Dana Beninati

But also I personally know she does do some She does spend some time in Florida because of her her boyfriend, who's a good friend who was actually for the cut to It audience. Her boyfriend is a good friend of mine who comes annually to our Montana golf ski trip. So it's it's really it's been a great opportunity to meet Jason, to get the norm we will love to welcome in Dana been the Nazi and I just said it wrong, But that's okay. That's that Los Angeles education.

So give me a hall pass, please, um and you can correct me because my co host and uh and friend and booking and whatever he is. They're chuckling profusely at me. It almost came across as a regime in our history. You might not want to say perfectly all say perfect all right, Well, welcome to the podcast. Obviously. I'm Steve Smith, Singer. I got my man to my left, Gerard little John, our co host extraordinaire. Uh. He has a great wealth of knowledge about a lot of things.

But my man is not a good basketball player. But when I need all basketball information, he's the guy I am uh notoriously knocking on his door and begging him on on text with hey, brod, I just don't get it. So he's he's schooling me on that and then Joe are booking guys gonna be his insult his his insults. Uh. He's a master of everything. He's a jack. I'm sorry, he's a jack of all trains, a master of nothing. He could tell you why, but I asked him to fix fix it. Man, he would look at you and say,

that ain't my job. Scription that is a fair overview. And I am good at basketball. You don't look like you can play basketball just hook shots, because i've seen you at that. I've both of y'all on the same court. No, same court, still a lot of bricks. I did hit the backboard though, and he missed the first shot of the air ball, and Boston was like giving back to it, so we didn't let him let that slide. So, hey, welcome to the podcast. We have this, Uh, I love

some ice breakers. I'm formulating the icebreakers. I was so excited about the next two ice the icebreakers I have for today on our guests, multiple guests that I was afraid to even send the icebreakers because I was scared that they were so good that g or Joe would try to ask the question. So I was kind of selfish. I was actually insecure about them because they're so good. We're we're we're not gonna hidjeck your sec I was just I was just saying, how good they are. So

here we go, all right? You ready? All right? What ends with the T? And it's full of tea? What ends with the T? Starts with the T? Sorry with the T ends with the T and has it is a teapot? Good job, it was a good job. Food Network lady. She was alright, Um, what's the last book you read? Oh, I'm reading a book called Very Valentine, which is an Italian romantic novel, and also The Goal, which is a business not at all and the tad boring but also interesting at the same time. Have you

read it? Do I look like I read that book Very Valentine? No? The Goal quite possibly? Okay, cool? Alright, you have a business empire, so yes, The Goal absolutely an empire. I like that. I need to get some the Empire checked. That's several people I need to call. I got a whole the other day, so I would I would confirmed. Have you ever read the book, uh, the Golden Egg? The Golden Egg? Now? Should? It's actually a good one because you're you're in a food service

people business, so it's kind of good. It's all right, I'm writing it down. Yeah, it's a short read to it, got it. It's one of those short reads that it's like fifty pages of goodness and then when you're doing you go, I feel stupid now just because just how much is in that little that little book that you've missed out on. So it's pretty good. It's called The Golden Neck. Sign me up? Thanks? All right? All right, last one, which is more important, the human body or

the human mind. I'm gonna go mind. We're gonna go mind. That's it, Joe. I would say mind as well too. Alright, mine, all right, I say I'm cheating, but I'll explain why. I'll say both. We got a guy O J. Burgans with the Baltimore Ravens who suffers from mL uh ms and he is not able to move. Anything is up his eyes and his mouth and so you mail J and he does everything by eyesight. Uh, he can't speak. He breathes all that stuff. They you know they he has a full time um caretaker and his mind is

so wonderful. But I can't imagine how intelligent he is. And yet who used to be a football player, a pretty darnker for football player who can't get up sometimes because he's one of those guys, he will send you an email that just breaks you down. His perspective, how he looks at the world, and you just want to hug him, and you could tell he wants to hug

you back, but his words are his affection. I got a random email from him about two weeks ago, and I so wanted to give him a hug, and I so wanted to feel a hug from him, but I know he can't. So this question for me as I as I, as I looked at it, I started to dissect It's like he has a great mind, but that one time or you know, maybe you I know you do, I know you do. I have and I'm not sure

about you. We have someone in our life that we wish that they passed away, that we can just get that last hug from them, right even on our mind, we know that they loved us, we know that they're there, but it's that physical hug that you need, and your mind is telling you, uh, but they still love you. They're looking down on you, but your body saying but I need that from my grandma. I need that from

my grandpa. I need that from somebody. So that's why I say both because of that perspective, that that that oh J gives me every so often, and I'm just like, wow, what to be so smart, so love me, so caring, so thoughtful, and a little bit of trapped. M hmm, that's the perfect word for it. Trapped. I can totally relate my This is why I chose mine because my dad is blind m and he's incredible. He played basketball, for Kentucky. He runs his own business. He lives independently.

