1
00:00:00,160 --> 00:00:02,880
Speaker 1: With robin Hood, not only can you trade individual stocks

2
00:00:02,880 --> 00:00:06,240
Speaker 1: and ETFs, you can also seamlessly buy and sell crypto

3
00:00:06,519 --> 00:00:10,200
Speaker 1: at low costs, trade all in one place. Get started

4
00:00:10,240 --> 00:00:11,520
Speaker 1: now on robin Hood.

5
00:00:11,520 --> 00:00:14,040
Speaker 2: Trading crypto involve significant risk. Crypto trading is offered through

6
00:00:14,000 --> 00:00:16,280
Speaker 2: an account with the Robinhood Crypto LC. Robin Huid Crypto

7
00:00:16,320 --> 00:00:18,520
Speaker 2: is licensed to engagement virtual currency business activity by the

8
00:00:18,520 --> 00:00:20,560
Speaker 2: New York State Department of Financial Services. Crypto Health thro

9
00:00:20,600 --> 00:00:23,520
Speaker 2: robin Hid Cryptos not FDFC insured or SIPC PROTECTIC Confesting

10
00:00:23,560 --> 00:00:26,200
Speaker 2: involves risk, including loss of principal securities. Trading is offered

11
00:00:26,200 --> 00:00:28,720
Speaker 2: through an account with robin Hood Financial LLC member SIPC,

12
00:00:28,960 --> 00:00:30,040
Speaker 2: a registered broker dealer.

13
00:00:30,520 --> 00:00:33,880
Speaker 3: All right, guys, welcome back, e y L. We have

14
00:00:34,000 --> 00:00:38,040
Speaker 3: a very very exciting special episode today. First and foremost,

15
00:00:38,760 --> 00:00:44,839
Speaker 3: shout out to Drvin. I didn't even tell you what.

16
00:00:45,479 --> 00:00:47,640
Speaker 3: A couple months ago we were number two on the

17
00:00:47,760 --> 00:00:49,680
Speaker 3: on the DR Charts for Business podcast. We have a

18
00:00:49,720 --> 00:00:53,200
Speaker 3: strong following in DR and some of our biggest guests

19
00:00:53,240 --> 00:00:56,600
Speaker 3: have been Dominicant. We had Caesar dj mv's partner. Shout

20
00:00:56,600 --> 00:01:00,280
Speaker 3: out to Caesar. We had loaded the slumsneto. He's his

21
00:01:00,360 --> 00:01:03,920
Speaker 3: best friend. Shout out to Fernando. This is the John Henry,

22
00:01:05,280 --> 00:01:09,480
Speaker 3: John Henry. Shout to John Henry. So you're in good hands.

23
00:01:10,680 --> 00:01:14,840
Speaker 3: So today we got shelf chef Calvin, Calvin Fernandez, so

24
00:01:15,000 --> 00:01:21,280
Speaker 3: I'll do the rundown. He is legend within his own right, prodigy, legend,

25
00:01:21,400 --> 00:01:23,480
Speaker 3: whatever you want to call it. He has cooked for

26
00:01:23,600 --> 00:01:28,040
Speaker 3: the New York Yankees. He is personal chef to j

27
00:01:28,200 --> 00:01:30,960
Speaker 3: low and and a Ron, personal chef to j Lo

28
00:01:31,120 --> 00:01:34,600
Speaker 3: and a Rod. He made Forbes thirty Under thirty for

29
00:01:34,760 --> 00:01:39,399
Speaker 3: Chef List. He's been on TV Network on chop on Man,

30
00:01:39,480 --> 00:01:45,000
Speaker 3: First Child, Bobby Flay. He actually defeated Bobby Flay twice.

31
00:01:47,280 --> 00:01:51,920
Speaker 3: He defeated Bobby Flay twice. He's partner chef in Last Lap,

32
00:01:52,920 --> 00:01:56,440
Speaker 3: which is his restaurant that he's partnering right now. And

33
00:01:57,600 --> 00:02:00,440
Speaker 3: he was formerly the chef at Marina.

34
00:02:00,480 --> 00:02:04,360
Speaker 4: Oh my God, a whole entire VI at the height

35
00:02:04,440 --> 00:02:05,280
Speaker 4: of it, at the.

36
00:02:05,320 --> 00:02:07,480
Speaker 3: Peak, we'll talk, but we gotta talk about I feel.

37
00:02:07,240 --> 00:02:08,280
Speaker 5: Like I got to walk around with you on a

38
00:02:08,320 --> 00:02:08,880
Speaker 5: regular basis.

39
00:02:13,080 --> 00:02:15,640
Speaker 3: So first and foremost, thank you, thank you for joining us.

40
00:02:15,639 --> 00:02:16,040
Speaker 3: Appreciate it.

41
00:02:16,080 --> 00:02:19,040
Speaker 5: I'm happy to be here. It's an honor shout out

42
00:02:19,040 --> 00:02:21,280
Speaker 5: to you guys for doing what you're doing. I got

43
00:02:21,320 --> 00:02:22,640
Speaker 5: goosebumps with you were telling me what you guys are

44
00:02:22,639 --> 00:02:24,000
Speaker 5: doing in DC, because I don't know about that. So

45
00:02:24,040 --> 00:02:25,840
Speaker 5: I'm happy and proud of you guys because you're always

46
00:02:25,880 --> 00:02:29,120
Speaker 5: leveling up so bigger and better things on a regular basis.

47
00:02:29,120 --> 00:02:31,440
Speaker 4: Welcome to the green room having me.

48
00:02:31,919 --> 00:02:33,840
Speaker 3: So the thing about your Leash is that we it's

49
00:02:33,919 --> 00:02:36,040
Speaker 3: really cool because it's a business podcast, but it gives

50
00:02:36,080 --> 00:02:39,000
Speaker 3: us broad range because everything is a business. Like literally,

51
00:02:39,080 --> 00:02:41,079
Speaker 3: everything is a business because you're making money in it.

52
00:02:41,440 --> 00:02:44,280
Speaker 3: And one of the things that especially like for just

53
00:02:44,400 --> 00:02:49,840
Speaker 3: everybody has to eat right and every like that's literally

54
00:02:49,960 --> 00:02:50,640
Speaker 3: and figuratively.

55
00:02:51,200 --> 00:02:53,160
Speaker 5: You're saying that this is one of the biggest reasons

56
00:02:53,200 --> 00:02:55,639
Speaker 5: why I started this. Just getting into this business, I

57
00:02:55,720 --> 00:02:58,760
Speaker 5: knew three things. I'll always be with friends, I'll never

58
00:02:58,840 --> 00:03:01,000
Speaker 5: go hungry, and I always have a because we need

59
00:03:01,040 --> 00:03:01,720
Speaker 5: food to survive.

60
00:03:01,800 --> 00:03:05,920
Speaker 3: That's it. You need food to live. That's a fact.

61
00:03:06,360 --> 00:03:08,680
Speaker 3: And it's like a lot of times so we've we've

62
00:03:08,800 --> 00:03:12,560
Speaker 3: interviewed restaurant owner before, but we haven't interviewed a chef.

63
00:03:13,080 --> 00:03:15,760
Speaker 3: It's a different dynamic and a lot of times people

64
00:03:16,120 --> 00:03:19,040
Speaker 3: It's one of those things where people love to cook

65
00:03:19,040 --> 00:03:20,840
Speaker 3: a lot of times, right, but a lot of times

66
00:03:20,840 --> 00:03:22,760
Speaker 3: people don't think about how can they monetize it, how

67
00:03:22,800 --> 00:03:24,560
Speaker 3: can they make a career out of it, how can

68
00:03:24,600 --> 00:03:26,480
Speaker 3: they make a business out of it. But you've done

69
00:03:26,639 --> 00:03:29,200
Speaker 3: all of that and you're still leveling it up. And

70
00:03:29,800 --> 00:03:31,920
Speaker 3: so it's an interesting conversation because I feel like these

71
00:03:31,960 --> 00:03:35,480
Speaker 3: are these are conversations that we can have where anybody,

72
00:03:35,760 --> 00:03:39,120
Speaker 3: you know, could apply skills that they have and become

73
00:03:39,160 --> 00:03:41,640
Speaker 3: a chef. Right. It's not something that you have to

74
00:03:41,920 --> 00:03:43,480
Speaker 3: Like a lot of times, like we talk like hedge

75
00:03:43,520 --> 00:03:45,200
Speaker 3: fund and stuff like that, and people get like, oh,

76
00:03:45,240 --> 00:03:47,840
Speaker 3: this is over my head. Cooking is not over anybody's head.

77
00:03:47,960 --> 00:03:49,480
Speaker 6: Like you got a bag of chips in your in

78
00:03:49,560 --> 00:03:52,560
Speaker 6: your cupboard, you got some's like.

79
00:03:52,600 --> 00:03:53,800
Speaker 5: You're doing a chop basket right now.

80
00:03:54,280 --> 00:03:57,640
Speaker 4: You got a chop basket? What you got?

81
00:03:58,680 --> 00:04:00,920
Speaker 3: So you're a world class chef, but you come from

82
00:04:01,000 --> 00:04:04,840
Speaker 3: humble beginning. But your family is a long line of chefs,

83
00:04:04,920 --> 00:04:06,080
Speaker 3: cooks things that nature.

84
00:04:05,920 --> 00:04:09,040
Speaker 5: Right, especially being Dominican, you come from a line of

85
00:04:09,160 --> 00:04:11,200
Speaker 5: women that know how to cook. You know, I think

86
00:04:11,280 --> 00:04:13,520
Speaker 5: what's always nostalgic for me I can be out the

87
00:04:13,520 --> 00:04:15,560
Speaker 5: country for three months, the first thing I need is

88
00:04:16,040 --> 00:04:18,880
Speaker 5: a home cooked meal from my mom. And it's one

89
00:04:18,920 --> 00:04:22,160
Speaker 5: of those things where I remember and I think about it,

90
00:04:22,240 --> 00:04:24,000
Speaker 5: and when I'm creating a new dish, it's always like,

91
00:04:24,080 --> 00:04:27,120
Speaker 5: how can I make this nostalgic for someone else?

92
00:04:27,200 --> 00:04:27,360
Speaker 4: You know.

93
00:04:27,480 --> 00:04:30,440
Speaker 5: So, just like you said with food, there's so many

94
00:04:30,520 --> 00:04:32,880
Speaker 5: different outlets that you can go to creating a business.

95
00:04:32,960 --> 00:04:35,440
Speaker 5: And reality is you think about how many people have

96
00:04:35,480 --> 00:04:37,200
Speaker 5: started a business in their own home and how they've

97
00:04:37,240 --> 00:04:40,560
Speaker 5: grown to a small, little commercial and then buying the

98
00:04:40,600 --> 00:04:43,200
Speaker 5: store next door. And those are some of my favorite stories,

99
00:04:43,200 --> 00:04:45,760
Speaker 5: you know, people that start small and not every even

100
00:04:45,800 --> 00:04:47,760
Speaker 5: I started a company at one point when I was

101
00:04:47,800 --> 00:04:50,680
Speaker 5: doing meal props, and we literally rented out an apartment

102
00:04:51,279 --> 00:04:53,040
Speaker 5: and just made that our kitchen, like there was no

103
00:04:53,160 --> 00:04:56,240
Speaker 5: other furniture. We have refrigerators in there, we had shelving

104
00:04:56,320 --> 00:04:59,919
Speaker 5: in there, we had two ovens, and that electric travelo.

105
00:05:00,120 --> 00:05:01,600
Speaker 5: That electric goal was high. But at the end of

106
00:05:01,640 --> 00:05:03,160
Speaker 5: the day, we were doing the job.

107
00:05:03,520 --> 00:05:05,840
Speaker 6: So you said you came home to a home cooked

108
00:05:05,839 --> 00:05:07,760
Speaker 6: meal from your mom, but your dad is actually the chef.

109
00:05:07,839 --> 00:05:09,800
Speaker 5: My dad is the chef, you know. And then especially

110
00:05:09,920 --> 00:05:12,840
Speaker 5: being in a Latino you always think about the women

111
00:05:12,880 --> 00:05:15,240
Speaker 5: are the cooks, you know, and if you think about restaurants,

112
00:05:17,000 --> 00:05:18,719
Speaker 5: of the cooks are men, you know. So I'm actually

113
00:05:18,720 --> 00:05:20,760
Speaker 5: happy to see that there's a lot more women in

114
00:05:20,960 --> 00:05:24,320
Speaker 5: restaurants and shutting it down, there's a lot of female

115
00:05:24,400 --> 00:05:26,320
Speaker 5: chefs that I've had the honor and privilege to work

116
00:05:26,320 --> 00:05:29,240
Speaker 5: alongside and collab with. And that's something that I like

117
00:05:29,279 --> 00:05:30,880
Speaker 5: to see on a regular basis as well, because when

118
00:05:30,880 --> 00:05:34,880
Speaker 5: you do think about food and love, and it really

119
00:05:34,960 --> 00:05:36,600
Speaker 5: does come from both. So I'm happy to see that

120
00:05:37,040 --> 00:05:37,799
Speaker 5: on a regular basis.

121
00:05:37,839 --> 00:05:40,160
Speaker 3: Now, I just thought about that, that's interesting because yeah,

122
00:05:40,160 --> 00:05:42,560
Speaker 3: you think about it traditionally, not to sound sexist, but

123
00:05:42,640 --> 00:05:45,000
Speaker 3: it's like most of the time in a household, a woman,

124
00:05:45,680 --> 00:05:47,480
Speaker 3: your mom is the one that's really making.

125
00:05:47,960 --> 00:05:49,400
Speaker 5: Mom, Grandma auntie.

126
00:05:50,680 --> 00:05:53,760
Speaker 3: In restaurants, men are the artist chefs.

127
00:05:53,920 --> 00:05:55,440
Speaker 5: And I think about it comes to a point where

128
00:05:55,520 --> 00:05:57,560
Speaker 5: in restaurants you probably get paid a little bit more

129
00:05:57,960 --> 00:06:00,560
Speaker 5: than your regular standard jobs. You like, even me, I

130
00:06:00,640 --> 00:06:02,320
Speaker 5: was fifteen years old and I was getting paid at

131
00:06:02,360 --> 00:06:04,960
Speaker 5: that time it was like ten dollars an hour, but

132
00:06:05,040 --> 00:06:07,880
Speaker 5: minimum wage was seven fifty or six fifty, so I

133
00:06:08,000 --> 00:06:09,400
Speaker 5: was like, I'm already ahead of the game. I'm making

134
00:06:09,440 --> 00:06:11,800
Speaker 5: four dollars more than anybody else. And that was me

135
00:06:11,839 --> 00:06:13,480
Speaker 5: at fifteen. So when I was getting a check of

136
00:06:13,520 --> 00:06:15,080
Speaker 5: eight hundred dollars for every two weeks, I thought I

137
00:06:15,160 --> 00:06:18,160
Speaker 5: was rich. Think about that now I can't. I don't

138
00:06:18,160 --> 00:06:20,560
Speaker 5: even leave my house if I don't make eight hundred dollars.

139
00:06:21,480 --> 00:06:23,440
Speaker 3: So at what point did you did you say, Okay,

140
00:06:23,520 --> 00:06:25,560
Speaker 3: this is something that I could actually take serious. You

141
00:06:25,640 --> 00:06:27,000
Speaker 3: went to school for this, right, yeah?

142
00:06:27,000 --> 00:06:29,640
Speaker 5: I went to uh well, it started in Long Island

143
00:06:29,640 --> 00:06:31,680
Speaker 5: City High School. I went to a high school that

144
00:06:31,880 --> 00:06:35,719
Speaker 5: had the program. So the program was just learning how

145
00:06:35,760 --> 00:06:38,600
Speaker 5: to make you know, brownies and cookies and like a

146
00:06:39,360 --> 00:06:41,080
Speaker 5: home met class. I would say that, you know, But me,

147
00:06:41,240 --> 00:06:43,120
Speaker 5: I was being the typical jock, and I was like,

148
00:06:43,160 --> 00:06:44,680
Speaker 5: I'm not gonna wear an apron. I don't want to

149
00:06:44,839 --> 00:06:47,280
Speaker 5: be in a place where you think about you know.

150
00:06:47,440 --> 00:06:49,920
Speaker 5: They were my friends, but you know, we tease each

151
00:06:49,960 --> 00:06:51,360
Speaker 5: other a little bit, and the last thing I need

152
00:06:51,480 --> 00:06:54,240
Speaker 5: is to give my teammates on the football team and

153
00:06:54,279 --> 00:06:56,080
Speaker 5: on the baseball team something else to tease me other

154
00:06:56,120 --> 00:06:58,680
Speaker 5: than me being five feet tall. Thank God for those

155
00:06:58,680 --> 00:07:01,520
Speaker 5: extra five inches So it's one of those things where

156
00:07:02,560 --> 00:07:04,280
Speaker 5: it took a lot for me to take put my

157
00:07:04,320 --> 00:07:06,000
Speaker 5: pride aside and say, all right, let me let me

158
00:07:06,240 --> 00:07:08,600
Speaker 5: put my focus onto something. So shout out to my

159
00:07:08,640 --> 00:07:11,720
Speaker 5: ex girlfriend in high school, Maria, because if it wasn't

160
00:07:11,720 --> 00:07:13,840
Speaker 5: for her, she pushed me into cooking. You know, she

161
00:07:13,920 --> 00:07:16,560
Speaker 5: wanted me to show a little bit of interest and

162
00:07:16,720 --> 00:07:18,880
Speaker 5: support the way she was supported me by being at

163
00:07:18,960 --> 00:07:22,400
Speaker 5: every game, every match, being my biggest cheerleader and no

164
00:07:22,480 --> 00:07:24,400
Speaker 5: putintendent because she was on the cheerleading squad too, so

165
00:07:24,480 --> 00:07:25,320
Speaker 5: she was forced to be there.

166
00:07:25,320 --> 00:07:28,000
Speaker 7: It wasn't more of a more of a maybe she

167
00:07:28,120 --> 00:07:29,920
Speaker 7: chose to be there. She chose to be I'm gonna

168
00:07:29,920 --> 00:07:31,080
Speaker 7: take it off that. I'm gonna take it on that

169
00:07:31,120 --> 00:07:35,240
Speaker 7: I take it. So if it wasn't for her, I

170
00:07:35,240 --> 00:07:36,320
Speaker 7: would have never went into cooking.

171
00:07:36,440 --> 00:07:40,640
Speaker 5: And she gave me the opportunity to to put my

172
00:07:41,000 --> 00:07:43,800
Speaker 5: talent into something else because I was a good sports

173
00:07:44,720 --> 00:07:46,880
Speaker 5: I was good in baseball, I was great in wrestling,

174
00:07:47,360 --> 00:07:51,000
Speaker 5: I was okay in football. Uh, but being on a

175
00:07:51,040 --> 00:07:54,160
Speaker 5: platform where I'm the solo star, like cooking, that was

176
00:07:54,680 --> 00:07:55,360
Speaker 5: all thanks to her.

177
00:07:56,160 --> 00:07:59,040
Speaker 3: So all right, so you went to c I A,

178
00:07:59,320 --> 00:08:02,040
Speaker 3: which is one of the top culinary institution in the world.

179
00:08:01,920 --> 00:08:04,880
Speaker 5: Right, Culinary Institut of America. The CIA is the elite

180
00:08:05,240 --> 00:08:07,320
Speaker 5: school for culinary So it's like, you know, we're the

181
00:08:07,360 --> 00:08:10,120
Speaker 5: cornell of culinary schools. You know. It's one of those

182
00:08:10,160 --> 00:08:14,000
Speaker 5: things where they provided a program and a way for

183
00:08:14,160 --> 00:08:16,880
Speaker 5: you to learn more than just cooking. You know, I thought,

184
00:08:16,960 --> 00:08:19,920
Speaker 5: at seventeen eighteen years old, I'm here learning about wines

185
00:08:19,920 --> 00:08:21,640
Speaker 5: of the world. I'm here learning there was One of

186
00:08:21,680 --> 00:08:24,560
Speaker 5: my favorite classes was product Knowledge, where literally, by the

187
00:08:24,680 --> 00:08:26,920
Speaker 5: end of the class you would have a table full

188
00:08:26,960 --> 00:08:29,920
Speaker 5: of ingredients. You can't pick them up, you can't smell them,

189
00:08:29,960 --> 00:08:31,400
Speaker 5: you can't touch them. You have to know what it

190
00:08:31,520 --> 00:08:32,439
Speaker 5: is just by looking at it.

191
00:08:33,160 --> 00:08:34,480
Speaker 4: But that was I mean, it was a process for you.

192
00:08:34,640 --> 00:08:36,400
Speaker 5: Oh though, there was a process to learn that. Absolutely,

193
00:08:36,720 --> 00:08:37,679
Speaker 5: you don't get that overnight.

194
00:08:37,760 --> 00:08:40,680
Speaker 4: Yeah. So, I mean you weren't just chosen for the school.

195
00:08:40,679 --> 00:08:42,120
Speaker 4: You have to apply and go through a whole process

196
00:08:42,120 --> 00:08:42,880
Speaker 4: to be so the program.

197
00:08:43,000 --> 00:08:45,439
Speaker 5: Through the program, I was fortunate enough. Thank you for

198
00:08:45,520 --> 00:08:49,400
Speaker 5: mentioning that SEACAP Careers through Culinary Arts program. These people

199
00:08:49,520 --> 00:08:51,760
Speaker 5: are the reason why I am who I am as

200
00:08:51,800 --> 00:08:53,719
Speaker 5: a chef. And I say that more because it was

201
00:08:54,160 --> 00:08:58,000
Speaker 5: it was more than just an opportunity to win a scholarship.

202
00:08:58,240 --> 00:09:00,640
Speaker 5: There were a family, you know, Richard Grouse and the founder.

203
00:09:01,240 --> 00:09:04,000
Speaker 5: He was like my second dad, and when he sees

204
00:09:04,040 --> 00:09:06,560
Speaker 5: people that he believes in, just like my old high

205
00:09:06,559 --> 00:09:09,520
Speaker 5: school teacher, Terry Maxis. You know he's retired now, good

206
00:09:09,559 --> 00:09:11,880
Speaker 5: for him. You know, he put in effort and he

207
00:09:12,000 --> 00:09:13,959
Speaker 5: put in the hard work to make sure that we

208
00:09:14,080 --> 00:09:16,400
Speaker 5: had the opportunity. You know, I did a cooking class

209
00:09:16,760 --> 00:09:19,319
Speaker 5: that led me to a cooking competition that led me

210
00:09:19,440 --> 00:09:21,719
Speaker 5: to winning forty thousand dollars to the CIA. You know,

211
00:09:21,800 --> 00:09:23,320
Speaker 5: never in a million years that I think I would

212
00:09:23,440 --> 00:09:26,040
Speaker 5: win a scholarship, let alone get forty grand.

