Brazzil Magazine: You and Quincy Jones have a special relationship. How did he become such a big fan our yours?
Remi: Eventually, I cooked for almost every movie star and musician in Hollywood. I met Quincy once at a dinner I cooked for some other musician. He loved my food and asked me if he could come and do something very important. He told me that he wanted to be Michael Jackson's producer but every time he invited Michael to his house, Michael would never eat. He asked me if he could get Michael to eat some of my food. He said that Michael was a vegetarian and very picky about what he ate. I said I would try.
I went to Quincy's house and there I met Michael for the first time. I took him aside and told him, "let me make you something very special. I know how to cook very healthy food from Brazil. All natural, all vegetarian. You will like it." He agreed. I made him some black beans, collard greens, farofa and some other things and he ate four plates full!
Quincy was kissing me all night long and from that time, he has called me many times to cook for him.
Brazzil Magazine: Your trip on the Michael Jackson "Thriller" tour. Tell me about how that came about.
Remi: That is another very amazing story. I was living in West Los Angeles in a small apartment when I got a phone call. The person on the phone asked me to look outside. He said: "See the limousine? Get in it, now!" I told him I could not because I was taking care of a person off the street and could not leave him. They said that they would send someone to look after the person right away and for me to get into the car. I told them I had to change my clothes because I all dirty from cleaning. They didn't care. Finally I agreed when the man arrived to take care of my guest and I was taken to a big building in Beverly Hills and up to the very top penthouse. It was very luxurious.
The man on the other side of the desk handed me a ticket and said "you are going to the airport right now. Here is your ticket." I asked him why. He explained to me that Michael Jackson was having stomach aches and specifically requested me to be his "nutritionist" on the "Thriller" tour. He was feeling sick to his stomach and refused to go on stage until they sent me to be his private cook. They were all very nervous. They said they were losing millions of dollars in canceled shows and I had to go right then.
I told them I could not and could only go in the morning. After a lot of arguing, the agreed to let me go home and they picked me up early in the morning and I was off to Birmingham Alabama.
I spent 8 weeks with Michael and his family on the road during the tour. It was an incredible trip I will never forget.
Brazzil Magazine: Did you become friends with him?
Remi: We became friends and I saw him numbers of times after that. I visited him in the hospital when his hair caught on fire and I saw him once in a while at an award's show or party.
Brazzil Magazine: They didn't call you Michael Jackson's chef. They called you his nutritionist didn't they?
Remi: Yes. When first I came to the United States, I started learning from other chefs about what is healthy and not healthy. In Brazil, we didn't worry about what ingredients we used or what happened to someone if they ate something that made them sick. That was just part of regular life there. But in the United States, people cared about what they put into their bodies and I had to learn a lot of things quickly. I am an artist in some way and being a cook, I learned to have a "love for people". I cared about whether they got a belly-ache from eating my food not only because it needs to be prepared fresh - I always did that - but because of the ingredients themselves. I started substituting different meats in the traditional Brazilian feijoada (see recipe box) and cooking lots of things vegetarian.
It was fun for me to cook this new way because in the end, I care about the taste of the food and food cook not only be a wonderful experience, but could also be nutritious and healthy.
I know I must have succeeded because Michael Jackson ate my food and he is very very particular about what he puts into his body. But because Michael is so big, I got a lot of attention around the world during the Thriller tour because they called me his nutritionist. I did after all make him stop having tummy-aches during his tour and he did not have any problem with food while I cooked for him.
O Globo Television in Brazil did a report on me on the show "Fantastico" talking about me as Michael Jackson's nutritionist. A Japanese magazine also did a story on Michael Jackson's nutritionist. Then I guess I was not a cook or chef to them. I was a "nutritionist". But today, I feel that part of being a chef IS being a nutritionist.
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