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Melba's restaurant is the go to place for delicious down home Southern cooking in New York City, an owner and chef Melba Wilson says that she was born, bred and buttered in Harlem. And she recently showed me how she puts her heart and soul into all of her dishes. Mel you are restaurant royalty here in New York, especially the Harlem area. And that's probably why the US Open asked to partner with you for the flavors of the open. So what can we expect? Well, first of all, I am super duper excited to partner with the US Open. This message sends a message of hope. It sends a message that you can start with humble beginnings just as I did right here in the village of Harlem. And you too can make it to the US Open. This is the event that everybody wants to cook at, but also there are gonna be over 700,000 attendees. It's a big audience. Lots of people. Yeah, because they're working out, they're building up the endurance and energy and you're gonna feed them along with some other celebrity chefs that are gonna be there. What are you gonna be making for. Oh, well, I am going to be making my creamy ris macaroni and cheese. That sounds good. And also my award winning Southern Fried chicken and waffle and guess what? I'm not doing a traditional waffle. Of course, I am bringing a love get it love uh Waffle cone to the US Open flavors of the open this year, as well as my fish sandwich and uh my spring rolls and you're making me so hungry. So let's make a spring roll because I wanted to see what we're gonna be putting into this because of course, that's not your usual spring roll is Melba. So what are we gonna do here? So what we're gonna do is I like to repurpose food. OK. What do I mean by that last night I made collard greens. I made peas and rice and of course, I made some short ribs of beef. So we're not gonna add the short ribs of beef here today, but we are gonna use the leftover collard greens. We're gonna put all this. So I'm gonna show you how to do it. We're gonna take the collard greens. We have our spring roll wrappers and a try reform with the triangle facing us. So you just follow right behind me. Come on, Shannon and this looks healthy too. We got our greens in here. We have our greens right, right, right in the corner, right in the corner facing you and then we have peas and rice. So we're gonna take our peas and rice and this actually looks like something fun. The kids would want to do with me like they're making their own spring rolls or getting their hands dirty. And you have three kids and I would love to see you and your kids be hearing this at home. It would be a lot. Well, we, we could do it. You know what? And messy is not bad. It's also gonna be fun. So you take that cheese, put a little cheese over there. OK? A little cheddar cheese, put some for me. And so I'm ready. You're a great sous chef and then we're gonna wrap and you know it is 50 years of hip hop, right? We gonna, we're gonna wrap a roll, we're gonna take it, bring it towards you and just wrap, wrap it, fold it down two times and then we have some egg wash here. We're gonna take your egg wash and egg wash is gonna seal it for us, right? You're just gonna put it on the edges, your egg wash over here. I'll put a little bit on your, you got it. You got it a little bit, right. It's gonna seal the deal for us, right? And then we're gonna take your corners, fold your corners in there we go. I literally could do this. I'm gonna, you got this. No, you're, you're really good and keep rolling, baby. Keep rolling. Bring that next tip towards you. Bam. Look at that. Look at that. Look at that spring. Yours is, your wife would be so proud. She's already proud. Your kids would really be proud, right? Ok. Now we're gonna drop them in the fryer. Drop them in the fryer at 3 50. We're gonna take the tongues out, drop it, drop it like it's hot like it. There we go. There we go. And that's gonna fry for, for about 4 to 6 minutes depending on the temperature. Well, while that's fine, I'm gonna ask you, you people are used to coming to you right here in Harlem, but you have some big news to share with all the breaking news right here with you right here with you. We will be opening a meal in Grand Central Station. All the traffic that comes through there with the trains. It is, it is huge. I mean, I started out as a cashier and a cook in this industry. So to have a meal here in Harlem for 18 years, a place in Central Park as well. That's been there for two years and now Grand Central and of course the US open. Um you know, it, it it's, it's my story. My story is the American dream story, Shannon. But more importantly, if I can, you can too and if I can, so can you. So that's the story that I like to extend and parlay to other people watching this is not just reserved for me, it's reserved for we. And I know that that's been one of your trademarks, the themes of your life. You're always looking back to help others to pull people up along with you. Why is that such an important aspect of your life to help others? Well, it's important to me because I stand on the shoulders of so many others who came before me, I stand on the shoulders of, of, of my ancestors. And you know, whenever I'm having a rough day, I go outside and when I look to my right, there's a monument to Frederick Douglass. And but if I look to my left there is Harriet Tubman who built an underground railroad. So when I'm having a bad day, I go over there and I say, guess what if Harriet Tubman can build an underground railroad, I can change my community or at least be a part of the change that I seek in my community. And hopefully the, the Harlem of the world, you know, she said every dream begins with a dreamer and I am a dreamer shouting, I'm enjoying talking to you so much. I almost forgot to show everybody out. But this is gonna look like once it's done, it looks amazing. We got green beans, green beans. Well, I wanna taste it and see if it's as good as it looks because what is a sauce on here as well? Oh, it's, it's a Thai chili sauce. You can use a duck sauce here at Melvins, a Thai chili sauce in honor of one of my dear friends and chefs. Uh Miss this is amazing. Thank you. I'm so glad I had a chance to come here to try this out and everyone can try this at the US open as well as so many other menu items are gonna have there and they can get tickets at www dot ticketmaster dot com on August 24th flavors will be open from 6 30 to 8:30 p.m. And if you miss it just come to me but y'all because you don't wanna miss this. It is delicious juices and love. Oh my gosh, it was so good and it's so inspiring. Well, that's the thing I love what she had to say. And also, I mean, you take a look at the spring rolls and you that yeah, that's, that's was pretty impressive. And you think you can make this with your kids. You could replicate that because it was pretty simple. You just roll and you're done and so put all the good stuff in there and she said you could switch it out. It doesn't have to be the greens and the rice. You could put other things in too and you can put some sauces on. She got her book out and all the recipes in there. So it was, it was amazing. It was a lot of fun. And we're gonna be seeing some of this stuff later in the future episode, some of the stuff we're gonna taste too. So she was so good. We had to feature her again. So stay tuned for that. I agree. And I wanna throw mine in the air fry.

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Chef Melba Wilson shows you how she puts a healthy twist on her legendary down home comfort food.

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