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!
Check out our website for more food industry-related content, including:
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Restaurant Recipes
Cocktail recipes
Walk-In Talk interviews
The Restaurant Life Magazine
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Walk-In Talk Podcast
Behind the Camera: Food Media with the U.S. Culinary Open at NAFEM25
The inaugural US Culinary Open at NAFEM in Atlanta brought together world-class chef talent, premium ingredients, and a media team determined to document every moment of culinary excellence.
Have you ever wondered what happens when top culinary professionals compete on a world-class stage? Our team spent five intense days (working upwards of 18 hours daily) capturing the tornado of nonstop action that defined this prestigious competition. What made this event truly exceptional wasn't just the beautiful dishes—it was the caliber of competing chefs who earned their spots through credentials and credibility rather than simply paying entry fees. Thank goodness for Royal Cup Coffee for keeping up energized! Along with SupraCut System and Citrus America for being wonderful booth partners!
The competition featured a unique chef-commis partnership format, pairing established chefs with apprentices in a meaningful mentorship structure. Behind the scenes, kitchen design by James Camacho earned universal praise from competitors, while premium ingredients like Verlasso Salmon from Patagonia gave chefs the finest materials to showcase their talents. Even culinary icon Thomas Keller made an appearance, donating knives to the competition winner.
From a media perspective, our team balanced multiple responsibilities—conducting interviews, photographing dishes, capturing video footage, and building relationships with industry professionals. The human element proved most powerful, as chefs shared emotional stories about their culinary journeys. These authentic moments, captured through our documentation, added profound emotional depth to our coverage, reminding us that beyond the technical ex
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Elevate your dining experience with RAK Porcelain USA! As the exclusive tableware brand for the Walk-In Talk Podcast, RAK combines exceptional craftsmanship with innovative design. Whether you’re a chef, a restaurant owner, or a food enthusiast, RAK’s high-quality porcelain products will enhance every meal. Discover the artistry of food presentation and make every dining occasion special. Visit rakporcelain.com today and see how RAK can transform your table
The following brands and companies help us continue supporting the food industry - have a look below!
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.
https://www.TheWalkInTalk.com
Leave a review and rating, please!
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 fiadini. 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 to give us a follow on instagram at walk and talk show, please, and thank you. Today I'm joined with john, pooch and glenn and we'll be sharing our highlights and behind the scenes stories from this inaugural culinary competition that is the us culinary open team.
Speaker 1:Walk and talk media spent five intense days in Atlanta, working upwards of 18 hours a day, plus working at the Airbnb. It wasn't always easy. Things got heated at times, but our shared goals and professionalism helped us deliver amazing content. Ultimately, we counted on one another to get things done. We captured every detail, from engaging interviews to stunning food photography and high quality video footage. This was a tornado of nonstop action and work. Let me tell you that I feel it was all worth it. That's my opinion. These guys might differ, but I doubt it, my goodness. Gentlemen, gentlemen, gentlemen, welcome to the show. Poochie boy, glenn, thank you for having us again dude. Hello, carl, and so we meet again.
Speaker 2:Glenn and I flew right into New Orleans, into Mardi Gras. I'll tell you what it was a big serotonin release out there at NAPA in Atlanta and then coming back to New Orleans and having to do it all over again with our family and whatnot. So it was definitely arduous but amazing and we feel triumphant At least I do.
Speaker 3:So we went from one environment of business and work, of intensity, to a little bit of work but a lot of fun, but intensity nonetheless. A little recovery right now.
Speaker 1:I've been seeing the pictures, Pooch, of your Mardi Gras experience and it looks like a great time and I wish I could be there, and I know you just invited us for Sunday, but it's like impossible.
Speaker 2:Well, our Mardi Gras got delayed, actual Mardi Gras day. Some of the parades got canceled and whatnot, due to high winds and high winds in New Orleans are very triggering I'm sure the same with you guys, being that we all get pounded with hurricanes. They are delaying some parades into St Patrick's Day time and some are going to be this Sunday, but what you guys really should do one day is come ride in a mega parade like Bacchus or Orpheus and really experience the fun. There's just no other feeling than riding in a parade. I mean, it's something that's extremely unique and culturally New Orleanian. We definitely invite you On behalf of Glenn and I and New Orleans Company. We invite you.
Speaker 3:I do need to insert one thing as a New Orleanian, for many, many years I have never ridden on a float.
