Latest / Babes, how did you get here / Gang Member, TV Chef, he Gives His Life to Jesus

Transcript

Gang Member, TV Chef, he Gives His Life to Jesus · Babes, how did you get here

• 0:00
  What is that experience like? Well, I mean, you defect every in jail. So you're in a juvenile facility?
• 0:06
  Yeah, in a juvenile facility, but I mean, it's probably worse.
• 0:12
  You've got a lot of kids in there wanting to prove themselves, you know.
• 0:16
  They haven't got men in there who have established themselves by the Krimbo Resort.
• 0:20
  They know they've made a mistake and they're in there just to sort of time keep that down.
• 0:24
  They have an identity crisis, they're missing God, they're missing male guidance in their life, you know.
• 0:30
  They haven't got any of these things and yeah, you get in there and my standard mind was, wow, what is going on.
• 0:36
  At that time, I'm like, how did I end up? How the hell did I get here?
• 0:40
  You're like different before this deep relationship.
• 0:46
  I think it was very stressful. Okay. It was extremely stressful.
• 0:50
  I need to be there at this time. I need to be there at this time.
• 0:54
  If I'm not there, what are they going to think? What is this person going to think about you?
• 0:58
  I don't achieve this. I'm not going to amount to anything. If I don't achieve this, what are they going to think about me?
• 1:04
  How am I going to get that job if I can't pull this one off, etc, etc.
• 1:08
  It's constantly stressed. You quickly, when you start having a relationship with God, understand that.
• 1:18
  None of that matters at all. None of it makes a bit of difference.
• 1:22
  Because I could win the lottery tomorrow and then get it by a bus five minutes later.
• 1:26
  If I am not taking advantage of the very, very sacred, precious air that has been breathed into my body,
• 1:36
  a breath that has been given to me every single minute living in this minute right here right now,
• 1:42
  then I am not living. I'm just not usually not living.
• 1:46
  You're not doing anything. You're thinking about what's going to happen next week.
• 1:50
  Stop thinking about what's going to happen next week. Think about what's happening now.
• 1:54
  How grateful are you for this?
• 1:56
  It feels like no more than ever. People are questioning where they live, with many considering a big move.
• 2:02
  I am April Jackson, traveling the world, finding interesting people who have left behind comfort, certainty,
• 2:08
  and familiar systems for a life elsewhere.
• 2:12
  Riku Adonohu or Chef Riku is Irish-born. He is deeply spiritual and unapologetically honest.
• 2:20
  His journey abroad has taken him across America through the chaos of hospitality,
• 2:26
  COVID lockdowns, and a complete spiritual transformation that he never saw coming.
• 2:30
  He is now living here in South Africa and we have lots to get into.
• 2:34
  But first, babes, how did you get here?
• 2:38
  It's a very good question.
• 2:40
  It's a very long-winded one as well.
• 2:42
  Okay, so it brought me initially to South Africa.
• 2:44
  I've got a friend called Diomeo.
• 2:46
  For the locals, it's not the famous writer.
• 2:50
  It's the surfer.
• 2:52
  I met this guy while I was doing some surfing and stuff.
• 2:56
  Bali, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand.
• 2:58
  We ended up getting on very well.
• 3:02
  He'd never surfed in Ireland before.
• 3:04
  Ireland's got some of the best surfing on the planet in the North West.
• 3:08
  And then we hit it off, and he said, have you ever been to Cape Town?
• 3:14
  And I'm like, no, but it's on the bucket list because it's on everyone's bucket list.
• 3:18
  So I arrive here in, like when was it, 2012?
• 3:24
  Initially, have a holiday.
• 3:28
  To live here full time.
• 3:30
  Since then.
• 3:32
  So initially, you know, you come, you don't have a visa.
• 3:34
  Like, oh, what do you do?
• 3:36
  Hospitality normally gives you the ability to work anywhere in the world.
• 3:42
  Obviously, everybody needs skilled chefs, especially when the culinary offering is getting higher and higher and higher,
• 3:48
  all around the globe.
• 3:50
  With the Michelanguis, the best chef awards, and world's 50 best,
• 3:56
  literally hitting every shore in the world.
• 4:00
  It was inevitable that the local sort of food team was going to grow dramatically.
• 4:06
  And I saw that when I came here and thought there was a gap in the market for me.
• 4:12
  And that was practically it.
• 4:14
  So I went back home after the initial holiday.
• 4:18
  At the time, I was not even sure in the UK.
• 4:20
  And made a plan to get out here, started consulting.
• 4:28
  Yeah, and then I ended up like a merc in the local restaurant scene as a main consultant for a lot of the big brands here.
• 4:38
  And then started doing some of my own stuff, which is like studio dinners and what have you.
• 4:44
  And then eventually opened a restaurant called Rikusha.
• 4:48
  We're dropping new episodes every single week.
• 4:52
  So make sure you subscribe.
• 4:54
  You don't want to miss this babes and leave a comment and tell me what do you want to hear out of my next conversation.
• 4:58
  Your support really helps this community grow.
• 5:02
  And if you know someone who's quietly been thinking should they take that next big leap?
• 5:06
  Babes, send them the podcast.
• 5:08
  We've got a good hand full of excellent, very high standard hospitality offerings in Cape Town.
• 5:22
  And that's kept me here, basically.
• 5:26
  I need you to take me all the way back.
• 5:30
  So where in Ireland are you from?
• 5:32
  What is life like?
• 5:34
  Like describe your childhood.
• 5:36
  So initially back and forth into Ireland, Donnie Gull, the area.
• 5:44
  And then move to the UK when I was very, very small actually.
• 5:48
  So I don't remember much about Ireland at all.
• 5:50
  I just remember if I'm going to be honest, caravans and fields and grandparents and actually quite a lovely little warm feeling surrounding that actually.
• 6:00
  Like protection, stability, all those sort of things.
• 6:04
  And then we get to the UK and my father being a bit of a gypsy as it were.
• 6:14
  We did quite a lot of traveling around the UK into different towns here, there and everywhere.
• 6:20
  He wasn't around for very long.
• 6:22
  There's a little break in history where we don't know where he went, how he went, etc.
• 6:28
  That picks up much later in life, but at this point it was just OK.
• 6:32
  He's not around anymore.
• 6:34
  And how old are you roughly?
• 6:36
  Around five years old.
• 6:38
  And my little sister, three at the time as well.
• 6:42
  And then he's back a little bit and then he's gone again.
• 6:44
  And there's not really a lot of talk of why in the house and what not.
• 6:48
  So single parent basically, my mother, we end up living solely with her for a little bit.
• 6:56
  And then we end up living with some other families.
• 7:00
  Eventually and grandparents and what not because life's hard.
• 7:04
  You have kids very young.
• 7:06
  She was 19 when she had me.
• 7:10
  Sorry, born when she was 20 but pregnant at 19.
• 7:16
  Must have been a very scary thing.
• 7:18
  So we taught the UK.
• 7:21
  We went from Newcastle up on time.
• 7:24
  Leicester, London.
• 7:28
  Back up into the Midlands, Staffordshire, Darbyshire, Stoke.
• 7:34
  And then eventually sort of settled in.
• 7:38
  Notting him after a bit of an incident in Leicestershire when I was a kid.
• 7:44
  So I got in quite a lot of trouble at this one incident that happened.
• 7:50
  And there was quite a, I was 15 at the time.
• 7:52
  There was quite a big fight.
• 7:54
  It was like a gang.
• 7:56
  We lived in like public housing.
• 7:58
  We used to call it White City because every house was painted white and looked exactly the same.
• 8:04
  I got into a little bit of trouble with some local drug dealers.
• 8:08
  And then there was a bit of a scuffle.
• 8:11
  And a couple of people ended up really badly injured.
• 8:14
  I see someone died.
• 8:17
  From that fight.
• 8:19
  From that fight.
• 8:20
  There was prison sentences handed out to people, suspended sentences, etc.
• 8:25
  So it was quite a thing.
• 8:29
  And then my mom's boyfriend at the time actually was like a bit of a god sent.
• 8:37
  And he pulled us out of there.
• 8:39
  Because the house was getting vandalized and sprayed and set on fire and all kinds of stuff.
• 8:44
  And your house.
• 8:45
  Yeah.
• 8:46
  I was getting set on fire.
• 8:47
  I was getting set on fire.
• 8:48
  You say it very casually.
• 8:49
  Yep.
• 8:50
  You went to the supermarket and we came home with some apples.
• 8:52
  Actually we went to the all to get me stitched up pretty early.
• 8:55
  Yeah.
• 8:56
  And they came back.
• 8:58
  I couldn't go back to the house because I was in custody.
• 9:01
  I said, well, okay.
• 9:04
  Yeah, the house was graffitied and set on fire and windows broken.
• 9:08
  And yeah, it was a bit of a mad situation.
• 9:11
  So like a local gangster family as it was.
• 9:15
  And you go up against that and this is what happens.
• 9:19
  How do you had issues with this local family before?
• 9:22
  None, hey.
• 9:23
  So like weirdly enough, they just came with an accusation and I'm like a 15 year old boy at the time.
• 9:28
  And they're probably in between 17 and 24.
• 9:31
  Sure.
• 9:32
  I'm like a group of people as it were.
• 9:34
  And yeah, I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
• 9:38
  And you end up with your house being vandalized and you're in the hospital and then you're in police custody.
• 9:43
  And then I'm in police custody and then...
• 9:45
  And then what happens?
• 9:46
  And then I wait to go to court and they won't give me bail because my father's linked...
• 9:53
  So this is...
• 9:55
  What's going on?
• 9:56
  Stuff starts coming out now.
• 9:57
  My father's linked to a better lesson, a better that that he shouldn't have been into.
• 10:00
  And the dad that has come in a note that you don't really know where he is.
• 10:03
  Yeah, exactly, yeah.
• 10:04
  But that comes to affect you.
• 10:06
  That comes to affect me now, yeah.
• 10:08
  So we can't put him out on bail because we don't know if you're going to be turning up a court when we need you to.
• 10:15
  And your father has a history of X, Y, and Z, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
• 10:20
  So now I'm like, okay.
• 10:22
  So I'm just sitting around for quite a while waiting for this thing to go to court.
• 10:28
  How long is quite a while?
• 10:29
  Quite a while, it goes up to a year.
• 10:31
  It goes up to 12 months.
• 10:32
  That's not quite a while.
• 10:34
  Yeah.
• 10:35
  So you're waiting for 12 months at 15?
• 10:38
  In your study.
• 10:39
  Yeah.
• 10:40
  What is that experience like?
• 10:41
  Well, I mean, you did effectively in jail, so...
• 10:44
  You're in a juvenile facility?
• 10:46
  Yeah, in a juvenile facility, but I mean...
• 10:49
  It's probably worse.
• 10:51
  You've got a lot of kids in there wanting to prove themselves, you know?
• 10:53
  Okay.
• 10:54
  You haven't got men in there who have established themselves as either Krembo or Zor.
• 10:57
  Sure.
• 10:58
  They know they've made a mistake, and they're in there just to sort of time keep their head down.
• 11:02
  You've got a lot of kids who are angry.
• 11:04
  You've got a lot of kids who don't know who they are.
• 11:06
  They have an identity crisis.
• 11:08
  They're missing God.
• 11:09
  They're missing mail.
• 11:10
  Guidance.
• 11:11
  Guidance in their life, you know?
• 11:13
  They haven't got any of these things, and...
• 11:16
  Yeah, it was your state of mind.
• 11:18
  My state of mind was, wow, what is going on?
• 11:21
  At the time, I'm like, how did I end up...
• 11:24
  How the heaven did I get here?
• 11:25
  Yeah.
• 11:27
  From that.
• 11:28
  I mean, I know I was a Larry little guy.
• 11:30
  I was cheeky.
• 11:32
  But I was an intelligent kid.
• 11:35
  I tend to stay out of anything that was going to cause any major drama.
• 11:39
  Sure.
• 11:40
  Because Asperger's, we don't like to be, you know, in that kind of confrontation.
• 11:49
  Sure.
• 11:50
  Like it's actually the opposite.
• 11:51
  We're looking for a little bit of peace.
• 11:53
  We make them across very forward and very to the point.
• 11:57
  But that's just because of how we're wired rather than an emotion being attached to how it's coming out as it were, you know?
• 12:06
  And I went out and confronted the gang as it were, not to confront them, but to get home.
• 12:13
  It was on the way.
• 12:14
  So I'm trying to leave this venue.
• 12:16
  So I'm just thinking, okay, how can I get out of this as quick as humanly possible?
• 12:20
  And then your next thing, you know, everything just goes blank and here we are.
• 12:25
  Now we're in a situation.
• 12:26
  In that year.
• 12:27
  Yeah.
• 12:28
  You're obviously full-time, you're in jail waiting.
• 12:33
  You know the date or does the date change?
• 12:36
  No, dates keep changing.
• 12:38
  So you have this immediate uncertainty of not knowing when you're actually going to...
• 12:42
  Yeah, or if I'm going to get out of the door because I don't know what kind of evidence is being produced against me.
• 12:49
  There's a group of one of me.
• 12:52
  You know, I don't know what they're saying, etc.
• 12:56
  And I mean, not to sort of shorten it and disregard sort of all the lessons learned.
• 13:02
  But you come to the end and the end basically worked out with getting time to leave the facility to be able to spend on house arrest.
• 13:13
  Obviously, a little bit of time with some family.
• 13:16
  Okay.
• 13:17
  And then going back in.
• 13:19
  And then eventually none of the stories, these other eight parties that were involved added up at all.
• 13:27
  And they all had a different thing to say, different statements, etc., etc.
• 13:31
  The police did really well at keeping everyone apart and not allowing people to collude and make a story.
• 13:37
  And they ended up throwing it out of court because none of it made any sense yet.
• 13:41
  I'm sorry, a year ago.
• 13:43
  Yeah, with no compensation and no nothing.
• 13:45
  Yeah.
• 13:46
  Just cool.
• 13:47
  But you're 15.
• 13:48
  I was 15.
• 13:49
  So I was actually 16 by the time that they said, yeah.
• 13:53
  And because of the nature of the crimes in the circle of people that were in it, we were more than likely going to get trialed as adults as well.
• 14:03
  So I felt like I was being protected.
• 14:08
  Wow.
• 14:09
  Yeah.
• 14:10
  That was nice.
• 14:11
  But it's also like such a crucial time in your childhood.
• 14:14
  Yeah.
• 14:15
  You know when you said you got to go home for a little bit on house arrest?
• 14:18
  Yeah.
• 14:19
  Was that a good thing?
• 14:20
  I'm just thinking, right?
• 14:21
  A part of me is like, great, you get to spend some time.
• 14:23
  Yeah.
• 14:24
  But knowing that that time is temporary for you to have to return, I was wondering, does that make it harder or does it make it easier?
• 14:30
  Yeah, it's a very good question that I could.
• 14:32
  Some days it was easier.
• 14:33
  Okay.
• 14:34
  Some days it wasn't.
• 14:35
  Some days it was like, oh, you're dangling a carrot at me sort of thing, you know what I mean?
• 14:38
  But some days it was the only thing that got me through.
• 14:41
  Okay.
• 14:42
  You know, some days it was the only thing that got me through.
• 14:43
  Especially when I was allowed to see my granny and grandfather from my father's side.
• 14:49
  Yeah, because they're like a good Irish family.
• 14:52
  You know, take care of their own sort of thing, you know what I mean?
• 14:56
  And the food.
• 14:57
  So I thought I was just looking forward to a roast dinner and a can of Guinness sort of thing, you know what I mean?
• 15:02
  So, yeah, it was something to look forward to.
• 15:06
  And in all of this it's like, although it was ever sort of repeating to myself was how grateful I am that I've got my health still.
• 15:15
  Okay.
• 15:16
  Like that, you know, some of the outcomes that did happen there didn't happen to me.
• 15:21
  Yeah.
• 15:22
  You know, I didn't fall in that space and I'm still here to tell the tale.
