverend Jesse Jackson Sr., we appreciate you joining us to honor Leah Chase. Thanks a bunch. Thank you. When you hear Reverend lay that out, Kwame, it does cause you to say, wait a minute, hold up.

A lot of us, we just went to the restaurant. But to think that when he made the point about one of the things that survived integration, because so many of our institutions have disappeared. It fell because of it. And I think that's one of the biggest testaments

that I took away from, you know, having Leah Chase like a living legend, you know, while we were here. Running a restaurant is difficult. It's always incredibly hard. Most fail. I've had my share of successes, my share of failures. But whenever I thought about Leah Chase and what she did

and what she had to go through, my problems were minuscule compared to hers. And that's why I honor her. At my restaurant, her quote is on my wall. Which quote is that? It's, everyone can cook good food if you just put a little love in it. And it's the truth, how you talked about the gumbo.

You know, you're like, man, I wish I had this one hot sauce that I could put in it. And I really like that passion. I literally called my dad. I was like, okay, I need a substitute. Because I'm missing what I want. What's the substitute? But that passion leads to good food. Because you're putting care into something.

And there's no way it's going to be bad. You know, and that's what I think she was talking about, but with her just focusing on food, she was able to transform a nation by just caring about her food. I love the showcase of black

art that was featured in the restaurant. Oh, man. I thought, you know, it just added to the ambiance and to the historic nature of what she was doing and how she was doing. Because while you were there eating this great cuisine, you could also walk around and see. And sometimes you'd go

back and see these pieces and they'd be gone because folks would come and they'd want to buy the pieces and stuff. So I love the fact that she was about giving back and also providing a showcase for these artisans and these artists in New Orleans as well. Now, I know you have to go. You have another engagement. But later in the interview, one piece that she wanted on her wall was a piece of artwork for George W. Bush. Oh, wow.

And wait till y'all hear this. Now, out of all the presidents she served, wait till you hear what she had to say about George W. Bush and what kind of a man he was and how he enjoyed her food. It was an amazing part of the interview, amazing part of the interview. We're going to be joined in a moment by Mark Morrell. I want to now play another excerpt from my interview with the great Leah Chase. What is it about food that is so interesting? Folks in Louisiana, my grandparents on my mother's side from Opelousa, Louisiana. Oh, my God. Home of the good cooking.

Oh, absolutely. mother's side from Appaloosa Louisiana oh my god home of the good cooking oh absolutely and they say for other people um uh eat to live whereas folks in this state live to eat we do what what is it about food that is just totally different than anything else you know people people come to my kitchen Mr. Martin and they ask me that all the time. It baffles them. What about your food? What is this? I don't know. We do.

And they come to New Orleans and they think they're going to eat here and eat different. We eat just about the same thing, whites and blacks alike, because that's the way we came up. And I think it's just how we do things and we believe in making a lot over what we do. You know, back in the day, the Creoles of color didn't realize how important that cooking and that sewing and the plastering and the carpentry. They took it for granted. They just did it. But it was masterful work. They took time and it tastes good it tastes good so you know when I came in the kitchen big

restaurants were not serving jambalaya and things like that they were serving French food and things cream sauces shrimp Newburgh all that kind of stuff so then everybody start coming to eat but we cook in the way we cook it and we change them we change them you know in this restaurant I feel right in this room and in that little gold room we change the course of America because all the freedom riders that left from here, like Rudy Lambert, Dodie Simmons, and all those people that are at the castle,

those people that left here, they would meet here before they would leave. All I would do is serve them a bowl of gumbo and some fried chicken. They would make their plans, they would go. Come back, clean up, bowl of gumbo and fried chicken so i'd say we changed the course of america over a bowl of gumbo and a fried chicken we need to tell that to mr trump give him a bowl of gumbo give him a bowl of gumbo some fried chicken that's right and he might act

right he'll act right how many presidents have you fed i I fed two here, two here, and Mr. Clinton. I worked with him in Atlanta because he was a friend of the Aarons, Hank Aaron, in his life. So he would come to Hank's birthday and that's where I met him. He is something else. I met Mr. Clinton and when he, when they introduced me to him, if you'd see that picture, I need to put it on the wall, you would think he knew me for 100 years. He didn't know me at all.

Didn't know me, and I didn't know him. But that's how much charisma the man had. And then I fed Mr. Obama, which was a delight. Who was the other president? George W. Bush. Really? Now, let me tell you about George W. Bush. Wasn't our best president by far, but a nicer man you could not find. He never hit this city unless he sent for

me, Roland. Really? Every time he came, he sent for me. So when he came, he sent the security for me. And we were having dinner at Commander's Palace. I get there, and we had to say, well, look where you're sitting. It's right next to him. He always sat me right next to him. I don't know why, but that's where I was sitting, right next to him. So when I was at the dinner, he said, do you want to fix breakfast for me? I said, no, I don't.

But how do you tell the president no? You don't tell the president no. You say, yes, I'm't, but how you tell the president no. You don't tell the president no. You say, yes, I'm going to fix this breakfast. The man came the next morning with the president of Mexico and the prime minister of Canada. No fanfare, no nothing. And the pictures on the wall out there, I cooked them quail and grits and shrimp.

Oh, he loved it. But he was just kind to me, he and i still hear from his people i said well he's painting i don't see a painting on my wall by george w bush you better do something you told you told his people that i told that to carl roe yeah give me a painting well you know what wait now president carter sold a paint. Well, you know what? Wait, now I've pressed that carter's soul to paint for half a million dollars, so I might not get a George W. Bush. Well, being a native Texan, I'll also put a phone call in for me to make that happen. Yes, he was a kind man, and I was really proud of his mother because you know you educate children and you bring them up,

and they may not do their job to perfection, but if they're kind that's a plus because there's no excuse for people to be ugly. I don't care what you do, you don't have to be ugly. And he was a real kind man. He ate here twice and here comes the media. They want to know why he ate here twice. He didn't eat anywhere else twice.

Easy. The food's good. Yeah, he enjoyed it. And he was really kind to me. He really was. I'll never forget him for that. We'll tell that Trump fella. Maybe some food will change him. Oh, he doesn't eat McDonald's and eats's and eats uh his steak with ketchup oh lord ketchup he eats steak with ketchup oh my god he would oh ask mr obama hit by mr obama and ketchup no mr obama came here and first thing he could do is order

gumbo that's all well and good and i said i'm a fire chicken chicken can hold on the plank oh you can do he sits down with gumbo and he takes the hot sauce in my gum haven't even tasted it yet I said Oh Lord mr. Obama you don't put oh no no that's a daddy would cuss me out if I did that so not the neighborhood you know how my neighbors are. Some of them were good, good people. Some of them were the worst people in the world. But they were my policemen. They were everything to me.

So they said, Mr. Chicky, you told him right. Don't be messing up your gumbo. Now, I take it he didn't do that again. No, he didn't do that again. He did. I forgot it. Because the world knew Mr. Obama put hot stuff on Leah Chase's gumbo. Did it?

That thing went all over the country. It was on the front page of the New York Times, the obituary. It had a picture of Obama and it made that point on the front page of the New York Times. Really? He messed up the gumbo. No question. Really? He messed up the gumbo. No question. Tried to mess up the gumbo. As a chef, I kind of, okay, yeah, you got to live with that one, Mr. President.

Oh, yeah. No, no. He taking that L. Yeah. He taking that L. But it's also important not to miss when she said her hood, folks, because she could have moved many times. They wanted her to move across the street after Katrina. You know, here's your chance.

Housing project. But that is because she wouldn't move because she said, if I move, this neighborhood flattens. Also, they never got hit. No, they didn't. The artwork, which she said, no one touched that restaurant. And when you think about that, whatever she said about it, they never they never got robbed. Right. They never got they no one ever stolen that

place that place that was a monument nobody touched dookie chases and it's important to say their artwork alone who cares about george w bush's painting she got paintings from jacob lawrence elizabeth catlett lois may lou jones you name it john the great john biggers many of them free they just gave she was the first person of any background to put artwork in restaurants. But she said a lot of folks gave her artwork to feed them. Yes. Yes.

And then she was like, that thing worth something now. But to your point, Roland, they could have broken in on that artwork alone, brother. I mean, priceless. But the point is that you could walk in there across the street, get a meal. If you didn't have any money, work at the restaurant, and you're walking underneath artwork that is in art galleries around the world now, that if it were appraised at a number, it would blow the minds of the people.

