July 10, 2025 • 36 mins
This is a Vintage Selection from 2005
The Banter
The Guys read some fan mail and discuss the reviews a couple of unusual restaurants–would you prefer drawbridges or beds?
The Conversation
The Restaurant Guys welcome Kim Chauvin who tells us all about the American shrimp industry and the superior product of fresh, wild shrimp. She also talks about the hardships of hurricanes and as well as and life in the family business.
Inside Track
The Guys hit it off with Kim Chauvin and even got invited to her boat blessing! They were impressed with the hearty stock shrimpers are made of, particularly during hurricanes.
Francis: Your husband stayed on the boat. What is it like to ride out a category five hurricane on a boat?
Kim: Well, you have to realize it really wasn't a five hitting where we were.
Francis: Um, okay. Category three, then. I don't walk outside when it's thundering, okay?
-Kim Chauvin on The Restaurant Guys Podcast 2005
Info
Mariah Jade Shrimp is part of David Chauvin Seafood Company
https://www.davidchauvinsseafood.com/
https://americanshrimp.com/suppliers/mariah-jade-shrimp/
Mariah Jade Shrimp is a mobile dock.
David Chauvin's Seafood Company is an unloading facility of shrimp, ice house, fuel dock and a supply house for commercial and recreational fishing vessels. They sell shrimp and seafood to consumers. Located in Dulac, LA.
Bluewater Shrimp Company is a processing facility and unloading facility located in Dulac, LA.
Kim Chauvin's Seafood Company is a brand new company to an older facility. It’s an unloading facility of shrimp and fish, ice house, fuel dock and supply house for commercial and recreational fishing vessels. They sell shrimp and seafood to consumers. Located in Grand Isle, LA.
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Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Mark (00:41):
Good morning, mark.
Morning Francis.
How are you this morning?
I'm ACEs.
Francis (00:45):
You seem to have a little more pepper this morning.
Yes, I have that.
I think that has to do with thefact that you ate a quarter
pound of m and m.
Mark (00:52):
Well, you know, you know one of our guilty pleasures is
candy.
Yeah.
You and I love it.
One of, one of the big momentshere at the radio station.
Yeah.
They got toone in the candymachine for a little while.
It's all gone though.
I don't know where it went.
You need a life, man.
Really?
Toone, you know, come on.
My, whenever my father would goto Europe when I was a little
kid before Toone was availablein this country.
(01:13):
Mm-hmm.
He'd always bring back one ofthe, like one of those big bars
of Toone.
You know, it's funny, the thingabout chocolate
Francis (01:20):
is where, where you get chocolate from is very
different.
Even the Nestle company.
Oh, absolutely.
A big company, if you buy Nestlechocolate in Europe, it tastes
different.
It's very different than thechocolate we have here.
It tastes different and theyactually, they, they say that
American chocolate is, for thefirst time more Americans
prefer.
Bittersweet chocolate, darkchocolate.
Mm-hmm.
Than they do, than prefer milkchocolate, which is actually
Mark (01:40):
just a couple years ago, Toone came out with the, with
the dark chocolate Toone bar.
Oh yeah.
It is.
I gotta tell you, for, for massproduced candy that you can buy
on the shelves of most, mostgrocery stores, extra dark toone
is yummy.
I'm all in, man.
Sorry.
I'm all in.
So there you go.
For those of you who think therestaurant guys are pretentious
and stuffy, we're not snooty.
(02:01):
Every once in a while we have alittle lerone.
Okay.
My mic is good.
Uh,
Francis (02:04):
we for, but we are a little snooty and, uh, and to
pat ourselves in the back, we'vebeen getting email through our,
our webcast, which areapproaching 50 thousands in
people.
Are we crazy?
Yeah.
What's wrong with all of you?
So, one of the interestingthings about it is we're in this
little radio station in CentralJersey eating Toone, um, and
doing great here in the CentralJersey listening area.
Um, but we're also.
Pretty widely spread around theworld.
(02:25):
And one of the very interestingthing is to get the emails from
you all around the world.
Please keep sending them.
We love it.
Um, here's one.
Uh, hi guys.
I just started subscribing tothe podcast and I love the show.
I am an executive chef at SewardWindsong Lodge in Seward, Alaska
Mark (02:40):
that's far away,
Francis (02:41):
as well as president of our local public radio station.
Your shows are a refreshingwindow into the restaurant
world.
I'm sorry
Mark (02:46):
it's not far away from Juno, but it's far away from New
Brunswick, New Jersey.
Francis (02:49):
Keep up the great work, and if I'm ever in Jersey
someday, I'll stop by yourestablishment.
Eric, Eric, thanks a lot.
I'm not, I'm not gonna leave thelight on for you, but if you're
ever coming down, let us know.
Now.
Another email we got, in thesame week, is from, uh, Tsuji in
Tokyo, uh, and this is fromTsuji in Tokyo.
Hi, my name is Tsuji and I liveover in Tokyo and love your show
(03:10):
since I stumbled across it aweek ago.
I've been busy the past few dayslistening to all of your
previous shows on iTunes.
I was listening to one of yourshows where you mentioned the
ninja themed restaurant in NewYork City.
And guess what?
It's the same as the owners ofthe Ninja Saka restaurant in
Tokyo.
Saka being a neighborhood inTokyo, I was there for dinner
back in February and it was alsosubterranean with the drawbridge
that comes down after a secretpassword is mumbled, yada, yada,
(03:31):
yada.
I love the drawbridge.
Come on.
Wait.
Staff all dressed up in ninjaoutfits, et cetera and so forth.
Um, the entire experience wasidentical to the one you sub you
described, except that here inTokyo, the big difference is
it's not pretentious.
There are no a hundred dollarstasting menus.
It's kind of a casual.
Dining bar, basically.
The one in Tokyo is for a gag.
It's for
Mark (03:50):
fun.
It's for fun.
That was the whole idea.
For
Francis (03:53):
those of you who missed that show, there's a restaurant
in New York City called Ninja.
Hype.
Um, and, uh, ninja is a themerestaurant, which is full of
hocus pocus.
And, but the dinners, there'slike the menus tasting menu
started a hundred,$150 a person.
Yeah.
I wish
Mark (04:07):
Ninja were a little bit more stealth.
Oh my goodness.
Francis (04:10):
And it's
Mark (04:10):
terrible.
Francis (04:11):
Yeah, it's terrible.
Uh, and it got a horrible reviewin the New York Times.
You can go look that up in theNew York Times.
Oh,
Mark (04:15):
got it.
Got literally
Francis (04:16):
crushed.
And the thing about horriblereviews in the New York Times.
Sometimes the horrible ones aremore fun to read than the other
ones, unless, of course,
Mark (04:26):
I gotta tell you, I love, unless of course it's
Francis (04:27):
your restaurant.
Mark (04:28):
I love to read one of those scathing reviews where,
where the waiter comes in andsays, uh, yes, our, our cake is
made with Verona chocolate.
Yeah.
Where's the Verona chocolatefrom?
Instead of Verona, instead ofVal Ronna chocolate instead of
Val Ronna, which would come fromthe valley of the Rone.
Francis (04:45):
My favorite all time lines, was Frank Bruney.
The New York Times whenreviewing the New York version
of Ninja, said that you show upand they offer you the simple,
straight way, straight to yourtable or through the secret
passageway, which is a bunch ofgarbage.
And, and Frank Bruney recommendsanother way, which is right out
the back door because it's amess.
Mark (05:01):
Come on you.
If I'm going to ninja, I'mtaking the secret passage away.
Okay?
Okay.
I want rolling ninjas.
I want people.
Chopping my tomato with theirhands.
I depo.
Francis (05:11):
I desperately want to go to the Ninja Restaurant, but
we're so busy through Christmaswith our two restaurants.
And if you hasn't, haven't triedCatherine Lombardi and you do
live in Central Jersey, uh, orin New Jersey at all.
Catherine Lombardi's a greatItalian restaurants.
It came out beautiful.
Brooklyn Italian.
It came out beautiful.
Mark (05:25):
It's, it's come out very well,
Francis (05:26):
but we're a little busy to get to the Ninja Restaurant,
and I'm so afraid it's gonnaclose and go outta business
before we can get there inJanuary.
So we hope it stays alive untilthen.
Okay.
I have another restaurant.
That actually got two and a halfstars on the Star Ledger, which
is a New Jersey paper.
it seems like the reviewer, CodyKendall, who's a great reviewer,
whom we, we mm-hmm.
Have a lot of respect for, seemto like it.
I can't imagine that.
I would not.
(05:47):
Hate this place.
Um, uh, but who knows?
Let's, let's let, who
Mark (05:51):
knows?
No comments on the food.
And we, because we Oh yeah.
Francis and I haven't eatenthere.
Oh, no food.
So I, so I can't tell youanything about the food in this
restaurant,
Francis (05:58):
but let me, let me tell you.
Theme restaurants.
Mm-hmm.
I have a problem with themerestaurants.
Themes belong in parks.
Um, but they do get two and ahalf stars.
And I'll, and I'll give you thename of it.
It's called, uh, RO, and it's inSouth Orange.
Uh, and you can check it out onthe ledger, but here are a few
things from it.
Tiki torches, wave offlamboyant.
Welcome in front of Ro.
I got a problem with that rightthere.
Tiki torches in South Orange,New
Mark (06:19):
Jersey.
Is it Tiki torches or flamboyantWelcomes that you have a problem
with.
Tiki
Francis (06:22):
torches.
Tiki torches in snow in SouthOrange.
I got a problem with.
Um, but here's the big draw.
Upstairs is the champagne loftwhere the real relaxing is done
on beds.
Replete with pillows.
Allah, south
Mark (06:34):
Beach.
Now, for those of you not fromthe northeast, this whole bed
restaurant craze seems to have,seems to be catching on.
And I can't really figure itout.
Here's the
Francis (06:43):
deal.
they put a bed upstairs in therestaurant and you can go
upstairs and there's an actualbed that you can lay on with
pillows and have your champagneor your wine or whatever, but or
your tapas.
Or your crackers?
Listen, I throw my girlfriendoutta bed for eating in bed.
Okay.
In case you're not allowed toeat in my bed.
In my house.
Why would I want a bed in therestaurant?
