Walk-In Talk Podcast

Liberty Smokehouse's Bryan Jacobs: Culinary Rehabilitation for Veterans

• Carl Fiadini

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Ever wondered how culinary arts can transform lives? This episode of the Walk-In Talk Podcast features Chef Bryan Jacobs, the visionary behind Tampa Bay's Liberty Smokehouse and the charitable organization Vets2Success. Bryan shares his monumental journey from military service to culinary excellence, revealing how he turned personal struggles into a mission of hope for veterans. His inspiring story of resilience and passion underscores the incredible impact of culinary training on veterans reintegrating into civilian life.

Also, get ready to tantalize your taste buds as Chef Jeffery guides us through his latest seafood creations. Imagine savoring creamy hummus with sourdough pita, indulging in spiny lobster ceviche marinated in coconut rum with a side of smoked watermelon, and relishing a Jamaican-inspired jerk grouper paired with fresh ackee. Through these inventive dishes, Jefferson showcases a delightful blend of tradition and innovation that highlights the powerful role of food in fostering personal growth and community.

Our discussion doesn't stop at mouthwatering recipes; we delve into the leadership dynamics that make restaurant kitchens a haven for veterans and unique individuals. Drawing parallels between military training and culinary discipline, we emphasize th

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Thank you for listening to the Walk-In Talk Podcast, hosted by Carl Fiadini and Company. Our show not only explores the exciting and chaotic world of the restaurant business and amazing eateries but also advocates for mental health awareness in the food industry.

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Speaker 1:

hello food fam. This is the walk and talk podcast where you will find the perfect blend of food fun and cooking knowledge. I'm your host, carl fiodini. Welcome to the number one food podcast in the country. We are recording on site at ibis Studios, where food photography comes alive and I get to eat it.

Speaker 1:

There's a lot to get into today. First things first, if you missed the last episode with Food Network's recent winner of Chopped Chef, zachary Davila, it's a super episode. Go back and listen. Today's guest is Chef Brian Jacobs, owner of Tampa Bay's Liberty Smokehouse. All right, so the backstory of his outfit is humbling and needed in today's ever-growing feckless society. I can't wait to share about their 5013C Vets to Success and really we want to kind of help build the awareness to this cause. Chef Jacob is on deck. Speaking of vets, please be sure to check out Crab Island Seafood and an order from Chef Tom and Chef Carl, not me. Seriously, they have a delicious line of dips and spreads. Check them out at crabislandseafooddipcom. Jeff, my brother, I'm so excited today, man, I'm fed. I'm happy you got meat sweats. I'm fat and happy. I'm so excited today, man, I'm fed, I'm happy you got meat sweats, fat and happy. I'm just all smiles. Man, meat sweats, lobster sweats, all sorts of All. Right, it's pre-shift time. Baby, pop the clutch and roll doggie roll.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. So I wanted to bring it today just because we haven't really done that much with seafood and I wanted to do it today just because, you know, we haven't really done that much with seafood and I wanted to do some different things. We did three different dishes today. We did hummus because I was still in that sourdough mode and I wanted to do some sourdough pita, and I did some hummus that I pureed to where it was nice and creamy, and then we topped that off with some pecans, some tomatoes, olive oil, salt and then we had some Aleppo pepper that I put in there as well. The next dish I wanted to pay tribute because I don't know if everybody knows this, but this past weekend was an extra day for spiny lobster season. It was just past one day, I think 14th was, and I was I didn't know that.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, a little lobster season down in the Keys, okay, spiny lobster tail. So I wanted to do something different with the ceviche. I marinated it in coconut rum and then I blanched it and then almost all the way done, then I put it in so the citrus would cook the rest of it. The citrus was uzu orange not tangerine Sorry, still waiting for those. Orange not tangerine, sorry, still waiting for those. We got to talk to quentin to make sure we can get some, uh, tangerines some. So, like all year round, let's just ride out to the farm. Yeah, I need some tangerine bourbon vanilla marmalade. Um, is john shaking his head? Everybody's shaking concise. So here's really what I was trying to think of something different for a presentation was thinking summer, what could go well with it? Um, so I went with watermelon and I smoked the watermelon and I wanted to give it a an effect that the watermelon was like a log cooking the lobster. So I used activated charcoal to give it like this char. Look to it. And john's shots. I can't wait till they come out.

Speaker 1:

They're just fantastic okay, the hummus stupidly amazing. Thank you, I really enjoyed the hummus. Um, I think we need to put that in a in a bucket and sell it. Five gallon bucket, yep. Um, and that watermelon was right on. I never had you, you know smoked watermelon before and I have to tell you that was a great experience and I feel like summertime we should probably implement more of that. Maybe, maybe, another dish with with some other iteration of it. Yeah, um, cause that was stupid, also fire.

Speaker 2:

So there's a dish I used to do Um, it was a miso glazed fish. We used to make a watermelon on top and kimchi that's what we did uh, smoking, that would add some more depth to it as well. And then the piece of resistance, the last one I did. I wanted to do a riff, like we talked about tradition and we were mentioning in one of our episodes about the, what the true national dish to jamaica is, and it's not jerk, it's actually aki and saltfish. Uh, I didn't want to use saltfish, I wanted to showcase the fish that's indigenous to florida. Uh, grouper is the one I chose.

Speaker 2:

I did a beautiful jerk marinade on that and then I took which from last week's chef. He brought in that beautiful uh milk crumble. I added to my recipe coconut shred to give it to the coconut flavor to it. So I was thinking a riff on coconut shrimp, which is very popular in Florida, obviously. But then I wanted to go the Aki way, which is just stewed tomatoes, caramelized onions, a little bit of thyme, scotch bonnet that you don't pop in there. It's one of those dishes. And then Aki, when it's not ripe, it can actually kill people. It's poisonous. Ripe, it can actually kill people. It's poisonous when it's ripe and it opens up and buds.

Speaker 1:

It's just this beautiful egg kind of consistency to it and thank you for feeding me this to me I appreciate the experiment.

Speaker 2:

Well, here's the thing I've never had fresh ackee. I've always had canned, and the family has been going back and forth. So somebody brought up some ackee.

Speaker 1:

Who was the first person that tasted this from you? I don't, was it me?

Speaker 2:

no, me, I tasted it, but it's just got this really complex depth to it. And then they they normally have it with bami. Bami is cassava. It's pressed into this round cylinder. You have to marinate it because it's a dry product once. Once you marinate it and then you sear it, it's got this like the best thing I can compare it to is like a potato pancake, but really thick. John was comparing it to bread. Yeah, he said it was almost like bread.

Speaker 1:

I was really pleased with that dish. I'll tell you what that hockey I think would be terrific on a burger.

Speaker 2:

It's good on anything.

Speaker 1:

I mean, yeah, I like that it has a real life on there. In other words, you might have to. Somebody going specifically for some jamaican-esque cuisine would absolutely love that. But I, you know you're talking about a small, you know fraction, right niche. But if you put that on a burger, you know grade a usa stuff, usa stuff, you know what I'm saying. I feel like that would sell like fire.