Speaker 2:We are a parade Wow.
Speaker 3:I've always experienced it from the ground.
Speaker 1:Sounds to me like we're going to have to take you up on this offer and make something happen.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think y'all would enjoy it. I really would enjoy it.
Speaker 1:Pooch. We just came from this US Culinary Open From a chef's perspective how do you think the competitors did?
Speaker 2:I was really impressed with the comies the whole time.
Speaker 2:Normally a chef would choose a sous chef, but a comie in the brigade system is someone who's an apprentice, who hasn't yet kind of made it to someone on the brigade.
Speaker 2:In this case, a lot of these people work with these kids, but it was just that that, to me, was so, so spiritual in a sense, that you allow the top of the line person with someone who was an assistant to come in on this competition and you know, kudos to Polly and Nick for even choosing that and making a lot different than any of the other competitions that we follow or we were part of. From a chef's perspective, I thought it was great. I thought the dishes were outstanding, I mean beautifully done. You can tell that everyone was qualified to be in the competition and that's what really meant the most to me was that a lot of people weren't just spinning their wheels. They weren't there because they paid a fee or they did something to be a part of it. They actually were invited, on their credentials and their credibility as a chef, to be a part of the event, and that meant the most to me.
Speaker 1:Glenn, you were kind of the de facto producer. We were all doing different roles. John was just deep into all of these dishes. I don't even know how many dishes he shot, but there were just tons of dishes. Pooch is out there doing the interviews, jordan you know, killing it with the video cameras. You were kind of puppet, mastering a lot of what was going on there, and I think you did a terrific job With that said, what sort of challenges were you facing?
Speaker 3:Well, the challenges are in any environment like that a lot of exhibitors there, it's a huge show. You have the culinary open kind of back in the stage area. One you have to kind of have a plan and be organized and then, working with you guys, everybody has their talents and their role and it's just sitting back and kind of identifying that early on and trying to know where something might be falling behind. To no fault of anyone, it's just we were busy and I wasn't expecting that as busy as we were, it took me a second to kind of calibrate and go okay, who needs help, who needs direction? It was intense from the get up and I think a lot of that had to do with just walk and talk. It's history, it's popularity. The setup itself was really cool All of the lights, and so it was kind of a wow factor for a lot of people.
Speaker 3:I don't know about you guys, but I thought we got hits with spectators wanting to come by the booth, wanting to talk, wanting to know what we were up to. And you're balancing the work that we have to do with talking to people, and that's kind of the point, you know and continuing the relationships or building new relationships, and so there's really two things at once going on. We couldn't just focus on one. It was balancing both the NAPM show itself and then our production for the culinary open. So you know, from Jordan's perspective, he and I have been working together for eight years now, knowing how he operates and making sure that he had what he needed, because he was being pulled in a bunch of different directions.
Speaker 3:I was really focused on Jordan early on, knowing that he needed certain things to keep moving, to be organized. At the end of the day, he's the one who's storytelling this. I just needed to figure out that and then start lending my skill set into organizing it for Jordan and then for the interviews with Pooch, making sure he had the questions. You know, it's just, it's just sitting back and understanding where we are. As the show went on, that became more and more difficult because I know we wanted to get out, go see exhibitors, meet sponsors, go say hello to the sponsors, do some work with them, and we were just so busy with the culinary open that it was very difficult to do that, but we pulled it together.
Speaker 1:You, john Jordan and Pooj killed it. I've never been so comfortable at a show ever. We were all swamped the fact that things were being done, everything was being executed properly. What it allowed me to do was to go and talk to potential partners and sponsors, get out, see Metro, see RAC, put some things together and line some other stuff up. But typically speaking, you know I'm a nervous wreck If I have to leave the booth. I'm very nervous On this show not at all. Sincerely, I want to thank everybody who was part of it on our side because it was amazing. Obviously, nick and Polly, in their execution of the show was almost flawless. I mean there were some hiccups, but you wouldn't know it unless you were behind the scenes with it. Really, everybody did a terrific job.
