Latest / Chef's PSA Podcast / From Hip Hop to James Beard: The Nixta Story with Edgar Rico and Sara Mardanbigi Ep. 165

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From Hip Hop to James Beard: The Nixta Story with Edgar Rico and Sara Mardanbigi Ep. 165 · Chef's PSA Podcast

• 0:00
  Hello chefs. This is Chef's PSA.
• 0:01
  I'm your host, Entre Natera. Today I'm joined by Chef Edgar
• 0:04
  Rico and his wife and business partner Sarah Martambiki of Nix
• 0:08
  to Taqueria. They have received accolades
• 0:09
  including the 2024 Michelin Guide Young Chef Award, a 2022
• 0:14
  James Beard Foundation Emerging Chef Award, Food and Wine's Best
• 0:17
  new Chef, and the recognition on Times 100.
• 0:19
  Next list, we get into storytelling, the parallels of
• 0:22
  chef culture and hip hop. Stay tuned.
• 0:38
  Great restaurants don't always bring customers in.
• 0:41
  Great stories do, because in food, beverage and hospitality,
• 0:44
  what you sell is only part of the story.
• 0:48
  It's the why behind it, the authority you create and the
• 0:52
  experience that you've built. Market scale turns expertise
• 0:57
  into content that connects podcasts, video series and
• 1:01
  industry education, not ads. Assets.
• 1:07
  Market scale has brought run the past and how to manage like an
• 1:10
  executive chef to life real world examples of how great
• 1:13
  content leads the conversation. Because attention is earned and
• 1:17
  the industry doesn't need more noise.
• 1:19
  It needs more leaders. Did you listen to that new Clips
• 1:27
  album? Yes Man clips and Pusha T and
• 1:31
  Malice, those two dudes. Like right now, the way that
• 1:34
  whole rollout was in terms of like art, fashion and like the
• 1:39
  whole thing that they enveloped with it.
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  Like I remember hearing an interview that they were doing,
• 1:45
  They preparingly produced that whole album with Pharrell at the
• 1:48
  Louis Vuitton studios in Paris. So when you hear that album, I
• 1:53
  don't know, it kind of reminds me of like some old school like
• 1:55
  Neptune's kind of production that was like going on and like
• 1:59
  it's true. I feel like hip hop at its
• 2:01
  truest form. I think, you know, there's a lot
• 2:04
  of great things happening right now.
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  I feel like in hip hop with him, like Tyler, the Creator, Freddie
• 2:11
  Gibbs and Alchemy has just released a new album.
• 2:14
  So right now, I don't know, there's a lot of people that are
• 2:16
  bringing back. I feel like the culture of like
• 2:18
  hip hop to what it's true is our form was, which is bars, baby,
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  you know, bars like real raps, real talking about the scene of
• 2:29
  like what is happening, like vivid storytellers.
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  Storytellers, which I think is something that was missing in
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  hip hop for a long time. I think the greatest era in hip
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  hop arguably for me is like from 93 to about 2003, OK that
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  decade. I would say 92 only because
• 2:47
  N.W.A also to you know, the chronic.
• 2:50
  Right, right, right. OK.
• 2:51
  Doggy doggy style. It's still on the shoulders
• 2:54
  right there. Absolutely.
• 2:55
  Yeah, Yeah. Yeah, I was listening to, I was
• 2:58
  listening to N.W.A the other day, the second album, and I
• 3:01
  thought, this is so good. I forgot how good that album is.
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  The production on it, the beats are good.
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  They're saying crazy shit. Yeah, of course for that time
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  and especially I mean, if you if you no way an album like that
• 3:13
  ever gets put out nowadays, you know, because it's like, whoa,
• 3:16
  that'd be like cancelled real quick.
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  Which totally understandable because.
• 3:21
  It's not even cancel. It's like, wait, is am I
• 3:23
  listening to a murder? Is someone getting murdered?
• 3:27
  Yes. Are you confessing to crimes on
• 3:29
  this? Album, yeah, yeah, something
• 3:31
  there anyone's lawyer would be like, hell no, you're not
• 3:33
  putting that thing out right. But yeah, no, I think really
• 3:36
  right now the culture of hip hop, you know, there are a lot
• 3:40
  of Drake stands out there. Not a fan.
• 3:42
  You don't like Drake. I think there was a time and a
• 3:44
  place. I laughing over there.
• 3:47
  Does he listen to Drake in the car?
• 3:50
  Drake is so emotional. I think he'd be the guy who
• 3:52
  would just show up really sad at all the events and you're trying
• 3:57
  to pick him up and make him feel better.
• 3:59
  But yeah, I mean, he used to dabble on something.
• 4:03
  Yeah, I think there. Was he wasn't like any of your
• 4:06
  tops? Yeah, no, I think he did have a
• 4:08
  time and a place, you know, where he was definitely making
• 4:11
  music that I thought like, you know, like his first album,
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  like, I just remember that that that track, like, I just want to
• 4:19
  be successful. And I was like that song, I was
• 4:21
  like when he was in his early days, I was like, damn, that
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  song's a banger. Like, I love the message behind
• 4:25
  that. But I don't know.
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  As he kept growing as an artist, you just kind of start to see
• 4:29
  you're like, dude, you're just like a poser, man.
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  Like you were trying to be this like fake hip hop, like gangster
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  that you're not. So you think Hendrick smashes?
• 4:39
  Kendrick murdered that guy. Like yeah, when you get called.
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  But Kendrick is has had an evolution and his style, he
• 4:48
  stayed true to himself. But I think what I really enjoy
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  about him is that there is such a like, creative artistry and
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  what he's doing. He's always wrapping his
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  hometown. He's trying to bring people in
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  from the culture. He's taking care of his people.
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  So I think in that way, he kind of has this built in loyalty,
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  pun intended, that maybe other artists don't.
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  But what I find, especially right now in like hip hop and
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  food, I know there's and I'm a little bit outside my
• 5:23
  wheelhouse. I do enjoy hip hop, learned a
• 5:26
  lot more from Edgar. But what I've seen over the
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  course of time anyway is how there is sort of a convergence
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  of artists and food. And I know on the spectrum of
• 5:37
  hip hop, it kind of varies so much.
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  So you have like a Travis Scott who kind of is in the realm of
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  hip hop, but he recently did something with John and Vinny's.
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  So there's a collaboration there on the like spectrum of this
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  isn't in hip hop, but hip hop adjacent athletes who are sort
• 5:55
  of getting into things. Carmelo Anthony has a wine that
• 5:58
  he's coming out with. So for me, it's been really cool
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  to see how all of these different art mediums are coming
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  together and creating something new.
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  Do you think hip hop culture and chef culture are like very
• 6:14
  parallel? I think so, you know, like hip
• 6:18
  hop artists are like Renegades in a way.
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  You know, they are the people who are storytellers and in a
• 6:23
  way, if you look at that same parallel chefs, I've always been
• 6:26
  those ragtag kind of people that didn't want the normal structure
• 6:30
  of nine to five job and. Second chances, right?
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  A lot of them getting out. Of absolutely.
• 6:36
  Culinary is a second chance for a lot of people.
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  Yeah, I mean, the, the hospitality industry is always
• 6:41
  been the kind of industry that will take anyone.
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  I mean, you look at people like, I don't know, there was a story
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  that ran recently on like the GM from Craft in New York City.
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  The guy used to be, wasn't he like a felon?
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  He had gone, he had been in jail for a couple years.
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  He came out, started working at Craft in New York and elevated
• 7:03
  himself to become the GM of this restaurant, making six figures.
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  And he, like, preaches about that, of like, hey, like, this
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  was an industry that took me in, taught me skills, taught me, you
• 7:14
  know, how to be a better leader, how to be a better person.
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  And there's that parallel that you'll find all throughout the
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  country. And we will take, you know, the
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  hospitality is that industry where you can have a second
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  chance at life. Like, you know, I've, if I have
• 7:28
  someone that's gone to prison, I'm not going to be like, no,
• 7:29
  like, I'm not going to like discredit this person.
• 7:32
  I mean, if you have a hard work ethic, if you have the will and
• 7:35
  the drive to be there and know that you can elevate yourself,
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  But then working in this industry, you can get as far as
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  you want to be in this industry as long as you know you're
• 7:44
  willing to put that work in. Culinary saved my life.
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  Like literally I was, you know, I grew up in rough area and I'll
• 7:49
  been El Paso, TX. There's a lot of St. gangs and
• 7:52
  things like that, you know, cartel stuff and what is going
• 7:57
  on all the time. So I, I, I kind of grew up
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  around that. And if it wasn't for being a
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  chef and not when I wasn't a chef back then, but if it wasn't
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  for trying to become a chef, you know, I don't know what would
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  happen. But I felt like the kitchen was
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  it was that same sort of, I want to say like street mentality in
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  the kitchen back then a little bit.
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  You have the same people that were in the streets working in
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  kitchens, right? And it was a creative outlet for
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  me and I was learning things. I was it was discipline.
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  It was cooking. It was being, you know, around
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  the gang. You know, I say the gang, I mean
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  the gang in the kitchen, right? Like your homies in the kitchen.
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  It was it was fun. Like I love kitchen culture.
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  It is kind of like hip hop culture because like you said,
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  it's the storytelling on the plate, but it's also.
• 8:42
  Absolutely. It's a different medium, but
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  yeah. But yeah, a different style of
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  art. Now I know you're a big
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  believer, Both of you are in art, like chefs or artists.
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  Yeah, absolutely. But why?
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  Because a lot of people have hot takes.
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  Like, no, it's craft. No, it's an art.
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  I think, you know, chef becoming a chef and like presenting what
• 9:00
  you play, what you put on the plate is part artistry because
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  it's like people nowadays, people eat with their eyes.
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  And you know how many times when you go out a restaurant, you
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  will go out? People are like snapping,
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  snapping, snapping. Yeah.
