CHEF SOULO - Peanut Butter with a Twist

to have you today. What do you have us eating? Um? Well, today we have some white bread, some margarine because I couldn't afford butter back in the day, a little brown sugar, some peanut butter, some honey, and a little bit of salt. Back in the day, we we didn't have jelly. I come from a place where we actually like got government issue food, like the whole government cheese joke, Like that's the real thing. And you actually had the block, Yes, we have on the show. Always asked about the block

and cheese and mine. I don't know where it getting, man, Listen, ain't nowhere to get it. You can get it from the store, restaurant depot. You know, they do sell this cheese unsliced. But yeah, we used to get this big blocks of block of uh process pasteurized cheese like the you know American cheese pretty much, um, peanut butter, honey, and the honey didn't look like this. It actually was crystallized because they got cold and you know, so you would have to warm it up in order for it

to turn back to honey, you know. Um, but um, yeah, it's just you know, these are ingredients that we actually just had around the house. Um. Of course with the margine. Margine is cheap, you know, Um, so you know, that's all we pretty much could afford. And there was in buckets, um, the Country Crock, the Golden Sauce, I believe that's the name of the brand, and um it's a couple of different brands of margin that you would get in the bucket.

But that's what we had because beculting four butter exactly. So why don't you start cooking this dish? And then I want to know when was the last time you ate this dish? The last time I ate this I probably was about fourteen, Um, I was living with my dad. Um. Unfortunately, I also come from a time where crack was big.

So crack got him and um, he was just you know, we stayed with him, and you know, it was one of the situations to where like you remember that as kids, remember when he went to the house and he looked in refrigerator was just flies and some baking solda in there, like that was refrigerator. Like legit, we just had taking care of you guys while he was Yes, you know, he was like he was a functioning drug addict, but of course, you know, the focus was his his habit,

you know. And of course we had things like government issue cheese, the peanut butter, just that rice beans, different things like that. Like my mom she passed away when I was ten, So yeah, you know, and he was able to take care of you guys. And um, well, that's the thing. We kind of moved around. I've lived with my aunt, I've lived with my brother, um I've lived with cousin, family members, church members, my couple of my aunts. But you know, it's just stuff like that. Um,

I pretty much was like all over the place. And then of course there were times when he would come and get us and take and we would go live with him, you know, because he would get an apartment or something like that. But of course he still had his habits. So of course that was just something that we just had to deal with, you know what I mean. But of course it's it's those are the kind of things that you say, like it builds character. I was cooking, shoot,

when I was like seven or eight. Like, um, I have seven older brothers. So um, one of my older brothers he used to like he went to the navy or whatnot. But um, he was like the hood barber. So he cut everybody in the hood. But I mean and like he cut everybody here, um, including arts of course. But so he would like you know, he drank forties and cut hair all day, you know. And he was into electronics and different stuff. He was the guy that had the program card or was the RC cars, um,

big model cars and spray paying them and all. He was into all kind of stuff. Um. But what he would do is he would pay me to go to the store get him a forty ounce some noodles and two sausages, and I would cook it for him, you know. So um, that was just something that I would just do because I needed to like pay me like two dollars and and so you were cheffing it and making your first buck. So that was like your intro to entrepreneurship, I guess in a sense. And I didn't know what

it was of course. I'm you know, I'm just you know, a kid like I just wanted to have my little train so I can be on the block of the other kids, you know, with my cheetos and hanging out and have fun or whatever. So yeah, it was just something, you know, I didn't think of it as that. I just thought of it as, oh, you know, my brother

is paying me to make these noodles. Let me make these noodles, you know, because my mom always taught us to be self fishing, you know, even from a young age, like we just you know, I was doing laundry when I was tending like you know, things like that. Like so that that was pretty much my life. Okay, wow, you definitely have an interesting story. So the last time you eat this, you're making this, you're fourteen years old, can you pay me like a picture of your environment? Um?

At the time, UM, I was, I was in dreaming high school. Um. Every day pretty much was like all right, wake up, get ready for school. What am I anna eat? You know how I'm gonna eat at school? You know, of course we have free lunch, but you know, free lunch was asked, you know. You know. Sometimes I don't know about you, but I was always embarrassed to get my free lunch. I don't always, you know, because my thing was it's like, shoot, you know, it was kids

that was paying for lunch. They wish they could get the free lunch in so they would buy our tickets. Sometimes I don't get it. Why would they do that because they had to pay for lunch, you know what I mean, And if their parents couldn't afford it. Oh, I see what you're saying. You know what I'm saying, because it's like you have to meet a certain nadom to get the free lunch, and if you go over that threshold, then you can't get free lunch. You have

to pay for it. But of course, on paper, a lot of these parents they have the you know, they have the income, but it's not what they're actually you know, so of course they're budgeting is different too. So sometimes kids couldn't afford lunch for to day, you know. And I have friends that were like that. Um, so you just took the butter and you put it in a little Yeah, I put the butter in the little part. What I'm gonna do is I'm gonna make a little saucy,

little caramel like glaze just to decorate the plate. Um. This ain't something that I did when I was younger, but special, you know, I just you know, but um yeah, I'm just make a little caramel glaze just so that's brown sugar and margin brown sugar margarine. I usually add when I make the caramel sauce. I had a few more flavors, a little bit of salt. One thing people don't realize is that salt is not like, uh, I don't know, it's not like a spice. Really, what are

