Speaker 1: I am all in again.
Speaker 2: How lets you.
Speaker 3: Luke's Diner with Scott Patterson an iHeartRadio podcast.
Speaker 1: Hey everybody, Scott Patterson, I Am all in podcast one
Speaker 1: on one interview Luke's Diner with Kat Cora.
Speaker 2: If you have not heard of Cat.
Speaker 1: Cora, you are living under a rock.
Speaker 2: She is.
Speaker 1: One of the great chefs in the world. Celebrated, world
Speaker 1: renown chef, author, restaurant or, television host, phil philanthropist, and
Speaker 1: a proud mother of six. Jackson, Mississippi native who graduated
Speaker 1: from the CIA What No the Colony Institut Culinary Institute
Speaker 1: of America and went on to cook at two, not
Speaker 1: just one, but two three star restaurants in France. Was
Speaker 1: crowned the first female Iron Chef and was also the
Speaker 1: first female inducted into the Culinary Hall of Fame. She
Speaker 1: pioneered the Food Network and broke the glass ceiling in
Speaker 1: the culinary industry. Cat is Greek American. She trailblazes in
Speaker 1: Mediterranean food space. She has opened more than eighteen restaurants
Speaker 1: across the United States. It's unbelievable what this woman has
Speaker 1: done and she's basically just getting started. She just told me,
Speaker 1: I'm just getting started. This is like, you know, this
Speaker 1: isn't even chapter one yet. What are we doing here?
Speaker 1: She's got a platform for health, wellness, sustainability outside the kitchen.
Speaker 1: She's the president founder of Chefs with Humanity, a nonprofit
Speaker 1: dedicated reducing worldwide hunger. Let's just welcome her cat. You
Speaker 1: also received a Lifetime Achievement Award and a Volunteer Service
Speaker 1: Award from President Barack Obama. To say that you're accomplished
Speaker 1: is an understatement. Welcome to Luke Steiner.
Speaker 3: Thanks, I'm so happy to be in Luke Steiner.
Speaker 1: How you doing, man, I'm doing great. We're just rocking
Speaker 1: and rolling in here.
Speaker 2: There is lots of stuff.
Speaker 1: Going on being made, meals being served. You made history
Speaker 1: as the first female Iron Chef. How did that opportunity
Speaker 1: come about and what it was and mean to you?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 3: I mean well it was literally it was really a
Speaker 3: tipping point for my career. I was already on Fee
Speaker 3: Network since nineteen ninety nine. I was doing various shows.
Speaker 3: My first show was Worth Baracko to Spirito Melting Pot,
Speaker 3: and then we just continued creating shows and it was
Speaker 3: with I just created shows with Free Network, and then
Speaker 3: one day they came to me and said, hey, you
Speaker 3: have television chops, you got the street cred. You know,
Speaker 3: we want to do this show called Iron Chef America.
Speaker 3: We want to bring it from Japan. We have the
Speaker 3: rights to it. Would you want to be the first
Speaker 3: female Iron Chef? And I said yes before I even
Speaker 3: knew what it entailed, because I didn't care. It just
Speaker 3: sounded really cool. It sounded big, so I was like, absolutely,
Speaker 3: I'd love to. What do I you know, where do
Speaker 3: we start? How do we start? And that was really
Speaker 3: how it happened. I was on my first first book
Speaker 3: tour in New York. I was walking around New York.
Speaker 3: I was actually just walking out of the Today Show
Speaker 3: at Rockefeller Center and I got the call from the
Speaker 3: executive producer and I was just thrilled. I think we
Speaker 3: met like a few hours later, and it was going
Speaker 3: so fast. It was like just a freight train, you know,
Speaker 3: they were already rolling and we were about to start,
Speaker 3: and I think I had two weeks to prepare and
Speaker 3: get going. Wow, it was amazing. It's just one of
Speaker 3: those amazing tipping point, those moments where all the planets aligned,
Speaker 3: and you know, we have those rare moments in our
Speaker 3: career where we're not chasing something, it just comes to
Speaker 3: us and God just brings it to you and says,
Speaker 3: here you go, I'm giving you something pretty magical. And
Speaker 3: it was and it was a great opportunity for me
Speaker 3: to to inspire a lot of young chefs, especially females,
Speaker 3: a lot of females around the world. It got me
Speaker 3: got it was a chance for me to break a
Speaker 3: glass ceiling and show that, you know, never we were
Speaker 3: the first cooking you know, competitive cooking show on tea
Speaker 3: television of any kind, and so we really broke that
Speaker 3: glass ceiling as well, and for cooking shows for all
Speaker 3: the shows to come, Master Chef, Top Chef, all of them,
Speaker 3: and so, you know, it was a pretty amazing time.
