Plumluvfoods on WICC EP 31 Anna Zap from the nationally syndicated Anna and Raven show

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Come in and installing a world of sound. Chef one
on the mic making hearts doown, Jeff Jeff Brown.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
A shotguns my Soul, Chef dead in the background, making
newte be found, talk Girls, the Fees, they must down
any night, The Till and the Conversation, Son, the Daylight
from Bull Meat Dishes, the Street, boostal Tides, These Jeff

(00:35):
Springs Mud Till Guys to.

Speaker 1 (00:38):
It soon and podcast for a Chess, get bed, got Me, suck.

Speaker 3 (00:46):
You off, Forget Tring, conversation, Song on the Fast, say
sound any none sheef, fun and the list and rest.

Speaker 1 (01:01):
What's going on? Everybody? Happy Saturday to you. I hope
you're doing well and I've had a fantastic week. Welcome
to Plumber Foods right on Wicce, the Voice of Connecticut
s the boy Chef Plumb and joined as always here
by the wonderful, the magnanimous, the very I don't know
what kind of hat I would call that you're wearing,
Jeffy Chef. Jeffy's with us here. He's wearing a very
funny colored hat.

Speaker 4 (01:21):
First of all, I'm wearing an amazing hat my mom
knitted for me. Oh wow, And she doesn't understand that
I'm not an Easter egg. So she puts some pink
and green and this is a Christmas hat.

Speaker 1 (01:34):
Believe it or not, it seems a little upsetting that
she would buy you that or make you that hat,
Like if all things she could make, she decides to
give you that, Like does she forget about you this Christmas?
And said, oh, I gotta make Jeff's something quick. No,
you know, she just doesn't. I don't know.

Speaker 4 (01:45):
Like I asked for red golden green because I like
Rosta colors, and she made me a rainbow hat.

Speaker 1 (01:50):
Red golden green because I like roster colors. That she
even knows what that means? My mom, she should all right, Well,
fair enough, Jeffy. You know, in my life, radio has
been a big part of my life, my entire life.
I've been a big radio fan from when I was younger.
To listen to some of these big shows like Opie
and Anthony and Ron and Fez and just it became

(02:11):
something more listening to the radio as supposed even watching television.
For me. I love radio, I always have and you've
you and I have talked about this quite a bit
at length. Definitely, Well, I've become luckily have become friendly
with a very large name in radio, someone who I
hold in very very high regard, who has taught me
a bunch. Sometimes I agree, sometimes I disagree, but it's

(02:32):
hard to disagree with someone who's in sixty four different
markets and I am not Yeah yeah, yeah, and years
of experience right right right. However, I am a better
cook than she is, so that's good news, hands down
better cook. So yeah, So our guest here in just
a few minutes, We've got Anna Zap joining us, which
is gonna be really fun. I'll tell you why, because
here's the thing we talk about this show, and you
wonder sometimes you get these guests on like how does

(02:53):
this make sense? Well, when you work in a kitchen
on a line, the conversations you have run the gamut
of all kindskinds of things. Jeff, you could tell them
like we could talk anything. Yeah, we talk about ghosts,
you could talk you just talk about everything. Kind of
that's what happens.

Speaker 4 (03:06):
That's kind of what the show family, kids, religion, Uh,
you know, current topics, different recipes.

Speaker 1 (03:11):
You graduate. The show spawned from was those conversations, which
is what makes it fun. And of course Anna does
have some some some link back to the industry, as
her father's in the industry and she grew up in it,
so it kind of makes an interesting It might explain
why sometimes she's a terrible person. Yeah, definitely, definitely.

Speaker 4 (03:25):
I think her horrible stream comes from restaurant raising, patly,
no doubt about it. Her fearlessness, her fearlessness to get
in there and shake it up.

Speaker 1 (03:34):
Wow, use the word feelss that sounds really nice. I'm
a big fan.

Speaker 4 (03:38):
I mean I've been a big fan since I'm going
to go way back to Elite Chef when we did
Elite Chef and it was a guest judge and me
and her got to hang out for all day and
I became a huge fan since then, and I heard
all about I'm excited to share the story because I'm like, yeah,
I definitely to share that grew up in restaurants and
then it all it all clicked for me.

Speaker 1 (03:54):
It all makes sense, right. Ah, Yeah, this is why
you can jibe with us. We're gonna jump to Annie
here and just stuck in, but just to get a
couple of things out there. Of course, you can follow
this show at plumb Love Foods on Instagram and of
course follow me at Chef on the score Plumb and
Jeffy at four King Chef on Instagram. Check us out
There a lot more information things going on. We' gon
have some contests coming up soon. Also, what else do

(04:15):
I have going on? Oh? So I have a I'm
doing a chef collad with our good brothers, Chef Pisade, Jeffie.
I'll tell you about this.

Speaker 4 (04:21):
You know about this, Yeah, of course I know about this.
I'm super excited. I'm trying to work it out in
my schedule so I can be there.

Speaker 1 (04:26):
Yeah, just I want you to come as a guest.

Speaker 4 (04:27):
That's what I'm trying to work it out in the schedule,
so me and my wife can come and we can
and enjoy the food.

Speaker 1 (04:31):
And I'm a big fan of Persad.

Speaker 4 (04:33):
I just met him on this show and just what
a magnanimous the huge amount of energy, such a positive guy.
So I'm excited to see what you guys cook up together. Yeah, Thursday,
March twentieth at six thirty. That's where tickets, that's what
really the event's gonna happen. You can get tickets. Just
check out out on Instagram. We're going to post it
and put stuff out there.

Speaker 1 (04:50):
We'll do a giveaway for it too, I'm sure, but
it's gonna be a great dinner. Forsad myself. We're very
It's funny you think about our styles of food and
jeff you know my food very very well. It sounds
far heart but it's not really well.

Speaker 4 (05:03):
So, I mean, if we take down borders and we
take down walls and we just look at technique, right,
all the techniques in food are pretty much the same.

Speaker 1 (05:12):
Wow, you just said we use the same words like a,
the is and and that makes us the same.

Speaker 4 (05:19):
No, I'm saying that there's certain techniques like basic of
cooking is you need fire like heat right to cook.

Speaker 1 (05:25):
Here we're going again. You're doing it again. This just
hurts my feelings. See, I thought we would be connecting here.
You're like, yeah, you know what, plum, you got a
wide your palate's very great. Give a wide array of
spices in your mind, and how to make different types
of food and make it all like all food connects
to each other because it's it's the basic, you know,
just technically food. You just can't say one thing nice

(05:46):
about me. Well, I mean, you look great today, Oh,
for god sake, Jeffrey, this is I don't even know
what it's thinking about this joining us right now? It
make sure you check u out. It's gonna be a
great event. Thursday, March twentieth at six thirty pm. It's
gonna be a great event. Check us ot on Instagram
for more information. Our guest joining us right now. She
is a legend in Connecticut radio. She's been around the block.

(06:07):
She's done so much when it comes to this. She's
now available in over sixty markets. One of the best
shows you'll hear in the morning. It's a safe show,
but that's it, but somehow still very very fun. I
got to co host this past week on Monday with her,
one of my close friends. A great human being and
in a way a radio mentor. Is that a thing
I can say that Jeffy right, Is that we're just
saying yeah, absolutely, ladies and gentlemen, the legendary Anna Zati

(06:30):
here wo.

Speaker 5 (06:33):
Mentor. I was like radio radio, queen radio. I gotta
think about it.

Speaker 1 (06:37):
But that's what Jeff calls me sometimes, but that's a
different name. I don't want to give it away. He
get mad at me. Anna, Thanks for hanging out with us.

Speaker 5 (06:42):
Thank you. Where's the event you plugged, the time you plugged,
the date you didn't say, where was it going to be?

Speaker 1 (06:47):
That's the fun part.

Speaker 5 (06:48):
That's why I gotta go to Instagram now.

Speaker 1 (06:50):
Yeah, yeah, it's at Chef Prosad. You go Chef Prasad.
He after he calls his building, and I should have
said that Chef prosos see exactly. That's how you catch
me boom. You see that mentorship.

Speaker 5 (07:00):
That's why radio works is like you always have to
make sure you're getting all the information out. So I
heard that, I'm like, where am I going? Where am
I going to? This delicious meal? Where am I incredible shops?

Speaker 1 (07:09):
It's the beginning of a plug. How about that? That's
how I start. I get it. I start parts of
it now. The next week will give more, the next
week give a little bit more and just goes on.
You stay tuned, you get all of it eventually. That's
how it works. See, this is why you are the
boss lady and I'm not. Which is funny. I see
on your on your uh your name that you've got
there because obviously you guys know we do these interviews
via video. You have Boss Lady, there is that just

(07:30):
like the Boss lay at your house? Is that what
you insist your kids call you? Where that come from? No?

Speaker 5 (07:33):
I well, you know, it's so weird when you log
onto these things. It always says like put your title.
And I always had a hard time with what's my title?
AM my radio show host? Am my co host? And
my I don't know? So I figure boss lady seems
to just make sense and make me feel better about myself.

Speaker 1 (07:49):
I mean, do you have an actual title now at
Connoisseur or I mean, are you just like, you know,
host of the Ana and Raven Show or do you?

Speaker 5 (07:55):
Yeah, I'm I'm host of the Ana and Raven Show. Yeah,
I know that's I founding right, bossly.

Speaker 1 (08:01):
Yeah, it really does, then, it really does. I agree.
I agree completely, And how like long have you been
working in radio?

Speaker 5 (08:07):
Now? It's actually this is going to be fifteen years
of the Ana and Raven Show and putting contend And
I wasn't always the An On Raven Show. The first
few years. I had a couple of different co hosts.
I like to kill them off one by one. So okay,
they you know, slowly, but surely they start, you know, great,
and then they fade off and nobody knows where their
bodies are going to be found. And that's that's kind

(08:30):
of how it works. But I've been with Raven for
about ten years now, so and.

Speaker 1 (08:34):
I mean, people, we hear you on the air, and
you guys, you know, you have good chemistry, You're good
at talking, you go back and forth. It's fantastic. Is
that a relationship? Is a good off air? Do you
guys hang out together and our besties and you always
send pictures of like, you know, hey, look at the
French braid I've put in my daughter's hair, Like, is
it that kind of relationship?

Speaker 5 (08:50):
No, it's it's well, it's interesting because it's I always say,
having a co host like Raven is having like the
big annoying brother that you never wanted and you've never
asked for. So in a lot of ways, like it's
a great relationship when you're with somebody for ten hours
a day in a studio and it's just the two

(09:12):
of you, you learn a lot about yourselves. But the
truth of the matter is is that once you leave
that studio. I mean, we text, but I'm not going
to text him to be like, hey, what are you
eating for dinner? Like that that kind of relationship. And
people always laugh when I say that we've never been
to each other's houses. So I've never been a Raven's house.
He's never been to my house. But you know, it's
a relationship that's been ten years in the making.

Speaker 1 (09:35):
That makes sense though, I mean, you spend a lot
of time with somebody, you know, I get listen, Jeff
and I have a much different level of when he's
my platonic life partner. We talk several times a day
just the way it goes, I mean, you know, and
then we do.

Speaker 4 (09:45):
This, so it started differently. It wasn't just radio. And
we don't spend ten hours together. Have we spent ten
hours together side by side, we probably wouldn't talk. We have,
we have, but it's like once in a while, but
like every single day. It just reminds me of being
on the line, like your sous chef, your right hand man,
on the line. You spend you know, twelve hours a
day with that person. You might never stalk to that

(10:05):
person after work again, like there's not work related, Like
you've already you've already said everything you can possibly say
to this person in that amount of time.

Speaker 5 (10:13):
Right, It's like, well, you get to the point where
you could read each other's facial expressions. You know, there's
no secrets. When you've got to go to the bathroom,
you have to be completely honest and open because there's
a clock ticking. Let me know when that next break
is coming, you know. So there's a lot of communication
in that ten hours too. There's not a lot of
quiet time. So when you walk out the studio door,

(10:33):
you're like, all.

