Latest / Chef's PSA Podcast / Cannabis in the Kitchen: Travis Petersen& Dan Kennedy Ep. 168

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Cannabis in the Kitchen: Travis Petersen& Dan Kennedy Ep. 168 · Chef's PSA Podcast

0:00
Hello chefs. This is Chefs PSA.
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I'm your host, Andre Natera. Today I'm joined once again by
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two returning guest chefs, Dan Kennedy from Pasta Bar in Austin
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and Travis Peterson, the nomad chef known for cooking with
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cannabis. We're talking about cannabis in
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the kitchen. Chef etiquette, what really goes
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on behind the scenes of cooking competition shows.
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It's a fun one. Let's get into it.
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Great restaurants don't always bring customers in.
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Great stories do, because in food, beverage and hospitality,
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what you sell is only part of the story.
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It's the why behind it, the authority you create and the
0:47
experience that you've built. Market scale turns expertise
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into content that connects podcasts, video series and
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industry education, not ads. Assets.
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Market scale has brought run the past and how to manage like an
1:05
executive chef to life real world examples of how great
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content leads the conversation. Because attention is earned and
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the industry doesn't need more noise, it needs more leaders.
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How's the tour going? This has been the hardest thing
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I've ever put myself through mentally, physically.
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It's, you know, the plan was this.
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I knew this year that the tours had to come to an end.
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The tours pay the bills. So it's really hard to put an
1:42
end date, but I had to do it. I said the end of summer, it's
1:45
done. So let's go tour everywhere this
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summer. Let's hit all our cities.
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I had my other chef was going to do half the cities.
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I was going to do half the cities.
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But the half I sent him out to, they were complaining, Wait,
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this is your last tour and you're not coming, right?
2:01
And so I took that to heart. There are a lot of people from
2:05
cities that have been supporting me for the last couple years
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coming to every dinner and they wanted me there.
2:09
So I said, Jay, you can take the summer off and I'm going to go
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do all these. So I, I, we split this into two
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parts. The first part we started July
2:19
4th in Buffalo, and then we did, went to Boston, then Long
2:23
Island, then Manhattan, then New Jersey, then Baltimore,
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Richmond, VA Beach. We took a week off, went home, I
2:30
packed my stuff up, put into a storage because we're moving to
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Miami, and I went back on the road July 23rd, Portland, and
2:37
then to Vegas and Sacramento and San Francisco, San Diego, San
2:41
Jose, And then I flew to Grand Rapids, which is my 99th
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American city that I'd cooked in, then Detroit, then Nashville
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and then up to Columbus and Cincinnati.
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And now I'm here in Austin. But it's not over because
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tomorrow I'm going to Kansas City and then I go to go to
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Chicago and then on Saturday I go home to Phoenix and I have my
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last nomadic nights, 20 guests coming and then this travel and
3:05
pop up. It's it's over.
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So everyone. Wants to do it like, oh, they
3:08
look at your life and like, oh, that sounds fun.
3:10
I want to do that. The grass is always greener on
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the other side, you know, because I look at what chef does
3:15
and I'm like, man, to just have all the toys at your dispense
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and like, you know, I got to travel with gear, so I got to
3:21
pick and choose. And right now I'm doing on
3:23
Mokeka as one of my courses. So I brought a big giant pot
3:26
that weighs 25 lbs right to go in my trunk.
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I can only have 70 lbs. So that kind of took up a
3:32
percent, a large portion of the weight of what I can bring.
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Yeah, I because we're doing so many cities going hop and I
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brought plates with me which I don't normally do and I've
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smashed 70% of them. Yeah, you were saying that.
3:46
Would you bring? 20 bowls and you.
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I had 20 stone bowls. We were in Portland.
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The back of the Uber opened, two suitcases slid.
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I went for the bigger one. I should have went for the
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smaller one because the bigger one just had clothes in it.
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The smaller one had the bowls, all of them smashed.
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It was like $1000 right there. So it's like, all right, OK,
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this is fitting. Yeah.
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Well, what's crazy is sometimes you work in places where people
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break plates. Yeah, it's not a big deal
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because it's like we got, but for you that is.
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I plates are everything. Plates are my shoes.
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You know, girls have shoes, groceries.
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I go into a play store, there's a chance I'm coming out.
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I don't even need these bowls, but man, they're going to look
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really cool with a dish one day, right?
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So, you know, I've got quite the collection at home, but yeah,
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those that one stung and hurt a little bit for sure.
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Shit. So.
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But has it been good otherwise? Listen, I am 10 years from now,
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I'm going to look back and be like, fuck, I wish I could do
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that again. Yeah, you know, I, I know that
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I, I probably even next year, I joke around and say like, I'm
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going to pull a Jay-Z and come out of retirement next year and
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go do a quick little jaunt around around the country.
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But you know, I'm, I really now want to inspire this next
4:59
generation to start doing dinners.
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We brought on a young girl right out of culinary school this
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year. It was nice to add some feminine
5:07
touch to our team of all boys. She's literally right out of
5:10
school, super clean, great knife skills.
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Like, a lot going for her. One month after me kind of
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saying it's done. She's doing her first pop up
5:20
this weekend. I've had so many chefs come and
5:23
work with me and then be like, can you help me do a pop up?
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Can you tell me how to do this? Yeah, this girl just, I'm doing
5:28
it right. And she wanted to cancel halfway
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through. I said no, no, no.
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You got eight people coming. Get your first dinner out of the
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way. She's up to 16 people now.
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Like I'm like, you know, how many guys will come to work with
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me saying they want to do this, talking about doing this?
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Guess what? You're not talking.
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You're doing it. Yeah, you're doing it.
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And I'm I'm that's, that's that to me really kind of refuels me
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because if I can help this next generation, if I can give them
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some insight into doing you want to get on the road, I'll tell
5:56
you how to do it. Yeah, well, you, I know you, you
5:59
want to talk about the cannabis? Yeah, but you should because I
6:04
know you do your thing with the ACF where you have like your,
6:05
your certification course, you should do a how to how to do a
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travelling pop up certification course because honestly,
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culinary schools aren't teaching that right now and they need to
6:14
because that's that's a very viable option for chefs.
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No, I and I realize that now I have carved out some really
6:19
niche skills that I can teach people.
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And you know, these young chefs that spent the last couple years
6:25
with me, you don't. My sous chef, Avery, he came on.
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He was just just about to turn 19 when I hired him.
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Spent two years with me. He never missed a day in two
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years. As a as a young man who wants to
6:37
go out and be with friends, he showed up every day.
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He is a dog you want in the trenches when you're knee deep
6:45
in the weeds. He's the guy you want beside
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you. And so I am internally grateful
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for him being there and never leaving me hanging because now
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that I'm doing this by myself without him, I'm like, I miss
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you, Avery. The dishes got to be cleaned at
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the end of the night. I'm like Avery.
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Yeah, Avery, if you're listening.
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There's some dishes that need to be done.
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Get to work. Tell a little bit about the
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cannabis. Yeah.
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So again, kind of realizing these skill sets that I've put
7:17
together and all these chefs that have been reaching out and
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hey, can I come be part of this? What can I do?
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We've we've got the ACF certification.
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Yeah, right. So what my goal is, how can we
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get more people through that course?
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And then I thought there's a big cannabis conference going to New
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York on the 8th and 9th of October.
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And I thought, I'm going to do a culinary cannabis summit on the
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7th. And I'll take advantage of all
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the cannabis chefs that are flying into New York for this,
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because now I don't have to. I can get them to come be part
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of it. So I'm bringing in the biggest
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cannabis chefs out there who've been doing what I've been doing.
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And we're going to teach for four hours.
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When you register for this summit, you automatically get
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signed up for the American Culinary Federation course.
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So you can take that certification at your home pace,
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your own time. You can take it before the
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summit or you can take it afterwards.
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But in the summit, we're going to teach you how to market these
8:09
cannabis dinners through social media.
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How do you how do you put an ad out there and not get it taken
8:13
down? Yeah, right.
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How, how can you? Like there's cannabis brands out
8:18
there that will sponsor these dinners.
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They'll give you the cannabis to cook with, right?
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Sometimes they'll even pay you to cook with it.
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So I'm going to teach you how to approach these brands, how to
8:27
approach dispensaries and and get the support from the
8:31
cannabis industry because the more successful cannabis events
8:36
that happen, it just helps break the stigma around cannabis,
8:39
right? Yeah, well, it's interesting
8:40
that you're talking about teaching basically the the, the
8:44
complete experience. Yeah, because knowing how to
8:46
cook is one thing. Knowing how to cook with
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cannabis is another thing. Knowing how to market it, how to
8:50
do a pop up. Like these are these are all
8:52
different skill sets and and a lot of times as chefs, we just
8:55
get so focused on why I know how to cook, right.
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But it's all this other stuff that goes into making sure that
9:00
you're sold out. Doing a whirlwind tour from I
9:02
remember we said from all go to Cincinnati.
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You know, I mean, here's the thing, like, yeah, I'm
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travelling everywhere, but I've been doing this for seven years.
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When I first started, it was 3 cities, right?
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Like start small. Don't be afraid to fail your
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first dinner might listen, I put out some bad dishes.
9:19
My, I over served some people's cannabis in the first couple
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rounds, right? But like, you're going to learn
9:26
from mistakes. You're going to grow from that,
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right? And if you always fear what you
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don't know, how are you gonna know, right?
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Yeah, I was gonna ask, like how do you, since right now you're
9:37
just doing like the one you just did in Austin was Omakasi.
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Yeah. Well, did you go to it?
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I didn't, no. Did you have this one?
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I think. It was the last time it was I
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did the so I did 6 seedings here over the last two days.
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The first day I just did my summer menu that I've been
9:50
doing. How many courses on?
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On 5/5 so I do 5 courses and then if you sit at our chef's
9:55
table you get an extra 2 and a glass.
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Of per yeah, they gotta pay more.
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A little more, yeah, good. How much is a little?
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About half the price of the ticket.
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So good. Sit at the chef's table, yeah.
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You get to talk with me the whole time, you know you have a
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little. Prosecco you get an extra dose.
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You can do it. Usually I'll kind of, you know,
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a little piece of butter or something.
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Did I send you home with the butter or anything?
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No. OK.
10:15
Hey. So you know how like you go to a
10:16
lot of like, do you guys do anything at pasta at a pasta bar
10:19
for a take away after dinner? We do.
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I mean, we give everyone menus and then like cookies, yeah.
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Like little macro? Just little, yeah.
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I wanted to do that. I was just say give.
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Them I wanted to do a take away. I went out bought these things
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actually we were putting together like a morning coffee,
10:35
like a pound cake that was refused, right.
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And so this was my idea, but it's to add this on top of
10:42
everything I'm doing. Yeah, it's just not possible.
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Right. And it's like a premade.
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Well you could buy the pre rolled joints.
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You could. So sponsors, we're moving.
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My wife and I have put all our stuff in storage and we're
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moving to Miami September 1st. And I'm gonna do every second
10:57
weekend and omakashi dinner out of my house.
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Yeah, all right. I've already sold the month of
11:01
September out because I got enough people in Miami and like,
11:04
I can't wait to just serve eight people in my kitchen with all my
11:09
toys, all my tools at the end of the night.
11:12
Yeah. Familiar.
11:13
Yeah, not carrying anything not. Having to pass up, not having to
11:16
get up at 4:00 AM and pack stuff and like, you know it, I'm
11:21
looking forward to that. Because here's The funny thing,
11:23
you know, I said hard end date. I got to cut the handcuffs off
11:26
of this touring, but I can't do a cold Turkey because there's
11:29
bills to be paid. So I got to slowly wean off of
11:33
doing dinners. I I may do the occasional fly
11:37
into a city for one night, do one night and then go home.
11:39
But these longer than three day trips, they they got to stop
11:43
how? Quickly, do you sell out?
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I will market event 10 weeks ahead before I get there.
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I've got about a 40% rebooking across the board of past guests
11:55
wanted to come back again. And then in some cities like
11:57
Columbus, I had a moment in Columbus where we had a group of
12:02
guests that came to every single pop up.
12:04
I did that. They were all strangers.
12:05
They all met at the 1st dinner and they all came back every
12:08
time as a group, right? And it just a moment, the end of
12:13
the night and I got a little emotional myself.
12:15
And it was just like, I know I thought I would come to Columbus
12:18
once. It was supposed to be just let's
12:19
go check out Ohio. And it became a main stop for
12:22
us. And yeah, it's it's there's some
12:24
guests out there that, you know, have meant a lot to me, right.
12:28
So yeah. I want to go back to what I was
12:31
saying because I'm just curious if it's if it's something that
12:35
can be done and if if not, I want to know why it can't be
12:37
done because I'm actually curious.
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So you have a dinner? Yep.
12:40
At the end of it, you want to give them a little take away.
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Yeah, I'm, I'm kind of serious when I say, could you not give
12:44
them joints or is there like a legal reason why you can't give
12:46
them? I'm just curious.
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So it might be a reason. Normally if we have brand
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sponsors, yeah, right. In a state, if I'm in a state
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where it's recreationally legal, chances are I'll have a brand
12:57
sponsor and they give goodie bags.
12:59
OK, that's right. So they will give you a little
13:01
pre roll and stuff like that. Because let's be honest, I mean,
13:04
everything that I'm doing is in a grey space.
13:06
Yeah. Nothing is fully legit and
13:09
legal. Walk.
13:10
At the razor's edge, watching. The razor's edge, you know and
13:15
you know and it's it's you know if you wait for regulation.
13:20
Just wait till the. Cocaine dinner.
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Hey, that's a dinner I want to do.
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Because you don't have to do any prep.
13:26
You won't have to make any food. I mean, just send out some water
13:30
and people won't be just chatting away for hours, right?
13:34
Right, right, right. Yeah.
13:35
That that won't happen anytime soon.
13:37
But yeah, it's, you know, I'll joke inside.
13:41
By the way, we're not doing cocaine dinners for people that
13:43
are listening. At least we're not advertising.
13:53
No, we're we don't do that. But a serious question like how
13:55
do you cuz I want to ask Dan this too.
13:57
Like cuz you have a very both of you have very specific dining
14:03
experiences that you have to create yours tasting menu, yours
14:06
tasty menu, but in usually in a home.
14:08
Yeah. How do you create something
14:13
special that that's so exclusive?
14:16
And how important is the hospitality aspect when you have
14:20
such intimate? I'll ask you, Dan first.
14:23
I mean, hospitality is #1 yeah, I think, you know, as as a young
14:30
cook or young chef, you get the mentality of it's all about the
14:35
food. Everyone's coming here for the
14:36
food and like all that. And I mean, until recently, I
14:40
got to the point in front of us, it's like they're paying for the
14:43
whole experience. And it's the second they walk in
14:46
the door and you hear it nauseam with like a lot of like great
14:50
front house people in GM. So it's like smile, just like
14:54
greet people with a smile and like hello and welcome in and
14:56
like welcome in. Like they're coming to your
14:58
home. It's like a friend coming over.
15:03
And especially working in fine dining, people very like stiff
15:09
now like, oh man, I got to be proper and I got to, you know,
15:13
I'm paying a lot of money for this.
15:14
So but like as soon as you just like smile and like make sure
15:17
everyone's having the fun and good time, like you just break
15:20
down that like, oh, this doesn't need to be this rigid stiff
15:24
thing. Like anytime we have new hires
15:27
front or back house, it's like the first thing pouring water.
15:31
It's always like the hand behind the back or like standing.
15:33
It's like. Stop.
15:35
Just be comfortable be normal like and then talking to them.
15:37
It's like this scripted like and for this next course you have
15:41
it's like just they're people talk to the people like you know
15:44
don't talk to them like a friend like all right, y'all so listen
15:47
here and it's like. Just just have a.
15:49
Conversation with people and make sure they feel comfortable
15:53
and welcome. You know, the ambience is
15:55
important, the music, you know, lighting, all that kind of
15:58
stuff. But yeah, hospitalities #1.
16:04
Do you do you talk to a lot of the guests at the counter?
16:06
I talk to every guest. Every guest fucking insanely
16:09
difficult for me. I am like the biggest introvert
16:11
you've probably ever met. Yeah, like coming on podcast for
16:14
me is even like, all right, let's get ready.
16:15
You got to like talk and people are going to listen to you.
16:19
But it's important. It's something again, early in
16:22
my career, I was the chef of restaurants.
16:26
Go, go, go touch some tables. I'm like, no, seriously, go no,
16:30
I'm not doing that. No, I'm just not doing that.
16:31
Like I'm just like an awkward person.
16:33
And like, for me, it's just feels unnatural.
16:38
And this restaurant's helped out a lot because we are on stage
16:42
and there is no hiding from the guests.
16:45
And the culinary director even turned to me.
16:47
And it goes a long way. Like you just go and like, say
16:53
hello to someone and like, Oh my God, the chef.
16:55
Talked to me. Like that's so.
16:56
Amazing. Well, yeah, you know, social
16:57
media has kind of put us on a pedestal a little bit.
17:00
And same with all the cooking shows and everything.
17:02
So you know, the one thing for me, it's like I can be on the
17:07
road for three weeks. I'm in a mood, I'm tired.
17:10
But the guests have been looking forward to this for the last 10
17:13
weeks. They spend a lot of money,
17:15
They're excited so I can catch on people's energy when people
17:19
come into the room and they're all excited and happy and the
17:22
volumes going up, it will change my mood instantly because I, I,
17:25
I feed off of that energy. And I really realized by
17:29
bringing on, you know, Chef Jayon to, to do dinners for me.
17:32
And people were like, Oh, you're not coming.
17:34
And I'm like, you know, I'm very proud of the food I put out
17:38
there. But again, I'm, I didn't take
17:40
the traditional route. I I'll never be the chef that
17:43
Chef Dan is, right? And and so I always thought
17:46
sending these other celebrity chefs out there and then people
17:48
are like, oh, it's not you. And I'm like, wow.
17:51
But it's Chef Jay. And they're like, yeah, but I
17:53
wanted to come for you, right? And I think it took me a little
17:57
time to realize that. And, you know, I'm not just a
18:00
chef. I'm also entertaining.
18:01
Like it's, yeah, you know, from beginning to end.
18:04
And it's like, I've, I've got a script.
18:08
I didn't write it out, but I've been saying the same corny jokes
18:11
for, you know, two years, you know.
18:14
Well, here's here's the one I used to do.
18:16
Here's the one I used to do is I go, I used to go.
18:20
I have a woman named Chef Travis Peterson go by the name Nomad
18:23
Cook. You might hear a bit of an
18:24
accent. Sorry.
18:25
That's Canadian. It's customer now.
18:27
I go. We're no longer sorry.
18:30
Yeah, and that one was, I was getting laughs in every room.
18:35
And then I do, oh, my Maple syrup cost me an extra 35% now,
18:39
right. And the room last night I got
18:42
crickets. Last night I was like holy shit
18:45
this is all. Conservative here in Texas.
18:47
You can't crack those jokes. That's that's funny because IA
18:52
lot of people I'm I'm like Dan, I'm extremely shy.
18:54
Like in real life, people that know me, like, I'm quiet, I'm
18:57
introverted, I'm reclusive, and I would have to be forced to go
19:02
to the table. I always tell them, like, if
19:03
they want to talk to me, get me. But if, like, I'm not going to
19:05
go talk to someone that maybe doesn't want to talk to me,
19:08
there's nothing worse. Yeah, but here's a story.
19:13
Do you guys know who Dean Fairing is?
19:14
No, He's legendary chef. And.
19:16
Yeah. So he was big in the 80s,
19:19
nineties and and and 2000s. I mean, he's still big, right?
19:22
He's got a restaurant inside the Ritz Carlton in Dallas.
19:24
But he's a legend, one of the fathers of Southwest cuisine,
19:29
and he did that before social media, like everyone knew he
19:32
was. He was famous before social
19:34
media could make you. It's remarkable when like, chefs
19:37
were famous before. Like, definitely, right?
19:39
Like Marco Pierre would. Exactly, exactly.
19:41
Like Rockstar. Yeah.
19:42
So. So Dean was famous in Dallas
19:45
because he would go and like, everyone knew he was taking
19:48
pictures with people, touching the tables, talking to people
19:50
like they went to fairings or to the mansion on Turtle Creek
19:54
because of Dean fairing. Like he he was going to work the
19:57
dining room as much as working in the kitchen.
19:59
And 2013, this is, again, social media is not even really a
20:05
thing. It's not even really a thing.
20:06
I mean, it's a thing, but it's a thing.
20:08
It's a thing, but it's not. So yeah.
20:09
You're not social media famous yet.
20:11
No. Yeah.
20:12
And so he comes to my restaurant in Dallas.
20:14
And I'll never forget cuz he calls me, he's like, hey, give
20:16
me a tour. And I'm showing him around.
20:17
I'm going upstairs showing him this, that and the other.
20:19
And there's these two girls in the corner, really good looking
20:23
beautiful girls sitting in the corner by themselves.
20:25
And I see them whispering in each other's ears and they're
20:28
like. That's the chef.
20:29
And I'm like, that's shit, right?
20:31
That's me, right, That's me. And they come up and they're
20:35
like, my God, can we get your picture?
20:37
And I was like, yes, of course. And then they handed me the
20:40
camera. So they could take a picture
20:42
with. Dean in my restaurant, I was
20:45
like, holy shit. But it's funny.
20:47
He was a class act. He's like, no, no, no, no.
20:49
Andre is a great chef. Get in the picture too.
20:51
And I just remember thinking like, that was the moment I was
20:53
like, that's how famous this dude is.
20:55
Like people want to take pictures of him in my
20:57
restaurant. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
21:00
But he he mastered the art of, of talking to guests and
21:02
creating. You know that.
21:05
That's experience. It's a completely others.
21:06
It's a completely different skill.
21:08
It is just like like you said, working in the dining room and
21:11
like being like a showman. I've always just been like head
21:15
down, focus on the food. And I mean, I've been like
21:19
critiqued by I guess they've left reviews that are just like,
21:22
oh, this like Captain Arrogant is what they call me like
21:25
Captain Arrogant just like, you know, yelling at the cooks and
21:29
like, you know, shouting all this.
21:30
And I wasn't even like yelling at the cooks.
21:32
We just do callbacks. It's just like in a traditional
21:34
case where you just like fire to snapper and everyone calls it
21:37
back. But they expected like this
21:41
person to be up there just like talking to him the entire time.
21:46
So it's it's a give and take. But yeah, it's just not my
21:48
Forte. Well, and, and also, I mean, I'm
21:51
going to defend why I didn't go out to the dining room a lot.
21:53
A lot of times if I was in the restaurant, I'm working the
21:56
pass, I don't have time to like, no, if I leave for 5 minutes, I
22:00
have to take someone offline. Like, watch the line.
22:02
Really. Watch the pass watch Expo like.
22:04
It wasn't so easy. So I did a tour with Soho House
22:07
in Europe three years ago. They gave me Amsterdam,
22:10
Brighton, London and finishing in Paris and they told me Paris
22:13
is going to be 100 people. So for me it's going to be the
22:16
biggest dinner I've ever done. I have one day to prep for it,
22:20
right? We go through Amsterdam, kill
22:23
it, London, kill it, Brighton, kill it, get into Paris and we
22:29
get the prep done all day. We next day comes around, it's,
22:32
you know, game day. The hotels says, OK, we're going
22:35
to have a managers meeting. Everyone comes in the room like
22:37
we're going to do an English because we have an English guest
22:39
here today and they're going walking through the night.
22:42
And I said, at what point do I go out and do my opening speech?
22:46
And they looked at me and like, what speech?
22:49
I said, well, you know, I have a format.
22:51
Before every course I introduced, they said, chef,
22:54
you're doing restaurant takeover.
22:56
I said, what? I said, you're going to take
22:58
over the restaurant. You'll run our kitchen tonight.
23:00
We're taking our menu out and we're going to put your menu
23:02
down. Now, I've never worked in a real
23:04
kitchen. I came off of MasterChef.
23:07
I made two episodes of MasterChef and got a lemonade,
23:12
right? So I've never run a line.
23:14
I've never worked a line. So I'm sitting there in this
23:18
meeting having a full on fucking panic attack of like, oh, I'm
23:23
going to be exposed. What do I do?
23:25
Oh my God. And I just, I go to the
23:27
washroom. I look myself in the mirror and
23:29
I'm like, you're in it. This is fucking go time, right?
23:33
Take it till you make it. Get up there.
23:35
Now. Thankfully, the sous chef, they
23:37
gave me this guy from Hungary, Simon, Simon, if you're out
23:40
there, you're an Angel. He a couple times I got lost in
23:44
the weeds of the tickets and he would come and organize and just
23:48
and then just turn. Never, never boasting or putting
23:51
his, you know, just making me feel really comfortable.
