1 00:00:00,040 --> 00:00:02,680 Hey, why don't you see what you can do to get me on Iron Chef 2 00:00:02,680 --> 00:00:04,400 America? And she's like, OK, I didn't 3 00:00:04,400 --> 00:00:06,280 think anything of it. And literally like 3 months 4 00:00:06,280 --> 00:00:08,080 after. So like you're, you're on. 5 00:00:08,440 --> 00:00:10,360 Hello chefs. This is Chefs PSA and I'm your 6 00:00:10,360 --> 00:00:13,200 host, Andre Netera. Today my guest is Chef David 7 00:00:13,200 --> 00:00:15,160 Bull. He competed on Iron Chef 8 00:00:15,160 --> 00:00:17,640 America. He's received recognition from 9 00:00:17,640 --> 00:00:20,680 Food and Wine as best new chef. He's currently the vice 10 00:00:20,680 --> 00:00:23,360 president of food and beverage from La Corsia Hospitality. 11 00:00:23,600 --> 00:00:26,840 He's opened up many restaurants. And today we're going to talk 12 00:00:26,840 --> 00:00:31,040 about all of that, including some great business advice for 13 00:00:31,040 --> 00:00:34,640 the chef, entrepreneur, and the very important topic surrounding 14 00:00:34,640 --> 00:00:36,400 mental health. Stay tuned. 15 00:00:48,920 --> 00:00:55,120 What was it like being the first chef from Austin, TX on Iron 16 00:00:55,120 --> 00:00:56,160 Chef? What's going through your mind 17 00:00:56,160 --> 00:00:57,800 when you walk into Kitchen Stadium? 18 00:00:58,080 --> 00:01:00,040 Gosh, can you set the stage? First of all? 19 00:01:00,040 --> 00:01:02,240 How did that? Maybe you can start out like the 20 00:01:02,440 --> 00:01:05,640 the phone rings. Yeah, well, that was kind of the 21 00:01:06,480 --> 00:01:10,800 the after part of winning Best New Chef Food and Wine magazine. 22 00:01:10,920 --> 00:01:13,400 So you win best new best new chef Food and wine magazine What 23 00:01:13,400 --> 00:01:15,960 year is? This 2003. 2003 and I bet you 24 00:01:15,960 --> 00:01:17,720 that that was a while ago. A ton of doors. 25 00:01:17,720 --> 00:01:19,320 Right, a ton of doors. And that was the phone call from 26 00:01:19,320 --> 00:01:21,800 Dana Cowan. And that was the random phone 27 00:01:21,800 --> 00:01:25,120 call that that began to change everything and and. 28 00:01:25,440 --> 00:01:27,560 By the way, for for context, how old are you at this time? 29 00:01:27,560 --> 00:01:30,880 You're in Austin, TX. Oh my gosh, you're a young buck. 30 00:01:30,880 --> 00:01:32,640 You just leave the mansion on Turtle Creek, right? 31 00:01:32,640 --> 00:01:38,120 Yeah, the mansion was, gosh, 1994 to 1999. 32 00:01:38,120 --> 00:01:43,320 And so I started at the Driscoll in Austin in the middle of 1999. 33 00:01:43,400 --> 00:01:46,320 So it's been a couple decades and I was 20. 34 00:01:47,120 --> 00:01:50,080 I was 23 years old from my new my first executive chef at the 35 00:01:50,080 --> 00:01:52,960 Driscoll Hotel. Holt 23 Wow, that's young. 36 00:01:52,960 --> 00:01:54,600 Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's that's young. 37 00:01:54,600 --> 00:01:55,760 But you're coming from the mansion on. 38 00:01:55,760 --> 00:02:03,360 Turtle, I was, I was super green and super super unprepared for 39 00:02:03,360 --> 00:02:05,560 what I was walking into. And that was the learning curve 40 00:02:05,560 --> 00:02:07,160 for sure. And then after two or three 41 00:02:07,160 --> 00:02:11,520 years in that I think gosh, food and Wine magazine was 2003. 42 00:02:11,520 --> 00:02:15,440 So 4 years into the Driscoll is that's how long it took to 43 00:02:15,440 --> 00:02:18,960 really turn everything around and and really fall into some 44 00:02:18,960 --> 00:02:21,640 kind of a rhythm. And then the call came in and at 45 00:02:21,640 --> 00:02:23,640 that time we just, we didn't know what was going on. 46 00:02:23,640 --> 00:02:28,160 And we had one, you know, the Austin American Statesman Award 47 00:02:28,160 --> 00:02:31,000 and you know, that whole getting the newspaper thing and getting 48 00:02:31,000 --> 00:02:35,080 those, those five star reviews and Texas Monthly noticed us and 49 00:02:35,080 --> 00:02:38,400 then we don't want to call them. And I remember taking the call 50 00:02:38,400 --> 00:02:41,440 from day and I was like then complete shock. 51 00:02:41,800 --> 00:02:43,120 It was great. It was really great. 52 00:02:43,120 --> 00:02:45,200 Yeah, so I'm assuming you're like on cloud 9 especially 53 00:02:45,200 --> 00:02:48,960 you're 2324 years old, right? Like hot shit, right? 54 00:02:48,960 --> 00:02:51,520 Yeah, yeah, you're 23. And you know, it's funny, I I 55 00:02:51,520 --> 00:02:55,400 think back I won some awards in Dallas at the time, So it was 56 00:02:55,400 --> 00:03:00,120 like 2003 and I had one the rising star chef in Dallas and I 57 00:03:00,120 --> 00:03:02,520 had one another. I had won another award. 58 00:03:02,520 --> 00:03:05,560 So those like two major awards at that time in Dallas that I 59 00:03:05,560 --> 00:03:07,440 had one. And I remember talking to my 60 00:03:07,440 --> 00:03:09,280 mentor at the time, I said, I don't know what to do next. 61 00:03:09,280 --> 00:03:11,880 I think I'm going to give up. Like where do I go from here? 62 00:03:12,480 --> 00:03:15,480 Like I'm already on top. Little did I know, right? 63 00:03:17,320 --> 00:03:21,880 So the phone call, you get to go on Iron Chef America, and this 64 00:03:21,880 --> 00:03:27,320 is like for people that weren't watching food TV at that time, 65 00:03:27,320 --> 00:03:30,000 like there was nothing bigger, nothing bigger than nothing 66 00:03:30,000 --> 00:03:31,000 bigger. Like you're on. 67 00:03:31,040 --> 00:03:34,800 Iron Chef, We were on super excited about the original Iron 68 00:03:34,800 --> 00:03:37,080 Chef. And so that was that was kind of 69 00:03:37,080 --> 00:03:39,520 a cult favorite for us watching the original. 70 00:03:39,560 --> 00:03:41,960 And then honestly, I made a joke to our marketing person. 71 00:03:41,960 --> 00:03:44,320 I said, Hey, why don't you see what you can do to get me on 72 00:03:44,320 --> 00:03:46,560 Iron Chef America? And she's like, OK, I didn't 73 00:03:46,560 --> 00:03:48,400 think anything of it. And literally like 3 months 74 00:03:48,400 --> 00:03:50,200 after she's like you're, you're on. 75 00:03:50,280 --> 00:03:51,440 I was like, you got to be kidding me. 76 00:03:51,680 --> 00:03:52,960 Like there's no way. What do you mean? 77 00:03:52,960 --> 00:03:54,680 I'm on. So that's how it kind of 78 00:03:54,680 --> 00:03:56,160 happened. And then all the details kind 79 00:03:56,160 --> 00:03:57,200 of. What's, what's the behind the 80 00:03:57,200 --> 00:03:58,960 scenes? So like you when you arrive, 81 00:03:58,960 --> 00:04:02,400 like I'm sure there is a little bit more than the grand reveal. 82 00:04:02,400 --> 00:04:03,480 You have a little bit of preparation. 83 00:04:03,480 --> 00:04:06,240 What was your strategy? So we arrived the day forward 84 00:04:06,240 --> 00:04:10,640 and we actually got to watch an episode prior and I forgot who 85 00:04:10,640 --> 00:04:13,040 it was, but we were actually in the studio watching all of it go 86 00:04:13,040 --> 00:04:16,079 down and Alton Brown and and all that. 87 00:04:16,880 --> 00:04:19,720 The it's funny because I think I've got a confidentiality 88 00:04:19,720 --> 00:04:21,600 agreement still. So I don't know how much I can 89 00:04:21,600 --> 00:04:24,280 say. OK, so I know I signed 90 00:04:24,280 --> 00:04:26,720 something, but I'll, I'll see if I could be careful on it. 91 00:04:26,720 --> 00:04:30,160 But the whole thing takes, I mean, it took like 8 hours, 92 00:04:30,280 --> 00:04:31,760 right? The taping takes out of eight 93 00:04:31,760 --> 00:04:33,320 hours. The cooking part is, is 94 00:04:33,320 --> 00:04:36,800 definitely 60 minutes, but and then the judging is another 95 00:04:36,800 --> 00:04:38,880 couple hours. So there's, there's that walk 96 00:04:38,880 --> 00:04:41,400 that you see with all the big lights and the reveal and that 97 00:04:41,920 --> 00:04:44,800 that was like an hour and a half or two hours like that whole 98 00:04:44,800 --> 00:04:45,480 setup. Who did? 99 00:04:45,480 --> 00:04:47,280 Who did you go with? Like how are you selecting your 100 00:04:47,280 --> 00:04:49,840 team? Well, I picked my my CDC and 101 00:04:49,840 --> 00:04:53,160 sous chef from the Driscoll at the time, Josh Watkins and Jason 102 00:04:53,160 --> 00:04:56,120 Maddie, both who are incredible people and incredible cooks to 103 00:04:56,120 --> 00:04:58,320 this day. And yeah, we were all just when 104 00:04:58,320 --> 00:05:00,760 I watched the video, I mean, we were, we were super young. 105 00:05:00,920 --> 00:05:04,360 It was. It was, yeah, no doubt in my 106 00:05:04,360 --> 00:05:05,640 mind that those two guys had to come with. 107 00:05:05,800 --> 00:05:07,240 And, and you're battling Bobby Flay. 108 00:05:07,280 --> 00:05:09,120 Was it boar? It was wild boar. 109 00:05:09,120 --> 00:05:11,880 Wild boar actually, from Broken Arrow Ranch, the ranch down 110 00:05:11,880 --> 00:05:13,680 here. In South Texas and back then for 111 00:05:13,680 --> 00:05:16,040 people to know, like, I don't, I don't remember what the records 112 00:05:16,040 --> 00:05:18,480 were, but like, Bobby Flay was like, had like a super high 113 00:05:18,480 --> 00:05:19,520 winning rate, right? Yeah. 114 00:05:19,640 --> 00:05:22,120 Yeah, definitely a high rate. Yeah, Yeah. 115 00:05:22,120 --> 00:05:24,880 And we always joke that, well, you can't have a losing Iron 116 00:05:24,880 --> 00:05:27,120 Chef. So I mean, he he definitely had 117 00:05:27,120 --> 00:05:28,000 some wins. Yeah. 118 00:05:28,040 --> 00:05:29,320 You know. But what? 119 00:05:29,320 --> 00:05:31,240 What was the the aftermath of that? 120 00:05:32,120 --> 00:05:35,760 Man, the first and foremost, we wanted to give just a shout out 121 00:05:35,760 --> 00:05:40,120 to, to our local folks and people that that made, made that 122 00:05:40,120 --> 00:05:42,960 possible. And so we rented out I think the 123 00:05:42,960 --> 00:05:46,920 original Alamo Drafthouse. And so when it when it aired, we 124 00:05:46,920 --> 00:05:49,840 had a party and and we showed the episode of the Drafthouse. 125 00:05:49,840 --> 00:05:51,440 Which was super cool. Yeah, that's super. 126 00:05:51,560 --> 00:05:52,800 Cool. So that was that was really 127 00:05:52,800 --> 00:05:54,360 great. And you know, nobody knew the 128 00:05:54,360 --> 00:05:56,800 outcome, so it was a little disappointing. 129 00:05:56,800 --> 00:05:59,560 You know what? Was it like. 130 00:05:59,560 --> 00:06:04,280 I'm just curious because at this time you've now won, you've 131 00:06:04,280 --> 00:06:06,840 received food and wine's best new chef, you're on an Iron Chef 132 00:06:07,240 --> 00:06:09,360 and back then this is pre social media. 133 00:06:09,600 --> 00:06:12,320 Yeah. So you're, you're kind of, you 134 00:06:12,320 --> 00:06:13,880 are a celebrity chef at this time. 135 00:06:13,880 --> 00:06:16,920 And by the way, you're probably the only celebrity chef in 136 00:06:16,920 --> 00:06:19,160 Austin at this time. It kind of felt that way. 137 00:06:19,160 --> 00:06:23,440 I mean, it's, you know, I've always not really, you know, I 138 00:06:23,440 --> 00:06:26,320 guess falling into that in my own mind because there's just 139 00:06:26,320 --> 00:06:28,840 way too many people that that made that possible. 140 00:06:28,840 --> 00:06:31,240 But yeah, I mean, back in the day, that whole celebrity chef 141 00:06:31,240 --> 00:06:33,760 thing was definitely kicking off and I was just happy to. 142 00:06:33,760 --> 00:06:37,960 It was funny because nobody thought Austin was a food scene 143 00:06:38,080 --> 00:06:39,440 at that time. Nobody. 144 00:06:39,520 --> 00:06:41,880 Everybody questioned why I was going from Dallas to Austin. 145 00:06:42,200 --> 00:06:45,920 So there felt like a definitely a like, well, this is This is 146 00:06:45,920 --> 00:06:47,680 why. So I felt I felt good about 147 00:06:47,680 --> 00:06:51,600 bringing attention to this to the city because it was an 148 00:06:51,640 --> 00:06:56,160 incredible place, like the a mini melting pot in Texas. 149 00:06:56,160 --> 00:06:58,720 And I was like, what what I mean, it was I wasn't proving 150 00:06:58,720 --> 00:07:01,160 anybody wrong. It was just like, now this is 151 00:07:01,240 --> 00:07:03,600 this is where I needed to be. This is what needed to happen. 152 00:07:03,880 --> 00:07:06,240 And I just felt that there was some movement that was happening 153 00:07:06,720 --> 00:07:08,920 in Austin at the time. So for people that don't know, 154 00:07:08,920 --> 00:07:10,840 so if we're going back, I can tell you, you know, I'm in 155 00:07:10,840 --> 00:07:14,320 Dallas at the time and you're you're the only name we know in 156 00:07:14,320 --> 00:07:16,160 Austin at this point. Like we don't know anyone. 157 00:07:16,160 --> 00:07:17,680 That's like what's going on over here. 158 00:07:17,880 --> 00:07:19,880 You know, it made us start to take a look, right? 159 00:07:20,560 --> 00:07:23,320 And I think it started making a lot of people start taking a 160 00:07:23,320 --> 00:07:24,640 look. And then the next thing you 161 00:07:24,640 --> 00:07:28,880 know, over the next couple of years, I would say for people 162 00:07:28,880 --> 00:07:31,920 that, you know, Texas history, maybe some Austin culinary 163 00:07:31,920 --> 00:07:34,200 history, I would say that you you were the first chef that 164 00:07:34,200 --> 00:07:35,840 people outside of Austin start to know. 165 00:07:36,080 --> 00:07:39,920 And then Tyson Cole shortly after that and then Aaron 166 00:07:39,920 --> 00:07:42,920 Franklin, you know, those you guys were like the first three 167 00:07:42,920 --> 00:07:44,320 that OK, what's going on over here? 168 00:07:44,320 --> 00:07:46,320 David Shanks coming over here, Anthony Bourdain's coming over 169 00:07:46,320 --> 00:07:47,920 here. And it's like now we're starting 170 00:07:47,920 --> 00:07:51,880 to discover, you know, the culinary scene in Austin and a 171 00:07:51,880 --> 00:07:54,440 lot of that, you know, you pioneered. 172 00:07:54,440 --> 00:07:56,560 So I'm, I'm super excited to have you on the show. 173 00:07:56,560 --> 00:07:58,360 Because of you. Yeah, because I remember, 174 00:07:58,360 --> 00:08:00,720 correct me if I'm wrong, you you opened up a spot in Dallas too, 175 00:08:00,720 --> 00:08:02,560 at a certain point? We did, yeah. 176 00:08:02,560 --> 00:08:07,440 And San Antonio and Big Spring and yeah, a few different. 177 00:08:07,440 --> 00:08:09,000 Places. What was the what was the What 178 00:08:09,000 --> 00:08:11,320 was the place? In Dallas, it was the Stonely 179 00:08:11,320 --> 00:08:12,240 Hotel. Was that the Stonely? 180 00:08:12,320 --> 00:08:13,520 That's right, yeah. Yeah. 181 00:08:13,520 --> 00:08:16,200 So it's funny because I'm at the pyramid at that time, chefing at 182 00:08:16,200 --> 00:08:17,680 the pyramid. And I remember when you opened, 183 00:08:17,960 --> 00:08:20,480 you know, at that time, you know, I had my view of my 184 00:08:20,480 --> 00:08:22,600 competitions, like Bruno at the mansion. 185 00:08:22,600 --> 00:08:25,040 And, you know, Steven Piles is doing his thing. 186 00:08:25,040 --> 00:08:26,520 I'm doing my thing. And then you open up with like 187 00:08:26,640 --> 00:08:30,040 another. It's like, oh great, no rest for 188 00:08:30,040 --> 00:08:31,760 the wicked. Yeah, it's like, oh geez, now we 189 00:08:31,760 --> 00:08:33,440 got to compete with Austin here in Dallas now. 190 00:08:33,440 --> 00:08:35,480 Oh my gosh, yeah, that was a good time. 191 00:08:35,880 --> 00:08:37,919 Kitchens are brutal right now, everyone knows it. 192 00:08:38,360 --> 00:08:41,159 Fewer people on the line, margins tighter than ever, and 193 00:08:41,159 --> 00:08:43,280 somehow the expectations keep going up. 194 00:08:43,480 --> 00:08:45,200 There's just no room to miss anymore. 195 00:08:45,400 --> 00:08:47,960 I was talking to a chef recently who said the biggest stress 196 00:08:47,960 --> 00:08:50,200 wasn't the volume, it was the mental load. 197 00:08:50,560 --> 00:08:54,040 Babysitting, food, timing, everything perfectly, trying to 198 00:08:54,040 --> 00:08:57,040 be everywhere at once. And that's where equipment 199 00:08:57,040 --> 00:08:58,600 matters more than people want to admit. 200 00:08:58,880 --> 00:09:02,240 Rationals Technology comes up a lot in those conversations. 