Latest / The Christian Reeve Podcast / Kirly Sue | The Christian Reeve Podcast | #34 |

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Kirly Sue | The Christian Reeve Podcast | #34 | · The Christian Reeve Podcast

• 0:01
  Hello and welcome to another episode of the Christian Reef
• 0:04
  podcast. Today's guest is the host of
• 0:09
  curlysuze, global kitchen, which is a good cooking show for vegan
• 0:13
  nest and vegan Chef. So like and this person has many
• 0:18
  different hit titles. So she's a vegan cook, she's an
• 0:21
  author, a vegan expert speaker, and presenter and of course, the
• 0:26
  presenter of those TV shows. So very welcome to the show.
• 0:30
  I see. How's it going?
• 0:32
  Fine. Thank you.
• 0:33
  Thank you for having me. How are you?
• 0:35
  Very good, very good. This was, this was an exciting
• 0:39
  one for me. Because obviously, you reached
• 0:41
  out to me and I wasn't familiar with your work, but I was
• 0:44
  obviously quite intrigued at the idea that, you know, not only
• 0:47
  are you a vegan chef and into that kind of Lifestyle, which is
• 0:51
  something that, you know, I have friends that are vegan and
• 0:53
  stuff. And I know a little bit about it
• 0:56
  but not like enough to really like, you know, talk at length
• 1:00
  in terms of like expertise, Something.
• 1:03
  But it was really cool to see, you know, like, when I was doing
• 1:06
  my research on you, you know, all of your different Ventures
• 1:10
  that you've sort of done as part of this.
• 1:13
  And also, you know, the TV shows as well, which is according to
• 1:17
  my research. You know, you've been doing it
• 1:18
  quite a long time as well. I think your first one you
• 1:22
  actually started in about 2002 if I'm not mistaken and then
• 1:27
  it's been from that point onwards more recently.
• 1:29
  You've had a show in 18 and they're all get it all, get to
• 1:34
  that. But I guess I'll what I wanted
• 1:37
  to start with. With this was, what kind of age
• 1:40
  did you become vegan? Was this a thing that happened
• 1:43
  when you were very young? Or was this more in adult life
• 1:46
  or not? I became a vegan.
• 1:53
  Next month, will be 80 years ago.
• 1:56
  Okay, prior to being a vegan. I was a vegetarian from the age
• 2:00
  of 18, right, right. So I was a vegetarian for
• 2:04
  20-something years and then I became a vegan and a lot of
• 2:10
  vegans were vegetarians before, there's a small number and lower
• 2:15
  number who go from meat-eating straight to vegan.
• 2:19
  Yeah, I get that. Yeah, it's very plausible.
• 2:22
  I might have thought about it myself and you know I think in
• 2:24
  the future it definitely is something I will do, but it does
• 2:28
  seem extreme to go from meeting straight to vegan.
• 2:30
  I feel like it's a good kind of I don't know maybe like Midway
• 2:34
  point before you get some people do it.
• 2:38
  Some people get I suppose it is as well.
• 2:41
  Another important thing that people don't always talk about
• 2:43
  as well as the actually how it affects your health.
• 2:46
  Like, you know, if you're going through a very drastic change
• 2:49
  like that obviously everyone reacts differently, some people
• 2:52
  can make that transition and there's no problem at all and
• 2:55
  it's just a different way of life other people.
• 2:58
  You know. It's not that straightforward
• 3:00
  and, you know, maybe you need More protein than the other
• 3:05
  part, like, the average person or something like that.
• 3:07
  You know, people have things like deficiencies and certain
• 3:11
  things in their body which, you know, you can't make up with
• 3:13
  supplements and and so and so on, but obviously the diet and
• 3:18
  figuring that out. It's quite a tricky thing.
• 3:20
  And I guess what I wanted to ask you with that is was it
• 3:23
  difficult to kind of go through that process?
• 3:25
  I mean I feel like if you're going from being a meat eater to
• 3:29
  a vegetarian you know it's not too difficult, you know, you go
• 3:32
  to Your standard Supermarket or whatever and there's plenty of
• 3:35
  vegetarian options. And, you know, like if you go
• 3:40
  to, even if you go to restaurants and stuff or take
• 3:42
  away as, you know, you've got lots and lots of different
• 3:44
  vegetarian options. But this, this vegan thing is,
• 3:47
  is quite. I always say new because it's
• 3:50
  not quite right, but in terms of like, let's say like mainstream
• 3:54
  appeal and accessibility, that's the word I'm looking for.
• 3:58
  It's not, maybe as accessible. So what?
• 4:02
  Yeah, what It was it difficult for you?
• 4:03
  Like what was that process like? Transitioning to being a vegan
• 4:09
  or so, because I was a vegetarian before and I was a
• 4:15
  dairy avoided before, it wasn't a big transition.
• 4:20
  But what I would say about making the transition is, if
• 4:24
  you're becoming a vegan now, is much easier than it was years
• 4:29
  ago because now, it's almost trendy, there's so much more
• 4:33
  information. There's a lot of celebrities.
• 4:35
  Who are vegan and have spoken about it publicly.
• 4:40
  There's, you know, vegan versions of almost everything.
• 4:44
  So it's a lot easier now than it was before.
• 4:48
  But for me, is not just about becoming vegan, it's a whole
• 4:53
  food plant-based diet because the misconception is, is if the
• 4:58
  food is vegan, that automatically makes it healthy.
• 5:02
  So if you have chips or Fries is American say in deep deep fried
• 5:08
  in oil that's vegan but there's nothing healthy about it.
• 5:14
  Yeah. It has to be Whole Food
• 5:18
  plant-based. So that's a different approach
• 5:21
  to just being vegan because they believe me there's a ton of junk
• 5:26
  food. I mean, you could eat, you know,
• 5:29
  100% nonsense and it's all vegan.
• 5:31
  So it's about choosing a healthy diet either.
• 5:35
  S. So that transition again to be
• 5:38
  honest if you are healthy and you focus on fresh fruits and
• 5:44
  vegetables and not eating too much processed junk, it's much
• 5:49
  easier and I think making the transition it's about doing it
• 5:54
  for me. When people are mean, it's a
• 5:56
  question, I get asked all the time.
• 5:57
  I want to make the transition. How do I do it?
• 6:00
  I always say start slowly. Don't just say write as from
• 6:04
  today. I'm never going to have meat
• 6:07
  fish eggs a day ever again. And I'm now going to be a vegan
• 6:10
  Dada. I think good luck.
• 6:13
  It's not the body. It's a too much of a shock to
• 6:16
  the body. I think it's always say start
• 6:18
  slowly. So pick a meal, so, say
• 6:22
  breakfasts. And for the next one or two
• 6:25
  weeks, start having vegan breakfasts, and then keeper a
• 6:29
  list and a of the all the recipes that you like, so get a
• 6:33
  folder. And as you find a vegan Force
• 6:36
  that you like keep the recipe then you can move on to snacks.
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  Find different vegan snacks. Again keep a list of reason why
• 6:44
  I say keep the list is you're going to forget and think, what
• 6:47
  did I have again? But when you write it all down
• 6:49
  and you look at it, you think? Uh, that's yeah, this is good.
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  So you kind of creating your own for recipe bank and then you
• 6:55
  phase it in with all the other dishes.
• 6:57
  Until eventually, you've got it down to a science.
• 6:59
  Basically, I think in general as well that that sort of technique
• 7:04
  with anything in life is, is who Is quite good because it keeps
• 7:07
  you organized. And especially if you're trying
• 7:10
  to do something like that, which is so big in your life.
• 7:13
  Such a big change in your life. You need something to track that
• 7:15
  and to motivate you and, you know, I just feel like if you
• 7:18
  don't have that, it's a bit like you have, like, I suppose it's
• 7:22
  kind of, its kind of like, bit weird.
• 7:24
  But like, it's bit like giving up smoking.
• 7:26
  Like, I gave up earlier this year and thank you, I love the
• 7:30
  old literally. The only thing that kind of
• 7:32
  really kept pushing me and motivating me about that.
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  Was the fact that I did a video about it?
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  And I kind of felt like I can't, I can't go back on that.
• 7:42
  Now, I've said that I could, you know what I mean?
• 7:44
  It was like now it's set in stone and it's a marking Point
• 7:47
  obviously that was possibly an April time maybe a bit earlier
• 7:50
  than that. But yeah point is there's
• 7:54
  something to kind of track that that progress and stuff and as
• 7:58
  you said, you know you take steps here and there to change
• 8:01
  things and then get to your goal I suppose.
• 8:03
  I suppose. That's kind of the point, isn't
• 8:05
  it? It's like you got The little
• 8:06
  goals and then you're a big overall goal of going full on.
• 8:10
  But yeah, you mentioned while you're describing your
• 8:14
  transition from vegetarian to vegan, that you became a
• 8:17
  vegetarian at age 18, which I found quite interesting.
• 8:21
  It's kind of naturally assumed that you would just a vegetarian
• 8:24
  from a young age, like, as a younger age.
• 8:28
  I just wanted to ask you about that.
• 8:30
  That was that, like a choice thing in the sense that like,
• 8:34
  like, was your family quite Act on that growing up or was it
• 8:37
  just like you just decided? You know I've had enough.
• 8:41
  Now I'm going to change and go through the vegetarian.
• 8:45
  Okay, so I do not have anyone else.
• 8:50
  Well, when I became a vegetarian, when I was 18, no
• 8:54
  one else in my family, at the time was vegetarian.
• 8:57
  However, my background is, I'm a Seventh-Day Adventist, which is
• 9:02
  a Christian religion. So I grew up in the church and
• 9:05
  The Seventh-Day Adventist religion upholds vegan
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  vegetarianism and healthy eating healthy mind, healthy body,
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  healthy spirit. So I'm always been familiar.
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  So when In our churches, they have usually like a potluck meal
• 9:18
  where everybody brings that it's usually vegetarian the meal.
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  So they they don't say you have to be, but it's encouraged.
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  So that's where I kind of got the first kind of information
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  about, you know, possibly changing to this kind of diet.
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  So then we, my mom had a friend who was a vegan that we knew
• 9:40
  when I was small, but that he was, I think he did.
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  He was raw food. Which going back, then he was
• 9:47
  ahead of his time because back then no one there wasn't, it
• 9:51
  wasn't popular, it wasn't something.
• 9:52
  People even knew the name of, it's just what I thought about
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  it as an adult thinking of what he ate.
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  I thought, oh, he was wrongly. He mainly at raw food and as a
• 10:01
  child, I just thought this man is weird.
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  I thought I hope you never get invited to his house for dinner
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  so he can't cook basically not realizing he was really healthy
• 10:12
  because I'm thinking was like an older gentleman and he look
• 10:15
  Really good fries, they do to really healthy, really fit his
• 10:18
  skin wonderful. So, but I didn't I wasn't
• 10:22
  familiar with how they all work to them, but now when I first
• 10:27
  became a vegetarian, my parents were kind of like okay, my dad
• 10:32
  was more encouraging. He was like laughing, that's a
• 10:35
  good idea. And as time went on, my mom
• 10:38
  started to buy vegan cookbook. She bought wine Cool cookbook.
• 10:43
  If there's one vegan in the Family.
• 10:45
  So she's try recipes from it. Yeah, it's like, how'd you cook
• 10:49
  one meal? Just for the vegetarian at the
• 10:52
  time, but now a days my family, I realized I'm really blessed
• 10:57
  because when I go to family gatherings, they always always
• 11:02
  cater for me as a vegan. They really good for example,
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  when we had a family gathering They usually make a sticky
• 11:13
  toffee pudding and they make it vegan.
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  So my sister who makes it is not vegan, but she learnt using
• 11:20
  recipes from Nigella poor Hollywood.
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  And all of that, and marry Barry.
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  Put it all together. Did her own twist on it and then
• 11:27
  did a vegan version of it and quite honestly, she's being kind
• 11:30
  of getting her friends who are not vegan to try it out and they
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  saying to her, it's this really vegan.
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  I mean it just doesn't taste vegan, okay?
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  Very much. So And I'm really blessed in
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  that way, that they really supportive.
