WEBVTT - Ep. 9: Jesse Griffiths 0:00:00.920 --> 0:00:05.160 Hey, everybody, Welcome to episode number nine of The Hunting Collective. 0:00:05.640 --> 0:00:08.960 I've been O'Brien, and this week we are joined by 0:00:09.000 --> 0:00:12.639 none other than Jesse Griffis. He's the owner of Die 0:00:12.680 --> 0:00:16.040 Dowey Butcher's Shop and supper club here in Austin, Texas, 0:00:16.360 --> 0:00:19.759 the author of a book called A Field, a Chef's 0:00:19.760 --> 0:00:23.160 Guide Preparing and Cooking Wild Game that is absolutely one 0:00:23.200 --> 0:00:26.800 of the best field guys you'll ever pick up. It's 0:00:26.800 --> 0:00:30.400 it's more than a recipe book. It's more than a 0:00:30.440 --> 0:00:32.839 book to learn about how to cut up meat. It 0:00:33.040 --> 0:00:35.800 is quite frankly, a coffee table book for anybody who 0:00:35.800 --> 0:00:38.879 eats meat. So before I go any further, I will 0:00:38.920 --> 0:00:41.919 tell you that what first drew me to Jesse was 0:00:41.960 --> 0:00:45.920 that book. I have. I have it. It's amongst the 0:00:46.000 --> 0:00:49.360 must reads in my house. I flipped through it every 0:00:49.360 --> 0:00:52.520 time I'm thinking of a recipe or I'm thinking of 0:00:52.920 --> 0:00:56.720 something I need to do in the kitchen, and Jesse 0:00:57.080 --> 0:01:01.320 is always have the answer in that book. I also 0:01:01.320 --> 0:01:03.880 want to connect with him just about his his ideas 0:01:04.040 --> 0:01:09.520 around food and how we find it. Jesse's supper Club 0:01:09.760 --> 0:01:13.600 here in Austin, Texas is all locally sourced When I 0:01:13.640 --> 0:01:16.240 say locally sourced, I mean everything from the salt to 0:01:16.280 --> 0:01:18.720 the garlic, to lemons two limes, to the meat to 0:01:18.840 --> 0:01:24.039 the vegetables is all sourced, locally, grown or killed locally, 0:01:25.080 --> 0:01:27.720 and in the in the region of Texas where we 0:01:27.720 --> 0:01:30.399 are located. So he's got a lot to say about that. 0:01:30.760 --> 0:01:33.119 He's got a lot to say about why we go hunting, 0:01:33.160 --> 0:01:35.839 why he goes hunting. And he's also a guy who 0:01:35.880 --> 0:01:39.160 takes nine hunters out into the woods. They shoot hogs, 0:01:39.600 --> 0:01:42.360 and he teaches them how to butcher the entire thing. 0:01:42.680 --> 0:01:46.399 So we learned a lot in this conversation. I really 0:01:46.440 --> 0:01:49.480 enjoyed connecting with Jesse. He's an interesting guy, down home 0:01:49.600 --> 0:01:53.120 dude with a lot of great insights, and I enjoyed it. 0:01:53.320 --> 0:02:09.280 So without further ado, Jesse Griffith's Episode number nine. All right, 0:02:10.639 --> 0:02:14.320 Jesse Griffis, thanks for joining me. Yeah. Absolutely, we're here 0:02:14.360 --> 0:02:18.200 in uh the YETI flagship. We're gonna do it outside 0:02:18.200 --> 0:02:20.720 to be really authentic here in Austin, but it's wendy. 0:02:20.760 --> 0:02:23.359 So it's pretty wendy stuck in a green room drinking 0:02:23.400 --> 0:02:26.480 beer or canned wine in your case, in my case, 0:02:27.600 --> 0:02:32.560 so Austin, Texas you're a business owner restaurants or have 0:02:32.600 --> 0:02:35.239 a lot of history here. You're telling me when you 0:02:35.280 --> 0:02:37.600 first came to town. Yeah, yeah, What was it like 0:02:37.600 --> 0:02:39.480 when you first got out of here? Oh? You know, 0:02:39.560 --> 0:02:42.320 I mean in my perspective at the time, I was 0:02:42.360 --> 0:02:46.040 just a line cook, you know, looking for work. Um, 0:02:46.200 --> 0:02:49.040 and Austin had that had that glow. You know. I 0:02:49.080 --> 0:02:52.480 came from North Texas and I just thought this was 0:02:52.520 --> 0:02:55.000 the coolest town. And I mean, obviously I stayed here, 0:02:55.040 --> 0:02:58.520 so there's something going. But uh, you know I got 0:02:58.560 --> 0:03:01.240 down here, I really liked it. Um. I was able 0:03:01.240 --> 0:03:05.280 to you know, fish in any