How Big Zuu and AJ Tracey infiltrated the kitchens of the one per cent

What do Big Zuu, AJ Tracey and the (disputed) ‘Emperor’ of Korea have in common? A soft spot for fried chicken, apparently.

In a profoundly relatable moment in their new culinary travel show, Seriously Rich Flavours, premiering on Sky and NowTV tonight (May 20), grime stars Zuu and AJ stand across from Yi Seok, the heir to the once-mighty royal Korean House of Yi. They tell Seok that they are musicians, and ‘His Highness’ replies that his favourite song is “I Could Have Danced All Night”. Silence. “We’re more… rap,” Zuu eventually confesses. All three laugh and proceed to eat – and seemingly enjoy – Zuu’s homemade fried chicken. Where most people would have felt pressured to humour the imperial prince, Zuu and AJ have an unlikely way of levelling with some of the world’s richest figures throughout the series.

“I think because we’re very uncompromising in who we are, we’re able to connect with all these different people,” Zuu tells Dazed ahead of the show’s release. “Sometimes the tastes of the super rich can feel inaccessible to people who come from the working class, but we’re able to give insight into what it’s like to enjoy these kinds of things, and also realise that some of their food is actually dead!”

It’s a striking honesty that enables Seriously Rich Flavours to go beyond just aspirational viewing, delivering a surprisingly robust interrogation of the wealth gap that the duo have straddled their entire lives. Cousins through marriage and close friends since childhood, Zuu and AJ both grew up in and around Ladbroke Grove, an area with the biggest economic disparity in all of Europe and a prototypical example of gentrification and uneven development in London. 

Stark contrasts are felt all over the neighbourhood. Multi-million pound houses stand next to neglected high-rises; the skeleton of Grenfell Tower watches silently as Range Rovers hog the roads in ever-increasing numbers, and private security guards patrol wealthy avenues while, metres away, Metropolitan Police officers question young people’s right to walk the same streets that their parents, and their parents before them, have sold dumplings and rice ‘n’ peas on at Notting Hill Carnival.

“A few years ago, the poorest ward in all of Europe was Golbourne Road. Think about that. The poorest ward in all of Europe was in the richest borough in all of Europe. The disparity is crazy,” AJ explains. “We had to grow up leaving our house, and our mum might give us a one, two quid to get food for the day. We might not have electricity, but we’re seeing people in drop tops and Rollies. Sometimes it was demoralising, but actually it was the opposite, because me and Zuu were like ‘Cool, we don’t have that, but we can have that.’”

Have that they did, but these experiences never left them. With hits like “Thiago Silva”, “Rain”, and, of course, “Ladbroke Grove”, AJ has since cemented himself as one of the country’s biggest rap artists to date, while Zuu has carved the uncharted path of grime MC-turned-TV personality. Having produced a BBC documentary on Umrah (Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca) and become both the official winner and people’s champ of recent reality survival show Celebrity Bear Hunt, Zuu has become the charming face of a more expansive sense of Britishness on terrestrial television – one that flies in the face of the recent exclusionary turn in UK politics.

Suffice to say, the duo have packed an impressive amount of social commentary into a show about eating caviar and cooking fried chicken for the Korean ‘Emperor’, but, as always, humour is their most potent weapon. As Zuu and AJ headed off to the BAFTAs earlier this month to present the awards for Factual Series and Live Event Coverage, Zuu’s Instagram feed summed up their legacy in slightly more succinct terms: ‘The Ethnic Ant & Dec.’

Below, Big Zuu and AJ Tracey tell the story of their new TV series, Seriously Rich Flavours, including cut scenes, the show’s scrapped co-host, and their honest thoughts on foie gras. 

Hey Zuu and AJ! Can you explain your relation to each other?

AJ Tracey: We tolerate each other…

Big Zuu: …for the money. Nah, we are friends, but we’re related through marriage. One of his aunties is married to one of my uncles, which makes us cousins. I met AJ, when I was 16 in the ends, on the block. 

AJ Tracey: I’m not gonna lie, they were dark times. Good times, though! Good, dark times.

Big Zuu: Trace was our beacon of light to take us away from that world and change our destiny, all I wanted to do was lounge around.

