001All right. Hello everybody. Let me say hi. Uh, so my name is Chef Rock Harper. My name is Rock Harper, but I'm a chef. Um, thank you all for having me here today. I appreciate it. I'm going to make some mac and cheese and I'm going to do some talking. The way I do my demonstrations that, you know, I want to be interactive. It's just like I'm in my house and y'all came into my kitchen. Today was incredible. You know, this is this is the future. they have so much uh energy and excitement and so many questions. I think it's important for me to come to Kenmore places uh like here is because um you never know what's possible until you see it in front of you. Chef Harper is here and we made like
002amazing mac and cheese. I mean, he made it, but we're trying it. And he used a bunch of different techniques. Like I've never I've never like made them like that, but yeah, it was really good. And it's actually really good. a person who doesn't like mac and cheese. I know I don't like mac and cheese, but this is the best mac and cheese I've ever had. Everything was really nice. I liked how he made the mac and cheese. I've never seen it done like that. I've never added eggs either, so I want to make this at home, too. I've never tried mac and cheese before, and I'm scared to try a lot of new things, but this is good. This is really good. That mac and cheese is so fire. I wipe my plate clean.
003Um, and I hope I I hope I can get honestly. It's nice to have someone with experience and I want to open up my restaurant, too, when I grow up. So, it's very nice. Like, he's a great mom for me. And one of my favorite parts was when he was talking about his business because I also want to have my own business when I grow up. So, I just kind of like gathered tips about cooking and also like how to know that you can do it if you really put your mind to it. in 8th grade was where I discovered the love of like professional cooking. So to come here and to be able to speak uh to students that are in that same position, it was really uh it was really cool. This is
004what community is. If you live in a place, no matter whether you're you're famous or not, uh just, you know, stay connected to your people. It's just awesome. And they, you know, they give me energy. I feel like I'm, you know, I'm ready to roll now. I learned about different foods and like the stories behind them and how you can turn something um that was made in a different place and make it your own dish like a little twist and that was really cool. So you have this red rice dish that was created centuries ago and because it was French influence and Spain influence and a little Mexican influence, it ends up in Louisiana as jumbolaya. Right. It's very interesting how um food travels and how things change over time. It's very important for me
005and I think for any culture to understand the root of where you know of where things come from. You know, you don't have to be a chef to do that, to continue to tell those stories, but in any family, community, culture, small or at large, we must keep those stories and the food alive. And that's very important. You never know if someone might be like doubting themselves or like not very sure of this and that and having someone like him who has gone through that like makes a clearer path for those type of people.