WEBVTT - Ghetto Gastro: From House Parties to a Multimedia Culinary Conglomerate 0:00:01.400 --> 0:00:03.400 I go to the production, I'll be like, Yo, I 0:00:03.440 --> 0:00:05.080 got this idea, I got this great name. 0:00:05.519 --> 0:00:07.440 Then they're like, oh, that name will never work. 0:00:08.920 --> 0:00:12.360 So me being like on some Larry David, Moka Joe Shit, 0:00:12.920 --> 0:00:14.800 was like, all right, we're gonna show these motherfuckers how 0:00:14.800 --> 0:00:16.000 this get on Gaso Shit Rock. 0:00:16.079 --> 0:00:17.959 So we just started doing our own things. 0:00:30.520 --> 0:00:34.280 Welcome to Idea Generations All Angles, a podcast about culture's 0:00:34.280 --> 0:00:40.519 most influential brands and the teams that built them. If 0:00:40.520 --> 0:00:44.000 you're an entrepreneur, creative, or anyone interested in harnessing the 0:00:44.000 --> 0:00:47.680 power of collaboration, join me Yoah Callahan Bever each week 0:00:47.680 --> 0:00:51.400 as we dissect the most dynamic companies in culture, because 0:00:51.440 --> 0:00:54.240 the only way to truly understand success is to look 0:00:54.240 --> 0:00:58.600 at it from all angles. Idea Generations All Angles is 0:00:58.600 --> 0:01:08.640 a will Pator Media podcast. In twenty twelve, a group 0:01:08.680 --> 0:01:11.399 of friends in New York City formed Ghetto Gastro, a 0:01:11.440 --> 0:01:14.160 collective of chefs and food enthusiasts with a mission to 0:01:14.160 --> 0:01:17.880 bring their culinary culture to the masses. In a decade 0:01:17.880 --> 0:01:21.080 that's followed, Ghetto Gastro has grown from weekly house parties 0:01:21.080 --> 0:01:24.440 in Long Island City into a full blown global brand, 0:01:24.560 --> 0:01:29.840 offering large scale events, their own food products, kitchen appliances, cookbooks, 0:01:30.080 --> 0:01:36.320 and much more. On this week's episode of All Angles, 0:01:36.400 --> 0:01:40.000 we talked to founders John Gray, Lester Walker, and Pierre 0:01:40.040 --> 0:01:43.399 Sirot to get the full story behind Ghetto Gastro and 0:01:43.440 --> 0:01:45.960 hear how a few chefs and hustlers came together to 0:01:45.959 --> 0:01:48.520 form one of the most unique brands in food and media. 0:01:50.280 --> 0:01:52.880 But before any of that happened, years before the Sneaker 0:01:52.880 --> 0:01:56.160 collabed with Brand Jordan or throwing parties at Rick Owens House, 0:01:56.440 --> 0:01:58.600 John Gray was just a kid running around the Bronx, 0:01:58.880 --> 0:02:00.640 giving menu advice to strangers. 0:02:02.760 --> 0:02:06.000 Born in nineteen eighty six, All Lady Emrcity Hospital on 0:02:06.040 --> 0:02:08.400 two thirty third White Planes is now like in Manta 0:02:08.480 --> 0:02:09.320 Ferry Hospital. 0:02:09.960 --> 0:02:13.160 This is John Gray, bounder of Ghetto Gastro, bounced. 0:02:12.800 --> 0:02:16.519 Around a little bit, wasn't Yonkers, Harlem, and that ended 0:02:16.560 --> 0:02:18.400 up landing in co Op City when I was about 0:02:19.120 --> 0:02:21.560 eight years old. I come from raised by black women. 0:02:21.639 --> 0:02:24.800 My pops wasn't in a picture, so it was my mother, 0:02:25.240 --> 0:02:29.320 my grandmother, my grandmother's sisters and then my mother's sister. 0:02:29.440 --> 0:02:32.120 And it's interesting because all of the women in my 0:02:32.160 --> 0:02:36.919 family are like educators and super well educated, so having 0:02:36.960 --> 0:02:43.959 that foundation was really significant. Food has been my main 0:02:44.040 --> 0:02:46.240 thing since I was five years old, six years old, 0:02:46.280 --> 0:02:49.440 like living in El Barrio with my mom, was going 0:02:49.480 --> 0:02:51.960 to First Whack on eighty eighth and third Avenue, hit 0:02:52.000 --> 0:02:52.880 in the Indian. 