EYL #55 Everybody Eats feat. Chef Kelvin

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All right, guys, welcome back, e y L. We have a very very exciting special episode today. First and foremost, shout out to Drvin. I didn't even tell you what. A couple months ago we were number two on the on the DR Charts for Business podcast. We have a strong following in DR and some of our biggest guests have been Dominicant. We had Caesar dj mv's partner. Shout out to Caesar. We had loaded the slumsneto. He's his best friend. Shout out to Fernando. This is the John Henry,

Oh my God, a whole entire VI at the height of it, at the.

Peak, we'll talk, but we gotta talk about I feel.

Like I got to walk around with you on a regular basis.

So first and foremost, thank you, thank you for joining us. Appreciate it.

I'm happy to be here. It's an honor shout out to you guys for doing what you're doing. I got goosebumps with you were telling me what you guys are doing in DC, because I don't know about that. So I'm happy and proud of you guys because you're always leveling up so bigger and better things on a regular basis.

Welcome to the green room having me.

So the thing about your Leash is that we it's really cool because it's a business podcast, but it gives us broad range because everything is a business. Like literally, everything is a business because you're making money in it. And one of the things that especially like for just everybody has to eat right and every like that's literally and figuratively.

You're saying that this is one of the biggest reasons why I started this. Just getting into this business, I knew three things. I'll always be with friends, I'll never go hungry, and I always have a because we need food to survive.

That's it. You need food to live. That's a fact. And it's like a lot of times so we've we've interviewed restaurant owner before, but we haven't interviewed a chef. It's a different dynamic and a lot of times people It's one of those things where people love to cook a lot of times, right, but a lot of times people don't think about how can they monetize it, how can they make a career out of it, how can they make a business out of it. But you've done

Like you got a bag of chips in your in your cupboard, you got some's like.

You're doing a chop basket right now.

You got a chop basket? What you got?

So you're a world class chef, but you come from humble beginning. But your family is a long line of chefs, cooks things that nature.

Right, especially being Dominican, you come from a line of women that know how to cook. You know, I think what's always nostalgic for me I can be out the country for three months, the first thing I need is a home cooked meal from my mom. And it's one of those things where I remember and I think about it, and when I'm creating a new dish, it's always like, how can I make this nostalgic for someone else?

You know.

So, just like you said with food, there's so many different outlets that you can go to creating a business. And reality is you think about how many people have started a business in their own home and how they've grown to a small, little commercial and then buying the

So you said you came home to a home cooked meal from your mom, but your dad is actually the chef.

My dad is the chef, you know. And then especially being in a Latino you always think about the women are the cooks, you know, and if you think about restaurants, of the cooks are men, you know. So I'm actually happy to see that there's a lot more women in restaurants and shutting it down, there's a lot of female chefs that I've had the honor and privilege to work

Now, I just thought about that, that's interesting because yeah, you think about it traditionally, not to sound sexist, but it's like most of the time in a household, a woman, your mom is the one that's really making.

Mom, Grandma auntie.

In restaurants, men are the artist chefs.

And I think about it comes to a point where in restaurants you probably get paid a little bit more than your regular standard jobs. You like, even me, I was fifteen years old and I was getting paid at that time it was like ten dollars an hour, but minimum wage was seven fifty or six fifty, so I was like, I'm already ahead of the game. I'm making four dollars more than anybody else. And that was me at fifteen. So when I was getting a check of eight hundred dollars for every two weeks, I thought I

So at what point did you did you say, Okay, this is something that I could actually take serious. You went to school for this, right, yeah?

I went to uh well, it started in Long Island City High School. I went to a high school that had the program. So the program was just learning how to make you know, brownies and cookies and like a home met class. I would say that, you know, But me, I was being the typical jock, and I was like, I'm not gonna wear an apron. I don't want to be in a place where you think about you know.

It wasn't more of a more of a maybe she chose to be there. She chose to be I'm gonna take it off that. I'm gonna take it on that I take it. So if it wasn't for her, I would have never went into cooking.

And she gave me the opportunity to to put my talent into something else because I was a good sports I was good in baseball, I was great in wrestling, I was okay in football. Uh, but being on a platform where I'm the solo star, like cooking, that was all thanks to her.

So all right, so you went to c I A, which is one of the top culinary institution in the world.

Right, Culinary Institut of America. The CIA is the elite school for culinary So it's like, you know, we're the cornell of culinary schools. You know. It's one of those things where they provided a program and a way for you to learn more than just cooking. You know, I thought, at seventeen eighteen years old, I'm here learning about wines

But that was I mean, it was a process for you.

Oh though, there was a process to learn that. Absolutely, you don't get that overnight.

Yeah. So, I mean you weren't just chosen for the school. You have to apply and go through a whole process to be so the program.

