Creativity is the lifeblood of any culinary or industry professional, but where does that spark come from when you've been in the game for decades? This episode goes into the creative process that drives exceptional cooking and creative ideas.
Chef Tony reveals that his best culinary inspiration comes from two unexpected places: the shower and motorcycle rides. While the shower provides calm and clarity, motorcycle riding engages all senses simultaneously—the smell of everything from ocean breezes to cornfields, the visual stimulation of changing landscapes, and the heightened awareness that comes from being fully present on the road. These experiences create the perfect conditions for new culinary ideas.
We chat about how the culinary landscape has transformed over the past three decades, from regional isolation to cross-pollination of techniques and ingredients. What was once impossible—getting Australian Wagyu beef for meatballs or Pacific seafood on the East Coast—is now commonplace, creating endless possibilities for innovation. The democratization of premium ingredients has elevated food quality across the board, with consumers increasingly willing to pay for these experiences.
The conversation goes through the evolution of chef culture, from the tattooed, hard-living kitchen crews of the past to today's more diverse culinary professionals. We discuss how travel remains essential for combating creative blocks—seeing how other chefs work with different regional ingredients provides fresh perspectives that can't be found at home.
Whether you're a professional looking to reignite your creative spark or a home cook seeking new inspiration, this episode offers valuable insights on breaking routine and engaging your senses to discover new culinary possibilities.
Where does your best cooking happen when you're not cooking?
Share your inspiration sources in the comments!
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*The views and opinions on this show are meant for entertainment purposes only. They do not reflect the views of our sponsors. We are not here to babysit your feelings, if you are a true industry pro, you will know that what we say is meant to make you laugh and have a great time. If you don't get that, this is not the podcast for you. You've been warned. Enjoy the ride!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Action.
It is.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
Lights, camera action , Cheers.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Today listen cheers.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Cheers.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
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Because they bring it everytime Cleveland Street Tattoo has
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Speaker 2 (00:20):
Some of the best ones .
Yeah, Some of the best onesaround.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
They stick to the old school mentality.
They're keeping tattoos scary.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
My one and only tattoo that I just got this year
in my life was from there.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Right, exactly, I got about 17 of them.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
I trusted them and I've never had them.
The artists there are the best.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
They're the best around.
Hands down, we can argue this,though there are some great ones
out there.
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Virginia Beach, is one of themost tried and true for sure,
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Speaker 2 (00:50):
They're a great partner, they're sincere.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
They're deep down in the heart of the game, they know
what they're doing, theyeducate themselves on what's new
, the technologies, but theystill keep it old school and
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Cleveland street tattoos, oldschool, baby, and it's it's old
(01:13):
school, with a new school flairall day long.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
We love you.
Check them out.
I know we love you all right sothat kind of leads us into the
topic today of inspiration,because I think people have a
story behind every tattoo.
They have stories behind theirlives and for you, there's been
a lot of influences coming intothe culinary world and then
staying on top of the culinaryworld.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Yeah, definitely.
So you know, tattoo is aperfect word.
I see a lot of chefs youngerchefs with the knives on them
and the fruit and vegetables.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
People put fruit and vegetables.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Cross knives with the chef hat Like fruit in a loom,
yeah People put fruit andvegetables Cross-knit with the
chef hat, like Fruit of the Loom.
Yeah Well, when I was gettingtattooed 30 years ago, 20 years
ago, when I was a chef, gettingchef-related tattoos was not a
thing.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
It was brimstone flames motorcycles.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Harleys, naked women all over the place.
You have a lot of naked womenon your tattoos Demons, big back
pieces with 13-gauge needles itwas crazy.
So everybody big back pieceswith 13 gauge needles it was
crazy.
So you know, everybody getsinspired for different reasons,
different ways, whether you'rean artist of tattooing or a chef
or whatever it is you're doingright.
Producers out here, whateverthey're doing.
So that's the biggest thing andI love to see now.
I love to see the inspirationof tattooing on chefs.
(02:21):
I do like to see some of it'sreally cool, Like some of these
meals.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Well, time has changed because I mean it wasn't
really acceptable back in theday either.
I mean a lot of places, andthere are a lot of places that
still make you cover up yourtattoos.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Well, you know it's funny you say that because a lot
back in the day, 30 years ago,I remember I was young.
I was probably in my 15 hoursin my early 20s like know chefs
that had tattoos were like mostof the chefs, or they were line
cooks or something like that.
They had rough tattoos.
I'm talking about mama with aheart.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
You know what I mean.
They'd have a knife and adagger with a serpent around it,
and these guys were hardenedpeople.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
You know they were street people, but they were
typically coming to work buzzedor hungover or sipping vodka as
the chef went on.
You know junkies, heroinaddicts, coke heads, whatever it
may be, that was the way it wasback then.
So it wasn't uncommon to have atattoo as a chef more than any
other industry but it was veryuncommon to have a food or
culinary themed tattoo.
That was kind of like okay,dude, what's this?
(03:20):
Are you a gangster?
What is this?
But now times have changedright Gangster in the kitchen.
Well hey, they are gangsters inthe kitchen for sure I mean,
listen, it's not a bad thing tosay it's not, it's not.
I mean we are still, even today, still hardened people.
Things aren't so easy for someof the people in the kitchen
world Just the hours and theelements and everything we have
to deal with sets us aside frommost other people, you know.
(03:43):
So it's not uncommon to seetattoos.
It's not uncommon to beinspired and get a tattoo of
what inspires you outside to putit on you now, right, most of
it.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Yeah, so we're talking about this?
Speaker 1 (03:53):
why?
Speaker 2 (03:54):
well, I mean, what inspires you like we just got
off on a rant with tattoos, butit's about inspiration and
finding it kind of like writer'sblock.
I mean, we all go through it inevery industry.
You know where you reach a timewhere you're like I can't come
up with ideas, I can't getcreative.
You're just kind of over it.
So finding inspiration in theindustry to keep you going.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
Well, like you said, and in your industry too, you do
have the backgrounds, of course, of the restaurants and
everything, but right now,people are really counting on
your inspiration.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Or creativity.
They're counting on yourcreativity, right.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
So your creativity comes from inspiration, so on
and so forth, but they're reallycounting on you to produce.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
And you have to produce.
Marketing is huge.
That is nothing but creativity.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
It's creativity all day.
It can be tiring.
It gets exhausting, but youhave to recharge, like I think
there's certain ways we bothrecharge.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
Yeah, what's your go-to's man?
Are you talking about beingcreative in the kitchen, or
being creative in a businessmindset, or or how you handle
things all?
Speaker 2 (04:49):
of it.
