- 5 weeks ago
As consumers seek food experiences that reflect their heritage and values, culture-centered food brands are becoming essential. This panel explores the rising demand for culturally rooted food businesses and how entrepreneurs are building community-driven brands. Panelists will also share real-world challenges, insights, and strategies for navigating entrepreneurship at the intersection of culture and commerce.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00All right, so we're ready for our next panel, and I'm excited because this one is about culture capital.
00:06It's about money and business, okay? Money, business, and culture. How do we infuse there?
00:12So to get us started, my name is Nino Durrell. I'm founder of Dine Diaspora, which focuses on marketing events in the food and beverage industry.
00:20I'm going to bring out my two panelists. First up is Rose Marie Tolbert, and she is founder of Rosie Eats.
00:27So she's going to join us. Give her a round of applause.
00:34Next up is Ms. Adina Bayou. She is founder of Cornbread Farm to Social. Let's give her a round of applause.
00:42All right, ladies. Now, let's get started because I've got a lot to talk to y'all about.
00:48Everything about what y'all are doing is so amazing.
00:51So to get started, I want everybody to know who exactly you are and the work you're doing as a business owner that infuses your culture into your business.
01:00So let's get started with you, Rose Marie.
01:03Hi, everybody. Thank you for coming. My name is Rose Marie Tolbert. I am the owner of Rosie Eats.
01:09We specialize in authentic Liberian, West African dishes, but we also infuse a lot of other cultures into them, like either West African, South American, American, Southern,
01:22and try to create some really great dishes that are rooted in our culture.
01:27And we also do desserts. We ship door-to-door for desserts. That's how the business started.
01:35And then I fell back into what I know and love, which is my traditional foods.
01:42Hi, my name is Adina. I am co-founder of Cornbread Farm to Social.
01:47And we are the culture. So we are an amazing, amazing soul food.
01:54So, have anybody had cornbread here today?
01:57Woo!
01:59Hey, mom!
02:02So, yeah, we are in the food mart. Go down there. Check us out.
02:07And we are just really talking about the history of soul food, how we have to own it, we have to create it, and we have to make space for soul food.
02:18Because when I think about how culture plays into everything, about 50% of the people that come to Essence Festival, they come for the food.
02:31About 50%.
02:32And let me tell y'all something.
02:35We, as black people, are in the middle of driving that culture.
02:39And we have to own it.
02:41We just can't tip-up space anymore.
02:43We have to own spaces that we're occupying.
02:46So, for me, when I think about cornbread, it's about creating a space that hasn't been taken away from us, but we're going to make sure that we keep it in the family.
02:58It's going to be for us, by us.
03:00For us, by us.
03:02Yes.
03:02So, let's go back a little bit, right?
03:04Before you even had these businesses, you had a lot of, you know, you were growing up, getting inspired to do what you're doing now.
03:13Take us back to when you decided to actually start a business that actually integrated your culture.
03:22You go, Rose.
03:23Well, before I do get into that, our congresswoman, MacGyver, is in the building.
03:32Y'all give it up for her.
03:33Give it up.
03:34She represents New Jersey.
03:35Yes.
03:36For me, I would say looking at it as a business was probably in my teens.
03:49I became, okay, I had a passion for cooking.
03:54I had a passion for baking.
03:55I went to seek out people whose food I really loved.
04:02Started with my mother, my grandmother, my aunt, a family friend, a lady who took care of us as a child.
04:12I would ask her, how did you make this or how did you make that?
04:14And I would get my lessons because I wanted to be the best at that.
04:18So, I already had a passion for it.
04:21And when you do that, you become the go-to.
04:25Everybody in your family is like, oh, Rose, I need you to make me this.
04:28Oh, Rose, you know, any holiday, any celebration, you become that go-to.
04:31So, it got to a point where I was like, why am I doing this for free?
04:39You're sweating in the kitchen.
04:41You're running into that person's house.
04:43You're looking all haggard.
04:44And they're just sitting down at the table, relaxed, eating.
