Latest / Chef's PSA Podcast / Chef Burnout & Kitchen Wellness: A Conversation with Harold Villarosa & Beto Ortiz Ep. 160

Transcript

Chef Burnout & Kitchen Wellness: A Conversation with Harold Villarosa & Beto Ortiz Ep. 160 · Chef's PSA Podcast

0:00
Hello chefs, this is chef PSA. I'm your host Andre Natara.
0:02
On today's episode, we welcome back Chef Harold Villa Rosa from
0:06
OGO in Austin, TX. We also have Beto Ortiz, founder
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of Humans of the Kitchen and the 86 Challenge.
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We talked about something that doesn't get talked about enough,
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mental health and Wellness in the culinary world, pressure
0:19
burnout. This is an important episode.
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It's been one of the most highly requested, so I think you'll
0:25
enjoy it. Stay tuned.
0:38
We're reporting. So Chef, you could, you could go
0:40
ahead and tell the story. Yeah, so a long time ago when I
0:44
used to still drink and party back in New York in the Lower
0:48
East Side, there was a moment when we partied all night.
0:52
And it was one of those nights where we just got our checks and
0:56
we were going to blow it. And we definitely, you know,
1:00
went crazy at the bars and I ended up not going home.
1:05
And I just ended up sleeping in the bushes in front of the
1:08
restaurant because I had to work brunch the next day.
1:11
And the only reason why I woke up is because his dishwasher
1:13
woke me up and told me that it was time to get in And and then.
1:17
Get the You slept because you slept directly in the bushes in.
1:19
The bushes in front of the restaurant?
1:20
Yes, because it was the softest part of the of the block.
1:25
And I'm assuming you went out with the the crew?
1:27
Oh, yeah, Everybody. We went out with everybody the
1:30
chef, everybody the line cooks on the front of the house.
1:33
And that was when it was like the golden age of New York, you
1:36
know, early 2000 and 10s Elevens where, you know, everybody was
1:41
either, you know, doing cocaine at the bar or at the restaurant,
1:45
or we're drinking. We're doing Jello shots during
1:50
service. And, you know, we used to get
1:52
these things called shorties, and they used to give us small
1:57
glasses of four ounce beers in the beginning of the shift.
2:01
And then at 8 O clock, we get another 4 oz.
2:04
And then at the end of the night, we get to choose a
2:05
cocktail from the menu. And then we stayed at the
2:09
restaurant and we drink. And it was a, it was a, it's an
2:12
ongoing thing for like a few years.
2:14
Yeah. And when you woke up in the in
2:16
the bushes and the dishwasher wakes you up and go when you go
2:18
into the restaurant, like was that like a light bulb moment?
2:21
Yeah, I mean, that happened a few times.
2:24
It was in like a one time thing. But I think after the the 6th
2:31
month of us just like going going through these motions and
2:35
those back in the day when you used to do triples, you know
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what I'm saying? Like you just you just kept
2:40
going, you know. And so I realized after throwing
2:44
up in garbage cans and like like feeling shitty every weekend,
2:48
like this is not the life, you know what I mean?
2:50
And we cut back a little bit. There was only on Saturday,
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Friday and Saturday nights instead of Sunday nights also.
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So we just cut back a little bit.
2:59
I want to ask you just because I want to stay on this, what what
3:02
you're talking about because right now at your at at at Oco,
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yes, no one drinks. No one drinks, there's no staff
3:10
drinks, there's no after work drinks, nobody hangs out at the
3:13
bar. We decided when we first opened
3:16
the restaurant that the culture needs to be set and we need to
3:20
set boundaries in place. And whoever couldn't deal with
3:24
those boundaries didn't work there anymore.
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So the people that work at the restaurant are mainly family men
3:30
and family women, mostly mothers, mostly fathers.
3:34
And you know, they're just there to work and get their job done,
3:38
get paid and they go home. That's pretty.
3:40
It's pretty amazing. Wow.
3:43
When when you say they're not allowed to, I guess you can't
3:46
control what they do outside of work, but they but personally
3:49
they don't go out and hang out with.
3:50
Each other, No, we, we, I don't know what it is, but we, we
3:53
garnered most of the staff that do those type of things that
3:57
are, that are aligned with those ideals.
4:00
And when we first meet with them, the first conversation I
4:04
had is I only got, you know, 2 rules.
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You know what I'm saying? Like you come on time and and
4:10
then you work hard between the lines and until with all that is
4:15
you don't do any drugs. We don't do any drinking at
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work. It's dangerous, but also it's
4:20
unprofessional. And once they get past that
4:24
moment, I give them three months to kind of see how they work.
4:28
And then, you know, we go on from there.
4:29
And most of the team that's been with me now has been there since
4:32
the opening of the restaurant. So it's almost going to be a
4:34
year now. And that's kind of ties right
4:37
into your, your mission and purpose, what you're doing can
4:40
for people that don't know. Can you tell people a little bit
4:42
about the 86 challenge and kind of why you started it?
4:46
Yeah, 100%. So I started basically because
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of that, when I was ravitating it to, you know, to the, to the
4:55
industry. And I enter, I came like 14
4:58
years ago from Columbia and when I arrived first to I, to the
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industry, you know, like one, I love food, but the second it was
5:06
like, it seems that it was accepted to be reckless in the
5:10
kitchen. I know what do what do you mean?
5:12
I was a mess. I, I, I, I had a punk band in
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Colombia. I drink, I fight.
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I was like this kid, you know, problematic kid.
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So when when I started frying wings in a sports bar and I saw
5:23
all the people in the kitchen, I was like, she like, like I kind
5:27
of fit here. You know it.
5:28
Was your people. It was, it was kind of my
5:30
people. And also the other thing I love
5:32
that it didn't happen in Colombia was like, I love the
5:36
like the mix of people that was there that happened in United
5:39
States. It was like people from all
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backgrounds, you know, first class people that had everything
5:46
in their country and now they started from zero and I I think
5:49
it was kind of democratic the kitchen and that I loved.
5:52
But then the word thing was like I was able to be this this guy
5:56
and even it was celebrated, you know, to be it.
6:00
So, you know, it passed some time in the kitchen 6-7 years.
6:06
And when Anthony wording died, I was like, shit, you know, like
6:11
I, I looked up at him and I was like, I was starting checking
6:16
who were my like the people I looked up and and why, like if
6:21
if there was something that was right or wrong in kind of my
6:25
behaviors. And but one of the things I
6:29
decided to do humans was because he shared these stories, these
6:32
raw stories of the kitchen. So I decided to quit the kitchen
6:36
and grab my camera. I always love love taking
6:39
photos. So, you know, I started getting
6:42
the stories of the people of the line of the dishwashers.
6:45
The first story was about the dishwashers was not about the
6:48
chefs. I felt the chefs already got,
6:50
you know, their, their. Their chefs get their shine.
6:52
Sometimes chefs get too much shine.
6:54
Exactly. So I started getting the other
6:56
side and after thousands of interviews, what I realized was
7:00
like there was a common thread. There was always a conversation
7:03
about mental health. There was always a conversation
7:06
about overworking, about glorifying all these kind of
7:10
behaviors. And you know, when I realized I
7:14
was like, I was also part of the outfit in humans.
