Speaker 1: This is cut to It with Steve Smith Senior at
Speaker 1: production of The Black Effect and I heart Radio. I'm
Speaker 1: Steve Smith Senior and I and this is cut to it.
Speaker 1: Good do it, Good do it. They's getting down to
Speaker 1: do it. Good do it. We asked the questions you
Speaker 1: always want to know, but no one ever asked, let's
Speaker 1: cut to it. You ain't heard am about it, then
Speaker 1: we're about to let you know. It's all it's I mean,
Speaker 1: I don't consider world right now, right wrote right now.
Speaker 1: She's also a chef instructor and based out of New York.
Speaker 1: But also I personally know she does do some She
Speaker 1: does spend some time in Florida because of her her boyfriend,
Speaker 1: who's a good friend who was actually for the cut
Speaker 1: to It audience. Her boyfriend is a good friend of
Speaker 1: mine who comes annually to our Montana golf ski trip.
Speaker 1: So it's it's really it's been a great opportunity to
Speaker 1: meet Jason, to get the norm we will love to
Speaker 1: welcome in Dana been the Nazi and I just said
Speaker 1: it wrong, But that's okay. That's that Los Angeles education.
Speaker 1: So give me a hall pass, please, um and you
Speaker 1: can correct me because my co host and uh and
Speaker 1: friend and booking and whatever he is. They're chuckling profusely
Speaker 1: at me. It almost came across as a regime in
Speaker 1: our history. You might not want to say perfectly all
Speaker 1: say perfect all right, Well, welcome to the podcast. Obviously.
Speaker 1: I'm Steve Smith, Singer. I got my man to my left,
Speaker 1: Gerard little John, our co host extraordinaire. Uh. He has
Speaker 1: a great wealth of knowledge about a lot of things.
Speaker 1: But my man is not a good basketball player. But
Speaker 1: when I need all basketball information, he's the guy I
Speaker 1: am uh notoriously knocking on his door and begging him
Speaker 1: on on text with hey, brod, I just don't get it.
Speaker 1: So he's he's schooling me on that and then Joe
Speaker 1: are booking guys gonna be his insult his his insults. Uh.
Speaker 1: He's a master of everything. He's a jack. I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: he's a jack of all trains, a master of nothing.
Speaker 1: He could tell you why, but I asked him to
Speaker 1: fix fix it. Man, he would look at you and say,
Speaker 1: that ain't my job. Scription that is a fair overview.
Speaker 1: And I am good at basketball. You don't look like
Speaker 1: you can play basketball just hook shots, because i've seen
Speaker 1: you at that. I've both of y'all on the same court. No,
Speaker 1: same court, still a lot of bricks. I did hit
Speaker 1: the backboard though, and he missed the first shot of
Speaker 1: the air ball, and Boston was like giving back to it,
Speaker 1: so we didn't let him let that slide. So, hey,
Speaker 1: welcome to the podcast. We have this, Uh, I love
Speaker 1: some ice breakers. I'm formulating the icebreakers. I was so
Speaker 1: excited about the next two ice the icebreakers I have
Speaker 1: for today on our guests, multiple guests that I was
Speaker 1: afraid to even send the icebreakers because I was scared
Speaker 1: that they were so good that g or Joe would
Speaker 1: try to ask the question. So I was kind of selfish.
Speaker 1: I was actually insecure about them because they're so good.
Speaker 1: We're we're we're not gonna hidjeck your sec I was
Speaker 1: just I was just saying, how good they are. So
Speaker 1: here we go, all right? You ready? All right? What
Speaker 1: ends with the T? And it's full of tea? What
Speaker 1: ends with the T? Starts with the T? Sorry with
Speaker 1: the T ends with the T and has it is
Speaker 1: a teapot? Good job, it was a good job. Food
Speaker 1: Network lady. She was alright, Um, what's the last book
Speaker 1: you read? Oh, I'm reading a book called Very Valentine,
Speaker 1: which is an Italian romantic novel, and also The Goal,
Speaker 1: which is a business not at all and the tad
Speaker 1: boring but also interesting at the same time. Have you
Speaker 1: read it? Do I look like I read that book
Speaker 1: Very Valentine? No? The Goal quite possibly? Okay, cool? Alright,
Speaker 1: you have a business empire, so yes, The Goal absolutely
Speaker 1: an empire. I like that. I need to get some
Speaker 1: the Empire checked. That's several people I need to call.
Speaker 1: I got a whole the other day, so I would
Speaker 1: I would confirmed. Have you ever read the book, uh,
Speaker 1: the Golden Egg? The Golden Egg? Now? Should? It's actually
Speaker 1: a good one because you're you're in a food service
Speaker 1: people business, so it's kind of good. It's all right,
Speaker 1: I'm writing it down. Yeah, it's a short read to it,
Speaker 1: got it. It's one of those short reads that it's
Speaker 1: like fifty pages of goodness and then when you're doing
Speaker 1: you go, I feel stupid now just because just how
Speaker 1: much is in that little that little book that you've
Speaker 1: missed out on. So it's pretty good. It's called The
Speaker 1: Golden Neck. Sign me up? Thanks? All right? All right,
Speaker 1: last one, which is more important, the human body or
Speaker 1: the human mind. I'm gonna go mind. We're gonna go mind.
Speaker 1: That's it, Joe. I would say mind as well too. Alright, mine,
Speaker 1: all right, I say I'm cheating, but I'll explain why.
Speaker 1: I'll say both. We got a guy O J. Burgans
Speaker 1: with the Baltimore Ravens who suffers from mL uh ms
Speaker 1: and he is not able to move. Anything is up
Speaker 1: his eyes and his mouth and so you mail J
Speaker 1: and he does everything by eyesight. Uh, he can't speak.
Speaker 1: He breathes all that stuff. They you know they he
Speaker 1: has a full time um caretaker and his mind is
Speaker 1: so wonderful. But I can't imagine how intelligent he is.
Speaker 1: And yet who used to be a football player, a
Speaker 1: pretty darnker for football player who can't get up sometimes
Speaker 1: because he's one of those guys, he will send you
Speaker 1: an email that just breaks you down. His perspective, how
Speaker 1: he looks at the world, and you just want to
Speaker 1: hug him, and you could tell he wants to hug
Speaker 1: you back, but his words are his affection. I got
Speaker 1: a random email from him about two weeks ago, and
Speaker 1: I so wanted to give him a hug, and I
Speaker 1: so wanted to feel a hug from him, but I
Speaker 1: know he can't. So this question for me as I
Speaker 1: as I, as I looked at it, I started to
Speaker 1: dissect It's like he has a great mind, but that
Speaker 1: one time or you know, maybe you I know you do,
Speaker 1: I know you do. I have and I'm not sure
Speaker 1: about you. We have someone in our life that we
Speaker 1: wish that they passed away, that we can just get
Speaker 1: that last hug from them, right even on our mind,
Speaker 1: we know that they loved us, we know that they're there,
Speaker 1: but it's that physical hug that you need, and your
Speaker 1: mind is telling you, uh, but they still love you.
Speaker 1: They're looking down on you, but your body saying but
Speaker 1: I need that from my grandma. I need that from
Speaker 1: my grandpa. I need that from somebody. So that's why
Speaker 1: I say both because of that perspective, that that that
Speaker 1: oh J gives me every so often, and I'm just like, wow,
Speaker 1: what to be so smart, so love me, so caring,
Speaker 1: so thoughtful, and a little bit of trapped. M hmm,
Speaker 1: that's the perfect word for it. Trapped. I can totally
Speaker 1: relate my This is why I chose mine because my
Speaker 1: dad is blind m and he's incredible. He played basketball,
Speaker 1: for Kentucky. He runs his own business. He lives independently.
