At The Pass with Up & Coming Chef Marketha McCaulley of "Ketha's Kitchen" Charlotte, North Carolina

Down home cooking by Ketha's Kitchen in Charlotte, North Carolina by way of Huntsville, Alabama has been a featured section on my Food+Travel blog since last summer.  Over the year, I have watch Ketha's culinary growth via social media outlets!  We share food photographs and ideas quite often and I am learning through the current student at Central Piedmont Community College culinary program.

I have know Marketha since our undergraduate days together at the illustrious Tuskegee University in Tuskegee, Alabama, where she graduated with a degree in Chemistry.  
Since, Marketha has raised a beautiful family and began a culinary career that I believe will be one of the brightest in the Carolinas!

Throughout our interview, Marketha really opened up and shared her most important memories and experiences.  Enjoy reading about her life and enjoy the images of the healthy, hearty, mouthwatering dishes she serves to her family and shares with us!

 Please note: ALL PHOTO CREDIT BELONGS TO MARKETHA MCCAULLEY 

unless otherwise stated.

 

DrFoodie:  What attracted you to the culinary world?  When did you realize you wanted to be a chef?

Marketha McCaulley:  I don’t remember a time in my life when I didn’t want to be a chef. As a kid, I was always in my grandma’s kitchen with my fingers in the bowl and nose sniffing at the steam rising from the pots. I always wanted to help pick the beans or wash the greens, but my favorite were the cakes. Yes, my first love was baking. I thought turning eggs, flour, sugar, and milk in to cake was magic! I used to lie under my Grandma Laura’s table flipping through her cookbooks imagining baking the cakes in the pictures. In high school, I wanted to attend Johnson & Whales and become a Pastry Chef. It really wasn’t until life diverted me to Tuskegee that I fell in love with cooking. 

I was a real social butterfly with band, Zeta Phi Beta, and just being an overly friendly person. People were always over and I was always cooking something. Food was currency for a female college student that needs the trash taken out or something heavy lifted. The better the meal the better the help, so I would regularly cook spaghetti, pork chops, or fried chicken with all the fixings and get my whole apartment rearranged. People were happy to help because, who could say no to homemade lasagna? 

That childhood desire to cook and serve people never went away. It grew into a desire to learn about what my friends from other cities ate. So, I learned how to make gumbo, casseroles, pot pies, fajitas and stir-fry. I wanted to be able to cook everyone something they loved. Even now, what truly makes me want to be a chef is that desire to feed the world and be able to create magic with food.

Ketha's melon carving skills!

DrFoodie:  I think eating should be a discovery process. What would you say is a dish you've created in your personal, work, or school kitchen that most patrons would find adventurous?

MM:  You know that I shop with "The Google" as my meal planner sometimes. I keep all types of non-traditional meats in the freezer like duck, rabbit, and mussels. One night, I was cruising the freezer, starving and looking for something "out of the box". I came across a pack of frog's legs. I opened up the produce drawer looking for something green and another side. By the end of the night, I was having fried frog's legs with a sweet sake glaze, southern style kale, and cauliflower couscous. Delicious!!

  

Ketha's Sesame Shrimp stir-fry made with Asian eggplant, carrots, snap peas, red bell peppers, mushrooms, onions and topped with fresh green onions. The pasta -thin spaghetti- was tossed in sesame-ginger marinade-sauce.

DrFoodie: On that note, what would you say is the strangest item in your refrigerator at the moment?

MM: I currently have a Silkie chicken in my freezer. I was at the local international food store and saw this black chicken sitting next to the quail. I referenced "The Google", found out that it was from China, and threw it in the basket. I have no idea what I am going to do with it, because the entire bird is black down to the bone. The only recipes I’ve found online are clear soups and stews, but I am not feeling that idea. I kind of want to make a ballotine out of it, but I don’t know. It will stay frozen until I decide.

