Red’s Flavor Table
Chef Red Sets A Colorful and Flavorful Table
By Darlene Donloe
Marilyn Wallace, the owner of Red’s Flavor Table in Inglewood, started small. At age six, she began prepping ingredients for cakes, chopping vegetables for roux, and learning from the cooks who worked in the kitchen of her mother’s restaurant/nightclub.
“Mom would have me sift flour for her cakes” said Wallace, a native of Marksville, Louisiana, who was raised in Port Arthur, Texas.
While in first grade, she baked her first cake – a pineapple one. “My mom was in the kitchen, and she let me do it,” said Wallace, who is affectionately known as Chef Red because of her then-red hair and fiery personality. “It was fun.”
The fun continues for Wallace, whose passion for cooking has materialized in the form of a catering business and as a restaurateur.
But that wasn’t the path she first envisioned. At first, her dream was to be an actress, which is why she made her way to Los Angeles. But an acting career didn’t take off, and with two children to support, reality set in and Wallace started to cook professionally.
“I was so rebellious. I would say to myself, ‘I’m not a cook, I’m an actress.’ Turns out, I was wrong. I am a cook.
“I was so rebellious. I would say to myself, ‘I’m not a cook, I’m an actress.’
Turns out, I was wrong. I am a cook.
“When I realized I was broke and needed money, that was the moment I decided to open my own business,” said Wallace. “I was driving one day looking for an empty building. I was scared. I didn’t know the first thing about how to start a business. I found a 25-seater two blocks from Jack’s Family Kitchen. I met the owner, Jack (Davenport Sr.). He came and showed me the ropes. He showed me how to flip eggs. He taught me the right time to flip a pancake.”
She studied her craft, taking professional catering classes at UCLA and ultimately graduating from the Epicurean Cooking School of Los Angeles.
In 1980, Wallace opened a breakfast place called Red’s Snack Shack on Western and 39th. It remained open for eight years.
“When my boys graduated from high school, I noticed the area had changed,” said Wallace. “It got bad, so I started catering.”
After 12 years as a caterer, the restaurant business beckoned yet again, and Wallace answered the call, opening Red’s Flavor Table, which has been in its current location on Market Street for eight years.
Well-known throughout the community, Red’s Flavor Table, a strictly takeout eatery in the heart of Inglewood, serves up countless, hearty, delicious, and satisfying breakfasts every day from 7 a.m.-3 p.m.
“Our most popular items are the shrimp and grits, the salmon croquettes, and the shrimp and crab omelet,” said Wallace, who says her customers are loyal.
“Some people come every day to get their breakfast,” said Wallace, who sometimes puts in 12-16-hour work days. “When people come in, it’s for a large order. Seldomly, do they come in just for themselves. It’s usually for families. And they expect the food to taste the same every time. People are serious about their food. If we forget a biscuit – they will tell us about it.”
Wallace enjoys her current location but is open to moving – a possibility with the anticipated Inglewood Transit Connector (ITC) project coming down Market Street. A new spot, however, would need to be right for her customers.
“If they found me a location not far from where I am, so my customers can come and get their breakfast without traveling 20 miles, I’d be OK,” said Wallace.
The ITC is a proposed automated transit line designed to connect the K Line’s Downtown Inglewood station to the Kia Forum, SoFi Stadium, the Clippers’ Intuit Dome, and surrounding housing and commercial centers in development along Prairie Avenue.
In the meantime, it’s business as usual and Wallace is at her restaurant every day at 5 a.m.
“It’s a very hard profession,” said Wallace, who has 42 years in the restaurant business. “You have to love it to stay in business. Everyone doesn’t make it. It requires all of your time.”
Over the years, Wallace has had to don many hats as the owner of a restaurant.
“I’ve been the dishwasher and the prep cook, you name it, I’ve been it. Plus, you have to sacrifice holidays. You stay open for other people to come and get food. I don’t know anything about being pampered on Mother’s Day. I’m there cooking for other moms.”
But she, like her customers, enjoys eating out too. After spending so much time in the restaurant’s kitchen, Wallace said the last thing she wants to do is cook at home
“I don’t eat my own food every day — I’d be as big as a house if I did. But when you’re cooking you have to taste everything to make sure it has the right flavor.”
“I don’t eat my own food every day — I’d be as big as a house if I did. But when you’re cooking you have to taste everything to make sure it has the right flavor. After all this tasting, I’m basically full. But when I am hungry, I like shrimp étouffée and smothered pork chops over rice.”
Before COVID, Wallace supplied meals to studios like Paramount, Warner Bros., and Sunset Gower.
“At one time, I was catering about 12 shows. It was a lot of fun. Then everything shut down.”
Her Inglewood restaurant held steady though, and a second outpost opened by her son Nate Hollins called the Flavor Table, located on 7th and Florence, is thriving.
The same food is sold at both locations, and Hollins has become a celebrity chef in his own right with clients such as Puff Daddy, basketball legend Reggie Miller, and the late Kobe Bryant.
Years later, she still uses the lessons she learned during her childhood. “What my mother taught me was that when it comes to good food, it’s all about the flavors; they’re what’s important. And you have to use the exact same seasoning for things to taste exactly the same – every time. That’s the reason for the name of our places. Flavor means personality. It’s cooking with love.”
“The tradition continued with my son; pineapple cake was also the first thing I taught him,” said Wallace.
“I love food, and he does too” she said. “It’s more than a business. Food is a celebration of life.”
Red’s Flavor Table, 254 N. Market St., Inglewood, CA; 424 331-5000.
Red’s Flavor Table
October 18, 2023