Pooch Rivera: A Culinary Connoisseur in the Heart of New Orleans
Episode description
Join us as we serve up a flavorful feast for your ears! This episode is a culinary celebration, as we navigate the rich tapestry of New Orleans' food culture and its captivating history. Our special guest, Pooch Rivera, a renowned figure in the restaurant business, shares his fascinating journey from his father's influence and early passion for cooking to his current success. With him, we taste a marvelous dish concocted by our very own Chef Jonathan Rodriguez, Chef Jeffrey, Veronica, Richard, and John, featuring black garlic sake, miso glazed Creekstone Farms coulotte . This dish, along with many others, takes center stage in our expanding podcast lineup and new subscription-based recipe offering.
But the banquet doesn't stop there. We continue to tantalize your palate as barbecue legend Moe Cason ushers us into the world of Louisiana cuisine. Here, we dig into the distinction between Creole and Cajun food, the significance of the beloved gumbo, and the story behind New Orleans' brunch culture. To keep things sizzling, Will Avalar, chef of Meril and Maui Tortillas, gives us a peek into the vibrant world of Latin American cuisine thriving in New Orleans. All the while, the ever-engaging Pooch Rivera se
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Transcript
Hello , food Fam . This is the Walk and Talk podcast , your favorite food podcast , and I'm your host , carl Fiedin . We're podcasting onsite at Ibis Images Studios , where food photography comes alive . We have something so ultra beautiful and tasty on the menu today .
It's a black garlic sake , miso glazed Creek , stone Farm Kulat oh my god , it was so freaking amazing . Jeff's gonna jump into that . There was , like you know , sweet potato puree with the ginger and the scallion relish and some , you know , general chow like oh my god .
Anyway , peninsula Food Service , as always , we thank you for supplying the proteins for today's production .
All right , our guest today is it's a name you've been hearing about lately on the program Walk and Talk Media is expanding our podcast lineup to include the one , the only , pooch Rivera , with a podcast capturing the historical take on New Orleans culinary history . All right , so more on that later . All right , look , we had this , we had the party people .
All right , we did it the other day , monday , this literally just the other Monday . We just did it . It was a banger . I just went right out of the gate . I could not . This whole thing would never have happened without Chef Jonathan Rodriguez , willie , chef Jeffrey , veronica , richard and Silent John .
All right , schlissel , chefry , jump into pre-shift and explain today's dishes to the audience , would you please ? Definitely .
So Kool-Aid is one of those that comes with different names . Most people don't realize what it is , where it comes from . It's the top of the sirloin , like the flap of it , basically , and it's also known as the pecanha in Brazilian cooking . We did a beautiful 10 , eight to 10 ounce cut and I wanted to do something that showcased some Asian ask .
And I wanted to do something because we're literally a couple days away from Halloween . So John came up with the thing . He's like hey , do you think we can do anything close to Halloween ? It kind of looks at stuff and I thought you know , beautiful purple stokes , sweet potato , and I want to do something different with the Asian stuff .
So I wanted to go with the black garlic and then I did the miso rub . That on it was . It came out better than I expected , like the general chow's , which is when I used to work with PTF Chang's . We kind of used their recipe , tweaked it just a little bit . We did . There's four ingredients . It's just vinegar , sugar , garlic , symbol , chili paste .
I think what we're going to do is we're going to take that dish and we're going to put that out there for the recipe . And we were all talking people in the audience , all right , we were at food van , we were talking about how , you know , we can add more value , and I think we found a way .
We're going to start doing like one giveaway recipe , maybe two recipes a month , and then for all the other recipes we're going to do some sort of a subscription based thing and we'll get more into that as we kind of put that together . But I'm super kind of really excited about that , yeah .
So my it just it showcases , listen we . We were just one of the things we were talking about . Food's not difficult to cook , it's not difficult to plate , it's just using what your knowledge is and gaining the knowledge of how to put the textures and colors together . And I'm actually really expanded that because of John .
Yeah Well . I mean this whole thing is a learning experience for all of us . You know , obviously prior to a year ago , john , didn't ? You know we weren't doing this ? You had a podcast previously , you know . But other than that , like podcasting wasn't a thing we were , we were doing , we were all doing something in the creatives .
Obviously , you know Jeff , your chef , john , is a photographer . You know I was doing the videos . I mean , you know I'm in the food world too . Long story short , here we are and things are moving along really well , man . By the way , I got the bread .
We all got bread .
We all got the bread . Thank you , thank you , yeah .
Yeah , that was . We actually showcased that in a chicken salad Fiona .
Fiona , you heard that right , you heard that I got the bread .
I'm just saying , now we need cookies . You know , can you hook that up ? Yeah , what's up ?
I mean , it's your turn .
Today's food shoot was actually really special because one one of the dishes was my mom's shepherd's pie and I wanted to showcase that and I want to kind of elevate that too , in which I think we did , and John captured it just stunningly , especially with the stoke dehydrated potatoes . But , more importantly , the one part of that that we shot was my grandfather .
When I was three years old and I remember sitting on this high top . It's back in the day they didn't have any strap-ins , when you had a child's carry like a chair , like the booster , so it was like you open it up and a kid just sat there no , no arms , I mean , you could just literally just lean forward right on the table .
And I found out later on that every single kid in my grandparents from my grandparents so my aunt , my mom , my two cousins , my sister and I sat in that chair and it's now been . I went to my me , then it went to my cousin , so this , this chair , has been . That's almost a hundred years old .
Who has it now ?
My cousin , ironically enough , named Jillian . She's the OG . The original named Jillian for my grandfather who passed away in 88 . But I just remember being three years old and here he is .
This guy was a military police officer during World War II , dropped out of elementary school because of the Great Depression , so he never went to high school , never went to college , was so educated . And here he is making chicken parm for me as a kid , and I'll say how old I was . That it was . I was so old . Now I'm so old .
There used to be a mill called Acidophilus .
Oh yeah wow .
So my grandparents used to get Publix cream soda and put the milk in it . To me was like a cream , like creamsicle , so I'd sit there and eat pasta , visual and chicken parm and a hush puppy . So I wanted to showcase my grandfather's recipe and that's what I did today .