But it was in the neighborhood. She never put Dookie Chase's out of the reach of the people that made her. Mark Morial, of course, longtime mayor of New Orleans. His father, Dutch Morial, the first black mayor of New Orleans. He joins us right now on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Mark, of course, now the CEO of the National Urban League. Glad to have you. I wanted to do this, again, not because I knew her, I interviewed her, but also because the nation really needs to understand the institution that she was,

not just for New Orleans or for Louisiana, but really for black America and the United States. Yeah, and like so many African-American restaurants, to really understand Leah Chaseah chase and the chase family you got to go back to the 1940s the 1950s and the 1960s uh what dookie chase was a restaurant a bar and a takeout but what it was it was a community meeting place a community gathering place look i remember the the upstairs room that everyone has talked about. I remember that room. I was in that room many, many times as a boy and as a young man,

the upstairs room that you couldn't find unless you knew where it was, where many of the civil rights meetings took place in the 1950s and the 1960s. Stuckey Chase was a place where strategy was made, where plans were undertaken, where marches were discussed, where political movements were born. The Chases were extremely close. Mrs. Chase's mother-in-law and father-in-law were very close to my grandparents.

Mrs. Chase and my father were like a play brother and play sister. When he ran for mayor the first time in 1977, the Chases were one of the first families to make a major contribution to his candidacy. When he was a long shot candidate during my time, it was a place where we met. When the National Urban League hosted our conference there in 2012 we rented out the entire restaurant to be able to share with guests and so and just a unique person, a tremendous person. Last time I saw her just a month or two ago, she was in her kitchen sitting down. She was taking a corn off the cob to make one of her famous crab and corn soups.

So she worked until she could not work anymore. And people came there to pay homage to Mrs. Chase. The fact that the Bushes and the Obama, Bush and Obama as presidents ate there, I just think demonstrated what she meant to the nation. But, you know, this is where Ray Charles, this is where Marvin Gaye, this is where Louis Armstrong, this is where all of the great Martin Luther King and Thurgood Marshall,

this is where they ate when they visited New Orleans in the 1950s and the 1960s. And it was that kind of place. And I'm so just thankful to you, Roland, for paying tribute to our contribution to the nation and for devoting a great deal of time to help people recognize her. And I want people to have the confidence. There's another generation of Chases. Her grandson is a professional trade chef who has a little catering business. Her daughter, they're going to

continue. They'll continue. It'll never be the same without Leah. But it's going to be Dippy Chase's. If they just keep those secret recipes going that have been passed down, it's going to be great for many, many generations to come. Well, Mark, I'm glad you

said that. There was somebody who came to my Instagram page who said that they planned on going to her restaurant next month for Essence Fest, and now that she died, they were not. I said, no, you are to go and to honor her. You are to go. Honor her, and they will be there. They will continue.

Look, since I've been going there, since I was a little boy with my grandparents and my parents, and I go back in the kitchen every time I visit, the people who are back there were like Mrs. Chase. They worked there for years. They

were stalwarts. They were dedicated, and it's just an incredible feeling to go into Dookie Chase's and go back into the kitchen. And you know, a lot of restaurants will welcome people back in the kitchen. But she said, come on back and say hi to me. Go back there and say hello to her.

Take a selfie with her. And she said, what you doing now, babe? What you doing now? And just an incredible woman. And look, this woman, this great woman lived to be 96. Yes. What a life. Almost a century.

She kept on, until she could go no more. Absolutely. Mark Morial. Hey, Roland, thank you. I'll see you at Ephesus. Yes, sir. I appreciate it. Thank you so very much. And I mean, literally, thank you. I'll see you at Essence. Yes, sir. I appreciate it. Thank you so very much. And, Kwame, I mean, literally, she was in the kitchen to the very end.

I believe it. I mean, I watched her get a Lifetime Achievement Award at the James Beard Foundation. And that was extremely inspiring for me, you know, to see a woman of color, but also to know her legacy, that she earned it. You know, she lived a lifetime. Even though they gave it to her when she was 93. They should have given it to her before, but it's fine. I'm just saying. She was recognized. Yes, absolutely. It's good to be recognized, and especially when your work transcends food

and it transcends the art that you're really focused on, that's when you know you've made a huge impact. John, I know you got to go. Final word. Listen, well, first of all, I want to thank you all for the wonderful food here tonight. All right. I'm going to begin to prepare my exit.

Yes, yes, yes. What we are going to do before you leave is compare chicken bones, because I'm a Nigerian. Yes, that's what I'm talking about. You got sucked in here. You clean that sucker. Right. She sucked in here. Right. You clean. Damn, you. I still. I'm a Nigerian. Yeah. You got sucked in here. You clean that sucker. Right. She sucked in here.

Right. You clean. Damn. You. Wabi. Wabi. Clean that bone. Zoom in on this.

Y'all. Zoom in on Kwame's bone. You definitely Nigerian because I see the marrow hanging out. Oh, yeah. I'm not done either. Wabi cleaned the hell out of that chicken. Wrist back. Pull yours up.

Put yours up. Oh, no. It's not clear. Oh, yeah. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No yours up. Put yours up. It's not clearly. Oh, yeah. No, no, no. John Bougie. That's a Bougie wing right there. When I'm around my

clear cousins, I do eat my fried chicken with a knife and a fork. Is that paprika? But I'm excited to be a part of this. I'm excited to have met this woman and dined at her table. And I'm excited to see my brothers here, Kwame and Rock, be inspired by her journey. I'm excited that you have this Carla Hall interview later in the show where she talked about her new book, the new Soul Food book, and really revisiting our roots.

And we as people of color have to stop being ashamed of our foundation and ashamed of our legacy. And we've got to stop letting other people, mainstream culture, tell us that things aren't good for us and our culture isn't what's good about us. And so embracing that, celebrating that, and remembering that continues our legacy. It advances our history. Because if we don't know where we've been, we don't know where we're going. And I know that I'm going somewhere soon.

But I'm going to be taking wonderful leftovers with me. And I'm going to be thinking about you guys as I eat your great food throughout the day tomorrow during lunch. You might be the realest one here, man. You brought the foil. Foil, Ziploc bag, and Tupperware. And a carry-on bag so that I could make sure everything was placed properly. Yes, sir. All right, John Murray.

I appreciate it, folks. John Murray. What's the website? Find me everywhere on social media, J-A-W-N, last name Murray, and then on Facebook, John Murray World. So find me there, J-A-W-N. No, I'm not from Ph Facebook, John Murray World. So find me there. J-A-W-N. No, I'm not from Philly. My mama knew nothing about the slang.

She names me. All right, dude. All right, folks. We're going to go play our next installment of the interview with Aaliyah Chase. When we come back from that, we're going to talk to the great chef Joe Randall. We'll hear from Carla Hall. And we'll also hear from some other chefs and other leaders across this country as we celebrate the life and legacy of the queen of Creole cuisine, Leah Chase. She passed away Saturday at the age of 96.

This special edition of Roland Martin Unfiltered Dinner Party is all in honor of her. Here's the next installment. The thing about, I look at my family, huge family, and whatever we get together, I mean, food is a central part. It's just we literally congregate in the kitchen. The men in my family cook. We tell the women, y'all go and sit down. We like it that way. And plus, my mom said, look, I'm not going to have two sons if they bachelor. They ain't going to be sorry.

So we knew how to cook, bake. Do everything. All that. All that. Yeah. But the thing about cooking, to me, that's great is it's one of the few things in life where you're able to take something from nothing. That's right. And then it ends up, and then you get to play with it.

So you talk about experimenting. I was in college, and I didn't have, all I had, you're talking about spaghetti. I'm in college. All I had was, I had some noodles, I had no tomato sauce, I had no meat, and I was hungry. All I had was some barbecue sauce and the noodles. And I sat there, and I went, okay, I'm going to try this. And so I put it together. It tastes good.

So then when I got some money, I went ahead and got some meat sauce. That led to what I call my Texas barbecue. Excuse me, my Texas spaghetti, where I don't use tomato sauce. I literally will use spaghetti, barbecue sauce. Then I threw it with meat sauce. And then one day, I was in the store. I decided to say, I'm going to put some Italian sausage in here. And so my brother, who's an executive chef,

what is wrong with you? You know, barbecue sauce. He was being all bougie, barbecue sauce. But we go to his house, and we walk in the kitchen, and he's fixing spaghetti. As we know, all of a sudden, I see a bottle of barbecue sauce on the counter i said oh you've been privately making my spaghetti but trashing me that means you know it was good

watch him watch him and i tease all the chefs into all this i say y'all stealing my stuff but i'm gonna steal yours right but cooking is just you create something you create something as you go and you know and you can't say i copied this from nobody if you work with the thing and you may have like he took your idea well that worked so why not spread it around now do you even now when you cook go i'm gonna throw this in there I do that sometimes I do that right now I'm working and I shouldn't tell you this could you be all over Washington selling my stuff oh but I don't know I'm gonna do some what I call fish ribs you know like we do the red fish and we tend to line it close to the bone to get all the meat.

Well, I will leave enough meat on the bone and then put that in the oven and bake it with the tomatoes and stuff. And I'll hold the fish ribs. Fish ribs. If I see fish ribs anywhere around you, you're dead. Do you hear me? No, that's a little too complicated for me. You trying to keep the meat on the bone? That's a little too complicated there. Because I're trying to keep the meat on the bone. That's a little too complicated there.