we gonna We can't say this. All the black people in the world are gonna have a heart attack. Salt is not a spice. Salt is a flavor en hansl oh, Oh, it's not meant for like. That's why they say don't use a lot, because what it does is, like you think about all of your different ingredients. You use your paprikas your garlic, your your onion, different things like that, they have no salt content. So when you add the salt to them, it makes the flavor prop the pop

it brings out the flavor. So that's why it's like, so what's lors excuse me, Lorries is trash? Oh, Larie's is garbage. I totally agree. I want to have that clip just cut in sense in my husband garbage. Okay. The thing about compound seasons that I hate the most um is that you can't control how much of each ingredient or each spice that you use. It's a compound seasoning for a reason because it just gives you all inclusive flavor. But I want to put a little more

garlic in it. I want to put a little more paprika in it, you know what I'm saying. So a lot of times what we do is like these compound seasons, we have them on in their cabinet, we just don't use them. So we're gonna grab Laria's because Larry's just pretty much got all of that in it. But the thing is Larry's also has sugar, you know what I mean. So we're putting sugar and pretty much everything that we

eat when we're using Laries. That's why I hate it, and that's why black people got diabetes and hypertension hypera sugar exactly because we'll be pouring it on. They got msg different things like that, you know, So it's just a matter of a little milk or a little cream. But yeah, it's just a matter of controlling those type of things. And then of course, like I don't I I saw you know, for me, it's not good used culture.

It's just a healthier s a lower sodium salt. But this is the salt that we had grown up, you know, we had I dis it was what was it? I forgot the name of it. With the girl with the yellow dress with walking down the street with the umbrella. I have that in my cabinet right now, something like that. But yeah, that's the salt that I grew up with

in my kitchen. But when I became a chef, that's when I was introduced to like colsture saw and salt, just different sauce like those, because they're lowering sodium and they're healthier. So so to go back to your environment, how do you go from you know, being independent young man, young boy. I'm not trying to knock your nine year old youth, but young boy to jillionaire burger boys, Like what what steps in my missing Like what what happened.

What what transitions were you kind of decide you're going to build this empire. Um, well, it's a whole lot of living that happened in between that I want to hear because I also want to culinary school you also for all these huge chefs. So, um well, it was just a matter of um, you know, like I said, it was living going on. But uh, like I said, my mom died when I was ten, and it just kind of uh put me in a place where it was just like all right, you know, figure it out.

You know, your dad's here and then he's not here prison you know, here they're like, um so I had to really learn how to be a human being, you know, just from meeting people and just dealing with people in my life. So you know, I'm really I'm really like, uh a variation of all the people that I've met or all the people that have influenced me in my life. You know. So, um yeah, I had an uncle. He passed away actually seven days after my mom passed. He passed.

Um he was her he was her brother, or no, he was her brother, but the thing was she was really all he had, you know, and it's like, you know, have you ever heard of like people dying of a broken heart? You know, so it was it was kind of like that when I when I of course, when I in hindsight, when I think about it, you know, he really was hurt, you know because everything he had I just left him, you know. So um a caretaker for you guys or yeah, he was very active in

our lives. He lived with this, you know, and then he had his own place and I used to go over his house. And are you like so young that you're just processing it or was that like it was difficult? Well for me as far as the you know, the death, it was just kind of like, Okay, I don't really understand it, you know what I mean. I'm a kid, you know, So um I had I used to have dreams like that. My mom would come back, you know, like she used to shop a lot. She loved shopping.

That was one thing about us. We always stayed fresh, always had the newest. She was a saceress as well, so she would make us out. How did how did she support that? What did she do? This is the eighties, so you got of course, we you got you know, my mom was you know, um, but you know, so that's the thing. It was just like she did what she had to do. She had two kids, you know

what I mean, So she did what she had to do. Um, but yeah, no, it was like credit card, fro all, check for aud all that kind of stuff like that was big in that time because you could walk into a store and pretty much walk out of there with thousand dollars worth of product with just a piece of paper, you know what I mean, no credit card, no hard plastic, no nothing. Name. She was really word analog, so the information didn't get back to them until ship months later,

you know what I mean. So, um, I'm gonna butter this bread the bread. Where she messed up is she wanted to get to ask you all the personal questions. Yeah, you know what I'm saying. So the focus it becomes that and not the food. So excuse her, Go ahead, go ahead. I'm a butter this bread. I mean, I'm gonna put some peanut butter on here. Get this on here and sharing a little bit. Uh. Now, you don't put like every inch of the bread has butter, I see, because when I do mine, I like because you like

a lot of butter, you know what I mean. So that's nothing wrong with that, you know what I mean. But for me, it's just really I'm gonna do this because I do want to get peanut butter on my hand. Once the butter is on their mills, right, yeah, So moving around the pin, it's gonna touch other parts of the bread. And the thing gets about these this cheap bread is that it soaks up every bit of that butter you put on it. So you got this greasy you know what I'm saying. You never really get the

bread content unless you you know what I mean. Of course, with the edges, you'll get it, but you never really get that just stuff the bread. So what happens is you kind of miss out in a sense. Okay, so now you're adding a little honey on top of the peanut butter. Yeah, so this is what we're used in place of actual jelly because we got the honey for free. I've this, you know what I mean? Um so yeah, man, uh, I'm never in my life seeing this really never. Yeah,