201 00:09:02,240 --> 00:09:05,760 The Icon B Pro, the Ivario Pro, overnight roast that don't need 202 00:09:05,760 --> 00:09:08,720 to be checked, custom programs for all your recipes, 203 00:09:08,920 --> 00:09:12,400 consistency without hovering completely automated cleaning, 204 00:09:12,600 --> 00:09:14,560 monitoring everything from your phone. 205 00:09:14,560 --> 00:09:16,960 The list goes on. And what really buys you the 206 00:09:16,960 --> 00:09:19,840 headspace? Less standing over pans and more 207 00:09:19,840 --> 00:09:21,960 time to leave the kitchen instead of constantly putting 208 00:09:21,960 --> 00:09:25,400 out tiny fires when you're down to cook, when the prep list is 209 00:09:25,400 --> 00:09:28,520 rough, when the production ramps up, think rational. 210 00:09:28,520 --> 00:09:35,920 So I I guess as we transition from Iron Chef, from food and 211 00:09:35,920 --> 00:09:39,760 wine, from the Driscoll Hotel, now you start to branch out on 212 00:09:39,760 --> 00:09:41,760 your own. What does that look like? 213 00:09:41,760 --> 00:09:45,200 Because obviously for people that don't know you, you've had 214 00:09:45,200 --> 00:09:49,080 a very successful restaurant empire in Austin and beyond. 215 00:09:49,400 --> 00:09:49,920 Sure. Yeah. 216 00:09:49,920 --> 00:09:52,080 What does that look like? I don't even hear it as an 217 00:09:52,080 --> 00:09:53,920 empire. It's like it's so hard to, I 218 00:09:53,920 --> 00:09:55,440 mean, it's, it's looking back on it. 219 00:09:55,440 --> 00:09:59,200 I mean, we've since then, we've opened 16 restaurants slash 220 00:09:59,200 --> 00:10:02,640 hotels and most of them were historic renovations. 221 00:10:02,640 --> 00:10:06,560 And so, you know, and I've been part of a hospitality company, 222 00:10:06,560 --> 00:10:09,840 you know, the course of hospitality has been a huge, you 223 00:10:09,840 --> 00:10:14,000 know, partnership to be able to give me the opportunity to do 224 00:10:14,000 --> 00:10:17,280 the design, do the concept and do the food that I wanted to do. 225 00:10:17,280 --> 00:10:20,560 So that support and. Did they find you or did you 226 00:10:20,560 --> 00:10:23,760 form this on? We, it was, it was really Jeff 227 00:10:23,760 --> 00:10:26,280 Trigger who was the general manager at the mansion for over 228 00:10:26,280 --> 00:10:28,480 20 years when he raised his family in that hotel. 229 00:10:28,480 --> 00:10:32,120 And when he left Dallas to come to the Driscoll, I was like, 230 00:10:32,120 --> 00:10:34,320 hey, man, like can I get a letter of reference? 231 00:10:34,320 --> 00:10:35,720 Because what are you, what are you doing? 232 00:10:35,720 --> 00:10:37,920 And he's like, well, have you ever been to Austin? 233 00:10:37,920 --> 00:10:40,320 And I said, no, I've never been to Austin. 234 00:10:40,320 --> 00:10:41,480 It's like, well, why don't you come out? 235 00:10:41,480 --> 00:10:45,600 And at that time, 22 people, basically the entire executive 236 00:10:45,600 --> 00:10:47,920 team left the mansion and opened the Driscoll. 237 00:10:48,600 --> 00:10:51,560 And then when the Driscoll sold, actually, yeah, for that eight 238 00:10:51,560 --> 00:10:54,000 years of the Driscoll, it did. It did incredible. 239 00:10:54,000 --> 00:10:57,840 And so the owner decided to sell it and he said that, well, I 240 00:10:57,840 --> 00:10:59,400 don't want that to ever happen again. 241 00:10:59,480 --> 00:11:01,560 And so he created his own management company and it's 242 00:11:01,560 --> 00:11:03,560 named after his two daughters, Coralie and Shannon. 243 00:11:03,960 --> 00:11:07,760 So instead of being operators underneath ownership, he created 244 00:11:07,760 --> 00:11:10,600 a management company to protect us moving forward so that we can 245 00:11:10,600 --> 00:11:13,720 have long term contracts. And he asked me to be the Vice 246 00:11:13,720 --> 00:11:17,200 President of food and beverage. So there's only four of us, 247 00:11:17,200 --> 00:11:21,160 there's operations, food and beverage, our CFO and he's the 248 00:11:21,160 --> 00:11:24,960 president. So four of us were the core team 249 00:11:25,160 --> 00:11:28,920 that created that company and, and ended up managing over 16 250 00:11:28,920 --> 00:11:30,760 properties. Some of them we own, some of 251 00:11:30,760 --> 00:11:33,880 them are leases, some of them are licensing agreements. 252 00:11:33,960 --> 00:11:35,240 And so that's kind of where it was born. 253 00:11:35,240 --> 00:11:39,160 So I, I feel very blessed to be part of that because I've just, 254 00:11:39,240 --> 00:11:42,120 I've seen a lot of chefs try to do that on their own and it's 255 00:11:42,120 --> 00:11:44,680 just, it's really tough. It is really tough. 256 00:11:44,680 --> 00:11:48,360 What do you think was the biggest learning curve when you 257 00:11:48,360 --> 00:11:52,920 all were starting as a group to, to start to get those licensing 258 00:11:52,920 --> 00:11:54,680 deals? And how did you differentiate 259 00:11:54,680 --> 00:11:56,840 like, hey, this is a, a property that maybe want to look at his 260 00:11:56,840 --> 00:11:59,880 licensing deal and this is a, a property that maybe we want to, 261 00:11:59,880 --> 00:12:03,480 we want to for ourselves. I mean, it really, you know, our 262 00:12:03,480 --> 00:12:07,560 first gig was the San Anthony Hotel in San Antonio, right? 263 00:12:07,560 --> 00:12:10,600 And so a lot of it was just like when you come into an operation 264 00:12:10,600 --> 00:12:15,160 that is not running smoothly, it just, I mean, it takes two or 265 00:12:15,160 --> 00:12:17,920 three years to get all of those parts and pieces. 266 00:12:18,080 --> 00:12:20,920 And from a chef perspective, it's like, man, you, you walk 267 00:12:20,920 --> 00:12:23,640 into an existing staff, an existing concept, an existing 268 00:12:23,640 --> 00:12:27,280 clientele, an existing, I mean, that's the biggest challenge is 269 00:12:27,280 --> 00:12:30,720 to how you turn that ship and how you can do what you know 270 00:12:30,720 --> 00:12:33,680 needs to be done. And it takes a lot of patience 271 00:12:33,680 --> 00:12:35,720 and a lot of grace and a lot of forgiveness because it's like, 272 00:12:35,720 --> 00:12:39,400 man, the team that you're walking into usually doesn't 273 00:12:39,400 --> 00:12:43,200 want to see you, right, right. And so that transition is always 274 00:12:43,200 --> 00:12:47,240 very difficult. But yeah, I mean, that was the 275 00:12:47,320 --> 00:12:50,400 Saint Anthony was the first gig. And then back to Dallas at the 276 00:12:50,400 --> 00:12:52,360 stoning. So I was commuting, I lived in 277 00:12:52,360 --> 00:12:54,560 Austin. I was driving to San Antonio and 278 00:12:54,560 --> 00:12:57,840 flying to Dallas for like the first two or three years of this 279 00:12:58,160 --> 00:13:00,600 hotel management company. And for people that don't know, 280 00:13:00,600 --> 00:13:04,080 there's a big difference between a management and a licensing and 281 00:13:04,120 --> 00:13:09,440 licensing and management, right? What you know, can you can you 282 00:13:09,440 --> 00:13:11,080 kind of break that down for people that are listening like 283 00:13:11,080 --> 00:13:13,520 it when you're when you're going to the negotiating table with 284 00:13:13,760 --> 00:13:16,120 I'm just going to use fill in the blank hotel. 285 00:13:17,440 --> 00:13:20,200 What are you typically looking at that is the best structure 286 00:13:20,200 --> 00:13:22,600 from a chef's perspective? Is it the is it the licensing? 287 00:13:22,600 --> 00:13:26,040 Is it the management or is it, you know, you want to be more 288 00:13:26,040 --> 00:13:28,640 hands off, you want to be more hands on, and what are some of 289 00:13:28,640 --> 00:13:30,000 the red flags that you're looking for? 290 00:13:30,440 --> 00:13:33,120 Well, I think it's important and we've experienced this. 291 00:13:33,120 --> 00:13:35,440 I'm certainly from a chef perspective side that it's, I 292 00:13:35,440 --> 00:13:37,840 mean, if you're not hands on and that's where the trouble kind of 293 00:13:37,840 --> 00:13:40,040 started is that if I'm commuting, I remember one of the 294 00:13:40,040 --> 00:13:42,960 articles in Dallas from when we renovated the Stone Land, I 295 00:13:42,960 --> 00:13:44,880 launched that restaurant. I was never supposed to be the 296 00:13:44,880 --> 00:13:47,720 chef there, but that was the the market crash. 297 00:13:47,720 --> 00:13:51,280 And so in the article it talked about that I don't even live in 298 00:13:51,280 --> 00:13:53,240 Dallas is. That Leslie Brenner. 299 00:13:53,240 --> 00:13:54,360 Yeah, yeah, I. Think it was yeah. 300 00:13:55,680 --> 00:13:58,800 And so it was like, I, you know, she wasn't wrong, but it's like 301 00:13:58,800 --> 00:14:02,200 that was part of the, the challenge is that it's really 302 00:14:02,200 --> 00:14:06,280 difficult to license your brand or license the concept because 303 00:14:06,280 --> 00:14:09,320 the dependency on all of the other people like it's hard 304 00:14:09,320 --> 00:14:11,320 enough if you're there, let alone if you're not there. 305 00:14:11,320 --> 00:14:13,000 So we have very few licensing agreements. 306 00:14:13,160 --> 00:14:15,320 Most of everything requires us to be hands on. 307 00:14:15,320 --> 00:14:18,280 Most of them were contractual management agreements for the 308 00:14:18,280 --> 00:14:21,360 five years or 10 years or a situation like that, that we 309 00:14:21,360 --> 00:14:22,920 were working directly with the ownership. 310 00:14:23,000 --> 00:14:26,160 So, so for you and your company, you would prefer the licensing 311 00:14:26,160 --> 00:14:28,640 management deal or I'm sorry, the management? 312 00:14:28,640 --> 00:14:31,360 The management deal, yeah, we've got 1 license agreement still to 313 00:14:31,360 --> 00:14:34,120 this day that's at the airport. So second bar in kitchen is it's 314 00:14:34,480 --> 00:14:39,120 the Austin airport and it's more consulting, more quality 315 00:14:39,120 --> 00:14:41,560 control. But I am you know, I designed 316 00:14:41,560 --> 00:14:43,760 the kitchen, I launched it. I trained them up in the 317 00:14:43,760 --> 00:14:46,320 beginning and I've been there, you know, several times over the 318 00:14:46,320 --> 00:14:48,480 last few years to help with quality control. 319 00:14:48,960 --> 00:14:53,640 But I got to depend on this guy or this this girl to maintain 320 00:14:53,640 --> 00:14:55,400 that standard. And it has to be up to them 321 00:14:55,400 --> 00:14:58,320 because it's their employees. And so the challenge comes in 322 00:14:58,320 --> 00:15:01,400 where I mean, you and I both know that any kitchen, like if I 323 00:15:01,400 --> 00:15:05,520 mean that, that culture and that standardization of, of who you 324 00:15:05,520 --> 00:15:08,760 are and what you do and what you put on a plate, it's just if 325 00:15:08,760 --> 00:15:12,160 you're remote or if you're not present, even if you're there, 326 00:15:12,160 --> 00:15:14,480 it's really, really difficult to create that consistency and 327 00:15:14,480 --> 00:15:16,680 quality. And so the idea, I mean, 328 00:15:16,680 --> 00:15:19,640 licensing agreements are, are, are really great and they fill a 329 00:15:19,640 --> 00:15:23,840 purpose and it's very specific on, on that kind of stuff. 330 00:15:23,840 --> 00:15:27,960 But I mean, for me, we found more success in managing it 331 00:15:27,960 --> 00:15:30,960 ourselves and we were hoping to get really, really big. 332 00:15:30,960 --> 00:15:35,000 So I can kind of float around multiple locations as this, you 333 00:15:35,000 --> 00:15:38,640 know, that was another I, you know, unrealistic expectation 334 00:15:38,640 --> 00:15:41,800 because as soon as I walked away or as soon as I got distracted 335 00:15:41,800 --> 00:15:44,880 or as soon as other things came out, immediately quality would 336 00:15:45,080 --> 00:15:46,920 suffer. And then how do you pay somebody 337 00:15:46,920 --> 00:15:52,080 enough to maintain the quality at the location that you don't 338 00:15:52,080 --> 00:15:54,760 have to be there so that it offsets budget? 339 00:15:54,840 --> 00:15:58,000 The economics don't work again, unless you've got multiple, 340 00:15:58,000 --> 00:16:02,400 multiple locations and all this free flowing cash and revenue to 341 00:16:02,400 --> 00:16:03,680 be able to pay for that position. 342 00:16:03,680 --> 00:16:05,080 And it that's just didn't happen. 343 00:16:05,080 --> 00:16:08,600 So when what are you doing? You know, at this point all this 344 00:16:08,600 --> 00:16:11,160 is happening in in in your career. 345 00:16:11,320 --> 00:16:13,960 You have a couple, you have multiple locations. 346 00:16:14,160 --> 00:16:17,040 How are you scaling and maintaining brand standard? 347 00:16:17,040 --> 00:16:20,200 Like is it consistent recipes? Is it are you sending like 348 00:16:20,200 --> 00:16:22,720 photos of every dish? Are you are you just showing up 349 00:16:22,720 --> 00:16:25,200 and you know, losing your mind saying this is not what I said? 350 00:16:26,080 --> 00:16:27,600 How are you maintaining that consistency? 351 00:16:27,600 --> 00:16:30,680 The only brand consistency that we did was with second bar and 352 00:16:30,680 --> 00:16:32,640 kitchen, right? That was our first restaurant 353 00:16:32,640 --> 00:16:35,080 deal. That was our first big, you 354 00:16:35,200 --> 00:16:37,800 know, multi $1,000,000 renovation for the space and our 355 00:16:37,800 --> 00:16:41,040 big launch. And so we ended up having a 356 00:16:41,040 --> 00:16:43,400 total of 5 second mar in kitchens. 357 00:16:43,400 --> 00:16:45,120 I think three were operating at the same time. 358 00:16:45,760 --> 00:16:50,160 And because it was, it was not a cookie cutter scenario. 359 00:16:50,160 --> 00:16:52,600 Yes, the brand could have been, but I'm it's pizza and burgers 360 00:16:52,600 --> 00:16:55,840 and really great stuff. But we didn't start out 361 00:16:55,840 --> 00:16:58,720 expecting the expansion. And so our books and our 362 00:16:58,720 --> 00:17:01,320 standards and our, and all of those things like we were 363 00:17:01,320 --> 00:17:04,280 creating that kind of as we went along, right. 364 00:17:04,280 --> 00:17:07,280 And so when we expanded, all of a sudden it's like, oh, wait, 365 00:17:07,280 --> 00:17:11,040 no, we might not want to do that because it doesn't really work 366 00:17:11,040 --> 00:17:13,480 at that particular location or the equipment's different or 367 00:17:13,480 --> 00:17:16,040 whatever it is. And so I would definitely 368 00:17:16,240 --> 00:17:19,880 encourage if, if your intention is to expand, you got to start 369 00:17:19,880 --> 00:17:24,400 that consistent standard in your SOP's in advance of opening the 370 00:17:24,400 --> 00:17:26,640 first, because then everything kind of trickles back down and 371 00:17:26,640 --> 00:17:29,240 it falls within the parameters or the boundaries of what it is. 372 00:17:29,480 --> 00:17:33,160 So that anybody that goes to any of your locations experiences 373 00:17:33,160 --> 00:17:35,160 that same quality. Because we even had, you know, 374 00:17:35,440 --> 00:17:38,360 the the logo was the same, but uniforms may be different or, 375 00:17:38,960 --> 00:17:43,680 you know, your location is just really, it dictates a whole lot 376 00:17:43,680 --> 00:17:45,560 of the expectation. And so if you've got a brand 377 00:17:45,560 --> 00:17:47,480 that you're trying to plug in, want it. 378 00:17:48,120 --> 00:17:51,480 I just didn't have a lot of fun at that stuff like I, I much 379 00:17:51,480 --> 00:17:55,600 more enjoy the creation of the concept within the walls in the 380 00:17:55,600 --> 00:17:57,000 space of the location that it's in. 381 00:17:57,000 --> 00:17:59,880 And that's why La Corsia and the hospitality group, It's like 382 00:18:00,000 --> 00:18:04,240 most of it was taking existing historic properties and then 383 00:18:04,240 --> 00:18:07,920 figuring out, asking ourselves what is the best option of the 384 00:18:07,920 --> 00:18:10,280 food and beverage product that we can put into here. 385 00:18:10,320 --> 00:18:12,600 That's a whole lot more fun than saying we've got this brand, 386 00:18:13,320 --> 00:18:15,200 let's push it and plug it in into the space. 387 00:18:15,200 --> 00:18:16,840 Sometimes that's not the. Way to go. 388 00:18:17,160 --> 00:18:20,160 You know, and it's a lot more fun to create it on the spot. 389 00:18:20,640 --> 00:18:23,160 Something that I've, I've thought and you know you've 390 00:18:23,160 --> 00:18:25,120 worked in hotels and I've worked in hotels. 