Nyesha Arrington transcript
Kerry Diamond:
Hi, everyone. You are listening to a special Radio Cherry Bombe miniseries called Hey Hey, L.A. I'm your host, Kerry Diamond. I'm the founder and editor of Cherry Bombe magazine, and each week I talk to the most interesting women in and around the world of food. For this miniseries, I've talked to three creatives putting their own mark on the Los Angeles culinary scene. Today is episode three, and I am chatting with Nyesha Arrington, chef and TV personality.
Nyesha is a much loved force on the L.A. scene. She grew up in a multicultural household and fell in love with food at a young age. She got her start at a Taco Bell and went onto culinary school, jobs in fine dining and eventually running her own restaurants. The late great Los Angeles restaurant critic Jonathan Gold was a fan, as were many in this city. Today, Nyesha is one of the stars of the Gordon Ramsay show, Next Level Chef, which you can watch on Hulu. She is a centered, self-aware human who I've learned a lot from, and you will too. I'm so honored I had the opportunity to chat with her. Stay tuned for my talk with Nyesha Arrington.
Our Hey Hey, L.A. miniseries is presented by Square. Millions of sellers across the globe trust Square to power their business. I have a feeling most of you have seen Square in action at farmer's markets, bakeshops and cafes, but Square today is so much more than a payments company. Square is helping restaurant operators run nearly every part of their restaurants with powerful tech that keeps the front and back of house in sync. And that's all kinds of restaurants, quick service, full service, fast casual, bars and breweries, even ghost kitchens. Square wants to give you the power to drive sales, streamline your kitchen, gain insights to help you make better decisions and keep customers coming back with loyalty and marketing programs. If you need help and want to take your restaurant business to the next level, it's time to talk to a Square restaurant specialist to learn how Square can help you. Visit squareup.com/restaurants to learn more. We'll share that link in our show notes. Get in touch with Square and get yourself out of the weeds. Again, that's squareup.com/restaurants.
Now, let's check in with today's guest. Nyesha Arrington, welcome to Radio Cherry Bombe
Nyesha Arrington:
Thank you for having me, Kerry. So happy to be here.
Kerry Diamond:
So happy to be talking to you. This is a thrill because we hadn't seen each other in person since, I think we figured out 2017.
Nyesha Arrington:
Holy crap.
Kerry Diamond:
At a Barnes & Noble for our book tour. Yeah.
Nyesha Arrington:
Wow.
Kerry Diamond:
And you're gracious enough to come do the panel with us.
Nyesha Arrington:
I think that was literally one of the first panels I ever did. I was so grateful to be there and just everything that Cherry Bombe is about and it's just such an amazing, comfortable, beautiful, robust conversation.
Kerry Diamond:
I remember when you walked in, you had a hat on.
Nyesha Arrington:
Yes.
Kerry Diamond:
You were so stylish and you just looked so L.A. to me.
Nyesha Arrington:
Oh, cute.
Kerry Diamond:
As a native New Yorker to a native Los Angelian.
Nyesha Arrington:
Yes. Yes, makes sense. I would say my style's very eclectic. Comfort comes first.
Kerry Diamond:
Really?
Nyesha Arrington:
I mean, no, I'm not.
Kerry Diamond:
You're usually so stylish.
Nyesha Arrington:
Yeah, that actually is a complete lie. No, I am definitely an athleisure person. I have no problem styling an athleisure moment. But yeah, I love a hat. I have a sundress on today. I'm very much into style for sure.
Kerry Diamond:
You're looking very L.A. today.
Nyesha Arrington:
Thanks.
Kerry Diamond:
I love it. What's the Hong Kong story?
Nyesha Arrington:
What's the Hong Kong story? Well, my cadence of work for the last few years definitely since you and I have connected, has been essentially traveling and making dinners and cooking, what I call them dinner experiences across the world. Last year, I had the opportunity to go to Bali and I did an amazing, amazing, actually did three pop-up dinners there. One was a lunch, two were dinners. One was a panel discussion with the matriarchs of Bali, listening and learning and growing with them and them sharing their matriarch stories and how precious and important it is for them to preserve recipes. In Indonesia, they say a lot of the culture is, it's passing down the technique firsthand, making the food with people and not as many cookbooks has prevalent there. So they talked about the importance of that for preservation of heritage.
I had the opportunity to do a dinner in Jamaica, which was incredible. I had never been, and it was just pure joy. I feel like me as a chef, my superpower ultimately in my lens and how I view being a chef is celebrating the terroir of where I am and implementing what techniques I've learned and also what story do I want to tell in that dish. And so for me, those elements, the sort of medium at play is my French fine dining culinary background, my African American heritage, my L.A. heritage, some influence from my Korean heritage. Being able to be in Jamaica and understanding what the terroir of the land is there and I kind of put all that in a mason jar and shake it up and make a little six course meal out of it, and it's super cool. And then I learn and get to weave that into my tapestry and bring back something that is fascinating to me that I learned about.
