- My next guest is one of LA's hottest chefs
with three amazing restaurants, Black Market Liquor Bar,
Scopa Italian Roots, and DAMA.
Everybody on my crew has been raving
about these restaurants, okay.
You've seen her on Top Chef, Chopped,
and Cutthroat Kitchen, just to name a few.
I think she's competitive, y'all.
- Yes. - But she says there's no job,
more important to her than being a good mama,
and a good single mama at that,
to her 21 year old daughter, Xea.
So everybody, let's welcome chef Antonia Lofaso!
(audience cheering) (everyone applauding)
- Thank you, thank you- - [Kelly] Hello.
- Thank you, thank you.
- You have so many restaurants.
- [Antonia] I know- - You killing it.
- When I heard you say it, I was like, oh my God.
I started like sweating, I was like,
wow, it's a lot of restaurants.
- So do you know each other, have y'all ever met?
- Yes. - Yes, we do.
- Oh, I love it.
- I've been to her restaurant.
- Thank you, thank you.
- You know, it's hard to get in, but I got in.
(laughing)
- All right, well Antonia,
you became a single mom suddenly, right
when Xea was just 11? - [Antonia] She was 11, yeah.
- Yeah, so how did you handle that?
- Yeah, so we...
Xea's father unfortunately passed away when she was 11.
It was sudden, it was unexpected,
and it was probably, you know,
it was just one of the hardest like life-altering situations
that's ever happened, that you know,
you can't really ever prepare for and-
- Was it hard for you to grieve
when you're trying to help her?
- There's, there was, no.
I mean, my entire focus just went to Xea.
Like my entire focus just was like,
how do we continue, you know, school,
and just getting up every single day?
And, you know, she was in the sixth grade and it was like,
are we gonna prepare for secondary school
and going into the seventh grade,
and what does that look like?
And it's just everyday things
just became a little bit harder.
And I don't think it was until she was about 18 years old
and went off to college
that I kinda just had a moment in that to kind of,
because parents grieve, I mean, we are,
you know, in the moment of grief,
but we're so concerned with making sure that our children
are okay and what they're going through.
And so, you know, I'm still actually-
- You put yourself on the back burner.
- Always, I mean, I think as parents,
a lot of times we like put ourselves,
but I just kind of, you know,
focused on working and trying to support her financially.
It was the financial part that was a real,
like a thing more than anything where I was like-
- [Kelly] Freaks you out, yeah.
- I think a lot of success comes out of necessity.
I just put my head down, I started opening restaurants,
and you know, and it was a huge motivator
to the point where I was like, I'm in this,
and I like to use the term single parent loosely
because I had so much family and so many friends
that really like stepped up that.
- [Kelly] A village that helps.
- A huge village of people that love and support both of us.
And so, you know, not everybody has that either.
And so I like to recognize that and...
but it's just been, you know, it's this-
- [Kelly] The different too, I'm a single mom,
My mom was a single mom, but I have a village that helps me.
She didn't have anybody.
- Absolutely, and there's lot of parents out there
that don't have even so much as, you know-
- [Kelly] Have no idea. - They have no idea.
- Very important so-
- Very, very different, you know?
And so she, you know, she is...
And it was not always easy, you know,
it was very much like, you know,
the grief process that she went through,
there was a lot anger, a lot of, you know, sadness,
a lot of like, you know, you know?
Not always working out
the way we thought it was going to be, you know?
- And just like why?
- Yeah exactly.
And you know, just...
And then having a teenager kinda go through that.
And so, you know, but she's awesome,
she's awesome by the way.
- [Kelly] Well great job, great job.
So what are we making today though?
Isn't this Xea's?
- This is actually Xea's dish. - [Kelly] Yeah.
- This is actually Xea's dish.
She would like, basically during like 2020,
I was working so much and obviously, you know,
trying to keep my businesses like-
- Afloat. - Afloat.
And so I would come home, you know, and she would just like,
"By the way, I made crispy shrimp tacos."
And I was like, "Oh my goodness, thank God you can cook."
Like there was like all these like moments where I was like,
"Thank God you can cook, I actually did my job,
I'm a good parent."
We can eat tomorrow.
And so, you know, and so she actually said,
like one day she was just like,
I was watching Kylie Jenner on YouTube and-
- I love that. - I know.
And I was like, "Okay, where's this story going?"
You know, and then she was like,
I came up with this shrimp
'cause she wanted you to crispy tacos, but she's like,
but I really love your peel and eat shrimp
from Black Market,
so I don't know if anyone's been to Black Market
and had those. - She wanted to combine it.
