An Interview With Martita Mestey

Don’t be afraid to be unapologetically you! Plate your food how you want, infuse whatever flavors, and trust the gift God instilled in you. — Be Great!

As a part of our series about the lessons from influential ‘TasteMakers’, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Chef April Robinson.

For Chef April Robinson, family was the biggest influence in her becoming a chef. Between cooking and helping out around the house to having a restaurateur father, April was destined to make her own mark in the culinary world. Needing no introduction to the Lowcountry food scene, Chef April Robinson has been featured countless times in local magazines and newspapers and was a standout at the NYC Food & Wine Festival. Having done it all culinary, from being a private chef to athletes and owning both a bakery and tapas restaurant, she was excited to launch Hamilton Cornerstore with partner and R&B artist Anthony Hamilton. Chef April hopes to combine her love of good Southern food by elevating your everyday essentials with the items in the Hamilton Cornerstore pantry.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Our readers would love to ‘get to know’ you a bit. Can you share with our readers a story about what inspired you to become a restauranteur or chef?

When I think about what brought me to this career path, I always say I kind of just fell into it. Growing up, cooking and food were integral parts of my life. My dad owned his own restaurant and when I was younger, I would help my mom by making dinner while she was working. Later in life, being a single mom and having to provide for myself and my son, I identified the culinary path as being the ideal move for me. It was actually from a friend I received the encouragement to attend culinary school and the rest is history. Cooking has always been and continues to be my passion and place of peace.

Do you have a specific type of food that you focus on? What was it that first drew you to cooking that type of food? Can you share a story about that with us?

Growing up in Charleston, SC, I gravitate towards Lowcountry/Southern food. It is what I was raised on and brings back great memories for me. However, if you come to my house for dinner I am not cooking a traditional southern meal. I love ethnic cuisine and infusing Lowcountry classics with global influences. I like to take something familiar and add my spin to it from my travels.

Can you share the funniest or most interesting story that has happened to you since you became a chef? What was the lesson or takeaway you took out of that story?

One thing that comes to mind is customers recognizing me because of my signature red lipstick I always wore in the kitchen. Guests would see me outside the restaurant and ask if I was the owner of Butter from that simple personal touch.

Can you tell us a story about the hard times that you faced when you first started your journey? How did you overcome this obstacle?

I wouldn’t say it was necessarily a hard time when first starting my journey in the culinary world, but I followed a different path than most do due to my being a single mom. A lot of people go to school, have an internship, and then leave to work under a big-name chef to train. While I did go to school at Johnson & Wales and complete an internship, I skipped the step of working under a chef. I had a two-year-old at the time, so my path needed to be different to provide for my responsibilities then.

In your experience, what is the key to creating a dish that customers are crazy about?

I think any dish that triggers a memory for a guest is going to be a winner. I want you to be transported back to that cookout, that wedding, or whatever it may be when enjoying my food.

Personally, what is the ‘perfect meal for you’?

Having owned a tapas restaurant, I would have to go with that as my ‘perfect meal’. I am the type of person who wants to order one of everything from every section of the menu and try a multitude of dishes and flavors.

Where does your inspiration for creating come from? Is there something that you turn to for a daily creativity boost?

My inspiration to create comes from my life experiences whether it be reading and looking into the trends day to day or encounters I have had in my travels.

Are you working on any new or exciting projects now? What impact do you think this will have?

Right now, I am working on growing the pantry product line for Hamilton Cornerstore. The overall goal is to make quality Southern flavors easily accessible while focusing on products without a lot of additives and preservatives. We want to make it easy to get good, quality food.

What advice would you give to other chefs or restaurateurs to thrive and avoid burnout?

My biggest tip is to ask for help. Do not try to wear 21 hats, delegate. Take a break if needed, you will only be good for your team if you are good to yourself.

Thank you for all that. Now we are ready for the main question of the interview. What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Started as a Chef” and why?

1. This job is physically demanding — standing all day does take its toll on your body. I wish I had better known how to prepare for that and made more of an effort to take care of myself early on.
2. The hours that are required to succeed — you always hear being a chef has grueling hours, but I didn’t realize fully until becoming one myself.
3. You will no longer cook for yourself — at the end of the day, I am exhausted and need to eat to nourish my body but am perfectly content with a PB&J sandwich. A common misconception is that chefs require fancy meals when in reality we just want something simple most times.
4. This career path will fully consume your life — This can be hard to swallow sometimes. Personally, I missed my son’s junior & senior years of high school and those are times you cannot get back.
5. Don’t be afraid to be unapologetically you! Plate your food how you want, infuse whatever flavors, and trust the gift God instilled in you. — Be Great!

What’s the one dish people have to try if they visit your establishment?

One item that people need to try from Hamilton Cornerstore’s pantry is the Honey Cornbread Mix. For me, this product brings back nostalgic memories of Fridays growing up and my mom serving fried fish and fresh cornbread. I can vividly remember her slathering butter on top and watching it melt down the sweet, delicious cornbread. If that doesn’t make your mouth water, I don’t know what will!

You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.

If there is one movement I am extremely passionate about getting more involved in, it is combatting food waste. There are so many people and organizations that this excess food can be donated. I am working to get more involved in this and make an impact on sustainability.

Thank you so much for these insights. This was very inspirational!

Chef April Robinson Of Hamilton Cornerstore: 5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Became a Chef was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.