Food Glorious Food w/Chef Rock Harper

MSNBC puts Tiffany Cross in its crosshairs, and Elon Musk triggers Twitter chaos with mass firings worldwide.  Chef Rock Harper, the winner of ‘Hell's Kitchen' Season 3, explains how a successful restaurant depends on more than good food. Chef Harper also chops up some of the scams surrounding the multibillion-dollar restaurant industry and shares moves employees can make to take back some of their power in this industry. Chef also discusses his podcast, 'The Chef Rock Harper Xperiment,' reveals which ordinary sandwich was his go-to during the reality competition, and demystifies the world of …..deglazing.  HELP JACQUELINE COOK, CHEF!!! As the McRib shines, the team fishes in the land of failed McDonald's menu items, and @Rod4Short slams a Texas roadhouse purportedly serving boxed mac and cheese plus a San Francisco fine dining establishment for – you guessed it – catering to dogs.  Enjoying Roy’s Job Fair? Want more? Take 60-seconds to rate and review this fine acoustical programming.  Want to be a guest on 'Roy's Job Fair?' Got a job scam you've seen run? A worst or first job to share? Job tips to share with everyone? Get on the show! Submit your story at www.roysjobfair.com  Catch Roy alongside Jon Hamm in “Confess, Fletch,” STREAMING NOW ON SHOWTIME. Watch all Roy Wood Jr Comedy Specials NOW available on iTunes and streaming NOW on Paramount+ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to Comedy Central. That boy Elon Musk is
the chain. What in the fuck? You fire more people
than Jacquelin than one day now? Firing that Oregon ship
was eight people. Elon Musk recently bought Twitter, fired the

(00:27):
whole c suite, and then begin firing hundreds of employees,
including key members of a team that work on moderating
disinformation on the high profile social media plat form. This
one is next level. I wasn't ready. War is what

(00:48):
you do when you see in so much money on
the company that's now yours. I'm not defending him, because
those people need to eat. But when something belongs to you,
you do with it what you wish. I think the
ripples are are are heavier for this one. I don't
see it like a normal corporate move. I felt like
it was super ego move. This is for everybody have

(01:09):
multiple streams of income. My daddy put it best, don't
let one person stop your show. So Jacqueline basically telling
all of our listeners get your only fans page popping.
That's what she's saying. What would you do on only fans? Third,
It ain't all gotta be freaky show, you know, people
just like chefs and his teachers on there too. I mean,

(01:30):
at this point, if there were a group of black
men who complain heavily about children, that would be my
only fans. That's that's what I would do. I would uh,
I would have people pay me to complain about their kids,
not my own, just other people's children. My only fans
would just be videos of me asking a woman how
her day was, so you can just put that in

(01:50):
front of your girl when she get home and you
can go playa Oh my gosh, my name is Roy.

(02:18):
This is my job. Fair Wednesday. It is the most
beautiful day of the week. I don't know what day
is the week you were born on, but if it
wasn't Wednesday, your parents wouldn't have him sex or right way.
You know, I was born on a Tuesday. Stopped saying
that that is unfortunate and my condolence. You are born

(02:38):
on a Wednesday either, Yeah, but I tried to overcome
much like this election this week, I don't agree with
those results. How do I know I was born on
a Monday. That's just a averse certificate. It's just a
government document that could be four might not. I'm not
forty three. I do not accept the results of that

(03:01):
of that data. Okay, that's the new world man. You
can you can, you can claim new things that j
g I'm a forty two year old white man. I
put on new balances at least twice a week and
walk around so you know it works out. Be what
you want to be a world and as a proud
and as a proud white man. Right now, I'm tired
of the persecution of my people. Talk about it so

(03:22):
we can be what we want to be. Absolutely change.
Want to be unbothered at the hair salon. Okay, see
now you bring look, you're gonna bring up some off
I'm gonna get into it. I left it alone. Don't look,
we're talking about food today. This is me moving on

(03:44):
me turn the page. Now if you say that again,
we're gonna we're gonna talk about this is me being
a homer who they get back into the bush. This
is what Chef Rock Harper. You know, I'm from Hale's Kitchen.
He was a winning Season three. He is now a
famed international chef, and we're gonna talk to him about

(04:07):
the world of running a restaurant, how it is running
a restaurant post COVID and the scams that you move.
The fucking reality show producers run on people to try
and make them fucking cracking camera. Y'all gotta feed the people,
man feed the damn reality TV. The word reality should
be in quotations. Uh. Two things I want to talk

(04:30):
about real quick. Um, we remissed this last year? We did?
I did I say miss this? We miss this? I
know one of us working pretty sure that let's try
that again. We forgot to do it. Don't edit that

(04:53):
I said what I said. We remissed last year. I
went to let's graduated two point a gps UM number
one last year. Native American Heritage to Monrow this month,
and UM, I know one of our job Fair listeners

(05:14):
shit us up on the email Royce job Fair at
gmail dot com. If you want to point out our
racial blind spots, we're happy to own up to them.
UM drop a special episode from Beyond the Scenes where
we talked about the Indigenous community and the disrespect they
get from all the sports mascot raves and the chiefs
and you know all of that ship. We'll do that
a little later this month. J G. You had the

(05:36):
email I don't have this person's name, but the native
an assistant professor at a major university sent an email.
It's Jody, the first Nation person we had on earlier
this year that was doing the forest firework. This is
okay and he's what was cool. He's at PS as

(05:58):
a Native American. I would love to hear the job.
They're recognized November as National Native American Heritage. Mom. So
hid all right, I think we just did it, and
I think we just boom um. We do need to
talk about that, that reservation life at some point. You
know that we actually we talked to the war and

(06:20):
talking to somebody and he actually gave our jobs on
the reds. Remember he came out and we're talking about
jobs that had people as a community center. Um, so
you know, shout out. We were wanting to go back
and look at the grid. We'll find that out and
we'll get that person shout out as um as needed.
So November number one Native American Heritage Mont number two.
God damn MCB is back. And you know, don't nobody

(06:43):
work harder than that motherfucking fake meat sandwich. I don't
know what it is, but it's good. It's an Emperor
penguin foot, it's endangered, come around. Don't say that happen
if he was the sweetest movie about England. That's why
they was happy, because they wasn't turn into mcgrat They

(07:05):
were happy that the McDonald's retirement, Ronald McDonald and the Hamburglar,
and they weren't showing up in a hand article scooping
them boys up. That's what they were happy about. That's
what that whole movie was. That was a subt Did
you know? Did you know that mclobster was canceled in
the eighties because McDonald's mclobster was a real sandwich. It
was test marketed in the Northeast and did amazing in sales.