391 00:18:25,120 --> 00:18:27,680 The most recent hotel I opened, well, I mean, I opened it in 392 00:18:27,680 --> 00:18:32,680 20/16/2017 open the Fairmont. And when we were, when we were 393 00:18:32,680 --> 00:18:35,840 opening up, I mean, we have, we have the fine dining restaurant, 394 00:18:35,840 --> 00:18:38,000 we have the Italian restaurant, we have the Asian restaurant, we 395 00:18:38,000 --> 00:18:39,440 have the, the Mexican thing over there. 396 00:18:39,440 --> 00:18:40,840 We got the Bar and Grill over here. 397 00:18:41,200 --> 00:18:43,360 And so when you're opening and then you got of course the 398 00:18:43,360 --> 00:18:48,160 cafeteria and family meal and then you got the, the, the 399 00:18:48,160 --> 00:18:50,200 thousand person banquet catering operation. 400 00:18:50,240 --> 00:18:51,520 So you have all these moving parts. 401 00:18:52,800 --> 00:18:55,760 One of the things that I've thought and I'm not sure if you 402 00:18:55,760 --> 00:18:59,120 agree with me, but you've opened, I've opened a lot of 403 00:18:59,120 --> 00:19:01,400 restaurants in one building and you've opened a lot of 404 00:19:01,400 --> 00:19:02,560 restaurants in multiple buildings. 405 00:19:03,560 --> 00:19:06,360 One of the things that I've thought to myself is as a 406 00:19:06,360 --> 00:19:10,160 restaurant group, is it easier to open multiple restaurants at 407 00:19:10,160 --> 00:19:12,240 the same time? Or is it, are you, are you 408 00:19:12,240 --> 00:19:14,760 better off like let's open this one, stay stabilized, wait a 409 00:19:14,760 --> 00:19:16,320 year and then open up the second one. 410 00:19:16,320 --> 00:19:21,320 And the reason I ask that is because in my mind, and, and I 411 00:19:21,320 --> 00:19:23,120 sometimes say this when I'm consulting, it's like, well, if 412 00:19:23,120 --> 00:19:25,480 you're open in one open 2 like you, you only have to build the 413 00:19:25,480 --> 00:19:28,760 SOP twice because I know in a hotel you're opening all of them 414 00:19:28,760 --> 00:19:30,040 on the same day. You have no. 415 00:19:30,040 --> 00:19:31,400 Choice in that team. Right. 416 00:19:31,880 --> 00:19:34,000 You have your directors in place, but you're open like you 417 00:19:34,000 --> 00:19:36,200 have no choice. They're all opening on on 418 00:19:36,200 --> 00:19:38,920 opening day. That that gives me a little 419 00:19:38,920 --> 00:19:40,560 anxiety just hearing hearing that. 420 00:19:40,560 --> 00:19:43,280 But yeah, I would, if you have the choice, definitely at least 421 00:19:43,280 --> 00:19:45,640 space them out a little bit. But if it's the same brand, 422 00:19:46,120 --> 00:19:49,440 that's a little bit different. But yeah, I mean, it's, it's 423 00:19:49,440 --> 00:19:51,400 hard enough, man. You know, I'm, I'm to the age 424 00:19:51,400 --> 00:19:53,120 and points where it's like, man, I don't want to make things a 425 00:19:53,120 --> 00:19:58,640 little easier, not not challenge ourselves to, you know, to just 426 00:19:58,640 --> 00:20:01,960 go through that, that process. But no, I mean, you make a good 427 00:20:01,960 --> 00:20:03,160 point. I mean, it really depends on the 428 00:20:03,160 --> 00:20:04,680 location. It depends on the brand and the 429 00:20:04,680 --> 00:20:07,640 concept and depends on the team. Like we've, we've seen 430 00:20:07,640 --> 00:20:10,880 situations to where we've got a set opening date and we've got 431 00:20:10,880 --> 00:20:13,560 the, you know, we've got the plan in place and it's like. 432 00:20:14,440 --> 00:20:17,240 It's team based. I mean, me and you might be able 433 00:20:17,240 --> 00:20:19,840 to figure XY and Z, but we can't do every single job. 434 00:20:19,840 --> 00:20:22,680 So if you can't find the team and they're trained up enough, 435 00:20:23,040 --> 00:20:27,240 the last thing you want to do is push an opening that you're not 436 00:20:27,600 --> 00:20:29,280 ready for. I mean, you really, especially 437 00:20:29,280 --> 00:20:31,760 in a town like awesome and you get you kind of get one shot, 438 00:20:31,800 --> 00:20:35,120 that first impression, that first meal or that first, you 439 00:20:35,120 --> 00:20:36,800 know, influencer event or whatever it is. 440 00:20:36,800 --> 00:20:37,880 I mean, you've got to be spot on. 441 00:20:37,880 --> 00:20:43,120 So I think those are really risky things to put on paper. 442 00:20:43,280 --> 00:20:46,400 You've got to be able to, you got to be able to pivot, you got 443 00:20:46,400 --> 00:20:49,320 to be able to work around what cards you're dealt with. 444 00:20:49,320 --> 00:20:52,800 And we think that it's all going to work out, but there's always 445 00:20:52,800 --> 00:20:53,760 something that's going to happen. 446 00:20:53,760 --> 00:20:56,120 And so I think it's important to be able to pivot during those 447 00:20:56,640 --> 00:20:58,600 time periods. If you were giving business 448 00:20:58,600 --> 00:21:01,360 advice, you've opened a lot of restaurants, you had a very 449 00:21:01,360 --> 00:21:03,960 successful career. And if you were giving specific 450 00:21:03,960 --> 00:21:06,160 business advice to the people that are just starting out to 451 00:21:06,160 --> 00:21:08,960 say, hey, I want to open up my first restaurant or, or I'm 452 00:21:08,960 --> 00:21:10,520 ready to go from one restaurant to two. 453 00:21:10,640 --> 00:21:12,080 Maybe maybe they're looking to expand. 454 00:21:13,880 --> 00:21:16,400 And there's, there's a, there's a big difference between I've 455 00:21:16,400 --> 00:21:19,560 put all my money into this and it's mine and my partner's 456 00:21:19,560 --> 00:21:22,440 restaurant versus OK, now we're going in as a group and now 457 00:21:22,440 --> 00:21:25,240 there's partnership money. What are some of the the 458 00:21:25,240 --> 00:21:28,520 important things that you think people should know and things 459 00:21:28,520 --> 00:21:31,480 that and the questions they should be asking that they don't 460 00:21:31,480 --> 00:21:35,560 know to ask? Well, I think I don't, I think 461 00:21:35,560 --> 00:21:37,680 it might have been my boss or somebody, but I mean that the 462 00:21:37,720 --> 00:21:40,440 lease, if you're not buying, well, first of all, if you're 463 00:21:40,440 --> 00:21:43,000 buying the property or you're leasing the property, that is 464 00:21:43,000 --> 00:21:46,200 the number one most important thing is what does that lease 465 00:21:46,200 --> 00:21:48,400 look like? All of the nuances and 466 00:21:48,400 --> 00:21:50,520 everything that could possibly go wrong need to be addressed 467 00:21:50,520 --> 00:21:53,520 before you ever take the space. And so the lease is incredibly 468 00:21:53,520 --> 00:21:55,320 important. Can you can you talk about get 469 00:21:55,320 --> 00:21:57,200 more granular like what are the some of those things that need 470 00:21:57,200 --> 00:22:00,320 to be addressed specifically? Garbage like you know that the 471 00:22:00,320 --> 00:22:03,200 triple net or the it's a landlord situation and like when 472 00:22:03,200 --> 00:22:05,040 you talk about the exterior space, the. 473 00:22:05,160 --> 00:22:06,440 Cams. Yeah, the cams. 474 00:22:06,440 --> 00:22:07,800 Yeah, like what? Wait a minute. 475 00:22:08,680 --> 00:22:12,240 The sidewalk is half on the city line and half on property line. 476 00:22:12,480 --> 00:22:14,560 Who cleans that 3 feet of sidewalk? 477 00:22:14,880 --> 00:22:18,600 And when you talk about garbage and you're in a multiple complex 478 00:22:18,600 --> 00:22:22,720 situation, I mean, even the water meter, it's like, where 479 00:22:22,720 --> 00:22:24,680 does this water meter actually register? 480 00:22:24,680 --> 00:22:26,600 And who's paying for that part, part of the deal? 481 00:22:26,600 --> 00:22:30,920 Parking, Oh my gosh, parking is, is massive because you may in 482 00:22:30,920 --> 00:22:34,600 the least, oh, you've got 10 spots, but is that 24 hours a 483 00:22:34,600 --> 00:22:36,600 day? Or is it only during operating 484 00:22:36,600 --> 00:22:39,920 hours or where does your team park the list go on and on as 485 00:22:39,920 --> 00:22:42,080 far as the utilities are concerned and the expenses are 486 00:22:42,080 --> 00:22:44,640 concerned, they have nothing to do necessarily with running a 487 00:22:44,640 --> 00:22:45,760 restaurant for food and beverage. 488 00:22:46,880 --> 00:22:50,560 So those are some of the pitfalls and that I mean, gosh, 489 00:22:50,600 --> 00:22:53,880 you know, five year lease or a 10 year lease and triple net. 490 00:22:53,880 --> 00:22:58,840 And you know, I mean, it's you don't know what to ask for 491 00:22:58,840 --> 00:23:00,160 unless you've kind of already been through it. 492 00:23:00,160 --> 00:23:02,480 And so those are the things that I would kind of look for because 493 00:23:02,720 --> 00:23:03,960 it's not the people are out to get you. 494 00:23:03,960 --> 00:23:06,640 It's just, and sometimes the ownership or the people that own 495 00:23:06,640 --> 00:23:07,840 the property also don't know either. 496 00:23:07,880 --> 00:23:11,480 And so then when a problem happens or you're not busy or 497 00:23:11,480 --> 00:23:14,040 there's COVID or there's something that happens, all of a 498 00:23:14,040 --> 00:23:16,400 sudden now you're at a table trying to figure out, well, wait 499 00:23:16,400 --> 00:23:18,400 a minute, you know, and that happened, that happened to us 500 00:23:18,400 --> 00:23:20,920 during COVID too. It's like, wait a minute, we 501 00:23:20,920 --> 00:23:23,640 need rent assistance because we can't afford rent because 502 00:23:23,640 --> 00:23:27,760 nobody, I mean, it's shut down. Like that's not our fault. 503 00:23:28,160 --> 00:23:31,920 And so that that's an extreme example because nobody wrote in 504 00:23:31,920 --> 00:23:34,800 their lease what would happen if there was a total economic 505 00:23:34,800 --> 00:23:36,680 shutdown. Is that now being negotiated? 506 00:23:36,680 --> 00:23:38,280 I think, yeah, I think that's a deal. 507 00:23:38,720 --> 00:23:40,800 I think that's got to be in your new plans because you know. 508 00:23:42,160 --> 00:23:44,320 What is it called? A Like a force majeure or yeah. 509 00:23:45,960 --> 00:23:48,240 Act of God or act of nature. And it's like, yeah, that's got 510 00:23:48,240 --> 00:23:52,360 to be in there because, you know, we know that restaurants 511 00:23:52,360 --> 00:23:54,640 operate in such a slim margin. And so if you're not 512 00:23:54,640 --> 00:23:59,480 anticipating what happens when those margins aren't handled, 513 00:24:00,280 --> 00:24:02,840 you've got to have a Plan B and usually a Plan C to be able to 514 00:24:02,840 --> 00:24:05,360 impact that kind of stuff. And and are you looking at like 515 00:24:05,800 --> 00:24:08,320 like TI money? So hey, we need to take care of 516 00:24:08,320 --> 00:24:11,080 this before we even, yeah, before we even start this. 517 00:24:11,080 --> 00:24:12,240 Yeah. And how do you know TI mean 518 00:24:12,240 --> 00:24:14,920 what, who, who, where's that rate and what's the market on 519 00:24:14,920 --> 00:24:17,280 the TI? And we, we've seen it to where, 520 00:24:17,280 --> 00:24:19,160 Oh my gosh, we got, we don't have to worry about anything. 521 00:24:19,160 --> 00:24:22,360 But then we've seen it towards a white box and it's like, oh, OK, 522 00:24:22,360 --> 00:24:25,360 well, a white box to you might be different to me if the 523 00:24:25,360 --> 00:24:30,240 plumbing is stubbed out or I've got to hire now a plumber to 524 00:24:30,280 --> 00:24:33,200 actually do the final hookups and all that kind of stuff. 525 00:24:33,200 --> 00:24:36,240 So I mean, it's, it's easy to take it for granted because the 526 00:24:36,240 --> 00:24:39,200 chefs are so excited to get just let me cook this, let's get the 527 00:24:39,200 --> 00:24:41,000 stove delivered. Let's, let's get moving. 528 00:24:41,800 --> 00:24:45,120 But all of those pennies and Dimes really, really can add up 529 00:24:45,120 --> 00:24:46,640 quickly. If you're, if you're over 530 00:24:46,640 --> 00:24:49,680 budget, which most are, and then you start out and now you're now 531 00:24:49,720 --> 00:24:52,760 you've got owners and investors that are like, wait a minute, 532 00:24:52,760 --> 00:24:56,000 we, you promised us this return in 12 months. 533 00:24:56,000 --> 00:24:58,440 Where's the return? They're not looking at 534 00:24:58,440 --> 00:25:02,440 everything that just happened over the last 24 months to build 535 00:25:02,440 --> 00:25:04,520 out and all of those unforeseen circumstances. 536 00:25:04,520 --> 00:25:06,960 So that's, and that can be pretty conflicting because it's 537 00:25:06,960 --> 00:25:09,400 like, man, we still believe in you. 538 00:25:09,400 --> 00:25:11,680 We still believe in the concept, we still believe in the product. 539 00:25:11,680 --> 00:25:15,600 But now we're over budget by $200,000, which skews all of the 540 00:25:15,600 --> 00:25:18,960 return. Now you're working harder and 541 00:25:18,960 --> 00:25:21,400 trying to do more than you really were designed to do. 542 00:25:21,400 --> 00:25:23,960 And so that if you didn't include that into the performer. 543 00:25:25,000 --> 00:25:26,680 And for people that don't a little harder, can you explain 544 00:25:26,680 --> 00:25:28,000 what the performance is so. Performance. 545 00:25:28,000 --> 00:25:30,680 Basically what you think you're going to do on paper, backed by 546 00:25:30,680 --> 00:25:33,760 numbers and seat counts and. They're usually a little 547 00:25:33,760 --> 00:25:36,000 embellished. Well, yeah, they are, yeah. 548 00:25:36,600 --> 00:25:38,840 We're we're going to do 2 turns every night. 549 00:25:39,040 --> 00:25:42,360 Two turns every night, our check average is, you know, 65. 550 00:25:42,360 --> 00:25:45,120 And it's like, yeah, you, I mean, you embellish them because 551 00:25:45,120 --> 00:25:48,000 not only you're not really manipulating it, but it's really 552 00:25:48,000 --> 00:25:49,640 what you hope to do, you know, right. 553 00:25:49,840 --> 00:25:52,920 But if that's what your investment is based on and then 554 00:25:52,920 --> 00:25:54,480 you don't perform when you do your. 555 00:25:54,480 --> 00:25:57,040 Performance. Do you typically go in and say, 556 00:25:57,040 --> 00:26:00,360 here's my base case, here's my aggressive and yeah, here's my. 557 00:26:00,360 --> 00:26:01,560 Depends on who you're talking to. 558 00:26:01,560 --> 00:26:02,920 Depends on who we're asking money for. 559 00:26:02,920 --> 00:26:05,280 You know, you know, is it a bank? 560 00:26:05,280 --> 00:26:08,120 Is it an individual? Internally, yeah. 561 00:26:08,440 --> 00:26:10,640 Internally, Oh yeah, internally we got a baseline. 562 00:26:10,640 --> 00:26:12,120 It's break even. Like what do we need? 563 00:26:12,360 --> 00:26:15,920 How much do we need to do just to pay for everything and 564 00:26:15,920 --> 00:26:18,320 whatever that break even thing is? 565 00:26:18,480 --> 00:26:21,920 What are the red flags that that you're looking at that make you 566 00:26:21,920 --> 00:26:23,400 say I need to walk away from this deal? 567 00:26:25,800 --> 00:26:27,280 To me, it's always come down to trust. 568 00:26:27,280 --> 00:26:31,480 I think it really in every relationship, if there's a trust 569 00:26:31,480 --> 00:26:34,200 or an integrity issue or if you see decisions that are being 570 00:26:34,200 --> 00:26:38,840 made that just aren't morally correct and you don't jive as 571 00:26:38,840 --> 00:26:42,280 far as the ability to work stuff out. 572 00:26:43,680 --> 00:26:47,120 If if you're finding struggle within the basic understanding 573 00:26:47,120 --> 00:26:50,880 of the budgets before you even start to build or arguments on 574 00:26:51,280 --> 00:26:53,960 how we're going to approach things, that's a huge red flag. 575 00:26:54,080 --> 00:26:58,160 Because when real problems happen, if I can't trust you to 576 00:26:58,160 --> 00:27:01,040 help me figure out the problem or you've got your own best 577 00:27:01,040 --> 00:27:05,440 interest in mind that supersedes the business, then it's just 578 00:27:05,440 --> 00:27:06,840 going to get worse and worse and worse. 