1 00:00:00,080 --> 00:00:02,400 If we didn't get a start, it was going to be motivation for us to 2 00:00:02,400 --> 00:00:05,040 get a start. If we did get a start, I was 3 00:00:05,040 --> 00:00:08,840 going to make sure that the team understood that that start 4 00:00:08,840 --> 00:00:12,600 doesn't make us better than anyone, but we have more 5 00:00:12,600 --> 00:00:15,240 responsibility than anyone. Hello chefs. 6 00:00:15,240 --> 00:00:17,240 This is Chefs PSA and I'm your host Andre Natera. 7 00:00:17,240 --> 00:00:20,440 Today I'm joined by Chef Emmanuel Chavez of Tatamo in 8 00:00:20,440 --> 00:00:23,680 Houston, a Michelin starred chef whose tasting menu restaurant 9 00:00:23,680 --> 00:00:27,080 has earned national recognition, including Esquire's Best New 10 00:00:27,080 --> 00:00:30,040 Restaurants and a James Beard Best New Restaurant Finalist 11 00:00:30,040 --> 00:00:32,000 nod. In this episode we talked about 12 00:00:32,000 --> 00:00:35,320 the origins, the pressure of rapid success, and what it takes 13 00:00:35,320 --> 00:00:38,360 to build and run a Michelin level tasting menu in a tiny 14 00:00:38,360 --> 00:00:39,680 kitchen. We talked about growth, 15 00:00:39,680 --> 00:00:41,840 leadership, and finding your voice under pressure. 16 00:00:41,960 --> 00:00:56,240 Stay tuned. Chef, I'm glad you're here. 17 00:00:56,720 --> 00:00:58,680 I want to first of all congratulate you on all the 18 00:00:58,680 --> 00:01:01,200 success that you've achieved lately. 19 00:01:01,200 --> 00:01:04,640 So the Michelin star, congratulations, but you've 20 00:01:04,760 --> 00:01:07,440 you've been on a run. How did we get here? 21 00:01:07,440 --> 00:01:10,640 Like how did this run began? It is. 22 00:01:10,720 --> 00:01:12,880 Thank you for having us. It's super excited to be here. 23 00:01:12,880 --> 00:01:16,040 Massive fan. I don't know, things just kind 24 00:01:16,040 --> 00:01:20,600 of just happened so, so quickly. And then you have 30 seconds to 25 00:01:20,600 --> 00:01:23,480 yourself, whether it's in the restroom contemplating your 26 00:01:23,480 --> 00:01:25,320 whole career. And then you start to think back 27 00:01:25,320 --> 00:01:28,120 like, man, I'm 20 plus years into cooking. 28 00:01:28,120 --> 00:01:30,840 It's hasn't been that, that fast. 29 00:01:32,240 --> 00:01:35,320 But I, I, I love it that you started with, with the accolades 30 00:01:35,320 --> 00:01:38,960 because off camera we're talking about accolades, how they can be 31 00:01:38,960 --> 00:01:41,960 a double edged sword. And for restaurants like ours 32 00:01:41,960 --> 00:01:46,560 that people don't know that are the modern day small business 33 00:01:46,600 --> 00:01:50,240 mom and pop, so to speak there. We're not, we don't have the 34 00:01:50,240 --> 00:01:52,360 infrastructure for certain accolades. 35 00:01:53,200 --> 00:01:56,520 So when we started accumulating at a really fast pace, it 36 00:01:58,800 --> 00:02:04,480 definitely shifted how we tried our basically our whole five 37 00:02:04,480 --> 00:02:08,240 year plan changed. We're no longer to be making the 38 00:02:08,240 --> 00:02:10,880 mistakes that most restaurants or business owners were able to 39 00:02:10,880 --> 00:02:12,760 make. We had to tighten up the ship 40 00:02:13,120 --> 00:02:15,320 without having the infrastructure, the financial 41 00:02:15,320 --> 00:02:19,080 help or even the space to like be able to accommodate those 42 00:02:19,400 --> 00:02:22,000 accolades coming our way. When did the team open? 43 00:02:22,560 --> 00:02:25,800 We signed lease 2021, we open 2022. 44 00:02:25,800 --> 00:02:27,880 So there's like idea was born in the pandemic. 45 00:02:28,240 --> 00:02:30,840 Basically, yeah, we're while everyone was doing sourdough, 46 00:02:30,840 --> 00:02:32,120 we're doing tortillas. Yeah. 47 00:02:32,320 --> 00:02:36,480 And it kind of just didn't stop. When, when you opened it in 48 00:02:36,480 --> 00:02:38,960 2021? So now we're in 2026. 49 00:02:39,480 --> 00:02:41,840 How different is it when you open to what it is now from a, 50 00:02:41,880 --> 00:02:44,840 from a food philosophy, from cuisine or even service? 51 00:02:45,200 --> 00:02:49,120 Everything when we started, we wanted to use, we wanted to do a 52 00:02:49,120 --> 00:02:52,280 restaurant, right, But pandemic restaurants didn't exist. 53 00:02:52,480 --> 00:02:56,000 So we shifted into wholesale. So now we had to learn how to 54 00:02:56,560 --> 00:03:01,000 create accounts, mass produced tortillas, give those the masa 55 00:03:01,000 --> 00:03:03,440 to other chefs to be able to do other things during the pandemic 56 00:03:03,440 --> 00:03:05,640 and specials. So we were no longer cooking. 57 00:03:05,640 --> 00:03:09,400 We would just we're providing a business or service. 58 00:03:09,680 --> 00:03:14,720 So that was very hard ship in, in my career 'cause I had no, I 59 00:03:14,720 --> 00:03:19,120 didn't know how to bulk anything up until something that was 60 00:03:19,120 --> 00:03:23,440 going to be used, utilized for some someone else being a chef. 61 00:03:23,440 --> 00:03:27,160 And you know, it's very selfish. Like my, my masa, my dish, my, 62 00:03:27,160 --> 00:03:28,720 my vision. It's no longer that. 63 00:03:28,720 --> 00:03:31,680 It's about the customer, the driving and delivery, the 64 00:03:31,760 --> 00:03:36,320 invoices and things of that. Once we got over the hump and 65 00:03:36,320 --> 00:03:40,800 things kind of just started to flourish and make sense for us, 66 00:03:40,800 --> 00:03:44,680 then we started going back and like, OK, this, this worked for 67 00:03:44,680 --> 00:03:47,360 us. This is funding itself. 68 00:03:47,920 --> 00:03:51,120 Let's go back into the restaurant and we've opened 16 69 00:03:51,120 --> 00:03:55,400 seated, 16 seats tasting menu. That wasn't a tasting menu. 70 00:03:55,600 --> 00:03:57,600 So you opened a la carte and then transition tasting? 71 00:03:57,600 --> 00:04:00,000 Menu No, we've opened brunch. Oh, you opened for brunch? 72 00:04:00,080 --> 00:04:01,800 Because we were doing pop ups, man. 73 00:04:02,040 --> 00:04:03,760 It's a bad word in a lot of places. 74 00:04:03,760 --> 00:04:06,840 It is. So it's funny because I, I, I 75 00:04:06,840 --> 00:04:09,800 have a, a line of clothing that I do for chefs. 76 00:04:09,800 --> 00:04:13,880 PSA it says Buck French and people ask me like, do I hate 77 00:04:13,880 --> 00:04:14,880 brunch? No, I don't hate it. 78 00:04:14,920 --> 00:04:18,959 Like I just I, I don't like working it and my gripe with 79 00:04:18,959 --> 00:04:20,600 brunch. So I want to, I want to make 80 00:04:20,600 --> 00:04:22,720 sure I go on record because I sometimes people like it like 81 00:04:22,720 --> 00:04:25,680 haters like what you know, brunches like I understand that 82 00:04:26,360 --> 00:04:28,840 my problem with brunch is sometimes a restaurant's not set 83 00:04:28,840 --> 00:04:29,840 up to deliver it. Correct. 84 00:04:30,120 --> 00:04:32,240 There's restaurants that are set up to deliver brunch, meaning to 85 00:04:32,240 --> 00:04:35,920 have an AM crew and APM crew and the AM crew knows how to work 86 00:04:35,920 --> 00:04:37,960 it. Where I have a problem with 87 00:04:37,960 --> 00:04:42,040 brunch is that it's the PM crew during dinner service Saturday 88 00:04:42,040 --> 00:04:46,720 night, the busiest service, prepping for brunch, closing, 89 00:04:47,120 --> 00:04:50,640 going out, partying, coming in hungover and opening for brunch. 90 00:04:50,680 --> 00:04:51,960 That's where I have a problem with brunch. 91 00:04:51,960 --> 00:04:55,520 So for people that aren't sure why I I hate brunch so much, I 92 00:04:55,520 --> 00:04:57,520 don't hate brunch. Like I understand it's also a 93 00:04:57,720 --> 00:05:01,920 great driver of revenue in the economic engine and it's a it's 94 00:05:01,920 --> 00:05:07,120 a great meal period. Like if you're paying rent on 95 00:05:07,120 --> 00:05:10,000 your property, like you're paying for that service when 96 00:05:10,000 --> 00:05:12,240 you're closed too. So why not be open? 97 00:05:12,240 --> 00:05:14,360 You're even, I'm excited you're paying for Sunday brunch rent, 98 00:05:14,360 --> 00:05:16,840 so might as well serve it. So I get that my thing is like, 99 00:05:17,000 --> 00:05:19,440 but if you're going to do it, don't do it to the detriment of 100 00:05:19,440 --> 00:05:20,440 your staff. Correct. 101 00:05:20,440 --> 00:05:22,920 No, I I agree 100% and I've worked in restaurants where it 102 00:05:23,360 --> 00:05:27,160 is exactly what you described. Saturday night service, we deep 103 00:05:27,160 --> 00:05:31,240 clean, leave at 1:00 AM and then come back at 7:00 AM and prep or 104 00:05:31,280 --> 00:05:33,720 I worked at restaurants where the Saturday night crew kind of 105 00:05:33,720 --> 00:05:36,760 tap into the prep for brunch and then you come in thinking you're 106 00:05:36,760 --> 00:05:39,200 ready to go and then your shallots are gone, your chives 107 00:05:39,200 --> 00:05:42,240 are gone and it's it's a mess. If it's not even structured 108 00:05:42,240 --> 00:05:45,440 properly, it can be been in the. Ass I I joke around. 109 00:05:45,440 --> 00:05:50,080 I say brunch is the only service that that ruined Sunday brunch 110 00:05:50,080 --> 00:05:53,200 ruined Saturday night dinner because because the cooks were 111 00:05:53,200 --> 00:05:55,920 busy prepping brunch instead of focusing about the orders. 112 00:05:56,520 --> 00:06:01,040 But I've come to realize that brunch actually makes some of 113 00:06:01,040 --> 00:06:03,120 the greatest cooks. If you endure brunch, if you 114 00:06:03,120 --> 00:06:06,040 love it, because brunch is more about nurturing people than the 115 00:06:06,040 --> 00:06:08,280 actual. It has to be a great dish, 116 00:06:08,520 --> 00:06:10,400 right? It's about commodity and 117 00:06:10,400 --> 00:06:14,240 understanding the you mean some plus list, understanding that 118 00:06:14,240 --> 00:06:16,520 you have to be up on time, that you have a responsibility to the 119 00:06:16,520 --> 00:06:19,400 team not to go out. But if you endure those things, 120 00:06:19,760 --> 00:06:22,440 Oh my God, you're going to have a very successful career. 121 00:06:22,440 --> 00:06:26,080 Yeah, So little things. So, so you, you open for brunch 122 00:06:26,080 --> 00:06:29,000 and then and then from there you transition into like, how do we 123 00:06:29,000 --> 00:06:31,640 go from brunch to tasting menu? We went from brunch because. 124 00:06:31,640 --> 00:06:33,040 It's funny. Well, people don't know if if 125 00:06:33,040 --> 00:06:34,960 you didn't pick up what I said earlier, they're not familiar 126 00:06:34,960 --> 00:06:37,280 with you. Like how do we go from brunch to 127 00:06:37,280 --> 00:06:39,600 Michelin *? That's a great question. 128 00:06:39,680 --> 00:06:42,840 We went from brunch. We started with brunch because 129 00:06:42,840 --> 00:06:45,120 we're doing the pop ups in between. 130 00:06:45,200 --> 00:06:47,920 So people knew of us through pop ups. 131 00:06:47,920 --> 00:06:50,560 So it was going to be very hard for us to just transition random 132 00:06:50,560 --> 00:06:53,720 like we no longer doing pancakes and because of the yes, we're 133 00:06:53,720 --> 00:06:56,640 going to do a tasty menu. So we understood the market, 134 00:06:56,640 --> 00:06:57,960 right? You have to like slowly make 135 00:06:57,960 --> 00:07:01,400 that transition. Instead of us doing pop ups, we 136 00:07:01,400 --> 00:07:03,520 had to bring people in. So how do you reap people in? 137 00:07:03,800 --> 00:07:07,080 By giving, by putting things on the plate that they trust you 138 00:07:07,200 --> 00:07:10,200 that they enjoy. So the smart thing for us was to 139 00:07:10,200 --> 00:07:13,600 start with brunch, get their trust back, get them to come to 140 00:07:13,600 --> 00:07:16,760 us, understand where the space is, the commute and things of 141 00:07:16,760 --> 00:07:18,240 that. Once we got through that hump, 142 00:07:19,320 --> 00:07:21,880 then slowly we started like, hey, now we're doing a tasting 143 00:07:21,880 --> 00:07:23,520 menu. It's going to be 4 courses. 144 00:07:23,920 --> 00:07:25,680 Two months in, that's five courses. 145 00:07:25,680 --> 00:07:28,520 That's 5565. Little by little we start 146 00:07:28,520 --> 00:07:30,520 adding. The thing that we I think worked 147 00:07:30,520 --> 00:07:32,240 for us is that we didn't do it with an ego. 148 00:07:32,920 --> 00:07:36,400 People open restaurants with egos and not with business 149 00:07:36,400 --> 00:07:38,440 plans. We open it with a business plan 150 00:07:38,440 --> 00:07:45,360 and not with the ego. So we slowly increased what we 151 00:07:45,360 --> 00:07:48,080 were able to do and that kind of helped. 152 00:07:48,080 --> 00:07:52,200 Those kind of got it. Once we got the first accolate, 153 00:07:52,480 --> 00:07:53,840 then we started to attract cooks. 154 00:07:53,840 --> 00:07:56,520 What was the first big accolade that you got that started? 