Episode 56: Lake Ontario Salmon With Craig Baxter

Join us for a summer culinary celebration with the talented Chef Craig Baxter! Chef Baxter shares his wealth of knowledge on navigating fluctuating meat prices and dishes out insights from his global cooking adventures. Learn how to elevate your summer barbecues with creative dishes and techniques, leveraging accessible ingredients from places like Costco. Reflecting on listener feedback, we dive into the enthusiasm surrounding outdoor cooking and capture the remarkable energy from our audience and the team at Outdoor Journal Radio.

Embark on a journey through our personal culinary traditions, contrasting a predominantly vegetarian Scottish upbringing with the vibrant, fresh, and traditional Italian heritage of my co-host. We reminisce about our fathers' unique cooking styles and discuss how barbecue techniques have evolved with modern technology. Food and drink shape our social experiences, from the boisterous atmosphere of Scottish football matches to the food-centric gatherings at Toronto FC games, creating cherished family traditions.

Get ready for mouth-watering stories from our barbecue escapades, including a recently filmed YouTube episode featuring venison burgers and a salmon dish with risotto. We recount an adventurous fishing trip in Newcastle Harbor with my son Ewan, touching on the importance of introducing young anglers to the sport and ensuring the safety of consuming fish from Lake Ontario. Listen as we reveal the secrets behind maintaining a positive team dynamic in a professional kitchen, managing negative feedback, and the sheer joy of summer cooking. Don't miss this episode brimming with engaging stories, expert advice, and practical tips for your next barbecue!

Follow Eating Wild on Instagram! To reach out to the boys, drop us a line at [e-mail]

Episode Transcript

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Speaker 5 (00:53):
Hi everybody.
I'm Angelo Viola and I'm PeteBowman.
Now you might know us as thehosts of Canada's favorite
fishing show, but now we'rehosting a podcast.
That's right.
Every Thursday, Ang and I willbe right here in your ears
bringing you a brand new episodeof Outdoor Journal Radio.
Hmm, Now, what are we going totalk about for two hours every
week?
Well, you know there's going tobe a lot of fishing.

Speaker 4 (01:14):
I knew exactly where those fish were going to be and
how to catch them, and they wereeasy to catch.

Speaker 5 (01:19):
Yeah, but it's not just a fishing show.
We're going to be talking topeople from all facets of the
outdoors, from athletes All theother guys would go golfing.

Speaker 3 (01:28):
Me and Garth and Turk and all the Russians would go
fishing To scientists.
But now that we're reforestingand letting things breathe, it's
the perfect transmissionenvironment for life.

Speaker 4 (01:39):
To chefs If any game isn't cooked properly, marinated
, you will taste it.

Speaker 5 (01:45):
And whoever else will pick up the phone Wherever you
are.
Outdoor Journal Radio seeks toanswer the questions and tell
the stories of all those whoenjoy being outside.
Find us on Spotify, applePodcasts or wherever you get
your podcasts and welcome backto another episode of the well

(02:17):
podcast.

Speaker 4 (02:18):
I'm your host, antonio smash malecka.
Today we are joined.
We are joined with specialguest in studio.
Everyone's heard this guybefore on the show.
We said we're going to checkback in with him periodically
and today we got the opportunityfor Chef Craig Baxter to come
up into the studio and sit downand chat barbecue weather

(02:41):
brother, what's happening?

Speaker 2 (02:42):
Hey, hey, good to be back, good to be back.

Speaker 4 (02:45):
Good to be back on the mic.
Listen, man.
We got a lot of feedback fromthe last episode that we did
together.
In fact, the boys at the ODJ atthe Outdoor Journal Radio,
Angelo Viola, in company withPete Bowman, dean Taylor and the
boys, they were up in theNorthwest Territories.
They were up in the NorthwestTerritories, they were filming

(03:07):
the Fish in Canada show andproducer Dean reached out to me
and he said oh, while we weredriving to their lodge they
actually listened to our episodeand they absolutely loved it,
ange especially.
He loved it because, being thefoodie that he was, and he loves
your accent, who doesn't lovethat stupid Scottish accent?
I can't even remember what theepisode was.

(03:30):
It was food related, 100%.
Oh, it was about the kangaroo,was it?
But yeah, I think it was aboutthe kangaroo.
The funny thing about thekangaroo is that, you know, ever
since that day we really didn'texperiment more stuff like we
wanted to.
We talked about doing morewhile the game on set for our
customers, but the price isbeing insane the way they are

(03:55):
right now, with beef especially.
We kind of had to taper downour menus and go more with the
more traditional style ofcooking, using the you know the
basics with chicken and pork andthrowing in a beef dish ever so
often.
But now it's the summer and thisbrings us to this episode here
with Chef Craig, and we're goingto pick his brain on some of

(04:17):
the cool things that we can do,you know, in the summertime, on
set or at your house in yourbackyard.
And one thing I want to ask you, craig, is you know you've
cooked all around the world.
We've all talked about peoplethat have listened to our
episode before.
I think I've had you on a fewtimes.
They know your journey workingin the UK and on some crazy,

(04:39):
crazy movies.
But where does Craig Baxtercook at home?
What is something thesummertime hits?
I know your wife loves going toCostco.
They got great stuff there, ohshe loves it.
Yeah, she loves the Costco.
Who doesn't?
I mean, it's great stuff.
What are you cooking for yourfamily?
You have two kids.
Your wife and you always seemto eat pretty healthy.

(05:01):
In fact, one time you weresaying that you weren't even
eating much meat.

Speaker 2 (05:05):
No, not really.
Ever since I was little.
I don't know whether it'sbecause my mom used to cook meat
to death, but I just didn't eatmuch meat and I'm a firm
believer in eat like your bloodtype.
You know that philosophy wheredepending on what your blood
type is aligns into what kind offood you like to eat meat and

(05:29):
potatoes, vegetarian, veganism,all that kind of stuff.
So growing up I was always kindof vegetarian, I'd say to be
honest.
Whenever we had the Sundayroast, my mom used to make me
cauliflower with cheese sauce onit that's crazy because, being
Scottish, I I mean you think ofyou know.

Speaker 4 (05:48):
The first thing that comes to my mind obviously is
haggis, which is, you know,always a thing.
But you know the sausages, thepies.
You guys are knownworld-renowned, like the
Scottish butcher where I livethis guy makes he's like the
meat pies are like one of themost famous things that they
sell and people line up forthese bloody things.
But to hear that you wereeating, you know, vegetarian

(06:11):
food at a young age, growing upin the UK, is mind-blowing, to
be honest.

Speaker 2 (06:15):
Well, I mean, if you saw what I, what my mom, put on
the table, you'd be a vegetariantoo, to be perfectly honest.
You know what.

Speaker 4 (06:23):
Italians are similar man.

Speaker 2 (06:25):
She won't listen to this.

Speaker 4 (06:26):
No, no, no, that's okay, ma If you're listening,
we're okay.

Speaker 2 (06:30):
Here's the thing she loves you too.

Speaker 4 (06:31):
Yeah, yeah, momo, are you crazy?

Speaker 2 (06:33):
We got looped together at your 40th birthday.
It was great she can handle herscotch.

Speaker 4 (06:39):
Yeah, my father, who cooked every Monday, barbecued
every Monday, even in thewintertime.
Vinny M was out there with hisshorts on, no matter how cold it
was, and we barbecued becausethat was his day off.
He was a hairdresser.
He barbecued every singleMonday.
Same thing, cooked to death,but we didn't know any other way

(07:02):
.
These days when you'rebarbecuing, people got the meter
probes.
You ever see those things.