579 00:27:07,040 --> 00:27:09,920 So if we can't solve a small problem on what kind of cups 580 00:27:09,920 --> 00:27:13,840 we're going to use or we want straws or man Boo or whatever, 581 00:27:14,360 --> 00:27:19,600 then when something really bad happens, a lawsuit or somebody 582 00:27:19,600 --> 00:27:22,120 slips and falls or something like that, if you're like, you 583 00:27:22,120 --> 00:27:25,320 know, hands up and that's your problem, all of a sudden you're 584 00:27:25,320 --> 00:27:28,240 already in the middle of it. And so you really can't back out 585 00:27:28,240 --> 00:27:31,680 of it without ramifications. So ask those hard questions, 586 00:27:31,960 --> 00:27:34,520 figure out those smaller problems in advance before the 587 00:27:34,520 --> 00:27:35,960 deal is signed because it's all relational. 588 00:27:35,960 --> 00:27:38,000 I mean, the hospitality industry, I mean, it's 100% 589 00:27:38,000 --> 00:27:39,560 relation. And if you don't trust your 590 00:27:39,560 --> 00:27:42,040 partners and if you can't count on your partners to come through 591 00:27:42,640 --> 00:27:46,600 with real moral standards and having integrity about what is 592 00:27:46,600 --> 00:27:48,960 best for your customers and best for your team and best for the 593 00:27:48,960 --> 00:27:52,640 business, that's you. You got to, you got to step out 594 00:27:52,640 --> 00:27:56,120 pretty quick. As a as a chef and also 595 00:27:56,200 --> 00:28:02,120 restaurateur, sometimes we view things from the creative 596 00:28:02,120 --> 00:28:05,840 standpoint and sometimes we, we, we aren't selling that creative 597 00:28:05,840 --> 00:28:08,080 food, right. You meant, you mentioned earlier 598 00:28:08,080 --> 00:28:10,920 how you were doing pizzas and burgers and they sell every, 599 00:28:10,920 --> 00:28:12,440 everyone could, everyone could relate to that. 600 00:28:12,440 --> 00:28:14,560 That's right, right. But not everyone could relate to 601 00:28:14,560 --> 00:28:18,160 the very fancy foie gras dish with the Peach Jam or whatever, 602 00:28:18,240 --> 00:28:19,680 right? Can't relate to that one. 603 00:28:20,040 --> 00:28:25,200 Not everyone can. How do you know when to pull 604 00:28:25,200 --> 00:28:28,520 back culinary wise and show show restraint? 605 00:28:28,560 --> 00:28:33,160 Because I think a lot of young chefs sometimes, like, I just 606 00:28:33,160 --> 00:28:35,360 want to do my food. Yeah, I want, I want to do my 607 00:28:35,360 --> 00:28:36,200 food. That's it. 608 00:28:36,200 --> 00:28:38,920 Like all I care about is I can't wait to become sous chef so I 609 00:28:38,920 --> 00:28:40,400 can do, I can get my dish on the menu. 610 00:28:40,400 --> 00:28:43,000 I can't wait to be the executive chef so I can tell you exactly 611 00:28:43,000 --> 00:28:44,320 how I want my food. And then you. 612 00:28:44,320 --> 00:28:45,800 And then you realize that doesn't always work. 613 00:28:45,880 --> 00:28:50,840 No, no, yeah, that's a that's a hard Rd. man, because even 614 00:28:50,840 --> 00:28:53,920 today, like if I were open up a restaurant tomorrow, my first 615 00:28:53,920 --> 00:28:56,200 question is what is it that people are going to enjoy the 616 00:28:56,200 --> 00:28:59,440 most? What do the guests expect and 617 00:28:59,440 --> 00:29:01,080 how can I exceed their expectations? 618 00:29:01,640 --> 00:29:04,640 My food, I don't know, man. It's like, I mean, there may be 619 00:29:04,640 --> 00:29:07,560 a time in my, in my later years where I can open up a restaurant 620 00:29:07,560 --> 00:29:10,200 with 10 seats and take it or leave it, buy a ticket if you 621 00:29:10,200 --> 00:29:11,840 want. I'm kind of almost creating 622 00:29:11,840 --> 00:29:14,400 that, but I'm not there yet. But the, that's really the only 623 00:29:14,400 --> 00:29:16,680 platform that I see that even coming close to working. 624 00:29:17,040 --> 00:29:20,000 Everything else has to be what works in the setting. 625 00:29:20,080 --> 00:29:22,520 And I mean, my food can be a whole lot of stuff. 626 00:29:22,520 --> 00:29:25,520 And if you're pitching holed into doing your food, oh, I 627 00:29:25,520 --> 00:29:29,440 think, you know, when chefs wants to do only their own food, 628 00:29:29,760 --> 00:29:32,200 it it automatically like I get the feeling that you're just 629 00:29:32,200 --> 00:29:35,880 separating yourself from what you need because you need other 630 00:29:35,880 --> 00:29:38,760 people and you need happy guests and you need paying customers. 631 00:29:38,760 --> 00:29:41,640 And so if you're in AI mean if you're if you're not worried 632 00:29:41,640 --> 00:29:43,640 about revenue and if you're not worried about investment, you're 633 00:29:43,640 --> 00:29:45,160 not worried about how much things cost. 634 00:29:45,880 --> 00:29:48,280 OK, maybe, you know, we were really blessed to have second 635 00:29:48,280 --> 00:29:51,280 bar and kitchen and Congress in the same building. 636 00:29:51,280 --> 00:29:54,440 So I got to go over to Congress restaurant Congress and have 637 00:29:54,440 --> 00:29:57,480 chef tasting menus five nights a week, dinner only with 40 seats. 638 00:29:57,680 --> 00:29:59,760 Like who? I mean, that's just that's 639 00:29:59,760 --> 00:30:01,560 unheard of really, because that was the playground. 640 00:30:01,560 --> 00:30:05,960 One staff, one team, one saute cook, one food runner. 641 00:30:06,200 --> 00:30:09,120 So that training mechanism enabled us to do really 642 00:30:09,200 --> 00:30:12,800 incredible food. And because it was prefix and 643 00:30:12,800 --> 00:30:14,640 chef's tasting like that was the expectation. 644 00:30:14,640 --> 00:30:17,960 So we could do AI mean I pushed the edge quite a bit. 645 00:30:18,280 --> 00:30:20,800 And then in second bar it's like, OK, well, if you we give 646 00:30:20,800 --> 00:30:23,640 you both, if you want to have this, then go over here, have a 647 00:30:23,640 --> 00:30:26,200 great burger and pizza and we did pasta and yonky and all 648 00:30:26,200 --> 00:30:28,640 kinds of stuff. But in Congress it was like you 649 00:30:28,640 --> 00:30:29,600 kind of knew what you were getting. 650 00:30:29,600 --> 00:30:32,880 So we set that bar pretty high and set the expectation, but it 651 00:30:32,880 --> 00:30:35,400 still wasn't. I mean, my that approach was a 652 00:30:35,400 --> 00:30:38,640 collaboration between I worked with Rebecca Meeker and she was 653 00:30:38,640 --> 00:30:41,720 CDC for a long time for Joel Rubashon. 654 00:30:41,720 --> 00:30:44,840 It was like, why would I, I mean, I, I want it, I want more 655 00:30:44,840 --> 00:30:46,600 of that. Like how can we collaborate? 656 00:30:46,600 --> 00:30:49,080 And some of those dishes were collaboration, the best dishes 657 00:30:49,080 --> 00:30:52,840 that we've ever done because it was a mutual creative process. 658 00:30:53,360 --> 00:30:56,600 And I found the end result from the guest seeing that and 659 00:30:56,600 --> 00:31:00,440 tasting that and walking through it was just that was that stuff 660 00:31:00,440 --> 00:31:02,480 was pretty solid. When you look at the economics 661 00:31:02,480 --> 00:31:04,080 of two different restaurant models, yeah. 662 00:31:04,080 --> 00:31:06,880 So so you have, you know, the tasty menu restaurant and then 663 00:31:06,880 --> 00:31:11,320 you have the more casual spot. What are some of the pros and 664 00:31:11,320 --> 00:31:13,640 cons of of each one? If you were if you were talking 665 00:31:13,640 --> 00:31:16,360 to chefs right now that are listening that say I want to 666 00:31:16,360 --> 00:31:19,160 open up my restaurant, which one do I do 1st? 667 00:31:19,160 --> 00:31:23,320 And what are the pros and cons? The moment you became sous chef, 668 00:31:23,320 --> 00:31:25,680 the rules changed. You can't drink with the crew 669 00:31:25,680 --> 00:31:27,400 anymore. You can't look the other way 670 00:31:27,400 --> 00:31:30,080 anymore. You can't be liked and respected 671 00:31:30,080 --> 00:31:32,600 at the same time. Caesar's not above the law. 672 00:31:32,600 --> 00:31:36,240 And neither of you, the sous chef, blueprint the manual that 673 00:31:36,240 --> 00:31:38,040 nobody handed you when you got promoted. 674 00:31:38,440 --> 00:31:41,240 Get it at Chefs psa.com. Gosh. 675 00:31:41,880 --> 00:31:47,680 It was, I mean our best year in that concept I think we're at. 676 00:31:48,360 --> 00:31:50,520 Which concept? Second market kitchen and 677 00:31:50,520 --> 00:31:54,000 combined, so second in Congress, you know, through that, through 678 00:31:54,000 --> 00:31:56,760 that process, I think we were at like 5 and a half million in 679 00:31:56,760 --> 00:31:58,200 food and beverage and this was in 2000. 680 00:31:58,200 --> 00:31:59,840 And this combined with the two. Yeah, combined, yeah. 681 00:32:00,240 --> 00:32:05,360 And you know, the casual restaurant was more like 3 1/2 682 00:32:05,360 --> 00:32:09,000 and Congress was like 2. The amount of energy and money 683 00:32:09,000 --> 00:32:13,600 and staff, but also reflected that a lot more time, a lot more 684 00:32:13,600 --> 00:32:16,120 hours and a lot more staff to be the casual restaurant than it 685 00:32:16,120 --> 00:32:19,120 did for the for the high end cost percentages. 686 00:32:19,120 --> 00:32:20,920 As far as profit margins, same thing. 687 00:32:20,920 --> 00:32:23,760 Our profit margin was higher, so. 688 00:32:23,760 --> 00:32:25,960 Higher in the more casual, yeah. And so. 689 00:32:27,600 --> 00:32:29,840 So you're, you said you're doing 3 million and your profit is 690 00:32:29,840 --> 00:32:33,120 what you know, 1015%, yeah, or the other one's doing 2 million 691 00:32:33,160 --> 00:32:37,200 And is your profit 10:50 or is it smaller, smaller 2 to 3%? 692 00:32:37,640 --> 00:32:39,960 It's a lot of fun. Yeah, you know, so you do. 693 00:32:39,960 --> 00:32:41,040 Your own food. That's what I'm saying those 694 00:32:41,080 --> 00:32:43,320 economics really matter because how long do you really want to 695 00:32:43,320 --> 00:32:45,360 do your own food for and how long do you want to push that 696 00:32:45,360 --> 00:32:48,800 edge? And everything needs to work in 697 00:32:48,800 --> 00:32:50,600 order for that to be a long term deal. 698 00:32:50,600 --> 00:32:54,000 And we've seen them and we, we know that the top 10s in the in 699 00:32:54,000 --> 00:32:55,400 the world's list and stuff like that. 700 00:32:55,400 --> 00:32:58,320 But I mean, you, you see that outcome, but you don't see the 701 00:32:58,320 --> 00:33:01,520 years and planning the years and processing all the money behind 702 00:33:02,280 --> 00:33:05,360 what it takes for that. And then the team that you've 703 00:33:05,360 --> 00:33:09,000 got to have, because restaurants are only as good as your team 704 00:33:09,000 --> 00:33:10,920 is. And your team's based on people 705 00:33:11,160 --> 00:33:14,040 and people change and people grow and people break and people 706 00:33:14,520 --> 00:33:17,600 have issues. And so it's it's just such. 707 00:33:17,680 --> 00:33:20,400 A and and with which? Makes it so incredibly exciting 708 00:33:20,400 --> 00:33:20,920 too. But. 709 00:33:20,920 --> 00:33:23,280 With, with fine dining, you know, and that and that tasty 710 00:33:23,280 --> 00:33:25,920 menu style and looking at there's some people that have 711 00:33:25,920 --> 00:33:27,760 done it for years. And you know, if you look at the 712 00:33:27,760 --> 00:33:30,040 French laundries and the Danielles and the Jean Georges 713 00:33:30,480 --> 00:33:33,000 and La Bernadine. And then in Texas, you could 714 00:33:33,000 --> 00:33:37,120 say, well, there's probably, you know, you got Steven, you got 715 00:33:37,120 --> 00:33:38,320 Dean. They did it for a long time. 716 00:33:38,320 --> 00:33:39,840 But even that they don't do that, no. 717 00:33:40,160 --> 00:33:41,840 They don't do that, no. And I think things are changed. 718 00:33:41,840 --> 00:33:45,040 I think the time is, is saying I think people want they do want 719 00:33:45,040 --> 00:33:47,480 more casual. They want something that is 720 00:33:47,480 --> 00:33:49,080 relatable. They want to dress how they 721 00:33:49,080 --> 00:33:50,640 want. They want to be in and out if 722 00:33:50,640 --> 00:33:53,640 they choose and they want to be able to kind of decide their own 723 00:33:53,640 --> 00:33:55,920 adventure. And I heard it the other day, 724 00:33:55,920 --> 00:33:57,760 it's like, man, I don't want to go anywhere that I couldn't, 725 00:33:57,960 --> 00:33:59,320 that I'd know how to cook the stuff. 726 00:33:59,320 --> 00:34:01,000 I mean, which is kind of powerful. 727 00:34:01,000 --> 00:34:03,960 It's like because people are trained, I mean, in today's 728 00:34:03,960 --> 00:34:08,040 market, your clientele is more educated, more skillful at their 729 00:34:08,040 --> 00:34:10,239 home kitchen, doing their own parties, doing all of their own 730 00:34:10,239 --> 00:34:11,760 cooking. If they come to your restaurant, 731 00:34:12,320 --> 00:34:14,880 they're not going to spend 30 bucks on an entree that they 732 00:34:14,880 --> 00:34:17,040 just made it home three nights ago, right? 733 00:34:17,639 --> 00:34:20,920 So, you know, whether that's social or whether that's 734 00:34:20,920 --> 00:34:23,320 Internet or just people are just more encouraged from all of the 735 00:34:23,320 --> 00:34:25,600 information. And I mean, the love of cooking 736 00:34:25,600 --> 00:34:28,280 has been spread and all the tools and information are much 737 00:34:28,320 --> 00:34:31,679 more accessible. So you got to, you know, you got 738 00:34:31,679 --> 00:34:34,679 to push it a little bit, but in a setting that is approachable, 739 00:34:34,679 --> 00:34:39,320 acceptable, economical and just something that makes it, I mean, 740 00:34:39,320 --> 00:34:41,560 it's a lot of it's about a fun vibe too. 741 00:34:41,880 --> 00:34:44,040 You know, of course you've got to have good food and. 742 00:34:44,800 --> 00:34:46,679 It's a price, price of entry. Yeah, like come out. 743 00:34:46,920 --> 00:34:48,800 Yeah, right. I mean, that's let's, let's get 744 00:34:48,800 --> 00:34:50,880 real. It's not you can't succeed if 745 00:34:50,880 --> 00:34:54,000 you don't have those, right. But what are you going to do in 746 00:34:54,280 --> 00:34:56,360 as far as enticing those guests to kind of come back? 747 00:34:56,560 --> 00:34:59,440 I, I, I often think about and I'm, I'm, I'm penning a book 748 00:34:59,440 --> 00:35:00,480 right now. I'm almost done with about 749 00:35:00,480 --> 00:35:02,480 midway done. I'm going to give it a plug 750 00:35:02,480 --> 00:35:03,480 right now. It's called the sous chef 751 00:35:03,480 --> 00:35:04,280 blueprint. Nice. 752 00:35:05,000 --> 00:35:08,320 And in one of the chapters, I talk about food cost because a 753 00:35:08,320 --> 00:35:11,120 lot of a lot of the challenges that sous chefs, when you're 754 00:35:11,120 --> 00:35:14,120 going from cook to sous chef, one of the questions I used to 755 00:35:14,200 --> 00:35:17,560 teach me about food costs, like it's not that it's probably not 756 00:35:17,560 --> 00:35:21,040 as difficult as you think because it's a formula and you 757 00:35:21,080 --> 00:35:22,760 probably plug it into Excel and got it. 758 00:35:23,240 --> 00:35:26,200 But the real food cost is happening on the floor, right? 759 00:35:26,320 --> 00:35:30,440 It's when you cut your steaks wrong or the, or you're throwing 760 00:35:30,440 --> 00:35:32,080 everything away because you didn't use it. 761 00:35:32,080 --> 00:35:33,640 That's right. That's where the food cost is 762 00:35:33,640 --> 00:35:35,480 happening. Or it's the dishes that are not 763 00:35:35,480 --> 00:35:36,520 selling. Right, Right. 