Doing that in Morocco, having the opportunity to travel for two weeks in Morocco and going to the markets and just seeing, I almost said how simple a life can be. I think ultimately different parts of the world operate differently for different reasons. What I mean by the simplicity is that, Kerry, I got to sit in essentially a cave that was handmade, literally just mortar, that was crafted by the matriarchs of the family, sat next to this beautiful weathered woman with such soulful energy and eyes, and I watched her make this beautiful bread on live fire and a wood burning, beautiful clay oven. There were zero stainless steel, zero electricity, all live fire, all just harnessing the sources. They had built this amazing, incredible property and land, and they're just living there. They use donkeys to get up and down the mountain. It was a trek to get in. Just having the opportunity to sit and drink tea and how ceremonious that was.
And she didn't know I was a chef. It wasn't really my place to come in and say, "I am a chef." I'm there as a conduit and I love learning and I will constantly be a student of life. But to sit next to her, and she kind of looked at me and she was like, she's older. I looked at her and I was like, "Can I relieve you? May I take your place?" And she chuckled and then I was like, "No, you know, I will also... " She motioned for me to come over and I sat on the little stool in front of the fire, blazing hot. I literally think my eyelashes melted off and we made the bread together. By the third time, she tapped me on the back and she sat in the corner and she told the rest of her matriarchs in the family, the aunts and grandmothers and the mothers in Moroccan, she said, "This girl is good. She knows what she's doing." So it was a badge of honor, and I live for those moments because it brings joy to my soul.
Kerry Diamond:
You have built such an interesting life for yourself, and you are part of this new generation of nomadic chefs who have such different lives from chefs past, and we will talk all about that.
Nyesha Arrington:
I just got chills.
Kerry Diamond:
You really have. It's fascinating. I'm sitting here listening to you talk about all those experiences and just hoping you're writing it all down because what an interesting memoir...
Nyesha Arrington:
100%.
Kerry Diamond:
... that will make one day.
Nyesha Arrington:
Yeah, 100%.
Kerry Diamond:
We'll talk about cookbook. We have a lot to talk about. Let's go back to the beginning, baby Nyesha here in Los Angeles. So you are native of Los Angeles. You are a child of two distinct cultures. Tell us a little bit about that.
Nyesha Arrington:
I am, yeah. I am part of the homo sapien race of planet Earth. It's interesting coming up, I didn't really know I was coming from two backgrounds. You just have a family and you operate within that family and you're a kid on the earth. Until I was about, I would say five years old, is when I started to understand the power of food. When I would go to my aunt's house on my dad's side, who are Creole, Mississippi roots. Born in Los Angeles, but the lineage comes from past Christian Mississippi. Then going to my grandmother's house on my mom's side, which had a really heavy hand in raising me and helping shape me as a kid. And then feeling like, I remember going there and thinking like, I feel like I stepped into a different world, seeing the glass jars of fermented food and eating spicy things. I've talked about this multiple times, but the idea of eating octopus and that at the time was such an interesting mouth feel flavor, and I can remember it like it was yesterday.
So I truly feel like those formidable moments forever ingrained in me what I want to incite in other people. What a robust sort of terroir to draw from as an Angeleno, to have these multicultural kind of components in my upbringing, spending thanksgiving with my aunt and eating her incredible mac and cheese and making memories with my cousin, throwing the football around and then going to my grandmother's house and she would pull me into the kitchen and we would learn how to make all these incredible "foreign" flavors to me. I just remember the spice and I loved it. It was fiery and it would hurt my mouth, but it was so delicious. I just couldn't get enough. And I remember those moments as a kid.
Kerry Diamond:
You had a good palate as a kid.
Nyesha Arrington:
I did. I'm so glad you said that actually. And it's interesting because my brain actually is just very much constructed. And what I've learned to harness over time, I'm a very right brain artist oriented person, and I know that because in hindsight, when I was a kid, I remember finding a banana now and later in the back of my grandmother's car and I ate it, and it had been essentially sun kissed. It was warm. I remember specifically that experience like, "Wow, this is different than opening up the package and eating it." I remember that that texture, that temperature, that artificial flavor and those things as a kid, they registered in my mind and created food data.
Along the journey, along the path, those small blips of information that I started to understand over time as a kid for sure transcended into my adolescent and adult life. Post five years old, going into teenager life, I would play restaurant and I would have my friends over and I would make soups all the time. That was my thing.
Kerry Diamond:
Homemade?
Nyesha Arrington:
Yes.