23:54
And we end up doing 103 covers in three hours.
23:57
We only dosed up to 10 milligrams.
23:58
How many courses? 4 courses.
24:00
That's a lot. Yes, that's a lot 5 five chefs,
24:04
I'm at the line, 5 chefs behind me.
24:07
Y'all take it out? We chef right?
24:09
Like so halfway through the dinner, the GM and.
24:12
This is in Paris. This is in so no one speaks
24:13
English, no, right. And so halfway, halfway through
24:18
the dinner, the GM goes a table. Would like to see you, Chef.
24:22
Is it good? She's like, I don't know, OK,
24:26
sharing. I go out there and he's like,
24:29
you know, sorry if my French accent gets I hear, but you
24:33
know, I come to restaurant. I wanted my vodka penne.
24:36
I wanted this. They won't let me have that
24:39
menu. They show me your menu.
24:40
I go, what is this? I don't know what this is.
24:44
I I decide to get it. It's the best meal I've had in a
24:47
way. Like totally dressed me down and
24:50
then fucking throw me right back up, right?
24:53
But yeah, we ended up again, you know, one of the hesitations
24:56
worth culinary cannabis right now is, you know, the myth is it
25:00
can't be done in a restaurant, right?
25:02
But if anyone could do it, it's going to be chefs, right?
25:06
It's you just treat it. Every single person has an
25:09
allergy. That's how much attention you
25:11
have to put on the plates when you're adding the cannabis into
25:13
it. And.
25:14
By the way, that sounds. Horrifying that's that is.
25:18
I just got anxiety. Absolutely treat every plate
25:21
like it. I don't want it.
25:23
No, I think every chef just lose pass.
25:27
That's that's why I think when this finally does come, because
25:31
it's coming like this is not a fad.
25:33
This is this is a dining experience that people enjoy and
25:36
are going to want to come to. I think eventually you have your
25:40
executive chef, your executive pastry chef and your executive
25:43
cannabis chef. There's going to be one person
25:45
in the kitchen who is fully responsible top to bottom for
25:49
all this. You think that's?
25:50
Coming. Yeah, I do.
25:52
I think we're, you know, we're starting to see consumption
25:55
lounges opening up in Vegas in California.
25:59
You know, we've there's places in New York right now.
26:02
There's a place called cakes on Queens.
26:05
You can go in there and they've got a pastry chef making infused
26:09
edibles there. Is it fully legal?
26:12
I don't shut up Cakes. Hey, Cakes got so big.
26:17
They just opened a second location in Queens because they,
26:20
they got all the celebrities in New York going there, right?
26:23
Like you've got Miguel Trinidad of the 99 floor in New York,
26:27
right? This kind of a supper club's
26:28
been around for five or six years.
26:30
So it's it's, it's happening, right?
26:33
And you know, right now I am negotiating with the Soho House
26:37
to kind of join them exclusively.
26:39
So only do dinners for their members, right?
26:42
That that's kind of my next play to keep cooking while I do
26:45
education is I have no problem getting on a plane, flying to a
26:50
Soho House, and working in a real kitchen with rationales
26:53
instead of a Airbnb danky oven that may or may not have gas.
26:59
You, you mentioned Master Chef. Yeah, 222 episodes.
27:02
Yeah, How's that like? You know I do it.
27:05
Again. So how was that?
27:07
And then would you do it again? It was.
27:11
I went in so confident, so confident that I moved out of my
27:15
house because my lease was expiring.
27:17
So I saw I was going to be there for 10 weeks.
27:19
I'm going to win this thing. I get there again.
27:22
I'm a home cook. Yeah, right.
27:24
As soon as I get there, I'm like, what am I doing here?
27:28
I don't know what I'm doing, right?
27:30
I got in front of the judges. The first thing I, I fucked up
27:32
on was you needed three yeses. I did Mocaka with spot prawns.
27:36
You get 55 minutes to cook and then you 5 minutes in front of
27:39
the judges. And they said you have to do
27:41
something in front of the judges, you can't just put your
27:44
plate down. So I'm going to deshell my
27:45
prawns and then put them in the bowl and assemble the soup.
27:49
Now I'm doing the showman thing. It's reality TV, so I'm going to
27:53
talk and I'm going to wow these judges with my personality.
27:56
I'm going to charm them and I'm chatting away.
27:59
I'm building my MO keka. I take the one prawn spot.
28:02
Prawn. I leave the head on, take the
28:03
shell off, put it in the center so looks nice and beautiful.
28:06
It's still tentacle sticking up. I said, are you done, chef?
28:09
He said yeah, I'm not chef yet. Are you done?
28:12
Yes, I am. Are you sure?
28:13
Yes. Right.
28:14
First judge comes up. Knife, knife cuts are great on
28:17
here. Everything's the same size,
28:19
tastes delicious. Second judge comes up.
28:21
Perfectly seasoned citrus. Great 3rd judge Alvin Long, who
28:26
is the Gordon Ramsay of the Master Chef Canada.
28:30
They call him the demon Chef. And so he comes up and he's
28:33
like, this is delicious. I just wish there were more
28:35
prawns in here. I said chef, there's lots of
28:39
prawns in there. I don't know, I'm digging deep.
28:41
I can't find any. I look over to my left and I
28:44
left all the prawns on the cutting board except for the one
28:48
I put in the center and that that got me a no.
28:52
And so then I got put into an elimination round.
28:55
Yeah, we had to do some Maison plus and I cut people.
28:57
I got through that one. And then you had to cook with
28:59
that Maison Plus. So I made tacos and I did not
29:03
season my pico de Gallo because again, I'm a home cook.
29:06
And I thought. Where's the salt shake?
29:08
I thought. I thought putting salt was like,
29:10
salt's not good for you. So I never put salt on anything.
29:13
And so I bring these tacos in front of the judges and he's
29:15
like, did you season your pico de Gallo?
29:17
I said no, most confident. No, there's not a drop of salt.
29:22
So right, and I'm eliminated like right there.
29:27
You just I know like I'm going home.
29:29
He's like, they're kind of tailgate top those, aren't they?
29:31
I'm like, oh, that's not a good. And so I remember coming to go
29:34
back to my station and standing there for the last 90 minutes
29:38
while they go through each person and I just I was like,
29:40
I'm soaking this in right now. The big clocks above like I've
29:44
been watching this show on TV sure for years.
29:46
So it was a really cool experience.
29:49
I soaked it up. I wanted to go back the next
29:54
year, yeah. And would you do it now though?
29:56
No, no. No, I I got asked to do Next
29:59
Level Chef a couple years, a year and a half two years ago.
30:02
I like that show though. Yeah, but but my whole thing was
30:05
those shows give you the ability to do pop ups.
30:09
Yeah. Right.
30:10
Yeah, so, you know, and the one thing Fox said to me, it was
30:14
like, yeah, you can't talk about cannabis, right.
30:16
We're not going to say you're a cannabis chef.
30:17
We're going to say you're a traveling chef.
30:19
And I was like, well, I don't want to do it then.
30:21
Like for me, the, the, it would have been about publicizing
30:25
myself as a cannabis chef on a conservative station like Fox,
30:29
right. So, so it just didn't line up.
30:33
You know, I, I had my fun. I, I, I wouldn't go back.
30:37
I, I even every now and then people are like, oh, you should
30:39
do a cooking show. And I'm like, you know, I got
30:42
approached once we made a pilot and was supposed to be, you
30:45
know, I would go to an Italian restaurant.
30:48
We would be like, can we put cannabis in Italian food?
30:50
We would try and change their menu.
30:52
We have a problem. We fix the problem.
30:54
And then the guests would come in and eat the food and be like,
30:57
either yes or no to Italian. And then the next episode would
30:59
be Indian and then, right. But then what happens when you
31:02
run out of cuisines, right? Would you ever jump on Top Chef?
31:06
I've applied twice. I did it when I was like in my
31:10
mid 20s. I applied when I was like in my
31:12
mid 20s. But at this point, no.
31:15
No, I was. I was thinking like you'd be
31:16
great on it. Yeah, I think you would be great
31:19
on Top Chef. I've I think you need to do it.
31:22
Chef. I've never been like Top Chef
31:24
great at like quick fire stuff. Just like I mean, I'm good
31:30
thinking on my feet, but like I'm the type of chef I want like
31:33
time to like really conceptualize a dish and like
31:35
work on it and R&D it and like I'm way too self deprecating
31:39
that I'm going to put something in front of like whoever the
31:41
judge. I don't watch it that much
31:42
anymore. Like this is probably not a good
31:44
advertisement for me if I want to be.