04:50So, I think that's how it started.
04:52But it coupled with the whole hospitality industry.
04:56I enjoyed, you know, food is my love language.
04:59Food, entertaining people, making sure people are happy within that space.
05:04So, I did move into the hotels and hospitality scene for the longest time.
05:10But then, you know, you work for corporate for a long time.
05:13But you have this entrepreneurship within you.
05:15And you're just like, you know what, I'm not going to sit here on a 9 to 5, take all the taxes out, and do all of this.
05:20When I have something, I have a gift.
05:24And I've been blessed with that gift.
05:26So, why can't I use it to support me and my family?
05:32So, for me, my journey has been a little bit different.
05:36I own, right now, I own three IHOPs.
05:38And when I started work, when I first opened my first IHOP in 2007, I was the youngest franchisee in IHOP history.
05:48I was the only black woman in the Northeast to own the IHOP.
05:53I was the only black franchisee, I think, at the time in the whole Northeast.
06:01So, and my IHOP was really in a black community.
06:06So, black people, we eat breakfast differently.
06:10So, it's grits and catfish, it's whiting, it's chicken and waffles.
06:16People love IHOP, but they wanted a real black experience.
06:21So, what I did was, I started a little side menu.
06:25I started setting chicken and waffles, grits, catfish, and all this other stuff.
06:31And I got in trouble with IHOP.
06:33And it was like, what the hell?
06:36You doing what now?
06:37In an IHOP?
06:39And by the time they recognized, I realized that at the time we were doing about, we were doing roughly almost $3 million sales.
06:50And 20% of that was the soul food menu.
06:53So, they couldn't just say, oh, yeah, I got to close up.
06:57So, what they did was, we'll let you do it, but we got to control it.
07:01So, I said, okay, no problem.
07:03I went upstairs in my office and I wrote on my vision board.
07:07I wrote down cornbread that one day I would open a soul food restaurant where I could sell whatever the hell I want when I wanted it.
07:17And that's what I did.
07:18Three years later, I opened the first cornbread in New Jersey and it was lines out the door because our food is that good.
07:27Absolutely.
07:28So, that's how I got into the soul food business.
07:30Yes, and obviously putting your culture at the forefront, right?
07:34That's right.
07:35And people were lined up.
07:37There is such a demand for our cultures in the marketplace, right?
07:41Yep.
07:42So, thinking about just even like getting the capital.
07:44But they don't see it.
07:46Tell us more.
07:47They don't see that.
07:49I see it because I'm in the community.
07:52I see what my people want to eat.
07:54So, oftentimes we are so stressed trying to convince black people, I mean white people, that black people matter.
08:04Yes.
08:04I'm done with that.
08:05I'm not going to convince nobody else that there is currency walking through here this weekend.
08:11That there is power in the black dollar, right?
08:14I'm going to show you.
08:16I'm not going to tell you.
08:17I am going to show you.
08:18And for me, that's what it's always been about.
08:21So, understanding my black people, knowing what we want, and delivering on that.
08:27Yes.
08:27Adina, I couldn't have said it any better because I think about, you know, the idea that having to convince someone to support you that doesn't see where the demand is.
08:36And you're right.
08:37You're both in this because you see it.
08:39Talking about sort of growing your business and finding the capital to do so.
08:44So, a lot of times everyone's like, I can't really get this business off the ground and grow it without convincing people that don't look like me to get to where I need to be.
08:54What has your journey been like in growing a business that's really, you know, connected to who you are as a person and our culture?
09:02Where did the money come from?
09:04And how are you continue to scale and get capital to grow?
09:09I think for me, I initially started, I just bootstrapped.
09:12I bootstrapped, bootstrapped, bootstrapped.
09:14But what I've noticed in the last few years as well, and some may not see it, but I think in my business and my success comes from that, is that talents have been changing for such a long time.
09:31You have, within the African industry, you have so many intermarriages.
09:37You have so many relationships.
09:38You have, today we're selling, our booth is Rosie Eats over at the food court.
09:44We're selling Jollof rice.
