This episode is brought to you by Australian Beef and Lamb . Hello food fam . This is the Walk Talk podcast , where you will find the perfect blend of food fun and cooking knowledge . I'm your host , carl Fiodini .
Welcome to the number one food podcast in the country and the official podcast for the New York , california and Florida restaurant shows , the Pizza Tomorrow Summit and the US Culinary Open at NAFM . We're recording on site at Ibis Images Studios , where food photography comes alive and I get to eat it . Email us to learn more Info at walkintalkcom .
Chefing in studio today is Jesse Teissowitz , cdc , from the Inn at Celebration , and let me tell you I had a soft shell crab po' boy today that simply put a gigantic smile on my face . Plus , he did a sashimi grade ahi tuna poke bowl over crispy wonton tostadas . More on that in a moment .
Today's guest is the embodiment of resilience , passion and purpose in the culinary world .
Born in Puerto Rico and once on track to become a lawyer , chef Nelson Milan chose a different path , one forged in fire , sweat and an unwavering belief in the power of food to transform lives From sleeping in a van while working double shifts to crafting curriculum at the Culinary Institute of America .
Van while working double shifts to crafting curriculum at the Culinary Institute of America that's , the CIA folks to leading kitchens from San Juan to San Antonio . His story is nothing short of extraordinary .
Now an ambassador for Aussie beef and the creator of an innovative sofrito product , chef Nelson's journey proves that true commitment can turn sacrifice into legacy . Let's kick this off with some dish descriptions from today in the kitchen , and we're going to get to Chef Nelson shortly . Chef Jesse , welcome back to the studio .
You know you've been here a few times already , except you were kind of like playing you know playing second fiddle over here to Chef Paul Today was your day and you killed it . Thanks for coming out and congratulations on the badassery that was your dishes today .
Thank you for having me . I appreciate the opportunity and yeah , I'm in the front today , not in the back , kind of waving , looking at everybody . But I'm just honored to be here . Thank , I appreciate that where you're from central florida , a little little city called arborndale . I'm an arbor dalian , I guess you would say so .
I've lived here my whole life , all over polk county in general , but yeah , pretty much up there let's talk about what you did today .
Give us the menu descriptions of these dishes so .
So the soft-shelled crab po' boy was battered in some rice flour and some cornmeal , making it nice and crispy . I did a cucumber salad with some hot chili oil , some chili flakes , a little bit of red wine vinegar and also homemade rum . A lot that's some hot sauce , some mayo , some lemon cage seasonings , stuff like that spice it up a little bit .
My books Less is More brings out the freshness of the dish and the crispiness of the bread .
It's a nice little hearty dish . If you would , I have to tell you what you did with the cucumber and the onion and all that stuff . It was spice , there was heat , but it was like the perfect amount of heat to this thing .
You did a freaking great job today . Well , thank you . Um less is more . You want the heat to come at the end a little bit . Get that flavor coming in the back end .
I was happy with it . Thank you . The color on that ahi was pretty spectacular too . Yeah , it's beautiful right it really was , man . I you know . If there's tuna , if there's ahi , I might have it . I don't know , but when I jump into it I always enjoy it . That was super fresh . You could tell Everything was really perfect with that . I'm glad you made it .
It's very fun to make Tostadas . It's a nice light flavor because there's not a lot of cooking involved . We'll cook with the lemon juice or the lime juice , if you would . If you like sushi I mean it's right there on the tongue Nice umami flavors , just fresh , I mean it's the best way to describe it .
Hey , it sounds like a fun dish . Are one of these items going to end up on your menu ?
Yes , the po'boy will be on the menu . Since it is spring , it's a nice going-in-the-summer dish . You know handheld soft-shell crab po' boy . I'll definitely put it on the menu for weekend specials .
I'm actually going to your hotel with my wife this weekend . It's our 10-year anniversary , so we're going there for a night . Congrats , congrats , yeah . Thank you , john . Did you ever think I would have made 10 years in a marriage ? Yeah , the smile says it all . All right , let's welcome Chef Nelson Milan to the program . Welcome , chef .
