Latest / Forking Around with Flavor South Florida / Dean Max: Building Restaurants, Mentoring Michelin-Recognized Chefs and the Legacy of 3030 Ocean

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Dean Max: Building Restaurants, Mentoring Michelin-Recognized Chefs and the Legacy of 3030 Ocean · Forking Around with Flavor South Florida

• 0:04
  Welcome to Forking Around with Flavor South Florida.
• 0:07
  I'm Kerri Paizzi, CEO of Flavor South Florida.
• 0:10
  We are sitting down with entrepreneurs, business
• 0:12
  owners, and influential community partners to
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  talk growth, trials, tribulations, and more.
• 0:17
  These conversations lead into Flavor South Florida,
• 0:20
  the region's largest restaurant month, happening
• 0:22
  every September from the 1st through the 30th.
• 0:24
  If you're in hospitality or thinking about building
• 0:27
  something meaningful in this industry, you're
• 0:29
  in the right place. Pull up a chair and let's
• 0:31
  get into it. This episode is sponsored by Altima
• 0:38
  Caviar. Visit them at AltimaCaviar.com. Today,
• 0:44
  I'm forking around with a chef whose fingerprints
• 0:46
  are all over South Florida's culinary scene,
• 0:49
  even in places where you might not even realize
• 0:51
  it. Chef Dean Max is the founder and president
• 0:54
  of DJM Restaurants, a chef, restaurateur, consultant.
• 0:59
  cookbook author, and one of the early champions
• 1:01
  of farm-to-table cooking in South Florida.
• 1:04
  His career has taken him from growing up around
• 1:06
  farms in the Chesapeake Bay to studying in Florence,
• 1:09
  cooking in some of the country's top kitchens,
• 1:12
  and creating restaurant concepts around the world,
• 1:15
  including the legendary 3030 Ocean and Fort Lauderdale.
• 1:20
  Welcome to Forking Around with Flavor South Florida,
• 1:23
  Chef Dean Max. Thank you. Thank you. It's great
• 1:25
  to be here. I am so extremely thrilled to have
• 1:29
  you here. Well, I hope I live up to that. Well,
• 1:31
  I have to start by saying I feel like a bit of
• 1:34
  a stalker, actually. Big fan, rather. So I knew
• 1:39
  who you were. I mean, I think we followed each
• 1:41
  other on Instagram. I've looked at your concepts,
• 1:44
  your bio. I know who you are, but we've never
• 1:48
  had the privilege to meet until today. So that's
• 1:51
  why I'm so excited for this episode. Oh, my gosh.
• 1:56
  About 30 guests already on this on our podcast.
• 2:00
  Mainly chefs. Thank you. Thank you. And chefs,
• 2:04
  restaurant owners, managers, all different walks
• 2:07
  of life within the industry, really. And me being
• 2:10
  a former hostess, I'm having a field day with
• 2:13
  this. I'm sure you can imagine. It's fun. You
• 2:15
  have the best ends in town, right? I do. I'm
• 2:19
  having a really great time with this. I started
• 2:22
  this really to get behind the scenes of the people
• 2:25
  of the restaurants that the folks, the diners
• 2:27
  love so much. Also uncovering along the way that
• 2:31
  the shitty sides of it, too, you know, because
• 2:33
  we've all been in the weeds. We've all been there
• 2:36
  Saturday night. And I just that's really what
• 2:39
  made me go. I want, you know, 20 years ago, I
• 2:42
  said, I want to I'm going to write a book about
• 2:45
  this, about just working in the restaurant industry.
• 2:48
  Lo and behold, I'm a better speaker than I am
• 2:50
  a writer. So here we are. Well, this is great.
• 2:53
  I think it's like it's such an interesting film.
• 2:56
  I'm actually surprised there's not more books
• 2:58
  written about. you know, like all the crazy things
• 3:00
  that happen in a restaurant. We've had one guy
• 3:02
  do it and became super famous doing it, right?
• 3:04
  Yeah. Should we write a book? I know. We probably
• 3:07
  should write a book. Should we co -author one?
• 3:09
  I know. Stay tuned, folks. We're just getting
• 3:12
  started here. Whoa. We could have a whole new
• 3:15
  business concept by the end of this episode.
• 3:18
  Well, that all being said, three of those guests
• 3:22
  that I've had on said your name, talked about
• 3:25
  you, brought you up. And I said, damn. I need
• 3:29
  to meet this man. Those three folks, and we'll
• 3:34
  dig into this a little bit deeper, are Chef Paula
• 3:38
  DaSilva, Chef Pushkar. I always say his last
• 3:42
  name wrong. Marathe, yeah. Marathe. And that's
• 3:45
  why I wasn't going to attempt it. Sorry, Pushkar.
• 3:48
  And Chef Jeremy Ford. And I looked at them. I
• 3:51
  didn't know. I didn't know this. And Nivin Patel
• 3:53
  has not been on the show, but I know he was also
• 3:55
  a protege of your kitchen. One of them had said
• 4:01
  that to me and they said, oh, yeah, we were all
• 4:03
  3030 Ocean together. And my response was like,
• 4:05
  what the hell was that kitchen like? So that's
• 4:11
  what I want to know today. But I do have a fun
• 4:16
  question for you with just those few names that
• 4:19
  we've just discussed. And like I said, we'll
• 4:20
  get a little bit deeper because they've all individually
• 4:22
  become really acclaimed, incredible chefs. Under
• 4:28
  your leadership. I'm like, where's the common
• 4:30
  denominator here? But I want to know one thing.
• 4:36
  You were their mentor. Tell me what they taught
• 4:41
  you. Well, that's a good question. I think they
• 4:43
  all teach you, you know, something different.
• 4:46
  I think when you look at all three of those personalities,
• 4:49
  they all have in common is their drive, their
• 4:53
  hard work ethic, you know, wanting to be creative
• 4:55
  and do interesting things. that you look at somebody
• 5:00
  like Paula, Paula was so driven, you know, Paula
• 5:02
  started when I actually opened 3030 Ocean in
• 5:06
  Fort Lauderdale, I was coming from Los Angeles.
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  So I didn't know anybody in the area. I mean,
• 5:10
  my family's from Stewart originally. So I, Oh
• 5:13
  yeah. Yeah. So. I grew up in Stewart. That is
• 5:18
  so random. I love that. Yeah, it was great. So
• 5:21
  it was a cool little hometown. And then I went
• 5:24
  off to kind of work around the country. And so
• 5:27
  this was kind of my first time coming back to
• 5:29
  South Florida. My whole family lives here. So
• 5:31
  I would always come back, obviously, but not
• 5:33
  to live. And so I landed in Fort Lauderdale.
• 5:36
  And actually, it's a funny story that... Paula
• 5:39
  was actually the first day that I was coming
• 5:41
  to do like this cooking thing for a lot of the
• 5:44
  owners of the hotel and that where I was building
• 5:46
  this restaurant, they gave me, Paula was working
• 5:49
  there already. You know, she was just like this
• 5:51
  little kid, you know, and she was in charge of
• 5:54
  like basically cleaning up my mess at that time.
• 5:57
  I'm like cooking everything. She's like, okay,
• 5:59
  just show him where the blenders are, show him
• 6:01
  where this is. And he's, you know, and I got
• 6:04
  in there and then we got along really well. I
• 6:07
  was like, you know, this girl's, you know, she's
• 6:09
  on top of it. For this young kid, she was on
• 6:12
  top of it. So when I opened the restaurant, you
• 6:15
  know, she was kind of a junior sous chef and
• 6:17
  eventually just moved up to being my sous chef,
• 6:20
  then chef de cuisine, and then my executive chef
• 6:23
  after that, you know, and worked with me for
• 6:26
  15 years there. Her, I think she's all about
• 6:29
  energy. You know, Paul's all about energy. She's
• 6:32
  just high energy and she always wants to do stuff
• 6:35
  right. you know, doesn't, you know, take excuses,
• 6:39
  you know, from anybody in the kitchen. And she
• 6:42
  was like the toughest. You want to talk about
• 6:45
  tough in the kitchen? She's a badass. She's a
• 6:47
  badass. She, you know, I think, I don't want
• 6:50
  to say this about Pushkar, but I think she made
• 6:52
  Pushkar like whimper a little bit back in the
• 6:55
  early days. I'm going to say this story real
• 6:57
  fast. Actually, I'm going to, I'm going to let
• 7:00
  Pushkar say the story real fast. Okay. You mentioned
• 7:03
  Paula DaSilva. That you could share. Yeah, tell
• 7:06
  the stories. I've been thrown five or six different
• 7:10
  stakes in a matter of 30 minutes by Paula. And
• 7:13
  all of them were boning stakes because I messed
• 7:15
  up the temperature or I don't know what I did
• 7:18
  wrong. But I know I did something wrong. And
• 7:20
  I was just like dodging Paula's stakes being
• 7:23
  thrown at me in the middle of service at 7 .30
• 7:26
  p .m. And Jeremy's just like going next to me
• 7:30
  saying, Yeah, don't worry. You got this. You
• 7:33
  got this. Keep it going, buddy. So, yeah. So
• 7:37
  Pushkar said something about somebody in the
• 7:41
  middle of service threw steaks around in the
• 7:44
  kitchen. It must have been a busy night. I won't
• 7:50
  say who the somebody was, but somebody did. Well,
• 7:54
  you know, we were all about perfection, you know,
• 7:56
  and I think we stood at the line there and like
• 7:58
  you didn't want. any customer to get a bad meal.
• 8:04
  Like, and that was kind of the attention to detail
• 8:06
  that, that I wanted for that restaurant because
• 8:09
  I'm going like, the other thing is too, I'm,
• 8:11
  I'm like, I'm a social person. I I'm in the restaurant
• 8:15
  business because I love making people great food.
• 8:18
  And I mean, I have a business degree. I, my dad
• 8:22
  had a. a brokerage company. I could have worked
• 8:24
  for him and probably made even more money, but
• 8:27
  it's like, I'm doing this because I love it.
• 8:29
  And so for me, I just wanted to make amazing
• 8:31
  food because I'm going to the table. I wanted
• 8:33
  to go to the tables. I wanted to meet people.
• 8:35
  I want to see how their dinner was. And, and
• 8:37
  so, and create that experience. I think to me,
• 8:40
  that's what a great restaurant's about. It's
• 8:42
  a connection between all those elements. And
• 8:44
  I think that, you know, when you're going out
• 8:48
  to a table, it really teaches you another thing.