Speaker 1: He runs his own business, and the type of business.
Speaker 1: He's a real estate broker, right, so he has spent
Speaker 1: his whole career buying and selling houses that he couldn't see,
Speaker 1: which is what you think about it, right, that is
Speaker 1: not on the information sheet. So that's why I went
Speaker 1: because if he you're right, If you're right, it's all
Speaker 1: about perspective. Right, if he can do if you're a
Speaker 1: friend o j or if my dad can do what
Speaker 1: they do on a daily basis, send an email that
Speaker 1: changes the world, give a family the house that changes
Speaker 1: their world. You know, it's perspective. It's like, all right,
Speaker 1: I can do anything. What's your dad's name, Bartolomeo say?
Speaker 1: Like the car that's Alpha Romeo. I was trying to
Speaker 1: associate it because I was going to put it out
Speaker 1: with two. I can tell you right now, if Bartolomeo
Speaker 1: Benettatti calls you, just paying him, just don't ask do it.
Speaker 1: Just paying him cash doesn't matter. Hey, steve somebody to
Speaker 1: do it. What's her name? Watch give him his money.
Speaker 1: He is not here to distrunning. The first of all,
Speaker 1: I'm not even going down where are you from in
Speaker 1: a place you call your hometown. I'm from Ormond Beach, Florida,
Speaker 1: and the place I call home is New York, New York.
Speaker 1: For sure? Why New York, New York? Since you I
Speaker 1: feel most alive. Okay, it's the center of the universe. Also,
Speaker 1: in case you didn't know that, I didn't know. No, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: US coach people try that, but it's not it's great.
Speaker 1: I love that you got sh she did, she shust
Speaker 1: me and waiting, she said, go play the child. I
Speaker 1: love l A to come and play. That's what you
Speaker 1: do in LA. You don't live with that traffic. And
Speaker 1: New York is not traffic. You're just skipping around like
Speaker 1: like like New York is never, there's never any Bankers
Speaker 1: are not comparable at all. No, no, no. You can
Speaker 1: ride your bike everywhere you gotta go in New York
Speaker 1: for the subway, you can in l A. I don't
Speaker 1: think you can know. Whenever I go to l A
Speaker 1: and I'll text one of my l A friends like, hey,
Speaker 1: you want to go grab dinner here? I'm in Santa Monica.
Speaker 1: They're like Santa Monica. That's so far Santa Monica. If
Speaker 1: they live in the Laguna Beach city wherever. That's that's far.
Speaker 1: That's just like asking somebody in the Hamptons to come
Speaker 1: to come to the Bronx. That's quite a white Can
Speaker 1: you take a bike there? You can get there next week,
Speaker 1: said two and a half hour train ride, as it
Speaker 1: would be if you guys actually had trains. But you
Speaker 1: don't have trains. Again, why New York in the superior city,
Speaker 1: she said, superior? Listen. With all that being said, I
Speaker 1: know where your man is in Florida. So so for
Speaker 1: whichever hood you represent, so whichever hood you claim, how
Speaker 1: was your upbringing as a kid. Oh, my bringing as
Speaker 1: a kid is entirely different than life now, which is
Speaker 1: maybe why I like New York so much. Like where
Speaker 1: I grew up as a sleepy, tiny little beach town.
Speaker 1: You go everywhere in a Botinian flipbops. It's it's quiet,
Speaker 1: it's calm, it's fairly boring, which is why New York
Speaker 1: so intoxicating. Right, you've got our you got culture, you've
Speaker 1: got theater. Quite the opposite. You still got some people
Speaker 1: in bikinis and flip flops in New York too. It
Speaker 1: just depends on depends on where you just depends on
Speaker 1: New York. In New York, several times, Raine Sleader snow,
Speaker 1: it's always an outfit or two. I'm going like a
Speaker 1: wedding dress in what is this that doesn't match? Well?
Speaker 1: That is true. You have to be able to rock
Speaker 1: speakers with whatever outfit you're wearing. Clean maybe not, but
Speaker 1: like you've got to make a quick shoe change. Every
Speaker 1: New York girl knows that there's a handbag that fits
Speaker 1: a great pair of stilettos and a great pair of sneakers.
Speaker 1: Because you're gonna make a change, at least one startin today.
Speaker 1: Yeah you will. But it's always interesting in New York
Speaker 1: to watch people, like watch a guy in a suit
Speaker 1: with you know, with some monarchs or or you know,
Speaker 1: because good walkers shoes and they you know, they're on
Speaker 1: the hustle and bustle. Explain this to me. I get it,
Speaker 1: but I'm act stupid. You're the first generation American, you know.
Speaker 1: For some people that's listening, they may say, Dove, of course,
Speaker 1: you know, she she's the first American in her family,
Speaker 1: But what does that really mean. It's huge, however, for
Speaker 1: the family it's bigger or uh not, it's not a
Speaker 1: are but huger because because those those family members know
Speaker 1: exactly how hard it has been for that family collectively.
Speaker 1: But then you have that one person that is that
Speaker 1: glimmer of hope that sets, that sets an opportunity and
Speaker 1: taking advantage of an opportunity that so many other people wished, died,
Speaker 1: bled and work their tail off like your dad to
Speaker 1: give you this opportunity, and you took full advantage of it.
Speaker 1: But take us on that journey for your family on
Speaker 1: what that means for you to be the first American
Speaker 1: Because you're the first American. You're sitting in front of us,
Speaker 1: don't cut to it, but the people behind you, where
Speaker 1: were they and what did they go through to be
Speaker 1: able to afford you this moment to be this all
Speaker 1: star that you are. Thank you and thank you for
Speaker 1: having me. I haven't had the chance to tell you,
Speaker 1: um how much it is win not just for me,
Speaker 1: but for all the ben and not eat the whole
Speaker 1: that's all three of you. UM, it's pretty cool. I'm
Speaker 1: I'm what they call a pizza bagel or I would
Speaker 1: like to say a mozzarella stick. So my dad is
Speaker 1: I do not know what any I'll break it down
Speaker 1: because all of her was slursh, that's all I heard.
Speaker 1: I'm like, I'm not stepping on that. So my dad,
Speaker 1: as you know, he's Sicilian from a little tiny island
Speaker 1: and um um sleep called liberty. And my mom is
Speaker 1: a Russian Jew, And so I'm a pizza bagel the
Speaker 1: best of both worlds, or a mozzarella stick because I
Speaker 1: like to call it um. And I really grew up
Speaker 1: with exposure to both sides and a really open environment
Speaker 1: where it was understood that my parents came from two
Speaker 1: totally different backgrounds, but there was a there was a
Speaker 1: lot of love, at least for a period of time.
