Walk-In Talk Podcast
We are a Food Podcast. We are blessed to have been ranking on Apple Podcast Charts since November of 2022 in the Food Category and have been the #1 podcast spot in the United States for more than a year! Along with the podcast comes amazing food photography by John Hernandez from Ibis Images.
Powered by our partnership with brands like RAK Porcelain USA, Metro Shelving and many other amazing companies - Walk-In Talk Podcast, hosted by Carl Fiadini and team, combines culinary expertise and experiences to provide an insightful and engaging exploration of the food industry.
Our podcast is a must-listen for food industry enthusiasts, as we provide unique insights into everything from recipes to how Chefs are navigating high inflation while also discussing the importance of mental health in the industry.
Walk-In Talk Podcast offers a behind-the-scenes look at the food industry. Our show provides a fun and entertaining vibe to our podcast.
Don't miss out on upcoming episodes where we will continue to cook up thought-provoking discussions on important industry-related topics - so come uncover restaurant mayhem with us!
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Walk-In Talk Podcast
Addictions, Health, And The Restaurant Life: Chef Johnathan Rodriguez
What if the flavors of your past could transport you back to cherished moments with loved ones? Join us this week on the Walk-In Talk Podcast as we sit down with Chef Johnathan Rodriguez, an extraordinary culinary artist specializing in Puerto Rican and Italian cuisine. Chef Johnathan tantalizes us with his innovative dishes, like a unique twist on mofongo featuring fried yuca, jerk oxtail, and pork cracklings, dressed in a black garlic demi. His triplet sandwich, a symphony of oxtail pork, Lachon-style pork, and marinated chicken, is bound to leave you craving for more.
Chef Johnathan opens up about the deeply emotional aspects of food, sharing poignant memories of his father and the taste of a traditional Puerto Rican sandwich, the Tripleta. He also recounts his mother's meatloaf, a dish that brings back floods of cherished memories. We discuss the emotional rollercoaster of food addiction and the pressures of restaurant life, referencing insights from Chef Jeffrey's book on the subject. Johnathan’s stories emphasize the importance of authenticity and preparing everything from scratch, reminding us how food can evoke powerful memories much like music does.
We also navigate the personal chall
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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.
Our podcast offers a behind-the-scenes look at the industry. Don't miss out on upcoming episodes where we'll continue to cook up thought-provoking discussions on important topics, including mental health awareness.
Be sure to visit our website for more food industry-related content, including our very own TV show called Restaurant Recipes where we feature Chefs cooking up their dishes and also The Dirty Dash Cocktail Hour; the focus is mixology and amazing drinks!
Thank you for tuning in, and we'll catch you next time on the Walk-In Talk Podcast.
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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 fiorini. Welcome to the number one food podcast in the country. We're recording on site at ibis Images Studios, where food photography comes alive and I get to eat it. Here's a humble request. I've been doing this Give a follow on Instagram at walkintalkshow, please, and thank you. I'm into quality smoked fish dips and spreads. I know you are too. Check out our friends over at Crab Island Seafood Company. Visit them at crabislandseafooddipcom to order yours today. I recommend it.
Speaker 1:Last week we had New York's hot dog, hot diggity dog king, dan Rossi on the program man the story. It's grit personified. It's a must. Listen, the guy's cool, the family's cool. You gotta check it out. I want to give a big thanks to Stacy Archer at Get Cooking for connecting us with Michelin Chef Tung Phan at Camille in Orlando. Great photos by John Hernandez at Ibis Images coming up.
Speaker 1:Okay, so this week we've got our friend, dear friend, chef Jonathan Rodriguez in studio. He's cooking up some Crescent City meats. It's some fennel sausage. The dish is beautiful. I mean, I saw it, but I ate it. Oh yeah, he's been making moves from food network appearances to winning local food and wine food competitions. But forget all that. We're going to get into the restaurant life today. It's food addiction and how chefs are dealing with it. And that's a twofer, because, you know, chef Jeffrey's got his book out that deals with that specific thing. And uh, and naturally, um, chef jonathan rodriguez has, uh, something to add. So stay tuned. Chef jonathan is on deck. But first, oh, jefferson, my man, the food today spectacular, thank you. Oh, my goodness, what a day today. I'm happy, my belly's happy. That's the first time I've seen john smile like that in a while yeah well, it's good times here today.
Speaker 1:Man, go ahead, talk about it yeah.
Speaker 2:So we, since jonathan was coming in and he's got a background of being puerto rican and italian, I wanted to pay a little honor to him and his traditions and stuff like that, didn't want to do anything traditional because, again, I can't, can't cook like that because I'm not Puerto Rican, I'm not Italian, although I've been cooking Italian food for over 20 years. I don't want to do that. I want to show the way I do things, but I twisted things up so we did a mofongo, but instead of doing the mashed yunca, we did fried Wait a second?
Speaker 1:Isn't your name like Jeffrey Schlisselio or something like?
Speaker 2:that. No, it's more like Schlisselberg, okay.
Speaker 1:Then not Schlisselini.
Speaker 2:Without the D Touche. So what I did was I did a mofongo, but I didn't. Instead of doing the mash that you do, I did it fried. I did oxtail I love oxtail Did that?
Speaker 2:Jerk Wanted to do the little island theme to it, a little coconut rum as well, and then we did a little sauteed greens. Then we had the pork cracklings on the outside as like a crunch, and then most of everything that's done in Puerto Rico is similar to what you would have in, let's say, dishes like Mother or Trinity trinity, the whole trinity like we talked about from, uh, new orleans or louisiana. It's like, uh, green pepper celery and the, the black pepper, or the, the blackening seasoning and the onion that's their version of it. So frito for puerto ricans is just like peppers and onions and garlic and little citrus juice and so on and so forth. I wanted to pay a little bit more respect to it, roasted it up and then I actually turned it into a paper and then put that on there for a little added crunch, a little more depth, because things come out a little bit different.
Speaker 1:For it being literally looking like a piece of paper. When you take a little piece and you eat it the flavor profile, plural profiles, the layers and the punch that you get out of that. It's amazing because you really don't expect that out of what you're looking Right, the visual doesn't do it justice.
Speaker 2:No, and it's funny because I actually was cutting it up with scissors, right, and it felt like cardboard paper as you're doing it, or card stuff.
Speaker 2:Construction paper yeah exactly, and we did. It set it up beautifully. I had a little bit of a black garlic demi and the black garlic is almost if you've ever had marmite from England or your Vegemite. It's got a real intense mushroom-ish flavor and when you do that to the garlic you're actually imparting a lot more complexity to it. So that was the one dish.
