WEBVTT - Luke’s Diner: Breaking Glass Ceilings 0:00:00.720 --> 0:00:04.120 I am all in again. 0:00:09.480 --> 0:00:10.520 How lets you. 0:00:18.200 --> 0:00:21.959 Luke's Diner with Scott Patterson an iHeartRadio podcast. 0:00:22.239 --> 0:00:25.560 Hey everybody, Scott Patterson, I Am all in podcast one 0:00:25.600 --> 0:00:29.320 on one interview Luke's Diner with Kat Cora. 0:00:30.240 --> 0:00:32.120 If you have not heard of Cat. 0:00:31.920 --> 0:00:35.040 Cora, you are living under a rock. 0:00:35.960 --> 0:00:36.639 She is. 0:00:39.000 --> 0:00:43.320 One of the great chefs in the world. Celebrated, world 0:00:43.360 --> 0:00:49.920 renown chef, author, restaurant or, television host, phil philanthropist, and 0:00:50.000 --> 0:00:54.040 a proud mother of six. Jackson, Mississippi native who graduated 0:00:54.520 --> 0:00:59.400 from the CIA What No the Colony Institut Culinary Institute 0:00:59.400 --> 0:01:02.960 of America and went on to cook at two, not 0:01:03.120 --> 0:01:07.240 just one, but two three star restaurants in France. Was 0:01:07.280 --> 0:01:11.480 crowned the first female Iron Chef and was also the 0:01:11.520 --> 0:01:16.280 first female inducted into the Culinary Hall of Fame. She 0:01:16.840 --> 0:01:21.200 pioneered the Food Network and broke the glass ceiling in 0:01:21.280 --> 0:01:25.320 the culinary industry. Cat is Greek American. She trailblazes in 0:01:25.400 --> 0:01:29.160 Mediterranean food space. She has opened more than eighteen restaurants 0:01:29.160 --> 0:01:33.840 across the United States. It's unbelievable what this woman has 0:01:33.920 --> 0:01:36.920 done and she's basically just getting started. She just told me, 0:01:36.959 --> 0:01:39.440 I'm just getting started. This is like, you know, this 0:01:39.520 --> 0:01:42.199 isn't even chapter one yet. What are we doing here? 0:01:42.680 --> 0:01:47.000 She's got a platform for health, wellness, sustainability outside the kitchen. 0:01:47.440 --> 0:01:51.520 She's the president founder of Chefs with Humanity, a nonprofit 0:01:51.560 --> 0:01:57.080 dedicated reducing worldwide hunger. Let's just welcome her cat. You 0:01:57.160 --> 0:02:00.360 also received a Lifetime Achievement Award and a Volunteer Service 0:02:00.400 --> 0:02:06.000 Award from President Barack Obama. To say that you're accomplished 0:02:06.840 --> 0:02:10.200 is an understatement. Welcome to Luke Steiner. 0:02:10.520 --> 0:02:12.440 Thanks, I'm so happy to be in Luke Steiner. 0:02:12.480 --> 0:02:15.760 How you doing, man, I'm doing great. We're just rocking 0:02:15.800 --> 0:02:16.679 and rolling in here. 0:02:16.840 --> 0:02:18.560 There is lots of stuff. 0:02:18.280 --> 0:02:22.640 Going on being made, meals being served. You made history 0:02:23.440 --> 0:02:26.600 as the first female Iron Chef. How did that opportunity 0:02:26.639 --> 0:02:28.760 come about and what it was and mean to you? 0:02:29.400 --> 0:02:29.680 Yeah? 0:02:29.720 --> 0:02:31.960 I mean well it was literally it was really a 0:02:31.960 --> 0:02:34.200 tipping point for my career. I was already on Fee 0:02:34.240 --> 0:02:37.040 Network since nineteen ninety nine. I was doing various shows. 0:02:37.600 --> 0:02:40.000 My first show was Worth Baracko to Spirito Melting Pot, 0:02:40.120 --> 0:02:43.360 and then we just continued creating shows and it was 0:02:43.919 --> 0:02:46.679 with I just created shows with Free Network, and then 0:02:46.720 --> 0:02:49.560 one day they came to me and said, hey, you 0:02:49.680 --> 0:02:54.160 have television chops, you got the street cred. You know, 0:02:54.240 --> 0:02:56.880 we want to do this show called Iron Chef America. 