Speaker 1 (10:34):
Right, see you tomorrow, I mean, and you guys get
to work. I jokingly used to tell you, you guys
go to work when it's still last night for us,
and then then it's literally still last night when you
go to work and joke and then you're like, oh, yeah, great,
why don't you come co host just me one day?
And I'm like, oh, I guess we're gonna go work
here at nighttime. But how does that schedule affect you?
I mean, does your whole life just kind of shift

(10:55):
a few hours ahead but before everyone else? Like are
you having dinner at like four thirty? You know, are
you going to bed like at eight o'clock?

Speaker 2 (11:01):
Like?

Speaker 1 (11:01):
How does that change your life? And how does that
work with the other life, with your rest of your family?

Speaker 5 (11:05):
Yeah, So it's it's definitely takes some take getting used
to it. I always say, you never get used to it,
but you get accustomed to it, because it's not normal
to be done with your day at eight o'clock at
night there, but that's what time I got to get
in bed because that alarm is going to go off
at three thirty. And there's some people, and there's some
radio people who always say, oh, I can I run

(11:25):
on three four hours of sleep. I can't run on
three four hours of sleep. I'm a disaster, Like I
need to get my solid night sleep. So it's a
lot of sacrifice for my family. I go to bed
with my six year old. We go to bed together.
I don't know what time my high schooler goes to bed.
I assume she goes at some point, but that's out
of my hands, you know, right. So it's it's definitely

(11:45):
getting some used to and it stinks kind of on
the weekends, like when your friends want to go out
to dinner and they say, oh, we made a nine
o'clock reservation and you're like, what and what do we
what are we twenty years old? We're gonna go on
at nine o'clock? At night and then they'll say like,
you know, we're going to this restaurant and be like,
that's all the way across town. They don't even have
a parking lot.

Speaker 1 (12:04):
How are we you know, I don't even have a
parking lot.

Speaker 5 (12:09):
Parking are you crazy? You know? So it definitely adjusts
the way that you you live your life in a
lot of ways.

Speaker 1 (12:15):
So when you go on things like a vacation or
something like that, you know, and you kind of get
do you do you still try to keep that early bedtime,
keep that schedule because I mean, a few days of
not being in it, it's hard to get back into it.
I would assume, yeah, you know, you just.

Speaker 5 (12:28):
Kind of got to go with the flow. It depends
on what everybody's doing. But sometimes it's just it's just
time to go to bed, even if you're having a
good time and it's getting late, because that's the life
that you've chosen in.

Speaker 1 (12:38):
That it is what it is, So you you have
some not only do this in the bits of us.
When I make your cook foods, it's not good, but no,
if you do a fine job. I'm just kidding. Although
I'll never forget the rice in the bag thing. That
that still kind of haunts me to this day. Where
we did an event and yeah, well we did an
event and Anna had me come hang out while they

(12:58):
were working with some sponsor or something or other, and
she had to cook and one of the things she
had to make was rice to go with a dish.
I'm not sure any can if I messing the soubf
yout can tell me. I mean, don't need all the details.
But and she goes to make the rice and she
pulls out this bag of rice in a plastic bag.

Speaker 5 (13:12):
I still don't know why you're mad.

Speaker 1 (13:13):
And I couldn't get an entire bag in the boiling water.
I'm like, what are we doing? Oh uncle ben? Bag
of rice?

Speaker 5 (13:19):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (13:19):
I mean.

Speaker 5 (13:21):
Right, But if they made it convenient and it comes
in a bag, why am I so mad at the bag?

Speaker 1 (13:26):
How is that more convenient? Just put the damn rice
into the boiling water and be done with it, because I.

Speaker 5 (13:31):
Need to get a stir it. You don't got a
stirred if it's in the bag.

Speaker 1 (13:35):
Jeff, somehows agrees with you. I don't get it.

Speaker 4 (13:36):
I'm just saying, like, listen, I know it's not the
healthiest rice in the world. But bag of rice comes
out good every time.

Speaker 5 (13:42):
It's yeah, messed it up, and I've messed up a
lot of things, as you know.

Speaker 1 (13:46):
Plum uh yeah, yeah, yeah, Well it's pretty funny. But
you grew up in the in the restaurant business because
your dad he works in the business, right.

Speaker 5 (13:53):
Yeah. So my parents immigrated here from Italy and my
dad came over when he was he had just finished
eighth grade in Italy, so that was as far as
his education went. And I always say that my dad
is one of the smartest men you'll ever meet in
your entire lifetime. And if he had had the opportunities
when he came to America to continue school, who knows
where he would be right now. But he came over

(14:15):
and like most people that immigrate from Italy, like they
have businesses that are kind of already set up. There's
family here that is doing a certain business. And for
my dad's family, he had cousins and uncles that were
operating pizza restaurants. So it's not like he had this
great passion to be a pizza man. But he came
here and it was eighth finished eighth grade, he was
what fourteen years old, and they said, Okay, you're going

(14:38):
to be a pizza man. So he started at this
place in Stratford, which I believe was called Jerry Shakespeare
if I'm ready, if I'm remembering correctly.

Speaker 1 (14:47):
Though, Jerry Shakespeare.

Speaker 5 (14:49):
Okay, that's where he learned how to make pizza. And
then you know, he met my mom and they got
married young and next thing you know, he was opening
up his own pizza rha. And I was I always say,
I'm a restaurant kid. And if you're a restaurant kid,
you know what that means, because you grew up on
Friday and Saturday nights sleeping on pizza boxes in the
back room till it was time to go, you know,
go to bed. You learned how to make the salads

(15:12):
because you would work the salad bar when you were
like nine, you know, like things like that. So I
was a true restaurant kid. Through and through. I grew
up in the restaurant business.

Speaker 1 (15:20):
Did it make you hate it?

Speaker 5 (15:23):
It didn't make me hate it, But I knew my
dad never wanted that lifestyle for us, for me, my brother,
and my sister. There were many many birthdays where my
dad wasn't there. You know, he had to work at
your restaurant. He always jokes with my mom that the
one thing he said was don't have her on a
Saturday night. And I was born on a Saturday night.
You know. He made it by the skin of his

(15:44):
teeth to see me get delivered at the hospital. It's
a hard life, as you guys know, it is a
hard life. You talk about my hours being tough early,
but it's a late night. So when you have a family,
a lot of times there's a lot of sacrifices that
go along with that. So my dad didn't want that
lifestyle for us, and ironically none of us went into it.

(16:07):
Me and my brother and my sister, none of us
are are restaurant kids. And every once in a while,
I'll say, you know what, why don't I just take
over one of the restaurants, And then I think about it.
I'm like, you know what, my dad works a lot
harder than I did, and that's for sure, and it's
a physically demanding job on top of being a thankless job.
So I'll stick on radio where I could sit in

(16:27):
my cozy chair.

Speaker 1 (16:28):
Oh you still work really hard on radio two. I'm like,
let you downplay that, But see working doing a piece
of restaurant. So your dad you mentioned like being nine
years old and working in the sound station, did he
make you work in there a lot? And now does
he try to get your kids to come work?

Speaker 5 (16:44):
Actually he hated my older one's she's going to be
sixteen next month. He's asked her a bazillion times to
come work at the restaurant. Come work at the restaurant.
She doesn't want to work at the restaurants. She's the
opposite where when I was young, I kind of thought
it was because my friends thought it was cool to
work in the pizza You would get free food, you
could give away free food. I've never paid for a

(17:06):
pizza of my life, you know, Like that is that
is a flex that I have, you know, but my
kids have no interest in it either. She won't do it.
My dad offered her twenty dollars an hour to dress
up like a pizza slice and dance outside on the
street to like get people to come in. She wouldn't
do it. I go twenty bucks an hour. I was like, Daddy,

(17:26):
give me, give me the costume an hour a pizza slice.

Speaker 1 (17:31):
You know, I was just thinking you said that in
Jeff perk up. He's like, I could use an extra money.
I was like, I could dance. I'm like a good
pizza slice, a large slice, it would be. It's a
large slice of pizza, that's for sure. So with so
you meet your husband and obviously you're in radio and
he's not your parents, I mean being I just know

(17:53):
how chefs are and we're very protective people. Like there
was he like who is this guy? What are we doing?
Or was it very friendly at first?

Speaker 5 (17:59):
Well, well, you know, you know, being a first generation,
you know, American kid, you didn't you didn't bring a
boy home unless that was going to be the boy.
That was a big deal. And so I remember the
first time I brought Paul home and we were college sweethearts,
so it was I was twenty years old and he

(18:21):
was probably twenty one or twenty two at the time.
And when I brought him home, they were very, very
wary of him. But here's the thing. Paul is strong
and my dad needs help lifting things a lot. So
at the restaurant all that, So I remember, like the
first time he was like, hey, Paul, come here, I
got something we got we gotta move. And once he
realized that one he eats a lot, which checked that

(18:44):
first box, and two he could carry heavy things. He
was like, all right, my daughter could marry this guy.
But when? But the funny part was is that you
know zap if you don't know, is short for Zapatowski.
My last name is Zapatowski. My husband Polish and when
my when he asked my father for permission to marry me,

(19:05):
he was like, but how do you feel about being
a sports Do you want to be a sports that
he desperately wanted for us to shake his name. Yeah,
but my husband, you know, stuck with guns on that.
So here we are.

Speaker 1 (19:17):
That's hilarious. I didn't know that story. It's pretty fun.
It's amazing. That's great and I get it too. Listen
when you run restaurants like that, Hey can you carry something?
Can you move things? Yeah? Come on here, we like it.
You're great. Be your friend for ten minutes. It's awesome.
That's too funny. Well, listen, and I think we got
about I don't know a minute for we got to
run a break here. But do you miss the restaurant
business at all? Do you ever want to go back
to it? Do you or see yourself in the future

(19:38):
kind of you know, I'm gonna get back into working
in that.

Speaker 5 (19:40):
Every once in a while it goes through my head.
But no, I mean I spent a lot of time
still in the restaurants. My dad still busts his butt
every day and works and you know, as you guys know,
it's thankless you show up, so especially when you're the boss.
So even like today where a couple guys called out
sick and today's supposed to be his day off, he's
at work.

Speaker 1 (19:58):
You know, he's there.

Speaker 5 (19:59):
So it's not something I want for myself. It's not
something I want for my kids either. So no, but
don't get me wrong. Bartender calls out or somebody calls out,
my dad will still call us, and we'll still go
in and work to this day, because that's what a
family business is, you know. And he'll remind me you
didn't pay for college. I pay for college. You can

(20:21):
come and you go work, and we do. He doesn't
ask often, but for a long hard to argue that,
hard to argue that.

Speaker 1 (20:27):
Ye oh geez, Okay, well I guess I'm going in.
That's fine. I feel like you never say the names
of your dad's restaurants you never say it. I feel
like you just don't say it. You've got so used
to not saying on air to not be like over promoting.

Speaker 5 (20:37):
But but well, you know, it's funny people ask me
all the time because I don't you know, he doesn't
pay for advertising, so you know, it's it's.

Speaker 1 (20:43):
Not like I weird hoes.

Speaker 5 (20:44):
Your dad for college, I know, but he owned Mario
the Baker in Stamford. Barri won sixty seven in Stamford
and vs. Forza in Westport was his for a long time.
My cousin Johnny took it over a couple of years
ago and he runs that as full time now. But
when you look at the building, if you've ever been

(21:05):
to Westport to vi As Forza, it's this beautiful building.
And I always say one of the things I'm most
proud of is that we built that building from scratch,
and so it's a beautiful, beautiful place. We had everything
sent from Italy in carts to Newark and so in containers.
It's very cool.

Speaker 1 (21:22):
That's fow cool, that's awesome. I had no idea all
this is parts. I feel like no one knows the
stuff about you. This is interesting to me. I don't know, Like,
listen to you in the morning. We feel like you're
your best friend, and then we don't know anything about you.
So this is great. We're joined by Anna Zach from
The Anna and Raven Show. Jeffy, where can we get
some more information on that?

Speaker 4 (21:37):
Well, if you want to get more on the End
and Raven Show, there's sixty four stations nationally that are
playing it, but locally you can check it on Star
ninety nine every day between five and ten am on weekdays.