He runs his own business, and the type of business. He's a real estate broker, right, so he has spent his whole career buying and selling houses that he couldn't see, which is what you think about it, right, that is not on the information sheet. So that's why I went because if he you're right, If you're right, it's all

about perspective. Right, if he can do if you're a friend o j or if my dad can do what they do on a daily basis, send an email that changes the world, give a family the house that changes their world. You know, it's perspective. It's like, all right, I can do anything. What's your dad's name, Bartolomeo say? Like the car that's Alpha Romeo. I was trying to associate it because I was going to put it out

with two. I can tell you right now, if Bartolomeo Benettatti calls you, just paying him, just don't ask do it. Just paying him cash doesn't matter. Hey, steve somebody to do it. What's her name? Watch give him his money. He is not here to distrunning. The first of all, I'm not even going down where are you from in a place you call your hometown. I'm from Ormond Beach, Florida, and the place I call home is New York, New York. For sure? Why New York, New York? Since you I

feel most alive. Okay, it's the center of the universe. Also, in case you didn't know that, I didn't know. No, no, no, no, US coach people try that, but it's not it's great. I love that you got sh she did, she shust me and waiting, she said, go play the child. I love l A to come and play. That's what you do in LA. You don't live with that traffic. And New York is not traffic. You're just skipping around like like like New York is never, there's never any Bankers

are not comparable at all. No, no, no. You can ride your bike everywhere you gotta go in New York for the subway, you can in l A. I don't think you can know. Whenever I go to l A and I'll text one of my l A friends like, hey, you want to go grab dinner here? I'm in Santa Monica. They're like Santa Monica. That's so far Santa Monica. If they live in the Laguna Beach city wherever. That's that's far. That's just like asking somebody in the Hamptons to come

to come to the Bronx. That's quite a white Can you take a bike there? You can get there next week, said two and a half hour train ride, as it would be if you guys actually had trains. But you don't have trains. Again, why New York in the superior city, she said, superior? Listen. With all that being said, I know where your man is in Florida. So so for whichever hood you represent, so whichever hood you claim, how

was your upbringing as a kid. Oh, my bringing as a kid is entirely different than life now, which is maybe why I like New York so much. Like where I grew up as a sleepy, tiny little beach town. You go everywhere in a Botinian flipbops. It's it's quiet, it's calm, it's fairly boring, which is why New York so intoxicating. Right, you've got our you got culture, you've got theater. Quite the opposite. You still got some people

in bikinis and flip flops in New York too. It just depends on depends on where you just depends on New York. In New York, several times, Raine Sleader snow, it's always an outfit or two. I'm going like a wedding dress in what is this that doesn't match? Well? That is true. You have to be able to rock speakers with whatever outfit you're wearing. Clean maybe not, but

like you've got to make a quick shoe change. Every New York girl knows that there's a handbag that fits a great pair of stilettos and a great pair of sneakers. Because you're gonna make a change, at least one startin today. Yeah you will. But it's always interesting in New York to watch people, like watch a guy in a suit with you know, with some monarchs or or you know, because good walkers shoes and they you know, they're on the hustle and bustle. Explain this to me. I get it,

but I'm act stupid. You're the first generation American, you know. For some people that's listening, they may say, Dove, of course, you know, she she's the first American in her family, But what does that really mean. It's huge, however, for the family it's bigger or uh not, it's not a are but huger because because those those family members know exactly how hard it has been for that family collectively.

But then you have that one person that is that glimmer of hope that sets, that sets an opportunity and taking advantage of an opportunity that so many other people wished, died, bled and work their tail off like your dad to give you this opportunity, and you took full advantage of it. But take us on that journey for your family on what that means for you to be the first American

Because you're the first American. You're sitting in front of us, don't cut to it, but the people behind you, where were they and what did they go through to be able to afford you this moment to be this all star that you are. Thank you and thank you for having me. I haven't had the chance to tell you, um how much it is win not just for me, but for all the ben and not eat the whole that's all three of you. UM, it's pretty cool. I'm I'm what they call a pizza bagel or I would

like to say a mozzarella stick. So my dad is I do not know what any I'll break it down because all of her was slursh, that's all I heard. I'm like, I'm not stepping on that. So my dad, as you know, he's Sicilian from a little tiny island and um um sleep called liberty. And my mom is a Russian Jew, And so I'm a pizza bagel the best of both worlds, or a mozzarella stick because I

like to call it um. And I really grew up with exposure to both sides and a really open environment where it was understood that my parents came from two totally different backgrounds, but there was a there was a lot of love, at least for a period of time.

Th So I think for them what it means to be first generation is that the plights that their parents um went through to put them in a better spot is paying off tenfold now for myself and my brother, because we are afforded opportunities that I don't even think they dreamt of. I remember when I told my parents that I wanted to work in food. My mom was like, that's fantastic, that is something you've always loved. And my dad was like, you're crazy. That's not what we came

here for. That's not what my parents came here for to him, the fact that I could follow a passion and turn it into a career path seemed insane when the American dream was to come here, get an education, get a traditional job that allows you to have stability and success and a family. To turn that idea on its head and say no, I'm going to do something creative and I miss you. I will leverage it and I will make it into a career. He was like, why,