31:46
On top of that, but. I'd probably be like, yeah, it's
31:49
not that good, but you know, enjoy anyway.
31:52
But no, I mean, I get a lot of people that say you should go on
31:55
it. I don't know.
31:56
Never say never, but I mean, I've worked with and for so many
32:01
people that have been on it and want it, that like I worked for
32:05
Michael Voltaggio who want it and he even turned to me.
32:08
He was just like, it's your time chef.
32:09
And I'm like, I'm good. That's that's your lane.
32:11
That's that's your thing. I saw an interview with, I think
32:15
it was Michael Voltaggio, where he was talking about how the
32:20
sustainability of a restaurant is good food, not my
32:23
personality. Yeah.
32:25
And he was saying how he thought after.
32:27
And I think, I think it was him. He thought that after Top Chef.
32:30
Everyone's going to just flock for that.
32:32
But it's like after a while, it's like that wears off.
32:34
Yeah. Restaurants got to be good.
32:36
Yeah. When I worked for him at Inc,
32:38
right after he won Top Chef, like right after he won, he
32:42
opened Inc. I joined the team like nine
32:45
months after he opened and like you could tell it was like that
32:48
Top Chef like business because of it.
32:52
They had just like had the folding cookbook.
32:54
I was out visiting my uncle. Actually, I think I was going to
32:57
Coachella. And my uncle was like, let's go
32:59
eat somewhere. I was like, I want to go eat a
33:00
ink. And that was the first time I
33:02
had eaten at a restaurant where I was eating the food.
33:04
And 1st off, it was delicious. But it was just like, how the
33:08
fuck did he do this? How did he do this?
33:10
And after that trip, I was like, I have to work here.
33:13
I sent my resume to the CDC everyday for like a month.
33:18
And then finally he was like, all right, come in STAJ, I'm
33:20
tired of you emailing me. And yeah, it, it, it was
33:25
definitely the type of restaurant where there was a lot
33:26
of hype around it. But like, the food was fucking
33:29
good. Like we were cooking really,
33:31
really. And doing like 200 covers a
33:34
night, like doing less than 200 covers was like a slow night for
33:37
us, I think. And it was like a fucking me
33:40
cry. 200 covers is a lot type of food.
33:43
Yeah, and like when I first got there, we were doing, it was
33:46
mostly a la carte, but we had a tasting menu too.
33:48
And you, it's not like pasta bar where it's like, all right, we
33:50
got 25 people coming in tonight and we know it's one menu.
33:55
Like you didn't know how many tasting menus you're gonna sell.
33:57
So it's like, shit, I gotta prep.
33:59
Like I remember I had to make crepes every day for the tasting
34:02
menu and I was like, oh, make 40 crepes.
34:05
I don't know. And then he'd sell like 5.
34:06
And then it's like, I'm not making 40 crepes.
34:08
You make like 10. You're like selling through
34:10
tasting menus like. Yeah.
34:13
You know, I had a chance to go to Pasta bar in December.
34:15
We've been connecting through social media and that and I
34:18
finally got to come and sit down.
34:19
I don't know I've ever told you this, but that 9 experience made
34:23
me change my format this year. You know, last year we were
34:26
doing seedings of 24 to 40 people, right?
34:29
And that's 150 plus plates from 4:00 to 5:00 courses, right?
34:33
And there's very little guest interaction.
34:37
The the dinner I had at Pasta Bar was one of my top ten dining
34:41
experiences in the last five years.
34:43
I came in by myself, was greeted right away at the door.
34:47
Just made. I was made to feel special.
34:49
Yeah. And I had a smile on my face
34:51
from front to end. I remember sitting there.
34:55
I don't know if you remember this but some tech bro brought
34:57
in one of his Blondie dates and they were sitting down and they
35:01
weren't enjoying it as much as I was and it was bothering me.
35:06
We get. We get those.
35:07
We get those guests fair amount. I don't know, just like every
35:10
time chef will come to like explain the dish.
35:12
I'm like listening every single word.
35:15
And then I could he'd go to do it to them and stand on this
35:18
phone like buddy, put your fucking phone down.
35:20
Chef's talking to you right now, you know.
35:22
I'll tell you what, that's also the reason why I don't like
35:25
touching tables, because there's nothing worse than going to the
35:28
table, OK? And then you sit there and you
35:31
explain everything. Can I get some water?
35:33
And it's like you weren't listening to anything I said.
35:35
You were just waiting. Till I'll go back to the chefs
35:37
because that pasta more like you saw every chef spiels the food
35:42
like the front of the house doesn't do it.
35:43
So I'll go back to the past and I'll just turn around and be
35:45
like hey, seat 5 short spiels like they don't do they're just
35:48
here to be seen. They're just here, they're using
35:50
their, you know, business card or whatever.
35:52
Yeah. I mean, you get that, you'll get
35:54
that, you'll get people, you'll get chefs that come in and
35:58
they're like, this is awesome, Yeah.
35:59
How do you recognize the chef? We tried to our diligence.
36:04
Do you ever? Do you say you're a chef?
36:07
No, never. I never say I'm a chef.
36:09
I remember we talked about this never I.
36:11
Remember. We talked about this.
36:12
Once yeah, I won't do it like I'm in I don't know, I feel like
36:15
it's a flex to it's like why, why do I care?
36:17
Yeah, unless I know them. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm going.
36:20
I'm like hey, I'm coming. Your rest.
36:21
Hey, I'm coming in. Cool.
36:22
I feel like that's. Respectful.
36:23
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, but to walk into another
36:26
restaurant, it's like, no, I don't, I don't want to unless
36:29
I'm going to come bring, you know, some, some beer to the
36:30
kitchen or yeah, a gift, right? Yeah.
36:32
Yeah. But I normally recognize just
36:34
like they start flipping over the plates, they start looking
36:36
at the silverware like they they make.
36:38
They obviously they ask like. Certain technical questions that
36:40
like a normal guest wouldn't ask.
36:42
It's like, and I've picked it up since I was like, you chef.
36:46
Yeah, like, yeah, I'm like, I can tell.
36:48
Like that's not a normal. Question.
36:49
It's it's much more enjoyable working with small groups, yeah,
36:53
as opposed to the big groups. But you know where we did 1
36:56
seating before, now we're doing 2 seatings a night.
36:59
So sometimes my second seating, my charisma is not matching
37:03
level 1 or the first seeding, you know, are sometimes I want
37:06
to get through it. So hey, I'm not even going to
37:08
say these jokes. I'm going to go quick through
37:11
the opening speech, right. So this year I've really been
37:14
kind of going through the quantity quality, you know, like
37:19
I think our quality hurt a little bit this summer by trying
37:22
to do all of these dinners. All right.
37:24
And I'm, I'm seeing little mistakes here and there that
37:28
have been made because it's like two dinners tonight, 2 dinners
37:31
tomorrow, 3 dinners the next day.
37:33
Like it's just the schedule I've made is just, it's, it's
37:36
retarded. Like it's, it's, I hurt myself
37:39
by making the schedule that I did, but I'm in it now and
37:43
there's no change in it, you know.
37:44
So, you know, I think there's something that we all have big
37:48
ambitions in that, but sometimes you need to tone yourself down,
37:53
right? Because you may not realize at
37:56
the time, but you could be hurting the experience by, you
38:00
know, trying to do too much. Yeah.
38:03
Yeah, yeah. I mean, chefs are the best at
38:06
that, right? Cut our nose to spite our face.
38:09
Yeah, yeah. I got this.
38:11
I'm just going to do it all. And then you're like, you're
38:12
like. Was it?
38:14
Was that the first cannabis dinner you attended?
38:16
That is yeah, yeah, yeah. How'd you find it?
38:18
I enjoyed it. It was a lot of fun.
38:21
I, I really appreciated that you made it a safe space.
38:25
And like he has this spiel where he's like, there's a couple
38:29
things are like I won't tolerate, but I the peer
38:31
pressure, the peer pressure 1 was something I really
38:33
appreciated where he's just like, if someone's like, like if
38:37
someone even goes there and just like, I don't even want meat.
38:39
Like no, like, oh, come on. Like I appreciated that because
38:45
there's, I think there was a couple people at the dinner that
38:48
are like, I've never even like had cannabis.