Speaker 3: It was such a heady time for all of us
Speaker 3: and the four of us that started as Iron chefs,
Speaker 3: and it was awesome. I mean, it was just a
Speaker 3: great time. I mean, you know, when you're walking, you know,
Speaker 3: people see you and you're in so and they're so
Speaker 3: inspired to cook. But also it was a chance for
Speaker 3: me to for the first time ever to show that
Speaker 3: women could cook as fast and hard and take the
Speaker 3: heat like men could in kitchens and that had never
Speaker 3: been done before. So that was pretty amazing aspect of it.
Speaker 1: How did you first get inspired to become a chef
Speaker 1: in the first place? I mean, and when did you
Speaker 1: know it could be more than just a hobby.
Speaker 3: Well, you know, I always loved to cook. I mean
Speaker 3: I was thrown into the kitchen early in my career.
Speaker 3: I mean in my life, I mean really young. I mean, well,
Speaker 3: I have pictures of me doing I always loved to
Speaker 3: do tea parties. That was my thing when I was
Speaker 3: really little, and so I always baked and we set
Speaker 3: the whole thing up and I would have everybody, you know,
Speaker 3: the whole family had to participate. I can imagine everybody's
Speaker 3: you know, stop work to come and you know, participate
Speaker 3: in a or whatever you were doing. But they were game.
Speaker 3: Everybody supported, everybody was cool, and so you know, I
Speaker 3: just always loved that. And I was always in the
Speaker 3: kitchen with my mom being Greek American and from the South,
Speaker 3: having two really incredibly strong food cultures around me, being
Speaker 3: Greek Orthodox, so we went to Greek church. We you know,
Speaker 3: everybody in our community was Greek and so and in
Speaker 3: the South, the first white tablecloth restaurants were from Italian
Speaker 3: and Greek immigrants. I mean, those are the ones, those
Speaker 3: are the people who started white tablecloth dining in the South.
Speaker 3: And so it was pretty amazing to see all of these.
Speaker 3: Every great restaurant in Jackson was run by people I
Speaker 3: saw at church every Sunday, so it was all of
Speaker 3: our friends and it was pretty amazing. And then we
Speaker 3: always had these big, you know, church barbecues and things.
Speaker 3: So cooking was always My dad was a grill meister.
Speaker 3: He showed me how to smoke meats, marinate meats, dry
Speaker 3: you do dry rubs, and you know, grill properly. And
Speaker 3: so that was, you know, from the very as long
Speaker 3: as I can remember, I was outside grilling with my dad,
Speaker 3: my mom, and grandmother. My mom was an Air Force brat,
Speaker 3: so they lived all over the world, Tokyo, Honolulu, all
Speaker 3: over the country, and so they had a very what
Speaker 3: we call very global, you know palette. They had a
Speaker 3: lot of you know, incredible recipes that global up their sleeve,
Speaker 3: whether it was strawg and off or sweet and sour
Speaker 3: pork or you know whatever, lasagna, amazing lavangna, you know,
Speaker 3: just great Italian Greek kind of just global type dishes.
Speaker 3: And that was served a lot in our house along
Speaker 3: with Greek food. So I really grew up in a
Speaker 3: very you know, amazing you know, really being in the
Speaker 3: Deep South. You know, when my other friends were having
Speaker 3: fried okra and you know that, you know, the fried
Speaker 3: catfish on the table, which we ate too, by the way,
Speaker 3: I love Southern food and barbecue, but we were having
Speaker 3: steamed artichokes with lemon and extra virgin olive oil in
Speaker 3: our house, so, you know, or sue blackie or spina
Speaker 3: copada or grape leaves, you know, things like that. So
Speaker 3: it was really that's where I really, I think began.
