WEBVTT - EYL #55 Everybody Eats feat. Chef Kelvin 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:02.880 With robin Hood, not only can you trade individual stocks 0:00:02.880 --> 0:00:06.240 and ETFs, you can also seamlessly buy and sell crypto 0:00:06.519 --> 0:00:10.200 at low costs, trade all in one place. Get started 0:00:10.240 --> 0:00:11.520 now on robin Hood. 0:00:11.520 --> 0:00:14.040 Trading crypto involve significant risk. Crypto trading is offered through 0:00:14.000 --> 0:00:16.280 an account with the Robinhood Crypto LC. Robin Huid Crypto 0:00:16.320 --> 0:00:18.520 is licensed to engagement virtual currency business activity by the 0:00:18.520 --> 0:00:20.560 New York State Department of Financial Services. Crypto Health thro 0:00:20.600 --> 0:00:23.520 robin Hid Cryptos not FDFC insured or SIPC PROTECTIC Confesting 0:00:23.560 --> 0:00:26.200 involves risk, including loss of principal securities. Trading is offered 0:00:26.200 --> 0:00:28.720 through an account with robin Hood Financial LLC member SIPC, 0:00:28.960 --> 0:00:30.040 a registered broker dealer. 0:00:30.520 --> 0:00:33.880 All right, guys, welcome back, e y L. We have 0:00:34.000 --> 0:00:38.040 a very very exciting special episode today. First and foremost, 0:00:38.760 --> 0:00:44.839 shout out to Drvin. I didn't even tell you what. 0:00:45.479 --> 0:00:47.640 A couple months ago we were number two on the 0:00:47.760 --> 0:00:49.680 on the DR Charts for Business podcast. We have a 0:00:49.720 --> 0:00:53.200 strong following in DR and some of our biggest guests 0:00:53.240 --> 0:00:56.600 have been Dominicant. We had Caesar dj mv's partner. Shout 0:00:56.600 --> 0:01:00.280 out to Caesar. We had loaded the slumsneto. He's his 0:01:00.360 --> 0:01:03.920 best friend. Shout out to Fernando. This is the John Henry, 0:01:05.280 --> 0:01:09.480 John Henry. Shout to John Henry. So you're in good hands. 0:01:10.680 --> 0:01:14.840 So today we got shelf chef Calvin, Calvin Fernandez, so 0:01:15.000 --> 0:01:21.280 I'll do the rundown. He is legend within his own right, prodigy, legend, 0:01:21.400 --> 0:01:23.480 whatever you want to call it. He has cooked for 0:01:23.600 --> 0:01:28.040 the New York Yankees. He is personal chef to j 0:01:28.200 --> 0:01:30.960 low and and a Ron, personal chef to j Lo 0:01:31.120 --> 0:01:34.600 and a Rod. He made Forbes thirty Under thirty for 0:01:34.760 --> 0:01:39.399 Chef List. He's been on TV Network on chop on Man, 0:01:39.480 --> 0:01:45.000 First Child, Bobby Flay. He actually defeated Bobby Flay twice. 0:01:47.280 --> 0:01:51.920 He defeated Bobby Flay twice. He's partner chef in Last Lap, 0:01:52.920 --> 0:01:56.440 which is his restaurant that he's partnering right now. And 0:01:57.600 --> 0:02:00.440 he was formerly the chef at Marina. 0:02:00.480 --> 0:02:04.360 Oh my God, a whole entire VI at the height 0:02:04.440 --> 0:02:05.280 of it, at the. 0:02:05.320 --> 0:02:07.480 Peak, we'll talk, but we gotta talk about I feel. 0:02:07.240 --> 0:02:08.280 Like I got to walk around with you on a 0:02:08.320 --> 0:02:08.880 regular basis. 0:02:13.080 --> 0:02:15.640 So first and foremost, thank you, thank you for joining us. 0:02:15.639 --> 0:02:16.040 Appreciate it. 0:02:16.080 --> 0:02:19.040 I'm happy to be here. It's an honor shout out 0:02:19.040 --> 0:02:21.280 to you guys for doing what you're doing. I got 0:02:21.320 --> 0:02:22.640 goosebumps with you were telling me what you guys are 0:02:22.639 --> 0:02:24.000 doing in DC, because I don't know about that. So 0:02:24.040 --> 0:02:25.840 I'm happy and proud of you guys because you're always 0:02:25.880 --> 0:02:29.120 leveling up so bigger and better things on a regular basis. 0:02:29.120 --> 0:02:31.440 Welcome to the green room having me. 0:02:31.919 --> 0:02:33.840 So the thing about your Leash is that we it's 0:02:33.919 --> 0:02:36.040 really cool because it's a business podcast, but it gives 0:02:36.080 --> 0:02:39.000 us broad range because everything is a business. Like literally, 0:02:39.080 --> 0:02:41.079 everything is a business because you're making money in it. 0:02:41.440 --> 0:02:44.280 And one of the things that especially like for just 0:02:44.400 --> 0:02:49.840 everybody has to eat right and every like that's literally 0:02:49.960 --> 0:02:50.640 and figuratively. 0:02:51.200 --> 0:02:53.160 You're saying that this is one of the biggest reasons 0:02:53.200 --> 0:02:55.639 why I started this. Just getting into this business, I 0:02:55.720 --> 0:02:58.760 knew three things. I'll always be with friends, I'll never 0:02:58.840 --> 0:03:01.000 go hungry, and I always have a because we need 0:03:01.040 --> 0:03:01.720 food to survive. 0:03:01.800 --> 0:03:05.920 That's it. You need food to live. That's a fact. 0:03:06.360 --> 0:03:08.680 And it's like a lot of times so we've we've 0:03:08.800 --> 0:03:12.560 interviewed restaurant owner before, but we haven't interviewed a chef. 0:03:13.080 --> 0:03:15.760 It's a different dynamic and a lot of times people 0:03:16.120 --> 0:03:19.040 It's one of those things where people love to cook 0:03:19.040 --> 0:03:20.840 a lot of times, right, but a lot of times 0:03:20.840 --> 0:03:22.760 people don't think about how can they monetize it, how 0:03:22.800 --> 0:03:24.560 can they make a career out of it, how can 0:03:24.600 --> 0:03:26.480 they make a business out of it. But you've done 0:03:26.639 --> 0:03:29.200 all of that and you're still leveling it up. And 0:03:29.800 --> 0:03:31.920 so it's an interesting conversation because I feel like these 0:03:31.960 --> 0:03:35.480 are these are conversations that we can have where anybody, 0:03:35.760 --> 0:03:39.120 you know, could apply skills that they have and become 0:03:39.160 --> 0:03:41.640 a chef. Right. It's not something that you have to 0:03:41.920 --> 0:03:43.480 Like a lot of times, like we talk like hedge 0:03:43.520 --> 0:03:45.200 fund and stuff like that, and people get like, oh, 0:03:45.240 --> 0:03:47.840 this is over my head. Cooking is not over anybody's head. 0:03:47.960 --> 0:03:49.480 Like you got a bag of chips in your in 0:03:49.560 --> 0:03:52.560 your cupboard, you got some's like. 0:03:52.600 --> 0:03:53.800 You're doing a chop basket right now. 0:03:54.280 --> 0:03:57.640 You got a chop basket? What you got? 0:03:58.680 --> 0:04:00.920 So you're a world class chef, but you come from 0:04:01.000 --> 0:04:04.840 humble beginning. But your family is a long line of chefs, 0:04:04.920 --> 0:04:06.080 cooks things that nature. 0:04:05.920 --> 0:04:09.040 Right, especially being Dominican, you come from a line of 0:04:09.160 --> 0:04:11.200 women that know how to cook. You know, I think 0:04:11.280 --> 0:04:13.520 what's always nostalgic for me I can be out the 0:04:13.520 --> 0:04:15.560 country for three months, the first thing I need is 0:04:16.040 --> 0:04:18.880 a home cooked meal from my mom. And it's one 0:04:18.920 --> 0:04:22.160 of those things where I remember and I think about it, 0:04:22.240 --> 0:04:24.000 and when I'm creating a new dish, it's always like, 0:04:24.080 --> 0:04:27.120 how can I make this nostalgic for someone else? 0:04:27.200 --> 0:04:27.360 You know. 0:04:27.480 --> 0:04:30.440 So, just like you said with food, there's so many 0:04:30.520 --> 0:04:32.880 different outlets that you can go to creating a business. 0:04:32.960 --> 0:04:35.440 And reality is you think about how many people have 0:04:35.480 --> 0:04:37.200 started a business in their own home and how they've 0:04:37.240 --> 0:04:40.560 grown to a small, little commercial and then buying the 0:04:40.600 --> 0:04:43.200 store next door. And those are some of my favorite stories, 0:04:43.200 --> 0:04:45.760 you know, people that start small and not every even 0:04:45.800 --> 0:04:47.760 I started a company at one point when I was 0:04:47.800 --> 0:04:50.680 doing meal props, and we literally rented out an apartment 0:04:51.279 --> 0:04:53.040 and just made that our kitchen, like there was no 0:04:53.160 --> 0:04:56.240 other furniture. We have refrigerators in there, we had shelving 0:04:56.320 --> 0:04:59.919 in there, we had two ovens, and that electric travelo. 0:05:00.120 --> 0:05:01.600 That electric goal was high. But at the end of 0:05:01.640 --> 0:05:03.160 the day, we were doing the job. 0:05:03.520 --> 0:05:05.840 So you said you came home to a home cooked 0:05:05.839 --> 0:05:07.760 meal from your mom, but your dad is actually the chef. 0:05:07.839 --> 0:05:09.800 My dad is the chef, you know. And then especially 0:05:09.920 --> 0:05:12.840 being in a Latino you always think about the women 0:05:12.880 --> 0:05:15.240 are the cooks, you know, and if you think about restaurants, 0:05:17.000 --> 0:05:18.719 of the cooks are men, you know. So I'm actually 0:05:18.720 --> 0:05:20.760 happy to see that there's a lot more women in 0:05:20.960 --> 0:05:24.320 restaurants and shutting it down, there's a lot of female 0:05:24.400 --> 0:05:26.320 chefs that I've had the honor and privilege to work 0:05:26.320 --> 0:05:29.240 alongside and collab with. And that's something that I like 0:05:29.279 --> 0:05:30.880 to see on a regular basis as well, because when 0:05:30.880 --> 0:05:34.880 you do think about food and love, and it really 0:05:34.960 --> 0:05:36.600 does come from both. So I'm happy to see that 0:05:37.040 --> 0:05:37.799 on a regular basis. 0:05:37.839 --> 0:05:40.160 Now, I just thought about that, that's interesting because yeah, 0:05:40.160 --> 0:05:42.560 you think about it traditionally, not to sound sexist, but 0:05:42.640 --> 0:05:45.000 it's like most of the time in a household, a woman, 0:05:45.680 --> 0:05:47.480 your mom is the one that's really making. 0:05:47.960 --> 0:05:49.400 Mom, Grandma auntie. 0:05:50.680 --> 0:05:53.760 In restaurants, men are the artist chefs. 0:05:53.920 --> 0:05:55.440 And I think about it comes to a point where 0:05:55.520 --> 0:05:57.560 in restaurants you probably get paid a little bit more 0:05:57.960 --> 0:06:00.560 than your regular standard jobs. You like, even me, I 0:06:00.640 --> 0:06:02.320 was fifteen years old and I was getting paid at 0:06:02.360 --> 0:06:04.960 that time it was like ten dollars an hour, but 0:06:05.040 --> 0:06:07.880 minimum wage was seven fifty or six fifty, so I 0:06:08.000 --> 0:06:09.400 was like, I'm already ahead of the game. I'm making 0:06:09.440 --> 0:06:11.800 four dollars more than anybody else. And that was me 0:06:11.839 --> 0:06:13.480 at fifteen. So when I was getting a check of 0:06:13.520 --> 0:06:15.080 eight hundred dollars for every two weeks, I thought I 0:06:15.160 --> 0:06:18.160 was rich. Think about that now I can't. I don't 0:06:18.160 --> 0:06:20.560 even leave my house if I don't make eight hundred dollars. 0:06:21.480 --> 0:06:23.440 So at what point did you did you say, Okay, 0:06:23.520 --> 0:06:25.560 this is something that I could actually take serious. You 0:06:25.640 --> 0:06:27.000 went to school for this, right, yeah? 0:06:27.000 --> 0:06:29.640 I went to uh well, it started in Long Island 0:06:29.640 --> 0:06:31.680 City High School. I went to a high school that 0:06:31.880 --> 0:06:35.719 had the program. So the program was just learning how 0:06:35.760 --> 0:06:38.600 to make you know, brownies and cookies and like a 0:06:39.360 --> 0:06:41.080 home met class. I would say that, you know, But me, 0:06:41.240 --> 0:06:43.120 I was being the typical jock, and I was like, 0:06:43.160 --> 0:06:44.680 I'm not gonna wear an apron. I don't want to 0:06:44.839 --> 0:06:47.280 be in a place where you think about you know. 0:06:47.440 --> 0:06:49.920 They were my friends, but you know, we tease each 0:06:49.960 --> 0:06:51.360 other a little bit, and the last thing I need 0:06:51.480 --> 0:06:54.240 is to give my teammates on the football team and 0:06:54.279 --> 0:06:56.080 on the baseball team something else to tease me other 0:06:56.120 --> 0:06:58.680 than me being five feet tall. Thank God for those 0:06:58.680 --> 0:07:01.520 extra five inches So it's one of those things where 0:07:02.560 --> 0:07:04.280 it took a lot for me to take put my 0:07:04.320 --> 0:07:06.000 pride aside and say, all right, let me let me 0:07:06.240 --> 0:07:08.600 put my focus onto something. So shout out to my 0:07:08.640 --> 0:07:11.720 ex girlfriend in high school, Maria, because if it wasn't 0:07:11.720 --> 0:07:13.840 for her, she pushed me into cooking. You know, she 0:07:13.920 --> 0:07:16.560 wanted me to show a little bit of interest and 0:07:16.720 --> 0:07:18.880 support the way she was supported me by being at 0:07:18.960 --> 0:07:22.400 every game, every match, being my biggest cheerleader and no 0:07:22.480 --> 0:07:24.400 putintendent because she was on the cheerleading squad too, so 0:07:24.480 --> 0:07:25.320 she was forced to be there. 0:07:25.320 --> 0:07:28.000 It wasn't more of a more of a maybe she 0:07:28.120 --> 0:07:29.920 chose to be there. She chose to be I'm gonna 0:07:29.920 --> 0:07:31.080 take it off that. I'm gonna take it on that 0:07:31.120 --> 0:07:35.240 I take it. So if it wasn't for her, I 0:07:35.240 --> 0:07:36.320 would have never went into cooking. 0:07:36.440 --> 0:07:40.640 And she gave me the opportunity to to put my 0:07:41.000 --> 0:07:43.800 talent into something else because I was a good sports 0:07:44.720 --> 0:07:46.880 I was good in baseball, I was great in wrestling, 0:07:47.360 --> 0:07:51.000 I was okay in football. Uh, but being on a 0:07:51.040 --> 0:07:54.160 platform where I'm the solo star, like cooking, that was 0:07:54.680 --> 0:07:55.360 all thanks to her. 0:07:56.160 --> 0:07:59.040 So all right, so you went to c I A, 0:07:59.320 --> 0:08:02.040 which is one of the top culinary institution in the world. 0:08:01.920 --> 0:08:04.880 Right, Culinary Institut of America. The CIA is the elite 0:08:05.240 --> 0:08:07.320 school for culinary So it's like, you know, we're the 0:08:07.360 --> 0:08:10.120 cornell of culinary schools. You know. It's one of those 0:08:10.160 --> 0:08:14.000 things where they provided a program and a way for 0:08:14.160 --> 0:08:16.880 you to learn more than just cooking. You know, I thought, 0:08:16.960 --> 0:08:19.920 at seventeen eighteen years old, I'm here learning about wines 0:08:19.920 --> 0:08:21.640 of the world. I'm here learning there was One of 0:08:21.680 --> 0:08:24.560 my favorite classes was product Knowledge, where literally, by the 0:08:24.680 --> 0:08:26.920 end of the class you would have a table full 0:08:26.960 --> 0:08:29.920 of ingredients. You can't pick them up, you can't smell them, 0:08:29.960 --> 0:08:31.400 you can't touch them. You have to know what it 0:08:31.520 --> 0:08:32.439 is just by looking at it. 0:08:33.160 --> 0:08:34.480 But that was I mean, it was a process for you. 0:08:34.640 --> 0:08:36.400 Oh though, there was a process to learn that. Absolutely, 0:08:36.720 --> 0:08:37.679 you don't get that overnight. 0:08:37.760 --> 0:08:40.680 Yeah. So, I mean you weren't just chosen for the school. 0:08:40.679 --> 0:08:42.120 You have to apply and go through a whole process 0:08:42.120 --> 0:08:42.880 to be so the program. 0:08:43.000 --> 0:08:45.439 Through the program, I was fortunate enough. Thank you for 0:08:45.520 --> 0:08:49.400 mentioning that SEACAP Careers through Culinary Arts program. These people 0:08:49.520 --> 0:08:51.760 are the reason why I am who I am as 0:08:51.800 --> 0:08:53.719 a chef. And I say that more because it was 0:08:54.160 --> 0:08:58.000 it was more than just an opportunity to win a scholarship. 0:08:58.240 --> 0:09:00.640 There were a family, you know, Richard Grouse and the founder. 