MARCH 2: MARATHON FOOTBALL COACH & CULINARY MASTERMIND CARL ‘CHEF FLAVOR’ STANTON

Carl “Chef Flavor” Stanton is best known around the Marathon community as an assistant football coach and one of the town’s foremost flavor authorities as he oversees the culinary program at Marathon High School. But as we find this week with coach Sean McDonald, there’s much more to Stanton’s story than most know, including his time at T.C. Williams High School as the brother of a famous football player from “Remember the Titans.” The two discuss Stanton’s memories and athletic career at T.C. and the University of Maryland, being a chef, and traveling and working with some of the biggest Hair Metal bands of the ‘80s. Listeners will barely believe the places “Chef” has been and some of the people he calls friends – including a video gaming showdown with the artist formerly known as Prince. He also discusses how he arrived in the Florida Keys and became a football coach at Marathon. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:08):
Welcome back, everyone to the Keys weekly sports wrap with
coach mcdonald. The only place to get your Florida Keys,
prep sports news and history. You can find this podcast
every Thursday at Keys weekly dot com. Please share and
like this podcast. You can find me on Facebook at
Florida Keys and Key West High School sports history. Your

(00:29):
eyes can also find me on W K W FA
M-16 100 F M
on one oh 3.3 W K W F Saturdays at
eight AM. So you can check us out on the radio.
You can check this out on the internet. You can
check this out.
The most important thing is that you send it to
someone else. Let someone else know what's going on in
the Florida Keys, prep sports world. We got a lot

(00:51):
going on this week. The emergence of the winter sports,
you have lacrosse going on boys and girls. Wrestling is
still going on for Key West high school baseball softball track.
So let's immediately get started with a couple of results
from last week. Key West boys lacrosse loses to Westminster

(01:12):
in lacrosse on the 21st 19 to 2 Coral Shores
girls lacrosse, um, beats Coral Reef 6 to 5 on
the 22nd. Key West boys lacrosse loses to Coral Reef
8 to 4.
Coral Shores. Baseball loses uh, 1 to 13 to South Dade.
Key West girls lacrosse beats Westminster on the 23rd, 12

(01:33):
to 4 marathon. Softball. Girls lost to Lords Academy 11
to 8 on the 23rd, Corl Shore's boys lacrosse loses
to ransom 12 6 Coral Shores.
Um, softball gets a big win against South Homestead 17
to 1 marathon. Baseball gets that big win on the
last Friday night against Ransom. 12 to 7.

(01:56):
Key West girls lacrosse beats Palmetto high. Uh, 10 to 4.
Key West baseball beats, uh, Westminster 12 to 5. Those
are the scores that I have going on today. Um
Breaking down some of the sports. Let's first, let's talk
about
we have wrestling going on. It's still going on for
Key West High School. They have the three of the

(02:18):
Lady Conks earned a place in the brackets in the
F H S A, a one, a state championships, March
2nd and fourth
and now three of his boys will join Shaya Figuera
Ali Briggs and Shannon Briggs into the States right now.
Senior Andre Otto is ranked fourth, heading into the regionals. Um,

(02:38):
but going back to the girls, it's a fan. Fantastic,
unbelievable story. Really. At the beginning of the year Allie
Briggs and Shannon Briggs started marathon high school. Unfortunately, there's
not a wrestling program there. Um, they're able to transfer
down to Key West and be eligible for wrestling. And,
uh, these two ladies joined Sheila Figueroa and they're going

(02:59):
to be going to the state championships such big news. Um,
I'll let you guys know as soon as I find
out who the other boys are. It happened yesterday, I
know for sure. Andre Otto is, is moving forward. Uh,
as far as Coral Shores wrestling, Coral Shores, wrestling might
be over now, but the young team looks very promising
in the coming years.
Five regional qualifying Canes, Sebastian mccoy Finn mcdonough, Devin Smith,

(03:23):
Jack Hill and Jaden Angel are all just freshmen. So
Coral Shores definitely has a bright future when it comes
to wrestling and Key West, you know, like I talked
about last week winning 14 straight district titles. That news
was so big it made. Um I saw it in
the Miami Herald and we covered it in the Keys

(03:43):
weekly extensively and
have taken you on that journey with Key West High School,
but it's big news all over the state when you
have a team win 14 district titles in a row,
it's something that really doesn't happen too often. And if
you'd like to hear more about Key West high school wrestling,
you can go back and listen to the podcast. I
had a couple of weeks ago with coach Chaz Jimenez,

(04:05):
who's been
um only the second head coach in that program. In
the program's history. The program started in about 1999 and
he's the second coach, Troy Bow being the first head
coach at Key West high school. Um,
lacrosse is going on, I touch a little bit on
the scores, but so we're all on the same page and,

(04:27):
and everybody understands right now. The big story in lacrosse
I would say is the Key West girls. They have
a perfect record so far this season, they have a
win against Gulliver on February 16th. Um They are five
and oh and girls um lacrosse and they are doing
very well. Bella uh Marciano scored three goals and three

(04:48):
assists in the win against Westminster Christian.
Uh Marciana also had eight of the team's 11 draw controls.
Caitlin Polito scored two goals and assists. Ada Van Loon
and Sophia Fellini added one goal each and Maria Chaney
assisted once goalkeeper for Key West Courtney Gravis saved two
Key West forced Westminster to turn the ball over 16 times,
keeping the Warriors on defense and sealing

(05:10):
the victory. And then after that, the girls lacrosse team
of Key West uh was able to beat Miami Dade
County uh Powerhouse High School, Miami Palmetto. Um They were
able to win 10 to 4. Cheney scored five goals.
Fellini had two Van Loon and Ella Baxter each scored one.
Marciano chalked up three assists and Piloto added another one
in the 10 4 win. Gravis was busy in goal

(05:33):
for the Conchs saving 11 and fellow defender Rachel Owens
forced four turnovers in the big win.
Um, so that's the big news in lacrosse. We have really,
what I want to take a little bit of time
to discuss is, uh, we did talk about last week
marathon going to States and wrestling. Um, um, you could

(05:55):
hear a great podcast last week with Michelle Ross. She
was a state medallist and girls weightlifting and she talks
about how she got there in last week's podcast. Um,
so girls wrestling is almost
almost at the end of the season. They're gonna be
in the state championships this weekend coming up. So, good

(06:16):
luck to those Key West High school ladies, hopefully all
three of them bring home medals. And, um, we have
boys weightlifting going on right now and they're, everybody's getting
started with their Meats. I saw Marathon and Coral Shores
in a meet at marathon the other day. Um,
so boys weight lifting is, is going on. We also

(06:36):
have baseball. That's the big story going on. Baseball is
opening last week. You know, we talked about preseason games
and this week we have the beginning of the regular
season games and really Key West is off to a
very good start. As far as their baseball season goes,

(06:57):
they open up, um, they open up the other night.
They're two and o right now Key West, they have both.
They have won two games against Westminster Academy. The first
game that they played, um was on Friday the 24th,
they were able to win that 12 to 5. Um

(07:18):
player of the game. Definitely for Key West high School.
Uh Jack Haggard was two for four in that game
at the plate. Cayden Picardo two for four. Also um
other big bats for the, for the Key West Conchs,
Jose Per Peron, a sophomore was 32 for four also