Through the program, I was fortunate enough. Thank you for mentioning that SEACAP Careers through Culinary Arts program. These people are the reason why I am who I am as a chef. And I say that more because it was it was more than just an opportunity to win a scholarship. There were a family, you know, Richard Grouse and the founder. He was like my second dad, and when he sees people that he believes in, just like my old high school teacher, Terry Maxis. You know he's retired now, good

How much does CIA course?

CIA now probably forty grand a year, So I saved like half.

So it's a two year program.

So you're getting in getting an associates degree in culinary arts and business management. So aside from that, you know, I dormed there. I'm not going to go back at home. Even though I was close to home, I still you know, took on the.

Full college experience forty bands.

So I just let's say, sorry to cut you off. Let's just say it's fifteen years ago. I graduated, I just finished paying off Sally Maye, and I got for the other forty It's like I.

Took a long time that that was a good I'm still saying.

All right, so you finished college and then you start you going to corporate where right after that I started.

Right after college, I joined there was a company called there was a restaurant called Gotham Bar and Grill. So before I got into corporate, I literally did what any young chef should do in his bust your ass for the next two years and give six months to the top chefs in New York City. So I worked with Marcus Samuelson, I worked with Jean George, I worked with

After you graduated.

During my internship before I graduated, that was like right in the middle.

So Alfred Bortally, he he's the head chef at the Gothambarn.

Grill was the executive chef at Gothenbarn Grove for about over thirty years. He just opened. It's funny because I went to Gothenborn Girl last night because I needed some nostalgia. I went to Strip House and I was like, let me just go to Gotham Bar and Grill have an amazing old fashion and so yeah, a little flashback. And I walked in and they're like, well, Alfred's not here anymore. He just opened up his own restaurant like three blocks away, and I'm like, no, I need to go there.

But the restaurant itself, I mean, when he was there was it was it was Michelin.

It was Michelin. Star it is that so three star. It was three star New York Times consistently for thirty years in a row, which is which is very hard to do. The highest you can get. His four stars in New York New York Times and Michelin is three. So they were one star Michelin and there were three star New York times, which is elite. Aside from that, it's one of those classifications of knowing that you're branded by the Michelin Guide knows that you're you're your top of your tier.

So all right, then you started working at this strand right.

So after Gotham Bar and Grill I did, I was at a restaurant called Cafe des Artis and I had my opportunity to become like a junior soux chef. That was the first time I had an opportunity.

A shoue chef is a chef underneath the head chef.

That's correct.

Yeah, So it's like ashi chef apprentice.

I get that all the time. There's people are all so you do sushi. I'm like, I shout out to the movie Ratatui. Then let everybody know who is a shoe chef and who is a sous chef and what they do because at that moment in my part in my life, I was a soush chef. I'm like, finally people are gonna stop thinking that I make sushi.

So what's the what's the what's the what's the order?

So the chain of command would be like when you first walk into a restaurant, like I did this. I worked as a dishwasher for a couple of months. Then I did prep, which is all you do is peel potatoes, clean vegetables, literally all the dirty stuff that people don't think about because we come into restaurants as cooks and things are ready for us. Like I don't have to peel my own garlic, I don't have to peel my own shots. I don't have to peel my own potatoes.

And it was.

It was a memorable experience. I was a chef at twenty two. I saw my name on the menu for the first time, and I learned how to do Italian food thanks to the Sioux chef that was there. I inherited John. I don't remember his last name, but John was amazing at Anti Posty. We're friends on Facebook. I'm gonna send you a message and tell you to listen to this. But John, he taught me how to make pizza. He taught me how to do fresh pasta, and he taught me that his secret was putting some truffle oil

Like all right, because you're you're you're you're in a different market than like, uh, you're in a high end market like going to your education and working in like a New York City or LA cities like that. How how much money do chefs get paid? Like top the top chef, the shoe chef, the prep like it.

All depends because even my even me, I'll tell you when I made. My most money was as an executive chef. Was when I was twenty two years old and I was making one hundred and fifty grand and I made them pay me because I was leaving New York City right so, and west chef made so I made that money in west Chester. I left Gotham. I left Cafe des Artist because the general manager at that restaurant was going to go to be the general manager at Anti Pasty, and he took me with me, and I said, this

Yeah, I mean they looking at you as a kid because most guys that exactly chefs are thirty five forty.

Yeah. Nowadays you have different types of chefs, you know, so you see the inspirational people that you know, there was a movie called Chef Flynn where there's this kid who was fifteen years old and you know, he learned by reading books and watching YouTube and he literally has his own restaurant at like twenty two years old downtown in New York City. So like, I'm inspired by that story. And I remember reading that story while I was at La Marina and he came out front page of the

So you I mean, as the executive chef, you obviously create the menu, right, So you're doing the advertisers, the entrees, desserts.

Are you also creating the pricing?

