March 31, 2025 • 20 mins
Imagine a world where chefs finally get the recognition they deserve—where culinary professionals step onto a red carpet to thunderous applause instead of toiling away in hot kitchens for others' enjoyment. That's the revolution Mike McCloud started when he created the World Food Championships in 2012.
In our conversation with the founder himself, we discover how a simple question—"Why is there not a Super Bowl for food?"—sparked a movement that's now transforming the culinary competition landscape. McCloud shares the raw, unfiltered story of building this platform from scratch, laughing about the "dead bodies" from their chaotic first year in Las Vegas and the countless lessons learned along the way.
What makes this event truly special is its democratic approach to competition. Whether you're a home cook, a line cook, or a Michelin-starred chef, everyone follows the same rules and faces the same challenges. The playing field is level, the judging is consistent, and the only thing that matters is what you create during your time on the clock. This philosophy has attracted competitors from across the globe, each bringing their unique culinary perspective to the championship stage.
The World Food Championships isn't just a cooking contest—it's "food sport" with all the energy and excitement that implies. From the dramatic red carpet entrances to the ticking clock tension, everything is designed to celebrate culinary talent while keeping spectators thoroughly entertained. No longer must you watch a steak sizzle for two boring minutes; instead, you're immersed in a multi-sensory experience where you can see, smell, and eventually taste the competitive spirit of food.
Ready to join the food sport revolution? Visit https://worldfoodchampionships.com/ to find qualifying events happening nearly every weekend across America. Whether you're a seasoned chef looking for your next challenge or an enthusiastic home cook with competitive aspirations, there's a place for you in this growing community of culinary athletes.
Who knows—you might just find yourself walking that red carpet next year!
Get all the info here: https://worldfoodchampionships.com/
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
all right, here we are now with mr mike mcleod, the
one, the one, m1 the one onethat's right so we have, uh, you
are.
I wish it was a car you needyour own car now.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
So world food championships 2024 and we get to
sit down with the founder ofthis, 12 years in the making.
Now that's right and this isincredible.
And you guys this year havegrown exponentially over last
year and what you used to bedoing.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
We always like to evolve and grow and expand, and
this year we put steroids up.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Yeah, we're going to do it with some drinks.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
We did steroids on that this year.
Ah, there we go.
Thank you, ladies.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Cheers, cheers, relax , everything down there.
They can't see it, our viewerscan't see, but we're overlooking
the whole event, the venue,which we have plenty of roles
with.
You're so uptight right now,because this is everything you
worked on for the year.
Now, here you are, sitting here, now, take a breath, smell the
roses for one second, isn't itcool, though?
It really is pretty special.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
The cool thing about this particular location is that
we had such a clear span spaceon an empty canvas, if you will
to create exactly how we wantedto approach the heartbeat of the
competition and then do theperipheral experiences for the
consumers.
So this vantage point is aperfect way to view all of the
(01:30):
moving parts that we've beenworking on and, for someone like
me, all the moving parts thatshould be moving that aren't
moving.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
So that's the only thing I'm looking at.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
Why is that not working?
Why is this not moving?
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Where is that person?
Why is that down right now?
Otherwise, it's actually prettycool that not working.
Why is this not moving?
Where is that person?
Why is that otherwise?
This, you know, it's actuallypretty cool the outside eye.
You guys have so many partsthat are moving or not moving
that it gets lost in translationanyway.
For the person, the consumer,yeah, of course you looking it
over is amazing and you'relooking at it like, oh shit,
that's not working.
But I'm looking at there's ascissor lift with a cameraman
(02:02):
over the other guy in a camera.
There's so much going on herefor the food, for the food and
what, what, what.
When you founded this?
How long ago?
Speaker 3 (02:09):
was that 2012 is when we launched it.
Um, we started talking about itin 2010.
Are you a chef?
Did you come?
Speaker 1 (02:15):
from the background, actually a marketing background.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
And, uh, I got involved with barbecue in 2006
and fell in love with theindustry industry, the whole
competition, cooking industryand realized, uh, there was a
whole lot of stuff starting topop up.
Then, you know, food networkwas becoming huge, but so were
uh individual sidles like burgerbattles, sandwich slams,
dessert offs, uh chef throwdowns, and then barbecue and chili.
(02:40):
And so we're.
We were always meeting on aregular basis about how to
improve barbecue.
And one fateful meeting we hadcome back from an event.
We had seen two or three newthings and we had heard they
were claiming a world title hereand a world title there, and
(03:02):
one of us, in our brainstormingstrategy, said why is there not
a Super Bowl of food?
And every one of us justdropped our jaw and stopped
right there, it's key.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
And just the panels.
Everything, you're right, it isthe Super Bowl of food, world
Series, call it whatever youwant, I would say Super Bowl,
because there's that muchentertainment.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
It's the energy of it .
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Between shows there's a show.
Between a halftime show there'sanother show.
These people over here they'rerunning down the red carpet
trying to make the times Veryexciting.
There was a lot of thought thatwent into this.
I'm sure a lot of trial anderror.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
Oh my God, I'm still hoping that they don't find any
of the dead bodies from thefirst year in Las Vegas who went
down.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Who got stabbed Everything.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
Everything happened, but the food.