213
00:09:26,240 --> 00:09:27,480
Speaker 3: How much does CIA course?

214
00:09:27,720 --> 00:09:32,160
Speaker 5: CIA now probably forty grand a year, So I saved

215
00:09:32,200 --> 00:09:32,560
Speaker 5: like half.

216
00:09:32,880 --> 00:09:34,520
Speaker 3: So it's a two year program.

217
00:09:34,600 --> 00:09:38,000
Speaker 5: So you're getting in getting an associates degree in culinary

218
00:09:38,120 --> 00:09:40,880
Speaker 5: arts and business management. So aside from that, you know,

219
00:09:40,960 --> 00:09:42,640
Speaker 5: I dormed there. I'm not going to go back at home.

220
00:09:42,679 --> 00:09:44,959
Speaker 5: Even though I was close to home, I still you know,

221
00:09:45,040 --> 00:09:45,480
Speaker 5: took on the.

222
00:09:45,480 --> 00:09:47,880
Speaker 4: Full college experience forty bands.

223
00:09:48,480 --> 00:09:50,360
Speaker 5: So I just let's say, sorry to cut you off.

224
00:09:50,679 --> 00:09:52,839
Speaker 5: Let's just say it's fifteen years ago. I graduated, I

225
00:09:52,960 --> 00:09:54,920
Speaker 5: just finished paying off Sally Maye, and I got for

226
00:09:55,760 --> 00:09:57,680
Speaker 5: the other forty It's like I.

227
00:09:57,720 --> 00:09:59,679
Speaker 4: Took a long time that that was a good I'm

228
00:09:59,679 --> 00:10:00,160
Speaker 4: still saying.

229
00:10:01,920 --> 00:10:04,040
Speaker 3: All right, so you finished college and then you start

230
00:10:04,080 --> 00:10:06,320
Speaker 3: you going to corporate where right after that I started.

231
00:10:06,960 --> 00:10:09,920
Speaker 5: Right after college, I joined there was a company called

232
00:10:10,520 --> 00:10:12,439
Speaker 5: there was a restaurant called Gotham Bar and Grill. So

233
00:10:12,600 --> 00:10:15,720
Speaker 5: before I got into corporate, I literally did what any

234
00:10:15,880 --> 00:10:18,760
Speaker 5: young chef should do in his bust your ass for

235
00:10:18,800 --> 00:10:20,760
Speaker 5: the next two years and give six months to the

236
00:10:20,880 --> 00:10:22,959
Speaker 5: top chefs in New York City. So I worked with

237
00:10:23,240 --> 00:10:26,120
Speaker 5: Marcus Samuelson, I worked with Jean George, I worked with

238
00:10:26,720 --> 00:10:30,280
Speaker 5: Daniel Blude, I worked with Alfred Portally. That was the

239
00:10:30,280 --> 00:10:32,480
Speaker 5: place where I did my six month, my eighteen week

240
00:10:32,559 --> 00:10:34,720
Speaker 5: internship at the CIA, and then I got hired right

241
00:10:34,720 --> 00:10:37,280
Speaker 5: out of college. So I was lucky enough that and

242
00:10:37,320 --> 00:10:39,120
Speaker 5: that was one of those things where I determined that

243
00:10:39,200 --> 00:10:40,679
Speaker 5: I'm going to come in early even though I'm not

244
00:10:40,720 --> 00:10:43,280
Speaker 5: getting paid. I got paid an internship wage, which was

245
00:10:43,320 --> 00:10:45,000
Speaker 5: still at least getting paid. How much you get paid,

246
00:10:45,000 --> 00:10:46,240
Speaker 5: I think it was like seven fifty an hour.

247
00:10:46,760 --> 00:10:47,680
Speaker 3: After you graduated.

248
00:10:48,280 --> 00:10:50,440
Speaker 5: During my internship before I graduated, that was like right

249
00:10:50,480 --> 00:10:50,880
Speaker 5: in the middle.

250
00:10:50,960 --> 00:10:53,720
Speaker 4: So Alfred Bortally, he he's the head chef at the Gothambarn.

251
00:10:53,800 --> 00:10:56,280
Speaker 5: Grill was the executive chef at Gothenbarn Grove for about

252
00:10:56,280 --> 00:10:58,800
Speaker 5: over thirty years. He just opened. It's funny because I

253
00:10:58,840 --> 00:11:01,280
Speaker 5: went to Gothenborn Girl last night because I needed some nostalgia.

254
00:11:01,760 --> 00:11:03,160
Speaker 5: I went to Strip House and I was like, let

255
00:11:03,200 --> 00:11:04,760
Speaker 5: me just go to Gotham Bar and Grill have an

256
00:11:04,760 --> 00:11:07,719
Speaker 5: amazing old fashion and so yeah, a little flashback. And

257
00:11:07,760 --> 00:11:10,280
Speaker 5: I walked in and they're like, well, Alfred's not here anymore.

258
00:11:10,280 --> 00:11:12,400
Speaker 5: He just opened up his own restaurant like three blocks away,

259
00:11:12,640 --> 00:11:13,760
Speaker 5: and I'm like, no, I need to go there.

260
00:11:13,840 --> 00:11:15,760
Speaker 4: But the restaurant itself, I mean, when he was there

261
00:11:15,880 --> 00:11:16,960
Speaker 4: was it was it was Michelin.

262
00:11:17,320 --> 00:11:19,920
Speaker 5: It was Michelin. Star it is that so three star.

263
00:11:20,000 --> 00:11:22,280
Speaker 5: It was three star New York Times consistently for thirty

264
00:11:22,400 --> 00:11:24,720
Speaker 5: years in a row, which is which is very hard

265
00:11:24,760 --> 00:11:26,400
Speaker 5: to do. The highest you can get. His four stars

266
00:11:26,600 --> 00:11:29,400
Speaker 5: in New York New York Times and Michelin is three.

267
00:11:29,760 --> 00:11:31,480
Speaker 5: So they were one star Michelin and there were three

268
00:11:31,480 --> 00:11:34,679
Speaker 5: star New York times, which is elite. Aside from that,

269
00:11:34,960 --> 00:11:39,240
Speaker 5: it's one of those classifications of knowing that you're branded

270
00:11:39,320 --> 00:11:42,040
Speaker 5: by the Michelin Guide knows that you're you're your top

271
00:11:42,120 --> 00:11:42,600
Speaker 5: of your tier.

272
00:11:43,040 --> 00:11:45,480
Speaker 3: So all right, then you started working at this strand right.

273
00:11:45,920 --> 00:11:48,760
Speaker 5: So after Gotham Bar and Grill I did, I was

274
00:11:48,800 --> 00:11:52,200
Speaker 5: at a restaurant called Cafe des Artis and I had

275
00:11:52,240 --> 00:11:55,360
Speaker 5: my opportunity to become like a junior soux chef. That

276
00:11:55,480 --> 00:11:57,080
Speaker 5: was the first time I had an opportunity.

277
00:11:58,120 --> 00:12:00,920
Speaker 3: A shoue chef is a chef underneath the head chef.

278
00:12:01,040 --> 00:12:01,520
Speaker 5: That's correct.

279
00:12:01,559 --> 00:12:04,240
Speaker 3: Yeah, So it's like ashi chef apprentice.

280
00:12:04,280 --> 00:12:05,520
Speaker 5: I get that all the time. There's people are all

281
00:12:05,679 --> 00:12:07,679
Speaker 5: so you do sushi. I'm like, I shout out to

282
00:12:07,760 --> 00:12:10,760
Speaker 5: the movie Ratatui. Then let everybody know who is a

283
00:12:10,800 --> 00:12:12,640
Speaker 5: shoe chef and who is a sous chef and what

284
00:12:12,720 --> 00:12:14,240
Speaker 5: they do because at that moment in my part in

285
00:12:14,240 --> 00:12:16,000
Speaker 5: my life, I was a soush chef. I'm like, finally

286
00:12:16,280 --> 00:12:18,000
Speaker 5: people are gonna stop thinking that I make sushi.

287
00:12:19,080 --> 00:12:20,840
Speaker 3: So what's the what's the what's the what's the order?

288
00:12:21,080 --> 00:12:22,760
Speaker 5: So the chain of command would be like when you

289
00:12:22,920 --> 00:12:25,199
Speaker 5: first walk into a restaurant, like I did this. I

290
00:12:25,480 --> 00:12:27,560
Speaker 5: worked as a dishwasher for a couple of months. Then

291
00:12:27,600 --> 00:12:30,400
Speaker 5: I did prep, which is all you do is peel potatoes,

292
00:12:30,520 --> 00:12:35,480
Speaker 5: clean vegetables, literally all the dirty stuff that people don't

293
00:12:35,480 --> 00:12:38,439
Speaker 5: think about because we come into restaurants as cooks and

294
00:12:38,520 --> 00:12:39,719
Speaker 5: things are ready for us. Like I don't have to

295
00:12:39,720 --> 00:12:41,000
Speaker 5: peel my own garlic, I don't have to peel my

296
00:12:41,000 --> 00:12:42,440
Speaker 5: own shots. I don't have to peel my own potatoes.

297
00:12:42,440 --> 00:12:43,959
Speaker 5: I don't have to peel my own onions. When you

298
00:12:44,040 --> 00:12:45,959
Speaker 5: do these cooking shows, you got to do everything you

299
00:12:46,400 --> 00:12:48,640
Speaker 5: take for granted that you don't have your prep cooks

300
00:12:48,960 --> 00:12:51,839
Speaker 5: or you're with you, you know, to help you out,

301
00:12:51,880 --> 00:12:53,640
Speaker 5: but you have the chain of command of prep cooks.

302
00:12:54,000 --> 00:12:56,480
Speaker 5: Then the very next step is garbage, which your salads

303
00:12:56,520 --> 00:12:59,199
Speaker 5: and cold appetizers. Then if you're good at that, you

304
00:12:59,280 --> 00:13:01,559
Speaker 5: move to hot apps, which is usually like little pastas

305
00:13:01,640 --> 00:13:04,840
Speaker 5: Risotto's sear fagar, depending on a restaurant. I did ten

306
00:13:04,960 --> 00:13:08,040
Speaker 5: years in French. I was classically Frinds trained, working at

307
00:13:08,080 --> 00:13:11,680
Speaker 5: restaurants like you know, Cafe dis Artis and with Jean

308
00:13:11,720 --> 00:13:14,000
Speaker 5: George and restaurant Danielle. But those are all like little

309
00:13:14,040 --> 00:13:16,840
Speaker 5: six months stints I just wanted to learn a little

310
00:13:16,880 --> 00:13:18,839
Speaker 5: bit from all of these great chefs, and knowing that

311
00:13:19,080 --> 00:13:21,040
Speaker 5: my foundation later on, I was still gonna use a

312
00:13:21,040 --> 00:13:23,640
Speaker 5: little bit of what they taught me. And then after

313
00:13:23,760 --> 00:13:26,400
Speaker 5: Cafe des Artis, I got an opportunity to become an

314
00:13:26,400 --> 00:13:30,520
Speaker 5: executive chef at the age of twenty two and west Chester,

315
00:13:30,640 --> 00:13:33,719
Speaker 5: Westchester White Place. Yeah, we're Antipasti was the name of

316
00:13:33,760 --> 00:13:36,280
Speaker 5: the restaurant Anti Pasti and it was an Italian restaurant.

317
00:13:36,320 --> 00:13:38,160
Speaker 5: I'm like, shit, I don't even do Italian food. Why

318
00:13:38,200 --> 00:13:41,520
Speaker 5: are you even offering me this job? Twenty two years old?

319
00:13:41,559 --> 00:13:43,880
Speaker 5: And there was a guy shout out to Orlando Santana.

320
00:13:43,920 --> 00:13:45,720
Speaker 5: I don't know where you are, but thank you, my man,

321
00:13:45,840 --> 00:13:48,079
Speaker 5: because if it wasn't for you, I would have continued

322
00:13:48,080 --> 00:13:50,880
Speaker 5: to doubt myself. And he told me, I remember, I said,

323
00:13:51,080 --> 00:13:52,480
Speaker 5: how am I gonna be a chef at twenty two?

324
00:13:52,480 --> 00:13:54,760
Speaker 5: I'm gonna need to know all the answers that the

325
00:13:54,760 --> 00:13:58,720
Speaker 5: guys are gonna ask me. He's like, dummy, You're gonna

326
00:13:58,760 --> 00:14:00,520
Speaker 5: know the answers because it's gonna be your food. And

327
00:14:00,600 --> 00:14:03,280
Speaker 5: I said, ship, this guy's right, all right, let's do it.

328
00:14:03,800 --> 00:14:04,599
Speaker 4: And it was.

329
00:14:04,760 --> 00:14:07,240
Speaker 5: It was a memorable experience. I was a chef at

330
00:14:07,280 --> 00:14:09,280
Speaker 5: twenty two. I saw my name on the menu for

331
00:14:09,320 --> 00:14:12,280
Speaker 5: the first time, and I learned how to do Italian

332
00:14:12,360 --> 00:14:14,920
Speaker 5: food thanks to the Sioux chef that was there. I

333
00:14:15,040 --> 00:14:18,960
Speaker 5: inherited John. I don't remember his last name, but John

334
00:14:19,040 --> 00:14:21,120
Speaker 5: was amazing at Anti Posty. We're friends on Facebook. I'm

335
00:14:21,120 --> 00:14:23,120
Speaker 5: gonna send you a message and tell you to listen

336
00:14:23,160 --> 00:14:25,080
Speaker 5: to this. But John, he taught me how to make pizza.

337
00:14:25,160 --> 00:14:27,080
Speaker 5: He taught me how to do fresh pasta, and he

338
00:14:27,160 --> 00:14:29,680
Speaker 5: taught me that his secret was putting some truffle oil

339
00:14:29,720 --> 00:14:31,360
Speaker 5: and chocolate cake. And still to this day, I do that.

340
00:14:31,920 --> 00:14:34,160
Speaker 5: So when people ask me what's different about my chocolate cake,

341
00:14:34,200 --> 00:14:35,520
Speaker 5: I'm like, I can't tell you, but I just thought

342
00:14:35,680 --> 00:14:39,360
Speaker 5: about that truffle so so so so.

343
00:14:39,520 --> 00:14:41,640
Speaker 3: Like all right, because you're you're you're you're in a

344
00:14:41,680 --> 00:14:44,480
Speaker 3: different market than like, uh, you're in a high end

345
00:14:44,560 --> 00:14:48,000
Speaker 3: market like going to your education and working in like

346
00:14:48,080 --> 00:14:52,040
Speaker 3: a New York City or LA cities like that. How

347
00:14:52,200 --> 00:14:54,800
Speaker 3: how much money do chefs get paid? Like top the

348
00:14:54,920 --> 00:14:57,840
Speaker 3: top chef, the shoe chef, the prep like it.

349
00:14:57,840 --> 00:15:00,360
Speaker 5: All depends because even my even me, I'll tell you

350
00:15:00,400 --> 00:15:02,520
Speaker 5: when I made. My most money was as an executive chef.

351
00:15:02,600 --> 00:15:04,600
Speaker 5: Was when I was twenty two years old and I

352
00:15:04,640 --> 00:15:06,600
Speaker 5: was making one hundred and fifty grand and I made

353
00:15:06,680 --> 00:15:08,840
Speaker 5: them pay me because I was leaving New York City

354
00:15:08,960 --> 00:15:11,440
Speaker 5: right so, and west chef made so I made that

355
00:15:11,480 --> 00:15:14,240
Speaker 5: money in west Chester. I left Gotham. I left Cafe

356
00:15:14,320 --> 00:15:17,480
Speaker 5: des Artist because the general manager at that restaurant was

357
00:15:17,520 --> 00:15:19,760
Speaker 5: going to go to be the general manager at Anti Pasty,

358
00:15:20,280 --> 00:15:22,080
Speaker 5: and he took me with me, and I said, this

359
00:15:22,200 --> 00:15:24,280
Speaker 5: is what I want to leave. Because of course at

360
00:15:24,320 --> 00:15:27,400
Speaker 5: that time, I was like, I live in Queens. At

361
00:15:27,400 --> 00:15:30,040
Speaker 5: that point, I was living where is whit I gotta

362
00:15:30,040 --> 00:15:31,880
Speaker 5: take Metro North. I've never done that in my life.

363
00:15:32,120 --> 00:15:33,600
Speaker 5: I got to pay two hundred dollars a month for

364
00:15:33,640 --> 00:15:35,480
Speaker 5: a train ticket. I'm like, I need to allocate all

365
00:15:35,560 --> 00:15:38,920
Speaker 5: these things into my salary. But I got a reality

366
00:15:39,000 --> 00:15:42,800
Speaker 5: check right away when I left Antipasti and I came

367
00:15:43,000 --> 00:15:46,240
Speaker 5: back to the city, and I knew that taking a

368
00:15:46,280 --> 00:15:48,160
Speaker 5: step back sometimes you got to take a couple secs

369
00:15:48,200 --> 00:15:51,080
Speaker 5: back to move forward. So here I am twenty four

370
00:15:51,160 --> 00:15:53,280
Speaker 5: years old. The reason I left Antipasti was because the

371
00:15:53,320 --> 00:15:56,560
Speaker 5: restaurant was going out of business because of things that

372
00:15:56,680 --> 00:15:58,760
Speaker 5: happened previous to me arriving there. There was just no

373
00:15:58,880 --> 00:16:02,080
Speaker 5: fixing that, and they went to court and the judge

374
00:16:02,200 --> 00:16:06,160
Speaker 5: ordered that the company get dismantled and everybody sell their shares.

375
00:16:06,920 --> 00:16:08,720
Speaker 5: So to me, it was another learning step. You know,

376
00:16:08,800 --> 00:16:10,920
Speaker 5: I was an executive chef. Here, I am twenty four

377
00:16:11,000 --> 00:16:13,400
Speaker 5: years old coming to New York City trying to apply

378
00:16:13,480 --> 00:16:15,440
Speaker 5: for all these executive chef jobs, and everybody was like,

379
00:16:15,440 --> 00:16:17,480
Speaker 5: who is this kid? Like, why is he here? We're

380
00:16:17,520 --> 00:16:18,520
Speaker 5: looking for an executive chef.

381
00:16:18,600 --> 00:16:19,840
Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean they looking at you as a kid

382
00:16:19,920 --> 00:16:24,040
Speaker 6: because most guys that exactly chefs are thirty five forty.

383
00:16:24,160 --> 00:16:26,840
Speaker 5: Yeah. Nowadays you have different types of chefs, you know,

384
00:16:27,000 --> 00:16:29,800
Speaker 5: so you see the inspirational people that you know, there

385
00:16:29,840 --> 00:16:32,000
Speaker 5: was a movie called Chef Flynn where there's this kid

386
00:16:32,040 --> 00:16:34,360
Speaker 5: who was fifteen years old and you know, he learned

387
00:16:34,400 --> 00:16:37,920
Speaker 5: by reading books and watching YouTube and he literally has

388
00:16:37,960 --> 00:16:40,480
Speaker 5: his own restaurant at like twenty two years old downtown

389
00:16:40,520 --> 00:16:42,680
Speaker 5: in New York City. So like, I'm inspired by that story.

390
00:16:42,960 --> 00:16:44,640
Speaker 5: And I remember reading that story while I was at

391
00:16:44,720 --> 00:16:46,680
Speaker 5: La Marina and he came out front page of the

392
00:16:46,720 --> 00:16:48,360
Speaker 5: New York Times. I'm like, there's no way that this

393
00:16:48,480 --> 00:16:50,880
Speaker 5: kid is a chef. There's no way. I worked my

394
00:16:50,960 --> 00:16:53,280
Speaker 5: ass off to go to school and work for all

395
00:16:53,320 --> 00:16:55,920
Speaker 5: these chefs and he's worked for nobody and he's a chef.

396
00:16:56,440 --> 00:16:59,320
Speaker 5: I went to have his food. He's a chef, so

397
00:16:59,400 --> 00:17:02,520
Speaker 5: it documented it's a chef. You know. It's a whole different,

398
00:17:02,680 --> 00:17:05,040
Speaker 5: the whole different perspective of what types of chefs they

399
00:17:05,040 --> 00:17:06,639
Speaker 5: are nowadays, you know, like I was. I had a

400
00:17:06,680 --> 00:17:08,600
Speaker 5: meeting with one of my friends last night, and she

401
00:17:08,800 --> 00:17:11,719
Speaker 5: has her own meal prep service, and she doesn't want

402
00:17:11,760 --> 00:17:13,679
Speaker 5: to call herself a chef. She doesn't want to buy

403
00:17:13,720 --> 00:17:16,399
Speaker 5: herself a self a chef jacket. I'm like, you deserve

404
00:17:16,480 --> 00:17:19,399
Speaker 5: to call yourself a chef. You do the food, you create,

405
00:17:19,480 --> 00:17:22,320
Speaker 5: the menus, you taught yourself. It's okay, you're not an

406
00:17:22,359 --> 00:17:24,679
Speaker 5: executive chef, but you are a chef. So that's why

407
00:17:24,720 --> 00:17:28,320
Speaker 5: I say there's lots of different levels of chefs. But yeah,

408
00:17:28,680 --> 00:17:31,200
Speaker 5: I learned the hard way because people were looking at me,

409
00:17:31,560 --> 00:17:33,960
Speaker 5: and I was young and I was always hungry. So

410
00:17:34,400 --> 00:17:36,120
Speaker 5: I just needed to get to the point of being

411
00:17:36,160 --> 00:17:37,840
Speaker 5: able to cook for you. If I can cook for you,

412
00:17:38,000 --> 00:17:41,240
Speaker 5: I want I already know that. So as an executive chef,

413
00:17:41,280 --> 00:17:43,600
Speaker 5: if you're trying out, it's not just a resume. You

414
00:17:43,720 --> 00:17:46,280
Speaker 5: have a portfolio and you do what's called the tasting.

415
00:17:46,400 --> 00:17:49,119
Speaker 5: So you're offering me a job. Before we even talk numbers,

416
00:17:49,320 --> 00:17:50,240
Speaker 5: we got to see what you could do.

417
00:17:50,440 --> 00:17:52,760
Speaker 6: So you I mean, as the executive chef, you obviously

418
00:17:52,840 --> 00:17:57,000
Speaker 6: create the menu, right, So you're doing the advertisers, the entrees, desserts.

