Latest / Chef's PSA Podcast / Cannabis Dining, Pop-Ups, and Culinary Innovation with The Nomad Cook Travis Petersen Ep. 137

Transcript

Cannabis Dining, Pop-Ups, and Culinary Innovation with The Nomad Cook Travis Petersen Ep. 137 · Chef's PSA Podcast

0:00
Hello chefs, this is Chefs PSA podcast.
0:02
I'm your host Andre Natara. On today's episode we have
0:04
Travis Peterson, also known as the cannabis chef.
0:07
He travels all over doing pop ups, cooking with cannabis.
0:11
It's a fascinating conversation. We're going to get into the
0:14
business aspects of having your own travelling pop up restaurant
0:17
as well as a deep dive into what it's like and what's really
0:21
important about cooking with cannabis, especially to make
0:23
sure no one has a bad experience.
0:25
I think you'll enjoy this episode.
0:27
Stay tuned. This episode of Chefs PSA is
0:41
brought to you by Foods in Season.
0:43
Hey chefs, using the best ingredients is one of the most
0:46
important things you can do. I've been a long time customer
0:49
of Foods in Season and let me tell you.
0:50
They never disappoint. They are the go to source
0:53
trusted by the best chefs for truffles, Wagyu uni, live
0:57
seafood, caviar and all the hard to get forged wild goodness.
1:01
They're all about sustainability and they even give you a
1:03
dedicated sales Rep to help you plan your menu without missing a
1:06
beat. Plus, nationwide overnight
1:09
delivery, you could wild salmon today and have it at your
1:12
restaurant tomorrow. Visit foodsinseason.com and let
1:16
me get you the hook up. Mention Chef's PSA and get free
1:19
shipping and a free sample box. With your first order chef, it's
1:22
good. To see you as well.
1:23
Thanks for having. Me, I love the shirt.
1:25
Thank you very much. I think that might have been my
1:27
first introduction to becoming a chef, was watching that guy when
1:31
I was a kid. Yeah.
1:32
What does it say? Vert Deferk.
1:34
Yeah. What's what's his name?
1:35
He's the. This is the Swedish Chef.
1:37
The Swedish Chef, Yeah, I'm Danish, so I always had that
1:41
sort of joke kind of made because I'm a little messy in
1:43
the kitchen sometimes, right? So.
1:45
So before we before we start the episode, I do a little bit of an
1:48
introduction. Yeah.
1:49
But I don't think my introduction is going to do
1:51
justice to what you actually do because it's very unique.
1:53
And I, I'm really excited to have you on today because I
1:55
don't know anything about what it is that you do.
1:58
It's so I think our audience will really enjoy the
1:59
conversation. So can you give like a high
2:01
level overview of what? It is that you do.
2:03
Yeah. So I specialize in infused
2:05
dining. And what does that mean?
2:07
I'm a cannabis chef. Yeah.
2:09
So I host multi course dinners where we infuse and dose all of
2:15
our guests individually based on their own tolerance level.
2:19
And I, I'm kind of trying to break the perception of what
2:23
people think edibles are as cookies, brownies, gummies.
2:27
Now that America's moving into legalization, we've got more
2:30
than half the states that allow recreationally.
2:33
I think we're starting to kind of look at the plant in a
2:36
different way and how we can incorporate it into into food
2:41
and then it's dining and. And so you also, so you
2:44
basically you travel. All over the United States, all
2:47
over the United States, Canada and started doing Europe last
2:50
year. So yeah.
2:52
Wow, so much to unpack. Let's start with the business
2:57
side of this because I'm very curious about how the business
2:59
side of it works. I've never been a private
3:01
catering chef. I've done a couple of maybe a
3:04
handful of private caterings, but it's not something I've
3:06
ever, I ever claimed to be an expert on.
3:10
So for someone that's listening that wants to get into the
3:12
private catering business, what are some of the things like that
3:17
someone needs to know when they when they began like, hey,
3:19
consider this, these are some of the important things to consider
3:21
when you start your business and then also operationally.
3:24
Yeah, I think, you know, when you're just starting out, there
3:27
can be a lot of nervousness, right?
3:28
Am I going to fail? First of all, don't ever be
3:31
afraid of failing. Failing is only going to teach
3:33
you lessons, right? So when I first started, I
3:36
really leaned on friends, family to buy a ticket to that first
3:40
dinner. I always said to people, buy 1
3:42
ticket, I'll never bug you again.
3:44
But I really needed friends and family to come to those first
3:46
couple dinners because I've built my confidence up having a
3:49
full room of people, right? The Internet and social media
3:55
has made this possible, which 20 years ago we couldn't have done
3:59
without Instagram. I can't promote and sell my
4:02
dinner tickets, which means I could never go to a city I've
4:05
never been to before, you know, here in Austin right now.
4:08
These were the first public dinners I did in Austin.
4:10
And, you know, I put a post out on Instagram and sold out all
4:14
3436 seats in less than two days, right?
4:17
So, you know, it's kind of wow, we're really in this new era
4:22
where I'm doing everything on my own, right.
4:25
And to get things started, it it's you had to get over that
4:30
fear of, you know, can I do? This, yeah.
4:32
I want to ask about the ticket process.
4:34
Do you have something like Talk or do you sell tickets?
4:37
What platform do you use? Yeah, so I'm actually moving to
4:40
open table here in a couple weeks.
4:44
In the past, I, I was using talk and you know, here's the biggest
4:49
hurdle is that cannabis is still in very much a Gray space,
4:54
especially with infused dining and that so you know, I can't
4:58
use traditional formats with open links.
5:01
You know, you can't just Google nomad cook dinner, find that
5:05
city and buy tickets. So I put an ad out there that I
5:08
will run on Instagram for Austin saying I'm coming on these
5:12
dates. You have to either comment or
5:14
send me Adm to get the link for the event.
5:17
That then creates the engagement for the post, which means more
5:21
people see it. You know, that person will then
5:24
message me. I give them the details on the
5:26
dinner. If they want to go ahead, you
5:28
know, I send them a link, they purchase their tickets.
5:32
I don't tell anyone where the dinner is.
5:34
So we keep that private up until two days before.
5:37
And why is that? Again, because we're operating
5:39
in this Gray space, right, You know, we're, we're pushing
5:44
boundaries a little bit by hosting these dinners.
5:45
So, you know, I want to make sure we're keeping all of our
5:48
guests safe, the privacy safe. So, you know, it also, in my
5:53
opinion, adds to the experience. It's a mystery dinner.
5:55
Where are you going? I don't know where this is going
5:57
to be. You know, sure, we, we give them
5:58
a general idea of hey, it's going to be in this
6:00
neighborhood. Do.
6:01
People like the mystery just out of curiosity.
6:03
Most do, some don't. Some don't understand like.
6:06
Is there like, oh, you're like 45 minutes away from where I
6:08
thought you might be? Yeah.
6:10
I mean, I always like a general area.
6:11
I always give them a general area.
6:13
This is this is where we're going to be at, right?
6:15
So, but most people understand once you've come, once you get
6:18
it right, you know, my goal doing this is to open the door
6:23
for the next generation of chefs.
6:24
So they don't have to do this in an Airbnb, They can do it in a
6:27
restaurant. They don't have to hide the
6:28
location. But for someone that's maybe not
6:32
doing the, the, the cannabis thing, they're they're just
6:35
doing private catering, right? Yeah, if, if they want, if
6:38
someone, if you're giving someone advice in that space,
6:41
you would say build your following on social media, start
6:44
showing people what it is that you're cooking.
6:46
And then when you're doing your dinners, promote them on social
6:50
media and also sell tickets on social media, Facebook ads or
6:54
whatever. Right.
6:55
Yeah. Yeah.
6:57
And what are some of the things that you've learned?
6:58
So you were you again. I love the little, the detailed
7:02
tricks of the trade. So you're talking about get
7:04
people to comment. It drives engagement.
7:06
What are some of those other things that help bring awareness
7:08
to what you're doing, doing to, you know, to fill the space?
7:11
Don't be afraid to give away some tickets to some
7:13
influencers, you know, connect with content creators.
7:16
They're gonna and then also ask people.
7:18
You know, I knew some people from Austin.
7:20
I sent them a message before coming here.
7:22
Hey, can you share my post? Someone said to me, oh, I don't
7:25
think anyone will do anything from it.
7:27
I said, can you just share it? Last night at the dinner,
7:30
someone said, oh, I saw so and so made a post.
