Inside the Food Industry: Tipping, Salaries and Rising Prices
Episode description
Welcome to another enlightening episode where we tackle the minefield that is the restaurant industry. We pull apart the contentious issue of staff wages and explore how establishments are finding creative solutions like placing their staff on salaries. Is this really the answer or will it lead to a hike in prices for consumers? We're going to get into the weeds of that debate. And that's not all; we also chew on the rising cost of fast food and how this uptick affects everyone.
Let's embark on a journey, as we dissect the tipping culture and customer service in the restaurant industry, from how it varies across different countries to its necessity for takeout orders. We'll unfurl the power of a positive review and its impact on the service industry, a topic often overlooked. Following on, we dive into the intriguing world of culinary events and the importance of relationships within this industry. We share an intriguing tale of a chef and a salesperson with shared history. Who'd have thought chefs could be like pirates? Well, you'll find out!
Wrapping up, we discuss the nuances of menu-building for catering events, cross-merchandising, and the importance of supporting causes close to our hearts, like suicide prevention in the restaurant industry. We believe it's high time for increased awareness and we're doing our bit to shed light on this urgent issue. And before we sign off, get ready for some fun as we analyse the rap styles of artists like Eminem, Run DMC, Beastie Boys and more. Buckle up for an episode that is as entertaining as it is thought-provoking.
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Thank you for listening to the Walk-In Talk Podcast, hosted by Carl Fiadini and Company. Our show not only explores the exciting and chaotic world of the restaurant business and amazing eateries but also advocates for mental health awareness in the food industry.
Our podcast offers a behind-the-scenes look at the industry. Don't miss out on upcoming episodes where we'll continue to cook up thought-provoking discussions on important topics, including mental health awareness.
Be sure to visit our website for more food industry-related content, including our very own TV show called Restaurant Recipes where we feature Chefs cooking up their dishes and also The Dirty Dash Cocktail Hour; the focus is mixology and amazing drinks!
Thank you for tuning in, and we'll catch you next time on the Walk-In Talk Podcast.
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Transcript
Hello Food Fam . This is the Walk and Talk Podcast and I'm your host , carl Fiedini . We are podcasting on site at Ibis Images Studios , where food photography comes alive . Get with John Hernandez . Check him out at Ibisimagescom . Go , kings Baby On the menu today . There is no food . Thanks a lot , jeffrey Schlissel . You dirty Like I'm pretty , I'm upset .
First of all , I'm pissed . Alright , I'm pissed , I'm hungry . We're going to touch on a couple of new components of the podcast , namely Kingpin's Thoughts , yep Chef Jeffrey Schlissel's food and industry blog . Find it on the Walk and Talk website . That is walkandtalkcom , the walkandtalkcom .
While you're there , take a look at our new cast of heavy hitting chefs on restaurant recipes . That is our cooking series . It's totally badass . Go and support these fabulous culinaryians . In other news , we are now found the Walk and Talk podcast , that is . We are now found on the Pandora platform and will soon be on SiriusXM so cool .
So cool is the fact that we made it onto the IMDB menu . The Walk and Talk website is on . Well , not the website , but us . You know , walk and Talk podcast is on IMDB . It's getting serious , jeff . What's up ?
baby boy , how you doing Fantabulous . Thank you yeah .
So I'm hungry by now . I'm hungry yeah .
I can see that . I can see why there's a special reason , though I was not supposed to be sitting across from you . I was supposed to be let's see what time it is . I was supposed to be landing in Boston right now . I had a little delay because of our friend that visited us yesterday , Right .
What was that ? I don't even know how to pronounce it the hurricane , the I hurricane , it's like a Vidalia . Yeah , I see Vidalia , that's a better yeah , they should have put the V in front and make it nice , right , all right , so you , you're here . You shouldn't have been , but because of the storm here , you know , we kind of A whole day delay .
So sorry to everybody up in New Hampshire who's prepping away right now picking up my slack .
And sorry for everybody that there's no sexy food talk . I'm so not happy right now . Belly is very unhappy . Well , yeah .
We say at Espresso yeah Three of them Even the coffee . Yeah , today was on the food Smoking had a good day .
Yeah , he's having a great day . We even the coffee . We were at a milk . We didn't have the right stuff Like oh my God , it was a poop show .
But you know what that's what it happens in the industry . Anyone you know what ? Be a goldfish . Be like Ted Lasso . Yeah , be a goldfish . Be a goldfish . Ten minute memory Swiping gone .
What'd you mean ? Right exactly so you have a blog on the website . Yeah , Kingpin's Thoughts .
