- Welcome, everyone, to "food.

curated."

(upbeat music) a show that takes you behind the scenes to meet today's most inspiring food makers.

Stick around for a taste of the new culinary energy sparked by people of color.

(punchy music) I'm Liza de Guia, documentary filmmaker and food lover.

I invite you to discover the people and passion behind good food in New York City.

This is "food.

curated."

Funding for food.

curated.

is made possible by.

Stele is a globally curated collection of artisanal and independent perfumes.

Hand-picked olfactory experiences that tell a story.

Available online and at two New York locations.

For more info, we're at Stele (dot) nyc.

Support for food.

curated.

comes from CMD Psych.

Bringing a holistic approach to child wellness and women's mental health care.

Helping patients find balance and harmony in their lives.

For more info, head to CMD Psych (dot) com Additional Funding provided by.

As a minority, (upbeat music) I understand the importance of visibility.

For so long, we've felt unseen and underappreciated, and this series has always worked to uplift people of color Today, we're celebrating chefs and food makers within the BIPOC community who are elevating comfort foods to new heights.

(warm music) (upbeat rhythmic music) - I've always been a firm believer of following your heart and doing something that always brings you happiness.

My love for food really comes from like, my family.

Like Ethiopian and Eritrean cultures, you know, just like so many other cultures, are all about community, family, friends.

Food has been such a huge part of our life, our culture, because it's always with people.

(rhythmic music continues) It's such a full culture, and my goal was to really, this love that I have of Ethiopian and Eritrean culture, it was so embedded in me, I wanted the world to know about it.

Oh, my goodness, our chicken tibs, I have to say, and I am gonna be bold enough to say it, our chicken tibs is hands down one of the best chicken tips in the country.

I will say that.

- [Liza] And how do you know?

- And I will say that because I've eaten a lot of chicken tibs.

That's how I know.

(laughs) Hi, my name is Eden Egziabher.

I'm the owner and founder of Makina Cafe an Eritrean and Ethiopian eatery based in Long Island City, Queens, New York.

I've eaten a lot of chicken tibs.

(laughs) And not just in New York, but in DC, and Atlanta, and LA.

So, our chicken tibs is our number one seller.

I eat this food every day, so if I eat it every day, then I wanna make sure that when people eat this food, that they enjoy it, so I cook it the way I would wanna eat it.

(energetic music) Lentils!

This is probably 25 pounds of fat red onions.

(chuckles) - [Liza] Stop.

- I'm serious.

(giggles) It's con kulet, it's the paste that we that we prepared and cooked for hours so that the water completely cooked down, mixed in with berbere, the sauce that we saw, ginger, and garlic.

And the secret about berbere is like, the longer you cook it, the more balanced the flavor gets.

Well, welcome to our kitchen commissary.

Been here for a year and a half, and this is pretty much like our production center, this is where we prepare every single one of our dishes, prep, cook, pack up.

And then from here, we do catering, from here, we do pickup and delivery, and then we also supply our entire truck operation.

Oh look, this is so beautiful.

Yeah, when you eat it, it just explodes in your mouth.

Most of it, what you smell, is the berbere.

Because the amount of berbere that we put in is a lot.

So, opened Makina August 2017, and for, I would say at least like a year, it was a struggle.

Washington D.C.

is the biggest population of like Ethiopian Eritreans, and so a lot of people in that area, or at least they lived there, know about Ethiopian Eritrean food and they're very familiar with it, but not necessarily in New York.

(food steaming) Labors of love.

Nobody knew about us.

People would come and they'd be like, "Ethiopian food, what?"

Take a picture and go back.

I'm like, "Order!"

(laughs) Don't just take a picture.

(lively music continues) When we first started, 10% of the people that we were interacting with probably have had Ethiopian food, and 90% didn't.

Injera.

The chicken.

Beet salad, and ketchup.

And so I took that very seriously.

And I knew that was the role of Makina, as a food truck, which is to educate and to amplify the culinary contribution of Eritrean and Ethiopian food.

So I think I'm gonna make you two injera plates and one rice plate.

So I'm gonna do injera with chicken.

(relaxing music) So, injera is the tiniest, tiniest grain in the world, and it is gluten-free.