well wow, look at that. Look at that. These were this was essential, you know what I'm saying, Like sugar sandwiches,

serrup sandwiches. It was real. But for me, I like I wanted it to be hot, you know, like when we didn't have jelly, I would I would, you know, just you know, sometimes what you'll do is you don't have a special home, what you sometimes what you would do is and then of course just not having the utensils living to its food potential right now, you know a little bit, I'm trying not to What do you do when you don't have utensils and and you use

your hands, you use your hands, you use something that's closest thing to it, you know. But yeah, man, this was essential to my life, this rice with margarine and some sugar. You're like, really bro really broke. And it's crazy because if you go to billion of burger boys, like you have thirty dollar burgers and um, and that's only because of the market price seafood and different things like that, Like you know, we pay a lot for

those lobster tells, you know. So that's the thing is like I got a burger with lobster and shrimp on it. You know, I'm using, you know, I'm using. You know, we use anger ground ship, you know what I mean. So it's just it's the quality behind it. Where did your love of food come into play because at some point you decide this is a career path you want. Um, I've always loved food. I've always loved cooking. Um, it's

just music was really my life. So I come from a background, like you know, I have singers in my family as well. It's chefs. My uncle was a chef. Two of my brothers were chefs. But like four of my brothers can sing. One of my brothers play drums. My other sister, she plays the drums and could play any pretty much any instrument you put in front of her. So I come from a most musical background. Um, but

I was a singer. I really didn't play instruments. I could play by ear a little bit, but you know, I was the singer. So music was my life. Chef solo, it's actually a derivative Dave Soul, which was my stage name when I was doing music, you know what I mean? So uh, for me, it was always about the music. Like my goal was I was gonna become the next lut event Ross, you know what I mean. So um, for me, I wanted to take that and elevat it. So you remember my Space, Yeah, I was my Space famous.

Like that's how I was like they used to have, uh a club and CityWalk It's called Baby Kings and I had three floors. Yeah. I used to sell that place out like regularly, Like that was my thing, Like my space. That's why I love social media because my space was a tool for me to my music career. Like you could literally become famous, like you could become instant famous. But it was like locally, I was the man, you know what I mean. So like music was always

like my passion, that was my love. That's where I always wanted to do. Um. But um, for trying to lead to to certain circumstances, I don't want to disclose because you know, nobody has to blame but me for my ship. But um, I ended up quitting just saying forget music, moving on to a space where I was,

you know, just working regular jobs. Um. I was married at the time, started growing, having a family growing, So it was really like, okay, well you can still keep chasing his dream of being this this star, or you can start to provide to your family, making sure the straight right. So um, that's really what it was. It Uh, it was a segue really. So I was working at Walmart, worked there for three years, exemplary service, all that good stuff.

But of course, you know black people, when we break, we break, so you know, the extra breaks started adding up and I ended up getting fired. Right, I'm just using my plate to cut it, okay, But I ended up getting fired. And once I got fired, I was sitting on my couch in my living room and I'm trying to figure out, like, yo, what am I gonna do? Um? And that's how you're supporting your family is working at Walmart exactly, and Walmart is probably paying like not that

well either. Right at the time, I was making like twelve out of an hour, and you're supporting a family and until you lose your job, my job. One thing about me is I'm never ever gonna be uh without job or without work. You know. Of course I naturally have that hustling mentality. So um, for me, it was just about trying to figure out what's like my next move. But the thought process behind it was, Okay, what can I do that doesn't feel like work that I love?

You know what I mean? Something that I would do for free? And in that moment, and I always tell the story and it's it's so weird. A Cordon blue commercial came on TV. Yeah, and I'm sitting there and you know, the lightbulb went off over my head, like, yo, I should I can be a chefs Like I'm good at this. So I checked in school the next day. But now, how are you supporting your family while going

to school, are you? Um? Well, you know I was married at the time, and my my my ex wife, she you know, she had a job and she was making adequate money, different things like that. You know. Of course I was a hustler too, So y'all made it work. And you went to school, Okay, So you enjoyed school, You enjoyed it, yes, yes, um, but you know that's

the thing. We both were pursuing things. Like she was in school getting her degree in psychology, and so I went ahead and start purchuing culinary So I went to school and I pretty much excelled with school, um so much. And like two months in I had a job. You know, I was already working in kitchens. I had worked as a bus boy, um, a server assistant and different things like that. Um, even as a server sometimes. But I

can never get in the kitchen. Just just so all y'all listeners, and you know, that you hear this little sound. It's because he keeps mixing the honey and the sugar. I'm guessing he's trying to keep it from getting hard. Right. Well, what happens is that's why I said I wish I had a little cream or some type of milk substance. That way I can How do you say when I asked, when you add the cream or the milk, than out the the brown sugar and then to take the crystallization out.