764 00:35:36,520 --> 00:35:38,880 So I could teach you the formula that'll take you, you know, 5 765 00:35:38,880 --> 00:35:40,800 minutes to learn, but it's all this other stuff that's going to 766 00:35:40,800 --> 00:35:42,600 take you years. Much more organic than that. 767 00:35:43,000 --> 00:35:45,000 Right. And so when we think about 768 00:35:45,440 --> 00:35:48,520 mentorship and we talk about the things that we need to teach the 769 00:35:48,520 --> 00:35:51,440 next generation, and I know you're big on mentorship because 770 00:35:51,800 --> 00:35:53,960 obviously having a lot of restaurants, that means you have 771 00:35:53,960 --> 00:35:55,120 a lot of people that are looking up to you. 772 00:35:55,440 --> 00:35:57,400 And you also have a responsibility for all these 773 00:35:57,400 --> 00:36:01,120 people that are looking up to you and, and seeking your time. 774 00:36:01,120 --> 00:36:03,200 When you walk in the kitchen, it's like, oh, can, is he going 775 00:36:03,200 --> 00:36:04,960 to talk to me, right? Is he going to spend a little 776 00:36:04,960 --> 00:36:07,920 bit of time with me? How do you view mentorship in 777 00:36:07,920 --> 00:36:10,920 that role? First, I want to ask you how you 778 00:36:10,920 --> 00:36:12,840 view mentorship in that role. And then I want to ask you how 779 00:36:12,840 --> 00:36:15,640 you view mentorship in the role that you're in now? 780 00:36:18,000 --> 00:36:23,000 I kind of was mentored in the beginning, which I think set a 781 00:36:23,000 --> 00:36:28,280 little bit of a standard for me. So Dean Faring in Dallas, it was 782 00:36:28,280 --> 00:36:29,720 the same thing. When I walked in that kitchen, I 783 00:36:29,720 --> 00:36:34,080 was 19 and saw this, you know, bigger than life. 784 00:36:34,080 --> 00:36:37,280 I mean, there was 50 cooks and I mean, they're doing 12 million 785 00:36:37,280 --> 00:36:39,400 in revenue. I mean, it was like, Oh my gosh, 786 00:36:39,440 --> 00:36:40,400 right. Just insane. 787 00:36:40,440 --> 00:36:42,760 You know, I think my prep list said it was 150 items or 788 00:36:42,760 --> 00:36:45,840 something. And I'm 19 as a veg cook making 789 00:36:45,840 --> 00:36:50,400 7/25 an hour, right? And I'll never forget it was 790 00:36:50,400 --> 00:36:52,840 like the first, the first real shift. 791 00:36:52,960 --> 00:36:55,960 He bee lined it towards me. Hey, how you doing? 792 00:36:55,960 --> 00:36:59,080 I'm Dean, good to see you. And he said hi and he said 793 00:36:59,080 --> 00:37:02,040 goodbye every day to every, to every cook. 794 00:37:02,040 --> 00:37:03,880 And I was like, man, that's that's super cool. 795 00:37:03,880 --> 00:37:07,760 And I still do that to this day because that that connection of, 796 00:37:08,120 --> 00:37:11,480 of being real with your team always, always kind of sat with 797 00:37:11,480 --> 00:37:13,440 me. It's a good baseline of respect 798 00:37:13,440 --> 00:37:16,720 established. And so he didn't run a kitchen 799 00:37:16,720 --> 00:37:18,640 of fear. And so I carried that with me 800 00:37:18,640 --> 00:37:20,520 too. It's like I wanted every every 801 00:37:20,520 --> 00:37:23,520 kitchen that I ran. Not only did I make one-on-one 802 00:37:23,520 --> 00:37:26,440 connection with the team, but I let them know very specifically 803 00:37:26,440 --> 00:37:29,360 that it's OK to ask a question. It's actually OK to screw up. 804 00:37:29,360 --> 00:37:33,800 And I want you to be comfortable in your mistakes because I'm 805 00:37:33,800 --> 00:37:36,080 going to find out anyway. And so let's just have a good 806 00:37:36,080 --> 00:37:38,320 relationship. I'm here for you, you're here 807 00:37:38,320 --> 00:37:40,480 for me. Let's work together, not as a 808 00:37:40,480 --> 00:37:43,640 dictator kind of fear based kitchen and that's that's proven 809 00:37:43,640 --> 00:37:45,720 to be pretty successful for my teams in the past. 810 00:37:45,920 --> 00:37:48,400 I'm going to go on a side tangent, a story that I think 811 00:37:48,400 --> 00:37:52,120 you would appreciate. So I had a restaurant in Dallas, 812 00:37:52,120 --> 00:37:55,320 Marquis Grill, right? And I'm, I'm the executive chef 813 00:37:55,680 --> 00:37:58,200 and Dean comes in with his two sons and they're having dinner, 814 00:37:58,280 --> 00:38:00,200 right? It's a Sunday night, restaurants 815 00:38:00,200 --> 00:38:02,840 pretty slow and I happen to be working. 816 00:38:02,840 --> 00:38:05,400 So I go and talk to Dean and he's really happy. 817 00:38:05,400 --> 00:38:07,440 He's liking the food. He's like, I haven't been here 818 00:38:07,440 --> 00:38:09,240 before because we just reconcepted. 819 00:38:09,240 --> 00:38:12,800 So now we have an Asian restaurant upstairs and and, you 820 00:38:12,840 --> 00:38:14,480 know, more American style downstairs. 821 00:38:14,800 --> 00:38:16,200 And he says, give me a tour. I want to see the place. 822 00:38:16,240 --> 00:38:19,960 Like, absolutely. So I take him upstairs and I'm 823 00:38:19,960 --> 00:38:22,800 showing him around. And I notice these two beautiful 824 00:38:22,800 --> 00:38:25,360 women sitting in the corner just looking at us like, Oh my God, 825 00:38:25,360 --> 00:38:27,920 that's the shaft. And I'm like, yeah, that's 826 00:38:27,920 --> 00:38:29,960 pretty cool. You know, like, yeah, I'm the 827 00:38:30,000 --> 00:38:30,960 chef, right? That's me. 828 00:38:31,000 --> 00:38:33,400 I have the chef and I'm showing Dean around and whatever. 829 00:38:33,640 --> 00:38:35,760 And then they stand up from their table and they come up to 830 00:38:35,760 --> 00:38:38,960 us and they say, we're so sorry. Can we get a, can we get a 831 00:38:38,960 --> 00:38:41,240 photo? And I'm like, absolutely. 832 00:38:41,240 --> 00:38:44,960 And they hand me the camera. They hand me the camera so they 833 00:38:44,960 --> 00:38:46,520 can take a picture. With Dean. 834 00:38:46,880 --> 00:38:50,640 And the two girls, and I'm like, if people don't understand what 835 00:38:50,680 --> 00:38:53,520 a big deal Dean was in Dallas at that time, he still is. 836 00:38:53,520 --> 00:38:54,640 He still is. He still is. 837 00:38:54,640 --> 00:38:57,080 But like, he was a legend. Like people are asking to take a 838 00:38:57,080 --> 00:38:58,920 picture with him in my restaurant. 839 00:38:59,480 --> 00:39:02,320 And it's so funny because Dean's a class act, he says. 840 00:39:02,760 --> 00:39:04,320 Andre's a good chef, too. Let's make sure he. 841 00:39:04,320 --> 00:39:06,480 Gets a good picture. And I just remember thinking, 842 00:39:06,480 --> 00:39:08,800 thank you, Dee, but it was like, it was like, so funny. 843 00:39:08,800 --> 00:39:11,240 Like they're handing me the camera so they could get a photo 844 00:39:11,240 --> 00:39:12,920 with me. It was too funny. 845 00:39:12,920 --> 00:39:15,240 But he's a great chef. He is. 846 00:39:15,240 --> 00:39:17,280 He is, yeah. And I mean, it was funny, 847 00:39:17,280 --> 00:39:19,640 though, because when when we left the mansion, I didn't know 848 00:39:19,640 --> 00:39:22,040 that that was part of the other 20 people. 849 00:39:22,040 --> 00:39:23,960 And I actually was on vacation. I came back to give my 850 00:39:23,960 --> 00:39:28,160 resignation, but that previous week and 15 other executives 851 00:39:28,160 --> 00:39:29,360 were already put in their notice. 852 00:39:29,360 --> 00:39:31,640 So he was already, he was already teed up. 853 00:39:31,800 --> 00:39:32,720 He was going to the Ritz at that. 854 00:39:32,720 --> 00:39:35,760 Point no, no, this is when we all when we all left to to 855 00:39:35,760 --> 00:39:39,360 Austin track back in backtracking a little bit. 856 00:39:39,360 --> 00:39:41,400 But he was one of the guys that said, why are you going to 857 00:39:41,400 --> 00:39:42,760 Austin? There's nothing in Austin. 858 00:39:43,440 --> 00:39:45,080 And so we've had conversations since then. 859 00:39:45,080 --> 00:39:47,920 I was like, he's like, you know, I mean, you know, we're not 860 00:39:47,920 --> 00:39:51,600 always, we're not always right. Well, you, you talk about 861 00:39:51,600 --> 00:39:55,000 licensing deals and I don't know the inner workers of Dean's deal 862 00:39:55,080 --> 00:39:59,240 at Ritz Carlton, but I when I remember when I saw that and 863 00:39:59,240 --> 00:40:01,240 that happened, he left the mansion to go to Ritz Carlton, I 864 00:40:01,240 --> 00:40:02,840 was like, that's the deal. That's the deal. 865 00:40:03,000 --> 00:40:05,800 That's the fairings at the Ritz. Yeah, that's, yeah, that's been 866 00:40:05,840 --> 00:40:08,200 going strong for a long time. I don't know if this is true so 867 00:40:08,200 --> 00:40:11,000 I'm just making shit up so people this don't take this as 868 00:40:11,000 --> 00:40:12,920 fact. This is just rumors, industry 869 00:40:12,920 --> 00:40:14,720 rumors. I've heard that Fairings is like 870 00:40:14,720 --> 00:40:16,600 the most profitable restaurant in Ritz Carlton. 871 00:40:16,760 --> 00:40:17,800 I've heard that before. I don't know if. 872 00:40:17,800 --> 00:40:20,560 That's true, but. Makes the most amount of money. 873 00:40:20,600 --> 00:40:24,240 It sounds true. That that rattlesnake bar there. 874 00:40:24,240 --> 00:40:29,240 Yeah, great restaurant and and Dean's a legend that going back 875 00:40:29,240 --> 00:40:32,080 to Iron Chef. No, no offense to to Bobby. 876 00:40:32,080 --> 00:40:34,040 Like he's got a podcast that's competing against mine. 877 00:40:34,040 --> 00:40:35,640 So sorry. Sorry, Bobby. 878 00:40:36,640 --> 00:40:37,520 We love you, Bobby. Yeah. 879 00:40:37,560 --> 00:40:42,000 Yeah, like, thank you for coming into my show into my like, you 880 00:40:42,000 --> 00:40:43,600 weren't winning with Iron Chef and everything. 881 00:40:43,600 --> 00:40:44,320 I lost. To him. 882 00:40:44,360 --> 00:40:46,720 So I've got to give him some a hard time because it's like, 883 00:40:46,760 --> 00:40:49,440 well, obviously you know, I've got some I, I wanted a rematch. 884 00:40:49,440 --> 00:40:50,640 No, I've, I've listened to his podcast. 885 00:40:50,640 --> 00:40:52,840 His podcast is good. Actually, I've, I've listened to 886 00:40:52,840 --> 00:40:55,600 a couple of his episodes and he's actually someone I would 887 00:40:55,600 --> 00:40:59,200 love to have on here because I'm sure he has stories and I feel 888 00:40:59,200 --> 00:41:03,000 like as he's gotten older, he's loosened up a little bit and. 889 00:41:03,880 --> 00:41:07,040 The growth is important because I knew what I thought and felt 890 00:41:07,040 --> 00:41:10,960 back then. And when you, when you have that 891 00:41:10,960 --> 00:41:13,240 much publicity and you have that much pressure, you have that 892 00:41:13,240 --> 00:41:15,680 many restaurants and everybody is just kind of all over you. 893 00:41:15,680 --> 00:41:20,240 So I I'm much more, I guess understanding and I've never 894 00:41:20,240 --> 00:41:25,280 been at Bobby's level as far as that level of attention, but 895 00:41:25,280 --> 00:41:29,000 I've gotten a little taste of it and I'm sure I've come across. 896 00:41:29,960 --> 00:41:30,960 People have their stories about you. 897 00:41:30,960 --> 00:41:32,720 Yeah, right. And it's like, no, that's not 898 00:41:32,720 --> 00:41:35,000 me, you know? That's not who I who I really 899 00:41:35,000 --> 00:41:38,360 AM. And so again, I, yeah, it's just 900 00:41:38,360 --> 00:41:39,840 one of those things, man. Yeah, it's funny. 901 00:41:40,080 --> 00:41:42,840 It's there's that old expression, things that you'll 902 00:41:42,840 --> 00:41:44,200 never remember and they'll never forget. 903 00:41:44,200 --> 00:41:46,280 Yeah. Yeah, yeah, I'm sure I've, I've 904 00:41:46,280 --> 00:41:47,080 run some people there. Yeah. 905 00:41:47,080 --> 00:41:48,880 I mean, I'm sure I'm there with you. 906 00:41:48,880 --> 00:41:52,680 It's I think about this often. It's like as culture has 907 00:41:52,680 --> 00:41:55,720 transitioned so much in culinary, when I left cooking in 908 00:41:55,720 --> 00:42:00,760 2022 professionally, I stopped being a chef and I walked away. 909 00:42:01,120 --> 00:42:05,920 I thought like, I am the best version of a chef that I've ever 910 00:42:05,920 --> 00:42:08,360 been. Like, like I not just culinary 911 00:42:08,360 --> 00:42:11,720 wise, but just understanding culture and developing talent 912 00:42:11,720 --> 00:42:13,600 and creating a respectful kitchen. 913 00:42:13,600 --> 00:42:16,160 And I, and I thought, you know what, I'm going to literally 914 00:42:16,160 --> 00:42:18,400 write the book, which I have. I've written several books on 915 00:42:18,400 --> 00:42:21,080 leadership and management, but even then I would change things 916 00:42:21,080 --> 00:42:22,760 down. Like I look at it's like, no, I 917 00:42:22,760 --> 00:42:24,440 disagree with some of the things that I thought that. 918 00:42:24,440 --> 00:42:26,400 Yeah, Yeah. Well, the organics of it, what 919 00:42:26,400 --> 00:42:30,520 we do is so it's not you just can't plug and play. 920 00:42:30,520 --> 00:42:32,800 I mean it's it changes all the time, right. 921 00:42:32,840 --> 00:42:37,080 I mean, our current environment from social and economics and 922 00:42:37,360 --> 00:42:40,080 and what we deal with everyday absolutely impacts the 923 00:42:40,080 --> 00:42:44,080 hospitality industry and we have to respond to those things, 924 00:42:44,240 --> 00:42:45,680 right. And you talk about culture, it's 925 00:42:45,680 --> 00:42:48,160 like culture changes too. We think that, you know, back 926 00:42:48,160 --> 00:42:50,800 that this was acceptable and this was the the right choice 927 00:42:50,800 --> 00:42:52,400 and this was the right environment to create. 928 00:42:52,840 --> 00:42:56,520 But people's lives are changing all the time, you know, and what 929 00:42:56,520 --> 00:43:00,440 age and all that kind of stuff. So I think it's not it's not a 930 00:43:00,440 --> 00:43:03,280 good. We would all benefit from 931 00:43:03,280 --> 00:43:06,360 understanding that the culture that we create inside of a 932 00:43:06,360 --> 00:43:08,440 kitchen is not a one and done thing. 933 00:43:08,440 --> 00:43:13,440 It has to change and it has to be transitional based on what 934 00:43:13,560 --> 00:43:15,880 the world is like the particular day. 935 00:43:16,040 --> 00:43:18,800 And with, you know, I know we were talking about AI before, 936 00:43:18,800 --> 00:43:21,880 before we started recording. Great example. 937 00:43:21,880 --> 00:43:24,480 Yeah. But I think as AI is evolving 938 00:43:24,480 --> 00:43:27,760 and it's evolving fast, like how quickly AI evolves. 939 00:43:27,760 --> 00:43:31,840 And I, I work with it on a daily basis because it helps me 940 00:43:31,840 --> 00:43:35,520 operate my businesses. But one of the things is I'm 941 00:43:35,520 --> 00:43:37,920 writing this book and I told you I'm, I'm about to release this 942 00:43:37,920 --> 00:43:39,640 book. One of the chapters in there is 943 00:43:39,640 --> 00:43:43,400 like a young sous chef or a young cook that's in the 944 00:43:43,400 --> 00:43:46,760 industry right now. Like, excuse me, start over. 945 00:43:46,920 --> 00:43:50,280 A young cook or a young sous chef that's in the industry 946 00:43:50,280 --> 00:43:53,160 right now. One of the things that I think 947 00:43:53,160 --> 00:43:58,360 is going to happen and I'm going to put a pin in it because I'm 948 00:43:58,360 --> 00:44:00,680 hopefully I can come back to this episode and say, Hey, I 949 00:44:00,680 --> 00:44:03,840 told you this is this is a reality is I think that the way 950 00:44:03,840 --> 00:44:06,000 AI is so advanced right now and how quickly it scrapes the 951 00:44:06,000 --> 00:44:09,440 Internet. Like I said, it gave me a whole 952 00:44:10,040 --> 00:44:14,040 30 minute podcast that I listened to on you on the way 953 00:44:14,040 --> 00:44:17,880 here, on the way here, right and. 954 00:44:18,360 --> 00:44:21,200 My favorite part is when AI is like, oh, welcome back or man, 955 00:44:21,200 --> 00:44:24,440 that's really good, or you're going to really like that later 956 00:44:24,440 --> 00:44:27,200 or whatever it is, like the compliments because it knows you 957 00:44:27,200 --> 00:44:29,040 and what you're doing. It's like that's that's pretty 958 00:44:29,040 --> 00:44:30,200 insane. So it keeps. 959 00:44:30,360 --> 00:44:32,560 It keeps. You, what I think AI is going to 960 00:44:32,560 --> 00:44:34,160 do. I I think, and I'm going to put 961 00:44:34,160 --> 00:44:37,160 this in the book because I think, like the Internet is 962 00:44:37,160 --> 00:44:40,240 filled with shitty comments. Yeah, like social media is 963 00:44:40,240 --> 00:44:43,080 filled with shitty comments. And I think what people need to 964 00:44:43,080 --> 00:44:46,880 worry about is what's going to happen when you go to a job and 965 00:44:46,880 --> 00:44:49,320 they interview you and they have their AI scrape all your 966 00:44:49,320 --> 00:44:51,320 Internet comments. Yeah, yeah. 967 00:44:51,320 --> 00:44:54,040 And they say, hey, before I hire this person, can you show me all 968 00:44:54,040 --> 00:44:55,640 his shitty comments? Oh my God. 969 00:44:55,640 --> 00:44:57,000 Or all her shitty comments, right. 970 00:44:57,280 --> 00:44:58,480 Of everything they'd. Ever said. 971 00:44:58,480 --> 00:45:01,320 Ever said online? Online and it's like I don't 972 00:45:01,320 --> 00:45:02,400 need all, I just need the shitty ones. 973 00:45:02,400 --> 00:45:03,320 Yeah, yeah. Just give me top 10. 