Chef Eric James is a private chef, content creator with over 450,000 followers across TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, & Facebook. A self-proclaimed, Culinary Misfit, Chef Eric possesses exceptional skills to create personalized culinary journeys that surpass all your expectations. Today, he joins the show to talk about what drew him to the wellness and healthcare industry, how an awakening impacted his relationship with food, and the correlation between food and comfort.
Key Takeaways
01:23 – Chef Eric James joins the show to talk about his role as a ‘Culinary Misfit,’ and how he got into the food world
06:30 – What drew Chef Eric James to the wellness and healthcare industry
08:49 – Chef Eric gets vulnerable and opens up about his mother and his childhood
11:06 – Chef Eric speaks to a recent health awakening and how it’s impacted his relationship with food
13:11 – Advice Chef Eric would give to those looking to cook healthier meals for themselves
14:05 – The relationship between food and comfort
17:18 – Dr. Flowers thanks Chef Eric James for joining the show and lets listeners know where they can connect with him on questions about food
Resources Mentioned
J. Flowers Health Institute – https://jflowershealth.com
J. Flowers Health Institute Contact – (713) 783-6655
Subscribe on your favorite player: https://understanding-the-human-condition.captivate.fm/listen
Chef Eric James’ LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/chefericjames
Chef Eric James’ Website – https://www.chefericjames.com
Chef Eric James’ Email – [email protected]
Culinary Misfits – https://culinarymisfitscp.com
Culinary Misfits TikTok – https://www.tiktok.com/@culinarymisfits?lang=en
Culinary Misfits YouTube Channel – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq-YDorDe1lhrSKyHdwfF8A
Culinary Misfits Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/culinarymisfitscp
Shay Butts’ LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/shay-butts-8963b217
**The views and opinions expressed by our guests are those of the individual and do not necessarily reflect those of J. Flowers Health Institute. Any content provided by our co-host(s) or guests is their opinion and is not intended to reflect the philosophy and policies of J. Flowers Health Institute itself. Nor is it intended to malign any recovery method, religion, ethnic group, club, organization, company, individual, or anyone or anything.
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Food As A Cure For The Soul With Chef Eric James
Welcome, everybody, to Understanding the Human Condition. I’m your host, Dr. James Flowers, and I’m so excited to have Shay Butts, our chief operating officer, here. Thank you for coming.
I’m glad to be here.
I’m super excited to have Chef Eric James with us. Eric, good to see you.
Good to see you.
We are super excited to be welcoming you to our team here at J. Flowers Health Institute. I’m going to let you know, Shay has a great relationship with Chef James already, so go ahead, Shay, take it away.
Eric and I met a few years ago through mutual friends, and he just has a phenomenal way about him. He’s quite the personality, as you’ve seen.
That’s the end. Thanks so much. I’m going to go on that note.
You’re not taking over our podcast. This is not TikTok. Settle down over there, Chef James. I’m just kidding. Anyway, so the thing that I thought was really a nice fit is that, with J. Flowers hiring an executive chef and having someone like Chef Eric, he was trained at Le Cordon Bleu, so very reputable, obviously, his food is very well presented and beautiful and delicious and all those things. It just really appeals to our brand and the things we want to do for our clients. He also is a content creator for something called Culinary Misfits. We could be like healthcare misfits maybe, or something.
We could be. We kind of are.
Wildly successful social media platform over.
Wildly. Emphasize that.
What is Culinary Misfits?
“We [at Culinary Misfits] care more about the experience. The food has to be good, but my mindset was I want people to approach Culinary Misfits with a question like, ‘Oh, wow what is this?”
Initially, when I first began the personal chef reign, or run, rather, it was more about trying to create an experience that wasn’t so typical. I wanted to lose the uptight persona of what a private or personal chef brought to the table. For me, it was about starting it off with the name, which people say, “That sounds so much fun. What is it?” I was like, “I do private dinners and events in people’s homes. They go, So you’re like a fancy chef?” I go, “Nope, I’m Culinary Misfits. We care more about the experience. The food has to be good, but my mindset was I wanted to be Culinary Misfits because I want people to approach it with, like, Wow, what is this?”