0:09:01.240 --> 0:09:04.000 He was like my second dad, and when he sees 0:09:04.040 --> 0:09:06.560 people that he believes in, just like my old high 0:09:06.559 --> 0:09:09.520 school teacher, Terry Maxis. You know he's retired now, good 0:09:09.559 --> 0:09:11.880 for him. You know, he put in effort and he 0:09:12.000 --> 0:09:13.959 put in the hard work to make sure that we 0:09:14.080 --> 0:09:16.400 had the opportunity. You know, I did a cooking class 0:09:16.760 --> 0:09:19.319 that led me to a cooking competition that led me 0:09:19.440 --> 0:09:21.719 to winning forty thousand dollars to the CIA. You know, 0:09:21.800 --> 0:09:23.320 never in a million years that I think I would 0:09:23.440 --> 0:09:26.040 win a scholarship, let alone get forty grand. 0:09:26.240 --> 0:09:27.480 How much does CIA course? 0:09:27.720 --> 0:09:32.160 CIA now probably forty grand a year, So I saved 0:09:32.200 --> 0:09:32.560 like half. 0:09:32.880 --> 0:09:34.520 So it's a two year program. 0:09:34.600 --> 0:09:38.000 So you're getting in getting an associates degree in culinary 0:09:38.120 --> 0:09:40.880 arts and business management. So aside from that, you know, 0:09:40.960 --> 0:09:42.640 I dormed there. I'm not going to go back at home. 0:09:42.679 --> 0:09:44.959 Even though I was close to home, I still you know, 0:09:45.040 --> 0:09:45.480 took on the. 0:09:45.480 --> 0:09:47.880 Full college experience forty bands. 0:09:48.480 --> 0:09:50.360 So I just let's say, sorry to cut you off. 0:09:50.679 --> 0:09:52.839 Let's just say it's fifteen years ago. I graduated, I 0:09:52.960 --> 0:09:54.920 just finished paying off Sally Maye, and I got for 0:09:55.760 --> 0:09:57.680 the other forty It's like I. 0:09:57.720 --> 0:09:59.679 Took a long time that that was a good I'm 0:09:59.679 --> 0:10:00.160 still saying. 0:10:01.920 --> 0:10:04.040 All right, so you finished college and then you start 0:10:04.080 --> 0:10:06.320 you going to corporate where right after that I started. 0:10:06.960 --> 0:10:09.920 Right after college, I joined there was a company called 0:10:10.520 --> 0:10:12.439 there was a restaurant called Gotham Bar and Grill. So 0:10:12.600 --> 0:10:15.720 before I got into corporate, I literally did what any 0:10:15.880 --> 0:10:18.760 young chef should do in his bust your ass for 0:10:18.800 --> 0:10:20.760 the next two years and give six months to the 0:10:20.880 --> 0:10:22.959 top chefs in New York City. So I worked with 0:10:23.240 --> 0:10:26.120 Marcus Samuelson, I worked with Jean George, I worked with 0:10:26.720 --> 0:10:30.280 Daniel Blude, I worked with Alfred Portally. That was the 0:10:30.280 --> 0:10:32.480 place where I did my six month, my eighteen week 0:10:32.559 --> 0:10:34.720 internship at the CIA, and then I got hired right 0:10:34.720 --> 0:10:37.280 out of college. So I was lucky enough that and 0:10:37.320 --> 0:10:39.120 that was one of those things where I determined that 0:10:39.200 --> 0:10:40.679 I'm going to come in early even though I'm not 0:10:40.720 --> 0:10:43.280 getting paid. I got paid an internship wage, which was 0:10:43.320 --> 0:10:45.000 still at least getting paid. How much you get paid, 0:10:45.000 --> 0:10:46.240 I think it was like seven fifty an hour. 0:10:46.760 --> 0:10:47.680 After you graduated. 0:10:48.280 --> 0:10:50.440 During my internship before I graduated, that was like right 0:10:50.480 --> 0:10:50.880 in the middle. 0:10:50.960 --> 0:10:53.720 So Alfred Bortally, he he's the head chef at the Gothambarn. 0:10:53.800 --> 0:10:56.280 Grill was the executive chef at Gothenbarn Grove for about 0:10:56.280 --> 0:10:58.800 over thirty years. He just opened. It's funny because I 0:10:58.840 --> 0:11:01.280 went to Gothenborn Girl last night because I needed some nostalgia. 0:11:01.760 --> 0:11:03.160 I went to Strip House and I was like, let 0:11:03.200 --> 0:11:04.760 me just go to Gotham Bar and Grill have an 0:11:04.760 --> 0:11:07.719 amazing old fashion and so yeah, a little flashback. And 0:11:07.760 --> 0:11:10.280 I walked in and they're like, well, Alfred's not here anymore. 0:11:10.280 --> 0:11:12.400 He just opened up his own restaurant like three blocks away, 0:11:12.640 --> 0:11:13.760 and I'm like, no, I need to go there. 0:11:13.840 --> 0:11:15.760 But the restaurant itself, I mean, when he was there 0:11:15.880 --> 0:11:16.960 was it was it was Michelin. 0:11:17.320 --> 0:11:19.920 It was Michelin. Star it is that so three star. 0:11:20.000 --> 0:11:22.280 It was three star New York Times consistently for thirty 0:11:22.400 --> 0:11:24.720 years in a row, which is which is very hard 0:11:24.760 --> 0:11:26.400 to do. The highest you can get. His four stars 0:11:26.600 --> 0:11:29.400 in New York New York Times and Michelin is three. 0:11:29.760 --> 0:11:31.480 So they were one star Michelin and there were three 0:11:31.480 --> 0:11:34.679 star New York times, which is elite. Aside from that, 0:11:34.960 --> 0:11:39.240 it's one of those classifications of knowing that you're branded 0:11:39.320 --> 0:11:42.040 by the Michelin Guide knows that you're you're your top 0:11:42.120 --> 0:11:42.600 of your tier. 0:11:43.040 --> 0:11:45.480 So all right, then you started working at this strand right. 0:11:45.920 --> 0:11:48.760 So after Gotham Bar and Grill I did, I was 0:11:48.800 --> 0:11:52.200 at a restaurant called Cafe des Artis and I had 0:11:52.240 --> 0:11:55.360 my opportunity to become like a junior soux chef. That 0:11:55.480 --> 0:11:57.080 was the first time I had an opportunity. 0:11:58.120 --> 0:12:00.920 A shoue chef is a chef underneath the head chef. 0:12:01.040 --> 0:12:01.520 That's correct. 0:12:01.559 --> 0:12:04.240 Yeah, So it's like ashi chef apprentice. 0:12:04.280 --> 0:12:05.520 I get that all the time. There's people are all 0:12:05.679 --> 0:12:07.679 so you do sushi. I'm like, I shout out to 0:12:07.760 --> 0:12:10.760 the movie Ratatui. Then let everybody know who is a 0:12:10.800 --> 0:12:12.640 shoe chef and who is a sous chef and what 0:12:12.720 --> 0:12:14.240 they do because at that moment in my part in 0:12:14.240 --> 0:12:16.000 my life, I was a soush chef. I'm like, finally 0:12:16.280 --> 0:12:18.000 people are gonna stop thinking that I make sushi. 0:12:19.080 --> 0:12:20.840 So what's the what's the what's the what's the order? 0:12:21.080 --> 0:12:22.760 So the chain of command would be like when you 0:12:22.920 --> 0:12:25.199 first walk into a restaurant, like I did this. I 0:12:25.480 --> 0:12:27.560 worked as a dishwasher for a couple of months. Then 0:12:27.600 --> 0:12:30.400 I did prep, which is all you do is peel potatoes, 0:12:30.520 --> 0:12:35.480 clean vegetables, literally all the dirty stuff that people don't 0:12:35.480 --> 0:12:38.439 think about because we come into restaurants as cooks and 0:12:38.520 --> 0:12:39.719 things are ready for us. Like I don't have to 0:12:39.720 --> 0:12:41.000 peel my own garlic, I don't have to peel my 0:12:41.000 --> 0:12:42.440 own shots. I don't have to peel my own potatoes. 0:12:42.440 --> 0:12:43.959 I don't have to peel my own onions. When you 0:12:44.040 --> 0:12:45.959 do these cooking shows, you got to do everything you 0:12:46.400 --> 0:12:48.640 take for granted that you don't have your prep cooks 0:12:48.960 --> 0:12:51.839 or you're with you, you know, to help you out, 0:12:51.880 --> 0:12:53.640 but you have the chain of command of prep cooks. 0:12:54.000 --> 0:12:56.480 Then the very next step is garbage, which your salads 0:12:56.520 --> 0:12:59.199 and cold appetizers. Then if you're good at that, you 0:12:59.280 --> 0:13:01.559 move to hot apps, which is usually like little pastas 0:13:01.640 --> 0:13:04.840 Risotto's sear fagar, depending on a restaurant. I did ten 0:13:04.960 --> 0:13:08.040 years in French. I was classically Frinds trained, working at 0:13:08.080 --> 0:13:11.680 restaurants like you know, Cafe dis Artis and with Jean 0:13:11.720 --> 0:13:14.000 George and restaurant Danielle. But those are all like little 0:13:14.040 --> 0:13:16.840 six months stints I just wanted to learn a little 0:13:16.880 --> 0:13:18.839 bit from all of these great chefs, and knowing that 0:13:19.080 --> 0:13:21.040 my foundation later on, I was still gonna use a 0:13:21.040 --> 0:13:23.640 little bit of what they taught me. And then after 0:13:23.760 --> 0:13:26.400 Cafe des Artis, I got an opportunity to become an 0:13:26.400 --> 0:13:30.520 executive chef at the age of twenty two and west Chester, 0:13:30.640 --> 0:13:33.719 Westchester White Place. Yeah, we're Antipasti was the name of 0:13:33.760 --> 0:13:36.280 the restaurant Anti Pasti and it was an Italian restaurant. 0:13:36.320 --> 0:13:38.160 I'm like, shit, I don't even do Italian food. Why 0:13:38.200 --> 0:13:41.520 are you even offering me this job? Twenty two years old? 0:13:41.559 --> 0:13:43.880 And there was a guy shout out to Orlando Santana. 0:13:43.920 --> 0:13:45.720 I don't know where you are, but thank you, my man, 0:13:45.840 --> 0:13:48.079 because if it wasn't for you, I would have continued 0:13:48.080 --> 0:13:50.880 to doubt myself. And he told me, I remember, I said, 0:13:51.080 --> 0:13:52.480 how am I gonna be a chef at twenty two? 0:13:52.480 --> 0:13:54.760 I'm gonna need to know all the answers that the 0:13:54.760 --> 0:13:58.720 guys are gonna ask me. He's like, dummy, You're gonna 0:13:58.760 --> 0:14:00.520 know the answers because it's gonna be your food. And 0:14:00.600 --> 0:14:03.280 I said, ship, this guy's right, all right, let's do it. 0:14:03.800 --> 0:14:04.599 And it was. 0:14:04.760 --> 0:14:07.240 It was a memorable experience. I was a chef at 0:14:07.280 --> 0:14:09.280 twenty two. I saw my name on the menu for 0:14:09.320 --> 0:14:12.280 the first time, and I learned how to do Italian 0:14:12.360 --> 0:14:14.920 food thanks to the Sioux chef that was there. I 0:14:15.040 --> 0:14:18.960 inherited John. I don't remember his last name, but John 0:14:19.040 --> 0:14:21.120 was amazing at Anti Posty. We're friends on Facebook. I'm 0:14:21.120 --> 0:14:23.120 gonna send you a message and tell you to listen 0:14:23.160 --> 0:14:25.080 to this. But John, he taught me how to make pizza. 0:14:25.160 --> 0:14:27.080 He taught me how to do fresh pasta, and he 0:14:27.160 --> 0:14:29.680 taught me that his secret was putting some truffle oil 0:14:29.720 --> 0:14:31.360 and chocolate cake. And still to this day, I do that. 0:14:31.920 --> 0:14:34.160 So when people ask me what's different about my chocolate cake, 0:14:34.200 --> 0:14:35.520 I'm like, I can't tell you, but I just thought 0:14:35.680 --> 0:14:39.360 about that truffle so so so so. 0:14:39.520 --> 0:14:41.640 Like all right, because you're you're you're you're in a 0:14:41.680 --> 0:14:44.480 different market than like, uh, you're in a high end 0:14:44.560 --> 0:14:48.000 market like going to your education and working in like 0:14:48.080 --> 0:14:52.040 a New York City or LA cities like that. How 0:14:52.200 --> 0:14:54.800 how much money do chefs get paid? Like top the 0:14:54.920 --> 0:14:57.840 top chef, the shoe chef, the prep like it. 0:14:57.840 --> 0:15:00.360 All depends because even my even me, I'll tell you 0:15:00.400 --> 0:15:02.520 when I made. My most money was as an executive chef. 0:15:02.600 --> 0:15:04.600 Was when I was twenty two years old and I 0:15:04.640 --> 0:15:06.600 was making one hundred and fifty grand and I made 0:15:06.680 --> 0:15:08.840 them pay me because I was leaving New York City 0:15:08.960 --> 0:15:11.440 right so, and west chef made so I made that 0:15:11.480 --> 0:15:14.240 money in west Chester. I left Gotham. I left Cafe 0:15:14.320 --> 0:15:17.480 des Artist because the general manager at that restaurant was 0:15:17.520 --> 0:15:19.760 going to go to be the general manager at Anti Pasty, 0:15:20.280 --> 0:15:22.080 and he took me with me, and I said, this 0:15:22.200 --> 0:15:24.280 is what I want to leave. Because of course at 0:15:24.320 --> 0:15:27.400 that time, I was like, I live in Queens. At 0:15:27.400 --> 0:15:30.040 that point, I was living where is whit I gotta 0:15:30.040 --> 0:15:31.880 take Metro North. I've never done that in my life. 0:15:32.120 --> 0:15:33.600 I got to pay two hundred dollars a month for 0:15:33.640 --> 0:15:35.480 a train ticket. I'm like, I need to allocate all 0:15:35.560 --> 0:15:38.920 these things into my salary. But I got a reality 0:15:39.000 --> 0:15:42.800 check right away when I left Antipasti and I came 0:15:43.000 --> 0:15:46.240 back to the city, and I knew that taking a 0:15:46.280 --> 0:15:48.160 step back sometimes you got to take a couple secs 0:15:48.200 --> 0:15:51.080 back to move forward. So here I am twenty four 0:15:51.160 --> 0:15:53.280 years old. The reason I left Antipasti was because the 0:15:53.320 --> 0:15:56.560 restaurant was going out of business because of things that 0:15:56.680 --> 0:15:58.760 happened previous to me arriving there. There was just no 0:15:58.880 --> 0:16:02.080 fixing that, and they went to court and the judge 0:16:02.200 --> 0:16:06.160 ordered that the company get dismantled and everybody sell their shares. 0:16:06.920 --> 0:16:08.720 So to me, it was another learning step. You know, 0:16:08.800 --> 0:16:10.920 I was an executive chef. Here, I am twenty four 0:16:11.000 --> 0:16:13.400 years old coming to New York City trying to apply 0:16:13.480 --> 0:16:15.440 for all these executive chef jobs, and everybody was like, 0:16:15.440 --> 0:16:17.480 who is this kid? Like, why is he here? We're 0:16:17.520 --> 0:16:18.520 looking for an executive chef. 0:16:18.600 --> 0:16:19.840 Yeah, I mean they looking at you as a kid 0:16:19.920 --> 0:16:24.040 because most guys that exactly chefs are thirty five forty. 0:16:24.160 --> 0:16:26.840 Yeah. Nowadays you have different types of chefs, you know, 0:16:27.000 --> 0:16:29.800 so you see the inspirational people that you know, there 0:16:29.840 --> 0:16:32.000 was a movie called Chef Flynn where there's this kid 0:16:32.040 --> 0:16:34.360 who was fifteen years old and you know, he learned 0:16:34.400 --> 0:16:37.920 by reading books and watching YouTube and he literally has 0:16:37.960 --> 0:16:40.480 his own restaurant at like twenty two years old downtown 0:16:40.520 --> 0:16:42.680 in New York City. So like, I'm inspired by that story. 0:16:42.960 --> 0:16:44.640 And I remember reading that story while I was at 0:16:44.720 --> 0:16:46.680 La Marina and he came out front page of the 0:16:46.720 --> 0:16:48.360 New York Times. I'm like, there's no way that this 0:16:48.480 --> 0:16:50.880 kid is a chef. There's no way. I worked my 0:16:50.960 --> 0:16:53.280 ass off to go to school and work for all 0:16:53.320 --> 0:16:55.920 these chefs and he's worked for nobody and he's a chef. 0:16:56.440 --> 0:16:59.320 I went to have his food. He's a chef, so 0:16:59.400 --> 0:17:02.520 it documented it's a chef. You know. It's a whole different, 0:17:02.680 --> 0:17:05.040 the whole different perspective of what types of chefs they 0:17:05.040 --> 0:17:06.639 are nowadays, you know, like I was. I had a 0:17:06.680 --> 0:17:08.600 meeting with one of my friends last night, and she 0:17:08.800 --> 0:17:11.719 has her own meal prep service, and she doesn't want 0:17:11.760 --> 0:17:13.679 to call herself a chef. She doesn't want to buy 0:17:13.720 --> 0:17:16.399 herself a self a chef jacket. I'm like, you deserve 0:17:16.480 --> 0:17:19.399 to call yourself a chef. You do the food, you create, 0:17:19.480 --> 0:17:22.320 the menus, you taught yourself. It's okay, you're not an 0:17:22.359 --> 0:17:24.679 executive chef, but you are a chef. So that's why 0:17:24.720 --> 0:17:28.320 I say there's lots of different levels of chefs. But yeah, 0:17:28.680 --> 0:17:31.200 I learned the hard way because people were looking at me, 0:17:31.560 --> 0:17:33.960 and I was young and I was always hungry. So 0:17:34.400 --> 0:17:36.120 I just needed to get to the point of being 0:17:36.160 --> 0:17:37.840 able to cook for you. If I can cook for you, 0:17:38.000 --> 0:17:41.240 I want I already know that. So as an executive chef, 0:17:41.280 --> 0:17:43.600 if you're trying out, it's not just a resume. You 0:17:43.720 --> 0:17:46.280 have a portfolio and you do what's called the tasting. 