(07:39):
from the plate and
um Greenberg pitches for the, um, I'm sorry, it was,
uh Jacob Burham pitched for uh Key West and Andes
Barroso or Lucky Perros Barroso also pitched. Um, he ended
up coming down with the win for the Kochs, the

(08:00):
senior with a 2.33, a so far this season takes
the first win of the season. Um, second game of
the year, Key West plays against Westminster once again.
Uh, that was on Saturday the 25th. They were able to,
it looked like they were able to mercy rule after six,
a 10 nothing victory for the Key West Conchs. Um,

(08:22):
the Kochs are off to a great start this year.
Marlon Taavi pitched for the Conchs. Also, Felix also pitched.
Felix ends up getting the win on the night, um,
with five innings pitched, three hits, one walk and nine
strikeouts for Felix. Marlin comes in as the reliever and pitches, uh,

(08:45):
one inning. He gives, he gives up one walk and
has three strikeouts. So
Key West off to a strong start this year. Marathon baseball.
Moving up the Keys is also off to a very
strong start. They opened up their season, uh, last week
against Everglades prep where they ended up winning 12 nothing

(09:05):
for the Marathon Dolphins. You had, um, Ryan Yablon got
the ball on opening night and he was able to
pitch and he did a very good job. Um,
he ended up pitching three innings giving up one hit
striking out nine. Um, Brian Broch ends up coming in.

(09:28):
He gets two strikeouts and one inning at work gives
up one hit. And then, uh, I think Dylan Zeal
finishes out the game four marathon with one inning pitched
and three strikeouts. That's exactly how you wanted to go defensively.
Um, last Friday night was gonna be a big matchup
for the Marathon Dolphins as they went against Ransom Everglades
Raiders Marathon ends up getting the win 12 to 7

(09:51):
in a hard fought game goes back and forth. Um
Micah Saunders, the freshman, uh, played very well defensively also
hit the ball. He was one for four at the plate.
Ryan Yon was one for four at the plate for marathon.
Um
Gabe Leo went one for four and Gavin, his brother
went two for four at the plate for a marathon. Um,

(10:12):
on the mound, you had Junior Dylan Zeal's pitch. He pitches, um,
he has five innings, he gives up six hits, five
earned runs, two walks, but he has 13 strikeouts against
a very good ransom Everglades team, Ryan Ibon, the senior
comes in for two innings. He gives up two hits,
one earned run and gets four K's

(10:34):
Corl Shores baseball is starting and they have a very
tough schedule. That program has been on the rise the
last couple of years. They have been getting better and
better every year and they open up against two very
good baseball teams. Uh Corl Shores played South Dade the Buccaneers,
a big a, a school located in, uh right west

(10:57):
to home. Instead, they beat Karl Shores 13 to 1
in the first game. And then,
um Hurricanes lost the other night on Thursday the 23rd.
They lost to the A B F Academy Homestead Bandits
4 to 2. That was a tight game. It was

(11:17):
Corl Shores was up 3 to 2. Um, after the
fourth inning after the fifth, they were actually, uh I'm sorry,
A B F was up 3 to 2 after the
third and then they added another one in the fifth
inning to end up that game 4 to 2. Um
As far as pitcher pitching goes, um Coral Shores pitched,

(11:40):
um Let me take a look here
but a great start by all the teams. Um Graden Ross,
the junior, he picks up the loss for Coral Shores.
Um He pitched,
let's see, he pitched 2.2 innings in the game. Tate.
It looks like Tate bum, uh, below a junior got

(12:00):
the start. Uh, Graden came in and he pitched 2.2 innings.
He gave up three earned runs. Um, so Coral Shores,
I know what's going on. They're starting out their season
playing a real tough schedule. I'm pretty sure we're gonna
start seeing a lot of wins roll in for Coral
Shores baseball this year and, and marathon also seems poised

(12:22):
that they're gonna have a strong season. But, you know,
as far as Monroe County goes, the talk this year
is about Key West High School and they have a
legitimate chance to win that 12th state title. Good luck
to all the baseball teams. Good luck to all the
winter teams this year. Um, we also have track and
field going on so they're doing a lot of meets together.

(12:45):
Key West High school, Coral Shores and Marathon are getting
together
and they're doing a lot of meat. So, good luck
to those guys. I will catch you guys up next
week as far as how girls wrestling went. Hopefully we
have some state medallists and today I have a really
special guest. Um, it's a, it's a very good friend
of mine, Chef, Carl Stanton at Marathon. And, you know, everybody, everybody,

(13:10):
you know, has a story, right? And every, everybody who's,
who's a little bit older has been around to a
couple of different places and
some people have a lot better stories than others and
some people have lived a lot of different adventures and
some people have had, uh, a very few adventures, but
I'm gonna tell you from my past conversations with chef.

(13:33):
You guys are in for a great podcast. He has
led a very, very interesting life. You're not gonna believe
some of the connections that he has made and some
of the adventures that he has been on. So I
want you guys to
really give this one a listen, sit back, relax because
I think you guys are really gonna enjoy it. So,

(13:55):
um coming up next, we are going to have Chef
Carl Stanton from Marathon. All right, just like I told
you here, we are, we are back Keys Weekly Sports
Rap podcast. We already talked about the sports that went
on last week and the sports that are going on
this week and we have a very special guest. It
is Carl Stanton. I'm gonna call him chef. Everybody in

(14:18):
town in Marathon in the Keys. Just knows him as chef.
He's the culinary arts teacher
at Marathon high school, but there's so much more to that.
How are you doing today? Chef?

Speaker 2 (14:29):
I'm doing pretty good. How are you?

Speaker 1 (14:31):
I'm doing great. Uh Thank you so much for coming
on today. Do you sort of want to give our
listeners the, the few that don't know who you are?
Sort of tell me what you're doing now, I know you're,
you're teaching culinary at marathon, but there's so much more
to your, to your life right now. What are you
doing currently in the Keys

Speaker 2 (14:53):
uh currently in the Keys um teaching culinary arts. Um
also doing catering uh throughout the Keys from Key West
to Key Largo where we're called uh training a group
of students for culinary competitions and also assistant coach with

(15:15):
uh varsity football at the high school.

Speaker 1 (15:17):
So a lot of, yeah, a lot of people are like, whoa, what,
what the heck, why is there someone talking about food at, uh,
on the podcast? This is supposed to be about prep sports. Well,
one of the things about chef is he's a man
of many different talents and one of the things that
he does is every fall. Uh, he coaches the marathon
varsity football team. How many years have you been doing that? Chef?

Speaker 2 (15:38):
Uh, nine years.

Speaker 1 (15:40):
So, so chef has been with the squad for the
last nine years. He's been through a lot of different players.
He's been through, uh, a lot of different head coaches
and he's still standing, he's still surviving. But, you know, um,
as far as the catering goes,
so let's just start, let's just talk about that right now. Um,

(16:01):
you obviously you have a background in restaurants and we're
gonna get to that later. But if someone was interested
in having their, their meal catered, how did they get
a hold of you?

Speaker 2 (16:11):
Uh, you can look up chef flavor. Uh, you have
found me online

Speaker 1 (16:17):
so I could just go to Google and I type
in this great name that you got. First Chef Flavor
and all your information is gonna come up. Yes,

Speaker 2 (16:25):
I'll explain that name. Chef Flavor.