We didn't know what we didn'tknow, and we walked into Las
Vegas.
We partnered with Caesars.
Somehow we convinced them to dothis and it was crazy.
It was just absolutely nuts.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
So year one was Vegas .
The first time you did it wasVegas.
Oh, you went big.
You were like what?
Speaker 3 (03:59):
We decided if we're going to be loud and obnoxious
in the food space we had to goto be loud and obnoxious in the
food space.
We had to go to the loud andobnoxious city of Las Vegas.
So we did, and it was a greatyear, great place to start.
We learned very quickly.
There was a whole lot of thingsthat all of our year and a half
of planning didn't cover and webacked up for a minute and said
(04:21):
maybe we shouldn't try to be sorobust at first.
Maybe we need to dial this backin a little bit.
Still not.
But the truth be told, from achef-centric perspective, from a
team perspective, from day onewe knew we had hit a nerve.
We had found a stream ofconsciousness that mattered.
Yeah.
And the question became allright.
(04:42):
Once you come to thecompetition and you see your
favorite chef competing do wellor not, do well what else do you
do?
In Vegas we didn't have toworry about it too much because
there's so much to do.
We did it on Fremont Street acouple of years.
So if you can't be entertainedon Fremont Street, you don't
have a heartbeat so as westarted moving to other places
(05:04):
of the country, we realized thishas to be a consumer experience
.
The biggest thing we ever hadto overcome and I know you're
probably going to ask thatquestion is cooking in general.
Food competitions in generalaren't great spectator sports.
You can watch a steak sizzlefor about two minutes before you
(05:26):
get bored.
Sure, right, yeah, so we knewthat we had to start adding
components and adding things forconsumers to hang around, to
stay.
Watch this burger category,because everybody's going to go
ooh and ah.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
But after that's over with, go over here and see a
demo and then go over there andhave a tasting.
Go over there and see a demoand then go over there and have
a tasting.
Go over there, have a freedrink, right?
So we had to start reallyprogramming all of those things
and it took us a while to get toa point where we could unveil
it in such a big robo, robustwhat I call rubik's cube of food
(05:59):
competition and, with thatbeing said, if you look, kristen
, if we look around, we weretalking about it yesterday.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Yeah, there's so much more going on.
So you got to put together that, make sure that all works.
So everything you just said isright in line.
But in that time, in all theseyears that you've done it,
you've almost had to generateyour own identity in your own
world, your own judging system,your own logos.
You have to get networked inwith the cities you're hosting.
You have to have already allthis stuff you've already
produced.
You have to store it somewhere.
(06:25):
You have to luggage, uh ship it.
You have to be, you have to.
Just there's so many movingparts that people don't even
know what it takes to put on ashow like this.
Your grills, are these sponsors?
Are these donated?
Did you purchase them?
There's so many grills and somany stove tops and cooks top
just just the restaurantequipment you have 40 kitchens
can you go back to 2011 and havethat conversation with me?
Speaker 1 (06:47):
because I'm not sure.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
I knew all that at the time, but you're right,
you're right and and the otherthing on top of it that people
don't realize and this is where,uh, sometimes people may not
truly understand how complicatedthis is.
We're trailblazing absolutely.
We call this, we call this foodsport.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
There was no game plan.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
If you're starting a basketball team for a charity or
a local church group oranything like that, you know the
goal is going to be 10 feettall.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
There's a template, you know.
There's a guideline.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
You know there's out of bounds, you know it's 90 feet
.
There's decades of guidelines,exactly, there's already
guidelines.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
We had to create all that for food sport.
The red carpet didn't come intoexistence until three years ago
.
Sure, wow, and it was almost byaccident.
We were like, okay, we need tofigure out how we can funnel
people in front of the stagebecause that's the most exciting
part of food sport.
And I remember standing thereand saying, can we make them
(07:45):
come from the same space on twokitchen arenas?
And the guy said yeah.
I said why don't we put somecarpet down here?
Why don't we make a red carpet?
Speaker 1 (07:53):
It would be cool.
Why not put a stage in themiddle of it?
Speaker 3 (07:55):
Like a velvet ropes and everything.
It's a hit Right off the bat.
It's a hit as soon as ithappened Right off the bat.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
So now, being a chef, coming from the chef world, I
can say this over and over again, which I am redundant on it,
because it's that exciting to me.
I'm in the kitchen all the time.
My staff, my crew, my team, mybrigade we work day in and day
out.
We are constantly competingevery night with the thing.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
So Because we're constantly making a living off
competition you do if you comehere, brother, that's what I
mean.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
So what this does is it refires, rekindles something
inside of me right to want to bepart of it and to want to go
back home Now.
These guys are inspiring,you're inspiring, everything's
inspiring me.
You know what.
I've done my thing and I'mworking up my ladder of success
in the restaurant world.
Right, and just like all thehidden secrets that it takes to
run this, same things happen inthe restaurants.
(08:40):
Then, if you own two, itdoubles up and everything else.
So, when you come to somethinglike this and see someone else
bringing this type of energy,and seeing all these chefs
competing, all these wannabechefs competing, or whatever you
want to call them but they areall very skilled and talented
the judges, all the people whoare taking the passion to be
here, really have a heart inthis man and you've designed
this to work.