7:32
So I bought a ticket and I was like, great, you know, you use
7:36
as many different sort of avenues and angles to to bring
7:40
as much tension to what you're doing and.
7:42
When you started the the private catering, did you start in one
7:46
city and stay there or did you immediately start traveling?
7:49
Yes. So being from Western Canada,
7:51
I'm from Vancouver, but I was living in Alberta when I started
7:54
this whole sort of chef journey. So the Texas of.
7:56
Canada, it is. It's North Texas, absolutely.
7:59
So there's two major cities in Alberta, Calgary, Edmonton.
8:01
And then being from Vancouver, I had those three cities.
8:05
So that was when the Nomad Cook concept was created.
8:09
I was hoping one day I could get to Toronto and Montreal, right,
8:13
Starting Western Canada. I had lived in all three cities.
8:16
I knew them quite well. You know what I use for venues
8:20
are Airbnb. So I find an Airbnb, I reach out
8:22
to that owner and say, hey, I'm a chef, I travel around.
8:25
I'd like to host a dinner party in your house while I'm staying
8:28
there from six till 8:30. I don't serve alcohol.
8:31
I'm the only person sleeping in the house or just me and my
8:33
assistant. You know, that is, is kind of
8:38
how I get my venues. I mean, I have over 200 Airbnb
8:41
reviews about a chef renting the house and, you know, treating it
8:44
with respect. So, you know, building that up
8:47
helps me now rent future houses. People, you know, want to look
8:51
up and know who are you? What are you doing?
8:53
So, you know, we, we will come into that house and you know,
9:00
things I've learnt over the years is, is we travel with, I
9:04
have an assistant that travels with me 90% of the time.
9:06
So. We I have a culinary assistant.
9:08
He's a culinary. He'd be my sous chef.
9:10
Yeah. So he has 2 bags of luggage.
9:14
I have three. One's a cooler for me, one's a
9:16
cooler for him. I travel with hotel pans and
9:20
tools and you know, as I was kind of joking with you earlier,
9:24
clothes that I'm going to wear are bought up of the list,
9:27
right? So sometimes on long tours, I'll
9:30
have the same thing being being worn every day just because, you
9:34
know, I want to bring the right tools and equipment.
9:36
I will rent plates and glassware, but I travel with
9:38
cutlery. So.
9:40
Because cutlery is expensive to rent at a dollar a piece, 5
9:43
pieces per person, right? So I think finding ways where
9:47
you can save money and then as well, you know, doing a majority
9:52
of your prep before you hit the road.
9:54
So that's why we travel with two coolers.
9:56
How much stuff can I get done ahead of time?
9:58
Yeah, You know when I said? You like backpack everything?
10:01
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
10:02
And you know, most of the times I'm getting my proteins are, you
10:06
know, fresh, local and just making sure sauce is.
10:12
Anything that can be done ahead of time is done ahead of time.
10:15
Done ahead of time, right? How can we save on time?
10:17
Last November we did four nights in a row where we went Richmond,
10:21
Baltimore, New York, New Jersey. I left my assistant in Boston.
10:25
I flew to London, England. I cooked a dinner there.
10:27
Two nights later I flew back home.
10:29
And then we did Boston, Boston, Providence, Princeton.
10:33
So that was 9 dinners in 13 nights in two different
10:37
countries. And I was really proud of us
10:41
because we nailed that tour. And you know, I've said to my
10:44
assistant, like, we need to look at what we did there and apply
10:47
that to every tour we do going forward.
10:50
Because at no point were we scrambling to like, oh, we need
10:53
to get this. We because we were so locked in
10:56
because there was no, there was no time for me to be like, oh, I
11:00
forgot to do this. Like, you know, because we cook
11:03
in Baltimore, Richmond, the first night we get up at 5:00
11:06
AM, we drive to Baltimore, it's three hours, get into the
11:09
Airbnb, build the kitchen up right.
11:10
Like you have to be very time oriented and scheduled.
11:15
Yeah, right. To make sure you're you're
11:16
hitting those points. Let me go back a little bit.
11:19
When with the Airbnb, when you're selecting an Airbnb to
11:23
host the dinner and what are some of the things that you look
11:25
for? The kitchen, Yeah, obviously the
11:27
kitchen, but what are you looking for specifically?
11:29
In the kitchen, well, it was a couple things.
11:31
One a nice stove like I don't. I want an induction top and I
11:35
would prefer a gas top. Something with a Big Island.
11:38
I have 4 tickets for every dinner that are chef's table.
11:41
So if I can find an island where I do my plating that has four
11:45
bar stools or four chairs and I can sit those four guests there.
11:49
But I'm also looking for a large dining room table.
11:51
Yeah, right. Something with space or a a big
11:54
open living room that I can go bring folding tables and chairs
11:57
on the end set up. What is the typical head count
12:00
that you would look forward to to bring you to a city?
12:02
What? At what point is it no longer
12:05
like, hey, eight people's just not enough?
12:06
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's, I mean, you know, my ticket price has
12:11
been going up as I've been becoming more successful.
12:15
Yeah, right. So it's mainly, you know, being
12:17
here right now I'm only taking 12 people each night, right?
12:21
That was more of a choice. But I'm still coming out of this
12:24
trip profitable. In the past, I would say I need
12:27
40 to 50 guests over two nights in an Airbnb, right to to make
12:33
it, you know, profitable because things you got to think about
12:37
you're. Doing 25 covers over 2 nights.
12:39
Yeah, or, or in one night I'll do like 2 seedings, you know,
12:43
like yesterday. Think about that.
12:44
Yeah, yesterday I, yeah, yesterday I did a 4:00 and a
12:47
7:00, right. So I always aim my service is 90
12:51
minutes. Yeah, right.
12:52
Whether 150 people, I may run closer to two hours, but I
12:56
always aim for that 90 minute service because for one, I don't
12:59
want to sit at a table longer than two hours myself.
13:02
Yeah, given the ingredients for serving people, you know,
13:07
there's opportunity for someone to have a bad reaction or, you
13:12
know, I don't want that happening at the table.
13:14
Yeah, right. You don't.
13:15
Have to sign a liability waiver or anything I did a.
13:17
When I first started doing this, I had people signing waivers on.
13:20
That waiver would never have held in court.
13:23
That was more someone signing something going, oh, I am
13:26
responsible. I've signed this piece of paper,
13:28
right. So it's more mental in their
13:30
mind. Yeah, it makes sense because I
13:32
in my emails I send out to people with the address, I'm
13:34
like, here is the closest bus stop, here is the link for Uber.
13:37
Like I make sure people understand like, don't be
13:40
driving, right? Like, you know, again, I am
13:43
taking all the risk and liability doing this.
13:46
So, you know, I, if someone comes in and sits down,
13:50
blatantly puts their car keys down, I drove here in that I'm
13:53
not going to serve you cannabis. Have you ever had to cut anyone
13:57
off and say hey look, I. Yeah, You've had enough.
13:59
Yeah, And, and it's the reason why I don't serve alcohol at my
14:01
events. Once in Las Vegas, we had four
14:05
guests show up during the first course, so they were late.
14:08
I was already annoyed, and they all had drinks in their hand.
14:10
I didn't want to let them in. Someone told me he was a very
14:13
important buyer for a dispensary, had 14 locations.
14:17
OK, let's let him in. His girlfriend almost passed out
14:21
in her food on the second course.
14:22
So I kicked them all out because all my guests are in there, paid
14:25
$250 for this dinner, and we've got some sloppy guests that are
14:29
kind of taken away from the experience, so.
14:31
Does Airbnb, and again, because I've never done this, Yeah.
14:35
So for people that are listening, that are thinking
14:36
that maybe they want to do, you know, Papa's, which kind of
14:38
thing, like maybe I want to do it, but in Airbnb, does Airbnb
14:41
ever have rules like you cannot have guests?
14:44
Yeah. I mean, do you have most?
14:46
Most. Yeah, most, most, you'll see all
14:50
Airbnb will be like no parties, no guests or nothing, right.
14:52
And so that's I send, before I even try to book, I send that
14:55
Airbnb owner a message and I say, hi, my name is Travis.
14:59
I am a travelling chef. I'm coming to cook for clients
15:03
in your city. On these nights, I would like to
15:06
host a dinner party between 6:00 and 8:30.
15:09
So I give them everything up front, right?
15:11
Yeah. Then I say please look at my
15:12
reviews to see I've been doing this right.
