April 18, 2025 • 45 mins
When Chef Fionna España was told she should "just stay home" because she had "too many kids" to become a real chef, she didn't just push back—she made history. As the first female president of the LA chapter of the American Culinary Federation in over 100 years, this proud Latina executive chef has transformed barriers into stepping stones.
"I didn't realize that it was a male-dominant industry," Fionna reveals with characteristic candor. "I thought women belonged in the kitchen until I got my first job and didn't see a lot of women on the hot line." Rather than accepting these limitations, she used them as fuel, setting an ambitious goal to become an executive chef before 40—a milestone she achieved at 38.
What sets Fionna apart isn't just breaking glass ceilings but how she's using her leadership to lift others. During the LA wildfires, she mobilized resources to raise over $20,000 in just one week for first responders. "I used my powers for good," she reflects during a rare moment of self-acknowledgment. This community focus extends to her approach with the next generation of culinary professionals, whom she encourages to balance work ethic with self-care.
Meanwhile, Chef Thomas Parker dazzles with his culinary wizardry, presenting three show-stopping dishes including a mojo-crusted carne asada f
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
hello food fam.
This is the walk and talkpodcast where you will find the
perfect blend of food fun andcooking knowledge.
I'm your host, carl fiodini.
Welcome to the number one foodpodcast in the country and the
official podcast for the newyork, california and Florida
restaurant shows, the PizzaTomorrow Summit and the US
Culinary Open at NAFM.
(00:29):
We're recording on-site at IbisImages Studios, where food
photography comes alive and Iget to eat it.
Email us to learn more info atthewalkandtalkcom.
Today's guest is somebody who'snot only made history but
continues to shape the future ofthe culinary world.
Chef Fiona Espana is the firstfemale president at the LA
(00:51):
chapter of the American CulinaryFederation in over 100 years.
A proud Latina, a passionateexecutive chef and a mentor to
many, her journey from studentto national leader is nothing
short of inspiring.
To many, her journey fromstudent to national leader is
nothing short of inspiring.
She's navigated thecomplexities of a traditionally
male-dominated industry withresilience and purpose, turning
(01:12):
challenges into stepping stonesand opening doors for others
along the way.
You know Fiona's awesome.
She's been a supporter of thisshow since literally the
beginning.
With a food festival on thehorizon this October and a deep
commitment to mentoring the nextgeneration, fiona's story is
one of growth, impact anddetermination.
Also in studio, we welcome backthe chef, thomas Parker.
(01:35):
Oh man, he cooked up twoelevated stunners today.
Three, three elevated stunnerstoday, and we still have some
more to do after this.
Wow, okay, let's get into this.
Thomas Thomas, thomas, thomas,thomas, thomas.
John said it before If there'san A game, you brought it, but
more, and then some it's like Aplus game.
(01:58):
I guess Today was fantastic.
I appreciate it, man, likegetting compliments from people
that are in the industry andthat know the industry, like
that's what really goes to ourhearts as chefs is some of the
(02:25):
best, and I you know I hate tosay that like that, because
everyone who we bring in losersdon't make it in and the winners
stay and, at the end of the day, the dishes that are getting
put out are stupid.
Let's talk about them.
What's your favorite dish today?
Speaker 2 (02:37):
That's hard, Like I have so much love for all three
of them that I did.
I'm going to go with the steak,though the filet, solely
because that's the I'm going touse it on a menu here in the
near future.
So it's a mojo crusted carneasada filet.
It's got a black bean and cornsalsa on it, a chipotle infused
(02:58):
demi-glace.
I did three different types offluid gels for the plate as
garnish.
There was a pickled onion, asour cream and a cilantro.
And then we flash fried somecornstarch shallot rings to
garnish it with and gave it alittle bit of microgreen and it
was just beautiful.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Not bad for a piece of choice meat right.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Yeah, a piece of choice meat.
It was a great eight to nineWagyu.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
Okay, that's what I was waiting for you to say All
right, excellent, not bad, youknow it was butter, it was
butter the whole thing.
Like you take a spoonful andyou make sure each of those you
know parts of the dish are onthe spoon or fork, whatever, and
you just take that whole biteand it just, it all, just melted
(03:47):
, everything melted andeverything had a layer and you
had the flavor profile ofeverything and whatever that,
whatever the crust was, that youput the citrus in it.
Talk about that real quick man,because that was really great,
yeah, so I've done three or fourdifferent versions of that
crust.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
I've done a coffee one, this one's.
I call it a mojo crust becauseit does.
It has lemon, lime, orange zestin it, garlic, salt pepper just
your normal stuff.
But the thing that really makesit is I add cornstarch to it
and when you pan sear it it justgives you such a hard, luscious
(04:25):
crust that just cracks as youput a knife through it and it
helps it stick to the steak.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
It was zingy.
I don't know if that's a wordor whatever, but it had zing, it
was tangy.
It was really great, man.
Okay, so not to overshadow theother dishes, what else did you
cook?
Speaker 2 (04:44):
So Aussie Select has this incredible product.
It's a lamb ham and they dodifferent versions of it and I
really wanted to showcase it, soI did a.
It's a playoff of the Americanversion of country fried steak.
Only I did some Indian fusionwith it, so I called it country
fried korma.
(05:04):
So korma is one of thetraditional curry dishes, so I I
breaded the ham steak andalmonds and pan fried it.
We paired it with.
Instead of just using rice likein a traditional curry dish, I
did congee, which is, you know,you blend the rice grain down
(05:25):
and it's their version of gritsreally.
And instead of just using cream, I used curry to make it.
And then we added a layeredpotato that I baked and then
fried off and topped it with asauteed sausage that we made a
tikka masala puree to cook it in.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
I don't even know what to say.
I mean I felt like I, I feltlike and I would never do it not
in front of you guys anyway butI felt like I should have a
tear.
I should have, I should havehad a tear today.
It was that good.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
There was even more to it actually, now that I'm
thinking about it, Because Iwanted to individualize every
ingredient for curry.
So there was a carrot element.
I did the little carrot tulecookies, I made mint oil which
we floated on top of the curry.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
That's a lot of work that went into this.
Yeah, I feel like this isprobably your most in-depth time
with us in terms of what youdid for ingredients and cooking
prep and all that.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
You want it to be perfect.
Chefs were perfectionists atfault.
So, in my mind, when I'mcreating a dish, it has to be
(06:51):
perfect.
When I'm teaching and mentoringmy staff, it has to be perfect.
They have to get it the sameway that I'm going to get it.
What was the other dish?
The other dish?
A little funny play.
As you know.
I just had another daughter andI was reading my, my older
daughter green eggs and ham.
So I did a little play off of afrench croque, madame, and I
(07:14):
called it green eggs and lamb,madame so I mean, I have, I have
two young ones, one's adaughter, I, I just appreciate
this a lot.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
Get into what that's about.
That was Aussie Select alsocorrect.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Yeah, yeah, that was the agave rosemary, aussie
Select.
And unlike the first dish,which was a ham steak,
essentially I shaved this one.
We just pretty much let it cookin some butter, get a nice
crust on it and, yeah, it was acroque.
(07:48):
Madame, I make this really goodrosemary and confit garlic
focaccia at the restaurant.
So we just buttered and grilleda piece of that and topped it
with the the lamb ham, thenadded a black bean and corn
gruyere mornay to it.
So cheese sauce.
And then I wanted to get alittle weird science-y with it.
(08:12):
So I went into my moleculargastronomy book and I turned
bacon into powder, I made tomatowater caviar and I did some
reverse spherification on apuree of avocado and that became
the green egg people.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
I need you to understand something.
Today was really, really coolfor us.
Thomas brought it and this,this avocado egg.
It's basically it looks likeegg yolk is what it looks like?
Well, it's actually in theshape of an egg hard boiled egg
but the consistency you pop thisthing, it's green and it looks
like green egg yolk.
It was with tequila, right yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
So I you know, when you do something like the agar
caviar or reverse purification,it needs a liquid to set in.
And whatever that liquid is, itkind of it absorbs it a little
bit and it takes on that flavorprofile.
So instead of just water orlime juice or anything, what I
(09:12):
soaked it in was mezcal tequila.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
Yeah, clearly stupid, stupidly awesome.
I can't give you enough pats onthe back.
We have one more shoot to doAfter the podcast, and real
quick, just tell everybody whatit is.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
It's a Play off, a prohibition cocktail Called the
gold rush, which is Normallybourbon, lemon and Honey syrup.
