December 27, 2025 • 23 mins
🔥 GAME-CHANGING Interview! Meet Anthony Martorina - Food Dude - the food blogger who cracked the code on authentic influence!
What You'll Learn:
✅ How to build 50K+ REAL followers (no buying fake ones!)
✅ Why 30-second videos outperform long-form content
✅ The SECRET to getting restaurants to invite YOU in
✅ How to become a professional food judge
✅ Why engagement beats follower count EVERY TIME
✅ The difference between influencers and REAL critics
GOLDEN Moments:
🎬 From film editing background to food content mastery
🌍 Traveling the world judging food competitions
🧀 That cheese hall story in Germany (11 halls!)
🇮🇹 Sicilian cooking secrets from his basement kitchen
📱 Why most food influencers are doing it ALL WRONG
Anthony built his following the RIGHT way - 10 years of authentic engagement, no shortcuts, just real relationships with real people who trust his taste!
Follow Anthony Martorina - Food Dude...
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/anthonymartorina/
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Website: burnthandsperspective.com
#FoodBlogger #FoodJudge #SocialMediaTips #RestaurantInfluencer #BurntHandsPerspective #FoodContent #AuthenticInfluence #cheftalk #worldfoodchampionships
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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_02 (00:55):
All right, special edition.
We're back, World FoodChampionships.
SPEAKER_00 (00:58):
Welcome to the Burn Hands Perspective Podcast.
Something we love.
We love the culinary arts.
We love the culinary theme.
We love the passion behind itall and everything it takes to
make it all happen.
Front of the house, back of thehouse, newspapers, critiquing,
wherever it may be, which bringsus into our next category.
SPEAKER_02 (01:14):
Which is our next category.
We have master judge, um, chef,social media influencer, host,
emcee, cheffery, formercheffery, all the list goes on.
And now moving into Oh, everyyeah.
Critiquing.
SPEAKER_01 (01:28):
You're critiquing?
Well, I've been critiquing for awhile, so yeah, people know
people know I like to critiquestuff.
Sure.
Go to my Instagram, it's atAnthony Martarina.
And now I know we're live.
Do I look there or do I look atyou guys?
SPEAKER_02 (01:40):
Oh, we're not even live.
We're recording stuff.
I know we're not live.
SPEAKER_01 (01:43):
Look at the camera.
Whatever you want to do.
SPEAKER_02 (01:45):
This is your show right now.
Everything.
And not only that, a lot ofpeople are going to be listening
on audio, so we're good.
SPEAKER_00 (01:51):
We're good at what you want to do.
SPEAKER_02 (01:52):
Totally fine.
You can have no clothes on rightnow.
I wouldn't know.
SPEAKER_01 (01:55):
So, so people who want to follow my food journey,
it's at Anthony Margarina onInstagram.
People will come up to me andsay it's like a mini food
network show.
It is.
It's under 30 seconds.
It tells you about therestaurant, and what everybody
loves about it is that they getto see a visual journey of that
restaurant, whether it's Thai,whether it's Italian, whether
(02:18):
it's Cambodian, like it justshowcases that and it gets out.
It's not long.
You're not watching me eat oncamera.
Do people really want to watchpeople eat on camera?
SPEAKER_02 (02:29):
I don't think so.
I don't think so.
I mean, some people do, andthat's just a weird thing, but
then they watch those foodeating competitions, but I don't
like that.
SPEAKER_01 (02:40):
Yeah, so they're they're they they can't get out
of that rabbit hole.
They are people that I'vebeaten.
So I do get close sometimes on afew like videos where like it
gets close, but then it cuts tomy review.
SPEAKER_02 (02:51):
You cut out the you cut out the the good part.
SPEAKER_01 (02:53):
Who wants to watch the chewing?
No one, no.
Not really.
You find yourself like watchingcows in a field and go, oh, that
grass looks good.
SPEAKER_00 (03:00):
Now you're working with a lot of different people.
So you're based in Chicago, butyou do travel everywhere.
You bring the you bring thelights about.
SPEAKER_02 (03:06):
Well you travel all over the world.
Over the world.
Every country you've been inhosting events and so I just got
back from Germany.
SPEAKER_01 (03:13):
Uh so with uh we gave away nine golden tickets to
the World Food Championships atAnuga, which is like the largest
food and beverage show.
144,000 people were there.
Wow.
SPEAKER_00 (03:26):
That's in Germany.
SPEAKER_01 (03:27):
In Germany.
That's cool.
There were 11 halls.
You imagine like this is likehall one.
Eleven halls.
And what I found fascinating isthere were like there was like a
hall just for cheese.
Wow.
Like I walked in this hall.
SPEAKER_02 (03:40):
You would be so happy.
SPEAKER_01 (03:41):
I ain't leaving the cheese hall.
Oh my god.
Have you had cheese fromAustria?
I haven't.
Yes, I have.
I had cheese from like I havecheese from like Whole Foods,
Aldi, Trader Joe, Austria?
That's amazing.
SPEAKER_00 (03:54):
Well, the the good right, if you're not into a
specific cheese shop that justdeals with worldwide cheese,
it's really hard to experienceeven a tenth of what the cheeses
are out there.
So every province, every town,every city, every kingdom,
wherever you are in the worldhas their version of what dairy
produces.
And that's a lot of it.
There's a lot of differentvariations.
Hundreds of them, thousands ofcheese.
SPEAKER_01 (04:15):
And I was at the Swiss the Switzerland booth, and
I love Swiss cheese.
And she was like, she was like,Do you want the light, medium,
or heavy?
I was like, wait, there'sdifferent levels of Swiss
cheese.
And so I tried all three ofthem.
I I kind of feel like I'm amedium guy.
The heavy was too heavy.
Okay.
Real dark and moody, and I waslike.
SPEAKER_00 (04:34):
Yeah.
Yeah, tinny, tinny a little bit,yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (04:36):
So like, so like I was like, I couldn't believe
there could be a whole haul ofcheese.
SPEAKER_02 (04:40):
So I I'm so excited to do it.
What we talked about even beinghere last year with World Food
is for anybody who's in theculinary industry to step out of
your box.
Like get out of your own city,travel, go to other areas.
I mean, you travel to Italy.
SPEAKER_00 (04:54):
So I'm I I believe strongly.
And I'm not saying it'simpossible.
People have that very successfulwithout leaving their town.
I get it.
However, I think when you'redealing with a worldly
international industry, you needto be worldly and international
to understand it.
It doesn't mean you have to takeit all and change your concept,
but I think you have tounderstand what's really going
out there to emphasize yourconcept as being a dimension of
(05:16):
it.
You know what I mean?
I think if you just believe thatyou make a steak and you're the
only one making a steak and it'sgood and everyone thinks it's
good, there's steak being madearound the world a million
different ways.
And if you can perfect the wayyou're doing it with the
knowledge of how everyone elseis doing it, it's just more
knowledge to make you better,you know?
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (05:34):
I I one of the things I love about traveling is
international spices.
