Fork Report Hour 1 | Fast food and stores cutting costs

Technique of the Week: Fruit Flies. Fast Food Prices Recap. Zoom Cashiers cutting costs.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hey, it's Neil Savedra. You'relistening to KFI EM six forty the fore
Purport on demand on the iHeartRadio app. I am your well Fed host,
Neil Savedra. How do you do? Happy Saturday to you? Was a
hazy day yesterday, kind of weird. That was going to be like super
super warm, but it just hadthis weird haziness a little bit still today,

(00:21):
but it is warm out there,so I hope you're outside enjoying yourself
listening to the four Purport and KFIthroughout the day, so you can,
you know, learn a little,live a little enjoy yourself. We got
a lot to get to today,including we've got some guests coming in a
couple of chefs. We're going tobe talking to my buddy Adam Gertler from

(00:41):
a Doghouse and he is the vestMacha, and we'll be talking about all
of that goodness, including executive chefHendrix Vega is going to be coming on
the show a little bit later talkingabout Bastile Day, all kinds of great
things. Now, this is notThis technique of the week is no sexy.

(01:03):
I'm sorry, it's no sexy andit's not super appetizing, But I
cannot stand fruitflies. They are myenemies in every way, shape or form,
and I just can't stand them.They bug the crap out of me.
They're tiny, and their little brownbodies and red eyes and their little

(01:26):
yuckiness about all of them. Theybug me. So you can find them
throughout the kitchen. It's really youknow, fermenting food spills things like that.
That's why if you compost, oftentimesyou've got that if it's not sealed
properly, they're all over the place, right, drives me nuts. So

(01:49):
they're gonna get in your house,and with this warm weather and all of
that, they're gonna be around,and you gotta know about them. They
get in through tiny little craft inwindows indoors. I mean oftentimes you can't
even see it's so tiny where theyget it. As far as their life
cycle and the reproductive nature of theselittle critters, this is what blows me

(02:15):
away. They lay about five hundredeggs and go from egg to adult in
about seven days, all right,which was funny enough. Tayla did as

(02:36):
well. She went from just ababy to an adult in seven days.
With her mouth and everything. That'sjust what I've heard so seven days,
five hundred eggs go from egg stateto adulthood in seven days in your house.
More of a problem right now.In summer, of course, you

(02:59):
get them in fun You've got freshproduce. It's an abundance everywhere you go,
and it's delicious. There's nothing betteras it gets hot, whether it's
watermelon, orange, whatever you're into. To consume fresh fruit on a hot
summer day is that's a merica rightthere. So obviously, right now this

(03:23):
is going to be a part ofour lives. Unfortunately. How to get
rid of them? This is whereyour old buddy Nil Saved or the FOURK
reporter comes in, because this ishow to combat the situation. You want
to get rid of those fruit fliesapple cider vinegar trap. So you fill
a jar with apple cider vinegar,You create a funnel. You can use

(03:47):
paper, you can use plastic wrap, and you put just small holes.
For a little bit of a twistif you want, you can mix vinegar
with a little tiny bit of dishbecause this will help weigh them down.
They get the dish, soap onthem, weighs them down there. They're
very tiny. It doesn't take muchto stop them. There's also something called

(04:11):
a wine or beer trap. Youcould actually catch a dude with that probably
too use the same funnel or plasticwrap method, but you do it with
wine or beer and it attracts them. There's certain sweetness, certain aromas that
come off that attracts them. Rottenfruit trap is another way you place overripe

(04:31):
fruit like bananas. You put theminto a container you seal with that funnel
or plastic wrap, and that's goingto attract them. The whole key is
that it attracts them, pulls theminto whatever the trap is and holds them
there, and their life cycle isfairly short. But when you pull them
into these areas, off in suffocationor they can't move or they can't eat,

(04:57):
and that's what's going to keep themfrom causing havoc, but also from
continuing to reproduce. Alcohol. Sprayyou use ninety one percent isopropyl alcohol and
you put it in a spray bottleto kill flies on contact. That's the
direct the whole purpose of this.By the way, if you're noticing,

