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FLATBUSHCENTRAL613238A_2023-06-13-08-40-32

Well, this week we're gonna be highlighting the places that make up our borough. Yeah. Today we're headed to Flatbush Avenue where News Twelve's Noel Lily is with Chef Grant and Noel. What are you up to? What are you two rather easy for me to say up to cooking this morning? Guys. Right now, I am joined by Chef and Grant. Now, she has been a private chef for NBA players. She's been on the Food Network. She is a Brooklyn night. We've got a lot of good stuff going on here. Now, chef, thanks so much for being here and tell us what are we gonna be making today? Oh, thank you so much for giving me this opportunity today. I have a nice menu here for here. We have some small bites. We have some big bites. We have uh starting off with some crab cake tacos with ali. We have um a New York strip steak with her, a barrio rice and um some grilled zucchini. And then we have a red Thai curry, colossal shrimp with fresh herb pasta and chef. Tell me, how did you first start get cooking? You have such an inspiring story and I know you wanna get. Um Well, I didn't always think I was gonna be a chef. I was a social worker for 11 years. I worked with S E O Famous Services. That's actually the agency that I was in foster care with my whole life. Um And then I got very sick. Uh 2000 1017 2018, I had a pseudo tumor that turned into a benign brain tumor. I had ovarian cancer twice. I battled that from 17 until about two years ago. Uh So when my right side of my body shut down, like I had nerve damage, so my brain shut down, nerve shut down. Five months, didn't know what the actual condition was. Um And I lost my job. I didn't know what to do. I'm a social worker. I thought I was gonna be a super social worker. My said when you get back your motor skills working, go to culinary school and I'm like culinary school and here you are today, here you are today and tell me, um I know that, you know, a lot of this involves nutrition and you actually are have a background in a, in being a nutritional coach. Can you tell me a little bit about why that's important as well? Uh Well, right now, primarily because of the pandemic and all of the health concerns that happened with the pandemic. Everybody now was watching their weight. We, we literally a lot of us gained a lot of weight and a lot of health conditions due to that down time and a lot of us didn't take care of our health. So nutrition right now in its prime, it's so healthy to get back on track. Um, with, with this food in general, the way that it's being produced and consumed, making sure you're putting the right type of foods, the right type of nutritions in your body to get back to where we used to be and where we wanna be for like long term growth. Yes, got it. I'm gonna let you start plating some of this. Now again, guys, we are here at Flatbush Central where they have lots of different food vendors, clothing vendors. Um And yeah, I also do want to talk about as well. I know that you have been on chopped on the food network. Can you tell me about that? I have um So I did, I got called for shop. I didn't even apply for it. They called me, they saw my social media, they love my presence and my energy. That was my first Food Network show. Um It was invigorating. Uh I made it to the second round. Uh But it was like a great experience to learn how the process of TV works. Um And learning about food and how it's produced on TV. Uh an experience that actually led me to two other shows. So shock was like the best show I ever was on another fantastic place in Brooklyn again. I want you to get a chance to play some of that and you can put some of that together for us. Um Yeah, just a great location here, guys. Again, Flatbush Central. We are joined with uh Chef Grant and for now I'll send it back to you guys in the studio.

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KLNFLATBUSH613237A_2023-06-13-07-45-36

Street, Brooklyn this morning and all week we are going to be highlighting the places that make up our borough. Yeah. News Twelve's Noel Lily has been quite busy this week right now. She's at Flatbush Central, a Caribbean marketplace on Catan Avenue with Chef Nadi Florimon. Noel. What are you two cooking up this morning? Yeah, guys, first, you gotta get the workout in right now. Reward yourself with a meal. So I am joined here by Chef Flora of Bannan in Flatbush Central. Now she owns a lot of different businesses. But what we're gonna talk about is the food she's got going here first. Chef, tell me, what are you making today? We are making the plan sandwich and we're making it with Red Snapper. Ok. And I know that you are a proud Haitian woman. Tell me a little bit about your background and how you got into to all of this. We have so many Caribbean communities here in Brooklyn. Yes. Yes. Yes. And Flat Center is definitely a hub for it all. Um I mean, I came to the United States at seven years old and Brooklyn is kind of like the home for Caribbeans all over. So when it was an opportunity to open a restaurant, I've owned a catering company for 20 years. I wanted to pay homage to my Haitian heritage. Hence why the name is, is the Haitian Creole word for plan spelled differently here because we wanted to give it that phonetic sound. So anyone can say it and it's a little play on the word bun, right? Because our buns are actually made out of plankton. So we put the B UN to indicate that. And then we have great flavors like grilled pork, which is a signature Haitian dish, red snapper mushrooms, you know, our vegetarians, we gotta think about them too. But really, I just know the food is the universal love language of the world, world, right? So I wanted to create a dish plantings which everyone loves Latin Americans, Haitians, all the Africans from all the different countries. So, you know, just really food I feel is the way to connect the world. And you said your dad is the one who taught you to cook, right? Yes. Yes. My dad is a phenomenal cook. So when we, I came to the United States, it was just the two of us. So he taught me how to cook at a pretty early age and then of course, he stopped so that you could take over. I took over. And when I went over to Co uh Columbia University, I just felt so homesick. It was my first time away from Brooklyn, being away from the Caribbean community. And I started cooking as a way to educate people about uh about Haiti, about the world and seeing our connections, how we are more alike than we are different through food. And it just became my life's work. Absolutely. I'm gonna let you get to because guys, I wanna eat. So we need to let the chef get to cooking. But yes, we are here at Flatbush Central and at this location, there are all kinds of restaurants. Stores, you can really get involved and find out more about the Caribbean community and try some of the food and stuff you have here. But guys, I'm gonna send it back to you and I'm gonna enjoy some of this food here with the chef again. Bannan Chef Flora and you can, uh we'll send it back to you guys in the studio for now.

