Latest / Chef's PSA Podcast / Crafting Your Culinary Identity with Chef Anastacia Quiñones-Pittman EP. 148

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Crafting Your Culinary Identity with Chef Anastacia Quiñones-Pittman EP. 148 · Chef's PSA Podcast

0:00
Hello Chef's, this is Chef's PSA podcast.
0:02
I'm your host, Andre Notera. On today's episode, my guest is
0:05
Anastasia Quinones. She's a multiple time James
0:08
Beard Award nominee out of Dallas, TX.
0:11
She's a very good friend of mine.
0:12
I've known her for a long time. I've done dinners together with
0:15
her and I've cracked a lot of jokes with her.
0:17
We're going to have a great conversation talking about how
0:20
to create your own identity, staying true to your brand.
0:23
We're going to get into food trends a little bit and more.
0:26
Stay tuned. How have they changed over the
0:39
last 20 years? I think when I first started
0:44
cooking or like after I graduated, I think a lot of
0:49
people were really into, you know, like the neighborhood
0:53
Bistro. It was really popular,
0:55
especially in Dallas. When was this like?
0:57
When did you 2004, 2005? And you went CIA?
1:00
Yeah, yeah. New York.
1:01
Yes, and then I think when I came home, I was just like, you
1:05
know, you're you're taught to cook all this fancy, really
1:09
pretty delicate food. And I get home and I'm like, Oh
1:12
my God, it's the fanciest thing on this plate is lemon that's
1:16
covered with like a, a yellow she thing.
1:20
And you know, people were like, this is so cool.
1:22
You just squeeze it. There's no seeds.
1:24
That's so cool. And I'm like, Oh my gosh, like
1:26
this is this is it. This is what I have to look
1:28
forward to. But then when I look at that
1:30
look, when I look back on that now, I'm like, that's what
1:33
people want. They want the neighborhood
1:35
Bistro feel casual. They don't want, you know, a
1:40
$80.00 entree. I think there's a time and a
1:42
place for that, but I think people are getting gravitating
1:45
more towards towards those like restaurant Bistro vibes.
1:50
So when you when you first started cooking, what was the
1:52
vibe it was like? So I know you said Bistro, but
1:54
it was like very back then. We called it Continental.
1:56
Right. Continental, it was like
1:59
Mediterranean, French, Italian heavy influence and and food is
2:08
definitely involved. I was talking with someone the
2:10
other day and they kind of made a joke but it was like it was so
2:13
true. It was like the fucking truest
2:14
statement ever, like when we used to put parsley on the rim
2:18
back in the day. Yeah, today's version of parsley
2:20
on the rim is a white, is a white sauce broken with green
2:23
oil. That's today's Parsley on the
2:25
Rim you're gonna name. Something that I'm doing, I'm
2:27
like, wait a. Minute no, no, no, but that's
2:29
like today's parsley on the rim is is the white because we we we
2:33
there's this like we're all kind of you know that's that's what's
2:35
going to go viral. Parsley on the rim would have
2:37
went viral back in the day like. It would have totally.
2:39
Yeah. Yeah, I think we all did the
2:43
white sauce with the. I did with the green.
2:46
I still do it. I I have it in my back pocket
2:49
for sure. If I need some Instagram likes
2:52
I'm going to my white sauce with green dots in it, yeah.
2:54
If you want the the the shares and the likes and the repos,
2:58
it's it's definitely one to keep in your back pocket.
3:00
You don't also like fish dishes. I was on Instagram the other
3:03
day. It's funny because by the way, I
3:05
love me a good crudo and I love me a good ceviche.
3:08
I love it. I love it.
3:10
But I was on, I was on Instagram the other day because I'm, I've
3:13
been complaining a lot how all the food looks the same.
3:16
And that was on Instagram and I was scrolling on like the food
3:18
section, you know, you go to the explore page and you can see all
3:20
the food. It's like my food explorer.
3:23
My food explorer page was like, you know, ceviche, ceviche,
3:29
ceviche, duck, hot girl dance ceviche.
3:34
Like what? But it was the same thing, like
3:37
a crudo, or it was. It was like some sliced fish
3:39
with garnish with the occasional different type of protein and
3:43
then the occasional hot drug. Why is she on my feet?
3:46
I don't know. Instagram smart it's trying to
3:50
get. Me to look at that I don't want.
3:51
To look strange, to think like you, No.
3:53
No, it's trying to. It's trying to convince.
3:55
Oh, OK, yeah, OK. Yeah.
3:56
I mean, I think it's it's the back pocket dish.
4:00
I think it's something that can easily be manipulated to the
4:04
season to what's current to your cuisine.
4:09
And so I think people use that as kind of like their back
4:12
pocket dish, but it's and it's pretty and it's affordable and
4:15
it's delicious. There's so many types of flavor
4:17
combinations that work really well.
4:20
I. I know you're you love it.
4:22
I like, I'm not going to like I'm I'm knocking it, but I also
4:24
put it on every single menu. Yeah, right.
4:26
I I love, I love to eat it. If I go somewhere, it's like I I
4:28
do enjoy, you know, beautiful crudo.
4:32
I like ceviche. I mean, I love Mexican shrimp
4:36
cocktail. I know it's not the same thing,
4:37
but it's probably not like, like if I go to a Mexican restaurant,
4:40
like you have good Mexican shrimp cocktail.
4:41
Yeah, that's what I get. What do you get?
4:44
I don't eat at Mexican restaurant.
4:48
I don't. I mean, if, if I'm going to eat
4:49
at a Mexican restaurant, it's going to be like a total hole in
4:51
the wall, like the Pickles, which is like menudo on the
4:55
weekends. Do you?
4:58
Eat your menudo with tortillas or bread.
5:00
Tortillas. Some people do it with bread,
5:02
like where I'm from in El Paso, they do it with bread.
5:05
OK, I'm just saying. I'm just saying like not
5:08
everyone needs it with tortillas.
5:09
No, no, no, no, no, no. Because then then you get the
5:11
tortilla and you put the salt in the lime and you roll it up and
5:14
you dip and eat like you can't do that with bread.
5:16
Yeah, you do bolio bread and you toast it up and you dip it in
5:19
the menudo. I mean got again, you know,
5:21
it's. Just it's regional.
5:23
Yes, got again. But I think if I'm going to eat
5:25
Mexican food, it's, it's going to be at home, Yeah.
5:28
Or in my restaurant or like a super hole in the wall.
5:32
Like I just don't go out looking for high end Mexican, which is
5:36
super horrible of me to say because that's what I love and
5:40
it's my passion. But on a, on a sometimes I want
5:43
a night off from that. I do love to support those types
5:46
of restaurants, like, you know, the ones here locally.
5:49
Now that you know, I'm here in, in Austin, like who am I going
5:51
to go visit? Like, cuz there's so many really
5:53
great, you know, regional Mexican, not higher end, but you
5:57
know what I'm saying? They're not a hole in the walls,
6:01
but when I'm at home, like it's just not something that I really
6:04
gravitate towards. What is the difference between
6:07
what the Mexican food that you cook for yourself and your
6:09
family at home versus what you serve in the restaurant?
6:11
Like so that's question #1 and I have a follow up question for
6:15
that. So what's, what's the biggest
6:16
difference between what you're cooking at home for your loved
6:18
ones when you're going all out? Not like like here's an egg on
6:21
some yes, but like when you're going all out to make food for
6:25
your family at home versus when you're going all out in the
6:27
restaurant. I think at home I don't have a
6:30
dishwasher, like a physical person that stands over my dish
6:35
pit. Yeah.
6:35
So it's a one pot thing. So it's a ghiso, it's a sopa
6:39
sopita, something that I can throw in a pot and braise it.