You know what?
I don't understand.
I mean, you can't even do thefun things sometimes is
Mark (07:03):
about, is about 15 minutes out of New York City.
Mm-hmm.
Why does a bedroom communityneed a bedroom restaurant?
Please explain that one.
What, what's the thrill here of,of, I mean, I get a little ooky
going into, into a hotel roomwhere people have stayed on the,
beds and now I'm gonna go into arestaurant, the bed where other
people are eating on the bedsand yeah, I
Francis (07:24):
don't get it.
Check this out though.
But if you're looking in it, ifyou're looking for a place to
kick back and feel more with itthan the average restaurant,
Varo could suit you.
You're also able, able tolinger.
The bar stays open a half hourlater than the kitchen.
That's not really with it, youknow?
You know what I mean?
Was it like 11
Mark (07:39):
four hours later than the kitchen?
You get home in time for thelate show?
You know,
Francis (07:42):
I don't get it.
And also voros more about beingthere than anything else.
Mark (07:46):
You know what I love though, being where there's,
there's a picture in the ledgerof the restaurant.
Yeah.
Everybody's at table's.
Nobody's on the beds,
Francis (07:51):
of course.
'cause you're really ridiculous.
Isn't an adult.
Yeah.
It's
Mark (07:53):
a little creepy.
Being in a restaurant on a bed.
On a bed.
Okay.
It's too creepy for me.
Francis (07:57):
Please come to stage left.
And Catherine Lombardirestaurants in downtown New
Brunswick.
We have only chairs to offer youno beds.
And, uh, we'll be talking in amoment with a couple of
Louisiana, uh, shrimp fishermenabout what's going down with the
American shrimpers in Louisiana,uh, some of the best product in
the world, some of the bestshrimp you've ever had, and
there's some interesting stuffgoing on down there.
You'll be back in just a moment.
You're listening to theRestaurant Guys, And we have
(08:20):
with us a couple of specialguests today.
Charlie and Kim Chauvin, thirdgeneration Louisiana shrimpers
and owners of the shrimpcompany, Mariah, Jade.
Uh, you may not have ever eatenAmerican shrimp and you may not
know it, you may not realizethat.
Almost all the shrimp you buy inyour market is from abroad and
pretty much dumped on theAmerican market.
You've probably never had freshshrimp and that's a shame'cause
there's nothing like it.
(08:40):
The, the non frozen shrimp thatyou're likely to buy in your
market was frozen at one time,and it's just been thought out.
Trust me, I used to think thatwasn't the case, but it really
is.
There's nothing like freshshrimp.
There's nothing like American,Louisiana, fresh, fresh shrimp.
And our shrimpers were in alittle bit of trouble before the
hurricanes of this year, and nowthey face even greater
challenges.
And to talk about that situationwe have with us.
Kim Chauvin on the phone.
Hi Kim.
Kim (09:01):
Hi, how you doing?
Hi,
Mark (09:02):
Kim.
Welcome to the show.
Kim (09:03):
Hi.
Thank you.
Thank
Francis (09:05):
you.
Did I, did I get that, uh,analysis of the situation fairly
accurate?
Kim (09:09):
Uh, yes.
Yes.
We had our big problems with,dumping by the six countries
that we have a, that we went tothe ITC for.
Mm-hmm.
Can you
Mark (09:19):
help?
Can you help talk to our, ourlisteners, they may not know
what dumping is,
Kim (09:23):
um, which is six countries, try to bring in shrimp to the
eu, which was denied because ofthe antibiotics and chemicals on
the shrimp
Speaker 4 (09:32):
uhhuh.
Mm-hmm.
Kim (09:33):
Therefore, it was all thrown into the United States
market.
Due to, um, there wasn't enoughtesting going on in in the past,
which we are trying to correctat this present time to have it
tested more increasingly by theFDA.
Francis (09:49):
Well, let's talk a little bit about the differences
between American Gulf shrimpthat's, that's harvested from
the ocean by people like youand, uh, and the shrimp that's
coming in from the market.
Now you guys get your shrimp by,well, going out into boats into
the ocean and catching shrimp.
Isn't that right?
Correct, correct.
And the shrimp that's coming infrom, from foreign places and
being dumped on the market, howis that shrimp caught?
Kim (10:09):
Uh, in a pond?
It's actually in a pond thatthey drain and, uh, have the
shrimp come out on conveyors.
Uh, it, it's a little differentbecause they have no taste,
Mark (10:21):
because it's not the ocean.
Kim (10:23):
Well, uh, there there's no taste.
It's, it's a bland shrimp
Mark (10:27):
uhhuh,
Kim (10:27):
uh, compared to the.
shrimp that we have in harvest.
And, and this is not just frommy say so.
The customers that I have acrossthe United States have sent me
emails saying, oh my goodness.
Mm-hmm.
This is what shrimp is supposedto taste like.
And,
Mark (10:43):
and there's no question about it.
It it is, and it's not justflavor, it's also texture.
You can really tell when you geta fresh American shrimp, the
difference in taste or evenfrozen American shrimp or even a
frozen American shrimp.
That's true.
The difference in taste andtexture Between those and the
imported shrimp is, it's acompletely different thing.
Francis (11:00):
Well, let's talk about how that, that foreign shrimp is
made.
That's aquaculture shrimp.
In other words, like you said,they take a pond, they drain the
pond, they fill the pond up andthey feed the shrimp.
It's a shrimp farming operation,which is a cheap way to make
shrimp.
But you know, like wild animalshave more, more flavor than than
domesticated animals.
wild shrimp have more flavorthan than shrimp grown in these
(11:20):
ponds and.
When you grow shrimp in theseponds, they can do a lot of
damage to the environment.
Right.
And in addition, you know, likeyou said, to keep the shrimp
healthy in, in an unnatural way,they throw in a lot of
antibiotics.
And the shrimp don't have a lotof flavor.
Mark (11:35):
And, and a lot of people aren't educated about this.
And that's, that's one of thereasons we're doing this show
right now, right, is to educatepeople and let them know that
there should be a difference inthe price of these two things.
There's a, there, it's much moreexpensive to go out into your
small family boat and, fish forshrimp than it is to.
You know, have this aqua farm,and grow shrimp there.
Francis (11:56):
Now, now, uh, I had read some old, some outdated
statistics, but that in 2000,the price of pound, the
shrimpers down in the Gulf weregetting was three bucks a pound.
And then I read by 2003 it hadhad gone down to a buck 85 a
pound.
Where, where is it now?
Uh,
Kim (12:09):
I think it's right at two.
Mm-hmm.
Francis (12:11):
And what's it cost and what does it cost to go and get
shrimp out of the gulf?
Kim (12:16):
Uh, what's
Francis (12:18):
your break even?
Kim (12:19):
Well, what it is is that you have to catch a lot of
shrimp, right,
Speaker 4 (12:24):
in
Kim (12:24):
order to hecken to break even.
But we've done something alittle differently from most
fishermen in the United States.
We've taken ours on a retaillevel.
We're putting it on theinternet.
Um, what people are getting.
It's straight off of our vessel
Speaker 4 (12:36):
Uhhuh.
Mm-hmm.
Kim (12:37):
Straight to their kitchens.
Francis (12:38):
Now how do you, now this is an interesting thing,
and I wanna talk about, I wannatalk more in depth about what
happened.
I wanna talk about thehurricanes down there.
Mm-hmm.
Um, but you have, and one of thereasons we asked you to come on
the show is because you havedecided to market your shrimp as
a premium product.
And I think that's the way a lotof American ag, agriculture, and
fisheries are gonna survive.
Mark (12:55):
It's, it's the way a lot of small farmers are surviving.
They're, they're surviving bydoing things more direct.
and there are more lines ofcommunication open.
Direct for, for any fisherman orfarmer now to go direct to
Fisher.
So how
Francis (13:07):
do you get your shrimp to a consumer?
Do they go to a website andorder it?
What, how does that work and howdo you ship it?
Kim (13:13):
Actually, our, we've been in the, in the media quite a bit
just due to the dumping case andabout the wild American shrimp
and, uh, just all the thingsthat have gone on in our
industry.
So we've had that little edge upwhere people have.
Evidently Googled my name, Uhhuhand have found me Uhhuh, uh,
(13:33):
which is a great thing becausethat's what really pushed me to
get it on the internet because Iwould guarantee what they're
getting they've probably neverhad before.
Speaker 4 (13:43):
Absolutely.
Secondly,
Kim (13:45):
that the taste is going to be phenomenal over anything out
of any grocery store they'veever had.
Francis (13:50):
if you haven't had American shrimp, you really are
in the.
For a, it's completely,completely a different product.
And you, if you're buying inthis local fish market, local
supermarket, you probably havenot had American shrimp.
Now you, you ship just frozen oryou ship fresh and frozen.
Kim (14:06):
We will be doing fresh and frozen.
Right now it's just frozen.
It's frozen within 30 minutesoff the deck.
Mm-hmm.
You know what I'm saying?
Off of our boat is frozen 30minutes.
I only keep it so much time,which would be maybe about two
weeks, and I get rid ofeverything
Francis (14:20):
you if, if you, for your Christmas holiday, for your
New Year's party to get somereal wild American fresh shrimp
or frozen shrimp if you're afoodie.
Absolutely will blow your guestsaway.
You'll never,
Mark (14:30):
you'll never go back
Francis (14:31):
and totally different than when you get in the market
in that little platter.
I can't recommend enough thatyou try the American shrimp Now,
um, Kim, you come from.
Uh, Chauvin, Louisiana.
Is that correct?
Correct.
So that bears your name, doesn'tit?
Kim (14:44):
Uh, yes, but, uh, that's more my husband's side of the
family.
Francis (14:48):
Well, I was gonna say that sounds like you got a
family that has some deep rootsdown there.
Kim (14:51):
Uh, yeah.
They, we've been down here forquite a long time.
A lot of, uh, descendants from,I think Nova Scotia came down
here.
We've been here for some time.
Francis (15:02):
Well, now what is the life of a shrimper like?
I mean, you know, when we talkabout, we talk a lot about
farmers, we talk to a lot aboutfarmers and we talk about trying
to preserve that way of life andit's a hard way of life.
