"The quality of your meat matters more than you think," declares host Chef Tony as he welcomes his longtime friend and meat expert, John, to the Burnt Hands Perspective. Their passionate conversation cuts through marketing hype to reveal uncomfortable truths about what's really on your plate.
John brings decades of culinary and industry expertise to this meaty discussion. Having started as a dishwasher at 13, he worked his way through kitchens before transitioning to the sales side, where he now represents premium Australian and New Zealand lamb and beef. This unique perspective—combining chef sensibilities with industry knowledge—makes him the perfect guide through today's complicated meat landscape.
This episode gets into how meat production has changed dramatically over the last decade. Family farms are selling out as feed costs rise and younger generations lose interest in continuing tradition. This has led to America now importing more beef than it produces domestically. Meanwhile, countries like Australia maintain traditional grass-fed, grass-finished practices not as a marketing gimmick but as their standard approach to raising livestock.
Their conversation takes turns through topics like halal certification (which is exploding in popularity not just for religious reasons but for its superior flavor profile), the misunderstood nature of veal (a byproduct of dairy farming), and the shocking truth about mass-produced chicken (which they colorfully describe as "the tilapia of meat"). The comparison between different lamb varieties—American, Australian, and New Zealand—reveals how geography, diet, and breeding create distinctly different flavor profiles.
Perhaps most valuable is their frank discussion about meat pricing. "Stop bitching about the prices of food," they advise listeners who complain about restaurant costs. Quality ingredients demand premium prices, and if you want superior culinary experiences, be prepared to pay for them. As they put it, "Eating is one of the best forms of entertainment" and worth investing in.
Whether you're a home cook trying to make better choices at the grocery store or a food enthusiast wanting to understand what's happening behind the scenes, this episode delivers straight talk about meat quality, sourcing, and why it matters. Subscribe now for more unfiltered food wisdom from industry insiders who aren't afraid to tell it like it is.
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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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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Burnt Hands Perspective Welcome back.
This is a very serious moment.
Go ahead say it, Start it off.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Welcome back to the Burnt Hands Perspective.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
There it is Very solid.
This is my man, John.
Me and John go way back.
We're going to talk meat today.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
We're talking meat.
We're talking meat, one of myfavorite topics.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
But first let me tell you something.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
John can cook now.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
See, that's why I like talking to him, because
when I talk to him about meat,he knows what the fuck he's
talking about.
He comes from a cookingperspective, not just a fucking
salesman of meat.
Or someone who's just trying tosell their product as the best.
Any product he touches andworks with Is the best, because
he knows what a good product is.
So I know I can always call John.
I call John about stuff I don'teven fucking.
I know he doesn't even dealwith.
Hey, what do you know aboutthis?
Can you help me out with this?
You got a guy for this andtypically it's yes, you know
your meat, your meat Dinner'sdangling for you.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
Dinner's dangling brother.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
You got it right, so we cooked together way back in
the day we're talking, 20 yearsago.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Well, 20, that's coming up on 26 years, yikes.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
If we could squeeze six years off it, I'm fine with
that too, though you know what Imean If we want to make it 20.
Y'all just try it and getyounger.
I'll take six years.
I'm trying hard.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
So anyway, john, so you have a really good Italian
history Back to you.
You cook a lot of Italian food,you've always been around
Italian people wild, and, uh,you know, we've even played
hockey together.
So we, we've, uh, we've, we'vehad some time together in the
day, but I think we had a couplecocktails together at some
point once or twice.
Yeah, we had one and then twothe ones you can remember yeah,
(01:32):
so yeah, we've had some goodtimes.
Now, bro, listen, you are now.
Give us a little background.
I just gave you a littlehistory with me, with you, in a
very short term, but what isyour history when it comes to
cooking, transferring ortransitioning over to the, to
the sales end of everything, andbeing a purveyor?
Give us your little lineup yeah, I mean ultimately.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
At the end of the day , my dad wanted me to get a job
and work and make some money, sohe'd have to pay for everything
.
So I started washing dishes at13, man that's how I broke into
this whole thing and thenrealized that that wasn't the
the greatest path either.
So just worked hard throughoutand, uh, you know, worked
kitchens, ran kitchens, um, gotup into the point where, you
know, my best friend's dadworked in the sales side of the
industry.
I love the culinary aspect ofit, but for me I looked at it
(02:13):
was like you know what I needed,a more of a professional path
to, uh, you know, just to seewhat was available for me out
there with my knowledge, um, soI got into the sales side of
things in 2000 with a broker.
A broker represents multiplemanufacturers.
We're out there running thosegoods and services out there to
clients like yourself all aroundthe Baltimore DC market.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
That's a big market.
It's a huge market.
It's a huge market and there'sa lot of competition because
there's a lot of people tryingto sell that great product to
that great market.
So that gives you a lot offighting there.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
Well it does, and you've got a lot of regional
chains there.
You've got a lot of nationalchains that are based there too.
So there's a lot of opportunity, there's a lot of action, a lot
of college university.
I just kept working my way upand then I got in the
manufacturer side of things andthat's really where, for me,
where I can have most influence,um, knowledge, expertise, that
sort of thing.
So I bring my culinary aspect,which I'm still learning, uh,
today.
I mean, obviously we were justtalking about it, right, let's
(03:10):
talk about sauce, we're justtalking about all those
different things to continue todo.
So I've been, uh I've been onthe sales side of it, on the
manufacturer side of it now forlike 15 years.
Um, and really, what I bring?
I bring my contacts and I bringuh ideas and products to guys
like you and other people aroundthe country, giving them
expertise on what our productsdo.
So now I work for a companycalled Pilot Trading.
(03:30):
We import lamb and beef fromAustralia, new Zealand, real,
high quality stuff.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Nice.
So in order to do that, youhave to first understand your
own country's product, which youhave.
You have a lot of backgroundand I've seen you grow from,
like you said at the beginningof this, where you're dealing
with a lot of chains and a lotof things like that, to where
the product there is a littlebit different, and then you you
progressed into more fineproduct right.
So now you're more of aprofessional and more of a.
(03:57):
Your expertise is more on thefiner product that you're
putting out there.
You're not purveying garbage no,no, no, we wouldn't be hanging
out talking much if you were,because I'm not a garbage guy,
you know what I mean, so neitherare you.
But so when you're talkingabout the veals and uh in the,
you know now you're going toaustralia.
That's a good topic, becausewe're going to talk about a
little bit.
What I really want to talkabout is how the meat market has
(04:19):
changed so much in the lastjust decade because of the mass
amount of people that we have tofeed.
You know we're talking about.
Everybody wants grass-fed orthe natural or, you know,
non-gmo or organic.
And is it even fucking possibleto be honest with you with the
amount of people that need toeat meat daily?
(04:42):
Think about one fucking townworth right what.
What if we had one town and onefarm to satisfy that town?
That wouldn't even happen.
You know how many fucking cowsyou need to satisfy a thousand
people on a normal day-to-daybasis.
So how do you produce thisstuff and how do people produce
this stuff?
Where do you go for this realmeat that you want?
How much of it really is outthere.
(05:02):
You know what I mean.
As a chef, I can pick andchoose my purveyor, but as a
consumer, how the fuck do youknow where this meat's coming
from, man.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
Well, I mean you know , you got to read your labels,
you got to read your packages,you got to do your research.
I mean just like everythingelse we do.
When you go to the store andyou look at the back of a cereal
box or whatever it might be,what ingredients are in there.
Well, I mean you got to look at, you know where's your meat
coming from.
You know, is it coming fromaustralia, new zealand?
Is it domestic?
Is it coming from uruguay?
Is it coming from brazil?
I mean it's.
You know we import here, um onbeef and lamb and veal from so
(05:35):
many different countries outsidethe united states more so than
the united states right, yeah,more so the united states
absolutely so we.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
We get more beef and veal from out of the country
than we do with our own country.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
I mean it's close, man.
I mean it's starting to get tothe point where we can't keep up
with domestic demand.
Herds are down, there's droughtsituations, you know.
Feed has gone up, so farmersare really reluctant to rebuild
their herds because of the costof everything.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
You said something to me smart, and it's made sense
to to me a lot and it reallyopened my eyes a minute.
You told me one time maybe itwas earlier, but you, you told
me that you knew somebody whowas in the beef game and they
ended up selling their farm andrealizing they made more money.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
So go ahead, touch on that, because it starts at the
farm well, I mean, I think covidhad a huge influence on a lot
of this, you know what I mean.
And then you had droughtconditions and and then you had,
like we said, feed has gone up.
So I think farmers are reallystarting to take a look at their
business.
They're looking at their family.
They're looking at their kids.
Do they want their kids to takethis over?
Most of the time, the kidsdon't want to take this over.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
So the family generational farm.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
It's a different era.
It's a make a lot of money onit you know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
So just want instant gratification.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
It's 100% well, it's not like us growing up, where we
would go out and bang out two,three jobs to make money all the
time.
Now kids don't want to do.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
I used to ride a bicycle with a fucking lawnmower
tied to the bike like fuckingnapoleon dynamite with a little
he-man out the back of the truck.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
I had a fucking lawnmower like that, anything I
could well, I was shovelingdrivers, I was cutting grass, I
I was delivering paper, whateverwe could do, right, to make
some cash.