7:17
Sometimes I was sharing the dive bar of these, the, the, the
7:22
laughing about how cooks prank hard between each other.
7:26
And that's acceptable, you know, And you know, I realized I had
7:30
to change something myself first so I can be able to communicate
7:35
it inside inside humans, because I already had a lot of people
7:38
that follow us. So I start changing.
7:41
I start trying to dry January. Then I did something 75 hard.
7:47
But none of them were like they were they were rules.
7:50
They talk about a lot of stuff, but they were not like in
7:53
kitchen language, you know, And then I read a book that was
7:57
called Work Clean. It was from a guy that he was
8:02
like doing really great in business and he went to
8:06
different kitchens with, you know, the best chefs of the
8:09
world. And he he talks about Miss and
8:12
plus in that book and how Miss and plus help him to make a
8:16
bunch of money and to organize all his companies.
8:21
And when I finished reading that book, I was like, why the fuck
8:24
we don't use Miss and plus to our life, right to the internal
8:28
life? Why don't we see all these kind
8:31
of the 6th man, the 9th man, all these compartments and we start
8:34
seeing like life as our stations of our life.
8:38
We know that every every time there's something that is not
8:41
prepped well or is not miss and plus the whole service is slow
8:45
downs. When I was coming up in
8:47
kitchens, I've worked in good kitchens and I've worked in bad
8:49
kitchens. I've worked in good kitchens
8:51
where they drink and I've worked in bad kitchens where they
8:53
drink. That's it's both.
8:54
And it's, it's interesting because sometimes you go to a
8:59
bar, like I'm just saying you go to a bar and there's fights and
9:02
it's rowdy and then you go to other bars and it's classy and
9:04
there's piano music and it's like, OK, and you're, you know,
9:07
you're and, and, and so I don't necessarily think that by the
9:12
way, I, I want to go on record. Like I, I'm not a believer of
9:14
drinking in the kitchen. Also like, I don't like it.
9:17
But what I am saying is that I, I think sometimes it's also the
9:21
environment. You go to a dive bar and
9:23
there's, you know, a bunch of rowdy people in there.
9:25
You get, you feel like you want to fight same energy sometimes
9:28
in that kitchen. You go in that kitchen and
9:30
everyone's mean mugging you and you know, it's a, it's a, I'm
9:33
going to sabotage your means. And then you add alcohol in the
9:36
mix. It just like exacerbates that.
9:39
And so I, I, I, I think, and I'm not, I'm not saying I have the
9:42
answer to this, but I, I, I think it's like the first part
9:45
of it is kind of like what Harold's talking about.
9:47
You got to fix that culture. You got to set the standard from
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day one when they walk in like, Hey, we do this boom, boom,
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boom, boom, boom. And I think if you have a
9:53
professional workplace culture and then you say, hey, you know
9:57
what, today after work, we're going to have a toast or
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whatever. Like it doesn't get rowdy.
10:00
It feels classy, right? But you have a toxic workplace
10:04
culture where everyone's sabotaging each other and
10:06
fighting and, and and it does breed that sort of environment.
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And I think, you know, like when I, when I'm, we open Batard,
10:55
there was a moment when I don't know what kind of wine it was.
10:58
It was some really old wine because the chef was fucking
11:01
losing his shit. He came in and like everybody
11:04
grab a glass like this. Probably going to be the last
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time ever in your life you're ever going to drink something
11:09
like this. You know, I forgot what it was.
11:10
It's some really old wine. And like those moments are
11:13
great, right? When the chef is like
11:15
celebrating with you. We just got, we just got our
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Michelin that day too. We just got 3 New York Times.
11:20
Like it was a moment, you know what I mean?
11:22
And I think sometimes drinking and drugs, those things come
11:28
with the, the, the pressure of the levels, right.
11:31
And I feel like, like you said, when it came down to the, the,
11:35
the environment of the, of the restaurant, it dictates what
11:38
happens in those restaurants, you know, and sometimes it's a
11:44
good thing to have drinking because I worked in those
11:48
environments where it was controlled and it wasn't like
11:52
overdone. You know, at the end of the
11:54
night, you get a drink, but nobody stays at the bar like you
11:59
like, as, as an employee, you don't stay at the bar and get
12:01
drinks. We'll give you a little
12:03
something something at the end of the night.
12:04
They buy chef beers for the cooks or.
12:06
Something like that or like a chef comes in, then drops off a,
12:09
a AA30 pack or 60, a six pack, whatever, and the cooks go take
12:13
it to the park and drink like, you know, stuff like that.
12:15
Like that's cool. That creates camaraderie.
12:18
But what we're really talking about is the abuse part, you
12:21
know? Yeah, I think.
12:23
I think you bring up a great point.
12:24
It's important to make that distinction.
12:25
There's there's, there's, there's having a drink.
12:28
Yeah. And then there's like, oh, this
12:30
is a shit show. Yeah, yeah.
12:32
And you know, and, and the worst part is if you, if you're doing
12:35
it on a Monday, you know what I mean?
12:37
Like I can see it on Friday, Saturday, you know, we going out
12:40
as a team, you know, we might stay out 2-3 in the morning, you
12:43
know what I'm saying? But like, if you're doing it on,
12:45
on your, on your Monday and, and, and it's like the first day
12:48
of the week and then, you know, you have to have a conversation
12:51
with somebody, you know what I'm saying?
12:52
Like this is going on enough. And I think the issue, the the
12:55
problem too, I've noticed like given the last six years, it's a
12:59
lot of chefs dying or taking their lives, like all these type
13:04
of things like accumulate to to this end product.
13:08
And when he was talking about Anthony Bourdain, I mean, come
13:10
on, look at, look at this guy, you know, like this is one of
13:13
our heroes, you know what I'm saying?
13:14
Especially whoever came up in the 2000s, This is this is our
13:18
guy, you know, and like, what takes them to that point, you
13:22
know what I mean? What takes them to that point
13:23
where they have to take their life And, and you know, and
13:26
it's, you know, sometimes it's emotional imbalance or, you
13:29
know, all that stuff, but mainly drugs, you know, So, you know,
13:33
that's, that's why I think the 86 challenge comes into places
13:37
where why don't we take this opportunity as a, as a, as an
13:40
industry to take a time and breathe or like, we've gone
13:44
through so much in the last 10 years, the motherfucking
13:47
pandemic, all these chefs dying, and then now we got to deal with
13:52
this ice shit. Like there's so much things that
13:55
we go through every day as operators and restaurant
13:59
business that we definitely need some type of, you know, cooling
14:03
moment down, you know what I mean?
14:05
So for people that don't know what like, can you give like an
14:07
overview of how does the 86 challenge work?
14:09
What is it? How do they get involved?
14:11
Yeah, 100%. So basically what one of the
14:15
things that just had all said, you know, like, and I, I heard
14:19
when someone commented when we founded the Run Club, we cater
14:23
to the world, but the world doesn't cater to us.