0:02:56.880 --> 0:02:59.320 We want to bring it from Japan. We have the 0:02:59.400 --> 0:03:00.880 rights to it. Would you want to be the first 0:03:00.880 --> 0:03:03.359 female Iron Chef? And I said yes before I even 0:03:03.440 --> 0:03:05.720 knew what it entailed, because I didn't care. It just 0:03:05.720 --> 0:03:10.399 sounded really cool. It sounded big, so I was like, absolutely, 0:03:10.440 --> 0:03:12.320 I'd love to. What do I you know, where do 0:03:12.360 --> 0:03:16.040 we start? How do we start? And that was really 0:03:16.040 --> 0:03:18.040 how it happened. I was on my first first book 0:03:18.080 --> 0:03:20.079 tour in New York. I was walking around New York. 0:03:20.080 --> 0:03:22.200 I was actually just walking out of the Today Show 0:03:22.480 --> 0:03:25.560 at Rockefeller Center and I got the call from the 0:03:25.560 --> 0:03:28.880 executive producer and I was just thrilled. I think we 0:03:28.919 --> 0:03:31.919 met like a few hours later, and it was going 0:03:31.960 --> 0:03:34.160 so fast. It was like just a freight train, you know, 0:03:35.120 --> 0:03:38.680 they were already rolling and we were about to start, 0:03:38.720 --> 0:03:40.480 and I think I had two weeks to prepare and 0:03:40.920 --> 0:03:43.840 get going. Wow, it was amazing. It's just one of 0:03:43.840 --> 0:03:48.560 those amazing tipping point, those moments where all the planets aligned, 0:03:48.840 --> 0:03:51.120 and you know, we have those rare moments in our 0:03:51.160 --> 0:03:53.720 career where we're not chasing something, it just comes to 0:03:53.800 --> 0:03:56.640 us and God just brings it to you and says, 0:03:56.640 --> 0:03:59.840 here you go, I'm giving you something pretty magical. And 0:04:00.600 --> 0:04:02.800 it was and it was a great opportunity for me 0:04:02.960 --> 0:04:08.000 to to inspire a lot of young chefs, especially females, 0:04:08.080 --> 0:04:10.760 a lot of females around the world. It got me 0:04:11.000 --> 0:04:12.600 got it was a chance for me to break a 0:04:12.600 --> 0:04:15.520 glass ceiling and show that, you know, never we were 0:04:15.560 --> 0:04:19.240 the first cooking you know, competitive cooking show on tea 0:04:19.440 --> 0:04:22.880 television of any kind, and so we really broke that 0:04:22.920 --> 0:04:26.400 glass ceiling as well, and for cooking shows for all 0:04:26.480 --> 0:04:29.479 the shows to come, Master Chef, Top Chef, all of them, 0:04:29.839 --> 0:04:32.400 and so, you know, it was a pretty amazing time. 0:04:32.440 --> 0:04:34.520 It was such a heady time for all of us 0:04:34.600 --> 0:04:37.000 and the four of us that started as Iron chefs, 0:04:37.000 --> 0:04:39.160 and it was awesome. I mean, it was just a 0:04:39.200 --> 0:04:41.720 great time. I mean, you know, when you're walking, you know, 0:04:41.800 --> 0:04:44.440 people see you and you're in so and they're so 0:04:44.560 --> 0:04:47.120 inspired to cook. But also it was a chance for 0:04:47.240 --> 0:04:50.600 me to for the first time ever to show that 0:04:50.720 --> 0:04:55.280 women could cook as fast and hard and take the 0:04:55.279 --> 0:04:58.120 heat like men could in kitchens and that had never 0:04:58.160 --> 0:05:01.360 been done before. So that was pretty amazing aspect of it. 0:05:02.080 --> 0:05:05.880 How did you first get inspired to become a chef 0:05:05.960 --> 0:05:08.600 in the first place? I mean, and when did you 0:05:08.680 --> 0:05:10.640 know it could be more than just a hobby. 0:05:11.320 --> 0:05:14.240 Well, you know, I always loved to cook. I mean 0:05:14.279 --> 0:05:16.159 I was thrown into the kitchen early in my career. 