How to Make Healthy Food Actually Taste Good with Chef Nyesha Arrington

What if a healthier relationship with food started with enjoying it more? In this episode of Live Like a Girl, Dr. Mindy sits down with acclaimed chef and Next Level Chef mentor Nyesha Arrington for a conversation about food that goes far beyond calories, macros, or following the “perfect” diet. Nyesha shares how cooking with her grandmother shaped her relationship with food from childhood, why recipes can carry memories and identity across generations, and how years in professional kitchens taught her to see food as art, connection, and eventually, fuel. They also get practical: cooking oils, salt, spices, kitchen tools, meal prep, fasting, strength training, hydration, and the small upgrades Nyesha has made that helped her feel dramatically better in her body. Plus, Nyesha opens up about leadership in high-pressure kitchens, working alongside Gordon Ramsay, earning the title of “Chef,” and why she refuses to fit into anyone else’s definition of what a woman should look like. In This Episode, You’ll Learn How childhood experiences can shape your relationship with food Why food is closely tied to memory and identity How Nyesha shifted from cooking purely for taste to thinking about food as fuel Which cooking oils she keeps in her own kitchen Why salt and spices can completely change a meal The kitchen tools every home cook actually needs How meal prep helps Nyesha make better choices when life gets busy Why she uses fasting during periods when she needs deep focus How strength training and sleep became part of her wellness routine What working in elite restaurant kitchens taught her about leadership Why she refuses to make herself more “digestible” for anyone elseResources Mentioned Olive Oil https://www.freshpressedoliveoiltrk.com/98BZMH/293Z4R/?uid=573Bone Broth https://drinkaeira.com/Mindy, use code MINDY10More on Chef Nyesha Arrington Nyesha Arrington is an acclaimed chef, television personality, and co-star of FOX’s Next Level Chef. Trained in Michelin-starred kitchens, she has become known for her creative approach to food, mentorship, and commitment to thoughtfully sourced ingredients. She also hosts and produces Eater’s Plateworthy and is passionate about wellness, functional fitness, and using food to bring people together. Instagram: @nyeshajoyce https://www.instagram.com/nyeshajoyce/?hl=enNative by Nyesha https://nyeshaarrington.com/restaurant/For more resources related to today’s episode, visit the podcast episode page: drmindypelz.com/ep365 https://www.drmindypelz.com/ep365 Connect with Dr. Mindy: Join Reset Academy https://resetacademy.drmindypelz.com/reset-academy?utm_source=libsyn&utm_medium=podcast&utm_term=&utm_content=loc-description&utm_campaign=reset-academyWatch the episodes on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@DrMindyPelz?sub_confirmation=1Follow Dr. Mindy on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/dr.mindypelz/Subscribe to Dr. Mindy’s newsletter https://www.drmindypelz.com/ Disclaimer: This podcast is intended for educational and informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional before making changes to your diet, fasting routine, or lifestyle.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Mindy Pelz?

  For the past two years, I have been in a stuck nervous system. A lot of you have heard me talk about it here on this podcast. And I've been experimenting with all kinds of ways to balance my nervous system. And I got to tell you something that's going to sound incredibly backwards. Because what I've learned is that sometimes the fastest way out of a stuck nervous system, or out of fight or flight, isn't more calm. It's not sit your butt down on the couch. It's actually a little bit of heat and light. Now stay with me, because I discovered something that I'm really excited to share with you.

• 0:44Mindy Pelz?

  There has been something that my Sunlighten Infrared Sauna has done to my nervous system that no other tool has been able to accomplish. At the end of a crazy long day, a few minutes in a gentle heat with some warm red light on me, and all of a sudden, I feel myself coming down from the chaos of the day. And let's be really honest, we could all use a way, a quick way, to get out of fight or flight, not only so we can feel better,

• 1:21Mindy Pelz?

  but so that we can be our best. And we can show up in a very balanced way for the people that we love. For me, this is the rare kind of self-care that's actually doing something. And what I love about Infrared Sauna is that the heat is gentle and comfortable. It's like, it's like sitting in the sun, and you instantly feel relaxed. But you're in your own home, there's no schedule, there's no driving to a gym to share sauna space with anyone. Sunlighten has been the pioneer in infrared for more than 25 years. And their

• 2:03Mindy Pelz?

  science holds up, which you know me, I love the science behind a good health tool. If that sounds familiar, and you're needing another tool, I can honestly tell you that this has been a game changer for me. So go check them out. Visit sunlighten.com/DrMindy and use the code DRMINDY to save up to $2,100 on your sauna purchase. And plus, the shipping is free. This is honestly self-care that I could absolutely get behind. Sunlighten, thank you. I am so grateful for this tool.

• 2:46Mindy Pelz?

  Something has gone very wrong with our food. And I think, deep down, you already know it. The chemicals that are legally allowed in our food are quietly disrupting your hormones. They're driving your cravings, and they're making it nearly impossible to feel good in your body. And when you can't feel good, what do you do? You blame yourself. But this is not a you problem. It's a food system problem. My mom knew this before anyone was talking about it. She was a health food pioneer in the 1970s, filling our home with fresh, real food, while every other kid at school had Twinkies in their lunchbox. But she was trying to teach me something I've spent my whole career building on. The quality of what

• 3:31Mindy Pelz?

  you put in your body matters, especially as a woman. This is the heart of my book, Eat Like a Girl. I'm going to show you exactly which foods nourish your hormonal system, which ones are destroying it, and how to tell the difference. Plus, there are over 100 recipes, plant-based and omnivore, created by incredible professional chefs. When you learn to eat like a girl, everything shifts. Your energy, your cravings, your mood, your cycle, your relationship with food itself. So you can get Eat Like a Girl anywhere that you get your books normally, or you can find Eat Like a Girl at drmindypelz.com/books.

• 4:12Mindy Pelz?

  And let's together start changing the way that we think about every meal. I'm cheering on. Hey, Dr. Mindy here, and welcome to the Live Like a Girl podcast, where I bring you icons, disruptors, educators, scientists, and doctors that show you what can be possible when you love and celebrate the female body you are blessed to live in. Let's dive in. When I was a child, my grandmother used to make the best Irish soda bread. It was so

• 4:54Mindy Pelz?

  sweet, with just a touch of savory. It was moist. And the best part, it always came with a dose of grandmother's love. I can still smell it if I close my eyes. Every once in a while, I'll pull that recipe out and bake it myself. And seriously, I feel like I'm 11 again, holding my grandmother's hand, listening to her tell stories of her life. One recipe pulls me back to such a tender moment. I think most of us have a recipe like that. Something that isn't really about the food at all. It's a tunnel, straight

• 5:36Mindy Pelz?

  back to a person, a kitchen, a version of ourselves we haven't been in years. But here's the thing I've learned after over a decade of teaching women to fast. For a lot of us, food can carry the opposite kind of memory. Although food can remind us of the love we got as a child, for so many women, food became the language of control, of guilt, of a relationship so tangled up, that just sitting down to eat can feel loaded. Somewhere along the way, food stopped being nourishment, and started to become an identity. I'm keto,

• 6:21Mindy Pelz?

  I'm on a diet, I'm vegan, I'm carnivore, you name it. Food has become so much more than nourishment. It has become our identity, our therapist, and our relationship to food is so confusing. And all too often, food is how we control, how we numb, or even how we reward ourselves. That's how deep this runs. At the heart of what I want so badly for women, is to give tools that will help you create a new relationship with food.

• 7:05Mindy Pelz?

  So today, I bring you someone who has spent her entire life on the opposite end of the story I just told you. Someone who has never known food as anything but love, curiosity, and craft, and who has built an entire career, turning that love into something the rest of us can taste. This is why I have brought you chef Nyesha Arrington. Nyesha was pulled into her grandmother's kitchen at four years old, blanching vegetables, learning that

• 7:45Mindy Pelz?

  food was how you said, I love you, before you had the words for it. She went on to work in nearly every corner of the culinary world. Fine dining, bakeries, diners, fast food, restaurants overseas, all in search of her own identity through food. Today, she's a chef, a restaurateur, a television personality you'll recognize from Next Level Chef, and a producer on the digital series Plate Worthy. In this conversation, Nyesha and I talk about what it really means when food becomes your identity. Why recipes can

• 8:30Mindy Pelz?

  be a bridge back to people we've lost, and how she uses fasting not to restrict herself - yep, she fasts - but to sharpen her focus during the busiest stretches of her life. We also get into what it means to refuse to shrink yourself into anyone else's definition of what a woman or a chef is supposed to be. If your relationship with food has ever felt complicated, I think this conversation is going to give you a different way to look at it.

• 9:10Mindy Pelz?

  I am so excited to bring you Chef Nyesha Arrington. Let's dive in. Well, Chef Nyesha, let me just welcome you to the Live Like a Girl podcast. I'm really excited for this conversation because I love food.

