Speaker 1: Welcome to the Good Stuff.
Speaker 2: I'm Jacob Shick and I'm joined by my co host
Speaker 2: and wife, Ashley Shick.
Speaker 3: Jake is a third generation combat Marine and I'm a
Speaker 3: gold Star granddaughter. We work together to serve military veterans,
Speaker 3: first responders, frontline healthcare workers, and their families with mental
Speaker 3: and emotional wellness through traditional and non traditional therapy. At
Speaker 3: One Tribe Foundation, we.
Speaker 2: Believe everyone has a story to tell, not only about
Speaker 2: the peaks, but also the valleys they've been through to
Speaker 2: get them to where they are today.
Speaker 3: Each week, we invite a guest to tell us their story,
Speaker 3: to share with us the lessons they've learned that shaped
Speaker 3: who they are and what they're doing to pay it
Speaker 3: forward and give back.
Speaker 2: Our mission with this show is to dig deep into
Speaker 2: our guest's journey so that we can celebrate the hope
Speaker 2: and inspiration their story has to offer.
Speaker 3: We're thrilled you're joining us again.
Speaker 2: Welcome to the Good Stuff. Today, we're joined by celebrating
Speaker 2: Chef Wes Leeberherd. Chef West has made his mark on
Speaker 2: the culinary world in Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Germany, and now
Speaker 2: in Illinois. You may have seen him featured in diners,
Speaker 2: drive ins, and dives for his infamous menu at Beer
Speaker 2: Belly in LA's k Town. He's also made multiple appearances
Speaker 2: on The Food Network, the Travel Channel, and ABC.
Speaker 3: But before Wes embraced his skills in the kitchen, he
Speaker 3: grew up in the punk rock scene of Philly in
Speaker 3: the early nineties. This took him down a wild road
Speaker 3: which led him to being the lead singer in the
Speaker 3: band Kill Verona. This punk rock life meant that the
Speaker 3: volume was maxed out to the extreme, and at a
Speaker 3: critical juncture in his career, West developed Tonightis.
Speaker 2: For anyone who doesn't know tonightas is an uncontrollable ringing
Speaker 2: in their ears, and it's the gift that keeps on giving.
Speaker 2: In a very negative light, there.
Speaker 1: Is no cure.
Speaker 2: This condition pushed West to the edge literally and it
Speaker 2: almost caused him to take his own life.
Speaker 3: Today, Chef West is here to tell the story of
Speaker 3: his rock and roll adventures and how Tonightis robbed him
Speaker 3: of his dreams, drove him to the brink of suicide,
Speaker 3: and then eventually led him to a life full of
Speaker 3: great food, beautiful children, and his amazing wife.
Speaker 2: Free This dude is awesome. We can't wait for you
Speaker 2: to hear his story.
Speaker 3: We are so excited to have Chef wes Leeberher with
Speaker 3: us today.
Speaker 1: Chef, welcome to the good stuff. Thank you, it's good
Speaker 1: to be here.
Speaker 3: Tell us about growing up in your house in North Philly.
Speaker 1: Oh man, My childhood was rough. You know. It's crazy
Speaker 1: when you get older, you know, you look back and
Speaker 1: there's you try to remember, like details. I always think
Speaker 1: about with my kids. I'm like, are they going to
Speaker 1: remember this? I try to give him experiences that they'll remember,
Speaker 1: and most of the stuff I remember isn't good. So
Speaker 1: my dad was a cop. He became a police officer
Speaker 1: when I was one. I think the job made him
Speaker 1: a little untrusting and angry. You know, he's going out,
Speaker 1: he's dealing with the scum of the earth every day.
Speaker 1: For the most part, him and my mom were getting along,
Speaker 1: so there was a lot of violent yelling. I was
Speaker 1: never abused, which is great, but the relationship between my
Speaker 1: dad and my mom was pretty horrible. Then he cheated
Speaker 1: on her and left. Even after he had left the house,
Speaker 1: he lived probably like a mile not even a mile
Speaker 1: from us, and didn't see him as much as I
Speaker 1: should have. I think he made He was embarrassed by
Speaker 1: his apartment that he first had. He lived above this
Speaker 1: old grocery store, and like the stairs to his back
Speaker 1: door had like holes in it. You had to like
Speaker 1: make sure he didn't fall to the ground and die.
Speaker 1: So I think he was a little embarrassed about that.
Speaker 1: But yeah, it just got worse and worse when my
Speaker 1: mom tried to kind of put up boundaries and tell
Speaker 1: him he can't come in the house anymore, and it
Speaker 1: just made him more mad and little more like angry.
Speaker 1: And I saw a lot of stuff that I shouldn't
Speaker 1: have seen as far as anger goes. And that translated
Speaker 1: to me as a kid, seeing how my dad used
Speaker 1: to you know, shake and he was a scary dude.
Speaker 1: He's super tough. I love him, you know, get along
Speaker 1: really well now, but he was a scary guy. And
Speaker 1: it translated into me in my teenage years, like being
Speaker 1: super angry and you know, wanting to fight the world.
Speaker 1: And even into my twenties when I was playing music
Speaker 1: and going to shows, I was getting in fights all
Speaker 1: the time. And this is an angry.
Speaker 3: Kid, man, No, that's what you'd seen growing up.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it almost felt normal. Maybe it was part of
Speaker 1: me was trying to feel that acceptance being tough. You know,
Speaker 1: I was always never let anybody touch you. If they do,
Speaker 1: you hit them harder, you know, that whole thing. So
Speaker 1: you know, there was a lot of that. And it's
Speaker 1: crazy when you get older and you go through all
Speaker 1: these traumas and relationships and you have your own kids,
Speaker 1: and then you look back and you're like, man, I
Speaker 1: was just the whole time. I just wanted my dad
Speaker 1: like acknowledge me. And we have a good relationship now.
