Ep. 8 - Chef Brandon Naquin: General Manager | Spahr's Downtown - Miracles in Meat

Episode Transcript
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Music.

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You're listening to the Miracles in Meat Podcast. I'm Shane Thibodeau,
a fourth-generation butcher at one of the oldest meat markets in the world.
My great-grandfather started this business by slaughtering one cow or pig at
a time and selling the cuts door-to-door on horse and buggy.
Today, our products are enjoyed across the globe. I will attempt to give you
some insight as to how we got here and explore the challenges we've had along the way.

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At Bourgeois, our mission is to preserve our heritage generation after generation
through legendary Cajun flavors and the development of relationships, not customers.
Since 1891, Bourgeois has maintained age-old culinary traditions that fuel the
South Louisiana lifestyle.
Over the past 133 years, our Cajun products have gained global recognition,

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and for tens of thousands of
folks around the world, the Bourgeois Cajun Lady logo is a symbol of home.
Today, the fourth-generation butchers sit at the nine-foot maple block with
loyal customers to discuss the adventures, skills, and passions that guide each of their legacies.
These conversations will become priceless resources for future generations of any industry.

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This is our way of maintaining the spirit, purpose, and traditions of our lost
arts in a world of change.
133 years, four generations. We're just getting started.
Music.

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Here we go. This is episode number eight with Brandon Nakang.
The last episode was with Mr.
Francis Hebert. And in that episode, we spoke a lot about a downtown hotspot
in Thibodeau called Spars.
Brandon is actually the general manager of that location on West 4th Street.
He began his journey as a graduate of the Chef John Foss Culinary Institute

(02:09):
at Nichols State University here in Thibodeau.
Brandon is a third-generation bourgeois customer and is already passing down
that tradition to his boys.
And we're going to get into all kinds of things, but we're going to talk about
his passion for cooking, as well as get into some details about culinary school
management and customer service.

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Before we start, I have a little clip I want to play for you. if
you go to our website up at the top there's a tab says
explore and then from there you can click on podcast if
you click on podcast you'll see a little form pop
up and that is for you the listener to submit
a question or comment to the podcast something you'd like us to read and i'm

(02:50):
actually going to read for you our first our first question submission that's
going to be from actually our good buddy byron delon we've known byron for a
long time family friend and And so,
yes, it is a biased review,
but it does mean a lot. And what he's saying is true.

(03:10):
You know, we we we take pride in it. So let's have a listen and we'll get right into the episode.
I don't have a question for the podcast, but I want to make a statement of fact
is I travel a lot for work all around the state.
And I really like to hit up different meat markets, see their selections,
see what they offer, their different products.

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And Bourgeois is doing a great job of keeping up with customer demands. hands.
But the real thing that y'all do that no one else does is you still display
the art graft or butchery by the fact that when you walk into either market,
whether it be the one in gray or the one in Thibodeau, you still see workers

(03:53):
out there producing products in the open environment where you can see them.
They cut your meat in front of you.
They package things in front of you. You don't put the process back in a closed
off room without the customer interaction.
And I think that's what a lot of the meat markets are missing.

(04:14):
They don't have that. You don't see the craft or the art of what they're doing displayed.
And I think that's a part of, you know.
What you offer that others don't is you get that storefront experience.
You see the workers, you interact with them. You see what they're doing behind
the scenes out front of you.

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And I really think that's a special part of what makes bourgeois bourgeois.
All right. That was awesome. Really appreciate it, Byron. I can't thank you enough for that.
Yeah. If anyone else listening has anything like that you'd like to share or
like I said, just a question or a story, something that happened here.
Or we'll always love hearing new Pawpaw stories, Mr.

(04:57):
Cleave stories, things like that. If you got something, go ahead to the website,
go explore, then podcast, then fill out that form.
And the easiest way to do it is just use the voice memo app on your iPhone and
you just upload that file and we'll get to it.
And let's go, Brandon Naka.
All right, Brandon, we do this with everyone that comes on just because I'm

(05:19):
curious and I think it's fun to hear. but tell me about your earliest memories
of bourgeois meat market.
So I can remember when I was a little boy, to be honest, I didn't know they
had any other sausage in the world unless it was bourgeois.
Every time we made gumbo, we had to stop at bourgeois to get their smoked sausage.
And I remember Mr. Cleave and your granddad going in there. And that was a time

(05:41):
when they were able to steal butcher hogs in house.
And I always was amazed coming in and looking and, you know,
seeing what was happening.
And I can always remember your grandfather's saying is, I can cut a pork chop
so thin it only has one side.
So he was a character and he and Mr.

(06:02):
Cleave, you know, ever since I was a little boy, every time I walked in,
they were standing at the counter, either cutting meat or helping guests.
So like, it was amazing. So I just...
Every time we had to go get sausage or hamburgers or
something for for a barbecue it was
bourgeois that's so cool so not a lot of people have talked much about mr cleave

(06:24):
so far what do you like what do you remember seeing him doing and in his spirit
and all that that's what i remember is just a big smile yeah i mean he was he
was happy man while he was working and you know it it looking hindsight hindsight, looking back,
like that was mastery of his craft.
Like he knew exactly where to cut, what to cut, how to cut it.

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And just with ease, you know, just like from, from early childhood, just seeing,
you know, him breaking down an animal and, and after being, becoming a chef
and, you know, learning about it, like that was a master, you know,
he understood exactly what he was doing.
It may look random at times to an outsider. Right. Yeah.

(07:09):
I mean, he was just definitely, definitely eyeopening looking back.
Yeah. Mr. Cleave, I would like to get as many stories about him as I can on here.
And I'm sure we'll do that when we get into more of our family members,
like my mom, uncles and all that. Yeah.
You could, you could always, always see him, in his apron, had some stuff on

(07:29):
the apron and just a really big smile and just, just looked like he was happy
at work, you know, doing what he was doing.
And I think he was, I wish I had more memories of him, but that is my.
My biggest memory is the smile, you know, and all the stories from Pawpaw.
All the Mr. Cleave stories from Pawpaw.

(07:49):
So now, what are some of your favorite products? I know you're in the market
probably three times a week. Right, right.
So my little boy only eats bourgeois sausage and only eats bourgeois hamburgers.
So if we want to cook burgers, I have to come here to get the fair burgers.
Depending on what I'm cooking, I do a chicken and sausage jambalaya.

(08:11):
When I make my jambalaya, I always come get on doing sausage.
We love the boudin burritos. When we go on swim days, we started off with boudin burritos.
When I want to make red beans, you guys smoke some ham hocks for me.
And then y'all taso is really good when I want to do a shrimp and taso pasta.
So I think anything I get from y'all is my favorite because y'all know what

(08:35):
y'all doing. And it's consistent.
And it's the flavors I grew up with. And if it's ever not, we want to know. Absolutely.
You know, come. That's what we tell everybody, you know, it's always great to
get feedback, positive or negative, you know, you're only good as the last dish
you make or the last product that you put out.
So if you, you know, if you hear everything is great when they're in the door,

(08:59):
but in public, you know, oh, I went to Bourgeois, I went here or there and I
ate there and it wasn't that good.
You know, did you explain that or tell somebody,
you know, because we can only try to fix it while we're
there you know it was great doesn't
help it feels and it's nice but it doesn't help
right if you want to really help someone you really you tell them tell them

(09:22):
there's a flaw exactly exactly what have you what are some of your like personal
cooking styles at home we'll get into to the restaurant stuff later but just
you at home with the family and just Wednesday day night after swimming.
Right. So I have some really picky eaters. So it's usually like I'll cook one

(09:42):
thing for one kid, one thing for another kid, and one thing for my wife and I.
Or sometimes we make like four different dishes depending on what we have.
But we eat jambalaya at least once a week. My little one can survive one chicken
nuggets and french fries.
And my oldest, he wants steak like every day.
Steak. Yeah. Hey, what you want to eat for dinner? Oh, I'll take a steak.

(10:04):
And or something, but you know, in the winter, I like to cook some low and slow,
some, some hearty ribs sticking, you know, stews and braising and.
Just stuff that fills you up and makes you feel good.
And in the summer, you know, try to stay light, you know, chicken breast and chicken thighs.
That's one of our favorites is cooking chicken thighs. So what's like your,

(10:28):
what's the skillet or pan you grab more than anything else in the kitchen?
So I have hand-me-downed cast iron pots and pans from my grandfather.
My dad and mom used them. Now I have them. So if I'm cooking like gumbos or
trying to saute some chicken or something, I'll grab those pans pretty regularly.

(10:50):
When we got married, we got a set of Emeril cookware, which it's almost restaurant
grade quality, which I kind of use pretty often as well. You do a lot of stainless?
Yeah, although that whole set is stainless and then I have cast iron.
But early on, my wife and I kind of made a rule, and it's a running joke.
If it doesn't take a pot and a pan and a cutting board, we don't need to eat it.

(11:12):
So we try to use as least as possible to make sure that, you know, cleanup is easy.
Yeah, I like that. I started using a lot more stainless here recently over the past years.
I was kind of stuck on cast iron for everything, but I'm kind of finding my
way around the stainless.
Right, right. You know, cast iron, it wants to get tied to tie.

(11:33):
You know, stainless steel retains its heat.
You know, it all depends on what you're doing. It's kind of what you cook where it should be.
But, I mean, if you need a good go-to every day, stainless is the way to go.
It's a little maintenance and cleanup's usually easier.
So with the hand-me-downs, I'm sure some of your first influences come from

(11:54):
maybe parents, grandparents?
Yes. So every Sunday we had family meal.
My grandma would invite my aunts and uncles and all the kids.
She would cook Sunday lunch, 1130 meal was served.
Adults ate at the adult table. Kids ate at the kids table. And it was an all
day, all afternoon, like traverse and conversate and catch up from the week.

(12:17):
And then it kind of tapered off after they passed away.
And, you know, my mom did, my mom and dad did that with us, you know,
that every Sunday, 1130, you had to be at their house.
So, early on, we understood, like, everything that was important started with
food, you know, and my mom's mother, she passed away when I was real little,

(12:42):
so my grandpa was at our house every day, like, she fed him.
So, every day, like, he would come visit to eat and then stay a little while and visit with us.
So, like, everything that we did as a family kind of revolved around food.
And like one sunday out of
the month we would barbecue and like it looked like

(13:04):
we barbecued for days um we just we just
filled fill the barbecue pit up and like we ate
on it for like five days but again that
was a hand-me-down barbecue pit that my grandpa made that
my dad used and i still have it from from the
60s you know so it was pretty amazing so did
each of them have that skill or passion or like

(13:24):
like mama and papa are just so so my grandmother was a great cook she she anything
she did she was great in the kitchen my grandpa just bought seafood and did
barbecue same thing with my dad my mom was the primary cook my dad bought seafood did a,
and barbecued. I would tell everybody that I knew once I was in culinary school,

(13:49):
the reason why I went into culinary school was I needed to find a better way
to make gumbo because my mom made the worst gumbo in the whole entire world. It was terrible.
So I was like, I became a chef to learn how to make a better one.
It was terrible. However, it did have bourgeois sausage in it.
So we all picked out the sausage and we ate that and some of the meat with the rice and that was it.