Yeah , we've what ? Three already now ? Yeah , three . We did one on mental health , we did the Cuban sandwich . Which one was better ? Which city ? Miami or Tampa ? Yeah , it's Miami . Yeah , it's definitely Miami . Sorry , tampa , I love you , but yeah , yeah , WTF . So I've talked about it since this one started . I was given out there , but I wasn't왛 that guy .
I was a little bit accidentally putting a bet on it . That's notằng for the first time and I knew , and I was tomorrow . He said this when I was 18 .
And so I brought friends of mine today sit down and look Time build watch in one standing dude . I saw the video you chair and you did it . Yeah , life better with tips . It's just the way it works . I would never want 15 , 20 bucks an hour just to go serve people . Like no way , that would just never happen .
Well , there's always two sides to the coin . Right , there's actually three sides to a coin Story . There are some of us out there that think well , if I'm not making the money , then why am I gonna stay at the restaurant ?
But the problem is , if you're making less than the minimum wage , then by law federal law the restaurant operator has to pay you a wage that is up to the minimum wage of that state . The problem is , if you're not doing it , then obviously there's not the business there . That's a problem . The other fact that- .
That means you go get a different job . Yeah , you go somewhere else .
There are restaurants that I know when he was alive . Maybe he rests his soul . Charlie Trotter was probably one of the first innovators that actually put his entire staff on salary . Yeah , I mean at one point I could see yes on it , and then at another point I could see no , Joe Stowe crab . I mean , those guys down there make an enormous amount of money .
Come on , man . But you can only do that if you're a Joe Stowe crab or you're , you know , Charlie .
Trotter , come on . Well , there have been a stamos for how long ?
That's my point . It doesn't work . For the rank and file it just doesn't work and , at the end of the day , final analysis , think of the server , think of the anguish these people go through , and I know , I did it for many years . There's no way in hell that I'm gonna go out there and just endure what you endure for a set dollar amount .
Especially in today's world .
Yeah , unless you're paying somebody 80 grand a year , which is listen , and by the way , your already expensive meal is gonna go up another , you know , $15 a plate . If you're lucky , only 15 .
Have you gone to fast food lately , and what ?
it costs . Oh my God . Yeah , you see my stomach . You know what I'm saying .
No , that's caused by me , yeah , well yeah , you and my frequent drive through .
But .
I mean listen . The other night we got my doctor doesn't hear this . We got jammed up because Bacon Bits had a martial arts she's taking Taekwondo and she got her green belt by that time .
They got done by the testing and everything because they had the advanced kids that were in the advanced belts were doing their testing , as well as the ones that are intermediate and so on and so forth . We got done at nine o'clock , bro , six to nine . So it was like , hey , what are we gonna do ?
And I was like , well , I guess we're gonna be going to McDonald's , because that's what she wanted it was . I drove away with just two . I didn't even eat $20 . Sure , two meals , $20 . So there's no such thing as like that $5 meal . Well , first of all , there is a $5 meal , but it ain't gonna be healthy bro , bring on the bring on the robots .
Okay , I want . I want my $6 meal back and bring in the robots .
I want food that's whole food , that's gonna be new , true nutrient based and Chloric based , not like we know what we're eating now . I want to . I want to feel half healthy after I eat , like Nicole Cruz .
Yeah , yeah , I want to feel healthy too , but you know , bring the robots you saw well , we got a . I flip it with their flip in the burgers and everything the robots .
Well , we got them . What ? The one that we were next to the booth and yeah , yeah , they're delivering the .
yeah , there's your server . There's your new server , right ? Yeah , yeah , what was it ? What was the robots name in In the jet ? Jet and sir Rosie ?
Yeah , rosie was them outhouse keeper . Then you have will from the Robertsons , right yeah ?
we're awesome space , we're gonna have a . We're gonna have a whole restaurant full of Rosies . That's it . That . There you go , boom , the whole industry is dead .
No offense , you know , the other day we're talking about going out for dinner and I'm like you know , one of the things about going out for dinner is that ability to have a great meal , and when you don't , you get disappointed . I rather stay home and have it delivered or pick it up . Hmm , because now out there it's not the same .
There are very few in far between restaurants that are doing it and killing it , as far as both food and service .
I .
Don't know . I mean , I guess it depends what you're , where you put your threshold .
Well , could be . It could be where I live .
That could be too . I don't want to get into that , so , but you know , you know you're right . But like see , when I go out to eat , especially , you know , post , post , covid and the whole thing , I I my expectation , my threshold is just different and and I don't expect to be , you know , dazzled with service . I just I just don't .
