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As Part Two our interview continues with the heat of competition meets the warmth of a community, magic happens in the kitchen—or in this case, the pizza oven. Our guest, Jimmy Hank Pizza, shares the excitement of his first foray into a major pizza competition in Las Vegas, where his non-traditional pizza-making wowed the judges and spectators alike. From the high-pressure environment of pizza contests to the non-stop creativity demanded by the ever-evolving world of pizza, Jimmy's story is one of triumph, community, and a touch of charred crust. You can find Jimmy on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/jimmyhankpizza
Navigating the fiery world of pizza ovens proved to be a hot topic in our discussion. For anyone who's ever juggled the blaze of a wood oven or the flick of a gas-powered flame, Jimmy's insights into the practicality and performance of his own gas-powered Ooni are as enlightening as they are entertaining. And for the social media mavens and culinary entrepreneurs among us, Jimmy's anecdotes on how he turned his pizza prowess into a buzzing side hustle are enough to stoke the flames of inspiration.
Rounding off our chat, we take a slice out of Jimmy's life with the tale of his trademarked alter ego, 'Frico King,' and the bustling pizza scene that spills from the ovens of New York to the broader canvas of culinary delights. Whether you're a pizza purist or a freestyle topping fanatic, this episode is a testament to the power of shared passions and the collective joy found in a community that celebrates every cheesy, saucy, and doughy milestone. So, grab a slice and join us on this mouthwatering journey that may just inspire your next kitchen endeavor—or at least your next meal.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello everyone.
This is Steve from A BetterLife.
This podcast is brought to youby our sponsors, premium
Botanical.
They are the makers of HerbalSpectrum, which is a full
spectrum hemp-based CBD.
They make salves, liquids andthey have a great mixed berry
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You can check them out atwwwmypbcbdcom.
(00:25):
Now our podcast.
Hello everyone and welcome toour podcast, a Better Life with
George and Steve.
This is a special episode.
This is part two of ourinterview with Jimmy Hank Pizza.
(00:47):
George and I continue thejourney with him.
We hear all about Las Vegas andhis first major competition.
If you haven't listened to partone, please go back an episode
and listen to part one.
Thank you all for listening.
And now part two of ourinterview with Jimmy Hank Pizza.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
And so the next year, 2023, vegas was the first time
I competed and I did so.
They have many differentcategories right Not to get too
in the weeds.
You have your traditionalNeapolitan right, which are very
strict rules by the Italiansyou got to use double zero flour
, your dough ball's got to be acertain weight they actually
weigh the dough ball before youmake your pizza.
(01:30):
You can only use like SanMarzano tomatoes.
It's got to be buffalomozzarella, super strict.
And then which other end of thespectrum is non-traditional,
which anything goes.
There's basically no rules, anystyle, any toppings, whatever
you want to do.
(01:54):
And that's where I went, becausewhile there's also a pan
competition where you can makeany pan style, it was already
filled up.
So I was like, okay, I'm goingto do my pan pizza and
non-traditional.
So I did that.
And the other cool thing aboutthe non-traditional is they
break it down by region.
So there's like a Northeastregion, so you see where you
place overall in the world orthe US, whatever.
(02:15):
But then they break it down soI could see how I finished in
the Northeast.
So, out of 92 competitors, Ifinished 19th in the world.
And I think I was like 12th inthe Northeast or something like
that it was like my first timetrying, so that was like a not
(02:35):
that I went in with anyexpectation, but it was like a
validation.
Okay, yeah, I'm like doingsomething right here.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
And beating out some big names.
Like looking back at the list,I'm like, holy shit, I placed
higher than this guy or this guy.
Not that judging subjective andeverybody can have a bad day or
a good day.
It is what it is.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
But the cool thing about the food world, the food
industry, the camaraderie isamazing.
You guys compete during the dayand then you hang out at night
and you get to know each otheron a personal level and it seems
like a really cool time.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
And yeah, there's no secrets.
Everybody is very humble andwill share whatever they want.
It's not it's flour, water,yeast and salt, time,
temperature and passion right.
If you got secrets, you're notdoing something right Like
you're.
It's the passion and what yougot secrets you're not doing
something right like you're.
It's the passion and what youput into it and the process that
really makes it what it is.
(03:30):
There's no reason for secrets.
The ingredients are all thesame same thing with barbecue
like I could show you a hundredtimes.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
You could stand with me and watch me make it.
If you don't, if you don't doit a lot and teach yourself the
craft, yeah, it's not going tocome out the same.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
Respect the process right.
Respect the process.
Respect the process 100%.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
Yeah, okay.
So you went through this.
You placed 19th.
So when you walked away, on theplane ride back from Vegas,
you're saying to yourself wow,what am I going to do now?
Because there's something aboutsuccess, right, it's a
challenge.
You're like I can't screw it upnow, I can't go back and not
(04:13):
place at least 19th so?
Speaker 2 (04:15):
what do I do with this?
I've earned this.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
What do I do with it?
Speaker 2 (04:19):
I was just still in the pizza for charity.
I would do charity pop-ups inmy driveway.
I would post a link on myInstagram like hey, I'm going to
do 40 pizzas this Saturday.
If you sign up for a time slot,come pick it up.
And then I would just set up atent in my driveway with my
Oonies and knock out the pizzasand then just give all the money
to charity.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
I like that idea.
Charity barbecues I like thatidea.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
Yeah, and the good thing about it is you don't have
to worry about, like, foodlicensing because you're giving
it away.
Just ask for a donation.
There's a really good charitythat I've done a lot of work
with.
It's called Slice Out Hunger.
They're like a pizza basedcharity in New York.
They do a lot of really greatevents but, yeah, it's all
centered about around pizza.
So they will go to, they willdonate pizzas or they'll do work
with pizza shops to donatepizzas to food pantries and
(05:07):
things like that.
But they're all throughout theworld and all throughout the
country, but they're based inNew York City.
But yeah, so I did the charitything for a while and then fast
forward to let's see.
I guess last summer I met a guythrough a mutual friend that my
son plays basketball with hisson.
We were at a party.
When I go to a party, I alwaysbring a pizza.
(05:28):
It's just what I do, becauseit's like any opportunity I get
to make my pizza, I'll make it,because I always have dough
around or I'll have a frozenparbake in the freezer I can
just pull out.
I made a couple of pizzas,brought them over and the guy
that was there was like this guythat I met.
He was like this is really good.
He's asked my whole story, whatwas going on.
And it turns out he's startingthis tap house brewery concept
(05:51):
where he's building a kitchenbut they're going to have a
small menu but they want to dothis guest chef takeovers where
they'll have people rotatethrough and just take over the
kitchen, do your own menu.
And he was like would that besomething you'd be interested in
?
And I was like, yeah, that'slike the perfect situation,
because I had no aspirations ofopening a pizza shop.
(06:13):
No, I don't want to get intothat whole thing.