direction on my days off, 0:03:05.320 --> 0:03:08.000 and I think that really sealed the deal. Being able 0:03:08.040 --> 0:03:11.840 to go to the hill country are up to you know, 0:03:11.840 --> 0:03:15.400 the big reservoirs or anything. There's just endless, endless places 0:03:15.440 --> 0:03:20.919 to go out here, and so uh I stayed. I stayed. Well, 0:03:20.960 --> 0:03:24.280 I mean, you've you have a restaurant here was becoming 0:03:24.360 --> 0:03:30.000 pretty famous Die Dewey. Yeah. Um. And I guess that 0:03:30.160 --> 0:03:33.040 spends right into how you do things over there. I 0:03:33.040 --> 0:03:38.040 mean you take ingredients from the region and build pretty 0:03:38.040 --> 0:03:42.680 fantastic dishes from what I've my experience. Thank you. What 0:03:42.720 --> 0:03:45.440 do you feel like it's unique about this place. That's 0:03:45.480 --> 0:03:48.680 the region. Yeah, the region. Culinary wise, what's I think 0:03:48.720 --> 0:03:52.119 it's you know, it's kind of it's kind of a sleeper. 0:03:52.240 --> 0:03:56.360 You know. We always compare it to northern California, where 0:03:57.560 --> 0:04:01.680 the modern theory of of low coal sourcing started. You know, 0:04:01.800 --> 0:04:04.960 I mean local sourcing is is quite possibly the oldest 0:04:06.080 --> 0:04:09.839 uh concept known to man, maybe the second oldest and 0:04:09.960 --> 0:04:13.040 uh of just eating food that that comes from around 0:04:13.040 --> 0:04:15.560 where you live. And so but it was popularized in 0:04:15.800 --> 0:04:18.279 you know, the seventies and eighties and in the Berkeley 0:04:18.279 --> 0:04:20.800 and San Francisco, and they really kind of pushed it home. 0:04:20.880 --> 0:04:24.480 And UM, I think that the ideal of being able 0:04:24.520 --> 0:04:26.680 to do that in Central Texas. It looks pretty bleak 0:04:26.680 --> 0:04:31.400 here sometimes. Um, but if you travel in in three 0:04:31.400 --> 0:04:34.800 hours and in direction, you've got you've got so many options. 0:04:34.839 --> 0:04:38.279 You've got the you've got the Gulf to the east, 0:04:38.360 --> 0:04:40.440 you've got the hill country to the west. Up north, 0:04:40.480 --> 0:04:44.960 it's black land prairie. Um, there's dairy farms, lots of 0:04:45.000 --> 0:04:47.120 agriculture up there. And then you go south for three 0:04:47.120 --> 0:04:50.880 hours and um, they're growing mangoes. And so really we're 0:04:50.960 --> 0:04:53.800 kind of at the epicenter of this really kind of 0:04:53.839 --> 0:04:56.000 a beautiful part of the world. It's a bit hot 0:04:57.000 --> 0:05:00.960 weather is um, you know, a bit inconsistent. I know 0:05:01.040 --> 0:05:03.720 everybody thinks it there whether there's crazy, but everybody else 0:05:03.800 --> 0:05:06.520 is wrong. Yeah, we were just sitting out there on 0:05:06.560 --> 0:05:09.200 the porch. The wind was like a hard east wind 0:05:09.240 --> 0:05:11.240 and then it was a hard west wind, and it's 0:05:11.360 --> 0:05:14.760 it's it never can make up its mind down here. Um, 0:05:14.920 --> 0:05:17.560 it's a it's a drought. And I'll let you know, 0:05:17.600 --> 0:05:19.120 the way we get out of a drought is always 0:05:19.120 --> 0:05:22.760 the same way. It's a flood. Flood. I've been here, 0:05:22.800 --> 0:05:25.040 you have been here three years, and like, is it 0:05:25.080 --> 0:05:27.720 you know what's when's the thunderstorm season start? When is 0:05:27.760 --> 0:05:31.600 it typically January through December? Yeah, we've been getting into 0:05:31.800 --> 0:05:35.000 the last a couple of months. But see, you have 0:05:35.120 --> 0:05:39.039 to have this knowledge of this from growing up here 0:05:39.080 --> 0:05:41.560 one a north north of year obviously was in the 0:05:41.600 --> 0:05:45.560 States still, and then sourcing all of that your ingredients 0:05:45.600 --> 0:05:47.960 from all these different places in the state. You have 0:05:48.040 --> 0:05:50.400 no choice, but they have knowledge of where