Speaker 2:

Really funny story. When we opened the gastropub in Lake Park, I actually had Aki saltfish on my menu for brunch and every time somebody ordered it I knew exactly who they were and where they were from, because they were definitely Jamaican, Because they know. As soon as they saw it and saw Bambi on the menu, they went right to it and we're just paying homage Again. It's the traditional thing that I'm not from that culture. I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to bastardize it, but I'm going to take attributes from it and I'm going to twist it to my own.

Speaker 1:

I'm going to pass you one of my dad no no, oh, okay, I'm going to pass you one of my father's recipes, and I want you to do it.

Speaker 2:

I will do it to the effect of exactly what it weighs in Correct, and then I'll probably end up morphing it as I go back to look at that. Yeah, I want to do a thing with it. Yeah, definitely, I'd love to do that. I'd be honored.

Speaker 1:

Thank you Very, very today, uh, I am continuing my excitement um with uh chef brian you know he's sitting here in studio.

Speaker 2:

I eat that short rib. This was a brontosaurus burger. Oh my god. I was waiting for dino to come running inside the house dude.

Speaker 1:

I mean, oh boy, it's, uh, it's quitting time. I mean, I tell you what it would slide me down the the brontosaurus and, you know, off the tail I'm, I'm eating, dude, it was so good. Welcome to the program, appreciate it.

Speaker 1:

Thank you, glad to be here man, I did what you guys, the three of you today, did, all right, um. So brian sous is is here as well. Jeff, jeff, justin, what you, what you guys did today was spectacular. Okay, like this was. I feel like we should have had 30 people here, you know, with tickets. It should have been that kind of day. Thank you All. Right, now we're going to get into. We'll get into what you actually cooked up, um, just in a bit, but first, um. So, chef Brian, you've studied under MasterChef Peter Timmons, graduated from the Institute of Paul Boucouse in Lyon, france, cooked for presidents and now you own Liberty Smokehouse here in Tampa. You've experienced some very deep personal losses along your life's journey and inevitably that gave you purpose, it gave you direction. Please share with us how the loss of your mother, father, brother, how that guided your path, and how Vets to Success was born and kind of where you landed today, because you're doing some really, really amazing things.

Speaker 3:

I appreciate it. You know it's purpose and pain. You know I fell in love with cooking at a young age and it was my grandfather that he was a World War II chef and really just gave me a. You know he chose me because my mud cakes look really good and my rocks look well, without having any culinary training. So it was me in the kitchen out of all the grandkids. And you know I got a real young lively earning and it was one of those things that if we didn't grow it we didn't cook it.

Speaker 3:

My dad's side of the family is from southern Georgia and farms hogs, deer, hunting catfish. You know I mean you name it. You know we grew it, hunted, we had a pantry, always pickles. And you know I mean you name it. You know we grew it, hunted, we had a pantry, always pickles, and you know preserving and yeah. So I got a really great young culinary journey and didn't know at that time that, you know, food was going to save my life.

Speaker 3:

Um, you know, myself, a combat veteran, did two tours in iraq as a navy corpsman. A battlefield paramedic served alongside the Marine Corps during my tours the 03 invasion and 05 again. Younger brother, also a Marine, served 03 with me. Both went in the same time. Both went back a second time and got out thinking the grass was greener on the other side and was sod. It was a cover-up of the dirt that you had to go through the muck and I didn't realize that it was.

Speaker 3:

I didn't have any idea who Brian was. I knew who HM3, fmf Jacobs was and when you get out you don't know who that person is or who you need to be. It took me 32 different jobs to you know, being homeless, battling PTSD through my own medical observation, which is alcohol, and you know it got this calling. You know my grandfather used to say something to me. It was like you have to get your life together so no one else will for you. And I kind of heard that I like a shot in the dark and or someone said it to me and I went and signed up for culinary school while I was homeless and I said I'm just you know, I'm going to do this.

Speaker 3:

And lo and behold, it did. It had chosen me from a young age and didn't realize it, did really well in culinary school, worked for a really great chef, hans Schadler, in Virginia, did some really great things up there, um, and it was on my career path. It was in Gasparilla under Master Chef Peter Timmons and, uh, ended up getting a call. I kind of changed my life, which was my brother had taken his life and, um, you know, at that point in time I was a private chef, I was cooking for great people, I was doing some amazing things at the time too, and, um, I just said I'm gonna, if I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do it with a purpose. I'm gonna change lives through food, and that's what bore effect to success how long did it take you?

Speaker 1:

so when you hear this, this, this news, and you know you're, you know you're, you're doing your thing, you're, you're in your grind you get hit with that. What do you do?

Speaker 3:

You know I wasn't a praying man at the time. I'll say that I had not had a great relationship with faith. But I look back, knowing that God had a place for me and that this was my purpose in life. And it was one of those things like they say, you can only connect the dots looking back, not looking forward. And I realized that had I not done the things I did or walked the shoes I had walked, I wouldn't be able to be the man I am to others and be able to my testimony be something that somebody can follow. And so I know I had to go through everything I had to go through and I knew that that was something to somebody because I wasn't alone in that walk.

Speaker 3:

I have heard so many stories of men and women being homeless from you know. They didn't understand or they couldn't find a fit, they couldn't find service again, they couldn't find people to feel like, they felt alone. And I was like. I know those feelings. But I had found this brotherhood in culinary, this sense of organized chaos that gave me function in the kitchen, and I figured if food saved me, it could save a few others.

Speaker 1:

Is that where your 5013C came in?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, it started out as a very rudimentary program. I just wanted to give somebody some skill and give someone some hope.

Speaker 1:

Go ahead and give some detail on what you're doing.

Speaker 3:

So it's a reintegration program designed primarily to 16 weeks of classical French culinary. My idea is, if you can teach someone technique, teach a man how to fish, clean the fish, cook the fish then they can survive. And this is the same idea. It's like you have to teach technique. You can't just teach somebody to do one thing and expect them to be fruitful. You have to teach them classical technique, you have to grind that into them. For 16 weeks we go through a reintegration of not just culinary training but redefining who they are as people.

Speaker 3:

I like to use this idea of your recipe of life and then what we're able to do is take and find your bad ingredients in your own life and within your bad ingredients we're able to look at. You know, I ask them really great questions, like if you could be any item in the world, what would you be in this? You know, gentlemen, he goes I'd be German chocolate cake. All right, cool. Well, why? Well, I love the way it looks. And I said, well, if you had bad eggs, would you be able to be German chocolate cake? And he was like, no, I said so what's the process of getting eggs?

Speaker 3:

Well, a lot of us go. You go to store, you crack them, you use them. Well, where do eggs come from? Oh, they come from a chicken. Where's that chicken? Oh, it's over here. Well, where's that chicken come from? Where's that? Oh, you got to feed the chicken, it's got a hatch. So they start to understand that their own personal problems are a lot deeper, because their recipe for themselves can't be complete unless they really go to the root of the situation.

