Speaker 1: You're listening to Comedy Central. Welcome to the show. Gentlemen.
Speaker 1: You know this. It feels like it's been too long.
Speaker 1: I remember meeting you and my mind was blown not
Speaker 1: just by the food you cooked, but by the stories
Speaker 1: that you told, the way you encapsulated people's cultures, the identities,
Speaker 1: everything into something we take from granted every day, which
Speaker 1: is food. Let's start with the like the very beginning,
Speaker 1: the inception of it all, ghetto gastro. So many people
Speaker 1: have a negative connotation when it comes to getto like,
Speaker 1: oh that's ghetto, you know, and then gastro. It has
Speaker 1: this this culinary idea behind it. But you took it
Speaker 1: and you flipped it. I'd love to know why you
Speaker 1: chose that name. Well, we know opposites attract, and as
Speaker 1: a multi disciplinary business, we want to use food as
Speaker 1: a vehicle to tell stories, you know about culture, politics, empowerment.
Speaker 1: You know, mainly we're using our creative energy to uplift
Speaker 1: black and brown communities. I love that. I love it
Speaker 1: and the way you do it. The way you do
Speaker 1: it is by is by eveling up. I mean food
Speaker 1: from all over the world. I've I've eaten your food,
Speaker 1: and I mean not even gassing you up. You remember this.
Speaker 1: I ate the food and I was like, man, New
Speaker 1: York has the best food in the world. And then
Speaker 1: I stumble on a few places. I was like, these
Speaker 1: guys tricked me because that food was the best food
Speaker 1: in the world. New York has great food. But you you, you,
Speaker 1: you really take it up to another level. You've created
Speaker 1: something that's truly special. And everyone that talks about your
Speaker 1: collective talks about it with the level of excitement, pride,
Speaker 1: and joy, because that's what you encapsulate. You know. You
Speaker 1: you take food and you create a story from it.
Speaker 1: Why do you think it's so important to do that? Well,
Speaker 1: we break bread to build bridges, you know, and I let, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: what John said. You know, we break bread to build bridges,
Speaker 1: and for us, it's really important for our people to
Speaker 1: understand that the food that we that we eat and
Speaker 1: how important it is what we point into our bodies
Speaker 1: here and so were making conscious food, high vibrational food,
Speaker 1: you know, like food that's a life force, you know,
Speaker 1: straight from the source. You know, plants, you know, paying
Speaker 1: at actually love the flavor from the soil to the oil. Man,
Speaker 1: I like that a lot. You don't you know what
Speaker 1: I love most about it is what I what I
Speaker 1: love about this this this cookbook, and I love about
Speaker 1: the stories. It's, first of all, it's more than just that.
Speaker 1: You know, ten million dollars worth of okay, and you
Speaker 1: know what, it deserves a different name because it contains
Speaker 1: every you you expect the recipes, right, you don't expect
Speaker 1: what they'll be, but you expect recipes. But this book
Speaker 1: contains arts. You have beautiful images by artists who have
Speaker 1: shaped you know, hip hop and communities around America in
Speaker 1: the world. It feels like you've infused more than just
Speaker 1: the food, but the people that would engage around the food,
Speaker 1: and that that in and of itself was an interesting choice.
Speaker 1: Why involve others in your arts? When you when you
Speaker 1: think about food, think about nourishments, and it's really about
Speaker 1: nourishing the mind, body, and the soul. So we have
Speaker 1: to we have to combine these arts, the music, the
Speaker 1: design aspect, you know, a fashion flee and for us
Speaker 1: it's you know, it's community builds immunity. So we like
Speaker 1: to work with you know, our peers and people that
Speaker 1: we love and that we trust to create like pieces
Speaker 1: of art, like this that will you know last and
Speaker 1: standard test of time. You do that with your food
Speaker 1: as well. You know, you've never been afraid of sparking conversation.
Speaker 1: You've never been afraid of using your food to comments
Speaker 1: on what's happening in society. For instance, there was a
Speaker 1: dish that I remember hearing about. It was American as
Speaker 1: apple pie, right, it was Americ kakk right, and and
Speaker 1: the it was a deconstructed apple pie and it had
Speaker 1: a choke outline on the plate. It was a graphic
Speaker 1: image you know, to think about when you're having a dessert,
Speaker 1: and yet it was a commentary on what people oftentimes
Speaker 1: ignore about America. Yeah, food is you know, food is
Speaker 1: a vehicle for us as an artistic expression, you know,
Speaker 1: for us to you know, express our feelings and our thoughts,
Speaker 1: and we do it on a on a plate and
Speaker 1: sometimes it might make people uncomfortable, but like that's what
Speaker 1: art is. You know. We're supposed to spark conversation and
Speaker 1: make you think deeper into all of the things that
Speaker 1: I happened. And it's just not eating. It's you know,
Speaker 1: food for the food for the mind is right, right.
