EP76: From Escoffier Culinary School to Private Chef: Bri Murray’s Inspiring Story

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Today we have a chef, a graduate of the Escofier School of Culinary Arts, joining us.

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She's a connoisseur of fine dining and specializes in an impressive array of cuisines, including French, Italian, Mediterranean, Latin American, and Southern comfort.

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She brings a wealth of flavors and techniques to the table, but what truly sets her apart is her commitment to sourcing the freshest ingredients possible from local farmers and fishermen.

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Please welcome to the show.

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Bri Murray.

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Thanks for having me.

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I'm so excited to have you here.

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It's really special.

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I've wanted to interview you for a long time, and I know how busy you are, and I'm just really grateful that you're with us.

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Thank you.

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I appreciate your patience with me too.

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I've been wanting to get on the podcast for a while, so I'm so glad we got it to work out.

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No worries.

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So let's start out with, take us back to maybe the first time that you cooked or you felt really connected to food.

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Yeah.

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I have a few memories in particular.

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I spent many of my early childhood years being raised by my Albanian grandma in New England, and she cooked everything from scratch, and I got to help her with making the Spanakopita and the moussaka.

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And during the springtime we go out foraging and find dandelion greens and nettles and we use them in the spinach pie.

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And I remember feeling, oh, so there can be a connection.

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To the land and our food.

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And this is pretty cool.

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I want to explore more of this.

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I remember feeling that even as a child.

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That's awesome.

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Yeah, it was really special.

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And then fast forward several years at 13, I got put into the juvenile detention system.

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And in order for me to earn my way out or earn my way to emancipation, I took the chore of cooking in the kitchen for all of my housemates and my friends.

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And yeah, I found it to be really meditative and calming and it was like a sanctuary or a safe haven for me in an otherwise really stressful place and time in my life.

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So that's like my roots where I started to find a love for cooking and it just grew from there.

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Wow.

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That's really cool.

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As you went along, you, you mentioned to me before that you've traveled around and in your exploration of cooking, can you talk a little bit deeper about that?

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I know you have a really great backstory and we could just dive right into it.

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Yeah, sure.

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Thanks for asking.

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Yeah.

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So when I was teen, I left Massachusetts and I, how some people join the circus, I joined like the skydiving.

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Circus quote unquote, I became a skydiver and I traveled around the country.

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I was packing parachutes.

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I was jumping from planes.

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I was putting cameras on my helmet and learning about photos and skydive videography and stuff like that.

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And

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wow,

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there were.

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Times where in order to earn some extra money, I would work in the, either in the office at the Skydive Center, or I'd work in the kitchen and serve breakfast, burritos, or whatever, grilled food, barbecue, whatever was needed.

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I just would find something to do to earn money.

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And I lived in my car.

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I was really a party kid at that time.

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And I ended up, Traveling all over the West Coast really fell in love with the farm to table movement and organic foods and ended up living in Portland, Oregon at one point to and just fell in love with really the farm to table movement there and farmers markets.

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Like I went to a farmer's market almost every weekend when I lived there and.

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I always cooked.

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I always had to cook because I couldn't always afford to go out to eat.

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And I tried to go to farmer's markets as much as I could get that taste of place and to try out different ingredients because it always inspired me going to the farmer's markets.

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always inspired me.

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And, even at that time too, I was already really into foraging and I would go out in my backyard and I just forage for whatever was in season, nettles, dandelions, wild mustard, and even wild berries, especially in Oregon, Pacific Northwest.

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So amazing berries.

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Oh, I miss it.

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Oh, yeah, that's we do.

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You're right.

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You're right about that.

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Yeah.

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And I really I loved that.

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I'll never forget, like tasting my first salmon berry.

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It's it was like, oh my God, like an explosion of like flavor and love

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in my

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mouth.

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And I made like a wild berry, which was basically like blackberries, salmon berries, and some, what was the other one?

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The other one was like the wild goji berry.

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And I made like a little fruit tart.

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I made fruit tart, a fruit tart with the wild berries.

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And so help us out a little bit.

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How old were you?

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I was, yeah, I would have been just turned 19 Yeah, so you

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were in it.

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You were in it.

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You were getting ready to become a chef.

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I love this.

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Oh my god.

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Yeah, I

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totally was.

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I was like budding.

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I was budding and I ended up working in a bunch of different kitchens over the years.

