welcome thank you do you mind if we talk
a little bit about your early years your
early biography of you were adopted when
you were three years old you and your
sister after your mother had fallen ill
in fact many many people in it Ethiopia
had fallen out tuberculosis yeah most my
mom my sister myself we had it and you
know we lived out in the countryside and
it was really my my mom and my sister
that walked into a big Hospital my mom
passed away my sister now we survived so
talking about Sweden and talking about
you are your adopted parents Ann Marie
is your mother’s name and she wasn’t
much of a cook was she a mom I was a
horrible cook nice woman horrible comes
her mother was a fantastic cook so what
about your grandmother’s roast chicken
what can we talk about yeah I mean Helga
you know the funny thing with with the
cooks that I know the cooks that I sort
of admire that all came out of poverty
when I think about but the you know they
lived a rich life but I think about the
cooks of madatha most of my life I think
about a lady like Lea chased out in
Orleans that sort of had the first
integrated restaurant in this country
and owned her own business since the
forties in America and my grandmother
you know they were born into poverty but
they knew how to cook and so they ate
well but maybe you know didn’t have what
we think it was a lot of money and my
grandmother’s cooking although when she
passed away she was a middle-class
Swedish woman that did you know that
they did very well but a cooking came
out of poverty that never changed her
DNA on roasting chicken putting the
vegetables on the knees letting the
chicken fat trip in the next day have a
chicken soup
and maybe the third day having chicken
dumpling you know so the way Julie are
upset by threats that bird and always
had broth on in the back you know she’s
smart smart ladies you know she had also
child labor she had all three running up
and down taking care of the pantry and
making like there was always when you
enter a house you had to work there was
always something going on now thinking
about that chicken to what I thought was
really interesting was that your
grandmother instinctively knew something
about the temperature that that chicken
needed to be in the same way that chefs
who are cooking a twenty seven dollar
chicken today do the same thing but they
do it in a different way can you talk
about that a little bit you know the
cooking is it’s like anything you do a
lot it’s just instinct right it’s almost
like a jazz musicians you know it some
people come from it from a school some
people were just born with it but when
you add that concert or when you’re
cooking it doesn’t really matter we’re
here now and either you learn those
muscles or you don’t
my mom had this fancy electric oven my
mom my grandmother never trusted that
oven so thank you my grandmother she had
an oven that we have to feed with word
all the time so the just understanding
how an oven works things like that that
cooking school it’s not going to teach
you that yeah
cooking school is not going to teach how
you taste something and you know she
used to taste the sauce by pouring it
straight into her hand and tasted like
this right no there wasn’t you know so
it’s stuff like that that you know you
have to be a real craftsman to
understand
so at aquavit how excited were you when
they said yeah come and come and work
here no it’s very exciting Aquarius has
always been sort of the the only
Scandinavian restaurant in outside
Scandinavia the person who owned aquavit
at the time he came back after couple of
months of looking for a chef and
he said I know it’s gonna be the new
chef like who is it you gonna be the new
chef and I was like well let me think
about this because it made me nervous I
didn’t want to be I could’ve just very
famous restaurant in Scandinavia I don’t
want to be the guy to close it I’m like
let me isn’t that because it’s just
being paranoid I’m like no I don’t want
all that but also knew that timing of
stuff doesn’t always work no I wrote to
get two three-star Michelin restaurant
30 times before I got in that didn’t fit
with my timing so you know there were 30
there was 29 notes I mean yeah so I also
knew the opposite of that timing is just
not gonna be presented to you and I
think it even helped me being black in
that case hmm because I knew how rare we
get the shots so you better take it
right you better do the most out of it
well and you definitely made that
opportunity work for you because I think
by the time you were literally just less
than a year later when you were 24 a
little food writer named Ruth reichal in
the New York Times reviewed reviewed
your meal yeah and something happened
and we got three stars from the New York
Times and you know what I was youngest
he is the youngest chef to ever receive
a three-star review from the New York
Times yeah I mean come on
but what I like about that more than
anything is that we really had no clue
that she was in the building any of
those times and when I say like we had
no clue we had no clue did she wear a
disguise or something what about us
because we didn’t know we were so