AJ Tracey: I was no beacon of light! The truth is, at different points in our adolescence, me, Zuu and our whole friendship circle took it in turns to motivate each other, because sometimes I would want to do things that we in the Caribbean would call ‘wotless’, which means worthless – like hanging around, being a degenerate, doing nothing. Sometimes I wanted to be wotless and Zuu would be like, ‘Bro, come we go do x, y, z.’ Then, sometimes Zuu would want to do certain things and I’d say, ‘Bro, come we just go do this,’ and then we’d just get motivated. 

So, was it always the concept of having you two for this show? 

Big Zuu: I pitched the show to Sky a while ago, and they sent me a list of people that they think would be good for co-hosting. It was actually supposed to be Johnny Vegas at first, me and Johnny Vegas going to Africa… that never worked out. I was like, ‘You know what? None of these bruddas are making any sense. Why don’t we do Trace?’ To be fair, Sky were game straight away. I’m just very happy that they commissioned a show as big as this for a relationship that wasn’t tried-and-tested on television. It gave us a chance, and I definitely think it’s paid off. 

AJ, you say in the first episode that you would never have imagined you both would end up in a place like this. Is that true?

AJ Tracey: It’s true. Bro, to be honest with you, the circumstances in which we were placed were obviously out of our control, but we both have highly zealous, intelligent mothers who instilled confidence in us. I don’t want to toot our own horns: we were both very intelligent, but we obviously are both ADHD as well. So we’d get very distracted. Sometimes we were around the right crowd, and sometimes the wrong crowd, but we were always motivated to become something and do something great. My mum is a youth worker, and Zuu always used to see my mum and talk about how they could do things for the community, what could be effective ways of talking to the youth.

Big Zuu: I mean, the funny thing is that [since then] me and Trace have travelled to a lot of places across the world, we’d eat food and link mad people. This show is just about that being on camera.

I think that’s what makes this show so special, too, though. Like with the Korean emperor, you’re both very uncompromising in who you are, but you always seem to win them over in the end.

Big Zuu: Yeah! We had Yi Seok singing bare karaoke. We even asked him, ‘Where should we go get lit in Korea?’ And he told us all the places to get lit. He was very down-to-earth. I feel like, on paper, Zuu and AJ linking His Royal Highness might feel like it could go a bit left. But, in real life, because we’re very uncompromising in who we are as people, we’re able to connect with different people throughout the show. Like we were in New York, we met this mad billionaire that owns one of the most expensive hotels of all time, and him and AJ are just bussing convo in the corner. AJ took his number and he was like, ‘Yeah, shout if you need anything!’

I know a lot of people are gonna watch it and they’re gonna be colour blind. We might not sound like them, we might not look like them, but they know if they were in that Korean place eating hanwoo beef, they’d enjoy it, too

– Big Zuu

You said it on Bear Hunt, too: ‘Food is the great leveller’.

Big Zuu: Bro, food connects all levels, from class to race to sex. I think the show is a testament to how, sometimes, the tastes of the super rich can feel inaccessible to people that come from the working class, but we’re able to give insight into what it’s like to enjoy these kinds of things, and also to realise that some of their food is dead! 

AJ Tracey: I’m going to go on the record and say: I do not agree with eating foie gras, honestly. It just doesn’t make sense to me. You’re pumping up this duck’s liver, giving it a horrible life, just for eating?

But that relatability is also quite radical, considering the history of UK TV, right? Zuu, you had households all over the country watching a documentary about Umrah.

Big Zuu: Not to get too deep into politics, but I think it’s interesting with all the stuff that’s going on right now in terms of immigration in England. This show celebrates food across the world and people coming together from different nations, I really appreciate that Sky let us do that at this time.

AJ Tracey: You’re right, it’s an important time to do it. Because, no matter what people think when they look at us, and with whatever’s going on right now in UK politics, they can still see, at the end of the day, we’re British. We’re doing something that everyone on some level can connect with. 

Big Zuu: I know a lot of people are gonna watch it and they’re gonna be colour blind. They’re just going to appreciate us as young men going across the world and trying stuff. We might not sound like them, we might not look like them, but they know if they were in that Korean place eating hanwoo beef, they’d enjoy it, too. 

Also, with the lack of youth club funding in recent years, it’s important for other young people to look at you and see people who are succeeding in careers like this. 

AJ Tracey: Bro, 100 per cent. Look, we’re both from the same place. We didn’t have the greatest chances, but we found what we liked, we tried multiple things, we pivoted and we made it work. It’s a testament to [the fact] that anyone could do it. I really think that if you can make it in London, honestly, you can make it anywhere. 

I mean, West London in particular, right?

AJ Tracey: West London, specifically, is the hardest place. We’re from the poorest ward in Europe, as of a few years ago. My data is a little bit old, but a few years ago, the poorest ward in the whole of Europe was Golbourne Road. Think about that. The poorest ward in the whole of Europe is in the richest borough in all of Europe. The disparity is crazy. We had to grow up with us lot leaving our house, and our mum might give us a one, two quid to get food for the day. We might not have electricity, but we’re seeing people in drop tops and Rollies. Sometimes it was demoralising, but actually it was the opposite, because me and Zuu were like ‘Cool, we don’t have that, but we can have that.’ 

That actually reminds me, at the end of the Korea episode, the ‘Emperor’ says ‘God Bless America!’ Why do you think he said that?

AJ Tracey: Bro, this might be super deep, but this is my honest opinion... I’m from Trinidad, and among a lot of ethnic countries, they revere white people. That’s the truth. The colonisers instilled their place at the top of the hierarchy, as something to aspire to be like, to be white. So, I do think when you go to a lot of places, it’s seen as like, ‘Oh, if I can speak English, I can do as they do, I must be at the top.’ A lot of [wealthy people from these] places are like, ‘America’s on top of the pyramid. So, if they say God bless America then that’s what we say, too.’

Big Zuu: That's a very good way to break it down. I’m from Sierra Leone and my grandad used to call me Prime Minister. He was like, ‘If you’re from England, then your life is good, innit?’ 

AJ Tracey: In the Caribbean, if you’re from England, they call you British. Everyone’s name is British – ‘British boy!’

Big Zuu: In Sierra Leone, they call you ‘White man!’

AJ Tracey: ‘White man’ is crazy. But the reason why I think what I’m saying has some truth to it is because obviously fried chicken only came about in Korea because the American soldiers were teaching them how to cook their rations in the way that they do in the Southern States of America. They were having a civil war between North and South [Korea] and America was coming in to provide aid. They’re always the ‘hero’. They’ve always got the cape on. It’s very deep-rooted in a lot of countries. 

Are there any key moments that got cut from the final show?

AJ Tracey: Yes! My favourite part of the whole three episodes got cut, and I have a conspiracy theory as to why. I can’t verify this information, but Zuu asked for a little edit…

Big Zuu: There’s no conspiracy, bruv!

AJ Tracey: Let me show you something... When we was in the forest looking for ginseng, you’re meant to do this ritual where you pray to the tree. Now, because of my religious beliefs, I didn’t want to do that. Not in a rude way, I respect everything, I just didn’t want to do that. There was a Korean woman who was with us and she said she’s not going to do the ritual because she’s Catholic. So I said, ‘Cool, if you’re not doing it, I’m definitely allowed to not do it, because it’s not rude now.’ But Zuu, because he’s happy to indulge in the culture and go for the goal, he done it. While he’s doing the ritual I’m reminding him, ‘Wait till everyone at home sees you doing this…’

Big Zuu: Yeah and guess what, I found two ginseng worth seven grand, and Trace found zero ginseng. So, you get me, you have to pray to the bumbaclart tree! 

AJ Tracey: Now, when we go back to the editorial suite, Zuu’s like, ‘Hey, make sure that’s not in there.’ Zuu’s got too much power in this TV thing now, but I’ve got a piracy video of [the removed clip] on my phone.

Well, to close things off, AJ, you’ve also got a new album dropping soon, too. One thing that caught my eye was this is one of a few recent rap projects that have got a Union Jack on the cover. 

AJ Tracey: It’s funny, you’ve seen other album covers with UK flags on it, but my one was done two and a half years ago, before it was even a trend. At the end of the day, I’ve done a lot of music with people outside of the UK, so I just want everyone to feel proud of what we’re doing, I want it to be a moment of like, ‘Yeah we’re British!’ We’re cold because we’re British. 

Seriously Rich Flavours premieres tonight on Sky and NowTV. AJ Tracey’s upcoming album, Don’t Die Before You’re Dead, releases June 13.