But In using the mezcal Tequilafor the Second dish, I did.
I wanted to Change up thebourbon, so we're going to do
Mezcal tequila for the seconddish I did, I wanted to change
up the bourbon, so we're goingto do mezcal tequila, fresh
lemon and agave syrup instead ofthe honey syrup and we are
(09:53):
going to use the supercutsystems lemon slicer to make
this drink.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
All right, without ado, let's welcome Chef Fiona to
the program.
How are you, chef?
Speaker 3 (10:08):
Oh, I'm in a dream right here just thinking of all
this food.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Seriously, you're sitting there, you're listening
and you're thinking to yourselfI should have been in studio
today.
That's what it should be.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
Yes, yes, I should have flew in Just for this meal.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
Well, listen, I think I mentioned this on our pregame
call.
We'll get you here, so don'tworry, I do want to make that
happen.
You're kind of a big deal,fiona.
You know we've never met inperson but we've known each
other now for a couple of twoand a half years and you've been
just a terrific supporter ofWalk Talk podcast and what we're
doing and I just sincerelythank you for that.
(10:47):
And you know we've been talkingfor a long time on how you know
, just to get you on the show.
I mean, I feel like you deserveit and you're.
I think your story is pretty,pretty incredible.
Can you explain the feeling ofbeing the first female chapter
president in your, in your areafor 100 years?
What does that mean to you?
Speaker 3 (11:08):
Well, I think the first couple of years because
this is my fourth year, mysecond term it didn't really hit
me because I knew I had a lotof work to do to kind of just
get the paperwork done as anonprofit organization bank
accounts, bylaw changes so itwasn't really time to just sit
(11:29):
there and think, wow, this isgreat, I'm so happy that I don't
know it was more work, like putthe gloves on, let's get down
and dirty and make sure thateverything's set up the right
way and just kind of continue tomake sure that the foundation
is reset to where we can justhand it off to the next person
(11:50):
on the next term or the nextboard board of directors.
So I think about year three,this last year, year four is
where it finally hit me and Irealized that it's just the
beginning of so many greatthings that I can accomplish.
And it's kind of humblingbecause there's so many great
(12:12):
chefs out there and they choseme.
Now I'm using it as much as Ican to be a part of, like, the
culinary competitions for thecolleges locally.
We have I believe it's aboutfour here in LA really big
culinary schools.
We have tons of high schoolprograms that are all throughout
(12:35):
LA region, san Bernardinoregion, which is about 30, 40
minutes from us.
So I try to tap into bothcounties because I'm right in
the middle and they, they use mebut I like it.
So I'm just.
I'm just kind of going with theflow now and trying to take it
one, one event at a time.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
Well, take us back to the beginning.
What first got you intoculinary and has that passion
and has it grown since youstarted?
And was that about?
Oh, that was over 20 years ago,right?
Speaker 3 (13:09):
yeah, wait, wait a minute wait hold on, wait a
minute.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
You know you say 20 plus years to to the food life
you know, to the restaurant lifeand the the.
The sound of your voice, thetexture of your voice on that
sigh tells it all.
But go ahead and go ahead andexplain, please I.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
I feel like rose from titanic.
When you say that 20 plus years, I know I was like 12 when I
started.
I I mean not literally, but youknow what?
I started as a server at OliveGarden back in 2000.
I liked it Quick money, fastpace.
(13:54):
You meet a lot of people.
I'm a social butterfly, so itwas really easy for me.
And then I ended up dropping outof college.
I wanted to be a math teacher,math professor, so my major was
mathematics.
But I got married, I gotpregnant, had some kids, had a
(14:17):
family, and then my mom said youknow, you should go back to
school, you should get education.
So I said you know, if I'mgoing to go back to school, you
should get an education.
So I said if I'm going to goback to school, it's going to be
for something that I love to do, which is bake.
I love to bake, I love to dodesserts, pastries.
And she told me that I shouldget a degree.
(14:38):
I don't just get a certificate,because in the long run the
education is where it's going tobe at.
I didn't see what was really inthe future, or I didn't really
have anything in mind except foroh, I just want to be the best
pastry chef in the world, whichI'm not there yet.
But one day.
And I went to culinary school.
(15:01):
I went to Le Cordon Bleu and Idid the whole program.
I loved it, I had a great timeand the journey from there was
more than what I really expected.
I thought I was just going toplay with sugar and flour and
fabricate some meats and, youknow, just be a happy little
(15:21):
cook in the kitchen my wholelife.
But it didn't turn out that way.
I'm a little more than a cooknow.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
You realize somewhere along the way that if you
wanted to really go somewhere,listen, pastry chefs.
We've had plenty of pastrychefs on the show and everyone
has the same feeling.
And it's basically pastry chefsdon't get any love and you can
only get so high as a pastrychef, correct, right?
(15:52):
So you saw that and you decidedthat, hey, I'm going to hit
savory and I'm just going to bea badass.
I'm pretty sure that's how itwent down, right.
Speaker 3 (16:02):
Yeah, that was the goal.
I just said, let me just be abadass, and I figured it out.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
Fiona as a Latina in a male-dominated industry.
What were some of the earliestchallenges that you encountered
and how did you manage tonavigate them?
Speaker 3 (16:20):
I didn't realize that it was a male-dominant industry
.
I didn't realize that it was amale dominant industry.
I thought women belonged in thekitchen until when I got, like,
my first job and you don't seea lot of women, or they're in
Garmonday, they're in the saladstation, and then on the hotline
you don't see a lot of women.
(16:41):
And I wondered why, like what'sthe difference?
And I realized really reallyfast that you have to put in
your dues.
Right, you got to pay your dues.
The unfortunate part of what Ilearned was that the ridicule of
(17:03):
not speaking Spanish was like aconstant and it was the older
Hispanic women that didn't likethat.
I didn't speak Spanish, my momdoesn't speak Spanish and my dad
didn't speak to me in Spanish,so I'm Californian, that's.
(17:23):
That was kind of like the thingI would tell them, because they
would say you're not Mexicanand I didn't understand what
that meant and I said, well, mygrandparents are from Mexico.
Like how does that not make meMexican?
But they were referring tospeaking the language and really
carrying yourself with theculture.
(17:43):
So that was kind of like thehard part.
So I try to stay away from, Iwouldn't say women, but the
older generation, that kind ofjust you know, pushed me aside
and I just went with those thatkind of embraced me and would
continue to show me like thelines and how to do certain
things.
And it was hard because it waslike one way or another.
(18:06):
At one point I had one cheftell me just stay at home, you
have too many kids, you're notgoing to be a real chef Like
you're.
You're not, you're not going togo that far.
And I was kind of taken backbecause I I was, I don't know,
maybe like three, four yearsinto being a cook and I loved
(18:28):
what I did.
I did pay my dues.
I did work 14-hour shifts,16-hour shifts on the line,
prepping banquets.
I always tried to do the most,even as a cook.
It kind of motivated me to setsome goals of being an executive
chef before 40 years old.
(18:48):
I met my goal when I was 38,which was kind of like cool.
I got the title, this isexciting.
And then I realized this is alot of work opening up kitchens
and opening up the buildings.
It was a lot of work and fromthen, from 38 years old, I've
(19:09):
opened four kitchens.
It's been a good journey.
I just evolved over the years ofreally getting that ridicule
kind of pushed me to continue tolike, set higher goals and not
really let them keep me bitter,and I'm I understand where
they're coming from now.
So I kind of tried to not letthat hinder me from like, oh,
(19:34):
these people will never like me.
It's not that they don't likeme, they just, you know, see me
as either a threat, I don't know.
But I didn't want to take theirjobs.
I didn't want to be a garmangerlady at 80 years old.
That wasn't my goal.
They could keep that job,that's fine.
But the negativity definitelyfueled me to do more.
(19:57):
I never wanted to prove, likepeople wrong.
I just wanted to know that Ican do it, even though they told
me you're not going to make it,you're a mom, you need to stay
at home, you're not going to bea chef there's not a lot of
female chefs it's just not goingto happen.
And then here I am.
I'm more than what I actuallyexpected.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
So in your quiet time ?
Do you sit there ever and sayto yourself you know, what I did
, do it, and in spite of speedbumps and negative, negative
people, I, I'm achieving andyou're still achieving and
you're still growing.