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  I do have vegans that I have met, who said that their family
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  are the complete opposite. They're very anti-vegan they say
• 11:51
  awkward and they don't, they're not supportive at all.
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  So I realized that that for me is a really brilliant Advantage.
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  So I'm really, really pleased about that.
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  I'm interested about that. Because obviously, if we were
• 12:07
  talking say 30, 40 years ago, I would understand that kind of
• 12:10
  Backlash. Because, you know, the, I
• 12:13
  suppose, you know, for many people just being vegetarian
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  was, was tricky. You know, it was like or its
• 12:19
  people being very fussy, or people being different, but
• 12:22
  difficult, and purpose, or something, or or whatever the
• 12:25
  case may be, there was obviously a lot more implications and
• 12:28
  stuff. And I feel like, you know,
• 12:31
  because obviously, I grew up in the 90s and then, you know, over
• 12:33
  the years, I've seen that to how people's attitudes have changed
• 12:38
  and stuff and obviously, like healthy eating, and Lifestyles
• 12:41
  are really, really important now, but I'm intrigued that you
• 12:44
  still kind of get pushed back to this day.
• 12:47
  Like what kind of push back do you get?
• 12:50
  You don't think I'd like to specifics, but what will kind of
• 12:53
  reasons of people pushing against Allah would have thought
• 12:55
  that it would be embraced by all?
• 12:58
  But at this point, my I wish there's still a bit of a stigma
• 13:04
  that if it's something is vegan than its tasteless, or it's not
• 13:08
  filling. They're still people think that
• 13:13
  and then there's still people who don't really know what a
• 13:16
  vegan is. So when people say to me, what
• 13:19
  is a vegan? I say no meat, no fish, no eggs,
• 13:22
  no Dairy, no honey. And they are honey.
• 13:25
  So well yeah Honey's come from B's B's a.
• 13:30
  I said nothing with a face or parents and there are because
• 13:33
  I've been to functions where I said, oh, I ordered the vegan
• 13:37
  dish. Oh yeah, no problem.
• 13:39
  The fish is coming out soon. Okay, how does that look?
• 13:43
  They just don't get it. I went to a particular event on
• 13:48
  Sundays crazy. I went to a particular event
• 13:50
  once and you could book in advance to say, I'm a vegan,
• 13:54
  right? So I knew the person organizing
• 13:56
  the event and she said, I, when I got there, she said Susanna
• 14:01
  really need your help. I said, oh what's happened?
• 14:03
  She said, there's I think six people who've said that their RV
• 14:10
  Egan who are coming to this event.
• 14:12
  She says, I don't think the hotel of really cated for them.
• 14:16
  She said, can you just go in the kitchen and help them?
• 14:18
  So, I went into the kitchen, spoke to the chief, he knew that
• 14:24
  I was with the organizer and he was really glad, I don't know
• 14:27
  what to make. Mako.
• 14:41
  And okay we've got less than an hour before the event starts.
• 14:47
  Can I talk you through a recipe? Yeah.
• 14:49
  Sadly we got any chick peas and said?
• 14:50
  Yeah sure said. Okay.
• 14:52
  Get those said have you got any curry powder?
• 14:55
  You said yes I said. Okay I said have you got any
• 14:58
  onions? Peppers garlic.
• 14:59
  But I said right? Do I said right?
• 15:00
  Make a chickpea Curry. I'm going to talk you through.
• 15:02
  I said do this. Do that and he went.
• 15:04
  Oh okay. All right.
• 15:06
  And then he made it and I just thought you're in Hilton.
• 15:12
  Maybe I shouldn't say the name of it particular hotel hotel,
• 15:17
  and obviously they booked you because you know what you can
• 15:20
  do, but you really told me you couldn't even Google a recipe, a
• 15:25
  vegan recipe and just follow it. So to me, I'm just like, it's
• 15:29
  almost like they feel paralyzed. Obviously going, I didn't learn
• 15:32
  that at Chef school. What do I do now?
• 15:34
  I think. Okay, it's obviously a mindset
• 15:38
  because quite frankly, there's a lots of Things that they can
• 15:41
  make, which don't require you to have the skill of Gordon, Ramsay
• 15:45
  in the slightest. So yeah, there's still a stigma
• 15:51
  and a mindset that people think know it's vegan.
• 15:53
  Oh no, no. It's going to be rubbish or it's
• 15:55
  going to be not going to taste nice over there.
• 15:58
  Are some vegans you can't cook. I must admit.
• 16:03
  I gotta say that that does kind of surprised me.
• 16:05
  I mean, okay, I've not tried like all vegan dishes but the
• 16:08
  stuff that I have tried I've always really enjoyed.
• 16:10
  Enjoyed. I'm particularly vegan cakes,
• 16:12
  all my God just, okay, best stuff I've tried of is vegans
• 16:17
  case, but I think it's just, it's a lot, a lot of it sounds
• 16:21
  like a kind of combination of misinformation on people's
• 16:25
  partner or misinformation. But like, misunderstanding I
• 16:29
  mean your point about like, you know, being selfish, when it's
• 16:33
  you said that you're vegan, I've seen this kind of mistakes.
• 16:36
  So many times. So many different events have
• 16:39
  been at and There's always that kind of blank face of yo
• 16:42
  speaker. What's the problem?
• 16:43
  You're like, well it you know, it's not suppose that this and
• 16:46
  this and this and they're like, oh, okay, this is awkward, but
• 16:51
  it's that sort of thing. If you do the research, it's not
• 16:54
  too tricky. It's you know a lot of these
• 16:56
  things as you said like chickpeas, you can get that in
• 16:58
  any standard supermarkets. Really 45 Pence for a 10 or
• 17:02
  less. Yeah, yeah.
• 17:05
  I get some of this stuff as well because you know, it's super
• 17:09
  cheap and it's It's healthy obviously and it's different as
• 17:13
  well. It's, it's better than just
• 17:15
  having, like, your standard. Like, I don't know, rice dish or
• 17:18
  whatever. Like you can just mix it up and
• 17:19
  try different things. I really like, like, lentils and
• 17:23
  stuff like that as well. I think that's, you know, you
• 17:25
  can be kind of experimental with that, and it gives it like a
• 17:28
  different. Not just a different taste, but
• 17:29
  different texture as well. And, and so on, but anyway, and
• 17:35
  obviously you've told us how you sort of got into becoming
• 17:38
  vegetarian and vegan, but when did you sort of?
• 17:40
  First start like trial in with with cooking.
• 17:45
  I understand that you grew up with a family that were, you
• 17:46
  know, like very into their cooking stuff.
• 17:48
  But like, when did you first start doing Vegan Cooking?
• 17:54
  Well, I when I first became a vegetarian that it wasn't as
• 18:00
  popular as it is now. So what I used to do is keep
• 18:06
  trying out different recipes because I was born and raised in
• 18:09
  London. My parents are from Jamaica.
• 18:13
  They were born and raised in Jamaica.
• 18:14
  Well yeah. Born in Jamaica and came to
• 18:17
  England in their teens. So obviously, I grew up with
• 18:24
  eating, English food at school and eating chips are being so,
• 18:35
  obviously, if you're you have a Jamaican, if you have Jamaican
• 18:39
  parents, you will be Familiar and that's kind of your palate.
• 18:42
  That's kind of the The Benchmark for stuff.
• 18:45
  So I found that a lot of the vegetarian recipes weren't quite
• 18:50
  my to my taste. So what I used to do is tweak
• 18:54
  them and then keep a copy of the recipe in a file.
• 19:00
  And then it got to a point where I thought this could be a book.
• 19:05
  So, I decided to write a cookbook.
• 19:08
  My very first cookbook was, in 2012 called Curly's kitchen.
• 19:13
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. And what we'll get to that in a
• 19:16
  little bit, but I think it's quite an exciting thing when you
• 19:21
  when you have that like I've had that with this bit different
• 19:23
  with but with my creative Endeavors when you get that
• 19:26
  light bulb moment and you're like oh this could be something,
• 19:30
  it's exciting death. Yeah yeah let's bring it back.
• 19:35
  Just just veganism in general and the health side of things.
• 19:38
  But what would you say are the major kind of health benefits of
• 19:41
  going vegan in comparison with other types of diets and
• 19:45
  lifestyles? There is the opportunity from a
• 19:51
  whole food, plant-based vegan diet, to reduce the amount of
• 19:56
  saturated fat that you have in the food that you have.
• 20:01
  All also, there's more links to cancers for Meat and Fish,
• 20:12
  right? Eating then there is to being a
• 20:16
  vegan But what kind of swung it for me is, there's a book
• 20:22
  called. I don't know if you've heard of
• 20:23
  it, called The China Study by T. Colin Campbell familiar with
• 20:27
  that familiar. Okay, it was a study is called
• 20:31
  The China Study was done. It's a basically a collection of
• 20:35
  different stuff. The China Study itself is a
• 20:37
  study that was done by lots of independent researchers who were
• 20:43
  doctors or scientists, but they didn't all know they were doing.
• 20:47
  In more or less the same study you know roughly the same time.
• 20:51
  The what they were trying to find out is in rural parts of
• 20:54
  China, certain rural parts of China.
• 20:57
  Why are they so healthy? And they have practically zero,
• 21:02
  Cancers, and heart disease, and things like that.
• 21:06
  So they did a study, the reason they did it in rural China is
• 21:09
  because in those particular parts of rural China, they've
• 21:12
  had the same people there for hundreds of years because it's
• 21:14
  an area where you don't get anyone going.
• 21:17
  Out so it's almost like a controlled environment to do a
• 21:22
  test so to speak. So everyone there is born there,
• 21:25
  raised their their great, great grandparents going back, a
• 21:28
  hundred thousand years, whatever, all from there.
• 21:30
  So they're the same group of people.
• 21:33
  So when they did the tests they did it the test over a 20-year
• 21:36
  period, they all came to the conclusion, it's because of what
• 21:38
  they eat. So, the guy T, Colin Campbell.
• 21:42
  He actually grew up on a dairy farm, so he was really
• 21:45
  interested and he realized That these people had little to no,
• 21:49
  Dairy whatsoever. So, then this led him to become
• 21:52
  a vegan and it's in reading the book that I decided to become to
• 21:57
  make the change from vegetarian to veganism.
• 22:00
  Yeah, that's yeah. That's interesting as well
• 22:02
  because I feel like you've got, like, a few different reasons
• 22:07
  why people ultimately got a vegetarian or vegan, and it can
• 22:10
  either be from, like, the moral perspective, which is perfectly
• 22:13
  understandable. I love animals, and this is one
• 22:15
  of the reasons why I'm always Toying with the idea and stuff.
• 22:18
  And like we explained, all you explained earlier.
• 22:22
  It's not the sort of thing you can just do like that.
• 22:25
  Yeah, it's gradually. Yeah, but but in terms of like
• 22:32
  lifestyle and stuff and the health benefits side of stuff,
• 22:34
  it is one of those things that you do not, everyone kind of
• 22:38
  knows, you know what the benefits actually are.
• 22:41
  And like if it were if it will indeed be good for them and it's
• 22:45
  refreshing to kind of hear someone.
• 22:47
  And sort of say like, here's the facts, here's what I learned.
• 22:50
  And this is why I've kind of made that transition kind of
• 22:52
  thing because most people I know that went vegan for the most
• 22:56
  part years. The animals thing which yeah,
• 22:59
  it's fine. I'm not, I'm not, you know,
• 23:01
  saying that that's a bad thing at all.
• 23:02
  Just, you know, it's interesting to hear a different kind of
• 23:04
  reason for that but yeah, let's keep it moving forward.
• 23:10
  So yeah, as I mentioned in the Preamble, you are a TV
• 23:13
  presenter. Also a YouTuber, is there any
• 23:16
  kind of Major differences in terms of like how you approach
• 23:22
  presenting on those different mediums.
• 23:26
  We're between YouTube and and where else.
• 23:30
  And so like the obviously, because you've okay, as I
• 23:34
  understand it, with the first show that you did you don't like
• 23:39
  a panelist because that's not exactly, right.
• 23:40
  But like you're one of the featured Cooks on that show and
• 23:44
  then your more recent show your, like the host.