You're doing the food costs here do the pricing. So you have to learn. That's why if it wasn't for culinary school, I wouldn't have known how to do food costs. I would have known what labor costs was that Yeah, So basically for you to make money, you multiply the amount of what a food costs by three. I would say higher expensive fine dining restaurants will do it by four. So for example, if it costs me to make a hamburger, right,

And that's that's true with any business. And I'm glad you said that because a lot of times people go into business and they just wing it. It's like I'm gonna i'm gonna charge, I'm gonna.

Charge, I'm going to costco I'm going to say, and I'm just gonna charge twelve dollars.

That's the fact. It's like, yeah, I'm gonna charge.

Show me how you decided to charge that twelve dollars.

I think people will pay fifteen dollars for this fish sandwich, so I'll charge fifteen dollars. Like it's like you wouldn't know that it cost you eight dollars to make it. It's no rhyme or reason why you're doing it. You're just winging it. And that's like I said, that's that's true in the food industry, but that's showing any industry. And it's like, you got to have a self formula to know you gotta have a profit margin. If not, screw you're gonna be in debt.

Absolutely nobody wants a business that's not making money.

So what else did like business side they did they teach you?

And aside from food costs, labor costs, it's it's how to treat people, people management, you know. And I always joke around that on my Excuse me, I always joke around saying that on my resume, I'm a professional babysitter because you have to be able to manage people. And there's so many different personalities, there's so many different people, how people were raised, how people grew up in what

Wow.

Shout out to George Mansroth.

I love you.

He was like Dad number three, but he was tough man. And I was fifteen sixteen years old and I'm getting things thrown at me. I'm getting called every name in the book. The moment he found out I was Dominican and he's like, ah, that explains it all. You're a Dominican handicap And I'm like wow. And I knew what he was doing wasn't right, but to me, it made me tougher. Right. I grew to a sense of I became a man a lot faster. But I also knew that I'm not going to be that guy, no matter

So what's what's the labor cost?

So labor costs. When you come to labor costs, you think about how much money people are making per hour. And an example, there's restaurants where if you're in a hotel in corporate you're you're making a lot more. You're probably making double to what chefs and cooks normally make in restaurants. And that's just because I've had the opportunity

Or cuts into your margin, cuts.

Into my margin because at the end of the day, your labor costs has to be think about this, there's one hundred percent, right. Your food cost has to be under thirty percent, right, Your labor costs has to be under let's say twenty percent, twenty to twenty five percent. Then you have to think about liquor costs under eighteen

That's a typical profit margin for restaurants ten percent.

It's something that's why a lot of restaurants go out of business. There were times where I saw where we made two point two million dollars and after all expenses, we came home with two hundred thousand dollars.

To two point We did an episode with a restaurant owner in Baltimore, shot with Derek Falcon, and his thing was a unique strategy that he has. We only uses mixed use properties for his thing because he gets the rent from people that live upstairs and his subsidized It takes less pressure off of him hit the restaurant. He you feel aboute hundred percent.

It's smart. You're finding ways to make more money in your pocket.

No, I was gonna say another thing. He doesn't open every day.

Yeah, you don't have to open every day people. People are so afraid of Granted, I see the mentality of the day that the moments that we're closed are opportunities to make money. Yeah, that's also opportunities for you to lose money. It's okay to have Monday Tuesday off. Guess what, Now you have a staff that's happy because everybody has two days off consecutively. This is a business where you know, I'm grateful when I get two days off in a row. But now I'm at a point where I make my

Well, that leads us right into our next segment. We're going to talk about some entrepreneurial stuff that you do, and yeah take it from there. All right, So now we're going to go into the second segment, and I wanted to just talk about a couple of things that we spoke about off camera. You talked about you did the pop up dinners that became wildly successful, right, Yeah, can you talk about that?

Yeah?

Absolutely, It's one of those things like I'm getting goosebumps now because I got another pop up dinner that's coming up. On the nineteenth and the twentieth of December. But we got into that because of not being in a restaurant on a regular basis, my demand was hired. The only way that you can have my food is by you booking me. So it's kind of me like forcing. The other hand, it's like you want my food, you booked me, and I'm not gonna lie. What I do with food

I'm thinking about this man. Were you about to put a new standing man all chefs restaurants?

Ye gotta bring food with you.

You should have told me something happened.

Now you brought something else that we go to talk about something.

I can never come in empty handy. I always introduced myself with food, but today introduce myself with something else.

Were talking about you the only way that they could eat your food is my bookingt Yeah, that was the only one. So what restaurant were you are at that time?

At that time, I wasn't at a restaurant because the first time that it was twenty eighteen where the Marriot Vacation company closed down. They just decided they didn't want a restaurant. No matter how successful the restaurant was, we weren't making money. And the reason we weren't making money because the labor was too high and there was nothing I could do. I was on the line, and that's something when on the line means I was actually cooking the food. That's a line cook's job, you know what

Yeah. So in my mind, I mean, I work with kids, so I'm thinking like the line cooker is like the Minion.