(14:14):
Know all right so we hate the gumbo but
what's one dish from from each of
those people that you really remember right so my grandmother
would make pot fried chicken and it
was it's kind of like sticky chicken we called it pot fried chicken
it was that white beans and ball
talk meat and ball potatoes like that was like that

(14:36):
was the meal you call up and be like hey grandma i'm
hungry well come after school and then
the whole the whole kitchen would be full and
she would make your plate and she's like all right start eating
and then after that it's like oh i'm full no
you not have some more like she would she would cut the chicken into
12 pieces and like just it was like

(14:56):
just chicken kept coming so so that
that was that's her favorite or my favorite
dish that she made was was the pot fried chicken
with the rice and she did butter beans my mom
she made the most amazing turkey and we actually
had turkey other than thanksgiving so like holidays
okay a random sunday we would have a turkey and

(15:19):
like everybody was like your mom makes the best turkey
in the whole entire world which that was great it was good and then after that
it came turkey and sausage to gumbo but all right it was like oh i don't i just
want the turkey no we're gonna have gumbo all right well we're gonna do the
same thing just pick out the turkey and the sausage and then that's it you know.

(15:40):
You still making these, these dishes? I do. So when my grandmother got sick,
I decided to, to go one Thanksgiving and watch her make her famous cornbread dressing.
And she's like, you need to put this. I'm like, whoa, stop.
I'm going to measure everything. We're going to, I'm going to write it down.
The procedures, the amounts, the everything from start to finish. So I wrote it all down.

(16:05):
She passed away a couple of years later. I'm like, man, I need to,
I'm hungry for it. I got an on V and I'm going to make it. So I put out the recipe.
I made it, you know, I took one bite and I'm like, this ain't it. And I threw it away.
Literally, literally I threw it away. And my uncle was like,
what are you doing? I'm like, that's not your most common bread dressing.

(16:25):
It tastes like doo doo. So I'm not going to serve it to you.
He's like, well, we would have ate it. I'm like, no, that's not it.
Isn't it weird that you have that? And some people don't have that.
Whatever, whatever made you do that. I had the same thing. But whatever that
is, some people don't have.
They don't understand it. I'm like, that wasn't it. So like.
I can't let you put this in your mouth. Right.

(16:46):
It wasn't good. So I tried it again for Thanksgiving and like for Christmas.
And I'm like, it's close, but it's not it.
But it's close. So I let them try it. And they're like, we can't tell the difference.
I'm like, y'all just being nice.
I know the difference. I don't know what she did when I turned around.
What she added to it. what she put in what

(17:09):
she said she's probably laughing but this
ain't grandma's they keep secrets
they do 100 it's crazy just my mom keeps
secrets my aunts keep secrets papa kept
secrets right just like they didn't want you to to understand
or hear something so they were talking french you know

(17:29):
and i grew up really close to my grandmother and she
had she had sisters and we would hang out on the
weekends you know they would play cards and and and do old lady things and we
would come hang out with them and like they would talk in english and as soon
as they didn't want us to hear something they would switch up in french and
then one of my sisters one time's like i don't want to go yeah with you and

(17:51):
they're like why because they speak chinese.
You know and grandma's like that's not chinese it's
cajun french and i'm like well why don't she teach us she said
well we don't want y'all to know what we're talking about so it's
like you know it's it was a lost language now my my
grandma on my tibeto side my dad's mom she only
spoke french and and i would get dropped off there when i was little you know

(18:14):
very little right five six seven and it's like they didn't know that i didn't
speak french that's how they talked to me right they only spoke in french i
didn't know any of it but it didn't stop them right exactly it talked You talked to me all day long.
And then they would say, Teter, and you knew that you were a hard head.
Uh-huh. It was good. It was good.

(18:36):
So tell me a little bit about your family. I know you got some boys.
I've kind of gotten to watch them grow up, actually. Absolutely.
As you're in and out of the market. So they are four-generation customers.
I have two. One's Tyler. He's 12. And one's Sawyer. He just made nine.
Like you said, they've been going to Bourgeois since they were born.
And it's nice to see the customer service that you guys give them.

(19:00):
They open up the door, and your staff is like, hey, Tyler, Sawyer,
let me get you some beef jerky and then next thing you know like they're rattling
off exactly what they want not like not,
here's what i'm here for not specifically what i'm i'm
like buying but it's like here's the stuff that i want to get while i'm here
like hey i want some beef jerky or hey i got some beef sticks you know and it's

(19:24):
like it's gonna be so cool man the first time you see them pull up in their
truck right right and get out like they're like they're the man yeah yeah yeah
and and that's That's what they do.
Like, they open up the door and they're like, hey, Miss Stacy,
or, you know, I need it. I want this, this, and this.
And I'm like, yeah, I guess. You know, why not? Why not?
That's really cool. Yeah. What are some, so tell me more about the, about the family.

(19:49):
What do y'all, what do y'all like to do maybe outside of cooking and how's the family work?
We, both my wife and I work, so we like never see each other.
We're kind of ships in the night some days.
But when we all get together, we try to do some sort of family activity at least once a week.
That way, you know, we can kind of just keep up with each other and keep up

(20:09):
how everything's growing.
Both of my boys are swimmers, and we swim five days a week.
So they get to run their energy out. They swim. They swim.
Not we. Yes, they swim. They have been swimming since they were,
well, Sawyer since he was two and Tyler since he was four. Wow.

(20:30):
And they've really become really good swimmers. My in-laws have a pool.
And on Sundays, we would swim recreationally. And then we started swimming.
We used to do a race where whoever wins gets to pick supper.
Well, now I'm sad to say I will lose if we do that contest anymore.
So we don't. That way, I don't have to let them win and pick what they want to eat for supper.

(20:55):
But no they're they they you know
they uh start in fifth sixth grade and and
third grade this year so they excited for school and can't
wait to see them grow up and see what they can they can accomplish
you know we want them to be productive members of society sure so you know we
trying to raise them the right way and all that fun stuff but you know it is

(21:16):
it is what it is in this day and age you know yeah i think they'll do well yeah
you're also in the fire department i am The Thibodeau Fire. Let's hear some more about that.
So I'm a fourth-generation volunteer fireman. My family is still really big
and fire company number one. That's the station that's downtown.
So, you know, it's really good to give back to the community.

(21:41):
And our family, you know, kind of had a little tradition of,
you know, when you turn 18, you join the fire department.
My wife was kind of crazy when I was 18. So I kind of didn't go that path.
I bounced in and out every once in a while. But lately, I've kind of jumped
back in and found my place and found my role.

(22:03):
They get to have a chef-cooked meal once a month.
So I think our membership has grown just because on Monday, they get to get a good meal.
And it's a great brotherhood. We really, really think of each other as brothers and sisters.
We fight like brothers and sisters we you
know we always supportive it's just it's a

(22:24):
really good organization that that i'm proud to be part of and correct me if
i'm wrong thibodeau is the largest volunteer in the u.s it is one of one of
if not the largest volunteer fire department in the country and what's that
look like on the number so we're a little over 500 active members,

(22:44):
In Thibodeau. In Thibodeau.
Just Thibodeau. Just Thibodeau. And there's Schriever right down the road.
There's Jack Bay. Jack Bay, St. John.
Right. So Thibodeau has 500 active members. Right.
And we just kicked off our 150th year of the Thibodeau Volunteer Fire Department.
So this great organization has been protecting Thibodeau for 150 years.

(23:07):
So cool. Which is unbelievable. There's some pictures of my grandpa,
I believe on the first Thibodeaux fire truck.
You got some old pictures with that thing.
Somewhere I can maybe dig them up and maybe link them to this if I can.
So you said you didn't go the fire route. What were you thinking in high school?

(23:28):
So in high school, I was actually going to be a nurse.
And then I had some family illness and family deaths.
And it was like, that's not for me.
And I kind of did some soul searching and figured out what am I passionate about?
And growing up, I was a fat kid. I loved food. and all those memories that surrounded

(23:50):
the dinner table or the stove or, you know, the barbecue pit.
Like, it just kind of lit something in me. Like, I need to explore that a little bit more.
And then I went to talk to a couple people in the culinary school and realized,
like, that was, it's, I graduated in 2003, so that would be 99.
The program was just kind of kicking off and gaining steam,

(24:13):
and that was the era of the Food Network, work where all they
have all the celebrity chefs so you know that that that
whole industry kind of like piqued my interest
so that kind of started started the passion was there someone you looked up
to at that point yeah so i had a really good conversation with with one of the
chefs chef caslow who's like he became a mentor a friend a confidant like he

(24:39):
was almost like your second dad Like he was,
he was truly, truly concerned and like genuinely wanted you to succeed,
you know, and like personal life also professionally,
like he just wanted you to do well, you know, which like he was, he was amazing.

(25:00):
Like you would go in and he could see like you were having a bad day and he's
all like, let's go have a cup of coffee and a cigarette, you know,
and he would light a cigarette walking out the kitchen.
Like, let's go talk. And then you look and then you knew it was like, great.
It's going to be a 45 minute conversation with Chef Caslow and we are going
to it's going to be rough.

(25:20):
And that's someone you met in high school. Yeah.
And then so obviously that kind of is what got you motivated towards culinary.
And then you graduate and did you go straight to Nichols?
So, yeah, I graduated. I was working at Rouse's at the time.
I did a whole bunch of things from

(25:41):
buggy pushing to working in the meat department, working in the office.
And I worked at Rouse's, and they had a scholarship that they offered for culinary students.
So I was thankful and grateful enough to receive that scholarship while I was working for them.
So it was kind of like, let's just go that route, see where it goes.

(26:04):
And what's it like? Which, I don't know. As an outsider, I can't imagine what
a culinary course is like. Like, you know, is it a heavy book?
So when we started in the culinary school, we were in Go Hall,
the corner of Go Hall. So it was a very small, tight-knit kitchen.

(26:25):
And so you can either get a bachelor or an associate's degree,
which you have to take your sciences, your math, your Englishes,
as well as a couple of business courses, as well as culinary classes.
So you got a real well-rounded education.
You know, and being in culinary, there's a lot of math involved,

(26:48):
you know, with recipes and especially in bacon where you have to,
there's formulas that you have to use,
you know, if you start off with a recipe that's this small and you need to do
it for a thousand people, there's a bunch of conversions you have to do to make that happen.
So, you know, you have to be pretty proficient in math, you know,
and being able to speak to people, you needed speech, right?