09:45I think I want to say like five years ago, I would have never thought to put Jollof rice out there because I'm like, no one's going to buy it.
09:52Nobody knows anything about it.
09:54But I felt comfortable enough to know that there is a market out there for it.
09:58And people are understanding.
10:00I mean, just for the little bit of time that I was at the booth yesterday, I had people come up there and be like, you know what?
10:07I keep hearing about this thing that I really want to try it.
10:09So people want to try things.
10:11People want to be different.
10:13And so just tapping into that alone and explaining your story and explaining your business, that's where you can get your capital.
10:21Yeah.
10:22Okay.
10:22So I want to tell you guys one story because I love telling stories, right?
10:26I was 25 years old when I decided I came back from college.
10:38There was no decent restaurant in my neighborhood.
10:42I grew up in, do anybody know Newark, New Jersey?
10:46I grew up in Newark.
10:47At the time, Newark was probably the most dangerous city in the country.
10:51And when I came back from college, all of the stuff that I enjoy because my college was in a white community, when I came back home, none of it was there.
11:03And I said to myself, I want to open the IHOP in my community.
11:10When I started on that journey, seven banks turned me down.
11:15Not one, not two, not three, not four, not five, not six.
11:22Seven banks said no to me.
11:26I did not take no for an answer because I knew in my gut that when I opened that IHOP, it would be successful.
11:37I found somebody all the way in Arizona, and the only reason they financed my IHOP was because IHOP called them and said,
11:48if y'all finance this deal, we'll give you guys more.
11:52They financed that IHOP, we opened that IHOP in 2007.
11:59By 2008, we was the fastest growing IHOP in the whole Northeast, right?
12:07The second point I wanted to make is, success for black people have never came from the support of any banks.
12:21Fast forward to cornbread.
12:24When I started on this whole vision that I wanted to open a soul food concept, I was already in the restaurant space for about 10 years.
12:32So technically, I could go to a bank, and they shouldn't even ask me for a business plan.
12:37I am the business plan, right?
12:39And not to be cocky or anything like that, but my white counterparts, they just have to show up with a flash drive and an idea.
12:49I have lived this idea.
12:52They wouldn't finance it.
12:54You know who believed in us?
12:55Who financed us?
12:57New Voices Fund.
12:58New Voices give us $5 million to start taking cornbread to the next level, right?
13:07So, and who had New Voices?
13:09A black person.
13:11Yes.
13:11We have to understand that there is power in our blackness.
13:16And when we're at every table, always look for that black person at that table and ask them, what's your name?
13:26And introduce yourself.
13:28Because there's power in us knowing each other and showing up for each other in rooms that we are not in.
13:35Yes.
13:36Give it up.
13:37Yes.
13:38And for New Voices as well.
13:39Everything you both just said also makes me think about, you know, the black market is global.
13:47It's not just here in America.
13:49It's outside of, it's in the Caribbean, it's in Africa, it's in Europe.
13:53What do you, how do you see your brand and what you're building?
13:57How do you take what you're building and think bigger for the world?
14:02And how might you even be doing that now?
14:07Well, back to, back to pallets and, and, and, and, and, and, and how people are actually more accepting of our foods.
14:16I think that as we talked in our other panel about AI and all of that, right?
14:22When you look at the generations that are younger than us and that are up and coming, a lot of these in our panel before we talked about traditional cooking and how passing down recipes.
14:35And my thing was that the younger generation are not really interested in cooking on the scale that we were, right?
14:41And for my business, right now we supply fusion or authentic African food door-to-door, similar to what I explained about our cakes going door-to-door, right?
14:55We also do catering, we partner with other businesses.
14:58But because you have our people all over the world, because you have a generation that's coming up that will crave what we're offering them, but at the same time may or may not want to prepare these things.
15:16You have to prepare yourself for these changes and figure out how does your business fall into that?
15:22How can I switch my business to be able to give these next upcoming generation and businesses what I have and what that change looks like?
15:34So that's where we're at right now.