155 00:07:56,520 --> 00:07:59,200 You started to see the shift and not only how you operated but 156 00:07:59,200 --> 00:08:02,240 also in attracting. Cooks, I think, if I'm not 157 00:08:02,240 --> 00:08:08,200 wrong, Squire named those one of the, I think it's 5025, best in 158 00:08:08,200 --> 00:08:12,000 America, 2022. And I do think they rank them. 159 00:08:12,000 --> 00:08:16,680 If I'm not mistaken, I think we ranked at 10 and that tracked a 160 00:08:16,680 --> 00:08:21,040 lot of got a lot of attraction because before that in Houston, 161 00:08:21,040 --> 00:08:24,640 there was in a lot of restaurants coming up in the in 162 00:08:24,640 --> 00:08:27,800 a national way in the national life locally, yeah, left and 163 00:08:27,800 --> 00:08:29,440 right, we open restaurants nationally. 164 00:08:29,680 --> 00:08:34,640 I think we're one after maybe Oxford by Justin that was kind 165 00:08:34,640 --> 00:08:37,120 of being recognized at a national level and that 166 00:08:37,120 --> 00:08:40,320 definitely piqued people's interest and started to see, oh 167 00:08:40,320 --> 00:08:43,919 wow, the pandemic, kids are doing something special and that 168 00:08:43,919 --> 00:08:46,720 just that came. Did you say the pandemic kids 169 00:08:46,720 --> 00:08:47,360 that's. Pandemic kids. 170 00:08:47,360 --> 00:08:49,320 Yeah, I liked it. It was those as a pandemic 171 00:08:49,560 --> 00:08:51,480 babies, kids. Yeah, OK. 172 00:08:51,480 --> 00:08:52,560 There's a lot of new. Restaurants there. 173 00:08:52,560 --> 00:08:54,920 Pandemic babies it is. Yeah, it's a lot of those out 174 00:08:54,920 --> 00:08:55,680 there. Yeah. 175 00:08:56,920 --> 00:08:58,800 How did it feel when you got that Esquire? 176 00:08:59,040 --> 00:09:03,680 Like, like when you started to realize that, hey, OK, this is 177 00:09:03,680 --> 00:09:07,040 something, how did it, how did that Esquire feel when it first 178 00:09:07,040 --> 00:09:08,360 came out? Honestly didn't feel like 179 00:09:08,360 --> 00:09:11,120 anything because I didn't. I knew we weren't ready for it. 180 00:09:11,680 --> 00:09:12,640 But you thought you weren't ready. 181 00:09:12,640 --> 00:09:13,880 For it. I knew we weren't ready for it 182 00:09:14,680 --> 00:09:17,560 again, not from a legal standpoint from like, OK, we're 183 00:09:17,720 --> 00:09:19,480 going to get busy. People are going to expect more 184 00:09:19,480 --> 00:09:21,880 from us. We don't have the infrastructure 185 00:09:21,880 --> 00:09:24,240 for it. So now we got to be very careful 186 00:09:24,520 --> 00:09:28,600 how how we take this, right? Let's take the compliment, but 187 00:09:28,600 --> 00:09:31,560 then let's move past it. It doesn't exist the following 188 00:09:31,560 --> 00:09:32,440 day. Just put it away. 189 00:09:32,600 --> 00:09:34,480 It's going to be there forever, right? 190 00:09:34,480 --> 00:09:37,160 But let's little by little, let's not say yes to everything. 191 00:09:37,440 --> 00:09:38,880 We don't have to do every pop up. 192 00:09:38,880 --> 00:09:40,440 We don't have to do every chef guess. 193 00:09:40,760 --> 00:09:43,280 Slowly start building a culture within the team. 194 00:09:43,320 --> 00:09:45,600 Let's start bringing in more talent, teaching them properly, 195 00:09:45,600 --> 00:09:48,160 and then we'll see what what where that gets us. 196 00:09:48,160 --> 00:09:51,360 That's really mature. Of you by the way, I I I know 197 00:09:51,360 --> 00:09:53,800 like a lot of people that get a little bit of shine. 198 00:09:53,800 --> 00:09:56,280 It's like I'm the fucking best it. 199 00:09:56,400 --> 00:09:59,440 Doesn't work like that. Yeah, it doesn't work like that. 200 00:09:59,440 --> 00:10:01,280 Fresh news one day or news the next day. 201 00:10:01,280 --> 00:10:03,600 It's the cycle of life. Yeah, how did? 202 00:10:04,480 --> 00:10:07,160 OK, so let me let me ask you this because you were also 203 00:10:07,160 --> 00:10:11,280 nominated for James Beard. I think the following year, 204 00:10:11,280 --> 00:10:14,440 right? And then that was the same year 205 00:10:14,440 --> 00:10:16,680 that you achieved your first Michelin *. 206 00:10:17,160 --> 00:10:22,720 No, so right after this Squire 2023, we got finalists for best 207 00:10:22,720 --> 00:10:25,000 new restaurant James B Foundation. 208 00:10:25,440 --> 00:10:31,160 That definitely felt a little bit more nerve wracking I guess 209 00:10:31,360 --> 00:10:35,480 because people were like Oh my God, like 16 seater at that 210 00:10:35,480 --> 00:10:37,560 point. I can tell you our menu fucking 211 00:10:37,600 --> 00:10:40,520 sucked. We weren't, that wasn't what it 212 00:10:40,520 --> 00:10:42,160 is now. We're still very fresh. 213 00:10:42,160 --> 00:10:45,200 We're on that one year mark trying to figure out making a 214 00:10:45,200 --> 00:10:47,880 lot of mistakes. I was making a lot of mistakes 215 00:10:47,880 --> 00:10:50,240 with their ordering, leading the team. 216 00:10:50,320 --> 00:10:54,160 I think leading the team were was my some of my biggest, not 217 00:10:54,160 --> 00:10:56,200 regrets, but lessons learned early on. 218 00:10:56,200 --> 00:10:59,320 What do you mean? I wanted it to be like the 219 00:10:59,320 --> 00:11:05,760 restaurants that I came up in. Very not hostile, but definitely 220 00:11:05,760 --> 00:11:10,720 very intense because I, I enjoyed it, but that didn't mean 221 00:11:10,720 --> 00:11:12,760 that the team that was there enjoyed it. 222 00:11:13,120 --> 00:11:14,400 They were definitely not there for that. 223 00:11:14,640 --> 00:11:19,920 So I had to separate my, my beliefs and my experiences to 224 00:11:19,920 --> 00:11:23,600 what my restaurant needed and was becoming. 225 00:11:24,000 --> 00:11:25,840 And that's where I go bike once and needs. 226 00:11:26,480 --> 00:11:28,480 Kitchens are brutal right now, everyone knows it. 227 00:11:28,960 --> 00:11:31,760 Fewer people on the line, margins tighter than ever, and 228 00:11:31,760 --> 00:11:33,880 somehow the expectations keep going up. 229 00:11:34,040 --> 00:11:35,800 There's just no room to miss anymore. 230 00:11:35,960 --> 00:11:38,560 I was talking to a chef recently who said the biggest stress 231 00:11:38,560 --> 00:11:40,760 wasn't the volume, it was the mental load. 232 00:11:41,160 --> 00:11:44,640 Babysitting, food, timing, everything perfectly, trying to 233 00:11:44,640 --> 00:11:47,640 be everywhere at once. And that's where equipment 234 00:11:47,640 --> 00:11:49,160 matters more than people want to admit. 235 00:11:49,480 --> 00:11:52,800 Rationals Technology comes up a lot in those conversations. 236 00:11:52,800 --> 00:11:56,320 The Icon B Pro, the Ivario Pro overnight roast that don't need 237 00:11:56,320 --> 00:11:59,280 to be checked, custom programs for all your recipes, 238 00:11:59,520 --> 00:12:02,960 consistency without hovering completely automated cleaning, 239 00:12:03,200 --> 00:12:05,960 monitoring everything from your phone, the list goes on. 240 00:12:05,960 --> 00:12:08,240 And what really buys you the headspace? 241 00:12:08,600 --> 00:12:11,360 Less standing over pans and more time to leave the kitchen 242 00:12:11,360 --> 00:12:13,560 instead of constantly putting out tiny fires. 243 00:12:13,720 --> 00:12:17,000 When you're down to cook, When the prep list is rough, when the 244 00:12:17,000 --> 00:12:19,160 production ramps up. Think rational. 245 00:12:19,200 --> 00:12:20,720 Why? Why do you think you enjoyed the 246 00:12:20,720 --> 00:12:23,000 intense kitchen? Because I did too. 247 00:12:23,000 --> 00:12:28,880 I like, I enjoy intense kitchen, but I, I also realized that in 248 00:12:28,880 --> 00:12:33,560 intense kitchens and kitchens were maybe the culture is a 249 00:12:33,560 --> 00:12:35,440 little bit different. A lot of it has to do with the 250 00:12:35,440 --> 00:12:39,560 people in those kitchens and you, you adapt a little bit. 251 00:12:39,640 --> 00:12:42,720 You know, if you have a group of very intense people, you could 252 00:12:42,720 --> 00:12:44,280 run it that way. But if you have people that are 253 00:12:44,280 --> 00:12:45,560 not that way, you can't run it that way. 254 00:12:45,560 --> 00:12:49,640 And I think a good chef understands how to get the best 255 00:12:49,640 --> 00:12:51,360 out of their team in a healthy way. 256 00:12:51,680 --> 00:12:53,560 Correct. And that's funny you said that 257 00:12:53,560 --> 00:12:57,400 because last year someone in my team that's been with me like 258 00:12:57,440 --> 00:13:00,800 almost three years brought that to my attention was like, hey, 259 00:13:01,720 --> 00:13:05,120 you're not so intense anymore. And I said the restaurant 260 00:13:05,120 --> 00:13:08,040 shifts, changes we have, I'm like the coach, right? 261 00:13:08,040 --> 00:13:10,520 I'm not the star player. You guys are the star players. 262 00:13:10,520 --> 00:13:13,640 I need to figure out your strengths and your weaknesses. 263 00:13:13,640 --> 00:13:16,960 And I have to like adjust the styles to ensure that we all 264 00:13:16,960 --> 00:13:19,920 succeed. So I like you said, I can't be 265 00:13:19,920 --> 00:13:22,960 intense like I used to because not everybody enjoys that and 266 00:13:23,760 --> 00:13:26,560 they, no, not everyone can perform well under that 267 00:13:26,560 --> 00:13:28,920 pressure. So he was like, OK, I kind of 268 00:13:28,920 --> 00:13:31,560 see that, but I kind of miss the intensity from back then. 269 00:13:31,560 --> 00:13:33,600 Just because we're not intense doesn't mean we don't have high 270 00:13:33,600 --> 00:13:35,360 standards. And I told him that and I had to 271 00:13:35,360 --> 00:13:39,520 learn that the hard way, right? I personally enjoy it because as 272 00:13:39,520 --> 00:13:44,000 an immigrant, you're forced to understand that you're going to 273 00:13:44,000 --> 00:13:46,720 be in, in uncomfortable environments, right? 274 00:13:46,720 --> 00:13:50,040 So whether it was going to a school that where you didn't 275 00:13:50,040 --> 00:13:52,480 speak in English, that was uncomfortable, right? 276 00:13:52,800 --> 00:13:55,600 Going to a job and not getting the job because of what, what 277 00:13:55,600 --> 00:13:57,800 you sounded like or how you look like, that was uncomfortable. 278 00:13:58,800 --> 00:14:01,200 Playing sports, right? You weren't always getting the 279 00:14:01,200 --> 00:14:03,920 opportunities to, to either start on a team because of your 280 00:14:03,920 --> 00:14:07,800 skin color. So those intensities were in my 281 00:14:07,800 --> 00:14:10,280 DNA very at a, at 9 years of age. 282 00:14:10,600 --> 00:14:13,760 So being in the kitchen and being told that you can't be 283 00:14:13,760 --> 00:14:17,000 promoted to a Swiss ship because you're Hispanic, that drove me, 284 00:14:17,000 --> 00:14:19,600 that that fueled me. I was ready to like. 285 00:14:19,840 --> 00:14:22,880 Yeah, I'll tell you, I, I don't think I've ever said this on the 286 00:14:22,880 --> 00:14:26,480 podcast. This is like one of my kitchen 287 00:14:26,480 --> 00:14:29,640 traumas, kitchen traumas, one of my first jobs. 288 00:14:31,040 --> 00:14:33,360 And for people that don't know I'm Hispanic, people don't know 289 00:14:33,360 --> 00:14:35,760 that. And I, I hate to say I was 290 00:14:35,760 --> 00:14:39,400 probably more Hispanic when I was younger because, you know, I 291 00:14:39,400 --> 00:14:41,960 was, I was, I was straight out the hood, right? 292 00:14:42,280 --> 00:14:44,240 I've, I've been a chef now. I've been in corporate 293 00:14:44,240 --> 00:14:47,640 environments like I've, I've toned down the the hood in me. 294 00:14:49,400 --> 00:14:53,400 But I remember one of my first jobs, I remember I was so pissed 295 00:14:53,400 --> 00:14:55,800 because I had just graduated from culinary school. 296 00:14:55,800 --> 00:14:58,080 I probably had about a year experience under my belt and I 297 00:14:58,080 --> 00:15:01,360 was working in this fine dining restaurant at the time and 298 00:15:03,480 --> 00:15:05,880 someone from the CIA had graduated and they were an 299 00:15:05,880 --> 00:15:09,560 intern. Susha loved to fuck with me and 300 00:15:09,560 --> 00:15:11,000 he'd come up to me and that's your new boss. 301 00:15:11,080 --> 00:15:14,400 I'm like, how's he my new boss? Like he's an intern, I've 302 00:15:14,400 --> 00:15:17,480 graduated even though I didn't go to CIA, but they're like, but 303 00:15:17,480 --> 00:15:20,120 he's CIA. And we would grind my gear so 304 00:15:20,120 --> 00:15:22,800 much. And back then, you know, 'cause 305 00:15:22,800 --> 00:15:24,320 you know, kitchens were different. 306 00:15:24,320 --> 00:15:26,840 You know, my nickname in the kitchen was a stupido, right? 307 00:15:26,920 --> 00:15:29,120 Or Feto which is like fetus for people that don't know. 308 00:15:29,520 --> 00:15:31,920 Yeah, yeah. So, so my nickname in the 309 00:15:31,920 --> 00:15:35,560 kitchen was Feto, 'cause I was young, so that that meant fetus 310 00:15:37,000 --> 00:15:38,800 or a stupido. So when I come into the kitchen 311 00:15:38,800 --> 00:15:41,960 they'd Hi everyone stupidos here, you know, they'd make a 312 00:15:41,960 --> 00:15:44,080 big deal. You know, it was whatever, but 313 00:15:44,080 --> 00:15:46,640 I, I'll never forget that my chef came up to me in a fucked 314 00:15:46,640 --> 00:15:51,400 up way because he knew that this kid coming in as an intern and 315 00:15:51,400 --> 00:15:53,240 he would say that's going to be your like he would constantly 316 00:15:53,240 --> 00:15:54,800 fuck with me. Like that's your new boss. 317 00:15:55,360 --> 00:15:58,000 And he came up to me and he says this is fucked up. 318 00:15:58,000 --> 00:15:59,880 This might trigger warning for some people. 