I am all in again.
How lets you.
Luke's Diner with Scott Patterson an iHeartRadio podcast.
Hey everybody, Scott Patterson, I Am all in podcast one on one interview Luke's Diner with Kat Cora.
If you have not heard of Cat.
Cora, you are living under a rock.
She is.
One of the great chefs in the world. Celebrated, world renown chef, author, restaurant or, television host, phil philanthropist, and a proud mother of six. Jackson, Mississippi native who graduated from the CIA What No the Colony Institut Culinary Institute of America and went on to cook at two, not just one, but two three star restaurants in France. Was crowned the first female Iron Chef and was also the
first female inducted into the Culinary Hall of Fame. She pioneered the Food Network and broke the glass ceiling in the culinary industry. Cat is Greek American. She trailblazes in Mediterranean food space. She has opened more than eighteen restaurants across the United States. It's unbelievable what this woman has done and she's basically just getting started. She just told me, I'm just getting started. This is like, you know, this isn't even chapter one yet. What are we doing here?
She's got a platform for health, wellness, sustainability outside the kitchen. She's the president founder of Chefs with Humanity, a nonprofit dedicated reducing worldwide hunger. Let's just welcome her cat. You also received a Lifetime Achievement Award and a Volunteer Service Award from President Barack Obama. To say that you're accomplished is an understatement. Welcome to Luke Steiner.
Thanks, I'm so happy to be in Luke Steiner.
How you doing, man, I'm doing great. We're just rocking and rolling in here.
There is lots of stuff.
Going on being made, meals being served. You made history as the first female Iron Chef. How did that opportunity come about and what it was and mean to you?
Yeah?
I mean well it was literally it was really a tipping point for my career. I was already on Fee Network since nineteen ninety nine. I was doing various shows. My first show was Worth Baracko to Spirito Melting Pot, and then we just continued creating shows and it was with I just created shows with Free Network, and then one day they came to me and said, hey, you have television chops, you got the street cred. You know, we want to do this show called Iron Chef America.
We want to bring it from Japan. We have the rights to it. Would you want to be the first female Iron Chef? And I said yes before I even knew what it entailed, because I didn't care. It just sounded really cool. It sounded big, so I was like, absolutely, I'd love to. What do I you know, where do we start? How do we start? And that was really how it happened. I was on my first first book tour in New York. I was walking around New York.
I was actually just walking out of the Today Show at Rockefeller Center and I got the call from the executive producer and I was just thrilled. I think we met like a few hours later, and it was going so fast. It was like just a freight train, you know, they were already rolling and we were about to start, and I think I had two weeks to prepare and
get going. Wow, it was amazing. It's just one of those amazing tipping point, those moments where all the planets aligned, and you know, we have those rare moments in our career where we're not chasing something, it just comes to us and God just brings it to you and says, here you go, I'm giving you something pretty magical. And it was and it was a great opportunity for me to to inspire a lot of young chefs, especially females,
a lot of females around the world. It got me got it was a chance for me to break a glass ceiling and show that, you know, never we were the first cooking you know, competitive cooking show on tea television of any kind, and so we really broke that glass ceiling as well, and for cooking shows for all the shows to come, Master Chef, Top Chef, all of them, and so, you know, it was a pretty amazing time. It was such a heady time for all of us and the four of us that started as Iron chefs,
and it was awesome. I mean, it was just a great time. I mean, you know, when you're walking, you know, people see you and you're in so and they're so inspired to cook. But also it was a chance for me to for the first time ever to show that women could cook as fast and hard and take the heat like men could in kitchens and that had never been done before. So that was pretty amazing aspect of it.
How did you first get inspired to become a chef in the first place? I mean, and when did you know it could be more than just a hobby.
