Kickin' it with a kook: an interview with YouTube extraordinaire Angela McKeller

 When you first meet Angela McKeller, YouTube star and genius behind kickbackkook.com,  you see that she looks like a model. She’s skinny, blonde and tall, with a strange blend of gold and green in her eyes. You stand as she walks toward you and worry that you won't have anything in common as the two of you meet for drinks. Then she laughs. One of those full-throttled belly laughs that makes the too- cool hipster wait staff a little nervous. This is when you know you’ll love her as much as Paula Deen did when she invited Angela on her show. 

Cook, kook, YouTube sensation, celeb podcast extravagant, renowned blogger, highly desired cooking teacher and author of new-cookbook Passion on a Plate; Angela is an all-encompassing Skirt! superstar! 

Tell me about how you first developed your business and what you were doing before all of this. 

 I was working in insurance claims. Anyone who knew me was saying “what was she thinkin?" I felt like I was putting out fires all the time. People yelled at me all day long. Then, in 2004 I auditioned for Hell’s Kitchen and made it down to the last 25 people. I walked away from it (without going to the last interviews) because being on a show called Heaven’s Kitchen is one thing; I wasn’t ready to have people yell in my face again. What really assured me of my cooking talents was when I won a recipe contest for a Bed and Breakfast in Asheville, NC. The day I won the contest, Time magazine came in the mail and on the cover was a mirror and an article about YouTube. I didn’t even know what YouTube was. After looking at myself in the mirrored cover for a while, I knew I wanted to find out. 

Angela started her own YouTube cooking show called “Kick Back and Kook.” People immediately gravitated towards Angela’s charming southern twang and her laid back approach to cooking. She earned a viewership that stretched across the globe 

Angela began teaching cooking classes at the prestigious Cook’s Warehouse in Atlanta. She had no formal training, but had earned ten years of experience working in restaurants and in study groups for college classmates.

Why were you cooking for your study groups? 

My parents couldn’t help me pay for college. I had a Hope scholarship but couldn’t afford the books, not on a server’s pay. I  couldn’t make ends meet. So i made friends with people in my classes. I’d ask if they lived with their parents or if they were from out of town. If they didn’t have any family around, I thought, “jackpot I’ll cook them a home cooked meal!” I’d tell them that if we formed a study group where we shared notes and I could borrow their books, then I’d cook them dinner. I didn’t have to pay for a single text book my entire time in school. 

I was broke a lot of the time, but because my great grandmother survived the Depression and taught me how I could survive, I made it through.  I’m grateful for the recession because the lessons Mom Buck taught me live on in these times. She just died. She was completely lucid until three days before she died at 95. 

What’s your favorite thing to cook?

Breakfast. It’s easy to cook. It’s easy to eat. It’s easy to afford and it can still be healthy for you. 

What’s your favorite thing to eat?

 I like weird adventurous stuff. When I was living in Belgium I fell in love with these fries served with roast beef sauce and mayonaisse. It looked and sounded disgusting, but it was heaven. 

Tell me about the experience of writing your first cookbook, “Passion on a Plate”

It took six months to write and all of it was taken from Mom Buck advice and the things I learned from international travel. All of these people had been telling me that they love these 30 minute cookbooks, but that the recipes never take 30 minutes. I made sure that there was little to no prep work involved with these recipes-which is what really slows cooking down. 

Mom Buck taught you how to cook when you were in Elementary School.  She is your favorite person in the world, so much so that you wrote this book for her. What is the greatest lesson you ever learned from Mom Buck, outside of cooking? 

No matter how bad of a day I’m having, all of my probelms melt away with the butter. The reason the kitchen is my playground and the reason why cooking is that way for me is because Ma Buck came over every Thursday of my upbringing to cook with me. She was like a second mother to me. She would take me to the kitchen and say “you’re amazing, no matter what we decide we’re going to make today we’re going to be amazing.” She made me believe I was a superstar. And everyday I wake up as a superstar because of her. 

10% of all proceeds from your podcast go to the spinal muscular atrophy charity, Hope and Light Foundation.  How did you get interested in this disease?

 My ex-husband has the disease. He was in a wheelchair when I met him. Then one day he took a prescription medicine for a urine infection. He was (unknowingly) allergic to the medication and it paralyzed him after only two days of taking it. This was while we were engaged. We still got married and stayed together for five years.We evolved into best friends instead of lovers. I kept his last name because I respect him and his family so much. Hope and Light has had more of an impact on finding a cure for spinal muscular atrophy than any other organization, which is why I chose it. 

 What plans are on the horizon?

 I’m going to be on Oprah’s new channel, Own. She’s looking for a host for a cooking show and I just put in my application. I have a picture of Oprah and I in the kitchen on my “vision board” at home.  I manifest my own reality. And I’ve already manifested this as my realty. I am determined to see Mom Buck’s legacy live on. 

To learn more about Angela, her multiple projects, and Mom Buck, check out her website: kickbackkook.com