But we grew up eating it, it's bread.

The process is very similar as a sourdough, so we call it like a flat sourdough flatbread.

But it's a perfect combination, because all the vegetables and all the stews are so flavorful and very impactful.

The injera kinda soaks in all the juices, all the flavors, and it gives it just that perfect balance.

There we go.

There is no other country that, you know, eat injera or that prepare injera, and so we take a lot of pride in that.

(laughs) We really do.

And it's super delicious.

(relaxing music continues) So, when I designed for the menu, I didn't wanna just ad all the popular dishes on the menu, I wanted to be very specific and intentional.

Today, I'm actually gonna show you how to make chicken tibs, traditionally, a staple.

To really get the flavor that we want, we marinate our meat about 24 hours to 48 hours in advance.

So this is chicken thighs.

We're gonna do a little bit of lemon juice.

I am from Eritrea, but born and raised in Ethiopia, and my family and I lived there until our teen years.

And war started between Ethiopia and Eritrea, and my family and I were forced to leave Ethiopia and relocate in the States.

(somber music) When I came to this country, what I understood was the narratives that was being told was not really a narrative that I wanted to hear.

There were kids making fun of us about the stigmas that they heard about Eritrean and Ethiopian.

We put in some fresh herbs, some parsley, cilantro, scallion.

It was said so often in relation to poverty, it was so often in relation to lack of food, and I didn't want my story to be a representation of just war, and that's a part of my life, but it's not my entire life.

And I think that Ethiopia and Eritrea, with thousands of history behind them, they have something to offer to the world, and I want the world to know about that.

And number one, (lively music) it being the uniqueness of the food that they have.

This is the secret spice blend.

You see a little bit of berbere, see a little bit of salt, we have a little bit of black pepper.

It's a lot of spice, that's why our chicken is really good.

So you see that berbere?

Like, it's so beautiful.

I call it the gold currency, and it's berbere.

And berbere is a spice that we use on almost everything, almost everything that has some sort of spice, and we love spicy food.

That spice has 8 to 12 different spices that are dried up, grinded together.

You know, the chili, and the dried garlic, dried ginger, the cardamom, fenugreek, black cumin, white cumin, and then the list goes on.

And so depending on what you cook, you really pull out the different spices.

You'll find it in every household, not in almost, in every household.

(lively music continues) When you see the cuisine, it's represented as like Ethiopian cuisine, but both Eritrea and Ethiopia consume the same food, and so it's very important for me that I represent both of them.

It's super healthy, extremely delicious, extremely flavorful, so diverse.

You know, it just really something that you've never had before.

(soft music) It's very important to me to represent, as a female, as a Black-owned business, my story is not just my story, it's our story.

I represent millions of Eritreans and Ethiopians that look like me, that have similar stories as me, that have walked similar journeys as me.

All of us, like, doing our small part, you know, that's my main motivator is to really bring our culture in a positive way, to highlight it in a positive way.

(upbeat music) - Enjoy.

Like that.

(laughs) (soft music) (energetic piano music) - I'm trying to control for quality and kindness, so our food is not fast food.

(chicken sizzling) - Hi, my name's Peter, I am a chef in Peep's Kitchen.

- Hi, my name is Lanika, I'm the Social Media Manager, and we are the family behind Peep's Kitchen located in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

(upbeat music) - Peep's chicken, I eat every day.

I have to tell you.

(laughs) - [Liza] You eat it every day?

- Every day, whenever we have a little bit left, to make sure the quality is good.

- Neither of my parents like chicken at all, and then my dad's always been like more of a perfectionist too, so quality for him is very important, because also he has this philosophy that like, you can't get good food without patience and hard work.

- [Liza] Juicy.

- [Hyun] Still juicy, right?

My recipes are in my memories.

- [Lanika] He's trying to make the ganjang sauce now.

And then obviously you want them to take their time with it, so that's kind of what my dad does here, that's why it takes about like 30 to 40 minutes for every order.

And he holds it to a much higher standard than most other people would.

- [Hyun] Getting to be breaded, right?

- [Liza] Yeah.