Thank you . Thanks for the invite . Glad to be here .
You know , we had a really great conversation the other day . It was , I don't know , an hour and a half worth of talk , and we must have crossed paths . I was at a1a produce and dairy and you were at the ocean reef club , and since then I feel like there might have been a few other places and people that we know together as well for sure .
I think . Uh , like I always says , it's a big industry but a small network . You always come across someone that knows , someone that you have crossed paths with .
How did we go from Frisbees to fine dining ?
Frisbees . Well , probably 8 , 10 years old when I put together my first pizza ever and probably my first concoction in the kitchen , experimenting at my house kitchen , and I didn't know anything about leavening agents or yeast or anything in that regard .
So I just took flour and water and mix it together and make what I call that at that time , a dough that I stretch and put some sauce and cheese and some pepperoni and sausage on it and stick it in the oven and when it came out out it came out really stiff , what I call a frisbee .
I could cut probably necks with it and but nonetheless my family enjoyed it that day and they said that they liked it .
Uh , now , now that time has passed , I understand that they were probably lying a little bit to me , but nonetheless , the expression on their faces and their reaction an immediate reaction that I gathered from their self put me on a path of thinking that I could create stuff with my hands , food-wise , that will nourish people , and I think that's what put me on a
path of pursuing a culinary career .
It's interesting how you ended up in culinary , especially when you had a trajectory .
You were going to become an attorney , you were going into law Correct , I went to a private high school and through high school I was trying to find my way through culinary school but unfortunately at that time in the island there were no places that you could take a serious course on it .
There were like three-month courses here and there , chefs that were just trying to equip people for kitchens in three months , but nothing serious . Graduated high school and my dad suggested that I become a lawyer .
So , following that path and listening to him , I went to college and three and a half years into it , fortunately I came across a very first opportunity to do a 24-month course in culinary , the first pilot program that the government in Puerto Rico has put together .
So it was a public proposal and a public , open proposal and as many people as they wanted to apply applied for the proposal and I was one of them 364 people to be exact at that time to pick 25 people for 45 grants to be in that pilot course . So I got lucky enough to be one of the 25s .
I just quit my political sciences courses at college and I never looked back .
That must have put a lot of strain on the relationship with the family , especially with my dad .
He liked the fact that I had switched what he called a very prominent possible career for the kitchen and I put this in context In Latin America we don't have the culture , the culinary culture that is known to be in probably in other countries like Europe and the US itself .
Like his notion of someone cooking at a professional level in the kitchen , in a professional kitchen was a lunch lady at a school , so that's what he said to me when he learned that I had quit my political sciences and switched to culinary school . He mentioned bluntly . He said you want to be in the kitchen like the little ladies ?
Is that what you want to be , instead of being a prominent lawyer ?
My response to that was yes , that's what I want to pursue , and at that point I have made my own research and obviously the top kitchens in the world were in the by and led by males and good prominent chefs as well , and so I was very clear on my cat and my decision at that time , so I stick to it .
Last week we had Chef Fiona Espana on the program and she's a Latina ACF chapter president in LA . What she said on her episode was when she got into the kitchen she thought it was going to be all women and it actually was the opposite .
She walked in and realized that it was mostly a male dominated field , and it's pretty amazing to see the different perspectives from people before they enter this world of culinary . I think that's fascinating .
Very interesting for sure , but again , in Latin America , being the macho masculinos that we are known to be and being a chef wasn't again looked as a very respectable or reputable and honorable profession , due to the lack of knowledge . Probably at that time and I don't blame him he wanted me to be a lawyer , but I wanted to be a chef .
So and here I am . You've spoken about angels along the way , some key individuals that kind of in light of the fact that you know the relationship with you know your father and yourself , of the fact that you know the relationship with you know your father and yourself , these people stepped up and kind of brought you through to the end of the journey .
Can you talk about who they are and what they did for you ? Oh yes , at that point my dad was lending me a car that it was of his possession and to go to college . And when he knew that I was not going to college , for whatever he wanted at that time , he said let me have the keys of the car and find a way to go to your culinary school .
