WEBVTT - Wyclef Jean 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:03.720 You were listening to Ruthie's Table four in partnership with Montclair. 0:00:08.400 --> 0:00:12.000 You never know what's going to happen. A few nights ago, 0:00:12.200 --> 0:00:15.040 having dinner with friends in the garden of the River Cafe, 0:00:15.480 --> 0:00:18.960 a message came that Wycliffe Jean was sitting at Table 0:00:19.000 --> 0:00:22.600 four and he wanted to say hello. An hour later 0:00:22.640 --> 0:00:25.600 he joined us at our table, and an hour after 0:00:25.680 --> 0:00:29.680 that we were still there talking about music, politics, and 0:00:29.760 --> 0:00:32.920 of course food, late into the night. What a man. 0:00:38.360 --> 0:00:42.000 Wycliffe emigrated age nine from Haiti to the Brooklyn Projects, 0:00:42.280 --> 0:00:45.640 played fourteen instruments by the time he was thirteen, won 0:00:45.720 --> 0:00:49.280 three Grammys, speak seven languages, and was asked to run 0:00:49.320 --> 0:00:53.360 for president at least two times. When the evening was 0:00:53.440 --> 0:00:56.360 over saying goodbye, we agreed we'd do a podcast when 0:00:56.400 --> 0:00:59.360 he was back, and, like his beautiful song, I thought 0:00:59.400 --> 0:01:03.120 he'd be god on till November. This morning he called 0:01:03.120 --> 0:01:06.720 and said, Ruthie, I've delayed my flight. Let's record tonight. 0:01:07.400 --> 0:01:09.640 So here we are back in the River Cafe, two 0:01:09.680 --> 0:01:15.240 new friends, continueing our conversation about food and music and memories. 0:01:15.720 --> 0:01:17.600 You never know what's going to happen. 0:01:18.080 --> 0:01:19.480 Ah, that's beautiful. 0:01:20.520 --> 0:01:22.720 It was a very good night, wasn't it that night? 0:01:23.000 --> 0:01:28.880 It was surreal night way because I'm a viber You 0:01:28.920 --> 0:01:30.480 saw how I just walked in in and I saw 0:01:30.480 --> 0:01:32.560 the piano and I just jumped on the piano and 0:01:32.600 --> 0:01:36.920 I believe, like everything is energy. And I came in 0:01:37.080 --> 0:01:41.600 the restaurant humbly, just chilled, and I was looking at 0:01:41.840 --> 0:01:46.800 everyone's eyes. Everyone was amazing, and it was cool because 0:01:47.560 --> 0:01:50.000 one by one people started coming to me. They was like, 0:01:51.000 --> 0:01:54.680 you are Clef Jean, right, yeah, yeah, what's up? 0:01:54.800 --> 0:01:55.000 Yeah? 0:01:55.040 --> 0:01:57.680 This wild clep And then I really wanted to meet you, 0:01:57.760 --> 0:02:00.120 so I was like, yo, I gotta meet you. And 0:02:00.200 --> 0:02:03.480 then when you came over, we just we click. You 0:02:03.480 --> 0:02:06.000 know what I'm saying. We click click like we said, Okay, 0:02:06.320 --> 0:02:08.720 I'm going to give y'all a lot of hip hop 0:02:08.800 --> 0:02:14.040 terminology here, so we click click. Translation means where we bonded. 0:02:15.800 --> 0:02:18.520 And so when you were here last time, you had 0:02:18.720 --> 0:02:21.560 I think you had these peppers which we're cooking right now. 0:02:22.040 --> 0:02:26.360 One of the duties of this of this podcast is 0:02:26.360 --> 0:02:28.760 that the guest breads a recipe which kind of connects 0:02:28.760 --> 0:02:31.040 you with the people who are listening to you. So 0:02:31.080 --> 0:02:32.880 would you like to teach us how to cook through 0:02:32.880 --> 0:02:33.880 reading this recipe? 0:02:34.280 --> 0:02:38.000 Perfect, but we about you know, as a producer and 0:02:38.040 --> 0:02:40.720 as a creator. I'm a creative. I already knew I 0:02:40.760 --> 0:02:43.440 was going to do this, So I was like, so 0:02:43.639 --> 0:02:46.960 in hip hop we do this in the cafeteria. This 0:02:47.000 --> 0:02:49.760 is where we be boxed. So I was thinking, what's 0:02:49.840 --> 0:02:54.560 dope is you? You start off every recipe you go, 0:02:55.120 --> 0:02:57.079 I'm going to repeat it, but I'm going to repeat 0:02:57.120 --> 0:03:00.160 it in a hip hop way. You feel me like 0:03:00.200 --> 0:03:02.840 we used to do in the cafeteria. So it's gonna 0:03:02.880 --> 0:03:03.280 be rocking. 