Kerry Diamond:
Wow.
Nyesha Arrington:
And it was really simple because I have this infatuation with noodles. In hindsight, literally, they were just literally spaghetti noodles, just basic grocery store, not hand pulled, anything like that. But I would take that, I would boil it. I would literally just put water, soy sauce, sesame oil, and it was just the most delicious, simple broth, and I would put my noodles in it and I would crush that, and I felt so empowered. I was like, "I made my little lunch." And I would do that.
It's funny, I was always infatuated with the idea of cooking that literally you could create something out of your brain. You can literally think it, it doesn't exist, intangible, and then you put some elements together and you hold it and then it nurtures your soul and it has so much legacy and meaning in it. It just spoke to my artist's brain and I'd always painted, sculpted, done all these creative things, but they live on a wall. The thing about food is it gets to live in your soul and tell a story. When I was thinking about what do I want to do with my life, for sure, I knew I wanted to do something that is impactful.
Kerry Diamond:
When did you know you wanted to be a chef?
Nyesha Arrington:
Nyesha today would look back on her life and say it was definitely predestined. But there are definitely some bullet points along in the roadmap of the journey. I remember literally standing in my parents' kitchen, my home kitchen, growing up house kitchen, standing in that kitchen and thinking about these ideas of like... This is such a funny story because you know when you're in your parents' car and you're in the backseat and you're just driving around, I would always look at restaurants and be like, "Wow, that place is really busy. That place isn't busy, I wonder why. Oh, they should do this or do that." As a kid.
Kerry Diamond:
As a kid.
Nyesha Arrington:
As a kid. True story. And so I remember standing in the kitchen with my parents and I looked at my dad and I just said my thoughts. And I was like, "You know, dad, you know what would be really cool is to have a restaurant that changes. What if one day it's like Mediterranean and the next day it's Middle Eastern, next day it's like Ethiopian." I didn't say those exact genres of cuisine, but my point was that why does it have to be the same? And that's just like the kid mentality of just dream big. And the funny thing is, the first time that I was able to cook for my dad at my chef's table in my restaurant, Leona, in 2014, first restaurant I ever opened. I come from a very humble, I wouldn't have known that we were probably struggling, blue collar family. Tasting menus and opulent dining was just not a thing.
The first time I cooked for my dad, he sat at that chef's table and he looked up at me. He was the only person at the counter. It was a late night, and he looked at me and he was in disbelief, and he said, "Nyesha, you did the thing that you said you were going to do when you were a kid." It was such a freaking powerful moment. The tear came out of my eye. It was probably equal parts exhaustion from running the restaurant and just pure elation. I mean, just so meaningful, so impactful. And my dad is my best friend. He's such an artist brain, he's a musician, he's a writer. I think when people can tap into their why and actualize these things, it's just incredible.
So sharing that moment with my dad as a kid in the kitchen and then actually standing in my first restaurant, I would say in the professional life, the moment I knew that I belonged on the line was actually at "my first" real job. I was in high school and I was like, "Oh, you know, I'm 17. I'll try like get a job." And so I went to this really prestigious place. It's called Taco Bell, and I didn't go on the line first. So I started out as a cashier, and I just felt so freaking proud to have a job. I've always been like that. I've always been very just focused, always just thinking about what's next, what's exciting, wanting to dive in two feet first to the human experience. I've always been like that. So I was so proud to put on my uniform and wear my little hat, and I was at the cashier thing, crushed that.
Within a few months, I was on the line, which I was so freaking excited about because every time I was dealing with customers, I would just be finding the most amount of downtime to train and just go hang out and watch the cooks. It was a short amount of time, and I ended up being on the line and I was leading the line. Only little lady on the line. I was in high school, and I just knew Kerry. I knew that was it. I love the adrenaline of service, and it translated into my fine dining yards.
Kerry Diamond:
I love that story because fast food workers do not get the respect.
Nyesha Arrington:
100%. And it is a production for sure, just like any other restaurant.
Kerry Diamond:
They give you some clarity too.
Nyesha Arrington:
Absolutely. I was like, "Oh, no, this is it." It's funny because that was senior year in high school, and then I graduated and I still didn't put the two together. I think things were percolating, and I was like, "Okay, cool. This is amazing. I love this." but I honestly didn't know that you can still love something and it could be your job, technically. I still didn't get those two together. So I had that summer off and I was hanging with a buddy and I was like, oh, where have you been all summer, gone. I'm in culinary school. And my mind exploded. I was like, "Oh my gosh, that is a thing? You can like literally... " And this whole time I was the kid who's like running home from school to watch Great Chefs, PBS. I would watch all the old school things.
