Latest / Chef's PSA Podcast / Chef Harold Villarosa: Filipino Cuisine, High-Efficiency Kitchens, and Culinary Insights | Chef's PSA Podcast Ep. 128

Transcript

Chef Harold Villarosa: Filipino Cuisine, High-Efficiency Kitchens, and Culinary Insights | Chef's PSA Podcast Ep. 128 · Chef's PSA Podcast

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Hello chefs, this is Chef's PSA podcast.
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I'm your host Andre Natera. On today's episode, we have
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Harold Villarosa. Harold's a legendary chef based
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out of Austin, TX from New York. He's working some incredible
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restaurants including Per SE and Noma right now.
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He just recently opened OCO in Austin, TX.
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I tried it. I think the food is phenomenal.
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In this episode we get to talk about Filipino cuisine, working
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in some of the best restaurants in the world, what some of his
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standards are in the kitchen, and advice that you would give
0:27
to any chef that wants to step into the high end world of
0:29
cooking. Don't miss this one.
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Congratulations man. I appreciate it.
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Thank you so much. Yeah.
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So, so for people that don't know, you just opened up OCO.
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That's right in Austin, TX. Tell, tell for people that are
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listening, tell them about it. Oco is, is our take on Filipino
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food with a Texas prism. Yeah.
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So we're using a lot of Texas products, but we're flavoring
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and with some of the food and no flavor profiles.
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Yeah. And it's it's right here on
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downtown EE 6 on the east side. Used to be asking then it's
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right on the corner. So beautiful space and we're
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super excited for it. Has been a great feedback so
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far. How do you, when you're doing
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the R&D process because obviously you, you have this
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classical training, I don't want to say classical, but you know,
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you, you haven't necessarily done this type of restaurant
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before now in Austin, even though we had a couple of
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Filipino restaurants, we haven't had anything on this scale.
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So how do you bring your technique and your training the
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Filipino cuisine? I mean, I think it really just
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comes down to you knowing who you are.
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I think that's where that's where it just comes down to.
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The voice that we're speaking through right now is an
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experience between Paul and I, Paul Keys, one of the principal
2:26
owners of the restaurant. And so I think, you know, being
2:29
able to been working with Filipino pro food profiles for
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the last six years and kind of diving into my own Filipino
2:36
American upbringing and kind of bringing to that the forefront,
2:41
you know, the techniques that I've learned and then really
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understanding what works with Filipino food and kind of what
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people really like to eat with Filipino food.
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That's really it. And then also a lot of failure.
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The R&D part is super hard. You know, it's a lot of trial
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and error. A lot of stuff gets burnt, a lot
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of stuff gets too sour, too sweet.
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You know, you got to find this medium always.
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But then also, sometimes it just doesn't work, you know, like
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some food that we really wanted to do didn't make the cut
3:12
because it was too, it was too Filipino in that sense, you know
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what I mean? Yeah, What?
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What do you mean by that? Too Filipino?
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Like for people that don't understand, what are some of the
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predominant flavors in the Philippines that would be
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shocking to the kind of the Austin palate?
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Yeah, That would have to stick with the funk.
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What the fuck? The most Southeast Asia, rest
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Southeast Asia cultures have this funk.
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Yeah, right. It's mainly fermented fish.
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And we have a dish that has it. It's called Buglong.
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In my country. But Paul and I decided that the
3:41
Baguan need to taste like something that we can eat.
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You know, we couldn't be too strong.
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It makes the dishes kind of you need to have that palate already
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to be able to understand why we use that funk that way.
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So we decided to create our own funk in a sense.
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So we have, you know, some dehydrated squid, baby baby baby
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squid, baby shrimp, some anato seed, our GSG, which is our base
4:11
garlic, ginger, shallots, and then a lot over not the oil that
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not the oil is made out of chicken fat.
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And so we have a lot of these like nuances and they kind of
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didn't damper it, but it increased the flavor of what
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we're looking for when you create a dish like that or a
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condom in like that. And it's been super popular with
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the Filipinos coming in. I mean, do you want to take some
4:31
home, analyze it? You want to do they're like, why
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does it taste like this? And it's been very interesting
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to see the Filipinos grab onto it and want more of it because
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you can literally eat it now. It's like, it's like one of
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those things where before the belong that comes in a, in a
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glass can, a glass container or the fermented differently.
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It's too salty, too sour or any of that sort.
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This condiment that we make is fresh.
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So it's, it's, it's, you can have the umami flavor profiles
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in it and we still have the texture you're looking for and
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that dish and then the saltiness that you need.
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Just dab a little bit here and there, it makes the dishes go
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well. So for people that don't know,
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if you were going to have a traditional Filipino meal,
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Filipino meal at home, what does that look like?
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Like what's on the table? You invite friends, families
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over what's being served, so. Rice, rice always.
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And then also just depends on the weather where you at.
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If you're in California, you're definitely going to hit you with
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lumpy up and sit some broth like a synagogue, which is like a
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sour broth with salmon head and shrimp.
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And then they'll hit you with the big pork belly or lecho and
5:41
koala situation. And then the dessert is another
5:44
section. You know what I'm saying?
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Like for four people that would be the meal.
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So it'll be like we'll be a pancit synagon pork belly dish
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and like maybe a big ass bowl of big, big bowl of rice.
6:00
Yeah, I'll talk about maybe a quarts worth, yeah.
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I mean, I ate, I ate at the restaurant last week and I, I
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thought everything was great and I, and I feel like a lot of what
6:10
you just talked about I saw on my table.
6:12
That's right. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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We want to have the, we want to have the same, the same
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algorithm that that people recognize.
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But sometimes, you know, we want to make it with smaller portions
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or we want to we want to UMP the sourness a little bit or up the
6:27
sweetness a little bit and add a little spice, because I feel
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like a little bit of food has doesn't have that layer of ice
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to it. You know, it's very sweet, very
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sour and very umami filled with with soy and and mushroom
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powder. You know, those are the things
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that we use all the time. So Paul and I decide to add a
6:45
little bit of Thai chilies or habanero into the mix and then
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they care created a new, I guess a new look of the food.
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Yeah. Well, I mean, I guess that kind
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of makes sense for this market, right?
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People are people do lean a little bit spicy in Texas
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especially. Do you see Filipino cuisine kind
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of making an emergence right now?
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Do you see other chefs that that you're looking at as well say,
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OK, there's there's, there's more people that are interested
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in bringing this flavor? Out.
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I mean, for for the past 20 years, Filipinos in the kitchen,
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I've always been either lime cooks or number twos, never been
7:20
in the front, you know what I mean?
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And I feel like we're having this moment now where Filipinos
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are being able to speak their voice and be able to express
7:30
themselves through the culture and be able to say, this is what
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I stand on now instead of like standing on French food or
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standing on Italian food or standing on Japanese food, you
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know what I mean? And I think we're finding our
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way now to, to express ourselves.
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And Filipino chefs are super talented.
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You know, like I've met so many Filipino chefs that work for,
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you know, TKRG and Danielle's and New York and all this stuff
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and never had an opportunity to really like cook our food, you
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know. So with the emergence of, you
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know, Kasama being a missus star now in Chicago and those guys
8:04
coming out of Greg Atkins Kitchen and you know, like
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Francis Ang and Abaco in San Francisco, you know, Moussang in
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Seattle with with Mel and you know, Kaya in Orlando with my my
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friend Lordafer and Paulo at Haraya and DC.