419
00:17:57,280 --> 00:17:58,560
Speaker 4: Are you also creating the pricing?

420
00:17:58,800 --> 00:18:00,600
Speaker 5: You're doing the food costs here do the pricing. So

421
00:18:00,920 --> 00:18:03,399
Speaker 5: you have to learn. That's why if it wasn't for

422
00:18:03,480 --> 00:18:06,200
Speaker 5: culinary school, I wouldn't have known how to do food costs.

423
00:18:06,200 --> 00:18:09,520
Speaker 5: I would have known what labor costs was that Yeah,

424
00:18:09,560 --> 00:18:12,359
Speaker 5: So basically for you to make money, you multiply the

425
00:18:12,880 --> 00:18:15,560
Speaker 5: amount of what a food costs by three. I would

426
00:18:15,600 --> 00:18:18,439
Speaker 5: say higher expensive fine dining restaurants will do it by four.

427
00:18:18,560 --> 00:18:22,800
Speaker 5: So for example, if it costs me to make a hamburger, right,

428
00:18:22,960 --> 00:18:24,760
Speaker 5: I'm not gonna make just any hamburger. I'm gonna make

429
00:18:24,760 --> 00:18:26,720
Speaker 5: sure of Calvinberger, right, so it's gonna we're gonna put

430
00:18:26,720 --> 00:18:29,159
Speaker 5: it on the menu for eighteen dollars. So for me

431
00:18:29,280 --> 00:18:31,959
Speaker 5: to make money, that burger cannot cost me more than

432
00:18:32,000 --> 00:18:35,600
Speaker 5: six dollars. So that's the patty, the buns, the condiments,

433
00:18:35,680 --> 00:18:38,920
Speaker 5: the French fries, and the labor to make that dish.

434
00:18:39,440 --> 00:18:41,560
Speaker 5: So for you to make money, you'll always multiply things

435
00:18:41,600 --> 00:18:44,920
Speaker 5: by three, depending on what the business is. So for

436
00:18:45,040 --> 00:18:47,080
Speaker 5: you to learn about food costs, it really you have

437
00:18:47,160 --> 00:18:49,480
Speaker 5: to break down how much does the four ounces of

438
00:18:49,520 --> 00:18:51,680
Speaker 5: the meat cost. How much does one burger bun cost?

439
00:18:51,760 --> 00:18:55,480
Speaker 5: How much does one slice of lettuce cost? Here's one tomato.

440
00:18:56,000 --> 00:18:58,000
Speaker 5: How much does a case of tomato cost? And how

441
00:18:58,040 --> 00:18:59,800
Speaker 5: many slices of that tomato do I get? So to

442
00:19:00,240 --> 00:19:02,480
Speaker 5: break it down, it takes a lot of work to

443
00:19:02,520 --> 00:19:06,719
Speaker 5: do food costs. But only the most successful people are

444
00:19:06,800 --> 00:19:08,040
Speaker 5: the ones that do their food costs right.

445
00:19:08,240 --> 00:19:10,120
Speaker 3: And that's that's true with any business. And I'm glad

446
00:19:10,160 --> 00:19:11,480
Speaker 3: you said that because a lot of times people go

447
00:19:11,560 --> 00:19:14,520
Speaker 3: into business and they just wing it. It's like I'm

448
00:19:14,520 --> 00:19:16,960
Speaker 3: gonna i'm gonna charge, I'm gonna.

449
00:19:16,840 --> 00:19:19,040
Speaker 5: Charge, I'm going to costco I'm going to say, and

450
00:19:19,080 --> 00:19:20,520
Speaker 5: I'm just gonna charge twelve dollars.

451
00:19:20,920 --> 00:19:22,520
Speaker 3: That's the fact. It's like, yeah, I'm gonna charge.

452
00:19:22,520 --> 00:19:24,520
Speaker 5: Show me how you decided to charge that twelve dollars.

453
00:19:24,600 --> 00:19:27,560
Speaker 3: I think people will pay fifteen dollars for this fish sandwich,

454
00:19:27,640 --> 00:19:30,200
Speaker 3: so I'll charge fifteen dollars. Like it's like you wouldn't

455
00:19:30,200 --> 00:19:31,520
Speaker 3: know that it cost you eight dollars to make it.

456
00:19:31,880 --> 00:19:34,080
Speaker 3: It's no rhyme or reason why you're doing it. You're

457
00:19:34,160 --> 00:19:36,880
Speaker 3: just winging it. And that's like I said, that's that's

458
00:19:37,000 --> 00:19:39,440
Speaker 3: true in the food industry, but that's showing any industry.

459
00:19:39,840 --> 00:19:41,600
Speaker 3: And it's like, you got to have a self formula

460
00:19:41,720 --> 00:19:44,080
Speaker 3: to know you gotta have a profit margin. If not,

461
00:19:44,600 --> 00:19:45,920
Speaker 3: screw you're gonna be in debt.

462
00:19:46,240 --> 00:19:49,000
Speaker 5: Absolutely nobody wants a business that's not making money.

463
00:19:49,080 --> 00:19:51,119
Speaker 3: So what else did like business side they did they

464
00:19:51,200 --> 00:19:51,440
Speaker 3: teach you?

465
00:19:51,560 --> 00:19:54,159
Speaker 5: And aside from food costs, labor costs, it's it's how

466
00:19:54,200 --> 00:19:56,520
Speaker 5: to treat people, people management, you know. And I always

467
00:19:56,560 --> 00:19:58,800
Speaker 5: joke around that on my Excuse me, I always joke

468
00:19:58,840 --> 00:20:01,640
Speaker 5: around saying that on my resume, I'm a professional babysitter

469
00:20:02,040 --> 00:20:05,480
Speaker 5: because you have to be able to manage people. And

470
00:20:05,640 --> 00:20:09,520
Speaker 5: there's so many different personalities, there's so many different people,

471
00:20:09,520 --> 00:20:11,520
Speaker 5: how people were raised, how people grew up in what

472
00:20:11,680 --> 00:20:14,520
Speaker 5: restaurants they grew up. And this is my best advice is,

473
00:20:14,720 --> 00:20:17,040
Speaker 5: if you want to be Greek, surround yourself by greatness.

474
00:20:17,560 --> 00:20:19,639
Speaker 5: Surround yourself by people that you aspire to be like.

475
00:20:19,760 --> 00:20:22,400
Speaker 5: Surround yourself by people that you want to be better

476
00:20:22,480 --> 00:20:25,880
Speaker 5: than in a sense of greatness. And that's why I've

477
00:20:25,880 --> 00:20:27,760
Speaker 5: worked for all these great people, and I learned how

478
00:20:27,800 --> 00:20:31,720
Speaker 5: to manage people because I always treated people with respect.

479
00:20:31,760 --> 00:20:34,200
Speaker 5: There was a restaurant that I worked at in the

480
00:20:34,280 --> 00:20:37,639
Speaker 5: beginning of high school years where my weekends, instead of

481
00:20:37,680 --> 00:20:40,040
Speaker 5: playing baseball with my friends, I'm here at a restaurant,

482
00:20:40,160 --> 00:20:42,440
Speaker 5: volunteering my time just so I can learn and know

483
00:20:42,600 --> 00:20:44,600
Speaker 5: to make sure that if I want to go through

484
00:20:44,680 --> 00:20:47,359
Speaker 5: this career before I go to culinary school, before I

485
00:20:47,520 --> 00:20:51,520
Speaker 5: signed that forty thousand dollars Sally may loan, do I

486
00:20:51,640 --> 00:20:53,920
Speaker 5: want to be in the restaurant business. So I volunteered

487
00:20:53,960 --> 00:20:55,520
Speaker 5: my time. I worked at this place called the Water's

488
00:20:55,600 --> 00:21:00,520
Speaker 5: Edge and Queen's and I worked for a shref who

489
00:21:00,720 --> 00:21:03,520
Speaker 5: was like, you know, you've seen Gordon Ramsey. Let's put

490
00:21:03,560 --> 00:21:04,880
Speaker 5: Gordon Ramsey times ten.

491
00:21:05,480 --> 00:21:05,680
Speaker 4: Wow.

492
00:21:05,720 --> 00:21:06,960
Speaker 5: Shout out to George Mansroth.

493
00:21:07,040 --> 00:21:07,359
Speaker 4: I love you.

494
00:21:07,440 --> 00:21:10,720
Speaker 5: He was like Dad number three, but he was tough man.

495
00:21:10,960 --> 00:21:13,440
Speaker 5: And I was fifteen sixteen years old and I'm getting

496
00:21:13,480 --> 00:21:15,840
Speaker 5: things thrown at me. I'm getting called every name in

497
00:21:15,880 --> 00:21:18,320
Speaker 5: the book. The moment he found out I was Dominican

498
00:21:18,359 --> 00:21:19,879
Speaker 5: and he's like, ah, that explains it all. You're a

499
00:21:19,920 --> 00:21:23,480
Speaker 5: Dominican handicap And I'm like wow. And I knew what

500
00:21:23,600 --> 00:21:26,040
Speaker 5: he was doing wasn't right, but to me, it made

501
00:21:26,080 --> 00:21:30,680
Speaker 5: me tougher. Right. I grew to a sense of I

502
00:21:30,760 --> 00:21:33,320
Speaker 5: became a man a lot faster. But I also knew

503
00:21:33,359 --> 00:21:36,640
Speaker 5: that I'm not going to be that guy, no matter

504
00:21:36,680 --> 00:21:40,159
Speaker 5: how talented he was and still is. I was not

505
00:21:40,240 --> 00:21:41,480
Speaker 5: going to treat my staff like that.

506
00:21:42,200 --> 00:21:43,880
Speaker 3: So what's what's the labor cost?

507
00:21:44,359 --> 00:21:46,159
Speaker 5: So labor costs. When you come to labor costs, you

508
00:21:46,200 --> 00:21:49,560
Speaker 5: think about how much money people are making per hour.

509
00:21:49,880 --> 00:21:53,560
Speaker 5: And an example, there's restaurants where if you're in a

510
00:21:53,600 --> 00:21:55,760
Speaker 5: hotel in corporate you're you're making a lot more. You're

511
00:21:55,760 --> 00:21:58,960
Speaker 5: probably making double to what chefs and cooks normally make

512
00:21:59,359 --> 00:22:02,040
Speaker 5: in restaurants. And that's just because I've had the opportunity

513
00:22:02,119 --> 00:22:04,720
Speaker 5: to work in both. So let's say, for example, when

514
00:22:04,760 --> 00:22:06,840
Speaker 5: I was at the Strand Hotel, it was a non

515
00:22:06,960 --> 00:22:09,880
Speaker 5: unionized hotel when we first started, and I was there

516
00:22:09,880 --> 00:22:11,960
Speaker 5: for about six years, and then I left to open

517
00:22:12,040 --> 00:22:14,200
Speaker 5: up Blend on the Water, which is my first Latin restaurant.

518
00:22:15,240 --> 00:22:19,320
Speaker 5: And then after that the Marriotte Vacation Club company came

519
00:22:19,400 --> 00:22:21,399
Speaker 5: in bought it out, and when I got there, I

520
00:22:21,480 --> 00:22:23,040
Speaker 5: came back and I saw it in a way is

521
00:22:23,400 --> 00:22:25,159
Speaker 5: I don't ever like to go back to something. But

522
00:22:25,240 --> 00:22:27,080
Speaker 5: for me it was like, what it's corporate now. It

523
00:22:27,160 --> 00:22:29,680
Speaker 5: went from a small Boutiko hotel to the Marriotte. Maybe

524
00:22:29,760 --> 00:22:31,600
Speaker 5: this is what's right for me. Maybe I do want

525
00:22:31,640 --> 00:22:33,320
Speaker 5: to be a corporate chef. Maybe I want to be

526
00:22:33,359 --> 00:22:36,200
Speaker 5: able to have my food in multiple Marriotts. But when

527
00:22:36,240 --> 00:22:38,040
Speaker 5: I got there, all of a sudden, the dishwasher who

528
00:22:38,080 --> 00:22:39,920
Speaker 5: was making ten dollars an hours now making twenty dollars

529
00:22:39,920 --> 00:22:42,160
Speaker 5: an hour. The line cook who was making seventeen dollars

530
00:22:42,160 --> 00:22:44,000
Speaker 5: an hour and now was making twenty seven dollars an hour.

531
00:22:44,520 --> 00:22:48,000
Speaker 5: So now it's like I can't have a successful kitchen

532
00:22:48,119 --> 00:22:50,399
Speaker 5: doing the food that I do because now I can

533
00:22:50,440 --> 00:22:52,920
Speaker 5: only have one dishwasher. Now I can only have two cooks,

534
00:22:53,000 --> 00:22:53,360
Speaker 5: not four.

535
00:22:54,160 --> 00:22:56,040
Speaker 4: Or cuts into your margin, cuts.

536
00:22:55,840 --> 00:22:57,520
Speaker 5: Into my margin because at the end of the day,

537
00:22:57,560 --> 00:23:00,960
Speaker 5: your labor costs has to be think about this, there's

538
00:23:01,000 --> 00:23:03,359
Speaker 5: one hundred percent, right. Your food cost has to be

539
00:23:03,480 --> 00:23:06,000
Speaker 5: under thirty percent, right, Your labor costs has to be

540
00:23:06,119 --> 00:23:09,879
Speaker 5: under let's say twenty percent, twenty to twenty five percent.

541
00:23:10,280 --> 00:23:12,800
Speaker 5: Then you have to think about liquor costs under eighteen

542
00:23:12,840 --> 00:23:15,800
Speaker 5: percent because all this is cutting into your profit. Then

543
00:23:15,840 --> 00:23:20,360
Speaker 5: you think about rent, you think about electricity, water, You're

544
00:23:20,400 --> 00:23:22,600
Speaker 5: left with like ten percent at the end of the day.

545
00:23:23,119 --> 00:23:26,600
Speaker 5: So the more that I save on food labor is

546
00:23:26,640 --> 00:23:28,440
Speaker 5: the more money that gets into the pocket of the business.

547
00:23:28,520 --> 00:23:30,840
Speaker 3: That's a typical profit margin for restaurants ten percent.

548
00:23:30,880 --> 00:23:32,560
Speaker 5: It's something that's why a lot of restaurants go out

549
00:23:32,600 --> 00:23:35,000
Speaker 5: of business. There were times where I saw where we

550
00:23:35,119 --> 00:23:39,680
Speaker 5: made two point two million dollars and after all expenses,

551
00:23:39,760 --> 00:23:41,680
Speaker 5: we came home with two hundred thousand dollars.

552
00:23:42,119 --> 00:23:43,719
Speaker 3: To two point We did an episode with a restaurant

553
00:23:43,720 --> 00:23:46,399
Speaker 3: owner in Baltimore, shot with Derek Falcon, and his thing

554
00:23:46,520 --> 00:23:48,600
Speaker 3: was a unique strategy that he has. We only uses

555
00:23:48,760 --> 00:23:51,879
Speaker 3: mixed use properties for his thing because he gets the

556
00:23:51,960 --> 00:23:56,080
Speaker 3: rent from people that live upstairs and his subsidized It

557
00:23:56,200 --> 00:23:58,920
Speaker 3: takes less pressure off of him hit the restaurant. He

558
00:23:58,960 --> 00:23:59,920
Speaker 3: you feel aboute hundred percent.

559
00:24:00,119 --> 00:24:03,000
Speaker 5: It's smart. You're finding ways to make more money in

560
00:24:03,080 --> 00:24:03,440
Speaker 5: your pocket.

561
00:24:04,640 --> 00:24:06,320
Speaker 4: No, I was gonna say another thing. He doesn't open

562
00:24:06,359 --> 00:24:06,719
Speaker 4: every day.

563
00:24:06,840 --> 00:24:09,320
Speaker 5: Yeah, you don't have to open every day people. People

564
00:24:09,320 --> 00:24:12,200
Speaker 5: are so afraid of Granted, I see the mentality of

565
00:24:12,640 --> 00:24:15,080
Speaker 5: the day that the moments that we're closed are opportunities

566
00:24:15,119 --> 00:24:16,720
Speaker 5: to make money. Yeah, that's also opportunities for you to

567
00:24:16,800 --> 00:24:20,520
Speaker 5: lose money. It's okay to have Monday Tuesday off. Guess what,

568
00:24:20,720 --> 00:24:23,119
Speaker 5: Now you have a staff that's happy because everybody has

569
00:24:23,160 --> 00:24:26,960
Speaker 5: two days off consecutively. This is a business where you know,

570
00:24:27,119 --> 00:24:28,880
Speaker 5: I'm grateful when I get two days off in a row.

571
00:24:28,960 --> 00:24:30,359
Speaker 5: But now I'm at a point where I make my

572
00:24:30,400 --> 00:24:32,280
Speaker 5: own schedule. But I'm also a hustler. I also love

573
00:24:32,320 --> 00:24:35,119
Speaker 5: money and I also love working, so I I this

574
00:24:35,240 --> 00:24:36,680
Speaker 5: is busy season for me. I'm lucky if I have

575
00:24:36,720 --> 00:24:38,520
Speaker 5: three days off this month, you know. But I also

576
00:24:38,560 --> 00:24:42,040
Speaker 5: take the whole month of January off, so there's there's

577
00:24:42,600 --> 00:24:45,439
Speaker 5: It works out pretty well, right, nice, It works out

578
00:24:45,480 --> 00:24:47,119
Speaker 5: pretty well. And I also I also take off two

579
00:24:47,160 --> 00:24:49,440
Speaker 5: weeks from my birthday in July. So it's the heat

580
00:24:49,480 --> 00:24:50,760
Speaker 5: of the business. But at the end of the day,

581
00:24:51,040 --> 00:24:53,080
Speaker 5: I put myself in a position where I deserve that,

582
00:24:53,080 --> 00:24:56,119
Speaker 5: and I earned that. But again, you earn your leisure.

583
00:24:56,359 --> 00:24:58,399
Speaker 5: But again, other than that, you see me hustling every

584
00:24:58,440 --> 00:25:00,359
Speaker 5: single day. If you follow me on Instagram, you know

585
00:25:00,480 --> 00:25:03,159
Speaker 5: that I'm always working. Whether it's doing a video on

586
00:25:03,240 --> 00:25:06,960
Speaker 5: YouTube now, whether it's speaking at a high school or

587
00:25:07,640 --> 00:25:11,240
Speaker 5: an elementary school, it's me at last Lap, or it's

588
00:25:11,280 --> 00:25:13,240
Speaker 5: me doing a private dinner for twenty or doing a

589
00:25:13,280 --> 00:25:14,919
Speaker 5: private dinner for ten, or doing an event for one

590
00:25:15,000 --> 00:25:18,240
Speaker 5: hundred and fifty people. So I'm grateful that because of

591
00:25:18,320 --> 00:25:20,440
Speaker 5: what I do, I do so many dope different things

592
00:25:20,480 --> 00:25:21,280
Speaker 5: on a regular basis.

593
00:25:21,359 --> 00:25:23,200
Speaker 3: Well, that leads us right into our next segment. We're

594
00:25:23,200 --> 00:25:25,159
Speaker 3: going to talk about some entrepreneurial stuff that you do,

595
00:25:25,320 --> 00:25:28,639
Speaker 3: and yeah take it from there. All right, So now

596
00:25:28,680 --> 00:25:30,920
Speaker 3: we're going to go into the second segment, and I

597
00:25:31,000 --> 00:25:33,320
Speaker 3: wanted to just talk about a couple of things that

598
00:25:33,520 --> 00:25:36,600
Speaker 3: we spoke about off camera. You talked about you did

599
00:25:36,680 --> 00:25:39,800
Speaker 3: the pop up dinners that became wildly successful, right, Yeah,

600
00:25:39,880 --> 00:25:40,520
Speaker 3: can you talk about that?

601
00:25:40,680 --> 00:25:40,840
Speaker 4: Yeah?

602
00:25:40,880 --> 00:25:43,200
Speaker 5: Absolutely, It's one of those things like I'm getting goosebumps

603
00:25:43,200 --> 00:25:45,199
Speaker 5: now because I got another pop up dinner that's coming up.

604
00:25:45,280 --> 00:25:50,720
Speaker 5: On the nineteenth and the twentieth of December. But we

605
00:25:50,800 --> 00:25:53,200
Speaker 5: got into that because of not being in a restaurant

606
00:25:53,280 --> 00:25:56,040
Speaker 5: on a regular basis, my demand was hired. The only

607
00:25:56,080 --> 00:25:57,320
Speaker 5: way that you can have my food is by you

608
00:25:57,359 --> 00:25:59,080
Speaker 5: booking me. So it's kind of me like forcing. The

609
00:25:59,160 --> 00:26:02,200
Speaker 5: other hand, it's like you want my food, you booked me,

610
00:26:02,640 --> 00:26:05,200
Speaker 5: and I'm not gonna lie. What I do with food

611
00:26:05,640 --> 00:26:08,280
Speaker 5: changes the way that you see food. For example, if

612
00:26:08,320 --> 00:26:10,200
Speaker 5: you have my mac and cheese, you'll never see mac

613
00:26:10,240 --> 00:26:13,000
Speaker 5: and cheese again unless it's my mac and cheese, because

614
00:26:13,040 --> 00:26:14,600
Speaker 5: every time you take a bite of someone else's mac

615
00:26:14,640 --> 00:26:15,920
Speaker 5: and cheese, like damn, it's good, but this is not

616
00:26:16,040 --> 00:26:18,920
Speaker 5: Kelvin's what do you do with the Mexican and flavors?

617
00:26:19,000 --> 00:26:21,040
Speaker 5: And like I'm slidated now.

618
00:26:21,320 --> 00:26:23,479
Speaker 6: I'm thinking about this man. Were you about to put

619
00:26:23,520 --> 00:26:25,520
Speaker 6: a new standing man all chefs restaurants?

620
00:26:25,640 --> 00:26:26,639
Speaker 4: Ye gotta bring food with you.

621
00:26:26,760 --> 00:26:28,399
Speaker 5: You should have told me something happened.

622
00:26:28,400 --> 00:26:29,600
Speaker 4: Now you brought something else that we go to talk

623
00:26:29,600 --> 00:26:30,400
Speaker 4: about something.

624
00:26:31,000 --> 00:26:33,159
Speaker 5: I can never come in empty handy. I always introduced

625
00:26:33,160 --> 00:26:35,040
Speaker 5: myself with food, but today introduce myself with something else.