0:05:16.200 --> 0:05:19.440 I mean in my life, I mean really young. I mean, well, 0:05:19.520 --> 0:05:21.359 I have pictures of me doing I always loved to 0:05:21.400 --> 0:05:23.000 do tea parties. That was my thing when I was 0:05:23.040 --> 0:05:25.680 really little, and so I always baked and we set 0:05:25.720 --> 0:05:27.960 the whole thing up and I would have everybody, you know, 0:05:28.000 --> 0:05:31.880 the whole family had to participate. I can imagine everybody's 0:05:31.960 --> 0:05:34.480 you know, stop work to come and you know, participate 0:05:34.520 --> 0:05:38.000 in a or whatever you were doing. But they were game. 0:05:38.120 --> 0:05:41.640 Everybody supported, everybody was cool, and so you know, I 0:05:41.760 --> 0:05:43.560 just always loved that. And I was always in the 0:05:43.640 --> 0:05:46.360 kitchen with my mom being Greek American and from the South, 0:05:46.920 --> 0:05:51.000 having two really incredibly strong food cultures around me, being 0:05:51.040 --> 0:05:55.320 Greek Orthodox, so we went to Greek church. We you know, 0:05:55.360 --> 0:05:59.360 everybody in our community was Greek and so and in 0:05:59.400 --> 0:06:04.680 the South, the first white tablecloth restaurants were from Italian 0:06:04.720 --> 0:06:07.400 and Greek immigrants. I mean, those are the ones, those 0:06:07.400 --> 0:06:11.080 are the people who started white tablecloth dining in the South. 0:06:11.200 --> 0:06:14.400 And so it was pretty amazing to see all of these. 0:06:14.480 --> 0:06:18.200 Every great restaurant in Jackson was run by people I 0:06:18.240 --> 0:06:20.680 saw at church every Sunday, so it was all of 0:06:20.720 --> 0:06:23.080 our friends and it was pretty amazing. And then we 0:06:23.160 --> 0:06:26.080 always had these big, you know, church barbecues and things. 0:06:26.160 --> 0:06:29.040 So cooking was always My dad was a grill meister. 0:06:29.279 --> 0:06:32.719 He showed me how to smoke meats, marinate meats, dry 0:06:32.880 --> 0:06:38.279 you do dry rubs, and you know, grill properly. And 0:06:38.360 --> 0:06:40.760 so that was, you know, from the very as long 0:06:40.760 --> 0:06:42.960 as I can remember, I was outside grilling with my dad, 0:06:43.400 --> 0:06:46.599 my mom, and grandmother. My mom was an Air Force brat, 0:06:46.680 --> 0:06:50.200 so they lived all over the world, Tokyo, Honolulu, all 0:06:50.240 --> 0:06:52.840 over the country, and so they had a very what 0:06:52.880 --> 0:06:57.039 we call very global, you know palette. They had a 0:06:57.040 --> 0:07:01.360 lot of you know, incredible recipes that global up their sleeve, 0:07:01.400 --> 0:07:03.400 whether it was strawg and off or sweet and sour 0:07:03.480 --> 0:07:08.920 pork or you know whatever, lasagna, amazing lavangna, you know, 0:07:09.080 --> 0:07:14.200 just great Italian Greek kind of just global type dishes. 0:07:15.200 --> 0:07:18.119 And that was served a lot in our house along 0:07:18.160 --> 0:07:19.800 with Greek food. So I really grew up in a 0:07:19.920 --> 0:07:26.400 very you know, amazing you know, really being in the 0:07:26.440 --> 0:07:29.600 Deep South. You know, when my other friends were having 0:07:29.640 --> 0:07:33.600 fried okra and you know that, you know, the fried 0:07:33.640 --> 0:07:35.920 catfish on the table, which we ate too, by the way, 0:07:36.000 --> 0:07:39.920 I love Southern food and barbecue, but we were having 0:07:40.040 --> 0:07:43.040 steamed artichokes with lemon and extra virgin olive oil in 0:07:43.080 --> 0:07:45.840 our house, so, you know, or sue blackie or spina 0:07:45.880 --> 0:07:50.040 copada or grape leaves, you know, things like that. So 0:07:50.120 --> 0:07:55.880 it was really that's where I really, I think began. 0:07:56.120 --> 0:07:58.960 My grandfather had restaurants. He was an immigrant that came 0:07:58.960 --> 0:08:02.720 through Ellis Island and settled in the South. He had restaurants. 