3 , 2 .
Alright , this is the Walk and Talk podcast that I'm your host , carl Fiodini . We are at the World Food Championships 2023 in Dallas , texas , alright , so obviously I got the Poochie Pooch over here , chef Pooch Rivera from Louisiana , and hit him up on his IG foodie Poochie . Alright , I have with us here in studio this giant building the Jay Decody , my man .
I mean , we've been threatening each other for you to be here doing this for days now .
Well , we practically wrestled a couple times , almost just now .
I mean , I was just saying , you know , I'll be like , hey , I'll be like this . Hey , mark Henry , can you tell me what you think about that ? He's like well , it doesn't matter what you think . I know that .
I was being the rock . Oh , you're the rock it doesn't matter what you think . Alright , you know , poochie , when I go back like a decade , I did not know that Alright watching Maybe longer than a decade At least , yeah , longer .
I tell you what , I tell you what . Listen , listen . I am no longer the host of the Walk In Time .
Podcast .
The host now , forevermore , for the next eight minutes is going to be Poochie Pooch Rivera . I'll take it from this one standpoint .
There's two people here right now . Jay Decody is the first person who ever mentioned the word podcast to me oh wow , and I looked at him like he was speaking Chinese Mandarin . What is that ? What's going on ? Then there's a lot of other people Shout out to Chuck P . He's a man and Chuck P my man too . I love that dude , but very much so Chuck .
D School too .
Chuck D Public Enemy .
Yeah , yeah yeah , very much so .
But so Jay enlightened me to this world . I want to even shout out to another person who's Tatum Gardner , who's right behind us doing a live feed , but she put me on the old time excuse me , the Nola Famous Podcast , which has kind of brought us to the fact that there is now an old time New Orleans food podcast .
But Jay Decody , dude , good to see you , man , I haven't seen you in like five years and it's great to see people back in food fam , back in a food environment , food competition , and you've been hosting these . You've been kind of been on the forefront of these .
Pretty sure I heard about this , or you were actually the emcee when I won the golden ticket to come to the food . Yeah , back on Orange Beach days . Don't back on Orange Beach days .
Yeah , yeah . So this is . This is World Food Championships number 11 , and I've been to eight out of the 11 , including the past Seven . I guess I think I was at number two in Las Vegas , and then all of them in Orange Beach and all of them in Dallas so far .
So World Food Championships has been something I've been a part of quite a bit like since 2015 , been to all of them .
So something that I kind of put on my calendar every year and stay involved in , and now I really pretty much show up and host , emcee , judge and and I'm just kind of one of the faces of the competition and a lot of those ways get a lot of stuff on stage and a lot of stuff with microphones and and and then a lot of judging and stuff like that Can
you tell the world out there what it takes to get to that point .
But what did you specifically do to get to this point ?
Well , so you know , world Food Championships is is food sport and and is is culinary competition at its finest and and really kind of taking a lot of what you see on TV and and in competitive cooking and bringing it to a Bigger audience and a field of larger field of chefs . And it's not .
It's more competitive cooking and not quite as gimmicky as something like a chopped or cut through kitchen or guys Virtue games on Food Network and then there's other competitions all over the place .
But I think a lot of the success that I had on those national platforms Beating Bobby play , finishing runner-up on Food Network star , those kind of things have led me to be Kind of in the position where I get to come to something like this and be one of the celebrities of it and be on stage and and host stuff and Kind of I've proven myself in the
competition world on the national TV shows . So when I'm at a place like this , they just kind of put me on stage instead of having to come compete here .
Well , listen , you know , with a career in anything , whether it's in the kitchen or in the front of the house or an IT guy or whatever you do , you have a , you have your timeline in that field , right and or however it is that you started to get into it . Now you're on a trajectory , right , so you do some Food Network shows .
You come here , it's it's , it's a marriage of both worlds and actually , whatever you do , you know in your regular time , regular life , right , absolutely yeah . So we're all in this journey and you know , some people are a little bit further along than others in that on that path .
I think that's super cool and if you look at it in that context or that perspective around here for the past few days , you see the newcomers , you see some of the folks who've been here , you know multiple years and whatnot , and you see the difference of it .
But everybody kind of comes together around the food , yeah , and that , I think , is what the secret sauce is , so to speak . No pun here intended . I think that's the secret ingredient . Well , you know .
Jay is really the full package too , because Jay started off as a kind of food journalist , mm-hmm , then you went into the chef world , then you went into having your own line of products , a restaurant tour after that , then your own radio show , at the same time juggling , being on TV , food Network Star , doing all these things .
I mean you truly are , you know you're got to put you on the pedestal because you've done it all and you're seasoned , you know , and a lot of people think that they can do one thing and next thing , you know , I'm just this and it's like no , you've actually eaten crow and actually , you know , made it to the top , ladder by ladder , falling down a couple of
steps , going back up For sure . And it's a good feeling to know you , it's a good feeling to be back here with you . You know all that stuff and it just and it brings back good memories , man , I'm like , you know , just donge it out in the kitchen with you .
Yeah , I do , I mean you were there for a lot of those super early like cutting my teeth , kind of pop-ups and stuff cooking at breweries cooking at bed and breakfast doing pop-ups in restaurants . But , but , but .
But you know , pop-ups and trying to sell tickets to , to , to creative culinary events , where we were just playing , but , but trying to trying to make something of it and make a name for ourselves and doing it through radio and podcast and social media , but then also through food and through cooking and and and just building a culinary brand and and all of those
ways . And I think you're right , it's kind of that , that culinary Renaissance man mentality of like , and I don't think it was . I can tell you it was never something that I thought . This is the path . This is what I want to do in the next five years . I want to do all of these things .