Like I'm happy with my day job,my professional life is fine,
but a side hustle thing where Ican do it like once or twice a
month, like that's perfect.
So yeah.
So we got to talking, workedout how it was going to happen
and I've been doing that sincelast fall once a month.
I did a couple twice a month,but generally once a month I'll
(06:36):
go in, take over the kitchen andI'll just do my pizzas and we
sell out every time.
The first night, I think, wesold out in an hour and a half I
did 50 pizzas.
I was like, okay, I got to getmore pans now.
So I bought more pans the nexttime.
I think I did 60 and I did someSicilians.
So I thought, hey, why don't Ido slices too for the Sicilians?
(06:58):
That way, if somebody doesn'twant to buy like a whole the
Detroits are small, they'reeight by 10, but they're filling
.
I mean, they feed two to three,so they're good for a couple to
share I was like, hey, ifpeople don't want to buy a pizza
like a whole pizza and theyjust want to slice for a snack,
like this might be a goodconcept.
So I made a couple of Siciliansand I was selling those for
(07:19):
five, six bucks a slice,depending on what was on them,
and they were a huge hit.
So I was like, oh shit, now Igot to buy more Sicilian pans.
So yeah, it's fun.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
It's never ending.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Yeah, so I'm actually my next one.
I took March off because ofExpo, for Pizza Expo, because it
was a crazy month, but I'm backNext Friday.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
I'm going to be there doing pizzas and all of these
contacts you make through theingredients and whatnot.
Now you're somewhat sponsored,right?
You get calls from that's thewhole thing.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Go back to the whole social media thing, where it
really is powerful and I wouldhave never thought that this
would happen.
And some of these brands,they're starting to think that
way as well, because these guys,like some of these large
cheesemakers or tomato guys,would never even give me the
time of the day, or any smallguy that's just making pizzas
(08:10):
once a month, but they see thisfollowing that you have in this
presence, you bring online andyou can promote their product
and they're like, hey, they're,you know, while one of us might
not be that strong, like all ofus together are mighty.
So like they can put together abunch of social guys that might
(08:31):
do pizza part time and weprobably have more of an impact
than a little like an operator,that's sure, maybe he's buying a
thousand pounds of cheese everycouple of weeks, but he has 200
Instagram followers.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
So no, you're active right.
You're active on social media,you engage with people who reach
out to you and you're an openbook.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Yeah, and that's the thing it's.
You share your process and andpeople learn how to make the
pizza and now you can start.
You can get these products.
It's not you don't need like aCisco Foods account or a US
Foods account.
There's many of these smallcash and carry food distributors
that you can just walk into andbuy a five pound bag of cheese,
(09:15):
like you don't have to buy apallet of cheese, and that's
what a lot of people don'trealize, but it's out there, you
can figure it out and find them.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
Let's talk about the collaborations you've done, what
kind of equipment you choose touse, who's you know reaching
out to you, and I mean plug awayI mean, this is so fascinating.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
I can sit and ask questions all night.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
I started out when I was doing, you know, doing the
pizzas in the oven, wasn'treally even thinking about like
a whole like pizza oven thing,like I was making my New York
styles on my screen in the ovenand that was fun.
And then I think it was likeone of the Black Friday sales,
like we see the Ooni ovens, andI was like, oh, maybe I should
(09:57):
get like an Ooni because theywere like 30% off for Black
Friday or whatever.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
So for those who don't know what an O uni is, can
you just describe what this is?
Speaker 2 (10:06):
It's like an outdoor portable pizza oven.
You hook it up to like apropane tank, hook it up to a
20-pound grill like standardpropane grill tank, and these
things will get up to 950degrees Fahrenheit.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
Some have wood, though, too.
Some have wood too, or is thata different brand?
Speaker 2 (10:22):
Some of them are multi-fuels.
Some you can do wood or gas,some you can do like pellets
yeah, there's a ton of them outthere.
You got like gosney I thinkblackstone makes a pizza oven
now it's that segment has grown.
But like two of the beginning,like early players were gosney
and uni.
So I landed on the uni.
I was like ah, that lookspretty cool.
Like I went with gas because Iwas like I want to.
(10:43):
Wood fire is a different animal.
So like I was like ah, thatlooks pretty cool.
Like I went with gas because Iwas like I want to.
Wood fire is a different animal.
So like I was like that'sanother variable that I don't
want to really delve into now.
If I can like, I'll get gas.
That's controllable, it's easy.
It's like a grill.
Like you can turn the flame upand down.
Wood is that's with barbecue.
Steve right, wood fire is yougot to control the flame and
know how to work with the fire.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
So I have an offset smoker, so it just is, I use.
I have a box.
It's been in my kitchen for waytoo long.
I have a box next to me, apecan.
I use pecan, I use hickory andI use cherry.
I laugh because I have a guywho I'm friends with.
That's really a chef.
He went to culinary school andhe worked at Daniel's and he
(11:28):
worked at all famous restaurantsand he came over and we were I
was cooking barbecue and we alsohad a huge stone pizza oven.
So he's making these things toput in the pizza oven and I'm
like dude, this is live fire.
That thing's 800, 900 degreesin there.
(11:48):
You have no idea what you'regoing to deal with.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
And he like laughed in my face and then he was
totally confused yeah, so, yeah,so went with the gas uni and
then started figuring and that'sa totally different animal um,
learning how to control the heatand going from the home oven to
figuring that out, and thenyeah, and then fast forward the
(12:12):
competition is in Oonies correct.
So that was new this year.
There was an Oonie competitionthis year in Vegas, which new,
which was cool because got toreally show off the ovens and
what they can do, which that'spart of the allure is, I think.
People they see the oven andthey're like, oh, that's pretty
cool, and then to actually seepeople cooking in them and
what's coming out of them islike the next level.
(12:34):
But yeah, so started just doinga lot of the Ooni stuff and
then they reached out like Idon't know, I was probably doing
it for a year or so and theyreached out hey, you want to do
some stuff together,collaboration.
So I did some stuff with them.
And then, yeah, just randompeople, some crushed red pepper
companies, will reach out and belike, hey, you want to try our
peppers, We'll send you some.
(12:54):
And early on I was like, yeah,send over whatever, I'll do a
post for you, Like crazy,because you get so many requests
and it's I.
Basically I'll try it.
I won't endorse anything Idon't like myself.
I'm like send it If I like it,maybe we can work together and
(13:15):
I'll send you my rates and Ihave a whole menu of basically
options for online posts thatI'll send and then, if they want
to do it, then I'll send them acontract and it's a legit side
hustle for social Amazing.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
I'd like to hear more about that, but not during the
podcast.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
I took it a step further too.
I trademarked.
I have two trademarks now.
That actually just is crazy.
They came back two days ago.
It's registered.
Now I have the Frico King isregistered and Jimmy Hank Pizza.
Both are registered,Congratulations.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
Yeah, these are milestones, man, that's awesome.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
What now?
What's your next Mount Olympusyou're going to climb.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
I still have no aspirations or desire to open a
shop.