Yeah, I
Mark (15:11):
think, I think everybody's got the, uh, you know, Bubba
Gump shrimp company is what theythink about when they think
shrimp.
What's
Francis (15:17):
I know.
So why don't you enlighten us?
Yeah.
With your family operationthere, you have a small company.
Is your whole family involved?
How does it work?
What do you do?
My.
Kim (15:24):
My whole family is involved from my 9-year-old daughter to
my 17-year-old son.
I have a, I have a 15-year-oldson also.
My 17-year-old just purchasedhis first boat.
He's been saving since he wasseven.
Speaker 4 (15:37):
Wow.
To do
Kim (15:37):
this.
He's been, we, we all workedtogether before the dumping.
It was more to this, uh, way oflife where, um.
When we were, when my childrenwere little, we would all
GoBoard the boat and work.
Um, and, and it was a lot ofquality family time.
There's no world, uh,interruptions.
There's no telephone, you know?
(15:58):
Mm-hmm.
We have telephone, but it's not,you know.
You don't have 10 people callingyou at one time.
Speaker 6 (16:02):
Not on a boat, I would imagine.
Kim (16:03):
Right, right, right.
Well, you're out on a boat.
Nice.
It's your family.
Speaker 6 (16:06):
Mm-hmm.
Kim (16:07):
Yes.
You do a lot of stuff.
But anyway, we work alltogether.
And then when my children gotolder, we, you know, of course,
stopped for school and myhusband would go out with deck
hands, which he brings two othermen with him on the boat.
Mm-hmm.
Um, and in the summertime wewould go and it was like our
family vacation because we justhad so much time to spend with
each other.
And it was really fun.
We taught our kids how to cook.
(16:28):
They know how to, you know.
Wash clothes.
I mean, just the whole, thewhole nine yards.
They knew how to do things forthemselves.
Speaker 6 (16:35):
But it's a lot of hard work when you're out there.
Kim (16:38):
It is, but you don't notice it when you're with your family.
Speaker 6 (16:41):
Mm-hmm.
Kim (16:41):
It's more now my husband is having a really hard time
staying out all, you know,during the summer because, you
know, he's away from his familya lot.
Mm-hmm.
Except for my 9-year-old goesout there, she loves this stuff.
It's like a biology class all initself.
Um, for her.
And even my older boys, I mean,they love doing it.
(17:02):
My 17-year-old just got moreinvolved in it.
Um, so the change came in like2000.
I.
2001 was, well, you know, we,
Francis (17:13):
I wanna talk more about the change when we come back
from the news.
We're talking with Kim Chave.
She's a third generationLouisiana shrimper.
Her whole family's involved in ashrimping operation down in
Louisiana.
And our American shrimpers arein trouble.
And our American shrimp is someof the best shrimp in the world.
And we need to take some actionand we need to eat some good
food and do good by doing well.
We'll talk more about what youcan do in just a moment and
what's going on, especially inlight of the hurricanes when we
(17:33):
come back from the news.
You're listening to theRestaurant guys, central Jersey
1450 to time is 1130.
Our guest today is Kim Chauvin.
She is a third generationLouisiana shrimper.
She owns a shrimp company withher husband and her family
called the Mariah Jade ShrimpCompany.
You may not have ever had reallygreat American shrimp.
It's much more flavorful thanwhat you see in the markets, and
(17:56):
you can buy it direct from anAmerican welcome back, Kim.
I.
Thanks.
Thanks.
Mark (18:02):
So Francis and I talk a lot about, uh, supporting the
family farm and things likethat.
Realize that this is, this is,you know, a, a family business,
a small family business.
Now this is just you, yourhusband, a couple deckhands and
your family.
Is that true, Kim?
Kim (18:14):
Uh, two of the deckhands run the, the boat side.
Mm-hmm.
With my husband, he is thecaptain and he has two deckhands
aboard the boat.
On the home base side, it's me.
Speaker 4 (18:24):
Mm-hmm.
Uhhuh,
Kim (18:25):
I deliver, uh, around here.
Also send off the shipment, youknow, get what needs to be done,
done.
Francis (18:34):
after we had, uh, dumping and dumping is where we
had a lot of foreign countriesare dumping very cheap
aquaculture, mediocre shrimp onthe market and really taking
Mark (18:42):
Vietnam, Vietnam, China, Thailand, a lot of places like
that.
Indonesia, India, uh, have kindof come in and, and.
Taking the bottom
Francis (18:48):
outta the price, right?
Put a lot of
Mark (18:50):
of these farm raised shrimp into the marketplace,
dropping the prices a lot.
Francis (18:53):
So what I have here is, is you went to Nickel State
University to study marketingand financial management and
helped to start your retailbusiness.
Why don't you tell us aboutthat?
Kim (19:01):
that was one of the first steps, Uhhuh.
What happened was we had a fewbusiness leaders in.
Around our, what we call parish.
You guys have a county, uh, thatstepped it to the plate and kind
of took me under their wing and,uh, kind of guided me on what to
do.
So the first thing I did wastook the class.
It was a 12 week class that Ihad, uh, taken.
(19:23):
And, you know, at, at first youkind of wondering, okay, how
much is this gonna help me?
it did a great, great thing forme.
We have been blessed beyondbelief in getting a lot of
things done.
Uh.
I was able to go into this classand learn from A to Z what I
needed to do, uh, to develop amarketing business, get on the
internet and such.
Speaker 6 (19:44):
And, and how's the business doing?
Kim (19:46):
Um, well, you know, everything starts to crawl, uh,
in, in a crawl place and thenyou begin to walk.
And that's exactly whathappened.
It took us a little longer, um,because we had to figure out,
when you're dealing with food,there's a whole different thing
when you're just dealing with,Nonfood products.
Speaker 4 (20:03):
Right, right.
Kim (20:04):
Um, so you have to go through the health department.
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 4 (20:06):
You have
Kim (20:06):
to go through your state department, then you have to
get, you know, um, regulationsfrom all your federal parts.
Uh, so we, we did a, a good bitof that, has all that set up.
Francis (20:17):
one of the things that's very interesting is in
the march of sort ofagribusiness and huge companies
taking over American foodproduction, they can always do
it cheaper than the smallfarmer.
Mm-hmm.
Or the small fishermen, but.
They often can't do it as well.
And you know what, Kim was facedwith is if she went to go sell
her shrimp to a processor, it'sgonna wind up in the same box of
(20:37):
frozen stuff as, as shrimp fromanywhere else.
And, and you're not gonna beable to differentiate the
product on the shelves.
What you need to do out there,and what our mission is, is, you
know, good taste isrevolutionary.
You have to be able to say,yeah, I don't want that garbage.
Foreign aquaculture shrimpdoesn't taste like anything.
I want American shrimp.
And, and that's exactly what youget from, from, and not just
(20:58):
American
Mark (20:59):
shrimp, wild American shrimp.
Yeah.
Correct.
Um, Kim, can you tell us alittle bit about, now obviously
you guys were, were devastatedby Katrina.
Can you tell us a little bitabout how that, has affected
your business and how thataffected you?
It's been a bad weather year foryou guys down there.
Yeah,
Kim (21:14):
it has been un phenomenal for us.
Um, something we were neverexpecting.
That
Mark (21:19):
un phenomenal, un phenomenal is a great word.
Kim (21:22):
I like that.
Mark (21:23):
Anti phenomenal.
I'm, I'm adding that to mylexicon
Francis (21:25):
starting today.
So, so tell us how, how did theweather, how's the weather
affected you and your neighborsdown there?
Kim (21:31):
Um, well, Katrina was more wind in our, in, in.
Our fishing part of, of thecommunity.
Um, it devastated another couplefishing areas off to the, uh,
off to the east of us.
Mm-hmm.
Which, when I say devastated,there's nothing left on the
land.
The boats are sunk or turnedover and such.
(21:54):
But over here we had a lot ofwind damage and such.
Our boats were fine.
We did not get water for Katrinain, in our fishing area.
Which everyone knows whathappened with Katrina on that
end of it in New Orleans, butRita came and hit the Western
end and hit the western side ofanother fishing community.
(22:15):
And I'm talking there are nohouses left.
Speaker 4 (22:17):
Wow.
On
Kim (22:18):
this land, just as in Venice.
There are no houses left on theeast side in Venice.
In the central part ofLouisiana, what happened was, is
now this thing came off 150miles off of our coast.
We have a serious problem withcoastal erosion.
We have no barrier islands left.
Mark (22:38):
Mm-hmm.
Kim (22:38):
And it will take billions of dollars to put this back
together.
You
Mark (22:43):
said billions, right?
Kim (22:44):
I said billions and I really mean billions.
Mm-hmm.
Um, what happened to
Francis (22:48):
the, what happened to the barrier islands?
They just,
Kim (22:50):
uh, coastal erosion.
They've been doing studies sincethe sixties and it seems that
we've, we've put money into it.
We have a tax in our parish thatputs money into it, which the
state matches, which you go toget a grant, uh, to have it
matched on the federal level.
And every year we go there, weget pushed back.
Speaker 4 (23:10):
Mm-hmm.
Kim (23:11):
Because it's not important enough evidently in Washington
DC
Speaker 4 (23:15):
Right.
Kim (23:15):
Um, but anyway, with the barrier islands.
Missing.
And such.
I mean, we have people who ttrawl where they could not trawl
five years ago, right?
Speaker 4 (23:24):
Mm-hmm.
Kim (23:25):
You know, so the water came in our levies that we had broken
33 places.
We have houses that are 10 footoff the ground.
They got three to four foot ofwater in them.
Mark (23:35):
And this was actually from Rita, not from Katrina.
Kim (23:37):
This is from Rita.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
You hear a lot about Katrina,and that was devastating enough,
but Rita was just asdevastating.
Mark (23:45):
How far out of New Orleans are you guys?
Kim (23:46):
I am about an hour and a half.
50 miles.
Mm-hmm.
About 50
Francis (23:49):
miles now is, now is, is part of the problem now for
you guys that theinfrastructure's gone, that the
places to land and sell yourshrimp and, and all the support
structures that, how's that beenaffected?
Kim (23:58):
We've had some that have totally been, you know,
decimated.
They're, they're like, there'snothing left but the cement on
the ground.
And then some of that's evenbroken up.
