The Daily Show: Ears Edition - TDS Time Machine | Chefs
Episode Date: January 2, 2026Pull up a chair and tuck a napkin into your collar for The Daily Show's conversations with some incredible chefs. Jon Stewart sits down with Anthony Bourdain to talk traveling the world for food and... culture. Trevor Noah chats with David Chang about the cultural history of food, and José Andrés about feeding the hungry after natural disasters. Chef and author Anne Burrell recounts her experiences on food competition shows and her book "Cook Like a Rock Star", and Kwame Onwuachi tells Trevor about his early life and his book "Notes From a Young Black Chef." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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You're listening to Comedy Central.
He's a chef and author.
His show for the travel channel is called No Reservations.
The people here in Mapuche, you know, whenever they have a hangover, they always come for plans.
Either we take the medium ones or the big ones.
normally they open better than the small ones all right so you generally buy
your fish here you go back here and you pick a restaurant which is a place we
sit there and then they cook it for us done I got to get out more please
Welcome, Anthony Bourdain.
We love your show.
It's a great show.
Here's what I have decided.
Your job is what people would do if they didn't have to work.
It's the greatest job.
You travel around the world, American all over.
Engaging with the local culture eating the local food. It's amazing. I have the best job in the world. There's no doubt about it. How many how often do you are you on the road?
About 220 days a year or something like that. So I'm away from home a lot
But you know I decide where we go. I make the show the way me and my friends want to make it the network interferes
near to not at all
So I can hardly complain about the boss. Is there a place you have?
haven't been to that it was too difficult to get to,
the arrangements could be made, was there a disappointment?
I dreamed for a long time.
We've tried year after year to do a,
I'm obsessed with Apocalypse Now and Heart of Darkness.
Yes, yes.
And I see myself every year going up the river,
you know, tracing the Marla's trip up to Kurtz and the Congo.
Uh-huh.
There have been some health and safety concerns
that have prevented that from happening.
I can just see the shot you rising up from the river.
having a man. So nothing in, let's say, war-torn regions.
Well, we had a taste of that in 2006. We were shooting what was supposed to be a happy
food show in Beirut and ended up getting evacuated by the Marines. We've certainly shot
at some places where anything resembling infrastructure is, you know, well, not really
there. It's impressive. Some of the places you go to, some of the food you eat, it's
impressive. I have gotten
diarrhea from watching your show.
I was struck down
recently with a terrible... Watching the
Mozambique preview and
just got hit, just bad.
Couldn't leave the house for two days.
We caught a joke on the show that, you know,
if there's not at least a 50% chance of
diarrhea when you need something, it's almost not worth
eating. It really isn't.
Do you have... Are there certain precautions
that you take when you go into these
like shots and... Yeah, I mean, we've
the full spectrum there but honestly we avoid the hotel breakfast buffet that
thing is lethal would you say that even in the States I would say even that you
know that sort of forlorn the shiny ham the the the congealed eggs the you know
the little no that stuff is a that's a vector that's not a meal the display of
bacon always because I'm a huge fan of bacon yeah but once it gets somehow
when it starts to layer and get on top of its right in the crevices lives
baconella or whatever it is yeah if it's more jerky like then then bacon like
right you probably shouldn't be yeah have you been struck by uh uh the ability of food to bring
cultures together everywhere you've got have you ever been to a place where food was not
important to the culture uh it was there it's a bad place you know where people are immune to
to the joys of of eating uh and that has nothing to do with budget as someone that
Dependably, the best food, the best times we've had on the road are often in very poor countries where they have very little to work with, and they do a lot with it.
A country that just don't pay attention to food at all.
It's like someone who says to you, I'm not interested in food.
Really not interested.
It's like them saying, I don't like, you know, music.
Right.
And I'm not particularly interested in sex either.
You know, it's just not a fan of joy.
I kind of got that from the first two.
Right, right, right.
Hate joy.
Yeah.
Not interested.
It's incredible.
I'm always, you know, I do a very different kind of traveling.
It's traveling for comedy, and you're going to clubs, and you're not going.
But I'm always curious how you infiltrate the local restaurant system.
How do you do that?
Where do you go to find actual real good local food?
Drink a lot with locals.
So it starts with drink.
It really helps.
You want to eat where going to the early morning markets is useful
because you see what people are buying and the little places around.
them that market workers eat in, people are proud of their food, and they'll tell you.
They'll recognize a freakishly tall American and say, oh, have you eaten this yet?