That's way too much work.
I'm an old man.
I'm going to be 50 this year.
Dude, I'm going to be 65 nextmonth.
So, please, I have three kids,young kids, 14, 11 and nine.
They obviously there's kids,sports and kids activities and
(14:18):
that stuff's all on the weekendsand at night, and what do you
have to do if you have a pizzashop Work nights and weekends,
which I don't want to do?
The whole side thing with thetap house is perfect.
I can feed the passion once ortwice a month.
Do that Perfect for now.
I enjoy it.
People love the pizza.
(14:38):
They come out, get really goodsupport.
But then also the online stuffis doing well with endorsement
things, and I have a coupleproducts that are going to be
released soon that I reallycan't talk about, but that's
actually probably going to be inthe next couple of weeks.
Physical hard products that I'mgoing to be selling probably
going to be in the next coupleof weeks, like physical, like
hard products that I'm going tobe selling that I you know, the
whole timing with the trademarkwas crazy because, like I
decided to do this over a yearago and with the anticipation of
(15:02):
what I was going to work onnext and it all came together.
So these products are comingout now that I got my stuff
registered and then I don't know, who knows, maybe it goes.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
I would I would love for you to come back on when you
launch your product so we canhear all about it.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
I would love to man.
It's been a crazy journey and Inever would have thought
something would go this far justfrom making pizzas on Friday
night for my family.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
We live in New York so we're a little spoiled with
pizza, and I used to work in theWest Village, yeah, so if it
wasn't john's, it was.
I used to go to john's pizzaall the time, but they only sell
a whole pie and then we'd go tojoe's, which he could get
sliced in the corner.
Carmine, and then an old friendof mine who I don't know any
(15:46):
longer I'm not sure if he passedor whatever.
He owned grimaldi's.
I pizza spoiled.
And there's some good places inWestchester I mean for Sicilian,
it's Salsam and Maranek,without a doubt.
And then there's Johnny's inMount Vernon.
That's a pain in the butt to goto the parking situation is
terrible.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
I know George has sent me pictures of Johnny's
before too.
It's really good, it'sfantastic.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
So there's a place where I grew up in New Jersey
called Kinchley's.
I don't know if you've everheard of them.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
No, I haven't heard of them.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
They go back till like the 1920s and they do a
thin crust pizza.
Boy, you can't get in the place.
I always tell George we'regoing to go one day, but we
barely get to places around hereand nevertheless go to places a
little farther away.
But Kinchel's is amazing.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
Nice.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
It's funny because there's a pizza.
There's a Westchester pizzagroup on Facebook and I got
barred from it.
I never was so angry becausewhat I did was we talked about
pizza, the entire, almost theentire podcast, and I just
(16:54):
posted the podcast, the link tothe podcast, and the guy threw
me out of the group.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
Yeah, they're ruthless on those Facebook
groups, man.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
And I told George.
He put the idea in my head.
I told George that I was goingto open like the real people's
Westchester pizza group.
But I can't be bothered withthat.
I'm I get.
I'm already taking too muchcrap from the antique phonograph
collectors group who everyone'sin my face oh my god, those
(17:25):
groups are like an animal ofthemselves.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
It's so funny how those morph into different
directions and people are justgoing after people.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
And, yeah, it's so funny how those morph into
different directions and peopleare just going after people and
yeah it's wild, I meaneveryone's got an opinion right.
It's a percent.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Yeah, yeah, and you have.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
Yeah, everyone's very courageous.
You know you hide behind yourscreen and you just type away
and you but it's all in good fun, I guess so.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
But also with pizza.
Everybody thinks they're anexpert, right?
Speaker 3 (17:52):
Oh it's like a religion.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
Everybody has a favorite pizza place.
I don't care where you are,especially if you have kids.
You can't tell me that if youhave kids in a Bind you don't
get a pizza.
Everybody does that.
Yeah, just like when George andI did the podcast.
When we were at a Bind weordered pizza, but he has many,
but not for anything.
The Hartstown House of Pizzathe guy's obsessed and I heard
(18:15):
about that a lot.
I don't really know him, butpeople go in there and say, oh,
I heard you on our podcast, butI've never told him that it's
our podcast.
When I go in there and buypizzas, right, and he's very
close to here, so I order onlineand they deliver because it's
so close.
The pizza comes perfectly hotand um.
But george went in there oneday when he was dying and I met
(18:37):
him at lunch and he like,ordered all these slices and
what was the one you had thathad the hot honey on it?
What was that one?
Do you remember?
Speaker 3 (18:45):
I want to say that was a detroit style with the
pepperoni and hot honey yeah,and, but it had other stuff,
some kind of weirdo cheese on ittoo.
Yeah, I think it might havebeen like a ricotta or something
.
But yeah, they do some funkypies and they also do the
standards and it's a beautifulthing.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
When I was in school in Italy, I used to eat regular
pie with I guess it was withprosciutto and something else on
it, and I used to eat it almostevery day.
Almost every day.
That's awesome.
Yeah, it's good.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
Yeah, it's cool that, like you said, george, there's
this pizza renaissance that Ithink people and I think it came
out of the pandemic too, wherepeople started exploring how to
make pizza better at home.
And now that goes back to thething where there's no secrets,
where a rising tide kind oflifts all boats right.
So now these homemakers arelike they're like oh, I can make
(19:41):
a pretty damn good pizza athome, almost better than my
place down the street.
I'm going to start looking fora better place down the street
and these guys that aren'tevolving their game are being
left in the dust because there'sgoing to be another guy that a
home guy like me is going to belike oh shit, I want to do this
for real and open a shop and Ilove it and I'm into the craft,
(20:04):
and then they're just going tokill it.
Yeah, it's wild that somebodycan basically learn how to make
pizza at home and then take itto a crazy level and get really
into the meats on it.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
Excellent, excellent.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
There you have it guys.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
Jim, thanks so much for coming on our podcast.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
Talk about your passion.
Steve Jim's also a golfer, sowe could talk about golf all you
want.
We should actually go outsometime this summer and play
around with the boys.
Yeah, it's funny.
Speaker 1 (20:31):
I found a group of 80-year-old men that want me to
play with them, so I'm hopingthat I can keep stride with
these guys.
They're all former detectivesfrom Yonkers and they play on
Saturday morning at 6 am.
Oh wow, I'm hoping thatSaturday morning at 6 am,
80-year-old guys I'm going to beable to keep up with a little
(20:52):
bit, but I bet you that's nottrue.
I used to play my friend, sowhere I used to work, everybody
was Irish.
I worked for this law firm.
Everybody was Irish.
I mean, like old school wherewe represented IRA guys, and so
I started playing with this LongIsland Gaelic golf club and you
(21:13):
realize that our Italians arenot meant to play golf because
these Irish guys are like bornand bred it, like flows in their
blood.
Yeah, and you have guys thatyou know play almost their age
and they're like 80.