You ever just sit there andthink about that.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
Yeah, I think it's usually after you know, like
some really big events that I'vedone the most recent is the LA
firesires, which was back inJanuary I made some phone calls.
I reached out to a lot of ourvendors, a lot of our chefs in
our chapter.
I said, hey, let's get thesepeople fed, let's give them
(20:59):
water bottles, whatever we cando, make some little care
packages, let's send it out tothe firefighters, first
responders, let's just go.
I'm going to use my power.
Whatever little power I have orwhatever big power I have, I'm
going to use it.
And within one week we wereable to get over $20,000 in
(21:19):
donations for pallets of waterand all distributed throughout
all the fire areas.
And I think two days after, likeeverything was kind of settled
with being able to like push itall out.
I'm not a big crier, but Iliterally was like in tears of
like I can't believe I did this,like I used my powers for good
(21:45):
and I was taken back.
But I took a lot of energy outof me to just, you know, kind of
stay positive.
You know, cook for veterans.
I cooked for five days threemeals.
I probably cooked maybe six ofthose meals for 200 veterans
(22:05):
that were displaced.
So it was hard physically, butmentally it's very fulfilling.
It's very like it gives you somuch, like with your skill, your
craft, you know you can be ableto give and do so much that you
never, you never realize howmuch you can really do when you
push yourself.
And I think at that moment iswhere I said this is.
(22:28):
This is an amazing feeling andI want to do it again.
I mean, I don't hope there'snatural disasters, but it's just
you get in there, you do it andyou do you do.
One of the big helpers thatreally pushed me to like
(22:49):
continue doing it was Amy Sins,I think.
She's out of New Orleans.
She's a great individual.
I mean I texted her and I saidhelp me, walk me through this
process of helping people, andshe did.
She was phenomenal.
Just that.
That encouragement was just thewords, a couple of connections,
(23:12):
and we got so much done in liketwo weeks.
So it was so fulfilling in mycareer to say that I was able to
assist or even just pull thesethings together.
There's been a few other eventsthat are really where you sit
(23:33):
back and think, wow, I didn'teven think I could do this.
This is not really like chefstuff, I guess you know it's
just being able well, it's thecommunity, you know being able
to give back in your, in yourskill and your craft.
On a day to day I think I'mjust a regular chef.
I cook, I do banquets, you know.
(23:55):
I do my daily operations, Ireinvent my menu and then
there's times where I say, hey,let's, you know, do the most.
So I have my moments, but ithas to be in an extreme event
for me to really say like pat onthe back to myself because I
(24:16):
just feel like I'm not doingenough for this industry,
because I feel like it's just ascratch.
You know, $20,000 is nothingcompared to what the fires had
did to so many homes.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
Amy Sins.
She's a friend of the show.
She's a terrific lady in and ofherself.
I don't know if you knew or saw, but she had a TED talk a few
weeks back.
I'm so proud of what she'sdoing.
Like she, she's an amazinghuman being also.
And we were fortunate to haveher on the show a couple of
times and you know she's evendone some.
(24:50):
Last year at the Boku store inin in New Orleans she was, she
was doing some some mic work forus.
You know she was acorrespondent for walk and talk
and she represented and she'sright yeah, she's, she's just.
She's just such a a sweetperson who has a backbone, just
like a I don't know, I don'tknow what that would be like,
(25:10):
just a massive backbone, she's,she's awesome I want to mention.
I do want to mention something Idon't want to say that I want
to mention.
You said earlier that you raninto some challenges with family
speaking Spanish and what theexpectations were, and that
(25:32):
you're not actually Mexican.
I didn't realize that othercultures had that, because it's
the same with me, all my family,both sides, going all the way
back.
They're from basically the sameregion in Italy.
I just never learned Italian.
Growing up I understood thedialect, but I didn't speak
(25:54):
proper Italian and I didn'treally speak the dialect either.
I just kind of understood itand going forward me at my age
now, like I don't even try.
My wife is Cuban, they speakSpanish and I don't even try to
learn any language at this point.
But I will tell you that peoplefrom over there in Italy they
(26:14):
look at me and they're like well, you're not even Italian and
I'm like my blood is probablypurer than yours and at the end
of the day they still look downon you and you know I've had
this conversation with many,many a person and at the end of
the day it's like reallyexhausting.
(26:35):
I can really, I really identifywith what you said there.
Speaker 3 (26:39):
The starting point of my journey, of taking that
first job at a university,there's I don't know 500 cooks.
There's an extreme amount ofworkers.
Again, I thought I was just,you know, chugging along on the
choo-choo train like, yay, let'sall cook.
And then I didn't realize thatyou're not like, why ridicule
(27:03):
your partner or your coworkers?
What I identify as like I'mMexican American.
I apologize for not speakingSpanish, you know, like it's,
it's wild, it really is.
And then I realized, well, theycome from a different country,
so they're gonna, they going tosay that's not our standard, but
(27:25):
that's why I've told so manypeople I'm Californian.
What does that mean?
Like I was born and raised here, like I'm sorry, I don't.
I don't know how to explain it.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
I say I'm a.
Well, I'm American Italianbecause I was born here in the
States.
I was born in Florida, I'm bornin Miami, I'm American Italian
and that's what I am.
Fiona, marketing campaigns,leadership roles, festivals how
are you keeping your identity asa chef and managing all of this
?
Speaker 3 (27:51):
I drink a lot of espresso.
I drink four shots a day to getme going.
And then I think about what'shappening.
First I'm a mom.
I have four kids, I've beenmarried almost 23 years, I have
two dogs and I run a household.
And then I think what kind ofjust feels me in general is
(28:16):
being able to do so many things.
And there's so many times I'veheard you should hone in on your
craft, right, but what is mycraft?
My craft looks like being achef.
My craft is doing pastries.
My craft is being a mom.
(28:36):
I really enjoy those multipletasks and it kind of develops me
as a leader to say, okay, thisis how, this is how we do it or
this is how I do it.
One of my mentors, I was kind ofoverwhelmed one one time, and I
(28:58):
mean I, I'm overwhelmed all thetime, but this one time he said
I asked my mentor.
I said how do you do it?
Right, you're a dad, you have afamily, you run, you know, a
pretty large hospital property.
You do you travel for for theACF, you're one of one of the
leads, one of the nationalofficers.
(29:19):
There's just so many thingsthat you, you're.
How do you make time for yourfamily.
How do you prioritize this?
What's more important?
It's like, first of all, I'm adad.
You go to every single event,it doesn't matter what's
happening.
Go to their events, make timefor your kids, and then
everything else will followthrough.
(29:40):
And I said, okay, I'll do that.
I think because I kept saying,oh, I want to do this, I want to
do that, and I loved it, but Iwasn't, you know, making time
for my kids in the sense of like, oh, I softball, this one has a
boxing, this one needs timealone with me, this one will
(30:21):
come along for the ride.
Okay, and make sure eachindividual child has their own
time.
And then I kind of would fit ineverything else.
So I don't sleep much and Ijust continue to go, because
that's just what kind of fuelsme of being able to do so many
(30:42):
different things and keep going.
You know, set the goals and ifI don't meet them, you just keep
going for that goal and setsomething else.
Speaker 1 (30:54):
You've mentioned the old boys club regarding culinary
leadership, obviously it's athing.
It exists.
Speaker 3 (31:04):
This is kind of like what I, what I kind of like,
what I live for.
If you can't beat them, jointhem.
When someone says, don't lookat that, that's what you're
looking at.
Don't push the red button and Ipush the red button or I'm gonna
touch the red button in seeingthis.
(31:25):
I, I said the acf as a whole.
You know it provides education,certification, competition, but
where's the benefit in it?
Right, and everyone always asksthat how is it going to help
you?
Okay, but the point for me waslike I didn't look like them,
(31:50):
but I wanted to know what madethem successful.
Why do they continue to be apart of the ACF?
Why do they, you know, pay thedues, like what's the purpose of
it?
So I wanted, I wanted to sayI'm a part of it because I don't
fit in, like I'm not the norm,I'm, I'm red hair, red hair and
(32:16):
brown skin.
I guess, right, I'm not thenormal chef, right, I'm a.
But I also want to again usingit to my advantage.
I wanted to see how are theybecoming the directors of the
(32:41):
food and beverage department?
How are they becoming nationalleaders and just bigger titles,
like what are they doing?
Because I want to do that too.
I never want to settle for just,I'm just a cook, I'm just a
chef.
