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Mani Niall

Mani Niall

Chef, baker, and author of "Sweet!" — Michael Jackson's first private chef (1982–85), now a food business advisor and founder of Mani's Test Kitchen in Oakland.

Sep 9, 2026

4:05
[laughs]
4:05
Three years goes by, and I'm like, "You know what? It's time to be serious." I'm walking down Market Street, and I look at this man who's just really friendly.
4:17
We just lock eyes.
4:18
We start chatting, and his name's Mike.
4:21
You know, we go like, "You wanna go have coffee?" And it's like, "I'd love to, but I've gotta do this thing." I had some appointment.
4:27
And he's like, "I'll wait for you." And I look at him like, "Who does that?"
6:21
Totally.
6:21
Totally.And so this goes on for probably around six weeks, and I'm just, like, delighted with this guy, and we're having fun, but you're sort of like, how, what, where? Like, just enjoy it, right? Then one day he says, "I'm gonna go back to Minnesota to see my sister." I was fine with it.
AishaHOST
39:28
What was it like, um, seeing the concert?
39:32
It was electric.
39:34
It really was.
39:35
You know, I, I mean, I'll just say briefly, you know, it was very well-reported in the LA Times back then and in the movie that Michael hadn't really wanted to tour with his family.
39:45
He wanted a solo tour.
39:47
He was ready for a solo tour after Off The Wall and Thriller, but that didn't happen.
39:52
So, so, and over 50% of the song catalog was Michael or Michael's solo hits.

13 MINS LATER

AishaHOST
52:33
... right? Or Disney World.

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