• 15:29
  And, you know, thank the Lord for the lessons that come with that as well because even though it seemed like a bit of a story then and seemed like something that was like, you know, very bad and very aggravating and very anxiety promoting as it were.
• 15:50
  You know, without that scenario, I can pinpoint and places in my life that wouldn't have happened if that hadn't have happened.
• 15:57
  And there are very crucial points in development and very crucial points in basic self-knowledge and basic self-understanding.
• 16:08
  So I was definitely on the wrong path.
• 16:12
  Before this.
• 16:13
  Before this happened and that happened and it completely changed its trajectory due to having or me seeing what was actually available to me in terms of love and support.
• 16:28
  Okay.
• 16:29
  I didn't understand that before.
• 16:30
  I think you take it for granted.
• 16:31
  Yes.
• 16:32
  You know.
• 16:34
  And then this happened and I really saw a family.
• 16:38
  That's what that's what I ended up saying, especially when you come from a family which is split and isn't functioning like a traditional family.
• 16:47
  And your father's a little bit of a gangster and et cetera, et cetera.
• 16:51
  All of these things come to sort of pass later on in life and things start clicking, things start making sense.
• 16:59
  But then you've got to, then the responsibility cards given to you.
• 17:03
  And this is the big thing.
• 17:05
  It is okay.
• 17:07
  You know these things.
• 17:09
  You know what you're capable of.
• 17:11
  You know what you're good at.
• 17:14
  You know what you're bad at.
• 17:15
  You know what you want to do.
• 17:17
  But here's a responsibility card for you because now you have a responsibility to do these things that are being whispered to you, that have been given to you, that have been shown to you.
• 17:26
  And if you keep on the trajectory that you're on, you won't going to do any of those things.
• 17:31
  All you're going to do actually is end up in the place that you've got a little taste of.
• 17:35
  So here we are.
• 17:38
  Now it's on you.
• 17:39
  What happens to schooling in that time?
• 17:41
  You get schooled.
• 17:43
  You do.
• 17:44
  So when you leave at 16, what is the next?
• 17:47
  Okay, so I had to redo my, well, I had to sit my GCSEs.
• 17:51
  Okay.
• 17:52
  So I didn't get to sit during the court process and all that kind of stuff.
• 17:56
  You would just go to normal lessons.
• 17:57
  Right.
• 17:58
  But I couldn't sit and examine until they knew exactly what was going on.
• 18:00
  Okay.
• 18:01
  So I had to wait until after, which I think gave me a little bit of an advantage.
• 18:05
  I'm not going to lie.
• 18:07
  I did very well in the GCSEs.
• 18:11
  And then they did very well in A-levels after that.
• 18:14
  And then I didn't want to continue doing anything academic.
• 18:20
  So I thought, but I was doing a chemistry degree.
• 18:24
  Okay.
• 18:25
  That was my thing.
• 18:26
  I was like, okay, chemistry physics, math, sciences, music.
• 18:31
  They were all the things that I loved, excuse me, more than anything.
• 18:35
  And what ended up happening as a result of being from a family who isn't well off is get a job.
• 18:42
  So next stage is to get a job.
• 18:45
  Got a job.
• 18:46
  But just so happens, it's in a kitchen.
• 18:48
  I start washing dishes as you do to like the ironic story from the chef, as it were.
• 18:54
  But you know, this is just down the road from my house.
• 18:57
  And it was the first sort of time I'd ever seen anything on a plate.
• 19:04
  It wasn't just a piece of meat and a potato and a bit of sauce or whatever for the sake of nutrition.
• 19:10
  Sure.
• 19:11
  The sake of we have to live.
• 19:13
  Let's eat this.
• 19:14
  So now I'm observing food.
• 19:15
  And when we eat out, like if we ever eat out, you know, you go to a McDonald's or something like that, complete crap.
• 19:21
  But that's the, I guess, the economic class that you're in.
• 19:29
  So that's where you are, right?
• 19:31
  What you understand.
• 19:34
  We still in the economic class, but now my class is and wise when it comes to food is now getting tanked up a little bit because I've gone to this restaurant and it just so happens, it's a major award winning restaurant in the middle of nowhere.
• 19:49
  And I wouldn't know anything about this.
• 19:51
  Get the job.
• 19:53
  And to be clear, you're getting this job just because you need a job.
• 19:57
  Not because you are pursuing hospitality as a career.
• 20:00
  I mean, definitely not.
• 20:02
  Okay.
• 20:03
  In fact, people are telling me like you're mad, you know?
• 20:05
  Okay.
• 20:06
  You know, that's like 70, 80 hours a week and the chefs normally abuse you and all this kind of stuff, etc.
• 20:11
  And I'm like, whatever, you know what I mean.
• 20:12
  I've been through some stuff, I'll find.
• 20:14
  Right.
• 20:15
  So I end up, yeah, washing dishes, peeling vegetables, etc.
• 20:21
  And this is still in nothing on?
• 20:22
  This is in a place called, well, Leicestershire.
• 20:25
  But it's on the border of, it's Brooklyn, actually, which is a tiny little county in between Nottingham and Leicestershire.
• 20:31
  Okay.
• 20:32
  So it's the stately home sort of whole thing.
• 20:36
  Everything's very posh.
• 20:37
  Everyone's dressed very well.
• 20:39
  I turn up in a Komodo because I'm like, I like to look at the Japanese jacket.
• 20:43
  He's like, no, that's not going to work sort of thing.
• 20:46
  I end up on a section eventually.
• 20:49
  And this guy, can I mention names?
• 20:53
  Of course.
• 20:54
  So Aaron Patterson, a very well-known chef in the UK, is the first person, first male in my life at this point,
• 21:04
  other than my father's dad, my grandfather, who takes me under his wing and he starts teaching me how to do things.
• 21:13
  That I'm naturally good at, it appears.
• 21:16
  So I get hooked.
• 21:19
  I get hooked and I get a taste for something that's bigger than me because I can see a team working together here to get a small result.
• 21:29
  What seems small to the person who is sitting there and paying for it, but it's taken 16 bodies to get that one plate, exactly where it is.
• 21:38
  And when I say 16 bodies, I mean the guy washing the dishes, the guy peeling the carrot, the guy peeling the shallot, the guy making the gas streak.
• 21:47
  And then all of these little pieces of this puzzle come together and it creates this.
• 21:52
  What could have been hung on a wall?
• 21:55
  You know what I mean?
• 21:56
  Like it's that sort of food.
• 21:58
  He's a Michelin star revolutionary chef of his day.
• 22:04
  Yeah, I think it was one of the opportunities again that when the Lord presents, you've got to follow it, man.
• 22:13
  There's so many opportunities that get dangled in front of you purposely so you can test yourself.
• 22:20
  There's always a path and you always veer off slightly because we do everything through an eager test to go point the view, especially when you're young.
• 22:27
  It's only lady, when you understand by taking your hand off the steering wheel and allowing him to do it for you, life becomes much easier.
• 22:37
  But I'm going through my learning curves, et cetera.
• 22:39
  And now I want to be this top chef.
• 22:42
  I want to be this.
• 22:46
  What's the right way of saying it?
• 22:48
  I want to be this like four, four front leader of some new cuisine that doesn't exist or whatever because all these other people are heroes as it were.
• 22:59
  So I want to be one of these heroes, you know, like why do I want to be one of these heroes?
• 23:03
  Because I don't really know what I want to do at the time.
• 23:06
  I'm not really amounted to much in any other thing that I've done so maybe I can be really good at this.
• 23:11
  Maybe this is the one thing I can be really good at.
• 23:14
  And what does it take in your mind when you've settled on this is what I want to do?
• 23:20
  Are you clear on how to get there?
• 23:23
  I am now, then definitely not.
• 23:26
  No, as a, you know, 16, 17-year-old boy still.
• 23:31
  I don't think you've got any idea.
• 23:33
  You are literally just ticking off, you know, what looks glamorous to, you know, and chasing a bit of cash because, you know, the higher you get in the kitchen, the more money's going to come with it, the more opportunities are going to open up, etc.
• 23:48
  So, yeah, the aim was just to be the, like, get noticed.
• 23:52
  It was to be the best in there and get noticed.
• 23:54
  And I started treating everything like it was a sports day.
• 23:58
  So, I get there the earliest, I start grabbing all the equipment that I needed before anyone else got there, so I didn't have to wait for stuff.
• 24:06
  How'd you always been disciplined?
• 24:08
  Because that takes discipline, right?
• 24:10
  To turn up early to make sure you're going to go the extra mile and keep your head down.
• 24:13
  I think discipline is a difference.
• 24:16
  So, when I was much younger, I was a lot less socially able.
• 24:23
  Okay.
• 24:24
  So, I don't think it was discipline when I was young.
• 24:28
  I think it was more just, you turn on that that's what I'm going to do button as someone who's neurodivergent, does it work?
• 24:36
  And that's just it.
• 24:38
  So, the routine is comforting routine. It's not actually discipline for us.
• 24:42
  It's more, if we don't do it, it's going to send us off the charts a little bit.
• 24:46
  We're not going to know what to do with ourselves.
• 24:48
  It makes us feel very uncomfortable.
• 24:50
  So, the whole purpose of the routine is to stop you from feeling uncomfortable and out of control.
• 25:01
  So, actually, it was very easy.
• 25:04
  It's the easiest.
• 25:05
  And I'm going to do that.
• 25:06
  And I'm going to be there at 6.45 and I'm going to do this.
• 25:08
  This is going to be the second job that I do, then I'm going to go to this.
• 25:10
  So, you're right, you're me's on plus list, but you don't just write it for what you need to do.
• 25:14
  You're writing how you're going to walk into place, how you're going to set up.
• 25:18
  And that gives you an advantage when you work in a kitchen.
• 25:22
  It gives you a big advantage.
• 25:25
  It gives you an advantage because you are not obsessing.
• 25:30
  So, you're taking an emotion out of it.
• 25:33
  Therefore, you're not wavering your knees on shaking at any point because you don't have a belief system.
• 25:40
  It's just systematic.
• 25:41
  It's just systematic.
• 25:42
  You're just going through it.
• 25:43
  You're reading recipes.
• 25:45
  You're looking at recipes and you're tasting and then what you do is you're altering recipes based on what you know chef wants to taste.
• 25:52
  So, okay, he likes a little more salt in this particular thing.
• 25:56
  He likes to offset that with a particular acid.
• 25:58
  You take the notes, you write them in and you basically memorize all this stuff.
• 26:05
  And then everything that you do after that, you end up doing for him as it were.
• 26:12
  And that's what I found out very quickly.
• 26:14
  I'm not in here to please myself here.
• 26:16
  I'm not making a dish for me.
• 26:18
  I'm making it by his spec and only his.
• 26:21
  His opinion doesn't matter.
• 26:23
  His opinion doesn't matter.
• 26:25
  It's literally if he says it's all go, then it's all go as it were.
• 26:30
  And that gets you looked down a lot on in a kitchen space actually.
• 26:36
  Oh.
• 26:37
  It did back in the day anyway because it looks like you're kissing us.
• 26:40
  You mean amongst your peers?
• 26:41
  Yeah.
• 26:42
  Okay.
• 26:43
  He's coming in early.
• 26:44
  He's getting all his stuff done.
• 26:46
  He's working through his breaks.
• 26:48
  He's coming and asking other people.
• 26:50
  You're making everyone look bad, babe.
• 26:52
  Yeah.
• 26:53
  Yeah.
• 26:54
  People are hating that.
• 26:55
  They're like, you know, like this guy's a bit of a douchebag.
• 26:58
  Let's start giving him some problems sort of thing.
• 27:00
  Oh, really?
• 27:01
  Yeah.
• 27:02
  Let's take action.
• 27:03
  Let's take action, yes.
• 27:04
  So these things were happening.
• 27:05
  And you know what the guy, the guy, he turned around to me and he said, listen.
• 27:10
  These guys, they're never going to be what you are.
• 27:14
  I was going to take you all the way, but you're not going to survive here, dude, because you're too soft.
• 27:20
  Really?
• 27:21
  He's like, you're too soft.
• 27:22
  I was like, what do you mean by soft?
• 27:23
  He's like, now you've got to give people some shit.
• 27:26
  Like if someone's coming on your section and you're obviously stitching you up, don't come
• 27:30
  to me and complain.
• 27:31
  Okay.
• 27:32
  Because that's like, grassy.
• 27:33
  Yeah.
• 27:34
  You need to give him some shit.
• 27:35
  He needs to take him outside and like give him what I'm like.
• 27:39
  He's like, no, not beaten.
• 27:41
  He's like, just tell the guy.
• 27:43
  I don't want to have to beat him anymore.
• 27:45
  I don't want to have to beat your ass.
• 27:47
  So you're going to pack it in now.
• 27:49
  And I'm like, okay.
• 27:51
  So how do I do that?
• 27:53
  I've got to send you somewhere.
• 27:56
  Really?
• 27:57
  Oh, here we go.
• 27:58
  So he said, your next studies you said are in London anyway, right?
• 28:03
  I was like, yes.
• 28:04
  So why don't we see if we can get you something there?
• 28:08
  And I'm like, okay.
• 28:09
  So this guy's literally, he didn't have to do that.
• 28:11
  No.
• 28:12
  He didn't have to do anything, actually.
• 28:13
  He could have just been like, no, just stay.
• 28:15
  Like we need you on the section.
• 28:16
  Right.
• 28:17
  What I found with that guy.
• 28:18
  And you know, he taught me a valuable lesson, actually.
• 28:20
  And he set me up for life this lesson, which is never cling to people that you think are building this bridge with you.
• 28:28
  And you need them to make the bridge stay where it is.
• 28:32
  Yes.
• 28:33
  There will be other pegs.
• 28:34
  There will be new technology.
• 28:35
  There will be other bricks that you have to insert to repair.
• 28:38
  Once you have reached your target in that position, you have to let them move on.
• 28:45
  Yeah.
• 28:46
  You've got to let them go.
• 28:47
  Because otherwise they stagnate.
• 28:48
  And if you have a kitchen full of stagnant people, you are never going to get any better.
• 28:53
  Right.
• 28:54
  Because despite what you think, everybody in that kitchen, despite whether you're in charge or not, is contributing to your menu.
• 29:04
  Whether you think it's all your ideas, it's complete bollocks.
• 29:08
  If you'd have seen them do something subconsciously, and gone, that's a great way of doing this, et cetera, et cetera.
• 29:13
  Because they all had kitchens before you, as well, most of them.
• 29:18
  So it's that rising tide flow to all boats scenario.
• 29:23
  If they're coming up with you, you've got to let them go.
• 29:25
  And you've got to let them sail off on their own at some point.
• 29:28
  If you're trying to grip a kitten, it's going to jump out of your arms.
• 29:32
  Right.
• 29:33
  And rather than going down like that, just assimilate the attitude of when you've reached that peak,
• 29:40
  or when someone's reached that peak around you, let them move on.
• 29:42
  It's time, actually.
• 29:43
  At the time.
• 29:44
  Did it feel like rejection, or did you have this feeling?
• 29:47
  Well, it felt like rejection initially when he said it, and rejection is triggering at this point as well.
• 29:54
  But then when he explained it, he got it.
• 29:57
  I was like, oh, OK.
• 29:59
  He's like, yeah, the only thing you can do is now go to like sauce or whatever.
• 30:04
  And to be fair, this is like a manner or whatever.
• 30:08
  You want some modern stuff.
• 30:10
  You've got this chemistry vibe going on, et cetera.
• 30:13
  Go work somewhere very cool.
• 30:16
  So I applied, got references, et cetera.
• 30:19
  He pulled a couple of strings for me.
• 30:21
  I ended up with Mark O'Pier White.
• 30:23
  OK.
• 30:24
  So I thought Hamilton Hall was nuts.
• 30:27
  In terms of militant compliance, in terms of the way people spoke to each other, in terms of the competition, in terms of preciseness.
• 30:48
  And you go and work with Mark O'Pierre.
• 30:54
  I was four days in.
• 30:56
  I knew I was like, OK, this is what you think would upgrade as it were.
