Sharing smiles one dish at a time

Scottie Johnson is a U.S. Army Retired First Sergeant turned award-winning culinary artist. He was born and raised in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, but for the last eight years, Houston County has been his home. Prior to becoming a chef, Johnson was not an experienced cook, nor had he aspired to become one. But he said God had other plans, and since 2016, he has been a master of the craft.

“I never cooked when I was in the military. My wife did all the cooking,” Johnson revealed. “I was a field artillery officer, a combat soldier. I did five deployments that included Afghanistan, Iraq and Bosnia. But, when I retired in 2015, I decided to use my Post-9/11 GI Bill to go to college. I wanted to do something different,” he stated, “so I chose to go to culinary school.”

While cooking was never his forte, Johnson admitted that he enjoyed watching The Food Network. “The cooking shows fascinated me,” he said. “I admired the way the people could take raw ingredients and create these amazing meals. When I made the decision to go to college, I challenged myself to do something really outside of my box.”

Helms College in Macon is where he got his formal training, earning his culinary arts degree in one year. “After I graduated, the school asked me to come back to be an instructor there to teach culinary arts to incoming students.” It was something else that he had never done, but Johnson said he accepted that challenge as well.

It was during his employment at Helms College that Johnson said a desire began to grow within him to do something special in the Warner Robins area. “I wanted to start my own business and share with people what had become my passion. So, I started offering personal chef services as a side business while still teaching.”

Johnson’s wife, Lowanda created the name for the business. “We are people of faith,” he explained. “We’re active in church, and in church, you hear a lot of people say that they’re blessed and highly favored. My wife said my food was very flavorful, and she reminded me of how blessed we are. Because of that, she said a good name for the business would be Blessed and Highly Flavored Cuisine.”

As a personal chef, Johnson began creating meals inside the homes of those who requested his services. “Primarily I do intimate dinner for couples or families who are celebrating an occasion. I also do larger group functions and church functions, but the more intimate settings are my specialty.” As word spread about Blessed and Highly Flavored, the demand for Johnson’s services grew to the point where he could no longer continue it as a side job only. “I started getting overwhelmed with requests,” he said. “After a year at Helms, I left so that I could focus on managing my business full time.”

Exposure of Johnson’s business increased when he and his Creole Shrimp and Grits recipe were featured in the June 2019 edition of Georgia Magazine. “That’s one of my specialty dishes; it’s amazing,” he disclosed. “The funny thing is, there was a time when I wouldn’t even eat shrimp and grits. My wife is from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and she’s the one who got me hooked on it.”

Shortly after the magazine feature, Johnson said a celebrity chef from The Food Network reached out through social media advertising a seafood cooking contest that was scheduled to take place in north Georgia. “It was happening at The Battery Atlanta,” Johnson recalled. “I submitted my information, and two or three weeks later, I got a call back telling me I’d been selected.”

There were four chefs chosen for the November 2019 competition. During it, participants were required to prepare impressive meals from whatever food items were provided. “They didn’t tell us ahead of time what the ingredients were going to be,” Johnson said. “It was a lot like “Chops,” the cooking show that comes on The Food Network. There were three rounds where three different meals had to be prepared within a certain time limit. When we got to the final round, I was tied with one of the other guys,” Johnson continued. “In that last round, crawfish and lobster tails were the proteins that were given to us. As it turns out, those are some of my favorite things to cook. I did a grilled lobster tail and an appaloosa sauce, which is a crawfish cream sauce. I paired it up with a black ink pasta.”

That dish gave Johnson the win, and he walked away as the undisputed champion of the first ever Georgia Seafood Fest Competition and with the title of Award-winning Chef. “I’ve been a chef now for four years now,” Johnson said. “I’m thankful for everything God has blessed me to achieve.”

When COVID-19 resulted in mandates for people to remain at home, Johnson said he was encouraged by his wife and friends to take his expertise to the internet. It was at that point that he turned the shelter-in-place ordinance into an opportunity to share his gift through social media. “People are looking for things to do at home, and I wanted to show them that cooking is fun and something that anybody could do with their spouse or even with their kids. Cooking can bring the family together and be fun at the same time.”

Johnson does his Facebook Live shows on a weekly basis and chooses to do them on either Wednesday or Thursday evenings at 6 p.m. through his Blessed and Highly Flavored Cuisine page. “It’s very neat, because the shows are raw and uncut,” he said. “It’s just me and my wife in the kitchen, and we make people feel like they are right there with us.”

During his live feeds, Johnson cooks meals while giving cooking tips based on his culinary learning and teaching. He identifies his cuisine as “Southern-Cajun,” saying that it is a blend of the southern style cooking that he grew up on and the flavorful dishes for which his wife’s hometown is best known. “I invite viewers to cook along with me, or they can go back and replay the videos later and cook what I prepared. It’s a lot of fun,” Johnson stated. “People are supposed to stay home, so I want them to know that they can use the items already in their pantry to try different dishes. And they don’t have to be professional chefs to do it.” According to Johnson, the online cooking shows have been received very well, and he is glad to be able to help spread some smiles in time of uncertainty. “We all should help encourage the community as much as we can and how ever we can. This is my way of doing that.”

People have asked Johnson if he plans to launch his own restaurant. To that, he answered, “No. At least not at this time. I love cooking, but I’m a very spiritual man. I’m a praying man. God hasn’t put that in my vision, so I’m sticking with what He’s given me to do right now.” Johnson further stated, “God has given everybody a gift, and whatever He’s gifted them to do, they need to have a vision for how to do it. I’m just a country boy from North Carolina—a veteran turned chef,” he said. “I have a passion for cooking and I just want to share it the way I’m led to share it.”

To learn more about Chef Scottie Johnson or to request the services of Blessed and Highly Flavored Cuisine LLC, visit the official website at sjcuisine.com, send an email to bahfcuisine@gmail.com, follow on Instagram at chefscottiej, and/or connect with the Facebook page at facebook.com/bahfcuisine/.

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