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And then in New York, there's this, you know, a plethora of
8:25
restaurants now Calle to nax to all types of restaurants that
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opening up. So I think we're having this
8:31
moment that any Filipino restaurant can either go tutto,
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Tutto, which was just like a place with heat lamps and like
8:40
you just scooping and go into a container that's also good, or
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you can go right into mid levels.
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Where we're at? Where it's like a little bit of,
8:50
you know, fine dining aspects to it, but you can still feel like
8:53
it's casual or you can go super fine down and like custom and
8:56
get a much less start. And also there's this like
8:59
window that we can fit now, and I think we can do all three
9:03
whichever way we want to do it, you know what I mean?
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Yeah, because open up a restaurant is really fresh on
9:08
your mind right now. You know when you open about
9:10
two. Weeks ago.
9:11
Two weeks ago. I don't know.
9:13
Today is October 8th that we're recording.
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One of the things that we talked about in this podcast a lot is
9:20
hopefully that people could learn something in takeaways so
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they could not make the same mistakes that we've made.
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So what are some of the things that people should look out for
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when they're opening up a restaurant?
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Like we we always think about writing a menu and we always
9:33
think about making sure the food tastes good, but what are some
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of the other things that people don't think about?
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Man, after, at the end of the day that comes down the capital,
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you know, and the capital part is the most important part.
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Anytime you think that you're going to spend this much,
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multiply that by 30%, you know what I'm saying?
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It's not always what it is. This you excavating the bottom
9:53
part of the building and you find some Mesopotamian rock that
9:58
the, the, the museum has to come in and excavate.
10:01
Like stuff like that happens all the time.
10:03
You know what I mean? Like the pipe burst, like what
10:06
are you going to do with that? Like the, the, the oven doesn't
10:09
fit and the space that you allotted for it, it doesn't
10:12
match with the, the hood system. Like, you know, like any of
10:16
these things happen all the time and I think some restaurant
10:20
owners and some and some people that's going into the restaurant
10:23
business don't want to open a restaurant, think that it's cut
10:26
and dry like other businesses. There's so much nuances that go
10:30
into it that you have to be aware of.
10:32
And I think giving yourself a runway to protect yourself
10:36
capital wise, it's the smartest thing to do, you know what I
10:39
mean? And like being able to have that
10:42
cushion will give you the right to be able to be more creative,
10:46
but also open would open the restaurant and not give the
10:50
staff owners all the way to the dishwasher any of that stress
10:55
and all it's it's it's I've opened nine restaurants in my
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career now. This one was top four in a sense
11:02
of like not hurting as much, you know what I'm saying?
11:06
But I've been to some openings where, you know, the the
11:11
construction, the GCS, the middle service is, is drilling
11:15
something on the wall. You know what I mean?
11:16
Like or there there something broke in the back and collapsed
11:21
the whole shelving unit or some crazy thing and or the
11:25
dishwasher just blew up. And you know, like always.
11:29
So I think if you're going to get into the restaurant business
11:32
and you want to open a restaurant, whatever your
11:34
performer number is, you're going to multiply that by 30%
11:38
just to give yourself a cushion and then you won't be so
11:41
stressful, you know what I'm saying?
11:42
You won't be so stressed. What about building a team?
11:44
When, when you're opening up this restaurant, how do you, how
11:46
do you go about picking, you know, your sous chefs, your line
11:49
cooks and everything else Make sure that you, you're
11:51
successful. Yeah, I mean you, I'm, I'm new
11:54
to this market, right. So in New York, I don't really
12:00
hire sous chefs until the day we open or, or the week, the week
12:05
before we open, because I rather see what talent I have in house
12:11
and build that person up. You know, because my system is
12:14
super old school. I run it.
12:16
I run a super old school. You know, I, I, I cross train
12:21
everybody in the station. I also require that I rather
12:28
have a small team than a large team, so everybody can feel what
12:33
it's like to work in that kind of space because I feel like it
12:35
makes me stronger that you can work in that kind of kind of
12:40
like close unit. And it also creates the bond
12:44
that, you know, it's like, it's like being in the military,
12:47
right? Like, you know, naval seals are
12:49
small units and then they go into these, into the situations
12:53
and small packs and they create this bond and it's unbreakable,
12:57
right? And one of my and one of my
12:59
mantra in the kitchen is the line never breaks.
13:02
It don't matter how hard the front of the house is pushing.
13:04
We as a team never break, you know, so I always kind of really
13:11
push it to a limit to my team. And I want them to feel that
13:15
that that top tier pressure and then move and then wean off when
13:20
you start like opening and like doing all these things.
13:22
So they know what that feels like.
13:26
And when they get there, they know how to act.
13:27
But at the same time, we only work in a space where we're
13:31
comfortable and then we're, we're good, you know what I
13:34
mean? So I always want them to feel
13:35
what those, those, those, those extremes are because I want them
13:39
to know what the, what the boxes they're going to play in.
13:42
And then when I hire a sous chef or even we left the sous chef up
13:46
from the, from the squad. That's the best way for me
13:49
because that sous chef already went through the battles with
13:52
those guys and they know that they can trust him to to have to
13:57
to protect them and have to have their back.
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Also because at the end of the day, what I learned when I was
14:02
young, the hardest transition was from being a lie cooked to a
14:05
sous chef. That was the hardest transition.
14:08
Why? I think having the trust of the
14:11
guys on the line and them knowing that you're going to be
14:13
a supervisor and then you have to like really get into the mix.
14:18
You either got to be better than them and cooking or any of those
14:22
sort, or you're showing them something new, right?
14:25
So I feel like I always like to hire from within the group and
14:31
it's like choosing A-Team captain on basketball team,
14:33
right? This guy's the captain now, and
14:36
they know why he's a captain because he scores the most
14:39
points. He works the hardest, He shows
14:41
up before you, he leaves before you.
14:44
His station is the cleanest, he's pick up times are faster
14:47
than you. Like, all these type of things.
14:49
They already know that is the reason why he's getting lifted.
14:52
And I usually ask the team to vote for that guy to be bought
14:56
up to be a sous chef. But that's the way I like to
14:59
kind of run my teams in and then have them be in the mix,
15:02
especially when we're opening, have them be in the mix together
15:06
and then choose the choose the leader and then he leaves the
15:10
pack and I just I'm, I'm just, I'm just in the back.
15:12
So when you're stress testing like in a mock service or
15:16
whatever, you, you push them, do you, do you scale up the cover?
15:20
So like I'm just making this up like 6080. 100 no, I I open it,
15:23
I RIP the band in just let them crash.
15:25
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So they so they find all the
15:28
pressure points. Exactly.
15:29
And then we we have that conversation after yeah.
15:31
I'm like, how can you make your station better in this sense?
15:34
You're moving too much. Yeah, you should you should only
15:36
be spinning on your station. You're moving too much.
15:39
You're going out of your station too much.
15:40
Why is that? Oh, chef ran out of space that
15:43
are that a bunch of big kits and make kit up kit up your station
15:47
boom or chef Boom, get up there station boom, boom, boom, you
15:49
know, and all this stuff. So I like to RIP it open.
15:52
When we did our friends and family, we did 80 covers each
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dish except for the large format items was under 9 minutes.
16:01
These boys were pumping. You know, we built this.
16:04
We built the menu for speed, obviously, but I told them a
16:07
couple a couple tricks of like, you know, the rest of the
16:10
kitchen. I'm telling you the truth.