And it's probably wrong , but that's just the way it is . So I do go out and join myself because I don't expect that it's gonna be the you know Glory days of the service industry . I just just I don't expect that .
Well , here's the thing too Are you the type of person , when you get great service , do you make a big production about it ? What do you mean so ?
for me . I'm in a production business here .
You're producing . A belly is what you're producing .
Biggest belly ever ever .
But here's my thought process . A lot of times , when you had the Karens and Ken's go out and they have a poopy meal , what they do is complain , and they complain to everybody . On the flip side , when we have a great meal , we might tell one or two people .
No , I always . That's my question . Do you go and tell and ransom rave like I do the ?
last time you had great service . Where you go , I've got to tell somebody . I got to tell the manager right .
So I will tell you something . I will take this back to the tipping part . I mean , even people who Just suck as a server , they still get 15% . Like I'm never gonna do less than that . I know that you know that's probably wrong of me , but just knowing that they had a , they potentially could have a crappy day . Something happened , who knows whatever .
I'm just happy they showed up and they're bringing me the food . You know what I'm saying . So I , but people who go and above and beyond man , I am the least cheap , cheap person out there I love to find give me a reason to leave a good , good duty .
I go one step further . If you give me the great service , I actually look for the manager on duty and actually tell the manager on duty , yeah , I try to be balanced as much as if , like my generator , that I got boy , that guy's gonna be a really good review and that sarcasm . But again , I'll be balanced .
I'll say what was good that the person did , so that I'm balanced . But I'll also let them know that they should have their day and you know and eat it too , that kind of thing . But you have to be balanced when you're going out . But this tip flation for me . I love that word . Everywhere you go Do we tip ? No , they're .
They're making a livable wage for somewhat . It's the service industry Barbers , for instance , my guy that cuts my hair , alex and all the guys over at Swift cuts over in the Brandon mall Love going there and I'll tell you why it's the guys thing . I can sit there , we can talk football , soccer , whatever and have a great time .
Those guys need to be tip because , yeah , they're making , but they're also making money . But they're also renting that space from the owner . Mm-hmm so they have to get the tip . That that I expect to tip , just to tip , mm-hmm , and I'm oil , right , just the tip . Yeah , that's my .
My thing is , when you go into , like Starbucks , and you go into a takeout here's the other thing Do you tip on to go ? I do , it's gotten . It's gotten to the point .
I do , but it's but .
I don't like to be 20% ?
no , I don't know , but that's my thing . That's different . First of all , I'm Italian .
I tip for everything you normally put in a little envelope , don't you ? Well , Well , you're folding into a little square and yeah Well we should not doing like the Chinese , where they do the red envelope , you know , and give them that way , because that means the prosperity . Okay , so you could do it that way too .
I don't you're talking about . But I will tell you that , no , I don't mind tipping right , and that's a point of contention in my house , because somebody comes like if they're dropping off a furniture or something like that , so they get tipped always , yeah , yeah , yeah .
Unless it's the , unless they're coming back to Fix of replace something that broke or whatever , then you're out of luck . But you know , on the first go around .
Yeah , absolutely so . I don't . I , for me , it's the people and again , being in the industry that long , that's where I'm tipping , because I feel that they're not making enough . I Don't know what the answer is , but you look at Europe , that Europe , they don't tip . We're the only you know .
I know . But you know what the gratuity has to do with the foundation of the , the culture of the country , right ? So in Europe everything is more socialized over there , you know , or socialistic or whatever in nature , and therefore Everything is , you know , through central planning , right ? It's different there .
Over here you can go out like , if I wanted to , I can have three jobs at three different restaurants , and I know that I have a restaurant , a I can work lunch and make good money and I had that though so did I in culinary school . My oh so .
But my point is you can go out and make a crap load of money and then go open your own restaurant Over there . You know they make their fixed wage like that . You know , my father was a factory worker . My , his father , was a factor and now I'm a factory worker . I'm not . I'm not want that .
I want to be able to do what I want to do , make as much money as I can , if I want to or not , or whatever , like it's just .
It's a different culture as my opinion , and here's the other thing you talk about culture in the restaurant industry . It used to be the job of transient , not in a bad way . Yeah don't know . I'm not saying like homeless . What I'm thinking is I'm going to put myself through school to make money , to become an engineer , become a doctor , become a lawyer .
Yeah that's where it was transient . In Europe , the job is looked at as being a server is not as being a Low-income person . You're actually looked at as a career server .
