Reagan said, Hey, guys, but guess what?

We've got a chance.

He was my fraternity circle of about 200 people.

Hospice communities of healthy environments.

Trust me, she lived in Traficant for four years.

I really felt for a lot of reasons I felt, but I didn't have the guts to stand.

If you are a fan of the great American recipe on PBS, your appetite is about to be satisfied.

This edition of Conversations, we are joined by season two winner Brad Malouf and finalist Salma Hack and Liana here, the great American Recipe is a competitive cooking show that allows home cooks to take a shot at culinary stardom.

Here is the show's host, Alejandro Ramos, on a past edition of Conversations.

very joyful, uplifting cooking competition that'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, right?

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 right here.

Born somewhere.

You go to school somewhere else.

You marry into one another family, another culture.

Every region has its dish that they're proud of.

And so all of these things make a part of our food story.

And it's not like this is American food and everything else is other.

Now, 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 ten 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 the 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 they are.

It's like they help each other out.

It's very it's very warm.

It really is all about family.

And they become a family throughout the process of the competition to the from season two with the great American recipe.

We welcome from Norcross, Georgia.

Liana here from Orlando, Florida, Selma hack and the winner of season two from New York City, New York and maybe somewhere else along the Sunshine State these days.

Brad Malouf.

Thank you all for joining us.

Thank you for having us.

I mentioned New York and I say you're also now kind of.

Yeah, there's so much time between New York and Miami.

So welcome to Florida.

Snowbird, Snowbird, deal.

Oh, thank you all so much for joining us and welcome welcome into the program.

Tell me how how did how did the show come about as far as your participation in it?

Yeah, I think I think we all had a similar experience where we got DM'd on Instagram or our social media is and it was a casting person and they're like, Hey, we think you'd be a great fit for the show.

And I think we kind of all felt like this is totally a scam.

And so at least for me, I didn't even respond for the first three messages until finally I responded and started to engage them.

Still very skeptical until finally it's a good call.

And I'm like, Oh, this is legit.

And it was such so off my radar to do anything in reality TV, a cooking show, anything like that.

But, you know, it worked out.

And then I think because we're all so we each hosted a different food blog on Instagram.

We're on social media as well, too, focusing on our traditional cultural foods from what we knew, recipes growing up from our families.

And we highlight a lot of that through our foods.

I think that's what really attracted those casting agents to reach out to each of us.

And I think we just you know, mind maybe not so much focused on just beige and food.

I think mine is more every day, you know, working mom, wife.

And so my food is kind of all over the place.

It tracks what's on sale.

What do my kids feel like eating right now?

What do I have time for?

So I think you get a little bit of difference across the three of us that reflects different things across America.

So you were chronicling all of this on very social media platform and you were just more or less discovered.

Yeah, exactly.

Oh, okay.

Good deal.

Well, what was it like once they said, okay, we were interested?

Did you have to audition?

Did you have to I mean, with the recipe or.

Oh, yeah.

We had a lot of conversations that started with rounds of interviews.

We had interviews and conversations with different producers and casting agents.

And then with each conversation we had, the duration of those conversations started to get longer and longer.

And then every time we talked about it, we highlighted a recipe or an ingredient.

We then sampled or sent over like a photo or a recipe.

So it was like, Yes, we can cook.

We, you know, elaborated about the story, the background of this ingredient, this dish.

But then we also sent a photo of it and wrote a recipe behind it as well, too.

So our conversations kind of turned into somewhat of an audition, but I think it started initially with them just trying to get an understanding of Who are you?

Yeah, why?

Why do you like food?

What's your story?

Where where's your family from?

What are you doing today when you're not cooking?

Just really trying to get a sense of who we are and then from there.

Okay, So now tell me a little bit about your passion for cooking and what type of food.

But I think initially it was just trying to get a feel for personality and kind of what makes us tick.

And I think one thing that was so special about the show is I think the casting director did such a good job because all of us got along so well.

And like the way we bonded, I think like it was just like a perfect science.

However, they cast us.

So, you know, it worked out really.

Whatever they did, it worked well.

Well, it really did.

I mean, there was a lot of chemistry there, but the vibe that I personally got off the show, it did just seem like it kind of like Alejandro mentioned that everybody was friendly family and more or less rooting for for everyone else.

And oftentimes you don't get that in if you want to call it reality television or other even other cooking shows.

So so it was great from that standpoint.

But let me you kind of teed up a question for me.

So so tell me, who are you outside of cooking?

So.

Well, you know, I am originally from New York.

