Latest / Chef's PSA Podcast / Chef Mike Diaz & Gabe Erales: Cooking, Mentorship, Mental Health Ep. 162

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Chef Mike Diaz & Gabe Erales: Cooking, Mentorship, Mental Health Ep. 162 · Chef's PSA Podcast

• 0:00
  Well, like he was on PBS and he was like the omelette is.
• 0:03
  Oh yeah, the French omelette that he does.
• 0:04
  Standard video that I show like a young cook is like go watch
• 0:09
  Chuck Pipan make a French omelette.
• 0:10
  Yeah, or, or when he debones the chicken like super fast, like
• 0:14
  for Ballantine or whatever, just when it was the entire scale.
• 0:17
  It's a gangster. They don't make chefs like that
• 0:19
  anymore. Hello chefs.
• 0:20
  This is CHEFS PSA. I'm your host, Entrena Terra.
• 0:22
  Today we welcome back my good friends Top Chef Season 18
• 0:25
  winner Gabe Orales and Mike Diaz from OSEO in Austin, TX.
• 0:30
  This is a fun conversation. Just checking in with my
• 0:32
  friends. We're going to talk mental
• 0:33
  health, the James Beard Awards, and a lot more.
• 0:35
  Stay tuned. Great restaurants don't always
• 0:52
  bring customers in. Great stories do, because in
• 0:54
  food, beverage and hospitality, what you sell is only part of
• 0:57
  the story. It's the why behind it, the
• 1:02
  authority you create and the experience that you built.
• 1:07
  Market scale turns expertise into content that connects
• 1:11
  podcasts, video series and industry education, not ads
• 1:15
  assets. Market scale has brought run the
• 1:20
  pass and how to manage like an executive chef to life real
• 1:23
  world examples of how great content leads the conversation
• 1:28
  because attention is earned and the industry doesn't need more
• 1:30
  noise, it needs more leaders. Chefs good to see you man.
• 1:39
  What up you as well. How was how was New York?
• 1:42
  New York was good. It was a a unique experience for
• 1:45
  me specifically and also turned it into a little family trip, so
• 1:49
  it was good. What was the what was the
• 1:50
  competition? What was the concept?
• 1:52
  So it was a French culinary competition sponsored by
• 1:56
  Bertrand, the porcelain company, Players and Plate Company.
• 2:00
  It's essentially a annual competition, a global
• 2:03
  competition where the dish of the shoe farce, which is a
• 2:07
  stuffed cabbage, traditional cabbage dish, is, you know,
• 2:10
  contestants from all over each continent put forth their dish.
• 2:14
  You apply, you get invited, then you apply and then you get
• 2:17
  selected. And then there's like 6 or 7
• 2:19
  people that compete in in New York with their version of that
• 2:23
  dish. And yeah, you have three hours
• 2:26
  on the day of the competition to execute the dish and you're
• 2:29
  assigned A culinary student as your Co me the day of it.
• 2:31
  So you walk in, meet someone new and you're kind of coaching them
• 2:34
  to to execute your dish. So, you know, they reached out
• 2:37
  to me and us invited me to apply.
• 2:39
  Who? Who reached out?
• 2:40
  The organization. Organization.
• 2:41
  OK, the, the, it's called the champion.
• 2:45
  The, I mean, it's a French name, a big French long name, but I, I
• 2:48
  forget, so I don't want to butcher it.
• 2:50
  Yeah. So I, you know, I did a kind of
• 2:52
  a, a Mexican approach to the dish and treated it kind of like
• 2:56
  a giant tamal in some way. So it was like cabbage and
• 2:59
  tamal. Like, you know, then there was
• 3:02
  duck farce and pork farce and things like that and all how?
• 3:05
  To do the whole cabbage. Yeah, so part of the competition
• 3:08
  is you have to present 2 stuffed cabbages with with a sauce and
• 3:13
  it has to weigh exactly between 3 1/2 and 4.2 lbs.
• 3:19
  So it was, it was really, you know, it was, it was definitely
• 3:21
  out of my comfort zone. And I think that's why I did it
• 3:23
  'cause I wanted to try something that was out of my comfort zone,
• 3:26
  but it still had my fingerprint on it.
• 3:28
  And, you know, there was, you know, Daniel Balut's executive
• 3:32
  sous chef was there and he probably does his shit in his
• 3:34
  sleep, you know, and he had like foie gras and morale.
• 3:37
  Something like, you know, he wrapped the whole thing in call
• 3:40
  flat. It was really, really impressive
• 3:41
  and beautiful, you know, And then there's a chef from Canada
• 3:44
  who won. His name was De McKay.
• 3:46
  He's really, really talented. And his was a little bit more
• 3:49
  straightforward, but it was beautiful.
• 3:50
  And I think it was more, I think at the end of the day, it's
• 3:52
  simplest in the execution. Yeah, I, you know, I think mine
• 3:56
  would have done my particular dish would have done better had
• 3:59
  I had a little like probably 20 more minutes of time, so.
• 4:02
  Yeah, why? I think.
• 4:04
  I think the center of it was slightly under.
• 4:08
  The like the masa. No, the the farce.
• 4:12
  The farce? Yeah, did Was it fun?
• 4:14
  It was, yeah. It was great, great experience.
• 4:16
  You know, it was, you know, it was really great to see, you
• 4:18
  know, Jack Pippen and Daniel Balloon.
• 4:21
  And how is he like? Is he up and about and moving?
• 4:23
  He's, he's a little less mobile these days, but you know,
• 4:26
  mentally he's as sharp as a tech still, you know.
• 4:29
  Like you, you know that one, one of the best books I ever had was
• 4:32
  Jack Pippen. So he used to have a lot
• 4:33
  technique like going like he's teaching how to make little, you
• 4:37
  know, peel the peel the asparagus or make little
• 4:40
  Penguins out of eggs. I don't remember he was doing
• 4:42
  that. But you know that old school
• 4:44
  make a lemon crown? I used to love that.
• 4:46
  Dude his YouTube videos are all out there.
• 4:49
  Well, like he was on PBS and he was like the omelette is.
• 4:52
  Oh yeah, the French omelette. The.
• 4:53
  Standard video that I show like a young cook is like go watch
• 4:58
  Chuck Pepin make a French omelette.
• 5:00
  Yeah, or, or when he debones the chicken like super fast, like
• 5:03
  for Ballantine or whatever, just when it was the entire skin.
• 5:05
  That one, it's a gangster. They don't make chefs like that
• 5:08
  anymore. Like just, you know, just
• 5:12
  technicians that just, you know, on the basics, like go, go, go.
• 5:15
  Nobody wants to put in the time now.
• 5:17
  Yeah. Like everybody wants to just go
• 5:20
  do their. Well, they, they, they, they,
• 5:22
  they put in the time. They just put it in like not on
• 5:25
  one thing. They want to put in the time on
• 5:26
  like 10 different techniques where like, no, you're just
• 5:28
  gonna work on chicken for the forever.
• 5:31
  Like get really good at chicken for a year then move on to to.
• 5:34
  Fish Nobody makes you peel 50 lbs of potatoes.
• 5:38
  Yeah. I also just think that the way
• 5:39
  the industry has evolved, the the trajectory for a cook these
• 5:44
  days is much quicker. Yeah, I think chefs tend to move
• 5:50
  cooks along more quickly. To avoid.
• 5:54
  To avoid turnover and and keep retention because now you,
• 5:58
  you're in, especially in Austin, you're in an industry where you
• 6:02
  know, every other week there's a new restaurant.
• 6:03
  And if I'm bored cutting, you know, Radish Small dies for two
• 6:08
  weeks, then I'm just going to go down the street to the new spot.
• 6:11
  It's a good point. So it's like, OK, let's keep him
• 6:13
  engaged, let's keep him entertained and shuffle him
• 6:16
  along, you know, so. You know where you see
• 6:19
  potential, right? You know where is, you know,
• 6:21
  Mike was at Plaza Hotel. Yeah.
• 6:24
  What was it in the El Camino? Yeah.
• 6:26
  What was it in El Paso El. Cafes in trial.
• 6:28
  Yeah, whereas Mike was at cafes in trial for, you know, X amount
• 6:32
  of time doing the same repetition dishes and techniques
• 6:36
  and learning it and where it becomes second nature, you know,
• 6:39
  people are being pushed along much quicker in my opinion.
• 6:42
  Yeah, also like. I mean, I, I feel like I'm, I'm
• 6:44
  guilty of it. And it's like, for sure,
• 6:46
  retention is, is huge. And like, how do you keep people
• 6:49
  engaged without saying, hey, it's your second week at the
• 6:52
  restaurant, can you come up with a dish?
• 6:54
  Well, I, I also look at it like when I was a young cook, if I
• 6:57
  didn't know something, I wish I had today's tools.
• 7:00
  Like let's just say I, I didn't know how to butcher a fish
• 7:03
  properly and my chef came and gave me a 10 second demo and
• 7:06
  here do it like this. Boom.
• 7:07
  Then he leaves and figure out all the fish and I'm going to
• 7:10
  fuck up 15 of them before I get decent at it.
• 7:13
  I would have loved to have gone home, watch a YouTube video and
• 7:16
  say, OK, let me see how so many other chefs.
• 7:18
  Oh, that's what I'm doing wrong. I should, you know, grab it
• 7:20
  right here or, or turn the knife that way.
• 7:23
  But like back then I was like, no, I'm going to have to do it
• 7:25
  100 times before I notice. Just gently adjust your knife a
• 7:29
  little bit before I figure it out.
• 7:30
  So I, I like the idea that a lot of cooks have access to
• 7:34
  knowledge much quicker, but you still got to do it.
• 7:36
  You still got to put in the work.
• 7:38
  You still got to pick up the muscle memory.
• 7:40
  It's just like now, now it's just a tool, right?
• 7:43
  Like it's like YouTube is like a a thing that, you know, it's
• 7:47
  like you have something there for you that gives you that like
• 7:51
  confidence, Whereas like we read it in books and it was just like
• 7:54
  maybe a picture and you're like, I don't know, I don't know about
• 7:56
  that picture that doesn't look great and then seeing like
• 7:59
  multiple videos of like people doing shit.
• 8:01
  Well, it's I. Mean people are building.
• 8:03
  It's great. It's awesome.
• 8:04
  I mean, it's even I, I'm, I use it all the time, use it all the
• 8:08
  time. I'm sure.
• 8:09
  And it's nice that I would have been like on top of like all the
• 8:13
  technology if I was 22, if, if all that technology was around
• 8:18
  when I was 22, I would have been like all over it too.
• 8:21
  But you know, I don't know. I think, Gabe, you make a really
• 8:25
  good point about like people being engaged and and keeping
• 8:30
  them engaged. So you don't you know, you don't
• 8:32
  lose. I I'm more about retention
• 8:35
  anyway. So that's that's a great thing
• 8:38
  to, you know, to keep your staff and just kind of build the your
• 8:42
  team. Having so many restaurants open
• 8:45
  so quickly in Austin, it's just like you see people jump ship
• 8:49
  all the time if they're the. Same character.
• 8:51
  Just doing radishes or whatever mundane stuff.
• 8:54
  I mean people build their entire business and careers off of self
• 8:59
  learning through home. Yeah, like.
• 9:02
  You know how many how many of these huge content creators that
• 9:06
  have the subtitle chef are self-taught through online
• 9:10
  material and educated? Which nothing wrong with that.
• 9:13
  You get pretty good self-taught. Yeah, nothing wrong with that.
• 9:15
  But I'm just saying like that's there's, there's a a segment of
• 9:19
  the industry that's like that where it's.
• 9:21
  Well, and, and you go back and you know, for so many years
• 9:24
  people were big on pedigree. Like what's your pedigree?
• 9:26
  Who'd you work under? Who'd they work under?
• 9:28
  Like, what's your lineage as a chef?
• 9:30
  And nowadays I almost feel like that's not as impressive.
• 9:34
  Like if you take two successful chefs, like you just put them up
• 9:37
  against each other and you say this person has a pedigree and
• 9:40
  they're successful and this person has no pedigree and
• 9:42
  they're more successful. Like that's more impressive
• 9:45
  because they did it on their own.
• 9:46
  They didn't they, they learned, they were self-taught.
• 9:48
  They were didactic learners. They had to go and they had to
• 9:50
  learn on YouTube or they had to go stage or, you know, they
• 9:53
  didn't have the mentorship, but they had the drive where the
• 9:55
  other person, you know, they, they grew up in the kitchen.
• 9:58
  They had all the mentors, they had all the the resources to
• 10:00
  succeed and they're both at the same the same destination at the
• 10:04
  end of the day. So sometimes I'm more impressed
• 10:07
  when there isn't a pedigree and they're a successful chef.
• 10:10
  Like I find that impressive. Yeah, I'm not, I, I guess it
• 10:13
  like I, I, I'm guilty. I, I guess it used to be kind of
• 10:18
  like elitist in that way where it's like, yeah, like what,
• 10:21
  what's your pedigree? And like what's your, you know,
• 10:25
  what do you, where have you been and like, what do you know, and
• 10:28
  that kind of shit. And then I don't, it doesn't
• 10:30
  bother me as much. I think it's just like bringing
• 10:33
  attention to our industry. Whereas like, I guess it was,
• 10:37
  you know, I don't know, it wasn't frowned upon, but it
• 10:39
  wasn't taken as seriously when I first started cooking.
• 10:42
  And it was, it was definitely like an upcoming, you know, it's
• 10:46
  like during Food Network, just like beginning stages.
• 10:50
  But part of people getting a pedigree back then was people
• 10:54
  had PR machines. So you had a lot of great chefs
• 10:57
  coming out of New York, San Francisco, LA, maybe Chicago,
• 11:01
  because they had these giant PR teams that people knew what was
• 11:04
  going on. But like, if you were not in
• 11:06
  those cities, people most likely didn't know who you were.
• 11:09
  But it didn't mean that there wasn't great chefs in Denver and
• 11:12
  Austin and Dallas OR, you know, and, and other cities, people
• 11:15
  just didn't know about them because people were so focused
• 11:18
  on, you know, the primary markets.
• 11:20
  And I think now that it's that you could look on social media
• 11:24
  and you could look at Instagram and you could say, I've never
• 11:26
  heard of that person in in Alabama, but and they're making
• 11:29
  some good fucking food. Have you have you checked this
• 11:31
  out? It's like now it's so much
• 11:33
  easier to find talent that we would have never discovered
• 11:36
  before social media. I wonder what it was like that
• 11:40
  made dudes like Charlie Trotter, you know, go in like 8 hours
• 11:45
  before their shift started just for their own personal gain.
• 11:49
  You know, it was like, it was like, no, I'm not like I don't.
• 11:52
  They're like, all right, you don't need to be here so early,
• 11:54
  but it's like, I want to be here.
• 11:55
  It's like I hold my standards higher for myself and, and, and
• 12:00
  I don't, it's not necessary. That's not the, the only
• 12:03
  approach nowadays. That used to be the approach, I
• 12:05
  think with a lot of cooks where we admire dudes like that, where
• 12:09
  it's like, I want to do that too.
• 12:12
  And then, but nowadays that's it's, you don't really have to
• 12:15
  do that anymore. You can approach it in a
• 12:17
  different way and still kind of get there, but not, you know,
• 12:21
  well, work for free I guess. Also, nowadays, like, employers
• 12:25
  kind of frown upon it. Yeah.
• 12:27
  Why are you? You know, I don't want you.
• 12:28
  I don't want. You exactly.
• 12:29
  I don't want you here off the. Clock and you know why are you
• 12:32
  here and. Yeah, I like picking.
• 12:34
  I like paying people for for their work, I mean, and their
• 12:38
  time. But I think if you know, if if
• 12:41
  it if it behooves a cook or a chef to come in and want to do
• 12:45
  something, you know, investigative or research or
• 12:48
  practice without being asked to, then there's nothing wrong with
• 12:51
  it. Yeah, that's cool.
• 12:52
  It shows kind of your dedication to craft and learning and
• 12:56
  growth. Well, I went to Trotters this
• 12:59
  weekend. This password two weeks ago.
• 13:01
  Yeah, I was at the James Beard 1.
• 13:03
  So Bill Kim used to be the chef at Trotters.
• 13:05
  He was the chef at the cuisine. He had two stints there.
• 13:07
  I was doing a panel and he came up to me.
• 13:09
  He showed up to the panel. He's like, hey, what are you
• 13:11
  doing? I was like, nothing.
• 13:12
  He's like, come with me after this.
• 13:14
  I was like, where we going? It's like, I'm taking you to
• 13:15
  Trotters because it was like the restaurant that I'd never been
• 13:19
  to. Like, it's my regret.
• 13:20
  Like I was in Chicago many times.
• 13:22
  I never ate there. So I went in.
• 13:25
  I saw the I saw the the kitchen. I saw the stove, you know, I saw
• 13:31
  the dining room. He's taking me and showing me
• 13:32
  all the books. So Charlie Trotter's son Dylan
• 13:35
  met us there and opened up the restaurant for us, took us to
• 13:37
  the back. You remember where he used to
• 13:38
  have that PBS show The Kitchen Sessions.
• 13:41
  So showing us the studio where he cooked.
• 13:43
  It was wild, man. Like Trotter was like my, he was
• 13:46
  my hero, even though I never met him.
• 13:48
  He was my hero growing up. I had all his cookbooks.
• 13:51
  I'm so seeing the kitchen, seeing their small dish station
• 13:54
  where it's like how many plates go through there?
• 13:56
  You know, Chef Bill showing me, OK, when orders were coming this
• 14:00
  how they picked up this how this how would Expo?
• 14:02
  I mean, it was like, it was like, like if you if you go
• 14:05
  visit like a a battlefield and you can still see the ghosts of
• 14:07
  the soldiers there and you feel it.
• 14:09
  That's how I felt like being in Trotter's kitchen was like, wow,
• 14:13
  you could feel the, you could, you could feel the energy.
• 14:16
  Like I could see the chaos. Is it still open for business
• 14:20
  I'm. No, so they did a, they did a, a
• 14:21
  pop up series where he, I mean, he had like he had Phillip
• 14:24
  Tessier there and he had Ron McKinley trying to think who
• 14:27
  else went, went there. They've got another one coming
• 14:30
  up too with all of the ex chefs. Yeah, Graham, Alien and these
• 14:33
  guys. That's dope.
• 14:35
  Yeah, I think Dylan is trying to revive the legacy and and I
• 14:39
  think from what I read, he's trying to reopen it.
• 14:42
  Yeah, I mean, I don't know. I don't, I don't know what he's
• 14:44
  trying to do with it, but I could tell you that he he still
• 14:47
  has it and it still looks good. They have the original chairs in
• 14:50
  there. It still has the feeling.
• 14:52
  I mean, it feels like it feels like what I used to see in the
• 14:56
  pictures. Yeah.
• 14:57
  It was really cool. That was really, I mean, I
• 14:59
  haven't had those like butterfly feelings in a long time, but
• 15:01
  being in that kitchen like as he.
• 15:02
  It took me back to being a young girl, yeah.
• 15:04
  It's amazing. I saw when he was there and I
• 15:06
  was like, oh, that looks pretty amazing.
• 15:08
  Really cool. Yeah.
• 15:08
  I didn't know that you did that. I, I, I mean, I used to watch
• 15:13
  Charlie Trotter like on the Travel Channel before it was the
• 15:17
  Travel Channel. And then it was like a show
• 15:19
  called Great Chefs. Did you ever watch that one
• 15:21
  that? Was my show, man.
• 15:23
  Dude, I that was my fashion show.
• 15:24
  I love that. Great chefs and great chefs of
• 15:26
  the world. And they would like the great
• 15:28
  chefs. Great city songs.
• 15:29
  Started my head living. As the like one chef would do a
• 15:32
  starter, the other one the main and then the the desert and I, I
• 15:36
  was always like one of my favorite things to watch.
• 15:38
  It was before, like the Bourdain Travel Channel.
• 15:42
  And you look at the food now. So I saw a clip of it yesterday
• 15:45
  on social media is like watching John George make a dessert.
• 15:48
  I remember what it was. But look, no, no disrespect,
• 15:50
  John George is amazing. But the food looked terrible.
• 15:53
  Well, yeah, it's all dated. It's.
• 15:55
  So dated. I was like, man, this is like
• 15:56
  culinary school level now. But back then it was like I was
• 16:01
  stealing. I was taking notes.
• 16:02
  I was like when, when great chefs of the world, 'cause you
• 16:05
  know, I think I had TiVo. Maybe you remember TiVo.
• 16:07
  You had to like pause it. Like what, what is he doing?
• 16:09
  I would, I would jot down the recipe.
• 16:11
  It was great. I loved that show I did.
• 16:14
  That was my fucking show that. Was a good show you.
• 16:16
  Know what else was a good show? I used to like?