- [Antonia] Thank you, thank you.
She wanted to combine the two.
So a very sort of like peel and eat shrimp lemon pepper.
And so she was like, took a dish from my Black Market menu
but wanted it to be crispy shrimp.
So I was like-
- I love this idea.
- I know, I was like, "I love how creative you're being."
- And now I'm gonna take it.
- [Kelly] Well wait, since-
Wait, since it's, since it's Xea's recipe,
let's bring her into this demonstration.
She's dialing in from Atlanta right now.
Hi Xea! - Look at that face.
(audience cheering and appluading)
- Oh my God, she is so cute.
(laughing)
All right, so Xea, why don't you get us started.
Your mama can give us the hands on help if we need it.
- Yes, so the first thing I did
was put a little oil in the pan
and then throw the shrimp in the pan.
- [Kelly] Okay.
- Make sure the shrimp are seasoned
with lemon pepper though.
And I like to do a little bit of onion, salt, garlic powder,
just to make it really, really seasonal and delicious.
- Okay, this is easy.
- All right, so you just put
the little round things in this.
(indistinct chatter)
Is that what these are, shrimp?
- [Antonia] Yeah those are shrimp,
you're just gonna put those-
- [Kelly] Is that what these are?
- They say you can overcook shrimp
so how can you make it crispy?
- When shrimp is like uncooked, this is, you know,
people are like, "Oh, it changes color,
oh, it's a little pink."
I look at its body language.
- Hold up. - Okay Ursula.
- So here's the thing,
your shrimp there that are a little undercooked, right,
they're like relaxing and they're like relaxing to the side.
- Chilling, chilling.
- Now these that are cooked up a little bit more,
they're like at attention, they're like.
- So when the shrimp gets like this-
- Right, so when shrimp are like not cooked all the way,
they're just like- - They're lazy.
- They're lazy, and then often when they cook,
they're like, oh my God.
- Yeah, okay.
- So when you see the shrimp kind of like tucked under-
- [Kelly] I love you.
(laughing)
So wait, so wait, are these done yet?
- [Antonia] Well, what does it,
does that look he's tucked in?
(instinct chatter)
- [Kelly] He's a little lazy but-
(indistinct chatter)
But I'm not gonna get like, okay.
- [Antonia] No, nothing's getting out.
- [Kelly] I'm taking some of yours.
(laughing)
- So that's what I do with my son?
- I want yours 'cause mine aren't cooking.
Here, I'll just take two so I don't take too much.
- [Antonia] That's good,
I'm gonna give you these right here.
- What's, what's this stuff?
- So the hot sauce aioli is actually my mom's recipe
that she came up with one day.
It's in her peal and eat shrimp at Black Market
as a side sauce.
And I asked her what it was made of one day
because I always loved it so much growing up,
and she was like, "Honestly, it's just red hot and mayo."
And I was like, "Really, that's it?"
- I love the simplicity.
- [Xea] So to incorporate more of her own dish
from Black Market, I decided to make that the topping
instead of a sour cream.
- Ooh, exactly.
- And so here's the thing,
so Xea will tell you that I'm like a psycho competitor
when I, when I cook.
And so a trick to competing on television
is by having like quick go-to sauces.
And so, Kelly and Kim,
if you are ever, find yourself in a culinary competition,
and you've all of a sudden seared shrimp-
- If I do, pigs are actually flying.
(laughing)
- But you're like, "Oh my God,
what sauce do I use right now?
I'm on this culinary competition."
I tell Xea this all the time, right,
I'm like, "You take hot sauce, you take mayonnaise,
you mix it together, it can go on..."
It can go on what, Xea?
- Everything. - Steak.
- Anything. - Anything.
- It can go on steak, it can go on chicken, fish,
it can go on raw fish,
it can go on literally anything you want.
- Look at your nail game, all right.
I'm trying this right now. - [Kim] Okay.
Oh, look at my shrimp, my shrimp is getting tough.
It's getting tough.
They curling up, they curling up.
Look at that, look at that.
- [Antonia] You know what's gonna be amazing?
Is that Kim forever now, forever now,
when you make shrimp at home, you're gonna be like-
- Oh absolutely.
Absolutely, I'm gonna be like that shrimp is ready!
You seen the shrimp, the shrimp is ready!
- It's going into fetal position.
Oh my God, those are really good, Xea!
That's awesome.