0:02:52.600 --> 0:02:55.440 Spots, and like just going out to you with my mom. 0:02:55.480 --> 0:02:58.200 Because she was in school and worked, didn't always have 0:02:58.280 --> 0:03:00.160 time to cook, so we would go on dates and 0:03:00.680 --> 0:03:04.400 have dinner together. And I remember just being very analytical 0:03:04.440 --> 0:03:07.040 with the menus and thinking about how flavors go together, 0:03:07.120 --> 0:03:07.680 almost like. 0:03:07.720 --> 0:03:10.040 Some Rainman type shit, you know what I mean. 0:03:10.320 --> 0:03:12.560 So I remember the woman that was a regular at 0:03:12.560 --> 0:03:15.160 First Way right now known as WAK eighty eight on 0:03:15.280 --> 0:03:16.440 eighty eighth and third Avenue. 0:03:17.200 --> 0:03:18.160 She was a regular too. 0:03:18.160 --> 0:03:19.760 We used to see it like a few times a week, 0:03:19.800 --> 0:03:23.000 and I knew I was always a talkative, like charming 0:03:23.160 --> 0:03:24.919 young boy. And I was like, hey, what are you ordering? 0:03:25.040 --> 0:03:27.359 Like what do you always order the same thing? She's like, oh, 0:03:27.360 --> 0:03:29.440 I get the lemon chicken. And I was like I 0:03:29.520 --> 0:03:32.320 tried the lemon chicken once and I was like, Nah. 0:03:32.120 --> 0:03:32.720 This ain't it. 0:03:33.160 --> 0:03:34.839 And then I told her, I was like, yo, look 0:03:34.880 --> 0:03:38.440 you need to order the orange chicken or the sessame chicken, 0:03:38.760 --> 0:03:41.880 because you'll get the citrus flavors. It comes with the broccoli, 0:03:41.880 --> 0:03:44.160 which is good for you nutrition, and it has the 0:03:44.240 --> 0:03:47.040 fried garlic, which gives it a beautiful flavor. And then 0:03:47.080 --> 0:03:49.840 she ordered it that night, right, And I remember believing, 0:03:49.880 --> 0:03:52.920 a spot older Jewish woman, probably in her eighties, right, 0:03:53.120 --> 0:03:55.680 just eating alone, and she stopped me in my mom 0:03:55.760 --> 0:03:58.960 She's like, yo, your son is a remarkable boy. 0:03:59.560 --> 0:04:01.040 And I just remember his saying that. 0:04:01.160 --> 0:04:04.080 She repeated it like three times, and it just resonated 0:04:04.080 --> 0:04:06.160 with me and gave me such a level of confidence 0:04:06.200 --> 0:04:07.640 that always stuck with me. 0:04:08.240 --> 0:04:10.480 While John showed early indications that he had a gift 0:04:10.480 --> 0:04:13.600 for the culinary yards, he had less success in the classroom. 0:04:14.040 --> 0:04:16.560 I think my neurology set up a little bit different. 0:04:16.600 --> 0:04:20.159 So I had difficulties in school in terms of behave 0:04:20.240 --> 0:04:23.560 what they called behavior issue. But the books, the book 0:04:23.600 --> 0:04:26.480 smarts were always there. But I always was social and 0:04:26.600 --> 0:04:29.640 like to turn up and you know, be a little 0:04:29.640 --> 0:04:31.599 bit of a menacine, mischievous kid. 0:04:32.120 --> 0:04:35.520 John became the neighborhood's newest troublemaker, following in the footsteps 0:04:35.560 --> 0:04:37.640 of another eventual partner in Ghetto Gastro. 0:04:40.880 --> 0:04:44.200 We grew up in co Op City, Section five, northeast, 0:04:44.240 --> 0:04:45.240 part of the Bronx. 0:04:45.760 --> 0:04:48.400 This is Lester Walker, co founder of Ghetto Gastro. 0:04:49.080 --> 0:04:52.640 I lost my father at the age of three. You know, 0:04:52.720 --> 0:04:55.760 my mom did her best to keep me out of 0:04:55.800 --> 0:04:58.919 harm's way. She was a very strong woman. All of 0:04:58.960 --> 0:05:02.960 my characteristics and my attributes to my mom. 0:05:03.400 --> 0:05:06.320 My brother and I grew up in a single family home. 0:05:06.600 --> 0:05:10.919 Unfortunately, but not really unfortunately because she, you know, she 0:05:11.120 --> 0:05:13.720 raised us. As I got a little bit older and 0:05:13.760 --> 0:05:17.000 I was able to, you know, reach the stove. That 0:05:17.160 --> 0:05:19.240 was one of the ways that I contributed. That's what 0:05:19.320 --> 0:05:22.760 I owe to my success of being a being an entrepreneur, 0:05:22.960 --> 0:05:25.760 being being an artist, and being a chef, and being 0:05:25.800 --> 0:05:26.640 a storyteller. 