0:17:46.400 --> 0:17:49.119 So you're offering me a job. Before we even talk numbers, 0:17:49.320 --> 0:17:50.240 we got to see what you could do. 0:17:50.440 --> 0:17:52.760 So you I mean, as the executive chef, you obviously 0:17:52.840 --> 0:17:57.000 create the menu, right, So you're doing the advertisers, the entrees, desserts. 0:17:57.280 --> 0:17:58.560 Are you also creating the pricing? 0:17:58.800 --> 0:18:00.600 You're doing the food costs here do the pricing. So 0:18:00.920 --> 0:18:03.399 you have to learn. That's why if it wasn't for 0:18:03.480 --> 0:18:06.200 culinary school, I wouldn't have known how to do food costs. 0:18:06.200 --> 0:18:09.520 I would have known what labor costs was that Yeah, 0:18:09.560 --> 0:18:12.359 So basically for you to make money, you multiply the 0:18:12.880 --> 0:18:15.560 amount of what a food costs by three. I would 0:18:15.600 --> 0:18:18.439 say higher expensive fine dining restaurants will do it by four. 0:18:18.560 --> 0:18:22.800 So for example, if it costs me to make a hamburger, right, 0:18:22.960 --> 0:18:24.760 I'm not gonna make just any hamburger. I'm gonna make 0:18:24.760 --> 0:18:26.720 sure of Calvinberger, right, so it's gonna we're gonna put 0:18:26.720 --> 0:18:29.159 it on the menu for eighteen dollars. So for me 0:18:29.280 --> 0:18:31.959 to make money, that burger cannot cost me more than 0:18:32.000 --> 0:18:35.600 six dollars. So that's the patty, the buns, the condiments, 0:18:35.680 --> 0:18:38.920 the French fries, and the labor to make that dish. 0:18:39.440 --> 0:18:41.560 So for you to make money, you'll always multiply things 0:18:41.600 --> 0:18:44.920 by three, depending on what the business is. So for 0:18:45.040 --> 0:18:47.080 you to learn about food costs, it really you have 0:18:47.160 --> 0:18:49.480 to break down how much does the four ounces of 0:18:49.520 --> 0:18:51.680 the meat cost. How much does one burger bun cost? 0:18:51.760 --> 0:18:55.480 How much does one slice of lettuce cost? Here's one tomato. 0:18:56.000 --> 0:18:58.000 How much does a case of tomato cost? And how 0:18:58.040 --> 0:18:59.800 many slices of that tomato do I get? So to 0:19:00.240 --> 0:19:02.480 break it down, it takes a lot of work to 0:19:02.520 --> 0:19:06.719 do food costs. But only the most successful people are 0:19:06.800 --> 0:19:08.040 the ones that do their food costs right. 0:19:08.240 --> 0:19:10.120 And that's that's true with any business. And I'm glad 0:19:10.160 --> 0:19:11.480 you said that because a lot of times people go 0:19:11.560 --> 0:19:14.520 into business and they just wing it. It's like I'm 0:19:14.520 --> 0:19:16.960 gonna i'm gonna charge, I'm gonna. 0:19:16.840 --> 0:19:19.040 Charge, I'm going to costco I'm going to say, and 0:19:19.080 --> 0:19:20.520 I'm just gonna charge twelve dollars. 0:19:20.920 --> 0:19:22.520 That's the fact. It's like, yeah, I'm gonna charge. 0:19:22.520 --> 0:19:24.520 Show me how you decided to charge that twelve dollars. 0:19:24.600 --> 0:19:27.560 I think people will pay fifteen dollars for this fish sandwich, 0:19:27.640 --> 0:19:30.200 so I'll charge fifteen dollars. Like it's like you wouldn't 0:19:30.200 --> 0:19:31.520 know that it cost you eight dollars to make it. 0:19:31.880 --> 0:19:34.080 It's no rhyme or reason why you're doing it. You're 0:19:34.160 --> 0:19:36.880 just winging it. And that's like I said, that's that's 0:19:37.000 --> 0:19:39.440 true in the food industry, but that's showing any industry. 0:19:39.840 --> 0:19:41.600 And it's like, you got to have a self formula 0:19:41.720 --> 0:19:44.080 to know you gotta have a profit margin. If not, 0:19:44.600 --> 0:19:45.920 screw you're gonna be in debt. 0:19:46.240 --> 0:19:49.000 Absolutely nobody wants a business that's not making money. 0:19:49.080 --> 0:19:51.119 So what else did like business side they did they 0:19:51.200 --> 0:19:51.440 teach you? 0:19:51.560 --> 0:19:54.159 And aside from food costs, labor costs, it's it's how 0:19:54.200 --> 0:19:56.520 to treat people, people management, you know. And I always 0:19:56.560 --> 0:19:58.800 joke around that on my Excuse me, I always joke 0:19:58.840 --> 0:20:01.640 around saying that on my resume, I'm a professional babysitter 0:20:02.040 --> 0:20:05.480 because you have to be able to manage people. And 0:20:05.640 --> 0:20:09.520 there's so many different personalities, there's so many different people, 0:20:09.520 --> 0:20:11.520 how people were raised, how people grew up in what 0:20:11.680 --> 0:20:14.520 restaurants they grew up. And this is my best advice is, 0:20:14.720 --> 0:20:17.040 if you want to be Greek, surround yourself by greatness. 0:20:17.560 --> 0:20:19.639 Surround yourself by people that you aspire to be like. 0:20:19.760 --> 0:20:22.400 Surround yourself by people that you want to be better 0:20:22.480 --> 0:20:25.880 than in a sense of greatness. And that's why I've 0:20:25.880 --> 0:20:27.760 worked for all these great people, and I learned how 0:20:27.800 --> 0:20:31.720 to manage people because I always treated people with respect. 0:20:31.760 --> 0:20:34.200 There was a restaurant that I worked at in the 0:20:34.280 --> 0:20:37.639 beginning of high school years where my weekends, instead of 0:20:37.680 --> 0:20:40.040 playing baseball with my friends, I'm here at a restaurant, 0:20:40.160 --> 0:20:42.440 volunteering my time just so I can learn and know 0:20:42.600 --> 0:20:44.600 to make sure that if I want to go through 0:20:44.680 --> 0:20:47.359 this career before I go to culinary school, before I 0:20:47.520 --> 0:20:51.520 signed that forty thousand dollars Sally may loan, do I 0:20:51.640 --> 0:20:53.920 want to be in the restaurant business. So I volunteered 0:20:53.960 --> 0:20:55.520 my time. I worked at this place called the Water's 0:20:55.600 --> 0:21:00.520 Edge and Queen's and I worked for a shref who 0:21:00.720 --> 0:21:03.520 was like, you know, you've seen Gordon Ramsey. Let's put 0:21:03.560 --> 0:21:04.880 Gordon Ramsey times ten. 0:21:05.480 --> 0:21:05.680 Wow. 0:21:05.720 --> 0:21:06.960 Shout out to George Mansroth. 0:21:07.040 --> 0:21:07.359 I love you. 0:21:07.440 --> 0:21:10.720 He was like Dad number three, but he was tough man. 0:21:10.960 --> 0:21:13.440 And I was fifteen sixteen years old and I'm getting 0:21:13.480 --> 0:21:15.840 things thrown at me. I'm getting called every name in 0:21:15.880 --> 0:21:18.320 the book. The moment he found out I was Dominican 0:21:18.359 --> 0:21:19.879 and he's like, ah, that explains it all. You're a 0:21:19.920 --> 0:21:23.480 Dominican handicap And I'm like wow. And I knew what 0:21:23.600 --> 0:21:26.040 he was doing wasn't right, but to me, it made 0:21:26.080 --> 0:21:30.680 me tougher. Right. I grew to a sense of I 0:21:30.760 --> 0:21:33.320 became a man a lot faster. But I also knew 0:21:33.359 --> 0:21:36.640 that I'm not going to be that guy, no matter 0:21:36.680 --> 0:21:40.159 how talented he was and still is. I was not 0:21:40.240 --> 0:21:41.480 going to treat my staff like that. 0:21:42.200 --> 0:21:43.880 So what's what's the labor cost? 0:21:44.359 --> 0:21:46.159 So labor costs. When you come to labor costs, you 0:21:46.200 --> 0:21:49.560 think about how much money people are making per hour. 0:21:49.880 --> 0:21:53.560 And an example, there's restaurants where if you're in a 0:21:53.600 --> 0:21:55.760 hotel in corporate you're you're making a lot more. You're 0:21:55.760 --> 0:21:58.960 probably making double to what chefs and cooks normally make 0:21:59.359 --> 0:22:02.040 in restaurants. And that's just because I've had the opportunity 0:22:02.119 --> 0:22:04.720 to work in both. So let's say, for example, when 0:22:04.760 --> 0:22:06.840 I was at the Strand Hotel, it was a non 0:22:06.960 --> 0:22:09.880 unionized hotel when we first started, and I was there 0:22:09.880 --> 0:22:11.960 for about six years, and then I left to open 0:22:12.040 --> 0:22:14.200 up Blend on the Water, which is my first Latin restaurant. 0:22:15.240 --> 0:22:19.320 And then after that the Marriotte Vacation Club company came 0:22:19.400 --> 0:22:21.399 in bought it out, and when I got there, I 0:22:21.480 --> 0:22:23.040 came back and I saw it in a way is 0:22:23.400 --> 0:22:25.159 I don't ever like to go back to something. But 0:22:25.240 --> 0:22:27.080 for me it was like, what it's corporate now. It 0:22:27.160 --> 0:22:29.680 went from a small Boutiko hotel to the Marriotte. Maybe 0:22:29.760 --> 0:22:31.600 this is what's right for me. Maybe I do want 0:22:31.640 --> 0:22:33.320 to be a corporate chef. Maybe I want to be 0:22:33.359 --> 0:22:36.200 able to have my food in multiple Marriotts. But when 0:22:36.240 --> 0:22:38.040 I got there, all of a sudden, the dishwasher who 0:22:38.080 --> 0:22:39.920 was making ten dollars an hours now making twenty dollars 0:22:39.920 --> 0:22:42.160 an hour. The line cook who was making seventeen dollars 0:22:42.160 --> 0:22:44.000 an hour and now was making twenty seven dollars an hour. 0:22:44.520 --> 0:22:48.000 So now it's like I can't have a successful kitchen 0:22:48.119 --> 0:22:50.399 doing the food that I do because now I can 0:22:50.440 --> 0:22:52.920 only have one dishwasher. Now I can only have two cooks, 0:22:53.000 --> 0:22:53.360 not four. 0:22:54.160 --> 0:22:56.040 Or cuts into your margin, cuts. 0:22:55.840 --> 0:22:57.520 Into my margin because at the end of the day, 0:22:57.560 --> 0:23:00.960 your labor costs has to be think about this, there's 0:23:01.000 --> 0:23:03.359 one hundred percent, right. Your food cost has to be 0:23:03.480 --> 0:23:06.000 under thirty percent, right, Your labor costs has to be 0:23:06.119 --> 0:23:09.879 under let's say twenty percent, twenty to twenty five percent. 0:23:10.280 --> 0:23:12.800 Then you have to think about liquor costs under eighteen 0:23:12.840 --> 0:23:15.800 percent because all this is cutting into your profit. Then 0:23:15.840 --> 0:23:20.360 you think about rent, you think about electricity, water, You're 0:23:20.400 --> 0:23:22.600 left with like ten percent at the end of the day. 0:23:23.119 --> 0:23:26.600 So the more that I save on food labor is 0:23:26.640 --> 0:23:28.440 the more money that gets into the pocket of the business. 0:23:28.520 --> 0:23:30.840 That's a typical profit margin for restaurants ten percent. 0:23:30.880 --> 0:23:32.560 It's something that's why a lot of restaurants go out 0:23:32.600 --> 0:23:35.000 of business. There were times where I saw where we 0:23:35.119 --> 0:23:39.680 made two point two million dollars and after all expenses, 0:23:39.760 --> 0:23:41.680 we came home with two hundred thousand dollars. 0:23:42.119 --> 0:23:43.719 To two point We did an episode with a restaurant 0:23:43.720 --> 0:23:46.399 owner in Baltimore, shot with Derek Falcon, and his thing 0:23:46.520 --> 0:23:48.600 was a unique strategy that he has. We only uses 0:23:48.760 --> 0:23:51.879 mixed use properties for his thing because he gets the 0:23:51.960 --> 0:23:56.080 rent from people that live upstairs and his subsidized It 0:23:56.200 --> 0:23:58.920 takes less pressure off of him hit the restaurant. He 0:23:58.960 --> 0:23:59.920 you feel aboute hundred percent. 0:24:00.119 --> 0:24:03.000 It's smart. You're finding ways to make more money in 0:24:03.080 --> 0:24:03.440 your pocket. 0:24:04.640 --> 0:24:06.320 No, I was gonna say another thing. He doesn't open 0:24:06.359 --> 0:24:06.719 every day. 0:24:06.840 --> 0:24:09.320 Yeah, you don't have to open every day people. People 0:24:09.320 --> 0:24:12.200 are so afraid of Granted, I see the mentality of 0:24:12.640 --> 0:24:15.080 the day that the moments that we're closed are opportunities 0:24:15.119 --> 0:24:16.720 to make money. Yeah, that's also opportunities for you to 0:24:16.800 --> 0:24:20.520 lose money. It's okay to have Monday Tuesday off. Guess what, 0:24:20.720 --> 0:24:23.119 Now you have a staff that's happy because everybody has 0:24:23.160 --> 0:24:26.960 two days off consecutively. This is a business where you know, 0:24:27.119 --> 0:24:28.880 I'm grateful when I get two days off in a row. 0:24:28.960 --> 0:24:30.359 But now I'm at a point where I make my 0:24:30.400 --> 0:24:32.280 own schedule. But I'm also a hustler. I also love 0:24:32.320 --> 0:24:35.119 money and I also love working, so I I this 0:24:35.240 --> 0:24:36.680 is busy season for me. I'm lucky if I have 0:24:36.720 --> 0:24:38.520 three days off this month, you know. But I also 0:24:38.560 --> 0:24:42.040 take the whole month of January off, so there's there's 0:24:42.600 --> 0:24:45.439 It works out pretty well, right, nice, It works out 0:24:45.480 --> 0:24:47.119 pretty well. And I also I also take off two 0:24:47.160 --> 0:24:49.440 weeks from my birthday in July. So it's the heat 0:24:49.480 --> 0:24:50.760 of the business. But at the end of the day, 0:24:51.040 --> 0:24:53.080 I put myself in a position where I deserve that, 0:24:53.080 --> 0:24:56.119 and I earned that. But again, you earn your leisure. 0:24:56.359 --> 0:24:58.399 But again, other than that, you see me hustling every 0:24:58.440 --> 0:25:00.359 single day. If you follow me on Instagram, you know 0:25:00.480 --> 0:25:03.159 that I'm always working. Whether it's doing a video on 0:25:03.240 --> 0:25:06.960 YouTube now, whether it's speaking at a high school or 0:25:07.640 --> 0:25:11.240 an elementary school, it's me at last Lap, or it's 0:25:11.280 --> 0:25:13.240 me doing a private dinner for twenty or doing a 0:25:13.280 --> 0:25:14.919 private dinner for ten, or doing an event for one 0:25:15.000 --> 0:25:18.240 hundred and fifty people. So I'm grateful that because of 0:25:18.320 --> 0:25:20.440 what I do, I do so many dope different things 0:25:20.480 --> 0:25:21.280 on a regular basis. 0:25:21.359 --> 0:25:23.200 Well, that leads us right into our next segment. We're 0:25:23.200 --> 0:25:25.159 going to talk about some entrepreneurial stuff that you do, 0:25:25.320 --> 0:25:28.639 and yeah take it from there. All right, So now 0:25:28.680 --> 0:25:30.920 we're going to go into the second segment, and I 0:25:31.000 --> 0:25:33.320 wanted to just talk about a couple of things that 0:25:33.520 --> 0:25:36.600 we spoke about off camera. You talked about you did 0:25:36.680 --> 0:25:39.800 the pop up dinners that became wildly successful, right, Yeah, 0:25:39.880 --> 0:25:40.520 can you talk about that? 0:25:40.680 --> 0:25:40.840 Yeah? 0:25:40.880 --> 0:25:43.200 Absolutely, It's one of those things like I'm getting goosebumps 0:25:43.200 --> 0:25:45.199 now because I got another pop up dinner that's coming up. 0:25:45.280 --> 0:25:50.720 On the nineteenth and the twentieth of December. But we 0:25:50.800 --> 0:25:53.200 got into that because of not being in a restaurant 0:25:53.280 --> 0:25:56.040 on a regular basis, my demand was hired. The only 0:25:56.080 --> 0:25:57.320 way that you can have my food is by you 0:25:57.359 --> 0:25:59.080 booking me. So it's kind of me like forcing. The 0:25:59.160 --> 0:26:02.200 other hand, it's like you want my food, you booked me, 0:26:02.640 --> 0:26:05.200 and I'm not gonna lie. What I do with food 0:26:05.640 --> 0:26:08.280 changes the way that you see food. For example, if 0:26:08.320 --> 0:26:10.200 you have my mac and cheese, you'll never see mac 0:26:10.240 --> 0:26:13.000 and cheese again unless it's my mac and cheese, because 0:26:13.040 --> 0:26:14.600 every time you take a bite of someone else's mac 0:26:14.640 --> 0:26:15.920 and cheese, like damn, it's good, but this is not 0:26:16.040 --> 0:26:18.920 Kelvin's what do you do with the Mexican and flavors? 