Jesse is joined this week by Chef, Restaurant owner and Emmy Award Winning Kardea Brown. She talks some of the highs and lows in her journey to this point and why she is most excited about visiting Hilton Head for the first time in many years during the 2026 Hilton Head Island Seafood Festival.

Kardea will be holding a Master Class and Cooking Demonstration during the week-long event. That will be on Friday February 27th, 2026. Find more information and tickets to that event here.

Jesse Blanco: Welcome back to the Eat It and Like It Podcast. Joining us this time around, we have the special privilege of being joined by Food Network star, Emmy award winning, and soon to be visitor to Hilton Head Island Seafood Festival, Kardea Brown. Good morning. How are you?

Kardea Brown: Good morning! I’m doing well. Thank you so much for having me.

JB: My pleasure. Thanks for taking a few minutes to chat with us. You are a Charleston native.

KB: I am.

JB: Been doing my research. You moved away, but you came back. How long were you gone?

KB:

I was only gone–well, see, I was raised between Atlanta, Georgia, I left Charleston when I was about two or three years old, And my mom raised me as a single parent between Charleston and Atlanta. She moved to Atlanta for better job opportunities during that time in the early 90s, and my grandmother also helped raise me. And so I split most of my time, it was 50/50 between Atlanta, and back home in Charleston. And then as an adult, I went off to college and grad school in New Jersey, and then came back from New Jersey from grad school in about 2015. So I’ve been back home since then.

JB: So, you say home, clearly you had two options. Why did you choose Charleston?

KB: Well, Charleston, you know, this is where my entire family is, and moving back to Atlanta didn’t really make sense for what I was doing when I quit grad school and decided to work within the culinary world. So being back in my deep roots, which is Charleston, South Carolina on the Sea Islands, was where I decided to create a life for myself as far as my adult life was concerned. And so yes, Charleston was a no-brainer, especially with me starting my supper club, the New Gullah Supper Club back in those days. Charleston was just, like, the epicenter for what I wanted to do.

JB: Do you remember the first moment, or moments, when you thought, I love cooking, this is what I want to do?

KB: Absolutely. It’s always been at, like, the center of my heart. Even working—my background is in social services and child wellfare, and things of that sort. But while I was doing that–because as you know, and as most people know, working in social services can be very demanding and taxing, mentally and physically, and so cooking has always been an outlet for me as far as, like, my therapeutic relief. And so I always knew that I–I said that I’m gonna open my own nonprofit organization, but I’m gonna also have my own restaurant. So that’s something that I’ve always wanted to do. But, you know, just being raised in a household where education was paramount and that’s what you do. You go, you get a good education, you get a good job, and you retire. That’s what was instilled in me. But being of the millennial generation, and kind of like stepping out of that and saying, you know what, that’s the blueprint for your life. That’s not exactly what I want to do. So after working in social services, I kind of found that cooking made me happier. I loved doing what I did, and it was very rewarding, but it was again, also very taxing. And so while working in social services, in the early or the mid 2010s and things of that sort, I knew that cooking was where my heart really was.

JB: And I would say, not to put words in your mouth, but the ability to make so many people happy with your food on a regular basis had to have been therapeutic, I’m sure.

KB: Oh yeah. It was, that too, you know, like, cooking is my love language. It’s how I express my love to others. And when I see people excited and happy about the things that I’ve prepared, nothing compares.

JB: Did you think when you said, ‘I want to do this’, that you would end up being fortunate enough to have, you know, the career that you have to this point? 

KB: (laughing) Not at all. 

JB: Two cookbooks, a restaurant, Emmy Awards, all of this stuff, you just kind of put one foot in front of the other and it all just kind of happened, huh?

KB: It all fell into place, and I do believe in divine direction and timing and because I said yes to myself, I think that everything else kind of followed. Because I am a very spiritual person, I think that walking in your purpose and walking in your calling, it just opens the floodgates of things that you would never imagine, and I don’t think our human brain is capable of really conspiring some of the things that we think we want to do. I feel like the universe, every time you say, “I want to open my restaurant,” and the universe is like, “no, you want to win Emmys!” And so it just all fell into place, I hadn’t really thought about any of these things happening. It was just like, hey, I love to cook and I love people. And these things have just found me.

JB: If you don’t mind me drilling down on something you said a few minutes ago, you chose to say yes to yourself. 

KB: Yes.

JB: What does that mean to you?

KB: That means–it’s saying yes to the desires of my heart, and not allowing, per se, like my family and everyone else to kind of dictate what I want, what they think is best for me. I believe you only get one life to live, and you have to do what you want to do in your heart of hearts, because, you know, there’s no do-overs, and so while you’re here, do what makes you happy. And so when you say yes to yourself, I truly believe the universe conspires to work in your favor. So that’s what I lead with.

JB: Fair enough. Did it all kind of come together fairly quickly or were there some early moments where you thought, I don’t know about this?

KB: Ohhh I got–(laughing) there were tons of doubts, and just like, I don’t know if this is gonna work out. But you know, I always say that, you know, there’s still a little mustard seed of faith that it could work out, and so I kind of hung on to that. There were times where it got so hard and so dark and I couldn’t see my way out, but I still held on to the notion of like, this is what I love to do. I would cook and I would interact with people, regardless of getting paid or not. And so there were times of financial stress and physical stress, with doing my supper clubs, and pitching to the networks and getting no’s. But, you know, even with that, I always thought that the no’s would be a “no-not right now,” not a “no-not forever, this is not gonna happen.” So I held on to the faith that something was going to work out, even during those very dark and hard times.

JB: Every no puts you closer to that yes. 

KB: Yes! Absolutely, I love that.