That's really awesome , yeah , and everything you made today was really fantastic .
So , yeah , it was . It was for me , him taking the picture , john taking the pictures I don't know if John taking the pictures , which is amazing .
I do remember , though , the you know , putting the Snufflevacus in the milk , and they would advertise it everywhere . Yeah , I don't even remember what the heck that was about , but it was like a big deal . It's like with .
Yeah , or you had to get it without Acidophilus .
Yeah , that's , you know but the bubble liquid they have today .
There's 40 selections of milk you know they're all milk and all that stuff . Yeah , Today was a fun shoot , though . It really was . And the how about the carrot cake ?
Oh my God , you know I can't wait to go home . I'm going to wrap this up quickly . I want to wrap this up quick because I want to . The truth is that might not make it back .
Oh really , yeah , I'm surprised , I'm betting it won't .
I don't know that I want to share that .
I mean I'm , I'm Well your wife doesn't listen to the podcast either right ?
No , nobody's going to know , so they're eating on the way home . I'm going to eat it on the way home , by the way , the so the first dish .
Yeah .
Okay , layers , and the sweet potato puree , again , the man that like with , with the meat and everything else , the Kulot it was , that was dope , that was for real , it was , it was delicious . And the carrot cake , those , those are probably my two number ones .
Yeah , silent John liked the first one , cause the purple and the plate was just really yeah , shaking aside , shaking aside , all right .
So let's , let's see , let's kick the can down the road here a little bit and let's get the pooch Rivera on the line . What's going down in New Orleans today , baby boy ?
Man , man , man . First of all , thank y'all for letting me be on the podcast and thank y'all for giving me these great opportunities . I want to shout out all my staff that have brought me here to this point and are allowing me to be on the phone right now with you guys . But a lot's going on , man , a lot is going on .
Had a great , great brunch at Brennan's this morning and I had that with the great chocolate here from New Orleans , frank Simicione , who started the old time New Orleans brand , um , who now is kind of passing the torch down to me .
So we finalized that paperwork at Brennan's and really , um , truly blessed to be a part of this whole situation and utilize the name old time New Orleans and that branding to be under you guys umbrella with the walk and talk podcast .
That's awesome it is . It is um old time , new Orleans , uh food podcast . It's going to be it's . I can't wait to be cool .
Well , I mean listen , we , we talked about my grandfather and , and earlier , just a minute ago , that was his favorite place to go . That's like when you ask my grandfather where's the best place to go for food , it's in all ends , it was definitely always that . And then Brennan's you can't , you can't beat that with a stick .
So , you can't beat that with a stick .
I mean say again yeah , so what did you have over there , would you ?
Well , of course , in any celebratory situation , we're going to start off with a cocktail . Um , today we only had one , being that we had a lot of things to do and , um , but it is New Orleans , so , you know , one can turn into 10 very , very quickly , um , especially when you add people and live patients in New Orleans is that type of a town .
Um , but I had old fashioned , which was really , really good , always on point and something that's always a classic here in New Orleans uh , classic New Orleans cocktail . Um , then I started off . The first first course was gumbo and it's . It's getting kind of cool in the South , you know where . You know Tampa , new Orleans .
We get a little cold spells , but we still enjoy the reasoning why . To any reason why , to cook a gumbo is a good reason for us down here . So , uh , brennan's does it really well Gumbo , gumbo baby .
That's love gumbo , love gumbo .
And it really is loving a pot you know , and at the end , of old school it used to be whatever mom had in the refrigerator uh , is what ? What's going to be in a gumbo ? You know , these days you kind of have those uh bougie people on on YouTube or at work . Facebook would have you kind of criticizing what people put in a gumbo .
At the end of the day , whatever mama could afford to put in the gumbo was always in the gumbo . So is that your favorite role with that ?
Pooch , is that your favorite New Orleans , by the way ? You know what we're jumping into , this whole thing , right ? Um , pooch , you're kind of a big deal in , uh , in New Orleans , right , and I mean you were on a Nat Geo , you were on a food show there . You're a restaurant tour , you've got you know several eateries that you've been a part of .
You're kind of involved with a lot of stuff . Why don't you do a quick ? Um , I wonder if you have a quick synopsis of who is Big Poochie ? Go ahead .
I'm just a kid with a dream man . I just you know . I used to wake up in the morning on Saturday , fix myself a bowl of cereal and listen to my father telling me why , why do you want to watch that stuff ? Why do you want to be a chef , chef's cook for people ?
I didn't come to this country for you to be a servant and cook for people , but it was something that I just knew was in me and I just kept pursuing it . And you know , when you , when you have a dream , you really don't know where you're going , but you know , like , this is what you're going to do and this is what's going to make you happy .
So I just put my head down and you know , shot through adversity , whether it be Katrina , whether it be , you know , a lot of family issues , with both my parents passing away . You know a lot of different things . I just knew that this was my therapy and I knew that if I put my all into it , something would come from it .
And and here I am , you know I got a few few eateries . That I'm all . I'm a . You know I'm a partner in a few things . So it's gracious to all the people who are willing to put up money behind me . Do all those different things to build Foodie Petuti and Putra Vera as a brand .
Yeah , and Foodie Petuti is your , your Instagram handle , and it's a funny story , not funny , it's a nice story actually . How you got the name ? How'd you get the name ?
So my back in the day I guess it was probably about 15 years ago when , when Twitter was the thing , instagram really wasn't the thing . You know , everyone , you know . It's kind of like the story with Utah Carl , where I was like I want to do a pod people said , do a podcast . You're like , what the hell do I want to do a podcast for you know ?
And now look at yourself and look at the whole team and what's been accomplished . But so I I was just like , well , I guess I have to get a , you know , a Twitter name and a you know to go through the whole song and dance of this whole social media thing , which is which , at the time , I didn't think was me .
So I'm just walking around the house saying , you know , foodie , foodie , this foodie , that , and I called my daughter , claudia , I called her to do the to do , and she just heard the word foodie I guess they're just associating with beauty and she goes foodie but duty , and I said that's it . And uh , you know it's , it's kind of that .
