Hello Food Fam . This is the Walk and Talk Podcast and I'm your host , Carl Fiedini , and we are podcasting onsite at Ibis Images Studios , where food photography comes alive . Get with John Hernandez . Check him out at Ibisimagescom . On the menu today oh my gosh , oh my gosh . We have beef tenderloin and we're talking bacon wrapped meatloaf and a sexy beef tartare .
Oh my goodness , I can't wait to hear sexy talk with Chef Jeff over here . Our guest for this episode cooks for IndyCar Racing's team McLaren . We're talking some fast food , some fast cars over here . Okay , baby , and that is with the chef Manny Heider .
Uh , Jeff , Jeff , Jeffrey Schlissel , my man , let's jump into pre-shift and explain today's dishes to the audience . What's up , baby boy ? What's ?
up . Uh , it's great , man . It's always good to have Manny in the house , so Sure enough . Yeah , it feels like a whole time for me . Sexy top for pre-shift Gotta talk about that ground chuck , that we did too , that burger that you put on the fly for me to do . John had some leftover Cuban bread , so we went Cuban hamburger Dude , I'm so awesome .
Smoked ham , little Gruyere cheese melted on top , some pickles . Cuban bread Can't go wrong with that Yellow mustard . I am so fat . It's my fault , it is . Yeah , sorry . And then we did the meatloaf , but we wanted to amp it up a little bit , so we did the bourbon bacon . Ready for this .
Yeah .
A little bit of cinnamon and maple sugar and then , topped out with a little Chipotle , put the ground , chuck in there with some caramelized onions , some black garlic , some garlic , some yellow uh sorry lemon for zest , bring it and brighten it up . And then red gold gave me their Sacramento Bloody Mary mix and I want to do something a little bit different .
So we glazed the top of that as it was cooking to do that beautiful Bloody Mary char on the top . That was actually fantastic . We did that as a sandwich and then we went over to the beef filet , because August 13th is National Filet Day , filet mignon . So that was beef tenders . We want to showcase that .
We did that one with , believe it or not , black berry , sage tea and some steak seasoning . So I wanted to do a little bit more complexity to it . Then we did a pomas maximus , which is this thin layer we call window paint .
You got to say it differently . You have to say it like pomas maximus .
Well , it's pomas . Pomas max is what they're called , but pomas maximus or , if you want to do it , italian maximus .
Now , like remember uh you know , uh , what's gladiator Right Pomas maximus , maximus , maximus right .
So stay with me . Those were like window paint little slice , uh , circular potatoes that were infused with herbs , and then we topped it off with sauteed spinach . And then John captured the most god awful beautiful bacon with , like you said , the tribal tattoo rolling around . It was so sexy .
That was really . I honestly I think that's one of the best images we've gotten . Yeah , it's like top three for sure , definitely .
Uh , he really captured that the essence of it was . And then I wanted to do a twist with beef tartar , as most people will do , but you hold on , hold on , hold on .
Listen , you're , you're , you're just shotgunning all of this against the spewing , against the wall . Um , pick it , pick the tartar and start with the tartar , because , man , it was , it was really good , and you made the uh , you made your own . You know , quote , unquote , caviar . Why don't you kind of get into the detail of that ?
A little bit right , a little bit of the ingredient ? You know how did you do it ?
So monochrozym , which is what uh for an an , Adrienne , his brother and Elbule did , is they looked at ways that we can do things differently with chemicals like sodium aglinate , calcium chloride , and that this one was none of that , because it's a little more difficult . You have to have filtered water .
They've expanded what we can do with agar agar and if you boil that and then let it cool and then put it in olive oil that's chilled , you instantly as it drops and falls , you get this beautiful caviar , quote unquote . And then I actually put in time as it was cooking , not as in time , T I M E , but T H M Y M E .
That gave another layer of when you're eating the actual tartar you have that pop of that citrus comes through , and then we topped it off with parsley oil . That was so rich and deep and green . Very pretty , yeah , I was . I couldn't believe how the green it got .
It reminded me of the jewel of the Nile . Yeah , that's what it reminded me of . And if you , if you yeah , and if people don't know what that means , like Google that the jewel of Nile great flick , first of all , but it was just like that .
Right , emerald green , yeah , and then we put that on top of a nice baguette that we did . I'm going to start calling you .
El Guampo , just for that movie , okay , yeah .
Well , you can listen . You brought something back from my memory that I forgot about .
Dude , I'm still living in the 80s bro .
Well , aren't we all ?
Yeah , no , my knees tell me it's well , yeah , that's the stretch zone .
You need to go there . Yeah , we're going to work that out with him . And then we got chef Sorry , jonathan is actually finishing up over there the BLT , the Drift .
BLT . Oh yeah , john , he's the , he's the best . But yeah , I have his images . I'm totally going to rock that . That's going to be , by the way , he probably that's son of a he probably is .
Yeah , Because I mean you've got to think about it . When you have jerk and then the savoriness and the saltiness of the bacon , then they have the bourbon he's eating it .
He's the jerk . Do you know what I'm saying Of ?
course .
Because I have been saving some space for that piece of that .
Well , you know why we're doing bacon today . The 20th is the wrong reason . The 20th is National Bacon Day .
Okay , this month Is it going to be there ?
Yeah , so we wanted to make sure that we kind of bring that to light so that people understand bacon is great every day , but it actually has its own national day .
Yeah , I can , I can get behind it 100% in front of it , over it in it , whatever you know exactly , it's good , all right . So Tartar was amazing , thank you , I'm I'm I'm a big Tartar guy , all right , and I'm going to give you a . I'm going to give you a good . I can never just give you a 10 .
I'm . I don't think you're ?
you're kind of a D bag ? No , I'm kidding , you're not that at all . No , it was . It was freaking phenomenal . Thank you Good job . You did great today , in fact . Meatballs yeah , meatballs are good . Listen , the bar for that is oh , I know it's high for me , yeah , yeah .
Yeah .
I mean , I was having like my fan I'm , I'm , I am a second generation . Right , yeah , yeah you have your Nona , your Bella Right . All these people and I grew up eating like some freaking high powered . Really amazing , you know . Amazing , but what's the word I'm looking for ? It was so real , authentic is the word . I couldn't believe . So freaking wonderful .
You did a terrific job on the meatballs , thank you .
Yes , I got my own little twist in it , but you know , yeah .