For some people that works, butfor me it doesn't.
And I, I'm using it, I'm usingit to my advantage to really
(33:06):
like, push me to learn from them, whether they teach me or I
just hear in and listen and youknow, having that confidence,
even though they're not thatgreat at I don't know, maybe
maybe they can't do the sciencepart of of of being a chef right
, the, the molecular gastronomy,like all those cool things some
(33:28):
can, which I find it veryamazing, but I I just want to
see how do they do it.
Is it a social game that I needto learn?
Is it cooking very well or isit a combination of things?
So I've used it as a tool tokind of gain not really status,
(33:50):
but just I want to be able todevelop as a leader.
I want to be able to continueto grow in this industry.
But if I don't learn from thosethat kind of have made it or are
already there, then who am Igoing to learn from?
I mean, I'll still fail.
I still failed in doing a lotof things and probably said the
wrong stuff, but I'm learning,but I'm learning.
(34:13):
I'm learning because it's funnythat, like I just I just had to
let people go.
I just had to let someone gothis week and I had to sit back
and think, ok, how am I going todo it legally?
You know, I'm not just going togo off my feelings and say you
know what?
This person and I can't takethis no more.
(34:40):
They're getting on my nerveslike, but they work very well,
like, if they're great workers,well, I got to keep them.
I can't.
I can't do anything personally,it's only through business.
So how do you do that?
You got to learn how to developgreat leaders.
So you need, you need to do ityourself.
So shifting the system to myadvantage is kind of just what
(35:01):
I've been doing the last likefive to eight years and being a
part of something that maybe Idon't look like them, but I'm
going to squeeze in there andsit right next to them and take
notes because I want.
I want to be, you know, anational director for maybe a
corporation or whatever it is.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
Yeah, yeah, Fiona, this is Chef Thomas.
I just want to second that withyou.
I definitely agree.
You've got to be able to playall sides of the ball game and
the political game, the the realbusiness aspect of it.
I wanted to chime in justbecause I'm dealing with the
same thing right now.
In my kitchen I have my dinnermy dinner crews.
(35:44):
They're they're absolutelyphenomenal, they're great cooks,
but every day, every single oneof them's 10, 15 minutes late,
you know, and we make theschedule.
We want them there on the lineready to work at that scheduled
time.
And I finally had enough and Istarted holding them accountable
.
And you know, it doesn't matterhow good they are.
(36:06):
Sometimes you just got to putyour foot down and really stick
to it.
Speaker 3 (36:12):
Yeah, yeah, I mean it's tough because we we've
built a lot of goodrelationships and personally we
might be really good friends.
But on the business side sorry,nothing personal, it's business
we got to keep a keep itrolling absolutely fiona,
(36:32):
looking ahead, what legacy doyou hope to leave behind in this
industry of ours?
I definitely want the nextgeneration to have a good
foundation of taking time forthemselves, balancing their work
life schedule, but also havinga good work ethic.
(36:53):
And that's been kind of like astruggle with some of the
college students that are inculinary school For me not
really convincing, but I want tobe able to show them how I've
done it and then continue togive back and say, okay, we've
made mistakes.
And then continue to give backand say, okay, we've made
(37:14):
mistakes and just keep going.
We'll make less mistakes, fewermistakes and just keep going
stronger and build off of that.
So leaving something behindwould definitely be like the
(37:39):
knowledge kind of just pavingthe road so that they know that
there's a place for them.
You know, you don't have toreinvent the wheel or create
your own table.
I just squeeze in the tablelike scoot over, shove a button
because I'm coming in.
It doesn't matter, and I wantpeople to know that it's okay
because you're going to getpushed around anyways.
So be happy with what you doand enjoy your.
Enjoy your career, doesn'tmatter what it is, but there
(38:00):
always be those that you knowkind of will bring you down.
But they're bringing you downto a different level and you're
going up there, they're notgoing up with you.
So I just want to just keep itmore positive, regardless of the
status, the culture, that theycan do it.
(38:22):
You know, I wouldn't say anyonecan do it because physically
this is fricking hard, but youcan do it.
You can do it, definitely youcan do it.
And as time goes on it getsharder to do it.
And you can do it, definitelyyou can do it.
Speaker 2 (38:35):
And as time goes on it gets harder to do it and put
in those hours.
Speaker 3 (38:40):
Right.
I just think that it's asmarter way, like how do you
work smarter and not physicallyharder?
Speaker 1 (38:49):
Well, you know, it's even more than that.
I remember when I was a kid, myfather says he says, go ahead,
stand up on the table, Get up onthe table.
I was like, what do you wantfrom me?
Speaker 2 (39:00):
Pop's like.
What do you?
Speaker 1 (39:00):
want Get up on the table.
So I hop up on the table.
So I'm now obviously, you know,half a human taller than my
father.
I'm standing on the table andhe puts his hand out and he says
grab my hand.
I said okay, and you know, hesays now pull me up.
I'm like I don't have theleverage, I can't pull you up.
But it was so easy for him topull me down and he said this is
(39:24):
a lesson.
He goes.
You know, who you are with isgoing to determine how you go
forward, because it's easier forsomebody to pull you down than
it is for you to pull them up.
So be very selective in whoyou're trying to help in in your
life.
And I thought that you know, Istill remember that and and I
(39:44):
think it's it fits when you'rein leadership, because as as we
get older and we offer knowledgethrough our experiences to
somebody who's younger, noteverybody is ready to receive it
and you know you really gotta,you really gotta be selective,
because the older you get, theenergy you have to give is just
(40:08):
less.
And when you get, when youselect someone to mentor and
they kind of stick it to you alittle bit, you don't really
recover as well and thereforeyou don't want to really mentor
the next time when it's a goodopportunity.
Speaker 3 (40:24):
It's really hard yeah .
Speaker 2 (40:27):
I mean mentoring is one of my favorite aspects, if
not the favorite aspect of myposition aspects, if not the
favorite aspect of my positionand 90% of the people that you
have come through your kitchensnowadays they just it's just a
paycheck.
You know they don't want to putin the care, the passion, the
(40:48):
effort.
They take shortcuts.
You know you spend so much timeteaching them how to execute a
dish perfectly and, like I said,we're perfectionists.
So when we see something notgoing on like it pisses me off.
Speaker 1 (41:13):
And I finding that person that will do that.
You have to recognize it andput the mentorship into them.
Fiona, let's wrap with Fiona,let's.
I don't want to say that.
Fiona, what's a message for thenext generation?
I mean, I don't know how thatsounds.
Huh, well, yeah, I know, but Iwant it to be.
I kind of want, fiona, what I'mgoing to.
(41:34):
I'm going to ask that, I'm goingto say, hey, so what is your
message for the next generation?
Keep it to about 20, on thisone, keep it to about 20 seconds
and it should be obviously fromyour own heart.
But basically, give someinstruction to somebody who's
young, that might be listeningto this, and just say, look,
(41:55):
this is what you need to do.
You need to show up on time,you need to.
You know, look at, look, lookyour supervisor in the eye.
You know, show that you want tolearn that kind of stuff, and
then you know that'll be the,the segment out, you'll start to
hear the music, and then we'regoing to talk about social media
.
You know, like, you know what'syour social stuff?
Like that, cool you there.
Speaker 3 (42:15):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (42:17):
Hey, you run a little bit of a delay.
Okay, all right, is that cool?
That makes sense.
Speaker 3 (42:22):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (42:23):
Perfect, All right.
So I'm going to Thomas.
Well said, Fiona.
What is the message for thenext generation of chefs?
Speaker 3 (42:33):
I think that we need to have empathy, keep
encouraging them.
We are here to be supportive,but also have a good work ethic.
Hard work is good.
It's never a bad thing.
You got to pay your dues andyou, too, can be successful.
Make sure you drink your water.
(42:53):
Stay hydrated when you're onthat line.
We don't want you to die.
Speaker 1 (42:59):
Don't die on the line .
People Do not die on the line.
Oh wow, fiona, how do peoplefind you?
What's your social?
Speaker 3 (43:08):
Betty Clocker on Instagram.
Betty underscore Clocker,that's where I'm at.
You are a badass.
Betty underscore clock Her, youare.
Speaker 1 (43:16):
That's where I'm at.
You are A badass, betty Clocker.
I just want you to know that.
I just want you to know that,thomas Parker, what's your,
what's your socials?
