00:00  Tasha: Welcome to a special mini-series of Diary of the Dreamer called Be the Change, where resilience, critical thinking, and everyday courage come together. I’m Tasha Eizinger, and in this series, we’re exploring how ordinary people can create meaningful change. We’ll talk about how to think clearly, engage responsibly, and take action in ways that truly make a difference. If you’ve ever wondered how to stay level-headed, raise resilient kids, participate in your community, and be a force for positive change, this series is for you. You can learn more about my work at TashaEizinger.com. Let’s dive into today’s conversation and explore how we can be the change.

Today we’re here with Chef Moe. I feel so humbled and honored that you’re here today, Chef.

 Chef Moe: Thank you for having me.

 Tasha: Yeah, I’ve been following you on TikTok. When I first asked you to do this, you had two and a half million followers. Now you’re verified, you have 2.8 million.

01:08  Chef Moe: Followers, yeah, we’re up that much now. I don’t really — I don’t pay attention to that. I don’t watch the follower numbers.

01:17  Tasha: That’s smart. Don’t pay attention to it. Just know you’re impacting millions of lives.

 Chef Moe: Yeah. I just want to help people. I don’t care how many followers we have, so long as it’s getting to the people who need it.

01:26  Tasha: Yeah. Well, and that’s why, when I was thinking of the Be the Change mini-series I have on my podcast, I wanted it to be interviews where people can take the information they hear and replicate it in their own lives.

 Chef Moe: Absolutely.

 Tasha: And that’s exactly what you’re doing. So you have been a chef for over two decades, right?

01:48  Chef Moe: Yeah, about 26, 27 years now.

01:51  Tasha: So you know a thing or two about cooking.

01:53  Chef Moe: Once or twice.

01:55  Tasha: And you started on TikTok with your delicious, fancy meals.

02:01  Chef Moe: Well, yeah. I originally started TikTok — well, I was never into TikTok. I never really — I’m really not into the internet very much. I’m not very savvy on computers. And my kids, my sons, have always been telling me, “Come on, you’ve got to make videos.” And I would tell them, “No, no, no.” And my son had asked me to show him how to make chicken parmesan. He was away at college. And I said, “Yeah.” And he said, “Make a video, because I have class and I’ll follow it later.” I said, “All right, no problem.” So I made a video. And he actually edited it and everything else, and he put it on TikTok. Me? Yeah. And a day or two later, he was like, “Hey, Dad, check your followers.” I was like, “My followers? What followers?” He’s like, “On TikTok.” I was like, “Dude, I have like four, and three of them are my kids.” And he was like, “Man, you got about 800.” And I’m like, “What?”

So when I went on and I saw the video did very well, and within two or three days it was millions of views. And it wasn’t really the views or the millions, because I really didn’t understand that stuff at the time — I was never into it. It was the messages that were coming with the views. And people were like, “Wow, you make it so simple. You make it so easy.” And I was like, “Oh, okay, cool.” So I just started making a little video here and a little video there. But I never did budget meals. I was doing the dishes that I was going to put on the seasonal menu, just so I could get feedback.

And a lady hit me up and said that one of the dishes was amazing and she wanted to try it, but had to wait till the following month when she had the money to buy the seasonings. And I don’t know, it just resonated with me. I felt terrible. I was like, “Wow, seasonings.” But then she said, “I’m just trying to figure out how to feed my kids with $5.” Oh, my goodness. Yeah. So I was like, “Wow. All right.” We talked — she has three children, and, you know, privacy, I’m not going to put ages or anything, but they were young. And I said, “Just jump on my channel in an hour.”

I went to the store with $5, came back, put a meal together. But I remembered she said she didn’t have seasonings, so I figured, why not use culinary techniques to extract flavors, because it can be done through culinary techniques. And that’s what I did. And that was it.

04:45  Tasha: I love that it didn’t take hundreds of people saying the same thing. Your heart was touched by one person speaking up. And I agree — when I hear that story, it tears me up to think of having to save for the seasonings.

