Southern Smoke Foundation: Caring for the Industry that Feeds Us

Episode Transcript
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the-restaurant-guys_3_08- (00:11):
Hello everybody and welcome.
You are listening to theRestaurant guys.
I'm Mark Pascal.
I'm here with Francis Shot.
Together we own stage left in KaLombardi restaurants in New
Brunswick, New Jersey.
We're here to bring you theinside track on food, wine, and.
The finer things in life.
Hello, mark.
Hey Francis.
Uh, very excited about our guesttoday.
We have Chris Shepherd andLindsey Brown coming from the

(00:32):
Southern Smoke Foundation, doingsome pretty cool stuff.
He's a James Beard Award-winningchef.
Uh, she's pr former PR woman andthey're, uh, running a, a
nonprofit foundation thatactually is pretty guard.
Darn interesting.
Yep.
Um.
I wanna talk about some, uh,something less interesting.
No, that's I'm insulting.
No, I wanna talk about somebeverage related things that are

(00:54):
unrelated, but they're just twoexperiences that I've had that
are beverage related in the lastcouple of days that I think I
would like to share with people.
Great.
So one, uh, is, is notculturally that important or
not, you know, not, not thatimportant to the environment or
anything like that.
So I, and boy, this is, uh, thisis only for a couple of geeks.

(01:14):
I promise we won't talk about itvery long, but you love vintage
port.
Yes.
You love port.
We, I love Port.
Yes.
Port used to be used to go to arestaurant.
Any fine restaurant would have aTawny port and a vintage port,
and a selection of vintage portsby the glass.
And that just doesn't existanymore.
Um, that's not true.
Well, very few.
Well, we have several, but veryfew restaurants have vintage

(01:36):
port available by the glass andthe.
Producers have been strugglingwith the declining market share
for years, but it's still a,it's a wonderful beverage, but,
you know, I have noticedsomething and if anyone does
drink port out there, I, I'm, Ilove Port.
I think it's tremendous.
I opened a bottle last night,uh, had a party at my house.
And there were some fancy pantspeople over, and I don't keep

(01:57):
that much port around anymore.
And when you open a bottle ofvintage port, there's a
expiration date on how quicklyyou have to drink it.
Well, the expiration date on anybottle you open is two to three
hours.
I was gonna say, usually it'snot a problem for me, but I
opened this port and I decant itand.
Sorry for the super geekyconversation, but it used to be
that you would say that if youbought a vintage port, which is

(02:17):
meant to age in the bottle, youwould drink it within five or
six or seven years, and it wasin its young, fruity stage, and
then it usually would kind ofdumb down and then it would
emerge on the other side atabout.
Generally you'd, you'd avoiddrinking vintage ports that were
between eight and 15 years old.
Yeah.
So 15 years it starts to showthe characteristic of an older
port, and at 20 years, certainlyit has the characteristics of an

(02:39):
older port.
I have noticed of late thatolder ports wait.
Still drink like younger portsthat they've eliminated that
dumb phase in the middle.
But I, I, I had a 25-year-oldport last night, a grams 2000,
and it tasted like it was a, youknow, from 10 years ago.
You know, it's, you know, funnyyou say this'cause we didn't
talk about this in advance.

(02:59):
No, it did not.
And I'm gonna advance theconversation a little bit.
I recently, within the last 10days, had a glass of port that
was.
12 or 13 years old, it was from,let's say 2015, maybe it was 10
years old.
Mm-hmm.
Which should have been in thatdumb face.
Yeah.
And the first thing I noticedabout that port.

(03:22):
Was it Absolutely it was not.
It was still in that cherry redphase.
Yes, they've eliminated the dumbphase, but in doing so now, I
don't know whether they'veeliminated it, but I, this was a
25-year-old port that was being,and was still drinking
youthfully I was drinking.
So they've removed the rewardfor aging.
Look, I can't, I'm not broadlyenough tasted to say that this
is industry wide and any of ourwine knowledgeable people who

(03:44):
may be, we'd love to hear fromyou.
Theguys@restaurantguyspodcast.com.
This is nothing I've read about,but this has happened four or
five times that I had a, I'llsay I noticed it again in the
last couple of weeks.
I tasted a port.
There's no question about it.
It, it was still in thatyouthful stage and totally was
not in that dumb stage that,that we experienced for the

(04:05):
first 25 years we drank pork.
And look, if, if they've figuredout a way to get rid of the dumb
stage in the middle, Iunderstand why they would wanna
do that.
And I don't think that's anegative side.
But if at the cost of that isthat you don't get the elegance
of an older port that shows someoxidation and it hadn't even
changed color.
Mm-hmm.
Like an older port should look adifferent color.
I don't know.
I'm not broadly tasted enough inrecent times to say that it's a

(04:27):
general trend, but I would be,I'm sad that I haven't had a
mature port from, say.
2000 forward.
So if that little intro wasinteresting to you, it means
Jennifer is a spectaculareditor.
Okay.
I got another one.
Uh, shout out to a, anotherpodcast that we really love.
Tim McCurdy from CocktailCollege.

(04:48):
Mm-hmm.
He just did, well, actually it'sa while back now, but he did.
Three part piece on agavespirits.
Oh yeah.
That's great.
Holy come.
It's great.
Really dove in.
All the deep dive.
Entertaining was great.
Interesting.
Orally rich.
Um, but, uh, really, and Ilearned a lot.

(05:10):
I learn, I learn every time Ilisten to the cocktail college.
Mm-hmm.
I learn a little thing.
It's usually with one bartender,often about one drink, uh, often
about whatever city thatbartender's from or wherever
cocktail college has gone offto.
This was a three part, this wasjournalism.
Mm-hmm.
You know, this was, this reallywent into the, the realm of
journalism.
You know, we're talking heads,but this was journalism, which
is, I was about to say, whichhas nothing to do with what this

(05:31):
show is.
So don't, don't fool yourself.
So, I, you know, one of thethings that I realized at the
end, I mean, this wasn't stated,but.
Mezcal, it's about mezcal.
Mm-hmm.
Primarily.
And it also has, you know,tequila is a type of mezcal from
a specific place and the peoplewithin the tequila denomination,
uh, have different intereststhat are often at odds with the

(05:53):
o, the other mezcaleros.
So you're really trying to getpeople to turn to Shaw off?
No, I just wanna say one of thereasons that it's important, and
I realize this most.
Wine is all about the land.
Wine is all about the vineyard.
Wine is all about the winery.
Wine is all about what did youcut down to plant this, or where
is it?
And the land management and theecology.
Most distilled spirits are notbecause if you're making it from

(06:16):
corn or grain or you know,whether it's rye or corn or, or
whatever, you're just potatoes.
Whatever you're distilling,it's, it's that green to bottle
movement.
Francis and I have not seen.
A lot of interest.
I mean, rarely Waterford, rarelyis it interesting Waterford in
Ireland that went outtabusiness.
But the, the point is that agaveis tied to the land.