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  So they. Do they eat it goes on Instagram
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  1st and then they eat it second. Exactly.
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  They people always say the phonies first.
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  So it's like people for that reason.
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  It's like what the thing that you are putting out I think does
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  need to be in some way catch you visually.
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  Like if something just comes out on a plate and it looks like
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  slop and like crap like that doesn't look appealing, but not
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  to say something can't be like, you know, ugly, delicious, you
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  know. But at the same time, I think
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  you have captivated someone when you bring something that's like
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  visually stunning, you've already got them halfway reeled
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  in with that. But then if you're going to
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  accomplish it also too, with having something that's like
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  fucking delicious, it's like, you know, game over.
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  So I do think, you know, when at least when I'm creating a dish,
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  like part of the elements on what I'm thinking, I'm like,
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  there needs to be like contrasting color.
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  There needs to be like, I can't. I don't like dishes that are
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  all, like, monotone and just have, like, one color.
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  I just think that looks sometimes weird, but it is
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  possible, you know? But I love creating a dish in
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  the same way that someone's creating a painting.
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  It's like, OK, like we're going to start off with the base of
• 10:16
  the tortilla. And with our tortillas at the
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  restaurant, you know, we usually like blending the masa.
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  So I call them like, a marble tortilla.
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  So we'll put in different kinds of masa to kind of give you this
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  marbled effect that's like a blue and blue and white masa or
• 10:31
  blue and yellow or like a blue and red or even when we do the
• 10:34
  tasty mini, we'll give you like 4 different kinds of masa on the
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  tortilla. So you get like a quad colored
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  tortilla. So that's where I start off with
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  the base when I'm constructing a dish.
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  And then it's like, all right, where do we add the pops of
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  color then to for me, you see, they're going to be the protein
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  or the vegetable. What?
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  What is that protein or vegetable?
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  OK, how can we contrast that with, you know, an herb or a
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  pickle or whatever? And I don't know when you're
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  coming. Those are the things at least I
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  think about my brain when I'm constructing dish and then also
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  to the delicious part of it, it's like there has to be salt,
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  fat, acid, heat for me. So all those parallels are
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  coming into like what's going into this?
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  So in a way it is like an artistry because you're picking
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  out like each one of those things.
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  If you think about it is kind of like a palette of color when
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  you're like, oh, then we're going to get a little bit of red
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  in here, a little bit of blue. But you know, it's colors that
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  you get to fucking eat, so. I think about the different side
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  of artistry where all two things.
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  One, there's in restaurants especially, I think they draw
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  inspirations from all over, right?
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  They're sing architecture, they're going to the theater,
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  they're going to plays, they're listening to music that really
• 11:46
  inspires them. And you know, recently we send
• 11:51
  all of our managers on manager trips to do educational stages
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  and so on. The other end of what we do, I
• 12:00
  would say the complete opposite. Our CDC, Sada went to Alinea
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  recently in the past month. And for her it was all
• 12:08
  theatrics, right? Like everything is precision,
• 12:11
  everything is on time, but everyone has a function in what
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  they're doing. But ultimately, it's bringing
• 12:17
  some kind of orchestrated show, right?
• 12:22
  And whether that's your cup of tea or not, I think the way that
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  chefs and the team around them thinking about the overall
• 12:32
  experience, because a restaurant is a form of entertainment,
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  right? So you're taking the time,
• 12:38
  you're spending that money, you're doing these things
• 12:41
  because you're either having the best day or the worst day.
• 12:45
  There's really rarely an in between when we're going to a
• 12:47
  restaurant and we, we got to be kind of the conductors of that.
• 12:53
  So I always found that interesting of how from a chef
• 12:57
  all the way down to the dishwasher, right?
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  Like what is each person's part and creating this artistic like
• 13:04
  expression of what they're doing.
• 13:06
  And then on the other end of it, I especially think about like
• 13:10
  the career as a chef or someone who is in the industry for the
• 13:17
  long haul. Like for a chef, for example, if
• 13:20
  you're going sort of the traditional route, you're going
• 13:24
  to culinary school, you're doing the externship, you work at all
• 13:29
  these restaurants. And I think very similarly to a
• 13:33
  traditional artist, you're building on that, right?
• 13:37
  Like every single year, you're adding something into that tool
• 13:41
  belt. You're getting inspired by other
• 13:44
  people that you're meeting. And that's often what happens
• 13:47
  with like, you know, people in music, people who do sculptures,
• 13:52
  people who write poetry. And I think in the way that we
• 13:56
  celebrate those who spend their life to a certain craft or a
• 14:02
  certain industry, if it's a doctor, if it's a lawyer, if
• 14:05
  it's a lyricist, whatever it might be.
• 14:07
  Sometimes chefs don't get that same level of, I guess grace
• 14:13
  other as others do when they've dedicated the the better part of
• 14:18
  their life to it. But yeah, I think we've.
• 14:21
  Seen. Why do you think that is though?
• 14:23
  I think there is. I think for whatever reason, the
• 14:29
  hospitality industry and I've worked, I've worked adjacent to
• 14:34
  a hospitality my whole life. It's how I grew up.
• 14:37
  My dad had a little cafe in Arkansas.
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  My family's from Iran. So it's very like embedded in
• 14:44
  who we are. And so I kind of had a
• 14:46
  traditional background in finance and then I was in
• 14:49
  international education and then I was in events and then
• 14:51
  eventually I got into restaurants.
• 14:53
  But the reason I think that there is this disconnect of, OK,
• 14:57
  these people deserve to have the benefit of the doubt, whereas
• 15:01
  chefs have to kind of constantly prove themselves and be
• 15:04
  scrutinized by the public. Is is sort of by design, right?
• 15:07
  Like where else, like who else gets reviewed by strangers every
• 15:13
  single day on the daily right? Like sure, you may have a law
• 15:17
  office and they get that, but it's as soon as one thing might
• 15:21
  be wrong, it's like this is a one star right.
• 15:24
  So there is I don't know exactly where that mentality comes from.
• 15:28
  It probably is as a thing that is like a historical piece that
• 15:34
  has been like a part of the narrative where if someone is
• 15:38
  serving you this food, they deserve to have every single
• 15:43
  thing thrown at them. And then also too, in the way I
• 15:46
  think about it too, it's like, you know, I think sometimes in
• 15:50
  food, there's always a time when certain maybe things are in
• 15:53
  style or it was the chef created maybe something that's like hot
• 15:56
  now and people are like going crazy about it.
• 15:59
  But maybe 2020 years later, people are like, oh, this, this
• 16:03
  is no longer like that new hot thing or that.
• 16:06
  And it kind of passes. And people I feel like try and
• 16:10
  feel some type of way about it where they're like, oh, like
• 16:13
  this is no longer like, this is no longer what it was like 20
• 16:16
  years ago. Like I don't know for us.
• 16:19
  And this is something kind of in a weird way, but like people
• 16:21
  talk about like the Thomas Keller thing that went on for
• 16:24
  me. To this day, I still think that
• 16:26
  meal that I had, we went there three years ago to The French
• 16:29
  Laundry, one of the best experiences in hospitality and
• 16:33
  food that I've ever experienced. So for sure, it might not be
• 16:38
  this thing that was created, you know, in the 90s that blew
• 16:41
  everyone's mind. But I think that food to this
• 16:44
  day is still relevant. People to this day, I think
• 16:46
  still I think have him as this person who created this emphasis
• 16:52
  for chefs to kind of, you know, give them a road map essentially
• 16:57
  of like, hey, this is the way you can run a kitchen and this
• 17:01
  is what you can do. And I think he made food in a
• 17:04
  way fun for people where it just, it didn't become this like
• 17:08
  crazy, like passe kind of like stuffy French dining where you
• 17:12
  would get like these massive courses.
• 17:14
  It became smaller. It became fun.
• 17:17
  It became like she says, a very theatrical kind of way of
• 17:22
  dining. But I don't know, I think
• 17:24
  something like, to this day, something like that still is
• 17:27
  relevant and holds a testament to the time of the kind of
• 17:30
  artist that he is. And yeah, I mean, who can't say
• 17:34
  that that guy's not the goat? You know, I like when artists
• 17:37
  are alive and then they pass and then the all of a sudden the
• 17:41
  valuation of their art goes up, right?
• 17:43
  It's the same thing when a restaurant goes out of business,
• 17:45
  like, Oh my gosh, I, I really love that restaurant, but it's,
• 17:50
  it's like people are not being active participants while it's
• 17:53
  happening. They're waiting till this, the
• 17:57
  song has ended, right? It's the one that got away.
• 17:59
  And then that's when they really start putting the value on it
• 18:01
  rather than appreciating it at the moment.
• 18:04
  And what's interesting about and just using The French Laundry as
• 18:07
  a as a restaurant is that in art, we could look back and look
• 18:12
  at a piece by Michelangelo and say it's amazing.
• 18:15
  Yeah, we could look at something by Leonardo and say he's the
• 18:18
  goat, right? And we could appreciate modern
• 18:22
  art. And some people have a taste for
• 18:24
  classical art and some people have a taste for modern art.
• 18:27
  But in food, for some reason, we don't appreciate.
• 18:30
  We do appreciate classical to an extent, but I think as chefs, us
• 18:35
  being the artist, let's call us the artist, sometimes we're
• 18:37
  chasing, you know, what's current and what's what's ahead
• 18:40
  versus just saying, you know what?
• 18:42
  Fucking Thomas Keller's Leonardo or Michelangelo, right?
• 18:45
  Like he like, let him do what he does, let them do what they do
• 18:50
  because it's excellent. And it's when we could
• 18:52
  appreciate that and he, he could do what he does and it, and we
• 18:55
  could appreciate it. And we don't need to knock it
• 18:56
  down while we do this type of art.
