Catina Smith Says Just Call Me Chef

Kerry Diamond: Hey everyone. Welcome to Radio Cherry Bombe, the number one female focused food podcast in the universe. I'm your host, Kerry Diamond, coming to you from Brooklyn, New York. Today's guest is Catina Smith. She's a Baltimore based chef and activist and is the force behind Just Call Me Chef. As Cat describes it, Just Call Me Chef is a sisterhood of Black chefs, a professional networking organization, and an opportunity for its members to provide help and mentorship to each other. The group launched in 2018 with chefs from the Baltimore scene and ever since, Cat's been busy laying the groundwork to turn it into a national organization. We're happy chef Cat was able to join us because Cat is taking a short pause this summer because she's about to give birth to a baby boy. Wonderful news. Congratulations to Cat and her family.

Let's do some housekeeping. Thank you to Breyers CarbSmart for supporting today's show. I love those mint fudge bars. And, we have a new sponsor, Sonos. Welcome to the Bombesquad, Sonos. The folks at Sonos sent me their new Sonos Move speaker to test out, which was very exciting, so stay tuned. Also, the Radio Cherry Bombe summer tour continues next week. Our tour celebrates Padma Lakshmi's new Hulu series Taste the Nation, and we've been stopping by the city she celebrates in each episode. On Tuesday, July 7th, we're celebrating Peruvian cuisine in Paterson, New Jersey, and on Thursday, the 9th, it's sushi and poke in Honolulu. On each stop we're talking with women from the local immigrant and Indigenous communities about their culture and cuisine, and some members of the crew join us too. We've had beautiful conversations, so don't miss the last two. The events are free and take place on Zoom. You can RSVP at cherrybombe.com. Thank you to the Wines of Rioja, Resy, and American Express for supporting our tour. We'll be right back after this word from Breyers CarbSmart.

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Now, here's my conversation with Catina Smith of Just Call Me Chef.

Let's start at the beginning, so tell us what Just Call Me Chef is.

Catina Smith: So Just Call Me Chef is my baby. It's a passion project that I started about two years ago. It was just an idea to have the calendar because I was like, this will be totally cool just for camaraderie just to get some Black female chefs together and we can hang something that's kind of in your face in the commercial kitchen space showing you that Black women are here. And then I kind of dove a little deeper, wow, that's kind of superficial, but we really do need some sort of organization where we can call on each other, where we can lean on each other like a sisterhood. So that's where Just Call Me Chef was from.

All the time in the kitchen I'm usually the only Black female chef there, or just even me growing up as a kid watching Food Network not seeing myself, so I felt the need for that. So that's where Just Call Me Chef came from. It's like, you don't have to always put in front that I'm a Black woman chef because nobody knows what color the chef is when their plate comes to their table, so Just Call Me Chef.

Kerry Diamond: Do you remember the "aha" moment?

Catina Smith: And the funny thing is I actually did not come up with the name. The name came from my photographer, Daniel. I've been hosting chef meetups in Baltimore for a while, I just wanted to have a little thing where we could get together and kind of kick back and just vent about being in the industry. And he showed up one day and he's a photographer. He said, “Hey, I saw that you guys were linking up and I do food photography.” And then me and him kind of became friends organically and he offered to do the calendar for free for me. And he's like, “You need a name for this. You need a name for this." And I'm like, "What? What?" He's like, "Just Call Me Chef." I was like, that is perfect because I already had in my head this thing where we were going to get together just as Black women chefs but what is that pop name that will stick and will be catchy. And he came out with the name.

Kerry Diamond: Well, it's a brilliant name. And I remember getting the calendar, which I loved and I think you had signed it for me. And it's so funny to see how the calendar project grew. Tell everybody how many people you had in 2018 versus a year later.

Catina Smith: In the actual calendar for the 2019 calendar, we had 14 chefs in there, but I also hosted an all call for women to come in. We can just do one big group shot. And I think that was about maybe 20 or so people. And then this year I was like, we're going to go bigger. We're going to go bigger. We're going to have 100 chefs. And so I put out an all call and kind of called it the one of 100. Are you going to be one of the 100 Black women chefs? And people were coming from all over to be a part of that group shot. And so even next year I'm saying, what's better than 100. I said two. So we're going to try for 200 next summer. Hopefully all of this COVID stuff is over. I don't think we actually had 100 people there, but it was about 75 and that's pretty impressive.