• 31:00
  So I'm taking a lower position, actually.
• 31:03
  I'm going back to being a commie, yes.
• 31:05
  But I can see why.
• 31:08
  So Mark O'Pierre taught me resilience.
• 31:14
  That's what Mark O'Pierre taught me.
• 31:16
  Yeah.
• 31:17
  He was a very interesting character.
• 31:19
  He is an interesting character.
• 31:20
  He is an extremely intelligent, extremely passionate, very well-versed, very well-read, has a lot of good moral conduct.
• 31:32
  And that was a very awesome thing to see in somebody.
• 31:37
  He wasn't around all the time because he had Francis running the restaurant at the time.
• 31:43
  But he was always there as a patron.
• 31:45
  And then now, again, you'll get to see him do something in the kitchen or whatever, which is amazing.
• 31:51
  But he would come in, he would give pep talks, he would talk to his staff, he would do trainings and stuff like that.
• 31:57
  So this depiction I had of him, which was this major scary geezer who made Gordon Ramsay cry like a baby, et cetera, et cetera.
• 32:06
  I'm thinking, you know, is this for me, you know what I mean?
• 32:11
  Let's see.
• 32:12
  And you know, he was a valuable teacher.
• 32:16
  And yeah, again, very, very grateful for everything he ever did.
• 32:21
  Because again, none of these people need to do anything for you.
• 32:26
  Describe a service to me where I feel like every chef has one particular service that is either going to make or break them.
• 32:34
  And I'm just interested to know what one of yours looked like.
• 32:40
  Okay, so one very stressful service was, I was helping an Italian chef on pastry out.
• 32:47
  I'd finished my prep and the order of the, the commodity, as it were, as you finished your prep, you can help somebody else.
• 32:56
  Yeah.
• 32:57
  So I'm like, okay, the geo, we're getting gone with the souffles.
• 33:02
  He's like, yeah, cool, you can whip the egg whites.
• 33:05
  Okay.
• 33:06
  So I'm whipping the egg whites.
• 33:07
  Do you do something else?
• 33:09
  I'm like, okay, can I do something else?
• 33:11
  He's like, no, no, no, no, no, I'll do the syrup.
• 33:13
  That's going to go in the Italian meringue eventually.
• 33:16
  I said, no, I've got it.
• 33:18
  He's like, you sure?
• 33:19
  I'm like, yeah, cool.
• 33:20
  So I read the recipe.
• 33:21
  I'm doing it.
• 33:22
  Everything works out fine.
• 33:23
  It's a beautiful, beautiful meringue.
• 33:25
  He looks at it.
• 33:26
  He's like, that's beautiful.
• 33:27
  Absolutely fantastic.
• 33:28
  I'm like, awesome.
• 33:29
  Here we go.
• 33:31
  Then he's got his creme pat ready and his puree ready.
• 33:35
  So he mixes something quickly and says just like that.
• 33:40
  So I'm like, okay, he's not measuring it.
• 33:43
  He's just using his eye.
• 33:44
  I'm like, okay, so it will be about that color.
• 33:47
  Great.
• 33:49
  Creme pat, stabilize the egg white, puree.
• 33:53
  It looks good.
• 33:55
  Piping bag.
• 33:56
  This is where it gets dubious.
• 34:00
  Because when you put the meringue in a piping bag,
• 34:03
  and you pipe it out, extra egg goes into the meringue.
• 34:07
  Yeah.
• 34:08
  So there is a very particular way you must put the egg whites in the bag,
• 34:12
  and a very particular way that you must pipe it out.
• 34:16
  I do the piping anyway.
• 34:17
  Okay.
• 34:18
  And I smooth off the tops, and I do the rim and all that stuff.
• 34:22
  The technique, you can ask after.
• 34:24
  And they go in the fridge to set.
• 34:28
  Yeah.
• 34:29
  So it's one of those souffle mixes, so it doesn't collapse in the fridge.
• 34:32
  You can just get it out and pop it in during services.
• 34:34
  So they're all made now.
• 34:36
  He doesn't check.
• 34:38
  So he makes a mistake by not checking.
• 34:41
  Right.
• 34:42
  I make a mistake because I'm not being told everything that I'm...
• 34:46
  Or the process, I'm supposed to go through.
• 34:48
  I'm just going off what it says on the paper.
• 34:50
  Right.
• 34:51
  But there are reasons that recipes don't work for everybody.
• 34:55
  And that's because sometimes when chefs write out a recipe,
• 34:58
  they write it out, so they know what's going on.
• 35:00
  Yes.
• 35:01
  Not everybody in the kitchen needs to know what's going on.
• 35:03
  Because it's a kind of secretive little spell book
• 35:07
  that we've got there, as it were, right?
• 35:10
  So everything looks great, but the colour's not right.
• 35:13
  Oh.
• 35:14
  So when we get one out, he's like, I don't think that's enough puree in there.
• 35:20
  And I'm like, are you sure?
• 35:22
  Because it's the same amount that you put in.
• 35:24
  And he went, yeah, but like, look.
• 35:26
  And I'm like, OK, it's a bit darker.
• 35:28
  Here's a bit darker.
• 35:29
  But I was like, I didn't know how much you put in.
• 35:31
  And he's like, I like two spoons.
• 35:33
  Yeah, OK, cool.
• 35:34
  Two spoons.
• 35:35
  That's what I put in two spoons.
• 35:36
  OK, but it's not right.
• 35:37
  So we'll serve it, though, because it looked beautiful.
• 35:40
  OK.
• 35:41
  It's just slightly not the right colour.
• 35:43
  So next time, just a little bit more,
• 35:45
  but it won't be a trained smash.
• 35:46
  OK.
• 35:47
  I'm like, cool.
• 35:48
  What had happened while it was in the fridge
• 35:50
  is the bottom of the souffle had started to split
• 35:53
  in the mold itself because of too much air reaction.
• 35:56
  Yes.
• 35:57
  So he asked me how I put it in the piping bag.
• 36:00
  And I just say exactly like that.
• 36:02
  So he's like, no problem.
• 36:04
  Cool.
• 36:05
  He pushed everything in the piping bag.
• 36:07
  So there's nothing there to go on.
• 36:08
  There's nothing for him to look at
• 36:10
  and see if it's correct or not.
• 36:12
  Right.
• 36:13
  In New Year, Marco is in the restaurant with someone.
• 36:17
  Oh, no.
• 36:18
  I can't remember exactly who it is.
• 36:19
  But it's another, like, quite famous chef.
• 36:21
  And they've ordered the souffle.
• 36:22
  They've ordered the souffle.
• 36:23
  Oh, no.
• 36:24
  One of them, an element type, classic element type.
• 36:26
  Brutally top.
• 36:27
  I'm not on the section anymore.
• 36:30
  Obviously, I'm back on Gormage.
• 36:33
  And maybe sends this souffle out.
• 36:35
  And Marco comes in with the souffle in his hand.
• 36:38
  And he throws the souffle out because of the kitchen.
• 36:41
  Bish!
• 36:42
  Smashes on the wall.
• 36:44
  And then he starts screaming, shouting, et cetera, et cetera.
• 36:49
  And then he's calm.
• 36:51
  Right.
• 36:52
  Then he's like, okay.
• 36:53
  He talks to Gio and Gio's like, yeah, chef, sort of thing.
• 36:57
  And then he's looking at me like, I'm a piece of shit.
• 37:00
  And he's like, you stitch me up.
• 37:02
  And I'm like, oh, great.
• 37:04
  Here we go.
• 37:05
  And then one of the senior chefs comes in.
• 37:09
  He goes in the drawer.
• 37:10
  He grabs hold of the whole thing.
• 37:11
  And he raises it.
• 37:12
  He hoys the whole lot against the wall.
• 37:14
  And stuff.
• 37:15
  Because shit rolls downhill.
• 37:16
  And Marco's gone to his in charge.
• 37:18
  And he's said, what's going on here?
• 37:20
  If you've got junior chefs helping out on sections,
• 37:24
  it's your duty to be there to make sure.
• 37:27
  Stop the check.
• 37:28
  Yeah.
• 37:29
  And to teach them.
• 37:32
  So.
• 37:33
  Did you throw you under the bus?
• 37:34
  Yeah.
• 37:35
  Absolutely.
• 37:36
  Yeah, I got thrown under the bus so bad it was unreal.
• 37:40
  Which, you know, didn't end in smiles and cheers for me,
• 37:46
  as it were, because again, it's like you're getting involved
• 37:48
  and you're not asking questions every step of the way
• 37:50
  that's your responsibility, actually,
• 37:52
  if you're helping out.
• 37:53
  Sure.
• 37:54
  And I'm like, I get that, you know.
• 37:55
  But that was one of the, yeah, well, I mean,
• 37:57
  I mean, I mean, it sent geo down.
• 37:58
  It sent him crumbling down because you can't now say
• 38:02
  soufflé's off because I fucked it up.
• 38:05
  Like it's no, make a plan.
• 38:07
  Get it back on the menu.
• 38:08
  So now he's trying to get all these plates out and.
• 38:12
  And fixes soufflé.
• 38:13
  And fixes soufflé's at the same time.
• 38:14
  So I made it very stressful for him during service.
• 38:19
  As a result of that, people are having to now come off their
• 38:22
  sections mid-service to help out in other sections
• 38:26
  because there's a roll-on effect, right?
• 38:27
  Right.
• 38:28
  So now there's a big, now there's a big hoo-ha.
• 38:32
  And then a few of us decide that when it gets a little bit quieter,
• 38:37
  we're going to start messing around and playing games
• 38:39
  and stuff, et cetera, et cetera.
• 38:41
  It was just a bad day.
• 38:42
  It was a bad day at the office.
• 38:43
  And then we get caught.
• 38:45
  And then I'm not going to go into great detail,
• 38:47
  but there was some discipline ahead.
• 38:48
  And there was a little bit of physical altercation
• 38:51
  with a couple of people at one point as well.
• 38:54
  And then I got used to this behavior.
• 38:56
  OK.
• 38:57
  You get used to seeing it.
• 38:58
  OK.
• 38:59
  They're going to fight.
• 39:00
  Oh, he's going to punch him.
• 39:02
  And then they're going to make up.
• 39:03
  And this one's just going to walk through here.
• 39:05
  And then other kitchens, you go for stargets and stuff.
• 39:08
  You see people just like the owners wondering through
• 39:10
  with a cigarette on through, make kitchens and stuff.
• 39:13
  The, honestly, the beginning of the 2000s was mental in kitchens.
• 39:17
  And I'm sure the 90s was even worse.
• 39:20
  But it was just a wild environment.
• 39:22
  It was an environment which I understood very quickly
• 39:25
  to be full of artists who didn't make it.
• 39:28
  OK.
• 39:30
  People who had been to prison.
• 39:32
  People who had been locked up for petty crime.
• 39:34
  Right.
• 39:35
  People who had been locked up for heinous stuff
• 39:38
  and then discovered themselves and, you know,
• 39:41
  come out and ended up getting a job.
• 39:43
  Because they're the best at peeling, you know,
• 39:47
  baby onions at 100 miles an hour or whatever, you know what I mean?
• 39:50
  Like all this opportunity comes for all these people
• 39:53
  that are coming from the same place,
• 39:55
  which is a place of no stability,
• 39:58
  a place of no confidence, a place of no parents,
• 40:05
  no structure at home, no schooling, etc.
• 40:08
  They were like the renegades.
• 40:10
  They were like the, you're the injustice for all team,
• 40:15
  as it were, you know what I mean?
• 40:17
  And made up of very diverse individuals
• 40:19
  from very diverse backgrounds.
• 40:21
  And there's probably only two or three English people
• 40:24
  in the kitchens at the time as well.
• 40:26
  It was made up of Irish Jamaicans,
• 40:29
  Somalians, Italians, French, Spanish, you know what I mean?
• 40:34
  It was like a mishmash of Europe
• 40:37
  and then just extended onto the African continent
• 40:41
  and maybe into your Middle Eastern at the time,
• 40:47
  maybe a few, you know,
• 40:49
  and then a heavy Indian population as well.
• 40:52
  So, you know, like spot the white guy sort of thing
• 40:56
  in a lot of these scenarios
• 40:58
  or spot the Englishman anyway.
• 41:00
  And what was really funny about that
• 41:02
  is everyone had a common denominator at the time,
• 41:04
  which was England sucks,
• 41:06
  but we're all here to make money sort of thing.
• 41:09
  We all hate the English, we don't know why,
• 41:11
  probably colonization or whatever,
• 41:13
  and they're all a bunch of races or whatever at the time
• 41:15
  because there was a lot of that stuff going on.
• 41:18
  And we had this little culture
• 41:21
  or little camaraderie of, you know,
• 41:25
  we're like the foreign rejects
• 41:27
  that have, you know, come to, you know,
• 41:30
  add to Britain's culinary quarter
• 41:36
  and, you know, to, you know, make it,
• 41:38
  make it something that it hasn't been before
• 41:40
  and have all this, like, you know,
• 41:41
  foreign influence in the food and whatnot
• 41:43
  because you guys think you can make a stew,
• 41:46
  but you can't make it as good as my granny sort of thing
• 41:49
  and all that sort of stuff, you know.
• 41:51
  So, getting together in an environment like that
• 41:54
  with people who have a similar outlook on life
• 42:01
  but from very different circumstances
• 42:03
  was a very, very, very cool thing to be involved in, actually.
• 42:08
  Do you think that kitchens of that time
• 42:11
  needed to be harsh, right?
• 42:13
  I feel that sometimes not just with hospitality
• 42:16
  but in general, we are looking at the past
• 42:19
  with the current lens
• 42:21
  and I think that sometimes that does a disservice
• 42:24
  to the circumstances at the time.
• 42:26
  And a lot of people think that hospitality, you know,
• 42:29
  is wrong for being so harsh
• 42:31
  or, you know, the idea that someone comes in
• 42:33
  and throws something against the wall,
• 42:34
  oh my goodness, whereas maybe it's the Jamaican in me
• 42:37
  but I'm just like, that's what maybe
• 42:40
  at the time was required in order to get the result
• 42:43
  that was needed.
• 42:44
  I hear you.
• 42:45
  So, like, a very funny fact about the Jamaican language
• 42:50
  I don't know if you know, is it came from the,
• 42:53
  the petty immigration from Ghana,
• 42:56
  which wasn't Ghana at the time in Nigeria, right?
• 43:00
  And Irish slaves all bound together
• 43:03
  and making their way from New York
• 43:05
  laying the train tracks down, actually,
• 43:07
  all the way down to Fort Lauderdale
• 43:09
  and then we commented some ships
• 43:11
  and got the hell out of Dodge,
• 43:13
  ended up in Jamaica together in the language,
• 43:15
  which is very much like systematically woven
• 43:18
  in a lot of Irish savings.
• 43:21
  So, online, people ask me all the time,
• 43:24
  at least once a week if I'm Irish.
• 43:26
  Right.
• 43:27
  And then apparently I sound like I could be from Cork.
• 43:30
  Yeah, from Cork, yeah.
• 43:31
  So, that's where most of the slaves at the time
• 43:34
  from Ireland joined the African slaves
• 43:39
  that were being taken over as well.
• 43:42
  So, while you guys were getting sold as house labor,
• 43:47
  we were getting sold as like track laborers
• 43:50
  and ground surveyors and woodworkers
• 43:56
  and keeping everybody alive.
• 43:58
  Right.
• 43:59
  So, they had like different departments
• 44:02
  for different slaves as it were.
• 44:04
  They had some Spanish guys
• 44:05
  so that the Spanish slaves
• 44:07
  that were taken over there as well,
• 44:09
  they were like criminals.
• 44:11
  So, if they were locked up
• 44:13
  and they were taking tax
• 44:15
  out of anyone's pocket to keep them in jail,
• 44:18
  they were like, no, we're going to work.
• 44:20
  So, they were sailing the ships.
• 44:23
  Okay.
• 44:24
  So, it's a very, very funny history, actually.
• 44:27
  But a lot of the words, a lot of the terminologies
• 44:30
  and a lot of the what's the right way.
