Latest / Chef's PSA Podcast / Going from Restaurants to Private Catering with Jakub Czysczcon| Chef's PSA Podcast Ep. 108

Transcript

Going from Restaurants to Private Catering with Jakub Czysczcon| Chef's PSA Podcast Ep. 108 · Chef's PSA Podcast

• 0:00
  Hello chefs, This is Chef's PSA podcast.
• 0:02
  I'm your host, Andre Natara. On today's episode, we have
• 0:04
  Jacob Chischen. Jacob and I worked together for
• 0:07
  a few years. I hired him as ACDP and then
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  when I retired, I had promoted him to executive chef of the
• 0:12
  restaurant Garrison. He's worked in some incredible
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  restaurants across the country from Chicago to Hawaii, working
• 0:17
  at restaurants like Senia and CPA.
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  He's an extremely talented chef, a rising star in the culinary
• 0:22
  world, especially here in Austin, TX.
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  He made a shocking move recently and decided to leave the
• 0:27
  restaurant world and pursue the world of private chefing and
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  catering. We talk about all of that, why
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  he made the decision, what it was like to work together, the
• 0:35
  ups and downs, the creative process.
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  It's a really fun conversation, maybe sometimes a little bit too
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  fun. We laugh a lot.
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  There's a lot of inside jokes in this one, so I tried to make
• 0:44
  sure that we explained the back story on everything.
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  I really enjoyed the conversation with Jacob because
• 0:48
  it's fun and I get to let my hair down.
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  I don't think it'll be the last time you see him on the show
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  because there's so much that we just scratched the surface on in
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  this conversation that could have gone for two or three
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  hours. Without further ado, let's get
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  the show going. Chef.
• 1:12
  It's good to see you, man. Good.
• 1:13
  To see you. Thanks for having.
• 1:14
  Me, yeah. So before we get started, one of
• 1:18
  the most challenging things about you is saying your last
• 1:20
  name. Oh yeah, so.
• 1:22
  For people that don't know, the inside joke when we work
• 1:24
  together was people called you. Well, at least I started calling
• 1:27
  you triple Z because you have three Z's in your last name.
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  You're the only person that I know that has three Z's in their
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  last name. So how do you pronounce your
• 1:34
  your last name? So it is Tristran.
• 1:37
  Yeah. So I can't say.
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  So that's why we call you Triple.
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  ZI always say when everybody, when like anybody asks me how to
• 1:42
  say it, I always say imagine saying Tristan with a bunch of
• 1:45
  cotton balls in your mouth. Yeah, it's like the only way
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  Tristran. But yeah, that's a, that's a
• 1:49
  tough one. So for people that don't know,
• 1:51
  you and I work together, you were chef to cuisine of Garrison
• 1:55
  when when we work together, we had met at the Mentor BKB young
• 2:01
  Chef competition right in Vegas. Yeah.
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  So again, giving people back story, you were competing and no
• 2:08
  actually you were The Apprentice.
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  Yeah, so the first time. So I did the the Young Chef
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  competition twice. The first time I was the comedy
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  to Joe Maggio. Shadow Joe Maggio.
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  Who is where is he now by? The way I'm not sure I think
• 2:22
  he's, I think he's doing, I also think he's doing private stuff
• 2:24
  in California. Yeah, we just got married to
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  like a really good friend of mine who actually all of us kind
• 2:31
  of like when we first met, we were all working in the same
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  kitchen. So kind of crazy, very cool.
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  But he was, I think his last restaurant stint was he was the
• 2:39
  sous chef for becoming executive sous at Meadowood right before
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  the right before it, it burned. And I know that they're making a
• 2:46
  comeback, so. So you were the you were his
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  assistant for the Mentor BKB Young Chef competition in Las
• 2:52
  Vegas. I met you there.
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  You used to have long hair. Yeah, right.
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  And and Hawaii boy, but then later.
• 2:59
  On my chef de cuisine at the time.
• 3:01
  Or maybe he was my sous chef, I don't remember.
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  Shout out to Jordan Sanchez. He was competing in the Young
• 3:07
  Chef competition the next year as the competitor, right?
• 3:10
  And his assistant Lauren Pogue, They went over there, Shout out
• 3:12
  to Lauren and they went and placed second.
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  But you were competing against them, right?
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  Yeah. So at that, at that point, the
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  second time I was the actual young chef competitor, I was in
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  the Komi, I was living in Hawaii at the time.
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  And yeah, super small world, like competed against Georgia.
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  And then Fast forward, yeah, you got 10 years and I was a sous
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  chef. You.
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  Know you guys, you guys hit it off.
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  I ended up hiring you. So you and Jordan hit it off.
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  I didn't go to the competition that year because I was sick.
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  I had just had surgery and so I, I didn't, I wasn't able to go
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  and, and you know, cheer Jordan on and corner him for, for the
• 3:45
  big event. But I know you guys hit it off.
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  And then he told me like, Hey, I met this guy Jacob.
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  He's super cool. I want to bring him down.
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  We brought you down as a comedy. We work together and what was
• 3:54
  cool about our relationship is that you start as a comedy and
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  then when I retired, you start you.
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  I promoted you to Executive Chef.
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  Yeah, I mean, it was, it's a crazy amount of movement.
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  It was just such a like crash course.
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  I think just starting, as you know, I started off on veg,
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  Yeah, like with Alex training me working at Buckle Art currently,
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  But yeah. And then just kind of moving,
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  moving through the stations. And then, you know, Jason, who
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  was the current or was the CDC at the time, ended up getting
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  promoted. And then Jordan, I promoted and
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  then I was Jordan sous chef. That was my first.
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  Ever. Yeah.
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  You were the third chef of the restaurant.
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  Yeah. Yeah, yeah, It was my first ever
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  Sue job and then come it happened.
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  Rest is. Yeah, so I left, promoted you to
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  exec chef. And then for people that don't
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  know, again, giving context, one of the hottest chefs in the
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  city, Garrison, when you were the chef there, was the only
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  four-star restaurant in Austin, according to Forbes Travel
• 4:48
  Guide, correct? The only one in.
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  Austin, the only one in Austin I believe there was like maybe
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  three in Texas total and then only one five star currently I
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  believe. Right.
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  And honestly, for people that don't know one of the most
• 5:00
  talented chefs, I would I would sometimes joke around with you
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  and other people be like Jacob's the most talented chef in Austin
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  that's active, not retired. So so it excluded me.
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  You know, of of of course, you know the goat and then you know,
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  Matt Peters had an open his place.
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  Gabe was still open his place. But anyway, it was just like at
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  the time. At the time it was like an
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  inside joke amongst friends, like the best non retired chef.
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  But your career is like on this massive trajectory up right.
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  Garrison is one of the best restaurants food wise, arguably
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  in the city. You're at every event, Hot luck
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  Austin food and wine. You're showing up on stage doing
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  demos. People want to get pictures with
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  you. I see on made in commercials.
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  It's crazy, right? And so your career is just going
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  like this, right? And I'm watching it like a proud
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  father on the sidelines. Like that's my guy.
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  And then you do something unexpected, a little crazy, like
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  like when people when people told me like you were doing this
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  because you called me up and you're like, hey, I think I'm
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  going to do this. I'm like, what for people that
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  don't know you take the hottest chef in Austin, Triple ZI used
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  to call him King Triple Z, and he says I'm going to go be a
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  private chef. Yeah, crazy.
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  I know, I know. I'd say the reason why mainly is
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  I just really wanted to have a little bit more.
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  I'm getting married. Congrats.
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  You know, I was just kind of trying to start a, a new life
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  here. And I feel like if there was a
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  moment in time in my life where I could make a shift, it was
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  probably now. Yeah, I had already done three
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  years in Garrison as the executive chef.
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  You know, I think I like grew so much in that restaurant.
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  And I would never say that I learned everything there's to
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  learn. But it was kind of my time, I
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  think, to to make a move. And I figured right now was
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  probably the, you know, that that was the that was the best
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  move for me in terms of, you know, time at home or just kind
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  of a more like, I guess better work life balance.
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  Not saying that I don't ever want to return to restaurants.
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  I think the goal is always to to do that.
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  You know, restaurants always will have a place in my heart.
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  And I think that, you know, the private chefing thing for now
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  is, is the perfect kind of medium in terms of, you know,
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  having the time, getting married, experiencing life, you
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  know, outside of a restaurant and then kind of work on my next
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  move as we go along. So I want to get into the
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  private chefing thing here in in a minute, but I just going back
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  to you being a one of the best chefs in Austin.
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  There's rumors of Michelin coming to Texas.
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  Some people know, some people say they're just unconfirmed,
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  right. I don't know what the hold up
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  is. Yeah.
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  I don't know what the hold up. Is.
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  I don't know. I mean, apparently word on the
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  street my my inside sources tell me it's a done deal.
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  But I my inside sources have been telling that for months and
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  I don't see an announcement, so I don't know what's going on.
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  I've been expecting it, I've been expecting it.
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  I don't know what's going. On but, but let's just say those
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  rumors are true that Michelin does come to Texas and it's a
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  short list of people that I think could get it right.
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  And I and I think you're on that short list.
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  So why with those rumors circulating, would you say?
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  And I, and I know we've talked about this a lot.
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  Why would you then decide to step away and not, you know,
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  gamble with your life and try and get a Michelin strong?
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  Yeah, I think honestly, the main the main reason is, I mean, it
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  just hasn't been announced yet. I just don't know when it's
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  going to happen. You know, if it happens in two
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  years, then that's just another two years that, you know, I
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  would be in Garrison. Not saying that that's a bad
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  thing, but I think it's just it's just time for it was just
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  time for me to move on. And I think life is kind of
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  weird sometimes where like, you know, right now is the perfect
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  time. And granted, Michelin probably
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  is coming and that was probably the toughest decision of the
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  whole thing was do I stick around and.
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  Because there's no guarantee that you would.
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  Exactly. There's no guarantee that I
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  would, you know, we could have tried and like, did I stick
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  around and try? How pissed would you be?