(07:27):
It did amaze. It was like a cheapass lobster role.
But they did the calculations and they went, if we
go nationwide, not global, if we just go nationwide with
the mclobster, the entire lobster population will be extinct. That
sounds right, though. I really want to know what are
the other failed sandwiches, right, you know what I mean?

(07:48):
Like what other sandwiches did they try to do that
just ultimately failed? Like the mcaguts. I remember distinctly, and
these are all real philm McDonald's Mingi sandwiches. And this
is from some Daily Show research for a sketch. We
never did make spaghetti, make lobster the Arch deluxe and pizza.
What's a deluxe? There is a restaurant I can't remember

(08:14):
the name of it, but it has a has a
twenty two dollar lobster sin which that is fabulous, I
mean truly fabulous. I get to the airport terminal. It's
time now for Cody's Most Outstanding Employee of the Week. Okay,
Tiffany cross MSNBC. And for disclosure, this is a friend

(08:40):
and I do and I don't say that casually. I
was just on a program a couple of months ago
talking about the Neutral Ground Emmy nominated documentary with the
homy c J Hunt, available now wherever you stream and
pay for ship legally. I just I don't like the
way this was done MSNBC. See abruptly canceled Tiffany Crosses show,

(09:05):
The Cross Connection. We used to come on from ten
a m. To twelve pm on Saturday mornings, and the
cancelation was announced Friday morning and it was effective immediately.
This is not how television shows are normally came, which
means that something must have happened. Now they're saying, oh,
we decided not to renew a contract. But you don't
just lock somebody off the air and give them the

(09:30):
good night, see you later, Thank you all. It was
a pleasure to be a part of the MSNBC. You
pissed somebody off. In the statement, Tiffany Cross said quote,
I am just heartening to learn of MSNBC's decision to
cancel my show four days before the mid term elections.
We were intentional about centering marginalized voices of the rising
majority from all communities of color, fresh off the heels

(09:54):
of a racial reckoning, as so many have called it.
We see that with progress, there's always backlash. You know,
that's just a little That's it. Are you with the
career in media? Spending two decades from CNN to b
T to MSNBC, I have not only navigated newsrooms but
built them as well. But they rapidly changing media landscape.

(10:18):
I look forward to maintaining a platform that continues to
reflect the changing demographics of this country. It's becoming inherently
more dangerous to speak the truth, but I will not
stop the attacks on me from other outlets and former
host Fox News Truckle Carus and Megan Kelly. Will never
control my narrative. Thank you to my community and fans

(10:40):
for your overwhelming advocacy. I can I not talk today.
I'm missed to not learn the word advocacy and figure
it out. Thank you for the more than four point
six million monthly viewers. I am forever in all of you,
and I am so grateful. See you soon, classy. I

(11:02):
really hope that she does not get black balled. Man.
I hope she does not get black balled. That is
that is something that happens a lot of media that
people don't talk about because it's like the you know,
the unspoken ugly word. When you're an outspoken black woman,
you do not get shut out of media. We all
know that when Melissa Harris Perry left MSNBC, it was
easy for her to Okay, okay, okay, what about what

(11:24):
about for she went for Kay angela Rock when angela
rob was spitting that fire and that real ship, and
she left seeing it and she was at and she left.
Bet it was real easy for another outlet was oh okay, yeah, Uma,
Maximi that's she had to join on Peter Oh damn wit.

(11:49):
They just canceled her a couple of months ago. To god,
shit right, there might be something I can see that. Yeah,
but I think I think there's a little us tang
sarcasm told to Black. Absolutely absolutely, because that wouldn't Yeah. Absolutely,
But I think there's a lesson for all of us.

(12:10):
And we talked about it just a few minutes ago.
You can't have all your money. Not saying that she does.
I'm not talking about her at all. I'm just saying holistically,
as normal everyday people that we are, don't let all
your money come from one pot. You just can't. Yeah,
I think that. You know, Tiffany is not, you know,
a wild spender. She's gonna land some amazing and she'll

(12:33):
be fine, you know. But this type of stuff, man,
with when you're talking about television, you're talking about journalism,
you gotta keep one eye over your shoulder. I hate
to say it. That's why like when folks say it though,
that's true, because you wish that, you wish the game
wasn't like that. I mean, you wish the game wasn't
like that, But I mean it is what it is.
I kind of agree with j G on this. I

(12:54):
don't think it's necessarily something you gotta apologize for it
and then before also also not forget there's a certain
level of stress that comes with being in a newsroom,
especially when like she was in she's taking shots from
other dudes that other networks, and like, if you're gonna
try to be classy about it, yeah, okay, you can
ignore it, but you know, I don't necessarily think it

(13:15):
was not in classy of her to be like, yo,
y'all keep bringing that smoke. I'm gonna bring this fire
about that. She is not just taking shots from the
likes of Tuck her calls and then making Kelly and
people at other networks, She's taking shots from their sick
of fansies, Tiffany cross It's not it's It's one thing
if you're just beefing with a person and they fuck you,
fuck you, and you just said, like the old school

(13:37):
John Steward took her calls and cross fire, like the
old school John Stewart, Jim Kramer bullshit. They used to
happen between The Daily Show and what was Fast Money
whatever Kramer Show is right, that's professional beef. Tiffany's opening
up her social media every damn day and dealing with
all of these idiots that are just verbally abusing, and