I love the flavors.
I love those aha wild moments onmy palate where I'm like, what
is this?
What did I just bite into?
You know, uh, what is thatseasoning I've never had before,
that spice?
Yesterday at Live Fire, um, Ibit into a someone shared a
(05:54):
piece of meat, and I'm like,okay, salt, pepper, what's on
there?
And they're like, oh, we useCambodian peppercorn.
I'm like, what's Cambodianpeppercorn?
She goes, here, let me give youone.
Oh, yeah.
And so like, if you bite like ablack peppercorn, you're like,
it's so like, it punches you inthe face.
It was amazing.
It was soft, chewy, and then itjust had like a little sweetness
(06:15):
on the back end with a littlebit of the pepper.
But I'm like, I like, I, I, nojoke, I texted my wife.
I'm like, we need Cambodian.
We need Cambodian.
Google, we're going to Cambodia.
Where can we find this?
SPEAKER_02 (06:28):
We need to find this spice.
SPEAKER_01 (06:30):
I sent her like all my notes on it.
I'm like, we need this in ourkitchen.
So that's amazing.
Uh the hard part is like when Icome home from like a
competition like this, uh, oneof two things happened.
First, my wife is not going tocook me anything because my
palate, it takes about three,four days for it to get back to
reality.
Sure.
We've we've just tasted so manyspices, so many bites.
We're like at the mostinternational restaurant of the
(06:52):
world.
Yeah.
And like your taste buds are,mine get confused.
Like, wow, this is so amazing.
And then you go back home andit's like reality.
You know, it's like, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (07:01):
Well, you're right.
I mean, there's we're we'retasting the best of the best.
People put in a lot of time andeffort and money to come to
things like this.
And the podcast is fun herebecause we can talk about it
live as a dynamic.
We're in it.
We're not talking aboutsomething we were at or
something.
We are here right now.
Yeah.
And the smells are here andeverything.
It just brings such anotherfacet and dimension to that
talking about it.
(07:22):
So people want to hear us talkabout food.
Some people tune in for whateverreason it is, they're they're
they're part of it, right?
Yeah.
But our part of it here at thistime, but people are tuning in
now, we're literally amongstsome of the best chefs in the
world who aren't even reallyrecognized yet on a national
level or international level,but yet their food is.
SPEAKER_02 (07:39):
And sometimes winning here takes them.
So, your culinary journeyspecifically, how did you get
into food?
Because I mean, now you get todo the judging the emcee, which
I think some people think islike the fun part, but it's a
journey to get there.
I mean, you have you have toknow your shit.
SPEAKER_01 (07:52):
Like, uh, so I'll I'll do the fast-forward
version.
I'm Sicilian.
So, Sicilians, one of twothings.
We don't write down recipes, andI'm first generation.
You go to Sicily, you watch yourNona, you watch her cook.
She doesn't write anything down,you know, she slaps your hand if
you touch like a sample andstuff.
Um, but you're collecting allthat knowledge.
Uh growing up in Chicago, my dadbuilt a professional kitchen in
(08:16):
our basement.
SPEAKER_00 (08:17):
So as any true Italian should.
As anyway, if you don't haveItalian, if you don't have a
basement in your basementkitchen, what are you doing?
SPEAKER_01 (08:23):
I tell the survey, most Italians have two kitchens.
One's the showpiece, and thenone's the cooking one.
It's either in your basement orit's in the garage.
Sure.
So if you don't have a basement,it's in the garage.
SPEAKER_00 (08:32):
In the garage, yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (08:33):
Uh and so I'm so glad to meet someone that gets
it.
Oh, of course.
Because everyone I tell,everyone I tell they're like,
they give me deer andheadlights.
SPEAKER_00 (08:39):
They don't get the pot of sauce downstairs in the
basement, seeps through thefloors.
You wake up Sunday morning as akid, you wake up at 11 o'clock
and and you're real and you'resmelling this already.
It's amazing.
SPEAKER_01 (08:50):
Every September we would pick 10 bushels of plum
tomatoes, and we would makeenough jar sauce in the cellar
of the basement that would lastus the whole year.
Oh my gosh.
I tell people I had pasta everynight for dinner.
I had pasta every night fordinner.
SPEAKER_00 (09:02):
We did it more in lunchtime, but every day we
have.
SPEAKER_01 (09:05):
So you were doing the traditional.
Your dinner was two.
Ours was at 10.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Because we would work, we I grewup in a book binder.
I I don't know how I got in foodfor a book bindery, but it's a
family business.
So I worked in a book binder.
Books taste like shit.
But we got home at 10 o'clock.
We got home at 10 o'clock andwe'd make dinner.
That's when you could eat.
You know, that's what we did.
And that's what the that's wherethe the kitchen was kind of my
dad's stress release.
(09:26):
Okay.
You know, he would go downthere, spend an hour to boning a
chicken, sure.
Stuff it with like ground beefand rice, and I'd be like, okay,
it's midnight.
Let's eat.
You know?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But you did though, and that waswonderful.
And so that's kind of where Igot my appreciation for food.
Uh, fast forward, I I worked inTV, uh, and then I started
helping so develop software forcompanies like Avid and Pinnacle
(09:47):
and Adobe, and they startedflying me around the world.
So I became like this Steve Jobsguy where I'd be on a stage in
China, 5,000 people, tellingthem about film software,
editing an episode in lost,showing them all the features.
Well, now I'm in China for threeweeks.
I'm eating street food.
Wow.
I'm going to restaurants.
Nothing like this tastes likeChicago.
(10:10):
Every Chinese restaurant inChicago is Chinese American.
So now I'm coming back toChicago.
I'm like, I can't eat there, Ican't eat there.
I'm looking for the mom andpops.
I'm looking for the duck feet,and and I'm looking for the and
I'm like, no, and on duck feet,I'm like, oh my gosh, it's so
good.
It reminds me of China, youknow?
And so what happens from therethen is as the iPhone put me out
(10:30):
of business because now everyonehad a high definition editor and
they didn't need like amillion-dollar room full of
equipment.
Um, TripAdvisor called and theysaid, Hey, we do hotels, you're
the food guy.
I had 50,000 photos of food fromaround the world.
Oh my god.
I was doing social media beforeanyone was doing social media.
So it was kind of self-serving.
So, like in Panama, like I founda street vendor that made the
(10:53):
most amazing Venezuelan uh uhempanadas.
I would put a pin, I would putphotos, I'd write a description.
He was never on the Google map,but now he's on the Google map,
you know?
And and recently, Google willtell you things like one million
people looked at this empanadaplace, and I'm like, oh my gosh,
I put this guy in the map.
He doesn't know who I am, but Iput it there because every time
(11:15):
I go to Panama, I want thoseempanadas.
Sure.
We would we were there onChristmas Eve when we found this
place.
There was a line down thestreet.
I looked at my wife anddaughter, I go, that's where
we're having Christmas Everyone.
Or go in there.
We're going right there.