disorganized we were just working it
could have been said New York Times on a
forehand ruin them no so what what
happened after a covey what was your
your next big adventure you know I
remember the weekend before 9/11 I did I
was cooking at the towers I was cooking
there down there and the following
weekend the weekend of 9/11 I was in
Australia and I just remember a guy
waking me up like knocked on my door you
gotta you gotta put on TV and I saw the
stuff that happened and I knew a lot of
those cooks I know a lot of the service
I need a lot of a new chef at the tower
yeah the tire on at the top right and it
was one of those times where you started
thinking about okay what am i doing like
what is this gonna be there’s gonna be
my life to cook for the richest people
in the world for the rest of fill these
80 seats every night and I started to
think about it you know what can a chef
do what is my other purposes and my call
was that experience right to post that
yeah and I decided to you know what let
me let me move to Harlem let me move
somewhere else so I’m like what if you
know what if I can open a small
restaurant here that puts the community
could becomes a waterhole for the
community that is of and similar to
Sylvia’s and in the place of creating
jobs but just done a little bit
different and that was really when the
whole idea of Red Rooster for me started
to become real and then by 2010 we
opened Red Rooster and how’s it doing
these days we were very fortunate you
know
I’m very fortunate yeah we’re really
blessed by the community and we’re
really blessed by but you know it’s not
about I never measured a restaurant and
it’s easy to say when you’re busy all
the time but I don’t measure it by how
busy it is I measure it by the goals and
the reason why I put it in there what is
that what is the purpose what is the
core purpose the purpose was to really
create something to inspire and aspire
right the purple was to create jobs of
the trade that I’ve been lucky nothing
to be part of the purpose was to also
create a and other Soyoung particularly
people of color can say hey I can own a
business hey I can become a chef hey I
can become a bartender whatever your
goal is but it’s a field here and here’s
an upper tier represents an opportunity
this trade that a lot of people of color
really started in and served in but the
minute became a profession didn’t fit
into anymore can really take back its
authorship that’s the intent and that
takes time and thank you so much for
coming good game with us not done you
did a great job you did
you
a little bit about your early years your
early biography of you were adopted when
you were three years old you and your
sister after your mother had fallen ill
in fact many many people in it Ethiopia
had fallen out tuberculosis yeah most my
mom my sister myself we had it and you
know we lived out in the countryside and
it was really my my mom and my sister
that walked into a big Hospital my mom
passed away my sister now we survived so
talking about Sweden and talking about
you are your adopted parents Ann Marie
is your mother’s name and she wasn’t
much of a cook was she a mom I was a
horrible cook nice woman horrible comes
her mother was a fantastic cook so what
about your grandmother’s roast chicken
what can we talk about yeah I mean Helga
you know the funny thing with with the
cooks that I know the cooks that I sort
of admire that all came out of poverty
when I think about but the you know they
lived a rich life but I think about the
cooks of madatha most of my life I think
about a lady like Lea chased out in
Orleans that sort of had the first
integrated restaurant in this country
and owned her own business since the
forties in America and my grandmother
you know they were born into poverty but
they knew how to cook and so they ate
well but maybe you know didn’t have what
we think it was a lot of money and my
grandmother’s cooking although when she
passed away she was a middle-class
Swedish woman that did you know that
they did very well but a cooking came
out of poverty that never changed her
DNA on roasting chicken putting the
vegetables on the knees letting the
chicken fat trip in the next day have a
chicken soup
and maybe the third day having chicken
dumpling you know so the way Julie are
upset by threats that bird and always
had broth on in the back you know she’s
smart smart ladies you know she had also
child labor she had all three running up
and down taking care of the pantry and
making like there was always when you
enter a house you had to work there was
always something going on now thinking
about that chicken to what I thought was
really interesting was that your
grandmother instinctively knew something
about the temperature that that chicken
needed to be in the same way that chefs
who are cooking a twenty seven dollar
chicken today do the same thing but they
do it in a different way can you talk
about that a little bit you know the
cooking is it’s like anything you do a
lot it’s just instinct right it’s almost
like a jazz musicians you know it some
people come from it from a school some
people were just born with it but when