So right now to the kitchen to get that. But I don't think we have no, don't worry about it. Um, you know, it's just hard on the audio. Okay, my bad on you know I'm over here mixing records. But no, this this just helps to break down the actual sugar or whatnot, so you're not eating a grainy sugar, you know what I'm saying. So that's why I use the milk or the cream. You know, also just cooking it down. What help with that to the butter um or the

margarine with the sugar. Just but you just have to cook it a little bit before. Man, Okay, perfect, I want to see this. So that's just to create you know what I'm saying oh, and then bump, I want I want my camera and we don't have overhead camp today. Is it for the side camps? He played it in like a chef had the Is this gonna taste that caramel? Yes? Yes,

it's gonna give you. It won't get you the full caramel flavor because I like to add things like to my caramel, Like I'll add like a maple maple extract or something just to just to give it a nice little vibe. But yeah, it's it's pretty much giving you caramel. So I'm going to be that rude person and take a bite before No, you're good, go ahead. Okay, So we're gonna sample the goods because it's nice and warm. That's but that's market siggling by the way. Problem, Well,

you're gonna make this at home. I love Michelle. Don't see if I did that? What I mean that is good. I'm getting a little drizzle of it. Oh yeah, please, Joe, can you put it on the set it? Oh sorry, I'm trying. Good. I love how the honey is and oh my gosh, camera again it looks fancy smancy. All right, this tastes really good. It's very sweet. It has like a nice crystal. I'm gonna trying to take another, but oh the good very sticky on the teeth. That's the sugar.

This is like a delicious trip and I don't see you can fill fill up your stomach and I totally get it. It's like upgraded version of a peanut butter sandwich. So I'm trying to still walk through this story with you. Okay, So you go to culinary school, You're cooking in all these kitchens. What happens next? Um? Yeah, I got to

color Meary School. I graduate, UM. And and of course it's for me, it's always a void because I always feel like I should be here, but I'm always here, So it's just always a matter of trying to figure out how to work myself up to getting here. So you know, I had worked for you know, UM, worked in Wolfgang Puck's kitchens. I had worked for Rabbit Alone. Um. I worked in all of us Gang Plucks kitchens with just different chefs, and I learned a lot actually just

working around in those chefs. Um. I actually was able to cook a a steak for Wolfgang one time. Um, just because I was at the bed think all right. Well, they told me he loved it. Um, because I don't see my stakes traditionally. Um because people just a lot of times I have salt and pepper boom. But you know, I'll take a different approach when it comes to that. But yeah, no, just I just happened to be working at one of his hotels and he happened to be there.

He he's always at the Beverly Hills Hotel, so um, he happened to be there and he wanted to steak and the chef was like, you want to make it? I was like, hell, yeah, you know you're looking out through the door, like, hey, no he was. It was actually, see the way the Beverly Hills Hotel set up. They have this dungeon and it's this big kitchen, and there's so many stations, so many chefs, you know, and just

different things going on. Like literally they're cooking for restaurants, they're cooking for room service, like they have a cafeteria for the employees. Hot you're not gonna put the caramel stuff on it? Oh yeah, honestly, I love this sandwich. Put this caramel on top. That's where it's at. Like that, that is amazing and this is without the Do you even need the honey on the inside with the caramel on the out? Do you even need the No, you don't. But the caramel is what I added today. That's just

that's some new stuff. But the real gist of the sandwich is the honey in the pan toasted. Well, this is so delicious. Thank you the Caramela, Thank you. I'm gonna I'm gonna want to do this all my sandwich. And I learned how to make it too. You stir it in the honey, and you stir, stir, stirt. I usually have a whisk. I didn't even use the whisk that I requested. I didn't even think to look over there. You know. I requested a whisk, y'all and I didn't

use it. Yeah, I totally requested it. Didn't even use it, but I didn't have a whisk. This is delicious. And when we do the cookbook, we're going to include the caramel time, because that's that's where to me, it just tips it over. It goes from a broke dish to a fancy I don't know. The thing is, I could literally make this and serve it at a fine dining restaurant. Yeah, and I would pay for this. I would tell really

switch it up. I mean, I don't even know. I would probably do some crazy stuff like calling the peanut butter brulet or something peanut butter broulet sounds, because what I would do is I would first of all, I would use like a sweep and wine loaf or a brioche loaf, and I would cut at the big slices with the peanut butter. I would of course add the honey,

but no, I would add the caramel, right. I would drizzle it with the caramel, and then I would sprinkle brown sugar and then burn the brown sugar just to give the brulet fields because you'll get that crispy uh texture on the outside, and then you'll bite in and it's got the drizzle. Like it's just there's so many compounds of this that I can make it, you know.

And I would do something like a vanilla bean whip cream, just as a garnish with a little pix of mat and it's like it's elevated, you know what I mean. So yeah, man, it's no, it's no real science to it, Like, it's just really about just how you make it look You can make something that you know cost you three dollars to make. You can make it look like a fifty plan. But you make it look but you also make it taste good. I would have never go out

of this combo. But but now you're at the culinary school. I mean, you graduated the you're finished with the culinary school. You're cooking for all these famous chefs, greatest billionaire burger boys happened. And now that was even the process. So I ended up. I ended up. I was living in Palmdy at the time because that's where me and my my my wife, we moved with our kids and different things like a bigger house and all that. There you go. Um, so I'm single. Now you know I'm single. I gotta

from South Palm Down. Okay, let's okay, let's how I like that. Okay, South and later phone and then I come back after after I get a divorce and'll come back. Um. And that's when I meet Jane, Um Jennifer, who is my girl and the co owner of begging A Bregable. Uh we started. Uh. She basically encouraged me to do

the pop ups that I wanted to do. I wanted to start doing cooking because I started doing in the pondo, but then it kind of died out and I went back to work because like I stopped working to do that, Like I used to sell tacos out of my carboard and it's so funny, Um, you have Chef Ulto on here. He was the reason why I ended up going and getting my flat top and started cooking tacos and stuff like that out of my car poard because I was

watching the video. My sister Michelle shout out some shells for that video, but she sent me a video of uh chef oto like it was like you know how they do the little end of the video social media video. So they asked him at the end, they said, if you could give anybody any advice to anybody that wants to get into this or wants to do this, Um, what would you say to them? And He's like, just do it, Just get out there and do it very much.