16:12
It's a New York kitchen. That's, that's bottom line, the
16:15
size, the way the line is formatted, how many guys are on
16:18
that line? How many dishwasher we like.
16:20
This is a, this is a New York setup.
16:22
You know what I'm saying? So I already knew that that one
16:25
guy that's in the fry station, he only has a 4x4 situation.
16:29
No, no wasted space, no waste. He has nowhere to go.
16:33
He has nowhere to go. So he has to go upside or on top
16:36
of stuff like he used to find a way to control the the his own
16:40
station. And you know, my main thing is
16:43
really maintaining cleanliness, you know what I'm saying?
16:46
So every hour and a half, the dishwashers come down, do a deep
16:51
sweep and mop real quick. And so the guys on the line feel
16:54
always that their stations create.
16:56
So whenever they see the dishwashers come down, they
16:58
start cleaning the pianos, you know what I'm saying?
17:01
Doing all the stuff, wiping the station down.
17:04
And so it's, it's, it's, it's, it's like my own little nuances
17:07
that I've that I've created for myself when I was a cook.
17:10
And this is my, this is, this is my reflection of how I was when
17:13
I was a cook. You know what I mean, working in
17:16
a small New York kitchen. So yeah, we will, you know, I
17:20
think OCO right now hasn't really been tested in a sense of
17:25
like what this feels like for opening the reservations.
17:30
The most we've done is 175. I think we can do 250, right?
17:35
Just like five turns at the restaurant.
17:39
I'm sorry. That's like four turns at the
17:40
restaurant and I think we can bang it out.
17:44
But you know, we're still, we're still, we're still there.
17:47
So when, when you open up the, I mean, in my express, I'm sure
17:51
you probably experience this too.
17:52
We usually when you open up a restaurant, you have a lot of
17:54
attrition. So you start with this team and
17:56
then little they, they didn't make it, they're gone.
17:59
You got to replace them. No, I didn't have that.
18:00
I didn't have that opportunity. I wanted to yeah.
18:05
That's what I'll talk to the owners about.
18:06
But the owners like Naha, this is this is how much you got
18:09
this, this is what you got. You don't get anything to trim.
18:12
This is this is this is this is it.
18:13
You either going to go in there trim and like ready to go or
18:17
you're not. You're not going to be ready.
18:19
So how do you handle like? So what is trim Four or five?
18:22
Cooks on the line 44 cooks on the line 2 dishwashers, 2 prep
18:26
Guys, what if you lose? One like how quickly because
18:28
Austin, sometimes it's kind of tough to to, to flip people.
18:31
But how, how do you make sure that OK, if you're going in lean
18:37
and you, you don't have the opportunity to lose people
18:39
because it gets, you know, it gets too hard for them.
18:41
Whatever. How do you how do you make sure
18:43
that they're that they're taking care of?
18:45
In the beginning, we have this conversation when we first meet.
18:47
You know, there's only two rules in the kitchen and my kitchen. 1
18:51
is you come on time and then two, you work hard between the
18:54
times. I don't really care what happens
18:56
outside of this place. I don't care what's going on at
18:59
your house. I don't care none of that.
19:01
You leave that stuff up when you enter this place and you clock
19:04
in, leave all that stuff at home.
19:06
This is a safe place. This is a place where you can be
19:09
whoever you want to be. And all I ask for you is to work
19:12
hard between the times that you're here.
19:14
Other than that, we're good. Nobody drinks on my spot, nobody
19:19
does drugs. This is, we're straightforward
19:22
going in, work as hard as we can, then go home.
19:25
Then we're punching out and once they understand that this is the
19:29
this these are the only two rules and that we not all the
19:32
people that I interview, you know, some people are Divas and
19:35
they want to, you know, do some other stuff they're.
19:38
All Divas. Shit, they're all Divas.
19:40
So, you know, we went through that through the interview
19:42
process, you know, and mostly, mostly most of my guys are are
19:46
to tell you the truth or are the people that I came up with in
19:49
the kitchen, they're all Guatemalan guys, you know, or
19:51
Mexican guys, you know, like this is the type of kitchen I
19:54
have right now. These guys are hard nosed,
19:56
hardcore, like don't ask for nothing, but all they want is
20:01
like a soda at the end of the night.
20:02
Like, you know what I mean? Like these guys come in, clean
20:05
the station, taste everything. Like we have the down to a pat
20:08
like to a system, you know? So let let me ask you this.
20:11
We were talking about Filipino food earlier and, and it has a
20:14
certain funk to it. But you're saying in your
20:16
kitchen, you have a lot of people that are Guatemala and,
20:19
and, and maybe don't know that funk.
20:21
They don't recognize that flavor.
20:22
How do you train them to because to them they're, they're just,
20:25
they don't, they don't know like it tastes good, but is it right
20:28
or wrong? How do you train them on the?
20:29
Palate we, we, we talk about the cultural connections.
20:33
Yeah, we always talk about what does, what does this look like
20:36
on their side? So let's say, you know, they
20:40
don't even know they, they didn't know.
20:42
I talked to them last week. There was a there's a trade
20:45
between the Philippines and Mexico for over 250 years called
20:48
the Mexican galleon trade, right.
20:51
And we got chocolate from Mexico.
20:53
We gave them agave and coconut milk.
20:56
And like, we're literally cousins in this sense, right?
21:00
So any of the dishes that we, we do, I try to tell them, oh, this
21:04
is like a ceviche, but this is like a por Coco sauce, a Verde
21:09
or this is like tamales or this is like boom, boom, boom, like
21:13
any of those things. So there's a connection there.
21:15
So they're always saying, oh, studi needs more salt, doesn't
21:18
need more sugar, doesn't need more fish sauce.
21:21
They're always constantly asking these questions.
21:24
And I do a tasting every 4:30 with all the sauces.
21:28
They come up with a spoon to you.
21:29
Yeah, bring me with all the spoons, you know, and I taste
21:32
every station, stuff like that. So that's where the learning
21:36
process is, you know what I mean?
21:37
Yeah, when you're teaching someone to taste, like, how do
21:41
you how do you explain to them? Do you explain to them like
21:43
salt, heat, acid? Or do you just say no, no,
21:45
you're tasting? Do you get more granular?
21:47
No, no, no, I'll. Give, I'll give them the
21:48
overarching thing. I'll give them that space to,
21:51
to, to kind of get the flavors to, to where they needed to go.
21:55
Then I tasted the back end and I tell them over.
21:57
This is great, you know, because at the end of the day, sometimes
22:00
some of the products, the temperature that might be in the
22:02
space would be a little different.
22:03
Something might be out for two hours like it always changes,
22:07
you know. But the main thing we try to do
22:09
is all the green sauces that we have, this fresh stays in the
22:12
box. Does it stay out?
22:13
You know, so those things always stay fresh and all the sauces
22:16
are always done two days. We fit the sauces every two
22:19
days. What it?
22:20
What is the creative? Process look like for you like
22:22
like. I know a lot of chefs like
22:24
myself for example, I need headphones, classical music,
22:27
green tea and quiet Some Some people like cookbooks everywhere
22:31
with a habs, other people it's like a bunch of people in a room
22:34
and were writing shit on the whiteboard.
22:36
What is your creative process look like?
22:37
Cookbooks. Cookbooks I'm.
22:39
A big cookbook head. Yeah.