Speaker 1 (16:27):
All right. Well, well, let's, let's go. You know, I
really love when I have coaches on for the first
time is, is to do a full unmasking, you know,
about
who you are, where you came from, what led you
to Monroe County? So let's start off with, you know,
where were you born? Where were you brought up? Where,
where are you from?

Speaker 2 (16:48):
Ok. I was born in Texas. Uh, my dad was
in the Air Force. That was a short stay and
I grew up in northern Virginia in Alexandria. Um,
a lot of people in that area refer to it
as the DMV, that tri-state area of the district, Maryland

(17:10):
and Virginia where we all circle the Potomac River. So
that's where I grew up. Uh,

Speaker 1 (17:17):
so growing up, you had a lot of brothers and sisters, right?

Speaker 2 (17:21):
Uh, not a lot, but we had a, you know,
we had a good size family and,
you know, ever since I was a kid, pretty much
everybody in our family always played, uh, football. So it
really wasn't a question of, do I want to play football?
What position am I going to play?

Speaker 1 (17:41):
Ok. So that, that was, that was just in the
family's DNA that everybody was going to play football. And
so just leading up to this, you know, in northern Virginia,
when you were to go to high school, what high
school would you be attending?

Speaker 2 (17:56):
Well, at the time in Alexandria, there was only, well,
there were two high schools, uh Francis Hammond High School
and G W. George Washington, uh Jim Morrison from the
doors also went to G W and in the early seventies,

(18:17):
there was a restructuring of the schools where
uh G W which was primarily Black and Hammond, which
was predominantly white. Uh They built one high school in
the city uh in the city T C. And then
those two schools became junior high schools that fed into them.

(18:38):
And
my uh my older fan Darryl, who everybody called Blue
uh was part of the T C Williams merger uh
in 70

Speaker 1 (18:50):
two. So as far as our listeners go out there,
this should sound very familiar because there is a movie,
remember the Titans, which is a true story about this.
And
obviously, if you watched the movie, you have seen the
character Blue, he's the great singer, the great defensive lineman
in the film. And that is actually chef's brother. So,
you know, I know you don't want to give away

(19:12):
your age and all that stuff. But during, during that
time period, like, how do you, how old were you
in 72 when that, that merger happened when that season happened?

Speaker 2 (19:25):
A Blue is five years older, older than me. So
I remember all of that very well. One of the
things about the movie, one, it was great when, you know,
we heard that they were going to make a movie,
you know, about T C. In fact, you know, I mean,
you know, of course, in the movie it's like T
C Williams, but

(19:46):
in Alexandria and all throughout the area, it was the
old school known by two letters T C. It's like
when he said that everybody knew who we were. Uh
the school was, we were dominant in almost every sport.
We won state titles in basketball, football, indoor, outdoor, track,

(20:07):
cross country, uh crew, soccer, baseball.
Um, we were pretty dominant in, in most things, but
when that happened, uh, you know, I remember, you know,
going to the games, I remember going to Roanoke for
the championship game and one of the things different from

(20:28):
a couple of things different from the movie, which is
a Disney movie. One that year, none of the games
were actually closed. Uh T C just kind of like,
I mean, we rolled up points on, on every team
and it became a, it became a standard thing that
once we had such a big lead, the other team

(20:51):
would start to leave early and that's when they would
start that na na na uh chant.

Speaker 1 (20:59):
So let me ask you this as far as the
movie goes, you know, like how true were some of
the main characters to the real people? Because you being
five years younger, this is a team. So, you know,
you know, you're, you're 10, 11, 12, this is a
team when, when you're, when you're that age and you

(21:19):
love
football, then you're gonna be so focused on that high
school team. You're gonna follow those, those team members like
they were NFL players. So how would you say like
the comparison was to the players to the, to the
players that you saw on the silver screen?

Speaker 2 (21:36):
Oh, pretty much the same. Yeah, we, we definitely, you know,
looked up to everybody and years later, uh most of
the people were still, you know, still around town, Julius pedy.
Uh you know, all of them were still around, you know,
I was still involved in the in the school system.

(21:57):
So we'd always see them around. Hey, Pete, what's up
big Julius? You know

Speaker 1 (22:02):
that that's so unbelievably fascinating to me. How about uh
Jerry Bertier? Did you see him around?

Speaker 2 (22:09):
Uh
I don't quite remember Bertie as as well. I do
remember that he was in the Special Olympics uh after his,
after his accident, uh Coach Jose used to, you know,
help train him for that.

Speaker 1 (22:27):
That was always such a great story. I thought at
the end of the film because I was bringing up
Jerry Bertier because he was the all American linebacker who
ended up like getting paralyzed and, and yeah, and Coach
O did, did continue to work with him into the
uh into the Olympics for him. And I always thought
that was a great story. But so you're at T C,
you're in middle school at that time, you know, T

(22:49):
C is making history, integrating and dominating and you're watching that.
So then obviously you're like,
I can't wait to go to T C. I can't
wait to be a high school kid. So, what was that, uh,
transition like for you from, I guess it would be,
was it junior high at the time to that high school?

Speaker 2 (23:06):
Right. At junior high. When I was, uh, at G W,
I was part of the last undefeated J V team
that G W had because, uh, once I got to
T C,
they restructured the schools again with, uh, G W and
Hammond were ninth and 10th grade and T C was

(23:28):
11th and 12. So then they expanded T C to
make it 10, 11, 12. And then the others became, uh,
they were still junior high schools, but
they just increased the grades.

Speaker 1 (23:45):
So when you got there were the same coaches there,

Speaker 2 (23:50):
uh, Boone and hens were still there. And in fact,
in my junior year, that was, uh, Boone's last year,
you know, they made the decision to let him go
and Doc Hines then took over as head coach in
my senior year. And one of the things definitely, you
know about the movie different than the movie. Remember the Titans,

(24:13):
like I said, that was a Disney movie. But Coach Boone,
I remembered used a lot of four letter words.

Speaker 1 (24:20):
Well, back then, it seemed like I'm sure almost all, uh,
football coaches were using that same type of vocabulary then. So,

Speaker 2 (24:29):
yeah, definitely. They were, they were hard core coaches back then.

Speaker 1 (24:33):
I mean, especially when, when you're at a high school
that is so large. I'm sure that you're, you, you
guys probably had football tryouts. Did you guys cut? How
big was your roster?

Speaker 2 (24:44):
Uh, we had probably 90 or something players on the
roster and coach Boone always, you know, had a rule that,
you know, if you came out to play, you know,
he wouldn't cut you. I mean, you would have to
do something really egregious.

Speaker 1 (24:59):
Oh, like the tight end did in the movie and
he didn't cut him. He didn't Bertier was the one
that decided that his friend had to go in, in
a very, very epic moment of the film. What a,
what a, what a great thing. So he didn't get cut. Um, just,
it had to be just a magical time, you know,
and it had to be like a big dream come

(25:21):
true for you. You know, as a kid watching, watching
your brother play, watching your brother Blue play and then
going there and, and playing must have been just a,
a great experience, uh, within itself. Now, you, so you,
what happened to Coach Yost when you were there?