that's coming from, 0:05:50.680 --> 0:05:54.320 then why it's good and what makes it special, and 0:05:54.360 --> 0:05:56.400 then why it's gonna work for you. I mean, is 0:05:56.400 --> 0:05:58.240 that is that right to say? I mean, you just 0:05:58.240 --> 0:06:01.120 have this it's knowledge that read just because of you 0:06:01.200 --> 0:06:03.440 have to use it to feed people, right, And I 0:06:03.480 --> 0:06:05.640 think it's you know, you can look at it two ways. 0:06:05.680 --> 0:06:07.599 I mean, you have you have to be so flexible 0:06:07.640 --> 0:06:09.760 with how you get everything. And you can either be 0:06:10.360 --> 0:06:13.359 put off or burdened by the fact that, you know, 0:06:13.480 --> 0:06:16.200 limes went out of season early this year, which they did, 0:06:16.920 --> 0:06:20.240 so we don't have limes right now, um, or you 0:06:20.279 --> 0:06:23.200 can kind of celebrate the way that that works, whereas 0:06:23.279 --> 0:06:25.320 last year we had limes year around, like it was 0:06:25.360 --> 0:06:28.160 just a great year that the lime trees just produced. 0:06:28.200 --> 0:06:31.039 We we never had any slow down. And you know, 0:06:31.040 --> 0:06:33.279 I just look back on two thousand seventeen is being 0:06:33.360 --> 0:06:38.800 the best lime year ever. Um. And this the the 0:06:38.960 --> 0:06:41.640 knowledge of of when things come and go in the 0:06:41.760 --> 0:06:44.520 how how simple that is, and when to celebrate, you know, 0:06:44.560 --> 0:06:46.479 like we we put flounder back on the menu the 0:06:46.480 --> 0:06:49.520 other day, and it's fun to explain to the staff 0:06:49.560 --> 0:06:54.520 that flounder leave for a while. You know, November December, 0:06:54.800 --> 0:06:57.599 they're they're starting their migration out into the into the 0:06:57.600 --> 0:07:02.880 gulf and then early spring, you know, right about now, 0:07:03.080 --> 0:07:05.320 maybe the last month or so, they're re entering the 0:07:05.360 --> 0:07:08.760 bays and so we're starting to see flounder again. And 0:07:08.760 --> 0:07:10.840 so I mean it's only about a two three month 0:07:10.920 --> 0:07:14.000 gap where you don't see them, but when we tend 0:07:14.120 --> 0:07:19.400 to serve flounder is in October and then again in 0:07:19.440 --> 0:07:22.040 the spring, you know, and it's just like there's a 0:07:22.080 --> 0:07:25.400 seasonality to everything, you know, and I think that's really fun. 0:07:25.480 --> 0:07:28.840 Or pelagic fish or Farrell hawks, you know, it's like 0:07:28.880 --> 0:07:30.800 they're real hard to come by in the summer because 0:07:30.840 --> 0:07:33.720 we get to get them trapped and so um they 0:07:33.760 --> 0:07:36.880 don't survive in the traps past eight nine am, and 0:07:36.960 --> 0:07:40.720 so nobody traps them. So we really we start socking 0:07:40.720 --> 0:07:43.840 away a lot of Farrell hog late spring, knowing that 0:07:43.880 --> 0:07:45.600 it's about to get tough, and we serve a lot 0:07:45.600 --> 0:07:49.320 of those things. So but I absolutely love it. I 0:07:49.400 --> 0:07:52.280 love the conversations. And a lot of people don't understand 0:07:52.320 --> 0:07:54.840 when we say that we're locally sourced, that we go 0:07:54.920 --> 0:07:58.080 all in like we don't have onions, Well, we don't 0:07:58.080 --> 0:08:00.160 have onions. We don't have bolb garlic right now out, 0:08:00.880 --> 0:08:04.520 we don't have limits, and we don't have limes. I 0:08:04.640 --> 0:08:07.320 just mentioned it's more profound. But we just opened a 0:08:07.400 --> 0:08:09.400 tak area, and so when we don't have limes at 0:08:09.400 --> 0:08:12.320 the tak area, it's a it's a it's a hard conversation. 