That name in itself is kind of open doors because people find it endearing , you know .
so it kind of and it and I feel like I'm a very endearing person .
So it kind of represents me and represents who I really am . You know I'm this big fat Hispanic man , creole man from New Orleans , but and at the end I have a big old heart . So you know it plays well for me .
Your heart and my belly are , are the same . So but you , what was the show ? So tell the , tell the guests , audience , actually , what , um , what was the name of the Natio show ?
The Natio show was . The name was called world of flavor and it was with a barbecue legend , um , moe Cason . Well , actually he was Moe Cason before he came to New Orleans , in Louisiana , and when he left , moe Cason with a little French Cajun accent at the end of it . But , um , we just toured New Orleans . Excuse me , we didn't tour New Orleans .
And that's what was really cool is , we toured Louisiana and you know , new Orleans is its little microcosm in the United States of so many . You know , years and years of different cultures and different people who own the city and it , and it really influenced a lot of things that went on in the city .
So I'm you know it's hard to believe when you're in the deep South that you're kind of a city boy , but very much so . New Orleans is a very much a city and if you go 20 miles , even 10 miles , outside of New Orleans , you're in a totally different environment , very much rural , very much , uh , southern Bible belt values .
So in New Orleans is very much the contrary to that Um . So , uh , I was great for me to be able to experience the state and everything the state had to show the world . From a novice point of view , I guess you would say so .
It was really cool for me to be able to go to other cities in Louisiana , try their gumbos , try certain things , make Boudin um and and experience that with Moe Cason . That where he was trying to learn his roots and the difference between Creole and Cajun and where his you know where his family came from . He's he lives in Iowa .
He's from Iowa , Um , but he really wanted to find his roots . So I was happy that he chose me to be able to show him that . And it's a really cool episode Um , disney plus national geographic world of flavor episode . I believe it's three in a thing . It's called Gator Grill and Gator on a bayou .
Yeah , it was . It was the sour . We met , um Pooch and I were , when I was out in uh for the American Culinary Federation , the national convention . He was actually in the corner with his producer from that GEO and they were at Kisaris and pop up with Manish Patel who is I think he has what the store right next to yours or something like that you said .
Pooch versus Manish has Taoba street food in the CBD area , um , right by the federal building , and what have you ? And , uh , his uncle , who was kind of the , the person who introduced that was . Saffron Indian cuisine . In modern Indian cuisine , saffron is next to Saaj , which is kind of my modern Mediterranean , middle Eastern .
Uh , my interpretation of all that of you know the um , I'm . One of the first foods that intrigued me was Palestinian food , being that I grew up a block away and it was just the easiest thing to go run and get something .
So when you learn to love falafel and shawarma and Vimto , which is a soft drink , that's really really awesome , you know , you get to like , you find those flavors and you kind of wonder why they're not around and everything you do .
But then when you kind of research it more , you realize that it isn't everything you do , it's just their interpretation of the same flavor profiles . And uh , from there it made me really intrigued with Mexican food and Latin food , being that I do have a Latin American heritage , um , from my father's side .
My mother's side is a New Orleans , uh , creole , but , um , you know , so I I I learned that you know , uh , lebanese brought shawarma to Mexico and that brought out Al pastor . You know they brought a lot of cumin and things , flavors that I've tasted all my life and never realized that they're the same things . That just kind of turned upside down .
So that's the first thing that really intrigued me about food and has allowed me to have Sajna .
So is it true that ? Well , so I love Mediterranean food . I mean , mediterranean food is a thing for me . Joseph's , um , yeah , papak Nush , oh , my God , you know what Papak Nush is . Okay , I like Papak In general , just the , the lightness of your , your lambs and your chickens , and you know the spot . I love it . I think it's fantastic .
But , but I want to go back a little bit . Um , ellis , so who invented brunch out your way ? What's the deal with that ?
Okay , so Ella Brennan , who is the first woman in restaurant tour I'm sure they may have been to others documented uh , but she is kind of the one to come to the forefront , uh of cuisine and really not have any background in the , the , the creation of food and the creation of dishes , she just knew how to push hospitality and how to make people have a
really good time . And New Orleans is kind of that . You know , even if it's not that great of a meal or a subpar meal , it's really about the service and the atmosphere and the time that you had . So , um , she really created that . Not to say that any of the Brennan's restaurants have subpar food , but she really made the hospitality what it was .
And you know , in New Orleans and this is a lot of things we're going to talk about on the old time New Orleans podcast , but you know it , new Orleans was here a hundred years before the United States was here New Orleans birth the first uh restaurant in United States . Um , we , new Orleans and Ella Brennan particularly created brunch at Commander's Palace .
So these are things that are kind of mimicked all over the world . Um , and you know it started here . So that's what I've . It's a great opportunity for me to tell that story and I'm very happy to be able to do so .
Um , but , yeah , so she's just , she's an iconic woman and you know and it says a lot to um , to any woman in this thing that you know , like , if I am any behind any man is a successful man , is a Strong woman , but at the same time , behind this whole restaurant industry that people every Saturday and Sunday Make hella bucks off of and open up early to
do , she created and a lot . I think a lot of people don't give her the credit for that and I'm happy to have a show to be able to do it .
So with commanders palace , have you met the new chef that took over I ?
Have not , but she's also a female .
Yeah , so that was she actually did a demonstration at the National Convention and when she walked in I was like what's this 12 year old doing here ? She looks so young , but she's not she's got so much experience . That I mean when she walked in the room . She Was just . You can sense the power , like I when she walked .
When I turn around I'm like she's the chef and I can't remember her name , she's , I tell you what not the daunting task .
A daunting task to one commander's palace , so kudos to her . You know that there's over 60 and sometimes there's 70 people on , you know , on the staff there and they , you know it's just a well-oiled machine .
You know they have an in you can see , at the chef's table , in the kitchen , which is basically booked years in advance , and you know everyone there has to be clean , appropriate . You know all of the above at the same time , listening to the calls , because there's no tickets , everything's being called from expo and you know you just , it's just .
Everyone is there as own point and to get everyone on point and to get them to maintain that passion , enthusiasm in every dish , while being watched by people who are spending a lot of money . It's just a tough task and kudos to the whole Brennan's family and especially Everyone at Brennan's today , because that the meal was amazing .
