Anthony Anderson & Cedric The Entertainer are the New Kings Of BBQ
Episode 43Play
They can act, and they can make us laugh, but can they ace The Blackest Questions history exam? Anthony Anderson and Cedric The Entertainer join Dr. Christina Greer to test their Black history knowledge and dish about their new A&E series Kings of BBQ. The pair have been friends for years and have now teamed up to share their friendship, and love of food, including a line of rubs and sauces with more items on the way as they grow their barbecue empire.
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Panama Jackson [00:00:00] You are now listening to theGrio is Black Podcast Network. Black Culture Amplified.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:00:06] Hi and welcome to the Blackest Questions. I’m your host, Dr. Christina Greer, politics editor for theGrio and associate professor of political science at Fordham University. In this podcast, we ask our guest five of the Blackest questions so we can learn a little bit more about them and have some fun while we’re doing it. We’re also going to learn a lot about Black history past and present. So here’s how this works. We have five rounds of questions about us Black history, the entire diaspora, current events, you name it. And with each round, the questions get a little tougher and the guest has 10 seconds to get it right. If they answer the question correctly, they’ll receive one symbolic black fist and they’ll hear this. And if they get it wrong, they’ll hear this. But we still have them anyway. Our guests for this episode are actors and comedians Anthony Anderson and Cedric the Entertainer. Anthony is an Emmy and Golden Globe nominee and a fan favorite TV dad on the hit show Black-ish that ran for eight seasons. He’s also known for his movie roles, his regular appearances on Food Network and his game show hosting skills. Also joining us is comedic icon Cedric the Entertainer, who has kept his laughing for more than 35 years on stage, along with his dozens of movie and TV roles, including a sitcom currently airing on CBS The Neighborhood. This duo are close friends, and they’re here to test their Black history knowledge and talk about their new show on A&E Kings of Barbecue, which premieres August 12th.
Anthony Anderson [00:01:27] What our friendship means. What our partnership means. How all of this is going to come together.
Cedric the Entertainer [00:01:31] You going to be ready for an exciting ride.
Anthony Anderson [00:01:33] And we are the kings of barbecue.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:01:36] The guys who started their own line of barbecue rubs called A.C. Barbecue, and their show will follow them around the country as they grow their business and the barbecue chefs and Pitmasters who will share knowledge and secrets of the trade. Hello, gentlemen. Thank you so much for joining the special edition of The Blackest Questions.
Cedric the Entertainer [00:01:52] Doc, how are you? Good seeing you.
Anthony Anderson [00:01:54] Hello, Dr. Greer.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:01:55] I’m so excited. Are you all ready to play Blackest Questions?
Cedric the Entertainer [00:01:58] Oh, I mean, I think I was born to play the Blackest Questions.
Anthony Anderson [00:02:02] Ah, ah, ah.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:02:04] Well, here we go. Anthony, I’m going to start with you. American Barbecue is broken up into four distinct styles. Can you name the four regions associated with these style.
Anthony Anderson [00:02:16] Compton, Carson, L.A. and Watts.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:02:19] Is that your final answer? It is a competition.
Anthony Anderson [00:02:22] Okay, hold on. Oh, smoked, grilled. I don’t know.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:02:29] So the answer is the Carolinas, Texas, Memphis and Kansas City. So Carolina.
Anthony Anderson [00:02:38] Compton, Carson, L.A. and Watts have all four of those generations of people in them. So I was technically correct.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:02:46] Oh. Technically you are because of migration patterns. And I did write a book about Black migration. So we’ll talk to our producers and see if we can give you a partial credit. But the answer for our listeners of the podcast are the Carolinas, Texas, Memphis and Kansas City. So Carolina was influenced by a large population of immigrants, and their style includes vinegar and mustard based sauces. In Texas, wood fire cooking is key, and depending on where you are in Texas, the type of wood changes. Texans use a lot of beef from cows is something that all barbecue chefs use. Memphis, Pitmasters love to use a sweet style barbecue sauce, and they also say the secret to good Memphis barbecue is spritzing the meat with water while it cooks. And in Kansas City, they barbecue a huge variety, including pork, beef, turkey and even fish. And they also use a two zone cooking method using both wood and charcoal. So, gentlemen, I want each of you to tell us which style is your favorite. And then I want to get into talking a little bit more about your new show and any kings of barbecue. So, Anthony, what style of barbecue is your favorite?
