Pod Insights The Sporkful Patti LaBelle Says She Cooks Better Than She Sings (Reheat) About this episode Patti LaBelle is not just a music icon, she’s also a food icon. She’s written best-selling cookbooks, hosted a food TV show, and even cooked for Elton John, The Rolling Stones, and Prince. She talks with Dan about touring the segregated South in the ‘60s, the viral video that made her sweet potato pie a Walmart sensation, and the one recipe in her cookbook that’s perfect for women going through menopause.
Transcript Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
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1:05 Speaker 01 Sirius XM Podcasts.
1:13 Dan Pashman? Hey, everyone, it's Dan here, and during the holiday season, I have sweet potato pie on the brain. And when I think about sweet potato pie, there is only one person I think about. It is the one and only Patti LaBelle. Her Walmart sweet potato pie became a culinary sensation when it first hit the scene. So we talk about her favorite sweet treats, her viral line of pies, and why, even when she's out on the road, being the incredible singer and performer that she is, she'd rather cook than order room service. She travels with her own pots and pans. And while, of course, the episode focuses on food, it's got plenty of great music. Of course, it's Patti. As always, if there's a Sporkful episode you want us to pull out of the deep freezer and reheat, send us an email or voice memo to [email protected] .
1:58 Dan Pashman? Tell me your name, location, what classic episode you want to hear, and why. Thanks so much and enjoy.
2:07 Speaker 02 In my family, everybody made the best peach cobbler. There was no competition because you know, if you tasted hers and hers and hers, all of them would be delightful.
2:16 Dan Pashman? Let's, let's get a little detailed here, Patty.
2:18 Speaker 02 Okay.
2:18 Dan Pashman? What temperature? Do you like the peach cobbler like still warm out of the oven? You like it room temperature?
2:23 Speaker 02 It has to be hot. And then, for those who love the melted ice cream on top. That's cute.
2:31 Speaker 02 Who wants a cold peach cobbler?
2:33 Dan Pashman? So you like hot peach cobbler with the ice cream on top?
2:36 Speaker 02 Yes, when I could sneak a bite. It's so good.
2:39 Dan Pashman? And would you put the ice cream right on top?
2:41 Speaker 02 Right on top.
2:42 Dan Pashman? So you like, you want that ice cream to melt?
2:44 Speaker 02 To melt. And, and I prefer melted ice cream when I can have it. You know, like I even sit it on a heater or something because I love the soft sides.
2:53 Dan Pashman? Yes.
2:53 Speaker 02 Ooh, I wish I had some down.
3:12 Dan Pashman? This is The Sporkful. It's not for foodies, it's for eaters. I'm Dan Pashman. Each week on our show, we obsess about food to learn more about people. Today, I sit down with Patty LaBelle, who's not just a music icon. She's also a food icon. She's written bestselling cookbooks, hosted a Food TV show. She's even cooked for Elton John, The Rolling Stones, Prince. In fact, she says she cooks better than she sings. Patty, Patty can sing.
3:54 Dan Pashman? Patty will talk about the role food played in the turbulent home she grew up in, share stories of touring the segregated South in the 60s. And of course, we'll discuss the viral video that made her sweet potato pie a Walmart sensation.
4:08 Speaker 03 If anybody know Patty LaBelle, tag her in the video. Patty! Whoa!
4:25 Dan Pashman? In West Philadelphia, born and raised in the kitchens where Patti LaBelle spent most of her days. Seriously, her mom used to offer to pay her to go outside, but she wanted to see what was cooking. She joined her church choir at age 12. By 16, she was in a band, and at 18, Patti and her group, The Bluebells, had their first record deal. That was 1962. Since then, she's gone on to sell more than 50 million records. Her biggest hit, Lady Marmalade, is better known as "Voulez-vous coucher avec moi ce soir?" In 1995, Patti collapsed onstage and was diagnosed with diabetes. She made big changes to her diet, then released her first cookbook, La Belle Cuisine, which featured healthier versions of many soul food classics. It was a New York Times bestseller.
5:09 Dan Pashman? This past July, the 20th anniversary edition of La Belle Cuisine was released. Now, at concerts, Patti's known for her stage presence. Up there, she is in charge. And it's the same in the kitchen. Here she is cooking with Steve Harvey on his TV show.