15:14
So how do you? Ever have to say like and you're
15:16
welcome to come. Yeah.
15:17
Oh, I, I So what I do is once I find an Airbnb in a city, yeah,
15:22
I cut Airbnb out. After that, I make friends with
15:24
the owner because Airbnb is taking a cut.
15:27
Yeah, right. And so I usually won't speak,
15:30
but befriend the owner, right, and pay them directly.
15:33
I'll offer sometimes, you know, I'm renting expensive houses.
15:37
So if I can trade a dinner for a discount, I'll do it.
15:41
Yes, right. And then, you know, I want the
15:43
owner to come, especially if it's a house I want to keep
15:45
using. I want the owner to come in and
15:47
see what's going on. So, you know, they they feel
15:51
comfortable again having us back.
15:52
So. So for someone that is again
15:55
thinking about maybe going into the private catering or
15:58
traveling catering, how are the margins generally like pretty,
16:03
pretty decent. They're great.
16:04
Once again, it's, you know, when I first started doing this, I
16:07
wanted to have a new menu every two weeks.
16:10
And you know, you make these mistakes when you learn.
16:13
Like, you know, when a band goes on tour, they're playing the
16:16
same set list every night. Every city.
16:18
Greatest hits, right? Greatest hits you current album.
16:21
Build a routine. You know how to do the dish,
16:23
right? You know I.
16:24
Situation and a bad situation. Absolutely.
16:26
You come up with, I mean, I have my speeches, I have my corny
16:29
jokes, right that there. You know, I was laughing because
16:33
I went for dinner the other night and I was just listening
16:35
to the chef talk and like give his punchline jokes.
16:38
And I I was saying to the person next to me, like, he said this a
16:41
million times, right? And like, because even I get to
16:44
the point now, I've done so many of these dinners, I'm like, I
16:46
don't know how to change up my speech because I go through a
16:49
lot of safety and rules and I try and make it light and funny
16:52
and, you know, but. This is a tangent.
16:55
You know what I would do? This is free advice.
16:57
Yeah. I would hire a comedian.
16:59
Yeah. So like, hey, give me some new
17:00
material. Come to the dinner.
17:01
Yeah. And then give me some new
17:02
material. Like I need some edgier jokes.
17:04
That like, well, we've even like one of the things I do is in
17:07
Canada, I had a musician, she was, she would travel with me
17:11
and she would play music during the events we've done before
17:13
where we included comedy, right? So in between courses, he gets
17:17
up and tells some jokes, right? Again, I think a lot of people
17:20
are looking for an experience, right?
17:22
Yeah, cannabis is my cuisine skill set, right?
17:26
But a lot of people are coming because they're making new
17:28
friends because, you know, it's an experience, right?
17:32
So no matter what type of food you're cooking, right?
17:36
How can you make that an experience for your guests to
17:39
want to come to? And you're giving them the
17:42
ability to share this on social media.
17:44
You want them. To yeah, I do.
17:46
You know that first dinner I did in Canada during 420, when I had
17:51
the 164 people come through my house, I had the local news
17:54
station reach out CTV, which is the Canadian CBS, right?
17:58
And they're like, hey, can we do a story about this illegal thing
18:01
you're doing out of your house? And I was like, Yep.
18:04
And so I went on the news and talked about what I was doing.
18:07
And so I've never shield away from talking about what I do.
18:13
I've gotten my hand slapped because of it, right.
18:18
But I, I just, with no risk comes no reward, I guess, you
18:23
know, so I, I do take risk. I do push boundaries, but I
18:28
implement so much safety into the experience that people feel
18:32
comfortable coming. You know it's.
18:35
When you're, when you're in a new city, like you're here in
18:37
Austin, do you have to also recruit some staff from like
18:40
temp agencies and stuff? Like that.
18:42
Yeah. So I actually, I use an app
18:44
called Insta Work. OK, Right.
18:46
Which can be hit or miss. That's how I found my assistant.
18:49
And again, if I find a good worker, yeah, I keep them,
18:53
right. We we can get rid of Insta work.
18:55
Hey, man, Insta work's taking 30% of what I'm paying you when
18:58
when I come back, right. So I have people in cities that
19:02
have worked for me in the past that work every time I go to
19:05
Chicago or every time I come to Boston, the same people come
19:07
out. And what's really happened over
19:09
the last year and a bit is, you know, young chefs and cooks,
19:13
even old cooks and chefs reaching out.
19:15
Hey, I think this is really cool.
19:17
Can I just come Staj? Can I come help?
19:19
Right. So it's a great.
19:21
Opportunity for someone to learn the style of cooking because
19:24
it's not it's it's not familiar to most people.
19:27
No, no, just getting back to the labor piece.
19:30
Do you typically get service team and and maybe a Porter or
19:33
something like that to help you clean up or?
19:35
Yeah. So I'll do.
19:36
Yeah, what? What is the What does the
19:38
brigade look like? So again, it's all usually
19:41
depending on the group size. 12 and under I can do by myself
19:45
over 8. I'd like to have an assistant
19:47
right Once we get up near 20. I need three people so I need a
19:51
runner out front, two in the kitchen once we get over 20.
19:54
Including you. Myself and then one other so.
19:57
Yeah so it'll be a total of three people Yeah, once we get
20:00
over 20 people right. I need a dishwasher.
20:03
Yeah right. So I bring a dishwasher in.
20:06
You know the nice thing with front of house because we're not
20:10
taking orders because I don't have a bar that people are
20:13
ordering drinks and stuff from. I only need food runners.
20:15
Yeah, so 2 food runners usually. Do for beverage.
20:18
So I will make mocktails. So I actually got the, the book
20:22
from the Avery called 0 and it teaches you how to make all the
20:26
tequila, vodka rum with no alcohol in it, you know, so I
20:30
can then last night I was serving this tequila Margarita,
20:34
you know, the tequila's twelve ingredients.
20:36
You sous video for an hour at 190 and it's delicious.
20:39
It's, it's awesome. And then I will add my cannabis
20:42
into that so we can now infuse our mocktails, you know, but I,
20:47
I just don't want to mix alcohol and cannabis together in my
20:50
dinner, so. Why?
20:51
What happened? Well, again, would I say to my
20:55
first that could happen. Well, I mean people, people when
20:58
they, here's the thing with of 25,000 people I've served
21:02
through cannabis, I've never had one rude customer, one person
21:06
not pay their bill, dip out, start a flight.
21:09
Like the cannabis crowd is the best crowd to serve.
21:13
Everyone's chill, just chill. And we always laugh.
21:16
If you make a mistake on dessert, they don't care because
21:19
they are just like, yeah, dessert.
21:22
The munchies have kicked in and they're just loving it, right?
21:25
So yeah. So I, I want to ask about the
21:29
whole idea of cooking with cannabis.
21:30
It's completely foreign to me. Like if you get like out, I
21:33
wouldn't even know how to make like cannabis butter.
21:35
Like I'm, I'm joking, but like, I, I wouldn't know.
21:38
Like, am I overdosing? Am I, Yeah.
21:40
Is it, is it too little? Is it not enough?
21:43
When I first started, I was using isolates.
21:45
So when we look at extractions, there's two different forms.
21:47
You've got isolates and you've got full spectrum.
21:49
Explain what isolates. Are so isolates from when we
21:51
isolate the cannabinoid THC or CBD by itself, usually you get
21:56
it in a little tincture bottle, you can eye drop on top
21:59
precisely 10 milligrams, 15 milligrams.
22:04
That's great way to be 100% confident.
22:06
However, anyone with a low tolerance pure THC brings on
22:10
anxiety, paranoia, not the greatest feelings.
22:13
Full spectrum extractions are when we're working with all
22:15
parts of the planet. So not just THC but CBDCBCBNCBG
22:21
and what I'm most focused on. I have no idea what.
22:23
Any of those things are. So those are all cannabinoids,
22:25
Yeah, right. The only one I'm familiar with
22:27
is like CBD because right, you know, for pain or.
22:29
Whatever, right? Yeah.
22:30
So here's the great thing is, you know, that this plant has
22:33
been forbidden forever, right? And and now that it's becoming
22:36
legal, we can actually study it a lot better than it has been,
22:40
right? And so we're learning that there
22:42
is more cannabinioids out there that, you know, yeah,
22:46
cannabinoids, THC gives you that high feeling, right?
22:50
What when sometimes when we use certain types of cannabis, it
22:54
can make us creative or make us tired and sleepy.
22:57
That's coming from the terpenes. OK.