Kerry Diamond: It looked like a 100. Because we ran that photo, you could barely get everyone in that frame.

Catina Smith: Oh my God. I was so excited. And it was so funny, especially for the chefs that came from far. I had someone come from Detroit, we had New York there and they were just like, "Oh my God, we're in a magazine. Just my little day trip to Baltimore ended up being in Cherry Bombe." And so I was so excited.

Kerry Diamond: And you're mostly situated in Baltimore. I know you traveled last year to Philly and to Chicago to meet people who want to be part of Just Call Me Chef, what are the plans for national growth?

Catina Smith: It's just been growing organically. People have been hitting me up from different cities saying, Hey, how can we get this going in my city? So that's pretty much how it starts. So that one person that wants to kick it off and then I kind of just run them through it, like, this is how it works. As of right now, we're taking a pause. We're restructuring because this thing just... I didn't imagine it taking off so crazy fast and I want it to be taken seriously and I want it to be done right. So we're getting the handbook together, I've created a national board. So we're kind of slowing down so we can speed up.

Kerry Diamond: You have done this totally as a passion project, you've put all your personal time into it and it's funny, I laughed when you called it your baby because—do you want to tell everybody what's going on in your personal life?

Catina Smith: I'm definitely super pregnant. And I'm supposed to be putting myself on maternity leave as of today. But I'll be doing stuff in the background because I totally handed it over to the board to do everything. You guys do the social media, you guys do everything. Please don't call me. And I'm just trying to relax so that I can have a nice delivery, stress-free.

Kerry Diamond: Well, we totally wish that for you. And this isn't your first baby.

Catina Smith: No, this is my third and final baby.

Kerry Diamond: How old are your other kids?

Catina Smith: My kids are 11 and 12 years old and they're going nuts in this house. They've been in here every day since March since they closed schools down and we're trying not to kill each other.

Kerry Diamond: Oh my gosh. And that's 11 and 12. That's a tough age, not to see their friends and not to be in school.

Catina Smith: Yeah. It's tough. I feel really bad for them. Every day, mommy, I'm bored. I'm bored. I'm bored too.

Kerry Diamond: We're all in the same boat together. So it won't be on hold for three months. You've got your board.

Catina Smith: I know. I said, you know what? I can't do this by myself. I've been trying to do every single thing by myself. I need to pick some of the strongest members and have them help me out. People are like, "Cat, you can't do it alone. You need to delegate. You need to delegate." I'm like, "You know what? You're absolutely right." I didn't want to loosen up the reigns because this was my baby but I found some women that believe in the mission as strongly as I do. So I feel completely confident.

Kerry Diamond: I'm so happy to hear that. So let's talk about what's been going on the past several weeks, the past month. I was just curious how you feel now that so many people in the food world have kind of woken up to what you've known was a problem and so many people knew.

Catina Smith: This has been a problem ever since the beginning, Kerry. And that's one of our sayings with Just Call Me Chef is we've been in the kitchen, Black women have been in the kitchen historically. And the fact that it took a death of a Black man to really shake the world is just mind boggling to me. And even still we're always in the kitchen but we're just not highlighted and I don't know why because the talent is there. We're here. We've been here. We're tired of really being in the shadows or overlooked and everything kind of being, air quotes, whitewashed or whatever. And so I'm excited that finally our voices are being amplified and our food is being taken seriously.

Kerry Diamond: Do you feel that Just call Me Chef got the attention it deserved over the past two years?

Catina Smith: I'm pretty proud of where we've come. Especially, I'm not a big name chef or anything that, this is totally grassroots. I started from the bottom and organically grew it. So I'm pretty proud of where we are but I definitely feel like I wish we had the ear of more people for sure.

Kerry Diamond: Mm-hmm. You have remarkable members. How many members do you have today?

Catina Smith: Today we have about 75.

Kerry Diamond: 75. Okay. Do you have a goal?

Catina Smith: Well, talking to the board and I was really stressing with them that is definitely about quality over quantity not about how many members we have as long as we're able to give what my vision is for the organization, which is opportunity and access. So I'm like, if we have a million members but I'm still not able to provide the access then it's for nothing. So with my 75 members, me putting it on halt and doing that groundwork behind the scenes to be able to create the opportunities, that's the goal.

