With rising grocery prices, many Americans are struggling to provide healthy, complete meals for their families. One chef is teaching his TikTok followers how to eat well on a budget, one $5 meal at a time. Deema Zein reports.
Amna Nawaz:
With rising grocery prices, many Americans are struggling to provide healthy, complete meals for their families.
Geoff Bennett:
“News Hour” digital anchor Deema Zein has the story of one chef who teaches his TikTok followers how to eat well on a budget one $5 meal at a time.
Maurice Levene:
You should not feel ashamed because you can’t afford to make a meal. There’s no shame in that. Everybody goes through struggles.
Deema Zein:
Chef Maurice Levene, or Chef Moe, as he’s known on TikTok, isn’t your typical culinary creator. High-energy and boiling over with positivity, he specializes in creating delicious recipes on a tiny budget.
Maurice Levene:
How to feed your family with $5.
Deema Zein:
And, no, we aren’t talking about a PB&J. Chef Moe teaches followers how to plan, shop and prepare meals like sausage, biscuits and gravy, veggie Alfredo and even shepherd’s pie.
Well, he dubs it Chef Moe’s Pie, but Chef Moe didn’t start out as a penny-pinching chef. He launched his account last year to share cooking tips, but he soon learned some of his followers were struggling to afford basic necessities.
Maurice Levene:
There was one message in particular of someone expressing how they thought the dish was amazing, they couldn’t wait to try it, but they had to wait until next month to buy the ingredients to make the dish.
So I had reached back and I asked, what exactly do they need, are they missing to make that dish?
Deema Zein:
Levene learned that the commenters’ life circumstances had changed in a blink of an eye.
Maurice Levene:
They didn’t have certain spices, something that I take for granted, you take for granted, and we wouldn’t think how somebody couldn’t have salt and pepper or someone couldn’t have paprika. And that really — that was my eye-opening moment that people need help.
Deema Zein:
And just like that, the Mount Pocono, Pennsylvania-based chef launched a new budget-conscious series on his channel, how to feed a family with just $5 or $10.
Maurice Levene:
And I said, I’m going to make meals for $5. So I had — went out to the store, I hit record. I said, let’s feed your family for a meal of $5 or less.
Our total is $4.19. Holy (expletive deleted). We even got change for a drink.
Deema Zein:
Chef Moe takes his viewers through stores like Dollar General, explaining why he’s choosing specific items, striving for balanced nutrition and budget.
Maurice Levene:
Let me see. We got garlic and herb. It already has the garlic in it, it has herbs in it, and a sauce. We’re getting an onion, so we’re building flavor now.
Deema Zein:
In the kitchen, he details his every move to viewers, educating them on culinary techniques that add flavor to dishes on the cheap.
Maurice Levene:
Go look at how much fat was rendered. That’s all flavor. All that oily-looking substance, that’s fat from these sausages.
I explained how to emulsify sauces, how to bring these flavors together, how to marry them to where they sit on the palate, and you don’t have to feel like it’s a $5 meal. You can actually smile and enjoy it.
Deema Zein:
After nearly a quarter-century in the culinary field and eight years as a head chef, Levene hopes to pass a dash of his expertise and intrigue about the science of cooking onto his viewers.
Maurice Levene:
Instead of just showing how to make the dish, why don’t we explain why we’re doing this and this for the dish so that we will build a confidence in people so they could be able to cook?
Deema Zein:
Now a full-time social media chef armed with more than 800,000 TikTok followers and growing, Chef Moe hopes he can continue to help families struggling with rising food prices in an unpredictable economy.
Maurice Levene:
What I think the most important thing of what I do is getting food into the bellies of people that need it. It’s helping the people that need that help that are too embarrassed or ashamed to ask for it because that’s a big problem. Food insecurity is a real thing.
Deema Zein:
And his followers appreciate the help. Comments pour in from people around the nation thankful for Chef Moe’s creative approach to tasty and affordable meals.
Maurice Levene:
That’s how you feed a family of four for $5.
I’m not going to stop world hunger. But if I can help a few people, I’d be honored to.
Deema Zein:
A sentiment that is seasoned to perfection.
For PBS News, I’m Deema Zein.