So really, farmers kind of tooka look at like, okay, I own
this amount of acreage, thisamount of land, how much is this
worth?
Worth?
Way more than what they'remaking could make, probably in
10 years.
So they look at it and say youknow what?
I'm going to create somegenerational wealth for my
(07:16):
family.
I'm going to take a littlebreak from the hard farming I've
been doing for 30, 40, 50 yearsand sell off that land.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
Right, so that's kind of where that's at.
So, with that being said,that's even taking away the
percentage now of more meatsbeing made here.
That's yeah.
So when you're going to NewZealand, now that you work with
New Zealand and you saidAustralia, right, so the farming
practices, the laws, all thatstuff, are they that much
different from here?
Speaker 3 (07:43):
So it's funny, we talk about regenerative farming.
You've got a lot of thesesmaller farms talking about
regenerative farming now in theUnited States.
So more land management, waterrunoff, fertilizers, those sort
of things grass-fed,grass-finished.
You know, when you look atAustralia and New Zealand, those
are practices that they've hadsince the beginning.
They never changed, they neverwent to that factory farming.
So everything in Australia forthe most part is grass-fed
(08:04):
grass-finished.
Like 85% of that is grass-fedgrass-finished, because it's the
only process they really know.
That's the only process theyreally know it's all
pasture-raised.
You know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
So it's not a matter of convenience, it's just a
matter of ritual.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
Yeah, more or less, yeah, absolutely, where we
stories of like okay, this farmover here in the midwest is
really making sure that landmanagement is a huge part of
what they're doing.
They're making sure they're notoverworking the land and
telling that story over there.
They're not.
So everything over there isantibiotic hormone free for the
most part.
Everything's certified halal.
Now, which is amazing, theamount of halal meat that's
(08:38):
coming and what is that?
Speaker 1 (08:39):
for those who don't know, what is hal?
Speaker 3 (08:41):
So halal is a slaughtering practice and it's
from Islamic.
It's Islamic rule.
Right Rule is really what itcomes down to at the end of the
day.
So you know, most of the meatcoming in from Australia and New
Zealand is all halal, and nowmore of that in the United
States.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
It's more of a humane practice, correct, it is more
of a humane practice, so theyslaughter them.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
You know, facing Mecca and that whole thing they
go across the throat type deal.
So they're not stunning,they're not doing any of that.
It's definitely a more humanepractice.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
And not only that when you slaughter like that,
the animal doesn't have time totense up To stress up.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
It's more of a relaxing.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
It's going to cook better.
It cooks more tender.
Halal beef actually does cookbetter.
Even ground beef obviously doescome out a little bit.
It renders differently.
It has a much more beef taste.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
Well, you're not shocking the animal, Right?
You know what I mean.
A lot of times here we'reshocking the animal and that
really leads to that tensing ofthe muscles Right Once it's
tense it doesn't release.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
I mean, those muscle fibers do this.
It's hard to release.
Speaker 3 (09:46):
You know it's.
So now there's, uh, there are,there are stamps on the uh you
know from a retail perspective.
It will say if it's halal, sothere's a certification.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
I haven't seen that anywhere, I mean I guess in
commercial, you know, for you'regoing to start seeing more and
more.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
A year ago, a year and a half ago, I'd get it once
a week, I'd get a call abouthalal meat.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
Now I'm getting three , four, five calls a day it's,
really it's really obvious tosee the word halal and the way
they spell.
It really looks like thatarabic with english yeah, it's
got that font to it.
Yeah, and it's usually inyellow writing and stuff okay
but yeah, most things that arelabeled halal and there's a lot
to it.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
I think you just don't realize it, or look for it
in food service it's going tobe stamped on the outside of the
box because it's not retail.
Yeah, in retail it's going tobe on the probably the back of
the package, by the ingredientdeck or by the almost like a uh,
like a nutritional fact exactlylike gluten-free or something
along those lines.
Same difference exactly.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
And and now when you say you, you, you came to me and
I'm not not to crossprofessions for you, but when
you came to me a couple yearsago, we would talk and you would
bring me this beautiful vealfrom this american veal, this
American great product, and thatmeat that you brought me was
quality meat, it was really goodand it really had that American
taste to it, that reallyfucking good black, angus-y,
(10:56):
beefy protein that makes therest of the dish taste good as
well.
Whatever that thing leaks intoyou know, when you have the
protein juices coming out there,some people consider blood when
they call it red meat, thered's meat, it's still blood in
it.
I can see blood.
There's no fucking blood, okay.
So just stop saying there'sblood in your meat, there's no
blood, there's no veins, there'snothing in there carrying blood
, okay.
So that's the protein that kindof leaks from the meat as the
(11:20):
meat cooks.
But that flavor of that rubbingagainst something else is
delicious and you can make ameat that's not so good quality.
You know more of a GMO product,something like that.
Then you can tell thedifference, man.
You can tell it it's waxy, ittastes different.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
I mean, it's like anything, man.
It's like you know, if you getfarm fresh vegetables around
here and cook them in yourrestaurant, they're going to
taste better because they'relocally grown and sourced.
And they're here right, theydidn't travel from across the
country under a controlledenvironment, not picked at
harvest.
Same kind of thing with protein, you know.
Is it a low stress environment?
Is it getting quality food?
Is it being harvested in a waythat, like to your point, is
(12:03):
juicy, is stress-free, like that?
Speaker 1 (12:05):
I mean all those things play a huge role in the
finished product and you, youhave let me tell you this you
have, you can say anything onthis show, because that's what
this show is all about.
It's about the good, the badand the ugly.
Right, um, I'll be the ugly formost time so the uh so when,
what?
What is some?
You have to have seen some ofthese inhumane conditions that
(12:28):
people are always talking about.
Is it really that fucking bad,or what?
Speaker 3 (12:32):
Yeah, it depends what we're talking about.
You know what I mean.
So veal barns, I mean the vealbarns and when I was working for
Strauss, domestic veal,vertically integrated,
controlling the whole processfrom A to Z.
You know what people don'trealize, like in that situation,
is that you know, veal maleHolsteins are a, they're a
byproduct of the dairy industry,so you have to birth male cows,
(12:52):
so you have to do somethingwith it.
So you know, in that process,like you know, taking care of
that from a to z is huge.
Now I've been to some chickenplants back in the day, so hold
on one second.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
Hold on one second.
I'm moving to that fuckingpigsty in a minute.
Speaker 3 (13:05):
Yeah, that pig with feathers, that's a different.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
That's a different animal.
We got to hold on to that one.
So veal?
You said it's a byproduct ofthe dairy industry.
Most people don't understandthis.
When you have multiple malecows, it costs the farm a lot of
money to live them for nothing.
There's going to be too muchcompetition for food for the
other ones.
Is that what you're getting at?
Is that what you're saying?
So when you have a male cow,typical Good Veal is a beef male
(13:34):
right, it's a male cow.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
It's a male cow, male bullstein yep.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
And when you don't have, when you have so much cows
already that you have to feed,take care of.
There's nothing left to do withthe pork.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
Well, they're not producing milk, they're not
going to make you any money.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
They're not producing milk.
Well, they're costing you money.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
They're costing you money actually breed bull cows
to actually and now withgenetics they're getting where
you can actually even drive iteven more to like have a really
good idea of how many likeyou're gonna, how many females
you're gonna actually, as I say,they even it like artificial
insemination and breedingprograms within the.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
That industry is the same as a horse, I mean they're.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
They're breeding for performance and taste and size
and yeah, so they're, they're,they're actually so a lot of
people will say I hear it allthe time the poor baby cow,
da-da-da-da-da, you're actuallyhelping out a farmer and you're
helping out a fellow person inAmerica by buying veal because
they have to do something withthis calf To make money off of
it.
They have to do something.
(14:30):
They have to survive.
The calf has a duty.
There's nothing they can dowith it.
They're not just going to letit free and roam the
neighborhood.
And what are you going to?
Speaker 3 (14:38):
do with it when you look back at the 80s and if
people remember the commercialsfrom the 80s with the pita and
you have these little containersand the arms of an angel.
I mean, honestly, who wouldreally want to eat that?
I mean you're like, wow, that'sa really horrible situation.
That's not what veal is today.
You know veal is today is acontrolled environment.
In this barn that basically haslike a plastic floor to it,
(14:59):
that the atmosphere iscompletely controlled.
They're getting milk fed,they're getting grain fed.
I mean they're living anunbelievably good life.
Until you know, everybody meetstheir maker at the end of the
day, right, you know, that's oneway to do it.
So that's how Strauss did it.
Strauss did it in a very humaneway.
Now you have other producersout there that actually harvest
that animal within a week ofbeing born because they don't
(15:21):
want to pay for it, they don'twant to raise them, they don't
have the capacity to do it.
So then you have Bob Veal.
So you really kind of have toknow what you want, what you
want to serve in your restaurant.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Bob Veal has become very popular amongst people who
don't know what they're buying.
Speaker 3 (15:37):
It's a lot cheaper.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
In restaurants out there who are putting veal on
their menu are using that typeof veal.
It hasn't even had time todevelop yet at all to have a
muscle structure.
So nine times out of ten it'sreally tough because it hasn't
had time to fucking massage outor anything.
It's a tense little guy.
I'm a huge fan of veal.
I love veal.
When prepared properly, it'sgood.
(15:59):
When it's not prepared right,it's not like anything.
