#439 Edouardo Jordan - His story of his journey to the apex of the Seattle food world, the fall, and the recovery
/Edouardo Jordan's ascent to the top of the Seattle culinary world was a long journey that started in his childhood St. Petersburg kitchen helping his mother, when given the choice of that or cleaning his room. Edouardo takes us through his high school, college and post college pursuits, one of which was working with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays to becoming a food blogger, He then decided he could do better than many of the restaurants he reviewed, and he pursued his interest in cooking at the Le Cordon Bleu (Orlando Culinary Academy) and got his first kitchen job in Tampa, Florida. He worked his way from server to the line, working for Thomas Keller at The French Laundry and Per Se, then to Sitka & Sprice in Seattle. With all of that under his belt, he had the chops to open his own restaurant, Salare, in Seattle at the age of 35. That platform, showcasing his talent to the world, led to Food and Wine choosing him as Best New Chef in 2016. Shortly thereafter, Jordan opened JuneBaby, his widely acclaimed ode to Southern cooking. He generated so much attention that the following year he sounded a louder gong by bringing home TWO James Beard Foundation Awards to Seattle. One for Best Chef Northwest, and the other for Best New Restaurant nationwide. He was the first African-American ever to win that award. Edouardo was the baby of the Seattle culinary scene and beyond.
In 2019, Time Magazine named him one of the USA's 100 Most Influential People.
Then, as Edouardo tells it, all of that was erased in one day. In June of 2021, The Seattle Times published a story featuring multiple accusations of sexual abuse in the workplace by Jordan. As Jordan points out in his recent YouTube Series chronicling his side this story, The newspaper gave him very little time to respond before it was published, and what happened from then on was something unimaginable -- a long, incredibly hard and frustrating time for Chef Jordan. He found roadblocks everywhere, especially in the media, where he couldn't tell his side of the story. Over four years later, Jordan is clawing his way back into the kitchen with the business he started years ago, thefoodwithroots.com.
Edouardo joins us on the podcast to talk about his career's rise, its crash, and how he's been emotionally and socially picking up the pieces in recent years, to what he's doing now in work and life, and how he's found balance and answers since the upheaval.
Right at the Fork is made possible by:
Zupan's Markets: www.zupans.com
RingSide SteakHouse: www.RingSideSteakhouse.com
Portland Food Adventures: www.PortlandFoodAdventures.com