They're not low-income , unless it's the Establishment that you're in .
Yeah , but I'm talking about the , the cultural differences . The cultural difference over there is it's a job . You went to school . You know that's what you're . It's a career , you're a lifer . Right here , it's not yeah . It's , it's a transient thing , right , and I never wanted to be a lifer right . I love that work out for you .
But what great . Well , I mean , I wasn't a lifer in the restaurant , I'm a . I'm a lifer in the , in the world of food , mm-hmm , right , but you're still connected . Yeah , because I like it , I enjoy , love it , right I mean . But I never wanted to .
I didn't want to be the you know , 50 year old , the guy but technically you are a 50 something almost 50 year old server . No technically and technically no .
No , think about it , you're here's my , here's my thought process as somebody who worked in the broad line right .
Yeah .
I was the chef that was supported , my sales reps , my sales reps for my servers . Yeah , but no because they took orders from the chef doesn't matter , it's not the same .
It's not that way , because it's not if you're the All right .
Wait , wait , wait . If anybody's listening to this right now , comment below or when this is posted . Comment and tell us it who's right or who's wrong . It has nothing to do right or wrong . It's just the fundamentals of the server relationship , of taking orders from a chef and being a salesperson . I just want to point out .
That it is , but it is right and wrong and he's wrong and you're wrong .
Sauce and gravy . This is all over , it's the .
Crips and Bloods all over again .
No see what happened with tip flation ? This is what happened . It came 360 to the grave in tomato sauce . Wow .
We're back on it .
And we haven't even talked about the blog yet . See how tip is . It's just like blown up to this and everybody's going . Well , I agree with him and I agree with him . John's just sitting there going , I don't care .
John , yeah .
I mean , what are they ?
what do you got , john ?
um , I hate going to get a coffee or An ac or something , and it's the and it's the tip cup . I hate it if I , if I'm tipping , I tip very well when I get service . Tipping is for service , not for doing your regular job .
I don't disagree with that , 100% , do not agree at all .
I agree with both of you on the service part , because you are in the service industry . So , you are serving , but it's not the same .
No , it's not , it's not the same . I bring it down to a level for people to understand . Even though you're a salesperson taking an order from a chef , the whole thing is the warehouse you're ordering from . Whatever . Whatever broadliner you're ordering from is a restaurant . It has the food . That's giving you the ability to cook .
But no , it's not the same . He's serving . He's serving the establishment , not it's a different correct .
The correct correct 100% and not and I'm not saying he should be tipped , I'm not saying that at all by the way , I mean if , if , uh , if you want it , I can give you just feed him .
if , if you know Carl , and he's one of your clients and you buy from him . Just feed him , that's what he wants . You don't have to tip him money . That's why I started this whole this whole thing .
So you go to places and eat we're talking about .
Well , where were we recently ? We were married at the Don Cesar . Yeah , the pink palace .
Yeah , man , yeah , that's so . That shrimp dish was good . Oh man , it was so good . Um , the duck was pretty amazing too . So you're so what we're talking about . Uh , let me just . Let me just paint this a little bit , because All right . So , uh , under the walk and talk media banner , we have , um , a show series .
It's called restaurant recipes , and we have various chefs Right now throughout central florida . Uh , all great chefs , all great properties and places that they that they work in . Well , we're , we provide a show platform for them and , uh , we get to go film , it hang out on property and then we get to eat all the food that we film .
It's amazing but they were here . You're holding back what it wasn't one dish , it was two of everything .
It was right . This is my point , you understand .
They , so john had to get his , which was great . I mean , what ? What the team there did was chef alex and uh his chef to cuisine job .
Jason .
Jason . Yeah , what they did and how they worked . Like jason did the product for john chute and then willy filmed chef alex doing it . It was so harmonious that for us it was so great because it was so short .
Yeah , let me tell you something . We were done by like two and and props . You know , kudos to the team , because really I don't have anything to do there but eat I don't do anything anymore . Like seriously I bring the equipment , I set it up , and then I'm done , that's it .
Yeah , I had a . I have to translate from chef talk to photographer talk for john Right , that's true . Uh , there is a lingo that we definitely have as chefs , um , like , for instance , a dishers , this ice cream scoop . So if you ask for an ice cream scoop from your rep , you're going to get an ice cream for an .
Uh , a nice scoop for ice to get out right .
You have to ask for a disher yeah , which is ridiculous .
but whatever like I said , we speak differently , we speak logically , but we eat the same . Imagine that .
