(upbeat music) (orchestral music) (indistinct group chatter) - If you don't like to spend time in the kitchen, you haven't met Alejandra Ramos, the culinary media personality and chef's captivating approach to all things culinary could make washing dishes fun.

She frequently lights up the screen with her fun ideas and tips as a contributor on NBC's "TODAY Show."

On top of that, she is host of the PBS series, "The Great American Recipe."

We welcome, Alejandra Ramos to "Conversations."

Thanks for being with us.

- Thank you for having me.

I'm thrilled to be here.

- Great to see you.

Question number one, how did you get so interested in being a chef and all things culinary?

- Well, I always say I learned to cook 'cause I love to eat.

(both laughing) - Join the crowd, but I haven't learned to cook.

- Well, I'll tell you, when you know how to cook it means you can have anything you want really.

So as a young kid, I realized that if I ever had a craving for a specific cake or a dish, I remember I loved shrimp scampi, I pulled out a cookbook and I saw the recipe there and I was like, "Huh," and my mom's one rule was you can make whatever you want as long as you keep the kitchen clean.

Did I follow it?

Not always, but I did my best.

And it really did inspire kind of my love for cooking and my love for feeding first my family, then my friends in high school and college, I used to start doing dinner parties and stuff for everybody and that's kind of where I really developed that love, or really that understanding that food is love and food is sharing.

- Was your mom a great cook?

Or your dad?

- My mom is a great cook, but it's not her passion.

My grandmother was an incredible cook, so my mom did make great food, but it wasn't her thing.

In fact, once she saw that this was my passion, she was more than happy to hand over the reins.

My dad is a huge eater.

He and I actually really have that in common and it was something that kind of brought us together.

We spent a lot of time, we still do, exploring new restaurants, exploring new bakeries, he texts me all the time, he's like, "There's a new muffin shop you need to come check out "next time you're in town," and so that sort of, I say my mom taught me sort of those cooking basics, but my dad really taught me how to eat.

- And when you first got into it as a young person, were you doing your own type of stuff or were you just following recipes?

- I was following recipes.

I kind of went through my mom's cookbooks.

She had this cookbook that was one of my favorites, it was called, "Eat This, It'll Make You Feel Better," and it was by Dom DeLuise and it was a really fantastic cookbook because it was basically all of Dom's Hollywood friends, comedians and musicians, there was Dean Martin's shrimp scampi recipe and Frank Sinatra's linguini and it was those types of dishes and I was fascinated by it because there were stories, photos, and the recipes themselves, and I always loved Italian food and so I did a lot of cooking from that book and that was one of my very first cookbooks that I really got into.

But from there I started experimenting and expanding and creating my own recipes.

- What's your favorite thing to cook?

- Oh my gosh, that is the worst question to answer because I love it all and it really depends, I think, on the seasons.

Like right now, when it's colder, I like things that's braising, roasting, I like things that are a little bit warmer, cozier, those comfort foods.

During summer, spring months, I love things that are very seasonal, that's when you can go to the market, go to the grocery store even and just get inspired by produce.

I don't like things that are very, very high maintenance.

I'm not someone who's gonna make croissants from scratch.

I don't want that.

I want something I can make and get to the eating pretty quickly.

(both laughing) - Pretty quick like?

- Yes, or even, if it's a long recipe, I want something that is gonna be like a braised dish where you kind of prep it, pop it in the oven, let the oven do the work while you get to kind of go about your life, spend time with family and friends, and then you have this incredible dish at the end to enjoy and share.

- Are you like a singer or a writer that sits down and just thinks about different recipes?

How can I do this?

Or how can I do that?

Or do you see something that inspires you to go, if I did this, this, this, you know?

- Absolutely, in fact that, I think, is one of the ways that I get inspiration.

I find inspiration in other things, in what people have done, in recipes, if I go to a restaurant and I taste a dish and I'm like, "Oh, I never thought to combine "smoked paprika with orange.

"I never thought to combine rosemary and banana," different things and then that sort of sparks my own creativity.

So it's not that I'm recreating the exact same dish I had at the restaurant, but it's a little bit of what they did.