• 23:47
  It's your thing, it's your baby kind of thing, you're, you know,
• 23:51
  managing the whole process. So I would imagine that There's
• 23:56
  more of a closer link between that more recent show that
• 23:59
  you've done and then your YouTube as well as obviously,
• 24:01
  you're managing and all of the content on that.
• 24:04
  So, in terms of like those two mediums, your TV versus YouTube,
• 24:08
  like what are the major differences between those two
• 24:11
  for you and in terms of like how you create that content, how you
• 24:16
  produce it and just generally how you approach, right?
• 24:21
  The difference is when I think the shows, You are talking about
• 24:26
  is the ones that were on 3abn TV in America.
• 24:30
  Those ones obviously, they're not produced by me.
• 24:34
  I flew to America to record those shows.
• 24:37
  I was supposed to go this year again, but obviously Global
• 24:40
  pandemic had other ideas. So it's different because they
• 24:45
  have more control over what happens.
• 24:48
  They're not to they do, give me some creative control because
• 24:52
  they say, you know, just let us know what recipes you're doing.
• 24:55
  And so you do have some say in how the program goes, but it's
• 25:02
  basically their production, you kind of, you know, I know you're
• 25:07
  an actor as well as you understand how that works.
• 25:09
  If it's there is someone else's production you have to, you
• 25:12
  know, go with the flow that he told.
• 25:15
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.
• 25:18
  You know, use the discipline that you learn because I went to
• 25:21
  a stage school. I went to the Sylveon theater
• 25:23
  school. So alright, yeah, you studied
• 25:25
  theater. At young age.
• 25:26
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. So when you're doing your own
• 25:30
  thing it's it's completely different.
• 25:34
  It's a it's a similar transferable skills because
• 25:38
  obviously speaking to camera look into the camera engaging,
• 25:40
  all of that, all of that work but it's a different feeling and
• 25:44
  it's kind of more freeing one sense, but it can be a lot more
• 25:50
  pressure in another set because the shows I did in America and
• 25:55
  here, The day, they're going to look at that channel and say
• 25:59
  that's a program on that channel, but if it's my
• 26:03
  production is all on you. So it's not going to be anything
• 26:08
  here is if there's a bad show, you can just blow it wasn't on
• 26:12
  that one Foster blame talked about, but it's these kind of
• 26:21
  like that but if you know, once you've tested the waters and you
• 26:28
  look at what you've done your research and you know, edited it
• 26:31
  and so forth my Approach obviously to YouTube.
• 26:34
  It's a bit more laid-back, you basically YouTube channel.
• 26:38
  You can put almost whatever you like on it.
• 26:42
  Hmm. With this stuff for the Amazon
• 26:45
  series, that was different because it was there was a lot
• 26:49
  more that went into that production half of it was filmed
• 26:52
  in Jamaica and half of it was filmed here in London.
• 26:55
  So That was a lot more that went into it to produce those that
• 27:00
  series, but it's unquiet proud of it.
• 27:06
  I just think, what if I die tomorrow?
• 27:07
  Okay, at least I can say tick. I've done that kind of thing.
• 27:11
  So I'm really proud of it. And when it actually went to
• 27:15
  broadcast during the pandemic, it went out began broadcasting
• 27:20
  in July. So then the vegan media picked
• 27:24
  up on it. And I've Got a truckload of
• 27:27
  publicity on the back of it so that obviously will push a lot
• 27:30
  of traffic to that and it opened up a few doors for me and so
• 27:33
  forth as well. So the in terms of the approach
• 27:37
  with the Amazon, one of those Productions that are produced
• 27:41
  myself, you get to be more creative and you get to put in
• 27:46
  it, what you want to put in it, which is which is great.
• 27:50
  But you still have to think of the audience because it's not
• 27:54
  just for me. To watch at home because then, I
• 27:57
  could really put only what I want.
• 27:59
  But you still have to think, what would the audience want to
• 28:02
  see? Because I'm due to do serious,
• 28:06
  too, which is kind of interesting during a pandemic, a
• 28:09
  to do that. But once I do series to, there's
• 28:13
  things I've learned from series one that, you know, I would
• 28:16
  tweak as a presenter, as well. Yeah, so yeah, it's a different
• 28:20
  approach but it's a similar skill set.
• 28:23
  But yeah, yeah. It seems very logical to me is
• 28:27
  kind of dancer expected as well. And yeah, since you brought it
• 28:31
  up. Yeah.
• 28:32
  Let's let's talk about it at length.
• 28:33
  So yeah. You have a cooking show with
• 28:35
  Amazon Prime, it's full name is as I mentioned before curlysuze,
• 28:39
  Global kitchen. How did this come into fruition?
• 28:43
  Talk to us a little bit about this offer, in terms of like
• 28:48
  when it came, how, you know, how it was delivered to you and such
• 28:52
  and do. Yeah, just the process of
• 28:55
  putting This together. Because as you mentioned before,
• 28:57
  this is very different to this shows you done in the past.
• 29:02
  This was your entirely your own thing.
• 29:04
  And when I was actually looking up at my research for this, you
• 29:07
  know, you were believe co-producer and the director for
• 29:12
  us as well, so it was entirely your sort of production, so it's
• 29:16
  a little bit about that. So I've always wanted to have my
• 29:22
  own cooking show and I must have knocked her.
• 29:25
  On have many doors, I don't know.
• 29:28
  And I mean you know in the show business it's kind of partly a
• 29:34
  numbers game. See how to keep knocking on
• 29:36
  doors? Keep knocking on doors and then
• 29:38
  I thought there's got to be another way around this.
• 29:43
  So I thought, okay you know what I'm just going to produce my own
• 29:48
  show if they don't want to give me a show then.
• 29:50
  Okay that's your your choice. I'm just going to produce my So
• 29:56
  I sat down and I thought, okay, but I want it to be called, what
• 29:59
  do I want it to include? What could I do to make it
• 30:03
  different? Cuz I don't want it to just the
• 30:05
  be in the kitchen and and today, we're going to make some jams.
• 30:09
  You just be. Okay, everyone's done that big
• 30:11
  deal. So I thought, what could I do to
• 30:13
  really up the level of production?
• 30:18
  So I thought drone shots. So I thought I want drone shots.
• 30:21
  And I thought, what about the backdrop?
• 30:23
  And I thought, okay, I could fill in some of it in Jamaica so
• 30:29
  that would look amazing as well. And then and I thought if I, it
• 30:33
  wasn't just me because I always I always think of there's a
• 30:38
  quote by Michelle Obama. She said when a door opens for
• 30:42
  you, hold the door open for somebody else.
• 30:45
  So always in whatever production I'm doing is hold the door open
• 30:49
  and bring in other people, actors presented and so forth to
• 30:53
  give them an opportunity to To have something else added to
• 30:58
  their CV, another experience, and so forth.
• 31:00
  So I brought in some other people to be in the production
• 31:02
  so it wasn't just you know three you know a series with just me
• 31:06
  me me and me. It's other people in it as well.
• 31:09
  So I sat down and wrote the shows.
• 31:17
  And then I thought, right? I'm going to produce this.
• 31:20
  So my sister klaudia, she helped me to produce it, so she's
• 31:24
  co-producer. And then I just thought, right?
• 31:26
  Let's books and venues. Let's get some cool sheets drawn
• 31:31
  up and let's let's do this. So filming in Jamaica was an
• 31:37
  experience for me because I've been there tons of times, but
• 31:40
  I've never filmed there. So I thought, let me do my
• 31:43
  research because all countries are different.
• 31:46
  And what I found out is when you're filming in Jamaica,
• 31:48
  because it is somewhere that people film a lot, there's rules
• 31:53
  around filming. So you have to, A license to
• 31:56
  film. You can't just film turn up and
• 31:59
  just film whatever you like. So there's a Jamaica film,
• 32:02
  There's a, is called a film Jamaica.
• 32:05
  So you apply to them and they give you a license.
• 32:08
  You have to pay a fee which is not a lot really.
• 32:12
  So you pay you pay a fee but you also have to make sure you
• 32:15
  employ somebody locally to be part of the production which I
• 32:19
  totally understand because you know people there were
• 32:21
  opportunities. So I did have there's a lady E
• 32:25
  in it, who is actually my aunts housekeeper?
• 32:28
  Who does the cooking? So, she's showing me some dishes
• 32:31
  so she was paid to be in that production as well.
• 32:35
  So I made sure she had involved some local people as well.
• 32:41
  And I went to a culinary school in Montego Bay Jamaica and ask
• 32:48
  them to show me some dishes, and their students got to be
• 32:51
  involved in the production as well.
• 32:53
  So I really made sure that It wasn't just pushing myself
• 32:58
  forward, but also giving other people some opportunities as
• 33:01
  well, and they were all paid for being in the show as well.
• 33:04
  So yeah, it was, it was a really enjoyable experience and that I
• 33:08
  filmed the rest of it here. So, I hired a studio boardroom
• 33:12
  studios in South London, which is really good really great
• 33:15
  Studio. A lot of really famous things
• 33:17
  have filmed there and then it went into editing.
• 33:22
  And the idea was to see which, Annal was going to pick it up.
• 33:29
  Okay, so this is interesting. So you okay, so you've already
• 33:33
  filmed this whole thing, funded it and produced it all yourself
• 33:37
  before it's even commissioned for anything.
• 33:40
  You just knew you were going to do this and you were finding a
• 33:42
  platform. Wow, that's incredible.
• 33:45
  Yeah, yeah. I just thought, I'm just going
• 33:48
  to do this, so then I thought, okay, I'm going to see what
• 33:53
  platforms channels will pick it up to Picked up by a channel
• 33:56
  that America was not just not just Amazon Prime, then it's
• 34:02
  also available. No.
• 34:04
  Yeah, it's on Sango TV, which is on Google Play.
• 34:09
  It's also, it was on the Hope channel in Africa, so that
• 34:15
  broadcast throughout the whole of the sub-Saharan Africa, how
• 34:19
  which is huge. I see a huge meeting.
• 34:23
  Yeah, massive. And then Then it was also on
• 34:27
  Loma, Linda T, VAR TV, a few different and then it's now on
• 34:32
  there and it's just been picked up for an airline as well.
• 34:37
  I think it's South African airlines as well.
• 34:40
  So, when picked up well, congratulations, that's awesome.
• 34:44
  They just as you real quick, just hypothetical just because
• 34:48
  I'm curious about that if Amazon hadn't of picked up, what, where
• 34:53
  do you envision, you would have Put it out to like what would
• 34:57
  you have just kept looking for a particular external platform?
• 35:02
  Or would you have? Yeah, it is.
• 35:04
  Okay, so you wouldn't have liked me, there's more I was going to
• 35:08
  say you wouldn't have just put it out like say for your own
• 35:11
  channel or something like that. No, because there's a bit of it.
• 35:16
  I mean you could do but there is a bit of a stereotype that if
• 35:21
  you just put it on YouTube and what?
• 35:23
  Because if you produce a series and you put it on YouTube, it's
• 35:29
  viewed very differently to have it on Amazon Prime.
• 35:32
  Yeah although YouTube pays very differently to Amazon Prime just
• 35:39
  say I imagine peanuts. Is why here it depends.
• 35:47
  Wow, that's a whole new. Okay, he's awesome debate.
• 35:54
  Okay, let's bring it back to Jamaica.
• 35:57
  So obviously, you filmed it in Montego Bay in Jamaica.
• 36:02
  Now, I know obviously in terms of like how these cultures
• 36:06
  differ vastly, you know, they need to ask that question but I
• 36:09
  did have an interesting question for you.
• 36:11
  In terms of like how does Jamaican no, I suppose attitudes
• 36:16
  or the culture in general differ to the US and the UK
• 36:20
  specifically, in terms of Vegan Cooking, what was the chant
• 36:24
  General kind of ethos out there when it comes to Vegan, Cooking
• 36:30
  Vegan Cooking has been in existence in Jamaica for a very
• 36:35
  long time long before it was trendy in in Western countries
• 36:38
  because there's a minority group in Jamaica called the rat Far
• 36:44
  ends or rastas? Yeah, you have to dread locks.
• 36:48
  Now, they are vegan. They have a whole food
• 36:51
  plant-based diet. They don't have processed food,
• 36:55
  and very healthy. A lot of them won't even have
• 36:59
  stuff like tofu because that's processed.