Speaker 1 (21:47):
That's right, perfect show.

Speaker 4 (21:48):
So why don't you give her a follow on her Instagram?
Make the lady smile? Anna Zapp on air. Let's give
her that plumb Low Foods bump.

Speaker 1 (21:56):
There you go, and we're going to talk about her
Instagram here soon because got some funny content on there.
For sure, you're checking out Plumblove Foods right here on WYCC,
the Voice of the Connecticut stay right there, we'll be
right back CT Distilling Jeffy. Oh yeah, these guys are

(22:25):
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(22:48):
brewing into extraordinary spirits.

Speaker 4 (22:51):
Yep, with flavors like charred a whiskey that's aged on
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unique spirit distilled from it with a touch of hot flavor.
This spirit is fantastic on the rocks or mixed in
your favorite cocktail.

Speaker 1 (23:05):
Hey, and we can't forget that amazing espresso martini. Oh man,
we had that this year at the Sunlin and Food Festival,
and it's addictively good. Like John Mayer's song Good.

Speaker 4 (23:15):
I mean, I think it's probably better than that dude
Okay White Snakes song Good.

Speaker 1 (23:20):
Well, either way, it's really amazing. All right, Fine, we
at least we agree. Yep. Connecticut Distilling twenty sixty six
thomasin Avenue and Waterbury, Connecticut. Here I go again. You
can go to CT Distilling coo dot com for more
info on the road. Anna Zample Rao lass room, but

(24:00):
she let it go from teaching kids to cracking jokes
every morning.

Speaker 5 (24:06):
She likes up folks.

Speaker 1 (24:08):
Who was an English teacher full of grace. Now she's
got a much louder place. From schoolbell range to radio beats.
She's walking away quick. Quin Streams.

Speaker 3 (24:25):
Show Star is watching the same. She's queen and ye
shine in.

Speaker 1 (24:49):
Plumb of Foods. I hear w I see the voice
of the Connecticut zapp the world A new song from
our house band, The Flames. Anna. I had no idea
that these guys are your face you. This is incredible,
This sounds this sounds like a like a like a
country rock song that Beyonce I might win an award
for maybe maybe. I mean, I wasn't sure what was

(25:10):
happening here. This came on and I'm like, this is
a country song? What are we doing? They? Ben Genre
is the Flames. That's true, that's true. That's true. I'm
pretty sure he was their old bass player too, Ben Genre.
Uh sorry, uh wow. And the song reminded me of
something about you that's that we haven't talked about. We talked,
we talked about your history and what you've done and

(25:30):
kind of coming into business. But you were a teacher
before any of this. Right, you did a lot of things.

Speaker 5 (25:34):
People always are surprised when they hear about all the
things that I've done. So I went to school for communications,
and I fell in love with radio. Radio is what
I wanted to do. I worked at KA Rock Radio
in New York City. I interned there, I became the
program director's assistant. All I ever wanted to do was
to be on the radio. And he said to me,
the program director at KI Rock, he said, you're a

(25:55):
really nice girl. He goes, I'm gonna bring you upstairs
and I'm gonna bring you to sales and you're going
to make a lot of money there. He's like, but
you're not a DJ because good girls have to go
all the way around the country. And he's like, and
you're not going to want to do that. And that's
when I quit because I was like, well, I don't
want to do sales, and maybe he's right. I don't
want to go around the country to all these small

(26:16):
stations and try to build. And like, truth of the
matter is, is I like being a Connecticut girl. I
like I grew up here, Like this is where I
wanted to be. This is where my family was. So
I went back and you know again I have my
Italian father. He was like, DoD, why don't you become
a teacher? Like, well, I've got this degree communications. I
guess I'll go get a master's in education. And that's

(26:36):
what I did. I went to Sacred Heart and I
became a high school English teacher, and I did my
student teaching and even long term subbed at West Hill
and Stanford, and I realized, wait a minute, I don't
want to do this, so this is actually nothing that
I want to do with my life. I was like,
this was a mistake. So now I've got these new

(26:58):
shiny degree and and I don't know what to do.
So my dad was this is the era of flipping houses.
And he was like, I got an idea. You become
a realtor and then we could get the houses and
we could flip the houses. So it's all right. So
I went to a house flipping era with my dad.
It's a realtor with William Ravis.

Speaker 1 (27:17):
I was like that, how long did that last?

Speaker 5 (27:19):
It lasted five years?

Speaker 1 (27:22):
Wow? Yeah.

Speaker 5 (27:23):
And then when I turned thirty, I had this this breakdown.
I had this like I mean literally, I was driving.
We were driving on vacation and it turned midnight. My
husband was asleep. I only had hate and my older
daughter at the time. She was in the backseat, and
we were driving to Ocean City, Maryland, where we go
every year for my birthday. And on the radio, Big

(27:45):
Girls Don't Cry by Fergie came on and I had
to pull over because I couldn't even breathe. I was
crying so hard. I'm like, this is nothing I wanted
to do with that touching, So it really is, you
know it, since Big Girls Don't Cry, except this thirty
year old girl was pulled over on the side of
the road hysterically crying, and I said, okay, I have
to go back and do what I want to do.

(28:06):
So I saw a Craigslist ad for a little old
station called ninety five point nine in the Fox and
and I sent my resume there. And I was very
lucky that program director Keith Jakins saw kay Rock on
a resume and he was like, what is this and
he gave this girl a shot. And that's how I
got back into radio.

Speaker 1 (28:26):
I mean, having k Rock a legendary iconic station, you know,
of course, especially in New York City. I mean that's
going to of course draw attention, you know, But what
about Secretary School?

Speaker 5 (28:35):
Tell me about that, because that was when I had
this boyfriend. And there's always a boyfriend, right, and I
had I had the boy and you know, remember nobody
in my family had gone to college, right, There's there
was no expectations, and it certainly wasn't like expected that
I was going to go to college or anything like that.
So in high school, while everybody was getting ready to

(28:55):
go to college, I kind of just was like, you know,
I'm just going to stick around here. And I got
this boyfriend that my parents, of course knew nothing about,
and it's like, I'm gonna go to Secretary School. There's
this place and if you've been here long enough you
probably remember it was called Catherine Gibbs and Norwalk and
U and I applied there and they welcomed me with

(29:16):
open arms. And I remember going to the interview and
getting accepted and they like offered me a scholarship. And
I remember thinking any place that offers me a scholarship,
maybe I maybe I shouldn't go here. And I said
to my mom, I go I changed my mind. I
don't want to go. So I took a semester off
and I worked at a company in Stamford. And during

(29:38):
that time I applied to a bunch of colleges and
I applied to uh NYU, which promptly rejected me. Fordham
University also sent me a very quick rejection notice. And
I had heard on the radio about a school called
Pace University and they made it sound so good in
the ad, and I thought, oh, apply there to I

(30:00):
had never been there and was the only school that
accepted me. And that's how I went for undergrad and
it was it was great.

Speaker 1 (30:07):
I just think it's HILARI I didn't know Secretary school
was a thing, like that's just no.

Speaker 5 (30:10):
Yeah, everybody were there, did you let Jeff?

Speaker 4 (30:14):
Yeah, yeah, I mean you know this is probably before computers,
but yeah, right, I mean like when you had to type.

Speaker 5 (30:20):
I graduated. I graduated high school in nineteen ninety.

Speaker 1 (30:23):
Eight, So that was it was.

Speaker 5 (30:25):
It was. It was the end of that era. It
was the end, you know. It was like basically it
was probably on a downfalls. Why they were offering me
a scholarship.

Speaker 1 (30:33):
Yes, take anybody, we can get it. That's great. We'll
give you five hundred dollars to come towards your tuition. Wow,
I mean, that's just that's crazy to me. I just
never even thought. I mean, I can't believe that you
would let someone knowing you now, and I think people
listeners listen to your show too, would even think, like
someone telling you that you couldn't do something? How that

(30:53):
would that would never fly right now, like that you're
just a totally different person. You'd be like, what, let
me show you?

Speaker 5 (30:58):
I always say, if I only knew then what I
know now, you know, like if I own But I
guess don't we all don't we all say that? Don't
we all feel like that? Like if I could just
have redone that again, if I just would have applied
myself a little harder, if I just would have taken
the SATs again, like the little things that now you
look back on and you're like, oh my gosh, that
was you know, but when you're young, you're they don't

(31:18):
say young and dumb for no reason.

Speaker 1 (31:20):
You don't know, So yeah, I guess, so I guess.
So it's just interesting to me. I just how people change,
you know, I don't know. It's great.

Speaker 5 (31:27):
Also, nothing against secretaries. I actually know, a few of
my very good friends became admins, right, but admins at
huge companies in New York City, and they double my
pay easily. So so you know, there was certainly benefits
of going into admin work.

Speaker 1 (31:44):
You no doubt about that. I mean, anybody as an
assistant or something like that, they did really well for sure,
especially in the field that Jeff and I work in too.
I mean they do fantastic.

Speaker 4 (31:53):
Yeah, and they hold the keys to the kingdom in
a lot of sense, you know. I mean, like you know,
a strong admin is is kind of like the backbone
of almost any any industry.

Speaker 1 (32:01):
I mean, you know, like no doubt. So we talked
about your social media and you've kind of gotten this
thing where you're like making mom videos and making mom
like content. I guess this mom content a category. I
guess we're gonna call it a category. Yeah, how did
you start doing that? And I mean, are we going
to keep doing that? We're going to change it up?
We to with the mom thing, like when the kids

(32:21):
go to college, you with the college mom? How long
can we go with that?

Speaker 5 (32:24):
So? All right, So here's the truth of the matter
is that I didn't set out to be a mom influencer.
That was not my plan. I wrote a treatment for
a book. I wrote a treatment for a book called
Lies I Tell My Daughters, and I wanted to sell
my book so badly, and everybody I talked to said
the only way new authors get any book deals is

(32:45):
if they have a strong presence on social media. And
I had like seventeen hundred followers, and I was like, what,
I'm on all these radio stations, Like what do you mean, Like,
you know, So I did some research and they found
out you have to have a niche. You have to
have something specific that you do at tracts your audience.
So I was like, I can make funny videos like
you know, it's basically what I do on the air.

(33:05):
I just have to make them in video form. And
then it took about a year and a half to
get my following over you know, forty five thousand and
and and I had over twenty five videos that have
gone completely viral with over you know, three million views
each and all those things. So all the good things,
but the truth of the matter is is that it

(33:26):
still didn't help me get a book deal. Still nobody
put my book, so you know, it was a lot
of work, and I don't know. So I've kind of,
I don't want to say, taken a break, but I've
given myself a mental break because the truth of the
matter is is that it's burnout. It's a lot of
work to have a full time job and then have
to go home and still be creative on a social
media platform. That's why those people that's their full time job.

Speaker 1 (33:48):
I mean, you're gonna hate what I'm about to say,
but my brain just started turning. You could do a
whole podcast video cast serious on that whole topic. You
just said things you lie about you to your daughters
and just have different moms on and talk to them
about that, and I'll tell you people to eat it up.

Speaker 5 (34:00):
Yeah. I mean, if somebody would just let me push
the book and then I could just go from there.
We could grow it. There could be a tour.

Speaker 1 (34:06):
There's a lot of plans in my head, but you
could grow that from I just think that content now
is so interesting. How you know we absorb content now.
TV's on the decline, you know, I mean more than
half the country is didn't have cable anymore. Like it's
just but we all have these you know, little devices
in our pocket that we just scroll through and watch
six seven, eight, fifteen second videos, thirty second videos. We

(34:27):
just watched that short form content and that's where it's
at now. Man.