UM and video videos, Well that's the thing. I would believe her in the university and how work spirituality different things like that. So you have to be open minded, you have to be a you know your vision, like you know they say the third eye, Like you have to have that open because, like you know, the universe will show you things and it will give you the answers and it has messages for you. So that was the thing, is like I saw that video and I had literally just done a gig with the cheft that

I was working with at the school. He would call me to just come and help out. So I had worked that week and I got paid and I took that money and went involved my flattop. And the flat top is what you cook your meal in Spanish is the plancha. You know what I'm saying, Like, so you buy this list flattop, then what happens I'll started cooking out my car park. What does carporn mean? Um, it's just basically a parking space with a top over it,

cover over it, you know. So so you're going in the streets and selling or where I was at my house literally okay, okay, So why didn't get people to know about your business Instagram and Facebook? So you're like posting videos they started showing up at your house. Well that's the thing. Prior to that I had done, Like so everybody on social media went through the color airy

process with me. So from day one when I started school, I took a picture literally to the selfie and posted me and my chef had in my coat, and then I started posting the food that I was making. So everybody had been on this journey and my following had grown substantially from the time I started to the time I finished Colorary School. So it's like everybody's pretty much there there tune, they're waiting. Yeah, you know what I mean. When I posted that I was selling tacos and Pound Dell.

You know, of course everybody in l A because that's where I'm originally from, and everybody knows me pretty much in l A is like when you come to l A. But I also got people in Palmdale that rock with me, and you know, they pulled up like I literally sold out that first night that I did it. So it was just that doing that. The repetition of that Pound.

Lancaster had a lot of construction sites because they were you know, yeah, everything was going solar out there, so literally it's fields upon fields of solar panels, um, So you're pulling up on the construction work. Exactly five o'clock in the morning, I got breakfast buried over. Okay, and but now this is Palmdale, so this is pre Jennifer. So when does when does the Jennifer? That's when I

moved from Palmdale. Okay, so you moved from Palmdale, you meet Jennifer and you guys, at the time, I was working at a hotel. I was just working for an agency. So I was just doing our jobs and then you're probably what cooking on the weekends or something, Um, I really I wasn't even doing that. I started back working regular jobs. Okay, okay, So it was moving around with

the agency. Then I started working in this kitchen that was like a production kitchen for they produced food for like different movies, so all of the major movie studios and the like. They delivered like like pans of food too. So I used to do that. They call that backs cooking when you just cook big pans of food and like loads of it. So that's I did at UM And I was working for the chef. He was just horrible. He was a horrible freaking chef, like um, a horrible attitude.

Was this food trash, food was trash. Everything that he had, every every recipe, mene you that we had that we had to make. Um. I was like, I could do this better. So of course everything I cooked, I put my my little genn said quas it. I would put my bazas on it because it's like, no, this, this is as I can't do this. Um So yeah, I was working for him and it was just like, yo, I can't do this no more. So I I told you, and like, yo, I want to start doing pop ups.

And so she ended up setting up setting up to pop up at chew Ton Coffee Shop and uh and uh in Guardina shout out the kid. He gave me my start pretty much. So like she calls and she's like, hey, I got this amazing chef. Also my man, well he was featuring. He was featuring like three stacks kitchen. He had not your mama kitchen, you know. Shout out to them. Those were those are the people that I was rocking with.

He was also featuring chef Oho came through. There's some stuff talking and come we'll cook right in front of the shop, you know, or if they had you know, and you know whatever, we were always set up in

front of the shop. So um, I started doing that and then I started moving around different places like we got shut down there because the code enforce would be like, yeah, you know, you guys are too loud, neighbors complaining, there's different things because it would always be an event, like any time we posted that there was something going on, like you know, people pull up. Um, So that we started getting shut down doing that, and it just got to a point where it was like it was sucky

because I couldn't do anything anywhere. And at that time, like the street vendor laws were like they were non existent and now they're like all supports exactly. But I went through that process people I was. I was in that. I was the calls of these laws coming in their place because I was one of those street vendors, you know what I mean. So that's the thing is like, um, that was just the time where it just it sucked to be a streaming, you know. But it was like

just figuring that out. I used to be in downtown l A in front of this parking lot in between these clubs, selling right across the street, and you were selling hot dogs? What were you selling? Or tackles? What were you selling? I had a whole menu standing outside, I had a kitchen. Where were you the other night? When I was at the Stable center, all I had was hot dog option. Oh man, you gotta stop buy on the menu. Man, that's my boy. He'd be out

there pretty late. I think he'd get out there about nine. And you do all kind of desserts. But he also has a lot, he does a lot of food. So yeah, we started, I got shut down, and it's like, okay, you know I did my research on food trucks and prior to that, like to get a food truck, you had to buy one, right, and of course that could be anyway. This is before you could lease them. Yes, um, so you know you had it hard alright. No, that's the thing is, like all of the progressions are the

changes I was a part of. I was I was writing at that at the head was like you were in the sucky time to be vendor, and now you're in a sucky time to like get a food truck exactly. And and all the capital you're working with, um, assuming it's capital that you're hustling from your day job or your whatever it comes from being a drug you know, just the whole mentality. Yeah, that's why they say drug dealers are are the best entrepreneurs. You know, those are

