Hello , Food Fam . This is the Walk and Talk podcast . I'm your host , Carl Fiodini . We are podcasting on site at Ibis Images Studios , where food photography comes alive . Get with John Hernandez . Check him out at Ibisimagescom . Alright , so we did a thing today , Don't we do a thing every day ? We do so .
Chef Jeffrey , over here he smoked a pork butt and some duck . So in this pork butt we're talking about a coffee , rubbed cherry , bourbon , bloody Mary , brined pork butt . That's the kind of pork butt I'm talking about . And yes , you heard that right , but that's not all . We're talking smoked gruyere , caramelized onion puree , crispy onions , oh my god .
And don't forget about the key lime slaw . So all of that was beautifully sandwiched between two slices of grilled rye bread . Thank you Peninsula Food Service for the proteins . And there will be sexy food talk today , and you know what we're going to get into . A little bit of a backstory on the gruyere . We also have a guest today .
We have the Alexander Olson of Babylon Micro Green Farms . He's the co-founder and I'll tell you what it's a cool concept . They had a lot of interesting things happen . They were recognized by the Biden Harris Administration for what they're doing . I think that's kind of cool From their website . I just want to read this .
Babylon's all in one indoor farming experience makes farming easy and fun for anyone . With an elegant blend of subscription services , advanced tech and innovative farming equipment , You'll harvest nutrient dense produce every week , no matter your level of farming skill . I think that's super cool . We're going to get into that .
But first Jefferson Jefferson's slistle of the Hollywood schlistles . You dazzled me today , dude . I mean you did . It's a shocker every week . I don't know why . I should be accustomed to this already . But dive in , Just talking baby .
This is my element . I mean , when we were talking about what we're going to do for the month of August , I wanted to do something . That's really , really , really sexy , talking about those like off cuts . Funny enough , ron McTide would used to be the meathead for the company I worked for . That's not one of them I would have picked .
I would have picked the Kulot , which is the flat , and I'm like we're going to get to that one . Oh , kulots are great . Right , I wanted to do the butt , because it's very popular , the pork butt . And what I want to do something different with it is because so I was introduced by Paige , one of them , tammy Steps and niece .
She had come over one time and she was helping out and she brought me Jim Beam black cherry brandy and I'm like what's this ? Brandy with black cherry ? Or bourbon with black cherry ? And then I got the scatter brain , which is the peanut butter whiskey too . So I was like , ooh , peanut butter and jelly sandwich .
Well , one day I just decided I think it was not too long ago you came over with your wife , john and his wife , and I did black cherry kind of marinated in the pork , and I'm like this is unbelievable . So then when I was at the ECF convention , I met the guys from Red Gold and they had Sacramento , which is one of my favorite tomato juices .
They made it into a Bloody Mary mix and I'm like , ooh , this would be really good Burrined with pork belly or pork butt . That's where all that came from . So when I talked to you guys , I'm like , hey , this is what we're going to be doing , but the smoke I want to do a little bit differently .
I'm always usually cherry or applewood pecan , so I went hickory this time , but I didn't do it overbearing , I want to just like a hint of the hickory in the background . So that just it just cooked and they had the layer and this would . What was different about this one . Is it dried out ?
After I rubbed the pork for about three or four days , he moaning yeah , tell you what she was smoky like every single week . Just doesn't like he's he's great humor .
He's Abbott and Costello rolled into one right here in the studio .
So that is well you know what we're talking ? Sexy talk , and he's moaning Perfect , I mean he got his fill today too .
Yeah , oh my God , he did , he did .
Bacon bits did too . So she was out of camp for so she was able to come in and hang out to the duck . I wanted . I love duck , but I wanted to do something Duck or all yeah so classic French dish . You got the duck or the ranch , it's got grémenier . You put the liver , the neck , all that .
But I wanted to smoke it so it would give it a whole and elevate it to the whole and other level . But I use black garlic marinade with orange , orange peel sake and then I let that sit there and then the air dry , so it got nice into the entire flesh of the animal .
On top of that , when I was cooking it , it was mopped with grémenier cognac and that same deal . But I also wanted to show because I want to show two courses right , two different ways of doing it presentation . So we did an entree but I got this bug up my you know , or hair on my butt . I want to do an appetizer .
So I thought pot sticker would be a perfect vessel to carry through and then breed cheese , because I know we're going to talk about cheese . I wanted something creamy but I didn't want something overbearing .