• 8:50
  As a chef, you're like, okay, well, I, I don't
• 8:53
  want to go to a table if, you know, one guy's
• 8:55
  missing this or this came out wrong. You want
• 8:58
  to go to the table and hear perfection, right?
• 9:00
  So it's really wild. It's really wild. And, you
• 9:04
  know, the irony of that is too is like I could
• 9:07
  be standing on the pass in the kitchen watching
• 9:09
  everything go by and tasting little bits of everything,
• 9:13
  plating things, decorating, and had a night where
• 9:16
  I thought everything was perfect. And I go out
• 9:18
  to a dining room and it was like, I didn't get
• 9:22
  the response I wanted to get. And then there
• 9:25
  were nights where it was crazy and you thought
• 9:27
  that somebody overcooked this and you thought
• 9:29
  that this didn't look good and you go out and
• 9:30
  everybody raved. So it's like really weird the
• 9:32
  way that happens. It is weird. You don't ever
• 9:34
  know. You just never know. And, you know, I actually
• 9:38
  have a good question for you to that note. I've
• 9:41
  asked a couple of chefs and owners this and the
• 9:44
  answer seems to be the same across the board
• 9:46
  so far. What is more important in a restaurant,
• 9:49
  the food or the service? If you have to pick
• 9:53
  one. If you have to pick one. Gosh, it's hard
• 9:57
  to pick one because you know what? I think service
• 10:00
  is a huge one. If you go in and you really like
• 10:03
  somebody, you forgive a lot, right? But the place
• 10:06
  had kind of bad food. If you have a really good
• 10:09
  service, they'll go back because of the connection.
• 10:12
  People will go, maybe they'll go back. They'll
• 10:14
  at least have a decent time because it depends
• 10:17
  how bad the food is, right? The food is just
• 10:19
  mediocre, but the service is amazing. You'll
• 10:22
  at least go. You might not go back for the food,
• 10:24
  you know, but, and then it depends on the price
• 10:27
  point. If it's a high price point, you're not
• 10:29
  going to go back if there's food bad, right?
• 10:31
  If it's a low, if it's a diner, but you really
• 10:33
  like the people there and it's just a. It's an
• 10:36
  omelet, and it's a mediocre omelet at best. You
• 10:39
  might go back anyway. So it's really hard to
• 10:42
  define those two things because it really depends
• 10:45
  on the type of situation. But I think they both
• 10:48
  have to be there for a great restaurant. There
• 10:50
  has to be something there with that. For me,
• 10:53
  they're just as important, both. You have to
• 10:56
  have great food, and you have to really try to
• 11:00
  give great service. And great service is really
• 11:03
  about – it's not about – specifics it's about
• 11:06
  consistency like for me i don't care if you put
• 11:09
  the fork and the knife like this at an angle
• 11:12
  it doesn't matter but every table should have
• 11:14
  it the same right right well that's true and
• 11:16
  that's it's just whatever you decide your design
• 11:18
  is it doesn't have to be this old school french
• 11:21
  design that tells you okay the fork's got to
• 11:23
  be here and the spoon's got to be here no it
• 11:26
  just has to be consistent and so for me it's
• 11:29
  like Good. And when people come back, they want
• 11:32
  to be recognized. That's a big thing. 3030, we
• 11:34
  did that great. And, you know, like eventually
• 11:37
  it was at 3030 for a period of time. And then
• 11:39
  I kind of. created some relationships you know
• 11:43
  with people that asked me to do other properties
• 11:46
  and so I kind of started to do other properties
• 11:48
  and and I would have different restaurants and
• 11:51
  then I'd have another restaurant another I had
• 11:53
  restaurants all over the country at one point
• 11:55
  by the ending point I had like 15 restaurants
• 11:57
  around the country and so I was traveling a lot
• 11:59
  so how what did that mean for my guests at 30
• 12:02
  30 who had like Grown to know me there, love
• 12:05
  me there. Did you find that to be a struggle
• 12:07
  and a suffer? You know what I did that worked
• 12:09
  really well was rather than... I knew like they
• 12:12
  wanted a kitchen connection. I already had a
• 12:14
  dining room of superstars. Right. Like the same
• 12:18
  servers that we started with and developed, only
• 12:21
  one would fall off that we didn't really maybe
• 12:24
  like that much and we kind of get them out. But
• 12:26
  we created a core of service staff that was impeccable.
• 12:30
  They knew their job. They knew the customer.
• 12:32
  They never made mistakes. And that was incredible.
• 12:35
  So that's the one element. The service piece
• 12:37
  was incredible because they knew everybody. And
• 12:41
  then the kitchen, like I knew everybody as well.
• 12:45
  Like they would bring me out to tables. I told
• 12:47
  them I want to be out to any local. I want to
• 12:49
  be out. And any new local, if they were from
• 12:52
  the area, we want to be out. We were in a hotel
• 12:53
  that was on the beach and it was a resort. So
• 12:56
  that was kind of the thing that made it super
• 12:59
  famous within. within a hotel field too. And
• 13:02
  you had this space for 15 years. Yeah, 15 years.
• 13:06
  That is a long, long time for a restaurant. It
• 13:09
  is. And I think it was really because of that
• 13:11
  connection. So we didn't really count on just
• 13:14
  like the hotel tourists to be in our hotel. I
• 13:16
  wanted locals. I've always had local restaurants.
• 13:19
  I had a little restaurant in Brentwood before
• 13:21
  that in LA. And it was like a neighborhood place.
• 13:24
  And I love the neighborhood connection. So I
• 13:26
  didn't want to have this place where people come
• 13:28
  on their vacation, you never see them again.
• 13:29
  But we would also get people come on their vacation
• 13:31
  and they would come back the next year. And they
• 13:33
  would come and eat like three times less because
• 13:35
  they loved us. I actually do that. I do that
• 13:37
  too. Like when I travel, I'll go back to the
• 13:40
  same place. Like, you know, yeah. Yeah, if you
• 13:43
  have a good experience. Yeah, why not? Well,
• 13:46
  so it's funny. The answer that most folks, most
• 13:48
  restaurateurs give me is between the food and
• 13:50
  service is what I got is service to being the
• 13:54
  top runner. And I think that's funny because
• 13:56
  so like the other night I went out to dinner
• 13:58
  and. The food was really good. The service really
• 14:01
  sucked. And that is, it's so hard to find good
• 14:06
  help. Well, it's like it kind of, you know, she
• 14:09
  was just bad, man. She just didn't clear the
• 14:11
  plates. It was like my water glass. It was those
• 14:15
  stupid things that irk me so bad because you
• 14:18
  have that ability as a server to make it. Like
• 14:22
  she like left some one of my friends drinks at
• 14:24
  the bar. She looks up. Oh, oops. I could see
• 14:27
  the light bulb go off and she runs to the bar.
• 14:29
  So now the drink is sitting there melting with
• 14:32
  ice in it. I'm just like, come on, man. You know,
• 14:34
  you could have this could have been better, a
• 14:36
  lot better. And it's it's just so unfortunate
• 14:40
  sometimes. So when restaurants I mean, I feel
• 14:42
  like people hold restaurants to such a high standard
• 14:44
  because they're going out and it's experience.
• 14:46
  And, you know, they really do put restaurants
• 14:49
  on a pedestal, which and that's fine. Nothing
• 14:51
  wrong with that. But to really hit that mark
• 14:55
  of food and service perfection, I can't say there's
• 14:59
  a whole lot out there that can actually do that
• 15:01
  properly. Yeah, it takes a lot of focus for sure.
• 15:03
  I think the biggest key for me at 3030 was I
• 15:06
  always had a mentality like I have to have good
• 15:08
  people around. If they're not good, I got to
• 15:10
  get rid of them. And I'm not a mean guy at all.
• 15:12
  Everybody who has worked for me will tell you
• 15:14
  that I'm not mean at all. But I'm also, if you're
• 15:17
  not good, you're going to like get encouraged
• 15:19
  to get better. And if you don't get better, you're
• 15:21
  going to be gone. And I'm quick to make those
• 15:23
  decisions because I think that you can't have
• 15:26
  those people, like you can't have that person
• 15:27
  that's just clueless. And it's nothing wrong
• 15:29
  with that person. They just, they're meant to
• 15:31
  be doing another job, not that job. When you're
• 15:33
  in the restaurant job, you have to be able to
• 15:36
  see a lot of things. Because there's a lot to
• 15:38
  be seen. You know, when you're maintaining someone's
• 15:40
  table, it's simple, but it's also very difficult
• 15:43
  because you have a lot of other things going
• 15:44
  on in the restaurant. When's your birthday? May
• 15:47
  12th. I'm a tourist. Oh, interesting. Yeah. All
• 15:50
  right. Very interesting. I think that, I don't
• 15:53
  know, I'm that bull that just, like, really has
• 15:55
  to take charge and then, like, gather good people
• 15:59
  around me. And, like, that was the same with
• 16:01
  the kitchen. I think the reason I was successful
• 16:03
  there is because I always kept and kind of bred.
• 16:07
  like good people. Yeah. Like Paula, Jeremy, and
• 16:10
  Pushkar all, and even all, all these people that
• 16:12
  work for me, they're Adrian and Uma and all.
• 16:14
  They had the quality of being like very strong
• 16:18
  and what they did, very focused on being great,
• 16:20
  you know, all of that. And it wasn't male or
• 16:24
  female. One time I was actually, our kitchen,
• 16:25
  like we had like seven women in the kitchen.
• 16:29
  It was wild. I love that. Yeah. I love it. We
• 16:32
  had strong women. We like, they were all just
• 16:35
  amazing. you know, powerhouse when it came to
• 16:37
  food and they've all done great things since.
• 16:39
  And I think like people came and went depending
• 16:42
  on what they had going on in their life, but
• 16:44
  they had. great times there. It's so wild. Like
• 16:46
  even like I go places sometimes and there's people
• 16:49
  that I like are in other areas that had worked
• 16:52
  for me for like a year, like, like Paula and
• 16:55
  Jeremy and all that work for me, like over all
• 16:58
  of them, at least over six years, you know? So
• 17:01
  the other ones that were a year or two, and then
• 17:03
  I still have these great like connections with,
• 17:06
  but. So I guess my question then would be the,
• 17:10
  these folks that you like have gone on to win.