You're smarter than that. It took a long time, and even now some some days I can see that he is still confused. How in the world I have made food into a career. So where did the passion for food come from? Well, my grandmother's easy to I mean, but my grandparents really so my great grandfather, they say, I don't I didn't have to have a chance to

meet him, but they say. He was sent off to the Italian Army and first day there he cooked and somehow the food was tasted and was like no, no, he stays, he doesn't fight, and eventually became one of Mussolini's cooks. My dad's parents, UM, just glance over that there's a lot for for some for some of us. I think g and um, Joe know exactly, but um I don't. So who's Mussolini, big Italian leader? So Mussolini

was like Napole you've heard Napoleon Bonaparte. Mussolini is one of the famous generals, if not the ruler of all of Italy and the Italian Army back in the day. So when her when when her mother, excuse me, when her great grandfather said that, like, it resonates with me, danas, So to let you know, my great grandfather actually has a we have a town in Italy named after my ancestors,

which is Bobino, Italy. And my great grandfather was in the Italian Army and there's actually a statue of him in front of this town that I've never been to that I want to go to. Let's go. I'm man is about to rip me apart for not being there. I'm just letting you know, we don't know this about you, and we all supposed to be who I got a whole town named out this folks. But because I was gonna google Fushi and if I looked up Fushi nothing, I was going to don't don't google boa Ya. It's

because I'm about say I have been ill. Ain't none of fushi to never witness protection. That's all I can tell you. That's that's yeah. So for for to fight, for her great grandfather to go and fight, now, the Italian Army has never been confused with a um intimidating force. Let's just be honest. But so for everyone would always have to go fight, that meant you were a man.

So for her great grandfather to be such a great cook that he wouldn't quote go defend his country, to stay back and cook from Musseolini, that is a huge, huge accolade. That is huge. I mean I know the name, but I didn't understand the history. I needed to pause and get something couldn't have done as of things I'm good at but not mastering. Remember, yeah, I told you, look information information. Why does that information just retained there

for these moments right now? It's exactly the only reason I love cut to It, and I love it even more when you download us and subscribe and you can follow us on social media too, Smithie, where where at that's at? Cut to It on Instagram? What about Twitter? At? Cut to it? Facebook? Cut to It featuring Steve Smith singr? What about online and you can follow us at cut to It podcast dot com, where you can buy merch and you can subscribe to us wherever you listen to podcasts.

I got all my answers questions. Um, yeah, I got all my questions answered. That's what I'm here for, a brother,

cut to a podcast dot com. So the passion that the the DNA of of of cooking has been in your family for years and so my grandmother on my mom's side was the first food writer for the Miami Herald, which to be a woman back at that time, you know, a Jewish woman in Miami to say like, I'm gonna write and I'm gonna write about food, and she convinced them, especially at that time, women were not looked at as as as as people of influten. Wow. So it's in my veins. I can't deny it. So how long have

you and I love to eat? So do I we all agree? At what age did you really start to have the passion for cooking? I would say probably nine or ten. I started working in restaurants when I was fourteen, but um, nine or ten, it was like, yeah, I don't need dance was a huge part of my life. I was a competitive dancer, and any time I wasn't dancing, I wanted to be in the kitchen. There was like nothing else that was of interest to me. But when you think about it, they're both like so so creative,

you know what I mean. They're just a form of expression, but they're they're super creative. But yet they required a ton of concentration, a ton of attention as well a lot of a lot of a lot of technique in detail. And you couldn't have it in either one. You'd see it physically and dancing and your food wouldn't be great if you have to and cooking, I mean, you gotta

be good at it, right, So when did you? When did you start realizing I want to take this serious and I believe I can make a career out of it. When I realized that dance was no longer an option, so I um tore many three times. The first was in a competition. I tore an a c L during a performance and changed the game. Yeah, I hurt my ego, like for it to happen on stage and with that move? What are you trying to do? Uh, it's it's called it's now illegal, so you don't see dancers doing anymore,

thank god, because a lot of people heard themselves. But if you know what a Russian is, which is like a toe touch, right, but instead of coming down and landing on your feet, you do a toe touch and then in the air you turn and you land in a split. No that there's a legal dance moves that just here there's jump up and shank somebody that it's been outlawed, it's been out on. Yeah, what do you do?

Not that? Not that exactly. So that made it clear like, Okay, you can still dance and have fun, and I do for sure, I'll tear up any dance. I'll make something into a dancefort tomorrow today. But it made it clear that it just it wasn't going to be a long term option anymore. So electric do you do the electric slide? Tear it up? She said? Cupid shuffle? Yeah? Who doesn't do the Cupid shuffle? A lot of people. I mean, it's old, but let's do it. That's that's traditional at

the black moment, use and wins. I know, damn well, you and Jason are not doing electric slide when y'all go out, he does. That's my whole point and so I knew he's some of those. A lot of people you've you've had the opportunity. I think what you've gone to Johnson and Wales, right, is that the one here in Charlotte? Is they're multiple there? Well I did not go to the Charlotte campus, but it's a great Okay,

which one did you go to? What does Johnson and Wales present Because a lot of people just look at it as a culinary school. However, I know they do so many other things, and I'm always interested to hear exactly what they offer for students because on paper it could be overwhelming. Right, you say hospitality or management, and people don't really understand. You know, how many jobs are in management in hospitality that aren't necessarily up front and personable,

dealing with people all the time face to face. But there's so many other elements to it. What example, Yeah, don't talk about that, Like how how did you knowing your passion for food? Having having that passion for dance? So let's all of that is creativity. So how did going to Johnson and Wales? How did you hone in that creativity to really to propel you or take that step forward into you know, knowing your desire, your dreams, your hopes can really happen if you do this. Mm hmm.