Because I had a friend, he was a good artist, John Scott, and when we tenderline fish, we always had to fry the bones for him because that's what he wanted, the meat off the bone. And that is the good part of the fish. Now, you mentioned he's an artist, so what's up with the art in here? So you had this commissioned?

The glasses? he's an artist so what's up with the art in here you uh so you had this commissioned the glasses yeah the glasses were done when we moved in here in 1984 i wanted a divider there and i wanted visibility for the waiters where they'd go down the hall they could still look here so i did what i said well put stained glass well poor do poor Dookie. You know, Dookie said, good, I like stained glass. He thought I was going to do church windows or something. But I came up with what I had. He said, told the children, I think your mother's crazy. Your mother's losing her mind. Who in the world wants that?

But it tells the story of my childhood. We didn't wear rags like you wear today. We sold the rags to get our snowballs. All right, so that's why you see. So they're playing here, so you're selling snowballs here. You've got numbers here. Yeah, the hopscotch, and that's what you played on the side. This next one, is this church?

Is this a? That's a game my children played. It's called rock teacher, and you hold a rock guess What did you hand and you go up a step you go up a step? So it just talks to you a little bit and then you got all this all this other art in here So all these friends of yours friends of mine. I Am fortunate to be have been friendly with Elizabeth Catholic was my dear Wow Sabella Lewis John Biggers Jake Lawrence

So I was lucky an artist never have food they want food so we swapped I came out of the good end There you go. So you said hook me up with a painting. I hope you're with some food. Oh, yeah, you came out I'm sure there's some Coming this place. And they say, hey, can we talk? And you said, no, you can't touch that one. Can't touch none of them. Because, you know, I never put any emphasis on value. It's what they mean to me.

I feel like when I look at the upper room, I feel like John Biggers is there with me. John Biggers was the nicest man he was his admiration for women with texas southern university was unbelievable he he was just the kindest gentlest man and he depicted women as hard-working people and i like that about well you know elizabeth was just elizabeth she was one of the best sculptors you're gonna run across she's really good and she liked fried oysters so when she came and Elizabeth always came for her fried oysters Lena Horne always came for her fried chicken Sarah Vaughan always came for her

stuffed crabs so Lionel Hampton was a trip. Lionel would come and you had to feed him in little bowls. Little bowl of greens, little bowl of sweet potatoes, little bowl of little bowls. Because he knew he was going to eat a lot? So he ate it all in little bowls. But they were just- So you've seen everybody through here.

Everybody. And everybody came and they were just... It just makes you feel good when people think about you. Mm-hmm. When they think about you, it's uplifting. That's why I try to do that with people. Roland, one thing I have to do since the storm is get that takeout going.

You see, because my neighbors across the street, we had the old ugly brick buildings you remember that and i said oh after the storm i said those ugly stack of bricks gotta go so they picketed they said no they're good we could keep them you come live in we want them so they put up what's nice across but some of those buildings had the finest people, people that went off to be doctors, people that... And then you had the drug addicts, you had this... But even the so-called worst ones were my protection. Nobody ever hit this restaurant.

Nobody ever came in here. When the storm came, we were here 65 years. Nobody ever, ever touched anything in this restaurant. They were my policemen. They watched out everything for me, and they took care of me. You're saying you take care of people that take care of you? Take care of people that take care of you. You have seen nearly a century. Now you're getting ugly. you know I'm not getting ugly that's a good thing that's a good thing and the thing that I mean I'll just say that that that's I don't care what it is whether you talked about all those amazing entertainers

are you fed the one thing that is constant whether you're talking about somebody 76 years ago or 70 years ago today, they will always talk about, man, when I had this certain meal. That's what's amazing about food. Food is so, it makes people happy. If you give people good food and put nice things down there for them and nice tablecloth, I'm a stickler for a tablecloth, a good napkin. I like that because I want my people and I want my customers to feel good about it. You know, when you were a little boy, you might be on a jelly glass or something, but when the company come, your mama said,

get out the good stuff. That's right. I say, everybody that hits that front door is my company. Get out the good stuff. And I want them to eat well. And you make them feel good. They relax. They come in and get a good meal. Who do you like to cook for you? I like service more than, you can cook me anything. You can fry me a piece of wood, but just serve it to me nice. Because if you serve people nice, they just feel so good to have somebody serving great customer service all bad customer service put you in a foul move yeah yes bad you know and there's no excuse for that you can serve people I

love to serve people if I could walk I would be waiting tables on this floor I would because I love to do it it's just so easy to do it to say to a person if they ought to a person say well what i could i have this it's my pleasure it would be my pleasure to do that for you that's easy easy two final questions and so well the first was a three-parter so what is Leah Chase's favorite breakfast item my favorite breakfast I do like to eat not serve that you want to eat oh my breakfast item would be you know I came up in the country and you could not believe this but quail is something I love. Really? Because I came up. For breakfast?

Yes for breakfast. Let me tell you. My mother, we lived in the country and we had strawberry fields. That was our what we strawberries we picked them and we sold them and if the the bobwhite quails would be in the tree and they would come down to the strawberry patch and get, you know, you had your gun, you got that. So mother, and in the backyard, I'll never forget, we had these little plum trees. My mother used to make plum jelly. She would get up and she would take those little quails,

this was Sunday morning when you had time, put them in butter. And you always had good butter because the federal government didn't give you no margarine. It gave you good butter. So WPA gave us good butter. So we braised the quail in that good butter, brush them with a little plum jelly,

eat it with some grits, good. And I served that to George W. Bush. He said, I never had that before, Leah, but I like it. Favorite lunch food? Meatballs and spaghetti. Meatballs and spaghetti? I love meatballs and spaghetti.

And, you know... Breaded meatballs or all meat? All meatballs. Good old meatballs and spaghetti. That's what I truly love. And, you know, I had a favorite general and followed that general. I was a crazy little

girl and I think about it because I followed the wall on the radio. I'm following George Patton. I thought George Patton was just... Of course, he wouldn't work today. George would have to be more diplomatic today. They would shoot him down.

You couldn't do that. But I loved George Patton. And I was able to be friendly with his first aid. Yeah, Colonel Stillman. And Stillman was a history professor at UNO. I got all George Patton's book, found out George Patton liked meatballs and spaghetti too. So you were the George Patton's book. Found out George Patton liked meatballs and spaghetti too. So you're the George Patton of cooking.

George Patton of cooking. But I got to change Roland because it's not working, you know? I can't go around calling people a stupid jackass no more. I got to do different. Even though they might be stupid jackasses. You got to say, now look, darling, this is not the way this is done. And don't you hate that? Yes, I do.

Right, because I'm more like General Pat. Me, yeah, come on, do your work. And guess what? You want a general leading a war fight. Leading a war fight. But you got to change. I got to change. It doesn't work today with these

young people they know but if you and you they don't understand criticism there is such a thing as constructive credit for a critique yes so if you say Leah now don't you do this anymore I'm gonna say okay let me change it and that's how that's what made me people come in in here say you go you know no no you don't need to do this anymore cuz it's not good Leah so I listened to them and I had so much help I didn't know anybody better made me better favorite dinner food I did a food start it, my dinner have to be long. Gotta always start with a cup of gumbo.

Next thing, I want a salad. I want a good, good salad. And don't give me that little sweetie dressing. I like a lot of blue cheese. A lot of tough, you know, I like heavy stuff. If you give me a good Italian salad,

put some anchovies on it. I like heavy stuff. If you give me a good Italian salad, put some anchovies on it. I like heavy things on my salad. And then after that, you can give me some chicken stuff and oyster dressing and sweet potatoes. Dessert. I'm not too big on desserts. Really?

Oh, I am. My mom bakes cakes for a living. Part of my grandmother's catering business. I'm not so big on these things. I'd rather have a hunk of cheese and crackers than another glass of wine. So, I got to ask you this here, so this is the last one. So, you hear this old tale that, I can't wait to hear your response, that the greatest compliment to the chef is when somebody belches at the table that is horrid your mother would rip

you for that oh my god roland your mother you know your mother would slap you down and send you to your room oh you can't do that no no so what is the greatest compliment is for you to come tell me it's just like my mama or it's just like my grandmother, and I feel good. Well, I would say, it's just like my mama or my daddy. Yep. Because luckily, I got both of them who cooked for us growing up. When they tell me that, I know I hit somewhere good. And they all walk the life.

White's coming in black, but if they tell me it's just like my mama, I'm good. Well, every time I, like I said, every time I come to New Orleans, I always got to come by and say hello to you. Well, thank you so much. Always love coming here and enjoying your food. I'm proud of you. Well, I appreciate it. That's the advantage of living to be 94, almost 95 years old.

You see people grow. you see people grow i see people grow and i'm so proud of them you know you feel like i feel like you could be my child you've grown up after you did something for me by just growing up and performing and doing what you have to do it's not about you and your children all the time and you know ro, Roland, I never felt I had to have beautiful things. No. But if you had them, I'm happy for you. I could go sit in your

beautiful chairs. I could sit in it. I could enjoy it. Yes, you can. And so that's a wonderful thing to see people grow. And don't let me go in the house and I see like a furniture store. I don't want to see that. I want to see a chair from your grandma's house.

