The Breakfast Club - INTERVIEW: Kardea Brown Talks New Cookbook 'Make Do With What You Have', Charleston Cuisine, Emmys + More

Episode Date: November 12, 2025

Today on The Breakfast Club, Kardea Brown Talks New Cookbook 'Make Do With What You Have', Charleston Cuisine, Emmys. Listen For More!YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@BreakfastClubPower1051FMSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Hold on. Every day I wake up. Wake your ass up. Do you all finish or y'all's done? Morning, everybody is DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, Shalomey. We are the Breakfast Club. Long La Rosa is here as well. We got a special guest in the building. Yes, indeed. Cardia Brown.

Welcome. Hi. How are you feeling this morning? I'm feeling good. How are you feeling? Bless black and highly favorite, man. I know, that's right. Let me tell you what it took to get here.

Okay. So my flight was canceled from Charleston. Oh, right. But I knew it was going to be canceled. So something told me just go ahead and book a trip on the Amtrak. You took the train? I took the train. 14 hours.

What? We should be cooking for you then. Exactly. I didn't look continental breakfast And then the train got stuck in D.C. So when did you fly in? I didn't fly in. She just said she's a train.

I know, but when you was you scheduled to fly in? I was scheduled to fly in yesterday at 255. Damn. So I didn't get until 4 a.m. this morning. And they can't be, they already had canceled it. They already canceled. Yikes. See what I made sure I came.

You made it. I made sure I was here. That's because you're supposed to be here. That's what I'm talking about. Well, how are you feeling? I'm feeling good. You're feeling great. I could have cooked you breakfast.

No, you could have cooked for her. She'll want that struggle meal. Let us use what you got. Exactly. So I could have, you know what I mean? What did you have in your house? What did you have in your house? We could have did eggs, baking, pancakes.

I do a fried apples, you know? Fried apples. My grandmother does. Yep, that's the thing. Where are you from? My grandma from Virginia. Okay, so yeah, that makes sense. So you just like take the apples, slice them up, cut them up and put them in a pan with

like some butter or something. And the cinnamon, brown, little brown sugar. Yeah. Oh, I definitely could have took that. That's my favorite meal. That's the easy breakfast. You start making people hungry. Right here.

No, because since since you know, since your name. been on the list that you would come on up here. Sholomane's been salivating, right? Oh, like, just come to just stroll down the mouth. So let's, let's, let's, let's, let's talk about. How did you get into cooking? Like, let's start from the beginning. It's your first time here.

How did you get into cooking? What made you realize that you wanted to be a show? We got some time. Okay, so my grandmother and my mother are excellent cooks. My grandmother on my father's side was known for her red rice in Charleston. Hey. Okay. You know, you know about that red rice.

So, um, she was a cook at the piglo-wigli on Meeting Street. Pigley Wiggly. Pigle Wiggly. That's a grocery store for all you up north folk, okay? So she was a long-time cook there, but I get it from both sides of my family. I do not have any professional background experience. I did not go to culinary school. It was just something I always loved to do.

That food and Pigle Wiggly used to be so good. You know, and it still is. The one on Savannah Highway, it's delicious. Okay. Fried chicken, you know, collard greens, red rice on Fridays. My husband now knows about it. But so I started out with just like, my background is in social work. I went to school for psychology, just thought I was going to do something in the nonprofit world, which I did.

I worked at Big Brothers Big Sisters. I did removal of children from homes, and I did child placement. I did all of that. So in the midst of doing that, because it's just a very hard job. It's rewarding, but it's hard. So I use cooking as an outlet for me my entire life. I've always done that. It's always done that.

Some stress. Exactly. So I was living in Jersey at the time in 2015, and I was dating this guy who one day was, like, recording me. I was like, I don't know why he's recorded me. I thought he was just going to put it on Instagram. I get a call maybe a few days later from a producer who's like, your boyfriend sent in a video of you cooking. Oh, you was cooking.

I was cooking in the kitchen. So I'm sorry, yes, I was cooking. No, I'm like, I didn't know what was going? Yeah, she was cooking. This is a chef's story. What's wrong with you all? What's up with y'all? I was cooking in the kitchen.

It was recording me cooking. Jesus Christ. And I got a call from a producer. My bad. Let me back up. So I got a call from a producer said, hey, we are featuring home cooks on this new show on the cooking channel. And we want to feature you. We like your style of cooking and like your personality.

I thought it was a joke. I'm like, y'all and I about to come. I'm living in Jersey. I'm just cooking, you know, for fun. This is not serious. You can't be. They were serious. They filmed the show over course of like a week.

weekend and on the last day of filming, the producer came up to me and said, I think you have what it takes to be like a food personality. I think you should try it. I'm like, listen, I don't know what kind of jokes you got going on here, but this was fun. I'm going to go back to my cubicle on Monday and go back to my regular life. He was like, I really think you should give this a shot. You're natural at this. I know you've never been on TV before, but if you let us pitch you, we want to pitch you to the Food Network. Wow. So they pitched me. And well, before that, something in me. It was just like, God, you wouldn't bring me this far and show me this if it wasn't something behind it. So the following week, I put in my resignation letter at work.