I think people would be curiousto know um, all of it, because
I mean, you have to come up withdifferent specials every week,
so that's one way of beingcreative yes, and that gets hard
after 30 years.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Yeah, because you have to keep coming up with
stuff 15 of them, but reallyhonestly, 10 of them seriously.
And then now the last fiveyears have been having to have
has been forcing me to be morecreative than I've ever had to,
and all the rest okay so now I'min the kitchen doing my
specials and I have otherrestaurants, other ventures
going on.
I have other business thingshappening, so now I'm getting
(05:18):
distraction all over the placeand that's that's the problem.
So, wow, good question.
So I would have to say there'stwo places I get the most
inspiration.
Okay, where I, where itactually comes together in my
head.
There's there's many placeswhere I go and get inspired but,
where I creatively put ittogether in my head, there's two
places okay, most people don'tunderstand it okay, some do one
(05:39):
the shower I was gonna sayshower, shower, and everybody's
nodding their head too.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
I think that's for so many people why I don't know
why.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
I don't know if it's the warmth when I get underneath
my shower, which?
Let me tell you something.
I fixed my shower, yes, right.
And this thing comes down nowlike a waterfall.
It's hot, it's pressure, it'sbeautiful.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Right, so I'm just water pressure.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
I'm like you know, it's just instant calm.
So, with that being said, Ihave a lot of my ideas come
together in the shower, forwhatever reason, I don't know.
I think just because it's calmand all my thoughts can kind of
come together, and my thoughtsalways end up at the end of the
day being around food.
I don't know why so it eithermakes me really comfortable or
(06:21):
it stresses me the fuck out.
So in the shower it doesn'tstress me out.
The second place right, mymotorcycle.
We like to eat it either makesme really comfortable or it
stresses me the fuck out.
So in a shower.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
it doesn't stress me out.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
The second place, right yeah, my motorcycle, that
would be one we could guess.
Motorcycle rides are the placewhere I come up with the most
ideas, the most creativity, andthe less I ride, the less
creative I become.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Really.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
Because I don't know what it is about that
therapeutical moment and I cantell you some things.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Well, I mean, yeah, I think people not everybody
who's listening has been on amotorcycle, so they don't get it
.
But you can kind of explain thepsych side of it, like you're
open, there's no constraints.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
You have to focus.
Here's the thing.
When you're on the motorcycle,all of your sensories are in
full effect.
Right, and I think that's whatit is.
You're in full effect, All yoursenses are going your visual,
your awareness, your alertness.
You're checking around you.
You're autoimmune, right, yourbody stuff.
Is that the right word?
Speaker 2 (07:15):
Yeah, auto response.
I don't know Whatever it is,whatever way to say it.
Yeah, the doctor term.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Let them guys who write tell you.
I Let them guys who ride tellyou.
I'm figuring that out.
But all those things connectedtogether are making all your
senses just fire, right?
So while the ones that you'renot expecting to fire are firing
as well, you smell everything.
If you're riding through acornfield or behind a freaking
manure truck, you're going tosmell the cow shit and you're
going to smell the beautifulflowers.
You're going to smell the ocean.
You're going to smell thediesel fuel.
(07:40):
You smell everything.
And when you're going to smellthe diesel fuel, you smell
everything.
And when you're riding, there'snothing better than that right.
And if that doesn't calm you,it's because you're raising hell
on your bike and it brings yourdopamines up and that's fun too
yeah, which which alwayshappens too well, the dopamine
hit.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
I mean, obviously you get that adrenaline spike, you
know, but paying attention, butit's also kind of that serotonin
because it's relaxing.
So you get a little bit of allthe good hormones yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
When you're on.
I ride with my brothers in theclub all the time and we go on
our long rides all the time.
Which are how long?
Like forever.
Some days, days and days at atime.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
But we, we don't stop riding, and even locally, we
ride together all the time andit is the most relaxing, fun
time that we can have on theplanet.
It's all on two wheels, right?
So that's where I come togetherand for some reason, I'll
remember something.
I'll be driving by an areawhich will spark something about
a pasta dish that I got fromanother area, and then I'll ride
(08:35):
down the road a little furtherand find myself dazing off, you
know, just in my helmet,thinking, although alert, my
mind is just at ease.
I'm just riding, we're justrolling right.
If you try riding through thecornfields in Nebraska, or you
go just through the straits, allthe way through, you know, even
Wisconsin, these roads are justbeautiful, straight, long and
fast, right when the speed limitis 80 miles an hour, you're
(08:56):
doing 120 with ease andeverything's just coming
together.
Things are just going by.
I'm thinking about how now I'mgetting hungry.
So now I'm thinking about howthe tomatoes work right with,
with the fat rendering of aguanciale, and, and I'll see a
pig farm and I'll start thinkingabout pigs and start thinking
about how that stuff comestogether.
Uh, we'll buy, we'll drive bythe coast, I'll think about a
fish dish, or I'll see somethingas simple as a delivery truck
(09:18):
pulling up to a restaurant or onthe highway it'll be produce
truck or something and I'll havea picture of a certain produce
and I'll be like, wow, that'spretty unique that they put that
picture on it.
Now I'm thinking in my bike ofthat stuff.
You know all in the same time,looking around me, listening to
the motor.
You know this is all thingsthat inspire me the most, so I'm
sure everyone has theirinspiration.
Another thing I used to do toois surf a lot, and and I used to
(09:40):
, um, do the same thing therebecause I would be in the ocean
and a lot of my you you wouldnotice if you come to my
restaurants I get a lot ofinspiration in the summertime is
more moving around fish and youwould think that's because of
the warm season and it's typical.
It's not.
It's because I'm in the watermore and I'm feeling the fish
more.
I'm not the fish so much.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
I'm not having.
Yeah, I'm not Aquaman by anymeans, but I'm feeling the fish
more, not the fish so muchAquaman.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
Yeah, I'm not Aquaman by any means, but I'm feeling
the Speaking to the fish, so I'mfeeling the fish right.
So no, I mean, I will tell you.
I mean I get a lot ofinspiration from the ocean when
I'm in it.
You know what I mean.
If I'm out deer hunting, I wantto cook the venison.
I get the inspiration from that.
So I guess it is what I'maround the most of.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
You know, yeah, when I'm not riding.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
I'm having a hard time.
I'm always riding, but duringthe winter months, when it's
really friggin' shitty and coldout, you go a week or two you
don't have as much time to do itWithout being able to ride.
You're riding short distancesevery day, yes, but in those
short distances that's where alot of my inspiration comes, and
when you get those senses, yoursensory comes on.
(10:49):
It doesn't become an overload.
When you put it on somethingelse, if I didn't have a place
to funnel it, like cooking, itmight become a sensory overload
and I just might do a wheelieand ride off the fucking bridge.
But I get subdued by being ableto process these thoughts.
