(upbeat rock music) (upbeat rock music continues) - Welcome to "A Shot of Ag".

I'm your host, Rob Sharkey.

Can you grow your own food?

Do you grow your own food?

Well, today's guest not only grows her own food, but she forages and she's such a good chef that Gordon Ramsey thinks it's the best venison he's ever had.

Today, we're talking with Cate Meade from Arlington Heights.

Was that an exact quote from him?

- He did say something, I wouldn't say exact quote, but awesome intro I have to say.

Like, I don't think I've ever been introduced to that.

- You said, Gordon Ramsey says, "You're the best chef's ever" - Oh, no.

(chuckles) - "he ever come across in his entire life.

- You're being robbed.

- He thought some chefs were good, but after tasting you're venison, he says that he's never tasted food before until now.

- Pretty much word for word, verbatim.

- That's Gordon Ramsey.

- Yeah.

Yeah.

- Yeah, okay.

(chuckles) First of all, where is Arlington Heights in, in the great state of Illinois?

- It's pretty close to O'Hare Airport.

It's just outside of Chicago.

Yeah.

- [Rob] Can you hear the planes?

- Oh, yeah, - Yeah.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

It's a nonstop, isn't it?

- You know, in certain areas it's worse, but you do kind of get accustomed to it.

Unless you're recording, you notice it.

(Rob laughing) - Is that where you grew up?

- I grew up in Rogers Park in the city, and then I lived in Park Ridge.

I lived in Ukrainian Village in the city, and then Park Ridge, and I'm in Arlington Heights.

- The Ukrainian Village.

- Mm-hmm.

- What?

I didn't even know that was- - It's like a neighborhood in Chicago.

- Oh, are you Ukrainian?

- No, but it was a really fun neighborhood to live in.

- Okay.

Because they're Ukrainian women are mean.

- No, they're not.

- Oh, maybe you have a little Ukrainian in you.

(both laughing) - No, great food.

Great neighborhood.

Loved it.

- Yeah, but you grew up in the city, but also, so where'd the farm come in?

- The farm came in, I was lucky enough, my dad's best friend had a farm in Pecatonica, Illinois growing up.

And pretty much every other weekend when it was good weather and my dad wasn't like snow plowing or building something in Chicago, we'd go to the farm and just unleash.

We were just like, yeah, like, yah, you know, just go hillbilly, I would call it.

And just put our overalls on and grab our slingshots and just - Slingshot.

- slingshot, I was like, it was me.

And then my older brother and his best friend was Brant's son.

- Yeah.

- So, and, and I would just like try to join their club and we'd just go off and, you know, our- - They let you though.

It wasn't like a no girls thing.

- My brother would always be like, no, you can't come.

And Russell was always so nice and be like, she can come.

- Oh, Russell.

(chuckles) - Ol' Russell.

But, so yeah, we would grow pumpkins and then they taught me pretty much how to sell them.

- You would grow pumpkin.

You're supposed to be kids that you're supposed to be slingshotting the neighbor's window and stuff like that.

But you as wild children were growing pumpkins.

- That was the fun part about it.

And I think our parents kind of, you know, instilled some aspect of like, hey, you know, we wanna do this for us too, but hey, we can give you some motivation, make some money out of this.

But we would harvest them all, put 'em in the back of, you know, our dad's pickup trucks and bring 'em back to Chicago and sell 'em.

- Yeah.

In Chicago.

- And in Chicago.

Yeah.

Right on our front yard, And we would, you know, like a lemonade stand.

We'd put like, - You're kidding me.

- signs like, oh, garage sale.

Like, hey, no, no, pumpkins.

Get your pumpkins.

And we'd lead the way to our house.

- And people would buy them.

- They would, yeah.

They would, if they were, you know, wanted to support the kids.

(both laughing) - I mean, did, like, if you're in Chicago, do you have to go like to the grocery store or Menards or somewhere to get pumpkins?

- You do, so we carved these pumpkins last night, actually with our family.

And every year we grow, like all these, we grew, but when we do our carvers, we have to buy a couple more because they're just not so many.

