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- Today.

On "Table for All," it's a family reunion as my favorite guests from season one meet some of my favorite guests from this season to break bread, share stories from the set and reflect on their cultures for a true table for all.

[bright music] You are cordially invited to a Table for All celebration.

These past two seasons have been a hoot and a half filled with incredible laughter, thought-provoking conversation, bonding, understanding, and lots and lots and lots of food.

It's been a breathtaking ride thus far.

So in honor of that ride, I decided to invite three of my favorite guests from season one and three of my favorite guests From this season for no-holds-barred celebration of all the great cultures we fit into two jam-packed seasons.

The invitations were sent out, and I'm happy to say they all said "Yes," with each one agreeing to bring a signature dish from their culture.

This was going to be a potluck for the record books.

But where to host such an affair?

I could think of only one place.

We were headed back to Asbury, New Jersey to Ironbound Farm.

Everyone's favorite farmer and superhero, Charles Rosen, agreed to lend us his top-notch restaurant.

And I have to say, it was great to see him again.

Charles, I'm here!

- [Charles] Ugh, I'm so happy.

- Did you miss me?

- I'm so happy to have you back, Buki.

I'm so happy that you're here.

Welcome to Ironbound.

- Thanks.

Thank you for hosting us.

- Yeah.

- How has life been?

Tell me everything.

Catch me up.

I want to know all.

- Well, I mean, I don't know if I can go into alls, because it would turn it into a two-part series.

- I'm ready for Table for All with Buki and Charles, on the road, on the Farms of America.

- I think I'm in.

- See, I'm already pitching it.

Look at me.

- No, I think that, one of the biggest changes that I'm most excited for you to see is that we spent the last year, since you were here, really building out more of the network of growers, farmers, producers, that are working with us both on the land and throughout New Jersey.

- That closed-loop system.

- Closed-loop system, you remember.

- I remember.

- You did it!

- I remember my stuff.

Does it ever get tiring trying to save the world?

Are you exhausted yet?

- [Charles] Well, I'm so exhausted, but also weirdly rejuvenated and shockingly optimistic.

- How are my apple trees doing?

- [Charles] Oh my God, they're thriving.

- And how much longer do I have to wait for my apples?

- Well, when we do season three of Buki and Charles... - On the road, farms across America.

- Right.

- Yep.

- You're gonna have our Harrison Apples here on this farm ready to go.

I'm so happy to have all of you here.

I think this idea of a day where we're, I don't know, sharing each other's delicious work and you bringing us all together, I think the table's gonna be a really special place.

- I brought my own stuff too.

So you ready to go?

Are you ready to do this?

- I'm ready to do this.

- All right.

One by one, the guests arrive.

The best dressed woman in America.

She's coming.

- Hey, Buki!

- Miss Corinne.

Starting us off is Miss Corinne.

- God is good to bring this to me, I must have been doing something halfway right?

- You never got into it for the awards.

- My award is just as long as I take care of my people.

- Because you started as a social worker.

- Yeah, I used to be a counselor, juvenile counselor, and that was my passion.

And cooking was, I would unwind cooking after trying to save the world.

And that's what I thought I was gonna be able to do, but, you know, you can't save everybody.

- [Buki] When you're cooking this food, when you're eating this food, what do you feel?

Do you think about your own mom cooking in the kitchen?

- [Corinne] Oh, my mom.

She was a church lady and all they did was dress and eat.

- [Buki] Dress and eat.

- [Corinne] Dress and eat.

- [Buki] Oh yeah, Sunday was an affair.

- Better believe it.

My mother would start on Saturday cooking for Sunday, and we always had a poultry, a pork and a beef every Sunday.

That's what we would eat.

I call myself a gourmet soul food cook.

I work hard for this reputation.

You know, big a black person, you gotta be a super black.

You just can't be an average black.

- Twice as much.

- I gotta do twice as much.

- For half the praise.

- Yes, yes, yes.

You gotta give more, get less.

You know what I'm talking about.

- Do you know what business I'm in?

- Yes, I know.

- [Corinne] Do you know?

- Season one fan favorite, Miss Corinne, is enjoying every minute of her well-deserved success.

She received her James Beard Award and was just inducted into the Rutgers Alumni Hall of Fame.

And we just celebrated her birthday with a Black Hollywood themed party.

"How old is she?"

you may ask.

Well, Miss Corinne will never kiss and tell.

My Filipino godmother's in the house!

- Oh, yah, yah, yah, yah.

My favorite Filipino, Maricel Gentile.

And bestselling cookbook author and challah bread master, Shannon Sarna-Goldberg.

- I call you the Shabbat Whisperer.

