The Alta Adams owner gets candid about turning the scraps of poverty, drugs, and the carceral system into a culinary dream.
Chef Keith Corbin admits his origin chronicle is far from distinctive . “ I do n’t have those case of the Italian family where the Thomas Kyd are black market through the kitchen and the grandmother ’s rolling pasta on the table and they ’re taste it , and she ’s teach the daughter how to make lolly or roll pasta , or any of that , ” he share . “ The only thing I have is look out my grandmother tirelessly get up every day and fix food for her family and for the besiege neighbourhood . ”
For Corbin , who just released his first memoir , California Soul : An American Epic of Cooking and Surviving , that ’s the definition of individual solid food . It ’s the dedication display by his grandmother Louella Henderson , who come to LA from Alabama in the forties , raised eight children of her own , and then took on the fear of her house and numberless nipper as the surrounding Watts neighborhood fell into drug - induced disrepair .
“ That was one of her most joyous moments — baking cakes , falsify food , ” remember Corbin . “ If it was frustrating , we never saw it . If she was tired of it because she was arouse some tiddler that were n’t hers , we never reckon it . So , even though I did n’t get any cookery lesson or recipes leave behind from my grandmother , I do have what she represented in the kitchen . ”
Chef Keith Corbin|Photo by Cole Saladino for Thrillist
write in collaboration withformer Thrillist editorKevin Alexander , California Soulchronicles Corbin ’s upbringing that led him from the Watts projects to drug dealings , crime , and prison , and finally , to owningAlta Adams , one of LA ’s most acclaimed soul food eating place in the historically Black neighborhood ofWest Adams .
Recounting Corbin ’s memories of the Rodney King uprisings and other historical events , the book reminds readers that , as insurmountable as such circumstance might seem , they are often the accelerator for noteworthy ingenuity . Rather than demonise the choices that conduct some to drug dealing , get together gangs , and even participating in ferocity , Corbin underscores how such crime are typically assume of poorness and necessity , often provide security system and backup for those society has discarded .
“ It stems from not accept and being thrust to make a mode , ” Corbin says . “ I was bring up in an impoverished community and , for the most part , we were fending for ourselves . That ’s why we say that there are brainy mind in prison . ”
Alta Adams|Photos by Joleen Zubek for Thrillist
Even when Corbin began drug dealing in his early teens , the focal point was always on create a calibre ware that would facilitate coiffe his business organisation aside . “ That ’s where my idea was , ” he admits . “ When everybody in the projects has a locoweed house , it ’s like , how can I separate my ware from everyone else ’s in ordination to have a fortune of being successful at it ? ”
In the chapter entitle “ Kitchen , ” it ’s hard to interpret Corbin ’s founding to preparation cocain and not consider that ’s where he gained some of his initial authority as a chef . This talent only expanded while in prison , where Corbin ’s reputation earned him a desired position in the kitchen . There , he was able to signalize himself by applying the same thrust that made him a profitable drug trader , memorizing techniques and experiment with intellectual nourishment from the commissary to make spreads that were texturally interesting and full of flavor .
“ Later on , when I go cook professionally , I could count on the cleverness I see in prison to help when I did n’t have all the components for a recipe . Some prison cook might have just given up on it , but not me , ” he writes in the Koran . “ I ’d start substituting , and inventing , and adjudicate new thing . I ascertain what was around me and created from it . I did n’t have a concern of failure . ”
Chef Keith Corbin|Photo by Cole Saladino for Thrillist
Throughout the memoir , Corbin clear exonerated that this past is inextricable from who he is today . He does n’t shy aside from the challenges he ’s faced since leaving the carceral organization either — unemployment , addiction , and PTSD , to name just a few . As it turns out , post - carceral spirit has a way of forcing founding , not unlike poverty .
Corbin ’s culinary sleight is on full display at Alta Adams , which the chef first opened with Daniel Patterson , who , along withRoy Choi , gave him an early calling break at LocoL ’s since - closed Watts location . Here , plump shrimp buff fine over steaming grit , get at eggs are eddy into paprika - spit hills , and collard greens are vegan yet just as luscious with flavor thanks to a dose of liquid smoke .
After all , it is n’t Corbin ’s intention to vivify his Granny ’s favorite dishes , but to honor the spirit she infused in her food while trailblazing his own route . Another object lens is to expand the public definition ofsoul food , receive it into fine dining space where European cuisines traditionally dominate . While this approach occasionally earns Corbin criticism from Southern tourists and transplants , their minds are typically changed upon first sharpness .
“ Soul food does n’t go to any region , ” Corbin asserts . “ Ingredients change from West Africa through the Caribbean and through the South , from Louisiana to Alabama , to South Carolina , North Carolina , to California . What does n’t change is the design to nutrify , sustain , and eat the somebody of each other . ”
That ’s theCalifornia Soulhe ’s hinting at throughout his memoir . It might be a twosome generations removed from the South proper , but a ware of similar consideration , and no less satisfying and essential .
“ If you suppose about our enslaved ancestors , at the goal of the day , working hard for detached in an surround that they did n’t want to be in and did n’t know how long it was going to last , ” he contemplate . “ With the remnants that were supposed to be direct to the trash — the catgut of the pig , the tail of the beef — they were create food to acquit each other over this journeying , for however farseeing it was supposed to last . ”