Other places If I drive by aplace and I smell coffee in the
morning on my bike, I'm thinkingabout how I can coffee rub a
tenderloin, and these are thingsthat I catch myself doing and I
(11:12):
never coffee rub the tenderloin.
I just go to work and don'tthink about it again, but on my
bike.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
I go back to it.
I remember it.
You can't do that in a car.
I mean, you're not going to getthat same feeling You're?
Speaker 1 (11:23):
listening to podcasts Right radio, or you're just
beeping the horn at some assholeon a bike that you're mad at
because he's on one and you'renot.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
You know things like that, because he's thinking
about espresso.
Rubbed tenderloins in front ofyou, yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
So there's a lot of places to grab inspiration, but
I think on a motorcycle for meis where I get it the most, and
I know there's a lot of chefsout there who get their
inspiration from a milliondifferent, everybody's different
right.
So I'm interested in hearing orseeing if anyone puts in their
comments where they get theirinspiration.
Where do people get inspirationfor food?
Because I'm always looking fordifferent avenues too.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
We get writer's block regardless, and I think, like
we talked about before, gettingout, networking, going to other
areas, getting inspired by othercities, other styles, because I
mean even with the bar anddrinks and cocktails, and how
much it's evolved over the pastdecade, like just finding
flavors that inspire you andthen being able to do that, or
(12:18):
you know, I'm also curious yeah,so make sure you comment like
where your inspiration is from.
As you know, a bartender or achef, just because I'm always
curious as how people'sprocesses work, because some
people are again, they have tosee it, or they there's someone
who likes to pair things, sothey want to pair tastes with
food, so they get creative oncocktails based on the food
profiles.
So it just depends on where thecreative inspiration comes from
(12:38):
.
But I think mine is more, yeah,seasonal, but seeing what other
people do, I get inspired byvisual things.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
Sure, and you're right because you know if we, if
we're in our area or any area,anybody watching in any other
area other than this, and eventhe people in this area, can
absolutely relate.
Whenever you're a chef workingor a cook or a bartender,
whatever it may be, you only cando so much with the purveyors'
accessibility and what they'rebringing you.
And if we have three or fourmajor purveyors in the area,
(13:06):
let's use Restaurant Depot, forinstance.
A lot of smaller places gothere because it's easier, but
they only carry so many things.
So if you have 1,500 peoplegoing to that same place to get
their ingredients, there's onlyso many variations of what you
can do with that ingredient,right?
So your whole area becomes kindof flooded with the same
(13:27):
ingredient, just donedifferently a little bit, right?
So when you move out of yourarea, they are still going
through the same problem, butit's not your problem, right?
So you're going to go toIndianapolis and we're going to
sit there and we're going tolook at stuff, and though it may
be flooded in their area forthem to work with, it's new for
me, so they have a lot of thestuff that their providers are
(13:47):
bringing that we don't have here, so that's where I get my
friggin' inspiration too.
So if they're doing somethingover there with dandelion greens
in which we don't get hereunless you special order and do
that, we wouldn't think about itreally so much.
But when I'm out there and Isee they're so commonly doing it
in three different restaurants,three different variations,
that's an indication to me thattheir purveyors are hot pushing
that item and that's what theyhave to work with.
(14:08):
So I bring that inspirationback here.
Travel, get off the line get offyour ass, get off your ass,
travel around, look at whatother chefs are doing.
You're not the best out there.
I'm telling you right now.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
There's so many people out there that are so
fucking good I think when youthink you're the best you've,
you definitely failed yourselfyeah, it's a hard, there's
always room learn and thisindustry has changed so much in
the like.
Every year we see something newcome out that you're like shit.
Why didn't I think of that?
Speaker 1 (14:34):
before Like how did?
Speaker 2 (14:35):
they just think of that.
But that's the world ofevolution, with food, drinks,
music, all of it.
Like and sometimes it takes along time to come West Coast to
East Coast.
I mean, do you see food trendsthat come?
You know where?
Do you think some of the meccasare when it comes to setting
standards for, like new trends,for the year.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
That's a great question.
I think that you know it usedto be.
It used to be coming from othercountries bringing it here, the
regional.
You know whether you're infusedwith Asian right?
Speaker 2 (15:03):
Yeah, or Italian, or Spanish or Greek right.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
Each place in the United States would take that
and they would kind of work withit as their inspiration.
Now, finally, american culture,american culinary culture, is
becoming its own.
Yes, it's infused with all thatstuff, but now I can get
inspired by different regions.
Do I get you know?
Do I see the trends ofCalifornia coming out here?
Absolutely, regions, do I getyou know?
Do I see the trends ofcalifornia coming out here?
(15:30):
Absolutely, right now, it's hardto tell the difference between
coastal east coast and coastalwest coast.
Yes, even the fish are thehalibuts and stuff.
Yes, we have different species,but the preparation of them is
kind of melding, right, it usedto be.
You go out to the west coastand that's where you would get
the the?
Um, tuna, taco stuff with the,you know, the cilantro infused
(15:53):
and the peppers and thebrightness.
You know what I'm saying.
You, you bring out all thatstuff out there with the wasabi
stuff and the asian infusionbecause of the pacific coast.
On the east coast you would getseafood and it would be fried,
battered, it would be, um, youknow, grilled a lot of stuff
like that broiled in butter, youwould definitely tell the
difference between east coast,especially northeast seafood,
(16:15):
and northwest seafood.
Yeah, it would be a totallydifferent thing.
Well, now it's not so much thesame.
Now you're going to, they'redoing lobster out there from the
, from the east coast, and we'regetting pacific lobster over
here.
We're getting warm waterlobster over here, more so than
we ever did before because wewere always cold water mentality
.
Um, now, there's a lot ofthings like that.
We're getting large u3 prawnsfrom the pacific.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
Uh, which are amazing from asia's stuff.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
It's okay and acceptable now because the
accessibility of theseingredients are so much
different now than they wereback in the day.
Back in the day it was taboo ifyou lived in northeast and you
were making northeast styleseafood.
You ate your steamer clams,dipped them out of the shell and
butter with the big neck onthem and in the belly on them.
Right that that's not commondown here in in virginia, but it
(17:03):
is now.
Now they're being shipped downand now we have state of ma
Maine lobster trucks all overthe place right whereas before
that would not happen.
So each area is becoming likecross-pollinating,
cross-pollinating and acceptableand and, and I think that's
absolutely wonderful.
I think it's great that you knowI can go out in the midwest
right now and get some reallynice grouper people like well, I
(17:25):
don't want that.
Why fish?
We're in the midwest, why thehell are we going to get fish?
It's no different than when weget it.
It's coming the same day, it'sthe same night.
The truck leaves the dock andit goes out there at the same
time.