It wasn't on your dream board , right it ?
wasn't it just kind of worked out that way ?
It's just the way that life went . So you mentioned food journalism . What was that about ?
So I really got into the food world through blogging . And then and then , the next thing that I turned to after the success of the blog was was other food writing . So I , I , got a master's degree in political science and then said I don't want to be a political scientist for the rest of my life , Didn't go on to get a PhD .
I got high school master's in baseball for two years then got a job doing grant writing and policy research for the state of Louisiana .
I was bored out of my mind . I started writing about food instead of healthcare grants while I was sitting in a cubicle just being bored and and that food writing turned into a blog .
But then the blog turned into other freelance food writing opportunities and I was able to write for other magazines and newspapers and the food writing is really kind of for my own blog and then and then finding ways to write for other publications is what led to radio and podcast and everything else .
Hold on , hold on , because I'm you're talking , you're saying this and you said I'm in a cubicle man , and you're like I'm bored out of my mind . I'm in a cubicle and your window to the world was the food . The food , kind of like , opened the horizons .
It literally opened the window for you , figuratively as well , but then you jumped out the window and you actually made a made a life in it .
So you , you , in your confinement you know , we all I mean , I've worked , I've worked in cubicles for a short period of time too His brutal , and what you did was you said , oh man , my windows , my laptop , or you know windows my laptop and I can see the world . And then the chicken window opened . You jumped out . Here you are .
You did all this other stuff To me . I think there's a story in that , one little piece . That little piece , I think , would make a terrific story .
Yeah .
You don't that that story doesn't know it doesn't stop there , no , but you fuck . That's the focus . I think , I think that would be inspirational to millions of people , that part , that vein man to me , because when you're talking to me , that's what I hear and I'm like my goodness , that was me .
Mm-hmm , that was me so , honestly , most of the most of the true professional Keynote speeches that I've gone , have been telling a version of that story .
That's beautiful . I've been telling the how I quit my day job to eat and drink for a living story .
And it goes back all the way to that , to the cubicle , to you know my degrees and teaching and cubicle and leading to there and then , and then how I went from taking the risk of quitting that day job and Then trying to eat and drink for a living , and , and and then the journey thereof to get to where I am now .
But but that that process is a big part of that . That speech .
so so , jay , what do you ? What's what's in the works right now , that you're , what's coming up next to you ? I mean , obviously we're here , we're doing this .
This is this is .
This is prime time , right now . What do you have coming up ?
Yeah , 2024 is gonna be gonna be a wild one .
I've got a few big things on the calendar already .
I should be in Puerto Rico the month of July and I'll be teaching a college class in Williamsport , pennsylvania , the month of September and the rest of the year I'm gonna be all over the place . I'm gonna be doing a few tours when I'm cooking somewhere . I'm just traveling and . Experiencing and inviting people to come with me .
I know I'm gonna be booking a lot of a lot of catering and private dinners and stuff like that . In between , when I'm home , the counter starting to fill up already .
I'll be in Washington DC for an event called Washington .
Mardi Gras , that's a big Louisiana celebration of culture in our nation's capital . Yeah , dc Mardi Gras , I'll be there in late January . I mean I could pull out the calendar and start flipping through it . Most of it's mostly full already .
Your calendar is full , unlike me . Right at this moment here , you know we have two Louisiana boys sitting here .
We really have to give the props to Billy Nungesser , lieutenant Governor State of Louisiana , who really is , helps out chefs and showcases Louisiana seafood , louisiana industry , louisiana culture to the world and he's really propelling a lot of chefs and giving them those platforms To be able to go to DC , mardi Gras , go to different things in different cities and I've
had the honor to go with you and Ryan Andre to Austin and do all these different things with chefs that Take care of the tab and make sure that we're showcasing our Bounty between you know the world and it's a great opportunity to shout out to the lieutenant's governor's office .
The lieutenant governor's office provided some funding for Louisiana team that's here right now there's a bunch of sponsors for Louisiana seafoods one of them , and that was awesome .
We got to cook with them last night at their Airbnb the nice soft-shelled crawfish . We used cheese as the batter . I mean we had topped it with that sauce . It was amazing . It was amazing If you weren't at the bar last night we would have been able to be invited .
My , that's my favorite Be there my dude , let me tell you something . So I wasn't , I'm not a big , you know , crawfish guy like that . Whatever that y'all did last night .
Chef Jeffrey .
I want . I want that in my life on a regular basis . Now I feel like I'm gonna gain another 15 pounds man .
Damn it , I don't want to .
Know , it's literally if they're happy wait , it's happy wait though .
Yeah .
Oh , absolutely this SOB over here . He gave me 25 pounds I put on and not a lot of time . Come on man , it was the best , funnest 25 pounds . I've been saying it . I have been absolutely saying it was Mickey , he was rocky . Yeah , it was , it was crazy , really crazy . Anyway . How does everybody find it ?
All social media channels at JAY .
JAYDUC .
OTE . So that's Instagram Facebook page , jdcody , twitter or X .
TikTok , all of it , jdcodycom as well , and then there's links to all that , and so , yeah , find all those social platforms and the website .
What we'll do we'll get on the calendar , we'll do a call in and we'll get a little bit deeper into kind of like the some roots of this .
I would love that man . I would be great man .
I appreciate you being on the program .
So glad y'all are here at the World Food Championships . I love this event and this is such a great place for you guys to be with us With us podcast , and the show Makes all the sense of the world .
I freaking love this . The team , we all freaking love it .
Thanks for having us here , miss Island John .
I literally sent him a text about 30 minutes ago saying bro , I wish he was here . Man Wish you was here . Alright , poochie pooch , appreciate you being on this episode . Thank you very much . We are out . Love you bud .