You know, this is a young man we met gosh was it back in May almost a year ago?
Maybe?
Was that the event the Manhattan Beach h Food event. But his name is Chef Noah Clark. Not only is he a handsome bastard, which is a good reason to hate him, but then on top of that, he's an amazing chef. He has a smile that can light up a room, and the energy and excitement passionate about his food to match. But on top of that, his story
is one that everyone loved to hear. And when we got to release as to some stuff that you guys were doing, we thought, oh, this would be great if you guys had time to pop on because I've got my friend Brian Olsen from The Bugman here is our guest taster, and I'm like, okay. So we had two new ones that we hadn't tasted before that came and we tasted them and this is one of our favorites
from last year and beyond. And you get to set today, so bring us up to speed about your upbringing the two lovely ladies with you, and give a recap of your story.
Yeah, so pretty much. I'm half black, half Japanese. So I grew up in a blended household, also to family household. My mom and my aunt are the core women in my life. Call my aunt Maggie my Yoda, and I'm her Luke. She's kind of like you know, so she's taught me pretty much everything I know about being in a kitchen. I grew up in a kitchen at a really young age, like eight years old. Wow, so very familiar with all the recipes I had growing up that we are serving to you guys today. And really it's
her all her. This is she created when you're eighteen, right, eighteen years old? In Los Angeles.
Ten years ago.
Yeah, we moved to Atlanta to open a restaurant when I was young, and then we had a nice run there, sold our steak in that company there. Moved here to open another concept, very very similar menu. We just knew we had a good product and we could do it again here. So that's what brought me to La brought us back home because that's where they were born and raised. So and here we are now. We got to meet you a couple of months ago, and I was.
Just blown away. I mean this simply you had it in the form of a taco when we met, and it was one of those bites that you're like, holy hell, that's something special. And you know, seeing the family, I'm a sucker for families. I think that generational knowledge is like a snowball. It gets bigger and better and stronger through it's through the purity of it being passed down. You know. So you you say you're black and knees or are you?
It's actually it right black? And I said a whole lot black, and.
Because I didn't know if you were you know, African American. Okay, well I wasn't.
Sure that.
Uh as a as a half breed myself. I was joke about that too, and I'm like, oh, that's hot, says my white side. But yeah, but it is in your case having an African American father brought in soul food options and a Japanese mother brought in you know, Japanese options. And you know, I remember growing up, uh, you know, having friends from different cultures and backgrounds. When you go over to their house for dinner or something,
all of a sudden you'd eat, you know. I had my first egg roll at a friend's house and I'm like, holy hell, what is this an out come? I'm just tasting it now, you know. So having you know, a family like that and bringing it to this what what would you say? Why do it in chicken form? What was the purpose? Why go towards chicken?
Yeah? I was actually just talking to her about this earlier. How I was. I didn't realize how spoiled I was growing up because I ate her food my whole life. And then the first time I realized that it was a little different, I went to a friend's house and ate, and I was like, what is this like? It was disgusting, to say the least. And I was like, oh my gosh. It was like I was probably eighteen the first time happened. I was like, this is I've been spoiled my whole life.
We always had people at our house eating, and it was because of what she was making. So I just didn't realize how good we had it.
Do you want to call out the parent?
I have one specifica in my mind too. I'm not gonna call him out.
No, I don't mean to be rude, but this hamburger needs an EF.
Some salt man, some salt, you know, salt, garlic, so little Yeah, well you know that's why different cultures exist.
All right, we come back, we're gonna taste some of the food. I'm excited for my friend Brian here is our guest taster to try it as well. But looking at it and just bringing back memories of the of how much it stood out. So we'll come back and talk more. The place you need to go and you need to look at when it comes to box Chicken is very simple. Eat box chicken dot com, Eat box chicken dot com, Eat chicken dot eat box chicken dot Now.
Now now everybody's singing that in their head at the earworm. Right now, we are enjoying about to get into box Chicken. They brought their food. My buddy Brian Olsen, he's the CEO and president of the Bug Man. You hear me talking about them all the time. And I invited him in. I say, come be a guest taster today, and I think I heard the phone hit the ground and the entire spin out. And so we've been having fun having him here with us. Right, thank you. We've had some
good stuff. Okay, now it's an extra incredible right and not like your typical fried chicken.
No, it tastes incredibly fresh and it's not all battery.
Yeah, you taste the chicken, it's it's wonderful. Thank you, Thank you have some of that goat ranch, get some of that on there time. Yeah, it is, Uh, it is something special. And we had box chicken on We had chef Noah Clark. Uh. You know it says on his website, and I think it's cool. The torch bearer, you know, of the found the family. You have this legacy through your auntie, through your mom and through your family. He mixed race flavors. But you grew up, like you said, spoiled.