Well there's a lot of questions there that quadruple barrel questions. You loaded the clip on that one that was a short ball shot going right there home protection. Well j W both JU was my undergrad I did two bad first degrees there and then an m B a Cornell like Cornell. Yeah, both universities have were incredible, um and what they give back to their students. But Johnson Wales,

you're you're really hitting on something. There's seeming that people do underestimate, Like if you know about it, which a lot of people don't. It's a small, non non for profit private school, right, it's not it's not super well known beyond the culinary space. But they actually have a really robust criminal justice program. They pumped out kids who are apparently really great candidates for h j D, NBA programs that not a lot of people know about, which

I think is cool. Right if you go to Johnson Wales, if you think you want to cook, and then you get to know the industry and you're like this is not for me. There's actually a pretty cool and pretty strong program that you can get into without having change universities. So big, big opponent of j wu um. I would say, the biggest takeaway from being a student there, and and I don't think that this has changed, is how strict

they are in the way you present yourself. Right, So as chefs, you have a certain mental image that comes to mind when you think of a chef, a white coat, a white apron. You're clean, your your pristine, your well grooms hair pulled back, and they're really strict about that. And any classes you take that aren't in the kitchen, you wear full professional dress. Like college kids go to class in a suit or in a women's suit or

a jacket in his hie. What happens if they can't What happens if someone is their own scholarship who can't afford that? Yeah, I was there on side. There's a there's a huge scholarship section. I know, but I'm talking about I understand there's a scholarship program because I understand every but I'm talking about the prison how they present themselves.

What if they can't or to ye to present themselves. Yeah, the professional dress, for sure, I mean the culinary professional dress is given to them, and the professors take it super seriously, like they take a credit card to men's faces to see if they shaved. That's gonna get you. That's gonna get you a two piece. If you put a credit card to my face to see if I shave. Yeah, I like a little struff, But you know what I want. You put a credit card in my face to see

if I shave, I'm gonna slap you. Ain't take that credit card. Yeah, you have to stick out your tongue show if you have a per thing? Is have it taken out? It's it's extreme. So to go to college, you're sticking your tongue out for what to make sure that you have a thing so you can't have Is that? So? Is this a cold of ethics that you signed prior to be some health stuff? What if that falls into the food so you fish it out? That's kind of disgusting, Okay,

and not since why I didn't go there. What's more discussing is they're gonna make you stick out your tongue to see if you have a pierson. I don't think you could not happen. Yeah, this is this all happens before you even get in the kitchen and you're in the kitchen for a six hours, so it's you're a check from how to tell before you get in you can stick your tongue out over the risotto. Could Gerard wear his belly button ring? Is that fine? Yes, they're

never going to see you. Like. Different areas of your tongue have different receptors, so if you have a fiercing it makes it ma different. Okay, I understand that. So that's for the professional standard. So what were some of the things that Johnson wales obviously, um, you know you got your management and hospitality, you got your NBA from Cornell. What was all those experiences good for? And how to prepare you for just being in the food industry today.

Perform under pressure. That's what it's all about, and that's really what my job is. It's just problem solving, like putting out fires literally and figuratively most most of the time figuratively, and doing it under pressure. Now with millennials, how do you with millennials today? Problem solving and putting out fires requires uh, something tangible, It requires actually people to do something and follow through with it. Do you

find that that's more challenging now? What millennials in such a high performance pressure cooking um result driven business that people don't like to do. Yes, yes, it's much harder. Look I I taught high school kids in between Johnston Whales and Cornell and because thank you, I will take it. Because getting thirty seventeen year olds to do anything organized at seven am is a feat in and of itself.

But I'm super grateful for that experience because if you can convince them to do something, you can really it teaches you to problem solve. Yeah, there's a generational um shift that's happening, for sure, and I don't think it's for the best. And so how does that? How does that working? Like? So you know, so you graduate and then you start what because you started doing high school? Just walk us through that. You have so much on your on your palette that I'm I'm a d d on.

I'm a d d on trying to grab it all and figure it out and throw it out there to let our listeners know kind of everything that you're doing, because it's amazing. We've had yew, you'd be the third, you'd be the third chef somebody who's been in the food industry. We had Tiffany phase on, we had Eddie Jackson. Now having you is phenomenal. But each each three of you guys, now, each of you have had so many different stories, and you're the first one that really had

to do with school going through the school process. The other ones were baptism by fire right. They lack the I think it's more effective. There's a big problem right, the whole idea of culinary schools. And I don't want to put them down. We need vocational job training, but

it's a broken system. Kids are spending tens of thousands of dollars to go to school with an idea of what they think working in the industry is going to be like, and they come out entitled, ready for their own TV show, and they don't even know how to hold a knife yet, and how could they. It's just practice, right, But if you're twenty years old, you haven't had that

much practice. So I I think we have a big problem that culinary schools are so expensive, and let's face it, the return on that investment is never going to come. The average industry income is never going to allow you to pay back those loans. God forbid you took them out. So I think trial by fire is a way to do it, and that's the way people used to learn how to become chefs. There's something called staging, and that's how you used to become a chef back in the day.