0:08:04.000 --> 0:08:05.960 My godfather had restaurants when I was growing up. So 0:08:06.000 --> 0:08:08.400 it was just in my dna I really got. 0:08:08.960 --> 0:08:13.040 But speaking of that, you went on to open restaurants 0:08:13.240 --> 0:08:15.720 all over the world. What's been your favorite project so far? 0:08:16.280 --> 0:08:16.520 Why? 0:08:17.000 --> 0:08:21.200 Oh, you know, I have to say opening. What I've 0:08:21.240 --> 0:08:26.480 done is really opened in a lot of partner with 0:08:26.520 --> 0:08:28.520 a lot of partners that have restaurants. You know, we 0:08:28.680 --> 0:08:34.480 have restaurants, airport restaurants, stadium restaurants, restaurants on university camp campuses, 0:08:34.520 --> 0:08:38.400 corporate restaurants, I've had standalone restaurants. I've had a restaurant 0:08:38.440 --> 0:08:41.720 in Singapore, which that probably I have to say, just 0:08:41.720 --> 0:08:43.920 because I got to go to Singapore in Southeast Asia. 0:08:43.960 --> 0:08:47.680 A lot was probably one of my favorites. And it 0:08:47.720 --> 0:08:51.040 was very had a very per se, you know, kind 0:08:51.040 --> 0:08:54.600 of French laundry. It was very very high end and 0:08:54.640 --> 0:08:58.760 it was exactly what you expect in a restaurant in 0:08:58.840 --> 0:09:03.280 Singapore and in a venue such as that I had. 0:09:04.520 --> 0:09:06.840 So I think that that was probably one of my 0:09:06.960 --> 0:09:09.960 very favorites. But you know, I just they're all my babies, 0:09:10.040 --> 0:09:12.600 you know, whether it's an airport restaurant, a corporate restaurant, 0:09:12.679 --> 0:09:15.559 a standalone I mean, so I've had very I've pretty 0:09:15.600 --> 0:09:18.160 much done almost every iteration you can think of of 0:09:18.240 --> 0:09:19.679 airport of restaurants. 0:09:29.480 --> 0:09:33.120 How do you balance business and food? Are there times 0:09:33.120 --> 0:09:37.079 when you feel more administrative than a classic show? I mean, 0:09:37.120 --> 0:09:39.280 just pile up on you O the business. 0:09:39.000 --> 0:09:42.520 Stuff sometimes, you know, I mean I have you know, 0:09:42.760 --> 0:09:46.640 a great team around me too that help, and that's 0:09:46.760 --> 0:09:50.400 really that's very helpful. But I'm very hands on with 0:09:50.640 --> 0:09:53.920 all of it. So I like to I like to 0:09:53.960 --> 0:09:57.479 look at contracts. I like to I like to create concepts. 0:09:57.679 --> 0:10:02.320 I like to visualize and conceptual life things. I'm very 0:10:02.400 --> 0:10:04.880 much an artist in that and also a business woman, 0:10:05.040 --> 0:10:08.120 and you know, with my craft. So I think it's 0:10:08.400 --> 0:10:10.960 you know, it's left brain, right brain. You know. I 0:10:11.000 --> 0:10:13.960 love all that and stimulates me. It helps me grow, 0:10:14.000 --> 0:10:16.240 it helps me evolve, It helps me become a better 0:10:16.720 --> 0:10:20.520 business woman. And I understand my businesses. So there's not 0:10:20.640 --> 0:10:22.840 a business that I'm going, wait, what do we what 0:10:22.920 --> 0:10:26.640 are the financials or what did that contract say. I'm 0:10:26.640 --> 0:10:29.080 in pretty hands on and I think you have to 0:10:29.080 --> 0:10:31.160 be in this day and age, you really have to 0:10:31.200 --> 0:10:34.240 know your businesses. But it is it does take a 0:10:34.280 --> 0:10:37.440 little village. And so I have a small orbit. I 0:10:37.480 --> 0:10:41.160 have an incredible small orbit of a team that I 0:10:41.240 --> 0:10:47.240 trust implicitly and balancing it. It's really just having to 0:10:47.880 --> 0:10:50.120 you know, you have to be very versatile, You have 0:10:50.200 --> 0:10:52.160 to be very you have to be able to multitask, 0:10:52.200 --> 0:10:53.920 which chefs are great at. By the way, we have 0:10:53.960 --> 0:10:56.560 to do the restaurants every day anyway, So we learned 0:10:56.640 --> 0:11:00.520 very quickly how to multitask and balance it and I 0:11:01.280 --> 0:11:04.600 love that. That's why I was never a chef that 0:11:04.720 --> 0:11:07.400 was just going to be very linear. I knew that 0:11:07.480 --> 0:11:09.400 I loved having a lot of balls in the air, 0:11:09.600 --> 0:11:11.600 and I love that feeling. And that's a little bit 0:11:11.600 --> 0:11:15.240 of an adrenaline