Um, we have a lot more places inthe central part of Louisiana.
All we had to do was follow ourhassa um, guides, which is your.
State and federal regulationsabout what to do in case of a
(24:19):
flood, uh, if any of yourproduct has been hit with any of
the water.
Mm-hmm.
You know, and, and which wasdestroyed and, and pulled off
the market and getting in thereand cleaning with bleach and,
and hospital cleaners and suchto where everything is back to
normal.
So we were able to come back andjust took us a couple weeks to
get that done.
I, on the other hand, I'm alittle different.
I'm not a processor.
(24:40):
Um, I, we took our shrimp out ofour freezer, which we have
online, and put it right backinto our boat before the storm
came so that we were fine.
Oh, that's, that's great.
We would lose absolutelynothing.
Francis (24:51):
And I understand you had to actually move onto your
boat for a little while'causeyour house was so damaged.
Kim (24:55):
Uh, we did move onto our boat.
That is, that's a normal thingaround here.
But after
Mark (25:01):
we don't move onto our boats a lot around here in
Jersey.
Yeah.
It's not happen.
Kim (25:05):
Well, our, our boat is like a 73 foot steel hall.
All the accommodations of home.
Speaker 4 (25:11):
Wow.
Kim (25:12):
Um, it, I mean, it has three bedrooms, uh, queen size
beds.
It has a bathroom.
You know, you
Francis (25:17):
know, Kim, if I come down there, I want you to invite
me to your boat for a party.
That would be, that would be alot of fun.
Mark (25:21):
Kim, we were just talking a little bit about, uh,
obviously the effects of Katrinaand, and even more so in your
area, the effects of Rita.
Are there areas that, that you,you're not supposed to be
shrimping now that, that, uh,off the coast of Louisiana,
that, that people have told youyou shouldn't be shrimping in?
Kim (25:37):
No, no.
What we did was.
The day after Katrina hit, uh,we got on our phones because one
of the things was the, the priceof fuel shot up.
Mm-hmm.
So
Mark (25:47):
we remember
Kim (25:48):
before, I'm gonna pay $30,000 to put into my vessel.
Mark (25:52):
Mm-hmm.
Kim (25:52):
I'm gonna make sure that everything is fine, you know, to
where I can sell the products.
Speaker 4 (25:57):
Right.
So
Kim (25:57):
we went in, I stayed on the phone all day that very next
day, uh, and even went up toBaton Rouge, got in touch with,
uh, EPA.
Which is EnvironmentalProtection Agency, FDA, um, DEQ,
uh, department of EnvironmentalQuality and Department of Health
and Hospitals.
We wanted testing done.
Speaker 4 (26:16):
Mm-hmm.
Kim (26:17):
Uh, so that was one of the things that I did, you know, the
day after we started calling andsaid, look, you know, you guys
have got to come down here andtest.
We need, um, if we can get backto work, I could, I could fix
what was wrong with my house,right.
Speaker 4 (26:28):
And,
Kim (26:28):
and get things done here.
I could do that, but I wanted myhusband to get back out to work
to where, you know, we can justget back to a semblance of.
Normalcy as, as soon aspossible,
Speaker 4 (26:37):
right.
Kim (26:38):
Um, so they came down, they did a lot of testing.
We requested tissue samplesdone.
Uh, also within, you know, whatwas coming out of, of the media
in New Orleans without any factswas that this stuff was really
bad.
Speaker 4 (26:55):
Mm-hmm.
Uhhuh.
And
Kim (26:55):
so, um, before I'm gonna feed it to my kids and before I
want anybody else need it, Iwanted to make sure that this
was something that,
Speaker 6 (27:02):
and what were the results of that test?
Kim (27:04):
Um, actually everything's fine.
That's right.
Everything is fine.
That's right.
The only thing that you have isthe oysters.
They are continually beingtested because they're, they're
not a movable object.
Right.
That stay sitting on the bed ofthe, uh, of the Gulf.
Speaker 4 (27:16):
Right.
Kim (27:17):
So, um, that was the only thing, and the oyster fishermen
and all those related, and itcalled a meeting.
We went the week after Katrinahit, uh, into a meeting and they
called for a halt, you know,like.
Anything after Katrina, uh, youweren't supposed to be out
there.
And so they all knew that andthat wasn't even being done.
Speaker 6 (27:35):
But that's oysters, not shrimp,
Kim (27:37):
right?
Shrimp is fine.
Everything.
We just got another report outDecember 9th saying that um,
they have tested hundreds ofsamples of fish and shellfish,
uh, and everything's fine.
There's no concern.
Francis (27:50):
Alright, so we know that we can have our American
trip for Christmas.
I gotta ask you a questionthough.
So did you ride out the storm onyour boat?
Kim (27:56):
Katrina, I did not.
Um, when it went to a five, Itook my kids, my husband would
not leave, which was reallyfrustrating.
And um, I.
We took off, we went to Vidder,Texas,
Speaker 4 (28:10):
Uhhuh,
Kim (28:11):
and it was a very, very hard thing to do, but I really
felt like it was probably, youknow,
Speaker 6 (28:15):
out, you gotta protect your kids.
Sure, of course.
Francis (28:17):
Yeah.
But your husband stayed on theboat.
He stayed.
What is it like to ride out acategory five hurricane?
On a boat.
Kim (28:25):
Well, you have to realize it really wasn't a five hitting
where we were.
Mm-hmm.
Um, okay.
Category three,
Speaker 4 (28:31):
I, I don't walk outside when it's thundering.
Okay.
It,
Kim (28:35):
it's something that we're used to though.
You have to realize we are usedto staying aboard our boats.
Speaker 4 (28:39):
Right.
This
Kim (28:40):
is what we do because, uh, in the house your electricity
will go off.
Um, and my boat, it will not.
We have a generator
Speaker 4 (28:46):
right on
Kim (28:47):
this boat.
Um, we rode out Andrew Uhhuh onthe boat.
When it hit into Louisiana.
Now, if he, if he had not, youbarely feel it.
Francis (28:54):
If he had not stayed on the boat, would the boat have
been lost?
Kim (28:57):
No, the boat would've been fine.
Mm-hmm.
And, but after I tell you this,after he's seen the pictures of
Venice
Speaker 4 (29:03):
Uhhuh, he
Kim (29:03):
will never stay when it's coming for us again.
Speaker 4 (29:07):
Right.
Kim (29:07):
You know, he, he was, I guess it was amazing to see what
Mother Nature could do at theforces of nature.
Could do.
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (29:15):
Uh,
Kim (29:16):
when you know, when you think you're safe.
And you're really not safe.
And I think a lot of it had todo with this.
People were told this would notbe, you know, this was similar
to Betsy
Speaker 4 (29:25):
Uhhuh in
Kim (29:26):
New Orleans.
Well, some people only had sixinches of water.
I.
Speaker 4 (29:29):
Right.
For
Kim (29:30):
Betsy.
Speaker 4 (29:30):
For Betsy,
Kim (29:31):
but we're talking 30 years later with no barrier islands
out there.
Mm-hmm.
No protection for our coast.
Francis (29:38):
You know, one of the things that, I mean, you bring
up a really great point and you,you know, the oceans better, you
know the Gulf better than thananybody up here.
Mm-hmm.
Um.
That, you know, badenvironmental policy if you, you
know, it was similar to Betsy.
Yeah.
30 years later.
And the difference is no barrierislands, we haven't done a good
job stewarding the land.
And so yeah, hurricanes happen,but how they affect people
(30:00):
depends on how well we take careof the land that we're given.
I mean, is that, do you agreewith that?
Kim (30:05):
Yeah.
But there needs, there, we haveto put a lot of land back.
Francis (30:08):
Mm-hmm.
Kim (30:08):
Something has to be done about coastal erosion until, and
we have done.
Short term items and you know,you need money to do this thing.
This
Speaker 4 (30:17):
is
Kim (30:17):
huge and they've let it go so long.
Mm-hmm.
That, you know, to be honestwith you, if another hurricane
would come this way for thecentral part, we would look
exactly like those who have beenwiped off the face of Venice and
Cameron and such.
My house will not stand four orfive coming straight at us.
Francis (30:37):
Do you think, do you think the, the American
shrimpers, the gulf shrimpers,do you think the industry's
gonna come back?
Kim (30:42):
Yes.
You had some that were gettingout anyway.
Mm-hmm.
Because they could not, uh,adapt.
To the change.
And then money-wise
Mark (30:51):
you mean?
You mean adapt to the change inthe, in the financial
marketplace.
Adapt to the, to, to
Kim (30:56):
Right.
Adapt to retailing.
Mm-hmm.
Adapt to getting out.
What it is is that it is hardwork.
It's very hard work to do whatwe do, but my husband loves it.
It, it's, it's a part of himtaking him out of this business
would be taking apart of him,you know, away.
And that would, I'm not intodestroying anything.
Uh.
And I had looked at him and Iknew he would be very miserable
(31:17):
having to pull out of this.
So we, I just sat here andfigured out what I would have to
do, what it would take for us tomake it in this, Hey, listen and
went after it.
And I'm a very persistentperson.
Francis (31:29):
Listen, I think that's really great and I think that,
uh, what you guys are doing downthere is phenomenal and the
product that you make issuperior.
And what you all have to do outthere listening to this
broadcast is you need to havegood taste and you need to have
the good taste to recognize thatthe American Gulf Shrimp is a
better product and worth alittle bit of effort.
Kim (31:45):
Yes, it is.
But I wanted to tell you guysone thing.
We do have an uh, a boatblessing and you guys are
invited to come down.
It will be something you willnever forget.
Mark (31:54):
Very nice.
We'll be in
Francis (31:55):
touch and maybe we'll even do a live show from down
there.
Thanks for taking the time tocome and talk with us, Kim.
You're doing great stuff downthere and we'll try and help
anyway we can.
Kim (32:02):
Okay, thank you.
You guys have a good day.
Francis (32:04):
Keep fishing for that American shrimp.
Kim (32:06):
Okay.
Bye-bye.
Francis (32:07):
Bye-bye.
You're listening to theRestaurant Guys, And our guest
(32:31):
today was Kim Chauvin.
She's an American shrimper.
They've been shrimping downthere forever.
