Latest / Chef's PSA Podcast / Rico & Diego from Mixtli: Mexican Cuisine, Restaurant Failures, Michelin Stars Ep. 110

Transcript

Rico & Diego from Mixtli: Mexican Cuisine, Restaurant Failures, Michelin Stars Ep. 110 · Chef's PSA Podcast

• 0:00
  Hello chefs. This is Chef's PSA podcast.
• 0:02
  I'm your host, Andre Natera. Today I'm talking with two
• 0:04
  rising star chefs out of San Antonio, TX, Rico Torres and
• 0:07
  Diego Galicia from the restaurant Michely in San
• 0:10
  Antonio, one of the best restaurants in the United
• 0:13
  States. They were recently nominated for
• 0:15
  outstanding restaurant by the James Spirit Foundation.
• 0:18
  They've been food and wine, best new chefs and tons of other
• 0:21
  accolades. We talk Mexican food, the
• 0:23
  announcement of the Michelin Guide in Texas, the origin of
• 0:27
  some of Mexico's most conic dishes.
• 0:29
  These are two of my closest friends.
• 0:31
  This is a very insightful conversation and I think you'll
• 0:34
  get a lot out of it. So without further ado, enjoy
• 0:37
  the show. This episode of Chef's PSA is
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  What's that it's? Been a long time coming.
• 1:29
  It has so big news, massive news, massive news.
• 1:33
  So unfortunately this podcast is going to be released maybe about
• 1:37
  three weeks after the news drop. But I want everyone to that's
• 1:40
  listening to understand that right now as we're recording,
• 1:43
  Michelin just announced that they're coming to Texas.
• 1:45
  Huge news. Huge, right?
• 1:48
  It's funny, my phone was blowing up all morning, everyone sending
• 1:50
  the text and did you see this? Did you see this?
• 1:52
  And, and we've talked about this before.
• 1:53
  I mean, we talked about like, we knew it was coming.
• 1:55
  We knew it was coming. A lot of people behind the
• 1:57
  scenes know it was coming. But initial, what are your?
• 1:59
  What are your thoughts? It's exciting.
• 2:01
  It's, you know, for, for, for us at the restaurant, it's less
• 2:06
  about, you know, well, the validation of the star is
• 2:09
  amazing. But I mean, the amount of work
• 2:10
  that is and opportunities that that it can bring is even more
• 2:14
  exciting because it'll create longevity for the restaurant and
• 2:17
  for the team. And, you know, it really puts a
• 2:20
  lot of value into the passion that they're putting into right
• 2:22
  now. And so.
• 2:23
  And for us is if you want a Michelin star, you have to go
• 2:25
  where the stars are. You have to go to Chicago, New
• 2:27
  York, San Francisco. You have to do Europe, right?
• 2:30
  And to be able to do that in our hometown where we live, it's
• 2:33
  amazing. I wouldn't have to chase them
• 2:35
  anymore, right? They're going to come to a place
• 2:37
  where we can hopefully have a stab at them.
• 2:41
  And in the end, man, it's cool to see how we compare to our
• 2:45
  colleagues in Europe and Asia, right?
• 2:47
  See how the cell service compress the one here.
• 2:50
  And also it's going to make the push even better for us.
• 2:54
  Like we can strive for two and maybe someday for three, you
• 2:57
  know? So I think it's amazing for the
• 2:59
  businessman. It's going to be awesome.
• 3:00
  Amazing. I think it's what we needed to
• 3:03
  get us to that next level of business.
• 3:05
  So I was reading the article when we were outside and it was
• 3:08
  like, so San Antonio, Fort Worth, Austin, Houston, Dallas,
• 3:13
  OR the cities that are that are potentially being raided.
• 3:17
  It didn't say when the announcement was coming out, but
• 3:18
  it made it sound. And you know, again, behind the
• 3:20
  scenes, people have told me that you guys know this as well.
• 3:23
  Like the the ratings have like it's already been decided who's
• 3:26
  getting them. The inspections have already
• 3:27
  taken place. I'm curious who gets them.
• 3:31
  But I mean, we can speculate. I don't know if you guys want to
• 3:34
  speculate. I mean, behind the scenes, we
• 3:36
  can speculate. There's a lot of speculation,
• 3:37
  but initially what are your being from San Antonio, is there
• 3:40
  a shortlist of obviously I personally think shortlist you
• 3:44
  all are on it, but besides you all, is there anyone else that
• 3:47
  you're thinking that? Yeah.
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  And I don't want to, I don't want to speculate this early in
• 3:53
  the game. You know, it's, it's hard enough
• 3:55
  just speculating that we might get it.
• 3:57
  Yeah. I will tell you this, my wife
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  and I, we travel quite a bit and it's always around food.
• 4:02
  Went to Vancouver a couple weeks ago, we would ate it at Saint
• 4:04
  Lawrence. One Michelin star, Amazing.
• 4:07
  We were in Frankfurt last month, Lafleur to star mate.
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  So we travel around Michelin star sometimes and I called
• 4:15
  Mexico City. I know Puyo's going to take two
• 4:17
  and get that is going to take two and it was going to be a
• 4:19
  bunch of one stars, right? It's a man.
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  I don't know San Antonio. I just don't know, man.
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  The thing is that in San Antonio, the fine dining market
• 4:28
  is it's, it's, it's microscopic and it's, it's, it makes you the
• 4:32
  vanguard of that. I would like to see colleagues
• 4:35
  join in in the experience of receiving a star.
• 4:39
  You know, I'm going to say that we have one because I don't know
• 4:42
  anything. But man, I, I hope that I hope
• 4:46
  someone gets to feel that some point in their lives.
• 4:49
  Well, what's what's really cool about you all in San Antonio is
• 4:52
  the type of dining experience that you're doing in San Antonio
• 4:56
  is like pretty amazing high end tasting menu, right?
• 4:59
  Mexican food, but you also were just recognized for outstanding
• 5:03
  restaurant. You were a finalist for James
• 5:05
  Beard. So clearly you're on people's
• 5:07
  radar, right. When people think about San
• 5:09
  Antonio, everyone that I know, like, I mean, I'll, I'll, I'll
• 5:12
  say this because you all are very humble, but you know,
• 5:15
  chefs, we talk, right? The streets talk, the streets
• 5:18
  talk. And, and in our circle of a
• 5:21
  friend group of chefs, everyone's like, yeah, Micheli,
• 5:23
  if you're going to go to San Antonio, everyone knows like go
• 5:25
  to Micheli. Like, I mean, it's, I'll say it
• 5:27
  since you guys are being humble, but everyone knows you all
• 5:30
  deserve the recognition that you're getting, you know, from
• 5:33
  James Beard, from Food and wine and, you know, God willing, from
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  Michelin as well. I would, nothing would make me
• 5:39
  happier than to see my friends up there receiving a star.
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  I'm going to have to buy a pimp suit when I go to the.
• 5:44
  Awards so you don't already have.
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  One. No, it's burned.
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  The good thing about this man is that all the successes of the
• 5:50
  restaurant, we have a, a, a storage unit for accolades, food
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  and wine, beer nominations, all the tastemakers, multiple times,
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  various number ones from the local newspaper.
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  They're all men. Collective efforts of everyone
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  who's in our circle of mentors and friends.
• 6:06
  Yep, every time we win something or we're nominated, it's you,
• 6:10
  our friend Kevin Tavelle. Like it's people that come with
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  us, gay people that come with us from the ranks through the years
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  we've been cooking. It's not Rico now.
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  It's just like layers of people that made an impact in our
• 6:20
  careers since we open. And every time we go somewhere,
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  whether it's Chicago to get a beer nomination or or Aspen for
• 6:28
  wine, like we carry all these people with us, man, from the
• 6:31
  from the beginning, you know, that includes you and the rest
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  of our, of our court team that we've we've known for so long.
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  And that is a sweet part about getting an award.
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  And it's not just Rico and Diego show.
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  It's the show of everyone that has either dined with us or
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  worked for us or worked with us or our friends that inspire us
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  to do the really cool shit, you know, forward.
• 6:50
  So it's sweet, man, It's sweet. It's not a man one show.
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  It's a lot of people. Behind it for me, what's
• 6:56
  interesting is it'll be interesting to see like in
• 6:58
  Mexico City, a Taco shop. We Gabe and I were talking about
• 7:00
  this the other day. So the Taco shop got a Michelin
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  star in Mexico City. So is that going to open it up
• 7:05
  in Austin? Like is Franklin's going to get
• 7:07
  a Michelin star for BBQ? So I'm curious to see if they
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  venture out of the typical fine dining restaurants get it.
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  But also, you know, some, you know, Texas establishments like
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  Franklin's or Terry Black's or something like that would be
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  considered for Michelin. But I do want to ask that for
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  people that don't know, for the people listening, you have a
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  very unique restaurant and a very unique story behind the
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  restaurant. For people that aren't familiar
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  with Micheli, can you just kind of give a brief overview of of
• 7:37
  like how it started and what it's it is now?
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  Yeah, absolutely. So we opened up Mitch Lee just
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  over a decade ago in a train car, one table for 12,
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  reservation only, paid reservation only prefix menu,
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  just really throwing a lot of rolls of the restaurant out the
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  window. So we're going to do this our
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  way. And you know, that really boils
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  down to the fact that we don't want to take orders from anybody
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  else. We want to do things the way
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  that we think is the best way to do it and the best way to serve
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  it. And from the get, that has been
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  the the formula of curating these experiences where no
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  matter what you choose or which way your experience goes, it
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  always culminates with a great experience.
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  And you leave not just satisfied with the food, but satisfied
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  with this knowledge and value and experience that you received
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  and service that you received from the restaurant.
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  Michelin itself means clout and not with those so.
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  And the way the clouds travel. Our menus are designed to travel
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  over Mexico through States and regions back in time like a time
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  machine. And we're changing out our menus
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  every three months and we're just scratching at the at the
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  surface. Even after a decade, we're so
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  close to the border and it's it's often times they surrounded
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  by this diluted version of Tex Mex.
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  And I love to do a whole nother show on just Tex Mex and the
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  evolution of where it came from, where, when and where it's
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  going. But you know, past all that, we
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  wanted to get really deep into the stories that created Mexico.
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  And as we go into it, the more that I see that Mexico is like
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  the last leg of human globalization because so many
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  things culminated and happened there that really, really turned
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  the world into like into the round earth that that we see.
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  And so, you know, when they find that route from Acapulco in 1565
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  to Manila and then people are trading over the Pacific Ocean
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  and ingredients that we think of as very Mexican today, cilantro,
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  cloves, mangoes, pineapples, star nice cinnamon hadn't
• 9:27
  arrived in Mexico yet. Cumin hadn't arrived in Mexico
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  yet. Now you look at recipes, I mean,
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  and they're like 300 years old recipes.
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  They're very Mexican now. And it's, it's beautiful to see
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  how that happened, man. At the same time, Mexico was an
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  agricultural cradle to the world where they discovered cacao and
• 9:43
  tomatoes and Chiles and corn and on and on and on.
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  And, you know, Fast forward 500 years later and it's it sounds
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  super simple to say it like this, but there wouldn't be the
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  tomato sauce on a Papa John's pizza if it wasn't for this huge
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  act that happened back then. And even chilas are all over the
• 10:00
  world now. And, you know, I think that food
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  would be extremely bland if you didn't have some sort of cheetah
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  spice somewhere in there. And you know, we love, we love
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  the pain of the chili like it's in everything.
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  So talking a little bit about about the restaurant for people
• 10:16
  that don't know, I think you guys are doing some of the most
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  innovative creative food and pushing like what I really like
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  about your restaurant and the style of food that you guys
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  make. There's no one else is doing
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  that in Texas. And I mean, you could argue I
• 10:27
  don't know if anyone else in the States is doing food like you
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  all are doing. What drives that inspiration?