It may be there may be eight ornine more hours on it by the
time it gets somewhere, but itdoesn't matter, you know, I mean
we look at vegas, because vegasgets dibs on the best seafood
in the world, because we werejust out there for the food and
(17:46):
it was incredible.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
Every bite of seafood we had was just like you were
plucking it out of the waterexactly.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
I mean amazing if anybody's been to vegas.
I mean, of course we alreadyknow you have each different
tier of type of food you'regoing to get, but each one of
them has to be the best becausethey're all competing for that a
lot of competition there we'regonna have an episode coming
about competition and community,because they do do it well out
there too with that.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
But I just like seeing the different variations
of how people do things, and Imean I am.
Travel is probably my biggestinspiration for creativity right
and the meats.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
That's another subject we haven't even covered
yet I mean meats right now.
We haven't even fucked withthat.
I mean, it would be really hardback in the day to get really
nice colorado lamb here.
These are things, things.
When I say back in the day, I'mtalking the 50s and 60s, when
you saw something of a domesticColorado mountain lamb on a menu
.
This was at the Historia, thiswas at the Four Seasons.
(18:38):
This wasn't at a normal place.
These are places that werewinning, you know.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
Michelin stars five stars.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
But even before Michelin was even in America,
really, I mean, we're talkingabout big ass resort type menus
that were only able to get thisstuff because it was all about
money and having theaccessibility to get it from
here to there.
You know, it wasn't untilrockefeller really would like
lobsters and he was putting themin tins so he could bring them
across to his buddies out west.
It was when it started tobecome popular, right, um, but
(19:06):
when you?
It's the same thing with meat.
I mean to get meat from KansasCity and stuff.
Yeah, they were doing the majorstuff everywhere, but it's
really hard to get.
It was really hard to get thesecuts.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
It was.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
Now I can get wild boar from three different places
that are farm raised in thesame way.
They, you know they try andemulate the same way as they do
in Italy and Tuscany.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
It's close, I mean, and you can get bison at the
grocery store now, which youcouldn't get 10 years ago.
You can get bison at thegrocery store.
You can get ostrich at thegrocery store.
Yeah, you can get so much elk.
I mean, there's so manydifferent meats.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
So many things that you can get that you could never
get before caribou.
These are things you can get ifyou can order.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
Being on the East Coast we had all of our beef was
from the West Coast.
So Harris Ranch was the onlyvertically integrated like
system, like steakhouse system,where they were everything from
breeding to butchering toshipping so we could track every
box back to the actual cattle.
And I think that was, I thinkthey were the only ones in
Virginia who had that full menu.
(20:07):
They had that full list ofmeats from them.
And it was absolutely incrediblemeat and back then it was
harder to get it was harder toget, and it did, but we had the,
the, I guess, the the pleasureof having owners who were like,
okay, I'm gonna spend the moneyon the food because I want the
quality now it is a little moreaccessible, we can get it faster
, and you know.
But back then, yeah, you reallyhad to go to nice places to get
(20:28):
those kind of cuts.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
And that falls back to the beginning of the
conversation, where inspirationgets dwindled and they start out
with that great initiative andthen, in time, things become
about the bills, the chefs thatstarted, it ended up, moving on,
and the owners are now stuckwith this.
So then, you see the dwindlingdown of that, and now we're
getting back into the regularchoice cut meats that are just
(20:49):
not as know.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
Not as good.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
Not as good, and now, today, though, that's becoming
easier to combat.
I never in my wildest dreamsthought I would be selling an
Australian Wagyu meatball on mymenu.
Now.
It's almost as accessible as itis to get chuck ground local
Angus or whatever, and peopleare getting used to paying for
it.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
And they're getting used to paying for it.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
and they're getting used to paying for because they
want good they want the quality,you know I mean there's still a
better product, it's still abetter marble, it's still a
better fat content.
They're still living off ofsome sort of uh you know some uh
humane type of growth, right,whereas a lot of this chuck now
that you can cook out of ameatball just regular American
(21:32):
standard chuck that you wouldmake a meatball most places do.
By the time you're done cookingit and the fat falls out of it
and everything else, you're leftwith a fucking racquetball.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
It's a tiny little meatball.
You've got to play streetballwith this damn thing, so it's
just not good.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
So spending the extra money is worth it, but having
accessibility to that ingredientnow is so much better.
Huge difference, yeah.
You know, what I'm saying.
Never, like I said, anAustralian Wagyu meatball.
Why would I have that in anItalian restaurant?
There's only one reason becauseit's the last resort for the
best fucking meat.
I'm not trying to really pimpout Australia by any means, or
their meatball or their Wagyu.
(22:07):
I'm not even trying to do that.
Everyone knows Wagyu iswonderful, it's good, it's got
its own place in the world, butI'm using it now because the
meat, the quality.
If I was getting the sameproduct out of what we should be
getting it here, I wouldn't beso hype on a Wagyu meatball.
But it is.
Wagyu meatball is what I'mdoing right now and it's
absolutely delicious.
(22:27):
When you bite into this, youare eating the fats You're
feeling the proteins.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
It's a great quality.
Yeah, I love it it's beautiful.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
It holds the moisture , it holds the ingredients.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
But you got inspired to do that by again seeing the
food, tasting different foods,knowing what worked and what
didn't.
So, I think for the creativitypart of it.
Yeah, I mean, you're in year.
What year is this now ofchefing in?
General About 30 years, 30 plusyears.
Finding that inspiration everyweek is good to know.
So we're saying most chefs,everybody just needs to get a
(22:56):
motorcycle.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
Get a motorcycle and do yourself a favor, stop
messing around.
Get a Vespa, get a littlescooter and start small.
I don't know Scooter, scooter,but you know it's wind in your
face elements smelling the worldfor what it is.
Yeah, To me that's being on it.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
Immersed Well, you're more immersed in the world.
So we want to know, we wanteverybody to share with us here
at the end of this episode now,what you get inspired by.
Like, where is it?
Is it the shower?
Is it going and seeing otherpeople's food?
Is it flavors?
Is it colors?
You know, some people see andget inspired by color, and they
see color, which is amazing.
So there's so many differentcreative processes, but we're
(23:34):
honestly curious to know whateverybody's is.
So, drop that below so we canmake sure that we get those
comments.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
Exactly.
Yeah, we would love to reply tothem as well.
And one last thing here is youknow, music too does a lot of
stuff for people, and that's whyI?
have a rule in my kitchen thateverybody right before service
needs to shut the music down andeverything, because whatever
you're personally going throughis going to be enhanced by the
music you choose.
So if one guy's in hisheadphones hating the world
because he just got in a big oldfight with somebody and blah,
blah, blah and he's got Panterarespect ripping through his head
(24:02):
, that's how the food's going tocome out.