(09:00):
We're overlooking now.
We have mixology competitionsgoing on right now.
These people are traveling fromall over the world to compete
here, and they're not competinghere for the first time.
They've had this preliminary.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
They had to win their way in.
They had to win their way here.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
So you've set up a lifestyle throughout the year
and celebrated here in the SuperBowl, like you said, chefs
finally have their own platformand their own league.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
That's what we've created and it's kind of special
because this whole event andeverything you go through here
the reason it gives you passionand drive and energy is that you
finally get celebrated for whatyou do.
Sure, most events that you goto it's called South Beach Aspen
, food and Wine any of those big, beautiful events that are a
(09:48):
lot of fun for consumers to goto.
You know what the dirty littlesecret behind the scenes is.
Chefs are having to work theirass off Yep money.
They're having to work theirasses off just to serve people,
which they do every single day.
Well, guess what?
Here you come here to provethat you're the best at
something, so the energy levelis different.
That's right.
It goes through different partsof your heart here there's
(10:09):
competitors out there.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
I can see it in their eyes.
People refuse to talk to usbecause they're focusing on the
dish they have to come with.
Yeah, that's amazing to me andI get it because I'm in the
business.
I, I am a chef and I'm likegood answer, sir ma'am.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
I don't have time for you right now.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
Exactly, and that's the way it should be.
They're focused, and that's aspark that we lose sometimes.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
And you lose that spark sometimes, because I think
this industry is the mostoverworked, underappreciated
industry.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
It is.
It's only appreciated if youare at the top of it, if you're
gordon ramsay.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
If you're bringing something, yeah, you get into
the millionairemulti-multi-millionaire zone.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
Right, yeah, yeah, it's, it's.
It's not every day, it's lessthan one percent.
And so what happens to greatchefs?
Speaker 3 (10:50):
like you.
Where do you get your energy?
Where do you get your payoff?
Yeah for these chefs, thesecompeting chefs.
They get their energy andpayoff from being called out and
going to the stage because theywere fifth or fourth or third
or second.
Sure.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
Putting that gold on and stuff, and then they win
some money, yep.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
Right, and one day that money is going to be a lot
more money, sure, and it's goingto be tied to a TV show that's
going to have launched theircareers to the next level.
In the meantime, they're movingtheir pedigree and their resume
up a notch, and so they can goback to their bosses and they go
back to their hometowns.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
I did this.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
I achieved this for Biloxi, or I achieved this for
Nashville, or wherever they'refrom.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
But even when they don't win here, they've already
won to get here.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
They did.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
It's kind of like the American Idol kind of thing you
already won because you beatall these other people to get to
this point and it's year-round.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
We track every media hit through our alert system and
we get about 3,000 stories ayear written about the World
Food Championships.
It's because someone won theTupelo honey contest and all of
a sudden that area in Tupelogets behind that chef because
(11:57):
they hear oh, he or she is, orhe or she's going to the World
Food Championships to competefor Tupelo.
That's right.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
And more community, more community Right.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
I had 1,000 interactions on this just
because I was coming here in myarea.
So, I mean, my platformsbrought a lot of attention to
this and now I've actually hadtext messages from people who
are just asking me how it'sgoing here, because they're
watching.
We're feeding from here too.
We're putting out our shortswhile we're here.
I'm sure this conversation isgoing to hit out as soon as
we're done and people are goingto comment and exactly what
(12:26):
you're talking about.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
It's that effect.
Well, you know, I mean it's thepower of media at this point
and the power of the voice andjust getting it in front of
people.
That many touch points wherethey're like, oh, I have to go
to this event now.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
Awareness- and then not only supporting your
favorite chef or supporting yourfavorite cook, but being
entertained.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
Yeah, the entertainment's back.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
Most people will never set foot on a food TV
scene or have the opportunity todo so.
Here you get all of that andmore, and just visiting.
You get to see it.
You get really close to thekitchen.
You get to smell it, feel it,hear it.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
Well, and they're talking to you Like we're down
there, the chefs that are downthere cooking, like Machete he's
with every person there talkingto him, he's cooking.
They feel like they're gettingthat chef experience because
it's so personal.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
So for a foodie who just loves watching uh food on
tv, this gives them a chance toreally feel the energy.
It's live and, and guess what,there's no redos.
That's what makes it food sport.
I do this for a living dailyand I feel the energy.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
I'm excited watching them.
There's no redundancy for mehere.
I'm watching them and I'mexcited about it because they
are doing things in a smalllittle area.
I'm impressed by how they'reputting it together.
They are doing things in asmall little area.
I'm impressed by how they'reputting it together.
They're doing it in a very fasttime, not with fancy equipment
either no equipment.
This is very archaic, really,yeah it is.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
It could be improved 10 times, and we're going to do
that.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
Right With that comes more success.
Like I said, this city hereseems to be holding up their end
.
As far as what I see as being aperfect location, you're in the
middle of the country, prettymuch.
The place is beautiful.
Easy to get to you walk offthat airport and you see all
this hype in the airport.
I felt good being a chef.
I wanted to walk around in mychef coat outside of my luggage
(14:11):
bag, so I could feel like I'mpart of it.
Like, I'm here for it.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
After two or three years here, I think that is
going to be the thing to do.