974 00:45:03,320 --> 00:45:05,400 Give me the top 10 shittiest comments and then and then you 975 00:45:05,400 --> 00:45:09,320 realize, wait a minute, were you were you commented on my post 976 00:45:09,320 --> 00:45:12,200 two years ago about how shitty my food was and now you're 977 00:45:12,200 --> 00:45:14,120 applying here, right? Yeah, let's talk about that. 978 00:45:14,120 --> 00:45:15,680 Yeah. So as I was thinking about. 979 00:45:15,680 --> 00:45:17,240 Appropriate pictures too. Inappropriate. 980 00:45:17,240 --> 00:45:18,640 Like all this is like, you know what? 981 00:45:18,640 --> 00:45:21,040 Because we do that right now, you get an application, I'm 982 00:45:21,040 --> 00:45:23,160 going to Facebook to see your profile and all your stuff, 983 00:45:23,560 --> 00:45:25,320 right? But I'm doing it manually and. 984 00:45:25,320 --> 00:45:27,160 It's you do it manually. You know, 20 minutes per 985 00:45:27,320 --> 00:45:28,800 candidate. But now you could tell they just 986 00:45:29,160 --> 00:45:31,240 give me all the questionable things that they've ever posted 987 00:45:31,240 --> 00:45:33,240 online, just that and all the questionable comments they've 988 00:45:33,240 --> 00:45:36,440 ever shared online that and that's going to be a real thing. 989 00:45:36,440 --> 00:45:37,360 Yeah, that's going to be a real thing. 990 00:45:37,360 --> 00:45:38,080 That's. Going to be a real. 991 00:45:38,080 --> 00:45:39,640 Interview. Basically interview this person 992 00:45:39,880 --> 00:45:41,840 in advance before they show. It tell me everything I need to 993 00:45:41,840 --> 00:45:44,280 know about them, every. Every little shitty detail about 994 00:45:44,280 --> 00:45:47,160 their life, You think that's not gonna happen? 995 00:45:47,160 --> 00:45:50,080 That's gonna happen. That's that's three months away. 996 00:45:50,120 --> 00:45:51,080 Yeah, yeah. Oh my. 997 00:45:51,400 --> 00:45:52,640 Gosh, yeah. So for people that are listening 998 00:45:52,640 --> 00:45:55,560 right now, like think think twice before you comment that 999 00:45:55,560 --> 00:45:57,040 you didn't like that chef's sketch your. 1000 00:45:57,400 --> 00:45:59,360 Social is pretty good. Because I'm, I'm gonna make sure 1001 00:45:59,360 --> 00:46:00,800 I don't delete that comment anymore. 1002 00:46:00,800 --> 00:46:02,440 I'm gonna keep it right there for everyone to see. 1003 00:46:04,440 --> 00:46:05,080 Yeah. Good stuff. 1004 00:46:05,120 --> 00:46:07,640 When you talk about mentorship, you know, I, I want to go. 1005 00:46:07,640 --> 00:46:08,400 Sorry. That's OK. 1006 00:46:08,560 --> 00:46:10,760 We we, we got off subject here. But when we're talking about 1007 00:46:10,760 --> 00:46:16,080 mentorship, one one of the things that how do you mentor a 1008 00:46:16,080 --> 00:46:18,320 young cook? How do you mentor a sous chef 1009 00:46:18,360 --> 00:46:21,640 and how do you mentor an executive chef that's working 1010 00:46:21,640 --> 00:46:23,280 underneath you? And how how different are those 1011 00:46:23,280 --> 00:46:26,280 styles? Man, well, I think there's 1012 00:46:26,280 --> 00:46:28,280 baseline to it. I mean, I think again that that 1013 00:46:28,280 --> 00:46:32,520 culture, what the culture that we try to create is not there's 1014 00:46:32,520 --> 00:46:38,160 no, what am I trying to say it it's set meaning this is the 1015 00:46:38,160 --> 00:46:40,280 culture, this is the boundary, this is what we stand for and 1016 00:46:40,280 --> 00:46:41,320 this is how we're going to operate. 1017 00:46:41,320 --> 00:46:47,000 Now, within that, there's individual programs, training 1018 00:46:47,000 --> 00:46:50,640 mechanisms, relationships that are based on the individual. 1019 00:46:50,720 --> 00:46:53,200 And a lot of times we'll hire individuals based on who they 1020 00:46:53,200 --> 00:46:56,960 are and what their talent is and create a position around who 1021 00:46:56,960 --> 00:46:57,920 they are, what they're coming with. 1022 00:46:57,920 --> 00:46:59,680 And we've had the opportunity. Not everybody has that 1023 00:46:59,680 --> 00:47:01,800 opportunity. But yeah, I mean, a young cook 1024 00:47:01,800 --> 00:47:03,280 mentorship is very, very different. 1025 00:47:03,320 --> 00:47:05,680 You know, I mean, we've got to make sure that they've got the 1026 00:47:05,680 --> 00:47:08,120 opportunity to ask all the questions and there's constant 1027 00:47:08,120 --> 00:47:11,200 follow up and follow through and more time spent. 1028 00:47:11,920 --> 00:47:14,560 Sous chefs should be coming with a lot more experience. 1029 00:47:14,560 --> 00:47:18,520 And so it's refining what they are bringing to the table and 1030 00:47:18,520 --> 00:47:20,280 it's also giving them continued education. 1031 00:47:20,560 --> 00:47:22,840 So if they're hungry enough to already have gone through the 1032 00:47:22,840 --> 00:47:25,800 processes and get to that level, my job is to make sure that 1033 00:47:25,800 --> 00:47:28,960 they're continuing to learn and not just in the kitchen, but 1034 00:47:28,960 --> 00:47:31,960 also, you know, we've, we've done the farm tour thing and 1035 00:47:31,960 --> 00:47:34,440 we've done, you know, gone to Texas A&M and watched their 1036 00:47:34,440 --> 00:47:36,840 entire processing. And so getting hooked up with 1037 00:47:36,840 --> 00:47:39,240 other companies and programs that can teach them something 1038 00:47:39,240 --> 00:47:42,480 else outside of your kitchen has been really beneficial or going 1039 00:47:42,480 --> 00:47:45,280 and staging to other, you know, some chefs like, heck no, you're 1040 00:47:45,280 --> 00:47:48,360 mine and you're not like we, we celebrated that. 1041 00:47:48,480 --> 00:47:52,600 No, have it as much experience as you possibly can. 1042 00:47:52,600 --> 00:47:55,000 And so because you're going to do that, we we thought you're 1043 00:47:55,000 --> 00:47:57,200 going to do that anyway, right. And so whether you do it in 1044 00:47:57,200 --> 00:48:01,360 secret or whether you do it in a program, and we want you to get 1045 00:48:01,360 --> 00:48:02,880 as much education as you possibly can. 1046 00:48:02,880 --> 00:48:05,640 And, and for executive chefs, it's like, man, let's have real 1047 00:48:05,640 --> 00:48:07,920 conversations about what your goals are long term. 1048 00:48:08,400 --> 00:48:09,800 What are you trying to contribute? 1049 00:48:09,800 --> 00:48:12,520 What makes you tick? And how can I, how can I support 1050 00:48:12,520 --> 00:48:14,400 you? It's, it's the irony, right? 1051 00:48:14,400 --> 00:48:17,560 Because a sous chef is supposed to, you're supposed to make my 1052 00:48:17,560 --> 00:48:18,640 job easier. Yes. 1053 00:48:18,640 --> 00:48:21,640 But if I make your job easier and put you in a position of 1054 00:48:21,640 --> 00:48:24,200 success, my job automatically gets better. 1055 00:48:24,280 --> 00:48:26,560 So we were, we were really trying to focus on the 1056 00:48:26,560 --> 00:48:30,280 individual's expectations again, but after the culture and 1057 00:48:30,280 --> 00:48:33,360 boundaries and standards and expectations are set, it really 1058 00:48:33,360 --> 00:48:37,560 becomes individualistic on who you are and what you really 1059 00:48:37,560 --> 00:48:39,720 want. I mean, every single, you know 1060 00:48:39,720 --> 00:48:41,560 this, I mean, every chef that you've ever worked with, it's 1061 00:48:41,600 --> 00:48:43,360 different just because they're a chef. 1062 00:48:43,920 --> 00:48:45,320 They come from different backgrounds. 1063 00:48:45,320 --> 00:48:47,280 They've got different family life, they've got different 1064 00:48:47,360 --> 00:48:50,320 cuisine in their background or taste that they're looking for. 1065 00:48:51,080 --> 00:48:52,640 Oh my gosh. And so if you don't know that 1066 00:48:52,640 --> 00:48:56,080 about your number one or your number twos or even your, your 1067 00:48:56,080 --> 00:48:59,760 first line cook, the conversations end up being 1068 00:48:59,760 --> 00:49:02,480 pretty dull and stale. And I'm just telling you what to 1069 00:49:02,480 --> 00:49:03,760 do. And nobody really wants to be 1070 00:49:03,960 --> 00:49:06,280 told what to do. I want you to do the work 1071 00:49:06,280 --> 00:49:09,640 because you're excited about it. You know the expectation, you 1072 00:49:09,640 --> 00:49:11,440 know that you're going to be held accountable, but then you 1073 00:49:11,440 --> 00:49:17,680 get to contribute and be part of the process and not just going 1074 00:49:17,680 --> 00:49:20,600 through the motions because you think that's what we want and 1075 00:49:20,600 --> 00:49:22,720 expect. And we've done training guys and 1076 00:49:22,720 --> 00:49:27,440 manuals and spent years and developing the paper side to it. 1077 00:49:27,920 --> 00:49:30,360 And as soon as we have an opening and everybody signs off 1078 00:49:30,360 --> 00:49:32,800 and we talked about it for three months and here's these five 1079 00:49:32,800 --> 00:49:35,960 steps. Or, you know, second second 1080 00:49:35,960 --> 00:49:38,920 nature hospitality we developed from from second bar. 1081 00:49:39,480 --> 00:49:43,240 And if if you're not willing to do that every single day in the 1082 00:49:43,240 --> 00:49:45,880 work environment, you might as well just throw the other stuff 1083 00:49:45,880 --> 00:49:49,080 right in the trash. I, I used the, you know, in 1084 00:49:49,120 --> 00:49:51,160 operations that I've run and even in books that I've written, 1085 00:49:51,160 --> 00:49:53,040 I always say it's like, it's not what's written down, it's what 1086 00:49:53,040 --> 00:49:55,400 you act upon, right? Because if the culture says 1087 00:49:55,400 --> 00:49:58,080 these are the standards, but no one follows them, then it 1088 00:49:58,080 --> 00:49:59,520 doesn't matter. The standards are what people 1089 00:49:59,520 --> 00:50:01,720 act upon, right? Those are the real standards 1090 00:50:01,800 --> 00:50:04,320 that in, in the operation. You could say this to your, you 1091 00:50:04,320 --> 00:50:06,720 could say we always fold our towels and it's in the manual, 1092 00:50:06,720 --> 00:50:08,640 But if no one folds our towels, it doesn't matter. 1093 00:50:08,640 --> 00:50:09,680 It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. 1094 00:50:09,720 --> 00:50:10,040 It's. What? 1095 00:50:10,040 --> 00:50:11,640 That's the new standard? Because that's how everybody 1096 00:50:11,640 --> 00:50:12,920 folds the towels, right? Right. 1097 00:50:12,920 --> 00:50:14,960 That's the new standard. What's the real standard is 1098 00:50:14,960 --> 00:50:16,160 what's in in action. That's right. 1099 00:50:16,160 --> 00:50:17,320 What you can see in action? Yeah. 1100 00:50:18,440 --> 00:50:20,480 I want to ask you because you're doing something really cool 1101 00:50:20,480 --> 00:50:23,200 right now. You've when we were, when we 1102 00:50:23,200 --> 00:50:24,960 were talking, you're like, I'm busier than I've ever been, 1103 00:50:25,440 --> 00:50:28,840 like, and you've kind of stepped into this whole new world. 1104 00:50:28,840 --> 00:50:31,520 Can you tell people what's your new project? 1105 00:50:31,520 --> 00:50:33,760 How did we get here? It's wild. 1106 00:50:34,040 --> 00:50:36,520 It is wild, yeah. So I, you know, we've been 1107 00:50:36,520 --> 00:50:39,760 praying to kind of get out of the business for, for a few 1108 00:50:39,760 --> 00:50:42,440 years, you know, because it's still nice on weekends and, and 1109 00:50:42,440 --> 00:50:44,640 all the fab and all the Expo and all the holidays. 1110 00:50:44,640 --> 00:50:49,880 And so when we moved to Mineral Wells from Austin and opened and 1111 00:50:49,880 --> 00:50:51,840 launched another second bar kitchen at the crazy water 1112 00:50:51,840 --> 00:50:55,640 hotel, It's, it's got 15,000 people, right? 1113 00:50:55,640 --> 00:50:57,560 I grew up in a small town in upstate New York, so it wasn't 1114 00:50:57,560 --> 00:51:00,520 like a culture shock. I mean, it was from Austin to 1115 00:51:00,520 --> 00:51:06,720 there, but I realized that our industry is somewhat broken. 1116 00:51:06,800 --> 00:51:11,320 And I think I was put into the position and had the opportunity 1117 00:51:11,320 --> 00:51:15,880 to finally create not just a, I guess encouraging culture, but 1118 00:51:15,960 --> 00:51:20,360 really have a position to where I can help change a little bit 1119 00:51:20,360 --> 00:51:22,680 of the community's expectation. Right. 1120 00:51:22,800 --> 00:51:25,720 When you say that you feel like the industry is a little bit 1121 00:51:25,720 --> 00:51:29,040 broken, can you be specific? Well, in, in, in mental health, 1122 00:51:29,080 --> 00:51:30,160 right? Because part of the story and 1123 00:51:30,160 --> 00:51:32,200 part of the answer is that my wife and I are both now 1124 00:51:33,160 --> 00:51:38,360 Christian faith-based counselors and have created a nonprofit to 1125 00:51:38,360 --> 00:51:41,320 eradicate the stigma mental health, and that's called the 1126 00:51:41,320 --> 00:51:44,280 Mineral Wellness Center. And we spend a great on the 1127 00:51:44,280 --> 00:51:45,880 executive director of this nonprofit. 1128 00:51:45,880 --> 00:51:48,600 And we realized very quickly that not just in a small town, I 1129 00:51:48,600 --> 00:51:50,760 think it's everywhere that people are still afraid to seek 1130 00:51:50,760 --> 00:51:56,600 help when they have any issues from addiction or grief or 1131 00:51:57,040 --> 00:51:58,400 things that they're encountering. 1132 00:51:58,400 --> 00:52:01,560 And I think kitchens and restaurants and hospitality in 1133 00:52:01,560 --> 00:52:06,400 general don't do a good job in taking care of the mental health 1134 00:52:06,400 --> 00:52:09,440 of their of their employees. And I think it's kind of on the 1135 00:52:09,440 --> 00:52:10,560 fringe. I think it's getting a lot 1136 00:52:10,560 --> 00:52:13,080 better. And I just set out when we 1137 00:52:13,080 --> 00:52:17,160 opened this last restaurant to be very open and very diligent 1138 00:52:17,160 --> 00:52:20,800 about making sure that the mental health of our team was a 1139 00:52:20,800 --> 00:52:25,000 priority. And very quickly it turned into 1140 00:52:25,000 --> 00:52:28,440 a nonprofit and very quickly. I mean, I'm, I'm counseling, you 1141 00:52:28,440 --> 00:52:33,120 know, several people a week on helping them navigate their 1142 00:52:33,120 --> 00:52:37,520 purpose and their plan and their true identity in Christ and 1143 00:52:37,520 --> 00:52:41,280 finding ways around what they thought their life was supposed 1144 00:52:41,280 --> 00:52:43,200 to be and what their expectations were. 1145 00:52:43,200 --> 00:52:46,000 And then when you, when you put into the hospitality side, we 1146 00:52:46,000 --> 00:52:48,880 are, we are trained to grind like we're trained. 1147 00:52:49,040 --> 00:52:53,400 I mean, burnout is almost a badge of honor versus an issue 1148 00:52:53,400 --> 00:52:55,280 that people kind of. Recognize until it's not. 1149 00:52:55,320 --> 00:52:58,680 Until it's not right, you know? And I think for so many years, 1150 00:52:58,920 --> 00:53:02,000 we, we viewed burnout or, you know, like, hey, I'm not going 1151 00:53:02,000 --> 00:53:04,400 to call off. I'm, I'm going to work through 1152 00:53:04,400 --> 00:53:07,440 the illness or all of that until something real, real happens. 1153 00:53:07,440 --> 00:53:10,200 And I always like to, I'll use the example of saying it's not 1154 00:53:10,200 --> 00:53:13,240 until you feel real physical pain, real financial pain or 1155 00:53:13,240 --> 00:53:16,320 real emotional pain that you realize like, hey, what what's 1156 00:53:16,320 --> 00:53:17,920 going on here? Yeah, I need to address. 