Kerry Diamond: So let's talk about those opportunities. You and I have talked about that in the past. It's not just a sisterhood where you lend a hand when somebody's short staffed in the kitchen or at the event. You have been talking about scholarships and grants.

Catina Smith: Exactly. So that's what I definitely want to be able to provide. That stuff will come I know. It's about fundraising and awareness and then the funds will definitely come. But the true relationships, I mean with organizations such as yourself, I haven't met anyone... I guess Clay and Colleen over at Black Food Folks, but just really creating a relationship with James Beard and bigger organizations like that, that can really help highlight what I'm doing will be great.

Kerry Diamond: Absolutely. And you are working on a big event for next year.

Catina Smith: I am. And I'm so excited about this. This is going to be historic, Kerry. In my mind, I'm thinking three-day conference and each day it's going to be about certain topics and we'll have some cool speakers. I already have some cool speakers already lined up about different topics from food deserts to different culinary techniques, to food media, food photography, being on Food Network. How that works, life after that. So it's just going to be a whole bunch of fun workshops talking sisterhood. I can't even imagine. I'm just excited thinking about all of those Black women chefs in one space. Just the camaraderie of that alone is just going to be magical.

Kerry Diamond: I have goosebumps already. Do you have a location?

Catina Smith: I do. It's going to be at a place called Motor House. I have three locations in mind because they're all on the same street within walking distance. So I definitely, of course, got to highlight my city. So we got some cool places right within walking vicinity of each other.

Kerry Diamond: I'm super excited for you. And I know, again, you and I talked about this already, but whatever Cherry Bombe can do to help support. You were supposed to speak at Jubilee and, unfortunately, Jubilee didn't happen, but we did a virtual version. You were able to participate in that, which was wonderful. So thank you. We've read every mistake in the book when it comes to events. So whatever I can do to help you.

Catina Smith: Oh yeah, because I'm not an event planner at all. I plan to hire an event planner, but I'm definitely going to be tapping into you guys for some assistance.

Kerry Diamond: Please do. We can spare you any of the pain, that would be great.

Catina Smith: I don't want it to be huge. So I'm going to cap it, I think, about at 150, because I don't want to be publicly failing in front of too many people. So it could be intimate. I want it to be intimate. I don't want it to be one of those conferences where it's thousands of people and then you kind of miss the magic of it. So it's going to be about 150, maybe 200 max.

Kerry Diamond: You're going to have a lot of people who want to be part of this.

Catina Smith: I know. And I'm like, it's so hard to work with COVID happening because I had planned on rolling out early bird tickets in June. So I'm like, I'm mindful of people's financial situations and just companies trying to figure things out. So I haven't rolled anything out yet. So I'm trying to figure out when the right time for that will be.

Kerry Diamond: It is really tough. I mean, everything we were doing was now built around live events, the radio tour and Jubilee. And it's just, we've pivoted and we're doing our digital events and we're back on tour again, which has been nice. We had, air quotes, again, a Charleston stop and New York City. And last night we did San Francisco and it's all based around Padma Lakshmi's new TV show, Taste the Nation. It's wonderful and I'm so appreciative that folks come out, but it is so hard to replace the in person.

Catina Smith: It is, it's not the same at all. I'm kind of tired of it to be truly honest. I'm like, "Oh, my God, I've never had so many Zoom meetings in my life." I'm tired of staring at my computer I just want to hug somebody.

Kerry Diamond: I know. And you have two kids at home. So they're doing all the remote learning. But not totally over it, you have a program that you're doing next week. Want to tell us about that?

Catina Smith: I'm on the board for The Food Project. So The Food Project is a nonprofit organization that helps the youth in Southwest Baltimore, in the 21223 zip code, which is the poorest zip code in Baltimore. So pretty much helping out inner city youth and it's not all about food. Every day we have a different kind of specialty. So Monday's cooking with Cat, Tuesday is mental health, Wednesday's science or something like that. So it's like a cool after school program. As well as the kids have created their own products called CD Nutty. And it's kind of like a granola and they've actually been picked up by Oriole Stadium and other little small locations in Under Armour.

They have a contract with Under Armour so they're able to hire the youth and it's youth run. So it's pretty cool. And so I've been working with a scientist, Dr. Nina. She works with public health and she pulled all the strings together to put together a grant for us so that we can teach the kids a cooking program, healthy eating. So I'm going to kick that off hopefully next Monday. And so I have my curriculum all out for them. We're going to do some knife skills, sanitation and all that jazz. So I'm excited.

Kerry Diamond: Oh, that's great. Are your kids good cooks?

Catina Smith: My daughter is, my son's not into it at all.

Kerry Diamond: But when he has a mother who's a chef.

Catina Smith: And that's the thing, I told him he hurt my feelings the other day because I'm like, "I'm always cooking for you with love and all you want is McDonald's."

Kerry Diamond: Oh no.

Catina Smith: I know. But my daughter loves it. She's always in the kitchen. Mommy, I'm going to make some pancakes. I'm going to make some cupcakes from scratch. She's on Google looking at recipes and makes it happen.

Kerry Diamond: I love that. It's been really nice seeing how many kids have learned how to cook. That's one of the, I guess, one of the few bright spots of what's been going on is how many of them have discovered a love for cooking.

Don't go away. We'll be right back after this word from Sonos Move.

Not only is Sonos the sponsor for today's podcast, they graciously sent me their new premium Sonos Move speaker to test out. I'm very excited because I love listening to music or podcasts when I'm cooking or cleaning in my apartment. But I haven't had a proper speaker setup in ages. I just played everything through my phone, not the worst, but definitely not the best. So anyway, I got my Sonos Move, charged it, downloaded the Sonos app and set everything up in about five minutes. I turned on one of my playlists via the Sonos app and the Move filled my kitchen with beautiful sound. I'd forgotten how a great speaker can make music sounds so mind blowing.

Some other cool things about Sonos Move, well, it's called Move because it's cordless and once it's charged, you can easily move it around your house or apartment, whether you're baking in your kitchen, grilling outside, or taking a break in the bathtub, Sonos Move can hang out with you making sure you're surrounded by gorgeous sound. Sonos Move is even waterproof and drop resistant. How about that? And the design is great. Visit sonos.com to learn more.

Back to my conversation with Catina Smith of Just Call Me Chef. So Cat, let's talk about how you became a chef.

Catina Smith: How I became a chef. It all started in high school really. I mean, I always loved cooking I always loved watching Food Network and I never, I guess, put two and two together until about senior year when everybody was picking majors and where they're going to college. And I had absolutely no clue and I was freaking out. I'm like, "What am I going to do?" And I was like, "You know what? I love cooking. I think that's a thing. I think that's a job." And so I said, I'm going to go to culinary school. And so I went to culinary school straight out of high school and I've made so many detours and I'm glad I found my way back. While I was in culinary school, actually, they had the military there set up a table for career day and they were selling me this whole dream about how I'm going to be cooking fancy foods for generals and the president.

I was like, "Oh, that's amazing." I'm a Navy brat anyway so I was like, "Okay. That's cool." And so I went ahead and joined the military and I still am in the Air Force reserves 15 years later and never cooked for a president or general. I detoured into working for government because when you're in the armed services it comes along with security clearances and all that fun stuff. So I said, "Oh, more money over here. I'm going to do that." But then I said, "You know what? My true love is cooking and that's where I need to be." And I was working in D.C. for army corps engineers where I just said, "You know what? I don't pack up my bag." And my friend had sent me an email, Hey, do you want this line cook job making $13 an hour?

And I'm sitting here looking at my government salary, I can't believe I'm about to walk away from this money but I'm going to do it because I'm unhappy. I love to cook and that's what I'm meant to do. So I did it. I made that leap of faith.

Kerry Diamond: And right now you're a private chef, right?

Catina Smith: I am a private chef. I do have a 9 to 5 where I work for a catering company, Copper Kitchen, which is pretty amazing here in Baltimore. But I've worked about everywhere, in every crevice of culinary. So school institutions, hotel, restaurant, catering. I realized that production cooking definitely isn't my niche. I'll do it to get my check, but I love intimate situations, hosting dinner parties, cooking at homes. And so I think that's what my true love is.

Kerry Diamond: Have you had to... I mean, obviously you have, but how have you rethought your business in light of COVID?

Catina Smith: Mostly I've been working on Just Call Me Chef stuff, but now I'm also saying, coming out of this, I don't think that I really truly want to go back to my 9 to 5 job and I've been building my Chef Cat website, the things that I'm going to be able to offer. So I've been hosting a dinner party pre-COVID called 3 Pedals where I run it almost like a restaurant where you have a menu to pick your selections from, two seatings of ten people and you'll have a three course meal. And I had a sommelier and a pastry chef here with me and I'm going to continue to do that when outside opens up again, as well as I have private chef clients. And then I would do small catering here or there. So I'll continue to do those things.