It'll be chef week, it'll befood week, right, and that's a
good dream, just like Daytonaand of course I shouldn't say
Daytona in the home of the Indy500.
But just like they have inNASCAR, they have the speed week
, sure.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
All motorcycle enthusiasts.
So we have Sturgis, we haveLaconia.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
We're going to create food Shark Week.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
I mean, you got all sorts of things and all
celebrities in town are going tobe people wearing this right
here, the chef jacket, everybodyneeds to wear it.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
And I mean even one of the restaurants we went to,
like they asked, they didn't, wedidn't even really say anything
and they were like, oh how,how's the World Food
Championships going?
Like they already were watchingand knew, like from the you
know, just seeing people's faceswith this event, indianapolis
(15:05):
brings big city to the tablewith media and population,
professional sports.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
you know, football, basketball, the Indy cars.
But it also brings smallcommunity big time.
Yes, you're right, midwest,you're one phone call away from
anybody that you need in a townlike Indianapolis.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
I told her yesterday.
I said why is everybody so nice?
Well, we come on the East Coast.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
Well, I grew up in Michigan, so I am Midwest
technically and I'm like Midwestis just pretty laid back
culture.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
Everybody's pretty nice.
They want to talk to you.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
It's not New York, it's not, you know, a lot of
East Coast feel, so it's great.
But this event in total becauseit's our first time being here
and not our last, but this hasbeen a spectacular example of
what is possible.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
I agree.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
So congratulations to you and your team.
I'm a hard guy to hook as faras the culinary industry, he's a
little stubborn about stuff I'mso used to being taken
advantage of as a chef.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
Like you were saying earlier, you were talking about
how you have these food shows.
Typically, to get me to a foodshow or to do an event or to
guest as a chef takes a lot forme and it usually comes down to
money, because all they want mefor is to make money on their
own.
They don't really care aboutthe chefs.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
They don't care about that.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
They care about how they're going to sell their
knives or how they're going tosell sponsorship booths, and if
they bring me there, then thatmight help.
Well, I'm not down for thathere.
I don't feel that way at all.
I have no different.
Speaker 3 (16:28):
It's not a strategy.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
I feel no bigger than anyone in this room and no
smaller.
I think everyone in here is onthe same level.
They're all in the same focus.
The respect from the chefs hereis on the same level.
Everyone's equal here.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
I'm glad you said that, because one of the big
things we focused on early onwith this is playing no
favorites.
We pretty much playedSwitzerland.
We didn't care what yourbackground was as a chef.
You could be a home cook, Sure.
You could be a classicallytrained chef.
You could be a self-taught chef.
You could be a line cook.
You could be a Michelin starchef.
You could be a pro teambarbecue team.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
You really can do it, just qualify we didn't care.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
We developed the level playing field, we
developed the rules, wedeveloped the challenges, we
developed the judging processand as long as you follow that
and you follow that, we don'tcare what your background is.
That's right.
I love it.
That's the goal.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
And that gives everyone opportunity, because
just because you're a chefdoesn't mean you can go on that
stage right there in one hourand produce what you need to,
but that person who doesn't workmay be able to, and it all
comes down to that.
So you have to qualify to gethere right.
So whether you got here fromyour home kitchen or you didn't,
you still had to go through allthe steps of everybody else.
So there's no one up on theother and I've noticed before
(17:40):
that.
I won't say names, but there'sbeen celebrity chefs here that
look to me and then, oh, you'restill in it, heavy like that,
you're still cooking like that.
They're looking at me like I'mthe celebrity now because
they've been out of it so longthat they have a pride for
people who are still in theindustry still cooking it dirty
still coming here and still upin the grit.
I don't see myself leaving thatanytime soon, but I would like
to at some point as I grow, youknow.
(18:00):
But right now that's not myfocus.
I'm still.
I'm still in line with tryingto be the best chef I can be and
lead my team, but this righthere is definitely helping me
and bringing me to it.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
I'm glad to hear that .
So I think a lot of peopledon't know.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
It is kind of year-round as far as quality.
So where would anybody who'slisted?
Where would they start to getinto this and how do they find
out more?
Speaker 3 (18:17):
about it.
So I would encourage everyoneto check out our social media
and then go to our website,worldfoodchampionshipscom.
We have a a million pages onthat website and one of them uh,
focuses on qualifiers has alist of all our golden ticket
partners.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
So and it starts january 1 to december 31st- all
year, so people need to go onstart looking at it to qualify
for that, in fact the firstpeople qualifying into next
year's championship will beanyone who finishes in the top
ten here.
Yeah, the concept of thatcategory goes towards next year.
They get an automatic birthinto next year.
It gives you an automatic entryinto next year.
Sure, I got you.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
Right, so right away.
Though, without that being said, your next qualifiers for next
year have already begun.
In a sense, as soon as this isdone, you're moving into the
next phase already.
Right there's no downtime.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
There are food events and contests every single
weekend in America.
So next weekend there will be acontest somewhere.
That's a qualifier for theWorld Food Championship.
Don't ask me where it is.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
Well, we're going to talk to you about that.
We need this in Hampton Roadsin Virginia, so we need to have
a qualifier in our area, so wewill talk to you about that
because we will help with that.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
So that will be fun.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
I'm proud to do that.