6:43
Braise it or caravasitas or conchitas, something super fast
6:48
or caravasala. Yeah.
6:50
But at home it's different. Like, I really want people to
6:53
understand that the food in the restaurants that you eat in
6:57
Mexico are they're not. It's not Tex Mex.
7:04
And Tex Mex has its own space, I think.
7:06
And I love, you know, I crave Tex Mex.
7:07
I love Tex Mex, but it's very different.
7:09
And so I try to make it very different so that there's no
7:13
confusion as to what I do and what we eat at a Tex Mex
7:17
restaurant. So you're you're cooking Mexican
7:19
food? If you want to call it that.
7:22
I'm Mexican and I use Mexican ingredients, but I don't know
7:25
that I would call it authentic. I know you didn't say that, but
7:27
I think a lot of people think because I make a mole or because
7:30
I make a guiso or a Taco that it's like authentic Mexican
7:34
food. But I don't like to call it that
7:37
and I don't like to call it my interpretation.
7:39
It's just food that I like to make that I think tastes good
7:43
that happens to be seasonal and sometimes local.
7:47
When you when people go out to eat in Mexico, they don't say,
7:50
you know, where's the best Mexican food tonight?
7:52
Let's go get Mexican food. They just say, I want to go to a
7:55
restaurant, I want to go eat. The chef just happens to be
7:57
Mexican and he happens to use Mexican ingredients.
7:59
And I think, I think that's just the food that I like to cook.
8:03
But there's some familiarity, right?
8:04
There's some familiarity in the cooking technique.
8:06
Or I'm just kind of making this up like you, you know, that
8:10
there's going to be a maybe there's a mullet, might not be
8:13
the mullet that you're used to. There's going to be a mullet
8:15
where there might be something with tortillas or you know, I
8:19
guess idea or something. Yeah.
8:20
I think for me it's I, it's important to say that I want to
8:23
represent Mexican technique and Mexican ingredients, but it
8:29
doesn't have to be authentic. Yeah, I think that's the best
8:31
way to describe. It it's authentic to you.
8:35
Sometimes. Like in when I say it's
8:38
authentic to you, like is it authentic to you in terms of
8:40
like this is what I would make at home or not?
8:43
At the restaurant, No, not at the restaurant.
8:46
I think at the restaurant it's important for people to see this
8:51
type of cuisine in an elevated state as and it doesn't, you
8:55
know, it doesn't have to be straight food and it doesn't
8:56
have to be dirt cheap. You don't serve crudos at home.
9:02
No, my husband for me. Like that's a good question.
9:03
Why don't you serve? Kudos at home.
9:05
Why don't you serve? Where's your Cibich?
9:06
At home. No, I don't.
9:07
I don't. You know, with our busy
9:10
lifestyles and our tiny kitchen and I don't have a dishwasher.
9:13
Yeah. No, there's no kudos at home.
9:16
Yeah, You know, that's funny. I like when I cook because I
9:20
don't cook a lot of like, I didn't grow up cooking Mexican
9:22
food, you know? Same.
9:23
Yeah, when I say I mean at home I did, but I I mean in the
9:27
kitchen, like a professional restaurant.
9:28
I was cooking continental cuisine, European, Italian,
9:31
whatever right. I was getting.
9:33
I always joke around, say I was Mexican before, like it was too
9:36
late. Yeah, you know what I mean?
9:38
Like when when Mexican food started becoming cool, I was
9:40
like, yeah fuck, I've already invested 25 years and.
9:42
Yeah, we've had that conversation before.
9:45
And it's like it would. Have been really good at.
9:46
That that would have been I just it was like, but it was like it
9:49
was kind of frowned upon. The only people that were really
9:51
cooking Mexican food at the time was like Rick Bayless.
9:54
We're white guys. Yeah, yeah.
9:55
So like it was Rick Bayless. And I'm trying to think who else
9:57
was really doing Mexican food in the US?
10:00
Mark Miller, Stephen Pyles, Stephen Pyles.
10:03
So all these, I mean, it was Mexican.
10:05
It was like their version. Of it Southern, yeah.
10:07
I think Rick Bayless is probably the most traditional Mexican,
10:11
but it's like there wasn't a lot of it.
10:13
So for me, I just gravitated towards this because I didn't
10:16
feel like I had like my culture had a voice in the haute cuisine
10:21
world, Right. Sure.
10:22
So I was cooking Italian, this, that, the other.
10:24
And then when I finally, when it finally like, OK, now you could
10:27
really cook your Mexican food. I could do what I want.
10:29
It's like, well, I'm already kind of winding down my career.
10:32
Yeah, like there's. And I I also feel like if I
10:34
would have gone that route, people would like to sucker.
10:37
Back to your like statement or question about, like how it's
10:39
changed in 2020 years. Look at us now.
10:42
Yeah. I mean, look how many talented
10:43
Latino chefs there are, you know, not just winning awards,
10:47
like that's great, but like, baking, breaking barriers and,
10:50
you know, serving things that you wouldn't have seen 20 years
10:53
ago on a minute. You wouldn't have seen three
10:55
different types of mole. You wouldn't have seen
10:57
Niximoli's corn tortillas or sopas or tetelas or Mancha
11:02
mantelas. Like, those things are now
11:04
everyday words for some Americans, whereas 20 years ago,
11:08
like you said, it was almost frowned upon to be cooking this
11:10
type of cuisine and now it's like, look at us now.
11:13
I wouldn't see what was frowned upon.
11:14
It was like they just wouldn't take you serious.
11:16
And, you know, we were. We were in Dallas roughly at the
11:20
same time. Yeah.
11:20
Like when I was there, you were still like, you were doing your
11:23
thing. I was doing my thing, but I
11:25
wasn't doing Mexican food. No, neither was I.
11:27
Right. Neither were you and.
11:29
Aki tuna nachos. So was I.
11:31
Well, we were all doing Aki tuna nachos with the grandma.
11:35
Yeah, yeah, Avocado, avocado. Yeah, yeah.
11:40
But it's it's just wild to see how today chefs can really
11:44
express themselves with Mexicans.
11:45
I love it. I love it.
11:47
I love it. Like I mean with the guys that
11:48
Michley are doing or you know, Gabe's doing these pop ups and.
11:52
Oh my God, that freaking pop up that he did.
11:55
It was stupid. I mean, it was just like every
11:59
single dish out, like knocked it out the park.
12:02
It was, it was sensational. Like I'm super proud of what
12:05
he's doing. And yeah, and the food.
12:07
And he's got a he's, it's for a good cause, like.
12:08
No, yeah. That he's doing.
12:10
Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was, it was excellent.
12:12
It was. It was really, really good.
12:13
Do you think going going back to when we were coming up in the
12:16
kitchen, you also saw it was kind of frowned upon to like
12:19
there was, there's a lot of types of cuisine now that you
12:21
could express yourself through them back then as like people
12:25
were going to kind of look at you with two heads if you were
12:27
going to cook anything. True, truly authentic.
12:30
And I think what's great about today's industry, the industry
12:33
today is that not only could you be very authentic, but you could
12:36
also be very expressive. Like kind of like what you're
12:38
talking about. Like it's not authentic, but
12:39
it's, it's you, it's your food and it's, and you're expressing
12:43
yourself and this is what you want to do.
12:44
And I don't think, I don't think there's any judgement behind
12:47
that now. Like I don't think anyone's
12:49
saying, oh, you're not cooking French.
12:51
I don't think I've heard that in 10 years.
12:52
No, I think a lot, we owe a lot to social media and travel.
12:57
I think a lot of people are getting outside of just like
13:03
going to Paris and going to Mexico.
13:05
I think a lot of people are traveling more.