22:40
Cookbooks all over the table. Moleskin notebook.
22:44
Silence Alone. Alone.
22:47
Yeah, that's how I get down. And I think I got that way when
22:50
I used to work the Food Network back in 2010, the other library.
22:55
And that's all I got to know about, you know, shows like Greg
22:57
Akits, Thomas Keller and all that kind of stuff.
23:00
And so, yeah, I, I love cookbooks.
23:02
I think visually I'm, I'm good with kind of like the plating
23:06
and, and kind of the nuances of dishes.
23:09
Yeah. And also, you know, YouTube
23:11
University is great, you know what I'm saying?
23:12
And we use that a lot. I, I want to ask you cuz I know
23:16
you, you didn't mention you work at the Food Network.
23:18
We've also worked in some great restaurants per SE.
23:21
Noma, arguably two of the greatest restaurants you know in
23:25
the world. Batard.
23:29
For someone that's. Never worked in that type of
23:31
kitchen because I'm, I'm at one point you were the guy that
23:34
didn't ever work in those kitchens who went into those
23:36
kitchens. I'm sure there was a learning
23:37
curve for someone that's never been in those kitchens.
23:42
How would you prepare to go into something like that?
23:44
If you've never been in that environment?
23:46
What are the things that you should look out for?
23:48
I think. First and foremost, you should
23:49
work in their intention. Yeah, yeah.
23:52
You shouldn't go in there thinking that, you know, it's
23:55
going to be a, a breeze walk in a park.
23:58
You know what I mean? Like, these are, these kitchens
24:02
are where they're at because of a certain level of intensity #1
24:06
and then a #2 there's a certain level of standard that you need
24:09
to follow. And you need to get into the
24:11
kool-aid fast. You know, don't wait for the
24:13
kool-aid to get to you six months in or whatever.
24:16
You need to drink the Kool-aid ASAP.
24:18
Yeah. What?
24:18
What? What do you?
24:19
Mean. What do you mean I mean?
24:20
So, and, and per SE they have, it's called, it's like a code of
24:28
conduct. Every month there's a, there's a
24:30
word that we have to be following every month like, you
24:34
know, humbleness or gratefulness or any of those things.
24:38
Like you literally have to know those terms.
24:40
And you know, you need to know why we have those terms for this
24:43
month because the chefs will ask you then, have you been grateful
24:47
today? Have you been like, have you,
24:49
have you been, have you shaking shake out with the team?
24:52
Have you wash the apron? Have you, you know, like, you
24:56
know, like, have you shaved today?
24:58
Like, you know, like you need to get into the system ASAP.
25:02
You need to know what the system is.
25:03
And if you had to come early, you need to come early.
25:06
If your station is not ready when the time the shop needs you
25:08
to get done, it's not going to be it's not going to be worth
25:11
it. You know like I was a call me
25:13
for like 3 months and I was in charge of cornets right?
25:17
And I hate making the fucking them freaking cornets you you
25:20
still like. Yeah, I hate making those
25:22
cornets. They're the worst.
25:24
And then the add these these pipes that were screaming hot
25:27
that we had to like put the cornets in, you know what I
25:29
mean? And so I don't have time.
25:32
Like there's no space to work. You need a ton of space.
25:36
And so my clock in was six O clock.
25:40
I was there at 3:30 every morning. 330I was there with the
25:44
bakers. I will turn on all the lights
25:46
have to give everybody a new salt.
25:48
You black pepper peppercorn in their pepper mill.
25:51
So, So what you're? Saying is important.
25:52
I I want you to so you're you're the low comedy coming.
25:56
Yes. You fill everyone's salt.
25:58
You fill everyone's pepper mills.
25:59
Make sure that one's seafolds when seafolds when they come in
26:02
everyone's set, yes. Why was that important?
26:04
So and then we'll get back to that.
26:05
But I I think that's I I like that.
26:08
Yeah, I like the comedy. Comes in and fills up everyone's
26:10
salt pepper. Well, first of all, it was my
26:11
job. Yeah, that's perfect.
26:14
They asked. Me to do it was my job, but it
26:17
was it was all the comedy's job. We were to make sure that all of
26:19
the guys that came in for chef to parties will be set up on
26:23
their station. So deli daily containers with
26:25
lids, like the whole 9. But I was there.
26:28
That was the first one. So I was like, you know what,
26:30
Instead of everybody's scrambling, trying to do this
26:33
mediocre thing, I'll take 20 minutes and I'll do the whole,
26:36
I'll do the whole restaurant. Yeah.
26:37
So you know, I will grab all my butter, all of my flour, all the
26:42
stuff I need for the cornets. And then another container of
26:46
all the stuff went into full the the stations went and I was just
26:49
hit the whole thing. And then I would start working
26:52
on the cornets, turn the lights on.
26:54
The other thing too, is just a great feeling to be in a three
26:56
star restaurant by yourself at one station making cornets and
27:02
and and and and just seeing everybody's face when they see
27:05
you making cornet. So like this time and and you
27:08
know, people talk about it. You want to talk about you, you
27:10
know, Harold's menace is like 430, like making cornets, like,
27:13
you know what I mean? Like, and and also I got bumped
27:18
up, bumped up fast to go to be a chef to party because I was
27:21
doing these extra things, you know, but yeah, so I think going
27:27
into a, a three star, two star, one star, you need to have
27:31
intention. You need to make sure you know
27:33
what you're going in there for. And and don't come in there
27:37
thinking that you're going to learn everything.
27:38
You need to be specific of what you want to do because I suggest
27:41
you only stay at those pots for a year.
27:44
You know, don't stay more than that or you're going to lose
27:47
your mind. You know what I'm saying?
27:49
One year maximum. Be intentional.
27:52
You know, I'm going to learn how to butcher this way.
27:54
I'm going to make, you know, for GUA torchions and all this kind
27:58
of stuff. This is what I'm going to learn
27:59
at this spot, the next spot. I'm going to learn how to, you
28:03
know, run, run on trumpet by myself, you know, and stuff like
28:07
that. Like I will go into these places
28:09
where intentions of, of a plan of what I'm trying to learn now,
28:13
a place like Noma, you know, I got in, you know, through asking
28:17
Rene, Rene Rizeppi at a, at a conference around everybody, if
28:20
I could start. And I saw that video and he said
28:22
he can't say no and that that's all I got in.
28:24
And so it was like, you know, sometimes you get, you get like,
28:28
you get like somebody writes a letter for you or your chef
28:32
sends you whatever. That's how I got in, you know,
28:34
so my, my, my situation with Noma is a little different.
28:37
More is, is more of a fairy tale thing for me because that was
28:40
such a, an amazing. I, I never knew that that that
28:44
could happen, you know what I mean?
28:45
And when I met Chevronet and when I was in Noma, he, I've
28:51
never seen a chef that really talked about what he was doing.
28:55
Like when he was doing that conference was telling us all
28:58
these things. I'm like, ah, that's PS man,
28:59
this guy talking about he's there before everybody,
29:01
whatever. No, but I, when I was there, he
29:03
was, he was there making breakfast for everybody.
29:06
And like we would have these sessions as a staggers where he
29:10
would be breaking on like like a rabbit calls a hair and they
29:13
would be breaking a whole hair. Tells us about the you know, how
29:16
to, how to kill a duck. And you know the old school way
29:19
of like he's been hanging it and letting it separate from his
29:23
body the whole 9 right. My time, I know my own was super
29:28
romantic because we got, I got a chance to leave New York and be
29:31
in Europe #1 then #2 Renee Rizeppe and the team really took
29:37
a chance on me as a kid from the Bronx.