You don't have to tell me.
Oops.
In New York, do you find, is that your comfort level now?
You just feel like you know all in New York?
You know, it's a big city.
I'm always, you know, you always discover new things about it.
But it's a perfect example.
You know, you always are looking for, what do you eat in New York if you only got one?
day here, you know, not the best restaurant New York. What are we good at New York, the best
at New York that nobody else is as good at? I'd say bagel, nova, cream, cheese, deli. We're better
at Delhi than anybody. Big deli. So that's what you do. And you're looking for the sort
of Vietnamese version of deli or the Singaporean version of deli. What do they do better than anyone
else? Like a noodle bagel, something like that. You might be on to something. That's why I
don't cook. Well, listen, it's great to have it. We love the show. The eighth season,
No Reservations, premieres on the Travel Channel, April 9th, 9 p.m. Anthony Bourdain.
My guest tonight is a world-renowned chef
and founder of the Momo Fuku Restaurant Group.
He has a new documentary series on Netflix called Ugly Delicious.
The women in my life express love through food.
My grandmother was an amazing cook.
My mother is an amazing cook.
Mama.
Mmm, mm-mm.
Love was shown as, have you had a good?
Have you had enough to eat?
Until this day, when I talk to my mom,
just the first thing she says is,
what have you eaten?
Have you had enough to eat?
Please welcome, David Chang.
Welcome, sir.
Welcome to the show.
Glad that you're here.
Disappointed you didn't bring any fried chicken with you.
I'm addicted to a lot of your food,
and so many other people are.
This Netflix series has started off with a bang.
People are loving it.
Why the title, Ugly Delicious?
Well, as you saw in that clip, I grew up eating really well.
My mom cooked a lot of Korean things.
And growing up in Northern Virginia, it wasn't that cool.
In fact, I was like the butt of many jokes.
So when I started cooking professionally,
those were the foods that I never wanted to touch
because I was ashamed of it, or I just didn't want to, like, embrace it.
And that sort of encapsulates a lot of the foods that I think are,
truly delicious, but may not be cool or looks good on a photograph sometimes, like a curry
is a perfect example.
A bowl of curry is so good, but isn't something that's going to be on the cover of a magazine.
And for you growing up, your food was a part of your culture, but it was also something
that people used to tease you about.
Do you think that that's a big part of food, is the cultural identity that comes with
it?
Absolutely, because we're at a, not a crossroads, but food is more popular than ever before.
and it sort of intersects so many different parts of culture throughout the world.
Right.
So in so many ways, you know, creating the show with Morgan Neville and Eddie Schmidt,
we decided that food could be sort of a Trojan horse to talk about many of the great things in culture
and many of the bad things in culture.
Right.
Like, for instance, with Chinese food.
There's an episode where you delve into Chinese food,
and it feels like it's less about the Chinese food itself
and about how Chinese people in America have had to assimilate
and what that means and how the food has had to assimilate in many ways to fit in with American
culture. What, like, what did you learn in that experience when looking at Chinese food on its own
in America? I mean, it goes all the way back to when they came to work on the railroads and how
they were marginalized way back then in the 1890s or so. And without getting too much in the
history, I feel like as delicious as Chinese food is, and it's like the most prevalent kind
of food throughout the world, it seems. It's never been seen as, like, as cool as other
European cuisines. And quite frankly, I think that there's been a lot of sort of hidden
racism in how people perceive, not just Chinese food, like, basically anything that's, like,
different than the mainstream America, right? You see that with MSG or how people see, like,
cheap meats in Asian restaurants, Chinese restaurants. And a lot of that's not true, right? They're
just, you know, not even misperceptions. They're just wrong, right?
It's interesting that you bring up racism with regards to food, because those are stereotypes
that you see, you know, rearing their ugly heads all over the world. You know, people go, oh,
watermelon, black people, and chicken, black people, and they'll be like, oh, you eat this
type of food if you're Asian and you eat this.
There are certain ideas that come from food.
There are certain stories that are told by the food.
There's an episode where you talk about fried chicken, and what I love is in the story,
you know, you're out in the South.
You're meeting with people who cook fried chicken, white people who make fried chicken.
Did you find that it was interesting to speak to people about where the chicken came from,
how it came to be popularized, and how they saw the story as it really?
related to the food?
Absolutely.
And I think first and foremost about fried chicken, it's a story that, you know, a lot
of people don't know about.
Everyone I think that eats chicken will find it to be a fried chicken to be delicious.
Right.