I mean, they can't hit the ballfar, but everything they hit is
(21:35):
so dead on and it's justamazing that some people have it
and people like me just don't.
Speaker 3 (21:43):
Let's get around together and we'll talk more
about our passion cooking allsorts of things.
But again, thanks, jim, thishas been excellent.
Speaker 1 (21:53):
Anytime you want to come back, you just tell us and
we'll be glad to do it.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
Pleasure is mine.
It was a lot of fun.
I love doing these things and Icould talk for hours.
If you want to start talking,pizza.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
Thank you so much.
We appreciate it.
We're probably going to splitthis up into two episodes.
I think we're going to milk itfor everything it's worth yeah,
no worries please feel free toput it out there on your social
media about our podcast.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
We would love to have them oh yeah, I will, for sure,
yeah all right, so we'll sendyou a link.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
Awesome, all right, man.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
Thanks so much all right, a lot All right.
Thanks, man, appreciate yourexpertise.
All right, thanks, guys.
Talk to you later.
See you, bye.
Speaker 3 (22:36):
Wow, that was great Inside, right Inside.
Look into a local guy startingto make pizza at home for his
family, then to the neighbors,then to the neighborhood, all
the way till Vegas to aninternational pizza competition.
All the way till Vegas to aninternational pizza competition.
And then it morphs into phonecalls here and there from
(22:57):
suppliers, from equipmentmanufacturers, and it just goes
to show the power of socialmedia and your passion.
It's transferred.
You know he's genuine, he hastrue passion for the craft,
respect for the craft and justconstantly working on his
technique.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
Absolutely.
It really was something.
It's great to hear thatsomebody's passion, even with
kids and even with a home of it,and I feel it because that's
how I started in barbecue.
I was out somewhere tonight andsomebody made pulled pork and I
tasted it.
It was great.
(23:35):
And three of the guys saidlisten, one night you got to
talk Steve into cooking ribs forus and I know you had my ribs,
but they weren't the high-endone.
That was one where I wasthinking about what Jim said and
it's exactly what happened tome is that when I cooked it I
(23:55):
did things different.
That time I made the ribs forus and they didn't come out as
good and I was so unhappy withit because you spent all this
time and didn't get the truestquality of the product, truest
(24:17):
quality of the product, and Ipull out.
I pull out my, my book that Iwrite everything down in for
five years now probably, and Isay, oh, I didn't do this, I
didn't do that.
The passion comes through.
Speaker 3 (24:24):
It's delicious, but you're the one who, who knows
the nuances to your system.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
Right that it was lacking here, lacking there, but
at the end of the day Peopletell you how great it is.
Yeah, and I'm like it sucks.
Speaker 3 (24:39):
At the end of the day , it's the joy of feeding
friends and sharing your craftwith others Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
That's the bottom line.
Speaker 3 (24:49):
It's always appreciated, and I know that
when I cook it's appreciated aswell, and that's what keeps it
going.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
I agree.
I agree.
Anything else new we need totalk about?
Speaker 3 (25:00):
I was laser focused on talking to Jim about his
journey, and what a story, huh.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
What a story.
Yeah, it just motivates me towork harder what we do ourselves
.
Speaker 3 (25:12):
Right right.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
Because that motivation's always been there
for me Ever since I startedcooking barbecue, ever since I
always wanted to be moreinvolved in a podcast or
something like that, and we'vebeen doing it.
It's got to be closing in onsix months now, right.
We started, I think, in October, maybe the end of September,
and it's first week, second weekof April.
Speaker 3 (25:39):
So, yeah, we break it down into 10-episode seasons.
We're on our second season,episode eight.
It's a really cool journey, man.
It's really a lot of fun.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
And you know what?
It forces us to be more awareand more out there.
And one thing we becamecommitted to, george and I
talked to everyone out there isthat to do more interviews like
this, to bring things fromoutside so the listeners could
learn more about the things thatreally impress us.
Speaker 3 (26:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
And the things, and we're not impressed by ourselves
at all.
Speaker 3 (26:15):
So we have to find people that impress us, but
we're also going to take thispodcast on the road right, we're
going to go to restaurants.
We're even talking about justtoday.
We're talking about going tocheck out the pastrami place
that just opened in Ardsley,maybe sometime this week.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
And we'll have another episode talking about
the Jewish miracle that is,pastrami sandwiches, and of
course, the same thing happenedwhen I made pastrami for George
and we've talked about it thathe was able to take it and turn
it into something good withcabbage, but my pastrami is
usually dead on and this onewasn't.
(26:52):
I changed what I did, and Ichanged more than one thing.
You went from outdoor to indoor.
Speaker 3 (26:58):
You seasoned it, you marinate it a little longer than
usual and things change.
But the beauty of cooking isit's all active, it's live, you
adapt, and because it was sostrong and so pungent, we just
added some cabbage, some carrotsand we made a beautiful
pastrami stew.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
I have been able to work out.
The smoker is now going to bemoved to a place where it's
going to be easier to use andthere definitely is a fundraiser
that I've been asked to cookfor and I'm definitely going to
do that and it's funny that cameup tonight and also where it's
going to be, there's acommercial kitchen so we can
(27:41):
prep.
I say because I know I'm goingto drag George there and I have
others there that are dying tocook with me or us and we can
prep it.
I don't have to carry it, Idon't have to come from my
apartment and do all thosethings.
You're going to be able to doit right there, which reduces
the stress, and when you reducethe stress of the cooking you
(28:02):
focus more on the cooking.
It's going to improve everythingand people are going to come
because it's a public place,somewhat public place.
It's a private club, but peopleare going to come and sit with
you when you're cooking, soyou're going to be able to
hopefully not get distracted,but it's going to relieve that
(28:23):
by yourself.
Of course they're going to wantfood too.
But what do you think of thesoftware?
I love it.
I can't believe I didn't havethe.
I thought the video was on andit isn't so.
It's just I'm running.
Speaker 3 (28:34):
I'm running this through my iphone.
Uh, I think the audio should tocome out very nice and and
crisp.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
So, uh, yeah, man, this is uh taking advantage of
all the technology out there, sowhat it does and we talked
about this last time is it'llupload, Like it keeps telling me
don't worry about George'saudio, because a perfect quality
has been uploaded to his phone,and from the phone it'll get
(29:02):
uploaded to the cloud and thenit'll sync in and pick the best
audio.
I'm seeing now it's 99% uploaded.
I have to tell you I am temptedto do a live stream.
I don't know.
Let's give some thoughts ofthat.
Do we do it on Instagram?
Do we do it on Facebook?
Do we do it on YouTube?
Speaker 2 (29:24):
All these platforms, they're all primed.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
So I don't know if we do one ourselves first and then
have somebody on just so wecould do it, but I really
believe that this would havebeen a great live stream and I
think what we should do is we'regoing to separate this
interview into two categories,two episodes, and then have
other parts of our episode aboutother things we did, whether it
(29:50):
was restaurants or whatever.
Sure, call it there.