0:26:19.000 --> 0:26:21.040 And like I'm slidated now. 0:26:21.320 --> 0:26:23.479 I'm thinking about this man. Were you about to put 0:26:23.520 --> 0:26:25.520 a new standing man all chefs restaurants? 0:26:25.640 --> 0:26:26.639 Ye gotta bring food with you. 0:26:26.760 --> 0:26:28.399 You should have told me something happened. 0:26:28.400 --> 0:26:29.600 Now you brought something else that we go to talk 0:26:29.600 --> 0:26:30.400 about something. 0:26:31.000 --> 0:26:33.159 I can never come in empty handy. I always introduced 0:26:33.160 --> 0:26:35.040 myself with food, but today introduce myself with something else. 0:26:35.040 --> 0:26:37.200 Were talking about you the only way that they could 0:26:37.400 --> 0:26:39.359 eat your food is my bookingt Yeah, that was the 0:26:39.440 --> 0:26:41.280 only one. So what restaurant were you are at that time? 0:26:41.400 --> 0:26:43.520 At that time, I wasn't at a restaurant because the 0:26:43.560 --> 0:26:47.879 first time that it was twenty eighteen where the Marriot 0:26:47.960 --> 0:26:51.239 Vacation company closed down. They just decided they didn't want 0:26:51.240 --> 0:26:53.399 a restaurant. No matter how successful the restaurant was, we 0:26:53.480 --> 0:26:55.800 weren't making money. And the reason we weren't making money 0:26:55.840 --> 0:26:57.720 because the labor was too high and there was nothing 0:26:57.760 --> 0:26:59.879 I could do. I was on the line, and that's 0:27:00.000 --> 0:27:02.600 something when on the line means I was actually cooking 0:27:02.680 --> 0:27:06.000 the food. That's a line cook's job, you know what 0:27:06.080 --> 0:27:08.920 I mean. As a chef, I'm creating the menu. I'm 0:27:08.960 --> 0:27:10.840 teaching the line cooks how to do food like me. 0:27:10.960 --> 0:27:12.960 And that's what I think makes me a little bit 0:27:13.000 --> 0:27:16.720 successful on the end where I really take into consideration 0:27:17.560 --> 0:27:19.879 the teaching part. I love to teach, Right, So if 0:27:19.960 --> 0:27:22.720 you're one of my employees and we got a new menu, 0:27:23.640 --> 0:27:25.720 me and you are gonna cook samon side by side 0:27:25.800 --> 0:27:26.520 for two weeks, traight. 0:27:26.680 --> 0:27:29.120 Yeah. So in my mind, I mean, I work with kids, 0:27:29.160 --> 0:27:31.600 so I'm thinking like the line cooker is like the Minion. 0:27:32.000 --> 0:27:37.360 Yeah, absolutely, they absolutely are, and they're only as good 0:27:37.400 --> 0:27:41.159 as how you train them. So and I'm grateful that 0:27:41.400 --> 0:27:43.399 everybody that's been a part of my team is just 0:27:44.119 --> 0:27:46.239 now like ten years later, five years later, even two 0:27:46.320 --> 0:27:48.520 years later, Like I'll take the biggest example was Lomarino. 0:27:48.560 --> 0:27:51.240 Lomrino was one of the best teams that I've ever 0:27:51.359 --> 0:27:54.040 assembled in my entire life. And I'll say that because 0:27:54.760 --> 0:27:58.000 it was such a big team, so many different personalities, 0:27:58.359 --> 0:28:00.959 so many talented chefs that are all executive chefs now, 0:28:01.080 --> 0:28:04.399 like Trill Cooker is chef Jose de Hissu's one of 0:28:04.440 --> 0:28:06.359 my road dogs. This guy has been with me for 0:28:06.400 --> 0:28:09.080 about four years and he has his own pop up 0:28:09.119 --> 0:28:12.440 dinners in his home. Like he does infuse cannabis dinners 0:28:12.440 --> 0:28:14.560 as well. He does. He comes on the road with 0:28:14.600 --> 0:28:16.120 me when I need to go to jal and A Rods. 0:28:16.760 --> 0:28:18.200 So yeah, I want to talk about the pop because 0:28:18.240 --> 0:28:20.840 that's interested for a few different reasons. So you all right, 0:28:20.920 --> 0:28:23.119 so you built the following on social media at the 0:28:23.400 --> 0:28:24.160 time already. 0:28:24.359 --> 0:28:27.159 Yeah, thanks for doing the food shows, doing Food Network, 0:28:27.240 --> 0:28:28.040 doing b Bobby Flay. 0:28:28.119 --> 0:28:31.639 That also helps out, Yeah for sure, So so so 0:28:32.040 --> 0:28:33.760 the pop up. Can we get back to that, because 0:28:33.800 --> 0:28:35.000 that's an interesting business model. 0:28:35.040 --> 0:28:36.600 So the pop up. The reason we did the pop 0:28:36.680 --> 0:28:38.920 up was because we wanted to do something once a month, 0:28:38.960 --> 0:28:40.920 whether it was a pop up event where it was 0:28:41.040 --> 0:28:44.080 like friends Giving, we sold tickets online, they sold out 0:28:44.120 --> 0:28:45.760 in one day. We're like, okay, this is this is 0:28:45.800 --> 0:28:49.280 We're on to something. So the friends Giving was around Thanksgiving, 0:28:49.480 --> 0:28:53.920 we would do almost like we run out Aloft. We'll 0:28:54.040 --> 0:28:56.600 invite one hundred people. You buy tickets online, you get 0:28:56.760 --> 0:28:59.240 food catered by meat whether it was pastor derves, plus 0:28:59.320 --> 0:29:03.600 an actual I'm always fancy, so we did like the 0:29:03.720 --> 0:29:06.080 first meal was an actual Thanksgiving meal. You get turkey, 0:29:06.120 --> 0:29:09.200 caramelized Brussels sprouts, stuffing and gravy. And then the next 0:29:09.240 --> 0:29:11.760 meal would be like something Latin like Beni, which is 0:29:11.840 --> 0:29:16.400 like a roasted pork with mac and cheese and something else. 0:29:16.480 --> 0:29:17.920 And then of course you get my ad airbus. It's 0:29:17.960 --> 0:29:19.440 not an event if my at eppas are not there, 0:29:19.760 --> 0:29:21.960 and if people walk into the building and they see me, 0:29:22.280 --> 0:29:24.960 the first question is are we having at airbus And 0:29:25.040 --> 0:29:26.800 it has to be yes. Sometimes people don't book me 0:29:26.840 --> 0:29:28.680 for at appus and I tell them if they're yelling 0:29:28.680 --> 0:29:30.640 at me. I'm appointing them to your direction. You're taking 0:29:30.680 --> 0:29:33.000 that hit, not me. So I learned that the pop 0:29:33.120 --> 0:29:36.040 up thing was was such a big demand because already 0:29:36.080 --> 0:29:38.520 I'm not giving you the luxury to have my food 0:29:38.520 --> 0:29:40.280 on a regular basis. So every time I did a 0:29:40.320 --> 0:29:42.640 different pop up, we wanted to do like a tacos 0:29:42.680 --> 0:29:44.880 and tequila, so we'd run out. There would be summertime, 0:29:44.920 --> 0:29:47.400 we run out a rooftop and do a dope event 0:29:47.480 --> 0:29:50.760 like that. And then I started noticing that I wanted 0:29:50.800 --> 0:29:54.160 to do more of a sit down experience. So Valentine's 0:29:54.200 --> 0:29:56.040 Day was like the first time that we did. We 0:29:56.120 --> 0:29:59.480 rented out of place in Modhaven. It was called Motley Kitchen, 0:29:59.520 --> 0:30:03.200 which is known for being a restaurant. It's just a bakery, 0:30:03.440 --> 0:30:05.280 and out of that bakery they do catering. So I 0:30:05.320 --> 0:30:08.320 rented out the spot. We did fifty people, three nights 0:30:08.320 --> 0:30:12.880 in a row, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, sold out. And then 0:30:12.920 --> 0:30:15.400 from that moment on, I was just like, people will 0:30:15.440 --> 0:30:16.959 follow me wherever wherever I am. 0:30:17.040 --> 0:30:18.640 So how much money when you making off the pop ups? 0:30:18.720 --> 0:30:20.680 Off the pop ups, Let's say that's when I would 0:30:20.720 --> 0:30:23.400 be making it depends on location. It depends on the 0:30:23.480 --> 0:30:25.400 rent of the venue. At the end of the day, 0:30:25.480 --> 0:30:28.160 I always try to make twenty five percent to thirty 0:30:28.160 --> 0:30:30.239 percent profit compared to like what we talked about ten 0:30:30.280 --> 0:30:32.840 percent profit in a restaurant. How many people are going 0:30:32.880 --> 0:30:35.320 with you? How many to do an event, depending on 0:30:35.360 --> 0:30:38.080 the size. So for that I had three cooks. I 0:30:38.240 --> 0:30:41.040 had a host, which was my best friend. Shout out 0:30:41.080 --> 0:30:43.680 to Eric. This guy has become like my manager, my assistant, 0:30:43.880 --> 0:30:47.080 my brother. But I also give him luck because he 0:30:47.120 --> 0:30:48.960 got to be in some do commercials with me too, 0:30:49.080 --> 0:30:51.360 So he was a host. 0:30:51.480 --> 0:30:51.960 I had. 0:30:53.320 --> 0:30:55.000 Three servers, so I would say a team of about 0:30:55.120 --> 0:30:57.640 less than ten, but about seven to eight people. But 0:30:57.760 --> 0:31:00.000 depending on the on the event, Like I have another 0:31:00.080 --> 0:31:02.640 the event that we did with the NFL Amazon and 0:31:02.760 --> 0:31:05.360 we had a team of fourteen people. It all depends 0:31:05.440 --> 0:31:08.400 on what we need to produces as a team. And me, 0:31:08.520 --> 0:31:10.720 I'm so hands on, so I'm always still cooking. I 0:31:10.760 --> 0:31:12.360 need to learn sometime to take a step back and 0:31:12.440 --> 0:31:14.240 let the team make me proud like they like they 0:31:14.280 --> 0:31:14.680 always do. 0:31:14.800 --> 0:31:17.120 So like the event in my haven, because I'm interested, 0:31:17.160 --> 0:31:18.640 I'm going through with this, Like how much would you 0:31:18.680 --> 0:31:19.040 say so. 0:31:19.120 --> 0:31:21.440 We charge one hundred and fifty dollars per person, fifty 0:31:21.520 --> 0:31:24.000 people per night, which was like, let's say, forty five 0:31:24.080 --> 0:31:27.440 hundred dollars. And then after that we paid one thousand 0:31:27.520 --> 0:31:30.440 dollars for the venue for three days, or it was 0:31:30.480 --> 0:31:32.720 like sixteen hundred for three days. Because we got it 0:31:32.760 --> 0:31:35.520 three days consecutive. It was a deal. And I mean, 0:31:35.560 --> 0:31:38.120 I'm a negotiator. I will negotiate to as much because 0:31:38.160 --> 0:31:39.400 I guess at the end of the day, I learned 0:31:39.520 --> 0:31:41.320 if you don't ask, you'll never know, right. So if 0:31:41.360 --> 0:31:42.840 you're charging me five hundred dolls per day, I'm like, 0:31:42.840 --> 0:31:44.320 can you give me four hundred per day? And I'll 0:31:44.320 --> 0:31:45.920 give you three dates in a row instead of just 0:31:46.200 --> 0:31:48.800 one event, so on and so forth. So you need 0:31:48.840 --> 0:31:50.640 to be able to learn how to talk, learn how 0:31:50.680 --> 0:31:52.800 to negotiate, and at the end of the day you 0:31:53.000 --> 0:31:55.320 offer a barter. You know, I'm very big on barters, 0:31:55.320 --> 0:31:56.720 where I'm like, okay, if you give it to me 0:31:56.800 --> 0:31:58.760 at this price, I'll give you two tickets to the 0:31:58.800 --> 0:32:01.800 event as well. So you need to be able to 0:32:01.880 --> 0:32:05.040 learn how to work with people. I was fortunate enough 0:32:05.080 --> 0:32:07.080 that my partner for this event, he was great on 0:32:07.200 --> 0:32:09.920 getting liquor sponsors because that is where and the reason 0:32:09.960 --> 0:32:11.880 why we made money, because if I had to put 0:32:11.920 --> 0:32:13.600 out on the pocket for liquor. 0:32:13.880 --> 0:32:15.160 That's gonna kill us. 0:32:15.200 --> 0:32:17.040 Yeah, so we're already paying for food, we're already paying 0:32:17.040 --> 0:32:19.320 for a venue, we're ready paying for staff. Take off 0:32:19.440 --> 0:32:21.800 that liquor, and that's the money that we're making. So 0:32:22.240 --> 0:32:24.800 that again, not every event that I do, I get 0:32:24.800 --> 0:32:26.440 a liquor sponsor, but I try to. 0:32:26.880 --> 0:32:29.120 Okay, it's like five thousand profit. 0:32:29.280 --> 0:32:32.200 Out of three days, five five thousand profits split between 0:32:32.360 --> 0:32:32.960 me and my partner. 0:32:33.160 --> 0:32:35.040 Okay, so yeah, the reason why. So it's like twenty 0:32:35.040 --> 0:32:37.400 five hundred dollars, let's just say so. But that's not 0:32:37.520 --> 0:32:42.800 bad for its weekend. It's all about creativity. So it's 0:32:42.920 --> 0:32:45.640 like a lot of times, if you're not familiar with 0:32:45.840 --> 0:32:49.200 New York City, mont Haven, South Bronx, SOUTHROX, South Rox 0:32:49.280 --> 0:32:51.080 not really the best neighborhood. 0:32:50.800 --> 0:32:53.200 But up and coming. Yeah, it's a good thing to 0:32:53.280 --> 0:32:56.400 buy something now because yeah, it's good. It's gonna be big, 0:32:57.160 --> 0:32:58.840 it's gonna be big Frenchy. 0:32:59.040 --> 0:33:02.440 So so there's a few different lessons in that. I 0:33:02.560 --> 0:33:08.520 think exclusivity is very important, and it's like people the more. 0:33:08.600 --> 0:33:12.160 Sometimes the more you make yourself available, you devalue yourself. 0:33:12.160 --> 0:33:14.280 It's like Supreme the clothing line, right it's like people 0:33:14.280 --> 0:33:16.520 will play it, pay a thousand dollars for it because 0:33:17.120 --> 0:33:19.280 you can't get it. It's not easy to get right 0:33:19.440 --> 0:33:21.560 even like with the marathon clothes right now, rest in 0:33:21.600 --> 0:33:24.240 peace in it. But it's like people is lined up 0:33:24.280 --> 0:33:26.400 around the corner for that pop up store because you 0:33:26.480 --> 0:33:28.720 can't really get the clothes, Like it's hard to really 0:33:28.760 --> 0:33:32.240 get right now. Four So you by you making yourself 0:33:32.320 --> 0:33:33.960 like the pop ups like once a month. However you 0:33:34.080 --> 0:33:36.440 was doing it. It's like now it's the whole event 0:33:36.840 --> 0:33:39.520 as opposed to just having a mom and pop shop. 0:33:39.600 --> 0:33:41.320 You're just selling food every day. It's like they just 0:33:41.360 --> 0:33:43.720 walk past you. You come out once a month, and 0:33:44.480 --> 0:33:46.120 you got to be creative. So it's like you didn't 0:33:46.120 --> 0:33:48.760 pick the most expensive real estate in New York City. 0:33:49.040 --> 0:33:52.480 You picked the hood and I'm. 0:33:52.320 --> 0:33:54.600 Not afraid to pick them. There's times where, like the 0:33:54.720 --> 0:33:57.400 event that we're doing on nineteenth and the twentieth, we 0:33:57.760 --> 0:34:01.320 paid prime dollar for thirty seven Street between eighth and ninth, 0:34:01.440 --> 0:34:02.560 you know, But at the end of the day, it 0:34:02.560 --> 0:34:04.840 depends on the event that we're doing, and of course. 0:34:04.720 --> 0:34:06.960 The network and you're at that point in your career. Yeah, 0:34:07.040 --> 0:34:09.080 but like for people that's just starting out, a lot 0:34:09.120 --> 0:34:11.800 of times it's like they feel intimidated. But it's like 0:34:12.000 --> 0:34:13.640 work with the resources that you have. 0:34:13.840 --> 0:34:15.560 I think that's so important that you're saying that, because 0:34:15.600 --> 0:34:18.799 you have to be able to no budgets. Like you said, 0:34:18.840 --> 0:34:20.839 you're not going to be successful if you're breaking even 0:34:20.880 --> 0:34:23.000 You're not going to be successful if you're not charging 0:34:23.040 --> 0:34:23.760 the right prices. 