clocktore.blogg.se

• #All flavor no grease full#

“We wanted to find something else besides hustling in the streets to make some money and we noticed that we had a gift with cooking.” Jenkins, a former member of the Crips, attended Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Las Vegas and had recently returned to LA after catering to high-end “nightlife” clientele in Vegas and later for entrepreneurs in Portland. “We started just to stay out of trouble,” explains Roberto “News” Smith, the sous chef of Trap Kitchen, who started selling food out of an apartment kitchen in Compton with chef, and former rival gang member, Malachi “Spank” Jenkins in 2013. To learn more about this burgeoning underground food scene, we spoke to many of the people at the forefront of the rapidly growing trend, as well as one that helped pioneer the use of social media early on to build an undercover operation. But the common thread that ties many of them together is using Instagram and other social platforms to show their followers what they’re cooking on a particular day, offer instructions on how and where to get the food. For some it’s an opportunity to grow a following and earn money to eventually open up a brick-and-mortar, while for others it’s merely a fun hobby and natural extension of cooking for friends and family with the chance to make some extra money on the side.

But thanks to the pervasiveness of social media and savvy marketing skills, these pioneers have taken their businesses to new heights and changed the way many of us eat.įrom a pair of former gang members selling takeout containers of comfort food out of their South LA apartment to a real estate agent offering Texas-style brisket from a giant smoker in his Studio City driveway, LA is now home to a wide range of underground food businesses. A cottage industry of people selling food out of their home has existed for time immemorial, and underground eateries have long been part of the fabric of LA. And thanks to a growing number of entrepreneurial Angelenos who are using social media to sell their food - often cooked in home kitchens and backyards - we now have even more clandestine culinary options to explore.

#All flavor no grease full#

In a city full of food trucks, street carts, and secret supper clubs, you hardly have to step inside an actual restaurant to enjoy some of the best food in Los Angeles.