Speaker 5 (34:30):
Yeah, no, I know, and I need to continue doing it.
And yeah, I think giving myself a couple months to
kind of just reset and rethink was good, you know,
But I have to remember my priority is always the
Anna and Raven show. That is always going to be
my number one thing. That is what I've built my
foundation on. My heart and soul goes into that show
every single day. And I you know what I did
is I you know, Plum, I didn't want to make

(34:52):
fun of you at beginning you had you said, oh,
it's such a safe show. And sure, I make it
a safe show because I wanted to be safe for
kids in the car, but I also want it to
be very entertaining for parents and like to be able
to find that balance is it takes a lot of
brain power. So you know, it's just trying to jug.
It's just like every other mom out there. You're trying

(35:12):
to juggle work, You're trying to juggle the kids, You're
trying to juggle making dinner, you're trying to juggle keeping
your house clean. It's all of it at once.

Speaker 1 (35:18):
Right there, I was saying safe as a compliment, like
it's a safe show for your kids in the car,
gets safe to listen to. And there's so much content
and things that are out there they aren't that you
know anymore.

Speaker 5 (35:27):
No, it's true. No, it's really important to me, And
Raven will tell you sometimes I get too crazy that
I wanted to be safe. I don't want ever to
turn on the radio and go to my show and
think you're going to hear something that's not okay for
your kids. Never, So that's always the most important.

Speaker 1 (35:41):
As you tell me that, you tell me all the
time how much of a prude you are, So I
guess that that makes sense, you know, hand in hand,
that's right. But yeah, I know I think it's a
positive thing. It really is, because I think there's so
much content and things out there now that's almost not
that part of it isn't paid attention to as much
as it probably should be, because you know tons of
us and you know people. You tell me all the
time when I help you on your show, and I'm

(36:01):
wanting you know, doing you know, pieces with you that
morning drive. People still listen to that on a regular basis,
Like that's a thing instead of getting in the car
and people don't get in the car, put their phone
and then finds what's doing their phone. No, usually getting
in the car, get the kids, like car and go
right and it's on the radio. And that's that's, you know,
a giant part of the listeners. And I think being

(36:23):
safe there is really really important because that's what keeps
on coming back. Do you want to worry about it
safe and entertaining Entertaining safe is not absolutely absolutely absolutely,
you know we when we came to doing this show,
it was hard for Jeff he's gotten better about it,
but just even some of the guests people would have
on this program to not say, you know, you know,
curse words or anything like that, cause it's hard. You
don't think to know things to do.

Speaker 4 (36:42):
I talk like a truck driver normally. I have to
really watch myself. It's like it's crazy.

Speaker 5 (36:47):
Yeah, I know, Jeffy outside of here, so believe that.

Speaker 1 (36:53):
And what's been like the biggest perk for being on
the radio, Because you've been on the radio for a
long time, what's been the biggest perk for you. I
mean because listen, obviously you get your paid and not
all that aside, like the perk of it, because it's
not like TV. It's not like people recognize you so
much because it's do on radio. Obviously you're still recognizable,
but like you know, when they hear your voice, if
they hear that, like, has there been something You're like, wow,
this is great.

Speaker 5 (37:13):
You know what I found has been absolutely crazy? Is
I guess because you don't see me on the radio.
Most people at this point they follow us on Instagram,
they follow the show like they I get recognized all
the time, but I would get recognized and I would
assume it was from the show from Leanna and Raven show,
and they would be like, I follow you on Instagram
and I'd be like, they don't even know that I'm

(37:34):
the girl from the radio. That it never clicks that
I'm the same person, you know. So that's been wild.
But as for a perk, I know this sounds cheesy
and please, but like I get to be part of
important things and big charitable organizations and working with make
a wish and circle of care and like doing things

(37:56):
that make a real difference, and that's really important.

Speaker 2 (38:00):
To me.

Speaker 5 (38:00):
So being able to do that things like when there's
a hurricane where we're sleeping on the floors in the
studio because we're reporting live, or you know, big moments
like when during the pandemic, when we had like official
letters from the government that we had they we had
they would have to give us guests if we needed
it because we needed to get to work. We had

(38:21):
to be allowed to go on the highways and all
those things where you get to be a part of it.
It feels alive, and I think that that's a big,
a big perk of it. So you get to really
be involved in things.

Speaker 1 (38:32):
I remember coasting with you sitting in when a raven
was gone. It was around election time, and you had
told me, you said, listen, we're gonna see what happens.
We may have to come in here, you know, at
two am, and just so just be ready if I
call you, you just know, we may have to come
in here. It depends on how this whole inauguration. It
was inauguration, so what it was inauguration or election one
of the two. But we were like, we may have
to come in here, and I was like, oh, oh man,

(38:53):
that's crazy, Like if I have to go in there
with her, I have to be like a real person.
I can't like I have to get wow, okay, all right,
Because you know.

Speaker 5 (38:59):
We're entertainers, and I always say, like we do we
do comedy. We are a comedy show. That's what we do.
We're a family comedy show. But don't get me wrong,
we're broadcasters. So when we need to flip the switch
and we need to flip to news, that's exactly.

Speaker 1 (39:10):
What we can do.

Speaker 5 (39:11):
And we're well trained to do that at any given.

Speaker 1 (39:14):
Time, no doubt. And that's it's interesting because like I
just never thought about it until I was there with you.
I'm like, oh, yeah, I guess. So that's a scary thought.

Speaker 5 (39:21):
And there's so many great charities here in Connecticut, and
I always say support them. They do such good work,
and being able to work with so many of them
has been honestly the honor of a lifetime.

Speaker 1 (39:29):
Seriously, Wow, I mean I feel bad for my answer
for that now, Jeffy. I was going to say, I
just like getting the free meat that we get from
like seven AX or something. That's great.

Speaker 4 (39:37):
Yeah, free meat's nice, But you know, it's the difference
between like a charitable, sweet person in us.

Speaker 5 (39:43):
Well, here's the problem is that radio is not the
way radio used to be radio. When I used to
work at KRAP, I would have a stack of like
eminem tickets in my purse. If you would be like,
you have anything for EM and M on Thursday, I'd
be like, yeah, where you want to go? Madison Square Garden.

Speaker 1 (39:56):
Here you go.

Speaker 5 (39:56):
It's not like that anymore. I don't even get free
tickets to anything. People never believe me when they're like,
do you know how many people ask me for Taylor
Swift tickets? I go, I waited on ticketmaster Q just
like you, Like, all those perks are gone.

Speaker 1 (40:10):
So you know, it's funny how the world changed. I mean,
why is that? You think? Why has that changed so much?

Speaker 5 (40:15):
I don't know. I don't know. I think that just
like everything else in the media industry, it's just a
changing landscape and it's it's just it's changing. There's a
lot more ways to get the word out, and I
think that it's just it's just different now that or
my bosses hate me and don't want to give me
my tickets. I have no idea. I'm not I'm not
quite sure.

Speaker 1 (40:35):
I don't believe that. Yeah, I don't think so. I
don't think so either. I don't think that would be
the case. I don't know. What do you find to
be one of the hardest things about the job, besides
getting up and going to work last night.

Speaker 5 (40:44):
It's constantly you're constantly content creating, which is the problem
when you have to go home and you have to
do Instagram. It's like I always say, for somebody that
sits in a seat with a microphone all day, when
I turn off the mics when the show is over,
I'm exhausted. And it's like the energy that you have
to put out all the time and you're constantly on.

(41:04):
And the truth is that if as Plumb will tell
you when you meet me in real life, I'm not
one hundred miles per hour. I'm kind of like a
little bit quiet my mind seventy five miles. You've seen
me in really good situations like not just like on
a normal Tuesday afternoon. So I think that it's physically
exhausting to be able to put a show out like

(41:26):
that and constantly coming up with ideas. Every day. There
are forty new breaks that you have to come up with,
and you have to be able to think what is
going to be entertaining that my audience is going to
react to and how am I going to make it
where they don't want to flip the channel to somebody else.

Speaker 1 (41:44):
And you've thought about trying to take the step to
doing TV and things like that, But I mean, is
that I don't know, like, is that something? I mean,
do you care that much about it? I mean, you've
got a really good thing going for yourself here.

Speaker 5 (41:53):
No. So, I like, radio is always going to be
my number one love. It's been since I was a teenager,
you know, ever since. I mean I was a K
rock groupie before I even got the opportunity to work there.
You know, I grew up on Elvis Duran too, just
like everybody else. That's the one hundred and so radio
is always going to be my first love. But I
think that there's something really important for everybody, not just me,
about constantly challenging yourself in new forums. So being able

(42:18):
to try new things, like I go on Great Day
Connecticut on WFSB once a month and we do a segment.
Just just to be able to try new things and
take yourself out of your comfort zone is important. So
you know, when opportunities arise, why not try and have
a good time with it.

Speaker 1 (42:34):
Yeah, it makes sense, that makes sense. I couldn't agree more.
I think it's important to get out there and try
different things and see what you can do. Jeffy, Jeffie,
watch to get those plugs out there for anafore we
run a break.

Speaker 4 (42:44):
Go and follow our good friend and a Zappa right
now and a zapp on air on her Instagram follower.
You're gonna get a bunch of funny mom talk mom content.
Then also the Anna and Raven Show sixty four stations
across the country or locally at ninety nine point nine.

Speaker 1 (42:59):
The Star that's it Will in case the Star that's
good Star. I just think it's funny. Like you just
you just make up your own names for things. A
love it. Yeah, it's a listen. I have a little
creative license here. He's the nickname King. Stay right there.
You check out all my foods on wicc. Our guest
is Anna Zap. We have a great conversation. Stay right there,
right back.

Speaker 4 (43:31):
Farm and Forge Market on thirty six Hampton Road in Southampton,
New York.

Speaker 1 (43:34):
Farming Forge is a fantastic market if you're an avid
home coke or professional chef like myself. Johnny Bernard over
there aka Street Leaves, Johnny, He's got some great stuff.
I'm talking great olive oils. I'm talking great vinegars. He's
got some amazing caviar. Johnny's really got everything over there, Jeffy.

Speaker 4 (43:50):
That's right farm and Forge Market on thirty six Hampton
Road in Southampton, New York.

Speaker 1 (43:54):
Yeah, I mean you were talking. He's got great fish
that you can get. He's got some produced stuff. He's
got mushrooms that are locally grown with incredible and he's
got some amazing beef selections too, even some A five
wag you. I saw this stuff. It looks like it's
just completely white. It's amazing. I can't wait to try it.

Speaker 4 (44:08):
That's right at Farm and Forge Market on thirty sixth
Hampton Road in Southampton.

Speaker 1 (44:11):
New York. You're just saying the same thing, you say
anthing different. Well, there's also Farmanforge Market dot com. Okay,
there we go, great website. Check out Farmer Forage market
dot com. You gotta check them out. Amazing things over there, Jeff. Listen,
I'm telling you, I cannot wait to go back and
see what else Johnny has.

Speaker 4 (44:25):
That's right at Farm and Forge Market on thirty six
Hampton Road, Southampton, New York.

Speaker 1 (44:29):
You just said, do you know what else Johnny has.
Johnny's got amazing lion meat. I can't wait to get
some lion meet from Johnny.

Speaker 4 (44:35):
Yeah, it doesn't have that, but he does have a
website at Farmanforge Market dot com.

Speaker 1 (44:39):
Oh my god, this is getting crazy. Now he's got
a great Ostrich legs can barbecue ostrige legs. You have those,
no ostrich legs.

Speaker 4 (44:44):
But he does have seven X Wagoo at thirty six
Hampton Road in Southampton, New York.

Speaker 1 (44:48):
I mean, it's just it's like a broken record with you.
I cannot I don't understand it. Anything else you got
for me Farman Forage Market, I got it, thirty Sixthampton
Road in Southampton, we got it. Jeffy plumblove foods, right
you on WICC. The Voice of Connecticut is Chef Plumb

(45:09):
and Chef Jeffy hanging out with you here on a Saturday.
I hope your weekends off to a fun start, a
good start. Do something productive, go out and eat something delicious, Jeffy.
That's not all people do. Go out and eat something delicious.
Go out, eat some delicious, make some delicious. Listen. I
know that Valentine's Day was Friday, doesn't mean you can't
go out to night too. I'm doing both. That's my plan.
You're gonna go out both nights. Look at the Love
and Chef Plum. Oh no, I'm going by myself okay,

(45:31):
self love. Yeah, oh right, that's the whole. Then you
can check out that show here on WICC Self Love.
We'll be on at ten o'clock. No, just kidding. We're
joined by Anna Zapp, the voice of the Anna and
Raven show, hanging out Let's to day, talking about her story,
and I wanted to have her on too this week
because I think we all hear her in the mornings
and we listen to the show and we're driving our kids,
and it feels like we're best friends with her. But

(45:53):
you know, you never really hear the actual behind the
scenes story about Anna and her life and where she
came from. And so it's fun to have you on here. Anna,
have you conversations. I appreciate it.