• 37:02
  So they're very healthy. So Jamaicans.
• 37:05
  They may not know it's describe the dish as vegan.
• 37:10
  So if you say Vegan and might not necessarily know what you
• 37:12
  mean, if you say aye, I tell that everybody will know what
• 37:15
  you mean. So rastas eat?
• 37:17
  I tell food the minute you say. I tore food, everyone's like,
• 37:20
  oh, okay. And there's I told restaurants
• 37:23
  and takeaways, so it's actually not difficult with regards vegan
• 37:28
  food at all. And people don't look down on it
• 37:31
  and Jamaica or see it as weird. They're just that, okay?
• 37:36
  So you only have eyes for food, so it's it hasn't.
• 37:38
  They have a very different approach be at the name is a bit
• 37:41
  different, sometimes, I'll call it vegetarian.
• 37:44
  They actually mean vegan but once you say, I told they do
• 37:48
  understand. Definitely.
• 37:50
  So one could say that that's more kind of where potentially,
• 37:54
  where, the origins of veganism originated from then is
• 37:58
  countries like Jamaica and possibly Africa or to by
• 38:02
  extension. No one really knows because when
• 38:07
  I did a history of veganism, I mean it goes back to Roman times
• 38:12
  and oh I think there's yeah that I don't think it kind of started
• 38:18
  in one place and evolve. I think it's been in pockets all
• 38:22
  over the world for a long time. So I don't think it's going to
• 38:26
  be very easy to trace the exact origin because I don't think it
• 38:30
  came from one place it makes sense, really doesn't it because
• 38:34
  I think, I guess we've all many of us are probably very naive
• 38:37
  and then the concept of, you know, this idea that
• 38:41
  intolerances didn't exist I on the go because I mean yeah you
• 38:46
  can't control how the body is and what it reacts to like, I
• 38:49
  remember just them partially related to this reading a book
• 38:53
  about drugs and how they affect brain chemistry.
• 38:57
  And I remember the thing that stuck out to me, the most was
• 39:00
  how you know, it every person can take the exact same drug and
• 39:03
  I'll have a completely different effect.
• 39:06
  So I can remember there was a really scary story of this
• 39:08
  person. First, this, this is just in the
• 39:11
  intro, it's like great stuff, but The guy was basically like,
• 39:15
  giving a story of how this one person had tried.
• 39:18
  Just drinking some alcohol when they were 15 and this person had
• 39:22
  like a paralyzed effect completely their whole body.
• 39:25
  They couldn't move. So obviously he didn't ever
• 39:28
  drink again but it is crazy because for most people you know
• 39:33
  you get a bit silly and then that's that's it.
• 39:35
  You know? And then your body obviously,
• 39:38
  reject 6, it's technically poison and you know, goes out
• 39:42
  and stuff and it's the same with Full full of drugs and I suppose
• 39:46
  with food. It's the same like I've noticed
• 39:48
  over the years that certain things like, for instance, I
• 39:52
  don't know if it's to do with training or just being healthier
• 39:55
  in general, but my body just rejects like bad food.
• 39:59
  Take away food, anything like that?
• 40:00
  It's like nope. Okay, please no more.
• 40:06
  But I guess it makes sense because the body needs different
• 40:07
  things at different times, you know, and it's just logical that
• 40:13
  these things have been Been around since time immemorial.
• 40:16
  But anyway, going into the weeds, let's bring it back.
• 40:19
  So, yeah. You presented that Vegan Cooking
• 40:22
  Show in the USA for about four seasons.
• 40:25
  This is the one where you were a, just a presenter and not
• 40:28
  being involved. Yes, production-wise during this
• 40:32
  time, did you notice any kind of major differences between I
• 40:37
  suppose attitudes approaches to Vegan Cooking or just anything
• 40:41
  else in general specifically, where Pertains to veganism
• 40:45
  between the UK and the USA. The USA, I think there are a
• 40:55
  little bit ahead, comes to veganism.
• 40:57
  Okay, obviously, it's a big, it's a much, much bigger
• 41:00
  country. So there's I mean, I don't know
• 41:04
  if you've been to the US, I love going to the supermarket because
• 41:07
  the I mean, here you'll go down the aisle and you'll have just
• 41:11
  let say six different ketchup. So I have 20 different ketchups
• 41:15
  for example, but I'll be honest. Just just just to like, cut you
• 41:18
  for one. Like I've been to America lived
• 41:21
  in Europe and stuff and yeah, it's the press and come back to
• 41:24
  the UK. It's not to say that we don't
• 41:26
  have good stuff here because we do, we have Specialists places
• 41:29
  and all that but yet on average your general Supermarket it's
• 41:35
  kind of lacking in I mean it's getting better but yeah.
• 41:39
  Anyway, so yeah, so the difference is the choice.
• 41:43
  Obviously, it's a bigger country, the supermarket.
• 41:45
  I mean there isn't anything small in America, everything.
• 41:49
  Things huge. He has, I went to a Target in
• 41:53
  America and then which is when I was filming some of the shows
• 41:58
  there and they say, oh, we could go to, I think it's called
• 42:01
  Target extra or like a super Target was just, so what on
• 42:06
  Earth have they got more than what they normally do?
• 42:10
  You know, like, you can get like a what do they call it?
• 42:14
  Like, you can get though the the test goes that right?
• 42:17
  The much bigger. Target soul food as well.
• 42:20
  I thought they were just yeah. Oh, wow.
• 42:24
  Okay, I'll follow just Clover is retailer.
• 42:27
  Well, no, no, no. There's Target and Walmart yet.
• 42:32
  I mean, yeah. They have food as well.
• 42:33
  Yeah, I know I know Walmart sells, just, I mean, I've made
• 42:36
  the joke too, many of my American guests that you could,
• 42:39
  you could, theoretically, live in Walmart, in certain places
• 42:42
  because this is got everybody. Yeah, definitely.
• 42:47
  So yes. the the choice of products that accessibility to
• 42:55
  to vegan foods and surface obviously they've got loads more
• 42:59
  vegan festivals, obviously being a bigger country that is more of
• 43:02
  what we would have here, basically, but would you say
• 43:06
  like Jim with people's attitudes generally people you were
• 43:10
  talking to people in your sphere with a really conscientious
• 43:14
  about the, you know, veganism or I guess my It is more like, you
• 43:20
  know, do you think like the average person cares or is
• 43:23
  concerned? Because I remember when I went
• 43:25
  to California, you know, it's kind of obvious.
• 43:27
  Everyone was very health conscious, but even if you go to
• 43:31
  other states, like there is still this, I think the
• 43:34
  misconception basically, that all Americans are like really
• 43:37
  and healthy and stuff that is a misconception.
• 43:40
  And like, if you go into supermarkets, you can kind of
• 43:43
  find everything, you can find all the really bad stuff,
• 43:46
  really. Super unhealthy stuff, but you
• 43:47
  get a lot of healthy stuff as well.
• 43:49
  Well, and other day to me, it kind of threw me when I went.
• 43:53
  I was like, well, which is it then, is it, is it?
• 43:55
  Like, what, what, what is the average American?
• 43:58
  Like, does it, do they care about health?
• 44:00
  Do they not like, what's the deal?
• 44:03
  It's difficult because it is very so much depending on where
• 44:06
  you are because I usually go to New York once a year in New York
• 44:09
  is actually quite good if you're vegan, hmm.
• 44:12
  And then you could go to another state and it could be completely
• 44:16
  different. So it just, it depends.
• 44:19
  You are and what Circle? You you're moving in when I was
• 44:23
  filming, the shows in America, the studio is actually in West
• 44:26
  Frankfort, Illinois. So the Studio's on 82 acres of
• 44:31
  land, but a lot of the people who live around there are
• 44:36
  affiliated to the studio and the background of the studio, it's
• 44:41
  not owned by but the the people who run, it are Seventh-day.
• 44:44
  Adventists so systems their Ventus television channel.
• 44:49
  And there's a lot of Seventh-Day Adventists who live in and
• 44:51
  around the studio. So, there's a people you're
• 44:54
  running into when you're filming already, are familiar, because
• 44:59
  that particular Channel. 3abn only has vegan recipes on there.
• 45:04
  It doesn't have any others. So, Okay, please go and sorry.
• 45:11
  Yeah. So it really depends where you
• 45:14
  are because it's just so big and so vast and it's just like very
• 45:19
  different depending on what your so to work out the average
• 45:22
  American. I honestly don't know, I guess I
• 45:27
  was just curious because obviously spent a lot of time
• 45:30
  there and stuff like maybe you kind of know the pulse.
• 45:34
  I mean from obviously what I've learned so far from what you've
• 45:37
  said is that like There is this big Community out there, and
• 45:42
  it's interesting to hear that they have things like festivals
• 45:44
  and stuff. I mean, as it pertains to the UK
• 45:46
  I have seen, as I said, I know people that are vegan.
• 45:51
  I've, you know, I've seen obviously vegan products in
• 45:54
  stores but it's not like quite a big thing yet in comparison with
• 46:00
  maybe how vegetarianism is although I will say that.
• 46:07
  When it comes to Lifestyles there just seemed to be a lot
• 46:09
  of, you know, influences online from the UK as well that are
• 46:13
  like, hey, this is really important.
• 46:15
  It's going to be really good for you by blah.
• 46:18
  I don't know, it's, it's an interesting one but yeah, one
• 46:24
  thing I didn't probably about before, but I feel like it would
• 46:26
  be good to probably about is, you know, clearly there's a very
• 46:29
  big connection for you with religion and veganism.
• 46:32
  As you explained before that, they're pushing it.
• 46:37
  What is the reason behind that? Is that has it always been that
• 46:40
  way? Is this a new thing with with
• 46:43
  your particular religion that, you know?
• 46:46
  No, it's always been that way. Yeah, it's always been that way.
• 46:50
  We growing up then the church has always promoted a
• 46:56
  plant-based diet, not saying you have to.
• 46:58
  So a lot of people they are vegetarian vegan, but there's
• 47:02
  still a lot of people who eat meat and fish but we only eat
• 47:06
  Eat what we feel. The Bible says are clean.
• 47:12
  I mean, I don't eat animals, but for the Seventh-day Adventist
• 47:14
  religion that this is, there's clean and unclean, animals.
• 47:18
  For example, a Seventh-Day Adventist wouldn't have anything
• 47:21
  from the pig because that's considered an unclean animal.
• 47:26
  They wouldn't have like most people don't have like a horse
• 47:29
  but and they wouldn't have fish. That hasn't got scales and
• 47:32
  things like that. So they they eat meat and fish
• 47:35
  one. Not me but Seventh-Day,
• 47:37
  Adventists eat me to fish but only specific ones.
• 47:39
  So it's a similar dish diet to Judaism.
• 47:45
  In terms of, they don't have pork that only eat certain parts
• 47:48
  of the cow and so forth like that.
• 47:51
  Make sure the meat is of a particular standard of circles
• 47:54
  as well. Yeah, I learn something new
• 47:57
  every day, change it up here. What advice would you give to
• 48:03
  people who are considering going vegan right now?
• 48:07
  I would say start slowly phased it in.
• 48:12
  So as I was saying earlier start with one meal that you're going
• 48:15
  to change to be a vegan meal per day.
• 48:19
  Get a keeper diary and a folder with your favorite recipes that
• 48:24
  you discover. There are certain things that
• 48:27
  you going to have to find a new love because there was somebody
• 48:31
  who I was doing a seminar. She says, I just I'm going vegan
• 48:35
  but I just Can't find then. There wasn't as many options
• 48:40
  there are. Now, she said, I just love
• 48:41
  omelets. I just want to find a way to
• 48:44
  make omelets without eggs and at the time, I said, I would focus
• 48:49
  on finding a new love because you can make an omelet without
• 48:55
  egg, but it's not going to taste exactly like it because it's not
• 48:59
  it so that, you know, finding new loves as well.
• 49:06
  But in, Addition to that, I would say be careful who you
• 49:09
  share with because some people will not be helpful.
• 49:13
  Because if you say, oh, I'm starting to go vegan, some
• 49:17
  people go. Oh, what do you want to bother
• 49:18
  with that for? Or they'll question you?