I was born in Manhattan, raised in the Bronx, moved down to Atlanta.

So I've been there since 2005, went for college, stayed for law school, got married.

So I'm a wife, I'm a mom.

I have a five month old.

I was pregnant when the show was filming.

Nobody knew.

Wow.

So congratulations.

Thank you.

I've got a baby girl at home and a 16 year old bonus son and a fabulous husband and I just.

I don't know, just a girl from the Bronx just living the dream, I guess.

I love it.

How about you, Brett?

So I'm a nice Jewish boy from New York City, born in New York, and then I grew up in New Jersey and then after college, back to New York and primarily work in real estate development and have a strong passion for home cooking and representing my culture through food.

And I think it was during the pandemic when I started to blog and and kind of record the things I did, the food I cooked and then and now.

Now I'm here as the winner of the show and figuring out how do I want to do something more professionally in food or not.

And we'll see in some and I I'm originally from New York, born and raised in Queens, and I moved to Orlando in 2005 after I got married.

So I am my husband.

I would marry for 18 years and I have two teenagers, but by profession I am a project manager for a software company and I'm also an event coordinator.

And I started my blog on Instagram, similar to Brad too, during quarantine during the pandemic.

And it was really I wanted to champion and be somewhat of an ambassador for Guyanese cuisine because a lot of times when people ask the question to me, Where are you from, it turns into an entire history lesson.

So using food as that vessel to introduce myself and really educate others on where I am from that part of the world and how I've settled here into the United States with that.

And then a lot of the culture cuisine that was taught down to me from, you know, my mom and my grandmother.

A lot of the food taught me a lot about my culture.

So just really being that ambassador for Guyanese cuisine will expand on that.

Tell us where you're from.

So well, for any reason.

New York Well, my parents, yeah, yeah.

My parents are from a country called Guyana, which is the only English speaking country in South America.

And it was actually colonized the from the British through the indentured servitude system.

You know, when the British had brought initially, they had brought Indian and Chinese there as Portuguese Africans that have all settled into Guyana.

And our food reflects the entire cultural diversity that makes up the population of Guyana.

So you'll find a lot of influence from, you know, African food.

You'll have we have a lot of Indian and Portuguese with.

So it's an Indo-Chinese.

There's a lot of our on our menu items like Charmin.

We have curries of different, you know, diversity, some vegetable curries to meat curries and then just like the root vegetables as well too, we make something called cook up rice, which is some like that in Barbados too.

So it's and there's a lot of seafood and fish.

So a lot of that history that was brought through that indentured servitude is reflected in that food.

And I didn't realize that until, like my parents started talking about it when we would eat certain things they would tell you about, like why they would cook it.

What was the reasoning behind this?

That was the only access to the ingredients.

And then they were trying to preserve from their ancestry through this food.

And I'll give each one of you to kind of talk about your culture and how it plays into what you do in the kitchen.

So Brad, tell us.

So my is my dad's side is from Libya and Libya to Israel, and my mom's side is from Europe.

You're Ashkenazi Jewish and so kind of like encompassing all the all the Jewish heritages.

But specifically on the show, I wanted to represent my Libyan heritage because there's no Jews left in Libya.

And really what was once such a thriving, beautiful culture is now just kind of memories of the past.

And so I really wanted to take the opportunity to memorialize these recipes and kind of make my mark to to, you know, remember such a beautiful, rich culture and, and yeah.

LEAH And so both of my parents are from Barbados, so I am first generation American and some of the show, the recipes I make on the show, absolutely, they are directly from my beach and heritage.

But I think for me, growing up in New York City, it gave me at a very early age an appreciation for different cultures and different cuisines because they're just so accessible.

There are plenty of places in America where there isn't necessarily a booming international market, and New York is so unique in being able to go to like Little Italy and Chinatown and go to a traditional Irish pub or a British public.

They're just so many different cultural enclaves.

And I think my cooking more than necessarily being a reflection just of my Asian heritage, it's a reflection of that combined with my New York upbringing and my travels.

And so everywhere that I go, I try and find a local dish, something that is special or unique to that place.

And when I get home, I try and recreate it and make it one of my family favorites.

So interesting and interesting.

What is did you guys kind of when you first met Exchange, you know, or testing each other's food out of it, so to speak of it?

I wish we would have gotten to do more like actual teaching, but we definitely sized up each other's.

Yeah, it's like kind of feeling where the similarities with Spice we might use that are similar.

They're not similar.

And so definitely we were curious to more of the kitchen after each cook and we were it was plated.