0:08:12.360 --> 0:08:14.320 And sometimes you can have a line with this, well 0:08:15.000 --> 0:08:16.480 we don't have any, and then they're like, well I 0:08:16.520 --> 0:08:19.240 saw lines at the store. What's your problem. I'm like, well, 0:08:19.240 --> 0:08:20.920 it's just not the way we work, you know. It's 0:08:20.960 --> 0:08:23.400 just like our our food is is supposed to be 0:08:24.400 --> 0:08:28.040 a very acute and direct representative of what's available right here, 0:08:28.200 --> 0:08:30.840 and we don't have to burden anybody else by taking 0:08:30.880 --> 0:08:33.319 their resources. We don't know what the lime industry in 0:08:33.400 --> 0:08:39.520 Mexico really is, what the what the impact is, how 0:08:39.600 --> 0:08:42.200 they treat their workers, you know what? You know what 0:08:42.320 --> 0:08:46.000 that land might be better served as the lime industry here. 0:08:46.080 --> 0:08:48.320 You know, in South Texas, we know the farmer, We 0:08:48.360 --> 0:08:50.440 know where those lives are coming from, and we can 0:08:50.480 --> 0:08:53.280 feel really good supporting them. And I think that getting 0:08:53.280 --> 0:08:56.600 beyond this ideal, if we deserve to have whatever we 0:08:56.640 --> 0:08:59.719 want at all times, is incorrect. Do you feel you 0:08:59.760 --> 0:09:02.640 have any good stories about There's a lot there we 0:09:02.640 --> 0:09:04.640 can talk well, we'll talk about a lot, but it 0:09:04.720 --> 0:09:06.480 comes in my mind, like giving to get stories of 0:09:06.960 --> 0:09:10.200 relationships with these farmers or growers and people that you 0:09:10.240 --> 0:09:13.280 really appreciate that that have had tough times and you 0:09:13.360 --> 0:09:16.240 kind of flow with them as they provide you these ingredients. 0:09:16.280 --> 0:09:18.960 I mean, there's got to be many, many of those, 0:09:19.720 --> 0:09:22.040 you know. I've I've developed a lot of relationships over 0:09:22.080 --> 0:09:26.200 the years with with farmers. Um It's definitely changed my 0:09:26.320 --> 0:09:29.640 ideas about life in general, because there there are a 0:09:29.679 --> 0:09:34.679 certain bunch they are they God bless them, but they 0:09:34.720 --> 0:09:36.559 complain all the time because they have a lot to 0:09:36.600 --> 0:09:39.920 complain about. They have to deal with the worst of it, 0:09:40.320 --> 0:09:42.280 especially when they're doing it right. If they're not, you know, 0:09:42.360 --> 0:09:45.439 using pesticides things like that. There really is a lot 0:09:45.480 --> 0:09:49.280 of pestils out there that's gonna get reported on these days. Uh, 0:09:49.320 --> 0:09:51.079 you don't see that in like the hard land pandering 0:09:51.120 --> 0:09:55.079 commercials for commercials. God made a farmer and he's yeah, 0:09:55.360 --> 0:09:59.000 I mean they are there. I mean, they're they're definitely 0:09:59.040 --> 0:10:03.000 the most wonderful peovil. They're hard, hard people. They have 0:10:03.040 --> 0:10:06.880 a hard job and uh yeah, dealing with the you know, 0:10:06.920 --> 0:10:08.960 the the ebb and flow of it. And you know, 0:10:09.000 --> 0:10:12.240 we've just learned to to just accept it, you know, like, oh, 0:10:12.280 --> 0:10:14.600 are you going to have this? Oh, yeah, we should 0:10:14.640 --> 0:10:16.640 have that through July and then you know, may might 0:10:16.720 --> 0:10:18.679 roll around be like that was that was the last 0:10:18.679 --> 0:10:21.360 to that does the last the garlic? I mean like 0:10:21.559 --> 0:10:24.840 really like, oh but she told us that and yeah, 0:10:24.840 --> 0:10:27.600 but they got other things in their minds, um, And 0:10:27.720 --> 0:10:30.120 I understand that. I don't know if I can think 0:10:30.160 --> 0:10:35.320 of a specific story right now, but there's there's a 0:10:35.360 --> 0:10:37.679 lot of just give and take. But we keep our 0:10:37.679 --> 0:10:40.120 menus very much in flux for that reason, and we 0:10:40.200 --> 0:10:42.920 keep our food really simple also for that reason. So 0:10:43.000 --> 0:10:46.920 at any point we're able to take, um something off 0:10:47.000 --> 0:10:48.960 or had something on. It's just we'd like to be 0:10:49.000 --> 0:10:52.480 really flexible with it. Um. You know, we