04:59  Chef Moe: Yeah. You know, look, I was a child of hungry nights. My mother was a single mother with five children. I lived through it. But as you get older and you start a career and you do well for yourself, I don’t know if it’s that you forget. It’s not really that you forget where you come from — you just don’t want to think about that. So when I got that message, a lot of feelings came back, a lot of thoughts, a lot of memories. And I’m like, “Wow, how did I forget where I came from?”

05:30  Tasha: Yes. Your current life.

05:32  Chef Moe: Absolutely. And you take for granted salt and pepper. You know, I’m sitting here thinking, how does somebody not have salt? Well, let me tell you, since I started this channel, I’ve met millions of people who do not have salt.

05:48  Tasha: It just breaks my heart.

05:50  Chef Moe: Yeah, it’s sad. It really is. And I just want to let them know that they don’t have to be embarrassed. They don’t have to be shy. They don’t have to feel bad, because there are ways to do it. And I just want to show them how to do it.

06:05  Tasha: You’re helping people learn culinary techniques in a way that’s very simple. I was a teacher — you are a great teacher.

06:15  Chef Moe: Thank you. I was in culinary education for a little while. I used to volunteer my time at a culinary school.

06:22  Tasha: I can tell.

06:23  Chef Moe: I did that for a little bit. And I love food and I love everything about it. I’ve been in it my whole life. I’ve never done anything else. And I just want the world to see it how I see it. And if I can help somebody along the way, it’s fantastic.

06:43  Tasha: That one — I think it’s also important that you’re teaching people how to create meals they can be proud of, so they eat.

06:50  Chef Moe: Absolutely. Everybody should have a little dignity. No matter where you are, what you are, who you are, how you live, you should have a little dignity. You should feel proud. And I’m just trying to bring that back to the kitchen.

07:06  Tasha: And you are. And I hear your voice in my head when I’m cooking now. I’m like, “Multiply that.”

07:14  Chef Moe: A little splash of this. Don’t worry about it. It’s not going to bite you. Keep going. So I figured if we just take it to the basics, it’ll wean out. There are amazing, amazing home cooks on this app. And there are amazing chefs, line cooks. For every one person who’s experienced in the kitchen, whether it was their family who taught them or they’re culinarily trained, there are five people who have no idea what they’re doing.

And everybody on TikTok — I love watching social media platforms and I get entertainment out of it as well, but I look at it through a different lens. They’ll make a recipe and I’ll sit there and say, “Yeah, no problem, I can make that.” But you don’t think about how someone who is not culinarily trained isn’t able to do that. So when I see all these creators — and I get it, they do it for the views, I get it, they’ve got all these fancy edits and all that fancy-schmancy stuff. They’ll take an onion, they’ll throw it in the air and snap their finger and it’s diced. First of all, I don’t know how to do that. I don’t know how to edit like that. Okay, you’re lucky I know how to record the video. But I like to just take an extra second or two to walk you through the dice. Let’s curl these fingers up, pay attention to your non-cutting hand, slow, steady, forward, down. There it is. Repeat. That’s it.

08:53  Tasha: Love it. Well, and I also appreciate the fact that even though you are highly trained, highly skilled — I would probably eat anything you would put on a plate in front of me.

09:02  Chef Moe: Thank you.

 Tasha: But you’re not snobby.

09:05  Chef Moe: You say, “Make it your own.” I think that’s so important, because sometimes people get so hellbent on “this is the only way you can do it.” And I laugh when recipes say something’s optional. I’m like, everything’s optional.

09:19  Tasha: Every single recipe, every single one of them — except for baking — is to your preference. As a matter of fact, a lot of people don’t even realize or understand recipes. There are no set-in-stone recipes or seasonings. There are no set measurements or weights of seasonings, unless it’s liquid. I’m talking like dry seasonings — salt, pepper, garlic powder. There’s a base and a rule of thumb. So we’ll say a tablespoon or a teaspoon because that’s the roundabout. There isn’t an actual number.

So let’s say, “Do you like salt?” I do. “I hate it.” So if a recipe calls for two tablespoons of salt — you’re going to put in two tablespoons, you’re not even going to level it, you’re just going to heap them in, because you like salt. But because I dislike salt, I’m either going to level that salt off on that tablespoon, or I’m going to go a little shorter. I’m going to short it — maybe a quarter of a tablespoon two times, so I’ve got a tablespoon and a half. At the end of the day, the recipe comes out the same. It’s just tailored to your taste buds, to your palate.