Anthony Anderson [00:03:48] You know, my dad’s from Little Rock, Arkansas, grew up on a farm, youngest of 16. So they grilled whole hog and all that, and smoking. So that’s how I grew up. But I like a dry rub that I can dip in a sauce that that is my preference.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:04:07] Absolutely. And Cedric, you know, I was telling Anthony before we got started, my dad smokes all the meat on the grill. I’ve never had an oven turkey for Thanksgiving, and I prefer a dry rub with a little bit of barbecue sauce that I dip on the side. My dad also likes his white bread on it. What’s your favorite style?
Cedric the Entertainer [00:04:22] Saint Louis has their own version of ribs and, you know, and and we’ve come in to that barbecue space growing up. But I actually am more of a fan of the Texas barbecue style. I love the brisket with the bark. I like that little bit of crispness on top. I’m a crunch kind of person, so I found myself being leaning more toward the the kind of drier barbecue where you, again, you dipped sauce or you just have it all flavored in the meat.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:04:48] Oh, I love that. So, okay, gentlemen, tell me really quickly, how did this new show on A&E, Kings of Barbecue, come about? How long have you all been friends? Were you eating some barbecue and it’s like, you know what we know a lot about this. Let’s hit the road and make a show? How did that come to be?
Cedric the Entertainer [00:05:03] Well, you know, Andy and I’ve been friends of 20, 25 plus years. We’ve we’re good golf buddies. We travel together with our friends. And we would often cook whenever we were in this group of friends. And so that kind of started our love of we like doing more, doing food and being foodies. So we came up with this idea mainly for the love and celebration of what grilling does in our community, how it brings this kind of social aspect of us and how we communicate and celebrate with each other. And we didn’t see a national face for the world of barbecue and thought this was a great opportunity that led to a relationship with Wal-Mart, which led to as an opportunity of us doing the show, showing how we did it. And so this is what the show is all about, is that is to kind of give young entrepreneurs the opportunity in the idea to follow what we did as taking the celebrity brand and trying to build it to something that that you may only see in alcohol space. You know, you mainly see this kind of idea the alcohol space, but not in food space. So that’s why we did it and that’s what the show was all about.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:06:14] Well, I also love that you all are showcasing Black male friendship, which I think, you know, we talk a lot about on this podcast as well, and this idea of community in all different facets.
Anthony Anderson [00:06:24] Well, you know, I’m excited about building this brand in this business with my friend Cedric. You don’t normally get to do that with someone that you’re friends with, someone that you admire and someone that you respect. And we have a mutual admiration for one another, a mutual love of cooking, the mutual love of feeding people and getting off on doing that. So for us to partner and to start this this barbecue lifestyle brand and embrace the entire community, not just our brand and what we’re doing, but to embrace the community and lifestyle of barbecue as a whole is what’s exciting about it for me. And we get to share this with my boy and travel the world doing this and showing young entrepreneurs how to do it, how to do it alone, how to do it with friends, how to do it with family, is the best thing to do.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:07:24] I am so excited. I cannot wait. August 12th. A&E. Kings of Barbecue. Cedric, are you now ready to play Blackest Questions?
Cedric the Entertainer [00:07:31] Let’s go.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:07:32] So we know you’re from Missouri. Kansas City is considered the barbecue capital of the world with more than 100 restaurants and is the home to the world’s largest barbecue competition. One man, dubbed the Barbecue King is credited with bringing the barbecue style of cooking from Memphis to Kansas City. What is this man’s name?
Cedric the Entertainer [00:07:52] That man’s name is.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:08:03] The man’s name is Henry Perry. So Henry was from Memphis, Tennessee, and learned to cook, working on the Mississippi River steamboats when he was a teenager. He later moved to Kansas City and started his own business, selling cuts of barbecue wrapped in newspaper for $0.25. He eventually opened his own restaurant called Perry Barbecue in an area of town that was thriving with jazz, music and Black businesses. And when Perry died, one of his employees families took over and grew the business, even tweaking Perry’s strong spicy barbecue sauce to more sweet, ketchup based sauce, Kansas City is known for today. So do you all visit Kansas City on the show?
Cedric the Entertainer [00:08:42] You know, we were going to Kansas City. We but we missed our window. We were going to go there for the big draft weekend. And so something happened and we didn’t go there. So we did do Memphis. We did do Saint Louis. And Austin is on the books. So we’re going to go back to Kansas City. I just was there on tour and so I had the opportunity. Of course, Gates is one of the big barbecue places that I’ve known there as well, but they took me to several other barbecue spots on my own while I was there. So, yeah, Kansas City Barbecue is always the one that is bar none. You got to jump in when you’re in the KC area.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:09:22] Fantastic. And Anthony, what’s something that stood out to you as you and Cedric were crossing the country and meeting so many different Pitmasters Was there a particular location that you that you remember?