celebrate you know, 0:10:53.160 --> 0:10:56.680 blue crabs when they're in season, and crawfish and oysters 0:10:56.760 --> 0:11:00.760 and things like that that are uh seasonal, see dudes. Um, 0:11:00.840 --> 0:11:02.800 And then when they're gone, they're just gone. And people 0:11:03.240 --> 0:11:05.840 people are pretty accepting of that. Yeah, I mean, use 0:11:05.880 --> 0:11:09.199 a good word. They're celebrating. I mean you you're celebrating 0:11:09.400 --> 0:11:13.800 the seasonality of the place you live. And I find that, 0:11:13.880 --> 0:11:17.479 like we talked about this before on the podcast about 0:11:17.520 --> 0:11:20.160 how strange. It feels sometimes for me to like walk 0:11:20.200 --> 0:11:24.200 through the meat section at because being a hunter and 0:11:24.200 --> 0:11:27.719 I'm just eating elk and deer and turkeys, walking through 0:11:27.720 --> 0:11:29.880 that meat section now just feels I feel out of place. 0:11:29.920 --> 0:11:31.679 If it doesn't feel the place I don't visit, I 0:11:31.720 --> 0:11:33.920 wouldn't know what to look for if I was there. Um, 0:11:34.360 --> 0:11:37.320 if I a steak, it's when someone else serves it 0:11:37.360 --> 0:11:39.280 to me, beef steaks, someone else starts to me at 0:11:39.280 --> 0:11:43.199 a restaurant. So there's just this familiarity and it's, as 0:11:43.360 --> 0:11:46.640 you will know, the best meal has a story. And 0:11:46.640 --> 0:11:48.240 I've been when I've eaten in your place, and I 0:11:48.280 --> 0:11:49.840 was like, this is a story to this. I mean 0:11:49.840 --> 0:11:52.160 it's not written on this paper, but you damn sure 0:11:52.400 --> 0:11:55.520 know that this is. This all had to come together 0:11:55.520 --> 0:11:57.720 in some confluence of events for me to eat this thing, 0:11:58.000 --> 0:12:00.600 which is a different feeling, and it's on I mean, 0:12:00.640 --> 0:12:03.480 it's really what keeps us going. It's it's hard to 0:12:03.640 --> 0:12:05.640 I mean that that. I mean, I'm not gonna try 0:12:05.679 --> 0:12:10.439 to garner sympathy, but it's just it is a struggle, 0:12:10.559 --> 0:12:13.040 more so than other restaurants that can just make a 0:12:13.080 --> 0:12:15.760 phone call and and it all appears the next day. 0:12:15.880 --> 0:12:19.600 Every every dish has to be composed one little item 0:12:19.640 --> 0:12:22.679 at a time, and things change a lot. You know that, 0:12:23.400 --> 0:12:27.160 you know when you're again with Ferrell hogs, when you're 0:12:27.160 --> 0:12:29.080 dealing with that as they can be any size. You know, 0:12:29.120 --> 0:12:32.080 you might get a twenty pounder, you might get a pounder, 0:12:32.520 --> 0:12:35.880 one might be lean, one might be a big fatty sow, 0:12:36.080 --> 0:12:38.400 you might get a big bore. And so we have 0:12:38.480 --> 0:12:41.000 to you have to be clever and how you aggregate 0:12:41.040 --> 0:12:44.280 those items onto your menu to kind of like put 0:12:44.320 --> 0:12:47.600 it all together so that you do have a moticum 0:12:47.679 --> 0:12:50.720 of consistency, because if you don't, then I mean you 0:12:50.760 --> 0:12:52.560 have to have a little bit. I'm just saying enough. 0:12:52.640 --> 0:12:55.240 Otherwise everybody just gets confused with servers don't know what's 0:12:55.240 --> 0:12:59.760 going on. Uh. Staff just they can't follow it. But um, 0:12:59.800 --> 0:13:03.000 I think that you do have to be able to 0:13:03.040 --> 0:13:05.679 be just extremely flexible with it. And I think the 0:13:05.800 --> 0:13:09.000 celebration like what you're saying. You know, if you eat strawberries, 0:13:09.000 --> 0:13:12.360 you're around, it's not special in March when they come 0:13:12.360 --> 0:13:15.600 on and they they get that first four or five 0:13:15.720 --> 0:13:18.880 days of consistent sunlight and they turn into candy. Uh 0:13:18.920 --> 0:13:22.040 and you just don't. You're not as excited about a strawberry, 0:13:22.040 --> 0:13:24.080 and you