- 2 days ago
Gather ‘round for a lively “story circle” where beloved bakers and food lovers share their sweetest dessert memories and treasured family recipes. Discover the heartwarming stories behind classic treats like pound cake, peach cobbler, and banana pudding, and pick up new twists to bring home. This session invites you to celebrate tradition and honor the legacy of Black desserts, one delicious story at a time.
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00:00It's your boy, Wild Wayne, from iHeartMedia and from the New Orleans Pelicans, and I am a foodie at heart as well, so I'm right at home up here.
00:09Now this next panel that's coming up, it's more than just recipes for this one. It's also about memories.
00:15You always have some food memories in your life from when you were a little kid to when you were able to go ahead and start cooking in your college years and as an adult.
00:24Well, some of those recipes are sacred to the families, and those dishes live on in our hearts and our histories.
00:32So from pound cake to peach cobbler to banana pudding, our beloved bakers and food storytellers are here to share those treats that have shaped our generations.
00:42Please welcome to the stage, Chef Rosemarie Tolbert.
00:48Give it up for Ms. Rosemarie Tolbert. How are you?
00:51And also, Ms. Nina Oduro. Give it up for Ms. Nina Oduro. All right.
01:07All right. Hello, hello, hello. How's everybody doing?
01:12All right, we're about to talk about desserts.
01:14So if you're a sweet tooth, you're in the right place at the right time.
01:20Rosemarie, I am really excited to get to talk to you because desserts are my sweet spot.
01:25Like, that's the thing that I love the most.
01:26I can't make one, but I can certainly eat one.
01:29So let's start.
01:30You are obviously a pastry chef.
01:33You're awesome.
01:34You have your own brand.
01:36But let's go back, even before you got your own brand, even before you became an entrepreneur, back in your early days.
01:42Tell us about your earliest memories of falling in love with desserts.
01:47So, hi.
01:48Hi, everybody.
01:49How are you doing?
01:50I'm from West Africa, Liberia, actually.
01:53So, growing up, my mom, my grandmother, my aunts have always been bakers.
02:01Cooks, chefs, and bakers.
02:03So there was always good food and good desserts in the house at all times.
02:06But I think for me, I have two core memories that have to do with desserts.
02:12One is that my mom was like, you know, West Africa, it's a small country.
02:17So everybody knows everybody.
02:18She was constantly taking orders to do birthday cakes.
02:24So she was like the decorator of the town.
02:29And I just remember always being at the table as she decorated her cakes.
02:35And you're catching the crumbs or you're helping her.
02:38And I think some of that started with that.
02:40And also, I just remember my grandmother, she also had a bakery.
02:45She had a kitchen.
02:45And we were constantly hanging out at her house after school.
02:51And you would just see her in that kitchen just swirling around, like, from one side of the kitchen to the next, ordering people around, moving things around.
02:59And the entire scene, like, totally mesmerized me.
03:02So I think with those two core memories, I think the idea of food and desserts just kind of stuck.
03:07And what was, like, the one dessert that, you know, growing up, you learned how to make?
03:12Maybe the first one that you took pride in making yourself.
03:16It was definitely the pound cake.
03:18Ooh, pound cake.
03:19Definitely the pound cake.
03:19How old were you?
03:21I think about 10 or 11 years old.
03:24And I would watch her do it all the time.
03:29And then as I watched her, she would also say, hey, come and sift this flour or do this or do that.
03:35And so it just kind of stuck, the memory of each thing stuck, and then trying it on my own.
03:40Yeah.
03:40And I did a pretty good job.
03:42And baking is not easy.
03:44Okay.
03:45How many of y'all bake?
03:47Shout out to the bakers in the house.
03:48I cannot bake for my life because it just takes so much precision.
03:53It does.
03:53Right?
03:53It does.
03:54So I think starting at an early age is actually really, really important.
03:57So let's talk a little bit about some of the culture behind the desserts that you made.
04:02You're not just making desserts.
04:04You're also infusing your narrative, your culture.
04:06Are there any desserts that I think, you know, you could really say have that, like, your culture infused that you're still making now?
04:15So our history is very similar to here.
04:20I'll start with that.
04:21Right?
04:22And this one dessert is something that you do find here a lot.
04:26It's the coconut pie.
04:28However, our coconut pie is a little bit different.
04:31I think also our ingredients, the coconut over there is very different.