We're like, but the line solong, I go, the line is telling
you everything.
Plus, it's Christmas Eve inPanama and nothing's open.
Right.
Oh my gosh, they were the bestempanadas.
SPEAKER_00 (11:35):
But that story is amazing, and that's what we love
talking about on this podcast istalking to people who travel and
actually can tell them stories.
And the passion you're havingit, no one can really understand
it.
We can feel your passion, but wecan't understand it for you,
right?
Yeah.
And you're projecting it out tous.
And it's beautiful, right?
It's a great thing.
It's all about food.
It's crazy how food can do thatto somebody who really loves
food.
(11:56):
And I I do I love food.
SPEAKER_01 (11:57):
And and not only so so the thing is, is not only do
I go out to eat, we cook athome.
Yeah.
Like we we literally, I mean,and and and um my wife hates the
story, but I'm gonna tell it.
Uh so my wife, but I'm we won'ttell her about this episode.
No, she's she's she's gonnalessen thousands.
She's gonna be on you.
She's on you, bro.
We're dating.
She made me dinner.
(12:19):
Now I'm getting to my culinaryjudge days, right?
She made me dinner, I tasted it,and I had that Seinfeld moment.
Oh no.
Do I tell her or do I not tellher?
She said, How was it?
Did you spit it out?
I didn't spit it out.
She goes, how was it?
I said, Did you taste this?
She goes, No, why?
And I said, Oh no.
When you make food for somebody,you have to taste it before you
(12:40):
serve it.
So it's your last chance to fixit.
And she still married me.
Oh my god.
Now I want to fast forward.
So she said, Can you teach mehow to cook in the kitchen?
And I said, yes.
So she would cook and she wouldgo, Okay, you gotta come in and
taste this.
The rule was I showed her how tofix it.
After two or three weeks, shewasn't inviting me in the
kitchen anymore.
I think she's a better chef thanme right now.
(13:02):
I truly think she's a betterchef than me.
I I love to tell the storybecause like people that are
afraid to cook, like, don't beafraid.
I have a cousin who's Sicilian.
And and and she didn't cook atall, right?
And and it's so cute because nowshe's like on a barbecue team in
California, she's competing andstuff, and like she wrote to me
(13:22):
and she's like, you were myinspiration because you said to
me, We're Sicilian, we'resupposed to cook, and I just let
everybody else do the cooking.
But the thing is, my job is toinspire people.
I'm like Gratitouille.
Everyone can cook, I'm a littlemouse in the hair.
SPEAKER_00 (13:35):
Everybody can cook, I believe.
I can teach anybody to cook.
SPEAKER_01 (13:38):
Yeah, you just gotta taste it, you know it's good
food, yes, and then have funwith in the kitchen.
It doesn't have to be aboutfollowing the recipe, it's
following what you like totaste.
So you can start with the recipeand go, oh, I want to throw that
in, I want to put this in.
You know?
Um we made potato salad threenights ago.
We didn't have any pickles, andmy wife loves pickles in there.
And so she looked at me andshe's all like, what about if
(14:00):
you throw some hot jardinera inthere?
I'm like, that's a pickle, let'sdo it.
We do it.
Caruso's hot jardinera, my buddyPeter's gonna be so happy.
Um he's it's a family fromChicago during the pandemic.
They said, let's put our familyjardinera in a jar.
We're all gonna die, so let'sget our family jar out there.
Maybe we'll find it.
SPEAKER_00 (14:18):
We only have weeks left.
This is our legacy.
SPEAKER_01 (14:22):
And let's go back to critiquing.
So Peter and his family gave methe first jar.
What do you think?
And me and my wife both said, itsays hot on there, you gotta
take the hot off becausenothing's hot about that.
And they were like, oh.
And so a year later, they had afamily party where they then, I
thought they're gonna whack meand my wife, and they told
everybody the party, thanks totheir honesty, for telling us
(14:45):
this it's now it's now hotterbecause they cut the peppers at
a different angle, which made it30% hotter, and now it's hot
jardnera.
Oh, you know?
So going back to the wholecloning, I'm pretty honest.
You know, and that yeah, and thechefs in Chicago know that.
So they'll invite me in to trytheir uh fall menu.
Yeah, they want me to try itbefore it goes live because I
(15:07):
will tell them this works, thatdoesn't work.
You know, they would rather havea critique from me off the table
than someone going on Google orYelp or TripAdvisor and blasting
it.
Exactly.
You know, after the fact it'stoo late.
Once it's out there, it'sprinted.
So that's kind of and so then myculinary jury started like this
I was judging a competition, Iwas on the microphone, and the
(15:29):
person who was hosting it said,You know, I never saw you on
stage, but all I did was listento you.
You have such a great voice.
Would you like to host?
And I went, sure.
And that's how it turned out.
Why not?
So I started hosting, and Istarted judging, and I judge
like beyond real foodchampionships.
So, like um uh Marriott Hotelsdoes Masters of the Craft.
(15:49):
So Masters of the Craft is areally cool thing where the
Marriott chefs and mixologistsall go head to head greeting.
Oh cool.
And so they do their owninternal, like, World Food
Championship to reward theirchefs, which is amazing because
when you think of hotels, you'relike, oh, they don't they don't
have any creativity, they'rebuilding creativity.
Like 10 years ago, I would nevereat in a hotel restaurant, I'll
(16:09):
go eat in a hotel restaurantnow.
SPEAKER_00 (16:11):
They are serving good food.
Sure, you know, they don't havea choice at this point.
Yeah, they have to they have tostep up and they want to keep
you in the hotel.
And a lot of hotels arerealizing that, and they're
putting a lot of emphasis andmoney into the restaurant, which
means they're hiring chefs tocome in.
Yeah, and now there's a lot ofpeople that have nothing to do
with that hotel that are goingto the restaurant in the hotel
and then going back home thatnight.
Yeah.
So it's important, and it and itit is.
(16:32):
And it back in the day, if youlook at it when Michelin started
and got popular, a lot of theseMichelin chefs were directly in
a hotel.
A lot of these hotels did haveit, then it went away, like you
said.
And now it's coming back, whichis great.
SPEAKER_01 (16:43):
And which is interesting because there are
several chefs in Chicago I knowthat are really good chefs, and
Michelin star, and they havetheir own restaurants.
And then for me to find out theythey worked at the four seasons
in the peninsula, and I'm like,wait a minute, you were a hotel
chef?
Yeah.
You know, like like it'ssurprising how many are.
Yeah, there's a lot of it, yeah.
That's great.
But you think of those hotelslike Peninsula Four Seasons.
We're talking like Frenchtechniques, we're talking like
(17:05):
four-star food, top top prem dela creme.
Amazing.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (17:09):
I never let a we're not talking about a motel, we're
talking about a resort hotel.
Nice high-end hotel.
I would say that don't eversleep on that.
No.
There's a lot of invested moneyfrom that group and training in
that hotel.
You know, a lot of people.
A lot of hotels base it aroundthe experience of dying, you
know, exactly.