Oh, yeah. No, no, no. We don't have those rooms that are off limits. No. We sit on everything. And I want to see something that your grandma had, something that talks to you. And that's what I learned about art. You know, years ago, what we knew,

we didn't know anything about art. We thought to go to the grocery, buy a sofa, buy a picture to match the sofa. We learned that art doesn't have to match the sofa. It just can talk to you, whatever you like. So, and it's warm. Well, I'll tell you, for me, what gives me fond memories of my grandmother

and grandfather from Appaloosa is anytime I eat gumbo. When I go home for Thanksgiving, my brother's executive chef, he fixed the turkey and dressing. I said, no, I'm coming home to eat gumbo. The rest of the family, they're eating all that stuff. I'm over here, I eat gumbo the whole weekend. That's right.

That's my thing. That's your thing. But you came from a home of good cooking. Oh, yes. Those people in Appaloosa get cooked. Oh, yes. Oh, they get cooked. And I'm paying for it.

And my trainer's like, okay, let's slow that down a little bit so we can take some of the weight off so we can eat more of the gumbo. I just eat, drink, and be merry and live. Enjoy living. That's the most important thing. People worry about what they have on. Nobody cares what you have on. They don't care.

They care about you. They care about how you feel and what you're going to do to uplift the country you live in or the city you live in. That's all they care about. And I'm proud of you. I'm so proud. I appreciate it.

I'm proud to be here. Thanks for your food. Great seeing you. Thank you so proud. I appreciate it. I'm proud to be here. Thanks for your food. Great seeing you. Thank you so much. Y'all, we are having a good time here at our dinner party, honoring, of course, the great Leah Chase. She died Saturday, age of 96, the queen of Creole cuisine. We've been telling stories, eating food, laughing at her stories as well, talking about Kwame over here just cleaning the hell out of these bones.

I mean, I'm talking about cleaning these bones. And so right now, we're gonna go to the phone lines. Chef Joe Randall, well-known chef. Joe, how you doing? I'm excellent, Roland. How about yourself? Man, glad to have you here. Glad to have you here on Skype. I'm joined in the studio by Chef Rock Harper, Chef Kwame,

and Greg Carr, of course, head of the Department of Afro-American Studies at Howard University. We're happy to be here with all of you. Rock, I know. Kwame, I haven't met, but I'm very familiar with him, and I wish him continued success. And we are enjoying some food here. Rock brought the fried chicken.

Kwame had the jollof rice. I fixed the gumbo and and of course, the spaghetti. So this is not just a normal television show. I got- And it's all thrown down. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

Well, so I got to ask you, just share with us your thoughts and reflections about the great Leah Chase. Well, it's hard. Everybody that's spoken so far, I've been here through the entire show, has had wonderful things to say about Leah because she was a wonderful human being. She was a great chef and a good cook and a dear friend. It's just one of those things that you cherish her and you want to have told her that you loved her while she was living because that's the kind of person she deserved those flowers while she was here.

Everybody's got wonderful things to say about her, and it's deservedly so. But for about 30 years, everybody that I knew that was going to New Orleans, I would tell them, if they're not going to Dookie Chase and see Leah, they really shouldn't even bother to go to New Orleans. Because she's out on a treasure. That is, that's, first of all, that's correct. And you own that thing, absolutely. Did you ever get a chance to cook besides her in the kitchen?

Oh, I've had many occasions. the first time i cooked with her in 1990 i was executive chef at cal poly pomona university and leah was my first distinguished guest chef she came out and eight o'clock in the morning she did a lecture demonstration for the public and my students. The president and the students prepared a luncheon for Leah and the president of the university. And after lunch, she worked in the kitchen with my students to prepare a meal for about 150 guests that night. So we had a wonderful day together that I cherish and remember to this day. If you go to my Facebook page, I've got some wonderful pictures there of her with my students. Back in October 22, 1990.

But we made gumbo, you know, seafood Creole gumbo. She had a praline bread pudding, veal grillades, jambalaya. Just a wonderful day, you know. You know she was all about food anyway. And give her a kitchen big enough she can do what she want to do. And all the help she needed needed she could go to town that is absolutely amazing i i just um you know one of the things that i talked to her about which is that you don't forget that uh kwame roche i got a question for joe i ain't gonna ask all of them what y'all got well i just chef first of all um i love you well yeah right here yeah look right here

um i'll be back baby, and I appreciate you. You know, I guess for a chef coming, you know, leaving a legacy or trying to make an impact, I look back and I was reminiscing and looking on Instagram and I saw a lot of your photos with you and Patrick Clark and Leah Chase and just, you know, a bunch of people that came before us. I even saw a young Tim Dean. Shout out to Tim. I just wonder what would be your charge to us, the next generation or even the generation after sort of my generation, you know, how to keep the legacy going and make an impact like Ms. Lea Chase did and like yourself as well. Well, let me first share with you what she shared with me.

About 30 years ago, I developed an organization called the United Culinary Association. It was a group of black chefs from all over the country, and we came together to be the black caucus within the ACF because we were paying dues with no representation. And so we decided that we were going to demand some participation and some things done to help us. Leah was very instrumental in that. She hosted a dinner in New Orleans for two days at a restaurant. I mean, Johnny Rivers was there, Clayton Sherrod, Willis Stinson from the CIA, chefs from all over the country. And we tried to come together with

an attitude of going forward and the one thing we came up with was the first thing we had to get professional chefs away from was denying their heritage you know we all know what this is uh it's hard work long hours and low pay in some instances. But the joy was that when people get a chance to eat what you prepare with your hands, it's rewarding. So what we tried to do is make people understand the contribution that African Americans have made the food in this country. Prior to 1983, there was no such thing as American regional cooking. It was just good food and bad food. Good food came from the South because they weren't afraid to season it. And we were the backbones in the kitchen, the black hand in the

pot. Wow Kwame got a question. I just have a statement I just want to say thank you, you know in the same regards I talk about the chase when I think that I have a hard I'm having a tough day I think back to chefs like you who I can't even I can't even put to words or conceptualize exactly the trials and tribulations that you went through.

And you kept going, you know, not for glory, not for anything other than you love the craft. And that's incredibly inspiring. And that's what keeps me going. So I just want to say thank you. Leah Chase told me many years ago, she said, you take what you got and make that work for you. Surely everything's not going to be perfect at no time, but you are where you are.

You pull yourself together. You know what you got. You work with it. You apply the best of yourself and it'll turn out all right. Chef Joe Randall, we appreciate you joining us for this dinner party tribute to Leah Chase. Thanks a bunch. My pleasure being here. God bless you.

Continue to go. All right. Thanks a bunch, sir. You know what? It's so interesting. We talked about you. You made the best of what you got. So I literally I was telling her the story.

People always ask me, tell me tell my me talk about this Texas spaghetti he's actually how did that I was in college and hell I mean look I ain't have much money and living in an apartment and I was hungry and so I go in the kitchen I'm like damn I had spaghetti no tomato sauce, no hamburger meat, and barbecue sauce. I was like, I'm putting barbecue sauce with the spaghetti. That's going to be the meal. And so when I graduated, I said I'll make me some spaghetti. And so then I could afford some hamburger meat.

So then I had to put that combination together and then uh because we look we ate spaghetti growing up so it wasn't like i was afraid of tomato sauce and so uh but it was just a different thing and so so i'm cooking i'm cooking like man i like this like better so i i use tomato sauce but i don't but it's not predominant it's not a marinara sauce so then one day i was in the store one day, and I said, damn, I want something different. I went, I think I'm going to put some Italian sausage in there. Don't ask me how. I was like, I'm just going to put it in there.

Put it in. I'm like, damn, I like this here. So not just the Tony Chachere Creole seasoning. I'll use oregano, basil, and thyme, and parsley. So I wanted that flavor. And I used Kraft honey barbecue sauce. Kraft honey barbecue sauce. So my brother, of course, executive chef,

run our family catering business. You know, oh, he started talking trash. I'm like, really? Like, give a damn? I was like, my house? I'll buy it. Eat the hill I want to eat. So we had a family get together.

So we go to his house. And so we all drive by, and so he's in there cooking, and I walk in the kitchen, and I go... Uh-oh. I lean over, and I'm like... What the hell is the barbecue sauce on the counter for? Chef. And you make your spaghetti. No, he didn't. No, he didn't.

Yes, he did. No, he didn't. he did yes he did oh he did dog and me listen i ain't mad at him dog and me he's dogging me but privately using the barbecue sauce making his meat boom that's what it was i came too early making his meat sauce i was like ah yeah uh so and so now my needs of my family is like my niece who's in there, Atlantis, she's been bugging me literally for a year to make it. I'm always so busy, whatever. And we had a family get together. Y'all go to YouTube.