• 9:26Speaker 01

  Yay, so happy to be here, round of applause.

• 9:30Mindy Pelz?

  So here's what's really interesting. I've been teaching fasting to women for like 10 years. And so many women come to fasting because they don't, their relationship to food is just so dysfunctional. And in getting to know you and researching you, I I'm really interested in this fact that you feel like food chose you. Like, how do you start off life with a good relationship to food?

• 10:00Speaker 01

  Interesting. You know, I love that question. Food has always been my north star in some form or fashion, whether that's through my right creativity brain or my left analytical brain and really understanding and dissecting the science or the art of food.

• 10:17Speaker 01

  You know, for me, I think it was really the family dynamic.

• 10:20Mindy Pelz?

  Yeah.

• 10:21Speaker 01

  You know, my grandmother pulling me into the kitchen, four or five years old, blanching vegetables, gathering around the table, first tasting food from her, right? Understanding what love tastes like and the power to evoke that emotion through food, eating with intention at a very young age. And that never left me. You know, I think while she was teaching me a life tool, she la- built long lasting memories for me to draw from as an adult through food.

• 10:49Mindy Pelz?

  Right, so early on, you had a positive, you got grandma's love through the art of food.

• 10:55Speaker 01

  Absolutely, as much as possible. I was at grandma's house in the kitchen with her aunties, uncles, cousins. It was always surrounded by food, even, you know, just eating in my regular everyday life at my family's house. You know, if I wasn't at grandma's house while my parents were working, you know, it was always celebrating around the dinner table. And I I was just fascinated by it. I always felt like a safe place. It always felt like a place of nurture. And so, yeah, I've always had a great relationship with food.

• 11:26Mindy Pelz?

  So it's interesting, you, I've also heard you say that recipes are like this link to the past and and in history. And you know, this sounds really funny, but as somebody who, you know, loves to prophylitize a ketogenic diet. But one of the links to the, my grandma is she used to make caraway bread.

• 11:47Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 11:48Mindy Pelz?

  It was like Irish soda bread. And there are moments that I pull that recipe out and I cook it. And it's like my reminder of my grandmother. And I think recipes can do that. And they they are like a tangible expression of somebody you loved that may no longer be here with you. What is, do you do that with your grandmother's recipes? Do you have anything that you've pulled forward?

• 12:14Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 12:15Mindy Pelz?

  Using?

• 12:16Speaker 01

  A hundred percent, Doc. I think, you know, I think you're referring to the TED Talk that I did in Berkeley. And I remember that moment so viscerally and I was so nervous. It was the first.

• 12:27Mindy Pelz?

  I would be too.

• 12:31Mindy Pelz?

  Don't blame you. That's why I haven't done one. And I've done a lot of interviews, but I haven't done a TED Talk because it's all next level.

• 12:37Speaker 01

  Yeah, next level, you know, especially with the room full of academics, you know, food people, food minds, you know, any sort of discipline, no problem. But a room full of academics hit different. And I thought to myself, you know, I'm such a vibe, frequency person. I was like, okay, I have to express what is naturally something that has been my lived experience. You know, and that for me is I can close my eyes and I can hear still the clanking of the reused glass jars, you know, in my grandma's refrigerator, you know, that might have held mayo or what have you, you know, and now it has some delicious sauce that she made, you know. And so those audible, you know, experiences, the smells, the aromas.

• 13:21Speaker 01

  So what I did when I started that talk was let me think about getting everyone on the same sort of level, you know. And so I invited everyone to close their eyes. And I said, like, you know, through this talk, think about a dish for you. It was the caraway bread that evokes emotion in you. It could be a, it could be a candy bar that you ate on top of a ski slope. Who knows? Like, but there's always that moment that we have or a few moments in our lives that have that power. And so I invited everyone in to kind of think about that and keep that moment in their hearts or their souls while we talk through this, this PowerPoint. And so it was very exciting.

• 14:04Speaker 01

  You know, I do think that food is a, a bridge to the past, gateway into the future, both through history, right? When we look at the spice trade and look at different nations and how we share different uses of technique, you know, and also ingredients. We see our history, not, you know, both individual history, but also the history of human, humans, you know. So what an opportunity, what a gift it is to be celebrating that in my craft every day.

• 14:36Mindy Pelz?

  Absolutely.

• 14:37Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 14:37Mindy Pelz?

  Yeah, and in that talk, you also did something that I was like, yeah, that's it, that's it. Because again, I'm trying to help women re-pattern their relationship to food. And you talked about food as identity. And, you know, in my practice for years, I had a family practice and we did so much lifestyle work. And I would have, you know, I taught a lot of, animal meat is good. I'm a big believer in, in, you know, regenerative farms and things like that. And I'll never forget, one day, one of the mothers walked in to me and she goes, "Oh, my God, I don't know what to do. My teenage daughter has decided to become a vegetarian." And I said, "Okay." And I I paused for a moment.

• 15:20Mindy Pelz?

  I'm like, at least she's picking something that could have a healthy twist to it. And it's, but it was so clear that this 16 year old needed an identity. She needed, "I'm a vegetarian" becomes an identity. And we see that across all of our platforms where people are like, "Oh, I don't eat meat, I'm an, I'm a vegetarian," or "I'm keto, I'm paleo." I don't think we realize that our food choices actually determine our own identity. So can you, can you like explain that a little more? Because I'd never heard a chef talk about it that way.

• 15:57Speaker 01

  Yes. You know, it's interesting because I am so all consumed in the world of food in so many different disciplines. And I set out on my career with that intentionality to be a dishwasher in a restaurant, work in a fine dining, three star, two star, one star Michelin, work in a cafe, work in a bakery, work overseas, work in fast casual, work in a diner, work in fast food, you know. And I hit all those notes, different states and different countries around the world to understand what it, what is my identity? And what, how do you, how does one come to know their identity?

• 16:41Speaker 01

  If they haven't then see how this fits, you know, how, how does this fit? You know, or what part of this do I want to take with this and apply it to my tapestry? Right? So I believe that a huge part, as the example of vegetarian, you know, for me, my ethos in food is that we all, it's the common denominator of humans. We all need to nourish our bodies.

• 17:08Mindy Pelz?

  Yeah.

• 17:09Speaker 01

  Talking about hunter gatherer stages of life, you know, we're not just eating just to eat. Sometimes we eat for pleasure, sometimes we eat for fuel, sometimes we don't eat at all so that we can consume those things intentionally.

• 17:22Mindy Pelz?

  Well said, well done. You're an ape, you get an A++.

• 17:28Speaker 01

  Yay. And, you know, that was the ethos of my restaurant, native. You know, everyone is a native something, you know, has a story to tell in their heritage, you know. And so I've made it my business, you know, to go around the world, you know, making, I remember one of my favorite memories is bread making in North Africa, in Morocco, and going to trek up the side of this mountain with literal donkeys carrying our sacks, trekking in the hot heat and meeting this family. There was not one piece of stainless steel or, or modern technology. It was handmade clay stoves, live fire, like just, it was, it's giving me chills, you know.

• 18:12Speaker 01

  And I remember just seeing this beautiful, salt of the earth, weathered woman. And she was just putting her whole hand into this like live fire thing that they had made. And I was just watching her, you know, smoke like billowing, like, you know, just she didn't have a tear in her eye, like there, it was just like, it was so, it was hot. It was like hard to be in there. And I just watched her and I thought, and we didn't speak the same language, but we ultimately spoke the same language through food, through matriarchs, through that power. And I had said to our translator, "May I get in there? May I relieve her?" And she, you know, maybe she watches me. And she sort of laughed at me, you know, in an endearing way, not knowing I'm a chef.

• 18:55Speaker 01

  And she sat there for a little bit and saw that I didn't leave. And she motioned for me to come over and I went over and she taught me how to make this bread. And it was just, it was so impactful and it hasn't left me. Because I mean, you know, she, she had to be there, you know, every day, starting this fire, understanding the dynamics of it, you know, and, and, and growing the livestock on the land and the vegetables. And we all sat around and had this just incredible lunch. And it was a very cool moment. But I've been able to be so fortunate to experience things like that all around the world. And I think that's really what food is about. But coming back to identity, you know, I'm able to take that experience

• 19:36Speaker 01

  and then apply it to maybe that shows up in some form or fashion in a dish where I'm able to then draw on that aroma, that smokiness, that charcoal energy and put that into plate, you know, in some sort of way.

• 19:50Mindy Pelz?

  Beautiful.

• 19:50Speaker 01

  You know?

• 19:51Mindy Pelz?

  Yeah, you, you, surely you've seen the movie Like Water for Chocolate.

• 19:55Speaker 01

  Um, I have I? I cannot recall.

• 19:59Mindy Pelz?

