How My Grandma's Mac 'N' Cheese Got Me On TV • Tasty

Hi , my name is Jermaine Rawlings .

And here's a story of how my grandmother's macaroni and cheese got me on TV .

I'm a self taught private chef and I own and operate a company called Frat Boy Cuisines .

I never thought I was gonna be a chef .

Somehow I just fell into this .

I'm originally from Maryland .

I grew up in a family where literally everyone in the house cooks .

I went to college at State University .

Upon graduating , I commissioned as an officer in the United States Air Force and I managed to get stationed out in Los Angeles Air Force Base , moving out to L A and being so far away from my family , I really miss the food specifically .

My grandmother's macaroni and cheese .

Man .

This is one thing that I just always remember growing up , we'd have it on a special occasions .

Holidays when I was a kid I probably put on about £20 because of all that good food .

She would make us , it really , really sticks to your ribs .

Seeing as though I didn't wanna have to fly all the way back to Maryland .

I gave her a phone call and luckily she was willing to give me the recipe .

The thing that makes my grandmother's macaroni cheese different from , say what you get from a restaurant or some other places is the texture .

It's not too loose but it's not too stiff .

She has those crispy edges around the outside that everyone fights for all that wrapped into one dish .

Just really , really takes things to the next level .

I taught myself how to make it and I feel like I really accomplished something .

I felt like I was at home .

I could get something that I knew and love whenever I wanted to .

I figured I could , I could pretty much do anything from there .

I started venturing out and trying other things .

Being stationed out here .

You run into a lot of people in the military .

You don't have a place to go for like Thanksgiving and me just loving to be around my family .

I can understand how that could be something that's difficult for somebody to be alone for the holidays , living in LA .

I just started hosting a friends giving every year .

It's good to get people together .

They're gonna eat , they're gonna drink .

Everybody's happy at Thanksgiving .

When I had all my friends over the macaroni cheese was always a hit .

So from there , I'm like , well , hey , let's start throwing more parties .

Something that got really big were Caribbean nights .

And in my Caribbean nights , I specifically would make this curry chicken , good curry chicken .

Would just hug you .

It's so comforting , it's so warming .

It really makes you feel at home and just makes you feel good .

So now I call it no hurry .

Curry chicken .

I realized I had a little ego .

I'm like , all right .

So this is my thing .

Now , after I got out of the Air Force , I rolled in us c into a program called the MBV program .

They want to teach people how to , you know , start a business halfway through attending grad school is when I auditioned for the show , Master Chef , I was this close to making it on the show , but I didn't make it .

I realized that maybe I do have a talent .

It was my passion .

I enjoyed doing it from there .

Frat boy cuisines was born and master chef wasn't the last chance I had to be on a cooking show .

One day .

My friend reached out to me on Facebook and said I should try out for the show on Food Network called Tailgate Battles .

Tailgate Battles is a show where they take the ultimate tailgators and have them compete against each other .

I took my grandmother's macaroni and cheese and then I added jerk chicken with a mango habanero sauce on there .

I thought that it was really , really wild of judges .

One of the judges actually has a Caribbean food truck .

So when he came there , he was like , oh man , you , you really wanna give me a jerk chicken when this is what I do and they really , really loved it .

Your grandmama taught you right .

This , the competition was tough and I made it to the top three .

I didn't win that one .

But hey , they were definitely thoroughly impressed in the dish I prepared .

My grandmother was super excited that I used her macaroni and cheese and she was really , really , really happy , really proud .

My goal is to open up my own restaurant where I have a lot of finger foods , a great vibe , something that people can really enjoy .

I don't know what the future holds , but I do know I love cooking and I'm gonna see how far that takes me .