A Tribute to George Foreman: An Unexpected Kitchen—The George Foreman Grill

The Kitchen Sisters Present

The Kitchen Sisters & Radiotopia

Society & Culture

4.6 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 1 April 2025

⏱️ 24 minutes

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Summary

In 2004, we opened up a phone line on NPR asking people to tell us about their Hidden Kitchens— secret, underground, below the radar cooking, and how people come together through food. One caller told us about immigrants and homeless people, who didn't have official kitchens, using the George Foreman Grill to make meals and a home. Did George Foreman know about this? We called him up to find out.

George Foreman the legendary two-time World Heavy Weight Champion and Olympic gold medalist talked with us about growing up hungry and violent, about his time in the Job Corps, about his career and comeback, about becoming a preacher, and his work with kids. “Feed them,” he says. “Hunger makes you angry.”

In honor of George Foreman who left this earth March 21, 2025, The Kitchen Sisters Present an Unexpected Kitchen: The George Foreman Grill and Beyond.

"No one should be given up on. You never lose your citizenship as a human being just because you've been in trouble." - George Foreman

The Kitchen Sisters Present is produced by The Kitchen Sisters (Davia Nelson & Nikki Silva) with Nathan Dalton and Brandi Howell. Thanks to Laura Folger, Kate Volkman and Melissa Robbins for production help on this story. And thanks to our Hidden Kitchens series co-producer, Jay Allison. Special thanks to the National Endowment for the Arts. The Kitchen Sisters Present is part of the Radiotopia network from PRX.

Transcript

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0:00.0	RadioTopia. Welcome to The Kitchen Sisters present.
0:04.0	We're The Kitchen Sisters, Davia Nelson, and Nikki Silva.
0:10.2	It's Nikki of the Kitchen Sisters, and I'm very excited to tell you about NeverPost, the newest show in the Radiotopia family.
0:18.3	Have you ever wondered why is the internet like that? That's the question
0:22.4	the folks at NeverPost try to answer in each episode. Why is there something called
0:27.3	influencer voice? What's the deal with TikTok shop? What is posting disease? And do you have it?
0:34.6	The team NeverPost wonders why the internet and the world because of the
0:38.4	internet is the way it is. NeverPost talks to artists, linguists, content creators, sociologists, historians,
0:46.3	philosophers, and more about our current tech and media moment. From PRX's Radiotopia, NeverPost,
0:58.4	episodes every other week at neverpoe.st and wherever you find pods. In 2004, we opened up a phone line on National Public Radio asking people
1:07.8	to tell us their stories about hidden kitchens, secret, underground, below-the-radar cooking,
1:14.4	how people come together through food.
1:16.8	Today, in honor of George Foreman, who recently passed, the Kitchen Sisters present
1:22.0	an unexpected kitchen, the George Foreman Grill.
1:27.8	Message 23 was received at 1.10 p.m. today.
1:32.9	I'm Margaret Engle. A woman who works for legal aid was talking to me about how many of her clients
1:38.7	get dinner. The people who struggle to even get food on the table because they don't have an official kitchen
1:45.8	and who are using George Foreman Grills and the like.
1:49.9	The George Horman Grill has been an amazing success story as a kitchen appliance,
1:54.3	but what I think many people don't realize is that immigrants and low-income people have contributed to that popularity.
2:02.0	That is, to me, the epitome of the Hidden Kitchen.
2:05.1	Wow.
	...

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