DrFoodie:  Regarding your Silkie hen, the Chinese do, in fact, only use them for soups as they are pretty scrawny and the flesh awfully tough.  No one uses them as a primary protein, but the color is gory enough that I imagine an awesomely flavorful pumpkin soup with a chopped Silkie in it for Halloween ;0)

MM:  Thanks for the tip of the silkie hen. I might do something orange and black for Halloween. I usually carve a pumpkin, but we don't eat it much. That might be a reason to keep the scraps. Either that or a sweet potato soup. 

Silkie hen.  Photo credit:  Wikipedia

The black-skinned chicken carcasses are Silkies.  Photo credit: www.thekitchn.com

DrFoodie: What’s your go-to meal after a long night of service?

MM:  My go to meal at the end of any shift is a burger. There are those nights when any old burger will do. There are times when I say, “burger” I don’t want a frozen soy patty pressed on greasy grill and thrown a sesame seed bun with special sauce. I am talking about a real burger. I want fresh ground beef cooked medium. (Bison, if I’ve been to the Harris Teeter and cooking this myself.) I like a buttered and toasted Kaiser rolls. I am a simple girl and was raised on American cheese, but my favorite cheeses are bleu cheese, smoked Gouda, or jack/cheddar. It’s got to have some type garden. I like the standard lettuce, tomato, and red onion on my sandwich, but I have been known to put pico de gallo and fried jalapeños on a burger. I like the simple mayo, mustard and ketchup. However, there are times when an aioli, quick sauce, or guacamole will be a better spread. Bacon is almost always mandatory. I prefer unsalted sweet potato fries, but I will accept natural cut fries.

Ketha's Poutine:  Hand cut French fries cooked in duck fat, topped with braised beef, mushroom gravy, and white cheddar cheese curds.

DrFoodie:  What are your thoughts on the food truck movement? Are there trucks in Charlotte that you have been impressed with or want to check out?

MM:  I like the Food Truck movement. I like the idea of entrepreneur chefs/cooks hitting the streets and pumping out good food. I like the personalities of the different trucks and the variety of menus are mind blowing at times.  We didn’t have food trucks in Huntsville, AL, so I only got to see them when I was on a Band or Upward Bound trip to cities like New York, Chicago, or D.C. It was always a thing of mine to eat something that was completely unique to whatever city I was visiting because it might be my only time there. I rarely regretted the $5 meal and the smile from the cooks. The food came with good conversation or a funny story to take home. 

I live in an area now that has a food truck every few miles. I am a regular at a few of the trucks on my route. I am quick to stop at a taco truck in the middle of the night because the ladies are pressing fresh tortillas to order.  I will stand line in the cold and rain just to get 2 steak tacos and chicharrones with salsa verde. I can’t pronounce have the stuff on their menu. I just try my best and don’t complain if we get lost in translation. As long as, the food is hot, fresh and authentic, I want it!!   

There have been times that I have walked up to a truck and just said, “Give me whatever is good. I trust you.” 

We have an event here in Charlotte that I have been dying to go to called Food Truck Fridays. If I could ever get a Friday off, which is almost impossible as a cook, I’d go there and commit the sin of gluttony.

  

Ketha's Chilled watermelon soup with a ginger-melon granita

Ketha's Scotch quail eggs with ground veal

DrFoodie:  What are some of your favorite places to eat in your city? Beyond your city?

MM:  Being fairly new to the city, I try to eat at a different restaurant each time I go out. I still find myself trying to check off some of the restaurants I’ve seen on the Food Network from the bucket list. I can’t say that I have favorites yet. There are a few that I visit regularly. Hawthorne’sPizza is my go to lunch for the slice of the day and salad between classes.  Midwood Smokehouse has the best barbecue outside of the great state of Alabama!! If you’re ever there get started with the wings, get some burnt ends, and finish with cobbler. El Morazan has Mexican food with big plates and small prices. The kids and I really like having lunch there on laundry day. When it comes to outside my city limits, I’m eating whatever comes recommended by the locals.  I don’t want to eat at the Olive Garden in Nashville, I want Mama Mimi’s small Italian restaurant off the beaten path. 