Speaker 2 (43:26):
Chef underscore Thomas Parker on Instagram.
Speaker 1 (43:29):
People out there, do not forget to follow the John
Hernandez photographerextraordinaire at Ibis Images.
This guy's changing the game.
Another badass.
I'm just saying he doesn'tdeserve to hear this from me.
He does a little bit.
Speaker 2 (43:45):
All right.
Speaker 1 (43:45):
Listen, fiona.
I sincerely appreciate you verymuch.
Thank you for coming on theshow.
Parker, thank you.
You are an animal too.
John.
Love you, baby.
We are out.
hello food fam.
This is the walk and talkpodcast where you will find the
perfect blend of food fun andcooking knowledge.
I'm your host, carl fiodini.
Welcome to the number one foodpodcast in the country and the
official podcast for the newyork, california and Florida
restaurant shows, the PizzaTomorrow Summit and the US
Culinary Open at NAFM.
(00:29):
We're recording on-site at IbisImages Studios, where food
photography comes alive and Iget to eat it.
Email us to learn more info atthewalkandtalkcom.
Today's guest is somebody who'snot only made history but
continues to shape the future ofthe culinary world.
Chef Fiona Espana is the firstfemale president at the LA
(00:51):
chapter of the American CulinaryFederation in over 100 years.
A proud Latina, a passionateexecutive chef and a mentor to
many, her journey from studentto national leader is nothing
short of inspiring.
To many, her journey fromstudent to national leader is
nothing short of inspiring.
She's navigated thecomplexities of a traditionally
male-dominated industry withresilience and purpose, turning
(01:12):
challenges into stepping stonesand opening doors for others
along the way.
You know Fiona's awesome.
She's been a supporter of thisshow since literally the
beginning.
With a food festival on thehorizon this October and a deep
commitment to mentoring the nextgeneration, fiona's story is
one of growth, impact anddetermination.
Also in studio, we welcome backthe chef, thomas Parker.
(01:35):
Oh man, he cooked up twoelevated stunners today.
Three, three elevated stunnerstoday, and we still have some
more to do after this.
Wow, okay, let's get into this.
Thomas Thomas, thomas, thomas,thomas, thomas.
John said it before If there'san A game, you brought it, but
more, and then some it's like Aplus game.
(01:58):
I guess Today was fantastic.
I appreciate it, man, likegetting compliments from people
that are in the industry andthat know the industry, like
that's what really goes to ourhearts as chefs is some of the
(02:25):
best, and I you know I hate tosay that like that, because
everyone who we bring in losersdon't make it in and the winners
stay and, at the end of the day, the dishes that are getting
put out are stupid.
Let's talk about them.
What's your favorite dish today?
Speaker 2 (02:37):
That's hard, Like I have so much love for all three
of them that I did.
I'm going to go with the steak,though the filet, solely
because that's the I'm going touse it on a menu here in the
near future.
So it's a mojo crusted carneasada filet.
It's got a black bean and cornsalsa on it, a chipotle infused
(02:58):
demi-glace.
I did three different types offluid gels for the plate as
garnish.
There was a pickled onion, asour cream and a cilantro.
And then we flash fried somecornstarch shallot rings to
garnish it with and gave it alittle bit of microgreen and it
was just beautiful.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Not bad for a piece of choice meat right.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Yeah, a piece of choice meat.
It was a great eight to nineWagyu.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
Okay, that's what I was waiting for you to say All
right, excellent, not bad, youknow it was butter, it was
butter the whole thing.
Like you take a spoonful andyou make sure each of those you
know parts of the dish are onthe spoon or fork, whatever, and
you just take that whole biteand it just, it all, just melted
(03:47):
, everything melted andeverything had a layer and you
had the flavor profile ofeverything and whatever that,
whatever the crust was, that youput the citrus in it.
Talk about that real quick man,because that was really great,
yeah, so I've done three or fourdifferent versions of that
crust.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
I've done a coffee one, this one's.
I call it a mojo crust becauseit does.
It has lemon, lime, orange zestin it, garlic, salt pepper just
your normal stuff.
But the thing that really makesit is I add cornstarch to it
and when you pan sear it it justgives you such a hard, luscious
(04:25):
crust that just cracks as youput a knife through it and it
helps it stick to the steak.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
It was zingy.
I don't know if that's a wordor whatever, but it had zing, it
was tangy.
It was really great, man.
Okay, so not to overshadow theother dishes, what else did you
cook?
Speaker 2 (04:44):
So Aussie Select has this incredible product.
It's a lamb ham and they dodifferent versions of it and I
really wanted to showcase it, soI did a.
It's a playoff of the Americanversion of country fried steak.
Only I did some Indian fusionwith it, so I called it country
fried korma.
(05:04):
So korma is one of thetraditional curry dishes, so I I
breaded the ham steak andalmonds and pan fried it.
We paired it with.
Instead of just using rice likein a traditional curry dish, I
did congee, which is, you know,you blend the rice grain down
(05:25):
and it's their version of gritsreally.
And instead of just using cream, I used curry to make it.
And then we added a layeredpotato that I baked and then
fried off and topped it with asauteed sausage that we made a
tikka masala puree to cook it in.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
I don't even know what to say.
I mean I felt like I, I feltlike and I would never do it not
in front of you guys anyway butI felt like I should have a
tear.
I should have, I should havehad a tear today.
It was that good.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
There was even more to it actually, now that I'm
thinking about it, Because Iwanted to individualize every
ingredient for curry.
So there was a carrot element.
I did the little carrot tulecookies, I made mint oil which
we floated on top of the curry.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
That's a lot of work that went into this.
Yeah, I feel like this isprobably your most in-depth time
with us in terms of what youdid for ingredients and cooking
prep and all that.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
You want it to be perfect.
Chefs were perfectionists atfault.
So, in my mind, when I'mcreating a dish, it has to be
(06:51):
perfect.
When I'm teaching and mentoringmy staff, it has to be perfect.
They have to get it the sameway that I'm going to get it.
What was the other dish?
The other dish?
A little funny play.
As you know.
I just had another daughter andI was reading my, my older
daughter green eggs and ham.
So I did a little play off of afrench croque, madame, and I
(07:14):
called it green eggs and lamb,madame so I mean, I have, I have
two young ones, one's adaughter, I, I just appreciate
this a lot.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
Get into what that's about.
That was Aussie Select alsocorrect.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Yeah, yeah, that was the agave rosemary, aussie
Select.
And unlike the first dish,which was a ham steak,
essentially I shaved this one.
We just pretty much let it cookin some butter, get a nice
crust on it and, yeah, it was acroque.
(07:48):
Madame, I make this really goodrosemary and confit garlic
focaccia at the restaurant.
So we just buttered and grilleda piece of that and topped it
with the the lamb ham, thenadded a black bean and corn
gruyere mornay to it.
So cheese sauce.
And then I wanted to get alittle weird science-y with it.
(08:12):
So I went into my moleculargastronomy book and I turned
bacon into powder, I made tomatowater caviar and I did some
reverse spherification on apuree of avocado and that became
the green egg people.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
I need you to understand something.
Today was really, really coolfor us.
Thomas brought it and this,this avocado egg.
It's basically it looks likeegg yolk is what it looks like?
Well, it's actually in theshape of an egg hard boiled egg
but the consistency you pop thisthing, it's green and it looks
like green egg yolk.
It was with tequila, right yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
So I you know, when you do something like the agar
caviar or reverse purification,it needs a liquid to set in.
And whatever that liquid is, itkind of it absorbs it a little
bit and it takes on that flavorprofile.
So instead of just water orlime juice or anything, what I
(09:12):
soaked it in was mezcal tequila.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
Yeah, clearly stupid, stupidly awesome.
I can't give you enough pats onthe back.
We have one more shoot to doAfter the podcast, and real
quick, just tell everybody whatit is.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
It's a Play off, a prohibition cocktail Called the
gold rush, which is Normallybourbon, lemon and Honey syrup.
But In using the mezcal Tequilafor the Second dish, I did.
I wanted to Change up thebourbon, so we're going to do
Mezcal tequila for the seconddish I did, I wanted to change
up the bourbon, so we're goingto do mezcal tequila, fresh
lemon and agave syrup instead ofthe honey syrup and we are
(09:53):
going to use the supercutsystems lemon slicer to make
this drink.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
All right, without ado, let's welcome Chef Fiona to
the program.
How are you, chef?