 Tasha: Yeah, I absolutely love that.

 Chef Moe: People are scared to experiment. And you can’t be scared. Okay, so if the recipe calls for a tablespoon of salt, a tablespoon of sugar, a tablespoon of chili powder — I’m just saying things. If you know you don’t like chili powder, but the recipe calls for it, there’s a reason, because there are some ingredients, like salt, for example, that do certain things at certain times at certain temperatures.

11:13  Tasha: I know that because I watch you on TikTok.

11:15  Chef Moe: There it is. But you don’t want to get rid of the chili powder all the way, because the recipe calls for it. Okay, cut it in half. So instead of putting a tablespoon, do a tablespoon of salt, a tablespoon of sugar, and a half a tablespoon of chili powder. As we’re cooking, we’re tasting. Taste and adjust. “Whoa, this doesn’t taste right. Maybe I should have put that tablespoon in.” Add another half. It’s okay.

The rule of thumb with cooking is you can add, but you can’t take away. And that’s what people need to understand. So if you pinch in the seasonings as opposed to dump in the seasonings, you’ll hit the flavor profile you’re looking for faster pinching in than you will dumping in. Take your time. And understand it’s okay to make a mistake.

12:06  Tasha: Well, it’s part of the fun in the kitchen. Like, play in the kitchen and experiment.

12:12  Chef Moe: Absolutely. Find out. You have Gordon Ramsay — his signature dish is, what is it? It’s a beef Wellington. How many beef Wellingtons did he burn before he got it perfect?

12:23  Tasha: No kidding. I mean, really.

12:26  Chef Moe: And people go out to eat and they say, “You know, I love this restaurant.” Let’s say penne vodka — let’s just say penne vodka. We go to restaurant A. You and I, we travel 45 minutes. I pick you up, we go out to eat at restaurant A to get the penne vodka. We love it. I say, “Hey, next week, let’s do it again.” I come, I get you, travel 45 minutes. Now we’re passing 15 places that sell penne vodka to go to restaurant A, if we like it. And there’s nothing wrong with that. What do they do differently? What do they do as a restaurant, as a business, to get us to pass those 15 other places to go there?

And then when we’re eating it, we’re going to say, “Oh, my God, it’s so good. I wish I could make this at home just like this.” Right. Now, here’s the thing: you can. Think about it. The cook in that restaurant has that menu.

13:30  Tasha: Right?

13:31  Chef Moe: How many times a day does he make that penne vodka?

13:35  Tasha: My word. 20, 30…

13:38  Chef Moe: 50, 100, whatever it is. Every single day. Now, we work 12 to 15 hours a day, six to seven days a week. Do that 100 times, you’re making it 1,500 times a week. It goes to a point where you could do it like this.

13:53  Tasha: Yes, you really could.

13:55  Chef Moe: And that’s the same thing at home. If you made the dish as many times as we made it in a day, you would make it just as perfect. So it doesn’t mean we’re different or we’re better. It just means we did it a lot more times than you.

14:11  Tasha: And you failed a lot more times, right?

14:13  Chef Moe: Absolutely. You have to fail to learn.

14:17  Tasha: I love that. So I’m curious — when you have your $5, going into the store, are you first looking for a protein source? Are you looking at what’s on sale?

14:30  Chef Moe: When I put together my $5 meals, I don’t necessarily know what I’m doing until I get to the store. Depending on which store I’m in is how I decide to make the meal. So we’ll use Dollar General, for example. I’ll go to Dollar General. First thing I’ll do is — every store has either a sales circular, you know, sales, or a clearance area. Right. Either check the sales or I’ll check the little clearance area. Okay. We only have $5. And then I’ll make little mental notes. And I’ll walk up and down aisles looking at things, and I’m literally putting things together in my mind as I’m walking through the aisles and adding it up to make sure we can come in under the budget.

15:28  Tasha: Right.

15:29  Chef Moe: And that’s how I put them together. So I don’t necessarily have like a protein in mind or a starch in mind. It’s just wing it.

15:37  Tasha: Well, that’s kind of fun, isn’t it?

15:40  Chef Moe: It is. It’s a lot of fun, because, believe it or not, I would say 95% of the recipes on my channel, I have created every one of them.

15:51  Tasha: That’s amazing.

15:52  Chef Moe: Yeah, not one of them came out of a cookbook. They just come out of my mind. I flavor profile as I walk through the aisles, but that’s where the culinary education comes in.

16:05  Tasha: My goodness. Yeah. I love how you’re taking your skill set and making a difference in helping so many people. What would you want to tell your younger self?

16:15  Chef Moe: If I had to tell myself as a young chef, or someone either in school or finishing school — or forget school, just getting into the restaurant industry — I would tell me to be a sponge, to leave my ego at the door, pay attention to everything, accept responsibility, and move on.

16:37  Tasha: Yeah. And what about how you were able to move from living a life of food insecurity into where you are now? I feel like you can give a lot of people hope. What would you want to tell those people?

16:52  Chef Moe: Well, you know, right now money’s tight for everybody. Everybody’s unsure of their situations. And I come from — you know, I come from hungry nights. I come from food insecurities. My mom is amazing. She had five children. She did it by herself. I think she did a great job. She did the best she could with the very little she had. We were always together. There might not have been much, but there was always something.

And life as a child was hard financially. I got bullied a lot when I was younger because we didn’t have what the other kids had. We didn’t have new sneakers and nice stuff. I just used that as fire to get to where I want to be. And I remember, I was probably 8, maybe 10 — I know I was under 12 — I used to tell my mom that I was going to get big and teach the world to cook. Yeah, that’s what I used to tell her. And my mother saw me on the news. When she saw me on television for the first time, she called me crying. And she was like, “I don’t know if you remember, but you used to tell me you were going to teach the world to cook.” I said, “Yeah, I remember.” She’s like, “I’m proud of you.” So that makes me feel good.

18:22  Tasha: Yeah, absolutely. And you’re doing it in such a purposeful way that’s making an impact.

18:27  Chef Moe: Well, back to your question. I would tell the people, you know, you can only fail if you quit. That’s it. That’s our saying in the kitchen: every second counts. You’ve got to keep pushing. You’ve got to keep going. And life is very much like that line. Sometimes that heat’s got to get turned up. Sometimes you’ve got to bring that heat down. Sometimes your sauce is going to break. It’s going to happen. But you’ve got to figure it out — and sometimes you’ve got to figure it out quick, like a split-second decision. You’ve got to push through one ticket at a time, and every ticket will get done.

19:15  Tasha: I love that. And I don’t know how you guys do it. I was a server in a restaurant, and what an education about being in restaurant life.

19:25  Chef Moe: Yeah. It’s a tough business, even for the front of the house — the servers, the bartenders, the barbacks, the busboys, the maître d’s. It’s a tough business all around. You guys are on your feet just as many hours as we are. The good thing is we don’t have to deal with the customers. You guys have to see them.

But I was never that chef. Every kitchen, every line that I ran, if there was an issue, I came out every single time. 100%. Right to the table. “What seems to be the problem?” “Oh, this is cold.” “No problem. My apologies.” You make a BS excuse here and there — “We got a new guy,” whatever — but I made sure to show my face. I let them know this falls on me. Even though I run that line and they’re cooking the dish, this is my line. This is my dish. This is my menu. Every dish should come out the same. So if there’s a mistake, or things happen — we make mistakes, everybody makes mistakes. Just think about you coming out to eat at 8 p.m. We’re there already 14 hours, half asleep, tired. We make a mistake. But I want to table touch and let everyone know, like, “I’m here. What’s the mistake? We can fix it.”

20:50  Tasha: Don’t you think most people, when you own up to it and acknowledge their discomfort…

20:56  Chef Moe: People just want to hear the — like, “Hey, all right, I messed up. I’m sorry.” Anybody that’s just normal. That’s normalcy, especially when you’re paying for something. You’re going to an establishment, you’re paying good money, you’re having a good time when you go out to eat. It’s about love, making memories, making friends. So you don’t want to have that bad experience.