Speaker 3: My grandfather had restaurants. He was an immigrant that came
Speaker 3: through Ellis Island and settled in the South. He had restaurants.
Speaker 3: My godfather had restaurants when I was growing up. So
Speaker 3: it was just in my dna I really got.
Speaker 1: But speaking of that, you went on to open restaurants
Speaker 1: all over the world. What's been your favorite project so far?
Speaker 2: Why?
Speaker 3: Oh, you know, I have to say opening. What I've
Speaker 3: done is really opened in a lot of partner with
Speaker 3: a lot of partners that have restaurants. You know, we
Speaker 3: have restaurants, airport restaurants, stadium restaurants, restaurants on university camp campuses,
Speaker 3: corporate restaurants, I've had standalone restaurants. I've had a restaurant
Speaker 3: in Singapore, which that probably I have to say, just
Speaker 3: because I got to go to Singapore in Southeast Asia.
Speaker 3: A lot was probably one of my favorites. And it
Speaker 3: was very had a very per se, you know, kind
Speaker 3: of French laundry. It was very very high end and
Speaker 3: it was exactly what you expect in a restaurant in
Speaker 3: Singapore and in a venue such as that I had.
Speaker 3: So I think that that was probably one of my
Speaker 3: very favorites. But you know, I just they're all my babies,
Speaker 3: you know, whether it's an airport restaurant, a corporate restaurant,
Speaker 3: a standalone I mean, so I've had very I've pretty
Speaker 3: much done almost every iteration you can think of of
Speaker 3: airport of restaurants.
Speaker 1: How do you balance business and food? Are there times
Speaker 1: when you feel more administrative than a classic show? I mean,
Speaker 1: just pile up on you O the business.
Speaker 3: Stuff sometimes, you know, I mean I have you know,
Speaker 3: a great team around me too that help, and that's
Speaker 3: really that's very helpful. But I'm very hands on with
Speaker 3: all of it. So I like to I like to
Speaker 3: look at contracts. I like to I like to create concepts.
Speaker 3: I like to visualize and conceptual life things. I'm very
Speaker 3: much an artist in that and also a business woman,
Speaker 3: and you know, with my craft. So I think it's
Speaker 3: you know, it's left brain, right brain. You know. I
Speaker 3: love all that and stimulates me. It helps me grow,
Speaker 3: it helps me evolve, It helps me become a better
Speaker 3: business woman. And I understand my businesses. So there's not
Speaker 3: a business that I'm going, wait, what do we what
Speaker 3: are the financials or what did that contract say. I'm
Speaker 3: in pretty hands on and I think you have to
Speaker 3: be in this day and age, you really have to
Speaker 3: know your businesses. But it is it does take a
Speaker 3: little village. And so I have a small orbit. I
Speaker 3: have an incredible small orbit of a team that I
Speaker 3: trust implicitly and balancing it. It's really just having to
Speaker 3: you know, you have to be very versatile, You have
Speaker 3: to be very you have to be able to multitask,
Speaker 3: which chefs are great at. By the way, we have
Speaker 3: to do the restaurants every day anyway, So we learned
Speaker 3: very quickly how to multitask and balance it and I
Speaker 3: love that. That's why I was never a chef that
Speaker 3: was just going to be very linear. I knew that
Speaker 3: I loved having a lot of balls in the air,
Speaker 3: and I love that feeling. And that's a little bit
Speaker 3: of an adrenaline rush. It's it's exciting. You never know
Speaker 3: when you open your email or you get a text
Speaker 3: of what's going to be next, and so it's very
Speaker 3: it's very exciting, and yes, it's very it can be
Speaker 3: very stressful at times, and you have to That's why
Speaker 3: I work out, I meditate, I do other things to
Speaker 3: counteract that. And then you know, listen, I thought it
Speaker 3: was more stressful being in a restaurant day to day
Speaker 3: and having to be do you know when you're an
Speaker 3: executive chef in one restaurant, you're still busy because you're
Speaker 3: doing scheduling, you're doing you're dealing with vendors, you're dealing
Speaker 3: with so it's a you know, either way, I think
Speaker 3: that if you do what you love, you you enjoy
Speaker 3: that part. Although it can be stressful in some days
Speaker 3: you're like, oh my gosh, what's happening. How I got
Speaker 3: to get the through this? And you do, you know,
Speaker 3: you get on the other side of it. But I
Speaker 3: can tell you what's more stressful. It's six teenage sons driving.