Speaker 1:

I think that's a beautiful approach to something that is definitely part of where we are today, especially after the last 20-plus years, with all of the Iraq and Afghanistan and all our guys and gals who've been doing their tours, and now it's like an aftermath and what, how many, how many people come through the program well, we've had 44 go through the program uh, pre-covid, um.

Speaker 3:

I stopped the program um at the time because I you know what I realized is that we were sending these men and women out to you know units that didn't have the same conventional ideals that we have within Liberty, which is someone who actually cares about the person left, right, front back.

Speaker 3:

And you know it's kind of reeducating kitchen culture and giving you know cause we don't put people into jobs, put them into mentorships.

Speaker 3:

We want kitchens to bring on people. They want to create young, energetic, new culinary talent and we feel the best way to do that is to reimplement it through Liberty, where we have people who actually care about your success and we want to be a stepping table for great chefs. We want people to come through our perspective and be able to go on with the foundation teachings and be able to rear a new kitchen culture. Instead of this idea of every man for himself, it should be a cohesive culture that's building talent, strength in the kitchen again to create leaders. And I've seen countless times in other kitchens where you know, yeah, some chefs have been in the business 30 years, 40 years, 10 years. We've gotten to a place where you know, even when I was an apprentice, that we used to cancel people quickly. And now we're in this hospitality begging for talent and help. But now everybody wants to go be an influencer or an IT person and we're hurting for quality people and the leadership in the kitchen.

Speaker 1:

And now we're in a piece where you just finding the leaders is a hard place and it's like, okay, we've got to re-engineer the way we treat people agreed and I think and, jeff, I want you to chime in on this um, I feel like the reason you're not getting quality leadership, uh, folks with leadership skills, is because they're not. They're not. They're not eating, they're not eating nails like they used to in order to learn the experiences, to get some of that leadership skill. I know you'll have a different uh take on that, jeff, but I feel like somewhere in the middle of what I said and what you're going to say is probably a truth.

Speaker 2:

Jump in. Yeah, I think, and Chef definitely just pointed out and I love that he kind of made the connection between we're hurting for staff now and then yet we have vets that are serving and sacrificing and the ultimate sacrifice but we're not putting the two together and that's that's a shame on us as a community because at the end of the day, we're all about community. We're serving food and we're not doing brain surgery. No one's passing away for thank God, hopefully, at the end of the day, right, and that's a that's a norm saying in our business. And you know, you look at one of the biggest things and I just wrote about this. This is ironic. I think what we've missed now is family meal. I think that when major companies and you know we're talking to big boys on the block that take away that right of having because it's the ROI, I think they would actually enhance the ROI if they had community where they actually sat down and the chefs and the leaders of that particular establishment learned everything about their, their staff how many?

Speaker 1:

when you're younger? Probably more apropos, but how many jobs in your lives did you stay because of the people you worked with, because you built some rapport and you had and you had that, that deep connection and, in spite of the fact that you know there was a tyrannical ownership or whatever, you stayed right.

Speaker 2:

I'll give you a for instance I'm sorry for interrupting, but I was my term. My position at the Marriott Singer Island was terminated, right, they got rid of it. They had too many chiefs, not enough Indians. And I remember when they told me I was losing the position, and I I cried. And it wasn't because I was crying because I lost my job, it was I was crying because I was losing the team I had built and I had a fantastic team.

Speaker 2:

I had seven outlets. I had one sous chef, we had, you know, 400 plus rooms right on Singer Island and the stuff we did, the food cost. We hit the food we popped out. Every day I would walk out and I'd set a $100 bill on the counter. I'm like you guys can get $100 extra a day if you just work faster, more efficiently than I can. And you got $100. And I can tell you right now nobody took it because I was not partying with $100. Yeah, not you, buddy. No, no, and it was. It wasn't, it wasn't just, and I would have given it to people. It was just one of those things that that's a great way to push your people, to drive them to, to get to that next level. It's not throwing the pot, it's not throwing the pants. I remember going through culinary school. I remember my externship. I remember Smale coming in. His name was Smale, a French chef.

Speaker 2:

He would come into the kitchen and it was 10 o'clock, 10, 15, drunk off his butt and just who told you to close down and F this? And there goes a pan, there goes a knife. You're like holy, and that's how it was. And I sat there and said I'm not going to do this. You know, we as chefs now the generation that are looking around and scratching our head going I can't find people.

Speaker 1:

Then you got to look at yourself. Of course you always have to look. So when you're in a mentorship or leadership role, have the experience and you know you're at a place where you you need to share that experience. All that's well and good, but if you, the people that you have, need to crawl over coals in some way, shape or form in order to really learn, if not, you're not gonna. How does somebody nobody is going to be able to just stand up one day and be a leader? Very, very rare is that right?

Speaker 1:

So and and and less and I'm not saying getting pans thrown at you. You know I I was never in a back of the house guy, but I've had pans and knives thrown at me. I've. I can see why we've done all those things. I've had the fist fights with the guys on the line in the cooler, in the back, you know whatever, done all that stuff. But I also earned respect because A it was always a handshake at the end and let's go get a drink or whatever, and it was just like an earned relationships. But the reality is I wouldn't be who I was unless I did all of those dumb things and had you guys do the stupid, horrible things that you do to us in the front. If that didn't happen, I wouldn't understand to us in the front. If that didn't happen, I wouldn't understand, and if that didn't happen, I wouldn't be able to take that experience and turn it into a learning moment or a teachable moment for somebody else.

Speaker 2:

Well, I mean, you can, there's a way to deliver it and it's all in delivery and being in the middle. And that's one of the things that I look at. The restaurant industry as a whole is that light and everyone else that's coming to it is the moth, and the moths go right to the light and for some reason, whether it be um, because of the leadership we have, the, the, the hierarchy in the kitchen, whatever it is I find more military personnel come into the kitchens, um, that have their issues, that have their um, their crutches that they go through. That's one of the reasons why we have such a problem with the restaurant industry and that have their crutches that they go through. That's one of the reasons why we have such a problem with the restaurant industry and the mental health aspect of it. That's why we have such an addiction problem.

Speaker 2:

We're not number one in suicide, we're number nine, which is not good still, but we're the highest in drug use, alcohol, everything they talk about in addiction. We're the highest Mental health issues, everything you've got they talk about an addiction. We're the highest mental health, mental health issues, everything you got to talk about. And it's because we're like this we're the misfits, we're the pirates, we're the ones that bring all these people together, because we have that camaraderie.

Speaker 1:

Hold on, chef brian, I want to hear you. So traditionally it's misfits. Yeah, I don't think it's so much misfits today, and I could be wrong, but I think it's less today because the B and here's why, here's my, my take on it back in the day. I just had this conversation yesterday with another show back in the day. Really, the people who went into the kitchen it's because they had a record or they had, they were hiding something. It was like a last resort and I ended up in the kitchen. It's because they had a record or they had, they were hiding something. It was like a last resort and I ended up in the kitchen flipping burgers and all of a sudden, I actually I like this and I want to start my career in culinary today.