It’s Chef Eric James. That’s who I am when I cook. You know this, the name James is pretty powerful. When you say, “I’m Chef Eric James,” they’re like, “Aren’t you fancy?” I’m like, “No, take about twenty minutes to get to know me. You’ll see, Culinary Misfits makes sense. It’s delicious, amazing food, but at the end of the day, it was about the chef being second because, in a chef’s world, we’re first. We’re what’s the most important thing. Culinary Misfits was making the client first, and the experience was what I wanted people to go, Oh my gosh. Because, like they say, they’re going to remember your name. They’re going to remember what they even ate. They’re going to remember who was there. What they will remember is how you make them feel.” That’s where I brought in my past of marketing and sales and said, “That’s what I want people to do.” It was a bit different. Plus, I don’t have any tattoos. I don’t have any criminal felonies. I’m already going against the grain as far as chefs go, so Culinary Misfits.
There you go. Food is such a part of our human condition. How did you get into the whole food world?
Food was a necessity from birth. My mom worked in the industry. She’s a single mom, raised me. She was never home. As I got older, I understood why, it was because she was always working, because the restaurant is very demanding.
She was a chef?
Yeah. She was a cook. She was a bartender. She was a waitress. She was everything she had to be to make ends meet for us, which I didn’t appreciate until I was older because what do kids know? When Mom was home, she was always so tired. It was mac and cheese, and it was Hamburger Helper. It was all these things. I got tired of that. Even as a kid, I was like, “Mom, can we do something else more than mac and cheese?” I’m pretty sure that’s the cause of most root issues of me today, the mac and cheese powder.
She said, “Go cook.” I was really boiling pasta, and noodles was the first thing I was learning to do. I loved hamburgers, so I learned how to make hamburgers. I asked a friend of mine’s mom, and she was Hispanic. She taught me how to make pico de gallo. I was making, like, this really spicy hamburger. My mom wasn’t used to it, but I fell in love with it. It was introduced like that early on, and then life happened, and it wasn’t as relevant.
I got older, and I couldn’t play guitar, and I didn’t have bags of money. I had to figure out a way to impress the ladies. Cooking seemed to work. I stuck with food, and they’re like, “A chef.” I’m like, “I would say chef.” I just went with it. Now I’m a chef, cooking, and it’s the thing that pretty much saved my life. There are a ton of stories on how it saved my life, but it’s more than just cooking for me. It is a connection with people and in life in general, which I’ll come back to when we talk about why I’m here.
Shay, you want to talk about why he’s here?
Why am I here, Shay?
I would like for you to talk about why the wellness and healthcare industry interested you in general. We’ve had lots of conversations about personal life journeys and things like that that have come up, that have shaped your left turns and your right turns. Do you want to talk about that a little bit?
“I don’t do a lot of food competitions because I don’t believe it’s about the chef or the food. The food makes the journey better, but it’s about us as human beings, as the journey that we take that food can help guide us on that journey. I believe food can cure the soul.”
Why Food Is More Than Just Taste
Sure. I can get a little personal. Basically, for me, being self-employed as an entrepreneur has been fantastic. I’ve been doing it for twelve years. I love it, but it’s exhausting always trying to figure out where my next client’s going to come from because it’s just like sales. I work weekends and holidays. I’m always working. I’m always trying to figure out what’s next. Where am I going to get my next client? Again, the reason why I don’t even do a lot of food competitions is because I don’t believe it’s about the chef. I really don’t believe it’s about the food. The food makes the journey better, but I believe it’s about us as human beings. It’s the journey that we take, that food can help guide us on that journey.