319 00:16:00,280 --> 00:16:04,360 Comes up to me and says, you know what we call someone that 320 00:16:04,360 --> 00:16:07,560 speaks English in the kitchen, Andre and I said, what's that? 321 00:16:07,560 --> 00:16:09,920 He says we call them Chef. That's. 322 00:16:10,800 --> 00:16:13,840 And I was like, it was like one of those moments that I was 323 00:16:13,840 --> 00:16:19,080 like, I boiled over in anger. I wanted to kill the guy. 324 00:16:19,640 --> 00:16:22,400 I didn't understand. But there was also a part of me 325 00:16:22,400 --> 00:16:25,480 that understood that I was a guest in this environment that I 326 00:16:25,480 --> 00:16:27,800 wanted to succeed in. So I couldn't spill over in 327 00:16:27,800 --> 00:16:29,880 anger. But it was one of these 328 00:16:30,040 --> 00:16:32,440 emotional scars that has stayed with me forever. 329 00:16:32,600 --> 00:16:33,720 So I understand what you're talking. 330 00:16:33,720 --> 00:16:37,560 About yeah, I need that intensity drove me to the next 331 00:16:37,560 --> 00:16:41,280 job, so yeah. Wow, yeah, it's, it's it's 332 00:16:41,280 --> 00:16:44,400 tough. And I and I don't think, I 333 00:16:44,400 --> 00:16:48,560 don't, I don't know if people fully understand what a cook 334 00:16:48,960 --> 00:16:55,560 chef go through when they come into a kitchen that they, you 335 00:16:55,600 --> 00:16:57,480 know, they, they think they're walking into Disneyland because 336 00:16:57,480 --> 00:16:59,520 they're young and they're naive and they don't know what this 337 00:16:59,520 --> 00:17:01,520 is. And they watch some Food Network 338 00:17:01,520 --> 00:17:05,160 and they walk in and, and they walk in and they think I'm I'm 339 00:17:05,160 --> 00:17:08,440 right out of high school, I'm 18 years old, or I'm out of school 340 00:17:08,440 --> 00:17:10,280 and I'm 20 years old out of culinary school. 341 00:17:10,520 --> 00:17:12,599 And you walk into kitchen, you think everyone has that same 342 00:17:12,599 --> 00:17:14,640 mentality. And you realize the line cook 343 00:17:14,640 --> 00:17:16,040 next to you is 40. Right. 344 00:17:16,680 --> 00:17:18,400 They don't give a shit about you. 345 00:17:19,319 --> 00:17:23,960 They've, they've had, you know, 20 years of, of you'll figure it 346 00:17:23,960 --> 00:17:24,480 out. Yeah. 347 00:17:25,160 --> 00:17:26,960 And. But I, I enjoy those moments 348 00:17:26,960 --> 00:17:31,520 because I, when I was in those in those kitchens, I, I must 349 00:17:31,520 --> 00:17:36,880 have been like 1617. So I idolize the guys that were 350 00:17:36,880 --> 00:17:43,240 twice my age that were telling me, don't listen to a cookbook 351 00:17:43,520 --> 00:17:47,920 from Noma, right, because those ingredients don't, don't 352 00:17:47,920 --> 00:17:50,360 translate in Texas, understand Texas. 353 00:17:51,360 --> 00:17:54,560 So they definitely, even though they were tough and it was tough 354 00:17:54,560 --> 00:17:57,080 love and sometimes it sucked and opportunities went there. 355 00:17:57,320 --> 00:17:59,720 There are very moments, there are pockets of moments that 356 00:17:59,720 --> 00:18:02,400 you're like looking back now, because I'm now I'm their age 357 00:18:02,400 --> 00:18:06,080 and I look back, I'm like, wow, like that stuck with me 358 00:18:06,360 --> 00:18:09,680 throughout the years because if I would have not listened to 359 00:18:09,680 --> 00:18:12,760 that moment of like, don't do that, That's leave that to that, 360 00:18:12,760 --> 00:18:15,240 that side. Do do this because this is you, 361 00:18:15,520 --> 00:18:18,200 this is ours. It's it's our responsibility to 362 00:18:18,200 --> 00:18:21,720 take ownership of it and, and evolve it and move it forward 363 00:18:21,960 --> 00:18:23,480 and learn from it and then pass it on. 364 00:18:23,720 --> 00:18:26,320 I don't think I would have had the career that I have now for 365 00:18:26,320 --> 00:18:29,600 sure. How did it feel looking? 366 00:18:29,680 --> 00:18:31,400 Yeah. You're talking about your story, 367 00:18:31,520 --> 00:18:35,400 immigrant, struggling sometimes with your identity in your own 368 00:18:35,400 --> 00:18:39,200 skin. And then how did it feel to be 369 00:18:39,640 --> 00:18:43,480 called up on the stage to receive a Michelin star? 370 00:18:43,640 --> 00:18:45,320 You know, one of the few restaurants in Houston. 371 00:18:45,320 --> 00:18:46,640 So who else got a star in Houston? 372 00:18:46,640 --> 00:18:48,760 You March. Le Jardinian. 373 00:18:48,800 --> 00:18:52,280 Yeah, 33. Restaurants, Foster and I 374 00:18:52,280 --> 00:18:54,760 believe a BBQ spot, yeah. So. 375 00:18:55,000 --> 00:18:59,400 It's like 6 obesian. So how did I mean, like there's 376 00:18:59,760 --> 00:19:02,080 there's legacy in Houston, so many great chefs, Chris 377 00:19:02,080 --> 00:19:07,160 Sheppard, so many other greats that are that are there and 378 00:19:07,560 --> 00:19:12,520 people that have been doing it. And you're going to have some 379 00:19:12,520 --> 00:19:16,680 haters saying that, you know why you and not me? 380 00:19:17,200 --> 00:19:20,080 How did it feel when you were called on stage? 381 00:19:20,120 --> 00:19:21,800 First of all, did you think you were going to get a star? 382 00:19:21,800 --> 00:19:24,120 Oh. Man, I'm probably going to get 383 00:19:24,120 --> 00:19:30,680 roasted for this. They my whole idea was operate 384 00:19:30,680 --> 00:19:33,880 the restaurant at a once like we have a Michelin star before even 385 00:19:33,880 --> 00:19:35,440 their guide. That's since they won since 386 00:19:35,440 --> 00:19:39,800 20/21 was open the restaurant with the mentality of we're 387 00:19:39,800 --> 00:19:42,200 going to get a start. We need a star for in personal 388 00:19:42,200 --> 00:19:46,800 integrity, right? Take ownership, do it right, do 389 00:19:46,800 --> 00:19:48,520 right by the team, take your time. 390 00:19:48,640 --> 00:19:51,360 Taste, taste, taste right. Hospitality. 391 00:19:51,800 --> 00:19:54,320 That was my that that was a model of the restaurant. 392 00:19:54,320 --> 00:19:56,760 And that's something that was given to me at a very young age. 393 00:19:56,760 --> 00:19:59,560 And that's something that I to this day, it's like hospitality 394 00:19:59,560 --> 00:20:03,600 tastes now, maybe some things are out of place and order, but 395 00:20:03,600 --> 00:20:08,520 that's the, the root of it all. So I wasn't personally shocked 396 00:20:08,720 --> 00:20:12,040 when the guide was announced and my restaurant was already 397 00:20:12,040 --> 00:20:13,360 operating. At that's what you were aiming 398 00:20:13,400 --> 00:20:15,280 for. Not because I needed to start, 399 00:20:15,440 --> 00:20:17,520 but for personal integrity, right? 400 00:20:17,520 --> 00:20:21,000 So I feel like I had a head start before everyone else 401 00:20:21,000 --> 00:20:23,600 because when the guy was announced, now everyone wants to 402 00:20:23,600 --> 00:20:25,240 like tighten up and do tasty menus. 403 00:20:25,760 --> 00:20:30,000 It's been engraved and since I was 20 years old and me so to me 404 00:20:30,000 --> 00:20:33,320 wasn't strange. So I wasn't surprised by it, but 405 00:20:33,320 --> 00:20:37,680 it definitely felt a sense of calmness. 406 00:20:38,160 --> 00:20:40,280 Calmness before the storm for sure. 407 00:20:40,720 --> 00:20:43,480 I was calm because I was like, OK, I'm not too crazy. 408 00:20:43,600 --> 00:20:47,600 My format works. But then I was like, tomorrow 409 00:20:47,760 --> 00:20:52,440 when the repos and the Congrats and the text N and people come 410 00:20:52,440 --> 00:20:55,960 in comparing us to other institutions, not restaurants, 411 00:20:55,960 --> 00:20:59,560 institutions to other chefs, it's going to suck a little bit, 412 00:21:00,320 --> 00:21:02,360 but like everything in life, it's going to pass. 413 00:21:02,680 --> 00:21:07,080 How did so so put us, put us in that room. 414 00:21:07,360 --> 00:21:10,600 You're in Houston. They're they're calling people 415 00:21:10,600 --> 00:21:12,280 out. I mean, what are you, I'm, I'm 416 00:21:12,280 --> 00:21:14,840 sure you got a bespoke suit. You're dressed up. 417 00:21:15,400 --> 00:21:17,040 I was dressed down. You were dressed up. 418 00:21:17,040 --> 00:21:19,560 I was dressed down for sure. Just because you never know. 419 00:21:19,720 --> 00:21:22,280 You know, you, you got that, the invitation, you got the e-mail. 420 00:21:22,280 --> 00:21:24,560 You really don't know. Like you're second guessing and 421 00:21:24,560 --> 00:21:29,040 you're I'm, I remember just keeping keeping my nerves calm, 422 00:21:29,200 --> 00:21:32,600 saying hi to the people that I knew and just being present in 423 00:21:32,600 --> 00:21:33,680 the moment. My phone. 424 00:21:33,720 --> 00:21:37,000 I wasn't taking pictures, I wasn't on social media checking. 425 00:21:37,000 --> 00:21:40,000 I was legitimately just soaking up the moment for whatever way 426 00:21:40,000 --> 00:21:41,760 it went. If we didn't get a start, it was 427 00:21:41,760 --> 00:21:43,440 going to be motivation for us to get a start. 428 00:21:43,800 --> 00:21:47,080 If we did get a star, I was going to make sure that the team 429 00:21:47,080 --> 00:21:50,480 understood that that star doesn't make us better than 430 00:21:50,480 --> 00:21:55,360 anyone, but we have more responsibility than anyone to 431 00:21:55,360 --> 00:21:57,760 one maintain it and to to just show people what it what it 432 00:21:57,760 --> 00:22:01,920 means to like be fucking bad ass cooks, right That have a small 433 00:22:01,920 --> 00:22:06,000 restaurant with one blender with one three door cooler and we 434 00:22:06,000 --> 00:22:08,200 could be in the same conversation at this multi 435 00:22:08,200 --> 00:22:12,520 $1,000,000 restaurants, right? Well, because of the core values 436 00:22:12,520 --> 00:22:15,320 of integrity, hospitality, taste, taste, taste. 437 00:22:15,680 --> 00:22:18,760 From from a business standpoint, once you received the Michelin 438 00:22:18,760 --> 00:22:22,720 star, did you see a significant uptick in reservations and. 439 00:22:23,240 --> 00:22:27,120 For sure. We our restaurant caps at 32, 440 00:22:28,400 --> 00:22:30,560 32, nine courses. It's a lot. 441 00:22:30,560 --> 00:22:34,000 It's almost 2270 something plates of food from a little arc 442 00:22:34,000 --> 00:22:35,360 in my kitchen, smaller than this room. 443 00:22:36,440 --> 00:22:38,760 We don't have a dish machine. Everything has is washed by 444 00:22:38,760 --> 00:22:39,880 hands. Everything, everything. 445 00:22:39,880 --> 00:22:40,880 Plates. Everything, everything, 446 00:22:40,880 --> 00:22:42,280 everything. We don't have wine glasses, 447 00:22:42,440 --> 00:22:43,080 everything. Wow. 448 00:22:43,560 --> 00:22:47,040 We don't have an actual machine. The the gentleman, the two 449 00:22:47,040 --> 00:22:49,680 gentlemen. Shout out to your team that does 450 00:22:49,680 --> 00:22:51,320 dishes. The whole team does dishes. 451 00:22:51,720 --> 00:22:54,040 I do dishes. Everybody has to do dishes. 452 00:22:54,040 --> 00:22:55,840 We don't. So we don't have a dishwasher, 453 00:22:56,120 --> 00:22:58,440 right? We call it back court, kind of 454 00:22:58,440 --> 00:23:01,760 like a sports championship defense with championships, 455 00:23:02,080 --> 00:23:03,800 right? So if the back court's secure, 456 00:23:03,800 --> 00:23:05,880 we're going to have a great service, we're going to win 457 00:23:05,880 --> 00:23:09,840 championships because we're taking care of that area, not 458 00:23:09,840 --> 00:23:11,800 that person because it's everyone's responsible. 459 00:23:11,800 --> 00:23:14,080 I don't want the person that washes dishes, the 19 year old 460 00:23:14,400 --> 00:23:16,040 to be like I'm a dishwasher out of them all. 461 00:23:16,440 --> 00:23:19,200 He's a team member out of them. All right, His responsibility 462 00:23:19,200 --> 00:23:22,920 might be to Polish or wash that night, but if he calls off, it's 463 00:23:22,920 --> 00:23:24,920 going to be someone's responsibility because we don't 464 00:23:24,920 --> 00:23:28,600 have a machine. So it's once in one dream. 465 00:23:28,880 --> 00:23:31,920 Well, actual positions it's. It's about 300 plates a night. 466 00:23:32,080 --> 00:23:33,360 It's a it's a lot. It's. 467 00:23:34,280 --> 00:23:36,720 My math is right. It's, and that's not including 468 00:23:36,840 --> 00:23:40,520 the pots pans, right, the yakumi pans, everything that we utilize 469 00:23:40,520 --> 00:23:44,080 to prep, cook family meal. It's it's hard. 470 00:23:44,200 --> 00:23:47,040 Wow. So we have 24 team members. 471 00:23:47,640 --> 00:23:48,720 That's a. That's a lot of stat. 472 00:23:48,880 --> 00:23:51,360 For a 16 seater. That's a lot of cooks for a 473 00:23:51,360 --> 00:23:54,320 small kitchen, Yeah. So how do you how do you teach 474 00:23:54,320 --> 00:23:56,120 them to work efficiently in a tight space? 