Staging like stage French words, staging like apprentice. You wanted to be a chef, You didn't go to school, You went in the stage. You found the best kitchen that you could get yourself into, and you are there, bitch, you peel potatoes for a place to live. And then once they see that you can do that, well, they'll give you something up. I've done it all the really strong chefs in this country have have done it all

over the world. And it's it that is trial by fire and the things that you're going to learn the costume. You're great. You you understand techniques, but that's it. It's just like a superficial understanding. You don't actually know them like from here. You know what I'm saying. You've got to do them a bunch to know. You got to have that problem. Yeah, muscle memory. That was such an interesting take on the higher education part because it's you're

you're coming out with everything you just said. You have a false expectation. You have a skewed perception, but then you're coming out with a whole bunch of debt as well. Everything you said pleasure come out with it if you took out a loan, so and you almost can't take that out wash rest repeat on a number of different things when you talk about higher education. So it was I was locked in when you were talking about that.

When I hear or look at situation where people say the system is broken, I kind of like the system is broken, because if the system wasn't broken, I wouldn't be here like this. I used I used the system. I used the broken system to get me where I am, and because of that broken system is put me in a place where then I know what I don't know, and so I can be around people and cultivate my own relationships to kind of get educated in certain areas that I feel that is usable and and I can use.

And then other stuff like I don't want to learn how to build a rocket ship, don't care, not interested. I'm interested in other things, and so I'm able to talk to other people that have went to school for that. But I've lived enough life that I can I've learned how to apply and use applicable information to be able

to advance myself without that degree. So I can sit and talk with real estate folks, maybe not understand and speak the the educated terms, but then I also can calculate my own I can calculate with the interest rates that I know is going on personally interest rates and business interests rates. Then I could take the number calculated towards the interest rates and then calculate what my loan

payment will be over with the MS and arms. Not knowing that that's what I was doing, be able to get the number because I've been doing it long enough. I don't have a degree, but can't do that. You was, yeah, that's that's that's a go with that, Dana. In the vocational culinary arts trade, our degrees from Johnson and Wales or other high ranking higher education universities, are those individuals looked at like, oh you graduate from there, you can

I'm cooked with us? Or are there individual people to you said like trial by fire? How do you get and move up the ranks? Is it the education that matters to them or is it you're just good? Yeah you don't, you don't need to degree. And probably every clinneris will never let me represent them from here on it. But you don't need a degree to climb the ranks in in the food and beverage world. If you are trying to do something in particular, like do you want to be an F and B director of a hotel?

Agree with food beverage beverage director of the hotel? She dropped a B worse. I thought she was discussing me again. I didn't know. I was like, look, you talked to you talked to co hosts like that, but not so food, food and beverage, what else? So hold on, hold on, So you have to have it to degree to be able to tell me how many crates there are? What? No, just saying because food and beverlege. To work at a hotel,

you must have a degree. I've been to an number of nice hotels and they have some degree F and B s that don't know what the hell they doing. Precisely, I would say most hospitality careers you don't need a degree. What are some hospitality careers the most entry level positions? You're working in front of house or back of house in a restaurant, So what do you think what kind of front house back house, which one of my Oh

you're without a doubt front of house. You cannot let that personality A couple of years ago should have been like back house. No, it's personality. Come on you, you light up a room, Steve. When you can make a friend out of anybody, run I can run some folks off too. Sometimes you want if they're sitting at a table and they that is a life skill. I was just turning somebody off as a life skill. Okay, you

need to be able to get people awesome time. What if you've got people sitting at your table, sitting at a bar, and you want them to move. You need somebody who's going to make them move. So that's a good skill to have to um front of house. Entry level, you're a server, maybe you're a captain, maybe you're a matre d. So what do you where did you start off at? And you know, take after you got your degree, you got all these got all this paperwork, you graduate

and you go to teaching kids. No, my first job was a ship job. I was a general manager of a winery. Okay, terrible, great, great place to to try and apply all the things that I just learned. And I'm a third level some. So at the time I was only a second level some and I wanted to stay in the wine world, or really get into the wine world. But Google your bosses? Are you talking about songs? Like before Leviticus and all that? There we go, I'm

here for you, this right here. So it was kind of it was kind of right, I know, you know what I say. She was like, sounds like songs. So you're a GM a general manager of a winery, and didn't go, well, huh, did not know? It was even that movie Horrible Bosses. It was that was my life. If everybody needs to have that, it's all good. It's all good. You don't need to have a horrible bass though, No you do, because then when you have a good one,