I literally live streamed the whole process of us making this Texas spaghetti. And we had this huge roast, this huge roaster. So the whole lot, so y'all see the whole deal. The chopping, everything, from beginning to washing stuff down. huge roast this huge roaster so the whole lot so y'all see the whole deal the chopping everything the whole from beginning to washing stuff down and i got nine nieces for that so everybody was in there working i was like i was like i was like leah chase the general patent watch this grab this go on here stir that do this here and while the live stream is going on uh but that was no point i mean

that to me that's that's the beauty of cooking Kwame look sometimes you ain't got everything so it's like look at here and make it work you gotta make it being when it works it works right then you go that worked okay I do that again next time right is that is there any example where you'd have to do that way you had to make it work oh man I mean growing up yeah we were Poe, as they say. We couldn't afford the O and the R. So we always had to make it work, especially when you talk about spaghetti,

and Ms. Leah Chase was talking about the... The wieners. The wieners. Creole wieners. That sounded like noodles to me. I was just asking my sister. Yeah, you said it. Shout out to my sister, Juana.

I was asking her the other day about our great food memories, and she was talking about hot dogs or something. And it's just like, you know, something that we grew up in, great food in our house. But what we did to oodles of noodles and how they, the struggle meals, how we hooked them up, you know, and sliced them up with a little scrambled eggs or some boiled eggs. So, yeah, you do what you do, especially in the city.

It's not like, you know, with Ed and Lou, it's like you eat what you grow, right? In the city, you know, you eat what's in the cabinet. And if you got some noodles and two eggs and some baking soda, you make some puffed up or baking powder, you make some puffed up scrambled eggs. Yeah. You play a mind trick on yourself. Make you think you got more than two eggs and you roll with it that's great you cook no brother i eat but but at tennessee state i was well familiar with ramen noodles and jiffy cornbread brother that's what we ate struggle meal but you know i wonder if that's why nat cole who

they say always liked his egg from her, from Montgomery, Alabama. I wonder if that was part of what Nat Cole had to eat growing up. And she talks about growing up whole, like you said. They were on WPA relief fund as a child. Her father was, I think, a ship caulker and a farmer. Her mother did seamstress work. And they ate whatever they could get, although she did grow up part of the time on the farm. But to the point that y'all are raising, I mean, the improvisational nature of black food.

Listen. I mean, that's unbelievable. And Kwame, man, when I'm hitting that Jollof Rice, and I love Jollof Rice, brother, but you got West Africa, and you say the Caribbean, you got some Trinidad and Tobago in there, too. I'm coming to your restaurant again. I mean, because what happens when you just go in the cabinet and say, I'm going to make alchemy?

It's almost like jazz. Yeah. Well, if you think about it, you know, and this is a focal point of why I brought Jalaf Rice, you know, because you asked me to bring jambalaya, and people don't know that, you know, Jalaf Rice is the grandfather of jambalaya through West Africa. Go ahead.

You know, and then you had, you know, the Spanish in New Orleans, and they brought their fishermen, you know, and that's how you got the crustaceans. The Germans came and threw in their andouille sausage, and now we have our jambalaya. But if you peel off the layers, it came from West Africa. And that's really the backbone of Southern cuisine, West Africa.

You know, we have kunumbo, which is gumbo, you know, okra stew out there that you peel back the layers and you have something that represents American cuisine. So there's no such, I don't think there's any such thing as fusion, you know, because like it's been fused a long time ago out of necessity, out of human trafficking, you know, out of so many different circumstances

that now it's just like if you think about the cultural history of a dish, it's easy to find what goes with that dish. That's why, you know, Michael Twitty's book

is so phenomenal. I had an interview with him. And so if you missed that, just go to my YouTube channel and just type in Roland Martin and Michael Twitty, T-W-I-T-T-Y, it's a phenomenal conversation. And his thing is talking about food because next up is Carla Hall. So Carla was traveling today

and so I interviewed Carla on yesterday. And the crazy thing, it was supposed to be a 10 minute conversation, it went 50 minutes. And when I was talking to her, when I had Nikki Giovanni on, she had a new book out. And we literally talked about her poetry book for about five minutes. And for the rest of the 50-minute conversation, we talked about food. Yeah.

She talked about all these different dishes. She talked about that. I forgot what she said. Maya Angelou, she said, yeah, she really thought she could was i forgot what she said uh my angelou she said yeah she really thought she could make that but she really she really did but she was talking about all i mean it was like all these foods back and forth and it was just a crazy it was an unbelievable conversation we we barely talked about poetry and and as so the thing that carl and i talked about y'all about to see this is that that is the thing that food is is is the link it's

the common denominator it brings people around the table with different backgrounds. And you're able to talk, you can do whatever. And I just think about every time you ever get together at a house, okay? Look, I had a party at my house. It was a 10,000 square foot house, three levels.

Guess where everybody was? Around the kitchen. In the kitchen. Now, thank goodness it was a good-sized kitchen, but it was like, I was like, hey, y'all, that's a whole, like, the bottom floor. It was, like, bar down there, wide space. No, didn't nobody want to go. It's the kitchen.

I mean, it is that central location. So for my family, that's why, you know, every house I've had, the kitchen flows right into the living room because that's just where we are. So ain't no sense in having a court and off kitchen. Look, just kitchen, living room, boom, everybody right there all together. All right, y'all.

Carla Hall, Chef Carla Hall, you know, of course, from the Chew, of course, all of the great work that she does. She, of course, wanted to be here, but we had an opportunity to talk with her yesterday to get her thoughts about Leah Chase. And here's that discussion. All right, Carla Hall, what's going on? What's up, Roland S. Martin? Well, first of all, we're actually in the same place in D.C., which is quite rare. We were sitting trying to figure out.

Yeah, we saw each other recently. I have no idea where. I'm just trying to think. The reason we can't figure it out is because we're always traveling and we're always in another space doing events. So it's like, I don't know if it was L.A., if it was New York, if it was, I have absolutely no idea. Me either. But it's all good. It's all good.

Well, I have you here because, of course, over the weekend, we lost the great Leah Chase. And she was an absolutely great woman. And we were talking, so you had the opportunity to actually be with her in her kitchen. Yes, yes. I was with her in February, cooking with her in her kitchen. Yes. Yes. I was with her in February cooking with her there was an an event or a conference called radical exchange and Ashton and I can't remember Ashton's last name and she and her partner were doing this event with all of these

Culinary folks and Michael Twitty was there and a lot of people in the beverage industry. And we had a dinner at Dookie Chase, and I actually got to cook with her in her kitchen, which a lot of people don't do. Right. And Miss Chase... But she's real particular. She's really particular.

She's particular about her kitchen. And she was in the kitchen. She was in there and granted she was sitting down and she was talking about my hair. She was like, girl, what's up with your hair being so big and frizzy? She said, you need to creolize that hair. Creolize?

I was like, what is that? Creolize that hair? Creolize, as in straighten As in straighten. As in straighten my hair. She went on for at least 30 minutes about it. And she also, you showed me a photo, she was cracking on Ashton as well. Yes, Ashton had a nose ring. She was like, girl, we have moved past that, you know, as a people. So she honestly just was so funny and so alive. And the respect

and the love that's in that kitchen, in the restaurant with all of the art. I, you know, when we when we lost her over the weekend, I even more so than I did at the moment, felt like, wow, I got to touch and to feel and to be around her greatness. And more than anything, and she was 96 years old and she lived just a beautiful life. More than anything, you know what I realized and what I appreciated was that we celebrated her while she was here. Yep. Yep. Yep. absolutely. There's so many times when we lose somebody and we're like, oh, you know, in retrospect, let's celebrate them. Well, what was interesting, so in this line of work,

for me, the opportunity to be able to sit down with, interview, talk to somebody, profile them. And I am very particular about our legends because, and just to be able to have a conversation with them, and especially for me, our folks who, first of all, I interview lots of people, but especially our people who are 70 and over. So here's why.

When I was at Savoy Magazine, I was a news editor. They wanted to do a piece on the artist Biggers out of Houston. And it was supposed to be, I forgot the year, but it was for the November issue. Then they pushed it. I had talked to his wife. I had talked to him on the phone then they pushed it three months and he passed away I think he was 77 when he passed and I vowed then I said though I said that would never happen again yes and so

I'm so I'm very I'm very so like anal about these amazing African-Americans who are doing stuff and getting their story on tape. Yeah. And just intentional because, you know, it's all well and good after the fact. But I feel like after the fact, there are, with everybody else, it's a box to tick off. You know, let's focus on focus on them oh they were so great if they were so great why weren't you focusing on them right when they were here with us and and i was there with um i was actually hosting the james beard awards in 2016 when leah chase uh won the lifetime achievement award or they she was being recognized and that was 2016

that's three years ago she's 93 yes and and that's but that goes to the point that you're making though that first of all ain't that many folks living to the you know today not to their 90s and it's one of those things that no for somebody like that oh you recognize folks in their 50s or 60s or 70s versus, you know, going in terms of that long. And that's just one of the things that I think is so important. We think about artists when we think about, I mean, whether it's, you know, legendary chefs, we think about all these people to your point, give them their praise now versus posthumously and allow them to bask in that yes right and to pass the torch and that was another another thing about miss

Leah she was always reaching back and bringing somebody up do you know what I mean so I brought the book that she gave me, and she says, To Chef Carla Hall, one great chef, enjoy life. Grateful to you, Leah Chase, 2-4-2019. Now, first of all, here's what was great. First, she put the date. Yes. I can't tell you how it drives me absolutely crazy when book authors, there's a sign, I go, put the date.