13:06
And I think social media is really promoting, you know,
13:10
different worldly cuisines and it's helping people, people open
13:13
their eyes to other things and people just taking risks,
13:16
honestly, landlords taking risks on young entrepreneurs that want
13:21
to put their voice on something and really, really taking risks
13:25
and helping everybody promote different types of cuisines.
13:28
What was like the biggest thing with kitchen culture wise that
13:32
you saw when you first started cooking that's different today
13:38
besides the obvious? Boys, I think I think I had to
13:43
be really hard in the beginning because of the environment that
13:47
I was kind of raised in. You went.
13:49
You went straight to San Francisco.
13:50
Right. I went yeah, I graduated in
13:52
January 05 and I moved in February of 05.
13:56
I drove there was $700 in my pocket across the country to to
14:01
I lived in Santa Cruz with my roommates parents for a little
14:04
bit and then. That's crazy.
14:06
You drove. Yeah, we drove from Santa Cruz
14:08
to San Francisco while I was looking for jobs in an SUV.
14:11
Who has an SUV and with Texas plates in San Francisco.
14:15
So I'm like driving up these fucking hills.
14:17
I can't see the, the tip of my car and I'm like freaking out.
14:21
I'm 25 years old. It's 24 at the time, 24 years
14:24
old in a Ford Expedition. Like, what am I?
14:27
What did I do? What am I doing?
14:28
There's no parking anywhere in Dallas, girl.
14:30
Like, where's valet? Where's parking lots?
14:33
Nothing. But it was, I mean it, I, I say
14:36
I grew up in Dallas, but I was raised in San Francisco in
14:39
California because I learned about, you know, seasonal
14:43
cuisine. There's no real seasons in
14:45
Dallas when it comes to produce at that time.
14:49
And I grew up learning about organic and local produce.
14:52
And it was such a huge, it, it played such a huge role in what
14:56
made me want to become a chef. But the boys, it was really the
15:01
boys that were. That has changed a lot.
15:06
Like women just were not. Were not.
15:09
How many females were in the kitchen?
15:10
When you I was the first line cook, I was the only line cook
15:14
at the time. At this particular restaurant, I
15:17
was on pantry with two other females, but they didn't make it
15:21
up to the line. When I finally made it up to the
15:23
line, it was it was difficult. I'll never forget at this
15:30
restaurant, the the chef was not the nicest, but he didn't really
15:36
give me a lot of crap. He just didn't want me to move
15:39
up. And so the it's a French brigade
15:41
system. And so you have your hot abs and
15:43
then you have your entrementier for fish and then you have fish
15:45
and then you have your entrementier for meat.
15:48
I made it all the way up to entrementier for meat, but I
15:50
could never get on the meat station.
15:52
And it was weeks and months and I'm like, man, what's going on?
15:55
So I did an event with the chef and she asked me, she's like, So
15:58
what do you, you know, what do you do there?
15:59
What do you, what do you like doing?
16:00
And I said, you know, I really want to work meet station, but
16:03
you know, chef was just he won't put me on the on the line.
16:05
I, I don't, I don't know why we got back from the event.
16:09
And I come into work the next day and I go to look at the
16:12
schedule and he's standing right next to me and I, my eyes just
16:16
were like wide open. I'm like, oh shit, it's in red,
16:19
which means I'm on me. So I'm guessing like the chef
16:22
talked to him and he not just me.
16:25
And he's like, don't fuck this up.
16:26
And I was like, oh man, did you fuck it up?
16:29
I didn't, I didn't. But I would not have had to had
16:33
that conversation or that interaction today, you know,
16:38
because his words exactly were no female chef or no female cook
16:42
has ever successfully worked that station.
16:45
Well, that had nothing to do with me, you know.
16:49
And so when I think the chef mentioned something, I mean,
16:52
obviously there was some sort of transaction or, you know, and,
16:56
and it was fine and everything was OK, but having to and other
17:00
things, I mean, so many other things like bending over in the
17:03
walk in, God forbid you bend over in the walk in, things like
17:08
that. They just don't happen, not in
17:10
my kitchens. And the tolerance for it, you
17:14
know? The kitchens were so different
17:16
back then and the rules were different.
17:19
And I, you know, we were probably cooking at the same
17:22
time. I think I'm about, I'm about 5
17:25
or 10 years ahead of you because I started cooking in 95.
17:28
And I remember one of the chefs that I worked under wouldn't
17:32
hire females and he had a palsy. Like we just don't like, we
17:36
don't want those problems. That that, that was the thing
17:38
that's like, we just don't want those problems.
17:39
We're so problematic. No, but he like he didn't know
17:43
what he was trying to say is not those that they brought is the
17:45
boy and girl. He didn't want to deal with boys
17:49
and girls working to commingling and Coed.
17:51
Like he's like, no, it doesn't work.
17:53
He's like because the boys end up and he's like, Nope, I just
17:55
don't want to deal with it. That's crazy.
17:57
No girls in the kitchen and and no one batted an eye.
18:00
You know what I mean? Like it was like, yeah, OK,
18:01
that's what chef says. That's the way it is.
18:03
No, no one, no one thought twice.
18:05
I remember I was on a, on the board of the culinary school in
18:10
Dallas and I remember I had to go teach or something like that,
18:13
like do a presentation or whatever, right?
18:17
And I remember I was walking through the halls 'cause when I
18:19
went to culinary school, like let's just say I'm making the
18:21
number up, but let's just say 60 people were graduating.
18:23
It was like 55 boys and five girls when I went to culinary
18:28
school like that was. Very similar to.
18:31
That was the ratio. But I remember when I went to
18:34
the culinary school and this is about 2007 to 2010, I remember
18:39
looking at it like gradually the, the ratio of girls to boys
18:43
was changing. And I remember looking at that.
18:46
And I remember going back to my chefs.
18:47
I'm in Dallas at the time. And I remember going back
18:51
because I had, I think I had like 3 females in the kitchen,
18:53
two and three boys. Like I had a pretty, I was, I
18:56
was so progressive. I was so progressive back then.
18:59
And I remember going back and telling my team, I said watch
19:02
because it takes time. Yeah, I said in about 10 years,
19:06
you're going to have so many female executive chefs in about
19:09
10, they have to graduate, they have to work their way up.
19:11
And then before you know it, you're going to have so many
19:13
female exec chefs. So that was my prediction, like
19:15
back then. Yeah.
19:16
And I, and I think you see it today, like I think it's, I
19:19
don't want to say it's 5050, but it's much more balanced.
19:22
It's it's a there's a it's about 5050 in my kitchen.
19:24
Yeah. Yeah.
19:26
And it's been that way for a very long time.
19:28
Yeah. And it's just, it's not even
19:29
about sex or age. Are you qualified?
19:32
Yeah. Can you do this job?
19:34
That's that's all I care about. Can you take direction?
19:36
And even if you can't cook, let me show you how to cook.
19:38
Can you take direction? That's to me is almost more
19:41
important. Are you going to be able to
19:43
retain the information and take direction without like having an
19:47
ego or a chip on your shoulder? That's almost more important to
19:51
me than knowledge. Yeah, what?
19:53
When you're looking for good cooks on your team, what are you
19:56
looking for? Humility.
19:57
Yeah. I need you to be humble, you
19:59
know, there's no egos in my kitchen or in my staff.
20:02
Even my staff, my future business partners and I, we
20:09
consult each other on everything. 1 is in charge of
20:11
the bar, 1 is in charge in front of the house.
20:13
I'm obviously in charge of the kitchen.
20:15
But I don't make decisions without their approval.
20:18
And I don't really need their approval.
20:19
I just need their blessing, we call it.
20:22
And you know, they both do the same.