Maybe I like the way they seared something.

Maybe I love the way they served a dish.

They plated it.

So those little bits kind of spark my imagination and then I go home and play.

In fact, when we were locked down, during pandemic when we're home and not really going out to restaurants, I found it really frustrating after a while because there was sort of a dearth of inspiration, I wasn't getting anything new coming into my life and so I had to kind of seek out other ways to sort of spark my creativity because I wasn't being exposed to other people's ideas and creativity and to new and exciting flavors.

- Well how did you go from essentially doing it as a high school and college student to actually making a career out of it?

How did that transition occur?

- So actually, when I was in college, I went to college in George Washington University in DC and originally I went in thinking I wanted to be, I went into major called political communications.

I thought I wanted to be a campaign manager.

Can I tell you I'm very glad I did not go that route.

(both laughing) - I bet you are.

- I would be living a whole different life these days.

But when I was in DC one thing, I loved a lot about GW, but one thing that I really loved is that our dorms had incredible kitchens and so I would spend a lot of time in the kitchen.

We also had wonderful markets, supermarkets in the area, and I would get ingredients and I would use up my meal plan and my father would be like, "You're going through this way faster "than you're supposed to be.

"This is your meal plan for the semester "and you've used it all up," and I'm like, "Yeah, it's 'cause I'm throwing a dinner party."

He's like, "You need to not be throwing dinner parties.

"Those kids have meal plans too."

So it was that kind of thing but I was cooking all the time and then at the time I was also growing disillusioned with that major, the politics classes and I remember I was just on the phone with my mom one day and she said, "Why don't you just go to culinary school?"

And I said, "But I'm already in school," and she's like, "Yeah, but this is seems to be what you really love."

So I was thinking about it and I didn't want to go full-time culinary school and I didn't want to leave college, but I found a program in Italy.

So I basically took a semester off.

So instead of doing like a traditional study abroad program, I took off and I went to this culinary program in Italy.

I showed it to my dad and he's like, "Okay, we can do this," and that's where I studied and then I came back, I sort of at that point also switched my major to English and writing and then kind of went into magazines, but always kept that food in the background, because again, I knew I didn't wanna work in a kitchen, I knew I didn't want to be behind the scenes, I always kind of wanted to enjoy the food too, to educate, to teach, to be creative.

So it was sort of seeking out that kind of route and it was when I was working in magazines, I was at Hearst Magazines as an editor for "Cosmopolitan" and on the side I started a food blog and I started creating recipes and sharing them and I would cook all night long and I'd come into the office the next day and people say that girls that work in magazines don't eat, let me tell you they do.

It's not like "The Devil Wears Prada" or anything like that.

I would bring food in and they would dive for it and that kind of started growing.

I started getting more and more opportunities working with brands to develop recipes using their products and finally I hit the point where I was like, "You know what?

I think that I can make a go of this," and I did, I went to my boss and told her I was quitting and she said, "I've been expecting this for some time.

"It was pretty evident that you found your other passion," and so I did.

- So what was your first blog that sort of got you off to the races?

- Yeah, so my blog was called alwaysorderdessert.com.

And it's still there.

I don't update it anymore.

But the recipes and the archives are still available and I say that that was, it's not a dessert blog, it was the philosophy, because essentially what I believe is that concept of always order dessert, which is when you are, it allows you more time at the end of the meal to spend with the people that you love, so it's not just the dessert, it's getting to hang out an extra 15, 20, 30 minutes with a date, with your partner, with your family, your friends.

It may not even be a dessert.

Maybe it's you're ordering another glass of wine, a glass of scotch or something.

In Spanish we actually call that (foreign language).

So it's that over table time, that time after the meal sort of winds down, but you're still kind of hanging out at the table talking and sharing and it was all about celebrating that moment, because again, for me, the food is, it's kind of the thing that brings us together.

It's a reason to be there and it's delicious, yes, but it's really about the people.

- Do you think it, it seems to me anecdotally, when, in a different era, people, they would sit down to dinner, everybody would sit down at dinner at night and spend time together.