Speaker 2:And then I was looking for something different, because we know how John loves to do sandwiches I know, like last guest said that same thing, but it's actually pooch. I heard him say that I wanted to do a triplet or trip up triplet or, and he'll know the name of it. Anyways, it's a sandwich that has three different meats in it. It has pork, it has ham or chicken and the beef. So I did it with the oxtail pork, but I did a Lachon kind of version of it, and then I did chicken which was marinated in different Latin spices and seasonings, put that on a baguette with pickled cabbage, pickled onions, which I know you love, and then we did Gruyere on it. I did a blistered tomato with roasted garlic aioli and just put it all together and that thing looked absolutely stunning.
Speaker 2:Funny thing, though sidebar, about two years ago almost I was fabricating a pig for one of our farmers. I brought it inside, put it on the cutting board, started to fabricate it in front of my wife. My wife stopped eating pork right then and there, fast forward to two days ago, went out to the the smoker threw the thing on the pork butt on. The smoker came inside she started smelling it. She's like what is that? I'm like you won't eat it. It's pork. She goes. I think I need to try it. Lo and behold, now she's eating pork again.
Speaker 1:She's back on the way. Yeah, she's back on the wagon, on the pork wagon. I love it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, see to me that's a, that's a feel-good story Huge Because, again, when you're talking to somebody that doesn't eat something and you convert them back to eating it because you're the first one that actually stopped them from eating it in the first place, I kind of feel like I did a good deed there for the day.
Speaker 1:I mean it's a total strange family dynamic. Yeah, not going to lie, well, but, but yeah, um not gonna lie well, but.
Speaker 2:But I mean, but you're but pork, but you're doing a good, you're doing a good work out there, try it, you're doing the good deeds, yeah, lastly, I wanted to pay something different from, like a trace leches, which is a porter or latin type of dessert. I looked around and said, oh yeah, pina colada, you know cart, you know bacardi rum, all that coconut rum, what a perfect thing. But I didn't want to do something normal. And Jonathan being the Italian in him, I was like, ooh, panna Cotta.
Speaker 2:So I did a Panna Cotta coconut, had coconut like actual coconut flakes in there, from real coconut, not like this, the desiccated. I took fresh, dried it out, and then I built the layers of a brown butter rum cake, dehydrated part of that. Then I had rum cake in there as well. I had pineapple mousse, we had pineapple jelly, we had beach sand that was edible from coconut sugar and coconut. And then, lastly, I wanted to pay a little because it's coming to fall. I wanted to do cranberry relish, but I didn't want to do it the same. I actually did it with some black garlic and some peppers.
Speaker 1:Do you remember how, when Cassie was here, yes, and she had her Cassie dance, yes, so I don't have a dance, but what I do is I get like a thousand yard stare and I just like I'm in another little zone. I have a video of you eating that. Yeah, well, everything I ate today. I just sat and I had that like distance stare. I ate today. I just sat and I had that like distance stare and I'm just taking bites and enjoying, you know, the moment all day today.
Speaker 2:Yeah, really great it's. I love cooking craveable food and that's the point when you do something you're passionate about and people eat the food and you can see them have these moments like oh my God, I can't believe that. Or you can see it in their face and their eyes, like John kept on talking about the chicken and how, how did you do it? And it was literally. I smoked it for 20 minutes, that's it.
Speaker 1:It's simple, John, you can do this too, you know.
Speaker 2:Oh, he can he can throw it down.
Speaker 1:I know he can.
Speaker 2:Oh, he's all right, he's got that really nice smoker out back.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he's got a lot of gadgets. Yeah, well, yeah, for somebody who doesn't cook like professionally, he's got a lot of stuff. Did you see the plates? Be sure, guys, nobody brought you on yet you, I knew that was gonna come wait from the green room, from the green room. All right, so yeah all right, you should. Cats out of the back, all right. Well, let's get my Puerto Rican pies on here on the air. Jonathan, welcome to the program.
Speaker 3:It's always good to be back home, thank you guys, of course.
Speaker 1:Of course, dude your dish fire, thank you. I mean, you saw the pictures too already. They're gorgeous. Yeah, shout out to john, unedited, just raw, gorgeous appreciate that.
Speaker 3:It was definitely, uh, beautiful ingredients together. Uh, I wanted to do something. That is a dish that's, you know, really sentimental in our heart, uh. So this dish, right here, we took, uh, the delicious sausage and uh, broke it out of the casing. I wanted to give it a little bit more of a flair. Uh, took the delicious sausage and broke it out of the casing I wanted to give it a little bit more of a flair Took the leeks and took some of the garlic oil and then cooked that, so that instead of putting all of the flavors because the sausage has phenomenal flavor just from the start, so we just wanted to give it a little bit more of a like, you know, when you eat that bite so, toasted that for a little bit and then, once I got it to that nice crisp that I wanted, I go in and I took a sausage, mixed it, put it to the side, broke it to the pieces we wanted and then broke into it, put it in the oven and cooked it for a good about six minutes, seven minutes.
Speaker 3:And then, you know, we made the tomato sauce from scratch, which is awesome. You know, some tomato sauces are mostly made without butter. You know I did like a nice little pomodoro style, you know, and add butter to it, roasted the tomatoes. So the tomatoes were roasted and gave it a better fiery feel to it when they're eating this dish, eating this dish. And we, you know, sauteed it all in this beautiful composed sauce dish with some penne and broccolini and sausage. And you know you can't have a dish without cheese. So instead of eating on it with all this Parmesan cheese, we just use beautiful fresh Parada cheese. And I'm surprised I didn't eat the whole thing.
Speaker 1:I got to it first but here's the thing Hashtag truth, yeah, but I want everyone to know, like you know, john, chef Jonathan is a real one, you know. So we're cooking here at walk and talk, you know Ibis images, walk and talk podcast. So a lot of it it's always going to be for flavor, it's always going to be for taste. You know it's not something where we're using a lot of you know, fake stylist sort of things to take the pictures and everything we eat here. But but hold on, button it up, jeff, there's a lot to get done. We're, you know, we're doing photography, cooking and a podcast all in one day, and so that's just how we do it.
Speaker 1:I gave chef Jonathan an out, you know, I brought some. You know, rouse sauce, which they do a really great. You know mariner Marinara they do a great job. So I brought some too, cause I didn't know what the timing was going to be and whatever. And, uh, he says he goes. Well, this would be great, but I'm here to cook man facts and and man, I'm glad you did yeah, shout outs to the company, but you know yeah, I'm saying you know and I don't shout out anybody for you know, but they do really do a good job they really do.
Speaker 3:it's really, it's delicious, uh, but it's not authentic. And walk and talk unless you cook right, yeah. So authenticity is the key always, especially to a chef's heart, definitely. And back to Jeff's sandwich, the tripletta Tripletta, thank you Wait, wait, wait.
Speaker 1:What is the name of that sandwich? Tripletta, say it again.