Yeah, that's a wrap, all right.
Thank you everybody forlistening.
We always appreciate how kindyou are to us and take the time
and listen to us the feedback'sbeen great Thank you so much.
Feedback's been great.
People stop me where I'm atsomewhere Obviously I know them
and say when's the next podcastcoming out?
(30:12):
And it always just blows mymind.
Speaker 3 (30:15):
To all our followers thank you.
Speaker 1 (30:18):
Thank you to everybody.
Subscribe, Send us informationyou'd like us to do.
We'd love to have it All rightFrom me.
Have a nice night, george,absolutely.
Speaker 3 (30:29):
Have a nice night everyone and stay tuned.
Speaker 1 (30:32):
More to come.
All right, george and Steve,thanks.
Hello everyone.
This is Steve from A BetterLife.
This podcast is brought to youby our sponsors, premium
Botanical.
They are the makers of HerbalSpectrum, which is a full
spectrum hemp-based CBD.
They make salves, liquids andthey have a great mixed berry
gummy.
You can check them out atwwwmypbcbdcom.
(00:25):
Now our podcast.
Hello everyone and welcome toour podcast, a Better Life with
George and Steve.
This is a special episode.
This is part two of ourinterview with Jimmy Hank Pizza.
(00:47):
George and I continue thejourney with him.
We hear all about Las Vegas andhis first major competition.
If you haven't listened to partone, please go back an episode
and listen to part one.
Thank you all for listening.
And now part two of ourinterview with Jimmy Hank Pizza.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
And so the next year, 2023, vegas was the first time
I competed and I did so.
They have many differentcategories right Not to get too
in the weeds.
You have your traditionalNeapolitan right, which are very
strict rules by the Italiansyou got to use double zero flour
, your dough ball's got to be acertain weight they actually
weigh the dough ball before youmake your pizza.
(01:30):
You can only use like SanMarzano tomatoes.
It's got to be buffalomozzarella, super strict.
And then which other end of thespectrum is non-traditional,
which anything goes.
There's basically no rules, anystyle, any toppings, whatever
you want to do.
(01:54):
And that's where I went, becausewhile there's also a pan
competition where you can makeany pan style, it was already
filled up.
So I was like, okay, I'm goingto do my pan pizza and
non-traditional.
So I did that.
And the other cool thing aboutthe non-traditional is they
break it down by region.
So there's like a Northeastregion, so you see where you
place overall in the world orthe US, whatever.
(02:15):
But then they break it down soI could see how I finished in
the Northeast.
So, out of 92 competitors, Ifinished 19th in the world.
And I think I was like 12th inthe Northeast or something like
that it was like my first timetrying, so that was like a not
(02:35):
that I went in with anyexpectation, but it was like a
validation.
Okay, yeah, I'm like doingsomething right here.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
And beating out some big names.
Like looking back at the list,I'm like, holy shit, I placed
higher than this guy or this guy.
Not that judging subjective andeverybody can have a bad day or
a good day.
It is what it is.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
But the cool thing about the food world, the food
industry, the camaraderie isamazing.
You guys compete during the dayand then you hang out at night
and you get to know each otheron a personal level and it seems
like a really cool time.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
And yeah, there's no secrets.
Everybody is very humble andwill share whatever they want.
It's not it's flour, water,yeast and salt, time,
temperature and passion right.
If you got secrets, you're notdoing something right Like
you're.
It's the passion and what yougot secrets you're not doing
something right like you're.
It's the passion and what youput into it and the process that
really makes it what it is.
(03:30):
There's no reason for secrets.
The ingredients are all thesame same thing with barbecue
like I could show you a hundredtimes.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
You could stand with me and watch me make it.
If you don't, if you don't doit a lot and teach yourself the
craft, yeah, it's not going tocome out the same.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
Respect the process right.
Respect the process.
Respect the process 100%.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
Yeah, okay.
So you went through this.
You placed 19th.
So when you walked away, on theplane ride back from Vegas,
you're saying to yourself wow,what am I going to do now?
Because there's something aboutsuccess, right, it's a
challenge.
You're like I can't screw it upnow, I can't go back and not
(04:13):
place at least 19th so?
Speaker 2 (04:15):
what do I do with this?
I've earned this.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
What do I do with it?
Speaker 2 (04:19):
I was just still in the pizza for charity.
I would do charity pop-ups inmy driveway.
I would post a link on myInstagram like hey, I'm going to
do 40 pizzas this Saturday.
If you sign up for a time slot,come pick it up.
And then I would just set up atent in my driveway with my
Oonies and knock out the pizzasand then just give all the money
to charity.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
I like that idea.
Charity barbecues I like thatidea.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
Yeah, and the good thing about it is you don't have
to worry about, like, foodlicensing because you're giving
it away.
Just ask for a donation.
There's a really good charitythat I've done a lot of work
with.
It's called Slice Out Hunger.
They're like a pizza basedcharity in New York.
They do a lot of really greatevents but, yeah, it's all
centered about around pizza.
So they will go to, they willdonate pizzas or they'll do work
with pizza shops to donatepizzas to food pantries and
(05:07):
things like that.
But they're all throughout theworld and all throughout the
country, but they're based inNew York City.
But yeah, so I did the charitything for a while and then fast
forward to let's see.
I guess last summer I met a guythrough a mutual friend that my
son plays basketball with hisson.
We were at a party.
When I go to a party, I alwaysbring a pizza.
(05:28):
It's just what I do, becauseit's like any opportunity I get
to make my pizza, I'll make it,because I always have dough
around or I'll have a frozenparbake in the freezer I can
just pull out.
I made a couple of pizzas,brought them over and the guy
that was there was like this guythat I met.
He was like this is really good.
He's asked my whole story, whatwas going on.
And it turns out he's startingthis tap house brewery concept
(05:51):
where he's building a kitchenbut they're going to have a
small menu but they want to dothis guest chef takeovers where
they'll have people rotatethrough and just take over the
kitchen, do your own menu.
And he was like would that besomething you'd be interested in
?
And I was like, yeah, that'slike the perfect situation,
because I had no aspirations ofopening a pizza shop.
(06:13):
No, I don't want to get intothat whole thing.
Like I'm happy with my day job,my professional life is fine,
but a side hustle thing where Ican do it like once or twice a
month, like that's perfect.
So yeah.
So we got to talking, workedout how it was going to happen
and I've been doing that sincelast fall once a month.
I did a couple twice a month,but generally once a month I'll
(06:36):
go in, take over the kitchen andI'll just do my pizzas and we
sell out every time.
The first night, I think, wesold out in an hour and a half I
did 50 pizzas.
I was like, okay, I got to getmore pans now.
So I bought more pans the nexttime.
I think I did 60 and I did someSicilians.
So I thought, hey, why don't Ido slices too for the Sicilians?
(06:58):
That way, if somebody doesn'twant to buy like a whole the
Detroits are small, they'reeight by 10, but they're filling
.
