Food Network Star Damaris Phillips

Food Network Star Damaris Phillips chats about food creativity, growing up above a funeral home, extending grace, family cooking, and saving the ants (but not mosquitoes!)

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Well, there are legends from thisregion, and then there are legends who
have flower on their fingers. You'venever been introduced that way before, have
you. I was waiting to seewhere that was gonna go. Demeris Phillips
from Food Network, weren't you likeFood Network star? Maybe ten years ago?

(00:20):
Yeah, twenty thirteen, that's unbelievable. Yeah, a decade later and
you're still a superstar. You can'tsee my hands everybody, but I'm shaking
my hands in a jazz fingerstyle.You've pumped out a lot of great books
over the years. There's a newshow we're gonna talk about in a few
minutes. Well, let's dive backhere. Are you a Louisvillian or a

(00:42):
Lexingtonian? So I think technically Iwas born in Lafayette County, so that
is Lexing. Yeah, Fayette,Oh Lafayette. As they chopped off the
law, it's just Fayette County.I thought I was from Louisiana. It's
just a Fayette county. Well somebodysaid that's too French. Chop at la

(01:07):
off the front. Listen, everybodyknows now that I'm actually not from Lexington.
They can tell as I said thatincorrectly. They're like, she's definitely
from Louisville. So Louisville's all Iremember. So where did the skills,
the culinary skills come from. Imean, was there a plan at one
time you were going to be anastronaut or something different? No, you
know, I thought I was goingto be a writer. I always wanted

(01:29):
to be a writer. And thenI'm not a very good writer, unfortunately.
But your books are great. They'recharming, thank you, because I
just get to write about myself.If I'm like making up a story,
though, it's you know what's goingto happen immediately, it's just like very
it's just like very very sad littlestories. So when you get to talk
about yourself and a recipe, it'syou're not making anything up. I don't

(01:51):
really need to be creative. Ijust have to like write the words.
So I ended up getting to writea book, which is great. But
the when I was a kid,I didn't know that I wanted to be
a chef. I just liked tocook, and my whole family likes to
cook and eat, and so Ithink when I was nineteen or eighteen,
as soon as I graduate high school, I started working at Len's Paradise Cafe.

(02:12):
Oh well, that was some inspirationthere. Oh, cut on me
those breakfast I still think about thebiscuits and gravy. Yeah, at Lens
and I still think about that likeThanksgiving platter that they had all year long.
Right, I loved it. Iloved I would get that every night
for dinner. Well was some ofthe Demeris whimsy involved in Lens menu options?

(02:34):
Did you get the toy with anything? Or they're like stick to the
program. No. So I didn'twork in the kitchen at Lyns. I
worked front of house. I wasa real charmer. You all. Hi,
I'm Demeris. Welcome to Lenz.I'm gonna be taking care of you
today. Can I get anybody startedwith some fresh Squeeze orange juice, which
was I remember at the time itwas four dollars Oh and that you know

(02:57):
it was like nineteen ninety nine fourdollars was vinsas. Yeah, right,
you thought, well, this issome highbrow orange juice. Yeah. I
remember being like, who would everorder this? They must be rich?
And Lynn wintered was hilarious. Imean, I'm talking past Anser Women has
been a force of nature in thiscommunity and was very clever, so that

(03:21):
with your very imaginative personality, Iwould think that two of you would have
created something on your own, butyou figured you found your own paths.
Yeah. No, I was young. I was eighteen and really just like
trying to hang out and get somemoney so I could go eat dinners at
other places and go shopping at themall. You know, I don't know

(03:43):
that I was a force at thattime, but that personality is always there.
You're like a tornado of ideas.I am. I'm not short on
ideas. People see you on FoodNetwork. You're doing all kinds of different
things on different shows. I sawyou tap dancing in front of Bobby Flay.
I've been taking some dance classes.Where did that come from? I

(04:05):
love to dance, and I thinkeverybody should have hobbies. I'm a real
I believe in hobbies because otherwise you'relike constantly looking at your work to fulfill
you, and sometimes it doesn't.Like sometimes your work is your work,
you know, and you need tohave things outside of work that allow you
to play and have joy just foryourself, you know, Like not is

(04:25):
as like my husband and I liketo do this or my kids, and
I like to do this or justfor demeris. I have hobbies that I
like to do in dancing is oneof them. So I was trying to
tap. I'm very bad. Youlook good on that video. I saw
that Flay was completely distracted by whathe was trying to do, and you
kept him from his mission. Ithink it was a sequence hot pants.