Now it's more just seems like everybody is just scattered about, don't you think?

I mean, how do we bring that old way of having dinner together back?

How do you think you could do that?

- Yeah, I mean, I think that that is, I mean, it's a great question and I think that it's something that would vary depending on your family structures and stuff, but maybe it's not having it be specifically every night at 6:00 pm we're all gonna sit together and have dinner, but maybe it's making a tradition.

So starting small, once a month we're gonna have a meal and we're all gonna do it together.

I have friends who have, say for example, a pizza Friday and they know that every Friday they make pizza and the kids get involved and they all have their own toppings and you find something that is already exciting for your family, something that is already something that they love and I think that you start small and you make that tradition and maybe at that point it kind of starts to expand, maybe it's not just once a month anymore, maybe it starts becoming a couple times a month, maybe you bring in your neighbors.

And also thinking beyond the traditional, sometimes it's a found family, so maybe it can be called a family dinner but maybe it's your neighbors, it's some coworkers.

It's looking around, who's around you that maybe doesn't have that connection nearby and that you can invite into your home.

And I think that that's such a great way to sort of establish those new traditions where it's not that sort of old fashioned everybody's at dinner at six around the table, but maybe it's something that's a little bit more unique, that works better for you and your family.

- Yeah, 'cause it does seem like something that we've lost a bit of that over the years.

- Absolutely and it's really valuable.

I think it's a valuable time, it's a valuable time for connection.

And I think that's something the psychologists talk about, when you have something else that you're focused on, that conversation flows, you can talk about hard things, you can talk about these kinds of things because the pressure isn't just on, it's not like we need to sit down and talk.

No, we're eating and then those things kind of come out.

Another great thing is maybe just coming up with sort of a regular thing.

I used to have a really good friend and she and her roommate every day at the end of the day would say, "What was the best part of your day?"

and it was just the one question and they would say that every day and they would say one thing and then they'd go about their day.

But sometimes that leads to conversations, sometimes not.

Sometimes you just say it and you move on.

But maybe it sparks something.

- How did you transition?

So you're doing the website or the blog, and so that's building, and then how did you begin the transition over to television and other media?

- Yeah, so this is kind of fun.

So I told you I was at Hearst originally, and then I ended up leaving that job, but then at that point, so I was doing some private cheffing, I was creating, doing menu planning, teaching cooking classes, and doing all sorts of things, and then also writing.

And my old boss called and was like, "We're launching a new magazine.

"It's called, "Cosmopolitan for Latinas Magazine."

"Would you like to do the food?"

Because they knew that I had that experience.

They knew that I loved the food and they're like, "Oh, she's Latina."

(Alejandra laughing) So they called me and I was like, "Absolutely."

So I did, I started doing the food pages for this magazine, and I was doing it all.

I was writing the recipes, taking the photos, I was writing the side bars, the copy, all of it.

They didn't pay me enough, but.

(both laughing) - They never do, do they?

- They never do.

But it was so much fun and it was such a joy, and then they were like, "Well, we need someone to promote the magazine," the food is such a great way to promote a publication and so they were like, "Will you do cooking segments?"

And so they sent me out for my very first cooking segment.

It was on a local Univision station in Spanish and I went and did it and it was that moment where I was just like, "You know what?

This is it."

This was that connection of all those things that I've always loved.

The entertaining, the sharing, the sort of like improv nature of it, it was very fun and yeah, it was like a power space.

I felt like I belonged.

I felt like I could own that and that's what kind of kicked it all off.

- And that was the first time you'd really seriously thought about television?

- Yeah it was, well look, I'll be honest.

My father worked in television.

I grew up, he was a- - He was a TV anchor.

- Yes, news anchor for Telemundo in New York for nearly 40 years, he retired a couple years ago and my whole life he'd been like, "You should do TV.

"Obviously you're like me, you're a girl version of me."

And I grew up in TV studios.

I was always behind the scenes running around playing with the teleprompters and hanging out with the reporters.

But I was always like, "Nope, I want to do something completely different."

But you know, your dads know.

- That's right.