0:34:23.800 --> 0:34:23.880 You know. 0:34:24.000 --> 0:34:25.800 Of course I wasn't able to charge one hundred and 0:34:25.840 --> 0:34:28.040 fifty dollars if this was ten years ago for me 0:34:28.160 --> 0:34:30.080 and my bread and who I am now. But with 0:34:30.239 --> 0:34:33.400 the accolades and with the awards and constantly winning, you know, 0:34:33.560 --> 0:34:35.200 an award after an award, and the people that I 0:34:35.280 --> 0:34:37.720 cook for, it is vouching for itself. And I always 0:34:37.760 --> 0:34:39.520 joke around and I say, my food is all hype 0:34:39.840 --> 0:34:41.480 until you finally experience it yourself. 0:34:41.880 --> 0:34:42.120 Yeah. 0:34:42.239 --> 0:34:43.560 And I was just telling I was telling one of 0:34:43.600 --> 0:34:45.239 my friends this the other day because you're talking about 0:34:45.280 --> 0:34:50.080 like a business and we was talking. Actually Jamal actually 0:34:50.080 --> 0:34:52.440 said it originally and I relayed the message. And it's 0:34:52.480 --> 0:34:54.759 like the business is only going to bring like, let's say, 0:34:54.800 --> 0:34:57.400 like two thousand a month, And at first I'm like, 0:34:57.920 --> 0:35:00.760 it's not worth it, like that's two thousand, But then. 0:35:02.440 --> 0:35:04.680 This episode is brought to you by P and C Bank. 0:35:05.080 --> 0:35:07.800 A lot of people think podcasts about work are boring, 0:35:08.080 --> 0:35:11.880 and sure they definitely can be, but understanding a professionals 0:35:12.000 --> 0:35:15.200 routine shows us how they achieve their success little by little, 0:35:15.640 --> 0:35:19.239 day after day. It's like banking with P and C Bank. 0:35:19.760 --> 0:35:22.520 It might seem boring to save, plan and make calculated 0:35:22.560 --> 0:35:25.640 decisions with your bank, but keeping your money boring is 0:35:25.719 --> 0:35:28.960 what helps you live or more happily fulfilled life. P 0:35:29.160 --> 0:35:33.960 and C Bank Brilliantly Boring since eighteen sixty five. Brilliantly 0:35:34.040 --> 0:35:36.640 Boring since eighteen sixty five is a service mark of 0:35:36.680 --> 0:35:39.879 the PNC Financial Service Group, Inc. P and C Bank 0:35:40.360 --> 0:35:43.080 National Association Member FDIC. 0:35:45.680 --> 0:35:46.319 Erness What's Up? 0:35:46.400 --> 0:35:49.400 You ever walk into a small business and everything just works, 0:35:49.840 --> 0:35:53.120 Like the checkout is fast, the receipts are digital, tipping 0:35:53.360 --> 0:35:55.800 is a breeze, and you're out the door before the 0:35:55.880 --> 0:36:00.239 line even builds. Odds are they're using Square? 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What about a home office 0:37:17.200 --> 0:37:19.719 shop everything you need for your next phase with valve 0:37:19.760 --> 0:37:22.440 spar available at Low's price varies by. 0:37:22.400 --> 0:37:24.759 She but I'm like thinking about it, like, well that's 0:37:24.800 --> 0:37:28.600 two thousands. Like what I said, you through that five times. 0:37:28.640 --> 0:37:31.960 Now you got ten thousands. So it's like, it's not 0:37:32.120 --> 0:37:35.239 about hitting. It's never about hitting home runs. It's never 0:37:35.360 --> 0:37:38.279 because if you play baseball, you don't swing for a 0:37:38.320 --> 0:37:40.759 home run. You swing and eventually you'll hit a home 0:37:40.840 --> 0:37:43.640 run if you're strong enough, but you don't plan to 0:37:43.680 --> 0:37:45.239 hit home run because you just strike out. It's like, 0:37:45.280 --> 0:37:48.839 it's never about home run, just about consistently building your name, 0:37:48.960 --> 0:37:52.719 building your brand. Getting two thousand a thousand Dad's up 0:37:52.760 --> 0:37:53.880 over the course at the time. A lot of time 0:37:53.920 --> 0:37:57.080 people like the going up And that's about one. That's 0:37:57.120 --> 0:37:58.480 how much you made too, because that's kind of what 0:37:58.560 --> 0:38:01.520 I figured you made. And I people cant intimidate like 0:38:01.680 --> 0:38:03.680 I got a fifty thousand for a weekend. It's like 0:38:04.080 --> 0:38:04.960 not when you first start. 0:38:04.960 --> 0:38:06.960 It's not how we're saying, like you made twenty five hundred, 0:38:07.040 --> 0:38:08.359 like that's somebody's month. 0:38:08.480 --> 0:38:10.919 Yeah, absolute right, And I've thought of that, and there's 0:38:10.920 --> 0:38:13.719 certain times where I haven't made money on events because 0:38:13.719 --> 0:38:16.320 you have to understand what is this event bringing to me? Also, 0:38:16.640 --> 0:38:18.600 is it an event that I have influencers that are 0:38:18.680 --> 0:38:22.880 going to every single person tag me in their Instagram posts? 0:38:22.880 --> 0:38:24.640 Because those are deals that I have made too, and 0:38:24.719 --> 0:38:26.879 I was afraid to make those in the past until 0:38:26.880 --> 0:38:28.960 I finally made one and I was like, holy shit, 0:38:29.000 --> 0:38:31.160 I just got fifteen hundred new followers in a day, 0:38:31.520 --> 0:38:34.560 Like how Because every single person that was there was 0:38:34.560 --> 0:38:38.920 an influencer or was in their own and their own 0:38:39.000 --> 0:38:41.160 life a start, whether it was a singer, whether it's 0:38:41.160 --> 0:38:43.200 an actress, whether it was a songwriter, whether it was 0:38:43.200 --> 0:38:46.120 an artist, whether it was a banker. They were all 0:38:46.160 --> 0:38:47.520 at the top of the game at that And when 0:38:47.520 --> 0:38:48.920 I did that event, I was like, Okay, I need 0:38:48.960 --> 0:38:49.840 to find ways that I can do. 0:38:51.120 --> 0:38:52.440 Is not a product is going to speak for itself. 0:38:52.520 --> 0:38:54.480 The product is going to speak for itself. People are posting, 0:38:54.520 --> 0:38:56.880 people are eating, they're having their reactions, and all of 0:38:56.920 --> 0:38:59.160 a sudden, out of those new fifteen hundred, guess what 0:38:59.280 --> 0:39:01.560 I just made. Some come from those people booking me. So, 0:39:01.719 --> 0:39:04.400 like you said, supplying demand and then also you have 0:39:04.480 --> 0:39:06.880 to make sure that, like you said, I'm doing an 0:39:06.920 --> 0:39:08.880 event on the nineteenth and the twentieth that's one of 0:39:08.920 --> 0:39:10.960 the most expensive events I've ever done. I'm doing a 0:39:11.040 --> 0:39:15.640 collab with griseld Vaie, which is an incredible woman, incredible voice, 0:39:15.880 --> 0:39:18.120 and we're taching one hundred and seventy five dollars per person. 0:39:18.480 --> 0:39:19.680 You know, but at the end of the day, people 0:39:19.719 --> 0:39:22.680 don't know the expense that comes into pulling off an 0:39:22.719 --> 0:39:27.040 event in New York City on thirty seven seven, where 0:39:27.040 --> 0:39:29.759 you're just buying a raw stage, a raw form, where 0:39:29.800 --> 0:39:32.120 you have to buy stage and lights. 0:39:31.960 --> 0:39:34.960 In the highlight of the holiday season and the holiday 0:39:35.000 --> 0:39:36.839 season where Christmas is in two weeks. 0:39:36.880 --> 0:39:38.759 And that's why we sold it two months ago, where 0:39:38.800 --> 0:39:41.200 we sold out again in one day. And I'm blessed 0:39:41.200 --> 0:39:44.200 to be able to say that. You said, supplying demand, 0:39:44.280 --> 0:39:46.200 if you put yourself available every single day, I'm not 0:39:46.280 --> 0:39:48.640 going to sell an event out every single day. But 0:39:48.719 --> 0:39:50.399 if we do it once a month, guess what, people 0:39:50.440 --> 0:39:52.440 talked about it for a whole month. We're posting for 0:39:52.480 --> 0:39:55.040 the next one. We're gonna do it again already. 0:39:55.160 --> 0:39:56.759 People haven't experience said that. 0:39:57.600 --> 0:40:02.120 People haven't experienced this event. And the next next that 0:40:02.280 --> 0:40:04.200 sounds like I'm so high. We haven't even done it yet. 0:40:04.320 --> 0:40:06.360 That sounds like an event that we just did in 0:40:06.480 --> 0:40:09.640 DC and the streets is we got the streets going crazy. 0:40:09.800 --> 0:40:11.400 Love that, Atlanta. Don't play yourself. 0:40:11.840 --> 0:40:12.680 Yeah, we're telling you now. 0:40:13.480 --> 0:40:14.200 I think I'm gonna come. 0:40:16.400 --> 0:40:20.279 So talk about another thing that you did, Keith. 0:40:22.400 --> 0:40:22.600 You know. 0:40:27.160 --> 0:40:32.239 Puerto Rican drink traditional Puerto Rican I would say Thanksgiving 0:40:32.360 --> 0:40:35.880 holidays like Thanksgiving, Christmas and maybe New Year's but that's 0:40:35.880 --> 0:40:36.359 a little push. 0:40:36.480 --> 0:40:42.520 That's always the gift that they give you. No give 0:40:42.600 --> 0:40:45.719 you like seventeen bottles in the free So. 0:40:45.760 --> 0:40:47.960 If you're from New York City, you know you got 0:40:48.040 --> 0:40:52.880 Boikuas Puerto Ricans, you got the minikanos. Dominicans don't do that. 0:40:53.160 --> 0:40:58.239 They're different. Don't don't ever confuse, don't ever confuse it 0:40:58.280 --> 0:41:01.680 too right. They have different cultures, different different vibes, but 0:41:01.840 --> 0:41:04.759 so many similarities for sure, Like we all do absolutely, 0:41:05.640 --> 0:41:10.480 but that particularly is a Puerto Rican. It's a Puerto 0:41:10.520 --> 0:41:13.960 Rican thing, right, So you've been a Dominican. What what 0:41:14.120 --> 0:41:14.680 made you do that? 0:41:15.239 --> 0:41:17.160 I did it as a joke. I did it as 0:41:17.200 --> 0:41:20.479 a joke. You know, kind of like for the moment, 0:41:21.280 --> 0:41:22.560 it was funny, and you know, it was one of 0:41:22.560 --> 0:41:24.240 those things where I was like, let's test the market. 0:41:24.440 --> 0:41:26.640 This is like five years ago, you know, where Chef 0:41:26.680 --> 0:41:28.480 Kelvin was finally building his brand. And I'll talking to 0:41:28.560 --> 0:41:31.360 third person now because even in the even in the streets, 0:41:31.360 --> 0:41:34.760 I'm not Kelvin anymore. Chef Calvin, your chef. I remember 0:41:34.800 --> 0:41:36.640 I was on the train once and somebody's yo, Chef. 0:41:36.680 --> 0:41:39.520 I'm like, oh shit, I made it. Somebody's calling me 0:41:39.560 --> 0:41:41.040 out on the train. I was like, damn, I can't 0:41:41.040 --> 0:41:44.239 be on the train. No more joking around, you know. 0:41:44.320 --> 0:41:47.680 But in reality, the coquito is traditional Puerto Rican. So 0:41:47.760 --> 0:41:50.520 I did it, and I'm like, let me find ways 0:41:50.560 --> 0:41:55.920 to What makes a chef unique is making something that's classic, traditional, reinvented, right. 0:41:55.960 --> 0:41:57.720 So I didn't reinvent the wheel when I made this cokey, 0:41:57.880 --> 0:41:59.759 I just made it. Mind like everybody makes it with 0:42:00.600 --> 0:42:04.160 let's make hennessy. Everybody uses these ingredients, let's use those ingredients, 0:42:04.320 --> 0:42:06.160 but let's add something else into it. I can't tell 0:42:06.160 --> 0:42:09.560 you the secret. And then again, everybody uses cinnamon. I'm 0:42:09.560 --> 0:42:14.600 gonna use exotic spices like I'm using, yeah, things that 0:42:14.640 --> 0:42:16.759 I've used in cooking, so like, that's the cool thing 0:42:16.760 --> 0:42:19.239 about it. I'm thinking of making coquito as like making 0:42:19.280 --> 0:42:21.439 a dessert for me, because in reality, it's a little 0:42:21.440 --> 0:42:25.719 bit sweet, it's thick in flavor, it's coconuty, and it's 0:42:26.600 --> 0:42:28.520 I use it for like French toast batter. Now I 0:42:28.640 --> 0:42:30.480 use it to make ice cream. I use it to 0:42:30.640 --> 0:42:32.560 let's take that to the next level. So of course 0:42:32.600 --> 0:42:34.400 when I make coquita for the first time, there's a 0:42:34.440 --> 0:42:36.520 lot of you know, people saying that's not traditional. But 0:42:36.560 --> 0:42:38.719 it's okay. I'm not looking to be traditional. I'm looking 0:42:38.760 --> 0:42:41.480 to be Chef Kelvin. So I'm making coquito. That's why 0:42:41.520 --> 0:42:43.880 my coquito says on the label Coquito by Chef Calvin. 0:42:44.200 --> 0:42:46.440 If you're looking for traditional like, I'm sure you can 0:42:46.480 --> 0:42:49.319 find those out there. And again, there's plenty of room 0:42:49.400 --> 0:42:50.600 for all of us to eat. I know, I had 0:42:50.600 --> 0:42:52.319 people hit me up on the regular, like, please don't 0:42:52.560 --> 0:42:55.400 sell your coquito in Jersey, Please don't sell your coquaito 0:42:55.760 --> 0:42:58.400 in Brooklyn, like you already do enough. I'm like, but 0:42:58.520 --> 0:43:00.759 I want more. What's the p with one? And more? 0:43:00.960 --> 0:43:02.560 So how did you get that out? 0:43:02.840 --> 0:43:04.000 I posted it on Instagram. 0:43:04.080 --> 0:43:04.160 Man. 0:43:04.200 --> 0:43:05.839 I posted on Instagram. Back then, I had like thirty 0:43:05.880 --> 0:43:08.120 thousand followers. I'm blessed to have like almost sixty seven 0:43:08.160 --> 0:43:12.200 sixty eight now. And I posted it and I said, 0:43:12.200 --> 0:43:13.840 I made it for myself. I wasn't even selling it. 0:43:14.120 --> 0:43:16.120 I was like, I just made Henny Cokai throw right away. 0:43:16.880 --> 0:43:19.160 There were no dms back then, there were just comments. 0:43:19.239 --> 0:43:21.359 So I posted it on my page and I got 0:43:21.640 --> 0:43:23.479 flooded with comments in like the first five minutes. 0:43:23.640 --> 0:43:25.919 You said you said the magic word hennessy. 0:43:25.640 --> 0:43:29.680 Hennessy, and They're like, are you selling? And I was like, nah, 0:43:29.680 --> 0:43:31.759 I'm not selling. So I just made it for my friends. 0:43:31.800 --> 0:43:33.200 We had it. Then the next year, I was like, 0:43:33.280 --> 0:43:35.080 let me just make twenty bottle. Let's see what happens. 0:43:35.400 --> 0:43:37.600 I made it. I sold out in ten minutes, and 0:43:37.680 --> 0:43:39.239 I said, we're going to make a business next year. 0:43:39.239 --> 0:43:41.680 Because again I knew I didn't bite off more than 0:43:41.680 --> 0:43:43.640 I can. True, I wasn't ready to start a business, 0:43:43.680 --> 0:43:46.000 and I wasn't when I launched it in two thousand 0:43:46.000 --> 0:43:48.840 and sixteen, but I was fortunate enough that I was 0:43:48.880 --> 0:43:51.840 working at La Marina and I had a kitchen of disposal. 0:43:51.920 --> 0:43:55.040 They were only they were only open for a season season, 0:43:55.200 --> 0:43:56.680 so when we were there in the winter, it was 0:43:56.760 --> 0:43:58.360 just for private events. So I ended up using their 0:43:58.440 --> 0:44:00.680 kitchen to make okay thro and I paid some guys 0:44:00.719 --> 0:44:02.879 that were on my team. They're loyal Alex and David. 0:44:02.880 --> 0:44:04.759 These guys have been through everything with me, and they're 0:44:04.800 --> 0:44:06.840 both at a last lap. So even though I'm not 0:44:06.880 --> 0:44:08.479 our last lap, you know you can get great food 0:44:08.520 --> 0:44:12.360 with them. But we started a business. We got labels, 0:44:12.440 --> 0:44:15.520 we got gift bags, we started answering, made up an email, 0:44:15.600 --> 0:44:20.200 we made up a venmo, a cash shap, opened up 0:44:20.200 --> 0:44:22.040 a bank account, and we opened up a business. 