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I, during that same time, I got on a website called Workaway.

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And I set up a profile and I became a volunteer and I volunteered at different farms around the country.

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And I did this for many years, actually, after that.

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And when I worked and volunteered on the farms, I learned even more about what was in season, how to.

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Cook for large groups of people, like my housemates, farm mates, like there were so many people that had to be fed at any given time.

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So I'd always find myself helping out in the kitchen and with any chores that were needed around the kitchen as well as in the garden.

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And I guess it's all part of what made me who I am as a chef today.

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Fast forward a few years, I ended up moving to Europe and backpacked around, did the same thing.

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I volunteered and stayed on many farms, volunteered on many farms.

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Like I worked on vineyards.

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I worked at olive farms.

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I worked at all kinds of different art centers and collectives, art collectives.

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And I, we would always share the workload of cooking for everybody together.

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And I fell in love with cooking for others and serving others more than anything during

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this, during this

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time.

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I went through a similar journey, but it's not about me today.

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It's about honoring you.

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It really is.

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That's what voice for chefs is about.

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That is so cool.

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But I

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love that we share that.

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There's no question.

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That's the connection and it's so unique, right?

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People don't understand that it's such a commitment to become a chef.

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It's such a commitment

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to

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really devote your life to doing that.

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And it's, You've gotta love it.

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Yeah.

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You just gotta love it and yeah.

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And you do and it's so obvious to me now, hearing your story.

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Can we talk a little bit about like the kitchen and what it's like to work in a kitchen and how it almost feels like sometimes people are discriminated.

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When they're in the kitchen and I saw it and I hated that part of it.

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Are you comfortable talking about that?

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yeah, I would definitely say that for me being a woman in any restaurant kitchen, I've always had to be like thicker skinned and I'd have, I always had to be pretty tough to just to tolerate the guys there and also.

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Constantly, as a woman, you're just constantly sexualized in the world and especially even in the kitchen, you're always being hit on, you're always being talked to like you're a piece of meat and it's, sometimes you just have to get that thick skin but also dish it back and I've always sense of humor.

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So I know how to dish it back.

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And that, I think that's definitely shaped me as a person and as a chef.

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Sometimes it's hard for me to turn that off.

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even in my personal life, I find myself being like too sarcastic.

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Like I'm still in the kitchen with a bunch of dudes.

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And I'm like, oh my God, I gotta tone it down.

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Okay.

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Tone it down.

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Really

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tone it down.

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Oh, kitchen talk.

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It's all profanity.

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It's all profanity.

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Oh my God.

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I le when I left the restaurant business, I had to tone it down because now I'm in the business world.

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Yeah.

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I'm in technology and people are looking at me like, why are you swearing all the time?

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I'm like, but that's just how we talked.

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, F this, F that we swore to each other.

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But it was like a compliment.

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And once you understood it, it was okay, but you go out into the real world and you try to have a conversation and see that must be interesting as a private chef because you have to tone it down.

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You're working with a client, right?

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And you're the, your business is facing the client and you've got to keep the kitchen talk out.

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I bet

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completely.

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Yeah, completely.

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How'd you learn to do that?

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Really trial and error.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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I'd be lying if I told you that I didn't have a few times where I slipped up and I swore in the wrong situation with the wrong crowd and 'cause I did have some trial and error for sure.

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And it's mostly just.

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I feel like I'm at a point now where I feel people out when they call me and even when they email me to hire me to cook for them.

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I'm feeling them out.

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They're feeling me out on the phone.

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And I'm not for everybody, but I do try to be extremely accommodating and also I try to be adaptable and adapt to everybody.

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If I can tell someone's a little more on the Southern Belle, she's Southern Belle and she's real polite.

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She's real polite on the phone.

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I'm going to, I'm going to tone it down and be more polite and say yes, ma'am, no, ma'am, and things like that.

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It's part of customer service too, is knowing who you're dealing with and asking the right questions to find out what their needs are and doing your best.

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And my personality will always.

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I will, that will always shine through, but there's just some people where I don't have a much resonance with them over the phone and, I'll, I might not get that job and that's okay because I'd rather not waste my time trying to cook for somebody who I don't even really have a connection or rapport with over the phone.

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So how am I going to please them or appease to them cooking for them in their home?

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It's a weeding out process.