Ooh, so your discernment just said, you know what? It's time to step out on faith. Nothing ever felt right as that weekend did. And so I stepped out on faith, sold all of my belongings, got on the Amtrak, and moved back down to Charleston and said this is what? what this is going to be. I started a supper club called the New Gullah Supper Club where it featured all of the Gullah Gichi dishes and I honed it on my skills and eventually we did a sizzle reel and Food Network kind of gave in was like oh we'll give you a shot and it took about four or five years before that yes

because I did get a no I got a few nose but I didn't take it as no it's not for you I heard it as no not right now. Not yet so I kept honing in on my skills kept kept doing my thing I did my supper club and I had Little appearances here and there on the cooking channel and food network. And eventually they gave me my shot. And with a proof of concept, they saw the proof of concept and greenlit the first season of delicious Miss Brown. And you've won two Emmys for that so far.

Wow. Outstanding culinary instructional series and outstanding culinary hosts. And the first black woman to do so. Wow. Man, it's so interesting, right? Because you know, you and Sunny, Sunny was the first black woman that I know from culture, right? the Sonny Anderson, who broke through on the Food Network. How hard is that for a black woman to break through on the Food Network?

I only know y'all, too. Right. It is us. That's it. You know, I think over the years, they've gotten better with diversity and inclusion on the network. But for a long time, it was just Sunny, the Neely's. Oh, and Neely's. I forgot about the Neely's.

Yes. And chef Aaron with Big Daddy's house. And but as far as a black woman, back then, all I knew was Beasie. Smith and yes yes god bless her so but um sunny was the only one and sunny was you know i like i tell anybody sunny is who i looked up to and i saw her on there and i saw her being her authentic self and i was like if she can do it i you know i can do but um yeah it's it's just really been us and then now carla hall um is is on the network as well but it's it's it's hard you know it's a white male-dominated field in and out of television, even with the culinary world in general.

You know, most executive chefs, head chefs are white men. I do have one question before we go into the chef, something that just made me think. When you used to work at CPS, what was the reason why you would take a child from a home? Like, because usually they say it takes a long time. It has to be almost like to the word. So what would be that reason? Like, how far does it go? Because I just curious.

Deplorable environments. Like if you, you know, I've said before that sometimes CPS can let things slip through the cracks. And on my watch, you know, any notices, anything like coming in and seeing multiple reports of abuse and you walk into a home and you see that they're clearly living in deplorable environments, after that in multiple cases and multiple write-ups, then it would warrant a removal from the home. Like there's emergency removal where there's clear abuse and then there's some that it takes some cases and some write-ups before that happens. I know a lot of parents are always scared that. My kids are going to come to the school

and say my mama hit me or my daddy hit me. But that doesn't get your kid taken out. No, not immediately. No. We always want reunification and we always want children to be in their homes. But if it's clear and there's multiple signs of something going on, then there has to be an investigation first

before a child is just removed. Did a child ever complain that their parents couldn't cook and they wanted to be That happens That used to happen like oh I didn't want this or kids would complain like Oh I didn't get a chance to wear it is I wanted to wear those sneakers they took my game from me or something That's you know Don't you get mad when they call you to the house and you be like you call them you because your mama took your game?

Or even when I was even when I was a social worker and I had like you know kids on Beyond like them being with their their birthright families Like when I did child placement and they were with their temporary households and I would get calls on the and I can hear the phone now the the on call phone and I would get some of my clients who would be like well I'm on punishment so why are you on punishment what happened I got a couple of Fs and so you decided to punch holes in the wall and and do crazy stuff because you got Fs on your report card now what how does that in 3 o'clock in a morning like I got to go remove a child and put him in another home because of of crazies

but you know kids will be kids that's real I was going to as the dough too Did those two worlds ever, like, collide at all? Like, did any of the kids that you helped find, like, placement homes or whatever? Now they watch you on the food network. You run into them. Like, did that ever happen? Like, that recently just happened. I also worked for Big Brothers, Big Sisters in Newark while I was living in Jersey.

And I recently hosted a Big Brothers Big Sisters meet and greet at my restaurant in Charleston, which was really nice as a full circle moment going from being a mentor manager at Big Brothers Big Sisters to hosting them at my restaurant. and... The one in the airport? Cardiade Brown's Southern Restaurant Yeah.

Yes, in Charleston Airport. The restaurant you own. Yes, it came full circle. So it came full circle to have them, you know, there. And I remember being a struggling social worker, you know, rubbing pennies together to make ends meet to having the same organization that kind of, that's the organization I left before I started the Food Network show. And so to have them at my restaurant, gosh, almost 10 years later, it meant a lot.