(27:08):
And if you wanted to run a business or be a chef, you have to know some financial.
Information. It's a lot more than just cooking something and put it on the plate, right?
Because your product is what you're trying to sell.
So you need to figure out that it costs this much and I need to make this much

(27:30):
to keep the air conditioning on, you know? So you got to make,
It's a business, as well as art.
It's a lot that goes on, and they were able to teach us proper techniques,
sanitation, proper techniques, what flavors go with what flavors.
And then we always had the running joke is, in culinary school,

(27:53):
the best thing is you get to eat your homework.
And the worst thing that you have to do is eat your homework.
Sometimes we had great dishes and sometimes it was like yeah don't eat that it's not good yeah so,
is it heavy into like the i guess the chemistry of
flavors and combinations of acids and stuff right so it's like it's a balance

(28:19):
you know you have to you have to understand like what the ingredients do you
know if you're gonna add salt it's gonna not just be salt oh,
it's going to enhance whatever other flavors you have.
Or if you want to add a specific herb, you know, if you want to roast a chicken,
you want to elevate it a little bit, add a little bit of rosemary,

(28:41):
a little bit of thyme, and that'll elevate the flavor a little bit.
You know, if you want a licorice flavor, you can add star anise or some pernod.
Or there's just a lot of experimenting and visualizing, like.
What I want to put in this dish to make it turn out the way it does, you know?
And thankfully we have, we have a lot of great Cajun Creole instructors and,

(29:07):
and that's what it's based off of, you know, and just like a Cajun cook and
everything, it starts off with onion, celery, bell pepper, right?
And you add garlic, but there's a lot more flavors that are out there that,
that you you can kind of find or discover or, you know, on accident discover
and be like, wow, that's great.

(29:27):
And do you get to play with that a lot at Nichols or is it kind of centralized around Creole?
So first, it's really diverse now, which is great.
They have the new building, but basically it's starting with the basics and
then it builds upon there. And then depending on which course you take is kind

(29:50):
of where your flavor palates are developed.
So they'll have classical French cuisine, some Asian, some baking and in different
classes where, you know, they explain like your first semester,
you'll learn about sauces and herbs and, you know, how to cook vegetables correctly
and butcher meat and all that stuff.

(30:11):
And then you kind of, it's a building block where you kind of build,
build your flavor profile that you kind of like to use.
And what was your kind of focus? What were you interested in? So I did, funny story.
I did an ice carving class in, yeah, yeah, that was fun. A real thing.

(30:32):
It's not. It's a, it's, it's definitely like winter's coming.
But our instructor was from Dallas and he has an ice carving and sushi business
so back in 2000 sushi wasn't that popular in this area right but,
he would make a sushi and it was like.

(30:53):
That's interesting, you know, and me being from the bayou, right? How you eat fish, fry.
What you mean I can eat raw fish, you know? And then he just kind of opened
up that avenue and it's like, this is pretty interesting.
You know, so, you know, that's one of the memories I have.
Our classical French class, we would do a seven course meal and we would pull

(31:17):
off a hat of what course you had. At, well, seven out of eight times, I pulled a soup course.
So I learned how to make a lot of soup. Right. And my wife loves me for it.
And I think everybody else does too.
Because I come up with some really unique soups. I've actually had one of your unique soups. Right.

(31:39):
You brought over some andouille sweet potato bisque. Right.
And I've made it since. Right. And it's awesome.
It's awesome. And you never think, like, andouille and sweet potato.
What is he thinking but it tastes like ham like
great you're you're having ham soup you know
and and learning all those techniques in
class like you can substitute ingredients you can

(32:02):
make new flavors you can make something new you know as
long as you know the technique you can kind of change it up you know you don't
always have to do broccoli and cheese you know you can make cauliflower and
bacon you know jerusalem artichoke cream of asparagus you know it's just using
the technique and different ingredients to make different flavors. Mm-hmm.

(32:25):
The sushi stuff sounds interesting. I've never gotten into like making the sushi.
I do a lot of fresh fish, but I was talking about this with someone the other day.
I believe, you know, you understand all the cuts, say of a tuna and what they're
used for and, and there's, there's specifics and the flavor profile of each

(32:46):
and the texture of all that. Is that where you learned all that?
So I learned a little bit of that. And then I had a lot of on-job training.
And I actually did sushi for Rouse's for about six years.
And I also helped open up Zen Sushi in Houma. Love some Zen.
Yeah, way back in the gap.
So, yeah, the, oh, yeah, I'll make sushi. Just go out to a sushi restaurant.

(33:07):
Okay. There is a lot that goes on in preparation to make a simple roll,
you know, from doing the sanitation is 100% because you're actually eating raw product, right? Right.
So it has to be safe to eat. And then making the rice, they say like the first thousand don't count.
So you have to make at least a thousand pots of rice in order for it to like

(33:30):
start coming out correctly, which sometimes it works.
Sometimes it's great, but you gotta, you gotta know what you gotta do to correct it.
Right. And just, just kind of rolling it is, is a little different as well as
like what to put in the roll to compliment each flavor. You know,
you need something fatty, something, you know, crunchy.

(33:50):
It's a lot of texture, a lot of flavor. You know, you're having one bite.
So you want to get all that in, in one, in, in one mouthful,
you know. Any favorite sushi restaurants?
So I have a couple. We go to, we used to go to Tsunami and then Yakuza House.
We stumbled upon that last year.
We went to the LRA show and he was breaking down a tuna and we went to eat at

(34:14):
his place. and it's amazing.
Yeah. Like it's, it's the real deal. I haven't been.
Make a reservation we my wife
goes to kano kano yeah i haven't
been there either yeah but after after doing it
for like six years it's like i really don't
want to eat that but i will uh you know

(34:35):
and i used to have some friends that would that they would
we would get together and they would be like hey you're making sushi and
i'm like you're an accountant you're doing my books you know
and so they would show up with like rice and fish and stuff and be
like hey let's let's have a sushi party you know yeah
look i ate a boudin burrito yesterday so
i know yeah i know the feeling sometimes a

(34:56):
boudin burrito is just what just what the soul needs not after six years all
right was it easy the schooling no uh was it hard it was challenging you know
we we had a small facility, you know, just timing.
And it took your life, you know, you, we were at the point where like,

(35:19):
it was almost like we were working in the kitchen where we had big block classes.
So you would, you would be in the kitchen from seven in the morning till noon.
And is, is it, oh, hey, everyone watch this, watch what I'm doing.
Now you do it. Is that how it is? Yeah. It was a lot of like almost on the job training kind of thing.
You know, we did, we did some some class lecture and

(35:42):
then you know they explained what we're going to do and
then they demonstrated it and then like you have
to do it you know like deboning a chicken they
showed you how to do it and then like everybody gets a chicken let's go ahead
and demone it you know do they also i'm assuming they also you know have a functioning
kitchen and kitchen crew and they teach you how that works and what you need

(36:05):
what makes up a kitchen crew and who needs to be where and doing work.
So when I was in school, my senior level, we ran a restaurant and it was al bistro.
They still do it now. It's a little bit different.
But you and your team would design a menu, make out the recipes,
do everything like you were working in a restaurant, and you were the boss.

(36:27):
You know, you had service and people paid to come eat, just like a real restaurant.
You know, everybody came in and, you know, they ordered and you had to cook
it, you and your classmates.
So you would say, you know, this person is going to be sautéing.
This one's going to be making salad. These guys weren't going to do dessert.

(36:48):
You're going to be busting suds, you know, the whole, the whole, the whole gauntlet.
And you were graded on the service, you know, did, did everybody enjoy their
food? Did it take too long?
How much I burnt? You know, all, all that stuff that goes on in a real restaurant,
you know, was, was kind of like, that was, that was the benchmark on how,

(37:08):
how well or how poorly you, you perform. Any fights?
Oh yeah, absolutely. absolutely so so we have
a we have a saying like between between rush
whatever i say to you it ends
at the end of rush like you know i had i had i had some people i hated them
from 6 45 to 8 o'clock we we would curse each other and call every name in the

(37:33):
book but like 8 30 when it slowed down we would go outside sit on milk crates
grab a soda and like you know like nothing Nothing happened because,
you know, it's high energy, high paced, high volume.
You just got to like roll with the punches, so to speak.
And like usually by the end of the night, it's like, yeah, you are an idiot.

(37:53):
I am an idiot. But we're going to be back at nine o'clock in the morning to
do all this all over again.
So it's and it's kind of one of those those things that we kind of.
We kind of understand in between people in the industry, like,
you know, we may say some harsh stuff during service, but it's just because.
I still love you. Yeah, I still love you. It's just a high stress environment and like, you messed up.

(38:18):
Like, you know, and it's like, yep, you know, and it's a lot of accountability and ownership.
Like, yeah, I screwed up two steaks, which, you know, I messed up the whole
ticket and then I had to start all over and then it put us behind.
And next thing you know 12 people showed up and like
now we're in the weeds and we can't
get out you know so that's how it should be anywhere man

(38:40):
if something's wrong and you know it to be wrong you
ought to be able to say it right and the problem gets
fixed and everyone's better for it right it's just
here we have a job to do if i
don't fix this issue the job won't be done right correct
i could you know maybe i could be a little more
polite but if it's wrong it's wrong and i of have to say
it right right you know and we chefs have

(39:03):
a have a notoriety for being hotheads you
know so we're just passionate about what we do
it you know we we we think of our
craft as like artistry and you
know it's very an intimate act you know you're cooking for someone and you you
hoping that they enjoy it so you know you put in your your passion your blood

(39:26):
your sweat your tears Here's your years of in the industry on this one plate,
you know, and you want it to be perfect.
And then you hope the person right next to you is that passionate enough to do that as well.
And if it's not, like we not working in the same area.
So like, put it up, you know? Yeah.

(39:49):
Eve, did you find yourself maybe early on sort of in temp imitating?
Your mentors or maybe whatever celebrity
chefs that you that you maybe watch is that
like the first step is like i need to you know this is my favorite person and
i need to get like them you gotta find your your passion find your mark you

(40:10):
know i have a really stern look i mean everybody thinks i'm not the nicest person
in the world you just gotta and i'm dry i'm very very dry like toast dry.
So like, you got to get to know me and like my body language and, and the way I speak,
but like, I'm very soft, you know, a very kind hearted person,
you know, is it's the way you, you approach things is kind of what,

(40:36):
what you got to deal with.
You know, like I said, you know, I look very stern, but like you having a bad
day, we go on, on a milk crate and we're going to to figure it out,
you know, because, uh, it's not just a job, you know, it's, it's family.
Like we, bunch of restaurants, the restaurant I was in, we did family meal,
you know, we, before service, we cooked a little something for everybody to

(40:58):
eat or let them order something.
And we, you know, before we opened the doors, we, you know, enjoyed a meal and,
you know, did our game plan, like we're preparing for war, you know,
and, and then going from there.
So, you know, if you work with people for six months, a year,
a little longer, you know, they kind of become part of your family because you're
going to see them more than you're going to see your family,

(41:19):
you know, working 40 to 80 hours a week. That's right.
And either like you're a psychopath or you love what you're doing to work all
those long hours and put up with all that abuse from, you know,
from guests and customers and employers and employees and, you know, the general public.
But, you know, if you're passionate about it, you, you'll learn, like.