Speaker 1:

You know, after 25 years of food network and 25 years of celebrity chefs and you know the, the, the lead ups to the celebrity chefs Now it's like, oh, I want to go to culinary school because this is glamorous, this could be, could be glamorous. So there's a different element. So now you're not necessarily getting misfits, now you're getting people who went to school educated. So, chef, I'd like to hear your take on that and then you can also sprinkle in drizzle, if you will. The fact that the military component I is a big deal, because so I didn't go to the, I was not in the service, but I did, when I was younger, go through a military program, let's say, and I and I dealt with you know Riverside military six foot five you know DIs, who you know in that initiation night, they you know all the horrible things that happened.

Speaker 1:

I experienced that I did a 90 day thing and it was. It was terrible. The difference is, you guys, they beat the hell out of you but then they build you back together. Right, I didn't have that experience, but so anyway.

Speaker 3:

So it's you know. I will say the the misfit children still exist, thank you, they're very much present. But I tell you what has changed. It's the standard that the executive chef, the leadership, is setting, and in fact, I take that approach. I tear you down and I build you back up, but I build you back in a way that gives you more poise and more respect for yourself and creates a self-standard, because, as I explained to all my guys that are coming on board is, I'm not always going to be the person telling you what to do and how to get it done. You're going to have to take initiative for yourself and you're going to have to set the standard, and if you do it wrong, we fix it right.

Speaker 3:

That's just the way it is. I think everybody who walks through that door wants it better, but they have to come in contact with a leader that's going to make them better. That's where the rubber hits, the road is, and you know it's walk and talk. Are you doing what you say and saying what you do, and are you setting that leadership?

Speaker 2:

level to those who are walking through that door, because someone's going to be able to walk into someone who's their executive chef and somebody who acts like an executive chef is two different things. Amen, sorry, amen and it goes to show again in leadership is when somebody does something wrong, how do you handle it? Yep, is it? You're going to throw the pan, you're going to yell at them. So my take was when somebody did something right, I used to scare my line. They would throw up the dish in the window and I'm like who made that and I was really starting like who made that?

Speaker 2:

Like I did you know, like that really apprehensive raising the hand and I'm like can you do me a favor? They're like what Can you show the rest of the line how to make that? I'm like what Can you show the rest of the line how to make that? That's perfect. I want you to do that each and every time you put that dish up and I wasn't doing it like especially in an open kitchen like Brio. I was saying that so that the guest heard it, like the guest would stop because I was making such a commotion. On the flip side, when somebody did something wrong, I walked behind the line, walked over and handed it back to the chef or the cook and I said would you serve this to your mother? Right, standard, that's your standard. Would you serve that to your mother? No, then why are you serving it to my guest? Yeah, that's how I handled it. If you do it that way, you're not belittling that person.

Speaker 3:

You're not making them.

Speaker 2:

Right, you're giving them respect to the person because night we're not doing brain surgery. No one's died Again. I want to say that Because that's just something that's always been drilled in my head. Yeah, why are we treating people like garbage Just because they put up food that is not up to par? Maybe they had a fight with their wife, Maybe they have that drinking problem, who knows what's going on through their head. But why take them and just beat the crap down out of them so that what they what did they do Leave?

Speaker 3:

It's always the fight with the wife, Always Look a home problem becomes a work problem in a heartbeat, and you can taste it in the food, you can see in their actions, and that's the thing. Even speaking of that, I'd kind of do the same thing when Chef Justin was starting learning on Smoker no background he had a really great night on doing ribs and everything I mean came up perfectly, and I gather everybody around I was like, and I even I even like, did this whole, like smacked him in the face. I was like that's how you cook ribs. Don't you ever do it wrong again.

Speaker 3:

You know like ever make this, this, this, and everybody was like blown away. And I was like, but at the same time, you away and I was like, but at the same time, you know when someone makes a mistake, I look at them is that how it's supposed to be done? And they know. Um, in matter of fact, I'll be honest with you. We've had a couple guys go through some things where you know they've they've never had expectations for themselves and when they've made mistakes they apologize without me even knowing they made the mistake. That's when you know you have a standard in place that's character yeah well, it's not only that, it's it's.

Speaker 2:

Here's the thought process, right a lot of times and we say it all the time is the restaurant industry used to be transient. Right, that's what we were known for. I'm going to college to do this. I wanted to get money while I'm going to college. You made a comment. Well, I just fell into this because I have a record and I can't get a job.

Speaker 2:

Well, this schmuck sitting across from you wanted to become a restaurant guy since the age of eight. You know I worked in the industry since I was 12. I wanted to get involved in this because I chose a job, that was a hobby and that I love doing what I do. I hate the politics in the restaurant community and I think that when you have somebody that has the ability to instill what chef said, that they realize I messed up and own it, that's ownership. You can't, that's a hard thing to teach, and when you can gravitate and teach that person and convey that message, here's the thing. One of the reasons why chefs never like to leave their restaurants, even if they don't own in the restaurant or not, is because they feel that if they leave, the ship will go down. It's because you didn't train your staff the way you needed to train the staff.

Speaker 3:

Amen. And see that's funny. I was like I feel completely comfortable with my guys.

Speaker 2:

Because you're setting that standard and you're teaching them your vision and you have the buy-in from the staff to have that.

Speaker 1:

Speaking of vision, I can't wait for that short rib photo for those pictures, because man. I tell you just wow, everything today, everything. No, listen, listen, all of it. Right, but you know I fancy, you know, short ribs, yes, and so for me, I'm just, and I know, john, I can't wait, I just can't.

Speaker 2:

I just want to say this If anybody wants pictures taken of their food and wants a really great job done, please just contact Ibis Images for crying out loud.

Speaker 3:

It was amazing You're right Like it made me feel good about my food. I was like whoa.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, like, oh, yeah, I mean, truth is like, uh, if you haven't had your, uh, your dish, photographed by john hernandez the the celebrity, then you're nobody the celebrity, okay, then no one knows the way it works um chef brian. Tell me about. Tell me what it's like um private chefing for the anheuser-busch family or former president bush, like what come on that was cool um. You know two we got bush and bush anheuser-busch, and then you got president, but like okay, okay, okay, but what talk?

Speaker 3:

about. It was really cool. Um, especially the I mean the former president, was um really interesting. I actually tell you two cool stories about both.

Speaker 3:

Um, I was interviewing um as a private chef for many different families and all extreme top 1% families and when I came to meet the Bush family, the whole family stood up and said thank you for your service. Before we even talked job, anything like that, and that was, that was a sell for me instantly. It was like these people just they respect me and they want me to be a part of their family and that was such a big deal to me. And they were just. They were all American, believed in the military, believed in just I don't know.