• 16:18
  Emerald Show. I I loved Emerald Show back in
• 16:20
  the day. It was great.
• 16:21
  I did. Yeah, that was good.
• 16:22
  Guilty. Yeah, I like Essence of Emerald.
• 16:25
  What was the difference? He actually cooked on that one.
• 16:28
  What was the other show? Well, Emerald Live was was he
• 16:31
  was like, you want 37 cloves of garlic in there.
• 16:34
  And then it was just like, like for the, for the audience and.
• 16:38
  It was like. And then you go bam, and then
• 16:41
  and then and people get all like, you know, riled up and
• 16:45
  rowdy. But the essence of Emerald was
• 16:47
  just him with no audience. He was actually cooking like
• 16:51
  dishes, dudes. One of the best meals I've had
• 16:55
  in New Orleans was at Emerald's. Really.
• 16:56
  Which is crazy 'cause it was like it was like culinary
• 16:59
  school. Like, I think it was perfect.
• 17:01
  I think I had his his restaurant in Vegas.
• 17:03
  The. New one I haven't been running.
• 17:05
  Yeah, I haven't been to that one.
• 17:06
  The one. That his son's running now.
• 17:08
  Yeah. That looks good.
• 17:09
  That looks cool, yeah. Yeah, I, I didn't go this time,
• 17:12
  but it was a couple of New Orleans trips ago that I went
• 17:15
  and it was like perfect. It was.
• 17:17
  It was a trip. You think they'll get a star
• 17:20
  'cause I don't know the. Without a doubt.
• 17:24
  Right, the Michelin guys going through New Orleans, right?
• 17:26
  Yeah. Without a doubt.
• 17:27
  I'm pretty sure you will. Yeah, one, one or two he's.
• 17:30
  Great. I don't know.
• 17:32
  I mean it. Look, I haven't.
• 17:33
  Been I haven't been to the new ones, I don't.
• 17:34
  Know only from what I'm seeing on Instagram.
• 17:35
  It looks like the the New Orleans version of Love Madison
• 17:40
  or something. Yeah, somewhere.
• 17:42
  OK, so the last time I it was it was BBQ shrimp and I had eaten
• 17:46
  like, that's like a, you know, the dish to eat in New Orleans
• 17:49
  and I had already eaten like a bunch of like different versions
• 17:53
  peel like gotten dirty and everything.
• 17:55
  And his comes out. It's like 5 perfectly peeled
• 17:57
  shrimp sauce pour by the, you know, tableside.
• 18:02
  And the thing that fucking blew me away was we had oysters on
• 18:05
  the half shot and had the condiments and like, I don't
• 18:09
  know how they did it, but the the horseradish would had this
• 18:12
  texture. It was so smooth and creamy.
• 18:15
  I was just like, for the first time in a long time, I was like,
• 18:18
  how the fuck do they do that? And it was just like
• 18:22
  horseradish. And it was like they froze
• 18:24
  horseradish and then they put in a in like a Paco jet and it was
• 18:29
  like super smooth and they packed it into this little
• 18:31
  square as a condiment. And I was like, I was so I was
• 18:35
  blown away by the goddamn fucking horseradish.
• 18:38
  It was that good. So I like, I like when that
• 18:41
  stuff like that happens where it's like I don't get wowed so
• 18:45
  much nowadays with a lot of stuff.
• 18:49
  What's going on with Oedo? Yeah.
• 18:52
  So, you know, I've, I've continued down this, this, this
• 18:56
  path of this journey. So I like to call it of, of
• 19:00
  nonprofit work. And, you know, it's been
• 19:04
  multifaceted to say the least. Like on one side it's, it's very
• 19:08
  challenging and it feels like one of those things that you you
• 19:12
  just learn as you go if you've never been in that part of the
• 19:15
  world before in terms of nonprofit.
• 19:18
  And I think maybe we're an exception because we're a
• 19:19
  smaller nonprofit. You know, we're a half
• 19:22
  $1,000,000 revenue nonprofit. So it's really just me doing
• 19:28
  things in the US with the assistance of the board when,
• 19:31
  when they want to help because they're, it's obviously they're
• 19:34
  not full time employees. And then, you know, the
• 19:37
  employees in Mexico whom I support and they're full time
• 19:40
  employees, you know, so we have a program director, a lead
• 19:43
  instructor. We have, you know, chef
• 19:45
  instructors, we have a community outreach and alumni coordinator.
• 19:50
  And then we have, you know, kind of like an admin coordinator.
• 19:54
  So it's not a big team. So, you know, constantly it's,
• 19:58
  it's really interesting for me to to see where I focus my
• 20:02
  efforts and. Obviously the most important
• 20:05
  thing that drives the organization is financials.
• 20:09
  So, you know, I'm constantly reaching out to people and being
• 20:11
  like, hey, how about you and I get together and cook together
• 20:15
  for the benefit of the organization, you know, help
• 20:18
  provide opportunities for these kids so that I'm spending a lot
• 20:21
  of time organizing dinners when I could be trying to write a
• 20:26
  grant or trying to, you know, there's a lot, a lot of other
• 20:28
  things that that come into play. Talent and the executive.
• 20:32
  Yeah, and I'm also the marketing and I'm also the creative.
• 20:35
  And, you know, there's a lot, a lot of things.
• 20:36
  And it's it, it can be overwhelming.
• 20:39
  And it's very easy to feel like you're failing, for lack of
• 20:43
  better terms. And for me, like, the reason I
• 20:45
  wanted to do is because I felt like beyond, you know, prior I
• 20:49
  was like, oh, I love Mexican food.
• 20:50
  It's my culture. It's the way I want to connect,
• 20:53
  you know, And you, you probably know this too, Mike, but are you
• 20:56
  all three of us? But you, you, you have that
• 20:58
  feeling of like a Mexican American.
• 21:01
  So sometimes I'm a too American to be Mexican and, and not
• 21:05
  Mexican enough to be American and you know, or if I forget
• 21:08
  what the saying is. But so finding that way you
• 21:11
  connect and, and cooking was a lot of that for me and, and
• 21:14
  always trying to dig deeper and unscratched the surface of
• 21:17
  different regions of Mexico and understand the cuisine and like,
• 21:20
  and that's my passion. And, you know, it's more of
• 21:22
  beyond cooking. It was almost like, you know,
• 21:24
  culinary anthropology for me and understanding why, you know,
• 21:27
  these different regions have the same dish and they're called the
• 21:30
  different things. But opening up this other door
• 21:34
  and, you know, realizing that there's also a way to connect
• 21:38
  with my family heritage by supporting the community.
• 21:41
  Because when I go down there and I'm connecting with these kids
• 21:44
  and understanding them, you know, I'm learning from them
• 21:47
  more than they're learning for me half the time.
• 21:50
  And that's really, really humbling and inspiring and not
• 21:52
  at the same time. It's like, shit, how can I do
• 21:55
  better for them? You know, like they look to me
• 21:58
  to support them And, and you know, there's months where,
• 22:01
  where it's like, great, how you know, how are we going to be
• 22:03
  able to make our budget? So if I don't make our budget,
• 22:05
  they're going to cook three times less in the kitchen that
• 22:08
  week. Like it's, there's no, there's
• 22:10
  no handouts for your nonprofit right now, especially a
• 22:13
  nonprofit that is founded in the US but sends all the, you know,
• 22:17
  the, the revenue to Mexico. I was going to ask how How So
• 22:22
  you're only asking people for money in the US or?
• 22:27
  I mean, we do. How does the like asking money
• 22:30
  to people in Mexico and how is the program received through
• 22:34
  through the Mexican? I guess, I mean, I think that
• 22:36
  from the community standpoint it's, it's well received.
• 22:40
  We've we've had corporate sponsor and partnership
• 22:43
  sponsorships, but we've never had any very significant
• 22:50
  financial corporate sponsorships in Mexico or government
• 22:54
  sponsorships. So I've only been involved in
• 22:56
  the organization almost three years and I haven't seen that.
• 23:00
  And I'm trying to do that, but it's difficult.
• 23:03
  I've heard things, I mean I don't know any of the details,
• 23:06
  but I've heard things like that those types of government
• 23:10
  programs are like last in, in in line for any Mexican or
• 23:16
  government assistance. Yeah, You know, I recently had a
• 23:19
  call with, you know, some executives from Nestle.
• 23:23
  Nestle owns Yeah. And then it's, you know, they
• 23:27
  own, I will eat the chocolate they own, you know, Maggie.
• 23:30
  Did you know they own Maggie and Maggie?
• 23:32
  And Maggie is actually wasn't invented in Mexico.
• 23:35
  It was invented in Europe. And I don't think anybody knows.
• 23:38
  I think, you know, the number one Mexican condiment was not
• 23:41
  even a Mexican born condiment. And it's owned by Nestle.
• 23:45
  And, you know, the discussion was like, yeah, we'd love to
• 23:47
  help you guys in some way, but you know, we're going to say
• 23:50
  this right out front. Like we don't, you know, we
• 23:52
  don't give out freebies and it's like.
• 23:56
  They own everything, but they don't.
• 23:57
  Get well, it was more of like, it was more of like, you know,
• 24:00
  if you guys want to paint Nestle on the side of your culinary
• 24:03
  school and, you know, promote our products during your, your,
• 24:07
  your culinary classes and things like that.
• 24:09
  So there's always some kind of, you know, that's why all the
• 24:11
  Oxos have all the labels pointed all over them and the Oxo gas
• 24:16
  stations, and they're 70 sevens, the 711 equivalent.
• 24:20
  For for people that, and I know you've talked about this because
• 24:23
  you've been on the show before and you've you've explained it,
• 24:25
  but maybe someones listening to this episode, they didn't hear
• 24:27
  the other one. Can you give a brief overview of
• 24:30
  what Oido is and who it helps? Yeah, absolutely.
• 24:33
  So Oido is, it's a 501-C3 nonprofit based in Mexico.
• 24:38
  We have a culinary school in Mexico and a small Maya town
• 24:40
  called Cantuniquin and we essentially take applications
• 24:43
  from from, you know, underprivileged, my communities
• 24:46
  where the kids come and we'll put them through a two year
• 24:49
  culinary program to help provide them pathways, opportunities,
• 24:53
  mentorship to go on and and work in the hospitality industry.
• 24:57
  You know, you have all of this hospitality and tourism in
• 25:01
  Cancun, Playa Tulum, surrounding areas.
• 25:05
  I mean, even my other lead now and you know, you have big
• 25:08
  corporate people in there now that that do offer things like 4
• 25:11
  O 1K and benefits and insurance. And that's kind of stuff is
• 25:14
  unheard of to to some of these kids.