Speaker 3:Tripletta, ah, so big big sandwich in Puerto Rico by far. They take the ends of all the meats that they cook. So think about how much meat they actually cook on a daily basis, right, and you know, puerto Ricans is just like you know, just as loving as Italians. We cook a lot, right. So whatever they use towards the end is where they get the most creative. And that particular sandwich I remember eating that with my dad in puerto rico, so that was a sentimental deposit. So thank you so much. Cool for sure, that's awesome, we love hitting the emotional chords here I mean, that's what food.
Speaker 2:Food is that exactly what I was about to say. Is we, until they invent a time machine, it's food. Is that time machine correct? Because he just said it when I remember back when I was a kid eating.
Speaker 3:Food and music. Food and music is the number one key that speaks to everybody's heart.
Speaker 1:The problem. The problem when you're talking about a flavor memory, it's one thing is you know you can go to a restaurant you could try to recreate, but every now and again when you do hit that one real flavor memory, it's so fleeting. You get it, you're like, oh man, I want to hold on to it, I want to grab it, and then, man, it just slips right through your fingers and it's immediately you can't live in it.
Speaker 3:You're 100% right. My wife made a meatloaf, right, and this was, I mean, last year. Right, and another emotional deposit on this one right, she made a meatloaf. My mom, right, um, I only ate her meatloaf, because that meatloaf she made was like very, very to the heart. It wasn't like just random meats put together, but I mean her meatloafs. I mean, she put like literally eggs in it, right, so you got the hard boiled eggs in it, so it was like real old school, right. So you got this.
Speaker 3:This woman that's making these things and you know, um, never put ketchup on it, right, so I didn't know what that was, um, but just legitimately like traditional meatloaf. My wife made it and I said, hey, can you just do me a favor and please forgive me Whoever does make it with ketchup? Right, because obviously it does taste delicious as well. But she made it and it tastes just like my mother's and I actually started crying. I was like, oh my gosh. I was like I can't believe this.
Speaker 3:Like you know, like, how did you make this this close? You've never made me love my mother, but you know, the one thing she did was watch. So it's, it's just that important, right. It doesn't matter what age. That's how I started, right, right, uh, you know, start watching my parents, watch them cook, and that's how you grow, you know. That's just really where your intrigue is the most, and you don't know if you're going to grow into a chef over those years so here's the thing, and it kind of this is a great segue into what we're going to talk about today.
Speaker 1:Today is is this where food addiction starts? Correct at home?
Speaker 2:correct, it's also societal right. You know growing up, think about it. If you didn't finish something, what were your parents saying to you?
Speaker 2:finish it, or they're starving children in africa, you know there's that sentiment or you want dessert? Gotta finish your meal first. So that is the precursor for what it does Now, being a chef, it amplifies it because we're around food all day and the one thing we don't want to do ever is eat while we're cooking. Correct, it's the last thing on our mind. So what we do when we get off of work McDonald's is open, burger King is open, and that's a misnomer. A lot of people think we eat these lavish meals. My god, I wish I could, but I don't. I can we have a saying in the restaurant business eat it now, taste it later. Correct, and it's. That's the truth. We have to eat that fast and those things have to change and the tasting right.
Speaker 3:So we taste and and think about it. You know, our so many chefs are so talented with their palates, right? I think that's where the real science comes to, and and nobody's palate is identical, right, and that's where each chef is so unique in so many different ways. And I love cooking with Jeff because, jeff, I mean, we did it all day today, right? Hey, jeff, come over here, jeff, come over here, right, and it's not I'll throw Carl and John in. But Carl and John, you know, you guys are amazing, you guys definitely give a good opinion, but you know, jeff, you know he doesn't care about the emotional deposit. He's like, no, this tastes disgusting. You need to work on this, you know. So I love it. I mean, the honesty is key, right? Never had to have that happen, guys.
Speaker 2:So just letting you know, putting it out there, but if it did, Jeff would be the first one to be like, yeah, McDonald's tonight.
Speaker 1:Drive-thru on the way home.
Speaker 3:Drive-thru the way home, drive through the way home. But, um, you know, realistically, you know it's just that is just so unique, right, and everybody, right, everybody cooks, everybody is using that emotional um statement for them purposely. And you know the, you know the addictiveness, right, you're, you're addicting to something that you either can be super in love with or it can super hurt you, right.
Speaker 1:Right, it's a double edged sword. It is Jeff. Name of the book.
Speaker 2:It's called um craveable, obsessed journals of a food addicted chef.
Speaker 1:Okay, with that said, um, jonathan, chef, jonathan, we were having a conversation earlier today and you know, obviously over the last year you've you've had a lot of changes. You know a lot of things happening. One of them for you is health Correct. And with that, why don't you, why don't, why don't you, why don't you kind of get into a little bit what, what's been going on with you? Because I think your situation has every bit to do with this guy's book.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So, first and foremost, I do own a copy of Chef Jeffrey Snitchell.
Speaker 2:I've gotten text messages from him.
Speaker 3:Yes, yes, I said where's my book and not only that we've had conversations.
Speaker 3:Yes, I will tell you that, for those that are listening, that book could have put a bigger target in what we feel and I 100% relate it to that book. The Life as a Chef is almost so optimistic. Everybody thinks that you're coming in and you're just cooking and you're just handling your business and you go on and throw it Right. Um, they don't understand that the 90% of the responsibility is running the business, being creative and keeping trend. That is the most difficult part of being in this business. Um, there's new chefs coming on every single day. There's new chefs growing every single day. And you know when you are surrounded in a room with the talented chefs that are in this area, right? Um, or even the chef. You know Jeff, jeff, right. You know when you're around talent like that and you're able to see the growth of every single person from day to day. And where you are now right and where we are now, it's almost like a dream. It does never feel real. It just for me. It just never felt real. Going into the kitchen. It's the only thing that makes me feel real. Cooking makes me feel real. You know where I'm at now today in my life it's, it just feels like a big dream, you know, and that's just probably the most beautiful thing about it. But health is everything. Right, I will say that I'm a working horse, so I did not pay attention to myself, as I should. Married four kids working, dealing with a team 90% of the time. You're so put up front to ensure that you're taking care of those that are in front of you that you always put yourself in the back burner. So when you're in the back burner, it's so difficult right To almost think about where you want to be. In your health, my health was taking a toll and I'm very blessed to be here to even do this podcast with you guys.
Speaker 3:You know I started with my heart. Um, you know I started with my heart respectfully. Um, I was suffering some congested heart failure. Um, I was not breathing at night, uh, properly, and, um, you know, stop breathing. So you know, moving on that, you know you, instead of taking advantage and saying, listen, something's wrong with me, um, I just put it under the rug and just never paid attention.
