00:00What's up guys? How are you guys doing?
00:11Listen, if there's one thing that that last panel has proven is that Essence Festival of Culture is not just here for a good time.
00:18It's a hub of systematic disruption. All right, make some noise for that.
00:23Especially considering what's been going on the last couple of days. OK, we are disrupting that.
00:30Now, I don't know about y'all, but not only did they drop gems, they gave us the tools to save our communities.
00:36All right. Now, remember this morning, I told y'all that the essence stage is not just where, you know, it's where you get everything.
00:43Right. Whether it's politics, wellness, relationships, this is where it all goes down.
00:49And this segment is no exception. I am personally excited about this one because I have been working all day on this Essence men's center stage.
00:59OK, and you know what? I'm hungry. Anybody else hungry? Anybody else in here love food?
01:07I love food. OK, so coming next to the stage is a panel of foodies who have so much to offer.
01:15They are decorated and award-winning chefs who are stepping up to the plate, pun intended.
01:21So what's really tea when it comes to what it takes to make the best of the best?
01:25We're getting ready to find out today with celebrity chef and owners of Beauchamp restaurant and catering,
01:31Chef Damien Cheryl Banks and with recipe deliver, I'm sorry, and with recipe developer and content creator, Miss Alex Hill.
01:45Oh, and you know what? I get to ask the questions now. This is fun.
01:51Oh, hey! Hey, cute!
01:55Y'all make some noise for Funky Don Eva.
01:59All right, so first of all, you guys look great. How are you guys doing?
02:05Good. Thank you so much for being here at Essence.
02:09All right, so Chef Damien, can I ask first, you know, how did you get into cooking?
02:15Tell us a little bit about your backstory for those of us who aren't familiar.
02:19All right, so actually cooking wasn't my first thing. Actually, it was art.
02:23So I was a very talented art. So there was a very famous chef that was located down here by the name of Chef Austin Leslie.
02:32And my uncle, Jules Marvin, he was the sous chef. So I was 14 years old and I needed a summertime job because I was a dishwasher or whatever like that.
02:42So they had this program on Sundays that they did on WWL. So basically, long story short, he asked me to cook rice. I wasn't into cooking. I was into art.
02:51He looked at me and said, you know what? You need to stick to art because cooking not your thing.
02:57Yes, yes. Well, look at you now.
02:59And that's exactly how I went.
03:01So Cheryl, you and Damien, our husband and wife, make some noise for black love.
03:07Okay, and you guys are also business partners. You both manage the NOLA-based Beauchamp restaurant and catering.
03:15How do you manage managing the restaurant, keeping the business together and also keeping the love together as well?
03:23Okay, so one of the things that I do is we take time, lots of time to date each other.
03:29So we've been dating for 32 years. We've been married for 24. So we still date each other. So that's very important.
03:37Married for 24, dating for 32 years. And that's actually our kids and grandkids in the audience.
03:47So yes, and we make 24 years July 17. So we take lots of vacation. When I see that he's getting overwhelmed at work, I make his schedule. I pull him away and we take a vacation and we just make sure we take time to date.
04:03The most important point is still dating each other. Excellent, excellent. So Alex, you develop recipes and you're a food content creator.
04:13Tell us a little bit about how you fell into that and it becoming your passion.
04:18Well, I was trying to do sports, but I fell in love with cooking at a young age. For my mom, she was effortless in the kitchen and she just showed me how to cook.
04:25So she saw it at a young age. I really loved cooking. And so like fifth or sixth grade, I started cooking and outside of high school, I wanted to go to culinary school.
04:33And she was like, no, not really. You're going to go to a four year. So I went to Hampton, best student of my life.
04:39Oh, okay. Hampton.
04:41But I still loved cooking after graduation and went to a lot of culinary school, open houses, did not graduate just because I couldn't afford it.
04:54And then I started a food blog in 2017, just as like a creative outlet. And it led me to Essence.
04:59Hey, we love that. Yeah. All right. So all of you three, I feel can answer this question.
05:06What is a dish that you guys make that is like, you're this, this can't fail dish. And how do you make it?
05:14I can go. I'm not Jamaican, but I can make pretty good oxtail.
05:19Oh, hold on now. I got a man off that. Oh, oh, oh. Years ago, but yeah.
05:24Oh, okay. So backstage, you're going to give me that recipe, right? I'll give you the recipe.
05:27Oh, okay, cool. What about you guys?
05:30Well, it's kind of hard for me to answer that because I have my taste testers because I will continue to read, you know, direct a recipe and say,
05:40look, stop. It's perfect the way it is. So it's actually whatever they've made like.
05:44Yeah. What do you feel is his, what do you feel is his can't fail dish?
05:48Why is it seafood pasta? I love the seafood pasta. That's my favorite.
05:53Oh, I love me a seafood pasta. Make some noise for seafood pasta, oxtail. I mean, my goodness, we got all bases covered with those two dishes right there.