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  Like you call off the wedding, Call off the wedding to get a
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  star? That's like honorable mention.
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  I'm just kidding. No, I think that that was the
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  toughest. That was the toughest call was
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  like, do I stick around And hopefully like we could get.
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  There's a shot of getting one, and I think that Garrison could
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  have gotten. One, yeah, it definitely has the
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  service aspect, I think. I think the food that you were
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  doing, I think the food that we were doing when I left was like,
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  honestly, I would I would, you know, bias, I think it was some
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  of the best in Austin. You could argue, you know, other
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  people might be doing this, other people might be doing
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  this. But to say it wasn't in the
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  conversation, I think is crazy. But when you were there after I
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  left, I even think that you were doing better.
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  Like I, I don't know if I was holding you back or what.
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  You know, I think it's like in the beginning, it's so tough
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  because it was my first, it was my first ever chef job.
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  You know, it was my first time leading a team, first time where
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  it's like, OK, here's a menu you now need.
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  Instead of putting 2 items on a menu, what you do is like a sous
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  chef, you know, now it's all yours, you know, I think you
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  know, you grow so much and I feel like I just grew
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  tremendously during those three years and it's, it's just, I
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  don't think it's because you left that it get better.
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  I think it. Was just I'm I'm.
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  Just ball busting but if. Anything.
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  You probably got worse once I left, yeah.
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  Go back to the Michelin conversation, you know, we were
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  talking about how how the Roca brothers when they came in.
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  That's right. Yeah.
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  And you know, I was a suit chef at the time still and Jordan was
• 10:28
  CDC and he would like basically we served Joan Roca and and team
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  and his team. And, you know, he kind of came
• 10:36
  up to us and was like, so how long have you guys had a star?
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  We're like. I'll tell you what, you know,
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  for people that that don't know, there's no Michelin in Texas.
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  And so, you know, we're doing this dinner with the the Cellar
• 10:50
  de Con Rocca team and they come in, they eat in the PDR.
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  We throw down and, you know, chef comes up to us afterwards
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  and he's like, you know, asking us about if we had a star.
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  And I'm explaining to be like, oh, there's no Michelin in
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  Texas. But I remember thinking like
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  sometimes that is like a huge honor when another, I mean at
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  that time is like the world's fifty best number one restaurant
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  in the world thinking that we had a Michelin star.
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  He's like, Oh yeah, I thought you guys had a star.
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  And he's like, no, no chef. There's no, there's no Michelin
• 11:15
  in Texas. I thought that was a huge
• 11:18
  compliment. It was one of those extremely
• 11:20
  proud moments of in my career is like a chef that's like Mount
• 11:23
  Rushmore, No? 100% yeah I had AI.
• 11:25
  Also had a another moment. This was after you'd left one of
• 11:30
  my old mentors, Chef Andrew Zimmerman of when I was working
• 11:33
  at CPI, he came in with his family and after his meal, he
• 11:37
  came up to me at the past and was like, like, you're you, you
• 11:41
  can 100% get a start. Like, yeah.
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  And he's had a start for a decade in Chicago.
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  So like, him saying that was like, to me like that, like,
• 11:49
  super proud moment. Definitely never forget that.
• 11:53
  And it's not that we do it for the accolades, right?
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  So as chefs, it's not like we do it for the accolades, but
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  there's there's something validating, like you think it's
• 12:02
  good, but you're you're never sure if it's really good.
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  And then when someone that you respect confirms what you know
• 12:08
  and maybe even gives you more praise than you thought you
• 12:11
  deserved, it's like, wow, that's pretty cool.
• 12:13
  Yeah, yeah. That's.
• 12:14
  I remember, I mean, I remember you telling me the higher up you
• 12:16
  get, the less people kind of challenge you.
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  And it's like, you know, you always get that second guess of
• 12:20
  like, is it good? No one's ever going to tell you,
• 12:24
  you know. Yeah.
• 12:25
  And and for context of what I meant by that.
• 12:27
  So for people that are listening, I always said that
• 12:30
  when you're the chef, sometimes everyone agrees with you to your
• 12:32
  face, but as soon as you walk out of the room, like, oh, that
• 12:35
  guy, he's losing his mind. That's that, that's a terrible
• 12:38
  idea. Don't do it.
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  But what's he thinking? So it's it's really challenging
• 12:41
  because you have to distill the information that's coming in and
• 12:43
  you got to say, did did they really mean it?
• 12:45
  You got to, you got to read their body language, you got to
• 12:47
  see how they feel and you know, you got to taste, you got to
• 12:49
  look at things really objectively because when you're
• 12:51
  on top, everyone wants to be your friend.
• 12:54
  Everyone wants to tell you everything's great.
• 12:56
  And it's so it's really difficult with success.
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  Sometimes you have to distill the feedback that you're getting
• 13:03
  and you got to remove the bullshit.
• 13:04
  But yeah, definitely. Anyway, so we were talking about
• 13:07
  mispronouncing your name. We were talking about Michelin.
• 13:09
  So we called you Triple Z because no one could pronounce
• 13:12
  your last name. But I saw a video, by the way,
• 13:16
  when I saw this video, I was like, what what the fuck is
• 13:18
  this? Is he, is he really making a
• 13:20
  salad now? So you're like one of the most
• 13:22
  talented chefs and I go on TikTok and one of my friends
• 13:24
  calls me up. He's like, hey, did you see this
• 13:25
  video that Jacob did? I was like, what video?
• 13:27
  He's like, oh, check out his Instagram.
• 13:28
  I was like, what are you talking about?
• 13:29
  And I go, and I was like, salad Jacob, what are you doing?
• 13:34
  Why are you making salad? People like salads.
• 13:36
  But but then, but then they did this reaction video for you.
• 13:38
  Yeah. Yeah, so that was my my friend
• 13:41
  Kenny. So he, we worked together in
• 13:44
  Hawaii when I was at, at Senya, he actually trained me on pasta
• 13:48
  station that he was like, like, it was like when I first
• 13:50
  started. And then he ended up leaving an
• 13:53
  opening. I think he has two restaurants
• 13:55
  or three restaurants now and he's got this massive TikTok
• 13:58
  following. And I, you know, I made these
• 14:01
  videos forever ago. It was kind of, you know, for
• 14:03
  kind of shits and gigs. And like, as soon as I I left, I
• 14:06
  was like, well, I need to post something because social media
• 14:09
  is so important. So I, you know, created, I like
• 14:12
  edited the video, posted it. And I was like, I need to tell
• 14:15
  Kenny to do a reaction video. And I like messaged him like
• 14:18
  Kenny do a reaction on this you know shitty cooking video that
• 14:20
  I. Made, yeah.
• 14:22
  Yeah, and I, you know, I know it's a salad.
• 14:23
  I know all that. But like, still.
• 14:25
  And it was hilarious when Kenny like posted that thing.
• 14:27
  It's, you know, I got a bunch of traction from it and and you
• 14:30
  know it, the whole HJ thing. So at the beginning of the
• 14:33
  video, for people that haven't seen it, you should go watch it.
• 14:35
  At the beginning of the video is like, you know, we called him
• 14:37
  Hji was like what what? Hold on, hold on stop.
• 14:41
  What does HJ stand for? And I but you have to watch the
• 14:44
  whole video to figure out what HJ stands for.
• 14:45
  I thought it stood for something else, but.
• 14:47
  Which is really funny because, OK, so at first I totally forgot
• 14:50
  that they called me HJ. And so I like, I was in the same
• 14:54
  boat. Like he posted and I'm watching
• 14:56
  it. It's like, I like just woke up
• 14:58
  and my phone's blowing up because he posted it like in
• 15:00
  Hawaii. So like I was getting all this
• 15:02
  stuff and I'm like, it's like 7:30 in the morning.
• 15:04
  And I, I, I played the video and it's like, oh, he's like talking
• 15:07
  about HTM. I'm like, Oh no, where's it
• 15:09
  going? But for people listening, for
• 15:14
  people listening, apparently it stood for Handsome Jacob.
• 15:17
  They argue like Jake. Like, is Jacob the most handsome
• 15:20
  chef out there? I don't know.
• 15:21
  You could argue maybe. With the name like HJ probably.
• 15:25
  Not yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like, that's not, that's
• 15:27
  not helping your street cred at all.
• 15:29
  But I, I thought that was pretty cool.
• 15:31
  But I, I do want to touch a little bit on social media
• 15:33
  because I think social media is such a big topic.
• 15:35
  And, you know, I'm in the world of social media content creation
• 15:38
  and business and things like that.
• 15:40
  And there's certain do's and don'ts when it comes to social
• 15:42
  media, like social media chefs like that cooking.
• 15:48
  Like, you gotta have like the crunch and you gotta make the
• 15:50
  stupid face. You gotta have the nice mic.
• 15:52
  Yeah. If you don't have the nice.
• 15:53
  Mic you gotta like lean in, you gotta.
• 15:55
  ASMR you. Can't hear people.
• 15:56
  Breathing. That's not good.
• 15:59
  And then, and then you got to slice into whatever is crispy
• 16:01
  and it's like, oh, do you hear that?
• 16:02
  And then you got to taste it and like, oh, it's so good.
• 16:05
  Oh, there's egg. Is there egg yolk running down
• 16:06
  my chin? Oh, sorry.
• 16:08
  And, and fuck, I hate these videos.
• 16:10
  To be honest with you. I, I, I really fucking hate
• 16:12
  these videos, but I watch them. I still watch them but I fucking
• 16:15
  hate them. That algorithm it's.
• 16:16
  That's it. You.
• 16:17
  Know, but the but the problem is I, I think now so for people
• 16:19
  that are watching, I think one of the challenges with people
• 16:22
  trying to create like Instagram real cooking videos and there's
• 16:25
  a reason why I don't do it. It's there's a big investment
• 16:27
  upfront to buy the groceries, clean your kitchen, etcetera,
• 16:30
  etcetera. Time it takes to.
• 16:31
  Edit time it takes to edit filming all that and then to
• 16:34
  make sure it's good. When I look at some videos and I
• 16:36
  think what are the do's and don'ts?
