All right , we are at the World Food Championship in Dallas , texas . This is the Walk and Talk podcast . I am Carl Fiodini , your host , and we have special guests at the table . Today we have the Mike McClack , like you are the man around here . As I understand it , I'm the commissioner , don't ?
commission , Don't commission . Yeah , don't tell people that they ask all kinds of crazy questions like can I plug in my iPhone here ?
Can you tell me this or tell me that I get it .
Do you have a restroom ? I mean , I get all the tough questions when I know that .
I realized right away when I had a question and I saw you coming , I was like nah .
Thank you . Let me go over here . Thank you , I get it . Are sporks allowed ? I love it , I love it .
All right .
Now I have to my left Anthony Maroctorina .
Oh , that was perfect . Did I say it right ? Oh , that's perfect .
Yeah , because you don't like going to a trance . I don't even remember this stuff . It kind of comes out All right , we're having a blast . First of all , mike , we're having a blast over here . Good , so , between you and Mark and whoever else made decisions about us coming here , what a beautiful experience .
We're delighted you're here . You guys are top notch . To have you right here in the heartbeat of everything that's going on with food sport , I just think it's a natural and where y'all been for 10 years . My goodness , come on .
We're out there having a good time .
Y'all should have been here earlier , but from here on out , you're here , heard , that Got it .
Okay , that's a hand chat . That's recorded . Did you get that ? Are we recording ? Yeah ?
we're definitely recording on that Should we get some playback on that .
Can I get a signature ? All right ? So questions for both of you . What is your favorite component of this entire event ? I know that just going to blow your mind , but since I was not able to ask you questions or anything for the past five days , you get that one .
No , it's easy , it's the passion . These contestants whether they're chefs , home cooks , pro teams , doesn't matter they bring passion to the table in every way that you can imagine . It doesn't matter if it's dessert category , soup category , live fight , whatever . These people are the best in the business . They are passionate for a reason they love what they do .
They're sharing the language of food , which is the language of love , and seeing them at their best , and even sometimes when they're not at their best , it's always a sentimental and emotional and exciting week for me , and it's the one thing for me that is my adrenaline fix right , that I can power through five days of crazy food sport activity .
Before you answer . Before you answer that question , I want to take what you said , but I'm going to put that on its own on a vessel . That vessel for me , because I agree with that 100% .
The vessel is you take , you know , jane Jo home cook , and they're up against like hey , I'm the executive chef of John McFadden , yeah , like I'm the executive chef of you know 40 properties or what , and they're competing against each other and some of these home cooks are like , you know , they're hanging in there For me .
I think that's fascinating Number one , because I've been dealing with chefs for a long time and to see that kind of that synergy and they bring that home cook into that camaraderie factor that you know people in the kitchen have , I think that's amazing . So forgive me for jumping in on you , anthony , what do you think ?
No , I was going to say Mike said it perfectly . But it's the creativity , too , that these chefs bring , because they know they have to bring something different to the table . When they go on to the next round I see them . They're sitting here writing down notes , they're writing down ingredients , they're talking to other chefs hey , does this work ? Does that work ?
And it's just that level . They're an artist . They really are . They're an artist . They're painting a picture on a plate and then they're trusting it to the judges .
And they're putting that in front of them . It's an amazing moment . What do ?
you think about that . I agree there's layers of this . I mean , if you really want to peel back the onion , no pun intended , right or pun intended , there's all kinds of layers to this food sport thing , whether it's creativity , execution , camaraderie , community passion . It's limited to everything .
I was judging seafood the other day and Chef John McFadden . He was up on the top level stage there . The showcase , the showcase stage . Here's what I think is amazing . You get chefs and people who have this personality and charisma , and he's a solo act too . He's up there by himself , right .
So he's got things work and he's cooking , he's doing his thing , but what he's doing is he's taking people from the crowd and he's bringing them into the fold and he's being a showman . And it's not just him . There was a bunch of competitors like that , where they're bringing the people here , even other chefs , into it .
I think what you did here to create this is is really amazing . It this needed to be done a long time ago a long time .
I'm glad it wasn't but uh history but you know what we did with people think that that we created the magic we did . We just found a way to bottle it in . The magic was already out there . Chefs and home cooks and proteins did not have a level playing field .
They have one place where they , they all , could go right there , there are competitions and championships . Preach one of those segments , whether it's online or if it's in france or somewhere else , a cf , those kinds of things exist . We . We just decided to be a level playing field because , at the end of the day , we're all great if we're cooked .