Speaker 1: You know. I don't talk about this a lot, but
Speaker 1: you know, if I'm being honest, it's like I say
Speaker 1: to my wife sometimes it's like I've never you know,
Speaker 1: he's never looked me in the eyes and been like,
Speaker 1: I'm so proud of you, man, I love you. Even
Speaker 1: though I think he is. I know that he is.
Speaker 1: He's just not that kind of guy. But it would
Speaker 1: be really cool to hear him say it because I
Speaker 1: say it to my kids all time. I always tell
Speaker 1: them I'm proud of them and I love them, and God,
Speaker 1: you're such a big part of my life. I think
Speaker 1: now he feels it. But you know, there's a part
Speaker 1: of me that's like I just want you to say
Speaker 1: it in old bastards.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's that acknowledgment.
Speaker 3: Man.
Speaker 2: I mean I feel like all of us as adults,
Speaker 2: we have that kid inside of us still, the innergladiator
Speaker 2: is connected to all the above, and I think that's
Speaker 2: what drives us through the good or the bad, or
Speaker 2: to do good or to do bad, and we're looking
Speaker 2: for outlets. I mean, that's one thing that you know,
Speaker 2: I say to Ashevi all the time about the boys,
Speaker 2: is like, look, they're never ever gonna wonder how much
Speaker 2: we love them. At least we have that going for us.
Speaker 2: Not that we're going to kill it on everything else
Speaker 2: because we won't. We'll mess up our parents, but they'll
Speaker 2: never question how much they're loved. And I think that's
Speaker 2: pretty indicative too of you know, even though you were
Speaker 2: in Philly and you know, we were down in the South,
Speaker 2: like it was pretty kind of the mo just the
Speaker 2: way it went like there, there wasn't a lot of
Speaker 2: physical connection, there wasn't a lot of verbal affirmation. It
Speaker 2: was just kind of like, hey, you're expected to just
Speaker 2: toughen up, be better and be fine. Don't worry about
Speaker 2: that thing, just move on.
Speaker 1: Yeah, very generational I think I think our generation is
Speaker 1: like the first one that's kind of like part of
Speaker 1: both worlds where we're like we grew up with our
Speaker 1: parents are like, don't what are you doing? Just be
Speaker 1: just get out of here and do something, and we're like,
Speaker 1: come back to the street.
Speaker 3: Lights come on.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and now we're finally like, wait a minute, we
Speaker 1: can tell our kids we love them. It's okay, doesn't
Speaker 1: make us weak or anything. So there was a couple
Speaker 1: of incidents when I was a kid because of you know,
Speaker 1: what was going on at my house, that I was
Speaker 1: doubled over in pain in my side. It happened twice.
Speaker 1: My mom thought I had appendicitis, so they rushed me
Speaker 1: to the hospital. Doctors are feeling my side and they're
Speaker 1: basically like, oh, yeah, he's got a pendicitis. And I remember,
Speaker 1: because I'll never eat apple cinnamon cheerios ever again ever
Speaker 1: in my life. They were like, Okay, if he can
Speaker 1: keep this down, he can go home. So I ate
Speaker 1: the apple cinnamon cheerios and I threw up. So I
Speaker 1: had to stay overnight in the hospital. You know, they
Speaker 1: did some tests on me, blah blah blah, and then
Speaker 1: they kind of determined that it was because of stress
Speaker 1: and ulcers. That kind of figured out timing wise, Like
Speaker 1: when some incidents happened in my house when I was
Speaker 1: a kid, it was physically showing itself in me. I
Speaker 1: didn't know. I didn't know it was even affecting me
Speaker 1: that badly, but now I do. But I feel bad
Speaker 1: for that kid now that I'm at peace with it.
Speaker 1: I wish I wish somebody My mom was always there
Speaker 1: for me. You know, she was a victim, and she
Speaker 1: was always worried about what was happening with her, and
Speaker 1: she was kind of consumed with that what he was
Speaker 1: doing and what was happening to her. If I could
Speaker 1: take a time machine to one place, it would be
Speaker 1: to my house when I was a kid, just to
Speaker 1: give myself a hug and be like, Yo, you got this, bro,
Speaker 1: you're gonna be okay. That'd be pretty cool.
Speaker 3: But now you're paying that forward and you're doing it
Speaker 3: for your own kids.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And you know what, I look at my kids
Speaker 1: and I'm like, how, you know, I don't understand how
Speaker 1: anyone could treat their kids poorly. It's crazy. It's crazy
Speaker 1: how there's so much child abuse in the world, and
Speaker 1: like human trafficking and all this crazy stuff. And it's
Speaker 1: like I look at my kids and I'm like, man,
Speaker 1: do are the greatest things ever? And I just want
Speaker 1: to just squeeze them every two seconds and just you know,
Speaker 1: I like think about them and cry and sometimes just
Speaker 1: because I love them so much, and I just.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I relate. I mean, it's one of those things.
Speaker 2: I'd still friends who are about to be parents for
Speaker 2: the first time. I'm gonna be like, you think you
Speaker 2: think you knew about true luck, Yeah, You're about to
Speaker 2: have a completely different understanding.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and then they start sassing you when they get older. Yeah,
Speaker 1: then they get nothing better.
Speaker 3: Yea.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but it's okay, it's all right. I still love them.
Speaker 1: I played sports every year. I ran track, I ran
Speaker 1: played football. I was captaining a football team, also listened.
Speaker 1: I was like a punk rock jock, which was weird
Speaker 1: because I was going to shows on the weekend, taking
Speaker 1: the subway to Philly, and then playing sports, which kept
Speaker 1: me out of trouble. I didn't drink or do anything
Speaker 1: in high school when a lot of my friends were
Speaker 1: skateboarding doing drugs, so I was trying to stay away
Speaker 1: from that. When I got out of high school. I
Speaker 1: went to art school for a couple of years, and
Speaker 1: because I love to paint, love to draw, but I
Speaker 1: just it just made me hate art because it was
Speaker 1: some guy saying this is the way you got to draw,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, that's not the way I draw. I
Speaker 1: don't want to draw like that. So I was like,
Speaker 1: screw this, you know, and I dropped out for music.