626
00:26:35,040 --> 00:26:37,200
Speaker 3: Were talking about you the only way that they could

627
00:26:37,400 --> 00:26:39,359
Speaker 3: eat your food is my bookingt Yeah, that was the

628
00:26:39,440 --> 00:26:41,280
Speaker 3: only one. So what restaurant were you are at that time?

629
00:26:41,400 --> 00:26:43,520
Speaker 5: At that time, I wasn't at a restaurant because the

630
00:26:43,560 --> 00:26:47,879
Speaker 5: first time that it was twenty eighteen where the Marriot

631
00:26:47,960 --> 00:26:51,239
Speaker 5: Vacation company closed down. They just decided they didn't want

632
00:26:51,240 --> 00:26:53,399
Speaker 5: a restaurant. No matter how successful the restaurant was, we

633
00:26:53,480 --> 00:26:55,800
Speaker 5: weren't making money. And the reason we weren't making money

634
00:26:55,840 --> 00:26:57,720
Speaker 5: because the labor was too high and there was nothing

635
00:26:57,760 --> 00:26:59,879
Speaker 5: I could do. I was on the line, and that's

636
00:27:00,000 --> 00:27:02,600
Speaker 5: something when on the line means I was actually cooking

637
00:27:02,680 --> 00:27:06,000
Speaker 5: the food. That's a line cook's job, you know what

638
00:27:06,080 --> 00:27:08,920
Speaker 5: I mean. As a chef, I'm creating the menu. I'm

639
00:27:08,960 --> 00:27:10,840
Speaker 5: teaching the line cooks how to do food like me.

640
00:27:10,960 --> 00:27:12,960
Speaker 5: And that's what I think makes me a little bit

641
00:27:13,000 --> 00:27:16,720
Speaker 5: successful on the end where I really take into consideration

642
00:27:17,560 --> 00:27:19,879
Speaker 5: the teaching part. I love to teach, Right, So if

643
00:27:19,960 --> 00:27:22,720
Speaker 5: you're one of my employees and we got a new menu,

644
00:27:23,640 --> 00:27:25,720
Speaker 5: me and you are gonna cook samon side by side

645
00:27:25,800 --> 00:27:26,520
Speaker 5: for two weeks, traight.

646
00:27:26,680 --> 00:27:29,120
Speaker 4: Yeah. So in my mind, I mean, I work with kids,

647
00:27:29,160 --> 00:27:31,600
Speaker 4: so I'm thinking like the line cooker is like the Minion.

648
00:27:32,000 --> 00:27:37,360
Speaker 5: Yeah, absolutely, they absolutely are, and they're only as good

649
00:27:37,400 --> 00:27:41,159
Speaker 5: as how you train them. So and I'm grateful that

650
00:27:41,400 --> 00:27:43,399
Speaker 5: everybody that's been a part of my team is just

651
00:27:44,119 --> 00:27:46,239
Speaker 5: now like ten years later, five years later, even two

652
00:27:46,320 --> 00:27:48,520
Speaker 5: years later, Like I'll take the biggest example was Lomarino.

653
00:27:48,560 --> 00:27:51,240
Speaker 5: Lomrino was one of the best teams that I've ever

654
00:27:51,359 --> 00:27:54,040
Speaker 5: assembled in my entire life. And I'll say that because

655
00:27:54,760 --> 00:27:58,000
Speaker 5: it was such a big team, so many different personalities,

656
00:27:58,359 --> 00:28:00,959
Speaker 5: so many talented chefs that are all executive chefs now,

657
00:28:01,080 --> 00:28:04,399
Speaker 5: like Trill Cooker is chef Jose de Hissu's one of

658
00:28:04,440 --> 00:28:06,359
Speaker 5: my road dogs. This guy has been with me for

659
00:28:06,400 --> 00:28:09,080
Speaker 5: about four years and he has his own pop up

660
00:28:09,119 --> 00:28:12,440
Speaker 5: dinners in his home. Like he does infuse cannabis dinners

661
00:28:12,440 --> 00:28:14,560
Speaker 5: as well. He does. He comes on the road with

662
00:28:14,600 --> 00:28:16,120
Speaker 5: me when I need to go to jal and A Rods.

663
00:28:16,760 --> 00:28:18,200
Speaker 3: So yeah, I want to talk about the pop because

664
00:28:18,240 --> 00:28:20,840
Speaker 3: that's interested for a few different reasons. So you all right,

665
00:28:20,920 --> 00:28:23,119
Speaker 3: so you built the following on social media at the

666
00:28:23,400 --> 00:28:24,160
Speaker 3: time already.

667
00:28:24,359 --> 00:28:27,159
Speaker 5: Yeah, thanks for doing the food shows, doing Food Network,

668
00:28:27,240 --> 00:28:28,040
Speaker 5: doing b Bobby Flay.

669
00:28:28,119 --> 00:28:31,639
Speaker 3: That also helps out, Yeah for sure, So so so

670
00:28:32,040 --> 00:28:33,760
Speaker 3: the pop up. Can we get back to that, because

671
00:28:33,800 --> 00:28:35,000
Speaker 3: that's an interesting business model.

672
00:28:35,040 --> 00:28:36,600
Speaker 5: So the pop up. The reason we did the pop

673
00:28:36,680 --> 00:28:38,920
Speaker 5: up was because we wanted to do something once a month,

674
00:28:38,960 --> 00:28:40,920
Speaker 5: whether it was a pop up event where it was

675
00:28:41,040 --> 00:28:44,080
Speaker 5: like friends Giving, we sold tickets online, they sold out

676
00:28:44,120 --> 00:28:45,760
Speaker 5: in one day. We're like, okay, this is this is

677
00:28:45,800 --> 00:28:49,280
Speaker 5: We're on to something. So the friends Giving was around Thanksgiving,

678
00:28:49,480 --> 00:28:53,920
Speaker 5: we would do almost like we run out Aloft. We'll

679
00:28:54,040 --> 00:28:56,600
Speaker 5: invite one hundred people. You buy tickets online, you get

680
00:28:56,760 --> 00:28:59,240
Speaker 5: food catered by meat whether it was pastor derves, plus

681
00:28:59,320 --> 00:29:03,600
Speaker 5: an actual I'm always fancy, so we did like the

682
00:29:03,720 --> 00:29:06,080
Speaker 5: first meal was an actual Thanksgiving meal. You get turkey,

683
00:29:06,120 --> 00:29:09,200
Speaker 5: caramelized Brussels sprouts, stuffing and gravy. And then the next

684
00:29:09,240 --> 00:29:11,760
Speaker 5: meal would be like something Latin like Beni, which is

685
00:29:11,840 --> 00:29:16,400
Speaker 5: like a roasted pork with mac and cheese and something else.

686
00:29:16,480 --> 00:29:17,920
Speaker 5: And then of course you get my ad airbus. It's

687
00:29:17,960 --> 00:29:19,440
Speaker 5: not an event if my at eppas are not there,

688
00:29:19,760 --> 00:29:21,960
Speaker 5: and if people walk into the building and they see me,

689
00:29:22,280 --> 00:29:24,960
Speaker 5: the first question is are we having at airbus And

690
00:29:25,040 --> 00:29:26,800
Speaker 5: it has to be yes. Sometimes people don't book me

691
00:29:26,840 --> 00:29:28,680
Speaker 5: for at appus and I tell them if they're yelling

692
00:29:28,680 --> 00:29:30,640
Speaker 5: at me. I'm appointing them to your direction. You're taking

693
00:29:30,680 --> 00:29:33,000
Speaker 5: that hit, not me. So I learned that the pop

694
00:29:33,120 --> 00:29:36,040
Speaker 5: up thing was was such a big demand because already

695
00:29:36,080 --> 00:29:38,520
Speaker 5: I'm not giving you the luxury to have my food

696
00:29:38,520 --> 00:29:40,280
Speaker 5: on a regular basis. So every time I did a

697
00:29:40,320 --> 00:29:42,640
Speaker 5: different pop up, we wanted to do like a tacos

698
00:29:42,680 --> 00:29:44,880
Speaker 5: and tequila, so we'd run out. There would be summertime,

699
00:29:44,920 --> 00:29:47,400
Speaker 5: we run out a rooftop and do a dope event

700
00:29:47,480 --> 00:29:50,760
Speaker 5: like that. And then I started noticing that I wanted

701
00:29:50,800 --> 00:29:54,160
Speaker 5: to do more of a sit down experience. So Valentine's

702
00:29:54,200 --> 00:29:56,040
Speaker 5: Day was like the first time that we did. We

703
00:29:56,120 --> 00:29:59,480
Speaker 5: rented out of place in Modhaven. It was called Motley Kitchen,

704
00:29:59,520 --> 00:30:03,200
Speaker 5: which is known for being a restaurant. It's just a bakery,

705
00:30:03,440 --> 00:30:05,280
Speaker 5: and out of that bakery they do catering. So I

706
00:30:05,320 --> 00:30:08,320
Speaker 5: rented out the spot. We did fifty people, three nights

707
00:30:08,320 --> 00:30:12,880
Speaker 5: in a row, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, sold out. And then

708
00:30:12,920 --> 00:30:15,400
Speaker 5: from that moment on, I was just like, people will

709
00:30:15,440 --> 00:30:16,959
Speaker 5: follow me wherever wherever I am.

710
00:30:17,040 --> 00:30:18,640
Speaker 3: So how much money when you making off the pop ups?

711
00:30:18,720 --> 00:30:20,680
Speaker 5: Off the pop ups, Let's say that's when I would

712
00:30:20,720 --> 00:30:23,400
Speaker 5: be making it depends on location. It depends on the

713
00:30:23,480 --> 00:30:25,400
Speaker 5: rent of the venue. At the end of the day,

714
00:30:25,480 --> 00:30:28,160
Speaker 5: I always try to make twenty five percent to thirty

715
00:30:28,160 --> 00:30:30,239
Speaker 5: percent profit compared to like what we talked about ten

716
00:30:30,280 --> 00:30:32,840
Speaker 5: percent profit in a restaurant. How many people are going

717
00:30:32,880 --> 00:30:35,320
Speaker 5: with you? How many to do an event, depending on

718
00:30:35,360 --> 00:30:38,080
Speaker 5: the size. So for that I had three cooks. I

719
00:30:38,240 --> 00:30:41,040
Speaker 5: had a host, which was my best friend. Shout out

720
00:30:41,080 --> 00:30:43,680
Speaker 5: to Eric. This guy has become like my manager, my assistant,

721
00:30:43,880 --> 00:30:47,080
Speaker 5: my brother. But I also give him luck because he

722
00:30:47,120 --> 00:30:48,960
Speaker 5: got to be in some do commercials with me too,

723
00:30:49,080 --> 00:30:51,360
Speaker 5: So he was a host.

724
00:30:51,480 --> 00:30:51,960
Speaker 8: I had.

725
00:30:53,320 --> 00:30:55,000
Speaker 5: Three servers, so I would say a team of about

726
00:30:55,120 --> 00:30:57,640
Speaker 5: less than ten, but about seven to eight people. But

727
00:30:57,760 --> 00:31:00,000
Speaker 5: depending on the on the event, Like I have another

728
00:31:00,080 --> 00:31:02,640
Speaker 5: the event that we did with the NFL Amazon and

729
00:31:02,760 --> 00:31:05,360
Speaker 5: we had a team of fourteen people. It all depends

730
00:31:05,440 --> 00:31:08,400
Speaker 5: on what we need to produces as a team. And me,

731
00:31:08,520 --> 00:31:10,720
Speaker 5: I'm so hands on, so I'm always still cooking. I

732
00:31:10,760 --> 00:31:12,360
Speaker 5: need to learn sometime to take a step back and

733
00:31:12,440 --> 00:31:14,240
Speaker 5: let the team make me proud like they like they

734
00:31:14,280 --> 00:31:14,680
Speaker 5: always do.

735
00:31:14,800 --> 00:31:17,120
Speaker 3: So like the event in my haven, because I'm interested,

736
00:31:17,160 --> 00:31:18,640
Speaker 3: I'm going through with this, Like how much would you

737
00:31:18,680 --> 00:31:19,040
Speaker 3: say so.

738
00:31:19,120 --> 00:31:21,440
Speaker 5: We charge one hundred and fifty dollars per person, fifty

739
00:31:21,520 --> 00:31:24,000
Speaker 5: people per night, which was like, let's say, forty five

740
00:31:24,080 --> 00:31:27,440
Speaker 5: hundred dollars. And then after that we paid one thousand

741
00:31:27,520 --> 00:31:30,440
Speaker 5: dollars for the venue for three days, or it was

742
00:31:30,480 --> 00:31:32,720
Speaker 5: like sixteen hundred for three days. Because we got it

743
00:31:32,760 --> 00:31:35,520
Speaker 5: three days consecutive. It was a deal. And I mean,

744
00:31:35,560 --> 00:31:38,120
Speaker 5: I'm a negotiator. I will negotiate to as much because

745
00:31:38,160 --> 00:31:39,400
Speaker 5: I guess at the end of the day, I learned

746
00:31:39,520 --> 00:31:41,320
Speaker 5: if you don't ask, you'll never know, right. So if

747
00:31:41,360 --> 00:31:42,840
Speaker 5: you're charging me five hundred dolls per day, I'm like,

748
00:31:42,840 --> 00:31:44,320
Speaker 5: can you give me four hundred per day? And I'll

749
00:31:44,320 --> 00:31:45,920
Speaker 5: give you three dates in a row instead of just

750
00:31:46,200 --> 00:31:48,800
Speaker 5: one event, so on and so forth. So you need

751
00:31:48,840 --> 00:31:50,640
Speaker 5: to be able to learn how to talk, learn how

752
00:31:50,680 --> 00:31:52,800
Speaker 5: to negotiate, and at the end of the day you

753
00:31:53,000 --> 00:31:55,320
Speaker 5: offer a barter. You know, I'm very big on barters,

754
00:31:55,320 --> 00:31:56,720
Speaker 5: where I'm like, okay, if you give it to me

755
00:31:56,800 --> 00:31:58,760
Speaker 5: at this price, I'll give you two tickets to the

756
00:31:58,800 --> 00:32:01,800
Speaker 5: event as well. So you need to be able to

757
00:32:01,880 --> 00:32:05,040
Speaker 5: learn how to work with people. I was fortunate enough

758
00:32:05,080 --> 00:32:07,080
Speaker 5: that my partner for this event, he was great on

759
00:32:07,200 --> 00:32:09,920
Speaker 5: getting liquor sponsors because that is where and the reason

760
00:32:09,960 --> 00:32:11,880
Speaker 5: why we made money, because if I had to put

761
00:32:11,920 --> 00:32:13,600
Speaker 5: out on the pocket for liquor.

762
00:32:13,880 --> 00:32:15,160
Speaker 4: That's gonna kill us.

763
00:32:15,200 --> 00:32:17,040
Speaker 5: Yeah, so we're already paying for food, we're already paying

764
00:32:17,040 --> 00:32:19,320
Speaker 5: for a venue, we're ready paying for staff. Take off

765
00:32:19,440 --> 00:32:21,800
Speaker 5: that liquor, and that's the money that we're making. So

766
00:32:22,240 --> 00:32:24,800
Speaker 5: that again, not every event that I do, I get

767
00:32:24,800 --> 00:32:26,440
Speaker 5: a liquor sponsor, but I try to.

768
00:32:26,880 --> 00:32:29,120
Speaker 3: Okay, it's like five thousand profit.

769
00:32:29,280 --> 00:32:32,200
Speaker 5: Out of three days, five five thousand profits split between

770
00:32:32,360 --> 00:32:32,960
Speaker 5: me and my partner.

771
00:32:33,160 --> 00:32:35,040
Speaker 3: Okay, so yeah, the reason why. So it's like twenty

772
00:32:35,040 --> 00:32:37,400
Speaker 3: five hundred dollars, let's just say so. But that's not

773
00:32:37,520 --> 00:32:42,800
Speaker 3: bad for its weekend. It's all about creativity. So it's

774
00:32:42,920 --> 00:32:45,640
Speaker 3: like a lot of times, if you're not familiar with

775
00:32:45,840 --> 00:32:49,200
Speaker 3: New York City, mont Haven, South Bronx, SOUTHROX, South Rox

776
00:32:49,280 --> 00:32:51,080
Speaker 3: not really the best neighborhood.

777
00:32:50,800 --> 00:32:53,200
Speaker 5: But up and coming. Yeah, it's a good thing to

778
00:32:53,280 --> 00:32:56,400
Speaker 5: buy something now because yeah, it's good. It's gonna be big,

779
00:32:57,160 --> 00:32:58,840
Speaker 5: it's gonna be big Frenchy.

780
00:32:59,040 --> 00:33:02,440
Speaker 3: So so there's a few different lessons in that. I

781
00:33:02,560 --> 00:33:08,520
Speaker 3: think exclusivity is very important, and it's like people the more.

782
00:33:08,600 --> 00:33:12,160
Speaker 3: Sometimes the more you make yourself available, you devalue yourself.

783
00:33:12,160 --> 00:33:14,280
Speaker 3: It's like Supreme the clothing line, right it's like people

784
00:33:14,280 --> 00:33:16,520
Speaker 3: will play it, pay a thousand dollars for it because

785
00:33:17,120 --> 00:33:19,280
Speaker 3: you can't get it. It's not easy to get right

786
00:33:19,440 --> 00:33:21,560
Speaker 3: even like with the marathon clothes right now, rest in

787
00:33:21,600 --> 00:33:24,240
Speaker 3: peace in it. But it's like people is lined up

788
00:33:24,280 --> 00:33:26,400
Speaker 3: around the corner for that pop up store because you

789
00:33:26,480 --> 00:33:28,720
Speaker 3: can't really get the clothes, Like it's hard to really

790
00:33:28,760 --> 00:33:32,240
Speaker 3: get right now. Four So you by you making yourself

791
00:33:32,320 --> 00:33:33,960
Speaker 3: like the pop ups like once a month. However you

792
00:33:34,080 --> 00:33:36,440
Speaker 3: was doing it. It's like now it's the whole event

793
00:33:36,840 --> 00:33:39,520
Speaker 3: as opposed to just having a mom and pop shop.

794
00:33:39,600 --> 00:33:41,320
Speaker 3: You're just selling food every day. It's like they just

795
00:33:41,360 --> 00:33:43,720
Speaker 3: walk past you. You come out once a month, and

796
00:33:44,480 --> 00:33:46,120
Speaker 3: you got to be creative. So it's like you didn't

797
00:33:46,120 --> 00:33:48,760
Speaker 3: pick the most expensive real estate in New York City.

798
00:33:49,040 --> 00:33:52,480
Speaker 3: You picked the hood and I'm.

799
00:33:52,320 --> 00:33:54,600
Speaker 5: Not afraid to pick them. There's times where, like the

800
00:33:54,720 --> 00:33:57,400
Speaker 5: event that we're doing on nineteenth and the twentieth, we

801
00:33:57,760 --> 00:34:01,320
Speaker 5: paid prime dollar for thirty seven Street between eighth and ninth,

802
00:34:01,440 --> 00:34:02,560
Speaker 5: you know, But at the end of the day, it

803
00:34:02,560 --> 00:34:04,840
Speaker 5: depends on the event that we're doing, and of course.

804
00:34:04,720 --> 00:34:06,960
Speaker 3: The network and you're at that point in your career. Yeah,

805
00:34:07,040 --> 00:34:09,080
Speaker 3: but like for people that's just starting out, a lot

806
00:34:09,120 --> 00:34:11,800
Speaker 3: of times it's like they feel intimidated. But it's like

807
00:34:12,000 --> 00:34:13,640
Speaker 3: work with the resources that you have.

808
00:34:13,840 --> 00:34:15,560
Speaker 5: I think that's so important that you're saying that, because

809
00:34:15,600 --> 00:34:18,799
Speaker 5: you have to be able to no budgets. Like you said,

810
00:34:18,840 --> 00:34:20,839
Speaker 5: you're not going to be successful if you're breaking even

811
00:34:20,880 --> 00:34:23,000
Speaker 5: You're not going to be successful if you're not charging

812
00:34:23,040 --> 00:34:23,760
Speaker 5: the right prices.

813
00:34:23,800 --> 00:34:23,880
Speaker 1: You know.

814
00:34:24,000 --> 00:34:25,800
Speaker 5: Of course I wasn't able to charge one hundred and

815
00:34:25,840 --> 00:34:28,040
Speaker 5: fifty dollars if this was ten years ago for me

816
00:34:28,160 --> 00:34:30,080
Speaker 5: and my bread and who I am now. But with

817
00:34:30,239 --> 00:34:33,400
Speaker 5: the accolades and with the awards and constantly winning, you know,

818
00:34:33,560 --> 00:34:35,200
Speaker 5: an award after an award, and the people that I

819
00:34:35,280 --> 00:34:37,720
Speaker 5: cook for, it is vouching for itself. And I always

820
00:34:37,760 --> 00:34:39,520
Speaker 5: joke around and I say, my food is all hype

821
00:34:39,840 --> 00:34:41,480
Speaker 5: until you finally experience it yourself.

822
00:34:41,880 --> 00:34:42,120
Speaker 9: Yeah.

823
00:34:42,239 --> 00:34:43,560
Speaker 3: And I was just telling I was telling one of

824
00:34:43,600 --> 00:34:45,239
Speaker 3: my friends this the other day because you're talking about

825
00:34:45,280 --> 00:34:50,080
Speaker 3: like a business and we was talking. Actually Jamal actually

826
00:34:50,080 --> 00:34:52,440
Speaker 3: said it originally and I relayed the message. And it's

827
00:34:52,480 --> 00:34:54,759
Speaker 3: like the business is only going to bring like, let's say,

828
00:34:54,800 --> 00:34:57,400
Speaker 3: like two thousand a month, And at first I'm like,

829
00:34:57,920 --> 00:35:00,760
Speaker 3: it's not worth it, like that's two thousand, But then.

830
00:35:02,440 --> 00:35:04,680
Speaker 6: This episode is brought to you by P and C Bank.

831
00:35:05,080 --> 00:35:07,800
Speaker 6: A lot of people think podcasts about work are boring,

832
00:35:08,080 --> 00:35:11,880
Speaker 6: and sure they definitely can be, but understanding a professionals

833
00:35:12,000 --> 00:35:15,200
Speaker 6: routine shows us how they achieve their success little by little,

834
00:35:15,640 --> 00:35:19,239
Speaker 6: day after day. It's like banking with P and C Bank.