We're all great at cooking something . Let's say it's a dessert . And the question becomes when you see a , an executive chef , create a pecan pie , all the tart , whatever , and you think you say if I could do that , good , I could do that or I could beat that , before we came along , there was no place to to prove that showcase at the world championships .
You can , you just got it . Have the idea , you have the uh , the energy , you get qualified and you , you get execute when you get there . And you brought up uh , john mcpadden right off the bat . There , I think .
First of all , I think he on a side note , he's kind like the first a I uh interpretation of the chef , because he's a machine , he's one hundred percent machine I was impressed by that .
I'd be a . I had listen . I have been in more than a thousand kitchen in my tenure in this business and I've seen a lot of different types of chefs .
That guy is a machine to the highest level of machinery , I feel like I'm really good at making up my bed in the morning without any wasted moves , this guy takes it to another level .
I'm saying I I I know wasted moves , that is what you just said is that the chef's dream . We constantly sit there and one of some of the contestants from the junior that carl was uh , judging after they got done . I said that I'm like how many steps to java , one of the guys that the dj was doing a cut cutting thing . I never thought of it .
The plate you put down as one step .
The product of what I was to three , four , five , if you go over certain time limit or a certain amount of steps you know you're done yet you lose time and , and what I want to point out , you mentioned to michael , but you said community and what you did , without even knowing this , and that we , we found this out last night uh , scott from , uh , that
sauce , as we're walking out , were loaded and he goes come on over and I like uh cause .
It's like someone who's going to do that .
I'm imposing I feel hurt we ended up going back to the rmbd . We were going to do lamb chops and we ended up going over there and we walked in not knowing a singles person , not a single soul . We walked out having new family members .
Kudos for you to bring this , and you see it , when people , when they're not like , dammit , you know , I , I , I should have done that back , stabbing them inside the comfort kitchen . It's , oh my god , you won , and jp was on earlier . He's ringing the bell for all his friends .
Right , what you did with that is just absolutely stunning well , I , I can't take the credit because it's it's really been uh , massive effort , a massive team , great team , talented team pulling us together every year .
And and really what we learned is that if , if we just set the rules and and everybody knows the rules and they follow the rules , then the passion of the industry comes its own energy right .
It is kind of follows itself you just repelling the exactly and and separate filling in , refueling and and it's just uh , you see it happening every year in our community keeps getting a little bit bigger , with a bigger , with a bigger , which I love so , before we get too far , too much further along , what's your claim to fame ?
and don't know , and and don't know uh , so my claim , the fame is uh , your two . I I remember with lost judge , you guys have a good time with high school bar . You watched five where I literally went to all five events and you you hear this crowd and so , it's amazing , is my camera to me .
I got you present what you get me chef got it for me arena thirty tomorrow morning and I said no , I said I was so tired , I just take it home , think about it .
It was their horse head in his bed .
I was like when I woke up the next morning that Jersey was sitting at the foot of my bed . It was just sitting there and it was talking to me and I go , I'm going to try it on . I tried it on and I was like that feels kind of nice right . And the night before Mike's like no pressure , don't have to do it , you do it , you don't have to do it .
There I was 8.30 in the morning kissing me microphone , talking to the chef . Mike walked by , he looked at me , he caught eyes , he just gave me a nod and he kept walking .
And that was it . And then the background was I was kind of rubbing my tie like this .
He hit a couple of wall nuts in his hand because he's cracking some wall nuts yeah of course . Flipping the corners . I'm like that .
But , that was .
Mike is always innovating and he's always adding more onto that , and that was kind of missing that element of the chef .
The person that was there enforcing the rules . You were the first , so you were the first .
I was the first one . Yeah , so I was the first one in the original one . That can't take that away from me .
But that was just so exciting to be in that pit , be there watching chefs blowing the whistle making sure that somebody was enforcing the rules , because that's the thing is , you do want that level playing field , you know chefs will hide stuff times you know , try to see some of the stuff we never that doesn't happen .
That's like saying we don't have egos .
That doesn't work , what but ?
look at now there's chefries everywhere .
Right , you know I want to do . I do want to look everybody here who is part of an event of this size .
it's complicated and the reality is it's hard .
Jeanette is is irreplaceable , she's a beast . She is irreplaceable , she's definitely a beast .
I just want to . I know she's in a different , she's in a different , she's in a different time zone , but for me it was perfect because we were communicating like 10 , 11 o'clock Eastern Standard Time . So she's working 8 , 9 , 10 o'clock at night . You know what I mean and you know throughout this entire setup process leading up to now . So I mean she's .
I just wanted to give her a shout out .
Thank you , she's awesome , I appreciate that Mike , real quick .
you're probably going to get up there soon . Actually , they're doing high school barbecue awards .