Well, you know, I always loved to cook. I mean I was thrown into the kitchen early in my career. I mean in my life, I mean really young. I mean, well, I have pictures of me doing I always loved to do tea parties. That was my thing when I was really little, and so I always baked and we set the whole thing up and I would have everybody, you know, the whole family had to participate. I can imagine everybody's you know, stop work to come and you know, participate
in a or whatever you were doing. But they were game. Everybody supported, everybody was cool, and so you know, I just always loved that. And I was always in the kitchen with my mom being Greek American and from the South, having two really incredibly strong food cultures around me, being Greek Orthodox, so we went to Greek church. We you know, everybody in our community was Greek and so and in the South, the first white tablecloth restaurants were from Italian
and Greek immigrants. I mean, those are the ones, those are the people who started white tablecloth dining in the South. And so it was pretty amazing to see all of these. Every great restaurant in Jackson was run by people I saw at church every Sunday, so it was all of our friends and it was pretty amazing. And then we always had these big, you know, church barbecues and things. So cooking was always My dad was a grill meister. He showed me how to smoke meats, marinate meats, dry
you do dry rubs, and you know, grill properly. And so that was, you know, from the very as long as I can remember, I was outside grilling with my dad, my mom, and grandmother. My mom was an Air Force brat, so they lived all over the world, Tokyo, Honolulu, all over the country, and so they had a very what
we call very global, you know palette. They had a lot of you know, incredible recipes that global up their sleeve, whether it was strawg and off or sweet and sour pork or you know whatever, lasagna, amazing lavangna, you know, just great Italian Greek kind of just global type dishes. And that was served a lot in our house along with Greek food. So I really grew up in a very you know, amazing you know, really being in the
Deep South. You know, when my other friends were having fried okra and you know that, you know, the fried catfish on the table, which we ate too, by the way, I love Southern food and barbecue, but we were having steamed artichokes with lemon and extra virgin olive oil in our house, so, you know, or sue blackie or spina copada or grape leaves, you know, things like that. So it was really that's where I really, I think began. My grandfather had restaurants. He was an immigrant that came
through Ellis Island and settled in the South. He had restaurants. My godfather had restaurants when I was growing up. So it was just in my dna I really got.
But speaking of that, you went on to open restaurants all over the world. What's been your favorite project so far?
Why?
Oh, you know, I have to say opening. What I've done is really opened in a lot of partner with a lot of partners that have restaurants. You know, we have restaurants, airport restaurants, stadium restaurants, restaurants on university camp campuses, corporate restaurants, I've had standalone restaurants. I've had a restaurant in Singapore, which that probably I have to say, just because I got to go to Singapore in Southeast Asia.
A lot was probably one of my favorites. And it was very had a very per se, you know, kind of French laundry. It was very very high end and it was exactly what you expect in a restaurant in Singapore and in a venue such as that I had. So I think that that was probably one of my
very favorites. But you know, I just they're all my babies, you know, whether it's an airport restaurant, a corporate restaurant, a standalone I mean, so I've had very I've pretty much done almost every iteration you can think of of airport of restaurants.
How do you balance business and food? Are there times when you feel more administrative than a classic show? I mean, just pile up on you O the business.
Stuff sometimes, you know, I mean I have you know, a great team around me too that help, and that's really that's very helpful. But I'm very hands on with all of it. So I like to I like to look at contracts. I like to I like to create concepts. I like to visualize and conceptual life things. I'm very much an artist in that and also a business woman, and you know, with my craft. So I think it's you know, it's left brain, right brain. You know. I
love all that and stimulates me. It helps me grow, it helps me evolve, It helps me become a better business woman. And I understand my businesses. So there's not a business that I'm going, wait, what do we what are the financials or what did that contract say. I'm in pretty hands on and I think you have to be in this day and age, you really have to know your businesses. But it is it does take a little village. And so I have a small orbit. I have an incredible small orbit of a team that I
trust implicitly and balancing it. It's really just having to you know, you have to be very versatile, You have to be very you have to be able to multitask, which chefs are great at. By the way, we have to do the restaurants every day anyway, So we learned very quickly how to multitask and balance it and I love that. That's why I was never a chef that was just going to be very linear. I knew that I loved having a lot of balls in the air, and I love that feeling. And that's a little bit
of an adrenaline rush. It's it's exciting. You never know when you open your email or you get a text of what's going to be next, and so it's very it's very exciting, and yes, it's very it can be very stressful at times, and you have to That's why I work out, I meditate, I do other things to
counteract that. And then you know, listen, I thought it was more stressful being in a restaurant day to day and having to be do you know when you're an executive chef in one restaurant, you're still busy because you're doing scheduling, you're doing you're dealing with vendors, you're dealing with so it's a you know, either way, I think that if you do what you love, you you enjoy that part. Although it can be stressful in some days you're like, oh my gosh, what's happening. How I got
to get the through this? And you do, you know, you get on the other side of it. But I can tell you what's more stressful. It's six teenage sons driving. Nothing's more stressful than that.