Yeah, absolutely, they absolutely are, and they're only as good as how you train them. So and I'm grateful that everybody that's been a part of my team is just now like ten years later, five years later, even two years later, Like I'll take the biggest example was Lomarino. Lomrino was one of the best teams that I've ever

So yeah, I want to talk about the pop because that's interested for a few different reasons. So you all right, so you built the following on social media at the time already.

Yeah, thanks for doing the food shows, doing Food Network, doing b Bobby Flay.

That also helps out, Yeah for sure, So so so the pop up. Can we get back to that, because that's an interesting business model.

So the pop up. The reason we did the pop up was because we wanted to do something once a month, whether it was a pop up event where it was like friends Giving, we sold tickets online, they sold out in one day. We're like, okay, this is this is We're on to something. So the friends Giving was around Thanksgiving, we would do almost like we run out Aloft. We'll

So how much money when you making off the pop ups?

Off the pop ups, Let's say that's when I would be making it depends on location. It depends on the rent of the venue. At the end of the day, I always try to make twenty five percent to thirty percent profit compared to like what we talked about ten percent profit in a restaurant. How many people are going with you? How many to do an event, depending on the size. So for that I had three cooks. I had a host, which was my best friend. Shout out

I had.

Three servers, so I would say a team of about less than ten, but about seven to eight people. But depending on the on the event, Like I have another the event that we did with the NFL Amazon and we had a team of fourteen people. It all depends on what we need to produces as a team. And me, I'm so hands on, so I'm always still cooking. I need to learn sometime to take a step back and let the team make me proud like they like they always do.

So like the event in my haven, because I'm interested, I'm going through with this, Like how much would you say so.

We charge one hundred and fifty dollars per person, fifty people per night, which was like, let's say, forty five hundred dollars. And then after that we paid one thousand dollars for the venue for three days, or it was like sixteen hundred for three days. Because we got it three days consecutive. It was a deal. And I mean, I'm a negotiator. I will negotiate to as much because I guess at the end of the day, I learned

That's gonna kill us.

Yeah, so we're already paying for food, we're already paying for a venue, we're ready paying for staff. Take off that liquor, and that's the money that we're making. So that again, not every event that I do, I get a liquor sponsor, but I try to.

Okay, it's like five thousand profit.

Out of three days, five five thousand profits split between me and my partner.

Okay, so yeah, the reason why. So it's like twenty five hundred dollars, let's just say so. But that's not bad for its weekend. It's all about creativity. So it's like a lot of times, if you're not familiar with New York City, mont Haven, South Bronx, SOUTHROX, South Rox not really the best neighborhood.

But up and coming. Yeah, it's a good thing to buy something now because yeah, it's good. It's gonna be big, it's gonna be big Frenchy.

So so there's a few different lessons in that. I think exclusivity is very important, and it's like people the more. Sometimes the more you make yourself available, you devalue yourself. It's like Supreme the clothing line, right it's like people will play it, pay a thousand dollars for it because you can't get it. It's not easy to get right even like with the marathon clothes right now, rest in

Not afraid to pick them. There's times where, like the event that we're doing on nineteenth and the twentieth, we paid prime dollar for thirty seven Street between eighth and ninth, you know, But at the end of the day, it depends on the event that we're doing, and of course.

The network and you're at that point in your career. Yeah, but like for people that's just starting out, a lot of times it's like they feel intimidated. But it's like work with the resources that you have.

I think that's so important that you're saying that, because you have to be able to no budgets. Like you said, you're not going to be successful if you're breaking even You're not going to be successful if you're not charging the right prices.

You know.

Of course I wasn't able to charge one hundred and fifty dollars if this was ten years ago for me and my bread and who I am now. But with the accolades and with the awards and constantly winning, you know, an award after an award, and the people that I cook for, it is vouching for itself. And I always joke around and I say, my food is all hype until you finally experience it yourself.

Yeah.

And I was just telling I was telling one of my friends this the other day because you're talking about like a business and we was talking. Actually Jamal actually said it originally and I relayed the message. And it's like the business is only going to bring like, let's say, like two thousand a month, And at first I'm like, it's not worth it, like that's two thousand, But then.

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She but I'm like thinking about it, like, well that's two thousands. Like what I said, you through that five times. Now you got ten thousands. So it's like, it's not about hitting. It's never about hitting home runs. It's never because if you play baseball, you don't swing for a home run. You swing and eventually you'll hit a home run if you're strong enough, but you don't plan to

It's not how we're saying, like you made twenty five hundred, like that's somebody's month.