• 17:14
  you know, receive Michelins and win awards and
• 17:18
  be on reality cooking shows, like they all came
• 17:22
  out of your kitchen. So speak to your leadership.
• 17:26
  What do you feel that your folks that work for
• 17:30
  you, how would they describe you as a leader?
• 17:33
  Because I've had some great, great jobs over
• 17:36
  the years and really bad leaders and really bad
• 17:40
  bosses. it will change your whole experience
• 17:44
  of of your job like where you almost want to
• 17:48
  quit like i love my job i love the guests i love
• 17:50
  this building i love my co -workers but man she's
• 17:53
  making it rough you know for me i think there's
• 17:57
  some people that are just miserable on their
• 17:58
  jobs and like i think the main reason is like
• 18:01
  we always had a lot of fun i'm like i i'm doing
• 18:05
  this job because i love it and i've always loved
• 18:07
  it and i'm doing what i love and and so that
• 18:11
  was You could see that in me. I'm always in a
• 18:14
  good mood. Like, if I'm in a bad mood, it's not
• 18:17
  good. But that rarely happens. That's like a
• 18:20
  rare occurrence. I'm always in a good mood. Even
• 18:22
  if I have some, like, rough things going on,
• 18:24
  I'm still in a good mood. And at work, I was
• 18:27
  just always having fun. We were just always having
• 18:29
  fun. And I think, like, it bred an environment
• 18:33
  where we all had fun. Like, and we would have
• 18:36
  tough times. Like, when a team from six until,
• 18:39
  like, nine, where you had that crunch time, man,
• 18:42
  it would get crazy. And if you had new people
• 18:44
  on the line and they're just, you know, they're
• 18:46
  not. cooking stuff right we'd be getting wild
• 18:49
  on them but at the same thing we're pushing them
• 18:51
  and they were getting better and better and better
• 18:53
  and better when you focus on those details people
• 18:55
  get better quick and and that's where i think
• 18:59
  that all of us like kind of grew together in
• 19:02
  the in those time frames where you know people
• 19:05
  got good quick and then we were just doing really
• 19:08
  nice food and then we're like for me too is also
• 19:11
  about i grew up on a farm and so i like I learned
• 19:15
  from an early age the importance of good quality
• 19:17
  ingredients that you're working with. And then
• 19:20
  when I worked, I went and worked with Michelin
• 19:22
  star chefs. And, you know, back in my early part
• 19:25
  of my career when there really wasn't, you know,
• 19:27
  you couldn't see all this stuff on TV like you
• 19:29
  can now. But back then you had to work with these
• 19:32
  great people to get those experiences. But we
• 19:34
  were – I worked with one chef in D .C. that we
• 19:37
  were buying the best ingredients in the world.
• 19:38
  So we would get caviar. And now you can go on
• 19:41
  Instagram and see people serving caviar. you
• 19:44
  know, white truffles, this kind of things all
• 19:45
  over. Right. But back in the, I didn't know what
• 19:47
  that was. I didn't know what a white truffle
• 19:49
  was. And so to get it, a box of these white truffles
• 19:52
  come from like Piedmont, Italy and open it. And
• 19:55
  when you smell that, you were like, wow, this
• 19:57
  is incredible. your eyes open to these ingredients
• 20:01
  that nobody else was ever seeing only the elite
• 20:04
  you also spent some time in florence right yeah
• 20:06
  and even in florence was an eye -opener for me
• 20:09
  because when i went to florence and lived there
• 20:10
  it changed my mind about food because in america
• 20:13
  at that time there was only you know this was
• 20:16
  a long time ago so this was like when you would
• 20:18
  go to a restaurant it was all like spaghetti
• 20:19
  and meatballs nobody had risotto on the menu
• 20:22
  because nobody knew what risotto was yeah risotto
• 20:25
  is great right but you didn't have that you didn't
• 20:28
  have they weren't bringing like porcinis and
• 20:31
  these kind of things yeah and and so you didn't
• 20:33
  see like real italian food like we would get
• 20:36
  over there i would go and get like a wild boar
• 20:39
  ragu on top of a soft polenta and you were like
• 20:42
  Oh my God. Sounds fantastic. Yeah. You didn't
• 20:44
  have that. And you just got Americanized Italian.
• 20:48
  So that like made me first realize that, okay,
• 20:51
  traveling is the key to understanding food better,
• 20:54
  right? To real food better. And so I started
• 20:57
  to travel a lot and then I, and I wanted to see
• 21:00
  like how food was supposed to be and how it was
• 21:03
  supposed to taste. Cause you couldn't really
• 21:04
  replicate it if you didn't know what the flavor
• 21:06
  was. Right. So I wanted to really travel a lot.
• 21:11
  Cooking something. Didn't you do something in
• 21:13
  Jamaica? Yeah, I did something with a friend
• 21:15
  in Jamaica. I used to go to Jamaica a lot as
• 21:17
  a kid. My dad, he like brokered strawberries
• 21:21
  out of Jamaica. And so we used to go down there.
• 21:23
  And those experiences too, when you go there
• 21:25
  and the first time, that was my first, I think
• 21:27
  there in the Bahamas were my first taste of Caribbean,
• 21:30
  right? And then I've had a restaurant in the
• 21:33
  Cayman Islands called the Brasserie for, it's
• 21:36
  going to be our third. 30 -year anniversary this
• 21:38
  year. Brasserie, huh? Yeah. That name sounds
• 21:40
  familiar. I know. It's such a basic name. No,
• 21:43
  Pushkar's new restaurant. Oh, yeah. Exactly.
• 21:46
  Boca Brasserie. Yeah. And Pushkar was actually
• 21:48
  a sous chef for me there. Yeah. Pushkar is like
• 21:53
  the ultimate kind of American dream story. He
• 21:57
  came and worked with us at 3030 right from...
• 22:00
  you know, right from India. Like, well, he'd
• 22:03
  gone to culinary school and then he came and
• 22:05
  worked on like a visa for a year and a half,
• 22:07
  like a travel student visa and worked with us.
• 22:11
  And then from that connection I had with him
• 22:13
  there, realized how great he was. He couldn't
• 22:16
  stay in the U .S. He had to go work somewhere
• 22:18
  else. So he went and worked in Doha at the Ritz.
• 22:20
  And then I plucked him out of that to go work
• 22:23
  in Cayman for me. And so he was down there. And
• 22:25
  then he went. back to India, and then from a
• 22:29
  Top Chef guy who'd plucked him out of that, which
• 22:31
  is kind of wild, right? It's like all these,
• 22:34
  like, really small world stories. He was, like,
• 22:36
  in Doha, and he, like, he met, like, one of the
• 22:40
  guys that was doing Top Chef at the time was
• 22:42
  doing an event there, met Pushkar. And I know
• 22:46
  this kid's a friend of mine from South Florida
• 22:49
  because he used to be at the Naples Ritz, and
• 22:50
  we had done a couple things together. And he
• 22:53
  was in Doha, and he, like, gets handed this Indian,
• 22:56
  you know, cook at the time. And he's like, oh,
• 22:59
  yeah, this guy's going to show you everything
• 23:00
  to do the big thing they were supposed to be
• 23:03
  doing there, the event. And he's talking to Pushkar,
• 23:06
  and Pushkar goes, yeah, I know America. Yeah,
• 23:08
  he used to live in Florida. Yeah, I know Dean
• 23:09
  Max. That's so funny. How funny, right? Wait,
• 23:12
  Dean, we're only on page one, Dean. I know. We're
• 23:14
  never going to make it through. I have so much
• 23:15
  to ask you. Sorry in advance, everyone. Going
• 23:17
  to be a four -hour episode because we have so
• 23:20
  much to talk about. There's so many stories.
• 23:24
  Yeah, you'll have to edit it down. I do have
• 23:25
  actual questions for you. No, we're not editing
• 23:27
  a thing. Here we are. We're forking around. This
• 23:29
  is what we're doing. And questions. I'm going
• 23:33
  to ask you questions. Uh -oh. Uh -oh. Not hard
• 23:36
  ones. So we have a lot of... entrepreneurs that
• 23:41
  listen in for business growth tips, restaurateurs,
• 23:45
  budding chefs. Give me three pieces of advice
• 23:50
  you would give these folks that are maybe thinking
• 23:53
  about opening a restaurant or a business in general.
• 23:55
  Just three pieces of advice that you would love
• 23:59
  to share with them. Well, somebody opening a
• 24:01
  restaurant, I think there's realize that you're
• 24:05
  not just cooking. It's like it's a business.
• 24:09
  You have to think of all the pieces around that.
• 24:11
  You have to be able to do the balance sheet for
• 24:15
  it. And if you don't know how to do that, you
• 24:17
  better find somebody who you can trust to mess
• 24:20
  around with that for you. Yes, you're going to
• 24:22
  do the cooking piece, but you better have the
• 24:24
  front of the house piece taken care of mentally
• 24:26
  as well. And then on top of that, you better
• 24:28
  be ready to market it yourself. I know I have
• 24:31
  a lot of cooks that work for me and chefs that
• 24:34
  work for me. In the past, I, you know, have been
• 24:38
  like, wow, I don't do social media, chef. I just
• 24:41
  cook. I'm a cook. I'm like, well, then you're
• 24:43
  always going to be a line cook in the restaurant.
• 24:45
  Is that what you want? If that is, that's fine.
• 24:47
  But if you want to be a chef, you want to have
• 24:49
  your own restaurant, you better learn. every
• 24:51
  piece of the restaurant business and if you don't
• 24:54
  understand that or try to understand it at least
• 24:56
  then you're going to have a tough time so i think
• 24:58
  understanding the whole piece of the business
• 25:00
  is key and don't bite off more than you can chew
• 25:02
  i think a lot of people say oh that's like 200
• 25:05
  seats i can make start counting how much money
• 25:07
  they're going to make but they don't understand
• 25:08
  that the labor for that and it's going to be
• 25:11
  slow times and if you don't control that you're
• 25:13
  going to have a lot of loss so so i would say
• 25:16
  start small and grow from there that would be
• 25:18
  my suggestion start small understand every piece
• 25:22
  of your business and you should be, and have
• 25:26
  a good base. Obviously you have to have a good
• 25:28
  base. You know, I always tell, I'm always mentoring
• 25:30
  young people. Like people come to me all the
• 25:32
  time. My kid wants to be a chef. What should
• 25:33
  they do? What school should they go to? And I'm
• 25:36
  like, they need to work for the best possible
• 25:39
  chef they can. To me, I never went to culinary
• 25:42
  school. Like I went to college and I have a business
• 25:45
  degree, but I was like, I wasn't going to go
• 25:47
  to culinary school. And I was like, you know
• 25:48
  what? Let me just. Work in a restaurant and see
• 25:51
  what happens. So a friend of mine hooked me up.