Speaker 5 (46:01):
Yeah, no, plump, but you actually are one of my
best friends. So that's the other side of IM talk.

Speaker 1 (46:05):
In generals, you know, generalizations of stuff, so people who
know what's going on, you know. But it's true though.
I mean, listen, I really think that. Like I feel
like people listen to on the radio specifically, you know,
someone like you who's on every morning, people feel like
they know you. Yeah, like they feel like they know you. Well.

Speaker 5 (46:18):
Sometimes people will come up to me and they'll just
start talking to me at the grocery store and they'll
be like, hey, well, you know, how's Dakota feeling. She's
feeling better. I remember she was sick. And I'm like yeah,
And I don't know if I know them in real
life or if they just know me from the radio.
And it happens more often than you think.

Speaker 1 (46:32):
It's funny how much that happens. Yeah, it's funny how
much that happens. We had a little bit of that.
We were just at Mohican sund Food and Wine a
few weeks back, and then it was a little bit
of that happening there. People would come up and ask
questions about things we spoke about on this program, and
I was like, that's interesting. Or they bring up things
I talked about on Channel three or something, or you know,
the biggest one I got was restaurant road ship questions.
But yeah, it's amazing how people feel like they know
you when you do when you when you're in their

(46:53):
life on a regular basis. You know.

Speaker 5 (46:55):
Yeah, it's really cool. And it's it's I don't take
for granted that I get to do that. I get
to get up every morning and I get to go
and be part of people's lives and that's awesome.

Speaker 1 (47:06):
Yeah for sure. And Jeff, you know, I like to
be early for work. But for some reason, whenever I
go work with Anna and co hosts for a show
for with her, she tells me to be there at
a certain time, and I try to get there fifteen
minutes early, you know, as much as humanly possible, right, yes, yep.
But and I'm like, what time she's always there before?
Like what times you get here? It's like, oh, I
got here at four, I got here at three. I'm like,
why can you telling you tell me five thirty? Like,

(47:28):
come on, I'll get there when you get there.

Speaker 5 (47:29):
I don't have to get done before you get there.
So it's like, what's the point of making you come?
Just stare at me editing audio, Like it doesn't make sense?

Speaker 4 (47:36):
Can I ask a question that tagged on to what
we were talking about earlier? You know, in the last
segment we talked about, you said something.

Speaker 1 (47:43):
That really hit me. Where you come up with eighty
breaks for.

Speaker 5 (47:46):
Your showak today thirty.

Speaker 4 (47:48):
Breaks for your show? How many people are working on
this show with you? Because I know me and Plumb
have to come up with three. Yeah, and it's a
lot of work. And so I'm like, who are you
doing all this with?

Speaker 5 (47:59):
Like Raven? And then I have we have two great producers.
We have Justin and Julie and Julie and Justin July
and then uh, you know, we meet with our bosses regularly.
We have meetings on Monday, Wednesdays and Fridays. So there's
there's a lot of brainstorm and that goes around.

Speaker 1 (48:13):
So there's a there's a there's like a team. It's not.
For a second, I'm like, holy cow, you're a machine. Like, No,
it's it's mostly Anna.

Speaker 5 (48:20):
Well, No, we all do our part. We all do
our part. We all work hard. We have a lot
of different systems in place to create, collect content and
to evaluate it and then uh, and then I place
it and figure out where to go how to execute it,
all that kind of technical nonsense that I'm sure nobody
wants to hear about.

Speaker 1 (48:37):
You know, listen and I'll never ever, you know, lift
the curtain at all or anything like that. But I'll
listen to your We do couples of court, and I
just get so annoyed these people. And I can't stand
these people, like some of these people who send in
these things, these questions, and they get on the Erica
to do this, the topics they talk about. I want
to strangle them. I just how do you keep maintaining
your cool? Because I know how you are.

Speaker 5 (48:56):
You've been doing it a long time. You get used
to it, nothing surprises you anymore.

Speaker 1 (48:59):
That's it.

Speaker 5 (49:00):
Take a lot of the process. Do you know how
many calls we get every day asking to put their
significant other on a lie detector? And I have to
remind them we are not Jerry Springer, Jerry Springer and
Mary Povich. So many people, everybody, everybody wants me to
put them on a light detector. Can you put my
husband on a light detector? I could know that's not
a real thing.

Speaker 2 (49:19):
That I have.

Speaker 5 (49:20):
Wow, I'm so sorry we should make that. I just
start hanging up on them. I don't know what to
tell them anymore.

Speaker 1 (49:26):
Can we pitch this to Keith and the first, like
like Trashy TV on the radio show, let's find out
if you're you're not the father, you're not the father?

Speaker 5 (49:35):
I bet you wouldn't be the first.

Speaker 1 (49:39):
That's hilarious.

Speaker 4 (49:40):
I think it's audit them like scientology instead of live
detecting the old, and make audit them with like scientology,
with like the cans, you know, instead.

Speaker 1 (49:50):
Of the nobody's talking about either, instead.

Speaker 4 (49:52):
Of lie detecting, just tests to see if they're good
people Scientology.

Speaker 1 (49:56):
Oh, I mean audit the audit system. There is a can.
It's like a pio. I kind of wanted you to
keep explaining it. Yeah, I just I know that it's
they they some of the bits you just hear him talking.
It just gets crazy. And I love the idea of
actually being able to give him live detector tests. We
should totally do that. Could we get a live tech

(50:17):
a guy when I next time?

Speaker 5 (50:18):
My co host, I was gonna buying one on Amazon
for like thirty five bucks, but I didn't know it costs. Yeah,
it's really cheap. I don't know how accurate I'm not sure.

Speaker 1 (50:26):
Does it matter?

Speaker 5 (50:27):
Right, That's what I said. I was like, who cares.
I was like, let's just see.

Speaker 1 (50:31):
Yeah, but then we.

Speaker 5 (50:33):
Gotta have him live in the studio every day, and
then we got to explain then what if they get
mags you know, he's not the father and he is cheating,
And then like, we don't have security for that. Julie producer.
Julie's ninety eight pounds, so we didn't know.

Speaker 1 (50:44):
Yeah, but I'll be there. And Justin's nine feet tall,
so we got Justin.

Speaker 5 (50:49):
Justin's real big.

Speaker 1 (50:49):
Yeah, you got that. I think this is a great idea.
I think we should totally make this happen. That's amazing.
I just can't picture you. Sorry, you got me stuck
in the light detector thing. Now, that sounds incredible. I'm
gonna make a live techerode. They're only thirty five, I know.
I'm going to ask my kids, you know, what did
you eat this?

Speaker 4 (51:07):
No, let's find out a lot of my kids are
never going to get in with anything ever again.

Speaker 1 (51:12):
I'm just going to have that at the kitchen table
and just sit down and put this on your finger
and just answer our questions. That's hilarious. Thirty five bucks.
I knew. I never even knew, and so I know
that you've changed up your diet a little bit. I
used to think that you would you eat and drink
and do anything, but you've changed up your diet a
little bit. And when you came to hang out with
us at at a festival recently, I felt bad because

(51:33):
I had nothing you could drink there talk about what
you've done with your diet and why.

Speaker 5 (51:36):
So I am gosh, I feel like this is so boring,
but I'll give you the quick synopsis. But I've always
had stomach issues. I've always been overweight. I've always had
issues my whole life yo yo dieting going up and down,
and I could never maintain a weight, and I could
never feel good after I ate. I always felt sick,
and I went through a lot of gis, including one
GI who fired me because there was nothing else they

(51:58):
could do. I had a doctor at Yale that wanted
to cut out my intestines and like shorten them, but
then there was a relatively new surgery, so they weren't
going to be sure of how it would work afterwards.
So I said no to that. Yeah, And finally I
went to a doctor that actually I got at college
is recommended. She said, this is my g I go

(52:19):
to her and I said, okay. So I went to
her and I explained to her, I go, I never
feel good. I always feel sick, and I don't know
what my problem is, and I'm constantly bloated and overweight.
So she ran basically every test, including biopsies of my
small intestines and the colonoscopy and the endoscopy and everything,
and what they found was an interesting balance of a

(52:43):
disease called cease it, which is kind of like being
lactiss in toler, which I also I am. So I'm
lactiss in toler. I teasted, so I have an intolerance
to sucrose. So basically I can't really process sugar. And
I have celiac, and I'm one of those people that
the celiac doesn't show up in the blood work. You
had to go in to have a test, which is
why for all these years these gis kept telling me, Nope,

(53:03):
not celiac, but nop, I do I haven't. I have
gluten the sensitivities, So now I am gluten dairy and
sugar free, and the sugar free I kind of toy with.
I guess I'm extremely low sugar because it is there's
basically like not much else left to eat at all
and everything right, So it sucks. It honestly does. And lately,

(53:24):
I like, I really miss things like a Sicilian slice
of pizza, like things like that that I just like,
I just I miss it, you know, but you kind
of get used to it. It's been it's almost a year,
so it's, uh, do you feel better? What?

Speaker 1 (53:38):
I feel better?

Speaker 5 (53:39):
I first of all, twenty pounds fell off me. It
was like it was it was just it came right off.
It was it was unbelievable. It was like nothing I'd
ever experienced. And I feel a million times better. It
took a while for my body to adjust. But now
I don't feel sick. I don't feel bloated.

Speaker 1 (53:55):
I don't.

Speaker 5 (53:55):
It's like all those things that you read about, it's
one hundred percent was what was wrong with me. And
now I feel a million times better. But I miss
things like pizza and going to a restaurant, being starving
and diving into the bread and butter and all the
things that you know, quote unquote normal people.

Speaker 1 (54:09):
Get to do. Yeah, I think it's interesting because food
is such a powerful thing, and I think it's it's
we're so quick to medicate, we don't think to check
that simple part of it. You know. These days, I
think you know, they guy was going to cut your
intestines out and turns out, which has to change what
you eat and now you feel fantastic. It's interesting how
much that can change things. You know, food is like
the best medicine in the world, and just change in
how you handle it. You know, you can tell you

(54:29):
some good stuff. But like you know, when you go
and to have drinks or cocktails, what do you drink?

Speaker 5 (54:34):
Usually Bacca soda at lime is my go to. Also
dirty Martini's. I'll have those and I'll enjoy that. Those
are really my safe drinks. I mean, if it's like
a barbecue, I can still have like a high Noon
or a white claw, just as long as I just
have one because of the sugar. But it's got pretty
low sugar. But that's basically it. Wine really messes with me.

(54:55):
So I had to say kind of goodbye to that.
Beer is gone. So this see look how sad this look?
How sad this is?

Speaker 1 (55:01):
Well, I'm taking to I'm taking to a happy place,
because look, look how much happier you are now, how
much healthier you are now. Like it's just, you know,
it's a great opportunity. If you're out there and you're
having issues, you're having problems, you can't figure out why
you feel so run down, you feel sick, you know,
do an antidote, get a gi and go check. You know,
your your the gut biome. Which I hate to say that,
but it's a true thing. I mean, listen, I've changed

(55:23):
how I eat everything and changed my whole entire diet.
I don't drink beer anymore. And you know, like you said,
the weight just kind of goes away.

Speaker 5 (55:29):
But you know it's wild though I haven't had fruit
in a year, really a piece of fruit because of
the sugar and at the sucrows.

Speaker 1 (55:37):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (55:38):
My regular doctor was like, you need to try to
eat some blueberries, and I'm like, nah, I think I'm good.
I'm like, if I made it this far, I was like,
my gee, guys, they said I don't need it. So
I'm like, I feel fine. I feel good, and like,
I guess we don't need all the fruit that I've
been forcing myself to eat, even though I never really
loved it my whole life.