Finally, I put two and two together. Not finally, it was three months after I graduated high school, but I was like, "What are we going to do with my life?" And it was very important to me that I always wanted to do something that would make me feel like I wasn't working a day in my life.
Ultimately, we're here to enjoy ourselves. We should be. Yes, it's going to be hard and trials and tribulations, and we're on a rollercoaster, and you have good days and you have bad days. But ultimately, I think we are all fairly capable of creating that dream and actualizing that dream.
Kerry Diamond:
So you go to culinary school here in Los Angeles. Tell us which school.
Nyesha Arrington:
Yeah. Graduated high school in the year 2000. It was called at the time, the Art Institute of California. And then I think it became the Art Institute of Los Angeles in Santa Monica where I currently live, yeah, 20 plus years ago, which is crazy. I loved it. I'm telling you, the first day that I walked into that classroom to continue my education, I sat directly in the first row, front row. Chef Chapman spoke to me. He started talking about... I don't want to get emotional Because he passed away not too long ago, and he was such a beautiful speaker. He was a war veteran. Just this weathered face, stark blue eyes and so freaking passionate about stock and sauce making and in turn made me very passionate about stock and sauce making because I understood how much of a fundamental element of cooking that it is when people say that, "je ne sais quoi" Or, "What is that taste?" Or, "How come my plate can't be as delicious as this restaurant food?"
Most likely it's in the stock. Before any of the food even hit the plate, that spent hours, days at times becoming delicious in its own thing, and then transformed and translated into that plate. And so to be able to celebrate that with that chef, literally a ton of bricks hit me and I was like, "I want to know everything."
Kerry Diamond:
Let's take a quick break and we'll be right back.
Jessie Sheehan:
Hi, peeps. My name is Jessie Sheehan and I'm the host of She's My Cherry Pie, the Baking podcast from The Cherry Bombe Podcast Network and the number one baking pod in the U.S. Each week, I interview the top bakers and pastry chefs around and do a deep dive into one of their signature bakes. We go through their recipes and discover the tips, tricks, ingredients, and tools that make all the difference. Pros like Claire Saffitz, Claudia Fleming, Joanne Chang, Dorie Greenspan, and Amanda Mack. Chat with me about tarts, pie dough, hand pies, sticky buns, cream puffs and more. Give a listen wherever you get your podcasts and get ready for some delicious inspiration. New episodes drop on Saturdays. You can also sign up for the She's My Cherry Pie newsletter at cherrybombe.com. Get the details on our latest episodes, news from the bakery and pastry world and our cake of the week.
Kerry Diamond:
Now, back to our guest. There's a lot of debate about whether young people interested in a culinary path should even go to culinary school today, mostly because of the cost. I'm sure a lot of young people ask you if they should do that or not. What do you tell them?
Nyesha Arrington:
Wonderful question. Yeah, you know-
Kerry Diamond:
Because you had a good experience. Not everyone had a good experience.
Nyesha Arrington:
I did. I did have a good experience, and I would say it is because I knew I wanted to be a chef. I would say. I imagine there's different ways people receive information. Some people like to be in the action and do and learn tangibly. Some people are analytic brains and they read and they are able to process and understand information and all the gray areas in between. It depends on how people learn.
I think if you can walk into a kitchen and you just get it and you have a great mentor, then that's one way of learning. I think ultimately, the transfer of the knowledge is the skill. That's the message that is trying to be translated. Culinary schools have packaged it up, put into a business and say, "Hey, we offer this." And hired culinary instructors, and it was a great experience. I'm definitely still paying off my student loans.
Kerry Diamond:
You are?
Nyesha Arrington:
Yes. I put myself through culinary school. Yeah, I haven't made a dent in them, and I don't know what to do about that, but-
Kerry Diamond:
Taco Bell, you need to pay off those student loans.
Nyesha Arrington:
Let's go Taco Bell.
Kerry Diamond:
I think you should go do some motivational speaking at Taco Bell.
Nyesha Arrington:
Totally. So I think it's pretty-
Kerry Diamond:
You'd be great motivational speaker. Do you do it?
Nyesha Arrington:
Kerry, I've always seen that for myself. Growing up, listening to Oprah, even like Tony Robbins, I always felt and saw myself on that stage because I really think people can actualize their dreams. And it started with my dad. I don't think he really got an opportunity to actualize his dream. He's such a creative, incredible hero. He takes care of my mom every day who's had a stroke, cares for her, works full time. He's 64, still waking up, going to work 40 plus hours a week every day, and doesn't complain. The kind of guy that would give an aunt his last bite of food and just such an intelligent, universal thinker. I attribute a lot of who I am to both of my parents respectfully. But my dad is just my best bud, and I still have this vision that one day I'll be able to retire him and then he'll just be able to live his best life and offer all the things to the world that I get to see.