04:36It's sweeter.
04:36It's softer.
04:38So you get a different product than you would if you were to buy coconut on the shelf here.
04:43Like, we're not doing the angel plate coconut.
04:46We're doing that coconut that I remember back in the days, you're grating it, and you're almost cutting off your fingers and everything.
04:53But I think our desserts in Liberia, we tend to, for me, the ginger, the coconut, those are things that stand out, and they're very different on that side.
05:04So our ginger cake is very different.
05:06It's a sharp, I mean, it's a flavor that will not leave you once you've had it.
05:11Absolutely.
05:11And you don't often hear people talking about ginger cake, right?
05:16There's the traditional cake that we're all kind of like lemon cake, pound cake, of course.
05:21Like, who doesn't love a pound cake?
05:23But then, you know, ginger cake makes you intrigued, you know?
05:27Are there other types of cakes or other desserts that you have that kind of, you know, are a little bit different?
05:33So we, there's something that we call potato poem.
05:36We take the sweet potato, molasses, sugar, brown sugar, and we cook it over the hot stove, and it turns into a bread.
05:44You add your eggs and things like that, it turns into a bread.
05:46So we do things like candies, your coconut candy, your milk candy.
05:50The milk candy is made out of condensed milk.
05:53Your peanut candy, those are all things that you're using.
05:56It's so, it's hard to explain, like, because we're so similar, these things are similar, but it is so different.
06:05Just because of the ingredients, and getting that authentic peanut, that authentic ginger, that authentic sweet potato, it just makes, it does, in fact, make it an entirely different dessert.
06:18I love that you said that, like, there's similarities, especially from West African culture and American culture, especially, obviously, black American culture, because of our history as a group, as a people.
06:32And I find so much joy in finding those similarities.
06:34You know, when you say peanut cake, I'm like, when I saw the, like, oh my gosh, it's the same thing, right?
06:41But then there's little variances that you said.
06:44But let's talk a little bit more about the variances, because, you know, nowadays, everybody likes to switch it up.
06:50Like, you take something traditional, and you do a little switch up, or I like to call it innovate.
06:56So, are there any ways that you are innovating on your desserts that is intriguing or interesting, that makes you, you know, excited?
07:06So, there is another dessert that we do in Liberia, that it, it can be a breakfast bread, it can be a snack, it can be a dessert.
07:17It's called, we call it rice bread.
07:19It's made out of bananas and plantains, your eggs, your milk, you bake it.
07:24And you can use that as a breakfast bread, like I said.
07:29Or, lately, what I've tried doing is turning that into a appetizer or a dessert, you know, a dessert.
07:37So, I'll take that, if it were an appetizer, I would take that sweet bread, and I would put, like, a chicken salad on top.
07:43If I were making it into a dessert for a formal, plated dinner, then I would make some sort of a, something that complements your plantain, some sort of a mango sauce, or something like that, to kind of, you know, go over the plate and serve it.
08:01So, you're looking at styles that you learned here, but you're trying to take the authentic desserts from home and turn it into that miraculous dessert.
08:10Yeah, and, you know, as you were explaining it, I was actually picturing it at the same time, because food is not just, you know, the taste and everything.
08:18It's also visual, and especially for desserts, people are walking to it, kind of, like, tasting already with their eyes.
08:26How do you, you know, what's your take on sort of, like, decorating or designing your pastries?
08:33I love using a lot of what I already know, and when I say already know, it's things from home, right?
08:40So, you will see me clinging to my tropical fruits, my mangoes, my pineapples, we call mango plum over there, and turning that either into a sauce or turning, you know, or decorating the plate with it.
08:55I also like, like, if it's a coconut, then I would try to see how I can blend that into whatever it is that I'm doing.
09:03But I normally, I think I would say nine times out of ten, would try to stick to the authentic ingredients that I know and try to infuse that into a dessert.
09:13Yeah, I have to ask you a question that, you know, I'm interested to know.
09:18So, like I said, a lot of people are innovating, a lot of people are doing desserts in different ways.
09:23Are there any trends that you're like, no, like, we need to stop in the dessert field?
09:31That's a good question.
09:33Let me see.
09:36I mean, I think I like, like, for example, I think, like, my booth is over there, and we normally do a rum cake, right?
09:44And some people may not go, some people have already told me they don't go for it, but a lot of people like it.
09:50So instead of doing your regular traditional rum cake where you bake it over the pecans, and then you put your rum sauce on it, I call it a deconstructed rum cake, you know?
09:58So I'm really into this deconstructing thing lately.
10:01I don't know.
10:02That is definitely a big trend.
10:04Yes, yes.
10:05I'm deconstructing the coconut pie, deconstructing the rum cake.
10:08So it's really like your pound cake, but then you put your rum sauce on top, but then you make this really nice bourbon pecan brittle, and you throw that on top instead and serve it with some ice cream.
10:18I'll say that's something we don't need to stop, continue, because I need to come over there and take that deconstructed rum cake.
10:25But tell us about flavors, right?
10:28I think in any recipe, you're probably deconstructing the flavors as you create them, right?
10:35What are some of the, you would say, key components and ingredients that you are ensuring that are infused that may be also culturally driven through your journey?
10:48In terms of ingredients, your basic ingredients, there are a lot of things I don't compromise on.
10:53I don't compromise on butter.
10:55I don't compromise on if it's, you know, milk.
10:58If there's a certain quality of thing and that flavor that comes out, that's what I want.
11:05There's so, so many things out there.
11:07You're like, what is this?
11:09You know?
11:10But for me, I think with my business, with myself, with my family, there are just things that we don't, it's that flavor and certain ingredients that bring that flavor.
11:23That's what I'm ultimately seeking.
11:25And if I can't get it, then I don't want to do it.
11:28And it just gives, it's like a sour taste in my mouth.
11:31Yeah, I appreciate the reality of it because compromising does affect the outcome for me as a, you know, as a chief taste tester of desserts.
11:41And back to the coconut cake, there are a lot of Liberians that I know who will, and this is no shade.
11:47It's just what people want and what they want to do.
11:50But back to the coconut cake, people have come from Liberia here.
11:53The easiest thing they can find is the angel plate coconut, right?
11:57So they'll take that and they'll use the same authentic recipe, but it just tastes.
12:02It's not the same.
12:02It is not the same.
12:04Are there other types of ingredients where you feel like the substitution compromises the outcome?
12:09I mean, there's so many, though.
12:12There's so many.
12:13And it just goes back to what, like I said, the sweet potato, the coconut, the ginger, those things.
12:21Like some people will take ginger powder and use it in the cake, and it does not.
12:26You know, you want, when you bite into that ginger cake, you want to see those little squiggly lines of ginger coming out, you know, and just that hotness and stuff.
12:34But some people will just throw anything in and be like, okay, this is great, and it's not bad.
12:40But I think coming from my mom and my grandmother, when they, you know, when you do something, you do it right.
12:47Yeah.
12:47And so I think that's where mine, you know, that's where that comes from.
12:50Yeah, and talking about family, one of the most important ways that I know a lot of people enjoy desserts is over family gatherings.
12:58Any type of, of course, like birthday celebrations or anything, graduations, et cetera, people are ordering desserts to do so.
13:08Can you tell us a story about your own sort of, you know, journey, and what is a celebration dessert that you love and why?
13:17So our celebration dessert goes back to the same old pound cake, right?
13:26We are, for as long as I can remember, if your birthday fell in the middle of the week, if it fell on the weekend, our family would gather together.
13:37And I think for us, it was a little bit different because we came to America running away from war, right, in our country.
13:45And so when we settled, we settled with our close families around us.
13:51And you build that relationship.
13:54And I think everywhere we've grown, and I was little at the time, everywhere we've gone since then, whether we're in different states, you still look for that bond because you want to celebrate with people.
14:06You want your holidays to be with people because you want to taste the comfort of home, to taste the flavors that you're used to, you know?
14:14And so for us, every birthday, there was a birthday cake.
14:18It was always my mom, and now it's always me who's making these birthday cakes.
14:24So it's just something that has been passed on from generation to generation.
14:28And you will always celebrate.
14:30You will always get together.
14:32And whosever birthday is, you will always raise them up with that dessert.
14:35And you can't compromise on flavor.
14:37I totally, totally agree.
14:40And when we talk about family, too, I think about passing on recipes, right?
14:47So for many people in the black community globally, we're all thinking about preservations of our recipes.
14:54Many of us are chasing grandmas and, you know, trying to figure out them recipes.
14:59Tell us about that for you.
15:02You have obviously a business where you have to deliver on your recipes all the time.