Speaker 3:

Everything that I had stood for wanted to be, wanted to be something. They loved what they did, even though there was just beer. I mean I got to drink all 13 breweries, all different 17 varieties of beer with Augustus Bush himself. Go through flavor profiles, you know, tell him what was off. It was an amazing, cool experience. Former President Bush literally walked through a house full of senators and congressmen and ups, walked up to and said he was. I know who you are, I know what you did and I want you to know. You're a hero, and it was the first time that anybody had ever called me a hero, because it was my job to save lives. That's what I did.

Speaker 1:

All right. So you sent me. You sent me a bio. Okay, I'd asked you to, and I don't recall seeing what you're referencing. No, and you might be uncomfortable, may I ask you to share what that was? And if you'd say no, I'm okay with that.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I was in the Battle of Nasria. It's in the history books. It's one of the first major conflicts the Marine Corps had been in since Vietnam and I did my job, even though it wasn't my unit I did it for and just, you know, saved Marines and it was a. Really it was just something, you know. It was what I did, it was what I was trained to do and it was something out of that, you know, on papers. You know some foreign place now has got accommodation for and I guess he got his hands on it. So it was really great.

Speaker 2:

So most of the time you listen to chefs talk and I think we were here one time and we were asking somebody to give a bio and I walked up and I said now's not the time to be humble. A really great chef is humble. They don't need accolades. You know, and that's what you know. I see from him and I'll be honest with you. He gave me the uh, the bio last night and then I went on the your website to go find out who you were and I the first picture I saw, um, you had some pastry background, yeah, I knew right away.

Speaker 2:

You see that I didn't even tell you about that one. I'm looking at justin, and the difference is when and I was talking to justin about this when you have somebody that goes from pastry to savory, they're a weapon. There is this they have flavor profiles, they have an eye for things, that the tenacity they're just, they're just an impeccable machine. And when I saw that I'm like this guy's got some culinary chops, and then I read the bio you know MasterChef and where you were from. How did you go from the aspect of being with the MasterChef and working for the Anheuser-Busch and all this to going huh barbecue? I kind of did the same thing. So I want to know your story.

Speaker 1:

We actually were all asking each other that question about like how did that happen?

Speaker 3:

You know it's, it's. It's funny, I got and man, this is going to be an awful thing to say I got bored. I got bored cooking molecular. I got bored cooking the sous vide. I think those are part of your arsenal, right?

Speaker 3:

The thing I did not have, have not ever and probably will never, ever conquer, is live fire and and smoke. And it's just because every cook is so different, every piece of wood is so different, every piece of meat is so different, and I'm like man, this is going to be the greatest challenge for rest of my life, and I said this is like I will never master this, and I think that's what the the greatest like thing in my heart is about it. And there's just something so beautiful about that knowing that you're never going to master it, that you're always going to chase this perfection behind it. Because I consider myself a cook, I don't consider myself a chef. I love chasing knowledge and I was like every fire is so mean and vulgar and resentful, but then it's such a good lesson and that's kind of what I look at.

Speaker 1:

That is the, that's everybody's ex, that's everybody's ex-wife. Great lessons, great lessons, and you never master it, and that's just the way it works. Man, my goodness man, these are some real truth bombs going on here today and it's primal yeah, right it's yeah and it can be unforgiving, but it can be so forgiving what?

Speaker 2:

what happened? What was the catalyst? For you to say?

Speaker 3:

I'm going barbecue. You know, I I look at our american food just been so bastardized, um, and it's been so washed to the side of the greatness that it had used to be, um, and yeah, you know, refrigeration, all this advent, electricity and all this. But we, we as a culture, you know, we're still really defining our food culture. But barbecue is, um, fire and smoke is our food culture. We've just gotten really away from it and, being overseas and living these different places, you know, they really embrace the, the rudimentary aspects of where their food came from. And I was like man we have just walked away from it.

Speaker 1:

What would your classmates at at boku's say about this?

Speaker 3:

they would actually agree because they my nickname was the cowboy and they were like, say, cowboy uh, they was the cowboy going to cook it's pretty good, that was awesome. He actually sounds like John Paul oh my goodness yeah, and it was funny because I you just touched my ass. Yeah, you just touched my ass. Nothing's there and but they would.

Speaker 3:

There was because I always, oh, you're a grand cuisine, like everything I did was just so grand and bright and big and fun. And then, when I started to play with fire and smoke over there and it was not until I got into Finland and Norway, where I was just like, yes, like this took me back home to being eight, nine years old my dad in the backyard building a pit, cooking on an old school Weber kettle, and it's just like my heart was like that's where I belong. Finland. And how come Norway? A part of the culinary journey in Bocuse, we go there for months to work with great chefs and study in the food science labs, and we would go through innovation schools. How long is that program? Two years. How old were you when you did this? 30 years, 2015. So you kind of started this a little bit late.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I started. I didn't go to culinary school until 2009,. But had been cooking since I was eight years old and first restaurant job was at 14. Man, you know, dishwasher guy calls out saute and you walk in and you're able to saute and the chef's like how do you know how to do that? And I'm like, uh, my granddad's a chef and he was like come back tomorrow.

Speaker 1:

It's funny how it's funny, how a lot of a lot of chefs, a lot of kitchen folk, um yeah, 14, 15, uh, dishwasher. And then they, they called me in for one of you know to fill in or whatever on the line and then, like me, I I started at 15 also, but I was like a busser right and I started that way and then you, you know, I kind of progressed through the front of the house, yeah, even though they tried to pull me in yeah, I didn't do good in front of the house.

Speaker 3:

I was not I have torrents yeah, my my language, my, my language was. My dad was a sailor and, um, I wasn't wasn't foul mouth, but I wasn't, wasn't refined. Yeah, I wasn't refined enough for the front of the house. I was very rough.

Speaker 1:

I was very rough yeah, well, that's a, it's a learned skill, though. Oh it is, you know what I mean I've learned.

Speaker 3:

I've learned it now. Now I can interact with anybody and it's great because but that's what you know four years of being a thespian, you know not a lesbian, but thespian, whatever you like have a kid and watch how it changes your life.

Speaker 2:

Cause my kid goes, can I say it? And I'm like yeah.

Speaker 1:

I'm sure you're going to probably use carrots or whatever and I'm like I felt like it was punishment. I felt like I was literally punished, like man, what are you? I don't want to do this. I'm like I'm staring at a wall. I'm just sitting, like what is this? Is it dirty? Like what is it? I don't know. I want to go to the front of the house.

Speaker 3:

I want to see the pretty girls walking through when I became a Sioux. Now you get to interact with the guests and you're beating the people who some of the families I met, some of the Adams Golf they're daughters, ridiculous. You're meeting all these people with just buku's of money. Their daughters are 12, know, and they're like. The daughters are like 12s, you know, and they're like, you're like 20. Some you're like 30, young 30, you're young 20 and you're like, yes, this is definitely my job like this is a great job.