We would all just like leave our stations and run to each other and be like, Oh my God, I can't believe that looks so good.

And it was, you know, truly forgetting that we were in a competition because we were just throwing compliments towards each other.

But you find your people.

And I think that speaks to the camaraderie that you were talking about.

You saw amongst the contestants.

You know, when you find other people who truly enjoy food and not just the actual taste of it, like everybody likes to eat, right.

But I mean, the actual preparation and the sourcing of ingredients, like I could take a picture and say, Guys, I found this perfect tomato and they're going be like, Oh, I think people would be like, okay, a tomato, but they get it right.

So you find your people who are truly excited about food in the same way that you are.

And I think that's part of what makes the show special and why it's maybe not as conflict driven as other competition shows.

Exactly.

I mean, you could definitely tell there was competition, but again, you hit the nail on the head.

It wasn't like a conflict or it wasn't mean.

It was spirited, warm, respectful competition.

You can do well without necessarily wanting the other person to do that.

And that, I think, is where we all are.

We we want so much from each other as well, too, just in the different cuisine, the spices.

I mean, we all there's a lot of things that we have in similar in terms of like ingredients and spices.

So it was nice to see how another culture will incorporate that or adding it to another dish.

So, you know, taking away those ideas as well, too.

I think that was also one part that I really did enjoy, and I found that for us, as being home cooks do, a lot of our cooking was like grounded in gratitude, just like the gratitude of like sourcing the ingredients, having the gratitude of why we're preparing this meal, who we're preparing it.

So there's a lot of intention behind the meals that we were cooking and preparing in that kitchen.

I talked to people that like to cook and they say it's relaxing.

But I mean, well, for me, you know, I think it depends.

Yeah.

Because I will say that there are some days that I will close my laptop and my my family can attest test this.

I'm like, What are we having for dinner?

Where do you guys want to food from?

So I think things like I think it's relaxing generally, but I think we can all agree there are certain times, particularly holiday holidays, which is one where you have people you really I think any time you're hosting a large number of people beyond your kind of immediate family or whoever lives in your home, I think it takes on a heightened pressure, right, just to be a host, because it's not just about the preparation of the food and making sure that everything tastes good, but you also want people to be comfortable in your home, right?

You want them to be relaxed.

You want to make sure that you're spending time with them, that you're not spending all your time in the kitchen, that you're getting to have those conversations and make those memories.

And so it's a it's a balancing act.

It's definitely a balance.

And I said relaxing and maybe that was a bad choice of words.

I guess maybe it's therapeutic.

So yeah, yeah.

And especially if you're not having to worry about the ancillary stuff, as it were.

And I think even if you're stressed during the actual cook, there's, there is a nursing kind of like spiritual feeling of like I'm feeding other people.

And so I think that's at least for me, that's, that's what drives it for me where it's not it's less about the enjoyment of the actual chopping of vegetables and putting it in the stove.

But, but like the end result of, like seeing people kind of all gather around and enjoy a meal together.

And I think that's that's really kind of like what Liana said.

You, we found our people.

It's just like I think other people will look at us and be like, I cannot believe you're taking on this like task of hosting, you know, 50 beyond people and like, actually, you know, orchestrating an entire dinner party from, like, start to finish with everything from like table scapes to like plate settings.

We sometimes, yeah, we find the joy in that.

And I mean, I think it's an Olympic for us.

There also has to be something to be said for seeing a completed project.

Yes.

I mean, in today's world we spend so much time on, you know, sisters and whether it's nice to see something that you've, for lack of a better term, you've built you've built a beautiful meal.

And exactly.

It's the creativity.

So beyond it being therapeutic, I think for me, you know, being an attorney and what I do day to day, having to be so incredibly precise and in certain spaces, you know, depending on what I'm working on, the stakes are very high and they're very significant.

And there are people who could be harmed, whether it's financially not, you know, physically, but in the kitchen, if something doesn't come out the way I want, what's the worst that happens?

We ought to take out we go out for dinner.

You know, no one's going to lose any money.

No one's going to jail.

Like, okay, so we have some takeout and we try it again another day.

I make some tweaks and we do it again, right?

And so I think there is something that is refreshing about using a different side of my brain in a different way is definitely a form of expression.

Yeah, And especially we kind of work our regular jobs and we come home and be able to create these elaborate things.

And I think as home cooks, we don't really follow recipes for the most part.

And so we're just throwing our souls into this food and kind of improvising.

And sometimes it comes out great and sometimes not so much.

And that's that's kind of part of the beauty of it.

It's the trial and error.

And our families are the guinea pigs and the taste testers are very gracious guinea pig.

They are.

So your inspiration, your parents primarily, or somebody's grandmother?

I mean, I mean, yes, you know, that's what that's what inspired me and kind of drew me to the kitchen and helped me to, like, stay engaged and like, learn about the history and the stories behind it.

Culturally, I feel like, you know, for for West Indian girls especially, they are included into that kitchen conversation.

So from an early age, we are taught to do certain techniques in the kitchen, taught to make certain meals, and then it kind of grows as you mature on and then you're able to like hold your own in the kitchen.

So I think what kept me in there was the stories around it and understanding the history and then wanting to preserve that culture for my children as well too, and passing that along.

I think for me, without question, my paternal grandmother and my mother, my inspiration, full stop.

However, I am definitely influenced by other cultures and my travels, and so I've seen how my food has changed.

Even just moving to the south, something as simple as on the show I made chicken and waffles at that is not a dish that I grew up eating.

Right.

You can't come to Atlanta and go to brunch and not find chicken and waffles on a menu.

Right?

So I've seen how just where I live and where I travel, how it's impacted the types of dishes that I cook.

But at its core, everything for me comes back to my mom and my grandma for sure.

And for me, definitely my mom.

My mom's always work like crazy, but also it would make these beautiful meals for us.

And my grandmother, who has 16 children and would cook these massive meals for her 16 kids and all their spouses and the grandkids.

And and so just seeing like the amount of work, but also the amount of love that, you know, my mom and my grandmother and now all my aunts and put into all this all these meals, it was just like, hey, I want to do that, too.

And do it better than everyone else.

But I never drive right.

Well, in the in the in the show's finale.

So I'll paraphrase here a little bit and you guys feel free to jump in.

But but essentially you are given you have to make a meal, right?

And you have 3 hours to do it.

Okay.

And it's an entree and some sides and dessert.

Okay.

So let me I want to get you to kind of run and oh, by the way, and this is the fun part.

You get to have someone come in and help you.

Yes.

Okay.

So you have your friend Jackie.

Yeah.

Okay.

You have your mom and you have your husband.

Yes.

Now I have a question that every husband and wife out there is asking if my wife and I would in the kitchen together, we would be calling her for legal counsel.

So I think.

How did you pull it?

There were some because I'm a very I'm a project manager, so very like Type A, especially very strategic when it comes to myself in the kitchen, especially knowing that this is the finale.

So there might have been a few moments.

So I just want to give you which of you.

I'm Addison's for recording.

I publicly apologized.

I am sorry, but I did get a little, you know, into the heat of the moment.

But yes, we did maintain ourselves.

I mean, name and I, we've we've known each other for years, so we work well together.

Just knowing that personality and having the comfort level of each other.

I think we found our rhythm and we brought that to the kitchen.

So it was very much a great help.

And one of my favorite parts, I shouldn't give this away because I want people to watch it, but nonetheless they should be able to watch it, appreciate it.

So somebody goes, You're on fire.

Yeah.

Oh my God, tell us that story.

So the moment it happened, I knew I was like, Oh, God, this going to go on TV?

Okay, so first of all, let's back it up in the barn.

There are these massive fans.

Yes.

Okay.

So we have gas.

Those which I haven't had a gas stove since I left New York.

Everywhere I've lived in Atlanta, I've actually had an electric stove.

And so there's this breeze and the flame doesn't always stay exactly under the pot.

So here I am, frying planted.

And if you fry plantain regularly, you know, there's a lot of oil that comes off.

So at home, I like to line my plates with paper towel to help absorb some of that excess oil.

So you're not like, biting into this just oil dripping thing.

So my napkin got a little too close to the blowing of the flame.

And so when the judges like landing on fire, like, I know I'm crushing it and they're like, No, no, no, you're literally on fire.

I'm like, Oh, I'm just get my water bottle.

We didn't we didn't have sinks on our in our station.

So it was a fire like, oh, shoot, what do I do?

Yeah, luckily I had a water bottle, so I just put it out before the pyro guy could get there.

And it became a whole thing.

It looked a lot like I am convinced.

First of all, it lasted all of 3 seconds.

I'm convinced they looped it to make it look a way more dramatic.

But it was but, you know, whatever inspired that in the editing, that kind of thing.

Yeah, it was great.

Well, without again, without giving everything away, but just talk a little bit about what you made and what your process was for for the finale, because you had 3 hours to do it.

Very involved situation.

It was involved.

So I actually made pepper pot, which is the national dish of Guyana, and I wanted to end and, you know, my finale dish to be something that is not represented on TV because really, do you ever see somebody of Chinese descent on television?

I mean, much less like on a cooking show, a brown Muslim woman in hijab.

So I really wanted to represent every single platform that I stand on.

So I made pepper pot, which is a beef stew, and it's made from the main ingredient.

It's called Taser, which is indigenous to Guyana.

So it is the when you boil down the cassava, it produces this sauce called casserole.

And that's what I use for the beef.

I baked fresh bread and I also made cassava pone.

So that was my entree, my side dish and my dessert.

Awesome.

Awesome.

Brad, tell us about you know, for mine, I made my firm, which is a meat stuffed vegetable, what you fry and then brace for hours.

And my firm is the crown jewel of Libyan cuisine.

And growing up, it would be something we'd always look forward to.

But my mom, who's like a neat freak, would never let us make it in the house because it's the frying and the all the process.

So it'll only be like a very special occasion thing.

But luckily with my mom on the show, she was a trooper and see and she's like, This is not my kitchen.

I don't care.

And she's like, do it.

And it was it was great to be able to represent, you know, like the crown jewel of Libyan Libyan food for the finale.

And then I made a fake upside down cake for dessert.

And I'm not a baker at all.

So I'm like, what could I make that I could maybe sort of scrap together and make it somewhat appetizing and and it was challenging and it wasn't it wasn't perfect, but it was good enough.

It was delicious.

I got for someone who likes things that look really good, and the only thing I was just wondering, I was going to ask you this.

Could I throw some ice cream on it versus the whip?

Oh, for sure.

If I knew how to make ice cream, I would have, because I'm thinking that would be really good use of ice cream.

Yep.

So for the finale, I wanted to go full scale Caribbean, and so I chose oxtail, even though that's typically associated with Jamaica, even though it's made in the US South and all throughout the Caribbean.

But it's my husband's favorite.

It is not a three hour dish.

It usually takes me.

I actually started the night before, so it was a very ambitious choice, but it's his favorite and I made it with rice, with pigeon peas.

My mom loves to cook with pigeon peas, with some fried plantain.

And I also did sweet bread, which is a coconut bread that is from Barbados.

I grew up eating it with my mom and I also made a sorrel drink.

It's a celebratory drink in the Caribbean, usually for the holidays.

And I felt like this finale, regardless of what the outcome was, I really wanted to take a moment to celebrate where we were in the moment and how far we had come.

And so a celebratory drink just felt right and it was delicious.

Oh, it's good.

I'm getting short on time here.

I've about 2 minutes left.

I want the audience to be able to continue to track you guys down.

And so tell me, on social media where you are and what various platforms you're on so you can find me just about on every platform.

Facebook, Pinterest, Tik Tok, everything is at Mrs. Island Breeze That's MRSA, so you can find me there.

My blog is WW w that this is island breeze dot com really easy.

Great And mine's super simple it's cook with Brad and I'm on Instagram I have cook with bread dot com where I post recipes and I'm also on Tik tok and stuff and I don't use too often this I'm just not great with it but check out go Instagram and the vlog and simply buy my name, sell my hack and you can find me on Instagram where I post recipes and then I have on my website as well to sell my hacked account and my recipes are on there as well.

And then of course, all of our recipes are published in the Great American Recipe Cookbook Obvs.

You can also find us there as well too.

And again, I've got about 30 seconds here.

I mean, you sort of mentioned it.

I mean, are you thinking now maybe looking to doing this on a more outside of the home?

I mean, is that something you're kicking around?

I'm sure definitely something I'm going around with looking at now that the baby's here, you're trying to get back into the swing of doing more videos and things like that, putting out more content and hopefully doing more things like this.

Just finding my tribe and talking about food.

And that's a great thing about social media in the way we are today is is you can you can definitely do what you're talking about.

You find your niche and go, right, well, thank you.

It was a pleasure to spend some time with you guys and congrats elections on your success with the show and I wish you continued success with all your social media, blogs and any other endeavors that you may pursue in the future.

So thank you so very much.

Thank you for having me.

Thank you for having us.

It's absolutely our pleasure.

By the way, you can watch the great American recipe as well as this show and many more of our conversations on the PBS video app.

And you can also catch conversations with Sara Dawg slash conversations.

I'm Jeff Weeks.

Thank you so very much for watching.

I hope you enjoyed the program.

Take wonderful care of yourself.

I will see you soon.