• 25:17
  You know, some of them are like, oh, I'm going to go work for the
• 25:19
  cartel. I'm going to go, I'm going to go
• 25:22
  be a runner and like, that's what my uncle does.
• 25:24
  And like, you know, that's how we make money.
• 25:26
  Or, you know, a lot of them are not, are expected to stay living
• 25:30
  at home for, you know, well into their 20s or 30s until they get
• 25:33
  married and provide and help support.
• 25:36
  So it's kind of against the norm to be an 18 year old and be
• 25:40
  like, peace out. I'm going to go work and be a
• 25:42
  chef and make my own money and provide my own.
• 25:45
  Like that's kind of a little bit taboo.
• 25:48
  And, and it's also very different because and some of
• 25:50
  these my communities are very, very reserved and closed off and
• 25:54
  takes a lot to break down this barrier and and penetrate that.
• 25:59
  Is where where the kids are learning how to cook?
• 26:02
  Is that open to the public so people could go try it?
• 26:06
  In terms of the food or the no, so it's not, it's not open to
• 26:11
  the public, but what we do do is we'll you know, after classes
• 26:17
  sometimes we'll take some of the food and the kids will go down
• 26:19
  to the city center and sell it like they're making corn chives.
• 26:22
  They'll go sell corn chives or things like that it.
• 26:24
  That's cool. We are so one of the biggest
• 26:27
  revenue generators for ours, for our school is a a culinary tour
• 26:33
  where we host people, we fly them in a Cancun, we pick them
• 26:37
  up at Cancun. You know, we have a tour guide
• 26:39
  and myself, we drive them to the school, they arrive, we give
• 26:42
  them a tour of the school, introduce some of the students
• 26:44
  and you know, either the night before, earlier, early in the
• 26:47
  morning, we put in a cochinita into the ground in the PIB.
• 26:51
  So they arrive and we on earth, this amazing Cochinita and
• 26:55
  that's like your welcome meal. And it's like you've never had
• 26:58
  Cochinita come out of the ground.
• 27:00
  And we tell them, you know, the kids explain the process and you
• 27:03
  know, some of the kids speak in Mayan and it's a very, very cool
• 27:06
  experience. And then from there we go to
• 27:09
  like, you know, we, we found this biodynamic vanilla farm
• 27:13
  where this family that immigrated from Veracruz and you
• 27:16
  know, we'll go to where this vanilla farm and then we'll go
• 27:18
  cook with these Maya ladies in the Hut and they'll do like what
• 27:20
  was incoming Salos and. What is that?
• 27:23
  Essentially, you take a tortilla, you cook it on the
• 27:25
  Kamala. When it when it inflates, you
• 27:27
  cut it open, you put an egg in it, and then you cook this
• 27:30
  tortilla with the egg inside. So you have like this, well, in
• 27:33
  Mexico it's always cooked hard. But yeah, when I do it, it's
• 27:36
  soft. But you know, then you have this
• 27:39
  amazing habanero salsa and it's cool.
• 27:43
  It's really, really cool. So I, I want people to know how
• 27:47
  they could support, but I guess how could they support would be
• 27:51
  question one. But also, if they wanted to get
• 27:52
  involved, like go on one of these tours, how do they learn
• 27:54
  more about that? Yeah.
• 27:55
  So you know oeo.co is the website and there's there's a
• 28:00
  page there where you can submit an interest form.
• 28:02
  We haven't got to the point where we schedule them
• 28:04
  regularly. We kind of are doing it in a way
• 28:06
  of like, if you show interest, we'll custom curate a trip for
• 28:10
  you and, and your group and the, the tour ends on Holbosh Island.
• 28:14
  You take a ferry from Chiquila, which is a small fishing
• 28:17
  village. You go to Holbosh and you know,
• 28:19
  we, we do some, we're working with some of the chefs that have
• 28:21
  it in some of the nicer restaurants there.
• 28:23
  We'll do like cooking classes in the restaurant.
• 28:25
  We go line fishing, we go out to some islands where there's
• 28:27
  cenotes and go swimming and. For people that don't know what
• 28:30
  to cenotes. Cenotes is basically a, a
• 28:32
  natural swimming hole cause from, you know, these sinkholes
• 28:36
  where the water came up after when they think the dinosaurs
• 28:40
  were extinct from the, the asteroid or hit the yeah.
• 28:44
  So the, the, the asteroid that hit Earth, that wiped out all
• 28:47
  the dinosaurs hit in the Yucatan and it create, creates such an
• 28:51
  implosion that sinkholes popped up all over the Yucatan.
• 28:54
  That's where you have these crystal clear send out these all
• 28:57
  over and you go swimming them and it's regenerative water.
• 29:00
  It's beautiful. And so if people wanted to
• 29:03
  donate, they could go to the website if they want.
• 29:06
  What if they want to go to some of your dinners?
• 29:08
  Like how? How could they follow along?
• 29:09
  What? What?
• 29:09
  Yeah. Yeah, I mean, we're always
• 29:11
  promoting everything we're doing on, on the Instagram Oedo at
• 29:14
  oedo.co, obviously my personal intergram, Instagram GE under
• 29:18
  score erales. You know, we promote a lot.
• 29:20
  We we're now selling things like, you know, these beautiful
• 29:23
  stain chain stitch hats from a local artist here, Christina
• 29:29
  Hurt Smith. So we got a few different
• 29:31
  things. We were doing a private at home
• 29:34
  Taco omakase raffle where I, I have a chef that I, that I
• 29:38
  collaborate with, you know, someone like Mike.
• 29:40
  Hey, would you be willing to donate a night in June or July?
• 29:45
  We raffle tickets and then we'll show up to your house.
• 29:47
  We just did one Friday. Yeah.
• 29:49
  We show up to your house and they sit and we bring everything
• 29:52
  and it's like for two. For two.
• 29:55
  OK, so you show up and. We show up, they just sit down
• 29:57
  and and we do a A5 course Taco tasting with mezcal pairing.
• 30:01
  Who did it? Joseph Gomez did this last one.
• 30:04
  Yeah, yeah. With you, Yeah.
• 30:05
  Yeah, that's cool. So we showed up and it was, it
• 30:08
  was, I mean, this family is this couple, they were just kind of
• 30:11
  like in awe. They're like, you know, we,
• 30:13
  we've never really. I'll do a I'll do a Taco tasting
• 30:15
  for two people. Like, I'll cook with you if you
• 30:17
  want throw, throw me in for a raffle.
• 30:18
  Their, their daughter was just in the background and you know,
• 30:21
  we were pouring them all these different varieties and it was
• 30:24
  fun. It was fun.
• 30:25
  It was, it was a good time. It's a good 'cause you know,
• 30:27
  it's you can get three tickets for 100 bucks.
• 30:31
  That's not bad. So it's not bad.
• 30:32
  If you I need, I need to do that because I have fun.
• 30:34
  Number one, I'm rusty, but I, I, I want to cook with you and it'd
• 30:36
  be fun. I think at the end of the day,
• 30:38
  it's probably at least a $250 meal.
• 30:43
  So for people listening, the the Gabe follow Gabe follow either
• 30:49
  just gonna do a Taco raffle with me, him and Mike.
• 30:52
  Yeah, yeah, the three of us. I would love that.
• 30:54
  Yeah, I mean, I'd love to. I think it's also a good
• 30:56
  opportunity where you get these these fun collaborative things
• 30:59
  of like Mike style cooking and, you know, the amazing things
• 31:02
  Mike's doing at Osseo with Korean and infusion of
• 31:05
  interjection of of Mexican cuisine.
• 31:08
  And and I think that's it's really amazing.
• 31:10
  You know, I've had some. Switching it up, yeah.
• 31:12
  I've had some amazing Mexican Korean dishes at Osseo.
• 31:14
  I love Osseo. So we're trying to keep it fresh
• 31:17
  over there with a little more Texas Mexican flair, but and
• 31:21
  you've had a little bit more freedom on that aspect from.
• 31:24
  It's been nice, Yeah, I'm not going to lie.
• 31:26
  I, I, I love using a lot of the local farms for like Bonchon and
• 31:33
  stuff like that, like that. That has been my sort of
• 31:38
  approach to keeping, yeah, my, my menu a little bit local, but
• 31:43
  yeah, I mean, it's. I think that was the most
• 31:44
  funnest part of the dinner we did together with the Bonchon,
• 31:47
  to be honest. I like the whimsical things that
• 31:51
  we came up with because it was just like, I'm, I'm sort of, you
• 31:54
  know, you get used to your routine and you're like, bring
• 31:56
  somebody else in. And it's like, yeah, I didn't
• 31:59
  think about that. Oh, OK.
• 32:00
  And it's it's nice. Love working with friends.
• 32:04
  Yeah, it was. Fun.
• 32:04
  We did a cool dinner last year that we're we're going to do
• 32:07
  this. Oh yeah.
• 32:07
  We're going to read it. It's for, this is actually for
• 32:09
  a, a Cancer Foundation. Yeah, yeah.
• 32:12
  It's different, different, but it was.
• 32:14
  Another good 'cause, another great cause.
• 32:17
  We'll have to. That's dope.
• 32:19
  Bring you up to speed on that. But it was cool.
• 32:21
  We did kind of this intersection of Mexican, Korean.
• 32:24
  It was really natural for us and we had a big it was like about
• 32:29
  50 people. It was about 60 or 60.
• 32:33
  No, it was more we were looking for 80, right?
• 32:35
  That's right. Yeah, It was like, yeah, it was
• 32:37
  a 70, something like. That and then we had these huge
• 32:40
  auction, you know, they were auctioning off a Taylor Swift
• 32:42
  sign guitar and like all kinds of stuff.
• 32:44
  Really. Yeah, it was cool.
• 32:45
  What was the one you just did? Didn't you just do one with with
• 32:48
  Jake? Yeah, that was.
• 32:50
  Or we did. Jake and my friend James Wayman
• 32:52
  and I, we did that in in Rhode Island.
• 32:55
  That was an OIDO benefit, didn't it?
• 32:56
  How was that? That was fun.
• 32:58
  It was great. I mean, going to a different
• 33:00
  part of the country and you know, a country that a part of
• 33:04
  the country where they're probably less apartment to
• 33:06
  understand about what we're doing in Mexico.
• 33:08
  But nonetheless, people that love traveling to Mexico.
• 33:10
  And it's like beyond embracing the culture and the cuisine and
• 33:13
  the vacation, how can I find a way to get back?