0:44:22.160 --> 0:44:23.319 How much How much did you sell? 0:44:23.800 --> 0:44:26.120 First year of officially selling, we sold two hundred and 0:44:26.120 --> 0:44:28.400 fifty bottles, which I thought was not bad for we 0:44:28.520 --> 0:44:31.280 started late. We started only in December. Yeah, the following 0:44:31.360 --> 0:44:35.040 year we sold five hundred bottles. And now we're in 0:44:35.960 --> 0:44:39.880 unofficially year five, we've already sold six hundred bottles and 0:44:40.080 --> 0:44:42.200 we're not even a peak season yet. So Christmas is 0:44:42.239 --> 0:44:44.480 our big one. Now we're looking to sell about. 0:44:44.280 --> 0:44:46.040 Three four hundreds. The reason why I love that story 0:44:46.080 --> 0:44:49.040 also see this is all things that especially food. It's 0:44:49.120 --> 0:44:55.680 like your grandmother you I you're mahome makes these these 0:44:55.760 --> 0:44:59.719 homemade RUMs and all these stuff. But it's like in 0:44:59.760 --> 0:45:02.000 p pople like it, right, but it's like, why is 0:45:02.000 --> 0:45:03.200 it just limited to your family? 0:45:03.320 --> 0:45:06.799 Absolutely right, You're absolutely right. You can you can sell 0:45:06.840 --> 0:45:10.520 anything unless the product is good. You can't be afraid. Again, 0:45:10.640 --> 0:45:12.359 don't reinvent the wheel. Like I said, I'm not doing 0:45:12.440 --> 0:45:14.520 nothing new. I'm just making the version I'm making in mine. 0:45:15.040 --> 0:45:17.080 I just made it a little bit different. I'm using 0:45:17.160 --> 0:45:20.399 Madagascar vanilla bean. That's why you know it's expensive. Each 0:45:20.520 --> 0:45:21.760 vanilla bean is like five dollars? 0:45:22.040 --> 0:45:23.200 Is that? Is that the secret? 0:45:23.400 --> 0:45:30.399 That is one of them? We got some here. 0:45:32.560 --> 0:45:34.560 Already, and I tell people, I'm like, it's vanilla, It's 0:45:34.600 --> 0:45:37.440 vanilla bean is special. It's it's the reason why you 0:45:37.520 --> 0:45:39.560 see the specs in the vanilla ice cream. You know, 0:45:39.640 --> 0:45:41.640 it's it's the reason you see the specs in the 0:45:41.680 --> 0:45:44.560 criminal lay. But at the end of the day, it's 0:45:44.600 --> 0:45:45.640 the special spices. 0:45:45.840 --> 0:45:50.560 And it's it's always about the love. You can't duplicate that. 0:45:50.840 --> 0:45:53.000 But it's always about being creative too. And it's like 0:45:53.080 --> 0:45:55.640 we're gonna talk about a lot of Marina. But lot 0:45:55.680 --> 0:45:57.920 of Marina is only open for two months of the year, right, 0:45:58.000 --> 0:45:58.520 three months. 0:45:58.560 --> 0:46:02.080 I would say, more three pushing events. It would open 0:46:02.120 --> 0:46:07.000 April and it would close I would say beginning of September. 0:46:07.480 --> 0:46:10.200 But you had access to had access full year year round. 0:46:10.680 --> 0:46:15.320 So now you used that to pretty much have a 0:46:15.360 --> 0:46:15.799 free kitchen. 0:46:15.880 --> 0:46:18.080 I found ways. Yeah, I asked, you know, I said, hey, 0:46:18.080 --> 0:46:19.799 you guys are not doing anything. I even offered to rent. 0:46:19.800 --> 0:46:21.640 They're like nah, because at the end of the day, 0:46:21.960 --> 0:46:24.040 the way that no one knew really about my contract, 0:46:24.080 --> 0:46:25.719 but the way my contract worked. Again, I'm not a 0:46:25.760 --> 0:46:28.600 greedy guy, so I understand things. If if we were 0:46:28.640 --> 0:46:32.319 not open full year, I wasn't expecting to get paid 0:46:32.400 --> 0:46:34.640 full year. But what I did want was the times 0:46:34.640 --> 0:46:36.640 that we were just seasonal. You put me as an 0:46:36.680 --> 0:46:39.000 independent contractor and you would still pay me fifty percent 0:46:39.040 --> 0:46:41.040 of my yearly salary. So I was still getting a 0:46:41.120 --> 0:46:43.680 check every week, but it wasn't the full one hundred percent. 0:46:44.040 --> 0:46:46.640 So I needed to find ways to make money. 0:46:46.680 --> 0:46:48.120 Yeah, you had access, I had access. 0:46:48.239 --> 0:46:50.239 Okay, now I'm going to start doing caterings. Now I'm 0:46:50.239 --> 0:46:52.440 going to start, you know, doing coquito. Now I'm going 0:46:52.520 --> 0:46:54.680 to start, and that the opportunity was there. I wasn't. 0:46:55.040 --> 0:46:57.960 I wasn't afraid to do things that I wasn't expecting. 0:46:57.960 --> 0:47:01.200 And I also wasn't desperate. I was patient throughout the 0:47:01.200 --> 0:47:03.279 whole process. Like I said, I sold twenty coith those 0:47:03.360 --> 0:47:05.640 year one. We're at five hundred now and we're not 0:47:05.719 --> 0:47:06.799 even halfway through our season. 0:47:07.360 --> 0:47:08.280 Can we Dominican? 0:47:08.560 --> 0:47:09.080 Dominican? 0:47:14.719 --> 0:47:15.239 They show up? 0:47:15.480 --> 0:47:18.680 So all right? Can we talk about I was waiting. 0:47:18.760 --> 0:47:19.320 I was waiting. 0:47:19.680 --> 0:47:19.960 We just. 0:47:22.120 --> 0:47:26.000 Look at the smile. If you if you have to memory, if. 0:47:26.400 --> 0:47:29.160 You're a loyal listener to a Lisia, you know, how 0:47:31.160 --> 0:47:34.080 is a second home for us? The basketball tournament. We 0:47:34.120 --> 0:47:36.560 talked about the basketball tournament a lot because they treat us, 0:47:36.800 --> 0:47:37.359 they love us. 0:47:37.600 --> 0:47:37.799 There. 0:47:37.960 --> 0:47:39.719 Shout out to everybody there. We're actually about to do 0:47:39.800 --> 0:47:45.240 Chris Gotti Show after this, so shut shout out the Dykman. 0:47:45.640 --> 0:47:51.239 But so east side, west side, So on the on 0:47:51.320 --> 0:47:55.200 the east side, on the east side, it's the basketball 0:47:55.280 --> 0:47:59.440 court on the west side by the water. That was no, 0:47:59.560 --> 0:48:02.879 we never we didn't tell the stories about Lotarna from 0:48:02.960 --> 0:48:05.719 New York City. You know about lom Marena. If not 0:48:05.880 --> 0:48:07.960 you heard fab you was in lot Marina all summer. 0:48:08.000 --> 0:48:10.360 You see you heard French pull up Arena in a 0:48:10.560 --> 0:48:11.080 yach boy. 0:48:13.600 --> 0:48:17.040 It made some easy captions on Instagram. Just made me 0:48:17.120 --> 0:48:18.959 feel like I'm on top of the world even more. 0:48:18.920 --> 0:48:21.240 So, we were gonna get off track for one minute. 0:48:21.560 --> 0:48:24.959 You was an executive chef and lot Marina at his peak, 0:48:25.120 --> 0:48:28.239 lom Marina was a beach. The best way I can 0:48:28.280 --> 0:48:33.440 describe it, It's like a beach front party restaurant had everything. 0:48:33.760 --> 0:48:37.240 Yeah, each you had a lounge, you had food trucks, 0:48:37.280 --> 0:48:37.720 you had. 0:48:38.120 --> 0:48:39.920 Stage, you had a live stage. 0:48:39.960 --> 0:48:44.040 Beautiful women, restaurant, beautiful women. I got in trouble. I 0:48:44.160 --> 0:48:45.280 was just I was just cooking. 0:48:45.840 --> 0:48:50.880 So can you just explain in a minute, like what 0:48:51.120 --> 0:48:54.160 was the vibe in lom Marena at that time. 0:48:54.440 --> 0:48:57.160 So I'll tell you two quick vibes. One was imagine 0:48:57.200 --> 0:49:00.880 being the only sober person at a drunk part. When 0:49:00.920 --> 0:49:03.239 I was leaving work, kitchen closed that twelve I'm walking 0:49:03.320 --> 0:49:05.239 down people, I'm just like what, I can't even catch up. 0:49:05.280 --> 0:49:06.560 There's no way I could catch up. We got it 0:49:06.600 --> 0:49:07.920 now we're left. So it was always a problem with 0:49:08.000 --> 0:49:10.279 La Marina because they closed that one o'clock. But the 0:49:10.360 --> 0:49:25.560 blessing of La Marina also was that entire dykeman wasohiut 0:49:25.560 --> 0:49:27.160 to Mama Sushi, because those are one of the stories 0:49:27.200 --> 0:49:29.600 that I always loved telling. Because they started small eighteen 0:49:29.680 --> 0:49:32.399 seat restaurant, bought the door next door to the right, 0:49:32.640 --> 0:49:34.080 then bought the ball, they got to the left, and 0:49:34.160 --> 0:49:37.000 now you got a seventy five seats, and then and 0:49:37.040 --> 0:49:38.919 then put seats outside, and then they're on their third 0:49:38.960 --> 0:49:41.000 fourth location. God bless shout out to them that those 0:49:41.040 --> 0:49:43.080 are the people that I inspired to be like. And 0:49:43.160 --> 0:49:45.720 I don't even have one location yet, but La Marina 0:49:45.840 --> 0:49:48.799 was a vibe. So not only the reason I worked 0:49:48.800 --> 0:49:50.480 there was because I used to party there a lot, 0:49:50.520 --> 0:49:53.400 and I joked around said in front of the wrong person, 0:49:53.840 --> 0:49:56.160 I wonder what it'd be like to work here. The 0:49:56.239 --> 0:49:59.399 opportunity presented itself and still to this day, shout out 0:49:59.400 --> 0:50:01.560 to Fernando Ma he's the owner of a zona that kuba, 0:50:01.600 --> 0:50:02.480 which is a dope. 0:50:02.280 --> 0:50:03.600 Spot the street. 0:50:03.880 --> 0:50:08.640 Yeah, and uh in the bronx on top of a 0:50:08.719 --> 0:50:12.840 post office. I think he paid somebody. I think he 0:50:12.880 --> 0:50:14.880 paid somebody because the moment, again I was living in 0:50:14.960 --> 0:50:17.200 Queen's traveling to Washington Heights, I got out the train 0:50:17.239 --> 0:50:21.520 station and somebody said, Chef Kelvin, welcome to Washington Heights. 0:50:21.560 --> 0:50:26.560 We've been waiting for you. There's no way. 0:50:27.080 --> 0:50:27.719 There's no way. 0:50:28.200 --> 0:50:30.760 Still to this day, I remember that. But Lo Marina 0:50:30.920 --> 0:50:32.680 was just it was. It was madness, and I like 0:50:32.760 --> 0:50:35.759 to say controlled madness. It was the only time where 0:50:36.160 --> 0:50:38.320 I had it. I had a walking talking on and 0:50:38.360 --> 0:50:42.000 I'm I'm talking to my Sioux chefs through this walking talkie. 0:50:42.120 --> 0:50:43.480 You O, the beach is going down. We need more 0:50:43.480 --> 0:50:46.160 French fries the beach. I need to cooks to go 0:50:46.239 --> 0:50:51.440 to the beach. French Carmelo. Anthony needs, you know, a 0:50:51.520 --> 0:50:52.279 tomahawk steak. 0:50:52.719 --> 0:50:53.560 Don't make that happen. 0:50:53.640 --> 0:50:55.360 We're gonna make that happen. It was one of the 0:50:55.640 --> 0:50:58.520 the greatest experiences ever. I had an amazing team, Like 0:50:58.600 --> 0:51:01.399 I said, Chef Traill, who they issue, Chef Andy, who's 0:51:01.440 --> 0:51:04.239 the chef of Suo in the Bronx, Like, these are 0:51:04.280 --> 0:51:06.360 just guys that are talented. Elio who's in a Michelin 0:51:06.400 --> 0:51:09.200 Star restaurant in Manhattan, Like that's what makes me proud, 0:51:09.200 --> 0:51:10.640 because I feel like I'm a proud that even though 0:51:10.640 --> 0:51:14.680 we're all similar to age, but you. 0:51:14.800 --> 0:51:16.959 You said that also in the business you you turned 0:51:16.960 --> 0:51:19.480 it around the kitchen around attle bit. 0:51:19.560 --> 0:51:21.400 Yeah, it was hard to come into a place that. 0:51:21.560 --> 0:51:24.200 This is why when making business decisions, it's hard for 0:51:24.280 --> 0:51:26.200 me to go to a place that already has an 0:51:26.239 --> 0:51:30.000 identity because it's hard to change either bad habits or 0:51:30.040 --> 0:51:32.080 it's hard to change something where people are used to 0:51:32.800 --> 0:51:35.279 So when I got to La Marina, they already had 0:51:35.320 --> 0:51:37.320 a standard. They went through a couple of different chefs. 0:51:37.680 --> 0:51:40.880 The food was not great, and the owners themselves said it, 0:51:41.560 --> 0:51:44.040 we don't need to really worry about the food. People 0:51:44.040 --> 0:51:45.600 are gonna come for the view. And I said, what 0:51:45.719 --> 0:51:48.800 you're doing wrong is you're not giving them another reason 0:51:48.840 --> 0:51:51.800 to come. People are gonna come regardless the view, the women, 0:51:52.400 --> 0:52:00.160 the parties, the artists, the maseratis, the ferrarish. It was 0:52:00.239 --> 0:52:02.160 just cash. Cash is king in the world. Now you 0:52:02.160 --> 0:52:04.200 don't find a hooka up town because everybody got to 0:52:04.200 --> 0:52:07.200 put it on the books. But it was such an 0:52:07.280 --> 0:52:10.279 experience where we learned. So my goal was to bring 0:52:10.480 --> 0:52:15.279 Chef Kelvin's food to an area that was not understanding it. 0:52:15.560 --> 0:52:18.360 So after being there for a full summer, I was 0:52:18.400 --> 0:52:21.200 able to turn around lower the labor costs lower, the 0:52:21.239 --> 0:52:24.880 food costs increase the food sales. I remember over almost 0:52:25.000 --> 0:52:26.840 three hundred and seventy five thousand dollars. And again we 0:52:26.960 --> 0:52:29.759 were only open seasonal, so imagine what I could have 0:52:29.800 --> 0:52:31.879 done in a full year. We didn't have the opportunities 0:52:31.920 --> 0:52:33.960 because it gets cold down there by that water. So 0:52:34.120 --> 0:52:38.160 we did some great closed events, We did some great weddings, 0:52:39.000 --> 0:52:42.480 and twenty fifteen, twenty sixteen was a year to remember 0:52:42.520 --> 0:52:43.120 for me for sure. 0:52:43.440 --> 0:52:45.759 Yeah we made it right, Yeah we made it. 0:52:47.800 --> 0:52:48.360 We will miss you. 0:52:48.520 --> 0:52:51.160 We will never be forgotten going, but not forgotten. That 0:52:51.239 --> 0:52:54.399 corner will never be the same, won't. Even the strip 0:52:54.520 --> 0:52:55.120 is not the same. 0:52:55.440 --> 0:52:57.960 Absolutely not. It's tough, like even me. I live in Riverdale, 0:52:58.000 --> 0:52:59.640 so I'm close to the madness, but I haven't been 0:52:59.680 --> 0:53:01.640 out there a while. It's not the same. 0:53:03.440 --> 0:53:14.200 The Dominicans up. We've been saying it also that no meal. 0:53:16.640 --> 0:53:18.239 All right. So in the last segment, we're gonna go 0:53:18.280 --> 0:53:21.600 into what you got going on now and future endeavors. 0:53:22.360 --> 0:53:25.520 All right, So we're gonna close it out, which but 0:53:25.719 --> 0:53:28.120 you have going on now. So I want to first 0:53:28.160 --> 0:53:30.480 want to talk about our last lap, last lap, so 0:53:30.600 --> 0:53:32.560 you can talk about so that's that was an establishment 0:53:32.640 --> 0:53:34.839 that was already open and you partnered right. 0:53:35.280 --> 0:53:37.839 Yeah, Last Lap is it's such a great vibe. It's 0:53:37.880 --> 0:53:40.919 a Caribbean vibe. It's true to like my heart, my soul. 0:53:41.480 --> 0:53:44.880 Shout out to the guys that Last Lap. They're the 0:53:44.920 --> 0:53:48.160 reason I'm there because when we started just talking about it, 0:53:48.640 --> 0:53:50.640 you know, the ViBe's gotta be right. And these guys 0:53:50.680 --> 0:53:54.359 are young entrepreneurs doing their things, opening different establishments. There's 0:53:54.360 --> 0:53:55.880 gonna be the last Lap l A. There's gonna be 0:53:55.960 --> 0:53:58.520 last Lap Miami. There's an opportunity to continue to grow, 0:53:58.520 --> 0:53:59.680 and those are the right people to do it with. 0:54:00.400 --> 0:54:04.920 And they were open, and I went to forgot to 0:54:04.960 --> 0:54:07.239 mention this. I went to France for three months. I 0:54:07.320 --> 0:54:10.640 lived in Lyon, France. At one point when the Strand 0:54:10.719 --> 0:54:11.680 decided to close. 0:54:11.520 --> 0:54:14.320 Down, I got a nice your French trains, yeah. 0:54:14.160 --> 0:54:16.799 Classically French trained. I got a nice little severance check 0:54:17.239 --> 0:54:20.880 and at that moment I did a cooking competition. Circle 0:54:21.120 --> 0:54:23.560 back again fifteen years. The same people that gave me 0:54:23.600 --> 0:54:25.400 a scholarship to go to high school gave me an 0:54:25.400 --> 0:54:28.080 opportunity to win a full scholarship to go to France 0:54:28.160 --> 0:54:30.040 and live, all expense paid to go to a culinary 0:54:30.080 --> 0:54:32.399 school in France. Here I am, at thirty something years old, 0:54:32.560 --> 0:54:35.719 going again learning schooling. You can never stop learning. So 0:54:35.760 --> 0:54:38.719 I'm the only guy who was in this class who 0:54:38.760 --> 0:54:41.399 didn't speak French, and here I'm trying to communicate with people. 