You were raised on great food until you were invited to your names and you're like, why am I eating this? And what is it? What? What's what's your go to when you have to center yourself? What's the food that centers your reminds you of home and brings you back.
Oh man, we call it poverty on rice. It's my childhood, is what I grew up on. It's just ground beef that is seasoned in tedioaki sauce on a bed of rice with an over easy egg on top. And it's like the person delicious, the perfect breakfast for me. So it just hits every spot and it just reminds me of my grandma most importantly, and just the trickle down effect.
And well she had drunk because that sounds like, don't that sound good?
Woman never drank anything in her life.
Take a sip of beer turned bright red?
The name does it translate? Well? But it just kind of stuck in the family.
Yeah, you know, I'll tell you though, but those are the most memorable sometimes because they're simple and they speak to your your stomach and your heart. It's like, this is what I It doesn't have to be fancy. You know. I love when my son, who's eight, asks for those types of things. You know, Can I have a daddy dog? Yeah? That's you know, that's a hot dog and a tortilla. Yeah, that's what a mixed breed eats.
You know.
It's like, you know, uh, wave Conweni's got up an angular or something. Yeah. Those are the things that you know that bring a smile to your face. Yeah. So what do you want people to know about what's going on with you? Guys? How they could utilize Get in touch with your food? You know, I know you're catering. That's huge, So tell us a little bit about box Chicken and what's going on.
Yeah, I mean we've been opened since July, but this is kind of like our coming out party, I guess, you know, just that we have a really good product on our hands and we want everyone to try it because it's delicious. Yeah, and if you want to order, just eatbox chicken dot com. Like the song earlier, Yeah you know it's yeah, it's our jingle. But you know, just like through all the Uber eats platforms all that kind of stuff too. If you're on the West side,
just give us a try. You I really wouldn't be disappointed.
No, it really is one of those things that I have zero fear of someone Ye tasting your food and going wasn't what it's used.
Super rare. It does happen because you can't please everyone, but it's super rare when it does. And I automatically don't trust that person when they say that.
I like, you probably hate dogs and joy and ice cream and children. Yeah exactly, go back to killing joy. Yeah, thank you delicious cancer coming in here with all the hate. I am having rice and potato salad, and I will tell you I have never had rice and potato salad together. Like this.
I've never mixed them like great combination. Yes, And that potato salad I also grew up on that.
Potato salad is bombe great there. It is absolutely perfect in every way, even the size of the potatoes, you know how you.
Have some texture to yeah, or.
They're so big, the chunk is so big that halfway through you go, goodness, goodness, way through you go potato potatoes, potato with no with nothing on it, not even potatoes straight, just potato, unseasoned potato, unseasoned potato. And yeah, it drives me nuts. I want I want that perfect mixture. And you know, size of those things are important.
You guys have the perfect bites going. But grab a little bit of that salad.
And what are you what are you saying? You're telling me to eat a salad saladin? My mom and my wife are on the phone right now. Why don't you have some of that salad? So tell us a little bit about the salad. I see that it's got the chicken in there.
This is Asian sesame tahini dressing. Oh my rom and that will make you eat your salads. That will make you eat salad with wable.
It made a kid who did not like salad like salad. Oh yeah, I was that kid from Neil Brian That boy was me. That is excellent now so sesame to heini.
So that's just a double punchayeah pretty much?
Wow?
H where's what? What's that heat? A little bit of the.
That was probably the spicy tender?
Yeah, chicken there.
Oh, so you can eat it. We have side so out obviously, but it's really good with chicken on it, like obviously.
But wow, it's got in here. Wow.
And just to counteract that side, I'm happy, we have a cookie as well.
And what is this?
This is our our MF cookie and it stands the fun cookie. Yeah you want me to get me thrown off? Stands from my favorite cookie. Yes, that's the only thing that m F stands for. But it's actually my grandma's original recipe. But we've kind of updated it since then, so it kind of goes back to what you said before. My siblings have they're great bakers, and they kind of added a whole bunch of new stuff to it, Like there's mochi in it, there's miso in it, just a
lot of other flavors. Yeah, wow, Grandma's Cookie was a.
Spot on I said this last time you were on this show, just everything was excellent. You folks are adorable and I love I mean that in the best way possible that I just love when people are connected with one another. And that's what family, and sometimes their family we choose. Sometimes we're lucky enough to be born with them. But ultimately all that love shows and the food here. So check them out Box Chicken, eat box chicken dot com,
eato dot com, eat box Chicken dot com. Check them out, go see Chef Noah Clark's big o' smile on there. And if you've got an event, I know the holidays will be here sooner than you think. And you're setting up something with work, whatever it is, a party, I highly recommend what they do.