" We wanted to explore the ways that food can be a muse.” Jamila Robinson Looking through the pages of Bon Appétit ’s inaugural Art & Design issue (May 2025), I realized that I wasn’t just reading. Each spread and story resonated with me, reminding me why the hospitality industry initially appealed to me. Yes, great food is essential, but equally important is the way a place makes people feel: the atmosphere, the intention, and the story that lives in the walls and on the plate when it all c...
May 09, 2025•58 min•Season 5Ep. 3
"You can't take a photo of hospitality." Chip Wade When my long-time friend, Eric Williams of Stone Williams Group, offered to connect me with Chip Wade, I immediately said yes. I was curious to learn more about the CEO of legendary New York City restaurateur Danny Meyer's Union Square Hospitality Group (USHG) whose reputation for operating a portfolio of high-level restaurants is tops in the industry. Their slate of restaurants include: Grammercy Tavern, The View, Ci Siamo, Daily Provisions, Th...
Apr 18, 2025•1 hr•Season 5Ep. 2
"When I got burglarized, it really didn't faze me... I went back to that day as a teenager, looking at my father's face, seeing the determination as he swept up that glass." Greg Dulan I met Greg Dulan almost 40 years ago while he and his father, renowned restaurateur Adolf Dulan, were visiting black-owned restaurants in New York City. When I moved to Los Angeles a few years later, Adolf’s beloved Southern-style restaurant, Aunt Kizzy’s Back Porch in Marina Del Rey, with its home-cooked soul foo...
Mar 13, 2025•47 min•Season 5Ep. 1
"The future in this country is one where the folks setting the pace will be more diverse than ever. That’s baked in, and while there’s backlash, the numbers will ultimately tell the tale." Clarence Otis Clarence Otis Jr., former Chairman and CEO of Darden Restaurants Inc., is busy these days serving on the Boards of Verizon as Lead Director, of Danny Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality Group , and as chairman of Jazz at Lincoln Center , among others. During his 10 years of leadership at Darden whic...
Nov 21, 2024•55 min•Season 4Ep. 5
"I'm an activist with an artistic mask on." Jeff Friday The 28th Annual American Black Film Festival (ABFF) takes place in Miami, June 12-16, 2024. This year's event promises to be bigger and better than ever, with a stellar lineup of films, panel discussions, parties, workshops, and masterclasses. Notable attendees include Denzel Washington, Kerry Washington, and Issa Rae. I sat down with my long-time friend, Jeff Friday, a trailblazer in the world of black cinema and the mastermind behind ABFF...
Jun 07, 2024•39 min•Season 4Ep. 4
"Don't worry so much, stay positive, move forward, enjoy life. It's a gift, an astonishing, beautiful, absurd gift. Be kind and be curious. Chandelier, Baby!" Billy Dee Williams These words, spoken by screen legend and multi-talented Billy Dee Williams, offer a simple yet profound mantra for navigating the complexities of daily life embracing the sparkle and light of life. In his recently released memoir and New York Times bestseller, What Have We Here? Portraits of a Life , Billy Dee offers ins...
Apr 18, 2024•43 min•Season 4Ep. 3
"As people of color, we’ve always dealt with crisis but what has never stopped is our capability to invent. We created some of the best dishes during the roughest times. We created some of the best art. Art, where does hip hop come from? It comes from struggle. We created some of the best music during these times. So, I think if you want to create a business, you cannot do it without walking through the struggle.” Marcus Samuelsson When you think of the culinary world, few names resonate with th...
Mar 26, 2024•1 hr•Season 4Ep. 2
Overtown EatUp! is first and foremost a love letter to the “Harlem of the South ''and its profoundly important role in shaping the Miami of today. Food is more than just sustenance; it's a story, a community, and a way to bring people together. In this episode, we take you to the heart of Overtown, Miami, where the annual Overtown EatUp! was in full swing, across the street from Red Rooster Overtown, as part of the South Beach Food and Wine Festival. Created, curated, and hosted by award-winning...
Feb 28, 2024•13 min•Season 4Ep. 1
The mission of the James Beard Awards is to recognize exceptional talent and achievement in the culinary arts, hospitality, media, and broader food system, as well as a demonstrated commitment to racial and gender equity, community, sustainability, and a culture where all can thrive. Each year some of the brightest stars in the culinary world and food media are recognized at the annual James Beard Awards. In hospitality, it doesn't get any bigger! We were honored to host Corner Table Talk LIVE a...
Feb 01, 2024•1 hr•Season 3Ep. 10
"A friend of mine once told me, he said, 'you don't build houses, you direct' because building a home is the same way that I direct. I don't know which comes first, if anything, I try to curate whatever it is I'm doing to create a transportive moment, or moments, multiple moments that take you someplace, and that's what sticks. That's what resonates. That's a goal, but that's intentional." Eriq La Salle Many of you will recognize ...