(41:40):
What's the take from it? What's the progression look like? What are you looking forward to?
You know, say you're coming out of Nichols Culinary.
What are you looking forward to? Like, does everyone there want to open their own restaurant?
Does someone want to move to Italy and work for so-and-so?
So, thankfully, like, Nichols has a really good network of knowing people,

(42:06):
knowing chefs, knowing people in the industry. and they kind of do job fairs and whatnot.
They also are connected with a couple other culinary schools.
So you can go to school in France at the Paul Boucou School,
which is one of the world-renowned culinary schools, and learn from the chefs over there.
We had one classmate, he backpacked through Europe working at restaurants,

(42:29):
and now he has four restaurants in the city.
We have some people that went the corporate route. They're working at hotels, casinos, hotels.
Some are business owners. Some are food bloggers. We have some bakers.
Just all walks of the industry. Some people have graduated culinary school and
are doing something totally different.

(42:49):
You know, it's one of the crazy things is you get a four-year degree to make
15 bucks an hour, you know, when you first start out.
Because, you know, nobody really wants to hire somebody straight out of culinary school.
You know, some people have a little chip on the show that I graduated culinary school.
You put them in the kitchen and, you know, they can't cook out of a paper bag.

(43:09):
Some of them are a little bit more inept.
It's just, you know, student by student is kind of where we are with them.
But, you know, it was a great experience for me. I graduated culinary school. I worked for Rouse's.
They opened up the Quiznos subs. I did that for a while.
Then I went to their wine department and then we started this sushi program here in Houma.

(43:34):
And then eventually moved to Thibodeau and then, you know, then I parted ways
with the company, but, you know, it, it, it all depends on, on where you are,
you know, and I want to kind of stay close to home.
So, you know, I want to stay close to home, stay close to family.
So I just found a couple of places here and there, you know,
to kind of learn my craft, hone my craft.

(43:57):
To become a better chef, you know. What makes Nichols Culinary special?
Is it seriously just the Creole? It's a lot, lot different now.
It's definitely the staff and, like, what you can learn.
Also, Nichols is one of the only places that you can get a state-accredited culinary degree.

(44:20):
You know, it's backed up by the state. Some of these other culinary schools,
if they close tomorrow, theoretically, your degree is nothing.
You know, you might have the skills, but it's nothing on paper.
But it's a state-funded college degree, you know.
And it's a state-of-the-art kitchen that they made. And, you know,

(44:40):
it's kind of like the Cadillac of kitchens.
I'd love to see that. That you can learn your craft.
And then, you know, you go into some little mom-and-pop restaurant,
it's like, well, where's this and that? Oh, we don't have that. We got a stove.
We got a stove and an oven. Where's the air fryer? Yeah, make it happen.
Where's the sous vide machine? Oh, we don't sous vide here. Yeah.

(45:03):
Keeping it simple, right? Right. I like to keep it simple. We keep everything simple here.
I like to do that at home as well. Same thing goes for recipes.
Everyone assumes you need a crazy secret recipe. Well, the secret oftentimes
is like, well, there's nothing in it. That's the secret.
It's ingredients. You're tasting the meat or the fish or the vegetable or whatever

(45:25):
it is. That's what you're tasting. You buy the best ingredients.
You use the right technique. And the roadmap is the recipe. Yeah. You'll get there.
But you got to start off with quality ingredients.
There's no point in buying or working hard to get high quality fish if you're
going to soak it in garlic and whatever other flavors you.

(45:48):
Or get a steak from bourgeois and marinate it in an Italian dressing,
you know, like, you know, and that's, if that's, it's, that's you,
that's you, you know, but, you know, why mask a restaurant quality steak with
Italian dressing when all you need is salt and pepper and let it,
let it shine, you know. Simple.
Just keep it, keep it, well, we have a saying, kiss, keep it simple, stupid.

(46:10):
Yeah. You know, just make sure that you use the best ingredients and treat them
respectfully, you know, and you're going to make a good dish.
Do you have, so you talked about you're heavy on the soups, but do you have
your own kind of style or maybe flavor profile?
Like if you're...

(46:31):
If your wife tasted something, would she know it's yours?
Would she know Brandon cooked this? Yep. Or she has, she has the,
Hey, taste this, make it at the house.
You know, or I saw this recipe or heard about this. Can you make this?
You know, she saw, saw somewhere a couple, a year ago, candied jalapenos.

(46:54):
She's all like, Oh, we ought to try that.
Or this place was having candied jalapenos. Let's get some. And I'm like, I can make that.
So we make candied jalapenos. And now it's like every three months I have to
make five pounds worth of candied jalapenos.
And people are like, hey, when you got some of those jalapenos,
I want to get some for you.

(47:15):
So like I'll stop at the little Spanish market and buy up all their jalapenos.
And I'm like, what are you doing with all these?
You know, I'm like, hey, making candied jalapenos.
Did you grow up hunting or fishing at all? I did. I did. I did a little,
a little hunting, a little fishing, just like everybody in the bayous in South Louisiana.
Were you all into that kind of camp lifestyle? No, it was, we did like side

(47:40):
of the road or somebody's field, everyone's in a blue moon kind of fishing.
I married into a camp, so I have use of a camp now in Dulac.
And we do some saltwater fishing. We take the boys out. My father-in-law graciously
enough, you know, hosts us and we go and we fish and I clean the fish, they clean the boat.

(48:01):
And then we always have at least a fish fry while we're there.
And nothing tastes better than redfish or sheep's head, you know,
straight out the water on the back dock when the breeze is blowing and you're
drinking beer, you know? Yeah.
So we hunt a lot and we go to, we had Uncle Donald's camp often.
And one of the special things about the camp is cooking at the camp.

(48:25):
Right. And kind of the mentality we have is like, we're just going to use whatever's there.
Right. So whenever we kill something or bring something, we just try to bring
minimal and then use whatever else was already in the freezer.
So we always bring a little bag of fish just in case.
Just in case. And we bring some French fries and we bring a French bread and a couple onions.

(48:47):
And, you know, if we're going to cook, if we have a bunch of friends and neighbor
campers that are there, we'll try to cook something special.
But that's usually my invite to someone's camp is, hey, we're going to the camp. You want to come?
And can you come cook for us? And then, yes, absolutely.
Sure. Or like, I don't have a lot of time to do some hunting and stuff,

(49:10):
but it's all like, hey, I killed two deers this weekend.
Would you help me butcher them? I'm like, Dude, you know my fee,
a pack of sausage and a backstrap, and I will help you with your deer.
Couple wild pigs and whatnot, but usually like that's my fee is I'll, uh, I'll help you.

(49:31):
And, and, you know, grew up willing to, or learning like you help your neighbor.
Um, and that's, that goes back to the fire department, you know,
you're helping your neighbor, member of the Knights of Columbus, you help your neighbor.
So just trying to instill that. And that was instilled to me,
trying to instill it to my, to my, my boys is,
you know, you always help somebody out so that camp cooking that's kind of how

(49:54):
i try to cook at home i like to just i like to wing it and i think i got that
from them she never has a recipe for anything again she's lying,
right to be fair she's lying she probably has about she has
12 cookbooks and like a whole bunch of stuff she's just not giving it to me
so i'll ask her how to cook uh whatever so-and-so soup or whatever and uh oh

(50:16):
i never never really paid attention let me see if i can try to write some of
it down right which is always always a lie because it never tastes like hers and.
But it's taught me to just kind of use what's in
the kitchen and i'm not afraid to i'm not
afraid to turn the fire on before i know what i have right and i love that right
to me that's that's what my passion is and cooking is like i like running around

(50:40):
the kitchen and opening the fridge and running to the deep freezer and like
all right i'll just use this instead i love that that's fun It's kind of like
a chop, you know, you gotta,
Hey, I got this to start with. What am I cooking?
You know, usually like when, when I say, Hey, I'm going to cook.
I'm like, all right, what's on sale.
Let's figure something out. Right. And that's cool. Yeah. That's a good way

(51:02):
to do it. I don't mind inviting friends over.
Right. Doing that. Right. Right. Pulling it on my ass. And, you know,
and being a chef, being invited to somebody's house, it's like,
Oh, I don't want you to eat this, you know, whatever. and I'm like, dude.
It doesn't matter. Like, I'm here, like, I'm just your friend. Like, I eat hot dogs.

(51:25):
I can only have a bologna sandwich when I'm at the camp.
Like, I eat bologna sandwiches. It's not, everything has to be five-star or
good, you know? It has to be, you know, restaurant quality.
Like, I eat just like everybody else, you know? For years, my supper consisted
of a little Debbie and a glass of milk, you know, or a sandwich.

(51:47):
And that's what i hate you know
you i'm cooking steaks all night long yeah i
get home on a little w a glass of milk and a cold shower and go to bed because
i gotta do it back at eight o'clock in the morning you know so it's it's a little
intimidating if somebody invites a chef over you know but it's like look we
eat just like everyone else we eat crap yeah we're in beau's office right now

(52:09):
and if If you look on that bookshelf,
there's two whole cases of Vienna sausage.
Yeah. So, Bumbo has access to all of the best stuff that you can find around.
Right. What does he eat for lunch? Vienna sausage.
Yeah. That should tell you the secret there.
Well, that's just like a mechanic, right? They don't want to work on their cars.
You guys work with smoked meats and product all day long.

(52:32):
You don't want to have that. You might just want a Vienna sausage out of a can.
Back to the the schooling how competitive is it between students is it is there like.
Everyone's striving to be top dog so they
they do have a little gauntlet system that that we
that i kind of incurred you know who's the best at

(52:54):
this who's the best at that there's always like
the bosses where they want to control and
there's the workers so it's kind of like depending on what
group it was and the chefs kind of like figured out
their potion personalities and like you you're the boss right you're gonna go
work with the hardest person who can't get along with them yourself you know

(53:18):
and it just kind of broke up the diversity where like you know in the real world
what happens right you might have somebody that's,
mentally unstable or you know somebody who's really passionate
about what they're doing or like somebody who's just
here for a job you know you don't know their work ethic but you have to work
with them um so like it was kind of like a little psychology while you were

(53:42):
working and figuring figuring out like how to work with people how to talk to
people and figuring out like okay.
I'm terrible at decorated cakes Like terrible
I had a classmate that Baked one
of my Well decorated one of my cakes My cakes for
me She hated to butcher me So I

(54:03):
did her butchering She decorated my cake So like
it was It was Find out what you're
good at And surround yourself with people
Things that you're not good
at That they're good at And then you're gonna wind up That's
a business man yeah you're gonna wind up being successful yep if
you can understand that at a young age right

(54:26):
you can be very successful you know and
of course you want to be you want to be the best out of everything
but you know in in hindsight like i realize i suck at baking at decorating cakes
i can bake cakes all day long putting them decorating them it was a different
i don't have the patience to do it so you know even now when i when i somebody's

(54:48):
like hey bake me a cake and and decorate it so,
like it's gonna be so you go to Rouse's and you buy it's gonna be very minimally
decorated it's gonna be delicious however it won't look like Ace of Kings.
All right. So kind of switching from the in the kitchen to maybe like over the kitchen.

