-Eric Adjepong and I have something in common.
We were both on cooking competition shows.
He didn't win.
Neither did I.
So, what happens after the show is over?
The demands and opportunities of fame are still there,
but none of the resources that famous people have.
When you're on a reality cooking show,
everybody thinks you're rich, and it's like, "Opposite.
Nobody is making any money while you're on the show."
-Yeah, we're still trying to make it work.
-Adjepong and his business partner and wife, Janell,
continue to run their private-chef business,
just like they did before he was on "Top Chef."
He cooks, she does everything else.
-He has his lane. I have my lane.
We have, like, a little, quick meeting in the house,
probably feeding Lennox.
"Hey, we're doing this, this, and this."
And that's really how it happens.
-For sure, yeah.
-So your baby's just sitting there, like,
screaming and crying, and you're trying to --
-"Yeah, so, what's course number two?"
-And they're doing this all with a new baby.
It's very satisfying.
-Isn't it? -Yeah.
Life after a cooking competition show is hard and weird
but, like many hard and weird times, rich with opportunity.
So now they're also planning for their first restaurant,
showcasing the West African cuisine
of his Ghanaian-born parents, opening in 2020.
And I'll tell you how to get a seat at a secret table
that will give you the first taste
of their much-anticipated restaurant
and have you eating like a "Top Chef" judge.
I mean, it's like "Game of Thrones."
-Right?
Eric Adjepong and I visited a market
right outside of Washington, D.
C.
, that specializes in items from Africa, Latin America,
and the Caribbean.
Eric, how are you?
! It's so nice to see you!
-Good to see you, as well. -You look fantastic.
-Thank you.
You, as well. -Yeah.
Because Adjepong works with food not found in a typical
American grocery store, he always starts his cooking
with a trip to a specialty market.
-I'll probably buy this whole shelf right here.
-I know.
You took a small one and then you're like --
-Yeah, yeah. Exactly.
Everyday cuts for the folks from West Africa --
oxtails, tripe, cow feet.
Puna yam.
This is the one that I kind of go to, as well.
-This is so exciting me, 'cause it really is, like,
opening up an entirely new world.
-Right. -There's a lot of talk today
about using food to make the world smaller,
but learning requires asking questions and exposing yourself
as someone who doesn't already know something,
taking a risk to look ignorant,
engaging in uncomfortable listening,
and checking your own mind-set to make sure you're curious
without treating a continent's cuisine as a curiosity.
-So, we call them waakye leaves in Ghana,
but, truly, they're sorghum leaves here in the South, right?
-Yeah. -Exactly.
Right.
We all eat the same things.
There's not really nothing new under the sun.
We just call it different things.
We're all here to really learn from each other.
-That's right. Through food.
-Through food. Exactly.
-And, sometimes, even he learns from the people who shop there.
-So, what's the difference between the two?
Because I thought this, the ugu leaf was the bitter leaf.
-No. Ugu leaf is different.
It's a little bit slimy.
The leaf is more common within the West Africans.
-Right. -Ugu is for Igbos,
a tribe in Nigeria.
-Where are you from? -I'm from Ijaw,
within the Igbo area. They're a way smaller tribe.
-So that's why you stick to the bitter leaf.
-Yeah. Right.
These West African ingredients are delicious.
They can also tell a story that
Adjepong sometimes incorporates into his cooking
and into the last meal he made on "Top Chef."
It's a story of people who are forced to leave their homelands
and become slaves.
Adjepong is committed to using his extensive formal culinary
education to educate diners,
to show this food as a modern living cuisine
of both struggle and triumph.
-It's a place of refuge for me, because I can kind of go back
and I can just zone out, you know, through the aisles.
The flavors -- the smells, rather,
that kind of bring me back, so I know what, like,
milo smells like in the morning when my mom's kind of brewing.
You know what I mean I know what the bread smells like
when it's in the toaster oven.
Malta -- man, have you ever had it?
I hated it growing up.
-Bye-bye.
We're on our way to test dishes for the new restaurant.
Remember, I'm going to reveal
how you can do this tasting, too.
-Exit right to Maryland 201 -- -A little sweet on the back end.
-Yeah.
It almost has a molasses profile.
-It's exactly -- Yeah, you're exactly right.
-It's like drinking molasses. -Yeah.
-Adjepong is already planning the menu
for his restaurant opening.
-I have in mind to do a tasting menu specifically
where you start off in a West African port,
and then you're migrating, and through that migration,
you're tasting flavors from West Africa,
but then it's going to the Caribbean,
but it's going to South America, but it's going to the South.
This is a part of our fabric, as far as American history.