you can recognize it. But sometimes you can get so damaged from the first boss that you are recoverable for the next one. It wasn't that bad, okay, So then you go from there you jump ship or they fired you, which one? No? I left. They asked me to do something was kind of illegal, and I was like, I'm out, We're not. There's a big food festival that happens every year in Miami. The largest catering company in Miami had pinch their micro greens. You know those little tiny, beautiful

mini greens that you see on gorgeous food a lot. Anyway, their microgreens vendor didn't come through, so they were in a pinch. They were looking for microgreens. They needed several hundred pounds of these things. We grew in Miami. In Miami, so you need a whole you need a whole pound of green, multiple pounds of greens in Miami for the microben regular need a lot of That would not work. So anyways, long story made short. We sold we had, we grew them on property to them and you have

to drive or drop it off. We had they had a courier come pick it up. This is all done at night. And they received them and they weren't at all wade, so won't be charged before with thousands of dollars more than what they actually received. So you so you didn't weigh them, so you gave him the street value precisely. I get pretty close. And so the owners they called really pissed. That's hopefully not an angry phone call. And yeah, the owners of the winery were like, hey,

they signed for him. Charged them, and I was like, no, that's so, that's not right. How much did they try to charge? Oh my, it was thousands of dollars, tens of thousands of dollars more than what we gave them an actual product we gave them. It was really messed up. I was so y'all gave water down product. I follow this story. I'm following it so lack of integrity just couldn't couldn't do it anymore. And it was all done in cash. You gotta stay about your work. And so

I left and I went and did a stage. I went to Paris and no stage in that dirty little city that we all love so much. Good good, let's getting down to good. Hey, Gerard, why did you get that T shirt? You mean this thing? Oh yes, I got it from cut to a podcast dot com where we have exclusive merchandise shout out to our guys at seven or four shot. But yeah, you can go on buy you a T shirt subscribed to us wherever you

listen to podcasts, So you start working in what. I came home started teaching, and teaching led me to Cornell because the mentor was like, hey, you're doing this wine thing. At the time, I passed my third levels UM, and they were like, what why are you teaching high school? You should teach college. So I applied and I kind of kept the same role that we were talking about, Like I knew that I would never make enough money to pay back loan. So I was going for scholarships.

That's what I That's why I chose Johnson and Whales. That's how I ended up the Cornell And so Cornell has this amazing fellowship. They choose one student a year will not student, will be half teacher half students. And that's what I did. So I did my m b A. And I taught UM several classes at Cornell's Hotel school. They paid me to go to school and it was good stuff. So now I can do what I want to do and and not be as stressed about the return. So you you do a lot of stuff, right, So

let's talk about today. What what are some of the projects that you have going on today? Yeah, so now I have my own production company. What's the name of the production company, d w D Production? How did you pick that? How did you dine with Dane? Is always what it's been, It's always what I've known that I want to do. It's it's how I want to make people feel when we talk about food and wine. I want to make people feel alive and love and having

a great time. And so teaching on camera, teaching people how to cook and pay their food with wine is what I love most. And being able to do that for other brands like Network or individual brands that have a story to tell, be it on TV or digital, that's that's what I'm here to do. So why do you Why is parent wines with food so important? Because it's it's elevation, right, It's one thing is good by itself,

but when it's with another, it's even better. Come on, like a swoon full of peanut butter is awesome by itself, but you put that chip with banana and marshmallows, something else happens. Oh no, okay, but jelly, I don't know people. So let's let's let's play a game here there, let's go, let's get to it. Let's elevate something. We got some I can't see it. We have some wines. We you know, we got we got deals. So we gotta come up with brands, you guys, tasty, that'll be real jealous. I

just had some microgreen, so I can't. So we're moving on. Um. So right now we have a cab is Alexandria Valley, Sonoma County to what would you pair this with? Ah? Is it for you? It's for your cousin Lucy, It doesn't matter. It could be Agnes out there in parish smoking at Virginia slim Lucy drink whatever is in there, Uncle James softball. So we're gonna go steak up stake in crusted and peppercorns. Okay, that was so non black

right there, incrested with peppercorn. Yeah. Look, if you're spending time in Paris and you're eating steak freeze, you probably had up without knowing it. The first first few times I went to parish, I really couldn't afford it. So brother wasn't really having a lot of food, havn't Okay? Okay, that would also be bombed with a really thin smash burger like crispy edges, cheesy freako over the edges, wine and the burger. Hell. Yet I'm more of it in

and out, not smashed burger smiger. All right, I understand I'm talking to an l wait. I wasn't talking about smash burger like the place I was talking about the style, like a super thin burger. But if we're talking about the best then burger and talking to two black guys that barbecue when you went, he's been over a house way too much. Hell no he been, he he been. Not bring no thinly sliced burger to the house. I don't back home, George of the flat, is this a

thick burger? Crew? Only my wife after she had a couple of glasses of Danny. We'll talk Italian after this. Oh my god. Yeah, I'll tell you I would not put it with a hot dog or ribs. It's gonna be too big, too much, all right. So thinly sliced burger, not thinly slice, you smash it, all right. So you're saying, like, h so a fancy burger, No, just a thin crispy burger. That's a fancy burger. And out burgers, fancy sell milkshakes and seven up man lemonade, shape shock cells wine. They