(06:38):
Mm-hmm.
So the people who are the, thetraditional old mezcaleros.
they are tied to the land andthe type of mezcal, the type of
MAGA that they plant, where thekind of water it uses, where
it's from, that really affectsthe land and what's going on.
Right now is, pretty dramaticand Mexico's in a pretty

(06:59):
delicate place.
in Oaxaca, where most of themezcal comes from is, um, there
are a lot of issues to beconsidered and if you wanna
learn more, I go to cocktailcollege podcasts.
If you're not taking care ofyour agricultural areas.
Your agriculture is not gonna dovery well.
Yeah.
And, and this Cocktail POPodcast talks about what you can
do as a drinker and the kind ofstuff that you should know.
And, uh, Tim McCurdy's great athis job, but this is the best

(07:21):
podcast I've heard.
Three part series.
Can't recommend it highlyenough.
Go check it out.
We'll be back in just a momentwith James Beard Award-winning
Chef Chris Shepherd and LindseyBrown to talk about the Southern
Smoke Foundation.
Don't go away.
You can always find out moreabout
us@restaurantguyspodcast.com.

the-restaurant-guys_2_08-05 (07:37):
Hey there everybody.
Welcome back.
Our guests today are Chef ChrisShepherd and Lindsey Brown.
They founded the Southern SmokeFoundation.
The Southern Smoke Foundationwas founded in 2015 by James
Beard Award-winning Chef ChrisShepherd and Executive Director
Lindsey Brown.
They provide access to NOCOMental Health Services to
restaurant workers, as well asemergency relief funding to food

(07:58):
and beverage workers nationwide.
This includes restaurant and barworkers, farmers, ranchers,
winemakers, distillers, andbrewers, and anyone in the
industry faced with a financialhardship because of a medical
emergency and accident, or otherunfor, unforeseen things.
And we know that in our industrythere are lots of people without
a sufficient safety net.
So this is really important workto date.
The Southern Smoke Foundationhas granted more than$14 million

(08:20):
to f and B workers nationwide.
And since 2020 has providedaccess to more than 7,400
no-cost counseling sessions in11 states, and we couldn't be
happier to welcome Lindsay andChris to the show.
Chris and Lindsay, welcome tothe show.

Chris Shep (08:36):
Thanks for having us.

Lindsey (08:36):
Thanks for having us.
We're

You know, describing the work you
do, it makes me feel inadequate.
Um, so let's start with the bbasic simple stuff, and let's
start with you.
chef Chris, you are a JamesBeard Award-winning Chef 2013
Food and Wine.
Best new chef, uh, 2014 BestChef.

(08:58):
And you decided that you'regonna go into the nonprofit
sphere and eventually do thatfull time.
How does that happen?

Chris Shep (09:04):
You know, it just got to the point where, you
know, we got out, we, it was2022.
um, made the decision with mywife that, uh, restaurants were
fun, but actually helping peopleand make sure our restaurant has
a safety net was more important.
and so I sold the restaurantsstarted a new life and, you

(09:27):
know, it's, it's, I don't workfor the foundation., I just get
to come in and give everybodyhigh fives and be a part of it
and see the work that they'redoing.
But, uh, you know, I, I now dotv.
Other things in the city.
So, um, but I get to be kind ofsub and smoke adjacent here all
the time, but yeah.

Well, so you're also doing a show
called Eat Like a Local, right?
You, you got over 50 of thoseepisodes are up, uh, on, on a
local show, television stationin Houston.
And online.
And online.
Of course, you can see itonline.
So that seems like you're havingfun on that show.

Chris Shep (10:02):
Yeah, it's, it's really kind of something that
I've fallen in love with.
I didn't know that, uh, when westarted having the
conversations,'cause like when Idecided to sell and I was like,
ah, you know, I don't know whatI'm gonna do.
And Lindsay said, well just sitback.
Something will kind of show its,know, show its face.
And it was like, all right.
And then we went and had a drinkwith the station manager for our

(10:22):
NBC station affiliate.
All of a sudden, next thing youknow, I'm on tv.
And it was like, okay, likethis.
You know,'cause it, it does, it,it does.
The other side of what SuddenSmoke does is that get to help
restaurants out every week whenthey're on tv.
'cause they get an immediatebump, they get immediate, um,

(10:43):
interaction with guests.
People just travel to thoserestaurants as soon as that show
airs.
And so it makes a lot of sensefor me.
And so it's like still helpingrestaurants out the way I want
to.

Well, I'll tell you one of the things
Francis and I discovered back in2005 when we first did this
show.
Uh, we didn't realize howenriching it was gonna be for
us, right?
We knew it was gonna be fun.
We knew we wanted to, to do thisdaily show.
We had knew we had a perspectiveand a point of view and a lot of
things we wanted to talk about.
What we didn't expect was.

(11:14):
There was never gonna be a showwe did where we didn't learn
something ourselves.

Chris Shep (11:17):
Yeah.

the-restaurant-guys_2_08-05- (11:18):
we start, I mean, we started
enriching ourselves and franklyenriching our restaurants the,
the day we started doing thisshow.
A hundred percent.
Because you start talking topeople from around the country,
from around the world about howthey're doing it or why they're
doing it, or their perspectives,uh, or their life experiences.
You can't help but learnsomething as you go through that

(11:39):
day by day.
Uh, I, I assume that some ofthe, the, what you're enjoying
of, uh, at eat like a local.

Chris Shep (11:46):
You know, it's.
The amount of restaurants that Iget to go to that have been here
over 50 years and really heartheir stories or even the young
new ones.
it really, it helps me out,right?
Because it's like, wow.
I come home and I tell'em, it'slike, man, this new place that I
just went to, you know, and it'slike, but it's not new.
It's been here for 50 years andlike, did it so.

(12:07):
Then you start to put all thepieces together of like, oh,
this family immigrated from, youknow, Korea via China and worked
at this Chinese restaurant 52years ago.
And then they opened up theirown restaurant 50 years ago.
this is what we know as AmericanChinese.
This is Korean, Chinese becausethey started in South Korea and
now moved here.
And so it's like, you see howthe.