1157 00:53:17,920 --> 00:53:20,800 Something I need to address something and yeah, whether 1158 00:53:20,800 --> 00:53:23,880 it's, and, and you know, the culture of, of, you know, 1159 00:53:24,040 --> 00:53:26,600 alcohol and drugs, I mean, it's do whatever you've got to do to 1160 00:53:26,600 --> 00:53:29,480 show up. And I mean our slogans to make 1161 00:53:29,480 --> 00:53:31,880 it happen, right? At whatever cost. 1162 00:53:31,880 --> 00:53:34,800 And when does, when does cost become too much? 1163 00:53:34,800 --> 00:53:39,800 And too often what happens is that it's such a, an expectation 1164 00:53:40,440 --> 00:53:44,040 to do your job at all cost. When it doesn't work, you kind 1165 00:53:44,040 --> 00:53:48,480 of your only choice is to leave and then go isolate because you 1166 00:53:48,480 --> 00:53:50,560 can't. I mean, that failure option 1167 00:53:50,560 --> 00:53:53,200 doesn't really exist. And so people are afraid to 1168 00:53:53,200 --> 00:53:55,160 fail. So then all of a sudden, if that 1169 00:53:55,160 --> 00:53:58,480 culture doesn't promote your, your mental health, there's 1170 00:53:58,480 --> 00:54:00,680 nowhere to, there's nowhere to go. 1171 00:54:00,760 --> 00:54:02,840 What do you say, you know, or who do you say it to? 1172 00:54:02,840 --> 00:54:05,440 And if you're chefs and everybody else around you is 1173 00:54:05,440 --> 00:54:08,800 like, come on, man, let's go. The idea that you're going to 1174 00:54:08,800 --> 00:54:11,040 share something that you're dealing with just doesn't exist. 1175 00:54:11,040 --> 00:54:13,920 And we didn't set out to like be this big, you know, we, we've 1176 00:54:13,920 --> 00:54:16,640 got all the answers. It's just that I really, I 1177 00:54:16,640 --> 00:54:18,840 really wanted to take the opportunity to make sure that 1178 00:54:19,120 --> 00:54:21,720 people felt safe enough to say I'm not well. 1179 00:54:21,720 --> 00:54:25,080 I don't, I don't feel good. I'm struggling with this. 1180 00:54:25,080 --> 00:54:28,520 I'm experiencing this. And the end result is that, I 1181 00:54:28,520 --> 00:54:32,480 mean, we've literally created a nonprofit specifically to help 1182 00:54:32,800 --> 00:54:36,360 people get restored and have a safe, encouraging place that 1183 00:54:36,360 --> 00:54:40,240 they can talk about stuff. And we've, we've seen dramatic 1184 00:54:40,800 --> 00:54:43,120 life changes just by providing a space. 1185 00:54:43,240 --> 00:54:46,200 And you know, we host something called Farmhouse Fellowship 1186 00:54:46,640 --> 00:54:49,720 where we invite all of the other local nonprofits and any leaders 1187 00:54:49,720 --> 00:54:52,840 or organizers in the community to gather around the table and 1188 00:54:52,840 --> 00:54:55,920 just talk about what they're dealing with, what their wins 1189 00:54:55,920 --> 00:54:57,400 are, what their struggles might be. 1190 00:54:57,600 --> 00:54:59,880 And if in the first meeting, people are like, I don't, I'm 1191 00:54:59,880 --> 00:55:03,040 not sharing nothing like I don't, this is my nonprofit. 1192 00:55:03,040 --> 00:55:05,400 We, we fight for the same funding. 1193 00:55:05,720 --> 00:55:08,760 I'm not saying anything. And now after two years, like 1194 00:55:09,200 --> 00:55:11,720 there's connections being made between the Senior Center and 1195 00:55:11,720 --> 00:55:15,120 Meals on Wheels and connections between Grace House Pregnancy 1196 00:55:15,120 --> 00:55:20,240 Center and, you know, Casa. So it's, you see this life 1197 00:55:20,240 --> 00:55:23,600 change of people, once they actually have the courage enough 1198 00:55:23,600 --> 00:55:25,960 to speak the truth about how they feel or what they need, 1199 00:55:26,400 --> 00:55:28,640 that's when real life change can happen. 1200 00:55:28,800 --> 00:55:32,640 And so, yeah. And I I no longer am the 1201 00:55:32,640 --> 00:55:36,840 executive chef or VP of I'm still the vice president of the 1202 00:55:36,840 --> 00:55:39,400 courtship, but I'm not, this is the first time in my career that 1203 00:55:39,400 --> 00:55:43,560 I've not been running a restaurant as a chef, and it's 1204 00:55:43,560 --> 00:55:46,400 freaking me out a little bit. But yeah, yeah, what's that 1205 00:55:46,400 --> 00:55:48,480 like? I don't man, at first I was 1206 00:55:48,480 --> 00:55:52,560 like, this is terrifying. I I I was emailing myself just 1207 00:55:52,560 --> 00:55:54,720 to make sure my e-mail was working right. 1208 00:55:54,840 --> 00:55:55,920 Right. Because I'm like, we talked 1209 00:55:55,920 --> 00:55:58,120 about this like where's? The 100 emails like you know, 1210 00:55:58,120 --> 00:56:01,520 and you get used and even for me like I've got, you know, you 1211 00:56:01,520 --> 00:56:04,080 know myself talk is good and I can talk myself out a lot of 1212 00:56:04,080 --> 00:56:05,960 stuff. But this is, you know, I had to 1213 00:56:05,960 --> 00:56:11,960 adjust between that high octane level of stress management to 1214 00:56:12,280 --> 00:56:14,400 not and was it hard? Yeah. 1215 00:56:14,640 --> 00:56:16,400 How long did it take you? Oh gosh. 1216 00:56:16,600 --> 00:56:17,920 I think I'm still dealing with it. 1217 00:56:17,960 --> 00:56:18,720 Yeah. How long has it been? 1218 00:56:19,720 --> 00:56:23,200 Our last service was October 26th. 1219 00:56:23,200 --> 00:56:24,720 Yeah. So it's been 5 months or? 1220 00:56:24,720 --> 00:56:26,920 So it took me about 8 months to turn it off. 1221 00:56:26,920 --> 00:56:29,240 Yeah, it's because I was. Still waking up, checking my 1222 00:56:29,240 --> 00:56:30,360 phone. I'm still looking for. 1223 00:56:30,800 --> 00:56:33,560 It what's the problem? And I was also still meddling. 1224 00:56:33,800 --> 00:56:36,480 Yeah, you know what I mean? Like I was still meddling in in 1225 00:56:36,480 --> 00:56:38,560 the operations from afar. Yeah, so I do. 1226 00:56:38,680 --> 00:56:41,160 I mean, I, I do. I also work for our church. 1227 00:56:41,160 --> 00:56:43,760 So I'm the, I'm the, I'm the first impressions hospitality 1228 00:56:43,760 --> 00:56:47,320 coordinator to coordinate 120 volunteers for our local church. 1229 00:56:47,560 --> 00:56:49,200 Executive director of the nonprofit. 1230 00:56:49,680 --> 00:56:54,920 We're opening up a, a store slash coffee slots, coffee shop 1231 00:56:56,360 --> 00:56:58,360 slash chef table restaurant with grab and go. 1232 00:56:58,360 --> 00:57:00,400 It's, it's, it's, that's a crazy story. 1233 00:57:00,400 --> 00:57:03,120 That's called R&D, not research and development. 1234 00:57:03,120 --> 00:57:05,080 It's called restored and delivered and we're about to 1235 00:57:05,080 --> 00:57:08,320 open like next month. And I I haven't even written the 1236 00:57:08,320 --> 00:57:10,600 menu. Yeah, I'm sure I'm not worried 1237 00:57:10,600 --> 00:57:12,240 about it. I'm sure you're not worried 1238 00:57:12,240 --> 00:57:14,880 about it either. I'm not, but it's like it's such 1239 00:57:15,320 --> 00:57:18,520 a this is the first time that I've done it 100% on my own and 1240 00:57:18,520 --> 00:57:21,880 100% of our own money and that literally the hood's going in 1241 00:57:21,880 --> 00:57:25,000 today. And you know, I mean, the hood's 1242 00:57:25,000 --> 00:57:27,680 like 15 grand. Yeah, it's very expensive, 1243 00:57:27,760 --> 00:57:28,800 right? Yeah, probably. 1244 00:57:29,160 --> 00:57:30,960 Make sure it's probably. The cheapest hood that I've ever 1245 00:57:31,040 --> 00:57:33,560 operated in, but it's my money so it's like, what is? 1246 00:57:33,640 --> 00:57:35,120 This is right. What do you mean it's different 1247 00:57:35,160 --> 00:57:36,760 when? It's 15 grand, you crazy. 1248 00:57:36,800 --> 00:57:38,160 Thank God it's not solid fuel, right? 1249 00:57:38,160 --> 00:57:40,560 Yeah, yeah. It's like, can I just burn stuff 1250 00:57:40,560 --> 00:57:43,640 outside, you know? So no, it's a big deal. 1251 00:57:43,640 --> 00:57:46,760 And that that meant going back to the mentorship, like I think 1252 00:57:47,440 --> 00:57:50,600 it's, it's setting the tone really in any, in any 1253 00:57:50,600 --> 00:57:53,080 profession, I think it's really important that your staff feel 1254 00:57:53,080 --> 00:57:57,680 safe enough to talk to you about real issues and real struggles, 1255 00:57:58,200 --> 00:58:00,560 not to be afraid to share and be vulnerable and stuff. 1256 00:58:00,560 --> 00:58:03,080 And then we've just seen it. We've seen that happen. 1257 00:58:03,200 --> 00:58:05,760 And as soon as that culture exists and they're safe and they 1258 00:58:05,760 --> 00:58:09,960 don't get criticized or there's no ramifications based on it, 1259 00:58:09,960 --> 00:58:13,640 then the team becomes tighter, productivity increases and 1260 00:58:13,640 --> 00:58:15,000 people do. It's just a better environment. 1261 00:58:15,280 --> 00:58:18,880 So what you're doing is incredible and very commendable. 1262 00:58:18,920 --> 00:58:22,280 Thank you for doing that. Because I think more chefs are 1263 00:58:22,280 --> 00:58:24,720 opening themselves up to this and more chefs are also 1264 00:58:24,720 --> 00:58:29,440 realizing the importance of it. But with that being said, and I 1265 00:58:29,440 --> 00:58:33,640 think you and I came up in a very similar era, there's a lot 1266 00:58:33,640 --> 00:58:35,840 of chefs that are going to be reluctant to to hear this. 1267 00:58:35,920 --> 00:58:38,240 And maybe you don't want to accept change there. 1268 00:58:38,240 --> 00:58:39,960 Like we said, the industry is going this direction. 1269 00:58:40,440 --> 00:58:43,000 The train is going that way whether you whether you like it 1270 00:58:43,000 --> 00:58:44,240 or not. Like this is where it's headed 1271 00:58:45,520 --> 00:58:48,960 for people that don't even know where to begin a chef out there 1272 00:58:48,960 --> 00:58:52,520 that's listening and they want to start incorporating some best 1273 00:58:52,520 --> 00:58:54,400 practices into their own operation. 1274 00:58:54,400 --> 00:58:57,760 What are a couple of things that you would advise to the general, 1275 00:58:58,000 --> 00:59:00,200 to the general chef community like, hey, here's some simple 1276 00:59:00,200 --> 00:59:02,160 things that you could do right now to start taking care of 1277 00:59:02,960 --> 00:59:04,880 mental health issues in your in your operation? 1278 00:59:05,240 --> 00:59:09,080 Well, setting the standard, just like you do with your food and 1279 00:59:09,080 --> 00:59:12,520 just like you operate as a leader, part of that needs to be 1280 00:59:12,520 --> 00:59:17,960 also being vulnerable enough to ask yourself if I'm OK and if 1281 00:59:17,960 --> 00:59:21,160 there's something that I need to help with myself, care or my 1282 00:59:21,160 --> 00:59:25,080 mental health. You know, because you can't talk 1283 00:59:25,080 --> 00:59:27,960 about it if you're not willing, you can't instigate something 1284 00:59:27,960 --> 00:59:29,520 that you're not willing to also do yourself. 1285 00:59:29,600 --> 00:59:33,560 And I think, you know, if the chef is never taking any time 1286 00:59:33,560 --> 00:59:37,280 off, if he's always, if you, if you see yourself chef stressed 1287 00:59:37,280 --> 00:59:41,120 out and burned out, you can't really that's the culture that's 1288 00:59:41,120 --> 00:59:43,080 going to be set because all of your team is going to want to 1289 00:59:43,080 --> 00:59:45,440 lead or live up to that expectation. 1290 00:59:45,440 --> 00:59:48,160 So the chef actually making a decision to say no, no, there 1291 00:59:48,160 --> 00:59:50,240 needs to be, you know, life balance. 1292 00:59:50,240 --> 00:59:52,480 We've heard that term a million times, but actually put that 1293 00:59:52,480 --> 00:59:56,120 into motion and encouraging people with the scheduling and 1294 00:59:56,120 --> 00:59:58,880 time off or taking vacations. I mean, that's the baseline to 1295 00:59:58,880 --> 01:00:01,720 it. Get rid of shift drinks will be 1296 01:00:01,720 --> 01:00:05,040 a huge thing. I can't tell you how many times 1297 01:00:05,040 --> 01:00:07,760 that people are in the middle of struggling with addiction. 1298 01:00:08,600 --> 01:00:12,520 And the entire team or the chef has the shift drink. 1299 01:00:12,600 --> 01:00:15,840 What are you going to do? Like your line cook is been 1300 01:00:15,840 --> 01:00:19,120 sober for four months and everybody's having a shift 1301 01:00:19,120 --> 01:00:21,440 drink. Like that stuff can't can't 1302 01:00:21,440 --> 01:00:25,040 continue, right. And so, you know, that was a 1303 01:00:25,040 --> 01:00:26,640 policy we instigated a long, long time ago. 1304 01:00:26,640 --> 01:00:29,800 But because you've got to respect everybody else's 1305 01:00:29,800 --> 01:00:31,240 journey. But if you're the boss and 1306 01:00:31,240 --> 01:00:33,160 here's your after shift drink, but you're the one that's 1307 01:00:33,160 --> 01:00:36,040 struggling with addiction, how does that work, right. 1308 01:00:36,040 --> 01:00:41,280 And so those choices, I think are really important to make and 1309 01:00:41,280 --> 01:00:44,040 and just having those one-on-one conversations, We know that one 1310 01:00:44,040 --> 01:00:46,920 on ones are important and having that weekly, or I mean, at the 1311 01:00:46,920 --> 01:00:50,400 very least monthly, but ask the questions, how are you doing not 1312 01:00:50,400 --> 01:00:53,840 just performance in the kitchen, but hey man, what's going on in 1313 01:00:53,840 --> 01:00:55,360 your life? How's your family? 1314 01:00:56,040 --> 01:00:58,400 What are you doing for fun? When's the last time that you 1315 01:00:58,760 --> 01:01:02,520 got some rest or took a day out? Like having real conversations 1316 01:01:02,520 --> 01:01:07,680 so you can navigate from there. Most, I mean, I mean, I can't 1317 01:01:07,680 --> 01:01:10,720 tell you how many times it's not really a question on how you 1318 01:01:10,720 --> 01:01:12,720 know, are you, are you suffering? 1319 01:01:12,720 --> 01:01:16,000 It's where are you suffering and what's hurting you the most 1320 01:01:16,000 --> 01:01:17,320 right now? What is it that you need 1321 01:01:17,320 --> 01:01:19,640 mentally? What do you need to be in? 1322 01:01:19,800 --> 01:01:21,160 You know, how can I encourage you? 1323 01:01:21,160 --> 01:01:24,800 How can I lift you up? How can I fill in and making 1324 01:01:24,800 --> 01:01:27,200 that the the standard practices? Yeah. 1325 01:01:27,560 --> 01:01:30,440 You know, a lot of the you know, we're referencing kitchens that 1326 01:01:30,440 --> 01:01:32,880 we came up and and a lot of other people, you know, was that 1327 01:01:33,560 --> 01:01:37,200 that that that grind until you drop mentality. 1328 01:01:37,280 --> 01:01:39,200 But I also think like we didn't know better. 1329 01:01:39,200 --> 01:01:40,440 These conversations were not being. 1330 01:01:40,440 --> 01:01:43,600 Had they weren't. You know, and I sometimes I, I, 1331 01:01:43,840 --> 01:01:47,240 I don't want to judge chefs of that generation harshly because 1332 01:01:47,920 --> 01:01:49,520 it just, it just. We were it. 1333 01:01:49,680 --> 01:01:51,160 We were. Doing wasn't a conversation. 1334 01:01:51,160 --> 01:01:53,800 No, no, like there. There wasn't a conversation 1335 01:01:53,800 --> 01:01:57,960 here, so the it's like you can't worry about what was what 1336 01:01:57,960 --> 01:01:59,720 happened that. What can you do today, correct? 1337 01:01:59,760 --> 01:02:01,520 What can you do today that's correct and start building 1338 01:02:01,520 --> 01:02:05,120 systems and culture around it? That's right, chef. 1339 01:02:05,120 --> 01:02:07,040 Wrap up questions. I want to ask you some specific 1340 01:02:07,040 --> 01:02:08,800 food questions and pick your brain a little bit. 1341 01:02:08,800 --> 01:02:10,920 Yeah, Yeah. When you're in the kitchen and 1342 01:02:11,840 --> 01:02:14,320 it's your way, what kind of salt are you using? 1343 01:02:14,520 --> 01:02:16,720 Oh my gosh, the salt question. The salt. 1344 01:02:16,720 --> 01:02:17,400 Question. Yeah. 1345 01:02:18,080 --> 01:02:22,160 I always like to have, well, three 3 salts on head at all. 1346 01:02:22,160 --> 01:02:23,760 Times like What's your all-purpose workhorse? 1347 01:02:23,760 --> 01:02:25,800 Kosher. Is it diamond crystal Mortons? 1348 01:02:26,480 --> 01:02:27,600 Diamonds. Diamond Yeah, yeah. 1349 01:02:27,800 --> 01:02:28,920 And then was your finishing salt. 1350 01:02:30,040 --> 01:02:32,600 And it's it's, I just love Maldon. 1351 01:02:32,760 --> 01:02:33,800 Yeah, that's OK. Yeah. 1352 01:02:33,800 --> 01:02:35,600 No, it's, it's that's what I use. 1353 01:02:35,840 --> 01:02:36,600 Yeah. I hope it's OK. 1354 01:02:36,680 --> 01:02:39,240 Yeah. Floor to cell and Maldon would 1355 01:02:39,240 --> 01:02:41,600 be the would be the finishing options for sure. 1356 01:02:41,760 --> 01:02:43,840 I'm a Maldon person. I like, I like crunching it a 1357 01:02:43,840 --> 01:02:44,720 little bit. I like my fingers. 1358 01:02:44,720 --> 01:02:46,080 Yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. 