I mean , everything you do has your yes , yeah , the , the schlüssel , yeah , you know . So what was the next dish ?
So we did the meatballs , we did the meatball or meatloaf entree with the carrots , the carrot puree , with the lemon in it , with chipotle .
We're going to bring Manny on shortly , but he said something interesting . I want to get into it with the yin , yang yin and the yang aspect of that particular dish which I thought was , you know , pretty pretty witty .
And then the one we did with the meatloaf sandwich . Most of the time people just do catch up meatloaf and a sandwich and that's kind of it . We toast the baguette or the bread . We did , instead of just catch up , I did smoked tomato aioli yes , from a couple of layers , and then the jalapeno is elevated meatloaf . This is an elevated meatloaf .
Yeah , this was definitely one of the bigger , more crevable .
This is not grandma's meatloaf . No , you know funny story real quick , before we bring Manny in . We just sat down in South Florida , went to a restaurant . My dad was there , it was a whole , it was a family event .
There was maybe 20 of us at the table and he's he's an older guy , he's looking at the , he's looking at the menu and he says hey , call , the meatloaf is $15 . I can make that at home for like 250 . I'm like don't you say something to don't ? I do not talk to anyone else about this at all today , like don't say a word .
Well , I told you when I worked at the white tablecloth we had meatloaf on the menu and people might be thinking right now $15 sounds pretty cheap , cheap . Yeah , this was like 15 years ago or more , 16 , 17 , 16 years ago . I was like it was a long time ago . So $15 for a meatloaf place back then for a dish is actually pretty pricey .
And just forget about that .
Okay , I'm not gonna tell you how much it was for us at the restaurant , then what do you mean ? Oh what ? When I was at the white tablecloth it was like $28 .
Yeah , no , I get it . I'm in the fricking business but , like you know , poro fellow was like oh yeah , people that don't know that are not in the industry , don't know . He's like look at this , I can do this at home for like a quarter of the price . I'm like dad , we're coming out to eat .
You know Like there's labor involved , gas to pay , yeah , I think so . So we're gonna bring , we're gonna bring chef on .
I think so that's a good idea .
Manny , are you with us right ?
Look at that , your own little . It's in his writer .
It was part of the contract to get him on , I had to play this , that's my walk up music .
That's my pull up of chair music .
I like it .
Where'd you find that one ?
You know , this guy told me about it Spotify has everything . Spotify has everything .
Well , it's got you two on it too .
So yeah , that's true , the bar kind of so listen , obviously we're , it's for fun and everything . Where are you ?
from California .
Where's your family from ?
Like ethnically . Why are ?
mine . Why are you Come on ? Can you give some perspective on the thing ?
We're Pakistani-American .
All right . So this is actually a really cool tune and I'm glad we did this . All right , let's jump into it .
Absolutely .
Indy Indy Car Racing Team McLaren . That's pretty badass .
It's really neat . I mean I kind of fell into it this past year , this past Indy Car season . It's something you don't think about . You know , jeff and I worked for the same company for a good seven , eight years together . We both have a background in resorts and hotels , restaurants and feeding in that sense it's kind of as a chef it comes natural .
It's like people want food , they order from menu . We feed them . But you don't think about , like these teams that need to eat , this whole team of 100 people of mechanics , engineers , drivers , truck drivers , car drivers . They're on the road for these races . How do you feed 100 people ?
That's the minimum . No , that's the minimum because you get the VIP and that's just one team .
I mean , this Indy Car circuit this year has like at least five major teams and then smaller teams . But so I kind of fell into this , not knowing it's through another contact , like oh , we need our chef fell through , we need someone that can kind of travel and feed the team and feed some of our guests . And like what do you mean feed the team ?
And once I saw it I'm like , oh wow , we're like showing up in a empty parking lot building a structure .
Conquered .
The parking lots are literally falling you had to get right , literally melting as they were putting it up . Are you feeding three squares a day ?
Two and a half , yeah .
So we do 100 people plus two and a half times a day 200 people 200 , oh yeah .
So 100 for the team and then usually about 100 for the VIP guests . Yeah , I think one and a half times a day .
Day one was 469 people . That's crazy , yeah , and the time constraints is just ridiculous . I mean , I'm still in awe .
Well , yeah , you guys just did a gig together a month or so ago . A couple months ago , yeah , yeah , you were in Michigan .
Detroit . Yeah dearborn right out . We did the Detroit Grand Prix in .
Downtown Detroit . Yeah , literally downtown , right off of Franklin . It was a street race , so like Defining .
It's cool man , I love that stuff . I already mentioned a bunch before about doing the Miami Grand Prix . Like 20 something years ago One of my chefs was with the Audi team and it's just really what a great experience when you hear the cars and you could . That's so amazing .
Yeah , we try to tape it and I know the phone does not do justice at all . It is what ? 120 decibels .
My watch kept on saying loud , environment Loud environment . I'm like , okay , you hear .
Yeah , when we were in Detroit I was in the trailer and he , manny and Robert the other prep cook that was with us . They had to wear earplugs . It was that loud . It was 110 degrees out there as well .
That's fun , I mean listen , we're here on Florida . It's 110 degrees at nighttime .
But the day I left was like 41 degrees .
I was like really this couldn't be this yesterday . So what kind of what's is it ? So what I learned today and I didn't know this , but apparently the drivers are , they're smaller framed individuals , right ?
The drivers are on a strict diet that's handled by nutritionists and performance coaches et cetera . So their meals come out of my kitchen as well , but they're totally separate from what everyone else gets and their each driver has specific requirements and those are given to us ahead of time . We're planned for and those don't .
Those are three meals , two , sometimes three times a day .
Yeah , but I think that's the , in my opinion . I found listening to this and I'm hearing well , what do you mean ? It's like they're like jockeys , you know they're smaller framed individuals and they have a strict regiment of food . They have to probably work out just to stay . Those cars it's gotta be taxing physically , right ? To drive like that Very physically .
So they have to be in great shape , they have to not eat the things they wanna eat and you still eat healthy and I don't know how they would do it .
Yeah , you would think you're just getting a car and you drive around in circles . Right , it's not . I mean there's . When you look at that car , when they had one of them literally right in the parking lot where we were , I'm like I couldn't get in there . You know , the guys that do top gear and whatever is on HBO .