(12:27):
The food's kind, the food wastekind of come together.
I know that sounds confusing,but that's Houston and, and
there's, there's little tidbitsof those things all over the
place

You know, it doesn't, it doesn't
sound confusing.
It sounds rich.
And one of the reasons it soundsrich is, you know, we're, we own
our own two restaurants here in,on a wine store.
And we've consulted for mostlyother small restaurants that,
that are owned by, they peopleown one or two restaurants.
And, I think it's just a muchmore interesting.

(12:58):
Story.
And there are places in thecountry like where you are and
like in New Jersey where it'skind of the last bastion of
small business, you know, thehardware stores, nobody owns a
local hardware store anymore.
Nobody owns a local grocerystore anymore.
But with the restaurants andonly in some parts of the
country, I mean there are lotsof places I've driven through
Northern Florida and thought, iseverything a chain?

(13:20):
Now there might be restaurantsthere that I didn't know'cause I
didn't have the benefit of, Ilike to call it driving through
Taco Hill.
Yeah.
So, um, you know, but, but thosestories I think are what people
crave.
And one of the reasons thatrestaurants survive is I think
local communities really wannahave that place to be and that
connection with a story and thatthey, they know the owners are
people, not a board ofdirectors.

(13:42):
Um, and helping to give thatstory is, is, is important to
the, to the, the whole thing.
And Lindsay, you came into thisnot as a restaurant
professional, but by doing justwhat we talked about, you were
helping to tell the stories youwere in PR

Lindsey (13:56):
I

and, and, and a lot of pr, big
corporate pr, you know, it feelslike bullshit.
It's like celebrity chefs,agents, getting them on the red
carpet.
Um, but a lot of PR we know frombeing in this business is, it's
hard.
To make sure that the new peoplemoving into your town know your
story to get on your show and,and to somehow keep that story

(14:18):
in people's minds.
So people keep coming to therestaurant so they don't go, oh,
that place that was there for 30years, they closed.
I haven't been there in 20years.
I wonder why they closed, youknow?
And so you started in tellingthis story.
Why don't you tell us where youcame from and how you got
involved and now you're theexecutive director, you do run
the foundation full time nowthat's your.
That's your job.
So give us the story on on.

(14:39):
And then you guys came togetherand sort of met, it was part of
the beginning of your relations.
It was all intertwined.
This sounds like a complicatedstory.
Go.

Lindsey (14:47):
I mean, it, it goes way back when.
Um, I did PR for the Conventionand Visitors Bureau for 10
years.
So I was promoting the City ofHouston and you know, the food
scene is key to.
Tourism in Houston and promotingHouston and people understanding
the cultural diversity ofHouston.

(15:08):
And so there was one point wherethere were, you know, a couple
of chefs in town, Chris beingone of them, where I had noticed
that they were getting a lot ofnational recognition.
We barely knew each other at thetime, I think.
And so I, I pulled them into aroom and said, you know, I've
got a budget.
I think there's something we cando here to elevate the food

(15:28):
scene as a whole.
Nationally, what do you guysthink?
And they.
Ignored me completely and talkedto each other about, oh, have
you been to this new Vietnameseplace in Midtown?
Have you tried out this newdumpling spot in Chinatown?
Have you been here?
Have you been here?
And what I realized as theperson that was promoting the

(15:49):
city, that only had I never beento any of these restaurants that
they were talking about thatinspired them, I'd never even
heard of them.
so.
I said, well, that, I thinkthat's the answer.
And so what we did is we startedthe where the chefs eat culinary
tours, and this was back in2010.

(16:11):
And we would put 16 people on abus.
They would, you know, spend$180for, for tickets, two chefs
would pair up and take them tothe places that they eat on
their days off.
And they, the chefs wereresponsible for choosing the
locations.
We always paid for the mealsthat we ate.
And we created menus.
And so that way everyone thatwas on the bus with us that day

(16:34):
could go back to this, you know,dumpling house in Chinatown and
say, I wanna eat these thingsand something else.
'cause we found that that wasone of the things that was
intimidating, to a lot ofHoustonians, was didn't know
what to order.
They didn't know how to order,they didn't, they felt, you
know, they feel welcome in someof these, you know, smaller
restaurants.

(16:54):
And funny part is, we createdthese for tourists and the
Houstonians.
Bought them all up.

the-restaurant-guys_2_08-05-2 (17:01):
I know I'm being a little
redundant in what I was sayingbefore.
People hear about, oh, wellthey're, you're a PR person,
you're a publicity person, andyou think Mad Men.
You think, and look there,there's a, there are PR people
in advertising, people who workfor McDonald's and Burger King
and Arby's and, and all the bigchains, and none of them have
four martinis at lunch anymore.
It's so sadly.
Which was the only reason weliked them to begin with.

(17:22):
No, but, but also, but if thereare cities throughout America
struggling and small ursstruggling to stay in your
consciousness.
'cause those big chains arealways bombarding you with,
messages.
And you may have a place aroundthe corner from you or five
miles from you, that is reallytremendous.
And so our New Brunswick was astruggling city when we opened

(17:43):
in 1992.
And there were restaurantsbefore us, Who really did this
and the city kind of wiselysaid, let's promote the
restaurants and New Brunswickbecoming a restaurant town.
And the nice thing about theseindependent restaurants is
people I promote, I tell peopleto go to the Frog and the peach
all the time to go to Salt allthe time to go to Steakhouse 85

(18:04):
all the time.
And they send people herebecause I think a.
The residents, one of thereasons they want to live here
is to be in that rich communityand of all the businesses in
downtown, you may shop forclothes once a month or twice a
year.
You may go to the hardware storeonce on a blue moon, but you may
to go to the drug store when youneed drugs or candy, but.

(18:25):
The, the re the place where youinteract are the bars and
restaurants and Well, andthat's, and that can build a
community, you know, and that'sbecoming more and more
important, right, as we becomethe only space where you
interact, right?
Yeah.
It's, it literally the onlyspace where you interact.
'cause you don't, you watchNetflix instead of going out to
the movies, you, buy from Amazoninstead of, instead of going to

(18:45):
the local store, you.
You buy from Home Depot onlineinstead of going to the hardware
store to, to the hardware storestore, which doesn't exist
anymore.
Which doesn't exist anymore.
so those, those spaces becomemore important.
Well, and I, I just wanna bringthis around to your foundation,
um, the Southern BookFoundation, the.
Very often because restaurantsare family run operations and

(19:08):
they're often run with a passionand people are kind of making a
living at it, including theowners.
But they're certainly notgetting rich.
they're always at risk.
I mean, the risk to return ratiois not there for most small
operators and.
People who work in restaurantsand often including the owners,
don't have the financialwherewithal always to have the

(19:28):
safety net.
That especially if something badhappens or maybe they need to
take care of themselves, thatthey, they can't always do it.
And, um, I think the restaurantindustry provides jobs to a
bunch of people who.
Kind of might be in marginalsituations where they have
trouble finding any job at all.
But when you're in that marginalarea, you, you really don't have

(19:49):
a safety net, and that's whereyour foundation comes in.
So talk to us about, you know,the Southern Smoke Foundation,
you take care of the people whoare taking care of the people.
Most restaurant, restaurantemployees don't have a six
month, uh, you know, safetyaccount.
So talk to us about on the sideand how it started and, and what
you do and, and who you help andhow that works.