(13:57):
and then you're supposed to just sit on there every
said it just be all composed. You gotta protect black women, man,
especially when they're in the situation where they're on TV
and Cats is talking hell of crazy to him and
there's nothing about being shown this to anything else but
the networks and a lot of stuff with this social media.
A lot of these sisters, whether they've been on the news,
whether they've been on Star Wars, whether they've been on

(14:19):
Lord or the rings. We talked about places I don't
even really have black people, but like they're still getting
attacked in real time, and I feel like, you know,
there's no real balance. You expect these people to just
you expect these women to act like nothing's wrong and
get on the air and just be cool about it. Man.
Like I really respect a lot of patience you showed
before she popped off on some of them. Yeah, they

(14:40):
was already way next. Tiffany was being Tiffany, and then
they decided that's the thing. When I'm sure if we're
digging the crates in the last two years of a
cross connection, she's probably spent way hot fire, wait, something
way more hotter than that. Is there any race at
all of her for doing that kind of stuff, you know,
part of why I encourage a little bit of cursing

(15:03):
and runch Somebody on Twitter referred to us as an
amazing employment podcast, but a little raunchy at times. And
I couldn't have been more prouder of the tweet because
it was like, yes, that's exactly what. We're not raunchy'
all time, We're raunchy at times. So so it established
new boundaries of expectations from daily show viewers of me.

(15:26):
I like that we're on the edge of chaos. Roy.
If we weren't on the edge of chaos, I probably
would be bored. But nonetheless, she died on her sheet
saying exactly what's on her mind, and not cow town
and not tweaking and changing none of that ship for that,
My good friend, Tiffany Cross most outstanding employee of the week,

(15:49):
And if you need a little money in the meantime, Tiffany,
come on over to Saco Synstu Dean, because you know,
as they say, it's Sackerson state. You know, find a
way of we will find a way that we will
make one just like Park and Landing. I know the
men and her d m s right now talking about
come on, you know you don't need to work for real.
You know what I'm saying. You just let me take

(16:10):
care of you girl real quick before we meet Chef
fro Thank you down South Georgia Girl. The episode thirty
September twenty nine, The Art of the Resignation, that's when
we spoke with Thomas of the All Nations Healthcare who
broke down the Indigenous community and how COVID has affected
the reservations and how the federal government has abandoned them.

(16:31):
So that's a little bit of a tip of the
hat to Native American community. But next year, you got
you got, you got our word, we'll do it. I
don't even well, well, yeah, I don't know. We're talking about.
We're talking about we have to do a theme song.
I might, I might. I might have an idea for

(16:53):
that though, Man, you know, we might have to. We
might have to just feature Indigenous rappers. Man, those dudes
are pretty funny. Like all the way the board ain't
coming out of my funked up like the time of
Oh My God, worst and first time. And if it's
one thing, I know one person on this podcast love

(17:14):
it is Jacqueline and I know she loved food, glorious food,
Get fish fried Hall, Yes with must We asked you
a couple of months ago if you would pay a
thousand dollars to me any celebrity, and you said no,
but you said you would pay a thousand dollars for
the right food experience. Absolutely, that is absolutely if you

(17:37):
say so, I'm not sure if there's anything worth the
thousand dollars are doubting, Mabe. This is my listen. I'm
not here to attack your dreams. I'm not here to
attack your dreams. Um let's let's let's get this guest
on because I always feel inspired to welcome my fellow
reality show brethren, j G. Who do we have on

(17:59):
the line? Wellcome chef Rock Harper and native of San Diego,
and he credits his love for cooking to his summer
spent with his grandmother in Virginia. In two thousand seven,
he won season three other reality cooking show Hall's Kitchen. Okay, okay.

(18:20):
His career has been on the rise since his days
at B Smith's Okay In he opened the restaurant Queen
Mother's Fry Chicken and Arlington, Virginia. The eatery pays homage
to the recipes of his mother and grandmother and has
garnered praise from publications like Eater, d C, The Washington Post,

(18:46):
and The Washingtonian magazine. And he'll be talking to us
today about his impressive culinary career and maybe he can
give me some tips on a couple of recipes. Welcome
to the podcast. Thank you for coming on the job. Fair,
thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it.
Jacklin that is I'm a bottle, I'm a bottle letter introduction.

(19:09):
I appreciate your sister that weak, oh so nice and
elephants doing all that's digging and finding out this stuff.
We also Chef Frock. We all talk about this podcast, uh,
Chef Frock Experiment podcast where you talk about the restaurant
industry and the ends and outs of it and you know,
front of the house, back of the house issues, all

(19:32):
of that type of stuff. We're digging into that as well,
because I know the restaurant industry has been dealing with
some issues during the COVID time and a lot of
employees show up how cocaine and you can't fire them
because that cocaine motherfucker's still better than anybody you can
find up street. I'm sorry, I'm getting into get into
the weed right now. Uh. First and foremost, how much

(19:55):
does a reality show like Hell's Kitchen get right about
cooking and the fast paced craziness the goals on in
the back of house versus what's kind of souped up
for TV? And I'm not asking you to shoot on it.
We all know reality TV. You make a couple of cheats,
but how much does it honor the actual experience of

(20:15):
what you learned when you was in chef college. I
don't know what it's called. Is that what it's called
chef college? That's literally the official term roy that's I'll
say this, um, so you think about you know, last
comic standing is that you can viewer, can consume, can

(20:37):
taste if you will. It's corny. But I can get
the joke right, but I can't taste the food. I
can only concept. I think this this gallops look done right?
If that joke landed poorly, that the ship you can
edit to make that joke sound better, right, But they
can make uh dinner service, or I can make a
certain dish, or the producers can sort of chop it

(20:59):
up to make me look like a better chef. Um
that appears to beef. But here's here's what Hell's Kitchen
gets right that I personally know. The restaurant business is
crazy as hell as you know, like like you said,
the cocaine cook sometimes it's the best cook um. And
so you just have to be ready for chaos and
just the unexpected every single day. And what the kitchen

(21:23):
does write, whether it was intentionally or not, they're just
gonna get chaos every single shift, and most of it
is is uh you know, they plan on it. But
so in order to win, you have to be ready.
You gotta be flexible, you gotta have a sense of
that and you gotta you know, you gotta have a
therapy as soon as you leave out of there. Uh.
So it gets that part right. You never really know