29:40
And I was the only guy from the Bronx.
29:41
Hi, Everybody else was Allen Ducasse or whatever, right?
29:45
And you had. Worked at per SE before.
29:46
No, this is after. This is I was a Noma still.
29:49
This Noma was 2000. 2011 per SE was 2015 and I opened Batard 20.
29:56
Yeah, 2013, yeah. And so I haven't really worked
30:01
in Michel star restaurant back then, but working in Europe and
30:05
that Michel * restaurant, like I romanticize it to this day.
30:09
You know, every time I go back, see the boys, see the chef, you
30:13
know, it's always been love. So for me, my time at Normal was
30:16
different. But if I had to go back and like
30:19
really like spend those three months again, I wouldn't, I
30:23
would be more focused on intention, you know, and like,
30:25
what would I try to learn here in normal?
30:27
What kind of techniques do I need to learn?
30:30
You know, at that time they were on top of the world, right?
30:32
It was #1 Restaurant in the World cookbook just came out.
30:36
All those bad, bad ass chefs were there, you know, like Matt
30:39
Orlando was the the chef's cuisine.
30:42
Tom Halpin was still there. Like all these guys, you know,
30:46
like, so you know, I've done a day.
30:49
It was like a rock star group, you know, and, and it was such
30:53
an amazing time. But if I had to go back, I would
30:55
just, you know, be more intentional.
30:57
But at the same time, I wouldn't.
30:59
I don't regret all my time. And I mean, so if you had a
31:02
young kid. Coming up to you and saying,
31:03
hey, I've never worked in a, in a, in a, in a three star before.
31:07
And I just, I just got accepted and you're going to sit him down
31:10
and say, hey, sit down, sit down.
31:13
Let me tell you some what, what, what are the couple of things
31:15
like 3 or 4 things that you say don't, don't, don't, don't,
31:18
right, I think. The first thing is don't be
31:20
late. Don't be late, don't be late.
31:22
I think #2 also is, like I said, be intentional.
31:27
You know what you're going in there for, don't think that it's
31:30
going to be easy or any of that sort #3.
31:34
I think, I think that just be mindful of the space awareness
31:40
and all. I think these, these two star
31:42
kitchens are so bait and so massive and so many walk in so
31:46
many, you know what I mean? All these brand new gadgets, all
31:49
this stuff. But to be an amazing chef, an
31:52
amazing cook, I think you need to understand that you need just
31:54
as much space to, to, to, to make things happen, you know,
31:59
and I think if your special awareness is good, you can place
32:02
yourself between a table of 15 people and you wouldn't, you
32:05
wouldn't even know you're there, you know what I mean?
32:07
And then I think the last thing is, is, is to build
32:11
relationships not only with your supervisors, but the guys next
32:16
to you and the, the woman next to you, you know, 'cause you
32:19
never know who they're going to become after they leave that
32:22
place. But also you're, you're engraved
32:25
with that family forever. You know, TKRG will always have
32:31
a special place on my heart, even though it was such a hard
32:33
place to work at. But the people that I came out
32:36
with, the people that are still part of the family and all this
32:39
type of stuff, people don't even cook anymore.
32:43
We're still, we still had those moments together, you know what
32:46
I mean? And I think that's, that's the
32:48
one thing I really enjoy about the restaurant business is, is,
32:51
is those moments and, and being with people that enjoy the same
32:55
things you enjoy and sharing those moments together.
32:57
You know what I mean? While we're on the subject.
32:59
Of young cooks that are coming up, a lot of people, a lot of
33:03
people ask me like, hey, someone actually asked me this on my Q&A
33:06
the other day. They said why are all the young
33:09
cooks not good anymore? I don't know if I necessarily
33:11
agree with it. I think I think the expectation
33:15
is different. I think, I think it's more
33:17
transparent in the industry now, so people kind of know what it
33:19
is. But if, if, if you were just
33:22
advising young cooks in the kitchen, like, hey, you want to,
33:24
they want to become great chefs, they're just starting out,
33:26
regardless of what type of kitchen they're going into.
33:28
What advice would you give a young cook that you wish you
33:31
had? Sure.
33:33
I think the one advice, and I think I've been giving this
33:35
advice for a long time now, is get yourself a passport, get a
33:40
passport and get up out of here. Yeah, yeah, I would get up out
33:43
of here. I would take a knife roll with
33:46
five of my favorite knives and I will go overseas, Asia, Europe,
33:53
try to spend 6 months and just travel and just cook and just
33:57
cook bro. You got to find why you're
34:01
cooking and I think that's the only way you can really find it.
34:05
You can't find it in these these hard nosed kitchens in New York
34:08
or San Francisco or Austin, TX. Like that's not it.
34:13
I think people are forgetting why people cook.
34:16
You know why we do this for a living?
34:18
This is a craft at the end of the day.
34:20
So blue collar work, you know? So you need to find why you like
34:26
it and you need to be consistent as it, you know, like times,
34:30
colors to the best, right? Like you can have all the
34:33
passion you want, you're up and down every day, but if you're
34:35
not consistent when you come in, it's not worth it.
34:39
So I suggest a young cook, you know, don't go to culinary
34:43
school #1 and you'll get yourself in debt, right #2 go,
34:48
go travel the world, you know, work at a restaurant for like a
34:51
year and save money. You know, 6 grand, you'll be 6
34:55
grand at least. Buy yourself A1 way ticket out
34:58
and then buy yourself A1 way ticket back in.
35:00
And I will just travel between the lines and on.
35:04
As AUS citizen, you get a month at any, any, at any, at any
35:09
country for free. You don't have to buy a visa,
35:12
you know what I'm saying? Every country a month, boom, you
35:15
know, and you can just walk into a kitchen like yo, you need
35:17
hands and you learn and you learn through that and you learn
35:21
also through traveling is empathy, which is number one in
35:24
the kitchen. You know, you need to know how
35:27
people are going through their lives.
35:29
You can't, you know, I, I was such a hard guy coming out of
35:32
these kitchens when I was younger, when I first got my
35:35
first chef job. Such a such a bad, such a bad
35:39
way to go about it. What I learned from those guys,
35:42
I was trying to be with the teams that I was with and, you
35:47
know, bad people walk out on me and, you know, quit and like
35:51
never really understood it. And I was like, why they do
35:55
that? And at a per SE, they can say
35:56
whatever they want to be when nobody walks out, you know what
35:59
I'm saying? Like, and so I realized that
36:02
it's not like that. That's not the real world, you
36:04
know. So traveling helps me help me
36:07
with my empathy, but also help me to understand my management
36:11
style and also like what kind of kitchens I want to run, you
36:13
know? And so that's what my suggestion
36:15
is travel, travel, travel, travel, eat, eat, eat.
36:20
And you know, and then you'll find your voice and then you'll
36:22
be able to, you know, really create a space where people feel
36:26
safe too, to find their voice. And that's the most important
36:28
part, so. How do you how do you recognize
36:32
young talent in the kitchen, Number one?
36:34
And then right now you were talking about how when you came
36:36
out, maybe you you had a little bit of harshness, little bit of
36:40
a rough edge and you softened it.
36:42
What is your approach now to dealer with cooks in the
36:45
kitchen? Yeah.