Anthony Anderson [00:09:33] You know, the one thing that that stood out to me is when we were in Cedric hometown of Saint Louis, we went to a barbecue place what was it C and K?
Cedric the Entertainer [00:09:45] Yeah, C and K.
Anthony Anderson [00:09:46] We went to C and K and first the thing on the menu was pig snout, which I’ve never had before in my life. So I tried, or as they call it, in Saint Louis, Snoot, So I had two pig’s snoot. But upon looking further at the restaurant on the menu, they had something on there that said family members called listeners. They were pig ear. So I had the opportunity to eat pig ears for the first time in my life. And I will say this again, I will never do it again. But I tried it and I will never do it again. But I checked it off my things, off my list of things to do. Talk about being Black. Oh, yeah.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:10:41] Well, I’m so excited for the show because it will hopefully also make some people a little more adventurous in their eating. You know, I always tell people if it runs, swims or flies, I will eat it. At least they’ll try it at least once. The hopefully when folks are watching Kings of Barbecue, they’re a little more excited to try something. So quickly.
Anthony Anderson [00:10:59] Have a question for you. You know, we always talk about, you know, speaking of interesting things to eat, you know, in our community, we say we eat the pig from the rooster to the tooter. Can you tell me what is the rooter and what is the tooter? Because you do have a Dr. to your name. We know. So what is the rooter and what is the tooter?
Dr. Christina Greer [00:11:22] I always thought the rooter was like basically the the nose and the tooter was the the tush. No? I mean, that would be my guess. My grandfather raised hogs on the side and put my mother through college with his side money raising hogs in Florida. So I always thought that was like the snout to the tush, to the romp.
Anthony Anderson [00:11:40] Some people may beg to differ. I’m just curious.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:11:43] Okay. Well, hopefully my my producers will hopefully send me a text. Cedric, do you know the answer?
Cedric the Entertainer [00:11:49] I don’t. I got to go with you. I thought the rooter was the the was the nose part and the tooter was the back.
Anthony Anderson [00:11:59] Okay.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:12:00] Yeah. Like the what do you root out. You know, you root and then you toot. Well okay, so maybe our listeners will write in and tell us. But before we move on to a couple of questions that aren’t about food, I want to mention something and our listeners hear me say this all the time. Black history is American history. And I want to emphasize the Native Americans and enslaved Africans were the foundation of barbecue style cooking. So food historians like Michael Twitty, who’s a friend of the show and one of our first guests on the Blackest Question, points out that it’s crucial to understand that the way we enjoy barbecue today started as an exchange between Native Americans and enslaved Africans in the Caribbean during the 16th century. And those techniques were then passed down to enslaved Africans living in the United States who prepared meals like their ancestors as a way to keep their African roots alive, which symbolized a personal independence in the face of oppression. So while we enjoy eating barbecue, it’s much bigger than just the food. And while we’re going to enjoy Kings of Barbecue on any starting August 12th, we can remember our shared history with our Native American brothers and sisters. So did you all know some of the history of barbecue before you all started the show?
Cedric the Entertainer [00:13:09] You know, didn’t know the exact history we actually enjoy. A great historian joins us in Memphis to give us a lot of that background. And we we featured him on the show that really explains that. And, you know, but, you know, it’s something that I would identify with, you know, right away, is knowing that the way that I kind of came into the world of grilling and barbecue and it felt like this is how we took care of each other in community, we had to be able to, you know, prepare the kind of food where everybody kind of took care of each other. And it is that social kind of, you know, need, you know, where you have these this supply. I have this I’ll make the meat. You bring the grains and the corn. And in of course that that is rooted from the days of slavery when, you know, people were just rationed, you know, the the smallest of everything that you can get. And how do we make sure our whole community is taken care of.
Anthony Anderson [00:14:12] You know, that’s that’s the fascinating part about what set in our doing and in building this brand and also having our television show Kings of Barbecue, learning the history, you know, adding to, you know, the limited knowledge that I knew that I had going into this. But adding to the history of for me how this started, how did our ancestors prepare, you know, whole animal meal. And that’s what’s fascinating for me, learning along the way. And we had a great historian like Ced mention that helped us with this as we were gallivanting through Memphis and learning this history about open pit fires and whole hog cooking, whole animal cooking and Bobvining and things like that. So yeah, it’s just been a fascinating journey for me to learn that they had a barbecue.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:15:16] Break time. Stay tuned for more.