0:54:41.440 --> 0:54:44.000 But thank god that food is a universal language. Show 0:54:44.040 --> 0:54:45.239 me how to cut this, I will cut it the 0:54:45.239 --> 0:54:46.360 way you want to. Show me how to cook it, 0:54:46.400 --> 0:54:48.239 I will cook it the way you want it. But 0:54:48.520 --> 0:54:50.400 the reason I didn't get involved with Last Lap right 0:54:50.440 --> 0:54:52.239 away was because I was out here doing this three 0:54:52.280 --> 0:54:56.200 months stint in France, and I got back to Last Slap. 0:54:56.239 --> 0:54:58.600 We were doing some cool little Ada day vibes, like 0:54:58.800 --> 0:55:00.600 was there once a month again do the pop up 0:55:00.920 --> 0:55:03.040 and it was always a successful sold out night. We 0:55:03.200 --> 0:55:06.960 sat down and they made a deal that I couldn't refuse, 0:55:07.080 --> 0:55:09.960 and they offered me a partnership and I was able 0:55:10.000 --> 0:55:12.600 to establish my team there to make me feel comfortable 0:55:12.640 --> 0:55:15.160 to know that even though that I'm not there, the 0:55:15.239 --> 0:55:17.319 food is going to be great. So thanks to Chef David, 0:55:17.360 --> 0:55:18.960 thanks for Chef Alex. Those guys have been with me 0:55:19.040 --> 0:55:22.279 for ten plus years and it's hard loyalty is a 0:55:22.360 --> 0:55:25.279 hard thing to find, and these guys make me proud 0:55:25.320 --> 0:55:25.880 every single day. 0:55:25.960 --> 0:55:27.440 And one thing you said I was interested is like 0:55:27.480 --> 0:55:29.399 you have like royalties, Like it's like a royalty deal. 0:55:29.480 --> 0:55:32.000 So you know, I watched them a shark tank. As 0:55:32.000 --> 0:55:34.000 a businessman, you got to learn, right, So you know, 0:55:34.080 --> 0:55:35.799 I made him an offer of you know, I wanted 0:55:35.840 --> 0:55:38.960 to make this much amount per area and they said yes, 0:55:39.040 --> 0:55:42.000 and I should have asked for more, but again, I'm 0:55:42.040 --> 0:55:43.719 not greedy, so you know I was. I was just 0:55:43.800 --> 0:55:46.160 grateful for that opportunity. This is the first time that 0:55:46.239 --> 0:55:48.560 I made a deal like that, and it's been it's 0:55:48.600 --> 0:55:49.040 been steady. 0:55:49.080 --> 0:55:50.759 You know. I think it's the only place that you 0:55:50.800 --> 0:55:52.880 can get get So that's this is this. 0:55:53.000 --> 0:55:55.440 Is traditionally you could say Kelvin's kitchen, but in reality, 0:55:55.520 --> 0:55:58.439 it's the only place that you can get that's my food, 0:55:58.520 --> 0:56:01.399 you know, aside from getting kill than himself with Kelvin's kitchen, 0:56:01.520 --> 0:56:04.640 you know, so you know. And and last slap is 0:56:04.680 --> 0:56:08.520 a small rum bar. We got two floors. It gives 0:56:08.560 --> 0:56:11.120 you an opportunity to come have some amazing cocktails because 0:56:11.120 --> 0:56:13.759 they have a great mixology program. And then you never 0:56:13.840 --> 0:56:15.520 know who's gonna be there the same day that you either. 0:56:15.760 --> 0:56:17.840 We We've got a lot of celebrities from Rihanna to 0:56:17.920 --> 0:56:21.160 Michael B. Jordan to uh the list goes on. We're 0:56:21.200 --> 0:56:22.799 always on page six. That's a great thing. 0:56:23.000 --> 0:56:27.360 So so like, even though you're not there a lot cooking, 0:56:27.960 --> 0:56:31.240 but you have the recipe. So anytime your dish is sold, 0:56:31.400 --> 0:56:34.560 or any dishes sold, you get a percentage of that I. 0:56:34.560 --> 0:56:37.040 Get Yeah, I get a fee for each that's sold. 0:56:37.120 --> 0:56:44.520 Correct it again, it's not bad though he said it 0:56:44.600 --> 0:56:46.600 better than the people that said it on the On 0:56:46.640 --> 0:56:49.040 a few other shows, they're like a rape. I'm like, 0:56:49.080 --> 0:56:52.439 we're not raping nobody. I'm like, and it's tough because 0:56:52.440 --> 0:56:55.000 it just comes with with the culture and how we learned. 0:56:55.040 --> 0:56:57.360 But not is the dish that I be Bobby Flay with, 0:56:57.960 --> 0:56:59.840 And that is also the dish that I've won for 0:57:00.120 --> 0:57:02.200 years in a row Best Chef in America with Forbes. 0:57:02.640 --> 0:57:06.040 So I have five different versions of these APAs and 0:57:06.760 --> 0:57:08.960 the only place you can find those is at Last Lap. 0:57:09.360 --> 0:57:11.239 So that's the signature star. We have a dish called 0:57:11.280 --> 0:57:14.279 Adipa Heaven where you get twenty pieces of APAs and 0:57:14.400 --> 0:57:15.200 it's all all. 0:57:16.640 --> 0:57:16.680 Is. 0:57:16.760 --> 0:57:20.760 It is traditionally like a corn cake almost like it's 0:57:20.760 --> 0:57:24.240 hard to describe. It's traditionally made with corn, flour and water, 0:57:25.160 --> 0:57:28.480 and I actually use fresh corn corn right kind of 0:57:28.560 --> 0:57:30.200 sort of but not really. And I'm gonna say that 0:57:30.200 --> 0:57:32.440 because it's almost the same ingredients except we're not baking it. 0:57:32.560 --> 0:57:35.080 We're not. You got to make a dough and then 0:57:35.160 --> 0:57:38.400 traditionally the doe the dough is griddled or like pan fried. 0:57:38.640 --> 0:57:42.000 I deep fry minds, so you get that crispy texture. Traditionally, 0:57:42.000 --> 0:57:44.880 an adipa is stuffed. I put all of my toppings 0:57:44.920 --> 0:57:47.120 on top of it, so and I make them mini, 0:57:47.280 --> 0:57:49.400 so you'll have like four adipas to in order. My 0:57:49.520 --> 0:57:52.120 traditional classic one is we call it the award winner 0:57:52.120 --> 0:57:54.160 now because that's the one that beat Bobby Flair. It's 0:57:54.280 --> 0:57:57.680 braised beef, short rib, guacamali, picco, the Gayo lime scented 0:57:57.720 --> 0:58:00.760 sour cream, cotiha chies, microslatro. So you'll take it, You'll 0:58:00.800 --> 0:58:02.080 dip it in the sauce. You'll have it in one 0:58:02.160 --> 0:58:05.400 bite and it's a party in your mouth. It h 0:58:06.800 --> 0:58:14.680 every every sense that your palette. It's like sweet, salty, crispy, hot, cold, herbaceous, creamy. Mommy, 0:58:14.720 --> 0:58:16.600 You're like, what the fuck did I just experience? 0:58:17.520 --> 0:58:17.920 What was that? 0:58:18.680 --> 0:58:21.919 Pulling up the last last vibe? So you mentioned beating 0:58:21.960 --> 0:58:24.200 Bobby played with the dish. Now I read this and 0:58:24.240 --> 0:58:26.600 maybe it's true or not. But prior to that, because 0:58:26.640 --> 0:58:29.240 you are French training, and were you doing Latin foods 0:58:29.240 --> 0:58:29.720 prior to this? 0:58:29.920 --> 0:58:32.440 No, I wasn't doing Latin food until I left the 0:58:32.480 --> 0:58:34.600 Strand Hotel. The first time I got an opportunity to 0:58:34.680 --> 0:58:37.320 open up a Latin restaurant and that's how I created 0:58:37.360 --> 0:58:39.600 the ideas at a restaurant called Blend on the Water. 0:58:40.480 --> 0:58:43.040 So my goal was to go learn as much as 0:58:43.120 --> 0:58:46.160 I can about Latin food. I'll tell you one hundred percent, 0:58:46.640 --> 0:58:49.120 I did not know what I was doing until I 0:58:49.200 --> 0:58:52.840 started asking my mom, asking my dad. Going to you 0:58:52.880 --> 0:58:56.680 know bar which is like the was or it still is, 0:58:56.720 --> 0:58:58.919 the number one at bar downtown in the Lower East Side. 0:58:59.200 --> 0:59:01.440 They had a line around the door, and I'm like, 0:59:01.480 --> 0:59:04.200 they must be doing something right. So I had their ADEPA. 0:59:05.120 --> 0:59:07.400 I'm big on textures. It was good, but I'm like, 0:59:07.440 --> 0:59:11.000 how can I make this different, unique and mine? So 0:59:11.040 --> 0:59:13.800 we got to the drawing board and created the EPA, 0:59:13.920 --> 0:59:15.840 the original one that I have now was nowhere near 0:59:15.920 --> 0:59:18.480 the first one I made. So not everything I make 0:59:18.600 --> 0:59:22.680 was great. Things take time, things take practice, and let's 0:59:22.760 --> 0:59:25.080 just say time that perfection takes time. 0:59:25.120 --> 0:59:28.520 Well said, So you, j Low and a Rod's personal 0:59:28.800 --> 0:59:30.080 How did that? How did that come about? 0:59:30.360 --> 0:59:34.320 Shout out to Duval. This beautiful lady was a fan 0:59:34.440 --> 0:59:37.400 of mine. Five years ago. She came to one of 0:59:37.440 --> 0:59:39.680 my events. I did a pop up event in Brooklyn. 0:59:39.760 --> 0:59:41.640 There was a restaurant called SDQ. It was also like 0:59:41.720 --> 0:59:45.320 a lounge, and she came to my event and I 0:59:45.480 --> 0:59:47.840 treated her the way I treat everybody, Like I know 0:59:48.000 --> 0:59:49.880 you for ten years and you say hi to me, 0:59:49.920 --> 0:59:51.360 I'm gonna give you a hug. If you show me 0:59:51.440 --> 0:59:54.160 pictures from last birthdays that you came to celebrate with me, 0:59:54.240 --> 0:59:57.000 that makes me even more special. So I treated her 0:59:57.080 --> 0:59:59.320 like I treat everybody. We have a conversation, we'll talk 0:59:59.320 --> 1:00:01.120 about it made you come here? Have you had my 1:00:01.160 --> 1:00:05.840 food before? Five years later, fast forward, she's Jlo's personal assistant, 1:00:06.360 --> 1:00:09.919 and an opportunity presented itself where the chef that they've 1:00:09.920 --> 1:00:14.520 had for ten years couldn't do Thanksgiving weekend and She's like, 1:00:14.560 --> 1:00:16.280 I know this chef. I don't know him personally, but 1:00:16.320 --> 1:00:18.959 I've had his food. He's great with kids, he's great 1:00:19.000 --> 1:00:23.160 with blah blah blah, this this, that opportunity came presented itself. 1:00:23.200 --> 1:00:25.440 I hit a home run, and let's say, for a rod, 1:00:25.440 --> 1:00:29.760 I hit a grand slam, And since then, they hit 1:00:29.840 --> 1:00:31.720 me up for every time they need something, whether it's 1:00:32.160 --> 1:00:34.840 a Birthday party for their kids, whether it's Memorial Day 1:00:34.840 --> 1:00:37.800 in the Hamptons, whether it's Christmas in Miami, which I'm 1:00:37.840 --> 1:00:40.680 going next a couple of weeks, and then New Year's 1:00:40.680 --> 1:00:43.240 even la. I'm blessed to say that anywhere they need me, 1:00:43.320 --> 1:00:43.480 I go. 1:00:43.720 --> 1:00:45.800 You know, a personal chef is actually a good investment 1:00:46.080 --> 1:00:47.720 something that I'm going to look into in a New Year, 1:00:50.240 --> 1:00:53.000 because I know a guy. It's like it's like I 1:00:53.040 --> 1:00:56.360 always said, like a personal trainer and a personal chef. 1:00:56.680 --> 1:00:57.520 It was a good investment. 1:00:58.480 --> 1:00:59.840 You're investing in your mind too. 1:01:00.360 --> 1:01:01.720 Yeah, yeah, personal chefs. 1:01:02.760 --> 1:01:06.760 Wife, I was like, well that's that's a good investment. 1:01:08.080 --> 1:01:12.960 Might investing investing in your mind body? You better say 1:01:13.000 --> 1:01:16.280 that for sure, especially because it's like when you want 1:01:16.280 --> 1:01:19.240 to run a lot, you can't cook like you don't 1:01:19.280 --> 1:01:21.040 have time to cook, especially like you know, you got 1:01:21.240 --> 1:01:23.520 dietary ships. I'm trying to go vegan. So it's like, 1:01:25.160 --> 1:01:25.760 stop dating a. 1:01:25.760 --> 1:01:29.000 Girl because she was vegan. You know it's tough. I'm 1:01:29.040 --> 1:01:30.880 a chef, man, I'll be and I try. 1:01:30.920 --> 1:01:33.560 You could be a vegan shock, but I can't. 1:01:33.600 --> 1:01:35.200 I can be a vegan check, but I can't be 1:01:35.280 --> 1:01:38.040 a vegan shock. I can't be a vegan check. And 1:01:38.080 --> 1:01:39.840 I tried it. Like we dated a couple of years 1:01:39.880 --> 1:01:41.840 ago when on a couple of dates and I was vegan. 1:01:41.880 --> 1:01:44.120 When I took some of the best Michelin Star restaurants 1:01:44.120 --> 1:01:48.280 that were vegan, I'm like, what the I need steak? 1:01:48.400 --> 1:01:48.800 Oh my god? 1:01:48.840 --> 1:01:50.520 And then yo, I would take a home and I'll 1:01:50.520 --> 1:01:52.080 go get a burger or something, and I'm like, Yo, 1:01:52.200 --> 1:01:54.240 this is crazy. I'm eating twice, I'm spending doubles of 1:01:54.280 --> 1:01:56.720 money out. It's not gonna work out. This is not 1:01:56.800 --> 1:01:59.920 gonna work out. This is not gonna work out. I 1:02:00.200 --> 1:02:00.680 laugh about it. 1:02:00.760 --> 1:02:00.880 Now. 1:02:01.080 --> 1:02:02.640 Why I take you someone to get home? Ah, man, 1:02:02.720 --> 1:02:05.200 not traffic. I'll stop that hurricane. 1:02:07.440 --> 1:02:09.480 Shout out to you. That's that's not easy. And I 1:02:09.600 --> 1:02:11.800 have some vegan friends that they hold me to it, 1:02:11.880 --> 1:02:14.920 and like even doing this event on the nineteenth and twentieth, 1:02:14.960 --> 1:02:16.720 I had to put a vegetarian menu because I know 1:02:16.960 --> 1:02:21.680 so many people that support Grisel and support her are 1:02:21.720 --> 1:02:23.560 all vegetarians and vegans, so I got to make sure 1:02:23.560 --> 1:02:24.080 that that offers. 1:02:24.160 --> 1:02:27.640 And that's another lane too, especially like there's so many 1:02:29.160 --> 1:02:33.120 athletes and entertainers and just you know, high level business 1:02:33.160 --> 1:02:37.240 people that like personal chefs is like a whole another lane. 1:02:37.440 --> 1:02:39.600 It's a it's definitely a world in its own. But 1:02:39.920 --> 1:02:42.120 it takes a special type of person to do that 1:02:43.040 --> 1:02:45.160 because at the end of the day, you sacrifice your 1:02:45.360 --> 1:02:48.600 entire life, not only just a cooking to the person 1:02:48.680 --> 1:02:52.280 that you're working with. Then, because they they're requiring, their 1:02:52.360 --> 1:02:55.560 needs are a lot different than any other cook chef. 1:02:55.680 --> 1:02:57.840 You're like, they're beck and call at all times. 1:02:57.920 --> 1:02:59.959 And that's why I when I decided to do person 1:03:00.080 --> 1:03:03.080 no chefing, I had my own requirements and restrictions. And 1:03:03.120 --> 1:03:04.919 it's like, one, I would never stay at the person's house. 1:03:04.920 --> 1:03:07.040 I would need my own hotel because I tried it 1:03:07.120 --> 1:03:09.240 once and no matter what, I'm staying in the twenty 1:03:09.280 --> 1:03:13.160 million dollar house, I can't sleep in a bed knowing 1:03:13.280 --> 1:03:17.400 that I work downstairs. Or imagine I always joke around. 1:03:17.400 --> 1:03:19.040 Imagine I'm hungry and I'm gonna go make a grill 1:03:19.120 --> 1:03:21.000 cheese sandwich I one o'clock in the morning and somebody says, 1:03:21.000 --> 1:03:24.200 can you make me want to fucking kitchen is clothes? 1:03:24.240 --> 1:03:24.400 Man? 1:03:26.160 --> 1:03:27.640 I would make it gladly. 1:03:27.880 --> 1:03:30.640 Did you hear about But that's just something I always 1:03:30.680 --> 1:03:32.400 joke around with. Did you have did you hear about 1:03:32.400 --> 1:03:33.720 ditty story with his personal show? 1:03:33.840 --> 1:03:36.320 No, I didn't hear ditty story. Imagine ditty story. 