Jeremy Clarkson gets into a car in Russia like they were doing this trip . It was the latest one . He got into the car . It was a formula one , like they would drive , like the Indy cars . He couldn't get out . They literally had to take the car apart . That would be me out , that would be me . But that's what we're talking about .
You look at the frame of what Jeremy Clarkson is to what these drivers are . They've got a certain height . They've got to be a certain build cause . There's no way . I mean Ryan Sheehan , who is on LinkedIn , who follows us . He's trying to get into formula one right now . He's got his own team , his father's and I follows you and I on social media .
What's up , brad ? There we go . Hey , so you said there was a funny story about garlic . Oh what was that ?
about . So this was . So . My first race with this was for the month what they call the month of May in Indianapolis , so leading up to the Indianapolis 500 .
So there's a couple of weeks of there's a GP race , a road course race that happens like the week before the Indy 500 , and there's practicing and testing , and so all the teams are basically based out of Indianapolis .
And in the week leading up to it there was one of the first driver meals I was making and they give us okay , we want double chicken with pasta and some vegetables . Of course the chefs were like all right flavor . We wanna add some flavor can't just be totally bland , and so we've for that day .
I think we did like broccolini or something or green beans , and made a little too garlic , a little too fresh garlic , and I heard from the nutritionists later on he was like hey , chef drivers love in the food . Can we just cut back on the fresh garlic ?
One of the drivers apparently during one of his practice sessions had a burp and ended up with garlic in his helmet for the rest of his practice session .
I felt so bad .
I was like oh my gosh . So listen what's wrong with that ? Because I'm a smart ass by nature , right ?
My immediate response would have been drive faster .
Drive faster . I did that on purpose .
I wanted him to win . I wanted him to get back quick .
But as a chef . So when I sat with that in my hotel room later that night , as a chef we don't think about those things and it's something I haven't had to think about . It's like okay , garlic is flavor , you want it to be flavorful , and I'm sure the driver appreciated the flavor at the time .
And for the rest of the round . And for the rest of the round .
But then it's like , okay , what is he there to do ? And he's there to focus on his car , get it dialed in for the race .
You know Me putting a little chef quote unquote twist to it or something kind of could have detracted from that , and so it was kind of an eye-opening moment for me the whole time when I was in Detroit I had to do the driver's meals .
I kept on saying extra garlic . But you literally you have to think like is it okay to use butter , is it okay to use salt , is it okay ? Because you have to ask the nutritionist for everything .
Yes , yeah , so the chef , the nutritionist works very closely with . Do you ever do ?
Just do you , as the chef , get to interact with the , with the team , with the drivers or anyone , or ?
sometimes they're around . They've , you know , I wave to him and they've waved back , but that's about it .
Okay , yeah , they're , they're all business .
And that's my client . That's , that's , that's cool . I mean , listen , you know , I don't know what other what's , what's like that ?
How many ?
undready is one of the bigger ones right , yeah , he's ready out of sports yeah he's pretty big .
What cars does everybody push him though ?
For Indy car it's . What do you mean ?
You're McLaren . So yeah , obviously team McLaren . Yeah , team McLaren .
Yeah , no , but with Indy car the rules are different , so all the teams they have to use a Dallara chassis and so there's one chassis manufacturer and each team chooses whether they're gonna go for their engine . They're gonna go with either Chevy or Honda .
Those are the two engine I Think yeah , there's only two ones for for this season , and then firestone for tires . So there's , there's all these rules . I know this is my first for a into motorsports . I'm actually getting into motorsports , like into the sport of it and understanding it , so I'm very , very novice on that fact .
But they have strict as far as the cars and stuff go . I guess they have strict guidelines and Rules that they have to follow on how to what they can use , how to set up the car , etc .
Yeah , I didn't even know this one of the runs that was going on in Detroit . It wasn't on Saturday . Somebody's family member was racing in the car . It was transam , but it wasn't all transams .
No , it was Michelin .
Pilot challenge was one of the cam the nephew was yeah , yeah . I have no idea dude those cars were , so they were louder than the trans am . Yeah , those really well holy , I mean 150 decibels . Hmm , couldn't even like when they were wisdom by was like you know .
I think that's like one of my systems from back in the day in the car .
Yeah , it was a couple of house . Yes , jail audio , jail audio . Yeah , little shot out of Jim and Luigi over there in Hollywood right In this last race I did Nashville they had these .
I don't know what they call them , but these trucks .
Oh , he showed me the video you should .
They were jumping at little ramps and coming around turns on three wheels . It was , it was nuts .
We get 15 feet of air .
I'll show you the video .
Like it was like monster truck meets like motor raceway .
That's the best way to describe that . There's a term form . I forget what it is .
You're knocking fucks .
Alright , so 200 people a day . The drivers are very particular about what they can eat . Do you get to ? Do you get to kind of like you know , pop the clutch , so to speak , for with what you're doing , and can you get creative ? I mean , would you ?
yeah . Not for the driver .
So , no , drivers are . Drivers are like nothing you could do with it .
So the way it's set up . The rest of it is the menu falls on me . It's , which is neat , it's a really cool thing . The menu falls on on me . Well , of course , approval by the team , so I'll give draft menus and they'll come back .
Usually it's two , two different menus menu for , for for the team and a menu for the VIP structure , for the VIP guests who are going to come enjoy the race , and they're very similar menus . I try to , you know , make them .
I try to cross , utilize as much as I can because again we're , we're showing up to a place where I don't really have established Relationship as relationships as far as like purveyors and vendors and where to get food . I mean a lot of these , like Detroit it was the first time I've ever been in Detroit . Then wrote America , plymouth , plymouth , wisconsin .
Never been in Wisconsin in my life before , let alone Plymouth , which is like two hours from the nearest airport .
So Logistically as a nightmare .
Yes , sourcing all of the stuff right in the menus , sourcing all the ingredients coming up into and not going into a Brick and mortar . It's you know , we're building a tent kitchen to cook out of Literally a lot kitchen .
It's not 10 , but you're almost . You guys are almost . When you're doing this , it's almost as if it's like a yacht chef . You know a little different , similar , you know you just all your provisions are you know you've got to get creative .
You know what this taught me ? We could probably go on any of those shows like chopped or Next TV food network , whatever , because the stuff we did you literally walk in . There's nothing . You , the guys , the team sets up the kitchen and you walk in .
You have to pull out all your stuff , you have to get everything cleaned out and then you get a 200 case order .
Yeah , you got one chance at it . You get one order because it's only a three-day , four-day event .