36:48
I think what I try to do is, is, is be more of AI, treat it like
36:52
a a football team, you know? I treat it like a football team.
36:56
You know, you got to earn, you got to earn your spot here
36:58
first. You know, you nothing is really
37:00
given to you, you know. So when we open OCO, I ran it
37:04
like a training camp, you know, OK, everybody, uniform boom.
37:09
This is the uniform standards boom, boom, boom, boom, boom,
37:13
boom. There's the knife standards
37:14
boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. There's the station standards
37:17
boom, boom. So we went through the whole
37:19
thing of how when everything is how you cut the labels, this is
37:22
how we rotate, this is how we do FIFO, and this is how you clean
37:26
your station there. As we went through the whole
37:28
thing and then I noticed this, I noticed guys when they're
37:33
cleaning, how they work a station, how they fold their
37:36
towels and how they change their bane in the water, how they
37:40
change their bane and how to change the water in their
37:42
positive water. Like all these things I'm
37:44
noticing. And then I categorized them in
37:46
my head. And then we have a conversation.
37:50
This is how much I'm going to pay you and this is what my
37:52
expectations are. And three months, if you don't
37:55
meet those expectations, you either can go or you stay with
37:59
the same pay. So you make a choice, you know
38:03
what I mean? So they understand those
38:04
standards. So the great thing about that is
38:07
you being super transparent with them and then also you giving
38:10
them benchmarks to meet, you know, three other guys that I'm
38:14
working with now, we have a special relationship on the side
38:18
where I'm keeping notes on what they want to learn and what they
38:21
want to work on while they're with me.
38:23
And they all agree to stay for a year.
38:26
And so every three weeks now the third week is a check, check in
38:31
Mark and we'll see where they're at.
38:33
And then I might add more work on top of their work that
38:35
they're doing, doing regularly to increase the productivity for
38:40
my side. But also at the same time to
38:42
make sure that we're checking out the list that they that they
38:44
wanted to learn what they worked with me.
38:45
So you you said. Something earlier that I I geek
38:47
out on. So my whole chef's PSA is like
38:49
attention to detail and things like that.
38:51
So you talked about uniform standards, the knives, the towel
38:55
and the way they cut the tape, how long, etcetera.
38:57
What are those standards in your?
38:58
I'm just curious because I, I, I geek out all that stuff.
39:01
So I mean. So let's start with the U1.
39:03
Sure. Right now our uniforms are black
39:06
pants, black, black shoes, a blue apron, the Bregard blue.
39:11
Bregard blue. Yeah.
39:12
Just to just to remind me, they got the new one now.
39:14
Yeah. From Chef.
39:15
'S chef's warehouse yeah yeah, yeah so they.
39:18
It has the pocket, but now they have the old one, but it's a
39:20
different material that's not the same it.
39:21
Doesn't it doesn't fade out like these?
39:23
The old ones too? Yeah.
39:24
But that's cool though. Yeah.
39:26
But you know, then chef cooks, cooks jacket, dishwasher jacket,
39:32
and then they have a bandana and then volume 2 is going to be
39:36
green shirt, blue apron, and I'm going to give them a hat.
39:40
What do you mean volume? 2 when we when.
39:42
We switch over our uniforms. Yeah, got it.
39:45
So I, I, I do uniform changes every four months.
39:48
Got it. So next quarter we're going to
39:50
change it to a new uniform for them.
39:51
Why? Why do you do that?
39:52
Just to give everybody. Fresh shoes are just a fresh.
39:54
T-shirt Yeah, fresh. T-shirt or like something else
39:57
different or the apron changes or it keeps it keeps.
40:00
I feel like it keeps the. The cooks prideful of, of their,
40:05
of their things, but also perception wise, the kitchen's
40:09
also kind of open right now. So perception wise, people that
40:12
have eaten there in the beginning to now can see that
40:15
there's a change. And there's also like there's
40:17
like a click in their heads. It's like, oh, there must be
40:20
something going on in the kitchen.
40:22
So the dishes also come out a little different, like stuff
40:24
like that. So I like to like keep
40:26
everything moving in that sense and also creating a space for
40:30
people to be themselves. You know, the more the more we
40:33
be more ourselves. I think the food comes out
40:35
tasting better, you know, So you change the T-shirt.
40:38
And you change the bandana every four months?
40:39
Every four months, Yeah, Is. There like a.
40:43
Just a blank T-shirt or can they have?
40:44
Well, we're going to. Do a rock band.
40:46
No, we're going to do we're. Going to do Tang look, we're
40:48
going to we're going to do a OCO, Oco shirts, OK, Yeah.
40:52
So we're going to create a thing for them and then they're going
40:55
to wear as a uniform. Yeah, I like that.
40:58
Idea that's interesting. And and then you said the knives
41:01
have to be a certain way. What do you mean by that?
41:03
Well. In in regards to what they chop
41:08
with and what they they use it everyday, yeah.
41:10
So it's. Intentional.
41:11
Yes, it's intentional. So I.
41:12
Got I tell them that you have to have at least three knives,
41:15
right. One is your chef knife, which is
41:16
your everyday, you know, get it done kind of knife, one
41:20
vegetable knife when you need to do like specific cuts with
41:24
chives and scallions and like, you know, shift from that things
41:27
in the station, you need enough for that.
41:29
And then a slicer, if you have a slice of meat and all that kind
41:33
of stuff. I always have as part of our
41:35
kits, a bread knife, a microplane and all that on my
41:39
station already. So they need to use any of that
41:41
stuff. But those three knives are
41:44
always prevalent in the kitchen because we do a lot of herb work
41:48
or garnishes, right. And so, yeah, I, I, I try to
41:52
just tell them those are the three you need to have and, and,
41:56
and Japanese, obviously, or they can buy the Filipino knives
42:00
that, that my, my friend owns called Nationale in the
42:04
Philippines. I'll give them a little
42:05
discount. And so, and also when they first
42:08
came in with me, this was the, this was how I was giving them
42:12
their, their uniform. It was a a white apron for prep,
42:17
the blue apron for service, the bandana Coon, spoon, tweezers,
42:25
and then four towels. And I said this is going to be
42:28
every day your situation. So everybody knows they get 4
42:32
towels a day. They need to have their spoon,
42:35
their tweezer on their station. They can have more spoons if
42:37
they want to. And then they do prep work in
42:40
the white aprons and then it turns to the blue for service.
42:42
So the aprons do they? Wash themselves or yeah, they
42:45
wash them, they take them off. But the towels, no.
42:48
No, not we have no what? What's the standard?
42:50
Fold for the towels there. You got to keep them folded.
42:52
Yeah, yeah. It's just, it's just you don't
42:54
cross. And then three, three by three.
42:56
Yeah, yeah, three by. That's the same.
42:57
Thing I So you have to cover your palm?
42:59
Yeah. That's why I tried telling you
43:00
need to have it at least to cover your palm so when you grab
43:02
something hot, you end up burning yourself.
43:04
You know what I mean? Yeah.
43:06
So you said uniform style and then what's the, what's the tape
43:09
standard green or blue? Green for sure.
43:11
Yeah, green. Green stands out more, and also
43:13
green sticks to the thing better than the blue.
43:15
Do you have a specific? Brand you use, we use.
43:18
A frog, the frog tape, whatever. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
43:21
It's funny. I used to be a blue.