- And yeah, but that was that moment where I was like, "Oh yeah, my dad's right," and then I kind of went back into it and I started pursuing it and seeking different avenues.

I did it in a different way.

I'm not a news anchor like him.

- So how did the "TODAY Show," did they approach you or did you?

- Yeah, so one of the things that I found when I did that first segment was, I got into that segment because Hearst Magazines had pitched me to do it and so I was like, I need a PR company, essentially, to pitch me but I couldn't afford to hire a publicist or someone to do that at the time, but I was working with different brands and one of the brands I worked with was Pinterest, the website and they sent me out to do a segment.

So they pitched me for my very first "TODAY Show" segment, and that was August 10th, 2015, and that's me, right there.

(both laughing) - There you go.

- I made a little DIY version of a Chick-fil-A chicken sandwich and that was my first segment I remember I was so nervous, but it went really well, it was really fun and once it ended the producers were like, "We'd love to have you back," and so I started doing, I started sending them some ideas.

Essentially, they got me that initial connection but at that point, it's what you gotta do.

You get an opportunity, but you have to take advantage of it.

- Precisely.

- And so I started sending them ideas and I did like three segments the first year and six the next and it kind of grew and grew and now I'm working with them as a contributor, I'm on all the time.

Yeah, they're one of the best partners that I've worked with.

They've been so supportive of me and really allowed me to be who I am.

Really celebrate who I am and let me come up with my own ideas and stuff and I've worked on fun projects for Peacock with them and I've traveled with Al Roker and I've done really cool programs and projects with them.

- Well, you and Al have cooked together, right?

- Yes.

Al and I cook a lot.

Al is one of my favorites, when I show up there, he sees me, he shouts across the room, he's like, "Alejandra, what you have for me today?"

I remember one time I made monkey bread and he was so excited he was just shouting down the halls "Monkey bread!"

He's a character.

He's so much energy, he's so fun.

And I think that what's one of the things that's so... "TODAY Show" is such a legendary kind of place, it's a huge thing that's been there long before I was and it was always a dream of mine.

I remember I used to walk past 30 Rock and I look in through those glass windows at the studio and I dreamt of being there and so now it's real.

It's never not a pinch me moment when I'm there.

Even if I'm there every single week, I'm there all the time.

I'm so grateful and so thankful to be a part of that legacy and to get to do what I do in that space.

- So, what's the process like?

So would they say, "Hey, we need you on for next week," or whatever, "and we want to do a certain type of dish," and do you come up with something or do you pitch it ahead of time?

- So, it's a little bit of both.

So a lot of times they have themes or specific topics that, maybe it's football or holidays or different kind of, maybe they just need to do something for winter or for summer, whatever.

So sometimes they'll just throw a topic out at me and then I'll come up with ideas.

I'll send 'em, say, five or six ideas that I'm thinking of.

Sometimes it's recipes, sometimes it's more like tips or what we call hacks and then we go from there.

I also do a lot of product segments.

That's one of my favorite things that I do, which is essentially being able, now that I have this platform and that I have that sort of authority there, I've been able to use that to do, essentially to promote other entrepreneurs, other small business people, especially other Latina women and people of color.

I love doing segments when we're doing small business segments.

During the pandemic we did mail order food segments and it was the idea of, you can't eat with people that you love but you can send 'em some food.

And so we wanted to promote small food businesses and things that you can mail out.

So you can maybe mail out a box of biscuits or some churros or hot chocolate or whatever it is, and those kinds of things were really cool.

So we worked together to build these segments and that's a regular thing that I do now and it's all about promoting these small businesses because it means so much to them and it really...

The big companies, they've got all of that stuff behind them, but the little ones, that's when you put them on the show and the next day they're like, "I didn't know how I was gonna make payroll this month.

"I filled a whole UPS truck with orders," and it's like one of those, it's just minutes, it's seconds even, but it's life changing.

So being able to use that platform to help others is a joy.

- Are you mentoring young chefs and entrepreneurs?

- So I basically, I like to work with, I mean, yeah, I get a lot of emails and I get a lot of messages from young chefs, from young entrepreneurs, essentially asking how I did it and let me tell you, I'm still figuring it out.

(both laughing) I think we all are, right?

- Sure, sure, sure.

- But yeah, so any chance that I get to either provide advice or to provide guidance, to make connections, I love recommending people and I try to build a strong network of other women who are doing what I do too.

So if I can't take an opportunity or if it's not a perfect fit for me, I always recommend a couple other folks who I think it might work for because I think that that always kind of comes back and that's how you get your name spoken in rooms where you may not otherwise be in.

- Tell me about "The Great American Recipe" here on PBS.

- Yes, "The Great American Recipe."

Talk about a dream comes true.

I've been a PBS girl my whole life.

I've always loved PBS and so it was in 2021, I got a text message from my agent who said, "PBS wants to talk to you about a show," and I said, "All right.

I love PBS."

So, I'm a sort of known as a PBS super fan among folks over there.

I love Masterpiece, last night was, yeah.

At night, sometimes I'm like, "You know what, I'll just stay in and watch shows."

I like those mystery shows.

And it was this wonderful cooking competition.

It's just a very joyful, uplifting, cooking competition.

It's all about celebrating American food, but it's not American food as I think it's been defined for far too long.

It's not apple pie, burgers, fries, it's all of us.

This is a country of immigrants.

This is a country of diverse cultures, regions, climates, ingredients.

And not only that, but we all have a story, you're born somewhere, you go to school somewhere else, you marry into another family, another culture.

Every region has its dish that they're proud of and so all of these things make up part of our food story and it's not like this is American food and everything else is other.

No, all of those things together, it's the amalgamation that is in fact the American food story, and so that's what we're celebrating on the show.

We have 10 cooks from all around the country, each representing both their regions and their cultures.

I say it's not just where they live geographically, but it's also where their heart lives.

- And it's a competition.

- It's a competition, although I will say, sometimes you have to remind them it's a competition because they are just such wonderful people and it's like they help each other out.

It's very warm.

It really is all about family and they become a family throughout the process of the competition, to the point where when someone would go home or when someone would win a challenge or another person would lose, they were almost hesitant to celebrate too much because they were worried about the person who didn't do as well as they thought they wanted.

Or sometimes I have to be like, "Hey, you can't help him peel his mangoes "until you finish your food."

We needed to kind of remind them of that.

But we also loved it.

We loved the camaraderie, we love the joy that kind of brought them together and I think the judges, Graham Elliot, Leah Cohen and Tiffany Derry and I, we all learned so much from the contestants.

We just wrapped season two, shooting season two and I think it's gonna be even better than season one.

But we learned so much from them.

I think a lot of food shows the talent, the hosts, the judges, we kind of go in and you're supposed to be the experts.

I don't think of us as the experts here.

I think of us as we're there to guide and mentor.

We hopefully can help them along in their journey.

But we're there to learn really 'cause I'm not gonna tell you your grandmother's recipe is wrong.

I wanna learn about it.

I wanna learn your grandmother's story.

I wanna learn your story and I wanna learn your food story.

- How do you become a contestant?

- So we've got incredible casting team that kind of goes out there and they're looking all over.

They're looking on social media, they're looking on websites, people can apply and I mean, they do all the work, that's separate from us.

We're not involved in that part of it but they do an incredible job and the first season's cast was absolutely wonderful, adore every single one of them and the second season was also, they're just all so great.

So it's great because you're spending hours together for a few weeks there so it's nice to hang out with them.

- Why do you think that cooking and all the shows with chefs, why do you think they've become so popular in recent years?

- You know, I think food is something that is universal.

It's something that at the end of the day, whether you actually like to cook, everybody eats and everybody has a food story, everybody has something that's personal to them.

They all know... That's why I think people, it gets controversial too.

Sometimes they're like, "That's not how you make meatloaf.

"That's not how you make adobo chicken."

Everybody has their thoughts and opinions on it and so I think it's something that can bring people together, but in a very, it's a relaxing way.

It's not like politics or all of these things that are going on in the world that can be really harsh and and frustrating to look at and that can bring you down, and I think sometimes we need something that's a little bit of a break.