(21:46):
if the pressure that they're putting on you sometimes it's
just for the camera or as the pressure really that real?
Like how rough is that like to be in that environment?
Because you both were in in the old school, like
for lack of better world when I was the last
time Standing eight and but last time extand is just
a joke. So and I've done enough television up until
that point where it's just I'm doing comedy on TV

(22:07):
and whoever likes me likes me. So I'll basketball chef
because I will not compare stand up to trying to
create something against a clock in a room with twenty
other people and a British man yelling ship calling everybody
to see where it fun fact, I used to want
to be that was my first level stand up comedy,
and I didn't. I didn't go down that route for

(22:29):
a number of reasons. But to stay on stage and
do what you do Roy like that's some scary ship
like I'd rather sometimes I'm it said something about me.
I'd rather British dude yelling at me and cooking scallops
then uh there standing on stage and trying to make
a people. I consider cooking a form of performance because
you're using your creativity to create something that alters the

(22:51):
mood of the person who consumes it, but with you
on the first bite, if they don't like it, except
for your motherfucker, did did you look? I can adjust.
I can change my jokes, I can go through my catagory.
Like you can't cook some ship, even I'd be right
back I took some other ship. That's what people get wrong.

(23:13):
Is that really the crazy thing is So it took
me a long time to learn this as a culinary artist.
It's really not as much about the food then it
is about creating the environment where I see the get
and I see the like you can. Of our best
experiences happened some of the some sometimes some of the
ship is places right, and sometimes it can be the

(23:35):
the you know, the mischelling star rated places. But it's
about how they made people feel. And nobody's to be
perfect all night, but it's how you respond to when
you mess it up. So um, we we can adjust.
But if it's horrible, you know, yeah, they might get
about of it. But just to answer your question real quick, there,
I think that for me it was, um, I was

(24:00):
suppression and I went there to win. I wanted to
change my life and I always wanted to be an
entertainment Like I said, I wanted to be a comedian
early on. So it wasn't people were crying and breaking
down as hard as hell, like it's really hard, you know,
do you isolated from from life? There's no phone, there's
no books. The only book that made it through was

(24:20):
the Bible, and I didn't like nothing. So they really
is its like a science experiment. You got people watching
in the bathroom, you're away from your loved ones. Um,
so that does something too, even the best of chefs.
But I just and that's the early days of reality
TV where they were with hold meals to dry, to

(24:40):
create hunger, to make the contestants. I'm not saying they
did that on Hills Kitchen, but there were definitely ways
that they can manufacture, like change the temperature in the room,
tricky ship like that. That's terrible psychological. Yeah, I keep
going from There were elements of it. I think I
noticed some of it while I was there, but later
on you sort of realize like, oh, they did that

(25:01):
on purpose, right, Um, you know we didn't have alarm clocks,
so this so you so if you don't have alarm clocks,
you gotta get up and and and they gave us
beer and wine and alcohol and kitchen. You could get
whatever you wanted as far as like you can order
a lot. There was a grocery list, you go to
Libster file minon you could and as long as you
cook that you can have whatever you want. You gotta.

(25:23):
We realized, like two days in, I realized, I'm eating
peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and raising brand because you
got time to you know, you don't have time to
cook an actual meal. I'm trying to change my life.
I ain't trying to, you know, be in so uh,
but they would, yeah, they would change, you know, they
wouldn't do certain things, not necessarily the sabotage, but to

(25:45):
see how you react the way I took it. They
want to see how you, how truly that reacts when
everything is supposed to go right and ship goes in left.
Excuse me, excuse my life. But so it was, it was,
it was. It was okay for me. I just you
just gotta know it's not gonna be I thought it
was gonna be Hollywood. The way they sort of sent
the invitation, it was like, you know, bring beach clothes,

(26:07):
you're gonna have uh, you know it was twelve episodes.
I knew it was gonna be six weeks. I'm like, oh,
to dinner services a week. It's gonna be sweet, and
you know, the beach clothes were so they could throw
you in the dumpster and you didn't mess up the
chef fans and uh, I mean that's just that's just.
It was not Hollywood and a sense that what I thought,
what I knew about l A or you know, TV business,

(26:29):
it was really hard and that worked for me because
all you had to focus on was the kitchen and
the experience of being a great cook under Gordon Ramsey.
That's the kind of environment I thrive upon, Like I
go at it. I'm a great student and I'm a
great learner. So you give me the ball, uh and
show me suay to go, I'm gonna go. So it

(26:50):
worked out in my favor that season. After the Break
I want to get into the scam Chef Rock of
how hard it is to start a restaurant and keep
a restaurant going. The first after the Break, the home
in the rodo a k A Rod for short, He's
gonna come on here and drive the show off the
rails as we celebrate Native Americans and the mcgrid. It

(27:11):
is Yes, that's right, let's go to break. Jacklin is
becoming racist job there and we are bike Chef Rock

(27:45):
Harper standing there by for Scam of the Week. We're
gonna talk to brother Harper a little bit about what
it's like to run his restaurant down there in the
d m V and some of the scams involved in
just trying to make a restaurant succeed. But it's time
we slow it down. Bring a brother on the program now.
He is the inventor of the emotional support Kalua and

(28:06):
you as we get into the holiday season, he is
there to comfort you, ladies, if you need a plus
one to your family functions so your family can feel
like you're making progress in your love life because you're
feeling a little embarrassed. He will attend your holiday functions

(28:27):
two thousand dollars on the Venmo his MoMA named in Murato.
We call him Rode for short ride. Welcome on board.
We're talking restaurants. Yeah, today, Rode. We've been talking with
the homie chef Rock Harper breaking down winning on Hill's
Kitchen and we'll talk to him in the second about

(28:48):
running his restaurant. On the back side of that, I
can't forgetting Rod, did you ever work at a restaurant?
I don't feel like you ever. Yeah, used to. We
got a great one. We're good. The one uh in
the in the mall and the one in the galleria.
It was a good time restaurant job in the mall. No,