835
00:35:19,760 --> 00:35:22,520
Speaker 6: It might seem boring to save, plan and make calculated

836
00:35:22,560 --> 00:35:25,640
Speaker 6: decisions with your bank, but keeping your money boring is

837
00:35:25,719 --> 00:35:28,960
Speaker 6: what helps you live or more happily fulfilled life. P

838
00:35:29,160 --> 00:35:33,960
Speaker 6: and C Bank Brilliantly Boring since eighteen sixty five. Brilliantly

839
00:35:34,040 --> 00:35:36,640
Speaker 6: Boring since eighteen sixty five is a service mark of

840
00:35:36,680 --> 00:35:39,879
Speaker 6: the PNC Financial Service Group, Inc. P and C Bank

841
00:35:40,360 --> 00:35:43,080
Speaker 6: National Association Member FDIC.

842
00:35:45,680 --> 00:35:46,319
Speaker 4: Erness What's Up?

843
00:35:46,400 --> 00:35:49,400
Speaker 6: You ever walk into a small business and everything just works,

844
00:35:49,840 --> 00:35:53,120
Speaker 6: Like the checkout is fast, the receipts are digital, tipping

845
00:35:53,360 --> 00:35:55,800
Speaker 6: is a breeze, and you're out the door before the

846
00:35:55,880 --> 00:36:00,239
Speaker 6: line even builds. Odds are they're using Square? I love

847
00:36:00,320 --> 00:36:03,400
Speaker 6: supporting businesses that run on Square because it just feels seamless.

848
00:36:03,600 --> 00:36:05,239
Speaker 4: Whether it's a local coffee.

849
00:36:04,880 --> 00:36:07,680
Speaker 6: Shop, a vendor at a pop up market, or even

850
00:36:07,719 --> 00:36:10,680
Speaker 6: one of our merch partners, Square makes it easy for

851
00:36:10,800 --> 00:36:14,240
Speaker 6: them to take payments, manage inventory, and run their business

852
00:36:14,320 --> 00:36:17,920
Speaker 6: with confidence, all from one simple system. If you're a

853
00:36:18,000 --> 00:36:21,120
Speaker 6: business owner or even just thinking about launching something soon,

854
00:36:21,560 --> 00:36:24,080
Speaker 6: Square is hands down one of the best tools out

855
00:36:24,120 --> 00:36:27,320
Speaker 6: there to help you start, run and grow. It's not

856
00:36:27,520 --> 00:36:30,640
Speaker 6: just about payments, it's about giving you time back so

857
00:36:30,760 --> 00:36:33,399
Speaker 6: you can focus on what matters most Ready. To see

858
00:36:33,440 --> 00:36:37,040
Speaker 6: how Square can transform your business, visit Square dot com

859
00:36:37,239 --> 00:36:42,000
Speaker 6: backslash go backslash eyl to learn more. That's Square dot

860
00:36:42,120 --> 00:36:47,080
Speaker 6: com backslash, go backslash eyl. Don't wait, don't hesitate. Let's

861
00:36:47,080 --> 00:36:49,560
Speaker 6: Square handle the back end so you can keep pushing

862
00:36:49,600 --> 00:36:50,440
Speaker 6: your vision forward.

863
00:36:53,520 --> 00:36:56,359
Speaker 9: Valspar Ultra starts at just twenty nine ninety eighty gallon,

864
00:36:56,840 --> 00:36:59,000
Speaker 9: so we've got you covered. When your daughter wants to

865
00:36:59,040 --> 00:37:02,200
Speaker 9: paint a room again after last year's masterpiece of a

866
00:37:02,320 --> 00:37:06,839
Speaker 9: unicorn mural, or when you realize that maybe you went

867
00:37:07,160 --> 00:37:10,680
Speaker 9: too hard on the graye I miss color, or when

868
00:37:10,680 --> 00:37:13,520
Speaker 9: you were sure you wanted a home gym, but yourallithical

869
00:37:13,719 --> 00:37:16,960
Speaker 9: is currently hanging your laundry. What about a home office

870
00:37:17,200 --> 00:37:19,719
Speaker 9: shop everything you need for your next phase with valve

871
00:37:19,760 --> 00:37:22,440
Speaker 9: spar available at Low's price varies by.

872
00:37:22,400 --> 00:37:24,759
Speaker 3: She but I'm like thinking about it, like, well that's

873
00:37:24,800 --> 00:37:28,600
Speaker 3: two thousands. Like what I said, you through that five times.

874
00:37:28,640 --> 00:37:31,960
Speaker 3: Now you got ten thousands. So it's like, it's not

875
00:37:32,120 --> 00:37:35,239
Speaker 3: about hitting. It's never about hitting home runs. It's never

876
00:37:35,360 --> 00:37:38,279
Speaker 3: because if you play baseball, you don't swing for a

877
00:37:38,320 --> 00:37:40,759
Speaker 3: home run. You swing and eventually you'll hit a home

878
00:37:40,840 --> 00:37:43,640
Speaker 3: run if you're strong enough, but you don't plan to

879
00:37:43,680 --> 00:37:45,239
Speaker 3: hit home run because you just strike out. It's like,

880
00:37:45,280 --> 00:37:48,839
Speaker 3: it's never about home run, just about consistently building your name,

881
00:37:48,960 --> 00:37:52,719
Speaker 3: building your brand. Getting two thousand a thousand Dad's up

882
00:37:52,760 --> 00:37:53,880
Speaker 3: over the course at the time. A lot of time

883
00:37:53,920 --> 00:37:57,080
Speaker 3: people like the going up And that's about one. That's

884
00:37:57,120 --> 00:37:58,480
Speaker 3: how much you made too, because that's kind of what

885
00:37:58,560 --> 00:38:01,520
Speaker 3: I figured you made. And I people cant intimidate like

886
00:38:01,680 --> 00:38:03,680
Speaker 3: I got a fifty thousand for a weekend. It's like

887
00:38:04,080 --> 00:38:04,960
Speaker 3: not when you first start.

888
00:38:04,960 --> 00:38:06,960
Speaker 6: It's not how we're saying, like you made twenty five hundred,

889
00:38:07,040 --> 00:38:08,359
Speaker 6: like that's somebody's month.

890
00:38:08,480 --> 00:38:10,919
Speaker 5: Yeah, absolute right, And I've thought of that, and there's

891
00:38:10,920 --> 00:38:13,719
Speaker 5: certain times where I haven't made money on events because

892
00:38:13,719 --> 00:38:16,320
Speaker 5: you have to understand what is this event bringing to me? Also,

893
00:38:16,640 --> 00:38:18,600
Speaker 5: is it an event that I have influencers that are

894
00:38:18,680 --> 00:38:22,880
Speaker 5: going to every single person tag me in their Instagram posts?

895
00:38:22,880 --> 00:38:24,640
Speaker 5: Because those are deals that I have made too, and

896
00:38:24,719 --> 00:38:26,879
Speaker 5: I was afraid to make those in the past until

897
00:38:26,880 --> 00:38:28,960
Speaker 5: I finally made one and I was like, holy shit,

898
00:38:29,000 --> 00:38:31,160
Speaker 5: I just got fifteen hundred new followers in a day,

899
00:38:31,520 --> 00:38:34,560
Speaker 5: Like how Because every single person that was there was

900
00:38:34,560 --> 00:38:38,920
Speaker 5: an influencer or was in their own and their own

901
00:38:39,000 --> 00:38:41,160
Speaker 5: life a start, whether it was a singer, whether it's

902
00:38:41,160 --> 00:38:43,200
Speaker 5: an actress, whether it was a songwriter, whether it was

903
00:38:43,200 --> 00:38:46,120
Speaker 5: an artist, whether it was a banker. They were all

904
00:38:46,160 --> 00:38:47,520
Speaker 5: at the top of the game at that And when

905
00:38:47,520 --> 00:38:48,920
Speaker 5: I did that event, I was like, Okay, I need

906
00:38:48,960 --> 00:38:49,840
Speaker 5: to find ways that I can do.

907
00:38:51,120 --> 00:38:52,440
Speaker 4: Is not a product is going to speak for itself.

908
00:38:52,520 --> 00:38:54,480
Speaker 5: The product is going to speak for itself. People are posting,

909
00:38:54,520 --> 00:38:56,880
Speaker 5: people are eating, they're having their reactions, and all of

910
00:38:56,920 --> 00:38:59,160
Speaker 5: a sudden, out of those new fifteen hundred, guess what

911
00:38:59,280 --> 00:39:01,560
Speaker 5: I just made. Some come from those people booking me. So,

912
00:39:01,719 --> 00:39:04,400
Speaker 5: like you said, supplying demand and then also you have

913
00:39:04,480 --> 00:39:06,880
Speaker 5: to make sure that, like you said, I'm doing an

914
00:39:06,920 --> 00:39:08,880
Speaker 5: event on the nineteenth and the twentieth that's one of

915
00:39:08,920 --> 00:39:10,960
Speaker 5: the most expensive events I've ever done. I'm doing a

916
00:39:11,040 --> 00:39:15,640
Speaker 5: collab with griseld Vaie, which is an incredible woman, incredible voice,

917
00:39:15,880 --> 00:39:18,120
Speaker 5: and we're taching one hundred and seventy five dollars per person.

918
00:39:18,480 --> 00:39:19,680
Speaker 5: You know, but at the end of the day, people

919
00:39:19,719 --> 00:39:22,680
Speaker 5: don't know the expense that comes into pulling off an

920
00:39:22,719 --> 00:39:27,040
Speaker 5: event in New York City on thirty seven seven, where

921
00:39:27,040 --> 00:39:29,759
Speaker 5: you're just buying a raw stage, a raw form, where

922
00:39:29,800 --> 00:39:32,120
Speaker 5: you have to buy stage and lights.

923
00:39:31,960 --> 00:39:34,960
Speaker 6: In the highlight of the holiday season and the holiday

924
00:39:35,000 --> 00:39:36,839
Speaker 6: season where Christmas is in two weeks.

925
00:39:36,880 --> 00:39:38,759
Speaker 5: And that's why we sold it two months ago, where

926
00:39:38,800 --> 00:39:41,200
Speaker 5: we sold out again in one day. And I'm blessed

927
00:39:41,200 --> 00:39:44,200
Speaker 5: to be able to say that. You said, supplying demand,

928
00:39:44,280 --> 00:39:46,200
Speaker 5: if you put yourself available every single day, I'm not

929
00:39:46,280 --> 00:39:48,640
Speaker 5: going to sell an event out every single day. But

930
00:39:48,719 --> 00:39:50,399
Speaker 5: if we do it once a month, guess what, people

931
00:39:50,440 --> 00:39:52,440
Speaker 5: talked about it for a whole month. We're posting for

932
00:39:52,480 --> 00:39:55,040
Speaker 5: the next one. We're gonna do it again already.

933
00:39:55,160 --> 00:39:56,759
Speaker 4: People haven't experience said that.

934
00:39:57,600 --> 00:40:02,120
Speaker 5: People haven't experienced this event. And the next next that

935
00:40:02,280 --> 00:40:04,200
Speaker 5: sounds like I'm so high. We haven't even done it yet.

936
00:40:04,320 --> 00:40:06,360
Speaker 3: That sounds like an event that we just did in

937
00:40:06,480 --> 00:40:09,640
Speaker 3: DC and the streets is we got the streets going crazy.

938
00:40:09,800 --> 00:40:11,400
Speaker 3: Love that, Atlanta. Don't play yourself.

939
00:40:11,840 --> 00:40:12,680
Speaker 4: Yeah, we're telling you now.

940
00:40:13,480 --> 00:40:14,200
Speaker 5: I think I'm gonna come.

941
00:40:16,400 --> 00:40:20,279
Speaker 3: So talk about another thing that you did, Keith.

942
00:40:22,400 --> 00:40:22,600
Speaker 4: You know.

943
00:40:27,160 --> 00:40:32,239
Speaker 5: Puerto Rican drink traditional Puerto Rican I would say Thanksgiving

944
00:40:32,360 --> 00:40:35,880
Speaker 5: holidays like Thanksgiving, Christmas and maybe New Year's but that's

945
00:40:35,880 --> 00:40:36,359
Speaker 5: a little push.

946
00:40:36,480 --> 00:40:42,520
Speaker 4: That's always the gift that they give you. No give

947
00:40:42,600 --> 00:40:45,719
Speaker 4: you like seventeen bottles in the free So.

948
00:40:45,760 --> 00:40:47,960
Speaker 3: If you're from New York City, you know you got

949
00:40:48,040 --> 00:40:52,880
Speaker 3: Boikuas Puerto Ricans, you got the minikanos. Dominicans don't do that.

950
00:40:53,160 --> 00:40:58,239
Speaker 3: They're different. Don't don't ever confuse, don't ever confuse it

951
00:40:58,280 --> 00:41:01,680
Speaker 3: too right. They have different cultures, different different vibes, but

952
00:41:01,840 --> 00:41:04,759
Speaker 3: so many similarities for sure, Like we all do absolutely,

953
00:41:05,640 --> 00:41:10,480
Speaker 3: but that particularly is a Puerto Rican. It's a Puerto

954
00:41:10,520 --> 00:41:13,960
Speaker 3: Rican thing, right, So you've been a Dominican. What what

955
00:41:14,120 --> 00:41:14,680
Speaker 3: made you do that?

956
00:41:15,239 --> 00:41:17,160
Speaker 5: I did it as a joke. I did it as

957
00:41:17,200 --> 00:41:20,479
Speaker 5: a joke. You know, kind of like for the moment,

958
00:41:21,280 --> 00:41:22,560
Speaker 5: it was funny, and you know, it was one of

959
00:41:22,560 --> 00:41:24,240
Speaker 5: those things where I was like, let's test the market.

960
00:41:24,440 --> 00:41:26,640
Speaker 5: This is like five years ago, you know, where Chef

961
00:41:26,680 --> 00:41:28,480
Speaker 5: Kelvin was finally building his brand. And I'll talking to

962
00:41:28,560 --> 00:41:31,360
Speaker 5: third person now because even in the even in the streets,

963
00:41:31,360 --> 00:41:34,760
Speaker 5: I'm not Kelvin anymore. Chef Calvin, your chef. I remember

964
00:41:34,800 --> 00:41:36,640
Speaker 5: I was on the train once and somebody's yo, Chef.

965
00:41:36,680 --> 00:41:39,520
Speaker 5: I'm like, oh shit, I made it. Somebody's calling me

966
00:41:39,560 --> 00:41:41,040
Speaker 5: out on the train. I was like, damn, I can't

967
00:41:41,040 --> 00:41:44,239
Speaker 5: be on the train. No more joking around, you know.

968
00:41:44,320 --> 00:41:47,680
Speaker 5: But in reality, the coquito is traditional Puerto Rican. So

969
00:41:47,760 --> 00:41:50,520
Speaker 5: I did it, and I'm like, let me find ways

970
00:41:50,560 --> 00:41:55,920
Speaker 5: to What makes a chef unique is making something that's classic, traditional, reinvented, right.

971
00:41:55,960 --> 00:41:57,720
Speaker 5: So I didn't reinvent the wheel when I made this cokey,

972
00:41:57,880 --> 00:41:59,759
Speaker 5: I just made it. Mind like everybody makes it with

973
00:42:00,600 --> 00:42:04,160
Speaker 5: let's make hennessy. Everybody uses these ingredients, let's use those ingredients,

974
00:42:04,320 --> 00:42:06,160
Speaker 5: but let's add something else into it. I can't tell

975
00:42:06,160 --> 00:42:09,560
Speaker 5: you the secret. And then again, everybody uses cinnamon. I'm

976
00:42:09,560 --> 00:42:14,600
Speaker 5: gonna use exotic spices like I'm using, yeah, things that

977
00:42:14,640 --> 00:42:16,759
Speaker 5: I've used in cooking, so like, that's the cool thing

978
00:42:16,760 --> 00:42:19,239
Speaker 5: about it. I'm thinking of making coquito as like making

979
00:42:19,280 --> 00:42:21,439
Speaker 5: a dessert for me, because in reality, it's a little

980
00:42:21,440 --> 00:42:25,719
Speaker 5: bit sweet, it's thick in flavor, it's coconuty, and it's

981
00:42:26,600 --> 00:42:28,520
Speaker 5: I use it for like French toast batter. Now I

982
00:42:28,640 --> 00:42:30,480
Speaker 5: use it to make ice cream. I use it to

983
00:42:30,640 --> 00:42:32,560
Speaker 5: let's take that to the next level. So of course

984
00:42:32,600 --> 00:42:34,400
Speaker 5: when I make coquita for the first time, there's a

985
00:42:34,440 --> 00:42:36,520
Speaker 5: lot of you know, people saying that's not traditional. But

986
00:42:36,560 --> 00:42:38,719
Speaker 5: it's okay. I'm not looking to be traditional. I'm looking

987
00:42:38,760 --> 00:42:41,480
Speaker 5: to be Chef Kelvin. So I'm making coquito. That's why

988
00:42:41,520 --> 00:42:43,880
Speaker 5: my coquito says on the label Coquito by Chef Calvin.

989
00:42:44,200 --> 00:42:46,440
Speaker 5: If you're looking for traditional like, I'm sure you can

990
00:42:46,480 --> 00:42:49,319
Speaker 5: find those out there. And again, there's plenty of room

991
00:42:49,400 --> 00:42:50,600
Speaker 5: for all of us to eat. I know, I had

992
00:42:50,600 --> 00:42:52,319
Speaker 5: people hit me up on the regular, like, please don't

993
00:42:52,560 --> 00:42:55,400
Speaker 5: sell your coquito in Jersey, Please don't sell your coquaito

994
00:42:55,760 --> 00:42:58,400
Speaker 5: in Brooklyn, like you already do enough. I'm like, but

995
00:42:58,520 --> 00:43:00,759
Speaker 5: I want more. What's the p with one? And more?

996
00:43:00,960 --> 00:43:02,560
Speaker 3: So how did you get that out?

997
00:43:02,840 --> 00:43:04,000
Speaker 5: I posted it on Instagram.

998
00:43:04,080 --> 00:43:04,160
Speaker 2: Man.

999
00:43:04,200 --> 00:43:05,839
Speaker 5: I posted on Instagram. Back then, I had like thirty

1000
00:43:05,880 --> 00:43:08,120
Speaker 5: thousand followers. I'm blessed to have like almost sixty seven

1001
00:43:08,160 --> 00:43:12,200
Speaker 5: sixty eight now. And I posted it and I said,

1002
00:43:12,200 --> 00:43:13,840
Speaker 5: I made it for myself. I wasn't even selling it.

1003
00:43:14,120 --> 00:43:16,120
Speaker 5: I was like, I just made Henny Cokai throw right away.

1004
00:43:16,880 --> 00:43:19,160
Speaker 5: There were no dms back then, there were just comments.

1005
00:43:19,239 --> 00:43:21,359
Speaker 5: So I posted it on my page and I got

1006
00:43:21,640 --> 00:43:23,479
Speaker 5: flooded with comments in like the first five minutes.

1007
00:43:23,640 --> 00:43:25,919
Speaker 4: You said you said the magic word hennessy.

1008
00:43:25,640 --> 00:43:29,680
Speaker 5: Hennessy, and They're like, are you selling? And I was like, nah,

1009
00:43:29,680 --> 00:43:31,759
Speaker 5: I'm not selling. So I just made it for my friends.

1010
00:43:31,800 --> 00:43:33,200
Speaker 5: We had it. Then the next year, I was like,

1011
00:43:33,280 --> 00:43:35,080
Speaker 5: let me just make twenty bottle. Let's see what happens.

1012
00:43:35,400 --> 00:43:37,600
Speaker 5: I made it. I sold out in ten minutes, and

1013
00:43:37,680 --> 00:43:39,239
Speaker 5: I said, we're going to make a business next year.

1014
00:43:39,239 --> 00:43:41,680
Speaker 5: Because again I knew I didn't bite off more than

1015
00:43:41,680 --> 00:43:43,640
Speaker 5: I can. True, I wasn't ready to start a business,

1016
00:43:43,680 --> 00:43:46,000
Speaker 5: and I wasn't when I launched it in two thousand

1017
00:43:46,000 --> 00:43:48,840
Speaker 5: and sixteen, but I was fortunate enough that I was

1018
00:43:48,880 --> 00:43:51,840
Speaker 5: working at La Marina and I had a kitchen of disposal.

1019
00:43:51,920 --> 00:43:55,040
Speaker 5: They were only they were only open for a season season,

1020
00:43:55,200 --> 00:43:56,680
Speaker 5: so when we were there in the winter, it was

1021
00:43:56,760 --> 00:43:58,360
Speaker 5: just for private events. So I ended up using their

1022
00:43:58,440 --> 00:44:00,680
Speaker 5: kitchen to make okay thro and I paid some guys

1023
00:44:00,719 --> 00:44:02,879
Speaker 5: that were on my team. They're loyal Alex and David.

1024
00:44:02,880 --> 00:44:04,759
Speaker 5: These guys have been through everything with me, and they're

1025
00:44:04,800 --> 00:44:06,840
Speaker 5: both at a last lap. So even though I'm not

1026
00:44:06,880 --> 00:44:08,479
Speaker 5: our last lap, you know you can get great food

1027
00:44:08,520 --> 00:44:12,360
Speaker 5: with them. But we started a business. We got labels,

1028
00:44:12,440 --> 00:44:15,520
Speaker 5: we got gift bags, we started answering, made up an email,

1029
00:44:15,600 --> 00:44:20,200
Speaker 5: we made up a venmo, a cash shap, opened up

1030
00:44:20,200 --> 00:44:22,040
Speaker 5: a bank account, and we opened up a business.

1031
00:44:22,160 --> 00:44:23,319
Speaker 3: How much How much did you sell?

1032
00:44:23,800 --> 00:44:26,120
Speaker 5: First year of officially selling, we sold two hundred and

1033
00:44:26,120 --> 00:44:28,400
Speaker 5: fifty bottles, which I thought was not bad for we

1034
00:44:28,520 --> 00:44:31,280
Speaker 5: started late. We started only in December. Yeah, the following

1035
00:44:31,360 --> 00:44:35,040
Speaker 5: year we sold five hundred bottles. And now we're in

1036
00:44:35,960 --> 00:44:39,880
Speaker 5: unofficially year five, we've already sold six hundred bottles and

1037
00:44:40,080 --> 00:44:42,200
Speaker 5: we're not even a peak season yet. So Christmas is

1038
00:44:42,239 --> 00:44:44,480
Speaker 5: our big one. Now we're looking to sell about.