(55:08):
I know right now. So what's your role at Spars right now?
So at Sparge right now, I'm the general manager of the downtown location,
which at that role, I am in charge of the whole restaurant, the kitchen,
as well as the front of the house service and leading the brand of the restaurant there.
So we, you know, we're very passionate about what we do and who we are.

(55:34):
And, you know, it comes out on every plate of catfish chip or every Bloody Mary we serve.
I love Sparge. As far as the big staple in our family, again,
it's one of those generational places for us.
My grandpa was there every morning. I'm sure you've seen his face a lot.

(55:55):
We used to, all the cousins, we would go at like 5 a.m. every Wednesday.
We did that for maybe, I don't know, a year or two.
And it was just a place we were all married and having our first kids, some of us second kids.
And it was like the one time we can all get together and, and chit chat and

(56:16):
just grab a cup of coffee and a biscuit and solve all the world's problems or,
or figure out what your problem of the day was.
And why were we doing that is because our, you know, our role models,
Papa and our uncles and Mr.
Francis and all those old guys we see, they're, they're there before us and

(56:36):
they're there more than us.
So that's just like challenging us like okay if they're 90 years old and they're
finding value in going to spars with their buddies every morning there's got to be something to it,
It'd be easier not to, but maybe we should try it. Right.
You know, if, if, if they're saying that's the smartest thing to do, maybe we should try it.

(56:59):
You know, there's some interesting conversations that goes on every morning at that table.
And it's, it's unbelievable. And it's all different walks of life,
all different age groups.
You know, they start off with the only retired, then next thing is the newly retired.
And then it's the working man, you know, and, and, and it's like you said,
it's generational One will get up, one will replace a seat.

(57:22):
It's like the adult table and the kiddie table. You know, it co-mingles together.
And, you know, we, as far as we provide a place, a caveat for that,
you know, and sometimes we get in the conversation with them,
you know, just because we want to show them, like,
we generally care about you, all of our guests, and especially the ones that come like every day.

(57:45):
Mr., for instance, Mr. Francis just celebrated his birthday.
We made him a birthday cake. Yeah. You know, we made him a birthday cake because,
you know, you can only turn 96 once.
Right. You know, and he was upset that we made a fuss about it.
But like, you know, you kind of like our papa, you know, everybody, everybody loves you.

(58:05):
You know, you opinionated and we love you.
And we just want to want to just show you, you know, one at least one time that
somebody else has cared about you. Right.
But man, how special is that? You can't just open up a business and have it
be the resident mastermind location.
You know what I mean? That is a problem we have every day is,

(58:26):
you know, we open the doors and we, in restaurant wine, you know,
the industry wine is you open up the door, you don't know what's coming in.
You don't know if you're going to be super busy.
You're not, you don't know if you're going to be, you know, begging for customers to come in.
It's just you have to you have to find your niche and i think downtown has has the.

(58:49):
The knowing and the calling of like it's a
place where it's it's home or it's in the extension of of your home where you
can come and sit down and have a cup of coffee and not be rushed for your day
or if you're in a rush you know you can come in and out and you just everybody comes

(59:09):
in at the same time they do the, you know, it's routine,
you know, and it's, it's, it's sometimes that's what some people need is they need a routine.
They hang out, you know, they just want to,
want to talk to somebody, you know, like Mr. Francis, he's, he's an elderly gentleman.
He's really doesn't talk to, you know, he doesn't have anybody at home.
So all of his interaction is in public.

(59:31):
Right. So, you know, if, if he can come and spend, have a cup of coffee,
spend an hour or two just chit-chatting and, you know, the other guests that
are there kind of like jug them on sometimes and all that fun stuff,
but it's all in good fun, but you know, it, it makes his day and I'm pretty
sure it makes everybody else's day. Sure.
It's cool how, you know, it's very uncommon to have such, you know,

(59:54):
it's kind of a historical place and it's sort of a landmark around here.
And you get a lot of tourists. I'm sure you get a lot of parents from Nichols
and the hospital and you're getting people from all over.
So you sort of balancing between a tourist location and the half of the room was here yesterday.
Right. It's like, that's pretty uncommon comment because a place

(01:00:16):
that's heavy tourism the locals are not
going to want to go but y'all kind of are able to
balance it for that audience yeah we like we have the man
and passing academy every year we had one family that this was their quote-unquote
last year here their child's turning a senior like they were on the verge of
tears like we're never coming back and i'm like we'll still be here y'all can

(01:00:39):
come even though they're not man and passing academy but like they They would eat breakfast,
lunch, and dinner every day that they were here.
And they did that for five years. You know, and they were like.
They were like, no more spars. I mean, this is the last year we have spars.
Yeah, this is our last year. So I'm like. That's cool. You know,
there's Mardi Gras. You know, y'all can come anytime.
Like, y'all don't have to, like, make a reservation or make plans or.

(01:01:00):
Thibodeau's still here. You know, you can come and eat. It's just,
you know, and like the first and second year that they came,
they thought, like, it was just a show.
You know, like all the hospitality and all the things that. But it's the way we are. You know, we...
We want to have hospitality at its finest level. You know, we want to exceed our guest experiences.
And we can appreciate all those things that, you know, some tourists come in

(01:01:28):
because they heard about us. You know, that means we're doing something right.
You know, or those repeat customers that come in all the time,
we're doing something right.
And it's, you know, we are definitely like living our brand values.
Yeah. And that's what's so vital with mom and pops are independently owned locations

(01:01:50):
is like, you have to do it right 100% of the time.
Or make it right right away. Make it right, right. You know,
because you don't want to hear on the street or like you in Rouse's,
you know, I had a bad experience somewhere.
And you're like two hours over and, you know, which means you didn't like my bourgeois hamburgers.

(01:02:12):
You know it's like you want to stop and have that conversation
like what did we do wrong yeah how
can i get my truck because it's not it's not like
we want you to be happy we want you to be satisfied with
your shirt with with our product like what did we do wrong and how can we correct
it and make sure that we're we want to be back in your good graces right in

(01:02:33):
some places you know to give them another chance in some places you know it's
not you write them up you know it's not worth it but But, yeah,
as far as it is that type of place,
for me, I'm always comfortable and never had anything go wrong.
But I know if something were to go wrong, it's a simple, simple, simple fix, you know.
As long as you let someone know, we are 100% sure to fix it. Or at least attempt to.

(01:02:59):
So what was it like transitioning from the stove to the books and hiring? Hiring.
Right. So I went from Rouse's. I worked at a hotel for a little bit and then
left there and worked at a restaurant in Vashti for about 10 and a half years,
which I was the chef and the manager.

(01:03:22):
So I kind of was everything. And I had 10 years of on-the-job training at that location.
And I'm a very people person. I like to talk to people. And I also want to make
sure you're enjoying yourself while you're here, you know, with the culture
and what you're eating and whatnot.
So, you know, to be able to talk to tables and all that stuff,

(01:03:46):
it kind of started becoming second nature to me.
You know, I do miss playing on the stove and coming up with dishes and,
you know, getting that adrenaline working.
But, you know, it's different to see.
The other side of the table or the other side of the pass to where you're interacting
with the, with the guests and you're, you know, you're checking to make sure

(01:04:08):
that whatever came out of the kitchen, they're enjoying, you know,
we always, we always look for empty plates.
Plates it's a little hard at spars because we give you
a great value and a great portion but if
it's an empty plate either you were hungry it
was good or you were good and hungry so that's that's
a telltale sign that like we did our

(01:04:29):
job you know and and that's what we look
for and you know we just really want to be personable with our guests and and
learn learn from them You never know what their day is when they walk through
the door and you're just hoping this one meal can either cheer you up, console you.

(01:04:51):
Revitalize you, fill you up with nourishment, and hopefully you have a food memory from it.
And that's what we strive to do. do dude is
it's it's wild because you know you
take a server who is just they just
want to make money and that's it right they just want

(01:05:11):
a paycheck they want to get the hell out of there you don't care about this
they don't care about that and then in comes you know 30 year old guy and his
100 year old grandpa and this might be the last meal they have together they don't that
she don't know that or he don't know that, you know, so you got to treat it all like, right.

(01:05:35):
What if, you know, who do you, who do you want to be? What kind of mark do you want to make? Right.
So, you know, servers are tipped employees tips stand for to ensure prompt service, right?
So the guest is giving you a gift from the service that was given by you.

(01:05:55):
So you should want to put your everything in that table, or into every guest,
not only to benefit you, but to understand,
you're serving this person, you're catering to their needs.
And I tell this to some of our folks as well, like on the service,

(01:06:19):
on the counter service, maybe you don't want to be here forever.
Maybe you want to be here for six more months and that's fine.
And yes, I and we want you to give good service, but what if you give great service?
Service and the guy you're serving i
don't know is the hiring manager

(01:06:42):
for danos right and he can't
stop thinking about you and he comes give you a a job well look at bill puts
you right where you want to be right look at phil cass exactly perfect story
or you know for us we have we have the hospital right there like you never know
if a person's come and eat and just gotten diagnosed with cancer,

(01:07:03):
you know, and they're down in their dumps, but like, you know,
the server comes up with a great smile,
gives you a cup of coffee, you know, chit-chat you with a little bit,
and then, you know, it kind of brightens up your day, and, you know,
you have the best French toast you've ever had,
you know, and it could make you stop thinking about that bad diagnosis that

(01:07:26):
you you had are like giving you the will to, to, to change or,
or, you know, something.
So you never know what the, what the person that's sitting in the chair,
that you're about to service, what's going on with them.
So like, you just want to make sure like you hold to your brand standards and
you offer some great hospitality.

(01:07:47):
What's, I guess, what's the hardest part? What do you, what really stresses you out?
Which, which struggles do you have? So, you know, in this industry,
staffing is really, really difficult.
This day and age is to, you know, hire the right staff, retain them, train them.
Get them to do, you know, standards. Sometimes it's like, you got to do the,

(01:08:13):
at least the bare minimum, you know, we want you to, we want you to succeed
a little bit more, but you have to do at least the bare minimum.
And sometimes that's, that's a little difficult, you know, not just at Spar's,
but, you know, and, and all the restaurants I worked with, you know,
it was some of them, like you said, are here just for a paycheck.
And some of them, you know, They don't want to be here, but it's why, why are you still here?

(01:08:37):
Then, you know, we talked about pluses and minuses, you know,
if you're just going to be a negative, like why, why stay here?
You know, if you're so unhappy, but it's just, you figure out like,
what can you do to motivate that person to try to do better?
You know, and we, we at Sparce, we really want to, to help people grow. out.