One of the folding , a little nab cabbage , little crunch garlic , used a little bit more of the black garlic marinade as well , pulled the duck , chopped it up a little bit , threw that all in and then we actually steamed it and then we actually then seared them , we served it with the orange glaze , and then that's just incredible .
Man , I tell you what . I don't know what I'm going to say . Today's favorite for me was the pot sticker . You know , like the duck , the orange what you like to skin . Oh my God , I can eat like a plate . I can eat a plate of the skin on my own .
First of all , everything is delicious , right , and the pictures , the photographs that John has of what we you know what we cooked up today , are fabulous . Obviously , those would be on the website and we'll push those out on the socials .
Well , we got a new guy too . Don't forget about him . He got to snack a little bit today , yeah .
Hey , will Brown , everything was good today , right ? Yes , sir . Okay , yeah , will Brown shooting some video for us today , and it's his first day we're you know we're .
I think Thursday is going to be his favorite day . Now . It wasn't . I wouldn't say hazing , it wasn't . No , he wasn't hazed at all .
No , Not by me , at least Not me either I mean , I was , you know , a little sarcastic , but it was . Well , that's you , yeah , you got to deal with it . You deal with it will , or not . You know what I'm saying ? I'm saying perfect , I'll just keep on feeding him .
He's 21 . He's got a metabolism that's unbelievable .
Feed him and smokey Everybody's happy .
Yeah .
It's just especially smoky . But the pot stickers . Let's get back to the pot stickers . Oh my God , when you know you're like hey , try this , dip it in the dude . I mean , what are we making those again ? It's , you know , it's . Are we going to do that again ? It's not that difficult .
I mean we're only talking like four or five ingredients out of everything we've done . Shockingly .
It looks simple . It looked like I can do it yeah .
But you got to have little teeny , weeny fingers .
Yeah , I don't have that and it takes a time period .
I mean you're going to have to stick with that . I guess I'm going to have to make money . You know what my brother in law , gavin , loves doing what I'm selling . Make him do it more . Or Evan , my nephew , I ain't mad at you .
Right , so , but you know the , the marmalade .
Yeah that you know what that came from . J yeah , the whole idea , yeah , and it's just America , correct the juicer ?
Um , that marmalade is like fire . Thanks , man , yes .
Not only that , I have to . That's where we got the MIMA Sassy Sauce , because having that remember , that's what tricked me to go . And hey , what's the base in there ? The base of the which one ? The marmalade or the ? Um , well , the marmalade , but then the MIMA . So the MIMA is the base is basically bourbon and orange .
Yeah , I mean , you can't go wrong . It's actually an old fashioned , you know , we got to do and it's been a while . Uh , mr Bacon Cartel , we haven't done . We haven't had bacon here in a long time . Don't get quiet , just tell me when it's arriving , that's all , oh .
I have five pounds , four or five pounds .
What are we doing here ? I can bring in this , one Will go pick up . I'm kidding , I'm just kidding .
All right . We can definitely do bacon next time .
Yeah .
Yeah , we've got oxtail in the works .
Oh man , short rib . What are we doing with the oxtail ? It's not going to be like , so we're going to do the Archimegas style . Yeah .
That one . I want to show a little pay homage to some of the family members and stuff like that and want to do it with a little bit of demi and then jerk marinated with coconut Malibu coconut rum . Yeah , that sounds choice , and then , oh , there's nowhere to have heard choice .
I take it back to the 80s whenever I can , and then I want to do a riff on the stuffed cabbage , but we're going to do kimchi rubbed short ribs .
Okay .
And that we did them yesterday .
Do you ever do homemade fresh pasta ?
Yeah .
All right , we need to . We have not yet done Fresh pasta , anything that has to do with anything . Yeah , we do ravioli . We can make short rib ravioli . I feel like you're prejudice against me no .
Is that it no . You just like meat . I just . You know what I mean . There's not much . I mean , how are you going to do pasta with meat ? Instead of it , look like beef tips in Puppadel .
Yeah , yeah , yeah , yeah , yeah , no , let's do , let's do , let's On the schedule for maybe closer to the holidays , let's put together some . Yeah , definitely , you know , yeah , we can do some fishes , you know what , maybe some money , that'll be .
Cannelloni too . Yeah , stop it . Okay , cannelloni is easy to do .
Let's you know what . All right , I'll tell you what , because I might just hang this thing up and go finish eating . I didn't get to eat anything today , only a couple of bites . I've had the pot stickers . I got two of those , and you know what ? Those are awesome . I'm going to bring Alexander on now and let's get him on the show .