14:27
And you know, like we have a schedule that is different than
14:29
everybody. When we have to run our errands,
14:32
everything is closed, but we keep complaining about it and we
14:36
don't make a change. You know, we don't, we don't do
14:38
really a collective impact to do it.
14:41
So the 86 really comes out, you know, he's a collective
14:46
challenge where people can engage 2754 or 86 days.
14:51
And as a team, you can do it through your hospitality team or
14:55
by yourself. And the idea is to you know, he
14:59
has some rules. He's like no drugs, no alcohol,
15:03
a 35 minutes exercise, a a 15 minute meditation, a mindful
15:08
meal, Learn, you know, learn something new.
15:12
And, and the idea is that you take a progress picture of
15:18
yourself, not even because of how your body's going to look,
15:22
but it's like how your face, how everything is going to look like
15:25
that. One of the things, you know, we
15:27
want is to do it intentionally, 'cause I think Camara, their ear
15:32
is one thing. But, you know, being able to
15:34
really speak with your team about like things that are deep
15:38
is something. And we've been confusing that
15:40
and thinking that, you know, all the team of the kitchen means
15:44
that we really count on them. And that's, I think one of the
15:47
reasons that Harold says that's why a lot of people, you know,
15:50
we feel that all everything was OK, but then they lose their
15:53
life or something happens. The idea is to go deep.
15:57
I think the journaling, the meditation thing, you know, like
16:00
right now, in a world where everything is crazy on the
16:03
screens, the most rival thing we can do is sit down for 15
16:06
minutes and do shit. You know, like, so the idea is
16:10
during those 86 days, we're going to have resources.
16:13
We're going to have conversations.
16:16
We're we're opening a broadcast channel in Instagram.
16:19
We're going to have a couple of people coming in and having life
16:22
and talking about a day 86, breaking down the rules and
16:27
basically as kind of thing. We're also mapping other
16:29
organizations that are doing great like Best Friends, that is
16:34
like a support group for people with substance abuse.
16:38
Because we know during these 86 days, some people may have
16:42
problems that some people may realize they cannot stop
16:45
drinking, Other people maybe may realize they have other internal
16:48
issues they haven't been attended.
16:50
It's not only about the substance abuse is I think it's
16:54
about the whole 360 Wellness of the industry.
16:57
So that's how we are trying to approach it.
17:00
So I think, I think it's, it's interesting what you're doing,
17:02
by the way. I think it's great and I think
17:04
it's needed in the industry. I think in my opinion, I think
17:09
one of the best ways that people will get involved and stay
17:11
involved. So I hope that the cooks and
17:13
chefs that are listening, it's going to be important for the
17:15
individual to decide to do it. But I think it's more important
17:17
for the leaders, the chefs, the restaurateurs to say we are
17:21
doing this as a restaurant who wants to get involved, right?
17:24
Because if everyone's doing, it's easier to stick to it.
17:27
But when you're when you're in that environment and no one else
17:30
on my team is doing it, I'm the only one.
17:31
And they start saying, look at this fool.
17:33
He's you know, you're, you're being weird.
17:35
You're part of that 8016. But no, But when the whole
17:38
restaurants doing it, it's like, okay, we could do that.
17:40
Like maybe our staff meal is going to be a little bit more
17:42
healthy. Maybe we're going to extend it
17:44
for 15 minutes for the mindfulness practice together
17:47
or, you know, whatever the case may be, or hey, you know what,
17:49
after work, we're going to go to the gym or before work before
17:52
you come in, we're going to. And so when you have more people
17:55
involved, this can be much easier to stick to, especially
17:56
for 86 days. I would also give people advice.
18:00
It's like it's 86 days is a long time and you're going to miss
18:03
something. You're going to forget that
18:04
workout or you're going to forget the mindfulness, and then
18:06
you're going to say, well, I guess I got to quit all of it.
18:09
It's OK, right? It's OK.
18:11
Get back. Get back.
18:12
In and also that's why I put it 2754 or 86 days yeah you can
18:16
start the 27 and maybe you feel you feel oh I'm you know I'm
18:20
going to push farther I'm going to do the 54 and then you do the
18:23
86 myself. I have done already twice the 86
18:26
yeah and it really kind of changed my relationship about a
18:30
lot of things that how I take it definitely the idea is that
18:34
restaurants do it. We're trying to do this as a
18:37
think it as a dry January. Hmm, like in a pressure.
18:40
Cooker and do. No nut for chef, virtue for
18:42
chefs. I'm not if.
18:48
No, I'm kidding. So basically every year, I don't
18:51
expect this year we, we completely kill it.
18:53
We have some restaurants and we had the right people for me.
18:56
I'm happy this year if we change some lives, but I know every
19:00
year is going to grow. And basically we have a toolkit
19:03
for the restaurant. For example, we have a, a
19:05
calendar that you put in The Walking cooler and you can mark
19:08
your 86 days. We have also like a rooster for
19:11
family meal where we can put maybe, you know, you can put the
19:15
name of who's going to do it and maybe the country and the dish.
19:18
So we can also intentionally maybe order food for that dish
19:22
'cause you know, I was working in Italian restaurants eating
19:25
fucking pasta everyday. Family meal, yeah, you get tired
19:29
and sometimes bringing other ingredients in.
19:31
We have a check in. We're also designing like a
19:35
tracker that is in Notion that you can check all your days and
19:39
see how your sleep is going, your drinks.
19:42
So we have all these things. Next year we want to have an
19:44
app. So you're basically building a,
19:45
a community and I and I think what's interesting is you're
19:48
doing it for 86 days, but it's not about the 86 days.
19:50
It's about making a lifestyle change.
19:51
Exactly right. It's about making a stick
19:53
forever, right. And I think one of the bad wraps
19:57
that our industry has gotten is like what we're talking about
19:59
earlier. You drink, you party, you go.
20:01
It's a stressful environment, our stressful environment, the
20:05
kitchen, the tickets. The customers that are
20:08
complaining, the cooks that are calling off the dishwasher that
20:11
broke down, the person that didn't show up, the truck that
20:13
broke down and didn't deliver your your meat, you have all of
20:16
that. And what do we do to, to
20:20
decompress? We had more stress, right?
20:23
Like we had, we do things that are not good for us to
20:25
decompress. We get the, the, the, the junk
20:27
food, we get the alcohol, we get, we turn to drugs, you know
20:30
what, whatever, right? We turn to the vices because
20:32
it's, it's the pressure release valve and what you're doing,
20:35
which I think is incredible. You're teaching people is really
20:38
what you're doing. The thing is incredible.
20:39
You're teaching people that, hey, there's another way to
20:41
release the stress. There's mindfulness, there's
20:43
running, there's working out, there's get some fresh air.
20:46
There's, you know, whatever the case may be.
20:49
And, and I think what you're doing, it's an important step
20:53
because when I'll I'll share this with, with people like I
20:56
meditate every day and I haven't missed a day of meditation since
21:00
like 2005. That's almost 20 years of
21:03
meditation that I've, I've been doing every day, every day.