Most you're relying on broad liners for this mostly one or you know the national broad liners definitely have to . But that here's the thing he's not even touched on . It's the logistics and timing , because you got to feed breakfast to both VIP and the team and the drivers .
So usually what's the breakfast for the team was like five in the morning , six o'clock in the morning , Usually five , six in , yeah , and then nine o'clock was VIP breakfast and then part . There's only three of us , so there's one of us that's jumping on to the lunch , which is lunch is served for the team at like 11 o'clock .
It has to be gone by 11 o'clock and then the VIPs are like 12 . That's , that was 11 , 30 .
Yeah , well , yes , I'm like that .
So you're . There's no time like I remember the Saturday we worked together . We didn't eat until we went to dinner at Santa or the sushi restaurant .
Yeah , we didn't need to like , we had a 15 hour .
No we couldn't know what there was no , even there was no time to even pick , like sometimes you can pick and get something to go . There was none .
Well , I mean , I can appreciate that there was a million years ago when I was down in Miami and you know a selling produce I had I forgot the name of the job , but it was . It was a large job and you know they'd call . Hey , let's call super important . We're gonna be docked for I don't know what if 35 minutes it was like some stupid number .
You have to be there . The product has to be there . We're picking it up and we're getting the hell out of there . It has to be there . No shorts , no , miss pigs , no , nothing has to be perfect .
You know how hard it is to get those perfect , yeah .
What sure do and but , but it was situations . I remember one time we missed the . We missed the window at the where they were docked . We had to get creative there's .
It was somewhere in off in brickel , somewhere , I forget where you had to go meet him that summer , literally just off the like , the side of the like , I Pulled up in a place that I shouldn't have been parking , I popped the trunk and I'm handing them over like 10 or 15 cases , like Right over the side of the wall to the book , to the , to the ship yeah
, it was crazy , but we just what this is the life that we've chosen . Yeah crazy life .
So for me , for this it's been you know , I you know , working in a hotel or resort , you know it's awesome , but for me it's been . This has been a new challenge .
It's another element of the challenge of , okay , I gotta , you know , I gotta get all the stuff there and then in the back of my mind , before I even get on site , what I gotta play , worst case scenarios , what if my stuff doesn't show up ? What am I going to do then ? How am I going to salvage this ?
Or the kitchen doesn't get built out in time . What are we going to do ? I actually bought an immersion sorry , a sous vide machine out to Detroit because we were trying to figure out worst case scenario with the combi oven to make this . One wants to do eggs Benedict for 97 .
See , that was again a challenge and I'm pulling it off ever since then . We're pulling it off .
Yeah , and that's the thing . Like you , you , you look at things but you know what ? Good for you . Yeah , let me tell you something .
They they were make the freaking eggs Benedict . They were spot on 63 degree Benedict Celsius .
Yeah .
Just want to clarify those people that there's another form of temperature out there . Fahrenheit and Celsius Wow .
All right .
So yeah that is the perfect egg . By the way , the , the , the just starting to set for the for for these races .
I have to say I am for for that . The 63 degree Benedict that I've been doing at these races . I'm really proud of that .
I'm just I pat myself on the shoulder because it's like I just Sure , can we get it ? I wish John was here . I want to make a shirt . You know that has something to do with like 63 degree .
Yeah , that could be the name . Of this is a segment . You want your segment .
So let me stop for a second All right Folks here , it comes . Folks listening to the audience , the wonderful people who support what we're doing here .
Yeah , we have a couple of shout outs we need to do after you get done with this . You're getting way way ahead . Go for it . Go for it .
Go for it . You know , tell you what , you little meister . Stop it , silence , all right . So first of all , we're trying to up the game here . We're trying to bring more entertainment , more , more value , more food , foodie , food , delicious . You know content right , you just say foodie , foodie , buttootie delicious food .
That would have been better .
But you bet you , meanwhile I was on the phone with with pooch the other day and he's like , he's like man I you called me out in like three episodes and I'm like , yeah , brother this is what we do .
Where are the cheeses ?
Oh yeah , the cheese cheese . So I have what I did , because my kids like ran through that like a train . I do have some put aside .
Well , you told me that . You said you were bringing today .
I brought you the dog gate instead . I forgot .
Where's the priorities ? Right ? Yeah , we do offer me dog in my car .
Anyways , I have for you the cheese , okay .
Sorry , sorry , pooch . It's going to be a little more time before I start playing with those .
It's all right , poochie pooh , look , we're going to make it happen , all right . So what I'm getting at here is we're trying to level up here on what we're doing content wise and and you know , just entertainment value . So what we proposed is having diff , having different shifts , man down , having different chefs .
You know , around around the country in certain particular regions northeast , southwest , whatever Midwest and kind of be the the chef on the street , talk about what's trending in the areas , what's going on . You know , if there's some bad ass new restaurant or hotel or some kind of thing going on , let's talk about it . You know , let's get it out there .
So listen , we're talking team McLaren , we're talking indie cars . We're talking like , hey , I'm going all over the damn country Anyhow , chef Manny , he's the man , might be the man .
I'm just saying so that's going to be his segment .
But if you do that , you have to get the sound of the vehicle , that's all .
Oh , that's , yeah , we can . We can make that happen . You got that , I have that too .
I have it on my , but it's not listen the sound does not .
maybe that could be part of his like uh , intro music or something . Yeah , yeah .
You know something like that , I don't know . It has to go with that music .
No , we don't have to stop it the best sound on the racetrack , honestly , is when , after they give the command of driver , start your engines and all 24 cars start up at the same time .
Oh man , I bet you that is cool that is the sound . Yeah , you , just you won me . That's it . I didn't hear it . We were too far away in Detroit . Only thing better for me , you know , when you say Detroit , you should just be like mom's spaghetti every time , Just mom's spaghetti , mom's spaghetti we all know each other .
We signed a big mile where we're on . I think we were on that side . I ate my yeah , definitely .
It doesn't even matter , it just you know , anyhow , uh , what ?
the only thing to make what he just said better about the , you know , 24 engine starting ones is if I was just chomping on a handful of crispy bacon .
I know it's over there , well , no , but he's not come out , he ate it .
I'm sure that that's sort of a big he's . He's eating it . Yeah , it's it's eight and eight and he had done eight . And I am ? I am so angry right now because I save space for it specifically , just like this much . I mean I get a lot of space .