Speaker 1: Started a band that was the thing. I finally realized,
Speaker 1: you know, that's this is what I want to do.
Speaker 1: When I was thirteen, one of my first punk rock shows,
Speaker 1: I went to see this band called Bad Religion, very
Speaker 1: legendary punk rock band from California, and there was a
Speaker 1: band opening up for them that nobody had heard about
Speaker 1: yet named green Day. Wow. Yeah, nineteen ninety three. It
Speaker 1: was like the year before they broke and me and
Speaker 1: my friend had snuck in glow sticks for some reason,
Speaker 1: I have no idea why. My friend was like, hey,
Speaker 1: let's bring these glow sticks to the show. We put
Speaker 1: them in our.
Speaker 2: As a marine, I will say, because they're freaking amazing.
Speaker 1: Oh, it probably life saving for you. But yeah, we
Speaker 1: snuck him in our shoes and Green Day was playing,
Speaker 1: and I broke one open and I threw it on
Speaker 1: stage and I hit Billy Joe the singer with the
Speaker 1: glove stick, and he picked it up and he goes, oh, kryptonite.
Speaker 1: I think I'll keep this, and like that show like
Speaker 1: that happening, and then Bad Religion playing. I was like,
Speaker 1: that's what I want to do. I want to be
Speaker 1: a singer. I want to be in a punk rock band.
Speaker 1: And that changed my life because started going to shows
Speaker 1: every weekend, met all these kids who were, like you said,
Speaker 1: from terrible backgrounds, even like Saw worse than mine. And
Speaker 1: we became this big family and basically raised ourselves. And
Speaker 1: once I graduated high school, we all moved in together.
Speaker 1: We had four houses planted all over Philadelphia. Each house
Speaker 1: had like six people in it. In our early twenties.
Speaker 1: That was our big, huge family. So I was I
Speaker 1: was a bike messenger in Philly while I was playing
Speaker 1: my band and stuff. So then we started getting a
Speaker 1: lot of shows and getting a lot of note already
Speaker 1: on the East Coast and any of those early two
Speaker 1: thousands emo type bands like Taking Back Sunday, We've played
Speaker 1: with all of them. We know most of those guys,
Speaker 1: you know. That was like our scene. We were there
Speaker 1: in the beginning, and that was like I wanted to do.
Speaker 3: You know, what was it about music that really called you?
Speaker 1: I think, you know, it always took a lot for
Speaker 1: me to get close to people, but when once you're
Speaker 1: close to me, I'm like, you're like, dude, you're crazy.
Speaker 1: But I don't let people in it right away. Most
Speaker 1: people that meet me right away they're like, it's so quiet,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, I'm really not quiet. I just don't
Speaker 1: trust you yet, you know. So once I started playing
Speaker 1: music and I got comfortable on stage and started writing
Speaker 1: these songs, and it was the first time I ever
Speaker 1: felt like myself, like that's the person who's on stage,
Speaker 1: that's me, like totally out of my shell, comfortable. Like
Speaker 1: we were known for just like going crazy. People always said,
Speaker 1: if you like put our band on TV and turn
Speaker 1: the volume down, you think we were like a metal
Speaker 1: band because we were just like you know. So yeah,
Speaker 1: that was like total freedom for me. And then once
Speaker 1: I started writing songs, and then I'd see these younger
Speaker 1: kids come to our shows and they're singing my lyrics
Speaker 1: back to me, like wow, with like more like vigor
Speaker 1: than I like I'm doing it with and I'm like,
Speaker 1: it's the best feeling in the world. Your experience that
Speaker 1: you wrote about is helping these kids that are just
Speaker 1: like you. I've gotten emails from kids saying, like, your
Speaker 1: lyrics saved my life. You know, I was going through
Speaker 1: a hard time. Thank you for everything, And it's the
Speaker 1: greatest feeling in the whole world.
Speaker 3: Music is something you can truly connect to that can
Speaker 3: really drive your emotions one way or another. It can
Speaker 3: take you back to a moment, it can encourage you,
Speaker 3: it can lift you up, it can bring you down,
Speaker 3: it can meet you right where you are. Music is
Speaker 3: such a powerful and emotional thing.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I just always likes to tell me that my playlists
Speaker 2: it's like the most schizophrenic playlist on the planet because
Speaker 2: I have everything that you could think of and it
Speaker 2: just depends on my mood. Yeah, it completely depends on
Speaker 2: my mood. But you know, music is you know, it
Speaker 2: can be a safe place or it can be a
Speaker 2: place that can feed the negative too, and everything in between.
Speaker 2: And what's cool is regardless of this genre that somebody's into,
Speaker 2: they can absolutely relate to what we're talking about. Oh yeah,
Speaker 2: that's what's so cool about it. And the fact that
Speaker 2: you got to do it, and you got to hear
Speaker 2: these kids singing your lyrics back to you and sending
Speaker 2: you emails. Did that spiritual stuff right there, That's something
Speaker 2: that a very small percentage of the world ever gets
Speaker 2: to experience.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I mean I look back and it's what
Speaker 1: I wanted to do for my life. It didn't work out.
Speaker 1: Because of what happened to me and what I accomplished.
Speaker 1: Not many people can say that they did. You know,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of people that can get on stage
Speaker 1: with a band and play some cover songs and stuff
Speaker 1: like that, which is fine, But like, just to affect
Speaker 1: one person in a positive way, for me, it's totally
Speaker 1: worth it.