Speaker 2 (07:06):
everyone's probing their meat and it's impossible
to screw up a steak now no, yeahit basically as long as you
have a good probe, it's, youknow well, I mean, it's
foolproof yeah, and now you getyou go follow it on your cell
phone.

Speaker 4 (07:18):
It's like okay, when, when it hits 135, your your
phone's gonna ring, you justpull the steak off and it
perfect.

Speaker 2 (07:24):
Or Janice will ask me if she's cooking chicken breast
.
She's like, is this done?
And I put the probe in.
It's like at 190.

Speaker 4 (07:29):
I'm like yep, it sure is.
Yeah, it's crazy man.
So I think growing up as a kidor us as kids, you know
overcooked meat was probablywhat we were used to.

Speaker 2 (07:45):
And that's probably why you love that cauliflower
and cheese sauce.
But even for you growing up,because you're from an Italian
family, I'm sometimes jealousbecause food's such a big and
important part of your cultureand your lives and family, right
, right.
So if you get a familyget-together, the focus is food
for the most part, right, it is.
You know what I mean, whereasin Scotland it's booze.

Speaker 4 (08:07):
Yeah Right, yeah Well , I mean, there's nothing wrong
with that either.
Food maybe takes a back seat,right Well, you were saying,
even at the football matches youcan't bring booze into the
stadium.
I find that crazy.

Speaker 2 (08:17):
Well, I mean, yeah, because me and Janice were
season ticket holders, you know,you remember, with TFC, yeah,
and when I first went to thegames here, I enjoyed them a lot
, because I'm not saying thecrowd's tamer, it's just a
different atmosphere.
Like in Scotland, you go to thegame, you're hiding your scarf
and your jacket until you get inthe stadium, whereas here it's

(08:38):
a lot more.
I don't know.

Speaker 4 (08:40):
And you're hiding your scarf because of the
visiting team.
Is it because you guys were?

Speaker 2 (08:43):
fighting.
Yeah, I mean when I startedgoing to the games like late 80s
or whatever, hooliganism wasstill rife, right, and the food
in Toronto at BMO Field isincredible.

Speaker 1 (08:55):
It's incredible food Like you go and you got to pull
a mortgage.

Speaker 4 (08:59):
But at the same time you're getting a buffalo
footlong with blue cheese.
That was our go-to.
It was our go-to hot dog.
And then you combine that witha 16 or a 20-ounce brewski,
You're at 30 bones.

Speaker 2 (09:13):
You are, I mean back home, like when I went to the
games.
You got a pie and bovril,Remember?

Speaker 4 (09:18):
I told you, oh, yeah, yeah, that warm drink.

Speaker 2 (09:20):
It's like hot Marmite , if anyone out there is
familiar with Marmite.

Speaker 4 (09:25):
So yeah, well, I mean , you know it's funny.
You say culture, food bringsyou together.
It really does.
But I would say the people inEurope in general and this is
actual studies, man, this isn'tthat I'm pulling this out of my
ass the people live longer inEurope and the reason why is

(09:48):
because the way they prepare thefood and harvest the food it's
different.
You know, we're the NorthAmerican way.
Here You're eating cold cuts.
It's pumped full of shit.
It's pumped full of like youknow who knows.
They say cold cuts are probablythe worst thing you could
possibly eat over here.
But back home in Italy, you knowyou can't have a meal without a
slice of prosciutto, cold cuts.

(10:10):
You know coppa and soperzata,all the cured sausages and meats
, and whether they're doing youknow homemade or you're buying
it at the store, it's all thesame and it's all processed the
same.
Obviously it's salted to deathbecause that's how you're curing
your meat, but it's alsosurvival.
That's how people preparedtheir food, for longevity as

(10:33):
well.
It's like let's make all thesausages, we're going to keep
them in the cantina and they'regoing to stay there for months
and months on end.
So even canning canning wasalways big back home.

Speaker 2 (10:45):
Here's the one thing I do remember when I was little
is that my mom would go shewould go to the butcher for her
meat, she would go to thefishmonger for her fish, because
I was like just tagged alongand she would go to the, the
vegetable place for thevegetables and sometimes, when
we live, because we live by thecoast, there be a big fish
market right.
So basically the fish was sofresh, it just came off the

(11:06):
boats.
It was just a big warehousealmost with just fish everywhere
on ice.
And I remember that, and that'sthe difference, I think,
between then and now is thateverything is just pre-prepared,
pumped full of shit is justpre-prepared, pumped full of

(11:27):
shit, you know, full of.
You don't even know what you'reeating.
Half the time Full ofpreservatives.
Yeah, the preservatives.

Speaker 4 (11:32):
Yeah, I mean, we've had some great guests on Chef
Doris.
I remember when she came andshe forages a lot.
And you know one of ourcolleagues at the Outdoor
Journal Radio podcast team,jerry Ouellette, who's
introduced us to a couple offarmers that we've been buying
some microgreens from that inhis connection out in Durham

(11:53):
region, and you know to get thatsort of product that's grown,
you know, from the farm and it'sfarm to table.
There's no match.
But here's the problem I find,craig, is that it's not cheap,
man, it's not cheap andeveryone's like, yeah, support
the farmers, support the farmers.
Well, I sort of have a problemwith it if it's going to

(12:14):
bankrupt a family of four andyou're forced to go to Costco
because the farmers are chargingmore 100% and I'll give you an
example.

Speaker 2 (12:22):
So, me and Janice, because I turned 50 a couple of
weeks ago.

Speaker 4 (12:25):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (12:25):
Jesus, I don't look it though, yeah you look great.
We went to a cottage for theweekend past Balsam Lake yeah,
up that way, right, I can'tremember what it was called now
and we stopped and we were.
You know, we had a barbecuethere, the little cottage, it
was really nice, and we weregoing to make dinner on a

(12:47):
Saturday.
We went to a little farmer'smarket and we brought some steak
, we brought some big shrimp,some other stuff, and Jan's like
let's go to the farmer's marketand we'll find some nice
vegetables and stuff.
I'm like, okay, let's go.
So we grab a coffee and we goand we look around and they had
local asparagus.
So this is when the asparaguswas in full.

(13:08):
You know, full flight, $6 abunch.

Speaker 4 (13:13):
That's insane.
That was just for one bunch.
And was it even a pound or wasit a half a pound?
Because sometimes you getscammed.
People don't realize this.
When you see the price ofasparagus, that's the per pound
price.
One bunch is supposed to weigha pound, so that means that that
was $6 a pound.
But sometimes if you grab thatbunch it weighs like half a

(13:37):
pound.
You're still paying $6.
That means that that's $12 apound.
It's bullshit.
So, yeah, I had the same thing.
We went to the market not toolong ago, canada day long
weekend.
We went to the farmer's marketout in Port Perry and it was
nice to see all the locals there, you know, putting out their
stuff.
But I'm telling you right now,it wasn't asparagus, it was
actually mixed greens and it waslike $12 for a bag of spring

(13:58):
mix.
And I'm just like you know, andhow long?
What's the shelf?
What's the shelf life going tobe on that too right, and it's
like I want to support them.
But if I don't eat that tonight, you know it sits in the fridge
for a couple of days it's mostlikely going to turn to crap.
Yeah, you know, sits in thefridge for a couple of days,
it's most likely going to turnto crap.