Absolutely amazing . Yeah yeah , that thing has been around for hundreds of years and right across the street is a cemetery . It's just it's amazing . It's right in the garden district .
Correct in all ones right in the garden district .
Yeah , what's your favorite dish ? But ?
In one , or just that I had today , or both . I think it varies every day . I think my favorite dish overall right now is going back to basic Mexican . Just a good taco is something that you just can't screw up .
Even if it's not that good , it's still pretty good and it's it's something that I've really just been going back to , the simplicity , trying to bring it back back down myself In humility in so many ways , trying not to spend a lot of money on food and really kind of go back to the basics and and get that grit back .
But in New Orleans it really depends on the seasons .
You know , gumbo is something that is iconic we Thanksgiving , football season , christmas morning , those type of things but you know , come Easter time it's oyster season and there's nothing better than some just good old Louisiana oysters , fried or raw in the Habsail , or char grilled , which was something also that was invented here in New Orleans .
Dregos family oh yeah , so what's ?
that you have so much time in . New Orleans yeah that you you know , with P F Chang's and yep and all of that it reminded me when you were talking about the dishes from P .
F .
Chang's , and I forgot that you were here for such a great time . So it is awesome for you to understand kind of the way we do things . It's a little bit backwards but at the same time it's a little bit Progressive . So I'll be honest with you .
So back in 97 , when we opened up that P F Chang's right there in the mall off of Metnery and veterans Boulevard , paul Mueller and I were actually Experimenting with regional cuisines with P F Chang's , we were coming up with , instead of shrimp and lobster sauce , we're doing crawfish lobster sauce , and it was we used black bean fermented and we were doing like
blackened red fish that was going to be totally for New Orleans . So I just it never came to fruition . We ended started ending up . Back in 97 we ended up started working on a thing called payway . So I actually helped work on a way to pay way . Yeah , yeah , payway is awesome too . And you know , what's really cool is that you know ?
you would think New Orleans and that is one of the things that I love , it's great to be showcased on the new podcast as well is where our , where Creole cuisine and just New Orleans cuisine or even Louisiana cuisine is going , and let's throw some Cajun in there as well .
But you know , you know Fleming's ball Fleming's or believe it's P F you know that's that started in Louisiana , that started in Louisiana , and so it tells you a lot .
Aware , you know where people get inspired and where they can , you know , really show their talents and their inner , their passion , via different type of cuisine that really isn't indigenous to the Louisiana culture per se , but there is a lot of Asian coming out the forefront now because of the fact of , you know , for the last 50 years it's been a lot of
Vietnamese and Korean Chinese people moving here , which takes things to the forefront . Yeah , sure I'm not wait to talk about on the podcast .
Yeah , so they're a big shipping , a shrimping culture down there , especially in the south part of Louisiana , correct ?
They are in the eastern part , so that about 50 years ago , after the Vietnam War , they a lot of Vietnamese people migrated here . Just because of the swamps and the culture is a lot . You know the same . The climate's the same with the heat and whatnot .
So within that you have Great Vietnamese chefs that have come up out of that and you know one James Beard award for king cakes . You know it's a lot to say that a you know what Vietnamese are , french trained you know with with pastries from the French , but they came here and they put their own spin on a king cake and One of James Beard award for it .
Now it's one of the most sought-after king cakes here .
So you really have to give a lot of credit to people who come , you know , absorb the create the creativity and the passion of the city and eat all up and regurgitate it out as something that's iconic , as a king cake and winning a James Beard award for it is a really amazing that's all bakery , by the way .
Yeah , you see there's , there's the , the po-boy , and then down where he's talking , in the east , they actually do a bow-my . That , the Vietnamese , that we did a couple weeks ago , but they do their own like they fused Creole , cajun , vietnamese , french . It's just ridiculous . But what's the ? What's the hottest thing happening in New ?
Orleans . Right now I'm a food scene pooch other .
You guys , I'm guys , I'm usually behind closed doors , looking at four walls in the kitchen most of the time , so I'm not really doing anything . Hot and crazy , really , really cool is , you know not to chew my own horn , but we are . We just opened up a rep us place , which I'm sure it's very , very cool .
It's a Venezuelan street sandwich , but it's very it's . It's very common in kitchens at home all over the place in Venezuela . It's something that's very it's eaten . It's like our white bread . To be honest , with you a slice of white bread , you can make anything happen with that .
So we opened up coma arepas , which is means eat arepas , with coma hospitality , which means eat hospitality .
But we we open that up right by tooling in Loyola universities and it's doing really , really well and we're happy and proud to be on the forefront of our food and we're happy and proud to be on the forefront of kind of bringing Different culture of Latin American food to New Orleans . So that's really what's hot from my standpoint to chew my own horn .
But one person that I really want to talk about , that's really doing the same thing with Latin American cuisine , is in in really being noticed .
In noticed for it is Will Avalar , and will avalar started off we're at with emerald and worked with his way up as a dishwasher , started off , was kind of you know , did his thing and he had to do do something and decided that he was gonna go be a you know start off as a dishwasher , did that , work his way up the realms or the the ladder and became the
chef the cuisine for emerald at emerald's restaurant of that's what is it called ? A marrow , which is basically emerald backwards and that's his daughter's name .
So it was a really cool menu , had a lot of opportunity to create a lot of cool things and in more so party atmosphere , food and things like that , more for social gatherings , but you ate it at the table . Really fun , really cool menu .
But he left there with a passion and a dream and he and his father purchased a tortilla company and it's called Maui tortillas . They are not Mexican or they're nowhere in Central America that really uses a tortilla , other than somewhat of a tortilla , which is a tortilla dish is . So he's half El Salvadorian , half Ecuadorian , so an Ecuador .
There's really no such thing as a tortilla that anywhere in South America . They call a tortilla , a fajita , that's what they reference it as . So if you're gonna have anything with a tortilla . It has you . You're having a fajita .
Yeah , I just wanted to hold on a pooch . If you're from the Midwest , it's called a fajita , I just you should know that a fajita Midwest or plant city .