• 44:34
  The catchphrases come from this sort of very, very old Irish
• 44:41
  and North African integration, I guess.
• 44:46
  It's just nuts, yeah.
• 44:48
  But we have the same sort of outlooks on life.
• 44:51
  I always say we get on with that.
• 44:53
  Yeah.
• 44:54
  You can't really make his blink twice.
• 44:59
  We've got this hardness about us,
• 45:03
  which isn't like a hardness,
• 45:05
  don't get me wrong.
• 45:07
  We don't want to fight every two minutes.
• 45:09
  We're not like, it's not like brave heart.
• 45:12
  We don't want to run into battle
• 45:13
  and kill the English every two minutes
• 45:15
  or whatever it is or anyone else.
• 45:17
  So, I'm not picking on the English today.
• 45:20
  It's just a case of, you know, we've been through a bit of harshness, man.
• 45:23
  You know what I mean?
• 45:24
  We've had famines.
• 45:25
  We've had slavery.
• 45:26
  We've had an apartheid.
• 45:27
  We still haven't apartheid.
• 45:28
  That hasn't stopped.
• 45:29
  Northern Ireland still exists.
• 45:31
  There's still a religious conflict there.
• 45:34
  There's still an English versus Ireland conflict there
• 45:39
  while they occupy land that isn't theirs.
• 45:42
  Okay.
• 45:43
  As a country that isn't theirs.
• 45:44
  In a country that isn't theirs, you know.
• 45:46
  And there is still a little bit of grievance between,
• 45:50
  or from the Irish in that because, I mean, at the end of the day,
• 45:53
  you have to have a passport to get into your own country.
• 45:56
  Okay.
• 45:57
  When you're crossing a border into the UK.
• 46:01
  It doesn't make any sense to them still.
• 46:04
  However, many...
• 46:06
  So, you don't have the same passport?
• 46:08
  No, so you have an Irish passport.
• 46:10
  Oh, really?
• 46:11
  And then a British passport.
• 46:12
  I didn't know that.
• 46:13
  Yeah.
• 46:15
  But you can't live in the Republic Island with a British passport
• 46:18
  because Ireland's Ireland, but Northern Ireland is part of the UK.
• 46:21
  They still own that part of Ireland.
• 46:23
  Okay.
• 46:24
  But it got much smaller because obviously we pushed and pushed and pushed and pushed
• 46:26
  and it just ended up that...
• 46:28
  We say a little section, but it's a third of the country, man.
• 46:30
  Okay.
• 46:31
  It's a third of the country that's owned by England.
• 46:34
  Do you think that would ever change?
• 46:36
  No.
• 46:37
  I mean, I'd love to say yes.
• 46:39
  I'd love to say yes just because of the sheer fact
• 46:42
  of like, let's do something right for a change, you know?
• 46:46
  But if the third of Ireland is in the UK,
• 46:50
  that's a lot of tax money that they'll be giving up, right?
• 46:52
  Okay.
• 46:53
  So a lot of tax they'll be giving up.
• 46:55
  A lot of industry they'll be giving up.
• 46:57
  You know, one of the central sort of trade lines is from Belfast, New York.
• 47:05
  Right.
• 47:06
  So if they give up all of that stuff, you know, yeah.
• 47:09
  Yeah, it's not going to happen.
• 47:10
  Yeah, it's not going to happen.
• 47:11
  Not while there's a monarchy, that's for sure.
• 47:13
  Yeah.
• 47:14
  That's a whole section.
• 47:15
  Yeah.
• 47:16
  But growing up, comment, I know that you said you left Ireland very young.
• 47:19
  Yeah.
• 47:20
  Do you think that there was a difference to how you were received?
• 47:23
  Again, this is coming from my perspective where I barely know how to detect the difference
• 47:28
  between accents in the UK.
• 47:29
  Right.
• 47:30
  Like, it's all...
• 47:31
  You didn't go further enough north.
• 47:32
  That's all that means.
• 47:33
  It's all very confusing.
• 47:35
  Yeah.
• 47:36
  So from my perspective, I'm like, oh, you guys are all just one, one, right?
• 47:39
  Right.
• 47:40
  The only way that people make anything that's other is homogenous, which you know isn't true.
• 47:45
  Yeah, for sure.
• 47:46
  Intellectually, but you don't necessarily understand the nuances.
• 47:48
  Yeah.
• 47:49
  So when you come to England as a child, are you having a different experience because you're not English?
• 47:55
  100%.
• 47:56
  Yeah.
• 47:57
  Really?
• 47:58
  So let's go into modern day history now.
• 48:01
  Right.
• 48:02
  And then tone it back as it were and then go back there.
• 48:05
  So because of my surname, O'Donohue, and the way that it's spelled, especially the Gaelic spelling of it, right?
• 48:12
  That Gaelic spelling comes from very old, sort of, gypsy families in around Europe.
• 48:17
  Irish travelers.
• 48:18
  Okay.
• 48:19
  Pikes.
• 48:20
  I can say it, but no one else can sort of thing.
• 48:22
  You know what I mean?
• 48:23
  It's one of those words.
• 48:24
  So they see it.
• 48:25
  They assume you're a pikey, a deorgotry term for a traveler of Irish origin.
• 48:32
  And they assume because of that, there's going to be ceilings and there's going to be room getting turned upside down, drinking, fighting.
• 48:41
  All that kind of stuff, drugs, dog fights, henfights, bear putt, local boxing, la la la, all the stereotypes you can possibly throw at it.
• 48:50
  So if you're booking, making a hotel reservation or anything like that, a reservation in a restaurant, it has been known a lot for people just to cancel the booking.
• 49:01
  Really?
• 49:02
  Yeah, 100% yeah.
• 49:03
  And then there was one huge thing in the UK, which they tried to sort of brush under the carpet, which was Irish families trying to go to places like pontons and butt-lins and places like that, which are little British holiday camps on the seaside resort towns, right?
• 49:22
  And there were canceling Irish families left, right, and go, and the question came out, why is this happening?
• 49:30
  Well, we just don't think like the traveling community can be trusted in, and like a lot of these families aren't travelers.
• 49:37
  They're just Irish people that have settled in the UK.
• 49:40
  But even that, what you do is you're saying, oh, because you're a traveler, you're going to act a certain way.
• 49:47
  And that's racist, doesn't matter what way you look at it, it is what it is.
• 49:50
  And then if you're touring everyone with the same brush as a result of a culture, that's exactly what we're talking about here, right?
• 49:57
  And yeah, you get canceled, man.
• 50:01
  And then at school, obviously, oh, my dad says that, blah, blah, blah, blah.
• 50:06
  Oh, Donna Hughes, you're a bunch of bikies.
• 50:09
  We've got to watch our wheels and et cetera.
• 50:12
  You know, fights break out at school.
• 50:15
  You end up, so funnily enough, all of my friends at school, every single one.
• 50:19
  They were either, okay, they're either from Ghana, Nigeria, Jamaica, or Ireland, obviously, India and Pakistan.
• 50:27
  That was it, I was part of that.
• 50:29
  Everyone else who was othered?
• 50:30
  Everyone who was an other, exactly, yeah.
• 50:32
  So you end up in that crew, you know, and which was amazing for me, actually.
• 50:40
  Okay.
• 50:41
  It was absolutely amazing for me, the diversity for one.
• 50:44
  Two, the solid connections that you make with people that you find commonalities with, not based on your skin tone.
• 50:51
  Right.
• 50:52
  That makes a big difference.
• 50:54
  I'm friends with you because you're white.
• 50:56
  How does that make any sense in any logical, it doesn't.
• 51:01
  What are your musical interests?
• 51:02
  What are your spiritual interests?
• 51:03
  What do you like to eat?
• 51:04
  What do you like to do outside of school, et cetera, et cetera?
• 51:07
  They should be all the things that were actually taught to look at the familiarities in people that can grow the best in you, as it were.
• 51:13
  And you don't get told that.
• 51:15
  And then you've got your Irish family at home who are also racist.
• 51:18
  They're like, are you hanging around with too many, and then black fellas, you know what I mean?
• 51:21
  Like, they've got a bit of a bad reputation around here.
• 51:25
  And I'm like, so do we.
• 51:27
  In fact, it's worse.
• 51:28
  Like, if we drive down the road in a caravan, everyone's going to start throwing, like, modern spitten and what I have here at us.
• 51:34
  So I just didn't really get it.
• 51:36
  And I really, really honed in to those communities, especially Indian, actually.
• 51:44
  I had a best friend or a group of best friends, actually.
• 51:47
  But one of them, Pratap, amazing guy, I ended up staying with him for quite a long time.
• 51:52
  Him and his mother and his mom used to make this unbelievable.
• 51:58
  They don't call it curry.
• 51:59
  Curry is something that we call it in the West.
• 52:02
  It just means gravy.
• 52:03
  But Indian food has a lot more complexities and a lot more history and a lot more diverse sort of cooking and dishes available.
• 52:14
  And even their vegetarian dishes have like 15 times more flavor than most cuisines and what have you.
• 52:21
  So it was like as someone in culinary eventually growing up around stuff like that.
• 52:29
  You've got this kind of, you've got this little thing in the back of your mind all the time going, why aren't we doing some Indian food?
• 52:36
  Or I had amazing jerk chicken at my friend Scott's house who ended up living with later on in life.
• 52:45
  You know, why are we not using jerk spices in foods?
• 52:48
  Why are we not using, you know, this Kashmiri spice blend?
• 52:54
  Why are we not using Indonesian spices?
• 52:56
  Because that's where all the fun foods are, man.
• 52:59
  That make your mouth tickle, you know what I mean.
• 53:03
  So I think I was very lucky.
• 53:06
  I think I was extremely lucky to, and again, it did like this.
• 53:10
  It always brings me back to the gratitude I have when I sit with the Lord in the mornings and I have my gratitude ceremony.
• 53:19
  And you know, I say thanks for everything that I have.
• 53:23
  And that is one of them, that path of diversity, that path of seeing things in somebody else's shoes,
• 53:32
  that path of having a lot of different multicultural based friendships was something that made me, I guess, a little bit different to a lot of people that I was hanging around with at the time.
• 53:48
  And those relationships ended up stopping somewhat because you change very quickly when you're around other people from other places.
• 54:01
  That's why they say traveling is the best thing you can do.
• 54:04
  If you want to expand your horizons, if you want to live outside of your body a little bit,
• 54:11
  if you really want to connect with your spirit, you need to travel, you need to go see other people in their cultures.
• 54:18
  You need to immerse yourself in that because there's the only way to learn anything really.
• 54:22
  Everything else doesn't matter. There's microphone, there's table, what we're wearing.
• 54:26
  None of it is going to matter in the end. The only thing that is going to matter in the end is our souls and our spirits and how they are.
• 54:33
  And you get that through relationship. If you're having relationships for the sake of relationships, if you're having relationships with people who are like you just to be safe,
• 54:45
  if you were doing anything in safety, never learning, you were never growing.
• 54:50
  So I think cultural diversity is one of those things that is completely necessary for every single soul on this planet.
• 55:00
  I think we are here to discover how to be a little bit different now to feel somebody else's pain even for five minutes.
• 55:10
  Somebody else's beauty as well. And Amalgam made that and used that for life lessons and used that to trajectory into the right places and pick the right goals.
• 55:25
  So I do feel very grateful and very lucky for that. That was basically me. So I grew up in a school that was very split in diversity, which was great.
• 55:39
  It wasn't sort of 50% this and 50% not either. It was literally like 25% white, 25% Indian, 15% Pakistani, 15% German, et cetera, et cetera. It was very mixed.
• 55:53
  And it used to be chaos, man. It used to be absolute chaos because you'd have this group versus that group and this group versus that.
• 56:01
  And I don't even mean like in a physical altercation bullying sort of way. It's just like you can just see, you can just feel it. It's like, yeah, they don't gel with them.
• 56:08
  They don't like them and they don't like me. I do like them. No, I'd like to hang out with them, but they're not going to hang out with an Irish dude. So you just got to find your place.
• 56:18
  Did you stay at the same school?
• 56:20
  Yes, stayed at the same school for most of my schooling life. So the one that was in Leicestershire was Garandon.
• 56:29
  And then we went on to it was Rawlins, which was in Corn, and that's where the incident happened. Then I had to leave there and what have you.
• 56:37
  But yeah, most of the same school schooling beforehand. Right at the beginning, it was very like in the north of England, like north, north of England, very, very white, very, very white, very English.
• 56:49
  So I can remember there not really getting any integration, not really having many friends whatsoever.
• 56:55
  And for some friend that I made was actually from Sweden. And he was my friend for like three years while I was up there.
• 57:02
  And that was practically it. His name was Sean. Well, we called him Sean because we couldn't pronounce his name. But yeah.
• 57:10
  Yeah, very, very, very funny looking back, but as a child, I didn't know who was or who was supposed to belong to or anything because it wasn't an easy, an easy plug-in fit anywhere that we went.
• 57:28
  And also the traveling thing, when you're traveling around everywhere, you never have long enough to sit there and get yourself a friend that you're going to grow with.
• 57:40
  Yeah, grow with exactly. Yeah.
• 57:42
  You talk a lot about religion and how it influences your life. And you said to me that it was a transformation. But at the same time, we've highlighted how much religion tends to play a role in Irish culture.
• 57:56
  So I'm just interested to know your personal journey.
• 57:59
  Okay. So growing up Catholic, as many will be able to give me some sympathy for as it for the problems religion for me.
• 58:13
  So religion over relationship. Okay. So that's where the change happens. But I'll start at the beginning. So integrated into religious foundations as it were.
• 58:27
  Which a lot of them are fantastic. A lot of them have a lot of moral one diversity and two complexity about them. But they sit in a place where you know in your heart. Yes, if I do that, that's obviously the right thing to do.
• 58:44
  And that's how we know, you know, good and bad is integrated into it. You don't need a book to tell you what's good or bad, right? It's a feeling. It's a discernment as it were.
• 58:55
  So you grow up in the Catholic church. You go through all the Catholic stuff. It's very cult-like. It's very up, down, up, down. Yes sir. No sir, three bags full sir.
• 59:08
  So what the, how many help areas do I have to say? How many fathers do I have to say to counteract this sin that I've committed? Why am I confessing? Why am I in trouble if I'm not confessing?
• 59:19
  Why the priests a little bit weird if I'm going to be honest with you? What do you mean? Like a little bit touchy feeling, a little bit weird, a little bit too close for comfort.
• 59:29
  I'm asking too many personal questions, wanting too much alone time with you, et cetera, et cetera.
• 59:36
  They're looking for weak people. That's what they're looking for. And they're hiding in religion and they're using it as a tool for their own means.
• 59:48
  And that's what I found about my experience, personal experience with the Catholic church. I'm not saying that that's everyone's experience of it.
• 59:56
  I'm sure that people have a beautiful time in that religion because it is a beautiful religion when practiced. Right.
• 1:00:03
  But for me, it was the religious aspect. It was the, I'm going to be what, if I do what? I'm going to be judged by God if I don't do what, if I don't follow this protocol, if I don't eat this in the correct way, if I don't say this beforehand, if I don't use this correct wording.
• 1:00:25
  And when you're guided through the Bible in Catholicism, you were guided through it in a way where it's path of fear, and it's a path of disconnect with the Lord actually.
• 1:00:41
  Oh, really? Yeah, I'm not worthy. I'm not worthy. You're worthy. You're worthy. You're always being trodden on rather than being uplifted.
• 1:00:52
  And that was where my spiritual turning happened as it were. So coming out of religion into relationship and without getting sort of, well, I mean, I can't.
• 1:01:06
  Okay, so I had an experience with Jesus where, and when this happens to people, it's a very, very crazy thing because you don't know it's happening. And then you're like, hold on a minute, is this happening?
• 1:01:20
  It's not an obvious thing. He doesn't rock up in robes, long hair, pearly blue eyes, limbering white skin, obviously. Speaking Aramaia, can you just get it, et cetera?