1039
00:44:44,280 --> 00:44:46,040
Speaker 3: Three four hundreds. The reason why I love that story

1040
00:44:46,080 --> 00:44:49,040
Speaker 3: also see this is all things that especially food. It's

1041
00:44:49,120 --> 00:44:55,680
Speaker 3: like your grandmother you I you're mahome makes these these

1042
00:44:55,760 --> 00:44:59,719
Speaker 3: homemade RUMs and all these stuff. But it's like in

1043
00:44:59,760 --> 00:45:02,000
Speaker 3: p pople like it, right, but it's like, why is

1044
00:45:02,000 --> 00:45:03,200
Speaker 3: it just limited to your family?

1045
00:45:03,320 --> 00:45:06,799
Speaker 5: Absolutely right, You're absolutely right. You can you can sell

1046
00:45:06,840 --> 00:45:10,520
Speaker 5: anything unless the product is good. You can't be afraid. Again,

1047
00:45:10,640 --> 00:45:12,359
Speaker 5: don't reinvent the wheel. Like I said, I'm not doing

1048
00:45:12,440 --> 00:45:14,520
Speaker 5: nothing new. I'm just making the version I'm making in mine.

1049
00:45:15,040 --> 00:45:17,080
Speaker 5: I just made it a little bit different. I'm using

1050
00:45:17,160 --> 00:45:20,399
Speaker 5: Madagascar vanilla bean. That's why you know it's expensive. Each

1051
00:45:20,520 --> 00:45:21,760
Speaker 5: vanilla bean is like five dollars?

1052
00:45:22,040 --> 00:45:23,200
Speaker 3: Is that? Is that the secret?

1053
00:45:23,400 --> 00:45:30,399
Speaker 4: That is one of them? We got some here.

1054
00:45:32,560 --> 00:45:34,560
Speaker 5: Already, and I tell people, I'm like, it's vanilla, It's

1055
00:45:34,600 --> 00:45:37,440
Speaker 5: vanilla bean is special. It's it's the reason why you

1056
00:45:37,520 --> 00:45:39,560
Speaker 5: see the specs in the vanilla ice cream. You know,

1057
00:45:39,640 --> 00:45:41,640
Speaker 5: it's it's the reason you see the specs in the

1058
00:45:41,680 --> 00:45:44,560
Speaker 5: criminal lay. But at the end of the day, it's

1059
00:45:44,600 --> 00:45:45,640
Speaker 5: the special spices.

1060
00:45:45,840 --> 00:45:50,560
Speaker 3: And it's it's always about the love. You can't duplicate that.

1061
00:45:50,840 --> 00:45:53,000
Speaker 3: But it's always about being creative too. And it's like

1062
00:45:53,080 --> 00:45:55,640
Speaker 3: we're gonna talk about a lot of Marina. But lot

1063
00:45:55,680 --> 00:45:57,920
Speaker 3: of Marina is only open for two months of the year, right,

1064
00:45:58,000 --> 00:45:58,520
Speaker 3: three months.

1065
00:45:58,560 --> 00:46:02,080
Speaker 5: I would say, more three pushing events. It would open

1066
00:46:02,120 --> 00:46:07,000
Speaker 5: April and it would close I would say beginning of September.

1067
00:46:07,480 --> 00:46:10,200
Speaker 3: But you had access to had access full year year round.

1068
00:46:10,680 --> 00:46:15,320
Speaker 3: So now you used that to pretty much have a

1069
00:46:15,360 --> 00:46:15,799
Speaker 3: free kitchen.

1070
00:46:15,880 --> 00:46:18,080
Speaker 5: I found ways. Yeah, I asked, you know, I said, hey,

1071
00:46:18,080 --> 00:46:19,799
Speaker 5: you guys are not doing anything. I even offered to rent.

1072
00:46:19,800 --> 00:46:21,640
Speaker 5: They're like nah, because at the end of the day,

1073
00:46:21,960 --> 00:46:24,040
Speaker 5: the way that no one knew really about my contract,

1074
00:46:24,080 --> 00:46:25,719
Speaker 5: but the way my contract worked. Again, I'm not a

1075
00:46:25,760 --> 00:46:28,600
Speaker 5: greedy guy, so I understand things. If if we were

1076
00:46:28,640 --> 00:46:32,319
Speaker 5: not open full year, I wasn't expecting to get paid

1077
00:46:32,400 --> 00:46:34,640
Speaker 5: full year. But what I did want was the times

1078
00:46:34,640 --> 00:46:36,640
Speaker 5: that we were just seasonal. You put me as an

1079
00:46:36,680 --> 00:46:39,000
Speaker 5: independent contractor and you would still pay me fifty percent

1080
00:46:39,040 --> 00:46:41,040
Speaker 5: of my yearly salary. So I was still getting a

1081
00:46:41,120 --> 00:46:43,680
Speaker 5: check every week, but it wasn't the full one hundred percent.

1082
00:46:44,040 --> 00:46:46,640
Speaker 5: So I needed to find ways to make money.

1083
00:46:46,680 --> 00:46:48,120
Speaker 4: Yeah, you had access, I had access.

1084
00:46:48,239 --> 00:46:50,239
Speaker 5: Okay, now I'm going to start doing caterings. Now I'm

1085
00:46:50,239 --> 00:46:52,440
Speaker 5: going to start, you know, doing coquito. Now I'm going

1086
00:46:52,520 --> 00:46:54,680
Speaker 5: to start, and that the opportunity was there. I wasn't.

1087
00:46:55,040 --> 00:46:57,960
Speaker 5: I wasn't afraid to do things that I wasn't expecting.

1088
00:46:57,960 --> 00:47:01,200
Speaker 5: And I also wasn't desperate. I was patient throughout the

1089
00:47:01,200 --> 00:47:03,279
Speaker 5: whole process. Like I said, I sold twenty coith those

1090
00:47:03,360 --> 00:47:05,640
Speaker 5: year one. We're at five hundred now and we're not

1091
00:47:05,719 --> 00:47:06,799
Speaker 5: even halfway through our season.

1092
00:47:07,360 --> 00:47:08,280
Speaker 4: Can we Dominican?

1093
00:47:08,560 --> 00:47:09,080
Speaker 5: Dominican?

1094
00:47:14,719 --> 00:47:15,239
Speaker 4: They show up?

1095
00:47:15,480 --> 00:47:18,680
Speaker 3: So all right? Can we talk about I was waiting.

1096
00:47:18,760 --> 00:47:19,320
Speaker 3: I was waiting.

1097
00:47:19,680 --> 00:47:19,960
Speaker 4: We just.

1098
00:47:22,120 --> 00:47:26,000
Speaker 5: Look at the smile. If you if you have to memory, if.

1099
00:47:26,400 --> 00:47:29,160
Speaker 3: You're a loyal listener to a Lisia, you know, how

1100
00:47:31,160 --> 00:47:34,080
Speaker 3: is a second home for us? The basketball tournament. We

1101
00:47:34,120 --> 00:47:36,560
Speaker 3: talked about the basketball tournament a lot because they treat us,

1102
00:47:36,800 --> 00:47:37,359
Speaker 3: they love us.

1103
00:47:37,600 --> 00:47:37,799
Speaker 4: There.

1104
00:47:37,960 --> 00:47:39,719
Speaker 3: Shout out to everybody there. We're actually about to do

1105
00:47:39,800 --> 00:47:45,240
Speaker 3: Chris Gotti Show after this, so shut shout out the Dykman.

1106
00:47:45,640 --> 00:47:51,239
Speaker 3: But so east side, west side, So on the on

1107
00:47:51,320 --> 00:47:55,200
Speaker 3: the east side, on the east side, it's the basketball

1108
00:47:55,280 --> 00:47:59,440
Speaker 3: court on the west side by the water. That was no,

1109
00:47:59,560 --> 00:48:02,879
Speaker 3: we never we didn't tell the stories about Lotarna from

1110
00:48:02,960 --> 00:48:05,719
Speaker 3: New York City. You know about lom Marena. If not

1111
00:48:05,880 --> 00:48:07,960
Speaker 3: you heard fab you was in lot Marina all summer.

1112
00:48:08,000 --> 00:48:10,360
Speaker 3: You see you heard French pull up Arena in a

1113
00:48:10,560 --> 00:48:11,080
Speaker 3: yach boy.

1114
00:48:13,600 --> 00:48:17,040
Speaker 5: It made some easy captions on Instagram. Just made me

1115
00:48:17,120 --> 00:48:18,959
Speaker 5: feel like I'm on top of the world even more.

1116
00:48:18,920 --> 00:48:21,240
Speaker 3: So, we were gonna get off track for one minute.

1117
00:48:21,560 --> 00:48:24,959
Speaker 3: You was an executive chef and lot Marina at his peak,

1118
00:48:25,120 --> 00:48:28,239
Speaker 3: lom Marina was a beach. The best way I can

1119
00:48:28,280 --> 00:48:33,440
Speaker 3: describe it, It's like a beach front party restaurant had everything.

1120
00:48:33,760 --> 00:48:37,240
Speaker 5: Yeah, each you had a lounge, you had food trucks,

1121
00:48:37,280 --> 00:48:37,720
Speaker 5: you had.

1122
00:48:38,120 --> 00:48:39,920
Speaker 4: Stage, you had a live stage.

1123
00:48:39,960 --> 00:48:44,040
Speaker 5: Beautiful women, restaurant, beautiful women. I got in trouble. I

1124
00:48:44,160 --> 00:48:45,280
Speaker 5: was just I was just cooking.

1125
00:48:45,840 --> 00:48:50,880
Speaker 3: So can you just explain in a minute, like what

1126
00:48:51,120 --> 00:48:54,160
Speaker 3: was the vibe in lom Marena at that time.

1127
00:48:54,440 --> 00:48:57,160
Speaker 5: So I'll tell you two quick vibes. One was imagine

1128
00:48:57,200 --> 00:49:00,880
Speaker 5: being the only sober person at a drunk part. When

1129
00:49:00,920 --> 00:49:03,239
Speaker 5: I was leaving work, kitchen closed that twelve I'm walking

1130
00:49:03,320 --> 00:49:05,239
Speaker 5: down people, I'm just like what, I can't even catch up.

1131
00:49:05,280 --> 00:49:06,560
Speaker 5: There's no way I could catch up. We got it

1132
00:49:06,600 --> 00:49:07,920
Speaker 5: now we're left. So it was always a problem with

1133
00:49:08,000 --> 00:49:10,279
Speaker 5: La Marina because they closed that one o'clock. But the

1134
00:49:10,360 --> 00:49:25,560
Speaker 5: blessing of La Marina also was that entire dykeman wasohiut

1135
00:49:25,560 --> 00:49:27,160
Speaker 5: to Mama Sushi, because those are one of the stories

1136
00:49:27,200 --> 00:49:29,600
Speaker 5: that I always loved telling. Because they started small eighteen

1137
00:49:29,680 --> 00:49:32,399
Speaker 5: seat restaurant, bought the door next door to the right,

1138
00:49:32,640 --> 00:49:34,080
Speaker 5: then bought the ball, they got to the left, and

1139
00:49:34,160 --> 00:49:37,000
Speaker 5: now you got a seventy five seats, and then and

1140
00:49:37,040 --> 00:49:38,919
Speaker 5: then put seats outside, and then they're on their third

1141
00:49:38,960 --> 00:49:41,000
Speaker 5: fourth location. God bless shout out to them that those

1142
00:49:41,040 --> 00:49:43,080
Speaker 5: are the people that I inspired to be like. And

1143
00:49:43,160 --> 00:49:45,720
Speaker 5: I don't even have one location yet, but La Marina

1144
00:49:45,840 --> 00:49:48,799
Speaker 5: was a vibe. So not only the reason I worked

1145
00:49:48,800 --> 00:49:50,480
Speaker 5: there was because I used to party there a lot,

1146
00:49:50,520 --> 00:49:53,400
Speaker 5: and I joked around said in front of the wrong person,

1147
00:49:53,840 --> 00:49:56,160
Speaker 5: I wonder what it'd be like to work here. The

1148
00:49:56,239 --> 00:49:59,399
Speaker 5: opportunity presented itself and still to this day, shout out

1149
00:49:59,400 --> 00:50:01,560
Speaker 5: to Fernando Ma he's the owner of a zona that kuba,

1150
00:50:01,600 --> 00:50:02,480
Speaker 5: which is a dope.

1151
00:50:02,280 --> 00:50:03,600
Speaker 4: Spot the street.

1152
00:50:03,880 --> 00:50:08,640
Speaker 5: Yeah, and uh in the bronx on top of a

1153
00:50:08,719 --> 00:50:12,840
Speaker 5: post office. I think he paid somebody. I think he

1154
00:50:12,880 --> 00:50:14,880
Speaker 5: paid somebody because the moment, again I was living in

1155
00:50:14,960 --> 00:50:17,200
Speaker 5: Queen's traveling to Washington Heights, I got out the train

1156
00:50:17,239 --> 00:50:21,520
Speaker 5: station and somebody said, Chef Kelvin, welcome to Washington Heights.

1157
00:50:21,560 --> 00:50:26,560
Speaker 5: We've been waiting for you. There's no way.

1158
00:50:27,080 --> 00:50:27,719
Speaker 10: There's no way.

1159
00:50:28,200 --> 00:50:30,760
Speaker 5: Still to this day, I remember that. But Lo Marina

1160
00:50:30,920 --> 00:50:32,680
Speaker 5: was just it was. It was madness, and I like

1161
00:50:32,760 --> 00:50:35,759
Speaker 5: to say controlled madness. It was the only time where

1162
00:50:36,160 --> 00:50:38,320
Speaker 5: I had it. I had a walking talking on and

1163
00:50:38,360 --> 00:50:42,000
Speaker 5: I'm I'm talking to my Sioux chefs through this walking talkie.

1164
00:50:42,120 --> 00:50:43,480
Speaker 5: You O, the beach is going down. We need more

1165
00:50:43,480 --> 00:50:46,160
Speaker 5: French fries the beach. I need to cooks to go

1166
00:50:46,239 --> 00:50:51,440
Speaker 5: to the beach. French Carmelo. Anthony needs, you know, a

1167
00:50:51,520 --> 00:50:52,279
Speaker 5: tomahawk steak.

1168
00:50:52,719 --> 00:50:53,560
Speaker 3: Don't make that happen.

1169
00:50:53,640 --> 00:50:55,360
Speaker 5: We're gonna make that happen. It was one of the

1170
00:50:55,640 --> 00:50:58,520
Speaker 5: the greatest experiences ever. I had an amazing team, Like

1171
00:50:58,600 --> 00:51:01,399
Speaker 5: I said, Chef Traill, who they issue, Chef Andy, who's

1172
00:51:01,440 --> 00:51:04,239
Speaker 5: the chef of Suo in the Bronx, Like, these are

1173
00:51:04,280 --> 00:51:06,360
Speaker 5: just guys that are talented. Elio who's in a Michelin

1174
00:51:06,400 --> 00:51:09,200
Speaker 5: Star restaurant in Manhattan, Like that's what makes me proud,

1175
00:51:09,200 --> 00:51:10,640
Speaker 5: because I feel like I'm a proud that even though

1176
00:51:10,640 --> 00:51:14,680
Speaker 5: we're all similar to age, but you.

1177
00:51:14,800 --> 00:51:16,959
Speaker 3: You said that also in the business you you turned

1178
00:51:16,960 --> 00:51:19,480
Speaker 3: it around the kitchen around attle bit.

1179
00:51:19,560 --> 00:51:21,400
Speaker 5: Yeah, it was hard to come into a place that.

1180
00:51:21,560 --> 00:51:24,200
Speaker 5: This is why when making business decisions, it's hard for

1181
00:51:24,280 --> 00:51:26,200
Speaker 5: me to go to a place that already has an

1182
00:51:26,239 --> 00:51:30,000
Speaker 5: identity because it's hard to change either bad habits or

1183
00:51:30,040 --> 00:51:32,080
Speaker 5: it's hard to change something where people are used to

1184
00:51:32,800 --> 00:51:35,279
Speaker 5: So when I got to La Marina, they already had

1185
00:51:35,320 --> 00:51:37,320
Speaker 5: a standard. They went through a couple of different chefs.

1186
00:51:37,680 --> 00:51:40,880
Speaker 5: The food was not great, and the owners themselves said it,

1187
00:51:41,560 --> 00:51:44,040
Speaker 5: we don't need to really worry about the food. People

1188
00:51:44,040 --> 00:51:45,600
Speaker 5: are gonna come for the view. And I said, what

1189
00:51:45,719 --> 00:51:48,800
Speaker 5: you're doing wrong is you're not giving them another reason

1190
00:51:48,840 --> 00:51:51,800
Speaker 5: to come. People are gonna come regardless the view, the women,

1191
00:51:52,400 --> 00:52:00,160
Speaker 5: the parties, the artists, the maseratis, the ferrarish. It was

1192
00:52:00,239 --> 00:52:02,160
Speaker 5: just cash. Cash is king in the world. Now you

1193
00:52:02,160 --> 00:52:04,200
Speaker 5: don't find a hooka up town because everybody got to

1194
00:52:04,200 --> 00:52:07,200
Speaker 5: put it on the books. But it was such an

1195
00:52:07,280 --> 00:52:10,279
Speaker 5: experience where we learned. So my goal was to bring

1196
00:52:10,480 --> 00:52:15,279
Speaker 5: Chef Kelvin's food to an area that was not understanding it.

1197
00:52:15,560 --> 00:52:18,360
Speaker 5: So after being there for a full summer, I was

1198
00:52:18,400 --> 00:52:21,200
Speaker 5: able to turn around lower the labor costs lower, the

1199
00:52:21,239 --> 00:52:24,880
Speaker 5: food costs increase the food sales. I remember over almost

1200
00:52:25,000 --> 00:52:26,840
Speaker 5: three hundred and seventy five thousand dollars. And again we

1201
00:52:26,960 --> 00:52:29,759
Speaker 5: were only open seasonal, so imagine what I could have

1202
00:52:29,800 --> 00:52:31,879
Speaker 5: done in a full year. We didn't have the opportunities

1203
00:52:31,920 --> 00:52:33,960
Speaker 5: because it gets cold down there by that water. So

1204
00:52:34,120 --> 00:52:38,160
Speaker 5: we did some great closed events, We did some great weddings,

1205
00:52:39,000 --> 00:52:42,480
Speaker 5: and twenty fifteen, twenty sixteen was a year to remember

1206
00:52:42,520 --> 00:52:43,120
Speaker 5: for me for sure.

1207
00:52:43,440 --> 00:52:45,759
Speaker 3: Yeah we made it right, Yeah we made it.

1208
00:52:47,800 --> 00:52:48,360
Speaker 5: We will miss you.

1209
00:52:48,520 --> 00:52:51,160
Speaker 3: We will never be forgotten going, but not forgotten. That

1210
00:52:51,239 --> 00:52:54,399
Speaker 3: corner will never be the same, won't. Even the strip

1211
00:52:54,520 --> 00:52:55,120
Speaker 3: is not the same.

1212
00:52:55,440 --> 00:52:57,960
Speaker 5: Absolutely not. It's tough, like even me. I live in Riverdale,

1213
00:52:58,000 --> 00:52:59,640
Speaker 5: so I'm close to the madness, but I haven't been

1214
00:52:59,680 --> 00:53:01,640
Speaker 5: out there a while. It's not the same.

1215
00:53:03,440 --> 00:53:14,200
Speaker 10: The Dominicans up. We've been saying it also that no meal.

1216
00:53:16,640 --> 00:53:18,239
Speaker 3: All right. So in the last segment, we're gonna go

1217
00:53:18,280 --> 00:53:21,600
Speaker 3: into what you got going on now and future endeavors.

1218
00:53:22,360 --> 00:53:25,520
Speaker 3: All right, So we're gonna close it out, which but

1219
00:53:25,719 --> 00:53:28,120
Speaker 3: you have going on now. So I want to first

1220
00:53:28,160 --> 00:53:30,480
Speaker 3: want to talk about our last lap, last lap, so

1221
00:53:30,600 --> 00:53:32,560
Speaker 3: you can talk about so that's that was an establishment

1222
00:53:32,640 --> 00:53:34,839
Speaker 3: that was already open and you partnered right.

1223
00:53:35,280 --> 00:53:37,839
Speaker 5: Yeah, Last Lap is it's such a great vibe. It's

1224
00:53:37,880 --> 00:53:40,919
Speaker 5: a Caribbean vibe. It's true to like my heart, my soul.

1225
00:53:41,480 --> 00:53:44,880
Speaker 5: Shout out to the guys that Last Lap. They're the

1226
00:53:44,920 --> 00:53:48,160
Speaker 5: reason I'm there because when we started just talking about it,

1227
00:53:48,640 --> 00:53:50,640
Speaker 5: you know, the ViBe's gotta be right. And these guys

1228
00:53:50,680 --> 00:53:54,359
Speaker 5: are young entrepreneurs doing their things, opening different establishments. There's

1229
00:53:54,360 --> 00:53:55,880
Speaker 5: gonna be the last Lap l A. There's gonna be

1230
00:53:55,960 --> 00:53:58,520
Speaker 5: last Lap Miami. There's an opportunity to continue to grow,

1231
00:53:58,520 --> 00:53:59,680
Speaker 5: and those are the right people to do it with.

1232
00:54:00,400 --> 00:54:04,920
Speaker 5: And they were open, and I went to forgot to

1233
00:54:04,960 --> 00:54:07,239
Speaker 5: mention this. I went to France for three months. I

1234
00:54:07,320 --> 00:54:10,640
Speaker 5: lived in Lyon, France. At one point when the Strand

1235
00:54:10,719 --> 00:54:11,680
Speaker 5: decided to close.

1236
00:54:11,520 --> 00:54:14,320
Speaker 4: Down, I got a nice your French trains, yeah.

1237
00:54:14,160 --> 00:54:16,799
Speaker 5: Classically French trained. I got a nice little severance check

1238
00:54:17,239 --> 00:54:20,880
Speaker 5: and at that moment I did a cooking competition. Circle

1239
00:54:21,120 --> 00:54:23,560
Speaker 5: back again fifteen years. The same people that gave me

1240
00:54:23,600 --> 00:54:25,400
Speaker 5: a scholarship to go to high school gave me an

1241
00:54:25,400 --> 00:54:28,080
Speaker 5: opportunity to win a full scholarship to go to France

1242
00:54:28,160 --> 00:54:30,040
Speaker 5: and live, all expense paid to go to a culinary

1243
00:54:30,080 --> 00:54:32,399
Speaker 5: school in France. Here I am, at thirty something years old,

1244
00:54:32,560 --> 00:54:35,719
Speaker 5: going again learning schooling. You can never stop learning. So

1245
00:54:35,760 --> 00:54:38,719
Speaker 5: I'm the only guy who was in this class who

1246
00:54:38,760 --> 00:54:41,399
Speaker 5: didn't speak French, and here I'm trying to communicate with people.