- Oh, Shabbat whisperer.

Yes, Hi.

- That's right.

'Cause you are the queen.

- Thank you.

That's so nice.

- My friend and travel blogger, Melissa Rose Cooper.

You bought goodies.

- Of course I brought goodies.

Little currents roll.

You know, I just came back from Trinidad.

- I know you did.

So we're gonna talk, first of all, but where are my wings?

Where's the costume that you promised me?

Okay, you come back with new hair, you come back snatched, and I don't get a costume?

- I'm gonna get you that next time.

- Miss Venezuela is here.

- [laughing] Hola!

- [Buki] Niurika, how are you?

- Pabellon is not that every day dish that we prepare, but it's always to, in this case, to show you our national dish.

Or if there is any special event in which you feel you, let's prepare Pabellon to share Pabellon together as a family.

For me, it's a value, it's a principle.

No matter who, no matter what, question first.

The only thing I know is that if I apply for this humanitarian protection that is called asylum, I won't be able to go to Venezuela.

And I don't want that, papa.

And he said, "Don't do this to my grandson."

And when he say, don't do this to my grandson, I started to cry.

I wasn't expecting to leave my country.

I told Venezuela it's gonna get better.

- [Buki] And who can forget the Venezuelan crusader herself, Niurika Melendez.

She's still on a mission to save her people.

With the help of her husband, Hector, their organization VIA is working with the Pro Se Plus Project and was invited to the Wawa Welcome America Festival.

If anyone's doing God's work, it's Niurika.

- Hector sends his love to you by making Hallaca for you.

- He made Hallaca?

- Yes for you.

[Buki moaning] - Uh-oh, trouble's here.

- Buki!

♪ Welcome to Cortaditos ♪ - Hey!

- I miss you man.

- And rounding out this all star cast is my Cuban brother Adam San Miguel.

The group was assembled.

Perfect timing for cocktail hour.

You started the party without me?

Well, it all looks good.

Oh listen, I'm still tipsy from Angelico Winery from like three weeks ago.

Give me something non-alcoholic.

I cannot, okay?

- Try, it's so refreshing.

- Okay, maybe I'll do a little, little.

I'll try a little, little.

- You'll love it.

- Buki, careful, careful.

- It's good.

- Yum.

- Very delicious.

- Yum!

- Look, now he drinks.

[all laughing] - All of these guests were meeting for the very first time, and I knew they would hit it off.

How was Trinidad?

- Trinidad was amazing.

- How was it?

- It's like, I waited so long for this to happen, and then you finally go and it's like, blink, I'm back.

[all laughing] - Buki looks like he's done this before.

Look.

- Come on, keep up, Trinidad.

You were born in Boston, but you are so tied to the Trinidadian culture.

How did that happen?

- Well, I have to credit my parents, my family, you know.

They never treated us any differently because we were born there.

I grew up cooking this food.

I grew up listening to music.

Like, that was just something that was there.

It was just like, so there was no way for me not to be tied to it.

- Is there really no place like home?

- Yes.

It's just the different mix of people.

And you see like just with the food itself, like the different cultures ingrained in that, that makes it our culture.

So it's just, it's unique to me.

And just being able to get a piece of all of that, I think it's a beautiful thing.

- [Buki] After her carnival extravaganza, Melissa Rose Cooper has not gotten off the plane, traveling to Ibiza and London, just to name a few, and documenting her journeys along the way.

She's taking the travel industry by storm with new brand deals and partnerships.

And in an exciting twist, she's found love.

Looks like everything's coming up Melissa Rose Cooper.

We mixed and we mingled.

- Jewish food is such comfort food.

I'm like, yeah, just kind of, it shoves down the feelings, right?

So it's like, bury the feelings.

- Bury the feelings.

- [Charles] You know, with good food.

- You have like a lot of Jewish guilt mom energy.

- Right here, right here.

- Yeah.

Yeah.

- This would be exhausting.

[all laughing] - So what goes into challah?

- Bread flour, salt, yeast, sugar, eggs, and oil.

- I'm not thin enough to do it like that, okay?

Here we go, from the back.

Go ahead.

- From the back.

So the dough rises about three hours, and then it does a second rise, which is one of the most important things because that gives it it's nice lift and airiness, and otherwise it can end up too dense when it's baked up.

- What's your favorite?

- My favorite's the raisin kind.

- Really?

With a little cinnamon too?

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

It's a girl after my own heart.

- I have the best butcher, and Harold knows that I like a chuck roast.

So when he has a good one, which this one is, look at that, he will ask me, "Do you want a chuck roast?"

And then he delivers to my house.

- What is it about Jewish women always has a guy at the butcher?