(01:08:58):
We've seen, seen some employees that we, we saw something special in them and,
you know, we want to, to help them out.
We've kind of watered them a little bit and they become from a cook to,
you know, a kitchen manager or from a server to a front of the house manager.
So we definitely like want to promote from within and we're really big on, on the family.

(01:09:24):
Um, so we, We really want close-knit family and be able to, you know,
train our employees and nurture them and watch them grow. Mm-hmm.
Anyone you're, I guess, who are you learning the management side from?
You read anything? Yeah, so like I said, you know, in culinary school,

(01:09:46):
we had some accounting classes and to learn financials. And we do have someone
on staff that takes care of our books for us.
And we interact on a weekly basis.
But it's to understand all those caveats. It's, you know, worrying about labor
and food costs and product costs and overhead and all the things that happen, you know.

(01:10:13):
It's a business, you know. You worry about the bottom line all the time, you know.
And what affects sales is how many people come through the door,
you know, and how to get those people keep coming in the door and keep coming back.
That's that's the real that's the
real struggle is you know how do we

(01:10:36):
keep you know we're known for this we need
to be be on this every time so
we can keep getting those repeat businesses as well as like growing our business
with word of mouth advertisement like you know how many times you've heard like
hey i went to wherever and i had a memorable meal oh man i want to go there

(01:10:58):
You know, I want to try, I want to try out,
you know, Grapevine in, in Donsonville, you know, it's, it's off the beaten path,
but people on the street talk about it, you know, well, I want to go there or,
you know, somewhere, somewhere else, you know, I want to go to St.
Clair's because he's having his special, special dinner tonight.
Let's go get some cocktails from Jeff and let's go eat dinner, you know? Mm-hmm.

(01:11:20):
So that's kind of where we are. Yeah. We wouldn't be, we, you know,
we get in a lot of tours ourself and they're always asking where to eat.
They're asking where to eat lunch, where to have drinks and all of this.
And it's just easy. It's just easy and honest to say spars, just go check out
spars. I don't need to give you a list of places.

(01:11:40):
Right. Just start there and then ask your waiter where to go next.
Right. You know, it's easy. And with us being the Louisiana Cajun Bayou is, is, is a great.
Great venue for for tourism we do
the same you know we have guests here it's like man where
where else to eat i'm like if you like beef jerky you
have to go to bourgeois and pick some up because they have the world's best

(01:12:03):
beef jerky and then they also have this this this and it and by the way there's
some hot boudin burritos that you have to get so you know and i do the same
thing when i travel it's like checking the hotel and it's like hey where you eat for dinner Yep.
That's the way I like, I don't, I don't want to go to a chain.
Like I, I don't, I want to go like where you eat. Cause that's where, where I want to go.

(01:12:28):
Like, give me a greasy spoon diner or give me somewhere in that,
that your buddy's mom's number that's cooking.
Right. Right. Right. You know, it's, it's, it's, it's where y'all eating.
Like we, when we were in North Carolina for, for the junior Olympics,
we were like, Hey, where you guys eat? Well, they took us to this little restaurant

(01:12:50):
that had a whole bunch of beers on tap and some sandwiches.
And that was like one of the best hamburgers I had in a year.
You know, I can still think about it. It was a French onion hamburger.
So it was everything that goes in a French onion soup on a hamburger.
And it was delicious. Okay. Makes sense. Yeah. Yeah.

(01:13:11):
Tell me a little bit about this Louisiana Seafood Cook-Off that you just did.
This was, what, two months ago, maybe?
Yeah, it was right about two months ago. So every year they host a competition
to represent Louisiana in the National Seafood Cooking Contest.
It's put on by the Louisiana Seafood Board to promote Gulf seafood and Louisiana seafood. food.

(01:13:39):
And you have to apply and go ahead and be selected.
And out of 75 chefs that entered, I was humble enough to be chosen and went
compete, which it was very enlightening.
I haven't done a competition in a while.

(01:13:59):
And to be able to be cooking in front of all those people with all those,
the caliber of chefs that were selected were pretty, was pretty neat.
So it was, it was a great experience.
I didn't win. However, I was proud of my dish.
I would serve it for friends and family in a restaurant. You know,
I was definitely pleased with my dish.

(01:14:22):
The judges liked it, but we just, we didn't win. However, it was, it was cool.
What were the rules? So the rules were you have to use a Louisiana seafood product,
and everything had to be done within an hour.
And you also have to cook everything there. So all ingredients had to be raw,

(01:14:43):
and you started from raw ingredients.
And it had to go from there, and you had an hour to go. And would you cook?
So, I did a Zapp's potato chip crusted catfish with boursin and asparagus and
Louisiana crawfish risotto with Bloody Mary caviar.
And we did a celery oil.

(01:15:07):
Bloody Mary caviar. Yeah. That's what interests me. Yeah. It's some really cool food science.
We used a product called Agar Agar. It's derived from seaweed.
So it's kind of like a gelatin Jell-O. And we took all the ingredients and the
flavors of our traditional Bloody Mary, and we were able to make kind of like boba out of them.

(01:15:32):
So when you bit them, they popped, and it was a Bloody Mary in your mouth. So it was pretty unique.
And then the Zapp's Cajun Craw Taters, we crossed the catfish with it.
One time we were at the camp, and we were running out of –.
Out of fish fry. So I was like scrambling around. There you go. Like, what can I do?

(01:15:55):
Well, I get to have a bologna sandwich and Cajun Zaps crottata.
So we crumbled them up and we batted some redfish and we fried it up.
And everybody was like, oh man, this is so good.
I'm like, I don't know if we drunk or if it was good. It doesn't matter.
Or we were good and drunk. So I'm like, well, let me try it again.
So we tried it a couple more times. It worked out. I did it when I was at DJ's

(01:16:18):
for a couple of weekend specials.
Everybody liked it. So, kind of, I kept that in my back pocket.
And so, I was originally going to do it with Red Snapper.
But then, you know, being working for Spores and I'm all about humble ingredients,
making them, elevating them, you know. And what's catfish, right?
It's a humble ingredient that, you know, doesn't get much culinary credit.

(01:16:42):
So, I'm like, well, let me give that a shot.
And, you know, We tried it out, and it worked. We cooked it a couple times,
and everybody was like, man, it's delicious.
And I'm like, yeah, we're going to run with that. And like I said,
we were happy with the dish.
So it's history after that. Where did you get the crawfish?
So we get the crawfish from a packer right outside of Rain, Louisiana, in Welsh.

(01:17:09):
So we get our crawfish tails from them. And then—,
You said you fried the tails? How did you prepare the tails? The crawfish? Yeah.
We put them in a risotto. Okay. So risotto is kind of, it's an Italian rice
dish. It's basically a wet jambalaya.
And we put some boursin cheese and heavy cream and richened it up with,

(01:17:32):
and also put some asparagus for a little color and a little texture.
And another chef, the Grady Vee chef, Brent Daigle, he was there too.
Right. Were you guys eyeing each other up and ready to take each other down?
We know each other professionally and we kind of gave each other the good luck

(01:17:56):
and I'm going to beat you kind of thing.
It's a great camaraderie. We met the day before at a restaurant.
We had cocktails and just learned about the rules and learned about each other
and all that stuff. And it was a pretty fun, enlightened experience where all

(01:18:16):
the chefs were on the other side of the table.
People were waiting on us, not us waiting on them.
And we were able to chit-chat and talk about
trends in the industry and what's going on in your life and your culinary life
and how to balance some of the things that are going on between what's going
on in our profession in general and what specific problems you have in your

(01:18:39):
restaurant. restaurant and how to fix that, you know?
So we kind of each kind of, you know, did a little round table kind of discussion
and just, just shot the breeze for a little bit.
But when, when the day of the competition, it was all, all business,
you know, everybody was like, so, but we all, we all got on station set up and,

(01:19:00):
We went outside for a quote-unquote last-minute smoke where we did a little
quick powwow and wished each other good luck, you know.
I wonder if everyone was intimidated of the Thibodeaux boys.
You know, it's hard to imagine. What do they see? Yeah. When we show up,
they're like, oh, shit, that's the guys from Thibodeaux.
Yeah, we were. That's how I hope it is. We were above I-10, for sure. We were in Monroe.

(01:19:22):
So every once in a while, I can throw a down-to-body accent at some people. Oh, yeah.
I was able to hit that. And I brought a pirogue and a whole catfish.
So make a little smoke and mirrors and everybody was, we had a good time playing host. Yeah.
Bringing what's so great about Louisiana is, you know, one thing is our local seafood.

(01:19:43):
I would have drug the whole catfish in and hooked to a jug line.
Yeah, yeah. So I had to pick them up several times. The lieutenant governor
was like, hey, I need a picture with that.
It was a big one? Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was like 35, 40 pounds.
We got it from our fish market nice and and yeah
mr redneck caught it like the day before so

(01:20:04):
it was it was nice and fresh and just just
really nice so i was like man i need to bring we
need to bring a whole catfish out there and we were like we also gonna be making
bloody marys so one of the one of the mc was like i went to nickels i know all
about spores i'm like he goes what about the bloody marys so i'm like you mean
this bloody mary right here mister he's like yeah Yeah, Bloody Mary. So it was awesome.

(01:20:29):
What did Brent cook? Brent did, I think, a redfish stuff with an undoing stuff
in, something like that.
And I think it's something that's served at Grady V's every once in a while.
Anything wild? Anyone make anything wild outside the box?
I guess yours is pretty damn outside the box. Right, right.
Somebody made some crab meat stuffed pasta. The winner was a simply seared tuna,

(01:20:56):
and he made a really nice sauce and some pickled vegetables.
I mean, it was just a different layer of flavors from the chefs.
Like we had one guy who he owns a smokehouse, so he did like a sous vide smoked
grouper and made like a little taco with them.

(01:21:19):
Them so it was just like a whole gauntlet of
like nobody did anything that was
like similar or like just
like the winner had a little asian flavor we had one guy that was like cajun
creole we had one guy that was french inspire you know we did we we did some

(01:21:39):
you know down home flavors but upscaled so it was just a whole different caveat
of like like food tastes and food experiences and techniques.
It's not like it would have been a fun one to judge.
Judging competitions sometimes are great and judging competitions
are sometimes oh i did the the
big boys cook-off last year and by the end

(01:22:01):
i was so how many entries oh i think i
had like 35 samples of the food
yeah that we that we sampled and
like we had one or two bites of things but like
towards the end it was like right i can't eat
this is the worst buffet ever just start chewing and
spitting out right i was like this like at the

(01:22:22):
the food was you know it was pretty tasty we had some
really good some not so good some you know
middle of the road but it was like it was a challenge it
was struggle coming coming towards the end you
know the finish line is like i don't know if i'm
gonna have any more jambalaya you know or any more
of uh of this now let me ask you this because i'm
thinking about it right now i'm in a cooking competition i know

(01:22:45):
what what it needs to taste like right and it's minute zero and
it ain't there right right you submit it
yeah or you pull it yeah you throw it in the garbage yeah
yeah i don't know what would you do so
i guess you have so you can't cop out and not if you submit it you have to take
the loss right right if it doesn't taste like it's supposed to be i'll rather

(01:23:05):
you i'm not i'm not serving it i'd rather throw it away it's not right i'm not
serving it i'd throw it away right because i want When I submit it, I want to feel,
I want to bite it and say, yep, this is the best I could possibly make it.
And it tastes exactly like I want it to taste.
If it doesn't win, it doesn't win. But here's what you need to taste.
Correctly. Correct. So, like, you know, unfortunately, somebody burnt a dish and submitted it.