• 25:53
  His dad had a lot of big restaurants. And I went
• 25:57
  to work, you know, for one of their great restaurants.
• 26:00
  And I never turned back from that. What I realized
• 26:03
  by doing that is, like, if you're able to go
• 26:07
  in the kitchen and work and just say, hey, you
• 26:09
  know what? I don't know anything, but I'm okay
• 26:11
  with being dumb in the kitchen for the first
• 26:13
  couple months. And I'm going to absorb it all.
• 26:16
  And you get in there and you just put your head
• 26:19
  down and learn as much as you can. You're going
• 26:21
  to come up and you're going to do well, but you
• 26:24
  have to work for the best. So that's the key.
• 26:27
  And even if you don't want to do fine dining,
• 26:30
  I always tell people, go into fine dining to
• 26:31
  start. Because in fine dining, not only do they
• 26:34
  teach you about work ethic and style of how to
• 26:39
  work, you're going to have better products. And
• 26:42
  it's always easy to like... Kind of dumb that
• 26:44
  down. But if you never got that experience, it's
• 26:47
  hard to understand it. I'm going to jump out
• 26:49
  of my chair in excitement because I wanted to
• 26:51
  cut you off so many times in that sentence. Because
• 26:55
  I wholeheartedly agree with every little bit
• 26:59
  of it. So with Flavor South Florida Restaurant
• 27:02
  Month and my marketing company that I've had
• 27:04
  since 2018. Oh, man, I have to just be. I got
• 27:11
  a pain right now. Like, the amount of restaurants
• 27:14
  that open up that come to me and go, hi, I just
• 27:17
  opened up a restaurant. What do you charge for
• 27:18
  marketing? What should I do? This, that, the
• 27:19
  other thing. I said, well, what's your budget?
• 27:21
  Well, I don't have a marketing budget. I'm like,
• 27:23
  you can put the best steak in the planet on the
• 27:29
  plate inside the restaurant. But if nobody knows
• 27:32
  about it. Yeah. What? I know. What right now?
• 27:39
  Blows my mind every time, every time, every time.
• 27:42
  Yeah. And like that is to me like so for you
• 27:47
  to say like look at the big picture of it. So
• 27:50
  many restaurants that I know don't. Yeah. And
• 27:54
  it frustrates me so badly because by year three,
• 27:58
  you're trending up, trending down, or you're
• 28:00
  going to plateau, right? Right. If you're not
• 28:02
  trending up, you know better than I do, but if
• 28:05
  you're not trending up by three. You're probably
• 28:07
  going to close your door shortly after. Now,
• 28:09
  year one and two, you're probably going to be
• 28:10
  in the red. Right. Am I right? Exactly. It takes
• 28:13
  time to build. Yeah. But there's a very specific
• 28:17
  turning point in restaurants specifically. Year
• 28:21
  three, man, it's like I had a great mentor. His
• 28:24
  name was Dave Minutia. Minutia, was that his
• 28:27
  last name? It was a while ago. And he owns a
• 28:29
  restaurant group up in Orlando called Restaurant
• 28:31
  Partners. taught me so much of this piece of
• 28:35
  it over the years. Now, I've had fantastic leaders
• 28:38
  and bosses over me. My steakhouse in New York,
• 28:40
  I talk about all the time. The bagel store that
• 28:42
  I grew up in working in, those pieces I took
• 28:44
  away over the years from each and every individual,
• 28:46
  one of my bosses. I mean, man, I had good ones,
• 28:50
  really good ones, and one bad one out of 10.
• 28:54
  But yeah, I mean, I think that's really great
• 28:57
  advice. I think It's so important for someone
• 29:00
  to have a mentor and a leader and the amount
• 29:04
  of calls you get and the amount of calls I get.
• 29:06
  Like people asking just about how to start a
• 29:08
  business, how to run a social media, how to just
• 29:12
  pick my brain. That's a big question I get. Hey,
• 29:14
  can I pick your brain? And I always joke and
• 29:17
  say, I'm going to get a T -shirt made up, say,
• 29:18
  can I pick your brain? I'm like, man, there's
• 29:21
  not much left up here in my brain. I keep picking
• 29:23
  it out. But man, oh, man. Well. you know, the
• 29:27
  girl that got away, you know, that girl, everyone
• 29:30
  has one, the girl that got away. Tell me about
• 29:33
  the restaurant that got away. Tell me about a
• 29:37
  concept you always wanted to do, but you never
• 29:39
  did. This episode is sponsored by Altima Caviar.
• 29:43
  Experience exceptional. Visit them at AltimaCaviar.com
• 29:47
  .com. I think the concept that I've always kind
• 29:51
  of wanted to do was, uh, it was, it was more
• 29:54
  of like a Polynesian style concept. Cause I have
• 29:56
  this like weird and infatuation with Hawaii you
• 29:59
  know I think growing up in a time with Magnum
• 30:02
  PI and like Hawaii Five -0 and all that and I
• 30:05
  surf and I grew up I was gonna ask if you were
• 30:07
  a surfer yeah you're giving me surfer vibes I
• 30:09
  surf and I play beach volleyball and I like I'm
• 30:12
  definitely a beach dive I'm like do all those
• 30:14
  things and and so you know Hawaii for me was
• 30:17
  always like a magical place and I'd never gone
• 30:20
  until like you know I think like my I think my
• 30:23
  late 20s and it's kind of like That food has
• 30:27
  always been like really intriguing to me and
• 30:29
  tiki and like that whole tiki concepts, like
• 30:32
  really a big thing for me. What would a Hawaiian
• 30:34
  vibe menu look like here in South Florida? Well,
• 30:38
  I think like, you know, the problem with that
• 30:41
  is like, okay, when you go to these tiki restaurants
• 30:43
  and I don't want to like, like call anybody out,
• 30:46
  but when you go to these tiki restaurants and
• 30:49
  they have. you know like they they just don't
• 30:53
  do the details right that's the thing they make
• 30:55
  a tiki restaurant some of them might put the
• 30:57
  cool glassware right and then their food is garbage
• 31:00
  it's all frozen you know the frozen coconut shrimp
• 31:03
  comes in the box we all know who you're talking
• 31:05
  about so it's like but it's just like do those
• 31:08
  things right when you go to like when you go
• 31:11
  like to when you go somewhere to like Asia and
• 31:14
  you have these great items like Put those things
• 31:18
  together. Put items together from Singapore,
• 31:20
  from Thailand, from Vietnam, from Hong Kong.
• 31:24
  And you're on this menu with these great cocktails,
• 31:27
  you know. And if you can do that, you could create
• 31:31
  a really special place. And I think that that's
• 31:34
  one of the restaurant concepts that I think I've
• 31:37
  always kind of wanted to do is a restaurant like
• 31:40
  that. And I have little versions of it when I
• 31:42
  make those items in my restaurant. There's none
• 31:44
  around here like that. No. There isn't. I'm picturing,
• 31:47
  like, maybe some hula dances. Yeah, I think Look
• 31:49
  Colonial tries to do. Everyone gets laid. Everyone
• 31:52
  gets laid. Yeah, right. Delays with flowers.
• 31:55
  And the thing is, like, I think I just like the
• 31:58
  style of it. Like, Look Colonial, I think, and
• 32:00
  Del Rey, actually, they do a good job. They're
• 32:02
  a bigger company, and they do a good job of giving
• 32:05
  you that feel of tropical and an elegant environment,
• 32:08
  and they do a pretty good job. But I think, like,
• 32:11
  nobody that can think of does, like, a super
• 32:13
  fine version. I think you should do it. Which
• 32:16
  I'd like to, I know. But anyway, that's kind
• 32:19
  of the concept that, you know, the rest of the
• 32:22
  concepts I've done, I think. So, and here's a
• 32:24
  funny thing. I feel like, back to, you had mentioned
• 32:27
  before the word consistency, and I love how you
• 32:31
  explained it as such of, if you're putting the
• 32:33
  fork and the knife in the X shape, that's fine,
• 32:36
  but be consistent and keep doing it, right? There's
• 32:39
  a reason McDonald's is what McDonald's is. If
• 32:41
  you go to McDonald's and anywhere in the world.
• 32:45
  And get the same, I don't eat McDonald's, but
• 32:47
  it's the same. What is the Big Mac? So I don't
• 32:50
  have a Big Mac. Right. So I think it's, it's
• 32:53
  important. So to your point of the, the Polynesian
• 32:55
  concept, if you're doing Polynesian, you're doing
• 32:57
  Polynesian and you're doing it perfect. Pushkar,
• 33:00
  stage. It's, it's an Indian concept for our,
• 33:04
  it's so how I perceive it or Ila rather. Ila,
• 33:07
  yeah. Yeah. I met Nila. You do it and you do
• 33:11
  it right. You do it the best you can do. Right.
• 33:13
  And I say that all the time with restaurants.
• 33:15
  It's like sometimes they have their concept and
• 33:18
  then they're struggling and they start like navigating
• 33:20
  and diverting. And I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa,
• 33:22
  whoa. What are we doing here? So like, oh, it's
• 33:24
  fine dining. So we have to. But it's Super Bowl
• 33:28
  Sunday. I mean, I worked at Capitol Grill and
• 33:31
  Gardens for a lot of years and we closed on Super
• 33:35
  Bowl Sunday. Because you know what? That was
• 33:37
  not their guest. That was not their guest. They
• 33:40
  weren't going to throw the games on. And that
• 33:43
  was that. Right. If you're a sports bar, it's
• 33:46
  your day. Right. That's your day. Rock and roll,
• 33:48
  right? Don't try to be a sports bar if you're
• 33:49
  not, right? Yeah. And that is something that
• 33:53
  I think you do so well and recognize so well
• 33:56
  that so many don't, which is frightening. Product's
• 34:00
  the main thing. I think that's one thing that
• 34:02
  I made sure that I gave. to anybody who's worked
• 34:05
  under me now whether they had came with some
• 34:07
  of that of their own as well that's fine but
• 34:10
  i was always pushing that like we didn't sit
• 34:12
  at home i didn't sit at home like having a dream
• 34:15
  about asparagus and say i'm gonna make this dish
• 34:18
  with this crazy asparagus thing going on i didn't
• 34:22
  do that we like i looked at the market i looked
• 34:24
  at what fish do we have that are super fresh
• 34:26
  right now and like and a big thing too was like
• 34:29
  menus like I was really adamant about the pieces
• 34:32
  of the puzzle that make you do great things.