So everybody's got to realizethat we get inspired from
different things and thingsaffect us differently all the
way around.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
So I can't play my ratchet.
No, don't take it out on thefood.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
It's not the food's fault.
You know, everybody knows whatI listen to.
You're throwing that ass in thecircle while you're mixing the
freaking egg yolks.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
I'm back there dance.
I never you know, I never nothave music on, so it always
keeps me going.
But.
But my choice of music is notwhat most people want their kids
listening to.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
I can tell when a pastry chef has got a bad day
with the headphone in because ofthe way they're just smashing
on the Sabian when they'remixing it.
I mean, relax, man, take iteasy.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
Yeah, so music.
Speaker 1 (24:39):
All right well, share with us.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
We want to know.
This is kind of like how yougot your inspiration.
So thank you for sharing thatwith everybody.
Yeah, that's it, man.
Keep it going, keep cooking it.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
Hit, subscribe, hit like thanks for following us all
the above.
I know all right, well, throwyour shit below.
We appreciate you guys and wewill see you soon.
Ciao for now.
Action.
It is.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
Lights, camera action , Cheers.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Today listen cheers.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Cheers.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Today is going to be brought to you by Cleveland
Street Tattoo.
You want to know why?
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Because they bring it everytime Cleveland Street Tattoo has
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Speaker 2 (00:20):
Some of the best ones .
Yeah, Some of the best onesaround.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
They stick to the old school mentality.
They're keeping tattoos scary.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
My one and only tattoo that I just got this year
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Speaker 1 (00:31):
Right, exactly, I got about 17 of them.
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They're deep down in the heart of the game, they know
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(01:13):
school, with a new school flairall day long.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
We love you.
Check them out.
I know we love you all right sothat kind of leads us into the
topic today of inspiration,because I think people have a
story behind every tattoo.
They have stories behind theirlives and for you, there's been
a lot of influences coming intothe culinary world and then
staying on top of the culinaryworld.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Yeah, definitely.
So you know, tattoo is aperfect word.
I see a lot of chefs youngerchefs with the knives on them
and the fruit and vegetables.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
People put fruit and vegetables.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Cross knives with the chef hat Like fruit in a loom,
yeah People put fruit andvegetables Cross-knit with the
chef hat, like Fruit of the Loom.
Yeah Well, when I was gettingtattooed 30 years ago, 20 years
ago, when I was a chef, gettingchef-related tattoos was not a
thing.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
It was brimstone flames motorcycles.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Harleys, naked women all over the place.
You have a lot of naked womenon your tattoos Demons, big back
pieces with 13-gauge needles itwas crazy.
So everybody big back pieceswith 13 gauge needles it was
crazy.
So you know, everybody getsinspired for different reasons,
different ways, whether you'rean artist of tattooing or a chef
or whatever it is you're doingright.
Producers out here, whateverthey're doing.
So that's the biggest thing andI love to see now.
I love to see the inspirationof tattooing on chefs.
(02:21):
I do like to see some of it'sreally cool, Like some of these
meals.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Well, time has changed because I mean it wasn't
really acceptable back in theday either.
I mean a lot of places, andthere are a lot of places that
still make you cover up yourtattoos.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Well, you know it's funny you say that because a lot
back in the day, 30 years ago,I remember I was young.
I was probably in my 15 hoursin my early 20s like know chefs
that had tattoos were like mostof the chefs, or they were line
cooks or something like that.
They had rough tattoos.
I'm talking about mama with aheart.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
You know what I mean.
They'd have a knife and adagger with a serpent around it,
and these guys were hardenedpeople.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
You know they were street people, but they were
typically coming to work buzzedor hungover or sipping vodka as
the chef went on.
You know junkies, heroinaddicts, coke heads, whatever it
may be, that was the way it wasback then.
So it wasn't uncommon to have atattoo as a chef more than any
other industry but it was veryuncommon to have a food or
culinary themed tattoo.
That was kind of like okay,dude, what's this?
(03:20):
Are you a gangster?
What is this?
But now times have changedright Gangster in the kitchen.
Well hey, they are gangsters inthe kitchen for sure I mean,
listen, it's not a bad thing tosay it's not, it's not.
I mean we are still, even today, still hardened people.
Things aren't so easy for someof the people in the kitchen
world Just the hours and theelements and everything we have
to deal with sets us aside frommost other people, you know.
(03:43):
So it's not uncommon to seetattoos.
It's not uncommon to beinspired and get a tattoo of
what inspires you outside to putit on you now, right, most of
it.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Yeah, so we're talking about this?
Speaker 1 (03:53):
why?
Speaker 2 (03:54):
well, I mean, what inspires you like we just got
off on a rant with tattoos, butit's about inspiration and
finding it kind of like writer'sblock.
I mean, we all go through it inevery industry.
You know where you reach a timewhere you're like I can't come
up with ideas, I can't getcreative.
You're just kind of over it.
So finding inspiration in theindustry to keep you going.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
Well, like you said, and in your industry too, you do
have the backgrounds, of course, of the restaurants and
everything, but right now,people are really counting on
your inspiration.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Or creativity.
They're counting on yourcreativity, right.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
So your creativity comes from inspiration, so on
and so forth, but they're reallycounting on you to produce.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
And you have to produce.
Marketing is huge.
That is nothing but creativity.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
It's creativity all day.
It can be tiring.
It gets exhausting, but youhave to recharge, like I think
there's certain ways we bothrecharge.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
Yeah, what's your go-to's man?
Are you talking about beingcreative in the kitchen, or
being creative in a businessmindset, or or how you handle
things all?
Speaker 2 (04:49):
of it.
I think people would be curiousto know um, all of it, because
I mean, you have to come up withdifferent specials every week,
so that's one way of beingcreative yes, and that gets hard
after 30 years.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Yeah, because you have to keep coming up with
stuff 15 of them, but reallyhonestly, 10 of them seriously.
And then now the last fiveyears have been having to have
has been forcing me to be morecreative than I've ever had to,
and all the rest okay so now I'min the kitchen doing my
specials and I have otherrestaurants, other ventures
going on.
I have other business thingshappening, so now I'm getting
(05:18):
distraction all over the placeand that's that's the problem.
So, wow, good question.
So I would have to say there'stwo places I get the most
inspiration.
Okay, where I, where itactually comes together in my
head.
There's there's many placeswhere I go and get inspired but,
where I creatively put ittogether in my head, there's two
places okay, most people don'tunderstand it okay, some do one
(05:39):
the shower I was gonna sayshower, shower, and everybody's
nodding their head too.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
I think that's for so many people why I don't know
why.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
I don't know if it's the warmth when I get underneath
my shower, which?
Let me tell you something.
I fixed my shower, yes, right.
And this thing comes down nowlike a waterfall.