1247
00:54:41,440 --> 00:54:44,000
Speaker 5: But thank god that food is a universal language. Show

1248
00:54:44,040 --> 00:54:45,239
Speaker 5: me how to cut this, I will cut it the

1249
00:54:45,239 --> 00:54:46,360
Speaker 5: way you want to. Show me how to cook it,

1250
00:54:46,400 --> 00:54:48,239
Speaker 5: I will cook it the way you want it. But

1251
00:54:48,520 --> 00:54:50,400
Speaker 5: the reason I didn't get involved with Last Lap right

1252
00:54:50,440 --> 00:54:52,239
Speaker 5: away was because I was out here doing this three

1253
00:54:52,280 --> 00:54:56,200
Speaker 5: months stint in France, and I got back to Last Slap.

1254
00:54:56,239 --> 00:54:58,600
Speaker 5: We were doing some cool little Ada day vibes, like

1255
00:54:58,800 --> 00:55:00,600
Speaker 5: was there once a month again do the pop up

1256
00:55:00,920 --> 00:55:03,040
Speaker 5: and it was always a successful sold out night. We

1257
00:55:03,200 --> 00:55:06,960
Speaker 5: sat down and they made a deal that I couldn't refuse,

1258
00:55:07,080 --> 00:55:09,960
Speaker 5: and they offered me a partnership and I was able

1259
00:55:10,000 --> 00:55:12,600
Speaker 5: to establish my team there to make me feel comfortable

1260
00:55:12,640 --> 00:55:15,160
Speaker 5: to know that even though that I'm not there, the

1261
00:55:15,239 --> 00:55:17,319
Speaker 5: food is going to be great. So thanks to Chef David,

1262
00:55:17,360 --> 00:55:18,960
Speaker 5: thanks for Chef Alex. Those guys have been with me

1263
00:55:19,040 --> 00:55:22,279
Speaker 5: for ten plus years and it's hard loyalty is a

1264
00:55:22,360 --> 00:55:25,279
Speaker 5: hard thing to find, and these guys make me proud

1265
00:55:25,320 --> 00:55:25,880
Speaker 5: every single day.

1266
00:55:25,960 --> 00:55:27,440
Speaker 3: And one thing you said I was interested is like

1267
00:55:27,480 --> 00:55:29,399
Speaker 3: you have like royalties, Like it's like a royalty deal.

1268
00:55:29,480 --> 00:55:32,000
Speaker 5: So you know, I watched them a shark tank. As

1269
00:55:32,000 --> 00:55:34,000
Speaker 5: a businessman, you got to learn, right, So you know,

1270
00:55:34,080 --> 00:55:35,799
Speaker 5: I made him an offer of you know, I wanted

1271
00:55:35,840 --> 00:55:38,960
Speaker 5: to make this much amount per area and they said yes,

1272
00:55:39,040 --> 00:55:42,000
Speaker 5: and I should have asked for more, but again, I'm

1273
00:55:42,040 --> 00:55:43,719
Speaker 5: not greedy, so you know I was. I was just

1274
00:55:43,800 --> 00:55:46,160
Speaker 5: grateful for that opportunity. This is the first time that

1275
00:55:46,239 --> 00:55:48,560
Speaker 5: I made a deal like that, and it's been it's

1276
00:55:48,600 --> 00:55:49,040
Speaker 5: been steady.

1277
00:55:49,080 --> 00:55:50,759
Speaker 4: You know. I think it's the only place that you

1278
00:55:50,800 --> 00:55:52,880
Speaker 4: can get get So that's this is this.

1279
00:55:53,000 --> 00:55:55,440
Speaker 5: Is traditionally you could say Kelvin's kitchen, but in reality,

1280
00:55:55,520 --> 00:55:58,439
Speaker 5: it's the only place that you can get that's my food,

1281
00:55:58,520 --> 00:56:01,399
Speaker 5: you know, aside from getting kill than himself with Kelvin's kitchen,

1282
00:56:01,520 --> 00:56:04,640
Speaker 5: you know, so you know. And and last slap is

1283
00:56:04,680 --> 00:56:08,520
Speaker 5: a small rum bar. We got two floors. It gives

1284
00:56:08,560 --> 00:56:11,120
Speaker 5: you an opportunity to come have some amazing cocktails because

1285
00:56:11,120 --> 00:56:13,759
Speaker 5: they have a great mixology program. And then you never

1286
00:56:13,840 --> 00:56:15,520
Speaker 5: know who's gonna be there the same day that you either.

1287
00:56:15,760 --> 00:56:17,840
Speaker 5: We We've got a lot of celebrities from Rihanna to

1288
00:56:17,920 --> 00:56:21,160
Speaker 5: Michael B. Jordan to uh the list goes on. We're

1289
00:56:21,200 --> 00:56:22,799
Speaker 5: always on page six. That's a great thing.

1290
00:56:23,000 --> 00:56:27,360
Speaker 3: So so like, even though you're not there a lot cooking,

1291
00:56:27,960 --> 00:56:31,240
Speaker 3: but you have the recipe. So anytime your dish is sold,

1292
00:56:31,400 --> 00:56:34,560
Speaker 3: or any dishes sold, you get a percentage of that I.

1293
00:56:34,560 --> 00:56:37,040
Speaker 5: Get Yeah, I get a fee for each that's sold.

1294
00:56:37,120 --> 00:56:44,520
Speaker 5: Correct it again, it's not bad though he said it

1295
00:56:44,600 --> 00:56:46,600
Speaker 5: better than the people that said it on the On

1296
00:56:46,640 --> 00:56:49,040
Speaker 5: a few other shows, they're like a rape. I'm like,

1297
00:56:49,080 --> 00:56:52,439
Speaker 5: we're not raping nobody. I'm like, and it's tough because

1298
00:56:52,440 --> 00:56:55,000
Speaker 5: it just comes with with the culture and how we learned.

1299
00:56:55,040 --> 00:56:57,360
Speaker 5: But not is the dish that I be Bobby Flay with,

1300
00:56:57,960 --> 00:56:59,840
Speaker 5: And that is also the dish that I've won for

1301
00:57:00,120 --> 00:57:02,200
Speaker 5: years in a row Best Chef in America with Forbes.

1302
00:57:02,640 --> 00:57:06,040
Speaker 5: So I have five different versions of these APAs and

1303
00:57:06,760 --> 00:57:08,960
Speaker 5: the only place you can find those is at Last Lap.

1304
00:57:09,360 --> 00:57:11,239
Speaker 5: So that's the signature star. We have a dish called

1305
00:57:11,280 --> 00:57:14,279
Speaker 5: Adipa Heaven where you get twenty pieces of APAs and

1306
00:57:14,400 --> 00:57:15,200
Speaker 5: it's all all.

1307
00:57:16,640 --> 00:57:16,680
Speaker 4: Is.

1308
00:57:16,760 --> 00:57:20,760
Speaker 5: It is traditionally like a corn cake almost like it's

1309
00:57:20,760 --> 00:57:24,240
Speaker 5: hard to describe. It's traditionally made with corn, flour and water,

1310
00:57:25,160 --> 00:57:28,480
Speaker 5: and I actually use fresh corn corn right kind of

1311
00:57:28,560 --> 00:57:30,200
Speaker 5: sort of but not really. And I'm gonna say that

1312
00:57:30,200 --> 00:57:32,440
Speaker 5: because it's almost the same ingredients except we're not baking it.

1313
00:57:32,560 --> 00:57:35,080
Speaker 5: We're not. You got to make a dough and then

1314
00:57:35,160 --> 00:57:38,400
Speaker 5: traditionally the doe the dough is griddled or like pan fried.

1315
00:57:38,640 --> 00:57:42,000
Speaker 5: I deep fry minds, so you get that crispy texture. Traditionally,

1316
00:57:42,000 --> 00:57:44,880
Speaker 5: an adipa is stuffed. I put all of my toppings

1317
00:57:44,920 --> 00:57:47,120
Speaker 5: on top of it, so and I make them mini,

1318
00:57:47,280 --> 00:57:49,400
Speaker 5: so you'll have like four adipas to in order. My

1319
00:57:49,520 --> 00:57:52,120
Speaker 5: traditional classic one is we call it the award winner

1320
00:57:52,120 --> 00:57:54,160
Speaker 5: now because that's the one that beat Bobby Flair. It's

1321
00:57:54,280 --> 00:57:57,680
Speaker 5: braised beef, short rib, guacamali, picco, the Gayo lime scented

1322
00:57:57,720 --> 00:58:00,760
Speaker 5: sour cream, cotiha chies, microslatro. So you'll take it, You'll

1323
00:58:00,800 --> 00:58:02,080
Speaker 5: dip it in the sauce. You'll have it in one

1324
00:58:02,160 --> 00:58:05,400
Speaker 5: bite and it's a party in your mouth. It h

1325
00:58:06,800 --> 00:58:14,680
Speaker 5: every every sense that your palette. It's like sweet, salty, crispy, hot, cold, herbaceous, creamy. Mommy,

1326
00:58:14,720 --> 00:58:16,600
Speaker 5: You're like, what the fuck did I just experience?

1327
00:58:17,520 --> 00:58:17,920
Speaker 4: What was that?

1328
00:58:18,680 --> 00:58:21,919
Speaker 6: Pulling up the last last vibe? So you mentioned beating

1329
00:58:21,960 --> 00:58:24,200
Speaker 6: Bobby played with the dish. Now I read this and

1330
00:58:24,240 --> 00:58:26,600
Speaker 6: maybe it's true or not. But prior to that, because

1331
00:58:26,640 --> 00:58:29,240
Speaker 6: you are French training, and were you doing Latin foods

1332
00:58:29,240 --> 00:58:29,720
Speaker 6: prior to this?

1333
00:58:29,920 --> 00:58:32,440
Speaker 5: No, I wasn't doing Latin food until I left the

1334
00:58:32,480 --> 00:58:34,600
Speaker 5: Strand Hotel. The first time I got an opportunity to

1335
00:58:34,680 --> 00:58:37,320
Speaker 5: open up a Latin restaurant and that's how I created

1336
00:58:37,360 --> 00:58:39,600
Speaker 5: the ideas at a restaurant called Blend on the Water.

1337
00:58:40,480 --> 00:58:43,040
Speaker 5: So my goal was to go learn as much as

1338
00:58:43,120 --> 00:58:46,160
Speaker 5: I can about Latin food. I'll tell you one hundred percent,

1339
00:58:46,640 --> 00:58:49,120
Speaker 5: I did not know what I was doing until I

1340
00:58:49,200 --> 00:58:52,840
Speaker 5: started asking my mom, asking my dad. Going to you

1341
00:58:52,880 --> 00:58:56,680
Speaker 5: know bar which is like the was or it still is,

1342
00:58:56,720 --> 00:58:58,919
Speaker 5: the number one at bar downtown in the Lower East Side.

1343
00:58:59,200 --> 00:59:01,440
Speaker 5: They had a line around the door, and I'm like,

1344
00:59:01,480 --> 00:59:04,200
Speaker 5: they must be doing something right. So I had their ADEPA.

1345
00:59:05,120 --> 00:59:07,400
Speaker 5: I'm big on textures. It was good, but I'm like,

1346
00:59:07,440 --> 00:59:11,000
Speaker 5: how can I make this different, unique and mine? So

1347
00:59:11,040 --> 00:59:13,800
Speaker 5: we got to the drawing board and created the EPA,

1348
00:59:13,920 --> 00:59:15,840
Speaker 5: the original one that I have now was nowhere near

1349
00:59:15,920 --> 00:59:18,480
Speaker 5: the first one I made. So not everything I make

1350
00:59:18,600 --> 00:59:22,680
Speaker 5: was great. Things take time, things take practice, and let's

1351
00:59:22,760 --> 00:59:25,080
Speaker 5: just say time that perfection takes time.

1352
00:59:25,120 --> 00:59:28,520
Speaker 3: Well said, So you, j Low and a Rod's personal

1353
00:59:28,800 --> 00:59:30,080
Speaker 3: How did that? How did that come about?

1354
00:59:30,360 --> 00:59:34,320
Speaker 5: Shout out to Duval. This beautiful lady was a fan

1355
00:59:34,440 --> 00:59:37,400
Speaker 5: of mine. Five years ago. She came to one of

1356
00:59:37,440 --> 00:59:39,680
Speaker 5: my events. I did a pop up event in Brooklyn.

1357
00:59:39,760 --> 00:59:41,640
Speaker 5: There was a restaurant called SDQ. It was also like

1358
00:59:41,720 --> 00:59:45,320
Speaker 5: a lounge, and she came to my event and I

1359
00:59:45,480 --> 00:59:47,840
Speaker 5: treated her the way I treat everybody, Like I know

1360
00:59:48,000 --> 00:59:49,880
Speaker 5: you for ten years and you say hi to me,

1361
00:59:49,920 --> 00:59:51,360
Speaker 5: I'm gonna give you a hug. If you show me

1362
00:59:51,440 --> 00:59:54,160
Speaker 5: pictures from last birthdays that you came to celebrate with me,

1363
00:59:54,240 --> 00:59:57,000
Speaker 5: that makes me even more special. So I treated her

1364
00:59:57,080 --> 00:59:59,320
Speaker 5: like I treat everybody. We have a conversation, we'll talk

1365
00:59:59,320 --> 01:00:01,120
Speaker 5: about it made you come here? Have you had my

1366
01:00:01,160 --> 01:00:05,840
Speaker 5: food before? Five years later, fast forward, she's Jlo's personal assistant,

1367
01:00:06,360 --> 01:00:09,919
Speaker 5: and an opportunity presented itself where the chef that they've

1368
01:00:09,920 --> 01:00:14,520
Speaker 5: had for ten years couldn't do Thanksgiving weekend and She's like,

1369
01:00:14,560 --> 01:00:16,280
Speaker 5: I know this chef. I don't know him personally, but

1370
01:00:16,320 --> 01:00:18,959
Speaker 5: I've had his food. He's great with kids, he's great

1371
01:00:19,000 --> 01:00:23,160
Speaker 5: with blah blah blah, this this, that opportunity came presented itself.

1372
01:00:23,200 --> 01:00:25,440
Speaker 5: I hit a home run, and let's say, for a rod,

1373
01:00:25,440 --> 01:00:29,760
Speaker 5: I hit a grand slam, And since then, they hit

1374
01:00:29,840 --> 01:00:31,720
Speaker 5: me up for every time they need something, whether it's

1375
01:00:32,160 --> 01:00:34,840
Speaker 5: a Birthday party for their kids, whether it's Memorial Day

1376
01:00:34,840 --> 01:00:37,800
Speaker 5: in the Hamptons, whether it's Christmas in Miami, which I'm

1377
01:00:37,840 --> 01:00:40,680
Speaker 5: going next a couple of weeks, and then New Year's

1378
01:00:40,680 --> 01:00:43,240
Speaker 5: even la. I'm blessed to say that anywhere they need me,

1379
01:00:43,320 --> 01:00:43,480
Speaker 5: I go.

1380
01:00:43,720 --> 01:00:45,800
Speaker 3: You know, a personal chef is actually a good investment

1381
01:00:46,080 --> 01:00:47,720
Speaker 3: something that I'm going to look into in a New Year,

1382
01:00:50,240 --> 01:00:53,000
Speaker 3: because I know a guy. It's like it's like I

1383
01:00:53,040 --> 01:00:56,360
Speaker 3: always said, like a personal trainer and a personal chef.

1384
01:00:56,680 --> 01:00:57,520
Speaker 3: It was a good investment.

1385
01:00:58,480 --> 01:00:59,840
Speaker 5: You're investing in your mind too.

1386
01:01:00,360 --> 01:01:01,720
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, personal chefs.

1387
01:01:02,760 --> 01:01:06,760
Speaker 3: Wife, I was like, well that's that's a good investment.

1388
01:01:08,080 --> 01:01:12,960
Speaker 3: Might investing investing in your mind body? You better say

1389
01:01:13,000 --> 01:01:16,280
Speaker 3: that for sure, especially because it's like when you want

1390
01:01:16,280 --> 01:01:19,240
Speaker 3: to run a lot, you can't cook like you don't

1391
01:01:19,280 --> 01:01:21,040
Speaker 3: have time to cook, especially like you know, you got

1392
01:01:21,240 --> 01:01:23,520
Speaker 3: dietary ships. I'm trying to go vegan. So it's like,

1393
01:01:25,160 --> 01:01:25,760
Speaker 3: stop dating a.

1394
01:01:25,760 --> 01:01:29,000
Speaker 5: Girl because she was vegan. You know it's tough. I'm

1395
01:01:29,040 --> 01:01:30,880
Speaker 5: a chef, man, I'll be and I try.

1396
01:01:30,920 --> 01:01:33,560
Speaker 3: You could be a vegan shock, but I can't.

1397
01:01:33,600 --> 01:01:35,200
Speaker 5: I can be a vegan check, but I can't be

1398
01:01:35,280 --> 01:01:38,040
Speaker 5: a vegan shock. I can't be a vegan check. And

1399
01:01:38,080 --> 01:01:39,840
Speaker 5: I tried it. Like we dated a couple of years

1400
01:01:39,880 --> 01:01:41,840
Speaker 5: ago when on a couple of dates and I was vegan.

1401
01:01:41,880 --> 01:01:44,120
Speaker 5: When I took some of the best Michelin Star restaurants

1402
01:01:44,120 --> 01:01:48,280
Speaker 5: that were vegan, I'm like, what the I need steak?

1403
01:01:48,400 --> 01:01:48,800
Speaker 4: Oh my god?

1404
01:01:48,840 --> 01:01:50,520
Speaker 5: And then yo, I would take a home and I'll

1405
01:01:50,520 --> 01:01:52,080
Speaker 5: go get a burger or something, and I'm like, Yo,

1406
01:01:52,200 --> 01:01:54,240
Speaker 5: this is crazy. I'm eating twice, I'm spending doubles of

1407
01:01:54,280 --> 01:01:56,720
Speaker 5: money out. It's not gonna work out. This is not

1408
01:01:56,800 --> 01:01:59,920
Speaker 5: gonna work out. This is not gonna work out. I

1409
01:02:00,200 --> 01:02:00,680
Speaker 5: laugh about it.

1410
01:02:00,760 --> 01:02:00,880
Speaker 2: Now.

1411
01:02:01,080 --> 01:02:02,640
Speaker 4: Why I take you someone to get home? Ah, man,

1412
01:02:02,720 --> 01:02:05,200
Speaker 4: not traffic. I'll stop that hurricane.

1413
01:02:07,440 --> 01:02:09,480
Speaker 5: Shout out to you. That's that's not easy. And I

1414
01:02:09,600 --> 01:02:11,800
Speaker 5: have some vegan friends that they hold me to it,

1415
01:02:11,880 --> 01:02:14,920
Speaker 5: and like even doing this event on the nineteenth and twentieth,

1416
01:02:14,960 --> 01:02:16,720
Speaker 5: I had to put a vegetarian menu because I know

1417
01:02:16,960 --> 01:02:21,680
Speaker 5: so many people that support Grisel and support her are

1418
01:02:21,720 --> 01:02:23,560
Speaker 5: all vegetarians and vegans, so I got to make sure

1419
01:02:23,560 --> 01:02:24,080
Speaker 5: that that offers.

1420
01:02:24,160 --> 01:02:27,640
Speaker 3: And that's another lane too, especially like there's so many

1421
01:02:29,160 --> 01:02:33,120
Speaker 3: athletes and entertainers and just you know, high level business

1422
01:02:33,160 --> 01:02:37,240
Speaker 3: people that like personal chefs is like a whole another lane.

1423
01:02:37,440 --> 01:02:39,600
Speaker 5: It's a it's definitely a world in its own. But

1424
01:02:39,920 --> 01:02:42,120
Speaker 5: it takes a special type of person to do that

1425
01:02:43,040 --> 01:02:45,160
Speaker 5: because at the end of the day, you sacrifice your

1426
01:02:45,360 --> 01:02:48,600
Speaker 5: entire life, not only just a cooking to the person

1427
01:02:48,680 --> 01:02:52,280
Speaker 5: that you're working with. Then, because they they're requiring, their

1428
01:02:52,360 --> 01:02:55,560
Speaker 5: needs are a lot different than any other cook chef.

1429
01:02:55,680 --> 01:02:57,840
Speaker 3: You're like, they're beck and call at all times.

1430
01:02:57,920 --> 01:02:59,959
Speaker 5: And that's why I when I decided to do person

1431
01:03:00,080 --> 01:03:03,080
Speaker 5: no chefing, I had my own requirements and restrictions. And

1432
01:03:03,120 --> 01:03:04,919
Speaker 5: it's like, one, I would never stay at the person's house.

1433
01:03:04,920 --> 01:03:07,040
Speaker 5: I would need my own hotel because I tried it

1434
01:03:07,120 --> 01:03:09,240
Speaker 5: once and no matter what, I'm staying in the twenty

1435
01:03:09,280 --> 01:03:13,160
Speaker 5: million dollar house, I can't sleep in a bed knowing

1436
01:03:13,280 --> 01:03:17,400
Speaker 5: that I work downstairs. Or imagine I always joke around.

1437
01:03:17,400 --> 01:03:19,040
Speaker 5: Imagine I'm hungry and I'm gonna go make a grill

1438
01:03:19,120 --> 01:03:21,000
Speaker 5: cheese sandwich I one o'clock in the morning and somebody says,

1439
01:03:21,000 --> 01:03:24,200
Speaker 5: can you make me want to fucking kitchen is clothes?

1440
01:03:24,240 --> 01:03:24,400
Speaker 4: Man?

1441
01:03:26,160 --> 01:03:27,640
Speaker 5: I would make it gladly.

1442
01:03:27,880 --> 01:03:30,640
Speaker 3: Did you hear about But that's just something I always

1443
01:03:30,680 --> 01:03:32,400
Speaker 3: joke around with. Did you have did you hear about

1444
01:03:32,400 --> 01:03:33,720
Speaker 3: ditty story with his personal show?

1445
01:03:33,840 --> 01:03:36,320
Speaker 5: No, I didn't hear ditty story. Imagine ditty story.

1446
01:03:37,440 --> 01:03:41,840
Speaker 3: I will tell you, ye shot, I got crazy, it

1447
01:03:41,920 --> 01:03:42,840
Speaker 3: got crazy. I got.