didn't go to shake Shore got crinkle fries. There's nothing wrong with the Crenkle fry. First of all, we're asking at I'm asking a stupid quest other than Moscatto is there other dessert wines? Kelly? Yes, are you in the sweet wine? I'll do a fruitful drink at the modment. That's just who I am. I'm not a I don't really drink like that, so I'd go with Seltzer. No. If I stand you with this, I'm not I'll hit the fruitful wine. But I ain't hit no Seltzer. Now,

don't get a twist? All right? All right? Hold on? And then why you're gonna have to send that to Joe? I can't spell that the oldest great? What about? What about some Lambrusco love lamb fruit? It's Italian? It's Italian sweet wine? Okay? Is it sweeter than little Bubbly No? No, because can find them. It could be sometimes too sweet. It's a dessert one back in like those early like

oh five, when Like Drake first came out. He started rapping about it people eating drinking mascotto with like steaks like comes not even I know you don't suppose you that that's wrong? A Scott with everything. And then we got a sharden. Is this Chardonay California Select twenty nineteen. What would you have with this? I go seafood? Really like a boil of some kind, like a crawfish boil or drinking bruce. That would be really really good. So have you been You've been in New Orleans? Right? I

have what a city? Man? So would you would you go to would you go to mothers? If you go to mothers and get one of those some gumbo Montfrey, you go with this perfection man to see as good as hell? Kick your ass? You coming in there with this? Can I get nine ounce pour? We don't even have as you think we're gonna get yourself. You think we're gonna get you some wine. Let's get this ninja out of here. Can go to the stow with that? You go around and call me right? Um? Okay, last one

this is this is your test. Now see if you really know about your stuff? If you too, this is Dana. This is very high end. So you're gonna you got this sour apple chiller with a with a cat. What you're gonna drink with this orange based wine? Absolutely? It's orange wine with apple and lemon juices and natural flavors code for artificial? Yeah, so you drinking with this? I saw your instagram muse over there has some you're gonna McDonald So this gotta be one of those with with

that nugget the quarter pounds. Everybody knows sour apple pair as well with a nugget what you got? I mean you could go nuggets, but I'm not going nuggets. I'm going breakfast. Like what's that thing where the syrup is built in a mcgriddle, the sweet and savory it's got like sausage, egg and cheese. They don't sponsors, We can't. I don't know you would drink a sour apple that? Yes, sadly, it's gonna be sweet and oddly citrusy. What do you use the parent with wild irish rose? What do you

what do you eat with that? Um? You know the bird you got up on an air. I can just drink that straight just at the end of the day, mixed package of cold in it. Chake it up if you're drinking this. If you're drinking this early in morning, you've got a problem. Bro I felt bad buying it. They were looking at me like rice check one sour apple? What else is your bout with that? A pack of black of mouths. I got a lucky strike about one cigarette?

Absolutely not one of you. We'll give you some feedback. We might do that off camera. We got contracts when you're drinking on camera. I actually I don't. I'm not really a drinker anyway, And they make fun of me because when we all do, I'll get I mean, I am he's a vodka fruit juice pineapple, yea vaka pineapple. Or I'll do uh, I'll do areto sour judge me if you want no, that's no no judge. So one

time somebody tried to be funny though. A waiter tried to be funny because he was like, oh, you're Mr. Tough guy. He brought it in a in a um Margaret Martini glass, Martini glass. I gave him the stair. You better put that in a short glass player. I looked at him. He was like, what is I said, bro, glass gonna get your ass. You better go ahead and put it in real glass. Don't disrespect me like that. He's like, oh, I thought it was funny. I got something I think funny on YouTube. He was like, oh,

you know, I was just joking around. Come home, bro, trying to do like that. Donna stall me out and get stalled yourself. That injine, don't turn over to so um. Yeah. See if I have a drink recommendation for you, okay, Apple sprints, what say it one more time? And an Aprile sprint. If you like an Amaretto sour, I think you're going to be into it. A p E A p E r o l sprits okay, because you've got like the sour mix, the amaretto, the sprite thing happening

in that drink it's prosecco. You've still got the orange slices, got a little splash of april. I think you'll be into it. I'll tell you, I tell you everything. I'll tell you a drink that's pretty so you ever heard of a green tea? Okay, substitute the substitute the brown and put um put back in it, and it's a white tea. Fire try no huh. What are some of the dishes or foods you like to cook when you're not working? Oh? Pasta any day, every day, tear it up.

I'd love to make curry, any kind of curry? Are you imposta curry? I just everybody post that you like and you cannot say spaghetti. I know you too well. I like a good like the shrimp scampy joint. I like that. So what kind of noodles are? And I don't know whatever they Sorry, I don't know. And Joe like the thick noodles or the real that that is a chift's preference. Whatever it is, I'm gonna eat it. I like angel. Joe's shaking his head because you're calling yeah,

like a bake Man of God is my favorite. My mom used to make that and freeze right and send to me in college after some micro green. What's that? Yeah, we can call it big Joan. Yeah, So for me, I love I had it in I had it when I was traveling on the first time ever. Um, and it's some former version of spaghetti, but um, bolon, I love bolon. I ain't gonna tell me not to say spaghetti and then you go straight to some damn spaghetti.