I'm cool .
I'm cool , go yeah .
So what are you thinking about that ?
I love it .
I love it . Cause again . Um , so it's not so . Each of the teams has a similar setup and it's been really cool being part of the , the paddock of this , and meeting the , the chefs and the , the , the folks from the other teams , and it's you know , I guess , is there any sort of a rivalry or ?
No , there's not , not with the chefs , it's we've , we've all gone , maybe not with the chefs , no seriously .
It's no , there's a brotherhood . When you're slaving like you're doing out there and you're slinging .
of course there's camaraderie , there's definitely no , we don't care about that . I've like you guys are no fun Like 0.0% . No , the chefs for this talk about a bland soup Going on right now .
We have a lot of love in that we have cardamom clothes like ground up .
Okay , I mean there's already been borrowing of cups of sugar and flour , and I mean bartering .
I'm not saying to , to , you know to , to , to get in somebody's way and and ruin their shift .
You know what I mean . We're not even , I can tell you , in Detroit , we're , we're , we're , mama Spaghetti , we're , we weren't even next to anybody .
In Detroit , we weren't All the other races I've been fortunate to have . So I got to get you to another one because so you can see , see what's been built there .
When you go , I'm going to give you the . I'm going to let you use the Zoom recorder .
Oh , that would be . I was thinking about that when you said him . That would be perfect , because I think that would actually get the sound quality it does man , it's amazing .
Zoom recorder , badass piece of equipment , all right .
Yeah .
Yeah , yeah , it catches every everything , yeah . That'll do it for sure .
For sure Probably catches a cricket fart .
I had to why , why that ?
it's me the show . We were just on the rise , do we ? Do we always have to go through this ? You bring it up , I bring it down . It's called the ying and yang . Speaking of ying and yang .
I wanted my nieces and nephews to hear this . They can hear that .
I said fart , they can . Your nephew would love that . How old are they ?
Oh gosh don't , don't put me on the spot .
I mean they probably just read everybody poops , so it's fine .
I mean , no , they range from three to .
Yeah , just fits into this actually . So that's Jeff's audience .
Yeah . That's his demographic right there , usually the dinosaur little chicken nuggets . They think yeah , well , that's your , that's about your elevation in terms of Sheffield right now .
I'm kidding .
Oh my god .
Maybe we should do that , yeah , right .
No , I don't want to cover kids , bro , I have my own . She doesn't need anything like it's a have to be craft macaroni and cheese , which is just drives me , that's so .
Matt , there's so many bad things in there , I know , but what am I gonna do ? My wife made macaroni and cheese but like some , like good ones , you know , like I forget what she used , but there was like four different , like really good Jesus and my daughter had the odd Dacity , and I say it like that because it was . It's that intense To be like .
I want the other one , I want the orange one .
you know because of the .
I'm like you're not my child , I need a DNA test . I should do that anyway . Probably right , she doesn't listen to the show , so I can see whatever I want . There you go .
Yeah , neither does my family . So it's okay , except except for chef Paul , or sorry , uncle Paulie . Uncle Paulie , you know , uncle Paulie before we get to Paulie .
You mean yin and yang , yin and yang . Talk to me . Well yeah , before we get what was the .
What were . Those are good readings . Yeah so in the meatloaf itself was a pureed roasted carrot , yellow and orange , and all it was was ooze , salt , pepper , chipotle and Honey . I Wanted to do like a riff on that spicy . What is that , mom Mike's honey , spicy honey , hot honey , yeah , honey , thank you . And I didn't . I was like how can I do ?
And I just thought , ooh , chipotle , and I just threw that in there and kind of did that .
But he came up with a great idea , because you got the yellow and then you had the orange .
Yeah . So he came up to my plate just like , squirted it too little dollops , dallops was like , oh , more big , more baby food .
I didn't know what Walk away .
Right , I taste them like that's demographic .
I'm telling you .
No , but classically though you know this car , classically , just a really good puree that's been passed through a sieve is nothing that . You know the the art and the care that goes into making that , it's just one of the best things in culinary . But so he puts these purées and they taste it . You know , one's yellow , once bright orange .
I'm like first I thought the yellow ones butter or not . And he's like no , it's carrot and it was bright lemon . It's like what all do you put in it ? He's like just , just , yeah , just the yellow carrot and something else . And like the citrus in there , he's like , yeah , you zoo .
And then I tasted the orange one Was more roasted and all of a sudden I was like wait , I'd never thought about separating them out like that and and Then just making them contrasting .
So I was like wait , the orange one , let's go darker , let's get some molasses in there , some warm spices , cinnamon , clove , nutmeg , ginger , and then let's take that yellow one . Brighten it up even more with more citrus , some green spices , some green heat . You know maybe some , you know , hatch chilies would have been nice to you at least .
Yeah , yeah , that one really nice plate together .
Oh my gosh , dark light Contrast heat sweet .
Yeah , I . So that what , what I'm watching here is , I think , what many in the audience Look for when they're looking for recipes , or they , they where they want to follow a chef . You guys were exuding creativity . You were like I'm watching you and your little gear , the gears in the head , oh yeah , we're moving .
But then , you see , that's where the passion is like . You see , that's where the passion comes out . And In that , in that volley of oh , try this , or try that , maybe this is good , or hatch this or what , yeah , no , that's , that's super cool .
Well , and then again , you look at those people that you have the support around you . Right , you want to surround yourself with great people , people that are really pushing themselves .
Many has done that since the first time we met , when we worked with the block broadliner and we were talking about people today like Peter felt in Dennis Johnson , joe Vaughan and all those guys too . We had a great group of people when we worked together where we could bounce ideas off our letter .
Who helped him out West consen , and now Ed Butler and Nashville . These are great people that just were so talented . It's so overlooked . Jackie Shelby was another one that can think of Ralph , then QB , chris , qb . All these guys and gals just ours . They exude the passion and we we talk about it on another podcast .
That passion translates into to crave ability .
Craveability means people want it , they crave that I just want to tie some stuff together real quick . Okay , go for it . All right , we're talking pure as a minute ago .
Yeah , baby food , mm-hmm as you put it , yeah we're talking pure as well .
Actually , yeah , that was , that was me . Um , so here's the passion right you you had . You came up with some celery root puree Few pot a month a month ago or so , yeah , last week was it ? No , no , no , this was oh the original time I did it . Yes , okay , yes , back . So listen , uh , manny , he and audience .