• 16:38
  Because there's some pages that I follow and I won't say who.
• 16:40
  There's some pages that kind of want to unfollow, but they're
• 16:42
  friends so I don't want to unfollow them.
• 16:44
  But their videos are so fucking bad.
• 16:46
  It's like they're still wearing hats in the videos.
• 16:48
  Like take your fucking hat off, right?
• 16:51
  Take your hat off, take the black gloves off.
• 16:54
  And I know gloves is a it's a it's a controversial subject.
• 16:57
  Like, oh, you got to wear your gloves.
• 16:59
  It's like, dude, it's a TikTok video.
• 17:01
  It's an Instagram video. Like don't, don't bust my balls
• 17:03
  on gloves. Yeah, I I regret wearing the
• 17:04
  gloves. And you were?
• 17:05
  Wearing the gloves, I wore gloves in one of the videos I
• 17:08
  think and I was like really like re watching and re editing it.
• 17:10
  I'm like. So last night I'm on, I'm on
• 17:14
  Instagram and I came across this really cool fish page.
• 17:16
  I followed it and fuck I wish I could remember the name of it
• 17:19
  but this guy does really good fish butchery.
• 17:22
  Like very technical and then he creates dishes.
• 17:24
  Out. Are you talking about the guy
• 17:25
  that does like different fish? Like a different fish every day.
• 17:28
  Every day it's great. Really good, really good, really
• 17:31
  good. And I was like, I was, I was
• 17:33
  like, I've been watching his videos for like 30 minutes.
• 17:35
  They're really good, really well done.
• 17:36
  Really, really. He's entertaining, well edited,
• 17:38
  the food looks good, and he's recreating classics like he did
• 17:42
  Paul Bacuse's potato scale fish. Like really great.
• 17:46
  And I'm watching someone like that and it's like, OK, I could
• 17:48
  watch that all day. But then you watch other people.
• 17:50
  It's like, OK, I don't want to watch that.
• 17:53
  And I think with social media, it's gotten so saturated that
• 17:57
  there's a lot of what's the you got to, you got to separate
• 18:02
  signal from noise, right? So now let's talk about what
• 18:07
  you're doing. How do you, so now you've gone
• 18:09
  into the private chefing world. Obviously content creation is
• 18:12
  going to be a big part of that. What is your strategy to get
• 18:17
  attention now for your private chefing business?
• 18:20
  I mean social media like, like how we're, you know, I think
• 18:23
  social media is huge. I think in the private chef
• 18:26
  world, most of it comes from word of mouth just because it's,
• 18:32
  people are putting so much trust into you, you know, with you
• 18:36
  coming into their homes and then cooking for them.
• 18:39
  It's, it's not so much about your, you know, your reels on
• 18:43
  Instagram or your, the photos of your food or, or stuff like
• 18:46
  that. I think it's mainly about, you
• 18:48
  know, once somebody takes that plunge of, oh, I want to do a
• 18:51
  dinner with, with you for let's say 12 people, you know, you,
• 18:56
  you go and do a dinner for them and that's eleven, you know,
• 18:58
  possible clients that you have that are sitting in that room
• 19:01
  because they see that a, you've been trusted and you know, the
• 19:05
  food and and all that stuff is, is, you know, worth the price
• 19:08
  or, or good. I feel like it's mainly that
• 19:12
  obviously you could push yourself as much as you can, you
• 19:14
  know, making a website, doing all the social media, put
• 19:18
  marketing yourself as much as you can, But I think mainly it's
• 19:21
  just getting out there and trying to do as many dinners as
• 19:23
  you possibly can. Yeah.
• 19:24
  And, and so I know, I know you're early on in, in your
• 19:28
  private catering career is for people that are listening that
• 19:32
  are thinking about like, do I want to go into restaurants or
• 19:34
  do I want to go into, you know, working for myself from a money
• 19:39
  standpoint, is there is the money better on one end versus
• 19:42
  the other? Yes, I would say the money is
• 19:44
  better. Well, I think it depends.
• 19:46
  I, I, I think it's kind of it's, it's a tough question because I
• 19:51
  think. Assuming you're getting
• 19:52
  business. Right, Yeah, exactly.
• 19:53
  Assuming you're getting business and, you know, to learn this, I
• 19:56
  don't think you could like come out of culinary school and not
• 19:59
  work in a restaurant and just go straight into private chefing.
• 20:02
  I feel like that's a really tough jump because there's just
• 20:06
  so many things we're gonna learn in restaurants.
• 20:07
  You know, like I, I would say go work in a restaurant.
• 20:12
  You know, I worked in restaurants for right right now,
• 20:14
  it's like 13 years and I started when I was 18.
• 20:17
  And like without that, I couldn't.
• 20:20
  I couldn't have ever taken the plunge of of trying to become a
• 20:24
  private chef because there's just so many different logical
• 20:26
  things costing things that you need to know that you can only
• 20:29
  really learn in restaurants. So let's talk about that just
• 20:32
  for a moment. What are some of the things
• 20:33
  that, you know, as chefs in restaurants, we take for
• 20:36
  granted? And I'm sure there's a lot, but
• 20:38
  what are some, you know, if you could give us a few things like,
• 20:40
  OK, I'm transitioning from restaurants to private catering.
• 20:43
  What are some things that's like, oh shit, I wish I would
• 20:45
  have known that before. So a couple things that I think
• 20:48
  are super important is honestly, number one is have an LLC, you
• 20:53
  know, we're like we were talking about that it's, you know, it's,
• 20:57
  it's a safety net for you and it kind of, you know, forces you to
• 21:01
  push your own kind of business in your own name #2.
• 21:05
  I mean it's easy to get an LLC by the way, people that don't
• 21:07
  know like just go online, go to busy or Inc file or something
• 21:11
  like that. There's a lot of fun.
• 21:12
  Yeah, busy is. I mean it literally took like an
• 21:14
  hour. Yeah, and you have one.
• 21:16
  Get yourself an LLC Step one. Yes, get yourself an LLC.
• 21:20
  Or or get paid cash. Exactly.
• 21:22
  Yeah. But that's that's, that's tough.
• 21:24
  I'm just kidding if the IRS is like and make sure you claim
• 21:27
  into cash on your cash. Exactly #2 I would say honestly,
• 21:32
  the, the margins are much smaller than in a restaurant and
• 21:36
  the cost is so much higher because you're not buying
• 21:38
  wholesale, you know, because a lot of the times you're cooking
• 21:41
  for six people and there's no point in you buying a whole rib
• 21:44
  eye for six people, you know, So you end up kind of paying more
• 21:48
  for the product and you still want to have a good food cost
• 21:52
  because that's money in your pocket, you know.
• 21:55
  And I think that those learning how to, you know, have a good
• 21:58
  food cost and structuring menus to like a way that is cost
• 22:02
  effective for you and beneficial for the client.
• 22:05
  It's still tasty and still, you know, you could provide the
• 22:08
  experience you that you have to learn that because you can, you
• 22:11
  know, if you overpay for your groceries by, you know, $200.00
• 22:15
  every time, that's a lot of money throughout the year that
• 22:18
  you're you could be. Well, and one of the things I
• 22:21
  think people, I haven't done a lot of private catering, I've
• 22:24
  only done a handful. And normally it's like, hey, can
• 22:26
  you, can you do this? Sure, I'll fill in for a friend
• 22:29
  or something like that. But one of the challenges that I
• 22:32
  noticed is that when you don't have access to a professional
• 22:35
  kitchen and delivery and things like that, and you got to go out
• 22:38
  and go shopping, that's like a full day.
• 22:40
  Oh, it's a full day. It's a, it's a full day because
• 22:41
  you might have to go to three different stores and you got to
• 22:44
  drive around town and then you, oh, they didn't have that one
• 22:46
  thing. So now I got to go across town
• 22:47
  to get the other thing. And I think that's one of the
• 22:51
  like, it all falls on you. Exactly.
• 22:53
  It all falls on you. There's there's no like, hey,
• 22:55
  just delegate this to the purchasing department when I.
• 22:57
  Purchase. Yeah, there's no, you know,
• 22:58
  it's, it's all you dishes, you know, all that stuff.
• 23:01
  Prep everything. You know, it's, it's just you,
• 23:03
  which I personally enjoy 'cause I love to, like I, you know,
• 23:06
  always love to cook. I was always behind a cutting
• 23:08
  board in the kitchen. I'm not a big office chef, so I
• 23:13
  was just, you know, I enjoy it. Like I enjoy the prep, the
• 23:16
  grind. You know, I don't even mind
• 23:19
  doing the dishes. Like, it's fine.
• 23:21
  But yeah, and I would say probably the third thing is just
• 23:27
  you, you kind of need to have like a very broad like scale of
• 23:32
  what you can make. You know, 'cause I'm, you know,
• 23:36
  I'm more versed in fine dining and stuff like that and kind of,
• 23:39
  you know, my food's always been technical and, and kind of, you
• 23:42
  know, smaller portion stuff like that.
• 23:45
  But that's not what people want mostly.
• 23:47
  Granted, there I definitely do do a lot of events where I am
• 23:50
  making that food and I do scratch that itch, but there's a
• 23:53
  lot of other things that you need to know.
• 23:55
  You know, people sometimes want sushi.
• 23:56
  People sometimes, you know, they want to do like, brunch for, you
• 24:00
  know, 40 people. So how do you, so this is what's
• 24:04
  interesting about the catering world or or in the the banquets
• 24:07
  of catering events world is that sometimes the client comes in
• 24:09
  and says this is what I want and you have.
• 24:11
  No, Yeah, you have. No, you have no experience in
• 24:14
  that type of cuisine. So you got to get out of book,
• 24:16
  you got to go on YouTube and you got to figure it out.
• 24:18
  Because I, I think sometimes one of the difficulties with with
• 24:22
  clients in, in catering in catering is they just say, hey,
• 24:26
  I had this somewhere. I really like it.