5:23 Speaker 04 It's done. The fish is done, okay? So now, darn, Steve, come on. It's still a tag on here. Now we played it, Steve. Other people be trying to help and all this stuff, huh? They guess on my shit. Steve! Give me the goddamn bottle! Okay, well, here, I'm trying. Give me a knife.
5:48 Dan Pashman? Am I right, you travel with your pots and your pans when you're on tour?
5:51 Speaker 02 I have to, yes, because, you know, room service can be a little shady, and so I don't give them a chance. I cook in the hotel suite.
6:00 Dan Pashman? So tell me about your setup. What's the actual, what's Patti's gear when you get to that room?
6:06 Speaker 02 I bring my electric fry pan, like, usually two. And if they have a stove with their pots and pans, that's even better, but I plug my pans up and I saute my fish, and then I do my kale greens in the other one, and dinner's finished in about 20 minutes.
6:22 Dan Pashman? So you got two electric burners, you got...
6:24 Speaker 02 Those pans, you know, that you, with the little lid, and you plug them in.
6:29 Dan Pashman? Right. And you have your spatulas and you have your?
6:32 Speaker 02 I have everything. My friend Norma, she makes sure we have a trunk with spices, all my spices. Because you know, you're not gonna buy spices in every city, so we bring our own. Everything is in that case.
6:44 Dan Pashman? But sometimes Patty's hotel cooking can get her into trouble. Like that time she was performing with Arsenio Hall. After the show, she made him dinner.
6:52 Speaker 02 I made liver and onions. And security came up and said, something's burning. I said, hush honey, it's liver and onions. Do you want some? And he said, yes, it was liver and onions and salad and some cabbage.
7:04 Dan Pashman? That sounds delicious. How do you do your liver and onions?
7:07 Speaker 02 I don't use flour. I use a little grape seed oil, just enough to shine the bottom of the pan. Season it with sea salt, black pepper, and I cook it like one minute on each side. It's thin liver.
7:19 Dan Pashman? Right.
7:20 Speaker 02 People overcook liver like rocks, you know, and most people say I hate it because they've never had mine. No, I'm serious. My friend Norma's husband despies liver. Because his mother used to make it and she wasn't a great cook, he said. So Norma told him, please try Patty's. And he tried and my liver and onions slams. It's really good.
7:40 Dan Pashman? It sounds delicious. I love liver.
7:41 Speaker 02 And I like it a little rare.
7:42 Dan Pashman? Mmm, yeah. And then you put it over greens?
7:46 Speaker 02 No, on the plate by itself with the sauteed bidaia onions on the side. And you know, with a veggie or salad or whatever. And I just, like, I love liver. Do you like chicken livers?
7:56 Dan Pashman? Oh, yeah. I like, just about any liver I can get my hands on.
7:58 Speaker 02 Right. I love chicken livers.
8:01 Dan Pashman? And then, so you do the liver and the onions on the plate separately, but do you combine them in each bite?
8:06 Speaker 02 No, no, no. I have, I don't like to bite the onion and the liver at the same time. So I eat some onions and then I have some liver. I don't like pollen stuff in my mouth like that, two things or three things at once. I try not to. But either way, it's good.
8:21 Dan Pashman? Does the food that you wanna eat, or whether you cook after a show, is it sometimes dictated by how you feel about how the show went?
8:29 Speaker 02 Heck, no. How could that be? I don't, I don't, I couldn't do that. The energy that I get from every show is so, so awesome. I come back happy. And the only time not happy is when my voice might have given out and I felt as though I didn't give a great show. Then I'm sad and I go to sleep quick.
8:49 Dan Pashman? And when she's not on the road, Patty says she cooks even more.
8:52 Speaker 02 Every day that I'm in Philly, I cook for like 12 people and it's only me eating.
9:00 Speaker 02 But I love to feed the neighbors and I have people working in the house. They always get a great lunch and I just love to see smiles on faces after eating my food.
9:13 Dan Pashman? Is that a similar thrill to what you get when you're onstage singing?
9:16 Speaker 02 Yes, because onstage I get standing ovations and that's a turn on. And when they eat my food and they come back and ask me for, could I have a second? And then could I take some home? That's a real turn on. I love it. And so I have little baby containers to give everybody, those little throwaways. Not my real Tupperware. I make sure everybody takes it home. Like my son and his, his wife, they're always running and busy and he's my manager and they have a little sweet baby and they don't get a chance to eat. So I'll say, okay, I'm making food tonight. I'm making some, whatever they want. Just tell me what you want and I got you.