I was if, I said, because it's Bolonise is different, but it's it's kind of a it's a version of spaghetti, but it is ridiculous. It takes about eight to nine hours, so it's not spaghetti eight or nine hours just on the sauce. It is. Don see, next time I see you, I'm gonna make you bologna and the uncle a white bolog I tried. I tried the white bolon as you're in a fan, did you have a good one? I don't know, this gotta be about race, Like it just wasn't.

It wasn't. I didn't like. I didn't like the it had like a residue. The white pasta it was. It was kind of like it was like I want to say, the best I had. The best I have is like, so I have a coffee a cappuccino machine, and you know sometimes when if you don't use the the milk and it kind of just sits there and it has that little residue. That's how I kind of I felt that the white had a film, had a film, and I was just like, we gotta get no, don't judge

solely on that. You gotta get you another one. But uh so I was. You know, my grandmother taught me I cook. I love cooking. I enjoy cooking. Um the meal I met made for my wife when I was warning her over back in college. Oh I love this um manicatti with meat sauce. Oh you can roll over, Joel. It seems too Yeah, so I even I even put the missed it. I even put that I didn't miss it.

I glanced over. No, I put the uh. At the time, I wasn't a stute, so I didn't put the cheese in a zip block bag of squeeze and I used like a spoon, like a baby spoon to put the cheese in there, and did all that in the meat sauce. And that's that was our That was the first meal I made her. They were yeah, did it's sure? Did so? Yeah. UM. We're almost wrapping up, but wanted to just ask you, UM, you know you're you are on advisory board or advisory

board remember for the Food Education Fund and in New York. UM, what made you come to that decision or conclusion that's where you want to serve on that board? There's so many boards, there's so many foundations, there's so many things with food security or the lack of food security. UM, how do you believe that you being on that board is um is the right place for you? And what are they doing that you continue to serve and believe

that they're doing great things? Food Education Fund is incredible and a lot of the touch points you just mentioned, Steve are what brought me there. So I think you want to make a difference, you've got to start small, so smart, little, start local. For me was where it was at, And I started with Food Education Fund when they had one high school. UM, and now we service

thirteen high schools from New York City public schools. All of them offer some kind of food education, which, as we talked about, I'm not entirely sold on the fact you should have to pay for So if you can go to public high school and learn how to feed

yourself and your families, I think it's integral. Uh. Of the students in these thirteen high schools are under the poverty line, and we have over time gotten to the point where we are supporting different aspects of their life, not just education they get on a daily basis in the high school, but internships that place them in paid opportunities where they can work and help their family earn money. And UM food pantries that serve us not just the

students but also their family. So it's really yeah, it's really UM an incredible program. And when you see the outreach, like, yeah, it's it's local, it's in Manhattan, but UM, all of the students they're average commute time all of the students commute in but their average commute time is close to two hours. So when you think about how broad that impact really can be in making a difference in these kids lives, it's pretty incredible. They just little plug. They

are open. They just opened their cafe. They had a student run cafe at the first high school, the Flagship high School, and it's now in the Barclays Center. So if you go to New York to see an event or watch something at Barclays, you can have your cappuccino from Food Education. They serve flat whites, for sure. I love a flat white. Is there your coffee of choice? All right, yes, I like a flat white. I'm not talking to racist. I'm talking about a drink. Somebody may

hear this. You go, somebody may say flat white. What is he talking about. It's to drink people, It's to drink, you know. Not everybody's delicious one. It's fire sometimes like I have two shots and then so I'll do a flat white and then kill it and then add an espresso and then they micro green. No they're not. They're not do a workout. Workout. That's impressive. I'm before teaching camera. I try not to do it because my knife on my hands would be like if I drink that, first

of all, that's bad. Shaky hand and a knife. Yeah five, Hey, well, we really appreciate you. One. Thank you, I Wane, Thank you guys, Jason, but really thank you. You know, I knew you were super cool to anybody be able to handle Jason, to deal with him. He's a unique man. My wife would probably say, I'm I'm unique as well. And um, I've been friends with you a long time. G you're unique. And and Joe, you damn sure unique

in a good way. But that's why God made us and if we all were the same, life would be born. So thank you so much. Really appreciate you, guys. This was so much fun. You are a unique person. You are well worth it, you are competent, and most of all, you're lovable. I'm Steve Smith Singer. I'm Gerard Little John and this is cut to It. Cut to It with Steve Smith singor That Is Me is a production of Cut to It LLC, Balto Creative Media, The Black Effect,

and I Heart Radio. For more podcast from I Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows from Cut to It. Executive producer Steve Smith, singer co host Gerard little John, talent and booking manager Joe Fusci, Social media team Wesley Robinson and John Show from Balto Creative Media. Cut to It is produced by Brian Baltaschevitch and Meredith Carter, with

production assistance by Alex Lebrek, Production coordinator Taylor Robinson. Theme music by Alex Johnson, Lyrics and vocals by Anthony Hamilton. You Ain't heard about it? Then about to left? You know, you know it's It's all