Speaker 2 (25:38):
Uh, coach just, uh, he stopped with football but he
continued to coach, uh, track there. Um, and like I said,
you know, with track, uh, I was part of the
indoor track state champion team in 70. I know it
makes me sound old. Um, uh, part of the state

(26:01):
state team, uh, for that and you just continue there
for a while.

Speaker 1 (26:08):
Yeah. So, so you end up in high school, you
end up playing football. What position do you play in football?

Speaker 2 (26:14):
I played defensive tackle and nose guard. We, you know,
would shift the positions around.

Speaker 1 (26:19):
And then, so you also did track.

Speaker 2 (26:22):
Yes, I also did track through the shot, put, discus
and track.

Speaker 1 (26:27):
So then you're at T C, you're playing football, you're
doing track. Um, you graduate high school, what do you
then do next?

Speaker 2 (26:34):
Uh, in school? I was trying to debate my career,
you know, uh trying to plan out things. I took
a culinary arts program in high school as well too.
So stark was the chef instructor. And back then, you know,
they weren't, well culinary schools didn't have athletic programs and
there weren't a lot of schools where there was football

(26:56):
and they had a culinary program.
Uh, in my mind, I have it. I wanted to
be one of those great Penn State linebackers like Bruce Clark. Uh,
so the first year.

Speaker 1 (27:13):
Wait, wait a second, wait a second, wait a second. So, you're, so,
you're just like all the other kids that we've coached,
you're a kid that has played defensive line his whole
life and you think that you're gonna make a transition
to linebacker.

Speaker 2 (27:27):
Well, because blue would tell me he was like, you know,
if you drop £20 you know, it's like you could
probably do it. Yeah, but the

Speaker 1 (27:33):
hard part is dropping £20.
Makes it sound so easy, doesn't

Speaker 2 (27:38):
he? Yeah. Well, the scale swung in the other direction, right?

Speaker 1 (27:43):
So you, you were gonna play line backer, huh?

Speaker 2 (27:47):
Uh Yeah, but uh Penn State didn't really care a
lot as soon as we got closer, uh I opted
for culinary school and
uh being young and dumb, uh I got kicked out
after the first year.
Uh So I switched to Maryland and then, uh

(28:11):
I got on to Maryland as a walk on
uh with the
Great Bobby Ross back then. So this is,

Speaker 1 (28:22):
this is what, like, 81

Speaker 2 (28:24):
82 81. Yes.
Um
After, you know, after a year then, uh
I kind of saw that I could swing back to culinary.
So dropped out of Maryland, switched back to, to culinary

(28:44):
school and
in between, you know, when I went back, the workouts
kinda kinda helped uh also Russell in, at T C
as well too N G W. Um
So in between, in those, uh workouts. I also got
into training with another cousin who was a martial artist.

(29:09):
So I got into boxing and, you know, studying martial arts,
uh, and did that for a while, did amateur boxing
for a while, competed in a bunch of martial art
tournaments
and, you know, all the while doing the culinary career.
And then there came a point, uh a few years in,

(29:30):
started kind of getting burned out from restaurants.
So,

Speaker 1 (29:35):
so wait, wait a second, Jeff. So when you're doing
that and you start out and, you know, times change
so much and like the idea, at least in my
view of culinary has changed so much in the last
30 years, you know, what was it like for you
in the early eighties going to culinary schools? And then
what kind of restaurants did you work in?

Speaker 2 (29:56):
Um I covered in, in the early part of my career,
I started out in hotels. I started out with Marriott.
Uh I worked with Sheraton Hotel, uh Hilton. Um,
excuse me. So, you know, kind of working my way
through the ranks, uh, you know, from apprentice to first

(30:21):
cook to saucier, you know, going through and, you know,
I kind of kind of enjoyed it. But at the
same time, you know, working in working in hotels, putting
in a lot of hours because you have breakfast, lunch, dinner,
room service and banquets.
But I also had a lot of stamina and energy then. Too. So,

Speaker 1 (30:46):
so that was like, I never even thought about this
whole culinary deal in the hotel level. I guess that's
like a whole different thing because obviously you think about, oh,
you're gonna, you know, you want to have a restaurant,
that's the whole thing. But I guess working in the
hotel you're cooking on a large scale then. And that's,
that seems to be very, very busy. So, that was
a whole different world of cooking. And then what happened?

Speaker 2 (31:09):
Definitely with, uh, mass production. I mean, when you're, when
you're doing banquets for 34 or 500 people and then
you also have two or three restaurants that are also
filled with another 100 or 200 people, you know. Yes,
there's a lot going on. So

(31:31):
I started to feel a little burned out and it's like,
you know, I need to take a little break and
step away. Uh, one of my friends I used to
work out with, you know, was saying that, uh, they
needed a bouncer at one of the clubs in Georgetown,
you know, it's like,
ok, you know. Sure.
Um, so with my, uh, boxing and martial arts skills, like, ok,

(31:56):
if I, if I have to, I figure I can
do that. So, uh, for a few years I started
doing that and shortly into that, one of the clubs
in Georgetown used to have live bands coming through and,
you know, you meet people, you talk to people. One
of the guys is like, hey, you know, you're really cool.

(32:16):
It's like, you know, we might take you on a
road to security one day. I'm like, yeah, sure. You know. Ok,
let me know.
And then like a month later, uh, the manager gives
me a call and he's like, hey, this is her.
Remember me? I was like, yeah, he said, um, we've
got a store started in a couple of weeks. So
you're available. I'm like, are you serious? I was like, ok,

(32:39):
so that was with, uh, enough's enough.

Speaker 1 (32:42):
Ok, great eighties band. Enough's enough. Yes. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (32:47):
Uh, so, you know, we did a, we did a
three month tour and,
uh,
it's kind of like from there, it just became like a,
a networking thing, you know, it's like on the road,
meet different people and
kind of like the reputation and they started to grow

(33:07):
and
I picked up the nickname of, I'm not make, this
is all, uh, I picked up the nickname of King Carl.
You know, it's like everybody kind of, you know, respected
how I handled situations. Um

Speaker 1 (33:23):
Right. So you, so you're starting off for our listeners.
It's like, you, you start out by, by bouncing, you know,
local in Georgetown, you're talking to people. Somebody's like, hey,
yeah, I'm gonna bring you on the road with me
and you're like, oh, yeah, sounds great. Whatever. And then
you get the call you're going on the road with
eighties metal band. Enough's enough for three months. You're going, so,

(33:44):
so Chef is going on tour with the band. You're
handling security for personal appearances, you're handling security at the show,
you're handling security backstage for enough enough. And I would
assume like what you're saying, Chef is that, that's probably
a real closed community within the promoter manager, agent band world.

(34:06):
Word word gets around that you're someone that handles things.
You pick up the nickname King Carl and then what
happens

Speaker 2 (34:15):
uh from there, then it was just a matter of
uh
other groups getting in touch with me. And, you know, I've,
I've worked with uh Poison Warrant uh Metallica Def Leopard
uh in mounting uh uh quite a few people.

Speaker 1 (34:39):
So you went on the road with all those bands and,
and during that time, I'm assuming this has to be
like based on your years about what, like 85 86
to 91 92.

Speaker 2 (34:51):
Yeah, this is like uh like late eighties starting it
uh into the early nineties
and when all the hair bands were everywhere.