9:56 Dan Pashman? Patty's family comes up often in her cookbooks where she shares a lot of personal stories. Her book Desserts La Belle is full of memories of people she's lost over the years. All three of her sisters died of cancer before the age of 45. Patty still feels guilty about the end of her sister Jackie's life. She told the story on Oprah.
10:17 Speaker 02 The day before she died, she asked me to make her egg sandwich and I had just gotten off the road and the hospital was five minutes from my house. And I said to my aunt, because Jackie couldn't speak very well then, I said, Aunt Hattie may tell her that I'll make it tomorrow. The next day, I made the sandwich. I said, Hattie, I'm on my way. She said, don't rush. Your sister just passed. And I held that and I still hold it.
10:45 Speaker 02 Because it was such a minor thing for me, just to make a sandwich because she loved the way I cooked. I miss my sister Jackie like crazy.
10:59 Dan Pashman? Food was always really important in the house when Patty was growing up. Both her parents cooked a lot, and that inspired her to begin dabbling at a young age.
11:08 Speaker 02 When I first started, well, making things that I called cooking, it wasn't with ketchup and hot sauce. We would go on the little back shed and I would mix up a bunch of stuff and just, of course, not have the cat and dog taste it. But I knew that I had done something special and I took it into my mother and she said, "That's great hot sauce, baby."
11:27 Dan Pashman? I know, growing up, your parents fought a lot and eventually got divorced. You've talked about this.
11:32 Speaker 02 Yes.
11:32 Dan Pashman? You said even that as a kid, you broke out in hives from the stress of watching them fight. So was food and cooking, was that sometimes part of the tension? Or was that like, what was the relationship between cooking and the tension that you were living with?
11:45 Speaker 02 Well, the cooking and the tension, I mean, it did get serious. I mean, of course, my mother had hot grease on the stove, you know, and my father would bother her. And he might have gotten a little teaspoon of hot grease. But the food kept coming and they kept cooking and they kept loving each other, but not liking each other. And so it was fights all the time. And I did break out in hives. So every Monday, my mother would take me to get this shot. But then we would have good food after that.
12:13 Dan Pashman? Is there one food or recipe that you especially associate with each of your parents?
12:18 Speaker 02 The sweet potato pie. That was their recipe, but you know, since I have my pies in Walmart, I tweaked it a bit.
12:25 Dan Pashman? What do you think would have been their reaction, seeing the reaction to the sweet potato pie Walmart thing?
12:30 Speaker 02 Gosh, they would say, "I knew my baby could cook." Yeah, they would do a hallelujah on that one. Yeah, they would love it.
12:39 Dan Pashman? Yes, the sweet potato pie Walmart thing. This was the event that took Patty's fame as a food person to a whole other level. It was 2015. Walmart was selling a line of her pies and sales were pretty good. But then, one day, a guy named James Wright Chanel posted a video review of her sweet potato pie.
12:59 Speaker 03 Greetings. So, I went to the store after I seen somebody post that Patty LaBelle pie. I love Patty LaBelle. I love... Shout out to Patty LaBelle, honey.
13:13 Dan Pashman? Warning to parents, this video contains a bit of profanity. James Wright spends the first minute of the video just trying to get the box open.
13:20 Speaker 03 Patty, what you seal this bitch with? Gorilla glue? Oh, there we go. Come on Patty, you better come out. Come on Patty!
13:29 Dan Pashman? Finally, he gets the pie out.
13:30 Speaker 03 Ooh, it's so pretty. Look at that.
13:32 Dan Pashman? He cuts himself a slice, then he picks up the whole slice with his hand and takes a huge bite.
13:39 Dan Pashman? His eyes roll back in his head. Then he takes another bite. And then...
13:44 Speaker 03 Patty!
13:47 Speaker 03 If anybody know Patty LaBelle, tag her in the video. Patty!
13:53 Speaker 03 Whoa, yeah! Bitch, I turned into Patty. You turn into Patty after eating this.
14:02 Dan Pashman? Then, as if to prove his point, he starts singing Patty's songs.
14:06 Speaker 03 How is it that you people who laugh together?
14:13 Speaker 03 And love together sometimes? Ooh, ha ha! Patty!
14:23 Speaker 03 Go to Walmart and buy the Patty LaBelle pie. Patty, my friend. I never knew him two years, but I know now.