43:22
Tape Guy For a long time, it was a little, it was a little bit
43:24
cheaper. And then I was helping out a
43:26
friend in Puerto Rico and it was kind of a screwed up kitchen,
43:30
but they didn't have any light bulbs in the walk in and they
43:33
used green tape. And then I realized they used
43:35
green tape because it was easier to read in the dark.
43:37
I was like, that was the only thing I did is like, OK, I'm
43:39
going to switch, I'll switch it. So I, I, I converted to green
43:42
tape after that and my, my thing was always like short, you know,
43:46
lay bread. Date.
43:48
Initial date initial. Correct.
43:49
Yeah. And then we used tape
43:51
dispensers. We were cutting them before, but
43:53
I said tape dispensers is better.
43:55
So sufficient. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm a.
43:57
I'm a tape dispenser guy myself. What about?
44:01
What about? Music.
44:01
You play music in the kitchen, I.
44:03
Used to be a music guy, but I used to do it just because I
44:06
wanted to make sure that it was like, you know how you go to
44:09
training not in the military and do like live, live gunfire.
44:13
So what it's like play it super loud so they can like hear my
44:17
voice through all that noise when I'm calling tickets.
44:21
But that was kind of kind of maniacal.
44:22
So I was like, you know what, we're just going to turn
44:25
everything off. And so it's just a it's just a
44:27
quiet kitchen. Whether they want to play music
44:30
when they're cleaning down at night, that's fine.
44:33
But in your kitchen, you. Can hear the music inside the
44:34
dining room, Yes. So, yeah, so I wouldn't, I
44:36
wouldn't want to have the music on anyways, you know, that's it.
44:39
I'm. Not a person I get a lot of shit
44:42
for. I like, I'm not, I'm not a fan
44:43
of music in the kitchen 'cause I got I'm like not quiet focus.
44:48
But that's just me. I know a lot Like no, no, I like
44:50
the me personally, I don't especially because for me it's
44:53
like I've seen people get into fist fights over the music, you
44:56
know, it's like I want cumbias and I want this.
44:58
It's like they. They start fighting.
45:00
I've had to break up fights and I'm like, you know what?
45:02
It's not worth it. Yeah.
45:03
And, and honestly, most people don't want to listen to what I
45:05
want to listen. Yeah, exactly.
45:06
I. Want to listen to HIP?
45:06
Hop or something like that. I don't want to listen to this,
45:08
but I want to ask you so. Of all the great chefs, and we
45:13
talked about this the other day when Rogelio was here, but I
45:17
asked this question to a lot of chefs.
45:19
If you had to name some 4 chefs that are on the route, the Mount
45:23
Rushmore of chefs that had the biggest impact on your career
45:27
for you, who would they be? Wolf, that's tough for me, all
45:37
right. Obviously when there was Zeppy
45:40
Zombie on there for me, he gave me an opportunity to go to
45:43
Europe and and, and be part of that.
45:45
That's 1-2 would be a chef mentor of mine that passed.
45:53
His name is Maximo Tejada. He was part of the local Latino
45:58
cuisine movement in New York in the early 2000s.
46:03
He was a He's a mentor of mine. I will go, I will go.
46:16
I will go. My other chef that I had that I
46:18
worked with name is Mehdi Brinkley.
46:20
He worked out all the Open, the Cucheron in Montreal for 10
46:23
years. And he taught me a lot, a lot, a
46:26
lot. A lot about awful and no steel
46:29
cooking #4 I'm a big, big, big fan of of Anthony Birthday for
46:41
sure. Yeah.
46:42
I mean, did you ever meet? Him I never got to.
46:44
And that's the that's the one thing I kind of regret.
46:46
I never got the chance to meet him.
46:49
Sucks. But I think for us cooks that
46:52
came up in 2000s to like 2016, Anthony Bourdain was like our
46:58
guy, you know what I'm saying? You know, a hard nosed guy came
47:03
from nothing worked in, you know, French presserie places
47:08
and just be like this no name chef in the back, you know, but
47:12
his words and the way he spoke about our craft was the way I
47:16
like to talk about our craft. And on the way I like to to tell
47:20
people the way I see it, you know.
47:24
And so he influenced me a lot too with traveling and his TV
47:27
shows and stuff like that. And and so I think I didn't
47:31
that's that's the for for me. Yeah, it wasn't.
47:33
It was no. Bullshit.
47:34
Yeah, it was no bullshit. You know, it's funny.
47:36
With, with, with Bourdain. You I I was just listening to
47:40
his books again recently and I, I listen to media raw and I
47:44
forget like I write books. I like to write, but I'm like,
47:47
fuck not. Not only was he smart and and
47:49
and knew how to speak the language of of the people.
47:53
But technically he was a. Really good writer like like he,
47:57
he knew how to he knew how to put words together to tell
48:00
stories. Like fucking storyteller, but
48:02
the best. I mean, yeah, I.
48:03
Mean, I think our chefs are also storytellers, right?
48:06
Yeah. We have to tell a story of the
48:07
food of you. We can't sell it.
48:09
You know what I mean? Right.
48:10
Well, I think I I think, yeah, you're right.
48:13
Like those type of things, like you never knew, right?
48:16
Like, I think Britain is a great writer, storyteller.
48:19
Like you would never get a chance to know that if he didn't
48:22
take that leap of faith to do to do what he did, right.
48:25
Yeah. And what?
48:26
Made him so relatable is the stories that he was telling is
48:30
like that's my story. You know, like everyone like now
48:32
that that's that's his story, but it's my story.
48:35
We shared the same story, I think.
48:38
Yeah, Bourdains the he's the goat, right?
48:42
I like to. Usually close the the the
48:45
podcast with some some random questions.
48:47
So if you. Had a chef's PSA out there
48:50
people needed like. The cooks need to stop.
48:53
Doing this or they need to start doing this?
48:54
What? What is some advice you'd give
48:56
them? I think.
48:58
I don't know, other people say it all the time, but I think it
49:00
used to be related is don't be scared.
49:06
Don't be scared to fail. Yeah, You know what I mean?
49:09
Don't be scared to get fired from a job.
49:11
Don't be scared to, like, cook something raw.
49:15
Don't be scared to like overcook something like this is what it
49:19
is about, you know, like you're only going to learn if you
49:23
don't, if you're not better than what you was yesterday, you know
49:26
what I mean? So I will go 2 feet in and dive
49:32
into something wholeheartedly instead of just tiptoeing around
49:35
it, you know? And, and I think some people,
49:41
you know, they come into the gang and they think that, you
49:44
know, oh, I'm going to be this media chef or I'm going to be a
49:48
celebrity chef. I want to do all this stuff like
49:51
you don't understand what it took for Bobby Fayette to get
49:53
there. They just, they just see.
49:55
The end result, right? You don't know what?
49:56
It took for Rocco the spirit of the get there.
49:58
You don't know what it took for Danielle to get there or any of
50:01
that sort, right? And most of these guys on their
50:04
way out anyways, because it's it's they're getting old now,
50:07
you know what I'm saying? So you don't know what it took
50:10
to get there, you know, So you know, you got to earn, you got
50:13
to earn it, earn their stripes and earn, earn their respect.
50:18
And then all the other stuff is going to fall into place.
50:21
But I think not being scared to fail should be one of those
50:25
things that young cooks and and anybody that wants them to get
50:28
into the culinary game. Because, you know, that's why I
50:32
love about the restaurant business is black and white
50:34
always. You either got it or you don't
50:37
got it. You know what I'm saying?