0:05:28.880 --> 0:05:30.799 My mother used to do hair in the house. 0:05:31.080 --> 0:05:32.719 She was in the house a lot, and she would 0:05:32.800 --> 0:05:34.640 have customers come to the house. 0:05:34.960 --> 0:05:37.080 They would be in the hall way where she come head, 0:05:37.120 --> 0:05:39.000 talking shit, you know, doing. 0:05:38.760 --> 0:05:42.239 What they do, gossiping or whatever, hanging out, having fun, laughing. 0:05:42.480 --> 0:05:42.680 You know. 0:05:43.240 --> 0:05:45.240 I used to make breakfast in the kitchen. I'll make 0:05:45.320 --> 0:05:47.600 like pancakes, I'll make like wild foods, and I would 0:05:47.600 --> 0:05:49.920 have some left over, and they being they'd be out 0:05:49.920 --> 0:05:52.960 there like, damn, that smells good what you're making. That's 0:05:53.000 --> 0:05:55.480 that's your son. And so you know, I would come 0:05:55.520 --> 0:05:58.560 out there and hope the pretty ladies up with you know, 0:05:58.640 --> 0:06:02.320 some plates. You know, they would be like, wow, this 0:06:02.480 --> 0:06:02.919 is good. 0:06:02.960 --> 0:06:05.000 You made this. Oh, these eggs are perfect. 0:06:05.120 --> 0:06:07.400 So that's kind of when that was like one of 0:06:07.440 --> 0:06:10.239 the times that I've realized that I had a skill, 0:06:10.680 --> 0:06:13.240 you know, And I was like very young. I probably 0:06:13.360 --> 0:06:16.160 was like I don't know, man, eight nine, I didn't 0:06:16.160 --> 0:06:17.120 get no recipes. 0:06:17.240 --> 0:06:18.440 I'm making it up on a fly. 0:06:18.560 --> 0:06:18.720 Man. 0:06:18.720 --> 0:06:21.359 I was reading the back of the box. It was pancakes, 0:06:21.520 --> 0:06:21.800 you know. 0:06:21.800 --> 0:06:25.880 Add water, add eggs, add milk, grits whatever, add you know, 0:06:26.000 --> 0:06:28.440 read the back of the packages. But you know I 0:06:28.440 --> 0:06:30.560 would add a little bit more butter. I would add 0:06:30.600 --> 0:06:33.200 you know, sugar to my grits. I was being creative 0:06:33.200 --> 0:06:35.280 in that aspect at a very young age, Like I 0:06:35.320 --> 0:06:37.919 knew the basics or how to make something. If my 0:06:38.000 --> 0:06:41.440 grits were coming out too thick, I would add more water. 0:06:41.480 --> 0:06:44.760 It's like, you know, just your science, just common sense. 0:06:45.680 --> 0:06:47.640 But I guess it's not that common. If you know, 0:06:47.720 --> 0:06:49.400 to a lot of people, because a lot of people 0:06:49.400 --> 0:06:50.840 could fuck up with all the grits, you know what 0:06:50.880 --> 0:06:53.600 I mean. Like, I guess it wasn't common sense. I 0:06:53.640 --> 0:06:55.440 guess that was a skill that I had. 0:07:00.040 --> 0:07:02.720 Leicester found his calling in the kitchen, but John still 0:07:02.720 --> 0:07:04.320 struggled to figure out his own path. 0:07:04.800 --> 0:07:08.120 Wanted to be an athlete, played ball, but didn't have 0:07:08.200 --> 0:07:11.240 the discipline and really like do the extra work it 0:07:11.280 --> 0:07:14.160 took to reach the level to get to the league 0:07:14.240 --> 0:07:15.880 and all of those things. 