| Clash would help out in the restaurant although he is quick to point out that his parents didn't have him cooking in a commercial kitchen at such a young age. "People have been telling me for years that the food I make is pretty good," Clash said on a lazy Saturday afternoon at Jada's as customers waiting for their orders played pool and video games in the space once occupied by Gene Park's Mr. P's on Beld Street. Clash loved cooking and would experiment with recipes to come up with concoctions that suited his taste. "Pound cakes are my favorite kind of cake," Clash said. "For years, I tried to perfect the way I wanted the pound cake to taste and I finally got it." Clash's slightly rotund figure stands as proof that he worked hard to come up with the ultimate pound cake recipe. "Fabu, a local Madison poet, tasted the pound cake and said 'You should sell these,'" Clash recalled. "So I started selling them and the rest is history. I sold pound cakes all the time when I went to East High School. I would bring samples to school and let my friends taste them. They would order whole pound cakes. They got me through high school." Clash began to dream of bigger things and enrolled at MATC for pastry arts and cooking. "What I learned at MATC was the science of baking," Clash said. "I learned the formulas and how to perfect the taste of the pastry. It was really a fun thing that I wanted to do. I wanted to learn more about baking. Most of the things came to me naturally." Clash began to sell his pastries out of his home. "Fabu started giving people cards," Clash recalled. "People started calling me." One thing led to another and Jada's Soul Food & Catering was born. While the heart and soul of Jada's menu is soul food -- it's the only place in town where you can buy chitterlings -- it has a broader menu that attracts a diverse clientele. Where else in Madison can you order a gyros and a side order of okra, deep fried and coated in corn meal? The restaurant serves up good proportions of fried or smothered pork chops -- Jada's most sought after menu item -- as well as ham hocks and turkey wings. They also serve up many traditional Southern side dishes like butter beans, collard greens and macaroni and cheese. "My plan is to have a gourmet soul food restaurant in the end because I'm really a gourmet person," Clash said. "I want to be top of the line." These days, Clash has someone cooking for him at the restaurant and since he loves to cook, he has to remind himself to let the other person do the cooking. But that hasn' stopped Clash from perfecting his trade because cooking eases his mind. "I have ideas about things every day that I try to perfect," Clash said. "Now I'm trying to do Chinese. I study it at home. It's coming pretty good." And when it's perfected, we'll probably notice that Clash has gained a pound or two and several Chinese items will appear on the menu to create an even more eclectic array of culinary choices. While Jada's Soul Food & Catering, 1616 Beld Street, has been open Tuesday-Saturday, 11 a.m. 9 p.m., it will be open seven days per week in the near future. People are encouraged to call in their orders before they come to dine in or carry out because each order is made fresh on the premises. Call 255-5232 to place an order. For more information, visit Jada's website at www.jadasoulfood.com. |
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| Jada's Soul Food & Catering Soul food from the South(side) By Jonathan Gramling |
| In some ways, Jackie Clash (right), who owns Jada's Soul Food & Catering with his wife Linda, has been in the restaurant business since before he can remember. When he was five-years old, Clash would cook big breakfasts for his younger brothers and sisters while his parents took care of the family restaurant in Chicago. Sometimes |
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