20:24
And I think that's why we work so well together because we
20:26
don't, we don't have egos. We respect each other's
20:30
decisions. We don't always agree, but you
20:32
know, we come to the table with all of our, you know, decisions,
20:36
all of our emotions, all of our feelings and it stays there and
20:40
we get up from the table, we walk away and you know, we hug
20:43
it out or we shake hands and continue on on about our day.
20:48
But I think that's really important.
20:50
It's is know how to be humbled because you're going to get
20:53
humbled. You know, when you when we have
20:56
a 6700 cover day and you come in high on your horse, you're going
21:02
to get knocked down. Just be humble because it's
21:05
going to happen, you know? The best chefs fumble.
21:08
Yeah, right. Like I've seen some of the best
21:10
chefs, the the most successful, the ones that are on TV, the
21:13
ones that are celebrities, like they they crumble too.
21:16
Yeah. Like it happens to the best I've
21:18
seen it happen. And when I haven't seen it
21:20
happen, I know someone who worked for them that saw it
21:22
happen. Yeah.
21:22
Or it's about that, Yeah, You know, just be able to say like,
21:26
my bad, I fucked up. You know, I do it all the time
21:29
when I'm on Expo like. What do you, what do you do with
21:31
like, cuz I think about this often and actually it's a
21:34
problem that I, I guarantee you if I stepped into a kitchen
21:37
today, I would have this problem.
21:38
I'd be like burning the steak, like what I do here.
21:40
How do I baste it again? How do you deal with, Because we
21:44
all face it as when you're the executive chef or you're the
21:47
chef to cuisine or, you know, chef owner, you get rusty and
21:51
you haven't worked the line in a while.
21:52
And then like something happens and you got to jump in and then
21:55
you make a mistake and the whole team sees you do something
21:57
stupid. Yeah.
21:58
How do you correct that? I mean, when was the last time
22:00
that happened you? Make fun of it, you know, you're
22:01
you stay humble. Like, oh shit, my bad guys.
22:04
Nobody saw that. Or turn the cameras off or, you
22:07
know, make fun of it. It's it's kind of happened.
22:09
Yeah. You know, I don't take myself
22:11
too seriously when I'm on the line.
22:12
And we play music and we joke around.
22:15
And once it's time to be serious, we turn the Alexa down
22:17
and we focus and lock in. But you know, I think if you can
22:20
make fun of yourself and not take yourself too serious, no,
22:25
no, no one cares. We all make mistakes.
22:27
No. And has it ever gotten to the
22:29
point where you have someone on the team that is maybe toxic And
22:35
like they're. It's funny.
22:37
People talk a lot about toxic chefs.
22:39
I think there's just as many toxic cooks.
22:41
Yeah. And maybe a little bit more.
22:43
Yeah, maybe a little bit more because that one toxic cook and
22:46
ruin a whole. Ruin the entire I just had a
22:48
conversation with my best friend who's also a chef and owner for
22:51
her own restaurant and she had some issues as well with that.
22:56
I'm super fortunate that I don't interview the candidates for the
23:01
cooks. I make.
23:02
My sous chefs do it because they spend more time with them on the
23:05
line than I ever will. So it's important for them to
23:08
kind of bet them out for me. Once they pass them, then
23:11
they'll get to me. And for me, it's just like,
23:14
you're nice, you're sweet, let's go.
23:16
You know, are you are you're cheerful and I'll teach you
23:18
whatever you need to know. You don't have any experience.
23:20
No worries. You're 75 and you want to make
23:22
salads. Let's go.
23:24
But for me, it's important for for them to interview them
23:27
because they can they can sniff it out pretty well.
23:30
And you know, I'm fortunate that most of my staff has been there
23:32
for two years plus. So we haven't had, we haven't
23:35
had much of that. How do you, how do you like, I
23:40
know we've talked about this and, and we were kind of going
23:42
down this path a little bit earlier, but how do you define
23:45
like your own style to so it's unique to you and find your own
23:50
creative voice in your food And how have you done that?
23:54
Because I I. Oh, I mean that's the question I
23:56
should ask you. No, no, but I, I see it like if
23:58
I see some food, I'll say that's, that's, that's AQ's
24:00
food. I, I know your food like I
24:02
could, I, I know it like it's, it's has your thumbprint on.
24:05
It yeah, I don't, I don't know. I, I would like to say that I'm
24:08
still trying to figure that out 20 years later because it's
24:12
always changing. A lot of times it's from all,
24:17
most of the time it's seasonality.
24:19
So like right now we're coming up on strawberry season Monday.
24:21
We can go pick strawberries at one of my favorite farms and I'm
24:25
super excited about it. What?
24:26
What's your favorite farm for strawberries, by the way?
24:27
Damascus, the farm. They're good.
24:29
Mm Hmm. They're the best.
24:31
I mean, they're amazing. I I might need some soon.
24:33
So we got. 40 counts and it was back breaking work, but I didn't
24:36
do it. I brought a lot of young people
24:37
with me, so they get. I get that.
24:42
That one right there, don't forget that.
24:43
The back, that one, No, they love it.
24:46
It's a field trip for everybody and they get to see like where
24:48
their food comes from. Some of these people, you know,
24:51
they're city kids. They they've never seen a
24:54
strawberry patch. So my favorite time of the year
24:57
and we go out, we pick strawberries and I look back at
25:00
the dishes that I did last year and try to figure out how can I
25:03
evolve this dish? Is it an ingredient?
25:05
Is it the plating? Is it the technique?
25:08
What can I do? It's really just sitting down
25:10
and trying to figure it out. You know, sometimes it's
25:13
cookbooks. Some like, I still love culinary
25:16
artistry. Like I got that when I was in
25:17
San Francisco. And it's after a while you start
25:20
to kind of think like it. So you have to take a step back
25:23
and figure it out on your own. But like the Matrix, I love the
25:26
matrix. It's such an intense, like
25:29
cerebral book, but it really helps you kind of figure out
25:33
flavor profiles. I.
25:35
Don't know the matrix. It's so it tells you the
25:38
chemical composition of an ingredient, like for example,
25:41
the strawberry. And then it'll tell you why a
25:43
strawberry pairs really well with mint and it'll give you the
25:46
chemical composition of mint and why these things match and they
25:50
go well together. And then it'll give you like 20
25:51
ingredients and then that you can compose a dish.
25:55
Now, not everybody can do that. If you have some experience with
25:58
some of these ingredients and you can compose a dish pretty
26:00
quickly. So I'll I'll use all of those
26:04
kind of techniques. It's interesting how food
26:07
evolves because plating trends evolve very quickly like last
26:11
year doesn't look like this year no, very quickly.
26:13
Sometimes last week doesn't look like this week.
26:15
Plating trends evolve fast. Flavor trends evolve a little
26:19
slower, yes, right. Cooking trends evolve extremely
26:23
slow, meaning like the newest thing we got was like a
26:27
circulator. Like we haven't, we have and I.
26:30
Just started doing that like 2 years ago, right?
26:33
I was super nervous very like how do you do it?
26:37
Yeah, yeah, it's we just started doing it.
26:39
So yeah, no, I totally. Agree.
26:40
So cooking moves slowly, flavor moves a little faster, plating
26:45
moves very fast, right? Yeah.
26:47
But individual style, sometimes you see that like I could go
26:51
back and look at my career of food and it's like it it, it
26:54
definitely doesn't look the same over the last. 20 years and I
26:56
don't think it should, you know, I think you should.
27:00
Someone told me a very long time ago in order to stay, be
27:04
successful, you have to be in a constant state of development.
27:07
And that has stuck with me for a very long time.
27:09
And right now, in order to stay relevant, you have to be in
27:12
constant state of development. So for me personally, it's
27:16
important to constantly be developing the next dish for
27:20
myself, not to compete with anything or anybody or the
27:24
trends. I don't know that I ever want to
27:27
really be on top of those trends, but I want to be better
27:30
than the season chef I was last season, you know, if that makes
27:33
sense. Yeah, yeah, I mean, your food's
27:35
great. I mean, I I've always been a
27:37
fat. I've loved cooking with you too.