- I guess I would say yeah, we are more of a specialty fried chicken, just because I think like, that is definitely like our strong suit.

- I'm trying to make fresh orange.

- So they do the marinade actually every single day.

So you have to marinate the chicken at least 24 hours.

So every morning, during the prepping process, they are marinating tomorrow's batch of chicken.

- [Liza] What's inside here?

- Salt, ginger, garlic, and onion.

Sugar a little bit.

(oil sizzling) - So I have to clean the chickens to marinate it.

So- - [Liza] What gives it that pink color?

- Pink color is my secret.

(Liza laughing) Don't worry about that.

Natural.

It makes it feel fresh.

- It sits in the marinade for 24 hours, and then we also use like, our spice mix, which is like our powder mix, and then throw that in the fire.

So, it's double-seasoned.

It's seasoning like on the meat itself, and then seasoning like on the breading and skin.

- You know, (chicken sizzling) most important thing is not recipe.

- [Liza] It's not the recipe?

- Most important is combination, and temperature, and time.

(smooth music) - [Liza] Oh!

- Everything is made to order.

The second that someone orders it is when we start making it.

(Dohee laughing) - When I need someone's help, my wife is fast.

- So I think we are trying to dial down the reputation that fried chicken is fast food, because we are trying to kind of stray away from that.

- She looks so beautiful.

- [Liza] Oh, yes.

(laughs) That's for you, for you.

(laughs) - Lanika: Their dynamic here, like at Peep's Kitchen, like my dad being the chef, my mom kind of just being like on the side, like prepping stuff, that's also what takes place at home too.

(smooth music continues) - Like, separate departments.

- You own that department, I own this department.

- My favorite focus on is my family.

Survival means for my family.

Now I show you dreaming for (chicken sizzling) one last time.

- I first met him, I think he's pretty handsome, so that's a plus.

(laughs) And he's very smart.

So he was a perfect packaging.

(laughs) - So during the pandemic, like a lot of other people, my mom lost her job in fashion, and then my dad also had to close down his business.

- My shipping business is going down, even close.

- And he actually had like about 20 years of franchising, like, for a chicken restaurant back in Korea.

So he actually took those recipes that did so well in Kore and he utilized it for Peep's Kitchen.

- If I knew the restaurant business is this hard, maybe I would say no from the beginning.

(laughs) - I just think about food is very important.

Food is forever, okay?

Let's just try that.

- So they came up with the idea of like, a restaurant, and then Peep's Kitchen was born.

(lively music) - I want to tell about my food quality.

- [Liza] Yeah, let's talk about it.

- Hyun: For me, just fresh, fresh and good taste, and clean.

(chicken sizzling) I learned from Japan.

This powder is a little bit salt pepper right there also.

-Lanika: So, for chicken, we use thigh meat primarily, just because there's a lot more flavor to it compared to chicken breasts.

And obviously, we have like our wings and our drumsticks.

And so, any boneless chicken comes from our thigh meat.

(chicken plopping) - [Liza] Yeah, all at once!

- Hyun: We call it a watery powder.

I'm trying to make more delicious, more tender, juicy, more like that, so.

- So, in order to pretty much keep up with our quality too, we also have like a finite amount of chicken.

And because we don't wanna, you know, we don't wanna sacrifice quality and have chicken like, marinating too early or too late so that's why sometimes it's very easy for us to sell out, especially when we get a lot of big orders.

- First time, (chicken sizzling) two years ago, I cooked it, ordered, and delivered for someone.

(laughs) - [Liza] You did everything.

- Everything.

- [Lanika] He actually didn't think that it was gonna do well in America, because, you know, it did so well in Korea and, you know, it's a whole new demographic.

But that's what he's been using, and it's actually been working out very well for him.

- [Hyun] As the user, I don't use timer.

My eyes and my ear.

Sound.

- [Liza] Oh, interesting!

- [Hyun] Yeah.

Looks so good, right?

- [Lanika] I think for us, specifically, I think more of our appeal is like our sauces.

Like everyone goes crazy for our sauces.

We have like very specific recipes for our sauce, you can't get them anywhere else.

I don't even know the recipes for the sauces, but I know that it's like a very particular way that my dad likes to have it done and like, prepared for everybody.

- [Hyun] Finito.

(laughs) (punchy music) So, these are our more popular dishes.

My personal favorite, I like the padak.

- My favorite is padak.

- My favorite is a padak as well I think like there's just a sense of pride, like, seeing people, especially people you don't even know, getting along with your parents, like, loving something that they've made.

- It is really good.

- They are tuning Earth and loving my food.

(chicken sizzling) Thanks, God.

(laughs) - [Liza] Thank God.

- I love you guys.

(all laughing) Thank you.

(soft music) (bright music) - People love that pot pie.

Like, we've gotten like death threats and like hate mail (laughs) because we took it off the menu.

Like, people freak out.

- Yeah, people request it, like even during the summer.

This is the angel biscuits that are gonna sit right on top right now.

- We take it off the menu in the summer, because it's like, who wants to sweat eating a pot pie with biscuits on top, and people like, hate us for taking that off?

- Yeah.

Gonna hit it with a little butter to get it nice and shiny.

- Like when you get your chicken pot pie with the crust, you know, you don't ever have enough crust, you're just eating the filling.

And then the crust at the bottom is soggy.

So this is like there's enough carb-to-filling ratio.

- So this is the finished product.

It'll get packed up and go to a very happy customer.

I'd be happy getting that.

Yeah, we definitely try to tug on those heartstrings.

You know?

Things that kind of remind you and bring you back to a moment in time.

- Hi, my name is Autumn Moultrie - And I'm Brian Villanueva.

- And we are the co-founders and bakers of Back Alley Bread.

- [Brian] Based in Brooklyn, New York.

(upbeat music) - [Autumn] It smells like your clothes, Brian.

- [Brian] Yeah.

- Oh, those look nice.

- Yeah.

So yeah, this is what we want.

Really nice.

Slightly over golden-brown, nice and roasted.

This is gonna provide a nice base flavor for our stock and our future chicken pot pie filling.

(smooth music) Yeah, guys, we don't wanna live this life forever.

(Autumn laughing) Stuck in someone's basement.

- So we can go to sleep finally.

- Back in the apartment, yeah.

- Brian and I met at a pasta pop-up that I was doing for Giada De Laurentiis.

Basically, I did not like Brian at all when I met.

I hated Brian.

I did not like him, not even a little bit.

- No.

(laughs) - [Liza] And you knew that?

- Yeah, yeah.

I was kind of a little bit annoying.

When you go film, do they have this move?

The cooks have the little kangaroo pouch of towels.

(Autumn laughing) So let me grab something hot real quick.

I'm ready.

I'm ready to go, so.

- [Liza] Do you remember her walking in the door?

Do you remember the introduction?

- Yeah, well, she was already prepping, like, going hard at it and cranking out her prep list, and I know I walked in, and I kind of, like, glanced at her.

I was like, "Oh, hey, how you doing?"

Like, and she was just looking down, like, putting her head down and working hard.

I was like, "Oh, man.

This girl looks like she can cook."

I was like, "She's fine."

Like, damn.

(Autumn giggling) She can cook and she's like, super pretty?

I was like, "I need to talk to her.

Like, I just need to talk to her."

- Autumn: This is my secret ingredient.

Sorry, I get like, when I'm working, I have no personality.

(laughs) I did not like him, because it was like I was focused, and he was like... What were you doing?

(laughs) - 'Cause when, when- - [Liza] Like, he was literally waving.

Yeah, he was, like, smiling and waving.

(laughs) - No, no.

- [Autumn] You know what he said?

He was like- - [Brian] What'd I say?

- [Autumn] He's like, "I'm gonna grow on you."

- [Brian] Yeah.

- I was like, "What?

Who says that?"

It was a weird thing to say.

He was just like, "We're gonna be perfect together, and I think we would make a great pair."

And I was like, "Oh, okay.

He's crazy."

And eventually he grew on me.

(Brian chuckling) - It'll go real quick.

Yeah.

- And now we've been running a bakery out of our apartment for two years, so.

So this is the dough for our play on a beef patty.

We're calling it hot pockets, because we grew up with Hot Pockets.