Speaker 2:I want to commend Jordan because, at the end of the day, when you think about chefs and culinary competitions and all these different things, and if you take all the ingredients that make a, say, gumbo, jordan is the one who had to take all those ingredients and make something out of it After working 12 hours, 14 hours. Then we'd stay up another four hours and argue about cuts and music and sounds and this and that and quotes and all these different things, and Jordan was a trooper and just basically lots of caffeine from Royal Cup. So thank you, royal Cup. I woke up with the confidence in the morning seeing the finished product that he put out on Instagram and on social media saying, wow, this is why we do it, and it was so inspiring to see the culmination of our day before half the stuff that I didn't even remember we did, because the day just keeps going and flowing and flowing.
Speaker 1:Jordan, finally, we love you, babe Pooch what do you think trade shows bring to the culinary scene? I know trade shows for you are relatively new. It's not something you were partaking in in your previous life. But how are they helping chefs grow and get noticed? Well, I can you know.
Speaker 2:I haven't. I still don't know as of yet, because we've been to a bunch of competitions that were kind of poised as trade shows. Now we're at trade shows that have a competition. I think it was great to see all of these world-class chefs from all over the world be noticed by these actual big, huge companies. You know, trade shows for a chef are usually you're hired by a brand to utilize their equipment to cook something and show how that equipment works and all the bells and whistles and whatnot. It's a growing experience for me as a chef. It's ever evolving and I think that's one of the reasons why we really attracted a lot of these big brands is because they knew we had chefs, you know, in our conglomerate. But at the same time it's a media outlet and it's a way for them to express themselves to other chefs and express their brand to other chefs.
Speaker 1:I thought NAFM was spectacular. I was at the last NAFM in Orlando two years ago and that's actually where we met Nick and Polly. As it goes forward you know we are the official podcast for the US Culinary Open and going forward, man, I see some really, really great things that we're all going to do together. I'm glad NAFM got to see how we all operate and execute and, of course, nick and Polly, they already knew, but the reality is we put out a finished product and it was and I, man, I'm really excited and relieved how great of a job everybody did. Glenn, there's tons of memorable moments For you. Do you have anything specific where you would point to and say this was really cool?
Speaker 3:You know you come into it, you have a job to do and you're really focused on that and you know, two things really stand out One, and we've been self-congratulatory of our team and just being able to work with all of you guys and the talents from behind the scenes. You know that was a lot of fun, that was very memorable. That's something I won't forget. That was a lot of fun, that was very memorable. That's something I won't forget. Everybody had their role in this and we all put it together and that was really a lot of fun to be a part of Outside of our team. These big shows it's always about the people and that was really one of the challenges too, because you're holding conversations, you're prepping people for interviews and off to the side, I might be talking to them after the interview and you want to hold that conversation and these are great people. You've got a job to do. There's another interview and, as we said, we all kind of touched on how busy we were. I really wanted to have more conversation or length of conversation with a lot of these people, but you know quickly you find out who are real professionals and dynamic in their roles, whether that's CEOs, presidents of these companies to a salesperson or someone there, just for the show itself to man the booth. You kind of get lost in a show of that size and at the end of the day, when you walk away, it's always about the people. You and I went over to Middleby and MasterChef Russell Scott toured us. That was a lot of fun. He didn't have to do that with you and me and it was really cool, but it was him taking the time talking to us when he's there judging the competition. You have Chris from Burnt Chef Project. He's dynamic and you can tell he cares. He's probably the one I talk to the most off camera and I was really curious to know how they started, what they're doing, how they're growing, his difficulties in growing. That was a lot of fun. That was a memorable moment. Matter of fact, he and I chatted on LinkedIn yesterday. I'm hopeful that's a lasting relationship that comes from Crown Amanda Bad Birdie on Instagram Coming over, kind of just talked about the lights and while we map and show with our setup, I asked her.
Speaker 3:That was the only reason she came over, just because of all the lights and so just to get to meet her, her coming back over John working with her on some still photography, which came out beautiful, john. And then her introducing us to Kyle, the owner, third generation. He's young and he's taken over the company and you can see it in the booth, you can see it in their energy, dynamic company going forward. So I'm hopeful that that's a relationship that can continue. So, just a lot of different people. And then, obviously, you know seeing Metro and RAC Citrus America. You know your sponsors. That was a lot of fun for me and very memorable.