Speaker 3: Nothing's more stressful than that.
Speaker 1: You had all boys, all boys.
Speaker 3: Oh wow, blended family, all boys. They're amazing young men,
Speaker 3: and they just blow me away there. I'm in all
Speaker 3: every day.
Speaker 1: That's what they do.
Speaker 3: And I'll tell you that that gen the generation coming up.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 3: They are smart. Yeah, in all kinds of ways. So yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: pretty cool.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about the charitable side of what you're doing.
Speaker 1: You launch Chefs for Humanity in the waker Hurricane Katrina.
Speaker 1: What made you do that?
Speaker 3: Actually I launched it before that in twenty fourteen in
Speaker 3: the tsunami when we had the tsunami that hit Thailand,
Speaker 3: Fuquet and so that was when things is kind of
Speaker 3: you know, everybody was you know, that was such a
Speaker 3: tragic I mean, if anybody remembers that, that was such
Speaker 3: a tragic, tragic moment, and I think that, uh, you know,
Speaker 3: we were still we were already we were just getting
Speaker 3: all of you know, this is when we were getting
Speaker 3: all the news feeds and social media with everything was
Speaker 3: starting to happen, you know, and you were getting instantaneous information.
Speaker 3: So a lot of chefs were calling me because they
Speaker 3: knew I did a lot of charity work. I was
Speaker 3: one of the leading chefs that was doing a lot
Speaker 3: of charity work at the time, and a lot of
Speaker 3: hunger initiatives and a lot of emergency feeding relief with
Speaker 3: other organizations like World Food Program, International Red Cross and
Speaker 3: care dot org things like that and charities like that.
Speaker 3: So they started calling me. I was inundated with chefs
Speaker 3: calling me. What can we do? What can we go?
Speaker 3: Where can we go? What can we do? How can
Speaker 3: we roll our sleeves up? And I realized that chefs
Speaker 3: will write a check, but they also want to be
Speaker 3: hands on and we can be the great thing about chefs.
Speaker 3: And we're seeing that with a lot of my friends
Speaker 3: now that you know Jusean Dress, Guy Fieri, a lot
Speaker 3: of my friends that are doing and a lot of
Speaker 3: incredible you know, they kind of took the torch and
Speaker 3: you know, ran with it because we were one of
Speaker 3: Chess for Humanity, was the first chef driven emergency feeding
Speaker 3: relief at the time, and so I'm happy to see
Speaker 3: them take the torch and run. But yeah, it's like
Speaker 3: we are able to get in and the one thing
Speaker 3: that people have to do and no matter what kind
Speaker 3: of emergency or crisis or mother nature is, they have
Speaker 3: to eat and they have to have shelter, and it's
Speaker 3: in super basic, you know. And so that was one
Speaker 3: of the areas that was important for me, and we
Speaker 3: were there for her. We were set up by the
Speaker 3: time Hurricane Katrina happen. Thankfully, We've been all over the
Speaker 3: world and you know, we were there when hate that
Speaker 3: earthquake happened in Haiti. We flew to Haiti. We were
Speaker 3: there with many many of the other catastrophes that happened,
Speaker 3: whether it was you know, in other areas we've done
Speaker 3: you know, not only that, but just just hunger initiatives
Speaker 3: in Guatemala, Ecuador, Theiopia and other places, so Mozambique. So
Speaker 3: we've been around the world and I'm so proud that
Speaker 3: we launched something that actually was a catalyst for many
Speaker 3: other big you know arms to go out and continue
Speaker 3: that work.
Speaker 1: Well, congratulations and all that you do and much needed.
Speaker 1: So you've fed president's celebrities, your kids. Who's the pickiest
Speaker 1: eater you've ever cooked for?
Speaker 3: Oh gosh, oh I have to I'm not sure, like
Speaker 3: that's a that's a tough one. I'm trying to remember
Speaker 3: everybody I've cooked for. I haven't run across. I mean,
Speaker 3: obviously you have to. I think, you know when people say,
Speaker 3: I get a lot of people saying how do I
Speaker 3: get my kids to eat? And I always say, start
Speaker 3: them as early as possible. So this isn't answering your question.
Speaker 3: But I'm gonna come back around to that. I say,
Speaker 3: start them as early as possible. And you know, one
Speaker 3: of the ways you can get kids. And that's why
Speaker 3: I started. One of the reasons I was got on
Speaker 3: board with Little Kitchen Academy, it's because this is a
Speaker 3: great you know, Little Kitchen Academy that we started with
Speaker 3: Brian and Felicity uh Current is such an amazing project
Speaker 3: for me. This is one of my love projects, you know,
Speaker 3: that I got involved with because it's teaching kids how
Speaker 3: to cook from scratch. It's teaching kids how to get
Speaker 3: in the kitchen, and they're learning skills that they'll take
Speaker 3: for the rest of their lives, whether it's stem, whether
Speaker 3: it's you know, organizational skills, whether it's socialization skills, what
Speaker 3: have you. And it's such an independence and so I
Speaker 3: find that when you start kids in our school is
Speaker 3: three year olds all the way to teens. And so
Speaker 3: I find when you start kids young and you get
Speaker 3: them involved with where does food come from? Let them
Speaker 3: get involved with when I used to when my kids
Speaker 3: were little, I used to say, Okay, here's two options
Speaker 3: for dinner. We're gonna salmon her chicken at amami or broccoli.
Speaker 3: You know, carrots are this? You know, and like it's
Speaker 3: a five minute it's a two minute conversation, you know.
Speaker 3: But it gives them, It gives them a little power,
Speaker 3: and it gives them, you know, a little independence in
Speaker 3: choosing what they're going to eat. And you know, we
Speaker 3: I cook one thing, this is dinner, but we all
Speaker 3: have a say in it. And I think that that
Speaker 3: just gets kids. It gets kids excited to eat and
Speaker 3: gives them a gives some investment in it. And so
Speaker 3: I think that that's one of the way the ways
Speaker 3: that I've helped people understand how to begin and get
Speaker 3: them cooking, get them in the kitchen.
Speaker 1: And that's a little kitchen academy, Right, that's a little
Speaker 1: kitchen academy.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah. That we've been expanding not only all over the US,
Speaker 3: but globally and we have one at Century City here
Speaker 3: in Los Angeles is the one that's right down the
Speaker 3: street from me. And I think that that's a really
Speaker 3: big picky eaters. You know, when I cook for the Obamas,
Speaker 3: they weren't picky. They loved whatever I cooked. When I
Speaker 3: poked Royalty, they've you know, enjoyed it. So I don't.
Speaker 3: I haven't. I really can't answer that because I haven't.
Speaker 3: You know, I don't know all.
Speaker 1: What's your cooking style when no one's watching, you know,
Speaker 1: your typical night in the kitchen at home? What are
Speaker 1: you preparing?
Speaker 3: Oh, I mean it's real simple, like I prepare, like
Speaker 3: we do tacos at home.
Speaker 2: We do.
Speaker 3: It's a lot of I eat very healthy. I eat
Speaker 3: pretty healthy. So and my kids are really good. They're
Speaker 3: all kind of you know, have learned through that is
Speaker 3: eating healthier, even though we have our indulgences. Of course,
Speaker 3: we love, you know, a great pizza night on Friday
Speaker 3: nights or you know, pizza and movie nights, things like that.
Speaker 3: But you know, it's real simple. It could just be
Speaker 3: some you know tacos, great tacos where I just kind
Speaker 3: of lay everything out, you know, girls, some chicken do
Speaker 3: a little we do a little homemade walk together. That's
Speaker 3: one of the things that kids love to make together
Speaker 3: is big bowl of gualk and chips and you know,
Speaker 3: just put all the fixens out and something like that.
Speaker 3: It's like it's like a typical weeknight.
Speaker 1: Right right easy, and.