SPEAKER_02 (17:27):
I want to also tap in in our last few minutes your
social media side of things,because you do talk about, you
know, building your brand,influencing, you do do a lot of
education on that too.
And I liked when you said in thebeginning that you know, you
keep it short.
So you do have kind of an unfairadvantage because you knew the
editing and you were in the TVworld, which is, I mean, that's
my background too.
So it does help when you'redoing social.
(17:48):
It's not as stressful to you.
But what are some things forpeople that are building, you
know, in their kitchens?
You know, you have a tie, youkind of have a structure to how
you present on social media.
So do you mind sharing some ofthat?
SPEAKER_01 (18:01):
The first thing, the first thing on social media is
engage.
Yeah.
A lot of people just think, oh,I'm gonna make a video, I'm
gonna be viral, and everyone'sgonna love me.
You know, you have to build upyour followers.
You know, so I write to myfollowers, I DM, I write on
their walls.
When they post something nice,they write on my walls.
Yeah, that engagement is themost important thing.
Um, it's taken me 10 years toalmost get 20,000 followers.
(18:25):
Yes.
I didn't buy a single one.
I I went the long route on that.
Um, which is now paying off forme because uh brands that hire
me to like work on a project.
You have higher conversion rateson stuff.
Because they they now runeveryone's numbers through.
Yeah.
So the the guy that bought500,000 and he's got like less
than 1%, they're coming to mewith 20,000 and they're
(18:49):
literally like, oh yeah, here,well, how much you want to
charge us?
Yeah.
Because they know the engagementrate is like really, really
high.
So that's the one thing I sayengaged, you know.
Uh yeah, I have the filmbackground, so it makes like
it's really easy for me to editall that.
Because like I'm editing ithere.
So I'm editing it here.
SPEAKER_00 (19:07):
Azure filming, too.
Yeah.
Let me ask you this just as weclose out here.
Sure.
Uh, for the chef's point ofview, for the culinary, there's
a lot of younger chefs now thathave we have lost the magazine
write-ups, the actual foodcritic in the newspapers.
All that has gone away and itmoved off to a lot of
influencers who kind of dilutedthe importance of them because
(19:27):
there's so many of them.
They don't know who's what,who's important, who's not,
whose word is good, who it'shard now, right?
Yeah.
What do you tell the chefs?
What are you looking for as anas a critic?
Not an influencer, but as acritic, what can a chef now look
at and say, okay, this they'renot looking to be influenced,
they're looking to critique.
What are you looking for as acritic to let them step their
(19:50):
game up as a chef?
SPEAKER_01 (19:51):
And so what's interesting is I never ask to go
to a restaurant.
Chefs always come to me.
So obviously they're finding mefor a reason.
I say be genuine.
Genuine, first of all.
Um, don't don't be buying likesand followers because it makes
it really unreal.
Show your face like one of thethings is I talk on my video
right at the beginning, andpeople say, I feel a lot of
(20:12):
comfort with that.
I know, I know what I'm about towatch, even though I've only
said one sentence.
I write that sentence based onwhat I'm about to film.
When we shoot the second.
SPEAKER_02 (20:22):
So you you utilize those first three seconds with
the hook, and you have the sameopen on your videos so people
know what's coming.
And and that and that's what Ithink the chefs like.
SPEAKER_01 (20:31):
Consistency.
And then I always like to tellpeople it's like an MTV music
video.
We all grew up in the 80s.
So my whole thing is is likeinstead of me just talking
underneath the video, we'regonna watch some cool music with
some good visuals, maybe acouple of effects.
I don't go effects crazy, butlike I want the food to like
shine right now.
SPEAKER_00 (20:50):
And what do you what do you what do you suggest to
them as far as when they'reputting when you're tasting
their food?
Are the chefs putting togetherthe elements?
What is it you're looking for inthe food itself?
Not so much the vendor.
SPEAKER_01 (21:01):
I'm always looking for those wild moments, the aha
moments, like, oh my gosh, I'venever had this before.
You know, like like like like umchicken skewers.
Always are dry.
But lately, I've been hammeringchefs and like they're brinding
them now and stuff like that.
So like now I'm getting likechicken skewers that are moist
and juicy.
I'm like, okay, what'shappening?
Yeah, yeah.
This is something I would neverwant to order on a menu.
(21:22):
You know?
Um I you know, I think it'simportant for chefs to to find
people that are real.
Um there's and the influencersout there aren't gonna like us.
Most of them write restaurantsand say, oh, I can do this for
you.
They make a lot of promises.
I've never written a restaurant,I've never written one at all.
And I'm never gonna write onebecause I don't like rejection.
Who likes rejection?
(21:42):
I don't want rejection.
So the thing is, I want to beinvited.
Are you having an opening andstuff like that?
Yeah.
Or do I have a rapport or afriendship with the chef?
And you know, he's he's a momand pop place.
I love mom and pop places.
They really need our help, youknow, especially in this market.
SPEAKER_02 (22:05):
So you and you did build your social influence on
ethical eating.
Yeah.
I mean, ethical support, you'renot bashing people.
Yeah.
So I think that's important.
We covered it in a coupleepisodes where we've talked
about social media as aninfluence for restaurateurs and
chefs.
And people go, I mean, you dowant to check out your page and
just kind of go through whathe's doing because it is very,
(22:27):
very strategic and it'sconsistent.
SPEAKER_01 (22:30):
And I always write a review.
So that's the one thing thechefs really like is the review
on there.
That review tells them about thedishes I've had.
If there was a bad dish, itwon't be shown in the video.
And that chef will get notes onit where they will actually fix
that dish and they might say,Hey, can you pop in and just try
it again?
Try it again.
And I'll just pop in no camerasat all, and I'll try it and I
(22:50):
go, oh my gosh, wow.
And I love having that influenceon the chef.
So because I want everyone outthere dining to have a like a
four-star experience.
SPEAKER_00 (22:59):
So do we, and that's our thing.
So, in closing, why don't youslowly and then project where
you can be found all the stuffbecause you are influential, you
do have a lot of reach, a lot ofpeople know who you are, and I
think more people should knowwho you are.
SPEAKER_02 (23:10):
Yeah, in the culinary space, we want them to
kind of follow and get off.
I like how he said slowlybecause I'm Sicilian.
You'll talk faster.
SPEAKER_01 (23:18):
I can understand you.
I know, you can't.
I feel sorry, you're in themiddle ground.
What's going on?
I am Sicilian.
Okay, good, okay.
Just part, just very little.
Um it's at Anthony Martorina,Anthony A-N-T John Y, Martuina,
M-A-R-T-O-R-I-N-A.
When I made the name, I wasn'tgonna be like, eat with Ant Me.
That puts you in a niche.
(23:38):
So it's just my name becausethat's who I am.
Yep.
And I've always been AnthonyMartorina.
SPEAKER_00 (23:43):
And yeah, so it's all your chef Tony Carolina,
same thing.