Speaker 1: Th So I think for them what it means to
Speaker 1: be first generation is that the plights that their parents
Speaker 1: um went through to put them in a better spot
Speaker 1: is paying off tenfold now for myself and my brother,
Speaker 1: because we are afforded opportunities that I don't even think
Speaker 1: they dreamt of. I remember when I told my parents
Speaker 1: that I wanted to work in food. My mom was like,
Speaker 1: that's fantastic, that is something you've always loved. And my
Speaker 1: dad was like, you're crazy. That's not what we came
Speaker 1: here for. That's not what my parents came here for
Speaker 1: to him, the fact that I could follow a passion
Speaker 1: and turn it into a career path seemed insane when
Speaker 1: the American dream was to come here, get an education,
Speaker 1: get a traditional job that allows you to have stability
Speaker 1: and success and a family. To turn that idea on
Speaker 1: its head and say no, I'm going to do something
Speaker 1: creative and I miss you. I will leverage it and
Speaker 1: I will make it into a career. He was like, why,
Speaker 1: You're smarter than that. It took a long time, and
Speaker 1: even now some some days I can see that he
Speaker 1: is still confused. How in the world I have made
Speaker 1: food into a career. So where did the passion for
Speaker 1: food come from? Well, my grandmother's easy to I mean,
Speaker 1: but my grandparents really so my great grandfather, they say,
Speaker 1: I don't I didn't have to have a chance to
Speaker 1: meet him, but they say. He was sent off to
Speaker 1: the Italian Army and first day there he cooked and
Speaker 1: somehow the food was tasted and was like no, no,
Speaker 1: he stays, he doesn't fight, and eventually became one of
Speaker 1: Mussolini's cooks. My dad's parents, UM, just glance over that
Speaker 1: there's a lot for for some for some of us.
Speaker 1: I think g and um, Joe know exactly, but um
Speaker 1: I don't. So who's Mussolini, big Italian leader? So Mussolini
Speaker 1: was like Napole you've heard Napoleon Bonaparte. Mussolini is one
Speaker 1: of the famous generals, if not the ruler of all
Speaker 1: of Italy and the Italian Army back in the day.
Speaker 1: So when her when when her mother, excuse me, when
Speaker 1: her great grandfather said that, like, it resonates with me, danas,
Speaker 1: So to let you know, my great grandfather actually has
Speaker 1: a we have a town in Italy named after my ancestors,
Speaker 1: which is Bobino, Italy. And my great grandfather was in
Speaker 1: the Italian Army and there's actually a statue of him
Speaker 1: in front of this town that I've never been to
Speaker 1: that I want to go to. Let's go. I'm man
Speaker 1: is about to rip me apart for not being there.
Speaker 1: I'm just letting you know, we don't know this about you,
Speaker 1: and we all supposed to be who I got a
Speaker 1: whole town named out this folks. But because I was
Speaker 1: gonna google Fushi and if I looked up Fushi nothing,
Speaker 1: I was going to don't don't google boa Ya. It's
Speaker 1: because I'm about say I have been ill. Ain't none
Speaker 1: of fushi to never witness protection. That's all I can
Speaker 1: tell you. That's that's yeah. So for for to fight,
Speaker 1: for her great grandfather to go and fight, now, the
Speaker 1: Italian Army has never been confused with a um intimidating force.
Speaker 1: Let's just be honest. But so for everyone would always
Speaker 1: have to go fight, that meant you were a man.
Speaker 1: So for her great grandfather to be such a great
Speaker 1: cook that he wouldn't quote go defend his country, to
Speaker 1: stay back and cook from Musseolini, that is a huge,
Speaker 1: huge accolade. That is huge. I mean I know the name,
Speaker 1: but I didn't understand the history. I needed to pause
Speaker 1: and get something couldn't have done as of things I'm
Speaker 1: good at but not mastering. Remember, yeah, I told you,
Speaker 1: look information information. Why does that information just retained there
Speaker 1: for these moments right now? It's exactly the only reason
Speaker 1: I love cut to It, and I love it even
Speaker 1: more when you download us and subscribe and you can
Speaker 1: follow us on social media too, Smithie, where where at
Speaker 1: that's at? Cut to It on Instagram? What about Twitter? At?
Speaker 1: Cut to it? Facebook? Cut to It featuring Steve Smith singr?
Speaker 1: What about online and you can follow us at cut
Speaker 1: to It podcast dot com, where you can buy merch
Speaker 1: and you can subscribe to us wherever you listen to podcasts.
Speaker 1: I got all my answers questions. Um, yeah, I got
Speaker 1: all my questions answered. That's what I'm here for, a brother,
Speaker 1: cut to a podcast dot com. So the passion that
Speaker 1: the the DNA of of of cooking has been in
Speaker 1: your family for years and so my grandmother on my
Speaker 1: mom's side was the first food writer for the Miami Herald,
Speaker 1: which to be a woman back at that time, you know,
Speaker 1: a Jewish woman in Miami to say like, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: write and I'm gonna write about food, and she convinced them,
Speaker 1: especially at that time, women were not looked at as
Speaker 1: as as as people of influten. Wow. So it's in
Speaker 1: my veins. I can't deny it. So how long have
Speaker 1: you and I love to eat? So do I we
Speaker 1: all agree? At what age did you really start to
Speaker 1: have the passion for cooking? I would say probably nine
Speaker 1: or ten. I started working in restaurants when I was fourteen,
Speaker 1: but um, nine or ten, it was like, yeah, I
Speaker 1: don't need dance was a huge part of my life.
Speaker 1: I was a competitive dancer, and any time I wasn't dancing,
Speaker 1: I wanted to be in the kitchen. There was like
Speaker 1: nothing else that was of interest to me. But when
Speaker 1: you think about it, they're both like so so creative,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. They're just a form of expression,
Speaker 1: but they're they're super creative. But yet they required a
Speaker 1: ton of concentration, a ton of attention as well a
Speaker 1: lot of a lot of a lot of technique in detail.
Speaker 1: And you couldn't have it in either one. You'd see
Speaker 1: it physically and dancing and your food wouldn't be great
Speaker 1: if you have to and cooking, I mean, you gotta
Speaker 1: be good at it, right, So when did you? When
Speaker 1: did you start realizing I want to take this serious
Speaker 1: and I believe I can make a career out of it.
Speaker 1: When I realized that dance was no longer an option,
Speaker 1: so I um tore many three times. The first was
Speaker 1: in a competition. I tore an a c L during
Speaker 1: a performance and changed the game. Yeah, I hurt my ego,
Speaker 1: like for it to happen on stage and with that move?
Speaker 1: What are you trying to do? Uh, it's it's called
Speaker 1: it's now illegal, so you don't see dancers doing anymore,
Speaker 1: thank god, because a lot of people heard themselves. But
Speaker 1: if you know what a Russian is, which is like
Speaker 1: a toe touch, right, but instead of coming down and
Speaker 1: landing on your feet, you do a toe touch and
Speaker 1: then in the air you turn and you land in
Speaker 1: a split. No that there's a legal dance moves that
Speaker 1: just here there's jump up and shank somebody that it's
Speaker 1: been outlawed, it's been out on. Yeah, what do you do?
Speaker 1: Not that? Not that exactly. So that made it clear like, Okay,
Speaker 1: you can still dance and have fun, and I do
Speaker 1: for sure, I'll tear up any dance. I'll make something
Speaker 1: into a dancefort tomorrow today. But it made it clear
Speaker 1: that it just it wasn't going to be a long
Speaker 1: term option anymore. So electric do you do the electric slide?