I’m not going to get too philosophical or too deep because it really shouldn’t, but for me, I believe that food can cure the soul. It brings people together. Very rarely are people mad at each other like, “I’m so sick and tired of you. Let’s go get a steak dinner together.” Nobody ever said that. They sit down at a table to rectify things, to fix things, to mediate things, to talk about things that matter to them, whether it be politics, religion, or whether it just be family issues or family celebrations. Things at the dinner table are always, at least in my opinion, something that we should look forward to sitting down to.
Doing what I do as an entrepreneur and creating these dining experiences when I work on my own is something that I’m passionate about the most and that I love the most. When Shay approached me, and she’s like, Hey, the first thing in my head is, “Corporate America? Hell no. I’m not going back to that. There’s no way. 9:00 to 5:00?” No. I sat, and she’s like, “Here’s what we are thinking and what we’d like to do.” I heard everything that she offered, and I thought, “That was very generous. That’s very nice. Thank you.”
What she said was, and not necessarily what she said, but then when I found out, as anybody should research who you’re going to work for, I go to the website, and I’m like, “These people are helping people.” For me, it was more about being a part of getting people not necessarily fixed, but back on the right road. This is where the personal part comes in. I’m a child of Al-Anon. My mom was an alcoholic, and she passed away with about nine different prescribed drugs in her system. There are lots of things that, as a child of Al-Anon and somebody who grew up in that type of environment, I understand better than the average person outside.
For me, all I thought about when she made me the offer, before I responded back, was, without getting too deep into my own psyche, “I can’t fix what happened to my mom, but I can be a part of helping people on their journey back to that road to recovery.” If I can do that, maybe I can do something good for myself while still doing what I do on the side. Four days a week, I can still go out and do dinner parties if I so choose, but for me, it was about becoming a part of a team that was taking care of people, helping them find the right road to the recovery they need to take. If I can do that by getting them excited about lunch, by having them say, “Chef Eric’s here again today. Today’s Taco Tuesday. Let’s go.” If I can bring a little bit of joy like that, then to me, it’s more than that.
You’re a chef, and we’re going to have Taco Tuesday?
Yeah. We’re going to have some Taco Tuesday.
Are these going to be chef-quality tacos?
Yeah. They’re going to be chef-quality tacos.
I’m worried now, Shay.
Tortillas warmed on-site. We’re going to have some beautifully marinated flank steak, some beautiful chicken, some shrimp. It’s going to be good.
What’s your favorite type of food?
“For me, my favorite style of food is Spanish, because I believe that Spanish flavors are so deep. They’re beautiful flavors. I love Italian, but Spain goes so deep and rich with their flavors.”
That’s the perfect question. Thank you so much for asking, “What type of food? What’s your favorite thing to cook?” I’m like, “That’s the dumbest question.” It is because it’s food. I would have been like, “Great question.” For me, my favorite style of food is Spanish because I believe that Spanish flavors are so deep. They’re beautiful flavors, and people are like, “You don’t like Italian?” I’m like, “I love Italian, but Spain goes so deep and rich with their flavors and is one of the largest purveyors of spice next to India.”
Very cool. You were just in Barcelona.
I was in Barcelona.
We’re not going to get on that at all.
I was in Barcelona. I was all over Europe. I was in Rome, Rome for my third time. So beautiful. I ate like it was my last meal every day.
Eric, you’ve given me permission to bring this up, but you had a little bit of a health scare, I guess I’ll call it, or change.
An awakening.
I’m curious how that has changed your relationship with food and how that will also play in with our clients.
That’s a great question, Shay. It wasn’t catastrophic, first and foremost but I was just diagnosed as a type two diabetic. Looking back on my life, I was on the right path to becoming a type two diabetic because I would eat a full sleeve, if not the whole package, of Oreos. I know that’s not what sent it that way, but my lifestyle didn’t make sense. I’d wash it down with a Mountain Dew, but I even did it as I got older. We can do that as kids, we’re resilient, but as we get older, we have to be smarter. I have a mindset of just being and feeling young, but it hit me pretty hard. My A1C was like 8.3, and I was 30 pounds overweight. It was a brutal awakening.