  Okay, you need to, you need to see it because it impacted me. It's like thirty years old. So I'm fifty six. So I must have seen it in my twenties, mid twenties, late twenties. And there's a scene where this woman is making the soup and she's sad and her tears are going into the soup as she's making the soup. And then she hands the soup over to everybody at the table. It's a big family outing. And as everybody's eating the soup, they're actually, everybody starts crying because her emotion and who she was went, right? Went into the food. And I, I walked away, my little twenty seven year old brain at the time was like, wait,

• 20:41Mindy Pelz?

  who we are when we cook and the thoughts we have are going into the food. And that's translating into the energy of the food when we go to eat it.

• 20:54Speaker 01

  Hundred percent, hundred percent.

• 20:56Mindy Pelz?

  And so do you think about that? Like, how do you do that in a, in a Michelin star restaurant? How do you do that when you're on Next Level Chef? And, and maybe it's something for even those of us that are home chefs to really consider the mindset and the heart. Because in that story you talk about, you took the love of this experience and then you brought it back and put it into the food. And I bet it tasted amazing for many reasons, but I bet one of them is because you were so passionate about that story.

• 21:23Speaker 01

  Hundred percent, Doc. I think, you know, the first experience is when my grandmother, I remember tasting a dish that she made. And I was like, this is what love tastes like, you know? And I don't think as a kid I had the, uh, understanding of that until later ten, twenty today. You know, thirty plus years now, I can reflect on that moment and, and always draw from that. And I think that's where my superpower comes from. And, and that was the original spark, you know? And so I was always on this constant pursuit through my restaurants, through mentorship, through shows like Next Level Chef

• 22:03Speaker 01

  to pick that one thing. And for me, it's in a mentorship capacity, it's observing someone, you know? Because I think we're all sort of understand information differently. Me, I'm a visual.

• 22:15Mindy Pelz?

  Yeah, for sure.

• 22:16Speaker 01

  I need to do it myself. I need to maybe mess it up a couple of times and then I got it, you know? Um, but I, I, I like those different disciplines whenever I'm attempting a new task. So for me now, top down, pull, you know, extending that louder down to the next generation. I'm, I look at the individual, okay, like, are they audible? Are they visual? Do they need to go through the motion? Um, you know, I, I always want to know what the storytelling component is. Because I find that's where I get the most impact is, why are you doing this? Why did you come to this? You know, if it's the Next Level Chef, like, like, why are you here? What is your why? You know, that can generally like drive someone. Oh, it's my grandmother or it's my son.

• 23:00Speaker 01

  He loves his mac and cheese and you know, there's some, some technique somewhere in that.

• 23:05Mindy Pelz?

  Some emotion.

• 23:08Speaker 01

  Emotion. You nailed it. Absolutely. There's an emotion, there's a why, and there's, that's always going to show up and translate. Hundred percent.

• 23:16Mindy Pelz?

  Yeah. So what is your why with food?

• 23:19Speaker 01

  For me, I think it breaks down all barriers. You know, I think it's, uh, not specific to gender. You know, it's not specific to any religion, you know, generally speaking. It's not, uh, you know, depending on where you are, you can celebrate different climates of the world and how things grow. But it is a common denominator of people, you know, and coming back to why I named my restaurant Native, uh, which is in the Delta Terminal at LAX.

• 23:45Mindy Pelz?

  Yeah.

• 23:46Speaker 01

  Native is a common denominator. We're, we're all native something, whether we're coming from, you know, for me, Korean, African American, you know? My, the people, they navigate this world and those flavors end up on a plate in some form or fashion, you know? But it translates, food is always going to be the common denominator of peace.

• 24:07Mindy Pelz?

  That's right.

• 24:08Speaker 01

  It's just so powerful, you know, we have to eat.

• 24:11Mindy Pelz?

  So well said.

• 24:12Speaker 01

  We have the opportunity to celebrate Mother Nature. You know, we're not getting these fruits, vegetables, livestock from anywhere else than our planet that we are all sharing. Whether we disagree in some way or not, food's going to break down every barrier.

• 24:28Mindy Pelz?

  Yeah. I want to invite you to something that I am crazy excited about. This October third and fourth, I'll be joining an incredible group of speakers at Empower Your Life, a live event at the Alex Theater in Glendale, California. We'll spend two days exploring health, personal growth, mindset, and practical tools to help you create meaningful change in your life. I'll be there alongside speakers like Suzy Orman, Jim Quick, Jamie Kern Lima, Brendan Bouchard,

• 25:05Mindy Pelz?

  Nancy Levin, and many more. It's going to be an amazing weekend filled with learning, connection, and inspiration. I'd love to see you there. I'd also love to give you a big hug. And you can grab your VIP or general admission ticket by visiting hayhouse.com/drmindy. That's hayhouse.com/drmindy. I can't wait to see you. Yeah, surely you've seen, now I'm, I'm just movie, movie dropping here, but, uh, but we watch a lot of food movies. We actually, it's funny because part of how I think my son decided to become a professional chef

• 25:47Mindy Pelz?

  is that every Friday night throughout his whole elementary school, we would watch Master Chef.

• 25:53Speaker 01

  Ooh, I love it.

• 25:54Mindy Pelz?

  Yeah, and we would, we would, and then we, he would ask if we could reproduce it. Um, it, like in our home, so we started doing it with his friends and stuff. Anyways, food has been a big part of our family. But surely you've seen the, it was the last, uh, the season finale of The Bear where they brought all the top chefs together. Thomas Keller, you know, Andres, what's his name?

• 26:19Speaker 01

  Jose.

• 26:19Mindy Pelz?

  Jose Andres, like brought them all together and they were talking about what it meant to be a chef.

• 26:25Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 26:25Mindy Pelz?

  And the thing that really hit me, and it ties into what you're saying, is that we gather around food when we're sad. We gather around food when we celebrate. We gather around food when we're getting to know somebody. And so what an honor to be a part of all these different experiences as a chef. Yet at home, when we look at our home life, we cook a meal and we sit down and look at our phone. We don't translate that same intention and, and same experience. And in all the studying I've done on nutrition, I've thought, is it possible

• 27:05Mindy Pelz?

  that what you eat, where you eat, who you eat with is as equally as important as what you're eating?

• 27:15Speaker 01

  Wow. Powerful. Yes, I would say so. I think it's really important because I think it all comes down to, even if it sounds woo woo, I mean, it's, I think we're echoing the same ideas is, it is energy, you know? It does come down to energy. Because if I give a recipe to three different people, the person that is the most passionate about making that recipe is gonna, is, it's gonna taste the best. You know, even if they divert from that guideline, right? Because they might have coaxed out the nuances of that onion just a little bit longer. They might have had a couple more rotations in that pan to pick up the caramelization, you know? And all of that translates, that's the energy, right? They're not just saying, oh, I stirred it for seven minutes. They're looking at it.

• 28:00Speaker 01

  You know, the reality is, is that onion might had a little bit more water content or less water content that day. But those are the things that you can't teach or write in a recipe. It's a recipe, it's a guideline. Thomas Keller said that, you know, and I've had the opportunity to work very closely, closely with him and, fast, it's just fascinating, endless well that you can draw power from in food, you know? And I think, um, and it's, it's so multifaceted because it's like, you can, and this is a fairly new discipline. I think in twenty nineteen. Um, you know, I, I took some big, pretty big strides and I talked about this in my TED Talk to um, then start to understand food as fuel, you know, because I generally been in the discipline as food as

• 28:45Speaker 01

  passion and art and more cream, more butter, all the caviar, all the foie gras. I was in the French kitchens, you know, and uh, then I found this incredible group of women that were um CEOs and incredible moms and lead in this leadership space and capacities and nutritionists and breadth and wellness people and it was just so so eye opening and that's where I did my first I ice bath. That's where I first found out about you, you know, and

• 29:13Mindy Pelz?

  That's awesome.

• 29:14Speaker 01

  Yeah, she's like, you gotta follow this Dr. Mindy. She's amazing. And you know, it's just, it was the first time that it was about like women, you know, because uh my fields generally male dominated, you know, no disrespect, no naysaying. It just is, you know, now I think that's dialogue is shifting and we're more empowered these days. Yeah, I think so.

• 29:33Mindy Pelz?

  I hope so.

• 29:34Speaker 01

  Yeah, me too. You know, in 2019, I started to think about food differently, you know, and how am I um eating for um output and not just eating uh freaking rice over a trash can because I need to eat something because I'm so freaking hungry, you know, like so what am I intentionally putting into my body for output? And so that changed. And so I'm pretty deep into like wellness and fitness and how food affects my body. Um, and so it's exciting, you know, I think there's such a duality in it.

• 30:04Mindy Pelz?

  Yeah. So I was gonna say, how have your recipes changed since you take, you took a more health slant?