Oct 27, 2023•1 hr 2 min•Season 3Ep. 9
"My father said that when you look at the cultural traditions of people, the European cultural tradition is a generation makes a mask. They put it up on the wall, put a glass box around it, and they point to it and say that's the greatest mask that's ever been made. The African tradition is every generation makes their own mask. So what we see with this constant creativity, this constant improvisation is a very human, African, homo sapiens tradition of not taking something and classicizing it to...
Oct 06, 2023•1 hr•Season 3Ep. 8
"It's hard to hire female chefs. It's hard to hire African American chefs because there's just not as many people interested in it, which I'm like, yeah, and that's why we need to promote it, and that's why we need to give them opportunities far beyond what might seem reasonable because we want them to be the heroes so everyone else can look up to them. Then we can actually bring real diversity into our kitchens." Curtis Stone Curtis Stone is one of the busiest chefs in the country between runni...
May 23, 2023•1 hr•Season 3Ep. 7
"My journey has really been following the path throughout the African diaspora, on five continents, chasing the knowledge of essentially how through slavery, Africa changed the global culinary conversation." Alexander Smalls Alexander Smalls began his illustrious career as a restaurateur in the nineties and furthered my appreciation for low-country cuisine when he opened Café Beulah, his first restaurant with its butter-toned walls displaying framed sepia-toned family photos. That's how I rememb...
Apr 29, 2023•56 min•Season 3Ep. 6
"What we saw right away, and I would say that to anybody who engages in the fantasy of going into the restaurant business, in the end, it is not about the concept, it's about the people that work with you, work for you. Because if we didn't understand it was about the people, we would have died with one restaurant. I don't care how good your concept is." Rick Rosenfield Who doesn't like pizza? Whether a folded, oily, gooey slice consumed while standing at almost any pizza shop in New York City o...
Apr 08, 2023•59 min•Season 3Ep. 5
"Everything is in a cycle, and the cycle is dictated by the audience's needs and wants, the studio's needs and wants in terms of the financial bottom line, right? Those two very evolving organisms are always trying to sync into the right gear. So, I don't worry anymore because it always comes back around. You're in this long enough, you just go, all right, this is a cycle, it'll come back around." Stephanie Allain Stephanie Allain of Homegrown Pictures , is a prolific film and television produce...
Mar 26, 2023•51 min•Season 3Ep. 4
"I have to say at some point I did have to see that resume. There was a point where if you were a newcomer, I had too much to do. I had people come in my office. When I got on a little further into the business. Rodney King came to my office because he wanted me to do a project with him. Sweetest, kindest, nicest man you ever wanna meet. Those kind of adventures, have filled my life. But Brad, you do know me also, that if nobody's there, I will talk to a chain link fence." Dolores Robinson Dolor...
Mar 10, 2023•58 min•Season 3Ep. 3
"Miami has always been a unique place, right? In comparison to the rest of the states. I feel like I'm in a different country and it's just so Caribbean, it's so island. So the city is special in that way. Today there's this boom and the energy has shifted toward culture. And when I say culture, a cultural perspective of Miami being showcased as much as Latin culture is known here in the city. So that's been very exciting to see from a food and beverage, perspective." Jamila Ross While we have h...
Feb 24, 2023•51 min•Season 3Ep. 2
"When I do anything, I like to break all the bricks. What was here before Lincoln Center was old San Juan Hill, a very affluent or a very popular Afro-Caribbean, Afro Latino area. It just spoke to me. It was like, I'm supposed to be here. I'm supposed to revive the stories of the people and give a voice to the inaudible and that's what the restaurant does. It tells a story of New York, but not the New York that I guess the affluent think of. For me, it's the story of immigrants, it's Puerto Rica...
Feb 09, 2023•37 min•Season 3Ep. 1
"Remember, 1992 was the year that Naughty by Nature had a huge song called O.P.P. It was a megahit. Jonathan [Editor-in-Chief] asked me if I wanted to write an article about Treach from Naughty by Nature. I was like, heck yeah. He didn't tell me that Albert Watson was shooting the cover, the famous photographer Albert Watson, and he didn't tell me that my story was gonna be the very first cover story for Vibe Magazine." Kevin Powell Finger on the pulse is often used to describe someone who has t...
Dec 15, 2022•1 hr 17 min•Season 2Ep. 30
I been honest I've had my heart broken like promise I been decolonizing my closet I been intentional with my dollars I been I been learning boundaries I been done with jobs payin hourly I been thinking a lot more while I'm showering I been putting my 10,000 hours in I been thinking bout ownership I been thinking bout how nah I don't really think I want the sh*t I been thinking bout meaning I been thinking bout us I been thinking bout freedom I been thinking bout loyalty I been loving more openly...