Lindsey (20:10):
Definitely.
So we started, like we, like wesaid in 2015, but we started in
sort of a totally different,framework.
One of our friends who's a SOMhere in Houston, came to us and
asked if we could do afundraiser for the MS.
Society.
Sure, but how come?
And he said, well, I wasdiagnosed with MS this week, and

(20:32):
we had just lost a chef who hadnot told anybody that he was
diagnosed with ms.
Lost the use of his hands,couldn't hold his knife, and
died by suicide.
So it was a huge shock to thewhole culinary community.
And so our friend Antonio, itwas, you know, just a couple
months later, he said, I wannabe the face.
I don't need money.
I just wanna be the face andraise awareness.

(20:54):
so for two years, you know, we,we called our friends and threw
a backyard festival.
Aaron Franklin, Sean Brock,Rodney Scott.
I mean, we started our festivalwith four chefs and, and a few
local chefs.
Now we're up to.
85 chefs this year, which is

the-restaurant-guys_2_08 (21:09):
That's amazing.
That's fun.
That's amazing.
Good for you.

Chris Shep (21:12):
might be a little bit too much, but you know,

Lindsey (21:16):
Um,

Chris Shep (21:17):
we just have a hard time narrowing it down

Lindsey (21:20):
we

Well, how do you say no to somebody
who says they want to help?
Right?

Lindsey (21:23):
It's so hard.
And

Yeah.

Lindsey (21:24):
the thing.

Chris Shep (21:26):
because.

Lindsey (21:26):
for two years we raised money for the MS.
Society.
We raised about half a milliondollars.
We were.
The largest fundraiser in a fivestate area for them.
Which was, which was cool.
And then we were about twomonths out from our third
festival in 2017.
That's when Hurricane Harveyhit.
And.
there was a ton of fundraisinghappening at that time.

(21:47):
JJ Watt was raising millions ofdollars.
There was a mayor's fund, theRed Cross, but we knew that none
of those dollars were going intothe hands of a dishwasher or a
buser or a farmer.
And so we, looked into our 5 0 1C3 and realized that we could,
and at that time.

(22:09):
The Giving Kitchen was only inGeorgia.
And so we looked into theirprocess, you know, what does
their application look like, howdo they grant?
And we tweaked it to fit whatfelt right to us.
And so we created ourapplication, we translated it
into and Vietnamese, and justtold everyone that we knew that

(22:29):
we were doing this and we weregonna have money and.
To apply if you were affected bythe hurricane.
And it took a lot of trust forpeople in the industry to, to
apply with us that first year.
You know, there was a lot ofconcern, you know, people didn't
want Chris looking at into theirfinancials, which I completely
understand.
And

Chris Shep (22:47):
Nor do I want to.

Lindsey (22:48):
Right.
And

Yeah.

Lindsey (22:50):
you know, and they, they trusted us that we were
actually gonna have the moneythat we said that we were
raising and.
Because of that, our process isstill fully anonymous.
You know, Chris not being anemployee of Southern Smoke, he
doesn't know that we fund oranybody that uses the Behind You
program.
Only if they tell him is how hefinds out.

let me ask about your process.
Is, is it means tested or likehow, how does the process work?

Lindsey (23:16):
So we have an application online and, uh,
people apply and give us theirstatement of need.
And so our first step is toverify employment.
And our two qualifications, arethat you must have worked in the
food and beverage industry forsix months, uh, 30 hours a week.
So once employment is verified,then our case manager starts,

(23:38):
um.
Asking questions, you know,we'll do a full budget breakdown
every.
All the income that's cominginto the home, all of the
expenses that go going out ofthe home.
If you're asking for rentsupport, we'll need a copy of
your lease.
If you're asking for medicalsupport, we'll need a copy of
your diagnosis or your medicalbills, your prescription

(23:59):
receipts, and then at the end ofthat whole process we see what
is your true deficit.
Based on this unforeseen crisisand many times that true deficit
is more than what the applicantthinks that they need.
Um, so that's, so that's how,that's how we do it.

(24:21):
And so we feel very confidentthat we've done our due
diligence once we're sendingthat a CH into someone else's
bank account that they're gonnado.
And they sign an affidavit thatsays they are going to use it
for what they say they're goingto use it, but we.
We trust them spend the money

if they need the money for that,
you know, they're, that's whereit's going, right?

Lindsey (24:42):
Exactly.
Exactly,

That debt is in their, is in their
face, like it or not, sothey're.

Lindsey (24:47):
So our, case managers are truly angels because they
are, you know, working withpeople that are in the most
vulnerable positions and theyhave to ask a lot of questions
and that can get.
That can get tricky.
And it can be hard, but they'reso, they're so good.
And you know, last week we, we,granted, I think it was 34

(25:09):
people last week.
It was a, it was a big week.
Um, but it was, it's incredible.
Every single, that's my favoriteday is on Thursdays when I'm the
last person on staff to see allthe cases that are going to go
up for vote.
And I ask questions and I pokeholes then we send it to, we
have, um.
A blind committee of volunteers.
We have somebody in theinsurance business, we have

(25:30):
somebody in the medicalbusiness, we have someone in
food and beverage, we havesomeone in communications and
they are sort of the final look'cause they're seeing it from an
outside perspective.
And they'll ask questions.
Um, and we

Chris Shep (25:42):
Yeah.

Lindsey (25:42):
because the person in insurance always wants to give
them less.
And the person in healthcarealways wants to give them more.

Yeah, that makes sense.
So what kind of turnaround areyou getting, getting money to
people?
How's, how does that work?

Chris Shep (25:53):
Last week we funded 16 people for 30, almost 32.
And so just last week.

Lindsey (26:00):
I was thinking the dollars instead of the people.