should be excited about a strawberry. Would be 0:13:24.160 --> 0:13:26.560 very excited about asparagus. It's only in season for about 0:13:26.600 --> 0:13:31.400 three or four weeks, and we, to my knowledge, get 0:13:31.400 --> 0:13:34.040 all of the local asparagus because I've got a guy, 0:13:34.360 --> 0:13:36.679 got an asparagus. Yeah. I don't know a lot of 0:13:36.720 --> 0:13:38.680 people to have asparious guys, but that's I feel like 0:13:38.720 --> 0:13:42.040 that's you gotta have that. Yeah, And that's as far 0:13:42.080 --> 0:13:46.199 as you're that's all you're gonna know. I got this guy, 0:13:47.280 --> 0:13:48.720 I meet him in an alley, Give me a couple 0:13:48.720 --> 0:13:52.480 of duffle bags, will asparagus. We go our separate ways. Well, 0:13:52.520 --> 0:13:55.160 I think that it just it strikes me that all 0:13:55.200 --> 0:13:59.480 of that and and for me, hunting drove me to garden, 0:13:59.679 --> 0:14:02.520 dream to get chickens, and jove me to do things 0:14:02.559 --> 0:14:06.240 that I just because I saw the feeling of eating 0:14:06.240 --> 0:14:09.680 a backstrap something I just killed. If I could do that, 0:14:09.679 --> 0:14:11.920 well other stuff, why wouldn't I? You know, I don't 0:14:11.920 --> 0:14:15.720 have Most people don't have the ability to to source everything. 0:14:16.040 --> 0:14:18.440 I mean, it's just not it's not tangible. But you 0:14:18.440 --> 0:14:22.480 can't do some things that you feel like people have. Yeah, 0:14:23.480 --> 0:14:25.680 I'd say we. The other subject is that you you 0:14:25.720 --> 0:14:27.720 teach a lot of people, take them out in the field, 0:14:27.720 --> 0:14:30.600 non hunters or hunters, shoot a hog, take them back 0:14:30.600 --> 0:14:32.480 to your place, and teach them how to butcher it up. 0:14:33.200 --> 0:14:36.600 I think that's also a problem in this country where 0:14:36.920 --> 0:14:39.400 even for hunters, nobody has a problem coming to your house. 0:14:39.440 --> 0:14:42.440 But like, can I borrow up deer steak? Then they 0:14:42.480 --> 0:14:43.960 go eat a deer steak and they tell somebody, I 0:14:44.000 --> 0:14:46.880 eat a deer steak. That was awesome. But do they 0:14:46.920 --> 0:14:48.960 know how to do it? You know? Do they have 0:14:49.000 --> 0:14:52.920 that skill? Yeah? I think that's special all the way around. 0:14:53.240 --> 0:14:55.440 From knowing where your lives come from, to know one 0:14:55.480 --> 0:14:57.040 where your garlett comes from, to know one where that 0:14:57.080 --> 0:14:59.680 meat comes from, and also how to take care of 0:15:00.160 --> 0:15:03.160 specifically a meat part of it, right, and I think 0:15:03.320 --> 0:15:06.280 education is is a key part of it. And with 0:15:06.720 --> 0:15:10.600 attitudes that are I'm not gonna say changing, let's just 0:15:10.640 --> 0:15:14.240 say swirling. As far as uh, where food comes from, 0:15:14.800 --> 0:15:17.920 what guns are for, what hunting is, I think that 0:15:18.120 --> 0:15:21.800 it's a there's definitely, uh, there's a there's kind of 0:15:21.800 --> 0:15:27.440 a moving line as as far as who is doing 0:15:27.480 --> 0:15:30.000 these things these days. You know, when eight years ago 0:15:30.040 --> 0:15:33.760 in Austin it was a little different. Um hunting was 0:15:33.760 --> 0:15:37.280 was definitely perceived to be kind of in the realm 0:15:37.320 --> 0:15:41.680 of gun culture. And uh, it's since shifted a bit 0:15:41.760 --> 0:15:44.840 in the inappropriate direction. And it's I love seeing that 0:15:45.000 --> 0:15:47.440 or fishing or whatever. You know, Like you said, you 0:15:47.560 --> 0:15:51.760 got chickens, and it's like, once you spend a year 0:15:51.880 --> 0:15:57.600 eating just fish and venison and um eggs from your chickens, 0:15:57.640 --> 0:15:59.760 it's really hard to go back to buying that at 0:15:59.760 --> 0:16:02.640 the tore because you you notice the way that food 0:16:02.760 --> 0:16:05.760 sits with you. It's not the