Yeah, absolute right, And I've thought of that, and there's certain times where I haven't made money on events because you have to understand what is this event bringing to me? Also, is it an event that I have influencers that are going to every single person tag me in their Instagram posts?

Is not a product is going to speak for itself.

The product is going to speak for itself. People are posting, people are eating, they're having their reactions, and all of a sudden, out of those new fifteen hundred, guess what I just made. Some come from those people booking me. So, like you said, supplying demand and then also you have to make sure that, like you said, I'm doing an event on the nineteenth and the twentieth that's one of

In the highlight of the holiday season and the holiday season where Christmas is in two weeks.

And that's why we sold it two months ago, where we sold out again in one day. And I'm blessed to be able to say that. You said, supplying demand, if you put yourself available every single day, I'm not going to sell an event out every single day. But if we do it once a month, guess what, people talked about it for a whole month. We're posting for the next one. We're gonna do it again already.

People haven't experience said that.

People haven't experienced this event. And the next next that sounds like I'm so high. We haven't even done it yet.

That sounds like an event that we just did in DC and the streets is we got the streets going crazy. Love that, Atlanta. Don't play yourself.

Yeah, we're telling you now.

I think I'm gonna come.

So talk about another thing that you did, Keith.

You know.

Puerto Rican drink traditional Puerto Rican I would say Thanksgiving holidays like Thanksgiving, Christmas and maybe New Year's but that's a little push.

That's always the gift that they give you. No give you like seventeen bottles in the free So.

If you're from New York City, you know you got Boikuas Puerto Ricans, you got the minikanos. Dominicans don't do that. They're different. Don't don't ever confuse, don't ever confuse it too right. They have different cultures, different different vibes, but so many similarities for sure, Like we all do absolutely, but that particularly is a Puerto Rican. It's a Puerto Rican thing, right, So you've been a Dominican. What what made you do that?

I did it as a joke. I did it as a joke. You know, kind of like for the moment, it was funny, and you know, it was one of those things where I was like, let's test the market. This is like five years ago, you know, where Chef Kelvin was finally building his brand. And I'll talking to third person now because even in the even in the streets, I'm not Kelvin anymore. Chef Calvin, your chef. I remember I was on the train once and somebody's yo, Chef.

So how did you get that out?

I posted it on Instagram.

Man.

I posted on Instagram. Back then, I had like thirty thousand followers. I'm blessed to have like almost sixty seven sixty eight now. And I posted it and I said, I made it for myself. I wasn't even selling it. I was like, I just made Henny Cokai throw right away. There were no dms back then, there were just comments. So I posted it on my page and I got flooded with comments in like the first five minutes.

You said you said the magic word hennessy.

Hennessy, and They're like, are you selling? And I was like, nah, I'm not selling. So I just made it for my friends. We had it. Then the next year, I was like, let me just make twenty bottle. Let's see what happens. I made it. I sold out in ten minutes, and I said, we're going to make a business next year. Because again I knew I didn't bite off more than

How much How much did you sell?

First year of officially selling, we sold two hundred and fifty bottles, which I thought was not bad for we started late. We started only in December. Yeah, the following year we sold five hundred bottles. And now we're in unofficially year five, we've already sold six hundred bottles and we're not even a peak season yet. So Christmas is our big one. Now we're looking to sell about.

Three four hundreds. The reason why I love that story also see this is all things that especially food. It's like your grandmother you I you're mahome makes these these homemade RUMs and all these stuff. But it's like in p pople like it, right, but it's like, why is it just limited to your family?

Absolutely right, You're absolutely right. You can you can sell anything unless the product is good. You can't be afraid. Again, don't reinvent the wheel. Like I said, I'm not doing nothing new. I'm just making the version I'm making in mine. I just made it a little bit different. I'm using Madagascar vanilla bean. That's why you know it's expensive. Each vanilla bean is like five dollars?

Is that? Is that the secret?

That is one of them? We got some here.

Already, and I tell people, I'm like, it's vanilla, It's vanilla bean is special. It's it's the reason why you see the specs in the vanilla ice cream. You know, it's it's the reason you see the specs in the criminal lay. But at the end of the day, it's the special spices.

And it's it's always about the love. You can't duplicate that. But it's always about being creative too. And it's like we're gonna talk about a lot of Marina. But lot of Marina is only open for two months of the year, right, three months.

I would say, more three pushing events. It would open April and it would close I would say beginning of September.

But you had access to had access full year year round. So now you used that to pretty much have a free kitchen.

I found ways. Yeah, I asked, you know, I said, hey, you guys are not doing anything. I even offered to rent. They're like nah, because at the end of the day, the way that no one knew really about my contract, but the way my contract worked. Again, I'm not a greedy guy, so I understand things. If if we were not open full year, I wasn't expecting to get paid full year. But what I did want was the times

Yeah, you had access, I had access.

Okay, now I'm going to start doing caterings. Now I'm going to start, you know, doing coquito. Now I'm going to start, and that the opportunity was there. I wasn't. I wasn't afraid to do things that I wasn't expecting. And I also wasn't desperate. I was patient throughout the whole process. Like I said, I sold twenty coith those year one. We're at five hundred now and we're not even halfway through our season.

Can we Dominican?

Dominican?

They show up?

So all right? Can we talk about I was waiting. I was waiting.

We just.

Look at the smile. If you if you have to memory, if.

You're a loyal listener to a Lisia, you know, how is a second home for us? The basketball tournament. We talked about the basketball tournament a lot because they treat us, they love us.

There.

Shout out to everybody there. We're actually about to do Chris Gotti Show after this, so shut shout out the Dykman. But so east side, west side, So on the on the east side, on the east side, it's the basketball court on the west side by the water. That was no, we never we didn't tell the stories about Lotarna from New York City. You know about lom Marena. If not you heard fab you was in lot Marina all summer. You see you heard French pull up Arena in a yach boy.

It made some easy captions on Instagram. Just made me feel like I'm on top of the world even more.

So, we were gonna get off track for one minute. You was an executive chef and lot Marina at his peak, lom Marina was a beach. The best way I can describe it, It's like a beach front party restaurant had everything.

Yeah, each you had a lounge, you had food trucks, you had.

Stage, you had a live stage.

Beautiful women, restaurant, beautiful women. I got in trouble. I was just I was just cooking.

So can you just explain in a minute, like what was the vibe in lom Marena at that time.

So I'll tell you two quick vibes. One was imagine being the only sober person at a drunk part. When I was leaving work, kitchen closed that twelve I'm walking down people, I'm just like what, I can't even catch up. There's no way I could catch up. We got it now we're left. So it was always a problem with La Marina because they closed that one o'clock. But the blessing of La Marina also was that entire dykeman wasohiut to Mama Sushi, because those are one of the stories

Spot the street.

Yeah, and uh in the bronx on top of a post office. I think he paid somebody. I think he paid somebody because the moment, again I was living in Queen's traveling to Washington Heights, I got out the train station and somebody said, Chef Kelvin, welcome to Washington Heights. We've been waiting for you. There's no way.

There's no way.

Still to this day, I remember that. But Lo Marina was just it was. It was madness, and I like to say controlled madness. It was the only time where I had it. I had a walking talking on and I'm I'm talking to my Sioux chefs through this walking talkie. You O, the beach is going down. We need more French fries the beach. I need to cooks to go to the beach. French Carmelo. Anthony needs, you know, a tomahawk steak.

Don't make that happen.

We're gonna make that happen. It was one of the the greatest experiences ever. I had an amazing team, Like I said, Chef Traill, who they issue, Chef Andy, who's the chef of Suo in the Bronx, Like, these are just guys that are talented. Elio who's in a Michelin Star restaurant in Manhattan, Like that's what makes me proud, because I feel like I'm a proud that even though we're all similar to age, but you.

You said that also in the business you you turned it around the kitchen around attle bit.

Yeah, it was hard to come into a place that. This is why when making business decisions, it's hard for me to go to a place that already has an identity because it's hard to change either bad habits or it's hard to change something where people are used to So when I got to La Marina, they already had a standard. They went through a couple of different chefs. The food was not great, and the owners themselves said it, we don't need to really worry about the food. People

Yeah we made it right, Yeah we made it.

We will miss you.

We will never be forgotten going, but not forgotten. That corner will never be the same, won't. Even the strip is not the same.

Absolutely not. It's tough, like even me. I live in Riverdale, so I'm close to the madness, but I haven't been out there a while. It's not the same.

The Dominicans up. We've been saying it also that no meal.

All right. So in the last segment, we're gonna go into what you got going on now and future endeavors. All right, So we're gonna close it out, which but you have going on now. So I want to first want to talk about our last lap, last lap, so you can talk about so that's that was an establishment that was already open and you partnered right.

Yeah, Last Lap is it's such a great vibe. It's a Caribbean vibe. It's true to like my heart, my soul. Shout out to the guys that Last Lap. They're the reason I'm there because when we started just talking about it, you know, the ViBe's gotta be right. And these guys are young entrepreneurs doing their things, opening different establishments. There's gonna be the last Lap l A. There's gonna be

Down, I got a nice your French trains, yeah.

Classically French trained. I got a nice little severance check and at that moment I did a cooking competition. Circle back again fifteen years. The same people that gave me a scholarship to go to high school gave me an opportunity to win a full scholarship to go to France and live, all expense paid to go to a culinary school in France. Here I am, at thirty something years old,

And one thing you said I was interested is like you have like royalties, Like it's like a royalty deal.