15:07But personally, for your own journey, are you looking to pass down some of your recipes?
15:13Are you looking to, you know, have books?
15:15And, you know, how are you thinking about recipe legacy for yourself?
15:21So for me, I have twin girls, 13-year-old.
15:24They're over there.
15:25And they have started learning how to bake.
15:29So they take on those recipes.
15:32Because I'm in a business, I won't just give it to anybody.
15:35But like you say, it is important to pass it down.
15:39As I was gifted, I also have to gift.
15:42But I also know that the younger generation, and I'm going to say my nieces and nephews who are, you know, the 20-something-year-olds.
15:54But they're not even interested in it.
15:56Are you sure?
15:57I am so serious.
16:01They do not want to cook.
16:02They don't want to bake.
16:04And I'm just like, guys, you know, let's have a class.
16:06Let me show you.
16:07Some of them aren't.
16:08I'm not going to say all of them.
16:10But I think the majority of them aren't.
16:13Right?
16:13And so now we have to figure out how do we reach them?
16:18How do we make it easy for them?
16:20How do we pass on?
16:21Well, they want to go through all of those steps.
16:24Because some of our traditional recipes, it takes a longer time.
16:28And that's why you can understand if somebody would just take powdered ginger and put it in something.
16:31Because they don't have the time.
16:32Not because they don't like the flavor or anything like that, you know.
16:35So I'm not, you know, no shade for anybody.
16:37But there's still something to that authenticity that you have to pass down.
16:44Someone has to remember and someone has to do.
16:46Because, like you say, when you get to these celebrations, the birthdays and things like that,
16:52when you sit down and you're laughing and you're talking and you take that bite of your cake,
16:59it's like, you know what I mean?
17:02It's like, yes, this is what I know.
17:04This is who I am, you know?
17:05And so that's, there's definitely an importance.
17:10I definitely say keep pushing for these recipes.
17:13I think it's a journey.
17:15I think, you know, you start off and what young person really wants to spend a lot of time baking things from scratch?
17:22So I get it.
17:23They're trying to get AI to do it.
17:25Seriously.
17:26Let's talk to AI.
17:27AI can record you.
17:28Now, I don't want to promote only AI here.
17:31But, yeah, I do think that there's so much wealth in it.
17:35So keep trying.
17:36But tell us a little bit about the future, right?
17:38Future generations, like we just talked about, we would love for them to pick it up.
17:42Some of them want to become you in the future, too.
17:45What advice do you have for young people coming up in the field of, like, pastry and desserts?
17:53What I would say is definitely seek authenticity if you have to travel to learn about things.
18:03I was blessed to be able to travel at a young age, you know, like I said, running for more, but also just other opportunities and things like that.
18:10And so I'm looking at other things.
18:12I'm looking at, you know, I'm looking at the apple pie that at 10 years old I'm being given by a white friend of the family delicious apple pie,
18:24but then I'm craving my mango pie from back home.
18:27So I'm trying to figure out how can I, you know, get, blend the two.
18:31And so travel, see what's out there, see where, you know, whether it's with Southern, whether it's in, you know, in Europe, whether it's in Italy, whether it's in another African country.
18:42Travel a lot, see what the local community is eating and learn about it, you know.
18:48That's the first thing I would say.
18:49And in terms of my girls, I would say that I made them do these things because I'm a single mom.
18:57They had to help me.
18:57So I made them do it, but I also found that in cooking with them that we spend time together, you know.
19:05So from school, from all the different things that you're doing, if you have that one time to cook together or bake together,
19:12then you're spending time, you're actually learning the authentic steps.
19:17And then it doesn't seem like such a chore because you're actually having fun as you do it.
19:22So just stop for a second, take a breath, do the little steps that are important because in the end, it's priceless, really.
19:33I totally agree with you because I think learning recipes in general and cooking has multiple skills in it, right?
19:42You're listening, you're smiling, you're, you know, paying attention to detail.
19:45So I think, and communicating, of course.
19:48So as a young person, all of these skills are involved.
19:52So I'm excited to continue.
19:54Maybe I won't be learning.
19:55I will be eating.
19:57So if you guys check out Rosemarie's station here, if you haven't already been, I want to thank you all.
20:05If you want some dessert, you know exactly where to go.
20:08Keep those recipes live.
20:09Thank you, everybody.
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