This is, like, one of my favorite things to eat.

It's my pie dough, but I added Jamaican curry powder in it, and it gives it, like, a nice little yellow tinge.

This is about the size I want my butter to be.

- I think Autumn's pie dough is really untouchable.

And I haven't had anything like it before, and I haven't had anything like it since I've had it, so.

- Back Alley Bread is like, undefinable.

It really just mostly is stuff we like to eat.

- [Brian] You know, we're more of like a snack bar.

- [Autumn] We're a black market bakery.

(Brian laughing) - Black market bakery.

We're like a eatery, but centered around bread.

(warm music) - So this is our beef filling.

There's Jamaican curry powder in there, bell pepper, scotch bonnets.

And the scotch bonnet, It'll get you at the end.

(Liza chuckling) (Autumn chuckling) We take the techniques that we've learned in these kitchens and we apply them to casual food, or casual cooking, or things we used to like to eat as children.

- We come from, like, the savory side of cooking.

Like, we're chefs.

So, like, chefs are gonna chef.

- I think food should be experimental.

Like, I don't think it should be anyone's food.

Like, you should be able to have you know, a meeting of the cultures.

Like, my family's from the south Grandmothers, great aunts, all of them are big cooks.

- My mom is from Manila and my dad was from Quezon City, moved to Los Angeles when they're about my age now.

So I'm a first generation, born in America, Filipino-American.

So, you know, our background and our cultures kind of intermingle with our menu, and our experiences growing up, it's all intertwining.

We're playful with it.

I think that's what speaks out to people with our menu, is that it's very personal.

(energetic music) - So these have been cooking for about an hour and they're about doubled in size.

I think the item that we have that's the most surprisingly, like, fermenty, but you don't notice it, is the angel donut.

It's like a four-day process.

(energetic music continues) I want them to be reminiscent of eating a hot beignet.

I feel like donuts should be hot I don't like cold donuts.

And then instead of putting powdered sugar on it, let's put cinnamon sugar, and it was a hit.

(upbeat music) And it stays crispy, somehow.

I don't know.

Somehow, some way, it's crispy.

I'm surprised of what we've come up with.

- It's almost like every week we come up with something new.

(upbeat music continues) - So this is cinnamon sugar, brown sugar.

It's kind of like a cinnamon rol kind of like a sticky bun, but not quite.

It has bee pollen, wild African honey glaze, and a honeycomb on top.

And then I'll spread them with a ridiculous amount of heavy cream so they'll, like, almost fry on the outside but be soft in the center.

I feel like you can taste the food and tell that the person worked hard to make it.

So, like, even though it's just pastry, I think you can tell when you eat one of our pastries or you buy our chicken pot pie that we really though about it, we were, like, crying over it.

- And hopefully this can lead to you know, our own restaurant one day, and then, you know, finally make it.

- [Autumn] It turned out he was not that crazy.

He's crazy, but not that crazy.

- [Brian] Crazy in love.

- [Autumn] Not the crazy I though he was, you know?

- [Liza] Crazy in love.

- We've been together almost five years now.

- Five years.

(Autumn laughing softly) - [Autumn] He was right.

It was a good match.

(Autumn giggling) (lively music) - Being a champion of good food also means being a champion of diversity.

When we celebrate nuances in African cuisine or explore new ideas blending food cultures, these discoveries evolve our taste and knowledge of food, showing us just how connected we are.

That's it for this episode of "food.

curated."

I'm Liza de Guia.

Be sure to connect with us on social media and eat more stories.

I'll see you next week.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) Funding for food.

curated.

is made possible by.

Stele is a globally curated collection of artisanal and independent perfumes.

Hand-picked olfactory experiences that tell a story.

Available online and at two New York locations.

For more info, we're at Stele (dot) nyc.

Support for food.

curated.

comes from CMD Psych.

Bringing a holistic approach to child wellness and women's mental health care.

Helping patients find balance and harmony in their lives.

For more info, head to CMD Psych (dot) com Additional Funding provided by.

Craving more about the stories behind the craft.

Dive deeper into the makers we care about.

On our social pages, and at foodcurated dot com.

[music] [music] [music]