(29:09):
that's no, that's not not that was worst. The heels malls.
Now they they have I only think they had a
food rod. We turn it over to you, brother, and
get these people some topics they can bring up at
the job. Well, since we're talking chef's food and restaurants

(29:30):
right now and in the black community, a scandal has erupted.
A woman recently posted on TikTok about a Texas roadhouse
serving her macaroni and cheese that was not fresh and
baked from a steakhouse. It is absolutely craft Magan cheese

(29:51):
that they're serving in the Texas roadhouse, and a lot
of people came into the woodwork saying, I've been trying
to tell people this. I had my suspicion and we're
lit up. There's been some people defending them. Does it
matter if it's store. I think the problem is that
it's not good, but it's not up to par with
what you expect the mac and cheese to be at

(30:13):
a steakhouse. You expect that to be fresh baked, high quality,
and instead you know that charging you eight nine dollars
for some ship they shug out a box that was
fifty cents, and that's fun done. If you don't put
five cheeses in your macaroni and cheese, I don't want
it amen to that system. I don't like to the

(30:33):
Mecan cheese has become an entree in a lot of places.
Mac and cheese is a side item. They should always
they keep adding meat through it. Yeah, making a lot
of the macan cheese. It's sixteen dollars. You want to side,
which that is a side And then but then they
bring you out the whole planet that they were gonna
serve the restaurant and be like, no, this is just
for you, Like come on, man, you don't know. But
they don't even put no garnish on it either. That's

(30:54):
the worst part. They just bring it out to you
in a cast role. Then steal in there talking about
seventeen dollars for some mac and cheese. N I want
gooda in it. I want provolone, I want that, I
want myzarella, I want shredded cheddar. All of those things
and I'll pay you eighteen dollars for some mac and
cheese if you're doing that. Yeah, I love a good

(31:16):
mac and cheese. I can eat a bowl of mac
and cheese by itself comfort at home, But if I
go to a restaurant, I don't want to know. Damn
craft mac and cheese. Apparently this is like more common
then you know. Thank you. Boka her y'acht um, a
southern California brunch spot, was caught using Papa's Chicken sweet

(31:40):
and Dixies chicken and biscuits was charging when that actual
meal only costs five nine POPA love dirty game, dirty world.
I'm okay with that. I'm okay with that. Sometimes you
gotta be sleeping with the ship. Let's flip it up
for the people real quick, right man. On the other
side of out, some of the most exciting news to

(32:03):
hit white Ville, USA in a long time. San Francisco
has opened a French micheless star restaurant four Dogs. And
when I just say four dogs, I mean they don't
serve human food. This isn't a you can bring your

(32:25):
dogs out of restaurant. We've got a couple of treats
of the dog. This is a full blown fine dyning
establishment for your K nine friend, including a seventy five
dollar tasting menu that rotates every Sunday. We have to

(32:45):
stop doing this. If somebody wants to pay for this fine,
But you are exploiting the pockets of people that exploit
those dumbfuckers. I supportfully. I'm trying to bele I'm trying
to be taxable. But if you're willing to ar meal,

(33:13):
give them two of them, get all the money with
disposable income, do you do the same people who have
i G accounts for their dogs. This is what I'm saying,
like just that even that's so changsh But there are
a lot of people who their animal is a substitute
for Internet horrible. Yes, and so then you're going to

(33:38):
exploit them at a hundred plates Yes, that's your private
popeyes too. So do we want to exploit them and
allow them to be with their four legged friends, or
do we want them to do something that's dangerous like
running down the strip, stabbing people or something else? Because

(34:01):
if you just want to be able to do go ahead.
I'm not mad at you. I agree with you. I
agree with you that there is something emotionally missing there.
But if that's gonna keep you calm, not with all
of them. I don't think. I don't think people using
their dogs and substitutes for human love isn't about this
is the only thing that keeps me for being a
serial killer. That's that's a different thing. That's just straight

(34:26):
up like no, like I went on a bad date,
nobody loves me or no friends, and that dog, that
dog becomes a substitute for having a show and for
having a romantic partner, and that's that's not a good
Some people's relationships with animals as a byproduct of an
unhealthy mental You agree, I agree, But fleece that motherfucker,

(34:50):
take it happy all day and give them thirty other bitches.
I mean, this is no different than plastic surgery. You
get no from people that also have something missing. Like,
you can't really listen to me on this one because
I think that if I'm being totally honest, ear honestly, guy,

(35:14):
I think my worst trait is that I use stupid
people for entertainment, and so I see absolutely nothing. If
somebody is stupid enough, I want the biggest titties in
the history of the world, give them to that dumb motherfucker.
Take that much. I want to feed my dog hundred
dollars and play meal. Give it to them. Take that

(35:35):
money from that fucking idiot. I see both sides. They
have all the way to the bank on stupid people.
Pets can give you an escapism from, you know, a
lot of the horrors of the world with unconditional love
and licks to the face even after they just click
their balls. But I'm not I don't know. More power

(36:00):
to them. Five star Michelin chef and the dog would
have been completely content to eat out the trash can.
I'm trying too hard in life. I need to just
start doing ship like this. That's no great example that
the nigga the Saving Days who became a million selling
pet rocks. You can sell dummies, anything, anything could be sold.