But we're proud to be here.
I finished mine.
Yeah, we're ready to catch up.
We had you talking way too much, I'm sorry.
Thank you for your time.
We know you're busy.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
You're in the middle of the highest point of this
competition right now.
The event is in full swingrestaurant person anyone who's
not anyone listening to thispodcast focus in on this
bartending.
They have a huge bartendingthing here, which the mixology
thing is going to be great.
Just get into it.
Look at this, come out of thekitchen a little bit, experience
a little bit and come in andtake the trips.
(19:54):
Give yourself a culinary tripout here and check them out,
check us out.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
We're following it.
All right, we got it.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
We're Right here at the World Food Championships in
Indianapolis, indiana.
Thank you again.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
my man Appreciate everything you do, my pleasure.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
Ciao for now, ciao.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
Cheers.
all right, here we are now with mr mike mcleod, the
one, the one, m1 the one onethat's right so we have, uh, you
are.
I wish it was a car you needyour own car now.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
So world food championships 2024 and we get to
sit down with the founder ofthis, 12 years in the making.
Now that's right and this isincredible.
And you guys this year havegrown exponentially over last
year and what you used to bedoing.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
We always like to evolve and grow and expand, and
this year we put steroids up.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Yeah, we're going to do it with some drinks.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
We did steroids on that this year.
Ah, there we go.
Thank you, ladies.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Cheers, cheers, relax , everything down there.
They can't see it, our viewerscan't see, but we're overlooking
the whole event, the venue,which we have plenty of roles
with.
You're so uptight right now,because this is everything you
worked on for the year.
Now, here you are, sitting here, now, take a breath, smell the
roses for one second, isn't itcool, though?
It really is pretty special.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
The cool thing about this particular location is that
we had such a clear span spaceon an empty canvas, if you will
to create exactly how we wantedto approach the heartbeat of the
competition and then do theperipheral experiences for the
consumers.
So this vantage point is aperfect way to view all of the
(01:30):
moving parts that we've beenworking on and, for someone like
me, all the moving parts thatshould be moving that aren't
moving.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
So that's the only thing I'm looking at.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
Why is that not working?
Why is this not moving?
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Where is that person?
Why is that down right now?
Otherwise, it's actually prettycool that not working.
Why is this not moving?
Where is that person?
Why is that otherwise?
This, you know, it's actuallypretty cool the outside eye.
You guys have so many partsthat are moving or not moving
that it gets lost in translationanyway.
For the person, the consumer,yeah, of course you looking it
over is amazing and you'relooking at it like, oh shit,
that's not working.
But I'm looking at there's ascissor lift with a cameraman
(02:02):
over the other guy in a camera.
There's so much going on herefor the food, for the food and
what, what, what.
When you founded this?
How long ago?
Speaker 3 (02:09):
was that 2012 is when we launched it.
Um, we started talking about itin 2010.
Are you a chef?
Did you come?
Speaker 1 (02:15):
from the background, actually a marketing background.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
And, uh, I got involved with barbecue in 2006
and fell in love with theindustry industry, the whole
competition, cooking industryand realized, uh, there was a
whole lot of stuff starting topop up.
Then, you know, food networkwas becoming huge, but so were
uh individual sidles like burgerbattles, sandwich slams,
dessert offs, uh chef throwdowns, and then barbecue and chili.
(02:40):
And so we're.
We were always meeting on aregular basis about how to
improve barbecue.
And one fateful meeting we hadcome back from an event.
We had seen two or three newthings and we had heard they
were claiming a world title hereand a world title there, and
(03:02):
one of us, in our brainstormingstrategy, said why is there not
a Super Bowl of food?
And every one of us justdropped our jaw and stopped
right there, it's key.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
And just the panels.
Everything, you're right, it isthe Super Bowl of food, world
Series, call it whatever youwant, I would say Super Bowl,
because there's that muchentertainment.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
It's the energy of it .
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Between shows there's a show.
Between a halftime show there'sanother show.
These people over here they'rerunning down the red carpet
trying to make the times Veryexciting.
There was a lot of thought thatwent into this.
I'm sure a lot of trial anderror.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
Oh my God, I'm still hoping that they don't find any
of the dead bodies from thefirst year in Las Vegas who went
down.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Who got stabbed Everything.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
Everything happened, but the food.
We didn't know what we didn'tknow, and we walked into Las
Vegas.
We partnered with Caesars.
Somehow we convinced them to dothis and it was crazy.
It was just absolutely nuts.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
So year one was Vegas .
The first time you did it wasVegas.
Oh, you went big.
You were like what?
Speaker 3 (03:59):
We decided if we're going to be loud and obnoxious
in the food space we had to goto be loud and obnoxious in the
food space.
We had to go to the loud andobnoxious city of Las Vegas.
So we did, and it was a greatyear, great place to start.
We learned very quickly.
There was a whole lot of thingsthat all of our year and a half
of planning didn't cover and webacked up for a minute and said
(04:21):
maybe we shouldn't try to be sorobust at first.
Maybe we need to dial this backin a little bit.
Still not.
But the truth be told, from achef-centric perspective, from a
team perspective, from day onewe knew we had hit a nerve.