Mm-hmm , imagine that . Um , so , but , but back to it . Uh , so we were at the the don Cesar , the pink palace . It's the breakers of the , uh , you know , west coast , central florida . Uh , you know , because people you know a lot of people who are from south florida or even , uh , northeast or whatever . They may not know what you know the don Cesar is .
It is just a big , beautiful hotel been around over a hundred years . It's right on the sand on st Beech beach and it's gorgeous . And you know , um , what they do there Is nothing short of amazing , especially in terms of their culinary . So chef alex reyes is the executive chef of the of the property and he does a bang in , bang in job .
Yeah , yeah , I mean it's a big property too . And it's huge , yeah , and you're having people that you know , expect and have expectations that have to be met .
So that's a maritana is fine dining for sure , yeah , I mean , chef Jason was so funny as we're sitting there talking and I think john was finding out some background about him and he goes yeah , I used to work for disney . And I'm like , funny thing , I met stefan .
He's like stefan reyman , oh my god , he's my mentor and I'm like seriously , he's like , yeah , what I do get on the phone text chef and what's , what's the street name ? Uh , saving america something culinary , saving the culinary of america with this bandana on his head . Right you know , like the whole pirate , the whole thing that chefs are actual pirates .
Yeah , so he , jason , actually lives that whole mantra of that . But he had such a great mentor With chef stefan from the disney and it's it really is a small world , yeah culinary speaking , we I mean you burn a bridge in the culinary field . You're , you're burning some bridges .
So I had a . I had . Well , this is back when I was , uh , I was director sales at a produce company and I hired a . I hired a chef as a salesperson and you know , uh , we were gonna I'm not gonna name the names because they're all still everybody's still working but he goes .
We had an appointment at a country club high in place and or a yacht club , whatever was high in place , and , um , I said , all right , come on . Uh , so and so , let's , we're gonna go , we're gonna go together . And he says , uh , look , carla , I don't know that I should go . What are you talking about ? He goes Like seven years ago .
Uh , I walked out on chef , like it was in the middle of chef tonight , and I left . And I go seven years ago , dude , nobody cares .
Yeah .
Well , hold on , so nobody cares , right , he goes All right , like if you saw his face , he was like , uh , regresingly , I'll go . So we walk into this . Um , we walk into the , into the door , and it was actually of the , of one of the banquet rooms .
So there was at least 150 feet between the kitchen where they were coming out of and the door that we were walking in . So picture , like you know , that slow motion . It was like he and I and and then it was him and two or three of his of his sous , like the untouchables .
It was something like that . Yeah , we weren't going down the stairs , yeah .
Yeah , so we're walking slow mo , like groups walking together , and I'm , and I'm kind of in the front right , so he my cells are , if it's kind of off flanking me to the rear , and I'm walking towards chef and I'm , and I'm noticing that he's not looking at me , not even a little bit he's . He's squinty-eyed , with a crunched nose , forehead , looking at this .
My sales rep , prior chef , you know , you know whatever he was doing in there . And I extend my hand , you know . We got to the . He just points at the my guy and says are you so-and-so ? And and he put his head down . He says yes , I am . He turned around and walked away . He didn't recognize me or acknowledge me in any capacity .
So I looked at my guy , said go go to the car . And I followed him back into the kitchen and I said , hey , like that , like I was pissed . I was like don't , you know , it's one thing with this cat , you know , but don't disrespect me , that's bullshit , you know . So I look at him , he turns around , I go , I said you .
Just I don't want , actually I don't want to repeat what I said and then I walked out , I went , sat in my car and I composed an email . It was an amazing email , the best email ever created in the situation like this , and I sent it to him . I will tell you that he was a stand-up guy and he called me back and he apologized for his actions .
But holy crap , yeah , we don't forget . Don't forget .
No , we're an elephant anything . Well , especially when a guy or person walks out on us .
But it was , I wouldn't even like . I can grow , I can hold a grub , but I don't know . Oh no , chefs , let it go .
No , no , depending . It depends on what day it was . What happened that led up to it ?
I mean , I don't think it was like you know a Holiday and I don't think it was like Mother's Day or you know Valentine's Day or anything like that .
I can still remember some of the people that walked out on me . Yeah left me high and dry . I would never hire him again , still to this day .
Well , we and we're going back . By the way , we did end up doing business over there .
I'm just saying well , you got him a different .
The these are the droids you're looking for right .
Yeah , we're gonna move that sales rep over here and bring that sales rep of over here . Yeah , I know that works .