It's kind of the heart of Cajuncountry and I can't emphasize to
you all enough, you rarely seefresh shrimp the shrimp that you
buy in the market is not fresh.
It's frozen shrimp that's beenthawed.
Um, and it's probably from anaquaculture, farm.
Oh, most definitely.
Mark (32:49):
I mean, somewhere else there's just this very little,
wild shrimp out there.
Francis (32:53):
And, and, and shrimp is, you know, sort of a vehicle
for cocktail sauce.
Mm-hmm.
But really great live shrimp.
We get it.
We get it.
On the wholesale market onlyoccasionally, but when we do, my
God, it's really amazing.
Anyway, I hope you've enjoyedthe hour listening to the
restaurant.
Guys.
I'm Francis Shot.
And
Mark (33:07):
I'm Mark Pascal.
Francis (33:08):
We are the restaurant guys, central Jersey 1450.
The time is 12 noon.
Good morning, mark.
Morning Francis.
How are you this morning?
I'm ACEs.
Francis (00:45):
You seem to have a little more pepper this morning.
Yes, I have that.
I think that has to do with thefact that you ate a quarter
pound of m and m.
Mark (00:52):
Well, you know, you know one of our guilty pleasures is
candy.
Yeah.
You and I love it.
One of, one of the big momentshere at the radio station.
Yeah.
They got toone in the candymachine for a little while.
It's all gone though.
I don't know where it went.
You need a life, man.
Really?
Toone, you know, come on.
My, whenever my father would goto Europe when I was a little
kid before Toone was availablein this country.
(01:13):
Mm-hmm.
He'd always bring back one ofthe, like one of those big bars
of Toone.
You know, it's funny, the thingabout chocolate
Francis (01:20):
is where, where you get chocolate from is very
different.
Even the Nestle company.
Oh, absolutely.
A big company, if you buy Nestlechocolate in Europe, it tastes
different.
It's very different than thechocolate we have here.
It tastes different and theyactually, they, they say that
American chocolate is, for thefirst time more Americans
prefer.
Bittersweet chocolate, darkchocolate.
Mm-hmm.
Than they do, than prefer milkchocolate, which is actually
Mark (01:40):
just a couple years ago, Toone came out with the, with
the dark chocolate Toone bar.
Oh yeah.
It is.
I gotta tell you, for, for massproduced candy that you can buy
on the shelves of most, mostgrocery stores, extra dark toone
is yummy.
I'm all in, man.
Sorry.
I'm all in.
So there you go.
For those of you who think therestaurant guys are pretentious
and stuffy, we're not snooty.
(02:01):
Every once in a while we have alittle lerone.
Okay.
My mic is good.
Uh,
Francis (02:04):
we for, but we are a little snooty and, uh, and to
pat ourselves in the back, we'vebeen getting email through our,
our webcast, which areapproaching 50 thousands in
people.
Are we crazy?
Yeah.
What's wrong with all of you?
So, one of the interestingthings about it is we're in this
little radio station in CentralJersey eating Toone, um, and
doing great here in the CentralJersey listening area.
Um, but we're also.
Pretty widely spread around theworld.
(02:25):
And one of the very interestingthing is to get the emails from
you all around the world.
Please keep sending them.
We love it.
Um, here's one.
Uh, hi guys.
I just started subscribing tothe podcast and I love the show.
I am an executive chef at SewardWindsong Lodge in Seward, Alaska
Mark (02:40):
that's far away,
Francis (02:41):
as well as president of our local public radio station.
Your shows are a refreshingwindow into the restaurant
world.
I'm sorry
Mark (02:46):
it's not far away from Juno, but it's far away from New
Brunswick, New Jersey.
Francis (02:49):
Keep up the great work, and if I'm ever in Jersey
someday, I'll stop by yourestablishment.
Eric, Eric, thanks a lot.
I'm not, I'm not gonna leave thelight on for you, but if you're
ever coming down, let us know.
Now.
Another email we got, in thesame week, is from, uh, Tsuji in
Tokyo, uh, and this is fromTsuji in Tokyo.
Hi, my name is Tsuji and I liveover in Tokyo and love your show
(03:10):
since I stumbled across it aweek ago.
I've been busy the past few dayslistening to all of your
previous shows on iTunes.
I was listening to one of yourshows where you mentioned the
ninja themed restaurant in NewYork City.
And guess what?
It's the same as the owners ofthe Ninja Saka restaurant in
Tokyo.
Saka being a neighborhood inTokyo, I was there for dinner
back in February and it was alsosubterranean with the drawbridge
that comes down after a secretpassword is mumbled, yada, yada,
(03:31):
yada.
I love the drawbridge.
Come on.
Wait.
Staff all dressed up in ninjaoutfits, et cetera and so forth.
Um, the entire experience wasidentical to the one you sub you
described, except that here inTokyo, the big difference is
it's not pretentious.
There are no a hundred dollarstasting menus.
It's kind of a casual.
Dining bar, basically.
The one in Tokyo is for a gag.
It's for
Mark (03:50):
fun.
It's for fun.
That was the whole idea.
For
Francis (03:53):
those of you who missed that show, there's a restaurant
in New York City called Ninja.
Hype.
Um, and, uh, ninja is a themerestaurant, which is full of
hocus pocus.
And, but the dinners, there'slike the menus tasting menu
started a hundred,$150 a person.
Yeah.
I wish
Mark (04:07):
Ninja were a little bit more stealth.
Oh my goodness.
Francis (04:10):
And it's
Mark (04:10):
terrible.
Francis (04:11):
Yeah, it's terrible.
Uh, and it got a horrible reviewin the New York Times.
You can go look that up in theNew York Times.
Oh,
Mark (04:15):
got it.
Got literally
Francis (04:16):
crushed.
And the thing about horriblereviews in the New York Times.
Sometimes the horrible ones aremore fun to read than the other
ones, unless, of course,
Mark (04:26):
I gotta tell you, I love, unless of course it's
Francis (04:27):
your restaurant.
Mark (04:28):
I love to read one of those scathing reviews where,
where the waiter comes in andsays, uh, yes, our, our cake is
made with Verona chocolate.
Yeah.
Where's the Verona chocolatefrom?
Instead of Verona, instead ofVal Ronna chocolate instead of
Val Ronna, which would come fromthe valley of the Rone.
Francis (04:45):
My favorite all time lines, was Frank Bruney.
The New York Times whenreviewing the New York version
of Ninja, said that you show upand they offer you the simple,
straight way, straight to yourtable or through the secret
passageway, which is a bunch ofgarbage.
And, and Frank Bruney recommendsanother way, which is right out
the back door because it's amess.
Mark (05:01):
Come on you.
If I'm going to ninja, I'mtaking the secret passage away.
Okay?
Okay.
I want rolling ninjas.
I want people.
Chopping my tomato with theirhands.
I depo.
Francis (05:11):
I desperately want to go to the Ninja Restaurant, but
we're so busy through Christmaswith our two restaurants.
And if you hasn't, haven't triedCatherine Lombardi and you do
live in Central Jersey, uh, orin New Jersey at all.
Catherine Lombardi's a greatItalian restaurants.
It came out beautiful.
Brooklyn Italian.
It came out beautiful.
Mark (05:25):
It's, it's come out very well,
Francis (05:26):
but we're a little busy to get to the Ninja Restaurant,
and I'm so afraid it's gonnaclose and go outta business
before we can get there inJanuary.
So we hope it stays alive untilthen.
Okay.
I have another restaurant.
That actually got two and a halfstars on the Star Ledger, which
is a New Jersey paper.
it seems like the reviewer, CodyKendall, who's a great reviewer,
whom we, we mm-hmm.
Have a lot of respect for, seemto like it.
I can't imagine that.
I would not.
(05:47):
Hate this place.
Um, uh, but who knows?
Let's, let's let, who
Mark (05:51):
knows?
No comments on the food.
And we, because we Oh yeah.
Francis and I haven't eatenthere.
Oh, no food.
So I, so I can't tell youanything about the food in this
restaurant,
Francis (05:58):
but let me, let me tell you.
Theme restaurants.
Mm-hmm.
I have a problem with themerestaurants.
Themes belong in parks.
Um, but they do get two and ahalf stars.
And I'll, and I'll give you thename of it.
It's called, uh, RO, and it's inSouth Orange.
Uh, and you can check it out onthe ledger, but here are a few
things from it.
Tiki torches, wave offlamboyant.
Welcome in front of Ro.
I got a problem with that rightthere.
Tiki torches in South Orange,New
Mark (06:19):
Jersey.
Is it Tiki torches or flamboyantWelcomes that you have a problem
with.
Tiki
Francis (06:22):
torches.
Tiki torches in snow in SouthOrange.
I got a problem with.
Um, but here's the big draw.
Upstairs is the champagne loftwhere the real relaxing is done
on beds.
Replete with pillows.
Allah, south
Mark (06:34):
Beach.
Now, for those of you not fromthe northeast, this whole bed
restaurant craze seems to have,seems to be catching on.
And I can't really figure itout.
Here's the
Francis (06:43):
deal.
they put a bed upstairs in therestaurant and you can go
upstairs and there's an actualbed that you can lay on with
pillows and have your champagneor your wine or whatever, but or
your tapas.
Or your crackers?
Listen, I throw my girlfriendoutta bed for eating in bed.
Okay.
In case you're not allowed toeat in my bed.
In my house.
Why would I want a bed in therestaurant?
You know what?
I don't understand.
I mean, you can't even do thefun things sometimes is
Mark (07:03):
about, is about 15 minutes out of New York City.
Mm-hmm.
Why does a bedroom communityneed a bedroom restaurant?
Please explain that one.
What, what's the thrill here of,of, I mean, I get a little ooky
going into, into a hotel roomwhere people have stayed on the,
beds and now I'm gonna go into arestaurant, the bed where other
people are eating on the bedsand yeah, I
Francis (07:24):
don't get it.
Check this out though.
But if you're looking in it, ifyou're looking for a place to
kick back and feel more with itthan the average restaurant,
Varo could suit you.
You're also able, able tolinger.
The bar stays open a half hourlater than the kitchen.
That's not really with it, youknow?
You know what I mean?
Was it like 11
Mark (07:39):
four hours later than the kitchen?
You get home in time for thelate show?