Speaker 3:A year later, I go and do a CPAP test and the lady runs into the room and she's like hey, um, I'm so glad you woke up because, um, I thought I had to call the ambulance and I was like um, looking at her like she was crazy. I'm like, what are you talking about? And she's like, um, you stopped breathing for a little bit too long. She's like I've been doing this for over 20 years and never have I ever seen this ever happen. And I was like oh, wow. I was like um, so she's like yeah, well, I think it's best you go to the hospital.
Speaker 3:I was like ah, I was like it's a long task. I've been here for a very long time. I don't know if I want to come back and do all this. I was like, listen, ma'am, I got to take a flight out. I'm a shabby. She's like that's great. Well, it's good to know that's your last career. They're going to be working for this week. And I just like, whoa, what she's like?
Speaker 3:Um, you have two choices you can make a change and want your life longer, or this would be the last time we'll probably talk, and I've been working here for about 16 years, so it kind of threw you off a little bit right, sitting in a car, heading home, thinking about this and trying to get a little bit more of an understanding of what this woman has said to me and I realized that I've been so emotionally you know, affected and so mentally affected, because, is that? I just stood focused at work, right? Um, sometimes you forget your husband, sometimes you forget your dad, um, it's, you live in a, yes, chef type of world, so the reality is to get work done, get it done sufficiently and make sure that you perfect every mode. It's probably the most hardest thing in a, in an average day person, you know, but, um, we're not eight to five. So, realistically, was is that? Do I keep pushing myself to want to be better or do I? Um, give myself a death ticket? Um, it's troubling sometimes, you know, we, I go day in and day out and you know it's, it can defeat you at you at times.
Speaker 3:Mental health is everything to people. I think that the book I don't think I know, the book that you know Jeff wrote and put out, you know, I think there's a lot of chefs that have the same similarity. It's just not every chef has the opportunity to speak up and this is the opportunity that you know, chefs like me can actually step forward and say wow, thank you, thank you for speaking up, thank you for putting that opportunity out for us. Thank you for giving us the momentum of wanting to be better and why we should be better, and where the love and the compassion really comes in. That's where you have to really, you know, like subsidize and say listen, this is, this needs to change.
Speaker 3:You know, to the doctor, and they do two different scans and I was telling you guys this earlier, I couldn't believe it. They do two different scans. They scan your heart once and then they scan your whole body and it's two different big tests that they do. And I said, let me take this test, let me see it, and I draw my blood and all that great stuff. And the lady comes back. She's like listen, your cholesterol is 260. You got to take some medicine. I said, okay, well, at least that's not that too bad, right. She's like well, 260 is not the great number, but let's figure it out.
Speaker 2:I said okay.
Speaker 3:What do I got to do? Because I don't take medicine. So I'll be honest with you. I get up and grab my, keep it moving, you know, and just work 35 hours straight and not think about it. She's like, well, let's just do this. I want you, when you wake up, you forget about the Starbucks, stop working 35 hours and start realizing that you're living life, you're not living a robot. I was like, wow, touche. So got the scans back and, realistically, they come to me and they say, well, you have about a good six years and probably passed away. And I was like, wait, what Six years? Yeah, you think about that. You sit back and you really think about that. And I, I sat.
Speaker 3:I remember I sat in the front of my porch and my house and I was like these people said six years, six years is what they said. I couldn't believe it. I said, you know, the science is crazy, right, they learned so much today that nobody learned years ago. And could we have saved the loved ones back in the days? Yeah, but time is a channel, right, so we have to constantly be able to make movement. But that's when I realized like, wow, you need to wake up, because six years, your kids are still in school. Six years I haven't made it to any of my children's getting married. Six years I'm not growing old with my wife. Six years I'm not seeing anything. So I realized that the reality is six years needs to be 60 years and no longer be just six.
Speaker 3:I made a complete change in my life and changed my whole food mentality. I learned that food is medicine and you're never taught that as a chef. Food is medicine. Food is something that you ingest and there's opportunities for every item in this world. Right, we pay for food and we get easy access and we go to these fast food restaurants, but what do you learn from them? Nothing besides an everyday item that you can get at the arm reach. How does that help you? It doesn't. So I took it seriously. I was 496. And today I'm 423. Nice, it's crazy.
Speaker 1:Six years hardly put you at 40. Correct, correct, and, and that's one that's a massive drop in weight. Man, good for you, thank you. And it's not easy, it's not, and it's not. And, to be clear, it isn't easy. It's not because, oh, I'm just surrounded by all this beautiful food that you know my kitchen is cooking up. It's not that. No, it isn't that at all. I mean, granted, I wasn't a chef, but I've been in plenty of kitchens and I've worked in plenty of restaurants and you just end up eating over the garbage can or sitting on a milk crate or the sink, or the sink or Taco Bell on the way home. Man, it's just that, that's the lifestyle.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:So, and that's the part that's hard to give up, because that becomes your routine, that's the habit you it's hard to give up because that becomes your routine.
Speaker 2:That's the habit. It's not only that, it's the food becomes. For the people that are food addicted, food is a coping mechanism. It's not the drug, it's not the dopamine and all that other stuff. That's my comfort, correct? I haven't eaten all day. This is the way I used to think. I haven't eaten all day, so I can have 7,000 calories today at dinner, or 3,000 calories, whatever it was. I mean, I was like a hobbit. I had dinner one, dinner two, dinner three, dinner four, and you can laugh about it, I can laugh about it, but it was slowly killing me.
Speaker 2:And to realize that, and look at yourself, and you did the same thing. When the doctors came to you and said, hey, you're not going to be here, I looked around and turned around and said I'm not going to be here because I was on that same journey and I would do that same stupid, you know cheerleader rah-rah in the morning Okay, we can't do this again, we're going to do it this way. And then that little kid woke up and was like, yeah, we're going to do it my way. And to go through those emotions and then track back to what started it or what could have started it, I didn't think for a million years, journaling would be the way to do things. I used to lie to my therapist yeah, I journal today.
Speaker 2:Once I started journaling, I actually started realizing what I was doing to myself and it's a constant battle. I just went to the pulmonologist yesterday, found out I lost six pounds. Wasn't even trying. I stopped drinking over. Now it's about a month and a week now. I didn't do it because I was an alcoholic. I did it because if I can control alcohol consumption, I could better, damn well, learn how to control my food. And that's one of the things I'm challenging myself and that's a challenge every flipping day. And it sucks. I would love to be addicted to drugs or alcohol and people are like why would you want that? I'm like I can stop. I can't stop eating, I die, and it's one of those things that you're constantly going for. What do I need? Oh, that's nice, that's really good. Let me go eat more of that. And then you got to stop yourself. I mean kudos to you because you tasted the oxtail and you and we I can't taste anything were like I can't taste anything else.