Speaker 1: Tear it up? She said? Cupid shuffle? Yeah? Who doesn't
Speaker 1: do the Cupid shuffle? A lot of people. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's old, but let's do it. That's that's traditional at
Speaker 1: the black moment, use and wins. I know, damn well,
Speaker 1: you and Jason are not doing electric slide when y'all
Speaker 1: go out, he does. That's my whole point and so
Speaker 1: I knew he's some of those. A lot of people
Speaker 1: you've you've had the opportunity. I think what you've gone
Speaker 1: to Johnson and Wales, right, is that the one here
Speaker 1: in Charlotte? Is they're multiple there? Well I did not
Speaker 1: go to the Charlotte campus, but it's a great Okay,
Speaker 1: which one did you go to? What does Johnson and
Speaker 1: Wales present Because a lot of people just look at
Speaker 1: it as a culinary school. However, I know they do
Speaker 1: so many other things, and I'm always interested to hear
Speaker 1: exactly what they offer for students because on paper it
Speaker 1: could be overwhelming. Right, you say hospitality or management, and
Speaker 1: people don't really understand. You know, how many jobs are
Speaker 1: in management in hospitality that aren't necessarily up front and personable,
Speaker 1: dealing with people all the time face to face. But
Speaker 1: there's so many other elements to it. What example, Yeah,
Speaker 1: don't talk about that, Like how how did you knowing
Speaker 1: your passion for food? Having having that passion for dance?
Speaker 1: So let's all of that is creativity. So how did
Speaker 1: going to Johnson and Wales? How did you hone in
Speaker 1: that creativity to really to propel you or take that
Speaker 1: step forward into you know, knowing your desire, your dreams,
Speaker 1: your hopes can really happen if you do this. Mm hmm.
Speaker 1: Well there's a lot of questions there that quadruple barrel questions.
Speaker 1: You loaded the clip on that one that was a
Speaker 1: short ball shot going right there home protection. Well j
Speaker 1: W both JU was my undergrad I did two bad
Speaker 1: first degrees there and then an m B a Cornell
Speaker 1: like Cornell. Yeah, both universities have were incredible, um and
Speaker 1: what they give back to their students. But Johnson Wales,
Speaker 1: you're you're really hitting on something. There's seeming that people
Speaker 1: do underestimate, Like if you know about it, which a
Speaker 1: lot of people don't. It's a small, non non for
Speaker 1: profit private school, right, it's not it's not super well
Speaker 1: known beyond the culinary space. But they actually have a
Speaker 1: really robust criminal justice program. They pumped out kids who
Speaker 1: are apparently really great candidates for h j D, NBA
Speaker 1: programs that not a lot of people know about, which
Speaker 1: I think is cool. Right if you go to Johnson Wales,
Speaker 1: if you think you want to cook, and then you
Speaker 1: get to know the industry and you're like this is
Speaker 1: not for me. There's actually a pretty cool and pretty
Speaker 1: strong program that you can get into without having change universities.
Speaker 1: So big, big opponent of j wu um. I would say,
Speaker 1: the biggest takeaway from being a student there, and and
Speaker 1: I don't think that this has changed, is how strict
Speaker 1: they are in the way you present yourself. Right, So
Speaker 1: as chefs, you have a certain mental image that comes
Speaker 1: to mind when you think of a chef, a white coat,
Speaker 1: a white apron. You're clean, your your pristine, your well
Speaker 1: grooms hair pulled back, and they're really strict about that.
Speaker 1: And any classes you take that aren't in the kitchen,
Speaker 1: you wear full professional dress. Like college kids go to
Speaker 1: class in a suit or in a women's suit or
Speaker 1: a jacket in his hie. What happens if they can't
Speaker 1: What happens if someone is their own scholarship who can't
Speaker 1: afford that? Yeah, I was there on side. There's a
Speaker 1: there's a huge scholarship section. I know, but I'm talking
Speaker 1: about I understand there's a scholarship program because I understand
Speaker 1: every but I'm talking about the prison how they present themselves.
Speaker 1: What if they can't or to ye to present themselves. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the professional dress, for sure, I mean the culinary professional
Speaker 1: dress is given to them, and the professors take it
Speaker 1: super seriously, like they take a credit card to men's
Speaker 1: faces to see if they shaved. That's gonna get you.
Speaker 1: That's gonna get you a two piece. If you put
Speaker 1: a credit card to my face to see if I shave. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I like a little struff, But you know what I want.
Speaker 1: You put a credit card in my face to see
Speaker 1: if I shave, I'm gonna slap you. Ain't take that
Speaker 1: credit card. Yeah, you have to stick out your tongue
Speaker 1: show if you have a per thing? Is have it
Speaker 1: taken out? It's it's extreme. So to go to college,
Speaker 1: you're sticking your tongue out for what to make sure
Speaker 1: that you have a thing so you can't have Is that? So?
Speaker 1: Is this a cold of ethics that you signed prior
Speaker 1: to be some health stuff? What if that falls into
Speaker 1: the food so you fish it out? That's kind of disgusting, Okay,
Speaker 1: and not since why I didn't go there. What's more
Speaker 1: discussing is they're gonna make you stick out your tongue
Speaker 1: to see if you have a pierson. I don't think
Speaker 1: you could not happen. Yeah, this is this all happens
Speaker 1: before you even get in the kitchen and you're in
Speaker 1: the kitchen for a six hours, so it's you're a
Speaker 1: check from how to tell before you get in you
Speaker 1: can stick your tongue out over the risotto. Could Gerard
Speaker 1: wear his belly button ring? Is that fine? Yes, they're
Speaker 1: never going to see you. Like. Different areas of your
Speaker 1: tongue have different receptors, so if you have a fiercing
Speaker 1: it makes it ma different. Okay, I understand that. So
Speaker 1: that's for the professional standard. So what were some of
Speaker 1: the things that Johnson wales obviously, um, you know you
Speaker 1: got your management and hospitality, you got your NBA from Cornell.
Speaker 1: What was all those experiences good for? And how to
Speaker 1: prepare you for just being in the food industry today.
Speaker 1: Perform under pressure. That's what it's all about, and that's
Speaker 1: really what my job is. It's just problem solving, like
Speaker 1: putting out fires literally and figuratively most most of the
Speaker 1: time figuratively, and doing it under pressure. Now with millennials,
Speaker 1: how do you with millennials today? Problem solving and putting
Speaker 1: out fires requires uh, something tangible, It requires actually people
Speaker 1: to do something and follow through with it. Do you
Speaker 1: find that that's more challenging now? What millennials in such
Speaker 1: a high performance pressure cooking um result driven business that
Speaker 1: people don't like to do. Yes, yes, it's much harder.
Speaker 1: Look I I taught high school kids in between Johnston
Speaker 1: Whales and Cornell and because thank you, I will take it.
Speaker 1: Because getting thirty seventeen year olds to do anything organized
Speaker 1: at seven am is a feat in and of itself.
Speaker 1: But I'm super grateful for that experience because if you
Speaker 1: can convince them to do something, you can really it
Speaker 1: teaches you to problem solve. Yeah, there's a generational um
Speaker 1: shift that's happening, for sure, and I don't think it's
Speaker 1: for the best. And so how does that? How does
Speaker 1: that working? Like? So you know, so you graduate and
Speaker 1: then you start what because you started doing high school?
Speaker 1: Just walk us through that. You have so much on
Speaker 1: your on your palette that I'm I'm a d d on.
Speaker 1: I'm a d d on trying to grab it all
Speaker 1: and figure it out and throw it out there to
Speaker 1: let our listeners know kind of everything that you're doing,
Speaker 1: because it's amazing. We've had yew, you'd be the third,
Speaker 1: you'd be the third chef somebody who's been in the
Speaker 1: food industry. We had Tiffany phase on, we had Eddie Jackson.
Speaker 1: Now having you is phenomenal. But each each three of
Speaker 1: you guys, now, each of you have had so many
Speaker 1: different stories, and you're the first one that really had
Speaker 1: to do with school going through the school process. The
Speaker 1: other ones were baptism by fire right. They lack the
Speaker 1: I think it's more effective. There's a big problem right,
Speaker 1: the whole idea of culinary schools. And I don't want
Speaker 1: to put them down. We need vocational job training, but
Speaker 1: it's a broken system. Kids are spending tens of thousands
Speaker 1: of dollars to go to school with an idea of
Speaker 1: what they think working in the industry is going to
Speaker 1: be like, and they come out entitled, ready for their
Speaker 1: own TV show, and they don't even know how to
Speaker 1: hold a knife yet, and how could they. It's just practice, right,
Speaker 1: But if you're twenty years old, you haven't had that
Speaker 1: much practice. So I I think we have a big
Speaker 1: problem that culinary schools are so expensive, and let's face it,
Speaker 1: the return on that investment is never going to come.
Speaker 1: The average industry income is never going to allow you
Speaker 1: to pay back those loans. God forbid you took them out.
Speaker 1: So I think trial by fire is a way to
Speaker 1: do it, and that's the way people used to learn
Speaker 1: how to become chefs. There's something called staging, and that's
Speaker 1: how you used to become a chef back in the day.
Speaker 1: Staging like stage French words, staging like apprentice. You wanted
Speaker 1: to be a chef, You didn't go to school, You
Speaker 1: went in the stage. You found the best kitchen that
Speaker 1: you could get yourself into, and you are there, bitch,
Speaker 1: you peel potatoes for a place to live. And then
Speaker 1: once they see that you can do that, well, they'll
Speaker 1: give you something up. I've done it all the really
Speaker 1: strong chefs in this country have have done it all
Speaker 1: over the world. And it's it that is trial by
Speaker 1: fire and the things that you're going to learn the costume.
Speaker 1: You're great. You you understand techniques, but that's it. It's
Speaker 1: just like a superficial understanding. You don't actually know them
Speaker 1: like from here. You know what I'm saying. You've got
Speaker 1: to do them a bunch to know. You got to
Speaker 1: have that problem. Yeah, muscle memory. That was such an
Speaker 1: interesting take on the higher education part because it's you're
Speaker 1: you're coming out with everything you just said. You have
Speaker 1: a false expectation. You have a skewed perception, but then
Speaker 1: you're coming out with a whole bunch of debt as well.
Speaker 1: Everything you said pleasure come out with it if you
Speaker 1: took out a loan, so and you almost can't take
Speaker 1: that out wash rest repeat on a number of different
Speaker 1: things when you talk about higher education. So it was
Speaker 1: I was locked in when you were talking about that.
Speaker 1: When I hear or look at situation where people say
Speaker 1: the system is broken, I kind of like the system
Speaker 1: is broken, because if the system wasn't broken, I wouldn't
Speaker 1: be here like this. I used I used the system.
Speaker 1: I used the broken system to get me where I am,
Speaker 1: and because of that broken system is put me in
Speaker 1: a place where then I know what I don't know,
Speaker 1: and so I can be around people and cultivate my
Speaker 1: own relationships to kind of get educated in certain areas
Speaker 1: that I feel that is usable and and I can use.
Speaker 1: And then other stuff like I don't want to learn
Speaker 1: how to build a rocket ship, don't care, not interested.
Speaker 1: I'm interested in other things, and so I'm able to
Speaker 1: talk to other people that have went to school for that.
Speaker 1: But I've lived enough life that I can I've learned
Speaker 1: how to apply and use applicable information to be able
Speaker 1: to advance myself without that degree. So I can sit
Speaker 1: and talk with real estate folks, maybe not understand and
Speaker 1: speak the the educated terms, but then I also can
Speaker 1: calculate my own I can calculate with the interest rates
Speaker 1: that I know is going on personally interest rates and
Speaker 1: business interests rates. Then I could take the number calculated
Speaker 1: towards the interest rates and then calculate what my loan
Speaker 1: payment will be over with the MS and arms. Not
Speaker 1: knowing that that's what I was doing, be able to
Speaker 1: get the number because I've been doing it long enough.
Speaker 1: I don't have a degree, but can't do that. You was, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's that's that's a go with that, Dana. In the
Speaker 1: vocational culinary arts trade, our degrees from Johnson and Wales
Speaker 1: or other high ranking higher education universities, are those individuals
Speaker 1: looked at like, oh you graduate from there, you can
Speaker 1: I'm cooked with us? Or are there individual people to
Speaker 1: you said like trial by fire? How do you get
Speaker 1: and move up the ranks? Is it the education that
Speaker 1: matters to them or is it you're just good? Yeah
Speaker 1: you don't, you don't need to degree. And probably every
Speaker 1: clinneris will never let me represent them from here on it.
Speaker 1: But you don't need a degree to climb the ranks
Speaker 1: in in the food and beverage world. If you are
Speaker 1: trying to do something in particular, like do you want
Speaker 1: to be an F and B director of a hotel?
Speaker 1: Agree with food beverage beverage director of the hotel? She
Speaker 1: dropped a B worse. I thought she was discussing me again.
Speaker 1: I didn't know. I was like, look, you talked to
Speaker 1: you talked to co hosts like that, but not so food,
Speaker 1: food and beverage, what else? So hold on, hold on,
Speaker 1: So you have to have it to degree to be
Speaker 1: able to tell me how many crates there are? What? No,
Speaker 1: just saying because food and beverlege. To work at a hotel,
Speaker 1: you must have a degree. I've been to an number
Speaker 1: of nice hotels and they have some degree F and
Speaker 1: B s that don't know what the hell they doing. Precisely,
Speaker 1: I would say most hospitality careers you don't need a degree.
Speaker 1: What are some hospitality careers the most entry level positions?
Speaker 1: You're working in front of house or back of house
Speaker 1: in a restaurant, So what do you think what kind
Speaker 1: of front house back house, which one of my Oh
Speaker 1: you're without a doubt front of house. You cannot let
Speaker 1: that personality A couple of years ago should have been
Speaker 1: like back house. No, it's personality. Come on you, you
Speaker 1: light up a room, Steve. When you can make a
Speaker 1: friend out of anybody, run I can run some folks
Speaker 1: off too. Sometimes you want if they're sitting at a
Speaker 1: table and they that is a life skill. I was
Speaker 1: just turning somebody off as a life skill. Okay, you
Speaker 1: need to be able to get people awesome time. What
Speaker 1: if you've got people sitting at your table, sitting at
Speaker 1: a bar, and you want them to move. You need
Speaker 1: somebody who's going to make them move. So that's a
Speaker 1: good skill to have to um front of house. Entry level,
Speaker 1: you're a server, maybe you're a captain, maybe you're a
Speaker 1: matre d. So what do you where did you start
Speaker 1: off at? And you know, take after you got your degree,
Speaker 1: you got all these got all this paperwork, you graduate
Speaker 1: and you go to teaching kids. No, my first job
Speaker 1: was a ship job. I was a general manager of
Speaker 1: a winery. Okay, terrible, great, great place to to try
Speaker 1: and apply all the things that I just learned. And
Speaker 1: I'm a third level some. So at the time I
Speaker 1: was only a second level some and I wanted to
Speaker 1: stay in the wine world, or really get into the
Speaker 1: wine world. But Google your bosses? Are you talking about songs?
Speaker 1: Like before Leviticus and all that? There we go, I'm
Speaker 1: here for you, this right here. So it was kind
Speaker 1: of it was kind of right, I know, you know
Speaker 1: what I say. She was like, sounds like songs. So
Speaker 1: you're a GM a general manager of a winery, and
Speaker 1: didn't go, well, huh, did not know? It was even
Speaker 1: that movie Horrible Bosses. It was that was my life.
Speaker 1: If everybody needs to have that, it's all good. It's
Speaker 1: all good. You don't need to have a horrible bass though,
Speaker 1: No you do, because then when you have a good one,
Speaker 1: you can recognize it. But sometimes you can get so
Speaker 1: damaged from the first boss that you are recoverable for
Speaker 1: the next one. It wasn't that bad, okay, So then
Speaker 1: you go from there you jump ship or they fired you,
Speaker 1: which one? No? I left. They asked me to do
Speaker 1: something was kind of illegal, and I was like, I'm out,
Speaker 1: We're not. There's a big food festival that happens every
Speaker 1: year in Miami. The largest catering company in Miami had
Speaker 1: pinch their micro greens. You know those little tiny, beautiful
Speaker 1: mini greens that you see on gorgeous food a lot. Anyway,
Speaker 1: their microgreens vendor didn't come through, so they were in
Speaker 1: a pinch. They were looking for microgreens. They needed several
Speaker 1: hundred pounds of these things. We grew in Miami. In Miami,
Speaker 1: so you need a whole you need a whole pound
Speaker 1: of green, multiple pounds of greens in Miami for the
Speaker 1: microben regular need a lot of That would not work.
Speaker 1: So anyways, long story made short. We sold we had,
Speaker 1: we grew them on property to them and you have
Speaker 1: to drive or drop it off. We had they had
Speaker 1: a courier come pick it up. This is all done
Speaker 1: at night. And they received them and they weren't at
Speaker 1: all wade, so won't be charged before with thousands of
Speaker 1: dollars more than what they actually received. So you so
Speaker 1: you didn't weigh them, so you gave him the street
Speaker 1: value precisely. I get pretty close. And so the owners
Speaker 1: they called really pissed. That's hopefully not an angry phone call.
Speaker 1: And yeah, the owners of the winery were like, hey,
Speaker 1: they signed for him. Charged them, and I was like, no,
Speaker 1: that's so, that's not right. How much did they try
Speaker 1: to charge? Oh my, it was thousands of dollars, tens
Speaker 1: of thousands of dollars more than what we gave them
Speaker 1: an actual product we gave them. It was really messed up.
Speaker 1: I was so y'all gave water down product. I follow
Speaker 1: this story. I'm following it so lack of integrity just
Speaker 1: couldn't couldn't do it anymore. And it was all done
Speaker 1: in cash. You gotta stay about your work. And so
Speaker 1: I left and I went and did a stage. I
Speaker 1: went to Paris and no stage in that dirty little
Speaker 1: city that we all love so much. Good good, let's
Speaker 1: getting down to good. Hey, Gerard, why did you get
Speaker 1: that T shirt? You mean this thing? Oh yes, I
Speaker 1: got it from cut to a podcast dot com where
Speaker 1: we have exclusive merchandise shout out to our guys at
Speaker 1: seven or four shot. But yeah, you can go on
Speaker 1: buy you a T shirt subscribed to us wherever you
Speaker 1: listen to podcasts, So you start working in what. I
Speaker 1: came home started teaching, and teaching led me to Cornell
Speaker 1: because the mentor was like, hey, you're doing this wine thing.
Speaker 1: At the time, I passed my third levels UM, and
Speaker 1: they were like, what why are you teaching high school?
Speaker 1: You should teach college. So I applied and I kind
Speaker 1: of kept the same role that we were talking about,
Speaker 1: Like I knew that I would never make enough money
Speaker 1: to pay back loan. So I was going for scholarships.
Speaker 1: That's what I That's why I chose Johnson and Whales.
Speaker 1: That's how I ended up the Cornell And so Cornell
Speaker 1: has this amazing fellowship. They choose one student a year
Speaker 1: will not student, will be half teacher half students. And
Speaker 1: that's what I did. So I did my m b A.
Speaker 1: And I taught UM several classes at Cornell's Hotel school.
Speaker 1: They paid me to go to school and it was
Speaker 1: good stuff. So now I can do what I want
Speaker 1: to do and and not be as stressed about the return.
Speaker 1: So you you do a lot of stuff, right, So
Speaker 1: let's talk about today. What what are some of the
Speaker 1: projects that you have going on today? Yeah, so now
Speaker 1: I have my own production company. What's the name of
Speaker 1: the production company, d w D Production? How did you
Speaker 1: pick that? How did you dine with Dane? Is always
Speaker 1: what it's been, It's always what I've known that I
Speaker 1: want to do. It's it's how I want to make
Speaker 1: people feel when we talk about food and wine. I
Speaker 1: want to make people feel alive and love and having
Speaker 1: a great time. And so teaching on camera, teaching people
Speaker 1: how to cook and pay their food with wine is
Speaker 1: what I love most. And being able to do that
Speaker 1: for other brands like Network or individual brands that have
Speaker 1: a story to tell, be it on TV or digital,
Speaker 1: that's that's what I'm here to do. So why do
Speaker 1: you Why is parent wines with food so important? Because
Speaker 1: it's it's elevation, right, It's one thing is good by itself,
Speaker 1: but when it's with another, it's even better. Come on,
Speaker 1: like a swoon full of peanut butter is awesome by itself,
Speaker 1: but you put that chip with banana and marshmallows, something
Speaker 1: else happens. Oh no, okay, but jelly, I don't know people.
Speaker 1: So let's let's let's play a game here there, let's go,
Speaker 1: let's get to it. Let's elevate something. We got some
Speaker 1: I can't see it. We have some wines. We you know,
Speaker 1: we got we got deals. So we gotta come up
Speaker 1: with brands, you guys, tasty, that'll be real jealous. I
Speaker 1: just had some microgreen, so I can't. So we're moving on. Um.
Speaker 1: So right now we have a cab is Alexandria Valley,
Speaker 1: Sonoma County to what would you pair this with? Ah?
Speaker 1: Is it for you? It's for your cousin Lucy, It
Speaker 1: doesn't matter. It could be Agnes out there in parish
Speaker 1: smoking at Virginia slim Lucy drink whatever is in there,
Speaker 1: Uncle James softball. So we're gonna go steak up stake
Speaker 1: in crusted and peppercorns. Okay, that was so non black
Speaker 1: right there, incrested with peppercorn. Yeah. Look, if you're spending
Speaker 1: time in Paris and you're eating steak freeze, you probably
Speaker 1: had up without knowing it. The first first few times
Speaker 1: I went to parish, I really couldn't afford it. So
Speaker 1: brother wasn't really having a lot of food, havn't Okay? Okay,
Speaker 1: that would also be bombed with a really thin smash
Speaker 1: burger like crispy edges, cheesy freako over the edges, wine
Speaker 1: and the burger. Hell. Yet I'm more of it in
Speaker 1: and out, not smashed burger smiger. All right, I understand
Speaker 1: I'm talking to an l wait. I wasn't talking about
Speaker 1: smash burger like the place I was talking about the style,
Speaker 1: like a super thin burger. But if we're talking about
Speaker 1: the best then burger and talking to two black guys
Speaker 1: that barbecue when you went, he's been over a house
Speaker 1: way too much. Hell no he been, he he been.
Speaker 1: Not bring no thinly sliced burger to the house. I
Speaker 1: don't back home, George of the flat, is this a
Speaker 1: thick burger? Crew? Only my wife after she had a
Speaker 1: couple of glasses of Danny. We'll talk Italian after this.
Speaker 1: Oh my god. Yeah, I'll tell you I would not
Speaker 1: put it with a hot dog or ribs. It's gonna
Speaker 1: be too big, too much, all right. So thinly sliced burger,
Speaker 1: not thinly slice, you smash it, all right. So you're saying, like,
Speaker 1: h so a fancy burger, No, just a thin crispy burger.
Speaker 1: That's a fancy burger. And out burgers, fancy sell milkshakes
Speaker 1: and seven up man lemonade, shape shock cells wine. They
Speaker 1: didn't go to shake Shore got crinkle fries. There's nothing
Speaker 1: wrong with the Crenkle fry. First of all, we're asking
Speaker 1: at I'm asking a stupid quest other than Moscatto is
Speaker 1: there other dessert wines? Kelly? Yes, are you in the
Speaker 1: sweet wine? I'll do a fruitful drink at the modment.
Speaker 1: That's just who I am. I'm not a I don't
Speaker 1: really drink like that, so I'd go with Seltzer. No.
Speaker 1: If I stand you with this, I'm not I'll hit
Speaker 1: the fruitful wine. But I ain't hit no Seltzer. Now,
Speaker 1: don't get a twist? All right? All right? Hold on?
Speaker 1: And then why you're gonna have to send that to Joe?
Speaker 1: I can't spell that the oldest great? What about? What
Speaker 1: about some Lambrusco love lamb fruit? It's Italian? It's Italian
Speaker 1: sweet wine? Okay? Is it sweeter than little Bubbly No? No,
Speaker 1: because can find them. It could be sometimes too sweet.
Speaker 1: It's a dessert one back in like those early like
Speaker 1: oh five, when Like Drake first came out. He started
Speaker 1: rapping about it people eating drinking mascotto with like steaks
Speaker 1: like comes not even I know you don't suppose you
Speaker 1: that that's wrong? A Scott with everything. And then we
Speaker 1: got a sharden. Is this Chardonay California Select twenty nineteen.
Speaker 1: What would you have with this? I go seafood? Really
Speaker 1: like a boil of some kind, like a crawfish boil
Speaker 1: or drinking bruce. That would be really really good. So
Speaker 1: have you been You've been in New Orleans? Right? I
Speaker 1: have what a city? Man? So would you would you
Speaker 1: go to would you go to mothers? If you go
Speaker 1: to mothers and get one of those some gumbo Montfrey,
Speaker 1: you go with this perfection man to see as good
Speaker 1: as hell? Kick your ass? You coming in there with this?
Speaker 1: Can I get nine ounce pour? We don't even have
Speaker 1: as you think we're gonna get yourself. You think we're
Speaker 1: gonna get you some wine. Let's get this ninja out
Speaker 1: of here. Can go to the stow with that? You
Speaker 1: go around and call me right? Um? Okay, last one
Speaker 1: this is this is your test. Now see if you
Speaker 1: really know about your stuff? If you too, this is Dana.
Speaker 1: This is very high end. So you're gonna you got
Speaker 1: this sour apple chiller with a with a cat. What
Speaker 1: you're gonna drink with this orange based wine? Absolutely? It's
Speaker 1: orange wine with apple and lemon juices and natural flavors
Speaker 1: code for artificial? Yeah, so you drinking with this? I
Speaker 1: saw your instagram muse over there has some you're gonna
Speaker 1: McDonald So this gotta be one of those with with
Speaker 1: that nugget the quarter pounds. Everybody knows sour apple pair
Speaker 1: as well with a nugget what you got? I mean
Speaker 1: you could go nuggets, but I'm not going nuggets. I'm
Speaker 1: going breakfast. Like what's that thing where the syrup is
Speaker 1: built in a mcgriddle, the sweet and savory it's got
Speaker 1: like sausage, egg and cheese. They don't sponsors, We can't.
Speaker 1: I don't know you would drink a sour apple that? Yes, sadly,
Speaker 1: it's gonna be sweet and oddly citrusy. What do you
Speaker 1: use the parent with wild irish rose? What do you
Speaker 1: what do you eat with that? Um? You know the
Speaker 1: bird you got up on an air. I can just
Speaker 1: drink that straight just at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: mixed package of cold in it. Chake it up if
Speaker 1: you're drinking this. If you're drinking this early in morning,
Speaker 1: you've got a problem. Bro I felt bad buying it.
Speaker 1: They were looking at me like rice check one sour apple?
Speaker 1: What else is your bout with that? A pack of
Speaker 1: black of mouths. I got a lucky strike about one cigarette?
Speaker 1: Absolutely not one of you. We'll give you some feedback.
Speaker 1: We might do that off camera. We got contracts when
Speaker 1: you're drinking on camera. I actually I don't. I'm not
Speaker 1: really a drinker anyway, And they make fun of me
Speaker 1: because when we all do, I'll get I mean, I
Speaker 1: am he's a vodka fruit juice pineapple, yea vaka pineapple.
Speaker 1: Or I'll do uh, I'll do areto sour judge me
Speaker 1: if you want no, that's no no judge. So one
Speaker 1: time somebody tried to be funny though. A waiter tried
Speaker 1: to be funny because he was like, oh, you're Mr.
Speaker 1: Tough guy. He brought it in a in a um
Speaker 1: Margaret Martini glass, Martini glass. I gave him the stair.
Speaker 1: You better put that in a short glass player. I
Speaker 1: looked at him. He was like, what is I said, bro,
Speaker 1: glass gonna get your ass. You better go ahead and
Speaker 1: put it in real glass. Don't disrespect me like that.
Speaker 1: He's like, oh, I thought it was funny. I got
Speaker 1: something I think funny on YouTube. He was like, oh,
Speaker 1: you know, I was just joking around. Come home, bro,
Speaker 1: trying to do like that. Donna stall me out and
Speaker 1: get stalled yourself. That injine, don't turn over to so um. Yeah.
Speaker 1: See if I have a drink recommendation for you, okay,
Speaker 1: Apple sprints, what say it one more time? And an
Speaker 1: Aprile sprint. If you like an Amaretto sour, I think
Speaker 1: you're going to be into it. A p E A
Speaker 1: p E r o l sprits okay, because you've got
Speaker 1: like the sour mix, the amaretto, the sprite thing happening
Speaker 1: in that drink it's prosecco. You've still got the orange slices,
Speaker 1: got a little splash of april. I think you'll be
Speaker 1: into it. I'll tell you, I tell you everything. I'll
Speaker 1: tell you a drink that's pretty so you ever heard
Speaker 1: of a green tea? Okay, substitute the substitute the brown
Speaker 1: and put um put back in it, and it's a
Speaker 1: white tea. Fire try no huh. What are some of
Speaker 1: the dishes or foods you like to cook when you're
Speaker 1: not working? Oh? Pasta any day, every day, tear it up.
Speaker 1: I'd love to make curry, any kind of curry? Are
Speaker 1: you imposta curry? I just everybody post that you like
Speaker 1: and you cannot say spaghetti. I know you too well.
Speaker 1: I like a good like the shrimp scampy joint. I
Speaker 1: like that. So what kind of noodles are? And I
Speaker 1: don't know whatever they Sorry, I don't know. And Joe
Speaker 1: like the thick noodles or the real that that is
Speaker 1: a chift's preference. Whatever it is, I'm gonna eat it.
Speaker 1: I like angel. Joe's shaking his head because you're calling yeah,
Speaker 1: like a bake Man of God is my favorite. My
Speaker 1: mom used to make that and freeze right and send
Speaker 1: to me in college after some micro green. What's that? Yeah,
Speaker 1: we can call it big Joan. Yeah, So for me,
Speaker 1: I love I had it in I had it when
Speaker 1: I was traveling on the first time ever. Um, and
Speaker 1: it's some former version of spaghetti, but um, bolon, I
Speaker 1: love bolon. I ain't gonna tell me not to say
Speaker 1: spaghetti and then you go straight to some damn spaghetti.
Speaker 1: I was if, I said, because it's Bolonise is different,
Speaker 1: but it's it's kind of a it's a version of spaghetti,
Speaker 1: but it is ridiculous. It takes about eight to nine hours,
Speaker 1: so it's not spaghetti eight or nine hours just on
Speaker 1: the sauce. It is. Don see, next time I see you,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna make you bologna and the uncle a white
Speaker 1: bolog I tried. I tried the white bolon as you're
Speaker 1: in a fan, did you have a good one? I
Speaker 1: don't know, this gotta be about race, Like it just wasn't.
Speaker 1: It wasn't. I didn't like. I didn't like the it
Speaker 1: had like a residue. The white pasta it was. It
Speaker 1: was kind of like it was like I want to say,
Speaker 1: the best I had. The best I have is like,
Speaker 1: so I have a coffee a cappuccino machine, and you
Speaker 1: know sometimes when if you don't use the the milk
Speaker 1: and it kind of just sits there and it has
Speaker 1: that little residue. That's how I kind of I felt
Speaker 1: that the white had a film, had a film, and
Speaker 1: I was just like, we gotta get no, don't judge
Speaker 1: solely on that. You gotta get you another one. But
Speaker 1: uh so I was. You know, my grandmother taught me
Speaker 1: I cook. I love cooking. I enjoy cooking. Um the
Speaker 1: meal I met made for my wife when I was
Speaker 1: warning her over back in college. Oh I love this
Speaker 1: um manicatti with meat sauce. Oh you can roll over, Joel.
Speaker 1: It seems too Yeah, so I even I even put
Speaker 1: the missed it. I even put that I didn't miss it.
Speaker 1: I glanced over. No, I put the uh. At the time,
Speaker 1: I wasn't a stute, so I didn't put the cheese
Speaker 1: in a zip block bag of squeeze and I used
Speaker 1: like a spoon, like a baby spoon to put the
Speaker 1: cheese in there, and did all that in the meat sauce.
Speaker 1: And that's that was our That was the first meal
Speaker 1: I made her. They were yeah, did it's sure? Did so? Yeah. UM.
Speaker 1: We're almost wrapping up, but wanted to just ask you, UM,
Speaker 1: you know you're you are on advisory board or advisory
Speaker 1: board remember for the Food Education Fund and in New York. UM,
Speaker 1: what made you come to that decision or conclusion that's
Speaker 1: where you want to serve on that board? There's so
Speaker 1: many boards, there's so many foundations, there's so many things
Speaker 1: with food security or the lack of food security. UM,
Speaker 1: how do you believe that you being on that board
Speaker 1: is um is the right place for you? And what
Speaker 1: are they doing that you continue to serve and believe
Speaker 1: that they're doing great things? Food Education Fund is incredible
Speaker 1: and a lot of the touch points you just mentioned,
Speaker 1: Steve are what brought me there. So I think you
Speaker 1: want to make a difference, you've got to start small,
Speaker 1: so smart, little, start local. For me was where it
Speaker 1: was at, And I started with Food Education Fund when
Speaker 1: they had one high school. UM, and now we service
Speaker 1: thirteen high schools from New York City public schools. All
Speaker 1: of them offer some kind of food education, which, as
Speaker 1: we talked about, I'm not entirely sold on the fact
Speaker 1: you should have to pay for So if you can
Speaker 1: go to public high school and learn how to feed
Speaker 1: yourself and your families, I think it's integral. Uh. Of
Speaker 1: the students in these thirteen high schools are under the
Speaker 1: poverty line, and we have over time gotten to the
Speaker 1: point where we are supporting different aspects of their life,
Speaker 1: not just education they get on a daily basis in
Speaker 1: the high school, but internships that place them in paid
Speaker 1: opportunities where they can work and help their family earn money.
Speaker 1: And UM food pantries that serve us not just the
Speaker 1: students but also their family. So it's really yeah, it's
Speaker 1: really UM an incredible program. And when you see the outreach, like, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's local, it's in Manhattan, but UM, all of
Speaker 1: the students they're average commute time all of the students
Speaker 1: commute in but their average commute time is close to
Speaker 1: two hours. So when you think about how broad that
Speaker 1: impact really can be in making a difference in these
Speaker 1: kids lives, it's pretty incredible. They just little plug. They
Speaker 1: are open. They just opened their cafe. They had a
Speaker 1: student run cafe at the first high school, the Flagship
Speaker 1: high School, and it's now in the Barclays Center. So
Speaker 1: if you go to New York to see an event
Speaker 1: or watch something at Barclays, you can have your cappuccino
Speaker 1: from Food Education. They serve flat whites, for sure. I
Speaker 1: love a flat white. Is there your coffee of choice?
Speaker 1: All right, yes, I like a flat white. I'm not
Speaker 1: talking to racist. I'm talking about a drink. Somebody may
Speaker 1: hear this. You go, somebody may say flat white. What
Speaker 1: is he talking about. It's to drink people, It's to drink,
Speaker 1: you know. Not everybody's delicious one. It's fire sometimes like
Speaker 1: I have two shots and then so I'll do a
Speaker 1: flat white and then kill it and then add an
Speaker 1: espresso and then they micro green. No they're not. They're
Speaker 1: not do a workout. Workout. That's impressive. I'm before teaching camera.
Speaker 1: I try not to do it because my knife on
Speaker 1: my hands would be like if I drink that, first
Speaker 1: of all, that's bad. Shaky hand and a knife. Yeah five, Hey, well,
Speaker 1: we really appreciate you. One. Thank you, I Wane, Thank
Speaker 1: you guys, Jason, but really thank you. You know, I
Speaker 1: knew you were super cool to anybody be able to
Speaker 1: handle Jason, to deal with him. He's a unique man.
Speaker 1: My wife would probably say, I'm I'm unique as well.
Speaker 1: And um, I've been friends with you a long time.
Speaker 1: G you're unique. And and Joe, you damn sure unique
Speaker 1: in a good way. But that's why God made us
Speaker 1: and if we all were the same, life would be born.
Speaker 1: So thank you so much. Really appreciate you, guys. This
Speaker 1: was so much fun. You are a unique person. You
Speaker 1: are well worth it, you are competent, and most of all,
Speaker 1: you're lovable. I'm Steve Smith Singer. I'm Gerard Little John
Speaker 1: and this is cut to It. Cut to It with
Speaker 1: Steve Smith singor That Is Me is a production of
Speaker 1: Cut to It LLC, Balto Creative Media, The Black Effect,
Speaker 1: and I Heart Radio. For more podcast from I Heart Radio,
Speaker 1: visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows from Cut to It.
Speaker 1: Executive producer Steve Smith, singer co host Gerard little John,
Speaker 1: talent and booking manager Joe Fusci, Social media team Wesley
Speaker 1: Robinson and John Show from Balto Creative Media. Cut to
Speaker 1: It is produced by Brian Baltaschevitch and Meredith Carter, with
Speaker 1: production assistance by Alex Lebrek, Production coordinator Taylor Robinson. Theme
Speaker 1: music by Alex Johnson, Lyrics and vocals by Anthony Hamilton.
Speaker 1: You Ain't heard about it? Then about to left? You know,
Speaker 1: you know it's It's all