So this is fun.

It's still playful.

There's a competition element to it.

There's suspense.

But you're still learning and it's still fun and relaxing, it's very low stakes, at the end of the day, it's just delicious food.

- And I guess too, it's something everyone can do.

- Yeah.

- I mean, not everyone can play professional football or baseball or tennis at a high level or whatever, but everyone can cook and there's not a lot of danger in it for the most part.

- Exactly.

I mean, there can be a little bit of danger.

- You could burn down the kitchen.

- Yeah, we had some fires and flames in the kitchen.

But no, you're right.

I think that's a really great point, that it is something that is accessible and is open to everyone, and I'm not saying that everyone's gonna become the next Jacques Pepin but you can make a delicious sandwich, you can make a great scrambled egg.

I think everybody can handle some of those basics and I really truly believe that food made with love really does taste better.

My husband is not a great cook.

I love him to death, but he is not a great cook but when I'm exhausted I would much rather have a meal that he makes for me than order something in or get up and kind of make it myself.

- What makes a great cook?

- What makes a great cook?

I think you need creativity.

I also think you need to not think too hard about it.

You can't take it too seriously.

Like I said, it's low stakes, it's food at the end of the day, there's so many things in this world to be stressed out about, food doesn't need to be one of them so have fun with it and if it goes wrong, you can always call in and order a pizza, that's fine.

But I think you gotta relax and be playful with it.

For me, I'm all about improvisation.

I think that's why I love TV also.

That's when things go wild (Alejandra laughing) and that's when it's most fun.

And look at mistakes as opportunities.

Just 'cause it wasn't what you were expecting, but hey, maybe you can switch it up and play around with it and turn it into something that might be really great.

- And I know each situation is different, but just what kind of broad advice would you give to a young person who wants to be in the culinary field?

- Well, I think it depends on what aspect of it.

Do they wanna be a chef?

Do they wanna go into television?

Do they wanna write?

But I think you need to be open and to learning as much as possible.

Even if it's not specifically what it is you're gonna be doing.

Read a lot, watch a lot of shows, research, go out to eat at restaurants.

If you're gonna cook, you need to be eating different people's food, tasting different flavors.

Go to grocery stores and look at products and things that you don't know.

Go to grocery stores if you're traveling on vacation, pop into the grocery store.

You don't have to buy anything but take a look and see what's available.

Taste.

I think that tasting is the most important thing for a cook because that's how you develop a palette.

I think that's more important than following recipes because just 'cause the cookbook says three garlic cloves or two tablespoons of this, that doesn't necessarily mean that that's what's gonna taste good to you.

Trust your own palette and that's never gonna steer you wrong.

- I don't have a whole lot of time left, but what's your longer term goals?

- My longer term goals?

Well look, I gotta say, I love what I'm doing now.

I absolutely love any opportunity that I can to both host shows like this where I get to essentially offer that platform to people to tell their story.

So whether it's on "The Great American Recipe" where we have these amazing cooks who are telling us all their family stories and their family histories and recipes, or on "TODAY Show" where I get to introduce these incredible entrepreneurs to the world.

So anything that I can do to continue to tell stories through the language of food, that would make me really happy.

- Good deal.

Thank you so much for being with us.

- Thank you for having me.

This is super fun.

- You bet.

You bet.

You can watch her all over television, on the "TODAY Show," on NBC, and of course right here on PBS and you have your own website out there, just Google and- - Find me on Instagram.

- Instagram, all those great social media platforms.

- Exactly.

- And you're sharing some recipes out there too.

I'm assuming.

- Absolutely, yes.

Always sharing recipes (orchestral music) and I always love talking to our PBS viewers, especially about the show or about anything.

So feel free to reach out.

- Awesome.

- I love to chat.

- Thank you so very much.

By the way, you can see this program and many more of our conversations on the PBS video app and also at wsre.org/conversations.

I'm Jeff Weeks, thank you so very much for watching.

I hope you enjoyed the program.

Take wonderful care of yourself and we'll see you soon.

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