(36:27):
We buy water an American. You can sell motherfucker's stupid
ship for real money. It's a very valid point, very
valid point, because pet rocks has to be the most
outrageous thing that has ever been sold. To be rocks

(36:48):
is free is ship? See what I'm saying, Like you
outside to get that limited collection of pet rocks, and
the nigga was putting them ships in stores in the
box and motherfucker's made him rich. Period. I understand this story,
but I don't like it. It makes you sad. So

(37:11):
so the people, ain't it so like he can't get us,
He can't get a cm O rich of people find
dog males. You see him O. His mama named Arta.
We call him rober Roy. I need to ask him
something really quickly, just a quick sidebar, if he would
save me, just a sniging of time on his relationship

(37:33):
there so I can talk about engagements aside from absolutely
absolutely all the time. You want, no, no, just snig.
Do you know what's going on in j G's d
M since the last relationship Fair Ride? Yeah? Barely. People
are asking her for advice, to tell the people what's
going on, Jacqueline, Oh, it's just no, no, we all

(37:54):
we next relationship Fair, We'll dive into your d M
s a matter of fact, screenshot the best ones and
we're gonna have Ride help you women. No, no, we're
not gonna need to tell people who they are, but
screenshot them for the team so we can see him.
We need to see these people so we can not

(38:15):
help them, not help them. These women we need to
make to click their profiles because for some of them,
you know, it's like you're hard three. Ain't nobody proposing
lay down? Sorry, you are a guy coming to socles
and looking like that. Let me ask you now, let
me ask you a different question, Jaqueline, that's your different question.

(38:37):
What they're looking like. He's a couple of eight and
I don't know equal better than Rachel Dola's off. I'm
putting it on the grid right now, j J. Relationship
changing in front of me. I love it. A matter
of fact, let's put the kite in the air right now.

(38:59):
If you're a woman and have already d M J
G d M her more details about the relationship because
they can really unpacked. Yea, what the fun is going on?
And we're gonna pass that over to Rod the regulation whatever,
don't do that. I'm here that the show that right

(39:19):
to the job for email bucks. What's the Joel email?
I didn't sit it there too, you know what I'm saying, right?
Thank you? As always, we got to get back to
Chef Rock. We appreciate your right. Let's keep it sutty,
thank you, Rod. Why am I trying to be helpful?
Why scam of the week time was welcome chef rock
back on. And let's get into the actual metrics of

(39:41):
is it a fool's errand to even open a restaurant
and things to be closing, don't they j G they do.
Pre COVID around of new restaurants failed within the first
year and the reason why it was basically location and
then also the food going down. Hell, no one's back.
They're still putting their foot in it, m exactly. That's

(40:05):
why we thankful that the McRib is still around and
that that recipe has been solid. I've never had a
macriab bruin sandwich. I'm also curious about the fact that
most restaurants fail within a year to two years. What
have you learned to keep the doors open? Um? You know,

(40:27):
I think those sets are interesting and that that's sort
of the thing that people say, here's the thing, just
because you can cook doesn't mean it's going to be
good business. It can be, but they're almost things if
we think about it. I don't know what cities you
all in, but you travel around this country, some of
the most popular restaurants are pretty mediocre and servicing and food.

(40:47):
But that's because you have an owner investors that really
really no business or have relationships where they can sustain
that business. So what I've learned to answer your question
pointedly is that you gotta have money, and you gotta
have to write people on your team or capital, and
you got to be able to understand cash flow. Like
just because I'm the best, there's nobody on this in

(41:07):
this country that can fry chicken like me except for Uh,
don't say that because I'm gonna have to test it.
Don't say that because I'm going to test. I'm coming.
I'm coming home next week and I'm coming. I love.
Let me let me qualify. There's only one in the
restaurant business. I'm not telling about Grandma Auntie on Sunday afternoon. Okay,

(41:32):
let me correct that, except for Dookie Chase Queen Mother.
Make she rest in peace. She passed recently the best
rud checking I've ever had in my life other than her,
I got it. But here's the point, that don't matter
if I don't know how to negotiate lease or if
the co many people or keep my call. So many

(41:54):
people going to it, and this is not just black people,
many cultures going to because they can cook well and
serve well, but we don't know bus and says much.
And we realized, like I gotta get yes. As I travel,
I go around to the restaurants that have the James
Beard Award winning chefs and those who do all the
baking and whatnot. Do you have a favorite chef aside

(42:15):
from yourself? Of course, I have a favorite chef in
the in the country like around. Wow, that's a big question. Um.
I'm writing down too because I'm going so oh my gosh,
that is such a big Now give me in trouble. Um,
just a couple of folks that bubble up to the top.

(42:37):
I'll stick. Okay, So there's a there's a there's a
chef in d C. His name is Angel Barretto and
he is as his restaurant is on JRE. He's executive chef.
He's been nominated for all the awards, the super talented
brother and uh cook's ass are great. Dude. I really
loving his food. Um. Like I said, I mentioned Dooky

(42:59):
Chase down a new Ollen is one of my favorite restaurants. Um.
Oh man, this is pressure. My mom just got dry.
I'm gonna have to I'm gonna have to come back
to you on that. I'm sorry, yes, okay, okay, No,
it's fine. I'm just ging you gotta check out on
it's on the list. I'm on it. Yeah yeah. Acting
and stand up have ruined television for me. For the

(43:21):
most part. I can watch it, but I watch it
from an analytical brain. It's very few things that I
can actually key in on and just enjoy as a consumer.
When you are out to eat, has doing what you
do at the level that you've done it because you know,
for a while, you know you're the head chef out
there in Vegas at the Green Valley Ranch Resort and spat.

(43:43):
Then you come home to Arlington, you start queen mother.
You start doing what you do and you do it
with the level of specificity and perfection. Because I always
feel like chefs like that separating line between chef and
the cooking is like the chef wants this to change
your life, and you write into this, I want everything

(44:04):
that you was thinking about to fucking leave your consciousness.
Are you able to eat out at all? Like? Can
you go to Applebee's? That's suspectful. Well, let's let's cheesecake factory.
Like that's a step up. It's barely, but it's a step.