It's hot, it's pressure, it'sbeautiful.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Right, so I'm just water pressure.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
I'm like you know, it's just instant calm.
So, with that being said, Ihave a lot of my ideas come
together in the shower, forwhatever reason, I don't know.
I think just because it's calmand all my thoughts can kind of
come together, and my thoughtsalways end up at the end of the
day being around food.
I don't know why so it eithermakes me really comfortable or
(06:21):
it stresses me the fuck out.
So in the shower it doesn'tstress me out.
The second place right, mymotorcycle.
We like to eat it either makesme really comfortable or it
stresses me the fuck out.
So in a shower.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
it doesn't stress me out.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
The second place, right yeah, my motorcycle, that
would be one we could guess.
Motorcycle rides are the placewhere I come up with the most
ideas, the most creativity, andthe less I ride, the less
creative I become.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Really.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
Because I don't know what it is about that
therapeutical moment and I cantell you some things.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Well, I mean, yeah, I think people not everybody
who's listening has been on amotorcycle, so they don't get it
.
But you can kind of explain thepsych side of it, like you're
open, there's no constraints.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
You have to focus.
Here's the thing.
When you're on the motorcycle,all of your sensories are in
full effect.
Right, and I think that's whatit is.
You're in full effect, All yoursenses are going your visual,
your awareness, your alertness.
You're checking around you.
You're autoimmune, right, yourbody stuff.
Is that the right word?
Speaker 2 (07:15):
Yeah, auto response.
I don't know Whatever it is,whatever way to say it.
Yeah, the doctor term.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Let them guys who write tell you.
I Let them guys who ride tellyou.
I'm figuring that out.
But all those things connectedtogether are making all your
senses just fire, right?
So while the ones that you'renot expecting to fire are firing
as well, you smell everything.
If you're riding through acornfield or behind a freaking
manure truck, you're going tosmell the cow shit and you're
going to smell the beautifulflowers.
You're going to smell the ocean.
You're going to smell thediesel fuel.
(07:40):
You smell everything.
And when you're going to smellthe diesel fuel, you smell
everything.
And when you're riding, there'snothing better than that right.
And if that doesn't calm you,it's because you're raising hell
on your bike and it brings yourdopamines up and that's fun too
yeah, which which alwayshappens too well, the dopamine
hit.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
I mean, obviously you get that adrenaline spike, you
know, but paying attention, butit's also kind of that serotonin
because it's relaxing.
So you get a little bit of allthe good hormones yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
When you're on.
I ride with my brothers in theclub all the time and we go on
our long rides all the time.
Which are how long?
Like forever.
Some days, days and days at atime.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
But we, we don't stop riding, and even locally, we
ride together all the time andit is the most relaxing, fun
time that we can have on theplanet.
It's all on two wheels, right?
So that's where I come togetherand for some reason, I'll
remember something.
I'll be driving by an areawhich will spark something about
a pasta dish that I got fromanother area, and then I'll ride
(08:35):
down the road a little furtherand find myself dazing off, you
know, just in my helmet,thinking, although alert, my
mind is just at ease.
I'm just riding, we're justrolling right.
If you try riding through thecornfields in Nebraska, or you
go just through the straits, allthe way through, you know, even
Wisconsin, these roads are justbeautiful, straight, long and
fast, right when the speed limitis 80 miles an hour, you're
(08:56):
doing 120 with ease andeverything's just coming
together.
Things are just going by.
I'm thinking about how now I'mgetting hungry.
So now I'm thinking about howthe tomatoes work right with,
with the fat rendering of aguanciale, and, and I'll see a
pig farm and I'll start thinkingabout pigs and start thinking
about how that stuff comestogether.
Uh, we'll buy, we'll drive bythe coast, I'll think about a
fish dish, or I'll see somethingas simple as a delivery truck
(09:18):
pulling up to a restaurant or onthe highway it'll be produce
truck or something and I'll havea picture of a certain produce
and I'll be like, wow, that'spretty unique that they put that
picture on it.
Now I'm thinking in my bike ofthat stuff.
You know all in the same time,looking around me, listening to
the motor.
You know this is all thingsthat inspire me the most, so I'm
sure everyone has theirinspiration.
Another thing I used to do toois surf a lot, and and I used to
(09:40):
, um, do the same thing therebecause I would be in the ocean
and a lot of my you you wouldnotice if you come to my
restaurants I get a lot ofinspiration in the summertime is
more moving around fish and youwould think that's because of
the warm season and it's typical.
It's not.
It's because I'm in the watermore and I'm feeling the fish
more.
I'm not the fish so much.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
I'm not having.
Yeah, I'm not Aquaman by anymeans, but I'm feeling the fish
more, not the fish so muchAquaman.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
Yeah, I'm not Aquaman by any means, but I'm feeling
the Speaking to the fish, so I'mfeeling the fish right.
So no, I mean, I will tell you.
I mean I get a lot ofinspiration from the ocean when
I'm in it.
You know what I mean.
If I'm out deer hunting, I wantto cook the venison.
I get the inspiration from that.
So I guess it is what I'maround the most of.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
You know, yeah, when I'm not riding.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
I'm having a hard time.
I'm always riding, but duringthe winter months, when it's
really friggin' shitty and coldout, you go a week or two you
don't have as much time to do itWithout being able to ride.
You're riding short distancesevery day, yes, but in those
short distances that's where alot of my inspiration comes, and
when you get those senses, yoursensory comes on.
(10:49):
It doesn't become an overload.
When you put it on somethingelse, if I didn't have a place
to funnel it, like cooking, itmight become a sensory overload
and I just might do a wheelieand ride off the fucking bridge.
But I get subdued by being ableto process these thoughts.
Other places If I drive by aplace and I smell coffee in the
morning on my bike, I'm thinkingabout how I can coffee rub a
tenderloin, and these are thingsthat I catch myself doing and I
(11:12):
never coffee rub the tenderloin.
I just go to work and don'tthink about it again, but on my
bike.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
I go back to it.
I remember it.
You can't do that in a car.
I mean, you're not going to getthat same feeling You're?
Speaker 1 (11:23):
listening to podcasts Right radio, or you're just
beeping the horn at some assholeon a bike that you're mad at
because he's on one and you'renot.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
You know things like that, because he's thinking
about espresso.
Rubbed tenderloins in front ofyou, yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
So there's a lot of places to grab inspiration, but
I think on a motorcycle for meis where I get it the most, and
I know there's a lot of chefsout there who get their
inspiration from a milliondifferent, everybody's different
right.
So I'm interested in hearing orseeing if anyone puts in their
comments where they get theirinspiration.
Where do people get inspirationfor food?