Matter of fact, I jack up my wife all the time. I'm like, put the date. Because when people sign my books, I tell them, put the date. Some people may say, okay, that's really no big deal. But it's like, no. It's a point in life as well. And the point about Enjoy Life

was interesting is that, I mean, that was her. Look, she was in that kitchen in a walker, in a you know when I interviewed her two years ago you know she came out you know she was taking her time but when we sat down and we start talking I mean her whole deal was about and in fact her last her last words were look just enjoy life just eat have fun enjoy life. Just eat, have fun, enjoy life. Yeah, yeah. And that's why, for me, I know her family misses her

and it seems sad, but for me, it feels like that New Orleans Southern sending off because she was so joyful. And every time you saw her, she had this big smile on her face. And it's about a celebration of her life. And and of course that's easy

for me to say because i'm on this side of things but just her energy level when i saw her in february was making jokes and laughing and tasting food and then i i was feeding her i was doing a sorghum salad and she was eating that, and she would taste it. She'd look at me. She's chewing it. She said, I like it. I mean, you know, that. But she was processing.

She wasn't just somebody to just say, okay, I'm going to do this. She would think about it. She would absorb it. She would then give her opinion about it, you know? Well, see, that's why I think... One of the things we talked about was, and I said to her, I said, some people, they eat to live,

but they're afraid. People in Louisiana live to eat. Yeah. And the thing about, the thing about, the thing about, especially black folks in food. I was at, I was recently at a party

at the billionaire Robert Smith's house in Malibu. And all these people, different places. And so like all these black folks were congregated in the kitchen. And so we're staying, so Tyrese, Chauncey Billups,

Al Harrington, a bunch of the people. And I said, you see, y'all know we are in the kitchen. And we're staying so Tyrese Chauncey Billups Al Harrington a bunch of people I said you see y'all knows we are in the kitchen and it's what for us it's one of those things that when it comes to food when it comes to you can have a party and I don't care how big your house is folks are going to hang out where the food is exactly exactly even in her restaurant so miss chase miss Leah was right there, and there was something going on. They were doing a repass in the kitchen.

There were about 50 people. We're prepping now for dinner that night. 50 people coming through, taking a picture, you know, because that's what it was. Even at her restaurant, people were coming through the kitchen. Right. You know, her desk was right there in the entrance,

you know, between the dining room and the kitchen. And they were like was right there in the entrance you know between the dining room and the kitchen and and they were like they were like this is what she does and it wasn't off limits right that's the piece right the uh one of the other things that obviously when you think about this history first of all that location you think about the people who came through that that's the other thing you talk about her life, the people who she literally fed. I mean, she fed a who's who of America, but absolutely black America. Absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, all of these people coming through the civil rights meetings that were happening there, you know, Martin Luther King, you know, of course, President Obama.

But when she said, you know what, my place is going to be integrated. Better to ask for forgiveness than permission. I don't care that it's against the law. This is what we're doing here. You know, so hats off to her for that. Talk about

the respect that other black chefs have because the reality is when you think about when you look at all of these in fact we were at the Bull Lake Convention last year you did this session with these what you talk about food and they were fusing in from Africa and other countries that you sort of had let's just be on honest, you had this sort of this white standard. Right. Okay. In terms of, you know, who gets, you know, who's the five star chef or the four star,

whatever the heck it is. And, and who's the award winning chef as opposed to for us, black people, we've known people who cook. Yeah. Who can throw it out. That's right. Who don't have any awards hanging on their wall and don't also abide by whatever somebody else's licensing standards and you're like oh no no I'll put my

grandmama up against any of any of y'all French chefs or whatever when it comes to who throw down yeah and that to me also speaks to who she was yes she was a yes she got these awards and accolades but she was a down-home black woman cooking. Yeah, yeah. And she didn't even set out to study that. She started working, and she loved food. And so when she was married to Dookie Chase, I mean, she was like, I'm coming into this this restaurant and we're going to change the food that we serve here. And it was some down home food. Even when you look in in the book, here is boiled spare ribs with sweet potatoes.

I mean, you know what I mean? It's just like, you know, don't let them fall apart. And I think there is something about the just that she unapologetically served this food that she loved and from her heritage. And it wasn't about, oh, is it good enough to serve to white people? Is it good enough to serve to whomever? We're going to come together around the table and I'm going to serve you what's in my heart. What she also said in the interview, which was very interesting, she said that all these New Orleans restaurants, they were serving French food. They were not serving gumbo and jambalaya and crawfish etouffee. So really what Dookie Chase changed. So people talk about, about oh the food in new

orleans today dookie chase black people yeah change the entire palette yeah of new orleans right right right that was what was crazy when because when i played the interview back and i was like whoa did she just i said what did she just say? Right, right. When you think about it, right? So you're telling me something. She was the one. And so when you talk about other chefs who look up to her, I mean, Marcus Samuelson, and not just black chefs. You know, white chefs as well look up to her. John Besch, who was in New Orleans, and all of these people who were in New Orleans looking up to her and beyond. Because she was doing things that other people weren't doing.

She was elevating our food in a restaurant, a white tablecloth restaurant, you know, and showing our food. And when you look at other places around the country, even when we have, let's take Hot Chicken because I'm from Nashville, Tennessee, and not that it said, well, I guess it is at some white tablecloth restaurants. But you have Princess being the person who started that, the restaurant that started that. But it has gone on the other side of the tracks in Nashville where some people don't even realize it was started, you know, by princes, you know, all of a sudden somebody takes it and, you know, it becomes like, like most of our history. True. Right. But I really think we give it away. A lot of times we give it away. We, we demonize our own

food. I think we don't own it. We don't, I don't think, um, a lot of us know that we should be proud of our contributions. Right. And that we started this. You know what I mean? Because if we're cooking for people, this is how you carry culture. What Leah Chase was doing was carrying the culture and spreading it throughout New Orleans. Is that it? All right, folks, that was the Carla Hall interview.

Joining us right now on the phone line, folks. We were supposed to end at 8 o'clock, but there's no way I could not get this man's thoughts and perspective on Leah Chase. My alpha brother, former ambassador to the United Nations, former mayor of Atlanta, lieutenant to Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a man who is accomplishing his own right, an amazing brother, Ambassador Andrew Young. Doc, how you doing? I'm all right, but you should start out. I grew up about six blocks from Dookie Chase. I know that. That was the first question.

That's why I said we got to hear from Andrew Young about Leah Chase. Yeah. No, it's she's a wonderful spirit that will always be with us. They'll always be talking about Sister Leah.

And I that will always be with us. They'll always be talking about Sister Leah. And I heard her at the... We honored her at the United Negro College Fund then a couple of years ago. And when she received the honor, she gave one of the most significant civil rights speeches I have ever heard. So she talked about the blessings that we've received and how we need to pass them on to future generations. And she got everybody that she spoke from what I've been meaning this way. I mean, I've been fighting for this in Atlanta and losing. I would like to see the, yeah, one, two, three, four, five.

No, go ahead. We got you. We got you. Go ahead. But she talked about how beautiful everybody was. And she said, but now y'all need to wear those same dresses next year. And for two reasons. One, you don't need to look good now. You don't need to look different next year. In fact, you need to be able to get your big butts in that dress next year. In fact, you need to be able to get your big butts in that dress next year. And so she was somebody who majored in food. She was very conscious that you eat and you eat well and you can look good. And I don't know

how it happens, but she never, you know, according to some people, us people from New Orleans are supposed to die young. The way we eat. Right.

And what we eat. I mean, everything I eat is not on the doctor's list. And I haven't figured that out. But she was very conscious. And then, you know, her grandson is here in Atlanta, Victor Heidel. And he and Hank Aaron have a series of restaurants together. And the thing that he got from her was a business ethic. I mean, he runs 25 or so franchises, and he keeps the business going.

I mean, he's about business. And he's also, you know, they say, by their fruits you shall know them. He also supports an orphanage in Haiti, and he goes down there once a year. And he's on the board with another young lady from New Orleans, Panchita Pierce, on her foundation in New York, where they're helping people who were in a Catholic mission. I forget what it's called. And then here in Atlanta, he's a civic leader. And he's not running for anything, but he's into everything and he supports everything.

And that came from Leah Chase. Ambassador Young, what was amazing was the meetings held there, the civil rights workers she fed, the people who would come there, she said, I'll give us some gumbo and some fried chicken and they would go out there whether they were freedom riders SNCC workers SCLC workers you can't have a movement unless folks able to eat well yeah but just like Pasco in Atlanta yep the meeting and the planning was done at Dookie Chase in New Orleans. In fact, SCLC was founded in New Orleans in 1957. Now, I was not in that meeting.