(44:28):
Are you Are you ruined? Is your palette ruined? Like
what's what's the downside to be in a chef like this?
Like it seems like you have a very eclectic, elevated palette.
I just don't know it for motherfucker, Like you can
still appreciate it to baby biscuit, listen all day, all day, bro.
But here's the thing, it's like, that's funny. I think

(44:52):
I don't know what the parallel is on the comedy side,
but I think that it's like Dennis Greene said, we
know I knew who you. We knew who they were,
They were who we thought me were. If I'm going
to get each other Bay biscuit, red lobster, or if
I'm going to cheesecake, I expect the spring Roads to
be the spring Roads. I know what it's supposed to be.
So you're gonn female bull and say, oh, you know,

(45:14):
I went to cheesecake factory fun fact not too long ago,
to food conference and my man, the shrimp was supposed
to be the I forget the shrimp, the dragon fire
shrimp or whatever, and he served me like they were
chopped up. It looked like, um, what do you call it?
The Benny Hones style? Like, but it wasn't it. They
diced the shrimp. It looked nice, and how can the

(45:37):
eight dollars? And this is right in the middle of
the pandemic and the box and it was like, well, sir,
that's how they're supposed me. I said, listen, stop like that. Yeah,
don't do that, and don't do that. Just give me
the regular bank, that bang bank, give me the bang
bang bro. Stop stopped. But um so, so I'm good.
I can go to the holding the Wall postage Joint,

(46:00):
Long Island, i can go to you know, the missioning Stars,
and I'm good anywhere. I just wanted to be what
I what I expected to be. All right. I was
literally gonna ask you, since I know you're in the
Alexandria area, do you still eat at restaurants that have
plexi glass and the serving door? Because because at right,
because at home, Because at home there are certain people

(46:22):
who will judge your mambo sauce depending on whether or
not do you actually have PEX. Plus you gotta order
those days over for me. And I'm gonna tell you
why you're something like so I tell my friends in
city all the time. We gotta stop support if you
if you got to have this up and ain't nobody
getting shot in restaurants, you gotta supporting these spaces that

(46:42):
views as as a dude on the other side of
the counter with it. I'm don't care how later it is,
how drunk we are, I ain't doing it. So those
those places of votes on the neighborhood and support that, sir.
I support that. That's what's up. After the break, We're
gonna break down what restaurant workers can do to create
their situations for themselves and what employers can do to

(47:04):
stop the turnover in the restaurant industry. It's the job fad.
We'll be right back. Brought to you by Magrive. Not
for real, but if mcgrill when I everything, we're taking
money the job fair. We're around the third and hit

(47:26):
it for home. Now let's end here. Chef Frock your podcast,
the chef Rock Experiment podcast. Now you get into talking
about the restaurant industry and I'm not gonna sit here
and at like we're on the same level. I was
in front of the house guy, So I tell us
a little bit about the podcast and what made you.
We know you have the knowledge, but what made you decide?

(47:47):
Now people, other people have to know what's going on
within this industry. Yeah, so the chef rock experiment was
was born several years ago when, as I mentioned earlier,
wanted to get into entertainment a long time ago when
I was in middle school, and I've been trying to,
you know, figure out how to work my way back

(48:09):
into it, like Hell's Catching was my jump in the TV.
And then the restaurant business is very unforgiving, and uh
I wanted to something that can live forever, that that
serves value to two people, but also, um, it's fun
to do. So I said, you know, five or six
years ago, let me get into podcasting. Um, and you
know I own that. Uh so, you know, adding value.

(48:32):
You know, what can I say on this microphone? Who
can I interview that helps folks in our industry, because
you know, we don't have a bunch of programming that
isn't it's very full full, it's very you know, it's
just not super specific like people tell you, you know,
how to hire a c p A or a lawyer
to negotiate the lease, or you know what to do

(48:53):
when you get a sign on the powerwahing duty and
the blooming onionravy is all over the place. I think
in the restaurant industry there's definitely been a power shift
between the employee to the employees versus the owners. But
I still think that the employees are not solving their
problems by bouncing from spot to spot to do the

(49:14):
exact same thing, because I believe there's a lot of
symmetry within the restaurant industry in terms of the problems
that most front of the house and back of the
house face. I think I think you got your finger
on the post Roy. It's some there's a big opportunity
over the past really several years, but really, you know,
pandemic for employers and employees to to to really create

(49:39):
this kind of um, you know, healthier, more robust, uh
fulfilling workplace right as opposed to we could fire back
in the day, right, you could find because there was
a line of people and you can just fire. Now
you can't do it. You can't do it because there's
not a lot of people waiting to get the job.
So you almost forced into how can I make this place?

(50:00):
Like what do you want? And instead of quitting like,
say what you want, say what doesn't work, that doesn't
work for me, And let's figure out a little place,
even if you're only gonna work in for six months,
Like let's be in relationships so we can say I
can offer this to you here, how much you can
make here, what we're gonna do his you know, and
then at the end of the six months, we say

(50:20):
bybe Chefs in the restaurant community always want. We had
this dumbass belief like we're in it to be great,
to get the mischiling star. It's like, not your ass,
don't get the you're gonna make a couple of million
and you're gonna go on the TV. I'muna still be
a line cook. So let's you know, you like, now
we don't believe that bullshit no more so, and let's
stop telling a lot. And then also let's create this

(50:42):
workplace where we can both benefit, get what we want
and bounce. Yeah, it's so interesting you said that. Man.
I'm and we've already kind of made it clear where
I'm from the Virginia area, and I was I was
home not too long ago. And luck, you're talking to
stock restaurant. My mom and dad, my Mom ordered from
Bob Evans and we went to by of Evans with
no shot, you know, shout out Bob Evans, spring for y'all,

(51:03):
love y'all. But the thing is, I was at the door.
People were coming into the restaurant and then they were leaving,
and I just watched it kept having it. So when
I went in, I asked the manager what was going on.
There was one manager, there was one cook, and there
was one server. So when I asked the manager what
was going on, she said, nobody wants to work. And
on the heels of that question that you just brilliantly answered,

(51:26):
I'm gonna ask you to further, what are you doing
to retain people to work in this environment? Because there
are a lot of restaurants and people who do good stuff,
but you know, the market literally changed in front of
all of our faces thanks to the quarantine. So what
kind of things are you doing to encourage people to stay?