Speaker 3:Yeah, exactly, I can't taste that. It was delicious. Thanks, I had to taste it because oxtail, guys, ladies and gentlemen, is the most easiest thing to mess up, especially for a Puerto Rican. You were just checking.
Speaker 1:You were just checking.
Speaker 3:I wanted to make sure you know what I mean. Like I'm in here now, sure you know what I mean. Like I'm in here now and you know he did open the conversation that he it's an honor with my name. Let's make sure it's complete with that, right, Cause that's the same thing I would do for him. Yeah, you got to show respect. To show respect, right, for the item that you're actually projecting for our nationality. But delectable, it was delicious.
Speaker 3:And to piggyback off of what you were saying in the food part 100% true, I end up having a fatty liver and by the changes that I made, I actually reversed my fatty liver and I stopped drinking. I stopped doing a lot of things and you know, chefs like us, that's our go-to right, we drink, naturally. And people try to understand like, oh, why do you guys always drink? Well, do 16, 17, 18, 19 hours? And then you tell me what numbs your body? Okay, numbs the pain, numbs the pain. It's almost like, uh, one of those, uh, those those things that you know. I mean, it's just one of those things that you know.
Speaker 3:Instead of taking Tylenol and Advil every single day, what's what's? A nice little shot here and there, you know, while you're off work. You know, and it's like that's why you see everybody in food and beverage. Everybody from food and beverage is running, you know, and and going to the bar. I always say you know where does the money flow? It's it's food and beverage. Food and beverage literally takes care of food and beverage respectfully. You know you can find everybody there going in there and spending their own money. So at the end of the day, it's a full circle. But there needs to be more awareness. There needs to be, you know, and I've lost friends. You've lost friends. You know, in this, in this day and age of society, of where in our lives we have to be a little bit more. You know, reaching out for each other and making sure that we are looking out to.
Speaker 2:You know, speak, because everybody's scared to speak yeah, I think that's the biggest thing with mental health. Illness is we're in a society that we don't talk about those things. You know brighton beach memoirs and neil simon is probably one of the best ones where you know we used to sit there and go, yeah, diarrhea. We didn't. We didn't say that. It's so common for us to sit here and talk about the cold, cancer, covid. But when it comes to mental health, everyone just shuts down 100 and it and it shouldn't be. It should be that we should be able to talk about our feelings and what's going on in ourselves even dad is doing it just and here's the point we we just lost a coworker that I used to work with at us foods.
Speaker 2:Don't know how he passed away. I know about his mental health and the first thing I asked and this is what I do as a mental health advocate was how do you pass? And, however he, how he passed. One of the biggest things I got out of the tragedy of losing him is that it brought all of us food fanatics back together and and rekindled the family, the what we did and how we became the food fanatics for us foods, and to reach out, to talk to people and be like hey, I'm struggling, and to have that family come out and say we're here for you. What do you need? And that is what the true essence of the culinary or the industry is about. It's about being there for one another. It's not about shaming somebody because they worked only 12 hours oh, you're a banker. That's the kind of stuff we need to stop Correct.
Speaker 3:Targeting. We need to stop targeting Again. This career is you've seen it, jeff. I mean 10 years ago, it was crazy. It was crazy. This day and age, chefs aren't the way they used to be. And I'll tell you, you know, I've seen it, I've seen Michelin chefs they lose their star, they lose themselves. So, you know, reality is where it hits, right. You know this world of culinary, especially now that it's getting competitive back. We're seeing competitive back, which is amazing, right, and that's the beauty of walk and talk, you know, because you guys can see all the new, you guys can experience what's going to be trended and there's a reason why y'all guys are number one.
Speaker 1:let's be fair, let's be fair I don't disagree with that for sure so, jefferson, when, when you're talking about chefs and we're talking about booze and we're talking about how, how there's a how, there is a marriage of sorts between whether it's weed, drinking pills, whatever Alcohol consumption gambling, sex addiction.
Speaker 2:Sex addiction.
Speaker 1:It can't just be, it cannot just be because because my my knees hurt or my hands hurt. It's more than that. It's coping. It's coping, but it's also it's it's a group mentality, it's a group thing because it isn't just the kitchen people, it's the front of the house people, and it's it's everybody really. And and the truth is, after, after work, what happens.
Speaker 2:That's where the debauchery happens.
Speaker 1:That's what happens right. Let's just say you close it. Let's say your place closes at 10. God forbid. That's too much time to go out, right, yeah 10 o'clock you go straight to the one watering hole to the next watering hole. Everybody who was working that shift. They show up there too, and then all of a sudden they're. But why? Why do we do that?
Speaker 2:Well, it's not only culture, it's we play hard, we work hard, work hard, we play hard. I mean, we are the misfits, we are the pirates. We want to unwind. Everybody else goes out on a five o'clock at night. They're going to our restaurants. We're cooking for them as they're unwinding. We do it just later on in the nighttime we also. That's one of our coping mechanisms. That's why we we started out when you're 15, 16. I was I'm a lot older. I looked older so I got to drink. I mean, I've been drinking since I was 12. You do look older.
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, now I do I feel older. You had a beard when you were 12.
Speaker 2:Respectfully, I really did. I really did. I look like Harry and the Hendersons.
Speaker 3:That's a great movie. I'm surprised you know it. Oh wow, that's best out. The big brother's beating on the little brother, let's be real. Everybody remembers.
Speaker 1:Bigfoot. Here's the thing I remember it was in my early 20s. Whatever the day off it was, it wasn't like a weekend, it was probably like a Monday or something like that. I got up probably 10 o'clock.
Speaker 2:That's early.
Speaker 1:I know, but here's what I did. I went to there was a particular bar, went there, ran into some friends from the industry, got hammered and we were there for I don't know several hours. They leave. A new group of friends come. Oh my gosh, we leave to another place. Okay, so I basically I did that four or five times. I didn't get home until like the next day in the daytime. I don't know. I mean, and this is, but this was like a fairly, you know, reoccurring thing and I don't know how on earth that we all you know, and a lot of us didn't make it, but I don't know how many of us actually actually did the lifestyle. I guess what I'm trying to say is it's, it's if you allow it to, it will consume you a hundred percent, yeah, it's.
Speaker 2:and again it's about we're talking about the book. For me it was message one. You're never going to be alone too. It's okay Not to be, okay to go through and learn how to cope. I mean, I don't know how to do that. Obviously, I'm learning myself how to cope with things, to grab the anxiety or whatever that it's going on in my head. You got to think about it.
Speaker 2:When we're on the line on a Saturday night and you're pumping out $40,000 in meals at an $18 check average, you're really humming along, and by the time you're in the day and you're been there since seven o'clock in the morning and it's 11 o'clock at night and you just want to unwind and you're like, oh, my God, I'm exhausted. You get in the car and you're like, oh crap, there's the second wind. And then the second wind takes you. Oh, you know what, you're hungry. Oh, let's go get in, and then, before you know it, you're like seven sheets to the wind. That's something that we need to learn how to stop, and I think one of the things we need to use as a food and beverage industry is offer more cocktails that are mocktails and not just crap but something that's decent for people that still want to have that time.