Speaker 1 (35:02):
So you have poison, you know, you're, you're on the
road with poison, you're on the road with all of
these bands. You know, what was that lifestyle like in
1988 and 1989 for you being on the road, you
know what, what was, what was like a day like
for you doing a job like that?

Speaker 2 (35:22):
It was absolutely insane. I mean, but of course, in a,
in a fun way but it,
a lot of the things that you hear and the
stories that you hear about, you know, rock stars and
party life and those things, you know, and you think
some of it exaggerated. No, no, it's probably all true. Um,

(35:46):
I mean, we'd have, you know, pretty much the day
would be, you know, we arrive in town, uh they
have radio interviews or instore appearances to make. So, you know,
we're going there with them and they're signing autographs and
they'll tell you, you know, it's like, hey, give us
20 minutes and then, you know, grab us to pull

(36:08):
us out, you know, it's like, because they didn't want
to look like,
you know, OK, I can't sign any more autograph, signed together.
So we'll be that person. It's like, all right, we
gotta go and literally grab them, pull them out of
the room.
Um And it would be interesting because there would be
some people that would follow the bands from city to city.

(36:29):
Uh You know, and then,
well, the groupie scene and some of those things, uh
a little wild.

Speaker 1 (36:39):
So let me ask you this, I'm sort of fascinated.
Um Did you go, you, so you're taking the band,
you're doing these, like they'll do it, they'll do radio
stuff in the morning, right? Were you part of that? So,
um obviously you're going across the country and, and during
that time period, obviously when you're in Peoria, Washington or
wherever you're doing some local radio. But did you guys,

(37:01):
were you ever with bands that did big shows, like,
did Stern or did any of those types of things?

Speaker 2 (37:07):
Yeah. Uh, enough, enough ship, uh, did Howard Stern several times.
And
so, you know, it was always kind of cool, you

Speaker 1 (37:18):
know. Right. And I can't imagine. So, you're part of
that too. You're, you're working backstage and, you know, people
don't believe it. Chef and I know you could vouch
for it. I know I could vouch for it too.
People want to say, oh, he toured with poison. Well,
I'm gonna tell you something in 1987 there wasn't a
bigger band in the world than Poison.

Speaker 2 (37:37):
Uh, they sold out arenas, you know. So, and probably,
you know, the biggest was, uh, when Metallica and Guns
and Roses did the, uh, stadium tour and Faith or
Moore was the opening act.

Speaker 1 (37:52):
Uh, you were part of that tour?

Speaker 2 (37:55):
Oh, that was just,
that was just bananas. Um, you know, you're talking about
50 60,000, you know, seat stadiums packed with people. Um,
but one of the things like, you know, for, with
most of the people that I worked with, everybody was
pretty cool and some people gave me a different, uh,

(38:18):
a different aspect on, on their music, like the Nelson Twins.
You know, a lot of people kind of consider them
a joke. But, uh, watching them on tour, you know,
they took their craft seriously. They would do vocal exercises,
they would stretch, they would warm up, you know, they
put effort, you know, into their music. It's like,

(38:39):
ok, I can, I can respect that. And on the
other hand I could see the crash of guns and
roses coming.

Speaker 1 (38:49):
Ok. There, there's a lot of breakdown there. Let's start.
First of all, I can't wait to talk about guns
and roses because they're one of my favorites. But I'm
gonna start out with, you know, being I'm, I'm a
little bit younger than you. So I was coming of
age like, you know, in that late eighties, early nineties period.
And that's when you're really most,
you know, when music is so much, so important to you. So, obviously,

(39:12):
you know, being young, I'm not afraid to admit that
I love, you know, I love poison. I love Warrant.
I love uh Home White Lion. I love all of
those bands. And I think what happens to a lot
of them and even I, I, you know, Nelson had
a couple of big hits. I was huge fans of them,
Ricky Nelson's kids. But like what happens to them is,
is almost all of those bands are just written off.

(39:35):
No one wants to talk about how great of musicians
they were. Nobody wants to talk about how great the
songs were because they were, you know, popular. They were
in vogue during that time period and so few bands
that were big then
have ever been able to shake it. You know, Bon
Jovi's been able to shake that, that kind of moniker
because they hit the scene in like 86 in the

(39:56):
middle of glam. They were thrown in with all those,
but they were able to push out of that. But
so many other bands and, and, you know, Nelson included,
they haven't been able, I mean, they still have fans,
they're still doing well. But their music, I feel, you know,
here we're on a sports podcast, talking about music, but
their music I feel is not as respected as other

(40:18):
eras just because of the whole over the top eighties thing.
What's your take on

Speaker 2 (40:22):
that?
Oh, I was gonna say if you put on living
on a prayer now watch how many people sing along
with it.

Speaker 1 (40:29):
Oh, and then so many of the, of the other,
of the other hits from that time are so iconic
and so, and you know, yeah, and even going back
to Kiss, you know, because Kiss is really, is someone that,
that really started that off, you know, and even, you know,
my oldest daughter was telling me, you know, we were
talking about Kiss and we were just talking about what
a great song I was made for loving you, that

(40:50):
Kiss song, how great that is, you know, and I
kiss made that as like a disco hit. But you
hear that at every arena today and a lot of
these artists, you know, you, you hear at every arena
now talking about and I'll be honest with you talking
about Guns n Roses, talking about Metallica. Those are not
bands in my mind that are hair metal even though
they're coming.

(41:11):
Oh, they didn't even, you know, Metallica had such a
huge following in the early eighties when they were underground
and even when they hit, you know, with the, was
it the black album? They were, they were too hard
to be hair metal, you know what I mean? But
Guns and Roses
obviously, you know, like that first, the first, the first

(41:33):
two albums, you know, you go Appetite For Destruction is
just classic from the beginning to the very end. Every
single song on that is just unbelievable and the energy
that they have, you know, because you talk about bands
and the band's first album, that's the, that's the album.
They've been waiting their whole life to write,
you know, so you have Guns and Roses come onto

(41:53):
the scene and then use your illusion. One and two are,
are just fantastic but
never have I seen a band come onto the scene
so quickly and at least in my mind catch fire,
I watch that live performance of them on MTV in
concert like live at the Ritz in 88 with Guns
and Roses and that band is just on fire there.

(42:14):
They're unbelievable. But the personalities, the Axle Rose, the drug use,
the alcohol use. So, you saw them?
I would say that's 90. Was that tour? Right. Right. So,
Guns and Roses in 90 they hit in 87 by 90.
You're already seeing fractures. What did you see?

Speaker 2 (42:36):
Well, like on the, uh, on the stadium tour, you know, uh,
one, there was a lot of arguing and fighting backstage. Uh,
they would be, they would be late and there were some,
some arenas where

(42:57):
they had a, they had it in their contract. You know,
the rider about, uh, shows starting on time and it
was like a $5000 fee for every minute that you're late.
Sometimes they would be like up to, you know, a
half hour late, you know, getting on.

Speaker 1 (43:13):
Now when you say they, are you being nice? Is,
is this axle? Because from what I've seen, Axel is
blamed for all of the tardiness in your eyes. Was
that always the case?

