Hot 97’s DJ Young Chow Plans to Prep His Love of Caribbean Meals Vegan-Style

Being a DJ typically shapes your mindset on the virtues of entrepreneurship as you venture out to make sure you’re working to pay bills and experience doing something you love. For Hot 97’s DJ Young Chow, nee Patrick Chow, having Soca DJ King Chow, as his father, opened his eyes for his love of music. At 9-years-old, Young Chow played at his first party in Miami at the Ramada Hotel. He’s been DJing ever since.

The Baron Tequila Brand Ambassador, who has traveled the world showcasing his musical talents on the turntables, is also a restaurant owner. He has expanded his business empire with the launch of Vegan Plan Meal Prep. Young Chow took his hands off the wheels of steel and stepped out the kitchen briefly in order to talk to BLACK ENTERPRISE about his new venture and what makes him happy.

BE: When did you become vegan and how important is that lifestyle to you in what you do?

Chow: Honestly, I’m not a vegan. I’m a pescatarian at the moment transitioning into becoming a full vegan. I met up with my partners Wes & Ash and I tried their food and it was so amazing, I had to tell the world. I’m definitely going to be full vegan soon because I love the way it makes me feel.

You’ve recently launched Vegan Plan Meal Prep. Tell us details about the company and your plans going forward.

The plans for our vegan meal plan is quite simple. We give the people three options of 3, 5, and 10 meal packages a week. Our plans with our business spread our vegan meal preps throughout the entire world in every city and every country.

As an entrepreneur, what other businesses are you involved in and how do you juggle all you do to make sure you’re doing a good job?

As an entrepreneur, it’s definitely overwhelming doing a vegan business and my other business, which is my Caribbean take out restaurant. It’s called Caribbean Kitchen and it’s located at 286 Utica Ave between Eastern Parkway and Union Street in Brooklyn, New York.

Why do you feel that people of color aren’t as interested in the vegan lifestyle when it’s so important for our health? What do you propose we do, as a community, to engage people to, at least, give the lifestyle a chance?

I feel people of color are so opposed to the vegan lifestyle because all our lives we are so used to eating with a lot of meats and seasoning, especially as a Caribbean person. We love our seasoned food. What makes our vegan plan so unique is that we’re cooking Caribbean food vegan style. The same flavor, just not with the dairy and meat products.

When it comes to business, what keeps you going and wanting to continue focusing on what you create?

What keeps me motivated and keeps me going is the love I have for what I’m doing. I love music, I love DJing, and I love food cause I’m the greediest person in the world. But seriously, food makes people happy and I love seeing people eat my food and it’s cheering them up. Everything I do is about love and if I don’t love it I can’t do it.