same. Yeah, I was 0:16:05.800 --> 0:16:09.840 saying before that. My I apologize to my wife all 0:16:09.840 --> 0:16:11.520 the time because I've becomes sort of a dick when 0:16:11.560 --> 0:16:14.400 it comes to our like our finer cuts of meat 0:16:14.440 --> 0:16:17.280 like tendoins and backstraps. If she cooks it up and 0:16:17.320 --> 0:16:19.520 it's not quite what it should be, or if she 0:16:19.640 --> 0:16:21.120 leaves it in too long in the baby's crying and 0:16:21.200 --> 0:16:25.320 she overcooks it, I get I've become a little bit indignant, like, honey, 0:16:25.360 --> 0:16:28.160 I can't go get that again. So she said said 0:16:28.160 --> 0:16:29.320 to me a couple weeks ago, you're kind of an 0:16:29.320 --> 0:16:35.280 asshole when it comes to these these nicer cuts, they maybe, yes, 0:16:36.200 --> 0:16:38.400 this is a Catharsis for me. I just I'm talking 0:16:38.400 --> 0:16:40.080 to you about it as a way to kind of 0:16:41.240 --> 0:16:42.520 send to get it out there in the public. So 0:16:42.560 --> 0:16:44.760 I change. But do you ever feel like that's a restaurant? 0:16:44.760 --> 0:16:47.960 I mean there is such pressure to to use every 0:16:48.040 --> 0:16:50.520 little bit of everything. Yeah, I mean it's a beat 0:16:50.560 --> 0:16:53.800 green or um, you know, a quail, you know. I 0:16:53.840 --> 0:16:56.320 think you know if you have Lione cooks that are 0:16:57.520 --> 0:17:01.320 spent years and other restaurants and there they can throw 0:17:01.360 --> 0:17:05.280 away a part of a chicken. But it's it's that 0:17:05.359 --> 0:17:07.560 was a life, you know. And I have no problem 0:17:07.600 --> 0:17:09.560 with tell him that either. And that was a life. 0:17:09.600 --> 0:17:10.879 You know. How I know that was a life is 0:17:10.920 --> 0:17:14.760 because um, you know, and I'm not I'm not boasting, 0:17:14.800 --> 0:17:17.080 but I mean it's just an observation that I think 0:17:17.119 --> 0:17:19.959 about all the time. I have taken a lot of lives, 0:17:21.119 --> 0:17:24.080 um a lot, and be the most of them are 0:17:24.119 --> 0:17:28.560 blue girls. But um, beyond that, I mean a lot 0:17:28.600 --> 0:17:32.680 of them are pigs, you know. And it's uh, it's 0:17:32.720 --> 0:17:37.399 it's profound. And you don't tew that away. Um you 0:17:37.720 --> 0:17:40.879 give you give people who are opposed to, you know, 0:17:40.960 --> 0:17:44.760 eating animals a lot of fodder by mistreating at one second, 0:17:44.840 --> 0:17:47.520 it's just disrespectful to the animal. I'm sure you know 0:17:47.560 --> 0:17:49.720 they don't really care if they're getting eating there prepared well. 0:17:50.160 --> 0:17:53.120 But um, it is incumbent on you to do that. 0:17:53.359 --> 0:17:58.160 And so absolutely it does require a bit of attention. 0:17:58.240 --> 0:18:00.840 And I think what you were just saying about how 0:18:01.440 --> 0:18:04.840 the importance that you put on sourcing meat, how it 0:18:04.840 --> 0:18:07.320 transvers everything else, and I think that it's just it's 0:18:07.400 --> 0:18:12.040 very disingenuous. Um. Sometimes when you meet someone that's a 0:18:12.080 --> 0:18:14.640 hunter and they're very specific, or a rancher for that matter, 0:18:14.680 --> 0:18:18.440 I see this a lot um. They are very um 0:18:19.359 --> 0:18:23.960 um per nickinty about where their meat comes from. The 0:18:24.000 --> 0:18:28.040 open the refrigerator and the vegetables don't have the same providence. 0:18:28.080 --> 0:18:31.320 They're not putting the same import in there. And and 0:18:31.400 --> 0:18:34.199 I don't get that. I'm you know, I'm not not judging, 0:18:34.240 --> 0:18:36.080 but I'm just saying I don't I don't understand that. 0:18:36.119 --> 0:18:39.639 I don't conceptualize I choose one. You really have to 0:18:39.640 --> 0:18:41.760 go all in. And I think that you know, when 0:18:41.760 --> 0:18:44.639 you start making these decisions, than resources all around you, 0:18:44.680 --> 0:18:47.959 no matter what that resources if it's a paperback, all 0:18:47.960 --> 0:18:50.600 of a sudden you start looking that a little bit differently. 