Is there a cap?
Is there a cap on what anindividual grant to an
individual is?
Is there, how does that work?

Lindsey (26:08):
not a cap.
Although we have not given morethan 10,000 in a, in a long
time, back in, 2018, we grantedsomeone a hundred thousand
dollars.
That

Wow.

Lindsey (26:20):
um, it was brain rehabilitation after a really
serious motorcycle injury, butthat was in 2018.
We were getting a hundredapplications a year, and so

right.

Lindsey (26:31):
we had just finished festival.
We had the money and we were, wesaved his life.

That's great.

Chris Shep (26:36):
It

So what.

Chris Shep (26:37):
of like his mom either had to put him in hospice
and watch him pass, or we woulddo what we did and we did what
we

Uh, that's fantastic.
That's a great story.
It's a great story.

Chris Shep (26:46):
and he

So

Chris Shep (26:47):
this earth and doing better.
So.

the-restaurant-guys_2_ (26:48):
amazing.
Absolutely amazing.
So what kind of turnaround canpeople expect from, from your
organization if they, if theyput an application in tomorrow
and, you know, they're, they,they need funds in order to, to
get the man off their back.
What a, what?
How can, how does that happen?

Lindsey (27:05):
It varies.
So we'll triage by severity of acase.
So if you have already receivedEV eviction paperwork, we will
work your case and get you paidquickly like we have.
We have handled those urgentcases in 24 to 48 hours.
Really, really quickly.
If it's a domestic violencesituation where you need to get

(27:26):
somewhere safe, we will do thesame thing.
would say typically we try to.
close cases in three weeks, buta lot of that depends on
responsive the applicant is andwhether or not they have the
documentation.
There are so many situationswhere cases they just won't be
able to provide thedocumentation.

(27:47):
We would've been able to fundthem more had we received, you
know, the documentation on, youknow.
Their car repair, but becausethey weren't able to provide
that to us, we aren't able togrant them that we can grant
them for something else thatthey do have documentation for.
But that's the thing that alwaysbanging our heads against the
wall and we have a crisistoolkit on our.

(28:09):
Homepage that lists like, theseare the things, know how to get
to your pay stubs.
These are the documents youshould have on file at all
times.
This is how you use Google Driveso you can, if you can't access,
know, your work computer, youcan do this from your phone.
You know, just trying to makesure people are prepared in
advance, because that's the,that's the hardest part is when

(28:31):
we know we could have fundedthem more, but we just don't
have the documentation to do it.

Well, I'm gonna make you feel really
good about your organizationright now.
So in September 30th, 2021, myhouse flooded with Hurricane
Ida.
Okay?
And.
It was during COVID and fundswere hard to come by and finding
a new place to live was hard tocome by.
And there were, there were lotsof obstacles in our way and the

(28:56):
government had a bunch ofprograms in order to help us
through that.
And so in May of 2025, we gotsome of those benefits that.
We really needed in October of2021.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Chris Shep (29:13):
years.

relief fund.
Yeah.
Four years came, came throughthis May, some of the emergency
relief fund, uh, funds andbasically their loans and things
like that, that, that comethrough.
and they came through in, in Mayof 20, 25 times.
And, and if you were, if youdidn't have credit or you didn't
have a buffer, you, you would'velost your house if I didn't, if
I didn't have friends, if Ididn't have people who would,
would vouch for me and stand upfor me.

(29:36):
my house doesn't get repaired in2021.
It absolutely amazing.
three or four weeks is reallydifferent than four years, just
so you know.
It's got a really different vibeto it.

Chris Shep (29:48):
I feel like we're pretty fast, so.

I, I think that's amazing.
Listen, we're gonna take a shortbreak.
I want to come stick with thisthough.
On the other side, we're gonnatalk about a few things.
One is the festival, which thenext festival is upcoming.
And it's kind of interesting howthe festival came before the
foundation.

Lindsey (30:02):
Exactly.

talk about 80 chefs.
We're gonna talk about, the sexytopic of mental health
counseling being available topeople in the restaurant
industry.
Uh, but this is really aboutpeople taking care of the people
who take care of you and, uh.
These are fun guys, and we wannacontinue the conversation, so
don't go away.
We'll be right back.
You can always find out moreabout
us@restaurantguyspodcast.com.
Hey there everybody.
Welcome back.
We are having a great time herewith uh, chef Chris Shepherd and

(30:25):
Lindsey Brown.
They have the Southern SmokeFoundation, which is really
doing great work for people inour industry.
And you know, every time you goout to dinner or as waiters and
bartenders and some people inthis business make great money.
and a lot of people are workingtheir way up to a stable living
and, and, uh, not working forbig corporations has a, has a
cost to it and the SouthernSmoke Foundation is there and

(30:45):
it's a safety net for a lot ofpeople.
So we're super thrilled with thework you do.
But I also wanna talk about thefact that because you guys are
restaurant people, the way thatwe do good is by, doing
something.
Well, the way that we try to doit is we try to translate, okay,
listen, let, I don't need avolunteer work.
We're gonna pick up garbage onthe side of the highway, or I
don't need you to come digditches.
I need you to come out and we'regonna have a great fricking time

(31:09):
and we're gonna divert some ofthose resources into helping
people.
So, you know, you can.
Do good by doing well.
Um, this started with the party,right?
And talk to us about the partyand, and also talk to us about
the party coming up.
So when people want to come downthere and, and explore some of
those 80 chefs, how they do it.
I, I believe all great thingsstart with a great party.
So yeah.
So yeah, yeah, yeah.

(31:29):
All we know how to do, by theway, and if the whole, if all
you've got is a hammer, thewhole world looks like a nail.
So talk to us.

Chris Shep (31:36):
That's amazing.
Um, I mean we, we started this,when our friend said he was
diagnosed and what we were gonnado, it was, well let's call a
couple of friends and see if wecan throw a little dinner.
'cause that's restaurant peoplethat's know how, how we know how
to raise money is basicallythrow parties and dinners and,
know, the idea of a dinner wasgonna raise five or$10,000.

(31:56):
And then we, Lindsay and I werejust like, that's not gonna cut
it.
And so, We were gonna throw aparty in the back parking lot of
the restaurant, and it was, wecalled Aaron Franklin and Sean
Brock, and Roddy Scott and acouple friends here in Houston
and said, do you want to do thisthing in the parking lot?
And we went to the mayor'sdepartment of Special Events
just to kind of close thesidewalks around restaurant.