Every Jewish grandmother, every Jewish woman I know has a guy at the butcher.

- Statistically speaking, I think we're 0.002% of the entire world population, or even less than that.

We take care of each other, right?

And I think that's just like a core value of what it means to be Jewish.

- [Buki] Now how many of you rushed out to buy Shannon Sarna's mouth watering cookbooks to make her iconic challah bread?

Since we last saw Shannon, she's stepping into a new role as editor at large for food and special projects at 70 Faces Media, whose mission is to connect people to all sides of the Jewish story.

And her biggest gig of all, raising her three incredible kids.

- We are people made from the same faces.

- Yeah.

- We just have different cultures, different...

But we are all the same.

- And you're right, it was- - Food is a great way to open that up.

- Yeah!

- Food is a way to do it.

- Even when you see the suffering from the pandemic through isolation.

- Yes.

- And everybody thought they were connected because they had their phones.

But they're not.

That's not, this is connection.

- Yes.

- Not this.

- Yes.

- And so, especially young people who have been so isolated.

But coming around to gather around a table, as awkward as it may feel, that's where the healing starts.

- I wanna learn every culture, because I want to explore what people, we are all human, but I wanna see what makes you thrive.

And what make you thrive make me thrive because it's something that's exciting with me.

Something new.

And that's what I'm looking for in life.

I'm in my '60s and I want to learn some more stuff - [Buki] And with that, I invited everyone to the dinner table for a feast.

What's on the menu?

Miss Corinne's legendary turkey wings, Maricel's Pancit and Pork Adobo, Niurika and Hector's Hallacas, Shannon's lighter-than-air challah, Adam's Cuban empanadas, Melissa's Trinidadian current rolls, And my mom's Nigerian fried rice.

Plus the incredible team at Ironbound roasted the chickens and vegetables on their mother fire for a little farm-to-table flare.

- Wow.

- Mm-hm.

- Now this is a spread.

- Yes.

- And in welcoming you guys and having you, we're, again, so appreciative that you chose to be at the farm.

And as many of you, we've all talked about, that this is a place of community where we're bringing together diversity, we're bringing together different cultures, eating and breaking bread together, literally, in this case.

- [Buki] Before we ate, Shannon led us in a prayer.

- So we make a special prayer over bread in the Jewish culture, it's called the Hamotzi.

So this is the prayer that we say on Shabbat and holidays.

[speaking foreign language] Amen.

- Amen.

- I hope you guys enjoy.

- [Buki] A quick cheers later, and we wasted no time digging into this international spread.

[cheerful music] - Everything is very good.

I didn't have everything yet, but what I've had was excellent.

I can understand why he picked you.

- And as we've proved at episode after episode, the best conversations happen with good people over a good meal.

What was your favorite part about shooting with us?

- You.

[laughing] - Oh, first of all, no, no, no.

'Cause Maricel thought I was a total, something I can't say on television.

She didn't think I was a nice person.

- I said it though, I said it, that's so bad.

- No, she thought I was a meanie.

That's what she said.

- Yes.

Yes.

No, he comes to the house, I'm like, okay.

And then I said, "Oh, there he is."

[Buki laughing] And then we started talking and then boom, we clicked like crazy.

That's what we call Filipino hospitality.

It's our tradition.

It's a cultural thing.

It's like, it's very basic.

We like to feed people.

My grandmother, my grandmother is the best.

She didn't measure.

Like when I was starting my cooking classes, I had a hard time writing my recipes.

Like, oh my God.

So when I cook, it's just spontaneous.

- It's just, boom, boom, boom.

- I can't stop.

It's just like when I cook, it just comes down.

It's just like my grandmother.

Oh, that's nice!

- It's good?

- You got it.

You got it.

You got it.

I'm gonna show you how we eat it.

We bite from the top and we do like this.

- [Buki] Oh.

- Hot, hot, hot, hot, hot.

It's very hot.

How crunchy is that, right?

- Oh, wow.

I can't speak.

- That's all I want to see from you.

That you're speechless.

- [Buki] No reunion can be complete without my Filipino godmother, Maricel Gentile.

Last summer we saw Maricel's youngest son off to college.

She's putting the finishing touches on her ghost restaurant, and she's in the middle of writing her very first cookbook.

The woman never stops.

And that's why we, and her husband Paul, adore her.

- When we had the segment, I had a cooking classes like a few months ago, and one lady says, "You know why I'm here?"

I said, "Why are you here?

You like to cook?"

"No, because I saw you on TV."

- Oh, wow.

- You're out here making people famous, Buki.

- So I said, "What, you're in Philadelphia?

You drove an hour away?"

"Yeah."

And I said like, "Oh my God, this is my dream."

And now people are looking for restaurants, so we need more restaurants, Filipino restaurants.

- It's very interesting because Filipinos represent such a large percentage of Asian Americans.

- Exactly.

- But yet it's not held in the same esteem or as familiar as Chinese, Korean, Japanese.

- And that was my goal when I was trying to put up this business, it's like...

So that when people are looking for a restaurant to go out, I said, "I want Filipino cuisine to be a part of it."

- For Adam, I just want to confirm that you are married, correct?

- [Adam] Yeah.

- With two kids?

- [Adam] Yep.

- Two daughters.

- Two daughters, yep.

- Okay, I wanna put that on record, because after your show aired, I got multiple phone calls.

- [Corinne] I guess so.

- Hey.

- [Maricel] Hey, look at him.

- So I just watched the Cuban episode.

That, that Adam San Miguel.

Like, what's his deal?

It was like, multiple conversations about this.

- That's awesome.

- And I'm like, he's married with two daughters, off the market.

- [Adam] One just turned three yesterday.

- [Buki] One just turned three.

Congratulations.

Exactly, so just putting that on the record.

- Thank you.

Is that on camera or is that of the record?

- It's on the record.

- Oh, it's on record.

♪ Welcome to Cortaditos ♪ [singing in foreign language] There's something about immigrants and exiles that give you a different DNA.

That there's something to being uprooted from your home, being forced to leave, go to a new land, a new language, a new system, and having to start from scratch that wires you in a different way.

Tell me, how do you feel right now?

Is there a party in your mouth happening?

Is there salsa music playing in your mouth right now?

Is there?

- It's all good right now.

- No, seriously, right?

- That's really good.

- What we're doing is we're capturing elements from the original Cuban sandwich, which is, the original Cuban sandwich is made in Tampa.

That's like the history of the Cuban sandwich.

Sort of the why is, a influx of tobacco workers in those tobacco factories were mainly Cubans, Spanish, German, Italian.

So to feed those people for lunch breaks, they brought in all the ingredients for each one.

So the ham is for the Spaniards.

the pork was for the Cubans, the salami was for the Italians, and the mustard is that little German thing.

- Adam, he shaped my life.

Like, I always say, always 70% of the portion I am today extend to the man that's standing next to you.

- [Buki] Cuban heartthrob Adam San Miguel is taking Cortaditos to the next level with new locations across New Jersey.

And his nonprofit, CAALE, continues to mentor and provide scholarships to the next generation of Cuban Americans.

Melissa, I'm happy to announce, graduated with a degree in foods and science and is working on her masters.

Luisito is a sophomore this year studying global business.

And who can forget, Carlos, just a few years ago, he was in Cuba with no shoes.

Now thanks to Adam and CAALE, he's working full time for Deloitte and making his dreams come true.

Well done.

- You and your team really drew together a beautiful story from start to finish in connecting all the important pieces that was the human element, not just the the food itself, but the people's story, their suffering and thriving, their growing and the impact that we had.

So everyone appreciated it from our side, everyone.

- Can you tell 'em the story about when the person passed out?

You remember that story.

Should I, should I, let me kick it off.

All right.

So Miss Corinne, of course, is a hustler, right?

She's like, "I got catering orders, I got stuff to do."

Blah, blah, blah.

I think it's like in the summer, dead of the heat.

And then, you know, there are workers in the kitchen, they're getting their stuff done.

And one passes straight out on the floor.

Whew, gone.

Now you would think, oh my god, somebody call 911, throw some water on them.

Miss Corinne was like, "Uh-uh, we gotta go, we got a order to do."

- Put him in the corner.

- Put him inn the corner, step right over.

- And let's do this.

- And we gotta go.

We'll catch him later.

We'll check in.

Exactly.

- I'll deal with him later.

- That's right.

- That's what we do in catering.

- He made it.

He made it.

[all laughing] A lot of things that I shared with Buki, a lot of things that I went through.

I had to work harder, I had to do more.

- Twice as hard, for half the credit.

- Ah, hello.

- Exactly.

- I think everybody at this table knows what that means.

- Yeah, so that's what they did, but God has been good in spite of, you know, being in Camden, being the color I am, pretty black, but... - That's right.

That's right.

And no dinner party would be complete without a game to keep things interesting.

As all dinner party guests, we gotta keep the fun rolling.

So these are just some random, I don't even know what questions are in here.

- What something you would like to do the old-fashioned non-tech way?

Hm.

Cook.

Cook.

- Okay.

- Old fashioned, that word, the old stuff works.

- Now wait a minute now.

Like, are we talking about old fashioned, like before the KitchenAid mixer?

Before food processors?

Or, I'm appliance crazy?

- Yeah, 'cause I don't use appliances, stuff like that.

- It's true.

Cause you know, but no.

The thing is is like, but I agree, appliances can make things easier, but there are certain things that if you just do it the old school way- - Right, it's better.

- It changes, like the flavor, the flavor's totally different.

For instance, we make this thing called sweet bread.

They're like, you have to grate the coconut.

I grate that coconut by hand.

And anytime people was like, you don't just buy it in the packet?

No.

'Cause it does not taste the same.

You don't use the mixer?

- Makes a difference.

- No, 'cause it's, yeah.

Like you say, food has to be made with love.

So unless you do it that old school way, it's just not gonna come out the same.

- What does culture mean to you?

- Oh boy.

- Oh, wow.

- You wanna go back to the other one?

- I think we'll just go back to that one.

You made it harder for me.

- Let's see.

- We need hard questions.

- I mean, for me personally, culture is just the way I was brought up, the things that my parents instilled in me, not denying those things.

Like for instance, dance and music are very popular things in my culture.

Anywhere you go, dancing, food, music, always a celebration.

But because of what I do, some people have made me feel or have tried to tell me that me putting that on display is like taking away from my profession, taking away from me being able to do what I have to do.

And I'm just like, how?

You know, that's a part of me, that makes me who I am.

Regardless of me doing these things, that can never take away from my ability to do my job.

So that's what culture means to me, staying true to myself.

- You and Niurika, you, you come from places where people are trying to steal your joy.

How do you honor your culture and bring joy to the next generation?

- I am an asylum seeker.

Because we're always afraid of uncertain, you cannot easily, English is my second language.

But then being me, sometimes, because you know, there is always something that reminds you where you are.

So I learned about that saying that it's like that, because we don't know tomorrow is.

It's not like we just change the reality.

And one day you are here, the other day that you don't know.

So you have to live as if you are gonna, I mean, as if you don't know tomorrow.

Because we don't know tomorrow at all.

- There's a recognition that you have been given gifts, whatever they are.

Buki is a charismatic person.

For me, I've always had this drive to always do things, whether it's sports or whatever.

So once you know it's given, then your only job is to polish it and then at some point give it again.

For me, I think, I agree with Corinne that there's a lot of hope in the future.

We wanna bring those things further down to the young students when they're 18, 19, 20, so they can get to a place where they're thriving professionally, personally, and then at the point where they can thrive for themselves and then immediately start giving their gifts back.

That's what it's all about.

- [Corinne] Pass it on.

Pass it on.

- Correct.

- If you had to describe your culture in one or two words, how would you describe it?

- I would say tradition.

Not to poke fun at Fiddler, but you know, the passing on a tradition and history is so important in Jewish culture.

And the other word I would use is diverse.

- For me to show our culture is through the means of cooking, my sharing of my knowledge about cooking.

- Let's raise our glass one more time.

Asuka.

- [All] Asuka.

- Which means how sweet.

We ate until we couldn't take another bite, but we all left a little room for a very American sweet treat just outside by the fire pit.

This is a confession time, I've never eaten this s'more before.

- No?

- Never.

- Oh, yummy.

- Listen, we're from different cultures.

We don't do s'mores in Nigeria.

Okay?

- Oh my.

- And Charles couldn't resist passing out spiked apple cider fresh from the farm.

Well, thank you guys so much for coming.

It was a pleasure.

The conversation, the culture, the food was so good, and I can't wait to hopefully do this again.

- Yes.

- You all will come back, right?

- Yes.

- All right, so, The Table For All.

- Cheers.

- Table For All.

- Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you for coming.

What a reunion with season one OGs, Miss Corinne, Maricel, Charles, and Adam, and season two newcomers Melissa, Niurika and Shannon.

In the divisive world we live in today, it's easy to stay disconnected, but these incredible people changing the way we see each and every one of their cultures shows if you can sit down and break bread together, you'll realize through shared stories, histories, and traditions, that we're not so different after all.

So pull up a chair, because there's always room at our table for you.

Ah Miss Corinne, trying to make me sound all bougie.

Come on now.

- You're a little bougie.

You a little bougie.

- No, he's a lot, he's a lot.

[all chattering] - Lord have mercy.

- You a lot bougie.

- [Announcer] Support for "Table For All" provided by Garden State Wine Growers Association.

Visit us online or download our app and passport program to learn more about New Jersey wineries and events at newjerseywines.com.

Edible Jersey, celebrating the local food of the Garden State for 16 years.

Learn more at ediblejersey.com.