0:03:03.400 --> 0:03:04.160 So let's go. 0:03:04.639 --> 0:03:07.639 So this is the recipe here, okay, perfect, We're going 0:03:07.680 --> 0:03:12.840 in uh huh yeah, yeah, you could just read it. 0:03:12.919 --> 0:03:13.440 I'm ready for you. 0:03:13.520 --> 0:03:15.800 Go me to read it. 0:03:15.919 --> 0:03:17.480 Yes, you ling from long. 0:03:17.400 --> 0:03:23.680 Okay, got grilled red peppers, an chovies, capers and bisquetta blush. 0:03:23.360 --> 0:03:27.720 That and capers, anchovies, grilled red peppers. 0:03:27.800 --> 0:03:28.639 Here were you go? 0:03:29.000 --> 0:03:33.040 Oh oh, fifty salted capers soaked? 0:03:33.480 --> 0:03:39.200 Hey, yeah, I fifty salt capers soap, soap soap. Let's go, y'all. 0:03:39.920 --> 0:03:41.920 One hundred salted anchovies. 0:03:42.000 --> 0:03:48.080 Hold up, one hundred salted anchovies. Wy cleft the refuge. 0:03:47.320 --> 0:03:50.560 Come on. Twelve red peppers and three garlic clothes. 0:03:51.240 --> 0:03:57.600 Oh, twelve twelve red peppers and three garlic clothes. Come on, y'all, 0:03:58.160 --> 0:03:59.200 Come on, y'all. 0:04:00.160 --> 0:04:03.000 Basil, leaves, extravergin, olive oil. 0:04:03.320 --> 0:04:06.880 I like the way you did that. Three slice sword 0:04:06.920 --> 0:04:11.000 dough cut in half. Let's go, baby girl. 0:04:11.040 --> 0:04:16.080 I like you grilled whole peppers until blackened on all sides. 0:04:16.320 --> 0:04:17.960 I like that. That could be a top line. 0:04:18.400 --> 0:04:23.080 Grill the whole peppers until blackened on all sides. 0:04:23.360 --> 0:04:28.360 Yeah, when cool. Remove the blackened skin by rubbing peppers 0:04:28.640 --> 0:04:31.360 in your hands, and do. 0:04:31.480 --> 0:04:36.920 Not worry if they fall apart. Remove the seeds and cars. 0:04:39.520 --> 0:04:43.359 Layer the peppers in a large dish with slivers of garlic. 0:04:45.000 --> 0:04:48.880 Layer the peppers in the large dish with silver of garlics. 0:04:49.080 --> 0:04:50.880 Don't panic. Let's get it right. 0:04:51.800 --> 0:04:54.720 Capers, anchovies, basil, black pepper. 0:04:56.000 --> 0:05:02.200 Eh eh, eh hey, black peppers, and genuine amount of 0:05:02.520 --> 0:05:07.719 extra virgin olive oil, oil oil oil. 0:05:07.880 --> 0:05:11.839 The final layer should have all the ingredients visible. 0:05:12.760 --> 0:05:15.920 I agree with you. Grill the bread on bull side 0:05:16.320 --> 0:05:22.279 and gently garlic over one side. Only, only, only, only. 0:05:22.160 --> 0:05:25.840 Only serve the peppers with the busquetta. 0:05:26.440 --> 0:05:27.840 I agree with you. 0:05:37.800 --> 0:05:42.040 Earlier, I got a chance to go to Buckingham Palace. 0:05:42.120 --> 0:05:44.800 Right, but you went to I. 0:05:44.800 --> 0:05:47.159 Went to the Garden Party. But the part I was 0:05:47.279 --> 0:05:52.200 most excited about was the chambers to listen to the parliament. Right. 0:05:52.480 --> 0:05:58.440 This is very important, right because this simple act of 0:05:58.720 --> 0:06:03.360 democracy don't happen in a lot of places. Right, because 0:06:03.400 --> 0:06:06.920 you got places where you know, in these chambers when 0:06:06.960 --> 0:06:11.440 they don't agree, next thing, you know that the one 0:06:11.480 --> 0:06:13.560 of the like in our countries you have which called 0:06:13.600 --> 0:06:16.440 senators and deputies. Right one leaves and next thing you know, 0:06:16.920 --> 0:06:19.839 you hear about you know, this person getting killed or 0:06:19.880 --> 0:06:25.400 this person. So the democratic process within anything, I applored 0:06:25.400 --> 0:06:26.200 one hundred percent. 