0:18:50.680 --> 0:18:54.440 You know, there was a tree with an animal. That's 0:18:54.440 --> 0:18:59.000 an egg that came from a warehouse versus by my backyard, 0:18:59.160 --> 0:19:03.439 or I purchase from a farmer at a fair price, 0:19:04.080 --> 0:19:06.879 you know, a real price. You have the propensity to 0:19:06.920 --> 0:19:09.400 share two as I'm sure well aware when that's something 0:19:09.440 --> 0:19:11.840 that you have. But it's an egg that you gathered 0:19:11.840 --> 0:19:13.960 from a chicken that you helped take care of, or 0:19:13.960 --> 0:19:15.560 a piece of meat from deer do you remove from 0:19:15.560 --> 0:19:17.440 its body and you killed it? You want to share 0:19:17.440 --> 0:19:20.040 that with people. That's a more outward communal way to 0:19:20.119 --> 0:19:22.280 live than it is to just to like, you know, 0:19:22.400 --> 0:19:24.199 slice up a cucumber and eat it. And you had 0:19:24.200 --> 0:19:26.160 no idea other than it was the nicest looking one 0:19:26.160 --> 0:19:29.639 in the basket. Yeah, tell people all the time, what 0:19:29.680 --> 0:19:31.000 do I do with a big boar? I'm like, you 0:19:31.080 --> 0:19:32.960 turn the whole thing into theresa and you give it 0:19:33.000 --> 0:19:37.600 away Christmas gifts. I mean, that's that's a win win 0:19:37.760 --> 0:19:39.719 right there. You know, you shot the damn thing. Uh, 0:19:39.800 --> 0:19:41.400 you might as well make something out of it. They 0:19:41.400 --> 0:19:44.840 tend to make excellent spicy sausages. So why don't you 0:19:44.920 --> 0:19:47.919 just bag that thing up, make a hundred pounds of 0:19:47.960 --> 0:19:50.320 Theresa and make a bunch of people happy, and then 0:19:50.359 --> 0:19:51.919 you don't have to feel any of the you know, 0:19:51.960 --> 0:19:54.159 guilt not taking it or not knowing what to do 0:19:54.200 --> 0:19:56.240 with it. Just do the same thing with the whole thing. 0:19:56.320 --> 0:19:59.560 Got the backstrap, but turn that into theresa whatever, you know, 0:19:59.600 --> 0:20:02.439 if that's all you can do. But yeah, gifted, and 0:20:02.520 --> 0:20:05.600 I think there is a lot of room for sharing 0:20:05.640 --> 0:20:07.439 because I mean, you have that pride. I mean, you 0:20:07.480 --> 0:20:09.440 know I can tell you let me tell a story 0:20:09.440 --> 0:20:13.080 about this is amazing, you know how an eight yard 0:20:13.119 --> 0:20:18.200 it's full run Yeah, and uh rolled it, which never 0:20:18.280 --> 0:20:21.760 happened to me, but uh, you know it's but I 0:20:22.040 --> 0:20:24.639 think and it's compelling to them too, you know, and 0:20:24.640 --> 0:20:27.800 hopefully that will get them kickstarted on on joining in 0:20:28.040 --> 0:20:34.359 because I love, uh bringing new hunters aboard and also 0:20:34.600 --> 0:20:37.280 any kind of hunting and fishing with kids. I discovered 0:20:37.280 --> 0:20:41.080 once once I had a kid, to be absolutely my 0:20:41.119 --> 0:20:44.879 favorite thing in the world. Yeah, yeah, do you feel 0:20:44.880 --> 0:20:47.160 like that's part of your you know, you came came 0:20:47.240 --> 0:20:51.359 up in North Texas fairly humble upbringings, doing just normal 0:20:51.359 --> 0:20:56.600 stuff and you're beginning in the culinary world was just 0:20:56.640 --> 0:21:00.000 the same. You know, then you just break in by 0:20:59.800 --> 0:21:03.000 basically getting the job and learn in your way. There 0:21:03.080 --> 0:21:04.960 was no you didn't travel to France and go to 0:21:04.960 --> 0:21:07.560 culinary school. You just kind of figure it out as 0:21:07.560 --> 0:21:10.760 you went. You feel like you're position in that in 0:21:10.840 --> 0:21:13.120 that world. Is is too much to share what you're 0:21:13.119 --> 0:21:15.880 talking about, like this passion and for the food. And 0:21:16.119 --> 0:21:18.520