Ludacris’ Journey from Rapper to Culinary Personality

The rapper Ludacris, born Christopher Brian Bridges, moved to Atlanta at the age of 9, where he remains to this day. Ludacris started rapping at a young age, getting his break in the hip-hop scene through jobs such as a DJ and eventually as a founder of his record label, Disturbing Tha Peace. Nothing in his early life revealed the surprising arc that turned Ludacris from a rapper to a culinary student.

Since the release of his first album, “Incognero,” Ludacris has gone on to experience mainstream success through not only hip-hop but also acting. The storied rapper has won three Grammys, as well as a Critics Circle Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and an MTV Music Video Award.

But while the talented rapper and actor has achieved success as an entertainer, it was his foray into his next field that had more than a few people scratching their heads.

While some fans of Ludacris might say that he’s a master at the hip-hop game, the award-winning rapper and actor decided to try something new for a change. Specifically, a skill in which he has said that he was terrible: cooking. The rapper turned culinary personality told Mashed magazine that while his spouse, Eudoxie, is a superb cook, the rapper rated his cooking skills as “subpar.”

It was then that Ludacris wanted to level up his cooking game. He recruited James Beard Award-nominated chefs like Meharwan Irani as teachers to train and guide in his first cooking project, “Luda Can’t Cook.”

In the trailer for the special, the award-winning musician tastes a variety of dishes from different international cuisines while talking about his lack of skill in this area. Ludacris has stated that Indian food is one of his favorite international cuisines, saying that “Indian food is so flavorful. It’s so intricate. It’s one of those things I’m just intrigued by and I want to learn about.”

While it’s true that some people couldn’t cook their way out of a paper bag, most people can prepare at least a couple of meals should the need arise. For Ludacris, his story about how he went from a rapper to culinary notoriety, started with one meal that he can cook pretty well: tacos. “The whole ‘Luda can’t cook’ is only 99 percent true. There’s one percent. I can cook tacos.”

Tacos may be hard to mess up, but there is a lot that you can do with the Mexican staple if you want to be creative. What Luda has proved is that you can go from only being able to cook a simple dish and make it taste good to a person who can make passable dishes that your family and friends just might like.

In 2016, Ludacris opened his very first restaurant, Chicken N Beer, at the Hartfield-Jackson Airport. Other than that, he has many projects surrounding music, acting, and even cooking in various stages of development.

While Luda might never become a world-class chef like Marcus Samuelsson or Melba Wilson, he is one public figure who proves that you’re never too old to learn something new.