Dec 01, 2022•1 hr 8 min•Season 2Ep. 29
"If you go back 500 years, West Africans knew hibiscus to be a powerful medicinal plant, full of antimicrobials, full of antioxidants, natural source of vitamin C. It's a natural aphrodisiac. They would make a tea from this flower, and this was part of their ceremony and their traditions. Then around 500 years ago, the transatlantic slave trade starts, and bodies and spices are stolen from the continent of Africa. This flower, the hibiscus flower, takes physical roots in the Caribbean islands, b...
Nov 09, 2022•44 min•Season 2Ep. 28
"Unapologetic in her due process, not waiting, not stopping, not pausing. If we don't do that, it won't get told. It won't get bought. We all know that we've submitted our various original pieces over the decades, mind you. Just sit down and do it ourselves, tell our stories and presume, not governed by the dollar but by the authenticity of the narrative, that there is an audience waiting." Ambassador Shabazz Coming of age born smack in the middle of the baby boomer generation means growing up i...
Oct 27, 2022•1 hr 18 min•Season 2Ep. 27
"My only competition was myself. And I just kept saying, You just need one spot. You just need one scholarship. So, when it was my turn, I danced for Jesus, honey. I danced like I had never danced before." Vanessa Bell Calloway Leaving her hometown of Cleveland, Ohio and following her dream, Vanessa Bell Calloway arrived in New York City in the late 70s with grit and determination to pursue a career in the arts. With $50 to her name, Vanessa spent a day of zigzagging the streets by foot starting...
Oct 14, 2022•1 hr 19 min•Season 2Ep. 26
An 'icon' is much more known than a celebrity. They are someone who leaves a mark on history. They have a strong depth of significance. They are a person who is well known, and who people look up to. Jayne Kennedy Overton embodies that description breaking barriers when she became the first woman of color in the late 70s to host THE NFL on CBS, a national sports show, on what Bob Costas credited as being "the template for modern studio shows." The ease of her manner as an interviewer, whether ta...
Sep 15, 2022•1 hr 8 min•Season 2Ep. 25
What is a monument but a standing memory? An artifact to make tangible the truth of the past. My body and blood are a tangible truth of the South and its past. The black people I come from were owned by the white people I come from. The white people I come from fought and died for their Lost Cause. And I ask you now, who dares to tell me to celebrate them? Who dares to ask me to accept their mounted pedestals? You cannot dismiss me as someone who doesn’t understand. You cannot say it wasn’t my f...
Sep 08, 2022•1 hr 10 min•Season 2Ep. 24
"The massive challenges that Tommy has faced in life have been no match for his soaring talent and indomitable spirit. If he had lady parts, my search would be over." Jim Carrey, comedian and actor In preparing for this episode with Tommy Davidson , I read Tommy's memoir, Living in Color: What's Funny About Me, which recounts his personal triumphs having been abandoned as an infant, adopted and raised by a Caucasian family in Washington D.C. during the Civil Rights Movement, his sustainability i...
Jul 21, 2022•1 hr 7 min•Season 2Ep. 23
"In Miami, all roads lead to Craig." Virgil Abloh , fashion designer, artistic director of Louis Vuitton's menswear No one of our generation has played a more influential role in defining, redefining and shaping the culture in Miami than Craig Robins . Craig is a visionary in the truest sense of the word, nothing short of brilliant. However, it was his unpretentious personal warmth and willingness to engage with this unknown restaurateur in the 80s that established our connection, one that has e...
Jul 14, 2022•54 min•Season 2Ep. 22
So why does what we eat matter? A growing body of science in the field of cognitive nutrition shows that the “food-brain connection is actually one of the most powerful drivers of our overall well-being. What we eat matters not only for our physical health but for our cognitive and mental health, affecting our risk of anxiety and depression. The science is clear: we can eat our way to better brain health,” says Arianna Huffington , Founder of the The Huffington Post and CEO of Thrive Global . Ou...
Jul 07, 2022•1 hr 1 min•Season 2Ep. 21
"With the recent stress of the environment and the virus, there's a great deal of hopelessness and a sense of a lot of insecurity around the future," says Sally Greig , our guest this week. Mental health affects how we think, feel, and act. It also helps determine how we handle stress, relate to others, and make choices. It is a part of physical well-being. Sally is a psychotherapist and clinical social worker providing psychotherapy for adults and children. Her primary focus and specialty is tr...
Jun 23, 2022•52 min•Season 2Ep. 20
In honor of Black Music Appreciation Month and singer, songwriter Phyllis Hyman , our guest is Glenda Gracia , the executrix for The Estate of Phyllis Hyman and the former founding Executive Director of the Black Music Association responsible, along with other music execs, for lobbying then President Jimmy Carter to launch the perennial celebration of Black Music Month and host an inaugural celebration on the White House lawn in June, 1979. As one of the people who knew her best, Glenda managed ...
Jun 17, 2022•1 hr 10 min•Season 2Ep. 19