My doctor’s like, “This is bad, Eric. That little buzz and a little high you get, you say you feel this surge of energy?” He’s like, “That’s your blood sugar spiking, and that’s not good.” I stepped back on some things. I started reading labels more, like I should. The good news is that my A1C is down to 5.4. My sugars usually don’t go over 120 in a day. I’ve learned to manage it for myself, and then it changed the way I ate, and I’m also exercising more. Since I found out about three and a half months ago, I’m down about 24 pounds. This shirt, when I bought it, was initially tighter.
Twenty-four pounds, that’s a good weight loss.
It is.
I was a little bit more extreme, too. I was working out really hard in the beginning because you’re always like, “You work harder than you’re ever going to work because you’re like, I’ve got to get caught up.” A friend of mine was like, “Pace yourself. You’re going to burn yourself out. You’re old, Eric. You’re at the age now where things are going to start falling apart.” I’m saying what my friends told me, not what I’m saying.
What about when one of our clients comes up to you, and they’re eating your food for lunch, and it’s delicious, as I know it’s going to be? He says, “How do I do this at home? How do I learn how to do this at home and eat healthier?” What’s your advice?
Follow me on TikTok at @CulinaryMisfits.
There you go. For a grand total of $19.99 a month, you can join my TikTok.
“Here’s what the people eating my food get when they eat my food. They know when it was made, how it was made, who it was made by, and what’s going in it.”
It’s free. Honestly, here’s what the people eating my food get that they wouldn’t normally get, when it was made, how it was made, who it was made by, and what’s going in it. If somebody says, “Eric, this is amazing. How do I do this?” Great. Five, six simple ingredients. Here’s how you do it. Here’s the techniques you use. If you want, I’ll go home, and I’ll write the recipe out for you.
You mentioned that your mom was an alcoholic. Is she still living?
No. She passed in 2008.
I’m sorry to hear that. You mentioned your mom was an alcoholic. You’re an Al-Anon. You cooked because your mom cooked, and then she said, “You want that kind of food? Cook it.” How do you feel that food leads to comfort? Because we work with a lot of addicts, and we work with a lot of mental health patients who have difficulty in life. For me, food is very comforting. My mother was an alcoholic. My father was an alcoholic. My sister was a drug addict. I could go on and on for the next hour about my family. For me, food is gathering friends that are healthy and that I love to be around and eating amazing, wonderful food. It takes me away. Is that how you’re looking at this as well?
A thousand percent. Food sparks emotion. I do think that food holds a special place. It is something that invokes emotion. When clients come in, I want clients to feel like, A) the food is approachable because that’s the nice thing here, we’re fixing stuff. If I can fix a small part of the soul, and if I hear somebody say something like, “Do they ever serve meatloaf? I love what my grandma used to make.” It may not be on our menu, but I’m going to email somebody, and then, like, in two days from now, I know it says we’re supposed to have Taco Tuesday, but we’re going to do meatloaf. For one person.
Meatloaf Monday.
Not every Monday. I just want people happy.
For us, the concierge approach to everything that we do has been evident in all parts of our business but not really in lunch. I am excited because I believe that that’s going to be able to bring that concierge component even to lunch. I think about people that come with different kinds of food, either they don’t like something, their preferences are for this or that, or they legitimately can’t have something. Being able to give you that information and have you make something for someone in a way that does match their dietary requirements is really great.
I also am a fan of gathering. Many times, a lot of the people that we meet here and that we work with and serve are people that have isolated themselves and have stepped away from relationships. If that 30 minutes in the client lounge, having lunch with coaches, other clients, and staff, people that are here, can be magical for a moment, and they enjoy the food and enjoy the company, and it gives them just enough to continue on to the next day, that’s all I think we need.
