The ‘singing chef’ makes YouTube debut

Published 10:11 am Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Jacquetta Dufore and Joseph Price, of Ironton, along with the band Fat Mack Daddy, have taken their worship to the Web.

The team made a music video for the song “I Will Satisfy, Call On Me,” a Christian song with a Reggae beat written by Dufore herself. The video can be viewed on YouTube by typing the title in the search bar.

Price, 59, has acquired some local notoriety as the singing chef at Golden Coral in Russell, Ky.

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“What happened was, God had given me six songs, and that was one of the six songs,” Dufore said. “The Lord just put it in my spirit like one verse at a time.”

When Dufore and Leonard “Pappy” Battise of Fat Mack Daddy decided to do the video, naturally Price was who they wanted to join them. Dufore and Prince both attend New Jerusalem Church in Ironton.

“He’s got this great voice, kind of a bluesy-jazz, a rugged voice. He sings at our church all the time,” Dufore said of Price. “He is a great dude. He and his wife are some of the best people that you’d ever want to meet.”

“If there is any credit due here, it’s due to her,” Price said. He said that while it isn’t his usual style of music, it’s a song about God.

“It’s very interesting. When you’re in trouble, call on me and I’ll fix it,” Price said about the song. “I love it.”

Price began singing while working at the Golden Corral, shortly after developing a relationship with God.

Originally from Detroit, Mich., he said he was a homeless drug abuser, who was invited to the Tri-State area by a friend.

“I was still using,” Price said. “I just couldn’t find the same things I used in Detroit because I didn’t know anybody.”

With deteriorating bones, Price landed in the hospital and the bishop from New Jerusalem Church stopped in to see the man sharing a room with Price. The bishop offered to pay to allow the men to finish watching a basketball game on television if Price would agree to go to a church service.

Six months later, late on a Saturday night, Price was playing cards with some friends when he said God reminded him of his promise to the bishop.

He went to church the next morning and was baptized later that night and has grown in his relationship with God since then.

He considers his employment at the Golden Corral a blessing. He said his life has changed dramatically since having God in his life, and it was only natural for him to sing about it. He would sing while he was putting meat on the hot bar at work.

“Some customers came by and said, ‘Speak up son, sing louder.’ A lot of people would come by and say ‘Thank you, son. God bless you,’” Price said. Not everyone has been receptive though. He said after a complaint, he was asked to stop singing. He said he went to his bishop and asked him what he should do.

“My pastor told me to shut up,” Price laughed. “He said, ‘Joseph, they hired you to cook, and that’s what you need to do – cook.’ And that’s what I went back and did. I tried to stop singing, and every time I looked up I found myself singing. I just couldn’t stop it.”

Price said he lost six of his brothers to drugs and alcohol.

“I was heading the same direction. Then this thing happened with God. Things I didn’t understand,” Price said, tearing up. “I pursued the things of God. He is a good God.”

He said this is where his songs come from.

“If you see me, you will see a song in my heart, and my speech will be of God. I am learning, seeking, searching, pursuing, longing for the things of God. I know the things of the world- greedy, selfish, unsatisfied people. We ain’t nothing without God.”