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Like being a chef, you have a certain personality that some people are going to be really drawn to and some aren't because we're strong personalities, I think.

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All of us chefs have to be, but yeah, like we all have our own style and I love that about us for

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sure.

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and part of becoming a chef, so some people are born into it, right?

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and then others really work at it.

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And I know you were born into it.

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Like you went along that journey, but also you said, I'm going to get serious and I'm going to go to school.

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Tell us about the Escoffia Institute.

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I interviewed a chef once that went to the Escoffia Institute and I'd love to hear your perspective about it.

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Yeah, it was a challenge for me.

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It was actually, I put the cart, excuse me, I put the cart ahead of the horse.

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I did my personal chef business during COVID and before I was classically trained, it was mostly just as a passion and let's throw whatever at the wall sticks and that's what stuck.

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And I've just been growing it ever since.

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And I put myself through culinary school after I started my business.

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And it was a lot.

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I was becoming a single mom.

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I was.

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Traveling to Boulder all the time for school and for different conferences and school related study related stuff.

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And also becoming a single mom at the same time, it was a lot of juggling and it was a lot of hours put into my culinary training to, to get myself to where I wanted to be.

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And I still had.

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Even after school, I still had so many things that I had to learn that I had to learn just from experience.

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And I had a lot of failures and a lot of overcooked and undercooked things along the way that also were part of teaching me.

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I needed to know to grow.

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And I'm really grateful for having gone to school and for all the things that I learned, all the training that I got, I had, I still, I'm so close with all my classmates and even some of my chef instructors were, we're all still super close and keep in touch and support each other.

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And it's amazing.

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I really think it was one of the best investments I ever made.

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Because whenever people ask, whenever clients ask who are really wanting to hire a chef, they want to know that I'm classically trained.

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Not all the time, not all the time, but it does help.

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And it can definitely look better to the client that this person's classically trained.

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This person put the time in to get an education and this stuff.

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So yeah.

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And it helped me to be able to put my prices higher, make my prices higher because I'm classically trained so I can.

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Have that under my belt, so to say.

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But there's other ways that you can go about becoming a chef.

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Stages, externships.

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I've actually trained several women in my business.

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I've offered stages and, one on one externships, and internships in the past.

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I'm really glad to pass on my knowledge when I can because I think it's one of the best things that we can do and it's a very hands on learning industry.

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So I feel culinary school is great and it Did so much for me and my skills But it's not the end all be all if you don't have the means or the time You can always find a stage or somebody

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to learn.

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That's true and be selective I learned under a couple great chefs, but I also am classically trained and now I work in technology But I love blending the two because especially in interviewing, I understand how to ask questions around that.

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And I love exploring that with chefs.

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It's fascinating to me and our listeners.

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And it's just really unique, right?

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Because being classically trained, there's a lot to it.

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Especially like I was European, European classically trained, I guess you would say.

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And he wrote the book.

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This gigantic Bible describing for our listeners, it's like the size of a gigantic Bible and it has anything you ever cook or imagine cooking.

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And he used to do like banquets for royalty and that's where all this classic training came from.

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And it's so amazing to have those roots because you can look at a recipe and just know how to cook it in your head.

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Without even trying, you just, you have that knowledge and it's really powerful.

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And then you can create from there.

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And that's what you do.

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Your dishes.

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Oh my gosh.

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They just look amazing.

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Like you have that flair and that artistic flair.

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And I love, I absolutely love that.

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And obviously we've talked about where it comes from.

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So as we're moving on, who inspires you?

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Chefs, blogs, influencers, mentors, who inspires you?

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Who do you want to give a shout out to?

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I have to think about that.

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I feel like getting inspiration and who has inspired me, it comes from a variety of sources.

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Not just other chefs, but sometimes it comes from like my dreams.

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Sometimes I dream about it.

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That's cool.

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Sometimes I get inspiration from other chefs and what they're doing.

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I guess I could say that being part of a female chef group here in Jacksonville has been like a huge inspiration to me recently because I feel like I have seven, eight other female chefs in the area to bounce ideas off of, to host pop up dinners with, and to also refer clients to and from, and I really appreciated that community too.

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Like Chef Seneca's one, she's from Homegrown Catering.

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She's become a good friend of mine, Chef Mimi Lan, also.

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Taste curator.

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She's been another one, Rebecca Reed.