15:36We're looking at all of these changes around us and figuring out how do we place ourselves out there.
15:41Absolutely.
15:43So for me, I am building something, and this theme keeps living with me, living with me.
15:50I am going to build something that is going to outlive me.
15:55If I'm not building something that can outlive me, I'm not doing enough, right?
16:00I believe in franchising.
16:03I believe that franchise, if done correctly, can really skill people in owning a business where all of the risk, there's always going to be risk.
16:15Don't let no one tell you there's no risk.
16:17There's always going to be risk.
16:18But it minimizes the risk of owning a restaurant when you franchise.
16:24And right now, if you look at the franchising landscape, we as black people, it's opening up in our community, but we don't own them.
16:35They're coming, but we don't own them.
16:37And what I want to do with Cornbread is to create a brand that allows ownership, that builds a table that is for us and creates seats at every table where someone that looks like us is at that table.
16:53That is what Cornbread is, and that is the path that we're on.
16:58I know franchising like the back of my hand, and how can I take that experience and let it benefit someone that looks like me is what I'm trying to figure out with Cornbread.
17:09Absolutely, and both points are really, really important.
17:13And as I think about folks here, some people are looking to sort of have businesses like yours that really are intentional about integrating their culture into their growth process, into how they hire.
17:26All types of culture, all types of things matter when you're growing a business that's centered on culture.
17:31What advice, what one piece of advice would you give someone that's looking to really not compromise their culture because the world around them may not see it the way that they do or the way that they know?
17:43What do you have to say, what advice would you have to give to them as they grow their businesses?
17:50That's a good question.
17:53Oh, Mike.
17:56That's a great question.
18:00I think for me, I just never back down.
18:02I think innately, when it came to being a chef, when it came to be a baker, I've never backed down from authenticity.
18:11And so it's never been a challenge for me as to whether I should cut corners here, whether I should change what I want to do.
18:18I think that we all know, we know what we want.
18:24As black people, we know what makes us happy.
18:27We know what foods we want to eat.
18:29We know what gatherings we want to be at.
18:32All of these things come back to one thing, and that's joy.
18:34Food is joy.
18:36You know, so there can never be anything that will remove food.
18:42The economy will crash, but at the end of the day, food will be there.
18:47You need it for sustenance.
18:50Food is love, language.
18:52Food is survival.
18:54Our ancestors found a way to create immaculate dishes.
18:57So it's not like our food is not going anywhere.
19:01And so I think what we need to start doing that is that our food is already ingrained in every single thing out there.
19:08And so what we need to do, we need to take that back.
19:11We need to claim it and say, this is actually ours, and we're going to take this, and we're going to push it up there, and we're going to show you what it can do.
19:20So I think for me, it's never been a problem.
19:22I just see the value in it, and I think everybody else needs to start thinking that way as well.
19:28Absolutely.
19:29So one advice I'll give anybody here, you could be young, you could be old, you could be whoever you are, I do believe there is strength, there is power in knowing yourself.
19:44There is strength in understanding that it's going to always be hard.
19:49But don't let anybody tell you what you can and cannot be.
19:55Believe in yourself.
19:57Never take no for an answer.
20:01All you need is one yes.
20:03That's all you need is one yes.
20:07Right?
20:07So I'm going to leave this with anybody in here on your journey to building whatever you want to build.
20:13Don't let anybody put that limitation on you.
20:17If you set your eyes on something, do it, and give it your all, and like my grandmother always said, nothing bad ever came out of hard work.
20:29I'm going to say it again for the people in the back.
20:31One more time.
20:32Nothing bad ever came out of hard work.
20:35Y'all heard that?
20:36Okay?
20:37And I'm going to leave it there.
20:38And we're going to leave it there.
20:40Thank you all so, so much.
20:42You heard these two women building incredible businesses centered on their culture and growing it nationally and globally.
20:49So thank you all so, so much.
20:51We'll see you later and enjoy the rest of your day.
20:54Thank you guys so much.
21:10We'll see you later and enjoy the rest of your day.
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