(01:23:30):
You know, we took a bite and unfortunately, it was like, everybody was like, they burn it.
You know, we had some that the rice wasn't cooked all the way.
Yeah. You know, but in a competition setting,
you know, you, you want to put your best foot forward because you're being judged
hopefully by somebody who knows something when they're looking for,
you know, either perfection or, you know, they're judging on a criteria.

(01:23:56):
You know, did you meet all these criterias?
And that's what I'm, that's what I'm looking like at, you know,
so like it, does it look good?
Does it taste good? Is it, you know, if you're doing a jambalaya contest,
did they use Paul ball rice?
Did they use regular rice? You know, or how, how dark is it?

(01:24:16):
Is it, you know, it's, and the, the theory of Paul ball rice versus regular
rice, you know, who thinks it's better?
Um, it's, it's all those things that, that have to go in there when you're judging. Yeah.
I guess you have to cook to the judges on some things, you know,
especially this competition that I was in, it was, you know,

(01:24:38):
make the best dish, but like we had criteria that we had to cook towards.
I mean, it was just making, making it that way.
So going back to the restaurant stuff, and this is a question,
this isn't a spars question. This would just be a Brandon question.
What are you looking for in, in a new hire? So definitely some passion.

(01:25:02):
I interviewed a little girl a couple of days ago that I really,
really hope I can find a spot for her.
She hit all the boxes of what sports is looking for, and it seemed genuine.
So like I look for, you know, somebody that's passionate,

(01:25:23):
somebody who's, you know, I can, you can teach a monkey a new trick,
you know, but you have to be passionate to like want to learn something,
you know, a hard worker and, you know, everybody answers all the interview questions correctly.
It's just, we like to ask and I like to ask different questions,
you know, like where you see yourself in five years.

(01:25:47):
I'm laughing because I was listening to Brody interview someone this morning.
His question was, how do you like the cookie pork chops?
Right. You know, you know, in, in, in you guys' case, right?
So they come in and, Hey, I want to cook a steak.
Well, what kind of steak you want? Right.
So you, you can tell him, well, I got these rib eyes I can cut,

(01:26:10):
or I can get you this porterhouse.
You know well my wife doesn't like anything
that's fatty well how about you try this porterhouse you
get a filet and you get a new york trip all in all in
one shot so it's like the best of both worlds are you know
you get a burly man and it's like you need this this tomahawk steak because
like that's what it is you know you gotta your employees have to be willing

(01:26:33):
to answer those questions especially in the customer service setting in the
back of the house setting it's you know,
are you able to multitask?
Are you able to work under pressure because that's what you're under the whole time.
You know, we want food out in 15 minutes, you know, can you do that?

(01:26:54):
Are you able to read something, understand it, read, comprehend,
and produce it? Because, you know, we have recipes.
You gather all the ingredients. Here's the procedures. You read it.
And now you have to do it. You know, how does that work for you?
And then, you know, one place that I want to apply to right after culinary school,

(01:27:17):
got my culinary degree, right? Cool.
Then he was like, all right, here's a chicken. Here's some stuff.
They got a little pantry ingredients go cook
me something like before he even talked that's cool
you know like go cook me something so
he's like you got 45 minutes and that was my interview you know what did you

(01:27:39):
cook how did you cook it all right you hired yep yeah we've done working interviews
where there's no talking and all right are you okay to clock in right now clock in go
back and i'll see you back at five and we'll
get a feel on on if it's a good fit for
you right you know sometimes that's the best sometimes like
you said you got the you got the right personality and they have those character

(01:28:01):
traits that you you know you can't teach they just need to be there already
and you don't necessarily have the spot for them but you make the hire right
you make you create a spot for them because they need to be on the team exactly
exactly you You definitely,
like, you know, and especially this day and age, it's not...
It's hard to find some employees sometimes.

(01:28:24):
It's, you know, or you're getting
bounced around employees where they left because they didn't like it.
And then, you know, they thought the ground was greener on the other side.
And then next thing you know, oh, yeah, I'm hiring because I really want to come back.
You know, and that kind of put something back towards you, like what you did

(01:28:44):
as a manager, what you did as, you know, as a business.
Like why you want to come back. you
know not not so much why you laughed is what
you think that you coming back has
to offer yeah so you can you can understand like you
know we're doing stuff right yeah sure we do it often right we get a lot of

(01:29:06):
rehires right you know do it often not afraid to hire you know if they're if
they're right not afraid to hire impact correct correct yeah what do you think
were maybe the most important things,
not experienced by you, but passed down to you from, from someone,
from your parents, from a mentor, you know, college professor or whatever.

(01:29:30):
So hard work. My, my father was a laborer and he taught me, or he told me early
on in life, you can have two jobs, son.
You can have one that works with your brain and they got one,
the one you can work with your back, you decide which one you want to use.
So, you know, make sure you get an education, make sure you,

(01:29:52):
you find something that you passionate about and, you know, work hard and people
see like your hard work, your dedication, you know,
I worked at places, you know, for a while and like, I was like,
man, this place is just not, not for me,
but I'm going to work there until either I find something better or,

(01:30:12):
you know, you gave me the experience or the, the grace to hire me.
And, you know, I'm a team player. I want to, I want to do right by you because
you, you gave me the opportunity to, to learn or, or, you know,
to provide for my family.
So I'm going to, I'm going to make sure that, you know, I do my best while I'm there,

(01:30:33):
you know, so you definitely, definitely gotta, gotta put in the work,
you know, to, to, to get where you are, be passionate about what you do and,
and, you know, just be a man of your word.
You know, it's, it's, it's like the old saying, you're only good as you're handshaking
your word. That's the only two things people can't, can't take from you.
So you gotta just make sure every day that you live all those,

(01:30:56):
all those values and models.
Let's go with this as our closing question. What's a dish that you would hope
long after you're gone is still being cooked in your honor?
From your kids, grandkids, or wherever. I do a lot. Let me start by this answer.

(01:31:18):
If you're telling me that it's my last meal, I'm doing chicken stew,
white beans, sauerkraut, and L&N French bread. That's my last meal.
But like I said earlier, we did, we have a family tradition of barbecuing.
I've started, started teaching my kids the ins and outs of, of our barbecue.

(01:31:41):
And I hope like that, that's one of the last and last in dishes that we can do. And then.
We have two dishes for the holidays that we normally do. One is a cabbage dressing
kind of casserole with onion, celery, bell pepper, some ground meat.
And you smother the cabbage down, you add some rice, and done deal.
And the other one is some field peas or chack bay peas.

(01:32:04):
That's one of our family favorites. But those are a couple of things.
And then, of course, pot fried chicken is always key with some good cornbread, greens.
And, and, and hopefully they'll, they'll learn and to, uh, appreciate some smothered
greens with, with some smoke stuff from bourgeois, uh, in it,

(01:32:25):
you know, cause growing up, like didn't like eating mustard green and stuff.
And my grandpa had gardens and we had, we had all the greens and we ate that
and it was not that great.
Or like when we were young, when I was young, I was like, man, that's gross.
But now it's like, I need that in my life, you know? So we try to cook it every once in a while.

(01:32:47):
And my kids are the same way. It's like, that looks like grass.
I'm like, yeah, but it's delicious.
My kids, you put sausage in anything, and it doesn't matter what the item is.
It's, Dad, is this sausage?
Yep. I love sausage. And then they just kill the dish.
You can hide whatever you want in there. You put some smoked sausage, they're crushing it.

(01:33:08):
That's just like my little one. I just bought
a got a blackstone grill and we made we made
bourgeois hamburgers all like man these are
almost as good as the fireman's fare
burgers I'm like but these are the same fireman yeah but I don't know if it's
just the rides but there's a way back so man if only we could have a super duper

(01:33:35):
flame broiler at home right right right shit you can almost make making one, you know?
But yeah, it's, you know, all those, all the.
I would rather create food memories than, like, be remembered for a dish.
Like, I would like somebody to taste something and remember where they were,

(01:34:00):
what they were doing while eating it.
Like, that's. Yeah, very cool. You know, I went to a food show one year,
and one of my classmates was sampling some pickles.
And he's like, hey, taste these. I'm like, eh, not a super huge fan of bread and butter pickles.
Well, tasted one. I had an instant food memory of, like, my great aunt made those pickles.

(01:34:28):
So I left the table. I called my mom. I'm like, hey, you have Aunt May's bread
and butter pickle recipe? She's like, probably somewhere.
I'm like, find it. We need to make some.
So we got home. she found the
recipe we made the pickles and i was like i'll be
damn got it those are the pickles yeah that's so

(01:34:50):
cool so passion man just gotta
find a way to to teach it i don't know if the right thing is to force it into
their brains you you have to force i guess you force it you have to you have
to do it till they break like you know you because what's what's happening at
school right right they're being force-fed right stuff that we might not agree with so the things we

(01:35:12):
truly believe in force it, force it.
If cooking is important, you got to learn how to cook. Yeah.
It's a life skill. So like, you know, it's a life, you have to eat it.
The only thing is different. It's what you're eating. Sure.
It's, it's, and what's crazy is like, especially at culinary school,
like we all had the same ingredients to make the same recipe.

(01:35:34):
And so we had, you know, say five teams, five different tastes.
And we had all the same ingredients.
So, it's finding the flavors and the things that are important and letting those shine.
And that's kind of just like everything. You find what's important in life and

(01:35:55):
you shoot for the moon with those.
And other things, it's like, yeah, whatever.
Yeah. I mean, dude, look at twins or triplets.
Same household. One of them's NASA engineer and one of them's dead on the railroad tracks. Right.
You know, it's, it's, it's all, it all depends.
It's just, it's weird. You know, you just gotta, you gotta figure out,

(01:36:18):
you know, how, how to make productive members of society and, and go from there.
It's, you know, raising kids is, it's, it's a whole different ballgame,
you know, especially this day and age where, you know,
parents and styles are different and what you see in school and TV and whatnot.
And it's like, well, this is the right way, you know, or this is the way we, we think.

