- You're a nurturer.
You've taken care of people your whole life.
- Yes, three days a week anyway
'cause I'll work out on 14th street.
So you and I, we're just gonna make this a thing.
- Well, and you're a nurturer.
You've taken care
of people your whole life. - Yes, ma'am.
Are we crying today?
- We might, it happens here on this show 'cause it's life.
And we don't try to pretend it's anything, but what it is.
But I just really admire your journey
and I just wanna be a part of your crew.
- Oh, thank you so much.
Well, I'm gonna give you guys a little cliff notes
of Millie Peartree really quickly.
So at the age of 25, I lost my mom to colon cancer.
And I had to take care of my four brothers and sisters,
two of them are autistic.
So my life has been full of ups and downs,
but I say it's most important that you do the pivot
like we all get sad, we lose people.
I'm pretty sure throughout the last two years,
everybody has been affected
by something, somehow, some way
whether they knew somebody that lost someone,
whether they lost somebody personally,
but it's all about, you gotta pick self up,
you gotta continue to go.
So even in 2019,
I lost my restaurant right before the pandemic.
Illegal gasoline work done in the building,
so I lost my business and it was like,
you just gotta keep going.
So when the pandemic happened, I caught COVID early on
and this was during the time of like no masks.
We really didn't know what was going on.
- [Drew] I did too.
- We just knew when you lost a sense
of taste and smell, that wasn't a good thing.
- [Drew] Oh God. - But as I got better,
when it started to open up a little bit,
we started to feed essential workers.
And essential workers, it was just like,
we wanted to be able to help people
and feed people because everything was closed.
- And that is the caretaker in you.
- Yes, ma'am, yes, ma'am.
- It is, you're such a good person.
And then you get a call from Chip and Joe.
- Yeah, so I was doing the work.
We fed over 100,000 children
and families throughout the pandemic.
- [Drew] Oh my God.
I'm just sorry, we just gotta get the hands for that.
(audience clap)
- And then I get this message.
I started to cook, and bake,
and just try to be happier and help people.
And I get this call from Chip and Joanna.
And they're like, "You know what?
"We're just inspired by everything you do.
"Let's do something."
And I was like, "Okay, well let's do something."
And that's how "A chef's guide to soul food" came about.
- I love this story so much. (audience clap)
Now Millie, one of the things we're gonna tackle today
is something that I think so many people are in the dilemma
of is leftovers.
And I heard you say you can and will reinvent them
so there is no food waste and I love this particular recipe.
And I'm like, teach us.
I'm in your car.
You are the driver, teach us Millie, what are we doing?
- Absolutely, so people oftentimes say, you know what,
I don't eat leftovers.
I'm a big leftover girl.
I just feel like it tastes better the next day.
But some people, they just don't care for it.
But we live in a society
where we shouldn't be throwing away food, right?
- [Drew] I agree.
- So this recipe is my Magnolia macaroni and cheese.
- [Drew] You mean this right here?
- [Millie] Yes, I want you to taste that
because I heard that that's your favorite thing
is macaroni and cheese.
- It's my number one food on planet earth.
I'm salivating. - Yep, just go in for it.
See, see, there you go, that's right.
Yep, that's what we're looking for.
(audience cheer and clap)
- Millie, keep going.
- So what we're gonna do
is we're gonna take this macaroni and cheese
and we're gonna repurpose it into something else.
So we're gonna make a macaroni and cheese waffle.
You get that crispy crunchy with a little bit more cheese.
So you get that ooey, gooey moment of it.
But then oftentimes we have leftover protein.
So sometimes people cook protein, they may overcook it
and maybe dried out.
So in this pan, we have a tablespoon or so of olive oil.
We have some caramelized onions.
And then we're gonna add some garlic.
I love garlic.
This is about six cloves, but add more or less
if you like.
- We're also gonna bring some brisket back to life too.
- We're gonna bring some brisket back to life.
So we already have some chopped brisket here,
and we're gonna dump this in.
Add that, and it smells good already.
And because I love soul food and Southern food
because soul food and Southern food are different.
They're seven cuisine to Southern food,
but we're gonna take a Cajun seasoning.
We're gonna add a little bit more spice to it.
- How much Millie?
- As much as you like.
I do a big pinch.
- I'm not subtle about anything.
- And when I make my Cajun seasoning, I do it salt free
to your point is you're not subtle about it
so it gives you all that flavor,
but you're not making it salty, 'cause don't forget,
we already cooked this already and it has salt in the meat.
And then so we have this going
and then we're gonna add some stock.
- Yeah, 'cause brisket can get dry.
- It can get dry and we're just re-hydrating it.
- [Drew] Is this stock?
- This is stock.
This is beef stock we're using.
We're adding flavor upon flavor.
If you have chicken stock,
if you have like some beef bullion, whatever it is,
you have vegetable stock or you can even add water.
- See, this is what I mean about reconstituting.
You are bringing this into not just back to life,
but a new life.
- Absolutely, and it'll be equally delicious.
And then we've already added some stock
and now we're gonna add some barbecue sauce.
- [Drew] Oh, okay.
- [Audience Member] Mmh!
- I heard somebody saying, "Mmh"
- I mean, God, I love barbecue sauce.
- I love barbecue sauce.
And if you make barbecue sauce,
feel free to use a jarred barbecue sauce if you like.
It's all about making things your own.
And that's one thing I like about soul food so much.
You make things your own.
And I show you guys how I make cornbread,
and macaroni cheese, and everything in my Magnolia project.
I put cinnamon in my cornbread.
But if you don't like cinnamon, don't use cinnamon.
It's all about showing you the technique
on the reason why I do things.
And it's most important that we're telling a story.
And that's the one thing I like about the Magnolia Network.
They got us a whole bunch
of us storytellers together and we're able
to tell stories. - Yes, absolutely.
Now, how long do I wanna cook the liquid out?
(audience clap)
How long would you suggest that I let this go Millie?
- So we'll let this go for about 10 or 15 minutes.
You're gonna constantly stir it.
- Oh see, I'm glad I asked.
I would've pulled this off and had something kind of drippy
and I would not have thought to leave it in there
for 10 or 15 minutes and I'm really glad I asked.
- 10 to 15 minutes because re-hydrating it.
If you overcook it,
and then it can pull together a little bit more
so you can have like this pulled brisket.
But most importantly,
you wanna rehydrate it.
You want the flavor, and you want it to be very moist.
- [Drew] See, this is why I don't know what I'm doing.
(upbeat music)