And we give so many away when we have like our annual harvest that we're not gonna be like, oh, we're only keeping the carved.

You know what I mean?

So we just, you know, spend four bucks at the store for a couple good carvers.

So this, there's a specific pumpkin that's good for carving.

- Yeah, we did grow this one specifically, but I'm just saying, we, we do buy carving pumpkins from the store every year.

- Did you carve this?

- I did, yeah.

This is my business logo.

Wildwood Chef.

- Okay.

So it's a mushroom with antlers.

- Yeah.

Specifically a morel mushroom.

- Yeah, morel mushroom.

There is more to my logo, but it's all I could fit on the pumpkin.

- Well, you can only get so detailed on a pumpkin, - Honey.

That's the truth.

(both laughing) - That's really good.

So you did it yourself?

- Yeah.

All on me.

- Yeah.

Just, it's not a candle in there because, you know, PBS right?

Yeah.

We don't want to burn a place down.

- It's smart.

- But that is very cool.

- You gotta have, - So how many, how many of these?

I, imagined this is like your goto pumpkin design.

- So it's funny, to be honest, this is the second year I did this.

And it's only because you guys, 'cause you guys were like, you know, bring a talking point.

So I was like, oh, this would be, this would like, you know, I was already gonna bring you pumpkins, but I was like, this would just be a great, because it's my logo.

And I was, you know, thinking bringing mushrooms and venison and all the things I love.

And yeah.

So it just worked out.

But usually it's funny when we, we have every year our family does this, the carving.

- And then we vote on Instagram.

I post all the pictures and everybody like, votes on, which is the best pumpkin.

And it's always been for me, something funky like that.

Like one time I did pretty much your logo.

Actually, it's funny.

I'll have to- - That's an infringement.

(Cate laughing) - I'll have to show it to you.

'cause it does look really, really similar to that.

And it's just funky.

I think I did maybe a wolf one year.

Another different type of mushroom.

Oh, maybe I did the couple, like three mushrooms in one.

But then like, my family's like, you know, Chicago Bears and my sister's always doing something like Disney-related.

Yeah.

It's just, it's really cute.

Everybody has their like style.

- Was this done with a knife?

- We use those, I don't know, the carvers, you know, we get like the little kits and we save up.

- Oh, I was gonna say, 'cause that's not like a kitchen knife.

That's really, that's done really well - Up here.

- No, the just like the design.

- Every all the detail.

Yeah.

Thanks.

- Yeah, that's nice.

- Thanks, so I got many years of practice under my belt.

- That's not so good.

(laughs) - Hey, don't look at the details.

Okay.

Gordon?

Easy on me.

Easy.

- It's raw.

- Honestly, it was a little rushed at the end.

I was happy, they were like, let's just get him out there.

'cause I was like, you know, you could spend all day - Yeah.

- Doing one of these things if you get really carried away.

- So y'all, opened grew all this stuff.

- All of these.

Yeah.

- Yeah.

- And this is for you to go home with the spaghetti squash.

- Spaghetti squash.

- Yeah.

- So you open that up.

It looks like a worm type spaghetti.

- It looks like pasta and, - Well, it's halloweenish.

- and the most important thing is you cut it in half this way.

Not lengthwise.

This way, you're actually gonna keep your, if you cut it in half this way.

- Yeah.

- You're breaking your pasta.

You're breaking your spaghetti.

So you wanna cut it in half.

- A lot of rules with your squash and everything.

I like this one.

- Sorry.

- They said it looked like - A gooseneck.

- a gooseneck.

But it looks like a cobra.

- I love it too.

It's funky.

- It's got like the tongue coming out.

I'm a snake.

- Yeah, yeah.

- Yeah.

- That's one of my favorites as well.

I agree.

(Rob laughing) - So you not only know how to grow this stuff, but you, when did you get into cooking and being a chef?

- Well, I think I've always taken to it since I was little.

- [Rob] Yeah.

- And I was the baby.

So my parents let me have quite a bit of freedom in the kitchen.

And like, I was talking about this with my mom the other day, that like, easy bake ovens.