38:50
I've never even smoked. And so it's like it can be
38:53
really, really anxiety ridden and especially people give like
38:56
we eat a big stigma of just like, I'm just going to get this
38:59
crazy anxiety and it's going to freak me out.
39:01
So I really appreciate it made it a safe space.
39:04
But then, yeah, just going at the dose that everyone wanted,
39:08
but then just making it a fun experience along the way and
39:09
having stories with it and I think.
39:12
Did you eat food after the dinner?
39:14
No, I would no. My wife came and picked me up
39:17
and I was just like laughing the whole time home and I was just
39:20
like, that was fun. Does it matter?
39:24
Do you use indica or sativa for food or does it not?
39:27
Matter So indica and sativa are false terms created by the
39:31
industry to help sell cannabis to new consumers.
39:34
The chances of you finding a true 100% sativa or 100% indica
39:39
are so rare nowadays. You got to go into the Ogs up in
39:43
California who've been grown for 30 years that kept those seeds
39:46
because everything has been crossbred and hybrid.
39:48
So it's more in depth. It's the terpenes, right?
39:51
The. Terpenes are when I remember I
39:53
was talking about this last right?
39:54
Yes, so it's the terpenes in the.
39:56
So I'll work with two strains, right.
39:58
Let's just say you're Indica and you're sativa, but I would never
40:01
classified that. I'm going to look at.
40:03
What are the terpenes in this first strain?
40:05
I need limening, pining, Cara, caraveline.
40:08
Those three are all uplifting, energetic, rejuvenating.
40:12
And then you've got like little wall and Mercin, which are your
40:16
sedative knock you out. So I'm the first question is the
40:21
strand I'm working with, you know, what is the THC
40:23
percentage? I need to know what that is so I
40:25
can do the math and figure out what the dosage is on that.
40:29
But it's what are the terpenes in the strain and how can I pair
40:32
that with the terpenes in course 1 and course 2, right.
40:35
And by course three, I'm going to switch into this sedative
40:38
strain. Now it's going to really put you
40:41
in the couch lock and that. And how do I pair those?
40:44
You know, if you eat a mango 30 minutes before smoking your
40:47
first joint, the mango will increase the effects, the
40:49
caminioids, you'll get a little more stoned from it.
40:52
So I can actually utilize my actual ingredients to help
40:56
create that effect that you're feeling, right?
40:59
So that's really what we're trying to teach.
41:03
And a lot of times the guests that come into my dinner, they
41:05
don't know these terms. They know indica and sativa.
41:08
That's only trying. Yeah.
41:10
And by the time they walk out the dinner now, they've learned
41:12
there's something called terpenes.
41:14
And yeah, you know, there the words are intimidating, but you
41:17
know, we the easiest one to remember Limonine.
41:19
Limes, right? Limonine, we find it in citrus
41:22
rinds and that's energetic. It's got that boosting to it.
41:25
So, you know, terpenes, A terpene by itself will not do
41:31
anything to you. It's just flavor and aroma.
41:34
There's over 100 terpenes in cannabis that we know of now.
41:38
And terpenes, I always thought chefs were going to get really
41:41
excited for because it's new flavors, it's new smells.
41:45
Terpenes are unregulated, so anyone can go out and buy
41:47
terpenes right now. And last year I got to go to
41:50
Alinea. I was in Chicago and you know,
41:55
that restaurant obviously researching who comes in.
41:57
So right away they're like, oh, you're the canvas chef.
41:59
I was like, oh, OK, you guys got, well, we just want to know.
42:01
There is terpenes in one of our courses.
42:04
I was like, really? I'm like, don't tell me which
42:06
course it is. I want to see if I can pick it
42:08
out and he did some sort of fish dish with like this coconut
42:11
broth. Not did they do that just for
42:13
you or that's part of what they do?
42:14
I think it was no, it was part of their menu from what the
42:17
server told me, because I in my head, I was like, man, when
42:20
chefs discover terpenes, like let's just remove the cannabis
42:24
and getting high power, but just terpenes by themselves.
42:27
It's a new tool to manipulate and create flavors and and
42:31
aromas and that right. So for to see one of the best
42:34
chefs in the world has already kind of honed in on those and is
42:38
using them in a menu is really cool.
42:41
Now when a turbine is combined with a cannabidioid, it's called
42:44
an entourage effect. And that's where we get those
42:47
specific reactions like the munchies or tiredness or energy,
42:51
right? So you know there's a whole new
42:54
industry that's going to come out there for private chefs with
42:57
sports medicine, right? You can create dishes and
43:02
recipes for athletes that will focus on body rejuvenation, help
43:05
them with sleep. You've been on a East Coast road
43:07
trip for 10 days now you're back in LA on Pacific Time.
43:10
That's a three hour time swing. Well, here's a ginger turmeric
43:13
hummus. You can have two hours before
43:15
bed high in carryofeling. We've used CBD, there's a little
43:19
bit of THC in there. So again, you're eating healthy,
43:22
you're focusing on superfoods, right?
43:25
And you're using the plant over pills to help with recovery in
43:29
that. That's wild.
43:30
You know, Major League Baseball, NCAA, NBA all allow cannabis
43:35
use, right? These leagues are allowing their
43:39
athletes to use it. And I think there's some chefs
43:43
gonna, some chefs gonna take this to run with it.
43:46
Yeah, hopefully whoever's listening.
43:48
Like, don't forget where you heard it, yeah.
43:51
Let me don't forget. So I was thinking about this.
43:55
I, I went to dinner the other day with like a group of chefs.
43:58
We're having drinks and it's getting rowdy.
44:00
And as it always does, as it, as it always does, right.
44:04
And we got on the subject of only because we were talking
44:06
about this a little bit earlier is like, when do you take care
44:11
of the chef that comes into the restaurant?
44:13
It's like, do, do they pay for everything?
44:15
Do you comp them? Do you comp them a little bit?
44:18
Do you comp the whole thing? Like, I mean, if if they're your
44:22
friend and you don't like where, where, where do you all fall in
44:25
that? You know what's funny?
44:27
Because I just went to a friend's restaurant with my wife
44:30
before leaving on the second part of the tour.
44:33
And we're like, it's time to order in the menu.
44:36
And I just said to my wife, I'm like, let's just pick a couple
44:39
of things because I there's a chance he's just going to start
44:42
killing us with food, right? And he did, right?
44:46
And I, I'm glad I went there because I would have picked a
44:49
lot of stuff on the menu and he still would have sent more food
44:51
out. And there's I hate when I'm
44:53
full, I will keep eating because I don't want the chef to be like
44:57
I, I'll if someone doesn't finish a plate, I'm in my head
45:01
already. Why?
45:02
Right, right. 100%. Right.
45:04
What was wrong with it? Right.
45:05
I always tell people like, look, don't be offended.
45:08
I, I don't eat as much as people think.
45:10
So if there's food on the plate, it's it's nothing more than I'm
45:12
not a huge eater. So if you're going to send me
45:14
stuff, keep that in mind. I'm right away like, Hey, make
45:17
sure you get some take off boxes for me because I'm going to take
45:19
all this home. I'm going to eat it.
45:20
I just I like to try everything. I haven't bite of this, this and
45:25
this right but. But if you're in a restaurant
45:27
and the chef sends you stuff out that you didn't order, should
45:31
you pay for it? Like should the chef take care
45:33
of that or should you pay for? It if they sent if they.
45:34
Sent it out to yes. If you didn't ask for it.
45:36
Then right. Yeah.
45:37
No, I've, I've worked in a restaurant group where they were
45:42
like, there's no discounts. We don't discount anybody or
45:45
any, you know, anything, any scenario, but they would just
45:49
kill people with like, we're just gonna send them out.
45:51
Like they'd tell the server, like tell them to order like two
45:54
things and then they'd send them out like the whole menu.
45:57
I I've also, I mean like right now, like we do like industry
46:01
discounts and stuff like that. It just depends on the person.
46:03
Like we do supplemental, like we do like truffles and caviar and
46:06
sometimes and just like just go to like, hey, you want some
46:08
truffles and caviar and I'll just give it to you.
46:10
It just depends on the restaurant.
46:12
It depends on the person. Yeah, but I think it's always.
46:14
Important. I try to go the extra mile.
46:16
If I find there's a chef coming in or someone's like, oh, I'm a
46:20
chef, then they're going to get a little more attention for me,
46:23
probably because I'm trying to inspire chefs right now to take
46:27
my course and, and do this, right.