Speaker 2:instead of, can I have a soda water? Come on, If chefs can go out and do things with vegan food now that is stunning then why can't mixologists come out with some spectacular drinks? And there's people out there that are doing phenomenal with drinks.
Speaker 1:But here's the thing, and I get that. So I respect and I support and embrace all of this. But I also still have, like my, my pinky is still connected to energy. Even I'm old, you know my I still, if I go out to eat somewhere, I'm getting a cocktail. That's fine, that's that's, but. But here's for you though no, no, no, no. I out to eat somewhere, I'm getting a cocktail, that's fine, that's that's. But. But here's for you though no, no, no, I, I get it, I get it, I get it.
Speaker 1:And I'm not trying, like I said, I'm not trying to say that's better or worse. What I'm saying is okay, I'm not gonna have 10 cocktails, right or more. Those days are long gone for me. But if I'm gonna go out and get a mocktail, I'm just gonna get a cocktail, or or I'm just not gonna have a cocktail at all, or I'm just not going to have a cocktail at all. I don't want to have something that's going to remind me of one. If I want to have one, I don't just have one.
Speaker 1:I've come to a place and I and I'm I can safely say that I was never addicted to substance. I've done substance right, I've had a lot of fun and I've had periods of time where you know it was debaucherous, but it was never an addiction, it was. This is fun and this is what we're doing right now. I am so lucky that I was able to one day say well, you know, close call here, close call there, you know what? Let me pump the brakes a little bit. And I was able to do it. And then I get older. You get to your 30s, your 40s, I'm 50 now. I don't have that drive, but I'll tell you what. I still have the energy. Like I still see people and I'm like man Ellen, jump into that. You know what I mean. Like I still have that Right.
Speaker 2:Here's the thing. So one of the guys that wrote in the forward might be, for he's a fraternity brother of mine and he admitted to me. One of the reasons why I asked him to write in the book is he goes I'm an alcoholic but it started as a food addiction and it trans that food addiction transpired into the alcohol and knowing him and having him say that to me it kind of made me take a step back and, like I was at a, I was at a leader, I was at a handle vodka week and that's not good.
Speaker 2:And again, being a mental health advocate, you have to be, you have to walk the talk. It's like what I say to people is like wait, you're going to go to a trainer and they're 700 pounds. No you're going to go to somebody who's felt, you know, in shape or whatever. You're not going to go to somebody who's out of shape to do it.
Speaker 1:Don't eat that. Hey, you want to bite it as hot?
Speaker 2:dog Right, and so that's that's kind of like where I had to take. I had to take the initiative for myself that, again, if I wanted to learn what a farmer had to go through to grow food, I wanted to learn it. So I started planting food. If I want to learn how to beat this before it beats me, I got to do something to control it. This is the way I did it. This is how I did it. It's not saying that how Jonathan needs to do it or how that person needs to do it. Well, one of the biggest things when he got his book and I knew he had gotten the book, not from him, telling me he bought it, all of a sudden I got did you get? Inside my head and I was like, what the hell is he talking?
Speaker 3:sure, dad, he goes this is all about me. Yeah, I was like, can you change the title please?
Speaker 2:chef john is addicted to food incredible and it literally like he goes even my wife wants to read the book after this he goes. You were literally talking to me and hear that and then you really did touch my heart, because that's the message you want to send out when you read, when you write a book or when you try to communicate to somebody. You want to get that message, whatever it is, just to them to understand that, hey, whatever you're going through, we're all going through it. We're all on the same sinking ship. We just don't realize it.
Speaker 2:I've talked to somebody yesterday at the gym because you know what Every single person in here is going through, their own thing, and they're trying to do one thing change their life to a positive. And I went, holy cow, I do the same thing with people. Like I see somebody and they look depressed or they look a little bit, you know just the day's gotten them already and I walk up to him like you know what, I love your energy and I'm like, oh, my God, thank you, and I walk away that we need to do stuff like that when we see somebody that just needs a little bit of that.
Speaker 3:Hey, call it a slap on the butt, because we're not allowed to do that anymore, but it's a verbal one. Hey, I love what you're doing, I love your, your energy, don't touch me. Well, no, I'm not gonna do that to you. You know, and I think, uh, you know, anxiety has built its case year over year and people are getting more and more influenced on that. Right, and I didn't know what anxiety was. To be honest with you, I learned what anxiety was being. Um, you know, when I went away, I actually know what anxiety was. To be honest with you, I learned what anxiety was being, you know, when I went away, I actually learned what anxiety was when I actually went to do the show for Food Network, and it's crazy. I went to Phoenix for the show taping and when I was there, I was in a room and I'm just looking at mountains and I'm, you know, pretty relaxed. All of a sudden, I started feeling like shortness of breath.
Speaker 3:And all of a sudden it started looking like it was getting darker. And all of a sudden I'm starting to panic. And all of a sudden I'm starting to worry. And all of a sudden I didn't know what to feel anymore. My anxiety took to such a scared in me that I literally thought I was going to throw a heart attack.
Speaker 1:It sounds like when Tony Soprano was looking for the gabagool in the refrigerator had the panic attack and fell in there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you know it's funny. I just saw something recently on social media and there's some good aspects of social media About Gabagool, not Gabagool. But here's the thing about what I read about anxiety in specific, if you hum out loud, it's a frequency.
Speaker 2:No, the humming breaks up your brain and thinking pattern and it stops and concentrates on that, so you can actually then calm yourself down. And if you can't do it because you're in public, just the thought of humming a song in your head will stop the anxiety. And just how simplistic that is, it's just amazing.
Speaker 3:I've not done it, I have, and I will tell you it actually does work. So you just concreted something. I actually went in and spoke to a lady that she is a therapist and I, you know, and I asked her I know, and I know her very well, but I expressed and I said, listen, how do you control anxiety? And I said, listen, how do you control anxiety? Because anxiety is pretty much you're eating yourself through your own battles and it's just catching you in a different time and I'll tell you, I haven't mourned for my parents long enough for me, right? So those periodic times will come at a random, but I think that that overwhelm of like I got to get this done, I got to ensure that we're doing well, I got to ensure, you know, people forget that, right, people need to start doing a wellness check on each other more than anything, and I agree with you, because that gives us more of an opportunity to be able to prevent that anxiety issue, right, and so I, I went through the same thing.
