Take one South Los Angeles Crip. Add an equal measure of Compton Piru. Throw in a heaping handful of culinary intelligence and toss thoroughly.
The outcome is Trap Kitchen, an underground catering duo of childhood friends, who happen to run with conflicting gangs, that made its bones slanging daily-changing takeout from one of the chefs’ South Los Angeles apartments.
Trap chefs-and-owners, Malachi Jenkins aka “Spanikhanas” and Roberto Smith, have catered Wiz Khalifa’s 30th birthday, Kendrick Lamar’s wedding and cooked for Snoop, Cube and Kobe. Oh, and Martha Stewart, of course.
Now Trap Kitchen is putting the secret behind their South LA delicacies into your hands, releasing the first eponymous Trap Kitchen Cookbook.
The 120-page book is out now from publisher Milk & Vodka and available on Amazon.
Unlike your typical cookbook, you’ll find the word “fuck” a lot, along with 36 recipes infused with hip-hop wordplay, including Trap favorites such as “Cheese Up” lobster mac, “If You Like Shrimp and Grits and All That Pimp Shit,” “Collard If You Hear Me” and fried chicken-and-waffles, which need no pun.
There’s also a forward by Jenkins, who dropped out of le Cordon Bleu in Las Vegas to go cook for a pimp. You know, your typical chef's path to celebrity.