Speaker 3:And lastly, is the celebrity that Carl Fiatini is. You know you had fans coming over and I always joke about well, I hear your voice, that's the celebrity's voice, but these guys knew you by face must be Instagram followers. So Romel from DePaul University in Chicago, just very, very nice guy you can tell. Talk to him for a few minutes. And then from Chicago all the way to Hong Kong. You know, yeah, hong Kong, that was crazy man. That was a lot of fun, she was a blast. You know that was crazy man, that was a lot of fun, she was a blast. She really dove into Putting on the headset and talking on the mic and taking pictures Holding the handheld. So I'm not sure if you knew Of the extent of your celebrity. But that was a lot of fun Having fun with that.
Speaker 2:And happy birthday, by the way, carl.
Speaker 1:Well, thank you, it's all happening. I'm flush right now.
Speaker 1:All right, so no, there isn't any celebrity or anything like that. It would be so ostentatious for me or anybody in our group to be like, hey, celebrity, this or celebrity that we are not at that kind of level. With that said, we are doing really great things and our team is strong and getting so much stronger. So, you know and that's a testament to the newcomers in the Glens and the Pooches and the old timers, you know, like the Johns and some of the others, man, I tell you I couldn't be more, I couldn't be happier with the direction that we're going in right now. Everything has changed and everything is so positive and there's just this like really great, overwhelming feeling of positivity and that's what we need. We don't need the negative, we need the positive.
Speaker 1:So, with that said, I did have some great conversations in the last few days since we've been back, gonna do some, some stuff together and help bring awareness to a lot of uh, a lot of challenges, and I and we're gonna bring the positivity and we're gonna we're gonna do what we can do to help promote, to promote the uh, the program, with everyone carrying high tech cameras these days and I'm talking about chefs in particular, people in the kitchen, john, do you think that the role of the professional food photographer has been diminished? Or do you think because there's a sea of people with the same phone in their pocket taking the same picture, with the same angle, with the same stinky light and all lighting and all of that, is this something where you, the food photographer, can, you know, just shine above everybody else? That's a great question. So the food photographer can just shine above everybody else.
Speaker 4:That's a great question. So the truth is is that the phones of today have certainly closed that gap tremendously. Phones just take really, really great photos now, but at the end of the day, lighting is everything and if you don't know how to light it, you're still not going to get great images thing. And if you don't know how to light it, you know you're still not going to get great image. So I think that there's always a role for you know a really good food photographer, and that doesn't mean that you can't still capture really great stuff at home with your phone. But if you want to go next level, I think that there's always a role for somebody like me.
Speaker 1:Well said, Pooch, now that you're moving from kitchen into the media world, what are you most excited about when it comes to hosting interviews or filling in on the Walk Talk podcast and all of the different things that you kind of do for Walk Talk media?
Speaker 2:I think the best part about it is the human stories and being able to relate to another chef who.
Speaker 2:Most of the time you have your staff, you have your upper management or you know business partners or people who own the restaurant or what have you, but you still feel like you're trapped in these four walls of the kitchen.
Speaker 2:I love being able to see a chef express themselves to another chef and that means the most to me.
Speaker 2:I mean them telling their stories, whether it be war stories. You know those were tears, there were laughter, there was a lot of things going on in these interviews because people never really were able to express themselves and I think it was just a unique opportunity for them to see their food being photographed by a professional food photographer and John, while I'm interviewing them, I think they were just overwhelmed with satisfaction in the fact that a lot of that dedication and and sacrifice pays off in these moments and they're finally being recognized and it's something they can go home and show their family, their spouse, their whoever it may be, and say look, there's a reason why I do this and this is why it might not be the late nights all the time. It might not be being getting paid really horribly in this industry. It might not be any of all these other things, but this is why I do it and I love for us to be able to be that vessel and I think that was the most important part for me with the chef on this being at NAFM.
Speaker 1:Glenn, this NAFM show was huge. The US Culinary Open was pretty dynamic. What do you think are the key elements to a show of this magnitude? Prep work.
Speaker 3:And you know we walked into the US Culinary Open with at least for myself I don't want to say I didn't know exactly what was going to go down, but you know it took it took a minute to figure it all out Stepping back, understanding really working backwards, what are the goals of what we're trying to accomplish For video and the final deliverables, understanding what that is and then working backwards and Jordan and I do that a lot.
Speaker 3:You know it's like you don't start at the beginning, you really start at the end and then you, you understand what the deliverables are and you know match to hit your goals and then create in a run of show.