I mean, they feed two to three,so they're good for a couple to
share I was like, hey, ifpeople don't want to buy a pizza
like a whole pizza and theyjust want to slice for a snack,
like this might be a goodconcept.
So I made a couple of Siciliansand I was selling those for
(07:19):
five, six bucks a slice,depending on what was on them,
and they were a huge hit.
So I was like, oh shit, now Igot to buy more Sicilian pans.
So yeah, it's fun.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
It's never ending.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Yeah, so I'm actually my next one.
I took March off because ofExpo, for Pizza Expo, because it
was a crazy month, but I'm backNext Friday.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
I'm going to be there doing pizzas and all of these
contacts you make through theingredients and whatnot.
Now you're somewhat sponsored,right?
You get calls from that's thewhole thing.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Go back to the whole social media thing, where it
really is powerful and I wouldhave never thought that this
would happen.
And some of these brands,they're starting to think that
way as well, because these guys,like some of these large
cheesemakers or tomato guys,would never even give me the
time of the day, or any smallguy that's just making pizzas
(08:10):
once a month, but they see thisfollowing that you have in this
presence, you bring online andyou can promote their product
and they're like, hey, they're,you know, while one of us might
not be that strong, like all ofus together are mighty.
So like they can put together abunch of social guys that might
(08:31):
do pizza part time and weprobably have more of an impact
than a little like an operator,that's sure, maybe he's buying a
thousand pounds of cheese everycouple of weeks, but he has 200
Instagram followers.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
So no, you're active right.
You're active on social media,you engage with people who reach
out to you and you're an openbook.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Yeah, and that's the thing it's.
You share your process and andpeople learn how to make the
pizza and now you can start.
You can get these products.
It's not you don't need like aCisco Foods account or a US
Foods account.
There's many of these smallcash and carry food distributors
that you can just walk into andbuy a five pound bag of cheese,
(09:15):
like you don't have to buy apallet of cheese, and that's
what a lot of people don'trealize, but it's out there, you
can figure it out and find them.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
Let's talk about the collaborations you've done, what
kind of equipment you choose touse, who's you know reaching
out to you, and I mean plug awayI mean, this is so fascinating.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
I can sit and ask questions all night.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
I started out when I was doing, you know, doing the
pizzas in the oven, wasn'treally even thinking about like
a whole like pizza oven thing,like I was making my New York
styles on my screen in the ovenand that was fun.
And then I think it was likeone of the Black Friday sales,
like we see the Ooni ovens, andI was like, oh, maybe I should
(09:57):
get like an Ooni because theywere like 30% off for Black
Friday or whatever.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
So for those who don't know what an O uni is, can
you just describe what this is?
Speaker 2 (10:06):
It's like an outdoor portable pizza oven.
You hook it up to like apropane tank, hook it up to a
20-pound grill like standardpropane grill tank, and these
things will get up to 950degrees Fahrenheit.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
Some have wood, though, too.
Some have wood too, or is thata different brand?
Speaker 2 (10:22):
Some of them are multi-fuels.
Some you can do wood or gas,some you can do like pellets
yeah, there's a ton of them outthere.
You got like gosney I thinkblackstone makes a pizza oven
now it's that segment has grown.
But like two of the beginning,like early players were gosney
and uni.
So I landed on the uni.
I was like ah, that lookspretty cool.
Like I went with gas because Iwas like I want to.
(10:43):
Wood fire is a different animal.
So like I was like ah, thatlooks pretty cool.
Like I went with gas because Iwas like I want to.
Wood fire is a different animal.
So like I was like that'sanother variable that I don't
want to really delve into now.
If I can like, I'll get gas.
That's controllable, it's easy.
It's like a grill.
Like you can turn the flame upand down.
Wood is that's with barbecue.
Steve right, wood fire is yougot to control the flame and
know how to work with the fire.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
So I have an offset smoker, so it just is, I use.
I have a box.
It's been in my kitchen for waytoo long.
I have a box next to me, apecan.
I use pecan, I use hickory andI use cherry.
I laugh because I have a guywho I'm friends with.
That's really a chef.
He went to culinary school andhe worked at Daniel's and he
(11:28):
worked at all famous restaurantsand he came over and we were I
was cooking barbecue and we alsohad a huge stone pizza oven.
So he's making these things toput in the pizza oven and I'm
like dude, this is live fire.
That thing's 800, 900 degreesin there.
(11:48):
You have no idea what you'regoing to deal with.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
And he like laughed in my face and then he was
totally confused yeah, so, yeah,so went with the gas uni and
then started figuring and that'sa totally different animal um,
learning how to control the heatand going from the home oven to
figuring that out, and thenyeah, and then fast forward the
(12:12):
competition is in Oonies correct.
So that was new this year.
There was an Oonie competitionthis year in Vegas, which new,
which was cool because got toreally show off the ovens and
what they can do, which that'spart of the allure is, I think.
People they see the oven andthey're like, oh, that's pretty
cool, and then to actually seepeople cooking in them and
what's coming out of them islike the next level.
(12:34):
But yeah, so started just doinga lot of the Ooni stuff and
then they reached out like Idon't know, I was probably doing
it for a year or so and theyreached out hey, you want to do
some stuff together,collaboration.
So I did some stuff with them.
And then, yeah, just randompeople, some crushed red pepper
companies, will reach out and belike, hey, you want to try our
peppers, We'll send you some.
(12:54):
And early on I was like, yeah,send over whatever, I'll do a
post for you, Like crazy,because you get so many requests
and it's I.
Basically I'll try it.
I won't endorse anything Idon't like myself.
I'm like send it If I like it,maybe we can work together and
(13:15):
I'll send you my rates and Ihave a whole menu of basically
options for online posts thatI'll send and then, if they want
to do it, then I'll send them acontract and it's a legit side
hustle for social Amazing.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
I'd like to hear more about that, but not during the
podcast.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
I took it a step further too.
I trademarked.
I have two trademarks now.
That actually just is crazy.
They came back two days ago.
It's registered.
Now I have the Frico King isregistered and Jimmy Hank Pizza.
Both are registered,Congratulations.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
Yeah, these are milestones, man, that's awesome.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
What now?
What's your next Mount Olympusyou're going to climb.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
I still have no aspirations or desire to open a
shop.
That's way too much work.
I'm an old man.
I'm going to be 50 this year.
Dude, I'm going to be 65 nextmonth.
So, please, I have three kids,young kids, 14, 11 and nine.
They obviously there's kids,sports and kids activities and
(14:18):
that stuff's all on the weekendsand at night, and what do you
have to do if you have a pizzashop Work nights and weekends,
which I don't want to do?
The whole side thing with thetap house is perfect.
I can feed the passion once ortwice a month.
Do that Perfect for now.
I enjoy it.
People love the pizza.
(14:38):
They come out, get really goodsupport.
But then also the online stuffis doing well with endorsement
things, and I have a coupleproducts that are going to be
released soon that I reallycan't talk about, but that's
actually probably going to be inthe next couple of weeks.