Speaker 2 (14:15):
Yeah, Because remember even years back, for
the longest time farmer'smarkets would be way cheaper
than the grocery store.

Speaker 4 (14:21):
Remember St Jacobs when we went, we were on set
filming Nikita, I think it was.

Speaker 2 (14:25):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (14:26):
And we had to spend the night.
It was our first overnight tripon a film set and we were too
stupid to know how to pack ourtruck properly and we didn't
realize that we didn't packenough food for the following
day.
So we had a great transport guy.
His name was Grant Great guy.
He said well, you guys are infarmer's country.
Man, you got the St Jacob'smarket not too far from here.
Do you guys need a lift?

(14:49):
I'll take you to the market andI think me and you went with
him for the drive we did.
And me and you went with him forthe drive.
We did and I remember seeingthe mennonites and we bought
saffron maple yes, we boughtsaffron for like five bucks the
ontario saffron terrible it was.
It was terrible, it wasterrible, but it was so cheap
and there was a reason for that,brother yeah, and then uh, and

(15:11):
then basically, um, remember themaple syrup.
The syrup was incredible, andthen we bought some local salmon
, we bought some local beef.

Speaker 2 (15:20):
We did yeah, and it was cheaper.
The strawberries remember theguy, I think corn, we had Corn.

Speaker 4 (15:24):
The strawberries were a dollar a pint yeah, a dollar.
And because it was Remember itwas closing up and we were there
right at the tail end.
The guy's like pints ofstrawberries for a buck and we
used them the next day on yourPavlova Right.
But you're right, it used to be, I feel, like you'd get a deal
and you were getting the quality.

Speaker 2 (15:43):
And I think too, it's unfortunate that things are
just more expensive now, right,so for farmers it's more
expensive for them to operate.

Speaker 4 (15:54):
Yeah, expenses are high.

Speaker 2 (15:57):
They got to charge, charge more.
So they have no choice.
You know you buy theirstrawberries.
Or do you want to go and buysome driscoll strawberries from
the us, for you know, twodollars cheaper?

Speaker 4 (16:05):
yeah, no frills well, I mean, we're, we're in the
industry, we're, we're talkingfood here with chef craig baxter
, and we did mention you know wegot a great show, by the way we
got some some.
You know we got a great show,by the way, we got some stuff.
I got a couple questions fromsome fans that I'm going to ask
you to later in the show, butyou know, bringing me back to
the original question, before wedove into this, what are you

(16:27):
cooking these summer days athome?
Are you doing, you know, fish,a lot of fish.
Are you doing steaks?
Are you barbecuing a lot fish?
Are you doing steaks?
Are you barbecuing a lot?
You know what are your kidseating these days and what can
people expect, you know, whenthey do go to the grocery stores
, when they are planning theirbarbecue season.
Because I could tell you frompersonal experience, I don't

(16:48):
even take meat from our shop.
I go to the store myself andI'll buy fresh just to see
what's going on out there.
And I'll be honest, like Ihaven't bought a steak this
whole summer yet, I haven'tbought it once.

Speaker 2 (17:00):
So I mean because we're busy, janice does a lot of
cooking.
Well, I do a lot.
We do a lot of barbecuing, tobe honest, in the summer and she
has.
There's a local butcher alongthe road from us called Clark's
Meat in Newcastle, yep, and alllocal meat from the surrounding
area and we just go there.
They have amazing meat, greatquality.

(17:22):
We buy steaks.
Janice likes to buy pork, dopool pork in the crock pot or
whatever, yep.
And we just eat a lot of salads.
We try and get the kids eatingsalads.
We'll have a light side, likequinoa maybe, even like I'm
lucky, the kids both eat quinoa,rice, things like that.
But just keep it light.
And yeah, we do barbecue.

(17:42):
I barbecue a lot, right?

Speaker 4 (17:45):
It's barbecue season, man.
Now let's talk burgers, becausewe love burgers Both of us, we
love burgers.
We got together here in thekitchen and there's going to be
a YouTube video that comes outvery, very shortly of Craig and
I in the kitchen.
You're going to find it on theFishing Canada website and
you're also going to be able tocatch this on YouTube.

(18:06):
And we put together a venisonburger and I don't know if you
remember this, but we did 60%venison, 40% pork.
I think I made the burger.
It was delicious.
You did the salmon dish withthe risotto, that's right.
Which people are going to losetheir mind when they see this.
But the burgers, man, and we'reall about the condiments.

(18:28):
It's all about the condiments,man.
You need a good burger first.
You need to have a good qualitychuck with a lot of fat.
People are using Wagyu thesedays.
I think that's a waste of money.

Speaker 2 (18:38):
I think the word Wagyu You're just paying for the
name.

Speaker 4 (18:40):
Paying for the name.
Get some nice quality chuck,throw some pork in there, cook
it medium rare.
You're having a party, but thecondiments?
We've been making jams.
We've been making hot sauces.

Speaker 2 (18:53):
Relishes, relishesishes, chutneys.

Speaker 4 (18:55):
The perfect burger for me right now and I'm telling
you, I got to go to a smashburger.
I've been on the smash burgertrain and I love the fact that
when guys are smashing theirburgers they're doing it with
the onions cut super thin,smashed into the burgers.
Now I know a lot of peopledon't like that With pickles and

(19:17):
they call it mac sauce orburger sauce and basically it's
a mixture of ketchup, mustard,mayo and relish, a little bit of
Liam Perrins in there and thena little bit of Tabasco and they
whip that up and they eat thatwith pickles.

Speaker 2 (19:33):
Smash burger right now has to be the best burger
I've ever had.
The smash smash burger rightnow has to be the best burger
I've ever had.
The smash burgers are amazingand they're very, they're very.
It's very trendy now it issmash burgers.

Speaker 4 (19:40):
Yeah, and it's not that much meat, because it ends
up turning like a pancake.
That's why you get the double.
You can get a double or atriple, whatever triple is very
nice everyone love it, the smasheveryone.
I love the smash, but uh, yeah,no, I'm.
I'm into the singles.
I'll do a single mac sauce orburger sauce, whatever you want
to call it.
Pickles, cheese, onions, that'sit.

(20:00):
Oh, it's got to be on a potatobun and they brush mayo on the
bun before they sear it on theflat grill.
It's so tasty.
Oh God, it's good man.

Speaker 2 (20:09):
It's a heart attack.
It's a heart attack and rememberI can't remember if I mentioned
when I went to Texas, oh, theDiablo burger.
So I nearly, oh my God.
So we went.
I love burgers.
I'm the same as Antonio, I loveburgers.
So we went to this great burgerspot and the thing about the
States is they will ask you howyou'd like your burger done.

(20:31):
So in Canada it has to be fullycooked.
Yeah, I guess that's just theway the regulations are.
Here In the States and I'm surea lot of you have been to the
States they ask how you meetrare, medium rare.
I was like, wow, this isincredible.
So I got it like medium, Ithink.
Was it just a little pink inthe middle?
And my son likes a little bitof spice.
So I thought, okay, ewan, whydo we get that?

(20:53):
I looked at the list why do youget the Diablo burger?
He's like oh yeah, that soundsgreat.
That sounds great.
He's like he's 11.
And we got the burger.
I bit into his raw.
I think it was habaneros.
They use a lot of in Texas andit was so hot and so spicy.
Even I was sweating and I lookat him and he's dying.

(21:13):
He's dying.
Diablo means the devil doesn'tit?
He's dying.
I'm like, ewan, you don't haveto finish, I'm finishing it, dad
, I'm finishing it.
And I actually got worriedabout him.
Yeah, I got worried about him.
We went to a fish aquariumafterwards and I said where's
Ewan gone?
Where the hell is he?
Because I was worried about thekid man.

(21:34):
He didn't look good, yeah, andhe had stomach ache and I was
like, oh my God, jan's going tokill me.
And I look over and there's abig fan that cools down I can't
remember some of the aquariumsor whatever and he's right there
with his face right in the fantrying to cool himself Texas for
a burger.

Speaker 4 (21:52):
Next thing, you know, he's melting.
Oh my God.
Well, you know what?
Kudos to him for actuallyliking spice at 11 years old.
I mean, I don't think I had myfirst little bit of spice until
I was like 16.
And even then I still can'thandle it much.
Raw habanero, that's hot man.
Oh yeah, that's hot.
That was a hot one, but theburger itself were they amazing,
as what they, as what theyadvertise amazing man, texas.

Speaker 2 (22:15):
The food everywhere I ate in Texas was unbelievable,
unbelievable.
And then, most recently, I wasaway at a wedding in Portland,
oregon, right, and the foodthere was incredible.
A lot of seafood right by thecoast, obviously.
Right, we went to a town wherethey filmed the Goonies and we
went to the beach there.

Speaker 4 (22:35):
That must have been cool.

Speaker 2 (22:36):
It was Cannon Beach, I think it's called Beautiful,
beautiful beach.
Went to an amazing seafoodplace there had the best fish
burger Wow, best fish burger.

Speaker 4 (22:45):
Now Portland, would you say that?
Are they like what's more orless their style?
Are they sort of the Mexicanakind of style?
Because I know in LA Mark DavidAlpert.
We worked for him a lot and wealways asked him about the
catering in LA.
We always were wondering whatthe catering was like at the NBC
studio.
Remember he said to useverything tastes the same, it's

(23:07):
very Mexican flair oriented andeverything kind of tastes the
same.
They use a lot of cilantro,they use a lot of garlic, which
people I love, I mean, who canget sick of that kind of style?
But was it the same in Portland, or was it more or less
Southern-style cooking?

Speaker 2 (23:23):
No, no, Portland was very seafood-orientated because
it's by the coast Right.
Everything we ate was fresh.
So the burger I had, the fishburger you could taste the fish
was just really fresh.
There was a lot of good Asianrestaurants there, but Mexicans,
no, not so much.

(23:43):
Didn't see many Mexican places.

Speaker 4 (23:47):
That's what I'll say about Toronto is we're so
multicultural that you can findanything in this country,
anything in the city Toronto.
Like, if you want to go for areally really good slice of
pizza, we have it.
You want to go for really goodThai food, we have it.
You want Southern food, we haveit.
Now, I'm not talking about thechains, I'm not talking about
going to Popeye's and eating aor Chick-fil-A.

(24:07):
Or Chick-fil-A or Chipotle andall these other places.
I'm talking about mom and popshops, mom pa shops.
We have them, they're out thereand you can find them.
But I couldn't even tell youwhat the style of people say oh,
when you go to Toronto, whatare they known for?
Well, I think we're known foralmost everything.
You want barbecue, we got it.
You want smoked food we got it.
But I know what you mean.
When you go to the States,their regulations are different.

(24:30):
You can go there and get porktenderloin.
It'll be perfectly cookedmedium rare, and then we'll do
pork tenderloin on set, cookedmedium rare, and then somebody
will tell us that we're nuts.

Speaker 2 (24:40):
Or you cook a nice bit of beef or something and
people ask for well done.

Speaker 4 (24:45):
Yeah, I get it, man Again.
Growing up, everything I atewas well done.
It's what people are used toand what they're accustomed to.
I'm never going to judge peopleon how they like their meat,
but people that aren't eatingstuff cooked at 135 to 145,
they're just missing out.
In my opinion, it can't becooked any better.
So you know, barbecue season'supon us now.

(25:07):
Moving on, you got to dosomething really, really cool
with your son this past weekend.
It's actually just happened acouple days ago and you were
talking about this a while.
You're one of your financialadvisors.
He's a good buddy of yours.
He said he was going to takeyou out onto Lake Ontario on a
salmon charter and you're askingme about it.
You're like you know me smashthem on the water all the time

(25:30):
and you're like you know whatshould I expect in this?
And then I said should I expectin this?
And that I said it's adifferent style of fishing.
I don't know if you're going toenjoy it, but if you hook up
into a fish, you're definitelygoing to enjoy it, because
hooking into a king or one ofthose shindogs, the Chinook
salmons, it's quite the fightand it's quite the strike as
well.

(25:50):
But let's talk about that Firstof all.
You booked a charter out ofNewcastle, correct Ontario?

Speaker 2 (25:57):
Yes, so I was excited about this.
My son loves fishing and Ididn't have these opportunities
so much growing up, so I want togive them to him and I want him
to find a passion and somethinghe's really passionate or
interested in doing and he lovesfishing.
And the only times he's reallypassionate or interested in

(26:18):
doing and he loves fishing, andthe only times he's really been
fishing is with Antonio.
So when he found out it wasn'tAntonio, he was a little
skeptical.
Don't blame him, listen, thisis still going to be good.
And I didn't really know whatto expect either, because I'd
been fishing and we always fishfor bass, perch, things like
that.
So salmon and trout I wasunfamiliar with, um, so, yeah,

(26:41):
we went sunday there.
Uh, the guys I can't forget the, the guy's uh charting name,
we'll get his name, we'll gethis name.
Yeah, we'll give him a plug.
But uh, he'd been fishing 44years.
Whatever uh went, there was me,ewan and my friend Justin.
I first of all was surprised athow many boats were in

(27:02):
Newcastle Harbor, right, and Ididn't realize there were so
many fishing charters that leftfrom there.

Speaker 4 (27:07):
Yeah, and you were saying you saw a lot of people
from like Quebec, montreal,right.

Speaker 2 (27:12):
Yeah, there was yeah.

Speaker 4 (27:13):
Because you were saying that everything was
written in French on their boatsa lot of surprising.
Yeah, my uh guy who was runningour charter didn't care for
them so much yeah, yeah, theyseem to have a problem with with
people out that way out east.
I don't know why.
I don't know it's it's the sameover here.
It's kind of weird.

Speaker 2 (27:29):
I mean for me.
I'm like I don't know, I don'tknow any, but it was like it was
an experience, put it that way.
So we go on there and the firstthing he says is you know what?
You're going to experience alot of pain today.
I'm not going to lie to you.
I'm like okay, great, well,here's your money.
Thanks for that.
We went out.
We started at six o'clock andit went from six o'clock till

(27:51):
two, so it was kind of long.
The only thing when I wassaying to you about it was I
felt was maybe for you in.
Uh, for the most part it wasmaybe a little too long for him
eight hours eight hours.

Speaker 4 (28:01):
Yeah, and it was hot outside too right, it was 28
degrees and sun.

Speaker 2 (28:05):
So, yeah, you know, we had the sun, the sun um
screen on, we had the hats on.
But um, it's, it's.
It's a different experience.
So he was, he was going out, wewere three miles out and he was
trolling.
He had like eight lines on thegoal.

Speaker 4 (28:21):
Right.