Speaker 3: Everybody customize so it's not there's no special it's not
Speaker 3: a short order kind of situation where you know, I'm
Speaker 3: taking your order. It's just everybody can make their own
Speaker 3: and it's perfect. Right.
Speaker 1: And now you're part of something called cook Unity, making
Speaker 1: healthy meals accessible nationwide.
Speaker 2: Tell us about that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, cook Comunity is a fantastic platform. I mean, there's
Speaker 3: something on there for everybody, and I love we you know,
Speaker 3: we joined it a year ago. We've been you know,
Speaker 3: really working hard. It's probably something I've put a lot
Speaker 3: more energy into lately than anything. And it's just an
Speaker 3: amazing platform. I mean, and we cover every gamut of
Speaker 3: every whether it's medically crafted meals, whether it's it's all
Speaker 3: chef driven, it's all my friends are on the platform,
Speaker 3: and I mean we really put our heart and soul
Speaker 3: into the meals that we make, and a lot of
Speaker 3: them are meals we've been making our whole career. Some
Speaker 3: of them are restaurants, some of them are things that
Speaker 3: we love to look at home that now our customers
Speaker 3: get to have at home as well. And we just
Speaker 3: put our heart and soul into it. It's a great
Speaker 3: platform and everyone should be and it's affordable, so everyone
Speaker 3: should be ordering from it. And there's any anything in
Speaker 3: everything you want you can find.
Speaker 1: There, right, fantastic. Do you have a restaurant in La
Speaker 1: I don't.
Speaker 3: I don't know in La not yet. I mean not yet, huh,
Speaker 3: not yet, not you know. I mean I've consulted on
Speaker 3: a couple of things here and you never know. I mean,
Speaker 3: that's the beauty of this industry is that you just
Speaker 3: never know. I mean we're you know, we've this industry
Speaker 3: has grown so tremendously in a beautiful way that there's
Speaker 3: so many avenues that you can be in and I
Speaker 3: love that. That's exciting to me. Whether it's television, movies,
Speaker 3: you know, whether it's you know, platforms where it's fresh
Speaker 3: delivery or you know, what have you products things like that.
Speaker 3: I mean, it's just exciting. It's an exciting time, you know,
Speaker 3: in our industry.
Speaker 1: Well, we're down to the last segment. Here the last question,
Speaker 1: and this is a big.
Speaker 2: Question.
Speaker 1: It's a huge question. All right, if you were to
Speaker 1: come into Luke's diner, what would you order and where
Speaker 1: would you sit? Cat Cora all.
Speaker 3: Right, Well, if I'm going to come into Luke's Diner,
Speaker 3: I want to know how good your burger is. I
Speaker 3: want to know how good you a diner. I'm going
Speaker 3: to get some comfort food, so we're going to bring
Speaker 3: it to all right, Okay, okay, all right, I want
Speaker 3: some good burgers. I like my fries really crisp, yep,
Speaker 3: me too nice and salt like sea salt on it.
Speaker 3: You can cost a little you know, cracked pepper on
Speaker 3: there too, Uh huh. Good ketch up? Not too sweet.
Speaker 3: You know, it's got to be a certain brand right
Speaker 3: where we just say you know what I love And
Speaker 3: my kids when I say this, when I remember I'm
Speaker 3: eating a fry, I always dip it in the ketchup
Speaker 3: up and I always say, you know what, French fries
Speaker 3: just a vehicle for the catch up. That's one of
Speaker 3: my favorite sayings, just a vehicle for the catch up.
Speaker 1: It has been a delight. Thank you for your time.
Speaker 2: And amazing what.
Speaker 1: Cooking has done for your life and what you've given
Speaker 1: back to the world a true inspiration and keep on
Speaker 1: keeping on. Honor to talk to you.
Speaker 3: Thanks so much for having me on.
Speaker 2: Please come back and.
Speaker 1: Just be well and remember everybody, keep those cards and
Speaker 1: letters coming. Best fans on the planet cat Correl, ladies
Speaker 1: and gentlemen. Where you lead, we will follow. Stay safe everyone.
Speaker 2: Hey everybody, and don't forget.
Speaker 1: Follow us on Instagram at I Am all In podcast
Speaker 1: and email us at Gilmore at iHeartRadio dot com.