You're listening to Comedy Central. Welcome to the show. Gentlemen. You know this. It feels like it's been too long. I remember meeting you and my mind was blown not just by the food you cooked, but by the stories that you told, the way you encapsulated people's cultures, the identities, everything into something we take from granted every day, which is food. Let's start with the like the very beginning,
the inception of it all, ghetto gastro. So many people have a negative connotation when it comes to getto like, oh that's ghetto, you know, and then gastro. It has this this culinary idea behind it. But you took it and you flipped it. I'd love to know why you chose that name. Well, we know opposites attract, and as a multi disciplinary business, we want to use food as a vehicle to tell stories, you know about culture, politics, empowerment.
You know, mainly we're using our creative energy to uplift black and brown communities. I love that. I love it and the way you do it. The way you do it is by is by eveling up. I mean food from all over the world. I've I've eaten your food, and I mean not even gassing you up. You remember this. I ate the food and I was like, man, New York has the best food in the world. And then I stumble on a few places. I was like, these guys tricked me because that food was the best food
in the world. New York has great food. But you you, you, you really take it up to another level. You've created something that's truly special. And everyone that talks about your collective talks about it with the level of excitement, pride, and joy, because that's what you encapsulate. You know. You you take food and you create a story from it. Why do you think it's so important to do that? Well, we break bread to build bridges, you know, and I let, yeah, yeah,
what John said. You know, we break bread to build bridges, and for us, it's really important for our people to understand that the food that we that we eat and how important it is what we point into our bodies here and so were making conscious food, high vibrational food, you know, like food that's a life force, you know, straight from the source. You know, plants, you know, paying at actually love the flavor from the soil to the oil. Man,
I like that a lot. You don't you know what I love most about it is what I what I love about this this this cookbook, and I love about the stories. It's, first of all, it's more than just that. You know, ten million dollars worth of okay, and you know what, it deserves a different name because it contains every you you expect the recipes, right, you don't expect what they'll be, but you expect recipes. But this book
contains arts. You have beautiful images by artists who have shaped you know, hip hop and communities around America in the world. It feels like you've infused more than just the food, but the people that would engage around the food, and that that in and of itself was an interesting choice. Why involve others in your arts? When you when you think about food, think about nourishments, and it's really about
nourishing the mind, body, and the soul. So we have to we have to combine these arts, the music, the design aspect, you know, a fashion flee and for us it's you know, it's community builds immunity. So we like to work with you know, our peers and people that we love and that we trust to create like pieces of art, like this that will you know last and standard test of time. You do that with your food as well. You know, you've never been afraid of sparking conversation.
You've never been afraid of using your food to comments on what's happening in society. For instance, there was a dish that I remember hearing about. It was American as apple pie, right, it was Americ kakk right, and and the it was a deconstructed apple pie and it had a choke outline on the plate. It was a graphic image you know, to think about when you're having a dessert, and yet it was a commentary on what people oftentimes
ignore about America. Yeah, food is you know, food is a vehicle for us as an artistic expression, you know, for us to you know, express our feelings and our thoughts, and we do it on a on a plate and sometimes it might make people uncomfortable, but like that's what art is. You know. We're supposed to spark conversation and make you think deeper into all of the things that I happened. And it's just not eating. It's you know, food for the food for the mind is right, right.
You you've also not been afraid to challenge some of the ideas. You know, people love soul food, people have these ideas of how black people eat. We talked about this many years ago, but a lot of how black people eat has been defined by necessity as opposed to choice. And what you've done is you've come and you said, we're not scrapping these ideas. We're not. We're not getting rid of what Black people have created in a culture. But what we want to do is improve on it.
We want to we want to create worlds where the food deserts don't define our diets. You know, you you you've, you've you've chosen to go with health. You've chosen to go with a lot of um, you know, vegetable, basic diets. You've you've, you've really chosen to speak to something. I'd love to know why those recipes have vibration cuisine like he mentioned earlier. And we don't call it a food desert. We call it food apartheid because it's not a natural occurrence.
You know, this is social engineering. Areas that have been underestimated, under invested in, and exploited. So it's the reason why people don't have access to fresh food. But we want to know examples of how we can make it culturally relevant, push it forward and make nutritions and delicious self health as well. Do you find do you find you're able to break through? You know that there's this, um, there's this idea sometimes of what a black man should eat.
I have half of my friends will if I give them a plate of salad or something to be like Satta barry if there's no meat, I'm not eating that. It's just a bullshit. Do you find that your your your recipes breakthrough? Well, the future of food is planted. It's conscious cuisine, you know, it's it's taking accountable calories and um, we really want to highlight that, especially in the neighborhoods that we're from that is suffering from that
are that are just in desperation of healthy food, right. Yeah, we want to change, you know, the sort of connotations and the context around the food in our communities and what we eat, so that you're talking about what black men should be eating, and we want to show, you know, our community what we should be eating. If you want to perform at a high level, you gotta take things in. They're gonna help you do that. So, like we keep saying high vibration of food. No, no low vibrations over here.
You know, it's always high vibes, so nutrient dense. You know, plants like they're the primary source of protein. So you want to talk about protein. You know, eat some kale, some keen wa, some sweet potatoes. You know, some chickpeas. Come and talk to me. And we've still got some twerk and jerk chicken in there too. That's what it's like, twerk and jerk. You've got the black power will right now losing using African grain or gum milled am rent.
So we really want to have this continental cultural collision, looking at the ingredients of the America's, the ingredients of Africa, the ingredients of Asia, and creating this combustion of something brand new. You've also taken it to another level because you're not just creating on the streets. You're not just creating in communities. You you're you're also infiltrating areas that
haven't generally been infiltrated by faces like yours. You know, you have a line of cookware that's out there and some you know, some of the biggest brands you make. You've got waffle makers. You've gotta I'd love to know waffle mixer as well. Slip on the drill. Actually, I think you guys would come on. You're giving everyone in the audience waffle mix right. I was watching the between the scenes you all right, No, for real, you do
you're watching it between the scenes. We're opening, and I'm like, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. We can't let the big gold. Just on this. You get inside and when you leave, so everybody got in the stads out side. Now we just joke. You got some wavy wiffle mix, So get your fix. You know, this is what I'm talking every guest, somebody needs to bring something for the people. Can I just say it has been a joy knowing you. It's been a joy seeing the journey.
Congratulations on every moment, every success. Thank you so much for journey show. We got a little focus so much. Thank you so much. You gotta gift a little little different self sitting little self. You're gonna be crow. Let me crown you, Let me crown you. You got you got, you got my do rag everything you every day. Let's just say I'm away tonight. Don't let you gotta get a graded back a kitchen and everybody make sure you get it. The Daily Show with Trevor Noah ears editions.
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