(32:18):
And she looked at us and waslike, Nope, we're shutting down
all the streets around you.
gonna give you the mayor stageso that you can have live music,
and here's all the people thathave the infrastructure for all
of our events.
And so here's lighting, here'sfencing, here's this, here's
that.
And we're like, uh, what justhappened?

That's great.
It got big.
That's what happened.
It got big.

Chris Shep (32:40):
like, we had to call the guys and he was like, Hey,
you know that thing for 200,it's probably gonna be more like
800, maybe a thousand.
He was like, yeah, no problem,whatever.
Um, and that was the goal was toraise a hundred thousand dollars
that day and we raised 181,000.
Um.

So what did you charge back then?
For, for, uh, for the, to comeand, and be in the event.
And what did people get?
And this first time, what didthey, what was there?
What happened once they paidtheir engines fee and got in the
door?

Lindsey (33:07):
So we charge, I mean, we haven't changed our prices
that much now that I think aboutit.
In

Chris Shep (33:11):
Mm.

Lindsey (33:11):
years, we charged$200.
We, I don't believe we had anyVIP that first year.
'cause we just, didn't know wewere just.
Playing it by ear.
So we, everyone was$200.
of the things that we, which youguys own a wine

Chris Shep (33:24):
I think.

Lindsey (33:25):
so you'll appreciate this, but one of the things we
made a pact to ourselves back in2015 was that because we started
Southern Smoke for Assam, wewould never serve bad wine.
So that first year we, we werepouring we were pouring Hirsch,
we were pour, I mean our, ourwide lineup

Chris Shep (33:44):
minor.
Like all the people who havebeen with us since day one.

Lindsey (33:47):
wines.
And these are all, you know,wineries that are still with us.
You know, we just did an eventin Napa a couple of weeks ago
and they were all there pouring,you know, it's just, it's, it's
wonderful.

I just wanna interject here.
Uh,'cause Mark and I go to civicthings to raise money for the
restaurant industry, sometimesto the, raise money for the
theater, sometimes to docharitable events, sometimes.
And I often think to myself, andwe have obviously people use us
for a lot of things, andespecially if you're charging a
high ticket, if I'm gonna spendan evening with you and sit

(34:17):
down.
I don't want a rubber chickendinner.
And, and very often we'll getpeople who go to a black tie
affair somewhere in the countyand then after dinner they come
here for dinner'cause they wouldlike to eat some food.
Mm-hmm.
And I'm like, and

Lindsey (34:30):
we do when we go to Kayla.

well when I, when I give you$200 for
an evening or whatever, chargeme 2 75 and give me some good
food and something to drink.
And I, and I'll be happy there.
Yep.
And, and I think what you guysare doing, I, look.
obviously everyone should do alltheir events with us, but, um, I
think that it's really importantto do quality, and I'm super
thrilled that you guys do that.

Chris Shep (34:52):
I, I, I think that's why the VIP thing started for
the next year is because whenGates opened, everybody, and, I
mean everybody that was waitingoutside ran right and stood in
Aaron Franklin's line.

Mm, mm-hmm.

Chris Shep (35:06):
the restaurant in Austin, and it was just like we
could charge more for that.
So I was like,

Yeah.

Chris Shep (35:14):
we made VIP and they get in an hour early, so they go
get whatever they want beforeeverybody else gets in.
I think that's why that changedLindsay.

Lindsey (35:21):
And one thing that's really important to us too is
that we, we always

Chris Shep (35:26):
Yeah.

Lindsey (35:26):
costs.
think it's hypocritical to askall these chefs to come in from
around the country and then weask them to come out of pocket.
So we pay for flights.
We, our host hotel is the FourSeasons We will.
Um, we will pay for your foodcosts.
We will do our best to find, youknow, sponsors for whatever

(35:47):
they're cooking.
But if, if we don't have it, wewill pay you back.

Chris Shep (35:51):
And, and, and we went, we did grow, like we went
from fours to eight chefs to.
16 to 20 and now to 80.
Um, and, and now we're in themiddle of downtown a discovery
green on seven Acres.
Um, we basically take over agiant restaurant that's in there
for VIPA smaller restaurant foranother venue.
The stage is set like it'smassive, um, and now it's 4,000

(36:13):
people.

Lindsey (36:14):
we're

Chris Shep (36:14):
But.

Lindsey (36:15):
demos with Yeti now.
I mean, it's, there are allkinds of interaction, like we've
got, um, do you know, paw up theresort in Montana?
So they're coming andessentially taking over this,
the small restaurant that Chriswas talking about that is
located in the park and turningit into Montana.
You know, they're gonna

Chris Shep (36:34):
Yeah,

Lindsey (36:35):
fly fishing, they're gonna have a mechanical bull,
they're gonna do roasting,

Chris Shep (36:39):
it's like a, a luxury dude ranch basically is
what it is, you know.

Lindsey (36:45):
so we,

A luxury dude.

Lindsey (36:47):
yeah,

Chris Shep (36:48):
of me too.
So, but I think that what haschanged is that, and why it's
the amount of chefs that arecoming is because we really take
care of them.
And it's really one of the onlyindustry events or one of the
events that we get asked to dothat gives back to somebody that
you or may not know but is doingthe same job you are doing.
Right.

And,

Chris Shep (37:08):
staff is.

and maybe some of the people who are
coming along to help you, it maybe one of those people tomorrow
or nextly year or next week.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.

Chris Shep (37:16):
Yeah.
And so we,

Lindsey (37:17):
has been in the past.

Chris Shep (37:19):
so we figured out a way, just like, you know, I
think we, I've always, I, I,back in the day when I played
golf, I'd go to the restaurantassociation golf tournament, and
each hole was sponsored by.
And so we just had thatconversation.
It was like, why don't we justhave each chef sponsored, like a
golf hole in a tournament?
And that gives us the ability toreally take care of the team.

(37:40):
And it helps raise more moneyjust on the backside.

And, and what have you created?
You've created a better eventbecause I'll tell you, I can't.
Every one of these events I goto where I see other restaurants
participating and I see thempreparing food that's not as
good as the food in theirrestaurants.
And I never understood that.
You know, whenever I go to oneof these events, I, I wanna

(38:02):
serve duck.
I wanna serve fo gra I wannaserve you.
The coolest thing that I mightserve in my restaurant is what I
wanna show you at, at theseevents.
Why?
Because I wanna, I'm showcasingmy restaurant.
It's an opportunity for me to

Chris Shep (38:15):
Yeah.

showcase my restaurant.
And now by you supplying and,but it's expensive to do these
events.