21:20  Tasha: Right.

21:21  Chef Moe: It’s our job to give you the best experience you possibly can have. Hospitality. That’s what it’s all about. We want to take care of you. We want you to come back and we want you to enjoy yourself. We want you to tell your friends how great we were so they’ll come.

21:39  Tasha: Right. Absolutely. Yeah. My first serving job was at a pizza place, and my manager — you know, I was in high school.

21:48  Chef Moe: Yeah. Yeah.

21:50  Tasha: And he was like, “This table’s really angry.” And I’m like, “And grumpy.” And I’m like, “Great. They’re going to be smiling and laughing by the time they leave. That’s what we’re going to do.”

21:58  Chef Moe: And that’s what we do. We make them smile. We make them laugh. I can’t tell you how many times servers will come in. “Yo, chef, I need a favor.” Like, “Oh, what’s up?” Or like, “Oh, hey, chef, please. I know the ticket line, but these people been waiting.” You know what I mean? How many times does a server come in to save them? You’re a team. You are. That’s it. Period. You’re a team.

22:22  Tasha: The worst feeling, too, is when you go back and you’re like, “I’m so sorry. I screwed up the order. Can you like rush this? I know you got a few tickets.”

22:31  Chef Moe: I had this — oh my God. I don’t know what happened. This was the one time in my entire career. This couple came in — it was a man and woman. They drove three hours, okay, to come to my restaurant. And when they came, they made it very clear that they came for me. And they requested I cook their meal, which I was honored to do, which I always did when people asked, especially if they traveled that far. A lot of the chefs would just have the line do it and say they did it, but I just — I don’t know. I wanted to fulfill that.

They came in and ordered off the menu. Okay. And this is on me. This is my fault. Off the menu. I don’t remember exactly what the dishes were, but let’s just say they ordered a penne vodka. We didn’t have no more. It happens. We ran out. Things happen. So the girl goes out to the guy and says, “I’m so sorry, we don’t have any more of this. Can I get you something else?” “Oh, okay. No problem. It happens. I’ll take whatever.” “Sausage and broccoli rabe pasta.” We don’t have no more. She goes back out — I swear to God — and says, “Listen, I’m sorry, we don’t have any more of that item either. Look, just if you could choose something else.” Fine. He picked something else. Whatever. A piece of chicken. She comes in the back. She calls it out. I didn’t know what to tell her. I said, “Not happening.”

Three times she went out to this guy. He was so mad. And he had every right to be. Three different dishes. I can’t remember what they were, but the dishes were incorporated, intertwined into each other. Meaning like one would be like sausage, broccoli rabe. One would be like a sausage and cavatelli. One would be like — we didn’t have sausage. Something like that. She went back out the third time to tell him. He was so mad. He goes, “You know what? I don’t even want to eat. Just feed my wife and my daughter. Give me a cannoli.” We’re at a cannoli — hold on. I swear to God, I’m not even making it up, man. Now I laugh.

25:06  Tasha: Well, at the time, it’s horrible. You feel terrible.

25:09  Chef Moe: And embarrassing. It was terrible.

25:14  Tasha: Oh, my goodness. Yeah, I waited tables a lot of years at a mom-and-pop place. And the boss, he kept putting like “86 this, 86 this, 86 this.” And then he put like “86 everything.” And he sent the guys to the local grocery store.

25:32  Chef Moe: With everything off the shelf.

 Tasha: Luckily for me, our restaurant was around the corner from a shop.

25:38  Tasha: March.

25:39  Chef Moe: You never know. You don’t know how you’re going to get hit. We assume, as chefs, we assume — especially around holiday time, we’ve got an idea. So we’ll order an extra case or two of chicken. We’ll order an extra case or two of cream and butter and whatever. You could get smashed harder than you ever thought. And we don’t turn money away. We don’t turn dishes away. We’re doing them.