You had all boys, all boys.
Oh wow, blended family, all boys. They're amazing young men, and they just blow me away there. I'm in all every day.
That's what they do.
And I'll tell you that that gen the generation coming up.
Man.
They are smart. Yeah, in all kinds of ways. So yeah, yeah, pretty cool.
Let's talk about the charitable side of what you're doing. You launch Chefs for Humanity in the waker Hurricane Katrina. What made you do that?
Actually I launched it before that in twenty fourteen in the tsunami when we had the tsunami that hit Thailand, Fuquet and so that was when things is kind of you know, everybody was you know, that was such a tragic I mean, if anybody remembers that, that was such a tragic, tragic moment, and I think that, uh, you know, we were still we were already we were just getting all of you know, this is when we were getting all the news feeds and social media with everything was
starting to happen, you know, and you were getting instantaneous information. So a lot of chefs were calling me because they knew I did a lot of charity work. I was one of the leading chefs that was doing a lot of charity work at the time, and a lot of hunger initiatives and a lot of emergency feeding relief with other organizations like World Food Program, International Red Cross and care dot org things like that and charities like that. So they started calling me. I was inundated with chefs
calling me. What can we do? What can we go? Where can we go? What can we do? How can we roll our sleeves up? And I realized that chefs will write a check, but they also want to be hands on and we can be the great thing about chefs.
And we're seeing that with a lot of my friends now that you know Jusean Dress, Guy Fieri, a lot of my friends that are doing and a lot of incredible you know, they kind of took the torch and you know, ran with it because we were one of Chess for Humanity, was the first chef driven emergency feeding relief at the time, and so I'm happy to see
them take the torch and run. But yeah, it's like we are able to get in and the one thing that people have to do and no matter what kind of emergency or crisis or mother nature is, they have to eat and they have to have shelter, and it's in super basic, you know. And so that was one of the areas that was important for me, and we were there for her. We were set up by the time Hurricane Katrina happen. Thankfully, We've been all over the world and you know, we were there when hate that
earthquake happened in Haiti. We flew to Haiti. We were there with many many of the other catastrophes that happened, whether it was you know, in other areas we've done you know, not only that, but just just hunger initiatives in Guatemala, Ecuador, Theiopia and other places, so Mozambique. So we've been around the world and I'm so proud that we launched something that actually was a catalyst for many other big you know arms to go out and continue that work.
Well, congratulations and all that you do and much needed. So you've fed president's celebrities, your kids. Who's the pickiest eater you've ever cooked for?
Oh gosh, oh I have to I'm not sure, like that's a that's a tough one. I'm trying to remember everybody I've cooked for. I haven't run across. I mean, obviously you have to. I think, you know when people say, I get a lot of people saying how do I get my kids to eat? And I always say, start them as early as possible. So this isn't answering your question. But I'm gonna come back around to that. I say, start them as early as possible. And you know, one of the ways you can get kids. And that's why
I started. One of the reasons I was got on board with Little Kitchen Academy, it's because this is a great you know, Little Kitchen Academy that we started with Brian and Felicity uh Current is such an amazing project for me. This is one of my love projects, you know, that I got involved with because it's teaching kids how
to cook from scratch. It's teaching kids how to get in the kitchen, and they're learning skills that they'll take for the rest of their lives, whether it's stem, whether it's you know, organizational skills, whether it's socialization skills, what have you. And it's such an independence and so I find that when you start kids in our school is three year olds all the way to teens. And so I find when you start kids young and you get
them involved with where does food come from? Let them get involved with when I used to when my kids were little, I used to say, Okay, here's two options for dinner. We're gonna salmon her chicken at amami or broccoli. You know, carrots are this? You know, and like it's a five minute it's a two minute conversation, you know. But it gives them, It gives them a little power, and it gives them, you know, a little independence in
choosing what they're going to eat. And you know, we I cook one thing, this is dinner, but we all have a say in it. And I think that that just gets kids. It gets kids excited to eat and gives them a gives some investment in it. And so I think that that's one of the way the ways that I've helped people understand how to begin and get them cooking, get them in the kitchen.