Chris Shep (38:22):
Mm-hmm.

events are, they're expensive to do.
And so I understand whyrestaurant's like, well, I'm
investing$3,000 into this event.
I don't wanna invest$6,000 intothis event.
Right?
You're putting in the labor, thetime, the transport, and all
that, and you're like.
Well, what do I have left tospend on food?
But by you covering the cost ofthe food that they're putting
out, you now are encouragingthem to produce better food.

(38:45):
So by definition, your event isgoing to have better food than
an event that doesn't do that.

Chris Shep (38:51):
Well, and, and, and the, and the level of talent
that that comes to this is, ispretty amazing.
'cause like we, we have apartnership with Food and Wine
Magazine.
So on September 9th this year,the Food and Wine Best New Chefs
will be announced for this year.
And then in October all of themare cooking in Houston.
And so, when it comes down toit, like it's, we try to style

(39:14):
out the chefs that are and the,and who's coming to town, you
know, it is, it's, it's our kindof goal that they leave wanting
nothing and knowing more aboutthis than they ever would
before.
And you know,'cause it's, theyget in on Thursday, we have a
party for'em, then we have anafter party for that party.
Friday, it's a mental healthbreakfast, and then there's a

(39:35):
pool party later in the day.
And then we work with, one ofour partners is Lexus.
And so there's a fleet of Lexusthat take them wherever they
want to go in the city to eat.
and then Saturday, you know,they, they cook for 4,000 and,
and I tell'em, Hey, do somethingthat's very significant to you
and do something that's notoverly complicated.
Just really a delicious bite sothat you can enjoy this moment

(39:59):
of being together with yourindustry.
And helping your industry andbeing a part of this and
learning the message.
Don't work yourself so hard youforget why you're here.

Yeah.

Chris Shep (40:11):
And, and I, and you know, we've all done these food
festivals and things like that,but I will literally tell'em
before, Hey man, if you want totake a break, just put your sign
down,

Mm-hmm.

Chris Shep (40:22):
take 20 minutes, take

Right.
There's 84 other chefs.

Chris Shep (40:25):
And yeah.
And then come back and put yourson back up and put some more
food out.
It doesn't matter.

Lindsey (40:29):
it's physically impossible to eat every bite.

Chris Shep (40:32):
Because

Well, so talk, talk to me about the
one thing about the festival,and Mark and I go to a lot of,
have gone to a lot of foodfestivals in the last 30
something years we've been inthe business.
and some are great and some arelike, you pay a fee to go into
an area to stand online a lotto, to maybe get four
restaurants by the end of theday, we'll just use the words
less.
Great.
So what's I mean, I'm, I wannasell your event, but I also
wanna find out about your event.

(40:53):
When somebody pays their 200bucks or they pay for the VIP,
what is their experience like?
Because I think a lot of peopleare very leery about going to
these events to stand online to,to spend half of the time online
and not have anythinginteresting.

Chris Shep (41:07):
I,

what happens if I'm coming to your
event, I

Chris Shep (41:10):
I think the only real line is the self-imposed
ones.
Um, there's always the Franklinline because there just is,
that's just part of.
Texas, right?

right.

Chris Shep (41:23):
Franklin.
Everybody wants to stay in thatline, but everything else is
like three, four people deepbecause there's so much food.

right.
85.
You have 85 chefs cooking.

Chris Shep (41:31):
There's

not, it's not gonna be an event like
that.

Chris Shep (41:34):
there or getting a glass of wine or getting a
cocktail or getting this orwalking around, there's really
very rarely ever any lines.
I mean, they're not very long.

Lindsey (41:42):
we have, you know, mobile stations.
So we've got somebody that ismobile serving oysters.
We've got a mobile ice creamcart.
We're gonna do a mobilemargarita station with alcoholic
and non-alcoholic margaritas.

Chris Shep (41:55):
Hopefully I want

Lindsey (41:57):
of

Chris Shep (41:57):
theta cards.
Yeah.

Lindsey (41:57):
have the underberg cart, you know, the bicycle.
Um,

Under Berg Bicycle.
I like.
That's my.

Chris Shep (42:03):
around then they just hand out unders to people
while they're standing

Oh, that.

Chris Shep (42:07):
know?

Lindsey (42:08):
very helpful at a food festival.
And

Chris Shep (42:10):
Yeah.

Lindsey (42:10):
for VIP there's a lot of activation.
So we have H Chefs and VIP thisyear and we try to make each.
Station is not the right word,but section for the chefs as
personal to them as possible.
So we are literally building abarn for a Blackberry farm.
We are building the facade ofpool's diner for Ashley

(42:32):
Christensen.
We're building Red Hook Tavernfor Billy to serve his burgers.
it's really fun.
We're gonna, we have a spin thewheel where people get prizes
inside of VIP.
We have a whole room that's allNew Orleans, so we'll have Neil
from Cure.
We'll have Mason from Turkey andthe Wolf, Anna from Akamai, and
bringing a DJ in from NewOrleans.
So it's just the whole, thewhole New Orleans vibe up there.

(42:56):
So it's, it's just, it's fun.
And if you don't want to eat ordrink something at that moment,
you can go over and like learnhow to fly fish with paws up or.
Watch a cooking demo on, on thestage, on the Yeti stage.
So it's, we try to keep it asdiverse as possible.

Chris Shep (43:11):
Or go sit and watch music on the giant stage.

Dude,

Lindsey (43:14):
We have live music

Chris Shep (43:15):
there's, it's, five hours of heck yeah.

Chris and Lindsay, it sounds like a
great party and moreimportantly, it sounds like
you're doing great work and, uh,thank you for it.
We are, we are so lookingforward to, getting the word out
on this.
Uh, we also want you to knowwhen e like a local goes
national, we'll see you in NewBrunswick.
Yeah, yeah.
We're very much looking forwardto that trip.

Lindsey (43:36):
it.

Chris Shep (43:37):
Bruns.

We, yeah, we're gonna call it eat
like the Jersey guy.

Lindsey (43:40):
and if y'all find yourselves in Houston on October
4th, just let us know.
We've got tickets with your nameon it.

Yeah, I think I'm looking at Mark
right now.
I'm looking at you right now.
Uh oh.
Jen's looking at me with an eyeto the budget.
Oh, no.
Jen's, yes.
Who knows?
Maybe we'll be there.

Chris Shep (43:54):
know what?
Come set up, set up at the FourSeasons, or set up at the
festival and do do the podcastthere,

I think we should do podcasts
from, from your event on October4th.
I think.
That'd be,

Lindsey (44:04):
that.
We

that would be, that would be a lot of
fun.