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  What pushes you? Because you guys might not say
• 10:36
  it and I don't know if you will, but something's pushing you to
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  be the best. Maybe you guys are doing it out
• 10:41
  of passion, but something is clearly pushing you guys to be
• 10:43
  great. That is such a good question,
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  man. I've never really, I never
• 10:47
  thought of it like that to us is just waking up and going to
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  work. But I've never really thought
• 10:51
  about like, what's making us do all these things.
• 10:53
  The interesting thing is that Mexican food is not a finished
• 10:57
  book, OK? It's not like go to library.
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  Oh, Mexican food, you pull it up and it's it's it's done.
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  It's written every single day. There's new chapters added
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  everyday new chefs coming to Mexico City doing really cool
• 11:09
  things and really cool food. So it's an ever evolving thing.
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  It's a live breathing thing. You know, it's not just like
• 11:15
  it's we was written and it's done.
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  And no, that's a mistake people think, but it's a Mexican food
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  is not more or less. And yes, it's a big part of
• 11:22
  that, but it's also ingredients, indigenous groups, right?
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  San Antonio sits in an area called Comanche.
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  Back in the day 1800s, the Comanche used to live there,
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  right? So you need to see what they
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  were eating back then in that region of Mexico.
• 11:34
  So is this ever, it's like a dose starter?
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  I mean, it's just growing every day.
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  And you have to like pull it out of it every day to keep it
• 11:39
  going. And, and that's a mistake.
• 11:41
  People think that, oh, Mexican food, let's go to a it's a, it's
• 11:44
  not a choice menu, OK? It's more than that.
• 11:46
  So it grows and evolves every single day.
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  Young chefs in Oaxaca, young chefs in Yucatan, Mexico City
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  coming up with new versions of things.
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  And the difficult part about a restaurant initially, man, is
• 11:58
  that we don't have a global pantry.
• 11:59
  That's the problem. If we had a regular restaurant,
• 12:02
  we can do like all these crazy things from all over the world.
• 12:05
  We have a Mexican pantry, right? So we have to focus on on what
• 12:09
  we have available to perform and do menus based on what we have.
• 12:14
  If we had a Jamaican restaurant, then we have the pantry from
• 12:18
  Jamaica. And that's all we can really do.
• 12:19
  You know, the cool thing is that we have the ability of time
• 12:23
  travel and it's a tool that I think very few professions have,
• 12:27
  and cooks and chefs have them at disposal, but they don't have it
• 12:29
  as a tool. It's a real thing.
• 12:31
  People think they laugh. Oh, time travel.
• 12:32
  It's real. And you do it by the way, of
• 12:35
  books. Remember a few years ago has
• 12:38
  some Blumenthal from The Fat Duck, which meant I would love
• 12:40
  to go eat there. He found the cookbook from
• 12:42
  Richard Lionheart's chef, and he started doing dishes from that
• 12:46
  book. He's like porridge and all this
• 12:48
  crazy stuff. And we have the same thing.
• 12:50
  So Rico and I will go back in time and we check out like Maya
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  codexes and, and Aztec books and books from the 16 hundreds,
• 12:56
  1700s. And we, we bring them back.
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  And that big thing for us is rescue, preserve a promote and
• 13:02
  educate. Those are our words for the
• 13:04
  restaurant because we're trying to get these recipes back.
• 13:07
  We can try to Polish them and show people that they exist and
• 13:10
  bring them back from the dead, from the archives of history,
• 13:13
  you know. So it's usually a very important
• 13:15
  restaurant way before you think, before the food, the food's the
• 13:18
  last thing. Our ethos it's, it's a, it's an
• 13:21
  important place. Like it's a very important place
• 13:23
  for the city. I, I think you're right.
• 13:25
  I saw with one of you posted like a little Enolotti.
• 13:30
  It was you right. And I, what was the caption on
• 13:33
  there? Because I, I see a lot of times
• 13:36
  the techniques that you're doing is like, oh, to the lay personal
• 13:38
  state. That's not Mexican, but I think
• 13:40
  people would be surprised that there's a lot of techniques that
• 13:44
  you would think are European or from another, from another
• 13:47
  country that no, no, there's, there's history of Mexican food
• 13:51
  in these techniques just as much as there is in, in, you know,
• 13:54
  Italian or French or anything else.
• 13:56
  It's it's we, we laugh about it sometimes, how complex and
• 14:01
  interwoven people are from all over the world.
• 14:04
  In Mexico, if you go to Tijuana, there's a Chinese restaurant
• 14:06
  everywhere. Tijuana is a Mexican epicenter
• 14:09
  of Chinese restaurants and you see Mexican Tijuanans with Asian
• 14:15
  features because they came from the states after working the
• 14:19
  railroads and they settled communities and other as Mexican
• 14:22
  as Mexican can be, you know, Italians, Lebanese.
• 14:27
  I mean, Mexico is this big massive pot of, of people just
• 14:31
  coming down and settling in there.
• 14:33
  Yeah, that pasta dish, it's pasta de Rancho.
• 14:35
  It's a spaghetti they make down in Tierra caliente with tomato
• 14:38
  sauce and some cheese. My grandma used to make it for
• 14:41
  my dad. My mom learned to make it from
• 14:42
  my grandma, from my dad's grandma.
• 14:44
  And I was like, let's put it in the menu, but let's let's do it
• 14:47
  cooler. Let's actually make pasta in the
• 14:49
  house, roll it out, fill it up. And.
• 14:52
  But yeah, Rico's of Lebanese descent, you know, from.
• 14:54
  So there you go. So it's like this crazy pot of.
• 14:58
  Yeah, Lebanese, French mestizo, I just found out I have second
• 15:01
  Senegalese blood in me, which also plays into Afro mestizos in
• 15:06
  Mexico and and enslaved Africans that were brought during the
• 15:08
  colonial era and, and how that population is often overlooked.
• 15:12
  But it's going over on over almost 2 million people,
• 15:16
  especially in the area that we're talking about right now
• 15:17
  and Guerrero and the Costa Chica Oaxaca.
• 15:20
  And those influences thrive, you know, and, you know, going back
• 15:23
  to this pasta, like that's that's a crazy story about how
• 15:26
  Europeans are bringing things with them that they grow up
• 15:30
  eating and need to have in their new country wines, wheat and how
• 15:34
  those things play out. You know, they tried to
• 15:36
  establish wheat for almost a decade before it actually took
• 15:39
  off in Puebla, which was just a little bit north of Mexico City.
• 15:42
  And the climate was right for that area.
• 15:45
  And that's when it took off. And Pueblo becomes the the the
• 15:49
  bread basket for the entire country.
• 15:50
  And you've been shipping stuff out as far as Panama, the
• 15:53
  Caribbean and the Philippines to the emissary to the vice
• 15:56
  royalties over there. And then you have Italian
• 15:59
  immigrants arriving in the late 19th century and 20th, early
• 16:02
  20th century. And here you go again.
• 16:05
  You have especially cheese makers from Lombardi in North
• 16:08
  Italy, home of things like mascarpone and Grano padana, and
• 16:12
  they're bringing these techniques of, you know, of
• 16:15
  working with milk and, and, and building curds and, and aging.
• 16:19
  And that changes the cheese game in Mexico as well.
• 16:22
  And so it's not uncommon to see pasta, you know, you have, you
• 16:25
  have Italians longing for something that they grew up
• 16:27
  eating, having to use local ingredients to recreate it.
• 16:29
  And most of the time that there's cheese, there's there's
• 16:32
  wheat now, but now there's also Chiles.
• 16:34
  And so the flavors keep growing and changing and transforming.
• 16:39
  We went to Nigeria last year, two years ago to Lagos and we
• 16:43
  did a presentation on mole poblano right in Lagos.
• 16:47
  Nigeria like the epicenter of like W African economy and then
• 16:52
  it place is packed, people everywhere we can add to the
• 16:54
  presentation and we laid out all these ingredients for mole
• 16:56
  poblano almost close to 40, maybe 30 something.
• 16:59
  It was about 26. It was all these ingredients,
• 17:02
  right? And we started talking to the
• 17:03
  people there about it. Most of the ingredients from
• 17:06
  mole Poblano are not from the Americas.
• 17:08
  Only three. It's at the end of the day, you
• 17:10
  know what I mean? It's like this crown jewel of
• 17:12
  Mexican dishes, most of them not even from Mexico.
• 17:16
  And more pobrano is the change in moles in Mexico.
• 17:19
  So you have moles of Mesoamerica that was very important to to
• 17:23
  everyday life, but also for celebrations.
• 17:25
  And then you have this period in, in during Spanish rule where
• 17:30
  all of these ingredients are arriving in the country for the
• 17:32
  first time, specifically to places like Puebla where, you
• 17:36
  know, this is where the elite Spaniards lived and controlled
• 17:38
  the shipping galleons. And it controlled this, this,
• 17:42
  this trade from across the Atlantic and across the Pacific.
• 17:45
  And it was landing in Puebla where, which was also home to a
• 17:48
  lot of convents who are responsible for creating a lot
• 17:51
  of dishes. So when you have somebody
• 17:52
  important visiting the country, at some point, they're entering
• 17:55
  through Veracruz and crossing into Puebla before they get to
• 17:58
  Mexico City. And they have to be fed and they
• 17:59
  have to be treated correctly. And so lots of dishes were
• 18:03
  created that way. And mole poblano was one of
• 18:05
  those dishes that went from mole of Mesoamerica to the first mole
• 18:08
  of Mexico and became the quintessential government
• 18:12
  approved like the the recipe is, is is codified.
• 18:15
  And out of those 26 ingredients, only three of them are actually
• 18:18
  endemic to Mexico, the Chile, the cacao and the tomato.
• 18:22
  Sesame seeds, nuts, pecans. It's like wild.
• 18:26
  All around the world. Yeah, that's wild.
• 18:28
  So you have this amazing restaurant and your menu is
• 18:32
  changing. So your creative process is
• 18:34
  always going and we talked a little bit about the research
• 18:36
  that you do, but your restaurant is also unique is that there's a
• 18:41
  lot of hands in it, right? So multiple opinions.
• 18:43
  I I would say, and sometimes that's kind of difficult.
• 18:45
  One of the things that is a hot topic of conversation.
• 18:49
  So I, I get this a lot on, you know, in the DMS from chefs PSA
• 18:54
  is that people will say, you know, the hierarchy is bad and
• 18:59
  you know, a lot of, not a lot. But I've seen restaurants moving
• 19:02
  towards a, there is no hierarchy and we just all cook.
• 19:06
  And I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around it
• 19:08
  because I, I, I've never worked in that type of environment and
• 19:11
  I don't know how it could work because sometimes when shit goes
• 19:14
  wrong, you go like that, like, you know, it's their fault and
• 19:16
  your fingers get pointed. It's easy when everything's
• 19:17
  going good. But when things get difficult,
• 19:20
  sometimes someone's to blame, right?
• 19:21
  Or someone also has to own responsibility.
• 19:23
  It's also difficult when one person is super responsible and
• 19:27
  the other person is not. So in your particular
• 19:31
  restaurant, two-part question, how do you manage that?
• 19:36
  And, and the second part would be and how does the creative
• 19:39
  process work? What how do you guys come
• 19:41
  together on that? Let me touch the first one, you
• 19:42
  can touch the second one. So the bullet Subs, Rico and I,
• 19:45
  we're responsible for what happens in there and outside of
• 19:48
  the restaurant. But we run mystery like a like a
• 19:51
  team franchise, like a sport franchise.
• 19:53
  You have your playmakers, right? You have your your your level of
• 19:56
  talent. That's like amazing.
• 19:58
  So for example, Haley put our song Lauren Beckman bar manager
• 20:02
  Alex, our CDC. So we have these talent men that
• 20:06
  we they're playmakers. They're the ones that they're
• 20:09
  really good at what they do. We always has a team.
• 20:12
  I hate too many time. Let's bombard with ideas.