Speaker 2 (43:25):
Well, let's see. Yeah, he and stuff can see more.
We come in late. Yes,
everybody else was

Speaker 1 (43:32):
there. So he's with Stephanie Seymour at the time. He
was married, uh, from the, uh, from the video shoot
from November Rain, I guess is where they met. Right man. We're,
we're going deep here today. So, Axel's coming late. He
had a reputation of that. It didn't matter if it
was $5000 a minute.
So it's so you're there backstage, the band's there. Axle's

(43:54):
not there every minute. They're getting fined $5000. How's the
rest of the band acting during this time?

Speaker 2 (44:03):
Uh, truthfully some of them were, uh, let's say, self medicated, uh,
you know, and waiting, I guess, to prevent being angry
or because they were angry,
excuse me and, you know, doing the performances, sometimes acts
would uh forget the lyrics. So then they had a

(44:23):
monitor on stage with the lyrics rolling a teleprompter with
the lyrics for him.

Speaker 1 (44:29):
So he's doing karaoke.

Speaker 2 (44:32):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (44:34):
So you're on the road with a Yeah, let me
ask you this. This is fascinating to me. Was, was there.
So you're touring, obviously you're touring with enough's enough. How
are you traveling? How are you living, living as opposed
to when you're traveling around with Guns and Roses and
Metallica doing stadiums? What, what, what difference was that?

Speaker 2 (44:54):
Uh It's just a matter of how nice the bus is,
you know, uh it's like the bus, the hotel, the venue,
the bus, the hotel, the venue.
So it's like even though you're going to city and city,
there's not really a lot of
sightseeing around the cities to do, you

Speaker 1 (45:11):
know. So when you're working backstage on that tour on
the Guns and Roses Metallica tour, what were some of the,
the big stars of the time that you saw backstage?

Speaker 2 (45:23):
Um
I think I've been fortunate enough in both realms of
my life in, in culinary and in entertainment to, you know,
meet a lot of, uh well known people. Uh Sometimes
I try to run down, you know, run down the
list to remember, you know, uh, from

(45:44):
other entertainers, athletes, politicians, uh
Madonna, uh Arsenio Hall, Eddie Murphy. Uh
So, for you, I used to keep a book of like,
all the people I've, you know, like run across.

Speaker 1 (46:01):
That's fascinating because I'm sure like when you're living that lifestyle,
you know, it's not like today, you know, and, and
I still say it's better. It's a good thing for
us that there weren't phones, you know, because you'd have
a picture with all these celebrities, but when you're walking
in those circles and you're probably seeing celebrities every night,
they probably just, they probably just got for you where
they were just, that's another person, am I right?

Speaker 2 (46:22):
Pretty much. That's what I said. Everybody was pretty cool.
The only people that I've encountered that kind of had
uh the attitudes were people related to the celebrity who
felt like they needed that same star treatment. So you're

Speaker 1 (46:39):
calling out Charlie Murphy right now because you met Eddie Murphy.
So was this aimed at Charlie Murphy? No,

Speaker 2 (46:45):
Charlie Charlie had talent. Charlie Charlie had talent but um
Rick O Kasich's brother, for example,

Speaker 1 (46:56):
shots fired. Yes, R O Kasich's brother.

Speaker 2 (47:00):
It's like uh you have an album out or something
it's like, no, it was like,

Speaker 1 (47:07):
did he say, did he say this to you? Do
you know who my brother is?

Speaker 2 (47:10):
Uh, yeah, he said that's a yes. Yes, I do.
And I also know that you still aren't getting it
through here.

Speaker 1 (47:18):
That's what it, that's what it's always about.

Speaker 2 (47:21):
Sometimes people are very specific, you know, because they know
there are a lot of hangers on, you know, people
that just wanna, you know, be close and, you know, they,
they limit the access to them and sometimes even those
that are, that are close to them.

Speaker 1 (47:36):
So, so during this time, you know, you're, you're with
the biggest bands at the time in the world, you're,
you're traveling around the world, you're living a first class lifestyle,
you're living a rick flair lifestyle for lack of a
better word, right? It's a new town every night. You're
flying into town, you know, the stadium's full and then
you're leaving before the sun comes up. But let me

(47:58):
ask you this
during that time period. Was there ever this idea of,
of food and culinary? When did that start to reenter your,
your mindset?

Speaker 2 (48:09):
Um Well, the unfortunate uh
slide to that was there was a person that I
was kind of seeing at the time and they didn't
really like the thought of me always, you know, being
on gone for weeks and months at a time and,
you know, especially all the wild party things that they

(48:33):
say happen, but because it's not really documented, it may
have happened, it may not have happened.

Speaker 1 (48:38):
There's no proof.

Speaker 2 (48:42):
Ok,
so then I kind of made the sense like, ok, let's, uh,
we swing back into, into the restaurant business.

Speaker 1 (48:57):
So you decided, you know,
you're gonna venture back in. Now, is this just going to,
this is going back to work at a restaurant for you?
How difficult was it to, to transition back to that?

Speaker 2 (49:13):
Uh, it just took a little bit of transitioning, you know,
back in. Uh,
I mean, I would
still had skills but, you know, trends and things change,
you know, sometimes. So, uh I was able to find
a great chef mentor to, you know, attach to. And

(49:37):
we did like some really great things, worked at a,
an Italian restaurant on Capitol Hill. So we had a
lot of, uh,
a lot of politicians that would come in a lot
of celebrities. It was kind of a well known restaurant
and then I moved to, uh another steakhouse, uh Sam

(49:58):
and Harry's, which was featured in the movie, uh American
President with Michael Douglas. Oh, ok.
And again, you know, we had
a lot of high profile people that would come in and,
you know, it's like just continued and there would be

(50:19):
an occasional, uh,
like
somebody would be in town and that, you know, make a,
you know, like
help out with their security team or whatever. You know,
whenever somebody was in, in DC. So you were still

Speaker 1 (50:35):
freelancing. Yes.

Speaker 2 (50:37):
Right. And one of uh one of my friends from
school also happened to lock up and get a job
with Francis, his art designer for like 25 years. So,
uh I didn't work with Prince, but I did have
the opportunity to hang out with him on several

Speaker 1 (50:56):
occasions. Ok. Number of, number of questions here. Number one,
do you guys play basketball together?

Speaker 2 (51:02):
Uh We did not play basketball. We played video games.

Speaker 1 (51:05):
Really? So you're, it's like this is, this is you,
you've been around so many celebrities. So we don't, we
don't even open up the podcast with. All right, this
is chef. He played video games with Prince before we
just get to this. Right. So you, you, you, so
your good friend is the art designer for Prince. Prince is,

(51:26):
you know, notoriously known as someone who lives a really
secluded lifestyle. How do you end up being in a
place where you and Prince are playing video games? And obviously,
what video game are you playing?

Speaker 2 (51:40):
Uh Galaga was uh

Speaker 1 (51:43):
Gallagher? Yeah. Yeah. OK.