• 49:20
  Why are you doing it? And they sometimes people
• 49:23
  project their issues onto you because they feel they should
• 49:28
  and they sent and they start to kind of be argumentative about
• 49:32
  it. People will ask questions.
• 49:34
  Yeah, I know it's ridiculous. People will ask questions.
• 49:38
  Yeah, so, come ready with your answers to kind of almost
• 49:43
  rehearse it so to speak. So what I did when I first
• 49:46
  became a vegan is when people ask me why you're a vegan
• 49:49
  because I realized it started to become a heated debate.
• 49:54
  I used to shy away and not say and then I thought well that
• 49:58
  doesn't work either. So what I used to say is, I'm a
• 50:01
  vegan because I've chosen to be a vegan and a happy vegan, I'm
• 50:05
  not an angry vegan. I prefer to eliminate meat fish
• 50:09
  eggs, dairy, and honey, and that's my choice.
• 50:13
  But if other people don't have that choice, that's not a
• 50:16
  problem for me. So then that kind of cautious is
• 50:19
  to be 8 because they kind of pre suppose you're an angry vegan
• 50:23
  and a judgmental vegan. So yeah, so that have those all
• 50:27
  those things in my Be creative, cook vegan versions of the
• 50:32
  dishes. You like find new loves.
• 50:35
  If you can't cut, learn to cook. Yeah, thanks for sure.
• 50:40
  Do appreciate that. I've often heard that going
• 50:45
  completely, vegan can be kind of expensive.
• 50:47
  So, is this actually true? Or is it possible to do it for
• 50:51
  Less, maybe? Like, what's the deal with that?
• 50:55
  It isn't because if you think, if you're going to buy Meat or
• 51:00
  fish consumed, consider the price of Meat and Fish to
• 51:04
  vegetables. Beans pulses, there is a
• 51:07
  misconception that veganism is more expensive.
• 51:11
  And I think the reason for that is certain vegan products are
• 51:15
  more expensive because they're not as mass-produced or
• 51:18
  subsidized by the government, as other, non vegan items.
• 51:24
  So, it's a misconception and also, if you're going to have a
• 51:27
  whole food plant-based, Based diet, we're not just talking
• 51:30
  junk down your throat, 24/7, it is a lot cheaper.
• 51:35
  So for example, I make butter bean and lentil Curry.
• 51:39
  Butter beans are really cheap at in is like that 30 Pence,
• 51:43
  lentils, red, lentils are really cheap and to make that as a dish
• 51:47
  is dirtiest, and you can have that with some rice or I like
• 51:52
  steamed buckwheat and I like planting, so you can have a side
• 51:55
  to plot. That dish is not going to be
• 51:58
  expensive. Tools.
• 51:59
  So, and it's also a good way to use up leftovers if you want to
• 52:03
  make sweet potato Roti and things like that.
• 52:05
  So, yeah, there's also realize a lot of these things that I just
• 52:08
  eat in general or actually vegan people say to me, oh, I never
• 52:15
  eat vegan. Food is a fruit?
• 52:18
  Yes, swegen. Do you drink water?
• 52:21
  Yeah, yeah, that's vegan. Okay, we're on a roll here,
• 52:24
  Saudi and I did that. And I said, do you have beans?
• 52:27
  Yeah. Okay.
• 52:28
  So people don't really, I said to them, are you say to people?
• 52:33
  If you look at your meal, there's only certain parts of it
• 52:37
  that are not vegan. The whole thing is not non
• 52:40
  vegan, because if you have a side order of of vegetables,
• 52:44
  because like it, you like a typical Sunday roast, it's only
• 52:47
  the roast and maybe the Yorkshire PUD 's that not V and
• 52:51
  everything else is. So it just depends the gravy can
• 52:54
  be, and it can be easily converted to a vegan dish.
• 52:57
  So, I think Not those things. Is why you can't taste the
• 53:00
  difference. I've had like, I don't know if
• 53:02
  it's vegan gravy, but I've definitely a vegetarian gravy.
• 53:06
  And it's like, there's just no difference in taste.
• 53:08
  I mean, maybe a little bit of it's, especially, depends, how
• 53:13
  fussy you are. Like, I remember trying corn
• 53:15
  mints. I know this isn't vegan but like
• 53:18
  for vegetarians. I remember trying it was a corn
• 53:21
  mints like spaghetti bolognese or something.
• 53:24
  I just couldn't tell the difference.
• 53:25
  I was like, oh maybe it is a little bit more seasoning than
• 53:28
  the Nerd Bolognese. But same same stuff.
• 53:35
  And would you say it's easier or more difficult to be vegan in
• 53:41
  the USA compared to the UK after?
• 53:43
  This is an obvious question, but just in terms of accessibility,
• 53:48
  I would say it's probably today is probably in the same because
• 53:56
  so many companies have jumped on the bandwagon.
• 53:58
  Making beaten began products. There's so much more information
• 54:02
  in the UK. There's a lot of vegan
• 54:06
  festivals. I was due to appear at about six
• 54:08
  vegan festivals. This year only did one online,
• 54:12
  but there you go. So there's there's a lot more.
• 54:15
  There's a lot more information choices in the UK.
• 54:20
  So I would say is probably more or less the same as the USA in
• 54:25
  proportion, but obviously in the u.s.a., it's a bigger country.
• 54:28
  There's More companies and so forth.
• 54:30
  But in general, I would say if you're a vegan living in the UK,
• 54:35
  or a vegan, even in the u.s.a., I think it's roughly the same
• 54:38
  experience. Roughly.
• 54:39
  Yeah. You know, I wouldn't say
• 54:42
  difficult and in the US and the UK, where do you think about the
• 54:46
  best places to get to Source vegan products in general?
• 54:51
  I was where would you go? Straight is Trader?
• 54:55
  Joe's Whole Foods, Krueger. Wal-Mart and Target as well as
• 55:05
  some options. Yeah.
• 55:08
  Mainly those I would say 50 traded.
• 55:12
  Well, how about for the for the UK?
• 55:14
  Where word for the UK everywhere?
• 55:18
  Most major supermarkets have vegan options.
• 55:21
  Whole Foods is great. A lot of the independent Whole
• 55:26
  Food stores like in North London, there's one called Mama
• 55:30
  Earth or Mother Earth. There's a that's an independent
• 55:36
  Whole Foods shop. There's yeah everybody.
• 55:41
  Yeah everywhere most major supermarkets because if you're
• 55:44
  doing your shopping online, if you can get a slot and if you
• 55:47
  put vegan into the surf, you put vegan into the circuit.
• 55:52
  Usually brings up most of the products that are identified or
• 55:56
  specify that they're vegan. Not going to bring up grapes
• 55:59
  because they I think Sainsbury's realized that most people can
• 56:02
  figure that out that it's vegan. But you know what I mean?
• 56:05
  If you base them lies. So soon that label and some
• 56:08
  surprising things. Look, a just doing it for
• 56:12
  marketing because there's certain products.
• 56:14
  Like Shreddies it put started to put vegan on it and I thought
• 56:18
  well I don't think anyone thought it was okay.
• 56:23
  My favorite is when it's like gluten-free on something that
• 56:26
  would just never have gluten in my I don't know.
• 56:29
  I know it's just Just trying to look in the no, and in the
• 56:35
  trend, basically. So yeah.
• 56:37
  So in terms of that and and obviously, depending on where
• 56:40
  you live, where they have pound a bowl fruit and veg, I mean,
• 56:43
  that's all vegan everywhere and Amazon delivers a lot of stuff.
• 56:51
  Yeah, there's also, lots of, if you go onto Instagram, there's
• 56:57
  lots of vegan food company. He's that advertise on there as
• 57:03
  well. So yeah, it's there's there's a
• 57:05
  lot. It's quite it's quite easy.
• 57:08
  I would say. Awesome, awesome, let's switch
• 57:11
  it up again. What are your main kind of
• 57:13
  aspirations with your current business ventures?
• 57:16
  Now, I use business ventures as a blanket term because you do a
• 57:19
  lot of different things. Like I said in the beginning
• 57:21
  with YouTube cooking shows your books.
• 57:24
  Also we haven't gotten to this just yet but your keynote talks
• 57:27
  as well. So yeah, what were your biggest
• 57:31
  goals is? Right now for just in general,
• 57:34
  all of those things. Well, the global pandemic has
• 57:37
  kind of changed that a tad as you can imagine because I was on
• 57:43
  a book tour for my book, called cooking with kids, but that kind
• 57:48
  of halted came to an old man Mighty hoped I was off to help
• 57:53
  far into that. Were you before before I got
• 57:55
  caught, while the book was published in November and then
• 57:58
  obviously March came the lockdown, sir.
• 58:01
  Got a few months in what case? Yeah, there was a lot that was
• 58:06
  done. There was a lot of that was done
• 58:07
  in that time, but yeah, so supposed to go to South Africa
• 58:11
  and America to film stuff based on the book.
• 58:13
  And so, but didn't happen. So now my goals really are to do
• 58:22
  more with my social media. There is an opportunity to film
• 58:28
  season 2 of my Series, it will have to be done differently
• 58:34
  because I will be going nowhere because most are concurrent
• 58:38
  doors are shut. So it will be probably something
• 58:43
  with zoom involved or something. So that's being worked on but
• 58:47
  I've just been offered a radio show that goes into conduction
• 58:52
  to next week where I'll be starting to record the shows.
• 58:58
  So actually to radio shows. So so for that particular radio
• 59:02
  station, so I'll be doing working on that.
• 59:05
  So I want to grow my social media, even more and working
• 59:10
  with different brands that reach out to me quite a lot.
• 59:13
  I had brands that reach out to me and say could you try one of
• 59:17
  our products? And could you tell us what you
• 59:20
  think and could you make a recipe with it?
• 59:22
  And they usually pay for that? Or sometimes they say, could you
• 59:26
  run a competition? So, they wind one of our prizes
• 59:29
  to get some publicity. So, To grow my social media,
• 59:33
  even more, and I'm doing some online classes loaf.
• 59:39
  Hello low-cost tasty low-cost vegan meals and vegan baking
• 59:46
  classes online as well. So yeah, I'm doing quite a lot,
• 59:49
  I guess. Yeah, I got to ask you real
• 59:51
  quick about this because I was going to ask you something
• 59:55
  different. But since we're talking about
• 59:56
  all the different things you do, you're also working as As a
• 1:00:01
  full-time internal communications consultant.
• 1:00:04
  I stalked your LinkedIn for this one, okay?
• 1:00:08
  And also, you know, obviously as a public speaker with the
• 1:00:11
  Keynotes things and I'm just looking at everything I'm
• 1:00:14
  sitting back and I'm like, how does this lady find the time to
• 1:00:18
  do, all of these different things like it, blows my mind.
• 1:00:24
  Yeah, I don't do the internal comms anymore.
• 1:00:28
  Oh no. That do that anymore, but I do
• 1:00:34
  get lots of speaking engagements.
• 1:00:36
  So, yeah, I do do that in terms of fitting stuff in you'd be
• 1:00:41
  amazed what you can fit in really.
• 1:00:43
  So, are you a parent as well? You haven't we?
• 1:00:48
  Okay. So that's one thing that makes
• 1:00:50
  it a little bit easier. Then.
• 1:00:52
  Yeah, not even a goldfish. So yeah, that obviously would
• 1:00:56
  make a big difference, but I've seen other people who do Do more
• 1:01:02
  than me. And they have got kids.
• 1:01:03
  So I think well, no, excuse really?
• 1:01:06
  Yeah. I mean when I was at University.
• 1:01:08
  Yeah. So when I was at University, for
• 1:01:10
  example, there was a lady in my class who was a mature student,
• 1:01:14
  she had three kids. All under ten one was a baby and
• 1:01:19
  they were all in primary school and she excelled because she
• 1:01:23
  basically said, I have to push harder than everyone else
• 1:01:25
  because I've got more on my plate.
• 1:01:27
  I just thought there's me lamenting about being University
• 1:01:30
  and Arizona. Also you know what, be quiet
• 1:01:32
  because you do not have three kids.
• 1:01:35
  So yeah, there's a lot you can get done.