Speaker 1 (55:55):
That's so funny. So what are some of the snacks
and things you do like to enjoy now? You eat
like you said, okay, I'm having dinner. I have this
even though you have always restrictions.

Speaker 5 (56:02):
Well, there's so many, there's so many options now. And
what I've really loved is that a lot of restaurants
have Celiac friendly gluten free menus, so they'll put what's
you know, what's safe and what's not safe, and they
can make things separately. And I always feel guilty because
coming from a restaurant background, you know, I know what
a freaking pain it is, you know, to have to

(56:25):
do that. So I always feel apologetic. And that's actually
one of the things I'm working on, is not apologizing
every time I sit down at a restaurant immediately like, Hi,
I'm so sorry, but I have Celiac and I'm gluten
free and I'm dairy free and you know, and like
going through all that, I just but I think restaurants
are becoming a lot better with it. So things that
I eat, grilled meats, grilled fish definitely, And there's so

(56:47):
many good options on sauces now that you just have
to look and read the label. So it took me
forever to go grocery shopping. But once you figure out
what your items are, you're good. Like, instead of soy sauce,
I have this thing. I'm gonna say it wrong and
make fun of me, tamarin tamarin. Yeah, yeah, maybe I
don't know there is It looks like it tastes like

(57:07):
soy sauce, but it's not soy sauce, you know. So
you kind of you start figuring out all those things,
like I could have rice if it's you know, made
the right way. So instead of having you know, a
lot of pasta, I have the gluten free pasta. So
you just kind of figured it out. Tortilla chips. Chips
are my friends, so you know, I can need a
lot of chips, and there's certain gluten free pretzels that

(57:28):
I love, and rice cakes. I ate a lot of
rice cakes, eggs avocado, So is.

Speaker 4 (57:33):
Gluten free the most important thing you look for over
like lactose or like like being no no milk or
cheese or anything like that. So it's like kind of
that's like number one, number two, and then sugar is
the last thing or so and.

Speaker 5 (57:46):
I've noticed, without getting too graphic, is that if I
make a mistake, it'll trigger different reactions, so I'll be
able to know, Oh, I must have been something with gluten.
Oh I must have had something with dairy because that's happening,
or like, oh nope, I had or I should not
have had that.

Speaker 1 (58:01):
Yeah, wow, that's interesting. What about things that you missed
the most? You mentioned that's the Silian slice of pizza,
which that's delicious.

Speaker 5 (58:07):
I keep thinking like maybe, like if I just take
a day off of work, right and I sit home
and I ate an entire Sicilian pizza and I just
let myself be sick the whole next day, think that
are not normal normal things. People don't say that, But
that's the things I think about sometimes. But then when
I get really sick, like it's it's not it's not
worth it. Yeah, if I miss pizza, I miss uh.

(58:30):
Let's see, I miss like a normal dish of my
you know, my mom and Dad's fetti chini bowling is
like like a good dish of pasta that's homemade pasta.

Speaker 1 (58:39):
Yeah, things like that bread bread as your dad tried
to figure out how to make things for you at
the restaurant that you can have like a gluten free
pizza and things like that.

Speaker 5 (58:47):
Yes, and like, you know, he had a gluten free
crust when I got diagnosed and I tasted it and
I was like, Daddy, this is disgusting, and He's like
it is.

Speaker 1 (58:57):
I go. Yeah.

Speaker 5 (58:59):
So you know, he learned, you know, a lot of
these places by the pre made crust, like the pizza places,
just so they have an option if people ask for it,
but they don't really sell a lot of them. And
so but he learned how to make gluten free crust.
He bought all the stuff. He has his gluten free flowers.
So he now he makes a lot of dishes if
you want them gluten free. He has separate areas set

(59:19):
up for it, like the whole thing. Yeah, he dove
in for me.

Speaker 1 (59:22):
Yeah that's awesome.

Speaker 4 (59:23):
Yeah, there's some great gluten free doze out there. I
mean there are there are some great gluten free options now,
like fresh pastas. Even like I've had some fresh pastas recently,
I was blown away that it was gluten free. I
just couldn't believe the texture of it. And I mean
not that I eat gluten free often, but like sometimes
I'll just try those out.

Speaker 1 (59:39):
Yeah, I agree. They can make them out of corn
and like and like rice flour now and it's hard.
Yeah's a few other things. Yeah, that's really cool.

Speaker 5 (59:47):
I don't know if it's just because it's been so long,
but I don't even taste the difference anymore sometimes, you know,
I maybe it's just because I'm used to it, but
I think it's great.

Speaker 1 (59:55):
And do you find it hard to go out to
eat dinner.

Speaker 5 (01:00:00):
A lot of time? Well? Yes and no, so as
long as I get to if I can. Certain kinds
of restaurants are harder than others. So I just once
you learn your quote unquote safe restaurants, then you kind
of just seem to gravitate to them more because you
know that they're gonna make you not sick.

Speaker 1 (01:00:18):
So yeah, right wow, So Anna, what's next? I mean,
you're kind of like conquering the world here when it
comes down to everything. What's next for the Anna and
Ravens Show, for you personally, for you professionally, your social media?
I mean, what are we doing besides opening a restaurant?

Speaker 5 (01:00:32):
Definitely not opening a restaurant, So a million dollar question, plum,
We're going to continue growing the show. We're really excited
about its future, really excited. So we're going to keep
working hard, trying to make people laugh every day and
get you to work with a smile on your face
and get you the information you need. And that's that
social media. I'm going to go on vacation next week

(01:00:53):
and then I'm going to come back and I'm going
to be invigorated. I'm telling myself that manifesting, I can
see that universe. When I come back from vacation, I
am going to be reinvigorated, and we're going to start
making viral reels again and we'll get back on the map.
And I've been saying for years that I want to
get into more public speaking. So getting into that and

(01:01:14):
just getting it all together. I got a lot of ideas.
Maybe somebody will buy my book, so.

Speaker 1 (01:01:18):
We'll see you hung up on this book thing. This
is killing me, This is killing Hey. You're going to
Disney next week, which is hilarious. You and I were
talking a little bit about You're going on vacation there,
and it's just what Disney costs these days is insane
and the food is not even that great. No, I know,
what do you mean? At Disney.

Speaker 5 (01:01:34):
Yeah, no, you have to. When you go to Disney,
you have you have to just happen. Some people are
Disney people. They're obsessed with Disney, like the Disney adults
and all that. And we know I know a few
of them, some on the station. I know very many
of them. And I love Disney, but in small dosa doses.
So I will go and I will eat, and I

(01:01:54):
will smile and I will suck it up because I
have to do it for my kids. Wow, they have
fun too, because I have fun because they there's a
reason why they call it the most Magical Play Center.
They make it fun for the whole family. And when
your kids are having a good time and you're having
a good time, it's hard not to be happy.

Speaker 1 (01:02:11):
Do you write rides? Yeah? Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:02:13):
I actually bought drama Meine this time, which I've never
done before, which I think means I'm old. I think
that that's what it means. I never thought like I
never got sick before, but lately if I spin or
like I was running around, I was trying to get
my steps in. So I was walking really fast around
the island in my kitchen, and I almost passed out
and I was like, hmm, wait a minute.

Speaker 1 (01:02:33):
Am I old? That's something the US say in public.
I was trying to get my steps and so I'm
walking fast around my island, like just make circles.

Speaker 5 (01:02:40):
Doing circles in my kitchen. Well I have while I'm microwaving,
like moving free chicken nuggets.

Speaker 1 (01:02:44):
You know, so ridiculous.

Speaker 5 (01:02:47):
We'll see, I mean, well, we'll see if I survive it.

Speaker 1 (01:02:50):
Well, have a great time on your trip. We appreciate
all the supports you give us and me, and it's
always fun to hang out and catch up with you
and talk about so of these things and kind of
tell your story a little bit. I think that no,
it's heard before, so thanks for hanging out with a
little bit.

Speaker 5 (01:03:01):
Thank you so much for asking me. It's your very
nice and very fun.

Speaker 1 (01:03:05):
You are the best. Jeffy, get those plugs out there
for Anna. Absolutely again. Get to Instagram. You're gonna follow her.

Speaker 4 (01:03:10):
Anna Zapp on air and then the Anna and Raven
Show doesn't really need but it's in sixty four markets
across the nation or Star ninety nine point nine.

Speaker 1 (01:03:19):
Locally ten am weekdays. Ladies, gentlemen, our good friend Anna Zapp,
Thanks joining us and We appreciate it. Thanks, stay right
there with back more plumba foods to wrap this up
in just a minute, hang out. That's right, Jeffy. You

(01:03:40):
know what I like to do. I like to go
shopping for knives. I love knives. I'm a chef, of
course I love knives. If you cook food at home,
you've got to love knives too, right, love knives sharp things.
It's got to be important because you want to make
sure things are nice and cut. And let me tell
you what this PSA is brought to you by our
friends over at Ergo Chef Knives Friends, A sharper knife.
It's safer than a more dull knife, I promise you.
And let me plain to you why a dull knife

(01:04:01):
you have to use more force, And more force means
less control, Jeffy, And less control means less fingers.

Speaker 4 (01:04:07):
Yeah, that's absolutely true. Listen, knives one of the most
important tools in the kitchen. Can't really get much done
without a knife.

Speaker 1 (01:04:13):
You absolutely are preaching to the choir. And one of
the best places to get knives are friends over at
Ergo Chef. They got a showroom in Dan Barry at
for Eagle Road. You can go see them there, and
if you go see them, let me tell you what
you can do. You can walk in the front door,
and Jeffy, when you walk in the front door, ergo chef,
if you want to get a discount, what do you do?
You yell, hey, is Mike's Stive here? And when he
walks out, you go, hey, electric factory. That's right, the

(01:04:34):
electric factory. Mike Stive, call me electric Factory. Ask form
by a name. Now, if you're not there and you
can't get the knife, and you can't go into the store,
you can always go to the website at ergo chef
dot com. Use promo code Plumb twenty and get yourself
a great discount on an amazing knife that will always
stay sharp and keep your fingers attached to your hand.
Jeffy ergo chef knives. Check them out at ergo chef

(01:04:55):
dot com. Use promo code plumb twenty for a great discount.
Plumb the foods right on WICC. The Voice of Connecticut

(01:05:17):
just had a fun conversation with Anna Zapp from starting
nine to nine point nine to your boy Chef, Plumb Chef,
Jeff hanging out with you always fun. Hanging out with
Anna isn't it. Oh, she's great. She's so much fun.
She's so much fun.

Speaker 4 (01:05:27):
Again, if you get out there and follow her at
Anna zapp on air on Instagram, give her a follow.
Her content is hilarious, not only when she's on the show,
but when she's doing her instagrams.

Speaker 1 (01:05:37):
She's really on fire. My wife loves her. Yeah, it's
pretty fun, man. She does a great job with it.
And yeah, I think just having someone like her who
is I mean, she's been this game a long time
and is being very successful in this game in a
time period. But I think it's hard to be successful
at this game. Yeah. Absolutely.

Speaker 4 (01:05:51):
Like radio as we know is not the powerhouse like
she said, as it once was, like she shall have
like stacks of tickets and all this kind of stuff.
And nowadays radio it doesn't have the same power at
one head because there's so many platforms out there for
people to use or whatever. But I think, like you think,
we both agree, radio is not dead. It's just one
of these things that has changed into a different sort

(01:06:14):
of animal totally.

Speaker 1 (01:06:15):
I think you'll start seeing a lot more programs similar
to how this runs to where it's kind of like that,
you know, not so much music involved in the show
or playing music. It's going to be a lot more
talking and information and stuff like that kind of coming
across it.

Speaker 5 (01:06:25):
You know.

Speaker 4 (01:06:26):
Yeah, I mean it's it's the podcast world has really
changed the game. I think, you know, we come from
a podcast world, so you know, going from from podcasting
to radio is such a it's it's it's very interesting,
at least from my perspective, I'm sure from.

Speaker 1 (01:06:39):
Yours as well.