So Jeff says it look , I got this , the tube of the of this stuff I'm gonna , I'm not gonna , bring it home . I said I'll take it . Oh , yeah , I know . So I ended up I didn't have anything to use it with right and I'm by myself . At the time , my , my , my family was out of town .
I'm living the bachelor life at the house and I'm like shit , that's gonna go , that's gonna go back . I was like that's gonna go bad .
So I just proceeded to like Right from the right from the piping bag , right right from the pastry bag . Yep .
And I'm a gluttonous fat , but I'm passionate about it , man , I like embrace it .
Well , what does it tell me about what you posted recently on on social media and somebody responded push the happiest .
Oh , I can't like 25 pounds . The happiest 20 something pounds .
I've ever had in my life you know , I'm miserable every day when I get dressed .
every Closing at me he calls me and you know I was trying to get dressed today . I'm starting to sweat .
Yeah , I just just a bling to pull up my pants . I'm sweating . How does this happen to me ? How did I don't know how this works ? Food coma yeah , that's eternal coma food .
That's what food does and that's what we . That's why we stay in it , you know .
There's a doctor on the payroll .
Well , this , this hard nutritionist .
Yeah , this whole gig that I've been doing , this racing circus , circus , like you know , it's tough . It's tough the heat , the , the stress of , you know , putting it on In a very uncontrolled environment , but there's been so many nuggets of joy that come out of it for me as a chef .
Like the time we went into the sushi bar .
That's a different type of nugget , but no , like just , we can't pass over there .
You got it like somebody's gonna hear that and go , you're not gonna skip that it was John .
John Manny and I walk into a sushi restaurant . It's the background of who we are . So we had a Mexican of Pakistani and a Jewish guy walk into a sushi restaurant . Can't make that stuff up . There's a joke . Yeah , and uni . We went back the next day and the guy was We'll have any , we'll have any . The next day we're gonna come back .
We literally walked in just to get uni for like dessert . The guys like he's a comeback tomorrow and we did and he goes oh , you caught me .
So , john , one of the guys is with us , so you , john , john yeah , and you know , jeff and I knew that the , the , the sushi chef , was , you know , joking with us when he said , come back tomorrow I'll have a uni . But John didn't catch on to it , so we went back anyway .
Yeah , john was all about . I need to get my Uni for dessert .
He was joking , he was yeah , yeah , john .
And Jeff's the kind of guy to let it just ride out .
Oh yeah but , it was , but it was a little bit .
Oh it , literally the entire restaurant . We walked in the door I went . I said I say we're back and the whole restaurant stopped and looked and he just screams from the . He's all the way in the back . I got you because I got , oh , you got me . We don't have any uni and we turn around and walked out .
That's very that's a letdown . I mean , I feel let down right now and just hear the story . What , what do we do in the industry ?
Yeah , but what do we provide service ? Yeah , our service was to have that uni waiting for us , because we were told , sure , so we expected it .
I expected it because I love uni Well we were in Dearborn , michigan , there wasn't water to be found and I don't know how far .
But they found sushi didn't they ?
I wasn't expecting uni .
Expectations need to be lowered . Well , which kind of reminds me of something here . I was on the Facebook , right ? I have no idea where he's going with this . You'll find out . Okay , just stick with me here . So I was on Facebook and I'm on a group . What's the guy's name ? Favaro , john Favaro .
That does the Star Wars . Yeah , might I say it right , favaro Yep .
All right , so there's a group with his name . He has nothing to do with it , but it's all food service people and they're all nuts . Oh , from the chef movie , yeah Right , but all these people on this particular , they're all nuts . It's the true version of the restaurant industry . The people in it . It's like they're lunatics . It's a fun group .
Anyway , somebody put something on there about gratuities . Right , we talked about that .
Yeah .
You know , in terms of expectations and things like that . You know pushing the narrative of oh , you know , servers should be get a minimum wage and I'm like , why do we want our dishes to be ? You know , instead of 25 bucks , they want it to be 45 bucks . Like , why do you want to do that with them ? That's what's going to happen .
Where are you going to get robo ? I went , we went to the food show . Remember the robots there ?
Yes .
Yeah , the people don't think about that .
Well , look at .
McDonald's . You know what . You make so much more money with the tips anyway .
Well , look at McDonald's they . When the workers went on strike , what'd they do ? They pulled all the register out . Now you have to do it yourself .
And you know that it's been just waiting . They've been waiting to just roll that .
That was the perfect time to pull that trigger . Yeah , and there you go , saving some money . So you mean , look at it , laborers , what the shortage is .
Yeah , expectations , man . People need to get their expectations in line . Work hard and just do what you got to do .
Thank God , the people over here listening to this podcast have the lowest expectations . That's good entertainment .
But we love you , Thank you . Thank you for following us . Do you know ? I'm going to put it out there 46 weeks we have been in the top 100 on the Apple podcast charts in the food category . So we've been ranking in the food category top 100 for 46 weeks , or we're nine months , or 285 days We've been ranking on anything yeah so cool .
We have a buddy of ours who has a podcast that had a million downloads Patrick Kelly .
Yeah , how long it took him the produce industry podcast and he does a phenomenal job Logistics and produce , all produce .
It's everything . And you would think , wow . And let me tell you something , he's got some following . Yeah , he's entertaining too . He hit a million .
Yeah Well , he's . His character is phenomenal , but he hit a million downloads . How long it took him . What maybe three years .
And how many were you up to now ?
Last week we hit half a million , we hit 500,000 . Last , about a week ago .
That's awesome .
It just boggles my mind . Yeah , we put out the last podcast In fact so funny two days ago . Brian Kilman a little shout out for him . Sent me a text . He's like hey , what's the next topic on the podcast ? We don't know yet .
Yeah , we found out about an hour ago , before we started . No , that's not true . We put a little thought into this , a little bit . You see , there's so many schools of thought , man . You actually , I think , asked me something earlier relative to this but at the end of the day , you know , we do a little bit of prep . We have a show flow .
There's an ebb and flow to what we're doing here . We have our topics but we don't script and there's different schools of thought and the truth is most podcasters are gonna say , well , no , you got to be more rigid and rigid and organized and you got to standard operating procedures . Yeah , no , I don't think so .
I mean , I feel like you know , have a framework and keep it loose and enjoy the moments , enjoy the time and if something funny can come up , and , yeah , you hit a side vein and you get into something different , but you got to make sure to bring it all back . To bring it back .