And that's a little kitchen academy, Right, that's a little kitchen academy.
Yeah.
Yeah. That we've been expanding not only all over the US, but globally and we have one at Century City here in Los Angeles is the one that's right down the street from me. And I think that that's a really big picky eaters. You know, when I cook for the Obamas, they weren't picky. They loved whatever I cooked. When I poked Royalty, they've you know, enjoyed it. So I don't. I haven't. I really can't answer that because I haven't. You know, I don't know all.
What's your cooking style when no one's watching, you know, your typical night in the kitchen at home? What are you preparing?
Oh, I mean it's real simple, like I prepare, like we do tacos at home.
We do.
It's a lot of I eat very healthy. I eat pretty healthy. So and my kids are really good. They're all kind of you know, have learned through that is eating healthier, even though we have our indulgences. Of course, we love, you know, a great pizza night on Friday nights or you know, pizza and movie nights, things like that. But you know, it's real simple. It could just be some you know tacos, great tacos where I just kind of lay everything out, you know, girls, some chicken do
a little we do a little homemade walk together. That's one of the things that kids love to make together is big bowl of gualk and chips and you know, just put all the fixens out and something like that. It's like it's like a typical weeknight.
Right right easy, and.
Everybody customize so it's not there's no special it's not a short order kind of situation where you know, I'm taking your order. It's just everybody can make their own and it's perfect. Right.
And now you're part of something called cook Unity, making healthy meals accessible nationwide.
Tell us about that.
Yeah, cook Comunity is a fantastic platform. I mean, there's something on there for everybody, and I love we you know, we joined it a year ago. We've been you know, really working hard. It's probably something I've put a lot more energy into lately than anything. And it's just an
amazing platform. I mean, and we cover every gamut of every whether it's medically crafted meals, whether it's it's all chef driven, it's all my friends are on the platform, and I mean we really put our heart and soul into the meals that we make, and a lot of them are meals we've been making our whole career. Some of them are restaurants, some of them are things that we love to look at home that now our customers get to have at home as well. And we just
put our heart and soul into it. It's a great platform and everyone should be and it's affordable, so everyone should be ordering from it. And there's any anything in everything you want you can find.
There, right, fantastic. Do you have a restaurant in La I don't.
I don't know in La not yet. I mean not yet, huh, not yet, not you know. I mean I've consulted on a couple of things here and you never know. I mean, that's the beauty of this industry is that you just never know. I mean we're you know, we've this industry has grown so tremendously in a beautiful way that there's so many avenues that you can be in and I
love that. That's exciting to me. Whether it's television, movies, you know, whether it's you know, platforms where it's fresh delivery or you know, what have you products things like that. I mean, it's just exciting. It's an exciting time, you know, in our industry.
Well, we're down to the last segment. Here the last question, and this is a big.
Question.
It's a huge question. All right, if you were to come into Luke's diner, what would you order and where would you sit? Cat Cora all.
Right, Well, if I'm going to come into Luke's Diner, I want to know how good your burger is. I want to know how good you a diner. I'm going to get some comfort food, so we're going to bring it to all right, Okay, okay, all right, I want some good burgers. I like my fries really crisp, yep, me too nice and salt like sea salt on it. You can cost a little you know, cracked pepper on there too, Uh huh. Good ketch up? Not too sweet.
You know, it's got to be a certain brand right where we just say you know what I love And my kids when I say this, when I remember I'm eating a fry, I always dip it in the ketchup up and I always say, you know what, French fries just a vehicle for the catch up. That's one of my favorite sayings, just a vehicle for the catch up.
It has been a delight. Thank you for your time.
And amazing what.
Cooking has done for your life and what you've given back to the world a true inspiration and keep on keeping on. Honor to talk to you.
Thanks so much for having me on.
Please come back and.
Just be well and remember everybody, keep those cards and letters coming. Best fans on the planet cat Correl, ladies and gentlemen. Where you lead, we will follow. Stay safe everyone.
Hey everybody, and don't forget.
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