Speaker 1:

I will tell you this um, you chefs, when it comes down to it, um, when it comes down to the accolades, you guys are the fighter pilots. No offense, of course, to the Marine Corps and whatnot, but you guys are like the fighter pilots of the industry. Everybody looks at you guys like the action, who's in charge? Hey, we're calling in the. You know what I mean. It's just what it is, and I think that's kind of cool.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I think you know it's funny. I run our kitchen like the military, but everybody has an assigned role and they know their role. They know what they can do best, and then they also can call in support when it's their time to call in support. You know, that's the thing about being part of the Marine Corps when I was Every Marine's a rifleman first. But they also had a second job. They knew, like you know, just because you could be a forward observer or you could be calling in. You know airstrikes or you know these things. Like you were still a rifleman too, you know. So you had other jobs, responsibilities, but your main goal was to fight the fight in all aspects. And so that's what I think we're rearing up in our kitchen is like people they know their jobs, but then they know what else they can bring to the table too.

Speaker 1:

Did your military experience, did that help you in any way with some of those uh, you know personal losses?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, it's. It's probably a bad thing though. Because, um, yeah, it's probably a bad thing though, because, being a Navy corpsman, death is the second thing you see in life and unfortunately, I was emotionally numb, probably still am quite a bit. I mean I lost my brother, lost my mom a year later and just lost my father two years ago, and you grieve different. You look at loss of life different. Um, it's, it's. Have I cried? Yeah, I've cried. I mean I still have bad days. I mean PTSD is one of those things I live with, and sometimes you know even the, the realizing the loss of a loved one, when you you don't overly think about it and then it hits you that they are gone, you grieve a little bit differently.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, you know, I, I can appreciate that. Yeah, I lost my mom, like, let's say, four years ago, three and a half years ago, and then my dad last year, yeah, and then it was odd losing one of them. Yeah, but you still had the other. Yeah, and I was like, okay, this is not great, this is terrible, but you got the other one. But when you lose both, it's a different feel and there is a numbness. I experienced with that, yeah, where I'm not surprised by anything in terms of deaths and things of that nature. I'm not surprised by anything and it kind of is what it is. I don't know if I'm right or wrong for feeling that way, but that's a real thing.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, chef Justin unfortunately has lost his father too, and so it's not to want to be in part of the lost-year family members club, but it's a reality of—I hate to say it's a life check. My dad truly believed in what I'm doing. My mom believed in what I was doing. My brother loved to eat whatever I cooked, um, and so it's this. You know, he also lost his uncle, which was a chef and someone who inspired him deeply, and so it's. You know, it's almost like these little things happen to reassure you that you're on the right path, and it's a part of that process of you becoming the person you're supposed to become, to get closer to your purpose and your calling.

Speaker 2:

Do you have resources set up for your employees for mental health?

Speaker 3:

Obviously, that's a big kicker for you as well. It's actually really cool, chef Justin, and his wife actually, and both my wife both are medical professionals, um, and I have resources through the va and mental health, but his wife actually works with a lot of, uh, local health, um, and so these are things that we we do, what we have to do to make sure that our employees have what they need to have from basic needs food, shelter and clothing, gotcha, um, because why, if you're looking for one of those three needs, you're not educatable and you're not trainable and you're not going to be willing to be part of a team.

Speaker 2:

But you also have the excuse, the pun, but you have the baggage that comes along with somebody that has all those issues Exactly. So obviously they have some mental issues. So there's some culinary uh burnt chef ben's friends, fair kitchens. You can contact carl and myself um I can definitely get you some resources, anybody that needs it.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, we'd love to have some extras well yeah, yes, yes to everything jeff just said.

Speaker 1:

And while we're talking about it, and I'll put it in the uh, in our descriptions and whatnot how do we, how does how do people find out about what your 503, 513c is, so it's a pretty much a direct contact.

Speaker 3:

It's going to be vettstosuccessorg. We're going through a revamp on website right now. 501c3 will be back up in kind of organizing and running once Liberty gets a little further along. Because as it is, you know what I've realized in we want to be that first step and there's some work to do with some other programs the ACF being one of them trying to get in focus with them to get other chefs involved, because you know it's what my greatest thing learning as a young chef was.

Speaker 3:

I didn't stick with one chef. I had a round robin of chefs that educated me in different places. That's why I do have the pastry background. You know they made me more lethal and I want that. We have to rear other chefs that same way, because not everybody is going to want to be a cook in a savory kitchen. They may have a better fit in another place and you know these other businesses that are hiring for a fit. I think kitchens shouldn't kind of take on that same perspective, because you may have great catering personnel, you may have great pastry personnel, you may have great line cooks, but you don't know that until you get them into those fits, because that's what I've learned from. We want to stick somebody into place and that's where they get stuck. Then they get burnt out and then they hate that job and the food sucks and then your ratings go down and it's like why? Well, because they're not a fit.

Speaker 2:

Or they're such a fit you just don't want to move them.

Speaker 1:

And that's the biggest.

Speaker 2:

I think that's the biggest downfall of any leader, any boss, any chef is when you have that, oh man, he's a rock star, she's a rock star. They chef is when you have that, oh man, he's a rock star, she's a rock star. They could just get out there. When she's on pantry or she's on saute, I don't have to worry about nothing. Problem is they have dreams and aspirations. They don't want to be stuck.

Speaker 3:

Exactly, and that's, and that's one thing we want to do with Liberty. I want you to take chef Justin's job. I want you to take this person's job.

Speaker 1:

You hear that, justin, not my job. You hear it, not his job, not his job, jay and Brian's job, because I want.

Speaker 3:

Chef Justin to step up. I want him to. I want to step into an even better role. I want to work on my business not in my business and be able to develop liberty so my guys and girls can have more. And I can't do that, being present 24 seven within the business, doing the things that they can be great at, and so that's what I want them to do is be great at those positions and want. I mean, even we have a guy who's like, if I could learn to smoke her, I know I could, you know, give chef Justin a break. And I'm like, yeah, go, go do it, learn to smoke her. Yeah, but that's the aspirations that we have. They want that next step because they feel like, and I'm like, well, and this is what I was just reminding me Are you doing, could you teach somebody to do what you're doing and trust them to do it? But like, well, I didn't think about it. Like that, I said, well, what's going to happen to the standard?

Speaker 1:

Well, I'm going to have to teach them that there, there you go. George W Bush. George W Bush, he's cool, right. So when you would speak with him, is it like he speaks like yeah?

Speaker 3:

He's the same. He's actually quite comedic. He was really just down to earth, spoke just as.

Speaker 1:

He's a funny guy, right.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, he's funny, there's no, I don't know. I guess a lot of right yeah, he's funny, there's no, like I don't know. I guess a lot of people think, oh, it's the president. How do you act? I'm just like he's just a dude, you know, put a pants right leg, left leg or left leg, right leg, Doesn't matter.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, virginia Bush. She was like you know, the president's coming tonight, and and she was like how do you feel? I was like, well, the same guy sent me to combat, you know, like Touché. I mean, I was like I mean, and you know he loves the Mansion on Turtle Creek is actually his favorite restaurant, and so I ended up making his favorite dish, which was the chicken tortilla soup.