Physical hard products that I'mgoing to be selling probably
going to be in the next coupleof weeks, like physical, like
hard products that I'm going tobe selling that I you know, the
whole timing with the trademarkwas crazy because, like I
decided to do this over a yearago and with the anticipation of
(15:02):
what I was going to work onnext and it all came together.
So these products are comingout now that I got my stuff
registered and then I don't know, who knows, maybe it goes.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
I would I would love for you to come back on when you
launch your product so we canhear all about it.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
I would love to man.
It's been a crazy journey and Inever would have thought
something would go this far justfrom making pizzas on Friday
night for my family.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
We live in New York so we're a little spoiled with
pizza, and I used to work in theWest Village, yeah, so if it
wasn't john's, it was.
I used to go to john's pizzaall the time, but they only sell
a whole pie and then we'd go tojoe's, which he could get
sliced in the corner.
Carmine, and then an old friendof mine who I don't know any
(15:46):
longer I'm not sure if he passedor whatever.
He owned grimaldi's.
I pizza spoiled.
And there's some good places inWestchester I mean for Sicilian,
it's Salsam and Maranek,without a doubt.
And then there's Johnny's inMount Vernon.
That's a pain in the butt to goto the parking situation is
terrible.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
I know George has sent me pictures of Johnny's
before too.
It's really good, it'sfantastic.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
So there's a place where I grew up in New Jersey
called Kinchley's.
I don't know if you've everheard of them.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
No, I haven't heard of them.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
They go back till like the 1920s and they do a
thin crust pizza.
Boy, you can't get in the place.
I always tell George we'regoing to go one day, but we
barely get to places around hereand nevertheless go to places a
little farther away.
But Kinchel's is amazing.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
Nice.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
It's funny because there's a pizza.
There's a Westchester pizzagroup on Facebook and I got
barred from it.
I never was so angry becausewhat I did was we talked about
pizza, the entire, almost theentire podcast, and I just
(16:54):
posted the podcast, the link tothe podcast, and the guy threw
me out of the group.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
Yeah, they're ruthless on those Facebook
groups, man.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
And I told George.
He put the idea in my head.
I told George that I was goingto open like the real people's
Westchester pizza group.
But I can't be bothered withthat.
I'm I get.
I'm already taking too muchcrap from the antique phonograph
collectors group who everyone'sin my face oh my god, those
(17:25):
groups are like an animal ofthemselves.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
It's so funny how those morph into different
directions and people are justgoing after people.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
And, yeah, it's so funny how those morph into
different directions and peopleare just going after people and
yeah it's wild, I meaneveryone's got an opinion right.
It's a percent.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Yeah, yeah, and you have.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
Yeah, everyone's very courageous.
You know you hide behind yourscreen and you just type away
and you but it's all in good fun, I guess so.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
But also with pizza.
Everybody thinks they're anexpert, right?
Speaker 3 (17:52):
Oh it's like a religion.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
Everybody has a favorite pizza place.
I don't care where you are,especially if you have kids.
You can't tell me that if youhave kids in a Bind you don't
get a pizza.
Everybody does that.
Yeah, just like when George andI did the podcast.
When we were at a Bind weordered pizza, but he has many,
but not for anything.
The Hartstown House of Pizzathe guy's obsessed and I heard
(18:15):
about that a lot.
I don't really know him, butpeople go in there and say, oh,
I heard you on our podcast, butI've never told him that it's
our podcast.
When I go in there and buypizzas, right, and he's very
close to here, so I order onlineand they deliver because it's
so close.
The pizza comes perfectly hotand um.
But george went in there oneday when he was dying and I met
(18:37):
him at lunch and he like,ordered all these slices and
what was the one you had thathad the hot honey on it?
What was that one?
Do you remember?
Speaker 3 (18:45):
I want to say that was a detroit style with the
pepperoni and hot honey yeah,and, but it had other stuff,
some kind of weirdo cheese on ittoo.
Yeah, I think it might havebeen like a ricotta or something
.
But yeah, they do some funkypies and they also do the
standards and it's a beautifulthing.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
When I was in school in Italy, I used to eat regular
pie with I guess it was withprosciutto and something else on
it, and I used to eat it almostevery day.
Almost every day.
That's awesome.
Yeah, it's good.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
Yeah, it's cool that, like you said, george, there's
this pizza renaissance that Ithink people and I think it came
out of the pandemic too, wherepeople started exploring how to
make pizza better at home.
And now that goes back to thething where there's no secrets,
where a rising tide kind oflifts all boats right.
So now these homemakers arelike they're like oh, I can make
(19:41):
a pretty damn good pizza athome, almost better than my
place down the street.
I'm going to start looking fora better place down the street
and these guys that aren'tevolving their game are being
left in the dust because there'sgoing to be another guy that a
home guy like me is going to belike oh shit, I want to do this
for real and open a shop and Ilove it and I'm into the craft,
(20:04):
and then they're just going tokill it.
Yeah, it's wild that somebodycan basically learn how to make
pizza at home and then take itto a crazy level and get really
into the meats on it.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
Excellent, excellent.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
There you have it guys.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
Jim, thanks so much for coming on our podcast.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
Talk about your passion.
Steve Jim's also a golfer, sowe could talk about golf all you
want.
We should actually go outsometime this summer and play
around with the boys.
Yeah, it's funny.
Speaker 1 (20:31):
I found a group of 80-year-old men that want me to
play with them, so I'm hopingthat I can keep stride with
these guys.
They're all former detectivesfrom Yonkers and they play on
Saturday morning at 6 am.
Oh wow, I'm hoping thatSaturday morning at 6 am,
80-year-old guys I'm going to beable to keep up with a little
(20:52):
bit, but I bet you that's nottrue.
I used to play my friend, sowhere I used to work, everybody
was Irish.
I worked for this law firm.
Everybody was Irish.
I mean, like old school wherewe represented IRA guys, and so
I started playing with this LongIsland Gaelic golf club and you
(21:13):
realize that our Italians arenot meant to play golf because
these Irish guys are like bornand bred it, like flows in their
blood.
Yeah, and you have guys thatyou know play almost their age
and they're like 80.
I mean, they can't hit the ballfar, but everything they hit is
(21:35):
so dead on and it's justamazing that some people have it
and people like me just don't.
Speaker 3 (21:43):
Let's get around together and we'll talk more
about our passion cooking allsorts of things.
But again, thanks, jim, thishas been excellent.
Speaker 1 (21:53):
Anytime you want to come back, you just tell us and
we'll be glad to do it.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
Pleasure is mine.
It was a lot of fun.
I love doing these things and Icould talk for hours.
If you want to start talking,pizza.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
Thank you so much.
We appreciate it.
We're probably going to splitthis up into two episodes.
I think we're going to milk itfor everything it's worth yeah,
no worries please feel free toput it out there on your social
media about our podcast.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
We would love to have them oh yeah, I will, for sure,
yeah all right, so we'll sendyou a link.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
Awesome, all right, man.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
Thanks so much all right, a lot All right.