Speaker 2 (28:22):
And when you hook into one, it is a fight.
I had no idea just how muchthese fish fought.
Yeah, I was like oh my God.
I was like I don't even thinkI'm going to be able to reel
this in.
It could be so embarrassing.
I had no idea.
My arm just felt like it wasabout to fall off.

(28:42):
It's like, yeah, yeah, you gotto fight her.
I'm like, oh my God, you knowwhat the worst thing is too.
So Ewan, this is veryimpressive.
He's 11.
He reeled one in.
It was a 21-pound salmon.
That's a big fish.

Speaker 4 (28:55):
That was a big fish.
That's a huge fish.

Speaker 2 (28:57):
And he did it by himself.
Even the guy was amazed, like Ididn't think you had it in you,
ewan?
And he wasn't feeling well,poor Ewan.
I dragged him out of bed.
He hadn't been feeling well.
I said you'll be fine, son,don't worry about it.
The weather and all throughoutthe charter.
He just thought he was seasick.
But he wasn't.
He wasn't.
He's like oh you and you'llfind your sea legs.
I'm like none of the sea legs,man, he's not feeling well, but

(29:20):
anyway, when he hooked into thething he came to life and I
showed you the photograph.

Speaker 4 (29:25):
Yeah, what a fish.
We got to share that picture onour Instagram because I'll tell
you to see the smile on thatkid's face, holding that chin
down from year to year.
He was just he's super.

Speaker 2 (29:36):
That in itself made the day worthwhile.
And then and then, when Ihooked into the second one or
you know fish on, you knowyou're running, get the line
whatever I thought it took me, Ithink, 25 minutes to get it in,
holy smoke, 25 minutes.
And I thought this must be amassive fish and it was smaller
than his one.
And the worst thing was, theabsolute worst thing is when you

(30:00):
spent 10 minutes, you knowreeling it in reeling it in and
you hear the thing go by and theguy's laughing.
Well, you're just back to thebeginning.
I'm like oh my God man and myhand?
I got blisters on my hands.
My arms are about of fall off.
My freaking knees are stilllike oh my good God.

Speaker 4 (30:18):
Well, you know what?
That's the whole fun, exciting,adrenaline rush in fishing, no
matter if it's a 21-pound salmonor a two-inch perch.

Speaker 2 (30:29):
Yeah, I think it was a 17-pound one that I got in,
and when you actually see it inthe distance and it eventually
comes and starts splashingaround, oh, your mind's going
crazy it is, but they fight,they do, oh my God, they fight.

Speaker 4 (30:42):
And imagine getting those in the rivers like on a
center pin reel.
That's what I, like I neverreally did much of of.
You know, fishing for trollingin Lake Ontario, but I did get
the.
I fishing for trolling in LakeOntario but I did get the.
I do fish in the rivers in thefall and you know you're getting
those 20, 30 pound fish comingthrough full of eggs.
And you're fighting the currentas well, because these fish,

(31:04):
when they, when you set the hookon them, and the next thing you
know they go downstream andthey catch the rapids.
You're just you're fighting foryour life and I can only
imagine what it's like bringingthose fish up from what 60 to 80
feet of water sometimes 100,right, I think it was 65, where
the one I had was so you takeyour son out, you guys.

Speaker 2 (31:25):
You said you got a trout as well, which is pretty
cool.
Oh, and the rainbow trout.
We got four salmon and we gotone rainbow trout, but the
rainbow trout are huge, massive.
So if you think about Scotlandor the UK, where we we at the
head how we use lots of rainbowtrout and they were nothing like
the trout you get here, Nothing.
Oh, the trout here were huge.
They're like, they're like minisalmons.

Speaker 4 (31:46):
But and and you know what the thing about the trout
is here and again we earlyspring and then late fall.
You can actually get trout inthe rivers all the way November,
december, depending on theweather but, man, do they fight?
They fight like nothing beats arainbow trout.
I'm sorry, I know Hookset andTop Dog and even Showtime

(32:08):
they're going to have a problemwith me saying this because they
always chirp me for being theriver fisherman that I was.
But the feeling of catching arainbow trout on a fly rod or a
center pin rod in the river,watching them clear it could be
a four to six pound rainbow andthe way they fight, I'm telling
you, man, there's no feeling.
So I could only imagine thosemonsters in Lake Ontario again

(32:30):
bringing them up from 65 feet ofwater.
What it's like bringing thoseup.
And yeah, of course you'regoing to get tired, man, look at
us.
Like you said, your 11-year-oldson brought that fish in
21-pounder.
Well, his adrenaline must havebeen just skyrocketing because
he's never reeled in anythingthat big in his life.

Speaker 2 (32:48):
No, it was for me.
The whole experience just forhim to do that was worthwhile
and I think next year we'regoing to do walleye to do.

Speaker 4 (32:57):
That was worthwhile and I think next year we're
going to do walleye, walleye bay, quinny.
Yes, yeah, I, I got toexperience that for the first
time this spring with uh, withshowtime, johnson and top dog
prayer.
We went out with simon barth,which was probably one of the
highlights of my year so far infishing, because we went
trolling out on the detroitriver.
I actually think it was eerie,um, because the detroit was
blown up.
But, uh, that was an experiencethat I'll never forget.

(33:19):
And the reward we got to talkabout the reward.
Now.
You don't have to say how muchthat trip costed you, but I know
how much it is these days 500dollars for me and you and 500
bucks right there and it's ahalf a day.
But listen, the reward you knowyou're the one was the guy got
you on fish and you saidsomething to me that was insane
that this guy gives you halfprice if you don't catch a fish.

(33:40):
Right, there is a boldstatement for a guy to say.
You know what I mean, yeah, sothat gives you confidence right
there.
Two, the reward is you got tokeep a couple fish and you know
what the price of fish is rightnow.
It's insane.
But here's the thing LakeOntario, lake Ontario salmon,
let's say.
You brought that fish in today.
I saw you.
He filleted it for you.

(34:00):
You took it back to the shoptoday.
You took the pin bones out, youcut your steaks and you vac
sealed.
To me the meat lookedabsolutely beautiful.
But you said something to mewhile you were cleaning it that
was a little off, because me andyou clean fish almost every
week.
We work me while you werecleaning it.

(34:22):
That was a little off, becauseme and you clean fish almost or
we work with fish every singleday purchased.
You said something to me thatwas interesting.
You said it smelt different.
It was it with this fresh fishfrom lake ontario.

Speaker 2 (34:26):
That looked absolutely amazing yeah, I had a
real and, yeah, a very justkind of salmon-y, very strong
smell about it, and then I don'tmean in a bad way, just and the
pin bones we've deboned likelots of salmons.
They're pretty sturdy, whichwas different, right, but we're

(34:46):
going to cook it tonight fordinner.

Speaker 4 (34:48):
That's amazing.
We're going to document thisbecause the next time we have
you on we're going to talk aboutthat salmon that you caught on
Lake Ontario and you're going totell people, because one thing
about Craig, he'll tell you.
He'll tell you if he thinksit's shit, he'll tell you.
If he thinks it's amazing,he'll tell you, like there's no
beating around the bush herewith the Baxter and I got my.

Speaker 2 (35:06):
I'm pretty excited because I got my fishing license
.