• 1:01:39
  This is this is what I always think as well and people say oh
• 1:01:41
  just doing of the time, it's like because I've worked with
• 1:01:44
  people that are like that. I'm a working with the lady who
• 1:01:47
  many years ago when I used to work in a supermarket and she
• 1:01:50
  was working full-time and she had a teenage daughter and she
• 1:01:54
  was doing like night courses, to study to do report the field.
• 1:02:00
  She was going, I think teaching Thinking she was trained to be a
• 1:02:02
  teacher, and I was just blown away by how she was able to find
• 1:02:06
  the time to do all of that. But it is about willpower is
• 1:02:09
  about, you know, saying okay I'm going to dedicate this time to
• 1:02:13
  do this and I'm just going to make it happen.
• 1:02:15
  I'm just going to do it, nothing's gonna stop me and then
• 1:02:19
  that's the way the way you got to approach these things.
• 1:02:22
  But in all seriousness though like it's it is fascinating
• 1:02:26
  looking all these different things that you do.
• 1:02:28
  And another question that comes to mind for me, When I was
• 1:02:31
  looking, all those things is, do you have a team of people?
• 1:02:36
  Sort of producing, you know, everything on your social medias
• 1:02:40
  and managing all of that. Or is it just you?
• 1:02:42
  Because you're very, very no. Wow, it's me because you're very
• 1:02:50
  active. That's the thing you're doing so
• 1:02:52
  much and I know as well, because obviously, when I started this
• 1:02:56
  podcast, I did not realize how much work would have to go into
• 1:03:01
  it. It sounds like editing social
• 1:03:04
  media, you name it. And, you know, it's the same as
• 1:03:07
  what I said before you just do it, right?
• 1:03:10
  But it does take a hell of a lot of time and the whole time I'm
• 1:03:14
  thinking, like in the future, Shh, I'm going to get a team.
• 1:03:17
  I'm not going to do all of this stuff, but for right now,
• 1:03:20
  without the resources, I got to do it.
• 1:03:23
  But that yeah that's that's pretty amazing to me that you're
• 1:03:26
  able to pull that off. Like, do you have like a
• 1:03:30
  strategy for that or do you just that?
• 1:03:32
  How do you, how do you manage all that for my social media?
• 1:03:36
  Yeah, just yeah, not just your social media but also just
• 1:03:39
  managing all of these projects and making sure that you kind of
• 1:03:43
  are able to do them simultaneously.
• 1:03:45
  Leslie. Yeah, I have like a strategy in
• 1:03:50
  and each week I have siblings so myself.
• 1:03:54
  And my older sister is on social media as well hers.
• 1:03:59
  She's married to her surname is different to mine is Williams.
• 1:04:02
  So saw Dee Williams Flowers to Interiors, so we have a meeting
• 1:04:06
  every Sunday to say, right? Look at what she's doing, and if
• 1:04:09
  I can offer any constructive criticism and she'll look at
• 1:04:13
  what I'm doing and offer some extra To criticism as well.
• 1:04:17
  And then I met up with a friend of mine called Chantel
• 1:04:19
  yesterday, who she's on social media.
• 1:04:21
  She's called the budget. Mom, she budget, mom, UK, she's
• 1:04:24
  on social media. So, the same, I said to her, why
• 1:04:27
  don't we do like weekly check-in session?
• 1:04:30
  So out, how are you doing? How are things going?
• 1:04:32
  So when you have that, that does help you to kind of push ahead
• 1:04:35
  even more and then I kind of plan out my day.
• 1:04:38
  So I'll have a list of what I'm doing today and I'll think,
• 1:04:42
  right, I need to get this done. So I'll make sure for An hour.
• 1:04:45
  I sit on a focus on this. So I've got my kind of list for
• 1:04:48
  today of what I've been doing. So I've got down on it podcast
• 1:04:52
  interview with Christine Reeves. So, I've got all my time because
• 1:04:57
  I liked you at the end of the day and the week to be able to
• 1:05:00
  say, right achieved this this this and this in the day,
• 1:05:03
  because sometimes people say they haven't got.
• 1:05:05
  Yeah. I love kicking things off a lift
• 1:05:07
  because sometimes people say I haven't got the time, but if you
• 1:05:09
  kind of sat and did a log of what you did throughout the day,
• 1:05:15
  you Beeping, actually, I spent four hours watching a boxer on
• 1:05:18
  Netflix. You could have spent one hour
• 1:05:20
  watching the boxer and three hours or even two hours watching
• 1:05:23
  a boxer and achieved other thing or multitask, watch the box set
• 1:05:27
  and get stuff done at the same time.
• 1:05:29
  So it's a question of how you prioritize your time?
• 1:05:32
  I think I couldn't agree more with you.
• 1:05:34
  Yeah, I'm exactly the same with that and I think it applies to
• 1:05:37
  other things as well, like money when people say are, you know, I
• 1:05:41
  just don't have the money for this and while it might be true,
• 1:05:44
  you know, we all do struggle. I know I start, I do but when
• 1:05:47
  you look at like your expenses and what you're spending your
• 1:05:49
  money on in general. Yeah, a lot of time, you can
• 1:05:54
  afford things, you just are spending your money
• 1:05:56
  unnecessarily on certain things. And I feel like time and money
• 1:05:59
  are very similar in that respect, you know?
• 1:06:01
  And it's just yeah it's I think what you proposed just then.
• 1:06:06
  That's how I do it as well. It's always best to kind of look
• 1:06:10
  at the short-term goals. You can achieve to get to the
• 1:06:13
  the bigger goals and stuff and It's less daunting that way as
• 1:06:17
  well and I feel like it's more, it's more motivational like no
• 1:06:21
  one likes to have like loads and loads and loads of work piled on
• 1:06:25
  top of it. I mean, I don't know I suppose
• 1:06:26
  it depends what you're doing for me when it's this stuff, I love
• 1:06:30
  it. Even though I know the work
• 1:06:32
  that's involved, I love to do it.
• 1:06:33
  So it's different. But I will say in general that
• 1:06:38
  having that approach does lighten the load and make it a
• 1:06:40
  bit easier by comparison. Awesome.
• 1:06:46
  Awesome. Switching it up again.
• 1:06:48
  So as you mentioned before, you've written vegan, cookbooks
• 1:06:51
  for both adults and children more recently for children.
• 1:06:56
  Yes. Did I mean, I feel like this is
• 1:06:58
  kind of an obvious question. I've asked a previous guest of
• 1:07:01
  mine. The same question because he
• 1:07:04
  wrote comedy books for children. Did you approach them
• 1:07:09
  differently? And if so, what were the kind of
• 1:07:11
  major differences? Because obviously writing for
• 1:07:13
  children and writing for adults. On actually going to be
• 1:07:17
  different anyway. But what were the key
• 1:07:19
  differences in terms of how you approach those two books,
• 1:07:23
  different types of books? So for the kids book, I got a
• 1:07:30
  deal with the Publishers for that so I didn't set out to do a
• 1:07:35
  kids book. What I discovered is when the
• 1:07:40
  Publishers approached me that they had been following me on
• 1:07:42
  social media and looking at what I was doing and then they
• 1:07:45
  contacted me and said we would like to bring you in for a
• 1:07:48
  meeting. With regards, a cookbook that I
• 1:07:51
  thought was great. Dad went came board prepared
• 1:07:54
  with all Ideas of what I want to do and opportunities, don't
• 1:07:59
  always work out exactly as you would want them to.
• 1:08:04
  So I basically went into the meeting and I was like, oh yeah,
• 1:08:08
  I was like I can do this blah blah, blah blah blah, and that's
• 1:08:11
  really good. But we would like to pitch an
• 1:08:13
  idea to you have. You didn't see that?
• 1:08:17
  Coming said we were thinking of a kids book.
• 1:08:20
  What do you think? And I thought, okay, not going
• 1:08:23
  to turn down an opportunity. T just because it's not packaged
• 1:08:26
  exactly. As I want it.
• 1:08:27
  So, yeah. So they had quite a an idea of
• 1:08:32
  how what would be included in the book and how it would cut.
• 1:08:37
  They showed me a mock-up of the book, they said this is kind of
• 1:08:40
  what we were thinking and so forth.
• 1:08:41
  So yeah, it was it was a really, they had a lot of input because
• 1:08:45
  it when you have a publishing deal, I didn't realize how much
• 1:08:48
  input the publisher has people think you just send them the
• 1:08:51
  stuff and they published it, and you get money and that's it.
• 1:08:53
  No, it is a whole property. Is this so yeah the process was
• 1:08:59
  different because that for that my latest book I'm working with
• 1:09:03
  a publisher. So yeah that makes a big
• 1:09:05
  difference in terms of like how you actually wrote them and
• 1:09:09
  stuff like was that process similar or different or did you
• 1:09:14
  kind of approach it just in the same way but maybe different
• 1:09:17
  language. Yeah, it's probably approach.
• 1:09:23
  Similarly, but we have to bear in.
• 1:09:25
  Mind, is what would a child eat? So, What?
• 1:09:32
  I don't have any kids, but I have two nieces and a nephew.
• 1:09:35
  They're, they're, they're older now.
• 1:09:37
  But when they were smaller, I noticed that, my, my my sister
• 1:09:43
  and her husband, really good at making sure they have a quite a
• 1:09:48
  well-rounded parrot palette, but I noticed when their friends
• 1:09:51
  came to dinner, sometimes our friends were a bit more picky.
• 1:09:54
  So my sister would cook like really great spread but then
• 1:09:58
  she'll always do like a pasta dish.
• 1:10:00
  Because she said, if they eat nothing else there will have,
• 1:10:03
  you know, pasta with the sauce on it.
• 1:10:05
  So you just have to think of different palettes.
• 1:10:08
  What's easy to eat, what little fingers can pick up and what
• 1:10:12
  will go in a lunchbox and things like that?
• 1:10:13
  What will interest them? That's healthy and exciting as
• 1:10:17
  well. So I do a peanut butter and
• 1:10:19
  banana Flapjack for example, as well.
• 1:10:22
  So that's you can cut that up into squares.
• 1:10:24
  That makes it easier. I do a trail mix, which is like
• 1:10:27
  a mixture of nuts and And these are addictive personality
• 1:10:34
  raisins are so for, so, you know, just things like that,
• 1:10:37
  that they were like, yeah, whether it is a slightly
• 1:10:40
  approach, okay? Okay.
• 1:10:42
  And whether any kind of like challenges with with regards to
• 1:10:47
  that, I mean, presumably there are some, but like anything.
• 1:10:50
  Maybe that kind of caught you off guard or I don't know, maybe
• 1:10:54
  something that just made it a bit tricky or something like
• 1:10:57
  that. Like anything like that.
• 1:11:00
  With regards the whole writing a book so you could be foot for
• 1:11:05
  the adult ones or the children's ones in general.
• 1:11:07
  Just yeah. Like what are the challenges of
• 1:11:09
  writing writing these cookbooks I would do it differently for my
• 1:11:18
  next cookbook, because what I would do is from the, the
• 1:11:22
  minute, the publisher that you sign, the contract that in the
• 1:11:27
  contract, it gives you the date when you have to give them the
• 1:11:31
  first draft, what I would do is delay, that yeah, I would say, I
• 1:11:36
  would say right? I will like to sign the contract
• 1:11:40
  but have a different run up, or what I would do, what Our now is
• 1:11:45
  for my next book. I've already got recipes that
• 1:11:48
  I'm going to put into it, so what is good?
• 1:11:51
  Do tests and create your recipes in advance.
• 1:11:56
  So, when the publisher says, we'd like to bring a book, like
• 1:12:00
  you to do a book, you actively not writing anything because
• 1:12:03
  you've got it all already. So yeah, so you've got it, good
• 1:12:06
  to go. So to have to be more prepared
• 1:12:10
  for when the publisher approaches you.
• 1:12:12
  So then all of all it is Really is about layout and photography
• 1:12:16
  basically in the marketing and so forth.
• 1:12:19
  In general when you get these books, like, How long do they
• 1:12:22
  give you to write the book? Like what's the way I saw signed
• 1:12:28
  and they gave me four months to get the first draft but I had
• 1:12:39
  been in negotiations with them prior to signing The contract.