• 33:15
  And I think it's an opportunity to educate.
• 33:17
  So there's a big educational component like not just
• 33:19
  educating the the students, but also educating the public.
• 33:22
  Yeah, for sure. Yeah.
• 33:23
  I'm just shocked that there's not more support from the Mexico
• 33:28
  side that I mean, but it makes sense.
• 33:31
  You know, I get I get why, but it just it just would be nice if
• 33:36
  it was, I don't know, embrace a little bit more locally, but
• 33:40
  like it is tough to yeah, it's especially using your hurt your
• 33:45
  with Hershey's or Nestle example.
• 33:48
  But yeah, I mean, I think there's no lack of support from
• 33:51
  chefs, but it's big corporations and big money and, and things
• 33:57
  like that. And, you know, and I've only
• 33:59
  been at the helm of the organization for a little less
• 34:03
  than a year. So I'm still learning and still
• 34:04
  trying to. But I think that, you know, also
• 34:07
  for for example, like trying to do a benefit dinner in Mexico
• 34:12
  for $200 a ticket, like that's a big ask in Mexico versus, you
• 34:17
  know, trying to do that in the US So it's a different, it's a
• 34:20
  just a different way to approach things.
• 34:22
  I mean, it's almost better to ask for money here.
• 34:25
  Yeah, it's, I mean it really for yeah.
• 34:28
  I mean, I think one of the things we find we're more
• 34:30
  successful at Mexico is in kind donations that are like, you
• 34:34
  know, computers or yeah, product for the for the school or, you
• 34:39
  know, we'll come paint the school for free or something
• 34:41
  like that. Yeah.
• 34:42
  That tour sounds fun. You guys are always welcome and
• 34:46
  you, one of the things that I want to get into doing is, and
• 34:49
  I'm trying because I, I feel like I'm so overwhelmed is I'm
• 34:52
  trying to create this chef ambassador program where every
• 34:56
  time we book one of these tours, like I don't need to be the guy
• 34:59
  leading it. And I can be like, you're going
• 35:01
  with Chef Mike Diaz this time. Mike, you're going dude, you're,
• 35:04
  you're, I'm, I'm surprised you said you do all that stuff and
• 35:09
  you're like a dad. You got 3 kids.
• 35:12
  And you got a restaurant. Yeah, it's a lie.
• 35:15
  I mean, it's, I mean, I felt it this summer and I'm, I'm I Ella,
• 35:20
  the youngest, she took up softball in the in the spring
• 35:23
  and she was a natural and she's a lot.
• 35:25
  I was just, she was like such a little Princess Barbie girl.
• 35:28
  She came home one day and and not to diverge by any means, but
• 35:31
  she came home one day and she's like, daddy, I got to play
• 35:34
  softball. And I was like, what, what are
• 35:35
  you talking about? She's like, yeah, you know,
• 35:37
  Katie, and so and so are playing softball.
• 35:39
  Can you sign me up for softball? So, you know, we investigate it.
• 35:42
  We sign her up, she ends up doing amazing, like natural,
• 35:47
  natural loves it. She wants to practice on her own
• 35:50
  time. And that's just like, if they
• 35:52
  want to do it on their own time, that's huge for me, right?
• 35:54
  So, so this summer I'm like, OK, I got to find her another league
• 35:57
  to keep the momentum going and I try and sign her up in the
• 36:00
  commissioner emails. She's like, hey, we're all full.
• 36:01
  But if you coach, we'll find a place for her on the team.
• 36:05
  So here I find myself coaching her softball team this.
• 36:09
  I I it's funny 'cause every time I see you or I'll text you, so
• 36:13
  people that are listening, like I'll text Gabe, the first thing
• 36:16
  I always ask is are you free 'cause I, I don't know, like now
• 36:19
  I'm at an airport. No, I'm traveling, but that's
• 36:22
  usually the first question I ask.
• 36:23
  Like do you have a second 'cause I'm always thinking like I
• 36:25
  don't, I don't even know where you are.
• 36:26
  You might be in Mexico, you might be in New York, you might
• 36:29
  be in Washington, you might be in Austin.
• 36:30
  I have no idea. But you're honestly one of the
• 36:33
  busiest people I know you're always traveling, but the but
• 36:36
  the crazy thing is I'll I'll text.
• 36:39
  I was like you free. It's like, I always got time for
• 36:41
  you and I'm like, I don't know how you say that.
• 36:43
  Like I, I. Mean, I think that's part of, I
• 36:46
  don't know, I think in this, in this industry, it's and we've
• 36:49
  probably had a deeper conversation on this and, and
• 36:52
  Mike, you could probably chime in, but I feel like it's very
• 36:56
  easy to be in an industry where people only want you when they
• 37:00
  need something. Yeah, yeah.
• 37:02
  And it's very important to make it feel reciprocated where I'm
• 37:07
  not just calling you because I want you to host me at the
• 37:09
  dinner. It's just like, I wanna be
• 37:10
  there. I wanna show up for you.
• 37:11
  Yeah, and I wanna show up for you.
• 37:13
  And like, you know, there's also, I mean, we all know
• 37:16
  there's times when you need something and it's just like the
• 37:20
  response on the other end is if it doesn't really benefit me, I
• 37:22
  don't really think it serves me. And it's like.
• 37:25
  That's fucked up. It is, yeah.
• 37:27
  Or. If you're not, you're not wrong,
• 37:28
  dude. And if you're not the hottest
• 37:29
  thing at the moment, then what the fuck do I need to do?
• 37:32
  Right, right. It's like when I was a chef, as
• 37:35
  soon as you walk in the door like, chef, do you got a minute?
• 37:38
  Chef, do you got a minute? It's like, I used to hate that
• 37:40
  because it was never anything for me.
• 37:42
  It was like, oh, can I get a day off?
• 37:43
  Can I get a raise? Can I?
• 37:44
  You know, so and so is being mean to me or hey, we got a leak
• 37:46
  over here. You forgot to order us.
• 37:47
  Like always some shit that I had to deal with.
• 37:49
  Like whenever says chef, you got a minute?
• 37:51
  Yeah, how are you? Like, that never happened.
• 37:53
  How's your day going like that? That doesn't happen.
• 37:56
  But it's funny because the same thing happens in real life.
• 37:58
  Like whenever someone reaches out to me, it's like, fuck do I
• 38:02
  like, what do I have to do? Like, what do they need from me?
• 38:05
  But it's funny because I'll commend Gabe for this because
• 38:09
  this, I don't want to say this has never happened.
• 38:11
  It happens. But it happened recently.
• 38:13
  And it made me think about it, something Gabe did.
• 38:15
  So for people listening, think about what he did.
• 38:18
  Do that. He texted me randomly.
• 38:21
  I don't know if I had been quiet for a while.
• 38:23
  He just checking in, making sure you're good.
• 38:24
  I was like, yeah, I'm good. Why, Why, why are you checking
• 38:26
  in? Like I was just thinking about
• 38:28
  you just making sure you're good.
• 38:29
  We talked for a little bit, but the thing was is I wasn't good.
• 38:33
  Like I wasn't good at that moment.
• 38:35
  I was like stressed. I was pissed off or like
• 38:36
  something was going on with me and like, no, no, it was like it
• 38:40
  was like a month ago. It was like a month ago.
• 38:42
  I don't know you. You know what I'm talking about.
• 38:44
  Yeah, he just checked in and I was like, no one checks in like
• 38:48
  that. Like, hey, just are you good?
• 38:51
  And I think chefs need to check in on their chef friends
• 38:54
  occasionally instead of just always hitting them up for
• 38:56
  something. I think you're right.
• 38:58
  There's there's always like whenever you like.
• 39:02
  I always whenever I feel like taken for granted at work, you
• 39:05
  know, I'm like, fuck, I'm like I it would be nice to get a chef.
• 39:11
  Thanks for that or whatever. I always feel like, and I always
• 39:15
  kind of start getting a little salty about, you know, whatever.
• 39:18
  And then it's funny, like I have this, this reaction and, and
• 39:22
  when I do get that, like, you know, reassurance or whatever
• 39:26
  validation and I'm not, I don't want it, you know, but it's it's
• 39:32
  like, yeah, we definitely need to check in on homies.
• 39:36
  Who else is going to understand you better than, you know, a, a
• 39:40
  fellow homie that's, you know, in the trenches or has been
• 39:43
  through that same shit as you have?
• 39:45
  And, and yeah, a lot of the times, you know, you don't get
• 39:48
  that, you know, it's always like, hey dude, you know, you
• 39:51
  got to, you got to do that can wash dishes for me or, or, you
• 39:55
  know, like. We don't want to check in with
• 39:56
  other chefs because we just assume they're busy like.
• 39:58
  Yeah, what am I going to like? Why am I going to check on?
• 40:00
  He's probably working the line. He's probably doing service.
• 40:03
  Like I'm not going to bother him.
• 40:04
  But but when, you know, Gabe checked in on me, like it felt
• 40:08
  good because like people don't really check in on me, right?
• 40:11
  Someone else that did that was Chef Barton Seaver a year, you
• 40:15
  know, a while back he checked in on me.
• 40:17
  So shout out to Barton Sieber. He reached out and was like,
• 40:19
  hey, just checking in to make sure you're good.
• 40:22
  Hope you're doing well. Let me know if you need it.
• 40:23
  I don't remember. It was like really nice.
• 40:25
  And I was like, what is what does he need?
• 40:28
  I messed like, what's up, chef? Are you good?
• 40:29
  Like, what do you need? Nothing like nothing.
• 40:31
  Just want to check on you and make sure you're good.
• 40:34
  And I thought about this like, yeah, we don't do that at chefs.
• 40:37
  We don't we don't check in and just hey, make sure you're good.
• 40:40
  I know I don't do it. I'm bad at it.
• 40:42
  I thought about this not that long ago, which was having, I
• 40:47
  don't know, like like a support group for like chefs to kind of
• 40:51
  like, you know, other chef fellas called bar chefs.
• 40:59
  Never mind everybody. Right here, everybody goes and
• 41:02
  bitches. No, I, I.
• 41:04
  Know, but there's. There could be like a chef A, a.
• 41:06
  But what about like the There's so many people that like like
• 41:10
  drinking is does the opposite, you know, like where it's like,
• 41:14
  fuck. Well, that's how it's been done.
• 41:15
  Yeah, yeah. It's like you just like.
• 41:17
  You don't work at the same restaurant, you end up at the
• 41:19
  same spot. Throw alcohol at it and shit but
• 41:21
  it's like I think it's. There's a.