(01:36:43):
Yeah. Kind of have to take over. Right. And it's like, well,
I don't like to eat this. Did you try it?
No. Well, you know, I, and how, you know, you don't like it.
My, my kids famous question is, do I like this?
And then my answer is just, yes. and they eat it
or like i never i don't know i don't

(01:37:05):
remember this do i like this oh okay yeah or
i don't know if i like this well try it
like and i i tell i tell my staff that as well and i've told my staff that a
thousand times i'm like i don't eat that well what you mean you don't eat it
i never tried it okay so the worst thing that can happen is you get a napkin, you taste it,

(01:37:30):
you don't like it, you put it in a napkin, and you throw it away.
Nine out of 10 times, you're going to taste it and you're going to love it.
And it's going to be something new.
And then you understand and you can explain to a customer what it tastes like.
We started using a bunch of goldfish from our
seafood market for our specials so you

(01:37:54):
know we make a plate for them to taste that and and and suggestively sell it
to our guests and it's like i don't want to eat it well you're gonna have to
eat it like you're gonna have to try it because like you need to be able to
explain like what a hogfish is and what a hogfish fish tastes like,
which that has become my new favorite Gulf fish,

(01:38:17):
you know, and it's ugly.
It's an ugly looking fish. Yeah. It's a, it's an ugly looking fish,
but he's, he's very, very tasty, you know, and it's just in our industry,
we always look for something new, unique,
sustainable that, that we want to, we want to use, you know,
and we, we very passionate about sustainable and supporting our local fishing

(01:38:43):
and, and Gulf seafood and, and whatnot.
So, you know, that's what we were heavy on in the restaurant.
And I find myself doing the same thing as, you know, we're gonna,
we're gonna find stuff that like.
Mean something and we're going to use it to eat you know like you guys have been open since 1891,

(01:39:08):
like y'all have to be doing something right so like come try we're we're gonna
we're making a jambalaya we're going to get buchwas andouille and sausage you
know you just got to use what's It's local, it's fresh,
and just kind of help everybody out.
You know, if it's a local business, small, local, support them because,

(01:39:31):
you know, they're your community.
And then when your kids need a softball sponsor or a baseball sponsor,
you know, we're going to have bourgeoisos, we're going to have spars or, you know.
Rico, Rico, Reynolds or whatever is going to be your sponsor. Yeah.
Maybe people don't understand that though, because you get a lot of requests
in from people or companies and then, you know, you kind of show it to everyone.

(01:39:56):
And does anyone know this company?
Has anyone ever seen anyone from this organization before?
No, no, no, no, no. Right. Okay, then we'll pass on it.
Do you want to support people that support you? Right. What about the guys that
are in here daily, you know?
But yeah, I guess they don't really think that far. Yeah.
Yeah, so talking on trying things and tasting things, it's so difficult,

(01:40:21):
and I can't fathom why an adult wouldn't try something.
If you're allergic to something, sure, but if it's that, you're afraid that
it's going to taste bad, exactly.
Right. And we started doing these shows, and, you know, we're sampling jerky,
and people will pass and say, I don't eat beef jerky, you know,
or, you know, I don't like that. I said, have you tried ours?

(01:40:46):
No, but it doesn't matter. I don't like beef jerky. Look, just try this. Hand them a piece.
No way. I'll give you a dollar if you try it. No thanks. I'll give you $5 if you try it. All right.
Pops it in her mouth, then buys three or four packs.
And I don't understand that. It's just the bias.

(01:41:06):
I don't understand it. It's just the bias of not. Just put it in your mouth.
Yeah, just taste it. Like, you know, like.
The especially like the off cuts like oxtail or
you know short ribs or you know things
dude blood boudin is the only thing i understand
i'm still gonna try my hardest to get you to

(01:41:27):
try it right it's the only exception anything
else if you're an adult just shut up
and try it exactly the blood boudin sure let's talk
about it first let me explain it to you first but no
so another story this was a few years ago like christmas time
the front is packed we got like line out
the door and you know a teenager with

(01:41:48):
her mom and i'm bringing some uh turkey cheese
at the slap it on the scale for someone and the little girl
goes oh and the mom
goes she's like don't say oh that's turkey cheese we love
that and the girl goes i don't love it so i'm
busy i'm running around i'm back and forth on the on the metal table and
i'm wrapping stuff with people and i said have you

(01:42:09):
you ever tried it and she goes no no way i never eat that and i
said i'll give you a dollar if you try it you know i'm wrapping myself said so
i go in the cooler come back out bringing you know sausage for the next person
wrapping give you five dollars said nope go back in come back i did this until
we got to twenty dollars and she she said nope twenty dollars will not take a bite of it

(01:42:34):
and they had a guy behind her in line he goes i don't want to try it either.
Shit i'd pay you to try it well speaking
of stories so one time i went in with
the boys and they had a couple ladies on the side
of it and there was somebody on the butcher block and they
they had a couple hogs head on the on the block and sorry was just able to start

(01:42:57):
seeing over the over the counter and he's all like dad what's that and i was
like that's hog heads they're gonna I'm going to make a cheese out of it.
And he looks and he's like.
That's where that comes from? And I'm like, yeah, buddy, it's in the name, Hogshead Cheese.
He goes, well, that looks delicious.

(01:43:18):
And the old lady, like, dropped her sausage and looked at my little boy,
and he was probably like four or five, and was like, what'd you know about Hogshead Cheese?
He goes, I like that. That's good.
You know, he's like, I didn't know that came from there. You know,
and it's just like, you know, now he doesn't eat it because he's Sawyer,

(01:43:39):
but, you know, it was, it was just like, so that's where that comes from.
Innocence is good when it comes to flavor, right? Yeah. Yeah.
You definitely, we definitely got somewhere from, from what we,
what we had, you know, and especially the, the people in South Louisiana,
you know, we, we can make almost anything tasty.

(01:44:03):
Or last longer. Or last longer. Yeah.
We're going to use it from the oink to the boink. I guess that's a good one. A good analogy.
We'll use it from- That's going to be the title of this podcast.
From the oink to the boink. From the oink to the boink. But yeah,
people grew up in the age where no refrigeration and.

(01:44:25):
How to utilize the whole animal and use it in a respectful way to nourish your
family so you can survived.
And, you know, luckily we had a whole bunch of cultural influences that were
able to like shape our cuisine in South Louisiana.
You know, we got the wonderful sausage maker from the Germans and,

(01:44:47):
you know, gumbos from the African portion
of the Louisianians and just a whole bunch of dishes that that were you know
a melting pot together from all cultures and all walks of life you know yep
and we we love to you know i don't know i guess we we love the nostalgia of the.

(01:45:12):
The old ways and the you know pre-refrigeration and before we we get these items
out of luxury and want, you know, it was all done the way it needed to be done.
And every, you know, all the stuff where we enjoy now, these are all byproducts
and they don't need to happen.
And the cool thing about us is if, if the economy didn't allow and we had to go back to bare bones,

(01:45:39):
you know, we can, who else could, we can go, we can certainly go back to smoking
stuff just to make it last longer.
And, you know. So what's very popular right now is all the charcuterie boards, right? Sure.
So all the sausages and all the pates and whatnot, that was all the ways to preserve.

(01:46:05):
All the cuts, you know, after you butcher the animal, you know,
to make it last a little longer.
You're saying it wasn't for a pretty Instagram picture?
No, it wasn't. But now it is. It's like a double lunchables, you know.
Now it is. You know, all the pâtés and the sausages and all those charcuterie

(01:46:26):
items, you know, they were made by necessity.
Necessity you know you you know a big animal
you can only eat on it while it's fresh for so long and
then you have to do something else either to preserve
it or share it or you know so it doesn't go to waste and especially the people
in south louisiana we don't like to waste anything you know your leftovers become

(01:46:48):
something else and you make something else out of it but you know it's It's
out of necessity that those fun things that we enjoy came about. Yep.
And we just got to keep it going, keep it happening, and keep passing down our passions.
And that's what this thing is for. You know, that's what this is about.
Hopefully, you kids can listen to this and learn a lot of things and their kids

(01:47:12):
and their kids. And that's the goal.
Keep this whatever we think is important for whatever reason that we think right now.
And it might change in 10 years. I don't know. Yeah, these are like really good fishing stories.
Sort of like going to the nostalgic barbershop and sitting and listening to the,
or even going to spars and coming in the morning and having a coffee and listening

(01:47:34):
to the old stories and the present times and things that are funny,
you know, especially in the fire department.
And we have, you know, we've been up 150 years and we have some gentlemen that
are in their 80s when they tell us great stories.
And it's like, man, I wish I was there.
You know, they had some good times, you know, and it's like,

(01:47:58):
we really wish that, like, you know, one, we want to remember,
like, those stories because, like, that's where our heritage and our traditions come about, you know.
And so we, you know, just, just for prosperity, keeping all,
all the records and, you know, the oral history of, of Thibodeau and,
and, and things that have happened, you know, that shouldn't be important to somebody.

(01:48:21):
Yeah. And, and I'm so glad, like you decided, like it was important enough to,
to start this podcast and, and invite, you know, people that you think are special
and, and know Thibodeau.
Know about life you know it's it's important to to keep that yep i'm just learning man that's,

(01:48:42):
i'm learning and then everyone else gets to gets
to benefit right right from the from things i'm gonna
get to hear that's you putting you put in the legwork and everybody
else prospers yeah you know again you know
that's that's part of of being passionate
about what you're doing is you know somebody else is going to benefit
from all your hard work you know yep

(01:49:04):
and sometimes you don't know why and it doesn't necessarily
matter just yet right right somebody you'll figure out why but yeah you got
that feeling like you need to do something or make a move make a change do it
right no one no one's going to do it for you you it's either going to be a pass
or fail you know And if you fail,

(01:49:25):
you learn what you did wrong. It's a life lesson.
All right, Brandon. Appreciate it, man. Thanks for coming. Absolutely.
Anytime. This is fun. Absolutely. See you. All right.
Music.
All right. That's it for this episode of the Miracles to Me podcast.

(01:49:47):
We ask that you share it with at least one person in your life that you think needs to hear it.
Um you know if you got a little something from it you got some little goose
pimples or it just gave you some feel goods um you know send it to someone else
let them let them feel that too,
and if you loved it please leave us a five star review that'll really help out
and if you only loved it like four stars or so please do not leave a review

(01:50:10):
same thing with the one through three not interested in any of those only five
stars um if you have any personal questions or Or comments about the episode. Shoot them over to.
Bourgeois Meat Market. On Facebook or Instagram.
And we'll reach back out. And if you have any ideas. For any cool future guests.
Please shoot those over too. We're always interested in hearing.

(01:50:34):
Who else is out there. And what kind of cool stories. We might be able to bring into this place.
See you next time. Thanks for listening.
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Ep. 8 - Chef Brandon Naquin: General Manager | Spahr's Downtown

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Ep. 8 - Chef Brandon Naquin: General Manager | Spahr's Downtown