00:00How are you guys doing today? I'm Chef Tanya, owner of Pretty Plates Catering out of Atlanta, Georgia.
00:12Hey, y'all. So I'll be showcasing one of our signature dishes today. It's more so of an appetizer portion kind of dish.
00:27It would be really easy to carry while you're walking around at the Essence Festival.
00:31Very, you know, just good to have in your hand while you're walking around.
00:39So it's easy to manage. So we'll be demonstrating something a little different take on chicken and waffles.
00:45So y'all know about the chicken and waffle craze that we've had over the last two years.
00:49Everybody got brunch. Everybody doing brunch. Everybody want chicken and waffles.
00:54So I said, it got to be a different way to do chicken and waffles.
00:57So we decided to try red velvet fried lobster bites inside the waffle cone.
01:04So it's a different take on chicken and waffles. So that's what we're going to be demonstrating today.
01:09Before I begin, I would love to thank Ford and Essence for having us today and just for this whole experience.
01:17And, you know, we're going to just get right into it. I started my entrepreneurship cooking as a retired hairstylist now.
01:29So doing hair was my first profession and got into cooking. Just loved doing it at home with friends, feeding friends and family.
01:38And it just led into another profession. So now we're here today. And so we're going to show you guys how we start the process of the red velvet fried lobster bites.
01:52Also, you guys, after this is over, I do have a pretty spice seasoning line that you guys will be giving a sample to.
02:00Everybody can take one home and then you'll have a car and you can take the picture of the barcode if you want to reorder more because you'll love it.
02:09So you'll go you're going to want to order more and you'll have these cards and you will also have a recipe card of the red velvet fried lobster bites.
02:18And so you'll be able to make that at home. The recipe can go from lobster, chicken, vegetables, whatever you want to put in your waffle cone.
02:27It's an all around recipe that will fit whatever you like to eat, because some people may be allergic to the lobster.
02:33So you can use any protein or vegetable that you would like. OK, so we have the seafood seasoning, the veggie and the house.
02:43So we'll have all of those to give away with the recipe card. And I hope you guys enjoy. OK, so we're going to start with we had fresh, always fresh lobster tails that we cleaned and cut and diced up.
02:59So these you can use actually like a regular Belgian waffle with a whole lobster tail. You can cut them up. You can do broiled, grilled.
03:09Today we're going to try the fried and we're going to do bite size. So you can switch it up and do it different kind of ways.
03:18So we chopped up our lobster in small pieces because once you bread it, it will get a little bigger as well.
03:25So you don't want it to be like overly big over the waffle cone. And you can get different sized waffle cones as well.
03:31They come all different sizes and flavors, chocolate, red velvet, vanilla, whatever kind you want.
03:38So you take your piece of lobster or whatever meat you're going to be using, dip it in your breading mix.
03:48And then you want to kind of wet it a little bit. So the rest, we literally have red velvet cake mix.
03:58So that's what this is dipped in. And then once it's dipped in the red velvet cake mix, it literally comes out red, like red velvet.
04:08And then you, this is not getting hot, so I'm not sure why. And you literally just fry it. So you dip it in the frying grease and you let it fry for a couple of minutes.
04:22And then once it's done, once it's done, it will come out like this. So we love to have fresh garnish.
04:35You've got to have a garnish to make your dish pretty. Our company is called Pretty Plates for a reason.
04:40Everything is pretty, okay? So we're going to, we always have to have fresh greens. So we have fresh parsley chopped up.
04:48So you want to just throw that, sprinkle that on there. We always have fresh edible flowers.
04:53That always brings a cute, fresh, pretty ambiance to any dish that you're doing.
05:00So you got to have edible flowers or fresh flowers to garnish your dishes with.
05:05And you want to use different colors because they are, it's just bright and it just makes the dish look a lot more enticing.
05:19So these are kind of the things that bring me joy when I'm cooking because I love to see, you know, I mean we got raw lobster here and then to see it become fried in red velvet batter.
05:37Like who wouldn't love that? Like who wouldn't love that? You know what I'm saying? So that just gives me joy once it's garnished and plated up.
05:44And when you take that first bite, it's just like heaven. So I don't know. Those are, that's one of the things that bring me joy while I'm cooking.
05:54Excuse me. We do have a restaurant in Atlanta. However, we are not open to the public right now since pandemic.
06:06So we just use the space as our catering kitchen. But we are in the process of opening a new restaurant.