• 18:58
  It's a, it's a. It's a separate type of art.
• 19:00
  Totally. Yeah, Yeah, I can't tell you.
• 19:03
  I think since day one and we're coming up on our sixth year
• 19:06
  anniversary in October, which I'm very six years.
• 19:10
  Six years in October. When did you open?
• 19:12
  What year? October October 5th, 2019.
• 19:15
  So 6 months before. I'm thinking back.
• 19:17
  Do you remember when we first met?
• 19:20
  Yeah. We met during a Wi-Fi I think,
• 19:23
  no. Barton Springs Mill.
• 19:26
  Yes, I do. Yeah, that's right.
• 19:28
  You guys were doing a tour there?
• 19:30
  Yeah. We were looking for new grains
• 19:31
  because we were looking my pastry team looking for new
• 19:34
  grains to make bread and yes, and I think tortillas and things
• 19:37
  like that. And you guys were in the process
• 19:40
  of opening? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 19:42
  We were with James Brown, the the other James Brown, the
• 19:46
  farmer. James Brown.
• 19:47
  Yeah. He looks like Santa Claus.
• 19:48
  I love him. He's such a nice.
• 19:49
  Guy, was that before you opened or you were in the?
• 19:51
  Process. Yeah, that was before.
• 19:52
  You guys were just getting started, right?
• 19:55
  I don't remember when that trip was.
• 19:56
  I felt like it was in the summer because I remember driving up
• 19:58
  there and it was like pretty bright and sunny.
• 19:59
  But yeah, because I. Remember talking to you then and
• 20:01
  I think you were saying you were opening and you were telling me
• 20:03
  the location and I had a friend that lived on the same St. up up
• 20:07
  the street from y'all and I remember going to visit I was
• 20:10
  like and I remember looking like where's next?
• 20:11
  Where is it? Yeah, yeah, that's that's so
• 20:14
  crazy. Yeah.
• 20:16
  It's it's one of those things going back to that point of you,
• 20:20
  you know, there is something for everyone, right?
• 20:24
  And I don't think it's fair to do like an apples to oranges.
• 20:28
  This person is brilliant for the reason of this.
• 20:31
  This person is doing their own thing that we haven't seen
• 20:34
  before, taking inspirations of XY and C and literally since
• 20:38
  this first day we open until today, we get the like
• 20:43
  overhyped, overrated thing. And I think that's so often what
• 20:46
  you see. And newer restaurants where it's
• 20:50
  like no matter, like you kind of chip away at different things,
• 20:55
  right? Like we've never had investors
• 20:57
  since day one. We still don't.
• 20:59
  We treat Nick still like a home project where we reinvest in our
• 21:02
  people, we reinvest in the building, we reinvest in
• 21:05
  different things. And then if we get comments that
• 21:08
  are like the backyard is just dirt, OK, so now we have the
• 21:12
  funds, we just redid that this, you know, we didn't love the way
• 21:18
  that the service model was like this.
• 21:20
  So we adjusted a little bit. And so your your cons, the goal
• 21:23
  post kind of keeps getting further and further and further.
• 21:26
  So you address all these little things.
• 21:28
  And for me anyway, it's like there's so much good that
• 21:34
  overweighs that, right? Like I've kind of made it a
• 21:36
  point every month I all the places that I had like recently
• 21:42
  visited, whether it's like a museum, a restaurant or coffee
• 21:45
  shop, a bar, I go and I leave reviews just like 5 star reviews
• 21:50
  of, you know, genuine things that I loved about it because
• 21:54
  those are the things that like give you the motivation.
• 21:58
  But so often the best things are happening on the ground in the
• 22:02
  restaurant. Like I remember there is this
• 22:04
  woman who went up to her table. It's like, hey, what's going on?
• 22:08
  How are you doing? And she's like, well, I just
• 22:10
  signed my divorce papers. I was like, how are we feeling
• 22:14
  about it? And she's like, fucking great.
• 22:18
  So I was like, all right, let's go.
• 22:19
  So we poured her some champagne. We send out some stuff.
• 22:22
  And those are the moments that really stick out to me of like,
• 22:26
  and I think this has always happened with artists, like
• 22:28
  right when they're alive, they maybe get shit on this, have
• 22:32
  these things that are said about them, but it's like you have to
• 22:35
  just be yourself and believe in what you're doing.
• 22:37
  And then you have these like really memorable moments of
• 22:41
  seeing like families come in that they went from dating to
• 22:44
  getting engaged to getting married to having their babies,
• 22:47
  having their baby have like the duck thought beans all over
• 22:51
  their face. And I think in in the world of
• 22:55
  like artistry, you have to just kind of hold on to those like
• 22:58
  tender moments to be like, OK, they're the ones who like get
• 23:03
  it, Like, let's keep doing our thing and be good stewards to
• 23:07
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• 23:50
  But yeah, I think I do believe, like when you are coming into a
• 23:54
  restaurant space, it's like, I think it is our job for us to be
• 23:58
  able to create. You know, it doesn't always have
• 24:01
  to be this over the top kind of thing, but those little things
• 24:05
  that you can do within hospitality or food to be able
• 24:08
  to like change someone's day up is so monumental.
• 24:10
  I feel like, you know, you can come in and have something
• 24:14
  that's just so delicious that it instantly puts like a smile on
• 24:18
  your face. I can you know, when yesterday
• 24:20
  and had Ramen del Barrio, it was like I hadn't eaten that in
• 24:25
  quite a while. But like that man's food, when
• 24:28
  you eat that, it brings just so much joy and emotion to me
• 24:32
  because 1 I feel like a thing kind of like transported back to
• 24:35
  Japan in a way. Like the vibe of it, the the
• 24:38
  feeling it invokes. And those are those little
• 24:41
  things that like restaurants can do, you know, or on the service.
• 24:44
  And it's like, you know, Sarah can hear that little nod of you
• 24:48
  telling me those words that, oh, you just signed your divorce
• 24:50
  papers and like, OK, I'm going to make I'm about to make this
• 24:53
  like an experience for you that you're never going to forget.
• 24:55
  So I think us getting to be like the conductors of someone's
• 24:59
  lives when they come in for just an hour, an hour and a half is
• 25:04
  really powerful. The the things that you can
• 25:06
  accomplish and, you know, really impact on someone's day that you
• 25:10
  can have by just them coming into your restaurant.
• 25:13
  And I think we as restaurant tours and people who have that,
• 25:19
  you know, power dropped on our lap, like, I think, you know, we
• 25:23
  want to make sure that everyone just has a damn good time, like
• 25:26
  coming in and out. So yeah.
• 25:29
  Yeah, it's, it's funny how you know, I'm, I'm thinking about
• 25:33
  this, this art thing like it's, it's a controversial subject
• 25:37
  because my take on it is if you're an artist or you're a
• 25:39
  Craftsman, I don't really care. Just make it taste good.
• 25:42
  Totally. Like call yourself whatever you
• 25:43
  want, as long as it tastes good. You could, you could do whatever
• 25:46
  you want. But I, I, I do think that it's a
• 25:49
  craft, but I also think it's an art.
• 25:51
  I think it's both. And I think it depends on how
• 25:53
  you're expressing it for sure. And I guess you know, some of
• 25:55
  why I'd argue, say it's all art. Sometimes bad art is, you know,
• 25:58
  whatever. But I don't think people, I
• 26:02
  think some people are, are working with the intent of being
• 26:05
  artists and other people are working with the intent of being
• 26:07
  Craftsman as chefs. Totally.
• 26:09
  I think there's a parallel between the two, absolutely.
• 26:11
  Yeah, and I, you know, go back to hip hop and you know how
• 26:17
  culinary has evolved over the years.
• 26:19
  I think about like the French Laundry, maybe Thomas Keller's,
• 26:21
  like the Rakim of chefs. Like without Thomas Keller or
• 26:25
  Rakim, you know, there is no Wu Tang, right?
• 26:28
  Without Wu Tang, there is no cash money and and so on and so
• 26:31
  forth. But there had to be Rakim first.
• 26:34
  Yeah, he's the foundation. He's the foundation.
• 26:36
  Without Thomas, there maybe is no Alinea.
• 26:38
  There is no there is no Noma. Possibly.
• 26:41
  I mean arguably right. Or you could say without Ferran
• 26:44
  there is no Alinea, there is no Mugaritz, there is no.
• 26:47
  Jose Andres. There is no Jose Andres, right?
• 26:49
  So these people like they are the a lot of people will say
• 26:55
  these chefs go on Mount Rushmore, but I'm not sure if
• 26:57
  people ever really think about like why do these chefs go on
• 26:59
  Mount Rushmore? Because they gave birth.
• 27:02
  They gave birth to a whole section of culinary, which even
• 27:06
  though Grant's food today doesn't look like Thomas's, but
• 27:10
  it still gave birth. Like he he got his training, he
• 27:12
  got his foundation there. Same thing with Corey, Corey Lee
• 27:16
  and Matthew Peters and so many other people.
• 27:20
  The French Laundry did that. And I think restaurant Pablo
• 27:23
  Couste did that. And you know, Danielle did that.
• 27:25
  So many of these legends gave birth to, you know, I even say
• 27:29
  Rick Bayless in a way, kind of gave birth to the Mexican food
• 27:34
  movement on awareness, right? Because Mexican food's been
• 27:39
  around. I mean, for me, honest to God,
• 27:42
  like me watching Rick Bayless as a kid was the first time I had
• 27:47
  ever seen anyone cooking Mexican food that my mom didn't cook and
• 27:51
  asking her like, what is he make?
• 27:54
  Like he's making a black mole. Like what on earth like is that?
• 27:58
  And she kind of like, started telling me like, OK, like,
• 28:02
  there's, you know, the food that I know how to cook is just from,
• 28:05
  like, this area, San Luis Potosi.
• 28:07
  And like, this is these are the things that I know how to cook.