0:06:26.520 --> 0:06:29.880 The interesting thing isn't it that they disagree and they 0:06:29.880 --> 0:06:32.200 insult each other. It was must have been question time 0:06:32.320 --> 0:06:33.279 right on the Wednesday. 0:06:33.440 --> 0:06:35.880 Yeah, it was question time. That's why I was like, 0:06:36.160 --> 0:06:40.920 you know, into it. Coming from HATI, I came to 0:06:41.760 --> 0:06:46.840 the United States, and I haven't uncle. His name is 0:06:46.960 --> 0:06:51.799 Raymond Joseph and he has a book called for Whom 0:06:51.920 --> 0:06:57.960 the Dog Spy? So my polycide brain as a young child, 0:06:58.760 --> 0:07:02.400 I would always hear these. So he was one of 0:07:02.440 --> 0:07:08.039 the guys that was upfront and the idea of baby 0:07:08.160 --> 0:07:12.080 Doc having to leave so he was someone like, if 0:07:12.160 --> 0:07:16.120 you're a dictator, he's gonna come for you, because the 0:07:16.200 --> 0:07:21.200 idea is, you know, we don't support that. So Raymond 0:07:21.280 --> 0:07:24.080 Joseph made his way to America and he started a 0:07:24.120 --> 0:07:28.440 newspaper called it up Savata, which is equivalent to like 0:07:28.480 --> 0:07:31.400 the New York Times but in French and crayle. This 0:07:31.480 --> 0:07:36.760 is where the consciousness of just the idea of understanding 0:07:36.880 --> 0:07:39.680 policy and how important it was so at a very 0:07:39.720 --> 0:07:43.280 young age. This is why I gravitated towards Barb Marley 0:07:43.320 --> 0:07:46.120 a lot, because I feel like a you know, a 0:07:46.160 --> 0:07:46.800 man who's. 0:07:46.600 --> 0:07:51.280 Saying emanship, patriotshell from minto slavery. Nothing but that with 0:07:51.480 --> 0:07:54.920 shelves can for ya, We're might have no fear further 0:07:55.160 --> 0:07:58.880 time making ninji for none of them can stop the time. 0:07:59.440 --> 0:08:02.840 How long will they kill out? What profits? Why we 0:08:03.080 --> 0:08:07.080 stand this shide didn't look Some say it's just a 0:08:07.240 --> 0:08:11.800 part of it. We've got to fulfill the pool. Won't 0:08:11.840 --> 0:08:17.040 you help me? Shane another song of freedom, because all 0:08:17.280 --> 0:08:24.120 I've ever had Redamntion song right again, So I always 0:08:24.200 --> 0:08:29.040 go back to the music because just again, and I'll 0:08:29.080 --> 0:08:34.240 constantly say this, the artist should be present in this time. 0:08:34.360 --> 0:08:36.880 It's very important. 0:08:36.280 --> 0:08:41.720 Growing up in Haiti, you grew up in poverty, extreme poverty, 0:08:42.280 --> 0:08:44.800 and was that a reflection of the food that you ate? 0:08:45.160 --> 0:08:49.880 I remember food very well. So my father left me 0:08:49.960 --> 0:08:53.840 when I was one years old. He had got a 0:08:53.880 --> 0:08:58.400 work visa to come preach in the United States and 0:08:58.880 --> 0:09:03.720 so we was rais Is mostly with my grandmother. So 0:09:04.280 --> 0:09:09.000 one of my bandmates from the Fujis Miss Hill, she 0:09:09.120 --> 0:09:14.280 was like, yo, clef yo. Remember back in the days, man, 0:09:15.040 --> 0:09:17.520 when you used to tell us you used to eat dirt. Man, 0:09:19.040 --> 0:09:25.400 we thought you was like beyond exaggerating, until we went 0:09:25.520 --> 0:09:30.720 back and did our research and realized mud pie was 0:09:30.760 --> 0:09:33.960 a real thing. Me and my brother was eating dirt 0:09:34.600 --> 0:09:39.800 from the floor. When you are in extreme poverty, you 0:09:39.880 --> 0:09:44.040 don't feel it. You have to understand. So when I 0:09:44.040 --> 0:09:51.040 would see a poster of a child from either Haiti, Africa, Brazil, 0:09:51.120 --> 0:09:56.640 different places, and you show me the child crying and 0:09:56.679 --> 0:10:00.320 he looks desperate and he looks in need, be like, 0:10:00.360 --> 0:10:06.400 but hold up, hold up, I'm from extreme poverty. When 0:10:06.440 --> 0:10:09.760 you inside of the poverty, you don't feel it because 0:10:09.760 --> 0:10:14.400 that means that you're living inside of it. So your 0:10:14.440 --> 0:10:15.760 way out is imagination. 