Speaker 1: You you've also not been afraid to challenge some of
Speaker 1: the ideas. You know, people love soul food, people have
Speaker 1: these ideas of how black people eat. We talked about
Speaker 1: this many years ago, but a lot of how black
Speaker 1: people eat has been defined by necessity as opposed to choice.
Speaker 1: And what you've done is you've come and you said,
Speaker 1: we're not scrapping these ideas. We're not. We're not getting
Speaker 1: rid of what Black people have created in a culture.
Speaker 1: But what we want to do is improve on it.
Speaker 1: We want to we want to create worlds where the
Speaker 1: food deserts don't define our diets. You know, you you you've,
Speaker 1: you've you've chosen to go with health. You've chosen to
Speaker 1: go with a lot of um, you know, vegetable, basic diets.
Speaker 1: You've you've, you've really chosen to speak to something. I'd
Speaker 1: love to know why those recipes have vibration cuisine like
Speaker 1: he mentioned earlier. And we don't call it a food desert.
Speaker 1: We call it food apartheid because it's not a natural occurrence.
Speaker 1: You know, this is social engineering. Areas that have been underestimated,
Speaker 1: under invested in, and exploited. So it's the reason why
Speaker 1: people don't have access to fresh food. But we want
Speaker 1: to know examples of how we can make it culturally relevant,
Speaker 1: push it forward and make nutritions and delicious self health
Speaker 1: as well. Do you find do you find you're able
Speaker 1: to break through? You know that there's this, um, there's
Speaker 1: this idea sometimes of what a black man should eat.
Speaker 1: I have half of my friends will if I give
Speaker 1: them a plate of salad or something to be like
Speaker 1: Satta barry if there's no meat, I'm not eating that.
Speaker 1: It's just a bullshit. Do you find that your your
Speaker 1: your recipes breakthrough? Well, the future of food is planted.
Speaker 1: It's conscious cuisine, you know, it's it's taking accountable calories
Speaker 1: and um, we really want to highlight that, especially in
Speaker 1: the neighborhoods that we're from that is suffering from that
Speaker 1: are that are just in desperation of healthy food, right. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we want to change, you know, the sort of connotations
Speaker 1: and the context around the food in our communities and
Speaker 1: what we eat, so that you're talking about what black
Speaker 1: men should be eating, and we want to show, you know,
Speaker 1: our community what we should be eating. If you want
Speaker 1: to perform at a high level, you gotta take things in.
Speaker 1: They're gonna help you do that. So, like we keep
Speaker 1: saying high vibration of food. No, no low vibrations over here.
Speaker 1: You know, it's always high vibes, so nutrient dense. You know,
Speaker 1: plants like they're the primary source of protein. So you
Speaker 1: want to talk about protein. You know, eat some kale,
Speaker 1: some keen wa, some sweet potatoes. You know, some chickpeas.
Speaker 1: Come and talk to me. And we've still got some
Speaker 1: twerk and jerk chicken in there too. That's what it's like,
Speaker 1: twerk and jerk. You've got the black power will right
Speaker 1: now losing using African grain or gum milled am rent.
Speaker 1: So we really want to have this continental cultural collision,
Speaker 1: looking at the ingredients of the America's, the ingredients of Africa,
Speaker 1: the ingredients of Asia, and creating this combustion of something
Speaker 1: brand new. You've also taken it to another level because
Speaker 1: you're not just creating on the streets. You're not just
Speaker 1: creating in communities. You you're you're also infiltrating areas that
Speaker 1: haven't generally been infiltrated by faces like yours. You know,
Speaker 1: you have a line of cookware that's out there and
Speaker 1: some you know, some of the biggest brands you make.
Speaker 1: You've got waffle makers. You've gotta I'd love to know
Speaker 1: waffle mixer as well. Slip on the drill. Actually, I
Speaker 1: think you guys would come on. You're giving everyone in
Speaker 1: the audience waffle mix right. I was watching the between
Speaker 1: the scenes you all right, No, for real, you do
Speaker 1: you're watching it between the scenes. We're opening, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. We can't
Speaker 1: let the big gold. Just on this. You get inside
Speaker 1: and when you leave, so everybody got in the stads
Speaker 1: out side. Now we just joke. You got some wavy
Speaker 1: wiffle mix, So get your fix. You know, this is
Speaker 1: what I'm talking every guest, somebody needs to bring something
Speaker 1: for the people. Can I just say it has been
Speaker 1: a joy knowing you. It's been a joy seeing the journey.
Speaker 1: Congratulations on every moment, every success. Thank you so much
Speaker 1: for journey show. We got a little focus so much.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much. You gotta gift a little little
Speaker 1: different self sitting little self. You're gonna be crow. Let
Speaker 1: me crown you, Let me crown you. You got you got,
Speaker 1: you got my do rag everything you every day. Let's
Speaker 1: just say I'm away tonight. Don't let you gotta get
Speaker 1: a graded back a kitchen and everybody make sure you
Speaker 1: get it. The Daily Show with Trevor Noah ears editions.
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