21:06
That's so that's 20 years of meditation that I haven't
21:08
missed. But I'm before.
21:11
I mean, I'm, I'm happy go lucky, but I'm kind of an asshole,
21:13
especially when I was a chef. And I would say it took me time,
21:17
but gradually I turned into this person that could handle the,
21:20
there's a lot of bullshit that comes your way every single day.
21:23
And now it's like, you know what?
21:25
It's not that meditation takes you to the, you know, to, to, to
21:29
Mars, but it teaches you to like, you know what, you'll get
21:33
through this. This is OK.
21:35
It's, it's not the end of the world.
21:36
Calm down. And I, and I think just if
21:38
people learn some of the basics or whether that's working out
21:41
because maybe not all of it's for everybody, but learn that
21:44
pressure release, that's going to be the right thing for you.
21:48
And hopefully all of them stick, but it's OK if just one of them
21:51
stick after 86, right? You know, what I try to do is I
21:55
try to get full massages, man. It's a, it's a thing for me on
21:58
my days off. It's a, it's a great endorphin
22:02
release. I think a lot of people
22:03
understand that your feet is connected to all your, your,
22:07
your organs and it's connected to your mind, you know, So I go
22:11
to the Chinese full massages and they tell you if I put pressure
22:15
here, this will release all this type of stuff.
22:17
So it's really, it's really adamant that we take time.
22:21
Yeah. And you know and also.
22:23
And when you're a chef, the feet you gotta take care of your.
22:26
Feet, you gotta take care. That's your that's your money
22:27
maker. I mean, all this is fine,
22:28
whatever, but we can't stand this, right?
22:31
There's no point, you know what I mean?
22:33
Those those foot massages are pretty badass.
22:34
Yeah, I get knocked, I knock out for sure.
22:37
Yeah, you know, and also I wonder what I had is like I took
22:42
time like 2 years ago to just be by myself and travel for three
22:50
months. I know some people can't, can't
22:53
do that or don't have the, the, the the cash flow to do it.
22:56
But if you do, it's very important to to go out and have
23:02
those moments for yourself. And, and just imagine traveling
23:05
through Southeast Asia by yourself with headphones on,
23:09
listen to Nas and like walking through fucking the streets of
23:13
Bali in the middle of the night and having these moments of just
23:16
like conversations with yourself.
23:18
How can I, how can I be a better leader?
23:21
How can I teach people better? How can I mentor better?
23:25
How can like you have these, you have all this time now to like
23:29
process through all the things that you've gone through and the
23:31
trauma that you've gone through as a chef and really try to take
23:37
in the good and push out the bad, you know, and I think
23:41
people need time to take, just take a break, dude.
23:43
Like it's so much pressure. Like, you know, your owners are
23:46
on top of you about fucking labor costs, food costs, Fucking
23:52
why is this person still here 3 minutes after we like, you know,
23:55
like. Talked about this already.
23:57
All this stuff like, you know, like, and, you know, and it's
24:01
compounded, it's compounded and, and, and the problem is we're,
24:06
we're the chefs are, are like a bunch of martyrs, you know what
24:08
I'm saying? We love the we love the pain.
24:10
Yeah, we love, we love the, the give me more pressure.
24:13
Give me what else, what else, what other challenges can you
24:16
give us that I can, I can, I can prove to you that I can make it
24:20
work. You know what I'm saying?
24:22
And obviously that's cool thing sometimes, but like it's, it's a
24:25
lot of pressure and, and it creates these traumatic
24:29
experiences. And so you know, when I, when I
24:32
met Beto was it 2/2/2016 when we first met.
24:36
We're part of this symposium that having conversations about
24:40
mental health already back then. We're also talking about what's
24:44
the, the future kitchens look like.
24:46
You know what I'm saying? What does, what does future
24:48
kitchens look like when now you have people that are second,
24:54
second careers now, people that went to school don't want to be
24:57
chefs that are now that are like young professionals don't went
25:00
to college, don't want to come up to hospitality ranks.
25:04
The way that we talk to people and the way that we treat people
25:07
in the kitchens are not the same 10 years ago, then five years
25:11
ago. And so when you're checking
25:14
yourself for your mental state and going through your trauma,
25:19
you're also reflecting on the business that you're trying to
25:22
create for yourself and for the future.
25:25
You know, what kind of business are you trying to how, how
25:27
successful is this business going to be?
25:29
It's going to be a one year joint.
25:30
We're going to shut down and you have all these fucking news
25:34
about you fucking, you know, being sexually abusive and all
25:38
this kind of stuff or being abusive with with verbal abuse
25:42
and all this kind of things. Or you want to be a place where
25:46
that the people that your mentor are going to be better than you
25:48
and they're going to they're going to come out as as as great
25:52
or even better as you. You know what?
25:54
Do you want your legacy to be? And and that's the only way we
25:57
can have our legacy to go forward is because we can.
26:00
You know, it's not like you have children.
26:02
That's great to become chefs. But your legacy is, is really is
26:05
is, is about the people that come out of your kitchens,
26:07
Right. Yeah.
26:08
Look at Thomas Keller. Yeah.
26:09
You know, everybody that came out of his kitchen is way better
26:11
than him, you know? And so that says a lot about who
26:14
he is as a mentor, right? It says a lot about the
26:16
environment he created to for the environment to get better.
26:19
Exactly. And we cannot keep talking about
26:22
sustainable kitchens without sustainable humans in the
26:25
kitchen, right, right. And you know, that's the
26:28
craziest thing we get, you know, awards for sustainability.
26:31
Even back then with Harold, a bunch of chefs that funded
26:35
organizations was to fix the problems of out the in the
26:39
world, but not to fix the problems inside the kitchen.
26:42
You know, and we have taken care of everybody and not ourselves.
26:47
And I think it's time to do that.
26:49
That reset during those 86 days more than the days is that we
26:55
all take that reset. Identify what is the bad habit,
26:59
at least one that is or one resentment or one something that
27:04
is not letting us be in peace because we are in the people
27:08
pleasing business or the serving business.
27:10
But we forget that that that doesn't have to be a lifestyle.
27:14
We don't have to keep as part of the kitchen.
27:16
We have to serve ourselves. But I often was cooking in in a
27:20
grill, in a BBQ with my friends already outside of the kitchen.
27:23
I was serving everybody the best piece of steak and I was serving
27:26
the the shitty piece of steak to myself.
27:29
And that's how I kept doing it, serving others, serving others,
27:32
saying yes to a lot of things. I didn't want it.
27:35
And, you know, that marked me, that sense of urgency, that
27:38
pleasing people. We we have to learn how to turn
27:42
it off when we close the lights of the kitchen.
27:45
And this is, you know, it's a way to do it.
27:48
What can we realize is not letting us live in peace?
27:52
And that's that's what we're bringing it on.
27:54
Everybody come going to come to Austin, man, you know, it's a,
27:57
it's a easier left, you know what I mean?
27:59
So I want to ask you because I know, I know recently, I, I
28:02
don't want to say recently, so maybe you could explain, but
28:04
you're Muslim now, so you don't drink.
28:06
And how has that how? How does, how does the faith in
28:10
the not drinking intersect with kitchen work?
28:13
Well, you know, the craziest part is I, the religion part has
28:18
always been the last thing in, in my, in my mind in regards to
28:21
how I carry myself in my life. You know, it's always been work
28:25
and, and, and my mental state. I just kept at that when I moved
28:29
to Austin from New York, there was a time where now I can have
28:33
this moment where I can think and then start thinking about
28:37
what makes the person stand on his, his own tool or her own
28:42
tool. And I realized religion was part
28:44
of it also, right? You have some kind of, you have
28:46
to have some kind of faith to keep moving forward, right?
28:50
And so when I chose Islam, it did the best part about, I think
28:53
there is the religion of Islam is the kind of rigged riggedness
29:01
of it because it feels like it's the same thing as like a
29:03
kitchen, you know? Yeah, Structure, structure.
29:06
Yeah, Yeah. There's five to five prayers.
29:08
These are these are the the, the reasons why you do it.
29:12
And then we have Ramadan, which is the the time where you, it's
29:16
not about the fasting part. It's really about your willpower
29:19
and also your, your, your connection to God and how, how
29:22
close you can get through fasting, right?
29:25
And so I really love that notion of it.
29:29
So when my, I took my shot at 2023.
29:33
So it's about to be two years now.
29:36
One, when I do Ramadan at the restaurant, everybody knows when
29:39
Ramadan comes around, chef gets a drink at 7:45 when the sun
29:45
goes down and when there's like tastings and stuff like that.
29:49
They got to, they got to take care of it themselves.
29:51
I don't taste anything. I don't, I don't, it's crazy.
29:54
Like it's very like structured, you know?
29:57
And everybody also respects it in a sense where they see the
30:02
struggles that I go through every day trying to maintain.
30:05
But also they really see the, the, the, the, the, the, the we
30:10
call it the commitment, the commitment to 90 pork, which is
30:15
super hard for me because of the of the pork is like the second
30:20
vegetable for the Philippines. It's one of my.
30:23
Best dishes I had when I was at your place.
30:25
Exactly. And I didn't taste it.
30:26
I never tasted it. And it's just from feeling.
30:30
Yeah, just from feeling. Look, you know, I've cooked it
30:32
my whole life, you know what I mean?
30:34
And so, and it, and it creates a, a created such a great
30:38
environment in the, in the kitchen because it also showed
30:41
that the chef is willing to take the stance against something and
30:46
stand up and then be part of something.
30:49
And so when I ask when like when I lose like a sous chef or
30:53
somebody leaves or any of that sort, the best part about the
30:57
team as I peep it is they come together and they have a
31:00
conversation without me, like, you know, this is what's
31:02
happening. They have it amongst themselves
31:05
and then they just come to me like, look, we got you back.
31:07
Boom. And they get to it, you know,
31:09
because they understand the commitment that I have for them.
31:12
But then they also understand the commitment I have for for my
31:14
religion. They also understand the
31:15
commitment I have for the restaurant and they see all
31:17
that. And so they're committed also to
31:19
me and to the restaurant because of it.
31:22
And it creates this kind of bond that we have unspokenly,
31:25
unspokenly that we have together.
31:28
And I can rely on them if I need to leave a little bit early and
31:32
it helps. And so I think all of it, not
31:36
drinking, the religion part, the culture, it really just creates
31:41
something, you know, that I'd have never seen before.
31:44
Yeah. It's it, it's, it's interesting
31:47
because a lot of chefs and a lot of restaurant kitchens, you
31:49
know, they, they build, yeah, even even.
31:52
And I'm talking about all levels, but, you know, you want
31:55
to make better food, you want to have better service, you want to
31:57
have better everything. Like you're constantly pushing
32:00
yes to to make the restaurant great.
32:02
Yes. But sometimes that drives like
32:04
at the expense of us at the like, I'll make this great at
32:08
the expense of me and my team. Yeah.
32:10
And it's almost like we're sacrificing our bodies, our
32:13
mental health and this, that and the other to cook food for, for
32:17
other people. And I, I promise you, like I, I,
32:20
I know when I'm doing good, my food tastes better when I, when
32:24
my feet don't hurt, I could, I could stay longer on the line.
32:27
Like when I'm not in a bad mood, I'm, I'm better, I'm better for
32:31
everybody. And I, and I think a lot of
32:35
chefs in general, I, I, I think we, we haven't had to think
32:39
about it. So, you know, we often like rag
32:41
on the old generation, like, oh, they're whatever, whatever.
32:43
It's like they came before us. They like, you can't disrespect
32:47
the preview. Like they give us crutches,
32:48
right? They set us up for this, right?
32:50
They were improving the generation that came before them
32:54
and the generation that came before them.
32:56
It's our job to say, you know what, we respect what you did.
32:59
We respect what you did as chefs.
33:00
You created you. You created the environment for
33:04
that half to succeed. This generation's responsibility
33:07
is to create the environment for the other half to succeed.
33:10
But, but I, I, I feel like sometimes it's disrespectful
33:13
sometimes when we just diminish the, the, the, the work that
33:16
these other chefs did is like that wasn't that the world was
33:19
different then, right? You can't knock them If they
33:21
were, you think if they were 21 right now, they wouldn't behave
33:23
different. Exactly.
33:24
You know what I mean? Like they're, they're not
33:26
stupid. Then I feel like sometimes we,
33:27
we, we think that they were stupid.
33:29
They're not stupid. They did a lot.
33:31
But now it's our job, the current generation, and I won't
33:34
say to me because I'm not an active chef anymore, but the
33:36
current generation of chefs and people that are in hospitality,
33:38
it's like, well, how do we fix the other half?
33:41
And I think, and I think I've noticed that a lot more on a lot
33:44
of kitchens that little pop ups in a lot of the young chefs are
33:48
really speaking that language. It's about respecting the past,
33:53
but also setting up the stage for the future.
33:56
And I think that's the main goal some of these young chefs are
33:59
doing right now there. There's there's some cases that
34:01
I went into that really had a culture of this camaraderie this
34:08
like everything checks off to this my, my, my mom and it
34:13
showcases it to the, the leader itself.
34:16
And I think once, once a leader, he or she takes that upon
34:21
himself to really take on the challenge of showing what it
34:27
really looks like on the other side.
34:29
And then if everybody does that all over the industry, I think
34:32
now we're talking about an industry that's moving towards
34:36
the future and really having these meaningful conversations.
34:40
And like, you know, I think of going in symposiums and like
34:43
meeting other chefs and like having these, you know, like the
34:46
maximosium and all that kind of stuff.
34:48
Those are great to have these kind of like touches and stuff
34:52
like that. We talk about kitchen turnover
34:56
and you know, we know that running a restaurant is really
34:58
difficult. We make numbers and then they
35:00
don't make sense. We cannot have everybody on an
35:03
insurance or have like day chart team sometimes don't even
35:07
understand us. They haven't been on the line or
35:09
been on service or been our tender.
35:11
So, you know, having these kind of internal kind of things like
35:15
the 86 or other, the other organizations coming in that
35:19
they're offering these services is something that basically, you
35:22
know, you know, restaurants can rely on and have these as a as a
35:26
collective. Because I know sometimes without
35:29
the drinking, everybody says like, oh, so there's no
35:31
camaraderie in this restaurant, but we can build that we.
35:36
Yes, there's other ways. We see it Philip Spears in
35:39
Commodore like with his wrong clock and he's actually we're
35:42
actually from in the 86 in the 86 challenge.
35:45
We have half his journal because he created a journal for.
35:49
The Me Journal, the. Me Journal and we're including
35:51
it as part of the toolkit. But I seen chefs I had all that
35:55
Philip that are, you know, even that they're they're not the the
35:59
new generation. They are they're trying to do a
36:01
different area for the for the upcoming 1.
36:04
And I think those are the, those are examples that are we were
36:07
trying to, you know, keep sharing, keep sharing those
36:10
organizations, those chefs that are doing it differently.
36:13
So I'm not sure how to articulate this well.
36:15
It's a thought that I have, but I hope I could do it justice
36:20
with explaining what I mean, because sometimes I feel like
36:23
with a lot of things that you're talking about, a lot of things
36:25
that we've done in the industry, I feel like we're putting band
36:28
aids on the symptoms, but we're not addressing the, the, the
36:31
sport. So if I was, if I was to use a
36:33
sports analogy, it's like we're going into the boxing ring and
36:36
we're better at taking out the, the swelling and we're better at
36:39
taking all this, but we're still playing the same sport.
36:41
And the sport that we're playing is restaurants and restaurants
36:45
is like the, it's, it's the, I hate to say the environment of
36:49
the restaurant. And you could, you could say
36:51
whatever it is, but it's the margins.
36:53
It's, I mean really that's what it is.
36:56
It's the margins. The, the margins create the
36:58
pressure cooker because the margins say we got to have food
37:01
cost at this labor cost at this and rent is this, and you have
37:05
all these expenses and we put $1,000,000 into the building and
37:08
we got to make that money back. How it can now figure it out
37:11
without being stressed. And I think that's like, OK,
37:15
well, how do we fix? Because that's, that's the third
37:19
part to this. It's like we fixed the service
37:21
and the food. Now we're fixing the health of
37:23
the people that are doing it, but we're still not addressing
37:26
the business because the business I feel is creating the
37:29
problems and everything else. Well, you know, now we're
37:32
talking about a bigger issue now we're talking about the state
37:37
laws and, and, and the federal laws.
37:39
And then we're talking about sensification.
37:41
We're talking about social economics.
37:44
Yeah, like now we're talking about issues that's been
37:47
plaguing this country for a long time, and that's also created a
37:51
lot of the problems that we have in our country now.
37:53
And I think people don't understand the restaurants
37:56
create the neighborhoods, restaurants create the hot, the
38:02
the hottest new area or whatever the fuck right Restaurants do
38:06
it. You know, one story, Union
38:09
Square used to be the most ghadowest fucking place in in
38:14
New York in the early 90s. One guy, Danny Meyer, opened
38:18
Union Square Cafe and then turned the whole neighborhood
38:22
into a multi $1,000,000 real estate.
38:25
Real estate, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
38:27
But I think the main the main thing that we need to have a
38:32
conversation is you're right. It's all about how can we
38:39
correct the margins on the back end because if the owners are
38:43
getting 3 to 5% kickback on a on a $2,000,000 investment we're
38:48
talking about, they're really getting zero.
38:50
Like nothing, nothing really. It's nothing.
38:53
It doesn't pay their bills, I'll tell you.
38:54
It doesn't pay their bills and you know, they need to return in
38:57
the first three years, you know what I'm saying?
38:58
And and so how can we fix that? And I think the only way we can
39:03
fix that is if some of those properties, you know, have some
39:10
kind of leniency or some type of a ramp up for any new
39:14
restaurant. You know, one deal that I had in
39:17
San Francisco before it kind of went down, 'cause it was too
39:19
good to be true, had to tell you the truth.
39:21
Yeah, we had a 18 month ramp up to open a restaurant.
39:25
And that's no rent, no nothing. TI money was like 1.25 million.
39:30
Like it was nice, you know what I mean?
39:32
And that would have been a great thing to have the moment for the
39:36
restaurants to kind of get into a rhythm, make the money, and
39:41
then start paying a percentage rent on that space, you know
39:44
what I mean? And I think some landlords are
39:46
great at that, but then some landlords are assholes.
39:49
Even though you're doing construction, you're paying rent
39:52
anyways, you know what I mean? So there's got to be a balance
39:55
and all of that. And you're right, that's where
39:57
the real stress really comes. That that that's, that's like,
40:01
that's like the punch in the face that's causing the black
40:03
eye that makes you have to put ice.
40:05
That's right. That's right.
40:06
That's right. But you know, what I think is
40:07
everything comes with clarity and unity.
40:11
I think that how you have come to Israelisation is meditating
40:14
and staying healthy yourself and seeing the things from the other
40:18
perspective. But I think that we're we're
40:20
missing out as chess as restaurants is the unity.
40:23
Because I think if we speak all together one time to get
40:26
together, send a message to the government, send a message to
40:30
the landlord, send a message even to the to the people that
40:32
come and eat to our restaurants. We will be listening because a
40:36
lot of people depend on us. You know, a lot of deals are
40:39
closed on the table of a restaurant.
40:41
A lot of things are celebrated. But I think this is a step
40:44
forward for us being a little bit more clear of what is the
40:47
situation where we stand at and how we can come together to
40:51
address further these kind of things.
40:54
You know, right now, the organizations that were listing
40:57
in the 86, there is always, always some benefits.
41:00
I, I forgot the name, but it's finally someone got together and
41:05
got the best prizes for insurance for the people of the
41:08
restaurant. That was that was something that
41:10
was really missing. So there's a lot of little
41:13
things that are happening independently.
41:16
We just joined the the Moore Coalition that is like the James
41:19
Beard Awards. Is there some of the different
41:21
restaurants, organizations, nonprofits that are fixing the
41:24
internal problems of the industry are there and where
41:27
we're getting is getting together, getting organized and
41:30
see and how we can make a better industry for all.
41:36
Actually, the one thing is people still don't make
41:39
restaurant business. They still don't make it feel
41:42
like it's a business business, You know, it's still like a
41:45
passion project, I think, right? Like they don't take it
41:48
seriously as a profession, you know what I'm saying?
41:50
Like even though we make billions of dollars annually, I
41:55
just, I still feel like people don't realize it's a profession.
41:59
And I think that's one of the issues also, you know what I'm
42:01
saying, I. Was talking with Joe Chan and
42:03
she was, she was saying how she worked under Jonathan Waxman up
42:07
in New York. And she was saying that one of
42:08
the first things he did to her was pull her off the line, put
42:11
on the Expo station. She wanted to jump in.
42:13
And it's like, no, no watch. Look at, look at the team.
42:19
You're responsible for all these people and they're responsible
42:22
for other people at home outside of work.
42:26
She didn't say it like that. I'm just paraphrasing.
42:27
But when you, when you think about that, it's like sometimes
42:30
chefs and sometimes owners, we don't always agree.
42:33
The owners of capitalists trying to make money, chefs and artists
42:36
trying to, you know, trying to trying to be great.
42:39
And then you wonder why, why they clash heads like they have
42:42
two different objectives, right? I know I've experienced that as
42:45
a chef many times. Like I just wanted, I want to
42:47
make this restaurant great with me at the front and you know,
42:50
the shining star, the owners like no, but I want to make
42:53
money. I don't want you to be a shining
42:55
star. I just want, I just want to make
42:56
sure we're paying the bills. And sometimes it sometimes it's
42:59
at a detriment. I think another thing that I
43:03
personally have a problem with, especially because I see it in
43:06
what I do with chef's PSA. I see it more now than I ever
43:09
have. For years, the industry, the
43:13
culinary industry was very much propping up one specific section
43:18
of the industry, meaning great restaurants, right?
43:21
That's all they talked about. But they completely forgot about
43:26
hospitality in terms of like, I'm sure, I don't know, but like
43:31
like Apple or or Guggenheimer or working in these places or
43:34
working on a cruise ship or working at a Country Club or
43:37
working at in a, in a big hotel or whatever where because I
43:41
often hear people like, yeah, we get ship paid, we get no
43:43
benefits and we get no PTO. It's like, well, that's not
43:45
true. You do get benefits in PTO and
43:47
four O 1K and deferred comp in other places, but it's not cool
43:51
to work in those other places. We stigmatized the places that
43:55
sometimes do offer you 3 weeks paid time off and we say you're
43:59
a, you're a hack because you work at whatever.
44:02
But like, but I have a family and I got to pay insurance for
44:06
them and they give me insurance and they give me PTO and I get
44:09
to take time off and I get weekends off and I'm working
44:11
five days a week and I get to see my kids.
44:13
And we're capped at this, but we're going to shame you for
44:18
working. There, you're right.
44:18
The lifestyle. The lifestyle.
44:20
Like like now, but we're we're, we're, we're grinders.
44:23
We're grinders in the restaurant.
44:24
So you're not one of us. It's like, no.
44:26
And I think that's that's part of the problem that we've done
44:28
in the industry is we've we've compartmentalized and say and
44:31
we've shamed people that don't want to be a part of the cool
44:34
club for wanting to take care of themselves and their family.
44:37
Yeah, yeah, exactly right. Because I as I'm getting older,
44:42
I'm asking those questions now. How can I get into these?
44:46
Right, right, right, right, right, right.
44:48
What's that? What's the qualifications to go
44:50
work at a Greenborough in North Carolina?
44:52
Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, yeah, yeah, it's.
44:55
Independent, I guess we're talking about mostly it's a
44:57
bigger issue about the independent restaurants, but
45:00
then you see the the rest of the hospitality.
45:03
I mean, then we're talking about James Beard, you know, Michelin,
45:06
Chateau de Raleigh that we're talking about, those type of
45:08
things that doesn't prop up these beautiful hotel
45:12
restaurants that are doing great work too.
45:15
So you're right, there is an industry problem too.
45:18
Yeah. And then the last thing I'll
45:21
harp on that issue is when you work for Apple.
45:25
I'm just using Apple as the example, but let's say you're
45:27
working at Apple or Google or Facebook or, or you're in the
45:30
the cafeteria of this corporate building and you're making great
45:32
food for the doctors or whatever, right?
45:35
It's like, you know what? They never default on their
45:36
paychecks. Never, Yeah.
45:38
They, they pay you every week or every two weeks and you know
45:40
what? You never walk in with a lock on
45:42
the door and, you know, and A and a middle finger saying good
45:45
luck. Find your name.
45:45
Oh my God, that never happens in those.
45:47
Never happens. Never happens.
45:49
So I, I, I do think that part of the conversation is like, we
45:53
also have to let people know like, it's OK to do what you
45:55
need to do. The industry is bigger than just
45:58
one section. Like if you're looking for
46:00
insurance and you're looking for benefits and like there's more
46:02
than just. That yeah, yeah.
46:05
But beyond that, I think that is still the thing of the sense of
46:09
urgency and these people are still have insurance and all the
46:12
stuff working biggest hotels. There's a common thread in that
46:16
service industry, right? That is the pleasing people is a
46:19
sense of urgency, like that anxiety that we get out of after
46:23
work. I think that's still a problem,
46:26
no matter if it's independent restaurant or a huge
46:29
corporation. The hours, you know, like, yes,
46:32
you're right. I think it's not going to
46:32
change, you know, and and probably you have insurance, but
46:35
you don't even have time to go to the doctor.
46:37
So, you know, like those are the the things that we have to still
46:41
see it like, like there's an issue there.
46:44
And there's a shortage of staff in those places.
46:45
So they do have to, I hate to say they have to not that they
46:48
work hard, they work longer because it's like, hey, we're
46:50
down in a, in a larger operation.
46:52
You might be down 15 bodies. We're in a restaurant.
46:55
You're just down one. Yeah, right.
46:56
So you, you know, it's tough to think about.
46:58
It's, it's not, it's a complex issue.
47:00
And I don't know if we're going to solve it in yeah, in one
47:03
podcast. But I think what you're doing is
47:05
incredible. And I think it's the first step.
47:07
And conversations like this are going to, they're going to
47:10
inspire others to get involved and they're going to inspire
47:13
people to start thinking about health and Wellness as a part of
47:18
it. And you mentioned Steve and
47:20
Ben's friends. They're also a big part of the
47:22
mental health aspect. So I've often stayed away
47:26
personally from the conversation because I don't have the
47:28
answers. And I got to tell you, I'm very
47:32
happy that you're here because you're providing a lot of
47:35
solutions for a lot of people that need it.
47:37
So I want to make sure that I say that out here is like what
47:39
you guys are doing is incredible.
47:41
Thank you, Andrew, thank you so much and giving us the space to
47:44
be able to share this this. I hope hopefully every year this
47:47
gets bigger and we can we can make an impact in more lives.
47:51
So, you know, kind of as we're closing up the the show, like
47:55
how can people get involved? How can people learn more?
47:58
How can they jump in, Tell us everything that we need to know.
48:01
Here's tell us the big sales. Pitch So the first thing is
48:04
going to our website, it's called the 86 challenge, like
48:08
not with the number, but as a letter 86 challenge.com over
48:12
there they can register the challenge starts in Nagos 6.
48:17
So you know, like they used to start everybody together in
48:20
Nagos 6. But you can register for the
48:23
202754 or 86 days. So even if you register later,
48:28
you can do the 20, the 27 or 54 days.
48:31
But over there in the website, we have all the resources, the
48:34
toolkit. Restaurants can download the
48:36
toolkit or even write us through the 86 challenge of the kitchen.
48:41
I can jump in a call with them and explain them how they, we
48:45
can get on board the restaurant because we have all these
48:47
toolkits that they can print and we can walk them through it and,
48:52
you know, share all their resources.
48:54
That's that's how basically we're doing it.