Okay , I think I get a little bit of a break . You got a break .
But I want to know is what was your culinary background , or what's your , what's your food history ? Where did this come from ?
So this is my favorite question . I am a fantastic eater and that's about it , carl .
There's your brother . Yeah , there you go .
If there was a microwave championship , I would be the champion . I didn't come at this from food .
I came at this from a marketing background , from a business background , entrepreneurial background , and in 2006 , I became the marketing director , essentially for the Kansas City Barbecue Society , and dove head first in the barbecue , learned everything I could about it , fell in love with it . I knew that I always loved it eating it .
But then I started learning what a pit master's life is like and how much they practice and how much they're just like an athlete .
They just do it with tongs .
That's a lifestyle Right . And I had friends who were traveling all over the country . Why ?
the hell do you pull a pit a thousand miles to make some ribs ? Just buy some when you get there . I didn't quite understand it right and when I finally understood it I was like , oh my goodness , there is a college industry here that is going to explode and I want to help it . And so I let pitch my wagon to it .
And we spent four or five years growing KCBS to a major level . I helped him go international , helped him double their membership , brought Sam's Club into their world and started the very first national barbecue tour .
Did you already have a relationship with Sam's ? No , so you started the barbecue team .
No , you started it . I started that . I started the Sam's Club barbecue tour with a bunch of wonderful guys from Sam's Club who aren't there anymore but started a new tournament strategy for barbecue . And then I realized , you know , this can happen with dessert , this can happen with burger , this can happen with sandwich , so on and so forth .
And so we began asking ourselves why is there not a Super Bowl for food ? And that was the genesis of the World Food Championships . We just were . We were brave enough and stupid enough to take it on .
If we knew , then what we know now , what we would be scared to do what we would be scared to death to have started this . Absolutely . I can appreciate that Now what we're doing is on a smaller scale , but I'm just one person .
Well , starting this was just one person and it was still a large investment , because there's a lot that goes into this and there's even more stuff back home , but without to kind of pay owed to this . You know who gets you somewhere . I can't get anywhere without this guy and that guy .
I have other people who are working for nothing or very little and putting in the sweat equity and doing all these things to launch something and become something Right , so anyway . So how does it ? Recently , over the summer , there was the IMG deal .
Congratulations on that .
Because I've been through some of those sorts of situations before in my past and that is , that's a holy grail scenario . What comes next now ? Because this is like the there was only three or four months ago that that occurred , so this particular venue was already established .
What's going ?
to happen , going forward .
It's a great question . We don't really know that we have the answer yet , but we are in deep , deep conversations about how to how to invest the right money and the right relationships into the world through championships to take it to the next level . Right , we're looking at this now as WFC 2.0 .
We've done a phenomenal job of getting it to a certain point , but but to be honest with you , I was starting to lean over my skis too much . This is more than one guy's pocketbook and a staff of about 20 could pull off . Or we're going to throttle it too much , we're going to bottle neck it too much .
So , with IMG coming in , we now have access to resources that I can only dream of . We have access to partnerships and strategic relationships around the world . They have offices in 30 countries , for example . Wow so taste of . Singapore , taste of Paris , taste of .
London , taste of Sydney , those kinds of things already .
The infrastructure is there , and so now we're talking about how do we plug WFC food sports into the middle of that or around it , or attach it to the side of it , whatever it is . That's what's happening next as far as the championship , we have other big conversations going . How do we make mixology and pairings ?
I got a question much more obvious in what we're doing .
How can I be a judge of mixology ?
Send me up to class . So I want to hear you Listen here , you SOB .
I want to get you cooking in here . All right , I'm going to hurt you , son .
Is he going to be able to switch the show while he's cooking ?
By the time this comes back full circle , we're going to have some other help in here . You're about to be cooking .
Done to me the last two days .
That's why my voice is this way , you've already lost your voice .
Welcome to the club .
The last two days he has made me do my own gauntlet .
You can tell what it is . You like that word , don't you ? It's the gauntlet . You like that ? I definitely do .
I've been going to fit that .
This is the microphone gauntlet , so normally I'm the host . I'm the host . Jeffery's co host . I'm host . I'm the dishwasher . He's washing dishes back there I'm shaking hands and kissing babies or whatever Shaking babies and kissing hands , whatever it is , whatever it takes buddy , whatever it takes man .
But here I have responsibilities and there's been changes and switch ups and whatever . So I find myself out there doing judging and just being in different areas around here and , frankly , just walking around doing nothing . No , you're not Forget it . So in the end you've been covering the whole . Well , you and Pooch over there . And Bucky and you know what man ?
You know what radio guys have that no one else has . It's great nicknames Pooch and Bucky . I mean , come on , how is that not a show in and of itself , pooch and Bucky ?
Yeah , but wait a minute , I got one for better view . You have Shefferies . My nickname in 1994 is Sheffery . Sheffery's name is Sheffery , so they dropped it . Nice , I started the cartel . Switch my nickname to the kingpin . Nice , yeah , that's where it was . I was like , all right , I like this , I love Shefferies , I love that . There they are .
To Kudos You're bringing the brand all the way in .
Yeah , I didn't invite , I didn't invent it . But when I saw it and heard about it I was like , oh my God , we got to put some sizzle around that , yeah .
That's hot , that's hot , right , who came up with bike club ?
So a guy out of Seattle , washington , sean Niles , created bike club .
That's cool , that's cool name .
And Yakima , washington , and thank God it was somewhere that no one can ever find , and so I literally drove through a freaking snowstorm to get there to see it for the first time . I thought I was going to die going over a mountain .
And when I saw they're doing the same thing as I saw with Anthony and Sheffery , I was like I'm going to take this and I'm going to make it bigger , and I bought the rights immediately to it . Wow . So now we're in conversations with Sam's club to take bike club and put it into clubs . Sam's club is throughout the nation . That's what they want to do it .
As you saw this weekend , Sam's club bike club was a huge hit .
These champions were like what the heck am I doing with this ? What is ?
this and I said just trust me , go in there , do what you love , do your thing , have a good time , it'll be great I got to experience that and that was cool .
Oh , you really . Oh yeah , that's nice .
Yeah , yeah , thanks so .
I love this .
This is the future of food sport . Right here , by the way , we've got a high school barbecue competition that we hosted here . Eventually the world championships , I believe , is going to host every national championship of everything that has anything to with food , with people who have to do it over in a corner somewhere .
Right , it's world food championship , right . So does that mean it just inherently has to hit the road ?
So there's some things I can't talk about on that front Understand However .
I will tell you , we already established .
Take this home and just think about it . Okay , I know a guy . Get back to me in the morning oh stop , We've got a winner at this amount . We are trying to stay in Texas with the main event . There's going to be world food championships Asia . There's going to be world food championships Midwest , Middle East , everything that you can imagine .
And ultimately but the big daddy's here .
Well , the big daddy's going to be here for a while . For sure it's going to be world food championships Eventually , this might and I'm just saying this is a might thing I think that I can't look beyond tomorrow . I'm going to be alone into the next two or three years . This might become the American version that there's a winner .
Like American Idol kind of . Yeah , yeah , there's a winner from America .
So maybe the American world , american food championships , and then you got Dubai food championships , you got Australia food championships , so on and so forth . That's where we'd like to go . We'll find out organically if that makes sense , we'll find out strategically if that makes sense , but for now the main event stays here .
It'll be in Dallas or possibly another major city that we love .
We are in . We are in negotiations .
That's not Texas , we are in negotiations for 2024's host and we're not ready to announce where that , where that's going to land , Mike I got a question for you when you started with X amount of category seven .
how do you choose the categories moving forward ? Can you expand that , or is it going to be like street talk , street food of ?
the world . We usually experiment through our infusions , so like we might take on cheese , for example , and then we think , oh my gosh , there should be a cheese category . That's kind of how bacon happened . So bacon's magical Right .
And we always look at trends and we're trying to figure out is there enough traction in that particular trend or that particular concept ? Gastronomy , for example . We made that an infusion or a requirement for chef this year . Does it need to be incubated out into its own category ? We'll find out . We did an MRE challenge yesterday we did that one with military .
That was just to have fun . But now the question is , oh my gosh , should that be a category ? So we go into a think tank a recap in December , we look at the pros , the cons , the wins , the losses and we come out of with a game plan for 2024 . And you might see a 13th or a 14th category created as a result of that .
I love the fact that you do the MREs , because if you do it with people that are not in the military , oh my God , those guys would be . I think that'd be beautiful to go forward .
I think there should be . I mean , I'm not hard coding this , but I really do believe there should be a military division , 100% A military category , yeah , and we get all the branches represented . We work with the bases to create a winner strategy for them . Go ahead and take it strategy .
I really didn't get a chance yesterday to expand . While I was on stage I kind of touched on it . But so if you know anything about culinary and the kitchen and the hierarchy and how the whole thing just flows and operates , you build these . Even if people do not appreciate each other or like each other , there's bonds that are a trust factor .
So that's in practically every kitchen or institution of that kind . When you're talking about military , that takes it to a whole other level of bond . But here we are . Here you take a military chef experience combining with just the chef experience and you're putting that together .