We had found a stream ofconsciousness that mattered.
Yeah.
And the question became allright.
(04:42):
Once you come to thecompetition and you see your
favorite chef competing do wellor not, do well what else do you
do?
In Vegas we didn't have toworry about it too much because
there's so much to do.
We did it on Fremont Street acouple of years.
So if you can't be entertainedon Fremont Street, you don't
have a heartbeat so as westarted moving to other places
(05:04):
of the country, we realized thishas to be a consumer experience
.
The biggest thing we ever hadto overcome and I know you're
probably going to ask thatquestion is cooking in general.
Food competitions in generalaren't great spectator sports.
You can watch a steak sizzlefor about two minutes before you
(05:26):
get bored.
Sure, right, yeah, so we knewthat we had to start adding
components and adding things forconsumers to hang around, to
stay.
Watch this burger category,because everybody's going to go
ooh and ah.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
But after that's over with, go over here and see a
demo and then go over there andhave a tasting.
Go over there and see a demoand then go over there and have
a tasting.
Go over there, have a freedrink, right?
So we had to start reallyprogramming all of those things
and it took us a while to get toa point where we could unveil
it in such a big robo, robustwhat I call rubik's cube of food
(05:59):
competition and, with thatbeing said, if you look, kristen
, if we look around, we weretalking about it yesterday.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Yeah, there's so much more going on.
So you got to put together that, make sure that all works.
So everything you just said isright in line.
But in that time, in all theseyears that you've done it,
you've almost had to generateyour own identity in your own
world, your own judging system,your own logos.
You have to get networked inwith the cities you're hosting.
You have to have already allthis stuff you've already
produced.
You have to store it somewhere.
(06:25):
You have to luggage, uh ship it.
You have to be, you have to.
Just there's so many movingparts that people don't even
know what it takes to put on ashow like this.
Your grills, are these sponsors?
Are these donated?
Did you purchase them?
There's so many grills and somany stove tops and cooks top
just just the restaurantequipment you have 40 kitchens
can you go back to 2011 and havethat conversation with me?
Speaker 1 (06:47):
because I'm not sure.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
I knew all that at the time, but you're right,
you're right and and the otherthing on top of it that people
don't realize and this is where,uh, sometimes people may not
truly understand how complicatedthis is.
We're trailblazing absolutely.
We call this, we call this foodsport.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
There was no game plan.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
If you're starting a basketball team for a charity or
a local church group oranything like that, you know the
goal is going to be 10 feettall.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
There's a template, you know.
There's a guideline.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
You know there's out of bounds, you know it's 90 feet
.
There's decades of guidelines,exactly, there's already
guidelines.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
We had to create all that for food sport.
The red carpet didn't come intoexistence until three years ago
.
Sure, wow, and it was almost byaccident.
We were like, okay, we need tofigure out how we can funnel
people in front of the stagebecause that's the most exciting
part of food sport.
And I remember standing thereand saying, can we make them
(07:45):
come from the same space on twokitchen arenas?
And the guy said yeah.
I said why don't we put somecarpet down here?
Why don't we make a red carpet?
Speaker 1 (07:53):
It would be cool.
Why not put a stage in themiddle of it?
Speaker 3 (07:55):
Like a velvet ropes and everything.
It's a hit Right off the bat.
It's a hit as soon as ithappened Right off the bat.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
So now, being a chef, coming from the chef world, I
can say this over and over again, which I am redundant on it,
because it's that exciting to me.
I'm in the kitchen all the time.
My staff, my crew, my team, mybrigade we work day in and day
out.
We are constantly competingevery night with the thing.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
So Because we're constantly making a living off
competition you do if you comehere, brother, that's what I
mean.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
So what this does is it refires, rekindles something
inside of me right to want to bepart of it and to want to go
back home Now.
These guys are inspiring,you're inspiring, everything's
inspiring me.
You know what.
I've done my thing and I'mworking up my ladder of success
in the restaurant world.
Right, and just like all thehidden secrets that it takes to
run this, same things happen inthe restaurants.
(08:40):
Then, if you own two, itdoubles up and everything else.
So, when you come to somethinglike this and see someone else
bringing this type of energy,and seeing all these chefs
competing, all these wannabechefs competing, or whatever you
want to call them but they areall very skilled and talented
the judges, all the people whoare taking the passion to be
here, really have a heart inthis man and you've designed
this to work.
(09:00):
We're overlooking now.
We have mixology competitionsgoing on right now.
These people are traveling fromall over the world to compete
here, and they're not competinghere for the first time.
They've had this preliminary.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
They had to win their way in.
They had to win their way here.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
So you've set up a lifestyle throughout the year
and celebrated here in the SuperBowl, like you said, chefs
finally have their own platformand their own league.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
That's what we've created and it's kind of special
because this whole event andeverything you go through here
the reason it gives you passionand drive and energy is that you
finally get celebrated for whatyou do.
Sure, most events that you goto it's called South Beach Aspen
, food and Wine any of those big, beautiful events that are a
(09:48):
lot of fun for consumers to goto.
You know what the dirty littlesecret behind the scenes is.
Chefs are having to work theirass off Yep money.
They're having to work theirasses off just to serve people,
which they do every single day.
Well, guess what?