When I am home, in Huntsville, there are few restaurants on the must eat list. The first thing I do is pull up to the Popeye’s Chicken on North Parkway. My best friend and I must have our fat kid moments over at the New China Buffet on Jordan Lane. The food on the buffet is hit or miss, but that’s our spot. My classmate Natasha’s father, Donzel “Slim” Langford, had the best smoked wings and ribs in the state!! I would make a special trip his way for that BBQ!!  

When I am down in Tuskegee, I make sure I find myself at the Chicken Coop for 3 wings and fries.

Ketha's Hickory Smoked turkey, Mac 'n cheese, green beans, cornbread, and homemade Alabama white BBQ sauce

Ketha's Stuffed leg quarters over a mixed green salad, candied butternut squash and a cherry-blueberry sauce

DrFoodie:  What is your favorite cuisine to prepare? To eat?

MM:  I am a simple girl. My absolute favorite meal is a medium steak with loaded potatoes and a green vegetable. 

My favorite thing to cook is gumbo. Two completely different worlds, right? I love to babysit a dark roux and build up a pot of muddy goodness. My grandma Laura would ask for a gumbo at least once a year. If I cooked a pot without taking her “a taste,” then Laura May was not happy with me.  I cooked it with 7 different vegetables because I heard it would bring good luck. Each vegetable and its color has a different meaning. I’d put in 3 different meats one that “walks, flies, and swims” to give honor to God and the bounty of the Earth. I pour a lot of love into a pot of gumbo.  This was one dish of mine that my Grandma loved the most and I think of her when I cook it.

Ketha's summer crudité and lobster terrine

DrFoodie:  How do you feel about tv cooking competitions, would you ever participate at this stage of your career?

MM:  I absolutely love them. When I was kid, back before The Food Network, I would stay up late, well past midnight, to watch the original Iron Chef. I’d watch these Chefs receive some weird looking fish, write out the menu on the spot, and throw down. It was amazing!! When the cooking shows came about, I was hooked. I couldn't get enough of Iron Chef America, Top Chef, and Master Chef. There are some out there that are more gimmick than cooking, but even on those shows you must have skill in order to compete. My favorites are both versions of TopChef Masters UK, No Kitchen Required, and Chopped. 

Would I like to compete? Yes, but not so much for the TV audiences. Last year, my Garde teacher Chef Rob Marilla competed for the ACF (American Culinary Federation) Chef of the Year. I watched his process and it gave me the most introspective look at what it was truly like to compete as a professional. He was good about answering questions and he allowed me to sit in on some of his practices. This is the third year for the student team at CPCC. They added the course "Competition Fundamentals" to our curriculum with Chef Rob as the Coach/Instructor for this year.  As soon as I heard about the team try-outs at school, I was on it like gravy on biscuits. I went directly to Chef one morning and told him straight out, “I want to compete.” Now, we're getting ready for state competition in January. Believe me when I say, “I want to win.” I am going to say a lot about my ego, but I want to be the best. I want know I am the best. Oddly enough as large as my ego is, I am very humble about my food. I don’t believe that my food is as good as people say. They only way to know for sure is compete and win. I want to master my skills and put them to the test against those who are the best.  I want to compete on the professional levels because an award like Chef of the Year sounds good to me and I want my name on it. 

As far as TV shows go, who doesn’t want to be a TV Chef? If I had the opportunity, I’d take a journey to Hell’s Kitchen or play mystery basket on Chopped. Honestly, I want my name whispered around my peers more than my fans.

I truly believe Marketha has what it takes to excel well beyond here big dreams!  Not only is she well-educated and passionate, she's a Tuskegee University graduate and THAT says a lot too!

Stay tuned to the "Ketha's Kitchen" series on my blog as see what other yummy creations she will share with us!

Bon Appétit

!