But when veal is good and it'son, it's absolutely delicious.
It's absolutely humane to eatbecause there's no need to make
this animal grow longer andstruggle longer in a climate or
condition that it doesn't needto be in.
So if the farmer doesn't haveaccess to make this thing have a
decent life, at least make it'snot.
It doesn't need to be in.
So if the farmer doesn't haveaccess to make this thing have a
(16:20):
decent life, at least make itslife worthwhile by eating it
deliciously.
Exactly, you know.
You know, good veal chop iswith a little bit of rosemary, a
little bit of fucking trufflegot it here man it's worth it.
Yeah, that life was worth it.
Speaker 3 (16:29):
Animal well, that veal, what do you got the veal?
Speaker 1 (16:31):
chop melanase on the on the menu I got the melanase
right now I have.
Uh yeah, we have what's betterthan that.
We got the salt and basil,which is a traditional Roman
dish.
I mean, that's it right there.
If I could be anything elseother than me, I'd probably be a
piece of veal.
Speaker 3 (16:45):
You'd have a short life, but It'd be short.
It wouldn't be delicious,though you wouldn't have to
worry about much.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
I'd be pounded out.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
Maybe that's the angle you were trying to go for.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
Pound it out, man.
You know what I'm saying.
You got to pound it.
I think he just wanted to bepounded.
I think so too.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
I think that's what it is.
Speaker 3 (17:02):
That might be it for another podcast.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
Let's get to this fucking dirty bird.
Let's get to the dirty bird.
Let's get to the dirty chicken.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
It's been a while since I've been to a harvesting
facility, but it is, uh, not thebest.
Speaker 3 (17:22):
You know what I mean.
It's not the best, especiallywhen you look at the eastern
shore virginia and maryland, bro.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
That's where a lot of it smells better than it looks
it looks better than it smells.
I think the other way around.
It's so bad, those fuckingskeleton birds of fucking.
You know they're so massproduced.
Now that's where I worry aboutthe gmo stuff, not so much in
the cows.
A cow still has to grow, itstill has to be an animal, it
still has to develop bonestructure and get big enough to
carry meat and live a littlewhile.
So at least it's a living thing.
I think a fucking chicken and Ilove chicken, don't get me
(17:47):
wrong.
Chicken's one of my favoritemeats.
But I got to eat an organic,good chicken.
Speaker 3 (17:55):
Well, that's thing I will tell you.
I buy air-chilled chicken theright, like Bell and Evans type,
deal I always along that route.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
Spend the extra money .
Speaker 3 (18:02):
Spend the extra money .
Speaker 1 (18:03):
You can taste the difference, you feel better when
you eat that too.
Speaker 3 (18:07):
It's just better for you.
It's better for your family.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
If chicken was a fish , it'd be a tilapia of meat.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
Slithering through the fucking field.
Oh yeah, dude, that is a greatway to put it, that's really
good.
Yeah, chicken is the tilapia.
Commodity chicken is thetilapia, yeah, so people tilapia
.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
See if I can start anything.
Man, I'm trying to put a ban ontilapia.
I hate it.
Modified fake food in the worldand when I go to a restaurant
and literally people put it ontheir menu, I want to shake them
and say dude, you even knowwhat a tilapia is?
First of all, for all you whodon't know, it's not even a fish
.
Tilapia is not a breed of fish.
(18:47):
It is a multiple breed of anycrap fish that lives in the
tilapia region.
So it gains its name becausetilapia is a region and any fish
that came from that region wascalled tilapia.
So now they took the name ontilapia and this tilapia is in
this pacific.
It's disgusting.
And they fucking do it insewage pits and all that stuff.
(19:07):
They they didn't raise them insewage pitch.
These fish just evolved in them, almost like when you find a
pond with a bunch of frogs in it.
You don't know where the frogscame from.
No one put them there.
That's how this is.
So they rice paddies that arestagnant, sewage plants, these
things in Southeast Asia andstuff like that where these type
(19:28):
of fish live.
So they took the name tilapiaand put it on a breed of fish
that they genetically modified,and that fish really doesn't
exist.
Speaker 3 (19:38):
It looks like a carp almost.
You know it's like a car.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
It's just disgusting and it's, it's that fish is made
yeah totally to give you theirbottom feeders, but they're only
eating the bottom of whatevercesspool that they're living
other and and I'm totallyagainst that, yeah, I am totally
against it.
And people say oh, it's good,good, good that is the funny
thing?
Speaker 3 (19:58):
Go, get your tilapia taco.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
I really like tilapia .
Well, they still sell it at thegrocery store.
They have breaded tilapia.
It's the most sold and consumedfish in America and I stopped
eating it probably about 10years ago.
That's why you're still livinglife and feeling good, and why
you're beautiful in your age andwhy you're aging good, Because
if we were eating tilapia dude,forget it We'd be 60 years old.
(20:19):
I'll eat it out of.
You know.
Again, it was cheap and it wasprotein.
When I was trainingfitness-wise it was like just
get as much cheap protein as youcan, which usually ends up
being cheap chicken and cheaptilapia, and you start to
develop these like foodsensitivities to those.
(20:40):
So I couldn't eat chicken foryears without getting sick, and
now I've.
Obviously we buy all organicEverything is, you know,
whatever and I'm fine eating itnow.
But if you eat too much of thatand you're starting to feel
sick, it's not because you'renot.
You know, just buy it, justspend five bucks more and get
the better food.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
Yeah, that's right, exactly, and that's a lot of
people make you sick if you eattoo much of it.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
I don't care what everybody says.
Yeah, it does.
Over time, your body starts toreject it.
Ask anyone in the fitnessindustry in the 2000s you start
getting slimy, slime ball.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
Stop eating that crap .
So back to lamb, One of myfavorite animals.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
We weren't even on lamb yet, but let's get to it.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Let's get on lamb.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
Let's get on lamb, let's do it.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
Yeah right.
Speaker 3 (21:19):
We're not even on lamb yet.
She did it Sorry.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
I had to do it, that was perfect.
Speaker 3 (21:22):
That was quick.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
So we have this lamb.
I love lamb, I love cookinglamb, and the reason I like lamb
is because it's a skilled meatto cook.
Yeah, okay, you can eitherreally fucking make it amazing
or it can turn your day intohell if you don't know what
you're doing because, some guy,somebody will cook the same cut
absolutely amazing.
And you can cut that same cut,cook it and it comes out tough,
(21:48):
chewy, greasy, oily, whatever.
It all depends on your time andtemperature and then what
you're doing with it and yourunderstanding of how lamb cooks
and that each cut of lamb, eachmuscle on that animal is unlike
any other animal.
Besides a pig, pork also has.
Their muscle groups are sodifferent.
You get the flavor out of apork jowl.
(22:09):
It's totally different than thebacon or totally different than
the rump right.
Same thing with lamb.
Depending on where you'reeating whether you're eating the
shank or the roast or whateverit is the rack you're getting
totally different flavors.
You know the rack is going togive you more of.
If you cook that right on thegrill, you're going to get more
of a beefy type of texture moreof a beefy type of taste,
(22:30):
whereas if you're going to cut,you know the shank.
You're going to get more of thatlamby or the.
You know that that good gamey,gamey flavor.
So no matter where you are onthe lamb, you're going to have a
different experience.
So if you really know how tocook lamb right, you can get all
kinds of different flavors.
You can make sauces, ragus,bologneses, stews uh,
spezzatinos in Italian where youcan do, you know, oven roasts
(22:52):
um slow cook sous vide.
There's a million ways you cancook lamb.
For me to find lamb, though, asa chef and a restaurant owner,
is the hardest meat to findbecause it's so fucking
expensive, or you're going toget the shit you can afford and
it's the tilapia on four feet.
You see what I'm saying.
So are you getting a bad goat?
(23:13):
You don't even know because youdon't know.
So in your experience, john,how about when you go like, are
you seeing the difference?
The Colorado lamb?
I think you turned me on to thefarmer back in the day.
I'm still getting that productand it is a domestic huge lamb
rack and it's beautiful.
Now it's pricey and it costs mycustomers money, because it
costs me money and my profitmargin is small.
(23:34):
But we're talking about a $65menu item of pure luxury.
This isn't something you'reeating frugally or on a diet.
This is something you're comingto eat to experience, and that
product is delicious.
Now compare that Coloradoprivate farmed meat that I get
to a new zealand or a new uh, anew zealand lamb where the rack
(23:57):
shrinks down spider or australia.
Speaker 3 (23:59):
Australians are a little bigger too, right.
Um, you know, I think peoplecome out to eat and will spend
more money, like you're saying,for an expert like you or your
team to cook something like that, where they know they're going
to cook it right every time andit's going to be delicious
because it is finicky.
It is a finicky meat you got tobe really careful about, you
got to pay attention to it.
You can't walk away from it.
You gotta you gotta really dialinto like once that temperature
starts taking because it's solean.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
Once you start taking temperature and the heat starts
running through the meat, it'sgoing to continue to grow until
you stop it.
It's not going to have there'snot like a lot of fats that will
cool it down as it goes.
So is the breed of a newzealand lamb I think people want
to know this or Australian lambrather, a lot of people get
their lamb from Australia, okay.
Or New Zealand New Zealand'sbig New Zealand's big.
Speaker 3 (24:40):
Both are big.