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KLNCRUNCH613236A

We are helping you get ready for summer here on News 12. Welcome back to News 12, Brooklyn, where local matters this week, we are going to be highlighting the places that make up our borough this morning. We're heading to Crunch Fitness on Flatbush Avenue where News Twelve's Noel Lily is with trainer Emmanuel and Christie. You know, every time we toss it out to Noel, she's already like way into the work out doing stuff all at all different places. Noel, what's going on there now? Yeah, guys, you're late, you're late. I've already been working out. I'm breaking out a sweat here, catching my breath a little bit. So to give that a chance, I'm gonna let Emanuel here speak. He is a trainer here at Crunch Fitness. Been training people for four years new to this location. But Emanuel tell me we know that there are Crunch Fitness gyms across Brooklyn, across the city. What makes this one so special? Well, for starters we, um, we offer the Crunch one kick off and that is the most important thing that comes with your membership. A road map to your fitness goals. What do you want to achieve. You wanna lose weight? Do you want to gain weight? Do you wanna build muscle body recomposing? You name it. We also offer group fitness classes, those classes considered Pilates, um yoga, um yoga classes as well. We have stilettos classes. Case may be band camp. All these things is very accessible to where, what you wanna do inside the gym. Awesome. And I know the tag line of fitness is no judgments. Why is that so important when we go to the gym? I don't wanna feel judged. Oh, most definitely. Um No judgment is coming in being, you know, we want to inspire people to come in and coming in at a nice pace and being able to do what they have to do at a rate where we could teach them and help them become better at their fitness goals and what they wanna be able to achieve. Awesome Emmanuel. Can you show me one more? I want to see one more with the weights guys. I'm gonna try it again. Now all my rings are gonna close today for sure, guys. So he's gonna show me one more. Let me get some as well, right. This good form, good form. I love it. Good stuff. Yeah, guys, I'm getting tired, I'm getting tired, so I'm gonna send it back to you. But again, crunch fitness here on Flatbush Avenue, come take a session with Emanuel. You're definitely not going to regret it. And I'm gonna try to get back to my workout. I'll send it back to you guys for now.

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BKMAWUSIFITNESS613235A_2023-06-13-05-50-34

That time of year. Welcome back to News 12 Brooklyn, where local matters this week, we are going to be highlighting the places that make up our borough. Absolutely. This morning we head out to Moi Fitness on Flatbush Avenue where News Twelve's Noel Lily is with the owner, Juan. Good morning, Noel. Great day for a workout. Yeah, that's right guys and I am dressed for it. I came prepared as you said, I'm here at Fitness on Flatbush Avenue and I'm joined by the owner Juan Gold Bern. Now we do know that they offer a lot of different classes here, Juan, one of them being kickboxing. You might hear that in the background as we're talking here. But Juan, tell me what other things people can do when they come to your fitness center out of a fitness center. We have kickboxing classes. Of course, as you just mentioned, we have dance and drip um and who is no on the to practice kick boxing, but she has her own dance and classes here too. We have yoga and we have uh other classes like boxing and one on one personal training, which is also one of the things that we offer. So we, we train people to lose weight, lose fat and also to go into competition by the building also. And I know you've been at this location for around five years, about five years now, already part of a big, a big part of the community here. Absolutely. Tell me a little bit. Why is that important to you? It's important to me, me because this community is a very mixed one when it comes to the Caribbean culture. And we administer a lot to the Caribbean culture and to the the the just the mixed culture in Flatbush in general. You know, a lot of the people outside the homeless people. Sometimes we, we go there, we, we share, we distribute clothes for the homeless people, um food. And we aim to put classes such as for kids to, to teach them how to, to become productive people in the community. So, and besides our kickboxing classes or dance and dr classes and thing we aim to do to be a part of the community to uplift and grow this place. And you mentioned again, being Caribbean yourself, how much of the work you do in the dances classing, for example, rooted in that history, rooted in that Caribbean culture. Oh, a lot of it, a lot of it um dance. And for example, it's um it's a Jamaican art of dancing, which a lot of people would look at things like ballet and, and other kind of dancing as something very uh official. Like there's a stage for it, you know what I'm saying? But the Jamaican kind of dancing is something that came over to Jamaica through, through our ancestors from Africa. And now it's in, in the Caribbean. It has evolved into what is now known as um as um Twin or, and not just working as a, as a bad name, but you know, C C right there. She is more versed on explaining these things. So I'm trying to do my Yes. No, you're doing great. You're doing great. Not your typical Zumba class guys. Not your typical Zumba class. Yes. And it's a full body workout class. You know, in those classes, their leg works, their upper body work, shoulder abs and you know, full body workout guys, full body workout here, not your typical Zumba class. Now, I'm gonna try to take a swing at it myself. You guys, all right. So I got a little bit of a tip beforehand. You said bend the knees, right? I gotta turn my hips. OK. OK. I got to turn the hips all the way. I'm gonna keep practicing you guys. I'm gonna keep practicing, but we'll be back. We'll be back here. Fitness, Flatbush Avenue guys. I'm trying, I'm trying, I heard Mai Fitness on Flatbush Avenue, send it back to you guys for now.

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News 12 takes a trip to Flatbush Avenue to visit the varied local businesses that call Brooklyn home.

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Main Street: Getting into shape, tasting local cuisines along Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn

News 12 takes a trip to Flatbush Avenue to visit the varied local businesses that call Brooklyn home.

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