27:39
Like when we did a dinner together.
27:41
It's like some I I love, I love cooking and talking shit and.
27:45
It was so funny though too, because you were like, what am I
27:49
doing? Like you were holding a baby for
27:50
the first time. Am I doing this right?
27:52
And it's like, bro, you've been cooking for so long.
27:54
What are you talking about? What was I just?
27:56
So nervous like what do I do with these?
27:59
With these hands like. This.
28:01
It was so funny and everybody was giving me.
28:03
That was a fun dinner. We need to do that.
28:05
I don't. Think I was that nervous?
28:06
No, I'm. I'm you're probably exact.
28:08
It's like, I just, I was like, you know, what it was, is I'm,
28:12
I'm used to work in a certain way.
28:13
And then when I sometimes when I get put in a different kitchen,
28:15
it's like, how do you work here? I keep thinking about trying to
28:19
adapt to to and. Nobody cares like there was the
28:22
most humblest, like easygoing chefs ever.
28:26
It was it was good dinner, it. Was so fun.
28:29
It was so so. Fun.
28:29
I feel like we've done a lot of dinners, but we always talk a
28:33
lot of shit. I feel like.
28:35
I feel like I never remember once you got mad at me because I
28:38
brought up religion at it. I won't say that, but we got it.
28:42
And you're like, oh, yeah, You're like, why would you break
28:45
that up? Oh.
28:45
My God, we were on a rooftop patio, like trying to have a
28:49
good time. And I'm like, and then you
28:51
laugh. You left me there.
28:53
I stirred the pot. I was like.
28:54
What is happening? Why am I here?
28:57
I was like, I was so pissed off at you.
28:59
He's a good guy though. Yeah, he is.
29:01
You know, it's funny, like I think of all the stupid shit
29:04
that like we probably this for people listening this podcast is
29:08
extremely tame right now. I'm just telling you, like the
29:11
shit that we talk, we talk mad shit, but.
29:15
I I respect I. Respect it you're.
29:17
Don't leave the. Text, You were on my You were on
29:19
my first show. I was.
29:21
You were on my last that it's not.
29:23
That during COVID. Yeah, it was.
29:25
That was during COVID. Yeah, you were on the last and
29:26
we were talking business and it was a very serious interview.
29:30
It was a very serious interview. Yeah, I remember that.
29:32
Yeah. Yeah.
29:34
It's like it's a serious time. It was a serious time.
29:36
Scary. Unknown, you know.
29:38
Yeah, yeah. I mean, I look at how far that
29:42
was like, what, five years ago? It feels like yesterday.
29:44
Yeah, it was five years ago, yeah.
29:47
We learned so. 2020 was like last.
29:49
Year what was interesting about COVID for me because I was still
29:52
a chef, I remember thinking like you're still.
29:55
A chef. You're right, I am still a chef,
29:56
but today you know what I worked?
29:58
You know what I worked on all day today?
30:00
Ads. Oh, nice.
30:01
Like like ad creative. So it's like when you say you're
30:04
still a chef, it's like, I know, but like I'm not working on chef
30:07
stuff that much. Like the stuff that I work on
30:09
day-to-day is not, it's not necessarily chef stuff, but I
30:12
remember during COVID, I remember being on the phone with
30:15
one of my chef friends who's extremely talented, like, and I
30:20
remember we were like an award list had just come out.
30:22
Like I don't know if it was food and wine or Bon Appetit's best
30:24
new whatever. And I remember thinking like, it
30:27
doesn't matter. All those restaurants are
30:28
closing. Like, like none of them are open
30:30
anymore. And I, and I, I promise you,
30:33
like no one is looking at that. Like I remember I was like
30:35
really nervous at the time. I was like it.
30:39
It put into perspective like I could give a fuck about the
30:42
awards. Like I just want to be open.
30:44
Yeah, I just want to have business.
30:45
I want my staff to have a job, right.
30:47
That was the saddest part. It was the post came up recently
30:52
where we had to say goodbye to everybody.
30:56
I mean, we had a meeting and we brought 68 people into the
30:59
restaurant and we had to tell them to go home and we didn't
31:02
know when they could come back. It was terrifying.
31:05
And we served family meal because we had all this food.
31:08
I mean, we're ramping up for a busy week.
31:10
I think it, it was after Valentine's was right right
31:14
before spring. So it was like a nice weather.
31:16
You know, it was beautiful. We had all this food.
31:19
We're ready for a patio season. What were we going to do with
31:22
all this food? So we just decided we're going
31:24
to make it. We're just going to make family
31:26
mail and we'll we'll feed everybody until they stop coming
31:29
or until they get sick. And so we had to go boxes and
31:33
after a while then to go boxes skyrocket.
31:35
I don't know if you remember that but it went from like 40 to
31:38
50 bucks a case A. 120 everyone had QR codes.
31:41
And nobody had to go boxes. That's right.
31:43
So then we had to tell our stuff.
31:44
Bring your Tupperware, bring your Ziploc bags.
31:47
And families would line up to get family mail once a day
31:50
because they couldn't either afford to go to the grocery
31:52
store or they didn't. They were too scared to go to
31:54
the grocery store. I mean crazy, crazy, crazy
31:57
times. It was it was absolutely when we
31:59
were shutting down, we gave away like all the food is like, what
32:02
are we going to do with it? Like just take it, just take it
32:04
like let everyone take it every like people didn't know where
32:08
the next meal. Like we none of us knew, none of
32:11
us knew what was going to happen next.
32:12
I just remember like so many restaurants are closing.
32:15
Like I remember we had these these group calls that were
32:19
organized by all these chefs and like, what are we going to do?
32:21
And everyone's panicking and everyone came together and thank
32:24
God we're past that. But it was a really interesting
32:28
time. And I could tell you during that
32:29
time, there wasn't a food trend that mattered.
32:32
Nothing mattered. Surviving matter.
32:35
Yeah, no, no, no one cared if your nasturtium was placed
32:37
perfectly on the duck, you know what I mean?
32:39
Like no one. Cared.
32:40
Yeah, I missed it. I remember like slapping rice
32:43
and beans into it to go and like just pushing them out because we
32:46
were we were busy. I was essential as fuck.
32:49
Like I had AT shirt that said essential as fuck because I
32:52
didn't get to stay at home and like chill and like, what was it
32:58
Minimize the curve? I had to work cuz I, we had to
33:01
feed people and we, we were, I mean, very well supported by our
33:05
community, like our, our neighborhood really, really
33:07
supported. Us I feel like Dallas busy
33:08
Dallas bounced back pretty quick compared to others.
33:10
Well, a lot of people didn't close.
33:12
Yeah, Cuz I remember like in Austin, you could you could lay
33:15
down like on Cesar Chavez in the middle of the road.
33:18
There was no one. Yeah, there was like the roads
33:20
were empty. Cuz I was still going to work
33:22
every day. Yeah.
33:23
And I remember because I was doing that show and I remember
33:26
going to interview you in Dallas and I remember, you know, I
33:28
interviewed Tiffany, I think at the same time, not not together,
33:31
but the same day. It was part of the the lineup
33:34
and I was at what does she have in the the smaller one inside
33:41
the? Oh, the chicken.
33:43
Yes, roots, Roots, Yeah. So I went to go eat at Roots at
33:47
Tiffany Dairy's place and. And we were talking, and I just
33:50
remember, like, why don't wear masks?
33:52
You're like, what's going on? The rules are different.
33:53
And, like, now they're like, this is Dallas.
33:55
No one gives a shit. Yeah, well.
33:56
North Texas, yeah, Dallas people were a little bit more
33:59
conservative about it, but up north, north.
34:02
Texas, but the city was wide open, way more alive than
34:04
Austin. Yeah.
34:05
Like, I feel like certain cities opened up quicker, certain
34:09
restaurants got to come back to life quicker.
34:11
And then now it's almost like you don't, you don't see it
34:13
anymore. Like as you go to a restaurant,
34:15
you there's there's still some like lingering arbitrage that
34:21
we're dealing with in terms of, of the recovery of cooks.
34:25
Because that was probably the biggest thing that we got hit
34:27
with is like all the cooks went everywhere.
34:29
And then when it was time to reopen, it's like, where do we
34:31
go? You have any job you want is
34:33
open. Yeah.
34:34
Go anywhere. Yeah, go anywhere.
34:36
And then they're like, oh, I'll come back if you give me.
34:39
Can I get $3 more? No.
34:41
Well, they said they'll give me four.
34:42
Yeah. OK.
34:42
I'll give you 4. At least they'll give me 5.
34:44
We didn't, you know, I didn't, I didn't have that experience.
34:46
We just like I said, we were super lucky to have staff that
34:51
is super loyal to us and they stuck through it and, and you
34:55
know, a good majority of our staff is still with us.
34:58
If if you're coming into the industry now because you've
35:01
seen, you know, the decade that you started and then there was
35:05
the decade that we just finished and now we're in this new decade
35:08
in the twenty 20s. And obviously kitchen culture
35:11
has changed, food has changed. And coming in at each of those
35:16
three points in time, you would need different, I don't want to
35:20
say skills, but almost like a different mindset.
35:23
Yeah. Coming in to be to be a line
35:25
cook at all three of those eras. If you're coming in as a cook in
35:28
2025 right out of culinary school, what do you need to
35:32
know? What's that advice that you're
35:33
giving to that young cook? I think it's more competitive
35:36
now than it's ever been. I think I think everybody wants
35:40
to be the next best, best thing, the the next hottest chef.
35:43
And, you know, I have the awards to blame for that.
35:46
You know, good and bad out of those awards are going to be
35:50
some really talented chefs that are come out of it and it's
35:54
going to weed out the bad ones. But I think keep your head down,
35:57
keep your head down and just keep working because you're not
36:00
going to get it the first year, you're not going to get it the
36:02
second year. You might not even get it the
36:04
fifth year, but find yourself a chef that's going to give you
36:09
the knowledge and that's not going to hold their cards close
36:12
to their chest and tell you whatever you want to learn
36:15
about, you know. And that was one thing that I
36:17
didn't really have coming up in the game.
36:19
Like I didn't have a chef that I can come to and say, you know,
36:22
why did you do that or why did? And there was always like a
36:25
retort, like a smart ass comment or like because I'm the chef.
36:28
Yeah, because I do whatever the fuck I want because my name, you
36:31
see this name when you have your name here, you can do whatever
36:33
the fuck you want. Until then, this is how we're
36:36
gonna do it. And it's like, I just, you just
36:38
wanted to know just. Wanted to know why you put a
36:39
little lemon wanted? To know what your technique on
36:42
Brunois was like, My bad. But yeah, find yourself a chef.
36:47
That's gonna give you the knowledge and take a little bit
36:50
of time of their day to give that to you.
36:53
Like it's anytime I'm making something in the kitchen and
36:55
someone comes up to me like I love that because they want to
36:58
absorb and they want to soak it up.
37:00
And it's important for us as chefs like to teach the new
37:04
class and not just be this is mine does look what I did.
37:08
You know, I think that's the best advice is just go with the
37:14
kitchen or the chef where you think you're going to learn
37:17
something, not because you're the best in the kitchen or, you
37:19
know, they have all these fancy awards because it's probably not
37:22
going to be that restaurant, you know?
37:25
And something else that I think people should consider is a lot
37:27
of times when you go to those restaurants that have a lot of
37:29
awards, you might have no contact with the chef.
37:34
Like sometimes it's better to go into a place where you may have
37:38
fewer awards, but the chef's there with you.
37:41
They're going to guide you and they're going to coach you and
37:43
mentor you because that's going to be way more valuable than you
37:48
know than anything else, right? Yeah.
37:51
I agree. What else would you tell a young
37:52
cook? 19 years old, right?
37:54
Graduating from CIA today? What?
37:55
What else do they? Need to do 19 OH.
37:57
My, I don't know. How old are you when you
37:59
graduate from CIA? 2024?
38:01
OK, so you're 24, you're graduating from CIA.
38:03
Where do you tell them to go work?
38:06
Don't go home. Yeah, I, I, I, yeah, I would say
38:10
don't go home. Travel.
38:12
I mean, even if your home is LA or New York, like travel and and
38:16
find out what other chefs and other states are doing if you
38:20
can. I mean, it's not now, it's not
38:22
as cheap as it was in 2005 to live in San Francisco.
38:26
But travel don't go home and and stodge if you can where do.
38:31
You where do you sit on stodges? So it's a hot topic and and
38:34
maybe. I don't get a lot of stages just
38:36
because of the staff that come to work for me.
38:41
I do get some people that want to come staged, but I'm like,
38:44
Pam, we're volume. I don't know what you're really
38:46
going to learn from me. And I don't really, I can't, I'm
38:50
not going to be on the line with you.
38:52
You know, you're going to get, you know, Giovanni who's dancing
38:57
on the line and and speaking 98% of the calls in Spanish and is a
39:04
good time. But I don't know.
39:07
I think I don't know. I don't, I don't, I don't, it's
39:13
been a really long time. I recommend it if you really
39:17
want to go to a restaurant that you want to experience something
39:19
that you're probably not going to get to cook.
39:22
I don't like that it's not paid. We pay our stages when we've had
39:26
them in the past, but I don't I don't know how I feel about free
39:29
labor. It's an interesting.
39:32
I know how I feel about free labor.
39:33
I do not. I don't care about.
39:34
I don't care about. But let me ask you this because
39:37
I I think the argument isn't A1 size fits all.
39:42
Just my opinion. If you're a restaurant, right?
39:46
Let's just say you're this fancy restaurant and you have no room
39:52
and someone comes to you and says, I want to learn from you.
39:54
And I'm like, I don't want to pay you.
39:55
I don't want you here. You know what I mean?
39:57
They're they're like, well, I want to learn for you, but I
39:59
want you to pay me. It's like, well, there's no
40:00
room, right? So I think that's one situation
40:03
that OK, that has to, that's, that goes into one bucket.
40:06
Another bucket is we need to sustain our restaurant with 50
40:10
stashes unpaid because we do food that's so difficult that we
40:14
can't pull it up. That's, that's another
40:15
conversation, right? And then there's another
40:18
conversation where it's like it's a working interview.
40:23
Well, then you should pay them like, you know what I mean?
40:25
Like that's, that's a different type of stodge, But I don't
40:27
think they're all the same. And, and I would say, like if
40:31
Ferran Adria was coming and doing a dinner in Austin and
40:34
someone said he's looking for stodges, I would say, well, is
40:37
he going to pay me? You know what I mean?
40:39
I wouldn't say that I'd be like, I get to work with Ferran Adria.
40:41
I'm going to take it like I'll pay him, right.
40:44
So I, I do think that there's, I think it's a more complicated
40:48
conversation than like all stodges are bad or, you know,
40:52
there's some Gray area. I did a SAJ when I first moved
40:55
back to Dallas and I was telling you everybody wanted to work at
40:57
the neighborhood Bistro. This neighborhood Bistro was
41:01
awesome. Everybody knew what this
41:03
restaurant and I'll tell you later who the chef was and
41:05
you'll know exactly who I'm talking about.