Alexander , are you there ?
Yes , hello there .
Welcome and I appreciate you coming on the program .
Oh , it's a pleasure to be here .
So I understand . So yeah , I'm very familiar with microgreens . I've been in produce distribution for most of my adult career maybe 20 plus years and I love microgreens . I love what they do for the culinary world and the health benefits with them as well . So you've devised a way where the average person can actually do this at home . Am I correct in that ?
So you're close . So we build modular vertical farms and what are ? The automated hyper-plonic system so we allow people to grow microgreens and a wide range of fresh hubs and other ingredients on site , on demand , in a way that's really really easy .
And we really founded the company around this idea of remote management , which is how can we use technology to make it really simple for people to grow safe , reliable and convenient food , and that was the goal six years ago and today we're doing it .
We have a series of clients across four countries now where these modular farms are installed kind of in the kitchen or in their community , helping to grow fresh ingredients .
Which countries are you in ?
So we're primarily in North America . We have some we just started doing exports to the EU and then we're actually doing some work on cruise ships . So I guess those are not technically a country because they're on the move .
Right , well , you know , they're definitely on the move and they end up different ports of call , so that works , yeah , close enough , and so I understand that you can actually you can control the process remotely . Is that ? How does that work ?
Yeah , so when you grow and corrupt hydro plant , you grow in the water instead of soil , and that method of growing plants uses 90% less water than growing outdoors . There are no pesticides or chemicals and they grow three times more quickly , so it's really sustainable and resource efficient . But it takes a lot of maintenance .
So there is a thriving DIY community of people who want to do this little science experiment every day to maintain their crops , and what we saw is an opportunity to automate a lot of that process and therefore make it accessible to a much broader market .
So we're actually monitoring their farms and their crops in real time and adjusted conditions so that our clients don't have to and , as a result , they just have a machine that grows food for them .
I think that's quite fascinating , actually , the fact that you can manage the farms for your clientele , because it's not just it , isn't that ? You're just selling a unit and slap on the back and a thanks and a handshake and that's it . It sounds like it's a relationship for the long term .
Yeah , absolutely , and we see what we're doing as sort of a sustainable infrastructure piece right . We're helping our clients , which is primarily businesses and communities , to be more self-sufficient , to not have to import products , and that involves us being involved and being pretty involved in the long term .
You know , we have sort of multi-year relationships with our clients where we're supporting them and kind of keeping the program evolving right .
They may want to change all that growing each season or create programs that we have some really exciting work in school systems where we're the farms and totally growing food for the cafeteria , but they're also being used as a teaching tool . So what we do goes far beyond the machines .
Yeah , so I mean , there's a lot of people I know that listen right now that are and culinary instructors Susan Greer , pamela Bedford , kc . These guys are all in doing it . Have you reached out ? How do you get in touch with them ? Or how do they get in touch with you if they want to get involved with it ?
Yeah , so as we are very active on LinkedIn companies Babylonmicrofarmscom so we are always ready to chat and we have account managers there . But we do a lot of content based marketing , so we're pretty fun to follow along if you want some innovative ideas around how to grow indoors and kind of different use cases . But it's such a new industry .
I think the biggest challenge we have is that most people don't even know this is an option . They think if they have to stop farming , they're going to have to go outside and dig a hole and all the strengths that come with that , whereas with us it's something that is 365 days a year and it's a very clean and easy experience .
Well , I mean , I have a hydroponic tower but I have to make sure that the water goes in . I have to make sure the pH level is the right way . That's me . You guys do all that remotely correct . That's what I'm understanding .
Exactly .
There are a bunch of things on the market that like what you're describing , that kind of set the scene for this and , I think , where we've kind of added in some new service layers to make it easier and ultimately make it expand the market for it right Away from kind of just your hobby users but towards people who are going to rely on these things to grow a
product for them on a weekly basis .
You were mentioning . You had mentioned schools . Who is your target audience ?
Yeah , so we work with what we call institutional food service , so we do a lot of work with self-operated colleges and schools . We also work with the big free food service management companies , and the main segments we focus on today are higher education , corporate dining and then actually a lot of work in the healthcare and senior living space .
Yeah , this is definitely . He's got his audience right here . You got Chef Jay-Z and Ferdinand Metz , John Selick . There's a bunch of different ones .
Yeah , we do a lot of work with the ACF and many , just a lot of people in the industry . Obviously we're a chef focused sort of operation ourselves and who tags along with the chefs or the foodies and everybody in between ?