I’ve had people come in on Thursday or Friday nights: “Hey, we have an Airbnb. I’m sorry we didn’t call. We’d love to get a catering order right now.” Right in the middle of a dinner rush. Let’s do it. And we do it. And we wind up running out of things, 86-ing things all the time. And we had a shop right around the corner. Oh, my. I bought all their chicken breasts. Like, they were pissed. They couldn’t tell me no. Paying customer. I bought every pack they had in that little refrigerator thing. And yeah, they were pissed. I bought it all, because the butcher wasn’t there and it was nighttime, so they weren’t going to put any more out. Whatever.

26:51  Tasha: You got to do what you got to do. So here’s a tip for anybody who wants to own a restaurant: make sure it’s close to a grocery store.

26:57  Chef Moe: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, yeah. Well, the first tip to anybody who wants to own a restaurant: choose a different career. No — it’s a tough business, and you’ve got to know what you’re getting yourself into.

27:11  Tasha: Absolutely. So let’s circle back to your meals that you’re doing on TikTok.

27:17  Chef Moe: Yeah, we were veering off. Sorry.

 Tasha: Oh, no. It was a fun conversation.

27:20  Tasha: I love it. No, I could talk to you for hours.

27:22  Chef Moe: Yes. Thank you. Thank you. It’s nice to talk to people who don’t talk to you like you’re a dollar bill. You know what I mean? Everybody I talk to, they talk to me like I’m a dollar and I hate it. Like the way things change — all these collaborations and deals and this and that. And it’s like, yo, I’ll meet you and then like to have a nice conversation. Like, it’s been a while. So I might ramble a little.

27:44  Tasha: I love — ramble away. I’m glad you feel like that, because, yeah, people matter.

27:50  Chef Moe: Yeah, sure, of course.

27:53  Tasha: So as far as your new TikTok, you are also doing stuff for college kids with a microwave, and you have $1 meals. Correct. Where do these ideas come from?

28:06  Chef Moe: They come — I listen to the people. My fans hit me up. My followers, they hit me up. “Hey, can you try this? Hey, can you try that?” At the beginning of the school year, a lot of college kids hit me up. A lot of them through the summer. And they were saying, “Wow, chef, thank you so much. I learned so much that I could take back to school with me.” But then a lot of them were saying that they would love to take the meals back, but they had no way to cook them because they dorm. You see, some kids rent apartments who have stoves, and some dorm. So the ones that were dorming were like, “Oh, wow, you really helped me through the summer, but it’s going to be difficult.”

And I was like, “Let’s see, what do you guys have over there?” And everybody I spoke to said they had a microwave. Perfect. So I was like, “All right, everyone definitely has a microwave.” A couple of people sneak in like a George Foreman grill or, you know, but everybody has a microwave. A lot of microwaves. So let’s just do the microwave. And that’s how I started. Yeah. My kids are away at school as well, and I give them hot plates, George Foreman grills. I mean, you go to my son’s dorm room, it’s like he’s got a whole little kitchen in there. Got a Michelin-grade restaurant. Seriously. But I got him also hustling empanadas and quesadillas, and he sells two for 10, $6 each. He’s got his little hustle going.

29:41  Tasha: The side hustle. Yeah.

29:44  Chef Moe: That’s how I lived in college. Yeah. So they were explaining how they had a microwave, and I just kind of put it together and figured, hey, let’s make a meal with nothing but a microwave.

29:59  Tasha: That’s so good. And you say it’s just that way, too.

30:02  Chef Moe: Yeah. But there are also a lot of people who live in hotels. There are people who don’t have stores. I never wanted to make anyone feel bad and point them out and be like, “Hey, whoever doesn’t have a store…” So I felt being able to help the college kids and call out, “This is for college kids who have nothing to cook with but a microwave, and anybody else who needs it.” You know what I mean? It doesn’t point at you. You don’t have to feel bad. And I never wanted to make anyone feel bad.

30:39  Tasha: Well, you do that very, very well — of protecting people.

30:42  Chef Moe: It’s very important. Protecting my community is important. Protecting the people, their integrity, that’s important. And I’m known for no judgment. Absolutely no judgment.

30:56  Tasha: Yeah. Listen, we all have had at least one hard time in our life. And if you haven’t, you are so fortunate.