Again, the world over almost, but the story of how it was born out of oppression and slavery
for the most part, the fried chicken that we all most are commonly associate with, that's
a really tough story to tell, right?
And if we can't talk about fried chicken, how are we supposed to talk about other things
that are problematic?
Right, right, right.
And going back to the sort of the popularity of fried chicken shops,
there's a scene where I'm talking to my friends, really,
and questioning them, the same questions I'd answer myself.
And the reality is it's like, it's a responsibility that I think today in 2018
that we should know more about and we should talk about.
And it's not easy to talk about.
I mean, I think you have to watch the episode because I think we're not trying to answer anything.
We're just trying to start the conversation about that
because it's just too dense of a topic.
Do you feel like that's something people could do?
Like at restaurants, like the waiter should have to tell you
about the history of the food when they give it to you?
So you should be like, what are you going to have?
I'll have the fried chicken.
Let me tell you about slavery and oppression.
This chicken over here comes from a long history
of people being oppressed.
And you're like, I'm going to go with the rice.
Can I go with the rice?
No, it's not about that.
I mean, certainly it could be,
but we live in a world where there's so much information at your fingertips.
Like, why not go down that rabbit in just a little bit?
And, you know, there's a scene in that fried chicken episode where it's not about fried chicken,
where I say to David Simon, great director of the wire, where I'm like, hey, I would have a problem of someone that's not Korean starts making kimchi.
Right.
And he sort of smacks me down being like, you're an idiot, right?
Like, America is about cultural appropriation when it's done, like, very well.
Right.
And that makes any sense.
And I thought about that.
And I was like, man, he's absolutely right in the sense that the only way I'm going to get this person that's making kimchi to appreciate kimchi is to love.
let them go down the rabbit hole.
Right, right, right.
And maybe they're going to be the biggest advocate of it, but if I'm there judging them
saying, like, you can't do this, then I'm not making any progress there.
So I feel the same way about fried chicken, and I think that I could have been that fried
chicken shop down in Nashville because I love hot fried chicken so much.
Of course, the first thing you want to do is pay homage, but it's a problem sometimes, right?
It's a, what happens if you start killing the very thing that inspired you?
Right, that's really interesting.
And that's, I think, what the show does.
It asks questions, it starts conversations,
and most importantly, it makes me hungry as shit.
Thank you so much for being on the show.
Thanks, everyone.
Amazing to have you here.
Ugly Delicious is available on Netflix now.
David Chang, everybody.
My guest tonight is a Michelin Starch chef
with more than 30 restaurants around the world.
He is the founder of World Central Kitchen
and author of the new book, We Fed an Island,
the true story of rebuilding Puerto Rico
one meal at a time.
Please welcome, Jose Andres.
Please, please. Take a seat.
No, no, no, you. Please. No, no, you. Please. No, no, you. It's your show.
No, you, that's why you might.
No, come on, man. I am an immigrant. You first.
I'm also an immigrant, so you first.
Together, all right?
Yay.
Okay.
Welcome to the show.
What an amazing book you've written.
You know what's funny is I met Jose at an event
and we started talking about food.
I don't know.
He looked at me and he was like, you like food.
And we started talking about food.
And this is a fascinating man who told me a story
about going to places that have been hit by natural disasters
or disasters of any kind
and cooking food for the people
who have been removed from their homes.
How do you get started in that, and how did your story begin with Puerto Rico specifically?
Because you've had an interesting relationship with the nation.
Well, Puerto Rico went there first time over 25 years ago, and I really fall in love with that island.
Puerto Ricans are amazing people. They love to dance salsa. They celebrate life.
I was lucky enough to have a restaurant in Dorado for the last few years.
But then, Maria, the hurricane was coming.
I was watching. My team and I, we already were in Houston.
So we helped there. We made a few hundred thousand meals. We were kind of all right.
Hurricane hit on the first plane, we landed.
And we began making few meals, a few thousand meals a day.
But we saw that the problem was getting, if anything, bigger and bigger.
So we kept cooking.
And we went from 1,000 meals to 150,000 meals a day,
more than 3.7 million meals in total,
20 volunteers to 25,000 volunteers, from one kitchen to 26 kitchens.
We then planned.
The only thing we did was start cooking.
Every phone call we got, an email, tweet, Facebook.
We are hungry.
We never said no.
We kept feeding anybody that asks us for a meal.
It's a...
It's...
It's really a story where, you know, the beauty of what...
what yourself and your team have done is only, you know, I guess,
amplified by the tragedy of the island as well.