22:59
So terpenes are not just the flavor and aroma of cannabis,
23:02
but they're responsible for the effects that we feel when we use
23:05
it. Terpenes are identically found
23:07
in plants, fruits and herbs, right?
23:10
We use terpenes in everyday products like Mr. Clean.
23:13
That pine smell you're getting, That's a terpene called pining,
23:16
and we find it in green garden herbs like oregano, basil, dill,
23:20
parsley. A terpene by itself is just
23:24
flavor and aroma. When you combine terpene with a
23:26
cannabinoid, there's a thing called an entourage effect.
23:29
So within our bodies, everyone has an endocannabinoid system,
23:33
right? This is what's maintaining the
23:35
central balance in our central nervous system.
23:38
It helps our immune system. When we get sick, we have these
23:41
receptors, ACB 1 receptor and ACB 2 receptor.
23:45
And that's what cannabinioids bind with when we're consuming
23:49
cannabis that start to give us those feelings.
23:51
When we have a terpene with a cannabinioid, it's called an
23:54
entourage effect and that gives us a specific sort of feeling,
23:59
All right. So that's why some we've got
24:01
these terms in cannabis sativa and indica.
24:05
Those refer more to the growth pattern of the plant, not what
24:08
the industry has sold it as. They're there to categorize
24:11
cannabis to people who are new to try and help sell it.
24:15
So it's a little more in depth and scientific.
24:17
We're seeing in markets like California, consumers are
24:20
shopping now based on terpenes, right?
24:24
Everyone reacts differently to a certain blend of terpenes,
24:27
right? So when you find out what
24:29
terpene blend works best with your endocannabinoid system, it
24:32
will change your experience with cannabis.
24:34
And I've noticed so I had surgery once and someone
24:37
recommended I I take some edibles to help me with the pain
24:40
and I'd never really taken edibles before so I they gave me
24:44
a brownie I like I'm not going to eat the whole thing at half
24:47
nothing happened. So like I'm eat the whole thing
24:50
and I mean I was in outer space shortly and I mean I I like to
24:55
explain to you like I think I sound travelled like I heard
24:58
sounds that were like right here and then I looked and they were
25:00
like way over there like. But The funny thing is, and this
25:05
was this is for no one's eyes but my own is I started writing
25:09
down everything I was experiencing because it was so
25:11
weird. I was like, what is going on?
25:13
And anyway, neither here nor there, but obviously it hits
25:18
everyone different. So I dose everyone individually
25:21
based on their own tolerance level.
25:23
Yeah. So how do you, how do you, how
25:24
do you figure that? Out right so I have a
25:26
recommended dosing scale so when the guests sit down I have a
25:29
bunch of rules. My 3 rules are no peer pressure.
25:31
Yeah if I catch you peer pressure in someone else into a
25:34
dose they're not coupled with I won't serve be cannabis.
25:36
I've served over 1000 people their first cannabis experience.
25:40
People have never touched the plant before.
25:43
No switching seats because we assign a cannabis number to your
25:46
chair. So guests start moving around.
25:47
That's Russian roulette. It's their fault whatever they
25:50
eat. Yeah, right.
25:51
So you stay put. And then I don't increase the
25:53
dosage halfway through the dinner.
25:55
So like, no, it whatever you decide to start with is what you
25:58
get to the end. Unless you want us to stop
26:00
adding it. Right.
26:01
OK, so my 5 course menu, every course will have one infused
26:05
component. Some example, my starter last
26:07
night was a Big Mac egg roll. I make infused Big Mac sauce.
26:12
Yeah, yeah. I want that now.
26:16
Sounds pretty good, it sounds. Pretty good.
26:17
I call it on the menu. It's it's we call it a pre roll,
26:20
right? It's your first bite of the
26:22
night. We kind of play into it a little
26:23
bit. But yeah.
26:24
So I make that infused Big Mac sauce.
26:25
I make it 4 times. I make it once with no cannabis.
26:29
I make it once with a low amount, a medium and a high,
26:32
right. And I do that for every single
26:33
course, right? So I use anywhere from three to
26:37
four times more cannabis than the next cannabis chef.
26:40
I have a lot leftover at the end of the dinner, but I have to do
26:44
that to give myself a wide range to be able to infuse people.
26:49
After I go over the rules, I tell them I have a dosing scale
26:51
that goes one to five, right? However, if you know what your
26:54
tolerance level is, tell me. And I can dose that.
26:56
So one is 5 milligrams of THC. That's for the entire dining
27:01
experience. 2 is 10 milligrams, 3 is 25, four is 50, and five is
27:06
100. Now, anyone who's never had
27:10
cannabis for 2 1/2 milligrams of THC with 10 milligrams of CBD is
27:15
what they need to be served. That CBD is actually going to
27:18
help suppress a bit of that THC spike that brings on the anxiety
27:22
and paranoia, right? I then kind of split it up
27:26
throughout the menu. I don't go even, you know,
27:29
10/10, 10:10 if you're 50, right?
27:32
I want these waves. I want you to feel that first
27:34
rush and then you kind of come back down and then you kind of
27:37
come back up again and then you kind of go down.
27:39
So we can really utilize the terpenes not just from the
27:43
cannabis, but from the plants, herbs and and fruits in our in
27:48
our recipes to help accentuate those those terpene reactions.
27:53
Right. And is it ever a case where
27:55
someone you know thinks that they're a three, but they're
27:59
really A1? Yeah, I mean, I think most
28:02
people come in and they can be a little nervous because they're
28:05
sitting with strangers at the table.
28:06
And that, you know, I always say to people, hey, if you're
28:10
humming and hauling between A2 and A3, go with the two and then
28:14
you'll know next time. I could have had more as opposed
28:16
to having too much and then, you know, ruining the entire
28:20
experience. Because The thing is, especially
28:22
with someone who's new to it, if we green them out, we over serve
28:26
them cannabis, they'll probably never come back.
28:28
Not just to me, but cannabis in general.
28:31
Green them out. Yeah, got the slang.
28:32
That's the slang. That's the turn.
28:34
Get a blackout and you got a green out and got.
28:36
So the green outs we want to avoid, right.
28:38
So, you know, we build a lot of steps ahead of time to make sure
28:43
that we're minimizing opportunities for mistakes.
28:46
That's. I think this is all fascinating
28:49
to me. Do you have to explain to people
28:52
that sometimes, hey, like, they're like, I smoke weed all
28:55
the time. Yeah, there's a difference.
28:56
From eating yeah and and and for one, I will never pick someone's
29:00
dose. So as I go around and I
29:02
personally take everyone's dose, I don't let a server do that.
29:05
I do that, you know, I smoke all the time.
29:08
And I'm like, OK, and they're like, maybe I should be a three
29:12
or four. And I'm like, I make sure that
29:14
they're the ones who choose it. But I always guide them on the
29:17
side of caution, right? Like, hey, you can always come
29:21
back and have a little more, but it's always better to err on the
29:25
side of caution. And that's why I have the no
29:27
peer pressure rule because you got a group of four guys to come
29:30
in and someone is only 5 milligrams.
29:32
Well, all of his buddies are chronics, 100 milligrams each.
29:34
And they're like, come on, come on, right?
29:36
And someone has to step in there and save that person.
29:39
Without saying names, you probably get a lot of athletes
29:42
and celebrities showing up into your dinner.
29:44
Yeah, Joey Diaz show up. You got the pet?
29:48
Not yet. Hey, there's a reason I keep
29:50
coming back to Austin. So I got a group I want to cook
29:53
for out here. There you go.
29:54
You're smart, right? They're all here.
29:57
You got to, we got to promote that a little bit more, get
29:59
them, get them in there, do a private one for those guys,
30:01
right? So now that you have all this
30:03
information and you're travelling, and I mean clearly
30:06
you know what the hell you're talking about, how are you
30:09
making sure that this information is accessible to the
30:12
everyday cook? You know 2022 I put out my first
30:16
cookbook it's called introduction to culinary
30:18
cannabis. I put put it 80 put it on Amazon
30:21
yeah, you can find it on Amazon. I'm going to get it about 80
30:24
pages which. Was the Broadie.
30:25
One might get it, I know, right? Oh man, it is 80 pages of theory
30:30
and then 44 recipes. And those recipes are like a
30:34
ginger. How many pages of theory?
30:36
8080 page. OK.
30:37
Yeah, it's a lot. So it's detailed, it's detailed,
30:40
right? Again, it's both for the home
30:41
cook and the chef. Did you have a background in
30:43
this as far as education goes? So you're basically
30:45
didactically. Yeah, yeah.
30:47
And you know, that cookbook, the response I got from it from
30:52
people reading reviews and stuff, and like, finally,
30:56
something that really explains outside of how high can I get
31:00
off with a brownie, right? Like how can I use this for
31:03
other purposes you know? Nothing wrong with the brownie.
31:06
No, nothing wrong with the brownie.
31:07
Nothing wrong. You know, there's I always say.
31:11
Do you have like a brownie? Recipe Yeah, I did.
31:13
I did. I actually did a brownie in the
31:15
cookbook. It's called high maintenance
31:17
weed brownie and it's gluten free, dairy free, nut free.
31:21
It's just. Yeah, it's a good and it's
31:23
delicious. Yeah, and it's delicious.
31:24
Yeah, so, so yeah. So from the response from the
31:28
cookbook and just seeing the where this was going, you know,
31:34
I felt no one had put any real education out there.
31:38
I mean there are some online courses and what not.
31:40
So at the beginning of last year I spent a couple months building
31:44
an online course that was quite in depth.
31:48
I launched it on Teachable and then about halfway through the
31:52
summer I reached out to the American Culinary Federation
31:54
because on their platform they had a certificate for culinary
31:58
cannabis, but no training. So to get their that was kind.
32:02
Of fucked. Up so to get that certificate.
32:04
So how do you get the certificate without?
32:06
Training because they would reference four books to read and
32:09
then they gave you 100 question quiz, right So I reached out to
32:12
the American Culinary Federation.
32:13
I said it's dangerous. He said, hey, I, I read the IT
32:17
could it, it almost was meant to be because I reached out.
32:20
They had just recently brought on a new director.
32:22
He responded back to me. We got on the phone and he said
32:25
my top three priorities of coming into this role in year 1,
32:28
one of them was to create something for culinary cannabis.
32:32
And you've just brought me a full turnkey program.
32:35
So really proud and excited. The American Culinary Federation
32:39
just licensed that for the next two years is their official
32:41
prerequisite training course. You know this is a step in the
32:46
right direction. Yeah and now education is much
32:48
more accessible, yeah through the through American Culinary
32:51
Federation. But if someone is there an
32:54
opportunity if for the non American Culinary Federation.
32:57
Yeah, any that educated book, Yeah.
33:00
So the anyone can get the book and then for the the class with
33:03
the ACF, you know, I think it's $195 for ACF members and 2:45
33:08
for non members. You don't need to be a member.
33:10
You don't need to be a member, is it?
33:11
Still on Teachable? When this podcast comes live.
33:15
No. OK, So we've, I've kind of taken
33:18
off Teachable, you know, I've given them full licensing for
33:22
the US in America and I'm now looking at taking the course
33:26
over to Germany. Germany's just legalized
33:28
cannabis. So is it not on teachable in the
33:31
US but in other? It's right now it's, it's, it's
33:34
not on Teachable or anywhere else.
33:36
Right. Anywhere in the world, I think.
33:38
You know, what I want to do is look out to these governing
33:42
bodies, right, and kind of approach them and like, like
33:44
this cuisine is not a fad. It is coming.
33:48
We're still a long ways away from a restaurant being able to
33:51
serve it. But you know, if there's any
33:54
profession that can take something and dial it in to
33:58
being safe, enjoyable, now it's chefs.
34:01
We are so meticulous and particular, like, yeah, if I'm
34:05
serving cheeseburgers, I want it to be the best cheeseburger
34:07
you've ever had. And I want you to come back.
34:09
So you're focusing not just on the experience with the
34:12
cannabis, but also on the quality of food, the service?
34:16
Yes, everything you have to, yeah, I mean.
34:18
Yeah, yeah. So, you know, it's, if someone
34:21
comes to one of my dinners and gets sick from cannabis, it, it
34:25
hurts, right? And I want, I don't want anyone
34:27
to go through that experience, right?
34:29
So, you know, I developed a safety protocol to minimize
34:34
opportunities where mistakes can come up.
34:36
I know these mistakes come up because I've done it a million
34:39
times. Not the mistakes, but I've been
34:41
doing this now for seven years. I know where the pitfalls come,
34:45
You know, when you're using Instawork to bring staff on
34:48
these staff front house runners that they don't, they don't know
34:52
it's a cannabis dinner usually till they get there, right.
34:55
So you have to make sure they understand what's going on.
34:58
Table number, C number like that is more you really look at this,
35:02
every single guest has an allergy.
35:04
Yeah, right. That's what it.
35:06
Is and then on top of that you might have guests with
35:07
allergies. Yes.
35:08
And then you have guests with allergies.
35:09
Yes, absolutely. Yeah.
35:11
Is there seed oils in that? Yeah, yeah, Yeah.
35:15
Well. So I have a question.
35:18
Here in Texas, cannabis is not legal.
35:21
In Austin. It's decriminalized.
35:23
Yeah, decriminalized. But you could pretty much go to,
35:26
I mean, like I go to the gas station and they're selling
35:28
joints and yeah. But they're selling those are
35:30
that's THCA, that's hemp products, so.
35:32
From what I understand that THCA and correct me if I'm wrong,
35:36
THCA is just it hasn't been heat.
35:38
Treated correct. So what's what's going on here?
35:42
Like is that a loophole in the system?
35:43
It's the same. Yeah, it was a it was a loophole
35:46
because they said, you know, they were going to allow people
35:50
to be able to purchase hemp products because hemp didn't
35:52
have enough THC in it. They found a way to pull THC out
35:58
of hemp right through this process of THCAI don't fully
36:02
understand what they're doing with the hemp plant, but I know
36:06
with a lot of these THCA products, they are adding stuff,
36:10
they're adding they're they're adding botanical terpenes.
36:13
I mean, if you're smoking one of those hem joints and it tastes
36:16
like strawberry, that's not natural, right?
36:20
And so I don't cook. I don't cook and.
36:22
Work. It's like cupcake.
36:23
That's right. I don't, I don't cook and work
36:25
with hemp products, right. I'm, I'm a sort of naturalist in
36:28
that sense. I mean, 70% of the time I work
36:31
with flour over concentrates. If I'm going to create
36:34
extractions with concentrates it has to be a live resin that is
36:38
natural cannabis derived terpenes in it.
36:41
I I don't use products that have botanical terpenes added in.
36:44
Do you have a source that you go to like the gold standard of
36:47
tinctures and? Well, to where I'm at now,
36:51
cannabis brands actually pay me to use their cannabis.
36:55
So I mean, I have, I'm a, I'm a cannabis snob.
36:59
I can say I'm, I'm a connoisseur and but I'm also like, I only
37:02
smoke certain things. Yeah, right.
37:05
What? What do you smoke?
37:06
There's a brand called Alien Labs.
37:08
Alien Labs, Yeah. So there's California, Arizona,
37:11
Florida, and then another brand up in Boston or in Massachusetts
37:15
called Laced. So those two brands right there,
37:17
like that's what I'm going to consume and use.
37:21
You know, when it comes time to cooking, it's more about, you
37:26
know, what are, what's the experience?
37:29
I'm looking to build because I'm going to be shopping on terpene
37:31
profiles. There are a lot of brands out
37:34
there that put out cannabis with very low terpene percentages,
37:37
right? So the natural sort of way to go
37:41
to create an extraction is this process of decarboxylation where
37:45
you chop your flour up, you put it in an oven at 245 Fahrenheit
37:49
for 40 minutes. That converts the THCA into THC.
37:54
Two things. One, I would never put cannabis
37:56
in an oven, so I use a sous V to make all my extractions.
37:59
Right. And does that still?
38:01
Does the decarboxylation still happen with the sous V machine?
38:03
Correct. Yeah, 'cause you would vac seal
38:05
your flour and then weight it and drop it in the sous V bath.
38:07
So it's a matter of bringing it up to a certain temperature.
38:10
There's sort of old. Myth that I want broken is this
38:15
going up to 240°? I actually have a limit of 200
38:18
Fahrenheit because anytime we start going over said what?