46:29
So, you know, everyone is really curious about culinary cannabis,
46:35
whether you're a guest or a chef, right?
46:37
And the chefs are going to have different questions, right?
46:40
And so again, I think I've achieved all the goals that I
46:45
set and then some, right? I got to cook in Paris, which I
46:48
don't think I really had the right to do it.
46:51
It's the highlight of my career. It was amazing, you know.
46:55
But I want to be remembered as the guy who opened the door for
46:59
this next generation. Yeah, right here.
47:01
Let's get this next generation in restaurants where you can go
47:05
in order. That's that's what I want to be
47:06
part of now. Yeah, I, I, I, I commend you for
47:09
that 'cause I think what you're doing is important work.
47:11
If I had to like, establish a rule book, this is just my
47:14
rules. People are gonna, they could
47:16
argue in the comments. Argue amongst yourselves.
47:18
I'm not responding, but I've had a different approach for a
47:22
different restaurant. If I'm in a place where if
47:24
money's no object, I'll comp your dinner.
47:26
Yeah, exactly. I'll comp your dinner.
47:27
If I'm in a place where every dollar counts, if I send it and
47:31
you didn't order it. I'm buying, it's on me.
47:33
Yeah, right. But if I'm comping your dinner,
47:37
better fucking tip on what the whole amount would have been 100
47:40
to the server. Oh, yeah, right.
47:42
Yeah. I think that like there's,
47:43
there's some some. There's definitely some rules,
47:45
like there's. I mean, if, if my bill has been
47:48
comped, I'm tipping more than 20% of what that Oh yes, right.
47:52
I want like. Right.
47:54
But you shouldn't expect, you shouldn't expect to go in and
47:58
get comped. No, no, no.
48:00
Because if you do, it's probably not gonna happen, right?
48:02
It's when you're not expecting it.
48:03
And then, but that makes the experience that much more
48:06
special. Yeah, I wasn't expecting.
48:08
That, but I won't say where, but I've been to places where
48:11
they've sent me out. Like don't order Chef.
48:14
Like we're gonna save some stuff and then I get the bill and it's
48:16
like 1000 bucks. I'm like, fuck, you know?
48:20
So here's here's a here's a funny story about.
48:23
Here's a funny stuff. It really has happened.
48:26
Here's a good story about Bill's is after that Paris dinner, my
48:30
wife booked us a dinner at Gordon Ramsay's restaurant
48:32
Versailles. Now I've done his restaurants in
48:34
Vegas and was not overly impressed so I didn't even
48:38
bother to look at the menu or where we were going.
48:41
All I knew is that mine. Is like a two star restaurant
48:43
right? So all I know is that my wife is
48:45
excited for a dinner, right, which is usually me and I'm
48:49
like, I'm going to go in blind. I don't want to know nothing
48:52
about the menu. It was every person had your own
48:55
server. It was incredible.
48:57
The meal was amazing. But we go in, we sit down in the
49:00
cocktail lounge first to have a drink and I end up ordering a
49:03
glass of wine that was 40 year old, right?
49:05
So it's fairly expensive, but we're we're celebrating and this
49:08
wine is delicious. It is worth every girl, right?
49:13
And I look at my wife and I say, what if we order a bottle of
49:16
this? Like this is this special
49:18
dinner, right? It's going to be really
49:20
expensive and she's on board. Let's do it, right.
49:22
So we sit down, table server comes back.
49:24
There's her. I'm like this glass of wine.
49:26
It was 40 year old. I'd like to get the bottle.
49:29
OK, yeah, comes, brings the bottle back.
49:32
We're saying, oh, this wine is delicious.
49:33
We're drinking it. Anyways, the bill comes out at
49:35
the end and I'm like, what? He, he misunderstood me.
49:40
He went and got me a bottle of wine that only cost 40 year old
49:45
and my wife and I thought we were drinking this fancy fucking
49:50
top shelf wine. And like just goes to show like
49:53
amazing. Just goes to show.
49:55
Like if you don't know anything about wine, yeah, stick to the
49:59
cheap bottles because you think you're drinking stuff.
50:02
Nice possible of. Her Yeah, yeah, yeah.
50:04
Yeah, but then the bill was half the price I thought it was going
50:07
to be, and I walked out that restaurant being like, what an
50:10
amazing experience. That's wild.
50:14
Yeah, it's funny. Sometimes I meet some Psalms and
50:17
I used, I used to have this Psalm.
50:18
He's a great Psalm. Shout out to Hunter Hammett.
50:20
I don't remember where he I think he worked at under Tracy
50:24
Desjardins. And now I think he's working for
50:27
Thomas Keller, I think, assuming he's still there.
50:30
But he's like one of the best Psalms I've ever worked with.
50:33
And I used to fuck with him because he was so passionate.
50:36
He would bring me pours of wine in the kitchen.
50:38
Like, chef, you want to try this is a, you know, whatever,
50:40
whatever. I would get like a sugar packet,
50:42
open it. Up.
50:44
I'm like, I think it needs more. It needs more grapes.
50:50
He hated me, but I'm not a big wine drinker.
50:52
So I I hated the fact that he always brought me wine to try
50:54
when I was like, dude, I don't really.
50:55
Yeah, wine. I like liquor.
50:57
Yeah, I don't, I don't drink wine, but yeah, it's crazy.
51:00
Anyway, Long story short, Back to that is like so many times he
51:04
would tell me all this shit about wine like do you taste the
51:06
oak? Do you taste?
51:07
I was like, I don't taste anything brother, I taste
51:09
fermented grapes. We we have that in the cannabis.
51:12
There's cannabis salbs, right? And they'll be like the terpenes
51:15
and the tricom. And we cooked it.
51:17
We grew it in this soil. And like, I just went on a taste
51:20
the tiger. It was funny because I just went
51:23
on a cannabis podcast in California, this one, and it's
51:26
called good Pizza podcast. Shout out to JP.
51:29
This is for growers. You know how you said to me,
51:31
this broadcast is for chefs? If you're not a chef, it's not
51:34
getting interested. That's this one.
51:35
So in the part, we're smoking joints on this podcast, right?
51:38
And I keep ashing this joint and he goes, brother, can you do me
51:41
a favor? Can you stop ashing the joint?
51:43
And I was like, what? He goes, yeah, He's like, don't
51:46
do that. He's like, every time you ash
51:47
it, you're going to dispense the heat.
51:50
So all of a sudden he was, I've been smoking weed for 20 years.
51:53
I never heard this, but he's like, OK, take 30 seconds
51:56
between poles so you'll get more terpenes.
51:59
Let the weed cool down a bit before you take that nuts
52:01
sucking. And if you leave the ash on and
52:04
let it naturally fall, it burns smoother and you get more
52:08
terpenes out of every pole. And so like for one, I when this
52:12
podcast airs, I know I'm going to get ripped in the comments by
52:15
all the gore. Like look at this idiot.
52:17
He didn't know not to ask the joint, right?
52:20
But you know these when someone is passionate about something,
52:25
you can really listen to them talk about their passion, right?
52:29
Like this. I to me, Hey, I'm going to ask
52:31
my joints still. But it was, it was a humbling
52:35
experience. And it was just kind of cool to
52:36
see someone who's put that much love into rolling joints and
52:40
smoking them that, hey, there's a correct way to do it.
52:43
Yeah. There's a correct.
52:45
I mean, it's like cigars. You don't ash or cigars.
52:47
Yeah, it's a sign of a good cigar.
52:49
The longer the ash support, apparently.
52:51
I mean, I'm a big cigar smoker, so.
52:54
But it's funny because I'll smoke my cigars on Sunday and do
52:57
my Q and As. And I'm like, for people that
53:01
are listening, like I'm doing my Q&A, if you've ever, if you've
53:03
ever watched them, like I'll just sit there.
53:05
I'll post the, the question box like 2 hours before I smoke my
53:08
cigar. The questions will come in and
53:10
I'll like, OK, I'm just getting to the 1st 10 or whatever.
53:13
But yeah, I, that's my, that's my time to unwind.
53:16
And I share with the, I share with the chef's PSA audience.
53:19
I'm getting close to wrapping up, so I want to ask some, some
53:24
technical culinary questions. I've been asking a lot of people
53:26
lately. So I'm going to ask one question
53:28
then I'd love to hear both your answers in your kitchen and I, I
53:34
should know, I just had Phil Franklin Lee on.