Speaker 3 (10:08):
Oh, I'm in a dream right here just thinking of all
this food.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Seriously, you're sitting there, you're listening
and you're thinking to yourselfI should have been in studio
today.
That's what it should be.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
Yes, yes, I should have flew in Just for this meal.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
Well, listen, I think I mentioned this on our pregame
call.
We'll get you here, so don'tworry, I do want to make that
happen.
You're kind of a big deal,fiona.
You know we've never met inperson but we've known each
other now for a couple of twoand a half years and you've been
just a terrific supporter ofWalk Talk podcast and what we're
doing and I just sincerelythank you for that.
(10:47):
And you know we've been talkingfor a long time on how you know
, just to get you on the show.
I mean, I feel like you deserveit and you're.
I think your story is pretty,pretty incredible.
Can you explain the feeling ofbeing the first female chapter
president in your, in your areafor 100 years?
What does that mean to you?
Speaker 3 (11:08):
Well, I think the first couple of years because
this is my fourth year, mysecond term it didn't really hit
me because I knew I had a lotof work to do to kind of just
get the paperwork done as anonprofit organization bank
accounts, bylaw changes so itwasn't really time to just sit
(11:29):
there and think, wow, this isgreat, I'm so happy that I don't
know it was more work, like putthe gloves on, let's get down
and dirty and make sure thateverything's set up the right
way and just kind of continue tomake sure that the foundation
is reset to where we can justhand it off to the next person
(11:50):
on the next term or the nextboard board of directors.
So I think about year three,this last year, year four is
where it finally hit me and Irealized that it's just the
beginning of so many greatthings that I can accomplish.
And it's kind of humblingbecause there's so many great
(12:12):
chefs out there and they choseme.
Now I'm using it as much as Ican to be a part of, like, the
culinary competitions for thecolleges locally.
We have I believe it's aboutfour here in LA really big
culinary schools.
We have tons of high schoolprograms that are all throughout
(12:35):
LA region, san Bernardinoregion, which is about 30, 40
minutes from us.
So I try to tap into bothcounties because I'm right in
the middle and they, they use mebut I like it.
So I'm just.
I'm just kind of going with theflow now and trying to take it
one, one event at a time.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
Well, take us back to the beginning.
What first got you intoculinary and has that passion
and has it grown since youstarted?
And was that about?
Oh, that was over 20 years ago,right?
Speaker 3 (13:09):
yeah, wait, wait a minute wait hold on, wait a
minute.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
You know you say 20 plus years to to the food life
you know, to the restaurant lifeand the the.
The sound of your voice, thetexture of your voice on that
sigh tells it all.
But go ahead and go ahead andexplain, please I.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
I feel like rose from titanic.
When you say that 20 plus years, I know I was like 12 when I
started.
I I mean not literally, but youknow what?
I started as a server at OliveGarden back in 2000.
I liked it Quick money, fastpace.
(13:54):
You meet a lot of people.
I'm a social butterfly, so itwas really easy for me.
And then I ended up dropping outof college.
I wanted to be a math teacher,math professor, so my major was
mathematics.
But I got married, I gotpregnant, had some kids, had a
(14:17):
family, and then my mom said youknow, you should go back to
school, you should get education.
So I said you know, if I'mgoing to go back to school, you
should get an education.
So I said if I'm going to goback to school, it's going to be
for something that I love to do, which is bake.
I love to bake, I love to dodesserts, pastries.
And she told me that I shouldget a degree.
(14:38):
I don't just get a certificate,because in the long run the
education is where it's going tobe at.
I didn't see what was really inthe future, or I didn't really
have anything in mind except foroh, I just want to be the best
pastry chef in the world, whichI'm not there yet.
But one day.
And I went to culinary school.
(15:01):
I went to Le Cordon Bleu and Idid the whole program.
I loved it, I had a great timeand the journey from there was
more than what I really expected.
I thought I was just going toplay with sugar and flour and
fabricate some meats and, youknow, just be a happy little
(15:21):
cook in the kitchen my wholelife.
But it didn't turn out that way.
I'm a little more than a cooknow.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
You realize somewhere along the way that if you
wanted to really go somewhere,listen, pastry chefs.
We've had plenty of pastrychefs on the show and everyone
has the same feeling.
And it's basically pastry chefsdon't get any love and you can
only get so high as a pastrychef, correct, right?
(15:52):
So you saw that and you decidedthat, hey, I'm going to hit
savory and I'm just going to bea badass.
I'm pretty sure that's how itwent down, right.
Speaker 3 (16:02):
Yeah, that was the goal.
I just said, let me just be abadass, and I figured it out.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
Fiona as a Latina in a male-dominated industry.
What were some of the earliestchallenges that you encountered
and how did you manage tonavigate them?
Speaker 3 (16:20):
I didn't realize that it was a male-dominant industry
.
I didn't realize that it was amale dominant industry.
I thought women belonged in thekitchen until when I got, like,
my first job and you don't seea lot of women, or they're in
Garmonday, they're in the saladstation, and then on the hotline
you don't see a lot of women.
(16:41):
And I wondered why, like what'sthe difference?
And I realized really reallyfast that you have to put in
your dues.
Right, you got to pay your dues.
The unfortunate part of what Ilearned was that the ridicule of
(17:03):
not speaking Spanish was like aconstant and it was the older
Hispanic women that didn't likethat.
I didn't speak Spanish, my momdoesn't speak Spanish and my dad
didn't speak to me in Spanish,so I'm Californian, that's.
(17:23):
That was kind of like the thingI would tell them, because they
would say you're not Mexicanand I didn't understand what
that meant and I said, well, mygrandparents are from Mexico.
Like how does that not make meMexican?
But they were referring tospeaking the language and really
carrying yourself with theculture.
(17:43):
So that was kind of like thehard part.
So I try to stay away from, Iwouldn't say women, but the
older generation, that kind ofjust you know, pushed me aside
and I just went with those thatkind of embraced me and would
continue to show me like thelines and how to do certain
things.
And it was hard because it waslike one way or another.
(18:06):
At one point I had one cheftell me just stay at home, you
have too many kids, you're notgoing to be a real chef Like
you're.
You're not, you're not going togo that far.
And I was kind of taken backbecause I I was, I don't know,
maybe like three, four yearsinto being a cook and I loved
(18:28):
what I did.
I did pay my dues.
I did work 14-hour shifts,16-hour shifts on the line,
prepping banquets.
I always tried to do the most,even as a cook.
It kind of motivated me to setsome goals of being an executive
chef before 40 years old.
(18:48):
I met my goal when I was 38,which was kind of like cool.
I got the title, this isexciting.
And then I realized this is alot of work opening up kitchens
and opening up the buildings.
It was a lot of work and fromthen, from 38 years old, I've
(19:09):
opened four kitchens.
It's been a good journey.
I just evolved over the years ofreally getting that ridicule
kind of pushed me to continue tolike, set higher goals and not
really let them keep me bitter,and I'm I understand where
they're coming from now.
So I kind of tried to not letthat hinder me from like, oh,
(19:34):
these people will never like me.
It's not that they don't likeme, they just, you know, see me
as either a threat, I don't know.
But I didn't want to take theirjobs.
I didn't want to be a garmangerlady at 80 years old.
That wasn't my goal.
They could keep that job,that's fine.
But the negativity definitelyfueled me to do more.
(19:57):
I never wanted to prove, likepeople wrong.
I just wanted to know that Ican do it, even though they told
me you're not going to make it,you're a mom, you need to stay
at home, you're not going to bea chef there's not a lot of
female chefs it's just not goingto happen.
And then here I am.
I'm more than what I actuallyexpected.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
So in your quiet time ?
Do you sit there ever and sayto yourself you know, what I did
, do it, and in spite of speedbumps and negative, negative
people, I, I'm achieving andyou're still achieving and
you're still growing.
You ever just sit there andthink about that.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
Yeah, I think it's usually after you know, like
some really big events that I'vedone the most recent is the LA
firesires, which was back inJanuary I made some phone calls.
I reached out to a lot of ourvendors, a lot of our chefs in
our chapter.
I said, hey, let's get thesepeople fed, let's give them
(20:59):
water bottles, whatever we cando, make some little care
packages, let's send it out tothe firefighters, first
responders, let's just go.
I'm going to use my power.
Whatever little power I have orwhatever big power I have, I'm
going to use it.