0:10:16.080 --> 0:10:19.319 You you were not exposed to wealth. You didn't compare 0:10:19.400 --> 0:10:22.200 yourself to someone with wealth. 0:10:22.320 --> 0:10:24.360 I wouldn't know that what that is, right, Yeah, so 0:10:24.520 --> 0:10:28.320 my level of wealth would be this man, no matter 0:10:28.440 --> 0:10:32.720 how much we can't eat. I know one thing about Grandma. 0:10:34.120 --> 0:10:37.720 She just got two chickens, and once some chickens have 0:10:38.080 --> 0:10:41.000 lay some eggs, and then we go to the main 0:10:41.120 --> 0:10:43.240 city and she sells. 0:10:42.960 --> 0:10:43.760 Some of them eggs. 0:10:44.920 --> 0:10:47.840 We gonna come back and we gonna we're gonna have 0:10:47.960 --> 0:10:50.960 the biggest meal. So I want you to think like 0:10:51.120 --> 0:10:56.800 so every like three weeks, no matter what happened, my 0:10:56.920 --> 0:11:03.120 grandma would go. She would go and from planting tomatoes 0:11:03.160 --> 0:11:05.680 to corn, to different things. She would she would always 0:11:05.720 --> 0:11:08.800 get these seeds and from there she would go to 0:11:08.840 --> 0:11:13.040 the city. She would was it Porter Prince, Yeah, Porter Prince, 0:11:13.920 --> 0:11:16.000 and she go to Porter Prince. She would sell in 0:11:16.040 --> 0:11:21.480 the market, sell what she grow, and she comes back. 0:11:21.960 --> 0:11:25.720 So that was wealth to us. So no matter what 0:11:25.840 --> 0:11:28.400 we was going through, it didn't matter because we know, 0:11:28.480 --> 0:11:33.760 at the end of the day, Grandma is gonna make us. Uh. 0:11:34.080 --> 0:11:48.760 Julli suspik relations Julie Rice black beans, sorry, Kra. 0:11:49.360 --> 0:11:51.920 Okay the vegetable Okra love. 0:11:51.800 --> 0:11:58.400 Okra and susqua is black beans. So this was this 0:11:58.559 --> 0:12:01.840 was one of the things that we we always was 0:12:01.880 --> 0:12:03.000 excited to look forward. 0:12:03.200 --> 0:12:04.280 What about fish? 0:12:04.480 --> 0:12:11.920 We get whitefish, what's a lot of whitefish? Snapper we 0:12:12.000 --> 0:12:16.920 get snapper, get we get shrimp. So now my daddy's 0:12:16.960 --> 0:12:20.680 side straight fisherman. Yo, let me tell you something about 0:12:20.720 --> 0:12:25.880 my daddy. My daddy heat the original aquaman. Like this 0:12:26.000 --> 0:12:29.200 dude can hold his breath for a date, like when 0:12:29.240 --> 0:12:33.480 he going underwater to get that fish, or he coming 0:12:33.559 --> 0:12:36.720 up with that fish, how. 0:12:36.559 --> 0:12:38.599 Did he catch it? Did he have an attack or 0:12:39.280 --> 0:12:39.880 have the stick? 0:12:40.000 --> 0:12:41.760 They have the stick and then they have the nest. 0:12:42.120 --> 0:12:45.200 So so you know, this is like I remember being 0:12:45.240 --> 0:12:48.640 now later in Brooklyn and with my daddy and then 0:12:48.679 --> 0:12:52.640 my grandma, my daddy's mother telling us, you know, she 0:12:52.679 --> 0:12:55.240 would make us laugh how my dad would like just 0:12:55.320 --> 0:12:57.560 jump in the water and he would get the fish. 0:12:57.600 --> 0:13:01.200 So that side where the fisherman was at was a 0:13:01.240 --> 0:13:05.680 little more easier to eat right, to get the food. 0:13:06.000 --> 0:13:08.480 But the thing is once he left us, remember we 0:13:08.520 --> 0:13:11.320 wasn't on that side. We was more on the side 0:13:11.840 --> 0:13:15.000 of you know, depending on is it going to rain today, 0:13:15.080 --> 0:13:16.320 is it not going to rain today? 0:13:16.640 --> 0:13:19.760 Let's go back to your childhood. You lived with your 0:13:19.800 --> 0:13:21.600 mother and your grandmother. 0:13:22.040 --> 0:13:24.200 I was one, my mom was pregnant and my dad 0:13:24.280 --> 0:13:28.080 left and my mother joined my father right after she 0:13:28.240 --> 0:13:32.200 had the baby. My second brother, Samuel in America and 0:13:32.240 --> 0:13:35.960 Haiti this is Haiti. They didn't even have babies yet 0:13:36.040 --> 0:13:39.080 by the time my parents got to America because of 0:13:39.120 --> 0:13:42.880 the immigration laws. Now Ford was the president and it 0:13:43.000 --> 0:13:44.840 was said like if you had a child in America, 0:13:46.120 --> 0:13:49.240 now you can go back, so and bring the kids. 0:13:49.280 --> 0:13:52.679 So my parents had two kids in America. 0:13:52.840 --> 0:13:55.680 Who was looking after you? Your parents were my grandma, 0:13:55.920 --> 0:13:58.640 your grandma, grandma, your mother's mother. So we're gone to 0:13:58.679 --> 0:13:59.640 school by that time. 0:14:00.000 --> 0:14:02.160 I was going to schoo when I was like five. Yeah, 0:14:02.200 --> 0:14:04.240 I started going to schoo when I was five. So 0:14:04.280 --> 0:14:07.520 my father was a tailer. He worked in a factory. 0:14:08.480 --> 0:14:10.560 It was a sewer, so. 0:14:10.760 --> 0:14:12.000 As well as being a pastor. 0:14:12.160 --> 0:14:15.360 Yes, and so keep in mind the visa them ran 0:14:15.400 --> 0:14:22.560 out right, and so he's knitting and then he hears 0:14:23.000 --> 0:14:28.000 immigration and my father takes off to start to run 0:14:29.000 --> 0:14:32.720 like a gazelle. This dude done took off. His name 0:14:32.760 --> 0:14:36.200 should be changed to Greyhound. That's how fast this boy running. 0:14:36.560 --> 0:14:37.800 My daddy running. He running. 0:14:37.840 --> 0:14:39.160 How old did you think he would have been? 0:14:39.680 --> 0:14:42.040 My dad while he was running. My dad was like 0:14:42.120 --> 0:14:44.720 thirty something like he already was like thirty. So he 0:14:44.840 --> 0:14:48.360 was running because he didn't want immigration to catch him. 0:14:48.680 --> 0:14:51.480 So now they raided this place, and while he running, 0:14:51.720 --> 0:14:56.720 the immigration unit goes to my mama the apartment that 0:14:56.760 --> 0:14:59.120 they're staying. So while my dad's running, this is a 0:14:59.160 --> 0:15:02.760 big raid, like they day about that. Yes, this is 0:15:02.760 --> 0:15:08.000 in Brooklyn. Now immigration officer gets to my mama apartment. 0:15:09.640 --> 0:15:16.400 Immigration open up the door now, man, and my mom 0:15:16.840 --> 0:15:24.080 is so scared. The immigration officer has a translator with 0:15:24.280 --> 0:15:29.400 him that speaks French and crayle. So the immigration officer says, 0:15:30.200 --> 0:15:33.800 I'd have knocked on this door four times they ain't open, 0:15:34.040 --> 0:15:36.400 and I know somebody in there. I need you to 0:15:36.440 --> 0:15:38.840 say it in cray all, in French whatever language that is, 0:15:39.080 --> 0:15:42.240 tell them to open that door. And the translator says 0:15:42.320 --> 0:15:50.520 to my mother and cray all fair softly man, translation, 0:15:52.160 --> 0:15:58.080 do you not open that door right now now? The 0:15:58.200 --> 0:16:00.680 reason why I say this right is, at the end 0:16:00.680 --> 0:16:06.440 of the day, people get caught up in these situations, 0:16:06.520 --> 0:16:12.320 and we the United States of America, like there was 0:16:12.360 --> 0:16:16.800 a time where we would take keed to this, and 0:16:16.800 --> 0:16:19.280 we would take like cause to this, and we would 0:16:19.360 --> 0:16:22.600 be so sensitive to that, like where we could say, 0:16:23.160 --> 0:16:29.680 we'll give you a pass because we know what you're 0:16:29.720 --> 0:16:33.520 doing here. You're not breaking the law. You just had 0:16:33.520 --> 0:16:37.520 a bad day, and these days do not exist. No. 0:16:38.240 --> 0:16:41.000 Also, you know you're making the country better, you know, 0:16:41.320 --> 0:16:45.200 by coming from another country. And I was just given 0:16:46.480 --> 0:16:49.720 a prize in America. It asked to be in the academy. 0:16:49.760 --> 0:16:51.880 I was made a member of this Academy of Arts 0:16:51.880 --> 0:16:54.080 and Letters. And I wrote the letter and I said, 0:16:54.120 --> 0:16:58.720 my grandparents came from Russia and I came in nineteen seventeen. 0:16:59.000 --> 0:17:01.360 You know, they were part of that Ellis Island. I 0:17:01.400 --> 0:17:04.440 was just thinking, two generations. How you know if your 0:17:04.480 --> 0:17:08.280 grandparents were here watch watching you, did they Did your 0:17:08.280 --> 0:17:11.440 grandparents know the measure of your success? Did they see? 0:17:11.640 --> 0:17:11.840 No? 0:17:11.960 --> 0:17:18.480 My my my grandparents, my grandma knew my musical abilities 0:17:19.000 --> 0:17:21.879 at a very young age because I would just like 0:17:22.080 --> 0:17:26.000 make songs up. There was these women in the village 0:17:26.119 --> 0:17:29.480 every Sunday that would sing these church hymns and I 0:17:29.480 --> 0:17:32.080 would just get I would just be part of it. 0:17:32.280 --> 0:17:38.600 Remember one, Yeah, I remember a few of them. 0:17:38.920 --> 0:17:43.440 She sat fair, not do you aren't bad. 0:17:45.840 --> 0:17:46.919 One benea. 0:17:48.560 --> 0:17:56.760 Heya, she shuck fair, Oh what do you walk? 0:17:56.840 --> 0:17:57.040 Pair? 0:17:59.560 --> 0:18:07.400 We'll be me yeah, and work on that U pogod man. 0:18:08.280 --> 0:18:31.360 Theylluyah wah wah poco man llluiya po show whoa. 0:18:32.960 --> 0:18:33.160 Wha. 0:18:35.520 --> 0:18:38.000 So that was that was you know, you could just 0:18:38.080 --> 0:18:40.399 feel it. But the the the the the hem is 0:18:40.480 --> 0:18:45.120 saying we're blessed and we should acknowledge that like basically 0:18:45.240 --> 0:18:47.840 every day of our life. So again that was some 0:18:48.040 --> 0:18:51.840 of the I would hear these these these are these 0:18:51.920 --> 0:18:55.000 amazing women like and and then so the heymns would 0:18:55.040 --> 0:18:55.960 just channel. 0:18:55.640 --> 0:18:59.240 Through me after church. Would you would that be food? 0:18:59.600 --> 0:19:02.560 That a meal? Would you go home? 0:19:02.680 --> 0:19:08.120 And we call it Lucky Sunday. You get that Lucky Sunday. 0:19:09.320 --> 0:19:11.879 Everything come out on that Lucky Sunday. But it doesn't 0:19:11.960 --> 0:19:17.760 happen often. Lucky Sunday happens on Easter. The meal is big. 0:19:18.000 --> 0:19:22.399 The meal is big. The meal is a lot of meat, goat, 0:19:23.200 --> 0:19:28.399 goat goat cooked very interesting. It's called tassu. It's fried 0:19:28.720 --> 0:19:32.719 traditionally in Haiti. If you see how they cook, they 0:19:32.880 --> 0:19:36.359 use the chabon chocoal so it's caught with the chocoal 0:19:36.359 --> 0:19:39.199 because you know, the food gonna taste different. And then 0:19:39.240 --> 0:19:43.359 they put the big aluminum pan and so the goat 0:19:43.480 --> 0:19:48.800 is fried. They would make a uh poisson gorse. The 0:19:48.880 --> 0:19:53.400 passo gorsel is the white fish, a little saltea like codfish. 0:19:53.440 --> 0:19:54.240 At times, it. 0:19:54.280 --> 0:19:59.560 Sounds like you're saying gross sell is large salt, doesn't. 0:19:59.280 --> 0:20:06.280 It Yeah, yeah, yes, yes So in Crele the word 0:20:06.720 --> 0:20:11.080 means big yeah so yeah, and then phonetically yes so 0:20:11.720 --> 0:20:15.399 because uh crayle in French at times the words do 0:20:15.600 --> 0:20:16.480 mean the same thing else. 0:20:16.840 --> 0:20:19.760 And so when you your father around and your mother 0:20:19.840 --> 0:20:22.000 didn't open the door, so were they safe in the 0:20:22.119 --> 0:20:23.840 United States for you to come? 0:20:24.560 --> 0:20:28.440 They were safe. But let me tell you so in 0:20:28.560 --> 0:20:32.800 the village, what I want you to understand, I've never 0:20:33.080 --> 0:20:36.920 seen LeBlanc. I've never seen a white person in my 0:20:37.080 --> 0:20:43.399 life in this village. Never, right, So one day in 0:20:43.520 --> 0:20:47.639 the village and a jeep pulls up in this village. 0:20:48.280 --> 0:20:51.200 Keep in mind, I've never seen no jeep before. So 0:20:51.359 --> 0:20:55.360 that looks like a UFO to us. And we all 0:20:56.320 --> 0:20:58.600 like five, and we all get next to my grandmother 0:20:58.680 --> 0:21:01.280 and we're standing next to us and I'm right next 0:21:01.320 --> 0:21:06.960 to her, and then LeBlanc gets out. So now this 0:21:07.119 --> 0:21:09.000 is my first time seeing a white man. I've never 0:21:09.080 --> 0:21:13.359 seen that long hair. You know. He got this this 0:21:13.560 --> 0:21:16.240 robe thing on, and then he goes in the back 0:21:16.320 --> 0:21:19.280 and then he gets these bags of rice, and I 0:21:19.400 --> 0:21:25.760 was like, Grandma, who's this. My grandma looked at me, 0:21:25.960 --> 0:21:30.040 dead in my eyes, and she said, that's Jesus Christ. 0:21:30.480 --> 0:21:33.080 So when Jesus brings me this rice, we take this rice, 0:21:34.080 --> 0:21:37.560 brings it to my grandma, does the prayer right, because 0:21:37.600 --> 0:21:42.760 he's actually a missionary. And then as he's leaving, I'm 0:21:42.960 --> 0:21:49.240 five and I remember telling my grandma, why ain't Jesus 0:21:49.440 --> 0:21:53.600 leave the seeds? Why ain't he bring no fertilizers? Because 0:21:53.600 --> 0:21:57.879 once he leaving, I'm five and I'm saying that, and 0:21:58.240 --> 0:22:02.840 I say that to show you these kids in these 0:22:03.080 --> 0:22:08.119 villages and what they want is an opportunity. Even at 0:22:08.160 --> 0:22:12.479 a very young age, I'm screaming, bring back the rice mills, 0:22:13.119 --> 0:22:15.160 Like is there a way where we can just start 0:22:15.240 --> 0:22:21.159 producing in the country. So in saying that, this is 0:22:21.240 --> 0:22:24.320 how it started. So my parents came and got me 0:22:24.440 --> 0:22:27.479 and my brother. Now they get on the plane, they 0:22:27.560 --> 0:22:30.000 immigration laws work out they come and get us from Haiti. 0:22:30.280 --> 0:22:32.439 So me and my brother going to see my parents 0:22:32.480 --> 0:22:36.720 for the first time. Now yeah, So now I'm like 0:22:37.280 --> 0:22:40.280 eight nine and now my parents are coming to get me, 0:22:40.840 --> 0:22:44.200 and I've never seen them. For them, So my grandma 0:22:44.320 --> 0:22:47.800 gets us dressed, she takes our bags, she brings us 0:22:47.840 --> 0:22:51.159 to the airport. I never seen an airport before. So 0:22:52.040 --> 0:22:54.639 when the airplane is landing, you can imagine what that 0:22:54.760 --> 0:22:58.080 looks like. To me, it looks like another UFO. So 0:22:58.200 --> 0:23:03.600 the airplane lands and and I'll never forget. My mother 0:23:03.760 --> 0:23:08.560 had a yellow outfit. She looked like Jackie Jo. She 0:23:08.720 --> 0:23:11.960 had the glasses on, you know, she looked like Miss America. 0:23:12.119 --> 0:23:14.720 I was like, yo, that's my mama right there, you 0:23:14.800 --> 0:23:17.560 know what I'm saying. My dad had the long bed 0:23:17.760 --> 0:23:18.920 looking like he moses. 