41:07
You. Know who you're talking about?
41:07
No, you don't. I do, but anyway go.
41:09
On Did I tell you this one? No, no.
41:10
But I know. No.
41:11
You know I do. Anyway, well, was he the only
41:14
one that was doing SAJ? It's not.
41:16
It's not from at the hotel. No, no.
41:18
OK, go. Ahead.
41:19
All right, anyways, we did a stage, we set it up.
41:21
Go back to Dallas. I'm like trying to line up
41:23
stages and this guy's the only guy that calls me back.
41:28
Talk to the GM. We set it up.
41:30
They have my resume, my cover letter, cuz I was so fancy.
41:34
I went to Kinko's and had it put on a nice burnout.
41:37
Yeah, it was really pretty paper.
41:39
People that are listening. Yeah, it was pretty paper.
41:42
Yeah, nice paper. Yeah, yeah.
41:43
And you could see like the little ribbons or whatever it
41:46
was, the like the feathers or what is the paper, the lint, the
41:49
whatever. And so show up, I've got my chef
41:52
coat on my knife bag and he's like, you're going to pick
41:57
parsley. Do that.
41:58
Like basically all the garnish set up.
41:59
And I was like, I worked in San Francisco for four years.
42:03
Like this is what you want me doing.
42:05
Like this is your. I'm free labor now.
42:07
Yeah. Cool.
42:08
Got it. And I worked on Trementian Grill
42:10
station at this restaurant. OK, cool.
42:12
And it's all on my resume. So then we Service is starting.
42:16
Everyone had a family meal, everyone was taking their
42:17
breaks. Service is starting.
42:19
I'm excited like because he's got me with the guy on the
42:22
grill, right? Yeah.
42:24
He comes over, sets a blue strip of tape down like where the
42:30
grill is and where the outside of the line is and says, you
42:34
stand on this side of the line. And I was like to stash.
42:37
He's like, yes, you're going to watch him.
42:39
And I said, are we going to switch at some point?
42:41
And I wasn't like that casual. I was like, genuinely wanting to
42:44
know like, what the hell am I doing here?
42:46
And I'm ready. I've got my, you know, my tongs
42:49
in one hand, my spatula, because he's like picking up quail and
42:52
duck breast and like all these really delicate proteins, right?
42:55
The guy's getting hammered like he's he's going down.
42:59
He's burning the fucking quail. And I'm like, what do I do?
43:02
I'm terrified of this chef who's telling me no.
43:06
And at one point I do lean over and I just kind of like flipped
43:09
it and he's like, get the fuck back on the line.
43:11
And I was like, I'm done. OK, this is this is enough.
43:15
And so did. You leave right then and there.
43:16
I did it, which was stupid. I should have because I would
43:19
today, but we finished up and you know, we're we're wrapping
43:23
up and everything. And the guys like you did a
43:25
really good job. Like, you know, no one's ever
43:27
done that. You did a really good job.
43:28
He's going to call you back. And I was like, oh the fuck, he
43:30
doesn't like hell. So whatever, we go.
43:33
They called me back and they asked me if I wanted to come
43:36
work. But you know, I had an excellent
43:38
stage and I was so confused about the whole thing.
43:41
And I was like, was it just a test?
43:42
Like, did he want to see if I was going to maybe?
43:45
Kitchens would like that though. That's.
43:46
So sadistic. I was like, I don't want, I
43:48
don't want to, I don't know, I'm good.
43:49
And I ended up working somewhere else and I learned much more at
43:53
this other place. It wasn't a well known chef.
43:55
It wasn't a big company, but I learned so much more and I was
43:58
able to rise through the company and help open restaurants and
44:03
work at 2-3 other spots. And, you know, I think back on
44:06
it now when we were talking about where you're going to Saj,
44:09
who you're going to pick, pick the chef that you feel is going
44:11
to help you and mentor you and not like these name branch chefs
44:14
that are not going to have time for you, you know?
44:18
Yeah, I can't wait to tell you who that chef was.
44:20
I know you. Know.
44:20
I already know who it is. I already know.
44:22
You don't even tell me. I already know.
44:24
Yeah, I. Heard Well, they they they're
44:26
not open anymore. Going back to what we were
44:28
talking about, when you're trying to build yourself as a
44:30
brand, because in today's world, every chef is a brand, Every
44:35
single chef is a brand. Whatever they're putting out on
44:36
social media, whatever they're putting out on the plate, their
44:39
food, everything, every chef is a brand.
44:41
How do you stay true to your brand and how do you how do you
44:46
begin to develop it? I think for me it's been super
44:50
important because there came a point in my career where I've
44:53
got pulled in so many different directions.
44:56
And this is going to sound super cheesy, but my roots are my
45:00
family, my, my mother, my dad, where they're from, where they
45:05
were born has a lot to do with my upbringing and like how I was
45:09
raised and how I cook today. Same thing with my husband.
45:14
And I think it's important to kind of look back at that and
45:20
stay true to that because when I, when I decided to be a chef,
45:23
the first thing I said to my mom when we were pulling out of the
45:25
driveway, she says me, ha, I don't care what you do when you
45:28
go to that school and you graduate when you come home, I
45:31
don't care if you make the best tacos and enchiladas the city
45:33
has to offer, but make them the best.
45:36
You're going to be the best at that.
45:37
And I was like, I'm going to make French food.
45:39
I'm going to do continental. I'm going to have parsley and
45:42
shit like, you know, and then next thing you know, I'm opening
45:44
up a Mexican restaurant. So I think when I was hit with
45:49
all these different options to do what it is I, you know, I
45:53
thought I wanted to do, I just looked inside again, so cheesy.
45:58
But it was just so important for me to stay true to who I was and
46:02
not confuse people. There's no confusion.
46:05
You, you, if you know me, you know exactly who I am, whether
46:09
it's food, politics, family values, ethics, there's no
46:15
confusion. And I don't want to muddle it
46:18
with because I want to follow a trend or you know, I need to,
46:22
you know, have business, a busy Monday or busy Tuesday.
46:26
I think it's important to say true to who you are and anything
46:28
that you do, not just cooking. What, what tools would you would
46:32
you tell like a young cook or someone that's trying to really
46:34
find their voice to leverage their brand?
46:37
Like obviously social media is 1.
46:39
Absolutely. But what else?
46:40
I mean, Or should they be going to every food event?
46:43
Like, what are some things like best practices that a chef needs
46:47
to do to stay on the radar? Align yourself with other like
46:51
minded chefs. For me, it's so important to
46:54
support other chefs in the industry.
46:56
Some of my best friends are chefs, female chefs that own
46:59
restaurants as well. I think it's important to align
47:02
yourself with a group of either cooks or chefs that are equally
47:06
as ambitious and kind of want the same things as you.
47:10
Now, that doesn't necessarily mean want a mission star or
47:13
want, you know, James Beard of Wars or want even their own
47:16
restaurant, but they want the same things, the same goals to
47:20
succeed to, you know, be really good at Brunoir or, you know,
47:25
really good at basting, you know, a duck breast, a duck
47:30
breast, you know, align yourself with like minded people.
47:33
I don't think enough chefs support each other.
47:36
Why do you think that is? I'll tell you what, chefs, chefs
47:38
a lot of times are like fucking haters.
47:40
It's ego, yeah, it's ego and haters, but I think it's
47:43
important to support other chefs and other restaurants.
47:46
My husband and I go out to eat as often as we can.
47:49
If there's an event, we try to make it.
47:51
It's hard with our schedules, but it's really important for us
47:54
to be out and be local and be seen so that they know that we
47:57
support them and hopefully they will support us in return.
48:03
What about like networking? So I know network is important.
48:09
How do you how do you guide a young chef right now?
48:13
That's like, I just know the people that I work with.