your CEOs. Those are the ones that can run a fortunate clifund your company because they just understand how to you know, how to make the money. Yeah. And then of course most drug dealers we we save, we stack, you know, and what's the first thing they tell you to do? Save? You know? So, Um, I didn't even think about that. Yeah, No, Um, I would. I would totally just I would buy the product, I would sell it, take the money, re up, don't do it again, you

know what I mean. So it was just one of those things where I was like, all right, what am I gonna do? Um? And then just like I said, food trucks was an option because I didn't have the credit or the finances to get So then how did you get one? How did you end up getting there? I ended up getting it because you know, of course, after time, like probably like a month or two, I started setting out the house, it just became easier. So I would have people just pull up and get food. Thing. So, um,

one day I'm riding down the street. In another story, I'm right down the street right um, and I had looked up food trucks, like I said, and it was just all you got to buy him, and so, um, I had just I think I google like food truck leases or something like. But I put it in Google Maps and it was a food truck manufacturer that came up literally right around the corner. And I called him and I was like, yo, you got food trucks right now? He's like, yeah, I got one right now, you know.

And I go to him and I talked to him like, you know, I was always talking like you know, just go like you got the money, you know, act like like and at this time, are you familiar with good credit and all that stuff? So you had all that? So I didn't have a good credit. No, I didn't. Financial literacy was definitely something that was like it in my life, you know, mean um uh. So yeah, I called him. I went there and I'm like, so, how much he wants for it? And he was like just

twenty months. I was like what at least you know he's like, well doing literal at least twenty d of months, so how much down? Like he's like, you know, twenty four you know, twenty four times too, and how to put you on the truck. It comes with all the health everything, and then of course this monthly lease includes maintenance, anything that happens to the truck. Now it doesn't include the whole commissary and all. That commissary is a different thing.

You have to go and get a commissary to park the truck. Did you know about that? Yes? Oh so going in you you did your research. Yes, you just happened to you know, God allowed you. So you end up getting that truck. I end up getting that truck. Coulate a whole lot of my cousin Dion, shout out to din Man and my brothers. My brothers all came together and put money together and helped me out. So

there was a whole process. Like literally I was slanging plates left and like trying to raise money to get this truck. So um, yeah, my cousin Dion, my brother's Jesse, Jam Darren, they all came. We all came together and patient. We actually have a picture together that we took and they back then it was called chef solos. Uh what was our what was the wing band? Because I used to do these seared wings like I didn't I didn't beat from my wings like Serrial. So you're still not

selling burgers yet. Burgers was an accident that's so yeah, you know I was doing that. Um, we ended up getting the truck, and so I literally took everything my refrigerator put it on the truck. And that's the inventory that I started with, and that's what I ran off of, Like that's literally what kept us afloat that initial inventory. And then I just started rolling doing that. UM, and it was it was going good and you're a no. And that was the thing too, Like you know, people

don't realize, like we wasn't. None of us have food trucks. No Instagram chefs have food strucks. Really, it was just not your mom the kitchen. I love funnel cakes. Those are two of the food trucks that I knew for sure existed. UM Chef he had just got his before you were around, before me. It was right before I got Mom. He went on Steve Harvey whatnot, and then

he ended up getting food truck that story. Yeah, he didn't tell me that he got food truck after that, but yeah, yeah, yeah, I believe it was after that, but it was around the same time pretty much. So, UM, he's the only one really that had a truck. But he stayed on the UM. I was on Rodeo and Crunshaw. I was on Manchester and Western. I used to be on eight eight and avalon Florence and Central. Um. So I just start hitting these spots. Um. Oh he double Chef e Double had a truck at the time. Girl

Fresh shout out to him. Man he was He's always been an inspiration to to us and to me as a chef. Um but um, yeah, you know, so I started parking in these different spots. I started parking in front of my house. I lived right on Crenshaw and it was like right behind the the Senator or the divider or whatever it is. It was the island. So I used to park my truck over there. People would pull up. Um. But I ended up meeting uh my partner, Chef Smokehouse in year two. I met him earlier when

I was just going to pop ups. He was doing the same thing. He used to hang out with Chef Oo and Blue Kitchen or whatnot, Blue fool Manity or whatnot. So um, you know, me and him Madden, we just vibe. We click. It wasn't even about you know, working together. It was just I liked what he was about, he liked what I was about. We both pretty much sold the same thing, you know, and I just put it. It's all up. That's what I love about, you know. So one day um, I also did it. Was doing

collapse with Three Stacks too. When I got the truck, Me and him with do stuff because we was like the Sea fool Boys. That's what's so crazy. Before billion a Burger Boys, I was seafool Boys and three Stacks. He's always did the boils and I would just and you need to get him on here too, that's my guy. Need to connect us. Yeah, definitely I will. But yeah, he would do the sea food boils. So I was the deep Fride guy, deep fride everything. So I just

would deep Friday boils. And so we would work together and do stuff together and whatnot. But um, sef Smoke House end up calling me um and he was just like, man, I'm down on my luck. My card just got repolled. I got like twenty seven dollars to my name. He's like, but I got these jumper life fries. Everybody is checking for it, so it's a possible I can get on the truck just for a day. Um. He's like, just for a day. Um, And uh, you know, of course I will split the profits. I'll pay you a certain

amount of my process or whatever. So I'm like that did that? Yes? Do That's okay? Okay? Well that was his vibe and his energy, and I've been on energy like, I don't do the negative. I'm all about working together. Um, we we can, we can accomplish more together kind of park, you know. So that was my belief system, and so when he a me up, it was an easy call. Um. So he came on the truck that one day and never left. You know. So we was rolling with the