And that's what I was thinking about up there when I found out that I was going to go up to do that . I was like oh man what am I going to talk about ? And I had 15 minutes to come up with something Really is what it was . Thanks , mike , I had 15 minutes .
That's like an eternity in my world . There's the culinary gauntlet , there's the judge gauntlet . Love it . That's what you switched the rules with . That's what you did .
So , anyway , I thought about it . I said you know what I feel , I have the feels for that . That's what I wanted to talk about up there , but I didn't really know how much time I had . But I believe that there's a secret sauce or a secret ingredient . Again , no pun on that , but I feel like that's a really big deal , man .
So for me , if you're going to do some sort of a military thing like that , I think it would be gigantic to the delivery of the expansion of what everybody here is trying to do .
I think it needs to happen . The question is just how ? How do we weave it into the championship ? How do we add more days ? This is already a pretty long slug of things . Right , we had a day of ancillary on Wednesday . We have two days of opening rounds , then we have two days of finals . If you're asking me , how do we really work that ?
I think eventually this becomes a lot like in NASCAR , what's called Speed Week . We're going to have to create Food Week and we go from weekend to weekend . So maybe the first weekend is the fun , energetic things that are very kind of new or trendy .
We do a weekend of high school stuff with military stuff , et cetera , and then you get in , you settle into the pro side of things as the maybe do a two or three days of conferencing , expo , et cetera , and then you get into four or five , six days of food conversation . I'm just going to need a lot more people , because it's , it's , it's .
These are , these are long days , long days . Lots of infrastructure and lots of organizations .
Yeah , and if you don't , and if you don't manage the cash flow and the caps on all this stuff , you find yourself that there won't be another one , right , right .
I don't know if you know this but the coast is in the ACF , last year Number one chef of the year really , and pastry chef for the year , no joke . And it's the young lady that was here now . She took chef of the year Really . So the coast she's turned ACF . Now they're taking this . They're trying to yeah .
Well , we don't know yet , right , yeah , we don't know , but my God I mean that's a good level .
It's a great testament of the fact that they're talented , they love what they do , they know how to compete Passion , yeah .
And the teamwork is ridiculous , you know .
I don't want to be little it , but from a military perspective that's a competition , right ? Someone's going to win and someone's going to lose If it's played out the way it plays out , right . So so they know how to compete . It's my point .
At the end of the day , they know how to be precise , they know how to go in , they know how to execute in different ways . Right For military .
It doesn't surprise me that they're good .
And we'll find out how good they are when it when it comes to what I consider food champs and they'll , they'll become food champs . I don't even call people chef or home cook or protein . I call them food champs . But once they get here , once they prove themselves , once they compete , whether they win , lose or draw .
it doesn't matter to me , they're a food champ Right . Well , yeah , because I guess at the end of the day , you're 15 years in the kitchen you know , at the country club or the restaurant or whatever . Not that it doesn't matter , because that's all your experience , you know , rolled up into what you can , how you execute . But the reality is it doesn't matter .
They're not applying for a job , right , they're here to you know . People are here to win .
They're here to prove that they're good at something . They're here to have a good time , right . They're here to network and meet other people who who follow the same trials and tribulations that they do in the kitchen , and that that gets back to the community that we started with Right .
That's why people leave here knowing more people , adding people to their circle of influence and becoming friends with individuals they never thought they would . And going to house parties , airbnb . Instead of cooking your own rack of lamb , you go eat someone else's food and and that's the beauty and the magic behind the curtain by the beautifully said .
We brought the rack , we brought the lamb over there and cooked for them . Wow , I didn't do shit .
It was , it was , it was . Yeah , I'm going to clarify .
Yeah , I'm going to take it . I will never . I will never take it . I will never take it . I will never take it .
I will never take . It All right , so here we go . If you don't mind , Mr producer Jeffrey , um , I'm telling you , yes , how do people find you ?
Oh , you can find me on Instagram . This is my name . Is at Anthony Mark Torina . M a R T O R I N A .
That's a handsome Italian name , my man .
Thank you , that is a handsome name , appreciate that , mr Mike McCloud ?
How do we find you ?
Instagram , McCloud in the cloud oh loud in the cloud .
He's got a cool . He's got a cool . That's pretty cool . I'll take it . Gentlemen , appreciate you having us here , appreciate you actually being on the program . You guys are awesome . My pleasure we do . We need to talk and see how you know , how we can , you know , make this better . We will . I promise you that Indeed .
All right , jefferson , before you pass out and just destroy the equipment , we are out .