Speaker 3:Um, you know it's a crazy story, but, um, you know, I was on my way to Publix, uh, to pick up sushi, you know, sushi, uh, wednesday, and uh, it was phenomenal, uh, and I was excited and all of a sudden, uh, I remember what that lady said and she was like you know, just do uh, you have to do patterns of low and high, because what happens is the only way that you can get rid of an anxiety is by not thinking you're having an anxiety. Well, how does that work? My daughter goes through it, right, and when you're starting to see that your kids are now going through it, your mentality is starting to be like eating you up faster because you're like I can't even fix myself. How am I supposed to help my kid? How? How was, how, am I supposed to walk this through? And I, and all of a sudden, my daughter is listening to music and humming and doing this and doing that, and I'm like Sophia, what are you doing? She's like I'm just controlling my anxiety.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that's the key. We can't control anything. That's the wrong word, it's manage, manage, correct.
Speaker 2:We have to rethink the management of how we're coping and what coping mechanisms are, whether they be positive or negative, and that's the key to it. You know, my daughter struggles with mental health, anxiety and stuff, especially in school. And to see what she's going through, and I tell her all the time you're going to have enough people in your life that are going to try to bring you down. You have to be your number one cheerleader. We're always going to be there because we're mom and dad. But the time things think about this, though, every time your child comes to you and says, or your dog for John, every time Baxter comes to him and says hey dad, look what I did and we go great, that's awesome, you did a great job. We're reinforcing that. They're going to be looking for something If we just stop for one second and say hey Sophia, hey Jillian, hey Baxter, what do you think about how you did this? And they go, I think.
Speaker 2:I did a great job. You know what? I agree a hundred percent. You did a great job. The difference is you're letting them express themselves of how they feel about it. First take ownership right, then we're training them not to look for not training, that's not the right word which we're helping them manage. Their mentoring is a great word. We're mentoring them of how to control things, and it's. I'm 53 years old and I just learned this stuff. I didn't realize how bad my adhd. I didn't realize how bad my OCD was. I mean.
Speaker 1:I can, I can. John's looking at all of that out.
Speaker 2:Join to you. John's looking at you too.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, I'm sure he's looking at me, looking at you.
Speaker 2:You, you, you me.
Speaker 1:No, he and you it's what I was it up because he knows that I'm gonna jump in and say something about it.
Speaker 2:Yeah well, am I right or wrong? And here's the thing I know I have it and I'm looking for a psychotherapist to change that. I can help you.
Speaker 1:I don't need the weed, oh I don't, that's not where I live. Anyway, I have that. So that's fine, I know you do. But yeah, um, I deal with a couple of people, don't? You almost did it? Just, I have there's a couple of people, uh, that I work with on a regular basis that are adhd, high quality, big definition, whatever man it's like it's, it's so there. But you know what I do, because I don't have the heart, unfortunately, to be like hey, shut the hell up. You know what I mean. Like stop it, shut the hell up, we can't. You can mean Like stop it, shut the hell up, we can't, you can't. Well, no, but so what I end up doing is I listen all the way through, you sure do. Is that ADHD too? I gotta listen all the way through, you sure do. And here's the thing I open myself for it. I feel like the guy from the Green Mile there.
Speaker 1:You know that's what I feel like one michael clark duncan or tom hanks, the big dude, michael clark duncan and I'm just like, because afterwards, after I hang up, the phone hangs up or I get away, I'm just like I'm real tired. You know what I mean. How do you think we feel?
Speaker 2:you know it's funny. I was, I was up north with with keith and we were talking about adhd. We had a really deep conversation and I go you, you know what ADHD is like for people that don't know what it's like. It's when you're watching a bird or something in a power line and it swings and touches the other power line and it sparks off. That's the moment we know as as people with ADHD, as Jonathan's taking his head, we just, we just shortwired right there, we fried ourself for that moment. For everyone else that doesn't have ADHD, it's called squirrel. That's the exact moment for us. And you know where mine comes from. I have pinpointed it to the restaurant industry. I was told by so many different mentors I was going through. You just can't work on that. You have to work on this. You've got to work on that. You've got to keep an eye on that. You've got'm doing this.
Speaker 1:Hold on. Having ADHD or something like whatever, it's not a bad thing. Creative people, people who are creative, have this. And just to be clear, I also. I was never diagnosed with this, but I have the same sort of things. I have the same stuff.
Speaker 2:Wait, hold on it's recording. I just want to make sure.
Speaker 1:I have the same. I have the same sort of things. I just hear myself and I'm not saying I'm perfectly controlling things, I'm not saying that but I hear myself and I start to tone down, I figure it out and I can stop it. So when I am listening to somebody who is just riddled with this, it's torture Again. How do you think we feel it's torture? I know how you feel because I had the same thing, but I'm absorbing it, so it's another level of torture. I want to go to sleep after that. There's no joke. There's no joke. Anyhow, I think we're on to something.
Speaker 3:We do have a pillow and a blanket, ladies and gentlemen, for him.
Speaker 1:I don't need to say this, you can punch me right in the mouth, man, I don't even care Like I'm that kind of guy, I don't, I don't, I, I stuff like this and I and I and I might be wrong, and if I say something to offend people, I'm sorry, but I look, it's any challenge I have to. I get angry with it, not in a way where I'm uncontrolled angry, but I was. I'm like you know what, and John can attest to this there's three or four people in front of me that are impeding me. All right, I'm gonna get up to that level and I'm gonna attack that, and that's just what I and he knows, and that's and that's just how I am. So that could be, that could be a group of people, that could be a substance, that could be whatever the hell it is. That's how I do it. I look at it like it's a fight and I'm going to rise to that fight. That's your coping way.
Speaker 1:That's how I cope, that's that yeah exactly.
Speaker 2:So that's what you branded yourself to do. These are things that for people like Jonathan and I, who have addiction, we're trying to figure, that what are our ways to stop the, the insanity, the definition of Einstein's insanity, because we literally think, well, if we do it this way, we're going to stop it, and it's not.
Speaker 1:I appreciate that you labeled it as Einstein's definition of everybody's. Just off the rocker with that definition, because it's not the actual.
Speaker 2:No, I mean, I wanted to make sure. I say because it is truly Einstein's definition is what we addicts go through.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:We think we're going to do the same thing and it's going to change, and it absolutely does not change.
Speaker 1:So let me ask you this Conversations like this that we're having, does that trigger an actual episode of what we're talking about?
Speaker 3:So I'll challenge you on this question when do you stop remembering the memories that you keep remembering? When does a target in your mind that affects you and will always stay in your mind. When does that stop?
Speaker 1:What stops when I decide to think or do something else that takes my mind away from it. Because you're coping, because you're coping.
Speaker 2:You're managing, yeah, of course.