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Dr. Christina Greer [00:16:27] Okay, we’re back. So, Anthony, we’ve got to go really quickly. So I’ve got a question for you and Cedric back to back before I get you all out here, because I know you have to go promote this A.C. barbecue. So question number two for you, Anthony. You grew up in Compton and we’ve seen a ton of talent come out of that Los Angeles County, including rap artists who won a Pulitzer Prize. Can you name this rapper.
Anthony Anderson [00:16:48] Kendrick Lamar.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:16:51] That is correct. So for our listeners out there, Kendrick Lamar won a Pulitzer Prize for music in 2018, becoming the first non-classical or jazz artist to take on the honor. He won for his album Dam, which included tracks like Humble and DNA.
Kendrick Lamar – DNA [00:17:04] I got royalty inside my DNA. Cocaine quater piece, got war and peace inside my DNA.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:17:10] And the Pulitzer Prize board said the album captured the complexity of modern African-American life. So Cedric, Anthony Anderson is up one. Are you ready for question number two?
Anthony Anderson [00:17:20] I am ready.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:17:20] This person was the first Black comedian to host a weekly variety show in 1972. He was on the cover of Time, and the magazine called him TV’s First Black Superstar. Who was this comedian?
Cedric the Entertainer [00:17:33] I’m going to go with Dick Gregory.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:17:37] Oh, I’m sorry, Cedric.
Anthony Anderson [00:17:39] Flip Wilson.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:17:39] It’s Flip Wilson.
Cedric the Entertainer [00:17:42] Oh, man.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:17:43] It’s Flip Wilson. So long before Martin was Sheneneh or Tyler Perry was Madea. Flip Wilson gave us the character Geraldine Jones on The Flip Wilson show.
Cedric the Entertainer [00:17:54] I’m trippin’. I’m sorry. I started thinking people from St. Louis. I was just thinking about people from St. Louis.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:18:02] Well, Flip interviewed everyone from Aretha Franklin to Muhammad Ali. Comedian Redd Foxx was a show regular. Comedian George Carlin got his start on the show as a writer. The Variety show ran for four years and at one time was the second highest rated show on network television. Flip went on to win two Emmys, a Golden Globe Award and a Grammy for his comedic.
Cedric the Entertainer [00:18:22] Definitely was my era and I blew it.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:18:23] So, no, that’s okay. Listen, you can always come back to Blackest Questions, will play a little bit more when you will have more time. Before I let you all go, I just want you all to tell our fans one more time what they can expect in the barbecue line that you all created. AC Barbecue that we can find at Walmart. You all have three rubs, if I’m correct. And so tell us a little bit more about the rubs and what’s next from the two of you and Kings of Barbecue airing on A&E on August 12th.
Cedric the Entertainer [00:18:48] So excited about it. Everybody go out and grab it. We start out with our three rubbed it in one titled the MVP. We’re changing to the Put Me On Everything. That’s what it’s called. Midnight Smoke and our Lemon Stepper, which is our version of lemon pepper. So very excited about it. In stores, over 200 stores, Walmart right away. We are then coming with the sauces right after that. And then on to tools, spatulas, you know, tongs, all that, then grills and and also developing a restaurant pop up and ghost kitchen items. So we are really trying to take over this whole world of barbecue.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:19:32] I absolutely love it. Anthony. What’s your favorite rub?
Anthony Anderson [00:19:36] My favorite rub Put Me On Everything. The PMOE. Put Me On Everything. Because you can just sprinkle that on whatever it is that you need to sprinkle it on. Vegetables. Tofu. Salad. Meats. Fish. Put me On Everything.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:19:52] That needs to be the commercial salad, meat and tofu. Okay, so for our listeners, I’ve been talking to Anthony Anderson and Cedric the Entertainer. I cannot wait to try your A.C. barbecue. We can find it in Walmart stores all across the country. I can’t wait to check out Kings of Barbecue and A&E airing August 12. I believe there’ll be ten episodes for an hour long. I’m sure there will be tons of laughs, good times and great friendship and even better food. I am so sure of it. I want to thank all of our listeners for listening to the Blackest Questions. This show is produced by Sasha Armstrong, Geoffrey Trudeau, and Regina Griffin is our director of podcast. If you like what you heard, subscribe to the podcast. So you never miss an episode. And you can find more from theGrio Black Podcast Network on theGrio app, the website and YouTube.