• 41:24
  I'm feeling it. I'm trying to take better care
• 41:28
  of myself and trying to like not, you know, do the what I was
• 41:32
  doing in my late 20s, early 30s. And it's sometimes it's just
• 41:37
  like, you know, like let's just. What do you do to unwind?
• 41:40
  Like when when you say like, hey, I just want to I just want
• 41:43
  to fucking chill. I want to unwind.
• 41:45
  What does that look like for you to like de stress?
• 41:48
  Well, I am like a lot of cooks thoroughly enjoy cooking at home
• 41:55
  like that to me is is along with like gardening and and and just
• 42:01
  I'm a tinker. I just fuck around and I like
• 42:03
  take shit apart. Like I, you know, I taught
• 42:07
  myself how to woodwork and you know, gardening is is is a
• 42:12
  really therapeutic thing for me. I have a shit ton of plants.
• 42:16
  I do a lot of, I don't know, just like self, sort of like,
• 42:22
  you know, care. I mean, is self-care working out
• 42:25
  like just not, you know, thinking that I can eat like I'm
• 42:30
  fucking 18 again, you know? But my, my, my Zen place is my
• 42:36
  garden for sure. Yeah, just gardening.
• 42:37
  Yeah, just alone or like. Just by myself with my dog.
• 42:41
  No, I mean Laura, Laura's. Laura's she loves to cook too
• 42:46
  and and you know, like that's it's our favorite restaurant in
• 42:50
  town, our our own kitchen. But unwinding for sure.
• 42:56
  For me, it would be just like having a white claw in the
• 42:59
  hammock in the backyard and fucking just chilling by the
• 43:02
  garden man. Like I don't need much these
• 43:04
  days. I don't need to like, go have a,
• 43:08
  you know, shot in a beer after work every night.
• 43:10
  I don't. Mind, I don't mind a drink I'll
• 43:12
  have like a old fashioned or Tequila I.
• 43:14
  Love it. I'm.
• 43:15
  OK, like for me, I'll chill with a cigar.
• 43:18
  Like I know people are like, oh, cigar.
• 43:20
  No, I like cigars. Like for me, that's my thing.
• 43:23
  I want to smoke a cigar. I want to chill.
• 43:26
  I don't mind being at a bar if it's like a quiet bar where I
• 43:29
  could have a conversation because I don't like being in
• 43:31
  loud places because I if I'm at a bar with someone I want to
• 43:34
  have a conversation with, I don't just want to look at
• 43:35
  people like so if I go to somewhere chill, I want to smoke
• 43:38
  a cigar. The my best spot in Austin is
• 43:41
  the rooftop at the Fairmont. The 7th floor.
• 43:43
  The rooftop bar were good Mexican food.
• 43:46
  Is that was that your mandatory Fairmont?
• 43:48
  No, no, no, they don't pay me. They.
• 43:50
  Don't pay me. But there's no mandatory plug.
• 43:52
  I'm just shouting them out because it is a good spot.
• 43:55
  Like honestly, I think it's. Easy.
• 43:56
  We need to know the food actually.
• 43:58
  Foods good, looks good, so let. You smoke up there.
• 44:00
  Yeah, they have like a pre prohibition cigars.
• 44:06
  Okay, Yeah, they have a great cigar program.
• 44:08
  You need to teach me about cigars because I don't know shit
• 44:10
  about cigars. Honestly, the only thing that
• 44:12
  you got to know about cigars is the.
• 44:14
  Only. Thing you got to learn about
• 44:16
  cigars is just show up someone that knows how to smoke a cigar
• 44:19
  or just take your time and enjoy it like it's it's something to
• 44:23
  enjoy. But I like like for me, if I'm
• 44:25
  going to unwind, I'll be like let's go to the let's go
• 44:27
  somewhere where it's where we could talk still like the
• 44:30
  music's not so loud that I can't hear you.
• 44:32
  We can smoke a cigar. I can have a drink.
• 44:33
  I'm not trying to get hammered. I just want to have a drink and
• 44:36
  I want to enjoy the company of the people that I'm with with
• 44:38
  good conversation. I like that's what bars I.
• 44:40
  Like that bars what? What?
• 44:42
  Where do you like to go? I love mezcal.
• 44:47
  I mean, I know it's your happy place.
• 44:48
  Mezcal, I mean I. It's it's I love mezcal, but.
• 44:52
  Same. I've kind of been really, really
• 44:55
  focused on not having more than, you know, one or two drinks a
• 44:59
  week at Max. Like somebody like right now I'm
• 45:02
  like on a almost a four week stretch of no alcohol just
• 45:06
  because I'm. Trying to like.
• 45:07
  I've just been really, really trying to focus in on like my
• 45:10
  health and like, you know, certain things that make me feel
• 45:14
  better. But for example, Friday we did
• 45:17
  this dinner and I went out and bought like 6 amazing bottles of
• 45:22
  agave and we're pouring and we're taking little tiny ships.
• 45:26
  But it's much different now. But I think my happy place is
• 45:31
  just like hanging out with my kids and cooking and and reading
• 45:35
  and things like that. Exercising for sure.
• 45:37
  I love swimming right now and and running.
• 45:40
  Going back, going back to the check in thing.
• 45:42
  How does that? It made me wonder, Mike, how
• 45:44
  does that work with you and Laura, since you both work
• 45:47
  together, you're both chefs. Like, do you feel like you guys
• 45:51
  get home? Like her checking in with you is
• 45:54
  not the same as like Andre Klein and checking in with you.
• 45:58
  No, it's or. Does it would it's do you think
• 46:01
  that that would still be like you still need that that
• 46:05
  discussion with someone outside of your relationship because it
• 46:08
  is in the business? Of I'm lucky, honestly, you're,
• 46:11
  you're bringing up a good point. I'm lucky because Laura's also a
• 46:13
  chef and I can vent to her and like, in real time.
• 46:19
  She's a voice of reason. We'll put you in your.
• 46:21
  Place for sure, for sure, absolutely no, that's 100% true.
• 46:26
  But at the same time, I feel like there is like, so like
• 46:32
  everybody's different, but the dynamic that we have at home
• 46:36
  versus the dynamic at work, right?
• 46:39
  Like, because we will both work together.
• 46:41
  And so that that's very much like, you know, a respectful,
• 46:47
  you know, like professional, like I have my moments just like
• 46:51
  everybody else, because I'm, you know, I'm stubborn from time to
• 46:55
  time. And she is very much the voice
• 46:56
  of reason. But when we check in at home,
• 46:59
  it's like, hey, like it's kind of like, hey, we're, this is, we
• 47:04
  need to talk about this and, and how to like, let's figure it
• 47:08
  out. It's very, it's a very like
• 47:10
  straightforward, logical, just like, you know, like, hey, I
• 47:14
  didn't like that shit you did at work.
• 47:16
  And you're right, that was fucked up.
• 47:18
  And and then I won't do that. And but it's but it, but, but I
• 47:22
  do have like moments where I I need to be like, hey, I'm
• 47:26
  feeling underappreciated right now.
• 47:28
  And then she'll be, you know, the voice of reason with, with
• 47:32
  that, where it's like, you know, you do a lot, you're right.
• 47:36
  And we're not, you know, giving you that validation that you
• 47:42
  need to. And I don't need a lot of
• 47:43
  validation, but you know what I mean?
• 47:44
  Like, just like acknowledging that like, you know, shit just
• 47:48
  doesn't happen. You know, people, you know,
• 47:51
  product just doesn't appear or that person's not happy.
• 47:56
  And, and, you know, they get spoken to in the right time at
• 48:00
  the right about the right thing. And yeah.
• 48:05
  And a lot of, a lot of times I've, I'm like, what would this,
• 48:09
  what would this place be if I wasn't here?
• 48:11
  And then Laura's right there. Just be like you.
• 48:16
  You're definitely like the main reason or a huge reason as to
• 48:21
  why this place runs smoothly. And it's like, OK.
• 48:24
  And then sometimes it's just like, hey, like I'm, I'm, I'm
• 48:28
  kind of bummed out and I don't, you know, I'm not motivated
• 48:31
  right now. We kind of have to balance each
• 48:35
  other out where it's where she's because it goes for the most
• 48:38
  ways, right? She, she feels like not
• 48:41
  unmotivated or down on herself for, you know, whatever reason.
• 48:46
  And I have to be the bigger person and just be there for her
• 48:49
  and, and be supportive. And then and I'm I'm lucky
• 48:52
  because we have that dynamic. Not a lot of people have that
• 48:54
  dynamic. My ex-girlfriend was in law
• 48:58
  school and she was like, she had no idea what I would go through
• 49:03
  on a daily as a chef. And so I guess that in that
• 49:07
  regard, I'm very lucky that I have that at home.
• 49:10
  Yeah, I think a lot of chefs should check in with other
• 49:14
  chefs, like check in with especially the ones that mean
• 49:17
  something to you, right? I think maybe it was taboo years
• 49:21
  ago and everyone was in taboo. It was just like you didn't
• 49:24
  think about it. I think now we know better
• 49:26
  checking with your your chefs because we all know it's a hard,
• 49:29
  it's a grind. Yeah, right.
• 49:31
  Yeah, I think it's and. It feels good.
• 49:32
  Like I was so happy that Gabe checked in on me or whoever
• 49:35
  checks in on me. Like it made me feel good.
• 49:37
  Like I was like, holy shit, someone's checking on me.
• 49:40
  Normally people are hitting me up because they need something.
• 49:42
  Well, it's look at us talking about like how it's taboo and
• 49:45
  it's like being vulnerable is taboo.
• 49:48
  Like that's, it's, it's more accepted now where it's like,
• 49:52
  you know, I don't want to sound like current events or anything,
• 49:56
  but it's like, yeah, now it's looked as more of a, a positive
• 50:02
  than, you know, a weakness. Yeah.
• 50:05
  Yeah, I think, I think there is a situation recently where, you
• 50:11
  know, I've, I've had, I've become close friends with, with,
• 50:15
  you know, chefs that work for me in the past and we've maintained
• 50:17
  that relationship. But I feel like they always come
• 50:21
  to me for guidance and advice and, you know, for, for support
• 50:27
  and, you know, all those things. And there was a moment where I
• 50:30
  was like in the middle of this conversation and, and one of the
• 50:32
  one of these chefs was like, well, how are things with you?