You know, I've heard you say that your cooking is a love letter. to the low country where we're from what's what's one dish that best tells the story of where we're from you think shrimp and grits yes absolutely i it's my it's my favorite you know it's nothing and i tell people every time you come to charleston you have to have charleston you have charleston like it's it's it's like none other you can go anywhere in the world and have seafood there is nothing like low country seafood that that's my that's my favorite i gotta go i don't come to that rice too though the red rice and a red rice but see you don't you don't eat pork in your red but a lot of people cooking

out with turkey though turkey you can do turkey some people do it vegan who is what's the what's the guy's name that's from Charleston that has the late night no the late night show

Stephen Colbert Stephen Colbert his wife put anchovies in her red rice yeah that sound like Ravens you know I love you but god damn god damn anchovies in the rat

rice right now you know so the holidays are coming up right yes thanksgiving so for for people that that are not cookers right because there's a lot of women a lot of men out there that don't cook what's an easy dish for people to make that can still impress some type of people like for instance lauren has a new found man right she really doesn't know how to cook so what would you suggest her to cook to impress this gentleman don't do shrimp profferedo we we don't for thanksgiving i would never but see everything every time i see something on social media everyone's

like oh you got to do the alfredo for you know for a date we're not doing alfredo um for thanksgiving i would say a spatchcock turkey that's super simple people think that that takes a lot to make and it really doesn't you just take the backbone out the turkey or chicken if you don't want to do a big chicken i mean a big turkey um smash it flat down season it inject it with some you know some butter and some creole juices bake it off and it's like the the tasty as juicy as turkey you will ever have. There's some other recipes in there. I'm already here.

The red rice, the Joloff rice. I mean, it's so simple. Like, you don't have to do a lot to impress someone. I say do something simple that takes a little less step so you don't get all flustered and stuff and just make it taste good. That's it. Presentation, too. As your husband ever hurt your feelings, right?

Because you are a chef, right? Yes. You're sitting back there. Have you ever said, nah, that's not it? And you'd be like, what? Yes. Several times. What meal was that he said that's not it?

What the last meal? He was like, babe, you got to try that. I made so I made this I try to make this like jerk chicken and dumpling thing and I made the dumplings

with like frozen biscuits it usually works no you gotta make the biscuits I know I know she had that much time I didn't have much time and the dumplings just kind of like it did something in there

it was it was yucky it was thick it was slimy also he is a dessert snob and he will call somebody's cake dry in a heartbeat. Dry. I said, not me sitting on these.

I'm like, I am a judge on holiday baking championship, spring baking. I have no desserts. So I made a red velvet cake one time. He took a slice of the cake. I was like, I need water. That's a little dry. Hey. I said, absolutely, dry where?

I said, do you, if you put your finger, I said, the crumb on it, do you see the crumb? He's like, I don't know about all that. All I know is my aunt Pam. Wow. I put a Pam in there Pam make a good red velvet cake And hers be a little buttery than this It's a little dry

I don't know what you want me to tell you So was it missing something? Did you... I thought I did right I put my stick of butter in there A little oil For me technically A stick of butter

A stick of butter I guess I guess Pan put about two or three sticks in there I'm saying I thought one stick would be enough 12 tablespoons I'm measuring He was like nah it's dry So what happens after that After he tells you it's too dry

or it don't taste too good. So what's your next move? Mumbling across the house. I'm trying to dry. Did you finish a piece of cake or no? He threw it away. Damn. That's cold.

But then I thought about it too because I did go get another slice later on that day and it was reading a little dry. So, you know, he's not going to fake it. You know, I want to ask you about when you started Delicious Miss Brown. Did you ever imagine you'd be representing like an entire region on national TV?

Absolutely not. I just thought I was coming in there and, you know, just, and, you know, growing up in the low country and being of Gullah descent, you really don't think about it. It's just a way of living. It's just like, we're Gichi, that's it, you know, that's all we know. And then, but seeing the interests from other people and, like, genuine interests of the Gullah Gigi culture, then I started to realize the importance of what I was doing. It's not only just cooking Southern food and frying fish and making red rice. It was really about preserving a culture. How has your Gullah Geechee heritage shape, not just your recipes, but just the way you see community and success?

Oh, man. You know, just coming from being of Gully Gichi descent, it's like, you know, it's not many of us. It's a particular region and area and there's not many of us that make it out of Charleston, out of South Carolina. And so being one of the very few means a lot to me, but it also means that I have worked to do because we're not going to be just us. We have to pave the way for other Gullah Ghii folks, black folks to be able to do this too. I don't want to keep saying that it's only one or two women,

black women in general, that are on the food network. Why is that? All these years later, why is that? There should be more of us. I mean, the fabric of American cuisine comes from African American people on the backs of enslaved people. So why isn't there more? representation across the board with our food.