So you know, I watched them a shark tank. As a businessman, you got to learn, right, So you know, I made him an offer of you know, I wanted to make this much amount per area and they said yes, and I should have asked for more, but again, I'm not greedy, so you know I was. I was just grateful for that opportunity. This is the first time that I made a deal like that, and it's been it's been steady.

You know. I think it's the only place that you can get get So that's this is this.

Is traditionally you could say Kelvin's kitchen, but in reality, it's the only place that you can get that's my food, you know, aside from getting kill than himself with Kelvin's kitchen, you know, so you know. And and last slap is a small rum bar. We got two floors. It gives you an opportunity to come have some amazing cocktails because they have a great mixology program. And then you never know who's gonna be there the same day that you either. We We've got a lot of celebrities from Rihanna to

So so like, even though you're not there a lot cooking, but you have the recipe. So anytime your dish is sold, or any dishes sold, you get a percentage of that I.

Get Yeah, I get a fee for each that's sold. Correct it again, it's not bad though he said it better than the people that said it on the On a few other shows, they're like a rape. I'm like, we're not raping nobody. I'm like, and it's tough because it just comes with with the culture and how we learned. But not is the dish that I be Bobby Flay with, And that is also the dish that I've won for years in a row Best Chef in America with Forbes.

Is.

It is traditionally like a corn cake almost like it's hard to describe. It's traditionally made with corn, flour and water, and I actually use fresh corn corn right kind of sort of but not really. And I'm gonna say that because it's almost the same ingredients except we're not baking it. We're not. You got to make a dough and then traditionally the doe the dough is griddled or like pan fried. I deep fry minds, so you get that crispy texture. Traditionally,

What was that?

Pulling up the last last vibe? So you mentioned beating Bobby played with the dish. Now I read this and maybe it's true or not. But prior to that, because you are French training, and were you doing Latin foods prior to this?

No, I wasn't doing Latin food until I left the Strand Hotel. The first time I got an opportunity to open up a Latin restaurant and that's how I created the ideas at a restaurant called Blend on the Water. So my goal was to go learn as much as I can about Latin food. I'll tell you one hundred percent, I did not know what I was doing until I started asking my mom, asking my dad. Going to you know bar which is like the was or it still is, the number one at bar downtown in the Lower East Side.

Well said, So you, j Low and a Rod's personal How did that? How did that come about?

Shout out to Duval. This beautiful lady was a fan of mine. Five years ago. She came to one of my events. I did a pop up event in Brooklyn. There was a restaurant called SDQ. It was also like a lounge, and she came to my event and I treated her the way I treat everybody, Like I know you for ten years and you say hi to me, I'm gonna give you a hug. If you show me pictures from last birthdays that you came to celebrate with me, that makes me even more special. So I treated her

You know, a personal chef is actually a good investment something that I'm going to look into in a New Year, because I know a guy. It's like it's like I always said, like a personal trainer and a personal chef. It was a good investment.

You're investing in your mind too.

Yeah, yeah, personal chefs.

Wife, I was like, well that's that's a good investment. Might investing investing in your mind body? You better say that for sure, especially because it's like when you want to run a lot, you can't cook like you don't have time to cook, especially like you know, you got dietary ships. I'm trying to go vegan. So it's like, stop dating a.

Girl because she was vegan. You know it's tough. I'm a chef, man, I'll be and I try.

You could be a vegan shock, but I can't.

I can be a vegan check, but I can't be a vegan shock. I can't be a vegan check. And I tried it. Like we dated a couple of years ago when on a couple of dates and I was vegan. When I took some of the best Michelin Star restaurants that were vegan, I'm like, what the I need steak?

Oh my god?

And then yo, I would take a home and I'll go get a burger or something, and I'm like, Yo, this is crazy. I'm eating twice, I'm spending doubles of money out. It's not gonna work out. This is not gonna work out. This is not gonna work out. I laugh about it.

Now.

Why I take you someone to get home? Ah, man, not traffic. I'll stop that hurricane.

Shout out to you. That's that's not easy. And I have some vegan friends that they hold me to it, and like even doing this event on the nineteenth and twentieth, I had to put a vegetarian menu because I know so many people that support Grisel and support her are all vegetarians and vegans, so I got to make sure that that offers.

And that's another lane too, especially like there's so many athletes and entertainers and just you know, high level business people that like personal chefs is like a whole another lane.

It's a it's definitely a world in its own. But it takes a special type of person to do that because at the end of the day, you sacrifice your entire life, not only just a cooking to the person that you're working with. Then, because they they're requiring, their needs are a lot different than any other cook chef.

You're like, they're beck and call at all times.

And that's why I when I decided to do person no chefing, I had my own requirements and restrictions. And it's like, one, I would never stay at the person's house. I would need my own hotel because I tried it once and no matter what, I'm staying in the twenty million dollar house, I can't sleep in a bed knowing that I work downstairs. Or imagine I always joke around.