1448
01:03:45,960 --> 01:03:48,880
Speaker 6: Can we talk about the branding, because obviously you have.

1449
01:03:49,240 --> 01:03:51,600
Speaker 6: You've done an amazing job on social media doing that,

1450
01:03:51,880 --> 01:03:54,680
Speaker 6: and it's led to some deals with Fogo.

1451
01:03:55,000 --> 01:03:58,360
Speaker 5: On blessings and again, these are things that I tell

1452
01:03:58,400 --> 01:03:59,800
Speaker 5: people that are always asking me, how did you get

1453
01:03:59,800 --> 01:04:01,400
Speaker 5: some man followers? How'd you do this? And I was like,

1454
01:04:01,560 --> 01:04:05,120
Speaker 5: I am giving you what I'm saying. I'm giving you.

1455
01:04:05,240 --> 01:04:08,720
Speaker 5: So if I'm a chef page, I'm gonna give you food.

1456
01:04:08,840 --> 01:04:10,600
Speaker 5: I'm going to give you things that are related to chefs.

1457
01:04:10,640 --> 01:04:12,760
Speaker 5: I'm gonna give you some tips, I'm gonna give you

1458
01:04:12,800 --> 01:04:15,320
Speaker 5: some recipes. I'm gonna not be afraid. The only thing

1459
01:04:15,320 --> 01:04:16,880
Speaker 5: I'm not gonna give you is Michael Keat the recipe

1460
01:04:16,920 --> 01:04:18,760
Speaker 5: and my APPI recipe. So, guys, I love you to death,

1461
01:04:18,840 --> 01:04:21,360
Speaker 5: just stop asking anything that I make money on I

1462
01:04:21,440 --> 01:04:24,440
Speaker 5: can't give you. But again, it's one of those things

1463
01:04:24,480 --> 01:04:27,000
Speaker 5: where you have to stay true to what you're trying

1464
01:04:27,040 --> 01:04:28,840
Speaker 5: to sell, what you're trying to do, and who you're

1465
01:04:28,840 --> 01:04:30,880
Speaker 5: trying to be. So I am Chef Kelvin, my Instagram

1466
01:04:31,040 --> 01:04:33,840
Speaker 5: is Chef Kelvin, and I'm going to give you everything

1467
01:04:34,000 --> 01:04:36,520
Speaker 5: that has to do with food. Instagram stories are a

1468
01:04:36,520 --> 01:04:38,320
Speaker 5: little bit different. You can get a little bit more personal.

1469
01:04:38,360 --> 01:04:40,520
Speaker 5: You can show traveling, you can show family, you can

1470
01:04:40,560 --> 01:04:42,439
Speaker 5: show friends. But at the end of the day, I'm

1471
01:04:42,440 --> 01:04:44,400
Speaker 5: giving you what I promised that I was going to

1472
01:04:44,440 --> 01:04:46,800
Speaker 5: give you. You have to stay consistent and at the

1473
01:04:46,920 --> 01:04:48,280
Speaker 5: end of the day, you have to make sure that

1474
01:04:48,440 --> 01:04:52,040
Speaker 5: what you put on your feed is true to you.

1475
01:04:52,560 --> 01:04:54,400
Speaker 5: And you can't be afraid to post because you're not

1476
01:04:54,440 --> 01:04:56,360
Speaker 5: going to get a lot of likes. So I'm actually

1477
01:04:56,360 --> 01:04:59,080
Speaker 5: a little bit happy with the whole you know, removing likes,

1478
01:04:59,320 --> 01:05:02,480
Speaker 5: because at the end of the day, you'll know still

1479
01:05:02,600 --> 01:05:06,040
Speaker 5: that someone is getting a lot of insights and a

1480
01:05:06,080 --> 01:05:08,040
Speaker 5: lot of people coming to them when the comments are there,

1481
01:05:08,040 --> 01:05:10,120
Speaker 5: because you can tell when someone has a real fifty

1482
01:05:10,120 --> 01:05:12,840
Speaker 5: thousand dollars following and someone has a bought fifty thousand following.

1483
01:05:13,160 --> 01:05:15,400
Speaker 5: You can have ten thousand likes, but if you have

1484
01:05:15,480 --> 01:05:18,760
Speaker 5: two comments, something's wrong. Engagement engagements completely off, you know,

1485
01:05:18,800 --> 01:05:20,880
Speaker 5: because if I post something and I'm going to get

1486
01:05:20,880 --> 01:05:22,600
Speaker 5: a thousand likes, I'm going to get a hundred comments.

1487
01:05:23,160 --> 01:05:25,640
Speaker 3: And it's That's something I learned early on as far

1488
01:05:25,680 --> 01:05:28,400
Speaker 3: as social media. Friend of mine told me that you

1489
01:05:28,840 --> 01:05:30,959
Speaker 3: should be able to look at somebody's page without reading

1490
01:05:31,000 --> 01:05:31,840
Speaker 3: their bio and know what they do.

1491
01:05:32,680 --> 01:05:35,280
Speaker 5: Agree. Reading your bio is just say everything that you do,

1492
01:05:35,560 --> 01:05:37,840
Speaker 5: and you're, well, you can't say everything because then my

1493
01:05:38,560 --> 01:05:41,240
Speaker 5: my characters will run out right away. But you would

1494
01:05:41,280 --> 01:05:43,360
Speaker 5: have to say in your bio, you would say who

1495
01:05:43,440 --> 01:05:45,720
Speaker 5: you are, what you do, and what I'm saying.

1496
01:05:45,720 --> 01:05:47,240
Speaker 3: They should be able to tell without reading it.

1497
01:05:47,480 --> 01:05:48,040
Speaker 5: Absolutely agree.

1498
01:05:48,080 --> 01:05:49,760
Speaker 3: So it's like a lot of time people through all

1499
01:05:49,880 --> 01:05:54,000
Speaker 3: kinds of random nonsense pictures and memes and it's like,

1500
01:05:54,360 --> 01:05:54,840
Speaker 3: what's happening?

1501
01:05:54,920 --> 01:05:55,440
Speaker 5: What are we here for?

1502
01:05:55,600 --> 01:05:58,360
Speaker 3: But it's going on the message I'm confused. I'm confused.

1503
01:05:58,440 --> 01:06:00,520
Speaker 5: If it's there for fun, then cool. But if it's

1504
01:06:00,560 --> 01:06:01,720
Speaker 5: for business, yeah, you can't do that.

1505
01:06:01,800 --> 01:06:05,600
Speaker 3: You can't. You got to sacrifice that. And this page

1506
01:06:05,720 --> 01:06:07,280
Speaker 3: is like a reflection of like how people are going

1507
01:06:07,320 --> 01:06:08,040
Speaker 3: to look at your business.

1508
01:06:08,240 --> 01:06:09,760
Speaker 5: I like the way you said that without reading your bios,

1509
01:06:09,760 --> 01:06:11,640
Speaker 5: should be able to talk just by looking at pictures.

1510
01:06:12,000 --> 01:06:12,160
Speaker 4: See.

1511
01:06:12,360 --> 01:06:14,000
Speaker 5: And I learned that. I even tried doing like a

1512
01:06:14,040 --> 01:06:16,560
Speaker 5: personal page and that didn't work because I have no

1513
01:06:16,680 --> 01:06:20,040
Speaker 5: time to let alone. Yeah, this is my personal life,

1514
01:06:20,760 --> 01:06:22,400
Speaker 5: so stop with the personal stuff. If you know me

1515
01:06:22,440 --> 01:06:24,160
Speaker 5: on a personal level, you know that you get the

1516
01:06:24,200 --> 01:06:25,800
Speaker 5: same guy that you get as a chef level. You know.

1517
01:06:25,920 --> 01:06:28,200
Speaker 5: But building that brand, you have to learn that it

1518
01:06:28,360 --> 01:06:31,720
Speaker 5: takes time. You have to be patient. You can't rush

1519
01:06:31,840 --> 01:06:33,760
Speaker 5: for the likes. And I know that now because I

1520
01:06:33,880 --> 01:06:35,520
Speaker 5: just started YouTube and I'm hitting up one of my

1521
01:06:35,600 --> 01:06:38,200
Speaker 5: friends who has been an expert on YouTube, and she's

1522
01:06:38,240 --> 01:06:40,600
Speaker 5: done multiple videos, and I'm reaching out to her. I'm like,

1523
01:06:41,400 --> 01:06:43,240
Speaker 5: but if I put it on Instagram, I'll get fifty

1524
01:06:43,280 --> 01:06:46,080
Speaker 5: thousand likes, But if I put it on YouTube, I

1525
01:06:46,120 --> 01:06:48,200
Speaker 5: only have a thousand likes. She says, you have to wait,

1526
01:06:48,280 --> 01:06:50,800
Speaker 5: You have to be patient. And I learned and I'm like, not,

1527
01:06:50,960 --> 01:06:53,200
Speaker 5: we're not patient in this world. We don't even read

1528
01:06:53,360 --> 01:06:54,920
Speaker 5: in this world. And I learned that because I get

1529
01:06:54,920 --> 01:06:57,680
Speaker 5: my card told on a regular basis, and I can't

1530
01:06:57,720 --> 01:07:00,560
Speaker 5: get mad at clients. I'm being that honest I get

1531
01:07:00,800 --> 01:07:02,160
Speaker 5: I'm like, oh, can I park here? It's like six

1532
01:07:02,240 --> 01:07:04,640
Speaker 5: signs yes, yes, yes, Okay, I forgot the last one,

1533
01:07:06,160 --> 01:07:07,960
Speaker 5: and I get mad at clients when I'll give you

1534
01:07:08,080 --> 01:07:10,440
Speaker 5: all the information, like, for example, to purchase my coquito,

1535
01:07:11,080 --> 01:07:13,080
Speaker 5: you got to send an email to Coquito's by Chef

1536
01:07:13,160 --> 01:07:15,640
Speaker 5: Kelvin at gmail dot com. You say hello, you can

1537
01:07:15,680 --> 01:07:17,560
Speaker 5: say all the information you want. You're gonna automatically get

1538
01:07:17,560 --> 01:07:20,560
Speaker 5: a response that says thank you for your inquiry. Here's

1539
01:07:20,600 --> 01:07:22,640
Speaker 5: the product, Here's how much it costs. Here's the size

1540
01:07:22,640 --> 01:07:25,120
Speaker 5: of the bottle. Here's how we can deliver, here's forms

1541
01:07:25,160 --> 01:07:28,200
Speaker 5: of payment. Everything that you can ever ask me first question,

1542
01:07:28,600 --> 01:07:29,440
Speaker 5: how much is the bottle?

1543
01:07:29,680 --> 01:07:30,160
Speaker 4: How much.

1544
01:07:32,800 --> 01:07:35,360
Speaker 5: To All the information you need is in the in

1545
01:07:35,400 --> 01:07:38,200
Speaker 5: the in the last, And you have to be patient.

1546
01:07:38,240 --> 01:07:39,680
Speaker 5: So you have to be patient all sets alike. So

1547
01:07:39,800 --> 01:07:43,160
Speaker 5: even now that you know ten years, fifteen years, I'm

1548
01:07:43,200 --> 01:07:45,280
Speaker 5: going to say now when I turned thirty five in July,

1549
01:07:45,400 --> 01:07:47,640
Speaker 5: I'm going to be cooking for twenty years. So building

1550
01:07:47,680 --> 01:07:51,000
Speaker 5: this brand for twenty years. Everything that I've wanted is

1551
01:07:51,120 --> 01:07:55,240
Speaker 5: happening right now at this moment. Brand deals with Infinity.

1552
01:07:55,320 --> 01:07:57,520
Speaker 5: You know, I have an awesome commercial that's coming out

1553
01:07:57,520 --> 01:08:00,320
Speaker 5: where I'm honored to know that Infinity, that luxury brand

1554
01:08:00,920 --> 01:08:02,760
Speaker 5: wants to follow me around for a day and tell

1555
01:08:02,840 --> 01:08:05,000
Speaker 5: my story, and it's going to be an awesome commercial.

1556
01:08:05,000 --> 01:08:07,400
Speaker 5: Can wait to share that. You know, I'm a chef

1557
01:08:07,600 --> 01:08:11,000
Speaker 5: and with the Institute of Culinary Education, even though that's

1558
01:08:11,040 --> 01:08:13,200
Speaker 5: not my alma mater, I'm so happy to be with them.

1559
01:08:13,440 --> 01:08:15,520
Speaker 5: They give me an opportunity to tell my story on

1560
01:08:15,680 --> 01:08:19,760
Speaker 5: blog posts, to use their kitchen for YouTube shows, for

1561
01:08:20,160 --> 01:08:21,519
Speaker 5: if I want to shoot a book, if I want

1562
01:08:21,520 --> 01:08:23,559
Speaker 5: to just come in and prep for an event. I'm

1563
01:08:23,640 --> 01:08:26,400
Speaker 5: grateful for people like that that believe in me, believe

1564
01:08:26,400 --> 01:08:28,960
Speaker 5: in the brand, and and help me take my career

1565
01:08:29,040 --> 01:08:31,320
Speaker 5: to a level that I wouldn't imagine doing.

1566
01:08:31,439 --> 01:08:31,479
Speaker 4: So.

1567
01:08:31,920 --> 01:08:34,120
Speaker 5: I think it's important and as you mentioned, you know,

1568
01:08:34,200 --> 01:08:36,960
Speaker 5: companies like Wells Fargo to see my Instagram page and say,

1569
01:08:36,960 --> 01:08:39,040
Speaker 5: you know, we want to partner up and collab with

1570
01:08:39,120 --> 01:08:41,400
Speaker 5: this guy because what he's doing is positive, so I

1571
01:08:41,520 --> 01:08:43,880
Speaker 5: know that he can be the right guy that will

1572
01:08:44,040 --> 01:08:46,920
Speaker 5: share our message. And I'm always smiling, so I have

1573
01:08:47,280 --> 01:08:50,360
Speaker 5: people say I have a million dollar smile. It comes

1574
01:08:50,439 --> 01:08:51,400
Speaker 5: with making people happy.

1575
01:08:52,120 --> 01:08:55,560
Speaker 3: Chef Calvin, Man, you want thank you for coming. Appreciate it.

1576
01:08:55,600 --> 01:08:59,679
Speaker 3: Appreciate it anything you want to tell the people your Instagram,

1577
01:09:00,040 --> 01:09:01,360
Speaker 3: social media and thing you got coming up.

1578
01:09:01,479 --> 01:09:04,240
Speaker 5: Absolutely, Man, I appreciate you guys for having me, letting

1579
01:09:04,240 --> 01:09:06,840
Speaker 5: me tell my story on a whole different platform because

1580
01:09:07,040 --> 01:09:10,080
Speaker 5: I'm able to tell people my story and inspire. So

1581
01:09:10,120 --> 01:09:11,840
Speaker 5: I always say if I can inspire one person from

1582
01:09:11,880 --> 01:09:14,519
Speaker 5: one thing that I do per day, my job is done.

1583
01:09:14,680 --> 01:09:16,320
Speaker 5: The most important thing is if I can offer some

1584
01:09:16,360 --> 01:09:19,479
Speaker 5: people advice that want to become a young entrepreneur. Is

1585
01:09:19,600 --> 01:09:22,320
Speaker 5: back to what I said, surround yourself by greatness. Don't

1586
01:09:22,320 --> 01:09:25,080
Speaker 5: be afraid of not making a lot of money now,

1587
01:09:25,640 --> 01:09:27,840
Speaker 5: don't chase the money. The money will come chasing you.

1588
01:09:28,439 --> 01:09:29,760
Speaker 5: I'm at a point in my career where i can

1589
01:09:30,240 --> 01:09:32,600
Speaker 5: greatly say that I'm turning down gigs because there's just

1590
01:09:32,680 --> 01:09:36,000
Speaker 5: so many things coming in. So as the team expands,

1591
01:09:36,720 --> 01:09:40,760
Speaker 5: I'm looking forward to growing my YouTube show. Starting my

1592
01:09:40,800 --> 01:09:46,479
Speaker 5: cookbook in January and cookbook, yeah, that's number one thing.

1593
01:09:46,720 --> 01:09:48,640
Speaker 5: It's cookbook and cooking classes. So I'm going to try

1594
01:09:48,640 --> 01:09:50,599
Speaker 5: to get back on the cooking classes. Looking for a venue.

1595
01:09:51,400 --> 01:09:53,600
Speaker 5: All my social media is chef Kelvin c h E

1596
01:09:53,760 --> 01:09:56,240
Speaker 5: F K E l v I N. Don't look at

1597
01:09:56,280 --> 01:09:58,200
Speaker 5: my page after midnight. You're only going to make yourself

1598
01:09:58,240 --> 01:10:01,040
Speaker 5: hungry in advance. But thank you guys for having me.

1599
01:10:01,360 --> 01:10:03,120
Speaker 3: Thanks you man. Troy housekeeping it on.

1600
01:10:03,240 --> 01:10:05,559
Speaker 6: Yeah, shout everybody on patreon dot com. I know that's

1601
01:10:05,600 --> 01:10:09,160
Speaker 6: our proud to pay program. The support on it has

1602
01:10:09,200 --> 01:10:11,759
Speaker 6: been tremendous, man, and it's beautiful. We got to actually

1603
01:10:12,160 --> 01:10:14,280
Speaker 6: get to speak and and and engage with some of

1604
01:10:14,360 --> 01:10:16,759
Speaker 6: our patrons and the list keeps growing. So shout everybody

1605
01:10:16,760 --> 01:10:18,720
Speaker 6: that's supporting that. You know that if you are a

1606
01:10:18,800 --> 01:10:23,400
Speaker 6: Tier four or five member, you are access to Alisia University,

1607
01:10:23,520 --> 01:10:28,120
Speaker 6: which is our online school. Shots wearing the merch, shout everybody, Yo,

1608
01:10:28,200 --> 01:10:30,719
Speaker 6: the merchant has been moving like crazy.

1609
01:10:30,800 --> 01:10:33,240
Speaker 4: Man. We put up the merchant.

1610
01:10:34,400 --> 01:10:36,760
Speaker 6: The sales were out out the door man the first day,

1611
01:10:36,760 --> 01:10:38,320
Speaker 6: So shout everybody that's purchased the merch.

1612
01:10:38,680 --> 01:10:40,400
Speaker 4: Yeah, man, you want to talk about university.

1613
01:10:40,479 --> 01:10:42,880
Speaker 3: Yeah, Nivirsually, we're about to actually do a class, like

1614
01:10:43,000 --> 01:10:47,639
Speaker 3: right now, he's not joking. It's three classes every single week.

1615
01:10:48,040 --> 01:10:49,640
Speaker 3: We do a real estate class on Monday, we do

1616
01:10:49,680 --> 01:10:52,760
Speaker 3: a floating class on Wednesday. Me and Troy do a

1617
01:10:52,800 --> 01:10:55,559
Speaker 3: class every Thursday. And starting in the new year, we're

1618
01:10:55,560 --> 01:11:02,280
Speaker 3: going to have e Yo. Yeah for sure, so you

1619
01:11:02,360 --> 01:11:04,680
Speaker 3: know we it's an interactive at zoom. We get to

1620
01:11:04,800 --> 01:11:08,920
Speaker 3: ask questions. It's really dope. It's really dope experience. And yeah,

1621
01:11:09,080 --> 01:11:13,200
Speaker 3: don't forget Atlanta, Atlanta VIP experience. We are coming January

1622
01:11:13,720 --> 01:11:18,200
Speaker 3: twenty six. It's gonna be crazy live podcast, networking event,

1623
01:11:18,680 --> 01:11:22,360
Speaker 3: open bar, dinner, and then we're gonna have a workshop

1624
01:11:22,400 --> 01:11:25,719
Speaker 3: the next day. Alumnis is gonna be there. We're gonna

1625
01:11:25,760 --> 01:11:28,240
Speaker 3: be there. It's gonna be a whole vibe. So events

1626
01:11:28,280 --> 01:11:30,479
Speaker 3: tab on our website on your leisure dot com.

1627
01:11:30,920 --> 01:11:31,719
Speaker 4: Don't play yourself.

1628
01:11:31,840 --> 01:11:34,680
Speaker 3: No, Atlanta, we got we can't wait to touch the

1629
01:11:34,760 --> 01:11:36,639
Speaker 3: town for sure. And the book tip of this week

1630
01:11:36,840 --> 01:11:41,360
Speaker 3: is Kitchen Confidential by the late great Anthony Bardain Peace

1631
01:11:41,800 --> 01:11:44,240
Speaker 3: for sure, so I thought that would be fitting. Chef

1632
01:11:44,320 --> 01:11:45,559
Speaker 3: recommended that book himself.

1633
01:11:45,680 --> 01:11:46,719
Speaker 4: He read it four times.

1634
01:11:46,920 --> 01:11:50,680
Speaker 3: Yeah, so that's it. Thank you guys for rocking with us.

1635
01:11:50,680 --> 01:11:51,439
Speaker 3: We'll see you next week.

1636
01:11:51,520 --> 01:11:54,439
Speaker 4: Peace Peace, Coach.

1637
01:11:54,560 --> 01:11:57,000
Speaker 11: The energy out there felt different. What changed for the

1638
01:11:57,080 --> 01:11:57,519
Speaker 11: team today?

1639
01:11:57,640 --> 01:11:59,719
Speaker 8: It was the new game day scratches from the California

1640
01:11:59,800 --> 01:12:03,040
Speaker 8: lock Play is everything. Those games sent the team's energy

1641
01:12:03,080 --> 01:12:03,559
Speaker 8: through the roof.

1642
01:12:03,680 --> 01:12:05,600
Speaker 11: Are you saying it was the off field play that

1643
01:12:05,720 --> 01:12:06,800
Speaker 11: made the difference on the field.

1644
01:12:06,920 --> 01:12:09,639
Speaker 8: Hey, little play makes your day, and today it made

1645
01:12:09,680 --> 01:12:11,760
Speaker 8: the game. That's all for now, Coach.

1646
01:12:11,920 --> 01:12:14,519
Speaker 11: One more question played the new Los Angeles Chargers, San

1647
01:12:14,560 --> 01:12:17,559
Speaker 11: Francisco forty nine Ers and Los Angeles Rams scratchers from

1648
01:12:17,600 --> 01:12:20,400
Speaker 11: the California lottery. A little play can make your day.

1649
01:12:21,080 --> 01:12:23,000
Speaker 11: Peace Play responsibily. Must be eighteen years or older to

1650
01:12:23,000 --> 01:12:23,840
Speaker 11: purchase plate or claim