South Carolina Man Learns to Cook to Honor Late Father, Now Owns a Restaurant

Octavius "Tay" Nelson learns to cook by watching videos on YouTube to honor his late father. Now, he owns a restaurant and has employed 60 people. Growing up, he used to wash dishes in the restaurant where his father had worked as a cook.

Good food that has brought joy

Nelson had always seen how the food his father had cooked brought joy to so many people outside of their family. He wanted to honor his late dad and brother by being engaged in their shared passion.

Learned skills by watching "how-to" videos

The only problem was that Nelson did not know how to cook. Thus, he decided to turn to YouTube and watch endless videos to learn. He watched "how-to" videos that taught him kitchen skills. He told GNN that he watched every video he could find. He said that in doing so, he was able to learn everything from cooking different types of meat to running a restaurant to business-related tips.

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Eventually, Nelson launched a line of all-natural seasonings at home in Fountain Inn, South Carolina. He was inspired by his late dad's recipes. However, opening a restaurant was his ultimate dream. He, therefore, searched everything he needed to know on YouTube about running a food business.

At first, Nelson started a catering business. In 2018, he was finally able to make his dream come true by opening a restaurant. He named his restaurant after his dad and brother. "Bobby's BBQ" has already provided dozens of jobs for people in his community.

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More than 35,000 people have already tested the house-made rub seasonings that he used to make his barbecues. Nelson is incredibly grateful that they have managed to be open despite the pandemic.

He said that they want to continue having a positive impact on their community and to keep his staff employed.

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For the past months of being in lockdown, many restaurants have already been forced to close down. Many people have no choice but to learn how to cook for themselves. Restaurants who could still cope with the unbearable loss are lucky enough.

According to Reuters, many Americans are cooking meals at home as what is seen in a survey. The outlet suggests that the health crisis has made people save leftover food, which could have a good impact on climate change if many will do the same.

The US Department of Agriculture estimates that about 30 to 40 percent of American food is wasted before the pandemic happened. Based on the Waste FAQs page, the government agency noted that the 31 percent food loss equates to about 133 billion pounds. It is roughly $161 billion worth of food in 2010.