I wanted, like, since I was probably like five.

- Yeah.

- And I was already using like, the real oven.

- It burned down a lot of houses.

Those easy bakes.

Yeah.

- See, I don't know, that was the thing, I wanted it so there was less risk involved, you know.

But yeah, I would beg my mom and dad for an easy bake oven.

And my mom was like, you don't need one.

You already used the oven.

But finally when I was like 10, she got me one.

And it was like, I was already using the oven, but I just really enjoyed having like, my own little thing, you know.

But going back to the farm thing, like when we were, were at the farm, Brant, so my dad's friend was like, we would do like chores.

They would have all these things they had needed to get done on the weekend.

And so would we, so I was like, hey, what can we help with?

And he's like, you know, the cherries need picking.

Why don't you go harvest the cherries and make us a pie?

And I was like, okay.

And so we pitted like hundreds of cherries, rolled the pie crust on- - And was that fun for you?

- It was so fun.

And the memory is like even more fun, you know?

'cause me and my best friend were doing it.

And then the boys just loved the cherry pie.

And yeah, it was just, it was a blast.

- Does a pie crust, does it include lard?

- We used butter at the time.

I remember it was a Betty Crocker's.

We used like a Betty Crocker cookbook that he had, you know, sort away.

And we almost burnt down the house because they keep the Ritz crackers in the oven when they're not there.

And so we turned on the oven And then we ran out of the house.

Like, 'cause the whole, like, I opened it and it was like already in flames engulfed, you know.

And you've think I would have been scared.

- So you turned on the oven, but you didn't check?

- No, because I was nine.

I was nine.

I shouldn't have been in the kitchen in the first place.

- Going back to the whole safety thing that maybe you shouldn't have been doing.

- Yes.

Yes.

- And why weren't you scared?

- Well, at the, when I saw the fire, I was, I was definitely frightened and I ran out of the house and was like, dad, get in here.

(both laughing) But I learned that lesson at nine.

So it was a valuable lesson.

Don't ever start the oven without checking it, you know?

- Yeah, and all it took was an immeasurable amount of smoke damage.

- Exactly.

- Okay.

So obviously you know how to cook.

You're good at cooking because you got on "Master Chef."

- I did.

- Which was, it's like a reality cooking contest with Gordon Ramsey.

- Yeah.

- He's dreamy.

- That dreamy Brit.

- He's dreamy.

- Yeah.

- Alright, so tell me this story.

- I auditioned for "Master Chef," by the grace of God, somehow I got on, it was a lot of loophole, a lot of, I guess, hoops to jump through.

- Because it's not just a thing where you show up, it's a multi- - Yeah.

Multi stages, yes.

So many things, so many different processes from background checks to- - You have to cook though, right?

- You have to cook, yeah, yeah.

Your first interview.

- I suppose I gotta make sure that you're not like a criminal.

- Yeah.

(chuckles) - Yeah.

Okay.

So you cook for them.

What'd you cook?

- I made a lamb sausage jambalaya with the honey jalapeno cornbread.

- That's jalapeno, that's how they say it.

I don't know if anybody, maybe Gordon will tell you that.

- Well, you should tell him that.

I would actually like to listen to that.

- I don't even know, that's like something you would order at like, the nicest restaurant in town.

- No, it's not.

- How did you know to cook that?

- But I do, I think I love flavors.

I've always, I do think I've had, was blessed with a good palate.

And I, yeah, but I like combining some things.

Not going too crazy.

But jambalaya is traditionally made with andouille sausage, you know?

I love, - Of course, yeah.

- of course, yeah, you would know the holy trinity.

And so I was just like, what is this girl talking about?

But yeah, I was just like, ooh, let's make a little fun spin.

Let's just make it a little bit of, you know, my own- - Because he loves that.

- Well, Gordon wasn't there in the auditions.

It was just.

- Yeah, but it's his people.

- It's his people, right.

His trained professional people.

- So you're cooking for people that are like top-tier chefs?

- Yes, this was the executive chef at Nobu in Chicago, which is a- - Is that like a Denny's?

- A little bit fancier, but not much.