• 24:28
  I want you to do it. You're a chef, you should know
• 24:30
  how to make it. Like, they just assume chefs
• 24:31
  know how to make every type of cuisine.
• 24:33
  Like, oh, you went to culinary school, right?
• 24:34
  Well, then you should know how to make, you know, this one odd
• 24:37
  dish that I had in this one restaurant in Hawaii?
• 24:38
  You live in Hawaii, right? Make it.
• 24:41
  Give me a Zippy's burger. Hurry up.
• 24:47
  Yeah, but it's, it's that that whole like scale is, is tough.
• 24:51
  I would say it's, it's not, you know, I, I don't have experience
• 24:55
  cooking every single cuisine out there, but it is fun.
• 24:58
  It's a good challenge when you get some, when you get like
• 25:00
  somebody that's like, I want this and you haven't really done
• 25:02
  that. Or maybe the last time you did
• 25:04
  it was like 8 years ago. And you're like, you know, I got
• 25:08
  to, I got to dust that off. And it kind of keeps you sharp,
• 25:10
  honestly. Let's let's talk about this a
• 25:12
  little bit more. So you mentioned sushi.
• 25:14
  Like if someone came to me right now and said, hey, I want you to
• 25:16
  do private catering, we want sushi.
• 25:17
  I'd probably be like, I'm probably not the best chef for
• 25:19
  that. Like like I'm going to give you
• 25:20
  sushi. It's going to be terrible.
• 25:22
  You're going to say it's quite possibly the worst sushi you've
• 25:24
  ever had, right? I mean, but I'll give it to you
• 25:26
  if you pay me, you know, you know, a Sushi by Andre, $5000
• 25:29
  appearance fee, $5000 appearance fleet fee, plus bad sushi,
• 25:34
  right? Just spicy.
• 25:36
  Like, that's it, right. But at what point do you push
• 25:39
  back and say, you know what? That's not what we do.
• 25:41
  That's not what I do. I'm going to I'm going to point
• 25:44
  you in this direction. Or do you say, yeah, I'll figure
• 25:46
  it out and you go find yourself a sushi chef to go with you?
• 25:50
  I mean, I always would say go figure it out.
• 25:53
  I don't like saying no to people.
• 25:55
  And I, I, I'm pretty fairly confident in most things unless
• 25:58
  it's something that I'm like, whoa, like don't even know what
• 26:01
  that is or don't even like haven't made that ever.
• 26:05
  And I'm going to have to work on it all week to try to figure out
• 26:08
  how to do it. And I don't even know if it's
• 26:09
  going to be right then, then yeah, I'll, I'll probably say
• 26:12
  no. But other than that, I'll always
• 26:14
  take on a challenge honestly. Yeah, but I, I guess at what
• 26:20
  point do you say, no, I have to go get someone to help me with
• 26:24
  that. So like, I'm just going to use
• 26:25
  sushi as an example. I don't know your sushi skills,
• 26:27
  but I know mine are not great. If I had to do sushi, I'm going
• 26:29
  to call up every sushi chef that I know and say, hey, do you want
• 26:32
  to go with me? I'll pay you.
• 26:32
  It's going to go. It's going to be my name.
• 26:34
  But you're making this I guess. It's the level, I guess it would
• 26:37
  be the level of like if we're talking about sushi, like when
• 26:40
  it comes to like like Nigeris, like I'm not doing that right.
• 26:46
  Like, like I just, I don't, I've never done it.
• 26:49
  And that's like one of those things where I wouldn't be able
• 26:51
  to do it justice. You know, it would take me a
• 26:53
  very long time to do it justice. So then I would probably get
• 26:56
  somebody to to help me out. So how do you explain that to
• 26:59
  clients though? I would just, I mean, honestly,
• 27:02
  so with certain things, I would probably just say either point
• 27:06
  them in the direction of somebody that does do that, that
• 27:08
  I know, or ask them to come with me.
• 27:11
  And then obviously split, you know, the, the payout.
• 27:15
  And I feel like, and, and letting you know, being fully
• 27:18
  transparent with the client that, hey, this is what's
• 27:19
  happening. I'm not well versed in this or I
• 27:22
  don't think I'll do it justice to what your expectations are.
• 27:25
  So therefore I need to bring in somebody else.
• 27:27
  When when you're negotiating menus with clients, what is the
• 27:33
  best practice that you have? Is it you have a set menu that
• 27:36
  you go in with and say these are the greatest hits of Jacob and I
• 27:39
  could do these really well and anything custom, OK, we could
• 27:42
  negotiate the price on that or or do you just go in with a
• 27:45
  blank slate? So I usually just go in with a
• 27:47
  blank slate. So beside doing my own thing
• 27:51
  right now, I'm also working for a company called Gather and
• 27:54
  Forge. I'm sorry, Gather and Forge.
• 27:56
  That's the, I think it's the best part of the chef company in
• 27:58
  Austin. Their team is amazing.
• 28:01
  Each chef that they have is like very, very good chef that has
• 28:06
  worked in Austin and has, you know, choppers, teeth and jumps.
• 28:10
  And so they have this amazing system where they will have the
• 28:13
  client fill out a questionnaire and then they will kind of, you
• 28:16
  know, put some of their favorite restaurants, some of their
• 28:18
  favorite food. And for me, it's always a blast
• 28:20
  Slate just 'cause I like to, I like to make them happy and I
• 28:24
  like to kind of collaborate with them.
• 28:26
  And it's a little bit more fun for me from a creative
• 28:29
  standpoint. You know, somebody wants a six
• 28:31
  course tasty menu, which happens more often than not.
• 28:35
  I could be like, what's your favorite restaurant?
• 28:37
  And let's say they say, oh, I really like Husk.
• 28:39
  Then I know that they want like kind of like more sub, like high
• 28:44
  end southern cuisine, you know, or if they say, Oh, I really
• 28:47
  like, you know, I, I went to go eat, add a mix a year ago, then
• 28:51
  I'll be like that. Then they want some form of
• 28:53
  like, you know, Korean tasty menu or something like that.
• 28:56
  Like it's, it's, it's kind of fun like that.
• 28:59
  I I think it's like very fun to to do that.
• 29:01
  One of the challenges that I used to have when I was a chef
• 29:03
  would be when you're working with clients in a, in a
• 29:06
  specifically in catering and they say, we just want you to be
• 29:08
  creative. That's like that.
• 29:10
  Sometimes that's the worst thing you could tell me because the
• 29:12
  creativity for a scale for a chef can be, OK.
• 29:15
  Are you talking Noma ants on a shrimp creative or are you
• 29:18
  talking like the, the coolest platter available at Apple DB's
• 29:21
  creative? Like there's a there's a wide
• 29:23
  range of what what creativity means.
• 29:26
  Yes. And that's and that is on you to
• 29:28
  when you're having those discussions with a client to
• 29:30
  figure out, you know, what is their expectation.
• 29:32
  And always, when I write menus, I'll always write.
• 29:35
  And you know how it is when you're writing menus, always the
• 29:37
  safe dish is the seller. You know it's gonna sell.
• 29:41
  It's the tater tots. Sure, sure.
• 29:45
  You always, you always gotta have one of those on your menu.
• 29:48
  Yeah, So Speaking of tater tots, it's funny.
• 29:51
  So people that don't know, so when we worked at Garrison, one
• 29:54
  of the dishes that I put on the menu was these fucking tater
• 29:57
  tots, right? So they're tater tots and
• 29:59
  they're topped with an aerated Gruyere cheese and then black
• 30:02
  truffles. And so that is probably still on
• 30:04
  the menu I would imagine. No, that will never come.
• 30:06
  Off yeah. So we put that on the menu for
• 30:08
  opening and it's still on the menu.
• 30:09
  It's like a legacy dish and I remember when I put it on is
• 30:12
  like we need this dish on the menu.
• 30:14
  It's like why? Well, at first it was cool, but
• 30:16
  the reason I put on the menu was not because it was innovative
• 30:19
  creative or anything like that. It's because everyone wanted it.
• 30:21
  Everyone want to take a photo of it.
• 30:22
  It would be on everyone's Instagram.
• 30:23
  So it's like what I say it's the sucker shit.
• 30:25
  It's the sucker shit that you put on the menu that, as we say,
• 30:30
  Klout trouts, the Klout trout is going to show.
• 30:33
  It's for the Klout trouts to show up, take a photo and say, I
• 30:36
  was here and I had the truffle tater tots.
• 30:38
  Is it the most creative dish ever?
• 30:40
  No. But is it something that is
• 30:42
  relatable to the civilian, to the layperson?
• 30:45
  Yeah, Everyone wants it, right. And so when we were working
• 30:49
  together, we were talking a little bit earlier about how,
• 30:52
  you know, sometimes when you're the chef, no one tells you what
• 30:54
  they're really thinking. But when you step out the room,
• 30:56
  the conversation like fucking tater tots, when you get these
• 30:59
  tater tots off the menu, I would say we're never taking the tater
• 31:02
  tots off the menu. If anything, like they're,
• 31:04
  they're there forever and they're good.
• 31:06
  Like like honestly, they're they're, they're delicious.
• 31:08
  You just get tired of making them right?
• 31:10
  Oh no, I mean the The thing is that I never really had to make
• 31:13
  them. I had to make them like maybe
• 31:15
  for like 3 months when I was on veg and tater tots.
• 31:18
  OK, so we had this, or at least when I was there, there was a
• 31:21
  station literally that was like tater tots and then we had like
• 31:24
  one other like the Hasselbach potato side, which took just as
• 31:28
  much time as the tater. Tots.
• 31:29
  So those are only two dishes. It was like, basically those two
• 31:31
  dishes and then, like one other dish, and we just called it
• 31:34
  Potato Land. Yeah.
• 31:35
  And like every cook that like started in Garrison started in
• 31:39
  Potato Land because it's like it would just break you because
• 31:42
  you're just constantly peeling potatoes.
• 31:43
  Yeah, yeah. And just.
• 31:45
  Like the tater tots, because you'd sell so many.
• 31:47
  Yeah, every table gets tater tots and it's just one of those
• 31:50
  dishes that and it was such a pain.