• 1:01:34
  Like it doesn't happen like that. This is a purely sort of spiritual entity, but you just know, you know who it is because you feel a piece, you feel.
• 1:01:45
  As soon as the piece comes and you're like, I can breathe, you know what I mean? Like I do not feel like I'm being visited by extraterrestrials right now. I'm about to be probed on some ship somewhere or that I'm dying and I'm floating towards a white light.
• 1:02:02
  This is a different experience altogether. I feel safe. I feel grounded and I feel at peace. And then you have conversation. And what I found with our very graceful goddess, he has a great humour.
• 1:02:20
  And he wants relationship with us, that's the whole point. So the point of the church being the wife of God as it were.
• 1:02:33
  The point of Jesus being the son, but also God proclaimed as man on earth, coming and sacrificing himself, was to teach us a few things. It was to teach us that the Old Testament exists and it contains a lot of good, sensical moral valued stories.
• 1:02:56
  Whether they are true or not, isn't for me to tell anybody, isn't for you to tell me, it's for you to read, it's for you to take out of it, whatever you need to take out of it.
• 1:03:07
  And if it's positive, amazing, if it's negative, then you need more Scripture. Go forward in the book.
• 1:03:14
  Exactly, yeah. But what you do get from it is as soon as you get to the New Testament and as soon as you abandon religion and adopt relationship.
• 1:03:30
  So this is the philosophy. And it's a very simple way of living. It's waking up as the sun is rising and giving gratitude. It's before you're eating.
• 1:03:41
  Saying thank you for the food that you have because there are a lot of people on this planet who can't eat. They don't even have access to food.
• 1:03:49
  Very fact, you've got a piece of lettuce and a chicken breast in front of you is good enough to say thank you for.
• 1:03:55
  It's been grateful for any lesson, whether it feels bad at the time or not.
• 1:04:01
  Because you know that you're going to be uncomfortable for two minutes, but you're going to feel much better after.
• 1:04:08
  Church is important, not because the church doesn't exist within you. Jesus is a church doesn't exist within you.
• 1:04:15
  It does. He's right here. You're part of him. He's part of you. That's who we are. Man made in God's image.
• 1:04:22
  The church is the two or more. It's the where two or more are gathered. And in agreement that's very important. God will execute your wishes, you know, if they're aligned with the kingdom.
• 1:04:38
  So the simple fact of the matter is it changed when I realized that just thinking in kingdom terms rather than terraform or earth terms.
• 1:04:50
  Being grateful for absolutely everything. And then also blessing your enemies on the daily will completely change your perspective and change what happens in your life.
• 1:05:06
  Did you have a particular trigger to move from the idea of religion to relationship? It was actually my pastor, my current pastor.
• 1:05:13
  Lucio, he is a of B light church. B light says it all really. They preach the whole Bible. They go through everything, but they teach it in a way that Jesus was teaching it.
• 1:05:33
  I think that's the important thing. He came as, and whether you believe he's the son of God or not, he came, he did miracles, he did crazy things. He's the, there's more evidence about Jesus Christ existing than there is about any other person on the planet.
• 1:05:49
  He's written about more than any king or queen that we know existed, etc. There is physical evidence, there is spiritual evidence, obviously this miracle that happened and came to teach us how to be like him.
• 1:06:09
  We forget that he taught his disciples to do the acts that he was doing. We forget that Peter got on the water and lost sight of Jesus and worried about the waves coming. That's why he crashed through the surface of the water.
• 1:06:25
  When we take our eye off God as the provider, as the number one source of everything that we need, and we put it on us, we take that rain away from him and we say, no, we've got it.
• 1:06:40
  We are doing the service because that's what he's here for. He's here to take care of us. That was my final lesson. That was a recent lesson. It was only a couple of years ago.
• 1:06:55
  I'm not in control here. I'm one of a billion or two billion, seven billion people now that are walking around this planet with an idea in my head that I have a goal, that I have a specific thing that I want and I need to make my life better.
• 1:07:21
  And it never really worked out for me having those thought or belief systems. When everything started to really, really take off and really work out for me, as far as a life of abundance.
• 1:07:38
  Abundance in love, abundance in peace, abundance in harmony, abundance in physical health, abundance in finances, abundance in goals.
• 1:07:54
  None of that really happened until I was aligned with the kingdom. And what I mean by that, because it does sound very sort of like spiritually far fetched, then sort of almost hippie-ish, I guess, was it was surrendering? It was surrendering and it was understanding that it doesn't matter where you look, God is woven in that absolutely everything that is around us, whether it be the formulation of God.
• 1:08:24
  The formulation of, you know, a plant in the fact that it grows in a Fibonacci sequence, a small microscopic level. And that is exactly how space acts in exactly the same way in the same time continuum.
• 1:08:41
  All genes are put together in a Fibonacci sequence in exactly the same way space, time, and growth works everywhere else.
• 1:08:50
  How there's all these scientific explanations for everything, but the deep root of the scientific explanation according to any and all of our geniuses that have existed is that this has been written by something with a far greater mind than we could ever conceive.
• 1:09:16
  It is woven so well together that it has a purpose. It cannot be random. To be random, imagine how much faith you need to be. You know why I love atheists? Because imagine having the faith of an atheist, we just exist.
• 1:09:35
  One of those things, one of those things out of the billion numbers that are needed to keep us where we are doing what we do. One of those numbers goes out slightly by a fraction, by a fraction that we wouldn't even be able to understand decimally speaking because it is that small of a number.
• 1:09:55
  If it changed slightly, this whole universe would collapse on itself. Imagine having that much faith, that nothing else exists, that we're just hanging around in space, waiting for this to either not happen or happen.
• 1:10:09
  I love that kind of faith in my law. I do have that kind of faith in my law. I'm just winding up that atheist right. But it doesn't make any sense even at a scientific level. And scientists are proving every single day that there is something behind this wonderful thing that we call life.
• 1:10:30
  And there is a formula for us to go by and whether that scripture or not, maybe that's the sort of surface level of it. But the definite basis of living a proud, beautiful life on earth is service and obedience.
• 1:10:49
  And I don't just mean to the Lord in reading the Word in okay, I'm going to do the Ten Helm Aries and all that kind of stuff because that's why we avoid religion, right.
• 1:10:56
  It's the relationship in that obedience. It's the same way you would be obedient to your wife if she said no, I don't want you to go out and do this because I think it's going to be bad for the family.
• 1:11:05
  It's the same sort of obedience. It's having faith in your relationship that by making that decision, it's going to take you to the next level or it's going to solidify a foundation of love and peace.
• 1:11:20
  Has there been a time that your faith has been tested or you've questioned?
• 1:11:25
  Absolutely. And like thank the Lord, it gets tested all the time, all the time actually. And it's mostly in, again, relationships actually. It's where I feel or the person feels under, we call it attack from the enemy.
• 1:11:47
  Okay, that's how we describe it, you know, household anyway. So what we mean by that is, excuse me guys, breakfast, it's when you have a purpose.
• 1:12:02
  So if, for example, if my partner and I's purpose is to open a hub where we can teach people how to cook, we can teach people music, we can get people off the streets, get them jobs, house, clothes, feed, all that sort of thing.
• 1:12:21
  We're on a church from the same hub, etc. If that's the end goal, we want these hubs and we want them all over the place.
• 1:12:29
  What does the enemy want? Well, he doesn't want that because that's completely squashing his word, that's squashing his temptation, that's getting rid of his, you know, violent whispers and lies in people's ears.
• 1:12:44
  So what does he do? He comes along and he attacks the very thing, that can disrupt the household. He goes for insecurities. He goes for conflict in disagreements about perhaps spiritual stuff.
• 1:13:00
  Are we sure that we're on the same page here? Are we sure that we're spiritually aligned? Are we sure that we're after the same things because you want to go out and, you know, party with your mates for three nights this week.
• 1:13:12
  I've got all this work to do and you're not supporting me in this yet at the beginning it was a together thing and now it's not.
• 1:13:20
  What's going on? He'll push temptation in your way. He will, or it will keep doing that. And when we say tested, is it the Lord testing? I think so. I think a little bit of it.
• 1:13:34
  But most of it is to see if you are grounded in his presence, meaning when you see the temptation, when you see the conflict, when you see the dismay, when you see the fire burning around you and you think there's no way out and you're going to pull your hair out or you're going to have a screaming match or you're going to have a fit.
• 1:13:55
  You're going to go into old baby or patterns. You're going to start freaking out at your sous chef and throwing things around because service is going bad.
• 1:14:02
  Take your foot off the gas a little bit and pray and I know that sounds ironic, but I can name ten times where I've prayed hard when something very bad was going on.
• 1:14:16
  And the relief was almost instantaneous, not only in the physical world around me, but here and I think as soon as the centering changes, all of a sudden you're giving off different vibes man and you're changing that energy around you and by changing that energy around you.
• 1:14:34
  This is where the science comes into the relationship with God. Everybody else changes because you can't walk into a room full of positive energy as a person giving off lots of negativity and change ten people.
• 1:14:52
  You can go in and change one or two people, but if there's a whole congregation there full of this big positive love and going on, what's going to happen is very quickly you're going to change.
• 1:15:05
  You're going to have to because whatever demon is lodging or hanging around you or whatever, they're not going to be comfortable there.
• 1:15:15
  You're going to want to get hell out of dodge as soon as they possibly can. It's not going to be good for that.
• 1:15:20
  As soon as you start praising and worshipping, as soon as you start talking like we're talking now, that presence either two things happens if you're having a one on one conversation.
• 1:15:29
  The presence relinquishes any feeling of doubt or negative self talk, which is definitely you being under attack by the liar, the one who doesn't want you to succeed in love and relationship with the Lord.
• 1:15:51
  Because what that means is he has no dominion on earth and this is his dominion. He has no dominion over you, he has no power and no power. He is ego.
• 1:16:01
  Imagine something not having any power. It will upset him greatly and it upsets the dog side as it were.
• 1:16:12
  By doing what we do and by exercising these, I'm not going to call them rituals, but it's almost ritualistic getting up at the same time and, you know,
• 1:16:27
  whatever works for you, but trust me, if you do it and it becomes part of your daily routine and becomes part of exactly how you approach your daily situation, everything changes very, very quickly and dramatically.
• 1:16:47
  Because you don't harbor this envy of anybody else anymore, you don't harbor the pressure of not being on time because you're on God's time.
• 1:17:03
  How was your life different before this deep relationship?
• 1:17:10
  I think it was very stressful. It was extremely stressful. I need to be there at this time. I need to be there at this time. If I'm not there, what are they going to think? What is this person going to think of me? If I don't achieve this, I'm not going to amount to anything.
• 1:17:24
  If I don't achieve this, what are they going to think about me? How am I going to get that job if I can't pull this one off, et cetera, et cetera?
• 1:17:33
  It's constantly stressed. You are constantly trying to figure out how you are going to get you to that billionaire status.
• 1:17:41
  But the 10 houses all around the world and the cars and the money and the flash. You quickly, when you start having a relationship with God, understand that.
• 1:17:56
  None of that matters at all. None of it makes a bit of difference because I could win the lottery tomorrow and then get hit by a bust five minutes later.
• 1:18:04
  If I am not taking advantage of the very, very sacred and precious air that has been breathed into my body, the breath that has been given to me, every single minute living in this minute right here right now, then I am not living.
• 1:18:24
  You are not living. You are not doing anything. You are thinking about what is going to happen next week.
• 1:18:29
  Stop thinking about what is going to happen next week. Think about what is happening now. How grateful are you for this moment?
• 1:18:35
  How sad are you for this moment? How bitter are you in this moment? How can we change that? How can we feel better? How am I going to get this bitterness out of me?
• 1:18:45
  You have to look for any good in every situation because you are never ever ever going to be peaceful if you don't understand that life is a series of 50-50s.
• 1:19:00
  Without all that negative shit, without all the bad stuff that happens, you won't have a good understanding of what it is to feel free, to feel unburdened, to feel beauty, to feel peace anyway.
• 1:19:12
  You don't have anything to compare it to. But peace is something that you won't need to compare us into. When you get it, you will be like, oh, this is peace.
• 1:19:25
  Peace is when someone is screaming in your face and you are like, Jesus loves you, bro. Jesus loves you.
• 1:19:32
  When one of these crazy taxi drivers in South Africa here decide to bump your car and threaten you with a gun because you are in the way and you are like, it's all good, my man.
• 1:19:42
  I've got insurance, you don't, but I do. Peace is not reacting through ego and that for me was something I needed a relationship with God to overcome.
• 1:19:56
  To get there, I needed that because all of my mentors were very different in their approach.
• 1:20:05
  What I also saw was, as I became more like that, people around me became more like that as well. If this guy is peaceful, the guy who was not peaceful in any way, shape or form, I can be peaceful too.
• 1:20:23
  And that was what the whole point of disciples, Jesus' time on the planet was about. It was like, wonder around with me, get my teachings, learn who I am and you can be like that too.
• 1:20:36
  And the more you become like me, again you can use any words that you want, divine is one of them. And I think what we mean by divine when we are saying it is just acting in God's, acting in kingdom authority rather than terraform of earth, which is love thy neighbor.
• 1:21:01
  There's only one entity that can judge anything. We do not have the power to do so nor should we because we all harbor our own mistakes.
• 1:21:11
  If you meet anyone that you really think is squeaky clean on this planet, that's never had a bad thought even. Show me them. I'd love to meet that person.
• 1:21:21
  I'd love to meet the child that's never had a bad thought about something or someone. It's just how human nature is.
• 1:21:30
  And I think discovering what human nature can be over what it is is the idea. I think that's my meaning of life anyway.
• 1:21:42
  It's okay. How do I become more godly in my presence and my teachings every day? And I'm never going to get it right because I am only human at this stage anyway.
• 1:21:55
  While I'm walking around in this flesh suit. And that's also okay because we've been forgiven. So we have an opportunity now.
• 1:22:03
  We have an opportunity that we didn't have before Jesus was here to be able to really really look at ourselves and what we can do for ourselves to get to a state of peace.
• 1:22:20
  And again, peace doesn't necessarily mean having everything that you want around you all the time. Peace just means being okay with what you do have around you. That's peace.
• 1:22:30
  And if we can all get there, you watch the conflict just run away. You've got no need to control anything anymore. You don't need Greenland all of a sudden or anything above and beyond the kingdom.
• 1:22:46
  And that is a way of life. And you can either live it or you can't. You can take some bits. You can apply whatever you want to apply to it. But I think if your heart is good, you've made it anyway.
• 1:23:01
  You don't need to wake up every morning and do what I do. You just need to have loving your heart for everybody and see that even bad people aren't bad people.
• 1:23:14
  There's no such thing as a bad person. They just do bad things. And everybody has the choice to be able to not do bad things. How do we get people not doing bad things?
• 1:23:26
  We have to understand them first. The funny thing is about understanding is we always fear what we don't understand. And that's why we have conflict with others because we don't understand each other.
• 1:23:37
  So a little more understanding. We'll go a long way. And that comes from prayer, that comes from having a relationship with the Lord.
• 1:23:48
  We get that relationship right, our relationships with everything else, then to just fit in.
• 1:23:56
  Yeah, I'm done preaching. No, I like it. It leads me to, did you always see that your life would leave the UK and end up in another part of the world?
• 1:24:09
  Yeah, I never had a great relationship with the UK to begin with. It never felt like home. It never felt like somewhere that was ever going to be somewhere that I called the place I was always going to stay.
• 1:24:27
  I don't think if I'm going to be honest with you, I don't think I've found that place yet. I think Cape Town is home, because mountains, winelands, sea, unbelievable culinary scene, the people here are next level.
• 1:24:45
  What do you mean? You can meet some absolute crackers, like unbelievable people. You can meet some of the opposite, like anywhere else in the world.
• 1:24:57
  But this place is really centered in, again, it's diversity. It feels like being back at school. Can I make any sense? Yes. There's like a comfort in that to me.
• 1:25:06
  There's this group of friends and that group of friends and this group of friends and they all have a different function and they all have a different meaning and they all have a different way of going about things.