06:12So it's going to be called pretty plates brunch bar. So y'all look out for that in the next couple of months.
06:18We'll be opening that up. And so, yes. So then we have a fresh drizzle.
06:29So it's just pretty much cream cheese and powdered sugar mixture, melt it down.
06:38And then that's a good garnish over it. You also can use a drizzle of sweet chili. You can use hot syrup. You can use honey.
06:50Whatever kind of little sweet little garnish you want to use over it.
07:00And there you have it. These are, these are the red velvet fried lobster bites in the waffle cones.
07:10And so we also, just to show you guys, we also did a version of the chicken and the oyster mushrooms for our vegan friendly folks out here.
07:20So we know we have a lot of that going on right now. So these are fried oyster mushrooms.
07:26So they go perfectly well with the waffle, take on the chicken and waffle bite.
07:32So you can also use that with a regular Belgian waffle because the oyster mushrooms, you can make them big or small, chop them up, whatever size you need it to be.
07:41So they're perfect for vegan friendly, your vegan friendly customers or family members or whatever.
07:48And then these are the regular staple chicken and waffle. So we did three takes on it.
07:54So we can please everybody in the audience and give you guys a take on each way to do it, okay?
08:00So we've, oh my God, we're, we have literally been catering for almost 15 years.
08:17We have a large clientele in the production space in Atlanta.
08:22They kind of film a lot in Atlanta. So we do a lot with production, entertainers and the celebrity world.
08:28And so some of the, um, the biggest job thus far was Superbowl 2019 in Atlanta.
08:36Um, I was one of the official caterers for the official NFL Superbowl.
08:41Like that was very exciting. Um, that was like major, just like the essence fest is major.
08:49It was, it was, it was good. And so we do a lot of, um, commercials.
08:55We've done Ford commercials. We've done, um, Uber Eats. We've done Lyft. We've done Georgia Power, Georgia Lottery.
09:07Like the, it's so many things that we do. I'm so grateful to have the clientele that we do have.
09:14And, um, you know, when I first, uh, graduated culinary art school, in my head, I just wanted a food truck to pull up at the hair salons because I was a hairstylist, right?
09:27So once I got introduced to other things that food can just take you so many different places, you would never imagine.
09:35And so I'm not even done yet with what I want to do with it.
09:38But once I realized that, oh, you can cater like on movie sets or you can like have rich clients and go to their house and you know what I'm saying?
09:48Just like different things. Like I said, I'm not pulling up in no food truck selling wings and fries.
09:54I don't want to be a wing and fry kind of girl. You know what I'm saying? So it just opened me up to different things that I knew that I could do.
10:02And, um, I'm just grateful to be here. Um, I want to say thanks again to Ford and Essence and, um, you know, the clients that I have.
10:14It just, that's the best part. Like the joy of when they taste your food and they close their eyes and they just smile and you know it's good and they're satisfied.
10:25That's like top tier joy for me as being a chef, you know? So, um, can you try it? I don't know. I don't know if that's like a, they didn't, can they?
10:39You absolutely can then. Yes. Miss Chef Rica, would you like to come help?
10:46And don't forget after this, we do have the seasonings that you guys can. This is the lobster one here. Okay. Here. I got it.
10:57You got it. Okay. I'm actually going to join you because. Oh, so don't forget that we will be, we have sample seasonings for you guys to take.
11:08As a free gift. Um.
11:15Okay. So this looks amazing.
11:17Thank you. I don't know if anybody here has ever seen red velvet lobster with the cream cheese dressing, but this is really dope, very creative and just like a piece of the type of food that you create.
11:28But I would love to know from you, is this your first Essence Festival experience?
11:31This is my first experience with Essence Fest. Okay. Yes. What have you thought so far?
11:37I mean, it's amazing to see all these beautiful urban, our community coming together with all these different businesses. I love it. Like this is like top tier.
11:46It is. It is very, very inspiring. I mean, there's such an amazing group here. Everybody looks good, right?
11:52Everybody. Okay. Right. So I mean, if you think you look good today, which I think all of you do, it's time to pull out your phone, start taking pictures and use the hashtag Essence Fest and Essence Eats.
12:04Now, right now we're going to go ahead and wrap up, but I mean, it was so awesome to have you here to get a taste of your food. This is delicious.
12:12Thank you. Thank you guys. Thank you. Thank you guys.
12:16Thank you. Thank you guys.
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