50:38
Right, right. I, I I.
50:39
Say to people, it's like there's social currency in the kitchen,
50:42
the only social currency that matters when it's busiest.
50:44
Can you cook? That's it.
50:45
But no one cares. Like, oh, I went to this school
50:47
or my girlfriend or boyfriend looks like this, or I drive like
50:50
none of that. Nobody cares, no.
50:51
One fucking cares. Did you get the?
50:53
Food out. Does it taste good?
50:54
That's I said. Hot food, hot food, cold food,
50:56
cold food, you know what I'm saying?
50:58
So I think that's it, man. And and, you know, some people
51:02
don't get it. And some people, you know, think
51:04
that it's supposed to be given to them.
51:06
And I think some of, you know, some of the young cooks now feel
51:09
that way. But they have to, they have to,
51:12
they have to, they have to earn it, you know, you have to really
51:14
earn it. Yeah.
51:15
How do you how do? You teach that to people because
51:17
you're right, a lot of people live into something from out the
51:20
world. They, they expect it and, and
51:24
then they get shocked when they get into the industry and they
51:27
realize they do have to earn it. And then they say, well, I went
51:29
to culinary school, but so did everyone else.
51:32
And you're like, so it's the So what?
51:36
How do you, how do you coach that into someone out there?
51:40
Just. Pull one of my Garmo guys and
51:42
say, you see this guy right here?
51:44
He was a dishwasher last week and he comes to work on time.
51:52
His uniform is always clean, his station's always clean.
51:56
His knives are always sharp. His, his, his, his, his towels
52:01
are always folded. And I just kind of just have an
52:04
example in the kitchen. And I always say, you know,
52:08
like, some, some people too, man.
52:09
Like I have two guys that just came here two months ago, like
52:13
traveled, like, you know, went through all that to get here.
52:17
And I, and I explained that to them.
52:18
I'm like, you shouldn't have any issues working in this kitchen
52:22
right now. Yeah, these guys walk here to
52:26
come and do a get a better life. You were born here.
52:30
And and and and if you're telling me that you don't know
52:33
how to change palm sugar that's rock into a liquid, there's a
52:39
problem. All right, If you're telling me
52:42
you can't do that, there's a problem because not only that's
52:46
that's relevant, you can Google it literally in your hand.
52:51
You got to figure it out. So don't tell me that can't
52:54
happen, you know, and and you know, that happened last week.
52:57
But anyways, then, you know, those are the type of things I
53:00
try to do in the kitchen is like show an example and have
53:03
somebody that that I kind of promoted came up and like, look,
53:07
look what he's doing now. Last week he was washing your
53:09
dishes. He's right next to you now,
53:11
right? That's all He's like, oh, OK, I
53:13
got it. So I was like, yeah, so.
53:15
So I. Do a a weekly Q&A on the chef's
53:17
PSA Instagram. But I took my cigar sunde and I
53:21
got asked a question that I thought it was interesting.
53:24
Not that the question was interesting, but it made me
53:26
think about an interesting example.
53:28
So they asked me like, what's something that I've seen in high
53:31
end kitchens that people don't talk about?
53:33
And I remember I remembered I was like, oh shit, I've never
53:36
talked about this before, but I talked about it on, on the Q&A
53:40
is that I've worked with chefs that have come from, I won't say
53:42
where, but some very serious 3 Michelin star kitchens in France
53:46
that would put food coloring in their purees all day yellow.
53:50
And the and the. Corn, red and the red, green and
53:53
the green. It's like, and I remember when I
53:55
first saw, it was like, I saw someone do.
53:56
I was like, did you just. And they're like, yeah, we what
53:58
do you like? He looked at me like I was an
54:00
idiot when I was calling him out.
54:01
But besides that, is there something else that you've seen
54:06
that people would be like, fuck, they do that in the in the like,
54:09
like what? What is one of those things that
54:10
people would be shocked if they found out?
54:12
Yeah, frozen peas. Man.
54:16
Frozen peas for puree the. Sweeter, the sweeter and they,
54:18
they, they maintain the color, you know, I mean a lot of
54:22
things, man, like, you know, I feel like it's such a so hard to
54:27
work in those kitchens and you have to stay up always.
54:30
Everything has to be perfect. And if you, if you don't find
54:34
little ways to get ahead or little ways of getting a little
54:38
thing here and that you're going to fall behind.
54:40
And, and, and I learned that the hard way when purees were a
54:45
situation for me and I was working on trimette.
54:47
And you know what, that chef, he makes the, the dots big.
54:52
That chef makes the dots small. So whoever works to pass, I can
54:56
tell how many orders I have in one bottle, Right, right.
54:59
And so I would always be watching like, OK, that guy's
55:01
working. I need to get another puree
55:03
started. Warmed up.
55:06
So by the time he gets to the bottom of that bottle, I'm free
55:09
filling it already. Doesn't say none to me.
55:11
A little stuff like that, you know what I'm saying?
55:13
Like you just got to, you know, like I said, food coloring thing
55:16
is hilarious because yeah, every every, every, every European
55:20
kitchen does that. Yeah, yeah, it's funny it.
55:21
Was it's also like truffle oil? Like I I know chefs settle like
55:25
they're shaving truffles, but they have to put a couple of
55:27
drops in the whatever dish, little drops of truffle oil.
55:31
Because if not, people say this doesn't taste romantic.
55:33
The romantics too. Yeah.
55:34
Yeah, there was the truffle. Flavor.
55:35
These truffles aren't good. Like no, you just don't know
55:37
what truffles taste like because most people think it tastes like
55:39
truffle oil, right? Right, last, last question,
55:43
chef, you were talking about your buddies knives.
55:48
What is? Like if if you look at your,
55:50
your tool kit, knives, spoons, tweezers, whatever tools that
55:54
you have in your, in your thing, like what's the one thing that's
55:57
like, everybody should have one of these like that, not the
56:02
obvious, not the chef's like, like what's the other thing that
56:04
people, the underutilized tool that people don't use enough?
56:07
Are they a petty knife? Petty.
56:09
A sharp, petty knife, Yeah. You can survive any kitchen,
56:12
bro, you know what I'm saying? Like you don't break down
56:15
rabbits with that. You can break down fish.
56:17
You can break down then do your, your, your, your little, you
56:21
know, your little herb work you can do.
56:25
You don't cut things, you know what I mean?
56:27
Like on the station. But a penny knife.
56:29
I think it's it's it's one of my favorite knives.
56:33
I have three of those and I always keep them sharp and all,
56:35
like. And and you when you're doing
56:37
like adventure stuff, you don't want to bring your big old chef
56:40
knife, you know, bring a little roll with with your petty knife
56:43
and couple spoons like boom, you're good.
56:45
You know what I'm saying? So it's the most it's the most
56:48
it's a utility. That's why it's called utility
56:49
knife was you use it for everything.
56:51
So I love AI, love a great petty knife chef.
56:54
Where? Can people find you?
56:56
Probably here in Austin, TX. OCO on E 6th St.
57:00
Find me on Instagram. Chef Harold Villa Rosa and I'm.
57:04
I'm all over, man. Just just look up.
57:06
Yeah, well, it's good seeing you, Chef.
57:07
Thank you so much for your. Time.
57:08
Thank you. Well, I hope you enjoyed the.
57:10
Show let me know what you think comment down below.
57:12
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57:31
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