475 00:23:56,840 --> 00:23:59,280 You have like certain things that are like rules in the 476 00:23:59,280 --> 00:24:01,640 kitchen, like for a new cook coming in, then hey, there's a 477 00:24:01,640 --> 00:24:02,760 tight space. This is how you work. 478 00:24:03,320 --> 00:24:07,480 We actually how I like to to handle it as someone comes in, 479 00:24:07,920 --> 00:24:10,280 it's more like a trial. They know that I don't get 480 00:24:10,280 --> 00:24:15,600 involved as much with with the fresh, not fresh meat, but the 481 00:24:15,600 --> 00:24:19,720 fresh meat one because they're they're what's well. 482 00:24:19,720 --> 00:24:23,000 But with my sous chef, with my lead cook, with the guys, I've 483 00:24:23,000 --> 00:24:26,600 been there for the longest. So if I put in, it's going to 484 00:24:26,760 --> 00:24:29,840 create, it's going to not it's going to unbalance the scale. 485 00:24:29,960 --> 00:24:32,680 So my job now, and this is something that I want to talk 486 00:24:32,680 --> 00:24:34,480 about my transition. How do I transition? 487 00:24:35,400 --> 00:24:39,160 I teach the people that have been with me the longest how I 488 00:24:39,160 --> 00:24:43,120 like things, whether it's the label cut, the salt, the oils, 489 00:24:43,120 --> 00:24:46,240 which bought bottles, the towels, they know me right now. 490 00:24:46,240 --> 00:24:48,600 They're like a representation of of me. 491 00:24:48,600 --> 00:24:52,000 If I'm not there, everything should be in its place and they 492 00:24:52,000 --> 00:24:53,360 know it. I come in and I'm like, that's 493 00:24:53,360 --> 00:24:58,400 not that doesn't go there. So they're responsible for 494 00:24:58,400 --> 00:25:00,760 teaching the new guys things like that. 495 00:25:00,800 --> 00:25:04,200 I'll jump in from time to time. I mean, give advice on, hey, I 496 00:25:04,200 --> 00:25:07,440 saw you doing this. Let me show you how I do it. 497 00:25:07,560 --> 00:25:09,920 If it works for you, great. If it doesn't, let's keep 498 00:25:09,920 --> 00:25:11,120 figuring out what works for best. 499 00:25:11,120 --> 00:25:14,440 But at the end of the day, you need to show whoever's next to 500 00:25:14,440 --> 00:25:16,880 you the same respect you're showing me because I'm not here 501 00:25:17,760 --> 00:25:21,240 during the prep, right? My job is more about ensuring 502 00:25:21,240 --> 00:25:24,680 that we have seats and people are still coming in and the 503 00:25:24,680 --> 00:25:26,600 lights, the doors on. We don't have water. 504 00:25:26,680 --> 00:25:31,640 How, how, how much business training and education did you 505 00:25:31,640 --> 00:25:32,920 have before you opened the restaurant? 506 00:25:34,160 --> 00:25:37,440 Training opening restaurants. I've opened hotels, so I've come 507 00:25:37,440 --> 00:25:40,960 from structure and I worked in country clubs, so I understand 508 00:25:40,960 --> 00:25:43,560 volume, I understand prep sheets, I understand food costs 509 00:25:43,560 --> 00:25:47,720 and all that. Training, opening the restaurant 510 00:25:47,720 --> 00:25:54,240 was probably, it's my first one, solely Megan, my business 511 00:25:54,240 --> 00:25:56,960 partner, but like solely, solely fully responsible for 512 00:25:56,960 --> 00:25:59,400 everything. My first one and I had no idea 513 00:25:59,400 --> 00:26:03,400 what I was doing so it was hard. So I'm assuming the best 514 00:26:03,680 --> 00:26:06,320 Business School you could attend is the school of doing it. 515 00:26:06,480 --> 00:26:07,960 For sure. Figuring it out for sure. 516 00:26:08,960 --> 00:26:11,080 But I grew up in an industry like I've been inside a 517 00:26:11,080 --> 00:26:13,960 restaurant since I was 10/11. My parents both work in 518 00:26:13,960 --> 00:26:15,680 restaurants so today they work in restaurants. 519 00:26:15,680 --> 00:26:20,600 So I understood the insurance and outs and and the back end of 520 00:26:20,600 --> 00:26:22,240 things. I also like I said, I'm not 521 00:26:22,240 --> 00:26:27,080 selfish or I understood that there's I don't know everything 522 00:26:27,280 --> 00:26:29,280 so I like to hire people that are better than me. 523 00:26:29,920 --> 00:26:31,600 I don't she doesn't like to hire good. 524 00:26:32,080 --> 00:26:34,680 They like they want to hire good cooks, but they don't want to 525 00:26:34,680 --> 00:26:37,200 admit or hire people that are better than them. 526 00:26:37,280 --> 00:26:39,720 I hire people that are better than me. 527 00:26:40,240 --> 00:26:42,600 For for chefs that don't understand that, which I think 528 00:26:42,600 --> 00:26:45,280 is super important, I'm I'm I'm a firm believer of what you are. 529 00:26:45,280 --> 00:26:47,480 I want to surround myself with people that know things that I 530 00:26:47,480 --> 00:26:49,000 don't know. I'll teach you what I know, but 531 00:26:49,000 --> 00:26:51,200 I want you to know things that I don't know exactly learn from 532 00:26:51,200 --> 00:26:54,560 you as well, because when you're in a position of chef, sometimes 533 00:26:54,560 --> 00:26:56,360 you can't go out and stodge and work in all these other 534 00:26:56,360 --> 00:26:59,600 restaurants anymore. You're learning is now didactic 535 00:26:59,720 --> 00:27:01,760 self self. It's self driven. 536 00:27:01,760 --> 00:27:04,640 So when you hire people, you're, you're hoping that they're 537 00:27:04,640 --> 00:27:06,960 better than you. And from an example of like 538 00:27:06,960 --> 00:27:08,920 Chef's like, no, no, I want to be the best one in the kitchen. 539 00:27:08,920 --> 00:27:11,400 I'll give you a podcast example. I edit the podcast, right? 540 00:27:11,960 --> 00:27:14,760 If I was going to hire someone to edit my podcast, but I want 541 00:27:14,920 --> 00:27:17,840 me to be better than them. No, I'd want to hire an editor 542 00:27:17,840 --> 00:27:20,800 that's better than me to, to make the podcast look better, 543 00:27:20,800 --> 00:27:23,400 look sharper, you know, have more graphics or whatever. 544 00:27:24,000 --> 00:27:28,120 Like why would I hire someone that's not as good as me or, or 545 00:27:28,160 --> 00:27:30,000 why would I be intimidated that they're better? 546 00:27:30,240 --> 00:27:32,040 It lifts everything else up in the kitchen. 547 00:27:32,040 --> 00:27:34,720 It doesn't mean that they are going to take my job. 548 00:27:34,720 --> 00:27:39,520 It doesn't mean that that they're going to outside me. 549 00:27:39,520 --> 00:27:42,120 It's like, no, no, it's your restaurant, right? 550 00:27:42,240 --> 00:27:44,800 Why, like you own? It exactly though it doesn't 551 00:27:44,800 --> 00:27:46,560 make sense. I think that's the key to 552 00:27:46,560 --> 00:27:48,480 success, right? Hire the people that are better 553 00:27:48,480 --> 00:27:50,360 than you at the job because you have to evolve. 554 00:27:50,600 --> 00:27:52,960 You know, I'm 30, I turned 37 this year. 555 00:27:53,400 --> 00:27:58,040 My body's slowly telling me the 17 hour days are no longer and 556 00:27:58,040 --> 00:28:00,560 durable like. It really kicked in for me at 557 00:28:00,560 --> 00:28:02,240 like 39. Yeah. 558 00:28:02,440 --> 00:28:05,160 At 39, I felt. It's a hard it's it's such a 559 00:28:05,160 --> 00:28:07,800 brutal industry. Doesn't matter if it's tasty 560 00:28:07,800 --> 00:28:12,040 menu or 120 seater. It's mentally, emotionally and 561 00:28:12,040 --> 00:28:16,320 definitely physically toxic relationship. 562 00:28:16,680 --> 00:28:19,360 Yeah, it's love, hate, right? Yeah, I love it and I hit it. 563 00:28:19,640 --> 00:28:22,920 What, what were some of the, the things that like some of the 564 00:28:22,920 --> 00:28:25,800 biggest lessons that you learned when opening the restaurant that 565 00:28:26,160 --> 00:28:27,960 you could advise someone like, hey, you're going to go down 566 00:28:27,960 --> 00:28:30,760 this journey. Don't do this or make sure you 567 00:28:30,760 --> 00:28:34,400 do this. From a financial standpoint is 568 00:28:34,400 --> 00:28:38,280 understand the needs and wants. Everyone wants to have a fancy 569 00:28:38,400 --> 00:28:42,680 well equipped kitchen or restaurant, but do you really 570 00:28:42,680 --> 00:28:44,920 need one? I think that that would be the 571 00:28:44,920 --> 00:28:46,080 first one. I'll give you an example. 572 00:28:46,240 --> 00:28:50,720 I spent 10K replacing the floor in the dining room, what we call 573 00:28:50,720 --> 00:28:53,120 the dining room. Those 10K could have, I could 574 00:28:53,120 --> 00:28:56,040 have used for something else more probably more equipment or 575 00:28:56,040 --> 00:28:58,760 better, I don't know, something else in the beginning besides 576 00:28:58,760 --> 00:29:01,000 the floor. In my mind, I wanted the floor 577 00:29:01,000 --> 00:29:03,840 to be. But I have an ambition, right? 578 00:29:04,520 --> 00:29:08,080 I wish somebody and because we don't have financial backing, I 579 00:29:08,080 --> 00:29:11,840 wish somebody would have said no, right? 580 00:29:11,840 --> 00:29:13,720 Think it's a lot to spend on floors, floors. 581 00:29:13,960 --> 00:29:17,800 And four years later I, I contemplated I don't own the 582 00:29:17,800 --> 00:29:19,880 building. I don't own that floor. 583 00:29:19,960 --> 00:29:25,320 I gave 10K to a future tenant and I it eats me alive everyday. 584 00:29:25,320 --> 00:29:27,800 Every time I walk in I'm like God damn it. 585 00:29:28,720 --> 00:29:33,280 So that's one right? Understand that unless you own 586 00:29:33,280 --> 00:29:35,760 the building, the property, the whole thing, it's not yours. 587 00:29:36,240 --> 00:29:40,160 Don't, don't invest the second one we. 588 00:29:41,600 --> 00:29:43,480 You know how to cook. That's not the problem. 589 00:29:43,560 --> 00:29:46,480 The problem is getting your team to do what you want when you 590 00:29:46,480 --> 00:29:48,000 want it. That's leadership. 591 00:29:48,080 --> 00:29:50,640 My book, Culinary Leadership Fundamentals, breaks down 592 00:29:50,640 --> 00:29:52,920 exactly how to run a kitchen without losing your mind. 593 00:29:52,920 --> 00:29:54,480 Stop yelling. Start leading. 594 00:29:54,480 --> 00:29:58,160 Get the book at Chefs psa.com. Understand the the team 595 00:29:58,160 --> 00:30:03,720 camaraderie, right? Understand how they basically, 596 00:30:05,920 --> 00:30:11,320 sometimes they we don't know how the same schooling of Hard 597 00:30:11,320 --> 00:30:14,400 Knocks, right? If someone yells at me, I'm 598 00:30:14,400 --> 00:30:15,840 going to thrive because I love it. 599 00:30:15,840 --> 00:30:18,640 If I get a bad A1 review and I've we've gotten many one 600 00:30:18,640 --> 00:30:21,200 reviews, I thrive. I come back the next morning and 601 00:30:21,200 --> 00:30:24,720 next, you know, it's a new menu completely or we bat another 602 00:30:24,720 --> 00:30:26,000 course because I like things like that. 603 00:30:26,000 --> 00:30:28,200 That's someone telling me that I suck and I love it. 604 00:30:30,520 --> 00:30:32,600 But not everybody, not everybody works that way. 605 00:30:32,600 --> 00:30:35,280 So sometimes you have to have a lot of one on ones. 606 00:30:35,520 --> 00:30:37,840 Sometimes you have to have make room on your schedule to have 607 00:30:37,840 --> 00:30:40,600 team meetings and you don't always have to speak. 608 00:30:40,840 --> 00:30:42,480 Let them speak. You just got to listen. 609 00:30:42,960 --> 00:30:47,360 I think the best lesson is to hear them out right? 610 00:30:47,440 --> 00:30:49,360 Like maybe they're not happy, maybe they want to learn 611 00:30:49,360 --> 00:30:52,680 something else, but they're too afraid to or you're too busy for 612 00:30:52,680 --> 00:30:55,280 them to like grab your attention and they're they're timid and 613 00:30:55,280 --> 00:30:56,960 next, you know, like, oh, check, here's my two weeks. 614 00:30:56,960 --> 00:31:00,760 Oh, because you spent 20 minutes listening to to their needs and 615 00:31:00,760 --> 00:31:02,640 wants. So I think those are the 2. 616 00:31:03,680 --> 00:31:07,880 Is there anything that in in the restaurant right now that that 617 00:31:07,880 --> 00:31:11,600 you if you could go back and do it all over again besides the 618 00:31:11,600 --> 00:31:14,600 floor if you were starting another restaurant, so version 2 619 00:31:14,600 --> 00:31:17,320 point O, what would be some of the things that you would start 620 00:31:17,320 --> 00:31:19,640 out immediately and say, OK, we're going to make sure we do 621 00:31:19,640 --> 00:31:21,800 this completely different if you had carte blanche. 622 00:31:22,200 --> 00:31:24,160 It's funny you said that because we're working on something like 623 00:31:24,160 --> 00:31:25,880 that right now. Can you announce it here? 624 00:31:25,880 --> 00:31:27,120 No. No, no, not yet. 625 00:31:27,560 --> 00:31:29,120 Not yet. Yeah, but don't give it to 626 00:31:29,120 --> 00:31:30,680 Eater. No, I'm not going to give it to 627 00:31:30,680 --> 00:31:36,880 Eater. That's a great question. 628 00:31:37,480 --> 00:31:40,800 Definitely would think that investing in more refrigeration. 