• 28:10
  But like, you know, I'd remember watching his show on PBS and
• 28:14
  like, you know, you would just want, I would be just so
• 28:18
  enamored by it because you're like, damn, dude.
• 28:20
  Like this dude is cooking Mexican food on from places I
• 28:25
  didn't know existed, right? Right.
• 28:27
  Like food that I didn't know existed but it looks incredible
• 28:30
  so I. Learned as much about Mexican
• 28:32
  cooking from Rick Bayless as I did my grandma.
• 28:35
  Yeah, in a way, right. I mean, because I got a teacher.
• 28:38
  He was a teacher, right? Right.
• 28:39
  He explained things where my grandma just cooked.
• 28:41
  Your grandma would be like a little bit of this.
• 28:43
  It has to have little peppercorns. 3 What if we're
• 28:46
  making more? No, it always has to have.
• 28:48
  That's what my grandma, I had to have three peppercorns or three
• 28:50
  cloves or whatever I did. AI did a panel at the CIA in San
• 28:55
  Antonio years ago, and I was one of the panelists for the world,
• 29:01
  world favorite. I don't know.
• 29:02
  Well, yeah, World of Flavors. World of Flavors, but it was
• 29:05
  like the Mexico edition. Rick Bayless was there.
• 29:09
  They brought in all these Mexican chefs from Oaxaca and
• 29:14
  I'm trying to remember who was there.
• 29:15
  But anyways, like, all the all the big Mexican chefs were
• 29:18
  there. And I remember when Rick Bayless
• 29:20
  was done doing his demo, every single Mexican chef wanted to
• 29:24
  get photos with him. They all were lined up.
• 29:26
  Oh, my God, it's Rick Bayless. Yeah, like, chefs from Mexico
• 29:29
  we're so honored to be next to. And I remember I was like, wow,
• 29:32
  that's pretty impressive. Like so I I got a lot of respect
• 29:35
  for him. Yeah, I mean randomly so.
• 29:37
  We did a dinner with him, right? Yeah, we did a dinner with him.
• 29:40
  When he had his book, he did it at Nixa.
• 29:42
  We did stuff in Chicago out of our our sous chef did his
• 29:46
  educational stage Frontera and topolo bombo.
• 29:50
  So I feel like you're dedicating your life to the craft.
• 29:54
  And this is what we were talking about before, right?
• 29:56
  Nothing happens overnight. They are putting all of
• 30:00
  themselves, they're building all the skills, they're building the
• 30:04
  systems, they're taking the time they're.
• 30:06
  Moving to the place he travelled, he lived there for 10
• 30:10
  plus years and learned about the country, travelling throughout
• 30:13
  the country. So it's like, how can you not
• 30:16
  give that man his flowers? I feel like that dude has
• 30:18
  literally dedicated his life to the craft and the and everything
• 30:24
  about Mexican food and he's never opened any other kind of
• 30:27
  restaurants that are like non Mexican.
• 30:29
  Like if he wanted to, maybe he could have opened like an
• 30:32
  American diner under his name. But he's always stayed true to
• 30:35
  who who he is and the food that he's learned.
• 30:39
  And yeah, it's, it's Mexican food.
• 30:41
  He's also ripped. He's like, yeah.
• 30:43
  Also, yeah, like for 60, yeah. He's flexible.
• 30:48
  Wow. Well, it's Betty.
• 30:49
  When I was coming up as a as a young cook, we didn't cook
• 30:54
  Mexican food like we cooked continental because Mexican food
• 30:57
  wasn't. And again, I'm talking about
• 30:59
  like mid 90s to like early 2000s.
• 31:02
  It wasn't really taken seriously.
• 31:03
  It was like Southwestern food, Dean Fairing.
• 31:05
  Dean Fairing, Steven Miles, Mark Miller, Right.
• 31:09
  And so I worked in the Southwest Cuisine restaurant early in my
• 31:12
  career. Like we were, it was like weird
• 31:13
  shit, like, you know, grilled swordfish with pineapple salsa
• 31:17
  and just weird, weird food at the time that we'd look at now
• 31:20
  and be like, why were you serving that, you know, under a
• 31:23
  cornhusk or something like that, right.
• 31:25
  But so we had to early on, if I wanted to be considered a
• 31:29
  serious chef, had to work in continental European, you know,
• 31:32
  French, Italian, things like that.
• 31:34
  And I never had the opportunity because I was kind of, and we've
• 31:38
  talked about this before, we talked about this on Flavors
• 31:42
  Unknown podcast. Oh yeah.
• 31:43
  That's right. We did that years ago with the
• 31:45
  for the Mexican and demanding state.
• 31:46
  Yeah, Emmanuel and and Rick Lopez shout out to those guys.
• 31:50
  But I remember thinking by the time I was kind of already
• 31:53
  wrapping down my career as a chef, I was like, now's when I
• 31:57
  should be making Mexican food, but I couldn't transition at
• 31:59
  that point. And I, I think about how happy I
• 32:03
  am as a, as a chef to see you being able to do it and shine
• 32:10
  and do food that's authentic to you and, and your culture and
• 32:15
  you represent it so well. I look at other chefs like Gabe
• 32:18
  or, you know, fed mean all the, all these guys and so many
• 32:22
  others, right? So I'm not trying to leave
• 32:23
  anyone out, but it's like, wow, now my people right, are able to
• 32:29
  do their food without feeling like they have to cook another
• 32:33
  culture's food 1st to get recognition.
• 32:35
  Absolutely. So I, I, I just want to make
• 32:37
  sure I said that here is like I'm so I'm so proud when I see
• 32:40
  you guys and how the success you've gotten and it like, OK
• 32:43
  then. Yeah, no.
• 32:44
  And I think, you know, to, to your point, it's like a lot of
• 32:48
  us, I mean, if you look at all these other chefs we spoke about
• 32:51
  gay. I mean, we also probably in our
• 32:54
  early parts of our careers didn't cook Mexican food either.
• 32:57
  I think all of us learning the different techniques and from
• 33:02
  other cultures and from other types of restaurants and then
• 33:05
  blending that into the things that we grew up, the things that
• 33:09
  we know in in like a Mexican point of view, in a Mexican
• 33:13
  lens. I think this is like this new
• 33:15
  style, this as like Jose reloc called, he called it like new
• 33:19
  Tejano cooking. And it's very much true.
• 33:21
  It's like we're taking the these other flavors and other things
• 33:26
  that you wouldn't maybe typically see in like
• 33:27
  traditional as people call interior Mexican food.
• 33:31
  Shut up them as they were a lot. Yeah, yeah, they were a lot the
• 33:33
  the goat of tacos and champions. And he's like a part of that
• 33:36
  reason why I think you are starting to see like this, this
• 33:40
  shine now on Mexican food. Like when else was there ever in
• 33:44
  a time and place where there was a Taco editor, right?
• 33:47
  Like, you know, I think. And and BBQ I also feel like is
• 33:50
  parallel in. Absolutely.
• 33:51
  Shine as well by the way. I just want to throw that in.
• 33:53
  There, I mean you saw through 4 Michelin starred BBQ restaurants
• 33:57
  that got, that's huge. Hoping this year that a Mexican
• 34:02
  restaurant with or a taqueria one day would get it.
• 34:06
  It did get it actually in Mexico City.
• 34:08
  So I think it's cool to see that you are starting to see this
• 34:12
  this respect finally put on the culture and people knowing the
• 34:18
  craft that it takes to to make a tortilla.
• 34:21
  It's no longer this like cheap commodity product that it's
• 34:23
  like, Oh yeah. It's like, yeah, of course this
• 34:26
  tacos is a dollar $2.00. Like those days are gone.
• 34:28
  Like those days are long gone. I feel like of the dollar $2.00
• 34:31
  Taco, unless you maybe you live in the valley or something like
• 34:34
  that where things are a lot more affordable.
• 34:37
  But yeah, I think it's it's a cool new, it's a cool new
• 34:42
  evolution and we're in a cool time right now to see where we
• 34:45
  are with Mexican food and where it's going to continue to go.
• 34:48
  Yes, it's so exciting. I'll tell you like my my friend
• 34:50
  Anastasia Quinones in Dallas, She's she's opening up something
• 34:53
  she had. Chef AQ.
• 34:55
  Chef AQ, shout out to Chef AQ. But she's, she's in the process
• 34:58
  of, of doing her thing And she, you know, she's a phenomenal
• 35:02
  chef able to cook her interpretation of what Mexican
• 35:06
  food is to her. And, and again, Jose, I, I got a
• 35:12
  lot of respect for him because he has brought attention to what
• 35:16
  we are doing. You know, he shined a light on
• 35:20
  more than just what we always talked about.
• 35:22
  When I met Jose back in like 2010 when I was in Dallas, I was
• 35:27
  a yeah. When he's like, I don't want to
• 35:29
  say he first started writing, that's when I first met him was
• 35:32
  like 2010. So I was cooking French food,
• 35:35
  you know, I had that was. He a restaurant editor.
• 35:37
  No, he was a, he was a food writer back then.
• 35:39
  I don't remember who he wrote for, but I remember I, I would
• 35:42
  speak to him all the time. We, you know, we, he would come
• 35:44
  and, and, and check out my food that, you know, for my French
• 35:47
  fine dining back then. And he was coming to ride.
• 35:49
  So I was cooking French fine dining and he was writing about
• 35:52
  French fine dining back in 2010. And look at where we are now.
• 35:55
  Now he writes about, you know, tacos, some of the best tacos.
• 35:59
  And, you know, I talk. I get to talk to my friends.
• 36:02
  I remember the first day we met him.
• 36:04
  Honest to God I was so I kind of was crap my pants.
• 36:07
  That was during our. Friends and family.
• 36:10
  Yeah, yeah, family. I remember after.
• 36:12
  We just invited random media people.