Kudos to , will avalar his whole family there . They're really doing some cool things and they they took a shot because you know you can buy tortillas anywhere these days and , being so close to Houston and stuff like that , we get fresh tortillas . You know they're one or two days old . But he took a chance with something and started off with a little papoos .
Aria and papoos are kind of stuffed tortillas from El Salvador .
Good god , those things are delicious , oh gosh .
They are delicious and the simpler you go with them . If you just get beans and cheese , it's , it's so exquisite . You know it's just something that's the simpler it is and that's when getting back to the taco thing , the simpler the thing is is just how , how wonderful , like the flavors in your mouth and where it goes . It's just so amazing to me .
So these guys Did their thing , started off just as selling tortillas , maybe , to some grocery stores , little things . Some Mexican restaurants Expanded at their own dining area and now they made the top 25 New Orleans restaurants for the New York Times . Wow , which is a crazy thing , because normally there you're having a lot of , you know , creole Cajun .
You know New Orleans style restaurants , classic French cuisine .
Coshone deli time .
Yep what you're all of you above so and you know there's a lot of James Beard awarded winners down here , so normally those are the ones they're gonna take center stage , and it was just amazing for will to be able to get that .
So I really want to give him a shout out and kudos to him and his family and his organization , because they're really shining out here .
So we we're talking about it all about no allens , but we mentioned him . Merrill and moral , I heard when I was there Emerald wasn't open , they were revamping it or something like that . Now there's this new chef taking over animals . What's that about ?
That is his son , ej Lagasse . So EJ Lagasse is taken over . Bright kid , we've had coffee together . He's really , really smart . They're doing a lot of things well and just really he's not coming in picking up his daddy's coattails , running on his daddy's coattails . He's coming in .
He's taken over Meryl , but he's keeping his father's classic menu but he's doing a modern take on it and he's got some creole dishes but he's kind of flipping around and flipping it upside down , making it a little bit progressive , a little bit of some contemporary accents to it , but at the same time giving the people what they want and what they're coming to
Emeralds for . He is going to have a seasonal menu , which what I love about the seasonal menu that he's going to have is that he's sourcing all the finest produce from Louisiana and he's going to do a lot of cool specials and a lot of cool things with that menu that you don't normally see .
People showcase pork and they showcase all these rice dishes and all these thick , thick rous and sauces .
But when somebody's goal is to showcase some of the jewels of Louisiana , like kumquats and satsumas and punch-a-tula strawberries , those are things that I love to see in a dish that often just get kind of like smothered in a sauce and that's what it is where it's great to bring those things to the forefront and I'm really excited to see what he is going to do
. I was going to . I had an opportunity to go to the tasting menu but I was in Tampa . So Is that Monday night ? We're going to get to that ? Hold on a minute . That was Monday night . That was Monday night .
We're going to get to Monday night . Hold on a minute . So Old Time . New Orleans food podcast . Let's talk about that A little bit more .
What is there more to talk about ? I mean there is a lot more to talk about . I don't mean like that , but it's just it's . I'm excited , I get perclined when I think about it . You know , I'm excited too , I get perclined .
You're going to , you're getting , you're getting Jeffers over here , he's getting . You just made him happy . You just made him smile when you said that .
I love Jeff and Jeff is the only reason that I'm here , guys . So I mean to the world out there , all million listeners , million download people all over the world , jeffrey Schissel is the reason I am here on the phone with you guys today and I really appreciate it . I love everybody there , but Jeffrey . I really appreciate you throwing me that bone man .
But Jeffrey , you know , wait a minute hold on .
All right , hold on First of all and that concludes our broadcast . You know you've got . You don't have the yank yet All right .
No , so listen , jeffrey is the starship , okay .
That's what he's waiting for .
Yeah , I was trying to break .
No , I got it , man . You like that , I'll be in yeah .
No , but listen , listen , listen , right now , anything if you go to TikTok , if you any of the videos that you know , okay , so if we go back to like COVID , it was , everything was short , you know , 30 seconds , a minute or less , you know . But now the these platforms are kind of shifting a little bit back into a long form .
Yeah , you had like 10 minutes , yeah on TikTok right .
So but all the best channels , they all do something on history or something , that there's a knowledge base , right , right , where you don't have to look it up yourself , you just listen to somebody , you know , and that's the entertaining part .
When it comes to the food aspect of New Orleans , louisiana at large , you know , and just the age of that region , it's amazing and you have , I mean , how many different culture . I mean , just off the top you've got French and obviously the Creole , italian , african American , like there's so much culinary history there .
You know what's crazy is ? You think you know ? Jeff mentioned Dragos , and Dragos are Yugoslavian people , yugoslavian descent , second generation Yugoslavians . Here I would drink him you know there's a lot of Germans , you know , you think Andui sausage , andui sausage , just a Bavarian sausage . Then the Germans .
There's a region called Dizalmans , which the Zalimans , which means of Germany , that there's a German coast , and there's a lot of people that are influenced by that , for instance , like Chef John Fulse , another famous Louisiana chef is , all you know , is a Creole man , but you would never think that , because he's German descent .
And so there's a lot of things , that cultures that mixed , that they kind of get swept under the rug , because when you say French Quarter and New Orleans , you know those are all names that are French . But there's a lot of cultures that really , really influence a lot of things .
And you know , you'll see , you'll see , you know African-American people with Italian last names and Hispanic last names , and everything derives from the time where everyone was here and it was just such a melting pot , you know , and there's a story to tell and I can't wait to tell it . You know it's .
You know the story of food , the story of restaurants , the story of hospitality . You know this thing that you see , you see it on someone's play , you see it in a magazine and you say man , I was eating at 20 years ago and it's now just coming to the forefront and it's things that derive here and I'd love to tell that story .
And I'm happy to have the opportunity to tell that story because New Orleans was here before the United States was here and we really and we do get looked at for things . But guess what you know ?
For instance , I was doing some research the other day and watching an old podcast and there was I can't remember the gentleman's name , but the gentleman that has the burger place in Daytona . He has the 10-seater in Orlando .
Oh , my condos , yeah , my condos .