Speaker 3:And you know, if you're organized up front, as everything starts to happen and wheels start to fall off because we were busy, you still have some body of work to keep you organized and know what you know, keep you in line to where you want to go, and so I think each time we do this, that organization in advance is going to get better and better in advance is going to get better and better.
Speaker 3:And, with that being said, doing interviews, honestly, you never know what that person's going to come to you with. We tend to stick to a script on a number of questions and they could be all over the place and you just have to know what answers you're going to use, what answers you're not going to use. I mean, you talk about positivity. Everything we do is about creating, making everyone look really good, and so during the interview, making sure that I'm engaged with Pooch who's doing the interview, making sure that we're prepared enough that we can ask us the same question a different way to get the answer we want it's really about preparation and knowing what the goals are and then working back.
Speaker 1:I think you're 100% correct, glenn. We've had people associated with walk and talk where we made them stars and it would have never happened otherwise. And I'm not tooting a horn, it's just that you take somebody with some talent and when you put them through this digital content filter, you turn them into a star. And that's the power of audio. Turn them into a star and that's the power of audio video and all the things that we do With. That said, I just want to make a mention of Kevin at Supercut, because he's a new partner with Walk Talk. He shared the booth with us along with Citrus America. Their units, their machines, were in our booth and they brought into the booth layers. We had fresh juice, we had all the citrus and I just wanted to thank them both both of those operations for taking the time to be a part of it with us.
Speaker 3:Earlier talking about digital cameras and just how prevalent and easy it is to create with John with pictures or video with us from your cell phone. In Citrus, america, jay, walking around, he's really good, interviewing him is easy, he's got his soundbites, he knows what he's doing when, he knows what he's selling, he knows his product and that's a perfect example of everyone getting more and more comfortable with a camera in their face, because that's just the way we live now. That has helped us out a lot. Now you bring a big camera in somebody's face and they kind of freeze right. You can see it. There's a lot of times we'll pull out a cell phone just to get some sound bites, because they're not intimidated by it. You know, as soon as you bring out the big camera, they all of a sudden get squirrely. But but no people like like Jay walking around doing that. That's exceptional content that he puts out there. So I just wanted to make a mention of that.
Speaker 1:Well, the more that you actually work with people who do shows, call it on a circuit. You know this is what they do eight, 10, 12 times a year. They know exactly what to focus on, what to say. They're not camera shy and they're accustomed to doing you know their own iPhone video and whatnot for their, for their social media platforms. Easy to work with those guys. Jay is awesome, kevin is awesome. Pooch Glenn earlier brought up celebrity in our field. What do you think makes a celebrity chef and who do you think really falls under that moniker?
Speaker 2:Well, to start that off, I think the word chef is actually not appropriated correctly. A chef in the brigade system means chief, it's the chef. The chef means the French word for chief in the brigade system that was created by Escoffier. So you have to be a leader. You have to know all thecoffier, so you have to be a leader. You have to know all the stations in your kitchen and you have to be a leader. To be a chef, you have to have made it through really shitty services and you have to have made it through really great services and you have to build your people up in order to get through the next day or the next hour, the next, anything that happens in the kitchen, and be able to work through anything that goes haywire in a kitchen. So I think the word chef is misused a lot of times because if you're a private chef or you're a personal chef, you're really at the end of it just to cook. I guess the media world wants to make everybody a chef because that way they can make a lot of money off of that.
Speaker 2:Certain networks that have capitalized on making people who aren't chefs chefs in order to sell ads To me. I really don't know what makes someone a celebrity chef. I think when you can't walk down the street without people knowing you and bombarding you with questions and autographs, I think that's the day you're truly a celebrity. I would never consider myself a celebrity chef, nor would I consider anyone that was at NAFTA this weekend a celebrity chef. Everyone that we had the honor of interviewing on the red carpet for the Super Bowl, at the NFL tailgate those were all true, legitimate celebrity chefs. Calling yourself something doesn't make it real, and other people calling you that doesn't make it real as well. You have to actually be a celebrity and people treat you as if you are that. That's just my opinion.
Speaker 1:I'm open to anybody else's opinion we missed a true celebrity chef at the show and that would be the chef thomas keller. He he was at nafum. He came in for specific there wow he was there and he was gone. It was almost like if you stared at it too long it it would disappear, and that's what happened. We didn't get a chance to meet with him or anything. I found out about it after the fact.