SPEAKER_01 (23:46):
Same thing.
You go with your name.
I'm not trying to hide behindanything, you know?
So all right, well, it's been anawesome time.
SPEAKER_00 (23:52):
It's been a pleasure.
Thank you very much.
Thanks for having us.
I know we're all busy here todayat the at the championships.
You're doing a lot of speaking,we are doing a lot of speaking,
so things are going on.
So uh let's close it off.
What do you think?
I think we're good.
SPEAKER_02 (24:02):
All right, thank you, Ethane.
Thanks for having me.
SPEAKER_00 (24:04):
All right, awesome.
Ciao for now.
Ciao listen.
All right, special edition.
We're back, World FoodChampionships.
SPEAKER_00 (00:58):
Welcome to the Burn Hands Perspective Podcast.
Something we love.
We love the culinary arts.
We love the culinary theme.
We love the passion behind itall and everything it takes to
make it all happen.
Front of the house, back of thehouse, newspapers, critiquing,
wherever it may be, which bringsus into our next category.
SPEAKER_02 (01:14):
Which is our next category.
We have master judge, um, chef,social media influencer, host,
emcee, cheffery, formercheffery, all the list goes on.
And now moving into Oh, everyyeah.
Critiquing.
SPEAKER_01 (01:28):
You're critiquing?
Well, I've been critiquing for awhile, so yeah, people know
people know I like to critiquestuff.
Sure.
Go to my Instagram, it's atAnthony Martarina.
And now I know we're live.
Do I look there or do I look atyou guys?
SPEAKER_02 (01:40):
Oh, we're not even live.
We're recording stuff.
I know we're not live.
SPEAKER_01 (01:43):
Look at the camera.
Whatever you want to do.
SPEAKER_02 (01:45):
This is your show right now.
Everything.
And not only that, a lot ofpeople are going to be listening
on audio, so we're good.
SPEAKER_00 (01:51):
We're good at what you want to do.
SPEAKER_02 (01:52):
Totally fine.
You can have no clothes on rightnow.
I wouldn't know.
SPEAKER_01 (01:55):
So, so people who want to follow my food journey,
it's at Anthony Margarina onInstagram.
People will come up to me andsay it's like a mini food
network show.
It is.
It's under 30 seconds.
It tells you about therestaurant, and what everybody
loves about it is that they getto see a visual journey of that
restaurant, whether it's Thai,whether it's Italian, whether
(02:18):
it's Cambodian, like it justshowcases that and it gets out.
It's not long.
You're not watching me eat oncamera.
Do people really want to watchpeople eat on camera?
SPEAKER_02 (02:29):
I don't think so.
I don't think so.
I mean, some people do, andthat's just a weird thing, but
then they watch those foodeating competitions, but I don't
like that.
SPEAKER_01 (02:40):
Yeah, so they're they're they they can't get out
of that rabbit hole.
They are people that I'vebeaten.
So I do get close sometimes on afew like videos where like it
gets close, but then it cuts tomy review.
SPEAKER_02 (02:51):
You cut out the you cut out the the good part.
SPEAKER_01 (02:53):
Who wants to watch the chewing?
No one, no.
Not really.
You find yourself like watchingcows in a field and go, oh, that
grass looks good.
SPEAKER_00 (03:00):
Now you're working with a lot of different people.
So you're based in Chicago, butyou do travel everywhere.
You bring the you bring thelights about.
SPEAKER_02 (03:06):
Well you travel all over the world.
Over the world.
Every country you've been inhosting events and so I just got
back from Germany.
SPEAKER_01 (03:13):
Uh so with uh we gave away nine golden tickets to
the World Food Championships atAnuga, which is like the largest
food and beverage show.
144,000 people were there.
Wow.
SPEAKER_00 (03:26):
That's in Germany.
SPEAKER_01 (03:27):
In Germany.
That's cool.
There were 11 halls.
You imagine like this is likehall one.
Eleven halls.
And what I found fascinating isthere were like there was like a
hall just for cheese.
Wow.
Like I walked in this hall.
SPEAKER_02 (03:40):
You would be so happy.
SPEAKER_01 (03:41):
I ain't leaving the cheese hall.
Oh my god.
Have you had cheese fromAustria?
I haven't.
Yes, I have.
I had cheese from like I havecheese from like Whole Foods,
Aldi, Trader Joe, Austria?
That's amazing.
SPEAKER_00 (03:54):
Well, the the good right, if you're not into a
specific cheese shop that justdeals with worldwide cheese,
it's really hard to experienceeven a tenth of what the cheeses
are out there.
So every province, every town,every city, every kingdom,
wherever you are in the worldhas their version of what dairy
produces.
And that's a lot of it.
There's a lot of differentvariations.
Hundreds of them, thousands ofcheese.
SPEAKER_01 (04:15):
And I was at the Swiss the Switzerland booth, and
I love Swiss cheese.
And she was like, she was like,Do you want the light, medium,
or heavy?
I was like, wait, there'sdifferent levels of Swiss
cheese.
And so I tried all three ofthem.
I I kind of feel like I'm amedium guy.
The heavy was too heavy.
Okay.
Real dark and moody, and I waslike.
SPEAKER_00 (04:34):
Yeah.
Yeah, tinny, tinny a little bit,yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (04:36):
So like, so like I was like, I couldn't believe
there could be a whole haul ofcheese.
SPEAKER_02 (04:40):
So I I'm so excited to do it.
What we talked about even beinghere last year with World Food
is for anybody who's in theculinary industry to step out of
your box.
Like get out of your own city,travel, go to other areas.
I mean, you travel to Italy.
SPEAKER_00 (04:54):
So I'm I I believe strongly.
And I'm not saying it'simpossible.
People have that very successfulwithout leaving their town.
I get it.
However, I think when you'redealing with a worldly
international industry, you needto be worldly and international
to understand it.
It doesn't mean you have to takeit all and change your concept,
but I think you have tounderstand what's really going
out there to emphasize yourconcept as being a dimension of
(05:16):
it.
You know what I mean?
I think if you just believe thatyou make a steak and you're the
only one making a steak and it'sgood and everyone thinks it's
good, there's steak being madearound the world a million
different ways.
And if you can perfect the wayyou're doing it with the
knowledge of how everyone elseis doing it, it's just more
knowledge to make you better,you know?
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (05:34):
I I one of the things I love about traveling is
international spices.
I love the flavors.
I love those aha wild moments onmy palate where I'm like, what
is this?
What did I just bite into?
You know, uh, what is thatseasoning I've never had before,
that spice?
Yesterday at Live Fire, um, Ibit into a someone shared a
(05:54):
piece of meat, and I'm like,okay, salt, pepper, what's on
there?
And they're like, oh, we useCambodian peppercorn.
I'm like, what's Cambodianpeppercorn?
She goes, here, let me give youone.
Oh, yeah.
And so like, if you bite like ablack peppercorn, you're like,
it's so like, it punches you inthe face.
It was amazing.