Well , who knows to him ? Because guess what ? There's not one critically acclaimed , Michelin-starred restaurant in New Orleans . Yet we kind of influence a lot of culture around the world .
Just a lot of James Beard . Just a lot of James Beard , james Beard , down there , no Michelin .
There's two not gonna say too many James Beard , but there's a lot of James Beard here , but it's and we've kind of dominated that that you know , the chef of the South thing .
but Well , let me ask you a question . Wait , hold on a second . What ? So ? You're a chef Bunch of chefs here , right ?
What do you want more ?
a beard or a star .
Well , we had that conversation with Michael Calantes , so maybe we'll sell this one .
But now we're revamping it . It's been a while , and now I got two other chefs on there .
I . I'll let him go first . I don't know if I want either . I don't know what I want if I want either , because at the end of the day there's a lot of other things I it would take a lot more dedication from me to be able to get that .
I listened to Anthony Bourdain a long time ago when he said you know , he said you don't want to really be part of a fraternity , and if it requires you to spend money to be part of a fraternity for those people to admire your work , then it's kind of contrary to the beliefs of like why you really want to be a part of it . So I would love one .
Obviously , we're going to make sure that maybe the Old Tom New Orleans food podcast could be nominated or win one . I'm all for those types of things .
But after us , after us , yeah , dude , get in line , simit down , simit down , get in line , get in line .
I'd love to be nominated for that . But you know , what I've learned in this career , more so than anything , is number one family . First and I'm just now being able to , at 47 , to to really enjoy those fruits of my labor just primarily family .
But the secondly is the biggest thing I've learned other than family , but almost a kind of two in one and the same is that heavy is the head that holds the crown . You know so , the minute you have something that's worth anything or an accolade , now there's eyes on you , and there's a good eyes , because you get a lot of benefits from that .
But also now it's like , well , shit , I'm going to be in the kitchen 16 hours a day . Maybe I need to be in the kitchen 18 hours a day . Maybe I need to do , I have to hold this , because now I'm at the front of the line and people are trying to get there and that's a fun , you know , motivating feeling .
But at the same time you put a lot of things off and you put your health off , and you put your mental health off , you put your family off and there's always a reason why you can't do something because it's for the better good of your career and a lot of times for your ego .
So I would love to win any of those , but at the same time , I'd love to do it . It's kind of like I did the culinary fight club .
I was swept into the ones , won all three culinary fight clubs and decided to retire because it's like if I want to do this again , I need to prep all year long just to beat these up and coming people that are ready to come beat me .
You know so , and I was like how am I going to dedicate to restaurants time to my family , when my whole goal is making sure that no one beats me ? And you know , but I just I don't want that to be my goal ever again .
You know , and I'm blessed with the opportunity to be on podcasts and to do things that kind of can shape my career , because a lot of people don't have these opportunities , and I want to be able to teach people to say hey , take time to smell the roses , take time to speak , you know , articulate what you're saying and just be a good person , because good
things come from that . And it doesn't mean you always have to be head down in the kitchen , always working on the new concept , new recipe all those different things to beat the guy next to you , because the guy next to you is suffering just like you are , you know . So that's my stake on that .
So my take on the awards and either Michelin or James Beard is I just want to cook the food that I want to cook . That's the bottom line . If I get an award for it , so be it .
And I just want to eat the food that you want to cook . Yeah , do you want to cook ?
Yeah , I just want to cook crepeable food . And then if I get acknowledged for cooking crepeable foods and there's people out there that do the grind and I'll mention one name Turkey and the Wolf . I mean , here's a sandwich shop that he serves .
He serves his dishes on a melamine plates and he's known for a portobello collard green kind of like patty melt for vegans , and he was known for that and he's closed at three o'clock in the afternoon . So he has life balance and he has like a couple of other different places .
There are people out there that do their jobs and they know how to balance or try to find the balance , and they do it . But I think you have to pay your prices to get there and so on and so forth . But I don't think an award makes you , I think you make you , and that's where it really tends to be Like .
At the end of the day , what are you doing for you and your family ? Bottom line , if you're not spending time with your family , then you're doing it wrong . You know , and that's one of the reasons why I look at what I did with the move coming over to here and spending the time and watching my daughter grow . I think that's where I want to be right now .
I agree Good afternoon chef .
Thanks , good to see you , bro . Thank you , Indeed . Okay . So Pooch chef , so Jeff and Pooch chefs , all right . So you came to visit us on Monday , you know , and we had our . We did have our , our bash , our mixer , walk and talk media mixer . I have to tell everybody I was he's still full . No , I don't even mean that .
I mean I didn't know that this was gonna get pulled off .
I know .
It was so last minute , everything , but it turned out really great . In fact , you know , willie Betex , he's our guy , he's our video producer he came and he , you know , documented everything with the video . We just put out a sizzle reel from Monday . Man , it was bad ass . I've really had a great time .
And you know , like I was saying before , it wasn't for you guys , this would have never , ever happened and I'm just thrilled that . You know our restaurant recipe chefs came . You know Chefs Alex , kevin Thomas . You know Chef Nan I came . I'm thrilled that Christoff . Ryan Manning . Ryan Manning , you know pooch Everybody .
I was getting to pooch and Mark Conway because they came in from out of town , you know , stayed the night and split early in the morning .
So we also had another one that drove six hours yeah , three hours here , three hours back , and brought us three loads of stellar looking bread .
Yeah , yeah . So the Amy , Amy , yeah , and you know , man . And so for me , when I see that you know you're talking about , let's just first of all , everybody that came . I'm thrilled . I mean , seriously , when you're laying around everybody was not going to come , but let's just say let's just say , because you didn't invite anyone , veronica and I did .
That's not true . That is not true . I was actually very much part of that . Don't even try that . Anyway , listen to me . What I'm trying to say is you get , like you know , pooch and Mark Conway and Amy right , they came at an inconvenience to this thing . So for me , I am eternally grateful for that , you know .
And I just want to be sure that everybody understands where I'm coming from . I'm really happy on the turnout , Chef Jonathan Rodriguez or Ray Steller .
His staff was stellar . Everybody was great .