• 36:14
  I was like how do press releases work?
• 36:16
  Yes, put out a bunch of random emails.
• 36:18
  And then I remember after the meal he was like, I just want to
• 36:22
  be honest with you. I didn't love this meal.
• 36:24
  And I was like, Oh my God, like my heart broke.
• 36:27
  And he was like, you know, I just tasted.
• 36:29
  I felt like you just had a lot of olive oil on things.
• 36:33
  And at that time I did like, I remember like I went through
• 36:37
  like almost like a whole bottle of olive oil that night thinking
• 36:40
  I was like some like Italian chef just like pouring on olive
• 36:44
  oil like. And he's like, it just didn't
• 36:46
  really taste like a Taco to me. And that was one of those things
• 36:50
  I really remember that like really, yeah, I respected that
• 36:53
  because I was like, damn, OK, like maybe I think it kind of
• 36:57
  made me look at in Word in myself and being like, OK, dude.
• 37:00
  Like this is at the end of the day still a Taco.
• 37:02
  Like we're not trying to have this be this like Italian thing
• 37:06
  or this French or Japanese. Like it is still reverence as
• 37:10
  the Taco. So I something I remember like I
• 37:13
  held on to really well. And, you know, we cut back the
• 37:16
  amount of olive oil that we do on a lot of the dishes.
• 37:19
  Some didn't even have it anymore.
• 37:21
  And you know, he's become, you know, someone that we can text
• 37:26
  at any point to ask about recommendations.
• 37:29
  And he's become someone that I truly like, really love.
• 37:32
  And I'd love to see his writing and seeing how he's putting a
• 37:35
  shine on, like, different parts of Texas that people aren't
• 37:38
  really talking about, like in the Valley, you know, going chef
• 37:41
  on Elise. Like he gave her the number one
• 37:44
  Taco in the state of Texas. Like, she is truly one of those
• 37:47
  taqueras. When have you met her?
• 37:48
  Yeah, She cooked with us. Yeah.
• 37:51
  For five year anniversary. We invited like a bunch.
• 37:53
  Of did she win the James? Beard she won the James Beard
• 37:55
  two years, not this year the fall of last year for best chef
• 37:58
  Texas. But yeah, she is a a taqueria
• 38:01
  like who is representing the Valley 956.
• 38:05
  She's putting food that is true to her in every way, like and
• 38:11
  she's making freshness them all. She's hand rolling flour
• 38:15
  tortillas. Like, you know, without a person
• 38:18
  like Jose to like, given that spotlight and giving him that,
• 38:21
  like a person like her, I feel like back in the day really
• 38:24
  wouldn't have been found. So I'm grateful to him to that
• 38:28
  he's doing the work of driving all across Texas and like
• 38:31
  finding those places that people aren't really talking about and
• 38:35
  giving them a voice and giving them some wow.
• 38:36
  He's, he's putting in the work and I don't, I don't remember
• 38:38
  exactly what the connection is with El Paso, with Jose, but I
• 38:42
  remember we, we connected over that year again, like 2010,
• 38:45
  because I'm from El Paso and I don't remember peace from El
• 38:48
  Paso or someone where he goes there often or whatever.
• 38:52
  But it it's nice to see what he's done to prop up the food of
• 38:58
  of people that maybe weren't getting their shine.
• 39:00
  And now now I feel like the shine is a lot more equal.
• 39:03
  Yeah, right. It's it's more evenly
• 39:05
  distributed for sure in 2025 than it was in in 2005.
• 39:09
  So I I think that's pretty cool. I want to go back to hip hop
• 39:12
  really quick are. You all about to throw?
• 39:15
  Down no no sneaker you're a sneaker head right?
• 39:17
  Absolutely cuz I also feel like sneakers it it also kind of a
• 39:21
  little bit of hip hop culture. Yeah.
• 39:23
  Do you wear sneakers in the kitchen?
• 39:24
  Yeah, for sure. You do?
• 39:25
  Oh, yeah. Like I don't, I don't, I don't
• 39:28
  ever wear. I don't flip around.
• 39:29
  We got some mats, you know, we got mats.
• 39:31
  That's what they're for. Yeah.
• 39:33
  But I never wear like the fresh Krispies.
• 39:35
  Like I'll wear some like beaters that are now like, you know, at
• 39:38
  it's like 2 year mark. But if I'm not wearing sneakers,
• 39:42
  I'll wear Crocs. I'm sorry, Crocs or some
• 39:46
  Berkeys. Yeah, it just depends on the day
• 39:48
  and what kind of day my feet are having and where I'm like, do I
• 39:51
  want to look fresh? Do I want to fly or you do I
• 39:53
  want to just wear something that's like just I want to feel
• 39:56
  like I'm on a cloud. So I feel like I'm not.
• 39:58
  I'm not saying that Chef James Can't Rest in Peace started that
• 40:02
  trend, but he did bring a lot of attention to chefs wearing
• 40:05
  sneakers in the kitchen. I absolutely see a lot of a lot
• 40:07
  of sneakers on the pass. Sneakers on the pass, right?
• 40:10
  You see that now I'm not a sneaker head only because I I
• 40:14
  I'm I like like certain shoes, like I'm just I'm not that into
• 40:18
  it. But but I will say I do like
• 40:21
  certain shoes, like I like the original converse or I like the
• 40:25
  Nike Cortez I like. And so I was on a group text
• 40:29
  with Gabe and Mike Diaz the other day.
• 40:32
  OK, and Gabriel, a shout out to those guys and you see my new my
• 40:38
  new hoodie. Let's go see Natos.
• 40:39
  Yeah, so I send it to, I was like, hey, this is my new
• 40:41
  hoodie. I'm gonna bring some cholo stuff
• 40:42
  I got. So like just cook is one of my
• 40:44
  things. And I have an old English hat
• 40:45
  now. This is just cook on it.
• 40:47
  So I'm like, I'm bringing the cholo style back to the chefs,
• 40:49
  but Mike Diaz, so I got to make sure I give him credit.
• 40:53
  He said you should make Nike Cortez Crocs for the kitchen.
• 40:58
  I mean, OK, this is something we just talked about, yeah.
• 41:02
  I, I'm a big proponent of like, if you're a fan of what someone
• 41:08
  is doing, the worst they can say no.
• 41:11
  And so I always reach out and I'm like, I love what you're
• 41:14
  doing. Think you're dope.
• 41:15
  Would you be open to this? And like 9 times at a time they
• 41:18
  say yes. We have one of our regulars who
• 41:21
  happens to be someone who like we really admire.
• 41:27
  And I reached out. I was like, hey, is a chef's
• 41:30
  shoes something that we can do? Because ultimately out there,
• 41:32
  it's just kind of sod options. There's not much like style or
• 41:36
  flair to it. Yeah, it's always like the
• 41:38
  classic like Birkenstock though the the plastic one that's
• 41:43
  horrendous. The Croc, like the Croc that's
• 41:46
  like with the non slip. Also another just like slinker.
• 41:50
  Like I don't know, there's just not like the chef's shoes that
• 41:54
  are out there are just not shoes that I'm personally prone to
• 41:56
  like wearing. There's just like not.
• 41:59
  It's not my I Like Me's footwear, but again.
• 42:02
  I do like the new boot, the new boot they made the Chelsea boot.
• 42:05
  Yeah, I thought that one was pretty dope and I love the non
• 42:08
  slip kind of out pole. But I mean, there's not a lot of
• 42:12
  options if we're talking. About.
• 42:13
  But as far as sneakers go, there's no.
• 42:15
  Yeah, I see chefs as a type of athlete where they're, they're
• 42:19
  creative, they're doing stuff, they're on their feet, they need
• 42:23
  something. And ultimately, a lot of them
• 42:25
  are stylish, you know? Yeah.
• 42:28
  So how do we like, if there's a capitalistic side to it, it's
• 42:32
  like it would do well. But how would you not want to
• 42:35
  tap into the biggest like? Mikey Cortez, hit me up.
• 42:38
  Yeah, do the exclusive Chefs PSA edition.
• 42:40
  Exactly, this is a hype dream so if anyone's out there and can
• 42:43
  make this happen, but then on my.
• 42:47
  It's. One of my goals for Edgar, like
• 42:50
  I Edgar sort of my muse, right? And I'm like, OK, how do I how
• 42:56
  do I kind of finagle something to make this happen?
• 42:59
  But ultimately, you know, we met, we met James RIP and he's
• 43:06
  he was just this like person that was full of life, so
• 43:10
  lovely. And I just know that, you know,
• 43:14
  that was part of his legacy. How do you create something that
• 43:17
  is like memorable to other people?
• 43:20
  It's sort of this time stamp. And yeah, it was just, you know,
• 43:26
  I remember that dude the day we met.
• 43:27
  Him when we were cooking at that event, he was wearing Travis
• 43:30
  Scott's and I was like, dude, you're wearing like $5000
• 43:33
  sneakers while you're cooking. I was like, that's a, that's a,
• 43:36
  that's a bold move. I love it, yeah.
• 43:38
  But yeah, you know, it's like, I do believe, like she's saying
• 43:41
  it's like why wouldn't a company like a Nike or Adidas converse,
• 43:46
  anyone that's listening out there, you know, want to tap
• 43:49
  into the food industry of people that are like the one of the
• 43:54
  biggest employers we all have to have shoes.
• 43:57
  We. All have to have shoes.
• 43:59
  We all gonna need shoes that are non slip that are like things
• 44:03
  that you can wear that are safe in the kitchen.
• 44:05
  And if you look at it and kind of that stylistic mindset of
• 44:09
  like, hey, like chefs are athletes in a way.
• 44:13
  When I'm cooking, if I'm cooking on the line and I'll look at my,
• 44:16
  I'll look at my like burn meter of how many Cal I'll burn like
• 44:20
  15 hundred 1800 calories in a day from just cooking on the
• 44:24
  line. So it's like, how is a chef not
• 44:27
  an athlete? Who is the artist?