Because you went through a really tough period of learning how to cook for the people in each place.
Because, I mean, you did this in Haiti as well.
Yeah.
And what's interesting is a lot of people might say,
I want to send food packets there, you know, why are you going there to physically cook for the people?
But you talk about that in the book.
Could you share why you do that?
I mean, you imagine, right?
I think we are who we are, thanks to, in a way, the food we eat.
And it's okay in emergencies you just give the MREs the meals ready to eat.
But that was created for our military during war.
But I saw in Haiti that kids, even hungry, they didn't want to eat those MREs.
They prefer to use a humble plate of beans and rice.
That brings comfort.
Even I was cooking in Haiti, and I made those beans.
And we cook for almost a camp, a refugee camp, a thousand people.
And the woman came to me and with a translator.
And they were saying, like, we don't like that?
And I would like, what?
I am Jose Andres.
Well, they wanted to eat their beans in the way they liked them.
They didn't want them whole.
They want them puree to make the beans into a sauce.
You know what we did?
We followed their guidance.
We made them into a sauce.
All of a sudden, they were happy.
They were being fed in the way they liked to eat.
Food, in essence, gives you hope that tomorrow maybe things will be better.
That's why a plate of food is so important in those moments.
It's so fascinating because you've been out there on the ground.
And it's, I mean, really incredible timing that you're here now today speaking about this
when the president of the United States is tweeting out saying that the disaster wasn't as much
of a disaster as people claim it to be.
You were actually on the ground.
You saw what happened.
How does it make you feel and how do you respond to what people are seeing the president saying today?
I mean, we need to help our president.
We really do.
Because we should be showing the empathy he doesn't have.
I think he tries, but I think he's lost somewhere between his hair and somewhere else.
And only to see him used to say was only 16 deaths.
When it was very obvious for many people in the island that the death toll was much higher.
And used to come all of the sudden with this stupid tweet saying,
well, actually the 3,000 people, the Democrats made it up.
When you are dead, you are no Republican or you are Democrat.
You are American people that your government forgot about you.
And all those people were on the watch, oh, President Donald Trump.
So come on, man, show some empathy.
You show some support because those people die under his watch.
And if he did more, probably we will be talking about a match.
smaller number. Fortunately, it didn't happen. When you look at the story of Puerto Rico as someone
who's been on the ground, what are some of the most inspiring stories you've encountered? Are there
moments where you've thought to yourself, you know, this is how Puerto Rico will get through it.
This is what makes Puerto Rico so special. You know, I saw so many children, especially girls,
10 years old, like Lola, their father and mother, they work in a foot track, and they will go around
the island. We had a total of 10 foot tracks. She will stay in the headquarters, in a kitchen
that we were doing 75,000 meals a day. She was 10 years old, but she was in charge of the
entire line of making sandwiches, ham, cheese, mayo, and you had to sit there a 10-year-old
in charge of 100 people in a line telling them, come on, people, quicker, more ham, more cheese,
more mayo. President Trump, if a 10-year-old can lead a line of 100 people making sandwiches,
should and you be living better?
Simple.
So simple.
Even a 10-year-old could do it.
We Fed an Island is available now.
An amazing story, an amazing man.
Jose Andres, everybody.
We'll be right back.
My guest tonight, a chef.
She hosts the Food Network's Secrets of a Restaurant Chef
and co-hosts Worst Chefs in America,
her new cookbook is called Cook Laga Rock Star
125 recipes, lessons, and culinary secrets.
Please welcome to the program, Ann Burrell.
Very nice.
Nice to see you.
Very good.
Thank you for joining us.
Cook Like a Rock Star.
First of all, let me tell you this.
Books called Cook Like a Rockstar there.
Very nice.
Let me tell you this.
I'm watching the Iron Chef Super Chefs.
You were in there.
They, a couple of weeks, your sardine spine,
Krispies with the tureen of sardine and sardine soup.
The fact that you got cut for that,
I was very upset about.
The way you spin it, it just makes it sound so delicious.
I'm telling you.
How did you not get kicked off?
But it looked delicious, and I was upset that you got kicked off on that one.
Well, I have to say, I have been upset for months that I got kicked off.
And it's just so hard when people come up to me on the street.
And they're like, come on, you better be the next iron stuff.
And I'm, like, in my heart is, like, breaking.
And I'm like, I'm not.
And they're like, if you don't win, I'm going to be.
And I'm like, well, I didn't.
You know, but...
But that show is incredible what they do.
They're like, okay, chefs, climb a building on the outside.
Climb a building on the outside.
And here is a popsicle stick and a piece of dental floss and a stick of calm and make something delicious in 10 seconds.
Right.
Yes.
And then they got that English guy who's like, your crudo was well formulated, but it's yellow.
And that's my worst favorite color.
Right.
Like your crudo is a little raw.
I'm like, but that's what it is, darling.
Is it?
Is it?
No, Crudeau.
That's what it means, Rob.
Can I tell you what the food channel has done to me, and this is a terrible thing, done to
my children?
It has instilled in them the idea that if I prepare a meal for them that they don't like, I can be sent away.
And that, it's a terrible, because I will make, like, I'll make scrambled eggs in the morning,
and my son will be like, chef, I like the consistency, but I'm afraid you've been chopped.
I'm afraid you've been chopped.
Right. No, more, it was like when I was growing up in my house, it's like, if you don't like it, well, I'm going to set the timer, eat it. And if you still don't like it, well, that's it.
Done.
Done. Are chefs a competitive lot? I've been surprised at just how upset and deeply the chefs are feeling this competition.
I have to say, this was incredibly hard. I mean, I have been in competitions. You know, I've been on Iron Chef. I've been Mario Battali's sous Chef for years.
I was on chopped, and I got chopped.
But this, I'm like, are we sensing a trend here?
Stop.
Your crudo was magnificent.
Yeah, like, right.
I had to do some retail therapy after I got sent home last week.
But, no, this one, I mean, Alex Cornicelli and I are really good friends.
She is also tremendous with the thing she did with the...
Yes, and so she and I have been texting back and forth for months being like,
and then, and then, and what do you think about?
that and then watching it and doing the live tweeting and it's been very
difficult it's very personal it really is I mean it is truly extremely hard and
I'm I'm almost it's terrible not in my job what is what's impressive to me is
what's going through your head when they say to you like okay here's your ingredients
you got wheat lecoche which is like this crazy black mold on corn sucrette's
and you know a lamb's anus and then they're like but then so
It's my favorite.
I'd feel so lucky if I got that one.
But what is going through your head?
How do you break that down?
It's amazing.
Like, every time I'm in one of these, like, at the minute competitions, I'm like, okay,
my brain works so fast, and it's almost like an outer body experience.
And I'm like, oh, yes, of course.
I'm going to whip this up.
And you just go and do it.
And I'm like, the next thing I know, I'm running around, I'm getting pots and pans.
I'm cooking something, and I'm like, what am I making?
And I get to the end, and I'm like, how did I even think about that?
Are you categorizing it?
do you say to yourself like sucretz, that's a candy in the form of a lozenge.
Right. It's got a little bit of a, right. It's in the form of a lozenge.
But if I melt it down and make a simple syrup out of it, it's got a little bit of a, you know,
mentally feel. And so that is what you're doing.
Absolutely. You know, you have to have a really good idea of food and how it goes.
And it's like, how can I use that in a, you know, a way that if I put it like maybe and pop you out and then you open it up and you get that aroma.
There you know, that kind of is always like.
Do you ever have the feeling like you just want to be like, oh, here's what I prepare for you.
lamb anus with the thing and a f***s right at the air here take that that's the way i felt the day i got
sent home well listen brother i enjoy watching it's it's a great show and these are some fine recipes
cook like a rock star it's on the bookshelves now and uh next year i think you'll be next year i don't
know i'm working on worst cooks a new season of worst cooks against bobby flay this year so
they're putting me up in the big girl leagues i'm going for a three-in-o record we'll see how that goes
Roxanne.
And Borrell, everybody.
My guest tonight is a James Beard
award-winning executive chef
at Kith and Kin in Washington, D.C.
His new memoir is called Notes
from a Young Black Chef.
Please welcome, Kwameh, On Wachee.
Welcome to the show.
It's great to be here.
How you doing?
I'm fantastic, man, but congratulations on an amazing book
and a really, really fascinating story.
Thank you.
I mean, you've done everything.
In your teens, you were in a gang.
In your 20s, you sold drugs.
Then you graduated from the Culinary Institute of America.
You competed on Top Chef.
You opened your first restaurant.
It tanked.
So now you run a successful hotel restaurant.
Don't give away the whole book.
No, but that's the thing.
It's less about just what happens
and more about how it happens.
That's what makes your story so fascinating.
When you look back at the book.
And you look at the life you've lived.
Does it feel real?
Because you're only 29.
It's a journey, you know?
I would say, like, every part of my life has been either extremely difficult or extremely rewarding.
And it's a journey.
So, like, you don't really notice it until you put it down on paper.
Right.
You know, and you read it through and you see it through.
What's interesting is how you tell the story of growing up in a world where, you know,
you were lucky enough to go to a private school, but you lived in a place that was basically hood adjacent.
and you got caught up in gang culture,
you got mixed up with the wrong group of friends.
How did you, like, see your life when you turned,
when you were in a gang?
Like, was that something you, like, prepared
or was it something that just happened to you out of nowhere?
It just happened.
You know, I talk about it in the book,
how I really got into it, and I got into a fight.
And then after that fight,
it was pretty much an initiation into the gang.
And, you know, I don't think it's something that you plan.
You know, sometimes we're a product of our environment,
which is unfortunate.
but also we can get out of that mentality as well.
Right.
You know, and for me, it was the moment that Barack Obama walked across stage
and he became president of the United States.
And I didn't think that I would see a black president in my lifetime.
I voted for him and everything.
But, you know, 55 years ago, we couldn't even eat at the same restaurants
as, you know, white people everywhere.
And to see that, it showed me that I can do anything I put my mind to.
That's really a beautiful part of the book
is where you're telling the story about how you're selling drugs,
you're living in this house where, you know,
people are high, you're also high,
and then you see Barack Obama walk out there,
and he's now present of the United States,
and you're like, oh, I've got to get my shit together.
Yeah.
That's a powerful moment.
How do you even begin that journey?
Like what, you know, you see Barack Obama, yes,
but I mean, it wasn't easy.
No, so for me, it was removing myself
from that environment was the first thing.
So I was selling drugs.
I moved to Louisiana.
My mother moved there after I graduated high school.
Right.
So I started doing the only thing.
thing I really knew how to do is just working with food.
And I just took it one day at a time.
And I told myself every year I just wanted to be doing better than I was doing last year.
It's not easy and you just have to take it one day at a time.
You know, when I got the helm of this huge restaurant, I'm going to be quite honest,
I had no idea what I was doing.
Right.
No clue.
But it was the same thing.
Okay, we're going to work on one thing at a time and we're going to get better at this
one dish at a time.
And every day we just try to do a little bit better than we did the day before.
One of the most fascinating parts of the book is when you talk about raising money
to achieve your dreams.
And now you don't want to sell drugs anymore,
so you decide to go and sell candy
on the New York City subway.
Yeah.
Right?
Which is harder, selling drugs
or selling candy on the subway?
Because no one pays attention on the train.
They have their challenges.
Both of them have their challenges.
Yeah.
One is extremely more lucrative than the other,
to be honest with you.
I don't know which one, to be honest.
We're not going to get into one who was sold.
Because you made a lot of money selling candy.
I did, yeah.
You made $20,000 in a few months?
Yeah.
Just from selling candy.
What's funny is I haven't really shared this story.
I did a dinner.
I did pop-ups around the world, and I stopped in Miami.
And one of the guys that used to sell drugs for me, he lived in Miami.
So I was like, hey, I changed my life around.
You've got to come to my dinner, and I talk about my stories.
So we're sitting there, and I get up and I'm in front of the whole dining room.
And I'm like, yeah, you know, I sold candy in order to save up for my catering company.
And he never knew this part of me.
Right.
He was like, candy, you're right, like in the middle of the dinner.
I'm like, no, stop, stop.
Gee, stop it.
When you look at young people now who may look up to you, I mean, you know, it's no secret
that there are many youths out there who are products of their environment,
who find the allure of selling drugs and getting into a gang really difficult to resist.
And you are living a life now, which is legal.
successful and inspirational.
When young men look at you or when they read your book,
what would you hope that they take away from your story?
That anything is possible.
You know, if you really put your mind to it
and you work and you put in the hours,
and you just outwork everyone else,
you can be successful in any field you're in.
I don't think this book is just for young chefs.
I don't think it's for black chefs.
I think it's just for anyone.
Right.
Anyone to really see that if you really want something,
Like, if you really, really want it, you can achieve it.
And that's what I want people to walk away from reading notes from a young black chef.
Oh, man, it's a fascinating book.
I hope everybody reads it.
Great story to tell.
Thank you so much for being on the show.
Notes from a young black chef is available now.
Kwame!
I'll watch it, everybody.
We'll be right back.
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