Speaker 2:He's at the NRA every year and he is probably the most personable chef out of any celebrity chef and I think that he's surpassed the celebrity chef status to icon. So for him to be such an iconic person that everyone puts on their wall and says, I want to be this guy. When we spoke to a lot of the commis, their goal was to go stage at either the French Laundry or Per Se, his two restaurants, his two major Michelin star restaurants. That was their goal. So for him to be there. I'm sure those commis didn't realize he was there, they were so busy. To me he's an icon. He's not a chef or a celebrity chef, he's truly an icon, up there with the true great. It's amazing that somebody like him is so humble enough to go to these shows and shake hands, sign autographs, because he could be anywhere in the world right now counting money. You know doing his thing, but he truly believes in his craft and he truly believes in the next generation of his craft and it's admirable, truly admirable.
Speaker 1:Wow yeah. Plus he donated knives to the event and to the winner, so that was pretty cool. Could you imagine getting Wow yeah, can you imagine that as a gift from Thomas Keller? Can you really?
Speaker 2:I've never been at a competition where everyone had the caliber to compete. A lot of these competitions you have your all-star people who are really really good, and then you have your other people that would just build up the application and they needed people to compete. There truly was a vetting process and they got the best of the best from all over the world at this competition and it shows in the photos that john took. It shows shows in and I hate to say it this way, but it truly showed in the disappointment of all the chefs who didn't qualify, because they all knew that they were grade A chef. You know, the top three was really really tough and it kind of stunned me to see some of the people being that.
Speaker 2:I saw the dishes come out and all of the above, but you know, I didn't. I don't know how those dishes tasted, I don't know all those different variables that the judges did and they had such world-class judges, all certified master chefs, all great people known in the industry. I've never been part of a competition or got to witness a competition that was just put together so well and the caliber of talent was just amazing, absolutely amazing, and I think that helped us mesh well. It's just amazing, absolutely amazing, and I think that helped us mesh well, you know, being that we're all talented people in what we do. Bringing it to like a culinary world or culinary observation, all these ingredients come together are going to obviously make a great dish, and that's really what happened at Natham.
Speaker 1:We've shot some really amazing dishes over the years. These dishes were and I don't want to say it in a way where it disparages anybody who we've taken photos of in the past. But this competition, I guess when you're, when you're practicing, when you go into this to a competition like this and you're practicing twice a week to execute one dish in a certain period of time and you know that dish inside and out they were beautiful, like really beautiful world-class dishes. I don't know, for me, I was incredibly humbled. This was a very humbling event. I feel like I can stand 10 feet tall and pound my chest and with a bullhorn and scream out look at us. But the reality is, look at them. These people are amazing. These chefs were terrific. Everybody involved, from the competition to the sponsors, the partners in NAFM, in the US Culinary Open, everybody on our team, like dude, everybody really came together and held this competition up, held these chefs up and it was a huge success 100%.
Speaker 2:It made me also realize how well this was put together and coordinated. And then you know obviously we were at Bocuse you can see the caliber of chefs there from all over the world and how technical that is, down to the correct color of shoe you're wearing, to all kinds of different variables, but also to see how well when you see something this gelled from inside the actual box, it makes me realize how well mark turnway, eaton, mike mcleod, all these people how well they put their things together. And when you see all the variables and how something's supposed to run, we realize that everybody out there that's putting these competitions together are really putting their first foot forward, their best foot forward and making it happen for all different levels of the culinary aspect. I think it's a great thing and I just want to give those guys a shout out because they do amazing work as well.
Speaker 1:The WFC cats, they'll be a thousand competitors. You WFC cats, they have. You know there'll be a thousand competitors, you know, you know three person teams. I mean the logistics To organize all that is just. Yeah, the logistics must be outrageous. Well, it is outrageous. You know, we we got to see a little bit behind the scenes there a couple of years ago in Dallas when we went.
Speaker 3:But One thing I did want to bring up as we were talking about the open and the chefs, carl, you had mentioned just the beauty of their dishes and when we were interviewing each of them, several of them talked about the design of the kitchen, the layout of the kitchen and how efficient it efficient it was. And you know, kudos to uh camacho. They, they obviously did a wonderful job laying this out, to give the chefs everything they needed, and it was just about every chef talked about that.