• 34:36
  And there's a lot of times I always say, like,
• 34:39
  there's a lot of great chefs in Florida, right?
• 34:42
  But there's also a lot of bad systems in Florida
• 34:45
  that keep the chefs from being great. And let
• 34:47
  me give you an example. Like, a lot of times
• 34:50
  in a hotel environment, they'll have a menu and
• 34:53
  they're like, we want this menu to be laminated
• 34:55
  and plastic so it doesn't get dirty. three fish
• 35:01
  on that menu that are always going to be around.
• 35:04
  That laminating menu thing is, it's like so gross
• 35:06
  to me. It's so gross. Just print paper. I'd rather
• 35:09
  you give me a paper menu and throw it out at
• 35:11
  the end of the night. Seriously, print it on
• 35:14
  paper. Not only is it disgusting, but it does
• 35:18
  something to the kitchen. It makes you decide
• 35:20
  on one or two items that you're going to always
• 35:23
  get. Now, you know you're going to get farm -raised
• 35:25
  salmon year -round, so you'll see salmon on that
• 35:28
  menu. Instead of seeing, like, right now you
• 35:30
  should see pompano because pompano, the season
• 35:32
  just started, right? And you've got a lot of
• 35:34
  Florida pompano going on. Ma, he's done. And
• 35:37
  then that's why the price goes up. So everything
• 35:40
  should be about. And then you talk about a business
• 35:43
  angle of that, too. It's price. It's like people
• 35:45
  ask me, too, how do I know what to buy? Go to
• 35:49
  the grocery store. If it's cheap or it's on sale,
• 35:52
  it's probably because it's in season. When tomatoes
• 35:53
  are plentiful and seasoned, they're cheap. And
• 35:57
  then in the winter, they're like $6 a pound.
• 35:59
  And then, you know, okay, well, I got to use
• 36:01
  something else, right? So go into the market.
• 36:04
  Look at the products and buy. And that's what
• 36:07
  he did. Like when I came here, I was coming from
• 36:08
  California. So California had all these awesome,
• 36:11
  like it's cheating in California for the chefs
• 36:14
  because of the fact that they have such good
• 36:17
  products. So you go to a farmer's market there
• 36:18
  and I'd have a farmer's market right outside
• 36:20
  of our restaurant like twice a week. So I would
• 36:23
  just knew all the vendors. They were all coming
• 36:25
  from Central Valley. But when you walked in that,
• 36:28
  there's a guy who. Just does dates. And I didn't
• 36:31
  know there were 10 types of dates. Yeah, there's
• 36:32
  like more than that even. But he would bring
• 36:35
  dates and then he'd be date syrup, date puree,
• 36:38
  you know, and there would be like dehydrated
• 36:41
  dates and there'd be honey dates and bari dates.
• 36:43
  And you're like going through and tasting all
• 36:46
  these different dates. Fascinating. You're like,
• 36:47
  what? I want to try the honey dates. That sounds
• 36:49
  yummy. I know. So when I came to Florida, Florida,
• 36:52
  like we really looked around and said, wow, we
• 36:55
  need to do a lot more with products in Florida.
• 36:58
  And at that time, there was a lot of small farms
• 37:00
  that all the farms you hear about now was just
• 37:02
  starting. And we like made sure that we were
• 37:06
  using them and growing products. I feel like
• 37:08
  we're coming a very long way with our culinary
• 37:11
  scene in South Florida as far as farming and
• 37:14
  sourcing and really being a little more aware
• 37:17
  of what we're producing, eating. And I think
• 37:20
  a lot of the chefs are really. Getting there,
• 37:23
  sinking their teeth into it, which is really
• 37:25
  nice for me as a diner because I want to put
• 37:28
  good quality food in my body. Right. I think,
• 37:31
  well, there's a lot of things have changed in
• 37:33
  20 years since I've had that restaurant. There's
• 37:36
  a lot changed. So Florida. I grew up in Florida,
• 37:40
  so I understand what the coast of Florida has
• 37:42
  been. And in the last 20 years, Florida has become
• 37:45
  this huge destination. We hear it all the time,
• 37:47
  how many people move to Florida every year, right?
• 37:48
  And that's not stopping. It keeps growing and
• 37:50
  growing and growing. They're all going to Stewart.
• 37:52
  I swear to you, they're all going to Stewart.
• 37:55
  We've seen the real estate here go crazy, right?
• 37:58
  So we know Florida's a huge destination. Well,
• 38:02
  it used to be a tourist destination. So we're
• 38:04
  seeing summers are not as slow as they used to
• 38:06
  be. Now we're getting more of these people who
• 38:09
  have year -round jobs, and they're not going
• 38:12
  away in the summertime as much. So we have business
• 38:15
  more. And so I think the whole model of Florida
• 38:19
  is changing. So back in the old days, you had
• 38:21
  a tourist restaurant. People came during the
• 38:23
  tourist season, and it was basically like just
• 38:26
  feed the tourist, give them something cheap.
• 38:28
  And that's what a lot of mentality of restaurants.
• 38:32
  Well, there's that Cracker Barrel up on Counter
• 38:34
  Highway. That thing's been there forever, huh?
• 38:36
  I remember sitting in that little rocking chair
• 38:38
  when I was, sheesh, probably 12 years old. And
• 38:42
  now I'm taking my son, who's now 14, sitting
• 38:45
  in that rocking chair. That same rocking chair,
• 38:46
  right? Yeah, cool, right? I just thought of that.
• 38:48
  That's so funny. But yeah, we're due for a little
• 38:50
  Cracker Barrel visit, actually. I haven't been
• 38:52
  there in a minute. Some pancakes. So tell us
• 38:56
  a little about... djm hospitality what that is
• 39:00
  and what that provides and and and does for for
• 39:04
  restaurateurs and okay well um i by my restaurant
• 39:08
  group called djm restaurants i started this back
• 39:12
  in i think 2004 and it's kind of when i kind
• 39:16
  of started to develop more restaurants outside
• 39:18
  of just having one and it's not what i tell chefs
• 39:21
  now it's like if you know You grow up doing a
• 39:24
  restaurant and a lot of them are like, well,
• 39:26
  am I going to be behind the line forever? I go,
• 39:28
  not if you're a good business person because
• 39:29
  you keep growing and teaching other people. And
• 39:32
  I never really got back to the one of the points
• 39:34
  that makes that possible is customers want to
• 39:38
  see you as a chef. They want to see the chef.
• 39:40
  They want to see a kitchen presence. So I knew
• 39:43
  at my first restaurant with 3030 in Florida that.
• 39:47
  If I was going to have to go to my other restaurants
• 39:49
  on a Saturday and be gone for four or five days
• 39:52
  to go to see three other restaurants, what was
• 39:55
  I going to do about this flagship that I had?
• 39:58
  I knew I had to bring faces out. other than myself
• 40:02
  to the kitchen. So when I had, if you were a
• 40:04
  local at 3030 and you came in and it was your
• 40:07
  Saturday night and I came out to say hello to
• 40:09
  you and well, how's it going? I'm catching up.
• 40:11
  I'm like, and then, you know, coming by and,
• 40:14
  and cheersing a glass of wine with you towards
• 40:16
  the end. I'd be like, I'd bring Paula out. So
• 40:18
  she was my sous chef. I'd be, have you met Paula?
• 40:20
  Paula's my sous chef. And then Paula would feel
• 40:23
  comfortable talking to you. Right. And you'd
• 40:25
  create a pond with Paula. And then. Jeremy was
• 40:27
  my junior sous chef and I bring Jeremy out. And
• 40:30
  then, and then, and then if I wasn't there, Paul
• 40:32
  and Jeremy would come out. So no, I wasn't there,
• 40:35
  but you still got the kitchen feel. So you didn't
• 40:38
  feel like, oh, we went, but Dean wasn't there.
• 40:40
  So it wasn't the same experience. No, you got
• 40:43
  the same experience. You might not have seen
• 40:45
  me and I'll catch you next time, but you got
• 40:48
  the full experience of the front of the house
• 40:50
  really took care of you. And the back of the
• 40:52
  house really took care of you too. So I think
• 40:54
  that, that. For me, as a restaurant group, that
• 40:57
  hospitality piece is everything. So what I did
• 41:01
  was I started to do a lot of restaurants with
• 41:03
  hotels. This was a time, too, where hotels were
• 41:07
  like, realize we can't do food right. Yeah. So
• 41:11
  if they had a hotel. Yeah. People were going.
• 41:13
  That's a newer trend. Good point. People were
• 41:15
  going out of the restaurants in the hotels to
• 41:18
  local places. They're like, well, we want to
• 41:20
  go to a good local place. So hotels identified
• 41:23
  that. over 20 years ago, right? And they said,
• 41:27
  well, we got to have a named chef in there because
• 41:30
  it's going to add value to our hotel, you know?
• 41:33
  And, you know, they could charge more for a room
• 41:35
  then. When you think about it, when you go, if
• 41:37
  you go to New York and you stay in a fancy hotel,
• 41:39
  they probably have a really cool restaurant.
• 41:41
  You're going to have one meal there, right? And
• 41:43
  they're not expecting you to dine there for the
• 41:45
  whole time, but they also brought you in. You
• 41:48
  might've stayed there because, wow, they have
• 41:49
  this cool, you know. john george restaurant or
• 41:53
  something you know but that's that's true i mean
• 41:55
  yeah and that's funny you say that because when
• 41:57
  i was in london i stayed i was only there i was
• 42:00
  supposed to be there for a few days like five
• 42:01
  days and i kept extending it and extending it
• 42:04
  every day i went down i made friends with the
• 42:05
  concierge and then i made friends with the bartender
• 42:08
  and then i made friends with the guy with the
• 42:10
  guys in the restaurant and and by day 10 i didn't
• 42:15
  go home i was like i went i went by myself and
• 42:18
  so i kept i'm like all right i'm like i'm gonna
• 42:21
  And I just kept going down. You know, the concierge
• 42:24
  and I, we went out one night. He took me around
• 42:26
  to Piccadilly Square, whatever, down there. He's
• 42:29
  like, do you want to go with me? I'm sure you're
• 42:31
  around. I said, yeah, man, let's go. And I have
• 42:34
  friends over in London, too. So it wasn't like
• 42:36
  a stranger in the town. But it was just really
• 42:39
  nice. Eight at that restaurant, to your point,
• 42:42
  in that hotel. It became my home for 10 days.