But all right , so back to your blog . What's the story ? You're gonna do a blog . What I mean ? What's it ? What's the the genesis of this , like , where's this coming from , these or these blogs coming ?
from . Well , I figured there's some stuff then some topics we can bring up on the show here , but we don't have . We only have a limited time . Plus , we've trying to get through different subjects and content and so on and so forth .
The blog is is a way for us to express a little bit more and get a little bit more deeper , and also For you , the listeners , to get involved with us and tell us what some of the things you might want to hear and what we can discuss , for instance , prep . The reason why that came up and why we want to talk about it today is what ?
What is it in tale or what goes into Prepping for an event ? Now , keith Sarasen , who I'm gonna go fly up to work with . He's been doing farm to table dinners for like 11 and 10 years , maybe even 16 years , where there's no running water . So he , if you look at the farmers table and you go to his website , there's just huge , long , just table .
That goes , it seems it goes on forever . And he wanted to that community feeling that you know , having everybody at a family meal , kind of thing . So imagine you're gonna go cook for a hundred people and they're paying top dollar for it , what do you need to do and how do you need to do it .
So there's a lot of stuff that needs to go involved and a lot of times in our personal or I should say our business life travels over to our personal lives . So we're very Control freaks , if you want to call it that in the best way , like OCD and ADHD . I called it in the article . It's a perfect hurricane , because that's what we want to do .
We want to control everything in every aspect of it . But I think it was a pro tip for chefs that are listening and , if you don't , or people that want to go in the industry or want to find out what we go through and how we go through things . You're starting a week prior , like when we do our shoots for peninsula .
It's a week that I'm getting the product , then I'm staging and going out looking for everything and that's just what four plates that we do . There's probably , from my end alone , not barbecue . So let's take barbecue out , because it's a lot more hours of cooking . There's just a steak , for instance .
It's probably about 10 hours of work in the background for those four plates , because you have and how many times do I come here and go . Crap . I forgot something there's doesn't matter how many lists you have . If you have nobody else it's looking . You don't have a sous chef . If you're , you got to do your checks and balances . You got to give that .
Hand that off . Hey , what am I missing ?
here . Do you need a sous chef for the show ?
No , no , john , John's doing well .
Honorary . He loves it , though he's on our area , so yeah , yeah , no no , he's just photographer .
He tells me what I need to do For the most part .
Yeah , it's a team . Sounded like disrespect .
No .
What are you gonna say about ? We have to say about that , john .
No .
I .
You're just trying to start start something . Yeah , I am but there you guys , you're hungry . That's why actually you're angry .
I am . You know , I mean the doughnuts . I brought some . I brought doughnuts , but that's not . Doesn't really feel a . He's shaking his head .
Yeah , I , I suggest it Starbucks , john I . So I mean in retrospect , and well , we have that saying should have couldn't .
I mean the whole , the whole culinary thing collapsed . Well , again , I was not supposed to be here .
Everything was just terrible . Instead of not having a podcast , we're having a podcast , yes , and we're making the best out of it , I think .
So I mean , well , this is all great stuff actually . So you know , a lot of the audience , of course , are from the industry , so they'll appreciate this .
But then there's the others , you know , the foodies and and folks that actually do , you know , look for the caterer right , and a lot of times what they may hear here , see what they did there , can help them when they're looking to solicit a caterer right , because they're , you know , there's things you should really look for and in terms of expectations to .
You know that you know , in the prep for you know , if you had to do an event for a hundred people , right , and they said , hey , a hundred people , I'd like to get it done for twenty five hundred , and you're like here , right , yeah , so I mean , in this conversation , they may pick up a nugget of two , you know , of information .
Well , I think the difference to me we got to talk about is a catering event is different from the restaurant hourly service yeah . I mean , it's Russian roulette and that's what I compared it to me , you have no idea .
Restaurant roulette . Yeah , I should have said restaurant roulette . It's like Russian roulette .
So it's . You have no idea what's gonna go with your menu , and it depends on how big your menu is . You have a cheesecake menu , which is ridiculous , especially in today's age cheesecake factory . Yeah that's what I meant cheesecake factory . You have that where it has advertisements on it because it's so big , they have to offset the cost .
How do you run that ? Yeah , and then you have people that are doing it where , if it's a small enough restaurant and you're just doing Maybe no more than 20 different items , you're nailing it . You should be nailing it by then . And if you're cross merchandising too , the whole point of catering it's what's great about catering and why a lot of chefs gravitate .