38:21
Again, 200 Fahrenheit, 200 OK, because anytime we start going
38:24
over 200 with any green gardener, we'll start to brown
38:28
it, right? That green goes to brown and the
38:30
more heat you apply, the more chlorophyll you pull off the
38:33
plant. So if you bite into the weed
38:34
brownie and you taste a bitter wheatie bite, it's had too much
38:38
heat applied to it, right. 70% of the time I'm using a method
38:42
called the cedanial method where I actually add my flour directly
38:45
to my fat. So I skipped that
38:47
decarboxylation process. Now we're still going to have,
38:52
we're still, yeah, we're still going to have decarboxylation
38:55
because it's going to, it's more of a passive decarb that's
38:57
happening within the fat, right? The cedanial method is about 25%
39:03
less potent than the decarb method, but it's more terpene
39:07
rich, it's more palatable, it's more aromatic, right?
39:11
So this process of low and slow, kind of taking that thought
39:17
process on how we're making our extractions as well.
39:20
So lowering the heat a little bit, going at a little bit
39:23
longer of a time, you know, we'll create these extractions
39:27
again that are more focused on the terpenes.
39:29
So if I have a high grade of flour like alien labs, I'm never
39:33
going to decarb that right. I'm going to do this to Daniel
39:36
method because that farmer went to so much trouble to make this
39:40
beautiful terpene rich flower. I don't want to go blast it with
39:43
a bunch of heat and sacrifice all that work just for the THCI
39:46
can go get a low grade of flour trim shake, you know, bottom of
39:51
the barrel, that kind of stuff. And just that's good for THC so
39:55
that I will decarb and then, you know, pull as much THC out of
39:59
that as possible. But you know, more times than
40:02
not, again, I'm focused on flavor taste.
40:05
So I want to take this different method.
40:07
Just, and I should have asked this question earlier, but I'm,
40:10
you know, my, my chef food cost brain is, is going how much does
40:14
cooking with cannabis increase the food cost?
40:17
It doesn't it, it doesn't, it does.
40:19
I mean, let's just say I don't have sponsors that aren't giving
40:21
me the flour, you know? And again, what kind of grade of
40:27
flour do you want to, right? Do you want to go to Walmart or
40:30
do you want to go to Whole Food? Well, I have something that you
40:32
would use. Yeah.
40:33
So I mean, I would go out an ounce of Alien lab flour will
40:36
give me once I'm done my whole extraction process, it could
40:42
give me about 3500 milligrams, which would be more than enough
40:45
for one dinner. Okay, so roughly an ounce is
40:49
gonna give you enough to cover. Yeah, an ounce, an ounce of
40:51
flour by people. Yeah, okay, right.
40:54
And then. But now again, because I have
40:56
multiple courses and I'm different tastes and flavors,
40:59
I'm using different batches. So do you infuse different fats?
41:01
Like yes, like duck fat tallow. Yeah, absolutely.
41:04
So you know, we can infuse salt, sugars and spices right through
41:09
you infuse salt and sugars, you would infuse alcohol and then in
41:12
a dehydrator like I've let's say a mold and salt.
41:15
Yeah, right. So I infuse a vodka or I
41:19
wouldn't use vodka. I'm forgetting the name of, of
41:22
the type of, of alcohol we use here.
41:25
But I would take that infused alcohol.
41:27
I would pour it on my bed of salt, put it in the dehydrator
41:30
for 8 hours, evaporate all the alcohol, the cannabinoids, then
41:33
transfer into the salt. Now that salt is the most
41:36
fragile form of extraction, so you can't then take that salt
41:40
and throw it in your sauce to season it.
41:42
You're just, you can, you'll season it, but you will lose all
41:45
the cannabis, right? So it's like a finishing salt.
41:47
Same if I infuse Cajun spice, right?
41:50
I'm going to take my chicken breast, I'm going to coat it
41:52
with non infused Cajun spice, BBQ it, take it off the grill,
41:55
let it sit and rest and then take my cannabis Cajun spice and
41:59
apply it back on top. So again, I don't know how to
42:02
cook with cannabis, but I'm just thinking about you had a piece
42:04
of steak and you cut it and you open it up and you could you
42:06
could brush it with, Yeah, cannabis infused beef towel and
42:09
sprinkle it with a mold on infused salt.
42:12
Yeah. And would that be enough?
42:13
Correct. Yeah.
42:14
It's it's when we start adding heat right again, as we get
42:19
terpenes have an evaporation point of anywhere from mid to
42:23
two hundreds to up to 400 Fahrenheit, right.
42:26
So the same with cannabinoids. Once we start applying too much
42:29
heat to it right, we're going to burn away what we have.
42:32
I got to be 100% confident in every extraction I'm serving.
42:37
So at any point, if I have any doubt in what I'm making, it
42:41
goes into the personal bin for myself.
42:44
But I can't go and serve that to people, right.
42:46
So temperature is extremely important to to, you know, at
42:52
what point let's just say I'm gonna.
42:54
Remember all that in your. Book all the different
42:55
temperatures and how to use different athletes, different
42:58
the different fats you can use the different methods.
43:00
So for someone that's interesting, go get the book.
43:03
Yeah, yeah, you'll cover. I'm thinking about.
43:06
I mean, I don't smoke weed. I smoke cigars.
43:08
Like, I enjoy a good cigar, but I mean, it's different, right?
43:12
Yeah, cigars, weed. So I wouldn't even know where to
43:15
begin. If I went to whatever, I'd say
43:17
start me out of like 1/2. Yeah, like, no.
43:20
That's that's where I would start you.
43:21
Yeah. Do you ever get pushback from
43:24
either chefs or just people in general like this is, you know,
43:29
there's people out there like what?
43:30
How dare you do? Yeah, I mean, it's I've had news
43:34
coverage out there before and I go and look at the comments,
43:36
which, you know, you're not supposed to do.
43:37
And some people are like these weed people are.
43:39
Yeah. You just can't smoke it.
43:41
They gotta put it in everything. Right?
43:42
Right. Hey, to each your own.
43:44
This isn't a dining experience. This is a dining experience that
43:47
is, you know, similar to going for a wine pairing or a whiskey
43:51
pairing, right? It's not for everyone.
43:53
Yeah. That's why I've got these rules
43:55
of no peer pressure. I have couples that will come to
43:57
the dinner where one person doesn't consume and one does if
44:00
they can sit there and get the same food as everyone else.
44:04
Right? So there's again no peer
44:06
pressure to make anyone ever try this if they don't want to.
44:08
So I, I know we, we've talked and you have mentioned that you
44:11
didn't go to culinary. No, yeah.
44:13
Do you ever get pushed back from like the culinary community and
44:17
at least early on, like. Yeah, I mean, that's why my
44:20
brand's called the Nomad Cook and not the Nomad Chef.
44:22
Yeah, so I got my start because I got onto Master Chef
44:26
eliminated very quickly. Right away, Canada.
44:28
Right. Yeah, yeah.
44:29
So I got eliminated on the 2nd episode.
44:31
So I was like, that was a. They fucked up.
44:33
They should have kept you. It's like TV gold right now,
44:36
right? I know.
44:38
So, you know, I went back. I worked in the oil and gas
44:39
industry for 12 years. I was a business development
44:42
manager for a large oil company. And you know, I got laid off
44:46
three weeks after filming, given a one year severance package.
44:49
I was 31. And I was like, OK, you know
44:52
what, let's try this chef thing out.
44:55
Yeah, and so I originally was going to be the nomad chef, and
44:59
I had a bunch of chefs be like, you're not a fucking chef.
45:01
Yeah, right. And I said fair enough.
45:04
OK, I'm the nomad cook, right? You know, I had imposter
45:09
syndrome. I still get it.
45:11
I mean. How long have you been doing
45:13
this though? Eight years.
45:15
I mean, you're you're, you probably know more about running
45:21
a private catering and chefing than some people with diplomas
45:25
and but I mean. Real shots, you know, so.
45:27
I don't, I don't, I don't see it.
45:29
Yeah, no, if they. I think having those feelings is
45:32
natural and if you don't, right, you've got some narcissism going
45:36
on. Maybe.
45:36
You know, I was it last year. I got to cook at the Soho House
45:41
in Paris. I thought it was a pop up.
45:43
An hour before the service, I found out it was a restaurant
45:46
takeover and they were going to have me run Expo with six chefs
45:51
doing my. I'd never run a lot.
45:53
I've never worked in a restaurant.
45:55
Yeah, I was terrified. And then I just said to myself,
45:59
like, fuck it, we're in it. Yeah, right.
46:01
Let's go. We did 103 covers in three
46:03
hours, and it was one of the proudest moments of my life.
46:07
I walked out. I was like, I couldn't believe
46:10
did it. So you know, I, I.
46:12
Have you ever partnered with other chefs like Guest Chef
46:15
Which? Is making so is, you know,
46:17
before the whole cannabis that for the first two years of me
46:20
doing the nomad cook, before I started with cannabis, what I
46:23
was actually doing was reaching out to people from Top Chef in
46:26
the US. Yeah, the very first person,
46:29
Sylvia Barbana, I said, hey, I'd like to bring you up to Canada,
46:32
put on three dinners for you. I'll promote it, sell it, fill
46:35
the room. But I'd like to work with you,
46:38
right. So that's what I did in my first
46:40
couple of years is I took my business and sales background, I
46:43
applied it. I knew how to go out and sell
46:45
tickets and stuff. But I would bring these chefs up
46:48
and I would work with them, right.
46:50
And whatever their menu, I'm just there in the kitchen to to
46:53
learn. Smart by the.
46:55
Way, yeah. And, you know, it's what really
46:58
funny is, you know, five years after that, all of a sudden
47:01
those chefs are, hey, can I come and do a cannabis dinner with
47:04
you? Yeah, it's wild.
47:05
Is there a chef out there that you would love to?
47:08
Normally I would ask this question at the end, I'd say
47:09
like, who's your Mount Rushmore of chefs?
47:11
But if I asked you like who are the four chefs that you would
47:13
love to collaborate with on a dinner?
47:16
Eric Cooper. Yeah.
47:17
So he's good luck, right? No, I know.
47:21
Hey, these are these are ones, I mean, you know, Rob Gentilly.
47:26
So Rob, who's Rob Gentilly is a famous Canadian chef who's now
47:31
in West Hollywood. He's got a restaurant called
47:33
Stella. Have you reached out?
47:36
You know what, he has been one of the most amazing people I've
47:41
connected with through culinary because I consistently will.
47:44
I didn't have a real mentor, right?
47:46
I never worked in the kitchen. I have some chefs that I can
47:49
lean on for advice. I've met him a handful of times.
47:53
He's actually come to one of my dinners now.
47:54
But you know, at first he always took the time to respond, answer
47:59
right, which I always was so grateful for because he didn't
48:02
have to do that, you know, So we'd love to collaborate him.
48:06
You know, one of the reasons I keep coming back to Austin, Chef
48:10
Phillip from scratch and past the bar Phillip Lee Franklin or
48:14
Phillip Franklin Lee would love to collaborate and work with him
48:17
and to a cannabis sushi dinner I think would be really.
48:20
Yeah, I had Dan Kennedy on. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
48:24
He was he was at dinner last night.
48:25
So yeah, no, he's a good dude. So, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm a
48:30
very persistent person when I set a goal on something and I'm
48:34
trying to how to, how can I connect with these chefs, right?
48:37
And, and come across and, and do that.
48:40
So the coolest thing about being a chef that I think is getting
48:44
to collaborate with other chefs. Those are the most fun events
48:47
that we do. So, you know, I've got a chef
48:50
who's working with me now, Chef Jayon Smith.
48:53
He was on Hell's Kitchen. He works for the Kansas City
48:55
Chiefs. But he's taking over about 70%
48:57
of my tourists this year while I focus on the education.
49:01
Yeah, I was going to ask you. I mean, you're on, you're on the
49:02
road all the time. Like, yeah.
49:04
How do you personally recharge? Like, how do you deal with your
49:06
own potential burnout, if even if you even face burnout.
49:09
Oh. The burnout is intense to the
49:11
point where there's been times at the end of last year and the
49:15
year before when I was like, do I want to keep doing this?
49:18
Yeah, right. What?
49:19
Do you smoke a joint? Eat some.
49:22
You know, I found it was. And so, you know, last year I
49:25
did 184 dinners. At the end of it, I was just
49:29
just wiped, you know, and I took three weeks off.
49:32
What'd you do? Right, I just chilled at home.
49:34
I went to the gym, you know, I, I cooked, I cooked dinner for
49:39
us, which I don't do a lot anymore, which I think most
49:42
chefs can. You know, when I say I need my
49:44
wife and I right, you know, you don't cook at home anymore.
49:47
It's so easy to Uber Eats something.
49:49
Or when I do cook, let's just get steak.
49:52
Like what's quick and easy, but eggs, you know, I, I started,
49:57
you know, for five nights in a row, I went back to the dishes I
50:00
was cooking, you know, before I became a chef.
50:03
And you know what are some fun at home dinners we can have and.
50:08
It's basically getting back recharge.
50:09
Just take some time away. Yeah, disconnect, disconnect.
50:12
Disconnect, don't travel, right? So yeah, for other people, just
50:16
travel. For me, it's like stay at home,
50:18
you know, and and you know, I went to a basketball game.
50:21
Just go do some stuff like this. You know, everyone's always
50:24
like, oh, the road must be amazing and like it is.
50:26
But every city is just another Airbnb to me because I'm not
50:30
going out and seeing the city. I make it.
50:34
I make a very strong effort to go get lunch somewhere in every
50:37
city. So, you know, for a while I was
50:39
looking for that local hole in the wall.
50:41
I've got to eat at some amazing places getting to do this.
50:45
And I've you know, I've got a list of places I want.
50:47
To go eat at a bunch of amazing people all along the way.
50:49
Yeah, yeah, it's pretty cool. I I'm very fascinated by what
50:53
you do. I'm curious about the name the
50:54
Nomad Cook. You had said the cook reason,
50:57
but it's like the nomad reason. It's like because you're a fan
51:00
of the Nomad step people. No, kind of, but I mean nomad in
51:04
the sense of I've always been travelling around.
51:06
I lived in Australia for a year, I've lived in Europe for a year.
51:08
I up and left BC and went to Alberta.
51:11
I lived in Toronto for a couple months.
51:13
So I've always been nomadic in the sense of, of moving around,
51:17
right. And you know, I always thought
51:19
if comedians and bands contour well, I couldn't a chef.
51:23
Yeah, I mean, it's smart. It's funny.
51:24
I had predicted in my 2024 trends.
51:28
It's like basically what you're doing.
51:31
I said there's a lot more chefs doing this now because they want
51:34
to get away from the brick and mortar puddle.
51:36
It's more profitable. Sometimes it's you don't have
51:38
the, the stress of working at close because you're always open
51:41
basically as long as you want to be open.
51:44
So I, I think what you're doing is incredible.
51:46
I've also noticed a lot of there's a lot of really talented
51:50
chefs doing this, where before I don't think there was as many.
51:53
It would have been really hard to do.
51:55
I mean social media now gives you the opportunity to do that
51:59
and I mean even to put a pop up together before in the past.
52:01
How are you going to add? How are we going to advertise
52:04
that? Right?
52:05
And now you can anyone can do that.
52:08
I had a chef come and help me yesterday.
52:11
He works at the Soho House here in Austin.
52:13
And you know, he's like, I'd really like to do a pop up,
52:15
right? No, I just don't know.
52:16
At the end of my dinner, I said to everyone there, hi everyone.
52:19
Chef Josh here is going to do a pop up sometime in the next
52:21
three months. I'm going to e-mail you all and
52:24
tell you when he's going to do it.
52:25
And, you know, and he said to me the night he's like, you kind of
52:29
just pushed me into doing this. I'm really glad you did.
52:31
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Do you have an e-mail list that
52:34
you send out to everyone too? You collect emails.
52:35
Yeah, so I'll collect the emails.
52:36
All past guests get notified first when we're coming back
52:40
into a city. Yeah, I'm, I thought you were
52:44
gonna say the nomad. I'm a big fan of like Genghis
52:46
Khan. Yeah, So I've I right now I'm,
52:48
I'm listening to the Genghis Khan audio book.
52:52
It's great. Like Dan Carlin, the Hardcore
52:53
History. No, no.
52:54
Oh, the. Absolutely.
52:55
The Hardcore History, by the way, I think is arguably maybe
52:58
the greatest podcast series ever done.
53:01
Hardcore History. That's what got me into
53:03
podcasts. Wrath of the Cons, right?
53:05
It's amazing. Amazing, amazing.
53:07
It's I'm a huge history nerd, so, you know, and, and being on
53:13
the road, taking lots of flights, yeah, lots of long
53:16
drives. Podcasts became instrumental
53:19
into passing the time. And you know, for me it was
53:23
like, man, I'm getting the university education here,
53:26
right? The smart, the smartest people
53:28
in the world have podcasts is myself included.
53:30
Also the dumbest people in the world, myself included.
53:32
Right. But you know, a podcast makes
53:37
everything so much more accessible.