Kerry Diamond:
That's going to happen. I sense it. I almost burst into tears as soon as you said you wanted to... This is something you've thought about because even though we're talking so much about food, one of the main reasons I wanted to talk to you today was because we were having a conversation. I think we were talking on the phone a few weeks ago, and you had just worked out and you're talking about a few other things you were doing to take care of yourself. And I was like, "Oh, Nyesha, I'm so impressed that you do this." And you were like, "No, this is part of who I am. Taking care of myself is part of who I am." And I was like, "Oh gosh, we've got to talk about this." Because personally, I feel like I can benefit from that mindset.
Nyesha Arrington:
Love it.
Kerry Diamond:
And I'm sure a lot of our listeners can. Culinary school, you got on the fine dining path. You worked for people like the Joel Robuchon organization. You went to Vegas, you come back to L.A., I'm telling your story for you. And then like you said, you did have your own restaurants. You had Leona and you had Native, it's still in your blood. I know that you have expressed your desire to still have a restaurant.
Nyesha Arrington:
Yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
Restaurants are tough, man, once they get into your blood.
Nyesha Arrington:
Yeah, it takes a certain special type of understanding, I think. And it's been a journey to understand what it is to even be a restaurant owner. And at its core, restaurants are meant to be a place of respite and rejuvenation and a community and all of these beautiful things that happen to go along with the creative brain of the person who's driving it. And that is a team in itself. So my first one I opened in 2014. Second one I opened 2018, I believe. What a learning experience and what a time that I freaking wasn't taking care of myself, for sure. Not in the best ways possible. They were exciting and very different parallels of experience. The first one just felt very light and lovely and family and all the things. The second one felt a little harder and arduous and more difficult to get that creative entity flowing and getting that flow state it. I find it more difficult.
I think ultimately having both of those experiences and through that cadence of the journey, it has shown me and taught me a lot of things about myself and accountability and how you're showing up for the team. I think that is why I'm so into taking care of myself now because I think you have to be coming from this place to be able to pour from a full cup, to give, right? You're giving all day long to your team, to the guests, to your purveyors, to your dishwashers, to your pottery makers, everything. You have to be able to find the joy in that every single day and build a team around you that supports that. There's no secret sauce, but I think that's just the recipe to have longevity.
Kerry Diamond:
Well, people loved what you were doing.
Nyesha Arrington:
They did.
Kerry Diamond:
Jonathan Gold.
Nyesha Arrington:
He wrote about it twice.
Kerry Diamond:
The late food critic out here in Los Angeles. He said incredible things about your restaurant. Tell us what he said.
Nyesha Arrington:
Incredible things. The relationship with Jonathan Gold is a special one. The first time I met him was at a book signing. I went to watch a speaker speak and he happened to be there, and my friend introduced me and he goes, "Oh, this is Chef Nyesha Arrington." And he looks at me and goes, "Oh yeah, I know who she is." My heart fluttered. I was like, "Oh my God, he knows who I am?" And he's so special and such an incredible voice that will span a lifetime of legacies to come.
A second time I had the opportunity to sit with him was on a farm, and we broke bread together and I sat next to his amazing family, his son, his wife, Lori. I was so excited. We had a conversation about technique and can a chef own a technique. And we talked about, for example, like the Robuchon potato, that is a technique, but it is a chef also. Just this beautiful dialogue that happened under the sunset and Virgilio, the chef from Peru was cooking and it was just incredible, beautiful setting. And so in 2014, he came to my restaurant and he was like, "Oh, finally, she opens a restaurant." And I'd been on this deferred gratification path because I truly enjoy the journey. I intentionally went to kitchens, I staunch, I worked for free for a long times in these hot intense kitchens.
I went to garmache, I went to entremet, passilet, traditional hierarchy of the brigade and worked my way up and enjoyed every bit of it, as arduous as it was. When I finally opened my place, he said, one of my dishes, he likened it to something that he would find on a Dan Barber menu. He's like, "You used everything." I draw a lot of my inspiration from the farmer's market, but this beautiful squash, whole baked squash, and it had this tapioca risotto. For me, that's essential California cuisine. It hits these notes. It's nostalgic, it's comforting. It happens to be gluten-free, but I'm not shoving that message down the throat to people. This idea of the texture of the tapioca was incredible. I learned that from Robuchon.
I think that's really what's beautiful is I get to become this conduit collection and my tapestry is unique to me. And so I always try to approach that and get in that flow state to share that with people. And so he wrote about my dish. He said it looked like a still life Dutch painting. I was like, I can't even. He understood everything I was trying to convey in that dish, Kerry. It's making me tear up because he became my muse. Being able to write about music, he understood the undertones, the high hat, the baseline, he got it, the texture and all those things and how they play together.
