Inside the World Food Championship with Mike McCloud and Anthony Martorina
Episode description
Join us on a tantalizing journey into the heart of culinary competition at the World Food Championship in Dallas, Texas. This episode is flavored with the lively discussions surrounding the thrilling competition that allows chefs and home cooks to showcase their skills on a level playing field. Our guest, Mike McCloud, the marketing director for the Kansas City Barbecue Society and the brainchild behind Sam's Club Barbecue Tour, shares the meaty details of what it takes to organize an event of this magnitude.
McCloud peels back the layers of his journey, uncovering the strategic deal with IMG that led to the creation of the World Food Championship. We grill him on his innovative plans to expand the championship, including the introduction of military-style competitions and a "Food Week". McCloud also serves up a reminder that every competitor is a "food champ", reinforcing the inclusive spirit that makes this event a melting pot of culinary enthusiasts.
Adding to our recipe for an engaging podcast; Anthony Martorina, a competitive cook and Instagram sensation, joins the conversation. Martorina dishes on his experiences in the competitive culinary world and his Instagram page, which has become a visual feast for food lovers. This episode is a perfect blend of passion, creativity, and love for food, served with a side of enlightening discussions on the importance of cash flow management for successful events. Come, feast on this flavorful discussion that is sure to whet your appetite for all things culinary.
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Transcript
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 .