0:23:19.520 --> 0:23:19.720 You know. 0:23:19.920 --> 0:23:23.440 He comes, and they come and they hold me and 0:23:23.560 --> 0:23:27.360 my brother in that hog. I could still feel that hog. 0:23:27.560 --> 0:23:29.960 I hadn't seen you for how long they haven't seen 0:23:30.040 --> 0:23:31.000 her since we were born. 0:23:38.280 --> 0:23:42.000 The River Cafe cafe, steps away from our restaurant, is 0:23:42.119 --> 0:23:45.800 now open in the morning an Italian breakfast with cornetti, 0:23:45.880 --> 0:23:50.119 ciambella and cristada from our pastry kitchen in the afternoon, 0:23:50.320 --> 0:23:54.000 ice creamed coops and River Cafe classic desserts. Come in 0:23:54.040 --> 0:23:57.240 the evening for cocktails with our resident pianist. 0:23:56.800 --> 0:23:57.200 In the bar. 0:23:57.920 --> 0:24:09.240 No need to book see you here. Did they continue 0:24:09.359 --> 0:24:11.320 cooking the food of Haiti in Brooklyn. 0:24:11.960 --> 0:24:15.119 My mama had a thing you only can eat in 0:24:15.200 --> 0:24:17.600 the house. I didn't even know what it was like 0:24:18.480 --> 0:24:21.600 to go to a fast food restaurant. A lot of 0:24:21.720 --> 0:24:27.400 what was cooked in Brooklyn was something called ligan. Ligan, yes, 0:24:27.600 --> 0:24:32.000 ligan is similar to a gumbo, right, but all in vegetables, 0:24:32.119 --> 0:24:37.680 so eggplants, water cress, this was like part of it. 0:24:38.480 --> 0:24:43.360 Also a lot of yam, sweet potatoes and this is natural. 0:24:44.520 --> 0:24:48.200 A lot of fish in the morning. It was very, 0:24:48.400 --> 0:24:53.119 very important that you had breakfast. My father, who was 0:24:53.280 --> 0:24:58.720 also an amazing cook, he used to cook liver for iron, right, 0:24:58.840 --> 0:25:01.040 So again like it would all, but he would like 0:25:01.720 --> 0:25:03.359 cook the liver with egg whites. 0:25:03.920 --> 0:25:07.640 They dipped the liver and the whites, yeah, they beat. 0:25:07.520 --> 0:25:10.920 The egg whites and the batter, yeah, and they batter 0:25:11.040 --> 0:25:14.320 the liver so it's very it's not rough, so everything 0:25:14.440 --> 0:25:17.879 is very tender. And so this is like some of 0:25:17.960 --> 0:25:21.760 the stuff. There was a juice that we had called coasal. 0:25:22.040 --> 0:25:23.600 I don't know how you said that in the English, 0:25:24.480 --> 0:25:27.520 but it helped. She always made us drink this juice. 0:25:27.640 --> 0:25:29.959 If if if the name comes to me in English, 0:25:31.240 --> 0:25:34.920 if anybody from Haitius listening, it's coo salt, maybe you 0:25:34.960 --> 0:25:39.080 could send the translation. But this help with cancer. This 0:25:39.320 --> 0:25:41.200 was it's called coal salt. I have to find the 0:25:41.320 --> 0:25:44.640 name of it. But it was a cold war sort, 0:25:45.800 --> 0:25:47.159 so we might have to I might have to call 0:25:47.240 --> 0:25:49.960 my wife figured that out, but it really like helps. 0:25:50.000 --> 0:25:53.320 So this is some of the the So we naturally 0:25:53.480 --> 0:25:57.840 grew up in an environment where the food wasn't processed 0:25:58.560 --> 0:26:01.000 like they literally, Oh you know what she used to do? 0:26:01.119 --> 0:26:05.280 Polg chicken. So from the chicken. She would always go 0:26:05.359 --> 0:26:09.480 to the butcher. Like they would not if the meat 0:26:09.600 --> 0:26:12.600 wasn't from the butcher, they would there's no such thing 0:26:12.600 --> 0:26:15.840 about she go to the supermarket and get chicken. So 0:26:16.000 --> 0:26:18.840 everything is from the butcher. And it was called pool gee. 0:26:19.320 --> 0:26:22.359 And I got to tell you, just thinking about that 0:26:22.840 --> 0:26:25.600