• 31:53
  It's such a pain in the ass to make.
• 31:54
  We we used to have a lot of conversations about like take
• 31:57
  this off the menu. I'm done with it.
• 31:58
  Like there was a couple of dishes I tried, I tried like
• 32:00
  three times. Yeah, I was like, no, you're not
• 32:01
  taking off the menu because it's it's the dish that everyone
• 32:06
  understands. When we go to Garrison, this is
• 32:07
  what we're gonna have. We're every you go get the tater
• 32:09
  tots. Everyone that posts on this go,
• 32:10
  you got to get the tater tots. So it's like it's we're not
• 32:13
  taking off the menu. And I would, I would convince
• 32:14
  the other chefs like you got to have a little bit of sucker shit
• 32:17
  on the menu like Rolling Stone satisfaction.
• 32:20
  You know, they're tired. They're tired of singing it.
• 32:22
  We're not tired of hearing it, right?
• 32:24
  So the layperson that that's the only song they know from The
• 32:26
  Rolling Stones, right? It's Wu Tang clans cream or
• 32:30
  what? Whatever, right?
• 32:31
  It's like that was the tater tots.
• 32:33
  But I think when it comes to menu design it for me, I like
• 32:38
  the 8020 seventy, 3070% or 80% of the menu should be like
• 32:44
  familiar fastball down the middle.
• 32:45
  You can wrap your head around it.
• 32:46
  Beef and potatoes, duck, pasta. Like that's your 8070%.
• 32:53
  Your 30% should be the weird ship.
• 32:55
  The stuff that you're experimenting with your the.
• 32:56
  Sweetbreads. The sweetbreads, whatever the
• 32:59
  case may be, I'm a firm believer in that because it's like like
• 33:03
  as chefs, we want to be creative and we, you know, we're always,
• 33:07
  we're always looking to our express to express ourselves
• 33:09
  through food. But the customers like we're,
• 33:12
  we're like 10 years ahead of them.
• 33:14
  Sometimes in some cases we're ten years ahead of them.
• 33:16
  And it's like they're not ready for sweetbreads with ants.
• 33:18
  No, right. They're not ready for that.
• 33:21
  Like, no, no, they're not ready for squirrel garam.
• 33:26
  Yeah, that's that's that's true. So while we're on the subject of
• 33:30
  this, the creative process when it comes to menus, this is
• 33:35
  something that every chef comes to differently.
• 33:39
  What is what is your creative process?
• 33:42
  You know, I think back to the times that we'd work together.
• 33:44
  We'd go in a room, everyone would have their ideas, and we'd
• 33:46
  just start throwing shit. What do you think of this?
• 33:48
  What do you think of that? And everyone's just bouncing
• 33:49
  ideas off of each other until we kind of came to words on paper.
• 33:53
  Yeah. But before you even came into
• 33:56
  the room, you had to have some sort of plan before you're gonna
• 33:58
  start spitting ideas, right? Yeah.
• 34:00
  What What is your method for creativity?
• 34:04
  I would say I, I feel like there's just so many different
• 34:08
  ways. I feel like sometimes like we
• 34:12
  were talking, sometimes you just get like, it just comes to you.
• 34:16
  Like you'll just be, you know, driving and, or, you know, going
• 34:19
  to bed, like thinking about food and randomly some crazy idea
• 34:24
  will just pop in your head and then next thing you know, you
• 34:26
  can't sleep and you're just laying.
• 34:28
  You're just laying, tossing and turning just thinking about that
• 34:31
  dish. A lot of the times I like to sit
• 34:34
  down and you know, have a notebook and a lot of a lot of
• 34:38
  the times I like to read through a lot of cookbooks.
• 34:40
  I have a lot of like I have a huge cookbook collection at
• 34:43
  home. It's like kind of like a huge
• 34:45
  hobby of mine. It's just collecting old French.
• 34:48
  Cookbooks what's what's like the what are the what are the
• 34:51
  cookbooks on your shelf that's like, these are like the Holy
• 34:53
  Grail, the Holy Grail. Cookbook.
• 34:54
  So I have a When I was in Chicago, there was this tiny
• 34:59
  bookstore that I used to go to all the time in Pilsen.
• 35:02
  And I don't know if it's still there, but I used to walk in
• 35:04
  there all the time. And I found a Charlie Trotter,
• 35:09
  the purple one. That's the Charlie Trotter.
• 35:11
  Charlie Trotter. Yeah, I think it's just Charlie
• 35:13
  Trotter. It wasn't the seafood one or
• 35:14
  anything. It's just like the over ever
• 35:17
  the, you know, the fully encompassing one.
• 35:18
  Yeah, so that one I found that one with a signed menu inside
• 35:23
  from Trotter and the book was signed from Trotter.
• 35:26
  That's cool. Which is crazy and that is cool.
• 35:28
  18 bucks, which is also wild. And then I also have when I do
• 35:33
  the competition, I have the chasing book, who's book by by
• 35:38
  Tessier, and I have that one signed by him by Thomas, by
• 35:43
  Daniel Blues, by Gerald Bakoos, Matthew Peters, like.
• 35:47
  That one. Wow.
• 35:48
  Yeah, that one doesn't. I don't touch that one.
• 35:50
  Yeah, I, I, I bought every chef that worked for me at the time.
• 35:55
  A copy of Chasing Bokus, all signed by Yeah, Honestly, highly
• 35:58
  underrated book. Highly underrated book.
• 36:00
  I don't know where you can get it now, but I feel like.
• 36:02
  You can, I want to say you get on Amazon but I'm not 100% sure
• 36:06
  on that but I'm pretty sure you can.
• 36:08
  You know what I have? I have a signed, signed original
• 36:13
  menu from Escoffier. What?
• 36:16
  Yeah, from Escoffier when he was the chef of the Savoy.
• 36:18
  Signed menu from him. Like 1920.
• 36:20
  Whatever it was, it was a gift given to me by David Garcelon.
• 36:23
  Shout out to David Garcelon as a retirement gift.
• 36:26
  He gave me a signed Escoffier menu.
• 36:28
  I use it as a coaster. It's all stained now, but.
• 36:30
  No, come on. I'm kidding.
• 36:32
  I'm kidding. But yeah, I do have it.
• 36:34
  Is it in a frame? No, no, it's in the trash.
• 36:36
  No, I'm just kidding. No, of course it's in A-frame.
• 36:38
  It's nice. Yeah, no, of course.
• 36:40
  It's like the GOAT, right? It's I also, you know what else
• 36:43
  I have that's kind of cool, is I have a signed lithograph of by
• 36:48
  Jacques Pepin that he drew. Oh, that's cool.
• 36:51
  Yeah. Well, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I
• 36:54
  have some cool chef memorabilia. Yeah, I wanted to buy us for I
• 36:57
  wanted to. Get to snag restaurants from
• 36:59
  you. When you I have, right?
• 37:01
  Yeah. That's a great book.
• 37:02
  You know, I don't, I think that book's like 1000 bucks.
• 37:04
  Yeah, it's crazy how much some of these books go up in price.
• 37:07
  Yeah, I have Alan du Casa's encyclopedia.
• 37:11
  Grand Leave the cuisine, right? Yeah.
• 37:12
  It's like 3000 bucks right now on Amazon.
• 37:14
  Yeah. Used.
• 37:15
  Yeah, used. Yeah, I got it with this like
• 37:16
  250 bucks. I remember thinking about 250
• 37:19
  bucks. I used to have the whole L bully
• 37:20
  collection someone stole from me.
• 37:22
  Oh my God, I really want to get the disc for tar books.
• 37:24
  I don't have anything. They are apparently they're
• 37:26
  supposed to be really good and they're.
• 37:28
  I mean, I feel like if there's any books that are going to go
• 37:31
  up in price, it's going to be those.
• 37:32
  Yeah. But yeah, I love going on Amazon
• 37:35
  and just like I have this huge cart of like old French
• 37:38
  cookbooks and the used bookmark it on Amazon is so good.
• 37:42
  Yeah, you could find like I have found so many like old French
• 37:46
  cookbooks for like $0.80. Yeah, they take like forever to
• 37:49
  get to you cuz they're coming from some Half Price books in
• 37:53
  North Dakota, right? Right.
• 37:55
  And somebody's just selling them on Amazon, but it's pretty
• 37:58
  crazy, so. We were talking with Aaron.
• 38:00
  I was talking with Aaron on the podcast not too long ago and we
• 38:04
  were talking about the creative process and you have all these
• 38:05
  stacks of books with tabs on them.
• 38:07
  And so you come into the office, like look at this.
• 38:10
  Did you see this? This is the per SE book or hey,
• 38:12
  check out this, this is Octa philosophy.
• 38:14
  So getting back to the creative process, you sit down with a
• 38:16
  bunch of cookbooks, yes, and just start.
• 38:18
  Do you start tabbing? So I have a lot of tabbed.
• 38:21
  It's just I'll just honestly, I I'm not looking for anything.
• 38:25
  I mostly just flip through them as in, in, in like to find
• 38:28
  inspiration. You know, it could be, you know,
• 38:32
  I'll flip through some dish and you know, like the new per SE
• 38:35
  book or something. And there's like that beautiful
• 38:37
  coil dish and like I'll see that like, oh, it'll kind of get the
• 38:41
  wheels turning of like, oh, maybe you could do this with
• 38:43
  something else. Or, you know, maybe you could
• 38:45
  take, you know, they have a dish with sauce supreme, which like,
• 38:48
  you know, you don't really see that often.
• 38:50
  Anymore. And that it's like, you know,
• 38:52
  then you're like, oh, I totally forgot about that.
• 38:53
  And you could, you could bring that into some dish, you know,
• 38:56
  and I feel like you kind of get little bits of inspiration off
• 39:00
  off dishes because, you know, everything's already been done
• 39:02
  so. Yeah, yeah, in some form, former
• 39:06
  fashion, right? It's been done.
• 39:06
  You just kind of reinvent it. Exactly that Per SE book is
• 39:09
  great but shout out to Thomas Keller and David Breeden and
• 39:12
  Pre. High pre high changed the whole.