06:01Okay. So for those in the audience who want to start chefing up at home and cooking for the culture, what should be in their toolkits?
06:09What are the main seasons and ingredients that everyone should have and can't live without?
06:15So being from the South, you have to have the Holy Trinity, celery, onion, and bell pepper.
06:21Okay. Okay. And then from that, of course, being a Creole city too, your tomatoes, fresh Creole tomatoes.
06:28And the simplicity is, as long as you got sawn and pepper, you could be able to create anything.
06:32Oh, okay. And other than that, your spices, your herbs. As long as it's fresh, you're okay with it, okay?
06:39Yeah, yeah. I love that you said tomatoes too. I'm Haitian. We love tomatoes. Yeah.
06:44For me, it's salt. I think everyone is afraid of it, but salt brings out flavor.
06:48And like when you're at a restaurant and nine times out of 10, something is like flat, just add salt.
06:53So salt, it's okay to add salt.
06:57Okay. And what do you say, Cheryl?
06:59I always say, I always ask them to kick it up a little bit with spice.
07:03I love spice. Yes.
07:06Okay. Would you say that's a New Orleans thing? Like doing spice is big here?
07:10I love spice, yeah.
07:11Yes. Okay. Okay. So let's start sampling. Chef Damien, you have some of your best work for a lucky audience member.
07:19So let's get into it. I think we have a lucky audience member who's going to try some food.
07:24Where is she? Are you right there? Okay. Come on. Come on. Let's make some noise for my sister right here.
07:28How do we get you up here?
07:30You know what? Yes.
07:31Oh, this looks beautiful. Okay. So you know, Chef Damien, you got to come over here and you got to let the folks know what our lucky audience member is going to be trying.
07:49So I'm Chef Damien, and this is Chef Damien, too. This is my son.
07:54Oh, he's your son.
07:55So what we have right here, just give you a little history on the shirt that I have on right now. This is my grandfather's shirt.
08:02We do everything to honor our grandparents and everything. So this right here, this is the Jew's Beauchamp, the granddaddy.
08:09So this right here is a panko-crusted Japanese eggplant that has been cut down with a little bit of roasted garlic,
08:15deglazed with a little bit of brandy, thickened up with a little bit of potato starch, has unduly sauces in it,
08:20shrimp and crawfish tails, and finish off with fresh basil.
08:23Oh, oh my God.
08:24And all the garnishes and the warm arcees.
08:26Well, let's go ahead and dig in. Come on now. Come on. First of all, let me get your name. What's your name, sweetheart?
08:32Hi, I'm Mariah.
08:33Mariah, okay. So you're about to try this special dish now. You got to let me know. You know what, can I? I'm sorry. They didn't say I could, but yeah, I'm a little hungry, too. So I'm sorry.
08:46Do y'all mind if I? Okay, cool.
08:50Okay, cool. Let me go ahead and, um.
08:55Thank you. Thank you.
08:57No, I'm just gonna, y'all just gonna fork, I'm just gonna put my fork in it, okay?
09:02All right. Hold on now. Wait a minute. I want to get a little bit of that sausage, too. Hold on.
09:09Help out, son.
09:10Okay, hold on now.
09:14Oh. Mm. Hold on.
09:19Yeah.
09:21Oh, yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Oh, my God. That's amazing. You have to tell me again. Break down to me again what I'm eating, because it's like a party in my mouth. It's like a party in my mouth. Seriously.
09:35I just fused it together with, um, like Asian, Asian, Asian, get it? That's, uh, the Asian is the Japanese eggplant with the panko-crusted, uh, uh, bread crumb. And then, uh, the garlic is roasted off and then deglazed and flamed off with the brandy. Burn the alcohol off and then add the sausage and the shrimp and the crawfish tails to it, paprika, and a little bit of basil. And then after that, as it starts to grow up, I add just a little bit of, uh, potato starch to it, just to thicken it up lightly. That's it.
10:03Wow. Make some noise for that. Um, what do you take? I mean, does it make you want to slap your mama? Let me know.
10:11Ten out of ten. Anyone that's on TikTok, as Keith Lee would say, but show you right on. Ten. Ten, ten, ten.
10:18Ten, ten, tens across the board. All right, well, you know, let's give a round of applause for Chef Damien, Cheryl Banks, Alex Hill. You guys have really, I mean, thank you so much for that dish.
10:31Thank you so much for all you guys do. And guys, we'll be right back, okay? Make some noise for them again.
10:37Nice.
10:39Wasn't it?
10:40Hey, beaucoup.
10:41Ooh происходит.
10:42Uh...
10:43Ooh.
10:44Ooh.
10:45Ooh.
10:46Ooh.
10:47Ooh.
10:48Ooh.
10:49Ooh.
10:51Ooh.
10:54Ooh.
10:55Oh, ooh.
10:56anton.
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