• 42:46
  Yeah. If you can read that great experience,
• 42:48
  people want that. I mean, I gave them all my
• 42:51
  money. It was 5 o 'clock, 6 o 'clock. I was down
• 42:54
  at the bar. My guy was making me my drink by
• 42:56
  day two or even on the cruise. I went on a cruise
• 42:59
  a couple months ago with a bunch of content creators.
• 43:01
  It was a Virgin Voyage content creator cruise.
• 43:03
  Yeah. By day two, the bartender on the fifth
• 43:07
  deck, I forgot his name. damn, did he make me
• 43:12
  a good martini every day, every day, every day
• 43:15
  on that. And he didn't even have to ask for it.
• 43:17
  He just walked up. By day two, I did. Yeah, you're
• 43:21
  like, no, they know. They know. They're good
• 43:23
  on those cruise ships like that, you know. Vesper,
• 43:27
  it was a Vesper martini. A Vesper martini. A
• 43:29
  good drink, right? Oh, man, that was good. And
• 43:33
  I think that's the key to these experiences that
• 43:37
  you have to create as a restaurant. You have
• 43:39
  to have people that you trust doing that. So
• 43:41
  for me, what I was selling to hotels and that
• 43:43
  was the fact that I'm just going to pop this
• 43:47
  place open for you. Because there are companies
• 43:50
  that just do that. They're like, we know how
• 43:51
  to design it and the plateware and all this.
• 43:53
  And I do all that as well. But then they just
• 43:55
  disappear. But for me, it's not the disappearing.
• 44:00
  Like you can design a beautiful restaurant with
• 44:02
  all the right plateware and the good flow and
• 44:03
  all that stuff and then set it there. It has
• 44:06
  no personality yet. You have to give it a personality.
• 44:08
  You have to have people. You have to have a culture.
• 44:11
  And the culture is the big thing. So the culture
• 44:14
  is what I create. It's a culture of, you know,
• 44:17
  back in the old days. The chefs that I worked
• 44:19
  for were crazy, and the servers hated them. And
• 44:21
  you probably know these people, right? Because
• 44:23
  when you go back in the kitchen, you're scared.
• 44:25
  Are they going to make you cry? Oh, I never went
• 44:26
  in the kitchen. They were just jerks, right?
• 44:28
  And I used to tell my— It was intense back there.
• 44:31
  When I first stepped foot in a restaurant, oh,
• 44:35
  gosh. Okay, so it was 98, and it was 98. And
• 44:40
  you don't walk in New York in a steakhouse five,
• 44:45
  six hundred dinners. Yeah. You do not. go anywhere
• 44:48
  near that kitchen i mean do you want to die the
• 44:51
  chefs in that were just they're just like like
• 44:53
  chaotic and crazy don't go there no i would talk
• 44:56
  no i drew i kind of raised all the people under
• 44:59
  me to think differently with that because i saw
• 45:04
  what i saw was like servers crying and they're
• 45:06
  in the side stage get it together and they would
• 45:09
  go out and i'm like I don't want that. I don't
• 45:12
  want the servers hating me. They have to go to
• 45:14
  the table and promote me as a chef, right? They
• 45:16
  have to promote what I'm doing and promote the
• 45:18
  concept. I want them to love what we're doing
• 45:21
  and feel like a part of the team. So I would
• 45:24
  have these. cooks that had been working in other
• 45:26
  places where they were taught this negative environment,
• 45:28
  kitchen, front of the house, back of the house,
• 45:30
  and we're always fighting, right? And we're better
• 45:32
  than you and blah, blah, blah. And I'm like,
• 45:35
  no, dude, we're one big happy family. They have
• 45:37
  to do a great job out there. And I'm like, if
• 45:39
  you screwed something up in the kitchen, I'm
• 45:41
  like, okay, you go to the table. Forget the server
• 45:43
  comes back. No, let the cook take it out to the
• 45:47
  table and see the customer and have to deal with
• 45:50
  that side of it and say, hey. oh shit, I have
• 45:54
  to like, I, you know, this person's mad. And
• 45:56
  like, it becomes a different thing for them.
• 45:58
  Now they understand why the servers back there,
• 46:01
  like all bummed out that things, something's
• 46:03
  not right for the guests because they have to
• 46:06
  deal with the guests and the guests can be mean
• 46:08
  sometimes. And so I think like, I think like
• 46:12
  teaching them, like we're all in it together.
• 46:14
  We're a part of one team. That's so crucial.
• 46:17
  And that's what I think that Paula. Jeremy, Pushkar,
• 46:22
  Neve, David, Brad, Adrian, all these people that
• 46:26
  have great restaurants. Adrian, too? Yeah. Adrian
• 46:30
  worked for me for 10 years or more. Holy, the
• 46:33
  list keeps growing, man. Get Adrian on the phone.
• 46:35
  Have you ever had Dave and Brad from Even Kiel?
• 46:36
  They were great. They worked for many years,
• 46:38
  too. I've eaten at Even Kiel. I don't know them,
• 46:40
  but I've eaten there. Yeah, they all worked in
• 46:42
  the same system. So Brad and Dave worked for
• 46:44
  me in multiple places. Yeah, you need a reunion
• 46:47
  party. Well, you know, I used to be bummed because
• 46:51
  in James Beard, we used to always go do the James
• 46:54
  Beard dinners in New York. When it was in New
• 46:56
  York, you used to do dinners at the house. Those
• 46:58
  were so great. So I would take all of the shelves
• 47:02
  off. We'd do dinners where it was like Jeremy,
• 47:06
  Brad, Dave, Paula, Pushkar, Niven, all of them.
• 47:10
  Did Brad Kilgore work with you at all? No, Brad
• 47:13
  Kilgore. Different Brad. Yeah, different Brad.
• 47:15
  But I know Brad. He's a good friend too. But
• 47:17
  that whole crew, we used to always be able to
• 47:20
  get together a lot. That was the best part. So
• 47:23
  for me, what happened, the reason I grew this
• 47:25
  restaurant group is because I had all these guys.
• 47:27
  You have somebody like Paula who's growing up
• 47:29
  under you. She wants to do more for herself,
• 47:32
  right? So you have to move them up. And if you
• 47:34
  don't move them up, you're going to lose them.
• 47:36
  They're going to go somewhere else, right? So
• 47:38
  for me, I opened new restaurants. I could put
• 47:41
  that chef in there. Okay. Okay. Well, you're
• 47:43
  going to be the exec chef here and now you can
• 47:45
  make more money and you'll have your own gig.
• 47:46
  And then I'm just going to come and check on
• 47:48
  you and give you guidance and all that. And then,
• 47:50
  so I grew up, I had restaurants in Ohio and Dallas
• 47:52
  and Los Angeles and Long Beach and, and Connecticut
• 47:55
  and Baltimore. So, you know, Niven was my chef
• 47:58
  in Baltimore. He was my chef at Chica Lodge in
• 48:00
  the, in the Keys. He was my chef in the Cayman
• 48:03
  Islands. And then he opened, he opened Guy. Yeah.
• 48:06
  And Guy. Yeah. And so, and then, you know, Pushkar,
• 48:09
  like I said, he flowed all around. He was at
• 48:11
  my LA. restaurant as well he put my california
• 48:14
  restaurant on the map him and dave when they
• 48:17
  opened that i have to give credit to them they
• 48:18
  they really like we would go to the market but
• 48:21
  they kept everything going so they took like
• 48:25
  the guidance like that i would give and they
• 48:28
  embraced it a lot of guys fight it they're like
• 48:31
  oh i don't want to buy that chef i don't get
• 48:32
  this you know you have to do the work you know
• 48:35
  right now i'm driving up to my restaurant And
• 48:38
  Vero, Tradewinds, right? Tradewinds 41. If you
• 48:41
  guys haven't been, you have to come. You're in
• 48:42
  Stewart. You get to these areas once in a while.
• 48:46
  I haven't been. I have to come. You have to come.
• 48:46
  It's a great spot. Totally down. Anyway, I'm
• 48:50
  in South Florida. So every week when I go up
• 48:55
  there to visit them, I stop by Aioli Bakery because
• 48:58
  they're the best bakery and good friends. Why
• 49:03
  weren't you at the dinner at the Michelin? Yeah,
• 49:06
  I was in New York. Michael Aioli was there. I
• 49:08
  was going to say, Pushkar, Paula. They were
• 49:10
  all there. Yeah, they're all good friends of
• 49:11
  mine, too. And I got to say, it's funny. Speaking
• 49:13
  about Paula, I adore her demeanor. I adore her.
• 49:19
  She's so profound. I love how she speaks and
• 49:22
  delivers. And I just was listening to her just
• 49:25
  the other day talking. i've really gotten to
• 49:29
  like just know her over time a little bit more
• 49:31
  and especially coming on the show and everything
• 49:35
  you know but she i can't even describe i wish
• 49:41
  she's precise right yes but it's so she's so
• 49:45
  yes precise that you can't you can't argue with
• 49:48
  what she's saying you agree or disagree she's
• 49:50
  speaking fact out of her mouth yeah and when
• 49:53
  she's talking i'm listening and i'm like she
• 49:55
  but she says it with with such a beautiful demeanor
• 49:58
  and tone that it's like jeremy and Pushkar wouldn't
• 50:02
  agree with that Well, you talk about like, no,
• 50:07
  but she also has a lot of experience. I mean,
• 50:09
  she looks young, but she has a lot of experience.
• 50:13
  I mean, she's been through a lot. She's seen
• 50:15
  a lot of kitchens. She's been in the restaurant
• 50:21
  a lot of days. She understands the business end
• 50:23
  of restaurants. She understands the kitchen end.
• 50:26
  She's a great cook. Paula, back in the early
• 50:30
  days when we had 3030, was the first one to do
• 50:32
  the TV stuff. Because, you know, we had some
• 50:35
  friends in TV and they asked me to do TV stuff.
