A lot of us go for food that makes us feel like 'home' when we're eating it. Chloe Aiello sat down with celebrity chef Alisa Reynolds who traveled the world in her new TV series Searching for Soul Food to understand the real meaning of soul food. 



<div class="block">A lot of us go for food that makes us feel like &#39;home&#39; when we&#39;re eating it. Chloe Aiello sat down with celebrity chef Alisa Reynolds who traveled the world in her new TV series <i>Searching for Soul Food</i> to understand the real meaning of soul food. </div>

Wake Up With Cheddar

Celebrity Chef Alisa Reynolds Talks 'Searching for Soul Food' 

And Good morning everyone on this Tuesday, I'm Baker and I'm a lot of us go for food that makes us feel like home when we're eating it. Well, Chloe, I sat down with celebrity chef Alisa Reynolds who traveled the world in her new series. Searching for soul food to get the real meaning of soul food. Chloe has more. Celebrity chef. Alisa Reynolds is known for her southern cooking shops as well as her unique take on comfort food. Her restaurant, my two cents is a favorite among many including music legend Stevie Wonder himself. Now, Alisa is venturing out into the world to figure out what soul food means for around the globe in a new hulu series, searching for soul food. And I'm joined here at the Chicken in New York City with none other. The celebrity chef Alisa Reynolds herself. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for having me, Chloe. This is great. I am so excited to talk about soul food. So let's start broad here. What is soul food, soul food to me in one word love. It's that grandmother's house. It's that family. It's um it's about being creative when there's not much to, to, to create, it's about um survival. It's about compassion, soul food to me is a feeling less than an specific ingredient. So, wow, it makes me feel joy. It makes you feel joy. You know, I'm joyful just thinking about it. Honestly. I know. I know. And we're gonna be eating in the next segment. So, yeah. Yeah. Can't wait. Let's talk about searching for soul food. So you travel all around the world, Mississippi, Appalachia, L A, Peru Jamaica Italy to talk about what soul food means to all these cultures. Now, in some cases, these places are thousands of miles apart. Why unites these cuisines history? There are things in history that are similar. Another definition of soul food is to me is the, is the line that connects us all through history. We've from whatever reason, food always travels and gets connected without having to say one word. So I think that that's kind of what encompasses soul and that's why you'll find it around the world. These beautiful stories of creativity, ingenuity, struggle, love. Absolutely. And here in the US, of course, soul food is pretty synonymous with the South. And your series starts off in Mississippi. What was the significance behind that decision? Uh Mississippi is kind of like where I start. Uh My family still has our 40 acres. Um Yeah, it's not all there. We sold some, but we still have it and I just wanted to dive into, you know who I was as a person and as chef cooking soul food and kind of what it meant because the word soul, where did that come from and what that means? But what what that means. But what happens is when I started to travel, we kept coming back to this love as the center of it. And so it's a part of the American fabric and it's this love fabric. Now, I don't wanna spoil the show here. But I have to ask you, what was one dish that perhaps shocked you when you were traveling and learning about soul food in other places. Mm. Guinea pig squirrel perhaps. Wow. Yeah. Appalachian squirrel was which my dad hunted for and was like, oh, that's good eating. And I'm like, ok. Um, that was really fascinating. Um, the hot salad, hot salad. Yeah. They, they, uh, the hot salad in Appalachia. They just pour baking grease on top of forged, forged vegetables that they picked from the woods. So those are some of the more exotic picks. But what are some soul food staples here in the US? In your opinion, the classic soul food staples? I mean, we're talking about fried chicken collard greens, macaroni and cheese. Okra, red beans and rice, baked chicken ribs. You know, you're gonna be hungry. I know. And the good news is in the next segment, we're actually gonna try some of these. So don't go anywhere because we're gonna have a taste and figure out why these foods make us feel so good. Numb, numb, numb, numb, numb. They're making me hungry. Thank you Chloe for that. I can't wait to see what they'll be tasting here. Also. Hot salad. Interesting. Well, also squirrel and guinea pig. Welcome back, everyone to wake up with chatter. I'm back up with chat and I'm in a and we are live in Lower Manhattan. And earlier in the show, Chloe, A talked to celebrity chef Alisa Reynolds about her new series searching for soul food. And we got a taste of Alisa's travels around the world. But let's see what she has to say about what makes our Southern comfort favorites. So, darn good, good morning Chloe. I'm here at the chicken in New York City with celebrity chef Alisa Reynolds, whose new Hulu series Searching For Soul food explores the meaning of soul food in cultures around the world. Alisa, it is the moment we've been waiting for. We're gonna try some of this amazing food. Thanks to the folks here at the chicken. Oh, I'm ready. All right. So let's start with one of the side dishes. Ok. Mac and cheese. What makes this such a popular side dish choice? And of course, let's try it as well. Well, let's try this mac and cheese and I can tell you right now, this is one of the earlier dishes actually created by Tom, one of Thomas Jefferson's chefs, his name was um, James Hemmings of the Hemming family and he, they went to Paris one year and he brought back mac and cheese. He, he brought back this dish and kind of put his Virginia flavors in it. And that's how we became to have mac and cheese in America. Is that crazy? So, let's see if we're making James Proud. Mm. Oh, my gosh. It's creamy. It's rich. How do you make the perfect mac and cheese? Mm. Mm. Mm. Well, this is what I do. Um, I do. It's all about the cheese sauce. Mhm. Mm. Ours is gluten free at my two cents in L A. But it doesn't have to be, but I find that the tea is the cheese to mac and cheese. Mm. Seems simple enough. All right, let's talk about fried chicken. This one appears on comfort food menus in restaurants across the US. Uh, and I'm gonna ask you to try some of this amazing fried chicken today. So, what about fried chicken? How do you get that special crunch? Because obviously it's a bit challenging. Especially for folks at home. Yeah. Well, the, the, the perfect crunch is the perfect temperature. So a lot of people have a problem with making their fire too high or their, their oil too hot. So the chicken will look good, you know, crispy on the outside, then you have a raw piece on the inside. So if you get that perfect level of heat around 3 50 on bones. Chickens with bone wings, you get that crispiness. Also. I feel that if you have, I like to do an egg dip, then flour guaranteed crispy or of operation. What are you getting that, that waffle about shrimp? This is not something that you might always associate with comfort food or maybe not the first thing that comes to mind. But how often are you using shrimp in your recipes? Shrimp? We have something called shrimp and grits. Set my two sense and it's our pop most popular dish. Wow. Shrimp I feel is um, more about Asian New Orleans. Is that part of the South? That was seafood driven, man. So, so, so delicious. And you know what? I don't think I had a lot of shrimp on my own on my, on my search. Mm. I don't need a lot of shrimp on my search, but we have some amazing seafood in South Africa, Peru and all kinds of places. But shrimp, fried shrimp is kind of like a staple in the South and a staple in my house. And there's a little bit of kick to this one too. Mm. As someone with a family that has southern roots trimming grits is always a go to of mine at all. Right. We have to talk about this. We'll ask one really quickly. Chicken here at the chicken here in New York City. So give that one a try for us. Let's see this baked chicken. Let's see this baked chicken. Let me get in here. Let me get in here. Check in. Makes your shoulders. Mm. We didn't even hear anything about how good it was. Dance. It just dance, it, check in, check in, check in. All right, chef Alisa Reynolds. Thank you so much for joining us here today at the chicken here in New York City and for anyone out there, go watch searching for soul food on Hulu. There are some Easter eggs in there that I cannot wait to see ya. Ok. That chef I wanna hang out with her. She seems so funny. Yeah, exactly. And our thanks to Chloe A for that story.