Chris Shep (44:06):
steps throughout, man,

Exactly.
Exactly.
Okay.
Okay, so this goes out topodcast listeners.
If you think the restaurant guysshould go down to the Southern
Smoke Festival on October 4th,and maybe you even wanna meet us
there, email us at theguys@restaurantguyspodcast.com
and uh, and we'll see it's timefor you guys to step up and tell
us whether we should go or not.
And if you are a restaurantperson and you need help, or you

(44:28):
know, someone who needs help,Southern smoke.org is where you
go to find out about how you canaccess this.
And we're gonna put that in ourshow notes.
And, uh, this has been a reallyimportant show.
Super.
You guys are awesome.
Super, super.
You guys, you guys need to knowthat you're awesome and I'm
proud of this show.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You're here.

Lindsey (44:44):
thank you so much for

Chris Shep (44:45):
Thank you.

Alright, we'll be back in just a moment.
You are listening to therestaurant guys.
Of course.
And you can always find outmore@restaurantguyspodcast.com.

Hey there.
Welcome back.
Wow.
Super important work.
when you talk about a, a subsetof people that are totally
outside, where everybody isgetting help.
That's the group that they'rehelping.
I can't help but think, and thisis a serious moment, and then
I'm gonna, I wanna go, I'm gonnalighten this up a little bit for
the end, Francis.
Um, uh, I just think of in our30, 40 years in the business

(45:27):
now, uh.
How many people do we know andlook as employers, we have
leaned in to help a lot ofpeople.
Sure.
Absolutely.
And, people who need help, andwe've been able to lean in
because we're close enough tothem.
But how many people that we'reeither not close enough to or
just they didn't have theresources and.
How many people could havebenefited who, who really bad
things happened to?
I think it's 10 off the top ofmy head.

(45:47):
Who, if they, I think if I couldgo back in time mm-hmm.
And, and put them in touch withsomebody like this who could
come up with some mental healthcounseling or a one time grant
who transplant or needed affordit or who needed.
To not get evicted.
Mm-hmm.
Which started a spiral of, youknow,'cause look, the restaurant
business, people often look atthe restaurants and they say,
oh, there's so many people inthe restaurant business who are,

(46:08):
are marginal.
And there are plenty of peoplein the restaurant business
mm-hmm.
Making a fine living.
But one of the reasons thepeople in the restaurant
business are marginal, it's notpeople on the way down, it's on
the way up.
Or it's a lifeline to people whoaren't nine to five Monday to
Friday people.
Or like they're building theirlife.
if you have.
Uh, basic health insurance andyou need a kidney transplant,

(46:29):
right?
Well, you, you're gonna owe$50,000 for the rest of your
life, or you could havesomething bad happen and you
know, mm-hmm.
If you get robbed and you have,you have very little saved
having something like this superimportant.
I, can we go back something alittle lighter?
Yes, I'd love to.
Okay.
Geez.
Okay.
So, um, we were both talkingabout how it needs to be fun
when you raise money.
Mm-hmm.
And I, again, we do go to rubberchicken dinners and it's like,

(46:52):
spend whatever you charge me,charge me 20% more and gimme
something to eat.
And what we found is some peoplewho've been doing events with us
are spending top dollar andcharging top dollar.
Mm-hmm.
And their donors are giving themgreat feedback and saying, I
will come to this again nextyear.
Um, but I remember when thiswhole thing started, the, the
restaurant fundraiser startedwith Taste to the Nation.

(47:15):
What was that?
Nineties?
In the nineties.
That's a long time ago.
Late eighties.
And Taste of the Nation wasgreat.
Started in New York.
I think Danny Meyer was, was in,in, in.
Pivotal to it and it was thisbig once a year thing and we
used to go get asked to work atour friends who are wine sales
reps or we go and work the thingas for cocktails or wine.
And it was great.
But then it devolved into,everybody copied it and it was

(47:37):
like Taste of Princeton, tasteof North Brunswick, taste of
South Brunswick, taste of EastBrunswick, taste of North
Jersey, taste of South Jersey,taste of and taste of Somerset
and everybody copied this.
And so restaurants who were.
Predisposed to say, yes, you'resending your chefs out 10 or 12
weeks a year to put on stuff andthat's when the quality of food

(47:58):
began to decline.
And schitz on a cracker, schmutzon a cracker is sch a cracker,
we used to call it.
I go to all these benefits and Iget, I go to these restaurants
and get.
Different kinds of schmutz ondifferent kind of crackers
because it's all they could doand it had nothing to do with
the initial restaurant.
And I think right before COVIDthat had sort of faded away to
where people now I thinkrestaurants are selective again.

(48:19):
Mm-hmm.
About like, listen, we can do acouple of events a year and we
wanna make sure there are eventsthat actually make money for an
actual cause that we actuallysupport.
Um, I, I'll tell you an event wewent to recently that was
spectacular and.
Magically done with City Mealson Wheels.
Oh.
City Meals did their annualbenefit.
It, it was, it was a first rate,first class event.

(48:40):
And it, it sounds like this isgonna be that too.
And shout out to Rob Oppenheimerwho helped put that event
mm-hmm.
Who really put that eventtogether.
Yep.
Uh, it was tremendous thing, butYep.
To go for Audrey Saunders, whohad done it for a lot of years.
For Yeah.
Our friend Audrey.
Wonderful.
And she was pioneer.
if you're gonna go and, and helpsome way, make it a great event,
pick a few events and do themwell.
As a chef, better to do one or arestaurant owner.

(49:02):
Do one or two events.
When you're at that event, servefood that is similar to or
exactly like the food that youserve in the restaurant,
something you are proud of.
Right.
Something you're proud to serveand would be happy to serve in
your dining room, and that willhelp the organization that
you're trying to help.
It will be the promotion thatyou deserve if you're out there
doing it and will give people anidea of your restaurant and give
you some outreach.
People out in the business don'trealize is the amount of money

(49:25):
it costs to send a chef, twocooks, to send the van out with
stuff to prep the day beforeprep two days before, not
mention taking them out of yourrestaurant for that take right?
Then you gotta cover often inovertime the people who are
missing from your restaurant.
It's a lot.
Or the chef works is day off togo do those things.
There's a lot of cost to thatand it's great that the
restaurants do it.
We should just do it verycarefully and you guys should

(49:46):
really appreciate it when chefsdo that.
We hope that you haveappreciated this episode of The
Restaurant.
Guys, I'm Francis Shot.
And I'm Mark Pascal.

We are the restaurant guys, and you
can find outmore@restaurantguyspodcast.com.

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