Speaker 2: Absolutely if all the work we do and all the
Speaker 2: grinding and all the travel and speaking and all of it,
Speaker 2: if it makes one person decide, hey, you know what
Speaker 2: this life is worth living, that it was all worth it.
Speaker 1: I totally agree.
Speaker 3: And so as Jake you know, alluded to, it doesn't
Speaker 3: matter the genre. So I listened to old Country on vinyl,
Speaker 3: so I know nothing about the Philly punk rock scene
Speaker 3: in the nineties. Paint that picture because I really school us.
Speaker 1: Stuff on that. It was such a cool, unique place
Speaker 1: where you know, you have all these kids from different backgrounds.
Speaker 1: You know, you got black kids, White kids, Mexican kids,
Speaker 1: Asian kids, all becoming this big family around this music.
Speaker 1: It was just a really good feeling. I mean. And
Speaker 1: in Philadelphia and the late nineties early two thousands, there
Speaker 1: was a lot of Nazis coming into from Atlantic City.
Speaker 1: There was this gang called the acy Skins, so their
Speaker 1: Nazis would come to the punk rock shows. You would
Speaker 1: get in fights with them all the time. It's like
Speaker 1: a big thing in the punk rock scene where it's
Speaker 1: like you have these certain types of punk raft bands
Speaker 1: that attract that kind of person like Nazis, and every
Speaker 1: once in a while one of those bands will play
Speaker 1: with another band that attracts people like me who are
Speaker 1: like unified with everybody, and you know there's Nazis. We
Speaker 1: could possibly go wrong. Yeah, So there were a lot
Speaker 1: of There were a lot of fights, a lot of drama.
Speaker 1: We started making these little they would call them cruise
Speaker 1: some people would call them gangs, but it's not. It's
Speaker 1: like a music crew, but in a sense it's similar
Speaker 1: where it's like we had to like band together to
Speaker 1: protect ourselves. There was fights all the time some of
Speaker 1: my friends got you know, hurt really bad. The Nazi
Speaker 1: used to threaten us on MySpace of all places. I'm like, well,
Speaker 1: of course, of course a Nazi with threaten our lives
Speaker 1: on my Space. It was just the corniest thing ever.
Speaker 2: You got to love those keyboard Warriors exactly so tough,
Speaker 2: you know.
Speaker 1: We started these little crews and that kind of put
Speaker 1: us in a group together and kind of kept us safe.
Speaker 1: Like if one of us got in trouble, there'd be
Speaker 1: twenty thirty people there within seconds to help them. So
Speaker 1: and for the most part, everybody was Most of the
Speaker 1: kids were straight edged, didn't drink, do drugs or anything
Speaker 1: like that. It was cool. It was like a big family.
Speaker 1: Wasn't the smartest thing to fight all the time, but
Speaker 1: most of the time you fight at shows. We know,
Speaker 1: like the bouncers at all the shows in Philly were like,
Speaker 1: are the guys that brought us up in the scene.
Speaker 1: Even if we started the fight, they would kick the
Speaker 1: other person out anyways, and we'd just be like, yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I loved fighting. And the reason being the reason
Speaker 2: I loved it was because it masked my emotional pain.
Speaker 2: I would rather feel the physical pain and it got
Speaker 2: to where I got addicted to it. The physical pain.
Speaker 2: It drove me, and it was like the more I got,
Speaker 2: the more I wanted it. I bet you you're kind
Speaker 2: of similar in.
Speaker 1: That there's very few feelings in the world that are
Speaker 1: better than knocking somebody out. Seriously, it's like it's brotherly
Speaker 1: love right there there.
Speaker 3: It is.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, it's just it's a it's just a thing. Yeah.
Speaker 3: So life took a sudden shift for you when you
Speaker 3: developed tonitis in your early twenties.
Speaker 1: Yep. My band was we always turned up to eleven.
Speaker 1: We used to practice in this little tiny space and
Speaker 1: you got amps, you got drums, I'm in there singing.
Speaker 1: Definitely not the smartest thing in the world. And when
Speaker 1: you're younger, you think you're indestructible and you think nothing
Speaker 1: can happen to you. My friend of mine, who's a
Speaker 1: bass player, guitar player, I remember his dad was in
Speaker 1: one of our practices and he was like, you guys
Speaker 1: wear you guys gotta wear your plugs, and I'm like, whatever,
Speaker 1: wrap so what all go deaf? One day had no idea,
Speaker 1: you know. It was younger and going to shows and
Speaker 1: my ears would ring after a show and then they
Speaker 1: would then it would stop, and I'm like, oh, that's
Speaker 1: totally normal. And then one day after a show was
Speaker 1: ringing again. And then the next day I'm like, wait
Speaker 1: a minute, still there, and I like plug. I plugged
Speaker 1: my fingers in my ears, and I'm like, oh shit,
Speaker 1: it's still there. That's weird. Okay, that's kind of scary.
Speaker 1: A couple of months later, one day just turned up
Speaker 1: super loud, just completely. It was like and I'm like,
Speaker 1: what the hell, Like, what's happening? And it didn't stop.
Speaker 1: It didn't stop for I didn't sleep for a month,
Speaker 1: and it was so stressful because of course I start
Speaker 1: looking it up, like what is this? I had no
Speaker 1: I had no clue I got. I was totally ignorant
Speaker 1: and just I had no idea what it was called
Speaker 1: tonight is tendus people say different. Started learning about it,
Speaker 1: went to the doctor. The doctor was like, you know,
Speaker 1: I hate to tell you this, so you gotta take
Speaker 1: care of your ears. It's probably never gonna go away.
Speaker 1: Sometimes it could get better. They were like, you got
Speaker 1: a pretty severe case, and it's gotten worse over the years.
Speaker 1: A lot of times people just have like one ear
Speaker 1: or both, and it's one sound. I have like five
Speaker 1: or six different sounds in my head at all times.