Everybody Rock stars . Yeah , and it was beautiful , like if you watch the video and you , and even the night was gorgeous , like you could see the sunset and everything from you know , the rooftop for Tampa and the color Dude .
Rachel from Tampa Food Mom . She put like three or four pictures of the skyline so it was a great scene .
Yeah , and obviously , jeff , you know you cooked a bunch of stuff and A little bit , a little bit of food things , but you know , kebabs was there , stuff , foods were there . They did a great job . Obviously they have a good product , but you know you went the extra mile . Man , thank you .
I appreciate it . But here's a huge shout out to Vicky , who gave me the Cooney Cooney and we cooked the hams and made the Malibu .
Coat .
Oh yeah , that's right and she couldn't be there because she's going through some medical issues . You know , and you know prayers to her .
Yeah , definitely , you know . There were so many little parts to this thing where you forget even .
You know what I mean .
Like you , really . You literally forget .
Well , I told you , like make sure you go through the video so you don't forget anyone , Because there was , but there's that many people and they're like you said , I can't yeah . There's so many moving parts and you don't want to forget anything and forget anybody else .
Obviously Peninsula Food Service . They put in . You know they were put in some Creekstone product in there .
Sterling . Sterling came through in the clutch for the . I didn't even think they were gonna make it . Yeah me either that was cool .
You know , obviously Malina was there .
You know , Joseph , and Dino from yeah , you got this guy at SLS , silent John . He loves , I think the steak was his favorite , in fact , that Well I mean that's not a stretch for this guy . Well , it's caviar .
Yeah , I guess . So yeah , he's picky , he's pretty picky , he's like Mikey , remember , from the cereal .
He likes what he likes . He likes what he likes True story , and that's what it is . By the way , if anyone thinks in the background you hear snoring or heavy breathing , that's Carl .
Call me Tony Soprano . Over here with this , no it's the other guy . Big plus , big plus . All right , so listen , all right . So we got to hey . So , pooch , again you're on the phone here . So thank you for coming out , man . It was a big deal and you helped him prep and stuff too , like you were .
Oh , he's a rock star man . Yeah , and a huge shout out to Richard .
Oh yeah , Richard , I mean for coming back here and helping me pop out the food . I know , and he did a lot . He's always done a lot . He really does Listen . Again , there's people around me that make all of this stuff work . My contribution obviously , is I know these people and I know this one and that one and there's a connection .
Oh hey , whatever , I do some of that stuff , but like you guys are awesome , almost did it .
Well , it was funny . It was funny because you were outside and Richard goes . Why is he outside and we're back here sweating ? I go because he's smarter than us .
Yeah well , I mean , I can't argue that I mean no , but I have to . I'm gonna be in front .
No , well , you're the front of the house guy . Yeah , exactly , so Richard and I are both chefs back in the house .
I've talked about this extensively . Yeah , yeah , are you like to eat ?
You didn't really eat . Oh , by the way , I just want everyone to know he was like Jeff , do you have enough food ? I'm like if everyone eats like one of everything , it's going to be a pound of food . In that they would be a pound of food . By the way , we threw out a lot of food , or I should say the staff ate a lot of food .
Yeah , yeah , there was a lot of food .
No , they got to go home . They were like ooh , it's Christmas in .
October , 100% . When I do an event , I can't eat because I don't want stuff on my mouth and my teeth . You know what I mean ? I don't like that because you're talking to people . Bougie , it's not bougie , it's I'm being .
Don't worry , none of us would have told you had food in your teeth . Nobody would , not a day one of you . We would have let Willie film that .
I know that I would have been like with a piece of basil covering a whole tooth or something Like hey , what happened ? Teeth fell out .
Nah , man , it was just food on my he was hungry , but everyone would expect that , though you guys are a-holes , all right , so what do we got coming up now .
Our next big thing is the World Food Championship , which is also why Mark came down . Mark Conway came down . He's the host and emcee of the venue .
What a trip , french . Somebody asked me who's the guy in the blue I go , which one ? The blue jacket that sparkles , and with his shoes too .
Did you see the shoes this is . I can't . I keep talking about this . It's not for me . I can't do that . Good for him . God bless him . It's not for me . My daughter would love like she loves everything sparkly and glitter .
Yeah , most women do . By the way , eight year olds , yeah , glitter .
Glitter . Oh , you know what we gotta do to him one time we're like glitter . Bomb him , but he'll like it . Let's just get in , I won't get him . He is the glitter bomb he is . We could just throw Mark onto somebody .
We'll pick him up and throw him to the glitter bomb .
Mark Conway , oh wow , we're gonna have some fun , though , in Dallas , because you've got two events that you're gonna be the master judge and you're welcome , by the way , bacon .
Yeah , so this is cool . I am gonna be the master judge for bacon and soup . Well , you know which is cool ? I mean , I like soup .
So you gotta make sure you're from Florida , you gotta make sure it's hot . I want it like 95 and it's gonna melt my face off .
It's steaming , but it's bubbling , it's not hot enough .
It's not hot enough .
Yeah , you know what's funny ?
I remember this is gonna be the Beverly Hills Cafe story . It's probably a Beverly Hills story , if I remember .
But , like you know , like the AC is on , it's blowing and then you get , like you know , 140 year old person come in and what you see them doing is they put the napkin ? No , they put the linen napkin over their shoulders as a shawl . You know what I mean . Yeah , that's fun .
Whatever . So you're gonna be up on stage . Yes , I'm gonna be interviewing people , but who's gonna be next to me ?
Big Pooch Daddy over here , yep .
And Jay Gardner from Citrus America . Yeah , he's gonna be , he's gonna hand out juice you like the juice .
Yeah , but I think , poochie , you were gonna special guest , right ?
Yes , Tatum Gardner . Tatum Gardner is .
Not related to Jay Gardner and so funny .
Maybe you never know . You know long lost cousins or something that's pretty funny . But Tatum Gardner and I used to have a podcast called Nola Famous . She's kind of who broke me into the podcast world Kind of , when I was just not wanting to be kind of in the public eye , you know , as far as like speaking and what have you .