Kerry Diamond: And do you have a specialty or specialties?

Catina Smith: Not really. And I felt bad about that because people always ask you that question. But I'm like, "No. You know what? I'm not really in a box and I feel like I can make anything." And while the COVID has been going on, I've been consistently doing lives on Monday and I've been trying to touch each cuisine so people can see how well versed I am.

Kerry Diamond: You've been on IG Live a lot.

Catina Smith: I know. I was like, well at least people can see that I really do cook because for a while I was just posting pictures, cute selfies, little kid pictures. But I'm like, no, I really do do this for a living so let me take advantage and show you guys that I'm actually doing this. You know how people will label you, you're going to Instagram chef or whatever. I said, no, I actually can cook so let me show you guys.

Kerry Diamond: Well also, you've been so busy on Just Call Me Chef.

Catina Smith: Definitely. I want to pour 100% of myself into that so it's successful.

Kerry Diamond: Are you working toward the day where that would be your full time job?

Catina Smith: I do see the day. I think the day's already here. I've been talking with my fiancé and just, I don't think I want to go back to work. And he said, you know what? I support you 100% on that. So that's why I've been diligently working on this website and sliding in people's DMs, sending emails out to people, potential clients and to organizations on how we can partner and work together. So I think that might be the plan sooner than later.

Kerry Diamond: So let's talk about that. I mean, if folks go to the Just Call Me Chef website, they can see that there are different ways that they can support or join the organization.

Catina Smith: Right. So for membership, there are three levels. So it's the culinarian level, which is like the student level, sous chef, and executive chef and then you get more benefits as you go up in the levels. But right now we're restructuring it. So what's up there and I think I actually took that off the website and said open enrollment is coming soon. So all that is kind of changing, but you can also donate there and you can sign up for the newsletter, which I'm working on to get out hopefully in the next two days on the stuff that we're working on. So for July, there are a couple of, you know how they have national food days, there are a lot of national beverage related days. So I said, Oh, this will be a cool time to highlight women in beverage during July and it's culinary arts appreciation month. So we're going to be doing some fun stuff with that.

Kerry Diamond: We just launched a Cherry Bombe Drinks. I don't know if you saw that?

Catina Smith: I know. I think that's pretty cool. And I had put out the idea of Just Call Me Chef Black beverage. So that would be a cool little collab there Kerry, I'm just planting a little seed, but I think that would be pretty cool. Yesterday was an event called Private Chef Week, and I was able to talk with Capri. She's a bartender, and I need to do a little more research about her, but I asked her, would she be a part of it and she said, yes. So that's pretty cool. I just love how we're able, virtually, to make friends and how we can help each other out. I think that's pretty cool, what's going on.

Kerry Diamond: That is a nice part of it. I will say that much. You also have merch on your site.

Catina Smith: We have bracelets. I have patches for members. So I helped them grow that too, because that's going to be one of our, I guess, our big moneymakers to help fund the organization is our merchandise.

Kerry Diamond: No, that'll be fun. How is Baltimore doing through all of this? I know all the big cities have been really just hit so hard and the restaurant scenes are struggling.

Catina Smith: Yes. I've seen a lot of friends close their doors permanently, which is heartbreaking. But then the other day I posted, what's your COVID come up? And some people are doing really well because people are so bored, but they're still hungry, they're tired of cooking. At first, everybody was excited to cook dinner every day and then they're like, all right, we're over it. So they're back to ordering food like crazy. And some of the Black owned business were already in situations for takeout, you know what I mean? A lot of Black owned businesses aren't the sit down nice restaurants, they're takeout. And so they are making all the money. And even Amanda, just walking her through opening up her spot, it was just so crazy but she finally got it opened and her line is already down the block as soon as she opens. Yes. I'm so proud of her.

Kerry Diamond: We're talking again about Amanda Mack who has Crust by Mack and she just opened her new space in Baltimore.

Catina Smith: Yes. And it's so beautiful inside of Whitehall Mill. So I just love the support that she's getting. So that's pretty cool. But Baltimore has been crazy, the rioting, the protest, but that part has slowed down. But as of recently, I don't know if you saw the article about the restaurant group, Atlas Group here. So there was a Black family that came into one of their restaurants, Ouzo Bay, and the manager told them that the boy couldn't eat there because he was in athletic apparel.