rush. It's it's exciting. You never know 0:11:15.280 --> 0:11:17.720 when you open your email or you get a text 0:11:17.760 --> 0:11:20.400 of what's going to be next, and so it's very 0:11:20.480 --> 0:11:23.880 it's very exciting, and yes, it's very it can be 0:11:23.960 --> 0:11:26.800 very stressful at times, and you have to That's why 0:11:27.120 --> 0:11:29.240 I work out, I meditate, I do other things to 0:11:29.280 --> 0:11:32.960 counteract that. And then you know, listen, I thought it 0:11:33.080 --> 0:11:35.960 was more stressful being in a restaurant day to day 0:11:36.160 --> 0:11:38.280 and having to be do you know when you're an 0:11:38.280 --> 0:11:42.040 executive chef in one restaurant, you're still busy because you're 0:11:42.040 --> 0:11:45.280 doing scheduling, you're doing you're dealing with vendors, you're dealing 0:11:45.320 --> 0:11:48.560 with so it's a you know, either way, I think 0:11:48.600 --> 0:11:53.240 that if you do what you love, you you enjoy 0:11:53.400 --> 0:11:55.960 that part. Although it can be stressful in some days 0:11:55.960 --> 0:11:59.679 you're like, oh my gosh, what's happening. How I got 0:11:59.760 --> 0:12:01.720 to get the through this? And you do, you know, 0:12:01.760 --> 0:12:03.640 you get on the other side of it. But I 0:12:03.640 --> 0:12:07.520 can tell you what's more stressful. It's six teenage sons driving. 0:12:11.160 --> 0:12:12.559 Nothing's more stressful than that. 0:12:12.920 --> 0:12:14.840 You had all boys, all boys. 0:12:15.040 --> 0:12:19.800 Oh wow, blended family, all boys. They're amazing young men, 0:12:20.160 --> 0:12:23.000 and they just blow me away there. I'm in all 0:12:23.040 --> 0:12:23.520 every day. 0:12:23.880 --> 0:12:24.800 That's what they do. 0:12:24.840 --> 0:12:27.800 And I'll tell you that that gen the generation coming up. 0:12:28.240 --> 0:12:28.440 Man. 0:12:28.520 --> 0:12:33.120 They are smart. Yeah, in all kinds of ways. So yeah, yeah, 0:12:33.120 --> 0:12:33.640 pretty cool. 0:12:34.720 --> 0:12:37.360 Let's talk about the charitable side of what you're doing. 0:12:37.400 --> 0:12:40.520 You launch Chefs for Humanity in the waker Hurricane Katrina. 0:12:41.280 --> 0:12:42.120 What made you do that? 0:12:43.720 --> 0:12:48.200 Actually I launched it before that in twenty fourteen in 0:12:48.240 --> 0:12:52.000 the tsunami when we had the tsunami that hit Thailand, 0:12:52.400 --> 0:12:55.679 Fuquet and so that was when things is kind of 0:12:56.440 --> 0:12:59.280 you know, everybody was you know, that was such a 0:12:59.520 --> 0:13:02.400 tragic I mean, if anybody remembers that, that was such 0:13:02.400 --> 0:13:06.880 a tragic, tragic moment, and I think that, uh, you know, 0:13:07.320 --> 0:13:09.640 we were still we were already we were just getting 0:13:09.679 --> 0:13:11.199 all of you know, this is when we were getting 0:13:11.200 --> 0:13:13.480 all the news feeds and social media with everything was 0:13:13.520 --> 0:13:17.360 starting to happen, you know, and you were getting instantaneous information. 0:13:17.559 --> 0:13:19.200 So a lot of chefs were calling me because they 0:13:19.240 --> 0:13:21.199 knew I did a lot of charity work. I was 0:13:21.240 --> 0:13:24.400 one of the leading chefs that was doing a lot 0:13:24.440 --> 0:13:26.320 of charity work at the time, and a lot of 0:13:26.400 --> 0:13:30.040 hunger initiatives and a lot of emergency feeding relief with 0:13:30.160 --> 0:13:34.280 other organizations like World Food Program, International Red Cross and 0:13:34.480 --> 0:13:37.439 care dot org things like that and charities like that. 0:13:37.559 --> 0:13:41.800 So they started calling me. I was inundated with chefs 0:13:41.840 --> 0:13:43.160 calling me. What can we do? What can we go? 0:13:43.240 --> 0:13:44.640 Where can we go? What can we do? How can 0:13:44.679 --> 0:13:47.040 we roll our sleeves up? And I realized that chefs 0:13:47.320 --> 0:13:49.040 will write a check, but they also want to be 0:13:49.080 --> 0:13:52.920 hands on and we can be the great thing about chefs. 