It really comes down to flavorprofile and it really comes down
to sizing, like you're talkingabout.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
Is the breed itself a smaller breed, or are they not
letting them grow as big it?
Speaker 3 (24:49):
is a smaller breed and they aren't.
You know it just depends on theseason because you know, just
like here we're talking aboutwith beef, you know you get
droughts, you get all theseother, all these other
situations that you can'tcontrol.
So it depends on the weather alot on when they're going to go
to harvest.
You know it also goes likewhere's the pricing on these
things right now?
So if they know that they canmake more money on a larger
animal, they're going to letthem grow longer.
So it's, it really comes downto supply and demand also, um,
(25:12):
you know the grasses aredifferent in New Zealand than
Australia in here.
So flavor profile-wise, youknow, and you get that big
lanolin is really what givesthat.
That wool really gives it thatgamey flavor profile.
So New Zealand is definitelygoing to have smaller, smaller
lambs.
Australia saw what was going onin the domestic market here and
they let their lambs grow biggerso that they could sell that
(25:33):
bigger eye chop that you talkabout, that you're talking about
from colorado.
But here domestically, what youhave is their grass, their
eight.
They eat grass, they finish ongrain.
So what happens is is that it'smore leaning towards beef
people.
You know, here in the unitedstates they definitely like a
domestic lamb a little bit morebecause it eats a more mild than
(25:54):
a new zealand or an or anAustralia, new Zealand probably
is the most pungent and thenAustralia is definitely in
between here in the domestic andimported.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
So if that makes sense, yeah, definitely.
Oh, it makes plenty of sense.
So this is the educationalstuff I like to have people
listen to.
A lot of people have questionswhat's the difference between
New Zealand, Australian,domestic American To me, my
favorite out of the three and Ican't say this because they all
produce at let's talk about thehighest levels, because every
country produces the bottomlevels and they have their
(26:26):
different levels as they gothrough, depending where you are
.
Let's talk about the highestlevels.
I'm still an American lamb guyat the highest level.
Speaker 3 (26:34):
Although.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
New Zealand's got some really nice clean, and
Australia, to me, is the leastgamey.
And then you've got New Zealandcoming up and then it goes
into—that's for me.
Am I wrong in saying that?
Speaker 3 (26:43):
No, no, I mean, listen, it gets very subjective
too right, like in what you want, what you want to serve, what
you like to eat.
Some people like a gamey or alamb, some people don't you,
some people don't.
You know what I mean.
It all depends on what you'relooking for and what your
expectations are, and reallywhat your customers'
expectations are.
Speaker 1 (26:57):
Sure, yeah, the gamey thing is what turns a lot of
customers off and some justaren't ready for it.
Speaker 3 (27:04):
Some people absolutely love it, depending on
where you are in the world.
I think someone can come to arestaurant like this though a
higher-end fine-diningrestaurant, and have something a
little more gamey with someonewith your expertise.
Pairs those sauces, pairs allthat to make it this beautiful
dining experience.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
Sure, the game is part of it and you have to
enhance it.
You do, and you have to balanceit.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
The best, I mean one of your best lasagnas ever still
was that lamb.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
I think it was tarragon and something else Lamb
, tarragon roasted fennel oh thefennel, that was good, oh my
gosh.
Speaker 2 (27:32):
Still hands down to date probably one of my top
three dishes that he has made,because it was just the flavor
on that was so insane that itwas just like it was stupid.
I still remember that that waslike 10 years ago.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
I tried to actually follow that again and I couldn't
because I forgot how I made it.
I was trying to go off,remember?
It's one of those things I madeit.
We're going to try again.
You know what I mean.
I was just in my zone andeverything was hitting perfect.
I remember making that lasagnabecause it had a batch of fennel
that was fresh local.
The fennel was so fucking goodthat I made the lasagna for the
(28:08):
fennel more so than the lamb,but the lamb actually worked so
good with the whole dish thatcould have won awards.
Speaker 3 (28:14):
For sure, I made the lasagna because of the fennel.
No one ever said that in theworld before the first person.
I ever said that that's right.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
The roasted fennel was good and I wanted a way to
work it and I made this lasagnaand roasted lamb and put that in
the lasagna and everything justto enhance this fennel.
And the fennel was so fuckingsweet and I think that's what.
That's what you're not.
You don't realize the actualflavor.
That was that sweet fennel no,I realized all the.
Speaker 2 (28:39):
I'm just saying that was one of the things that was
different about it, and that'swhy it stuck out in the memory.
That is the coolest thing aboutlike cooking.
Speaker 3 (28:47):
Yeah, about sourcing unbelievably great ingredients
yeah, is that you take somethingthat's like yeah you take
something that's not center ofthe plate, it's not the focus,
but you make it the focus, yeah,and then you've got this
phenomenal dish that I mean,people don't even know why that
she's still talking about.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
Yeah, it's great and I love that and so anytime that
you have like you, I get fucking.
I call you for stuff.
I mean, you've called me for acouple things here and there,
for for tips and stuff, and itworked out both ways great.
But you've turned me on to somegreat demi uh ways and some
some extractions of marrow, andthere's a lot of things that you
have knowledge in and I thinkthat the meat industry, or
(29:23):
whatever it is you're workingwith, gets a huge benefit having
you there.
So anyone in the market who'sout there listening wants the
knowledge on meat.
If you're purchasing, buying,where can they find you?
Speaker 3 (29:33):
is are you findable, are you?
Yeah, of course I'm on.
I mean LinkedIn.
Speaker 1 (29:36):
Go to LinkedIn, yeah if you want to go to LinkedIn.
If they want to get a productyou represent, is that a thing?
Speaker 3 (29:40):
Yeah, absolutely.
I mean we've got nationaldistribution.
We import to the East Coast andthe West Coast.
You can find me on LinkedIn.
You can connect through you.
I mean I give my phone number.
If you want it like, give me acall.
You know what I mean, let's go.
But we've got nationaldistribution.
So we work with all the majordistributors in the united
states and then we work with themeat guys.
Um, so yeah, you can find mefor sure and you're always on
(30:02):
the quest to do better.
Speaker 1 (30:03):
I know that about you , and you're always on the quest
to find the next you want to,you want to surround yourself
with quality.
Speaker 3 (30:08):
Well, yeah, I mean, you know, the thing too is I'm
lucky because I get to travelaround the country, so I get to
go to major cities and eat atgreat restaurants and experience
phenomenal dishes like you'retalking about, and then bring
that back and bring a value tolike when we have in
conversations like, oh, I ate atthis place in chicago, right
here, here was something thathappened.
Like you know, I like to sharethat experience, I like to share
that knowledge because itsparks imagination and sparks
(30:29):
creativity for others too.
You know what?
I mean sure, so I try to bringthat that exactly well, listen
man I'm fucking honored you'rehere.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
We love it.
Great talking.
I love talking about meat, allthe meat sweats.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
We all love meat.
Speaker 1 (30:40):
So we need to make a t-shirt or something up that
says fucking meat sweats Meatsweats.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
let's do it Meat sweats.
Speaker 3 (30:46):
How much meat do you eat?
Speaker 1 (30:52):
We eat meat almost every day, man.
We eat for you.
Just take samples and stuffyour fucking feet.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
Yeah, do you get to taste?
No, not like that.
Speaker 3 (30:57):
I mean I get some of it because I'm kind of the
corporate chef too, so I mean, Iabsolutely work with the
products.
Like you know, next week I gota major presentation, like I was
telling you, so I'm going tomake a lamb ragu for next week
I'm going to make a bra, andthen we're going to make beer
tacos for everybody.
So, I like to expand it into somany different areas, middle
(31:20):
Eastern, whatever it might be.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
Nothing sucks about anything you just said.
Speaker 3 (31:22):
Nothing sucks about the taste of anything.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
Except the fact that I won't be there eating it.
Speaker 2 (31:26):
Except you're not delivering it here.
Speaker 1 (31:28):
Lamb ragu, that's my shit, Lamb ragu.
So bonny.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
Shredded, roasted oh, it's so good man, a little whip
fat on top.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
I eat red meat probably six days a week, twice
a day I do.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
I eat like 100% and it's funny, a lot of the people
you know I mean if you eat toomuch of this, I'm like now, if
it's quality, it doesn't affectyou the same way with your
health.
So take your blood work, changeyour diet and see if you're
eating quality meat, you can eatmeat.
I mean, I like I do.
I probably eat red meat.
I do eat it every day, if nottwice a day, which is most
people are like no, no, toothmelt, I just don't that's it.
Speaker 3 (32:05):
That's all I do.
You know you want to eatquality.
You want quality.
Speaker 2 (32:08):
I just I spend a lot of money on on meat, that's I
mean.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
I am good for it, so just spend money on the meat.
Speaker 2 (32:14):
that's the the bottom line of today Spend the money
on the meat.
Speaker 1 (32:16):
Spend the money.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
Get good meat no seriously.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
When you go to a restaurant, stop bitching about
prices.
It's not going backwards.
Here's something else I like toend this with Stop bitching
about the fucking prices of food.
Stop bitching that restaurantsare jacking up their prices.
Nobody wants to do this food asmuch as possible, and we also
know that it can only go so highwhere people can't afford to
(32:39):
come out.
So we're in the same boat asyou.
We need everyone to stopraising prices too, so we don't
have to raise them on you.
Unfortunately, we have to.
If you want quality, if you wantgood stuff, if you want the
education of the people cookingit, you have to pay for it.
Don't skimp on paying for it.
Eating is one of the bestfucking forms of entertainment
there is, so just don't skimp onit.
I mean, I understand people areon a budget, don't get me wrong
.
Not everybody has the money tojust go throw out.
(33:00):
But every once in a while, goto a restaurant and treat
yourself and don't bitch aboutthe price.
Celebrate the price, becauseit's the only way you're going
to fucking get it.
Speaker 2 (33:08):
There's a lot that goes into it.
Speaker 1 (33:09):
If you don't, if You're never going to get it,
it's never going to go backwards.
We're not changing.
That's the way it is.
Speaker 2 (33:16):
Be about it, don't bitch about it, that's right,
all right Beth that's it for now.
Speaker 1 (33:22):
Ciao for now.
Speaker 2 (33:24):
Ciao.
Welcome to the Burnt Hands Perspective Welcome back.
This is a very serious moment.
Go ahead say it, Start it off.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Welcome back to the Burnt Hands Perspective.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
There it is Very solid.
This is my man, John.
Me and John go way back.
We're going to talk meat today.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
We're talking meat.
We're talking meat, one of myfavorite topics.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
But first let me tell you something.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
John can cook now.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
See, that's why I like talking to him, because
when I talk to him about meat,he knows what the fuck he's
talking about.
He comes from a cookingperspective, not just a fucking
salesman of meat.
Or someone who's just trying tosell their product as the best.
Any product he touches andworks with Is the best, because
he knows what a good product is.
So I know I can always call John.
I call John about stuff I don'teven fucking.
I know he doesn't even dealwith.
Hey, what do you know aboutthis?
Can you help me out with this?
You got a guy for this andtypically it's yes, you know
your meat, your meat Dinner'sdangling for you.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
Dinner's dangling brother.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
You got it right, so we cooked together way back in
the day we're talking, 20 yearsago.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Well, 20, that's coming up on 26 years, yikes.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
If we could squeeze six years off it, I'm fine with
that too, though you know what Imean If we want to make it 20.
Y'all just try it and getyounger.
I'll take six years.
I'm trying hard.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
So anyway, john, so you have a really good Italian
history Back to you.
You cook a lot of Italian food,you've always been around
Italian people wild, and, uh,you know, we've even played
hockey together.
So we, we've, uh, we've, we'vehad some time together in the
day, but I think we had a couplecocktails together at some
point once or twice.
Yeah, we had one and then twothe ones you can remember yeah,
(01:32):
so yeah, we've had some goodtimes.
Now, bro, listen, you are now.
Give us a little background.
I just gave you a littlehistory with me, with you, in a
very short term, but what isyour history when it comes to
cooking, transferring ortransitioning over to the, to
the sales end of everything, andbeing a purveyor?
Give us your little lineup yeah, I mean ultimately.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
At the end of the day , my dad wanted me to get a job
and work and make some money, sohe'd have to pay for everything
.
So I started washing dishes at13, man that's how I broke into
this whole thing and thenrealized that that wasn't the
the greatest path either.
So just worked hard throughoutand, uh, you know, worked
kitchens, ran kitchens, um, gotup into the point where, you
know, my best friend's dadworked in the sales side of the
industry.
I love the culinary aspect ofit, but for me I looked at it
(02:13):
was like you know what I needed,a more of a professional path
to, uh, you know, just to seewhat was available for me out
there with my knowledge, um, soI got into the sales side of
things in 2000 with a broker.
A broker represents multiplemanufacturers.
We're out there running thosegoods and services out there to
clients like yourself all aroundthe Baltimore DC market.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
That's a big market.
It's a huge market.
It's a huge market and there'sa lot of competition because
there's a lot of people tryingto sell that great product to
that great market.
So that gives you a lot offighting there.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
Well it does, and you've got a lot of regional
chains there.
You've got a lot of nationalchains that are based there too.
So there's a lot of opportunity, there's a lot of action, a lot
of college university.
I just kept working my way upand then I got in the
manufacturer side of things andthat's really where, for me,
where I can have most influence,um, knowledge, expertise, that
sort of thing.
So I bring my culinary aspect,which I'm still learning, uh,
today.
I mean, obviously we were justtalking about it, right, let's
(03:10):
talk about sauce, we're justtalking about all those
different things to continue todo.
So I've been, uh I've been onthe sales side of it, on the
manufacturer side of it now forlike 15 years.
Um, and really, what I bring?
I bring my contacts and I bringuh ideas and products to guys
like you and other people aroundthe country, giving them
expertise on what our productsdo.
So now I work for a companycalled Pilot Trading.
(03:30):
We import lamb and beef fromAustralia, new Zealand, real,
high quality stuff.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Nice.
So in order to do that, youhave to first understand your
own country's product, which youhave.
You have a lot of backgroundand I've seen you grow from,
like you said at the beginningof this, where you're dealing
with a lot of chains and a lotof things like that, to where
the product there is a littlebit different, and then you you
progressed into more fineproduct right.
So now you're more of aprofessional and more of a.
(03:57):
Your expertise is more on thefiner product that you're
putting out there.
You're not purveying garbage no,no, no, we wouldn't be hanging
out talking much if you were,because I'm not a garbage guy,
you know what I mean, so neitherare you.
But so when you're talkingabout the veals and uh in the,
you know now you're going toaustralia.
That's a good topic, becausewe're going to talk about a
little bit.
What I really want to talkabout is how the meat market has
(04:19):
changed so much in the lastjust decade because of the mass
amount of people that we have tofeed.
You know we're talking about.
Everybody wants grass-fed orthe natural or, you know,
non-gmo or organic.
And is it even fucking possibleto be honest with you with the
amount of people that need toeat meat daily?
(04:42):
Think about one fucking townworth right what.
What if we had one town and onefarm to satisfy that town?
That wouldn't even happen.
You know how many fucking cowsyou need to satisfy a thousand
people on a normal day-to-daybasis.
So how do you produce thisstuff and how do people produce
this stuff?
Where do you go for this realmeat that you want?
How much of it really is outthere.
(05:02):
You know what I mean.
As a chef, I can pick andchoose my purveyor, but as a
consumer, how the fuck do youknow where this meat's coming
from, man.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
Well, I mean you know , you got to read your labels,
you got to read your packages,you got to do your research.
I mean just like everythingelse we do.
When you go to the store andyou look at the back of a cereal
box or whatever it might be,what ingredients are in there.
Well, I mean you got to look at, you know where's your meat
coming from.
You know, is it coming fromaustralia, new zealand?
Is it domestic?
Is it coming from uruguay?
Is it coming from brazil?
I mean it's.
You know we import here, um onbeef and lamb and veal from so
(05:35):
many different countries outsidethe united states more so than
the united states right, yeah,more so the united states
absolutely so we.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
We get more beef and veal from out of the country
than we do with our own country.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
I mean it's close, man.
I mean it's starting to get tothe point where we can't keep up
with domestic demand.
Herds are down, there's droughtsituations, you know.
Feed has gone up, so farmersare really reluctant to rebuild
their herds because of the costof everything.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
You said something to me smart, and it's made sense
to to me a lot and it reallyopened my eyes a minute.
You told me one time maybe itwas earlier, but you, you told
me that you knew somebody whowas in the beef game and they
ended up selling their farm andrealizing they made more money.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
So go ahead, touch on that, because it starts at the
farm well, I mean, I think covidhad a huge influence on a lot
of this, you know what I mean.
And then you had droughtconditions and and then you had,
like we said, feed has gone up.
So I think farmers are reallystarting to take a look at their
business.
They're looking at their family.
They're looking at their kids.
Do they want their kids to takethis over?
Most of the time, the kidsdon't want to take this over.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
So the family generational farm.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
It's a different era.
It's a make a lot of money onit you know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
So just want instant gratification.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
It's 100% well, it's not like us growing up, where we
would go out and bang out two,three jobs to make money all the
time.
Now kids don't want to do.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
I used to ride a bicycle with a fucking lawnmower
tied to the bike like fuckingnapoleon dynamite with a little
he-man out the back of the truck.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
I had a fucking lawnmower like that, anything I
could well, I was shovelingdrivers, I was cutting grass, I
I was delivering paper, whateverwe could do, right, to make
some cash.
So really, farmers kind of tooka look at like, okay, I own
this amount of acreage, thisamount of land, how much is this
worth?
Worth?
Way more than what they'remaking could make, probably in
10 years.
So they look at it and say youknow what?
I'm going to create somegenerational wealth for my
(07:16):
family.
I'm going to take a littlebreak from the hard farming I've
been doing for 30, 40, 50 yearsand sell off that land.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
Right, so that's kind of where that's at.
So, with that being said,that's even taking away the
percentage now of more meatsbeing made here.
That's yeah.
So when you're going to NewZealand, now that you work with
New Zealand and you saidAustralia, right, so the farming
practices, the laws, all thatstuff, are they that much
different from here?
Speaker 3 (07:43):
So it's funny, we talk about regenerative farming.
You've got a lot of thesesmaller farms talking about
regenerative farming now in theUnited States.
So more land management, waterrunoff, fertilizers, those sort
of things grass-fed,grass-finished.
You know, when you look atAustralia and New Zealand, those
are practices that they've hadsince the beginning.
They never changed, they neverwent to that factory farming.
So everything in Australia forthe most part is grass-fed
(08:04):
grass-finished.
Like 85% of that is grass-fedgrass-finished, because it's the
only process they really know.
That's the only process theyreally know it's all
pasture-raised.
You know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
So it's not a matter of convenience, it's just a
matter of ritual.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
Yeah, more or less, yeah, absolutely, where we
stories of like okay, this farmover here in the midwest is
really making sure that landmanagement is a huge part of
what they're doing.
They're making sure they're notoverworking the land and
telling that story over there.
They're not.
So everything over there isantibiotic hormone free for the
most part.
Everything's certified halal.
Now, which is amazing, theamount of halal meat that's
(08:38):
coming and what is that?
Speaker 1 (08:39):
for those who don't know, what is hal?
Speaker 3 (08:41):
So halal is a slaughtering practice and it's
from Islamic.
It's Islamic rule.
Right Rule is really what itcomes down to at the end of the
day.
So you know, most of the meatcoming in from Australia and New
Zealand is all halal, and nowmore of that in the United
States.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
It's more of a humane practice, correct, it is more
of a humane practice, so theyslaughter them.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
You know, facing Mecca and that whole thing they
go across the throat type deal.
So they're not stunning,they're not doing any of that.
It's definitely a more humanepractice.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
And not only that when you slaughter like that,
the animal doesn't have time totense up To stress up.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
It's more of a relaxing.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
It's going to cook better.
It cooks more tender.
Halal beef actually does cookbetter.
Even ground beef obviously doescome out a little bit.
It renders differently.
It has a much more beef taste.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
Well, you're not shocking the animal, Right?
You know what I mean.
A lot of times here we'reshocking the animal and that
really leads to that tensing ofthe muscles Right Once it's
tense it doesn't release.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
I mean, those muscle fibers do this.
It's hard to release.
Speaker 3 (09:46):
You know it's.
So now there's, uh, there are,there are stamps on the uh you
know from a retail perspective.
It will say if it's halal, sothere's a certification.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
I haven't seen that anywhere, I mean I guess in
commercial, you know, for you'regoing to start seeing more and
more.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
A year ago, a year and a half ago, I'd get it once
a week, I'd get a call abouthalal meat.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
Now I'm getting three , four, five calls a day it's,
really it's really obvious tosee the word halal and the way
they spell.
It really looks like thatarabic with english yeah, it's
got that font to it.
Yeah, and it's usually inyellow writing and stuff okay
but yeah, most things that arelabeled halal and there's a lot
to it.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
I think you just don't realize it, or look for it
in food service it's going tobe stamped on the outside of the
box because it's not retail.
Yeah, in retail it's going tobe on the probably the back of
the package, by the ingredientdeck or by the almost like a uh,
like a nutritional fact exactlylike gluten-free or something
along those lines.
Same difference exactly.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
And and now when you say you, you, you came to me and
I'm not not to crossprofessions for you, but when
you came to me a couple yearsago, we would talk and you would
bring me this beautiful vealfrom this american veal, this
American great product, and thatmeat that you brought me was
quality meat, it was really goodand it really had that American
taste to it, that reallyfucking good black, angus-y,
(10:56):
beefy protein that makes therest of the dish taste good as
well.
Whatever that thing leaks intoyou know, when you have the
protein juices coming out there,some people consider blood when
they call it red meat, thered's meat, it's still blood in
it.
I can see blood.
There's no fucking blood, okay.
So just stop saying there'sblood in your meat, there's no
blood, there's no veins, there'snothing in there carrying blood
, okay.
So that's the protein that kindof leaks from the meat as the
(11:20):
meat cooks.
But that flavor of that rubbingagainst something else is
delicious and you can make ameat that's not so good quality.
You know more of a GMO product,something like that.
Then you can tell thedifference, man.
You can tell it it's waxy, ittastes different.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
I mean, it's like anything, man.
It's like you know, if you getfarm fresh vegetables around
here and cook them in yourrestaurant, they're going to
taste better because they'relocally grown and sourced.
And they're here right, theydidn't travel from across the
country under a controlledenvironment, not picked at
harvest.
Same kind of thing with protein, you know.
Is it a low stress environment?
Is it getting quality food?
Is it being harvested in a waythat, like to your point, is
(12:03):
juicy, is stress-free, like that?
Speaker 1 (12:05):
I mean all those things play a huge role in the
finished product and you, youhave let me tell you this you
have, you can say anything onthis show, because that's what
this show is all about.
It's about the good, the badand the ugly.
Right, um, I'll be the ugly formost time so the uh so when,
what?
What is some?
You have to have seen some ofthese inhumane conditions that
(12:28):
people are always talking about.
Is it really that fucking bad,or what?
Speaker 3 (12:32):
Yeah, it depends what we're talking about.
You know what I mean.
So veal barns, I mean the vealbarns and when I was working for
Strauss, domestic veal,vertically integrated,
controlling the whole processfrom A to Z.
You know what people don'trealize, like in that situation,
is that you know, veal maleHolsteins are a, they're a
byproduct of the dairy industry,so you have to birth male cows,
(12:52):
so you have to do somethingwith it.
So you know, in that process,like you know, taking care of
that from a to z is huge.
Now I've been to some chickenplants back in the day, so hold
on one second.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
Hold on one second.
I'm moving to that fuckingpigsty in a minute.
Speaker 3 (13:05):
Yeah, that pig with feathers, that's a different.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
That's a different animal.
We got to hold on to that one.
So veal?
You said it's a byproduct ofthe dairy industry.
Most people don't understandthis.
When you have multiple malecows, it costs the farm a lot of
money to live them for nothing.
There's going to be too muchcompetition for food for the
other ones.
Is that what you're getting at?
Is that what you're saying?
So when you have a male cow,typical Good Veal is a beef male
(13:34):
right, it's a male cow.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
It's a male cow, male bullstein yep.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
And when you don't have, when you have so much cows
already that you have to feed,take care of.
There's nothing left to do withthe pork.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
Well, they're not producing milk, they're not
going to make you any money.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
They're not producing milk.
Well, they're costing you money.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
They're costing you money actually breed bull cows
to actually and now withgenetics they're getting where
you can actually even drive iteven more to like have a really
good idea of how many likeyou're gonna, how many females
you're gonna actually, as I say,they even it like artificial
insemination and breedingprograms within the.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
That industry is the same as a horse, I mean they're.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
They're breeding for performance and taste and size
and yeah, so they're, they're,they're actually so a lot of
people will say I hear it allthe time the poor baby cow,
da-da-da-da-da, you're actuallyhelping out a farmer and you're
helping out a fellow person inAmerica by buying veal because
they have to do something withthis calf To make money off of
it.
They have to do something.
(14:30):
They have to survive.
The calf has a duty.
There's nothing they can dowith it.
They're not just going to letit free and roam the
neighborhood.
And what are you going to?
Speaker 3 (14:38):
do with it when you look back at the 80s and if
people remember the commercialsfrom the 80s with the pita and
you have these little containersand the arms of an angel.
I mean, honestly, who wouldreally want to eat that?
I mean you're like, wow, that'sa really horrible situation.
That's not what veal is today.
You know veal is today is acontrolled environment.
In this barn that basically haslike a plastic floor to it,
(14:59):
that the atmosphere iscompletely controlled.
They're getting milk fed,they're getting grain fed.
I mean they're living anunbelievably good life.
Until you know, everybody meetstheir maker at the end of the
day, right, you know, that's oneway to do it.
So that's how Strauss did it.
Strauss did it in a very humaneway.
Now you have other producersout there that actually harvest
that animal within a week ofbeing born because they don't
(15:21):
want to pay for it, they don'twant to raise them, they don't
have the capacity to do it.
So then you have Bob Veal.
So you really kind of have toknow what you want, what you
want to serve in your restaurant.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Bob Veal has become very popular amongst people who
don't know what they're buying.
Speaker 3 (15:37):
It's a lot cheaper.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
In restaurants out there who are putting veal on
their menu are using that typeof veal.
It hasn't even had time todevelop yet at all to have a
muscle structure.
So nine times out of ten it'sreally tough because it hasn't
had time to fucking massage outor anything.
It's a tense little guy.
I'm a huge fan of veal.
I love veal.
When prepared properly, it'sgood.
(15:59):
When it's not prepared right,it's not like anything.
But when veal is good and it'son, it's absolutely delicious.
It's absolutely humane to eatbecause there's no need to make
this animal grow longer andstruggle longer in a climate or
condition that it doesn't needto be in.
So if the farmer doesn't haveaccess to make this thing have a
decent life, at least make it'snot.
It doesn't need to be in.
So if the farmer doesn't haveaccess to make this thing have a
(16:20):
decent life, at least make itslife worthwhile by eating it
deliciously.
Exactly, you know.
You know, good veal chop iswith a little bit of rosemary, a
little bit of fucking trufflegot it here man it's worth it.
Yeah, that life was worth it.
Speaker 3 (16:29):
Animal well, that veal, what do you got the veal?
Speaker 1 (16:31):
chop melanase on the on the menu I got the melanase
right now I have.
Uh yeah, we have what's betterthan that.
We got the salt and basil,which is a traditional Roman
dish.
I mean, that's it right there.
If I could be anything elseother than me, I'd probably be a
piece of veal.
Speaker 3 (16:45):
You'd have a short life, but It'd be short.
It wouldn't be delicious,though you wouldn't have to
worry about much.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
I'd be pounded out.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
Maybe that's the angle you were trying to go for.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
Pound it out, man.
You know what I'm saying.
You got to pound it.
I think he just wanted to bepounded.
I think so too.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
I think that's what it is.
Speaker 3 (17:02):
That might be it for another podcast.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
Let's get to this fucking dirty bird.
Let's get to the dirty bird.
Let's get to the dirty chicken.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
It's been a while since I've been to a harvesting
facility, but it is, uh, not thebest.
Speaker 3 (17:22):
You know what I mean.
It's not the best, especiallywhen you look at the eastern
shore virginia and maryland, bro.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
That's where a lot of it smells better than it looks
it looks better than it smells.
I think the other way around.
It's so bad, those fuckingskeleton birds of fucking.
You know they're so massproduced.
Now that's where I worry aboutthe gmo stuff, not so much in
the cows.
A cow still has to grow, itstill has to be an animal, it
still has to develop bonestructure and get big enough to
carry meat and live a littlewhile.
So at least it's a living thing.
I think a fucking chicken and Ilove chicken, don't get me
(17:47):
wrong.
Chicken's one of my favoritemeats.
But I got to eat an organic,good chicken.
Speaker 3 (17:55):
Well, that's thing I will tell you.
I buy air-chilled chicken theright, like Bell and Evans type,
deal I always along that route.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
Spend the extra money .
Speaker 3 (18:02):
Spend the extra money .
Speaker 1 (18:03):
You can taste the difference, you feel better when
you eat that too.
Speaker 3 (18:07):
It's just better for you.
It's better for your family.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
If chicken was a fish , it'd be a tilapia of meat.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
Slithering through the fucking field.
Oh yeah, dude, that is a greatway to put it, that's really
good.
Yeah, chicken is the tilapia.
Commodity chicken is thetilapia, yeah, so people tilapia
.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
See if I can start anything.
Man, I'm trying to put a ban ontilapia.
I hate it.
Modified fake food in the worldand when I go to a restaurant
and literally people put it ontheir menu, I want to shake them
and say dude, you even knowwhat a tilapia is?
First of all, for all you whodon't know, it's not even a fish
.
Tilapia is not a breed of fish.
(18:47):
It is a multiple breed of anycrap fish that lives in the
tilapia region.
So it gains its name becausetilapia is a region and any fish
that came from that region wascalled tilapia.
So now they took the name ontilapia and this tilapia is in
this pacific.
It's disgusting.
And they fucking do it insewage pits and all that stuff.
(19:07):
They they didn't raise them insewage pitch.
These fish just evolved in them, almost like when you find a
pond with a bunch of frogs in it.
You don't know where the frogscame from.
No one put them there.
That's how this is.
So they rice paddies that arestagnant, sewage plants, these
things in Southeast Asia andstuff like that where these type
(19:28):
of fish live.
So they took the name tilapiaand put it on a breed of fish
that they genetically modified,and that fish really doesn't
exist.
Speaker 3 (19:38):
It looks like a carp almost.
You know it's like a car.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
It's just disgusting and it's, it's that fish is made
yeah totally to give you theirbottom feeders, but they're only
eating the bottom of whatevercesspool that they're living
other and and I'm totallyagainst that, yeah, I am totally
against it.
And people say oh, it's good,good, good that is the funny
thing?
Speaker 3 (19:58):
Go, get your tilapia taco.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
I really like tilapia .
Well, they still sell it at thegrocery store.
They have breaded tilapia.
It's the most sold and consumedfish in America and I stopped
eating it probably about 10years ago.
That's why you're still livinglife and feeling good, and why
you're beautiful in your age andwhy you're aging good, Because
if we were eating tilapia dude,forget it We'd be 60 years old.
(20:19):
I'll eat it out of.
You know.
Again, it was cheap and it wasprotein.
When I was trainingfitness-wise it was like just
get as much cheap protein as youcan, which usually ends up
being cheap chicken and cheaptilapia, and you start to
develop these like foodsensitivities to those.
(20:40):
So I couldn't eat chicken foryears without getting sick, and
now I've.
Obviously we buy all organicEverything is, you know,
whatever and I'm fine eating itnow.
But if you eat too much of thatand you're starting to feel
sick, it's not because you'renot.
You know, just buy it, justspend five bucks more and get
the better food.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
Yeah, that's right, exactly, and that's a lot of
people make you sick if you eattoo much of it.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
I don't care what everybody says.
Yeah, it does.
Over time, your body starts toreject it.
Ask anyone in the fitnessindustry in the 2000s you start
getting slimy, slime ball.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
Stop eating that crap .
So back to lamb, One of myfavorite animals.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
We weren't even on lamb yet, but let's get to it.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Let's get on lamb.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
Let's get on lamb, let's do it.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
Yeah right.
Speaker 3 (21:19):
We're not even on lamb yet.
She did it Sorry.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
I had to do it, that was perfect.
Speaker 3 (21:22):
That was quick.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
So we have this lamb.
I love lamb, I love cookinglamb, and the reason I like lamb
is because it's a skilled meatto cook.
Yeah, okay, you can eitherreally fucking make it amazing
or it can turn your day intohell if you don't know what
you're doing because, some guy,somebody will cook the same cut
absolutely amazing.
And you can cut that same cut,cook it and it comes out tough,
(21:48):
chewy, greasy, oily, whatever.
It all depends on your time andtemperature and then what
you're doing with it and yourunderstanding of how lamb cooks
and that each cut of lamb, eachmuscle on that animal is unlike
any other animal.
Besides a pig, pork also has.
Their muscle groups are sodifferent.
You get the flavor out of apork jowl.
(22:09):
It's totally different than thebacon or totally different than
the rump right.
Same thing with lamb.
Depending on where you'reeating whether you're eating the
shank or the roast or whateverit is the rack you're getting
totally different flavors.
You know the rack is going togive you more of.
If you cook that right on thegrill, you're going to get more
of a beefy type of texture moreof a beefy type of taste,
(22:30):
whereas if you're going to cut,you know the shank.
You're going to get more of thatlamby or the.
You know that that good gamey,gamey flavor.
So no matter where you are onthe lamb, you're going to have a
different experience.
So if you really know how tocook lamb right, you can get all
kinds of different flavors.
You can make sauces, ragus,bologneses, stews uh,
spezzatinos in Italian where youcan do, you know, oven roasts
(22:52):
um slow cook sous vide.
There's a million ways you cancook lamb.
For me to find lamb, though, asa chef and a restaurant owner,
is the hardest meat to findbecause it's so fucking
expensive, or you're going toget the shit you can afford and
it's the tilapia on four feet.
You see what I'm saying.
So are you getting a bad goat?
(23:13):
You don't even know because youdon't know.
So in your experience, john,how about when you go like, are
you seeing the difference?
The Colorado lamb?
I think you turned me on to thefarmer back in the day.
I'm still getting that productand it is a domestic huge lamb
rack and it's beautiful.
Now it's pricey and it costs mycustomers money, because it
costs me money and my profitmargin is small.
(23:34):
But we're talking about a $65menu item of pure luxury.
This isn't something you'reeating frugally or on a diet.
This is something you're comingto eat to experience, and that
product is delicious.
Now compare that Coloradoprivate farmed meat that I get
to a new zealand or a new uh, anew zealand lamb where the rack
(23:57):
shrinks down spider or australia.
Speaker 3 (23:59):
Australians are a little bigger too, right.
Um, you know, I think peoplecome out to eat and will spend
more money, like you're saying,for an expert like you or your
team to cook something like that, where they know they're going
to cook it right every time andit's going to be delicious
because it is finicky.
It is a finicky meat you got tobe really careful about, you
got to pay attention to it.
You can't walk away from it.
You gotta you gotta really dialinto like once that temperature
starts taking because it's solean.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
Once you start taking temperature and the heat starts
running through the meat, it'sgoing to continue to grow until
you stop it.
It's not going to have there'snot like a lot of fats that will
cool it down as it goes.
So is the breed of a newzealand lamb I think people want
to know this or Australian lambrather, a lot of people get
their lamb from Australia, okay.
Or New Zealand New Zealand'sbig New Zealand's big.
Speaker 3 (24:40):
Both are big.
It really comes down to flavorprofile and it really comes down
to sizing, like you're talkingabout.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
Is the breed itself a smaller breed, or are they not
letting them grow as big it?
Speaker 3 (24:49):
is a smaller breed and they aren't.
You know it just depends on theseason because you know, just
like here we're talking aboutwith beef, you know you get
droughts, you get all theseother, all these other
situations that you can'tcontrol.
So it depends on the weather alot on when they're going to go
to harvest.
You know it also goes likewhere's the pricing on these
things right now?
So if they know that they canmake more money on a larger
animal, they're going to letthem grow longer.
So it's, it really comes downto supply and demand also, um,
(25:12):
you know the grasses aredifferent in New Zealand than
Australia in here.
So flavor profile-wise, youknow, and you get that big
lanolin is really what givesthat.
That wool really gives it thatgamey flavor profile.
So New Zealand is definitelygoing to have smaller, smaller
lambs.
Australia saw what was going onin the domestic market here and
they let their lambs grow biggerso that they could sell that
(25:33):
bigger eye chop that you talkabout, that you're talking about
from colorado.
But here domestically, what youhave is their grass, their
eight.
They eat grass, they finish ongrain.
So what happens is is that it'smore leaning towards beef
people.
You know, here in the unitedstates they definitely like a
domestic lamb a little bit morebecause it eats a more mild than
(25:54):
a new zealand or an or anAustralia, new Zealand probably
is the most pungent and thenAustralia is definitely in
between here in the domestic andimported.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
So if that makes sense, yeah, definitely.
Oh, it makes plenty of sense.
So this is the educationalstuff I like to have people
listen to.
A lot of people have questionswhat's the difference between
New Zealand, Australian,domestic American To me, my
favorite out of the three and Ican't say this because they all
produce at let's talk about thehighest levels, because every
country produces the bottomlevels and they have their
(26:26):
different levels as they gothrough, depending where you are
.
Let's talk about the highestlevels.
I'm still an American lamb guyat the highest level.
Speaker 3 (26:34):
Although.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
New Zealand's got some really nice clean, and
Australia, to me, is the leastgamey.
And then you've got New Zealandcoming up and then it goes
into—that's for me.
Am I wrong in saying that?
Speaker 3 (26:43):
No, no, I mean, listen, it gets very subjective
too right, like in what you want, what you want to serve, what
you like to eat.
Some people like a gamey or alamb, some people don't you,
some people don't.
You know what I mean.
It all depends on what you'relooking for and what your
expectations are, and reallywhat your customers'
expectations are.
Speaker 1 (26:57):
Sure, yeah, the gamey thing is what turns a lot of
customers off and some justaren't ready for it.
Speaker 3 (27:04):
Some people absolutely love it, depending on
where you are in the world.
I think someone can come to arestaurant like this though a
higher-end fine-diningrestaurant, and have something a
little more gamey with someonewith your expertise.
Pairs those sauces, pairs allthat to make it this beautiful
dining experience.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
Sure, the game is part of it and you have to
enhance it.
You do, and you have to balanceit.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
The best, I mean one of your best lasagnas ever still
was that lamb.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
I think it was tarragon and something else Lamb
, tarragon roasted fennel oh thefennel, that was good, oh my
gosh.
Speaker 2 (27:32):
Still hands down to date probably one of my top
three dishes that he has made,because it was just the flavor
on that was so insane that itwas just like it was stupid.
I still remember that that waslike 10 years ago.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
I tried to actually follow that again and I couldn't
because I forgot how I made it.
I was trying to go off,remember?
It's one of those things I madeit.
We're going to try again.
You know what I mean.
I was just in my zone andeverything was hitting perfect.
I remember making that lasagnabecause it had a batch of fennel
that was fresh local.
The fennel was so fucking goodthat I made the lasagna for the
(28:08):
fennel more so than the lamb,but the lamb actually worked so
good with the whole dish thatcould have won awards.
Speaker 3 (28:14):
For sure, I made the lasagna because of the fennel.
No one ever said that in theworld before the first person.
I ever said that that's right.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
The roasted fennel was good and I wanted a way to
work it and I made this lasagnaand roasted lamb and put that in
the lasagna and everything justto enhance this fennel.
And the fennel was so fuckingsweet and I think that's what.
That's what you're not.
You don't realize the actualflavor.
That was that sweet fennel no,I realized all the.
Speaker 2 (28:39):
I'm just saying that was one of the things that was
different about it, and that'swhy it stuck out in the memory.
That is the coolest thing aboutlike cooking.
Speaker 3 (28:47):
Yeah, about sourcing unbelievably great ingredients
yeah, is that you take somethingthat's like yeah you take
something that's not center ofthe plate, it's not the focus,
but you make it the focus, yeah,and then you've got this
phenomenal dish that I mean,people don't even know why that
she's still talking about.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
Yeah, it's great and I love that and so anytime that
you have like you, I get fucking.
I call you for stuff.
I mean, you've called me for acouple things here and there,
for for tips and stuff, and itworked out both ways great.
But you've turned me on to somegreat demi uh ways and some
some extractions of marrow, andthere's a lot of things that you
have knowledge in and I thinkthat the meat industry, or
(29:23):
whatever it is you're workingwith, gets a huge benefit having
you there.
So anyone in the market who'sout there listening wants the
knowledge on meat.
If you're purchasing, buying,where can they find you?
Speaker 3 (29:33):
is are you findable, are you?
Yeah, of course I'm on.
I mean LinkedIn.
Speaker 1 (29:36):
Go to LinkedIn, yeah if you want to go to LinkedIn.
If they want to get a productyou represent, is that a thing?
Speaker 3 (29:40):
Yeah, absolutely.
I mean we've got nationaldistribution.
We import to the East Coast andthe West Coast.
You can find me on LinkedIn.
You can connect through you.
I mean I give my phone number.
If you want it like, give me acall.
You know what I mean, let's go.
But we've got nationaldistribution.
So we work with all the majordistributors in the united
states and then we work with themeat guys.
Um, so yeah, you can find mefor sure and you're always on
(30:02):
the quest to do better.
Speaker 1 (30:03):
I know that about you , and you're always on the quest
to find the next you want to,you want to surround yourself
with quality.
Speaker 3 (30:08):
Well, yeah, I mean, you know, the thing too is I'm
lucky because I get to travelaround the country, so I get to
go to major cities and eat atgreat restaurants and experience
phenomenal dishes like you'retalking about, and then bring
that back and bring a value tolike when we have in
conversations like, oh, I ate atthis place in chicago, right
here, here was something thathappened.
Like you know, I like to sharethat experience, I like to share
that knowledge because itsparks imagination and sparks
(30:29):
creativity for others too.
You know what?
I mean sure, so I try to bringthat that exactly well, listen
man I'm fucking honored you'rehere.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
We love it.
Great talking.
I love talking about meat, allthe meat sweats.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
We all love meat.
Speaker 1 (30:40):
So we need to make a t-shirt or something up that
says fucking meat sweats Meatsweats.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
let's do it Meat sweats.
Speaker 3 (30:46):
How much meat do you eat?
Speaker 1 (30:52):
We eat meat almost every day, man.
We eat for you.
Just take samples and stuffyour fucking feet.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
Yeah, do you get to taste?
No, not like that.
Speaker 3 (30:57):
I mean I get some of it because I'm kind of the
corporate chef too, so I mean, Iabsolutely work with the
products.
Like you know, next week I gota major presentation, like I was
telling you, so I'm going tomake a lamb ragu for next week
I'm going to make a bra, andthen we're going to make beer
tacos for everybody.
So, I like to expand it into somany different areas, middle
(31:20):
Eastern, whatever it might be.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
Nothing sucks about anything you just said.
Speaker 3 (31:22):
Nothing sucks about the taste of anything.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
Except the fact that I won't be there eating it.
Speaker 2 (31:26):
Except you're not delivering it here.
Speaker 1 (31:28):
Lamb ragu, that's my shit, Lamb ragu.
So bonny.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
Shredded, roasted oh, it's so good man, a little whip
fat on top.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
I eat red meat probably six days a week, twice
a day I do.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
I eat like 100% and it's funny, a lot of the people
you know I mean if you eat toomuch of this, I'm like now, if
it's quality, it doesn't affectyou the same way with your
health.
So take your blood work, changeyour diet and see if you're
eating quality meat, you can eatmeat.
I mean, I like I do.
I probably eat red meat.
I do eat it every day, if nottwice a day, which is most
people are like no, no, toothmelt, I just don't that's it.
Speaker 3 (32:05):
That's all I do.
You know you want to eatquality.
You want quality.
Speaker 2 (32:08):
I just I spend a lot of money on on meat, that's I
mean.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
I am good for it, so just spend money on the meat.
Speaker 2 (32:14):
that's the the bottom line of today Spend the money
on the meat.
Speaker 1 (32:16):
Spend the money.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
Get good meat no seriously.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
When you go to a restaurant, stop bitching about
prices.
It's not going backwards.
Here's something else I like toend this with Stop bitching
about the fucking prices of food.
Stop bitching that restaurantsare jacking up their prices.
Nobody wants to do this food asmuch as possible, and we also
know that it can only go so highwhere people can't afford to
(32:39):
come out.
So we're in the same boat asyou.
We need everyone to stopraising prices too, so we don't
have to raise them on you.
Unfortunately, we have to.
If you want quality, if you wantgood stuff, if you want the
education of the people cookingit, you have to pay for it.
Don't skimp on paying for it.
Eating is one of the bestfucking forms of entertainment
there is, so just don't skimp onit.
I mean, I understand people areon a budget, don't get me wrong
.
Not everybody has the money tojust go throw out.
(33:00):
But every once in a while, goto a restaurant and treat
yourself and don't bitch aboutthe price.
Celebrate the price, becauseit's the only way you're going
to fucking get it.
Speaker 2 (33:08):
There's a lot that goes into it.
Speaker 1 (33:09):
If you don't, if You're never going to get it,
it's never going to go backwards.
We're not changing.
That's the way it is.
Speaker 2 (33:16):
Be about it, don't bitch about it, that's right,
all right Beth that's it for now.
Speaker 1 (33:22):
Ciao for now.
Speaker 2 (33:24):
Ciao.
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