(05:18):
I'm using natural things that you havearound the house rather than chemical highly chemical
based or complex chemical cold based.You know, deterrens, because once you
get into pesticides, that's a wholeother thing and there's bigger concerns that go
with that. So alcohol isopropyl alcoholat ninety one percent will in a spray

(05:43):
bottle will kill the flies on contact. A fruit fly trap. You can
buy these now if you want,you can go they they're pre made and
they have the sticky glue on themand it catches the flies. The only
thing with those, I mean,any trap, you you have to look
at whatever you trapped, and it'skind of creepy to me. So depending

(06:06):
on where you put them and howoften you clean them, that's up to
you whether that's going to take careof your needs. The key here is
recognizing the problem. They're all overthe place. Sometimes they migrate into the
bathrooms I've noticed as well, Butthey kind of are looking for little places
to do their thing. And outsideof being a nuisance and just being creepy,

(06:31):
bugs in the house are not myfavorite thing. It's not like,
oh my gosh, a spider,I'm freaking. It's not like that.
It's like I just don't want thatstuff inside outside. Knock yourself out.
It's bugs. Life, enjoy yourselfrun around. How fun it's having them
inside the house that just I don'tknow, especially little ones inhale get your

(06:55):
nose. So if you do usethose traps, keep that in mind as
they hang and they stick to them, that it's not going to be so
so sexy. We come back,I'll break down a couple more things you
can do, a couple of likehygiene practices. I know that's a maybe
sounds a little too dramatic, butwith your kitchen and the like, some

(07:15):
things that you can do to helpthings openings you can look for in the
house, and then some getting intosome answers to some questions about you know
how long they live and you knowhow to keep them out for good.
So go nowhere as we talk aboutfor technique of the week fruit flies,
how to get rid of them andget rid of those boogers for good.
As the summer seasons here, freshfruit is on the menu, of course,

(07:41):
but none of us want these thingsflying around the house. You're listening
to The Fork Report with Nil Savedraon demand from KFI AM six forty.
Don't Forget Tomorrow is the inaugural episodeof Studio six point forty with Steve Gregory
and looking forward to that. Ithink, let's see, I want to

(08:01):
make sure I get this right.Is it two to four? It's two
to four? Okay, great?So I know Steve has been anxious and
wanting to do this for a longtime where he brings in young journalists,
people studying journalism in college and thelike, brings them together and gets their
insights on current events and things goingon in the world. So that's tomorrow.

(08:22):
Tonight you have Tawala and then youcruise in Done Solved with Steve Gregory,
so all good things go know wherefruitflies is our discussion for Technique of
the Week Times, so I knowit's not so sick seeing betto it is
important and in this case, thething is it's summer and they're all around.

(08:50):
So we broke down a little bit. These little red eyed a couple
of different types of traps. Youcan go back and listen to that on
the podcast on iHeartRadio. Moving intopreventing them right now. Preventing them is
important part of this. So we'llcall it hygiene. But I'm not calling
you dirty. I'm just saying thatthe reality is that these little boogers are

(09:15):
looking for certain things, and there'sstuff you can do so regular cleaning,
wipe countertops, and clean spills becausethey're looking, you know, sometimes they're
looking for water, sometimes they're lookingfor juice or anything sweet. Empty your
trash, okay, recycling. Youwant to empty your trash, and you're
recycling regularly now. Whenever there's anythingthat is recyclable but had some contents in

(09:41):
it, so maybe it's a bottle, a glass bottle, or an aluminum
can, had something, just giveit a little rinse and dump all the
water and everything out into the sinkso that you don't have that sitting in
there. But move those things,get them up out into the garbage pale

(10:01):
outside and the bins, and you'llbe good to go. Make sure you
do that on the regular. Youwant to keep your bins clean as well.
If there are any spills on yourin home bins, you can get
those cleans clean yourself. However,you may not know this, but there

(10:22):
are bin cleaners for your outdoor binsas well that will come to your house
and clean your bins. So ifsomething on the outside gets stank and has
problems, you can have somebody youcan do it yourself. I'm sure as
well with hot water or a powerspray or something like that. But keep
those clean as well, especially ifsomething kind of gets out of a plastic
bag and it's sticky and it's yucky, and the heat, it's no good