There is , you know , there's a hundred people . Okay , great , I know , at least . If it's a six course meal , you know . If it's soup , salad , an appetizer , maybe the entree is two different choices , great . Now I just limited my menu from all this down to that . I know what I'm gonna go . I can do 10% . Usually that's what we go for is a 10% overage .
But then there's guys where I remember seeing on on recently . This is what kind of drove me to do . The article Was a private chefs organization . I belong to , its private chefs , it's like USPCA , chefs of America and Somebody was like , well , I was supposed to do this event . Oh no , it was Trey .
I'm Hollis , the one over in LinkedIn , that's the one with barbecue . Yeah , that's the HOA thing . That's up , trey , right ? Yeah , thanks , by the way , and Suzanne for Frey , or Frey , the one that reached out to us and emailed us . Yeah , yeah , she's awesome , so I gotta make sure we mention her Anyways .
Thank you , suzanne , we appreciate you , but the thing is , it might be .
It's just like Suzanne , I think is a different spelling altogether .
Yeah , maybe it is you . Well , I don't know how to read anyway . So it's okay , it doesn't have pictures for the heck of it .
You know , amy , yee what , up there you go . See Amy , there you go . Hey happy birthday , brian , how about ? That , oh , brian yeah come and he just celebrate . Is it today or yesterday , yesterday , I don't know . I saw it in the . I saw yeah , on the feed anyhow .
Catering , yeah , and is the reason why we like to gravitate to it . The chefs like to gravitate to it so much Just because you know exactly what you're gonna get to you . There's not much .
Trey's problem with the HOA is they said they were gonna have X amount of people show up and then he was left with a whole bunch of food left Mm-hmm , because they promised him everything but and he delivered it , but they didn't have the expectation , so he was left with a lot of that product Moving forward . Pro tip , charge upfront for the food cost .
Oh yeah , cover your cost that way . If they don't deliver meaning the client doesn't deliver You're still covered . It's called CYA and that's that's priority number one . A lot of people have this vision or envision People making millions of dollars in the restaurant industry .
The problem is that If you're doing 10% after EBITDA that's earnings before taxes , depreciation , all that stuff , that accounting jargon that we listen to If you're doing 10% , you're doing it .
Is it crazy that a schlissell would be thrown out the EBITDA term , just saying well .
Wow , you know , I do have some accountants in the family and lawyers and doctors , doctors and lawyers . I do have one of my cousins , lauren Rosenthal . She's , she's amazing . She actually has a Mini zoo down in Homestead .
I can call it just a mini zoo , and if you have a Film that you want to make with a certain maybe a wolf , a gator , a tiger , a leopard , she's the one that they call to supply shows and video , music videos for that . Hmm , so that's what she does for a living . Yeah , really cool .
So very diverse family as far as occupation , but I'm the black sheep for sure , 100% . I don't think . If Really quick thinking , I don't . I think I'm the only one tattooed to .
I mean cover . Typically speaking , they're there .
You know it's highly against , yeah , highly against marking .
Mm-hmm , and I don't blame , and I I subscribed to that for that you know ? Well , that's real yeah no , no , no , I mean from the , from the . Old Testament Hebrew no , from you know . World War II , oh that yeah . Well , that's why ?
well , one of mine is in honor for my family . That was actually taken , so that's on my left arm , by my heart , so that every one of my tattoos definitely has a meaning behind it . There's definitely some deep meaning .
Speaking of deep meaning , in the blog John's gonna post next week is one based upon mental health , and we're doing that because September is suicide prevention month and I think you know , being in the restaurant industry and having the addiction problems that we see and face within the Restaurant industry . I think it's very important for us to shed light on that .
I think that's one of the things that we need to do is and we do a great job , I think , but we need to keep that constant .
We really do need to get linked up with , with an organization . Well , chow now .
Aaron about Boyle . I've reached out to her . I have her segmented for the 21st of September , which is the one that will do on suicide prevention , but she's she or organization that she heads is the culinary hospitality . They're gonna kill me and I remember the O and the W dirty yeah .
But we also have Alan Matic who is um , just has marvelous stories of what he's been through and what he does . He actually trains people on the suicide hot hot line . And it's so yeah his story is really incredible . I met him . Is he on the books ? He's on the books , is so 21st like in , just for reference .
Even now , what you're talking about the fact that I don't have to do is amazing .
Well , you know the 14th , I have two people coming out . No one just got hired from the temp bait book in ears . I'm trying to Salotify that boy and one is going to the James beard camp .
Yeah , man , I see this what I'm talking about . Oh , speaking of of , let's settle John with more things to do . And the I roll well , here's the thing We've been talking about from the beginning .