• 30:10Speaker 01

  Wow. Great question. You know, I um, I think the uh, the one that stands out in my mind the most is sort of like what oils I'm using. I think that's

• 30:18Mindy Pelz?

  Ah, yes. Well, well, yay, yay. I didn't, I didn't tell her to say that, just in case anybody wants to know, but that's, I always say that's your number one change is that what's the number one?

• 30:30Speaker 01

  Is it not?

• 30:31Mindy Pelz?

  Keep going. I'm just so happy to hear you say that.

• 30:33Speaker 01

  Yes. Um, and those are the things that I'm trying to share with my family now, you know, like with my, my dad, my my sister and everyone is like, what oils, what salts? You know, I try to use like, I love Celtic sea salt. It depends like what I'm making, but like um, yeah, oils, salts, I think, um, yeah, you know, if in terms of nutrition, when I'm using fats, I'm a lot more intentional with that. Um, you know, how, depending on like it where I'm at in my fitness, like sometimes I like train for different like um competitions and stuff. Um, so like I will like count macros and do all that, but it's not like I live by that. It depends, you know, it's an ebb and flow and a balance, but I'm just super intentional. I think um

• 31:14Speaker 01

  where you sourced your meat is incredibly important, you know, in terms of oddity meat versus, you know, from a ranch if possible. And I know there's a a different price tag, but um, I think it's incredibly important because we're speaking to energy. I think the energy of the animal as well lives there in the muscle tissue, you know, and body does keep count, you know, and I think those are important with how that is showing up on the plate. Um, I, you know, not trying to be too uh highbrow, but I think it's important whenever possible to source locally. I know that's not

• 31:48Mindy Pelz?

  Agreed.

• 31:48Speaker 01

  well for everyone.

• 31:49Mindy Pelz?

  Yeah, agreed.

• 31:50Speaker 01

  Longer that that fruit or that vegetable spins on a shelf or a truck or an airplane, the more, less nutrients it has. That is just a reality, you know? Um, yes. And so I've done a lot of different disciplines. I've done fasting, I've done uh raw, you know, I've done um so many different things and, and they all affect and show up in your mindset and your body differently, you know? I know, it does it not? Like

• 32:17Mindy Pelz?

  Yeah, it's so true.

• 32:18Speaker 01

  Absolutely. So

• 32:19Mindy Pelz?

  Cause I've done, I've done the same thing from a different angle.

• 32:22Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 32:22Mindy Pelz?

  You know, you did it, you know, obviously from a health angle, but then you translated into your profession. I've tried, I've tried every single fad on. I've tried the veggie, you know, plant. I was vegetarian for 10 years. Um, then I was really into paleo, then I was keto, uh, you know, I just tried it all on. And I've come back to this place that it's very intuitive. And if I get out of my head and, and trying to do what the right thing is and get more into my body, it always leads me in the right direction. So I, I will have days where I'm like, today I'm a vegetarian. You go back to the identity. It's like, I'm doing a plant-based day.

• 33:05Mindy Pelz?

  And I don't go, wait, I'm a meat eater. I'm not supposed to do a plant-based day. I just know that that day I, I'm feeling like I'm craving more plants.

• 33:15Speaker 01

  Absolutely, because your baseline is telling you that whatever chemicals or body composition is happening based on so many markers, hydration, sodium, whatever. Yeah.

• 33:27Mindy Pelz?

  Yeah.

• 33:28Speaker 01

  Absolutely.

• 33:28Mindy Pelz?

  So what, going, going back to the oil thing, I just want to not make sure that everybody gets this because um, from a taste standpoint, which as a professional chef, that's important to you. Um, can we unpack oils for a moment? Are different oils, do they taste different? Like, like I've become a bit of a connoisseur of olive oil and when, when you get olive oil from a small batch farm that is fresh, it is the, I could put it in a cup and I could drink it. Whereas if I took olive oil at that, olive oil and vinegar at a restaurant and put it on my salad, it's completely different.

• 34:07Speaker 01

  Completely. Yeah, a hundred percent. Um, and you know, just to sort of, yeah, piggyback off what you're saying, like it's, you're saying like drink the olive oil and it's actually so good, right? Like to drink it and so good. And it has these like beautiful floral notes. I taught a cooking class for 10 people um, a couple of days ago, and we had this conversation about oil and um breaking down the nuances and small batch versus where to source and, you know, Spanish versus Italian and, and um, you know, it comes down, I feel, for me, it's like

• 34:40Speaker 01

  you, when, what type of oil are you using and when, right? Because they have different floral notes, they have different uh peppery notes and, and some are more robust and can overpower a dish, you know, so um, it's about really understanding and controlling the heat. I think that's really important whenever using olive oil, a big proponent of olive oil, I use it on my skin, I drink it, I'm um, you know, finished with it. Um,

• 35:06Mindy Pelz?

  So lower heat?

• 35:07Speaker 01

  Uh, generally, so it's either gonna be get the pan hot, add it in, then add in your vegetable and or your protein and start the cooking process as opposed to letting it break down, you know? Getting that pan hot, getting the oil in, waiting, waiting around, oh, I need to season my steak now. Oh, I, I need to trot my vegetables. Now we're compromising the integrity of the oil. I think it's all about coming down to that, what we would call in the professional kitchens, mise en place or everything in its place. Not to overthink, I think be whimsical, have fun in the kitchen, but work with some intention, you know? Um, and so, you know, maybe that meat has been brought up to a little bit more of a room temp as

• 35:47Speaker 01

  opposed to super cold, so it's not spending as much time with that oil breaking down, you know, to get hot and have that heat transfer. It's about getting in front of all the variables, I think, with all the cooking process. So I would just say, you know, if we're heating up that pan, get the oil in and start the cooking process as quick as possible, you know, to get in front of some of those things.

• 36:09Mindy Pelz?

  And then are there other oils outside of olive oil that you cook with?

• 36:12Speaker 01

  I do. I mean, I, I, I'll use a grape seed. I'll use a, yeah, um, for like um certain things, I'll use um, it depends, like a peanut sometimes. Um, I'll use an avocado oil. I mean, those are like my general, I'll like go between avocado, olive oil, um sesame oil, um

• 36:36Mindy Pelz?

  Do you use butter?

• 36:37Speaker 01

  Yeah, I'm a big butter gal. Yeah, I, I, I probably have, yeah, so many different butters. Um, but yeah, I, it's generally between like, it's, it's mostly olive oil.

• 36:49Mindy Pelz?

  Yeah. And so what does the oil do for the taste of the, of the recipe? Like when you make a choice between all of that? Is, are you thinking, okay, like to me, olive oil is grassier and peppy, has more pepper in it? Whereas like a butter is a little bit sweet. So are you considering all of that when you put the oil in a recipe?

• 37:13Speaker 01

  Yes, I am. I'm, uh, the things that I consider are what type of protein am I using and what is the goal, right? Like if I need a higher heat to crisp a skin, say on a chicken breast or something, you know, um, I'm probably gonna use either an oil or a ghee, right? Where the milk solids are cooked out of the butter so that I can get that smoke point because whenever we're using butter, it's um, it's the milk solids that we're trying to get around caramelizing unless we're making a brown butter. Right? Because that's generally the issue. Right? If we're not finishing with that butter and we're getting that Maillard reaction on the steak where we want those brown bits and we're basting or something like that, um, the butter's

• 37:56Speaker 01

  pretty much nine times out of 10, if you don't add a carrier oil to take it up the smoke point, it's gonna burn, right?

• 38:03Mindy Pelz?

  Got it.

• 38:03Speaker 01

  So, you know, to get around that and get that flavor, that sweetness, that vehicle is um using ghee, you know? Uh, and I'll use coconut oil too, depending on the recipe or the discipline or style that I'm cooking in, if it's Asian or versus not, but uh, obviously it's gonna taste a little bit more coconut forward if you're using it. Um, but yeah, I think ghee is great. I think whole butter is great too, you know, it just depends on when you're adding it to the pan and when in the cooking process.

• 38:31Mindy Pelz?

  And it's a flavor, it's gonna change the flavor of the recipe because they're all so different. Yeah. Which is really interesting because I've noticed that a lot of people, if you walk into their house, they've got like three oils. And they're like cooking with the same three oils.

• 38:45Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 38:45Mindy Pelz?

  And if you use this idea that the oil can be such a facilitator of health and then I love hearing how you're talking about it because it's also a facilitator of taste. It, you know, in my opinion, when we look at food, it's our fats and our oils that really are probably the most important thing that we can put to a meal. And I'd love to hear how you're doing that.

• 39:10Speaker 01

  Yay, that's good stuff.

• 39:12Mindy Pelz?

  Yeah. So, okay, let's go in. I want to talk a little bit about uh being a woman in a kitchen and specifically what it's like to be at next level chef. So um, let's start with the kitchen. I, have you, have you, you said it's getting better, but when you first went into the kitchen, was it difficult to be a, a woman in a, in a, in a sort of a male-dominated profession?

• 39:37Speaker 01

  Yeah, I think um

• 39:40Speaker 01

  I approach it from a few different facets. I think first, you know, prefacing that I would not change anything in my journey. Um, you know, every bit of what I've done and um, you know, I've really treated my craft as a sport. I grew up in martial arts. I grew up in um, softball and soccer and you know, I played a lot of different things, um, piano and um, different disciplines. Um, I guess my parents were probably trying to sort out like what did I want to do with my life, but I think.

• 40:09Mindy Pelz?

  What's your special talent?

• 40:10Speaker 01

  Yeah, exactly. And I've taken a bit of uh, knowledge from each one of those things and have applied it to the kitchen. And so um, I think especially martial arts and team sports, you know, because um, when I think back on my journey, there's times on the line where I've I've I've felt like I was in such a flow state of doing martial arts or you know, kicking up a plate to a teammate and uh, you know, those beautiful nuances of cooking. Um, I think uh, where we are today and where we were and where the preceding generation was um, has always had an opportunity to grow. You know, I think um, it has, you know, I don't think mental health when I was in a uh,

• 40:52Speaker 01

  early stages of my career was never spoken about, you know, it wasn't about like, and it's not to be like, how do we feel today? You know, I don't think that's the conversation. I think it's just overall top-down wellness, you know, and I think at times, we're talking about kitchen confidential days when like Anthony Bourdain wrote about how these kitchens were the underbelly, they were the gully, they were like just these like sailors on a ship, you know, there was a lot of that, you know, of like the outcasts of society having a place to go to, you know, and you know, who's to say that's not a uh, an okay place for people to thrive. Everyone should have a place that they can call home and feel comfortable and feel seen.

• 41:36Speaker 01

  And I think um, you know, it was back in the day um, celebrated like, oh, you know, I I closed last night, I opened today, I'm on four hours of sleep or I've worked sixteen hours today and you don't really find that conversation being celebrated today. It's like lot more eyeballs, lot more awareness around how these things affect us, you know. I think um, it's way more mandatory to sit down, eat your food, hydrate your body, do the things where before you might be shoving food over your mouth of a trash can, take a sip of water. You know, you might, yes, you might.

• 42:14Mindy Pelz?

  Yeah, so the ki- so the kitchen itself, um, I, you know, here's what I'm thinking. Are we allowed to talk about the Noma guy? Because, because he's, he's a hot topic and and um, and I actually liked the Netflix series he did. Did you see that? He took an ingredient, but if people don't understand what we're talking about, it's the restaurant in Copenhagen where he uh, supposedly tortured the um, the the people that, what do we call it, stodged or is this? Yeah, so is that culture where the head chef puts down and every other chef in the kitchen, is that still the ki- the cul- the kitchen culture today in restaurants?

• 42:58Speaker 01

  I would say no, I think um.

• 43:00Mindy Pelz?

  Okay, good.

• 43:01Speaker 01

  Yeah, I would say no, from what I, you know, I um, I think that kitchen culture has come a long way. You know, from generation to generation and you can see it and I think any chef who's in especially fine dining, um, the reality and I'm not condoning any violence or abuse or anything, I think the reality is when I think about mindset, I think about psychology uh, sort of lens. People get so um, consumed in their craft, you know, and they get so bullet. You know, point, perspective and has to be perfect. My, you know, my reputation's on the line.

• 43:43Speaker 01

  You know, you put it over here, you put it over here and where microseconds matter in a kitchen, you know, it's not, you have a lot of times. Uh, the opportunity to say, I know you burnt this, but can you please do it again, table twenty-six is they'll wait another hour, you know, and it's, I think ultimately, it's those moments, you know, that just get so zero to sixty fiery, you know, and it's hard because uh, I think you're dealing with a lot on the line in terms of product loss, you know, what that equates to then is product loss. Uh, it's a cog in a wheel that gets stuck, right? Because a kitchen

• 44:25Speaker 01

  is a well-oiled machine and if any one element of that is off, it really is a domino effect. And again, I'm not condoning any of this, but I I've been in these kitchens, you know, and so um.

• 44:37Mindy Pelz?

  So you understand when you're the recipient of it, is what I hear.

• 44:40Speaker 01

  Yes, yes.

• 44:41Mindy Pelz?

  You understand why they're barking at you.

• 44:44Speaker 01

  It's a, it's a different level of excellence that everyone is striving for, you know, and a lot of people, I think on the outside um, looking in, it's easy to, I don't know, judge or say this or that, but I think it comes down to, you know, I've thought about this a lot, I've had a lot of conversations with people and I think it's a psychology, we have to look at the psychology of it. We just, it's a normal thing, it's a normal part of human beings, right? It's a craft, it is a career, yes, it's a restaurant, but it's that we also have to understand, zoom out and say why, right? Maybe they were led that way and then they think they have to lead that way, you know.

• 45:23Speaker 01

  And so I think we're doing a lot of unwinding, uprooting, a lot of trauma in these kitchens, a lot of, nobody's learning leadership skills. They're learning, they're in leadership positions because they cook good food, point blank.

• 45:36Mindy Pelz?

  Beautifully said.

• 45:37Speaker 01

  You know what I mean? So I think there's a lot of opportunity for growth around these conversations. Um, and to give people a chance, you know, and I'm talking about both the recipient side and the leadership side. And so um, you know, I it's fascinating stuff.

• 45:53Mindy Pelz?

  I think it's really interesting because, you know, like I mentioned, my my son is in a uh, kitchen where they're going for a star. And um, he he basically, when we, when I asked him about the Noma thing, he said the same thing. He said the chefs in the in the kitchen said the same thing, but I think as the public, the public is like, oh my god, how did he treat you? I think the way you just described that is so beautiful. And something that we all have to keep in mind before we start to villainize one of the, you know, world leading chefs out there.

• 46:27Speaker 01

  People are quick to villainize and I think that's really hard because it can be a drop in a bucket over twenty years and then someone has a bad moment and it's like, career ending. Who knows? We don't know, you know?

• 46:39Mindy Pelz?

  Right, and he's trying to to perfect his art, which is how do I put a dish on your table? That it blows your mind and.

• 46:48Speaker 01

  That you flew here for and paid thousands of dollars for and yes, exactly.

• 46:52Mindy Pelz?

  Yeah, yeah. So, okay, let's let's go into next level chef. So um, there are, I have several questions for you about this show. I mean, first, I'm sure everybody asks you, is Gordon Ramsay a nice guy?

• 47:06Speaker 01

  Ooh, everyone asks me that, that's always, that's always a good question.

• 47:09Mindy Pelz?

  Cause he doesn't seem like he would be nice.

• 47:12Speaker 01

  Well, it's, you know, I think it comes back to that passion thing, Mindy, like, I'll tell you a few couple sort of bullet points, um, first. I worked in a kitchen, similarly to what we're talking about where it's like excellent, there's it's only excellence and nothing else. And this was a chef called Joel Robuchon and he's dubbed the chef of the century, right? No, no, no, simple title, chef of the century, most Michelin stars, all the things, um, late great, he passed, um. Unbeknownst to me, uh, Gordon worked for him back in the day. And so when I was invited to, after the uh, lockdown stuff, I was invited to come as a guest uh, judge on MasterChef. And I um, cooked a dish inspired by Joel Robuchon and um, Gordon tasted it and

• 47:56Speaker 01

  um, it was just a very exciting moment for me because years prior, he'd walked through the kitchen when I was working at that three-star Michelin kitchen. And I thought in that moment was so cool and I would be like, so, you know, I should, got to see it, shook his hand, he looked at my knife cuts and I was like, oh my god, this is so cool. I never thought I'd see him again. And then um, you know, fast forward, I was asked to be on MasterChef and cook that dish. And um, he came up and shook my hand, he was like, oh, what's your name? And you know, let's stay in contact. I never thought I'd see him again. You know, tears were coming out of my eyes. He's like seven feet tall, just like.

• 48:31Mindy Pelz?

  Oh, he is, wow.

• 48:32Speaker 01

  He's so tall.

• 48:33Mindy Pelz?

  I I wouldn't have thought that, huh, okay.

• 48:35Speaker 01

  Yeah, and uh, it was just such a cool moment and then, you know, they reached out and talked about next level chef and maybe I'd want to be a part of it and I s- I think before they finished the sentence, I was like, yes. Because it would be my first um, time being on the judges' side, you know, out of competition and I've done every culinary competition on the planet, like, um, I love it. And I just love something about, you know, testing your skills, the pressure, I love it, I thrive under pressure. And um, you know, it was super cool because it's the first of its kind. It's like home chefs and social media chefs now we see are in the mix now. You know, I mean, it's not just restaurant, before the dialogue was always just restaurant chefs.