I agree. I think this is going to be super successful. I’m really grateful we’re making this change. We’ve had amazing lunches up until now, and now we’re just bringing in a person, a human being, to come in and nurture these clients that we have even further with amazing, incredible, healthy food.
You get to stand up for free.
You get free comedy. He may play his TikTok in the background.
You never know. Be ready. I may start a TikTok dance, you never know.
Welcome aboard.
Thank you so much.
Appreciate you being here. We’re super happy that you’re here. Here you go. Here’s your opportunity. How do people reach you if they have questions about food or if they just want to watch?
If you have questions about food or if you want to watch, and I also still do dinner parties and stuff like that in people’s homes on the weekends. If you wanted to book a dinner and you wanted to do anything like that, ChefEricJames.com, I make it really easy. ChefEricJames.com for dinner parties. If you wanted to follow me on social media, it’s pretty much CulinaryMisfits all the way across the board. Facebook is the only thing that’s a bit different, it’s Culinary Misfit. I just have to put that out there. People are like, “I can’t find you. There’s this place in Germany.” I’m like, “Try no S.” CulinaryMisfits across the board.
I try to create on Instagram at @CulinaryMisfitsCp. It’s very much more professional, very much my business. If you have small children, don’t let them watch TikTok. I’m an adult, and I do adult, I’m kidding. If you have small children, we encourage people to it all. We keep it all very child-friendly. We try to have more fun with food. It’s more about the day in my life, what I do. It’s not just about cooking. It’s just about what’s going on right now, like there was a video clip I did of this already, which will be a part of my day in the life. I’m so grateful to be able to be here. Spoken to action after a couple of years.
We’re super excited to have you. Thank you so much. If you want to reach J. Flowers Health Institute, it’s JFlowersHealth.com or 713-783-6655. Shay, thank you for joining me. I really enjoyed it.
It was fun. It was great. We’re looking forward to it.
You guys have a great day. See you soon.
Take care.
I’d like to remind everyone watching or listening to us that there are numerous platforms to find our podcast, YouTube, Apple Podcasts, SoundCloud, Spotify, Stitcher, and iHeartRadio. Please share this episode on social media or with someone that you think it could help. We remind you also that a clear diagnosis is key to the most effective treatment possible.
It is.
See you next week.
Thanks again, Robin.
Thank you.
Important Links
- James Flowers on LinkedIn
- Shay Butts on LinkedIn
- J. Flowers Health Institute
- J. Flowers Health Institute Contact – (713) 783-6655
- Subscribe on your favorite player: https://understanding-the-human-condition.captivate.fm/listen
- ChefEricJames.com
- Eric James on LinkedIn
- Chef Eric James’ Email – [email protected]
- Culinary Misfits on YouTube
- Culinary Misfits
- Culinary Misfits on TikTok
- Culinary Misfits on Instagram
- Culinary Misfit on Facebook
About Eric James
Chef Eric James didn’t start his culinary journey with the intention of becoming a professional chef. He was simply someone who was good at cooking and loved the art of bringing people together through food. His style is calm and non-competitive, focused on making those he serves feel at home. Whether it’s a special celebration or a casual get-together, Chef Eric is all about creating an environment where people can enjoy good food and good company.
What sets Chef Eric apart from others is his relaxed, judgment-free approach to cooking. It’s not about what’s trendy or perfect—it’s about ensuring that each person leaves happy. As a personal chef, Eric is able to tap into his creativity while giving his clients exactly what they want, all without the usual constraints of a formal restaurant setting. His career path wasn’t marked by a singular defining moment but rather a natural evolution, with one dinner leading to the next and word-of-mouth referrals keeping him busy.
Outside of the kitchen, Chef Eric is fueled by his passion for eating and traveling—two of his greatest joys. He hopes that those who experience his cooking see him as someone who genuinely cares about taking care of others, both through food and in life.