0:13:52.960 --> 0:13:54.800 And we're seeing that with a lot of my friends 0:13:54.840 --> 0:13:59.120 now that you know Jusean Dress, Guy Fieri, a lot 0:13:59.160 --> 0:14:00.520 of my friends that are doing and a lot of 0:14:00.559 --> 0:14:03.319 incredible you know, they kind of took the torch and 0:14:03.679 --> 0:14:06.199 you know, ran with it because we were one of 0:14:06.320 --> 0:14:11.319 Chess for Humanity, was the first chef driven emergency feeding 0:14:11.320 --> 0:14:14.600 relief at the time, and so I'm happy to see 0:14:14.640 --> 0:14:17.560 them take the torch and run. But yeah, it's like 0:14:17.640 --> 0:14:20.080 we are able to get in and the one thing 0:14:20.120 --> 0:14:22.320 that people have to do and no matter what kind 0:14:22.360 --> 0:14:26.720 of emergency or crisis or mother nature is, they have 0:14:26.760 --> 0:14:29.680 to eat and they have to have shelter, and it's 0:14:29.800 --> 0:14:32.800 in super basic, you know. And so that was one 0:14:32.800 --> 0:14:36.040 of the areas that was important for me, and we 0:14:36.040 --> 0:14:37.840 were there for her. We were set up by the 0:14:37.880 --> 0:14:42.200 time Hurricane Katrina happen. Thankfully, We've been all over the 0:14:42.200 --> 0:14:44.560 world and you know, we were there when hate that 0:14:44.600 --> 0:14:48.080 earthquake happened in Haiti. We flew to Haiti. We were 0:14:48.080 --> 0:14:51.400 there with many many of the other catastrophes that happened, 0:14:51.400 --> 0:14:53.800 whether it was you know, in other areas we've done 0:14:54.320 --> 0:14:58.040 you know, not only that, but just just hunger initiatives 0:14:58.080 --> 0:15:03.560 in Guatemala, Ecuador, Theiopia and other places, so Mozambique. So 0:15:03.960 --> 0:15:06.800 we've been around the world and I'm so proud that 0:15:06.880 --> 0:15:11.360 we launched something that actually was a catalyst for many 0:15:11.400 --> 0:15:15.040 other big you know arms to go out and continue 0:15:15.040 --> 0:15:15.560 that work. 0:15:16.200 --> 0:15:19.680 Well, congratulations and all that you do and much needed. 0:15:21.520 --> 0:15:26.200 So you've fed president's celebrities, your kids. Who's the pickiest 0:15:26.200 --> 0:15:27.400 eater you've ever cooked for? 0:15:28.120 --> 0:15:32.240 Oh gosh, oh I have to I'm not sure, like 0:15:32.640 --> 0:15:34.560 that's a that's a tough one. I'm trying to remember 0:15:34.600 --> 0:15:38.560 everybody I've cooked for. I haven't run across. I mean, 0:15:38.640 --> 0:15:41.800 obviously you have to. I think, you know when people say, 0:15:42.200 --> 0:15:43.840 I get a lot of people saying how do I 0:15:43.840 --> 0:15:47.320 get my kids to eat? And I always say, start 0:15:47.400 --> 0:15:49.880 them as early as possible. So this isn't answering your question. 0:15:49.880 --> 0:15:52.920 But I'm gonna come back around to that. I say, 0:15:52.920 --> 0:15:55.360 start them as early as possible. And you know, one 0:15:55.360 --> 0:15:57.000 of the ways you can get kids. And that's why 0:15:57.000 --> 0:15:59.680 I started. One of the reasons I was got on 0:15:59.680 --> 0:16:02.920 board with Little Kitchen Academy, it's because this is a 0:16:03.040 --> 0:16:06.120 great you know, Little Kitchen Academy that we started with 0:16:06.160 --> 0:16:12.400 Brian and Felicity uh Current is such an amazing project 0:16:12.480 --> 0:16:14.840 for me. This is one of my love projects, you know, 0:16:15.000 --> 0:16:17.920 that I got involved with because it's teaching kids how 0:16:17.960 --> 0:16:19.960 to cook from scratch. It's teaching kids how to get 0:16:20.000 --> 0:16:22.440 in the kitchen, and they're learning skills that they'll take 0:16:23.040 --> 