How did you get started with this ?
I hear an accent too , so I grew up in the UK came up to the US for college and we were actually looking at humanitarian applications for hydroponic farms . So we're thinking about like could you deploy small farms in refugee camps to help people feed themselves ? And through that project we came up with this idea for micro-farming .
So looking at like onsite at the point of consumption and that's where this sort of whole thing kicked off as well , seven years ago now , and what we saw is they just here in the US there are lots of big people who want the freshest product , they want to be able to harvest in front of their clients , and that's the need that we're meeting today .
So not just microgreens , it's a micro farm , correct ?
Yeah , yeah , it's the whole system , and so , because it's a full hydroponic system , we can do microgreens through to peppers , flowers . We do a lot of culinary herbs and salad greens as well .
You mentioned that you were . You just mentioned that you're looking to go to different . You know places where maybe food sources aren't so available . Do you have anything to point at now where there's some success stories ?
Well , I think the most exciting ones . We work with Nicholas Esquidette on MSC Cruise Line , so he's a Michelin star chef .
He built an entire restaurant concept around microfarming , so he has five micro farms where they're doing farms , a table in the middle of the ocean harvesting greens as garnishes onto a plate , and because they have several of the units that are completely self-sufficient , I think it's just a beautiful use case and we have loads of you know a lot of inbound from
like remote places in Alaska , canada and the Caribbean your way in . If importing product is a significant part of your business , then the ROI on one of our units becomes a no-brainer .
Have you ever reached out to World Center Kitchen ? Jose Andreos and his team maybe getting something along with them .
You know I have not , but they would be a fantastic partner . So , I'll be able to do that ?
And what about Amy Sins ?
Yeah , yeah definitely 100% , 100% .
Yeah , I mean , I feel like there's just in speaking with you here for a few minutes . There's definitely there are some synergies . I think we can probably help each other .
Yeah , Amy can actually point out . It would probably be better to have Amy get in contact , because she works with FEMA hand-in-hand so much and she's local in New Orleans , kind of . She just got a president's medallion for it . Why don't you share with ?
Alexander who Amy is .
So , amy , basically during Hurricane Katrina she had a helicopter dropping bags of sand to help the levee and to protect her home and people just came out to help her and she said ever since that day she was going to pay it forward fast-forward . Hurricane Ian decimated Cape Coral and all that in South Florida and there in New Orleans .
There she is manning four or five truckloads a day coming into that hurricane ravaged area and she was calling me to get certain products and with our network we were helping out . And not only that , she was actually helping people in the Ukraine when that got invaded and she was helping people when the Afghan Taliban took over and it fell . The government fell .
She was helping get families reunited . This individual is a saint and I can't say anything more about her . That is just an amazing individual and the way she helps people out in her humanitarian aid is just unbelievable and she'd be perfect for you guys to talk to and set something up .
Oh , that is epic . Well , thank you guys , and I think that's sort of where we're at as an industry . Right in controlled environment , agriculture is what's thrown around it's day one we're in . This is a new way of growing food .
It's ultimately going to lead to much high quality ingredients and better access in the places that need it most , and we just need people to help spread awareness and kind of drive this whole initiative forward .
It's funny . We were talking earlier , carl and I . You asked the question about farming and I said Steph on , did that thing with the shipping containers . It's almost the same thing .
What's the similar ? Yeah , similar , almost the same thing , but but more in depth and old ?
Yeah , very much so .
Yeah , alexander , how so ? What was the story with Kamala Harris ? How did that , how did that all go down ?
You know it was the craziest four days of my life to start .
So I was actually traveling and I had some missed calls from an item , who it was calling me on a Sunday and it was the chief economic rights of the White House and they had fortunately found out about our work and I think maybe familiar that Michelle Obama started this whole initiative around gardening . She rebuilt the White House garden .
I think there was some continuation there that they happened to be in Richmond and they wanted to highlight what we're doing for a couple reasons . One , because we'd received some federal grant funding . You know we have a lot of machine learning and kind of sophisticated software that the National Foundation has funded that makes what we do possible .
And then the other piece is we actually manufacture everything here in the US where the only company would do that , and so we built a factory here in Richmond where we could build everything from start to scratch . So she is keen to come check it out and she hosted a small business we could dress from our factory with microphones behind her on national TV .
It was super cool and a wall wind four days for me .
That's a big deal , Because I mean you're a small company , right ? Small , midsize .