629 00:31:41,560 --> 00:31:43,640 It's never have enough, right? You can never have enough 630 00:31:43,640 --> 00:31:48,080 refrigeration. I didn't think I in my mind 3A3 631 00:31:48,080 --> 00:31:49,520 door cooler, like yeah, I'll make it happen. 632 00:31:49,960 --> 00:31:53,400 And as the team evolves, the restroom evolves, the there's 633 00:31:53,400 --> 00:31:56,840 more needs. There's not enough space to like 634 00:31:56,840 --> 00:31:58,520 store things. So I think just more 635 00:31:58,520 --> 00:32:01,120 refrigeration. Your, your menu is, is is 636 00:32:01,120 --> 00:32:03,280 interesting and your style of food is interesting because 637 00:32:04,360 --> 00:32:06,560 what's unique to Texas? I would say, obviously it's not 638 00:32:06,680 --> 00:32:10,160 unique to the world, but it's unique, I would say to Texas, 639 00:32:10,160 --> 00:32:14,120 especially receiving a Michelin star and then doing tasty menu. 640 00:32:14,120 --> 00:32:16,840 There's not a lot of restaurants in Texas that do this style of 641 00:32:16,840 --> 00:32:20,280 cuisine and tasty menu. You know yourself initially, I'm 642 00:32:20,280 --> 00:32:25,000 trying to think, who else tasting menu, It's probably just 643 00:32:25,000 --> 00:32:28,080 you too, right? Shout out to the guys that 644 00:32:28,080 --> 00:32:29,640 initially. But the reason, the reason I 645 00:32:29,640 --> 00:32:33,800 asked that is when it comes to the creative process, when you 646 00:32:33,800 --> 00:32:38,040 were starting to go down the tasting menu route and develop 647 00:32:38,040 --> 00:32:41,080 your own voice and your own style of cooking, where were you 648 00:32:41,080 --> 00:32:44,480 drawing inspiration from? And then was there ever a 649 00:32:44,480 --> 00:32:47,800 certain point where that inspiration stopped becoming 650 00:32:47,800 --> 00:32:50,680 inspiring, and then that inspiration was just coming from 651 00:32:51,080 --> 00:32:54,320 just only a year? So I'm going to touch into 652 00:32:54,320 --> 00:32:56,040 things trying to answer the question. 653 00:32:57,160 --> 00:32:59,840 The only reason we did Tasting Menu is because of our location. 654 00:33:00,520 --> 00:33:04,200 So we're outside of the city. We're like 10 minutes away from 655 00:33:04,200 --> 00:33:08,680 the city in a street mall that's basically three businesses in a 656 00:33:08,680 --> 00:33:12,240 street mall, a donut shop that's only open from 6:00 to 2:00, and 657 00:33:12,240 --> 00:33:14,160 then a church next to us. Everything. 658 00:33:14,160 --> 00:33:17,720 I think it's an office, like a works office next to us or next 659 00:33:17,720 --> 00:33:20,720 to the donut shop that operates from like 9:00 to 5:00. 660 00:33:21,480 --> 00:33:24,880 There's not a lot of like walk in traffic, so there was no 661 00:33:24,880 --> 00:33:27,160 inhale. I was going to survive opening 662 00:33:27,960 --> 00:33:31,080 an Ala carte menu there. It wasn't going to happen. 663 00:33:31,680 --> 00:33:34,200 The only reason brunch was successful is because instead of 664 00:33:34,280 --> 00:33:38,720 us doing pop ups going to markets, we said come to us, 665 00:33:39,560 --> 00:33:40,800 right? We also didn't have a big 666 00:33:40,800 --> 00:33:43,000 overhead. We had like 2, two team members 667 00:33:43,000 --> 00:33:46,520 at the time. So we're basically there all day 668 00:33:46,560 --> 00:33:48,560 by ourselves. I was washing dishes, prepping. 669 00:33:48,560 --> 00:33:50,640 I was doing the whole thing for like a year by myself. 670 00:33:51,000 --> 00:33:55,360 So I was able to save a lot of money that way. 671 00:33:56,440 --> 00:33:58,920 The Tasty menu was basically forced on us. 672 00:33:58,920 --> 00:34:02,520 Like you not going to the only way to survive is if you it's 673 00:34:02,520 --> 00:34:05,600 prepaid secure people's money and then you basically force 674 00:34:05,600 --> 00:34:08,600 them to go visit you, right. Otherwise it wouldn't work. 675 00:34:09,360 --> 00:34:12,360 From the Tasty menu, their creative side was to in the 676 00:34:12,360 --> 00:34:14,840 beginning was all vegetables. It was a vegetable forward 677 00:34:14,840 --> 00:34:17,000 tasting menu and people hated it in Texas. 678 00:34:17,199 --> 00:34:21,679 Yeah, but my food calls a lot of time super low time, right? 679 00:34:21,679 --> 00:34:24,360 My main, my what? Made you want to do vegetable 680 00:34:24,360 --> 00:34:28,880 tasting menu. Labor, you know, I realized that 681 00:34:28,960 --> 00:34:32,880 I need to start not with my ego, but being smart, you know, and I 682 00:34:32,880 --> 00:34:37,480 couldn't just new restaurant A5. It was not going to work. 683 00:34:37,639 --> 00:34:41,560 You know, you have to like slowly build momentum, make sure 684 00:34:41,560 --> 00:34:44,000 that I get the money back that I spent on the flooring and things 685 00:34:44,000 --> 00:34:45,040 like that. It's my own money. 686 00:34:45,040 --> 00:34:47,600 So every cent counts. You like when it's money that 687 00:34:47,840 --> 00:34:51,360 people give you blow it, not really keeping track of it, 688 00:34:51,600 --> 00:34:54,719 sure, but when it's yours, yours, like from years of like 689 00:34:54,719 --> 00:34:58,040 savings, every penny counts. Someone grabs an extra tile and 690 00:34:58,040 --> 00:35:03,680 you're like, Oh my God, stop. Like stop being so messy, so 691 00:35:04,400 --> 00:35:07,600 vegetable, tasty menu. Our main course was a smoked 692 00:35:07,600 --> 00:35:10,720 sweet potato Taco. That was our main course. 693 00:35:11,080 --> 00:35:14,440 All right, so some people loved it, some people hate it, but I 694 00:35:14,440 --> 00:35:15,960 didn't care. It was an illegal thing. 695 00:35:15,960 --> 00:35:19,640 It was a survival thing. Once, like I said, all the 696 00:35:19,640 --> 00:35:22,200 accolades started coming in, more people started coming into 697 00:35:22,200 --> 00:35:24,960 the restaurant, Then we're able to kind of shift and that's 698 00:35:24,960 --> 00:35:27,320 where the inspiration started coming in because I had more 699 00:35:27,320 --> 00:35:30,640 people with more pedigrees different. 700 00:35:30,920 --> 00:35:33,440 Coming to work. For you for sure resumes and I'm 701 00:35:33,440 --> 00:35:35,280 like, OK, what do you want to do? 702 00:35:35,280 --> 00:35:37,200 Like what's in your mind? What's in your palette? 703 00:35:37,400 --> 00:35:39,400 And then we start buying something on IDs and then this 704 00:35:39,400 --> 00:35:41,280 kind of shifts and then I feel like people take ownership. 705 00:35:41,280 --> 00:35:43,360 It's not, it's not my menu even now. 706 00:35:43,360 --> 00:35:45,840 The menu that we have now, I think the only thing that's 707 00:35:45,840 --> 00:35:48,280 hasn't changed is quesadilla since day one. 708 00:35:49,160 --> 00:35:51,960 And that's something that like maybe just reminds me of home. 709 00:35:52,200 --> 00:35:54,720 Everything else has kind of changed from ideas bouncing by 710 00:35:54,720 --> 00:35:56,840 talking to the team so. So you have a very collaborative 711 00:35:57,120 --> 00:35:59,920 menu. When it's 700 square feet, you 712 00:35:59,920 --> 00:36:02,480 have to collaborate with people because you also have to be 713 00:36:02,480 --> 00:36:05,600 mindful that if I want to do something and they can't execute 714 00:36:05,600 --> 00:36:08,480 it, it's not going to be. How do you how do you determine 715 00:36:08,480 --> 00:36:11,680 when a when a menu item is not a good fit for the menu? 716 00:36:12,360 --> 00:36:14,120 When? From your team, not not from 717 00:36:14,120 --> 00:36:17,040 your ideas, but let's just say it, a team member, sous chef or 718 00:36:17,040 --> 00:36:19,040 or cook is coming to and say, hey, what do you think of this 719 00:36:19,200 --> 00:36:21,360 as they're presenting it to you? How do you determine if it's? 720 00:36:21,960 --> 00:36:23,600 It's just that's not going to work. 721 00:36:23,680 --> 00:36:26,320 It has to go to the three stages, first stage sourcing, 722 00:36:26,520 --> 00:36:30,880 second stage story because again, sourcing something for I 723 00:36:30,880 --> 00:36:33,240 don't know, 100 people a week, It's not easy, especially 724 00:36:33,520 --> 00:36:35,240 proteins, right? Not a lot of people want to make 725 00:36:35,240 --> 00:36:38,040 that drive to like or make that commitment to you. 726 00:36:38,880 --> 00:36:41,240 Let me rephrase that. After the star that hold that 727 00:36:41,480 --> 00:36:45,400 change, but before the start, it was like you need to get at 728 00:36:45,400 --> 00:36:48,040 least half a case of something and I can't just break the case 729 00:36:48,040 --> 00:36:52,840 because you need 11 item storing when we have a three door 730 00:36:52,840 --> 00:36:54,640 cooler. So it has to make sense with our 731 00:36:54,640 --> 00:36:57,560 storing. And the final one, would we call 732 00:36:57,560 --> 00:37:00,080 them sequences has to make sense with it the sequence. 733 00:37:00,080 --> 00:37:05,400 So for us, a sequence is because it's such a tight space, you can 734 00:37:05,400 --> 00:37:11,520 just move kind of like scramble. We have a procedure of like when 735 00:37:11,520 --> 00:37:14,640 guest comes in, the kitchen's already understanding the 736 00:37:14,640 --> 00:37:16,000 movements. It's like a valet. 737 00:37:16,000 --> 00:37:18,920 It's very organized and you can tell when you're done with us 738 00:37:18,920 --> 00:37:21,400 and you sit at the counter that we're having a bad service 739 00:37:21,400 --> 00:37:23,680 because it's very chaotic. People are not synchronized. 740 00:37:24,320 --> 00:37:27,040 We're synchronized. I can honestly say, and I've 741 00:37:27,040 --> 00:37:31,160 been at at least like 82 stars. We had a two star level. 742 00:37:31,480 --> 00:37:35,640 When we are synchronized, it's not often, but I can, I can see 743 00:37:35,640 --> 00:37:37,200 it, I can smell it, I can see it. 744 00:37:37,200 --> 00:37:40,560 I don't hear it when I don't hear anything like not one pot 745 00:37:40,560 --> 00:37:46,480 being like put down overly hard because you're scrambling to 746 00:37:46,480 --> 00:37:48,800 grab something else. I know we have a two star 747 00:37:48,800 --> 00:37:50,280 service on the front of the house. 748 00:37:50,280 --> 00:37:54,800 Team members are coming in and like sorry, doing swiney like 749 00:37:56,160 --> 00:37:59,400 sequences of like the silverware, cleaning it up. 750 00:37:59,520 --> 00:38:02,120 They're having fun and they're having fun. 751 00:38:02,400 --> 00:38:07,520 I'm having fun and that's when we're like, OK, if all those 752 00:38:07,520 --> 00:38:09,720 three things click the dishes perhaps for. 753 00:38:09,720 --> 00:38:12,080 The menu you said something that I haven't really thought about 754 00:38:12,080 --> 00:38:13,920 in quite some time because I haven't been in a kitchen in a 755 00:38:13,920 --> 00:38:17,240 while, but like the the noise of the pot on the on the on the 756 00:38:17,240 --> 00:38:18,240 stainless. I hate it. 757 00:38:18,480 --> 00:38:21,400 I I every kitchen where I go like should have trivets. 758 00:38:22,200 --> 00:38:24,560 Nothing hot goes on. Nothing hot goes on the counter. 759 00:38:24,560 --> 00:38:26,160 Have a trivet like. No, we haven't. 760 00:38:26,160 --> 00:38:28,240 Yeah, we have them, yeah. Something but if you if you 761 00:38:28,240 --> 00:38:30,280 don't have a towel, if you don't have a trivet, use a towel or 762 00:38:30,320 --> 00:38:33,480 whatever. Because I hate the when when 763 00:38:33,480 --> 00:38:35,800 you're in the flow, nothing drives me crazier than banging 764 00:38:35,800 --> 00:38:39,840 pots and slamming, slamming ice machines or doors. 765 00:38:39,840 --> 00:38:42,840 That would drive me crazy. But I haven't thought about that 766 00:38:42,840 --> 00:38:45,920 in quite some time. But yeah, you know, you're in 767 00:38:45,920 --> 00:38:49,720 this flow state when everything is like like this ballet and 768 00:38:49,720 --> 00:38:51,000 everything just going it's clicking. 769 00:38:51,480 --> 00:38:55,440 So when it comes to tasting menus, because I have a lot of 770 00:38:55,440 --> 00:38:58,480 thoughts on tasting menus, I don't want to get into them, but 771 00:38:58,760 --> 00:39:01,560 when it comes to tasting menus and you're structuring it 772 00:39:01,560 --> 00:39:08,320 because you're doing Mexican style food, what like a 773 00:39:08,320 --> 00:39:10,160 traditional tasting menu is going to start, you know, maybe 774 00:39:10,160 --> 00:39:11,960 some, some bites are used at the beginning. 775 00:39:11,960 --> 00:39:15,640 And then you might go into a raw fish dish and you're going to 776 00:39:15,640 --> 00:39:19,200 progress in, in, in intensity and flavor and and spice. 777 00:39:20,080 --> 00:39:21,720 You're ramping up because you don't want to kill the palate 778 00:39:21,720 --> 00:39:23,600 early on. Then you're going to have 779 00:39:23,800 --> 00:39:29,840 usually a cold seafood, a hot seafood, you know, meat #1 meat 780 00:39:29,840 --> 00:39:34,880 #2 desserts, dessert, one dessert, 2 ER DS at the end. 781 00:39:36,720 --> 00:39:38,800 And I'm probably forgetting a couple of things in here as I'm, 782 00:39:39,000 --> 00:39:40,800 you know, going off the top of my head structure in a tasting 783 00:39:40,800 --> 00:39:42,200 menu, depending on how many courses. 784 00:39:42,200 --> 00:39:45,840 But for you, what is the, the format like? 785 00:39:45,840 --> 00:39:49,280 What's the playbook for a tasty menu in your restaurant for your 786 00:39:49,280 --> 00:39:51,360 style? Like you said, it has to start 787 00:39:51,360 --> 00:39:56,400 cold, it has to have balances of acid and spice. 788 00:39:56,600 --> 00:39:58,920 Right at the beginning. Yeah, it's Mexican food, right? 789 00:39:58,920 --> 00:40:00,440 So we get to play with those things. 790 00:40:00,440 --> 00:40:03,960 You go to a taqueria and you're like, oh, can I get a fish Taco? 791 00:40:03,960 --> 00:40:07,640 No, it's like, can I get a Taco? And then you're going to citrus. 792 00:40:07,920 --> 00:40:10,440 That's in my mind. It's a form of acid because it 793 00:40:10,440 --> 00:40:13,200 just salivates your mouth. Not from spice level, but it 794 00:40:13,200 --> 00:40:16,240 just salivates your mouth. And you have satsas, right? 795 00:40:16,240 --> 00:40:19,120 You don't really think about it. And it's also greasy and messy. 796 00:40:19,920 --> 00:40:23,320 So we have a little bit of luxury to be like, eat it with 797 00:40:23,320 --> 00:40:24,480 your hands. Right. 798 00:40:24,680 --> 00:40:27,320 And then people will complain like, oh, it's a, it's a tasty 799 00:40:27,320 --> 00:40:28,000 menu. It shouldn't be. 800 00:40:28,920 --> 00:40:32,520 When you go eat nigeries, you eat it with your hands. 9 out of 801 00:40:32,520 --> 00:40:34,360 10, you're going to eat it with your hands, right? 802 00:40:34,360 --> 00:40:38,760 So we have the luxury to, yeah, be a Mexican tasty menu. 803 00:40:38,760 --> 00:40:41,640 So we get to play with bold flavors. 804 00:40:41,640 --> 00:40:44,000 We're also in Texas. So people we have, we have to 805 00:40:44,000 --> 00:40:47,760 listen to what people want. People want bold flavors, right? 806 00:40:47,760 --> 00:40:51,520 They want heavy items, even if it's small, small pieces of it. 807 00:40:52,360 --> 00:40:55,800 They want that, OK, I'm getting my money, my values, my values 808 00:40:55,800 --> 00:40:57,240 worth. And then the other one is like, 809 00:40:57,240 --> 00:40:59,720 I like to compare it a lot with Japanese cuisine. 810 00:40:59,720 --> 00:41:02,560 And I know a lot of shows do do it, but for me it's more about 811 00:41:02,880 --> 00:41:05,480 the mentality or like educating the guest. 812 00:41:05,840 --> 00:41:08,040 When you go to a kind of sushi counter, you get a negative 813 00:41:08,040 --> 00:41:11,760 piece for 19 bucks, right? You don't ask for another one, 814 00:41:12,000 --> 00:41:13,360 you're going to pay for another one. 815 00:41:14,160 --> 00:41:16,440 That's kind of the same thing with tasty menu, especially in 816 00:41:16,440 --> 00:41:18,560 Texas, right? People are not educated enough 817 00:41:18,680 --> 00:41:22,240 because we don't have enough. So they're hit and miss. 818 00:41:22,240 --> 00:41:24,120 People are going to come in and be like, I don't know what I'm 819 00:41:24,120 --> 00:41:25,680 getting myself into, but I'm excited. 820 00:41:26,280 --> 00:41:28,280 And they either hate it or love it. 821 00:41:28,560 --> 00:41:31,360 And then you have the the other half that's going to come in and 822 00:41:32,160 --> 00:41:34,360 they're going to start critiquing it and like, oh, it's 823 00:41:34,360 --> 00:41:37,840 not like, oh, it's not like, oh, it's not like such such in San 824 00:41:37,840 --> 00:41:40,080 Francisco or New York. I'm like, no shit. 825 00:41:40,080 --> 00:41:42,200 Those are institutions. 20 years plus. 826 00:41:42,200 --> 00:41:45,920 We're going on five years. Look around, look around, right? 827 00:41:45,920 --> 00:41:49,800 It's a small restaurant. Was it good? 828 00:41:49,800 --> 00:41:51,600 Yeah, it was good. But it's it doesn't stand up to 829 00:41:51,640 --> 00:41:54,520 to those other establishments. You don't have a wine list and 830 00:41:54,520 --> 00:41:58,400 and whatnot and all that's fair. And then you have like the 831 00:41:58,400 --> 00:42:01,720 people that has kept have kept us alive that come in and don't 832 00:42:01,720 --> 00:42:04,360 know tasty menus and don't know all the restaurants, but they 833 00:42:04,360 --> 00:42:06,880 enjoy what we're doing. And to them is unique. 834 00:42:07,160 --> 00:42:09,560 It's fresh, it's new and it's modern. 835 00:42:09,560 --> 00:42:11,360 And then you get it and they fucking love it. 836 00:42:11,360 --> 00:42:13,520 And they keep coming back and they tell their friends and they 837 00:42:13,520 --> 00:42:16,560 post and next you know that we're doing events. 838 00:42:16,560 --> 00:42:22,760 And I feel like all all those 3 genres are are fair game, right? 839 00:42:23,080 --> 00:42:26,880 So, so going back to your, yours is 9 course correct, Correct. 840 00:42:27,000 --> 00:42:28,600 So what, what is what? How do you start out? 841 00:42:28,600 --> 00:42:30,000 What's courses like? What are? 842 00:42:30,000 --> 00:42:32,360 What are the 9? Course one's going to be a 843 00:42:32,360 --> 00:42:34,240 tostada. Is it always a tostada? 844 00:42:35,000 --> 00:42:38,920 No, it's been a ceviche in the past, so it's small bite. 845 00:42:39,120 --> 00:42:41,720 It's a small bite. It's like 30 grams of 15 grams 846 00:42:41,720 --> 00:42:43,680 of seafood and like 30 grams of masa. 847 00:42:43,840 --> 00:42:47,400 So it's pretty nice started it's very delicate nice. 848 00:42:47,400 --> 00:42:48,960 We've spent a lot of lot of time doing them. 849 00:42:49,800 --> 00:42:51,080 That's going to be the first course. 850 00:42:51,080 --> 00:42:54,440 Then you have a a tracoyo sope, which is something more heavy 851 00:42:54,440 --> 00:42:58,560 with beans, raises cheese. Then you have a quesadilla 852 00:42:58,560 --> 00:43:01,520 that's fried and then you have a vegetable course. 853 00:43:01,520 --> 00:43:05,000 We're now it's a chili tole with coconut froth and masa vigne. 854 00:43:05,440 --> 00:43:08,120 That's all vegetables. So it's a little more starts to 855 00:43:08,120 --> 00:43:11,800 like tone down a little bit and then you have the right now and 856 00:43:11,800 --> 00:43:16,080 then Molada with duck two ways, which is your first protein and 857 00:43:16,080 --> 00:43:18,360 then you will go straight to. The what are the two ways on 858 00:43:18,360 --> 00:43:18,800 the? Duck. 859 00:43:18,840 --> 00:43:21,200 Right now we do a carnita style that's kind of like roulade, and 860 00:43:21,200 --> 00:43:25,200 then we season that with green olives and a lot of citrus. 861 00:43:25,240 --> 00:43:26,160 It sounds scary. It's. 862 00:43:26,360 --> 00:43:29,480 Yeah, delicious. It's really, really like you eat 863 00:43:29,480 --> 00:43:30,320 it and you can't stop. This. 864 00:43:30,320 --> 00:43:32,120 I'm hungry by the way. Like it's lunch time as your 865 00:43:32,120 --> 00:43:33,440 tongue. Since then, I just roll into 866 00:43:33,440 --> 00:43:34,560 town. I'm like ready to go to eat. 867 00:43:34,640 --> 00:43:36,520 Shout out to Nix that because we're coming through right now. 868 00:43:37,880 --> 00:43:41,360 And then we do the breast itself that gets cooked down with a 869 00:43:41,360 --> 00:43:44,880 satire spice 'cause we're featuring a mole from Cueva and 870 00:43:44,880 --> 00:43:47,240 there's a lot of Lebanese population in Puebla, so we're 871 00:43:47,240 --> 00:43:49,280 allowed to you to tell those stories through this dish. 872 00:43:50,280 --> 00:43:53,840 And then that gets a little bit of a roasted pineapple juice 873 00:43:54,520 --> 00:43:56,440 that gets seasoned with Mexican egg. 874 00:43:56,440 --> 00:43:59,640 So we call it Mexican Exo, which is like Chicatanas, anything 875 00:43:59,640 --> 00:44:01,600 that's dry basically. People don't know what are 876 00:44:01,600 --> 00:44:04,120 chikatanas. Chikatanas are wahakan ants 877 00:44:04,240 --> 00:44:05,720 rather. They're short, which are 878 00:44:05,720 --> 00:44:07,880 delicious. They're salt crunching and high 879 00:44:07,880 --> 00:44:11,000 nutrient and amazing. And the flavor of those ants for 880 00:44:11,000 --> 00:44:14,120 people that have never had them because you think, oh, I'm not 881 00:44:14,120 --> 00:44:15,880 eating ants. Like trust me, it's like a 882 00:44:15,880 --> 00:44:17,680 flavor you've never had. It's so worth it. 883 00:44:17,880 --> 00:44:18,880 Yeah, right. So worth it. 884 00:44:18,880 --> 00:44:22,480 So we use all the dragon umami things that we can utilize and 885 00:44:22,480 --> 00:44:24,240 make our own cheese. That you get that ions to make 886 00:44:24,240 --> 00:44:27,040 the Mexican exo, yeah, that's that's a good idea, yeah. 887 00:44:27,200 --> 00:44:30,320 Yeah, so same thing, right? Umami has to be rich. 888 00:44:30,360 --> 00:44:34,360 Anybody also has to make sense. So we you can be inspired, but 889 00:44:34,360 --> 00:44:36,080 we have to utilize our ingredients. 890 00:44:36,640 --> 00:44:38,640 And then that you get just brushed on the duck and it's 891 00:44:38,640 --> 00:44:41,160 like sweet, spicy, tangy. And you're like, it's like 892 00:44:41,160 --> 00:44:44,040 getting like a perfect student sour chicken. 893 00:44:44,200 --> 00:44:46,920 Yeah, but you don't know why. And you're like, oh, shit. 894 00:44:46,920 --> 00:44:49,600 And then when the team members feels the oh, we make a 895 00:44:49,600 --> 00:44:52,160 Chicatana with others and people are like, it's just like sweet 896 00:44:52,160 --> 00:44:53,880 and sour chicken. But I'm OK with that. 897 00:44:53,880 --> 00:44:57,840 You know, not everything has to be avant-garde or I'm not. 898 00:44:57,840 --> 00:44:59,240 No one's going to reinvent the wheel. 899 00:44:59,240 --> 00:45:00,360 I'm not trying to reinvent the wheel. 900 00:45:00,360 --> 00:45:02,840 I'm just trying to make things that are delicious make sense. 901 00:45:02,960 --> 00:45:04,720 Yeah. And get people paid. 902 00:45:04,920 --> 00:45:05,480 Right. Yeah. 903 00:45:05,880 --> 00:45:10,680 And then you have a carne asada utilizing A5 and that's the 904 00:45:10,680 --> 00:45:13,280 tortilla course when we talk about a little bit about the 905 00:45:13,280 --> 00:45:14,560 history of the of the restaurant. 906 00:45:14,720 --> 00:45:16,880 And then we go to our Bay Post today. 907 00:45:17,120 --> 00:45:18,480 We're about to add another post today. 908 00:45:18,760 --> 00:45:20,920 And then the mayor, Dees. To go, Yeah. 909 00:45:21,320 --> 00:45:23,000 To go. No, we have them there. 910 00:45:23,000 --> 00:45:24,840 Oh, OK, OK. Yeah, I need to. 911 00:45:24,840 --> 00:45:25,440 I haven't. I haven't. 912 00:45:25,640 --> 00:45:26,760 No, please. I need to come. 913 00:45:28,200 --> 00:45:29,480 I don't. I don't get down to Houston 914 00:45:29,480 --> 00:45:31,880 enough. But I have a reason now. 915 00:45:31,960 --> 00:45:34,280 I mean, I have a lot of reasons, but I want to. 916 00:45:34,440 --> 00:45:36,480 I'm hungry, like you're talking. I was like, I want to eat this 917 00:45:36,520 --> 00:45:41,840 right now. What is what is exciting you 918 00:45:41,840 --> 00:45:44,120 right now in culinary doesn't necessarily have to be your 919 00:45:44,120 --> 00:45:46,040 restaurant like what are you looking at right now to get 920 00:45:46,040 --> 00:45:50,800 inspiration that out there in the in the world that is and I 921 00:45:50,800 --> 00:45:52,280 really like because they're doing. 922 00:45:52,280 --> 00:45:56,320 Over here, I'm going to use you as an example. 923 00:45:57,400 --> 00:46:02,080 I love how the generation that I saw from afar and I, I call them 924 00:46:02,800 --> 00:46:05,600 the old hits and, and, and I'm sure you have it because I've 925 00:46:05,600 --> 00:46:06,760 seen it. I've seen you wear it. 926 00:46:07,320 --> 00:46:10,000 When I started cooking, you had two aprons. 927 00:46:10,080 --> 00:46:13,080 You had the black one with The White Stripes, and then you had 928 00:46:13,080 --> 00:46:15,240 the blue one with the thin color. 929 00:46:15,480 --> 00:46:18,120 If you had the blue one, you're your friend. 930 00:46:18,120 --> 00:46:19,640 You're Thomas Keller in my book, right? 931 00:46:19,640 --> 00:46:21,400 Because not a lot of cooks had the blue ones. 932 00:46:21,400 --> 00:46:23,440 That means that you worked in some kitchens that were. 933 00:46:23,440 --> 00:46:25,360 Like the blue Brigard. Yeah, yeah. 934 00:46:25,600 --> 00:46:27,680 And by the way, that blue Brigard, for people that don't 935 00:46:27,680 --> 00:46:30,480 know, there's two of them. The people that know, know. 936 00:46:30,720 --> 00:46:32,600 There's the one with the pocket in the front. 937 00:46:32,600 --> 00:46:34,440 I never seen those. That one's not as good. 938 00:46:34,440 --> 00:46:35,880 You got to get the one without the pocket. 939 00:46:37,600 --> 00:46:40,160 I work with people who have the blue ones, so I've always wanted 940 00:46:40,160 --> 00:46:42,720 a blue one, but I never that was before my time, right? 941 00:46:42,880 --> 00:46:46,280 So I that's how I difference. Like, OK, you've been in some 942 00:46:46,280 --> 00:46:49,720 kitchens, like, you know, shit, the blue apron a little bit 943 00:46:49,720 --> 00:46:55,480 before the tweezers booming, right, The transition that you 944 00:46:55,480 --> 00:46:59,000 guys are making, right? Like it's like sports, like you 945 00:46:59,000 --> 00:47:00,480 play it at the high level for so long. 946 00:47:01,000 --> 00:47:05,560 Something else has What's the plan after within the space? 947 00:47:06,400 --> 00:47:08,600 How do you continue to evolve in this space? 948 00:47:08,600 --> 00:47:11,480 You don't have to, because you can't beat Father Time, right? 949 00:47:11,640 --> 00:47:14,960 It's no, you can't. And it's funny that you're, 950 00:47:15,000 --> 00:47:19,560 you're saying this because I, I think for people that don't 951 00:47:19,560 --> 00:47:23,840 know, and I'll say this, my opinions about food today are 952 00:47:23,840 --> 00:47:25,520 not the same opinions I had five years ago. 953 00:47:25,760 --> 00:47:28,240 They should. And the way I would cook today. 954 00:47:28,440 --> 00:47:30,960 I want to ask you this because I'll, I'll tell you what I'm 955 00:47:30,960 --> 00:47:32,840 thinking and then I'm going to ask you your opinion on this. 956 00:47:33,560 --> 00:47:36,000 What excites me about food today is not what excited me five 957 00:47:36,000 --> 00:47:38,080 years ago. And the way I would run a 958 00:47:38,080 --> 00:47:40,080 Business Today is not the same way I would do it five years 959 00:47:40,080 --> 00:47:41,080 ago. And I've written books on 960 00:47:41,080 --> 00:47:45,040 leadership and the way I lead a kitchen is not even necessarily 961 00:47:45,040 --> 00:47:49,200 today 100% the way I wrote in my leadership books because I, I 962 00:47:49,200 --> 00:47:51,840 evolved. And I think, you know, the chef 963 00:47:51,840 --> 00:47:57,800 that I was when I was 28 or 38 or 35 or, or, or 40 is not who I 964 00:47:57,800 --> 00:47:59,760 am today. And I've, I've learned a lot 965 00:47:59,760 --> 00:48:03,760 from it. And the reason I bring this up 966 00:48:04,120 --> 00:48:07,680 is because when you're in the game, sometimes it's you're in 967 00:48:07,680 --> 00:48:10,880 the game, but when you pull back from the game, you see the game 968 00:48:10,880 --> 00:48:14,160 from from different angles. From a business standpoint, you 969 00:48:14,160 --> 00:48:17,120 see it from a, from a human resources standpoint, you see it 970 00:48:17,120 --> 00:48:19,560 from why was I so mad about that standpoint? 971 00:48:19,560 --> 00:48:22,760 Like why did I get so mad they fucked up the chives that day? 972 00:48:22,760 --> 00:48:24,640 Like why did I like, does it really matter? 973 00:48:24,760 --> 00:48:28,040 Did anyone notice besides me? So a lot of things start to make 974 00:48:28,040 --> 00:48:31,720 sense. And so my question for you based 975 00:48:31,720 --> 00:48:37,080 on my little rant here is when because you open as a brunch 976 00:48:37,080 --> 00:48:41,480 restaurant and the food that you're doing now, now put aside 977 00:48:41,480 --> 00:48:46,400 the business and like not, not from a business standpoint and 978 00:48:46,400 --> 00:48:48,720 not from a creativity standpoint either. 979 00:48:48,720 --> 00:48:50,920 Because I understand that doing the tasty menu, you're going to 980 00:48:50,960 --> 00:48:52,640 be able to come up with more creative things. 981 00:48:53,480 --> 00:48:57,240 But just from a joy of cooking standpoint, like you enjoy 982 00:48:57,240 --> 00:49:03,360 cooking, Which one brings you more joy Cooking like brunch 983 00:49:03,360 --> 00:49:05,400 food. I'm just using brunch food as 984 00:49:05,400 --> 00:49:06,880 the example. Or cooking high end. 985 00:49:07,000 --> 00:49:09,600 Like when you're in the kitchen and you're cooking for the pure 986 00:49:09,600 --> 00:49:12,840 love of cooking for you and people that you love, How do you 987 00:49:12,840 --> 00:49:15,080 cook? How I cook. 988 00:49:15,320 --> 00:49:18,600 OK, I love both. Yeah, I adore both. 989 00:49:18,840 --> 00:49:22,120 They both can coexist because at the same time, it doesn't have 990 00:49:22,120 --> 00:49:25,440 to look pretty, but same ingredients and same attention 991 00:49:25,440 --> 00:49:27,320 to detail and the same respect for it, right? 992 00:49:27,320 --> 00:49:31,760 So it's a craft, right? I don't expect you can't expect 993 00:49:31,760 --> 00:49:35,840 me to go home and and give the intensity just shooting hoops 994 00:49:35,840 --> 00:49:39,200 with my friends at the YMCA as you would do at Game 7 on the 995 00:49:39,200 --> 00:49:42,040 finals, right? Sure, that's but you love the 996 00:49:42,040 --> 00:49:43,960 game of basketball, right? Because you, you out there, 997 00:49:43,960 --> 00:49:45,160 clearly you out there because you love it. 998 00:49:45,360 --> 00:49:48,960 And like I said earlier, the individuals that love brunch 999 00:49:49,000 --> 00:49:52,120 respected and understand it and they thrive in that environment 1000 00:49:52,760 --> 00:49:57,160 because they know it's not about them are going to go far because 1001 00:49:57,160 --> 00:49:59,040 it's not brunch is not about you. 1002 00:49:59,040 --> 00:50:01,520 It's not what you want. It's what people want to eat. 1003 00:50:02,160 --> 00:50:05,120 Right. And then the other one, yeah, 1004 00:50:05,120 --> 00:50:06,680 like that's what you're getting ready for. 1005 00:50:06,680 --> 00:50:08,880 Like 1 could be practice a warm up. 1006 00:50:09,240 --> 00:50:12,320 The other one's like the end game, but you have to love both. 1007 00:50:12,360 --> 00:50:13,840 There's not different highs, right? 1008 00:50:13,840 --> 00:50:16,880 Yeah, different intensities, different mentalities, but the 1009 00:50:16,880 --> 00:50:19,520 love for the game is the same. I'll give you a great example. 1010 00:50:19,520 --> 00:50:21,480 Yeah, that's a by the way, that's a good example because 1011 00:50:21,480 --> 00:50:27,000 you you could say the winning of Game 7 is amazing, but playing 1012 00:50:27,000 --> 00:50:29,200 with your best friends is also a once in a lifetime. 1013 00:50:29,240 --> 00:50:31,680 It's the it's one of the best. They're both amazing. 1014 00:50:31,840 --> 00:50:33,960 Yeah, you can find you in both of them and I will give you a 1015 00:50:33,960 --> 00:50:35,960 great example. I have a, a young lady right now 1016 00:50:35,960 --> 00:50:39,440 on our team, super talented, extremely talented, and she's 1017 00:50:39,440 --> 00:50:40,920 always like, she's been with us almost two years. 1018 00:50:40,920 --> 00:50:44,000 She's like, chef, let me pick your brain, like I want to open 1019 00:50:44,000 --> 00:50:45,600 my own thing. And she's all over the place. 1020 00:50:45,600 --> 00:50:49,440 And she's probably the best person on on our beaches on that 1021 00:50:49,440 --> 00:50:51,520 I've ever had because she they're spot on. 1022 00:50:51,520 --> 00:50:56,000 Like she's very posed and things and she's on the older side and 1023 00:50:56,000 --> 00:50:57,480 she's like, I think I'm ready. I think I'm ready. 1024 00:50:57,480 --> 00:51:01,000 And I and every time we get somebody in the in the dining 1025 00:51:01,000 --> 00:51:04,440 room asking for a well done A5, whatever it is well done, she 1026 00:51:04,440 --> 00:51:09,280 makes this, can't believe it. And like it's like the worst 1027 00:51:09,280 --> 00:51:11,320 thing for her. And I'm like, I don't want to 1028 00:51:11,320 --> 00:51:14,480 call her by name. I'm like, hey, at some point 1029 00:51:16,120 --> 00:51:19,480 when it's your place, you'll understand like it is OK, that 1030 00:51:19,480 --> 00:51:22,920 person was well done, right? It's not about you. 1031 00:51:23,280 --> 00:51:25,760 It's never going to be about you, the woman. 1032 00:51:25,760 --> 00:51:27,880 You realize that and you make peace with that. 1033 00:51:28,240 --> 00:51:30,200 You're ready. Until then, you're not ready to 1034 00:51:30,200 --> 00:51:32,000 open a restaurant because it's not about you. 1035 00:51:32,880 --> 00:51:36,040 Yeah, yeah, I, I mean, it's, it's a, it's a hard lesson to 1036 00:51:36,040 --> 00:51:39,000 learn when the guest comes in and, you know, they want that 1037 00:51:39,000 --> 00:51:41,920 well done steak or, you know, they they can I get, you know, 1038 00:51:42,040 --> 00:51:43,720 can I get a sliced chicken breast on top of the. 1039 00:51:43,720 --> 00:51:46,520 Pasta, whatever you want, as long as you enjoy your night 1040 00:51:46,880 --> 00:51:47,280 with. Us. 1041 00:51:47,280 --> 00:51:48,680 Yeah. Who might it tell you what what 1042 00:51:48,680 --> 00:51:51,000 you you should like? Obviously within our. 1043 00:51:51,360 --> 00:51:52,320 It's not the main. Right. 1044 00:51:52,360 --> 00:51:54,640 Yeah, within our reach. Like don't come in and ask for 1045 00:51:54,640 --> 00:51:56,440 something that we don't have or can't provide. 1046 00:51:57,120 --> 00:52:02,200 We're, you know, there's a lot of talk right now and kitchens 1047 00:52:02,200 --> 00:52:06,400 online, whatever the industry is, a lot of people think the 1048 00:52:06,400 --> 00:52:08,160 industry is broken. I don't necessarily think so. 1049 00:52:08,160 --> 00:52:12,840 I just think we complain, yeah, a lot about things that don't 1050 00:52:12,840 --> 00:52:15,600 really affect us. It's fun to smoke a cigarette 1051 00:52:15,600 --> 00:52:17,160 outside and complain about the world. 1052 00:52:17,880 --> 00:52:19,880 You know, it's like it's not really affecting what we're 1053 00:52:19,880 --> 00:52:23,480 doing day-to-day. But with that being said, is 1054 00:52:23,480 --> 00:52:29,680 there, when you look at the culinary industry right now and 1055 00:52:29,680 --> 00:52:32,640 the direction that it's going, is there anything that excites 1056 00:52:32,640 --> 00:52:34,320 you and is there anything that frightens you as we move 1057 00:52:34,320 --> 00:52:37,560 forward? I think definitely the, what 1058 00:52:37,720 --> 00:52:43,400 excites me is the accessibility to knowledge that it's a lot 1059 00:52:43,400 --> 00:52:46,280 easier to open things up and, and learn from things without 1060 00:52:46,280 --> 00:52:48,840 having to travel. But that also frightens me a 1061 00:52:48,840 --> 00:52:52,400 little bit because you take that emotion and that human 1062 00:52:52,400 --> 00:52:54,320 connection and experience. So that's a little scary to 1063 00:52:54,320 --> 00:52:58,400 think about to be able to say, and I use myself as an example. 1064 00:52:59,120 --> 00:53:01,560 I haven't gone to I don't go to Mexico as much as people think 1065 00:53:01,560 --> 00:53:04,360 or want me to go just because I'm Mexican and I have a Mexican 1066 00:53:04,360 --> 00:53:06,560 taste in many restaurant. People are constantly like, oh, 1067 00:53:06,800 --> 00:53:08,720 have you been here? Like I didn't have the needs to 1068 00:53:08,720 --> 00:53:10,880 travel when I was younger. I didn't have the papers to 1069 00:53:10,880 --> 00:53:14,800 travel. So and I was able to do 1070 00:53:14,800 --> 00:53:20,840 something without traveling as much, right, memory and things 1071 00:53:20,840 --> 00:53:23,120 of that nature. But nowadays people cannot 1072 00:53:23,120 --> 00:53:27,200 travel at all and, and say that, Hey, this is Asian inspired, but 1073 00:53:27,200 --> 00:53:29,680 I've never been to Asia. So that frightens me a little 1074 00:53:29,680 --> 00:53:32,640 bit because I feel like monkey see, monkey do. 1075 00:53:33,240 --> 00:53:34,560 It's just going to replicate, right. 1076 00:53:34,680 --> 00:53:37,520 And then next thing you know, like we're not going to take the 1077 00:53:37,520 --> 00:53:40,520 time to to understand the craft and the ingredients and the 1078 00:53:40,520 --> 00:53:44,400 culture. Also, what frightens me is how 1079 00:53:46,320 --> 00:53:50,760 and the amount of people that have opinions on our industry 1080 00:53:50,840 --> 00:53:53,000 that never worked on the industry can be a little bit 1081 00:53:56,320 --> 00:54:00,000 scary as an owner, right? A critic can come in and be 1082 00:54:00,000 --> 00:54:04,480 like, this is the best restaurant without or the worst 1083 00:54:04,480 --> 00:54:06,120 restaurant. Let's just say the worst for the 1084 00:54:06,120 --> 00:54:09,120 sake of the conversation, without ever, ever understanding 1085 00:54:09,120 --> 00:54:12,360 what a bad day is or a bad week or someone walking off or 1086 00:54:12,360 --> 00:54:14,960 someone stealing or someone being sick or something not 1087 00:54:14,960 --> 00:54:18,040 coming in on time, right? But because I have a platform 1088 00:54:18,040 --> 00:54:23,040 and and and a pedigree, it's just kind of just the struggle 1089 00:54:23,480 --> 00:54:25,840 shakes things up, can be scary, yeah. 1090 00:54:26,400 --> 00:54:29,240 I agree with you and I think it's a it's a slippery slope 1091 00:54:29,240 --> 00:54:32,360 when I see content creators or influencers out there that their 1092 00:54:32,360 --> 00:54:34,000 sole objective is to hurt people. 