• 49:19Speaker 01

  You know, maybe getting a great write-up in the New York Times or LA Times and those are the people that patron your restaurants, but now we see social media has inspired a whole new wave of food people with pop-ups and collabs and, you know what I mean? And so so interesting to see a program like Next Level Chef include that and be so progressive in the cook- competitive cooking space. And so um, you know, I've had so many freaking pinch me moments when I leave set, I go to bed and I'm like, like, it's like.

• 49:52Mindy Pelz?

  How's this my life?

• 49:53Speaker 01

  Literally, literally, like I am stoked. I learn something every day. Uh, we get to, it's, it, you know why I love it so much is that I am. I don't feel so removed from professional restaurant kitchens. Because I mean, at the end of the day, Gordon is a chef. He's a chef's chef. No, he's not just like a producer guy. He's like, you know, that you might find on another program. He he thinks in the in the terms of a chef and how can this be great for the competitors and for the view. It's just incredible. Um, we get to talk about the challenges. We go around, we talk about what would you make?

• 50:37Speaker 01

  You know, if you were challenged to do this, we we really talk through the entire competition and that's what I love. You know, you feel really vested in it as opposed to just showing up, doing the thing, going home. No, we're like, really in it, like we're a team.

• 50:50Mindy Pelz?

  Yeah. Okay, so here's another controversial thing. There was a there was a snippet in one of the episodes where they referred to you by your first name and not by chef. Can you explain for the audience? Because you know, the feminist in me, uh, that that's like, that really gets me. How did you handle that moment?

• 51:10Speaker 01

  You know, Mindy, it used to get me too. I'm not even gonna lie, because you know how many kitchens and how hard I've had to work.

• 51:18Mindy Pelz?

  Yeah, to prove yourself.

• 51:20Speaker 01

  Girl, it's just been a uphill battle, you know? And um, I used to be so much more reactive into those things, you know, and I have expanded my capacity around that because I have to. I really do, because you'll take a moment and people will see a ten second moment of me and then villainize me if I don't. You know, for my own safety and well being and preservation of life for the peace that I want in my life. I have to, I've garnered so many tools around things like that.

• 51:55Mindy Pelz?

  It's beautiful. So and so just so everybody knows, can you explain the scenario? You corrected him, right?

• 52:01Speaker 01

  Um, I think so. Oh, maybe I said, like, maybe it was like.

• 52:05Mindy Pelz?

  They said chef Nyesha, like.

• 52:07Speaker 01

  Oh, that's funny.

• 52:08Mindy Pelz?

  Like, not just Nyesha.

• 52:12Mindy Pelz?

  Which is so funny, because again, my son and I, because he's, you know, in this culinary world, he's always talking chef this and chef that. I'm like, it's like doctor. It's just like an attachment to a name.

• 52:23Speaker 01

  It's earned, you know?

• 52:24Mindy Pelz?

  It's earned, yes.

• 52:26Speaker 01

  I'm not your buddy. Uh, you know, let's understand these roles here. And so that you it's it's for the betterment of the hierarchy and discipline. It's not for any sort of deficit that I, you know, may feel or something. It's like, let's understand the role here, right? Like, and um, it's funny because, um, yeah, I mean, you know, you have to understand that it's it you it everything is earned, the title's earned. And and the roles are different. You know, I'm not here to just stand beside you and um, you know, hope the best for you. No, I'm gonna make sure that we get you over that finish line and we both have to assume roles, you know?

• 53:03Mindy Pelz?

  Beautiful. Okay, and then what do you do in the in the bottom level kitchen when you've got the dull knives? Because um, the I think most people probably have a kitchen like that.

• 53:15Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 53:16Mindy Pelz?

  And I and I could be guilty of a dull knife here or there. But like, if you have a kitchen that's anemic, let's just call it that.

• 53:23Speaker 01

  Sure.

• 53:23Mindy Pelz?

  Um, how do you start to make upgrade it without spending thousands and thousands of dollars?

• 53:29Speaker 01

  Yeah, wonderful question. Um, you know, I've done this with my sister because she's a great example. I might have referred to her a few times, but it's because we're um actively working on this stuff because she she doesn't consider herself a chef or a food person. And I have slowly started to get her into the kitchen and be excited about food. And I it's been a brick by brick. And it started with the equipment that you're working in. And I love that you brought up the knife thing, because I think um, once you have great tools, it just makes the whole cooking process so much better. Few things I'm very passionate about. A great kitchen towel, okay, as as low.

• 54:05Mindy Pelz?

  Yeah, what makes a great kitchen towel?

• 54:07Speaker 01

  Uh, um, absorbency, um, washability, um, you know, generally, I would say a cotton towel, you know, something that um, doesn't hold on to oil. I think um, something that's not too thick, because um, you'll even see me on Next Level Chef. It's my security blanket. I'll walk into the kitchen, no matter what level, no matter what fit I have on or how my hairstyle looks or I walk walk into that kitchen. I'm a chef. I'm no longer just presenter at Nyesha Arrington. Something clicks for me as soon as that green light comes on. And I always grab my towel because when you approach a kitchen, anything in the kitchen is potentially hot. So I like to have a towel, a towel I can fold, a towel that's not too thick.

• 54:50Speaker 01

  Because I think a lot of these kitchen towels, they tend to lean towards home cooks, where it's like, it's this gigantic thick towel and it's just not practical. Uh, I would say a great absorbent towel is important. Um, a big wood chopping block, not a plastic chopping block, right? You don't want the microplastic food. Um, and as well as it's so much easier on your knife, right? When you're doing that chopping motion, uh, the wood feedback just feels so tactile, it's lovely. Um, and less, um, it doesn't affect the knife edge um, as much. So it's a big chopping block, a great towel and a knife can get you really far. I would not say it's

• 55:34Speaker 01

  fancy tools like a food processor and all this, you know, the basic stuff is really where to start.

• 55:40Mindy Pelz?

  Okay, and the and the sharpness of the knife matters because if it's dull, you cut yourself more, you can't really.

• 55:47Speaker 01

  Matters a lot. It it it impedes on the integrity, even something as soft as lettuce, right? You can see it, especially herbs. When you slice something and it and it bruises, it it impedes on the integrity when it hits your palate. You know, when you cut something with a sharp knife, it just really, really nice. And you know, a great saute pan, maybe a couple pieces without spending thousands of dollars. Um, you know, a nice little saute pan, um, and a great pot would be a great start.

• 56:15Mindy Pelz?

  And and when you go to a saute pan, what do you think as far as stainless steel, cast iron? Like all, does that matter for a chef at your level?

• 56:23Speaker 01

  Hundred percent, a hundred percent. There's a few things I I'll talk about. My personal kitchen, I have um, invested in my kitchen because I mean, I'm weird and I have my like office basically in my kitchen. And my kitchen is set up.

• 56:36Mindy Pelz?

  Yeah, right. Well, it's as it should be.

• 56:39Speaker 01

  I'll work it on my cutting board. I love it. The sunlight comes in there. I might get an idea and work on it right away. Um, so things that I enjoy having are as follows, a small, um, you know, non-chemical, like a green pan, um, non-stick, right, for my eggs, right? If I want to have quick little eggs in the morning, um, you know, great for searing fish as well. We'll call it a six inch non-stick. Great uh, tool to have. Moving up from there, an eight to ten inch saute pan, something like a stainless steel that can take heat. Uh, because that's your versatile pan. That's where you're doing your quick cooking. That's where you're doing your searing.

• 57:18Speaker 01

  Um, you know, things like that nature. I will have then maybe a twelve inch, ten to twelve inch cast iron. I love my cast iron pan.

• 57:26Mindy Pelz?

  I love cast iron.

• 57:27Speaker 01

  Isn't it just so versatile?

• 57:29Mindy Pelz?

  Yeah, and it's and you can, it can also be helpful for weightlifting, which I know you're now into. Like, why be cast iron? I was like, I feel like it weighs half the size of me.

• 57:42Speaker 01

  Uh, hi, it does. Great for growth strength.

• 57:45Mindy Pelz?

  Yeah, exactly.

• 57:46Speaker 01

  Work your forearms out. Uh, but it turns into non-stick if you treat it right, you know, and you season it well. That pan will last you a lifetime and your sons, you know, and

• 57:54Mindy Pelz?

  Yeah, right.

• 57:55Speaker 01

  In the family forever. Um, a great saute pan, a great cast iron pan, um, a a nice six to eight quart pot for blanching, boiling eggs, you know, um, and I would say a a rondo, because I am a braising girl. I love to braise. I love stock making. I love bone broth making. So I'll make my bone broth or or my stocks or or braise slow cooked meats in something that is oven safe. I think you have those. You like pretty much hit all the cooking facets.

• 58:25Mindy Pelz?