Because I'm always looking fordifferent avenues too.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
We get writer's block regardless, and I think, like
we talked about before, gettingout, networking, going to other
areas, getting inspired by othercities, other styles, because I
mean even with the bar anddrinks and cocktails, and how
much it's evolved over the pastdecade, like just finding
flavors that inspire you andthen being able to do that, or
(12:18):
you know, I'm also curious yeah,so make sure you comment like
where your inspiration is from.
As you know, a bartender or achef, just because I'm always
curious as how people'sprocesses work, because some
people are again, they have tosee it, or they there's someone
who likes to pair things, sothey want to pair tastes with
food, so they get creative oncocktails based on the food
profiles.
So it just depends on where thecreative inspiration comes from
(12:38):
.
But I think mine is more, yeah,seasonal, but seeing what other
people do, I get inspired byvisual things.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
Sure, and you're right because you know if we, if
we're in our area or any area,anybody watching in any other
area other than this, and eventhe people in this area, can
absolutely relate.
Whenever you're a chef workingor a cook or a bartender,
whatever it may be, you only cando so much with the purveyors'
accessibility and what they'rebringing you.
And if we have three or fourmajor purveyors in the area,
(13:06):
let's use Restaurant Depot, forinstance.
A lot of smaller places gothere because it's easier, but
they only carry so many things.
So if you have 1,500 peoplegoing to that same place to get
their ingredients, there's onlyso many variations of what you
can do with that ingredient,right?
So your whole area becomes kindof flooded with the same
(13:27):
ingredient, just donedifferently a little bit, right?
So when you move out of yourarea, they are still going
through the same problem, butit's not your problem, right?
So you're going to go toIndianapolis and we're going to
sit there and we're going tolook at stuff, and though it may
be flooded in their area forthem to work with, it's new for
me, so they have a lot of thestuff that their providers are
(13:47):
bringing that we don't have here, so that's where I get my
friggin' inspiration too.
So if they're doing somethingover there with dandelion greens
in which we don't get hereunless you special order and do
that, we wouldn't think about itreally so much.
But when I'm out there and Isee they're so commonly doing it
in three different restaurants,three different variations,
that's an indication to me thattheir purveyors are hot pushing
that item and that's what theyhave to work with.
(14:08):
So I bring that inspirationback here.
Travel, get off the line get offyour ass, get off your ass,
travel around, look at whatother chefs are doing.
You're not the best out there.
I'm telling you right now.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
There's so many people out there that are so
fucking good I think when youthink you're the best you've,
you definitely failed yourselfyeah, it's a hard, there's
always room learn and thisindustry has changed so much in
the like.
Every year we see something newcome out that you're like shit.
Why didn't I think of that?
Speaker 1 (14:34):
before Like how did?
Speaker 2 (14:35):
they just think of that.
But that's the world ofevolution, with food, drinks,
music, all of it.
Like and sometimes it takes along time to come West Coast to
East Coast.
I mean, do you see food trendsthat come?
You know where?
Do you think some of the meccasare when it comes to setting
standards for, like new trends,for the year.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
That's a great question.
I think that you know it usedto be.
It used to be coming from othercountries bringing it here, the
regional.
You know whether you're infusedwith Asian right?
Speaker 2 (15:03):
Yeah, or Italian, or Spanish or Greek right.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
Each place in the United States would take that
and they would kind of work withit as their inspiration.
Now, finally, american culture,american culinary culture, is
becoming its own.
Yes, it's infused with all thatstuff, but now I can get
inspired by different regions.
Do I get you know?
Do I see the trends ofCalifornia coming out here?
Absolutely, regions, do I getyou know?
Do I see the trends ofcalifornia coming out here?
(15:30):
Absolutely, right now, it's hardto tell the difference between
coastal east coast and coastalwest coast.
Yes, even the fish are thehalibuts and stuff.
Yes, we have different species,but the preparation of them is
kind of melding, right, it usedto be.
You go out to the west coastand that's where you would get
the the?
Um, tuna, taco stuff with the,you know, the cilantro infused
(15:53):
and the peppers and thebrightness.
You know what I'm saying.
You, you bring out all thatstuff out there with the wasabi
stuff and the asian infusionbecause of the pacific coast.
On the east coast you would getseafood and it would be fried,
battered, it would be, um, youknow, grilled a lot of stuff
like that broiled in butter, youwould definitely tell the
difference between east coast,especially northeast seafood,
(16:15):
and northwest seafood.
Yeah, it would be a totallydifferent thing.
Well, now it's not so much thesame.
Now you're going to, they'redoing lobster out there from the
, from the east coast, and we'regetting pacific lobster over
here.
We're getting warm waterlobster over here, more so than
we ever did before because wewere always cold water mentality
.
Um, now, there's a lot ofthings like that.
We're getting large u3 prawnsfrom the pacific.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
Uh, which are amazing from asia's stuff.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
It's okay and acceptable now because the
accessibility of theseingredients are so much
different now than they wereback in the day.
Back in the day it was taboo ifyou lived in northeast and you
were making northeast styleseafood.
You ate your steamer clams,dipped them out of the shell and
butter with the big neck onthem and in the belly on them.
Right that that's not commondown here in in virginia, but it
(17:03):
is now.
Now they're being shipped downand now we have state of ma
Maine lobster trucks all overthe place right whereas before
that would not happen.
So each area is becoming likecross-pollinating,
cross-pollinating and acceptableand and, and I think that's
absolutely wonderful.
I think it's great that you knowI can go out in the midwest
right now and get some reallynice grouper people like well, I
(17:25):
don't want that.
Why fish?
We're in the midwest, why thehell are we going to get fish?
It's no different than when weget it.
It's coming the same day, it'sthe same night.
The truck leaves the dock andit goes out there at the same
time.
It may be there may be eight ornine more hours on it by the
time it gets somewhere, but itdoesn't matter, you know, I mean
we look at vegas, because vegasgets dibs on the best seafood
in the world, because we werejust out there for the food and
(17:46):
it was incredible.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
Every bite of seafood we had was just like you were
plucking it out of the waterexactly.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
I mean amazing if anybody's been to vegas.
I mean, of course we alreadyknow you have each different
tier of type of food you'regoing to get, but each one of
them has to be the best becausethey're all competing for that a
lot of competition there we'regonna have an episode coming
about competition and community,because they do do it well out
there too with that.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
But I just like seeing the different variations
of how people do things, and Imean I am.
Travel is probably my biggestinspiration for creativity right
and the meats.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
That's another subject we haven't even covered
yet I mean meats right now.
We haven't even fucked withthat.
I mean, it would be really hardback in the day to get really
nice colorado lamb here.
These are things, things.
When I say back in the day, I'mtalking the 50s and 60s, when
you saw something of a domesticColorado mountain lamb on a menu
.