- Alright, so you're cooking.

They like it.

And then I guess long story short, you go out to what, California?

- Yeah, L.A.

Yeah.

- Okay.

And then you're cooking for Gordon at that point?

- Yes.

Yeah.

You show lights like this in your face and, but then Gordon Ramsey's in front of you and you're just like- - It's probably like when you came onto this set.

- Yeah, deer in the headlights immediately, like ♪ Ha ♪ - He's an attractive man.

- He is, and, - And his accent.

- so it, and just like, powerful, you know, leads with confidence.

- Was he smiling though?

- You know, not, no.

When he's filming, he's very serious.

He's like, - Really?

- Hey, these cameraman better be in tip top shape or else they're gonna get - Oh really?

- The idiot sandwich, you know?

- Really?

He's on his cameraman, huh?

- Yeah.

Oh, everybody.

The cameraman, the director, the producer.

Everybody's... - Donkey.

- Yeah.

Everybody's a donkey.

- Yeah.

- What's it like to be judged by a guy like Gordon Ramsey?

- You know, of course it's like scary, intimidating, all of the feelings, but it's also like incredible, amazing.

And, you know, some of the best advice, feedback, critiques I could get in my, I feel like in my entire life, like so many times, you know, his words ring through my head.

- Really.

- I mean, not the donkey stuff, you know, he wasn't really ever too mean to me.

- Did he hate your food?

- No.

No.

And he never like, threw my food at me or, you know, anything like that.

- He didn't spit it out.

- He didn't spit it out.

- Did he at, somebody else, the other contestants, did he spit it out?

- Oh yeah, there was food.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

(Rob laughing) You know, everything happens on "Master Chef."

- Okay, so you're in there, you're getting judged by him.

Now, he liked your food, right?

- Yes.

And specifically my venison.

Like, I made him venison, I think like, at least four times.

Maybe even more actually, no.

- Is it like to the point where he was like, okay, enough with a deer meat?

- No, it was funny because like the first time I made him venison, I wanted to do it, the second time, it was in a mystery box, you know, when it was like a challenge.

And then the third time was when we were, we had to make a dish for our family member.

And my dad came on the show, which was super special.

- Oh, that was cool.

- Yeah.

Yeah.

And so then I made the dish, you know, for like a, it was like, you know, a taste of home and, you know, think of some person.

And I made a venison, a mushroom rubbed venison with, I think it was a chestnut puree and then a sour cherry reduction, and - What do you think of this stuff?

- butternut squash.

A fondant, which was like, you know, honestly it wasn't like the greatest dish, but it was something that reminded me of my dad because of like, the squash, the cherries, the chestnut trees, like, and the venison and the mushrooms.

All things that, you know.

And I also had sauteed morels on there as well.

- Of course.

- It was home.

It was home.

- Of course.

Because why would you not?

- Why would you not?

Yeah.

- Yeah.

It's very complicated.

And you have to cook all that in a specific amount of time, right?

- Oh yeah.

I believe that one was 60 minutes.

- Is it really?

Because everybody always finishes and they're like, oh, they're hurrying up at the end.

I'm like, like I wonder if it's actually that.

- Everybody finishes, but not everybody actually finishes what they wanted to accomplish, like, - Oh, - you know, again, like example of this pumpkin here.

If I, if he gave me six hours, I would've done... - Not a great cut job there.

- Would've cleaned up that work, man.

- That's okay.

Yeah.

That's okay though.

I'm proud of that light.

It's staying.

- It's epic.

- Yeah.

Staying good.

- Can't even blow it out.

(both chuckling) - Unfortunately.

You didn't win?

- No, I got a top four, I was very happy with.

- So like, how many people went out to LA?

- 80 maybe, maybe 90.

- So four outta 90, - And then 40 started the show.

- Okay.

- 20 get sent home immediately.

- Ooh.

- First day on the job.

(air whooshing) - But do you have an idea of how many people actually applied to be on the show?

- There was so many numbers thrown out.

I've heard 20,000, 30,000.

You know, it's like, and you, I you don't know because some people apply and they don't actually show up to be judged.

