Lower Burrell's Tom 'Flava' Fleck: Pittsburgh's new favorite chef

For a guy who doesn’t consider himself a chef, Lower Burrell’s Tom Fleck has done pretty well for himself in the kitchen.

“I’m just a guy who likes to cook and can cook pretty well,” he said.

Indeed, the contractor for the federal Emergency Management Agency who goes by the name “Flava” Fleck, has some impressive culinary credentials.

He won Giant Eagle’s Ultimate Tailgreatness Grilling Contest in 2022.

Fleck, along with two other finalists, competed live at Stage AE during a Steelers game to take home the championship, cooking his Black and Gold Filthy Burger, based on a patty that includes Thai sweet pineapple chili sauce, Asian slaw, Heinz hoisin ketchup, and its sizeable pineapple slice on top.

He’s got his own YouTube channel, Flava Flecks Good Food, Good Mood, a one-man showcase of his creative recipes and outgoing personality. He says he enjoys “having fun with it” and “playing it up for the camera.”

And he’s got his own line of popcorn, Flavaful Popcorn Co., started two years ago with his late mother, that has a wide range of flavors from traditional caramel popcorn to their new caramel Cheetos.

Now, he’s in the running for an even bigger contest: Taste of Home Magazine’s 2024 Favorite Chef contest. Along with a $25,000 cash prize, the winner gets to be on the cover of the magazine and cook with celebrity chef Carla Hall in New York City.

When Fleck learned he was chosen for the competition, he had to “pick (himself) off the floor.”

Currently, he’s ranked second in his group. Information on his journey through the competition can be found on the Favorite Chef website.

Fleck attributes his cooking prowess to his childhood and his work with FEMA.

“I grew up in an Italian household. My grandparents came from Italy so, you know, the pasta dinners on Sunday were a big thing. My grandfather grew some grapes, made his own wine, and they had their own chickens, so my roots in cooking really started then.”

He has a big family, being the seventh of nine children. His uncle also has a large family with 13 kids and, at one point, he says, they were next-door neighbors.

“There were over 20 Flecks right next to each other,” he said.

Because of this, Fleck’s early experiences with cooking were often a survival necessity.

“I’d come home from sporting events or practices and would probably have to fend for myself,” he said.

Fleck’s family moved to Tarentum when he was a toddler. He said his childhood home is where he learned to make the dish that sparked his love of cooking: chicken cacciatore. The Italian dish, known for its use of white wine to enhance the flavor of the aromatic sauce, was a staple in his household.

And his travels with FEMA exposed him to a variety of other cuisines.

“I would go to disasters all over the United States for the last 23-24 years, so I got to experience a lot of culture and a lot of food in different locations,” he said.

From the Cajun influences in Louisiana to the smokey western ways of Texas, Fleck is a fan of it all. When he isn’t traveling for work, he’s going on mission trips with his church and experiencing the culinary cultures of places like the Dominican Republic. He translates these eclectic flavors into his popcorn flavors.

About that nickname, Fleck said he can attribute that to FEMA as well.

The name, he says, came from an inside joke between he and good friend Tom Payne.

“The first disaster I went to ever was way back in 1998,” Fleck said. “I was in Puerto Rico, in San Juan, just so, like, out of place like ‘What am I doing here?’”

That’s where he met Payne.

During their time together, Fleck says they would watch American rapper Flava Flav on television and, somehow, Payne began calling Fleck “Flava.”

“To this day, if I call him on the phone, the first thing I know out of his mouth would be ‘What’s up, Flava?’” Fleck said. “So, when the time came for my channel, I was like, perfect, Flava Fleck!”

If Fleck wins the Taste of Home contest, he hopes to use his prize money to start his own food truck so he can share his cooking with the Pittsburgh region.