Speaker 1: It was like probably a month or two later, and
Speaker 1: it was just I had been drinking to like try
Speaker 1: to make myself go to sleep, a lot of crying
Speaker 1: thinking about how I had started another band with some
Speaker 1: of my best friends and we were actually making demos
Speaker 1: because this an r REP from Interscope Records was interested
Speaker 1: in us, and I'm like, oh, God, like I just
Speaker 1: gotta like we gotta get signed or something. I don't know,
Speaker 1: maybe this could go away. I didn't know. It's so
Speaker 1: stressed out about it. And it got to the point
Speaker 1: where I realized that no matter what I did, I
Speaker 1: probably wouldn't be able to keep playing music. It was
Speaker 1: all I dreamt about since I was thirteen years old. Sorry,
Speaker 1: I got a lot a little emotional about it. No
Speaker 1: being human. So yeah. So I was at a girl
Speaker 1: I was dating's apartment. She lived in an apartment building Philly,
Speaker 1: kind of like pretty high up, and I went on
Speaker 1: a roof at night because we used to sit out
Speaker 1: there and like hang out and talk and stuff. So
Speaker 1: she was asleep. I went out there. I was just
Speaker 1: hadn't slept in a while, crying my eyes out, and
Speaker 1: just walked to the ledge and I was like, fuck it,
Speaker 1: let's just gonna do it.
Speaker 2: And hey, just sudden my own curiosity shift.
Speaker 1: Were you sober at the time, Do you remember I
Speaker 1: was probably hungover? No, or I don't think I was
Speaker 1: like drunk drunk. I think i'd had a couple of beers,
Speaker 1: because if I was really drunk, I probably just fell
Speaker 1: off and I wouldn't be here talking to you. But
Speaker 1: my son was my firstborn son. He was about I
Speaker 1: think he was about two at the time, and I'm
Speaker 1: sitting there crying. I'm thinking about him, Mike, you can't
Speaker 1: do you can't do this to him. You can't do
Speaker 1: this to him. But you know that I'm not sleeping
Speaker 1: for three months really well at all. I'm like delirious,
Speaker 1: just heartbroke a Yeah, it was driving me crazy, like
Speaker 1: I felt insane. I felt it's like torture. It's basically
Speaker 1: like someone like I was just about to say the
Speaker 1: same thing. It sounds like a form of torture for sure. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I have tonight is but not like you at all. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I know a lot of military people get it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but I can't imagine. It's not constant for me,
Speaker 2: Like it'll come and go the ring right, like, I'll
Speaker 2: hear it for a minute. I'm like, oh, hey, tonight,
Speaker 2: I just think you saying hi, and just wait for
Speaker 2: it to subside, then it goes away. I cannot imagine, dude,
Speaker 2: And you have five to six different sounds and tones constantly.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I got real close. I got real close. And
Speaker 1: then I was like, you can't do this to your son.
Speaker 1: Can't do it to them. So I pulled myself together
Speaker 1: over the next couple of months. You know, I'd always
Speaker 1: been cooking. I was always pretty good at cooking in restaurants,
Speaker 1: you know, reliable cook, blah blah blah. And I was like,
Speaker 1: all right, I guess we're just gonna have to focus
Speaker 1: on that and see where we can take it. I've
Speaker 1: always been the kind of person that's I'm not satisfied
Speaker 1: with just being a normal, average, everyday person. I can't
Speaker 1: just go to work and be like, I got myself
Speaker 1: a job, man, this is this is great. You know
Speaker 1: what I mean, which is there's nothing wrong with that.
Speaker 2: No, no, no, I totally get what you're saying, dude, because
Speaker 2: I talk to honests all the time, or I'll tell
Speaker 2: them like, hey, listen, this is gonna be in your
Speaker 2: face because that's just how I roll. I just I
Speaker 2: spit truth and that's it. And I don't wake up
Speaker 2: and go out of my way to be average, because
Speaker 2: what's the point of getting out of.
Speaker 1: Bed exactly exactly. It's like, I'll never be satisfied with
Speaker 1: just having an everyday, nine to five job. I always
Speaker 1: want to do something. I always wanted to do something
Speaker 1: great and affect people and do good for the world
Speaker 1: and my kids and all that stuff, especially coming from
Speaker 1: a poor family and not really having much just being
Speaker 1: able to just do something cool that people are like, hey, man,
Speaker 1: like I appreciate what you do, and so I had
Speaker 1: to do something. So I'm like, all right, I'll start
Speaker 1: taking cooking seriously, and I started reading books and got
Speaker 1: a job as a soous chef and practice and practice.
Speaker 1: My head chef at the time was a huge coke head,
Speaker 1: so he was always late for work, so I basically
Speaker 1: had to do his work for him all the time.
Speaker 1: So I started learning like really rapidly because because he
Speaker 1: was late like every day, he eventually got f That's.
Speaker 2: Like literal baptized by fire. Yeah, like literal yeah. So
Speaker 2: I learned a lot. It went pretty quickly. I mean
Speaker 2: from the time I started taking it seriously. Within two years,
Speaker 2: I had gone to the owners of the restaurant I
Speaker 2: worked at in Philly, Vintage. Their names are Jason and Delphine.
Speaker 2: It's a couple now they have a whole fleet of
Speaker 2: restaurants in Philly. They're the most amazing people in the
Speaker 2: whole world. I owe them everything as far as my
Speaker 2: cooking career goes. Because I went to them not knowing
Speaker 2: what the hell I was doing. I was like, please,
Speaker 2: let me be executive chef. I was like, I don't
Speaker 2: do a good job, you guys can fire me. I'll
Speaker 2: put my whole job on the line. So they said, sure, yeah,
Speaker 2: give it a shot. You know, I did it. I
Speaker 2: was pretty good at it. I would look back now,
Speaker 2: I was like, you weren't that good that they still
Speaker 2: gave me a shot.