This was at the Historia, thiswas at the Four Seasons.
(18:38):
This wasn't at a normal place.
These are places that werewinning, you know.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
Michelin stars five stars.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
But even before Michelin was even in America,
really, I mean, we're talkingabout big ass resort type menus
that were only able to get thisstuff because it was all about
money and having theaccessibility to get it from
here to there.
You know, it wasn't untilrockefeller really would like
lobsters and he was putting themin tins so he could bring them
across to his buddies out west.
It was when it started tobecome popular, right, um, but
(19:06):
when you?
It's the same thing with meat.
I mean to get meat from KansasCity and stuff.
Yeah, they were doing the majorstuff everywhere, but it's
really hard to get.
It was really hard to get thesecuts.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
It was.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
Now I can get wild boar from three different places
that are farm raised in thesame way.
They, you know they try andemulate the same way as they do
in Italy and Tuscany.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
It's close, I mean, and you can get bison at the
grocery store now, which youcouldn't get 10 years ago.
You can get bison at thegrocery store.
You can get ostrich at thegrocery store.
Yeah, you can get so much elk.
I mean, there's so manydifferent meats.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
So many things that you can get that you could never
get before caribou.
These are things you can get ifyou can order.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
Being on the East Coast we had all of our beef was
from the West Coast.
So Harris Ranch was the onlyvertically integrated like
system, like steakhouse system,where they were everything from
breeding to butchering toshipping so we could track every
box back to the actual cattle.
And I think that was, I thinkthey were the only ones in
Virginia who had that full menu.
(20:07):
They had that full list ofmeats from them.
And it was absolutely incrediblemeat and back then it was
harder to get it was harder toget, and it did, but we had the,
the, I guess, the the pleasureof having owners who were like,
okay, I'm gonna spend the moneyon the food because I want the
quality now it is a little moreaccessible, we can get it faster
, and you know.
But back then, yeah, you reallyhad to go to nice places to get
(20:28):
those kind of cuts.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
And that falls back to the beginning of the
conversation, where inspirationgets dwindled and they start out
with that great initiative andthen, in time, things become
about the bills, the chefs thatstarted, it ended up, moving on,
and the owners are now stuckwith this.
So then, you see the dwindlingdown of that, and now we're
getting back into the regularchoice cut meats that are just
(20:49):
not as know.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
Not as good.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
Not as good, and now, today, though, that's becoming
easier to combat.
I never in my wildest dreamsthought I would be selling an
Australian Wagyu meatball on mymenu.
Now.
It's almost as accessible as itis to get chuck ground local
Angus or whatever, and peopleare getting used to paying for
it.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
And they're getting used to paying for it.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
and they're getting used to paying for because they
want good they want the quality,you know I mean there's still a
better product, it's still abetter marble, it's still a
better fat content.
They're still living off ofsome sort of uh you know some uh
humane type of growth, right,whereas a lot of this chuck now
that you can cook out of ameatball just regular American
(21:32):
standard chuck that you wouldmake a meatball most places do.
By the time you're done cookingit and the fat falls out of it
and everything else, you're leftwith a fucking racquetball.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
It's a tiny little meatball.
You've got to play streetballwith this damn thing, so it's
just not good.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
So spending the extra money is worth it, but having
accessibility to that ingredientnow is so much better.
Huge difference, yeah.
You know, what I'm saying.
Never, like I said, anAustralian Wagyu meatball.
Why would I have that in anItalian restaurant?
There's only one reason becauseit's the last resort for the
best fucking meat.
I'm not trying to really pimpout Australia by any means, or
their meatball or their Wagyu.
(22:07):
I'm not even trying to do that.
Everyone knows Wagyu iswonderful, it's good, it's got
its own place in the world, butI'm using it now because the
meat, the quality.
If I was getting the sameproduct out of what we should be
getting it here, I wouldn't beso hype on a Wagyu meatball.
But it is.
Wagyu meatball is what I'mdoing right now and it's
absolutely delicious.
(22:27):
When you bite into this, youare eating the fats You're
feeling the proteins.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
It's a great quality.
Yeah, I love it it's beautiful.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
It holds the moisture , it holds the ingredients.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
But you got inspired to do that by again seeing the
food, tasting different foods,knowing what worked and what
didn't.
So, I think for the creativitypart of it.
Yeah, I mean, you're in year.
What year is this now ofchefing in?
General About 30 years, 30 plusyears.
Finding that inspiration everyweek is good to know.
So we're saying most chefs,everybody just needs to get a
(22:56):
motorcycle.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
Get a motorcycle and do yourself a favor, stop
messing around.
Get a Vespa, get a littlescooter and start small.
I don't know Scooter, scooter,but you know it's wind in your
face elements smelling the worldfor what it is.
Yeah, To me that's being on it.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
Immersed Well, you're more immersed in the world.
So we want to know, we wanteverybody to share with us here
at the end of this episode now,what you get inspired by.
Like, where is it?
Is it the shower?
Is it going and seeing otherpeople's food?
Is it flavors?
Is it colors?
You know, some people see andget inspired by color, and they
see color, which is amazing.
So there's so many differentcreative processes, but we're
(23:34):
honestly curious to know whateverybody's is.
So, drop that below so we canmake sure that we get those
comments.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
Exactly.
Yeah, we would love to reply tothem as well.
And one last thing here is youknow, music too does a lot of
stuff for people, and that's whyI?
have a rule in my kitchen thateverybody right before service
needs to shut the music down andeverything, because whatever
you're personally going throughis going to be enhanced by the
music you choose.
So if one guy's in hisheadphones hating the world
because he just got in a big oldfight with somebody and blah,
blah, blah and he's got Panterarespect ripping through his head
(24:02):
, that's how the food's going tocome out.
So everybody's got to realizethat we get inspired from
different things and thingsaffect us differently all the
way around.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
So I can't play my ratchet.
No, don't take it out on thefood.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
It's not the food's fault.
You know, everybody knows whatI listen to.
You're throwing that ass in thecircle while you're mixing the
freaking egg yolks.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
I'm back there dance.
I never you know, I never nothave music on, so it always
keeps me going.
But.
But my choice of music is notwhat most people want their kids
listening to.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
I can tell when a pastry chef has got a bad day
with the headphone in because ofthe way they're just smashing
on the Sabian when they'remixing it.
I mean, relax, man, take iteasy.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
Yeah, so music.
Speaker 1 (24:39):
All right well, share with us.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
We want to know.
This is kind of like how yougot your inspiration.
So thank you for sharing thatwith everybody.
Yeah, that's it, man.
Keep it going, keep cooking it.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
Hit, subscribe, hit like thanks for following us all
the above.
I know all right, well, throwyour shit below.
We appreciate you guys and wewill see you soon.
Ciao for now.
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