31:03  Chef Moe: Yes, 100%. You know, people say to me all the time, “Wow, I can’t believe how much positive traction is on your channel. You don’t really get negative traction,” which I don’t. My analytics state a 96.7 positivity rate. Who’s picking on the $5 guy? The biggest negative — or complaint, rather — would be “that can’t be healthy.” But Dr. Sarah Ballantyne, she is a nutritional scientist. I know her. She’s a real nutritional scientist, not a TikTok scientist. She went to school and all, PhD. She breaks my meals down, and she gives you the nutritional value in every one of my meals. They’re not unhealthy. Are they a little high in sodium? Sometimes. Yes, they are. Not going to lie.

32:12  Tasha: Can’t be perfect.

32:14  Chef Moe: Drink a glass of water. What do you got, one kidney? If you do, pick a different meal. You can’t please everyone.

32:25  Tasha: No, you can’t. I loved seeing her break down your meals too, and showing how well thought out they are.

32:32  Chef Moe: Yeah, Dr. Ballantyne’s amazing. A little

32:32  Chef Moe: Yeah, Dr. Ballantyne’s amazing. A little shout out to her. Shout out to Dr. Ballantyne.

32:38  Tasha: I’ll tag her in the show notes.

 Chef Moe: Yeah, absolutely. People can follow her too.

32:42  Chef Moe: But yeah, no, she is an amazing nutritional scientist. She breaks down the meals and she helps us out to show the world that they are not unhealthy.

32:52  Tasha: Right.

32:54  Chef Moe: That’s good. And she’s great for doing that. I do appreciate it. I have other nutritionists as well. I can’t think of them off the top of my head, but there are a bunch of them.

33:02  Tasha: And then also the $1 meals. I was actually telling my mom — I was like, “Mom, you can take like ramen noodles, and if you grate the — or you peel the carrot and then you put it in ice, and I’m like, it looks gorgeous.” She’s like, “There’s no way.” I’m like, “Chef Moe did it.”

33:21  Chef Moe: Yes, it’s possible. That happened. Everybody thinks it was a challenge, because people challenge me to things all the time. “Hey, chef, I got 50 cents. I challenge you.” I don’t — this isn’t a challenge for me. This is a way of life for people. I like to have fun just as much as the next guy, don’t get me wrong, but I take this very seriously.

And there was a gentleman that I had bumped into, and we were talking, and he said, “I know you.” I’m like, “Oh,” and, you know, I let it be. And he’s like, “No, no, I know you. Are you from here? Are you from there?” I’m like, “No, no, no. I guess I got one of them faces.” And I was going to walk away, and he said, “You’re the chef on TikTok.” I was like, “Yes, I am.”

And we were talking, and his eyes watered up and he got emotional. And he was saying how these meals have helped him more than I will ever know. And I thanked him for the support. I found out through a friend that — now, he didn’t tell me this, he was just telling me how the meals have helped him more than I would know — I found out through my friend that he’s actually homeless. And those meals are what keep him going.

We were talking and he said, “You know, it would be — I know it’s crazy and it sounds crazy, but you think we can get like some type of a meal for a dollar?” I was like, “What do you mean?” He’s like, “You know, sometimes people only have a dollar.” I was like, “Yeah, you know, you’re right. That’s true. But that’s hard. But I’ll do my best.” And that’s what gave me the inspiration for that. And I was hoping he saw that video. I made a couple of them. And I hope he saw them and he’s able to use them.

35:18  Tasha: Yeah, I hope so.

35:20  Chef Moe: But yeah, you can make a meal for a dollar. The cheapest so far, I believe, we did was 78 cents, with no seasonings, culinary techniques, and the ingredients.

35:30  Tasha: I love that. Well, and what’s so cool about what you’re doing too is, you know, hopefully some of these people going through really tough times right now — it’s not going to last forever. That’s the hope and the goal.

 Chef Moe: That’s the hope.

 Tasha: The techniques that you’re teaching…

35:46  Chef Moe: Those are everlasting.

35:47  Tasha: It transfers.

35:49  Chef Moe: If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. But if you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime. Absolutely. And that’s what the techniques are. We’re teaching you to fish.