• 1:25:19
  But you will never see a trodden down South African. Okay.
• 1:25:27
  I think anything can happen here. Several Ramaphosa can do the worst 360 in the world and increase McDonald's prices by 60% and put the rent up to an extortion at price that no one can afford local rentals.
• 1:25:46
  You can't sewage into the sea. They can literally do whatever they want and you will never get a South African who will sit moaning for too long about anything. They're resistant.
• 1:25:56
  They are resistant to abuse. They're resistant to racism. They're resistant to oppression. They're just resistant in a way that reminds me very much of my own people.
• 1:26:11
  And I love it. I think it's absolutely amazing. I love the African communities. I love the Corsair communities. I love the Zulu communities. I love the so many petty communities.
• 1:26:29
  Josie and Cape Town have different people are from both. It's like two different countries. It really is. And Durban, the same you visit and even PE. If you visit all these cities, it's like being in a different country in each and every one of them.
• 1:26:45
  It is so so dynamic, so diverse and they are one of the most resilient people when it comes to being the best at what they do as well.
• 1:26:57
  All we have to do is take a look at the current sports situation in the world. They are cleaning up with everything. It doesn't matter what it is. I think the only thing they're not great at is soccer.
• 1:27:07
  And track. But everything else is nuts. Rugby, basketball.
• 1:27:13
  Are they good at basketball?
• 1:27:14
  Unbelievably, they just won something in the Olympics, the Wings Basketball team, hockey. I mean hockey, man. Not ice hockey, obviously. But hockey.
• 1:27:26
  Some of the soccer teams, some of the soccer players, what else have they done? I was looking at the whole Shabang. It's like a list of 18 things that their world champions in. Absolutely crazy.
• 1:27:41
  So whatever they focus on, the wine here. Let me tell you about the wine. I've lived in some countries. I've lived in France. I've spent a lot of time in Italy. I've spent a lot of time in the US, especially in Upper Valley, where they make US best wine.
• 1:27:55
  I've been to South America. I've had some of the best Argentinian, Peruvian wine. I've been to China, Japan, where they've started these things and when they get stuff right, they get it right.
• 1:28:06
  Oh, unbelievably. It doesn't matter New Zealand, Australia. It doesn't matter where you go. You're going to get really good wines and you're going to get really, really bad wines that they sell at a very low level and should not even be fit for consumption, but they sell it anyway.
• 1:28:25
  You don't get that here. If you go by a cheap wine in South Africa, that is going to be like a moderate wine in Europe. They are the best at it. I'm telling you right now. One of my favorite bubbles in the whole world is called Laloud. I'd put it top five against any champagne on the planet and it's probably a fraction of the price.
• 1:28:48
  Yeah, Laloud, French up. Unbelievable. Especially if you go for the vintages. Next level stuff. Yeah, actually the mind boggles at how good it is compared to some of these top level, top level champagne houses in France. It doesn't even make any sense.
• 1:29:08
  They are incredible and I love them as a people. I love their attitudes to a lot of stuff that happens. Everyone has their faults and we will find more and more and more if we look for those. But you know, all I'm going to say is anywhere in the world I would call home would be would be Cape Town for sure.
• 1:29:31
  How did you choose Cape Town having been and visited and lived in so many other places? What was it about Cape Town that has made you stay here?
• 1:29:39
  I think it's like I don't say the vibes but the vibes. It's definitely the vibes. It's hustle and bustle but it's chilled.
• 1:29:50
  I understand that Joe Berg is a little bit just hustle and bustle. Joe Berg is just hustle and bustle. Joe Berg is corporate. If I was going to sum it up in a small sentence.
• 1:30:04
  Joe is corporate. Cape Town is creative. Cape Town is one of the most creative cities I'd say in the world. 100%. Everybody here is an entrepreneur. Everybody doesn't matter who you meet.
• 1:30:20
  I love that about it. What do you do? The back scratching, it lives here. If money was to be eradicated tomorrow, Cape Town would operate like the old school days.
• 1:30:34
  People giving chickens for grapes or whatever. People just start trading. Covid was one of those times where you saw people really get stuck in.
• 1:30:46
  Because hospitality obviously just blew out of the water with no one being able to open their restaurants, no incomes etc.
• 1:30:56
  Restaurants closing, like what on what did we do? We went back to the prohibition. We went back to the prohibition. That's exactly what we did. We did it with food and we did it with drink.
• 1:31:10
  We hustled and people survived because of it. I don't think that would have happened anywhere else in the world. It would have been too hardcore on the regulation, too hardcore on the policing.
• 1:31:26
  They just knew they were like this isn't right. What's going on? We're going to make a plan here so everybody can survive. That happened right here in Cape Town and all I can say is when it comes to resilience, when it comes to entrepreneurial tactics and thought patterns this place is like a hub of pure creative energy.
• 1:31:50
  How was Covid for you? Covid was a bit of a rough time at the beginning of it. As it was for anyone who owned a restaurant at the time, I had exhibit eight at the time with a chef called Warwick King. That was sort of like our duo in South Africa after we opened Gatay.
• 1:32:06
  We went from strength to strength. We were in Wall Street Journal as one of the best restaurants in Africa and Forbes top 10 and all that kind of stuff.
• 1:32:20
  We were killing it and then Covid happened and we had to close and we were like, what are we going to do? How long had you been open before Covid? Only nine months.
• 1:32:32
  We were just getting into it. We had a couple of million rounds worth of bookings in, deposit wise and we had to refund two million round going out of your bank. You're like, oh dear, what are we going to do?
• 1:32:48
  We found ways. There was wine clubs. We had at the time it was one of the best wine lists recognized in the continent actually. We started a wine club where you pay a membership fee and then you can pick up your weekly wine as it were.
• 1:33:12
  We had some crazy requests for particular bottles and what have you in. Obviously there was a premium attached to it now and what not. We were doing this sending a pizza which we blast frozen, we made it but we blasted freeze it.
• 1:33:30
  We got it and put it in your oven. It acts like a takeaway pizza. We were doing anything that we could. We were just hustling, hustling, hustling. All of this was so we could keep paying our staff and not lay them off.
• 1:33:50
  We got involved with the soup kitchen which was down in Woodstock here actually. The big brewery, Woodstock brewery on the main road there.
• 1:34:04
  We were donating like offcuts of the vegetables and all that kind of stuff. We went to the soup kitchen and we were handing out stuff. We were doing a campaign with Matt Manning at the time. Matt Manning is a chef who owns a few restaurants on Breast Street. He's got culture wine bar. He's got the blue room and he's got a group of wine as well.
• 1:34:26
  We were doing charity soup kitchen from there at the time as well. Then it hit rock bottom. They went on complete lockdown where we couldn't leave. You went through the same thing.
• 1:34:43
  A lot of us were still surfing and flipping the birds to the police as they came because they couldn't get out to get us. We were still being very South African.
• 1:34:55
  Yeah, lockdown and then what did we do? I had to make a call. I had to make a call. Am I staying or am I going to now look for something now with a stable income for a little bit just to get us through COVID.
• 1:35:11
  This is the first time I'm talking about it. I actually found an ad on LinkedIn. It's for a little place out in Montana. What was it called?
• 1:35:27
  It's some trauma related to it. I tried to block it out as much as humanly possible. What was it called? Stonehill. It's called Stonehill Kitchen. They said, why are you looking at this neck of the woods?
• 1:35:43
  I'm really looking to do something like a Noma concept. Same latitude or that kind of thing. I've checked out your local fish vegetables and all that. I think we could do something really cool here.
• 1:35:59
  I can know my concept. If you're willing to invest in that sort of thing, etc. I don't just want to come into what it is now and then run a menu because it doesn't make any sense. There needs to be a marketing constituent behind it. We need to get Michelanguade interested in expanding into different states.
• 1:36:15
  If you're up for all of these things, then I think you found yourself an executive and I'll come over and we'll get on it.
• 1:36:23
  No problem. We are aligned, love the idea, etc. When I crossed there, nothing had happened. I was basically a private chef for one of the owners.
• 1:36:37
  It had a huge ego. Very rude, very... On the phone, what a wonderful man.
• 1:36:47
  You know, pay for your flights, accommodation, all that kind of stuff. Let's get you over here. Lovely, lovely, lovely. Anything you need. We'll sort you out with then.
• 1:36:57
  If I come in here and I want to f in burger, I want to f in burger, so make me one. Send someone to the shop to get ingredients and say, cool, here we go. Things like that.
• 1:37:08
  It started like that and then I started seeing him fight with his family as well. In front of everybody.
• 1:37:16
  And then he'd have his nieces in washing the dishes and they'd just be sat on buckets in the middle of a kitchen. There's guests coming in and stuff and you know, it's a mess.
• 1:37:26
  Hold on, is he trying to get them some work ethic? I don't know what was going on. I was very confused by the whole operation.
• 1:37:33
  This one's a good one. We keep her around because she's local and we've known her for years. She's not doing anything.
• 1:37:40
  She's not doing anything and then this one is having extra marital affairs with some of the customers except it was very, very small.
• 1:37:49
  But you've left here to go there for this opportunity. That wasn't an opportunity.
• 1:37:57
  No, it wasn't and they were making out it was going to be an opportunity.
• 1:38:02
  Okay, so you're waiting. So I'm waiting. How long were we waiting for it?
• 1:38:06
  Well, I was there, honestly. I got to three months and I was like, no, I'm done.
• 1:38:09
  The opportunity to now come. I'm like, no. And then as soon as I said, listen, sorry, this is like breach of contracts. I need to get out of it.
• 1:38:18
  Now we're going to do the renovations and by then two little too late, I'd already found somewhere to go.
• 1:38:25
  So I left and then the team that was there was like, listen, we'd love to come with you and I'm like, look, can't do that.
• 1:38:30
  Stipulating contracts, stealing of staff and all that kind of stuff, can't do it. What I can do is I can give you HR managers number of the company.
• 1:38:37
  Then if you get a job somewhere, whatever, but nothing to do with me, you can't talk to me about it, etc.
• 1:38:44
  I did tell a couple of them my plan. I was like, no, but I've like discussed this with management as well. So it's not like it's like a secret.
• 1:38:53
  Yeah, like a secret. I'm heading to the east coast and I'm going to do something cool down there because yeah, these guys just don't put in the money where the mouth is as it was.
• 1:39:04
  So I left and then I got a threatening message from the owner like if you don't let return now, X, Y and Z is going to happen.
• 1:39:14
  I'm like, well, dude, you've breached a contract at the end of the day. So as far as I'm concerned, also partner getting lots of flak.
• 1:39:27
  She's considered a black girl out there in a very red county. And yeah, you walk into a partner's from South Africa.
• 1:39:36
  So you walk into a supermarket and it goes like tumbleweeds going through there and people staring, etc.
• 1:39:48
  I don't know anything about Montana. Yeah, it's very watched that series on Netflix. What's it called? Yellowstone.
• 1:39:57
  Okay. That'll tell you everything you need to know about Montana. Okay. It's about their political system, how things work, etc.
• 1:40:04
  Unfortunately, he got the wrap of that because he sued me. He sued you. He sued me. Yeah, he sued me for leaving and then because some of his staff left and went off to do the wrong things, etc.
• 1:40:15
  He sued me for leading them down the wrong path, all that kind of stuff as well. Didn't sue me in plain sight though. What does it put you mean?
• 1:40:27
  So what I didn't know about him was he is a very, very, very high up in the political system. He is a lawyer that has a track record of being like, you want this done, you get this guy to do it.
• 1:40:48
  Okay. Animal of note. Okay. In the courtroom. His wife went public with a child's book thing that was linked to Netflix, etc.
• 1:41:03
  Went public and cleared 25 billion or something. This is how rich these people are, right? And they wouldn't just fix up the restaurant. Yeah. I don't know whether he wanted me to prove something to him or what beforehand. I've got no idea.
• 1:41:18
  But unbelievable amount of cash just sitting around private jet. He's flying it, etc. etc. He was giving me flying lessons at one point like the first week I was there. I was like, come grab that. I'm like, okay.
• 1:41:30
  I'm thinking of like, I've scored him. This guy's going to end up hoping he's going to like, obviously offer me shares in the restaurant to keep me here, etc.
• 1:41:39
  I'm sure we're going to do this big culinary takeover thing. Put Montana on the map, blind it up because of the way he was carrying on.
• 1:41:45
  Get there. None of this happens. And he's very, almost got for these very, like hard to work with.
• 1:41:53
  He tastes everything and he's not going to great palette because he smokes cigars and jeans whiskey. He's drunk most of the time.
• 1:42:00
  But he's telling you what he's telling you. It's wrong. And you're like, what are you talking about? The Michelin guy to stars for this was, okay.
• 1:42:09
  He gave our restaurant accolades, etc. etc. yet you don't see the good in the dishes it were. I'm not really understanding what you're coming from.
• 1:42:19
  So what he wanted was just a private chef. And he wanted, like, branches like that.
• 1:42:26
  Yeah, exactly. I think the whole thing was, oh, I can tell my mate I've got a award winning chef.
• 1:42:31
  I've got this guy who's been on MasterChef UK and all that stuff. So I think he just thought that was, you know, the appealing factor.
• 1:42:41
  But obviously I was like, no, thank you. So we got out of there, went to the East Coast.
• 1:42:52
  What part of the East Coast? I went to Philadelphia. Philly just outside of Philly, this beautiful restaurant called Amaret.
• 1:42:59
  Is this the first time your partner has come to the States? Yeah. And so she lands in Montana. And that's her experience.
• 1:43:05
  That was her experience, yeah. Is she not telling you, babe, let's get back on the plane?
• 1:43:09
  No, at this point she's like, okay, let's try another place. Okay, let's give this one a go.
• 1:43:17
  Get there. Everything's wonderful. Okay. Guy pays for everything. Gets everything we need.
• 1:43:23
  Gets all the plates I need, gets all the equipment I need, puts it in an apartment, then sorts us out with a house, et cetera, et cetera.
• 1:43:32
  He is regenerating what he's paying out for us. It's not like he's doing it for free or whatever.
• 1:43:40
  But he's helping us out. Yes. And I'm like brilliant guy named Tom actually in the medical profession.
• 1:43:48
  So own several hospitals across the state of Pennsylvania. Very cool guy. Start doing all this amazing food, et cetera, et cetera.
• 1:43:57
  Get to Christmas, 2023 or full. Okay.
• 1:44:05
  I can't remember. Maybe one of them. Yeah, one of them. And then he's like, oh, would you be interested in taking over there
• 1:44:13
  and taking over that? And I'm like, yeah, great. And then bang. We get sued.
• 1:44:17
  So I get this paperwork come through. And I've been sued for $1.6 million in damages to this guy from Montana.
• 1:44:29
  And he's also suing my new employer. So my new employer is like, it's fine. I'll fight that because hello.
• 1:44:42
  So that gets thrown out of court. They're like, if you're not going to be able to sue this guy, like that's ridiculous.
• 1:44:48
  Hello. And it's a different state completely. It's right to work state in Montana as well. So if I just decide that I want to leave, I can.
• 1:44:58
  Yes, I have a three year contract that I've signed, but two of the main elements have already been broken and not involved.
• 1:45:07
  So my lawyer is like, yeah, we can win, but your retainer is going to cost this. And this is going to cost that. And so I'm like, you're telling me that I'm going to need quarter of a million dollars to fight this guy.
• 1:45:19
  He's like, yeah, this guy's a powerhouse. He used to be the lawyer for the CIA.
• 1:45:26
  Literally, literally used to be one of the lawyers for the CIA in a particular field that he was in. And I'm like, so I need, I need quarter of a million dollars.
• 1:45:36
  And he's like, yeah, and he knows that that's why he's doing this. How did he get this push through and granted? I haven't been to court.
• 1:45:45
  That's what we need to find out. So he investigates why, et cetera.
• 1:45:50
  Well, when you know everyone, you can as far as they're concerned, I went to court. I'm like, well, I didn't go to court.
• 1:45:57
  Yeah, but it is what it is.