Speaker 4 (35:16):
Three years.
Three years, that's good, youneed that.
So I feel I feel like I'mgetting all professional now.
It's funny because I took craigout, uh, I took his son out and
uh I I believe it might havebeen family day, so I remember
the provincial government, itwas a free fishing day for uh,
for everybody, so it waslicensed free fishing.
And I remember taking your sonand I saw the, the m&r boat on

(35:37):
the lake and you weren't fishing, you actually weren't even
fishing.
And I said to Craig I said,look, that's the M&R boat.
And he's like really.
I said, yeah, I spot these guysfrom miles away.
And what happened?
Five minutes later that guycame flying at us.

Speaker 2 (35:50):
Oh yeah, he did yeah.

Speaker 4 (35:52):
You were right, I was right.
He came flying over and I waslike, how's it going, boys?
And he's like just checking toseeing out a season bass because
it was early in the spring.
I said, yeah, no problem, checkthe live.
Well, I got pulled over alreadywith martin's two mean hook set
got pulled over.
You know, getting pulled overwith dan is never nothing to
worry about because that guy'sgot two of everything on the
boat.
But check the life jackets,check the live.

(36:13):
Well, check the flashlight.
We were all good.
He was very, very, uh pleasedto see that we took the boy
fishing.
He's like I like seeing the,you know, the young guys holding
the rod and, um, you know, itwas great, it was great.
But you know, getting the boyout there early, I think at a
young age getting him intofishing is really important and
you know, again, going back tothe best part of it was reeling

(36:35):
it in the fight and thenharvesting, and for me,
harvesting those walters wereawesome.
You got an 11 inch perch rightyeah, you got one of the biggest
perch I've seen at a school gog.
No, it was 12.
What was it?
It was 12.
Yeah, it was.
It was almost a foot and itweighed almost a pound.
It was huge, huge perch for,for, for, like we've seen uh
some.
There was some musky we seen,we saw musky in the flats.

(36:56):
They were, it was.

Speaker 2 (36:57):
It was nuts and I was like let's go get him.

Speaker 4 (36:59):
You're like no, we can't I was like are you crazy,
man?
You put me in jail, are younuts?
Can't do that?
Um, but yeah, no, like, like,having the knowledge with
somebody on a boat is important.
You know you going out thereand not knowing what you're
doing, and and we always we hadmultiple guides on this show we
can't stress how important it isif you're going out fishing for
the first time, especially inuncharted waters, whether you're

(37:22):
on Lake Ontario or a smallerlake like Scugog, go with
somebody that knows what they'redoing, because it's going to
enhance your knowledge and it'sgoing to probably enhance your
trip overall, because you'regoing to be productive and
you're just going to learn.
It's all.
Learning is learning, notcatching is learning, and I say
that every fish not landed is anopportunity to learn from the

(37:46):
mistake and to land the nexttime, and that's what do you
know what he did?

Speaker 2 (37:50):
this is funny.
Do you know what the guy, whathis thing was?
So when we, when we got thefirst, uh, you know what ewan's
favorite bit was?
When he clobbered the fish inthe head?
Oh my God, he's like, hey, he'slike dad.
Can I do that?

Speaker 4 (38:03):
I'm like no, just let the guy do what he's putting
out of his misery.

Speaker 2 (38:06):
The fish is there and we're oh, let's take photos,
take photos.
It's like there's plenty oftime for photos.
You know, when your rod's notin the water you're not catching
fish catching fish.

Speaker 4 (38:19):
So you always make sure you put the you know the
line back in before you take thephotos.
That's amazing.

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How did a small-town sheetmetal mechanic come to build one
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I'm your host, steve Nitzwicky,and you'll find out about that
and a whole lot more on theOutdoor Journal Radio Network's
newest podcast, diaries of aLodge Owner.
But this podcast will be morethan that.

(39:40):
Every week on Diaries of aLodge Owner, I'm going to
introduce you to a ton of greatpeople, share their stories of
our trials, tribulations andinspirations, learn and have
plenty of laughs along the way.

Speaker 5 (39:54):
Meanwhile we're sitting there bobbing along
trying to figure out how tocatch a bass and we both decided
one day we were going to be ontelevision doing a fishing show.

Speaker 3 (40:04):
My hands get sore a little bit when I'm reeling in
all those bass in the summertime, but that might be for more
fishing than it was punching youso confidently you said hey,
pat, have you ever eaten a drum?
Find Diaries of a Lodge Ownernow on Spotify, apple Podcasts
or wherever you get your podcast.

Speaker 4 (40:25):
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(40:46):
Go under contests, underproduct code.
You want to put smoky, goodluck.
Now back to the episode.

Speaker 2 (40:54):
A question that I get a lot and you could maybe
answer yeah, is fish in LakeOntario safe to eat?
You know how many people ask methat.
Janice asked me that.

Speaker 4 (41:06):
Well, we've had fan questions like that, like crazy,
and yes, they are.
In fact we had Jay Negleon, whoyou know as well, jay Deutch,
who is an insane Lake Ontariofisherman Like this guy's out
every single night and basicallyhe told me at the Sportsman

(41:26):
Show we had him on the show,he's also with Team Garmin Pro
Staff and he helped Daniel and Iwith our boat when we were
getting all of our electronicsset up Did a great job.
And when we had Jay on, one ofthe topics we did was freshwater
fish eating out of Lake Ontarioand he told me that it is

(41:50):
actually incredible and thatpeople are misconsumed.
And here's a crazy thing, craig, it has a real misconception.
It does?
Is it because of the?

Speaker 2 (42:00):
nuclear plant man?
No, that's leaking stuff intothe.

Speaker 4 (42:03):
Mercury levels, blah, blah, blah.
Here's the thing.
There are a lot more zebramussels.
Again, I'm not a scientist, sopeople listening, don't take my
word for shit.
I'm just telling you from myown experience and from what I
hear.
Okay, I'm not Gord Peiser, I'mnot the doc, but I will tell you
this.
The zebra mussels are up inLake Ontario and I've been
talking to people about this andthat helps filter out the water

(42:25):
, cleaning the water.
A lot of those big plants outby the Port Credit area have
been cleaned out, knocked outnow for years.
Is the water getting cleaner?
I don't know.
I heard back when I was a kidnever even to swim in Lake
Ontario.
But you're catching these fishin the blue zone.
We'll call it the blue zone.
100 feet of water, okay, Coldtemperatures.

(42:46):
I know people that have riggers.
When they set their downriggers down, you get two
different water temperatures.
You get the surface temperature, which could be in the 70s, and
then you can be at 100 feet ofwater and be in like 50s and 60s
.
Again, don't take my word forit, I don't troll much, but
that's a big temperaturedecrease and colder water
produces better tasting fish.

(43:07):
You know, they always say youknow, fish that are in the flats
and fish that are sitting inwarmer water are always going to
taste fishier.
These are all the wives' talesthat we hear Now also, one thing
I will say is you know what arefish eating?
What are they eating in LakeOntario?
Well, I could tell you exactlywhat they're eating.
They're feeding on herring.
They're eating live fish.

(43:27):
They're eating very healthy.

Speaker 2 (43:29):
You're absolutely right, because I asked the guy.
I said how come the rainbowtrout here are so big?

Speaker 4 (43:35):
And he said it's a food chain.
It's a food chain man.
They're eating well.
So, yeah, absolutely, the foodis good, the fish is good in
Lake Ontario and I can't waitfor you to eat that, because I'm
going to tell you it might besome of the best salmon that
you've ever had, according toDooch and you know, you know
what I'll eat it, and then I'llget some blood work done in a
month or so crazy thing was iswe had a guest on at the show as

(43:57):
well who, um, had a problemwith high mercury levels.
In fact he was hospitalized, andthat was because he ate too
much walleye up north and thethe water was so highly
contaminated from the treestrees that were falling into the
lake.
Again, I'm not a scientist.
I don't remember I'd have tolook back at the episode and and
really catch what he was saying, because I was so in, like I

(44:19):
was so blown away by you.
Know, in order to actually feelsick or to for it to cause any
damage, craig, I believe youhave to consume a lot of fish.