Thanks, man, appreciate yourexpertise.
All right, thanks, guys.
Talk to you later.
See you, bye.
Speaker 3 (22:36):
Wow, that was great Inside, right Inside.
Look into a local guy startingto make pizza at home for his
family, then to the neighbors,then to the neighborhood, all
the way till Vegas to aninternational pizza competition.
All the way till Vegas to aninternational pizza competition.
And then it morphs into phonecalls here and there from
(22:57):
suppliers, from equipmentmanufacturers, and it just goes
to show the power of socialmedia and your passion.
It's transferred.
You know he's genuine, he hastrue passion for the craft,
respect for the craft and justconstantly working on his
technique.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
Absolutely.
It really was something.
It's great to hear thatsomebody's passion, even with
kids and even with a home of it,and I feel it because that's
how I started in barbecue.
I was out somewhere tonight andsomebody made pulled pork and I
tasted it.
It was great.
(23:35):
And three of the guys saidlisten, one night you got to
talk Steve into cooking ribs forus and I know you had my ribs,
but they weren't the high-endone.
That was one where I wasthinking about what Jim said and
it's exactly what happened tome is that when I cooked it I
(23:55):
did things different.
That time I made the ribs forus and they didn't come out as
good and I was so unhappy withit because you spent all this
time and didn't get the truestquality of the product, truest
(24:17):
quality of the product, and Ipull out.
I pull out my, my book that Iwrite everything down in for
five years now probably, and Isay, oh, I didn't do this, I
didn't do that.
The passion comes through.
Speaker 3 (24:24):
It's delicious, but you're the one who, who knows
the nuances to your system.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
Right that it was lacking here, lacking there, but
at the end of the day Peopletell you how great it is.
Yeah, and I'm like it sucks.
Speaker 3 (24:39):
At the end of the day , it's the joy of feeding
friends and sharing your craftwith others Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
That's the bottom line.
Speaker 3 (24:49):
It's always appreciated, and I know that
when I cook it's appreciated aswell, and that's what keeps it
going.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
I agree.
I agree.
Anything else new we need totalk about?
Speaker 3 (25:00):
I was laser focused on talking to Jim about his
journey, and what a story, huh.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
What a story.
Yeah, it just motivates me towork harder what we do ourselves
.
Speaker 3 (25:12):
Right right.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
Because that motivation's always been there
for me Ever since I startedcooking barbecue, ever since I
always wanted to be moreinvolved in a podcast or
something like that, and we'vebeen doing it.
It's got to be closing in onsix months now, right.
We started, I think, in October, maybe the end of September,
and it's first week, second weekof April.
Speaker 3 (25:39):
So, yeah, we break it down into 10-episode seasons.
We're on our second season,episode eight.
It's a really cool journey, man.
It's really a lot of fun.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
And you know what?
It forces us to be more awareand more out there.
And one thing we becamecommitted to, george and I
talked to everyone out there isthat to do more interviews like
this, to bring things fromoutside so the listeners could
learn more about the things thatreally impress us.
Speaker 3 (26:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
And the things, and we're not impressed by ourselves
at all.
Speaker 3 (26:15):
So we have to find people that impress us, but
we're also going to take thispodcast on the road right, we're
going to go to restaurants.
We're even talking about justtoday.
We're talking about going tocheck out the pastrami place
that just opened in Ardsley,maybe sometime this week.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
And we'll have another episode talking about
the Jewish miracle that is,pastrami sandwiches, and of
course, the same thing happenedwhen I made pastrami for George
and we've talked about it thathe was able to take it and turn
it into something good withcabbage, but my pastrami is
usually dead on and this onewasn't.
(26:52):
I changed what I did, and Ichanged more than one thing.
You went from outdoor to indoor.
Speaker 3 (26:58):
You seasoned it, you marinate it a little longer than
usual and things change.
But the beauty of cooking isit's all active, it's live, you
adapt, and because it was sostrong and so pungent, we just
added some cabbage, some carrotsand we made a beautiful
pastrami stew.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
I have been able to work out.
The smoker is now going to bemoved to a place where it's
going to be easier to use andthere definitely is a fundraiser
that I've been asked to cookfor and I'm definitely going to
do that and it's funny that cameup tonight and also where it's
going to be, there's acommercial kitchen so we can
(27:41):
prep.
I say because I know I'm goingto drag George there and I have
others there that are dying tocook with me or us and we can
prep it.
I don't have to carry it, Idon't have to come from my
apartment and do all thosethings.
You're going to be able to doit right there, which reduces
the stress, and when you reducethe stress of the cooking you
(28:02):
focus more on the cooking.
It's going to improve everythingand people are going to come
because it's a public place,somewhat public place.
It's a private club, but peopleare going to come and sit with
you when you're cooking, soyou're going to be able to
hopefully not get distracted,but it's going to relieve that
(28:23):
by yourself.
Of course they're going to wantfood too.
But what do you think of thesoftware?
I love it.
I can't believe I didn't havethe.
I thought the video was on andit isn't so.
It's just I'm running.
Speaker 3 (28:34):
I'm running this through my iphone.
Uh, I think the audio should tocome out very nice and and
crisp.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
So, uh, yeah, man, this is uh taking advantage of
all the technology out there, sowhat it does and we talked
about this last time is it'llupload, Like it keeps telling me
don't worry about George'saudio, because a perfect quality
has been uploaded to his phone,and from the phone it'll get
(29:02):
uploaded to the cloud and thenit'll sync in and pick the best
audio.
I'm seeing now it's 99% uploaded.
I have to tell you I am temptedto do a live stream.
I don't know.
Let's give some thoughts ofthat.
Do we do it on Instagram?
Do we do it on Facebook?
Do we do it on YouTube?
Speaker 2 (29:24):
All these platforms, they're all primed.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
So I don't know if we do one ourselves first and then
have somebody on just so wecould do it, but I really
believe that this would havebeen a great live stream and I
think what we should do is we'regoing to separate this
interview into two categories,two episodes, and then have
other parts of our episode aboutother things we did, whether it
(29:50):
was restaurants or whatever.
Sure, call it there.
Yeah, that's a wrap, all right.
Thank you everybody forlistening.
We always appreciate how kindyou are to us and take the time
and listen to us the feedback'sbeen great Thank you so much.
Feedback's been great.
People stop me where I'm atsomewhere Obviously I know them
and say when's the next podcastcoming out?
(30:12):
And it always just blows mymind.
Speaker 3 (30:15):
To all our followers thank you.
Speaker 1 (30:18):
Thank you to everybody.
Subscribe, Send us informationyou'd like us to do.
We'd love to have it All rightFrom me.
Have a nice night, george,absolutely.
Speaker 3 (30:29):
Have a nice night everyone and stay tuned.
Speaker 1 (30:32):
More to come.
All right, george and Steve,thanks.
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