Speaker 3:

And you know, they were like he's like, well, he's going to come back to dinner for the soup and I'm like, oh, is that so? And I was like I was like, yes, I keep my job, you know, like it's funny, funny. They're like, yes, chef, you know, you're good, you know so, and it was, it was a really cool experience, I mean because I mean we had, I mean like baseball legends would come to dinner. You know, you know people that were just like people you never thought you would meet, you know, and but they're all normal, humble, just down-to-earth people Like I met the guy who created the artificial heart, what, yeah?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, chefs, we get to meet a lot of interesting people.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I met Tia. What's her name? From Bad Boys? Tia, from the first Bad Boys, not Carrera, no, tia Malone.

Speaker 2:

Marie.

Speaker 1:

No, that's a drink. Maybe that's what I need right now.

Speaker 3:

No, you need bourbon. I forget her name, but she was.

Speaker 1:

Oh, I know who you're talking about. She had the short hair. Yeah, the blonde. Oh, what is her name? I forget. We used to have a producer that would look that stuff up, but we don't have that anymore. He's silent I'm kidding, he's doing his duty, I'm kidding over there no, he's actually taking pictures. You know, he legit is mad. That I said when you see that face.

Speaker 2:

That's mad, yeah. So I want to bring it back to real quick. It's funny and ironic, and do you realize where barbecue comes from?

Speaker 3:

um, it's, there's a little bit of. There's multiple variations of history to it. It's I mean, it's a lot of indigenous culture actually. Where from Well Africa and You're going to get some out of the islands, mostly out of the Middle East. There's going to be a lot of North African into it, a lot of slave culture. So Barbacoa.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, you know where that word comes from? Yeah, it's latin from where's your wife from?

Speaker 3:

yeah, puerto rico, and those indigenous people of indian, those indians from, yeah, yeah, from that's where barbacoa comes from, barbecues where it comes from so that's kind of ironic that your wife is puerto rican and you got into barbecue yeah, well, it's uh, it's funny, she and we.

Speaker 3:

What's really funny about that is how much of the Latin community loves barbecue. We have a huge Latin following and I did not think it was such a thing, because you go to Puerto Rico and you're not eating any barbecue, but it's such a big thing that we have. And they love the twists and plays, like stuffed totones and our version of a rose con condules and you know, like playing with some acroporias and some other pieces, but adding our smoked and charred meats and stuff like that is like they're, they're all about it so I got a news flash.

Speaker 2:

We've we've interviewed um.

Speaker 1:

I have a news flash the beard guy tia leone yeah, thank you, john, thank you.

Speaker 2:

So, um, fred, right from the bearded. Uh. So he's in the arab emirates and he's saying to us you would not understand the fever over american barbecue, it's so around the world yeah, it's a big deal.

Speaker 3:

Like we, I was like it's mind-blowing that I I did not realize this. Like we get. We had people flying from from Portugal the other day just to eat with us because they were like we heard we're in our layover in Tampa and we heard you were the best and we wanted to come eat this beef rib. And that's what they did Took their hour-and-a-half layover came, grabbed beef rib, got back on the plane and flew to Washington. I need friends like that.

Speaker 1:

I got you two.

Speaker 3:

I mean they were a husband and wife. I mean they were on a barbecue homage and they said we had to have it.

Speaker 1:

That's what I want in my life. I just realized it. That's my goal in life. Here's the thing, yeah.

Speaker 2:

No one wants to come to him to eat. Trust me 100%.

Speaker 1:

As it turns turns out, this is the best business move I ever made, you know, because I get, I get really jeff spoiled the hell out of me and I love it. But then the chefs that come through, you know, I've been in the business now 25 plus years.

Speaker 1:

I know this is his family meal yeah great family meal, yeah like what the camaraderie is really listen when somebody's, when, when there's a guest, a prospective guest, and we're talking and like well, what time should we come in and like listen? If you really want to get the full experience of what we do, you need to be here a little bit earlier. Yeah, because the truth is we're doing the cooking jeff is usually so doing the cooking, right? Um, we're doing the photography and it's not like fake food, but it's like the real food and then we eat the food and it's the camaraderie of it.

Speaker 3:

You know it's breaking bread together and that's what it's all about and it's and it's. And so funny you talk about that because that's the fundamental aspect of like behind liberty is like we, at one time we used to impact your community and your neighbors through your gifts, and like breaking bread together was such an important thing for a community and it made all the difference. And you know, we talk about like just impacting lives from that little, just that little piece of giving. It's crazy.

Speaker 1:

Like Thursdays, you know, production, production days for me is uh, it's a, it's a getaway. It's not just filling my belly, as what jeff was it would be believing. It's a getaway for me to be with cool people doing cool stuff and it really is building a. You know I hate the term, you know the family thing is a very overused term, but it's a family that is being extended every single week for the guests that come here, and I think that's, I think that's what makes what we do special right, because it's not just like hey, we're talking heads, there's microphones and hey, thank you for coming on. No, it's none of that, it's like hey, we're breaking bread.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, we're real people talking real things and haven't gone through real life issues.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, Well, I think that's the problem with society, especially with mental health. It's men should not discuss their emotions. Men should sequester it. They should push them down.

Speaker 1:

And we were grown up that way. Suck it up buttercup. Well, I'm okay with that. I think I nobody's ever going to change my mind if men should be around other men to talk about those things I, I am a firm believer that there's certain things you you don't bring up to your, your spouse oh, oh, I'm not.

Speaker 2:

I'm not saying that, I'm saying, in general, the rule of thumb the society is. When you saw that one video of that man on the side of the road calling nine one one because he was going to commit suicide and the officer came oh that was beautiful. Right and he that that, to me, is what that should happen.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, because that person held those emotions so deep inside themselves that that they needed that help. We should never get to that point. Yeah, and that, and that when you sit down and you're with your staff and you're breaking bread and you're having that meal, that's the perfect opportunity. I mean, anthony Bourdain may rest his soul was the pillar of that you know image of breaking bread with leaders from around the world, people, common folks, about what their cuisine was, and he was, you know, asked to come to their house but yet the whole time we sat there and didn't really kind of digest that he had his demons, yet he was the epitome of what we need to do today as far as talking about things.

Speaker 1:

You can't look at anybody and understand or know or guess what is in their head or their spirit. Yeah, never.

Speaker 2:

I mean, how many times do you go out to somewhere and you just look at somebody and they have that bubbly personality and you walk up to them and like I love your energy. Yeah, how many people do that?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, we well, we forgot. I mean, I was like you know you have a girl, you're going to go far because of the way you carry yourself and the way you treat people.

Speaker 2:

But there's so many times where you're like, oh, you're a piece of, you're just too high, strong. Yeah, because here's the problem. They have the person saying that to them deflecting is having their own issues. Yeah, for whatever reason it might be, but as a society, why can't we just be what we need to be as humans? Yeah, and I think that's what we need to talk about. Well, that's a community thing I had a.