And then he came to Native, and I remember specifically, I had this off the menu, beautiful Dungeness crab, and I just cooked for him, which generally he's going to want to eat things off the menu, which he did. But I just felt inclined to share this beautiful crab that the fisherman had plucked out of the water. I paired this beautiful sherry. We had a little talk about it. He's like, "Ah, I don't know." "Mr. Gold." He was like, "That was one of the most beautiful bites that I ever had and that pairing and the beauty behind that." And I'll never forget that. I'll never forget when I tasted and sipped and it just elate. It just sent in the movie Ratatouille and he's sitting at the table and just stars and glitter comes out of your brain. I live for those moments. One of the last restaurants he wrote about for his untimely passing was mine. The last sentence was, "Chef Nyesha's food tastes like Los Angeles." That for me, it bookend. Incredible.
Kerry Diamond:
You almost want to retire after things like that.
Nyesha Arrington:
Absolutely. Are you kidding me? It feels really good to be seen and understood and heard when that's not always the case. So for him to understand where I'm coming from is beautiful.
Kerry Diamond:
You also have done the world of food television in a big way. You're on Top Chef season nine. You are on a show right now that's very special to you because it's about mentors and mentees. Want to tell us a little bit about it?
Nyesha Arrington:
Yeah, I'd love to. Yeah, what a journey. 2012 is when I did Top Chef, that was my first TV debut, and I was like, I have no idea what I'm doing.
Kerry Diamond:
And you've done so much in between the two things. I mean, you'll tell us about the new one, but Chopped, so many appearances. I mean, you've got the TV thing down.
Nyesha Arrington:
Yes. I mean, it's been fun. It's been a fun journey. Yeah, so currently airing is a beautiful, incredible show that is, I cannot say... This could be a four-part series, and I could talk about one entire episode of that series about Next Level Chef because it's literally my dream, because it's rooted in mentorship and I wholeheartedly believe that some of the doors that were open for me dictated my journey. So in these competitions, when I can be next to the chef and help them think some ideas through and say, "Oh, that needs a acid or a touch of salt," and think about that, those little drops of knowledge that help blossom and open the doors to their brain and things that they haven't explored, it is so freaking powerful to see that in real time.
And selfishly, it's cool because I really like being competitive in the kitchen. I've done a lot of cooking competitions, not against other people in the competitive sense, but against myself. I came up in martial arts. I've came up in the fine dining scene. I put those two together. I feel like it's the same. You kind of become this swift to Jedi in the kitchen when you have 30 minutes, 45 minutes or whatever time increment it is, and you have to execute. It is such a test of your discipline. I love it. I love the show because I get to be in it with them, but it's really their competition to win. It's set in sort of teams. And so the three mentors/judges, we get teams and they fight and they fight to be the Next Level Chef. It is amazing.
I'll say what is really cool is to see the bond between them and the level of professionalism against these chefs and the level of professionalism that these chefs have. It is so inspiring. And what is really cool about this show is that before I feel like when I was doing cooking competitions, it was like only the professional chefs were doing them. Now, we've seen the new age and the progressive ideas around social media and home cooks. So it really is incredible to see this sort of leveled playing field at play, right? Because there's three levels to the competition. Literally, there's a basement kitchen, there's a middle kitchen, there's a top kitchen. Home cooks, professional chefs and social media chefs all kind of cook their dishes and based off of how they do, they get placed in different kitchens. So they literally have to fight their way to the top, and it is so powerful.
Kerry Diamond:
You've been in the industry long enough that you've seen so much change, not just in restaurants, in TV shows, I'm thinking of the early Top Chefs. They're not what they are today. And a lot of the food programs with chefs, it was about yelling at them, not mentoring them. You've really seen this industry change in dramatic ways. So much has changed not just in the past decade, but in the past few years because of the pandemic and you really see how restaurants have changed here in Los Angeles. I was curious, will your next restaurant be very different from your previous two? Forget about the restaurants you learned in going back, more traditional French restaurants, brigade systems, things like that. What would your restaurant be like today?
Nyesha Arrington:
I think that for me, I think that people want to feel something, they want an experience. And so I think gone are the days where it's just the four walls and people come in and they pay the check and they leave. I think for me, what I want to leave is a beautiful food data for people to reflect on at different times in their life and to be a stopping point of the journey of that farmer, the journey of that cook, who put that dish together with me, the essence, the vibe, the music, the service, the water. Everything is an experience with intention. Then I think one, you put all those things together with the travels and that tapestry at play, that is invaluable. So the more that I can harness and celebrate that is sort of the core of the ideas of what I'm thinking.
The beautiful thing that's really empowering coming out of the age of dictatorship, a lot more people I think want to feel that they have equity and that it is equitable for everyone in the business, and I think that's really what people want, because I think post pandemic, we saw that people aren't as willing. For me, when I was coming up, I was going in five hours before my shift. I was staying three hours after just because those things had to get done. It was a different time, and it's not as prevalent. It's not as prevalent to see that archetype of human today, and I think it's a good thing. I think it goes along with the idea of just being well also. And for me, I came up in that one foot in old school mentality, one foot in new school too.
I was that surly line cook at times in my life, 20, 30 years old. I read the Anthony Bourdain book and I was like, "This is the lifestyle for me. I am a pirate." I am a line cook, and that's all I care about. And it served me some ways well because whatever, I did have to check my soul at the door sometimes, get through the day. It was just a different time, just gritty.
Kerry Diamond:
Did you get messed with less because of that mentality?
Nyesha Arrington:
I don't want to paint this picture like it was like, "Oh my God, it was so hard. It was the worst." It was just what it was. I think for me, all I ever cared about Kerry was freaking killing it. Every service I was like, doesn't matter, nothing mattered, and I don't know. I immediately fell in love with the lifestyle, the energy of a restaurant, and I just saw it. Like The Matrix, when he understands the code, everything just made sense to me and I think it's because of my brain and how I'm wired. There's so many things happening at once. It's almost like you have to harness and slow down time and I think that is a certain mindset and it's a certain person that gets that.
Kerry Diamond:
I want to talk about taking care of yourself, and you talked about that. You brought up the word equity. I think that's going to be our word for the next 10 years in so many ways. Tell us how you take care of yourself and how you got on this path.
Nyesha Arrington:
I had started out with making a lot of mistakes, staying out late, waking up early, running on fumes, probably not being the most coherent sound mind when you're dehydrated, when you're sleep-deprived, when you're not putting good things in your body. So it's like for me, late 2018, going into '19, I was like, I don't like the way I feel. I've always been a very performance person, performance based person. I played team sports growing up. I've done all the things, played softball, soccer, martial arts, and then when I started cooking, slowly those things dissipated. I remember specifically actually, I joined this gym and it was this particular group of ladies and they were all CEOs and bosses, and it was the first time that I saw incredible, strong women that I didn't see. I was always surrounded by men and it's not to naysay men. I just didn't see that.
So that was number one empowering to me. We would lift weights and run and do all the things and support each other. We became this amazing network, and it just was the fuel for me to set off on this journey. I started doing ice baths and I started just going in this rabbit hole, how to control your nervous system, what to eat, how to put things in your body to optimize your performance in the gym and train. Then it was like, "Oh, I'm not working out, I'm training." And it's like I'm not training for anything specific, but I do love the dopamine and the serotonin that my body could naturally create. I have everything I need in me, so to be able to wake up early and be excited about it, get sunlight in my eyes, set my circadian rhythm, go to bed, no TV.
I listen to binaural beats, so it controls your brain waves and these delta brain wave functions. And to be able to listen to the binaural beats and set that rhythm in my mind as I sleep and being able to just wake up and feel good, it is in my power. And water was a huge one. Being intentional with drinking water and what I'm putting in my body and I don't have any intention to go back. In the success of a future restaurant, that's going to be very important for me.
Kerry Diamond:
There aren't a lot of restaurants that combine all that.
Nyesha Arrington:
No, there's not. And I think it has to because it's been the opposite way for a long time. It was a different lifestyle back then, and I think now people are a lot more open to talk about wellness and mental health and all these things that were not celebrated in the kitchens. We had to be soldiers, pirates, just performers. I think the opposite side of that can turn out great things.
Kerry Diamond:
You've given us so much food for thought.
Nyesha Arrington:
Thank you.
Kerry Diamond:
Let's do a little speed round.
Nyesha Arrington:
Okay.
Kerry Diamond:
Fave cookbook.
Nyesha Arrington:
Wow, favorite cookbook?
Kerry Diamond:
A favorite. I know chefs don't have...
Nyesha Arrington:
A favorite anything?
Kerry Diamond:
A favorite, yeah.
Nyesha Arrington:
Yeah. I would say my favorite book is Kitchen Confidential. I'm literally looking at my bookshelf in my mind right now.
Kerry Diamond:
Kitchen Confidential is a good one. Still a great book.
Nyesha Arrington:
Yeah, it is. Really powerful time piece.
Kerry Diamond:
I should have started with coffee or tea. Since you take care of yourself, I'm curious what you start the day with.
Nyesha Arrington:
As much as I want to say tea, I do enjoy a coffee. I'm a cold brew in the morning girl these days, but I really enjoy the art of tea.
Kerry Diamond:
Favorite kitchen tool.
Nyesha Arrington:
I'm going to say a spoon. I'm a freaking spoon girl. I have a collection of different spoons throughout my career. I love a microplane moment. I think microplanes do a lot, from grating ginger to garlic to zesting and all kinds of stuff. I love a microplane and I would say a wood cutting board. I'm not a fan of not working on a large piece of beautiful Boos Block. That is going to set the stage for an amazing meal.
Kerry Diamond:
How do you clean it? Because I'm making the speed round, not a speed round now, because I have a plastic one and I know I shouldn't.
Nyesha Arrington:
Yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
How do you clean the wooden ones?
Nyesha Arrington:
Yeah. I mean, so I'll break out plastic if I'm cutting raw chicken and I'll put that on top of my woodcutting board, but with the wood ones, you can even wash them, sanitize them. Just a beautiful disinfectant. And the most important thing is let it dry. You don't want it to mildew. So standing it upright.
Kerry Diamond:
Favorite food movie.
Nyesha Arrington:
Ratatouille.
Kerry Diamond:
I thought you were going to say that.
Nyesha Arrington:
It is.
Kerry Diamond:
Childhood snack.
Nyesha Arrington:
Childhood snack, believe it or not, I ate a lot of toast. I was a big toast girl. It's literally Wonder Bread, literally toasted, and I was very specific how I liked the butter. It had to be room temperature. And I remember the day I told my mom that, she was like, "Okay, like, who are you?" I was like, "No, the viscosity, you want to keep it creamy. You can't put the butter when the toast is too hot because then it's melt, then it's just basically oil."
Kerry Diamond:
Since we're in Los Angeles, what are you streaming right now?
Nyesha Arrington:
The last thing I watched thoroughly was The Last of Us.
Kerry Diamond:
That was a tough one.
Nyesha Arrington:
Oh my God, I was literally watching it and I was like, I had to get up and turn all the lights on in my apartment. I got really nervous. Secondly, The Bear. I really enjoyed that. Cried so many tears.
Kerry Diamond:
Second season coming soon.
Nyesha Arrington:
I can't wait. I literally couldn't even deal like. I could maybe watch a half an episode a night because it was so emotional for me.
Kerry Diamond:
Yeah, same. I think I made it up to maybe episode three and I just had to shut my laptop because I just started crying uncontrollably.
Nyesha Arrington:
Yeah, literally, same.
Kerry Diamond:
Yeah. Very much looking forward to season two though.
Nyesha Arrington:
Same.
Kerry Diamond:
Footwear of choice in the kitchen.
Nyesha Arrington:
Non-slip Vans.
Kerry Diamond:
Oh, so L.A.
Nyesha Arrington:
I used to be wood clogs all day long, which I still have, I still rock. I have these amazing non-slip Vans, and they are a vibe, they're stylish, they're great.
Kerry Diamond:
Do you have motto or mantra that gets you through the day?
Nyesha Arrington:
Wow. Yeah. My goal is to make food that hugs the soul.
Kerry Diamond:
And if you had to be trapped on a desert island with one food celebrity, who would it be and why?
Nyesha Arrington:
Wow, food celebrity?
Kerry Diamond:
Mm-hmm.
Nyesha Arrington:
Probably Gordon Ramsay. He's amazing.
Kerry Diamond:
Your co-star.
Nyesha Arrington:
He's amazing. Talk about someone who was put on this planet to like... He just has that mindset. He could have done anything in this world and been successful at it, but in my experience, I have learned so freaking much from him. We both worked for Robuchon. He's awesome. He's just a very dynamic, performance driven person. He's incredible.
Kerry Diamond:
Who would do all the cooking on the island?
Nyesha Arrington:
I would cook. I would. He deserves it.
Kerry Diamond:
Nyesha, thank you so much for all your time today. You really are the Bombe.
Nyesha Arrington:
Thank you. Means a lot to me.
Kerry Diamond:
That's it for today's show. Thank you for listening to our miniseries, Hey Hey, L.A., presented by Square. Big thanks to our friends at Square for their support. If you didn't catch our first two episodes, you can go back and listen to my chats with Bricia Lopez of Guelaguetza restaurant, and the Asada cookbook, and with Jenn Harris, food columnist for the Los Angeles Times. I so enjoyed talking to all of them and getting to know the L.A. scene a little better. If you are a regular listener or you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe to Radio Cherry Bombe via your favorite podcast platform. Don't miss a single episode. Radio Cherry Bombe is a production of The Cherry Bombe Podcast Network. Our theme song is by the band Tralala. Joseph Hazan is studio engineer at Newsstand Studios at Rockefeller Center. Our producer is Catherine Baker, and our associate producer is Jenna Sadhu. Thanks to you for listening. You are the Bombe.