Here you come here to provethat you're the best at
something, so the energy levelis different.
That's right.
It goes through different partsof your heart here there's
(10:09):
competitors out there.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
I can see it in their eyes.
People refuse to talk to usbecause they're focusing on the
dish they have to come with.
Yeah, that's amazing to me andI get it because I'm in the
business.
I, I am a chef and I'm likegood answer, sir ma'am.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
I don't have time for you right now.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
Exactly, and that's the way it should be.
They're focused, and that's aspark that we lose sometimes.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
And you lose that spark sometimes, because I think
this industry is the mostoverworked, underappreciated
industry.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
It is.
It's only appreciated if youare at the top of it, if you're
gordon ramsay.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
If you're bringing something, yeah, you get into
the millionairemulti-multi-millionaire zone.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
Right, yeah, yeah, it's, it's.
It's not every day, it's lessthan one percent.
And so what happens to greatchefs?
Speaker 3 (10:50):
like you.
Where do you get your energy?
Where do you get your payoff?
Yeah for these chefs, thesecompeting chefs.
They get their energy andpayoff from being called out and
going to the stage because theywere fifth or fourth or third
or second.
Sure.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
Putting that gold on and stuff, and then they win
some money, yep.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
Right, and one day that money is going to be a lot
more money, sure, and it's goingto be tied to a TV show that's
going to have launched theircareers to the next level.
In the meantime, they're movingtheir pedigree and their resume
up a notch, and so they can goback to their bosses and they go
back to their hometowns.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
I did this.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
I achieved this for Biloxi, or I achieved this for
Nashville, or wherever they'refrom.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
But even when they don't win here, they've already
won to get here.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
They did.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
It's kind of like the American Idol kind of thing you
already won because you beatall these other people to get to
this point and it's year-round.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
We track every media hit through our alert system and
we get about 3,000 stories ayear written about the World
Food Championships.
It's because someone won theTupelo honey contest and all of
a sudden that area in Tupelogets behind that chef because
(11:57):
they hear oh, he or she is, orhe or she's going to the World
Food Championships to competefor Tupelo.
That's right.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
And more community, more community Right.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
I had 1,000 interactions on this just
because I was coming here in myarea.
So, I mean, my platformsbrought a lot of attention to
this and now I've actually hadtext messages from people who
are just asking me how it'sgoing here, because they're
watching.
We're feeding from here too.
We're putting out our shortswhile we're here.
I'm sure this conversation isgoing to hit out as soon as
we're done and people are goingto comment and exactly what
(12:26):
you're talking about.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
It's that effect.
Well, you know, I mean it's thepower of media at this point
and the power of the voice andjust getting it in front of
people.
That many touch points wherethey're like, oh, I have to go
to this event now.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
Awareness- and then not only supporting your
favorite chef or supporting yourfavorite cook, but being
entertained.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
Yeah, the entertainment's back.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
Most people will never set foot on a food TV
scene or have the opportunity todo so.
Here you get all of that andmore, and just visiting.
You get to see it.
You get really close to thekitchen.
You get to smell it, feel it,hear it.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
Well, and they're talking to you Like we're down
there, the chefs that are downthere cooking, like Machete he's
with every person there talkingto him, he's cooking.
They feel like they're gettingthat chef experience because
it's so personal.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
So for a foodie who just loves watching uh food on
tv, this gives them a chance toreally feel the energy.
It's live and, and guess what,there's no redos.
That's what makes it food sport.
I do this for a living dailyand I feel the energy.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
I'm excited watching them.
There's no redundancy for mehere.
I'm watching them and I'mexcited about it because they
are doing things in a smalllittle area.
I'm impressed by how they'reputting it together.
They are doing things in asmall little area.
I'm impressed by how they'reputting it together.
They're doing it in a very fasttime, not with fancy equipment
either no equipment.
This is very archaic, really,yeah it is.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
It could be improved 10 times, and we're going to do
that.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
Right With that comes more success.
Like I said, this city hereseems to be holding up their end
.
As far as what I see as being aperfect location, you're in the
middle of the country, prettymuch.
The place is beautiful.
Easy to get to you walk offthat airport and you see all
this hype in the airport.
I felt good being a chef.
I wanted to walk around in mychef coat outside of my luggage
(14:11):
bag, so I could feel like I'mpart of it.
Like, I'm here for it.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
After two or three years here, I think that is
going to be the thing to do.
It'll be chef week, it'll befood week, right, and that's a
good dream, just like Daytonaand of course I shouldn't say
Daytona in the home of the Indy500.
But just like they have inNASCAR, they have the speed week
, sure.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
All motorcycle enthusiasts.
So we have Sturgis, we haveLaconia.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
We're going to create food Shark Week.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
I mean, you got all sorts of things and all
celebrities in town are going tobe people wearing this right
here, the chef jacket, everybodyneeds to wear it.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
And I mean even one of the restaurants we went to,
like they asked, they didn't, wedidn't even really say anything
and they were like, oh how,how's the World Food
Championships going?
Like they already were watchingand knew, like from the you
know, just seeing people's faceswith this event, indianapolis
(15:05):
brings big city to the tablewith media and population,
professional sports.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
you know, football, basketball, the Indy cars.