0:07:16.120 --> 0:07:18.280 I played in school, but I got kicked out of 0:07:18.400 --> 0:07:19.160 the high school that. 0:07:19.120 --> 0:07:21.280 I went to to play ball like three months into 0:07:21.280 --> 0:07:24.240 my freshman year. So then I went from Ohillos to 0:07:24.480 --> 0:07:26.600 Truman High School, which is my zone school in the 0:07:26.960 --> 0:07:29.720 North Bronx and carp City, and it was just a 0:07:29.760 --> 0:07:31.360 whole different story. 0:07:31.480 --> 0:07:32.800 It's like you go from. 0:07:32.840 --> 0:07:35.480 Like if I didn't do my homework at Ohillows at 0:07:35.480 --> 0:07:38.760 the Catholic school, they had a thing called homework Clinic 0:07:38.880 --> 0:07:41.560 right where you would basically go to detention, do the 0:07:41.560 --> 0:07:43.680 homework that you didn't do, and then not. 0:07:43.600 --> 0:07:45.400 Get credit for it, you know what I'm saying. 0:07:45.920 --> 0:07:48.400 So the work was always getting done. Him ain't going 0:07:48.400 --> 0:07:51.480 to Truman where it's like every man and every woman 0:07:51.520 --> 0:07:53.160 for themselves. It's like you could go to class who 0:07:53.160 --> 0:07:55.400 could not go to class. Going to school was like 0:07:55.400 --> 0:07:57.920 going to the Guardia airport with metal detectives. There was 0:07:57.920 --> 0:08:00.560 a precint inside the school. The time that I went 0:08:00.640 --> 0:08:03.000 there was like the time that Truman was the worst 0:08:03.000 --> 0:08:05.160 school in New York City in terms of ranking. 0:08:05.320 --> 0:08:07.160 There was just like a big culture shock. 0:08:07.240 --> 0:08:09.560 And one of the things that also changes is when 0:08:09.560 --> 0:08:11.240 you go to Catholic school, you got a uniform, so 0:08:11.320 --> 0:08:13.520 you might switch up, get fitted hat, get a fly 0:08:13.640 --> 0:08:16.240 book bag, a fly jacket for the winner, and then 0:08:16.280 --> 0:08:18.560 switch up the footwear. You know, get some wild beans, 0:08:18.840 --> 0:08:21.080 some East Lands or whatever, some Thames, you know what 0:08:21.120 --> 0:08:24.160 I'm saying. But in public school you got to be 0:08:24.240 --> 0:08:26.840 fresh every day. You can't wear the same shit, you know. 0:08:27.120 --> 0:08:30.160 So that led to external pressure having to like get 0:08:30.200 --> 0:08:32.240 some money. You want to get fly for the honeys. 0:08:32.280 --> 0:08:35.280 And you know what I'm saying, it's a whole different 0:08:35.280 --> 0:08:37.280 type of vibe because I was going to schoolhere. I 0:08:37.280 --> 0:08:39.959 was going it's like it's hustlings in there too. It's 0:08:39.960 --> 0:08:42.640 like people that get money, people that a ged up. 0:08:42.679 --> 0:08:45.600 It's a whole it's a whole different atmosphere. I remember 0:08:45.640 --> 0:08:48.840 asking my mother and my grandmother some money and like, yo, 0:08:48.920 --> 0:08:51.280 get a job. And then I went to apply every 0:08:51.320 --> 0:08:53.920 store in the mall in my neighborhood because it's the 0:08:53.960 --> 0:08:56.640 mall over there, big plaza, and everybody was like, you 0:08:56.640 --> 0:08:58.200 got your working papers, but you don't got. 0:08:58.080 --> 0:08:59.719 No work experience. I'm like, how can I get work 0:08:59.720 --> 0:09:01.199 experience without you hiring me? 0:09:01.720 --> 0:09:03.440 So that's when I made up my mind, like yea, 0:09:03.440 --> 0:09:05.200 I'm gonna have to hit the streets and get this paper. 0:09:05.440 --> 0:09:09.439 And I ended up doing that, excelling in that field 0:09:09.559 --> 0:09:12.600 at a very young age. I started selling weed at first, 0:09:12.640 --> 0:09:16.560 and then I graduated to the snow after high school. 0:09:17.040 --> 0:09:19.160 I think I was probably when I was eighteen or nineteen. 0:09:19.720 --> 0:09:21.600 This girl had said she was pregnant by me. She 0:09:21.679 --> 0:09:24.160 ended up not being pregnant by me. But I had 0:09:24.160 --> 0:09:25.760 made up my mind like damn, if I'm gonna be 0:09:25.800 --> 0:09:29.320 a father, I don't want to be selling drugs into 0:09:29.360 --> 0:09:29.960 my twenties. 0:09:30.160 --> 0:09:31.880 So I was like, let me just The. 0:09:31.880 --> 0:09:34.200 Logic I had was like, all right, let me just 0:09:34.240 --> 0:09:36.080 go hard and get a lot of money right now 0:09:36.240 --> 0:09:37.959 and start this new game. 0:09:47.720 --> 0:09:50.720 Desperate for any kind of income, John resorted to hustling 0:09:50.720 --> 0:09:54.280 in the streets to make some bread. Meanwhile, Lester continued 0:09:54.320 --> 0:09:56.080 to sharpen his cooking skills. 0:09:56.440 --> 0:09:59.600 So I'm gonna say the summer of like my two 0:09:59.679 --> 0:10:02.240 last years in high school, like junior year, you know, 0:10:02.440 --> 0:10:06.000 eleventh grade, twelfth grade, that's when I started, you know, 0:10:06.200 --> 0:10:08.320 having girls come over the house when my mom's wasn't 0:10:08.320 --> 0:10:11.200 home all right, and then you know that would be 0:10:11.280 --> 0:10:12.880 my way to get him to come up stairs, y'all. 0:10:12.960 --> 0:10:15.480 Made some shrimp with some with some linguini. I made 0:10:15.520 --> 0:10:18.200 a little pasta come through. We watch a movie I This, 0:10:18.280 --> 0:10:21.320 that and the third. So I would do that. But 0:10:21.400 --> 0:10:23.800 I wasn't even thinking about becoming a chef, like at 0:10:23.800 --> 0:10:26.280 this point, I was just you know, I was just macing, 0:10:26.400 --> 0:10:28.400 like figuring it out, like you know, having something to 0:10:28.440 --> 0:10:30.400 bring to the table, like have a date. I ain't 0:10:30.440 --> 0:10:32.319 have no money to take him out to go to 0:10:32.840 --> 0:10:34.600 go out, Like I didn't have money, but you know, 0:10:34.840 --> 0:10:37.480 if moms was out of town, I was taking advantage 0:10:37.480 --> 0:10:38.839 of that and I would cook. 0:10:39.040 --> 0:10:39.800 That was my thing. 0:10:39.880 --> 0:10:43.239 I like, you know, shrimp, pasta, mostly pastas. 0:10:43.480 --> 0:10:47.120 At this point, I'm just like going crazy with pastas, shrimp, 0:10:47.160 --> 0:10:53.000 Primavera Linguini with the Alfredo garlic butter. YadA, YadA, YadA. 0:10:53.559 --> 0:10:56.520 Then I had a little problem with authority. So I 0:10:56.600 --> 0:10:59.400 wasn't really lasting in my high schools for that long. 0:10:59.480 --> 0:11:02.000 Like every high school, I was pretty much like getting 0:11:02.040 --> 0:11:03.280 kicked out of these high schools. 0:11:03.280 --> 0:11:03.440 You know. 0:11:03.480 --> 0:11:06.079 I had a problem with authority. I didn't like to listen. 0:11:06.080 --> 0:11:09.040 I knew I wanted to do my own thing. In hindsight, 0:11:09.360 --> 0:11:11.360 I kind of knew that I wanted to be an entrepreneur. 0:11:11.400 --> 0:11:13.480 I didn't want to take orders from anybody. I wanted 0:11:13.480 --> 0:11:14.840 to do my own thing. I wanted to be my 0:11:14.880 --> 0:11:18.720 own boss. My last year of high school, my mom's like, yo, 0:11:18.760 --> 0:11:21.320 you gotta figure something out. And it was a school 0:11:21.360 --> 0:11:25.160 called Park West downtown Manhattan on West fiftieth Street, and 0:11:25.200 --> 0:11:26.960 I'm looking through the book of high school. So when 0:11:27.000 --> 0:11:28.360 my mom was just like, YO, just pick out a 0:11:28.440 --> 0:11:31.520 high school. You're gonna finish up, you're gonna graduate, and 0:11:31.559 --> 0:11:32.560 this is what's gonna happen. 0:11:32.640 --> 0:11:34.679 So I found Park West. They had a cooking. 0:11:34.400 --> 0:11:36.720 Program in the school, right, So I said, all right, 0:11:36.720 --> 0:11:39.120 I've been cooking these past two summers. They really jacking 0:11:39.160 --> 0:11:41.440 my food. So let me see what it's heding for 0:11:42.360 --> 0:11:45.280 went to the school. Then a kicker to that was 0:11:45.320 --> 0:11:49.280 they were like, we go out off campus after school 0:11:49.520 --> 0:11:53.040 to cater events. I said, okay, cool, and we make 0:11:53.160 --> 0:11:55.680 money too, straight cash. At the end of the event, 0:11:56.080 --> 0:11:59.040 samet word like say, let's I'm in there. So I 0:11:59.080 --> 0:12:00.840 started to do these k re in events with my 0:12:00.840 --> 0:12:04.320 school making money. My teacher caught a liking to me 0:12:04.400 --> 0:12:06.400 because the things that I would make, you know, regular 0:12:06.440 --> 0:12:10.959 recipes in class, double baked potatoes, you know, pasta, making 0:12:11.000 --> 0:12:13.080 little pastries or whatever. I was good at, like my 0:12:13.160 --> 0:12:16.760 food tasted good. And I used to watch cooking shows 0:12:16.760 --> 0:12:19.040 on Food Network, but my mother would put me on 0:12:19.080 --> 0:12:21.480 punishment a lot, and I would stay in the room 0:12:21.600 --> 0:12:23.600 and I would just watch Food Network all day and 0:12:23.640 --> 0:12:26.000 I'd figure out how to like make plates look cool. 0:12:26.440 --> 0:12:28.520 So my teacher was like, oh shit, you kind of 0:12:28.559 --> 0:12:30.480 you know, you got a little bit of skill. Why 0:12:30.520 --> 0:12:34.360 don't you enter this omelet making competition. The winner of 0:12:34.440 --> 0:12:38.160 the competition gets a scholarship to go to culinary school. 0:12:38.400 --> 0:12:41.800 I said, okay, sounds good, boom, sign me up. 0:12:42.040 --> 0:12:44.280 So I was going up against kids that were in 0:12:44.440 --> 0:12:49.640 like a culinary foundational school for I would say at 0:12:49.720 --> 0:12:52.600 least four years. This is my first year, and I 0:12:52.679 --> 0:12:55.720 came in third place, and they gave me ten thousand 0:12:55.760 --> 0:12:58.480 dollars to go to a cooking school. They gave me 0:12:58.520 --> 0:13:01.440 ten thousand dollars a Good in New York school, and 0:13:01.559 --> 0:13:03.240 I spoke to my mom about it and were like, 0:13:03.280 --> 0:13:05.360 all right, cool, We're gonna do the culinary school thing. 0:13:05.760 --> 0:13:07.719 But then I started to get like. 0:13:07.720 --> 0:13:11.479 Letters from like Johnson and Wills Culinary Institute of America. 0:13:12.280 --> 0:13:15.560 They said that, you know, I could have applied my 0:13:15.679 --> 0:13:18.120 scholarship to good to one of these schools. 0:13:18.440 --> 0:13:20.720 So I said, We're gonna check out. I'm Johnson and Wills. 0:13:20.800 --> 0:13:23.480 Johnson Wells had a University of Rhode Island, that's the 0:13:23.640 --> 0:13:27.360 main campus in Providence. But then another kick, I found 0:13:27.400 --> 0:13:30.120 out that there was a campus in Miami, So you 0:13:30.200 --> 0:13:31.200 already know, I. 0:13:31.160 --> 0:13:32.920 Was like, we going to Miami. 0:13:32.960 --> 0:13:35.120 We're taking this show on the road to Miami. So 0:13:35.440 --> 0:13:38.280 I ended up in Miami, got a scholarship, got financial 0:13:38.320 --> 0:13:40.040 a lester, took. 0:13:39.840 --> 0:13:42.080 His talents to South Beach to pursue his dreams of 0:13:42.160 --> 0:13:45.400 being a chef. Meanwhile, John's career in the streets had 0:13:45.400 --> 0:13:49.400 resulted in some harsh lessons, including multiple arrests. As he 0:13:49.480 --> 0:13:51.880 searched for other hustles, he stumbled on the up and 0:13:51.920 --> 0:13:53.079 coming world of streetwear. 