And taking consideration that the culinary school was an hour and 15 minutes commute from the house and no public transportation at that time would take me there . So I called the school coordinator .
That was the one that has given me the news that I'll be , that I have been accepted to the course as one of the 25 candidates , and her name is Alicia Rivera , and I'm forever grateful about what she did for me because when I call her and tell her , alicia , I got bad news for you .
I might not be able to continue with the process at this point and become part of the course because I had no transportation to get to the school . The lady lived probably two towns from me , going in direction to the school .
She immediately said you're not going to do that in my watch Go out to the main highway so you can't even walk in , or however , you can do that and I'll pick you up every morning and we'll take you to school and bring you back from school until you can find , probably , a way of transportation . And she did that for me for three months .
On the other hand , my mom mom's always to the rescue knew about the situation and she approached me and said find a part-time job that can get you a little bit of income so we can get into a car that we can do a down payment on it and I'll help you with the monthly payments .
Three months later I found a job at Wendy's that was just next door to the school and that's how I started my career and generated a little bit of income in order to get a transportation to school .
But if it was not for these two angels that you call come alicia rivera , my mom , domina villalongo uh , I would have not been where I , where I am today there's a power of sacrifice .
When you're trying to achieve something where whether it's investing all your money into something , all of your time away from family , you know all of the the sweat and the tears and and so on there's something really gratifying about getting to the other side .
You were sleeping in a van while you were at Wendy's . This is one of the most busiest stores in the capital of Puerto Rico . The town of Isla Verde actually closed to someone next to the airport and so this store would close at 3 o'clock in the morning .
Having to go through my section of the course , of the culinary course baking and pastries , that we needed to be at the classroom at 6 o'clock in the morning and me closing stores at 3 o'clock in the morning , and you're talking about scrubbing restrooms and cleaning the line and mopping floors until 3 .
And then not much time to go back home , because my home was again an hour and 15 minutes commute so by the time I would get home it was time to come back . So not much time to go home , and I recall several times staying at the parking lot at the school , literally sleeping in my van for two hours and waking up and going to the classroom directly .
How do you think those sacrifices shaped your leadership style that you have today ?
It definitely built character and I was 19 , 20 years old at that time . Obviously , you look back now and at that time you don't know you're going through the sacrifices and not just going and doing so Because you've got to do what you're got to do in order to survive and succeed . Stay responsible with what you already have committed .
Looking back now , obviously this sacrifice is sleeping two hours and going to the classroom and going back to work next day and doing it all over and over . It builds character and it puts things in perspective that if you truly want to achieve things in life , sometimes it's not going to be as easy as you think it is .
It requires a lot of commitment from your end . It definitely shapes you to build a platform for anything that you will build upon the rest of the career path . You will build upon the rest of the career path .
I'm certain that what you did in the van and Wendy's to get started , that had to propel you into push carts and entrepreneurship .
Yep , wendy's um . That job lasted for about 10 months until an opportunity arose . And here's Alicia Rivera to the rescue , the coordinator of the course .
She called me to the office and she said the chef from the Caribe Hilton which at that time the Caribe Hilton was the hotel in Puerto Rico the chef just called and asked if I can send them someone that can help in one of the stations at the Sunday brunch , someone that can help in one of the stations at the Sunday branch .
They used to put a massive spread out activation on Sunday branch , like 12 different stations by 12 different countries and approaching food and whatnot . So she asked me if I wanted to do that and that that will count . The hours that I'll put in there will count as a practice hours towards graduation of the course .
And I said sign me up and I'll put in there will count as practice hours towards graduation of the course . And I said sign me up and I'll be there next Sunday . That's how the opportunity came to work at the Hilton . And while working at the Hilton at Union Hotel , I find out that I will have fixed things off Mondays and Tuesdays .
I acquired a tackle cart that I started operating in my hometown on those two days and actually three days , because my shift was until Wednesday at 3 pm . So I will open Monday , tuesday and Wednesday morning until one o'clock , from 10 to one , four hours right in the middle of downtown of my hometown .