You know,
Francis (07:42):
I don't get it.
And also voros more about beingthere than anything else.
Mark (07:46):
You know what I love though, being where there's,
there's a picture in the ledgerof the restaurant.
Yeah.
Everybody's at table's.
Nobody's on the beds,
Francis (07:51):
of course.
'cause you're really ridiculous.
Isn't an adult.
Yeah.
It's
Mark (07:53):
a little creepy.
Being in a restaurant on a bed.
On a bed.
Okay.
It's too creepy for me.
Francis (07:57):
Please come to stage left.
And Catherine Lombardirestaurants in downtown New
Brunswick.
We have only chairs to offer youno beds.
And, uh, we'll be talking in amoment with a couple of
Louisiana, uh, shrimp fishermenabout what's going down with the
American shrimpers in Louisiana,uh, some of the best product in
the world, some of the bestshrimp you've ever had, and
there's some interesting stuffgoing on down there.
You'll be back in just a moment.
You're listening to theRestaurant Guys, And we have
(08:20):
with us a couple of specialguests today.
Charlie and Kim Chauvin, thirdgeneration Louisiana shrimpers
and owners of the shrimpcompany, Mariah, Jade.
Uh, you may not have ever eatenAmerican shrimp and you may not
know it, you may not realizethat.
Almost all the shrimp you buy inyour market is from abroad and
pretty much dumped on theAmerican market.
You've probably never had freshshrimp and that's a shame'cause
there's nothing like it.
(08:40):
The, the non frozen shrimp thatyou're likely to buy in your
market was frozen at one time,and it's just been thought out.
Trust me, I used to think thatwasn't the case, but it really
is.
There's nothing like freshshrimp.
There's nothing like American,Louisiana, fresh, fresh shrimp.
And our shrimpers were in alittle bit of trouble before the
hurricanes of this year, and nowthey face even greater
challenges.
And to talk about that situationwe have with us.
Kim Chauvin on the phone.
Hi Kim.
Kim (09:01):
Hi, how you doing?
Hi,
Mark (09:02):
Kim.
Welcome to the show.
Kim (09:03):
Hi.
Thank you.
Thank
Francis (09:05):
you.
Did I, did I get that, uh,analysis of the situation fairly
accurate?
Kim (09:09):
Uh, yes.
Yes.
We had our big problems with,dumping by the six countries
that we have a, that we went tothe ITC for.
Mm-hmm.
Can you
Mark (09:19):
help?
Can you help talk to our, ourlisteners, they may not know
what dumping is,
Kim (09:23):
um, which is six countries, try to bring in shrimp to the
eu, which was denied because ofthe antibiotics and chemicals on
the shrimp
Speaker 4 (09:32):
uhhuh.
Mm-hmm.
Kim (09:33):
Therefore, it was all thrown into the United States
market.
Due to, um, there wasn't enoughtesting going on in in the past,
which we are trying to correctat this present time to have it
tested more increasingly by theFDA.
Francis (09:49):
Well, let's talk a little bit about the differences
between American Gulf shrimpthat's, that's harvested from
the ocean by people like youand, uh, and the shrimp that's
coming in from the market.
Now you guys get your shrimp by,well, going out into boats into
the ocean and catching shrimp.
Isn't that right?
Correct, correct.
And the shrimp that's coming infrom, from foreign places and
being dumped on the market, howis that shrimp caught?
Kim (10:09):
Uh, in a pond?
It's actually in a pond thatthey drain and, uh, have the
shrimp come out on conveyors.
Uh, it, it's a little differentbecause they have no taste,
Mark (10:21):
because it's not the ocean.
Kim (10:23):
Well, uh, there there's no taste.
It's, it's a bland shrimp
Mark (10:27):
uhhuh,
Kim (10:27):
uh, compared to the.
shrimp that we have in harvest.
And, and this is not just frommy say so.
The customers that I have acrossthe United States have sent me
emails saying, oh my goodness.
Mm-hmm.
This is what shrimp is supposedto taste like.
And,
Mark (10:43):
and there's no question about it.
It it is, and it's not justflavor, it's also texture.
You can really tell when you geta fresh American shrimp, the
difference in taste or evenfrozen American shrimp or even a
frozen American shrimp.
That's true.
The difference in taste andtexture Between those and the
imported shrimp is, it's acompletely different thing.
Francis (11:00):
Well, let's talk about how that, that foreign shrimp is
made.
That's aquaculture shrimp.
In other words, like you said,they take a pond, they drain the
pond, they fill the pond up andthey feed the shrimp.
It's a shrimp farming operation,which is a cheap way to make
shrimp.
But you know, like wild animalshave more, more flavor than than
domesticated animals.
wild shrimp have more flavorthan than shrimp grown in these
(11:20):
ponds and.
When you grow shrimp in theseponds, they can do a lot of
damage to the environment.
Right.
And in addition, you know, likeyou said, to keep the shrimp
healthy in, in an unnatural way,they throw in a lot of
antibiotics.
And the shrimp don't have a lotof flavor.
Mark (11:35):
And, and a lot of people aren't educated about this.
And that's, that's one of thereasons we're doing this show
right now, right, is to educatepeople and let them know that
there should be a difference inthe price of these two things.
There's a, there, it's much moreexpensive to go out into your
small family boat and, fish forshrimp than it is to.
You know, have this aqua farm,and grow shrimp there.
Francis (11:56):
Now, now, uh, I had read some old, some outdated
statistics, but that in 2000,the price of pound, the
shrimpers down in the Gulf weregetting was three bucks a pound.
And then I read by 2003 it hadhad gone down to a buck 85 a
pound.
Where, where is it now?
Uh,
Kim (12:09):
I think it's right at two.
Mm-hmm.
Francis (12:11):
And what's it cost and what does it cost to go and get
shrimp out of the gulf?
Kim (12:16):
Uh, what's
Francis (12:18):
your break even?
Kim (12:19):
Well, what it is is that you have to catch a lot of
shrimp, right,
Speaker 4 (12:24):
in
Kim (12:24):
order to hecken to break even.
But we've done something alittle differently from most
fishermen in the United States.
We've taken ours on a retaillevel.
We're putting it on theinternet.
Um, what people are getting.
It's straight off of our vessel
Speaker 4 (12:36):
Uhhuh.
Mm-hmm.
Kim (12:37):
Straight to their kitchens.
Francis (12:38):
Now how do you, now this is an interesting thing,
and I wanna talk about, I wannatalk more in depth about what
happened.
I wanna talk about thehurricanes down there.
Mm-hmm.
Um, but you have, and one of thereasons we asked you to come on
the show is because you havedecided to market your shrimp as
a premium product.
And I think that's the way a lotof American ag, agriculture, and
fisheries are gonna survive.
Mark (12:55):
It's, it's the way a lot of small farmers are surviving.
They're, they're surviving bydoing things more direct.
and there are more lines ofcommunication open.
Direct for, for any fisherman orfarmer now to go direct to
Fisher.
So how
Francis (13:07):
do you get your shrimp to a consumer?
Do they go to a website andorder it?
What, how does that work and howdo you ship it?
Kim (13:13):
Actually, our, we've been in the, in the media quite a bit
just due to the dumping case andabout the wild American shrimp
and, uh, just all the thingsthat have gone on in our
industry.
So we've had that little edge upwhere people have.
Evidently Googled my name, Uhhuhand have found me Uhhuh, uh,
(13:33):
which is a great thing becausethat's what really pushed me to
get it on the internet because Iwould guarantee what they're
getting they've probably neverhad before.
Speaker 4 (13:43):
Absolutely.
Secondly,
Kim (13:45):
that the taste is going to be phenomenal over anything out
of any grocery store they'veever had.
Francis (13:50):
if you haven't had American shrimp, you really are
in the.
For a, it's completely,completely a different product.
And you, if you're buying inthis local fish market, local
supermarket, you probably havenot had American shrimp.
Now you, you ship just frozen oryou ship fresh and frozen.
Kim (14:06):
We will be doing fresh and frozen.
Right now it's just frozen.
It's frozen within 30 minutesoff the deck.
Mm-hmm.
You know what I'm saying?
Off of our boat is frozen 30minutes.
I only keep it so much time,which would be maybe about two
weeks, and I get rid ofeverything
Francis (14:20):
you if, if you, for your Christmas holiday, for your
New Year's party to get somereal wild American fresh shrimp
or frozen shrimp if you're afoodie.
Absolutely will blow your guestsaway.
You'll never,
Mark (14:30):
you'll never go back
Francis (14:31):
and totally different than when you get in the market
in that little platter.
I can't recommend enough thatyou try the American shrimp Now,
um, Kim, you come from.
Uh, Chauvin, Louisiana.
Is that correct?
Correct.
So that bears your name, doesn'tit?
Kim (14:44):
Uh, yes, but, uh, that's more my husband's side of the
family.
Francis (14:48):
Well, I was gonna say that sounds like you got a
family that has some deep rootsdown there.
Kim (14:51):
Uh, yeah.
They, we've been down here forquite a long time.
A lot of, uh, descendants from,I think Nova Scotia came down
here.
We've been here for some time.
Francis (15:02):
Well, now what is the life of a shrimper like?
I mean, you know, when we talkabout, we talk a lot about
farmers, we talk to a lot aboutfarmers and we talk about trying
to preserve that way of life andit's a hard way of life.
Yeah, I
Mark (15:11):
think, I think everybody's got the, uh, you know, Bubba
Gump shrimp company is what theythink about when they think
shrimp.
What's
Francis (15:17):
I know.
So why don't you enlighten us?
Yeah.
With your family operationthere, you have a small company.
Is your whole family involved?
How does it work?
What do you do?
My.
Kim (15:24):
My whole family is involved from my 9-year-old daughter to
my 17-year-old son.
I have a, I have a 15-year-oldson also.
My 17-year-old just purchasedhis first boat.
He's been saving since he wasseven.
Speaker 4 (15:37):
Wow.
To do
Kim (15:37):
this.
He's been, we, we all workedtogether before the dumping.
It was more to this, uh, way oflife where, um.
When we were, when my childrenwere little, we would all
GoBoard the boat and work.
Um, and, and it was a lot ofquality family time.
There's no world, uh,interruptions.
There's no telephone, you know?
(15:58):
Mm-hmm.
We have telephone, but it's not,you know.
You don't have 10 people callingyou at one time.
Speaker 6 (16:02):
Not on a boat, I would imagine.
Kim (16:03):
Right, right, right.
Well, you're out on a boat.
Nice.
It's your family.
Speaker 6 (16:06):
Mm-hmm.
Kim (16:07):
Yes.
You do a lot of stuff.
But anyway, we work alltogether.
And then when my children gotolder, we, you know, of course,
stopped for school and myhusband would go out with deck
hands, which he brings two othermen with him on the boat.
Mm-hmm.
Um, and in the summertime wewould go and it was like our
family vacation because we justhad so much time to spend with
each other.
And it was really fun.
We taught our kids how to cook.
(16:28):
They know how to, you know.
Wash clothes.
I mean, just the whole, thewhole nine yards.
They knew how to do things forthemselves.
Speaker 6 (16:35):
But it's a lot of hard work when you're out there.
Kim (16:38):
It is, but you don't notice it when you're with your family.
Speaker 6 (16:41):
Mm-hmm.
Kim (16:41):
It's more now my husband is having a really hard time
staying out all, you know,during the summer because, you
know, he's away from his familya lot.
Mm-hmm.
Except for my 9-year-old goesout there, she loves this stuff.
It's like a biology class all initself.
Um, for her.
And even my older boys, I mean,they love doing it.
(17:02):
My 17-year-old just got moreinvolved in it.
Um, so the change came in like2000.
I.
2001 was, well, you know, we,
Francis (17:13):
I wanna talk more about the change when we come back
from the news.
We're talking with Kim Chave.
She's a third generationLouisiana shrimper.
Her whole family's involved in ashrimping operation down in
Louisiana.
And our American shrimpers arein trouble.
And our American shrimp is someof the best shrimp in the world.
And we need to take some actionand we need to eat some good
food and do good by doing well.
We'll talk more about what youcan do in just a moment and
what's going on, especially inlight of the hurricanes when we
(17:33):
come back from the news.
You're listening to theRestaurant guys, central Jersey
1450 to time is 1130.
Our guest today is Kim Chauvin.
She is a third generationLouisiana shrimper.
She owns a shrimp company withher husband and her family
called the Mariah Jade ShrimpCompany.
You may not have ever had reallygreat American shrimp.
It's much more flavorful thanwhat you see in the markets, and
(17:56):
you can buy it direct from anAmerican welcome back, Kim.
I.
Thanks.
Thanks.
Mark (18:02):
So Francis and I talk a lot about, uh, supporting the
family farm and things likethat.
Realize that this is, this is,you know, a, a family business,
a small family business.
Now this is just you, yourhusband, a couple deckhands and
your family.
Is that true, Kim?
Kim (18:14):
Uh, two of the deckhands run the, the boat side.
Mm-hmm.
With my husband, he is thecaptain and he has two deckhands
aboard the boat.
On the home base side, it's me.
Speaker 4 (18:24):
Mm-hmm.
Uhhuh,
Kim (18:25):
I deliver, uh, around here.
Also send off the shipment, youknow, get what needs to be done,
done.
Francis (18:34):
after we had, uh, dumping and dumping is where we
had a lot of foreign countriesare dumping very cheap
aquaculture, mediocre shrimp onthe market and really taking
Mark (18:42):
Vietnam, Vietnam, China, Thailand, a lot of places like
that.
Indonesia, India, uh, have kindof come in and, and.
Taking the bottom
Francis (18:48):
outta the price, right?
Put a lot of
Mark (18:50):
of these farm raised shrimp into the marketplace,
dropping the prices a lot.
Francis (18:53):
So what I have here is, is you went to Nickel State
University to study marketingand financial management and
helped to start your retailbusiness.
Why don't you tell us aboutthat?
Kim (19:01):
that was one of the first steps, Uhhuh.
What happened was we had a fewbusiness leaders in.
Around our, what we call parish.
You guys have a county, uh, thatstepped it to the plate and kind
of took me under their wing and,uh, kind of guided me on what to
do.
So the first thing I did wastook the class.
It was a 12 week class that Ihad, uh, taken.
(19:23):
And, you know, at, at first youkind of wondering, okay, how
much is this gonna help me?
it did a great, great thing forme.
We have been blessed beyondbelief in getting a lot of
things done.
Uh.
I was able to go into this classand learn from A to Z what I
needed to do, uh, to develop amarketing business, get on the
internet and such.
Speaker 6 (19:44):
And, and how's the business doing?
Kim (19:46):
Um, well, you know, everything starts to crawl, uh,
in, in a crawl place and thenyou begin to walk.
And that's exactly whathappened.
It took us a little longer, um,because we had to figure out,
when you're dealing with food,there's a whole different thing
when you're just dealing with,Nonfood products.
Speaker 4 (20:03):
Right, right.
Kim (20:04):
Um, so you have to go through the health department.
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 4 (20:06):
You have
Kim (20:06):
to go through your state department, then you have to
get, you know, um, regulationsfrom all your federal parts.
Uh, so we, we did a, a good bitof that, has all that set up.
Francis (20:17):
one of the things that's very interesting is in
the march of sort ofagribusiness and huge companies
taking over American foodproduction, they can always do
it cheaper than the smallfarmer.
Mm-hmm.
Or the small fishermen, but.
They often can't do it as well.
And you know what, Kim was facedwith is if she went to go sell
her shrimp to a processor, it'sgonna wind up in the same box of
(20:37):
frozen stuff as, as shrimp fromanywhere else.
And, and you're not gonna beable to differentiate the
product on the shelves.
What you need to do out there,and what our mission is, is, you
know, good taste isrevolutionary.
You have to be able to say,yeah, I don't want that garbage.
Foreign aquaculture shrimpdoesn't taste like anything.
I want American shrimp.
And, and that's exactly what youget from, from, and not just
(20:58):
American
Mark (20:59):
shrimp, wild American shrimp.
Yeah.
Correct.
Um, Kim, can you tell us alittle bit about, now obviously
you guys were, were devastatedby Katrina.
Can you tell us a little bitabout how that, has affected
your business and how thataffected you?
It's been a bad weather year foryou guys down there.
Yeah,
Kim (21:14):
it has been un phenomenal for us.
Um, something we were neverexpecting.
That
Mark (21:19):
un phenomenal, un phenomenal is a great word.
Kim (21:22):
I like that.
Mark (21:23):
Anti phenomenal.
I'm, I'm adding that to mylexicon
Francis (21:25):
starting today.
So, so tell us how, how did theweather, how's the weather
affected you and your neighborsdown there?
Kim (21:31):
Um, well, Katrina was more wind in our, in, in.
Our fishing part of, of thecommunity.
Um, it devastated another couplefishing areas off to the, uh,
off to the east of us.
Mm-hmm.
Which, when I say devastated,there's nothing left on the
land.
The boats are sunk or turnedover and such.
(21:54):
But over here we had a lot ofwind damage and such.
Our boats were fine.
We did not get water for Katrinain, in our fishing area.
Which everyone knows whathappened with Katrina on that
end of it in New Orleans, butRita came and hit the Western
end and hit the western side ofanother fishing community.
(22:15):
And I'm talking there are nohouses left.
Speaker 4 (22:17):
Wow.
On
Kim (22:18):
this land, just as in Venice.
There are no houses left on theeast side in Venice.
In the central part ofLouisiana, what happened was, is
now this thing came off 150miles off of our coast.
We have a serious problem withcoastal erosion.
We have no barrier islands left.
Mark (22:38):
Mm-hmm.
Kim (22:38):
And it will take billions of dollars to put this back
together.
You
Mark (22:43):
said billions, right?
Kim (22:44):
I said billions and I really mean billions.
Mm-hmm.
Um, what happened to
Francis (22:48):
the, what happened to the barrier islands?
They just,
Kim (22:50):
uh, coastal erosion.
They've been doing studies sincethe sixties and it seems that
we've, we've put money into it.
We have a tax in our parish thatputs money into it, which the
state matches, which you go toget a grant, uh, to have it
matched on the federal level.
And every year we go there, weget pushed back.
Speaker 4 (23:10):
Mm-hmm.
Kim (23:11):
Because it's not important enough evidently in Washington
DC
Speaker 4 (23:15):
Right.
Kim (23:15):
Um, but anyway, with the barrier islands.
Missing.
And such.
I mean, we have people who ttrawl where they could not trawl
five years ago, right?
Speaker 4 (23:24):
Mm-hmm.
Kim (23:25):
You know, so the water came in our levies that we had broken
33 places.
We have houses that are 10 footoff the ground.
They got three to four foot ofwater in them.
Mark (23:35):
And this was actually from Rita, not from Katrina.
Kim (23:37):
This is from Rita.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
You hear a lot about Katrina,and that was devastating enough,
but Rita was just asdevastating.
Mark (23:45):
How far out of New Orleans are you guys?
Kim (23:46):
I am about an hour and a half.
50 miles.
Mm-hmm.
About 50
Francis (23:49):
miles now is, now is, is part of the problem now for
you guys that theinfrastructure's gone, that the
places to land and sell yourshrimp and, and all the support
structures that, how's that beenaffected?
Kim (23:58):
We've had some that have totally been, you know,
decimated.
They're, they're like, there'snothing left but the cement on
the ground.
And then some of that's evenbroken up.
Um, we have a lot more places inthe central part of Louisiana.
All we had to do was follow ourhassa um, guides, which is your.
State and federal regulationsabout what to do in case of a
(24:19):
flood, uh, if any of yourproduct has been hit with any of
the water.
Mm-hmm.
You know, and, and which wasdestroyed and, and pulled off
the market and getting in thereand cleaning with bleach and,
and hospital cleaners and suchto where everything is back to
normal.
So we were able to come back andjust took us a couple weeks to
get that done.
I, on the other hand, I'm alittle different.
I'm not a processor.
(24:40):
Um, I, we took our shrimp out ofour freezer, which we have
online, and put it right backinto our boat before the storm
came so that we were fine.
Oh, that's, that's great.
We would lose absolutelynothing.
Francis (24:51):
And I understand you had to actually move onto your
boat for a little while'causeyour house was so damaged.
Kim (24:55):
Uh, we did move onto our boat.
That is, that's a normal thingaround here.
But after
Mark (25:01):
we don't move onto our boats a lot around here in
Jersey.
Yeah.
It's not happen.
Kim (25:05):
Well, our, our boat is like a 73 foot steel hall.
All the accommodations of home.
Speaker 4 (25:11):
Wow.
Kim (25:12):
Um, it, I mean, it has three bedrooms, uh, queen size
beds.
It has a bathroom.
You know, you
Francis (25:17):
know, Kim, if I come down there, I want you to invite
me to your boat for a party.
That would be, that would be alot of fun.
Mark (25:21):
Kim, we were just talking a little bit about, uh,
obviously the effects of Katrinaand, and even more so in your
area, the effects of Rita.
Are there areas that, that you,you're not supposed to be
shrimping now that, that, uh,off the coast of Louisiana,
that, that people have told youyou shouldn't be shrimping in?
Kim (25:37):
No, no.
What we did was.
The day after Katrina hit, uh,we got on our phones because one
of the things was the, the priceof fuel shot up.
Mm-hmm.
So
Mark (25:47):
we remember
Kim (25:48):
before, I'm gonna pay $30,000 to put into my vessel.
Mark (25:52):
Mm-hmm.
Kim (25:52):
I'm gonna make sure that everything is fine, you know, to
where I can sell the products.
Speaker 4 (25:57):
Right.
So
Kim (25:57):
we went in, I stayed on the phone all day that very next
day, uh, and even went up toBaton Rouge, got in touch with,
uh, EPA.
Which is EnvironmentalProtection Agency, FDA, um, DEQ,
uh, department of EnvironmentalQuality and Department of Health
and Hospitals.
We wanted testing done.
Speaker 4 (26:16):
Mm-hmm.
Kim (26:17):
Uh, so that was one of the things that I did, you know, the
day after we started calling andsaid, look, you know, you guys
have got to come down here andtest.
We need, um, if we can get backto work, I could, I could fix
what was wrong with my house,right.
Speaker 4 (26:28):
And,
Kim (26:28):
and get things done here.
I could do that, but I wanted myhusband to get back out to work
to where, you know, we can justget back to a semblance of.
Normalcy as, as soon aspossible,
Speaker 4 (26:37):
right.
Kim (26:38):
Um, so they came down, they did a lot of testing.
We requested tissue samplesdone.
Uh, also within, you know, whatwas coming out of, of the media
in New Orleans without any factswas that this stuff was really
bad.
Speaker 4 (26:55):
Mm-hmm.
Uhhuh.
And
Kim (26:55):
so, um, before I'm gonna feed it to my kids and before I
want anybody else need it, Iwanted to make sure that this
was something that,
Speaker 6 (27:02):
and what were the results of that test?
Kim (27:04):
Um, actually everything's fine.
That's right.
Everything is fine.
That's right.
The only thing that you have isthe oysters.
They are continually beingtested because they're, they're
not a movable object.
Right.
That stay sitting on the bed ofthe, uh, of the Gulf.
Speaker 4 (27:16):
Right.
Kim (27:17):
So, um, that was the only thing, and the oyster fishermen
and all those related, and itcalled a meeting.
We went the week after Katrinahit, uh, into a meeting and they
called for a halt, you know,like.
Anything after Katrina, uh, youweren't supposed to be out
there.
And so they all knew that andthat wasn't even being done.
Speaker 6 (27:35):
But that's oysters, not shrimp,
Kim (27:37):
right?
Shrimp is fine.
Everything.
We just got another report outDecember 9th saying that um,
they have tested hundreds ofsamples of fish and shellfish,
uh, and everything's fine.
There's no concern.
Francis (27:50):
Alright, so we know that we can have our American
trip for Christmas.
I gotta ask you a questionthough.
So did you ride out the storm onyour boat?
Kim (27:56):
Katrina, I did not.
Um, when it went to a five, Itook my kids, my husband would
not leave, which was reallyfrustrating.
And um, I.
We took off, we went to Vidder,Texas,
Speaker 4 (28:10):
Uhhuh,
Kim (28:11):
and it was a very, very hard thing to do, but I really
felt like it was probably, youknow,
Speaker 6 (28:15):
out, you gotta protect your kids.
Sure, of course.
Francis (28:17):
Yeah.
But your husband stayed on theboat.
He stayed.
What is it like to ride out acategory five hurricane?
On a boat.
Kim (28:25):
Well, you have to realize it really wasn't a five hitting
where we were.
Mm-hmm.
Um, okay.
Category three,
Speaker 4 (28:31):
I, I don't walk outside when it's thundering.
Okay.
It,
Kim (28:35):
it's something that we're used to though.
You have to realize we are usedto staying aboard our boats.
Speaker 4 (28:39):
Right.
This
Kim (28:40):
is what we do because, uh, in the house your electricity
will go off.
Um, and my boat, it will not.
We have a generator
Speaker 4 (28:46):
right on
Kim (28:47):
this boat.
Um, we rode out Andrew Uhhuh onthe boat.
When it hit into Louisiana.
Now, if he, if he had not, youbarely feel it.
Francis (28:54):
If he had not stayed on the boat, would the boat have
been lost?
Kim (28:57):
No, the boat would've been fine.
Mm-hmm.
And, but after I tell you this,after he's seen the pictures of
Venice
Speaker 4 (29:03):
Uhhuh, he
Kim (29:03):
will never stay when it's coming for us again.
Speaker 4 (29:07):
Right.
Kim (29:07):
You know, he, he was, I guess it was amazing to see what
Mother Nature could do at theforces of nature.
Could do.
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (29:15):
Uh,
Kim (29:16):
when you know, when you think you're safe.
And you're really not safe.
And I think a lot of it had todo with this.
People were told this would notbe, you know, this was similar
to Betsy
Speaker 4 (29:25):
Uhhuh in
Kim (29:26):
New Orleans.
Well, some people only had sixinches of water.
I.
Speaker 4 (29:29):
Right.
For
Kim (29:30):
Betsy.
Speaker 4 (29:30):
For Betsy,
Kim (29:31):
but we're talking 30 years later with no barrier islands
out there.
Mm-hmm.
No protection for our coast.
Francis (29:38):
You know, one of the things that, I mean, you bring
up a really great point and you,you know, the oceans better, you
know the Gulf better than thananybody up here.
Mm-hmm.
Um.
That, you know, badenvironmental policy if you, you
know, it was similar to Betsy.
Yeah.
30 years later.
And the difference is no barrierislands, we haven't done a good
job stewarding the land.
And so yeah, hurricanes happen,but how they affect people
(30:00):
depends on how well we take careof the land that we're given.
I mean, is that, do you agreewith that?
Kim (30:05):
Yeah.
But there needs, there, we haveto put a lot of land back.
Francis (30:08):
Mm-hmm.
Kim (30:08):
Something has to be done about coastal erosion until, and
we have done.
Short term items and you know,you need money to do this thing.
This
Speaker 4 (30:17):
is
Kim (30:17):
huge and they've let it go so long.
Mm-hmm.
That, you know, to be honestwith you, if another hurricane
would come this way for thecentral part, we would look
exactly like those who have beenwiped off the face of Venice and
Cameron and such.
My house will not stand four orfive coming straight at us.
Francis (30:37):
Do you think, do you think the, the American
shrimpers, the gulf shrimpers,do you think the industry's
gonna come back?
Kim (30:42):
Yes.
You had some that were gettingout anyway.
Mm-hmm.
Because they could not, uh,adapt.
To the change.
And then money-wise
Mark (30:51):
you mean?
You mean adapt to the change inthe, in the financial
marketplace.
Adapt to the, to, to
Kim (30:56):
Right.
Adapt to retailing.
Mm-hmm.
Adapt to getting out.
What it is is that it is hardwork.
It's very hard work to do whatwe do, but my husband loves it.
It, it's, it's a part of himtaking him out of this business
would be taking apart of him,you know, away.
And that would, I'm not intodestroying anything.
Uh.
And I had looked at him and Iknew he would be very miserable
(31:17):
having to pull out of this.
So we, I just sat here andfigured out what I would have to
do, what it would take for us tomake it in this, Hey, listen and
went after it.
And I'm a very persistentperson.
Francis (31:29):
Listen, I think that's really great and I think that,
uh, what you guys are doing downthere is phenomenal and the
product that you make issuperior.
And what you all have to do outthere listening to this
broadcast is you need to havegood taste and you need to have
the good taste to recognize thatthe American Gulf Shrimp is a
better product and worth alittle bit of effort.
Kim (31:45):
Yes, it is.
But I wanted to tell you guysone thing.
We do have an uh, a boatblessing and you guys are
invited to come down.
It will be something you willnever forget.
Mark (31:54):
Very nice.
We'll be in
Francis (31:55):
touch and maybe we'll even do a live show from down
there.
Thanks for taking the time tocome and talk with us, Kim.
You're doing great stuff downthere and we'll try and help
anyway we can.
Kim (32:02):
Okay, thank you.
You guys have a good day.
Francis (32:04):
Keep fishing for that American shrimp.
Kim (32:06):
Okay.
Bye-bye.
Francis (32:07):
Bye-bye.
You're listening to theRestaurant Guys, And our guest
(32:31):
today was Kim Chauvin.
She's an American shrimper.
They've been shrimping downthere forever.
It's kind of the heart of Cajuncountry and I can't emphasize to
you all enough, you rarely seefresh shrimp the shrimp that you
buy in the market is not fresh.
It's frozen shrimp that's beenthawed.
Um, and it's probably from anaquaculture, farm.
Oh, most definitely.
Mark (32:49):
I mean, somewhere else there's just this very little,
wild shrimp out there.
Francis (32:53):
And, and, and shrimp is, you know, sort of a vehicle
for cocktail sauce.
Mm-hmm.
But really great live shrimp.
We get it.
We get it.
On the wholesale market onlyoccasionally, but when we do, my
God, it's really amazing.
Anyway, I hope you've enjoyedthe hour listening to the
restaurant.
Guys.
I'm Francis Shot.
And
Mark (33:07):
I'm Mark Pascal.
Francis (33:08):
We are the restaurant guys, central Jersey 1450.
The time is 12 noon.
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