Man?

I would make it gladly.

Did you hear about But that's just something I always joke around with. Did you have did you hear about ditty story with his personal show?

No, I didn't hear ditty story. Imagine ditty story.

I will tell you, ye shot, I got crazy, it got crazy. I got.

Can we talk about the branding, because obviously you have. You've done an amazing job on social media doing that, and it's led to some deals with Fogo.

On blessings and again, these are things that I tell people that are always asking me, how did you get some man followers? How'd you do this? And I was like, I am giving you what I'm saying. I'm giving you. So if I'm a chef page, I'm gonna give you food. I'm going to give you things that are related to chefs. I'm gonna give you some tips, I'm gonna give you some recipes. I'm gonna not be afraid. The only thing I'm not gonna give you is Michael Keat the recipe

And it's That's something I learned early on as far as social media. Friend of mine told me that you should be able to look at somebody's page without reading their bio and know what they do.

Agree. Reading your bio is just say everything that you do, and you're, well, you can't say everything because then my my characters will run out right away. But you would have to say in your bio, you would say who you are, what you do, and what I'm saying.

They should be able to tell without reading it.

Absolutely agree.

So it's like a lot of time people through all kinds of random nonsense pictures and memes and it's like, what's happening?

What are we here for?

But it's going on the message I'm confused. I'm confused.

If it's there for fun, then cool. But if it's for business, yeah, you can't do that.

You can't. You got to sacrifice that. And this page is like a reflection of like how people are going to look at your business.

I like the way you said that without reading your bios, should be able to talk just by looking at pictures.

See.

And I learned that. I even tried doing like a personal page and that didn't work because I have no time to let alone. Yeah, this is my personal life, so stop with the personal stuff. If you know me on a personal level, you know that you get the same guy that you get as a chef level. You know. But building that brand, you have to learn that it takes time. You have to be patient. You can't rush

How much.

To All the information you need is in the in the in the last, And you have to be patient. So you have to be patient all sets alike. So even now that you know ten years, fifteen years, I'm going to say now when I turned thirty five in July, I'm going to be cooking for twenty years. So building this brand for twenty years. Everything that I've wanted is happening right now at this moment. Brand deals with Infinity.

So.

I think it's important and as you mentioned, you know, companies like Wells Fargo to see my Instagram page and say, you know, we want to partner up and collab with this guy because what he's doing is positive, so I know that he can be the right guy that will share our message. And I'm always smiling, so I have people say I have a million dollar smile. It comes with making people happy.

Chef Calvin, Man, you want thank you for coming. Appreciate it. Appreciate it anything you want to tell the people your Instagram, social media and thing you got coming up.

Absolutely, Man, I appreciate you guys for having me, letting me tell my story on a whole different platform because I'm able to tell people my story and inspire. So I always say if I can inspire one person from one thing that I do per day, my job is done. The most important thing is if I can offer some people advice that want to become a young entrepreneur. Is back to what I said, surround yourself by greatness. Don't be afraid of not making a lot of money now,

Thanks you man. Troy housekeeping it on.

Yeah, shout everybody on patreon dot com. I know that's our proud to pay program. The support on it has been tremendous, man, and it's beautiful. We got to actually get to speak and and and engage with some of our patrons and the list keeps growing. So shout everybody that's supporting that. You know that if you are a Tier four or five member, you are access to Alisia University, which is our online school. Shots wearing the merch, shout everybody, Yo, the merchant has been moving like crazy.

Man. We put up the merchant.

The sales were out out the door man the first day, So shout everybody that's purchased the merch.

Yeah, man, you want to talk about university.

Yeah, Nivirsually, we're about to actually do a class, like right now, he's not joking. It's three classes every single week. We do a real estate class on Monday, we do a floating class on Wednesday. Me and Troy do a class every Thursday. And starting in the new year, we're going to have e Yo. Yeah for sure, so you know we it's an interactive at zoom. We get to ask questions. It's really dope. It's really dope experience. And yeah,

Don't play yourself.

No, Atlanta, we got we can't wait to touch the town for sure. And the book tip of this week is Kitchen Confidential by the late great Anthony Bardain Peace for sure, so I thought that would be fitting. Chef recommended that book himself.

He read it four times.

Yeah, so that's it. Thank you guys for rocking with us. We'll see you next week.

Peace Peace, Coach.

The energy out there felt different. What changed for the team today?

It was the new game day scratches from the California lock Play is everything. Those games sent the team's energy through the roof.

Are you saying it was the off field play that made the difference on the field.

Hey, little play makes your day, and today it made the game. That's all for now, Coach.

One more question played the new Los Angeles Chargers, San Francisco forty nine Ers and Los Angeles Rams scratchers from the California lottery. A little play can make your day. Peace Play responsibily. Must be eighteen years or older to purchase plate or claim