And that's how I became a sort of an entrepreneur and I got great results from that , to the point that that provoked buying , an , acquiring , a mom and pop and brick and moral business , that my plan was to develop franchises and I get to a point that I developed three more carts and the restaurant that I just acquired became that like the commissariat , that
venture , and I did that for about two years and it was extremely successful at that point there must have been things that you learned through your entrepreneurial adventure with the carts that you didn't learn in culinary school Resilience adaptation , if I need to describe it in a couple words , and improvisation as well , at the same time , as part of the adaptation .
So you have to you plan certain ways , but then again things don't go the way you plan and then you have to pivot and move in directions that you will never see coming your way . Nonetheless , it's definitely lessons learned , lessons of resilience and commitment .
At the end of the day , when you commit to something , that's what keeps you going and waking up the next day and brushing your hair and your feet and doing it all over again .
Chef , how long have you been in the food industry ? Our wonderful food industry .
This coming month , in May , is going to be 35 years 35 years .
You've made it a very long way and you're still growing . You're still building a legacy . I know when we spoke , you talked a lot about mentorship . So you've mentored young cooks , you've written curriculum at the CIA and impacted a lot of people . What does mentorship actually mean to you and what makes someone actually worth the investment ?
I think mentorship , when you look at it from the perspective of it's bigger than yourself and it's something that everyone that is in this business owe to the craft in order to , like you said , build legacy and in order to keep the craft alive , everybody has to become a mentor .
At any given time , you do the best you can in order to pour into the next generation as much as you can of your skill sets and accumulation of knowledge and experiences .
My analogy to that is it's like planting you spread the seeds and some of them will come out really beautiful and flourished , and some of them might not develop as much as you would expect that they will develop , but nonetheless , I think there's a beauty on passing on knowledge and taking it as a responsibility that is bigger than yourself , the size of the craft
itself . It's a responsibility we all have to pass on to latone in order to keep the good craft , which is the culinary craft , alive .
Let's talk culinary roots and identity . You helped shape Latin Caribbean curriculum at the CIA . How do your Puerto Rican roots influence your cooking and how important is cultural authenticity in today's culinary landscape ?
I think authenticity is definitely the anchor to the branching out to many other possibilities in the canary field and in a world that we are more entertaining than ever before , ever since internet and access to that information and you can travel at the tip of your fingers on information and culture and food and ingredients , and so I think , as the world gets more
mixed , in that regards , anchoring in tradition on authenticity is more important than ever , because then things get blur and unfortunately evolve into something else that probably loses a little bit of authenticity and , and , uh , identity . In that regards , I think it's very important to stay rooted and then branch out and launch from that .
I don't think that that a lot of people recognize how big of a deal it is that you actually wrote curriculum for the CIA .
Well , it was an opportunity my way . I became the chef of the Santa Monica Club in 2010 , and that was July 2010 . July 2010 . And on September 2010 , it happened that the school was the branch of San Antonio for the CIA was getting inaugurated . Talk about being at the right place at the right time .
And the head hunter brought me to that position , put me together with the managing director of the school and , at the same time , the director of the of the latin cuisine studies .
The department at that time was in and we met and the opportunity came and to collaborate with a curriculum that , for the first time in the history of the culinary Institute of America , they have shown interest in Latin cuisine .
So they learned that I was from Puerto Rico and they asked me if I could write recipes for a curriculum of Puerto Rico , cuba and the American Republic , which is the Spanish-speaking Latin countries of the Caribbean .
And that was right up my alley and I remember I took up on the challenge and committed to it and in three months I put together about 252 pages of recipes and PowerPoints and tests and so for the curriculum in that regards , and I passed along to them and he got approved . I passed along to them and he got approved .
And when the time came to teach the course , indiana called again and asked me if I could teach the class and obviously I hesitated a little bit because my main focus was the San Antonio Country Club at that time recently arrived and I asked him what the commitment will be . They said it's going to be probably two , three times a year .
Two , three groups of students coming from Hyde Park . But I told them I said , can you share the first set of dates so I can help you until you find someone that can teach the course ? And fortunately , or unfortunately , I stayed teaching the course for eight years after that . I stayed teaching the course for eight years after that .