• 50:36
  And I was, you know, mentally I was kind of in another place and
• 50:38
  I was, you know, feeling a little bummed about a few
• 50:41
  things. And I, I hesitated and I was
• 50:43
  like, should I share this with somebody that I feel looks up to
• 50:48
  me? And, you know, I'm a, I'm a role
• 50:50
  model lead too. And I didn't share.
• 50:52
  And I was like, you know, and I left and I was like, man, that
• 50:56
  was kind of a pussy move. I was like, because I'm, I'm
• 50:59
  not, you know, I got to show that I'm vulnerable and that I
• 51:02
  fail and do things like that. Yeah.
• 51:04
  So that, that actually weighed heavy on my mind for a while.
• 51:06
  And I was like, why didn't I, you know, share that, you know,
• 51:09
  I was going through this or that so.
• 51:12
  Well, it could be a like in that moment, like now it's.
• 51:15
  Different with a peer versus someone that you think looks up
• 51:17
  to you is you know comes to you for guidance and.
• 51:20
  It could, yeah. It could have been like
• 51:21
  something that like if you would have told them that, yeah, maybe
• 51:23
  it would have like been more impressionable.
• 51:28
  Yeah, no, for sure, but I get it.
• 51:30
  I have a friend that psychoanalyzed my podcast and he
• 51:34
  said that I'm working out my issues through the through the
• 51:37
  podcast. Like what I thought, OK, that's
• 51:41
  an interesting perspective. But like, are you?
• 51:43
  I don't know. I have a love hate relationship
• 51:47
  with being a chef. I'll tell you that because I
• 51:50
  love being a chef. But there's a lot about the
• 51:52
  industry that I don't love. And that's honestly why I
• 51:55
  started this podcast was to hopefully have some of those
• 51:58
  conversations with people that I wish people had with me.
• 52:01
  Yeah. And so I, I think like, so maybe
• 52:06
  I am working some of that out, but for the next generation, you
• 52:09
  know, so that they don't make some of the same mistakes, like
• 52:11
  because I feel like in the generation when I came up, there
• 52:13
  was a lot of gatekeeping, you know, like people were reluctant
• 52:16
  to share knowledge. And it wasn't that they were
• 52:18
  necessarily reluctant, but it was also, it's busy.
• 52:21
  Like no one had time to, you know, we didn't have the
• 52:24
  Internet as much, right. And now it's like, OK, well, now
• 52:27
  I have this platform where I could share some of the mistakes
• 52:30
  that I've made, you know, teach them about food cost earlier in
• 52:34
  their career. Like, hey, it's important.
• 52:36
  It's not that important, but it is important.
• 52:38
  Teach them how to maybe avoid some of the the marketing
• 52:41
  pitfalls that they may have. Like whatever mistake I made
• 52:43
  along the way, if I could help someone that I feel good about
• 52:46
  that because like, I, I guess I'm trying to say is like I'm
• 52:50
  trying to be that chef that I needed.
• 52:52
  Yeah. Some some of the things I I, I
• 52:55
  don't have a love hate relationship with being a chef,
• 52:58
  but I, I feel like I don't want to have that.
• 53:02
  Like I have these regrets and stuff.
• 53:04
  But I do think about like when I was a young cook and how much I
• 53:10
  broke my back for others and how much like I could have broken my
• 53:15
  back in the same way. But like, you know, just more of
• 53:18
  a for me, more to where not that I'm not in a good place right
• 53:24
  now, but I think I just like, but I don't want to look at it
• 53:27
  as like, fuck, I, I regret that, you know, I but I do, I do feel
• 53:31
  like man, like I, I was, I was always under the impression that
• 53:34
  like I was going to meet a chef and they're going to take me
• 53:38
  under their wing and they're going to whip me in the shape.
• 53:41
  And then I just never found that chef or that chef never like
• 53:45
  took me under his wing or whatever.
• 53:47
  So like in, in that regard, I felt like, like I'm supposed to
• 53:51
  be doing what I'm supposed to be doing in order to get to find
• 53:55
  that chef. And then along the way it just
• 53:58
  like it never happened. And then I just was like, oh, I
• 54:01
  guess fuck, this is my, this is my, my story or my, my journey
• 54:06
  and I made the best of it. But I think if we had some
• 54:09
  guidance like to to be like, Hey, knucklehead, like really
• 54:13
  focus on advocating for yourself versus versus just like keep
• 54:19
  your head down, shut up and then work there for a year and then
• 54:22
  ask for a raise. You know, like that's, that's
• 54:25
  not the mentality anymore. I think my biggest piece of
• 54:27
  advice to to cooks. Who?
• 54:31
  Consider me a mentor is be selfish for yourself always.
• 54:35
  Always, Yeah. Like in terms of your career, be
• 54:39
  selfish. You're like, yeah, if you think
• 54:41
  it's better for your career, like think about yourself first.
• 54:44
  I agree. Do you do you think because
• 54:46
  that's that's interesting because another way to also
• 54:49
  think about it is like sometimes I've had cooks that work for me
• 54:54
  that want to be selfish for their career.
• 54:55
  And they'll say that like I'm being selfish for me.
• 54:57
  But I know they're making a bad decision.
• 54:59
  And it's like the the wiser chef in me is saying, look, I'm not
• 55:02
  telling you this because I want to keep you to manipulate you or
• 55:06
  to prevent you from growing. But I know that give you an
• 55:09
  example. I had someone that worked for me
• 55:11
  that wanted to quit working, you know, in a fine dining
• 55:15
  restaurant so they could go be like a sous chef in something
• 55:19
  that wasn't going to benefit them, but they wanted the title.
• 55:22
  And they were going to say, I'm going to kind of go work at this
• 55:23
  crappy restaurant just so I could say I'm a sous chef.
• 55:26
  So like, I know you want to do that and I know you want the
• 55:28
  title really bad. And I know it's, you know, a
• 55:30
  dollar more, but trust me, six months here will land you the
• 55:34
  bigger job versus that one because you're going to get
• 55:37
  stuck there. You're going to get stuck in
• 55:39
  pigeonholed in this kind of, you know, type of restaurant that I
• 55:42
  already know you don't want to be in.
• 55:44
  You're more after the title. So so I guess my question to
• 55:46
  you, Gabe, is like, at what point?
• 55:49
  How do you how do you teach someone to be able to say like,
• 55:52
  look out for you, but you might not always be right?
• 55:56
  Yeah. I mean, I think, I think it's
• 55:57
  always a situational impact. But when I when I mean be
• 56:00
  selfish for yourself, I think that consider how it's going to
• 56:05
  impact your personal life more than someone else's, you know?
• 56:10
  Yeah. So it's not always when I say be
• 56:13
  selfish for yourself, it's not always about don't listen to
• 56:17
  what the guidance a mentor someone is giving you, but you
• 56:20
  should think about how it's how it impacts your, your
• 56:23
  trajectory, your career, things like that.
• 56:26
  That's a good point. I, I think one of the best
• 56:29
  things a young chef could do, or I mean that you don't even have
• 56:32
  to be a young chef, just a chef is have a mentor if you can.
• 56:36
  Maybe you're not in a position where you have a mentor, but
• 56:38
  have a friend that's honest with you like like another chef,
• 56:42
  someone that's in the industry, that they could be honest with
• 56:45
  you and say, hey, that maybe you're wrong or maybe you're
• 56:47
  right. Like, because I, I think a lot
• 56:49
  of times people are making decisions and yeah, they're,
• 56:54
  they're, you're not thinking about the bigger picture all the
• 56:57
  time. And it's really easy to get lost
• 56:59
  in that. And sometimes they need someone
• 57:00
  like Gabe or like you or like me to that has no vested interest
• 57:05
  in like, like, I guess what I'm trying to say is that mentor,
• 57:10
  you don't necessarily work for them, right?
• 57:12
  So like they don't have any financial incentive.
• 57:14
  They have no incentive. Yeah, that's where that's where
• 57:16
  I was in this position. Yeah, yeah, that's what you
• 57:18
  want. And that's and that was just
• 57:20
  like, man. I mean, I was thinking of your
• 57:21
  example is like, you know you you're when you know that
• 57:25
  person's going to make or could put potentially be making a
• 57:29
  mistake, right? Like sometimes you there, you
• 57:34
  can't control that, even if you did tell them that.
• 57:37
  And so like they just got it. They have to be honest with
• 57:40
  themselves about it. You know, like I had a friend
• 57:43
  that used to, it's kind of bullshit, like his way through
• 57:48
  like situations. It was like early on in my
• 57:51
  career as play like right out of culinary school.
• 57:53
  And it was and it was like one of the most frustrating things
• 57:57
  for my my friend was his his chef and he was just a cook.
• 58:01
  He was, but everything was like every excuse here for that.
• 58:08
  And, you know, like never taking ownership of what he what he was
• 58:13
  being called out on. And it was just like a
• 58:15
  frustrating thing for her to have to deal with that kind of
• 58:19
  shit. So, like, the more you're honest
• 58:21
  with yourself about like, instead of just being like, I
• 58:24
  think I know that this is the right move because it's like
• 58:27
  what Gabe's hands like, yeah, be selfish.
• 58:29
  Make that, make that move for yourself, but don't do it at the
• 58:34
  expense of just like, no, I know what I'm doing.
• 58:37
  I know what I'm doing. It's just like, and, and it's
• 58:40
  like you, you're, you're probably seeing something that
• 58:43
  they're not seeing because of your experience or somebody
• 58:46
  else's experience. And, and, and just, it fucks you
• 58:50
  up. So like just be, just be honest
• 58:52
  with yourself about like what it is that you're that you're
• 58:55
  trying to do and, and, and not bullshit yourself through
• 58:59
  something that's like clearly, you know, hey, I don't know, I
• 59:04
  don't fucking know how the what's going to happen with
• 59:06
  this. You know what, you're right.
• 59:07
  I'm going to take your advices. But yeah, you can't really
• 59:10
  control somebody if they're just like, set on what they're going
• 59:13
  to do. So I, I haven't, by the way, I
• 59:17
  think between the two of you and Rico have been on the podcast
• 59:20
  the most more than except for me, right.
• 59:23
  So I think this is your third time.
• 59:24
  It's your third time, right? I.
• 59:25
  Think so, yeah. So one of the questions that
• 59:28
  I've never asked. So a lot of times when I'm
• 59:30
  wrapping up the podcast, I'm going down into like the station
• 59:33
  setup in your kitchen. So I'm going to ask, but I want
• 59:36
  to both of so it's a question, but questions for both of you in
• 59:40
  your kitchen when you're when you're setting up your station,
• 59:44
  right? What is what's on your
• 59:46
  workstation? I'll start with Gabe.