53:38
The but the wrath of the cons one for people that haven't
53:41
listened to that one. Honestly, it's intense.
53:47
He's one of the greatest storytellers.
53:49
Ever. He is.
53:49
And I love him because he's like, I'm not a historian.
53:51
I'm just a fan of history. Yeah, right.
53:53
And he always kind of starts it off that way.
53:55
And, you know, I I knew who Genghis Khan was, but I never
53:58
really dived into the story of it.
54:01
And man, it's so fascinating. But it's also.
54:05
You watched like anything in life, you know?
54:09
I mean, he started from nothing. He built this empire.
54:13
It gets passed down to his kid, to the next one, to the next
54:16
one, and by the 4th generation it separates, right?
54:20
Right. Because of the infighting and
54:22
that. Like, well, he unified all the,
54:24
all the nomadic tribes, Yeah, right under under him.
54:28
And right now I'm listening to his the audio book of Genghis
54:31
Khan. Yeah, but the reason I'm
54:33
listening to it is because I was so fascinated after, you know, I
54:36
had listened to the the four part series on on wrath of the
54:40
times. It's hard to find now, but it's
54:42
honestly one of the best. What's interesting is, you know,
54:44
there's so much like metaphor, like he was born holding a
54:48
clutching a blood clot. You know, he kills his brother.
54:50
Like it's it's the it's the story as old as time of, of
54:56
someone that's just going to turn into, you know, a world
54:59
conqueror. But I love personally, I love
55:01
history as well. Another great one.
55:05
I mean, I could read about Julius Caesar, but Alexander the
55:07
Great is also someone that I find extremely fascinating just
55:11
because one of the things that I've noticed about great leaders
55:16
is they all have a certain belief that they are like almost
55:19
chosen. Right.
55:20
Yeah. And one of the interesting
55:22
things when you read Alexander the Great's, you know, the, the,
55:25
the biography on him and his story is that he would go with
55:29
like when he was in Egypt or he would always want to consult
55:31
with the Oracle because his mother would tell him, King
55:35
Phillips, not your real father. You're.
55:38
Son of Zeus, right? And so as he would go from
55:41
consult the Oracle and like, am I, who's my dad?
55:44
Like he was still untrace it. Zeus.
55:46
Or is it or is it this guy? And you know, of course the
55:48
oracles were afraid. Like if I tell him the wrong
55:50
thing, they're gonna he's gonna kill me.
55:51
So. Oh, yeah, no, it's Zeus.
55:53
Yeah, right. So he thought he had this belief
55:55
that he was unstoppable. So he kept conquering due to
55:58
that belief and you see that in you see that in a lot.
56:02
Of, you know, it's I'm super fascinated with the Tudor era in
56:06
English history, like King Henry the Eighth, right?
56:09
Like again, he had the belief of like, no, the Pope's not going
56:12
to tell me what I can do and what I can't do.
56:14
Like, fine, I'm going to start my own church, right?
56:17
Right. You know, just another thing,
56:20
too. It's all of these leaders were
56:22
very ruthless. They were.
56:24
Right, very ruthless and it's. But but The thing is, I think
56:27
all leaders are very Ruth. Yes, they are.
56:29
It's just I think nowadays we know how to hide.
56:32
Well, it's not. Rude, you know, And that's how
56:34
Dan Carlin we. Frame it differently.
56:36
That's how Dan Carlin starts off to wrath the Khans.
56:38
We do this now with Genghis Khan.
56:40
And Genghis Khan killed 15% of the world's population when he
56:44
was alive, right? You know, time seems to forgive
56:47
and then all of a sudden you come up with stories and stuff.
56:51
So right, you know, it's it's there is this ruthlessness that
56:55
you. Well, history as they say, it
56:57
rhymes. It rhymes.
56:58
And you, you see, you can almost see the same story, like Julius
57:02
Caesar's very similar to Alexander the Great, very, very
57:05
similar to Xerxes, very similar, you know, they all.
57:07
Have they all have? Very similar stories on Yeah,
57:12
I'm fascinated by history. And for people that are
57:13
listening, go listen to The Wrath of the Dan Carlin.
57:16
I mean, he's got, I think another one called King Kings.
57:19
Yes, King of Kings. He's he's done 80 of them now.
57:23
Right now he's actually doing Alexander the Great, is he yes,
57:26
that's there's 223 and 1/2 hour episodes already now for on on
57:30
that one. I need to go back.
57:31
You know, for me, that's my, like, I must have my, if you
57:36
look in my audio folder, audiobooks, there's over 200
57:38
books in there. And like, that's how I actually
57:40
like to go to bed is to put on a, a history podcast, you know,
57:44
even with a monotone reader reading it out because it helps
57:48
me go to sleep. And then I'm like, maybe I'm
57:49
still learning while I'm sleeping because it's still just
57:52
like. Rolling around, Yeah, well,
57:55
Chef, if we're going to wrap up, but if you had a bit of advice
57:58
that you were going to give to an up and coming cook, what
58:00
would that advice look like? Take every opportunity to go and
58:05
staj and and get in kitchens with chefs, right?
58:11
Go there, do anything and everything that's being asked of
58:15
you. Don't go in there trying to show
58:18
off or I know this or I worked here.
58:20
Just go in there and you will be appreciated and opportunities
58:25
will come out of that, right? And then also, like I always
58:28
say, don't be afraid to fail, right?
58:31
Don't be afraid to do a pop up that only six people buy tickets
58:35
for, right? You got to start somewhere and
58:39
you're going to learn from every mistake that comes through you
58:42
right? So I think that's so stages.
58:45
Are a hot topic and we could probably talk about that at
58:47
length because a lot of people like you shouldn't do unpaid
58:49
stages and other people are like, but I want to learn.
58:51
It's a it's a hot topic. My take on it is it's not a
58:55
one-size-fits-all answer. No, Yeah, sometimes if a
58:58
restaurant is using the stage as free labor is one thing, but
59:02
it's another thing is like, hey, I don't need you here.
59:04
You want to learn from me. Like there has to be something
59:07
that's exactly. Yeah.
59:08
Because you want to learn. From me, if someone reaches out,
59:10
hey, can I come and help you in this city?
59:12
Sure. You know what?
59:13
If you come out and you're awesome, when you ask to come
59:16
and volunteer, yeah, I will make sure that I'm calling you back
59:20
next time you're getting paid. I also tip everyone and weed at
59:24
the end of the night, I'm not going to lie.
59:25
So usually the chefs are pretty happy leaving no matter what.
59:28
Because I can't what is a big bag sauce in their head?
59:31
I'll wrap it up with this one is when I was in London last
59:34
November, the Soho, I was doing a dinner.
59:36
I made my extraction in a vac sealed bag.
59:39
I took the oil out so there was still residue inside the bag and
59:42
I was about to throw it out and the chefs, whoa, what are you
59:44
doing with that bag? I was like nothing.
59:46
He's like, give it to me. He took it.
59:49
He cut it into eights. Yeah.
59:50
And all the chefs opened it and started like I was like, all
59:56
right, chef life. Where can people find you Chef?
59:59
You can find me on Instagram, the under score Nomadcook, Yeah,
1:00:04
or the nomadcook.com. It's my website, but follow me
1:00:07
on Instagram is where you will see everything that I'm doing.
1:00:10
That is usually the most up to date.
1:00:13
The American Culinary Federation Licensing out or launching out?
1:00:17
The program that you can find on their website.
1:00:21
And if people want to get the book and people.
1:00:22
Want to get the book? You can either come directly to
1:00:24
me, send you out a signed copy, or look on Amazon.
1:00:28
They can get you that book right away.
1:00:29
Good luck with your dinner tonight.
1:00:31
I appreciate it. We'll have to have you back.
1:00:33
Yeah. Thank you.
1:00:34
Thank you. Well, I hope.
1:00:35
You enjoyed the show, you know it's you.
1:00:36
If you're watching on YouTube, hit the like and subscribe
1:00:38
button. If you're listening on Spotify
1:00:41
or anywhere else, make sure you leave five stars.
1:00:43
Nothing less than five stars, five star podcast only.
1:00:47
Go to chefspsa.com where you get everything, including exploring
1:00:51
the new Chefs PSA merch store. We'll see you next week.
1:00:54
Hit the porno music in. The kitchen Mix it, drop the
1:00:58
chef knowledge. No fiction stirring up the
1:01:01
beats. Heat enough the session, listen.
1:01:03
Close classes in session.