• 50:38
  And I was like, no, I don't want to do TV stuff.
• 50:39
  I'm like, I just didn't like dealing with the
• 50:41
  production stuff. But Paula went and did Hell's
• 50:44
  Kitchen and did amazing. And went all the way
• 50:47
  to the end. This is back when Hell's Kitchen
• 50:48
  was like. One of the top, you know, top shows
• 50:51
  was getting like millions of viewers every week.
• 50:53
  And it was really cool experience. We used to
• 50:55
  have parties at the restaurant every week and
• 50:57
  she did incredible. She should have won. It was
• 51:00
  like, that's a rigged thing. She's a winner in
• 51:03
  my mind. Yeah. She was so far above everybody.
• 51:07
  What's Paula got to say? As Dean was sort of
• 51:11
  growing and expanding into the company at the
• 51:13
  time, Dean was the executive chef of the restaurant.
• 51:15
  I was a chef de cuisine. And he was spending
• 51:18
  less and less time with me. So at the time, we
• 51:20
  said, I need to have a sous chef with me here
• 51:23
  to be able to help have oversight of the restaurant.
• 51:26
  So Jeremy was the first sous chef that we ever
• 51:29
  hired and essentially the first. manager that
• 51:32
  i had to manage right i was managing cooks but
• 51:34
  he was the first manager for sous chef that i
• 51:36
  had to manage in my uh role and i remember meeting
• 51:40
  jeremy you know coming straight down out of jacksonville
• 51:43
  what was this how long ago this was let me think
• 51:46
  back on this 20 22 Geez, 20 years ago? He was
• 51:52
  a baby. Yeah, he was a baby. I think Jeremy was
• 51:54
  like 21 years old. And I don't know, was he like
• 51:57
  50 now? No, I'm kidding. He's not 50. It was
• 51:59
  a while ago. He was a baby. He was 21. I was
• 52:01
  probably in my mid -20s. Right. And so both Gene
• 52:05
  and I fell in love with Jeremy. The energy that
• 52:08
  he has now, his passion existed back then, even
• 52:12
  as a young cook, as a young guy. And I remember
• 52:15
  we would just get busy. tamper tantrum in the
• 52:22
  kitchen and kicking the stove and slamming the
• 52:25
  doors and I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa. What did
• 52:28
  he think? Did he think he was like Gordon Ramsay?
• 52:31
  Yes. He's having Gordon Ramsay vibes. He's having
• 52:33
  Gordon Ramsay vibes. You know, he was, he came
• 52:35
  up in that, you know, in an environment like
• 52:37
  that as he was a young cook where he was training
• 52:39
  and so he saw that. Sure, and we got, I got frustrated
• 52:42
  too and, you know, I had my own Gordon Ramsay
• 52:45
  moments in the kitchen a lot. Some of these old
• 52:47
  chefs will tell you. But I was like, oh, my God,
• 52:50
  this guy's this kid's going to have a tampon
• 52:52
  tantrum. I got to stop that. We're not going
• 52:54
  to be slamming the stove because they're going
• 52:55
  to break and we're not going to have it. You
• 52:56
  know, Jeremy has said to me so many times that
• 52:59
  you are such an incredible mentor to him and
• 53:02
  Dean as well. And it's so nice that like you're
• 53:05
  all doing the same thing, but you're all cheering
• 53:07
  each other on and you're all learning from each
• 53:10
  other, ultimately from different aspects of things.
• 53:13
  So absolutely. There you go. That's what she
• 53:16
  has to say. Yeah. And you know, actually, the
• 53:18
  reason I was looking, I wanted that chef. He
• 53:22
  was really like the first sous chef we had under
• 53:25
  there. And I wanted that position filled because
• 53:28
  of the fact that, and I fought for that because
• 53:31
  Paula at that time was on Hell's Kitchen, which
• 53:33
  she didn't really mention, but she was on Hell's
• 53:35
  Kitchen and she was making it all the way to
• 53:37
  the end. And first of all, I knew Paula. her
• 53:40
  talent i'm like she's gonna win this thing and
• 53:43
  she's gonna get that prize money and then somebody's
• 53:45
  gonna come after her to take her away and so
• 53:47
  that at that time i'm like i have to have a second
• 53:51
  in command and so jeremy was coming with good
• 53:54
  experience but he hadn't worked he'd worked under
• 53:56
  good people but he hadn't had like a lot of strong
• 53:58
  leadership positions and so i think paul and
• 54:01
  i really worked on i think polishing jeremy down
• 54:05
  to like he she said Jeremy's energy came in day
• 54:09
  one, crazy. Like Jeremy's just a rockstar wild
• 54:13
  kid and super fun. Anything he does, you're never
• 54:16
  going to see him be like, Oh, he's always great
• 54:20
  energy, great people to be around. And so it
• 54:23
  was really just honing him into our style. And
• 54:25
  like I said, like how we do our business, how
• 54:27
  we conduct stuff. So I think that. At the end
• 54:30
  of the day, he took away a lot of that. I think
• 54:33
  Paula and I kind of worked with him in a way
• 54:37
  that I think he absorbed a lot of those important
• 54:39
  things that make him how great he is today. There's
• 54:43
  one thing I noticed about you as a leader, just
• 54:46
  from you speaking, and what I'm noticing the
• 54:49
  pattern is that how you said you got to be a
• 54:54
  team, right? Easy. Or so we think, right? We've
• 54:58
  got to work together. And then you also have
• 55:01
  to promote within. And funny enough, what I noticed
• 55:06
  is those folks that we are talking about, that's
• 55:10
  what I think you gave them. I noticed that they
• 55:12
  are all team players. They built a family within
• 55:15
  their individual restaurants. And they promote
• 55:19
  within and really want to showcase and help build
• 55:22
  and mentor and grow their talent. Because I've
• 55:26
  eaten at all these places. And I could tell you
• 55:28
  right now, there's my light bulbs that just went
• 55:30
  off, is that that's what you gave them. Culture.
• 55:34
  It's culture. And you can see it in all the restaurants.
• 55:38
  They have culture. When Jeremy walks into any
• 55:40
  of his restaurants, everybody is excited to see
• 55:43
  him there. They're not scared. Yeah, they're
• 55:46
  scared. But at the same time. I think Pushkar
• 55:49
  has that same allure. I'm thrilled when I see
• 55:52
  Pushkar. Pushkar and Andy, his manager, they
• 55:56
  create such a family culture. Whenever you go
• 56:00
  in there, everybody is excited to be there. And
• 56:03
  that's what you want. And that's what we said.
• 56:05
  When you walk into a restaurant, if people are
• 56:08
  miserable, like the staff's miserable. and they're
• 56:12
  not having fun you can feel it so when you go
• 56:14
  you ever notice when you go into those little
• 56:16
  cafes and all the staff is like all like playing
• 56:19
  around with each other but they're getting their
• 56:21
  job done but they're having a good time they
• 56:22
  got the music that they want on they're just
• 56:24
  creating this environment you feel that energy
• 56:26
  and it's like that's great that's how it should
• 56:28
  be so one of a very short job i had um because
• 56:31
  it was right when i It was in between, like,
• 56:33
  apartments back in New York. It was this little
• 56:34
  place called Nicky's, and it was on the water
• 56:37
  up in Long Island and Centerport. And I'm sure
• 56:40
  it's still there, but it was really cute. It
• 56:42
  was like a little lobster shack, more or less.
• 56:44
  So everybody, all the fishermen come in, end
• 56:46
  of the day, get off your boat, come get lobster
• 56:48
  and a beer, right? If I tell you there was probably
• 56:53
  12, 15 tables plus the bar, it was... We made,
• 56:58
  it made, that place made bank, just money. And
• 57:02
  here's the funny thing. I was there about a year,
• 57:04
  maybe two. No, it was a pool house. We all pulled
• 57:08
  our tips, all the girls. We all pulled our tips.
• 57:10
  It was 10 of us, maybe whatever. Not the same
• 57:13
  time, 10. We all managed the money. We all managed.
• 57:19
  Do you want to know? I never met the owners.
• 57:21
  Wow. I never once, but I'll tell you, we all.
• 57:25
  worked together so well and we we we all individually
• 57:29
  treated that place like it was ours because it
• 57:33
  was a pool house because we were a team because
• 57:35
  the owners i don't even know where the owners
• 57:37
  who the owners are to be honest i have no idea
• 57:38
  how that happened it was like and down the block
• 57:40
  from my house i walked in i was like hey i want
• 57:42
  a part -time job whatever and it turned out to
• 57:44
  be a cool job because of that but all right so
• 57:46
  we're just gonna check in with our friend jeremy
• 57:48
  ford and see what he has to say about you all
• 57:50
  right and then we're gonna roll into some games
• 57:53
  hopefully he behaved himself I can't promise
• 57:55
  you anything. Pushkar, as we just said, just
• 57:59
  got Michelin recommended at Ela and Stage. Paula,
• 58:02
  you just got it at Butcher's Club for the second
• 58:05
  time, recommended. And shout out to Dallas over
• 58:08
  there. We love Dallas. I just have to shout out
• 58:09
  Dallas because we love her. But like, whoa, what
• 58:12
  did you learn from Dean Max? There was something.
• 58:16
  I'm getting him on the damn show because this
• 58:18
  man. I don't know what happened in that kitchen.
• 58:20
  Yeah. So, yeah. So Dean Max was the first real,
• 58:26
  like. brother chef, if that makes sense. Like
• 58:29
  he was like a brother to me there. He knew that
• 58:32
  I was coming from like a lot of abuse, right?
• 58:35
  Like physical abuse from kitchens. He knew, he
• 58:37
  knew when I, when you see certain names in your
• 58:40
  resume, you know, like what that person probably
• 58:43
  went through. And he knew all of those chefs
• 58:45
  because he actually had a restaurant on La Cienega
• 58:47
  Boulevard. So he was in the heart of LA for a
• 58:49
  few years back when he was younger. Yeah. Nobody,
• 58:51
  how many people know that? So he knew those environments,
• 58:54
  but when I met him, he's this surfer dude, but
• 58:56
  his surfer dude thing was. his personality but
• 59:01
  his passion for local farms like he was having
• 59:05
  me ship salmon from a small tribe that was only
• 59:09
  allowed to fish this like certain salmon and
• 59:12
  they were the only ones allowed they're like
• 59:13
  a you know they're native americans so he introduced
• 59:16
  me to like them and then foods in season all
• 59:19
  these like companies that had these boutique
• 59:21
  farms that he was like you're gonna buy this
• 59:23
  from them i don't care about the price he's the
• 59:25
  one who started that in my brain so early and
• 59:28
  i'm so glad he did because we used to look at
• 59:31
  like, oh, well, this company has it for cheaper,
• 59:33
  but is it the best? And that's what you were
• 59:36
  learning there. You were learning not just how
• 59:37
  to like cook really good seafood. That's his
• 59:40
  thing. All right, you can cut it there. He also
• 59:43
  mentioned Mr. Marriott, but that's a story for
• 59:45
  another day. But I do encourage you to watch.
