Black History Month: Two chefs trade restaurant kitchens for activism

As Black History Month draws to a close, two chefs who’ve taken very different career paths—one trying to turn at-risk youth around, the other trying to turn nutritionally at-risk communities around—are subjects of recent USA Character Approved Blog posts.

Many chefs are exposed to cooking and what will become their careers in their mother’s or grandmother’s kitchens. For Jeff Henderson, it was a prison kitchen. He was serving a ten-year sentence for drug trafficking and was assigned to kitchen duty as punishment. That punishment turned his life around. He quickly discovered a passion for cooking and developed a head for business.

Upon his release from prison, Henderson talked his way into a dishwashing job in the new Los Angeles restaurant of a prominent African American chef. From there, he eventually worked his way up to Chef de Cuisine for the restaurants of Caesar’s Palace. Then he walked away from it all. Continue reading “Black History Month: Two chefs trade restaurant kitchens for activism” →

Black History Month: Tiffany Derry shows just how far hard work and talent can take you

Talent alone can take you only so far. Same thing goes for hard work. But put them together and you’re practically unstoppable. Chef Tiffany Derry, the subject of my latest USA Character Approved Blog post, proves that.

Some time ago, I went to see Anthony Bourdain do a reading from his then new book, Medium Raw. Seated next to me was a young woman very excited to be seeing him speak. We had a long wait and so struck up a conversation that took the usual “and what do you do” path. She was a student at one of the pricier private universities in Chicago. She had just switched her major to something writing related that wasn’t actually journalism plus some culinary stuff (I wept inwardly for her parents).

When I asked what she wanted to do, she pointed at Bourdain’s picture on the cover of the book I was holding and said, “What he does.” Being both a parent and a former teacher, I launched into talking about things she could do, such as starting a food blog to develop her writing chops and build a portfolio. She was polite, but less than enthusiastic. Turns out she didn’t actually want to write—she wanted to be paid to be on TV, travel to exotic places and eat cool food. You know, what Bourdain does. Only without all the years of insane long hours in the kitchen—or at a laptop, for that matter. Continue reading “Black History Month: Tiffany Derry shows just how far hard work and talent can take you” →

Small Bites: A taste of NOLA in St. Louis and Black History Month cooks

Riverbend Restaurant & Bar brings New Orleans to St. Louis, and African American wine director Brian Duncan makes wine accessible, enjoyable. Both are subjects of recent USA Character Approved Blog posts.

One of my favorite passages in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is the one in which Mark Twain describes St. Louis as Huck’s raft glides by at night on the Mississippi River. It’s not a long or detailed passage, but it always takes me home when I read it. I grew up in St. Louis and can tell you firsthand that the river’s influence on the city cannot be overstated.

Happily, much of the Mississippi’s influence has actually flowed upriver from places like Memphis and New Orleans. Marion and I heard our first zydeco music in St. Louis. Fernest Arceneaux and the Thunders had packed the beer garden of the Broadway Oyster Bar, and our friend Sharon, who tended bar there, called us and said, “Get down here now.” We did. And we still thank her for making that call. Continue reading “Small Bites: A taste of NOLA in St. Louis and Black History Month cooks” →

Harlem enjoys a restaurant renaissance

This week, the USA Character Approved Blog honors Black History Month with a series of posts celebrating African-American history, culture and contributions in many fields. For my post, I took a look at a restaurant renaissance going on in Harlem.

The Great Migration in the early 20th century brought an influx of African-Americans to Harlem from the South. This set the stage for the Harlem Renaissance, a blossoming of African-American culture that resonated not only through the New York neighborhood, but across America. Harlem’s new residents also brought their rich history of Southern cuisine with them. Continue reading “Harlem enjoys a restaurant renaissance” →