48:15
How would you encourage them to expand their network?
48:17
Go eat at the bar with the bar, meet the bartender.
48:20
Not at like your local pub where you're just going to get shit
48:23
faced. I mean like go to a nice
48:25
restaurant, make a reservation, sit at the bar, order an app,
48:29
have a drink and talk it. Talk up the manager, talk up the
48:32
bartender network, you know, just meet people.
48:36
You know, part of the reason why I started this podcast, I
48:38
enjoyed, I enjoyed talking to chefs and I, I wanted to start
48:41
helping young chefs to get into the conversation because they, a
48:43
lot of people don't have access to you, me, whoever, whoever's
48:46
on the show. Like, let's, let's let them hear
48:49
how chefs really talk, humanize them a little bit.
48:51
Realize that we're kind of, we have way more in common than we
48:54
realized. And I remember years ago, one of
48:58
my sous chefs got mad at me because you kind of know this
49:01
too. Like you've hung out with me
49:02
outside of work. Like sometimes I want to talk
49:04
about everything but cooking. And I just want to tell jokes
49:07
and talk shit. And I remember one of my my sous
49:09
chefs was getting mad. Like, all you want to do is tell
49:11
jokes and talk shit. You don't, you don't even like
49:13
talk about food. They're like, now all I do is
49:16
talk about food and stuff. Right.
49:17
Yeah, but it but it's but I I don't think people realize like
49:22
sometimes, like when you're connected with other chefs
49:24
outside of work, I think one of the the best things you could do
49:28
if you're a young chef and you find yourself in that group of
49:31
older chefs, realize that the conversation might not be about
49:35
how to brunoir perfectly it it's probably a whole bunch.
49:38
But still listen, Yeah, still listen because you're gonna
49:41
realize that these are human beings too.
49:43
They have other interests outside of just whatever's on
49:46
the plate or they'll. Make it your personality, yeah.
49:48
That's weird. Yeah, yeah.
49:50
Don't make it your personality. I had AI had a problem where for
49:54
years I couldn't have a conversation with anyone unless
49:56
it was about, like, food and industry stuff.
49:58
Yeah. And eventually I had to break
49:59
that because I was like, there's more to me than just.
50:02
Yeah. I mean, I think a lot of us do
50:03
when we're like really young and like developing our kind of our
50:07
culture and what we're going to do and who we're going to be.
50:09
We're figuring it out. And they spit you out into this
50:12
world and you have to figure out how to run while I'm so stuck on
50:15
that because that guy was such an asshole to me about my
50:17
Brunois. He took my night pan and dumped
50:19
it out and was like, you cut this with the back of your
50:21
knife? Hey, shut up.
50:22
Look, she cut it with the bat like.
50:23
Is that the starch it? Took me an hour.
50:25
Like yes, it took me an hour to do.
50:27
That that's the Brunois shit test though.
50:29
Like they were like it's like the Brunois shit test.
50:32
A lot of restaurants do that. Like you're staging, throw away
50:35
their Brunois 3 times and see how they take it.
50:37
Like it might not even be bad, it's just to see how you react.
50:40
Yeah, yeah, I was cool. I mean, still am, whatever, but
50:46
20 years later I'm still thinking about it.
50:48
I'll never do it again. I know exactly how to do Bruno
50:51
now in under an hour. What a what sort of things do
50:57
you think a young new chef needs to hear today when they're
51:02
getting into the industry that no one's really told them like
51:07
this is the young you advice what you wish you, what you wish
51:09
someone told you. Not like how to Brunois better,
51:12
not how to cook better, but like this is what the industry is and
51:15
you should hear this from me before you commit your entire
51:18
life to. It you don't have to go to the
51:20
bar every night. Yeah.
51:22
Don't go to the bar with your crew every night.
51:25
Don't go every weekend. Stay home, study.
51:27
Go buy the potatoes. Help learn how to dice the
51:30
potatoes. Practice.
51:32
You know, go buy books. I never bought enough books.
51:34
You know, when I was on campus at CIA, that's my biggest
51:38
regret. We had an amazing library and I
51:41
rarely spent time in that library and I regret it now.
51:43
I have over 300 cookbooks now come by with my husband and we
51:47
do light reading every, you know, few days.
51:50
But I, I regret that now by, you know, spend money on your, on
51:54
your, on your skills, your knife sets, your books one weekend at
51:59
the bar. You can, you can buy a couple of
52:01
books, you know, and, and I, I did a lot of that.
52:04
I did a lot of party in San Francisco and I wish I'd spent
52:08
more time, you know, honing my craft.
52:10
So I, yeah, I think that's, that's the advice I would give
52:13
is stay, stay, you know, focused.
52:16
Stay focused. Usually when we wrap it up, I as
52:20
we're wrapping it up, I usually ask a couple of questions, like
52:24
if you had a Mount Rushmore, the four greatest chefs in your
52:28
opinion to you that influenced you.
52:30
And they don't have. They could be people that you
52:31
worked with or just people that you respect.
52:33
Maybe you you admire them from afar.
52:35
Yeah. Besides me, who else is on that?
52:39
Patricia Quintana. Who's that?
52:41
Patricia Quintana is a Mexican chef.
52:43
She's passed away. Marta Ortiz, chef Duce Patria
52:48
and Filigrana. Daniela Soto Ines, who everyone
52:52
knows and loves. And my mom.
52:54
Yeah. Yeah.
52:56
Amazing. And if you had a chef's PSA out
52:59
there, like some advice to give, like stop doing this every day
53:03
in the kitchen or start doing this.
53:05
What's your what's your advice? Take your gloves off So gross.
53:10
Gross. I'm so sick of seeing people
53:13
with gloves on that aren't touching like raw food.
53:17
It's it's like it's a thing of mine like I think it's so gross.
53:21
Change your gloves often. Don't wipe your gloves on your
53:24
towel. You're you're an apron guy in
53:25
the bathroom. I'm a I'm a like where you don't
53:28
like. It's great for.
53:30
People this day don't. You don't like it when people go
53:32
to the bathroom with their everyone, which, yeah, it's
53:34
gross, but I don't like it when people wear gloves constantly
53:41
and don't change them out. You ever see these grill cooks
53:43
that have gloves on one, they're working the grill and their
53:45
hands are so sweaty, like they're drippy at the
53:47
fingertips? You know what I'm talking about.
53:50
Like their their hands are sweating through the gloves.
53:52
And yeah, I can't. It's like they have water
53:54
balloons at the tips of their Yeah, I can't.
53:55
That's so gross. So that's, yeah, that's.
53:58
Where can people find you? On socials yeah Instagram, chef
54:03
AQ Pitman on Instagram TikTok. I love TikTok yeah if it's still
54:08
here it'll. Be here.
54:10
I don't think it's going. Anywhere.
54:11
OK, Yeah, that's it. Yeah, yeah, I don't do face.
54:16
It's there because I have the ass and uncles and bimos.
54:19
It's the worst. Facebook's fucking.
54:20
I don't interact. Yeah, if people are following me
54:23
on Facebook for following AQ on like don't ever DM.
54:26
No one's gonna like I'm not gonna respond.
54:28
I log in once a day to post and then I don't log in till the
54:30
next day. Yeah, yeah, no, but I'm pretty
54:32
active on on Instagram and and TikTok, yeah.
54:36
Yeah, it's good to see you, Chef.
54:37
It's good to see you. Well, I hope you enjoyed the
54:39
show. You know what to do.
54:40
Make sure you leave five stars if you're listening on Spotify
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or anywhere really. If you're watching on YouTube,
54:45
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54:51
My team added a ton of new items.
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Keep supporting the show. Go to chefspsa.com.
55:01
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55:07
We'll see you next week. Hit the porno music.