• 39:14
  It changed the whole, the whole escape of of of how, how I ran a
• 39:18
  kitchen, honestly. Yeah, I I agree with that.
• 39:20
  That was honestly that like I took a lot from that per SE
• 39:24
  book, but the pre hydrated xanthan gum was one of those
• 39:26
  things I'm like it's like. Why haven't I done this?
• 39:28
  Yeah, yeah, why not? Well, pissed me off.
• 39:30
  I'll share this with the audience.
• 39:32
  I'll never forget. Well, we read the book and I was
• 39:34
  like, this prehydrated xanthan gum is a great idea because we
• 39:37
  weren't prehydrating at the time.
• 39:39
  We're just, you know, shearing it in, right?
• 39:42
  And I was talking to you about. I was like, oh, yeah, I've done
• 39:45
  that before. I was like, what do you mean
• 39:46
  you've done that before? Like, you've been watching me do
• 39:48
  this for like, you've been watching everyone do this.
• 39:51
  Like, yeah, I did this in Hawaii at Sanya, right.
• 39:54
  We did the bulletproof Vermont. Hey, that was like the main
• 39:57
  thing that I used it for. Yeah.
• 39:59
  It was so pissed. I was like, Jacob, you've been
• 40:01
  watching us do this for months and you're like, I already knew
• 40:03
  how to do that. Yeah.
• 40:04
  It was like, shit man. That's funny.
• 40:06
  We had some good times working together, I'll tell you that.
• 40:08
  There's some of the best years I could say in my career were, you
• 40:12
  know, the years spent there with you and everyone else was fun.
• 40:15
  Yeah, those were. I mean honestly just the amount
• 40:18
  of caviar that was eaten during those times was was amazing.
• 40:21
  Yeah, yeah, yeah, That was ridiculous, right?
• 40:24
  Yeah, It was some good times. So back to the creative process.
• 40:28
  One of the most interesting dishes that that you created,
• 40:32
  which I I thought to this day was super beautiful because you
• 40:34
  did this like monochromatic. Oh, the tuna.
• 40:38
  Tuna dish, right? Yes.
• 40:39
  Yeah. So sometimes when you're when
• 40:41
  you're creating dishes and you're going through the tasting
• 40:43
  process, OK, you get it on paper and then you go through like,
• 40:47
  OK, now let's taste it, Let's iterate it Now.
• 40:49
  For me, presentation is always last.
• 40:51
  You could always make it look pretty later.
• 40:52
  Let's make sure it tastes good first.
• 40:54
  But I remember we you you presented this dish.
• 40:56
  I was like, fuck, that's good. Yeah, that was, that was one of
• 40:59
  those dishes that and like, you know, it's so rarely happens
• 41:03
  where you just, you put it up the first time and you try it
• 41:06
  and you're like, Yep, Yep. What was that dish?
• 41:08
  That's it. I'll put it up on the podcast so
• 41:11
  if people are watching they can see the photo.
• 41:13
  It was a big eye tuna. It was just sliced raw, like
• 41:17
  sashimi style. And then we dressed it with red
• 41:20
  yuzu kosho and black garlic shoyu.
• 41:23
  Yeah. And then we did like a fermented
• 41:26
  hibiscus and huckleberry granita that was on top of it.
• 41:31
  I think that was it. We did like a couple purple like
• 41:33
  basil buds on top of it. So it was all like purple and
• 41:35
  red. Yeah, it was a beautiful.
• 41:37
  Black bowl. Yeah, it was, it was a beautiful
• 41:39
  dish, but that was one of those things that was just like, you
• 41:42
  don't need to change it. And that honestly happens so
• 41:44
  rarely. Like it really does.
• 41:45
  I've it's maybe it happened to me like 3 times.
• 41:48
  Yeah, where I've been like, Yep, no changes.
• 41:51
  For the first time ever, and well, I shouldn't say ever, for
• 41:53
  the first time in about 2 1/2 years since I've retired from
• 41:55
  being a chef. The other day I woke up in the
• 41:57
  middle of the night flooded with ideas, creative ideas for food
• 42:01
  dishes that that I've never made before.
• 42:04
  So there would be like new original ideas.
• 42:06
  And I, I woke up and I was like, holy shit, where's this flood of
• 42:10
  inspiration coming from? And I couldn't go back to sleep.
• 42:13
  So I just decided to write everything down for no reason.
• 42:15
  I don't have a restaurant that I'm working on or anything like
• 42:17
  that. I was like, I don't want to lose
• 42:18
  these ideas because every now and again inspiration just
• 42:20
  floods in. Yeah, that.
• 42:21
  No, it happens. And I wanted to jot it down and
• 42:24
  I don't know where it came from because like I said, I'm not
• 42:27
  working on, I think I have no reason to be thinking about
• 42:29
  this. But it came in like just a flood
• 42:33
  of inspiration. So maybe I I got to, maybe I'll
• 42:35
  give them to you so you could tell me if they suck or not.
• 42:37
  No, that I feel like that had like even when you, when you're
• 42:41
  in that like creative like mindset, sometimes it's like
• 42:45
  almost detrimental when you get those moments.
• 42:48
  It's like I like I'm trying to sleep and like I used to get
• 42:51
  that like I used to go like nights where I couldn't sleep
• 42:54
  because I all I could do was just think about food.
• 42:57
  Yeah. And I was like, I have to stop
• 42:58
  doing that. Like I just I like there has
• 43:00
  there has to be a bit healthier way to do this, right.
• 43:03
  But yeah, I would say for like just to, to conclude that the,
• 43:06
  the creative process, I would say cookbooks were huge.
• 43:11
  And like how we're talking about just randomly, you'll just get
• 43:14
  these moments of inspiration. And sometimes you could like,
• 43:19
  you know, in Garrison, I had the freedom to where I could just
• 43:21
  kind of go in and take 30 minutes and mess around with
• 43:25
  something. And, you know, maybe I'd go
• 43:27
  ferment something or maybe I'd go pickle something.
• 43:29
  And once you have this larder and I feel like, you know, you
• 43:33
  had this conversation with Gabe as well, like the, the saucier
• 43:37
  or whatever you said that they used to be saucy saucers, but
• 43:40
  now we just have larders. And I feel like that's such a
• 43:42
  huge thing too. Like when you have this massive
• 43:44
  larder of all these things that you could just go to and kind of
• 43:47
  pick from, it becomes so much easier also to create dishes.
• 43:51
  Have you tried Rene Rezepi's Lines Ferments?
• 43:55
  I have not. Gabe had a bunch.
• 43:57
  I wanted to try them but I didn't get a.
• 43:58
  Chance I went to I went to Baklar this past weekend, Yeah,
• 44:03
  for my anniversary. Yeah.
• 44:05
  And it was like one of the best meals I've had in Austin.
• 44:08
  Yeah. And he made this off menu
• 44:12
  tostada for me with this grilled lions mane.
• 44:14
  And he had that squash katsubushi that he had leftover
• 44:18
  from the Noma dinner. Wow.
• 44:19
  That was from Noma, apparently, Yeah.
• 44:22
  And it was like top three dishes I've had in a very long time.
• 44:28
  Really, Like, so good. And yeah, shout out I gave for
• 44:31
  that one, but that was the only Noma ferment I've ever had.
• 44:35
  Yeah, this will be interesting. Have you gone to Prelude?
• 44:40
  Yes, I I actually went right before.
• 44:42
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. What'd you think I?
• 44:43
  Thought it was amazing. Yeah, the art is beautiful.
• 44:45
  Oh yeah, the I mean the whole space is stunning.
• 44:48
  The food is amazing. Shout out tacos are like whoa.
• 44:51
  Shout out to Matt and and Lauren Peters.
• 44:54
  Great people, great space. Oh no, it's beautiful space.
• 44:58
  Beautiful space. I can't wait till they open the
• 44:59
  the full restaurant etcetera. But let's talk about the Austin
• 45:02
  food scene. Yes, since you know, you kind of
• 45:04
  touched on it, what this is a very broad question, but what do
• 45:08
  you think of the Austin food scene and what what do you think
• 45:11
  that we're doing really well and what do you think, OK, there's
• 45:13
  some opportunity for improvement here.
• 45:15
  I think I think Austin is moving in the right direction.
• 45:19
  I think that there's, you know, people like Gabe or people like
• 45:22
  Matthew Peters, places like, you know, Barley Swine and and you
• 45:26
  know, the whole Emmer and Rye group that are doing all these
• 45:29
  amazing things. I think it's everybody in that
• 45:33
  space is pushing the envelope. You know, the Fermines, it's
• 45:36
  it's all going, it's all pushing forward.
• 45:38
  And then I think that there is this other side to it that a lot
• 45:42
  of places are opening and there's so many restaurants
• 45:44
  opening in Austin. I mean, I feel like there's a
• 45:45
  new one every week. Yeah.
• 45:48
  And it's like the next thing to be at and a lot of the times.
• 45:52
  I can't keep up. I, I'd refuse to go to a
• 45:55
  restaurant that's like just opened because 80% of the time I
• 46:01
  feel like I'm going to get disappointed because I feel like
• 46:04
  in Austin, it's a lot of the focus is on just like the
• 46:07
  overall vibes of the restaurant and less focus on the quality of
• 46:11
  the product. And it's not a cheap city.
• 46:13
  So it's like you're, you're paying a lot of money for, for
• 46:16
  these things. And a lot of the time it's this
• 46:18
  amazing space and it's beautiful.
• 46:20
  There's beautiful people and it's awesome.
• 46:22
  But like the food falls flat, the food falls flat or the
• 46:25
  drinks fall flat or the service falls flat.
• 46:27
  And I feel like that's where I wish that it would kind of start
• 46:30
  to evolve a little bit more in the terms of like, you know, the
• 46:33
  Chicagos or the New Yorks or these places where it's
• 46:37
  everything, you know, that you get, you get the vibes, you get
• 46:39
  the service, you get the food, you get the drink, everything's
• 46:41
  good. And I feel like more quality,
• 46:45
  less quantity, I feel like is where what I'm thinking and.