But I remember like the day I was, I auditioned in Chicago, I was, there was at least I saw 800 like numbers, you know, like that I remember, you know, but I was number like 297, I think.

So there was like so many people there.

- We'll say 10,000.

- Sure.

- You're number four.

- Yeah.

That's still pretty crazy, yeah.

- It's not number one.

- It ain't no, it ain't no, it ain't no, but I'm happy I got top four.

It was like right where I needed to be.

I think it was perfect.

- Do you want like a set of steak knives or something?

- No, no.

You go home with your pride.

- I've seen him, like on some of his shows, they, he's given away pans.

I'm like, okay.

And then there you find out these set of pans are like worth five grand.

- I did get the hex clad pans, but that was like after.

And I have some like, Master Chef plates and things like that.

And we get all of our aprons and lots of aprons and all the team challenge stuff, you win.

Or you dressing.

- Do you still talk to him?

- I do, yeah.

Actually.

- Do you have his number?

- I do, yeah.

Actually I don't like, you know, sometimes I've, you know, like if I was at like, maybe doing a kid's party, they were like, oh, can we text Gordon?

And we texted him and he was super sweet with the kids.

- Get her phone.

- Cut it out.

- Get her phone.

- Cut it out.

But no, like, - Can't we call him?

- I wouldn't.

No, no.

'cause I think that's, I'm respectful with it, but if there there's ever anything I need, I reach out to his assistant.

Like, my sister was in Singapore.

- I'll be respectful.

- (chuckles) I'm sure you will.

- Do you have him down as GR?

- No, just Gordon Ramsey.

I guess I've never like thought about it.

But you're hilarious.

Just Gordon Ramsey.

I'm lucky.

I don't even know if I should be saying that now that you're making it like this, but yeah, he's super cool.

(Rob laughing) Super nice and always been there for me and like a super big cheerleader.

- So I actually like him and I don't like, - He's so funny.

- I don't like many people, but I watched his show.

Hell's Kitchen?

- Hell's Kitchen?

Kitchen Nightmares.

- And Kitchen Nightmares.

- The best.

- Yeah, the the old ones.

- The old ones were the best ones.

- The best.

- And then everybody was like prepared.

- Yes.

- They would try to clean their kitchen, but it was still those- - That's like how I fell in love with him.

- Yeah, - Yeah.

Yeah.

- Actually - Good old days.

- I would love to see Gordon Ramsey in an octagon with that guy from Bar Rescue.

He would clean his clock.

- Oh, Gordon would clean the other guy's clock?

- Yeah.

- Oh yeah.

- Yeah.

- Hands down.

- Wouldn't even be a contest.

Oh yeah.

- And he'd do it with poise.

- I don't know if he would, I think he would stand over his slap in his head, making fun of him.

- No, he would do it with just like... - How's your pour ratio now, huh?

How's your pour ratio now?

- Pour ratio.

Yeah.

- What are we talking about?

- Yeah, I dunno how we got here.

- So when you get back, you went back to Chicago then?

- Yep.

- Yeah.

But now, as a chef, you got a bunch of street cred.

- Exactly.

- So what'd you do?

- I started my own business and I just took the reins and started running.

I work as a private chef now.

I did a lot of in-home meal prep before, but now I do a lot of traveling, cooking at, you know, hunt clubs.

I could do a lot of dinner parties in the city, outside of the city.

Content creating, recipe development, all the fun things.

I have my hands in many pots growing, working with mushrooms.

I grow mushrooms.

- It's funny, we had you on the podcast and I had someone contact me and said, would she, can we hire her to walk around the woods with us and tell us what we can and can't eat?

- Yeah.

I would love that.

Actually, I just donated a foraging tour to a charity, a foraging and a cooking lesson.

But yeah, it's something I offer.

I love it.

I think it's super cool just to know what is around you that's edible.

What you could use, when it's in season, when it's... - You can eat anything.

- (chuckles) Yeah.

According to this farmer.

(Rob laughing) Yeah.

Survival of the fittest rings true for mushroom hunting and foraging - Yeah.

- too.

- When you went back to Chicago though, I mean here you are, you were number four at that contest.

I mean, did you ever think of like, hey, just taking a chef job, because I imagine there were restaurants that would would've hired you in a heartbeat.

- Yeah, so, I did a lot of staging, which is working for free or, yeah, I never got paid for it, so I just worked when I, - Just like PBS?

- Stop it.

(chuckles) You're so ridiculous.

But yeah, you go and work for free.

And, but I knew before going to "Master Chef" and why I went to "Master Chef" was I never wanted to be a French chef in a restaurant.

I knew just the type of person I am.

- Yeah.

- I would get sick of it.

I would hate it.

- It's kind of a meat grinder in there, isn't it?

- Yeah, it's, I love it.

You know, I love a fast pace and I love a challenge.

So staging was perfect for me going in there, you know, completing it and getting out, like working, I love, you know.

But if I did that as like filling up my tank every day, I've like, enjoyed it, you know, I know, like, I would get sick of it, you know?

So I knew I needed to do my own thing.

I need needed to have a well-versed career in the culinary arts and yeah.

So I started my own thing, but I love the restaurant and I loved working in it and yeah.

- Well, cooking for like one of those restaurants, I mean, it's so much different than cooking for the small parties, right.

Because you can, I don't know, those restaurants, they're good meals, but it's meant to get in and out, right?

- Yes, but, it depends on the restaurant too, because a lot of it is in the prep and you know, how much stuff they can get ready, how many sauces they can reduce and stocks and all of the prep things so that when it, the order doves come in, they can actually execute it well and have it, you know, taste it too.

Because a lot of people will be like, oh, here are the peas and the pasta and the butter and toss, toss, toss.

But they don't taste it.

And like when they send it out and it's under season, that's when somebody's like, eh, it's all right, you know, but yeah, it's like the little things, you know.

- I always wondered in those, like, if you're in that French restaurant, how could you taste stuff all night?

It seems like you'd be sick of everything.

- As a chef.

- Yeah.

- That's just what you do.

It's just, I feel like your palate is just like, you, when you look at a cornfield, you know, you're just like, mm, you're just psycho analyzing every aspect of it, you know?

And it's just like, oh, this is what it needs.

This is what it doesn't, you know?

Oh, this is what it'd be good for.

Probably won't plant beans here next year.

- Yeah, random question, because you mentioned your palate, right?

And I, by watching Gordon Ramsey show, I know that is like one of the most important things of becoming a great chef.

And then they show like all the contestants like taking a break and they all start smoking.

- Yeah.

- Wouldn't that destroy your taste buds?

- Yeah, I think it does.

I think smoking has been proven to destroy your taste buds, but I'm sure like - It's just what they do.

- it's just also to the high stress, high, - Oh.

- fast-paced environment of cooking.

It's just like, it's- - The sweet relief of nicotine.

- Yeah, pretty much.

Yeah.

- If people wanna find you - Yeah.

- or find out more about what you do, where would they go?

- Wildwoodchef.com or Wildwood Chef on all social media platforms.

- Wildwood Chef.

- Come find me.

Come hang out.

Learn about mushrooms, turkey, deer, - Cate, - Wild Midwest.

- I had all these cards.

These are the ones I didn't get to, - Okay.

- which is, I got two out of eight.

- You're crushing it.

Do I talk too much?

- Yes.

- Sorry.

- Would you mind coming back next week?

- Yeah, I'll be here.

- Really?

- Same clothes, same everything.

- Me too.

- Okay, great.

(both chuckling) Perfect.

- Actually, all this will be the same too.

Yes.

- Can he come?

- Yeah.

Even though this, yeah, even with that.

It's okay.

- Stop showing it.

- Cate, you are a pleasure to talk to and yeah, well I want you to come back next week.

We need to talk about the foraging and the mushrooms and all the other stuff you're doing.

We talked about Chef Ramsey, but that's literally just a sliver of your story.

So I want you to come back and we're gonna learn all about you.

- You're the best.

Thanks for having me.

- Cate, thanks for coming.

Everybody else, we'll catch you next time.

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