Exclusive: Tiffany Derry On Becoming The First Black Full-Time Judge On MasterChef And Empowering Black Women

A few of God’s favorites know exactly what they want to do and who they want to be from a young age. Award-winning chef, restaurateur, and entrepreneur Tiffany Derry is one of those favorites. The food connoisseur knew her purpose was in the kitchen from an early age and has steadfastly surrendered to that journey ever since.

Staying the course has paid off. Derry, 42, recently made history by becoming the first Black full-time judge on the Primetime Emmy-award winning show MasterChef. The multi-restaurant owner earned every stripe—when she was a teenager, she got her first cooking gig at IHOP and went on to master her craft by earning her culinary degree from the Art Institute of Houston. After graduating, Derry continued her career working in the kitchen at renowned restaurants across Texas. Eventually, the culinary expert’s hard work and talent landed her a spot on shows like Bobby’s Triple Threat, Top Chef, Worst Cooks in America, and MasterChef, where she’s now a full-time judge.

When Tiffany isn’t chopping it up in the kitchen, she’s a busy girl bossing as Tiffany Derry Concepts’ founder and co-founder of T2D Concepts. The latter is a Texas-based purpose-driven hospitality group behind Roots Chicken Shak, Roots Southern Table, Radici Wood Fired Grill and ‘Shef Tiffany spice and apparel line.

We caught up with Derry to find out how it feels to make history, discuss her favorite cuisines, and hear her wisdom for aspiring chefs.

ESSENCE: How does it feel to make history and be the first Black full-time judge on MasterChef?

Tiffany Derry: It’s a little surreal. You know, it’s funny. I didn’t quite realize it until I saw it in writing one day, and I was like, huh? I am. You are. That’s me. And then I was like, ‘wow.’ And then everyone else started saying it, and so many young chefs started reaching out. And then my heart just felt overwhelmed and lovely and beautiful.

And then it became more real. Before that, it was like, ‘You’re working, you’re doing, and you’re moving and making it all happen.’ And then one day it’s like, ‘Oh, shoot’. Not like, I’m here, but I’m kind of here, you know?

Yes. What you’ve been working towards is materializing. I love that. So, you’ve been a contestant on cooking shows before, and now you’re in the judge’s seat. What knowledge will you take from being a contestant into your role as a judge?

Now, I think that it puts me probably in the best place that I can be, primarily because in the first 15 years of cooking, I was doing a lot of competing. Then, I started doing more judging.

Then I started doing more competing again and judging. And so I feel like I have had both sides of it at different times in life, and then most recently doing both. So I feel like I’m probably most suited to truly understand what they’re going through and talk to them from the standpoint of how to break through wherever the issue is. Because competing week after week, it gets tiresome.

You start getting to points where you’re not thinking straight. You’re away from your friends and your family. You’re away from how you normally cook. And you’re no longer cooking in your kitchen. The elements are very different. All the things are different. You have chefs telling you to do things in specific ways that may differ from what you’re used to.

I feel like one of the things I do well is just talking to the person. I love people. So I’m like, it’s just me and you here. Focus in. Get it done. Taste it again. Ask yourself, ‘Is that what you really want it to taste like?’ Get better at searing, and concentrate on the details.

So with that said, why did you say yes to this opportunity? 

I mean, it is the number one show. There’s that, of course. First, I loved what I was doing with Bobby’s Triple Threat and all of the shows I have been a part of. But, you know, there comes a point where you’re like, do I continue to do this? [It] felt like the right opportunity. It was something bigger than I’ve done before. It’s Fox, and it just felt right, working with Gordon and Joe, two hugely successful people in the culinary business. And it’s like, if you want to be the best, you gotta roll with the best, you know? And I wanna learn from them as well. And I feel like I have something to offer that they didn’t have.

Which is what? 

Female perspective, Black woman perspective. 

It’s very much global cooking. My palate is incredible. I have studied and cooked all over the world. I eat all over the world. You know, some people come from angles where it’s just what they cook, how they eat, and how they grew up.

One of the things that was very important to me was to learn so many different types of cuisine. So, since I was 20 years old, I have been cooking all over. I get out of the country once a year. I made this vow to myself when I was in culinary school, and I said I wanted to get out of the country and study. And so, from 20 years old to now, I have gone somewhere every year in search of culinary experiences and to study.

That was actually going to be one of my questions. It’s impressive how many different countries you’ve cooked in and been to. What’s your favorite destination so far, and which cuisine do you enjoy the most?

Come on, you ain’t making this easy right now. 

I know that’s hard. Or a top two if you can’t pick one. 

I really love Asia. I mean, it’s in many of my dishes that people see. However, one of the things that I found out about Asian and Caribbean cuisine is that there are a lot of ingredients that mimic each other, such as coconuts, chilies, certain spices and flavors, and ginger. In one of my restaurants, Roots Southern Table, I do a lot of that and a lot of southern cooking with global influences. But if I’m talking about just foods, I absolutely love to eat, I probably have to say Laotian is my favorite. It used to be Thai.

And then I was introduced to Laotian, and I was like, ‘This is Thai with extra flavor.’ It has more spice, sour, funk, and everything else. It’s just so good.

Wow, now I have to try it. What has been the most difficult cuisine for you to learn or master? 