1359 01:02:46,080 --> 01:02:48,040 And I feel like floor to cell isn't as crunchable. 1360 01:02:48,040 --> 01:02:50,560 Nope, right. It's almost ready to go and I 1361 01:02:50,560 --> 01:02:53,520 like the idea of of crunching it in my hands when I'm doing the 1362 01:02:53,520 --> 01:02:56,560 final seasoning. When you're on your workstation 1363 01:02:57,720 --> 01:03:00,480 and you have a all-purpose, a general finishing asset. 1364 01:03:00,480 --> 01:03:02,880 Now I know there might be some nuance between dish if it's 1365 01:03:02,880 --> 01:03:05,960 vinegar, but is it is it typically a citrus? 1366 01:03:05,960 --> 01:03:08,640 Is it, is it vinegar? What do you finish most citrus? 1367 01:03:08,840 --> 01:03:10,160 Yeah, yeah. Is there a preferred? 1368 01:03:10,280 --> 01:03:12,480 No, well, I think it's based on the cuisine that you're cooking 1369 01:03:12,480 --> 01:03:13,880 in. I mean, you know, lemon is is 1370 01:03:13,880 --> 01:03:16,920 probably the easiest to go to, but not just the juice, 1371 01:03:17,320 --> 01:03:19,720 certainly the Rhine and A and a quick zest on something that's 1372 01:03:19,720 --> 01:03:23,040 pretty cool too, you know, and usually I'll have because we all 1373 01:03:23,320 --> 01:03:24,360 going back to the food cost thing. 1374 01:03:24,360 --> 01:03:26,200 You want to maximize your product. 1375 01:03:26,200 --> 01:03:30,320 So whether you're making a lemon oil or a lemon garlic vinegar or 1376 01:03:30,320 --> 01:03:33,800 whatever it may be, those are also some some tricks that you 1377 01:03:33,800 --> 01:03:36,840 can maximize the flavor from instead of just a squeeze. 1378 01:03:36,840 --> 01:03:39,440 Right, right, right. There's levels of that acidity 1379 01:03:39,680 --> 01:03:42,600 that you can pre prep and pre plan and have them kind of ready 1380 01:03:42,600 --> 01:03:45,400 to go and that, you know, that sometimes makes the difference. 1381 01:03:45,600 --> 01:03:47,880 All the difference between a good meal and a great meal is 1382 01:03:47,880 --> 01:03:50,120 the ability to finish with acid and salt. 1383 01:03:50,480 --> 01:03:52,800 Do you have a specific way that you make plate wipes that you 1384 01:03:52,800 --> 01:03:57,800 like them done? Oh gosh, yeah, we call them 1385 01:03:57,800 --> 01:04:00,960 Brownie towels, but you know, they're they're not paper towel. 1386 01:04:00,960 --> 01:04:03,400 I think they are brownie brand. But yeah, I mean, we'll cut 1387 01:04:03,400 --> 01:04:04,600 them. You got to fold them the edges. 1388 01:04:04,600 --> 01:04:06,680 They're like a like a torque a chick towel or something. 1389 01:04:06,680 --> 01:04:07,680 Like that. Yeah, exactly. 1390 01:04:07,960 --> 01:04:11,440 They got red stripes on them, but they make about 8 plate 1391 01:04:11,440 --> 01:04:14,560 wipes per per towel. But they've got to be exactly 1392 01:04:14,560 --> 01:04:16,200 the same. The edges got to be folded in. 1393 01:04:16,200 --> 01:04:20,200 We use rubber bands to, you know, and that perfect little 1394 01:04:21,040 --> 01:04:22,560 box, a little bit of water in it, ready to go. 1395 01:04:23,280 --> 01:04:25,440 Straight water, vinegar, just water, just water. 1396 01:04:25,680 --> 01:04:27,400 Yeah. OK. 1397 01:04:27,400 --> 01:04:30,360 So is there something that you you do that might be unique to 1398 01:04:30,360 --> 01:04:33,760 the kitchens that you run that you feel that bring an intense 1399 01:04:33,760 --> 01:04:36,720 amount of flavor or it's like sneaky umami or anything like 1400 01:04:36,720 --> 01:04:39,720 that that's like, hey, here's a little tip from me to you that 1401 01:04:39,720 --> 01:04:40,920 is going to make your food taste better. 1402 01:04:41,160 --> 01:04:47,520 Oh, man, we've done brown butter for quite a while, but we use, 1403 01:04:47,520 --> 01:04:50,880 after we do the brown butter, we strain the milk solids out of it 1404 01:04:51,400 --> 01:04:52,960 and it's the caramelized milk solids. 1405 01:04:53,160 --> 01:04:55,320 And then, I mean, we just call it liquid gold because then 1406 01:04:55,320 --> 01:04:57,040 we'll add a little bit of the butter back to it. 1407 01:04:57,160 --> 01:05:00,440 And that spread, whether it's in sauteed vegetables or just on 1408 01:05:00,440 --> 01:05:04,360 top of a piece of fish. And so, yeah, I mean, it takes 1409 01:05:04,360 --> 01:05:09,160 several pounds to get a little bit and then you can dry it and 1410 01:05:09,160 --> 01:05:12,880 then grind it and you crumble. Normalize milk salads. 1411 01:05:13,000 --> 01:05:14,880 Let's talk about that brown butter for a second. 1412 01:05:14,880 --> 01:05:17,520 Yeah, Yeah. Hot debate right now. 1413 01:05:17,520 --> 01:05:19,080 It's gonna get us all in trouble. 1414 01:05:19,160 --> 01:05:21,200 No. When you're making brown butter, 1415 01:05:21,360 --> 01:05:23,120 do you stir it constantly or do you not touch? 1416 01:05:23,120 --> 01:05:25,280 It I don't touch it. I don't touch it either. 1417 01:05:25,280 --> 01:05:27,240 Good for you. I don't, you don't. 1418 01:05:27,240 --> 01:05:30,280 Need to yeah we gotta start the entire time I. 1419 01:05:30,400 --> 01:05:31,720 Ain't got time for you I don't get. 1420 01:05:31,960 --> 01:05:33,720 To start the entire time right? I'm with you, I. 1421 01:05:33,880 --> 01:05:36,440 Didn't realize there was a big. Debate, it is like I've, I've, 1422 01:05:36,440 --> 01:05:39,600 I've had, you know, I've gotten into some heated debates with 1423 01:05:39,600 --> 01:05:40,840 other chefs. Like, no, what do you mean you 1424 01:05:40,840 --> 01:05:43,120 don't? You got to the whisk the entire 1425 01:05:43,120 --> 01:05:44,280 time. That's what's making it, you 1426 01:05:44,280 --> 01:05:47,360 know, whatever. When they settle they they 1427 01:05:47,360 --> 01:05:48,720 brown. I think it's faster that way. 1428 01:05:48,840 --> 01:05:52,680 You know, last question, chef, if there's a Mount Rushmore of 1429 01:05:52,680 --> 01:05:53,920 chefs out there? Oh gosh. 1430 01:05:54,160 --> 01:05:57,240 Who's the four chefs that should be on there for you? 1431 01:05:57,320 --> 01:06:03,480 For me. Yeah, Well, honestly, my mom's 1432 01:06:03,480 --> 01:06:04,800 got to be on there, to be honest. 1433 01:06:04,800 --> 01:06:07,320 I mean, we, I grew up in an Italian American family and 1434 01:06:07,320 --> 01:06:09,160 they're, my grandparents had seven kids. 1435 01:06:09,320 --> 01:06:13,280 And so there was cooking going on constantly. 1436 01:06:13,400 --> 01:06:16,200 And we'd go to the restaurant. They ran an Italian restaurant 1437 01:06:16,200 --> 01:06:17,800 called Oliveri's in upstate New York. 1438 01:06:18,040 --> 01:06:22,720 And I'm we're talking Paulie, Anthony, Tony, Loretta, Gloria, 1439 01:06:23,040 --> 01:06:25,240 Teresa. And we ran the restaurant. 1440 01:06:25,320 --> 01:06:29,280 And so by the time I was like 9 or 10 years old and my mom never 1441 01:06:29,280 --> 01:06:31,480 stopped cooking. And so I, that was certainly an 1442 01:06:31,480 --> 01:06:33,600 inspiration. So I I put her face up on there 1443 01:06:34,120 --> 01:06:35,520 and can. We pause for a second. 1444 01:06:35,520 --> 01:06:38,680 Sure, meatballs. Yeah, Hot topic. 1445 01:06:39,280 --> 01:06:43,000 Another. How do you so regardless of 1446 01:06:43,000 --> 01:06:44,720 what's in them? OK, how do you cook them? 1447 01:06:45,320 --> 01:06:48,960 So oh gosh. Like what? 1448 01:06:48,960 --> 01:06:51,360 What's in your restaurant? Yeah, in my. 1449 01:06:51,360 --> 01:06:54,400 Restaurant back then. Back then we well, you make them 1450 01:06:56,080 --> 01:06:58,680 oven roast and then you put them in the sauce. 1451 01:06:59,080 --> 01:07:02,520 Oven roast them then. Oven roast and then and really 1452 01:07:02,520 --> 01:07:05,560 that's just a fat thing. So you can control the amount of 1453 01:07:05,560 --> 01:07:08,040 fat that's in the sauce and then you can skim it later if you 1454 01:07:08,040 --> 01:07:10,360 wanted to, but then it goes. But I'd only cook them like 1455 01:07:10,360 --> 01:07:14,480 6070% in the oven and then you finish braising for I mean, I 1456 01:07:14,480 --> 01:07:18,200 mean, that stuff would be on the stove for 18, 10 hours. 1457 01:07:18,200 --> 01:07:21,040 Yeah, just slow, slow. OK, so here's where we I say fry 1458 01:07:21,040 --> 01:07:21,800 them. You say fry. 1459 01:07:21,800 --> 01:07:22,640 Them. I fry them, yeah. 1460 01:07:22,840 --> 01:07:24,280 SPK we fried them because they're small. 1461 01:07:24,280 --> 01:07:25,600 We did the little tiny ones, Yeah. 1462 01:07:25,800 --> 01:07:28,880 And actually we still we haven't roasted them, chilled them, 1463 01:07:29,080 --> 01:07:30,080 fried them and then put. Them. 1464 01:07:30,080 --> 01:07:31,360 Yeah, fried. Fry them in a little oil. 1465 01:07:31,360 --> 01:07:32,120 Yeah. Nice and bright. 1466 01:07:32,640 --> 01:07:33,840 Yeah, nice little crispy on that side. 1467 01:07:33,840 --> 01:07:36,000 Yeah, anyway, we're back to Mount Rushmore, so. 1468 01:07:36,040 --> 01:07:37,080 We I'd eat them. I'd eat them. 1469 01:07:37,080 --> 01:07:38,320 Yeah. Yeah. 1470 01:07:38,320 --> 01:07:41,440 Thomas Keller, I think that's kind of a go to for a lot of us 1471 01:07:41,440 --> 01:07:44,360 in in this range, just because that French Laundry cookbook 1472 01:07:44,600 --> 01:07:49,880 really changed a lot for me. And the other two are going to 1473 01:07:49,880 --> 01:07:53,720 be tough, to be honest, because there's so many that, I mean, 1474 01:07:53,720 --> 01:07:58,040 you know, Anthony Bourdain, that book also changed a whole world 1475 01:07:58,040 --> 01:08:04,600 for me as well. And Charlie Trotter legends, he 1476 01:08:04,600 --> 01:08:11,560 came in to the mansion on his birthday and he and Dean and 1477 01:08:11,560 --> 01:08:15,520 Charlie's family or whatever they came in and ate and I was 1478 01:08:15,520 --> 01:08:19,920 the one that got to cook for their dinner and just his. 1479 01:08:20,479 --> 01:08:22,800 And again, I was probably 20 something or whatever, right? 1480 01:08:22,800 --> 01:08:26,319 And so that was nerve racking to say the least. 1481 01:08:26,640 --> 01:08:29,279 But he was just so genuine. And his signature in the book 1482 01:08:29,520 --> 01:08:31,000 that he gave me afterwards and stuff. 1483 01:08:31,000 --> 01:08:33,399 So that was like the purple one. Yeah, the purple one. 1484 01:08:33,399 --> 01:08:35,560 And just, you know, thank you for cooking for me on my 1485 01:08:35,560 --> 01:08:39,359 birthday. And, and just his, I've never 1486 01:08:39,359 --> 01:08:41,760 seen any food like that. So those books, I I want to. 1487 01:08:41,920 --> 01:08:43,560 Yeah. Over and over and over. 1488 01:08:43,560 --> 01:08:46,080 Again, when when those books came out, there was the French 1489 01:08:46,080 --> 01:08:47,359 Laundry and Charlie Trotter's books. 1490 01:08:47,359 --> 01:08:49,840 I I feel like those were significant moments in culinary 1491 01:08:49,840 --> 01:08:53,680 time like you there was there was before French Laundry and 1492 01:08:53,680 --> 01:08:55,720 after French Laundry cookbook. It really like it changed the 1493 01:08:55,720 --> 01:08:57,200 way everyone could. Same thing with Charlie Trotter. 1494 01:08:58,120 --> 01:09:01,120 I went to. I never ate at Trotter's, but I 1495 01:09:01,120 --> 01:09:03,319 went there recently and built Kim, who used to be the chef 1496 01:09:03,319 --> 01:09:06,000 there, and Dylan Trotter. Charlie Sunday gave me a tour of 1497 01:09:06,000 --> 01:09:06,319 the. Kitchen. 1498 01:09:06,319 --> 01:09:08,279 Oh my gosh. It was like, very cool. 1499 01:09:08,279 --> 01:09:11,800 And then going next door to his his studio apartment where he 1500 01:09:11,800 --> 01:09:14,399 filmed the kitchen sessions and seeing that it was, it was super 1501 01:09:14,399 --> 01:09:18,279 cool. So Charlie Trotter, I, I, I, I 1502 01:09:18,920 --> 01:09:20,640 my Mount Rushmore changes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. 1503 01:09:20,640 --> 01:09:21,240 But right. Yeah. 1504 01:09:21,399 --> 01:09:23,399 He's usually on you ask me this again next week, I'll probably. 1505 01:09:23,479 --> 01:09:25,880 Have my change right. But yeah, Charlie's usually on 1506 01:09:25,880 --> 01:09:28,319 there. So, Chef, thank you for being 1507 01:09:28,319 --> 01:09:29,720 here. Yeah, where can people find you 1508 01:09:29,720 --> 01:09:31,960 if they want to follow along? Yeah. 1509 01:09:31,960 --> 01:09:37,279 So right now you want to follow the Mineral Wellness Center on 1510 01:09:37,279 --> 01:09:43,240 facebookandits.org and then also be excited for restored and 1511 01:09:43,240 --> 01:09:47,279 delivered R&D and Mineral Wells because it's the unique concept 1512 01:09:47,279 --> 01:09:50,680 is it's, it's also kind of an incubator because we, we're 1513 01:09:50,680 --> 01:09:53,160 partnering with a coffee shop couple that their dream has been 1514 01:09:53,160 --> 01:09:55,400 to do coffee and we're partnering with a food truck 1515 01:09:55,400 --> 01:09:59,600 called Smoking Three CS BBQ. And so, and in addition to that, 1516 01:09:59,600 --> 01:10:01,400 my wife does plants. So it's going to be a plant 1517 01:10:01,400 --> 01:10:04,080 shop, bookstore, coffee shop. And then I've got a dining room 1518 01:10:04,400 --> 01:10:08,080 in the back and I get to do chef table dinners and that's cool. 1519 01:10:08,880 --> 01:10:10,840 I want to. Randomly open whenever I want 1520 01:10:10,840 --> 01:10:13,040 to. Open please keep me in mind I 1521 01:10:13,040 --> 01:10:14,880 want I want to go check it out. And by the way, you think people 1522 01:10:14,880 --> 01:10:16,640 are opinion about meatballs? Wait till you start hearing 1523 01:10:16,640 --> 01:10:17,880 about BBQ. Oh my gosh. 1524 01:10:18,480 --> 01:10:19,800 Oh my gosh. Yeah, for sure. 1525 01:10:19,800 --> 01:10:22,400 And in Mineral Wells, you know, it's like when I tasted their 1526 01:10:22,400 --> 01:10:26,160 BBQ, like, I don't think they didn't, They know it's good, but 1527 01:10:26,280 --> 01:10:29,040 it's, it's super solid. So there's a lot going on in 1528 01:10:29,040 --> 01:10:30,840 there. And yeah, come to town, check us 1529 01:10:30,840 --> 01:10:35,200 out. But mainly just, you know, just 1530 01:10:35,200 --> 01:10:36,920 ask questions, man. Just find the answers. 1531 01:10:36,960 --> 01:10:39,000 And you don't have to be alone and you don't have to struggle 1532 01:10:39,000 --> 01:10:40,120 through the stuff you're struggling with. 1533 01:10:40,680 --> 01:10:46,480 And the more we get in a position to make mental health a 1534 01:10:46,480 --> 01:10:49,440 regular topic, the better off we're all going to be, man. 1535 01:10:49,560 --> 01:10:52,200 Well, well, thank you for this was fun for me, by the way, cuz 1536 01:10:52,760 --> 01:10:56,160 yeah, you know, I, I think we have so much to talk about. 1537 01:10:56,160 --> 01:10:57,040 Like we could have talked for hours. 1538 01:10:57,040 --> 01:10:59,720 Yeah, yeah. But really, thank you for what 1539 01:10:59,720 --> 01:11:01,440 you're doing with all the work that you put in. 1540 01:11:01,440 --> 01:11:02,800 I appreciate it. Thanks for having me on this. 1541 01:11:02,840 --> 01:11:03,480 Been a blast. Yeah. 1542 01:11:03,800 --> 01:11:04,640 All right. Thank you so much. 1543 01:11:04,960 --> 01:11:06,680 Have a good day. All right, that's the show. 1544 01:11:06,680 --> 01:11:08,640 If you liked it, make sure you leave five stars. 1545 01:11:08,640 --> 01:11:11,680 Nothing less than five stars. If you want more chefs, PSA, go 1546 01:11:11,680 --> 01:11:14,400 to chefspsa.com. Get yourself some books, get 1547 01:11:14,400 --> 01:11:17,000 yourself some merch including Culinary Leadership Fundamentals 1548 01:11:17,320 --> 01:11:18,760 and the Line Cook Survival manual. 1549 01:11:18,760 --> 01:11:21,160 If you want early access to episodes, you can get them on 1550 01:11:21,160 --> 01:11:23,840 Spotify and sub stack by becoming a paid member. 1551 01:11:23,840 --> 01:11:25,880 The link is in the notes. We'll see you next week. 1552 01:11:26,040 --> 01:11:28,720 Hit the porno music. No small drink in the kitchen. 1553 01:11:29,120 --> 01:11:30,880 Mix it. Drop the chef knowledge. 1554 01:11:31,080 --> 01:11:33,080 No fiction. Stirring up the beats. 1555 01:11:33,120 --> 01:11:34,880 Heat enough the session. Listen. 1556 01:11:34,880 --> 01:11:36,680 Close classes in session.