She told me I could do it and we did it and it really did well . It did really really well and she ended up moving to Dallas . So now she's in Dallas and she's gonna join us and really kind of introduce us to a lot of Dallas chefs that are down there and really bring a good element to , you know , maybe a woman's voice to this podcast .
So wait a minute , it was just for five days .
Hold on . So you guys are gonna kind of co-host the show together , right ?
That we are sir .
That's . I think that's very cool . I mean , I have , I have my girl right here . Thanks , jeffrey .
You know it's great about Dallas is I have a really great friend down there . Chef Jacks is gonna be there , so hopefully I can contact her and she can come out . She was one of the days she never had to show to .
No , she's .
I know she's . I don't . You know what I have to call her . Find out , catch up .
She lives out in Dallas , that Dallas area I , we , so we currently we have the banners . You know the backdrop and the table dressing . So the new chef came through in the clutch . Yes , they did right . Yeah , we got old Victor .
Yeah , and Lucian and everybody over at new chef .
Thank you very much . What are we getting ?
We're getting four shirts , each different colors . It's gonna have new chef's logo , your logo . My logo is gonna be on my shirt with the logo from the walk-and-talk Podcast . They're gonna be what is those things called ? We call them , I don't know . The garage shirts yeah , I can . Mechanics , yeah , mechanics , sir , that's you know .
That's what that's a mechanic shirt . That's gonna be done for us . Yeah , yeah , dope AF , bro , you know yeah , at least people know our People will know our name .
Yeah , so that's the thing . I want to hit this thing like hard . You know , we got the , we got all the little tap cards with the , you know our socials and the whole nine yards . And then they got the little . They're like little tap buttons , like so I'll have a button up , maybe on the on the table and All this stuff will be there .
Like you just walk up , hit the , you know phone to phone to button and info gets transferred . And when I was a little boy there was a piece of paper and a pencil . Yeah , it was like that . But yeah , I'm excited , man , it's gonna be badass .
I have to do research because I gotta figure out the wrestling , because I've been out of that whole scene for the wrestlers and stuff . Cuz you mark saying all the wrestlers are gonna be there .
Well , I yeah , because I am G . Over the summer I am G bought the you know , the world food championship franchise , and they also own UFC and the WWE Right . So this I am G is all about sports and sports entertainment and all that stuff . Well , now they're getting into food and food sport .
So what better sport to watch and take advantage of is than the world food championship ?
right . So this is this is kind of a big deal .
How many people ? You did you say three teams , three , three people per each team .
Between it was like 250 or 300 with three per , with a three-person team , 300 team .
Let's just say three on each team . But to rotate in and out , you can rotate to in and out .
So he yeah .
When did ?
you do the answer what you were . You did the . You did this championship right I .
Did ? I competed in the baking category .
Wait , did you say bacon has an BA KING or BAC on ?
BAC on . I did not place . Oh , it's on .
Bacon's tough man . People don't really cuz . I asked the question to mark Do are they allowed to bring their own or do they get supplied ? And he goes , it could be both they can supply or bring their own .
Hmm , yeah at that time I took big bonds or shrimp , but I actually needed to get , you know , some u10s and and cured , sliced them and cured them on the spot , basically like a 20 minute cure . Then I smoked them and made bacon out of shrimp . So it was kind of a play on a lobster roll or a shrimp .
But I don't know if the judges really understood it , because they wrote on my car that it's not bacon , which there was nothing in there that said it had to be pork belly . I made bacon out of something else which I thought was cool and innovative .
But you know , after speaking with mark Conway , you know , and him explaining me the whole eat system and all that , how the judging goes on , and I knew that back then .
But when we talked about it at the party the other night in Tampa , I was like , yeah , you know that the now duh , you know , but you go into this thing thinking that you're gonna be innovative and great and at the end of the day it's really it's about the a good product and knowing your judges and knowing the people that are gonna be there , like they're
gonna appreciate your product , I think the best thing you can do in a , in a challenge like that , and you're gonna compete like that , is just to compete itself .
I remember when I worked for the large broadliner , we actually were part of Something called meat . It was on South Beach Food and Wine Festival . We actually ended up doing pork belly with like a small s'mores and we made a sorracha marshmallow and Guy Fieri was up on stage and the guy who won just made a simple burger . That was it , like a like .
It was like it , literally like a . Salt and salt pepper smash with caramelized . I was like what my colantas was talking about . That's who got . That's the one . Hey , not for nothing .
We got mentioned because we did a dessert . Oh , you know , yeah , I've had a lot of white castle in my life , bags of it . Or crystal burger same thing . You know , but not the same , but same as anyway . Yeah , go for simple . Well .
I mean , stuff it in . You know , keep . We have a saying in the industry right , keeps the kiss , keep it simple , stupid , 100% . Like when you get out and you get a fancy go over the top , you start to lose things . You can keep something simple but played it so differently like Angus Macintosh when I worked with him at the master chef summit .
He's actually competing with one other person for a beacuse and that's a huge , huge like challenge for him to do . It is one and that's it . There's two guys that are competing .
He did Basically an avocado guacamole with sour cream on top , with a ring mole with agar , agar and salsa and I went you just made a $7 dish of $40 app because it was that stunning . So it's again playing with food and replaying it .
It's just beautiful , hmm you know when they say read the room , you know , know . Your know your audience , you know . Know your judges . You know kind of do a little bit of research or what you think judges are . But if we're through championship , though you've already turned in your recipe , you have to .
You know , kind of stick to what you were doing , but I think people will learn , you know .
At the end of the yeah , so listen . You didn't listen to stall , all right , so listen . Pooch , first of all , appreciate you being a show . We're all super excited for rolling out this podcast together and it's going to be so cool . We're gonna roll out in Dallas together .
Really , I'm stoked that you actually , you know , took the time to come out and visit us at the event on Monday . If I forgot to mention anybody for you know Jason from hive too , and you know I didn't get Jason Lynn I thought I sent an invite it . Anyway , I'm sorry , jason . Love you , baby boy .
I knew cuz you were sitting right next to me when we talked about I'm gonna stick it right , Terrible all right , okay , he knew all right , all right , so pooch , thank you much .
Foodie patootie on IG John Jefferson Starship baby boy . All right , we are thank y'all so much how you are welcome .