Speaker 4 (01:06:39):
But yeah, you know, we used to be just like
free to say and do whatever we wanted, and it
was like always crazy and we were like kind of
really very little direction at times.

Speaker 1 (01:06:48):
And I feel like the radio.

Speaker 4 (01:06:51):
Little to you know, there's there's a there's a little
bit more direction and and it keeps us kind of
within certain parameters. So from my perspective, I like it
because it gives us something to kind of work towards.

Speaker 1 (01:07:04):
You know.

Speaker 4 (01:07:05):
Yeah, we have like a you know, hearing her talk
about having to come up with that many breaks, like
being on the air for five hours and coming up
with new bits and doing all that stuff, that's like
the real magic. That's where I'm like, I'm just so
thoroughly impressed with them because their show is not stagnant.
I've listened to it a ton of times. They have

(01:07:27):
reoccurring bits. They have a lot of stuff that they do,
and it's not boring. It's fun and it's funny. And
like you guys said, it's safe. I mean, I wouldn't
have called it safe because I think they kind of
danced a line of times.

Speaker 1 (01:07:36):
Yeah, I know what you're saying. I know, I said safe,
and I realized that that might have been offensive. I
didn't mean it an offensive way. I meant in a
good way. It's hard to be safe in the content
world today, Like being safe is more challenging than not
being safe.

Speaker 4 (01:07:46):
Yeah, yeah, well, I mean, and what's considered safe, I
guess is so different from when we were kids. You know,
like when we were kids, you couldn't say anything on TV,
and the next day on the Cosby Show they're dropping, like,
you know, swear words that are safe on the Sean,
you know what I mean, Like it would like they'd
throw in like a damn or you know or whatever,
and then like whoa.

Speaker 1 (01:08:05):
No, you're right, you're right. But they do a great
job with it. And I'll tell you it's just interesting
too to find out I feel like I feel like
every good person I know has some tie to the
hospitality industry. I feel like they all came from it
at some point. I have worked in it or have
been around it, you know, just that service industry part aspect.
I agree.

Speaker 4 (01:08:21):
I dealing with people the way that service industry people
have to deal with them. It's it's an intimate moment, right,
It's about food. It's about bringing someone their smile. You know,
as a cook, we don't have to deal with it
as as much as upfront. But I mean at a
pizzeria like where she grew up, you're mixing it up.
Like you're talking to every single person that comes in there.

Speaker 1 (01:08:42):
You know what they want.

Speaker 4 (01:08:44):
They're coming back with that exact same feeling that you
gave them before. So when it doesn't connect, you have
to learn how to jibe with these people too. And
like you know, I think that's where she got her
chops of being able to She's so easy to talk.

Speaker 1 (01:08:56):
To, right, yeah, no doubt about it, no doubt about it.
And so it's just it's it's just interesting. If you
missed any part of that show, you can check it
out everywhere. Get your podcasts, whether it's Apple or Spotify
or iHeart or wherever you can check out. They're all there.
You can regret, go to the show, or listen to
the shows before it. It's all there, all eleven years
of plumb love foods. I realized that twenty fourteen's when

(01:09:18):
I started doing this. Wow, I don't think I joined
until twenty sixteen or something like that. It was a yeah,
it was a little bit afterwards, but I used to
do it myself and I was just interviewing people, and yeah,
twenty fourteen, it's been a long time. Been a lot
of time. That's wild that we've eve been doing it
that long. I think back to, like, I just saw
a thing.

Speaker 4 (01:09:37):
I have a notebook that I keep notes, like a journal,
like with like different food notes and things that I
do over the digest my whole life.

Speaker 1 (01:09:45):
And I flipped through this thing.

Speaker 4 (01:09:46):
I found a book that I had from back when
I first met you, when I had JK Chef collection,
when I was involved in that, and I was looking
at some of my notes of like my day to
day and the day that we met. I was like
met a guy. I think I cried on the phone.
Good dude, solid chef. I want to I want to
I want to hang out with him.

Speaker 1 (01:10:06):
I think I cry on the phone.

Speaker 4 (01:10:08):
I did because I think I just watched the Jake
the Snake documentary and we were talking and I.

Speaker 1 (01:10:12):
Was like, and man, he's just trying. He's just doing
his best, you know, the voice cracked and you're like,
I hear your brother, and I'm like this, God gets me.
That's right, that's right, that's right. That's where it goes.
And when it comes to service, though, man, we got
a few minutes here. When it comes to service, I
think services as chefs is something that we tend to
not think enough about anymore. You know, it kind of

(01:10:33):
becomes all about the food. It becomes all about the
ingredients and putting the food out there. But I've always
thought service is the most important aspect of it, more
important even than the food. Well, I mean, I don't
think it's more important, but I think it goes hand
in hand. I think, let me explain myself, let me
explain what I'm saying there. See if you see, if
it changed your mind a little bit. Okay, if you
go to a restaurant and have a fantastic meal, one

(01:10:54):
of the best meals you've ever had, but the service
is not good. You can't get a drink, you can't
get a check, can't get it's just it's just not
a great service. You're probably not going to go back
there now. If you go to a restaurant where you
have a decent cheeseburger, you know, but the service is great.
They even buy you a drink just because Hey, we
love thanks for coming. Great to see you. You know
you're going to go back there. Well, all right, yes,

(01:11:18):
I know.

Speaker 4 (01:11:19):
So I'll give a place with great service a second
chance if the food is not good, I will not
give a place with great food and awful service many
more chances. Yeah, But I think they're a symbiotic thing.
Like I think that like great restaurants focus on both

(01:11:40):
sides of the coin. I think great restaurants service is
as important, and they get treated as important as back
of the house, and there's a and there's a very
there's a very close connection between the two. And I
think that's something that comes with a lot of new
age restaurants, like newer I shouldn't say new age, but
like like more recent restaurants, like the modern thinking of
being a restaurant tour I think is necting in the
front of the back of the house where when we

(01:12:01):
were kids. Yeah, it was grown up, very different us
in them, and it was very much a great divide
and the money we made and who we were and like.

Speaker 1 (01:12:11):
You know, it just it just was not the same. Yeah,
there's no doubt about it. I mean it's it's it's
definitely changed and different now, there's no question. I couldn't
agree more with that. I was recently in Boston and
I went to a restaurant and my wife and I
and my one of my daughters, and uh, the service
was terrible. And it's at one point I had even
gotten up and went and got my drink from the

(01:12:33):
bar and brought it back over because I couldn't get
the service attention, like I want to give you money,
like you understand. And he came over and goes, oh, oh,
did you did somebody? Did you order? I didn't know
you needed a drink, And I was like, yeah, I
couldn't get your attention, so I just went to the
bar and got it. Like I have no problem telling them,
but I mean that's the truth. It's just I don't know, man,
I think service means so much more than the food.

(01:12:55):
Like if a great service, you will give a chance.
Great service allows you to look past a lot of things. Yeah. No, definitely.
I have such a hard time as a chef, and
I wonder if you.

Speaker 4 (01:13:04):
Do the Like when I sit at a restaurant not
to watch every single moving I have to like disconnect sometimes,
like I have to like turn my chef brain off.
Oh yeah, because if not, I start watching like people
how they're acting. I see someone on their phone, like
all these like little things, and they start to irritate
me to where I won't be having as much fun

(01:13:25):
as if I just ignore that stuff because it's not
my restaurant. I have to do it when I work
with you. I do when I work with you. Oh
oh oh, of course you do it. I run a
different ship than.

Speaker 1 (01:13:33):
You do, for sure. I'm just saying it's just a different,
different situation, listen, not that not that one way is
right and one way is wrong. It's just different, you know,
And I just I can't do that. And like, so
the first time that I worked with you, you know,
everybody's standing around and eating food, and I'm like, what
are we doing right now? What's going on?

Speaker 4 (01:13:50):
Because you know, unfortunately for that party that you were
talking about, we were grossly overstaffed because the party numbers
dropped a lot, so we were just staying I would
am I gonna we had so much who too? Remember,
I mean I have so much food and I always
do that too. This is something I want to bring up.
This is good you brought this up because it cann
expect to what we were just saying about front and
the back of the house. I think because in the

(01:14:11):
back of the house when it's slow, I don't care
if my cooks want a snack, you know, like if
we're working and like everything's happening and everything's done, and
like someone's like pick, like wants to eat a you know,
a meatball or a snack from the back, it doesn't
bother me at all.

Speaker 1 (01:14:27):
And it's like I share that love with the front
of the house. I think that's really important too.

Speaker 4 (01:14:31):
I always let them know, like you work hard for me, like,
and I will get on someone's case for not doing
their job, but I think it's important to like, hey,
you know, have a meatball while you're standing there.

Speaker 1 (01:14:45):
Yeah, And I don't think I have such a problem
with that as much as I do as doing it
where the guests can see you. And let me tell
you why I feel that way. That is definitely I
agree with that. If I'm a guest and I don't
want to see somebody, you know, shoving a sandwich in
their mouth and then bringing me a drink, it grosses
me out, Like I don't want to see that. I
don't want to see people like taking food in their
hands and putting in their mouth and then feeding other
people like like or bringing me a sandwich or bringing

(01:15:06):
me a cocktail or. I just I can't. I can't
deal with it. So when I have events and I
have servers, we have a very specific rule, like we
don't eat in from of the guests. You just don't.

Speaker 4 (01:15:13):
Yeah, No, I agree, I'm talking back of the house,
you know what I mean, Like and like you know
we're behind that hedge in that.

Speaker 1 (01:15:19):
One in my you're talking about talking about what we're
doing events with yourspod. Yeah, and but the back of
the house. I don't mind it so much either. I
think doing that also can help eliminate some people who
are stealing, but it also can kind of foster people
stealing as well, because they feel like it's okay.

Speaker 4 (01:15:37):
What I mean you know, it's funny you say that
I have these These are things that come up all
the time because of you know how laxed I am
with stuff. You know, I'm always like, hey, if you
want something to just ask, I'll let you have it.
Ninety nine percent of the time we have extra and
if you want like a cup of soup to take home,
or if you want a piece of that steak, or
if you want whatever, just.

Speaker 1 (01:15:55):
Say to me and I'll give it to you. Because
I'm that guy.

Speaker 4 (01:15:58):
But I don't tolerate st and and I mean like,
I don't tolerate it like that's like I won't like
one time I catch it in your bag without you asking,
and I'll let you go.

Speaker 1 (01:16:09):
And I'll make sure everyone knows that. That's why do
it very publicly, well, because that's not okay.

Speaker 4 (01:16:14):
That's where it's not okay, Like you can't take the
liberty of taking something from someone, Yeah, without asking.

Speaker 1 (01:16:20):
I think it's always important to just ask, like for sure,
for sure, I think the taking it back to the
service part of it. Though, as I you were saying,
how it you know they work hard, they should get
stuff too. I think I agree with that. I think
that you know, servers who are treated well will treat
the guests well exactly, and.

Speaker 4 (01:16:35):
They also know the food better. Like I want to
see who's gonna actually understand. Like nothing upsets me more
than when you sit down and you're saying, oh, man, hey,
have you tried this? And they're like no, and you're like,
oh weird, Like why are you talking to.

Speaker 1 (01:16:48):
Me about it? Or when they say yeah, lots of
people order that, I'm like, no, no, what do you
think of it? Oh? No, no, I don't. I haven't
I don't eat that, but possible.

Speaker 4 (01:16:56):
Yeah, And I'm just like, why are you telling me
about this? If you don't have you have zero in
put completely agree. It's like that that to me, like
you know, as I mean, this is back at the
house talk folks. But you know when when when we're
when we're training a server, that's the most important thing.
It's like, eat the food, give an opinion, always smile.
It's like it's pretty simple, you know what I mean, Like, know.