Speaker 2 (44:32):
It's like everything yeah.
You freeze everything inmoderation.

Speaker 4 (44:34):
Exactly Like I think you have to consume a shitload
of fish to you know that iscontaining high mercury levels
for it to affect you, but foryou to consume your fish that
you went out with your son,caught at Fresh Lake Ontario,
looked great.
The pin bones were thick, whichis unusual from what we see all
the time from the fish that wepurchased.

(44:56):
But I'm excited for you to trythis and I can't wait for you to
tell people um what theexperience was like and get your
wife's honest opinion.
She's always she's always oneof our critics with our food.

Speaker 2 (45:06):
She loves salmon.
I'm going to barbecue ittonight and, uh, maybe smoke
some of it.
It's going to be.
I mean, I got it so much salmon, I cut up two.

Speaker 4 (45:15):
So that's awesome, we got enough salmon for the
summer.
Well, listen, man, I'm excitedfor you to get that going.
We're going to wrap up veryshortly.
Just a few more things I wantto touch on before I get you off
.
An important thing that's goingon right now in our industry we
are popping, we're at the maxhere at Gourmet Craft and

(45:37):
Catering and you know I want totalk to you about the negative
side of our industry, and thisis going to relate to a lot of
questions that we are getting aswell on our Instagram.
Also, if you want to email usat theeatingwellpodcast at

(45:59):
gmailcom, if you want to emailus at theeatingwellpodcast at
gmailcom Negativity in thekitchen opposed to negativity on
the floor, and I'm going totell you.
I want to ask you about both.
So when I say negativity in thekitchen, I had a guy reach out
to us and say Smash, I'm workingin a kitchen, it's my dream job
, but everyone that I'm workingin a kitchen it's my dream job,

(46:21):
but everyone that I'm workingwith is miserable.
Does that affect the way thefood comes out of the kitchen
and does it affect the way youwould cook on your everyday
working schedule?
Let's talk about that first,craig.

Speaker 2 (46:36):
So I never used to believe this phrase.
I always used to think it waspile of shit.
But when people used to say Ican feel the love in the food
when they eat it, I used to saywhatever.
But it's absolutely true, andwe are very fortunate enough to
have a group of people here thathave great chemistry with each

(46:57):
other, gel well together andactually like each other.
Yeah, I agree, the first timein 14 years that has happened I
mean, it's the first time in 14years you invited them all to
your place, yeah, so for you todo that that goes to show.

Speaker 4 (47:11):
We haven't had Christmas parties or gatherings
or anything, because there wasalways somebody who had a
problem with somebody at theshop, and this is normal, it's
not unnormal.

Speaker 2 (47:21):
Oh, this is normal.
This is normal in kitchens.
This is what happens.
When you have one person who'slike a bad apple, say, it can be
like a cancer.
It can spread negativitythroughout the kitchen.
So you don't want that.
It can spread negativitythroughout the kitchen.
So you don't want that.
And we're working in closeproximity with each other every

(47:43):
day for long periods of the day.
We see each other more than wesee our families for the most
part.
So in order for that to happen,you have to have good chemistry
and a lot of it's a lot ofthings.
Chemistry is the main thing,and it's one thing that a lot of
people don't understand.
Chemistry is the main thing,and it's one thing that a lot of
people don't understand.
For now we will look at aperson's personality and their

(48:05):
work ethic over their cookingexperience.
Exactly Right, it's just howwe've learned throughout the
years.
Chefs older chefs that come in.
They're set in their ways.

Speaker 4 (48:20):
For the most part they're miserable, Usually
alcoholics or they come with alittle bit of baggage.

Speaker 2 (48:24):
They come with baggage.
They're set in their ways.
Why do you know, I do it likethis, whereas now we're like the
man United.
We're like Sir Alex Fergusonwhen he set up his man United
Youth Training Academy.
Yeah, we are the academy.
That's how we see our place now.
We're getting in young talent,for the most part, no cooking
experience.

(48:45):
We're teaching them everythingthat they need to know.
They have good work ethic, goodpersonalities, they blend well
with everyone else.

Speaker 4 (48:54):
And now we're probably in 14 years the best
we've been and it's funny yousaid with the experience, the
lack of experience, and we'renot putting ourselves on a
pedestal here.
All we're doing is teachingthem.
What we learned didn't work.
We made the mistakes, right, wemade the mistakes.
So now we're teaching them theright way from the beginning and

(49:18):
it's like we've made thesemistakes and again you go back
to chefs that come in and say no, no, no, I do it this way.
Well, guess what?
That way doesn't work, becauseI know it doesn't work, because
it's failed right in front of myface.
So it's almost like the newtalent or the new people that
are coming in through ouracademy now really invest
themselves into us and it'salmost like you're Alex Ferguson

(49:41):
.
You're passing the knowledgedown.
Sometimes you're tough onpeople.
You have to be tough on peoplein the kitchen, but, to answer
the question that came in,getting rid of any kind of
negativity and any kind of dramais just going to make it a

(50:02):
safer, healthy workingenvironment at any job and the
food will be better.

Speaker 2 (50:07):
Food will be better, it's just, it's proven.

Speaker 4 (50:11):
And that was a great question and there is another
part to this question, the otherpart of the question.
I'm going to give you my answeras well, but I want to hear
your answer.
The other part of the questionis if you do have negativity
coming back from the dining roomand in our case it's not the
dining room, it's the lunchroomand it's you know, 5% of your

(50:31):
dining room is coming back withsomething negative about the
food, how do you respond to thatand how do you teach your team
to cope with it?

Speaker 2 (50:43):
Yeah, that's a difficult one because we care so
much about what we do.
Any negative comment you justtake so personally and you try
your best not to, because you'renever going to, you are never
going to please everybody.
It's just impossible.
It's human nature.
There's going to be that threeto 5% of people that won't be

(51:08):
happy.
You have professionalcomplainers out there or people
who maybe they don't care aboutfood so much or I don't know
what it is, or maybe our styledoesn't suit them.
They like meat and potatoes.
We try and venture out and do alot of different cuisines
because we're feeding the samepeople for such a long time.
But we always say our job is athankless job really and all you

(51:35):
got to do really is you have totake these complaints seriously
.
You hear what they say, eventhough in your head you might
think it's a pile of shit, butyou have to address them and
please them.
We have to try and pleaseeverybody.

Speaker 4 (51:50):
We have to To answer that question.
It's a great question.
Thanks for emailing that one in, jennifer.
Her name was Jennifer.
She didn't say her last name.
She didn't say where she wasfrom, she said Jennifer.
The only thing I could sayabout that is don't take it
personally, take itprofessionally.

(52:12):
That comes from Gordon Ramsey'smouth.
I've showed you that clip.
I had to learn that because myweekends have been ruined,
absolutely ruined.
Oh, absolutely ruined.
In fact it was ruined last weekall because of one guy who had
a problem that we didn't havetofu.
And we can get into that, butit's a long story.

Speaker 2 (52:31):
But basically, Tell them about the phone call just
before we did this podcast.