14:34 Dan Pashman? The video went viral. For three days, Walmart was selling a pie a minute. They had to scramble to get another 2 million pounds of sweet potatoes to keep up with demand. Patty started doing TV interviews with James Wright Chanel. She even brought him on stage to sing with her at one of her shows. And clearly, a big part of why this video resonated is James Wright Chanel. I mean, this guy...
14:56 Speaker 03 Patty!
14:57 Dan Pashman? ...is amazing. But that wasn't the only thing going on here. To help me dig deeper into this video, I reached out to Adrian Miller. He writes about soul food and African-American food history. The first thing he and I discussed is a comment that James Wright makes in the video, kind of in passing as he's opening the pie.
15:14 Speaker 03 Remember, support black people, um, black businesses.
15:19 Dan Pashman? Here's Adrian.
15:20 Speaker 05 So that's a long-running complaint. I mean, going to the early 1900s, African-Americans will be making a good product. It's out there, but for whatever reason, African-American customers won't necessarily support that business and may even prefer a white entrepreneur who's offering something similar. It's really messed up. So anytime that there's a African-American entrepreneur really doing something well, there's always a rallying cry to support that business and help that person break through.
15:47 Dan Pashman? And Patty heard that rallying cry loud and clear. She told Huffington Post that the spike in pie sales was showing people, quote, "the power of the black dollar." Another reason why this video resonated, it's not just any pie. It's sweet potato pie. That was why the black lifestyle site Madame Noir called the Patty Pie phenomenon "the blackest moment of 2015." Sweet potato pie and pumpkin pie are both descended from English carrot pie. In the US, pumpkins grow more in the north, so you see more pumpkin pie up north. Sweet potatoes grow more in the south, so sweet potato pie is very much a part of both southern and soul food traditions, which, as Adrian Miller explains, are similar but not the same.
16:30 Speaker 05 The difference between southern and soul food is that soul food tastes better. Okay.
16:36 Speaker 05 But if you want something more deep than that, first of all, you have to understand, these are shared cuisines, so there's a lot of food items in common. So I can see why people are confused between the two. But I find that soul food tends to be more intense in terms of flavors and seasoning and the use of variety meats. For instance, I think the big dividing line is chitlins, which are pig intestines. You find that a lot on soul food menus. I just don't see that in white restaurants in the south or elsewhere that often.
17:05 Dan Pashman? Right. And is it fair to say that southern food is more of a regional distinction? Soul food is more like a race-culture distinction?
17:14 Speaker 05 I think that's a good way to look at it. I mean, it's controversial, but what I argue in my book is that soul food is really more about what African-Americans are eating outside the south. I argue that soul food is an immigrant cuisine where the Old South is the old country and all these parts, the rest of the United States, is the new country. And like other immigrants, they tried to recreate home through food.
17:38 Dan Pashman? Where does sweet potato pie fall into that spectrum?
17:41 Speaker 05 Sweet potato pie is one of those foods that fall into the sweet spot of Southern and soul, right up there with fried chicken, mac and cheese, watermelon, to some extent, okra, cornbread. You know, it's one of the shared foods.
17:56 Dan Pashman? And can you give me a sense of how Patti LaBelle is perceived as a food person in the African-American community, in the world of African-American food culture? What's the perception of her and food?
18:09 Speaker 05 PSPP, which is pre-sweet potato pie, she was known really as a symbol of kind of healthy eating in the soul food tradition. Because in the 1960s, when soul food became really popular, you had a lot of traditional cookbooks and restaurants opening. And that momentum carried on for a couple of decades. But then in the late 80s and the 90s, you started to see a reassessment. A lot of people were facing chronic health problems from eating a lot of rich food. And I wouldn't say that all the blame is with soul food, but that's where it was often laid. So you start to get this soul food light, down healthy soul food and other things emerging in the 1990s. And I would say that Patti LaBelle was really the first big name to be associated with that current of soul food.
19:01 Dan Pashman? That's Adrian Miller. His book is Soul Food: The Surprising Story of an American Cuisine One Plate at a Time. He also wrote a new book about Black Americans and barbecue history entitled Black Smoke. Coming up, more with Patti LaBelle. She'll share her thoughts on the role that race played in the sweet potato pie phenomenon. And she'll tell us about her experience touring the segregated South in the 60s. Plus, she explains why one recipe in her new cookbook is perfect for women going through menopause. As we go to break, let's hear a track off Patti's jazz album from a few years back, Belle Hommage. It's called Peel Me a Grape.