0:16:26.120 for the rest of their lives, whether it's stem, whether 0:16:26.200 --> 0:16:30.920 it's you know, organizational skills, whether it's socialization skills, what 0:16:31.080 --> 0:16:38.160 have you. And it's such an independence and so I 0:16:38.200 --> 0:16:40.320 find that when you start kids in our school is 0:16:40.520 --> 0:16:42.480 three year olds all the way to teens. And so 0:16:42.600 --> 0:16:45.120 I find when you start kids young and you get 0:16:45.120 --> 0:16:48.840 them involved with where does food come from? Let them 0:16:48.840 --> 0:16:50.640 get involved with when I used to when my kids 0:16:50.640 --> 0:16:52.840 were little, I used to say, Okay, here's two options 0:16:52.840 --> 0:16:57.440 for dinner. We're gonna salmon her chicken at amami or broccoli. 0:16:57.840 --> 0:17:00.240 You know, carrots are this? You know, and like it's 0:17:00.240 --> 0:17:02.920 a five minute it's a two minute conversation, you know. 0:17:03.320 --> 0:17:05.919 But it gives them, It gives them a little power, 0:17:06.359 --> 0:17:09.399 and it gives them, you know, a little independence in 0:17:09.480 --> 0:17:13.600 choosing what they're going to eat. And you know, we 0:17:14.359 --> 0:17:16.880 I cook one thing, this is dinner, but we all 0:17:16.880 --> 0:17:19.240 have a say in it. And I think that that 0:17:19.359 --> 0:17:22.280 just gets kids. It gets kids excited to eat and 0:17:22.359 --> 0:17:25.199 gives them a gives some investment in it. And so 0:17:25.280 --> 0:17:27.080 I think that that's one of the way the ways 0:17:27.080 --> 0:17:31.160 that I've helped people understand how to begin and get 0:17:31.200 --> 0:17:32.919 them cooking, get them in the kitchen. 0:17:33.200 --> 0:17:35.560 And that's a little kitchen academy, Right, that's a little 0:17:35.640 --> 0:17:36.360 kitchen academy. 0:17:36.440 --> 0:17:36.680 Yeah. 0:17:37.080 --> 0:17:40.359 Yeah. That we've been expanding not only all over the US, 0:17:40.440 --> 0:17:43.680 but globally and we have one at Century City here 0:17:43.720 --> 0:17:45.720 in Los Angeles is the one that's right down the 0:17:45.720 --> 0:17:48.560 street from me. And I think that that's a really 0:17:48.560 --> 0:17:52.320 big picky eaters. You know, when I cook for the Obamas, 0:17:52.560 --> 0:17:54.960 they weren't picky. They loved whatever I cooked. When I 0:17:55.040 --> 0:17:59.240 poked Royalty, they've you know, enjoyed it. So I don't. 0:17:59.520 --> 0:18:02.520 I haven't. I really can't answer that because I haven't. 0:18:03.280 --> 0:18:04.640 You know, I don't know all. 0:18:04.760 --> 0:18:07.119 What's your cooking style when no one's watching, you know, 0:18:07.160 --> 0:18:09.879 your typical night in the kitchen at home? What are 0:18:09.880 --> 0:18:10.400 you preparing? 0:18:10.880 --> 0:18:14.920 Oh, I mean it's real simple, like I prepare, like 0:18:15.119 --> 0:18:16.679 we do tacos at home. 0:18:16.920 --> 0:18:17.400 We do. 0:18:17.800 --> 0:18:19.919 It's a lot of I eat very healthy. I eat 0:18:19.960 --> 0:18:23.040 pretty healthy. So and my kids are really good. They're 0:18:23.080 --> 0:18:26.119 all kind of you know, have learned through that is 0:18:26.240 --> 0:18:30.320 eating healthier, even though we have our indulgences. Of course, 0:18:30.440 --> 0:18:33.119 we love, you know, a great pizza night on Friday 0:18:33.200 --> 0:18:36.120 nights or you know, pizza and movie nights, things like that. 0:18:36.200 --> 0:18:39.480 But you know, it's real simple. It could just be 0:18:39.600 --> 0:18:42.600 some you know tacos, great tacos where I just kind 0:18:42.600 --> 0:18:46.040 of lay everything out, you know, girls, some chicken do 0:18:46.080 --> 0:18:48.200 a little we do a little homemade walk together. That's 0:18:48.200 --> 0:18:49.840 one of the things that kids love to make together 0:18:50.040 --> 0:18:52.679 is big bowl of gualk and chips and you know, 0:18:52.720 --> 0:18:54.760 just put all the fixens out and something like that. 0:18:54.920 --> 0:18:57.840 It's like it's like a typical weeknight. 