1:03:37.440 --> 1:03:41.840 I will tell you, ye shot, I got crazy, it 1:03:41.920 --> 1:03:42.840 got crazy. I got. 1:03:45.960 --> 1:03:48.880 Can we talk about the branding, because obviously you have. 1:03:49.240 --> 1:03:51.600 You've done an amazing job on social media doing that, 1:03:51.880 --> 1:03:54.680 and it's led to some deals with Fogo. 1:03:55.000 --> 1:03:58.360 On blessings and again, these are things that I tell 1:03:58.400 --> 1:03:59.800 people that are always asking me, how did you get 1:03:59.800 --> 1:04:01.400 some man followers? How'd you do this? And I was like, 1:04:01.560 --> 1:04:05.120 I am giving you what I'm saying. I'm giving you. 1:04:05.240 --> 1:04:08.720 So if I'm a chef page, I'm gonna give you food. 1:04:08.840 --> 1:04:10.600 I'm going to give you things that are related to chefs. 1:04:10.640 --> 1:04:12.760 I'm gonna give you some tips, I'm gonna give you 1:04:12.800 --> 1:04:15.320 some recipes. I'm gonna not be afraid. The only thing 1:04:15.320 --> 1:04:16.880 I'm not gonna give you is Michael Keat the recipe 1:04:16.920 --> 1:04:18.760 and my APPI recipe. So, guys, I love you to death, 1:04:18.840 --> 1:04:21.360 just stop asking anything that I make money on I 1:04:21.440 --> 1:04:24.440 can't give you. But again, it's one of those things 1:04:24.480 --> 1:04:27.000 where you have to stay true to what you're trying 1:04:27.040 --> 1:04:28.840 to sell, what you're trying to do, and who you're 1:04:28.840 --> 1:04:30.880 trying to be. So I am Chef Kelvin, my Instagram 1:04:31.040 --> 1:04:33.840 is Chef Kelvin, and I'm going to give you everything 1:04:34.000 --> 1:04:36.520 that has to do with food. Instagram stories are a 1:04:36.520 --> 1:04:38.320 little bit different. You can get a little bit more personal. 1:04:38.360 --> 1:04:40.520 You can show traveling, you can show family, you can 1:04:40.560 --> 1:04:42.439 show friends. But at the end of the day, I'm 1:04:42.440 --> 1:04:44.400 giving you what I promised that I was going to 1:04:44.440 --> 1:04:46.800 give you. You have to stay consistent and at the 1:04:46.920 --> 1:04:48.280 end of the day, you have to make sure that 1:04:48.440 --> 1:04:52.040 what you put on your feed is true to you. 1:04:52.560 --> 1:04:54.400 And you can't be afraid to post because you're not 1:04:54.440 --> 1:04:56.360 going to get a lot of likes. So I'm actually 1:04:56.360 --> 1:04:59.080 a little bit happy with the whole you know, removing likes, 1:04:59.320 --> 1:05:02.480 because at the end of the day, you'll know still 1:05:02.600 --> 1:05:06.040 that someone is getting a lot of insights and a 1:05:06.080 --> 1:05:08.040 lot of people coming to them when the comments are there, 1:05:08.040 --> 1:05:10.120 because you can tell when someone has a real fifty 1:05:10.120 --> 1:05:12.840 thousand dollars following and someone has a bought fifty thousand following. 1:05:13.160 --> 1:05:15.400 You can have ten thousand likes, but if you have 1:05:15.480 --> 1:05:18.760 two comments, something's wrong. Engagement engagements completely off, you know, 1:05:18.800 --> 1:05:20.880 because if I post something and I'm going to get 1:05:20.880 --> 1:05:22.600 a thousand likes, I'm going to get a hundred comments. 1:05:23.160 --> 1:05:25.640 And it's That's something I learned early on as far 1:05:25.680 --> 1:05:28.400 as social media. Friend of mine told me that you 1:05:28.840 --> 1:05:30.959 should be able to look at somebody's page without reading 1:05:31.000 --> 1:05:31.840 their bio and know what they do. 1:05:32.680 --> 1:05:35.280 Agree. Reading your bio is just say everything that you do, 1:05:35.560 --> 1:05:37.840 and you're, well, you can't say everything because then my 1:05:38.560 --> 1:05:41.240 my characters will run out right away. But you would 1:05:41.280 --> 1:05:43.360 have to say in your bio, you would say who 1:05:43.440 --> 1:05:45.720 you are, what you do, and what I'm saying. 1:05:45.720 --> 1:05:47.240 They should be able to tell without reading it. 1:05:47.480 --> 1:05:48.040 Absolutely agree. 1:05:48.080 --> 1:05:49.760 So it's like a lot of time people through all 1:05:49.880 --> 1:05:54.000 kinds of random nonsense pictures and memes and it's like, 1:05:54.360 --> 1:05:54.840 what's happening? 1:05:54.920 --> 1:05:55.440 What are we here for? 1:05:55.600 --> 1:05:58.360 But it's going on the message I'm confused. I'm confused. 1:05:58.440 --> 1:06:00.520 If it's there for fun, then cool. But if it's 1:06:00.560 --> 1:06:01.720 for business, yeah, you can't do that. 1:06:01.800 --> 1:06:05.600 You can't. You got to sacrifice that. And this page 1:06:05.720 --> 1:06:07.280 is like a reflection of like how people are going 1:06:07.320 --> 1:06:08.040 to look at your business. 1:06:08.240 --> 1:06:09.760 I like the way you said that without reading your bios, 1:06:09.760 --> 1:06:11.640 should be able to talk just by looking at pictures. 1:06:12.000 --> 1:06:12.160 See. 1:06:12.360 --> 1:06:14.000 And I learned that. I even tried doing like a 1:06:14.040 --> 1:06:16.560 personal page and that didn't work because I have no 1:06:16.680 --> 1:06:20.040 time to let alone. Yeah, this is my personal life, 1:06:20.760 --> 1:06:22.400 so stop with the personal stuff. If you know me 1:06:22.440 --> 1:06:24.160 on a personal level, you know that you get the 1:06:24.200 --> 1:06:25.800 same guy that you get as a chef level. You know. 1:06:25.920 --> 1:06:28.200 But building that brand, you have to learn that it 1:06:28.360 --> 1:06:31.720 takes time. You have to be patient. You can't rush 1:06:31.840 --> 1:06:33.760 for the likes. And I know that now because I 1:06:33.880 --> 1:06:35.520 just started YouTube and I'm hitting up one of my 1:06:35.600 --> 1:06:38.200 friends who has been an expert on YouTube, and she's 1:06:38.240 --> 1:06:40.600 done multiple videos, and I'm reaching out to her. I'm like, 1:06:41.400 --> 1:06:43.240 but if I put it on Instagram, I'll get fifty 1:06:43.280 --> 1:06:46.080 thousand likes, But if I put it on YouTube, I 1:06:46.120 --> 1:06:48.200 only have a thousand likes. She says, you have to wait, 1:06:48.280 --> 1:06:50.800 You have to be patient. And I learned and I'm like, not, 1:06:50.960 --> 1:06:53.200 we're not patient in this world. We don't even read 1:06:53.360 --> 1:06:54.920 in this world. And I learned that because I get 1:06:54.920 --> 1:06:57.680 my card told on a regular basis, and I can't 1:06:57.720 --> 1:07:00.560 get mad at clients. I'm being that honest I get 1:07:00.800 --> 1:07:02.160 I'm like, oh, can I park here? It's like six 1:07:02.240 --> 1:07:04.640 signs yes, yes, yes, Okay, I forgot the last one, 1:07:06.160 --> 1:07:07.960 and I get mad at clients when I'll give you 1:07:08.080 --> 1:07:10.440 all the information, like, for example, to purchase my coquito, 1:07:11.080 --> 1:07:13.080 you got to send an email to Coquito's by Chef 1:07:13.160 --> 1:07:15.640 Kelvin at gmail dot com. You say hello, you can 1:07:15.680 --> 1:07:17.560 say all the information you want. You're gonna automatically get 1:07:17.560 --> 1:07:20.560 a response that says thank you for your inquiry. Here's 1:07:20.600 --> 1:07:22.640 the product, Here's how much it costs. Here's the size 1:07:22.640 --> 1:07:25.120 of the bottle. Here's how we can deliver, here's forms 1:07:25.160 --> 1:07:28.200 of payment. Everything that you can ever ask me first question, 1:07:28.600 --> 1:07:29.440 how much is the bottle? 1:07:29.680 --> 1:07:30.160 How much. 1:07:32.800 --> 1:07:35.360 To All the information you need is in the in 1:07:35.400 --> 1:07:38.200 the in the last, And you have to be patient. 1:07:38.240 --> 1:07:39.680 So you have to be patient all sets alike. So 1:07:39.800 --> 1:07:43.160 even now that you know ten years, fifteen years, I'm 1:07:43.200 --> 1:07:45.280 going to say now when I turned thirty five in July, 1:07:45.400 --> 1:07:47.640 I'm going to be cooking for twenty years. So building 1:07:47.680 --> 1:07:51.000 this brand for twenty years. Everything that I've wanted is 1:07:51.120 --> 1:07:55.240 happening right now at this moment. Brand deals with Infinity. 1:07:55.320 --> 1:07:57.520 You know, I have an awesome commercial that's coming out 1:07:57.520 --> 1:08:00.320 where I'm honored to know that Infinity, that luxury brand 1:08:00.920 --> 1:08:02.760 wants to follow me around for a day and tell 1:08:02.840 --> 1:08:05.000 my story, and it's going to be an awesome commercial. 1:08:05.000 --> 1:08:07.400 Can wait to share that. You know, I'm a chef 1:08:07.600 --> 1:08:11.000 and with the Institute of Culinary Education, even though that's 1:08:11.040 --> 1:08:13.200 not my alma mater, I'm so happy to be with them. 1:08:13.440 --> 1:08:15.520 They give me an opportunity to tell my story on 1:08:15.680 --> 1:08:19.760 blog posts, to use their kitchen for YouTube shows, for 1:08:20.160 --> 1:08:21.519 if I want to shoot a book, if I want 1:08:21.520 --> 1:08:23.559 to just come in and prep for an event. I'm 1:08:23.640 --> 1:08:26.400 grateful for people like that that believe in me, believe 1:08:26.400 --> 1:08:28.960 in the brand, and and help me take my career 1:08:29.040 --> 1:08:31.320 to a level that I wouldn't imagine doing. 1:08:31.439 --> 1:08:31.479 So. 1:08:31.920 --> 1:08:34.120 I think it's important and as you mentioned, you know, 1:08:34.200 --> 1:08:36.960 companies like Wells Fargo to see my Instagram page and say, 1:08:36.960 --> 1:08:39.040 you know, we want to partner up and collab with 1:08:39.120 --> 1:08:41.400 this guy because what he's doing is positive, so I 1:08:41.520 --> 1:08:43.880 know that he can be the right guy that will 1:08:44.040 --> 1:08:46.920 share our message. And I'm always smiling, so I have 1:08:47.280 --> 1:08:50.360 people say I have a million dollar smile. It comes 1:08:50.439 --> 1:08:51.400 with making people happy. 1:08:52.120 --> 1:08:55.560 Chef Calvin, Man, you want thank you for coming. Appreciate it. 1:08:55.600 --> 1:08:59.679 Appreciate it anything you want to tell the people your Instagram, 1:09:00.040 --> 1:09:01.360 social media and thing you got coming up. 1:09:01.479 --> 1:09:04.240 Absolutely, Man, I appreciate you guys for having me, letting 1:09:04.240 --> 1:09:06.840 me tell my story on a whole different platform because 1:09:07.040 --> 1:09:10.080 I'm able to tell people my story and inspire. So 1:09:10.120 --> 1:09:11.840 I always say if I can inspire one person from 1:09:11.880 --> 1:09:14.519 one thing that I do per day, my job is done. 1:09:14.680 --> 1:09:16.320 The most important thing is if I can offer some 1:09:16.360 --> 1:09:19.479 people advice that want to become a young entrepreneur. Is 1:09:19.600 --> 1:09:22.320 back to what I said, surround yourself by greatness. Don't 1:09:22.320 --> 1:09:25.080 be afraid of not making a lot of money now, 1:09:25.640 --> 1:09:27.840 don't chase the money. The money will come chasing you. 1:09:28.439 --> 1:09:29.760 I'm at a point in my career where i can 1:09:30.240 --> 1:09:32.600 greatly say that I'm turning down gigs because there's just 1:09:32.680 --> 1:09:36.000 so many things coming in. So as the team expands, 1:09:36.720 --> 1:09:40.760 I'm looking forward to growing my YouTube show. Starting my 1:09:40.800 --> 1:09:46.479 cookbook in January and cookbook, yeah, that's number one thing. 1:09:46.720 --> 1:09:48.640 It's cookbook and cooking classes. So I'm going to try 1:09:48.640 --> 1:09:50.599 to get back on the cooking classes. Looking for a venue. 1:09:51.400 --> 1:09:53.600 All my social media is chef Kelvin c h E 1:09:53.760 --> 1:09:56.240 F K E l v I N. Don't look at 1:09:56.280 --> 1:09:58.200 my page after midnight. You're only going to make yourself 1:09:58.240 --> 1:10:01.040 hungry in advance. But thank you guys for having me. 1:10:01.360 --> 1:10:03.120 Thanks you man. Troy housekeeping it on. 1:10:03.240 --> 1:10:05.559 Yeah, shout everybody on patreon dot com. I know that's 1:10:05.600 --> 1:10:09.160 our proud to pay program. The support on it has 1:10:09.200 --> 1:10:11.759 been tremendous, man, and it's beautiful. We got to actually 1:10:12.160 --> 1:10:14.280 get to speak and and and engage with some of 1:10:14.360 --> 1:10:16.759 our patrons and the list keeps growing. So shout everybody 1:10:16.760 --> 1:10:18.720 that's supporting that. You know that if you are a 1:10:18.800 --> 1:10:23.400 Tier four or five member, you are access to Alisia University, 1:10:23.520 --> 1:10:28.120 which is our online school. Shots wearing the merch, shout everybody, Yo, 1:10:28.200 --> 1:10:30.719 the merchant has been moving like crazy. 1:10:30.800 --> 1:10:33.240 Man. We put up the merchant. 1:10:34.400 --> 1:10:36.760 The sales were out out the door man the first day, 1:10:36.760 --> 1:10:38.320 So shout everybody that's purchased the merch. 1:10:38.680 --> 1:10:40.400 Yeah, man, you want to talk about university. 1:10:40.479 --> 1:10:42.880 Yeah, Nivirsually, we're about to actually do a class, like 1:10:43.000 --> 1:10:47.639 right now, he's not joking. It's three classes every single week. 1:10:48.040 --> 1:10:49.640 We do a real estate class on Monday, we do 1:10:49.680 --> 1:10:52.760 a floating class on Wednesday. Me and Troy do a 1:10:52.800 --> 1:10:55.559 class every Thursday. And starting in the new year, we're 1:10:55.560 --> 1:11:02.280 going to have e Yo. Yeah for sure, so you 1:11:02.360 --> 1:11:04.680 know we it's an interactive at zoom. We get to 1:11:04.800 --> 1:11:08.920 ask questions. It's really dope. It's really dope experience. And yeah, 1:11:09.080 --> 1:11:13.200 don't forget Atlanta, Atlanta VIP experience. We are coming January 1:11:13.720 --> 1:11:18.200 twenty six. It's gonna be crazy live podcast, networking event, 1:11:18.680 --> 1:11:22.360 open bar, dinner, and then we're gonna have a workshop 1:11:22.400 --> 1:11:25.719 the next day. Alumnis is gonna be there. We're gonna 1:11:25.760 --> 1:11:28.240 be there. It's gonna be a whole vibe. So events 1:11:28.280 --> 1:11:30.479 tab on our website on your leisure dot com. 1:11:30.920 --> 1:11:31.719 Don't play yourself. 1:11:31.840 --> 1:11:34.680 No, Atlanta, we got we can't wait to touch the 1:11:34.760 --> 1:11:36.639 town for sure. And the book tip of this week 1:11:36.840 --> 1:11:41.360 is Kitchen Confidential by the late great Anthony Bardain Peace 1:11:41.800 --> 1:11:44.240 for sure, so I thought that would be fitting. Chef 1:11:44.320 --> 1:11:45.559 recommended that book himself. 1:11:45.680 --> 1:11:46.719 He read it four times. 1:11:46.920 --> 1:11:50.680 Yeah, so that's it. Thank you guys for rocking with us. 1:11:50.680 --> 1:11:51.439 We'll see you next week. 1:11:51.520 --> 1:11:54.439 Peace Peace, Coach. 1:11:54.560 --> 1:11:57.000 The energy out there felt different. What changed for the 1:11:57.080 --> 1:11:57.519 team today? 1:11:57.640 --> 1:11:59.719 It was the new game day scratches from the California 1:11:59.800 --> 1:12:03.040 lock Play is everything. Those games sent the team's energy 1:12:03.080 --> 1:12:03.559 through the roof. 1:12:03.680 --> 1:12:05.600 Are you saying it was the off field play that 1:12:05.720 --> 1:12:06.800 made the difference on the field. 1:12:06.920 --> 1:12:09.639 Hey, little play makes your day, and today it made 1:12:09.680 --> 1:12:11.760 the game. That's all for now, Coach. 1:12:11.920 --> 1:12:14.519 One more question played the new Los Angeles Chargers, San 1:12:14.560 --> 1:12:17.559 Francisco forty nine Ers and Los Angeles Rams scratchers from 1:12:17.600 --> 1:12:20.400 the California lottery. A little play can make your day. 1:12:21.080 --> 1:12:23.000 Peace Play responsibily. Must be eighteen years or older to 1:12:23.000 --> 1:12:23.840 purchase plate or claim