From the World Food Championships: A Taste of Resilience, Mentorship, and Culinary Passion with Chefs Jernard Wells and John McFadden

Now what I gotta tell you is I have two bad ass dudes at the table with me right now . I have Chef Jernard Wells . I also have Chef John McFadden . These are two celebrity chefs that I mean in one place .

One time Walk and Talk Podcast I got Chef Jeffrey Jefferson , starship Schlissel over there who , by the way , last night you killed it , you guys killed it . I want to let you we're going to , out of respect for this dude right here . I want you to start off , give the sexy time , talk on the food .

What we did last night because you murked it , I'm telling you you did . Shut the music , just shut it off . Shut the music .

It was always like you know , rip off the head , suck the head and pinch the tail right . These things , oh my goodness . So we go , we lock horns with them and we're like , hey , we're going to come on over , southern hospitality , come on over .

So Pooch had come in , pooch Rivera had come in from New Orleans and he bought lamb racks with him and that's what we were going to cook last night . So we got onions and carrots and zucchini and we're going to squash and asparagus . We go all the way over .

It was literally like having like the Guy Fieri's , you know , market where they run through the whole market and they try to get stuff in a certain . But we had to go to a liquor store . By the way , everything closes at nine o'clock .

I only know like one person , which is the person that Scott , who invited us over , which we just met , by the way , literally like a couple hours before we walk in and I'm walking in with all this food . He's got the juicer . There's the R&D , the vice vice president of R&D for Bloomin' Onion brand , right .

So I'm like he starts talking to me what are you doing ? Pooch represents also cheese , cheese wheeze , and he also represents a couple of different spice blends and stuff like that . So we I said , okay , let's do this . So I took the dad sauce , I did a little bit of a Cajun seasoning that Hal had .

That was over with that as well , and I glazed that after I cooked it , got a sear to it and I put the cheeses on the top . I couldn't believe I was cutting and as I was cutting I only saw two people with their phones out , and then at the end of it , who was the one that was singing ? Bridget yeah , bridget yeah , she goes .

You know , once you put that thing down , you start to cut . Every single chef , in fact non chef got up and like looked at what you were doing . I'm like really yeah .

So , out of nowhere , you know , we're having a beer , we're drinking a cocktail , whatever the food was outstanding and we're all doing it like eating over garbage cans . And she breaks out the guitar , the acoustic , and she starts singing . Yeah , cool .

There's a woman that was there I was competing in the bacon today and she's like so amped up and you can see it and people are like I'm so proud of you . It was just the support system that that had .

That's what we need to teach the chefs of tomorrow , because if we do that , then we can actually show them if we meant to were students and the chefs of cooks tomorrow and not beat them up like you and you and me what happened to us , and if we can turn that table and turn the tide , I think we can have a different industry that what it is today .

All of that because I did world food championship the year before I got my first big opportunity with food network . My first opportunity was a . I was competing on the show by the name of Chef Warner with Anne Boreal and I , and it was shot in the oldest steakhouse in the United States by the name of old homestead in Chelsea , new York , and it was .

It was amazing . I always said at that point I was going to take , as they say , your , your , your , your , your last 15 minutes of fame on stage and 15 minutes I was going to take it , take it and turn it into a lifetime of career .

So I , I , I understood the method that two parts , just like here , world food championship , you have your cooking chops and your talking chops and you have to understand there's the side of actually cooking , in the side of entertaining what you , um , chef John McFadden , I think , does so well .

I , when I , when I came here and I saw this brother up there cooking by itself , battling , but then with the chef jacket on , but then a bow tie , exactly , if that doesn't garner the attention , I don't know what does . No .

Like you come here , people hug you , they greet you , it's like you've known them for 10 years , you know . So , you know , for me that's really humbling being so far away and then even coming here and yesterday doing the champions table lunch . Now just to you know , have a conversation with somebody , talk about the food , and that's what I'm passionate about .

I love talking about food and when we talk about the young kids coming through the kitchen and the opportunities , you know in front of the stove , as you said earlier , not behind it , is they're endless .

Yeah , the opportunity that I had sort of coming through the kitchens when I was in my mid-20s I had a lady who was a journalist and she was on TV and she took me under her wing and I thought , oh , this is really cool . Like I'm really nobody , you know what I mean .

And my career started elevating , like obviously , you know , you've got to cook well and do well and everything happens . And that really put me in good stead because I spent a lot of my time in the mentoring space and it's trying to integrate sort of the young kids into the workforce , from school into the workplace .

Because you know at home there's mum and dad right and when you go to school mum and dad pick you up , they take you here , they take you there . But when you go out into the workforce now you're on your right to a degree , you're on your own . But you know kids have got to grow up pretty quickly and the workplace can be pretty harsh sometimes .

At some point in time you get kicked in the belly and you realize that , oh man , I can't rely on the parents , or I don't have any parents , or whatever the situation is , I got to do by myself . And at that point in our life , as a male , you have to sink or swim . Whatever's gonna happen to you .

It starts right there and some people they catch on to it and they they ride it in and some people don't . Right , but with your gov , you know just , I was just talking to a young lady here a moment ago .

It's funny how they're saying on the memes and on the videos and stuff right now on social media that it's funny how lucky you get when you put your work in your effort into it right . It's pretty amazing how you , you know how lucky am I , but when you're putting in that , that work in effort yeah right and and and and .

We're all relatively , you know , same age , except for that grandpa uh over here . But you know , at the end of the day , it's our responsibility to bring , to bring the , the young people , up right . So you guys are chefs , you're in the kitchen and and that's where your come , that's where you're doing that . Mm-hmm .

I've been in food distribution and sales for 25 years and I do that on the sales side because in the end , you guys can't get what you need done without us cats and and and . If you come across as like , hey , I'm a salesman , he's salesman . Nobody wants that , nobody cares about that we love the relationships .

There's the competitive side , but then there also has to be the relationship building side . You can't get so wrapped up in your craft that you don't build the relationship because those become the tools around you .

Iron sharpens iron and it's good to have that relationship also as , as being a more advanced and older chef , I love grooming the other chefs to move into my spots and because that means that as they move up , I move up because this is a form of elevation and you have somebody , because too often we don't want , as chefs , anybody to duplicate our process

everything is real tight , close to the best .

So if we take the , the younger chefs , and we instill this in the younger salesmen's and we instill this in them being , all we're doing is building a stronger foundation for ourselves . And just think about now you're spreading from spanning from one side of the country to the next , just all off of the relationships .

But hard work and ethic , as they say , hey , fate without works is dead . And what you was saying is saying that , oh , it's just luck that that is true . You can believe and have all the faith in the where , but if you're not getting up doing something every day to activate it , it's just a wish , it's just a dream .

Right , and , and and I know that personally because I started out a young age growing up in mississippi my father was creole and my father was a chef and and at ten years old , he would bring me in the kitchen with him cooking and I'm thinking I'm just in there spending time with him . You didn't feel punished .

No , I , I , it was cool , I'm spending time with my dad so you know , not realizing he was actually teaching me a valuable skill in craft . You know , he later on passed away when I turned 16 and and I took that amount of knowledge that he gave me at their young over age , I wanted a car .

Going to going into my senior year in school , I came up with the idea and pitched to my mom I want to open the restaurant up . I said because I I know some of my dad's recipes and and things like that . I said because I want to buy a car , I don't want to ride the school bus . And my mother said with janara , how much money you have ?

I said I have $50 from from cutting , cutting the neighbors yard . She said $50 . Where you gonna open the restaurant up with $50 ? I say how do you kitchen ? That's all I got is $50 . She said okay , but you got to do it the right way and I'm thinking to myself what's the right way ?

She said you know all those webs and cyclopedias that's in there collecting dust that y'all ordered . Then you and your siblings don't ever look at you . Go get it , figure out how to create me a business plan . And then come back and see me and of course that was prior to google .

So I figure out how to create this old business plan and I go back to a two-week later , pitched the idea to and she was like , okay . She said so now you got to get business life . She taken to get business license , local courthouse they laugh at me . Business life was five bucks , got them , uh .

Then she said okay , now what you're gonna do about supplies ? I said I remember y'all used to go to this local wholesaler and I remember the salesman there because he was always so nice and cool . Can't we go there ? She takes me there . We get out in the park a lot . And she says shipping and receipt . She .

This is what she asked me you know about shipping and receiving . Did you figure out the thing ? Your research ? I said yeah . She said how much money you got put up 45 dollars . She snatched ten dollars out of my hand and said shipping and receiving ain't free . This will bring you here .

I was like man , I'm getting , I'm getting all ready , I'm my pocket's gonna be empty before I get started . But I go in , take those items , take my order , my my little grocery list . I started making peace from scratch . Bolognese sweet tea , brown fried chicken , things like that but those were , those were recipes from your pops .

Yeah , those recipes from my dad . Okay , start passing out flyers in the neighborhood . The first week I made 150 dollars , so I'm thinking , oh , 50 dollars or 150 bucks , I keep doing this . I got a car by the end of the year . But then I got wise . I'm like dang . I'm serving food to the construction workers .

I'm getting up at five in the morning to make their lunches because they would come by my house and pick it up because we're in a smaller community . So I started telling them hey , since you come this early , now they come in . I'm making bacon , I'm making biscuits from scratch , putting the ambience in the air .

They're like what's your cooking , young chef , all breakfast . Would you like the water plate ? So now I'm serving them breakfast and lunch . Then I tell her hey , you're passing my house on the way home . You're having for you can't cook now get dinner three , three meals by the end of the summer I was making three thousand dollars a box look at 16 .

By the end of the summer I was making three thousand dollars a month selling food out of my mom's 16 . Yes , there's your business plan awesome man I got a question for you .

It's not that easy .

Yeah , those are all . Those are all For them . So what I suggest to any young chef you don't focus on the TV . I never focused on the TV . Of the entertainment , I focused on the art . I look at my , my culinary skill as an art form . Why it's called culinary arts ? Because we're painting a picture with our plate .

I Focused on that and making people happy through the plate , making people happy through my conversation . And never in the entertainment , just so I'm gonna come right , but he was he about that .

If you want exposure and you want the camera , it'll never come because you , you need the personality to deliver it . Mm-hmm , see , like the both of you have the personality to deliver it . The problem with young kids are , what we have here is humble attitudes . Okay , you both are humble people and you , you know you were .

You were given the crowd your time as you were cooking . You didn't have to do that . You could have ignored everybody , sure , right , but you chose not to do that . You brought them into your environment . That's why . But that's a brand , but that's his brand . Like you know , you can't have a brand if you can't execute well .

Yeah , yeah , and that's powerful . So to know where it comes from , does it have a sustainability footprint ? Because we're all heading that way . I mean that's really important to share my philosophy and my story as to how and why I got where I did . It's bloody hard work , like it didn't come on a silver platter .

So and you're right , like you know , invest a lot of time and it's always about continuous improvement . You know , what can I do better tomorrow that I didn't achieve today ? And what's really interesting , we're talking about , you know , the younger generation , the kitchen .

I Was fostering a program from high school into workplace , so I took on a lot of kids and they come for two weeks work experience and we give them tasks in a day and I gave this girl just topping and tailing beans , simple tasks . She was doing it for 20 minutes and I said I only almost done . She has I , yes , chef .

And I said , oh , look , took 20 minutes . I said hopefully tomorrow , take 19 . She goes what do you mean ? I've got to do it again tomorrow . I said , yeah , of course you do . You know , it's about being better and and it's continuous improvement . No different to an athlete going to the track to shave 100th of a second off their time .

You know , working in a kitchen is it's all time . Yeah , and , as I said to the girl , I said , oh , you know what's your favorite sport ? He said netball . I said it's great .

She had two chefs filleting fish a different way and she didn't know how to go about it . I said I watched a relationship like with the chef . She goes oh , look , you know we don't really talk . I said easy thing to do Go up to chef and say chef , when you have half an hour , can we sit down , have a chat ?

And I said the first question you ask him is what areas can I improve in ? Because immediately you get buying right and then you address the question , okay . And she's like oh , okay . So a week later we catch up , we have a coffee and I said how'd you go ? She goes John , amazing . So it's like a massive icebreaker for her .

And when she went in a conversation to how to go , there's what we sat down . He said I need to work on this and this . I said great , so what you do you go and work on that ? I said how'd you go for your question and she said look . I went up , said look to chefs . You didn't have to name them , don't name them .

I said , chef , which way do you prefer ? And she said he told me which way . Professor , there you go , you've got your answer . You didn't get two people into trouble , we didn't throw them under the bus and I said but next week when you have a coffee , you work on your improvement what areas ? And straight away the relationship and Loved it .

But she couldn't . She couldn't break the question because I don't think she felt was confrontational the pressure . Am I gonna fray the two guys under the bus ?

I was like 20 , 26 . I had just started a long time ago . A long time ago , I just started in the produce business , the company that I worked for them , they they gave me like 200 accounts to manage and there was everything from corporate accounts to mom and pops and everything in between .

Anyway , there was this massive hotel in South Beach and it was an English chef . Now , this is a long time ago . I love the story .

Yeah , this is this , is this is like during a time when you know you were getting a physically accosted , still , okay , I don't work for him , like I work with him for him , but I don't work , I'm not , I'm not on your line . You know what I mean . So I get a phone call one day from the chef . He's like you know .

He's like , oh yeah , you better get your F&A over here . You know what you garbage Bap-bap-bap-bap-bap . I was like , yeah , chef , I'll come by , I'm gonna take care of it , let me . Anyway , I go to the , I go to the , to the hotel , everybody's . There's a whole , the whole team is there . You know what he does to me ?

He grabs me all my collar and pulls me in . I said , well , hold on . I said I respect you and this , but don't know I'm not going to have that . It ain't going to happen .

That's the sort of stuff that thankfully , because of how things have progressed through time and how the new leadership of chefs are kind of instilling things into the younger guys and gals coming up , that kind of is going away , but the egos were gigantic .

You go back in the kitchen . What are you doing ? Playing again . Yes , so that's , that's what I was trying to get at . When you have that vision in your head and then you're breaking it . I used to work with a guy because I have a philosophy . My dad used to tell me if it's not broke , break it and fix it better .

Those guys mind blowing . Yes , the skills .

They got a good job , they're getting a little paycheck , you know they're , you know that person . If , at that age , if you can maintain , like you know , a servant leader sort of deliverance , that person can be a star Right , I don't know .

It isn't superficial , it's deep and and I think the audience and listenership , this is the sort of content that they , that they're looking for . Obviously , we always want to talk about hey well , what spice did you use ? What was the ? You know right ?

This is really the essence of delivering the right sort of food and , and you know , we're , we're in concert on that yeah , 100% yeah . So this is kind of what we are here at Walk-In-Talk . So I appreciate the fact that the both of you and now listen . So you guys , both are pretty elevated in terms of your careers and we all fit in this table here .