And within one week we wereable to get over $20,000 in
(21:19):
donations for pallets of waterand all distributed throughout
all the fire areas.
And I think two days after, likeeverything was kind of settled
with being able to like push itall out.
I'm not a big crier, but Iliterally was like in tears of
like I can't believe I did this,like I used my powers for good
(21:45):
and I was taken back.
But I took a lot of energy outof me to just, you know, kind of
stay positive.
You know, cook for veterans.
I cooked for five days threemeals.
I probably cooked maybe six ofthose meals for 200 veterans
(22:05):
that were displaced.
So it was hard physically, butmentally it's very fulfilling.
It's very like it gives you somuch, like with your skill, your
craft, you know you can be ableto give and do so much that you
never, you never realize howmuch you can really do when you
push yourself.
And I think at that moment iswhere I said this is.
(22:28):
This is an amazing feeling andI want to do it again.
I mean, I don't hope there'snatural disasters, but it's just
you get in there, you do it andyou do you do.
One of the big helpers thatreally pushed me to like
(22:49):
continue doing it was Amy Sins,I think.
She's out of New Orleans.
She's a great individual.
I mean I texted her and I saidhelp me, walk me through this
process of helping people, andshe did.
She was phenomenal.
Just that.
That encouragement was just thewords, a couple of connections,
(23:12):
and we got so much done in liketwo weeks.
So it was so fulfilling in mycareer to say that I was able to
assist or even just pull thesethings together.
There's been a few other eventsthat are really where you sit
(23:33):
back and think, wow, I didn'teven think I could do this.
This is not really like chefstuff, I guess you know it's
just being able well, it's thecommunity, you know being able
to give back in your, in yourskill and your craft.
On a day to day I think I'mjust a regular chef.
I cook, I do banquets, you know.
(23:55):
I do my daily operations, Ireinvent my menu and then
there's times where I say, hey,let's, you know, do the most.
So I have my moments, but ithas to be in an extreme event
for me to really say like pat onthe back to myself because I
(24:16):
just feel like I'm not doingenough for this industry,
because I feel like it's just ascratch.
You know, $20,000 is nothingcompared to what the fires had
did to so many homes.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
Amy Sins.
She's a friend of the show.
She's a terrific lady in and ofherself.
I don't know if you knew or saw, but she had a TED talk a few
weeks back.
I'm so proud of what she'sdoing.
Like she, she's an amazinghuman being also.
And we were fortunate to haveher on the show a couple of
times and you know she's evendone some.
(24:50):
Last year at the Boku store inin in New Orleans she was, she
was doing some some mic work forus.
You know she was acorrespondent for walk and talk
and she represented and she'sright yeah, she's, she's just.
She's just such a a sweetperson who has a backbone, just
like a I don't know, I don'tknow what that would be like,
(25:10):
just a massive backbone, she's,she's awesome I want to mention.
I do want to mention something Idon't want to say that I want
to mention.
You said earlier that you raninto some challenges with family
speaking Spanish and what theexpectations were, and that
(25:32):
you're not actually Mexican.
I didn't realize that othercultures had that, because it's
the same with me, all my family,both sides, going all the way
back.
They're from basically the sameregion in Italy.
I just never learned Italian.
Growing up I understood thedialect, but I didn't speak
(25:54):
proper Italian and I didn'treally speak the dialect either.
I just kind of understood itand going forward me at my age
now, like I don't even try.
My wife is Cuban, they speakSpanish and I don't even try to
learn any language at this point.
But I will tell you that peoplefrom over there in Italy they
(26:14):
look at me and they're like well, you're not even Italian and
I'm like my blood is probablypurer than yours and at the end
of the day they still look downon you and you know I've had
this conversation with many,many a person and at the end of
the day it's like reallyexhausting.
(26:35):
I can really, I really identifywith what you said there.
Speaker 3 (26:39):
The starting point of my journey, of taking that
first job at a university,there's I don't know 500 cooks.
There's an extreme amount ofworkers.
Again, I thought I was just,you know, chugging along on the
choo-choo train like, yay, let'sall cook.
And then I didn't realize thatyou're not like, why ridicule
(27:03):
your partner or your coworkers?
What I identify as like I'mMexican American.
I apologize for not speakingSpanish, you know, like it's,
it's wild, it really is.
And then I realized, well, theycome from a different country,
so they're gonna, they going tosay that's not our standard, but
(27:25):
that's why I've told so manypeople I'm Californian.
What does that mean?
Like I was born and raised here, like I'm sorry, I don't.
I don't know how to explain it.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
I say I'm a.
Well, I'm American Italianbecause I was born here in the
States.
I was born in Florida, I'm bornin Miami, I'm American Italian
and that's what I am.
Fiona, marketing campaigns,leadership roles, festivals how
are you keeping your identity asa chef and managing all of this
?
Speaker 3 (27:51):
I drink a lot of espresso.
I drink four shots a day to getme going.
And then I think about what'shappening.
First I'm a mom.
I have four kids, I've beenmarried almost 23 years, I have
two dogs and I run a household.
And then I think what kind ofjust feels me in general is
(28:16):
being able to do so many things.
And there's so many times I'veheard you should hone in on your
craft, right, but what is mycraft?
My craft looks like being achef.
My craft is doing pastries.
My craft is being a mom.
(28:36):
I really enjoy those multipletasks and it kind of develops me
as a leader to say, okay, thisis how, this is how we do it or
this is how I do it.
One of my mentors, I was kind ofoverwhelmed one one time, and I
(28:58):
mean I, I'm overwhelmed all thetime, but this one time he said
I asked my mentor.
I said how do you do it?
Right, you're a dad, you have afamily, you run, you know, a
pretty large hospital property.
You do you travel for for theACF, you're one of one of the
leads, one of the nationalofficers.
(29:19):
There's just so many thingsthat you, you're.
How do you make time for yourfamily.
How do you prioritize this?
What's more important?
It's like, first of all, I'm adad.
You go to every single event,it doesn't matter what's
happening.
Go to their events, make timefor your kids, and then
everything else will followthrough.
(29:40):
And I said, okay, I'll do that.
I think because I kept saying,oh, I want to do this, I want to
do that, and I loved it, but Iwasn't, you know, making time
for my kids in the sense of like, oh, I softball, this one has a
boxing, this one needs timealone with me, this one will
(30:21):
come along for the ride.
Okay, and make sure eachindividual child has their own
time.
And then I kind of would fit ineverything else.
So I don't sleep much and Ijust continue to go, because
that's just what kind of fuelsme of being able to do so many
(30:42):
different things and keep going.
You know, set the goals and ifI don't meet them, you just keep
going for that goal and setsomething else.
Speaker 1 (30:54):
You've mentioned the old boys club regarding culinary
leadership, obviously it's athing.
It exists.
Speaker 3 (31:04):
This is kind of like what I, what I kind of like,
what I live for.
If you can't beat them, jointhem.
When someone says, don't lookat that, that's what you're
looking at.
Don't push the red button and Ipush the red button or I'm gonna
touch the red button in seeingthis.
(31:25):
I, I said the acf as a whole.
You know it provides education,certification, competition, but
where's the benefit in it?
Right, and everyone always asksthat how is it going to help
you?
Okay, but the point for me waslike I didn't look like them,
(31:50):
but I wanted to know what madethem successful.
Why do they continue to be apart of the ACF?
Why do they, you know, pay thedues, like what's the purpose of
it?
So I wanted, I wanted to sayI'm a part of it because I don't
fit in, like I'm not the norm,I'm, I'm red hair, red hair and
(32:16):
brown skin.
I guess, right, I'm not thenormal chef, right, I'm a.
But I also want to again usingit to my advantage.
I wanted to see how are theybecoming the directors of the
(32:41):
food and beverage department?
How are they becoming nationalleaders and just bigger titles,
like what are they doing?
Because I want to do that too.
I never want to settle for just,I'm just a cook, I'm just a
chef.
For some people that works, butfor me it doesn't.
And I, I'm using it, I'm usingit to my advantage to really
(33:06):
like, push me to learn from them, whether they teach me or I
just hear in and listen and youknow, having that confidence,
even though they're not thatgreat at I don't know, maybe
maybe they can't do the sciencepart of of of being a chef right
, the, the molecular gastronomy,like all those cool things some
(33:28):
can, which I find it veryamazing, but I I just want to
see how do they do it.
Is it a social game that I needto learn?
Is it cooking very well or isit a combination of things?