Yeah, on Pam, need a show. Oh, oh. Wow. They're stabbing you up today. Stabbing you up today. A bacon show. Pam. I wanted to ask.

You talked about your restaurant. The name of the restaurant again? Cartier-Brown, Southern Kitchen. You know, when you hear people talk about entering the restaurant business, they say it's one of the hardest things to do. It is. Most of them don't last. So talk about how difficult that is to make sure that it's lasting.

It's not trendy because a lot of restaurants are trendy. Two years, everybody goes in the third year, they're like, I, whatever. today's time because now this is the age of we got food at home that it's definitely that you know and so I think what gives me an upper hand is that I'm in the airport so I automatically have like foot traffic and people and so I keep getting oh Cartier can bring bring the restaurant down to King Street or downtown or Somerville or wherever and it is hard a lot of my colleagues are like stay away from it if you if you can stay in the airport and keep doing like airport licensing things like that it's easier to do that but in this day and time it's like a lot of

A lot of my friends who own restaurants are like, you know, we have to struggle between the cost of groceries, the cost of ingredients, paying our staff a livable wage and trying to turn a profit. A lot of our friends are not making profits right now. They're just breaking even, but I wouldn't say discourage you from doing that. If you have something really great to offer, like you said, don't overthink it. The trendy stuff, it dies quickly. We make regular food for regular folks at my restaurant.

We got pork chops, we got fried fish, we got chicken, you know, stuff like what you would normally find in Charleston, South Carolina. And you just do it good and you do it well. When you're out there early in the morning, that meat and three platter? Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Get you some turkey sauces, some biscuits. That's all you need. How has everything going on with the airports and all that stuff?

Has that affected your business in a negative way? I mean, people are still in the airports. They just stuck there. Business is booming. Yeah, boom it. Boom it. Every time I'll grab by that restaurant That restaurant is

You can't wait to come down there and try your food You got to girl And look while you're there You got to come to my house I got to actually cook for you too Because I mean I believe in that I like to eat Listen Lord I got you

I got you covered Charlemagne was telling me that Because I love seafood I didn't know that there was so much seafood like in the circus For real because being from I'm from Delaware So like up here

You think of Maryland for like crabs And seafood and all of that You ain't got no oceans No not even that I just don't think that I mean I know Seafood It is everywhere, but I just didn't know that there was like an area in South Carolina that specialized in that.

He talks about crabs all the time. I don't know. What up, y'all? It's your boy, Kevin on stage. I want to tell you about my new podcast called Not My Best Moment, where I talk to artists, athletes, entertainers, creators, friends, people I admire who had massive success about their massive failures. What did they mess up on? What is their heartbreak? And what did they learn from him?

I got judged. horribly the judges were like you're trash i don't know how you got on the show boo somebody had tomatoes it's not i'm kidding but they if they had tomatoes they would have thrown the tomatoes let's be honest we've all had those moments we'd rather forget we bumped our head we made a mistake the deal fell through we're embarrassed we failed but this podcast is about that and how we made it through so when they sat me down they were kind of like we got into the small talk and they were just like so what do you got what ideas and i was like oh no What?

Check out Not My Best Moment with me, Kevin on stage on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcast. Is she said, Johnny? The kids didn't come home last night. Along the Central Texas Plains, teens are dying, suicides that don't make sense, strange accidents, and brutal murders. In what seems to be, a plot ripped straight out of Breaking Bad. drugs, alcohol, trafficking of people. There are people out there that absolutely know what happened. Listen to paper ghosts, the Texas teen murders on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

The Big Take podcast from Bloomberg News dives deep into one big global business story every weekday. A shutdown means we don't get the data, but it also means for President Trump that there's no chance of bad news on the labor market. market. What does a bacon, egg and cheese sandwich reveal about the economy? Our breakfast foods are consistent consumer staples, and so they sort of become outsize indicators of inflation. What's behind Elon Musk's trillion dollar payout? There's a sort of concerted effort to message that Musk is coming back. He's putting politics aside. He's left the White House. And what can the PCE tell you that the CPI can't? CPI tries to measure out-of-pocket. costs that consumers are paying for things. Whereas the PCE index that the Fed targets is a little

bit broader of a measure. Listen to the big take from Bloomberg News every weekday afternoon on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. On the podcast Health Stuff, we are tackling all the health questions that keep you up at night. Yes, I'm Dr. Priyanka Wally, a double board certified physician. And I'm Hurricane Dibolu, a comedian and someone who once Googled Do I have scurvy at 3 a.m? On health stuff, we're talking about health in a different way. It's not only about what we can do to improve our health.