I was still living in New York. But I'm sure they could not have gotten a founding without Martin Luther King going by W.J. Well, she fed a who's who of America and certainly a who's who of black America. You know, I'm sure there's somebody out there who's probably saying, Roland, why in the world would you sit here

and you now going past two hours celebrating a chef? But I certainly believe, Ambassador Young, that we've got to give our folks they do. She was not, she owned, she was a businesswoman who led the town from her business. Wow. And, you know, but there's nothing demeaning about being a chef. At all. Because, I mean, I always, that Jesus said, when you break bread and drink wine, I'll be with you. And I said, that is not only true in church. I said, whenever what the scripture is saying, that whenever we're sharing love and food, there is the presence of God in the midst of where two or three of us are gathered together. There is the kingdom

of God, that the kingdom of God is in our midst. And that's the message that Leah Chase passed on. I can't think of his first name now. Rudy Lombard. Yeah. Rudy wrote a book on New Orleans chefs. Well, Tanya Lombard, of course, her niece was supposed to be with us. The family is still grieving. And as a matter of fact, I'm texting her, letting her know how well the show is going. And, you know, we've certainly lost a great one. She lived 96 years.

She packed a whole lot in those 96 years. And I just wanted to definitely be able to hear from you. You just turned 87 years young in March. And you're still handling your business. I heard you were down at Operation Hope's Global Hope Forum, teaching as always. And it's always great, the chance to talk with you. We appreciate you. We love you. And we thank all that you've done for us and uh thanks for joining us at roller

martin unfiltered and i appreciate you always return my phone calls uh when i call all right god bless you all right my brother thank you and thanks for for telling the world that that the spirit of Leah Chase has gone home, but is still with us in all of those who have broken bread in her presence. Absolutely. Andrew Young, we appreciate it. Thanks a lot. All right. It's always something, Kwame, talking to cats like that.

Yeah. Always. So much depth, you know, in any topic they want to talk about they have so much to pull from you know oh yeah yeah absolutely absolutely um that's why i got support roland martin did you hear what jesse jackson mentioned uh johnson earlier reverend johnson jackson rather not the joseph jackson those young cats had to break with the baptist convention that clc was the young ministers i'm saying i have to say this when you young people go back and listen to this broadcast this conversation get your notebook out there's a whole curriculum that's going to have

to accompany this two hours and a half um ashton uh young lady, Carla Hall talked about her. Ashton put on this event in February at Dookie Chase's, and Carla said definitely give her a call. I wanted to be sure she's going to be our last guest before we go here. Ashton, how you doing? I'm doing well. I'm doing well. It's great to talk to you. I wanted just to get your thoughts. You organized this event, Dookie Chase, took place about three months ago.

Just your thoughts about just the fabulous Leah Chase. I'm sorry, I can't say that again. Just your thoughts about the fabulous Leah Chase. Oh, well, so the dinner that I did at Dookie Chase was a part of a larger symposium and conference that focused on black people's contribution to hospitality. And I thought that I was just going to go into Dookie Chase, talk to Miss Leah Chase, get her to say, yes, she was going to work with Carla Hall. And then that would be it. And that's not what happened. What happened was I spent two and a half months going into Dookie Chase, asking for her blessing, getting to know her before she finally was like, yeah, OK, I'll do this dinner. And I can say she changed me. I mean, there was days as a black woman who's in the hospitality industry and owns her own business.

There were days where I was really having a hard time. And I remember one of the things she said to me was, look at me. And I looked her in the eye and I was kind of tearing up. And she said, this ain't made for the faint of heart. She said, I never took you to be someone who would back down from a challenge. And I said, I'm not. And she said, this ain't made for the faint of heart. She said, I never took you to be someone who would back down from a challenge. And I said, I'm not. And she said, okay, well, wipe your tears because we got work to do and we got a dinner to put on. And, you know, she gave you that grandmother hard, tough love, but still was so warm.

And she taught me a lot about running a business i mean you know there was somebody on instagram that secretary wilson that said when one of your ancestors passes it's like a library burndown i feel like people didn't even know the breadth of knowledge that woman had. I feel as if there is a whole group of generations that I am mourning for them that they will never have access to the layers of knowledge that woman had. I was with her for six months and I not only formed a bond with her, I formed a bond with her, her daughter, Miss Stella, um, to the point that I kept going in, even though the event was over because they, every time I went in there, I felt healed. I felt as if I was closer to truth. Um, I felt as if I was being held accountable for

how I moved through space. And there's not a lot of people who look at you and see you. I'm not talking about look at you and see what you do, but I'm talking about see you. And she saw me in a way that, like, I can't put into words, and it wasn't just me. But she was also, like, she was also a hell raiser. That's why I loved her, right? Oh, no, Carla told me she was also a hell raiser. That's why I loved her, right? Oh, no. Carla told me she was... Carla said it, but like...

Carla said that she was cracking on your nose ring. Oh, my goodness. So I could not go in there without getting, like, cracked on. If it wasn't the nose ring, it was the hair. It was like, I know and she just always had the jokes for me. Always had the jokes for me. And I loved it, though, because that's how my family, I feel like that's how Black families operate.

Right. And I knew that she cared for me when she didn't treat me differently than she treated her family members. When she was as hard on me as she was on her family members where her expectations of me were as high as they were for her family members it made it clear to me that she wasn't holding me to that standard because she wanted to make it hard she told me to that standard because that was the way that she was showing that she had love and care for me. Not a lot of people love you like that anymore. Not a lot of people love you with accountability so that you can get to the next level.

And I will always be grateful for that. I will always be grateful that a girl that she didn't know from anybody else coming off the street and asking her to do this dinner with Carla Hall, that she said yes. And that she told me when she said yes, she she said I'm doing this because I believe in you so don't you disappoint me Ashton we appreciate it thank you so much thank you so much and amazing I appreciate thanks a lot that was a sermon right there, y'all. That was a word. Why don't you say something? Well, I had some of my staff members,

they went down to that dinner because it was celebrating female hospitality, people in the hospitality industry of color, and they told me about how amazing that dinner was, and I wanted to tell her that, but your dinner was great we got a number yeah okay we'll get number have you have your call yeah uh rock final words um well first roland i don't know you know you you do a lot i mean that's that's an understatement and um

you know i applaud you for everything that you do for our community and our voice. But this, as a chef, this really rings special and true for me. So I just want to thank you personally and for all the others. I know there's so many chefs you could have up here. But the fact that you're honoring her, I know it's really important to you, but it's extremely important. Not just she was more than a chef, and just what Ashton sort of alluded to or really stated emphatically, there's so much knowledge and story behind the food.

Like it's not about the chicken, it's what's behind the chicken. So I just, I wanna thank you and tell you, I really appreciate that. And the last thing I'll say is that Ms. Chase reminded me of my grandmother. She reminds me of my mother, of my aunts. And I know because people were traveling, it was an all-male panel up here in the studio,

but we got to celebrate and we got to remember that black women put us here. I don't give a, I don't care what type of food we cook. Women started all of this. And the black woman in this country, right, like Leah Chase, gave us, is not just the food. And we have to remember that, especially as a chef, but as people moving forward. I think it's extremely important for us to honor that legacy and to carry on. So thank you for doing that today. I really appreciate it.

Greg, absolutely. I want to add my thanks, Roland. I mean, you know, Ashton and Carla and then Rock and Kwame, the next generation has taken the baton, her own grandson, and the next generation. You cats burn it up in here today, man. I'm just sitting here like still echoing. And I couldn't leave here and not, you know, I can't go back home to Nashville

if I don't mention the fact that I'm an eater, but my first great chef was Catherine Carr, my mother. Her hot water, cornbread, chitlins, which I, you know, still partake of every once in a while. But the last thing I say is this. The last time I was in New Orleans, the last thing I did before I got on the plane was stop by Dookie Chase. One thing I'll agree with Ralph Ellison on is this.

My strength comes from. Your mic fell off. Hold on. Let's get your mic. Your mic fell off. Did it? Yeah. All right.

Let me pull it there. I got you. Keep going. Oh, you got me? Yeah, we want to get you. Oh, yeah. Did it fall off? Yeah.

Oh, I appreciate that. There we go. All right, we got it. So I'll say it right quick. Go ahead. Like I said, shout out my mother, Catherine Carr, the first great cook that I ate from. So another black woman, as you said.

Go ahead and clip it on. So Leah Chase, of course, coming out of a tradition where her own mother raising her with her father and then getting that cooking gene and getting that cooking gene into the space where she then comes into that restaurant where her mother-in-law was. And they battled.

I mean, part of the reason there are red walls in Dookie Chase is because she said, I got to get rid of this pink and blue. My mother-in-law loves this pink and blue. But at any rate, the last thing I did before I left New Orleans, last time I was in New Orleans, was stop by Dookie Chase and get a bowl of what I always eat in New Orleans. And there's no place better to eat it than Dookie Chase. And like Ralph Ellison said, my strength comes from Louis Armstrong. That's one thing I agree with him on.

Every day of his life, they said Armstrong did two things. I won't mention the other one, but the thing that he ate was red beans and rice. So I had me a bowl of red beans and rice and got on the plane coming back here. But I'm going to tell you right now, Leah Chase will always be be alive because as long as you cats are burning in the kitchen and that's always going to be the case we will have a place to come together to plot our liberation so i feel like the future is in good hands appreciate you bro so folks uh my final thoughts um so this is how this whole thing i started literally um monday um i was sitting in the office. I was thinking about how we're going to pay tribute.

In fact, what happened was the interview that we had with her, we were going to run it on Monday. Something happened with our hard drive. So I said, well, we'll just run it tomorrow. So then I sitting in the office. And then I said, well, we do something different. When we call this person, so literally started with, hey, who's here? What chefs could we call? So, of course, I always talk to Rock. We've always done stuff.

I will call Rock. So then I said, hello, Carla Hall. I got a number. Call Carla. And we had Michael Twitty on the show. I like, well, call Rock. So then I said, hold up, Carla Hall. I got her number. Call Carla. And we had Michael Twitty on the show. I said, well, call Michael Twitty. And then I went with Tonya Lombard, her niece. I know Tonya.

Then I went, I looked out of the window and saw this table was actually behind this counter. Normally this is not our set. And I said, how this is not our set, and I said, how high is that table? And I said, what if we do a dinner party? And I thought about the last interview where she talked about feeding folks spaghetti and meatballs, fried chicken and gumbo and jambalaya, and that's actually how the request came together, because that conversation. So then I was, and all of a sudden it was kind of like well this piece and this piece and the next thing i know i was kind of like okay well who can bring what and rock said you know i'll bring the fried chicken and then when jackie said well comedy's gonna bring the jollof rice and i said

well uh i said dang i don't have much time but luckily my dad was here in december my parents he left me three four bags of roux in my freezer. And so I was like, cool, I can just put the bag, put them in the pot. I just, shrimp, sausage, and chicken, boom, we can move on. And then I thought about the spaghetti and meatballs, and I was hoping another chef would make that. And I'm like, well, what the hell? My niece has been bugging me about making Texas spaghetti. That's how this whole thing came together.

And so I was in the store last night, and so we, the tablecloth and the glass, and people give me all this alcohol y'all don't even drink. So just say just bring all this wine in so they're gonna take this stuff home because i don't drink this stuff and so we begin to put this thing together and to begin so then i said well let's push it from tuesday uh tanya couldn't do tuesday she said i could do wednesday uh but again she had to cancel and i i appreciate her just even even considering it and i appreciate the whole leah chase family but you heard me tell Carla Hall this you heard me said earlier that John bigger story not being able to interview John Biggers in waiting because the magazine pushed it has forever changed me because anytime I come across one of my ancestors we got

to have their story every time I see one of see one of our greats, I always want to get them on tape. I don't care what the camera, I don't care what it is, because I'm so conscientious of their voice and being able to hear. You heard Ashton say losing one of our elders means losing a library. That's why for me, Harry Belafonte, Hank Aaron, I mean, I can go down the line. This is also why black media matters. Because the reality is,

no mainstream cable network would have even remotely thought of this. If anybody who's a black host of any one of these shows went to their bosses and said, I want to do a two hour special on Chef Lear Chase, they would get laughed out of the office. The reason it's important is because we shouldn't give this level of attention to the likes of just an Aretha Franklin. Think about when Maya Angelou died, we did the special on her.

When Ruby Dee died, we did the special on her. When Ruby Dee died, we did the special on her. Whether it was Muhammad Ali, we had that particular special. Every time one of our greats, we always did a tribute because I believed we needed to be able to tell the story. With Nelson Mandela, we called in Ron Dellums, and we called in all these different people. We called in Carolyn Hunter Williams, who was a sister who worked at Polaroid,

who was with Ken Williams, with the Polaroid revolutionary workers. They're the ones who actually started the divestment campaign against apartheid. They started before the CBC did. We had her on the show. Other networks, we're not going to have her on. Y'all keep hearing me tell you why we have to have this. Because if we don't have these platforms, we don't have the place to be able to hear these voices. Let's just be real honest. You wouldn't have heard the things that Kwame had to say and Rock had to say and the reflections of Greg and John Murray and Joe Randall and Carla Hall and Ashton and Reverend Jackson and Andrew Young and Mark Morial, if you have no place to do it. So you can have thoughts and memories.

Yes, you can share those things in Instagram and on Twitter. But it's a different thing when you begin to put those things together, just like a meal. You can have a glass of wine by itself. You can have a piece of chicken by itself. You can have a piece of chicken by itself. You can have a bowl of gumbo, jollof rice by itself, but it's a whole different deal when you put it all together on the table and you have a full meal. That's what this is all about. I turned 50 in November, and I could have easily, I could have easily said I'm going to work for a mainstream media outlet. I could have easily knocked on doors have easily said I'm going to work for a mainstream media outlet.

I could have easily knocked on doors and say, oh, please, please, please, can I be a contributor? What can we do? I said, no, we're going to do this here. And there's people who told me, you're crazy, you shouldn't do this here. People said, look, how much is the money going to cost? And the reality is, it has cost. I said, there's people, my staff knows this. I don't get a salary from this show. We have not built the show to the point where I can pay myself. This is no different. They can

probably attest. This is no different when you start a restaurant. Yo, you got to pay everybody else. You got to pay the food bill. You got to pay, you got to pay your grocery. You got to pay your distributor. You got to pay your staff just to keep the doors open. But the point is to build it so you're able to do so. We must be able to have something that is ours. Dookie Chase's was ours. Pascal's was ours. Sylvia's was ours. They were places that we could congregate.

Sweat's in Nashville. That was ours. You had restaurants in houston and other places ours this is why roland martin unfiltered exists because i am not begging them, can you please give Leah Chase 30-second mention on the air? No. That's why Ebony Magazine mattered so much under John H. Johnson. That's why Jet Magazine mattered so much. That's why Chicago Defender mattered so much under Robert Abbott.

That's why the Land Daily World mattered so much under A.I. Scott. That's why the Pittsburgh Courier mattered. That's why Ida B. Wells mattered. That's why Frederick Douglass World matters so much under A.I. Scott. That's why the Pittsburgh Courier mattered. That's why Ida B. Wells mattered. That's why Frederick Douglass and the North Star mattered. That's why all of these black media outlets mattered, because we didn't have to ask somebody else, please, can you tell our story? The first black newspaper, Freedom's Journal, said in March of 1827 in its lead editorial,

we wish to plead our own cause and too long have others spoken for us we are at a point where we're 24 years away from america being the nation majority people of color and how sad will it be if we don't have restaurants to serve our food to our liking without seasoning how sad would it be if we had places that didn't play our music? How sad would it be if we don't have media outlets that controlled and told our story the way we wanted it to be told? I ask of you to support this show not because, oh, because of what I've done in the past. No, because when you support this show, you support the future stories like Leah Chase.

And here's also why you support this show. Because 30, 40, 50 years from now, 60 years from now, 70 years from now, when someone else is talking about Rock Harper, they're going to be able to pull this interview. Talking about Kwame, they're going to pull this interview. Talking about Kwame? They're going to pull this tape. But if the tape doesn't exist, they will not be able to show it. That's why we must control our narrative.

For your support, go to rollermarkunfiltered.com. You can join our Bring the Funk fan club cash app paypal uh square and here's my last point if black folks did not go to dookie chases it wouldn't exist today if black folks don't support other entities they do not exist we also must fund our freedom for us by us it's not a slogan. It's a lifestyle. It's a mantra. It is a state of mind, which means that we have to actually do it. And so we certainly want to extend our condolences

to the Leah Chase family. Her homecoming, her homegoing will be in the next few days. New Orleans, of course, has a huge celebration on their hand. They're not mourning her. They celebrate in New Orleans, 96 years of life.

So I want to thank every person who contributed to this show, our staff as well. They want me to stop talking because they want to go eat some of this food in the back. And so right now, our last thing is, Rock, you can go ahead and bring the bread pudding out. I have put out something on Twitter. And I said, if somebody in the DMV bring the bread pudding by and Rock

text me while I was cooking, Rock said, yo, I got the bread pudding. And so, folks, I want you to share this video. But again, I want you to support us as well. I would love nothing more than to have a thousand of our folks contribute at least 50 bucks, whether it's each month

or whether it's a one-time payment, to join our Bring the Funk fan club. This is why we do this show. This is why this show matters, and we need you to make it happen. Folks, I'm going to see you tomorrow right here, Roland Martin, unfiltered. Have a great one. Enjoy your meal.

We about to enjoy this bread pudding. Holla! Thank you. This is an iHeart Podcast.