Speaker 1 (01:17:18):
The menu, always smile and you know, if you have
if there's a really big problem, come get me. And
now one of the things I can't stand if you're
a if you're a server, out there. I hope you're listening,
you're hearing this, I'm gonna tell it to you, and
it's a big pet peeve of mine. Always be prepared
to bring a check, right. Don't make me wait for
the check, right. Be prepared to bring the check, because

(01:17:38):
when you feel when I'm ready to go, I'm ready
to go. I don't want to be held hostage. You know,
I don't want to I have to wait around and
can't get a check. Now. Obviously I'm not saying it
to bring it the second, but be aware of your
tables that you say, okay, they're done. You know they're
not having dessert, or they just finish it. We just
took assert plates. We should go where and check with
them and see if they need any thing, and bring
the check. It's a hot take. I love it. No,
I think it's important.

Speaker 4 (01:18:00):
You know, it's something that I wouldn't have thought to say,
But as you say it, it like, I'm like that
that is one of those things like when you want
to get up.

Speaker 1 (01:18:08):
And go and you're like and then they're like, oh yeah,
are you ready to go? You sure?

Speaker 4 (01:18:12):
You don't want to see dessert? And I'm like, I
gave you the check signed Doug, like you know, the universal.

Speaker 1 (01:18:19):
Yeah, we're ready to go, and like, but don't maybe
wait around to even give you the sign or tell you.
You know, the waiting around is the worst part. When
I used to train service, I would say to them,
after people eat their ready to go, be aware of
the table the entire time. I should every ten seconds
should be looking back at that table, just glancing back
out to see what they're doing, you know. And then
once they're done and you pull the plates, go talk
to them. Go over there and talk to him, Hey,
can I get you have anything else? You know whatever,

(01:18:41):
and be prepared. I used to even tell people to
print the check and take it over to her. If
they want something else, we can. We can always reprint
the check, just have it with you so they can go,
because there's nothing worse than being that feeling of being
hell hostage and you can't leave. Yeah, yeah, no, I agree,
I agree. I think these are all these are all.

Speaker 4 (01:18:58):
These are all things about service that maybe people don't
think about, but I know that they are things that
you should be aware of, you know, these are things
that I think.

Speaker 1 (01:19:06):
I have several rules. That's one of my rules. I
also have every time a drink is at half, you go,
actually one another one always. Always, I think you gotta
getach other one of those, you know, whatever you're having,
bring another one something like that. Always. I also have
the rule that everything, if they buy three drinks, you
always buy one of them. That's but that's smart, It's
a no brainer. It brings people back. I mean, that

(01:19:27):
makes people feel comfortable and happy, you know, and remember
people's name. Introduce yourself by a name to people. Yeah,
you know, I think that's really important. It's just that
little tiny things that I think means so much more
to people in a restaurant, in a catering whatever. You know,
when I do catering gigs, I go and talk to everybody.
I taught you do the same thing. We talked to
all the guests. Talk to people, stay see as a
face to put behind it, it's important to do. Yeah, No,

(01:19:48):
I think it's super important to do.

Speaker 4 (01:19:49):
I think it's super important to have a face that
connects to the people as like, oh, this is the chef.

Speaker 1 (01:19:54):
This is a person, like this is Chef Plum. He's
a face that runs the place. There he is he said,
there he is.

Speaker 4 (01:20:05):
No, I know I think I think you're a hundred
percent correct. Are there any red flags you see on
the menu?

Speaker 5 (01:20:10):
Though?

Speaker 1 (01:20:10):
When you got someplace like a red flag like hey,
what is that? Oh no, we can't have that? Or
oh man, what are they doing? Hmmm? I mean, I'll
give you one of my immediate ones. Go ahead, when
it's uh February or January here in the Northeast and
I go someplace and they've got a vine ripe and
tomato salad or the tomato capreese salad or the tomato

(01:20:31):
mozzarella salad. Oh, like the at of season stuff.

Speaker 4 (01:20:35):
That's yeah, I mean that would definitely that's annoying for sure,
But I I, you know, I try not to let
it bother me as much. You know, I just try
to ignore the adjectives and just try to see what
the food is that the things I think that irk me,
Or like when I see a menu that feels really uncreative,
like there's like nuts on every single dish.

Speaker 1 (01:20:56):
You know, it's like okay, you knowstomach productions.

Speaker 4 (01:20:59):
And yeah exactly, or yeah exactly, there's a reduction on
every plate, or there's a you know, it just it
just feels redundant, like the whole menu feels redundant like
those things.

Speaker 1 (01:21:09):
But if you're telling somebody who's going out to dinner
and if they're looking for like they're looking for something
that says this is I'm not going on, this is
not a great restaurant I'm going to eat at. What's
a sign for them to see that? What do you
think is there is there a sign that they could
see that from? Oh? I mean, come on, Jeff, you
can say it. I know you can.

Speaker 4 (01:21:29):
I mean, you know there's well, you know what it
is is as I want to say something, I can
think of anomalies that have made me rethink what I'm about.

Speaker 1 (01:21:39):
You know what I was going to say, Well, tell
me when they tell me the anomaly.

Speaker 4 (01:21:42):
Uh, well, for instance, I think getting getting a menu
or going to a restaurant and they're being like a
certain odor to a restaurant. Like when I just when
I walk into a place, if I smell anything that's
off putting at all, like a like a like a anything,

(01:22:03):
you know what I mean, I'll like immediately just be
like now we're not eating here. And people were like what,
like what's wrong? And I'm like, I don't know, there's
this a smell like to the food or whatever or something,
you know. And then I've been proven wrong where it's
like they were doing something in a room, you know,
where I've been like, somebody's been like, dude, we got.

Speaker 1 (01:22:21):
To come on. Trust me, this is a great place.

Speaker 4 (01:22:23):
Please please come on in, you know, and I'm like,
all right, fine, but I'm telling you there's a something
smelled like cat food to me.

Speaker 1 (01:22:29):
I don't know. Something threw me off, you.

Speaker 4 (01:22:30):
Know what I mean when I walked in and then
we'll sit down and eat and it's like blew me away,
and I'm like, oh wow, Like I didn't realize it
was going to be like that, you know what I mean?

Speaker 1 (01:22:38):
You know what, man, I honestly, I honestly would uh
I agree with you. For instance, you walk outside of
a restaurant, it smells terrible. I don't want to be there,
you know. You know, I'm thinking one place of PARTICU.
I'm not gonna say anbody's name, but like places that
we've walked outside of together before, Like, wow, I'm not
going to eat there in that seafood restaurant, you know.

(01:22:59):
Oh yeah, exactly, there's definitely That's what I mean.

Speaker 4 (01:23:01):
There before you say, yeah, let's go there and eat. Yeah,
like I've drew Yeah, I mean, and and you know
I'm that guy. I'll eat whatever hits me, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:23:12):
Yeah. I think one of the things that is a
big sign to me is if I walk in the door,
I'm not greeted within like the first thirty seconds. Oh well,
I mean sure, it depends how busy they are to
be acknowledged. Acknowledged. Hey, if I great, see, you'll be
right with the bartender goes hi, how you doing? Welcome?
Someone will be right with you. That's plenty fright.

Speaker 4 (01:23:33):
I'll wait a couple of minutes, you know what I mean,
Like I just and then when the when the server
passes by, they go hi. You know, someone will be
right there. Has anyone did help you? You know that
kind of thing like when everyone's busy. I have no
problems with that, but you just straight up like not
look into my direction, and then when you get to me, you're.

Speaker 1 (01:23:48):
Like, yeah, that's not good. I'm like, good, all right,
Well maybe this person doesn't want me to eat here.
This feels uncomfortable, right. I also hate when you get
when they when they when you get to the restaurant
and you're doing and then they go to take you
like like they're gonna you tell them, hey, it's a
party of three or whatever. They're like okay, and then
they don't say anything. They start walking away as if

(01:24:08):
like you, it might supose to follow you. You didn't
tell me to follow you. It must come with you.
What are we doing? You? You just left? You mean
to go in front of you? To go behind you? Yeah,
I'm sitting down there before. It's funny.

Speaker 4 (01:24:18):
I mean I've literally stood there and the person's walked
away and then came back annoyed, and I said, I'm
sorry you didn't say follow you. I thought you were
going to see if there was a table open. I
don't I'm not sure what to do, and and and
she's like well, and I'm like okay, like what how
does that?

Speaker 1 (01:24:35):
How does that com I just can't.

Speaker 4 (01:24:36):
I usually just try to laugh it off, because if
I don't laugh at off, I have two speeds.

Speaker 1 (01:24:40):
I'm like, I'm like laughing or yelling. So you know,
I just I feel like I have to always be
like ha ha, what about this one? They see you
at the table and then your server doesn't come over
to you for like seven to ten minutes. That's crazy talk,
isn't it? That I've gotten up?

Speaker 4 (01:24:56):
I think we've gotten up together at restaurant. I think
we have to actually, yeah, I think we've literally just
been like what is happening?

Speaker 1 (01:25:01):
Yeah? All right, we're gonna leave. Yeah, and then I
mean that affects the restaurant, Like that's just you know,
like you're the restaurant's the only one that is hurting
from that. You know, We're just gonna be somethace else. Yeah,
because that's insane. Yeah, it's crazy talk. That's it's just
you know, And here's why I'm bringing all these up, Jeffy,
and why I'm a professional radio broadcaster. Are you ready
to watch this around? All of those things are service

(01:25:23):
oriented that affect the restaurant at a level before the
kitchen even gets a chance to affect the restaurant. Top
ten percent, d top ten percent. I mean seriously, that
that's where I was going with all this, like like
these are all things that make service more important than
food because the food hasn't even had a chance to
do anything yet, and we're already walking out of the restaurant.

(01:25:44):
That's yeah, you got me. We never walked in. The
restaurants just smelled terrible. We walked in the front door,
excited to be there. No acknowledge us. We left. You
got sat at the table and no one came over
to us. We left. Guess what, The kitchen never had
a chance. That's true. Service is more important. Service is
more important. Come on, that was good, Jeff, I got
nothing that was great. No, I'm blowing away. I'm a

(01:26:05):
speechless right now. I'm like over here, just I can't
even say anything. I'm like, wow, you hit me in
the head. That was like a I mean it came
back right the right of the forehead. That was good. Boom.
But it's a truth waiting me over. But it's the truth.
And I feel like that we put so much weight
on Instagram on how these pictures look or our food
and every if it's if the kitchen never even has

(01:26:27):
a chance, you know, how could it way heavier than
the service? That's how I look at it. You know,
maybe I don't know. Yeah, so I think service is important.
So all you people who work in the service industry
who maybe aren't in kitchens, who maybe are matre d
a bartender, a hostess, a server, a buser. Make a
point to acknowledge customers when they come in. It makes
a big, big, big difference. And trust me, the only

(01:26:48):
people that get hurt in the long run are the
people who work at the restaurant because missing a table
like jeff and I coming. Honestly, it is, uh, you
know you're missing out because we're gonna tip. Well, we're
gonna be an easy takee. You know, we're gonna be fun.
It's just yeah, you're missing out eat a ton. Well
even if we don't eat it, we just order it time.
We'll order to have a bite, taste everything. Yeah, we'll

(01:27:09):
order it just to have a bite. So yeah, there
you have it, Jeffey, that's all I have to see
right there, A great conversation with Anna Zapp and then
we bring it all back around with the conversation about service.
That's what I'm talking about, Jeffie. Wow, really, no, that
was really you know what. I love talking back out
of how stuff like that. Man, it's a lot of fun,
that's all it is. And we learned from it NonStop.
Oh I played the wrong music. You get deal with
music on listen. We appreciate you guys checking out the

(01:27:31):
program here what a fun Saturday it's been here on
Plum Love Food. It's of course, you can get any
part of this show on the podcast. Of course, anywhere
you get your podcast, make sure you check them out iTunes, Apple,
that's the same thing, Spotify. iHeart you know the deal.
A big shout out to our guest Anna Zapp for
joining us in the program. You can check her out
every morning and over sixty markets and of course locally

(01:27:52):
here a Star nine nine point nine. That's her station.
You can check her out there. For Chef Jeffie, I'm
Chef Plump. Thanks for hanging out with us. We appreciate you. Guys.
Remember food is one of the most important things we
have in life. Everything important life evolves around food. It's
either the time it deserves. We'll see later, friends,

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