It was soft, chewy, and then itjust had like a little sweetness
(06:15):
on the back end with a littlebit of the pepper.
But I'm like, I like, I, I, nojoke, I texted my wife.
I'm like, we need Cambodian.
We need Cambodian.
Google, we're going to Cambodia.
Where can we find this?
SPEAKER_02 (06:28):
We need to find this spice.
SPEAKER_01 (06:30):
I sent her like all my notes on it.
I'm like, we need this in ourkitchen.
So that's amazing.
Uh the hard part is like when Icome home from like a
competition like this, uh, oneof two things happened.
First, my wife is not going tocook me anything because my
palate, it takes about three,four days for it to get back to
reality.
Sure.
We've we've just tasted so manyspices, so many bites.
We're like at the mostinternational restaurant of the
(06:52):
world.
Yeah.
And like your taste buds are,mine get confused.
Like, wow, this is so amazing.
And then you go back home andit's like reality.
You know, it's like, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (07:01):
Well, you're right.
I mean, there's we're we'retasting the best of the best.
People put in a lot of time andeffort and money to come to
things like this.
And the podcast is fun herebecause we can talk about it
live as a dynamic.
We're in it.
We're not talking aboutsomething we were at or
something.
We are here right now.
Yeah.
And the smells are here andeverything.
It just brings such anotherfacet and dimension to that
talking about it.
(07:22):
So people want to hear us talkabout food.
Some people tune in for whateverreason it is, they're they're
they're part of it, right?
Yeah.
But our part of it here at thistime, but people are tuning in
now, we're literally amongstsome of the best chefs in the
world who aren't even reallyrecognized yet on a national
level or international level,but yet their food is.
SPEAKER_02 (07:39):
And sometimes winning here takes them.
So, your culinary journeyspecifically, how did you get
into food?
Because I mean, now you get todo the judging the emcee, which
I think some people think islike the fun part, but it's a
journey to get there.
I mean, you have you have toknow your shit.
SPEAKER_01 (07:52):
Like, uh, so I'll I'll do the fast-forward
version.
I'm Sicilian.
So, Sicilians, one of twothings.
We don't write down recipes, andI'm first generation.
You go to Sicily, you watch yourNona, you watch her cook.
She doesn't write anything down,you know, she slaps your hand if
you touch like a sample andstuff.
Um, but you're collecting allthat knowledge.
Uh growing up in Chicago, my dadbuilt a professional kitchen in
(08:16):
our basement.
SPEAKER_00 (08:17):
So as any true Italian should.
As anyway, if you don't haveItalian, if you don't have a
basement in your basementkitchen, what are you doing?
SPEAKER_01 (08:23):
I tell the survey, most Italians have two kitchens.
One's the showpiece, and thenone's the cooking one.
It's either in your basement orit's in the garage.
Sure.
So if you don't have a basement,it's in the garage.
SPEAKER_00 (08:32):
In the garage, yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (08:33):
Uh and so I'm so glad to meet someone that gets
it.
Oh, of course.
Because everyone I tell,everyone I tell they're like,
they give me deer andheadlights.
SPEAKER_00 (08:39):
They don't get the pot of sauce downstairs in the
basement, seeps through thefloors.
You wake up Sunday morning as akid, you wake up at 11 o'clock
and and you're real and you'resmelling this already.
It's amazing.
SPEAKER_01 (08:50):
Every September we would pick 10 bushels of plum
tomatoes, and we would makeenough jar sauce in the cellar
of the basement that would lastus the whole year.
Oh my gosh.
I tell people I had pasta everynight for dinner.
I had pasta every night fordinner.
SPEAKER_00 (09:02):
We did it more in lunchtime, but every day we
have.
SPEAKER_01 (09:05):
So you were doing the traditional.
Your dinner was two.
Ours was at 10.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Because we would work, we I grewup in a book binder.
I I don't know how I got in foodfor a book bindery, but it's a
family business.
So I worked in a book binder.
Books taste like shit.
But we got home at 10 o'clock.
We got home at 10 o'clock andwe'd make dinner.
That's when you could eat.
You know, that's what we did.
And that's what the that's wherethe the kitchen was kind of my
dad's stress release.
(09:26):
Okay.
You know, he would go downthere, spend an hour to boning a
chicken, sure.
Stuff it with like ground beefand rice, and I'd be like, okay,
it's midnight.
Let's eat.
You know?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But you did though, and that waswonderful.
And so that's kind of where Igot my appreciation for food.
Uh, fast forward, I I worked inTV, uh, and then I started
helping so develop software forcompanies like Avid and Pinnacle
(09:47):
and Adobe, and they startedflying me around the world.
So I became like this Steve Jobsguy where I'd be on a stage in
China, 5,000 people, tellingthem about film software,
editing an episode in lost,showing them all the features.
Well, now I'm in China for threeweeks.
I'm eating street food.
Wow.
I'm going to restaurants.
Nothing like this tastes likeChicago.
(10:10):
Every Chinese restaurant inChicago is Chinese American.
So now I'm coming back toChicago.
I'm like, I can't eat there, Ican't eat there.
I'm looking for the mom andpops.
I'm looking for the duck feet,and and I'm looking for the and
I'm like, no, and on duck feet,I'm like, oh my gosh, it's so
good.
It reminds me of China, youknow?
And so what happens from therethen is as the iPhone put me out
(10:30):
of business because now everyonehad a high definition editor and
they didn't need like amillion-dollar room full of
equipment.
Um, TripAdvisor called and theysaid, Hey, we do hotels, you're
the food guy.
I had 50,000 photos of food fromaround the world.
Oh my god.
I was doing social media beforeanyone was doing social media.
So it was kind of self-serving.
So, like in Panama, like I founda street vendor that made the
(10:53):
most amazing Venezuelan uh uhempanadas.
I would put a pin, I would putphotos, I'd write a description.
He was never on the Google map,but now he's on the Google map,
you know?
And and recently, Google willtell you things like one million
people looked at this empanadaplace, and I'm like, oh my gosh,
I put this guy in the map.
He doesn't know who I am, but Iput it there because every time
(11:15):
I go to Panama, I want thoseempanadas.
Sure.
We would we were there onChristmas Eve when we found this
place.
There was a line down thestreet.
I looked at my wife anddaughter, I go, that's where
we're having Christmas Everyone.
Or go in there.
We're going right there.
We're like, but the line solong, I go, the line is telling
you everything.
Plus, it's Christmas Eve inPanama and nothing's open.
Right.
Oh my gosh, they were the bestempanadas.
SPEAKER_00 (11:35):
But that story is amazing, and that's what we love
talking about on this podcast istalking to people who travel and
actually can tell them stories.
And the passion you're havingit, no one can really understand
it.
We can feel your passion, but wecan't understand it for you,
right?
Yeah.
And you're projecting it out tous.
And it's beautiful, right?
It's a great thing.
It's all about food.
It's crazy how food can do thatto somebody who really loves
food.
(11:56):
And I I do I love food.