So , like three and a half years ago , we've been talking about how we can , what we can do to support , you know , different charities and just some things that are special and you're near and dear to us . You know , and this is a business , we're trying to put this together as a business .
And then , you know , and it's really starting to pick up some steam and it , and it's a blessing Really . So , with that said , I was thinking the other day we don't do merch at all and and we need to start doing merch now .
We've talked about it randomly over time or whatever , and I think even recently we were throwing darts or whatever , but oh , the magnet . There's a bunch of stuff . But here's what I'm thinking I want to do , I want to do merch , but I want it . I want to again , I want to find a handful of Of charities that we all agree on .
Okay , because I want a selection and I want to have , you know , a whole variety of different sort of merch , merchandise options and I want a hundred percent of that to go to and let the person pick where they want it to go . And and I wanted to go there because we're not doing anything and we should be more like we talk about it and awareness is great .
But you know I want to get . I want to get money to the places that are reputable , that actually you know our hand or boots on the ground , so to speak , hands-on .
You know I mean so we could definitely talk about that . The 14th that show the 21st . We definitely can talk about that and set things up that way . I know Alan does a lot for the American suicide prevention . Obviously Aaron does the stuff for chow that she does . There's a . There's so many different Organizations out there .
You have fair kitchen given kitchen , ben's friends burnt , burnt chef project and I'm not . I'm well , yeah , well , foundation here there's brother luck , who is another individual that just came out of with a mental health book he was actually supposed to present in Orleans at the ACF , american Common Federation , natcom , the National Convention .
No , but we definitely , I think we definitely need merch on that . Sorry , john , I Think the little logo that people can slap on the back of their car is a great idea .
I mean I was looking at like because I have a hat , the hats like somebody was . Not me Amy . Amy , I think , was asking for had in one of the video , or the video or something .
Somebody it was also Amy was somebody else too .
I mean a lot of people have asked me for , for hats and I haven't done a new batch . I got , I got a order more . But I want to start doing some of these things , get it on the website and , and you know , actually the merch store .
Yeah .
Yeah , I mean we've relaunched . So we did relaunch the Walk-and-Talk website and it's beautiful . It's so cool and we're still to it , fine-tuning it and everything . But at the end of the day it's super cool . You know our podcast , you know it's . It's uploaded there automatically , you like .
Just you can find you know Apple or Spotify or just listen to it right there . You can listen to it right there on on the , on the website itself and oh yeah , that's right .
I meant to . Sorry for interrupting , but somebody had said something to buffering .
You said it probably the internet do .
That's the eye off off of our website and they were saying was buffering . I told them to go over to Spotify or Apple and see if that was the case . All right , maybe it was . Maybe their server they were connected to you yeah , because yeah , it's not like we , you know , I think that was Jacqueline Quinn , chef Quinn Jack's chef Jack's what's up .
Talk to him she's yeah she'll , oh , she'll talk , she has no problem . You know , shoot me , no she will if she doesn't like something , jackie , that chef Jack's definitely make sure you know it . I'm not scared , don't worry , you don't need to be 25 years . It's chef Fiona , that's who you have to be careful . Yeah , she does roll a derby hell yeah .
Right , I told you the story like I met her a couple years ago in Orlando . And here they're there , walking past me and they got these bags . I'm like what are you doing ? They're like , oh , we're gonna go skating . And I'm like skating , you know , we're training for our roller derby and I'm like I Think that's cool .
So you know , when I was a boy they had , so my that was like on TV , like the older derby like in the Sunday's . Yeah , late 70s football right , and it's just funny , but that's even still a thing , a . Thing .
Yeah .
Yeah , I like that better than the wrestling , because they really go after it .
They do , there's great yeah .
I would not want to get on the Paris gates . I don't want no trouble . Nope , I'll take a rain check on that one .
Yeah so I , we're gonna , we're going to , we're gonna wrap on this today .
I want talk about what's Eminem style rapper if you want to run DMC Beastie Boys .
Whatever you want , you know right , it gets the machine .
No sleep until New Hampshire to New Hampshire .
All right , next blog is gonna be what .
He's dropping . The day is gonna be the one on the prepping , and the next blog after that is a 35 year reflection on my suicide attempt .
Okay , well , we're looking forward to reading that and many , many more . You are your special dude , john . Yellow , yellow bus , short bus with a yellow helmet . Okay , take it easy . Take it easy . I slow down . John's putting his All right . So again , thanks everybody . We are ouch key .