• 20:14
  Let's tackle throw everything at it right, But it comes down to
• 20:17
  Rico myself and we're like this works.
• 20:19
  This might not work. We encourage that creative
• 20:23
  process. That a lot of restaurants hinder
• 20:26
  on their staff, like you just a cook here, you shouldn't be
• 20:29
  giving ideas that's we don't do that at all.
• 20:32
  Because these kids at some point they want to maybe want to have
• 20:34
  their own restaurants, right? So they're going to have to like
• 20:36
  kick start that creative part of them that has been stepped on
• 20:38
  for so long by their employers and they're going to need it.
• 20:41
  You can where you're going, you're going to need this.
• 20:44
  So what kind of person would I be if I step on that for them
• 20:47
  and they're going to have a hard time switching it back on later
• 20:49
  on in time. Does that make sense?
• 20:51
  Absolutely. So we're like, Hey, it's new
• 20:53
  menu time. That means everyone, all the
• 20:56
  shaded parties, all the everybody throw ideas for the
• 20:59
  menu. And then we said that.
• 21:01
  We said I reconnect with Alex or CDC with like this works.
• 21:04
  This doesn't work. We put it in order and we'll
• 21:06
  still, hey, even if you sent an idea, if you doesn't make it to
• 21:08
  the menu, it was not a bad idea. It was just not the right idea
• 21:11
  for the time. You might see it down the road.
• 21:14
  You might see it in the next switch of the menu, but don't be
• 21:17
  discouraged. So there's some coaching and
• 21:20
  guard rails that you're putting up.
• 21:21
  It's funny you bring this up because one of the things that I
• 21:24
  notice it, I'm sure you all notice it as well as sometimes
• 21:26
  chefs will work under a chef for a very long period of time.
• 21:30
  And so they're really good at making someone else's food and
• 21:32
  it's a great restaurant. And then all of a sudden, like
• 21:35
  they got to go on their own. It's like, well, they just
• 21:36
  replicate what they did. It's like, I don't know if they
• 21:39
  have an identity because they've just been making food that looks
• 21:43
  exactly like it's supposed to look for that restaurant.
• 21:45
  Now they they kind of get stuck. So including people in the
• 21:48
  creative process is great. Now, Rico, I know you want to
• 21:50
  touch on the other part. Yeah, the creative process of
• 21:53
  it, well, I mean, it's, it's never ending.
• 21:56
  It's, you know, there's we have an inspiration channel on those.
• 22:00
  We call it an inspiration channel, but it's a it's a group
• 22:02
  messaging on Instagram. We're constantly sending stuff
• 22:05
  to each other, but also looking at books and listening to
• 22:09
  podcasts or watching stuff or visiting a restaurant and the
• 22:12
  ideas are constantly flowing and we ask all the team to always be
• 22:16
  creative. There are several reasons behind
• 22:18
  them. You know, as the the head of the
• 22:21
  restaurant, I think he said the perfect example of the captain
• 22:24
  goes down with the ship because we are responsible for
• 22:26
  everything. But we're also investing in the
• 22:28
  team because eventually I would like to be sitting on the beach
• 22:31
  in Tulum and then the gang run it and just watching my
• 22:34
  paychecks come in. Right, mailbox money.
• 22:36
  Right. Like I'm not so vain to think
• 22:38
  that I want to go be at the restaurant till I'm 70 and
• 22:41
  cooking every single dinner there.
• 22:42
  Like I wanted to run like a real business and I want to give
• 22:44
  opportunity to the people that are well, in a lot of cases
• 22:48
  nowadays, 15 to 20 years younger than me that, that are just as
• 22:52
  hungry as I was and, and want these opportunities to, to do
• 22:55
  the same thing. And now they can do it, you
• 22:56
  know, with my guidance. And so we invest in that.
• 22:59
  And the idea is always like, give me, give me all your ideas,
• 23:03
  good, bad, because I want you to get rid of the bad ideas.
• 23:06
  I want you to get used to, to, you know, flexing that creative
• 23:09
  muscle because it is a muscle and it does need to be worked
• 23:11
  on. And that includes creating a
• 23:13
  space for it as well. So that means don't mess with
• 23:16
  the harmony in this kitchen because as creatives,
• 23:19
  historians, futurists, artists, storytellers, we need to be in a
• 23:25
  place where we can, we can do all that without all the all the
• 23:29
  sound on the outside. We need to be able to focus on
• 23:32
  this and we need to be able to create.
• 23:33
  And that means that if you have a lot of drama in the kitchen,
• 23:35
  that's not going to happen or in the restaurant, that's not going
• 23:38
  to happen. Or the the owners are always
• 23:40
  stressed out and, and acting really mean, you know, when they
• 23:44
  walk in, that's that's also not a good place for them to be at.
• 23:46
  They're not going to be, they're not going to be creating at that
• 23:49
  the level that they need to. We've developed a team at this
• 23:52
  point is like an A-Team. They're basically policing each
• 23:55
  other and you know, you know, right away if you're not keeping
• 23:58
  up with your teammates. Sometimes I feel like I need to,
• 24:00
  I need to step up a little more because they're really firing on
• 24:03
  all the cylinders and I've slacked up a little bit.
• 24:05
  So I need to get back in it, but I love when they come at me with
• 24:08
  stuff I've never heard about before.
• 24:10
  And then we all get into it together and we, we unpack it
• 24:13
  and unravel it and, and look for ways to, to create it into food,
• 24:16
  into an experience. And the conversation keeps on
• 24:19
  going. And so we do all that.
• 24:22
  On top of that, we are also, we have a good partnership with
• 24:25
  UTSA libraries. So the University of Texas at
• 24:28
  San Antonio has a special collection in their library of
• 24:32
  almost 300,000, almost 300, almost 3000 Mexican cookbooks
• 24:37
  starting from 8/17/89. So the first ones are actually
• 24:40
  just manuscripts and they're handwritten Diaries and they're
• 24:44
  handwritten menus for A5 day party with 72 ingredients, 72
• 24:47
  menu items. And there's so much history in
• 24:51
  there, not just a recipe, but you know, the stuff in between
• 24:54
  the layers of those histories, like who wrote this?
• 24:56
  Who was it written for? Who's missing, who's eating
• 24:59
  these foods? Who are the people that that
• 25:02
  grew this food? You know, are they being
• 25:04
  represented in these recipes? And you see the creation of
• 25:09
  Mexico, you know, in, over the last 300 years in, in these
• 25:12
  stories in between the lines. And it's important to look
• 25:15
  through all of that. And I don't know, it's just
• 25:17
  probably the most exciting part of my career in the last decade
• 25:20
  is to be part of the research and, and this creative process.
• 25:26
  And I'm sorry, unfortunately sometimes the food is just like
• 25:28
  third place, 3rd, 4th place, because by then we've gone
• 25:32
  through so much to create an experience.
• 25:35
  Yeah, cooking is not how to cook is not enough anymore.
• 25:37
  You need to be a historian. You'd be interested in history,
• 25:39
  you'd be interested in literature, you'd be interested
• 25:42
  in people, indigenous tribes and indigenous groups.
• 25:44
  And it's not just like, hey, I got a job at X restaurant, Aslan
• 25:47
  Cook. That means nothing to us at all.
• 25:51
  Nothing, man. You need to be interested in so
• 25:53
  many other things. You'd be a good steward of the
• 25:55
  people you're representing, right?
• 25:57
  Let's say if I want to put up an Indian restaurant, I need to be
• 25:59
  a good steward of that culture. I need to know what I'm doing.
• 26:01
  I need to pay respect to the people doing it.
• 26:03
  And because I need to represent them saying I want to put up a
• 26:06
  Mexican restaurant. It's not enough, man.
• 26:08
  Like you need to know, you know what?
• 26:09
  You're done. So we met what, 2014?
• 26:14
  So I've known you guys for almost 10 years, right?
• 26:16
  We met at Food and Wine. Was that the year that you
• 26:18
  opened your restaurant in 1413? It was 13 it.
• 26:20
  Was 13, so you had been about a year under your in the
• 26:24
  restaurant and so now we're ten years or 11 years, right
• 26:28
  Mishley? It was at the end of 20/20/2013
• 26:31
  so. October 1st, 2013.
• 26:33
  So yeah, I mean, we're getting to 11.
• 26:34
  So you changed the menu of what, 334 times a year?
• 26:37
  So we're 40 menus about. Four times, sometimes 5.
• 26:39
  Just depended on the year. There was a couple of times as
• 26:42
  well when a few years when we would just stop everything and
• 26:46
  then turn the entire restaurant into a Game of Thrones menu for
• 26:48
  a week. The flags would come out my my
• 26:52
  stepdad would come out dressed like a wild, like a Viking.
• 26:55
  Do you watch the new Game of Thrones?
• 26:57
  What's it called? House of Dragons?
• 26:59
  I, I, I saw the first episode. It was good.
• 27:02
  I'm sorry, the first season it was good.
• 27:03
  I saw the first episode on the new season.
• 27:04
  I fell asleep. So I have to go back and, and
• 27:06
  get caught up. So don't, don't spoil it.
• 27:09
  But so now you're over 40 menus over 40 we were trying.
• 27:13
  At about 52 the other day. So question, let's have a little
• 27:16
  fun with it. What are like some of the best
• 27:18
  dishes? Like if you had to like top
• 27:21
  three dishes that you've done over those 40 menus, what are
• 27:23
  they? And then the top three that
• 27:25
  you're like, we should have never done those.
• 27:27
  Wow. There's a lot of a lot of low
• 27:30
  three. Like there's many, right?
• 27:31
  There's a lot of you're like, man, what the fuck?
• 27:33
  What's that thinking? Why?
• 27:34
  How can we serve that? Oh, for sure.
• 27:36
  Yeah, definitely the scallop. Was it Sakebird Blanc?
• 27:39
  That was really good. The Chayote The chayote dish was
• 27:42
  amazing and this was some really awesome desserts as well.
• 27:47
  The beggars purse is always was a hit for a long time, but it's
• 27:51
  less even if we try to recreate it, it's not the same dish.
• 27:54
  Yeah. Yeah, those are the top three.
• 27:58
  I mean, that I can think of at the second, At the second, yeah,
• 28:00
  yeah, yeah. I'm sure if I went down through
• 28:02
  my pictures I'd find it, but. And when you're tasting them
• 28:06
  like let's, you said a child, like when you guys see it,
• 28:09
  you're like, that's the one. Like don't mess with it.
• 28:12
  Like perfect. Yeah.
• 28:14
  So last week we're getting ready for new menu.
• 28:16
  So the way new menu works for us, we close for the whole week.
• 28:18
  Yeah, like we don't, we never jump into menu while we're in
• 28:21
  business. We have to close, man, because
• 28:23
  the level of detail requires that time of just focusing of
• 28:28
  doing these dishes. And last week, it's always chaos
• 28:32
  sort of, right. It's like uncontrolled, it's
• 28:34
  controlled, it's like dishes everywhere.
• 28:35
  But you've done it so much, you've got a system for the
• 28:37
  chaos. Yeah, it's tasting spoons
• 28:38
  everywhere and like glasses of wine everywhere so.
• 28:41
  But tasting something, man, that immediately really well balanced
• 28:45
  and really well cooked, it's like.
• 28:48
  Right, right. So I made a mole last week that
• 28:50
  I thought was going to work and it sucked.
• 28:52
  Everybody's like, Oh yeah, it's really good.
• 28:54
  But I knew it wasn't any good. And you know, I told the chef, I
• 28:58
  told one of our chefs, like, no, the whole thing is like, you
• 29:00
  don't have to think about it. It has to sing from the 2nd that
• 29:03
  you taste it. And it wasn't doing that.
• 29:06
  It sucked. I had to throw it away and start
• 29:08
  over. 'Cause sometimes you taste
• 29:10
  something. OK, you need some acid, you need
• 29:12
  some salt, but most things, you try them and you're like, that's
• 29:15
  it. Now let's replicate this every
• 29:17
  single time. You know, it's a really exciting
• 29:20
  place to work in, man. Not for everybody, I'll say that
• 29:22
  right now. Why not?
• 29:24
  Because it's hard. It's a hard restaurant, man.
• 29:27
  So can I interrupt because I like where you're going with
• 29:29
  this? A lot of people want to work in
• 29:32
  great restaurants because they think it's going to be fun.
• 29:35
  And sometimes they work in great restaurants and they realize it
• 29:37
  is fun, but it's also very hard and it's not for everybody.
• 29:41
  So if someone was coming into your restaurant right now, what
• 29:45
  are some of the things that you all expect as as the as the
• 29:47
  leaders for people to come in? Like hey, it's going to be fun,
• 29:51
  but here's some things that you need to know.
• 29:53
  Respect number one, 1000% respect.
• 29:57
  We've had this instances, men where you need to wear the
• 30:01
  jersey like you're this is your team.
• 30:02
  You just signed to Real Madrid. This is your team.
• 30:04
  You're not going to go to the Real Madrid teammates and like,
• 30:07
  you know, talk shit or have attitude or like insubordination
• 30:11
  or you're on my ship. I only answer to Rico Diego.
• 30:13
  Like it's things like that. Like there's a level of
• 30:15
  hierarchy in the restaurant that you need to follow through.
• 30:18
  Respect is number one. If you're going to be here, be a
• 30:20
  team player and like really believe Cookie's a team sport
• 30:24
  1000%. I really like to see my chefs.
• 30:27
  As for help, I love that. It means that I need help
• 30:31
  because I cannot produce this at the quality and level is
• 30:34
  required of me. So I need help.
• 30:35
  I love seeing that. You know, I work in restaurants.
• 30:38
  When I was a light cook a long time ago, I would see dudes just
• 30:41
  go down in flames because they will refuse to ask for help
• 30:44
  because oh man, oh how am I going to ask for help?
• 30:46
  Help is the best thing you can do in a in a high level
• 30:48
  restaurant. I mean, I need a hand help me.
• 30:50
  Even better when the team is so close knit that they can sense
• 30:55
  when you need help. That's the best part.
• 30:58
  When they're together every day for so many hours that then
• 31:00
  immediately when hey, they're getting help over there and they
• 31:02
  just swarm to each other. To me as an operator and as a
• 31:06
  chef of the restaurant, it's the best thing to see, you know?
• 31:10
  And what about you? What are some of the things that
• 31:13
  someone coming into initially, right now, they want to come
• 31:15
  work for you? What are some things that they
• 31:16
  need to know what it's like to perform at this level and be in
• 31:19
  this kitchen? Yeah, well, we'll start off with
• 31:22
  the the rules of the restaurant. The rules are you come in, don't
• 31:26
  break the harmony. That's then these are non
• 31:28
  negotiable rules. That means that if you break
• 31:30
  this, you're going to be you're going to get let go.
• 31:33
  Don't break the harmony in the kitchen.
• 31:35
  You represent the restaurant everywhere you go and everything
• 31:37
  you do. So that means your social media
• 31:39
  posts, that means that you're hanging out in a bar and
• 31:41
  somebody starts trying to start something.
• 31:44
  And we suggest that you keep it moving instead of trying to keep
• 31:48
  it real, right? Like just walk away because or
• 31:52
  you need a ride home because you had too much to drink and you
• 31:54
  decide not to take a ride home and you get in some sort of
• 31:56
  accident that's representing the restaurant.
• 31:58
  You could have really hurt somebody.
• 31:59
  Maybe you did hurt somebody. That's not negotiable.
• 32:02
  Like you represent the restaurant and everything you
• 32:04
  do. And three, if you have an issue
• 32:06
  with somebody on the team, you as both as adults need to fix
• 32:10
  it. We used to get a little bit more
• 32:11
  involved. That always backfired.
• 32:14
  We work with adults only. And so you should, as adults,
• 32:17
  you should be able to have the, the maturity to deal with him
• 32:20
  because if it has to come to the table and with HR, one or both
• 32:24
  of you have to go, that's, that's not negotiable.
• 32:27
  That we always hire slow and fire fast.
• 32:29
  That's, I mean, it's just something you have to do as a
• 32:31
  business owner. It's not fun to tell people that
• 32:35
  they're not cut out for this job.
• 32:37
  Sometimes they do it to themselves.
• 32:38
  Sometimes they just not cut out for it.
• 32:39
  And that has to be OK from the beginning.
• 32:41
  That has to be OK that you're going to walk in here and you're
• 32:44
  going to get a lot of criticism, not because we want to
• 32:46
  intimidate you or insult you, but because we work at a very
• 32:49
  high standard and we try to keep that level.
• 32:52
  And the only place to go from there is up.
• 32:54
  So yesterday's service was yesterday's service.
• 32:56
  Today needs to be better somehow.
• 32:58
  And you're going to get criticism, whether it's from the
• 33:01
  front of house manager, for myself, from another teammate,
• 33:04
  whether it's the way that you, if your hair is too messy or
• 33:07
  you're not pouring the right amount of wine, everything,
• 33:10
  everything is, is looked at and scrutinized.
• 33:13
  And that has to be OK. When you walk in, you have to
• 33:15
  have that skin that says, cool, I'm I'm going to get criticized.
• 33:19
  But it's so that I can get better, not so that I can get
• 33:21
  put down. That's something that you have
• 33:24
  to come in with and you have to have this the ability that
• 33:27
  you're going to stick around for a while.
• 33:28
  I'll tell you, I'm always looking for a lifer.
• 33:30
  I'm not looking or at least somebody's going to stick around
• 33:32
  for a while with a real commitment.
• 33:34
  Because if you do that, Mitch Lee's a stage on its own that
• 33:36
  we've created a long time ago. And you can use this stage to
• 33:39
  launch your career in any direction that you want to go.
• 33:42
  But it's there. The stage you have to walk onto
• 33:44
  that stage. You have to perform to the best
• 33:47
  of your ability and show the world who you are.
• 33:49
  It's already here. And something to tell you, it's
• 33:52
  not for me, chef. I thought it was different.
• 33:53
  I thought it was going to be not easy.
• 33:55
  And that's cool. Hey, you want to quit because
• 33:57
  you realize this now. Awesome.
• 33:58
  Thank you so much for saving us the payroll, investing in you,
• 34:02
  knowing that you're not going to cut it.
• 34:03
  You know, we cook with the live fire with Kohl's.
• 34:07
  So a lot of these kids don't know how to do that.
• 34:10
  You know, like we had a chef that we had, we have a green egg
• 34:12
  in the line and it's so smoky. My eyes burn like that.
• 34:17
  Like it's, you know, it's kind of better the job, you know?
• 34:21
  Yeah. It's interesting to see the, the
• 34:25
  evolution of chefs that do and working out like, they love it.
• 34:28
  They love it, man. They have such a good time.
• 34:31
  And you have to be willing to do everything, everything.
• 34:34
  It's happened before. Rico and I, we're in the I'm an
• 34:36
  Expo. We're in the dining room.
• 34:37
  Busy night. And hey, chef, the, the, the
• 34:41
  drain is coming out from the ground in the dish bin.
• 34:45
  The first person with a long wire.
• 34:46
  It's him and I. Yeah, Chef Whites.
• 34:48
  Roll them up. Let's go.
• 34:49
  Let's get this thing. Let's get this shit pushed.
• 34:52
  Everything, man. Go home, change any new whites
• 34:55
  and come back to work. You know, you have to do
• 34:57
  anything. Pastry.
• 34:58
  Can you peel the shrimp? Absolutely.
• 34:59
  Yes, Chef. Absolutely.
• 35:00
  Thank you so much. You know, because it's part of
• 35:02
  this thing that needs to happen. How big is the team?
• 35:05
  16 right now 16. In the kitchen, all together.
• 35:09
  All together. Yeah, from from dish to bar.
• 35:11
  What is? What does the organization look
• 35:14
  like? So obviously both of you at the
• 35:16
  top and then what does it? Look like, yeah.
• 35:17
  So we have Cherrico, myself, Chef Alex or CDC.
• 35:20
  We have Chef Nico, sous chef. We have, well, we have Chef
• 35:23
  Shelby exhibit, pastry Chef Nico.
• 35:26
  And then we have Chef Cheyenne, Chef Peyton.
• 35:30
  We have extras sometimes from cooking schools.
• 35:32
  And we have, of course, our the our Porter, Darwin, St.
• 35:37
  Darwin. That guy's awesome.
• 35:39
  And in front of the house. In front of house we have, of
• 35:41
  course, Chef Rico spends a lot of time there.
• 35:42
  We have Haley or Sam that we have Eve, one of our
• 35:46
  storytellers. Incredible storyteller, man for
• 35:50
  a house. What is that storyteller?
• 35:52
  So the thing at the restaurant is that we don't have a menu.
• 35:55
  Like I suggest you get the Brussels sprouts.
• 35:57
  It's a story, you know. So Eve whenever front of house,
• 36:02
  they're more storytellers and guides than a server would be,
• 36:05
  right? We can talk wine, they can talk
• 36:07
  food, but they can talk about the story why we do certain
• 36:10
  things. You know, if you're a waiter,
• 36:12
  I've, I've worked at PP's for years.
• 36:15
  I want to work here. You're going to have a lot of
• 36:16
  learning to do, man, because it's not just service.
• 36:19
  It's a different mountain of, of things you need to know behind
• 36:22
  it. You know Jasmine, front of
• 36:24
  house. Ari, front of house.
• 36:27
  Ryan bounces back and forth from the bar.
• 36:29
  Yep. And then Lauren Beckman, our bar
• 36:30
  manager, she, she's an insane talent, man.
• 36:33
  So. So you got to.
• 36:35
  You have a good, I mean besides a couple of things, it's it's
• 36:39
  pretty traditional in, in, in terms of the way etcetera.
• 36:41
  If I can before we start there, the the real boss here though
• 36:45
  is, is the baby, which is Mitchley.
• 36:47
  And so that's how any, anything that that needs to be get done
• 36:50
  between Diego and myself that where we might not 100% agree or
• 36:54
  on or be on the same page, it boils down to, well, what does
• 36:56
  the baby need? Does the baby need to invest
• 36:58
  some money, hire somebody, fire somebody, spend some money, save
• 37:03
  some money? Like what does the baby need?
• 37:05
  That is? And that's something, you know,
• 37:07
  we learned super early on and it doesn't.
• 37:09
  I think that's why the the partnership works, because we're
• 37:11
  both there to just, we're like the Kingsguard.
• 37:14
  Yeah. People ask us all the time, you
• 37:16
  guys been together for for so long.
• 37:17
  Excuse me, how does it work? I said, well, because Rico and I
• 37:20
  on that, are they very different people, Very different, right,
• 37:24
  Yellow, black, you know, up that we're very different.
• 37:27
  We have different things that we like, different art, different
• 37:29
  artists. But our common bond, man, is
• 37:31
  that our love for what we've done in the past 1211 years,
• 37:36
  right? And it's a real thing when we
• 37:37
  cannot figure out like, hey, what should we do with that
• 37:39
  wall? Let's do this.
• 37:41
  And let's when we disagree, we literally ask the restaurant,
• 37:43
  what do you want? And then I don't know where,
• 37:46
  man, we get the answer. That's happened many times
• 37:48
  through the years, right? Yeah.
• 37:50
  So there's no like, man, like you didn't want to do this.
• 37:52
  And I want, it's never about that or about my ideas.
• 37:55
  It's always about that's what he needs.
• 37:57
  And the restaurant replies, hey, I need a new bar.
• 37:59
  Hey, I need a new floor. Hey, I need this.
• 38:01
  And that's literally it saves us all the troubles meant of this
• 38:05
  agreement. You know, we rarely disagree.
• 38:07
  And when we do, it's something that's fixable and tiny.
• 38:10
  It's a little micro adjustment. That's it.
• 38:13
  You know, we were talking about story and I was, I was doing a,
• 38:17
  a cooking interview years ago when I was still cooking and I,
• 38:21
  I, I did these Italian bread gnocchi served in broth and
• 38:24
  brodo and everything was perfect.
• 38:27
  Like it's, you know, those days was like, you know, you knocked
• 38:30
  everything out of the park. That was one of those days.
• 38:32
  Like I knew I had like 10 courses that I had to do knocked
• 38:34
  it all out of the park. And I had this this brodo and it
• 38:37
  was like really umami. I had parm rind and prosciutto
• 38:40
  trim and bonito. I mean, it was just like good.
• 38:43
  I was going to serve it with these these bread gnocchi and I
• 38:46
  left it on the stove and I forgot about it.
• 38:49
  So when it was time to go, I served it in the bowl.
• 38:52
  The bread gnocchi garnished send it out to the table.
• 38:54
  So the server is now taking it to the people that are
• 38:56
  interviewing me and I I made a a critical errors.
• 38:59
  I tasted it after so I tasted it.
• 39:01
  I was like shit, it reduced. It was salty like inedible.
• 39:06
  And I thought, shit, what am I going to do?
• 39:08
  Thought on my feet, went to the table talking to the people.
• 39:10
  I said before you try it, I just want you to know this is from a
• 39:13
  small town in, in in Italy by the coast.
• 39:16
  It's made with Aquapaza. The way that that's made is they
• 39:18
  go to the ocean and they scoop out buckets of seawater and they
• 39:21
  boil this bread gnocchi in it because the bread gnocchi is
• 39:24
  very bland, but the salt water is not intended to be eaten.
• 39:27
  I said, so make sure before you try it.
• 39:29
  It's just intended to season the gnocchi, but not intended to be
• 39:32
  eaten. And they're like, oh, they love
• 39:34
  this. Such a good story.
• 39:35
  This is the amazing dish. The story was complete bullshit
• 39:38
  because I, I realized I had made a mistake.
• 39:41
  But anyway, to the point being is like food tastes better with
• 39:43
  the story because no one's ever going to say Hey, grandma's
• 39:46
  lasagna or grandma's mole. No, no, that's, that's my
• 39:50
  grandma's recipe. It's supposed to be that way.
• 39:52
  There's nothing wrong with that's how it's intended to be.
• 39:53
  It's not wrong. And I'll add to that, food
• 39:55
  tastes better with the story and a smile because that level of
• 39:58
  service and you know that approachability.
• 40:01
  It means a lot to a lot of people.
• 40:02
  A lot of people are intimidated by a fine dining restaurant or
• 40:05
  even fine dining service. But having that approachability
• 40:08
  and that humility because it's this job is about humility, It's
• 40:12
  servitude. And you know, but it's in its
• 40:14
  most beautiful and pure form. And to be magnanimous in your
• 40:18
  own kitchen and restaurant, just you're, you're creating waves
• 40:22
  that are going to transcend, you know, the walls of that
• 40:25
  restaurant. And that, I think all together
• 40:28
  makes food taste really beautiful.
• 40:30
  Also what makes mystery special is where it is San Antonio it's
• 40:33
  old school nostalgic Tex Mex big red barbacoa, right Texas
• 40:38
  tornadoes like it's a difficult market man for like innovation,
• 40:42
  right to push things forward foot forward because people like
• 40:44
  what they like the tradition of San Antonio man.
• 40:48
  So it's a difficult market to really offer something that's
• 40:51
  not that you know and 11 years speaks volumes for what we do,
• 40:57
  especially in that market. If you were in San Francisco,
• 40:59
  Chicago, New York, you may be even Austin.
• 41:02
  No problem, right? So I love it, man, that the
• 41:05
  restaurant does what it does, where it is because it's it's
• 41:07
  hard. So IA lot of the people that
• 41:10
  listen to the show, they come to the show, chefs PSA in general,
• 41:13
  because they're looking for advice, they're looking for the
• 41:15
  story because they're looking to build their own career.
• 41:17
  So let's go back eleven years to when you're opening the
• 41:20
  restaurant. And I mean, it's kind of crazy
• 41:24
  because you're not only opening a restaurant in itself is a
• 41:27
  crazy idea to a lot of people. And then to open it up in a
• 41:30
  train cart and then to open it up and say, hey, we're going to
• 41:33
  travel. You know, the travelling cloud
• 41:35
  menu. It's like, first of all, what
• 41:37
  the fuck were you guys thinking? Like back then it was probably
• 41:40
  crazy. When you look at it now, like
• 41:41
  this is a crazy idea. If you could have that
• 41:44
  conversation with yourself 11 years ago, what are some of the
• 41:47
  things that you went through in that experience?
• 41:49
  And then if you could do it all over again, what are some
• 41:53
  mistakes that you made along the way that the audience could
• 41:55
  learn from? Wow.
• 41:57
  Well, I mean, starting off, I think that that that was my
• 42:00
  trajectory from the get I started.
• 42:03
  You know, I started off in private school early on and it
• 42:06
  was all about your uniform. And I hated that.
• 42:08
  I wanted to wear what I wanted to wear.
• 42:10
  I wanted to have my hair the way I wanted to have it.
• 42:12
  And so when Kim Playe started carving their initials into the
• 42:14
  back of their head, and I did that in 92, the school
• 42:17
  immediately made a rule that you couldn't do that.
• 42:19
  Moving to high school, same thing.
• 42:22
  I was going to the Tailors and Juarez to try to get stuff made
• 42:24
  that nobody was wearing. And it was a little ridiculous
• 42:26
  for me to wear and, you know, at the prom.
• 42:28
  But I was like, this is what I want to do, get into cooking.
• 42:32
  It was the same thing. I got fired from every single
• 42:34
  restaurant I ever worked at. By the way, you're one of the
• 42:36
  most fashionable people I know. Well, thank you by.
• 42:39
  The way it's. Got to take some Rico's GOT
• 42:41
  style. And it had to go into, you know,
• 42:43
  I got fired from everything because I wanted to make it
• 42:45
  better. In my mind, I was bored with
• 42:47
  everything they were doing. It's been done.
• 42:48
  It could be better. Try to push it further and that
• 42:52
  didn't work out. So luckily I come up from a
• 42:54
  family of entrepreneurs, all my brother, my two brothers, no,
• 42:58
  one of my three brothers because my youngest one is 13, but even
• 43:00
  he has his own business of spray painting numbers on sidewalks
• 43:03
  for, you know, for your for your address.
• 43:06
  My dad has been in business for 45 years.
• 43:08
  So I was like, you know, I'm going to do this on my own.
• 43:10
  So when I got fired from can I see the name of the restaurant
• 43:13
  like I was at Macaroni Grill. I got a job there because I
• 43:15
  wanted to eat there and I couldn't afford it.
• 43:17
  So I got a job there and I started changing up recipes and
• 43:21
  having servers like sell stuff that I wanted to sell and well,
• 43:24
  they didn't like that shit. And so that didn't have last.
• 43:26
  So from there I actually met somebody that got me that got me
• 43:30
  into catering and I did a catering company for 10 years
• 43:33
  and I spent a lot of time by myself.
• 43:34
  But all the time I was there, even though I was teaching
• 43:37
  myself how to cook on somebody else's dime, I was looking to
• 43:41
  see how we can make this better. How can it be cooler?
• 43:43
  How can we better? What's the next technique?
• 43:45
  Who's the next person that can help me get there, You know,
• 43:48
  into initially the same thing. So if I had to talk to myself,
• 43:52
  like stay the stay the course, have a little more confidence in
• 43:55
  what you're doing because you're actually do some cool stuff and
• 43:58
  keep studying. If there was a big mistake that
• 44:01
  we made, you know, I don't know if I'd go back and change it
• 44:06
  because we needed them. We've had a ton of business
• 44:11
  education and and lessons over the last decade, over more than
• 44:14
  the decade because we've been working a little bit.
• 44:15
  Even before mission, we were doing pop ups together and my
• 44:19
  dad told me one time, like you can go to school for this, but
• 44:22
  you're not going to learn some of these lessons that you're
• 44:24
  learning, You know, these interactions with different
• 44:26
  business people and you know, the wins and the losses and the
• 44:30
  partnerships and the relationships and how people are
• 44:33
  like those are things that we had to go through and we're
• 44:36
  still going through. Like I feel, I feel a little
• 44:40
  where where you're like, I can't wait for the next thing.
• 44:43
  A little impatient, but I know I still have like the whole
• 44:47
  another half of my life ahead of me to do cool stuff and we're
• 44:50
  just getting started. Yeah, initially for me, man, I
• 44:54
  knew it was going to work out from the get.
• 44:55
  I just knew it. It was so cool and so important.
• 44:59
  Do you miss the train car? I do I miss the rent.
• 45:02
  Yeah, it was. 800 bucks which also like if you're a young chef
• 45:05
  out there, you try to do your thing.
• 45:07
  Be obsessed with Texas real estate law.
• 45:10
  Obsessed about leases, cams, triple Nets.
• 45:12
  Explain that a little bit. So fortunately, we live in a
• 45:15
  world where if you want to have a restaurant, you cannot go to
• 45:18
  the bank and be like, hey bank, I want to loan for a restaurant.
• 45:20
  Then I give you anything because banks don't do that, right?
• 45:23
  Such a volatile thing to do. You're going to come up in your
• 45:27
  career across either a developer or a real estate firm or someone
• 45:31
  trying to give you a lease for a business obsessed about what
• 45:35
  common area maintenance means. Property taxes means square
• 45:39
  footage means natural breaking points, increasing rents per
• 45:43
  year, percentage of sales. You need to obsess about that.
• 45:46
  That and food costs go hand in hand, right?
• 45:48
  It's not about like if you can make a phone for this dish, none
• 45:51
  of that shit, none of that matters.
• 45:53
  If you don't know what you're walking into in a lease, in a
• 45:55
  commercial real estate lease, it's going to work out for you.
• 45:58
  You need to understand these leases are made to go completely
• 46:01
  against you. There's no defending yourself in
• 46:04
  a commercial lease in Texas. There's none.
• 46:06
  They're made in a way that you're going to lose your ass on
• 46:08
  them. So if you're a young chef out
• 46:10
  there, you have a lease in your office right now in your hand.
• 46:13
  You can e-mail the Galicia at restoration.com and I'll take a
• 46:16
  look at it for you as well. We'll look at it for you
• 46:17
  because, dude, they're out there and they're going to get you and
• 46:21
  you're going to lose. Your ass.
• 46:21
  So if you're negotiating a lease, what are some things that
• 46:24
  you're going to say, Hey, these are some must haves on on, on
• 46:27
  the agreement that I want to make sure are in my best
• 46:29
  interest? The thing is that it's so funny
• 46:31
  we jump into this, into this real estate conversation because
• 46:34
  it's so important. A lot of these real estate
• 46:37
  dudes, these firms, especially in Austin, man, that you're just
• 46:41
  a tenant. You're not in business with
• 46:43
  them. If I have real estate, right,
• 46:45
  and you're looking to open up a restaurant, I want a business
• 46:48
  with you because if you can pay your rent, it means you're doing
• 46:50
  well. If you do well, you need my
• 46:52
  support, right? Example now it's summer.
• 46:55
  Restaurants are slow, very slow. It's notorious or slow if I'm,
• 46:59
  if I'm a landlord in business with you, like, hey, Andrew, I
• 47:01
  understand it's slow, man. Let's let's see the numbers and
• 47:04
  see what we can maybe throwback and maybe pay a third of the
• 47:07
  rent once the season revamps. Here you go.
• 47:11
  They want they're not first beaten before anything else and
• 47:13
  it's just that's going to choke your business.
• 47:15
  You know, and what's happening in San Antonio, A lot of Austin
• 47:18
  real estate firms are going to go buy stuff down there and
• 47:21
  they're choking small business owners out of a making a living,
• 47:24
  you know, so you need to see who you're really going to get in
• 47:28
  bed with when it comes to real estate guy, A lot of them want
• 47:31
  to be in business with you. They have your best wishes
• 47:34
  forward, they wanted you to do well and they're more flexible
• 47:37
  right? Or it's 20 grand a month.
• 47:40
  I expect them every 1st of the month.
• 47:41
  I don't care what happens to you.
• 47:42
  Goodbye. Oh you didn't pay this month?
• 47:44
  I'm going to lock you out, so be obsessive about.
• 47:47
  That'll fuck you, pay me that'll.
• 47:49
  Right. Yeah, exactly.
• 47:50
  So young ships out there. I know you want to do really
• 47:52
  cool shit. That's awesome.
• 47:53
  It's going to happen. If you have a lease in your
• 47:55
  hand, please review it over and over again.
• 47:58
  I had, I was talking with Aaron Bluedorn about this the other
• 48:01
  day and he said if you're going to open up a restaurant and
• 48:05
  you're still not confident in your culinary skills, don't open
• 48:08
  a restaurant because that you need to be on autopilot there
• 48:11
  because everything else is so new.
• 48:12
  Yeah. Absolutely.
• 48:15
  You know, they need to go hand in hand.
• 48:16
  It would be great if you know, some of these property owners
• 48:19
  were also when that lease is created like OK, this is a
• 48:22
  property of a couple of restaurants in this area.
• 48:26
  Part of the part of your rent includes us doing some marketing
• 48:29
  for the area and drawing attention.
• 48:31
  And some places do do that and that helps the restaurants a
• 48:33
  lot. Some are just completely removed
• 48:36
  from that. And then you know, you have all
• 48:39
  this money invested in maybe your family lends you money
• 48:41
  because they have they really believe in your cooking ability.
• 48:44
  But that whole business out of it is a whole another beast.
• 48:47
  And honestly, cooking doesn't even mean shit if you can't get
• 48:50
  that locked down because you're not going to make it.
• 48:53
  And then so you do manage to get past five years.
• 48:56
  Well, I mean, do you want to be struggling every, you know,
• 48:59
  going paycheck to paycheck? It's hard.
• 49:00
  Some of my we have some really good friends, the three of us
• 49:04
  and chefs that chefs that are doing really well.
• 49:07
  They're fantastic chefs. And we still see that it's a
• 49:10
  it's a thin margin. They still struggle no matter
• 49:14
  how many accolades they have, no matter how full the restaurants
• 49:16
  are, It's a tight margin. There's there's not a lot of
• 49:20
  places to go to, but. It's one of these things like
• 49:23
  trying to solve the world's problems.
• 49:26
  A big topic of conversation is everyone needs to make more in
• 49:30
  the hospitality restaurant industry.
• 49:31
  It's like, well, I understand that, but I haven't, I have a
• 49:35
  hard time talking about it because I don't have an answer
• 49:37
  on how to fix it because restaurant margins are so small.
• 49:40
  So it's like, where's the money could have come from?
• 49:42
  Yeah, and then we'd tell you. So people ask, hey, racist when?
• 49:45
  How did racist happen? Is it what happened when?
• 49:47
  The rest aren't going to afford it?
• 49:48
  We don't have a magical bank account that resets every day,
• 49:51
  you know, that covers food costs or payroll.
• 49:53
  It's it comes from the guests, right?
• 49:56
  If you're going to get a job somewhere at a restaurant, know
• 49:59
  that race is not going to come anytime soon, especially right
• 50:02
  now in the summer. Actually, nobody's hiring right
• 50:04
  now. There's like a nobody's hiring
• 50:06
  new people anyways. It's not the owners like
• 50:10
  withholding all this money that we have.
• 50:12
  Don't give them to them because then no man, it comes from the
• 50:14
  guest to us. And then with our business
• 50:17
  knowledge with distribute to, you know, the rental, the space,
• 50:22
  maybe we need new plates, maybe we need to need this and that.
• 50:24
  So it's not us, it's not the, you know, it's not the owners,
• 50:28
  it's it's the the business itself needs to generate that
• 50:30
  income so you can have healthcare, paid time off,
• 50:34
  payroll. It's it's a lot, you know.
• 50:36
  So yeah, I wish, yeah, I wish when people knew that it all
• 50:41
  comes from people that come to our doors.
• 50:42
  That's why service is so important.
• 50:44
  And and another thing that I think a lot of young cooks don't
• 50:46
  realize is ownership is taking on the majority of the risk.
• 50:52
  I'm going to tell you a story that's really funny.
• 50:53
  I'm not going to name any names, but I.
• 50:56
  Was hoping you were going to tell the story about yeah, a
• 50:58
  friend. I know which one you're going to
• 50:59
  tell a friend. I have it for to throw people
• 51:02
  off. I had a friend.
• 51:03
  Right. You had a friend?
• 51:03
  Yeah. And super hard working, man as
• 51:05
  they come, smart as they come. Right, she's super smart.
• 51:08
  She's a really good operator, too.
• 51:10
  Yeah. And save, save, save, save.
• 51:13
  Later on, we were in a car. I think it was like a Volvo X
• 51:17
  something, something rather like a nice little car.
• 51:19
  She saved up all this money, man, and then bought it cash,
• 51:23
  right? Owns a restaurant, comes to the
• 51:26
  restaurant and then one of the cooks ask her if she can you
• 51:29
  have a Hey chef, can I talk to you?
• 51:30
  The quintessential chef. Can I talk to you?
• 51:32
  That would make you how's your day?
• 51:33
  No, it's never that. It's never how's your day?
• 51:35
  Hey chef, I noticed that, you know, I've been asking for a
• 51:38
  raise and you just bought this car.
• 51:39
  And when I heard the story, when she told me, my heart sank, man.
• 51:43
  Because we carry all this risk every fucking day.
• 51:48
  That pit they feel sometimes in their stomach about, oh, it's so
• 51:50
  busy. We feel that shit every day,
• 51:52
  man, about everything, about increasing rent, increasing cost
• 51:55
  of good. If the gas goes up, everything
• 51:57
  goes up. No customers.
• 52:00
  Hey man, there's four people coming tomorrow.
• 52:03
  You carry that with you every day.
• 52:04
  And how many times do you forego paying yourself so you can pay
• 52:07
  the staff? Welcome to summer, baby.
• 52:09
  Right. But you know, early on it was,
• 52:12
  it was very difficult. Like they say, you need about
• 52:15
  two years to make sure your business is going to go.
• 52:17
  Early on, we forewent a lot of paychecks.
• 52:18
  Moving forward, one of the things you have to account for
• 52:22
  is your own paycheck. You have to be able to survive.
• 52:24
  You have to put on your own mask first, and that means that you
• 52:27
  have to pay your bills, you have to take care of your family.
• 52:29
  Maybe you don't get new shoes all year, but at least your
• 52:32
  needs are taken care of. And that has to be implemented
• 52:36
  early on in the business plan that you're going to get your
• 52:39
  check somehow. You, all your costs are going to
• 52:42
  take care of you as well because you're giving your entire life
• 52:45
  and life energy to that restaurant.
• 52:47
  And at this point, you know, I'm 40, you know, we're older in our
• 52:49
  careers and, you know, we need that stability of like, hey,
• 52:52
  this is a business. And don't forget that our
• 52:54
  restaurant's a business. It's also generate, right?
• 52:57
  This whole like, yeah, with the passion, yes, that's the fuel,
• 53:00
  right? But the end result, it's a
• 53:02
  business that makes something for someone.
• 53:05
  It's not a playground. It is not a playground, you
• 53:07
  know, And people failing that, man, a lot of chefs, they open
• 53:09
  up a restaurant and they can never make the transition into
• 53:13
  being business owners because they refused to because I didn't
• 53:16
  get into this to be a a business.
• 53:18
  I'm a pirate. I'm a line cook.
• 53:20
  Enjoy your fucking life wearing Walmart kitchen shoes forever.
• 53:23
  You need to transition over at some point and it's sad.
• 53:26
  Men, young chef out there have been 10 years.
• 53:29
  You won't be cooking anymore. Say that again.
• 53:32
  If you're a young chef right now cooking in 10 years, you might
• 53:34
  not be cooking anymore. You're going to be doing
• 53:35
  invoices and writing paychecks and looking at your properties
• 53:39
  and trying to find ways to keep it going.
• 53:42
  That's what happens to us, man. Like we're in this expansion
• 53:45
  mode with a, with a greenhouse in the coffee shops in Michelin.
• 53:47
  And I don't, I don't go in and get a cutting board and a knife
• 53:51
  anymore. You know, might go maybe to, you
• 53:53
  know, check on things and show the guys a couple of things, but
• 53:55
  I don't have a prep list anymore.
• 53:57
  What's, what's interesting is I was having this conversation
• 53:59
  with someone the other day and they're mid 30s line cook and
• 54:02
  they're like, but I didn't sell out.
• 54:03
  It's like, well, you didn't sell out your your mid 30s and you're
• 54:08
  still a line cook. Not that there's anything wrong
• 54:10
  with that. Some people are, you know,
• 54:11
  that's what they want to do. But now this person was asking
• 54:14
  for advice because they want to go into a sous chef roll and
• 54:16
  they said everywhere they're applying, they're saying, why
• 54:18
  are you still aligned cook? You know, And so in the, in the
• 54:22
  person that's interviewing them's mind, they're saying,
• 54:25
  well, what's wrong with you? Why didn't you ever get
• 54:28
  promoted? Why are you, why are you at this
• 54:29
  age and you're still aligned cook?
• 54:30
  And now the person is realizing, hey, like I got bills, I got a
• 54:34
  wife, I have a family member that's ill and I need to make
• 54:38
  more money. And now they're kind of stagnant
• 54:40
  because they didn't want to take on responsibility a little bit
• 54:43
  earlier. So if I could give advice to
• 54:46
  cooks and chefs that are out there listening is like, at a
• 54:48
  certain point, you, you, you want to be making sure that your
• 54:53
  career is constantly moving forward in steps, whatever those
• 54:56
  steps may be. But it needs to be going
• 54:57
  forward. Because if you're stagnant for a
• 54:59
  long time, the opinions that you hold today, I promise you are
• 55:03
  not the same ones you're going to have in five years. 1000
• 55:05
  million percent. I remember when I started
• 55:08
  cooking, I had these ego. I was man, I was such a piece of
• 55:10
  shit, man ego and like this is got the coolest thing and I'm
• 55:13
  the hottest shit, and that's going to be great.
• 55:14
  That tune changes really fast. You know, with age comes wisdom
• 55:18
  and you start to realize so the different things that are more
• 55:20
  important that that feeling of that chip on your shoulder that,
• 55:23
  oh man, I'm going to no, no, that that shit is.
• 55:26
  Quick, one of the things that that Rico and I are involved in
• 55:30
  is this El Paso family meal. And it's a really cool thing
• 55:33
  where a lot of chefs, people don't know a lot of really great
• 55:38
  chefs have come from El Paso. And Rico, you want to tell the
• 55:41
  story? Because we just did a dinner a
• 55:43
  couple weeks ago at Bacalar. But I think it's really cool to
• 55:47
  see how you brought all of us together.
• 55:50
  And you know, you're like the, the head of Voltron, like the Wu
• 55:52
  Tang Clan, You, you brought all the chefs together from the
• 55:54
  city. I mean.
• 55:55
  I don't feel like that, but I do see that as a theme in my life.
• 55:58
  My whole life has been about having friends in different
• 56:00
  places and then combining them. And then maybe I disappear from
• 56:03
  the picture, but they stay friends.
• 56:05
  But that seems to have been a theme from high school.
• 56:08
  We met, you said like 2014. And around those time, that time
• 56:11
  we were doing a lot of festivals and running into other chefs
• 56:15
  that we were getting along with. And little by little it's like,
• 56:17
  oh, you're from El Paso, I'm from El Paso.
• 56:19
  That turned into we should go home and use our clout and our
• 56:21
  talent to cool, put together a cool dinner cooked together,
• 56:24
  open fires and use that to, to generate a little buzz and give
• 56:29
  some money back to the community.
• 56:32
  And so we did the 1st dinner. I honestly thought it was going
• 56:33
  to be one dinner. I remember we, we thought about
• 56:37
  the name and where we're going to go with this and the, the
• 56:40
  mission. And I thought it was going to be
• 56:42
  one dinner. And then it was like, when are
• 56:44
  we going to do the next one? And then I started feeling this,
• 56:46
  like you, all these people are waiting for you to do something
• 56:50
  else again. And OK, well, who else are we
• 56:52
  going to include? And how can we include the rest
• 56:54
  of the community? And now when this comes up in El
• 56:56
  Paso in itself, I mean, the, the chef community there, which I
• 56:59
  always heard was like, oh, you know, nobody takes care of each
• 57:01
  other. Everybody's out for themselves.
• 57:02
  I have yet to experience that in the seven years that I've been
• 57:06
  going down there to cook and do dinners.
• 57:09
  It's a tight community and it gets really excited when
• 57:12
  something cool is happening. And that can be in the form of
• 57:15
  chefs that grew up in El Paso and have made something a name
• 57:17
  for themselves and are coming back to do that.
• 57:19
  Or just this elevation of like, we're going to get the gang
• 57:21
  together and put together a really great party and use that
• 57:25
  to give back to the committee. This isn't about create an
• 57:28
  impact. I will be honest, it's a little
• 57:30
  selfish in a lot of ways because I get to hang out with my
• 57:32
  friends. I get to stay a little bit
• 57:34
  relevant. The same for all the all the
• 57:36
  people that are involved in the in the dinner.
• 57:38
  But at the end of the day, when that check goes to a past was
• 57:41
  fighting hunger and they work magic with that where they can
• 57:44
  create a meal with seven cents. And then you see the impact that
• 57:47
  that had for a month. And maybe we just put a dent in
• 57:50
  it. But their, their job is so
• 57:51
  incredibly big and the people that we hope we never get to
• 57:54
  meet. But we put it out there because
• 57:57
  we put our life energy into it, because we made a sacrifice
• 57:59
  because, you know, this is bootstrap charity event.
• 58:03
  A lot of times I've asked you guys to pay for your own trips
• 58:05
  out there or the stipend for your trip was super low.
• 58:09
  And we get sponsorship and help from wherever we can.
• 58:11
  This isn't a big festival. And we put it together and I
• 58:15
  feel like it raises everybody up for that moment.
• 58:18
  And as soon as it's over, it's like you're left with this buzz
• 58:20
  and now you like feel like I got to do it again.
• 58:23
  And so that's where we've been at with this.
• 58:24
  It's it's growing faster and so many people are excited about
• 58:27
  it. We're about to do another one in
• 58:28
  August back in El Paso and introducing new chefs to this
• 58:32
  dinner and really creating this family family meal, just like
• 58:36
  family meal that we have at the restaurant when we're with our
• 58:38
  other family and the family that we really probably often time to
• 58:42
  spend more time with in our actual families.
• 58:44
  And we're bonding because we're about to go into the trenches
• 58:46
  together. Wherever you sit in that
• 58:48
  restaurant, that's you're going to go into the trenches together
• 58:52
  and that's where it all really came from.
• 58:54
  And I mean, that's what's happening right now with Family
• 58:56
  Meal. Yeah, super important.
• 58:58
  And if people want to follow along with El Paso family meal
• 59:01
  work and they go. On our Instagram is a El Paso
• 59:04
  family meal and our same for the website elpasofamilymeal.com.
• 59:08
  So one of, you know, we're we're closing up on time, but one of
• 59:11
  the things that I wanted to talk about is, you know, we often
• 59:13
  bullshit about the chef's PSA's and I know you guys have some
• 59:17
  opinions on mine you don't agree with all.
• 59:18
  That's OK. By the way, I, I got to say one
• 59:21
  of the, one of the Psas that I made AT shirt out of limited
• 59:24
  edition T-shirt was one that I got from, from Diego.
• 59:26
  So it was if your meat is wet, dry it.
• 59:30
  That's a that's a you quote. I stole it from you.
• 59:32
  I was like, I'm going to turn that into a chef's PSA and then
• 59:34
  someone's like turn that into a shirt.
• 59:36
  So I turned it into a shirt. That's not, I'm, I'm not selling
• 59:38
  it anymore, but I want to talk about those.
• 59:41
  What is your chef's PSA? What are some some of the ones
• 59:43
  that you agree with and some of the ones you don't agree with?
• 59:46
  Oh man, yeah. Well, most recently, the one
• 59:49
  that really sticks out to me is the one about the parchment
• 59:51
  paper. It's just it's a full sheet size
• 59:54
  tray of parchment paper. You don't need the whole thing.
• 59:57
  If you're going to use it as a notepad, and I've seen that
• 59:58
  before. You don't have to fold it in
• 1:00:00
  half and then right on one side and throw the whole thing out.
• 1:00:03
  You can fold this in many ways and cut it and make a little
• 1:00:05
  sheets for yourself. But it's it's food cost right as
• 1:00:09
  part of your as part of the cost.
• 1:00:11
  And even if you had all the money in the world and you're
• 1:00:13
  like, I don't care, I could throw away money away.
• 1:00:15
  It's also this thing about having a little humility in your
• 1:00:18
  own, in your little steps of your life.
• 1:00:20
  You don't have to throw away that much paper if you're only
• 1:00:24
  going to use a little bit of it. And that's kind of a that's
• 1:00:27
  that's an angle that I I think about every day when I'm doing
• 1:00:29
  something, you know, doing is it's if nobody's going to
• 1:00:32
  notice, do it. Should I do it?
• 1:00:34
  Yeah, you should do it. You should do because you're
• 1:00:35
  noticing it, because you know that you're doing something,
• 1:00:37
  that it takes humility and presence of mind, and you should
• 1:00:42
  do it for that reason, because it's gonna make you better.
• 1:00:44
  Yep, even if nobody else ever knows about it.
• 1:00:47
  It's funny, you can also make a piping bag with a parchment
• 1:00:49
  paper, so there's many things you can do with it before you
• 1:00:51
  throw it away. The.
• 1:00:52
  Hat. Yeah, exactly.
• 1:00:54
  I thought ghetto had everything. It's Yeah, I have.
• 1:00:58
  Your meat is wet, dry. It.
• 1:00:58
  That's that's true words. What?
• 1:01:00
  Why? Why?
• 1:01:01
  Explain that to people. So that was that came from one
• 1:01:02
  of my chefs at CIA when I was when I went there, chef poster
• 1:01:05
  Tori, he he was teaching us meat fabrication and we're seeing
• 1:01:10
  enough steaks. And I had these kids this first
• 1:01:12
  year cooking school kids, men dropping like wet steaks into
• 1:01:15
  the oil. It's just fire everywhere.
• 1:01:17
  And I remember him vividly saying, Hey, your meat's wet,
• 1:01:20
  dry. It like padded dry, right?
• 1:01:22
  So that stuck with me. And the other one was one time
• 1:01:25
  during a cuts class you have to do Brunois Batnet.
• 1:01:29
  Oh my God, it was like a sheet tray with all your cuts and then
• 1:01:32
  you walk over to the instructors for them to review your cuts
• 1:01:35
  and. Pulling out the ruler.
• 1:01:37
  And this kid man comes through this like this like horrible
• 1:01:40
  tray of cuts and Paul goes see, cause Paul was like straight up
• 1:01:44
  line cook man. Like he was like one of the OG
• 1:01:47
  like French like trained chefs. He said, hey man, bring your
• 1:01:50
  knife over here. And now the girl goes and grabs
• 1:01:52
  your tray with her knife, and he goes.
• 1:01:54
  He couldn't kind of fart with his knife.
• 1:01:55
  Get out of here. It was the funniest thing ever,
• 1:01:57
  man. Ever, like, touched the knife.
• 1:01:59
  It was like a spoon. It was so dull, you know?
• 1:02:01
  So it was like, things when you pick up in cooking school from
• 1:02:04
  these, like, OG chefs, man, That's really, really cool.
• 1:02:07
  They're gonna stick with you. Yeah.
• 1:02:08
  Where do you guys fall on radios in the kitchen?
• 1:02:10
  We play music in the restaurant. During service or just during
• 1:02:12
  prep? Both.
• 1:02:13
  Both. Yeah, yeah.
• 1:02:14
  Different different playlists. Of course, yeah, yeah, different
• 1:02:17
  playlists. I'm a no, I'm like, it's one of
• 1:02:19
  the most controversial opinions that I have, which I didn't
• 1:02:21
  think it was controversial. It's like I'm a white kitchens
• 1:02:23
  focus kitchen. And when I said that, it's like
• 1:02:26
  fucking so much hate came at me. Like, what do you mean let them
• 1:02:28
  listen to music? Like, well, they could listen to
• 1:02:29
  it. My kitchen, you don't listen to
• 1:02:31
  it. I don't care what other people
• 1:02:33
  do. But yeah, that was one that like
• 1:02:36
  I stirred the pot with that one. I didn't realize how passionate
• 1:02:39
  people were about no radios in the kitchen.
• 1:02:41
  If you had a chef's PSA for for the listening, like what?
• 1:02:45
  What is something that you want cooks to start doing and also
• 1:02:49
  stop doing? I.
• 1:02:50
  Don't know how much this is going to hurt us, but first of
• 1:02:54
  all, stop crying. It's not that serious.
• 1:02:55
  There's a solution for everything.
• 1:02:57
  If there's no solution, crying is not going to do you any good.
• 1:03:00
  If there is, there's no need to do that.
• 1:03:03
  That this whole level of being too sensitive to work in the
• 1:03:05
  kitchen. I get it if, you know, we are
• 1:03:08
  trying to be a more sensitive society and that's great, but
• 1:03:10
  there's also this feeling that you need to have some confidence
• 1:03:13
  in yourself and confidence in the fact that you're around
• 1:03:16
  people that know what they're doing and they're going to help
• 1:03:19
  you find solutions for it. So if you start working from
• 1:03:22
  that place, you can start getting rid of really crazy
• 1:03:24
  emotions that we're going to lead you into having difficult
• 1:03:27
  relationships with the rest of the people that you work with.
• 1:03:29
  And they're going to keep you from focusing on finding better
• 1:03:32
  solutions in whatever situation you're at.
• 1:03:33
  So if you're just a little more focused, a little more calm, and
• 1:03:36
  I, I'm going to say this, I had, I've been talking with my wife
• 1:03:39
  about this for about 3 days. I don't understand why people
• 1:03:41
  get upset when you tell them to calm down.
• 1:03:44
  Because if somebody told me that, I would understand
• 1:03:46
  immediately that I'm out of my place and that maybe I should
• 1:03:48
  revisit where I'm coming from. Because where I'm coming from
• 1:03:51
  should always be from a place of just stillness and peace so that
• 1:03:54
  we can make the best decisions possible.
• 1:03:57
  Otherwise, that's where the drama starts.
• 1:03:59
  That's where all the entertainment starts.
• 1:04:00
  That's where chef hashtag Chef Life starts.
• 1:04:02
  That's where shows like The Bear come out.
• 1:04:05
  It's all entertainment, but it bottom line, you settle down,
• 1:04:09
  you you come down to to that to that peaceful part of you of who
• 1:04:12
  you are. You can find all the answers
• 1:04:15
  that you need. I stopped asking a question.
• 1:04:17
  I haven't gotten into the last two seasons because, well, I
• 1:04:20
  mean, it was great, but I just it just doesn't resonate with
• 1:04:22
  me. Yeah, me neither.
• 1:04:23
  I learned to cook by myself in the kitchen for a decade by
• 1:04:25
  myself. Like, I rarely had people to
• 1:04:28
  talk to. I had my stories and my audio
• 1:04:30
  books and my podcasts. And that's what I listen to.
• 1:04:34
  Like, if you guys don't know too much about me, I love Star Wars,
• 1:04:38
  I love, I love fiction about space.
• 1:04:40
  I love audio books. I instead of being a chef, I
• 1:04:43
  really would have rather I really, really would have liked
• 1:04:45
  to have been a voice over actor, which I did for an ABC on in my
• 1:04:49
  in my in my early 20s my. Next audio book.
• 1:04:51
  I will. And you know, one of the things
• 1:04:54
  that I heard in a Star Wars book was that the captain's job is to
• 1:04:59
  know, is to know what everybody else is good at.
• 1:05:01
  That's the captain's job. And then to put them to do that.
• 1:05:03
  And that's how I feel. That's I've taken that with me
• 1:05:05
  so many places. Like it's my job to know what
• 1:05:08
  you're good at because I'm in charge of the stuff.
• 1:05:10
  So let me put you guys to do these things.
• 1:05:11
  You know, maybe you're the best at cutting.
• 1:05:13
  Maybe you're really good at talking to people and not so
• 1:05:15
  much in the kitchen. Let's put you over here and see
• 1:05:17
  how you, you thrive there and little by little people start to
• 1:05:20
  grow. We are not a we build on the
• 1:05:23
  things that we're good at and we don't fight for the things that
• 1:05:27
  that bring us down that you are out of weaknesses.
• 1:05:30
  We don't fight to keep on hang on to those weaknesses.
• 1:05:32
  We build on what we're good at and go from there.
• 1:05:35
  So you talk about what you want them to stop doing.
• 1:05:37
  What do you want cooks and chefs to start doing?
• 1:05:40
  Me to start start doing be available like it's a team
• 1:05:44
  sport. People forget that right?
• 1:05:45
  It's not a although there's positions in the kitchen.
• 1:05:48
  It's all like amalgamation of of everybody like a like a
• 1:05:53
  transformer like we all come together.
• 1:05:54
  We're able to do anything right. Clear example like pastry chef.
• 1:05:57
  Hey chef, can you please shrimp for us?
• 1:05:59
  Yes, thank you absolutely boom, because you keep the wheel
• 1:06:03
  moving right? That wheel stops, service stops
• 1:06:06
  and it just stops. Then we cannot do our job.
• 1:06:08
  You know, that's what I wish people did more be more
• 1:06:11
  available for that. Like you get a job at the
• 1:06:13
  restaurant, you can do everything, everything.
• 1:06:15
  You're going to cut this fish, you're going to sear that meat,
• 1:06:17
  you're going to do this garnish. You can do everything, you know,
• 1:06:21
  availability that that that's I wish I would see more people
• 1:06:24
  come into jobs. And I've worked with them before
• 1:06:26
  cook when I was line cooking. That was their prep list.
• 1:06:28
  That was their job. That was their don't ask me for
• 1:06:30
  anything. So I'm going to help you.
• 1:06:31
  Like I said earlier, help is the most beautiful thing you can ask
• 1:06:33
  for in a busy restaurant and embrace that.
• 1:06:37
  Like, hey man, I have the ability to ask for help.
• 1:06:39
  When I see a chef asking for help, I, I like it, I enjoy it.
• 1:06:41
  I I like watching that. An unwillingness to help is
• 1:06:46
  potentially setting your team up for failure.
• 1:06:48
  Yep, and knowingly, knowingly setting your team up for failure
• 1:06:53
  begins with an unwillingness to help.
• 1:06:55
  Yeah, it's, it's taking that a pin out of grenade and no one
• 1:06:57
  knows about it, right? I've got one now.
• 1:07:01
  So I would like chefs to start listening.
• 1:07:04
  I hate having a conversation with somebody.
• 1:07:06
  I'm I'm trying to give some instruction and what I'm getting
• 1:07:08
  back is a lot of chatter and feedback.
• 1:07:10
  And now all of a sudden we're talking about cooking steaks or,
• 1:07:14
  or working on the grill. But all of a sudden they're
• 1:07:16
  asking me about, oh, what am I supposed to do with these blades
• 1:07:18
  over here? Like, dude, we're talking about
• 1:07:20
  this. Let's focus on what we're
• 1:07:21
  talking about, not on what you're thinking about next.
• 1:07:24
  Like slow down and focus and listen and say less.
• 1:07:30
  And for me, stop doing is stop not thinking about the rest of
• 1:07:33
  your life. Say, say that again.
• 1:07:35
  Stop not thinking about the rest of your life.
• 1:07:37
  So they come in and clock in. They're I'm a line cook.
• 1:07:39
  I'm going to clock in. What's next?
• 1:07:41
  What's next year? What's 2 years from now, right?
• 1:07:43
  What does retirement look for you right?
• 1:07:46
  Are you suitable for a partner? Is she coolly just making 15
• 1:07:49
  bucks an hour being line cook at, I don't know, IHOP like
• 1:07:52
  think about your future. People don't think about that
• 1:07:54
  ever. They think life is a shift, that
• 1:07:57
  they work and that's it. You know?
• 1:07:59
  Think about what's going to happen to you for the rest of
• 1:08:00
  your life when you're going to do that growth, when you're
• 1:08:04
  going to grow up enough to stop being a toxic line cook
• 1:08:06
  somewhere and like, hey man, I need to get my shit together.
• 1:08:08
  There's people in my Instagram that started cooking when I did.
• 1:08:13
  They're back there still. They have done 0 growth.
• 1:08:17
  They're just as toxic. They're just as shady.
• 1:08:20
  You know, it's wild to me man, that they don't worry about
• 1:08:22
  what's going to happen to me in the future.
• 1:08:23
  I'm 40 years old, right? I opened a mission with Rico
• 1:08:26
  when I was 27, I think. So open your eyes, right, Young
• 1:08:32
  chef out there that's just starting out or you have a
• 1:08:34
  restaurant. Focus on what's going to happen
• 1:08:36
  next, right? Change.
• 1:08:38
  It's so fun to me watching my Instagrams.
• 1:08:40
  Oh, this person comes up and they're still doing the same
• 1:08:43
  shit and it's 12 years later. You know, think about your
• 1:08:45
  future. That's super.
• 1:08:46
  Important. Yeah.
• 1:08:47
  And also think about like the fact that being a chef
• 1:08:51
  physically hurts later on. Like you're not going to feel
• 1:08:54
  like 25 forever. Like when you hit 40 feels
• 1:08:57
  different, 30 feels different, 50 feels different.
• 1:09:00
  I'm not 50, but I'm sure it feels different, right?
• 1:09:02
  And, and I used to say it's kind of like an athletic sport.
• 1:09:06
  There's bending, twisting, turning, you know, squatting,
• 1:09:08
  lifting. And then it's heat and there's
• 1:09:12
  pace and intensity going on in the kitchen.
• 1:09:13
  And then all of a sudden it's like blink of an eye before, you
• 1:09:16
  know, it's like, wow, I never used to have back pain.
• 1:09:19
  My neck never used to do that before.
• 1:09:21
  It's like you realize, OK, I can't do this forever, but you
• 1:09:25
  never made an exit plan. So to your point and.
• 1:09:27
  One last thing I want to say before you know, we move on to
• 1:09:30
  the next thing is that there's not an infinite amount of
• 1:09:32
  restaurants to working in a market.
• 1:09:34
  So if you're the type of person that I worked here for six
• 1:09:35
  months and I quit because they suck over there and fuck these
• 1:09:37
  people, they would focus on your career.
• 1:09:40
  When you leave, leave on a good note, right?
• 1:09:42
  And leave because there's growth available, not because they all
• 1:09:45
  didn't like the way they work in the kitchen.
• 1:09:46
  Really limited. Dude.
• 1:09:47
  Stop that shit man. Like if it's not an Infinity
• 1:09:50
  universal restaurants and all the operators, all the ships who
• 1:09:54
  are someone in the community, they know exactly who you are
• 1:09:56
  and they're never going to hire you.
• 1:09:58
  So keep your ship clean man. Keep your knife sharp.
• 1:10:01
  Keep yourself clean. Don't do drugs, Don't keep it
• 1:10:04
  clean, man. The best thing you could do for
• 1:10:06
  yourself as an employee is make yourself indispensable.
• 1:10:08
  You want that raise? You want.
• 1:10:09
  You want longevity? You want the next opportunity.
• 1:10:11
  Make yourself indispensable. Be neither.
• 1:10:14
  Mythwick, motherfucker. What's in charge?
• 1:10:17
  We just gave you the the, the secret to this shit literally
• 1:10:19
  like keep clean, do a good job and then you know.
• 1:10:24
  Well, it's, it's funny, what you talked about is like, it's a
• 1:10:27
  small circle of chefs. You know, I would say, yeah, I,
• 1:10:30
  I joke around and say like this Illuminati of chefs, like, I
• 1:10:32
  could pick up the phone. I'm gonna call you.
• 1:10:33
  You're gonna call me. You're gonna call Kevin, you're
• 1:10:35
  gonna call to like, we all know each other.
• 1:10:36
  Call Matt and whoever, Gabe. And what's funny is what people
• 1:10:40
  don't understand is like some chefs in that circle, no cooks
• 1:10:45
  in that kitchen that they've never met.
• 1:10:46
  They know stories about you that like, hey, and there might be
• 1:10:50
  four or five chefs that know stories about you and they've
• 1:10:52
  never met you. So when when you think that
• 1:10:54
  people don't know your name just because, oh, I'm just a line
• 1:10:58
  cook or I'm just no, no, no, that, oh, wasn't that that one
• 1:11:01
  guy that worked at this one restaurant that did this one
• 1:11:03
  thing that one time? Yeah, I'm not going to hire
• 1:11:06
  people. Know who you are and your
• 1:11:07
  reputation. Your reputation precedes you.
• 1:11:08
  So people that are listening like don't, don't, don't burn
• 1:11:12
  any bridges. Yep.
• 1:11:15
  A good way to do that is, you know what?
• 1:11:16
  You don't have to be right all the time.
• 1:11:18
  Even if you're super right, you don't have to fight for it like
• 1:11:21
  it. This isn't it doesn't matter.
• 1:11:23
  Take the L, all right chefs, it's always good to see you both
• 1:11:27
  working people. Follow along for the journey.
• 1:11:30
  Oh man, Misha Cloud on Instagram.
• 1:11:33
  My personal It's open for people to see my life in and out of the
• 1:11:36
  restaurant. It's at the Diego show.
• 1:11:37
  One big word. Rico under score Under score.
• 1:11:40
  Torres. And then restaurant mission.com,
• 1:11:42
  make a reservation. Come see us at the restaurant.
• 1:11:44
  Chef is always a pleasure sitting out with you, hashing it
• 1:11:46
  out and talking about life and and life, Life and Times of
• 1:11:49
  everything. You know, It's been so cool,
• 1:11:50
  man, to share this this 12 years with you.
• 1:11:52
  And hopefully we'll do some more question in the future.
• 1:11:55
  Awesome brother. See you guys soon.
• 1:11:56
  Thank you, chef. Well, I hope you enjoyed that
• 1:11:58
  conversation with Rico and Diego as much as I did.
• 1:12:00
  I'm going to link where you can follow both of them in their
• 1:12:02
  Instagram page in the show notes.
• 1:12:04
  If you want to support the show and you want more exclusive
• 1:12:06
  chefs PSA content, go subscribe to my Sub stack where you get
• 1:12:10
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• 1:12:15
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• 1:12:19
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• 1:12:21
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• 1:12:25
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• 1:12:31
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• 1:12:34
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