• 1:46:00
  It's what it is. It's what it is. It's what it is.
• 1:46:02
  So now you'll have to go. And then yes, you'll be able to prove you didn't, but that's going to cost you X, Y and Z.
• 1:46:08
  His aim here is to make you broke. That's the aim. He wants to finish you financially.
• 1:46:15
  Okay, what can I do? And he said, you're not going to be able to do anything.
• 1:46:19
  You're going to have to just settle on an amount every week. This is the lawyer or every month or whatever.
• 1:46:26
  And that's what you're going to have to pay. So I was like, okay, well, I'm not going to do that.
• 1:46:31
  And we'll move on. Cheers. So then Tom, the owner got very like, if you don't fight this and you're going to need to.
• 1:46:42
  I was like, okay, you're going to help me fight it because he's like, dude, my wife wouldn't let me give you quarter of a million dollars to fight this guy.
• 1:46:50
  She'll be like, what are you doing? You've known this guy for six months, you know what I mean? Like what's going on?
• 1:46:57
  So what did I do? I left. Yeah, I left. He was like, yeah, you're going to have to go to some like Wild West state where they don't give a shit about stuff like this.
• 1:47:09
  He said then your partner's moaning about the weather up here. So I suggest you go to somewhere like Florida or whatever.
• 1:47:16
  And I was like, that's not a bad idea. So we moved to Florida. Oh, really?
• 1:47:19
  We moved to Florida. I went to a place. And then the case does disappear?
• 1:47:23
  No, but now they got a, now they got to recalibrate their case for Florida.
• 1:47:29
  Okay. So it has to get passed in Florida now because America is basically just like a big continent, isn't it?
• 1:47:35
  Right. It's Africa or Europe or whatever. They've got states, but they operate like different countries.
• 1:47:40
  Yes. They're completely independent of each other. So now I'm like, okay, so let's see how long it takes to track it down.
• 1:47:46
  And I think it's passed or it doesn't or what what? So eventually, I don't hear anything.
• 1:47:52
  But we're in Florida. Immersion happens. I'm doing the pre-opening dinners for some of the Michelin ceremonies in the new states.
• 1:48:01
  We do Florida. I do it with Ryan Retino from a two-star restaurant in Washington, DC. I call John.
• 1:48:10
  He comes down to immersion. We do a collab dinner. Extremely successful. Actually got his feet in the door to open a restaurant in Florida.
• 1:48:21
  I open this place in London House, which is this private members club, but this restaurant's open to the public.
• 1:48:30
  We're open for three months. We're only on Michelin guides radar because Ryan's coming down.
• 1:48:40
  So we then do the pre-dinner. The head of Michelin US is there. Everything goes smoothly.
• 1:48:49
  One of the guys informs me you are definitely going to be on the list next year.
• 1:48:54
  They're not supposed to do that. It didn't happen. I'm lying. So just an insider whispered to me.
• 1:49:04
  Well done next year. I was like, oh, not this year. It's not even really three months. It's more like a month and a half because you've only been on the radar.
• 1:49:15
  If they do that, it's going to look a little bit funny. Also, really you need the Michelin guide to come in three or four times before next year to see if you've got the consistency.
• 1:49:26
  So I'm like, no problem. Be on it. We'll get back on it. No problem. Don't get on it.
• 1:49:33
  We're at the wards though, and I got a special mention and all that kind of stuff, etc.
• 1:49:38
  And then even the head of the Michelin guide there was like, yeah, I can't wait to see how this is going to pan out, etc.
• 1:49:45
  Get a call from the boss. Ben, his name is. If he's watching, he's a prop and a bed.
• 1:49:55
  Oh, no. Of note. Yeah, one of the worst credens I've ever met in my entire life.
• 1:50:01
  Oh, no. So did avoid talking and did avoid like having any interaction within most of the time. His business partner though, very nice guy opposite.
• 1:50:13
  Unbelievable. Such a good guy. Such a good guy. Got on like a house on fire. Good morals and all that kind of stuff, right?
• 1:50:20
  But it seemed that he wasn't the one who was calling all the shots. It's Ben who was calling all the shots. So Adrian, his name was still of the guy to bits.
• 1:50:28
  We love Adrian. I don't want to insult anyone or say anyone's like a certain sort of character because of their lifestyle or whatever.
• 1:50:40
  But if you can imagine chewing on a bit of corn, a cowboy hat, big guns, big guns, big big guns, big truck, truck guns, cowboy hat boots tank top.
• 1:50:55
  Yeah, that's sort of I, right? So he said some insulting things. One of them alluding to the fact that my partner is a person of color.
• 1:51:10
  And, yeah, does that affect me in any way? Whatever that meant. So I'm like, sorry, why have you pulled me in? Where are we having a meeting about my partner?
• 1:51:25
  Oh, and your kid, is it yours? Because he's very white. I'm like, what? So what he's actually doing? And he's got two managers in the room with him, right? And they're not even making any eye contact with me.
• 1:51:38
  He's trying to get me to react to something. So he's like, oh, so today you could be getting fired. And I think you've been fired before, right? I'm sure you've been fired before.
• 1:51:51
  I'm like, I don't know what you're talking about. Okay, let's just come to the chase. What's going on here? And he said, you guaranteed us we were getting a Michelin star. I was like, no, you can't guarantee you're getting a Michelin star unless you work for Michelin.
• 1:52:06
  But then again, Michelin wouldn't open a restaurant. So how have I guaranteed you anything? Oh, it was kind of like the build up. It was kind of like, you know, you were like, oh, it's dead set. This person works for this person and this person works for there. And you were telling us all this.
• 1:52:21
  I was like, no, I said these guys from John to coming down. And the Michelin guide would like to use our restaurant as a platform to launch the Florida Michelin guide on. That's a bit of a privilege.
• 1:52:35
  But you're not finding that like a really cool thing. Yeah, but, you know, you were you were alluding to the fact we were going to get what I was like, I am, but that's right. I was alluding to the fact that we're going to get one, but not in three months next year.
• 1:52:50
  We just got to stay open for a year. And also, aren't we changing the members club into a restaurant restaurant? So there's going to be like a very high end restaurant and then immersion. So it wasn't the idea like in our brains, we'd have a one star restaurant and a two star restaurant on the same premises sort of thing.
• 1:53:07
  Yeah, I just don't think it's going to work. So it's like, it's not going to work because I didn't get a star in three months. So he's like, yeah, pretty much left off the record.
• 1:53:16
  You've embarrassed us because we've been telling everybody that, and then this is why we did it. We did it because you were going to do this. Now, how are we supposed to market it?
• 1:53:24
  And how are you supposed to market it? You're supposed to market it like the Michelin guides been in and give us the thumbs up where like, you know, we're under the radar. So on the radar, we did the pre launch for the Michelin guide.
• 1:53:37
  We've had Ryan Retino, two Michelin stars. She had Ryan Retino here with your Michelin stars. She had as it were doing a collab dinner that's never been done before in flight.
• 1:53:49
  I don't know what you want from me. So he said our resignation. I was like, I ain't giving you a resignation, but I'm not going to happen.
• 1:53:57
  And he said, oh, and you know what we have to, we have to pay for their flights and accommodation to come down. I was like, yes, but you already agreed to that. I didn't agree to anything.
• 1:54:05
  Well, Adrian agreed. Adrian was on the phone. And then Adrian sort of threw me under the bus a little bit and said, no, he didn't agree to that.
• 1:54:13
  And we still like Adrian? Yeah, because he texted me after and said, I did agree to it. And I did say it, but I was confused as to what you were.
• 1:54:21
  I don't like Adrian for you. So I'll give him benefit of the doubt as it were. But I mean, we don't have any contact. We don't talk anymore, whatever.
• 1:54:29
  But I do think deep down is a nice guy. I think you're just a bit bullied. That makes any sense. But yeah, I'm with you. I hear the wife also doesn't appreciate Adrian.
• 1:54:43
  I'm with the wife. Yeah, Danny hates. So, so then what? So that happens. And I'm like, we need to leave. It's an leave America. We need to get out of it because this is just, yeah, she's just not good.
• 1:54:59
  You got one guy. He's not going to back me up. You got one guy chasing me to like literally trying to ruin my career. And then you got these guys who have just, oh, if it's not going to happen instantaneously, I don't want it sort of very, very stranger way of carrying on. But it is what it is.
• 1:55:15
  I meet a guy called Tomo out there, very inspirational guy, peptides, physical health, God, all those sort of things. So that was one of the beautiful side effects of it. Yes. And he's had some interaction with South Africa by way of Nikki van der Volte, who owns Tang. So he's got Tang waterfront, Tang, Joe Berg and Tang Dubai.
• 1:55:41
  I work very closely with his exec chef. He's also on the best chef list. Goes to the best chef awards and stuff. So I mean, it's pretty small community world wide. We see all the same people. I saw all the junk guys at these awards ceremonies, et cetera, et cetera. Everyone asks what's going on.
• 1:56:00
  Then I found out that they tried to tarnish my name when I left. Oh, sorry. There was a dosi bit in between as well. We'll get to that now. So they contacted Michelin guide and said, no, this guy lied to you and said that he would pay for X, Y and Z for you to come down, stay.
• 1:56:20
  And then there was a lot of stuff that he said yes to for the Michelin reveal dinners that we wouldn't have approved. And of course, I can't do anything without approval because I have to buy stuff. Right. So you have to get a pre purchase order if you buy anything for anything.
• 1:56:35
  So they then contacted Michelin guide and Michelin guide told someone who was actually started to get me involved in their company, Johnny Tong, that we don't like drama.
• 1:56:50
  And the likelihood is that you won't receive any awards if there's drama. So I'm like, OK, so how do we get rid of the drama? So Johnny said, right statement, give dates, give emails, all that sort of things. So we did we send it to him and it went quiet.
• 1:57:05
  They didn't go quiet though. Started working with Johnny. They tried to sue me for working with Johnny. So everybody does really like to sue in America. It's not just I was like, there's no way in a million years.
• 1:57:18
  These guys are going to try and sue me now for working with Johnny. This is Asian food completely different to what we're doing, et cetera.
• 1:57:25
  Anyway, long story short, Johnny actually used one of his lawyers and God bless Johnny, right, because he is a restaurant tour of notes. He owns most of the Michelin star restaurants in the Florida area.
• 1:57:35
  He's very much about championing in the chef, giving the chef what they need to succeed and getting them there all the way. Unbelievable guy owned bento, which is this like fast food chain as well.
• 1:57:50
  No seed oils, though, and all that kind of stuff like really, really good like peanut oil, all that kind of stuff, right? Fantastic.
• 1:57:58
  Great guy, unbelievable family, beautiful wife, great brother, working with these guys for a little bit, open doshy, Michelin guide, got in, et cetera, et cetera.
• 1:58:11
  But absolutely brilliant news on that. But I was only there for six months and then my visa was running out.
• 1:58:16
  As the visa was coming to the end, that's when we left. I was like, you know what, I'm not really because I'd seen two shootings happen while being in Florida.
• 1:58:23
  I'd witnessed the whole bunch of Nazi neo-Nazis on a bridge closing a road in Florida. Nazi signs everywhere. I'd watched a beach get emptied because some guy ran on it with an AR-15 and started taking shots at shock in the water.
• 1:58:42
  So they're just, I was a little bit like, you know what, this might be the way that things have done over here and cool.
• 1:58:48
  But it's certainly eight New York, because New York they don't act like this. It's not LA, because in LA they don't act like this either.
• 1:58:54
  So this is just all a little bit too much for me. I think I'm going to leave.
• 1:58:59
  I'd already lived in the US previously. I'd lived in Napa Valley for a few years. I was at the French laundry.
• 1:59:06
  So I worked there for a few years, well a couple of years, and then one of the places in Yonville down the road.
• 1:59:12
  And then left and went to the fat duck after that.
• 1:59:16
  But that was what I was still rising as it were. But yeah, the second time, you know, being there and living there properly, not just in staff accommodation and living in the winelands where nothing happens.
• 1:59:34
  You were in the midst of things, you know. So yeah, I got the call from the visa.
• 1:59:42
  Oh, come in and do your documents and went in. I was like, you know what, fancy it.
• 1:59:47
  So moved back, yeah, moved back to Cape Town.
• 1:59:54
  What did I do then? I started consulting.
• 1:59:57
  I asked a quick question about Michelin. So do you think I feel like every chef when they start out, their dream is to devise up and get a Michelin star?
• 2:00:08
  Do you think that that is changing now? And what are your thoughts about that?
• 2:00:14
  I think it is changing. I think people are more obsessed with it in a way and then less obsessed with it on the other side as well.
• 2:00:22
  So for someone who's been involved in Michelin Star restaurants, worked at Michelin Star restaurants, wanted to get stars, all that kind of stuff.
• 2:00:33
  It's less important now because you've done it. That makes any sense or you've been involved in it.
• 2:00:38
  Yeah. The other thing is you've seen what it takes to get there and you've also seen the politics that go into it as well.
• 2:00:44
  It is very politically driven. Very politically driven. I don't think if I was to put my hand on my heart and say, do I think it's a fair system?
• 2:00:54
  I couldn't say, yes, I'd have to say, I've eaten at one stars, which are unbelievably better quality and better presented than a three star, for example.
• 2:01:09
  So why has that three star got three stars? All perspective, right? That would be the way that, oh, well, it's the perspective of the judges. I don't think it is.
• 2:01:18
  I think the meal that made me really question Michelin Star, I was, I want to say 21 and I booked to go to Jules Verne.
• 2:01:30
  And I live in New York at the time. So going to Paris is a trek, but I'm like, I want this experience. I'm going to pay for the experience.
• 2:01:37
  This was the time where, you know, that handbag was shaped like an ostrich egg. It was that time.
• 2:01:41
  Right.
• 2:01:42
  And so it's relevant because when I get there, everyone is holding this handbag because it's an ostrich egg.
• 2:01:48
  And the sommelier comms and at the time, my wine knowledge was less than no, but I knew what I liked. So I told him, you know, I like a reasoning. I do prefer like a German reasoning to a French reason.
• 2:01:59
  So I'm giving him some notes so that he can choose because this was an encyclopedia of a book that I did not know where to start.
• 2:02:06
  He recommends a wine. I say, cool. Let's go with that. And then he says he doesn't have it.
• 2:02:12
  Okay. That's why I didn't choose it.
• 2:02:16
  And then the meal just was one of the most lackluster meals I've ever had. And I'm like, I get the view. I get that you're getting, you know, some points for ambiance, for atmosphere.
• 2:02:27
  But the meal, this is awful. And since then, I know it might be a little bit dramatic to have one meal. But I do think that even the idea of what is oat cuisine or what is best food, I do question it a lot in the sense that it does seem to have to have a European lens.
• 2:02:48
  Specifically, like the style of plating, you start to see plates all look the same because this has been dictated that if it looks like this, you know what I mean?
• 2:02:59
  Then it must be good, right? Or even from a palette perspective, like you were saying about your being brought up and being exposed to all these different spices and flavours.
• 2:03:09
  Like I don't want everything to be as flavourful as you make on food.
• 2:03:13
  But, you know, I look a bit more than a salt and pepper, wouldn't have heard. And it just feels that in order for it to be of a particular standard, it is really restricted as to what that looks like for Michelin.
• 2:03:25
  Yeah, for sure. So back to the question that you asked me then, I'm like, where do I feel people are with Michelin?
• 2:03:30
  I think a lot of people are more excited about it because it has expanded its walls. It's dropped its sort of stuffy French, what's the right?
• 2:03:43
  Yeah, that how cuisine, that pretentious fluff. I think that's gone. I think now it's more, they're getting a little more edgy.
• 2:03:55
  Okay. And I think they're starting to, not mimic, but they look at world's 50 best restaurants and how they accumulate their list.
• 2:04:04
  And the best chef awards, how they accumulate their list. It's about diversity, it's about history, it's about story, it's about personality and relationship fully enough again.
• 2:04:18
  So it's a little more digestible for the populace now, I'd say. So as a chef, from sort of early 2000s, I'd say, Michelin guide was very, very rooted in your petibyes and your, basically it's a bloody roast.