Solo and Smoke Show. So we were righting around l A. We had a fucking microphone. Clemmy curse. Yeah, we had a microphone, and he would just sit in the passenger seat. This is the Soul and Smoke Show and just you know, I'm talking about through the hood phone. We wasn't in there, like we was riding down Vermont, like going down Imperial, you know, Western and things like that, and he'd be just talking. We got jumped a live fries, we got the wings and not not just like giving a show,

you know. And then of course when people would come to the truck, and it was always a Viobe. We had the music and singing, dancing. You know, energy is always up problem. Um. And then I think he ended up going and doing something with Chefso and Vegas. I don't how you guys are all working together, like like, oh he's on my corner. No, no, like of course, it's like we created a lot of spots, so you know people parking through spots now, So what they would do is they'd reach out to us like yo, I

know you don't go to the spot no more. But it's a cool if I pull up, you know what I mean. I just love it if it's a spot that we currently at, like we'll just be like, all right, well we're here on these days, you know, so if you want to pull up on these days, or we can pull up together, you know, we would do that sometimes just pull up with other trucks. Um. But yeah, so he went through. Um, I was hungry and we were supposed to. This is another streak. Yeah. I used

to sell frozen fries. His jumper Live of Fries had fresh cut fries, so he would cut fresh potatoes for the jump a live fries. I just used the frozen froes. Um. So it was a debate, like yo, moving forward, which fries are we gonna use? And he was just like yo. He was like, dude, like fresh cutter frozen and I was like fresh cut of course, and he was like, well then it's an easy call. Were using, you know. But I had just bought a case of frozen frogs, so we had to sell these. So I was gonna

do a special with chili cheese frogs. So I bought the ingredients to make chili and different things like that. Of course, I bought a roll of beef, and we already had bons on the truck because I made like soundwiches, chicken sounds and different stuff. So one day I was hungry and I made a burger which is now the Brutus Arm and the Big Brutus Burger. Um. I made that burger and I posted on Instagram, and I think

he got like two or three hundred likes. And burger it's barbecue, sauce, cheese, bacon, and deep fried onion straws. And you came up with this on the truck. You're just like American cheese. Okay. So you're on the truck, You're like, I'm gonna make this. I just wanted to make me some eat and then your burger and he's like, damn, that's good. So he actually named the burger like when I made the burger, and I'm like, nig, look like he like that looked like it's a big brutus, you know.

So of course, like I said, I posted it, and you know, I didn't think non of it because I was used to getting a lot of likes, you know. So, um, a couple of days later, we was on the truck and he made what is now called the Smokehouse and I made what is now called from Surfing Turf. Um. They're both still on the menu. Um. And we took a picture of him side by side and posted it on the internet. They got like a thousand likes within

a couple of hours. And so you know that scene with uh from Trading Places, I mean not Trading Places coming to America, when you dropped the money and rund Off Mortar Murers right there and he's like, rund Off, we're back, you know. So me and him had that moment. We looked at each other like nigger, we're doing burgers.

And so we just started selling those three burgers like literally, and yes, they coming looking for him here and like that's when he went went to Vegas with that weekend and that was the weekend like everybody was putting some more your day weekend. As a matter of fact, everybody's pulling up for them burgers. And so we was actually trying to come up with a name. We ended up getting called to coming feed some people have Fox Studios

because they're like the buzzes. It went crazy, like um so somebody one of the executives and Fox Studios happened to get a wind of us and they were like, well, come down here. We wanted we want you guys to feed our executives and possibly talk about a potential TV show.

Why we like was trying to figure out a name, and me and Jim was driving and she was was coming up with different names, like we had one like ninety nine burgers because we had so many different ideas from burgers, and Jim was on her phone, I think, looking at the burgers and she was like these look like billion dollar burgers. It was like, y'all should be the begging that burger boys. The name. The name like my favorite name of like just favorite, like if I

could say company names from billionaire Burger Boys. Yea manifestation, man. You know at that point our chiefest burgers, ten bucks, you know what I mean. So, and that was our regular burger. We called it the Generic And it was actually a play on Jame's name because it was her name is Jennifer, So it was the j E n

Eric you know what I mean. So it was the Generic because she just liked regular asked burger, you know what I mean, Like she just wanted regular burger, you know, so yeah, like she um so yeah, she came up with that name and we just took it around with it when it got t shirts made and created a leveling to swap me with the demand and everything like and just started running with it. Now, what do you

think looking at your story? Now you go from billionaire Burger Boys and now you have a couple of stores, you have a couple of trucks, You've been on national television, Like, do you think looking back at your story, do you think it went by fast? Slow? Like because a lot of people think they see billion of Burger Boys, but they don't know this like long stretch of history. Like what do you think, Like what is the feeling you get when you think about the empire you guys built.