• 44:29
  Who? Literally made shoes for space
• 44:31
  for NASA. What was this Tom's Tom Sacks?
• 44:34
  Yeah, Tom Sacks. So I'm like if they're.
• 44:36
  Making shoes for astronauts, like I think we can maybe do
• 44:39
  some stuff for. It's more of a market for.
• 44:41
  Phillip Speer had what did he have?
• 44:44
  I don't know if they were Adidas, I think they might have
• 44:45
  been Adidas. But they're softening.
• 44:47
  They look like conchas. Did you ever see them?
• 44:49
  Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. They were, I think they were
• 44:52
  pink and they look like conchas. They were Adidas, Yeah, yeah.
• 44:54
  I was like. Those were.
• 44:55
  Fucking cool, I had to get a photo of them.
• 44:57
  We did a dinner together and he wore them in the kitchen that
• 45:00
  day. We did a dinner with AQ in
• 45:02
  Dallas and he's wearing his conchas.
• 45:03
  And I was like, that's fucking badass, Phil Phil brought the
• 45:06
  the conchas shoes. I only met James Kent once in my
• 45:09
  life. We were in Vegas for a mentor
• 45:12
  BKB book whose qualifier thing and he showed up and, you know,
• 45:17
  rest in peace. I wish I had more time with him
• 45:21
  because the short time that I spent with him, I was like, this
• 45:24
  dude's cool. He walked straight up to me.
• 45:26
  He's like, I guess we're the only ones with the beard here.
• 45:28
  And then we just kind of hit it off and started talking,
• 45:31
  talking. Then that's the only time I've
• 45:32
  ever met him. But you know, talk about a
• 45:36
  great. Chef that we lost.
• 45:38
  And absolutely, yeah. We had met him literally like 2
• 45:42
  weeks before he passed. We were in California doing an
• 45:45
  event and you know, we had met at that initial like dinner and
• 45:51
  then we had got to talking. We hit it off really well.
• 45:55
  We were hanging out. Yeah.
• 45:57
  We, you know, he could have gone anywhere, but he had asked us
• 46:00
  that day. He was like, hey, what are you
• 46:02
  guys doing after this? And we're like, oh, I think
• 46:03
  we're gonna go into LA. We're gonna go have some lunch.
• 46:05
  He's like, can I join you guys? And we're like, damn, like,
• 46:09
  yeah, let's go. I think the beautiful thing
• 46:11
  about him. Is how he really like genuinely
• 46:15
  uplifted his team like he elevated them to all have
• 46:20
  ownership and like accountability and pride and
• 46:23
  what they were doing and put these people in in positions
• 46:27
  that he was like, I'm taking a step back.
• 46:30
  I'm here as a mentor. I want to see you all shine.
• 46:33
  And I think that is like the mark of an amazing leader.
• 46:37
  And he just he left like such a beautiful legacy behind for them
• 46:41
  to, you know, do what he wanted them to do what, which was to
• 46:47
  just crush it part of what you're doing and, you know,
• 46:51
  don't don't leave anything on the table.
• 46:53
  I want to ask you. Because we've we've lost a lot
• 46:56
  of really great chefs over the past few years and it's really
• 47:01
  tragic to see. But one of the one of the
• 47:04
  downsides of this industry, and you know, you could argue and
• 47:07
  say some of the dark side of the industry is the pressure.
• 47:11
  And there's a tremendous amount of pressure that people don't
• 47:14
  see. They only see what's on
• 47:14
  Instagram. They see the happy faces and
• 47:16
  they see the pretty food pictures and like, I like to
• 47:18
  call them the chef thirst traps, right?
• 47:21
  It's like, oh, look at how look at all the pretty this looks.
• 47:24
  But a lot of people don't see what goes on behind the scenes.
• 47:26
  And I want to ask, I'd love to, I'd love to hear your side of it
• 47:32
  because you've received some incredible accolades, James
• 47:38
  Beard Award. No Michelin.
• 47:42
  Right, food and wine as well. Food and wine.
• 47:44
  I mean, the big three, you've received the big three, right?
• 47:48
  James Beard, Michelin and food and wine.
• 47:53
  With that comes a ton of pressure.
• 47:56
  Yeah, for sure. How do you deal with it?
• 48:00
  Because and I'm, I'm kind of setting you up a little bit by
• 48:03
  the way, with the question, because I know I had a period of
• 48:07
  time when I was a younger chef where the success came too quick
• 48:11
  for me and I wasn't prepared to deal with it.
• 48:14
  And I, and I kind of struggled with it.
• 48:17
  I didn't think I would. But when it really happened,
• 48:19
  it's like, oh, I, I, I'm really struggling with success, what
• 48:24
  people don't see. And I'm just curious because
• 48:27
  you've had a tremendous amount of success, the big three, very
• 48:30
  quick. Have you had to, how have you
• 48:33
  dealt with it? I guess would be a better
• 48:34
  question. Yeah.
• 48:35
  So you know I. Think when we had initially
• 48:38
  opened it, our plan was to never have anything more than just
• 48:42
  like a neighborhood talkeria. I don't think we had a even
• 48:46
  ascended to like even thinking about we could win a James
• 48:50
  Beard, we could win Michelin or a food and wine best new chef.
• 48:54
  These were aspirations and goals that absolutely I had, but I
• 48:58
  didn't think from this scrappy little restaurant that we had
• 49:01
  built that we were going to ascend to this.
• 49:03
  Like I was like, well, maybe if we do good with this one, maybe
• 49:06
  once we get the the restaurant that has all the bells and
• 49:08
  whistles, we'll eventually have that.
• 49:11
  But as all the things kind of started coming in, you know, I
• 49:14
  think for me, some of this pressure started amounting
• 49:17
  because people, I think when you do win these awards, they expect
• 49:20
  maybe oh, this person wanted James Beard or has like a
• 49:23
  Michelin. They expect maybe like table
• 49:25
  service and like white tablecloth and like service.
• 49:28
  But then you're eating literally, quite literally in a
• 49:30
  backyard of a restaurant, you know, a 10,000 square foot
• 49:33
  backyard. But you know, for me, I think it
• 49:36
  was definitely at first a lot of pressure mounting of like, Oh my
• 49:41
  God, like people, I think people were kind of maybe turned off by
• 49:46
  it at first that they were getting something that wasn't a
• 49:50
  traditional restaurant model because our restaurant isn't,
• 49:52
  you know, we are, we're a counter service model
• 49:55
  restaurant. You know, we strongly believe in
• 49:59
  this and what we do because it allows us to pay people higher
• 50:02
  wages. It allows everyone in the
• 50:05
  kitchen to get tipped out. So the dishwashers to the
• 50:08
  servers, to the bus, everyone is a part of it.
• 50:11
  So why doesn't everyone get tipped out?
• 50:14
  So that is something that we'll never compromise on.
• 50:17
  So yeah, it may lead to you having to wait in line for a
• 50:21
  little bit of time and then you go into a backyard to go sit on
• 50:26
  a bench that we've handmade ourselves.
• 50:28
  You know, And for some people, I think they're kind of turned off
• 50:31
  by that because they, I think in their mindset, have this idea of
• 50:36
  what they think an award-winning restaurant is that they think it
• 50:39
  should be shiny and bright. But, you know, I think for me,
• 50:43
  those first, that first year, especially after James Beard, it
• 50:46
  was a lot of things kind of thrown at me.
• 50:49
  And I think for me, at the end of the day, I think the biggest
• 50:52
  thing one, having someone that like my wife Sarah, that is
• 50:56
  there to like, kind of calm me down, calm my nerves of like,
• 51:00
  OK, like maybe we need to adjust this thing.
• 51:02
  Or. But I think for myself, having
• 51:06
  that belief in in in myself and the vision that we were doing
• 51:10
  that this is the right thing. And maybe people might not get
• 51:13
  it, but not everyone has to get it.
• 51:14
  You know? You know, art is that thing that
• 51:18
  people isn't meant to be loved by everyone.
• 51:20
  Some people are not going to like that.
• 51:22
  And that's OK as long as we will truly believe what we're doing
• 51:25
  is we're putting our heart and soul into this thing and it is
• 51:29
  the right thing to do for us and for our employees, then we're
• 51:33
  going to, you know, continue forward with that.
• 51:35
  But for myself, some things that I like to do to kind of, you
• 51:39
  know, calm my. Nerves or just like not?
• 51:42
  Think about food is like some days when I'm not in the
• 51:45
  kitchen, like I won't don't just kind of want to turn my brain
• 51:49
  off and like don't have to think about food.
• 51:51
  So I don't know other hobbies I like to explore, love exploring
• 51:56
  art, love going to art museums to kind of get inspired by other
• 51:59
  artists or other meetings of art.
• 52:02
  F-12 has become a recent obsession.
• 52:04
  Love following Formula One. And we're lucky enough to get to
• 52:08
  work with F1 directly now working with the Aston Martin
• 52:11
  team. So I don't know, there's other
• 52:14
  things I feel like where I have to kind of just turn my brain
• 52:16
  off and not think about food for a little bit and kind of just
• 52:19
  let my mind wander or just turning on an album of hip hop
• 52:22
  and just like vibing out to it and just like kind of
• 52:25
  appreciating that art. And I think you have to have
• 52:27
  that balance. I think you can't just fully be
• 52:30
  immersed in food all the time because you know, you're just
• 52:33
  going to go kind of nuts. I think you have to have this
• 52:36
  other hobbies and other things that you're doing in your life
• 52:39
  that aren't food related to give you that balance.
• 52:43
  How do you protect yourself from?
• 52:44
  I don't want to call them energy vampires, but sometimes when
• 52:48
  you're successful, you have all these friends that you never
• 52:50
  knew you had. Sure.