SPEAKER_01 (11:57):
And and not only so so the thing is, is not only do
I go out to eat, we cook athome.
Yeah.
Like we we literally, I mean,and and and um my wife hates the
story, but I'm gonna tell it.
Uh so my wife, but I'm we won'ttell her about this episode.
No, she's she's she's gonnalessen thousands.
She's gonna be on you.
She's on you, bro.
We're dating.
She made me dinner.
(12:19):
Now I'm getting to my culinaryjudge days, right?
She made me dinner, I tasted it,and I had that Seinfeld moment.
Oh no.
Do I tell her or do I not tellher?
She said, How was it?
Did you spit it out?
I didn't spit it out.
She goes, how was it?
I said, Did you taste this?
She goes, No, why?
And I said, Oh no.
When you make food for somebody,you have to taste it before you
(12:40):
serve it.
So it's your last chance to fixit.
And she still married me.
Oh my god.
Now I want to fast forward.
So she said, Can you teach mehow to cook in the kitchen?
And I said, yes.
So she would cook and she wouldgo, Okay, you gotta come in and
taste this.
The rule was I showed her how tofix it.
After two or three weeks, shewasn't inviting me in the
kitchen anymore.
I think she's a better chef thanme right now.
(13:02):
I truly think she's a betterchef than me.
I I love to tell the storybecause like people that are
afraid to cook, like, don't beafraid.
I have a cousin who's Sicilian.
And and and she didn't cook atall, right?
And and it's so cute because nowshe's like on a barbecue team in
California, she's competing andstuff, and like she wrote to me
(13:22):
and she's like, you were myinspiration because you said to
me, We're Sicilian, we'resupposed to cook, and I just let
everybody else do the cooking.
But the thing is, my job is toinspire people.
I'm like Gratitouille.
Everyone can cook, I'm a littlemouse in the hair.
SPEAKER_00 (13:35):
Everybody can cook, I believe.
I can teach anybody to cook.
SPEAKER_01 (13:38):
Yeah, you just gotta taste it, you know it's good
food, yes, and then have funwith in the kitchen.
It doesn't have to be aboutfollowing the recipe, it's
following what you like totaste.
So you can start with the recipeand go, oh, I want to throw that
in, I want to put this in.
You know?
Um we made potato salad threenights ago.
We didn't have any pickles, andmy wife loves pickles in there.
And so she looked at me andshe's all like, what about if
(14:00):
you throw some hot jardinera inthere?
I'm like, that's a pickle, let'sdo it.
We do it.
Caruso's hot jardinera, my buddyPeter's gonna be so happy.
Um he's it's a family fromChicago during the pandemic.
They said, let's put our familyjardinera in a jar.
We're all gonna die, so let'sget our family jar out there.
Maybe we'll find it.
SPEAKER_00 (14:18):
We only have weeks left.
This is our legacy.
SPEAKER_01 (14:22):
And let's go back to critiquing.
So Peter and his family gave methe first jar.
What do you think?
And me and my wife both said, itsays hot on there, you gotta
take the hot off becausenothing's hot about that.
And they were like, oh.
And so a year later, they had afamily party where they then, I
thought they're gonna whack meand my wife, and they told
everybody the party, thanks totheir honesty, for telling us
(14:45):
this it's now it's now hotterbecause they cut the peppers at
a different angle, which made it30% hotter, and now it's hot
jardnera.
Oh, you know?
So going back to the wholecloning, I'm pretty honest.
You know, and that yeah, and thechefs in Chicago know that.
So they'll invite me in to trytheir uh fall menu.
Yeah, they want me to try itbefore it goes live because I
(15:07):
will tell them this works, thatdoesn't work.
You know, they would rather havea critique from me off the table
than someone going on Google orYelp or TripAdvisor and blasting
it.
Exactly.
You know, after the fact it'stoo late.
Once it's out there, it'sprinted.
So that's kind of and so then myculinary jury started like this
I was judging a competition, Iwas on the microphone, and the
(15:29):
person who was hosting it said,You know, I never saw you on
stage, but all I did was listento you.
You have such a great voice.
Would you like to host?
And I went, sure.
And that's how it turned out.
Why not?
So I started hosting, and Istarted judging, and I judge
like beyond real foodchampionships.
So, like um uh Marriott Hotelsdoes Masters of the Craft.
(15:49):
So Masters of the Craft is areally cool thing where the
Marriott chefs and mixologistsall go head to head greeting.
Oh cool.
And so they do their owninternal, like, World Food
Championship to reward theirchefs, which is amazing because
when you think of hotels, you'relike, oh, they don't they don't
have any creativity, they'rebuilding creativity.
Like 10 years ago, I would nevereat in a hotel restaurant, I'll
(16:09):
go eat in a hotel restaurantnow.
SPEAKER_00 (16:11):
They are serving good food.
Sure, you know, they don't havea choice at this point.
Yeah, they have to they have tostep up and they want to keep
you in the hotel.
And a lot of hotels arerealizing that, and they're
putting a lot of emphasis andmoney into the restaurant, which
means they're hiring chefs tocome in.
Yeah, and now there's a lot ofpeople that have nothing to do
with that hotel that are goingto the restaurant in the hotel
and then going back home thatnight.
Yeah.
So it's important, and it and itit is.
(16:32):
And it back in the day, if youlook at it when Michelin started
and got popular, a lot of theseMichelin chefs were directly in
a hotel.
A lot of these hotels did haveit, then it went away, like you
said.
And now it's coming back, whichis great.
SPEAKER_01 (16:43):
And which is interesting because there are
several chefs in Chicago I knowthat are really good chefs, and
Michelin star, and they havetheir own restaurants.
And then for me to find out theythey worked at the four seasons
in the peninsula, and I'm like,wait a minute, you were a hotel
chef?
Yeah.
You know, like like it'ssurprising how many are.
Yeah, there's a lot of it, yeah.
That's great.
But you think of those hotelslike Peninsula Four Seasons.
We're talking like Frenchtechniques, we're talking like
(17:05):
four-star food, top top prem dela creme.
Amazing.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (17:09):
I never let a we're not talking about a motel, we're
talking about a resort hotel.
Nice high-end hotel.
I would say that don't eversleep on that.
No.
There's a lot of invested moneyfrom that group and training in
that hotel.
You know, a lot of people.
A lot of hotels base it aroundthe experience of dying, you
know, exactly.
SPEAKER_02 (17:27):
I want to also tap in in our last few minutes your
social media side of things,because you do talk about, you
know, building your brand,influencing, you do do a lot of
education on that too.
And I liked when you said in thebeginning that you know, you
keep it short.
So you do have kind of an unfairadvantage because you knew the
editing and you were in the TVworld, which is, I mean, that's
my background too.
So it does help when you'redoing social.
(17:48):
It's not as stressful to you.
But what are some things forpeople that are building, you
know, in their kitchens?
You know, you have a tie, youkind of have a structure to how
you present on social media.
So do you mind sharing some ofthat?