Then the mother pointed out that there was a white boy with the same, basically, same outfit on. And these kids are under 12 years old and he had nothing to say for himself. And she recorded it with her phone and posted it and it went viral. And then it just kind of set the city on fire. But we already been talking about Atlas Group and their crazy behavior before with their dress codes. You can tell it was racially geared because it said stuff like, Oh no baggy pants, no backwards hats or something that. Who are you talking to? Really, who are you talking to? We know who you're talking to you.

Kerry Diamond: I mean, it's so outrageous. And what do they expect a child to wear for God's sakes.

Catina Smith: Exactly. Even Cindy Wolf posted her disdain for that. And she has no dress code and their Charleston is one of the nicest restaurants in the city and no dress code at all. I was just dining in there the other day, I was dressed casually nice but then I saw some other people in there and they had on basketball jersey, whatever. And she's like, “Hey, that's fine with me.”

Kerry Diamond: Has that restaurant group done anything to make amends?

Catina Smith: Oh my gosh, they've put out fake halfhearted apologies and I'm just not for it. But they put out two apologies and they said they took the dress code away from two of their restaurants. I'm like, why not all of them? And the one where I was telling you about earlier about the no hat and baggy pants, that's a crab house.

Kerry Diamond: People just aren't going to support these restaurants anymore.

Catina Smith: No, not at all.

Kerry Diamond: And the people who do support them are not the kind of people you should want as clients.

Catina Smith: Exactly. But the thing is too and what I'm scared of is this whole movement, it becoming trendy. And all of my Black friends have seen an influx in followers and that kind of thing. And I'm just like, is this truly genuine? You know what I mean? Do you really support me or are you just trying to make yourself feel good? And that's the issue that I'm having is, is it sincere?

Kerry Diamond: People just have to be committed to continuing to do the work. So Cat, let's talk about some positive things that could come out of this moment. We want the Bombesquad to support Just Call Me Chef however they can, whether it's with donations, if you are out there and you work for a company of means, look into supporting Cat and her conference next year, but just bigger picture, between COVID and everything that's revealed and the protests and the Black Lives Matter movement, what would you like to see come out of all of this?

Catina Smith: I would like to just see more of our faces in places where we usually aren't. Even Food Network, I think they're trying to do some work, but we've been looking at the same six white people for the past two decades or plus. Just diversifying things and being open to situations and not us being a trend like I said, looking on people's social media. And helping the cause and not just because, Oh, well, status quo or anything like that, but just truly believing in us.

Kerry Diamond: Cat, you've been remarkable. You've been such a good friend to Cherry Bombe and it's been great getting to know you and I think what you're doing is awesome. And I hope you get a really beautiful break and just have the easiest labor and delivery.

Catina Smith: I pray so, I pray so. So that's the only big picture ask, but as far as Just Call Me Chef, I want this conference to be historic. People put validation on who you're associated with. If we were to able to get some cool people behind us supporting this conference, that would be absolutely amazing.

Kerry Diamond: Well, knowing you, you're going to make it happen.

Catina Smith: Thank you, Kerry. I appreciate you so much.

Kerry Diamond: And I appreciate you Cat. Thank you for everything you do for your community, for the Bombesquad and for the food world at large. If you'd like to support Catina's work, visit justcallmechef.co. You can donate, check out their merch or sign up for open enrollment, which is coming soon. Speaking of cats, Radio Cherry Bombe is edited by Kat Garelli. Our theme song is All Fired Up by the band Tralala. Hang in there everybody. And thank you for listening. You are The Bombe.

When Harry Met Sally Clip: I'll have when she's having.

Tracey Tisdale-Richardson: Hi. My name is Tracey Tisdale-Richardson, co-founder and CEO of Lillie's of Charleston in Charleston, South Carolina, producer of specialty hot sauces, barbecue sauces, and spice mixes. Do you want to know who I think is The Bombe? Kardea Brown, Food Network host of Delicious Miss Brown hailing from Edisto Island. Kardea is doing a wonderful job of bringing attention to our Gullah culture. When in Charleston, you're tasting Gullah dishes passed down from generation to generation. Family is a core element for our culture. Thank you Kardea for bringing Gullah culture to a national stage.