• 1:12:46
  So what you do is you when you have the meeting with them, they
• 1:12:50
  say okay, give us a list of what would be in the content for the
• 1:12:56
  book. So they said we wanted to be a
• 1:12:58
  kid's World. Blah blah.
• 1:12:59
  I'll give us a list of what we've been the content so I have
• 1:13:02
  no idea how many recipes needed to be in it.
• 1:13:04
  So I had a list of 160 recipes and they were like okay that's
• 1:13:09
  actually two books so edit out half of Them, and let's go with
• 1:13:16
  that. So I already knew which recipes
• 1:13:18
  were going to go into the book, so they're now have to make
• 1:13:20
  sure. And then for each recipe, they
• 1:13:23
  wanted a little bit of blurb before, you know, to go with
• 1:13:27
  each recipe and so forth. And then I did that and then
• 1:13:31
  they said, okay, so now we need more like, what more recipes
• 1:13:35
  know. So they wanted as you look at
• 1:13:38
  the beginning of the book, it's like more information, like
• 1:13:45
  Replacing eggs, setting up your vegan kitchen.
• 1:13:50
  Conversion tables for ovens and weights, and measurements, and
• 1:13:54
  so forth. So all of that information they
• 1:13:57
  wanted a new beginning. So first of all, I sent them a
• 1:13:59
  couple of pages and there weren't no, no, no.
• 1:14:00
  We need, we need more, we need more.
• 1:14:03
  So then I thought, okay, let's knock this out.
• 1:14:05
  The parts. I send them 14 pages and there
• 1:14:08
  are. Oh wow.
• 1:14:08
  Yeah. Yeah, cuz I thought well, you've
• 1:14:10
  been cut but you can't stretch. So right there were like, yeah,
• 1:14:13
  that's brilliant. That's really And then the book
• 1:14:15
  blurb, I said, right? This is my draft book, blurb for
• 1:14:18
  the inside. And at the back, I mean, they
• 1:14:20
  wrote their own, but if you give them enough to work with, then
• 1:14:24
  they're fine and then they said, oh, we need pictures of you.
• 1:14:27
  No problem. You have a theatrical
• 1:14:28
  background, I've got pictures of myself than most beautiful, got
• 1:14:32
  hot dinners. So yeah, send them all of that.
• 1:14:34
  So that was great and then some of the recipes they were
• 1:14:37
  familiar with. So I said right?
• 1:14:38
  This is what it should look like and then they got the pictures
• 1:14:42
  to go in the book. Yeah.
• 1:14:44
  So that's kind of the process, just why you've been talking
• 1:14:48
  about that. And this goes back to what we
• 1:14:51
  were talking about before about you managing everything.
• 1:14:54
  So we're like, where did you learn to kind of Market yourself
• 1:14:58
  in the way that you do? Because I feel that this isn't
• 1:15:01
  something that's very easy to learn.
• 1:15:03
  Like I learn kind of through my business studies, for my degree,
• 1:15:07
  free many other things, but I feel like even with studies.
• 1:15:11
  It's not necessarily something you can easily.
• 1:15:14
  Like you kind of have to know that all the times, you know,
• 1:15:18
  everything you do is a reflection of you.
• 1:15:21
  Like, for example, how responsive you are with
• 1:15:24
  messaging as an example, you know, some of the guests I've
• 1:15:27
  had, maybe not as quick to respond.
• 1:15:30
  You know, that's fine. Everyone is different.
• 1:15:32
  It's different walks of life. But like, to me, it made sense,
• 1:15:36
  it's like, this is, this woman is businesswoman.
• 1:15:39
  She knows what she's doing. She knows why this stuff is
• 1:15:42
  important. You told Just a little bit about
• 1:15:45
  that. Like d, did you learn about this
• 1:15:49
  somewhere? Or is this something that you're
• 1:15:50
  just naturally good at like, what's, what's the deal that in
• 1:15:54
  terms of the marketing, my degree is in media and cultural
• 1:15:57
  studies. And I do have a background in PR
• 1:16:00
  agency and I did work in internal Communications.
• 1:16:05
  But in addition to that, what I would say is my country of
• 1:16:09
  origin is Jamaica. And if you think Jamaica is a
• 1:16:12
  tiny Island Of 3.5 million people.
• 1:16:18
  Yet it's incredibly famous around the world and I thought,
• 1:16:22
  why is that? Because you think there's loads
• 1:16:26
  of singers that come out of there that are hugely famous and
• 1:16:28
  I thought, how have we managed to be a being?
• 1:16:32
  I've never met anyone who said I've never heard of Jamaica.
• 1:16:35
  Where's that? That straight ahead.
• 1:16:37
  Yes, that one says, oh, where's that?
• 1:16:39
  Because I've got friends from other whose country of origin
• 1:16:43
  are other Caribbean countries. Chase and they said there
• 1:16:46
  forever trying to tell people where it is and you know where
• 1:16:49
  underlie. All right, was that?
• 1:16:50
  So what I looked at is why is Jamaica so incredibly famous and
• 1:16:57
  for a number of reasons? Obviously, all of the I mean,
• 1:16:59
  like, Bob Marley's from there. And, you know, there's lots of
• 1:17:02
  famous singers from there but I thought what, what have they
• 1:17:04
  done to push the whole Jamaica thing and what I've noticed is,
• 1:17:09
  naturally Jamaicans, we're good at promoting ourselves, so It's
• 1:17:14
  a cultural thing. So if you notice almost every
• 1:17:19
  single Jamaican produced production has the Jamaican flag
• 1:17:26
  in it, whether it makes any creative sense or not so true.
• 1:17:31
  Yeah, I was why you were talking.
• 1:17:33
  I was just thinking of that pitch and Dragons Den.
• 1:17:35
  All those years ago I think it was the reggae Reggae Source One
• 1:17:39
  Levi Roots. That's it.
• 1:17:41
  Yeah I remember correctly. Your the Jamaican flag is on the
• 1:17:43
  balls. That's like the first thing near
• 1:17:46
  the logo is the Jamaican flag. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 1:17:50
  It makes sense but a lot of people can identify the Jamaican
• 1:17:54
  flag simply because it's promoted left, right?
• 1:17:58
  And Center, because I've seen some videos where it's got the
• 1:18:01
  Jamaican flag in it and I thought, Okay, sir.
• 1:18:06
  But then you it's also lets you know it has a Jamaican
• 1:18:09
  connection as well because I think it was a liberty X.
• 1:18:14
  That pop group. They filmed one of their music
• 1:18:18
  videos in Jamaica. It wasn't obvious because of the
• 1:18:21
  shots. What country was he knew it was
• 1:18:23
  a tropical country but right at the end is Jamaican flag and
• 1:18:26
  I've got, are they filmed it in Jamaica?
• 1:18:28
  There you go. So that's kind of so being from
• 1:18:32
  a Jamaican background and also studying it and also I have a
• 1:18:37
  theatrical background and you are taught to promote yourself.
• 1:18:42
  You want to get a job? Yeah, particularly now, I mean
• 1:18:46
  the industry's changed with social media and so forth, but
• 1:18:49
  you have to know I mean, you're taught.
• 1:18:51
  When I was at school, you have to be in Spotlight, you have to
• 1:18:54
  have your CV have to have your photos, you have to go on
• 1:18:56
  auditions. You have to get people know who
• 1:18:58
  you are. What you do so forth.
• 1:19:00
  You have a Show reel. It's just true.
• 1:19:03
  It's funny how all of these industries of Very the same.
• 1:19:07
  I mean acting for me, for example, is something I got into
• 1:19:10
  last year but it's a very similar process.
• 1:19:13
  Yeah, you have to have all of these things, you know.
• 1:19:16
  Like I still don't have them because I'm very nervous at this
• 1:19:18
  point but like you know, your stereo and your headshots and
• 1:19:22
  listen to me, it's like the standard marketing stuff now
• 1:19:25
  it's like on my website. I mean, there's always stuff
• 1:19:28
  that I'm adding on there but it's like that's like your hop
• 1:19:32
  and if you don't have something it's like well why don't you
• 1:19:34
  have that you should So like when I when I see like for
• 1:19:39
  instance with your brand, I see that you're everywhere and it's
• 1:19:41
  like yeah of course like this is it is maximum reach, and in
• 1:19:48
  particular, like the way especially with cooking and
• 1:19:51
  stuff. The way things are approached is
• 1:19:53
  very key. You know, like how you approach
• 1:19:56
  say Twitter is different from Instagram and obviously that's
• 1:19:59
  for a reason. It's what has the best reach on
• 1:20:02
  that platform and you know as we all know like food does very
• 1:20:05
  well on Instagram. It's just one of those things.
• 1:20:09
  But yeah, speaking of websites, though, your website actually
• 1:20:14
  has this option which I thought was pretty cool.
• 1:20:16
  I I it makes sense as well but it's possible to book your
• 1:20:20
  catering services and this to me was quite cool because I thought
• 1:20:25
  well who are the some of the biggest clients that you've
• 1:20:28
  actually catered For? And with those experiences, what
• 1:20:32
  did they teach you? I don't actually do outside.
• 1:20:36
  Catering. But people book me for various
• 1:20:38
  things. So they booked me for like,
• 1:20:41
  public speaking or presenting or for social media gigs and
• 1:20:47
  different things like that. I've done a lot of now Zoom
• 1:20:52
  online presenting different things.
• 1:20:55
  So yeah, people people usually, I find that I get booked a bit
• 1:21:00
  more through Instagram, not through my website as such or
• 1:21:07
  they will get in touch because they've seen me because I've
• 1:21:10
  done it since my book was launched.
• 1:21:13
  In November, I've done probably about 40 media interviews, radio
• 1:21:19
  TV newspaper magazine podcast so just basically didn't come up
• 1:21:24
  for air just thought right there's no point having a book
• 1:21:27
  and no one knows it's there. So I've been really pushing with
• 1:21:30
  that. Yeah promoting it so yeah okay
• 1:21:33
  fair play and what let's talk about it.
• 1:21:37
  You're a seasoned professional public speaker.
• 1:21:39
  Keynote speaker. What advice would you give to
• 1:21:42
  people about how to do it successfully with public
• 1:21:46
  speaking? The main thing is to when you
• 1:21:53
  get a booking or even if you do a booking for free to start off
• 1:21:57
  with and record it, make sure you've got a good video and if
• 1:22:01
  you can have two cameras, if you can so you can get a Couple of
• 1:22:06
  different shots. So it's not just one still
• 1:22:08
  camera in the same position. If you can.
• 1:22:10
  If not, if it's one, can run the same position.
• 1:22:12
  That's fine. So it's always good to have
• 1:22:14
  footage of you speaking because people can know from the footage
• 1:22:20
  if they want to book. You also if you're if you want
• 1:22:25
  to be a speaker on your LinkedIn profile, the cover page as you
• 1:22:29
  saw on my speaker, one is very obvious that I do speaking gigs
• 1:22:34
  from that covered Age. And also look at some, there's
• 1:22:39
  agencies. You can join some are good and
• 1:22:42
  some are Less good. So you can go to agencies, but
• 1:22:48
  you can also approach different event planners and so forth as
• 1:22:52
  well. And once you have a reputation
• 1:22:56
  for speaking, it will start to snowball a bit because I've done
• 1:22:58
  a few speaking gigs recently, and it's usually people who have
• 1:23:03
  seen me in something else and they approached me and said,
• 1:23:07
  could you do a speaking gig, right?
• 1:23:08
  Yeah. I was going to ask you about
• 1:23:10
  that as well. How did you actually get into
• 1:23:12
  public speaking? Was that something as you just
• 1:23:14
  said that, you know just happened because you know people
• 1:23:17
  saw you on the TV so that you've you're capable of doing speaking
• 1:23:22
  and stuff and for okay she'd be good for this or was it
• 1:23:25
  something that you already targeting and had in your kind
• 1:23:28
  of sites anyway I've always done speaking gigs because when
• 1:23:34
  you're a Seventh-Day, Adventists in you grew up in the church, a
• 1:23:38
  lot of people who are Seventh-day, Adventists are good
• 1:23:42
  at public speaking, because from a young age, from a minute, you
• 1:23:46
  can talk there. We'll have you up in front of
• 1:23:48
  the church to do a presentation, or to restart something from the
• 1:23:52
  Bible or to sing a song. So, public speaking for a
• 1:23:56
  Seventh-Day, Adventist is actually not a huge.