Speaker 1:

I'm different oh, I know you are. Well, I'm a mirror of who I'm with. I'm a mirror, you know. I have my own thoughts, my ways, you know my ideas and I'm pretty rock solid and all of these things. But in terms of social situations, I am a mirror of who I'm with. So if I choose to hang out with somebody who's, you know, not awesome, then I'm not awesome too, or you know, so it really matters on who you associate with and who you bring into your circle, who you hire, you know, and over the years, I'm, you know, 50 years old now, right? So I've learned that my gut instincts on people are pretty right on Right, and because of this whole thing, it's I, I, you know like, see this guy and what I'm getting at he's, he's a lunatic, but he's, he's we, we, we love him, but he's insane.

Speaker 3:

He's the right kind of lunatic.

Speaker 1:

He's the right lunatic. You know, we were introduced by a very dear friend, coco, who passed last year and you know, rest her soul. She's like oh man, you got to meet this guy, carl, and she said the same thing to him and we met. I was like immediately, I was like I love this guy.

Speaker 2:

It was like a date, it was almost like yeah, it was most, most heterosexual date ever.

Speaker 1:

It was really awesome and, um, yeah, but meanwhile, uh, fits right in. Even with different ideas, different thoughts, different things, we click, him, him, we click. So now, when we bring people into our sphere, into this walk and talk media sphere, man, I tell you what. Um, you see how, when we met people into our sphere, into this walk and talk media sphere man, I tell you what, you see how, when we met a couple of months ago, yeah, we hung out for an hour and a half, two hours actually.

Speaker 3:

Actually we talked about that. We were like that was not your normal like passerby. Let me see what you're up to Like. I mean it was really interesting.

Speaker 1:

If we got together and did that and I felt that you guys were stiffs or you guys were disingenuine or something like that, this would never take place.

Speaker 3:

No, no, I understand. I mean same thing with Chef Justin when he came on board. It was interesting. He came and ate my food and I was, like you know, had my meat in his mouth you know, and uh was.

Speaker 1:

And next thing, you know he's got a job. You know he's like I want to work, I want to do this to have you, so you chose I'm gonna stop. You know I uh, I just want to go on record. This one didn't say a word. No, I know, and it's funny because you talked about fred, you remember you're talking about fred. He said that on air. He literally said that he goes. This one didn't say a word. I know, I know, and it's funny because you talked about Fred.

Speaker 2:

You remember you were talking about Fred. He said that on air. He literally said that he goes. Carl, you had my meat in your mouth.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so I was last. Last November I was the. I was really really blessed with, you know, being a master judge of the world food championship.

Speaker 2:

I trained him very well.

Speaker 1:

And Fred was one of the contestants in the actually in the in the open live fire. And he was the only one who took this approach, where he was going to cut everything up and make a show out of it here, taste it, taste it, taste it. And when we, when we had him on the program, I brought that up and he's asking me, he's like yeah, you know, you had the meat, my meat, in your mouth. I was like walked right into that one.

Speaker 2:

You know it's funny you just said that and not the funny part about him saying that. What's funny is when you have somebody that loves and has a passion for cooking, like Fred does and like Chef does. They don't mind giving you the food here. Come taste this, yeah, yeah, yeah. They want you to experience it because they want to see that light, that twinkle, that oh my God moment of the food being Dude.

Speaker 1:

if you stuff your fingers near my face anymore with samples of what you cook, I don't know what I'm going to do with myself. Holy, my goodness.

Speaker 2:

But that's what we do. I know I embrace it. I'm only kidding. Yeah, but poor John, I brought out the bami. It was like sizzling hot.

Speaker 1:

I just put it on the oven. I forgot to tell them On purpose, because that's what chefs do. That's what chefs do. You put down like a sizzle platter or whatever. Yeah, a stir fry or something like this, and then you don't say anything.

Speaker 2:

No, it's not that. It's because we can actually pick it up with our bare hands and not hurt us.

Speaker 1:

I don't have any fingerprints anymore, neither do we, yeah, I literally opened the smoker, barehanded and like.

Speaker 3:

People are like what's wrong with you and I'm like it's passion 350 degrees in the oven.

Speaker 2:

Today I was taking the tray out with no towel and he's looking at me like, uh, it's weirdos what do you want from me?

Speaker 1:

you chose this life. You know we're pirates, you, you did. You all chose this well, I did yeah, 100. Well, the life chose me, the life chose you it because you know you did a second chance somewhere.

Speaker 2:

So my grandfather wasn't in the war. He was actually older when World War II happened.

Speaker 2:

He was a military police officer in Nassau County in New York, so he actually you know, had to deal with the soldiers when they came back on leave and he cooked and I just remember this image of me being like three years old and I, I said, well, I want chicken parm. It was like four o'clock in the afternoon, three o'clock, maybe it's 12 o'clock in the afternoon. That's what I was gonna have for lunch. And he just whipped this dish up and and he's like, okay, we're gonna take the eggs and, you know, put the breadcrumbs in. I'm like what magic is this? Yeah, you know sorcery. It was a hush puppy and that's how I was introduced to chicken parm and the hush puppy and because he was from that, he had to drop out of um elementary school in the fifth grade to start working. Yeah, because of the great depression, and he never went back to school.

Speaker 2:

So you talk about a generation of you know the people that did things I mean my grandfather was one of those things and when I grew up, my mom had that passion too and she cooked five days a week and that's something I got into. I love to doing and playing and being creative and it's where I went to. I mean, school for me was I hated school. Yeah, culinary school.

Speaker 3:

Second, my class, yeah, but they great, they great and culinary really great chef, what's your?

Speaker 1:

what's your favorite social that people should find you?

Speaker 3:

um, you know, just you know, instagram, um, instagram and tiktok. We're getting bigger on tiktok, which is great. Um the liberty smokehouse um on instagram, and both uh, tiktok, and then chef brian jacobs on both um instagram, tiktok. We got some facebook things going on here and there, but uh, we post um all our fun and where we're going to be at, we're going to be doing and who we'll be doing it with, all on those socials excellent, um.

Speaker 2:

Thank you for your service no, thank you, yes, thank you and your sacrifices and we appreciate you sincerely.

Speaker 1:

You know you guys both coming out here.

Speaker 3:

Your food was amazing, thank you I mean chef, and I love what we do you know you guys are studs for John.

Speaker 1:

I hate saying it every week, but you come through every week. Jeff you're a little short. I love you guys man.

Speaker 3:

Honored to be here.

Speaker 1:

Thank you all Sincerely we, oh, we're not Not out. What are you doing?

Speaker 2:

You've got to stay tuned because we've got my book coming out too.

Speaker 1:

We're going to do a whole thing on your book.

Speaker 2:

Don't worry, we're going to have a launch party too.

Speaker 1:

We're going to do it A launch party. Just make sure there's some bourbon dude, we are, and bacon yes, we're out. We'll see you next time.

People on this episode

Head Shot

Carl Fiadini

Host
Head Shot

Chef Jeffrey Schlissel

Co-host

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