If you don't , I think that's where you , that's where you let your audience down .
Okay , you know what I mean .
Yeah , yeah .
Yeah , but I think what we're doing , you know , coming up with ideas , what we're focused on , especially with now , the new , the new website which we haven't talked about , the walk and talkcom . It's a refresh , we refreshed it . It's gorgeous . Yeah , it really is . I mean , I'm not because I'm on it .
It's just because I'm talking about the other peeps ?
Somebody's got a blog .
I will be having a blog , so we'll talk about it . You got one silly little article . What the hell is this ? You should ? I was thinking by . You know , john's . I came in , we're up and running . I'm like , oh sweet , I go and look , this is like one article . What is this I got ?
more common . God , you know what ? I go to sit down and I get writer's block . I'm not kidding you . I'm like I got to do this . I've got a moment . I'm just open up the computer . Turn Damn it . The refrigerator's calling me .
I can appreciate that . That calls me always . It's always calling me . I hear it .
I hear it when .
I'm not not on Thursdays .
Oh , Thursdays .
My wife asked just goes , Are you eating dinner here tomorrow ?
I'm like dude I probably know , thursday .
No , I mean , I have a sickness , maybe I am , I don't know , but no , probably not .
Yeah , I get out of the car . I told you when I got out of the car it was hey , how you doing . I'm kind of famished .
I can see that .
You know why I haven't eaten .
I stopped eating at seven o'clock on Wednesday .
I'm trying to save trying to save some room .
You know , and yeah , and I fill it up quick . It's a quick , quick fill , but no , you did a great job . I'm only kidding about the , about the articles . I know that you're working on some stuff now , but it's exciting . You know obviously the walk in talkcom . Manny , when you hear walk and talk , do you immediately go walk in .
Cooler , Everything happens in the walk in right .
Yeah , absolutely .
Okay , industry people get it . Non-industry people are like walk and talk . Is this like a gangster movie , like , hey , we're going to go do a walk and no , it's not , that it's , it's , you know . This is like the walk .
I tried to explain to my family when I was leaving this morning , like what I was going to do and they still didn't comprehend . Like walking , what , what ?
are you going to do Like you're going to walk around the block and talk in the microphone ? No , that's not what this is .
And one of them was like you mean walk like okay , oh my God , I never heard of that one , that's , that's another one .
walk and talk .
That would be a whole another that's somebody else's segment . Yeah , we have to get some PF Chang's people in so they can do that .
All right , but that can get way out of hand so fast . Stop it , stop it . But the walk in . Cooler in my estimation , in my opinion , is the heartbeat of the eatery , right and and in that heart you have everything happening .
The reprimanding that goes on when there's a wayward employee , staff member , that they get dragged into the cooler and , you know , reprimand . It's like it's basically a quiet place .
Sometimes it's insulated . No , not some of them aren't . I know from personal experience . I was yelling at a cook and I got out and the whole restaurant was like . I was like , oh , I was a little loud . They're usually insulated . Yeah , I was pissed , there was Wow really pissed .
Someone dropped a ball there , oh , but you know , good things happen in there too . Promotions , like you know . You can share stories . That's a place where you either go , yell , cry , whip it , you get away . I'm trying to bring this to like the .
Listen . No , what is ? What's our tag goes ?
on in the walk into .
We're not . We're not going there . This is a wholesome show . No , this is also talking about the 17 . But we're also talking about the the stuff that happens in the restaurant industry . You're looking at the mayhem . That's part of the mayhem .
It is , but it's rare . That's it's , it's a rare , it's a rare thing . We don't that's , we don't . We don't talk about Bruno over here . Okay , my gosh , we elevate the food and the industry .
You just said Divo , divo , bruno , whip it , whip it good .
Oh , that was pretty good . Yeah , your little triple entendre going on . Yeah , thank you . Nice Spaghetti , I love it .
Stories of walk in , you know that's exactly . Yeah , there's so many stories and so many , like you said , so many good things have happened , bad things have happened , been on the giving end , receiving end .
It's Normally for me , it was where I can cool off from the shift and you cool off ? Yeah , that was the biggest thing for me . I mean , let's just get away .
Before the advent of like these under armor shorts , you know , like the cornstarch , there was always the box of cornstarch . It was always a good . Yeah , it was a well , that was always cornstarch everywhere , but you would go in that cooler to like , just like get some air , like it was swamp , but it was a real thing .
It still is a real thing . But my God , back in , yeah , yeah .
No , it's okay . It's still a physiological thing that happens , right . I mean just part of your . But now you have clothing you can put on , you don't even notice that anymore . You don't have to worry about the cornstarch 120 degrees on a pavement , yeah . No , it's funny Correlation .
My brother-in-law he used to play for he played football at UM back in the early 90s , mid 90s . He was an offensive lineman and somehow another cornstarch came up in conversation at the house and my mother-in-law she's , you know Cuban , speaks good enough English , but she's like I used to give my Carlos .
I used to give him a cornstarch because he was , you know from when he was playing football . We use , we do think , cuba all the time . I was like no kidding , did you know that ? Like that's a restaurant thing ? I've been using cornstarch for you know a million years . She's like no , she didn't believe me , she thought I was kidding .
I was like no , there's the code on the line . It's like slurry up . That was the code , slurry up yeah .
That's the thought of it , though it's like no come on , you , just you just see that one guy walking .
You're like dude , slurry up now . Hey , listen , I was most of my tenure was friend of the house and and I was what hundreds ? Back then I was maybe 160 , 170 pounds and I would chase like unbelievable . It was unbelievable , it was terrible . Oh yeah , and somebody introduced that one of the one of the line guys , one of the cooks .
He's like what's your problem ? Why are you walking like that ? Because I was unhappy , like it was , it was bad , and I was just like , well , this is what's going on . He goes , man , you should have told me this sooner . Like dude , I'm going to tell anybody this at all .
This is private . It sucks . This is terrible . What are you talking about ? Not in the kitchen ?
He hands me this box of the thing and I'm like what do you want me to do with this ?
And it was marked .
Kitchen . Only he hands me the box . He says I said what do you want me to do with this ? He says go to a bathroom , powder up , baby Powder up . I'm like , what do you mean ? Like what my like to ? Just he goes , he goes . Yeah , I'm like , am I allowed to do that ? I'm like , watch your effing hand , you dummy .