  Yeah, okay. And then what about spices? We've done a lot uh, in my community on spices because they're powerful for the microbiome.

• 58:33Speaker 01

  Absolutely.

• 58:34Mindy Pelz?

  So it and if you walked in up into my kitchen right now, you would see that we have like, I don't know, we don't have a spice cabinet, but we probably have fifty different spice bottles out. What are some of the key spices that people need?

• 58:46Speaker 01

  Ooh, I I would say like about, let me five or so. I mean, I I love a cayenne pepper. I love, I think paprika is lovely. I love cumin, um,

• 58:56Mindy Pelz?

  Yeah, I like cumin.

• 58:57Speaker 01

  I love coriander. Um, those are the ones I try, I tend to lean towards the most. You know, the garlic, the onion, the ginger, I try to use those as fresh components. Um, I love a turmeric, you know, even fresh or dried, really lovely. Um, you know, chili powder, um, you know, but then, um, you know, I I'll use those in seeds as well. Like, I try to use like whole cumin seeds, so I have the opportunity to grind them down. They just taste more robust. Um, and yeah, coriander seeds. I try not to get the ground stuff whenever possible, because it just gives you a lot more room for to crack that experience on your palate, you know?

• 59:37Mindy Pelz?

  Yeah.

• 59:38Speaker 01

  And and take time to bloom them, you know, in the pan.

• 59:41Mindy Pelz?

  Oh, what does that mean? Tell me what bloom.

• 59:42Speaker 01

  It's just my favorite thing to talk about whenever we're talking about spices is, um, you know, grabbing your great olive oil and spending the time and whatever dish you're making, if you don't have the time to bloom them. Say you have your lovely cast iron pan out, you hit it with a nice uh, glug of olive oil. Put those whole seeds in and kind of crush them up a little bit. Let's say it's cumin, coriander. And let's say it's caraway or something today and just lightly crush them to release the natural oils in them. On a low heat, just lightly toast them, right? Because then they will release and they weren't won't burn. Then you can remove them from the pan, set them in a little bowl, sear your meats or whatever, and then add them back in. You're always gonna stay in control of the heat.

• 1:00:26Speaker 01

  You know, that's why I tend to not use black pepper. Whenever I'm making steak, I always just season it with salt. And then I'll lightly toast my black pepper, let's say in my small six inch pan, toasty toasty toasty, becomes fragrant. I'll put that in my pepper mill and then finish my steaks with that because then it never burns. Because black pepper will always burn when it hits.

• 1:00:47Mindy Pelz?

  Wow.

• 1:00:48Speaker 01

  Yes, but now lovely even toast when you finish that black pepper over that sliced meat.

• 1:00:54Mindy Pelz?

  And what about salt? Because there's a lot of different types of salt and salt is packed with microplastics. Do you? Have like a special salt that you like to use? I personally for me, I've loved what do we the finishing salt like the flakes?

• 1:01:08Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:01:08Mindy Pelz?

  Yeah, I don't cook with it. I eat with it, but I but I think salt got a bad name and salt can be not only tasty but healthy.

• 1:01:16Speaker 01

  Yeah, I agree. Um, so the salts I have in my kitchen right now, um, a Himalayan salt that a girlfriend brought back from me from Hawaii. I love. Um, I have kosher salt I'll use for bulk cooking, like if I'm setting up a pot for blanching vegetables or like I need to season things in bulk or things like that, you know, I always have a box of kosher salt, diamond crystal generally. Um, but for like my home day to day cooking, it's gonna either be Himalayan Celtic sea salt I love. Or like that grayer salt, um, it's a little bit rockier, so you can even kind of mortar and pestle and break it down. Um, but it has so much, so many great minerals in it. Um, yes, and I have Malden sea salt, um. Like the picturing my.

• 1:01:59Mindy Pelz?

  Yeah, so you have a you have a variety. That's that's what I think is interesting that most people have won. And and when you go to, when you open up your mind around salt, it's a whole world.

• 1:02:10Speaker 01

  I could not agree. I think it's nailing the fundamentals, Mindy. I think it's about great all great cooking oils. When and and knowing when to use salt and I'm this conversation is sparking a lot of inspiration. Cause sometimes I think people just know these things and they probably don't, right? It's probably not.

• 1:02:25Mindy Pelz?

  Yeah.

• 1:02:26Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:02:26Mindy Pelz?

  Which is why they don't have a relate good relationship to food, you know, and because we eat most our meals at home. My husband's a great home chef and we shop at local farmers markets and when we do that, oh my gosh, like we'll sit down to a meal and we're like, I don't think we could get this in a restaurant and we feel so much better. Like when I was traveling all the time for my books, it was like, God, just the eating out all the time. Not getting this attention to detail that you're talking about really changed how I felt in my own body.

• 1:03:00Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 1:03:00Mindy Pelz?

  So it matters like to me, like all these little things we're talking about matter.

• 1:03:05Speaker 01

  Definitely.

• 1:03:06Mindy Pelz?

  And we look for the big, we look for the big things to do with our health. But it's these small little changes that we make over time that really starts to build us a healthy body.

• 1:03:17Speaker 01

  Absolutely.

• 1:03:18Mindy Pelz?

  I love what you're saying.

• 1:03:20Speaker 01

  Absolutely. And you know, I would say, uh, where we two thousand twenty six, yeah, twenty nineteen or so is really when I started to think about these things. Educate myself, chip away at it. You know how like your phone might like send you an old photo or something like I look back and I'm like I just, you know, I I still love, I love her. She was my my old self was part of my journey, but I look and I'm like, wow. You can tell I was fueling my body so much differently or how much more inflamed I was or what I was or was not hydrating, you know, like sleeping, just those small things, what oils, what salts, what pans, like, and now having that, you know, six to seven years now, like I look now and I'm like, I feel so much better, you know, and I want to be able to share that stuff with people. It's micro movements that add up. Yeah.

• 1:04:05Mindy Pelz?

  Yeah. So talk about your health journey because I also heard that you've gotten into weightlifting. And I also want you to talk about fasting, because my my, you know, so many people think that fasting means that you just don't eat and that food becomes, it just isn't in your life and obviously that's not the case for you.

• 1:04:24Speaker 01

  Yes. Yeah, I love this question because you know, I'm trying to find so food and wine did a little spread. Uh, last month, I think, um, on my little like weightlifting journey and how I approach food today. Which I love that food and wine is having a conversation like this because you know, it's not just about some of these food and wine events where you're in debauchery mode all weekend and you're just eating all this fatty rich food and you feel like crap after, you know, uh, there's so many different facets where like health food just doesn't have to be boiled chicken. And white rice or whatever, you know, and so spices is a big one. I think that's what I share with a lot of people. I mean, they're net zero almost and in terms of caloric density. And so, um, you know, over time

• 1:05:07Speaker 01

  I have really started to educate myself in nutrition. I haven't taken any formal training, but I definitely want to. Um, because I think I'm always trying to thread this needle between the axis of my lifestyle and how I want to live and feel. And my craft of cooking and what I've been taught the last twenty years in how to make pretty food, you know. It is interesting.

• 1:05:29Mindy Pelz?

  It's.

• 1:05:30Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:05:30Mindy Pelz?

  Like I, here's what I'm thinking. I'm like, to me, it's like, wait, food is nutrition. But the way that we like someone like you has been taught is more that it's like stimulate the taste buds. Perhaps not stimulate the body. And what I hear is you're mixing, you're now bringing those two together.

• 1:05:49Speaker 01

  Absolutely, absolutely. So in the morning I might, you know, just put all the things in my little shake because I might have a few calls or be have to run around that day. So it's like, yeah, I hit my protein, put my creatine, um, a couple other like supplemental things. Um, like I think what is it? L-glutamine, just like some stuff. Yeah, I like put it to my little shake just to get it all in my body and then, um. But yeah, and I'm like not a health nut, you know, but like maybe some psyllium husk or like, you know, so chia or just different things that I know based off of intuitiveness. How do I feel today? And, uh, you know, hydration has been so key to me.

• 1:06:27Speaker 01

  Um, you know, I dabble in between meal prepping and measuring food out sometimes if I know I'm gonna hit. For me, it's always the preparedness part, like I don't want to make a bad decision out there on the right, like.

• 1:06:43Mindy Pelz?

  Is the secret. That's the secret.

• 1:06:45Speaker 01

  Right?

• 1:06:45Mindy Pelz?

  Yeah.

• 1:06:46Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:06:46Mindy Pelz?

  Otherwise you just, if you don't have the foods on hand, then you end up just reaching for anything. One of my secrets too with keeping on eating the right foods is the any food that I like that I would deem unhealthy doesn't come in my house.

• 1:07:00Speaker 01

  Hmm.

• 1:07:02Mindy Pelz?