Speaker 1: A couple of years later, got better, and then some
Speaker 1: of my friends were like, yeah, we got an opportunity
Speaker 1: in California for you to help us open something. And
Speaker 1: another one of my buddies was get married. My friend Joel,
Speaker 1: he's in good Charlotte. He's marrying Nicole Ritchie, and he
Speaker 1: was like, hey, you want to do the menu for
Speaker 1: my wedding. So I was kind of like, okay, Universe,
Speaker 1: I'm listening to you. I got this opportunity. Things were
Speaker 1: going so great in Philly, just a lot of like
Speaker 1: relationship issues and just not good personal stuff. So I
Speaker 1: was like, all right, I'll go out there and see
Speaker 1: what I can do because I just didn't see my
Speaker 1: steps in Philly getting bigger. What am I going to
Speaker 1: do here? I always wanted to do something cool, and
Speaker 1: I was like, I'll go to California try to make
Speaker 1: something happen. Took a chance, packed up my car, went
Speaker 1: out there. So my buddies want to dude. They were like, Yo,
Speaker 1: we're going to open this business. Come on, you know.
Speaker 1: I was like, I'm going to quit my job. So
Speaker 1: guys got to pay me because, you know, they because
Speaker 1: they needed me to do stuff for them.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: I drove out to California from Philly to LA got there.
Speaker 1: They were like, Oh, we're so glad you're here. We
Speaker 1: can't pay you, but we're so glad you're here. I
Speaker 1: was like, what, I got a couple of credit cards,
Speaker 1: bought some stuff. We all found an apartment together in Hollywood.
Speaker 1: We drew straws for bedrooms. I got to short straw,
Speaker 1: so I was living in the living room basically in
Speaker 1: this apartment in Hollywood. Awesome. Though it was on Hollywood Boulevard,
Speaker 1: like like you could see the Hollywood sign. It was
Speaker 1: like pretty crazy. It was like, wow, not the best
Speaker 1: living conditions. I'm not making any money. I'm so poor.
Speaker 1: We were living off seven to eleven pizza and ice
Speaker 1: house beer. It's the most disgusting beer you could ever have,
Speaker 1: but it was like there was like a deal. You
Speaker 1: get two thirty two ounces for five bucks, and then
Speaker 1: the two dollars for two pieces of pizza sice. But
Speaker 1: we were building this breakfast of champions.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: We were building this business in Hollywood basically for the
Speaker 1: ground up, Like we were renovating ourselves, making recipes, cooking
Speaker 1: all night. And then I'm like, well, I gotta make money.
Speaker 1: So there's this burger place in Hollywood that's literally open
Speaker 1: until five am. So I go there, even though I've
Speaker 1: already been an executive chef, I'm flipping burgers from eleven
Speaker 1: PM to five am and then getting up at eight
Speaker 1: am working on our new business. Through that business, the
Speaker 1: guy who I started at the restaurant in La Beer Belly,
Speaker 1: the one that got really popular. I met him through
Speaker 1: that business. He was like our best customer, one of
Speaker 1: our only customers, but he really liked it. So yeah.
Speaker 1: He was like, I'm opening this bar in Koreatown in
Speaker 1: the back of a parking lot, and I was like,
Speaker 1: oh cool, I'll come check it out. I remember he
Speaker 1: was showing me around and the kitchen was set up
Speaker 1: so weird, and I remember thinking like, oh man, the
Speaker 1: chef that works here is gonna hate this skitchen. And
Speaker 1: then two months later I was like, I'm gonna come
Speaker 1: work for you. I like your concept, so yeah, he's yeah.
Speaker 1: He was like I want to do beer and I was.
Speaker 1: He was like, I want you to do some La
Speaker 1: inspired food. I was like, let's just do over the
Speaker 1: top comfort food, super bad for you, because LA when
Speaker 1: I got there twenty ten, it was super healthy. Everyone
Speaker 1: went to Salid. I was like, let's just let's make
Speaker 1: the greasiest, like just gut busting food. He was like,
Speaker 1: all right, let's do it. And then you know, a
Speaker 1: year later, we're taping diner drivings and dives and it's
Speaker 1: just yeah. And once that aired, when they approached us,
Speaker 1: they're like, oh, you got to give us twelve recipes
Speaker 1: that you want to feature on the show. So I
Speaker 1: give them twelve recipes. They picked three and then when
Speaker 1: they say, oh, you guys made it on the show,
Speaker 1: they go congratulations and You're like, oh cool, thanks. They
Speaker 1: like you had no idea?
Speaker 2: What them? No?
Speaker 1: Like we when that show aired, there was a line
Speaker 1: around the block. Like within six months, we had a
Speaker 1: front patio built onto the restaurant, at back patio built
Speaker 1: onto the restaurant, and then it became like an La staple,
Speaker 1: like everyone has been there. It's not there anymore. But
Speaker 1: I mean it was open for I think eight years
Speaker 1: and it was just like it was crazy. Man, it
Speaker 1: was a whirlwind. I started getting Food Network show offers
Speaker 1: and like Traveled, we were on the Travel Channel and
Speaker 1: it felt like every other week there was like a
Speaker 1: TV crew in there. It was cool. It's crazy how
Speaker 1: now you know? It's like working where I do now.
Speaker 1: I run a hospital system. I got into that because
Speaker 1: of COVID, and I make probably the best money I've
Speaker 1: ever made in my life. Right, I have healthcare. I
Speaker 1: can go to a doctor whenever I want. Not the
Speaker 1: same notoriety at all, you know, I was. I did
Speaker 1: just do a Food Network show, which is awesome, but
Speaker 1: like around Illinois, nobody knows, like in the restaurant world,
Speaker 1: no me, just the fuck I am. And there's something
Speaker 1: to be said about.