• 52:51
  Yeah. You know what I mean?
• 52:52
  Absolutely. When you're on top, everyone
• 52:54
  loves you. And again, I'm just using myself
• 52:58
  as the example. I realized that early when I was
• 53:00
  younger, when I had some success, I realized I had a lot
• 53:03
  of people that were around me that probably weren't around me
• 53:06
  because they liked me, but because of how I made them look.
• 53:08
  Sure. So how do you protect yourself
• 53:11
  from that? Do you have any strategies?
• 53:13
  She's she can always. Call the bullshit.
• 53:15
  You smell the bullshit in my life, yeah.
• 53:17
  I I'm definitely. Protective over Edgar because he
• 53:20
  is someone who is immensely just gregarious and open and excited.
• 53:30
  About a lot of. Things that come, I'm sort of
• 53:34
  the barrier to entry of what are, it's like, what are your
• 53:37
  intentions with my daughter? It's like what are your
• 53:40
  intentions with my husband sort of thing.
• 53:42
  I am a little bit more cautious about someone's intent of why
• 53:49
  they're in the mix. One thing that is like really
• 53:53
  beautiful about what we've done is that it has opened the door
• 53:56
  to all these new friendships, which are very genuine for the
• 54:00
  food and wine best new chef class.
• 54:02
  We have a food and wine best new friends.
• 54:04
  And so it's all of the best new chefs and we're celebrating each
• 54:08
  other. We're saying, Oh my God, let's
• 54:11
  go. Congratulations, Nando on the
• 54:14
  Michelin. Like at the Michelin Awards?
• 54:16
  A few. Weeks ago, like architects, the
• 54:18
  official was the. Official award that you
• 54:20
  received. This is like myself.
• 54:22
  Yeah. Emerging.
• 54:23
  Chat emerging chat. That's right.
• 54:24
  And so when? We're coming along this I try
• 54:27
  and vet it the best that I can. We do get a lot of inquiries, a
• 54:32
  lot of things, a lot of DMS directly to Edgar and to myself.
• 54:37
  So I actually have a a secondary e-mail that is Edgar, but it's
• 54:43
  actually me. So smart.
• 54:45
  Yeah. Do you want me to cut?
• 54:47
  That out? No, I mean for Yeah, I mean
• 54:49
  yeah. Right.
• 54:50
  No, yeah, it's it's to kind of block out one Truthfully, I'm
• 54:54
  not the best with emails. I kind of handle let her kind of
• 55:00
  usually handle a lot of signal and noise.
• 55:05
  One from Desnudo reached out a couple days ago and said, hey, I
• 55:09
  just want to pick your brain about a few things.
• 55:11
  And this was actually one of them of how do you know when to
• 55:14
  say yes, when to say no? And sometimes you don't know.
• 55:16
  You have to base it on like some research who they are, what they
• 55:21
  want to do, Does it align with like the things that you want?
• 55:24
  Does it provide some like other opportunities that you're
• 55:27
  interested in? I remember like we got an e-mail
• 55:31
  from the State Department saying like we want you to be an
• 55:34
  ambassador culinary global ambassador and I'm like, this is
• 55:37
  spam, right? And same thing with awesome
• 55:41
  Martin F1. There's I would say more than
• 55:45
  more often than not, it's like very pure intention and it's
• 55:48
  brought in like so many positive things like Norman Saqib from
• 55:53
  like Masala, my use in Mexico City.
• 55:55
  We went and ate there. We formed a friendship.
• 55:57
  They came for a five year more often than not.
• 56:00
  Like the the insulated part of the friends that we've made have
• 56:05
  always been a part of the hospitality industry.
• 56:07
  And for that reason it's been more of like cure.
• 56:10
  But yeah, for sure there's been some people, it's like maybe
• 56:14
  there's a little bit of an energy vampire thing, but I
• 56:18
  always think it's also like a give and take.
• 56:19
  So when we were first starting out, there were a lot of people
• 56:22
  who gave us a chance. And so we try and have that same
• 56:25
  mentality if it's like Comadre who popped up at Nixa for a year
• 56:30
  in our backyard every weekend and then sort of help them in
• 56:35
  the journey along the way. But I would say like, just do
• 56:39
  your research on them. Don't say yes to everything.
• 56:43
  Sometimes they'll get burned and that's OK.
• 56:45
  But more often than not, I think lead with that.
• 56:49
  They're coming from a good positive place.
• 56:52
  But yeah, I for sure am like, yeah, everything kind of and
• 56:55
  then and then usually. Like if you, yeah, if it goes
• 56:57
  through her and we'll we'll actually meet with them.
• 56:59
  I think we'll it's like a vibe check automatically of like,
• 57:01
  yeah, do we do we fuck with you? Like yeah, I'm the same way like
• 57:05
  with me. It's like I would advise people
• 57:07
  say yes until you could say no, right?
• 57:09
  Exactly. Like I'm not signing anything
• 57:11
  like just. Based on like a Yeah, sure, OK.
• 57:14
  And then eventually you get to the place where.
• 57:16
  You can pick and choose what events you want to go to, who
• 57:18
  you want to partner with. But I think early when you're
• 57:20
  starting to build your career, you got to say yes to more
• 57:22
  things for sure. You got to do everything.
• 57:24
  You got to do some of those free things where?
• 57:25
  You're like, because especially for us, like, you know, we've
• 57:28
  never paid for PR. We've never paid for marketing.
• 57:30
  People ask us all the time, like, who's your PR firm?
• 57:32
  Who's, like, in your life? It's really just both of you.
• 57:35
  Yeah. Literally.
• 57:35
  Wow. There is.
• 57:36
  No, yeah. No sleeper.
• 57:39
  Yeah. Congratulations.
• 57:40
  Yeah. That's a big job, no?
• 57:42
  Yeah. And I do.
• 57:43
  Think. Something I'm really proud of is
• 57:47
  that from the beginning, people are you're never going to be
• 57:51
  able to win anything if you don't, you're never going to be
• 57:53
  published, you'll never be introduced to the.
• 57:55
  Publishers, the editors, and that's.
• 57:58
  Like a point of pride for us where it's like, I know
• 58:01
  organically on our own that like people came for the reviews,
• 58:06
  people who did these things because of just who we are and
• 58:09
  what we built. Yeah.
• 58:10
  And not based on like the relationships that were
• 58:13
  pre-existing. And the food is great, by the
• 58:15
  way, the food. Is great and and I remember when
• 58:18
  I ate there, you styled me out. I think you gave me I think you
• 58:21
  gave me everything on the menu. I felt like I sat outside and
• 58:24
  everything was really amazing. The food is really, really
• 58:27
  incredible. So if people haven't tried your
• 58:29
  food that are listening, they should come try your food.
• 58:31
  Absolutely. I wanna sorry, I was gonna say
• 58:34
  and then I would say the. Other biggest catalyst for
• 58:36
  ourselves to de stress is travel.
• 58:39
  I mean, yeah, yeah, right. Absolutely I.
• 58:41
  Think. Travel is something that is so
• 58:46
  important to who we are and how we operate.
• 58:50
  Also as a company, you know, we close down the restaurants 2 * a
• 58:54
  year, one week in the winter, one week in the summertime to
• 58:59
  let our team kind of reset, relax and kind of just get their
• 59:03
  brains right. Like, you know, they shouldn't
• 59:05
  have to be cooking all the time. I think people when they get out
• 59:08
  of the kitchen for a week to see what other things are going on,
• 59:11
  I think it gives all our cooks and our staff like a time to
• 59:14
  kind of refresh and kind of get themselves right for the
• 59:17
  upcoming season. Because I in Austin now there's
• 59:20
  like essentially like two seasons now in, in a year.
• 59:24
  It's no, it's like hot summer and like really cold winter.
• 59:29
  Like I feel like there's no spring and fall anymore.
• 59:31
  Like it's kind of just one or the other.
• 59:34
  Yeah. But you know, I think those
• 59:36
  times are imperative for our team to kind of get them ready
• 59:38
  because like in the winter time, like after January when they
• 59:42
  come back in, it's kind of a slow build up.
• 59:44
  And then, you know, March to June, it's like bump in and
• 59:48
  then, you know, we'll give them July to reset.
• 59:51
  And then it's kind of like a slow build up into the fall
• 59:55
  because like, you know, July, August are significantly always
• 59:58
  been our slowest months of the year, you know, but then you
• 1:00:01
  start rolling into September, October happens and October is
• 1:00:05
  just like a complete. Crazy shit show with ACL that
• 1:00:09
  happens and Formula One that happens and all the other things
• 1:00:12
  kind of happening during October.
• 1:00:13
  October is that month where, at least for us, it's like we know
• 1:00:17
  this is where we're going to capitalize on a lot of events.
• 1:00:20
  Chef. Normally when I wrap up the show
• 1:00:21
  I start. Asking people like how it feels
• 1:00:24
  in your kitchen. First question, is it, is it a
• 1:00:27
  green tape kitchen or is it a blue tape kitchen, blue tape,
• 1:00:30
  blue tape team? Blue tape I want to convert.
• 1:00:32
  A green. Tape.
• 1:00:33
  You can see things better. That's what I'm saying.
• 1:00:35
  For now, it's blue tape. But.
• 1:00:37
  I'm I would like to go into green.
• 1:00:40
  Maybe you're 6? We start out with some new tape.
• 1:00:43
  Yeah, I've never been. I've never been a green tape
• 1:00:45
  person. But no, but I was a blue tape
• 1:00:47
  person. I've switched.
• 1:00:48
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Only because you could read
• 1:00:50
  better on it. This is true because when you
• 1:00:52
  are using like. A darker font?
• 1:00:53
  You're like, what the fuck? Yeah, yeah, yeah, good point.
• 1:00:55
  What? About the music in the kitchen,
• 1:00:58
  Do you play music in the kitchen?