1093 00:54:34,080 --> 00:54:36,480 Yeah, I can't respect that at all. 1094 00:54:36,960 --> 00:54:39,840 For people that don't know, I have a rule on the podcast, it's 1095 00:54:40,320 --> 00:54:43,000 I don't do gossip. I don't, I don't talk badly 1096 00:54:43,000 --> 00:54:45,720 about other chefs and I don't allow people to come on my show 1097 00:54:45,720 --> 00:54:49,280 and use it as a platform to to speak badly about other chefs 1098 00:54:49,280 --> 00:54:53,120 because I feel like that doesn't provide any solutions. 1099 00:54:54,040 --> 00:54:57,120 And we need to be solutions based, solutions oriented and 1100 00:54:57,240 --> 00:55:01,120 and working on what's going to improve this industry, what's 1101 00:55:01,120 --> 00:55:03,040 going to help you become a better chef or help you become a 1102 00:55:03,040 --> 00:55:07,240 better cook. And anyone that I think goes 1103 00:55:07,240 --> 00:55:12,440 into an operation and celebrates someone else's demise, I've had 1104 00:55:12,440 --> 00:55:13,800 the opportunity to be on both ends. 1105 00:55:13,800 --> 00:55:15,520 I've had the opportunity to be successful and I've had the 1106 00:55:15,520 --> 00:55:18,720 opportunity to be a complete failure and and you know, hit 1107 00:55:18,720 --> 00:55:20,040 rock bottom. I've been on both. 1108 00:55:20,440 --> 00:55:25,440 And what's amazing is when you are on rock bottom, everyone 1109 00:55:25,440 --> 00:55:26,680 loves to kick you when you're down. 1110 00:55:27,000 --> 00:55:30,720 And I and I and I, and then when you come back up, everyone loves 1111 00:55:30,720 --> 00:55:33,360 to be your friend again. And it's like, why are we like 1112 00:55:33,360 --> 00:55:37,000 that as human beings? Like, what do you think is the 1113 00:55:37,200 --> 00:55:43,080 the greater good to stone them in the in the public square 1114 00:55:43,080 --> 00:55:45,680 while they're, you know, while their life is crumbling so you 1115 00:55:45,680 --> 00:55:49,600 can feel better about yourself or to step up and say, hey, you 1116 00:55:49,600 --> 00:55:52,120 know, what are you doing? All right, can I help you out? 1117 00:55:52,120 --> 00:55:53,840 Can I help? Can I help lift you up from this 1118 00:55:53,840 --> 00:55:56,000 rock bottom? But unfortunately people say no, 1119 00:55:56,000 --> 00:55:57,320 no, stone them in the public square. 1120 00:55:57,760 --> 00:55:59,960 Like you said, I think it's just a mentality that we have. 1121 00:56:00,240 --> 00:56:02,120 You see monkey? Do yeah, it's a lot easier to to 1122 00:56:02,120 --> 00:56:04,360 knock someone out than to help someone up, yeah. 1123 00:56:06,000 --> 00:56:08,120 Yeah, yeah. And, and I think that's mostly 1124 00:56:08,120 --> 00:56:09,960 because people just want to feel better about themselves and 1125 00:56:09,960 --> 00:56:12,640 their situation. I yeah, I mean, I've never been 1126 00:56:12,640 --> 00:56:17,720 one to gravitate toward towards someone. 1127 00:56:17,720 --> 00:56:19,400 It's not that I don't care about people. 1128 00:56:19,400 --> 00:56:22,320 Obviously I care. But I, I have boundaries within 1129 00:56:22,320 --> 00:56:25,920 myself, right? I have 20 something individuals 1130 00:56:26,120 --> 00:56:30,000 that require my full attention, not including my friends and 1131 00:56:30,000 --> 00:56:31,960 family. So I need to make sure that I 1132 00:56:31,960 --> 00:56:35,000 take care of take care of mine. And then that's basically where 1133 00:56:35,000 --> 00:56:37,560 I stand. Like, I can't, I can't Knee can 1134 00:56:37,560 --> 00:56:40,760 pick about other places, other restaurants, because mine's not 1135 00:56:40,760 --> 00:56:42,880 perfect. No, no, and and no one is and 1136 00:56:42,880 --> 00:56:46,280 everyone everyone has skeletons in their closet and things that 1137 00:56:46,280 --> 00:56:50,800 they wish they could do over and you know, I have AI would say to 1138 00:56:50,800 --> 00:56:54,000 people have a little compassion, like one day you might be the 1139 00:56:54,000 --> 00:56:55,680 one that. For sure you will be. 1140 00:56:55,680 --> 00:56:58,880 It's a circle life. Yeah, eventually they'll will be 1141 00:56:58,880 --> 00:57:00,320 knocking on your door too, right. 1142 00:57:01,320 --> 00:57:03,320 Difficulty eventually comes for everybody in life. 1143 00:57:03,640 --> 00:57:06,160 Anyway that I'll I'll leave it at that, but I want to ask you a 1144 00:57:06,160 --> 00:57:10,600 couple of wrap up questions as as we come to a close in your 1145 00:57:10,600 --> 00:57:14,040 kitchen, what is the salt? What is the the salt standard 1146 00:57:14,040 --> 00:57:16,560 for all-purpose? Not not finishing SO, but just 1147 00:57:16,560 --> 00:57:19,560 for all-purpose cooking? The kosher one, the Diamond 1 1148 00:57:19,680 --> 00:57:20,440 Diamond. Crispy, yeah. 1149 00:57:21,120 --> 00:57:22,320 And then what do you use for finishing? 1150 00:57:24,040 --> 00:57:25,960 Right now we're playing with a few salts. 1151 00:57:25,960 --> 00:57:27,720 There's some from Colima, they're coming in from Mexico. 1152 00:57:27,720 --> 00:57:31,120 They're really, really like high end, but I don't feel like the 1153 00:57:31,360 --> 00:57:34,000 Houston palace ready for them. They're a little too coarse. 1154 00:57:34,000 --> 00:57:35,360 OK. It's like almost, it's almost 1155 00:57:35,360 --> 00:57:37,480 like sea borderline. It's sea salt, sea salt. 1156 00:57:37,480 --> 00:57:40,120 But you know, when sea salt hates you for the first time and 1157 00:57:40,120 --> 00:57:42,240 you were like, this is unedible. Yeah, yeah. 1158 00:57:42,600 --> 00:57:44,360 Kind of like that. So I think we're going to just 1159 00:57:44,360 --> 00:57:46,120 kind of creep it into people here and there. 1160 00:57:47,520 --> 00:57:51,480 And do you have a a finishing acid go to that you typically 1161 00:57:51,480 --> 00:57:52,320 use? Yes. 1162 00:57:52,440 --> 00:57:54,680 Key Lime, Key Lime, Key Lime. It's the. 1163 00:57:54,680 --> 00:57:57,640 Little, the little. One yeah, it's I just it's funny 1164 00:57:57,640 --> 00:58:01,520 because we are so used to lemon, lemon, lemon, but the Key Lime 1165 00:58:01,720 --> 00:58:04,800 like it's like the best merrier of like lemon and lime. 1166 00:58:05,080 --> 00:58:07,960 It's like as sweet. It's high, high in acid, but a 1167 00:58:08,280 --> 00:58:10,360 little undertones of sweetness at the end. 1168 00:58:10,840 --> 00:58:13,720 It's a perfect balance for sure. And is there something that you 1169 00:58:13,720 --> 00:58:16,480 do in your kitchen that people could say, hey, look, start 1170 00:58:16,480 --> 00:58:19,480 doing this and you'll be able to get a lot more flavour or just 1171 00:58:19,480 --> 00:58:23,600 be more efficient? Taste, taste as you go. 1172 00:58:23,600 --> 00:58:26,480 I tell them all the time, just because we have a recipe doesn't 1173 00:58:26,480 --> 00:58:27,840 mean that things are going to taste the same. 1174 00:58:27,840 --> 00:58:30,000 The product is not the same, you know? 1175 00:58:30,000 --> 00:58:33,280 So we gotta adjust. Are you a green tape person? 1176 00:58:33,360 --> 00:58:34,240 Blue tape. How green? 1177 00:58:34,240 --> 00:58:36,800 OH, man, I love this question. Green tape all the way. 1178 00:58:36,840 --> 00:58:37,960 Green tape. Green tape all the way. 1179 00:58:37,960 --> 00:58:38,600 Yeah. Team green tape. 1180 00:58:39,320 --> 00:58:40,520 That's level because there's levels. 1181 00:58:41,560 --> 00:58:42,920 I don't. I don't like to brag. 1182 00:58:42,920 --> 00:58:46,240 When you come into my space and you see the green tape, you'll 1183 00:58:46,240 --> 00:58:48,320 know that I'm building professionals. 1184 00:58:48,480 --> 00:58:51,920 Into the world, Yeah, Team green tape for sure. 1185 00:58:53,120 --> 00:58:57,640 Last question, chef, if you have a a Mount Rushmore of chefs, 4 1186 00:58:57,640 --> 00:58:59,600 people that should be on Mount Rushmore to you Who? 1187 00:59:00,080 --> 00:59:02,160 Who should those 4 chefs be? Who? 1188 00:59:02,400 --> 00:59:04,400 Are we talking about national? Anyone. 1189 00:59:04,400 --> 00:59:05,960 Anyone. Anyone living dead. 1190 00:59:06,280 --> 00:59:09,240 Oh man, here. Abroad doesn't matter 4 chefs 1191 00:59:09,240 --> 00:59:11,400 that that you you feel are the greatest to you. 1192 00:59:13,720 --> 00:59:17,200 We're going to go with Bao Cantu in California at one. 1193 00:59:17,200 --> 00:59:18,520 Yeah. He's he's opening a spot here. 1194 00:59:18,520 --> 00:59:19,160 Yeah. Yeah. 1195 00:59:19,400 --> 00:59:20,040 You're in Austin. Yeah. 1196 00:59:20,040 --> 00:59:23,600 Yeah, Yeah, yeah. He's been a massive inspiration 1197 00:59:24,040 --> 00:59:26,640 in my career. I was luckily enough to dine at 1198 00:59:26,640 --> 00:59:28,440 the first one and then at the large space. 1199 00:59:28,640 --> 00:59:30,800 We've kept in contact throughout my career. 1200 00:59:30,800 --> 00:59:32,680 He actually tipped me. I don't know if I should say 1201 00:59:32,680 --> 00:59:35,720 that. He he gave me advice when when 1202 00:59:35,720 --> 00:59:40,640 the guy was announced, for sure. Then Olvera and Regola in Mexico 1203 00:59:40,640 --> 00:59:43,360 for sure, just because a pioneer, right? 1204 00:59:43,360 --> 00:59:45,520 You got to give the guy credits for sure. 1205 00:59:45,520 --> 00:59:50,400 Shepherd out there, just because I'm a firm believer that none of 1206 00:59:50,400 --> 00:59:53,800 us in Houston, and I do mean none of us in Houston will be 1207 00:59:53,800 --> 00:59:56,040 where we at without him. He broke. 1208 00:59:56,040 --> 00:59:58,360 Barriers shout out to. Christian yeah shout out and 1209 00:59:58,360 --> 01:00:01,520 Southern smokes too, especially now like another one hot 1210 01:00:01,520 --> 01:00:05,640 transition away from when it's time and I I love that and for 1211 01:00:05,640 --> 01:00:09,640 that he has to be up there. Justin, you for sure. 1212 01:00:10,520 --> 01:00:14,080 For me personally, just. He was able to he was ahead of 1213 01:00:14,080 --> 01:00:16,360 his time. You know the tasty menu, 1214 01:00:16,360 --> 01:00:22,000 vegetarian tasty menu in 2012 in Houston, unheard of, right? 1215 01:00:22,000 --> 01:00:24,440 Changed the game and he was also able to transition into 1216 01:00:24,440 --> 01:00:26,640 multiple. He's now a business owner has 1217 01:00:26,640 --> 01:00:29,760 bars late concepts James B Winter. 1218 01:00:30,320 --> 01:00:32,240 I'm sure he's going to. He's going for a Michelin star. 1219 01:00:32,240 --> 01:00:34,200 Like you can tell, like he has a little. 1220 01:00:34,200 --> 01:00:36,480 Chip, he's a, he's a, he's a bad motherfucker. 1221 01:00:36,480 --> 01:00:38,320 Yeah, he's super talented. He's done it all. 1222 01:00:38,680 --> 01:00:40,160 Yeah. I feel like once you cook at 1223 01:00:40,520 --> 01:00:43,640 Meadowood, back when Meadowood was around, if you got invited 1224 01:00:43,640 --> 01:00:46,280 to the 12 years of Christmas, yeah, that solidified you. 1225 01:00:46,280 --> 01:00:49,200 That's one of the greatest ever. You got invited. 1226 01:00:49,240 --> 01:00:51,240 That's. Smart, That was very smart, what 1227 01:00:51,240 --> 01:00:53,920 they were doing at Meadowood during that time, bringing in 1228 01:00:53,920 --> 01:00:55,680 the talent. Before the talent flourished. 1229 01:00:55,680 --> 01:00:57,400 Yeah. John Shields was there. 1230 01:00:57,400 --> 01:01:00,560 Yeah, it's, but again, not a lot of people nowadays know that 1231 01:01:00,560 --> 01:01:02,120 because they don't do their history and research. 1232 01:01:02,120 --> 01:01:06,480 And I'm a student of the game. I I thrive on little pockets of 1233 01:01:06,600 --> 01:01:08,360 history like that. Yeah, I am too. 1234 01:01:08,360 --> 01:01:10,360 I love, I love. I love it. 1235 01:01:10,680 --> 01:01:13,040 Chef, this was great. Where can people find you if 1236 01:01:13,040 --> 01:01:14,600 they want to eat your food, if they want to follow you on 1237 01:01:14,600 --> 01:01:17,640 social media? Social media go by dishwasher 89 1238 01:01:18,440 --> 01:01:20,400 and then Houston, TX at the demo we'll. 1239 01:01:21,200 --> 01:01:22,280 Have to. We'll have to bring you back. 1240 01:01:22,360 --> 01:01:24,040 Please do. Thank you. 1241 01:01:24,280 --> 01:01:26,320 All right, that's the show. If you liked it, make sure you 1242 01:01:26,320 --> 01:01:28,440 leave five stars. Nothing less than five stars. 1243 01:01:28,840 --> 01:01:31,400 If you want more chefs PSA, go to chefspsa.com. 1244 01:01:31,680 --> 01:01:34,040 Get yourself some books, get yourself some merch including 1245 01:01:34,040 --> 01:01:36,800 Culinary Leadership Fundamentals and the Line Cook Survival 1246 01:01:36,800 --> 01:01:38,240 Manual. If you want early access to 1247 01:01:38,240 --> 01:01:41,160 episodes, you need to get them on Spotify and sub stack by 1248 01:01:41,160 --> 01:01:43,280 becoming a paid member. The link is in the notes. 1249 01:01:43,480 --> 01:01:45,520 We'll see you next week. Hit the porno music no? 1250 01:01:46,120 --> 01:01:50,080 Smelling dress in the kitchen mixing Drop the chef Dallas No 1251 01:01:50,080 --> 01:01:52,320 fiction. Stirring up the BT enough the 1252 01:01:52,480 --> 01:01:55,200 session listen close classes in session.