(04:47):
It was like tap dancing skills.The audience took it in. Well.
So so now I go to swing. I've transitioned. I'm back into swing
dancing. That's impressive, but Ireally like right now, Okay, you
mentioned that that's one of your hobbies. Are you going to mention any others?
So I quilt? I do.I was quilting this morning over at

(05:10):
my aunt's house. I go oncea week we quilt. And then what
do you discuss while quilting? Youknow a lot of like, oh,
dag on it. I sewed thatwrong. I'm gonna have to rip this
out. Oh, so you're talkingabout the quilting. You're not talking about
world issues or flowers or food orwe talk about family like we talk about

(05:32):
the family sometimes we talk about Wedefinitely do not talk about world issue but
we do talk about like occasionally,well we'll talk about like the meaning of
life, or like if I havesomething that's bothering me, I'll say,
like did you ever have that?And she'll she'll tell me like like she
was like when I got married andstarted teaching, she was not allowed to

(05:56):
have a credit card in her name. Get out of here. She wasn't
allown. She wasn't allowed to wearpants when she started college. What would
she do if she was purchasing somethingand didn't have a credit card. No,
she could use her husband could havea credit card, but she couldn't
have a credit card in her name. She wan't allowed. I'm like,
that's mind boggling to me. Shehad to wear skirts to college. She

(06:17):
wasn't allowed to wear pants. Meanwhile, y'all, I'm in, uh what
looks like dinim overalls right now?It has just really gone downhill since the
seventies. Wow. Yeah, Sowe talk about that kind of stuff.
And we talk about, you know, like I don't have any kiddos and

(06:40):
she, you know, and wetalk about our grandkids. We talk about
my niece and nephews. You know, we just talk about what's good.
Though it's comforting. It's really nice, It really is. It adds to
the breadth of the relationship when youknow certain things. Do you tell secrets
when you're quilting. I mean,I'm not asking you to share them here,
but okay, I've never told anybodythis. There we go share it
with you. I'm not kidding youknow, we we do share. I

(07:05):
think for me, it's it's atradition that a bunch of my aunts do
and they do it together. AndI think about my nieces, so the
generation passed me, and that ifI didn't learn, because none of my
cousins quilt at all, but mygrandmother did. And so if if somebody
from my generation didn't learn to quilt, that would just kind of stop,

(07:28):
right. So I think of itas at some point, my nieces are
going to come to me and belike, I want to learn to make
a baby quilt because so and so'shaving a baby, right, So what
a great gift that is? Oh, I love it. I can't.
I mean I was. I mean, I didn't start until it's probably thirty
nine, So it's not you're onlya year older than that. I'm twenty
seven this year. You never youyou should have worn a skirt to college,

(07:54):
then you would have paid attention inmath class. All right, are
there are other hobbies that you wantto mention? You know? I love
arranging flowers, really, I deeplylove it. We got rid of all
the grass in our front yard becausegrass is a lie. I just I'm
a big I don't think if Ishould have grass. It's did your husband

(08:16):
have any say in this? Oryou said this is what's happening. No,
we don't have that kind of amarriage. We have a marriage where
it's a what would you think aboutthis at all? And if he says
absolutely not, then it's a no. What if he wanted to put up
NASCAR vehicle in your front yard?I would be like, I think that
aliens have body snatched my husband ifDerek came into the world talking about Nascar

(08:39):
at all. So let's get backto this flower arranging. Because there are
these surveys that come out now andagain they talk about the most rewarding careers
in the world, and number onemany times it's flower arranging. I can
that it is. So. WhenI was a little kid, my dad
owned a funeral home, and oftentimeshe owned a funeral home in Portland and