(10:46):
clean your drains. This is importantas well, So you use baking soda
and vinegar or boiling water to cleanout food clogs in your drains technically.
And you'll hear our Buddy d andSharp talk about this too when he's talking
about garbage disposals. Garbage disposals dohave blades, do have crushers, do

(11:07):
have those things to get some particlesof food, mash them up and get
them through the pipes. But it'sreally not what it sounds like. You're
not putting everything down there. Youcan buy little sieves sometimes they make disposable
ones that you can actually sive outthe big chunks of food, let the

(11:28):
liquids go down, and then youthrow those away. All of those things
add up the temperature that if you'reusing cold water, it will make anything
with fat stick to the walls ofyour garbage disposal. That's why you're using
baking soad and vinegar, which isacid and it's going to break that down

(11:48):
or boiling water which is going tomelt that and help clean that. When
you do put things down your garbagedisposal, you're really supposed to run hot
water while it's on for sometimes thirtyto forty seconds, so keep that in
mind. It's not usually that quickthing that we all tend to do.
So check your fridge and countertops,don't leave out right fruit, store fruit

(12:13):
and air tight containers. All ofthis are going to keep those fruit flies
at bay. You can fix yourscreens any cracks and your windows, make
sure those are done or they'll getthrough. Buy fresh produce unblemished fruits and
veggies. Avoid bringing home the eggsof the fruit flies. Are fruitflies harmful

(12:33):
to humans? No, not really. They don't buy, they don't carry
disease. The problem with them isthat they transfer bacteria to food, and
that's no good because under the rightconditions that bacteria doubles every twenty minutes.
Do fruit flies have benefits, well, they do genetic research on them because

(12:56):
they're very very simple genetic structure,and they have such a short lifestyle,
typically forty to fifty days, sojust outside of a month, just under
two months is how long they live. But again they can lay up to
five hundred eggs, so keep thatin mind. I hope that helps with
any fruitfly problems that you have andshows you that you don't need harmful pesticides

(13:20):
to take care of it. Stickaround. There's some changes going on,
interesting changes in some restaurants in NewYork. I think it'll make its way
here and I think it might proliferate. I'll explain when we return. You're
listening to The Fork Report with NeilSavedra on demand from KFI AM six forty

(13:41):
houdy everyone. It is the ForkReport on Neil Savedra three hours. We
celebrate food every Saturday, the peoplethat make it, the culture behind it,
of course, cooking at home,going out to eat. Oh my
gosh. So last night, ifyou're not, if you haven't joined us
on social meda, I invite youto do that now. On Instagram and

(14:05):
on x you can find me andon threads as well. You can find
me at Fork Reporter at Fork Reporter, but I'm on Instagram the most and
I posted a picture. So lastnight I had this craving for cake,
like serious craving, and my wifeand my boy are out of town visiting

(14:26):
family. So I'm home alone,which really is the equivalent of leaving our
seven year old home alone, becauseyou know, I will run with scissors.
It's it's tolerable. I should notbe left alone. So last night
I was craving cake. I've beentalking to Robin Berd Lucci here, the

(14:48):
mastermind Beyond Beyond, about all thisstuff here ATKFI are our fearless leader.
And I was talking to her becauseshe loves cake and I love cake,
and we had we had just kepttalking about cake for some reason, so
it was in my head. SoI ordered some from Magnolia Bakery in Los
Angeles, but I couldn't decide whichcake I wanted. I ended up getting

(15:09):
four pieces and having a little bitof each. So I don't know why
I just confessed that, but Idid. For that and more interesting things
joined me on Instagram, won't youat Fork Reporter? At Fork Reporter?
All right, so we all knowthe story about Gav. Gav Newsom,

(15:31):
the governor of California. He reallystirred the pot and he and some of
his legislative pals pushed through that lawthat raised the minimum wage for fast food
workers. We've talked about this acouple of times on the show. It
went up to from sixteen dollars anhour up to twenty dollars an hour.