• 59:49
  Is my station a station? Or no, no, like you finish it.
• 59:52
  Let's say you're finishing at the pass.
• 59:54
  Yeah. So we're expoing.
• 59:59
  Sure, yeah. Or am I on a station?
• 1:00:03
  I don't know. Let's just say, let's just say
• 1:00:05
  when you're at work, where do you work?
• 1:00:07
  I'm usually Expo. OK, so let's assume that, yeah,
• 1:00:11
  let's assume you're running the kitchen.
• 1:00:12
  You're you're you're calling the pass.
• 1:00:16
  I think actually a marker, some plate wipes.
• 1:00:20
  Sharpie. A mark, A sharpie plate wipes.
• 1:00:22
  How do you do your plate? A cake tester.
• 1:00:24
  My preference for plate wipes are diapers cut.
• 1:00:29
  You know the what do you I call them diapers.
• 1:00:32
  So they is super absorbent. Super absorbent like fish
• 1:00:35
  towels, cut fish towels and vodka and a cake tester.
• 1:00:44
  You cut them in squares or did you roll them?
• 1:00:46
  I cut them in squares. Yeah, I cut them in squares
• 1:00:48
  because I find that when you roll them, they come unrolled
• 1:00:53
  and then get all over the place and start looking like a snotty
• 1:00:57
  rag. Yeah, yeah.
• 1:00:58
  So I'd rather just have a nice square that holds 2 fingers.
• 1:01:01
  And it's. One and done.
• 1:01:02
  Yeah, Nice. Because I've seen people roll
• 1:01:04
  them and reuse them and then it just get, I don't know,
• 1:01:07
  preference. Yeah, I think that's it.
• 1:01:09
  I mean, aside from like a situational setup for a
• 1:01:12
  restaurant that's like finishing solids.
• 1:01:14
  And oils. What's the What's the finishing
• 1:01:15
  salt you got like your preference?
• 1:01:18
  I like, you know, for, for, for me, I like Sal de Colima.
• 1:01:23
  What? Is that it's?
• 1:01:24
  Like a salt from Colima, Mexico, Yeah.
• 1:01:26
  Very, very. Is it coarse?
• 1:01:27
  Yeah, it's coarse. Like like Maldon.
• 1:01:29
  No, it's more rocky or Maldon is like flat little flakes.
• 1:01:34
  OK. I love Maldon though.
• 1:01:36
  Yeah. And do do you do like on your
• 1:01:39
  finishing station like a acidity?
• 1:01:41
  Do you use use lemons or citrus, or do you use vinegar like you
• 1:01:48
  had an all-purpose finishing? An all-purpose finishing.
• 1:01:52
  Like in general. I mean, that's tricky for me
• 1:01:55
  because I I think it's so dish dependent.
• 1:01:58
  But if I if I was making an an all-purpose finishing, it would
• 1:02:02
  be some kind of like mild vinegar.
• 1:02:06
  Like how? Like mild ferment.
• 1:02:08
  Yeah, you know, you know, like a ferment brine or something like
• 1:02:12
  that. Yeah.
• 1:02:12
  How? Would you make that?
• 1:02:14
  I'll just take the the brine from something that you
• 1:02:16
  fermented and you know, we usually like reduce it and
• 1:02:19
  clarify it and then you have this like clear looking,
• 1:02:22
  delicious umami acidic liquid. You you clarifying it like by
• 1:02:27
  freezing it or with aggro? Yeah.
• 1:02:29
  Yeah, like freeze clarify now. And what kind of salt are you
• 1:02:34
  using? The kitchen diamond, crystal,
• 1:02:36
  or. I like diamond crystal.
• 1:02:41
  Like Diamond. What about your tape chef?
• 1:02:42
  Is it is it green or is it blue-green?
• 1:02:44
  It's green. Do you cut it?
• 1:02:46
  Cut. Tape with scissors or tape
• 1:02:48
  cutters? Tape cutters?
• 1:02:49
  Tape cutters. OK, All right.
• 1:02:51
  Yeah. And what's 1?
• 1:02:52
  And also, I know you're gonna hate this, but I have my my
• 1:02:57
  control to the music in the kitchen.
• 1:02:59
  Yeah. What's what's one thing that you
• 1:03:03
  do in the kitchen, like on your station that you think enhances
• 1:03:06
  flavor? That is like if you want to
• 1:03:08
  sneak in flavor that not a lot of people think about?
• 1:03:15
  I mean, I think for me, one of the things that I like to do is
• 1:03:19
  kind of make an all-purpose, all-purpose like umami seasoning
• 1:03:25
  based again off of like byproduct that I'll usually like
• 1:03:28
  ferment or and then dehydrate and make a powder and I'll make
• 1:03:31
  confused salt or things like that.
• 1:03:33
  So like any leftover ferments that are like.
• 1:03:37
  I mean just for. Example dehydrator.
• 1:03:39
  For example, like like scallion tops or something like that.
• 1:03:43
  Make like a like a Mexican version of like a scallion top
• 1:03:48
  kimchi and then you like ferment that and then you can dehydrate
• 1:03:52
  and make this like amazing acidic umami powder that can put
• 1:03:56
  on anything, things like that. That's good.
• 1:03:59
  All right, chef, let's start with the tape.
• 1:04:01
  All right, use the blue tape or the green.
• 1:04:02
  I'm using blue tape. How dare you?
• 1:04:04
  Yeah, I don't know. Just kidding.
• 1:04:06
  It's just easy. Yeah.
• 1:04:08
  Do you got my? I got my.
• 1:04:09
  Cut it there. I do cut it.
• 1:04:11
  With tape cutters or with scissors?
• 1:04:12
  No, I got a tape cutter just yeah, you know, just the
• 1:04:17
  standard tape cutter that fits the blue.
• 1:04:20
  What's What's the salt? I like coarse sea salt.
• 1:04:25
  The Korean coarse sea salt, it's just like, it's real chunky and
• 1:04:29
  and. So is that like your all-purpose
• 1:04:31
  salt in all of the stations? Well, it's it.
• 1:04:34
  I use that to ferment like any of the kimchi or.
• 1:04:38
  Is it a specific brand? It's just like Aussie brand,
• 1:04:42
  it's like a Korean brand, but they they use coarse sea salt
• 1:04:47
  just because of the natural like bacteria on it.
• 1:04:51
  But it actually works really well as a finishing salt.
• 1:04:55
  Yeah. So is it the same salt that you
• 1:04:58
  use to season meat as well as finish it?
• 1:05:03
  No, I just use for well, I'm kind of weird cuz I marinate a
• 1:05:08
  lot of my meats in like soy based stuff, but just diamond,
• 1:05:14
  diamond, diamond crystal, crystal for kosher salt and then
• 1:05:18
  pepper. But like that other one is for
• 1:05:21
  finishing. And I like having like chili
• 1:05:23
  oil. Yeah, I was going to just like
• 1:05:25
  be a mammone and just be like I need the lemon in the little
• 1:05:29
  lemon sock. When I was when I was working at
• 1:05:34
  Jeffrey's and I had a kid like or a person set up all the
• 1:05:40
  garnish for me and it was kind of dope because they they had to
• 1:05:44
  do all the like the little square wipes and everything they
• 1:05:48
  so I just would just walk in and everything be all set up for me.
• 1:05:51
  I mean, I liked it. I mean, for me, I've always made
• 1:05:54
  it so that the food runner sets up things for that, yeah.
• 1:05:59
  But it's like as long as you have like like I'm with Gabe.
• 1:06:02
  I like making like infusions. I thought like the the remember
• 1:06:05
  that the fur khaki we made with the corn that would be like a
• 1:06:10
  really good, it was just like spent fermented corn that we
• 1:06:14
  like fried and made like corn nuts out of and then and then
• 1:06:18
  ground that up with like black lime.
• 1:06:21
  And yeah, I just like a bunch of other stuff.
• 1:06:24
  And it was very mommy. But that would that would be
• 1:06:26
  like a nice like crispy thing that could go on a lot of stuff.
• 1:06:31
  What's your like go to finishing acidity?
• 1:06:34
  Is it lemon? Is it vinegar?
• 1:06:38
  I I like, I like like a like a like a like a chili vinegar, you
• 1:06:45
  know, kind of like a like a spicy vinegar, like like what
• 1:06:48
  you would get for dim sum. Yeah, I like that that that
• 1:06:51
  always. But I I think like lemon juice
• 1:06:54
  to me is like freshly squeezed lemon juice in so.
• 1:06:58
  You have that on the past, like finishing.
• 1:07:00
  Stuff just I would say my most utilized finishing condiment is
• 1:07:08
  roasted kelp oil for both savory and sweet, really roasted kelp.
• 1:07:13
  That was something. And that was something I learned
• 1:07:15
  elsewhere. But taking, you know, kelp,
• 1:07:19
  roasting it hard in the in the oven until it starts to blister.
• 1:07:22
  Yeah. And then make it an infused oil.
• 1:07:24
  Just throw it in the blood like. Kombu just like kombu or like.
• 1:07:27
  Yeah, I mean, there's different kinds of kelp, but kombu works
• 1:07:29
  too. Clean it up.
• 1:07:31
  And then you roast it until it starts to blister.
• 1:07:33
  And then you make an infused oil with that.
• 1:07:35
  And it's just like if you emulsify that into a sauce or
• 1:07:39
  you drizzle it on ice cream or it's just like it's it has a
• 1:07:43
  very unique flavor that goes with anything.
• 1:07:46
  It's like instant I gotta. Try that, Mommy.
• 1:07:48
  I gotta try that. Yeah, that sounds good.
• 1:07:51
  Well, chefs, before we wrap up, where can people find you?
• 1:07:54
  And I know they know where to find.
• 1:07:55
  You've been on before, but just tell them again.
• 1:07:57
  Well, you can come see us at Oseo over there on East Cesar
• 1:08:01
  Chavez. In Austin, TX.
• 1:08:04
  Austin, TX. We're open every day except for
• 1:08:08
  Monday. Awesome chef.
• 1:08:11
  Yeah, I look us up for our nonprofit supporting youth of my
• 1:08:16
  communities in Cantoniqui, New Mexico, the Yucatan
• 1:08:19
  oedo.cooido.co also have a Tex Mex project up in the greater DC
• 1:08:27
  area called O Mateo OMETEO and super fun project working with
• 1:08:33
  Long Hotshot Hospitality. Yeah.
• 1:08:37
  Awesome. Thank you everyone.
• 1:08:40
  Thank you. Well, I hope you enjoyed the
• 1:08:42
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