Yeah , I'd say it's small , although in that moment I think people will hear a lot bigger than we will . It's not a bad thing .
Well , I mean , that is a remarkable happenstance to have happened to you and I commend you for that . And what you're doing humanitarian humanitarianly speaking is terrific , and if there's anything that we here at the show can do to kind of push that along , that would be more than obliged to look into that .
Have you Well . You guys are great and I think , yeah , we just said at the intersection of kind of engagement and education and like responsible sourcing . So for any chefs in your network , all this in the new base to create unique experiences we have a really flexible tool that is helping people do that across different locations around the world .
Now you're in the Northeast , correct ? That's your home base , Virginia . Yeah .
We're in Richmond .
Virginia , you know Farmer Lee Jones .
I've seen the stuff that bow ties hard to forget .
Yeah , you guys need to hook up my buddy , troy Schiller . He's up there when we're offline . I'll give you a whole bunch of different or I'll email you later . It's a good person to talk to because he's always on GMA Good morning America , farmer Lee Jones . He's a huge , obviously farmer advocate and what you're doing , I think , is just spectacular .
And I hope you know we've always been super partner orientated . You know , whether it's like coming up with a new program for a nonprofit or trying some new seed varieties from a farm Jones or something like that , you know we really try and get creative and ultimately we just want people to be grown there and food .
Whether it's our system or someone else's , that is in everyone's interest .
Well , I concur with that . I think we all agree here at the show .
I'm shaking my head .
yes , yeah , absolutely In the description . When this podcast goes live , which will probably be in a few hours , believe it or not , I'll go ahead and put all your company contact info you know in the description and you know we'll kind of pick it up from there . Maybe we can jump on a call , the three of us , in a couple of days .
Fantastic , yeah , let's do it . And if you ever find yourself in rich when we look those here , Certainly I mean it's not that far as what is it ?
12 hours , or something ? Yeah , give or take , but Troy wants me to come there anyways . He wants to throw it down up there . He's in West by God Virginia , though , which is right next door .
Well , yes , I get it .
But you know what ?
It's a blessing for everybody . All right , alexander , you're a gentleman . Thank you for being on the program . We will be in touch . You know . If there's anything you want to say on the , on the outro , for you , go for it now .
No , I think we've covered so much . I'm really grateful for the opportunity and , as I said you know , ultimately we see a future where everyone is growing their own food on site , and I think that's going to be better for consumers and better for the chefs behind it as well . So if anyone's interested in learning more , they can reach out at BabelOnMicrofondscom .
Thank God he didn't say anything about man City or anything like that , so I needed to make . I was going to ask him what his football team was , but we'll do that off .
Yeah , as a Chelsea fan .
Oh , chelsea , I think we can still talk . You guys got rid of Polistic . I mean , we're going to have to talk about that one off there .
I don't know who's left at this stage . Excellent .
Alexander , thank you kindly . We'll catch you on the other side .
All right , thank you , guys Take care , ciao , ciao , bye so um interesting company right .
Interesting , very interesting .
Um the control that you can you know from yeah , but there's some people that are like what are they controlling ?
Is he's watching me ?
No , the micros . They're watching your microgreens . Yeah , it isn't like your greens it isn't like .
It's our TV sets that are literally watching , or your iRobot , yeah . Vacuum cleaner , the iRobot vacuum cleaner . Yeah , do you hear about that ? Well , I have one , but you . But you heard the stories right . Yeah , they can watch me where the cameras are actually , uh , faced up , faced up , and then people actually see it from the company .
Listen if they want to see me in all my glory . I don't think it's you that there was . I mean , you know well , if they want to have at it , because nobody wants to see that , not including myself .
So you know um , you know what we did today , uh , my my man , uh we cooked Well , and some of us cook and took shoots and shots .
We did your interview , bro . Oh , that's right . Yeah , I thought he knew where I did . I think I got to play along .
We're just backtracking , what , god you know what . Forget it , we're not going to . Oh , we're going to talk about the history thing , right , yeah , we're going to get to it , we're going to do it .
We're going to edumicational Right .
I'm the one doing the eye rolls today .
So is John .
That's usual , though .
Wow .
What the hell is going on here ? The wheels just fell off the buzzer . You need glasses , I do . I'm just trying to find the . What are we talking about here ? Let's talk , gruyere .
Yeah .
Yeah , first of all , I don't know what's number one , number two , but Gruyere , yeah , you were talking about the sister . I know you remember .