You went from taco carts to the Culinary Institute of America and then now you're global .
You're an ambassador for Aussie beef . Talk a little bit about that . Greater Victoria came my way as well . Like the many others we have described On this occasion , I had a phone call from Jacqueline . She left a voice message , actually on my phone . I was in the middle of a meeting . She said , chef , give me a call back .
I think I have a great opportunity for you . When I called her , she said what about 14 days on the ground in Australia , five different cities , learning about beef and the process of Australian beef ? Sounds to you all expenses paid . Obviously , I was skeptical again and I asked what's the catch ? And she just shared with me .
The intention is obviously that when you come back , you help us spread a good gospel of good Australian beef in the US .
At that time , I was already using their products for about a year , and this product speaks on their own , and the opportunity to learn where it comes from and how it's processed and what are the details that they're looking to in order to produce such a great product are definitely all my attention .
And so I went to Australia , spent 14 days , went from city to city .
We even glamped in the site where the cows laid down and enjoyed looking and watching over the stars and the moons and the breeze at nighttime and it was a great experience , from learning from embryo to the genes , to the embryo , to the development of the cattle and how they monitor the progress with tips on their ears , sending signals to servers , to the feedlot
, to the slaughterhouse , the whole entire process . They have it down to a science and it explains the reason why they do have such a great product chef jacqueline ayola .
She is so cool , what a great , great person . And you know she's got this . Uh , this product , this aussie select , cured um cured lamb . You know about it right .
Totally . As a matter of fact , I've been using the products introducing a little longer than probably five , six months into my menus here at the club and I'm using particularly the pastrami . And they're all awesome . I have tried them all , but in this case I'm using actually the pastrami . It's one of my items for lunch and it's been well accepted .
Jacqueline is a great lady , for sure but just for giggles .
What , um , what's on the menu ? What are you doing with it ?
we're serving it with a man bread . Um , making a flat uh bread sandwich . If you will crust it a little bit on the flat top , glaze it with hot honey like for texas and counterbalance of uh on saltiness and whatnot . We serve it with lettuce , tomato pickled cucumbers and a bit of lettuce . It works phenomenally .
It's definitely an innovative product that you're not going to find in very many places . I'm thrilled you're using it . I have some chefs over here turned on to it as well . With that said , we're talking about evolving . How do you think the culinary industry is going ? Where are we headed right now ? Chef ?
I think in my span of life of almost 35 years like I said , turning next month into it I have experienced big booms of evolution .
When I started back in the business , hot cuisine was the topic of the moment and then from that evolved to gourmet cuisine and from gourmet went to a little bit more gastro-molecular , with Ferran Adria and all these Spanish and Spaniard restaurants that were avant-garde at that time .
In my opinion , I think what I've seen lately and like I explained before , the world is getting more intertwined . It's easier to travel to places , a little less expensive to go from places to places and being exposed to culture , food idiosyncrasies and approaches on ingredients through food idiosyncrasies and approaches on ingredients .
And the more you travel , the more you take back with you and apply to your own style and menus . So in my personal experience , some people ask me what's your favorite cuisine or what's your favorite dish to execute .
For some reason , I have been finding myself in a position that it makes it very hard to answer that question at any given moment , because it's a continuous evolution of my experiences and places I visit and people I talk to and ingredients I come exposed to .
In resume , I think food is going to get more used and more mixed and other versions of cuisine will evolve from there that we are not even foreseeing yet . That , in terms of authenticity and rooting and culture , are going to be fantastic , and rooting and culture are going to be fantastic mixes of different cultures , if you will .
Whatever was French before is not going to be French anymore . Whatever was Vietnamese , whatever was Asian , it's going to be all blurred . But what's going to come out of that we're yet to see , but I'm excited about what the outcome will be .
Well , chef , that leads to something Legacy in a frozen cube , Sofrito cubes .
The idea came from another entrepreneur venture , entrepreneurship venture that I started in South Florida .
When I was in South Florida and that's something we didn't talk in our previous conversation , but I was working at the Ocean Reef we became part of this church in Miami and , as you know , miami is probably the melting pot of cultures when it comes to in regards of Latin American , you know . So we became part of this small group of church you know goers .
We got there probably in Augustust , um , and then christmas approach really quick and uh , at that time we were exchanging gifts and whatnot and I had the idea of putting together like a little box of mixed appetizers , like mini versions of our street food in puerto rico , and passing along .
And next thing I knew was that some of them came back and said hey , my family's visiting for New Year's . Can you put together something like you did for me on Christmas , like you gave me on Christmas , and this summer I'm charged for it and it's going to be for 30 people .
And that was the beginning of an unforeseen sort of entrepreneurship venture that turned into seven formal accounts , from hotels to restaurants , to gas stations and whatnot , and what derived from that was the challenge of cooking in unstandardized recipes that my wife at that time stepped up and did while I was working my day job at the ashraf .
But she my wife was an artist and she had nothing to do with cooking at bigger scale or big volume . So what I did is I standardized the sofrito , our Puerto Rican sofrito , into those cubes that turned them into recipes like one cube of sofrito into those cubes that turned into recipes like one cube of sofrito per pound of product .
And at that time we were doing like 80 pounds of beef or 80 pounds of chicken for fillings for empanadas or many other applications .
So in our days off I found myself going to the cooler and to the freezer and pulling out those cubes that I built for her in order to standardize and make it easier for her to cook in batches , and I found out that they were very convenient .
That was the aha moment , like on my head , that if it's convenient for me and my household , I think it could be convenient for many other people as well . That way I can actually share a little bit of the behind the scenes secrets that we have always kept in our Latino culture .
Like so frequently , it's one of those smuggling devices that we sort of has used behind the scenes among ourselves , like passing them from household to household and from families to families , but it has not been shared , probably , with the world , and I think , in the way that it has been packaged before , it's not that user-friendly either for many reasons .
You either have them frozen in a big tub of one pound or you have them on the shelf with shelf-stable capacities that unfortunately , it's not the freshest one . So by monoportioning and frozen cubes I think you achieve a little bit of freshness and convenience at the same time .
On the portioning of it , that allows you to utilize fresh sofrito on hand all the time .
Well , I can tell you something right now . You know , john , over here he's uh , he's a little puerto rican , he's a little cuban , you know , a little white guy , he's a bunch of stuff . But he's over here staring at me and he's got like one eyebrow raised and he's just like he's definitely for this .
Okay , I just want you to know he's here for this , for the sofrito cubes .
That's awesome Because , again , it's already in the market here in the Dallas Texas area I have it actually in four supermarkets and running out in June in one of Mayer's chains locally as well and it has been accepted in a way that , again , we're not reinventing the wheel here .
It was just making it a little more user-friendly in order to be able to share it with other cultures . My hope is that tikka masala has become mainstream , or Italian marinara sauce has become , or pesto has become the gift from Italians to the world In the way that we're packing the sofrito .
It becomes our gift from Latin America to the world as well , and more cultures are willing to try it and cross that line of the unknown or the kind of foreign or too exotic in order to at least try it and incorporate it into their food , like we were talking about . That's my opinion was .
I think cultures are going to get mixed and more and more , and I think this could be one opportunity .
So not only do I agree with everything you just said , but now I'm in the mood for a pesto . Thanks , chef , I appreciate that . Chef , I am digging this , the sofrito . How do people find it ? Where do they find you ?
Website will be wwwdelencantofoodscom Delencantofoodscom . Instagram is at delencantofoodscom . Instagram is at DelEncantoFoods as well . Personal my personal is Chef Nelson Milan . Instagram and Facebook as well .
Jess .
TycewitsJesse on Facebook and in at Celebration Instagram perfect .
I want to thank Haley Heath , the Australian Beef and Lamb , and , of course , Jackie Jacqueline Ayola for everybody kind of putting this together with you . Chef Nelson , you are amazing . Thank you so much for being on the show today , John . You're always a fan man . I tell you what , Chef , you got to see the pictures that are coming out of this .
I'm going to make sure you get all the links and all that stuff . Okay , Kang , Uh , we are out .