JB: Yeah. And many, many times all you need is one yes for the opportunity to squirt through. So your first cookbook is called The Way Home, and it was a collection of the recipes, I assume, of your childhood upbringing, of your life–Gullah-inspired, or Gullah true recipes?

KB: Yes, and that’s exactly what it is, a collection of recipes that were passed down to me, and recipes that I kind of acquired over the years of doing my supper club and my pop-ups and my catering business, and fan favorites from the first few seasons of Delicious Miss Brown. So it was a collection of all of that.

JB: Very, very cool. Now your latest one just came out a couple of months ago as we record this, it’s called Make Do With What You Have. I chuckled when I saw that, because I would have wanted to call it–knowing Southern culture, I’m from Miami, but I’ve been in the South long enough to know that somebody would say, Make Do With What You Got.

KB: Yes! (laughing) That’s exactly how you say it, and my publisher was like, “well, you know… grammatically speaking, it should be…” (laughing)

JB: Right, right. See, even I picked up on that, but it’s called Make Do With What You Have, and it’s a budget-friendly cookbook, correct?

KB: Yes it is. It’s budget friendly, it doesn’t really lead with that, it’s more so finding the creativity of the things that you already have in your house. Oftentimes we go grocery shopping and we buy bulk things, and it depends on the size of your family, you go and you do your grocery haul maybe once every two weeks or so, and you have all these things in your refrigerator, and then you somehow end up still going out to eat, or looking in your fridge or your pantry and saying “there’s nothing in here.” And while you don’t see anything that’s in there, I want to help you see your refrigerator and your pantry in a more creative way, and really make use of the things that you’re able to afford at home. Because as we all know, grocery prices are insane, going out to eat is an entire, I feel like, an Olympic sport sometimes with all the taxes and all the things that you’re paying for just for a simple meal, when you can kind of, you know, avoid all of those things by making delicious meals at home. So yes, it’s budget friendly, but also just showing people creative ways to make use of groceries that they already have in their home.

JB: We are all guilty of walking up to the fridge, opening the door and saying, “I got a refrigerator full of nothing to eat.”

KB: Yes, that is exactly right. And growing up in a household with my mom as a single parent, she worked very hard to make ends meet for us. And as a child, I didn’t appreciate when she would say, “we have McDonald’s at home.” Like, that’s not McDonald’s, mom. McDonald’s is a burger, fries, a kid’s meal with a toy. Okra stew in the refrigerator is not my example of a McDonald’s meal. But as an adult now, I can appreciate being able to walk up to my refrigerator and open it, and not say that “we don’t have anything in here,” but, “OK, I see I have some sausage, I have maybe some beans in the cabinet, I can make red beans and rice.” You know, seeing things like that, instead of just saying, “we don’t have anything,” because you don’t want to take the time to really figure a meal out. So I kind of take the guessing out of it, and help you kind of decide what to make with the things you already have.

JB: Very good, very good. Now you are coming down to the Hilton Head Seafood Festival. You’re doing a cooking demo and a class, if you will, on Friday, February 27th, that’ll be at 2:30 at the Omni. Anyone who’s interested in participating–or, I should say attending that, because there won’t be any actual cooking, you’re doing the cooking. What can anyone expect who will be attending that event?

KB: Oh, it’s good, I mean, I always have tons of fun with my demos. If anyone has ever been to the South Beach Food and Wine Festival, I’ve made a name for myself for having really fun and interactive demos where I pull people–and I know the event organizers always get on me about it and they just forget about it, I’ve been doing it for about four or five years now–they always get on me because I pull participants up from the crowd and I bring them on stage with me and they cook with me. And so you can look forward to some interaction. Also tons of storytelling, the thing about Gullah Geechee Cuisine, it’s not just something that, you just throw this together and it’s your typical, you know, class instructional type of thing. No, there’s storytelling, there’s a ‘why’, and there are, you know, plenty of family connections to the things and the reasons why I cook the way that I do. So you can expect to hear that, lots of storytelling, lots of fun, and just a very informal time.

JB: Very good, very good. You have one restaurant that’s at the airport, correct?

KB: Correct, at the Charleston International Airport.

JB: Very good. If anyone cannot get to the Hilton Head Seafood Festival and would like to enjoy some of your food, that is the place to do it. Now, you’ve mentioned Supper Club a couple of two-three times here. Do you still do a Supper Club?

KB: Yes, I don’t do my supper club as often as I used to, I do pop-ups here and there with special requests, but I am thinking about bringing it back out for a special, maybe weekend only. As of now, I don’t, but I think I’m gonna do a re-emerging of it.

JB: Gotcha, gotcha. Sounds like fun. Well, are you going to come down here for a few days to be able to enjoy Hilton Head Island?

KB: Oh absolutely, I haven’t been to Hilton Head in so long, it’s right up the road for me, but I haven’t been since I’ve heard about all of the beautiful changes. I remember growing up and going to Hilton Head as a kid, and my grandmother had a timeshare out there, we would go for our holiday vacations and stuff like that. And so I’m always near Beaufort and in other places, but I haven’t had a chance to spend some time in Hilton Head in a while. So I’m definitely going to utilize that time to relive my childhood, and see all of the things that have changed with Hilton Head since then.

JB: Very good, very good. Well, it’ll be a good time. I’ll be there all week, I’m looking forward to meeting you there. I’ll probably be at your cooking demo, sounds like it’s gonna be fun. 

KB: Great, awesome!

JB: Very good. So the cookbook, your latest cookbook is called Make Do With What You Have. We can find that, I assume, on Amazon or any other place you buy books?

KB: Oh absolutely, anywhere cookbooks are sold, my cookbook should be there.

JB: Very good, very good. Kardea Brown, Food Network star, Emmy award winning, and presenting chef at the Hilton Head Seafood Festival. Looking forward to it. Thanks so much for taking a few minutes. 

# # #