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Those are just a few to name and Saji George is another one from Mesa Restaurant here.

00:17:18.726 --> 00:17:26.296
And I just did a pop up dinner with all of them and we each got to share one of our dishes and it was just such a wonderful experience.

00:17:26.365 --> 00:17:30.205
I do definitely look for inspiration from other female chefs.

00:17:30.810 --> 00:17:40.800
More than I do from men in the industry and it's not man, it's not bashing men or anything because there's some amazing, amazingly talented male chefs out there and I respect them.

00:17:40.830 --> 00:17:48.701
I just know that I want to support women and our inclusiveness and our, we deserve some spotlight too.

00:17:48.701 --> 00:17:53.526
So yeah, I definitely am grateful for that community that I found.

00:17:53.596 --> 00:18:05.536
And also there's a lot of great Facebook groups, networking Facebook groups for chefs, where we can all share our ideas or struggles, tons of my favorite chefs on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok.

00:18:05.615 --> 00:18:18.215
I definitely think social media helps a lot with this too, but more than anything, I feel coming up with dishes and stuff, it needs to feel right and come from your own heart versus following a trend or following what someone else is doing.

00:18:18.215 --> 00:18:20.266
Doing that's just how I view it.

00:18:20.286 --> 00:18:22.786
Cause it all really comes from my heart.

00:18:22.796 --> 00:18:31.516
And at the end of the day, like it's something that I need to feel like I want to create in the world or there.

00:18:32.605 --> 00:18:33.865
It's obvious to me.

00:18:33.865 --> 00:18:43.996
Cause I was reading some of your reviews and there was a site, I forget where it was, but I saw 77 reviews and you had four and a half stars and that, that was just awesome.

00:18:44.096 --> 00:18:44.726
I was just like.

00:18:45.256 --> 00:18:46.026
Yes.

00:18:46.115 --> 00:18:46.996
Oh, thank you.

00:18:47.806 --> 00:18:59.895
I did work hard for those and I, I will say that I like to write reviews and leave reviews for people too when I experienced something positive that they've provided as a service for me.

00:18:59.955 --> 00:19:02.895
But there's a very important question I want to ask you now.

00:19:03.026 --> 00:19:10.625
And can you tell us And explain what map is all about, because I am so passionate about map.

00:19:10.695 --> 00:19:14.286
I was asked and I was shocked.

00:19:14.286 --> 00:19:19.915
I was like, I'm a male and it's a female organization, but I'm so honored to be an ambassador.

00:19:19.945 --> 00:19:25.455
And I'd love for you to share a little bit about that and what your experience with Mapp has been like.

00:19:26.586 --> 00:19:29.826
Joanna James, she's the owner and founder of MAPP.

00:19:30.105 --> 00:19:35.076
She grew up in a restaurant kitchen with her mom being a single mom and running the restaurant.

00:19:35.086 --> 00:19:43.915
And she's really passionate about, she wanted to create basically a organization to empower women in the food and hospitality business.

00:19:43.925 --> 00:19:48.165
It's about mentorship, advocacy, purpose, and power of community.

00:19:48.641 --> 00:20:00.671
And I believe very much in their mission, which is to support the growth and of women led food organizations and creating the change and equality that we deserve.

00:20:00.951 --> 00:20:03.391
And the transparency as well that we deserve.

00:20:03.480 --> 00:20:08.760
She created a dinner event here in Jacksonville and I was one of the chefs that was invited.

00:20:08.760 --> 00:20:09.480
I invited a few.

00:20:10.016 --> 00:20:12.855
Chefs that I knew of that I thought could benefit from it.

00:20:13.205 --> 00:20:28.256
And it's ever since then we've done, we have this solid community of female chefs here, and we've done our pop up dinner together and we're already planning another one, and it's just been this really amazing group and community to be a part of.

00:20:28.296 --> 00:20:32.895
That's a really positive example of how women can support one another and.

00:20:32.945 --> 00:20:36.346
Encourage one another and create positive community for change.

00:20:36.675 --> 00:20:38.855
And I think we need more of that for sure.

00:20:38.855 --> 00:20:40.526
Spreading it across the country.

00:20:40.625 --> 00:20:42.226
I know she's doing a lot of these pop ups.

00:20:42.385 --> 00:20:43.205
I am a huge fan.

00:20:43.256 --> 00:20:44.655
I just, I love it too.

00:20:45.016 --> 00:20:47.945
And I see how she honors.

00:20:48.296 --> 00:20:53.326
Women in hospitality and brings them together and provides mentorship and guidance.

00:20:53.326 --> 00:21:03.306
And yeah, I get chills when I think about Matt and I get chills talking to you about it and talking to chef Mimi about it and talking to others about it.

00:21:03.375 --> 00:21:05.076
I'd love for her to come to Seattle.

00:21:05.135 --> 00:21:10.605
I really would because I could connect her to some chefs here and I could really see it happen.

00:21:11.125 --> 00:21:11.746
Yeah.

00:21:11.836 --> 00:21:12.145
Yeah.

00:21:12.185 --> 00:21:16.465
And for anyone that wants to check it out, it's map M A P impact.

00:21:16.685 --> 00:21:19.425
org and check out what they're doing there.

00:21:19.465 --> 00:21:20.935
She's doing some amazing work.

00:21:20.935 --> 00:21:21.076
Become

00:21:21.076 --> 00:21:21.685
a part of it.

00:21:21.685 --> 00:21:23.705
It's an incredible organization.

00:21:23.796 --> 00:21:24.266
Move on.

00:21:24.266 --> 00:21:28.026
What do you find the most rewarding about being a private chef?

00:21:28.026 --> 00:21:35.346
Ooh, the rewards are endless from the time freedom to the ability to create your own dishes.

00:21:35.935 --> 00:21:46.105
Being creative, the creative freedom, the opportunity that you can provide for other women to get their start is really insurmountable.

00:21:46.405 --> 00:21:57.435
The ability to own, operate your own business, and also to succeed, despite all odds, is a huge motivator for me, and I find incredibly rewarding.

00:21:57.855 --> 00:22:03.040
But also, I think, one of the things that I try to keep in mind is my why.

00:22:03.570 --> 00:22:14.201
why do I want to be a private chef, but why do I also want to pursue this career and , and share my story with the world and share my food with the world.

00:22:14.421 --> 00:22:16.830
My why more than anything is really my son.

00:22:16.911 --> 00:22:20.871
I want him to see his mom loving the work that she does in the world.

00:22:21.816 --> 00:22:29.766
And I want him to see me being successful at it and also being a good example to him that he can do the same in his life.

00:22:30.016 --> 00:22:31.365
That's really my why.

00:22:31.405 --> 00:22:40.276
I also want to be an example to other kids out there who, like me, grew up or spent many years in foster care and who found food.

00:22:40.661 --> 00:22:49.151
Or cooking to be a form of love and creative self expression or freedom from an otherwise oppressive situation.

00:22:49.421 --> 00:22:56.810
I feel like that's also one of my whys to being able to, yeah, uplift and be an example to those kids.

00:22:56.810 --> 00:23:02.891
I gotta give a shout out to somebody who I love and just respect, and that's Chef Andrea Murdoch.

00:23:03.941 --> 00:23:06.986
And she is Incredible.

00:23:06.996 --> 00:23:13.476
Like I interviewed her, I think it was the first clubhouse interview I did for the food talk show and I was blown away.

00:23:13.516 --> 00:23:16.756
I'd followed her for a long time, listened to her for a long time.

00:23:17.506 --> 00:23:28.655
She's adopted and she has so much passion to help others and also to honor that her Andean culture.

00:23:28.715 --> 00:23:32.435
And yeah, I'm just, it's, she just came to mind.

00:23:32.576 --> 00:23:40.546
To me when you were talking about this and she listens to the podcast too, cause I see out in Colorado, somebody's listening.

00:23:40.546 --> 00:23:42.375
I'm like, yep, I know exactly who that is.

00:23:42.746 --> 00:23:44.066
We have listeners all over the world.

00:23:44.066 --> 00:23:48.665
Like I was saying, 63 countries, but every once in a while I can just tell or have a hunch.

00:23:48.986 --> 00:23:50.115
She'll text me once in a while.

00:23:50.115 --> 00:24:01.375
As we move on a tough question, and maybe you can give advice to others, other chefs, other people in the hospitality industry, mental health is a real challenge in the hospitality industry.

00:24:01.655 --> 00:24:12.441
I went through some tough times myself, and I remember, and How do you stay sane, sober, and significant in the industry?