53:36
So some of the pictures I may I may already know, but what is?
53:40
What is your all-purpose workhorse salt?
53:42
Workhorse salt. Yeah.
53:43
Diamond Crystal. Diamond Crystal, Yeah, what
53:45
about you? Yeah, Diamond.
53:47
What about your, what about your finishing acid?
53:49
Do you have like, is it, is it lemon?
53:51
Is it lime? Is it vinegar?
53:52
Is it? I mean general?
53:54
I mean, I'm sure specific dishes have.
53:56
Yeah, for sure. Like vinegars and.
53:57
Yeah, I depend more on the dish, but I would say lime probably
54:01
more than than anything else. Yeah, Yeah.
54:03
What about you guys? I would probably lean towards
54:06
lime as well but like there's always lemon and lime on like
54:09
almost every station. Do you keep like little like
54:12
little bottles of like vinegars too to finish?
54:14
We have vinegars on almost every station, so you.
54:18
Champagne vinegar or Sherry vinegar?
54:20
Honestly, right now we have vinegars that we're like not,
54:24
we're not like making our own vinegars.
54:25
We're like steeping, like chili vinegars and stuff like that.
54:27
So more often than not, it's just like vinegars that we've
54:29
been like steeping and infusing for a long time.
54:32
Yeah, we're right now we're using like an Espilat chili
54:34
vinegar that we made several months ago.
54:38
So I usually just have like flavored vinegars.
54:41
What about you? Do you do?
54:42
Do you do any flavored vinegars with your things?
54:44
No, but one thing that I do is infused mold and salt.
54:49
So I can I can infuse salt and sugars and spices with either
54:53
terpenes or with cannabinioids. Yeah, we talked about that last.
54:56
Yeah. So, so you know, last night I
55:00
did a hand roll of scallop and foie gua, torch the foie gua and
55:04
then afterwards put on that cannabis mold and salt before
55:07
sending it out. Now that salt is the most
55:09
fragile form of extraction, any heat will destroy it.
55:13
So it's not like I could go and infuse my coarse salt and then
55:16
throw that and season my soup and expect you to get high off.
55:19
Could you could? You just explain the process of
55:21
that really quick. Yeah, listening could do it.
55:22
Absolutely. So you're going to make an
55:24
alcohol tick. So let's say we have an ounce of
55:25
flour, right? That ounce of flour, 22% THC
55:29
will have 6400 milligrams in it, right?
55:32
So you would first decarb your flour either preferably in a
55:36
sous video, but if you have to do it in your oven, do it in
55:39
your oven, 200 Fahrenheit for 35 minutes.
55:43
You then take. What's the What's the reason
55:48
behind decarbonization? In the cannabis plant you have a
55:51
molecule called THCATHCA does not have any psychoactive
55:55
properties to it. When you add heat to THCA, it
55:59
converts into THC. That's why so here in Texas,
56:02
they sell THC. Yeah, they sell THC in Texas.
56:04
Yeah, this is so it doesn't have it.
56:05
It's from hemp. It's it's a loophole to get
56:09
around. You know, it's not the same, but
56:12
it's the same, yeah. I was about to say I've.
56:14
It's the same so but then you're going to add it to your alcohol.
56:20
So you're going to make an alcohol tincture.
56:23
Fuck. Why am I forgetting the name of
56:24
this? I think Everclear or something.
56:27
Yes, every clear. Thank you.
56:28
So so Everclear is what you want to use because the flavor, you
56:30
know, you don't really want to pull vodka or rum or whatever.
56:32
So you would you add your cannabis flour decarved into
56:36
that Everclear. You would leave it for seven to
56:39
10 days everyday, give it a vigorous shake.
56:42
OK, then you're going to strain it.
56:44
Get rid of the cannabis flour. You've now infused that alcohol
56:49
with your 6400 milligrams. I would then take a dehydrator,
56:53
a bed of salt and pull my mold and salt on a sheet tray and
56:56
then pour all that alcohol into the sheet tray, soaking the
56:59
salt. Put that tray into the
57:01
dehydrator for 8 hours and evaporate all the Everclear way
57:05
and transition the cannabinoids into your salt.
57:09
People listening. There you go, there you go.
57:12
Is your kitchen a yes chef kitchen or is it a herd?
57:16
Oh, it is 100% yeah, chef kitchen.
57:18
I I talked about this on shout out to lady line cook on
57:23
Instagram. She's she's awesome, but she
57:27
posted like things that things you hate hearing in kitchens and
57:31
restaurants, And I commented, I hate heard.
57:34
It's more that I just I worked for a chef that legitimately
57:38
would yell at us for saying like, if you're just like her
57:41
chef. And he said, what the fuck did
57:42
you just say to me? It's like shit.
57:44
And you just like you say yes chef or and he was also a very
57:47
yes chef cuz if you said we chef in that kitchen, he's like,
57:50
we're not French. We're American.
57:51
And I'm like, all right, grow up guy.
57:54
But no, I was just trained that like when I hear people say
57:57
heard, I'm just like. I'm the same way.
58:00
Yeah, I'm. I'm a chef or yeah, chef.
58:02
And actually it's not even Yeah, chef.
58:03
It's just chef. Yeah, a chef became the
58:04
all-purpose. Yes.
58:05
No. Yeah, exactly.
58:07
Chef. Yeah, See, I didn't.
58:08
I don't. Require it because we're such a
58:10
small team. But then in the last six weeks
58:13
with our two young chefs, Chef Jay and I were like, you know,
58:17
these chefs are about to go to another kitchen, go work for
58:20
another chef, and they're gonna represent us, right.
58:24
And so I said to them in the last six weeks, I'm like,
58:26
listen, we're going to start being a little harder on some
58:28
things. Yeah, because we want to make
58:29
sure we transition you off to your next step in life here.
58:33
And and we've given you good habits.
58:35
So I'm like, we're going to start saying like, yeah, chef
58:38
and I want to hear heard if I've told you to do something.
58:41
And I fucking wish I never said that because all they they kind
58:44
of took us every time I would say something to heard heard.
58:47
And I find it was like you guys say heard one more fucking time.
58:49
Like, yeah, I hate. Like I'm trying to actually do
58:53
something to like, shape you and you guys are making a joke out
58:55
of this now. I like.
58:57
No, someone like in the comments comment about they're like, oh,
58:59
I'm trying to get at me. I'm like, I like I'm not going
59:03
to turn to people and be like, don't fucking say that like the
59:05
chef did to me. It's just like for me, I just.
59:07
In my kitchen, my rules. Yeah, exactly.
59:09
Say what you want in your kitchen, yeah?
59:11
Right. I don't give a shit what you do.
59:12
Yeah, I can. I'm not losing.
59:14
We don't say heard. I'm not losing sleep.
59:15
Were you saying heard in your kitchen?
59:17
Yeah, exactly that way. Yeah.
59:18
Chefs, where can people find you?
59:23
Well, after this week not on the road, you're gonna find me in
59:27
Miami for the last four months of the year.
59:30
I'm gonna be there doing infused omakasi every other weekend, and
59:34
then I am gonna take this Culinary Cannabis Summit to New
59:37
York October 7th. We take it to Seattle November
59:42
16th and then the largest cannabis conference in America
59:45
is in Las Vegas, December 5th and 6th.
59:47
MJ Biscon, we've partnered up with them and we're we're going
59:51
to be hosting the summit there. So already from posting on my
59:55
social media, people have been reaching out, hey, you're gonna
59:57
come to Ohio, you're gonna bring it here.
59:59
So I'm hoping that we are getting enough people enrolling
1:00:02
and this will be my focus next year Is is helping this next
1:00:06
generation. And your Instagram handle.
1:00:08
The under score. Nomad Cook.
1:00:10
Jeff, where can people fall? Cocinetto under score DK don't
1:00:15
really post that much on social media anymore, but five days a
1:00:18
week at possible. Awesome, this was fun.
1:00:20
We'll do it again. And you can also find us on
1:00:22
Sundays watching the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles
1:00:26
kick some ass. This go birds awesome.
1:00:31
Well, I hope you enjoyed the show, you know what to do and
1:00:33
make sure you leave five stars if you're listening on Spotify
1:00:35
or anywhere really. If you're watching on YouTube,
1:00:37
hit the like and subscribe button.
1:00:38
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1:00:47
Just peruse, look around, maybe you see something nice that you
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1:00:52
Go to chefspsa.com. You get books obviously the
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