Speaker 2: Having your anonymity everybody.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I do like it now because the world
Speaker 1: is different now, especially after COVID, like and then the
Speaker 1: more popular social media gets. I feel like people's attention
Speaker 1: spans are like, even if you're well known, people won't
Speaker 1: care about you tomorrow anyway. And then thinking back, it's
Speaker 1: like I got all this notoriety in LA when beer
Speaker 1: Belly was open, couldn't go the doctor because I didn't
Speaker 1: have Hell's chairs. I was getting paid crap money. We
Speaker 1: opened another Beer Belly and that's when I started making like,
Speaker 1: okay money, but it was like fighting tooth and nail
Speaker 1: for every penny because it's your restaurant. And then I
Speaker 1: just ended up seeing this job for a company that
Speaker 1: runs hospital food programs. Got the job and literally they
Speaker 1: give you your account and they're like, okay, we're taking
Speaker 1: over this whole hospital system. You're gonna be in this hospital,
Speaker 1: but we're opening all these other ones, so we we
Speaker 1: can't have all we can't really have anyone here with you.
Speaker 1: And they're basically like, figure it out. I'm like, what
Speaker 1: a chef that works in the hospital will tell you.
Speaker 1: The amount of things that you order for a hospital is, Oh,
Speaker 1: it's an astronomyst like fifty times more than a restaurant.
Speaker 1: It's all these little things. And they were just like, yeah,
Speaker 1: figure it out, guy, Okay, I figured it out because
Speaker 1: that's what I'm just good at stuff like that.
Speaker 3: I think about young kids when you ask them, what
Speaker 3: do you want to be when you grow up? So
Speaker 3: few were truly convicting. You know, I want to be
Speaker 3: a professional football player, I want to be an astronaut,
Speaker 3: or I want to be a veterinarian. You knew what
Speaker 3: you wanted to do from a young age, and then
Speaker 3: unfortunate circumstances happened to you with your tonightis and you
Speaker 3: were able to shift your entire focus and go be
Speaker 3: great at something else. I mean, the perseverance that took
Speaker 3: and the level of accomplishment that you've had at that's
Speaker 3: something else. When you look back on your story, do
Speaker 3: you feel fulfilled?
Speaker 1: I did.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: It's funny that he said it, because I was talking
Speaker 1: to my soux chef the other day. I've had, you know,
Speaker 1: many shoot soox chefs in my career. I still talk
Speaker 1: to all of them. They're they're like my little brothers,
Speaker 1: you know, and a lot of them are their executive chefs. Now,
Speaker 1: my soux chef that I have now came to me
Speaker 1: and he said that someone said he was good at
Speaker 1: his job, and he didn't want to agree with him
Speaker 1: because he didn't want to be cocky. I said, it's
Speaker 1: not about being caught. You could be humble but be
Speaker 1: confident at the same time. And I started telling him
Speaker 1: about my story a little bit. I'm like, I think
Speaker 1: back at all the stuff I've been through and all
Speaker 1: the hard work I put in, like working for five
Speaker 1: dollars an hour, working for like peanuts, working ninety hours
Speaker 1: a week in the hottest kitchen in the freaking world,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, I deserve to be here. I deserve
Speaker 1: to do this job, and I'm good at it, and
Speaker 1: I know I'm good at it, and I value it.
Speaker 1: I don't take it for granted, and I'm okay with
Speaker 1: saying yes, like I'm good at my job and I
Speaker 1: know I can get better also, So that's the part
Speaker 1: where you know, I told him, like, you can still
Speaker 1: say thank you. You know, I work really hard at
Speaker 1: what I do and I deserve to be here, but
Speaker 1: I'm also still trying to get better. So that's how
Speaker 1: I think of it. I used to hate cooking so much.
Speaker 1: It was like an annoyance. I just want to go
Speaker 1: play a show. I got a ah. The first restaurant
Speaker 1: I worked out was so busy, and I almost oh god,
Speaker 1: it was I heard the ticket machine in my sleep,
Speaker 1: and it just was such a nuisance to me, you know.
Speaker 1: Once I was kind of forced into it. After my
Speaker 1: tonight is there was this one pivotal moment where it
Speaker 1: was the first time my chef was like, you're going
Speaker 1: to do this dinner for this party. You make the menu,
Speaker 1: you're gonna cook it, You're going to serve it to them.
Speaker 1: I did it, and then I went out. They called
Speaker 1: me out to the table and the whole table for me,
Speaker 1: and I was like, yeah, this is kind of like
Speaker 1: being a rock star. So that moment I realized, I
Speaker 1: was like, you know, it's not that different. There's a
Speaker 1: lot of chefs that are like very studious. You know,
Speaker 1: they went to CIA and they're super smart and they
Speaker 1: know every little detail about food, and that's cool. That's
Speaker 1: just not me. I'm not that kind of chef. I
Speaker 1: love to cook. I love to be creative. That's the
Speaker 1: part that I love. I love the creativity and I
Speaker 1: love the experience. I love like being able to put
Speaker 1: something on a plate and someone eat it and be
Speaker 1: like oh, man, like that reminds me of my childhood
Speaker 1: and that's even better than what I had then, and
Speaker 1: then being happy about it. So it's kind of a
Speaker 1: performance in a way, and that's how I started to
Speaker 1: think about being a chef.
Speaker 3: That's a beautiful way to think of it, though.
Speaker 2: I'm just grateful that we've gotten this opportunity with you. Man.
Speaker 2: You are in inspiration, bro, you really are. And it's
Speaker 2: really rad that you're in the place that you're in
Speaker 2: after everything that you've been through. You know, it's admirable. Bro.
Speaker 3: Just thinking about that and thinking about the perseverance and
Speaker 3: the tenacity to push through to get through you think
Speaker 3: about that person that was standing on that roof that
Speaker 3: night completely changed his mind and where you are today,
Speaker 3: What would you say to someone who's battling Tonightas or
Speaker 3: anything that might have taken away what they thought was
Speaker 3: going to be their life's journey.
Speaker 1: Early on, I used to go on dyke to Tonightas
Speaker 1: message boards and stuff like that. But man, it's like
Speaker 1: the most negative, depressing place ever. I mean a lot,
Speaker 1: so many like horrible stories, people talking about how like
Speaker 1: they got their nerves severed to get rid of this
Speaker 1: stuff and like so they can't hear anymore or whatever,
Speaker 1: and talking about the fear of like going deaf but
Speaker 1: still hearing the ringing. Like of course, those are all
Speaker 1: things in my head. And because there are times where
Speaker 1: my ears shift in a way, like you know, maybe
Speaker 1: like eight seven years ago, my ears started doing a
Speaker 1: different thing. I started getting like a vibration in my
Speaker 1: head too, and the it was like and it was
Speaker 1: like another level. And I had a whole another like
Speaker 1: two months of trying to cope with it and like depressed,
Speaker 1: talking about doing shit to myself stuff like that, you know,
Speaker 1: And then I would play you know, I play music
Speaker 1: every couple of years, we'd have reunion shows, and then
Speaker 1: like for two months after it, it'd be horrible so
Speaker 1: I can't do it anymore. But it's tough.
Speaker 3: Man.
Speaker 1: If there was someone dealing with it right in front
Speaker 1: of me, I would just give him a hug and
Speaker 1: just be like, it all depends on the kind of
Speaker 1: person you are. I wouldn't wish this on someone who
Speaker 1: isn't like mentally strong, because it will destroy them. You know,
Speaker 1: I turned it into I would say, not a positive can.
Speaker 1: I hear it all the time? You know, I hear
Speaker 1: it right now. But if this didn't happen to me,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't have met my wife. I wouldn't have my
Speaker 1: two babies. There's so much good stuff that happened to me,
Speaker 1: not because of it, but in spite of it. And
Speaker 1: it sucks. It's horrible. When I tell people about it,
Speaker 1: they're like, oh, Dune, that sucks. I'm like, whatever the reason.
Speaker 1: I don't talk about it a lot when people ask
Speaker 1: me about it, I don't complain about it. If I'm
Speaker 1: having a bad day with it, I don't talk about
Speaker 1: it because it just makes me hear it more. Yeah,
Speaker 1: if you get lost in it and you have that
Speaker 1: thought of oh shit, like it's never going to go away.
Speaker 1: It's there when you wake up it's there when you
Speaker 1: go to bed, just trying to like rattle you. I
Speaker 1: just decided to turn it off. Like I still hear it,
Speaker 1: of course, but I decided to not let it affect me.
Speaker 1: Maybe one day it'll get so loud that I won't
Speaker 1: be able to take it, but I'm gonna live every
Speaker 1: day until that point the best I can. Obviously, I
Speaker 1: take care of my ears a little better and I
Speaker 1: always have ear plugs on me. And it can translate
Speaker 1: to any other anything. I know what you went through.
Speaker 1: Some people might be like, oh man, I'm so sorry
Speaker 1: that happened, but you're like, it's made me who I am.
Speaker 1: You know what I mean, And it's something people can't
Speaker 1: see and they don't understand because you can't see it.
Speaker 1: You know, it's not on me. It's maddening, and if
Speaker 1: I let it drive me crazy, it would, But the
Speaker 1: hell's the point? You know, might be living in a
Speaker 1: simulation anyway, So yeah, yeah, I mean, it's.
Speaker 2: You're living proof bro that we have to be very
Speaker 2: power stingy. We have to decide where it goes and
Speaker 2: when too many things get it when they don't deserve it,
Speaker 2: And that could go for something or someone or both,
Speaker 2: you know, so keep freaking grinding, man, doing great shit.
Speaker 1: Thank you trying.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's truly inspiring to hear your story and know
Speaker 3: how you continue to persevere and you are a rock star.
Speaker 3: You make people smile and you get them through one
Speaker 3: of the most important parts of their stomach. So yeah, Wes,
Speaker 3: thank you so much for being here with us on
Speaker 3: the Good Stuff.
Speaker 1: Thanks for having me. It was a great conversation. I
Speaker 1: had a great time. And thank you for your service.
Speaker 2: Hey, dude, you're worth it. Don't forget that. And thank
Speaker 2: you for feeding souls, not only stomachs, but for feeding souls.
Speaker 1: Hey, that's all I do, man, That's what I'm here for.
Speaker 2: I dig it. If you listen to this and you're
Speaker 2: one of the people that suffer from tonight is just
Speaker 2: know that we're sending you mad.
Speaker 1: Love right now. You can't see.
Speaker 2: It like my physical wounds, but just know we respect
Speaker 2: you and Chef what's up. There's hope. You got to
Speaker 2: grind through it and it's not the end of the world.
Speaker 2: You can overcome it. Absolutely.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much for listening to the Good Stuff.
Speaker 3: If this episod so touched you today, please share it
Speaker 3: and be part of making someone else's day better.
Speaker 2: Put on your badass capes like Chef West and God
Speaker 2: be great today, and remember you can't do epic stuff
Speaker 2: without epic people. Thank you for listening to the good Stuff.
Speaker 2: The Good Stuff is executive produced by Ashley Schick, Jacob Schick,
Speaker 2: Leah Pictures and q Code Media. Hosted by Ashley Shick
Speaker 2: and Jacob Shick, Produced by Nick Cassolini and Ryan Countzouse
Speaker 2: post production supervisor Will Tindi. Music editing by Will heywood Smith,
Speaker 2: edited by Mike Robinson,