(15:52):
They call it a livable wage.The problem is, and one of the
things that I had stated on theprogram is sure, it's great to get
raises. All of those things aregood. However can the market sustain it?
And when you have a skill set, the market is going to give
you more attention because of that skillset when you're doing things. So when

(16:17):
you get into management at fast food, of course you're going to start becoming
more valuable. But if you're justflipping burgers, or you're making fries,
or you're taking orders, there isno real value in that. There's just
not That's why there's usually turnover unlessyou're going to go into management. So

(16:40):
I had said from the beginning,it sounds good, but all of these
initiatives, all of these laws,end up being more problems for the people
they say they're trying to help.Now, if fast food goes up,
I can afford to pay it,or I don't have it, So it
becomes a luxury of sorts and yougo, okay, I'm not going to

(17:03):
do that. But ultimately we areseeing more and more how this is affecting
the jobs around it. And onethat I'm going to get to in just
a moment that I had talked about. Listen, they will outsource whatever they
can. They being the people thatown these restaurants. It's they're not all
corporate owned. You have franchisees thatare owning these like a mom and pop

(17:27):
business. I mean it is likea small business to them. So teen
jobs, side hustles, that's whatfast food jobs used to be. One
of the first jobs for teenagers,or a side gig extra cash, maybe
even for seniors and the like.But it's made it much harder now for

(17:47):
people to get these jobs, sothat the entry level positions are not there.
The industry is absolutely struggling right now. The fast food scene here in
California has taken a massive hit.Many franchisees and local owners either are shutting
down, cutting hours, or doingsomething to balance this out because they can't

(18:07):
afford it. We had a verywell known RB's on Sunset Strip, or
not the Strip part, but onSunset Boulevard rather that recently was shut down
after fifty some odd years The talknow is that a pizza place is going
to do a pop up there startingin August going through October, and we'll

(18:32):
tell you more about that. Butthese things are happening more and more.
We're seeing these places that have beenaround for a long time that are going
by the wayside. Robots replacing humans. You can laugh at that, but
there are restaurants turning to robotics tomake burgers and do things French fries,
making salad bowls, whatever it mightbe. Store closures are going around as

(18:57):
well. So tech and fast foodis going to be key, because tech
you pay for once and then themaintenance and you're good to go. I've
heard from people that are looking forpart time jobs that are having a hard
time finding them at fast food placesbecause they're cutting their hours so much.

(19:17):
They're short staffing. Maybe the familymembers of the franchise, the franchise owners,
they're getting their families in there.Families are now working more at these
mom and pop places, so it'snot like it's building more jobs. So
what comes from that, Well,when we return, I'm going to tell
you that there is something going onin restaurants in New York. I think

(19:41):
it will make it its way hereif it's not here already in some form.
And this should bother you, itbugs me, but this is the
way we go when we don't thinkof how these things balance out in the
big picture. You're listening to TheFork Report with Nil Savedra on demand from
CA I am six forty Big Gosh. Bestial Day is the fourteenth. It's

(20:03):
tomorrow. I will be out inOrange County and Anaheim White House enjoying that
with mister Bill Handel and a buddyof mine, Chef Pascal is going to
be cooking and it's great. Butwe have a location to tell you about
here in Los Angeles if you're lookingto celebrate, and we'll be talking to

(20:25):
executive chef Hendrick Vega coming up shortlyabout that this French restaurant a more celebrating
Best Deal Day as well here inLos Angeles. And then my buddy who
he hasn't been on the show fora little for a minute or so,
Adam Gertler from Doghouse. He isthe Vostmacha. He makes their sausages and
creates all the wonderful food that theyhave there, and we're going to be

(20:48):
talking to him coming up, sogo know where we're talking about this situation.
I know these things get political andthey're not. To me, there's
certain things that are never political.Human rights is in a political issue,
the people's value, all of thesethings aren't, you know, political?
To me, that is it iswhat it is. Humans have rights and

(21:11):
when it comes to raises and money, to me, I only ask that
we stay in the realm of logicand reason and don't delve into emotion.
I'm a big believer that with reasonall things are possible. You can do
them reasonably and have better outcomes.And if you emotionally, just go this
is what we need to do.And oftentimes the emotion is what politicians want

(21:36):
to get things done and to lookgood. Say look what I did,
even though it is probably not evengoing to be a benefit for the people,
they say it's going to be abenefit for One of those things was
the twenty dollars an hour raise forminimum wage of fast food. So what
we're seeing is fast food is nowslow food. They have less people working,

(21:56):
the hours are cut. People aremaking less because they're banking more an
hour, But less hours really doesn'tserve its purpose, and it hasn't leveled
out yet and they haven't figured outto do it, and we're not done.
Maybe they will balance this out sometime, but right now they're just
cutting things. But this story,to me kind of shows you that any

(22:19):
business person, as cold as itmay seem, are looking at things through
logic, maybe too much. I'llgive you that. There should be a
little bit of heart in there too, But with that, they will cut
where they can cut to make itreasonable. Because we the people that go
out and shop in the customers,we don't want to pay more either.