SPEAKER_01 (18:01):
The first thing, the first thing on social media is
engage.
Yeah.
A lot of people just think, oh,I'm gonna make a video, I'm
gonna be viral, and everyone'sgonna love me.
You know, you have to build upyour followers.
You know, so I write to myfollowers, I DM, I write on
their walls.
When they post something nice,they write on my walls.
Yeah, that engagement is themost important thing.
Um, it's taken me 10 years toalmost get 20,000 followers.
(18:25):
Yes.
I didn't buy a single one.
I I went the long route on that.
Um, which is now paying off forme because uh brands that hire
me to like work on a project.
You have higher conversion rateson stuff.
Because they they now runeveryone's numbers through.
Yeah.
So the the guy that bought500,000 and he's got like less
than 1%, they're coming to mewith 20,000 and they're
(18:49):
literally like, oh yeah, here,well, how much you want to
charge us?
Yeah.
Because they know the engagementrate is like really, really
high.
So that's the one thing I sayengaged, you know.
Uh yeah, I have the filmbackground, so it makes like
it's really easy for me to editall that.
Because like I'm editing ithere.
So I'm editing it here.
SPEAKER_00 (19:07):
Azure filming, too.
Yeah.
Let me ask you this just as weclose out here.
Sure.
Uh, for the chef's point ofview, for the culinary, there's
a lot of younger chefs now thathave we have lost the magazine
write-ups, the actual foodcritic in the newspapers.
All that has gone away and itmoved off to a lot of
influencers who kind of dilutedthe importance of them because
(19:27):
there's so many of them.
They don't know who's what,who's important, who's not,
whose word is good, who it'shard now, right?
Yeah.
What do you tell the chefs?
What are you looking for as anas a critic?
Not an influencer, but as acritic, what can a chef now look
at and say, okay, this they'renot looking to be influenced,
they're looking to critique.
What are you looking for as acritic to let them step their
(19:50):
game up as a chef?
SPEAKER_01 (19:51):
And so what's interesting is I never ask to go
to a restaurant.
Chefs always come to me.
So obviously they're finding mefor a reason.
I say be genuine.
Genuine, first of all.
Um, don't don't be buying likesand followers because it makes
it really unreal.
Show your face like one of thethings is I talk on my video
right at the beginning, andpeople say, I feel a lot of
(20:12):
comfort with that.
I know, I know what I'm about towatch, even though I've only
said one sentence.
I write that sentence based onwhat I'm about to film.
When we shoot the second.
SPEAKER_02 (20:22):
So you you utilize those first three seconds with
the hook, and you have the sameopen on your videos so people
know what's coming.
And and that and that's what Ithink the chefs like.
SPEAKER_01 (20:31):
Consistency.
And then I always like to tellpeople it's like an MTV music
video.
We all grew up in the 80s.
So my whole thing is is likeinstead of me just talking
underneath the video, we'regonna watch some cool music with
some good visuals, maybe acouple of effects.
I don't go effects crazy, butlike I want the food to like
shine right now.
SPEAKER_00 (20:50):
And what do you what do you what do you suggest to
them as far as when they'reputting when you're tasting
their food?
Are the chefs putting togetherthe elements?
What is it you're looking for inthe food itself?
Not so much the vendor.
SPEAKER_01 (21:01):
I'm always looking for those wild moments, the aha
moments, like, oh my gosh, I'venever had this before.
You know, like like like like umchicken skewers.
Always are dry.
But lately, I've been hammeringchefs and like they're brinding
them now and stuff like that.
So like now I'm getting likechicken skewers that are moist
and juicy.
I'm like, okay, what'shappening?
Yeah, yeah.
This is something I would neverwant to order on a menu.
(21:22):
You know?
Um I you know, I think it'simportant for chefs to to find
people that are real.
Um there's and the influencersout there aren't gonna like us.
Most of them write restaurantsand say, oh, I can do this for
you.
They make a lot of promises.
I've never written a restaurant,I've never written one at all.
And I'm never gonna write onebecause I don't like rejection.
Who likes rejection?
(21:42):
I don't want rejection.
So the thing is, I want to beinvited.
Are you having an opening andstuff like that?
Yeah.
Or do I have a rapport or afriendship with the chef?
And you know, he's he's a momand pop place.
I love mom and pop places.
They really need our help, youknow, especially in this market.
SPEAKER_02 (22:05):
So you and you did build your social influence on
ethical eating.
Yeah.
I mean, ethical support, you'renot bashing people.
Yeah.
So I think that's important.
We covered it in a coupleepisodes where we've talked
about social media as aninfluence for restaurateurs and
chefs.
And people go, I mean, you dowant to check out your page and
just kind of go through whathe's doing because it is very,
(22:27):
very strategic and it'sconsistent.
SPEAKER_01 (22:30):
And I always write a review.
So that's the one thing thechefs really like is the review
on there.
That review tells them about thedishes I've had.
If there was a bad dish, itwon't be shown in the video.
And that chef will get notes onit where they will actually fix
that dish and they might say,Hey, can you pop in and just try
it again?
Try it again.
And I'll just pop in no camerasat all, and I'll try it and I
(22:50):
go, oh my gosh, wow.
And I love having that influenceon the chef.
So because I want everyone outthere dining to have a like a
four-star experience.
SPEAKER_00 (22:59):
So do we, and that's our thing.
So, in closing, why don't youslowly and then project where
you can be found all the stuffbecause you are influential, you
do have a lot of reach, a lot ofpeople know who you are, and I
think more people should knowwho you are.
SPEAKER_02 (23:10):
Yeah, in the culinary space, we want them to
kind of follow and get off.
I like how he said slowlybecause I'm Sicilian.
You'll talk faster.
SPEAKER_01 (23:18):
I can understand you.
I know, you can't.
I feel sorry, you're in themiddle ground.
What's going on?
I am Sicilian.
Okay, good, okay.
Just part, just very little.
Um it's at Anthony Martorina,Anthony A-N-T John Y, Martuina,
M-A-R-T-O-R-I-N-A.
When I made the name, I wasn'tgonna be like, eat with Ant Me.
That puts you in a niche.
(23:38):
So it's just my name becausethat's who I am.
Yep.
And I've always been AnthonyMartorina.
SPEAKER_00 (23:43):
And yeah, so it's all your chef Tony Carolina,
same thing.
SPEAKER_01 (23:46):
Same thing.
You go with your name.
I'm not trying to hide behindanything, you know?
So all right, well, it's been anawesome time.
SPEAKER_00 (23:52):
It's been a pleasure.
Thank you very much.
Thanks for having us.
I know we're all busy here todayat the at the championships.
You're doing a lot of speaking,we are doing a lot of speaking,
so things are going on.
So uh let's close it off.
What do you think?
I think we're good.
SPEAKER_02 (24:02):
All right, thank you, Ethane.
Thanks for having me.
SPEAKER_00 (24:04):
All right, awesome.
Ciao for now.
Ciao listen.
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