We were only five years in. We're started only five years in. It doesn't feel like it went by faster slow. It was a blur. It feels like yesterday we were we just started, like because that's just how fast everything is just progressed, Like within a month or two of us even becoming the bigging a burger boys, our name was barbershop talk, Like people were talking about us in the barbershop, and that's like a goal. If you getting talked about in the barbershop, then you're good, especially you

know locally. So um yeah, by the end, it was barbershop talk. Everybody wanted to be aligned with us. Everybody wants to talk, you know, be friends. Um So yeah, just thinking back, it's like whoa, we've been on the journey. We created Like people don't realize we created like a

food truck coach and Nola in South Alica. Because the thing is before they was due his roach coaches and they were only topic trucks and none of them were in South l A. They were all on the outskirts um downtown l A, so on and so forth, West l A. Um So, nobody was really parking in South l A. Because they were scared stigma. We didn't care.

What's crazy is that you guys are all like from relatively like around South l A. And you have the stigma, but you guys all work together, you support each other. I know I've heard through the grape Bune that you've mentored a lot of the big names that are out there and you helped them like Happy Ice and all that. Yeah, well, no, Happy Ice. It's so funny because Happy Ice, they we met them because we were doing that. We were going

to the downtown of Lake are walking. We like muscled our way into one of their events, to one of their food truck events. Um, we just pulled up and talked to coordinating like yo, we'll pay you two hunting right now to get in right okay. And Happy Ice was doing the same thing. They were like trying to muscle the w into just different things because they just came from Philly, you know what I mean. So it was like they were new fresh faces and um, but

showed them a lot of love. Yeah, we just happened to meet that night. The same night we both were trying to do the same thing. We ended up getting in an event not making no money, didn't even make the money back that we we spent, Like people were just walking by our truck looking like and we had a whole ass truck and all that, and we didn't get no love. And so we ended up chopping it up. We meet men Happy Ice, Lamer the owner and Um. We decided it was like, Yo, we're going all these

events outside of l A trying to make money. We're spending a lot of money to be in these events, and we're not making anything, we're not using anything. So let's create our own event. And so that's where the Lamert Park Black Party came from. We collab with Happy Ice and then of course I had connections shout out to Kamanity Black Um and Herd Weston, you know they you know, they looked out for us that that's the district. So that's why we started doing in the Lamern Park

and we ran that for a year straight. And basically what we did was we introduced all of the new black on food trucks to l A. Like if you were a food truck at the time or you were

brand new with a food truck. Our event was the eventually wanted to be at because we would get three thousand plus people every single month and we were doing once a months and it was the biggest food truck event in l A, the only food truck event in South l A at the time, and that pretty much spawned a lot of the different events that you're seeing

after that that involved food trucks. Now, speaking of events and food trucks, for all the entrepreneurs that are listening and would love to somehow magically cross paths with you, because I know you have a lot of operations going on. So I'm pretty sure they can't just pop up at a store and pump into you. But how can they catch you? I know you guys have a summit coming up. Tell me more about it. W f E Consulting. Shout

out to Atlie Smith. He's an owner. Um I was hunting him down for a while and an actually he's that's my family. He's been down with us for a while now, right. He just started booking us for stuff. Like he would call us and be like, yeah, I got this thing with Facebook. They want you to do this, or I got this with Amazon or with Enterprise or with uh, you know Amazon Prime is doing the theater thing and you know, so we would he would, but he would only book us for stuff where he was

getting paid, you know what I mean. And he's going on trying me for this interview, right, you know. But yeah, he would totally you know, just hook up stuff and he was just doing it off the love and then he created w F E and we just built the

relationship from there, you know. Um. And so when he said he wanted to do this, it was like I was like, I'm all in And this is a different type of tour because I thought initially like food trucks were going to be there, but this is an opportunity to get like one on one with these entrepreneurs, asked the difficult questions. And the cool thing about this tour is like I've met with the different chefs on the tour and what I've learned is that you guys all

came from these almost like survival instinct type backgrounds. So it's like, no matter what you are, what as you are as an entrepreneur, this is an opportunity where it's a comfortable, i'd say safe space because you're approaching people that look and feel and literally understand everything you're going through. And there's no such thing as a dumb question. Dumb question. Yeah, and you don't have to feel like up tighter or what have you. And I heard there's access to alternative

financing and all that stuff. But I love what you guys are doing and what you're about. And I can't wait to have a thirty dollar burger. That's all. That was the thirty dollar burger. Um, that's the that's the hands of the billionaire. That's the billionaire burger. But it's all about the quality that we put in into the

food is clearly you learn an amazing chef. You literally took a peanut butter sandwich which I had very low expectations for it, and you turned it into I would call this like a gourmet dish because it looks the case really good. I'm going to finish this dish. I just couldn't. Yeah, it gets sticky, but that caramel is everything. Um, this is candy. This is candy. How can people find out about the tour and sign up for tickets and where the tour is? Uh, well, go to Food the

Business Summit dot com. UM. That's where you can get all the information. We have tickets available on an event right um and yes, I will be at every tour date, so we look forward to it. We got Vegas coming up. We got Vegas, Indianapolis, Norfolk, Virginia, Houston, Texas, Atlanta, and then l A. So um, please please please pull up. We got all information you need, and I mean the real stories you know, not the you know what you're finding the book. It's the real stories, that stuff we

actually went through. So definitely pull up on us. Pull up. I don't know. I'm going to try and pull up to at least one of the dates. Please do, just so I can be a groupie. Hey for more eating while broke from I Heart Radio and The Black Effect, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows,