5 , 4 , 3 , 2 .
This is the walk and talk podcast , and I'm your host , carl Fiatini . We are at , oh my god , the world food championships in talus , texas , and we're having a blast . Um , all right . So we're doing these ins and outs . Man , they're quickies , we're talking like 10 . You know 10 15 minute jobs here . Okay ? Um , jeff , you've been holding it down .
I don't know how , I don't know what it sounds like . I feel like we're gonna lose all our relationship today . All right , I don't think so . Hopefully not . All right . So we have AJ from Metro and sit with us at the booth here . Um , what's up , brother ? Hey , how you doing , man , if I was any better .
I would be you . Yeah , well , I don't know about that , but we're having a great time here . It's pretty exciting , you know shelf life in the house .
That's right . That's our new motto shelf life right . I love it . That's great stuff , jeffrey , yes , before he gets into what he does , you have product from this company ? Yeah , I do uh-huh , what was it ?
it is the baddest badass camp . It's a beautiful yeah , go ahead . I heard that you almost said it's the baddest ass beverage or anything that you want that can keep you cold or hot . It's this beautiful , mighty likes mini max . This thing is unbelievable that's our mighty light .
Epp care . I like what you said and it's not like that it's .
It's so versatile like this is what we used to go when we went down the same feet . Same feet yep , and Jonathan was like hey , do you have a hotbox ? I go , I got the exact one you need . All right , it won it , hold on all right , stop .
All right , so you sell this stuff .
Well , I'm actually what do you got ? I'm the creative director of brand marketing , so that's my role here and you know I do a lot of the brand management for Metro . Sure , metro we're . You know a lot of the industry knows us over the years .
As for wire shelving , we created it in the 50s , the standard wire shelf that you see in every food service establishment . That's us . Yeah , since then we've evolved into storage and productivity solutions on every level . We have heated holding cabinets for holding , for holding food long times .
We have small , large , all different sizes , and we've got refrigerated , mobile refrigeration . We have mighty lights for pan carriers and we have a million different shelving options with innumerable options of accessories to make your productivity and efficiency go through the roof , and that's why the world food championships all right .
So I got what . They walked me over to the other side and she was showing me because I'm like I think it was you know your product and I don't know and she shows me another one . It's like this little coffin , it's about the same like width or depth , and it's this little cooler . And she goes yeah , you can flip up the top .
It's so deep that you can actually put ice in this and use it on like , oh my god , that's an ingenious it floats in the pool too so when you're , when you're hanging , out at home .
Yeah , you got your beer in there , that is awesome .
Are you kidding me ?
yeah no , it's super it's all right , that's a mighty light . Comes in a bunch of different sizes . What are ?
we talking about here . Where is this thing ?
that's over there , we'll send somebody over to bring one over to show . All right , yeah , this is legit , like .
I get when the , when companies do their technology and make advancements , I get giddy because they , they actually listen to them . Let me see the people that are actually doing it every day , us chefs , and it's beautiful what a company does that we embrace that whole heart of it and you know we bring our product managers come here and they interview chefs .
That's what we do when we do any product . We go out into the field , we figure out pain points . That's where a prep mate came from the prep stations that you see in all the competition kitchens . That came from watching chefs work in small spaces , put in , put in sheet pans on garbage cans to try and cut stuff up and make little work spaces .
We don't do that .
Oh yeah , it doesn't happen who's never done that sit on milk crates and cut on , chop on some little bucket or something that we've seen . That too no no , never .
There's never a 12 year old in the kitchen either . All right , my kids almost that age .
She's been on that kitchen since she was seven bro , oh my god , yeah , so are you having a good time here at this event ?
Yeah , we have a good time . This is our third year here . We put a big heavy sponsorship . It's our way to get with the customers , with the end users , with the chefs . We have a really good relationship with Channel Channel , the dealers and distributors . We've been real strong with them for years .
But the end users is critical in today's changing market dynamic .
Alright . So one of the things that he failed to mention is they have a new hot box , the venting system . Guys , chefs , I'm serious . This thing is like bad ass as well . It can go from like half-pans and they can customize it whatever you need . I got Katie . You gotta check that out . Where can I check out these products ?
Yeah , you can check out any of these products on Metrocom . You click the food service link . It goes to our food service homepage and we end up with and you'll end up finding a lot of great stuff . You're talking about our new hot box . Hot box is awesome because we call it hot box ? Because they're like building blocks to hold . There's all different sizes .
You can link them together . You can hold crispy food crispy in one and food moist in another . So you know , the days have gone by of having these large , large cabinets where you have to hold a large amount of food and all the same temperature , humidity and everything else .
So let me break this down for Carl and some of the people who might not know this how dare you ? How dare you ? So some of what they've done is that same technology that other oven companies have used , let's say Onyx or a Combi oven . Right , you can actually now cook different things in that oven because the moisture content is so on itself .
If you're doing a massive cooking for , let's say , 500 people and you have , you want to have apps in there , you want to have your whatever . If you have stuff that has pastry and it's too moist in there , guess what happens to the pastry ? It loses its crunch , loses its bite .
So they've done this , where they've actually set you up that you can put multiple different things with that venting solution so that you can actually have a perfectly integrity of that food remain , and that's what I think is awesome .
Yeah , it's really cool . You know , I've been trying to coin the freight whole , whole ology . It's a whole philosophy , a whole education on how you hold things better , more efficiently , and it's like different ways in different places around your restaurant . You know , you don't only have to have holding in one spot .
You can move it on the surface under the counter , you can have it in different places where you're preparing the food . Why does it always have to be one giant spot ?
So it sounds like you guys are doing the right thing . At the end of the day , you have chefs with a need and you're providing that service that needs .
I got one more thing to say . Those of you when you watch this on YouTube , those who are listening to your podcast , you've got to see what he developed and the whole detail he has to shelf life . Yeah , that came out .
We did a whole series of t-shirts and , like you know , really cool shirts of shelf life hold my beer for the mighty light . We had a whole different things of all these different cool teas that we did , and this year we did the shelf life hats .
I saw it , I did . I saw the hat . I gave you the shelf .
Look , I did it and you got your boy pooches right over your left shoulder , right there at a camera frame with the shelf life .
Of course he is . He's right behind me , isn't he ? Yeah , so , aj , I appreciate that you got to hang out with us . Thank you , we'd love to talk to you a little bit more . Maybe there's some work we can do to get it . I'd love that . Yeah , yeah , sounds good . We got him saying yes , to that .
Yeah , no , I think it's great . The red light's on the red light's on Recording , that's all right . That's all right we can do something .
We're always open to anything . You guys seem really cool . A lot of fun . Thank you for having me . I think the glasses go .
Oh , you like them . No , because I'm blind . I'm blind as could be , and I'm going through this phase where I got one contact in the other , one's not , you know , bad . I got to get frames .
I'm probably going to get something like that yeah , they're cool . I was going to go clear , like the clear frames yeah , or I went super black and dark . You got to go for something that can pop yeah , if you have to wear them you might as well make them part of your character In 100% .
Indeed .
Character in the . That's what happens when you get started older and you get gray beards and everything . You got to start getting some sort of a style Kidding me .
It's called some pepper sir .
Yes , pepper .
Distinguished style .
Sure , keep that distinguished . I'd rather have 25 again . All right , aj , thanks for being on the show . Thank you very much .
You're a horrible person , thank you , I appreciate that I resemble that too .
Yes , indeed , we are at the world food championship in Dallas , Texas . It's 2023 . You guys got to get here one of these years . If you're listening to this and it's before Sunday , the 12th , you better get in here . You're going to take it and check it out . We are out .