Yeah .
Yeah , those are like probably . I mean , okay , you know the Pecorinos , I love them , you know Locatelli , all that good stuff , but these two are probably my two favorites , yeah , yeah .
So what about you ? You know , for me it depends on the protein we talked about that too and why I choose the which way I want to go . But Gruyere is definitely one of my favorites . You have to have Gruyere and a grilled cheese for me .
Yeah Well , dude , I tell you what it's fantastic and what you did today was fabulous . Now , did you know that careers that's , that's switch , it's Swiss ?
Mm-hmm , which is right , yeah , without the holes . Without the holes , yep , and it's a little bit more . I think it's tamer than some Swiss cheese out there . It's got another your flavor to it than some of the Swiss cheese . Some Swiss cheese can overpower what , what you're eating . As far as the sandwiches concerned , yeah , it's more earthy , as you can say .
Yeah , that's a good way to put it .
Yeah , and I'm all about that , but it's an old cheese that goes back centuries . I know you wanted to jump in on some time with this , isn't it ?
No , the one I loved about was the AOC , which is the is protecting the integrity of the cheese just doesn't have anything to do with this , but I love the fact that they want to protect the their way of doing things and the structure and everything they go through Go actually a soapy's standard operating procedures .
Yeah , AOC is kind of like a DLP for like the tomatoes yeah .
I'm coming out of Italy . Yep , samanzono has to be mark Samanzono . It doesn't matter if it's across the street , it doesn't have a DOP .
It's not the right thing , all right . So the Reading this thing , as we're you know , I wish I can like download it into my book .
Soon They'll have a phone where you just press a button it down the loan right , like in the matrix . Yeah , but I'm I can do some .
All right . So what is it ? I just want to do a little couple of bullet points here , right ? So it's tradition is raw cow's milk Texture . It is unique . I agree with that . I'm totally blown this one here , man . I am totally . Um , if you've never tasted grew your cheese , you're in for a treat . It's .
It's flavor profile is remarkable , boasting a rich , creamy texture and distinctive nutty taste . What makes it even more exciting is the Meltability . Now , that's a word that I am digging . I can get behind meltability .
Yeah , and we also call it stretchability too . I mean , like when you talk about mozzarella and when you have a pizza and it does this . Greer , to me , has to do that too . I think Greer has to be . And then that's the how much you put on it too smooth and gooey .
That's what it needs to be , yep .
Yeah , has to have that , that flavor profile to me as well .
Yeah , I mean what ? So what's your favorite application for a career like a fondue or a grotton ?
or something . You could do it that way a hundred percent , but for me I love it in eggs . It's funny . Out I Do certain proteins get certain things like to me brie is such a phenomenal Crab and brie egg is just I don't know , there's something about it that I get just giddy .
The other one is like Gruyere and ham , like yeah the croc , monsieur , croc , madame , they put Swiss cheese . No , no , go elevate it . Go to go to Gruyere to me if you're gonna put Swiss cheese on it . You know you don't love your guests . I think .
When I think Gruyere , I think Crusty bread and apples , oh and honey . Yes , I love honey . I can't , I know , because pecans .
See , there we go . We just got a , we got a little .
Parteen salivating yeah .
Yeah , not , you didn't eat today .
I mean I had a little bit . I just didn't get too crazy to be a slob like I normally am . You know , all right , john , are you doing ? You're just sitting there holding I mean so , just as a behind the scenes Smokey , our mascot . He was , he was , he was kind of on in a weird place today .
I was there , but it was you abusive son of a , so he's calmed down and now how you have as well . What was your favorite shoot today ? I ?
Think it was the last duck we did . Oh yeah , the plate , the main plate . Yeah , you like the duck on orange La ranch ? Yeah , but you need to eat that duck on the launch because of the yeah , the yeah , I didn't have any of that .
I did not have that the orange powders were really kind of pop . So what is that ?
That's just Dehydrated tangerine that we said yeah so this what we used to do at PF chains when we used to make our orange peel , chicken or or beef we used to take the Peels , put in the window and then the hot lamp . The heat lamp would actually dry them out . Kind of the same concept .
But I didn't have that much pith , as a jay would tell you , pith is gonna give you the acid , so I didn't have that in there when we did ours . So it's more of a orange , julius , because it cooks when you dehydrate , and it's 120 degrees .
It had a real heavy , you know , like when I smell the inside the container it was a heavy like a musk . You know , with the tangerine musk it was nice .