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23:16 Dan Pashman? Welcome back to another Sporkful Reheat. I'm Dan Pashman. Hey, if you want to hear what I'm eating and reading every week, you should sign up for the Sporkful newsletter. I'll give you my weekly recommendations and so do our producers and the whole rest of our team. We also share announcements about exciting things happening with the show, when there's special discounts on my pastas. And on top of all that, if you subscribe to the newsletter, you're automatically entered into giveaways for cookbooks featured on the show, as long as you live in the US or Canada. There's literally no downside. Sign up right now at sporkful.com/newsletter. I promise we won't spam you. We're only gonna send you really good stuff. Again, that's sporkful.com/newsletter. Thanks. Now back to this week's reheat. Before we get back to my conversation with Patti LaBelle, let's hear a bit of her performing the song "If You Don't Know Me" by Now.
24:01 Dan Pashman? This tune was originally written for her in 1972, but she didn't record it back then. Over the years, it's been done by Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes, Simply Red, Seal, and Rod Stewart. But for my money, nobody does it better than Patti. Here she is performing it live on stage.
24:39 Dan Pashman? Back in the 60s, when Patty and her group, The Bluebells, were starting out, they played gigs on what was called the Chitlin' Circuit. The Chitlin' Circuit was the nickname of a group of venues in the Northeast, South, and Midwest where black performers were allowed to perform. James Brown, Ray Charles, Billie Holiday, and so many more. I mean, they all played these places. Patty hasn't forgotten those days. She told Dan Rather about dealing with racism as she and her bandmates traveled through the South.
25:09 Speaker 02 We rode through the hate. We sang through the hate. And we all grew into fine ladies. Because you let that hate diminish you if you focus on it. You know that's the way of the world. That's the way most people are in this freaking world. They ain't gonna love you, boo. So keep on doing what you do and give them a kind word and say to them, "Have a good day."
25:37 Dan Pashman? But Patty admitted to me that as much as she tried to stay positive, it was rough, especially when it came time to eat.
25:45 Speaker 02 We carried our tuna in the car and sardines, you know, they were like 10 cent a can. And we'd have our little candy bars because we would go to restaurants. Of course, we couldn't get in. And sometimes we would go to the back. And that back food was like garbage, but we had to take what we could get. And those are awful memories, you know, riding through the South and then performing and knowing that everybody is thinking another way than you're thinking, but you have to perform. And then when you leave, you might end up sleeping in a station wagon because there were not many hotels, you know, for black performers traveling through different cities.
26:22 Dan Pashman? Were those audiences mostly white or black?
26:24 Speaker 02 They were white. And a lot, we were on the show, we drove to California to start touring with the Rolling Stones. So we, of course, that was a whole white audience, but they liked Patti LaBelle and the Bluebells. So we got over, I mean, we were good. But I knew that Mick was staying at someplace that Patty better not think of staying.
26:47 Dan Pashman? So I'm curious, obviously, you've had to face down and overcome racial barriers in your music career.
26:54 Speaker 02 Mm hmm.
26:55 Dan Pashman? Do you feel like you've encountered similar barriers in the food world?
27:00 Speaker 02 I don't think I have.
27:03 Dan Pashman? I ask because we did a whole series on our podcast about food and race in particular. We, I did an interview with a woman, with a bunch of different people. One that's coming to mind as I speak with you is a woman named Nicole Taylor, is an African American cookbook author.
27:15 Speaker 02 Uh huh.
27:16 Dan Pashman? And she talked about how, she's from the South, she came up, she lives in Brooklyn now. She kind of wanted to do a cookbook that was going to be sort of Southern traditions mixed with all different cultures that she's experiencing in Brooklyn. And she felt like she got a lot of resistance because people felt like, oh, you're black, you're from the South, you do soul food. That's your, that's your category. And they, and they kind of wanted to pigeonhole her and say like, well,
27:38 Speaker 02 You're a black cook.
27:39 Dan Pashman? Right, you're a black cook and this book is for black people.
27:41 Speaker 02 It's like with the sweet potato pie. We would go to the South and I would be on stage talking about the sweet potato pie. Everybody black said, woo, the white people, they love pumpkin pie. Until my pie, I have so many white followers now about that sweet potato black girl pie, that I understand what you're saying. Yeah, and it's like they put us in a soul food category like we can't cook anything else. You know, soul food is good, but we can do other things too.