But also what our health says about us and the way we're living. Like our episode where we look at diabetes. In the United States, I mean, 50% of Americans are pre-diabetic. How preventable is type 2? Extremely. Or our in-depth analysis of how incredible mangoes are. Oh, it's hard to explain. explain to the rest of the world that you, like, your mangoes are fine because

mangoes are incredible, but like, you don't even know. You don't know. You don't know. It's going to be a fun ride. So tune in. Listen to Health Stuff on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What do you get when you mix 1950s Hollywood, a Cuban musician with a dream, and one of the most

iconic sitcoms of all time? You get Desi Arness, a trailblazer, a businessman, a husband. and maybe most importantly, the first Latino to break prime time wide open. I'm Wilmer Valderrama, and yes, I grew up watching him, probably just like you and millions of others. But for me, I saw myself in his story. From planning canary cages to this night here in New York, it's a long ways. On the podcast starring Desi Arnaz and Wilmer Valderrama, I'll take you in a journey to Desi's life, the moments it has overlapped with mine,

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available on the IHard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. You're about... The first person Ed has ever told me about any of this stuff. Oh, so now you've got to really come and see it for yourself. We do crabs. We do crabs similar to you all,

but we do like our crab cracks where we put paper down, on the table and pull out bushels of crab and we you know That's my family reunion. See, that's what I'm It's so similar. It is so Or that too. I don't know what that is. Big Roast, you know, BJ

Chef BJ Dennis does it a lot back home but Yeah, we get down the same way. Yeah. You talked about being nervous when you first filmed at home, right? What was the moment you realized I belong here? I think it was It wasn't long into the first season where it kind of hit me like, oh, this is happening.

But later on down the line, I'm in my 10th season now of the show. And recently, winning the Emmys, winning two Emmys, I think before then it's not really the validation of it, but it's like having your peers recognize you in a sense because there's been so many times where I've sat at tables and people are like, well, how many restaurants do you own? You know, so what culinary school did you go to? And I never really have an answer. Like, no, I didn't go to culinary school.

No, I did, I don't own, at the time I didn't own any restaurants. I had a traveling supper club. And so it was always trying to fight for that. I belong here. I don't know why y'all don't understand that. God would not put me in this seat if it wasn't a thing for me. And so winning the Emmy was like, oh, I guess you do kind of got something going on here. But before that, I think I realized it kind of, it wasn't too long until I was like,

all right, this is it. Did it take, it took all that time until you won the Emmy just because you are one only for a long time in the food network. Is that why the kind of the imposter syndrome was there? You know, that's funny. I was just talking about someone. I was just talking to someone about that the other day, the imposter syndrome of feeling like, okay,

I don't have all of these accolades and all of this, the schooling to back up what I do, but I know I can cook, and I know I can cook with the best of them. And just kind of reminding yourself that too, and especially when your pay doesn't equal your skill, that is, you know, something that kind of puts you in that

in that hole of thinking like, do I belong here? Like, why am I 10 C's and then? Why am I still fighting for a decent salary? Or why am I still fighting for the same contracts as my colleagues? You know, like that, that I think affects that imposter syndrome. It kind of amplifies it some. Who helped you navigate that world in the beginning?

Like you have these people that you name now, but it was very few far in between. So when you come in and you're figuring out them contracts and dealing with all these execs, who was your person you picked up the phone? to call up? No one. I had no one. Wow. No. I started off with an agent. I did start off with W&E and I, and they did help me in a sense, but there was a lot of things that I did not know. Even taxes wise, I did not know. And, you know, turning, you know, yourself until your business until an LLC and becoming an S corp and all of that stuff. And there was no one really to help me. I kind of had to teach

myself contracts and asking for what I, what I'm, what I deserve, you know, and kind of figuring out on my own. So I had agents, but, you know, agents are also there to get there on money. Okay. You made a lot of mistakes early on business-wise? Um, I don't think, I, you know what, I didn't. Okay. And I think that came from my grandmother being a very, um, business savvy woman. She was the first person in, in our family to go to college and get an education. And, um, And so she always instilled in me the idea of business and saving and reading and understanding and acquiring knowledge on your own and not waiting for someone to tell you what it is. And my mom is also very, very good with that as well. And I also never wanted to be broke again.

So, you know, I know the feeling of not having and I didn't want to go back. And so I figured out ways to say, okay, and then I started asking questions from like, you know, on set. like hey who's your lawyer or who's your accountant can you can you you you know refer someone to me or you know it's like I see you doing well I see you have multiple businesses and and and stocks and and whatever have you so can you refer me to that person and that's kind of how I learned I feel like your book is so timely and I love the date of 11 11 because I just mean everything is in divine alignment but it's called make do with what you have and in this era right now where you know you got federal

workers who haven't been paid in 40 plus days, you know, when you've got people losing SNAP benefits, this is going to be a holiday season where people really got to make do with what they have. What made you want to lean into that aspect of? Well, the thing is, this is how I grew up. This is all I know. Right. Even to this day, I had someone mentioned to me the other day. She's like, oh, well, in the comments of, because I did like a tour of my fridge. And someone in the comments said, I noticed you use a lot of store brand things. And I do. You know, I know a public's bottle when I see it.

I shop at Publix. I shop at Harris Teeter. But the reason for me making this book was because the first book, my first book, The Way Home, was all about, like, getting to know who I am and where I'm from and the foods of the region. And then now this book is a continuation of my mother being a single parent working three jobs at one time, my grandmother helping to raise me. and there were times more often than not

where we really just had to have food at home. Right. Like, McDonald's will pass by, like, Mom, want some filet and fish over the house. Seriously. And McDonald's at the house was a pot of rice and some beans or something like that, but it's like we have food at home.

And that's how. McDonald's at the house was a white wonder bread with a piece of hamburger meat. That's what, right. And, you know, maybe some hand-cut fries if you were lucky. but it's just the way that I grew up eating and it's my style of cooking even on Delicious Miss Brown like if you watch the show

you'll see that I never reach for a lot of fancy ingredients it's always things that you can find in your pantry in your in your refrigerator things that you know you go to a grocery store and you do your hall for the first you know two weeks of the month and you can make meals out of those things and I think this is new to some people who aren't used to struggle but this is

what I know you know like this is how I grew up and so I'm helping people maybe who don't understand like hey now times are a little iffy and you got to figure out things at home like as a as a business owner and a restaurant owner I would love for you to come out and travel and eat but I also know the reality of it and it's not it's not feasible for everyone so I want you to be able to open your fridge and not look in there and say man we don't got nothing to eat in here which I did a lot as a child but you'll see your refrigerator and your pantry and in different light like okay the other day I walked in I was like, I got some onions, some celery, got a little sausage here.

I got some beans in the cabinet. Oh, I can make red beans and rice. Always keep rice on hand. Always keep grits on hand. Always keep eggs on hand. Sugar, all of those things. You can make something out of nothing. You can without having it be a struggle.

And having, you know, when people looking at a refrigerator and they get kind of bogged down or disappointed that I don't have certain things like that, that's all right. You can still make a decent meal with the stuff that you have. What's so funny? I was going to say, what's a cheap meal that you can make, right? So let's say there's a mom listening right now, right? They just picked up their kids from school. Okay. They need to make a quick meal that's inexpensive that the kids are like.

Go. What do you go to? Ooh, that would be my chicken bog. That's like getting like whatever meat cut of chicken you got in your house, even some drumsticks and wings, breast or whatever. You take that, you season it. You make some, you get some celery and some onions and stuff. You cook that down in the pot.

And you put the chicken and you cook the chicken, and then you add rice to the pot, right? You cook that all together, so all the, you know, the fragrant vegetables and the seasoning and the juices and the natural fats from the chicken all coming together in this one pot. So you got a meal in one pot.

Gotcha. Yeah. It's so funny because all of these, my stomach is over here growling because I'm just thinking about all of these meals that feel like hugs, right? Like, it's little things. First of all, grits and eggs for breakfast

is always going to slap. My grandma used to take toast and she was just put cheese on it and give you a cup of tea. Oh, yeah. When we would come home from school. Oh, my God. Oh, absolutely, a little butter on it?

I love that. What's one recipe that always brings your family together? No matter how busy everybody is, we're going to, oh, no, we're going to. A recipe or a meal? A meal, yeah. Fried fish and red rice. Ooh, look at him, man. You should have brought a, well, you couldn't, but you're making me so hungry.

You got to actually try the food. I should have brought, I wish I was like, I make you. Next time. That means you got to come back. I have to come back. gumbo, fish, all that. Why is that the mill? It's just what we're known for in Charleston.

Like on Fridays, you know you get paid. Fridays, you go get you a fried. We call it. Push Friday. Push. Push. Yeah. You go get your fried fish and your red rice, llama beans sometimes, and a piece of toast,

that cheap white bread, you know, and that's how you get down. It's so crazy listening to like different areas of the country, right? Because we didn't really cook like that. Like, my mom did pork and beans. Like, pork and beans was like the cheap meal, right? Yeah. She cut it up with some hot dogs. She cut hot dogs in it.

That was our meal, right? I hated when my mom cooked meatloaf. Like, meatloaf, I was just, I hated meatloaf. I hated meatloaf. I hated meatloaf, too. I hated New Year's Eve. My mom used to cook on Chitlins, but anyway. Oh, I love Chilin.

Oh, you do? I hate Chilin. Oh, my God. That's one. That's one. Chilins and Fatback are the two things that my grandmother is still. She's not supposed to have them. But my, my feeling.

family still does those. Those are the two things that I like, I need my eyes to give up. Your family's originally from Delaware and they eat fat back. Well, no, my grandmother and her sisters are originally from Virginia, Lynchburg and Hollywood. Oh, Virginia, Virginia. Yeah, but then they moved to Delaware. That's why everything's so country. So I'm like, I hadn't heard fatbacks in a while. But yeah, pork, we eat pork and beans too. But, you know, what I was saying is like here was, we were, so we're so Caribbean food. Like, for us is beef patties, for us is dirt chicken, for us is oxtail, it's curry gold. It's, you know, those are the meals that we eat. And it's like,

I love those, but it always takes long. When my wife cooks oxtail, it just seems like it's a procedure. It is. And I'm like, I'm hungry. She's like, you want the meat to fall off the bone, don't you? Right. But it just takes so long. What's the longest meal it takes for you to prepare?

It will be a short rib or an ox tail, and it takes about four or five hours at 275. And it's got to sit in that Dutch oven or that crock pot and just low and slow. I'll cook it a whole haul. A whole whole lot. They do. my uncles in them in the country do I have not graduated to that yet I just can't I can't see myself

you know open in the hall I'm not that country yet I want to ask you she said yet I love in your book you have tips for saving money you help people get their like cookware together and you talk about how you can do it for the low as well too

but the tips for saving money I never think is very personal to you what was like the tip that you were like I want to put this in but I got to leave out that didn't make the cut in the book oh manager specials you know growing up you know you remember the pack of meat that might have been expired or close to it

like don't be afraid to use those like because I mean the supermarket has to by law kind of put things on sale or get it out of there right before it goes bad but a lot of stuff are more shelf stable than you actually know they are like beans if you see like a pack of dry beans and it says oh it expires on in 2020 and well January 2025 beans dry beans will last in your pantry indefinitely

so doing things like that like getting things that are you know maybe discounted because it is going to expire in a day or two go ahead and get that and you can't pop it in your freezer they can't keep it on the shelf

because it's not frozen but you can get those cuts of meats and you can put it in your freezer and thaw it out and use it whenever you want to do that with steak in college chicken in college I would wait to the day about to expire and they go half price

the supermarket? Yeah. We go cook it up. That is definitely a hack. A lot of people do, and you don't realize it because you can go get, you know, a rib-eye for half the price because they're about to put it on sale. So if you see that, like maybe it's going to expire in about two or three days. Go ahead and get it while I was on sale and put it in your freezer.

How should you eat your meat, right? God, damn. Hey, yo. This guy is crazy. Go ahead. My God. N-Vee is that far away. However you like it.

Something. Go ahead. When I was younger, right And I used to eat steak You're a pro now anymore Your pro now is under age It was well done right Because that's what we were taught

You got to eat well done But now it's medium So how should somebody eat their steak? Pause Eat their meat I would say medium well I like I'm a medium well girl I want a little bit of brown

And just till it gets to the center pink The pink is soft and just juicy melts in your mouth You're like, wait, you, pause. Bay said stop playing with him. But see, I don't want the cows to be mooing. I'm not mooring, but pinks have got a melt in your mouth. So medium is okay.

I go with medium for like my, like lamb chops or pork. Yes. I'll do that. But like for as far as steak. I'm scared of the pork medium, man. Because I don't know, growing up. We got a little bounce to it. You feel like he's sick, right?

My mom used to get, the pork of your salmonella, whatever it's called. Yeah. 150, 15, 155 is okay. report yeah and then salmon too if you eat salmon i like my medium yes i want to ask you right in the intro you got these mantras you already talked about you got macdonald's money i just want to say some of these mantras okay and you tell me what what they mean to you right you said these are matches your mother and grandmother instilled in you and i also want to know which one is most relevant to where you are in life right now okay if you want to act grown be grown

now that was uh you know you think you're grown well then go ahead and take your stuff and get out and do it on your own damn yeah my mom is you remember remember the first time you heard that? Yeah, I was about 14 or 15. And I guess I had got, you know, started feeling myself a little bit. And I said something back to her. And she was like, all right, if you want to act grown, you can be grown. Pack your stuff up, call your grandmother and tell her you on the porch. You need to go. I was like, what you mean? Like she actually had me pack my stuff up and put me outside and call my grandmother said, you can come get her. She can figure out what she's doing since she want to be so grown here. And I was like, you can't do

that you can't put me but that I mean back then like I mean I kind of felt I guess I was feeling myself a little bit I the grandma come get you no no grandma she was like absolutely not like Patty let her back in the house don't don't do it like that she you know she didn't mean she didn't mean any harm but you know it took about an hour or two but she let me back in but at that point I realized I was not grown the Lord will make a way out of Norway absolutely every single time and I and I say that with conviction every single time I am a living testimony of making, God will bring you through the

darkest storms. I was homeless at one point. So to be here today, talking about my second cookbook and being here with you all as a testament that God will bring you out the darkest situation. Was that the moment? Because we all, you know, we all are believers and we all have faith.

But we always have that one real moment where we like, Lord, God, I know that was God. I don't, I feel like it happens on a daily. You know, like just driving to work or flying on a plane or just doing it like when you land like that that was nothing but god or you know getting home to your your house and your family that that had to be god because anything could have happened in between times so i you know you see that on a on a daily he would never give you more than you can bear never and i think as as humans we underestimate how much

we can actually take and deal with and um god shows us like okay yeah This may be a very trying time, but I'm giving this to you because I know you can handle it. And once you handle it, and if it happens again, you know that I've been here before, I've handled this. So this coming, the next thing coming, you know, it's easy. It's nothing. And I think this is one people need to really understand in this area. Don't be penny wise and pound foolish. Yeah.

My grandma would be saying that to me. Yeah. What's that mean? Don't be penny wise and pound foolish means that you don't think you know more than what you actually do. You know, be open and receptive to feedback and criticism and constructive criticism. And you don't know everything. You don't. And there's somebody that's going to know a little bit more than you or somebody's going to help you understand this.

But be open and receptive to criticism, constructive feedback, and just advice. What's next for the delicious Ms. Brown brand? You know, we got cookbooks, we got restaurants, we got products. Yes. You know, right now, I am looking forward to, I'm hosting Kids Baking Championship with Duff Goldman at the top of the year. Holiday baking championship is on now. You know, I'm at this time, I'm the type of person that's always like, I got to have everything in control. I got to have my next plan written down.

I know I'm doing this. I know I'm going to do that next. I am allowing the universe to do what I do. Ooh. Okay. Whatever God has for me, I'm not going to limit myself to anything. What piece of mind has that given you in work? That has given me so much because so oftentimes and social media is and I, and I, I'm sorry, you're fine.

Social media and I am very, I do it to this day. I'm guilty of comparing to other people's where they are in their life. Their point C to my point A. We was talking about that this morning and I was like, yo, they got people got to stop doing that because niggas be lying. They didn't be on social media line and they ass off. All day long, especially the people that you know that, you know, I know you don't live like that.

Exactly. But I, you know, get caught up with that, and social media makes it really easy to get caught up with comparing your journey to someone else's. And I've caught myself saying that, okay, I, you know, if this book doesn't get New York Times bestseller, but why did their books, you know, why is their book, why is this book not selling his father?

And I'm tired. You get tired of that. Because at the end of the day, what my piece is, my slow mornings, being with my husband, having the freedom to get up and do what I love to do every day. The older you get,

the more of those things matter to you. So it's a peace of mind of knowing just like, hey, whatever happens, happens, but I know it's going to always be for my greater good. You dedicate. You can't wait for these recipes. I got one more, you dedicated the book

to your husband. I did. Why did you dedicate it to your husband? He's the reason why I cook. I enjoy cooking for myself but it's nothing like babe what you're feeling like today you know or like you know

seeing his face when he's excited about something that I'm making and when he walks in the house and I'm cooking and he's like oh it's smell good in here that makes me feel good so I get gratification and satisfaction from it's my love language feeding you know not only his body but his soul too

and I also want to say you know we always say we're losing recipe. Do you think cookbooks are spiritual because of that? Absolutely, especially coming from, you know, black and brown households where recipes are not written down. It's only like word of mouth. And so God forbid if Big Mama goes and y'all didn't get that sweet potato pie recipe

or that fat back recipe and nobody wrote it down and nobody can call her, you know. So having recipes written down and the stories that follow. of the recipes are so important because eventually all of us are going to leave this place one day and you got something, you got to have something left to talk about. That's right. Well, thank you for joining us this morning. Thank you so much. And listen, I'm

over the holidays, what's the date? We're going to be with Chris Kaelin. Yes. Is that November 27th? The day after Thanksgiving. So, yeah, November 28th. Actually, November 28th, we'll be at the Magnolia room. Yes. Myself, Cardia.

I said it right, right? Cardi. Cardi. Cardi. Like the glass. Like the glasses. Cardiardier. D. Cardier, Cardier, myself, Cardier and AJ from the We Talk Back podcast will be with Chris Caelin at the Magnolia Room in Charleston, Magnolia Road, man. So, tickets are available for that now. I believe. I don't know. I'm just reading what's on Chris Cajellon's page. All right. It is.

Cardier Brown. Cardier Brown. May you go to Cardier Brown's Suburring Kitchen in Charleston Airport, man. That's right. I'm telling you, somebody's listening to me right now, and they're like, you know what? On flight's delayed for two hours. Might be able to hook yourself up. Walk right path to Chick-fil-A and go on the summer kitchen. That's right.

It's the breakfast club. Good morning. Hold on. Every day I wake up. Wake your ass up. The breakfast club. You're all finished or y'all done? On the podcast health stuff,

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I mean, 50% of Americans are pre-diabetic. How preventable is type 2? Extremely. Listen to health stuff on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Big Take podcast from Bloomberg News keeps you on top of the biggest stories of the day. My fellow Americans, this is Liberation Day. Stories that move markets. Chair Powell opened the door to this first interest rate cut. Impact politics, change businesses. This is a really stunning development for the AI world and how you think about your bottom line.

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