Like I was a kid . You know , do I know ? I don't know .
But yeah , man , that was a lifesaver .
Yeah , I mean there's little hacks that we do in the kitchen that people don't realize . I mean we are truly MacGyver's it has to be . I mean you think about what we did and what we went through in Detroit . That was nuts , absolutely nuts . Like the kitchen wasn't ready , we had to feed by Friday .
We had no kitchen , none , so we had to go out and just do what we needed to do and get things done . I mean we were five o'clock in the afternoon going to Michigan State . Where was Wolverines ? Where would we go up there , ann ?
Arbor , ann Arbor .
Ann Arbor oh drive .
Well , an hour after we served did everything we needed to do , we had to go still buy more . We spent like a thousand dollars in Costco . That's nothing , oh . I spent a thousand dollars in .
Costco Dude it was we filled up .
We could have filled up to two flat beds , literally two flat beds , we could have filled up . It was that bad of food Interesting .
Yeah .
There was some shorts from the purveyor that we had to recover on our own , and then there was some last minute added Shark kudri or a shark kudri .
Stuff like that . So that really added up . We remember we went to that one hoity-toydy spot , that- . That was really cool , but we went for it not for what we needed 20 something dollars a pound for cheese . Oh , we would have spent like 5,000 there and we had about 100 people to feed cheese for 20 dollars a pound .
Okay .
Not happening . Okay , okay , so we had to shift gears . It's all about what you can do . Most people don't realize the kitchen dictates the menu . Menu doesn't dictate the kitchen . So that's the biggest thing .
I agree , I concur , I think we all concur Concur . So , chef Manny , yes , sir , are you in , or what ?
Always .
All right , so we're gonna have to go we're gonna have to go over some baseline here .
Right , where are you gonna be going next ? Yeah , where are you going ? What's the next race ?
Laguna Seca , Monterey , California .
Not too far from your house . That sounds so pretty .
About an hour and a half .
That sounds nice , so- .
I'm doing a real regional , local menu for that race . How are you with taking ?
pictures and stuff .
Good yeah , All right , yeah enough . Who said that I'm scared ?
All right . So what I'm thinking is this Phones nowadays they're pretty good . You're gonna be in a lot of greats , right , I'm gonna look at it . No , the stuff , he- . Did you see that stuff ? Oh my gosh dude .
Amazing the Attention to details . No for me , just the toys that he has set up , like all the plates and silverware . That's where I'm like . It's just like three metro shelves full of different plates . Silverware Doubles .
Each plate there's a double .
Cups , you know little cups with red juice in them .
Ramekins , all sorts of stuff .
That was cool for me Different forks in different areas .
In this case it'll be Ramakai .
Ramakai . There's a bunch of Ramakai .
But he just we walk in there , you just don't even realize it . And then on top of that , his intention to detail .
Yeah .
It's a little much . I always tell him like dude , like come on , what are you doing ? Dude , we've been shooting to what ? 10 o'clock . A lot of work goes into this , you see , like Thank God . So I asked Jeff . I said so when's Mandy coming ?
What time I ?
said noon , because why so ?
early what . The poor guy's going to be sitting here . What are you doing ? You know anyhow . You got to kind of see what goes on behind the scenes here In the green room , in the green room . Yeah green area , the whole area .
The idea is , though , that and I'm kind of glad you did , because if we do something now , you kind of see what we're all about , and the average person probably wouldn't think that you know we started at 9 30 this morning , and he's still shooting it . He's forced .
He probably ate it .
He probably ate my freaking sandwich , but he probably just finished up about within the last 15 minutes and that's a long day of shooting and he still has some post-production to do too . He has to go . Yeah , no , like we don't do much anyway . Post-production on the podcast in how ?
we are set up , Because you know I wouldn't do this If I had to do post-production . Forget it , no way , it's impossible . No , it's too much . It's too much . So what I'm going to do with you , Manning , we're going to talk about equipment .
We're going to talk about because , if you're going to be traveling , think of the cool photography that we can get Imagery , I should say we can get . That would correspond with whatever it is that you are going to come up with . See , the idea with this is to give a creative outlet to people who are creatives .
So you're a chef , you're creative to begin with , and now you'll have an outlet to talk about , a platform to talk about what you're doing , what you're seeing , why you're doing some of the things you're doing , and I think the audience would appreciate it , Because that's like some food groupie sort of insight that they would be getting from you .
Yeah , I'm down . I think it sounds amazing .
And I think for the average listener too . It's not just about country clubs , it's not just about hotels and it's not just about restaurants . It's about guys like Manning who are working for a racing team , people like Chef Ryan Manning , who just got hired , is the Tampa Bay chef for the Buccaneers . So congratulations to Ryan .
Yeah , that's so cool , we got to have him on . Yeah . And then Jesse sorry , jackie Pessinger , who's worked for the ACF , just got invited to go to the Beard Camp James Beard Camp . So there's a lot going on .
People don't mean the James Beard Camp . That's a big deal , yeah huge .
Ryan had already gone to it and now Jackie was been invited . So it's just a stellar . We got to get them on , yeah .
I mean I'd love to , yeah , and we got to get with the foundation to begin with .
We got to get with these hands ? I think I know somebody .
Well , yeah , we got to like . You know , I've been breaking your chops now for a little bit .
Yeah , well , she was on vacation until this time .
Listen , everybody needs some time off . Ok , but now we're back , let's get back to bed , let's get focused .
Yeah , I'll talk to her , OK , all right ?
Well it's that time , yeah , so what's your social handle ? How do people follow you Instagram ?
chefmanning .
OK , excellent .
You can't . There's no missing him , because that's a picture of him right there . So , if you want to see what he looks like , chef Manning .
Chefmanning , Chefmanning . Ok , we're going to do it . The walkintalkcom Check out the new site . It's pretty cool . We have our culinary partner chefs with their content and all such good stuff in there . The podcast you can find it there . Interviews All of our YouTube , our videos , everything . Check us out , listen people .
We appreciate you a lot and let's keep this party rolling . Stay tuned , say something . You see something , say something , put a rating , whatever . Anyway , we are running on the clock here . Thank you , kindly all . Thanks , manning , thank you for having me .
This is absolutely amazing . Thanks for coming bro , schlissel we are out .
Ok , nice to see you again . My name is Paul . I just went down in the kitchen behind you . No-transcript .