Speaker 2 (51:45):
And he is, uh I mean, I thought I worked hard.
He
is definitely a hardworking entertainer and I'm not sure if
I would have been able to work with him. He's,
he's pretty funny. He's pretty sarcastic, but he is uh
definitely a showman and a businessman like a day in

(52:09):
the life. Of Prince is
the band rehearses during the day. And then when they
go to sound check for a show, a lot of bands,
their sound check is ta drum, drum check, guitar. It's like,
you know, getting everything tuned up. A Prince sound check

(52:30):
is running through the full show and then they come
back and they do the show
and then afterwards there's an after party, they do somewhere
and they perform again at the after party.
I think I can see why he's gone through so
many band members over, over time. Yeah,

Speaker 1 (52:48):
I remember reading or hearing something about Prince where, where,
you know, and obviously when you're such a talented musician
as Prince and you work as hard as that, he's very,
very hard on his backup band members. You know, he's
very demanding to his backup band members. And I remember
hearing the same thing about James Brown that, you know,

(53:08):
if you weren't playing perfect,
you were going to be gotten rid of and, and
I guess that goes to show, you know, and a
lot of times, you know, Prince and James Brown I
think are, are, are similar in a lot of ways
even though they came around in different times. But
so you end up, how do you end up playing
video games with them?
Uh

Speaker 2 (53:27):
After,
after one show, uh
Steve the artist's friend, we found, we found this place
in DC called House of Secrets.
So if you're walking down the street from the outside
you would walk by it 20 times because you don't

(53:48):
notice it. But inside it's like this little
private, uh,
club. Uh, I'm trying to, what, what do they call?
The little, uh, after hour prohibition places back in the day? Speakeasy. Yeah.
It's sort of like, sort of like that. And it's like,

(54:09):
and so it's like, holy, it's like, holy crap. Look
at all this stuff here. Uh So he really liked
the place Prince said and decided he wanted to shoot
a video there.
So a couple weeks later, you know, all the equipment
and everything is there and there's like a bunch of
people there. Uh Shaka Khan, Doggie Fresh um you know,

(54:33):
a bunch of people, you know, they're hanging out, it's
like
we're recording, shoot the different segments of the video and
it was like this little video game room and it's like,
uh
I'm playing, you know, on the game and Princes is
next to me and playing and it's like,

Speaker 1 (54:52):
was he like, was he always in, in, in full regalia?
Prince

Speaker 2 (54:57):
always? Yes.

Speaker 1 (54:59):
Wow. Like that's, that's insane. So you end up playing
Gallaga with Prince? So were you, were you just there
as a friend or were you working security for that?
Were you freelancing? I was

Speaker 2 (55:10):
just hanging out.

Speaker 1 (55:12):
So your friends, like, come on, let's go hang out
at the, at the Prince video shoot. Oh my goodness.
And then Shaka Khan, I mean, I would just want
to be like, Shaka shaka, you know, like, how do
you not? That's the first thing that comes to my head.
Shaka Khan was there.

Speaker 2 (55:30):
I mean, it was just,

Speaker 1 (55:32):
I mean, at that time too, I mean, during that
time frame, you know, you're in that, you're in that area,
that area is popping, man. I mean, it almost always is,
but it seems like even back then, what's that during
Clinton during the Clinton administration?

Speaker 2 (55:48):
Uh Yeah,

Speaker 1 (55:50):
yeah. So it was cool to be in Washington. Clinton
was loved by everybody. There's a lot of people coming
through all the time.

Speaker 2 (55:57):
See, and I can also say I have the distinct
pleasure of preparing dinner for Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky
at the same time though. They both, they both came
to the restaurant where I was, where I was a
chef on different,

Speaker 1 (56:16):
right? So, so just the adventure between, you know, between
working the concert scene and then working the whole political
scene and working in the restaurant scene. So, so where
do you go from there, man?

Speaker 2 (56:33):
Uh After that, I
kind of ventured into business on, on my own. I
was a partner in a steakhouse and then I opened
a catering business in, in Maryland and things were going good.
Um I had a,

(56:54):
I had a couple of uh pro athletes as you know,
as clients. So uh from the, from the Wizards and
from the Redskins and things are going good until the
recession crash of oh eight

Speaker 1 (57:10):
and, oh, that was horrible.

Speaker 2 (57:12):
Yeah, business was kind of, kind of drying up.
And around that time, a friend of mine who we
worked together as, uh, assistant chefs in DC had two
restaurants down here in the Keys. And he called me

(57:32):
up and asked me about being a guest chef for
a wine donor that he was doing And he called
it five chefs five cities. So it was like uh
a few of us from
different places and each one, each one of us was
doing a course with a certain wine. So, you know,
I came down and it was like,

(57:54):
I mean,
Florida or the Keys was nowhere on my mind or
on my radar. But, you know, when I came down
for the event, it was like, this is pretty cool here.
It was like, yeah, there are, you know, a lot
of opportunities here. It's like, ok, uh and I was
talking to his pastry chef at the time who also

(58:17):
happened to be the instructor instructor at marathon.
So, you know, we chatted up for a bit and
a few months, it was probably uh six or seven
months later. Uh George did in another event and I
came down for that

(58:39):
and I talked to, you know, carry a little more.
She said that, you know, she was thinking about leaving,
you know, and I thought about teaching. I was like,
I've talked to all, all groups of people. I've taught
rehabbing felons, assimilating back into society. I've taught a group,
adult groups. I was like, sure, how hard can kids be? Right.

(59:02):
So, on my second visit there, you know, it's like
I came by to visit her to high school, walk around,
take a look and, you know, met the principal briefly
at the time and it's like, OK, I guess this
is something I could look into
and
that was, uh my introduction to the Keys.

Speaker 1 (59:25):
So then you're like, ok, I'm gonna work at marathon.
I'm gonna be the culinary instructor. So, so then you
move everything down here and you start at marathon. What,
what was that like for you? Like, you know, working
with adults, working in the different worlds, playing video games
with Prince, hanging out with, you know, hanging out with
Bill Clinton, hanging out with everybody. You know, what's, what's

(59:47):
that first week in the classroom like for you as
a teacher?

Speaker 2 (59:51):
Uh, well, it was a big adjustment one because moving
1200 miles away, uh,
the only person I knew down here was George, uh,
Anne Carey, you know who I, who I just met.
Um, so it was kind of,

(01:00:15):
it's like, ok, I know how to run a business.
I know how to run a kitchen. So how am
I going to instruct these kids? And when I got
there the first week it was kind of like, here
are the keys. Here you go. I was like, yo, ok, great, thanks.

Speaker 1 (01:00:30):
What do I do? Oh, you know, teach him to cook.

Speaker 2 (01:00:35):
So, you know, like I said, uh I didn't have
any classroom, you know, experience. So it's like, ok, business.
It is, this is what it is and,
you know, I kind of lay down the law on
day one that everybody understands what things are and who
I am and I don't know, just generally, you know,

(01:00:58):
over time, you know, things start to, you know, fall
in shape.

Speaker 1 (01:01:03):
Yeah. It's one of those things that a lot of,
a lot of colleges and things, they could only prepare
you so much, you know, before you go into the classroom.
And
I just think, you know, personally being a teacher, what
I want to do is just every year get a
little bit better at teaching and every year get a
little bit better and then I think, you know, over
time you become better and you learn what works and

(01:01:23):
you learn what doesn't work. So, did you, did you
immediately enjoy it? Um, what were, you know, were you like? Oh. Oh,
my goodness. I'm out of here at the end of
the school year. Or did you just immediately take to it?