48:55
And, you know, we're gonna have a broadcast channel where
48:58
everybody can be together. Right now we have more than 1000
49:02
cooks and chats registered. Wow.
49:04
Yeah. And it's people from everywhere.
49:05
Like there's people from Canada, there's people from Australia,
49:10
there's some guys from a restaurant, from a Bangkok,
49:13
there's like people from thousands.
49:16
Of ton, yeah. To get 1000 people to sign up,
49:18
that's incredible. I mean, I don't know how many
49:20
are actually of them. Oh, it's OK.
49:22
Gonna. Because they might be having
49:23
people on their team that are doing it that didn't register
49:26
exactly. That's that's huge.
49:27
Yeah. So hopefully like we make an
49:29
impact and again I want to keep this is a year reset every ago 6
49:35
every eight of the six we do it together and.
49:39
And how can we help like, like for people that like maybe
49:44
aren't going to sign up for the 86 challenge, but want to
49:46
support the 86 challenge, What, what can we do as individuals to
49:48
support you? Beyond like beyond that is
49:51
helping us like map this chefs like you, like Carol that have a
49:55
voice in the industry because without them like those leaders,
49:58
we cannot do it. So one thing we have an option
50:02
of being more like an industry partner and help us, you know,
50:05
embedded in your Instagram, in your social media, but also in
50:07
your restaurant. And the other thing we, we're
50:10
trying to implement and with some of the restaurants, see how
50:12
it works this year is that we're going to create an item that is
50:16
called the 86 item. And it can be a cocktail on a,
50:19
or a food and people can order it.
50:22
And 87 cents or 8.6% goes towards the, towards the idea of
50:29
the challenge. But I'm thinking that 50% goes
50:32
to us and the other 50% goes to the restaurant so they can do
50:36
like an actual get together, you know, right.
50:39
So let's go for a nice an ice cream, let's go to the park and
50:41
do a picnic, right? So that's one of the things
50:46
right now, not many are implementing it, but that can be
50:49
a great conversation because we're now involving the
50:52
customers that are sitting down and they can read and QR code
50:56
and say like, oh shit, we're supporting.
50:58
Yeah, they can give us a Chinese foot massage for the team.
51:03
It is the best. Exactly, exactly.
51:08
That's it. However you call Wellness, you
51:10
can get that a little percentage, yeah.
51:13
So also something else I do want to talk about, and I know we're
51:16
wrapping up, but Humans in the Kitchen, yeah, is also
51:20
incredible work that you're doing, sharing those stories of
51:22
all the different people that are not just not necessarily
51:24
just the chefs, but the people that are washing the dishes and,
51:26
you know, cooking the food. How can we support that?
51:29
Because I think what you're doing is a beautiful thing.
51:31
Yeah, well, humans right now, the best, the best way to
51:36
support it is, you know, like, you know, helping us follow the
51:39
stories. You know, they help us share the
51:41
message. We're also looking for any, any
51:44
person that has a great cook in their team, dishwasher,
51:47
whatever, even a chef has a inspiring story.
51:50
They can reach out to us. We have a form in our website.
51:53
This is like a online interview that says Share your story in
51:57
humansofthekitchen.org. So you can go there and you
52:00
know, Share your story with us. And you know, it will take a
52:03
little bit to share because sometimes it depends of the
52:06
information you gave us, the pictures and all that stuff.
52:10
But we will eventually reach out and share the story.
52:13
But that's how can maybe you can support it basically.
52:18
Here's here's a little tip for people, for chefs that are
52:21
listening is sometimes we're tired of seeing your face on
52:24
Instagram, right? We're we're tired of seeing you
52:26
do something all the time. Like, why don't you put your
52:28
team up, right? Put some of your team up
52:30
occasionally. Show your sous chefs, show your
52:32
line cook, show, show the people that are working in the dish
52:34
station, like celebrate, let, let the customer know, let your
52:38
audience know that there's more than just you because I promise
52:40
you. And and you know, chefs know
52:42
this, but it's like it's a whole team that makes that happen.
52:45
It's not just one individual. I understand.
52:48
Yeah, we. Recently shared the story of of
52:52
the three cooks that are behind the line of a Harold and it was
52:56
great. Went viral.
52:57
Guatemala. Right.
52:58
Three of them were from Guatemala.
53:00
They were like, they had a store.
53:01
Each one had a different totally background.
53:04
Unexpected. So they're coming together and
53:07
working in a Filipino restaurant with Harold.
53:09
I think that's the beauty of your, of working and the United
53:13
States and being in the kitchens and sharing those stories is
53:16
what makes it real, you know? Like, yeah, that that's when I
53:19
want to really support a restaurant, you know, when they
53:22
care about their team. Oh shit, chefs.
53:25
This was this was fun. Harold, people want to see you.
53:28
They come to OCO. Yes, Sir, come always there.
53:31
Tell, tell them, tell me what you got going on.
53:33
Yeah, You know, Oco's, we're about to hit a year mark.
53:38
The next movement for us really is to tell the story of the
53:40
Philippines. You want to start peeling the
53:42
onion? What created the Philippines?
53:45
So the next menu change is going to be about the Mexican and
53:48
Filipino relationship and how we, you know, share not only our
53:54
colonizing brothers and sisters from this from Spain, but
53:58
chocolate to tequila to annatto seed, you know, so we're going
54:03
to have some great items on the menu.
54:05
And we're going to keep telling the story all the way down to,
54:08
you know, hopefully to the core of the Filipino food, which is
54:12
the native Filipino cooking, taking it back to the part of
54:16
your cooking, which is with the, with the clay, clay pots.
54:21
And so we're excited to, you know, really dive in and, and
54:26
share the history of the Philippines with our guests.
54:29
And, you know, people have been, I mean, we're doing brunch now
54:32
too. So people have been really super
54:33
excited at the restaurant. We've we've had a lot of repeats
54:38
coming in and, and we're just super excited to, you know, to,
54:41
to be part of the community here on the east side of Austin, you
54:45
know, 6th St. which is such a great St. to be on.
54:48
And so yeah, 1100 E 6th St. Oco restaurant.
54:52
We're open Wednesday through Sunday, brunch on the weekends.
54:55
If you want to follow you on Instagram.
54:57
Chef Harold De Rosa on Instagram.
55:00
Yeah. And then for you, Hotk.
55:03
Ones of the kitchen. Yeah, HOTK.
55:06
HOTK on Instagram and then your website.
55:09
Humans of the Kitchen and then 86 spelled out. 86 spelled out
55:13
Yeah. Well, gentlemen, thank you for
55:14
both being here. Thank you for what you're doing.
55:16
I think it's incredible work. I'll tell you again and I, I
55:19
hope that this inspires the community to get get involved
55:23
and, and, and get better. Thank you, Andrew.
55:26
I hope to see you running the 86 with us.
55:29
Yeah, yeah. My knees, my knees, my knees.
55:33
Well, I hope you enjoyed the show.
55:34
You know what to do and make sure you leave five stars.
55:36
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55:38
If you're watching on YouTube, hit the like and subscribe
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