• 1:23:59
  Upland. Because we're used to it from a
• 1:24:01
  young age and obviously, I'm a Seventh-Day, Adventists, and I
• 1:24:04
  have a theatrical background is not.
• 1:24:06
  So I have a double whammy so to speak when to do this.
• 1:24:09
  So I've yeah, so I've lot of speaking gig so to speak in the
• 1:24:14
  church and Reena and then I didn't interview some years ago
• 1:24:20
  for a particular radio station person who was the presenter was
• 1:24:25
  putting on an event and she approached me and said, would
• 1:24:28
  you speak? At this event please.
• 1:24:33
  So yeah. So that's kind of how I kind of
• 1:24:36
  got started. So when when the opportunities
• 1:24:39
  came there started to film some of them as well.
• 1:24:42
  Yeah, I think that's as well just the - I know that's kind of
• 1:24:45
  how it works with life but for those who are interested in
• 1:24:48
  getting in these these fields I think we've someone like
• 1:24:52
  yourself, you know, you're very open, very positive.
• 1:24:55
  So people were drawn to that anyway but also yeah, if you
• 1:24:58
  make yourself readily, Le beau. And you say, hey, I'm up for
• 1:25:01
  anything kind of thing than people.
• 1:25:03
  Do approach, you for things? Yeah, I've been approached for
• 1:25:06
  things that I never anticipated being approached for because of
• 1:25:09
  done other things. Like, I've done like voice
• 1:25:12
  acting for example and that just came from people seeing my
• 1:25:15
  videos and being like, yeah, would you do this thing?
• 1:25:19
  And I think like that, that's the thing.
• 1:25:21
  You just got to make yourself open and try different things.
• 1:25:24
  And then the more you do that, the bigger the portfolio, or
• 1:25:27
  whatever you're trying to build, Happens.
• 1:25:30
  And then you get all these different other opportunities
• 1:25:32
  and for you it's like a built you.
• 1:25:34
  This whole other kind of career if you like like obviously it's
• 1:25:37
  connected with everything you do and that's an important thing
• 1:25:40
  too. Is trying to have like a way of
• 1:25:43
  connecting all those things together but still you know it's
• 1:25:47
  like I do the same thing. I'm always looking for different
• 1:25:50
  ways to work I guess. Probably the best way to put it
• 1:25:55
  so yeah, it's fascinating stuff. Yeah it's it's having a as many
• 1:25:59
  Strings to your bow, his at. And I went to state school.
• 1:26:03
  They said, is about being a triple threat and they say, you
• 1:26:06
  know, singing acting dancing, but nowadays is not just singing
• 1:26:11
  acting dancing. It's presenting its social media
• 1:26:13
  influence, public, speaker, you know, and there's more strings.
• 1:26:17
  You can add to your bow, then just those three cuz some people
• 1:26:20
  are good at acting, but they may not be good at singing and
• 1:26:23
  dancing. So you could be acting, you
• 1:26:25
  could be a presenter, you could be an author, there's lots of
• 1:26:27
  other stuff that you can do as well.
• 1:26:30
  And just another thing as well that you do the many different
• 1:26:35
  things that you do, you're very active food columnist.
• 1:26:39
  How did you get involved with that?
• 1:26:42
  How did that start? So the first food column I had I
• 1:26:47
  had a publicist at the time and she was the former editor of a
• 1:26:54
  glossy woman's magazine called Pride which is targets.
• 1:26:59
  African Caribbean women in the UK.
• 1:27:03
  Mainly also, she got me the gig to do the column in that
• 1:27:08
  magazine. And then I, as a result of that,
• 1:27:13
  I was able to step into another column.
• 1:27:16
  I had into in the isn't in Gazette where I had a colander
• 1:27:22
  for a year. So yeah.
• 1:27:24
  And I would be really happy to have another one.
• 1:27:27
  So, yeah. So that's That was really good.
• 1:27:30
  So yeah, having a publicist helps a ton, does it differ much
• 1:27:37
  in terms of the approach in comparison with say like how you
• 1:27:41
  write your blog for those who don't know, Curly Sue has a Blog
• 1:27:45
  on her website, which is something that you update here
• 1:27:48
  and there with various recipes and just also it some
• 1:27:52
  interesting stuff about about yourself as well, which is what
• 1:27:55
  I used as Source material as well.
• 1:27:58
  And I just wanted a little bit but like, is there a difference
• 1:28:02
  in how you approach those different forms of writing?
• 1:28:05
  Because I know in my personal life, I do approach writing for
• 1:28:10
  different things in a different way.
• 1:28:14
  Yes, 40 and column, it's kind of personal but it's not okay.
• 1:28:20
  It has to be a little bit more formal but with my blog, you
• 1:28:24
  basically write wear, whatever you want, whatever style you
• 1:28:27
  want. Have you want?
• 1:28:28
  Because I just wrote 15 testy low-cost vegan meals.
• 1:28:34
  I just did a Blog about that. I've got a vegan and
• 1:28:40
  sustainability, Christmas gift, guide guy, that's coming.
• 1:28:43
  My blog seen as well. So yeah, it's yeah.
• 1:28:47
  There is a different approach, not hugely because you are
• 1:28:51
  yourself and you bring your particular style.
• 1:28:55
  But when it's for a particular publication, you have to bear in
• 1:28:57
  mind Their audience. So you have to tailor, make it a
• 1:29:00
  little bit for that particular audience.
• 1:29:02
  So with the glossy women's magazine and you, it's mainly
• 1:29:04
  women obviously. And for the newspaper it's more
• 1:29:07
  of a community kind of thing because it was Islington
• 1:29:11
  Gazette. So yeah.
• 1:29:16
  And the Hampstead and Highgate because it as well.
• 1:29:17
  Yeah, awesome, awesome, awesome. He's just a fun question.
• 1:29:22
  What's your favorite recipe that you've created?
• 1:29:24
  And why? My favorite one that I've
• 1:29:28
  created is called planting cups with a key fill in?
• 1:29:32
  So planting is kind of like, a banana looking.
• 1:29:37
  Oh, yeah. I know those.
• 1:29:39
  Some people call it plantains but just as a little Tonton.
• 1:29:44
  So, certain time. He's planting it's a bit like
• 1:29:47
  saying Great Britain. Is it was Great Britain.
• 1:29:51
  Yeah, I think this doesn't make any sense.
• 1:29:53
  So, it's planting. So, you boil, the planting and
• 1:29:59
  then you drain it and blot it dry.
• 1:30:03
  And then you, mold it into a cup, and you put it in a bunting
• 1:30:08
  look like the cupcake tin and you bake it and then you Aqui
• 1:30:14
  aqui is at few fruit, but is eaten like a vegetable and it's
• 1:30:19
  kind of like a yellow in color and you cook that with tomatoes
• 1:30:24
  onions, bell peppers, and so forth and different seasonings
• 1:30:28
  and then compile that into the planting cup.
• 1:30:32
  So yeah, that's one of my favorites that I've created my
• 1:30:37
  other one. I didn't create it, but one of
• 1:30:39
  my favorites is baking vegan sponge cake.
• 1:30:43
  My best performing YouTube video, which has over a quarter
• 1:30:47
  of a million views, is how to make a vegan sponge cake.
• 1:30:50
  And if you ask me, which video would be your best performing, I
• 1:30:55
  honestly didn't know. It would be as simple as that.
• 1:30:59
  It's never, it's never the one you expect.
• 1:31:01
  It's never nice. Not at all and it wasn't even
• 1:31:05
  what I was most proud of them. Like, okay, wow, this, what is
• 1:31:08
  it with that? Like there's this Vlog that I
• 1:31:11
  did Reese a couple of months Back and I studied because it's
• 1:31:15
  a trending topic I think that's why.
• 1:31:17
  But you know I just randomly did it with no thought or anything,
• 1:31:21
  I just put it out and then it got like close to 2,000 views
• 1:31:24
  and I was like why? It's just I didn't even do
• 1:31:27
  anything but everything else. I'm putting so much effort in.
• 1:31:30
  It's not quite weird because I did want to how to peel Ginger
• 1:31:39
  with a spoon and that what thousands of use, how to make
• 1:31:42
  how to cook. Buckwheat that what thousands of
• 1:31:45
  years. So I just thought maybe I was
• 1:31:46
  thinking too complicated. Maybe I just need to keep it
• 1:31:50
  really simple to get, you know, tons of views.
• 1:31:54
  Yes, I suppose with YouTube as well.
• 1:31:55
  Like, many people I know I do as well.
• 1:31:57
  Use it as a place to find tutorials, to find ways to do
• 1:32:02
  things because it's like, why not?
• 1:32:05
  If you don't know, just go online go on YouTube and there's
• 1:32:07
  probably someone explaining exactly how to do that and it's
• 1:32:10
  like brilliant and they simpler the better.
• 1:32:13
  Definitely. Yeah.
• 1:32:15
  Because people come to YouTube for two main things information
• 1:32:18
  and entertainment. So yeah, absolutely.
• 1:32:21
  Absolutely. During everything to a close
• 1:32:24
  today. Do you have any kind of upcoming
• 1:32:26
  projects or perhaps some final thoughts that you'd like to
• 1:32:30
  share with us? Well, there's my radio show
• 1:32:34
  that's coming out soon, which is called clerk curlysuze,
• 1:32:38
  plant-based kitchen. So I've been just working in
• 1:32:41
  with I put out on social. Or media, you know as anyone
• 1:32:44
  interested in being a guest on my show and it was like, wow, a
• 1:32:49
  whole surge of different people had the different PR agencies
• 1:32:53
  approached me, say yes, my client would be perfect for this
• 1:32:55
  on like okay. Yeah, so that, that was in.
• 1:32:59
  That's been interesting and season 2 of the Amazon show, I'm
• 1:33:03
  working on that one. I'm also doing my Christmas gift
• 1:33:08
  guide. So I'm just looking for specific
• 1:33:10
  gifts that will be appropriate. To go into it as well.
• 1:33:15
  And I'm also doing the online classes that one's for Vegan
• 1:33:19
  Cooking. I want Vegan Cooking on a budget
• 1:33:22
  and vegan baking as well. So, yeah.
• 1:33:24
  So I've got quite a lot on. I didn't expect anything less.
• 1:33:28
  Yeah, I can, I can, I can, I can, I can I can relate, I did
• 1:33:34
  it. So I think it's always good to
• 1:33:35
  be busy and have things on the goodness.
• 1:33:38
  I think that, you know, especially with everything
• 1:33:41
  that's going on right now, it is better to be.
• 1:33:43
  Busy then to you know be bogged down with loads of time and not
• 1:33:47
  knowing what to do with it. So yeah it's good and you know
• 1:33:51
  your stuff is doing really well and it's thank you those
• 1:33:55
  fantastic to see and just what I want to say a big thank you for
• 1:33:59
  appearing on the show. It's been a real pleasure and I
• 1:34:02
  wish you all the best in the future with your endeavors and
• 1:34:07
  hopefully yeah we'll see more of your air TV show in the future
• 1:34:10
  and I hope the radio show does well I'm sure it will.
• 1:34:14
  Yeah, thank you for having me. It's been enjoyable.
• 1:34:17
  Thank you. No problem.
• 1:34:18
  And I want to say a big thank you to all of my listeners of
• 1:34:21
  the Christian. We've podcast wherever you
• 1:34:23
  listen to the podcast. Let me know by the way.
• 1:34:25
  It'd be fun to know actually where you're listening or if
• 1:34:28
  you're watching the YouTube videos.
• 1:34:30
  I always like to know, let me know about future topics, future
• 1:34:33
  guests. You like to see on the podcast,
• 1:34:35
  get in touch with me, I'm available everywhere.
• 1:34:38
  And I would love to have you on the show or, you know, love to
• 1:34:41
  speak about the topic that you're Arrested in hearing about
• 1:34:44
  whatever it maybe I'd love to know.
• 1:34:46
  So thank you very much. And until next time, peace out.
• 1:34:50
  One love. I'll see you in the next one.