28:10 Dan Pashman? And it's interesting to me because your first cookbook came out in 1999. The Walmart sweet potato pie thing was 2015.
28:17 Speaker 02 Yes.
28:17 Dan Pashman? So you had been doing food for a long time.
28:19 Speaker 02 For a long time, yes.
28:21 Dan Pashman? Before that came along, you had the hot sauces, you had multiple bestselling cookbooks. And it, it seems like, You weren't widely accepted as a food person by a white food audience.
28:32 Speaker 02 Yes.
28:33 Dan Pashman? For a while.
28:34 Speaker 02 At the beginning. Sure, I remember that now, yeah. But you go through it and you just know that you must keep your mind on your product because you know it's great. And one day, people will say, "Yeah, you're right." You know, and they won't see color then. People are so much gravitating to me in the singing world, you know, of different races. And the cooking, it's gradually growing. Because hopefully gradually, they will come on the boat. And if they don't, I'm still gonna cook. And I'm still gonna sing.
29:09 Dan Pashman? It is interesting to think that there are probably a generation of white people who knew very little about sweet potato pie.
29:16 Speaker 02 Mm-hmm.
29:17 Dan Pashman? And they're always gonna associate now that food with you, that you will have introduced this food to a lot of people.
29:24 Speaker 02 And I have had people say that to me. It's like, "We eat pumpkin pie. We never knew about sweet potatoes. We knew about sweet potatoes, but not a pie." And that's a soul lift. That makes me feel so good. It's like I introduced something to you that you never thought you would eat.
29:41 Dan Pashman? And also, I mean, just pumpkin pie is just the worst.
29:43 Speaker 02 Ooh, I don't like it.
29:45 Dan Pashman? I mean, just for, you know, am I right?
29:48 Speaker 02 It depends on what you spice it up with or whatever, but I'm not a pumpkin girl.
29:51 Dan Pashman? Well, pumpkin hardly has any flavor anyway. Like, it's pretty much you're eating sugar and cinnamon and nutmeg.
29:55 Speaker 02 That's it. But that was what some people were used to eating. And they still eat them because I know there are some great pumpkin pies, but I won't eat it.
30:03 Dan Pashman? I guess it's a testament to the power of tradition.
30:05 Speaker 02 Yes.
30:06 Dan Pashman? You know, people feel like, "Well, at Thanksgiving, I have to have. You just have to have pumpkin pie."
30:10 Speaker 02 Right.
30:10 Dan Pashman? You know?
30:11 Speaker 02 And that's so true.
30:12 Dan Pashman? You get blinded to the taste.
30:13 Speaker 02 Yes.
30:14 Dan Pashman? You're like, "Well, I guess I'm supposed to like this."
30:16 Speaker 02 That's the culture. Mm-hmm, that's the way it is.
30:21 Dan Pashman? Before I let Patty go, there was one last thing I wanted to ask her about. There's a recipe in your new cookbook for a no-bake double chocolate eclair cake, which first of all, sounds amazing. And then in the book, you say it's perfect when you're going through menopause.
30:36 Speaker 02 Oh, well, chocolate.
30:38 Dan Pashman? Right.
30:38 Speaker 02 You know.
30:39 Dan Pashman? I say it right, like I know.
30:41 Speaker 02 No, you don't really know. It's like 20, 25 years now that I've been going through it. It's, you know, it's not just that. Anything chocolate, like I'll sneak a Milky Way if I can. You know, bites, because I can't have the whole thing. But chocolate, chocolate Hershey's with almonds and things like that. And I don't know if that's just because of menopause. It could just because I like it. And I do.
31:06 Dan Pashman? But you feel like your love of chocolate has increased since you started menopause?
31:11 Speaker 02 I can't say yes. I can't say yes, no. I've always loved chocolate. And that's like my main, main dessert, chocolate, anything if I can have a little bite. And lemon bars or lemon meringue pie, those things I love. And cheesecake. And I'm not gonna lie, every now and then I will take a whole Milky Way and eat it in like one minute. And then I say, well, I'll just do more insulin. I have to be honest with the people. I can't lie and say, no, she never cheats.
31:40 Dan Pashman? Right.
31:40 Speaker 02 Yeah, I cheat.
31:41 Dan Pashman? Right. But, but it sounds like since you were diagnosed with diabetes, you've made some pretty serious changes.