0:18:57.800 --> 0:18:59.080 Right right easy, and. 0:18:59.040 --> 0:19:02.320 Everybody customize so it's not there's no special it's not 0:19:02.359 --> 0:19:05.320 a short order kind of situation where you know, I'm 0:19:05.359 --> 0:19:08.480 taking your order. It's just everybody can make their own 0:19:08.720 --> 0:19:10.080 and it's perfect. Right. 0:19:11.000 --> 0:19:15.600 And now you're part of something called cook Unity, making 0:19:15.600 --> 0:19:17.399 healthy meals accessible nationwide. 0:19:17.520 --> 0:19:18.159 Tell us about that. 0:19:18.560 --> 0:19:22.240 Yeah, cook Comunity is a fantastic platform. I mean, there's 0:19:22.280 --> 0:19:24.959 something on there for everybody, and I love we you know, 0:19:25.040 --> 0:19:28.199 we joined it a year ago. We've been you know, 0:19:28.400 --> 0:19:33.240 really working hard. It's probably something I've put a lot 0:19:33.840 --> 0:19:38.119 more energy into lately than anything. And it's just an 0:19:38.119 --> 0:19:41.560 amazing platform. I mean, and we cover every gamut of 0:19:41.720 --> 0:19:47.280 every whether it's medically crafted meals, whether it's it's all 0:19:47.359 --> 0:19:49.960 chef driven, it's all my friends are on the platform, 0:19:50.160 --> 0:19:52.160 and I mean we really put our heart and soul 0:19:52.200 --> 0:19:54.439 into the meals that we make, and a lot of 0:19:54.440 --> 0:19:57.760 them are meals we've been making our whole career. Some 0:19:57.800 --> 0:19:59.520 of them are restaurants, some of them are things that 0:19:59.560 --> 0:20:03.080 we love to look at home that now our customers 0:20:03.119 --> 0:20:06.240 get to have at home as well. And we just 0:20:06.280 --> 0:20:08.080 put our heart and soul into it. It's a great 0:20:08.119 --> 0:20:11.720 platform and everyone should be and it's affordable, so everyone 0:20:11.720 --> 0:20:15.080 should be ordering from it. And there's any anything in 0:20:15.160 --> 0:20:16.920 everything you want you can find. 0:20:16.680 --> 0:20:20.119 There, right, fantastic. Do you have a restaurant in La 0:20:21.119 --> 0:20:21.560 I don't. 0:20:21.680 --> 0:20:26.240 I don't know in La not yet. I mean not yet, huh, 0:20:26.359 --> 0:20:30.119 not yet, not you know. I mean I've consulted on 0:20:30.160 --> 0:20:32.720 a couple of things here and you never know. I mean, 0:20:33.000 --> 0:20:36.000 that's the beauty of this industry is that you just 0:20:36.240 --> 0:20:39.240 never know. I mean we're you know, we've this industry 0:20:39.240 --> 0:20:42.720 has grown so tremendously in a beautiful way that there's 0:20:42.840 --> 0:20:46.760 so many avenues that you can be in and I 0:20:46.800 --> 0:20:49.840 love that. That's exciting to me. Whether it's television, movies, 0:20:50.280 --> 0:20:54.639 you know, whether it's you know, platforms where it's fresh 0:20:54.640 --> 0:20:58.040 delivery or you know, what have you products things like that. 0:20:58.160 --> 0:21:01.520 I mean, it's just exciting. It's an exciting time, you know, 0:21:01.600 --> 0:21:02.360 in our industry. 0:21:02.720 --> 0:21:06.600 Well, we're down to the last segment. Here the last question, 0:21:06.880 --> 0:21:07.720 and this is a big. 0:21:11.320 --> 0:21:11.639 Question. 0:21:11.720 --> 0:21:15.840 It's a huge question. All right, if you were to 0:21:15.840 --> 0:21:18.920 come into Luke's diner, what would you order and where 0:21:18.920 --> 0:21:20.880 would you sit? Cat Cora all. 0:21:20.840 --> 0:21:22.639 Right, Well, if I'm going to come into Luke's Diner, 0:21:22.800 --> 0:21:26.520 I want to know how good your burger is. I 0:21:26.520 --> 0:21:30.199 want to know how good you a diner. I'm going 0:21:30.240 --> 0:21:33.280