• 2:04:39
  It's a roast then addressed up in a different way, everything on the menu. So it's chicken with a watercress puree and a pom souffle, et cetera, et cetera.
• 2:04:50
  All you've got a lamb, like lamb press A with your honey glazed carrot puree and then a zoo with, you know, it's a zoo.
• 2:05:05
  Yeah, there's a zoo and a, you know, maybe a sun dried tomato cuss cuss block that's been, like all of this stuff is like pretty, pretty, pretty to look at, you know, lots of technique in making it look nice, but flavor wise, you're like, it all just tastes like a Sunday dinner.
• 2:05:23
  There's a gravy, there's meat and there's veggies. You know, are we going to go anywhere else with it? There's a souffle on the menu, obviously, there's a panicata, there's all of these very, very trending things to be on the menu, leek and lobster terrain, et cetera, et cetera.
• 2:05:43
  And all of it is rooted in salt and pepper, like you were saying, and those clear, consumables and the shoes with the only sources that you saw on the plates and what have you.
• 2:05:57
  And now we've got like Mexican three star restaurants that have, you know, like avocado, caspacho being poured over some raw fish and raw vegetables that they foraged off the mountain.
• 2:06:08
  And it looks like an alien land, and you're like, should I be eating it? It looks like it might kill me, but diverse, very original and great planning in the menu detail.
• 2:06:22
  Now that's a world stock 50 sort of, and a, and a best chef award, sort of trending thing to do.
• 2:06:32
  So what happens, Michelin, as a result of that, have to get on board, like they've got to, they took a massive decline in book sales.
• 2:06:42
  So now they've had to digitalize everything as well. If you're going to pay, because people ain't buying books anymore, especially not the Michelin guide.
• 2:06:51
  Because, you know, you're going to buy this thing. It's a guide to tell you where the most expensive restaurants in the world are, according to someone who doesn't really get the Michelin thing.
• 2:07:02
  While I buy that, that's just going to send me to restaurants that I'm not, I don't really want to be in and I'm going to pay a lot of money for, right?
• 2:07:09
  And then you get the foodies who may buy one because they just want the Michelin guide to stack on their shelf or whatever. But that's it. That's all you've got, that's your market.
• 2:07:18
  And what do you do? You take a digital. You take a digital. What do you do? You remove your salaries from having to make the book.
• 2:07:25
  But now where's your income coming from for the, for the tourism?
• 2:07:30
  Okay, because it's, it's rooted in getting people to go to, um, garages originally to buy tires from the garage while they're eating at the cafe along the way.
• 2:07:43
  Well, that doesn't happen anymore. So now where, where's your marketing budget coming from? Is it coming out the tire budget? Well, they don't want that.
• 2:07:50
  So what do we do? Well, we have to now, we have to now collaborate and how do they collaborate? They collaborate with the tourism board.
• 2:07:58
  So they get funding via the tourism board. And I don't want to say how it works because I don't know how it works, right?
• 2:08:07
  But it wouldn't surprise me if all the judges for Michelin guide, well, stop 50, definitely not best chef because he does keep it nice and tight.
• 2:08:21
  But, uh, a few of the other big names, if they're all the same judges and they're all freelancing freelance journalism or whatever is rather than being employees now.
• 2:08:32
  So digital nomadding it as it were. Are they qualified to tell me what I'm worth? That is a, that is a very different question.
• 2:08:42
  As Marco once said, how dare a journalist tell me what three stars is. I know what three stars is worth because I've been working in them and I've had the restaurant.
• 2:08:55
  But for a journalist who knows nothing about what I do for a living to come in and assess me and tell me whether it's worth three stars or not.
• 2:09:02
  Why would I want to be told by someone who knows much less than me about my job? How good I am at it?
• 2:09:08
  And I'm like, yeah, I understand, but isn't that an ego thing? You don't want to be told that by somebody because your ego is going to hurt, right?
• 2:09:17
  But at the same time, if I was to critique a, I don't know, an artist or whatever, how do you critique something that is very personal to somebody?
• 2:09:27
  It's the other thing, okay, what is my preference? So it was too, too much salt for needed. Cool down, I've got to taste that and work out whether you're right, whether you're wrong, et cetera, et cetera.
• 2:09:39
  But if 90% of the restaurant is ticking over well and only 10% there's a problem with you, you're doing all right. And that's where your ego should lie there.
• 2:09:48
  It's fine. We're doing fine because it's only 10% of people that don't get what we're doing or whatever.
• 2:09:55
  Now we live in an age where everybody is online, everybody's watching these Michelin movies, everybody's watching cooking programs, everybody's doing a podcast, everybody's doing a, you know,
• 2:10:11
  like a dinner demo at home and showing people how to cook. And now everybody is a critic, everybody is a Michelin guy critic now.
• 2:10:22
  So we're living in a world where they've got to be a lot more lenient because of that, unfortunately. And if they don't get restaurants with stars,
• 2:10:32
  does the guide have any purpose? If they're, if we are not creating new restaurants to put into the guide, what's the guide's purpose, you know.
• 2:10:44
  So one of the biggest problems being when they have a new guide coming out in a new country that doesn't already have one.
• 2:10:54
  Now you have to find restaurants to be on the guide. So now you're not, you're not checking randomly for five times a year.
• 2:11:03
  You are now seeking a restaurant to put on the list. And if you are seeking anything, you will find it.
• 2:11:10
  Does it matter what you're looking for? If you're looking for a problem, you will find it. If you're looking for a sign or whatever to do something.
• 2:11:19
  If you really want to do it enough, you will find the reason and it's exactly the same. They don't benefit. They won't benefit by not having anybody in there.
• 2:11:28
  They get sponsored by the tourism board as far as I'm aware. It's the only way it can work logically speaking. So they want that sponsor. They need it without it.
• 2:11:37
  For Michelin Guide. So is the integrity of the Michelin Guide being questioned by peers, by professionals, by journalists in hospitality because of these reasons?
• 2:11:50
  Yes. Is there importance any different? No, I think that importance is as relevant. I think even if you are purest and you're like, I don't care about Michelin.
• 2:12:03
  If you get a Michelin star, you ain't going to complain. I'm going to do a Marco. Give it back. I don't want to be in the guide anymore.
• 2:12:11
  That is horsemenu.
• 2:12:18
  That ain't going to happen. Most people will be like, oh, wow, I got a Michelin star. And will they use that to their advantage to pull guests into their restaurants?
• 2:12:27
  Because it very much does pull guests into your restaurants. They will. They will use it to their advantage.
• 2:12:33
  So I do believe that there is relevance in the Michelin Guide still. I just hope my purest heart in me hopes that they still conduct themselves the way that they used to in secret.
• 2:12:44
  But it isn't being sponsored by somebody. They aren't just randomly picking restaurants because they need people in the guide.
• 2:12:52
  They don't have the wrong people in charge who will be like, oh, because I fell out with you, because I got a phone call off some guy, oh, you're no longer going to be in this guide because, well, quite frankly, we don't like drama.
• 2:13:07
  Whatever that means. It shouldn't be about any. It could be you could have a chef with the worst drama in the world.
• 2:13:14
  If he is worthy of three stars, and that's what your guide is promoting, you have a distinct duty to say that.
• 2:13:21
  Right at the bottom. He's an asshole. Do whatever you've got to do. Don't visit this restaurant because he's an asshole. But the food, three stars.
• 2:13:29
  Cool. Do that, rather. Just be honest. Have a little bit of integrity. So if you're listening, Michelin, I hope you've got that integrity because it is very, very important for the survival of food critic guides, man, because it's all online now.
• 2:13:47
  Like I said, April, we could go out today. If we really wanted, we could get free meals in probably most of the restaurants in South Africa, just based on our credentials and what we do, et cetera, et cetera.
• 2:14:01
  We could sit there. We could critique every single one and have the best restaurant guide out in two weeks time flat printed whatever we wanted to do.
• 2:14:11
  And it would be worth a hell of a lot more than what is out there because we both have a background in food. We understand what we're looking for.
• 2:14:18
  We've worked in the process. We've done the process. We've been through the rigour morale and they have to understand that.
• 2:14:25
  So if I was those guys, I'd be pulling in some retired chefs. I'd be pulling in people who know that they're not going to be on the guide anymore. So don't have an interest in it.
• 2:14:36
  So therefore, the opinion is subjective and is worthy, et cetera, et cetera.
• 2:14:41
  I'd start with that because this journalism thing and this, you know, don't really know what an artichoke is, but our critique it isn't going to work for the future of restaurants, especially when so many people now are online and they know what food is.
• 2:14:58
  And they, like I said, they'll do a whole podcast and DJ at the same time is cooking something. I'm like, how are these guys doing this? You're like, they're amazing, you know, this content creation.
• 2:15:10
  So if it was an opinion on which one's more relevant at the moment, it would, I'd say, best chef awards for me. I'd say that one's more relevant.
• 2:15:20
  It isn't like World's 50 Best and Michelanguide in terms of the restaurant gets the accolade.
• 2:15:28
  This is about the person who is literally making that restaurant what it is. So that for me has a little bit more of an edge on Michelanguide at the moment for me.
• 2:15:43
  If you get on that list, it's very good to be on the list. You're being recognized for stuff that Michelanguide won't recognize you for, for example.
• 2:15:51
  You can be in a, I know Michelanguide started going to like little huts and little holes in the walls now and giving them one stars and big bullman and stuff like that.
• 2:16:01
  But it's necessary, man. So I am glad that they're doing it, but they're only doing it in Asia.
• 2:16:08
  Not doing it anywhere else. You know, you can go into it like a literal hole in the wall in the middle of Japan. It's got a Michelanguide star. I'd love to see that in London.
• 2:16:16
  I'd love to go to Camden Market and see that guy who does that falafel and the what you call it, the shwama.
• 2:16:22
  Because it's insane. It's so good. Same principle, but I doubt it will ever happen because the way that something is judged in Europe to versus how it's judged in Southeast Asia.
• 2:16:35
  Southeast Asia is completely different. And you go to the US, you eat at one star in the US, you eat at one star in the UK and you'll be like, I don't understand.
• 2:16:46
  How did you get to one star here, but you didn't get to one star there or a three star in the US in Washington. I'm not going to mention the restaurant.
• 2:16:53
  There's a particular restaurant in Washington. I went twice just on the outskirts of Washington.
• 2:17:00
  You're three stars. I don't understand. I've eaten at more one stars that have much better food than that particular restaurant.
• 2:17:17
  But it's again not too much information. It's been around a while and it's an institution and it's a name.
• 2:17:29
  So I feel like it's not always what it should be.
• 2:17:35
  Is there anything that we haven't talked about that we should have talked about?
• 2:17:40
  That's a good question. What do you want to talk about?
• 2:17:43
  I feel like we've gone around the world.
• 2:17:46
  Yeah, for sure.
• 2:17:49
  I think there's a new wave of kitchens coming.
• 2:17:55
  I think there's a new wave of chefs approaching food in a very, I'm going to say spiritual way.
• 2:18:08
  That is thanking whatever source it comes from for it, growing it, putting time, love and effort into the beginning stages, into the seed before it is sewn.
• 2:18:25
  And then the product of that love and that watering and that soil being looked after two plates, that farm to plate, but done in a very Michelinesque way, I guess.
• 2:18:40
  And calm serene kitchens with encouraging staff and encouraging principalities and well formed teams, well informed teams.
• 2:19:00
  We're starting to drop this if I teach them they might get to the success first.
• 2:19:08
  I think we're losing that and that makes my heart very, very happy because that's the only way we're going to achieve greatness in anything that we're doing as humanity anyway.
• 2:19:22
  But if you can collaborate, because collaboration is relationship, that's all it is.
• 2:19:27
  If you can collaborate and do things through connection and do things through gratitude rather than from an egotistical point of view, to be a verman, to be the three star chef, to be the one on the front of Forbes.
• 2:19:45
  And it's easy for someone to say they don't want that if it's already happened to them or whatever, but accolades will come, accolades will come anyway.
• 2:19:57
  If you sort your shit out and just send to yourself a little bit and don't get so stressed out about things that don't matter, because if I had word of advice for any, any up and coming chef, it's just remember you are not saving lives here.
• 2:20:11
  I used to say that all the time in my staff meetings, I'm like babes, we are not doing brain surgery.
• 2:20:17
  No, it ain't brain surgery.
• 2:20:18
  So like it's cool.
• 2:20:20
  And that doesn't mean slack off and be ridiculous, but let's also put it into perspective.
• 2:20:24
  Yeah, don't give yourself such a hard time, right? Allow yourself a little bit of grace.
• 2:20:29
  Mistakes will happen. Most of the best food on the planet has happened because of mistakes.
• 2:20:36
  Well, let yourself make a few mistakes, man. It's okay. The world isn't going to end.
• 2:20:41
  No one's going to die on the operating table.
• 2:20:43
  The only pressure that there should be in a kitchen is just getting the food to the customer in time.
• 2:20:51
  We get that and your perfection state from beginning of the prep to the point that it meets the plate.
• 2:20:59
  But you're never going to get there. You're never going to have a restaurant that's churning out a 99% track record with fear and doubting people's hearts.
• 2:21:10
  You're just not going to get there.
• 2:21:13
  And I've seen every single case now. Trust me.
• 2:21:17
  In my 40s, I've been in many different kitchens and I've seen every single type of kitchen there is.
• 2:21:26
  And the ones that thrive the best are the ones where everybody is smiling and collaborative and happy to be at work.
• 2:21:34
  And you don't really see kitchens of that level operating like that.
• 2:21:39
  So I'm looking forward to the next five to 10 years because I know it's coming. I know it's on the way.
• 2:21:45
  We've all decided we are no longer happy with that, you know, that brush, that very rude, very over disciplinary, very aggressive kitchen behavior anymore.
• 2:22:02
  It just doesn't suit what we're doing.
• 2:22:04
  Now imagine sending that food out when someone's literally just been holding back tears as they've played it up because they're getting told they're never going to amount to anything.
• 2:22:14
  They're a piece of shit. They're getting fired after this service because, you know, they didn't pick the chives correctly or whatever.
• 2:22:21
  Or the source went in the wrong area of the plate or that plate gets blown off the plaster smashed on the wall and this guy's going to keep his cool together and get it together properly this time to be sent to this guest.
• 2:22:33
  And then we eat that. We go into the restaurant. We sit there and eat that. I'm telling you there's an energy transfer in which isn't going to benefit you there.
• 2:22:41
  You're paying all that money to eat someone's negative energy.
• 2:22:44
  So I don't want that for the industry.
• 2:22:47
  I want food from happy places, man. It's soul food. You want food that's going to feed your soul, not because, you know, it's just like a lecker bowl of something delicious.
• 2:23:03
  But the principle that, you know, put it together, the reason behind the dish, the where it came from is rooted in gratitude, one, but also ran it in a little bit of peace, a little bit of love, you know.
• 2:23:20
  The nourishment, the whole point of eating is to nourish. So if you are not nourishing the soul of this person when this plate is going out, well, the body can't live without the soul and the soul can't be in the body without the body.
• 2:23:34
  So there's got to be, there's got to be a bit of giving there. I think that is the way that the modern chef is lean toward, I think. And that is a real cool thing to see.
• 2:23:47
  My last question for you, if your life was a postcard, what would the picture look like?
• 2:23:51
  What would the picture look like? Actually, it's not that much of a question. It would be me and Daniela on the back of a motorbike with a little hamper or basket or whatever, with a bottle of bubbles and a picnic.
• 2:24:13
  We're just off somewhere doing something, yeah. Big smiles. But our life at the moment is we're not stuck in one area of the world. We get to travel, we get to do things, we get to collaborate with other chefs and other wellness practitioners like the pair of us.
• 2:24:33
  We get to heal people on that journey and we get to nourish people. So, yeah, we're very much on that plane motorbike, whatever. But we're traveling, we're drinking bubbles and we're happy.
• 2:24:48
  Thank you very much. You're welcome. Thank you for having me.