31:46 Speaker 02 I've made every change possible. Of course, fried chicken is in my blood. And whenever I would make the fried chicken, I would eat the whole fried chicken within the, you know, if I cook it in the evening, by nightfall, that chicken is gone. So I learned I was diabetic. And so I started steaming the chicken, sauteing with lots of garlic, because the garlic and hot pepper will make you think that it's just like fried chicken. To me, it, it gives my mind a good piece that I love. And I stopped using pork and like greens, when people would do the ham hocks and the greens and stuff. I'll do the smoked turkey and I'll do turkey bacon. And sometimes I'll do no bacon, because, you know, I might just want eggs, but um.
32:29 Dan Pashman? But, but once in a while, you gotta cheat, because you gotta live.
32:31 Speaker 02 I have to live. And, and my doctor said to me, Patty, whenever you feel like cheating, just cheat.
32:38 Dan Pashman? When you do fried chicken, are you a white meat or dark meat person?
32:41 Speaker 02 I like the legs.
32:42 Dan Pashman? Mmm.
32:43 Speaker 02 I like the legs and the gizzard.
32:45 Dan Pashman? Yes.
32:46 Speaker 02 And the neck. I love chicken necks.
32:49 Dan Pashman? The part, I also love the, um, well, my family is Jewish. We call it the tukus.
32:53 Speaker 02 The butt part?
32:54 Dan Pashman? Yes.
32:55 Speaker 02 Ooh, I throw that away.
32:56 Dan Pashman? No, come on, Patty.
32:57 Speaker 02 Ooh, I throw the heart away in that butt.
32:58 Dan Pashman? Oh, you gotta eat the butt?
33:00 Speaker 02 I can't do that. Ooh! No, my, my mother-in-law used to love the butt.
33:04 Dan Pashman? Yeah.
33:05 Speaker 02 No way. I chunk it.
33:07 Dan Pashman? If I come on tour with you, will you save me the butt?
33:09 Speaker 02 Yes, I will, and any other parts you like. Just come on tour.
33:13 Dan Pashman? All right, all right.
33:15 Speaker 02 It'll be fun.
33:45 Dan Pashman? That, my friends, is the one and only Patty LaBelle. You can pick up the 20th anniversary edition of her cookbook, LaBelle Cuisine, wherever books are sold. And she's back on tour. Check out her tour dates at pattylabelle.com. This episode was originally produced by Ann Sannie and me, editing help from Dan Charles. Our senior producer is?
34:05 Speaker 01 Emma Morgenstern.
34:06 Dan Pashman? And our producer is? Andres O'Hara. The show is mixed by? Jared O'Connell. Music help from Black Label Music, and this week, music courtesy of Patty LaBelle. The Sporkle is a production of Stitcher. Our executive producers are Peter Clowney and Daisy Rosario. Until next time, I'm Dan Pashman. This is John in the kitchen, telling you to eat smores, eat batter, and eat more butter.
34:50 Dan Pashman? This reheat was produced by
34:52 Speaker 01 Gianna Palmer.
34:53 Dan Pashman? The team that produces The Sporkful today includes me along with managing producer
34:57 Speaker 01 Emma Morgenstern.
34:58 Dan Pashman? And senior producer Andres O'Hara. Our engineer is Jared O'Connell. Music help from Black Label Music. The Sporkful is a production of SiriusXM Podcasts. Our executive producer is Camille Stanley. And hey, did you know you can listen to The Sporkful on the SiriusXM app? Yes, the SiriusXM app, it has all your favorite podcasts, plus over 200 ad-free music channels curated by genre and era, plus live sports coverage. Does your podcasting app have that? And there's interviews with A-list stars and so much more. It's everything you want in a podcast app and music app, all rolled into one. And right now, Sporkful listeners can get three months free of the SiriusXM app by going to siriusxm.com/sporkful. Until next time, I'm Dan Pashman.
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36:13 Speaker 04 Time for a quick break to talk about McDonald's. It's the tangiest time of the year. For a limited time, head to McDonald's and get a McRib sandwich. Make it a meal by adding a medium fries and a soft drink like an ice cold Diet Dr. Pepper. So grab a McRib sandwich and embrace the tang. Save time by ordering ahead on the app at participating McDonald's for a limited time. Dr. Pepper is a registered trademark of Dr. Pepper, 7-Up Inc.
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