(51:47):
So it's a great question. So nobody wants to work.
We gotta people in these positions of hiring power, gotta
stop saying stuff like that without asking the question, why
does nobody want to work? Right? We're just saying that.
So there's something a shift happened globally. So in the
restaurant business, you know, like or adopt dot dot, stretch
out out. Nobody wants to work in a shitty job

(52:08):
for under for no no money, long hours, no health care,
and you know, so like stretch that out. That's why.
So how can we We can't pay you know, some
of the we can offer some of the benefits um
just yet, but how can we? So the question is
how can we make them want to work? What do
you want? Like? This is a question that we I

(52:30):
think people have to ask internally and we have to
ask the cooks what is it? What is it that
you want out of a job? Right? What type of flexibility?
How can we change some of these positions? How can
we have a conversation with the customers? Right? The true
value of food? Bob Evans has not raised their prices tremendously.

(52:50):
So that cook that's making ten twelve dollars maybe fifteen
an hour with no benefits, that that's because the triple
pay play. It still has to be eight or ten
dollars to get to senior citizens in How are how
is that not risen over the past thirty years? That's
for twenty years. That's insane. So what the question is what? What? Um?

(53:13):
What responsibility does a public? How do they value the
food in our labor? Right? So that place should be
twenty four maybe? Um so anyway, so I think we
have to ask better questions and stop saying. Now, a
lot of people just don't want to work. I mean
that's but they don't want to work in those type
of jobs. People do want to be happy and fulfilled

(53:34):
in their occupation. So we have to as aquestion is
why can't they get that year? It's almost like, girl,
if you're walking into Bob Evans, what the manager should
have said, like, why is everybody leaving this? One cook,
one server, and one manager because we can't pay these
motherfucker's the money that they deserve, and we can't charge
a'all more. I think you motherfucker's won't come here, So
take your goofy, ask to McDonald's and get you some

(53:56):
nothal dollars in you. I'm heavy handed in the kitchen
when it comes to spices, and a secret my mother
gave me was to balance that out with either sugar
or honey. Do you have any secrets like that that
you can share okay, mom with the balance, all right?
Um secrets. So I'm not much of a big secret guy.

(54:21):
I think I think cooking is kind of it's easy,
and I've been told like that's silly, But well, then
how do you deglaze shift? Because I hadn't been able
to glaze. If you don't email this man all these questions,
get the brown off the bottom, get something nice and
brown and a flavorful liquid, either whip or stop or something.
I got it right here, chef. Are you ready? I'm

(54:42):
not doing a good job of this deglace. I'm gonna
tell you one of the biggest mistakes home cooks, mate,
that we use high heat. Right, most people at home
are so scared of the smoke detective going off that
y'all don't use high enough heat to get the searing
to get browning. So what happens is I don't know
about your kitchen, but so if you want to declade,

(55:04):
what you have to do is not be All of
the smoke detectors in my place are disconnected because when
neighbors are like, what are you doing over there? It
can't be a fire every night smoke smoke, So use
higher heats um um and that that's the tip. I
hope that. Thank you, I'm gonna try it. I'm drop

(55:25):
that address, Chef Roxel, so you know if cats might
happen to be listening in your area. You know what
I'm saying, next two or three weeks and and need
a reminder where to show en mother cooks dot com.
Queen mother Cooks dot com is the website I want
Instagram at Rock Harper where you can find all the links.
But come on through with open Tuesday through Saturday serving
the best fried chicken in the world. I mean, well

(55:51):
you are chef Frock Harper Podcasts is the chef Frock
Experiment podcast. I'm supposed to be down in d C.
Come grab some of this because this chef talk a
lot of ship. I M like on the show, you
never hear a shift top. Whatever you eat, that ship
is slocked. They didn't stepped on, they didn't cut the

(56:11):
ship with bullshit. Pure fried chicken over you, chi Wood Chefry.
Thank you so much for coming on the job. And
you know what, anytime you want me on my on
your podcast. And I'm not saying this just for the
sake because we record, but I will be happy to
come on and tell you stories as a server at

(56:32):
Golden Corral. I'll tell you about the time that the
African dude Glenn went out in the parking lot and
chase customers across your parking lot because they stiffed them
on the twelve top. So it's just a little foot pursuit.
It wasn't to that. That is that doesn't surprise me.

(56:52):
That's it wasn't a manager. No, you're just a regulars
server like me. That and got your chef. Yeah, you
need to hear him go, he'll go to Corral stories
questions for the podcast. I'll say I appreciate that Roy,
thank you. Chef asked him also when he's there about
the time he took us all on the West Coast

(57:13):
to a restaurant that served chicken and waffles and we
could have died, but I'm gonna leaving right there. You
didn't die, though, did you? Did you die? Murder? Yes,
there was there was a rapper who was shot at
a at a chicken and waffle. This is super recent. Yeah,

(57:35):
this is super recent. Okay, wow, yeah, we got to
talk about it. I got stories for days when the
serv I don't know about the back of the house,
but I can't talk about the fact that, you know,
the one thing about restaurant work is that because it
is hectic, because it is crazy, the people you work with,
it becomes family. And a lot of the people that
I worked with in the restaurant industry I'm still close

(57:56):
with to this day and it's definitely one of the
most meaningful second family jobs that I've ever had. Who've
held you up enough. I will be down there be
four years in to taste this ship talking chicken here.
Appreciate we're taking too long. There, I'm gonna be there.
I can have hopes, dumb ship. I'm coming. I ain't

(58:17):
even front you. ID love to see it. Let me
know if you have some questions. I appreciate you all
having me on the show. Yes, sir, thank you, thank you.
It was an honor. It was an honor. Alright, yoab
I appreciate your family much love Chef. That's the show.
Royce job Fare is a product of I Heart Media,
Comedy Central and South Park and Princeton Productions. Man, it's
a good old man. Wait where could she next? In person?

(58:41):
I'm not going if you wouldn't in Atlanta for the
Daily Show, broadcast. You've missed me, dog, that's it. I
might probably jokes in a random hut somewhere, but nice,
I need to go to a han salon. What you
need to do is yeah for you, back to the bushes.
Now you haven't brought it up again. Now what Bring

(59:04):
the music up? Bring the music up? What I told
you the beginning of the show. To older women to
see j G in the hair salon, please tell her
all over how much you love this show, because she
really appreciates being interrupted in the middle of getting her
hair dry. Turn the music up, bron please, this is

(59:25):
how control this has been a Comedy Central podcast