  So then I don't ever feel tempted. So like, uh, cause I used to have a huge sugar tooth, like sweet tooth. And the only way I could get over it is just to not put it in my house. I could order it at a restaurant. I could have it outside my house, but in my house, it it was a different set of rules.

• 1:07:19Speaker 01

  Smart. Yeah.

• 1:07:20Mindy Pelz?

  And it really helped me get over that sweet tooth.

• 1:07:23Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, that makes a lot of sense because like it's I find like the harder things, it's like oh, I've done all good all day and then it's like eight o'clock at night.

• 1:07:32Mindy Pelz?

  Right. It's always eight o'clock at night. It's always eight o'clock at night. That's it's like the pantry talks to you.

• 1:07:38Speaker 01

  It is. And I know those cookies are in there.

• 1:07:42Mindy Pelz?

  Exactly. Like I've been bored all day and all of a sudden they're like, hey, remember me?

• 1:07:46Speaker 01

  Totally. Well, like I've tried to find ways to get around that, you know, fun things in the freezer that are satiating, like frozen dates are like tastes like a candy bar. Um, one of my favorites like in citrus season is like freezing like mandarins and then blending it. It's like the most delicious sorbet ever can have. Um, and it's just so like satisfying and it's just literally blended fruit, you know, and it's just like finding different ways to manipulate the texture and the mouth feel, I think a lot of the times is what we want, you know, so it feels like I'm being cheeky, but it's like not bad, not the worst for you, you know?

• 1:08:22Mindy Pelz?

  Right.

• 1:08:22Speaker 01

  Um, but yeah, I I I I dip into food as fuel and food as art, you know, um.

• 1:08:30Mindy Pelz?

  I love that.

• 1:08:31Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 1:08:31Mindy Pelz?

  Combining the two.

• 1:08:32Speaker 01

  Absolutely.

• 1:08:33Mindy Pelz?

  Yeah, it's, yeah. Yeah. Okay. So what about fasting? What kind of have you have you done? I need to lead you through a three day water fast. Have you ever?

• 1:08:41Speaker 01

  I would love that.

• 1:08:42Mindy Pelz?

  I it would be really fun to do. So let's talk offline because the other thing it would do is it would take change, it would uh, balance out your taste buds. It would like make them neutral so that they would be more sensitive after three days.

• 1:08:57Speaker 01

  You know, I love that idea because I find that, you know, I've done like a few different fasts, um, in my life. And I find that if I know I'm gonna hit, like even where like I need to really hone in and focus on a project, I'll actually fast. Because if I'm. Like eliminating one thing out of my life, oh, what am I gonna eat? Or, oh, I gotta meal prep. If you gain back so much time and you have, you get this like hyper, oh, like, um, focus thing. Like, I find that that's always the best thing when I'm fasting is like, I'm able to just, my body's not processing any sugar or any proteins or anything. It's able to then focus on the project and it's always nets out positive.

• 1:09:39Mindy Pelz?

  Yeah, yeah. And I tell people that all the time, in your busiest time, fast.

• 1:09:45Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 1:09:45Mindy Pelz?

  And it's counterintuitive to people because they're like, aren't, aren't I gonna have a headache? I'm not, aren't I gonna be fatigued? But if, once you become metabolically flexible, you start realizing that your greatest tool is to not eat. It also gives you those ketones, so your brain gets really, really stimulated.

• 1:10:03Speaker 01

  Totally.

• 1:10:04Mindy Pelz?

  And your focus, talk about focus, your focus is just really spot on.

• 1:10:08Speaker 01

  Razor, yes, absolutely.

• 1:10:10Mindy Pelz?

  What, what projects are you excited about right now that you're working on?

• 1:10:15Speaker 01

  Great question. Uh, projects I'm working on that I'm excited about, uh, well, we just shared a new episode or season series of Plate Worthy, which I'm a producer on, which is so fun. Uh, we partnered with Visit California, we went to Sacramento, San Francisco, LA. Uh, that came out a couple of months ago, so people can watch that digital series. It's so fun. Um, and we're fingers crossed for another season. Um, I, I share all my fun workout stuff on Instagram. Uh, my first name and Joyce, my middle name. Um, you know, season six of Next Level Chef is coming out in February, so that's very exciting.

• 1:10:56Speaker 01

  And I am moderating a panel coming up soon, um, called at LA Chefs Con. Um, so if people are interested in checking out, it's gonna be an incredible conversation. We have, um, some very, uh, phenomenal chefs on the panel, as well as, um, an LA legend, her name's Issa Rae, she's an actress, comedian, um, she'll be on the panel to share some of her insights. Uh, and I'm working on a fun other project soon to be announced, a couple, actually. Uh, or come to my restaurant, Native, at the Delta Terminal at LAX, uh, which is a very exciting place.

• 1:11:32Mindy Pelz?

  How do, how do you do all that? That's a lot. Like, and you're, you look rested and smiling. How are you holding up?

• 1:11:39Speaker 01

  There was a time when I didn't know how to like, regulate myself. You know, I spend time, Mindy, I really have spent so much time prioritizing those things. Sleep, I really try to prioritize sleep. That has been the thing that has helped me the most. Uh, and then, but what, but that's like a, um, backwards architecture. If that's what I want, what are these other things that are true also that I need to do? I need to have an organized calendar. I need to think ahead. I need to plan my schedule, right? I need to think about what am I doing next week, next month, next quarter? Um, and work backwards from there, you know, which wasn't always a natural thing for me. You know, it's taken to, and to develop those skills.

• 1:12:22Speaker 01

  And as a chef, you know, we're kind of taught coming up to how to make great food, but we're not taught about business stuff. We're not taught, taught about all these leadership things. So I've made it my business to educate myself. I've taken classes, I've surrounded myself with incredible thought leaders, I've gone to empowering entrepreneurial retreats. You know, I've done a lot of things to really, I love self-development. Um, so I've made it my business at this stage of my life to grow that.

• 1:12:52Mindy Pelz?

  It's amazing. That's amazing. It's really impressive. And I think, you know, I do think, um, I've approached my own craft as, not that I'm the product, but I, I could be the capacity block. So I have to work on my mind, my body, because at some point, I will either allow myself to expand, or I will allow myself to contract, based off of what I put into my mind and body, which is what I just heard.

• 1:13:19Speaker 01

  Yes. I love, you've put it so well. It's same, I, that's totally relatable, and it's so important to get in front of that.

• 1:13:27Mindy Pelz?

  Yeah, incredible. Okay, last question. This is the one I ask everybody, because my podcast is now called Live Like a Girl, cuz I, I'm trying to take back like a girl and make it a positive statement. Yeah, there we go. So what does living like a girl mean to you?

• 1:13:42Speaker 01

  Wow. Well, um, well, you know what? Living like a girl means to me is that I do not fit. I, Nyesha Arrington, fit in zero societal norms for, society wants to tell me what a girl is. No. I get my nails dirty, I lift heavy weights, I, I wear my backwards hat whenever I feel like I want to. I'll wear a dress with heels when I want to. Uh, you know, I work in a male-dominated field, you know? Um, I don't, and I make sure I don't. Live by any freaking thing that society tells me I need to fit in a box, or do anything to be more digestible. I do the opposite.

• 1:14:27Mindy Pelz?

  Amazing. Oh, my God. There are so many reasons I love you, and I loved you before I came on here, but I think I may love you even more now.

• 1:14:34Speaker 01

  Oh, likewise.

• 1:14:36Mindy Pelz?

  That answer is exactly what I'm trying to break through to women, is to get out of the box that society has put us in.

• 1:14:45Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:14:45Mindy Pelz?

  And own your authenticity.

• 1:14:47Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 1:14:48Mindy Pelz?

  And so, and whatever that looks like, cuz one day it could look like a hat backwards, and the next day it looks like a dress with heels. And that's the beautiful thing about being a woman, is you can be all that.

• 1:14:59Speaker 01

  Absolutely. Absolutely.

• 1:15:01Mindy Pelz?

  That is just incredible, incredible. So, Nyesha, thank you so much. And we've got, we've gotta meet someday, and next time you're in the Bay Area, let's, let's go over to my son's restaurant. It's, it is top notch, and I think you would love it, so.

• 1:15:16Speaker 01

  I love that.

• 1:15:17Mindy Pelz?

  I might scare the shit out of everybody in the kitchen bringing you, but, um, but it would be really fun to have a meal together.

• 1:15:23Speaker 01

  Yeah, I would love that.

• 1:15:25Mindy Pelz?

  We'll do it. Appreciate you.

• 1:15:27Speaker 01

  Thanks, doc.

• 1:15:28Mindy Pelz?

  Uh, thank you.

• 1:15:29Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 1:15:31Mindy Pelz?

  Thank you so much for joining me in today's episode. I love bringing thoughtful discussions about all things health to you. If you enjoyed it, we'd love to know about it, so please leave us a review, share it with your friends, and let me know what your biggest takeaway is.