(09:03):
Portland, Maine, Portland, Oregon, Portland, Louisville, Well, Portland,
Louisville, I got, yeah,Portland. So sometimes there would be
families that there weren't a ton offlower arrangements, and so my dad would
go and get either artificial flowers thathe would just like have me make an
arrangement out of, or he wouldgo and get fresh flowers and be like

(09:24):
put a together a couple of arrangethat. He was a real, real,
real good man. So even youknow, I was ten or eleven
at the time, and I wouldbe like arranging flowers to like, I
don't know, I just loved it. We weren't allowed to be real loud,
you know, because we lived aboardthe funeral home. So I spent
a lot of time playing board games, playing cards and arranging flowers and making

(09:46):
meat trace meat trace, yeah,because people get hungry and they don't think,
you know, sometimes families didn't thinkto bring food, oh to a
service. Yeah, so they wouldhave like a nine to nine visitation.
You've been there twelve hours and there'sno food, and people are you know,
like you know, emotional, andso I could make a mean meat
tray Terry. If you saw mymeat rolling skills. I've done some things

(10:09):
on the Food Network, but youknow, like anti pasta or like veloney,
or like turkey or hay am andthen two types. It would be
three meats, two cheeses, andthen brownies. That was our go to.
I'm not sure where you were bornbecause you just said the word ham
and it was two syllables ham heam, hem hem. It sounded very

(10:35):
Southern, and that's what you're cooking'sabout too. That's the beauty of that.
People love the notion of Southern cooking. Oh. They love the idea
of cooking. Gosh. People loveit. They're like, and then I'm
going to use my kitchen this week. They love I mean, they like
the idea of making bread. Idon't think anybody I love to cook.

(10:56):
I don't know that everybody loves tocook, but that's fine, and I
think people love watching other people cook. Smells, though, let's go back
to the flower range again. Thatis so great. That's just so pungent
and it pays rewards. But bakingbread is also right there. I mean,

(11:18):
I do like all smells. Ihave a very very good sense of
smell, and so I put insideof all my arrangements. I'll put a
lot of herbs so I grow likea lot of mint, but I'll put
mint in as my greenery or rosemaryso it smells like the kitchen. But
yeah, like the smell of caramelizingflour is like butter, caramelizing flour,

(11:43):
sugar, those things. It's enough. I mean, that's enough to just
like hang your hat on for allof life. Yeah, and during the
holiday season. People you're talking,you know, you're talking about quilting,
but families gather baking. The smellsof baking, the actual production of things
in a kitchen is also a partof great family bonding and memories. Yeah,

(12:05):
I think more fun has had whenyou're making the food to give to
people, or like making the rollsfor the dinner. I think that for
me at least, is the besttime around the holidays. It's not really
the dinner. Dinners are always likeit's just like such a it's such an
old fashioned thing to do to sitaround a table. We don't do it

(12:26):
at home. We like sit outon the front porch and eat dinner.
Sometimes we eat dinner while we watchtelevision. Do you eat over the sink
all the time, because anything youeat when you're standing up doesn't count as
calories. That's right. I atechicken today. We had a roasted chicken
and I ate it over the sink. And my wife's always rolling her eyes
at me. But you know whowas next to me, my dog exactly,

(12:50):
Hey, bald guy, you seeme here, don't so he got
his fair share of baked chick.But I'm over the sinks, so doesn't
count. Doesn't count. Sometimes Ieat over the pot, which is that
that's my favorite spaghetti. Or you'vemixed the sauce and the postave meat just
a little bit too much, you'veeaten your dinner, You've walked away done

(13:13):
something for about thirty minutes. Youcome back and you're like, I'm gonna
put up this food. There's notreally enough of it to put up,
so you just get a fork andyou eat the like room temperature pasta out
of the pot. It's my favorite. It is my favorite. What's the
best time for dinner? Because thereare some ceremonies. I've been in some
Italian homes before, and actually,you know, my son Simon, Simon,

(13:35):
Max and Mary and I went toItaly and the rituals with dinner are
unbelievable. I'm like a real eightthirty nine o'clock person. Yeah, for
dinner, we are, we are. My lunch time is about three,
and then dinner time's about eight thirtyor nine. I don't know. I

(13:56):
love it. I love a latedinner. I like to. Like dietitians
and personal trainers will always say,don't eat six o'clock. Yeah, you
know, I think they stay.I just shift mind because I end up
staining. I'm a pretty I stayit pretty late. Like we are always
midnight, maybe later for going tobed. So I think that if you
go to bed at ten, thenyou can't eat past six, But if

(14:18):
you go to bed at twelve orone, maybe you can't eat past nine
or ten. I don't. I'mdefinitely not a dietitian. You're not anybody
listening to that and thinking that thatwas founded in anything other than me just
thinking that would be incorrect. DemerisPhillips is our Guests. You can find
her on Instagram at Chef d Phillips. Her website is Demeris Phillips dot com.

(14:41):
Luckily that was available. It's likemy email, just my name.
I'm old enough. I'm Terryminors dotcom. That's how that works, demere
Phillips dot com. Okay, sothere's a new show that comes on.
I think the first show is Sundayis it is Outrageous Pumpkins. Isn't this

(15:01):
like season four? Season four OutrageousPumpkins. I am new to the family,
though. This is my first timedoing Outrageous Pumpkins. I'm very excited.
It's the first time I'm hosting acompetition show by myself. I've done
it in like a team before,but it's the first time I have hosted
a primetime show by myself. Whatfantastic. No, that had to be

(15:26):
a fun little email or call ortext or whatever it was that told you
you you have this gig. Yeah, it was. It was a night.
I have worked with the production companythat did it. I worked with
them a few years ago doing KidsBarbecue Championship, so I've worked with them
before hosting. They're a delightful crewof people. I always love anything the
network is doing, so I'm veryglad to still be part of the Food

(15:48):
Network family. So it's it's fun, you know. It was also like,
it's just such a delight hosting becauseyou don't have to judge. I'm
not like I like I like thefact that I have a job judging food
is there's a great job, butI don't always love judging people's food.
Normally, I just like to eatit. I'm like, I don't though
I didn't make it taste great.I don't know, you know, Like

(16:11):
I'm just like not that picky.And also I know enough about you to
know you don't like hurting anybody's feeling. Oh, I hate it. And
that's the thing when you have totell somebody that this taste like garbage.
You don't say that, but you'rethinking it. So then you find some
gussied up words to make it lesspainful. Yeah, you know, so
my job is not My job isto make a television show, which is

(16:36):
like my job is to have theviewer at home not know who for sure
is going home, right, becauseI'd be boring if everyone's like, well,
this taste like throw up, you'redefinitely getting eliminated, like nobody tunes
into the end of the show.No, Right, So there is like
a little art to like letting itfeel balanced, but also giving like real

(16:59):
criticism and also real compliments. Howdifficult is that after the cameras stop rolling,
when somebody's had their feelings hurt andthey're eliminated or whatever. I mean,
you don't go uber together away fromthe studio. No, but I
usually will go up and shake theirhand and say, like, hey,
tough one today. I've lost amillion times in these competitions. Really well

(17:21):
done, you'll get them next time. Keep trying, like keep doing this,
that's right. It really is likeonce you're in that world of like
competitive cooking and shows, they liketo use people again and again. And
if you've ever made it on oneof the shows, it's because you're talented
and you have great personality, andso you know some days you're gonna lose.
Nobody likes someone who wins all thetime. Do you get tired of

(17:42):
fixing food for other people? Likeyou're connected to family, friends or whatever,
and they always say, let's goto Demeris's house for Thanksgiving, Let's
go to Demeris's house for Memorial Day, weekend picnicking or whatever. No,
because they know that half the time, I'm just gonna have like gotten some
rolls from the store and like throwingsome cheese on top and been like it's

(18:03):
like almost like homemade, Like Ijust I love I always bake on Saturday
mornings, and I do a lotof recipe testing, so through the week,
people are always allowed to come bymy house and get like whatever we've
recipe tested. Anytime, it's openinvitation to people. But at the holidays,
like, oh, I mean,I don't mind gussing up mashed potatoes

(18:26):
that are from the grocery store.I just don't think that matters. I
don't think the food matters that much. I think making sure that everybody's like
has as low stress and like we'renot putting ourselves in a position to be
triggered by like families are hard sometimes, you know. So I think I
think I get tired of people saying, I gotta would you like to cater

(18:53):
this for seven dollars. We've hada budget of fourteen ninety five, seven
hundred people and it's all for children, right, it's a fundraiser. And
then I'm like, oh, Iguess I'm making for fifteen hundred on six

(19:15):
dollars makes perfect sense. Damaris,you had a major turnaround in your life
when you fell in love with avegetarian, so who were you before you
love this guy? And did yousay goodbye to meet? So when I
met Derek, I was teaching bakingand I was teaching garmaje at. I

(19:37):
don't know what that means. Garmageis an art of the cold kitchen.
So it's like anything that you wouldthink of on like the salad the cold
bar. Right. What goes intothat also is any of your like meat
production, so any salamis at you'remaking, or if you're making bacon,
or if you're making sausages, andwhich I loved, Like I loved curing
meat. I loved it. SoI met Darre and I've always been somebody

(20:00):
who loves animals, and so wheneverI wasn't eating meat, I tried to
be very very thoughtful about where themeat came from. I've always been somebody
who believed in local, like locallyforced meat. I just I think that
it is more expensive. It justmeans it you spend more and you eat
less of it. That's just mychoices, you know. So it was

(20:22):
always something I thought about. Butwhen I met Derek, he just really
loves animals. I mean, hejust like, we don't kill ants if
we get ants in our house,We pick up every single ant and put
it outside with little little either likelittle tissue paper, and you like gently
scoop them up so you don't crushthem. Or we have a contraption that
has two straws, one longer thanthe other and a little a little filter,

(20:47):
and you suck them up and theygo into a little chamber. You
can't see it right now, nobodycan see me doing this. But and
you just how do you keep theant from going into your mouth? The
filter? So you have one longstraw on one short straw and then a
plastic container between the two of them. So think about a a one cup
Deli container with a plastic lid onit and then filters on like the filter

(21:11):
looks like a little piece of tissuepaper. So Eric is still good?
Do you think the ant walks awayand thinks, well, that was a
good dude? You know what Ithink? They think? They think,
oh my god, aliens just suckedme up through this tube. They think,
Alfred, you're not gonna believe this. Hear me out for real.
I was walking along getting ready toget some sugar, and then suddenly I
was in this like weird seed throughcontraption, and there was so much air.

(21:33):
That's what I think. They say, Do you crush a cracker or
something for them outside so they havesomething to carry away. So when I
try to move them out, Iput corn syrup nearer to them. So
if we're trying to remove if likewe're like, oh, there's gonna be
lots of ants, I put itoutside because if you got all you can
eat buffet, you're not going togo looking for a grocery store. So
I'm always like, I'll put foodoutside closer to like and then move the

(21:56):
colony, move their food source awayfrom the house. If you're stung by
a hornet, do you want tokill it? It probably already did,
Okay. I mean I sometimes accidentallykill mosquitoes. Yeah, I don't mean
to. It's like they land andthen you're it's a reflex, and then
they did, and then I'm like, oh, I hope dark didn't see
that. Oh yeah. But hejust even with a mosquito, he just

(22:21):
shooes it away, he just choosesit away. He's a good soul.
He's just like you. He's areal gentle soul. All right, we're
out of time. What's your nextbook projects. By the way, Demeris
Phillips has a lot of great booksabout Southern cooking. The one What was
It About? I Married a vegetarian, right, Southern girl meats esgetarian boy.
I think I'm gonna write gussied Upnext, which is just like quick

(22:41):
recipes that are like really using stufffrom the grocery store. That's a great
phrase. We've used it here inthis this chat. I love it.
I love it, love the soundof it. And people can find you
online at Demeris Phillips dot com onInstagram at Chef d Phillips. And there's
always something imaginative coming from you,so I expect lots more greatness. You're

(23:04):
the best, Emeriss. It wasso nice. It's great talking to you.
You bet you