0:13:53.720 --> 0:13:55.760 So I go to the funk Master Flex car Show 0:13:56.480 --> 0:13:58.160 and this is the first year they had the sneaker 0:13:58.240 --> 0:14:00.840 show in the streetwear show. To be honest, I see 0:14:00.880 --> 0:14:03.080 all of these kids that look very suburban doing this 0:14:03.120 --> 0:14:05.800 thing called streetwell, and I'm like, hold on, I'm really 0:14:05.800 --> 0:14:08.800 in these streets, so like for real, like I think 0:14:08.840 --> 0:14:11.240 I got something I co offer bring to the table here, 0:14:11.280 --> 0:14:12.960 you know what I'm saying. That's kind of when I 0:14:12.960 --> 0:14:15.720 was like, I think the pivot's going to be into 0:14:16.080 --> 0:14:19.680 like doing streetwear, doing something in the power space because 0:14:19.680 --> 0:14:22.320 I've always been created, Like I thought I was flying, 0:14:22.880 --> 0:14:24.880 you know, And I'm like, all right, we can figure 0:14:24.920 --> 0:14:25.800 this out. 0:14:25.960 --> 0:14:27.800 So I just went full full throut. 0:14:29.880 --> 0:14:33.480 It was just a store called Fashion Decks, right, and 0:14:33.520 --> 0:14:37.000 they sold all of these fashion books like styling, how 0:14:37.040 --> 0:14:41.120 to merchandise online, how to think about cogs and price. 0:14:41.560 --> 0:14:44.600 This is before YouTube tutorials in and I just signed 0:14:44.640 --> 0:14:46.920 up for FT and take night courses, I think a 0:14:46.920 --> 0:14:49.200 bunch of courses from the Learning Ax. So I just 0:14:49.240 --> 0:14:53.120 went full emerging into like soaking up game, right, And 0:14:53.160 --> 0:14:54.960 I'm the type, like even with Ghetto gash Or, I 0:14:54.960 --> 0:14:57.640 have an idea or interest. I'm not necessarily going to 0:14:57.720 --> 0:14:59.640 learn how to design the shit or to make the shit, 0:15:00.280 --> 0:15:02.680 but I'm gonna find the best people to put it 0:15:02.720 --> 0:15:05.880 together and just direct them. So that's kind of what 0:15:05.960 --> 0:15:07.120 I did with Fashionable. 0:15:08.720 --> 0:15:11.600 While John dove headfirst into the world of fashion, another 0:15:11.640 --> 0:15:14.520 crucial member of the Ghetto Gastro ensemble was about to 0:15:14.600 --> 0:15:15.160 enter the mint. 0:15:17.960 --> 0:15:18.200 Well. 0:15:18.480 --> 0:15:20.720 Unlike John the Less, I wasn't born in the Bronx. 0:15:21.040 --> 0:15:23.840 This is Pierre Siro, co founder of Ghetto Gastro. 0:15:26.000 --> 0:15:28.800 I was born at Hartford, Connecticut, and I was raised 0:15:28.800 --> 0:15:31.640 between Harford. My mom's from Harford, my dad's from Barbados, 0:15:32.000 --> 0:15:34.920 and I was raised between the two growing up as 0:15:34.920 --> 0:15:37.760 a child, mainly going to school up in CT and 0:15:37.800 --> 0:15:41.320 then summers and like long vacations in the winter and 0:15:41.320 --> 0:15:43.800 stuff we would spend down in the islands from a 0:15:43.800 --> 0:15:45.640 young age. My father's always had that and sale in 0:15:45.720 --> 0:15:50.600 myself and my siblings. You know, wake up, brush your teeth, exercise, 0:15:50.960 --> 0:15:52.520 you know, iron your clothes, make. 0:15:52.440 --> 0:15:54.360 Sure you leave the house look in a certain way. 0:15:55.040 --> 0:15:55.720 All the things. 0:15:55.760 --> 0:15:57.720 And my mom is more of a hustler in a 0:15:57.800 --> 0:16:00.680 sense where I've always known her to always have like 0:16:00.720 --> 0:16:03.160 a steady job, but also have like a side hustle 0:16:03.800 --> 0:16:06.120 more along the lines of doing things creatively. She used 0:16:06.160 --> 0:16:08.920 to hustle like cakes and stuff were like that when 0:16:08.920 --> 0:16:09.760 I was a child. 0:16:09.920 --> 0:16:10.800 She used to move cakes. 0:16:10.800 --> 0:16:13.280 And then she also had an events company called Party 0:16:13.320 --> 0:16:15.440 Your Way. She had a pink band and she used 0:16:15.480 --> 0:16:17.200 to drive around like a Scooby Doo band, but as 0:16:17.240 --> 0:16:19.480 she was pink and said party your Way on the side. 0:16:19.880 --> 0:16:23.640 And I remember that was my mom's first real sort 0:16:23.640 --> 0:16:26.800 of events company, and that was like my first job 0:16:26.800 --> 0:16:28.920 and basically ad an events company. And when I think 0:16:28.920 --> 0:16:30.480 about it, because I was working with my mom, but 0:16:30.520 --> 0:16:31.560 I was real young. 0:16:31.360 --> 0:16:34.800 At that time, but I always saw my mom. 0:16:34.520 --> 0:16:37.920 Like dibbling and dabbling into the space using food and 0:16:38.280 --> 0:16:42.000 or like an event to try to create business and 0:16:42.080 --> 0:16:44.680 like a sense of entrepreneurship. As I got older, that 0:16:44.800 --> 0:16:47.520 kind of all came together and like a mix of 0:16:47.600 --> 0:16:50.720 my mom's hustle and my father's work ethic kind of 0:16:50.760 --> 0:16:53.080 just got me literally to the place where. 0:16:52.920 --> 0:17:01.760 I am right now. I always used food as like 0:17:01.800 --> 0:17:02.960 a sort of a hustle tactic. 0:17:03.040 --> 0:17:04.480 So when I was in high school, I used to 0:17:04.520 --> 0:17:08.639 hustle like breakfast sandwiches or like deli sandwiches and subs 0:17:08.640 --> 0:17:10.080 and shit like that. I used to hustle to the 0:17:10.160 --> 0:17:13.280 kids in between class basically, like the day before you 0:17:13.280 --> 0:17:16.399 would put your order in. My man Demetrius Lazarritas, his 0:17:16.560 --> 0:17:18.840 pops had a deli, So we used to take the 0:17:18.920 --> 0:17:21.480 orders from the kids the night before and then pull 0:17:21.560 --> 0:17:23.840 up with the fresh sandwiches and the chips and all 0:17:23.840 --> 0:17:26.280 that and like put them into kids lockers. Kids would 0:17:26.280 --> 0:17:29.520 give us their locker combinations, so then in between class 0:17:29.560 --> 0:17:32.960 we would just go in drop their sandwiches in their lockers, 0:17:33.000 --> 0:17:34.880 being bong. When they come out, they got their lunch. 0:17:34.920 --> 0:17:38.560 It's perfect. Honestly, it was such a good operation. And 0:17:38.640 --> 0:17:40.280 when the school found out about that, they try to 0:17:40.280 --> 0:17:42.080 suspend us and all this shit. They should have really 0:17:42.160 --> 0:17:45.920 just invested into the young entrepreneurs that we were as 0:17:45.920 --> 0:17:48.080 opposed to like trying to you know, trying to punish 0:17:48.160 --> 0:17:50.920 us for taking Basically, they saw it as us taking 0:17:50.920 --> 0:17:52.639 money out of their pockets and they're like, oh, you're 0:17:52.680 --> 0:17:55.320 not a licensed to sell food and this and that 0:17:55.720 --> 0:17:57.720 all sorts of shit. Anyways, they were just mad that 0:17:57.760 --> 0:18:00.520 we was getting to the bag and I got the 0:18:00.560 --> 0:18:01.240 last laugh. 0:18:01.160 --> 0:18:02.560 Because I'm you know what I'm saying. I got my 0:18:02.560 --> 0:18:04.200 food products and stores and shit now. 0:18:04.240 --> 0:18:09.439 So after high school, Pierre headed to Barbados to pursue 0:18:09.440 --> 0:18:11.080 a more legitimate career in food. 0:18:11.600 --> 0:18:12.600 Moved to Barbados. 0:18:12.640 --> 0:18:15.040 For like three and a half years, I was working 0:18:15.040 --> 0:18:17.959 in like in a couple of hotels, doing some private 0:18:17.960 --> 0:18:20.760 work with some celebrities and shit. Every time like some 0:18:20.800 --> 0:18:23.200 celebrities would come into the island, basically they would call 0:18:23.280 --> 0:18:27.200 me to do the work because I had an international experience. Honestly, 0:18:27.240 --> 0:18:30.280 those are my least favorite days of my life because 0:18:30.760 --> 0:18:34.359 I didn't like working for people and being on hand 0:18:34.400 --> 0:18:36.680