• 1:01:00
  Depends on who's. Yeah, it depends.
• 1:01:01
  Who's working that day? OK when you're, when you're.
• 1:01:04
  Working when I'm when I'm in there.
• 1:01:06
  I'm, I have like a hip hop playlist that I play that is
• 1:01:09
  just like high upbeat, yeah. What's up tempo, What's on it?
• 1:01:15
  There's going to be some Wu Tangs, run the jewels.
• 1:01:20
  It's kind of a a ebbs and flows kind of.
• 1:01:24
  I have a chef's PSA hip hop. Playlist people could find it on
• 1:01:27
  Spotify OK like I did a a dinner with Sarah hurt at at at foreign
• 1:01:32
  and domestic recently and they played my playlist my hip hop
• 1:01:35
  playlist nice people are gonna be OK with this like it's a lot
• 1:01:37
  of nine like is it 99093 to 2003 hip hop yeah yeah but then
• 1:01:43
  sometimes too like. Depending on who's the staff to
• 1:01:45
  that day, like sometimes like if it's in the morning and I'm
• 1:01:48
  prepping with all the ladies, like I'm going to be playing
• 1:01:50
  some like Tejano ranchera Cumbias for them, Atlanta for
• 1:01:53
  them, because like they don't want to listen to my fucking hip
• 1:01:56
  hop. They're like turn that shit off.
• 1:01:57
  Like we don't care. But it yeah, it's usually if
• 1:02:00
  it's like a bunch of line cooks and it's the night time, like
• 1:02:03
  I'm wanting just like high upbeat, like hip hop.
• 1:02:05
  What's the salt diamond? Crystal Mortons I'm a Mortons.
• 1:02:09
  Why Why mortons? I hate a lot of people are
• 1:02:11
  diamond crystals. I I don't like the I don't like
• 1:02:14
  the diamond. Crystal 'cause I think it's too
• 1:02:15
  fine. I like the Mortons 'cause it's a
• 1:02:16
  lot, it's a lot more coarse and I can feel the soft a lot more
• 1:02:20
  on my fingertips. I think every chef I've asked
• 1:02:23
  that to. Only you and Kevin Fink.
• 1:02:25
  Yeah, it's a point of contention for.
• 1:02:27
  Sure, We're in the middle of Yeah, I, I, don't I.
• 1:02:30
  Don't like diamond crystal because I think it's too fine
• 1:02:34
  and I feel like I over salt things I'm using so she it's
• 1:02:36
  probably because you grew up. Cooking with Mortons, right?
• 1:02:38
  You're like the the feeling, honestly.
• 1:02:42
  My mom used like I'dex more in the sea.
• 1:02:45
  Not as a kid, I. Mean in the kitchen, like as a
• 1:02:47
  chef. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 1:02:49
  So you get, you get used to seasoning either with sea salt
• 1:02:52
  or, or, or diamond crystal or whatever.
• 1:02:55
  Morton's interesting. Yeah.
• 1:02:57
  Morton's Kosher Morton. 'S kosher.
• 1:02:59
  Shout out to Morton's. Kosher.
• 1:03:00
  They don't sponsor the show. Yeah.
• 1:03:03
  And then finishing acid, if you had like an all-purpose fit
• 1:03:06
  finishing acid, Is it vinegar? Is it lemon?
• 1:03:08
  Is it lime? Lime's.
• 1:03:09
  Yeah, Lime's finish. 90% of our dishes at Nixa, like there's
• 1:03:13
  three things we always call them like the big three at the at
• 1:03:15
  Nixa, it's like olive oil, lime juice and molded sea salt.
• 1:03:21
  So Baldon's the. Finishing one that.
• 1:03:22
  Answers the next question. OK.
• 1:03:24
  Last question, food related. Is there something?
• 1:03:28
  That you do in your kitchen that a lot of people listening could
• 1:03:30
  benefit from. That isn't a widely known
• 1:03:33
  practice. I think for us it's.
• 1:03:36
  That reinvestment back into your people, something that we do
• 1:03:40
  that I don't think is very common is we have a RE education
• 1:03:44
  fund for our staff. So if you've worked with us for
• 1:03:47
  about a year, we will give you $1000 to go learn about
• 1:03:52
  something, whether you want to go STAJ at a restaurant, whether
• 1:03:55
  you want to go learn about a wine harvest, whether you want
• 1:03:59
  to go learn how to make fresh chocolate in Mexico, whatever it
• 1:04:02
  may be, we give you that opportunity to go do that.
• 1:04:06
  You can use your time off. You can because you, once you
• 1:04:08
  work with us, you get 40 hours of paid time off once you worked
• 1:04:11
  with us for a year. So something that I it's like
• 1:04:15
  something that we truly believe in, in like reeducating our
• 1:04:19
  staff to keep them curious because when they go do these
• 1:04:22
  stodges or go do these trips or they go learn, they come back
• 1:04:25
  with a wealth of knowledge that, you know, then you can use to,
• 1:04:30
  you know, your benefit in the restaurant because they've been
• 1:04:32
  inspired by these new things. And maybe it might be something
• 1:04:35
  that I'm not familiar with. Like I remember one of our
• 1:04:38
  chefs, she went to go learn about chocolate.
• 1:04:39
  I had no idea anything about chocolate.
• 1:04:42
  But her coming back with that new knowledge is something that
• 1:04:45
  we were able to then use within the restaurant.
• 1:04:49
  And I don't know, like for you, you've had like, people that
• 1:04:51
  have gone and learned about wine and yeah, I mean.
• 1:04:56
  In a lot of the jobs I'd worked with in the past, they had had a
• 1:04:59
  professional Development Fund. So that's something I wanted to
• 1:05:01
  implement in our restaurant. So they've done Harvest and
• 1:05:04
  Napa, they've taken butchery classes, fermentation classes,
• 1:05:09
  someone's doing like embroidery. So we have a facilities manager
• 1:05:12
  and so now she like embroiders a lot of our stuff.
• 1:05:15
  So it it's like a, you know, an ecosystem of, you know, having a
• 1:05:22
  curious mind, constantly learning and that's the number
• 1:05:26
  one thing we look for in our team.
• 1:05:27
  So that's really where we go to the dining team.
• 1:05:31
  Last question, if you had a mount.
• 1:05:32
  Rushmore of chefs, 4 of them, who goes on Mount Rushmore, OK
• 1:05:37
  from Jose Andres. Jose Andres, TK.
• 1:05:44
  Enrique Alberta, I think. For me, I think that man is
• 1:05:47
  pretty special. Yeah, Mom.
• 1:05:52
  I mean my grandma. I think is up there, but I would
• 1:05:56
  say then Escoffier. Escoffier, yeah, yeah, we could.
• 1:06:00
  We could do a whole episode on. Escoffier.
• 1:06:01
  Yeah. I mean, that man is.
• 1:06:03
  The Foundation. What do we got here all right
• 1:06:06
  before we leave? What do we got?
• 1:06:07
  Thank you for the gift. OK, of course.
• 1:06:08
  So something we. Really love at the restaurant
• 1:06:12
  making. I'll let you open now.
• 1:06:14
  Yeah, yeah. Sauces is something we're really
• 1:06:19
  big proponents advocates on. So a little bit of salsa matcha.
• 1:06:24
  Oh, it's like a Mexican chili oil, essentially.
• 1:06:27
  You can see that that we have. And then our lactic fermented
• 1:06:31
  hot sauce. So just some fermented Fresno
• 1:06:33
  chilies with a little vinegar, a little garlic.
• 1:06:36
  It's gonna be on my lunch today. Yeah.
• 1:06:37
  Oh. Sure.
• 1:06:38
  So Speaking of like. Reinvestment like.
• 1:06:40
  We try and crossover things that our team does really well.
• 1:06:43
  So someone our team does our murals.
• 1:06:45
  She also did all the like graphics for it.
• 1:06:47
  So we did a recent. It's very, it's very cool, Yeah.
• 1:06:50
  It's very cool. It kind of echoes some things.
• 1:06:52
  Around the building and then with the hat and with the shirt.
• 1:06:55
  Isaac who? He, my little drew love that
• 1:06:58
  shirt. Yeah, we love that's something
• 1:07:01
  that's. Big thing, it's like we love
• 1:07:03
  Let's Trade shirt in our I'll send you one.
• 1:07:04
  Of these, you send me one of those?
• 1:07:05
  Absolutely. We gotcha.
• 1:07:06
  Awesome. Where can people find you?
• 1:07:09
  You can find us over on East. 12th St. 12th and Seater in
• 1:07:14
  Austin, TX. In Austin, TX, Yeah, on Dozen
• 1:07:17
  St. 2512 E 12th. And then on social media.
• 1:07:21
  At Nixa Taqueria. On all platforms.
• 1:07:23
  Awesome. Mine is TikTok.
• 1:07:25
  Not yet minus TikTok. We have a TikTok, it's inactive.
• 1:07:27
  There's some silly videos of me causing like.
• 1:07:30
  Anyway, you'll see. Well, thank you very much.
• 1:07:32
  We'll do this again. Thank you, thank you.
• 1:07:34
  Cheers y'all. Well, I hope you.
• 1:07:36
  Enjoyed the show, you know. What to do and make sure you
• 1:07:38
  leave five stars if you're listening on Spotify or anywhere
• 1:07:40
  really. If you're watching on YouTube,
• 1:07:41
  hit the like and subscribe button.
• 1:07:43
  I'd completely revamped the chefs PSA store,
• 1:07:46
  shop.chefspsa.com. My team added a ton of new
• 1:07:50
  items. I advise you to go check it out.
• 1:07:52
  Just peruse, look around, maybe you see something nice that you
• 1:07:55
  like. Keep supporting the show.
• 1:07:57
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• 1:07:59
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• 1:08:03
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