Speaker 4 (52:35):
Oh, Jesus, like.
I got a phone call about 15minutes ago and Hooks at Mart's,
he's in on this too becausehe's part of the and you got the
crew rep calling us from.
You know, I'm not even going tosay the show that we're working
on, because it's a pretty bigshow and he's like you know,
antonio, I've known you a longtime and you know you guys are
starting to slip and blah, likewhat, like, what are you talking

(52:57):
about?
Yeah, you know, the craft truck, which is what Dan's running
right now, had rotten vegetableson it and blah, blah, blah,
blah and just going crazy.
And you know I'm taking it, I'mtaking it all in and I'm trying
to figure out.
Like, okay, what did Craig sayto me after I hung up the phone
and I was rattled?
Is this just him complaining?

Speaker 2 (53:22):
complaining, or is he complaining on behalf of 20, 30
, 40 people?
I don't know.
So you're immediate,immediately you panic, we're
like, oh my god, we're, we'regonna lose the show.
But is that?
And then, remember, he said toyou but don't tell anyone, to
just keep this between me andyou.
And so I'm like are you talkingfor yourself or are you talking
for you know, five, yeah, likeyou said, five, ten people, but
it just throws you for a loop.

Speaker 4 (53:40):
It throws you for a loop and you can't.
And again I'm going toreiterate a quote from Gordon
Ramsay you can't, pleaseeverybody, fuck it.
It doesn't exist.
Those are from Gordon Ramsay'smouth and it doesn't exist.
You put a hundred people in aroom, craig me, and you put

(54:01):
together a menu.
You put together one menu, Iput together one menu.
I can guarantee you there willbe one or two people in that
room, which is pretty good.
We have a pretty good successrate because we are we're in the
nineties.
I could tell you that right now, and usually the vegans were at
a hundred percent, unless youforget something, which is an
honest mistake and that's why weget verbally abused.

(54:22):
You know it just doesn't exist.
It doesn't Like you ever go outto a restaurant with that one
person who just naturallycomplains and sends something
back to the kitchen.
I know a few of those peopleand it drives me crazy because
I'm the other.
I'm that person who's on theother end and it drives me crazy
because I'm the other.
I'm that person who's on theother end and okay, fine, you
know your steak might not be ahundred percent cooked at

(54:45):
medium-rare, but it's got atouch of pink to it and you know
I'm gonna eat it, I'm not gonnacomplain about it.
But there are those people thatare gonna throw that back a
million times over because it'sgot to be absolutely perfect,
because it's their hard-earningdollar and they want it to be
absolutely perfect.
Because it's their hard earningdollar and they want it to be
perfect.
Well, guess what people?
It doesn't exist.
If you go to the keg or you goto a five-star restaurant every

(55:09):
single day of the week, there'sgoing to one day of that week.
That steak isn't going to beperfect.
I can tell you that 100%.
It's human nature.
It exists.
Us, on the other end, we got totake it professionally, not
personally.
We got to learn that ourselves.
Craig, we really do and we'reteaching it.
We're preaching it as well.
And Jennifer, great question.

(55:30):
And if you follow my advice,craig's advice, these are people
that cook for thousands ofpeople and I say thousands upon
thousands of people per month,and we go from being on movie
sets to backyard barbecues, toweddings, to cultural events, to

(55:52):
religious events.
You name it.
We've cooked for it.
Please drop me a question onInstagram Showtime Johnson's on
the other end, we will answeryour question.
To the best of our knowledge,we're not professionals here.
I'm not saying that everythingI'm saying on this podcast is
the way it should be.
Absolutely not, craig.

(56:12):
You know how many times does achef walk up to me and you and
they ask us to taste the exactsame thing and you and I have a
different opinion?
Yeah, almost every day.
You'll say it needs salt.
I'll say it needs to be cookedlonger.
You'll say you know, why don'tyou add this?
I'll say why don't you add that?
So the point I'm trying to makeis everyone in the kitchen is

(56:34):
going to be different.

Speaker 2 (56:35):
It's all personal preference too.

Speaker 4 (56:38):
Personal preference, and I'm going to say this too.
I mean.

Speaker 2 (56:41):
For the most part, though, we know when something
tastes good and when it tastesbad.

Speaker 4 (56:44):
Trial and error, trial and error and have fun.
Man, the kitchen you're anartist.
You know what I mean.
A cutting board is a blankcanvas.
Use it, paint your picture,send us the picture.
I want to talk about it.
Craig, I got to say thanks forjoining us today.
People are always emailing usin asking when you're going to
join us again.

(57:05):
They love hearing you and whatyou're doing.
The next time we have you on,we're going to talk about your
salmon, yes, and I can't wait tohear how that's going to turn
out, because you're going totell the truth and that's what
we love about it.
You're going to tell us if itwas good, if it was bad, what
your wife thought, what yourkids thought, and we're going to
re-alliterate it on the podcastand can't wait.
And thanks for stopping by.

(57:25):
Yeah, no problem, I'll try andget in a bit more fishing too so
I can feel like I know what I'mtalking about Exactly Well,
thanks a lot for joining.
I'm going to do, uh, some quickhousekeeping here, folks, uh,
as craig leaves the studio.
Uh, one thing I gotta mention,if you haven't heard, we have a

(57:46):
amazing giveaway this month,just in time for the summer.
We are giving away an amazingtraeger smoker.
Uh, you need to listen to thisepisode somewhere in this
episode, we gave away a bonuscode.
You're going to use that bonuscode on the Fish and Canada
website.
That's going to give you ahundred more entries.

(58:06):
Okay, you got to go on the Fishand Canada website.
You got a punch in contest.
Go under eating wild.
You're going to see the Traeger.
We're going to run this contestall month long during the
summer and I hope somebody winsthis beauty.
I would love to have thiscontest all month long during
the summer and I hope somebodywins this beauty.
I would love to have this in mybackyard.
Um, I can't even tell you whatit retails at it's.

(58:27):
Uh, it's it's.
I could tell you one thing it'sone of a kind, it's beautiful.
And listen to our episodescoming up.
It's very important.
We will have a bonus codehidden in each episode for the
next month.
Sign up, use that bonus code.
It's going to give you 100 freeentries and I hope you win the
Traeger on the Eating Wildpodcast Also, guys, one more

(58:49):
thing before I let you go, whichis really important for us drop
us a comment on Apple Spotify,wherever you get your podcast,
on Apple Spotify, wherever youget your podcast.
That, guys, is how we get andcollect data for our show, and
it's so important to us.
Whether it's good, it could benegative, we don't care.
We want to know what you thinkof the podcast.

(59:11):
Leave us a comment.
It just helps us.
You know, grow with Hooks atMartin's Top Dog Prayer Showtime
.
John, the guys couldn't be herethis week, but we're out there.
We're creating content for you,guys, every day.
We're building stories andmemories and we can't wait to
share them with you every singleweek.
Drop us on a line throughInstagram or at

(59:33):
theeatingwildpodcast at gmailcom.
This is Antonio Smash Maleca.
We're checking out for anotherweek here on the Eating Wild
podcast Tune in next week, whenwe have a special guest and the
Foreskins will be live at studio.
Ciao, march, the boats on thebig old blue.

Speaker 2 (59:53):
Today.
We've got the stars lined up.
They're coming out ready toplay.
It won't be long they'll bepulling our fish.

Speaker 5 (01:00:06):
And we'll be serving them their favorite dish.
All the feeling screaming reelson fishing fire.