Latest / Chef's PSA Podcast / Family Meal: Chefs, Comedy, & The Future of the Industry Ep 142

Transcript

Family Meal: Chefs, Comedy, & The Future of the Industry Ep 142 · Chef's PSA Podcast

0:00
Hello chefs, this is Chef's PSA. I'm your host Andre Natera.
0:03
On today's episode we have family meal, at least that's
0:06
what I'm calling it right now. Three of my chef friends, Rico
0:09
Torres from the Michelin starred restaurant Mischley in San
0:12
Antonio. Top Chef season 18 winner Gaber
0:15
Allens from Oseo restaurant. Mike Diaz who's an aspiring
0:18
stand up comedian. It's a group of friends like a
0:21
high school reunion. It's a very fun episode.
0:23
We have a good time telling a lot of jokes, laughs, and having
0:26
some serious conversation around the chef industry.
0:29
We talk about a lot of things including organizing chef
0:31
events, charities, giving back to the community, as well as
0:35
some of Mike's stand up material that he's going to test out on
0:38
the show. So you're going to hear some
0:40
exclusive first time jokes from the promising stand up comedian
0:44
on Chef's PSA. Stay tuned.
0:58
Today's episode of the Chefs PSA Podcast is brought to you by the
1:01
Chefs PSA Store, the ultimate shop for chefs who live the
1:05
hustle. Rock the Buck French hats and
1:08
hoodies. Stay sucker free with the Sucker
1:10
Free Kitchens line or keep it real with the Just Cook
1:14
collection. From Tees to hoodies and more,
1:17
we've got gear designed for chefs who work hard and play
1:20
harder. Support the podcast and show off
1:22
your style. Head to shop.chefspsa.com now
1:25
and grab your favorites Chefs PSA store.
1:28
Cook hard, stay sharp. Chefs, it's like, fuck, it's
1:31
like a high school reunion. 915 in the head.
1:38
One of the things I wanted to bring up right away.
1:40
Rico, congratulations again on the Michelin star.
1:43
Thank you. Has anything changed?
1:45
What's new? It's it's.
1:48
A whole, it's a whole another restaurant, is it?
1:50
We had to learn that. Yeah, really quick.
1:52
So it was a it was a restaurant. It was a different restaurant.
1:55
We were in the train car, moved into the bigger space.
1:58
That was another big change. Everything that led us up to the
2:02
star, we had dialed in. And then after that, so many
2:05
people knocking on the door, it's like, oh, we want to take
2:07
them all. I want to seat everybody.
2:10
We run really fast. That that's too many people too
2:12
fast so. Yeah, please.
2:15
Anybody growth did you see? Well percentage wise I don't
2:19
know but like I'm a pills paid so.
2:23
Yeah, good. What do you go from like?
2:24
Yeah, I don't know anybody right now.
2:25
So is it from like one turn a night to two turns or three
2:28
turns or? Well, we were adding about 25%
2:32
more out of capacity. So we were hitting capacity and
2:36
then trying to add more on top of that.
2:38
They ain't trying to squeeze it all in.
2:39
Yeah, it was a lot of growth. It still is.
2:42
I still get people. I mean, Friday night I was
2:43
getting phone calls at 6:00 if I had a table for four at 7:00.
2:48
This is Valentine's Day, by the way, so I don't know when this
2:50
airs, but that was Valentine's Day.
2:52
I'm like, oh, weird, guys. I don't have anything till late
2:54
March, you know, which is great it.
2:57
Was a good problem. So what we learned to do was
3:00
dial it down a little bit to what it's supposed to be so
3:03
every diner feels like they had the best experience so we don't
3:05
burn this out in a couple of months.
3:07
It's that way, you know, because too many people, people start
3:11
kind of giving you bad feedback and array like quality of
3:14
service sucks because all the servers and everybody looks like
3:17
they're running around with their heads cut off.
3:18
And so we had to dial it back to get everybody very comfortable
3:21
and find ways to fit in more people.
3:23
But anyways, all that's all the stuff that happened.
3:26
We've got to figure it out now, I think, and figured out why
3:29
where the changes are and how to adapt and how put the team, all
3:32
the players in the right positions.
3:34
And I have a great fucking incredible team, man.
3:37
They they really care about what's happening at the
3:39
restaurant. And so that allows everybody to
3:42
do their specific jobs. Maybe DA we just focus on the
3:45
past. Maybe we just focus on customer
3:47
relationships while everybody else is doing their wines or
3:50
their cocktails or, you know, talking about the dishes coming
3:53
out and everything else is just falling into place like an
3:55
orchestra. Now that now that you've reached
3:58
the pinnacle of having the star, do you feel like you guys are
4:02
already carrying the burden that comes with the retention?
4:05
And what it. Yeah.
4:06
Yeah, yeah, we've had to have a couple of coming to Jesus where
4:08
it's like, don't worry about the next star, worry about tonight
4:11
and the guests tonight. We weren't chasing shit when we
4:14
started this. Let's not let's get back into
4:16
that mind frame and just do it because it's this is the best
4:20
that we can do. But yeah, yeah, it's always in
4:21
the back of my mind too, man. Like, I'd be embarrassed in a
4:24
lot of ways. Has has it worn off a little bit
4:28
or is the team still right on cloud 9?
4:31
I think it's giving him the confidence that that they needed
4:35
to move on to the next better version.
4:37
Yeah. And that's that's in a positive
4:40
way. Yeah, right.
4:41
Everybody got their tattoos and they're, you know, that kind of.
4:44
Version has really good tattoos. They did.
4:46
I didn't. Oh, but I'm Nessio.
4:48
They all got stars, really. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
4:51
But I'm just Nessio that way they're.
4:52
Going to get one. For me it's like.
4:55
I could get me, I didn't. Say friends with.
5:00
Friend. OK, that's star by proxy.
5:02
Yeah, it. Seems like it's just been good
5:03
for Texas in general. Like for anyway.
5:05
Absolutely unlike. Absolutely.
5:07
Not or anything. But I mean, support your local
5:10
still. Yeah, I know there's a couple of
5:12
friends out there still hurting. It's like, fuck that, you know?
5:15
I had a tennis a Sunday night, I had a Sunday night dinner at
5:17
Leroy and Lewis a couple weeks ago and it was incredible how
5:21
packed it was there really. But also like with that volume
5:25
and a like our meal was amazing. Like it was really, really cool
5:28
to sit down and have this beautiful tray of curated meats
5:32
and feel like this is a this is totally a Michelin star BBQ
5:35
restaurant, especially the the service.
5:38
And we should go there after this.
5:39
Yeah, just. Thinking about this like.
5:42
You guys ever think about like how like that did Michelin give
5:46
out two main stars like for the being the initial year is that
5:52
is that, is that like a thing that you guys even?
5:54
Like, not so much, but I mean, Texas is a huge state.
5:57
Yeah, yes, I, I, I'll tell you what, off the record, a lot of
6:01
people have a lot of opinions that they would never say on the
6:03
show. Like when I talk to people, it's
6:05
like, and then they get on, you know, the like cameras, like
6:08
they all, you know, they walk it back a lot.
6:10
Yeah. But I don't know if I don't know
6:13
if Texas got too many. I think what surprised me
6:16
personally was that certain cities got more than other
6:19
cities because I feel like just, you know, I'm not trying to pick
6:22
on anyone, but I feel like Dallas probably could have
6:25
gotten more than they got. And I'm not saying Austin should
6:28
have got less or anything like that.
6:29
I'm just saying I felt like Dallas kind of got the short end
6:32
of the stick and I don't know why.
6:34
I don't know, maybe they didn't put up enough money in the I.
6:37
Mean, I think in the same breath for a city as big as El Paso,
6:41
why were they not included? Obviously pay to play, but I
6:46
think it's a little discouraging, you know, for, for
6:48
the city of El Paso and not being included.
6:50
I mean they're. Being for all of us, being from
6:52
El Paso, it's like there there's a lot of great stuff going on
6:55
right now. I was really happily surprised
6:57
the last time I did that collab dinner with their half, Diaz.
7:01
It was like. There's.
7:02
There's a bunch of chefs that are like some mad to have
7:04
they're, they're getting down and I'm I was really impressed.
7:08
I caught a couple of cap tap deals guys at Korima, so shout
7:11
out to you there. This then and everybody out
7:13
there. Yeah, incredible dinner and
7:15
there was a couple of guys that were staging out there.
7:17
Where from There at Korima in New York.
7:19
Oh, really? Yeah.
7:21
OK. Oh, that's right.
7:22
That's right. That's what.
7:22
You're saying who was there? Rodrigo.
7:26
Yeah, Rodrigo, He's a. He's a chef.
7:28
He was there. He's a good.
7:29
Dude. Doing good work.
7:31
Yeah. And they also have the culinary
7:32
school there, which is like a talent funnel now for the city.
7:35
And when we were there last, last family meal that we did in
7:38
El Paso, we did at the Paso Del Norte.
7:41
So I did a a speaking engagement there at the culinary school.
7:46
And I'd never been to that color.
7:47
And honestly, I didn't know it existed.
7:49
I went to the back. I was like kind of lost.
7:50
I didn't realize that place was massive.
7:52
I didn't realize I'd get lost in a culinary school trying to find
7:55
it. And then when I got there, I was
7:57
like, you know, I've been to all the culinary schools, I've been
7:59
to all the Cias. I've been to many culinary
8:01
schools. And I was like, holy shit, this
8:03
is as beautiful as like the top schools and who who's, who are
8:09
the chefs that are behind? It's like Carlos Caitan.
8:11
Mantan, Michel Alonso and I forget the third, yeah, but.
8:16
I was super blown away by the school.
8:18
I was impressed. My friend did a walkthrough
8:20
video and I was just like what the hell.
8:21
Like a wine tasting room. I was like, we didn't have that.
8:24
It got it in my school. Like the little.
8:27
Things like that. But he was impressed by the by
8:29
the campus. I have actually, I haven't been
8:31
to it, but it's nice that they have it now and there's a lot of
8:34
talent coming out of El Paso, so.
8:36
And there's a lot of support for what we're doing as well for a
8:39
family meal we've coming up from the school that a lot of support
8:42
comes out. The director, Joshua, has always
8:44
been a big supporter, so. That was a good dinner.
8:48
I was thinking about like one of the things like I'm going to put
8:51
some pressure on you guys since you guys are here.
8:53
One of the things that I want to do like often, like people will
8:55
ask me like what kind of restaurant would get you back
8:57
into the games? Like, well, not really any, but
9:00
like if someone's listening, if there's, if there's a big money
9:03
investor right now listening. This is my idea.
9:05
Let's open up a Mexican steakhouse 'cause you know,
9:08
steakhouses make money, but not the traditional way.
9:11
Not Mac and cheese and and the spinach.
9:15
I'll yeah, not that like not Brett, maybe tortillas, maybe a
9:18
Mexican cheese bar, right. More or less with your steak,
9:21
the way that the way that Mexican culture celebrates meat,
9:25
but turn that into a steak house with a great, you know, high end
9:28
tequila mezcal program. Margaery is like think about it.
9:32
If any don't steal my idea. If anyone's listening, by the
9:34
way, think about you got got Top Chef with Michelin star chefs.
9:38
We get you involved. Get your wife involved with the
9:40
pastry. I think that's a great idea.
9:43
There are more steak houses, more in Mexican Steak house.
9:46
So if you're listening, DM me. Yeah, I mean this, this the
9:50
steakhouse concept in Austin is really starting to to become the
9:53
I mean like you look at like guest house, it's always booked
9:55
up and like they just up in a slight place Rs and things like
9:58
that. So.
9:58
Also, he was going to open up a Mexican steakhouse.
10:01
Really. Yeah, well, he said on the show
10:02
so I could talk about it. Yeah, he said on the show he
10:04
wants to open up a Mexican steakhouse.
10:05
Yeah. Amazing.
10:06
Yeah. Maybe that's the Chicago project
10:09
they do, yeah. So Junior and and and Nick Yanis
10:12
are opening up. Nick and Junior I think it's
10:14
more, it's more it's Brazilian leaning.
10:16
But again, like I'm not doing, I can't do Brazilian food like
10:20
him. But I tell you what I could I
10:22
know which yeah, that's amazing. So for people that are listening
10:26
that don't know what El Paso family Neil is, can you give
10:29
like a high level overview of what that is and you know, kind
10:32
of how this passion project started and some of the things
10:34
that you're working on? Yeah, so El Paso Family Meal is
10:37
going on its 7th year. We got about 8 dinners under our
10:42
belt and the whole the whole mission behind that was to
10:47
really energize and elevate the community in El Paso as far as
10:50
the industry is, but also showcase chefs that grew up
10:54
there and are living somewhere else and a kind of El Paso
10:56
everywhere identity. Of course, we started this, you
11:00
know, back in the day when we were doing just festivals and
11:02
barely meeting each other and finding out that we had the same
11:05
backgrounds and wanted to hang out.
11:07
That's really what it was, was just to hang out and then laugh
11:09
a lot, which is what they turned into.
11:11
Yeah, they're always a good. Time and you know, but then it's
11:17
this at this point where you get to also engage with the
11:19
community and give back and use your clout to do that kind of
11:21
stuff and that is fantastic. It's super draining sometimes.
11:25
So it's erratic when we start planning them and I here's a
11:29
here's an official shout out to and a call out for family meal
11:33
ambassadors. Do you want to plan something in
11:35
your city? Let's talk about it and I'll
11:36
back you up and support it so that we can get it set up.
11:38
But. Have them initiate.
11:40
Yeah. Yeah, exactly.
11:41
That's good. I think to that extent, El Paso
11:44
Family meal is, has actually opened up the network of
11:47
communication because, you know, we're we're planning an event
11:50
and we're posting about it. Yeah, I've had a handful of
11:52
chefs, you know, from all around the country.
11:54
They're like, hey, chef, I'm from El Paso.
11:56
How do I get involved? Like, so finding all of these,
11:59
you know, these talents, you know, from different generations
12:02
that want to be involved, it's like cool.
12:03
Like you're actually doing some cool shit.
12:06
And it's it's really, really cool.
12:07
Yeah, and you know, to that point of view are from El Paso.
12:09
Make, make it known. We don't know every single chef
12:11
that came out of El Paso, but there's so much bad ass talent
12:13
out there. We want to include everybody as
12:15
as often as we can. It's wild when you think about
12:18
how much talent came out of that city, because I mean, it's not,
12:21
it's not one of the largest cities in Texas, But I, I mean,
12:24
you just look at the four of us in the room.
12:26
Then you look at, you know, in Dallas, you have like Omar
12:28
Flores, you have fed mean unions.
12:31
Who's not in the room? Jake Alan.
12:34
Like there's. Fidel from Karina.
12:36
Yeah, right. Yeah, it's wild and.
12:40
The ones that are there right now.
12:41
Why do you why do you think that is?
12:42
Why do you think so much talent popped out of El Paso?
12:46
Well, I think that I think that El Paso is a city, you know, in
12:49
different generations where you, you know, direct education
12:53
wasn't always a path. And people found cooking to be
12:56
the other outlet because especially during periods where
12:58
Gang Valley was so high and there was a lot of a lot of shit
13:01
to get into, it's like, what do you choose?
13:04
Yeah. Well, if we had those good
13:06
families. So it's not like, yeah, you
13:08
know, they were always kind of there's so many good families in
13:10
El Paso. It's a safe city.
13:12
I always thought to call El Paso like the desert flower because
13:15
it's it's, you know, it's a you, you, it's not.
13:20
It doesn't have a lot of influences from East Coast, West
13:22
Coast. It's kind of just stranded out
13:24
in the desert by itself. And when it catches some rain,
13:26
it blooms really beautiful. And on its ordinal, it's
13:28
Cushing, you know, like those are Gavas that live up in the
13:31
mounts in the highest quarters. They come out the.
13:33
Best and spoiled. And it's exciting to see people
13:35
going back like undress. I mean, Undress L2, you know,
13:39
two of the highest its culinary positions in the country,
13:41
working for Stephen Starr, for Ray Bayless and, you know, going
13:44
back home and doing this thing now at Paso La Dorontia, it's
13:47
very inspiring. One of the things that I think
13:49
about specifically with El Paso is there's cities that have very
13:54
strong food cultures that you could recognize that cuisine no
13:57
matter where you are. You know, if you if you go to
13:59
Boston and you get, you know, Boston food somewhere else, you
14:02
say that food, you know, that's that's from Boston.
14:04
You go, you have New Orleans food outside of New Orleans.
14:06
You say that's Cajun or that's cruel.
14:09
You recognize it. But El Paso food also has that
14:12
unique identity. When you eat El Paso food,
14:14
you're like, that's El Paso because it's not necessarily, I
14:16
mean, it is Tex Mex, but it's like a micro Tex Mex that's very
14:19
specific to that city. Tex Mex.
14:21
Yeah. Agree.
14:23
Yeah. Yeah.
14:24
It's funny because like people, people from El Paso, they,
14:28
they're always like recognizing that it's not from El Paso.
14:32
Or it doesn't taste like. You know what I mean?
14:34
Right, there's definitely. Like more like interior Mexican
14:37
flair, like Norteno in in next in El Paso.
14:41
But like, it's, it's the border town, you know, it's that, that
14:44
melding of the. Big Burrito influence there,
14:47
right? I think that's what's been
14:49
really fun about the Tex Mex project that I'm doing up north
14:53
has been it's just like really kind of honing in on like the
14:56
northern Mexico and then you on border like it's fun.
14:59
It's whimsical. You know, you're not trying, you
15:01
know, for me that I've, I've been so hyper focused on, you
15:05
know, regional Mexican cuisine, like doing the things that are
15:07
nostalgic to me has been really fun.
15:09
I think there's a lot more of that.
15:10
One of the things I do want to bring up those, you know, who we
15:12
need to include. And the next one is El Perito
15:15
here in Austin. Yeah.
15:16
I don't know if you guys have been there yet.
15:17
I'm here and there, but it is busy, man, Amazing.
15:21
I mean, it's everything from the menudo to the, you know, the
15:24
they have amazing hot dogs and like enchiladas.
15:28
And I mean, it is, is a hug from home man Divee location, right?
15:32
It's all Stephanie. I mean, he's done an amazing
15:34
thing. He's done an amazing job with
15:36
the space and the vibes are great.
15:38
And it's it's really, really cool.
15:39
Yeah. We, we, that's another place we
15:41
should go after this. Yes.
15:44
Yeah, it's it's definitely vibes from from home.
15:46
So what are you working on? I know you, you got a lot going
15:49
on. It's funny because every time I
15:50
see you, it's like, and I'll send you a text like, hey, you
15:53
want to grab lunch? You're like, no, I'm in DC or
15:54
no, I'm and I mean, I don't know where you are.
15:57
It's hard to keep up with all. Yeah, I think, you know, I think
16:00
post, post Bach a lot for me. I've just been, you know,
16:03
previously I served on the culinary Advisory Board for a
16:06
nonprofit called Hands Offering Hope.
16:09
They've been around for nine years and it started out as a
16:12
nonprofit organization that was really kind of like a catch all
16:16
support for communities in Quintana Roo in the Yucatan.
16:19
And the founders, you know, one of us from Connecticut, one of
16:22
them was from Veracruz and his family moved to Tequila small
16:26
fishing town where you catch a ferry to hobos and they wanted
16:29
to, you know, they ended up knowing each other when they
16:30
were teenagers. Fast forward 30 years, all in
16:33
love, get married. How do we give back to the
16:35
community? They start this nonprofit called
16:37
hands offering help. I got connected to them through
16:40
through a mutual friend and, you know, I started being a culinary
16:45
board advisor and then, you know, after, after the ship from
16:48
Macalata, they reached out and said, Hey, how would you feel
16:51
about taking over the organization for us and being
16:53
the the president executive director?
16:55
And I said, well, I have no fucking idea how to run a non
16:57
profit, but it's really close to my heart.
17:00
You know, my family. Who's your?
17:01
Harder than you thought. It is much, much harder than I
17:04
thought it is. It's a lot of work.
17:07
It's a lot of work. And I think a lot of it has to
17:10
do with, you know, you're constantly asking.
17:12
Yeah, yeah, you know, you're constantly asking is and it's
17:15
it's it's hard to to beast to make people understand the
17:20
sincerity of an ask and the good behind it without feeling like
17:24
I'm just calling you to call for a favor, you know what I mean?
17:26
And it but at the same time, it's really eye opening to see
17:30
the people that that really want to support and do good.
17:33
And I mean, you see this a family meal and you guys, I
17:35
mean, we're, you know, we're organizing this dinner for next
17:38
week and, you know, to be able to call Mike and to call these
17:40
all these chefs in town and say, hey, will you donate your Monday
17:43
and come cook for a good cause. And people are like, fuck yeah,
17:45
I'm in. It's amazing.
17:47
So yeah, I, you know, I ended up taking the the opportunity and
17:51
I've been focused full time, really trying to grow the
17:54
organization. The the first thing that we did
17:56
was rebrand it. We changed the name from Hands
17:59
Offering Hope to Oigo and. Why is that?
18:02
I mean. I think, you know, I, I told
18:04
the, I told the founders, I said, you know, hands off her
18:08
and Hope doesn't speak to what it actually is.
18:09
And what we are is we're a nonprofit that provides culinary
18:12
educate culinary education to the adolescents, you know, in
18:15
the, in the Ekadem Peninsula that that otherwise wouldn't be
18:18
able to go learn from culinary school.
18:19
And it's such a high depth of hospitality and, and in that in
18:24
tourism that there's careers waiting for all these kids, kids
18:27
that are 30 minutes from Cancun have never visited Cancun.
18:30
They've never seen a Starbucks and have all these opportunities
18:33
waiting for they can go, you know, you could walk into a Four
18:35
Seasons and get pension and insurance and things like that.
18:38
So there's a lot of opportunity and you know, for us to have
18:41
this culinary school, it's a two year program and they, they go
18:45
through it. They, they graduate, they do
18:46
internships, all things like that.
18:48
So for me, I wanted to create a, a name for the organization that
18:52
really reflected what I was, and that was Olito.
18:54
Obviously Olito being the equivalent of yes, chef in
18:56
Mexico, But it's also like we hear you, we hear the community,
18:59
we hear the students. We want to, you know, we're that
19:01
voice that listens to you. And that was kind of this new
19:04
marketing campaign push. And plus it's like, you know,
19:06
from a marketing standpoint, it's like, are you going to buy
19:08
a hat that says hands off her and help?
19:10
Really not, but I, I see an 18 year old cook wearing an Olito
19:15
hat or something like that. It's like it from that way.
19:18
But yeah, you know, that's kind of been my biggest push.
19:20
My family's from Chatham and and the region.
19:22
So it was a way for me to really explore more of of of my roots
19:27
in there and how I can give back.
19:29
That's not just saying I wrote a menu to reflect my family's
19:32
history because that's that's the easiest way for me to do it.
19:35
One thing I have learned is that every person that I ask or talk
19:39
to about Oiso, they're looking for an outlet to give back to
19:42
Mexico. If it's not through the
19:44
conventional ways and everybody wants to donate or help and
19:47
support. And that's touching for me.
19:50
And it's bigger than our egos. It's bigger than the, the let me
19:52
fucking do the most swanier ass dish at this benefit dinner, you
19:56
know, to flex mountain. It's more like, hey, we're
19:57
getting together for a good cause And and it, it's we're
20:00
getting back, especially right now when we need to most.
20:02
What what is the what is the two year program look like for
20:05
someone that's going through it? And so it's kind of built in the
20:08
same way that you would at a typical culinary school.
20:12
We actually have someone on the board from the CIA who donated
20:16
all of the curriculum from the CIA.
20:18
So we have that to pull from. Obviously we've curtailed it a
20:21
little bit because there's a lot of stuff that's just not gonna
20:24
be very applicable to to what these kids need.
20:28
So this is like full on culinary fundamentals.
20:30
Yeah, well, sauce. Work everything.
20:32
Yeah. So it was focusing on like just
20:34
the regional cuisine of. Summer.
20:37
So more recently I've, I've started to ask the team to shift
20:42
the, the curriculum to be more focused on the regional cuisine.
20:46
Because if I, if I call Andrea up and I say, hey, Andrea, I've
20:49
got this student coming from of our culinary school and he is a
20:54
master of Yucatan cuisine, that's gonna be much more useful
20:57
to him in his Mexican restaurant then.
20:59
And I'm gonna send you this Maya student who knows the mother
21:02
sauces, right? Yeah, Yeah.
21:05
What are they? Because they also all carry.
21:07
They also all carry a bucket of knowledge of these these things
21:11
that we've never tasted, seen or heard of.
21:13
And it's just like what they grew up.
21:15
Yeah, that's what they grew up like.
21:16
And it's and it's like lenient is that.
21:18
Yeah. So it's been, it's been really,
21:20
really eye opening. It's been very challenging.
21:22
What are what are some of the challenges that you're facing?
21:25
Like what are some of the challenges that you're facing
21:27
new in position, but also what are some of the challenges
21:29
you're facing as an organization?
21:31
I think as an organization, like most other nonprofits, is, is
21:35
just financial. Yeah, for us, we've got, we've
21:38
got to find it a minimum of, you know, 15 to 20 grand a month to
21:44
operate. So wow.
21:46
So for people that are listening, because millions and
21:49
billions of listeners of JSPS actually how can they?
21:51
Support yeah, that I I'm I'm actually grateful for the to
21:54
have this platform from you Andre.
21:55
This alone is and a lot of a lot of non profit is less about can
22:01
you give me 100 bucks? It's more about awareness.
22:04
And you know, if everyone that's listening to this podcast right
22:06
now, it goes to Oido O ido.co and donate a dollar.
22:11
You know, if a hundred 100,000 people hear this podcast and
22:13
everyone donates a dollar that funds us for, you know, half a
22:17
year, right? And I don't think people
22:19
understand the power of, you know, little compounding and
22:24
it's with anything else. I mean, it's just like when we
22:26
do a family meal, dinner, you know, just spreading the word
22:29
creates a lot, you know, there's a lot of people are like, oh, I
22:31
can't get there. OK, cool.
22:32
Well, at least follow us on Instagram.
22:34
Yeah. And just following, following
22:36
repost helps tremendously. Yeah.
22:40
So that's still Congrats, Kate. Yeah, it's it's been, I mean, I
22:44
think that the thing that I've been really excited about is
22:46
it's an opportunity for me to cook too, with my friends all
22:50
over the country that want to support.
22:52
And it's like we can get together for a good cause.
22:54
It's not the pressure of all the the daily shit, it's a different
22:58
kind of pressure. But it's funny because you you
23:00
talk and you know, we were talking about this earlier, how
23:02
hard it is when you got a group of chefs and you try and
23:05
organize a dinner, right? It's like, hey, we're going to
23:07
have a dinner. OK, great.
23:08
Then you get in a group text and it's like, we're a week out,
23:12
who's doing what? What course are you on?
23:14
Like I want scallops too. Now I'm doing scallops.
23:18
But we make that smoother. Where it's like it's more of the
23:21
the menu kind of like. Yeah, works on itself.
23:24
We talked about, I think you and I talked about this.
23:25
I think that moving forward, a good, a good template is like,
23:30
you know, obviously Rico is the founder of the Pasta Family
23:32
meal. Rico sends out a menu and it's
23:35
like, I don't give a shit what you want to cook, but cook it
23:37
with a scallop. You cook it with shrimp and.
23:41
And you build around it because they're on a.
23:43
Second course and it has to be the.
23:45
Dudes that want to do octopus. Absolutely.
23:47
Then you got 6 fish courses and. Wait wait, I'm doing the same
23:51
thing. I mean, you always come across
23:55
that and it's, it's always gentle, but it's.
23:57
Fun. It's so it's so funny organizing
23:59
chefs. Like people will say like, oh,
24:01
well, you're a chef, like, yeah, but you don't understand.
24:02
I'm not their chef. Yeah.
24:04
And like, I can't tell them what to do.
24:06
I can't tell them to make sure that they get the menu to me on
24:08
time and make sure you give me your order.
24:11
Hey, I got to place the order by tomorrow.
24:13
What time are you going to be in the kitchen?
24:15
You said five make. It easy for them.
24:17
Make it easy. Yeah, it's.
24:18
Fine. It's a little hard to bucket us
24:20
how exactly we did it at 1700 with Mike Graham and this.
24:23
Everybody here's your courses. Yeah, here we go.
24:25
This is what we're serving in this order, this way.
24:28
And it takes a lot of choices out, makes things a lot of a
24:30
little bit easier because. I think it also lends itself
24:33
well to sponsorships too, like if you have people donating
24:35
protein or seafood and it's it makes the dinner that much more
24:40
lucrative. You really, we had a lot of vice
24:42
in on it that way, yeah. So yeah.
24:44
Yeah, I think for chefs that are listening, whether you're doing
24:46
a dinner with this group or you're just like, get your item
24:50
in on time, get your order in on time, show up on time.
24:54
So make us worry that, hey, it's 5:00 and they're not here yet.
24:57
Dinner starts at. 6 And I think also, you know, in terms of, you
25:00
know, whether it's a benefit dinner or just a collaboration
25:02
dinner, like also be an advocate for it and promote like beyond
25:06
just reposting because that's the easiest thing to do.
25:09
Like, yeah, actively find a way to tell people, hey, can you buy
25:12
2 tickets to this event? And so because then that puts
25:15
the the burden on recall, right? Trying to do everything.
25:19
Yeah, write your own post about it.
25:20
Yeah, I'll tell you what, like, because I'm in the social media
25:23
world now, like I realized reposting doesn't do as much as
25:26
people think it does. It does not.
25:27
And I hate to say, reposting almost does nothing.
25:30
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Especially because most people
25:32
just skip, skip, skip, skip. I don't know you got to do.
25:35
You got to think of more creative ways to to get the word
25:38
out other than than reposting. I think one of the things that
25:41
will that I've found, you know, not just from my experience, but
25:44
from what I see then gets me activated or interactive like,
25:48
hey, like it's a static post giveaway.
25:52
Yeah, follow here, click here, sign up here and people are
25:55
actually moving around reading, clicking, but they're like,
25:57
shit, I wanna do this. You guys make.
25:58
Them wait for it, yeah. I mean, basically you gotta make
26:00
them work for it. We'll probably do that for this
26:03
upcoming dinner is some kind of follow the organization tagger
26:08
homie that you want to take to the dinner and we'll we'll see
26:10
you there. So the dinner, this podcast will
26:12
be released after the dinner, but who tell tell who's at the
26:15
dinner? Yeah, so I, I was a little, I
26:18
was a little ambitious with this dinner because I wanted to
26:20
include a lot of people. So there's 10 chefs.
26:23
That's a lot. There's, there's 30 bartenders.
26:26
But I, you know, part of this is if I'm going to get somebody to
26:29
come out and eat on a Monday night because Monday night
26:32
Garbo's Lobster Heidi and them have been great supporters of
26:35
just a lot of things in town and they've offered up their space
26:38
in their newest location in Dripping Springs.
26:40
Super beautiful space, great food.
26:43
And it's, it's they're closed Monday.
26:45
So they said take our. Shout out to Garbo's Lobster.
26:47
Oh, sure, yeah, yeah. So you know, it's going to be 3
26:51
pass bytes. So there's three chefs there and
26:54
then there's seven courses. You know, one of them is a bread
26:57
course. So we have Sandeep, who is the
26:59
former Emer Group Baker. He helped them with the pull and
27:03
market bakery. And he's probably one of the.
27:05
Best. Yeah.
27:06
I mean, yeah, for. Sure, Arguably.
27:07
Yeah, so he's going to do 2 different types of sourdoughs,
27:09
one with bouquet and Mesquite, one with.
27:11
He likes watching, you know, his Mesquite butter that he's kind
27:14
of known for. And then we have, you know, just
27:16
this array of chefs like, you know, Mike and Laura and and Joe
27:21
Chan and, you know, Alex Gathro, Joseph Gomez from Contaldo, you
27:26
know, have and upcomers like Alex Castro, who just took a
27:29
Fono San Miguel. So we have all these, you know,
27:32
this is amazing talents that are they're coming through to to put
27:35
together. And the idea behind that is like
27:37
it's much easier for for me to have a you know, in front of us,
27:41
to have a group of people just doing one thing they can focus
27:43
on. And then it's you also have the
27:46
extra hands there and everyone's all hands involved and things
27:49
like that. And then, you know, to to have
27:50
the the banger blow out with, with Mike's partner, Laura, and
27:54
Desert, who I think is, you know, the goat of a pastry in
27:57
town. He's really, really excited.
28:00
And then we, you know, we've got really, really good sponsors
28:02
from Casa Lumbe and we've got DJ Sousi, who's going to DJ
28:07
throughout the night. So.
28:08
Yeah. And I mean, I'd love to have you
28:09
guys there. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
28:11
I'd love to have you guys there Monday, man, Please.
28:14
Please. Yeah.
28:15
Let's do it. It's it's funny how we're
28:17
talking about what you do for people that are listening, like
28:21
all of you are chefs, but Rico also runs Family Mail.
28:24
You run Noi though, you have restaurants, you got a lot going
28:28
on. I got a lot going on.
28:29
I know you do something else but like for.
28:33
A lot of people. Let's talk about that.
28:34
Really, I'm going to, I'm going to plug Mike here if he doesn't
28:39
want it, But he's, I mean, Mike and I opened up a talker here
28:42
together with Jesse Griffiths, you know, 2017 or 18.
28:46
And you know, another friend of ours, John was, it was the three
28:49
of us. And we, we always joked around,
28:51
as we call it, the old man Thackeray.
28:53
And Sundays was always old man brunch.
28:55
But one of the things I love most was that, you know, we're
28:58
always just talking shit and cracking jokes.
28:59
And Mike was always a comic, you know, and for years and years I
29:03
was like, man, you need to do, you need to do a big, you need
29:05
to do some stand up. And, you know, Fast forward, No,
29:08
you know, years, years later, last November, I saw a post
29:11
where Mike says he's giving his his comedy debut.
29:14
And I thought it was a fucking joke, but he did.
29:17
He didn't, you know, props the mic for for getting up at Cap
29:20
City Comedy Club. And you had his first bid.
29:22
And you know, I was really hoping he brought out the the
29:25
most famous epic piece, the dildo piece.
29:28
What the What's the dildo? Piece.
29:30
Well, that's. Take your time as to disrupt
29:32
because it's so good. So you know dildo.
29:35
All right, well, so I'm, I'm, I'm being.
29:37
Put on the spot. I mean it's it's my closer.
29:40
So I, I want you guys to like come out and like.
29:42
See this show if you. Want so we're you.
29:43
We're doing stand up at though. So I just got lucky and my
29:48
cousin hooked me up and was able to like facilitate it.
29:51
So not everybody gets there first time.
29:54
It's like you usually like in a pizzeria and the like the back
29:58
of a. Pizzeria Cadet somewhere.
30:00
Like in New York and you fucking bomb.
30:02
But I got a couple of laughs and yeah, it was my closer was was
30:06
was my my famous dildo story that that.
30:10
The famous dildo story. No, I'm sorry, but this is.
30:15
Mine. Well, I mean, I'd love to
30:20
indulge you guys. For the for the chef's PSA
30:25
audience, that gets rated R after.
30:26
This as funny as I possibly can. All right, so part of my stand
30:33
up. Routine was like just kind of
30:35
talking about, you know, growing up in a big Mexican family and,
30:40
you know, many. Years ago I actually.
30:41
Got to because of having a giant Mexican family, I was able to
30:46
like live with one of my aunts and my cousins in California and
30:49
Southern California. So, you know, we were, it was
30:52
just like an average, you know, afternoon after, you know, we're
30:56
just hanging out at the house and cousin and I are, you know,
30:59
throwing the football around the front yard.
31:00
And he throws me a pass that I I didn't catch.
31:05
And it lands by by this Bush. And I see this perfect little
31:09
black mushroom just like I know, like stinking at me for a
31:14
moralf. Yeah.
31:14
No, like a perfect button mushroom.
31:17
Just like. Jet.
31:18
Black. And I was like, that's weird.
31:20
So I so I like like immediately I call my cousin over and I'm
31:23
like, dude, check this out. And then I'm just like, this is
31:27
a perfect little black mushroom. Isn't that weird?
31:32
So I, you know, seriously like kick the the the mushroom and I
31:40
like the earth shifts. It's just like this giant black
31:43
dildo tip of this giant black dildos.
31:47
I'm just like wow, it's me and my cousin are looking at it very
31:50
confusing. We're sick, what the fuck is
31:53
here? So I start thinking.
31:55
Older you at this time I'm. 22. Or I'm 22.
31:59
Eight no, I'm 22. My 8 year old cousin though, was
32:04
playing with us. He's like, what's going on?
32:06
We're like get out of here. No, no dear, nothing to see
32:08
here. Get out of here.
32:09
So mom's calling, go back inside.
32:11
And so like, we're just like, you know, just what happened to
32:15
this? Where is this from?
32:16
Like, what the hell, right? So we ended up just like getting
32:20
rid of the dildo. I think we, I think.
32:22
We recycled it or something. Super California would it say
32:26
blue bin? And we got ripped here like 2
32:30
minute. Train got to know if you guys do
32:35
trade insurance. You guys are making the story
32:38
better. This is the way to roll pasta.
32:42
So anyway. I end up like moving back home
32:45
to El Paso and I'm just, you know, just working in, at
32:51
restaurants. I was actually, I think I was
32:52
working at Cafe Central. And you know, one of these, one
32:56
of my best friends happened to be working at a, at a, at a pork
33:01
shop and he always had like videos laying around back then.
33:05
It was just like the, you know, BHS cassettes I remember.
33:08
He had this one cassette. On top of this TV and it was red
33:12
and I was like, wow, that's like it's like a slutty looking set.
33:16
I was like, so I pick it up and I look at it and and the title
33:20
and it was gag factor 2. I wonder what?
33:25
This is so like true to the, true to the the name of the the
33:28
the on the cassette. It was.
33:30
It was. It was a lot of gagging.
33:32
To be took because it's PG13. I want to keep it PG13 and.
33:37
And so I'm like, I'm, you know, I, I like 20 year.
33:41
Olds do with their other friends, you know.
33:44
Let's watch. A little porn it.
33:47
Like middle of the day, you know, like I, I don't know, like
33:50
Saturday, whatever. And we're just watching.
33:52
This porn and I'm like. Like that Jacuzzi looks a
33:57
little. Familiar or.
34:02
And I'm like, and I'm like, well, look at that wall of
34:06
mirrors in the by the front door like that looks kind of
34:10
recognize that a little bit. It's like, wait, is that red
34:14
brick in the kit? Holy shit that's the house I
34:17
lived in. The.
34:20
Fucking video was filmed and inside the house and that's all
34:25
the God damn dildo got. I don't know why he was working
34:29
that day and was just like burying a dildo instead of
34:32
putting it in the trash can. But that's the dildo story.
34:36
Yeah. And what what really made it
34:39
funny was like, how do I show this to my cousins that live?
34:42
At the house with me. You know, so I had to I had to
34:45
find a way to like, hey, you guys want to watch support?
34:49
So I had a story. I was like.
34:50
All the fans that's like super awkward, right?
34:52
Like chance. And I was like, the what are the
34:55
odds of like the thousands and thousands of houses in Southern
34:58
California, the hundreds of thousands of videos that you
35:02
made that that that fucking video, it was going to be on top
35:05
of my friends. Chances are 100%.
35:08
It was 100%. Chances are 100.
35:12
Very ticket day. I should have bought a lot, but
35:14
no, it was. It was just some really fucking.
35:16
Funny thing that actually happened and I had to show my
35:19
cousin the the so I'm like, they're putting like watch.
35:23
The movie and then, you know, waiting for his reaction, he
35:27
finally he's just like I'm like, and then he fucking like jumps
35:31
up like 10 minutes. Holy shit, Michael, that's the
35:33
fucking house. We live there.
35:38
Yeah. I think that the dildo story is
35:41
is much. Better when it kind of like it
35:43
gets kind of like snuck in. As opposed to when you get put
35:47
on the spy. But yeah, it's it's.
35:50
First time I heard that I was Yeah, I.
35:52
Almost. I don't believe so.
35:54
It gets less funny as it it. Gets.
35:58
Anyway, that's the Dilda story. But I mean, that's.
36:01
Great, I'm doing what I'm trying to do.
36:03
Stand up, Yes, a little bit more outside.
36:06
What got you into stand up? I've always.
36:08
Wanted to do that. You know, I've always been told
36:10
I'm funny, but like, it's hard to get up on stage.
36:13
I mean, Gabe and I were talking about it.
36:15
It like one of the hardest things was just like, you know,
36:19
the room was much smaller than I thought.
36:22
Yeah. And so.
36:23
So I was like, oh, that's cool. You know, I felt like.
36:25
But then he was like, I would have thought that that was more
36:28
intimidating. I mean, you're and it was.
36:30
I mean, it was. 1st row is 2 feet away and I mean you're
36:33
you're first row you say you. Feel like literally you're.
36:36
I mean, you're like a piece of fried chicken in a heat lamp
36:38
too, and you're just. Like and I think that's what
36:40
helped me is like. I'd be, I went up on stage and
36:43
honestly, I was blinded, but the because I wasn't used to the
36:46
spotlight. Yeah.
36:47
So I, I kind of performed blindly and that kind of helped
36:51
me relax a little bit, but. My goal was really.
36:54
Like low low. Like the bar was really low.
36:57
Dude, I want to get one laugh or bomb.
37:00
And so like I got. As soon.
37:02
As I heard. Gabe laugh.
37:03
I'm like, I'm good. But also, it was really cool to
37:06
see a lot of El Paso. I mean, a lot of El Paso people
37:09
came out for it and it was his cousin is amazing.
37:12
My cousin crushed it. It is amazing.
37:14
Was your cousin in GQ? Yes, he.
37:17
Was in GQ. Recently in GQI saw that.
37:19
Yeah, that's pretty cool. Yeah.
37:20
Yeah, well, he's like I said, dude, he's connected since he's
37:23
2 years old. Yeah.
37:24
So. Shout out to Brian Torres Day.
37:26
I'm a little. No, he's, he's great.
37:28
He, he, it's funny because I was living in that.
37:33
House Yeah, with the dildo. The dildo story took place and
37:37
he was, he was like a little working actor at 12 years old
37:40
and I was taking him to his, to his job.
37:42
So it's, it's really nice to see that full circle, that he's the
37:45
one that got me the, the, you know, the. 7 minutes on stage
37:48
whatever that night so. Well, Austin's like the it's the
37:51
new comedy Cap Hall, right? Yeah.
37:53
Have you have you gone to try to get on like kill Tony or the?
37:56
Mothership or everything I'm I'm I'm, I'm going to work my way up
37:59
to for yeah but that's it's it's cut throat up there those guys
38:03
are guys are pretty nasty yeah they're brutal so.
38:07
You got to be sharp, you got to be quick with those guys.
38:10
So I'm going to do a little little, you know, more Mickey
38:13
Mouse shows where everybody's more supportive.
38:16
Do you have a separate comedy page or is it just like you got
38:20
you got like the the restaurant only?
38:22
I'm like, you know what, dude? I'm like.
38:23
So stoked to just, like, do it. It was invigorating that.
38:27
Like I see like the other comedians, they were like
38:29
talking. About getting paid.
38:30
And I'm like, oh. Yeah, how do you get paid?
38:32
I'm just like, yeah, see, maybe I should figure out that.
38:38
So yeah, I'm probably gonna do like a page or a YouTube.
38:40
Channel, I mean, it's interesting now with all the
38:44
platform. I mean, you look at like Drew
38:45
Talbert did like the hospitality focused one.
38:48
Yeah. And his are hilarious man.
38:50
And people are so relatable to him because he uses, you know,
38:54
these these topics and these situations that we all
38:57
experience every day. And I think that people find a
38:59
lot of comfort. In dude restaurant humor.
39:01
Is is is is such AI? Mean.
39:03
That's why the sustenance. It's a niche, dude.
39:05
It's such a niche. Yeah, I, I, I, I love comedy.
39:08
And it's funny because I wanted to be a stand up comedian when I
39:10
was younger and when I first started Chef's PSA, I thought I
39:15
was super funny and I don't think people got my jokes.
39:17
So I pulled it back. I was like, oh wait, no, no one
39:20
thinks. This is.
39:24
But I'm like well. We're here to laugh with you.
39:26
I don't know what are. You well, I was like, I don't I
39:29
don't know if anyone thinks this is funny, but me, I was just
39:31
like, I got to find a way to make my there's shit that I put
39:35
on chef's PSA that is just to make me laugh that everyone
39:37
misses, but I'm like. This is a good one if.
39:40
People are paying attention. There's a good one in there,
39:42
right? Yeah.
39:44
But it's funny, you know, to what I was trying to say is like
39:46
so many chefs, I think need extracurricular work or hobbies
39:51
or things like that. What what else?
39:54
I think it's cool that you know, you got El past family meal.
39:56
You've got either you've got the stand up comedy.
39:58
I got this whole thing that I'm doing here.
40:00
But I think a lot of chefs sometimes.
40:03
Like, if people are listening, this would be my advice.
40:05
This is my literal PSA. If you're a chef, it's like,
40:08
eventually you might want to have a backup plan.
40:12
Totally. Yeah, Yeah.
40:13
Yeah. Because I don't think enough
40:15
chefs talk about that. It's like there comes a point
40:18
when you're start hitting your 40s and you're creeping into 50.
40:21
It's like, OK, what's after that?
40:23
It's like working the line in after that, Like, no.
40:26
And whether that's, whether that's being a restaurateur,
40:28
whether that's, you know, having different businesses or stuff
40:31
like that, But I, I definitely think you can't wait until it's
40:34
too late. Yeah, yeah, I always tell my
40:37
cooks, you know, like that it the line cooks that are young
40:41
and they're like I, I every second that I'm not at work, I
40:46
want to be working. Yeah, I'm just like, I get it.
40:50
It's like money and you and you're and you're working right
40:53
now and you can handle it, but it's like you got to balance
40:55
that shit out like not. And now when you're like 40, I
40:59
know like when you're, when you're in your 20s and you're
41:02
still fresh and spry, like you got to take care of yourself
41:04
because then you're going to end up like, you know me, like I'm
41:07
45 and I got the knees of a 65 year old 'cause I was just like,
41:11
I got to go harder than everybody else.
41:13
And you know, stay longer, be here earlier.
41:16
And then it's just like there's no balance.
41:18
So like we're never, we're never encouraged to have like a work
41:21
life balance, which is like now it's, I'm seeing more younger
41:24
cooks, I think that are advocating for themselves.
41:27
Back when we were younger, like we didn't have that.
41:30
You couldn't advocate for yourself so much as you can now.
41:33
I'm advocating for that, Yeah. And we when we close for our two
41:37
days, Sunday, Monday, it's always like, hey man, this is a
41:39
job. It's like whatever do we do here
41:41
is fantastic. It's a job.
41:42
There's a lot of passion, but go home.
41:45
I don't hear from you like, and not in a bad way, but like go
41:49
live your life, go enjoy your life and I'll see you when you
41:51
come back. You have that extra day off
41:52
whatever somebody's on vacation, like enjoy that because the
41:56
level of service and creativity that has to happen is high.
41:59
And you can't achieve that if you're all convoluted.
42:03
If you're thinking about how dare your house is or how messy
42:05
your life has been. Like you need to be able to come
42:08
into work and have a little bit of sense of structure.
42:10
And you know, starting off with a hobby doesn't have to be with
42:15
his mindset that I need to know, have my hobby now because in 10
42:17
years I'm going to need it. You know, as I get older, it can
42:21
just be fun. It can be music, whatever.
42:23
Philanthropy. Best hobby could be, you know,
42:26
physical fitness, right, Taking care of yourself, yeah.
42:29
And I think our generation overlooked that a lot, yeah.
42:32
Me COVID really, I mean to me, I don't know how about you guys,
42:35
but like COVID really, it started kind of messing with my
42:37
head where I'm like, if I can't do what I've been doing for 20
42:41
years, I'm like, what am I going to do?
42:43
So I'm like, I'm like started were woodworking and like, you
42:46
know. Doing a lot of.
42:47
People, you know, just like others.
42:48
A lot of people move to Plan B and it's funny because years
42:51
ago, like let's say at the beginning part of most of our
42:54
careers, I know I worked crazy like six days a week and I wore
42:58
like a badge of honor. Like I I've worked 30 days
43:00
straight without a day off. Who else?
43:02
Right, like I'd. Brag about that or I wore, you
43:04
know, X amount of double S and like, I'm going to be honest now
43:08
like back then I thought it was a bad ass, but when I look at it
43:10
and I was like after about 10 hours, I wasn't that productive
43:14
like I was like I was I wasn't that like they would have
43:17
benefited by having me fresh yeah my my old chefs or even
43:21
when I was the chef, I would have benefited my team by being
43:23
fresh because after a certain amount of hours, I turned into,
43:26
you know, an asshole dude I had. You for 10 fresh.
43:28
Hours. I'd be like, hell yeah.
43:31
It's more that's like crazy. Right.
43:33
Yeah, we're so like, it's so like instilled in us that it's
43:38
like. To do a 12 hour plus shift is
43:41
like. No big deal.
43:43
And that's kind of fucked up, like.
43:45
Well, I used to go home like at 8 hours and I'd be like that's
43:48
like 1/2. Day.
43:49
Like, I would feel like, what am I going to do with the rest of
43:51
my time? That's only 8 hours.
43:52
It would. I would feel like it wasn't.
43:54
I wouldn't even count it sometimes as a work day if I
43:56
only worked 8 hours. It's 1/2 day.
43:58
Yeah, it's 1/2 day. Yeah.
43:59
But it's weird. But now I think, like, knowing
44:01
what I know now, I would like, I wouldn't run a kitchen that way
44:04
or I wouldn't work myself that way.
44:05
I'd say, you know, you need to. I'd rather have you fresh.
44:08
I'd rather have you fresh. 10 hours probably.
44:11
After that, it's like, I think when you start going into the
44:13
14th hour, yeah, you're still there and maybe you're still,
44:16
but you're not as fresh as you were.
44:18
Yeah, their work ethic is there. It's just more of like, like
44:21
what you were saying because like, you got to advocate for
44:23
him. I'm telling them to be like
44:26
take, take like, you know, don't work so hard.
44:28
Don't work every freaking, you know, don't send all your money
44:31
back home. And, you know, save some of that
44:34
for yourself to, you know, go up, you know, dinner, you know,
44:38
go buy yourself something nice. It's.
44:40
But you know, it's not just for them, it's a little bit selfish
44:42
too, because I know that we're going to have a better return on
44:45
all of that. I mean, the science is there.
44:47
Like, you can't really focus every every 45 minutes of focus.
44:50
You need like 15 more minutes to relax.
44:52
And you actually are more productive at the end of the day
44:55
than trying to push through anything else.
44:57
Have you all ever run any of the kitchens or or or do you know
45:00
anyone that's running a kitchen that's a four day work week like
45:03
core 10s? We were doing that just.
45:05
Before how was our? I got a lot of stuff done at the
45:09
house, yes. How do I do this?
45:13
Yeah, one day off and I'm good and I'm start organizing
45:16
closets, looking for a project. Because one of the things that
45:19
I've always done and I didn't realize it was such an important
45:21
part of life is that I get really bored with how the living
45:25
room or the bedroom is arranged. And I want to start moving shit
45:28
around, painting and changing things up and making sure that
45:31
everything's really organized. And that OCD that you have on on
45:34
the line, you know, extends into my life as well.
45:36
So I want my shirts on these hangers and my pants on these
45:39
hangers and my shoes like this. And my wife makeup shit on you
45:43
to be clean. So sometimes I'll do it, you
45:44
know, and she'll be very happy that I organize all her makeup
45:47
stuff. I don't know who else would, but
45:49
she is that. What it has is that it's created
45:52
a moment for clarity in my own mind, and so I feel more
45:56
productive when those things are happening.
45:58
Do you notice, did you notice any difference from your staff?
46:00
Like were they coming in happier or less happy?
46:02
They want to work more. Well, it was a double edged
46:06
sword. On one side, everybody enjoyed
46:08
that extra time and so that creativity was there.
46:10
But I also noticed that we're only working four days.
46:12
They were getting a little more tired than when we were working
46:14
5 days. Why is that?
46:16
I think it's because you're not in the physical zone of pushing
46:20
your body, you know? Where they're doing the longer
46:22
shifts on the four days. They're about the same.
46:25
We started 10/12 hours. Just depends on who's there,
46:27
what time, who's responsible for what.
46:30
But I noticed like it was a little, people were a little
46:33
tired. It's like whenever you start
46:34
getting busy for the busy season, that first week is hard.
46:37
Then after that you're all energized to keep going.
46:40
But again, as you getting older, like, drinking sucks all that
46:44
stuff out of you. Yeah, as much as I want to have
46:46
a lot of my scout with my wife, you know, on a weekend night,
46:48
like I know that the next day I'm not going to be predicted.
46:50
At all. Yeah, yeah, a night out like I'm
46:53
not. We're yeah, we're different now,
46:55
dude. It's like my Friday night on the
46:58
couch with the daughter. In Europe is.
47:01
Amazing. Yeah.
47:03
And 02 with that. I want to ask you guys, so for
47:05
the the chefs listening, I want to give them something to to
47:08
think about what is something like a game changing bit of
47:14
culinary technique or advice that once you saw it, you can
47:18
never go back And you're like, how did I not know that before?
47:23
That's a good question. So that way the cooks was like,
47:24
fuck, I didn't know that I'm going to start doing that
47:26
tomorrow. Like what's one of those things
47:28
that's like when you saw it's like, damn, that's smart,
47:31
efficient and so much easier. For example, I'll give you an
47:34
example. Like for me, one of the first
47:37
things that I like, it blew my mind when I first saw it is like
47:40
when when everyone was using microgreens.
47:44
Like I don't know if everyone uses microgreens still.
47:45
They don't. But like they wilt.
47:47
Like you have a little deli container of microgreens on the
47:50
pass before you know it, like by the end of service, they're
47:52
trash. You got to throw them away
47:53
because they're all wilted compressing microgreens in a
47:56
crowd vac machine with ice water.
47:57
So they last for a week and they're going to last throughout
48:01
service. They're not going to wilt under
48:02
the heat lamp. So that to me was like, OK, when
48:04
I figured that out, I was like, I can't go back to just having,
48:07
you know, my garnishes on my garnish station.
48:11
Most of the herbs are going to be cryo, back to nice water and
48:14
then before and then I'll dry them on a towelette or
48:17
something. Oh, that's true, yeah.
48:18
So that's it. That's an exact.
48:19
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Our arson chef, Chef Nico
48:22
brought that couple weeks ago and it's been working out really
48:24
well. So big props, Chef Nico.
48:27
Yeah, Chef Nico. I, I think for me it was, you
48:31
know, the the biggest game changer for me, what in terms of
48:36
leading the kitchen was, was using all of our byproduct in
48:40
terms of like fermentation, because I was able to find so
48:43
many different new flavors and, and ways to make food taste
48:48
better with well, otherwise would have got thrown away.
48:51
What do you use for like basic fermentation?
48:54
Like for people that don't ferment, did you just go like a
48:56
straight 2% salt like in the crown vac or do you use the
48:59
jars? What are you?
49:00
It just depends on, you know, obviously if it's like a miso or
49:04
you know, aminos or something like that.
49:05
Those are all all done differently, but some of the
49:08
most amazing things I've tasted have been like byproducts of, of
49:12
fermentation. It's like, you know, how do you
49:15
season sauces? Like I love to use a lot of
49:17
ferments to season molays. And I think that it, it adds so
49:19
many different layers. What's like what, you know, like
49:22
pumpkin seed misos, like garams, things like that and all
49:25
different types of misos and garams and aminos and things
49:28
like that. And they add so much different,
49:30
you know, you know, for example, like, you know, I was just
49:32
talking to Rico about this, this this Koji show you that we did
49:37
as a collaboration show is. That the one you gave me a
49:39
bottle of? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
49:40
Yeah. So that was just like, not only
49:43
is that good on its own, but when you use that to season
49:46
things, it's incredible. I mean, it's incredible.
49:49
It elevates a dish to, I mean, all, all their products, like
49:52
the day we did that dinner, the family meal.
49:54
Oh yeah. And they brought us all those
49:55
products from the like all these ferments and there was like
49:58
these misos and these Rico did this amazing tomato dish.
50:01
And it just. And it was like it like take it
50:04
to a whole new level. And I think that it's a way of
50:06
of transforming waste into like crazy crazy.
50:11
We used to do the. We had all the mushroom, the
50:15
caps, the the caps and like, yeah.
50:17
And like we would turn that into like you we'd fermented and then
50:21
we'd like puree it. What?
50:23
Would you do for the fermentation?
50:24
So so we it. Was just like, like simple like.
50:27
Yeah, it was. Like a 2.
50:28
Million salt? Was this like non?
50:30
Product, it was like, it's like the scraps of the of the
50:32
mushroom. Do you fermented usually in
50:34
brine or do you toss it normally with salt?
50:36
I think we had a. We're doing it a crying.
50:37
Guy, yeah, right. Our.
50:38
Tag So we would just take all the all the we were doing like a
50:41
mushroom Taco and we take all the stems.
50:43
For people that are listening, can you explain what that
50:45
process looks like? Yeah.
50:47
I mean, typically it's either a dry, a dry brine of like 2 to 3%
50:52
salt or a wet brine. And then you can put it in a, in
50:56
a fermenting canister or vessel with an air chamber lock.
51:01
You don't have to, but that prevents, you know, interaction
51:04
with with oxygen or you can put it in a vacuum seal bag.
51:09
And that that I like that because what it does is as it
51:13
gives off carbon dioxide, it starts to inflate and that gives
51:16
a kind of a, a visual of where it had in fermentation.
51:19
So. Once it was like inflated, it's
51:21
like a little pillow, right? You like, you know, take that,
51:25
puree it and what we were doing, I was dehydrating it and then
51:29
we're taking like the I remember like the speed corn, like after
51:33
making the Nix to my like I would like I would make the we'd
51:37
season the corn nuts. I was like, we we'd fry and make
51:40
corn nuts and like grind it all up with the mushroom powder and
51:44
it was like a corn for a khaki. OK, yeah, it was though.
51:47
It was nice. That was amazing.
51:49
That is amazing, though. Yeah.
51:50
I mean, obviously fermentation's becoming more and more common
51:53
nowadays, but I think that was like a game changing things and
51:57
seeing different, you know, people like, you know, like
51:59
Kevin and and then they have a a huge fermentation program.
52:02
I didn't afford to have someone like Alfredo who, who has like
52:05
their entire program. And it's, it's a game changer
52:08
for, for the business, for food cost for all kinds of things.
52:11
Yeah. One of the one other thing I
52:13
hate to I hate to say too, but another one that I think was
52:16
pretty good that I liked is I would have, I would, I would
52:20
have my cooks keep a little squeeze bottle of water on their
52:23
station for everything. Like sauce is too thick.
52:26
Squeeze the water. You know, you need to like
52:27
everything. You just, it was like, I would
52:30
call it the swanee water. Put the label on it right?
52:32
Because like it just came in handy for so much shit.
52:35
You just need to dilute. You need to just squeeze here,
52:38
squeeze there. I think one of the.
52:39
Coolest thing and I said out loud the other day the use of
52:44
saline and drinks. Yes.
52:46
Like it's a trip, dude, because it's like.
52:48
Explain what that means. So it's like saline is just like
52:51
water with salt with the salt solution and, and when you know,
52:56
you don't think about it, but when you're making mixed drinks,
53:00
couple of like little splashes in there, it's just like it, it
53:03
make it, it brings out every it does what salt does, you know,
53:07
like it brings out more of. The so like you use it like
53:09
bitters. Yeah, it's like, it's like,
53:11
it's, it's like with along with bitters, it's kind of, I just
53:15
thought it was like, wow, it's like we're putting this saline
53:18
in every fucking drink at Oseo Nap.
53:21
It's like, it's like, it's like. What period?
53:22
What like what's the ratio of the solution?
53:24
I don't know what the percentage that they use, but I imagine
53:27
it's probably like a like a 5% solution.
53:31
It can't be that that strong. I honestly I don't know but but.
53:37
But I could taste. It I could, yeah.
53:39
Yeah. Are you getting to East?
53:40
Yeah, it's. Already used to do it well.
53:42
The drinks. A lot more.
53:44
It's just like it needs this or it needs that.
53:45
I don't know exactly where where it's going, but yeah, saline
53:49
comes in, Andy. It's like using sugar to also
53:51
season something. Yes, like.
53:53
Go. Our Turner's house, Your stencil
53:54
shed. Yeah, yeah, a little bit.
53:55
Thanks. Because like, that's a pick out.
53:57
Are you guys listening to Father Hayory Lamar?
53:59
OK, dude. Yeah.
54:00
What? What are you guys listening to
54:01
in the kitchen, Kendrick? I'm.
54:03
Drake Drake has a new album came out on Valentine's Day, Andre I
54:07
I listened to a couple songs that.
54:09
A lot of Cumia, as always, you know.
54:11
Yeah, I will. If I get that that playlist
54:16
before anybody else, we're going deep into some right now.
54:19
I like Thundercat a lot. I like a lot of funky rock,
54:22
groovy stuff. They're coming out.
54:24
I was listening to something called Love Unlimited Orchestra,
54:27
which is kind of weird, but I like, I really like that.
54:29
So it's going into that what? Are you listening to it's?
54:32
A It's a little bit of everything for me right now.
54:34
There's a new, I like the new MoMA studio.
54:40
Yeah, yeah, like the Maria's are good.
54:42
I like Lalom, they're kind of in that genre of like Hermanos
54:46
Gutierrez and things like that. But yeah, some of the some of
54:50
the new, new, new hip hop as well as being it's been cool to
54:52
see like the old guys coming out with new stuff like, you know,
54:55
Doctor Dre and Eminem and these guys.
54:57
So it's interesting. I like a lot of.
54:59
Local stuff like like the bright lights social hour, Yeah, easy
55:04
compadre or this girl Annabelle chair legs.
55:07
She's fucking rocks. She's badass.
55:10
Got a badass wish. She's like rock.
55:13
Yeah, I would think we're in a renaissance of this music right
55:15
now where like the Butcher is coming back.
55:17
And so you're seeing these older artists having to come out of
55:19
the the woodwork and be like, hey, let's let's get let me get
55:22
you back on track. We've seen the Black Crows come
55:24
back again. It's it's badass.
55:26
Oh really? You know, that's cool.
55:28
I I when I was a chef, I wouldn't allow music in the
55:30
kitchen. Like 0 It would drive me.
55:31
It would drive me crazy. Like it would boot.
55:34
Yeah, right. It's like so many people get mad
55:36
when I say that. Like people would be.
55:37
Like how dare you're. Toxic Chef and Laura can't does
55:40
not allow whistling in the. Kitchen.
55:42
Yeah, same thing. Bad luck.
55:43
It's bad luck you can't whistle. I like whistling in the kitchen.
55:46
But I would catch so much shit for not letting people play
55:49
music. But I do have a Chef's PSA hip
55:52
hop playlist on Spotify. Like they they can search that.
55:54
It's like I got to see. That it's like what?
55:56
Like that's like 120 hip hop songs that I put in my chef's
55:59
PSA. So people that are listening, go
56:01
search the chef's PSA hip hop on Spotify and you'll you'll see.
56:04
What I used to like to what I used to like doing is I'd give
56:07
every chef an hour, I'd say come to come to service with your
56:10
playlist and every hour will change playlists to every and
56:13
that can control the tempo of the ring.
56:15
I used to do that too, and people.
56:16
Were, you know, it was kind of nerve wracking for the cooks.
56:18
Just like, fuck, I'm going to get judged like what?
56:21
I'm playing and. You know I used.
56:23
To do that too. Until one of my cooks played
56:24
Sandstorm on repeat for fucking life.
56:28
Until I realized that. But on the positive side of it,
56:31
I mean, it's a great way to get that person and maybe the whole
56:33
team into that. Create a flow state.
56:35
Yeah, yeah, yeah. When you have the right mix
56:37
going on, sometimes I'll put on some.
56:38
I love mixed songs, like remixes of badass songs.
56:42
Like I have this one of when Doves Cran.
56:44
It's just like, no, he's jamming.
56:45
I didn't even know that. I've just.
56:48
I've been on. It the 80s kick, I have my 80s
56:50
hits playlist and I have an oldies playlist.
56:52
Like I like oldies like Barbara Mae, like Cholo holdies.
56:55
You know, it's the El Paso little bit ES.
56:57
Yeah, their oldies playlist. Have you had a playlist on
57:02
Spotify called El Paso Sundays Oldies?
57:04
Yeah, send it something. Send it.
57:06
What's this? Before we wrap up.
57:07
Where can everyone find you? What are you working on?
57:09
All right. Well, we're on Cesar Chavez at
57:11
Osseo Korean American Restaurant.
57:15
Find me there Tuesday through Sunday.
57:19
Yeah, yeah, right now I'm focused on the nonprofit Oido O
57:23
ido.co. Please give us a follow look at
57:26
we're doing some really cool stuff to support Mexico and
57:30
appreciate anyone that wants to share and follow.
57:33
And then still focused on my my restaurant up in the DC greater
57:36
area O Mateo. Follow us on the El Paso family
57:41
meal Instagram account and I think it's time to get another
57:43
one going. So again, a shout out to
57:45
ambassadors. Let's get it going and you guys
57:49
too. Let's throw one dude.
57:50
Yeah, it's. Time for Congrats again.
57:52
He did. Let's get to the. 10th 1 and do
57:53
a reunion with all the bad apps, yes.
57:55
All right, chefs, good to see you.
57:56
We'll do this again. Thank.
57:58
You well, hope you enjoyed the show.
57:59
You know what to do. If you want support, go to
58:01
chefspsa.com. Get yourself something Books
58:03
merge. If you're watching on YouTube,
58:05
make sure you hit the like and subscribe button.
58:07
If you listen on Apple or Spotify or anywhere else, make
58:10
sure you leave a five star review.
58:11
It goes a long way. I appreciate it.
58:13
We'll see you next week. Hit the porno music.
58:15
No small drink in the kitchen. Mix it.
58:18
Drop the chef Dallas. No fiction.
58:20
Stirring up the beats. Heat enough the session.
58:23
Listen. Close classes in session.