• 59:50
  I will. You have four hours ahead of yourself
• 59:54
  here to watch. You better jump on and watch all
• 59:56
  of their episodes because that's just the tip
• 59:58
  of the iceberg. But speaking of iceberg, iceberg
• 1:00:04
  or romaine? Oh, God. How is that a hard question?
• 1:00:09
  I don't even understand how that's a hard question.
• 1:00:11
  But it is a hard question because they're both
• 1:00:15
  amazing. You know, it's funny because iceberg
• 1:00:19
  is like that thing that you just think is so
• 1:00:21
  boring from your childhood. I love a wedge. But
• 1:00:24
  you know what? I always tell people, if you slice
• 1:00:28
  an ice cold piece of iceberg, And you just put
• 1:00:31
  lemon juice, olive oil and salt on it. And you're
• 1:00:35
  like, wow, it becomes a refreshing thing. So
• 1:00:39
  I would say probably, I would say it probably
• 1:00:42
  would choose the way that we've been using remain
• 1:00:44
  so much. I would probably say iceberg on that.
• 1:00:46
  I love that. I love that. All right. Well, we're
• 1:00:48
  going to roll into our rapid fire. I made that
• 1:00:50
  one up. That wasn't even a one year. Okay. All
• 1:00:53
  right. The same concept, but you're going to
• 1:00:54
  answer them fast. Okay. Opening a restaurant
• 1:00:57
  or fixing a broken restaurant. Opening a restaurant.
• 1:01:02
  Perfect tomato or perfect piece of fish? Perfect
• 1:01:06
  piece of fish. Chef with incredible talent or
• 1:01:10
  chef with incredible discipline? Chef with incredible
• 1:01:15
  discipline. Would you rather lose your best cook
• 1:01:20
  on Friday night or your reservation system? I
• 1:01:25
  would rather lose my reservation system. Florida
• 1:01:29
  Keys or Grand Cayman? Grand Cayman. Fine dining
• 1:01:33
  tasting menu or barefoot meal straight off the
• 1:01:36
  grill? Barefoot off the grill, for sure. One
• 1:01:40
  restaurant doing $10 million or 10 restaurants
• 1:01:43
  doing $1 million each? Wow, that's a tough one.
• 1:01:48
  I didn't say they were easy. I know. Well, obviously,
• 1:01:51
  me having so many restaurants, I'd probably go
• 1:01:54
  with the 10 restaurants. What hurts more, a bad
• 1:01:57
  review or a half -empty dining room? I think
• 1:02:01
  a half -empty dining room. If your kid said tomorrow,
• 1:02:05
  Dad, I want to open a restaurant, your answer
• 1:02:08
  is? Think twice. No, you have fun with it. You
• 1:02:15
  get one last dinner and you are not allowed to
• 1:02:17
  cook it. Where are you going or who are you calling
• 1:02:20
  to make it? Wow. One last dinner. I think if
• 1:02:25
  I could group all my old chefs in together to
• 1:02:28
  cook for me, that would be the best. Oh, that's
• 1:02:32
  so sweet. Now you're going to make me cry. Seriously,
• 1:02:34
  I'm going to cry. All right. So this is a game
• 1:02:39
  I've never played before. Okay. Okay. So we've
• 1:02:44
  talked so much about the people that you've mentored
• 1:02:47
  and your background history. But we want to get
• 1:02:51
  to know you a little bit better just before we
• 1:02:53
  wrap up here. So normally I'm the interviewer.
• 1:02:56
  I'm going to ask you questions, right? Well,
• 1:02:59
  I'm going to turn this around today for the first
• 1:03:03
  time. I've never done this. you're going to interview
• 1:03:07
  me about yourself. Here are your questions, sir.
• 1:03:11
  Okay. And I did study a little, but I just not
• 1:03:15
  tried to cheat. I just tried to like, I just
• 1:03:18
  did the homework. But so I don't know. Let's
• 1:03:21
  give it a whirl. Ready? You're in the hot seat
• 1:03:23
  now. All right. What university did you, did
• 1:03:25
  Dean Max attend? Florida State. Oh, wow. That's
• 1:03:29
  really good. What European city helped convince
• 1:03:32
  Dean that the food would become his career? Florence.
• 1:03:35
  Yes, very good. I'm not even cheating. I swear
• 1:03:38
  I'm not cheating. I'm not cheating. I'm just,
• 1:03:40
  okay, keep going. In 2010, Dean won a national
• 1:03:42
  competition that was crowned the king of what?
• 1:03:47
  Crowned the king of what? Seafood. Yes, you would
• 1:03:53
  be correct. And then what type of seafood? Oh,
• 1:03:57
  gosh, really? Yes. What type of seafood? What
• 1:04:01
  do you mean what type of seafood? Fish? Is that
• 1:04:06
  a question? Are you making shit up now? American
• 1:04:09
  seafood. There you go. American seafood. Okay.
• 1:04:12
  What was the name of Dean's 2006 cookbook? A
• 1:04:16
  Life by the Sea. That is correct. Yay. See that?
• 1:04:20
  All right. Keep going. Keep going. Which iconic
• 1:04:23
  Fort Lauderdale restaurant did Dean help create
• 1:04:26
  and build his reputation around? That's easy.
• 1:04:28
  We already know. 3030 Ocean. That's right. Which
• 1:04:31
  future Top Chef winner? Once worked with Dean
• 1:04:35
  Max's organization. Jeremy. Very good. Top chef
• 1:04:38
  is Jeremy. Which Hell's Kitchen runner -up was
• 1:04:41
  a longtime Dean Max? Paul, that's right. Another
• 1:04:43
  future star who worked around 3030 Ocean, Talent
• 1:04:46
  Pool later, who opened Staj Restaurant. Pushkar.
• 1:04:50
  Yes, that was Pushkar. Dean's connection to farm
• 1:04:54
  -to -table cooking started well before it became
• 1:04:57
  a restaurant buzzword. Where was his family farm
• 1:04:59
  and how young was he? Your family farm. Your
• 1:05:05
  family farm was... Oh, man. Can I get a multiple
• 1:05:11
  choice? It was near the Chesapeake. Okay, give
• 1:05:15
  me some... Eastern Shore. Is that the answer?
• 1:05:17
  Chesapeake? I was going to say Chesapeake Bay.
• 1:05:19
  Yeah, the Chesapeake Bay. All right. That's it.
• 1:05:21
  Okay, okay. And then here's a gotcha question.
• 1:05:25
  In a 2010 interview, Dean admitted there is one
• 1:05:28
  cheese he isn't particularly fond of. What is
• 1:05:31
  it? All right, sir. I watched this 2010 interview.
• 1:05:37
  And I know the answer because I am wholeheartedly
• 1:05:40
  with you. And the answer is blue cheese because
• 1:05:44
  it's gross. And you know, people who like blue
• 1:05:48
  cheese, they just really love blue cheese. Blue
• 1:05:51
  cheese for the win. Blue cheese for the win.
• 1:05:54
  I love all cheese, but not that one. And I wonder
• 1:05:58
  if it's because, you know, they inoculate blue
• 1:06:00
  cheese with penicillin and I'm allergic to penicillin.
• 1:06:03
  So maybe there's a tie in with that. I have no
• 1:06:05
  idea. But yeah. How did I do? You did amazing.
• 1:06:09
  Did I do it right? That was perfect. Come on,
• 1:06:10
  give it up, man. Come on. I was nervous. I was
• 1:06:13
  nervous. No, you did great. You did great. Got
• 1:06:16
  me that book one, too. I was like, I don't know.
• 1:06:18
  I don't know. I'm getting my brain bank here.
• 1:06:21
  But well, this has been an incredible time. And
• 1:06:26
  thank you for trekking up from Miami. Making
• 1:06:29
  this journey over here to be on the show. No,
• 1:06:32
  it's great. I'm happy to do it. And seriously,
• 1:06:34
  though, next time you're in the Vero location,
• 1:06:37
  please, please extend an invite. I will get my
• 1:06:39
  car immediately and go there. And I have the
• 1:06:42
  break house in Fort Lauderdale. Excuse me, in
• 1:06:45
  Deerfield Beach. You have to come there, too.
• 1:06:47
  Break house in Delray? No, no. The break house
• 1:06:50
  in Deerfield Beach. Right at the pier. Okay.
• 1:06:52
  Yeah. All right. So if you're there surfing one
• 1:06:54
  day, you can just pop in. Okay. I don't surf.
• 1:06:56
  I paddleboard. You can paddleboard. Paddleboard?
• 1:06:58
  Yeah. All right. They do that too. We have a,
• 1:07:00
  we'll have a, you know, we might have a part
• 1:07:02
  two just about water sports and waterfront restaurants.
• 1:07:05
  Exactly. Where should we paddle and surf to?
• 1:07:07
  I know. Both of them are on the waterfront, so
• 1:07:09
  you can't beat that. To be continued, man. We
• 1:07:11
  are not done here. All right. We are just getting
• 1:07:13
  started. Thanks for joining me on Forking Around
• 1:07:17
  with Flavor South Florida. If you're in the industry,
• 1:07:20
  a business owner, or just want a better understanding
• 1:07:22
  of what goes into keeping restaurants alive and
• 1:07:24
  thriving, make sure you subscribe and share this
• 1:07:27
  episode with someone who should hear it. Flavor
• 1:07:29
  South Florida takes place every September from
• 1:07:31
  the 1st through the 30th between Palm Beach County
• 1:07:34
  and the Treasure Coast. You can find all the
• 1:07:36
  amazing dining deals and participating restaurants
• 1:07:38
  at FlavorSouthFlorida.com. Until next time,
• 1:07:41
  keep supporting local and keep forking around.