00:24:12.510 --> 00:24:18.540
What advice can you give people to stay sane and keep their mental health intact?

00:24:18.540 --> 00:24:23.891
You have to take time to prioritize your self love and your self care.

00:24:24.441 --> 00:24:41.391
Even if that is Mondays or Tuesdays where it's like you block everything off from your schedule and you take a day for yourself to go to get a massage or go to the chiropractor or take a morning walk to get some of the morning sunlight.

00:24:41.730 --> 00:24:49.671
Anything you can, I think, to prioritize yourself is really important in your self care because we give a lot to others.

00:24:50.191 --> 00:24:55.411
And it can be especially draining to us mentally, spiritually, emotionally.

00:24:55.621 --> 00:24:57.820
I know that burnout is a thing.

00:24:57.961 --> 00:25:01.820
And I have definitely suffered a lot from that in the past.

00:25:02.230 --> 00:25:10.750
But burnout is one of those things that I think that we can have preventative measures in place to, yeah, to help us avoid.

00:25:11.161 --> 00:25:17.820
it from happening and the preventative measures are having one day a week to block off for your self care.

00:25:17.861 --> 00:25:25.580
Scheduling your therapy sessions if you go to therapy or your coaching sessions and being non negotiable about it.

00:25:25.661 --> 00:25:36.201
If anyone tries to ask you if you have time during that time or if you can cater an event during that time, you have to have non negotiables as well so that you prioritize.

00:25:36.540 --> 00:25:43.780
your self care and your mental health, however you find that you balance, you find balance for it.

00:25:44.260 --> 00:25:47.451
So yeah, work life balance is really important as well.

00:25:47.500 --> 00:25:59.330
Also like work life balance and I know it's easier said than done because I put a lot of pressure on myself to do and be everything, but ask for help when you need it.

00:25:59.421 --> 00:26:08.471
If you feel like you've been spreading yourself thin, and you're making mistakes often, more often than you should be.

00:26:08.740 --> 00:26:11.891
Usually that's a sign that you're coming into burnout.

00:26:11.921 --> 00:26:20.691
So knowing what are the signs of burnout or even mental health breakdown and having preventative measures in place.

00:26:20.721 --> 00:26:26.871
And for me, it's also like asking for help when I'm starting to mess things up.

00:26:26.901 --> 00:26:27.871
I'm starting to get.

00:26:28.431 --> 00:26:44.971
Hazy and foggy and I'm not having not feeling very confident or enthusiastic and I feel like I'm overworked and having, yeah, having the ability to ask for help when you need it has really helped me a lot and I know it can help others.

00:26:45.070 --> 00:26:46.191
That's a really good answer.

00:26:46.191 --> 00:26:47.580
You really thought through that.

00:26:47.945 --> 00:27:01.855
So the last thing, as we wrap up, how do we find you like you have this amazing website and I want you to talk about it because it describes your services, which are incredible, including not only private chef, but cooking classes.

00:27:01.905 --> 00:27:06.496
And I got chills about that because, gosh, it'd be fun to do a cooking class with you.

00:27:06.576 --> 00:27:08.215
I'm telling you, tell us a little bit about that.

00:27:08.215 --> 00:27:09.246
And how do we get to you?

00:27:09.276 --> 00:27:10.945
How do we book with you?

00:27:10.955 --> 00:27:12.645
How do we find out more about you?

00:27:12.695 --> 00:27:30.556
I guess the best way really to find me is there's a few ways you can find me on YouTube and TikTok at culinary experiences or Instagram at culinary experiences LLC and Facebook or TikTok and Instagram also for my personal page, which is chef.

00:27:30.611 --> 00:27:31.030
Bree.

00:27:31.121 --> 00:27:33.221
So those are where you can find me.

00:27:33.320 --> 00:27:47.211
Feel free to follow me on any of those and you'll see some of my footage and my dishes and sometimes I share advice and just empowering kind of things that I've learned along the way to hopefully uplift others that might need it.

00:27:47.661 --> 00:27:52.276
I got to warn you, you'll get hooked because you share really interesting things.

00:27:52.276 --> 00:27:56.506
You don't just share, you share really cool dishes, really cool, creative ideas.

00:27:57.115 --> 00:27:58.635
This, I mean it.

00:27:58.665 --> 00:28:00.355
I'm like, I'm very inspired.

00:28:00.365 --> 00:28:03.715
Like I live all the way across the country and I want to come cook with you.

00:28:04.365 --> 00:28:07.726
I want to experience your food, your passion.

00:28:07.836 --> 00:28:08.115
Yeah.

00:28:08.145 --> 00:28:08.746
Thank you.

00:28:08.885 --> 00:28:11.165
I'm in the process too, of writing a book.

00:28:11.165 --> 00:28:14.036
It's actually my memoir.

00:28:14.105 --> 00:28:17.457
Yeah, it's a memoir and a cookbook that will be attached to it.

00:28:17.846 --> 00:28:22.846
And my memoir is going to be called Nobody's Daughter, Everybody's Chef.

00:28:23.546 --> 00:28:29.195
And it's basically about my life growing up in foster care without either of my parents.

00:28:29.415 --> 00:28:33.715
I did have my grandma for most of my life, I never really felt like I was anybody's daughter.

00:28:33.746 --> 00:28:37.726
I was ever claimed to be anybody's daughter, but I feel like I'm everybody's chef.

00:28:37.756 --> 00:28:44.395
And that's where I found love and healing is actually through cooking for people.

00:28:44.675 --> 00:29:02.766
And there's something really empowering about it that has just helped me to heal from so much pain, heartbreak, trauma, and I want to share my story in more detail and also how I've overcome a lot of those adversities and things in my life that really set me back.

00:29:02.865 --> 00:29:05.145
That's going to be my book that will be out.

00:29:05.165 --> 00:29:08.665
I don't know yet when, but I'm almost done with it.

00:29:08.675 --> 00:29:09.945
So stay tuned.

00:29:10.016 --> 00:29:10.695
if you follow me on any of

00:29:10.955 --> 00:29:12.476
too and I'll put it out there for you.

00:29:12.546 --> 00:29:13.115
Yeah.

00:29:13.175 --> 00:29:13.905
Through our channels.

00:29:13.945 --> 00:29:14.605
Yeah.

00:29:14.605 --> 00:29:14.816
For sure.

00:29:15.336 --> 00:29:16.135
I definitely will.

00:29:16.175 --> 00:29:27.756
And when I'll share it through social media, like when I have the pre book launch and pre book, pre launch sales, stuff like that, there will be plenty of information online when that's approaching.

00:29:27.756 --> 00:29:34.605
And my cookbook to go with it will have a lot of different recipes that are things that I serve my clients.

00:29:34.925 --> 00:29:56.405
But also things that I cook at home with just me and my son that are our comfort foods and how I've found healing, too, from healing from a heartbreak, from divorce, and also getting me and my son more closely connected in the kitchen and the recipes that, that we do, that we cook on a regular basis that are like our family staples.

00:29:56.976 --> 00:29:58.375
Yeah, I'll be sharing a lot of that stuff.

00:29:58.375 --> 00:30:04.056
stuff too in the cookbook, but also on YouTube, I'll be sharing some documentary style footage.

00:30:04.056 --> 00:30:19.455
I have a really nice Sony camera that I've been getting lots of content with and I just need to edit some more and my YouTube channel will have a lot of documentary style, like a channel where I'll be sharing my story and kind of day in the life of a personal chef and single mom.

00:30:19.586 --> 00:30:20.385
I want a copy.

00:30:20.385 --> 00:30:22.336
I'm going to buy a copy as soon as it's there.

00:30:23.256 --> 00:30:25.806
Yeah, I'm really excited to see this journey with you.

00:30:25.806 --> 00:30:27.236
This is really cool.

00:30:28.135 --> 00:30:29.715
I've been thinking about a book actually.

00:30:29.715 --> 00:30:33.336
I want to do a voice for chefs cookbook in honor of the chefs that I interview.

00:30:34.316 --> 00:30:35.844
Yeah, it's a lot of

00:30:35.844 --> 00:30:36.141
work.

00:30:36.141 --> 00:30:40.786
I have so much stuff that I'm doing now, but I really want to do that.

00:30:40.786 --> 00:30:44.276
I really feel it pulling and it may even be after the podcast.

00:30:44.375 --> 00:30:50.256
It may just be a journey that I go on and reach out to all the guests and you're one of them.

00:30:50.355 --> 00:30:56.151
I am telling you, I want to thank you so much, Bri, for being a guest on our show, and Thanks.