Speaker 2:So shout out to James Camacho and his design firm to lay this out properly and the ingredients and the ingredients Belasso salmon, which is really the top-notch salmon that you get, farmed in Patagonia, down in South America, basically close to Antarctica. So you're going to get the freshest, not adulterated salmon that's out there. You're getting the best. So that ingredient right there. They had all that USDA prime beef fillets, all the farms and purveyors who came through with all the vegetables. Everything was just top top notch, absolutely top notch. When you can get that many people together, I've never really seen that before. I've never seen everything go without a hitch, from the suppliers to the sponsors, to the actual competitors, to the judges, to everything. Everything was so, so, so well put together. And I tell you what it's. Kudos to Polly and Nick, who they did this. You know they didn't have a wild idea and said next year let's do it. It took them five years, five years to put this together and it shows, and this is something that's going to last to the test of time. It's a brilliant, brilliant idea and I'm so happy that we were able to be a part of it. You know one more thing I just want to say that it was the coolest thing. That really made me realize that it was well worth what we're doing. You know the time that we dedicate to the podcast and that John puts in, you put in Glenn Jordan, all of us of us. You know everything.
Speaker 2:John and I were on our way to we grabbed a cup of coffee from Royal Cup thank you, royal Cup and we were on our way to go visit Tina over at RAC and just kind of see how things were going.
Speaker 2:We were waiting on some things to happen. We were there early and on our way we ran into Mike Delane with Air King, who we had interviewed the day before, and he was so ecstatic about the fact that he got Bella, who was their social media person, to create him a Instagram page, a LinkedIn page, all of these social media pages that apply, and he was so excited to say like, hey, man, I reposted everything that you gave Yesterday. We got all the behind the scenes of our interview and that made me so excited. That made my day, because that was the last day. I was obviously exhausted, we all were exhausted, but just to see, you know, a, a vice president of business development, saying that I, or we, motivated him in his business development was paramount, you know, and it really made my day. It really made me realize like this really came together well and it motivated me for the rest of the day. Shout out to Mike Delaney Great dude, love you baby.
Speaker 1:You know what this is akin to. When you're a creative, whether you're doing photography, videography, whether you're a chef, if you're creating something, when you get acknowledgement of what you're doing and that people are accepting it and embracing it, it's the best feeling in the world. Obviously, we all do the things we do to earn a living and that's a whole nother story and a whole nother topic. But when people from within the industry that you're working, your peers and whatnot, when they give you the thumbs up and the attaboy and somebody comes to you like that, with that sort of energy, it is fulfilling this, what we do is so fulfilling, it's so much work I say it fairly often People do not realize the amount of effort that goes into creating real quality content and what we do is special, and what you just said, pooch, was special and I didn't know that story. So thank you for sharing that. Glenn. Lessons learned what do you feel we should reflect on from this experience? How do we make it better for future projects Internally?
Speaker 3:just have a plan going into it. We did and we refined it early on. The biggest challenge was being able to do our work but also go out and meet, say hello. We've talked about that. It's about the people at the end of the day and knowing that and finding the time through organization up front that we create some time and some space to really hold those conversations. There was many people that I would have loved to have engaged in conversation more Great people doing great work.
Speaker 3:We talk about the work that we're doing. A lot of these people are in their office, in their kitchen, and I love the fact that we can shine a light on them. You talk about being proud of the work we do. It's storytelling. Everybody's got a story and sometimes no one's telling it. That's the beauty of what we do, so the more time we have with people to be able to do that is, I think, it's going to make us feel a lot better about the work we're doing. Like you just said, you know not hearing the story that Pooch talked about. Those are the things that are special and those are the things that make our work.
Speaker 1:Worthwhile man. I don't think you could have said it any better. I'm so happy that Walk Talk Media and Pius Media are doing work. Okay, glenn, you are an amazing dude. Your team is amazing. Everybody knows how I feel about our team. I tell you just real quickly shout outs to uh, chris parker and lisa from barfly kyle foreman from crown bad birdie. She was working with uh, with those cats over at crown nancy.
Speaker 2:Hello, yep nancy riding dan. Welch all great people we met at this show.
Speaker 1:There's so many. I mean with those cats over at Crown, amanda Cologne, yep, nancy Ryden, dan Welch, all great people we met at this show. There's so many. I mean I didn't want to take the whole ending here, the outro for this. But anyway, gentlemen, appreciate you all being on the show. There's more of this to come. John, as always you're quiet and we love you. And guess what folks we are out.