Yeah , you definitely know . It's that what that is . Yeah , and it's still that flavor profile on the dish . To me , that's one of when you can accentuate Layers when you cook , like Chris , the guy that was checking out the ACs yesterday he's like , oh my god , I can taste this , that the other thing , and I'm like , yeah , that's what I wanted to do .
I wanted was eating the AC .
I'm not . You know , he was over at the house . He perfect timing , had just gotten done prepping all the stuff , and he had the cornbread , he had the beef , or , you know , we had the oxtail short rib and the pork .
Did you ever put together the Our calendar for the what we're gonna be cooking up ? Hmm , yeah , yeah , what's the next week done ?
I told you about short ribs the Korean short ribs and oxtail .
That is next week ?
Yeah , that was scheduled for next week . Yeah , okay . And then the week after we're doing Maybe the cool lot and something else . But , the whole idea with August is like we're coming into the fall . Some , some areas of the country Are coming in the fall , you know , because we only get four days now of cold air or cold Days down here in Florida .
Nothing changes anyways as far as the trees are concerned , but we're getting into that time period where the grills are gonna go back inside . So this is where grilling for me and smoking barbecue really come into a fruition . For me , it's great to sit down in 98 degree , 200% humidity and , like yesterday , and smoke at 250 degrees .
I probably lost a good about 20 pounds of water . It's fantastic .
It's good for you .
Yeah , stupid things I think of . Let's go ahead in the middle of August .
Smoke , you know , and I'll end up getting some Creekstone kool-odds too . I don't mind that for some reason , yeah , yeah .
Yes , this is the first time I like we haven't done like . I was like oh , I have to cut that . No , this is not meat , so I don't have to cut anything . Every the last , every shoot . We've done it's keep it whole , cut the beef . Keep it whole cut .
Right , right , right you can see it in two ways , and today was the first time I didn't have to do that . It was perfect , except for the duck . Well , I did cut the duck .
Yeah , I mean , but it's part of the part of the part of the deal .
Yeah , it has to be and I think , as we move forward , I think we can morph the different things to as far as what we were talking about flavor profiles and different dishes .
You know what's coming up right .
Well , that's a , that's a broad question or statement . Well , you're wrong .
It's not so you , you connected me with foodie patootie . Yes , right , yeah , you know big pooch , you , he's coming .
Yeah , yeah , we're gonna have him , we're gonna host him , he's gonna he's gonna fly in from New Orleans , he's , we're gonna host them .
We'll end up going to , you know , one of the culinary Probably Jonathan's , one of Jonathan's properties and we're gonna just have a blast .
Oh , it's gonna be the way he is and the energy he has . He's just a really good dude .
He and you know it's , there's no secret now because he's , he's totally down , he wants you know we all work together . He's going to , he's gonna be the chef on the street over there in and that part of the , that part of the country , louisiana and Orleans .
We actually have One , two , three , four , four have gotten back to us . The fifth one is having a child soon , so he wants to see how that's gonna it's gonna more than everything .
It's the biggest blessing .
Listen he's he's the chef , so he doesn't sleep already , and I know that's right . He's not going to sleep , yeah you know it's funny .
Funny story is you know , because I was , I was in produce and our operation was 365 , like you know , fully operational every day of the year , and I was in charge of a bunch of people and a bunch of everything . Well , when my wife , when we had our second child , it was literally , you know , doing the look I'm gonna take out of there , the what is it ?
Oh my god , I can't believe it is . What is it when they have in their contractions , oh yeah , labor , you will labor , but the contractions , right . So she would have the contractions and I'd be there with her leg , you know , come on baby , push , push , come on girl . Oh , you know .
And then when , when it would relax , I'm putting orders in , I'm texting , you know , like it was literally I would turn this way and just , you know , kind of do what I have to do , and then you know , oh , contractions , you know , get back to work . I did that for the entire day .
It was a long one , it was like that , 14 or 15 hours and there's women out here listening that podcast right now going oh you poor baby , bless your heart , hey man , you know .
Somebody's got a yeah , put in the order safer stuff and put in the orders . Man , I mean , what can I tell you ? I mean I'm committed to everybody . Basically , you know my commitment goes long and you know in deep , stop it .
So and John's of them looked at me . Yeah , they were . Everybody looked at you listen , my , my daughter's here , so I have to be on my best behavior .
You should be . Good thing she's in the other room with the headphones .
Sometimes I think that she has it off so she can hear what I'm saying . I doubt it ?
I doubt it , man . Yeah you when I was that age . Then forget about it when a whole nother stratosphere yeah but she's like 10 going on 28 .
So it's a different scenario with me and her . That's scary yeah . I mean she's , she's sharp , sharp , I mean , like I told you , when she's cook , yes , yeah , she does .
And she has ? You gonna put it ? Are you gonna put you're gonna have her do like a you know , serve some time somewhere , like do a little ? She served time when she was seven in my restaurant back in West .
Bono . Okay , so she's already had like an experience . Oh yeah , my Maddie and Crystal were like with the two girls that were working for me at the time . They were like chef , I'm like , uh , hell , no . And they're like , no , she's unnatural . I mean , come on , I'm like no , no , no , no , no , no .
Yeah , see what I'm gonna do with my kids . I'm gonna make sure that they maybe spend a year Plus or minus a year , let's say in the business to get a , just to experience it . But then I want them out a glimpse . Yeah , because they have to understand how .
If you could , if you could manage to deal with people in general hungry people , unhappy people , that you work with the long hours , you know all that stuff if you can manage that in the food business , you can be successful anywhere . I think so 100% .
You know ? I told her like you don't have to become a cook or anything like that , you don't even have to go to college , get it . You know trade , you know become a mechanic , an air conditioning , electrical .
I mean , think about what we're going through right now with these and the money those guys make and electricians you know , if I were younger and I could do this all over again , I would want to have maybe four or five kids . I don't want a mechanic , a doctor , you know HVAC the whole , that's my family . Yeah , that's what I'm that was just .
I'm the black sheep of the family . I'm the only one that was the idiot that went into the rush on this tree , but you cook , man your feet people .
Yeah , I do . I don't love it .
Yeah , there's no . You know , I can't think of anything else in my life . My dad said that for years I don't know what else to do , because he thought he was just stuck because he was ice Go to college dropout . Yeah but for me it was . It was always . For me was I always wanted to cook , and not just to cook .
I always wanted to feed people , and it's something that's ingrained in me . I don't know what it is , it's just . You do it every Thursday , by the way , any day that ends with why that that's I do it . Yeah , that's , unless it's usually Thursdays . I don't cook for my family .
Well , I'm gonna put , I'm gonna put it out there . We're looking for a brick and mortar to do this show and With a kitchen , right , there's more to it . But I'm gonna just put this out into the , into the world and and and see what happens . But , and also people , I'm not going to be upset at all .
If you want to do a review or a rating or something like that , I feel like we should do it , you should do it .
Well , and here's the thing , I'm going to give you guys some ratings too , because the last couple of days I've been doing a lot of business stuff . I'll give shout out to Amy Yee , yeah . Well , she needs to get her butt on the damn podcast .
I want the bread , just to get the bread .
I want the bread , but Lainey , over at Junk and Stuff , I got two new mattresses and they didn't take them away , obviously because I got them through Dreamclawed . So I called this place up first , one out of the gate . I was like , hey , I told her what I needed . She's like you probably want that taken away today , don't you ?
And I'm like , oh , you must know , I'm a chef and I'm an OCD and ADHD . So yes , I do , because I can't move my garage . And she goes . Listen , if I have to go over there , is that 4K ? She goes . If I have to go over my own pickup truck and get that out of there , I will . For you . I'm like , seriously , you don't have to do that .
I really appreciate it . I wasn't thinking that we're going to do it yesterday . Today would have been okay , or Friday , no big deal .
But for them to drop at two , one o'clock , two o'clock in the afternoon and drop what they were doing and do that , for me unbelievable , and a big shout out to Viggy Webster and Mike , their husband , they having Chris come out yesterday for the AC to check us out to see what's going on with that .
Yeah , he seems like an ice guy .
Hopefully they're going to press right , he was fed very , very well yesterday .
Very well , I hope that translates into a deep discussion .
I mean , maybe he can go back to the owner and be like listen , this guy cooks . Can we feed the factory ?
The ACs are a quarter of the price of the freaking houses . Now , it's what is going on in this world . That's the next topic I should have asked Alexander to put me with . Come on , I would have loved to bigger brain and ask some questions . All right , matt hey Will Brown . Thank you Will Appreciate you man Definitely . And Amy Yee Amy .
Yee , here's my bread buddy , I want the bread . Jonathan , as always , man , your super choice with them . Picture pics over there . You , homeboy Appreciate you . Baby . I appreciate you too , man . All right , we are out .