Speaker 3:So we're learning how to manage Exactly Us, jeff and I, right, because we're totally two different people, but we have similarities, right, and it's not because we're chefs are totally two different people, but we have similarities, right, and it's not because we're chefs, it's just realistic, um, realistically, we share the same, probably this, I guess the same demographic, right, we share the same demographic of where we worked, how we worked, um, how we've grown up are totally different, right, and this is a perfect example because you know, jeff, you're in your fifties.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:I'm in my thirties. Right, I'm the youngest one in this in this room, respectfully. Right, that proves to you that age doesn't change a thing. Right, when you're coping with something, you have a ability to be able to hone it down. You have an ability to be able to hone it down. You have a control. When you're not coping something, that's where it becomes now a set defect in your brain. That's going to trigger you and stay there. When you're talking about something, you're building a repetition of a problem that you've had in the past and it's going to trigger you. So I think triggers happen at a different pace depending on the person. So I think triggers happen at a different pace depending on the person. But for me, I know that talking about this does pull up a trick, right, because it's like, wow, how come I didn't figure it out? How come I can't just write this off? How come I am going through this mentally or physically or emotionally. It becomes more of an intimate situation, more than it becomes a situation for others to overview, right.
Speaker 1:You know, as we were talking about this, I'm listening to you, obviously, but I'm also, I'm also flipping through the catalog here in my head and the you know. It's funny because a lot of times before I got into sales outside sales, because a lot of times before I got into sales outside sales, knocking on doors, you know, speaking to you know anywhere from five to 20 different people a day, different locations, whatever, before that you would get, you would, you would be in a mood or be in a bad zone, a bad head space, and your day shot. Okay, you're like, hey, you know what my my day shot. So that does happen in in sales and outside sales, and but when you're up against goals, the gun, my sales are down. I gotta, I gotta get them up. Whatever. You have to figure out a way to get your mind focused on something else.
Speaker 1:And and and I'm and I just had an epiphany during this conversation Each different client or prospect that I went to go see was that different vibe. Even though it's the same business and it's a relative same conversation, it's a different, the energy is different, because I'm going to a different hotel or a different restaurant, I'm in a different kitchen, maybe I'm in a maybe I'm in a banquet space, maybe, and because of that I was able to pivot. I'm just thinking about this now, like you know how, you know what gets you, what will take you out of being in that, in that bad zone that for me it was getting in front of other people which you know, in a crazy way got me to be very successful in making the sale you know, because, yeah, because I was like all right onto the next one, Let me leave.
Speaker 1:You know, leave the garbage back elsewhere, onto the next one, onto the next one, onto the next one, and that was kind of like maybe, and you could say, well, yeah, you're just running from whatever it is.
Speaker 3:No, I think it was a shift in energy really yeah, almost like you're pressure detached because every single place gave you a new overview, right. I feel like it's more challenging for us, jeff, yeah, especially for pressure.
Speaker 2:What I was about to say is and this is another you know a saying in the restaurant industry you're only as good as your last dish. And that symbolizes a lot. With a chef, first of all, it's mortality. You're only good as your last dish, so how much better are you going to be? How much more do you have in the tank? And this is conversations I have with a lot of friends of mine, right? But I think one of the things I do when I do presentations for cater source or different organizations, I want to make sure that people realize the ROI is a business owner to talk about mental health, because, as we're sitting here talking about this, we're actually exposing these different weaknesses that our team has. And, like you said, I went from one and I had to go to another and it was how to meet goals. That's a huge thing for chefs, right?
Speaker 1:Oh well, listen, your, your last dish is you're only.
Speaker 2:It's the same thing. Right, and it's the same thing. But here's the thing If we realize that if we actually took a second to find out how our staff is doing and really found out, and they have so much more buy-in because you're finding out how they're doing, we spend more, more hours of the day with total strangers at the beginning of the shift that become our family, more so than our family, because we're there 16, 18 hours a day, but yet we're not finding out how our family is doing. We're not sitting down at a family meal and saying, hey, how's your kid how? Hey, you're at a gas.
Speaker 1:By the time you get home, you're at a gas. I'm not talking about any more.
Speaker 2:And I'm, and that's a whole nother thing, because you have.
Speaker 1:You're saying the right stuff.
Speaker 3:I'm just saying you know, it's just it's how much more shift at home. Right, You're like a walking therapist man. Seriously, you're like a walk. I know you want to get your point across, but you're like a walking therapist in a kitchen because you're so right because even myself take two minutes out of the time of every single person to acknowledge them. And then you look at yourself as a husband or a father and you're like, oh my God, I can't even give this person 60 seconds.
Speaker 2:Exactly, and here's something I've said. I was up in New Hampshire a week ago two weeks ago with Keith.
Speaker 1:It's not real unless you say New Hampshire.
Speaker 2:New Hampshire. It's wicked, and when I'm sitting in the kitchen, all of a sudden I hear blue dolphin. And I went okay, and then I heard it again. I heard it the third time and I went okay, okay, what the heck is this blue dolphin? That's our code for drinking. It's time to drink water.
Speaker 2:And I went oh, my God, I hadn't drank water that that entire time it was in the kitchen. How many times you go through the other day where you don't drink? And because he has the team and they do certain things they want to make and they manage each other, it was hey, let's have blue dolphin, it's time to drink. Who does that? We don't. There's not many people that are going out there and above. Hey, you look a little tired, get off the line. No, we're sitting there screaming. Hey, I need how much longer on that penne pasta? Oh, 30 seconds, chef, don't lie to me. Get it out of the window After the shift.
Speaker 2:What are you doing? Are you going up to that person and be like you do things? And that's not what we need to do. We need to commend people when they're doing the job right as a great leader, and I'll say this great leaders encourage their people for greatness. Bosses, steal it away. And you have to make the decision while you're listening to this or whatever you're going through, is what leader do you want to be?
Speaker 3:Correct. Seek to understand and be understood. Mic drop.
Speaker 1:I mean so I, I uh embrace all of that, and it was in perfect timing as well. Um, we just hit the uh one hour mark and just like that, and just like that, I have time to the better. And just like that, another episode in the books. Um, I have a feeling we're going to keep talking about this subject, cause we got pretty deep today and I'm and I'm glad we did. This was a shotgun sort of uh. I had another whole another line of topic today with with Jonathan you know what, but at during our cooking session here, I decided to pop the clutch and go in a different direction. Thank you.
Speaker 2:With that said, don't forget about the 30th Name of the book Crabble Obsessed Journalism of a Food Addicted Chef Amazon, right, amazon, okay.
Speaker 1:What are we?
Speaker 3:looking at you, we got a couple of things going on. We got October 7th I'm going to be doing a boss talk overview with a beautiful group entrepreneurship for women, and we're going to be speaking about that. And we just got best rooftop for Sally Mars. So we are going to be doing this, getting that award, all right.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. Listen, you guys are freaking badasses. Thanks for coming in today, Jonathan. Jeff, you're amazing. Love you, John. We are out.