36:00  Tasha: I love that.

36:01  Chef Moe: And it’s important. Yeah, it is. You know, I let everyone know — a lot of my followers, a lot of my fans, a lot of people who follow me, they tell me, “You know, I don’t need your meals, but I cannot not watch your videos.” I try to put a little something for everyone. Whether you need the budget meal — if you don’t need the budget meal, you can learn the technique. If you already know the technique, you can learn the dish or the flavor profile. I put a little something for everyone at every cooking level.

I have on my page — I have chefs from all over the world. Now, these aren’t cooks or home cooks. Chef chefs. Head chefs, executive chefs that I talk to through Messenger. And they follow me because they love the techniques. They love the flavor profiling, and the ideas I give them. And we share ideas back and forth, because I love to learn new things too. Absolutely. It’s just a great experience to connect with the world. And it’s been such a fantastic journey so far.

But you know, the internet — one day you’re hot, the next day you’re “chef who?” But if this ends tomorrow and I was able to help just one person eat…

37:25  Tasha: I’m good.

 Tasha: Well, you’re like the Dolly Parton of the chef world, you know?

37:30  Chef Moe: Poor Dolly. R.I.P. Dolly Parton.

37:33  Tasha: That’s right. I think that when you’re making an impact, too, and it’s genuine, like you are.

37:41  Chef Moe: Well, yeah, you got to stay real. You got to keep it real. Everybody’s going through it right now. Everybody’s going through hard times. A lot of people don’t know how to deal with it. There are people who do make fun of the meals, and they’re like, “Ew, you’re going to use that?” You know what? I don’t argue with nobody. I don’t fight with no one. And I tell everyone the same thing. Well, in every video, in all the comment sections, somebody always gets a trophy. And I tell everybody, “Look, you’re entitled to your own thoughts, your opinion, and it will be respected here. Just be nice.” And I hope you never need my videos. That’s my only hope for you.

38:30  Tasha: I so appreciate you for being here and giving me your time today. What a fun interview.

 Chef Moe: I love being here.

38:36  Chef Moe: Just about helping people. Everybody’s a paycheck away from disaster. Everybody is $10 away from “I don’t know what to do.” And especially during the summertime, it’s extremely hard, because the kids are home from school. They can barely pay the bills right now. People are really struggling.

I spoke to the Department of Agriculture earlier this year, and they said that food costs were supposed to drop by 6% by the end of the year. We’re at the end of the year and food went up 1.7%. You’re going in the wrong direction. I know. You know what I’m saying? This is insane. I sat down with PBS, and their specialists had spoken to the Department of Agriculture, had spoken to farmers and commercial farmers, and they were talking about food cost drops at the end of this year. Then why is it up 1.5%, 2%?

39:42  Tasha: They’re going to do it December 31st, or what, right?

39:45  Chef Moe: Yeah, like, when is the end of the year? What does that pertain to? At least cruise at the same altitude. Don’t go higher. You know what I mean? And it’s difficult. It’s difficult for people to put a meal on the table, and it’s sad.

40:02  Tasha: It is. It’s very sad. Nobody should be hungry. Not anywhere in the world, especially here.

40:10  Chef Moe: Absolutely. We live in the greatest country in the world. And why am I making these videos? I shouldn’t be making these videos. But what I’m doing means so much to me. I walked away from restaurant kitchens to teach the world to make $5 meals.

40:28  Tasha: Thank you for looking out for everyone.

40:30  Chef Moe: Yeah, yeah, it’s my pleasure. It really is.

40:40  Tasha: Thank you for listening to this episode of Be the Change, a mini-series on Diary of a Dreamer. My hope is that these conversations leave you feeling more informed, more confident in your ability to think critically, and more empowered to contribute positively in your own community. Real change doesn’t come from reacting quickly. It comes from thoughtful people who are willing to stay curious, ask good questions, and take meaningful action. If this episode encouraged you, please subscribe, leave a review, and share this podcast with someone who values thoughtful conversations and positive change. You can learn more about my work and find additional resources at TashaEizinger.com. Until next time, keep dreaming, keep learning, and remember, each of us has the power to be the change.