you add that concert or when you’re
cooking it doesn’t really matter we’re
here now and either you learn those
muscles or you don’t
my mom had this fancy electric oven my
mom my grandmother never trusted that
oven so thank you my grandmother she had
an oven that we have to feed with word
all the time so the just understanding
how an oven works things like that that
cooking school it’s not going to teach
you that yeah
cooking school is not going to teach how
you taste something and you know she
used to taste the sauce by pouring it
straight into her hand and tasted like
this right no there wasn’t you know so
it’s stuff like that that you know you
have to be a real craftsman to
understand
so at aquavit how excited were you when
they said yeah come and come and work
here no it’s very exciting Aquarius has
always been sort of the the only
Scandinavian restaurant in outside
Scandinavia the person who owned aquavit
at the time he came back after couple of
months of looking for a chef and
he said I know it’s gonna be the new
chef like who is it you gonna be the new
chef and I was like well let me think
about this because it made me nervous I
didn’t want to be I could’ve just very
famous restaurant in Scandinavia I don’t
want to be the guy to close it I’m like
let me isn’t that because it’s just
being paranoid I’m like no I don’t want
all that but also knew that timing of
stuff doesn’t always work no I wrote to
get two three-star Michelin restaurant
30 times before I got in that didn’t fit
with my timing so you know there were 30
there was 29 notes I mean yeah so I also
knew the opposite of that timing is just
not gonna be presented to you and I
think it even helped me being black in
that case hmm because I knew how rare we
get the shots so you better take it
right you better do the most out of it
well and you definitely made that
opportunity work for you because I think
by the time you were literally just less
than a year later when you were 24 a
little food writer named Ruth reichal in
the New York Times reviewed reviewed
your meal yeah and something happened
and we got three stars from the New York
Times and you know what I was youngest
he is the youngest chef to ever receive
a three-star review from the New York
Times yeah I mean come on
but what I like about that more than
anything is that we really had no clue
that she was in the building any of
those times and when I say like we had
no clue we had no clue did she wear a
disguise or something what about us
because we didn’t know we were so
disorganized we were just working it
could have been said New York Times on a
forehand ruin them no so what what
happened after a covey what was your
your next big adventure you know I
remember the weekend before 9/11 I did I
was cooking at the towers I was cooking
there down there and the following
weekend the weekend of 9/11 I was in
Australia and I just remember a guy
waking me up like knocked on my door you
gotta you gotta put on TV and I saw the
stuff that happened and I knew a lot of
those cooks I know a lot of the service
I need a lot of a new chef at the tower
yeah the tire on at the top right and it
was one of those times where you started
thinking about okay what am i doing like
what is this gonna be there’s gonna be
my life to cook for the richest people
in the world for the rest of fill these
80 seats every night and I started to
think about it you know what can a chef
do what is my other purposes and my call
was that experience right to post that
yeah and I decided to you know what let
me let me move to Harlem let me move
somewhere else so I’m like what if you
know what if I can open a small
restaurant here that puts the community
could becomes a waterhole for the
community that is of and similar to
Sylvia’s and in the place of creating
jobs but just done a little bit
different and that was really when the
whole idea of Red Rooster for me started
to become real and then by 2010 we
opened Red Rooster and how’s it doing
these days we were very fortunate you
know
I’m very fortunate yeah we’re really
blessed by the community and we’re
really blessed by but you know it’s not
about I never measured a restaurant and
it’s easy to say when you’re busy all
the time but I don’t measure it by how
busy it is I measure it by the goals and
the reason why I put it in there what is
that what is the purpose what is the
core purpose the purpose was to really
create something to inspire and aspire
right the purple was to create jobs of
the trade that I’ve been lucky nothing
to be part of the purpose was to also
create a and other Soyoung particularly
people of color can say hey I can own a
business hey I can become a chef hey I
can become a bartender whatever your
goal is but it’s a field here and here’s
an upper tier represents an opportunity
this trade that a lot of people of color
really started in and served in but the
minute became a profession didn’t fit
into anymore can really take back its
authorship that’s the intent and that
takes time and thank you so much for
coming good game with us not done you
did a great job you did
you
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