It's something that we all can't escape,
so why not learn from it, be better from it,
and then enjoy, you know, then really celebrate the culture.
2020 is where I'm looking at, and I can't wait, to be honest.
Like, I have it in my mind.
I know exactly what I want it to feel like
and look like and smell like and, like, all those senses.
I know exactly what I want occupied in my mind, you know?
So, it's just a matter of time and patience.
-And money. -And money, yes.
-In the meantime, the Adjepongs have a monthly dinner series
called "Run Our Course."
They do everything they would do for a high-end private client
paying thousands of dollars,
but they open every seat to fans on their e-mail list.
Ticket purchases are first come, first served.
You can be the very first to eat new dishes
before the restaurant even opens.
-It's a whole new menu that, more than likely,
nobody has typically ever had before.
And then, based on the crowd's response,
that's how we decide like,
"Hey, maybe we should do this again"
or "maybe we shouldn't do this again."
All of his support is so grassroots.
It's easy.
Honestly, people -- It's easy.
It doesn't take any, like, shamming.
This is really us.
When you hire Pinch & Plate, you're really hiring us.
You're really hiring Eric.
We show up, people are like, "Oh, my God!
It's really them." And I'm like, "Yes.
Who else would you think was gonna come?
Of course, you want the food to be amazing.
You want the energy in the room to be amazing,
which is what I'll help with.
But you still want it to be relatable.
You want people to come and have a good time
and feel comfortable.
-It's a mom-and-pop. -Yep.
-You're the mom. -You're the mom-and-pop.
-You're the mom and the pop right now.
-Mom-and-pop.
-You want to peel quail eggs with me?
-I mean, I want to peel quail eggs with you.
I don't generally want to peel quail eggs.
Oh, my God. I broke one.
-No, it's good. Don't worry about it.
I got backup, so we're good. -All right.
-I broke one, too. -There are so many people who --
Oh, that's okay.
-That's pretty good, actually. I'll take that one.
-The other side is a mess. -I will take it.
-For the "Top Chef" final, he was cooking a meal
based on the African diaspora
and was eliminated before he could finish.
After the show aired, head judge Tom Colicchio invited
Adjepong to cook his food
at Colicchio's flagship restaurant, Craft.
-To get a random message from Tom Colicchio,
it's kind of like, "Whoa!" -Okay, no, no, no.
You have to tell more than that.
-When he sent me the screenshot, I was like,
"Are you sure this isn't, like, spam or catfish?"
-Right, right, right, right. Yeah, get that blue check.
-So, like, Eric knows 'cause he follows Tom on Instagram.
So when he sent me the screenshot, I'm like,
"Are you sure it's him?
Like, before you respond --" -Yeah.
Oh, it's through Instagram. -Yeah.
-Yeah, yeah, yeah.
-Twitter, Instagram, one of the two.
It's a staple in New York,
so to have the opportunity to cook there and really,
you know, do everything that I've been doing out here
and continue to tell that story, it was amazing, truly.
-When you own your own kitchen and you have a kitchen,
have you thought about how you're gonna run it?
-It's kind of over for that time where your chef is,
like, a tyrant and, you know, you're getting plates
and, you know, spoons and stuff, like, thrown at you.
Like, everyone's here to work.
Everyone's here to learn and get even better.
You always want to be a student,
know that there's always something new to learn,
but then also incorporate
what you do know into the stuff that you don't.
And that's what you make --
You know, that's how you get really creative.
-So, you said that it's a tomatillo --
-Green tomato.
-Tomatillo, green tomato.
So, you have something like this, which is very individual.
-Right.
-And then you get something like this.
So how would you serve this and eat it at a restaurant?
-So, there would definitely be, like, accompaniments, so rice,
a bowl of rice, stuff like that around the table, plates,
and then literally just have everybody
kind of feed themselves, feed other people.
Really, like, cross the table, you know, and exchange.
Eating with each other is something
that was pounded when I was young like,
"You have to eat with your family.
You don't want to eat dinner alone."
So that's something that we just try to keep as much as possible,
especially in that restaurant setting.
-Oh, my God. This is unbelievable.
-There was something about the way he charred this cabbage.
My nose just kept --
I kept walking by like -- I felt like -- I don't know.
I felt like I was stalking the kitchen.
"What is that?"
Great. -This was delicious.
-Thank you so much.
-Adjepong says the food of the African diaspora
is ultimately a cuisine of rising above.
-I know the story really well.
I'm fascinated with this story.
I am a part of this story.
So why not use the talents
that I have to make the most out of it?
-Putting your name on the list for this secret table is easy.