• 46:49
  What do you think that we're doing really well as a city?
• 46:52
  I think a lot of the restaurants in Austin that are, you know,
• 46:57
  are that are really good that like, like previously mentioned
• 46:59
  with those chefs, I mean, I it's some of the best food I've I've
• 47:03
  ever had. It's comparable to anywhere I've
• 47:06
  ever eaten. You know, it's comparable to New
• 47:08
  York compared to Chicago. It's delicious.
• 47:10
  One, one of the things that Austin has done is it's made, I
• 47:13
  mean it, I wouldn't say it's redefined fine dining.
• 47:15
  It's just redefined the expectation.
• 47:17
  It's it's no, it's not. There's not many restaurants in
• 47:19
  Austin that do the long course out tasting.
• 47:22
  Almost none. I would say service is probably
• 47:24
  the biggest weak point in Austin.
• 47:25
  Yeah, I would even do. That there's not a big service
• 47:28
  culture here and there's not a lot of service professionals
• 47:30
  like people that have been. There's not a lot of career
• 47:32
  servers. Career.
• 47:33
  Servers in Austin's like I'm going to be a career server and
• 47:35
  work at the best restaurants forever.
• 47:37
  Because I know that doesn't exist.
• 47:39
  Here you do not you do not see that that much in the city.
• 47:41
  I think the food, especially with a lot of the chefs here as
• 47:43
  it continues to grow, you get you're getting a lot of highly
• 47:47
  creative chefs moving to Austin or that have that are from
• 47:51
  Austin have gone out and then come back.
• 47:55
  So I think the food scene is strong.
• 47:58
  I think where it lacks a little bit on the food scene is part of
• 48:04
  the strength of the Austin food scene is always going to be
• 48:07
  attached to the diner coming in. So is the diner ready for it?
• 48:10
  And so can, can they create the most ants on a shrimp, you know,
• 48:18
  foraged? Yeah, sure they can, but no
• 48:20
  one's going to order it. No, no.
• 48:21
  So there there's a little bit of what is the city ready for and
• 48:24
  what are the chefs able to do? So they're, they're, they're,
• 48:26
  they're kind of have to meet in the middle.
• 48:27
  There's, I think slowly but surely with people like like
• 48:30
  Matthew Peters and and Gabe and and, you know, the Emmer and
• 48:33
  Wright group. I think slowly but surely it's
• 48:36
  starting to get into that point of people are going to become
• 48:39
  more, you know, adventurous. Yeah.
• 48:42
  And there's, I also swear, I swear there's a new omakase
• 48:45
  sushi opening every other week as well.
• 48:47
  And it's like the the that's like also another thing is like
• 48:50
  people are starting to get more adventurous with that.
• 48:51
  And I think that's also. Pushing So someone sent me a
• 48:53
  meme. I posted the meme today.
• 48:55
  Someone sent me a meme. It's like $200.00 sushi in in
• 48:58
  New York. You know the the, the brain is
• 49:00
  like glowing. The second one's like $250 sushi
• 49:04
  in Tokyo or whatever, and then you have $450 sushi in Austin in
• 49:07
  their heads, like exploded. It's like, wait, why is Austin
• 49:11
  the most expensive sushi? No, no, it is.
• 49:12
  It's so expensive. I've only had like one Omakasi
• 49:15
  experience in Austin and I mean I I respect it but it's not my
• 49:19
  usually my go to just because it's so pricey.
• 49:20
  Yeah, it's expensive, but I mean, what's, what's the Omakasi
• 49:25
  place in Austin? Otako.
• 49:28
  Oh, Toko's a great. Restaurant.
• 49:29
  Oh, it's amazing. Toko's.
• 49:30
  That's the only one I. Went legit, they could get a
• 49:32
  star. Oh 100%.
• 49:33
  You talk about people that are going to get a star, you would
• 49:35
  say Otoko. I haven't been to sushi bar but
• 49:37
  apparently it's great. Yeah.
• 49:38
  I mean, I feel like they might also be able to get one.
• 49:41
  I feel like, yeah, I feel like a lot of the Omakasi sushi places
• 49:44
  have a huge shot. Yeah, I think, by the way, on
• 49:48
  the World's Fifty Best, you know, they have the world's
• 49:50
  fifty best bars. Prelude could get one for sure.
• 49:53
  Yeah, I mean the console program is.
• 49:55
  For sure. Like they need to be looking at
• 49:57
  that. You you did this fucking.
• 50:01
  I don't know. I don't know people.
• 50:01
  I'm going to share this story. Part of the reason I retired,
• 50:04
  because you yeah. So you did this, this dish.
• 50:10
  It was it was a mushroom, right? So what was it It was like?
• 50:13
  A It was a Maitaki mushroom that we like marinated and compressed
• 50:18
  in a bunch of yummy stuff and then grilled it and then it got
• 50:21
  like a smoked shiitaki XO in that super nice burrito bowl.
• 50:25
  Yeah, the. Gold rim.
• 50:26
  Yeah, it was beautiful. And I remember we were doing a
• 50:29
  tasting, and for people that don't know how we would do
• 50:31
  tastings, it would be several dishes.
• 50:33
  We're tasting it, we're critiquing it, We're talking
• 50:34
  back and forth. And so Jacob, you've been
• 50:38
  working on this dish for quite some time.
• 50:40
  You're super excited about it. I come up to it and I try it.
• 50:43
  And you're like, what do you think?
• 50:44
  It's like, yeah, it's fine. And they're like, no, but.
• 50:46
  And you're like. You want more?
• 50:47
  I was like, how is it? I was like, yeah, it's fine.
• 50:50
  Almost dismissive. And it I wasn't trying to be
• 50:54
  rude. I just at that point in time, I
• 50:55
  was like, I get it, whatever, it's tasty, it's pretty.
• 50:58
  It should go on the menu. And you kept pushing me.
• 51:01
  You kept pushing me and I was like, yeah, it's fine, just put
• 51:02
  on the menu. I was kind of annoyed.
• 51:04
  I. Was expecting to blow your mind
• 51:06
  with that one. I'm like, I'm like, this is.
• 51:07
  It yeah, I was just like, yeah, it's fine.
• 51:10
  Put on the menu and then afterwards, like, Chef, can I
• 51:12
  get you anything else to eat? I was like, yeah, can I get a
• 51:14
  steak? Because I was hungry and, and,
• 51:16
  and quite honestly, at that point in life and honestly still
• 51:19
  at the the point now, it's like I appreciate the technical
• 51:22
  aspect of food, but I don't always want to eat it.
• 51:24
  Sometimes I like, I appreciate the work that went into it, but
• 51:27
  that's not what I'm craving. I I just want some meat and
• 51:30
  potatoes right now. But give me, give me a good
• 51:32
  steak. I'm happy.
• 51:33
  Some cab, right rib eye cab. And so I remember I saw the look
• 51:37
  on your face dejected like fuck, really?
• 51:40
  I just gave you a mind blowing dish and like you took one bite
• 51:43
  and asked me for a steak. And I remember looking at you
• 51:46
  and seeing the look in your face and I said I got to step away.
• 51:49
  And so for me, part of the self reflection in that was realizing
• 51:54
  that the chef that you were and the chef that you've become.
• 51:57
  So I truly think that you're one of the best chefs in Austin.
• 52:01
  And I think with time, time will prove me right that you could
• 52:05
  potentially be like, you know, the, the King Triple Z, like I
• 52:09
  said earlier. And I just remember thinking
• 52:12
  like, at this point in time, we're pushing to be #1 and I
• 52:15
  don't feel like pushing. I, I don't feel like pushing you
• 52:18
  and I don't feel like pushing me because my passion is elsewhere.
• 52:21
  My passion is in mentorship and leadership and things like that
• 52:24
  and helping people achieve their dreams.
• 52:27
  It's not necessarily on the food creativity standpoint, it's not
• 52:32
  there anymore. That's when I, that's when I
• 52:33
  first realized I was like, oh, like, I feel like you had a
• 52:37
  moment of like, I don't need to really teach you food anymore.
• 52:41
  Yeah. Like it was kind of like, you
• 52:43
  know, it's, it's, you know, I'll teach you other things.
• 52:45
  But in terms of food, like, yeah, you, you, you got it.
• 52:49
  You could do it. Yeah.
• 52:50
  You got it. You don't need you don't need me
• 52:52
  to be mentoring you and coaching you anymore.
• 52:54
  You got it. No, at first I was like, like
• 52:55
  what? Yeah.
• 52:57
  Well, what happened? You know, it was it was a moment
• 52:59
  of self reflection. And for me it was it was when I
• 53:02
  noticed like I need to step away because the chef that you need
• 53:05
  pushing you is not me anymore, right?
• 53:06
  I can teach you other things, but right now you want to be the
• 53:09
  best. And I want to chill on the beach
• 53:11
  and smoke cigars, right? I was, I want to eat cat like
• 53:15
  like I was just in a different I was in a different headspace.
• 53:19
  But yeah, for people that don't know like that, they people say
• 53:21
  all the time, like, why did you retire?
• 53:23
  Like that's, that's a big reason why you were a big reason why I
• 53:25
  decided to step away is because I realized like it's time for me
• 53:28
  to step away because. I never realized that that was
• 53:31
  honestly the like that that was a big reason.
• 53:33
  It was a big reason. Until you posted that, that,
• 53:36
  that. Yeah, it was like a video or
• 53:37
  story or something. And I mean, I was like, wow,
• 53:40
  actually, like looking back on that, I'm like, yeah, It kind of
• 53:43
  changed after that. Like it was kind of like,
• 53:45
  Leslie, you know, you were mentoring me through other
• 53:48
  things that weren't really. Yeah.