But it also brings smallcommunity big time.
Yes, you're right, midwest,you're one phone call away from
anybody that you need in a townlike Indianapolis.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
I told her yesterday.
I said why is everybody so nice?
Well, we come on the East Coast.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
Well, I grew up in Michigan, so I am Midwest
technically and I'm like Midwestis just pretty laid back
culture.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
Everybody's pretty nice.
They want to talk to you.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
It's not New York, it's not, you know, a lot of
East Coast feel, so it's great.
But this event in total becauseit's our first time being here
and not our last, but this hasbeen a spectacular example of
what is possible.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
I agree.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
So congratulations to you and your team.
I'm a hard guy to hook as faras the culinary industry, he's a
little stubborn about stuff I'mso used to being taken
advantage of as a chef.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
Like you were saying earlier, you were talking about
how you have these food shows.
Typically, to get me to a foodshow or to do an event or to
guest as a chef takes a lot forme and it usually comes down to
money, because all they want mefor is to make money on their
own.
They don't really care aboutthe chefs.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
They don't care about that.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
They care about how they're going to sell their
knives or how they're going tosell sponsorship booths, and if
they bring me there, then thatmight help.
Well, I'm not down for thathere.
I don't feel that way at all.
I have no different.
Speaker 3 (16:28):
It's not a strategy.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
I feel no bigger than anyone in this room and no
smaller.
I think everyone in here is onthe same level.
They're all in the same focus.
The respect from the chefs hereis on the same level.
Everyone's equal here.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
I'm glad you said that, because one of the big
things we focused on early onwith this is playing no
favorites.
We pretty much playedSwitzerland.
We didn't care what yourbackground was as a chef.
You could be a home cook, Sure.
You could be a classicallytrained chef.
You could be a self-taught chef.
You could be a line cook.
You could be a Michelin starchef.
You could be a pro teambarbecue team.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
You really can do it, just qualify we didn't care.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
We developed the level playing field, we
developed the rules, wedeveloped the challenges, we
developed the judging processand as long as you follow that
and you follow that, we don'tcare what your background is.
That's right.
I love it.
That's the goal.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
And that gives everyone opportunity, because
just because you're a chefdoesn't mean you can go on that
stage right there in one hourand produce what you need to,
but that person who doesn't workmay be able to, and it all
comes down to that.
So you have to qualify to gethere right.
So whether you got here fromyour home kitchen or you didn't,
you still had to go through allthe steps of everybody else.
So there's no one up on theother and I've noticed before
(17:40):
that.
I won't say names, but there'sbeen celebrity chefs here that
look to me and then, oh, you'restill in it, heavy like that,
you're still cooking like that.
They're looking at me like I'mthe celebrity now because
they've been out of it so longthat they have a pride for
people who are still in theindustry still cooking it dirty
still coming here and still upin the grit.
I don't see myself leaving thatanytime soon, but I would like
to at some point as I grow, youknow.
(18:00):
But right now that's not myfocus.
I'm still.
I'm still in line with tryingto be the best chef I can be and
lead my team, but this righthere is definitely helping me
and bringing me to it.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
I'm glad to hear that .
So I think a lot of peopledon't know.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
It is kind of year-round as far as quality.
So where would anybody who'slisted?
Where would they start to getinto this and how do they find
out more?
Speaker 3 (18:17):
about it.
So I would encourage everyoneto check out our social media
and then go to our website,worldfoodchampionshipscom.
We have a a million pages onthat website and one of them uh,
focuses on qualifiers has alist of all our golden ticket
partners.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
So and it starts january 1 to december 31st- all
year, so people need to go onstart looking at it to qualify
for that, in fact the firstpeople qualifying into next
year's championship will beanyone who finishes in the top
ten here.
Yeah, the concept of thatcategory goes towards next year.
They get an automatic birthinto next year.
It gives you an automatic entryinto next year.
Sure, I got you.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
Right, so right away.
Though, without that being said, your next qualifiers for next
year have already begun.
In a sense, as soon as this isdone, you're moving into the
next phase already.
Right there's no downtime.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
There are food events and contests every single
weekend in America.
So next weekend there will be acontest somewhere.
That's a qualifier for theWorld Food Championship.
Don't ask me where it is.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
Well, we're going to talk to you about that.
We need this in Hampton Roadsin Virginia, so we need to have
a qualifier in our area, so wewill talk to you about that
because we will help with that.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
So that will be fun.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
I'm proud to do that.
But we're proud to be here.
I finished mine.
Yeah, we're ready to catch up.
We had you talking way too much, I'm sorry.
Thank you for your time.
We know you're busy.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
You're in the middle of the highest point of this
competition right now.
The event is in full swingrestaurant person anyone who's
not anyone listening to thispodcast focus in on this
bartending.
They have a huge bartendingthing here, which the mixology
thing is going to be great.
Just get into it.
Look at this, come out of thekitchen a little bit, experience
a little bit and come in andtake the trips.
(19:54):
Give yourself a culinary tripout here and check them out,
check us out.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
We're following it.
All right, we got it.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
We're Right here at the World Food Championships in
Indianapolis, indiana.
Thank you again.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
my man Appreciate everything you do, my pleasure.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
Ciao for now, ciao.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
Cheers.
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