Playboy Club model Jorden is a chef who adores travel. Learn more about the Barbados-born beauty in our Q&A.
Playboy: Where were you born?
Jorden: The beautiful island of Barbados. It really is a paradise, it’s incredible. Beautiful crystal blue water, amazing food, people who love to dance, high energy. It’s really fun.
I feel like there’s two kinds of Barbadians: those who never want to leave, or those who always want to leave. For me, I was one of those who was like: I need to go around the globe.
Playboy: Did you enjoy school? If so, or if not, why?
Jorden: It was fine. I enjoyed the subjects that I loved. I was ultra-focused on certain things, like cooking, which was my passion. But I felt different than the other kids.
I always wanted to leave, that was always my goal. I wasn’t trying to make a life there, I was trying to make a life somewhere else.
Playboy: What was the first thing you dreamed of achieving?
Jorden: Living in New York and owning an apartment. That was my dream since I was two. Because when you live in paradise, on an island, you don’t go to another island on vacation. You go to Manhattan!
So I’ve been going there since the day I was born. My dad said when I was two, I pulled on his leg and said, “Daddy, I’m gonna live here.”
Playboy: And surely you did it.
Jorden: I did! I owned a home there. I feel everybody young should live there. It’s just such a wonderful way to be free and be artistic and embrace everything.
New York isn’t about people from New York, it’s from all the people all over the world that come to this city that makes it such an international city.
Playboy: Tell us about your modeling journey.
Jorden: Modeling has been a great way for me to travel, which is such a gift. I’ve been able to go to so many places and meet so many different people.
So it really opens your life, if you’re really working. It’s a job, and it’s a hard job. You’re always on a plane, and you have your summer bag packed, you have your winter bag packed.
Now I’m more in LA because I want to open a restaurant. But if the modeling jobs are good, I still go.
Playboy: What are you passionate about?
Jorden: Food, travel, fashion, I love meeting new people and experiencing different cultures. I like to learn, and the university of the world has taught me so much.
It opens my mind more and you realize it’s not all about you and the way your people think. There’s all these different people in the world doing all these amazing things. You could drop me anywhere in the world and I’d be just fine.
Playboy: What turns you on? What turns you off?
Creativity, positivity, and people who are passionate about things. And what turns me off is negativity. You wanna be around positive people – it’s a turn on to be around things that are creative and fun.
I find food very sexy. Food should make you have an orgasm when you put it in your mouth, and if it doesn’t you shouldn’t eat it.
Playboy: What would make you ghost a potential love interest?
Jorden: Probably if they’re insecure. If you’re going to be with someone, you have to have some level of trust and belief in that person.
If they’re constantly asking where you’re going or what they’re doing, that’s a huge turn-off. I would probably tell them it’s not working. But that’s ghost-able.
Playboy: What people inspire you and why?
Jorden: Beyonce for sure, because she’s a badass. Love her power and the way she is so free and she just does it. I love everything about Beyonce.
There’s also Chef Olivier Roellinger – he’s probably one of the most famous chiefs in the world, and one of the only ones to give back his Michelin Star because he was so busy. He had to close his fine dining restaurant to spend more time with his grandchildren.
I met him at a conference, and he’s such an incredible human being (with) the way he looks at the world and puts it into his food.
I also love Anthony Bourdain because he was a seeker of knowledge and a pioneer. He didn’t take any shit from anybody. He had all these other things going on in his life but his creative mind and the way he dived down into things was phenomenal.
Such an aggressive, badass attitude. He went where others didn’t want to go, he was willing to crack those things open. Olivier told me, “Chef, you have to eat everything, try everything.” And I feel Bourdain did that. He inspires me a great deal.
Playboy: What’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given so far?
Jorden: Be yourself, be free. No regrets. You have to live your life. Taste everything. You only have one life, so you have to live your life and make memories, not wishes. You don’t want to look back and say “I wish, I wish.”
Playboy: What would the title of your autobiography be?
Jorden: “Absolutely No Regrets.”
Playboy: Where’s your favorite place you’ve traveled to?
Jorden: South Africa is one of the most amazing places I’ve ever been, probably my favorite place in the world. They let people off work early to have sundowners – cocktails to watch the sunset.
There’s like 20,000 different colors swirled all around. The most beautiful sunsets I have ever seen anywhere in the world.
Mauritius is pretty incredible as well. I Loved going there. Japan was incredible, Malaysia was incredible. The Maldives was amazing.
Playboy: Is your desire to open a restaurant rooted in your love of cooking?
Jorden: I’m a chef, and there’s a difference between being a chef and a cook. A cook follows recipes, a chef creates. I create. I am trying to work on opening a restaurant as that is where my passion lies.
Such a big part of growing up in Barbados is cooking and food being so incredible, so I was born with that passion for cooking. It’s a part of who I am, it’s like breathing for me.
Asian food is my favorite. I love going to Vietnam and cooking there, (as well as) Malaysia, Thailand. So I use a lot of Asian bases. I do a little bit of Caribbean too.
For example, in the Caribbean before we make chicken or fish, we put it in lime and salt and we let it cure all of the raw stuff away, then we wash it off, then we cook it. It makes it all 1000% times better. The cooking process, that’s just the heat process. But the preparation is what gives the food the flavor. I’m like a mad scientist in the kitchen. [Laughs]
Jorden is on The Playboy Club. Talk to her now.
