Charleston Black Expo

Charleston Black Expo

[ music ] we're continuing our coverage of this year's charleston black expo, and we want to welcome back jocelyn johnson, event planner and owner, thank you for joining us and welcome back, and you brought a beautiful spread.

It's jerk chicken and i just want to get that out there right now so we can start salivating before we get into the recipe and the cooking.

If you want to talk about the black expo and some of the things that you'll be featuring.

You have the economic summit.

And what a lot of people is just food just like i do.

So tell us about the attest of black charleston.

>> it's one of my favorite events that we have annually, and it's our 9th year, and we feature all of our local chefs and caterers that want to come out and participate.

This is a local competition, so they get to compete for savory and best display.

It's a cash award, and the chefs bring their a game as you can tell.

>> a plus game.

>> we nature chef dorian hunter, she was a season ten winner and we're excited to have her, and we have a special guest from food line that's going to prepare a special dish for us, so 23 chefs already.

>> that's wonderful, and you get to sample all of their wares.

I remember dorian, and she was a fierce executor, and did a great job, and you give her a run for her money.

Tell us about your history.

>> i'm originally from new york, and i'm a grad here in charleston.

I pretty much came into the cooking business from my father, he was a chef, and i grew up watching him and food network, and it's something that i wanted to do.

I came up with this concept, making everything homemade from scratch.

And using recipes that i grew up with, and?

I learned along the way and here we are.

>> so do you have a restaurant or online cook?

>> right now, we're an online catering and baking company.

So online shop for all events.

Everything that you need, catering, cakes, planning, we're here to help you.

>> when we were setting up for this segment, your husband is sitting and watching it in the back, and he was saying that he can't get rid of his belly ways of all of the good food, and i asked if this is how he eats every day, and he was saying, and she bakes.

When i came here, one of my signature items is my red velvet pound cake, and i'm a little bit unique, i put a nice cream cheese custard filling and it's a little bit of a surprise.

>> where's that on the table?

>> this is my second year at the taste of black charleston, and decided to go savory.

This is a little bit of the roots that i got from my stepfather.

He's from jamaica.

And i watched him in the kitchen, and learned a little bit from him and added some of my own.

>> what makes chicken jerk?

>> it's a blend of spices that's found in the caribbean islands.

You have allspice, thyme, clove, and a little bit different mix to it for the heat.

>> these are the spice that's you tend to think of in the holidays, when you mention clove.

>> all of those spices are in jerk chicken.

>> how do you braise it?

>> normally, when i do jerk chickening, i like a week-long process so the flavor really sets n this had about a 24-hour marinade and it's not so intense.

I didn't want to burn you.

>> start us off as beginners.

>> but normally, i do about a week-long process, and then i grill.

>> just flavor all the way down to the bone.

So let me show you this plate here.

So it's a beautifully compiled plate of not just the jerk chicken but you made rice and beans.

>> and then caribbean style cabbage, sweet pepper and thyme and garlic and onion, and of course my cornbread is one thing that i'm known for.

>> is this how you make it?

>> normally in a cast iron skillet.

>> this is the original way of doing it.

>> yes, you get the flavor from the cast iron skillet.

>> the right way to do it, right?

>> i have a brown sugar pineapple glaze.

>> oh, gosh, my stomach literally started growling, and i don't know if you can hear it.

>> if you want to try my recipes, if you want to come visit me or have me help you out for an event, check my website.

Www.civil homemade.com, or www.sweet events -- >> people have to call in in advance.

>> go to the website and click on the tab and it takes you step-by-step through it.

>> it looks so good.

And let's give you the final details of the event, happening this friday.

>> the event is from 7:30 to 11:00, and again, we still have tickets, and you can find tickets at black expo.com.

And click on events, and get your tickets, you want to come to this event.

It sells out on the venue, in the exchange hall, at exchange park, so free parking, seating, more space, and we have three jack daniel bars this year, so it's very exciting so yes, come on out.

>> that sounds great.

And of course we're going to give you all of the details there as well.

Vip prices and special prices for groups and things like that.

This looks delicious, so we're going to go to break while we stuff our gobs with this fabulous food.

Yes,