Speaker 2 (01:01:36):
No, I immediately took to it because, uh, shortly after starting, uh,
there were a couple of people that, you know, that
I met and got in contact with and
you know, they were saying, well, do you know anything
about catering? I was like, well, yeah, I just left

(01:01:56):
my catering company. So uh started doing catering pretty much
within weeks of arriving and
some of the, you know, the people were kind of
impressed with the, with the style and the flavor. Um
So it started to kind of grow from there

(01:02:19):
and with the, with the whole moniker as far as
chef flavor, chef flavor is actually an adjective that describes
the style of cooking. Um
Leaving entertainment, I was talking about the chef mentor that,
you know, I got hooked up with, you know, when
we were doing things, he would always tell us, make

(01:02:40):
sure he was like check everything, make sure that it
has chef flavor. It was like, you wanna, you wanna
eat something that tastes so good that it tastes like
a chef made it.
So chef flavor was the name that I was using
for the company. And then it just kind of stuck to,
to me

Speaker 1 (01:03:02):
and then like you could go on youtube and put
in Chef Flavor and there's going to be videos with you.
You've done a lot of things outside of school with
cooking and things like that. But how do you end
up uh back sort of where this whole thing started?
How do you end up back coaching football?

Speaker 2 (01:03:19):
Uh Well, one in the in the chef world there
was pretty much literally no time for anything else, uh
when you're doing 70 to 80 hours a week. And
I've always had, you know, the love for the game.
And it's kind of like, well, here's an opportunity where

(01:03:42):
I can do both. It's like I can be involved
with football and I'm still involved in culinary. It's like,
how great can this be?

Speaker 1 (01:03:51):
So, so you get involved uh uh coaching early in
your teaching career with coach Martin. And you know, you
coach with, uh coach Davis and you coach with, uh
Mr C and
you're gonna be coaching, uh, with me now, you know,
and so what are some of the memorable moments that
you have coaching football at marathon?

Speaker 2 (01:04:14):
Uh There have been a lot of great moments. One
from watching some of the kids develop and go through, uh,
of course, uh 2017 winning the conference title was great.
Uh, beaten Coral Shores, uh the overtime game. That was great.

Speaker 1 (01:04:37):
So that, that was, I think that would be 2020 15,
20 yeah, 2020 15. That was, that was just
a great game at home. Lots of people there are
going to overtime at

Speaker 2 (01:04:52):
the end and the crowd just goes

Speaker 1 (01:04:54):
crazy. Noah bot picking up that fumble when, uh the,
the young ninth grade Jackson mcdonald gets to sack the
kid fumbles. Noah picks it up and runs it in.
I mean, that was, I think, I think Roberto had
a big run that game too. That was, that was
a fun one man.

Speaker 2 (01:05:11):
And of course, the pattern back of you watching the
development of Jackson, you know, just become, uh, become a
little stud. It's like, you know, incredible.

Speaker 1 (01:05:22):
Just remember him starting all out as 1/7 grader, 8th,
8th string backup quarterback at Marathon and watching everybody watching
everybody grow is such a great thing, you know, and
I think what we are so lucky at marathon
where we get to have this connection with the kids
from sixth grade through 12th grade and, and watching everybody
grow up and it's amazing how, how much they grow

(01:05:45):
up during that seven year period, you know.

Speaker 2 (01:05:49):
Right. And the thing and the thing, like we've said
for years with the kids, it's not just about, you know,
making them become a great football player, it's about making
them become great people in society having character, you know,
and
football is, it's a game, but sometimes it's more of
a game. It helps you deal with a lot of things.

(01:06:10):
It's like I've encountered a lot of things in my life,
you know, a lot of adversity, a lot of obstacles
and sometimes just that,
that concept dig down into that reserve tank helps you
get through a lot of things.

Speaker 1 (01:06:26):
And it's amazing when you think about it because it's
like if you do and, and all I have is
my own perception, but it's like almost every single day
of your life, or at least every single day of
my life. I, I always think back to something that
I learned playing football growing up or something that happened
or just think about those experiences that I had and

(01:06:49):
then apply them to, to my daily life. And it's
something that sticks with you for the rest of your life.
It definitely does. And then, like, just like you, you
saw like the impact that football could have even when,
like when you go back to DC and you watch,
remember the Titans and, and all of those things, you

(01:07:10):
see that the impact of sport is so much bigger
and especially here in the key chef because there's a
lot of places in the state of Florida where you
have these, you know, charter schools and private schools and
there's so many different schools in a lot of towns,
they don't have the school spirit that is had in

(01:07:31):
the keys. They don't have the, the outpouring of support
from the public that we have in the keys. So
we are very lucky to be here and be teaching
and coaching where we're at.

Speaker 2 (01:07:44):
And I, I thought that that was great. And being
here too, how, you know, being a small town, the
community rallies around all the events and everything, like from
the homecoming parade and all coming out to all the games.
The support is just, it's phenomenal. It's really great, you know,

Speaker 1 (01:08:02):
and it's really up and down the Keys with Key West,
with Marathon, with Coral Shores and it's what makes this
community no matter what's so special and what our kids
I think are lucky where they get this. You know,
I was just up at, uh, a, a co, a
player coached kind of thing and I was talking to
so many different high school coaches and they couldn't all

(01:08:22):
around Miami and, and these are some of the bigger
schools and they just don't have the support anymore. They
couldn't believe it when I told them. Yeah, you know,
you come down and play us. We have our on
campus stadium, we have about 400 people. We're gonna have band,
we're gonna have cheer, we're gonna have a huge concession
stand going. It's gonna be the only place to be
in marathon and these coaches couldn't believe me, you know. So,

(01:08:43):
so we're lucky, we're lucky to have you in, in
marathon chef and, and we're lucky to be here. And
do you have any final words to the people on
the podcast today?

Speaker 2 (01:08:53):
And I just sort of, you know, it's great that, uh,
the town has, you know, accepted me. I love being here.
I wanna be here for a while. Continue doing what
we do. Um, looking forward to continue what we do
on the football field as well

Speaker 1 (01:09:09):
too. Well, thanks for coming on today. If you wanna,
if you wanna get catered by chef. Then all you
need to do is check him out. Chef Carl Stanton
Chef Flavor.
You could call up marathon high school and you could
be at the phone directly to this guy. And thank
you so much for coming on today and hope you
have a great rest of your weekend.

Speaker 2 (01:09:30):
Thank you very much and you too, brother.

Speaker 1 (01:09:33):
Thank you guys so much for listening. Was I right
or was I right? Was it fascinating or not? Can
you believe the places that chef has been, uh, the
people that he's been around? The adventures, the connections and
now he is in Monroe County. This is such a
wonderful place from Key Largo to Key West. We have
the greatest people coming into this county to live and

(01:09:55):
we have the greatest people living in this county and
I'm just so grateful to be here. I'm so grateful
to the Keys Weekly. Everybody go out and read your
Keys weekly, check out
the sports, wrap, the Keys Weekly, sports wrap, my wife. Uh,
Tracy mcdonald does a lot of the writing there. She,
she pretty much does all the writing for that sports page.
So when you see her out, tell her how much
you enjoy it. I hope you guys enjoy the Keys Weekly.

(01:10:18):
I love that newspaper. It comes to your house every Thursday,
check it out, pick it out, pick it up and
read it and uh definitely check out the Keys weekly
sports wrap and you guys have a great week.