• 53:50
  You know, just like, you know, put this on this dish, you know,
• 53:53
  it was the more broader. Scale yeah, I just well we had a
• 53:57
  conversation. I don't know if you remember
• 53:59
  this, but when you took over the the restaurant and I remember
• 54:02
  telling you Jacob, and this is a good lesson for people that are
• 54:06
  listening. I said, Jacob, chef to cuisine
• 54:09
  position that you're in now, it's going to make sure the
• 54:12
  kitchen runs really well, but a good chef is going to make sure
• 54:15
  the restaurant runs well. And so I said you got to be able
• 54:19
  to step back and say not only is the kitchen performing, but the
• 54:21
  whole restaurant needs to perform, and you embrace that
• 54:23
  leadership. No, that was the that was the
• 54:25
  biggest operator and that was honestly took me the longest to
• 54:29
  realize because I feel like stepping into the kitchen was
• 54:32
  was a little bit more natural for me.
• 54:35
  But like as soon as you like, Oh, I actually have to like, you
• 54:39
  know, kind of step into the front house aspect and then make
• 54:41
  sure that, you know, there's this cohesion here because the
• 54:44
  last thing you want is there to be any sort of friction between
• 54:47
  from the house and back of the house.
• 54:48
  It's just not good. Contrary to, you know, the most
• 54:53
  of the industry. Yeah, yeah.
• 54:56
  Trying, trying to trying to do that and like realizing how
• 54:59
  important that was took me the longest 100%.
• 55:01
  And you were telling me from the get go, you're like, you need
• 55:04
  to, you need to hammer like that you guys are a team and this is
• 55:08
  a restaurant and that you guys are together instead of like,
• 55:11
  it's just like, oh, the food's food's OK.
• 55:13
  Like I'm happy with my team. That's all I got to do.
• 55:16
  They got work to do, yeah. Yeah, these guys like, get it,
• 55:19
  get it. Together, my shit's tight.
• 55:23
  Let's talk about the chef world for a moment.
• 55:27
  What do you look for and how do you recognize talent in a young
• 55:32
  up and Comer? I think just somebody that is
• 55:37
  just has that hunger. I don't really look so much at
• 55:41
  resumes and stuff like that. I just don't if, if the resume
• 55:45
  is amazing, then I, I will obviously it'll pique my
• 55:47
  interest and I'll be like, yes, like, let's see.
• 55:50
  But a lot of the times it's just how hungry a cook is and how
• 55:54
  badly they want to be in the industry 'cause I feel like it's
• 55:57
  one of those things where if your heart isn't in it and if
• 56:00
  you're not passionate from the get go and you can't be humble
• 56:03
  and you walk into a kitchen either with your head held way
• 56:06
  too high and you think you're better than everybody else
• 56:08
  'cause you know, you worked here or there.
• 56:12
  Those are the types of people that I always feel end up being
• 56:15
  problems and I feel like the person that is humble keeps
• 56:17
  their head down, asks a ton of questions, almost annoying with
• 56:22
  the amount of questions they ask.
• 56:23
  I always feel that that person is has the highest potential.
• 56:27
  And what what advice would you give to like a new, let's say
• 56:30
  new culinary student coming in? They're about to work with Chef
• 56:32
  Jacob and they want to be successful.
• 56:35
  For me, I always kind of stressed like, first of all,
• 56:40
  don't be a hero. Don't be that person that you
• 56:43
  know, you, you just start service with 12:50 item and
• 56:46
  you're like, I'll probably make it because yesterday I sold
• 56:48
  eight and you're like, I'm I don't need to tell anybody, you
• 56:51
  know, don't be a hero first of all.
• 56:54
  Second of all, for me personally, I always made sure
• 56:58
  and I really hammered it home with everybody.
• 57:00
  Do not be afraid to talk to me and do not be afraid to approach
• 57:03
  me and ask me anything because 99% of the time it's probably a
• 57:08
  good question of very rarely is it like, come on.
• 57:12
  So you know, the more questions you ask, the faster you grow
• 57:15
  'cause if you sit around and wonder how to do something or if
• 57:18
  you try to do it yourself and you're doing it wrong or you're
• 57:22
  just trying to figure it out, it takes you a week.
• 57:23
  It's a lot faster to just ask somebody and have them tell you
• 57:27
  how to do it. You know, like I just feel like
• 57:29
  it's a lot of common sense. And for me, asking the
• 57:32
  questions, staying humble, communicate down, being
• 57:35
  passionate, that's, that's all I could ever ask.
• 57:39
  So for someone that's thinking about starting their own
• 57:41
  catering business now that you've transitioned from, you
• 57:43
  know, in restaurants to to independent catering, what is
• 57:46
  one thing that you wish you knew before you started it?
• 57:49
  Like if you want to you want to speed up know this.
• 57:54
  I would say probably the LLC thing, yeah, yeah, it took, I
• 57:57
  mean it took like it took a lot of research for me to be like, I
• 58:01
  should probably do that. And now that I've done it and
• 58:04
  you kind of, and it forces you to learn more about like the
• 58:08
  business aspect of things like how do you organize yourself to
• 58:12
  do your taxes? You're no longer working.
• 58:14
  Just chat. You're self-employed.
• 58:15
  Yeah. You just use chat.
• 58:16
  PBT. Yeah.
• 58:18
  But stuff like that, I feel like it's important.
• 58:21
  Yeah. All the rest, the rest of the
• 58:23
  stuff. What do you use to keep your
• 58:24
  QuickBooks? I use 00 yeah, with an X Xero,
• 58:31
  Yeah, it's, it's good. Yeah, yeah.
• 58:33
  You like you, you basically connect all your accounts and
• 58:35
  then you just reconcile every purchase and it just files
• 58:37
  everything for you. It'll automatically give you
• 58:40
  P&L's basically for for everything that you've made all.
• 58:43
  Yeah, it's, it's incredible. Interesting.
• 58:46
  OK, chef's PSA. Everyone that comes on the show,
• 58:49
  I always ask them, you know, everyone wants to get better,
• 58:51
  but what is like, what is your chef's PSA?
• 58:53
  Something that chefs should start doing or stop doing in the
• 58:56
  kitchen. So I had something written down,
• 58:59
  but I think I remember it. It was.
• 59:01
  Don't peel over parchment or. Peel over.
• 59:02
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Don't peel over parchment or
• 59:05
  you'll be called a pig. No, no.
• 59:06
  Peel over parchment. Peel over parchment or you'll be
• 59:09
  called a pig. Oh, actually here I wrote it
• 59:12
  down. It was just kind of a longer
• 59:14
  one, but I thought it was, I thought it was good.
• 59:19
  All right, so this is this is what I wrote.
• 59:21
  I said this industry is a marathon, not a Sprint.
• 59:24
  Instant success in this realm doesn't exist.
• 59:26
  Keep your head down, obsess over the craft and take the chances
• 59:30
  when they come. I think that's probably the over
• 59:34
  encompassing thing that that I think is is is Every cook should
• 59:37
  kind of look at that. All right, Chef, last few
• 59:41
  questions. Chef Kendrick or Drake Kendrick.
• 59:44
  Yeah, easy, right? Is that even a question?
• 59:46
  It's not, it's not. It's a warm up question.
• 59:49
  Yeah, I did. I did.
• 59:50
  Yeah. It was good.
• 59:51
  It was good. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 59:52
  I liked. I'll tell you what, you know
• 59:54
  what one of my regrets in life is?
• 59:56
  I don't know how to do that sea walk.
• 59:57
  Like I need to learn how to do that dance.
• 59:59
  That's like one of my big regrets.
• 1:00:01
  I was watching. I was like, I need to learn
• 1:00:02
  that. I can't do the sea walk.
• 1:00:05
  Like I was watching. I was like, damn it, if I knew
• 1:00:06
  how to do that, you'd see me on every video all over social
• 1:00:09
  media. Do it that just sea walking?
• 1:00:10
  Yeah, just sea walking everywhere.
• 1:00:12
  I would love to learn that dance.
• 1:00:13
  If anyone could teach me let me know or send me a how to
• 1:00:16
  tutorial. All right chef, thank you so
• 1:00:18
  much. Where can people find you?
• 1:00:19
  You. Can find me on Instagram my.
• 1:00:22
  Handle is HJ its.hjs.com. Don't search hjs.com.
• 1:00:28
  Do not search HJS. It's Jacob Trishein.
• 1:00:32
  That's it. Because my name is so crazy, I
• 1:00:34
  don't need any numbers or anything.
• 1:00:35
  Yeah. And then I'll.
• 1:00:38
  Link it in the show notes. Yeah, Tabella, dining.com.
• 1:00:41
  That's my private, my private chef business.
• 1:00:44
  And then I also shout out Gathered Forge.
• 1:00:47
  I also do private shopping for them and and it's been great.
• 1:00:49
  Well, this is fun, man. We got to do it again.
• 1:00:50
  No, thank you for having me. Yeah, we'll have you on again.
• 1:00:52
  We'll. I love talking shit with you.
• 1:00:54
  Yeah, definitely. I'm looking forward to it.
• 1:00:55
  All right, brother. All right, chef.
• 1:00:56
  Thank you. Well, I hope you enjoyed the
• 1:00:57
  show as much as I did recording it.
• 1:00:59
  It was a fun conversation. If you want support the show,
• 1:01:02
  make sure you leave five star. Five stars help out a lot.
• 1:01:05
  I would leave five stars for you.
• 1:01:07
  Go get my latest book, Bad Cooks Everywhere.
• 1:01:09
  It's available. I just wrapped up the audio
• 1:01:11
  book, so it should be out maybe within a week.
• 1:01:14
  Go to chefspsa.com where you can find everything that I'm working
• 1:01:18
  on, including podcast books, ebooks, basically resources for
• 1:01:23
  chefs that need resources. And then of course, if you want
• 1:01:26
  to get some of this merch like this, this hat that I'm wearing
• 1:01:28
  that says just cook or this hoodie.
• 1:01:30
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• 1:01:34
  bringing you content. If you want early access to the
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• 1:01:46
  So for $10 a month, you get early access to the podcast.
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  were never fully released to the public that are available on
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• 1:02:03
  I'll click the link in the show notes.
• 1:02:04
  We'll see you next week and hit the porno music in the kitchen.