I don’t think I’ve mastered anything, so I think I’m forever a student. I mean, African cuisine in general, because it’s so regional. It’s like you get inspired and start learning, and then you start researching, and then someone in another area calls it something else, and it has another ingredient. And then you’re like, it originated from here, but no, it originated from here. I think it’s one of those where it’s so vast and complex and so different, and I feel like I have not studied enough. I want to be immersed more, and so that would probably be the one for me.

You have to tell me, what are some of your favorite spices? 

Allspice is one of my favorites. I feel like it adds so much to a dish that, like, you don’t know it’s there, but you know something is different. I love Korean spice because of the chili peppers. It’s not too spicy, but it’s also a little fruity. Fish sauce–even though it’s a condiment, it’s still into the flavor of spices to me, because that’s how I flavor dishes often.

I mean, different types of spice mixes are great. I have my own creole mix that I think goes great on everything, and I’ve tested that, and I feel like a lot of spices, with just a couple of additional elements of maybe one or two other spices, completely changes what it tastes like on its own. So I’m all about the spice, I think we all need all the things. We need to get them in smaller amounts and search for them in real spice stores.

You have real turmeric that tastes delicious, and then there’s turmeric, which I don’t know what. The same goes for saffron.

I noticed that with curry, too. You’re right. There are levels to the spices.

There is. 

What is your favorite go-to meal? 

When I’m hungry. I don’t want to spend too much time in the kitchen. I’m putting something together. So I eat rice a lot, which is funny because I’m on a no-carb diet. Yeah, but we eat rice. We love rice.

I could eat rice for every meal, including dessert. Grew up in a family that ate a lot of rice. And for me, rice is comfort. I can whip up anything, whether it’s just like a stir fry with rice, whether it is egg and rice, whether it’s bacon and rice, whether it’s, I have some vegetable or some meat, and then I’ll make a quick gravy. And I will make a gravy at 10 p.m. as long as I have it. But one thing is, I always have rice cooked in the refrigerator. I even keep rice in the freezer. I mean, we gotta be ready.

That’s right. My sister and I made some jollof rice a few Christmases ago and froze it. At first, we were like, “That’s not going to taste good.” But when we reheated that rice and honey, it was popping.

Yep. No problem. Delicious.

I read that you knew you were meant to be in the kitchen from when you were a little girl. What tips do you have for people interested in cooking who feel like it’s their purpose but don’t know how to get started?

If you want to do something before jumping in, I would say maybe go and sage in the kitchen, which means work for free.

Or maybe just ask your favorite restaurant, ‘Hey, can I come in for a couple of hours? I’m interested in being a chef. I don’t know if it’s something I want to do, but I’d love to just come into the kitchen, and whatever you want me to do, I’ll do it.’ Not too long ago, I had an older gentleman who was thinking about having a career change and was getting ready to sign up for culinary school.

And he had reached out and I said, ‘sure, you can come on in.’ And so he worked in the kitchen. One day, my chef saw him. They were like, ‘Chef, I don’t think he should be in front of the house.’ I’m like, ‘Okay, don’t judge him by the way he looks.’ At the end of the shift, the guy said, ‘I’m gonna stick to cooking as a hobby. This is not what I want at all. Like, this is great, but at this age and stage in my life, I don’t think this is what I wanna do.’

He said, ‘Thank you.’ And so I think he will still continue to do something in the culinary field. But restaurants are not the only thing that you can do.

And sometimes we still start focusing on what feels glitzy and glamoury. Restaurants feel good to you; social events feel good to you. But there are so many [parts] of the restaurant industry that you can do.

What are the four elements that you think make a Top Chef?

I think that you forever have to be a student. The moment you think you know it all, you don’t. There’s no way to know everything. So I think that’s important. You really need to be technically sound. 

That means you understand how to sauté, grill, and fry. The truth is, in most cuisines, we’re still cooking things in the same way. We just changed the ingredients and the order in which they work. So, if you can become a great technical, sound cook, you really can learn to cook anything. So, the student and the teacher are two very important things.

I think it’s also important to be open and try everything—things that are weird to you, things that look different, like eating with an openness. And I think you have to learn to work on your leadership skills because to be a chef is to be a leader in the kitchen. And so you need to learn to motivate people. You need to learn to encourage them, to coach them, to teach them. So it’s important to be a leader.

What challenges do you see women, particularly Black women, face in this space?

I think it’s hard because, specifically in the restaurant industry, you have to be there and you have to work, and it doesn’t lend itself well when you have family and children and a husband. You’re not cooking dinner at night, and your holidays are often spent at the restaurant. And so it is hard. One of the things we do within the restaurant is we do four-day work weeks. So I changed everything. It’s like, we’re gonna do a four-day work week.

Everybody works their 10 hours, and then now you get three days at home versus getting one or barely getting two and then getting days off in rows, which is everything that I wish I could have had. I created a company that could do that, so that was very important to me.

What is the one mark that you would like to leave on the show so that when people look back, they’re like, this is what Tiffany left us with on this show, or this is the mark that she made?

Aw. Well, I hope that women who are watching can feel like they can do anything in this industry, and that there is no ceiling in the industry. There’s a lot of talk around the culinary industry being sort of the man’s kitchen and all of that. But my representation of being there is that everyone can do it if we work together. And I just think that the sky is the limit for real. And I hope that as they see me there, they feel inspired, whether it’s through culinary or any industry.