So I've used it as a tool tokind of gain not really status,
(33:50):
but just I want to be able todevelop as a leader.
I want to be able to continueto grow in this industry.
But if I don't learn from thosethat kind of have made it or are
already there, then who am Igoing to learn from?
I mean, I'll still fail.
I still failed in doing a lotof things and probably said the
wrong stuff, but I'm learning,but I'm learning.
(34:13):
I'm learning because it's funnythat, like I just I just had to
let people go.
I just had to let someone gothis week and I had to sit back
and think, ok, how am I going todo it legally?
You know, I'm not just going togo off my feelings and say you
know what?
This person and I can't takethis no more.
(34:40):
They're getting on my nerveslike, but they work very well,
like, if they're great workers,well, I got to keep them.
I can't.
I can't do anything personally,it's only through business.
So how do you do that?
You got to learn how to developgreat leaders.
So you need, you need to do ityourself.
So shifting the system to myadvantage is kind of just what
(35:01):
I've been doing the last likefive to eight years and being a
part of something that maybe Idon't look like them, but I'm
going to squeeze in there andsit right next to them and take
notes because I want.
I want to be, you know, anational director for maybe a
corporation or whatever it is.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
Yeah, yeah, Fiona, this is Chef Thomas.
I just want to second that withyou.
I definitely agree.
You've got to be able to playall sides of the ball game and
the political game, the the realbusiness aspect of it.
I wanted to chime in justbecause I'm dealing with the
same thing right now.
In my kitchen I have my dinnermy dinner crews.
(35:44):
They're they're absolutelyphenomenal, they're great cooks,
but every day, every single oneof them's 10, 15 minutes late,
you know, and we make theschedule.
We want them there on the lineready to work at that scheduled
time.
And I finally had enough and Istarted holding them accountable
.
And you know, it doesn't matterhow good they are.
(36:06):
Sometimes you just got to putyour foot down and really stick
to it.
Speaker 3 (36:12):
Yeah, yeah, I mean it's tough because we we've
built a lot of goodrelationships and personally we
might be really good friends.
But on the business side sorry,nothing personal, it's business
we got to keep a keep itrolling absolutely fiona,
(36:32):
looking ahead, what legacy doyou hope to leave behind in this
industry of ours?
I definitely want the nextgeneration to have a good
foundation of taking time forthemselves, balancing their work
life schedule, but also havinga good work ethic.
(36:53):
And that's been kind of like astruggle with some of the
college students that are inculinary school For me not
really convincing, but I want tobe able to show them how I've
done it and then continue togive back and say, okay, we've
made mistakes.
And then continue to give backand say, okay, we've made
(37:14):
mistakes and just keep going.
We'll make less mistakes, fewermistakes and just keep going
stronger and build off of that.
So leaving something behindwould definitely be like the
(37:39):
knowledge kind of just pavingthe road so that they know that
there's a place for them.
You know, you don't have toreinvent the wheel or create
your own table.
I just squeeze in the tablelike scoot over, shove a button
because I'm coming in.
It doesn't matter, and I wantpeople to know that it's okay
because you're going to getpushed around anyways.
So be happy with what you doand enjoy your.
Enjoy your career, doesn'tmatter what it is, but there
(38:00):
always be those that you knowkind of will bring you down.
But they're bringing you downto a different level and you're
going up there, they're notgoing up with you.
So I just want to just keep itmore positive, regardless of the
status, the culture, that theycan do it.
(38:22):
You know, I wouldn't say anyonecan do it because physically
this is fricking hard, but youcan do it.
You can do it, definitely youcan do it.
And as time goes on it getsharder to do it.
And you can do it, definitelyyou can do it.
Speaker 2 (38:35):
And as time goes on it gets harder to do it and put
in those hours.
Speaker 3 (38:40):
Right.
I just think that it's asmarter way, like how do you
work smarter and not physicallyharder?
Speaker 1 (38:49):
Well, you know, it's even more than that.
I remember when I was a kid, myfather says he says, go ahead,
stand up on the table, Get up onthe table.
I was like, what do you wantfrom me?
Speaker 2 (39:00):
Pop's like.
What do you?
Speaker 1 (39:00):
want Get up on the table.
So I hop up on the table.
So I'm now obviously, you know,half a human taller than my
father.
I'm standing on the table andhe puts his hand out and he says
grab my hand.
I said okay, and you know, hesays now pull me up.
I'm like I don't have theleverage, I can't pull you up.
But it was so easy for him topull me down and he said this is
(39:24):
a lesson.
He goes.
You know, who you are with isgoing to determine how you go
forward, because it's easier forsomebody to pull you down than
it is for you to pull them up.
So be very selective in whoyou're trying to help in in your
life.
And I thought that you know, Istill remember that and and I
(39:44):
think it's it fits when you'rein leadership, because as as we
get older and we offer knowledgethrough our experiences to
somebody who's younger, noteverybody is ready to receive it
and you know you really gotta,you really gotta be selective,
because the older you get, theenergy you have to give is just
(40:08):
less.
And when you get, when youselect someone to mentor and
they kind of stick it to you alittle bit, you don't really
recover as well and thereforeyou don't want to really mentor
the next time when it's a goodopportunity.
Speaker 3 (40:24):
It's really hard yeah .
Speaker 2 (40:27):
I mean mentoring is one of my favorite aspects, if
not the favorite aspect of myposition aspects, if not the
favorite aspect of my positionand 90% of the people that you
have come through your kitchensnowadays they just it's just a
paycheck.
You know they don't want to putin the care, the passion, the
(40:48):
effort.
They take shortcuts.
You know you spend so much timeteaching them how to execute a
dish perfectly and, like I said,we're perfectionists.
So when we see something notgoing on like it pisses me off.
Speaker 1 (41:13):
And I finding that person that will do that.
You have to recognize it andput the mentorship into them.
Fiona, let's wrap with Fiona,let's.
I don't want to say that.
Fiona, what's a message for thenext generation?
I mean, I don't know how thatsounds.
Huh, well, yeah, I know, but Iwant it to be.
I kind of want, fiona, what I'mgoing to.
(41:34):
I'm going to ask that, I'm goingto say, hey, so what is your
message for the next generation?
Keep it to about 20, on thisone, keep it to about 20 seconds
and it should be obviously fromyour own heart.
But basically, give someinstruction to somebody who's
young, that might be listeningto this, and just say, look,
(41:55):
this is what you need to do.
You need to show up on time,you need to.
You know, look at, look, lookyour supervisor in the eye.
You know, show that you want tolearn that kind of stuff, and
then you know that'll be the,the segment out, you'll start to
hear the music, and then we'regoing to talk about social media
.
You know, like, you know what'syour social stuff?
Like that, cool you there.
Speaker 3 (42:15):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (42:17):
Hey, you run a little bit of a delay.
Okay, all right, is that cool?
That makes sense.
Speaker 3 (42:22):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (42:23):
Perfect, All right.
So I'm going to Thomas.
Well said, Fiona.
What is the message for thenext generation of chefs?
Speaker 3 (42:33):
I think that we need to have empathy, keep
encouraging them.
We are here to be supportive,but also have a good work ethic.
Hard work is good.
It's never a bad thing.
You got to pay your dues andyou, too, can be successful.
Make sure you drink your water.
(42:53):
Stay hydrated when you're onthat line.
We don't want you to die.
Speaker 1 (42:59):
Don't die on the line .
People Do not die on the line.
Oh wow, fiona, how do peoplefind you?
What's your social?
Speaker 3 (43:08):
Betty Clocker on Instagram.
Betty underscore Clocker,that's where I'm at.
You are a badass.
Betty underscore clock Her, youare.
Speaker 1 (43:16):
That's where I'm at.
You are A badass, betty Clocker.
I just want you to know that.
I just want you to know that,thomas Parker, what's your,
what's your socials?
Speaker 2 (43:26):
Chef underscore Thomas Parker on Instagram.
Speaker 1 (43:29):
People out there, do not forget to follow the John
Hernandez photographerextraordinaire at Ibis Images.
This guy's changing the game.
Another badass.
I'm just saying he doesn'tdeserve to hear this from me.
He does a little bit.
Speaker 2 (43:45):
All right.
Speaker 1 (43:45):
Listen, fiona.
I sincerely appreciate you verymuch.
Thank you for coming on theshow.
Parker, thank you.
You are an animal too.
John.
Love you, baby.
We are out.
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