(22:41):
So if you want to, youknow, let your heart bleed for everybody
out there, then you open yourwallet because you're going to be paying more.
And then the people you're thinking about, they're not going to be able
to afford those things anymore. Sohere's the new twist on the whole thing.
There's a place San Sam Ramen sandSan Chicken are using virtual cashiers through

(23:04):
Zoom instead of hiring local staff.What does that mean. Well, the
idea is completely shaking things up inthe restaurant industry, with the food industry
and everyone involved, as more restaurantsare jumping on board to cut costs.
So what's happening with a virtual cashier. Well, these are real people,

(23:27):
and they're real employees. This isnot AI, but they're working remotely,
usually from Southeast Asia, places likethe Philippines, where the minimum wage is
just one hundred and eighty six dollarsninety seven cents a month, way cheaper

(23:48):
even compared to New York City's minimumwage of sixteen dollars an hour, So
three dollars less than here, andthey're looking at that. So you place
your order via zoom on a flatscreen monitor with a virtual cashier. So
you're walking into a restaurant now,which is either quick serve or fast casual,

(24:10):
and you're staring at someone, areal person that's taking your order,
but it's on a screen and they'reworking from another place. So now you
are outsourcing simple jobs that young peoplewould do, or you know, a
little side hustle or something. Andnow that goes away from here. Now

(24:33):
the laws around this, maybe youwill be changed or something could be done
about it, but right now,this is what you're looking at. This
is how business changes. Business doesn'tgo Oh, you're right in my heart,
Okay, I'm just going to spendmore money and my business is going
to make less and we'll have tofold. That's not why people work.

(24:56):
That's not why you work. You'renot going to working to get by.
You're working to make something. You'reworking to make a future. You're working
to prepare for your future. You'reworking to have, you know, either
a home or to be able torent in an area that you want.
You know, So the concerns arecritics are looking at this. It takes

(25:18):
jobs away from local workers. Duhraises ethical issues, get it. But
you know what you can. Youcan complain about those ethical issues on your
twelve hundred dollars iPhone that is madein China and the clothing that you wear
and the things that you use thatare made in China. Zoom isn't always

(25:41):
reliable. Get that. Maybe thevirtual cashiers aren't familiar with the menu,
whatever all these things. Tipping isalso a concern. This is happening in
restaurants right now in Manhattan and QueensJersey City, Long Gland that's the prep
pronunciation right Long Island, and they'readopting this trend. You've got companies like

(26:06):
Happy Cashier leading the charge for restaurants. It helps them save money. Crucial
as many are trying to bounce backfrom COVID. Stupid political decisions during COVID
that kick the collective bulls of therestaurant industry, and now the future is
not looking good for people that workin that industry, in those smaller jobs.

(26:30):
It's going to be interesting to seewhat comes from all this, but
right now it's another hit to thefood industry and us as those that want
to patron these places go out andeat. So it's not done yet.
They're doing this in places where it'ssixteen dollars an hour. It's going to

(26:52):
come here where it's twenty dollars anhour, and no one is thinking through
this. They're being a motive aboutit, and we're going to be in
this place where people are just goingto be losing their jobs. That's the
way business works. I'm sorry.The business is about making money. It's
not a charity. Well, charityis about making money too, don't be

(27:14):
fooled. But AnyWho something to thinkabout. All right, we come back.
We'll talk about Bastille Day and aplace in Los Angeles. If you're
looking to celebrate and have some wonderfulFrench food, we'll be talking about that.
So go know where you've been listeningto The Fork Report. You can
always hear us live on KFI AMsix forty two to five pm on Saturday,

(27:37):
and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadioapp