May 30, 2024 • 49 mins
Experience an inspiring culinary adventure with Tampa's very own Chef Rosana Rivera, as she takes us through her remarkable journey from corporate sales to owning renowned restaurants. Discover how her Puerto Rican heritage and passion for cooking led her to a successful appearance on national TV with Bobby Flay, and how this life-changing experience propelled her career. We also reveal some unique Father's Day grilling ideas, including a mouth-watering smoked chicken dish and a coffee-encrusted two-pound ribeye, along with a fascinating dive into the culinary uses of the exotic tropical fruit lychee.
Hear firsthand how Chef Rosana transitioned from informal family catering to a formal culinary education, providing rich insights into the dynamics of working alongside her husband, Ricardo. The excitement of competing on a Food Network show and the meticulous casting process offer a behind-the-scenes g
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Thank you for listening to the Walk-In Talk Podcast, hosted by Carl Fiadini and Company. Our show not only explores the exciting and chaotic world of the restaurant business and amazing eateries but also advocates for mental health awareness in the food industry.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Hello, food Fam.
This is the Walk Talk podcastwhere you will find the perfect
blend of food fun and cookingknowledge.
I'm your host, carl Fiodini.
Welcome to the number one foodpodcast in the country.
We're recording on-site at IbisImages Studios, where food
photography comes alive and Iget to eat it.
First things first.
Last week on the show we hadMichelle Miller, aka the Farm
(00:32):
Babe, where we got into somevery zesty convo about
misleading labels.
To GMO or not to GMO that isthe question.
Go back and listen.
Our guest this week is Tampalocal Chef Rosanna Rivera.
From entrepreneur torestaurateur, she's done it all.
(00:52):
Plus, chef Rosanna has beenfeatured in dozens of magazines
and articles, not to mention thegranddaddy of them all, meeting
Bobby Flay and her husband, bythe way, on national TV.
Stay tuned, chef Rivera is ondeck.
Jefferson, we are deeplyembedded in this social media
(01:12):
rat race.
You know we're putting in thehard work and you know we're
trying to claw our way up.
Today we're going to get intohow something like winning a TV
show competition, a national one, can help improve your
visibility and, ultimately, yourbusiness.
By the way, we've been usingour Metro mobile prep cart and
it is badass.
(01:32):
We have a video coming outtoday.
Chefs, if you're planning onreorganizing your kitchen, be
sure to contact our friends atMetro, your partner in
organization and efficiency,jeff pop the clutch baby
Pre-shift.
Let's go.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Yeah, that's what we're talking about.
Father's Day coming up so Iwanted to do something to pay
homage to being outdoors.
It's nice and a lot more warmerin Florida, but other places
around the country they'redefrosting over the spring and
all that, so it's time to startgrilling.
So I did a riff on a coca-cola.
Coca-cola is very traditionallike a stewed or braised chicken
(02:09):
dish and it goes right from theget-go.
But I actually smoked thechicken first, then added in the
bacon, onions, wine and thenthen braised the chicken.
That way we have that beingserved with a little bit of
potato puree.
A little bit of contrast inthat as well.
And and let me just tell you,john and Rack Porcelain Dishes
they just did a phenomenal jobwith that today.
(02:30):
And then we have the two poundribeye that's right, two pound
ribeye.
And then I encrusted that withsweet water coffee and let it
sit there for at least a day,just to get real nice and gel
together as far as the meat wasconcerned.
What day?
Just to get real nice and geltogether as far as the meat was
concerned.
What happens when you do thatin your refrigeration?
It's a dehydrator.
So it actually dehydrates,causes that bark to get crispy
(02:51):
and crunchy on there so itpenetrates the meat.
So it's absolutely just fullflavored of coffee, especially
coming from sweet water coffee.
Larry does a great job overthere with his roasting
abilities.
And then we served that withbone marrow butter compound with
a pecan.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Talk about that for a second.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
Yeah, that was a little bit bone marrow.
You had to take some butter,get it to room temperature, had
some macadamia nuts, added thosepecans blueberry and then put
it all together on top and letit crust over about 400 degrees
to get that really nice flavorprofile.
And then we served that just onits own, sliced up some and
(03:31):
then used a red wine reductionand then just hit a little bit
of the au jus in there too aswell, and it was pretty stellar
actually.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
I can't wait to eat.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
I love how today happened.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Yeah, well, you know, at the end of the day.
So the audience doesn't know,or maybe some of them do, but
typically we cook first and thenpodcast.
And I don't know, a few monthsago we started kind of, you know
, experimenting with thispodcast, first, cook, after, and
it's, it's not bad, you know, Ilike it.
But I tell you what you know aswe're sitting here doing the
(04:06):
show and you know, my stomach islike saying hey, what's going
on?
Like, what are we?
What are we doing here?
Speaker 3 (04:11):
You know, not, John Johnny.
Well, you know what Good foryou guys.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
I noticed that John did have to go through with you
too.
I don't think they do.
Oh no, they do.
They completely understand?
They see the behind the scenes,do they really?
No, they don't.
They don't see the real.
You know, what we need to do is, like put some real live
cameras 100 of the time and then, and then they're gonna know,
and they're gonna know, they'regonna see that john works his
butt off.
All right.
So this, this, this twopoundpound piece of meat that
was ridiculous.
I know it's obscene.
It's sitting right there, it'sa few arm lengths away, and I'm
(04:53):
fixing to just hang up theheadphones and just get out of
here.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
I hear you and you can't forget about the T-bone.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
No, you can never forget about the T-bone, and the
T-bone has papaya in there.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
And no, you can never forget about the T-bone.
No, and the T-bone has papayain there, and then lychees are
in season.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
So talk about the lychees.
Those are like so for thefoodies, right?
They look like marbles.
Yeah, little pearl marbles.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
They're also known as dragon's eyes because of the
way when you bite into it it hasthe pit in the middle of it
like a stone fruit.
Where does it come from,lycheee?
It's indigenous here in Florida.
It's subtropical, but it'sknown to be in.
Yeah, leach the nut.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
So it's from the lychee tree, right, and it's got
a real good texture.
When they're ripe they have areal sweet texture, but if
they're not, they have a littlebit of sourness to them, and so
I got lychee poppers, which islike the caviar and you put it
with the papaya that I made withthe salsa.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
Growing up in South Florida, you know Richard.
Okay, so Richard, you know heand I have been friends since
like 1983 and you know hisfamily's they're he's Japanese.
They had a lychee tree and itwas humongous and you know we
would be off weekend or whatever.
We would climb the tree, sit inthe tree and just crack lychee
(06:06):
nuts and eat leachy nuts rightfresh from the tree and wow,
that was just an amazing.
You know, and this is like a,you know, pretty rural area Well
, 83.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
Yeah, there was probably nothing, yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
It was well, it was just the orange groves and the
dairy farms and stuff like thatout there, cattle ranch, all
that, and so that was just thatkind of living.
It was really great, really,their cattle ranch, all that and
uh, so that was just that kindof living.
It was really great, reallygreat.
That's my experience with, uh,you know my, my fond memories of
ichinote.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
you know, the funny thing is when I look to see and
try to like, compare what injune, what was?
Not only the holiday coming up,but what was in season in
florida lychee, papaya they allpopped up and I'm like I've
never done lychee in a steak oron a steak and never done papaya
, even though papaya is known asa meat tenderizer and be
beautiful.
So I just put two together andlet me see what it's going to be
(06:50):
like and it actually worksreally well.
That wasn't the that.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
Uh, that that wasn't the salsa, was it that was at
the?
Yeah, the papaya salsa.
Yeah, that was fantastic.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
The onions came from my garden, because the onions
are now finally there, yoursecret garden.
Yeah, the garden is also goingto have next actually this month
garlic June.
I'll have garlic coming in.
I had tomatoes, so I threw thatup.
My neighbor has the papayas, soput it all together.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
Well, as usual, foodie people photos are coming.
You know, john, of course, youknow what to expect Beautiful
stuff Today.
It's a little bit of a treat,right, and I'm going to bring,
I'm going to bring Chef Rosannaon here in a second, but you
know she's going to, she'scooking too, and you know.
(07:36):
So it's not going to be justJefferson's food today.
It's extra, and I think I'mhappy, I think that's fantastic
because I heard empanadas.
Yeah, man, well, these are thebobby flay empanadas.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
Okay, these are the ones that beat that dude okay
right so, uh, thank god there'sa camera right on her right now,
because she's got a smile likea little kid, so do I all right
um, chef rosanna, welcome to theprogram thank you so much for
having me.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
I mean, you're giggling, this is we do that you
know.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
Like I said before, remember we all of the pre stuff
that you saw leading up to this.
It's to get you in the rightframe of mind.
That's what we do.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
I can see it now.
Yeah, that's what we do, I loveit, it's our.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
this is the green room prep, that's green room
prep.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
Exactly, we get you ready for the shenanigans that
go on in this show.
Let's take a second, if youcould.
How about an airplane view ofwho you are and where you come
from?
And how did you make it here?
How did you get here?
Speaker 2 (08:44):
today, you know what?
I mean the car right there soI'll take you on a very quick
journey.
You know starting, I'm born andraised in puerto rico, from the
countryside, so that's on thesouthwestern side of the island,
very small town.
Um grew up in a backgroundwhere food is essential in in
life and the center of our homeand surrounded by all sorts of
(09:06):
trees, of everything that youget in the island.
I come from a family of farmers.
I moved to the States around2001, to New York.
That's where I started mycareer in hospitality not being
a chef yet and that was rough.
You know just the culturechange for me of coming from a
(09:28):
small town to now being in thebiggest city in the world and
with the same company I askedfor a transfer to Miami.
So that's what really brings meto Florida.
And I worked in corporate worldfor about eight years while I
was here and I had justsomething inside.
Food was my calling and notsomething I ever took seriously.
(09:50):
So I kept gravitating towardsit until one day I said, okay
enough, I'm going to see wherethis takes me.
I started doing private cheffor families and little by
little started growing thebusiness and that's when I
enrolled in culinary school, putmyself through culinary school
(10:11):
and started officiallyincorporated my first business
18 years ago this month.
So the started that journey ofbeing an entrepreneur and you
know, cooking for other peopleand defining what that business
was like.
Around 2012, I met my otherhalf, whom you have already met,
and we opened our firstrestaurant together these two
(10:35):
young entrepreneurs just goingat it through life and we opened
a French restaurant inPatisserie.
We were very successful at it.
It brought us a lot ofnotoriety here in Tampa.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
Picante right.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Yeah, it was called Picante in Hyde Park Village,
and when that chapter closed, wemoved to our second restaurant,
which was inside of a food hallcalled Silo Mexican, and that's
when we received the call forBobby Flay, and that was in 2019
.
So we went through the show.
(11:11):
We're going to talk a littlebit about it later, but it's not
something you can reveal untilthey tell you that you can, and
that happened in December of2019.
And we'll talk a little bitmore in detail later.
It exploded, but three monthslater the whole world shut down
and with that our restaurantshut down and we changed formats
(11:34):
.
So that brings me to today,four years post-pandemic.
We have two businesses.
One of them is Chef Rosanna.
What came out of the show andpandemic was becoming my own
brand, and with that I do luxurycatering and events, and along
with Chef Ricardo, then I have achef and the baker, which is
(11:55):
more your daily sustenancesavory foods and a lot of bakery
.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
So when you were, you said that you came to Miami in
a corporate capacity.
What were you doing then?
Speaker 2 (12:11):
I was in sales and marketing, you know, and
creating conventions andhospitality and events for trade
shows, essentially so handlingthat part of being in a trade
show and it could be X, y, z,you know, sometimes it was a
luxury jewelry trade show, butsometimes it was a luxury
jewelry trade show, butsometimes it was something else.
So it was managing and puttingtogether all the hospitality
(12:32):
component of it.
Um, and I used to travel tolatin america a lot with the
same purpose putting togetherconventions so that's
interesting.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
You were, you, you actually, you were inadvertently
, you were in the businessalready or connected to the
business very much, absolutelyyeah and then the desire from
within.
You know, and that's some,that's from family and heritage
and everything kind of drove youinto the uh, into the realm of
hey, I want to go to culinaryschool um, definitely, you know,
(13:02):
in in puerto rico we hustle.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
You know, growing up in an island you have your
career, but it's very acceptablethat you have a side job.
I think you know Florida hassomething similar with the
cottage law, but over there youcan just open anything.
So growing up my mom and I usedto cater and things that people
don't cook at their house.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
It can't all just be mofongo no house.
It can't all just be mofongo no, no, it can't all just be
mofongo.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
Everybody can make their mofongo.
So we would specialize on thethings that people didn't make
and, honestly, a lot of Frenchitems, believe it or not.
So a lot of appetizers,different things that people
wouldn't necessarily make athome.
Anybody makes arroz congandules or lechon, so it wasn't
that, it was what was different, what you couldn't get in the
(13:50):
island, essentially, but thatwas very easy to do there
without being formal, withoutgoing to a culinary school or
opening a formal business.
In here it's a different story.
So I wanted that formality, Iwanted that education and
confidence, and that's what ledme to.
If I'm going to do this for therest of my life, I want to do
(14:12):
it well.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
How did the Food Network know about you?
How did you get that call?
Is that something where yousubmitted and then they found
you?
How did that?
Speaker 2 (14:26):
You can apply to the show and I think now with social
media it's a little bit easierto find on these shows who's the
casting agent.
I want to say a few years agomaybe it was a little bit more
obscure.
Unless you're subscribed togetting newsletters from a
casting agency and if we haveanybody listening and you want
to go into a show, that's agreat way.
(14:48):
Just search for your favoriteshows, who the agent is and
normally on their website youcan apply if it's the season, if
the season is open.
But in our case we got an emailand I thought it was a joke, a
scam, so I left it in my inboxfor about a week until one night
I said let me Google and seewho this person is and she
(15:09):
popped up on LinkedIn and I said, okay, this is the agency.
Then you look up who thisagency is and then I realized,
oh wait, they cast all of BobbyFlay's shows.
So this is not a scam and Iresponded to that email.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Did you immediately start sweating?
Speaker 2 (15:27):
I did Ricardo.
No, you know he's a ham, but Iget anxiety when I'm in that,
you know spotlight's on me.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
Well, I was speaking with Ricardo for maybe 15
minutes and he's the most laidback cool cat I think I've ever
met.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
He is zero ego, but he's very confident in that
realm of TV.
So it was good to have him, youknow, to boost my confidence in
that, because you're out ofyour element.
You know, as chefs we're usedto hiding in the kitchen.
That's our safe space, and allof a sudden you're throwing to
the spotlight cameras on you.
(16:03):
It's not as easy.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
Yeah, and how this all works right.
I mean, first of all, in in onthat show.
You nationally got to beatbobby flay, but I think, more
importantly, you got to beathobby.
Yes, right, I, I for me, Ithink that's because if, if, if
I were in a situation like that,it was me and my wife and and I
got to beat my wife like thatand and I think I would just I
(16:28):
would walk around a mile highevery day.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
It's gotta be.
It's gotta be almost betterthan than beating Bobby.
Oh no, no nothing beats Bobbybeating Bobby.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
But I think you know, ricardo and I are definitely
partners in life and in business.
So when we we got so we didn'tnecessarily both apply at the
same time.
I think at that point in timethat we're probably looking for
a female and my name came uphaving some recognition in our
area.
So when I finally answer thecasting agent and she listened
(17:05):
to our story they don't assumethat you own your business or
that you're the main chef sothat you go through all these
questions.
And when they hear the storynow I own a business with my
husband and he happens to be achef something clicked on their
side.
You know what?
What?
Speaker 1 (17:20):
just he just, would he be willing and I'm like, of
course he would be willing, youknow to be, I get that from him
too yeah well, the show, and Iget like if I were, if I were
the agent, and I'm looking atthe and I'm looking at the, the
paper, and I'm like, oh man, mygears are already spinning like
this is great tv.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
You know, that's beautiful, yeah so they crafted
this episode and you don't knowif it's you know, until you know
that it's gonna happen that way.
But what they presented to theproducer of the episode and then
eventually to the network is wehave this couple out of Tampa,
they cook together, they have abusiness together and they're
competing.
So they created if you look upthe show, it's a couples episode
(18:01):
.
So at first I thought this wasgoing to air in Valentine's
probably, and it didn't.
It ended up airing in Christmas, during the holiday, and then
they brought in another coupleto be the host, you know going
challenging Bobby, which is AliTila and Jet Tila, and they're
amazing Another, you know, greatcouple story.
(18:23):
So they made everything aboutthe episode to be very inclusive
, to be very much about ourheritage, both being from Puerto
Rico.
So it was just a lovely,honestly just a lovely
experience.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
Okay, so you do the show, you win.
And granted, it was, you know,ground zero, for you know, for
COVID and the whole thing.
It still changed your life.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
It did Absolutely.
And I, you know, I want to saythese shows give you a platform
to jumpstart your career, maybeget ahead, but you have to make
the most out of it and I havemade the most out of being on
the show and everything thatcomes with it.
You know it's a marketing power.
Bobby Flay and they do a greatjob at giving you that platform.
(19:18):
You know he presents the showas a show for chefs and that is
very real.
But when you come back from it,you do have some time to
prepare and and you know,ricardo and I sat down and we
made our own personal financialinvestment in promoting it, in
(19:38):
doing a, you know, hiring a pragency into drafting press
releases.
You know the things that you dofor your own business.
So we really wanted to take theopportunity that was given to
us and make the most out of it.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
And I think that's the.
So that's where things getsuper interesting.
Obviously, you know we're awe're a food media company and
we're not that social media isour driver.
You know we're a food mediacompany and we're not that
social media is our driver.
You know our content for Appleand Spotify and you know that's
our driver.
But of course, we have to playin on social media in order to
(20:40):
get just a little bit extraeyeballs on what you're doing.
It's an incredible amount ofwork.
We're running late todaybecause we had a cooler go down.
An AC unit went down.
You know, and you know heyhashtag.
You know chef life and I'm likeI don't totally get it.
You know, like I totallyunderstand, and then you show up
(21:00):
here not even breaking a sweat.
So I mean, this is what we do.
So the life in the kitchenincredibly difficultateur life.
Jeff, you know very it's inalmost impossible.
And now you guys, how youreally went into overdrive on
your social media life is I,because I remember I we had
never met, but I remember seeingyou back then you know when,
(21:22):
when you, when you beat bobby,and then seeing you on linked
LinkedIn and seeing you all overthe place.
You know I beat Bobby and I waslike, wow, that's pretty
bad-ass.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
Yeah, thank you.
You know it's.
It's been a four-year journey,you know, just to give our
listeners a little bitperspective.
I think before I went on theshow, I had probably in the
range of 1800 followers, and mybiggest platform is Instagram.
Um, now, four years later,almost five.
(21:52):
Uh, I think I'm about to hit40,000.
So it does give you theplatform, but I normally I'm I'm
an introvert and I'm very shy.
So, putting the tag there,these were all recommendations
from the investment that we made.
It's like you have to be.
You're your only loudspeaker.
(22:13):
Nobody's going to be thatloudspeaker for you, and I went
through about a three monthperiod where, like, my life is
going to be out there.
You know, making my ownInstagram page.
Before then it used to beprivate, you had to request me,
so you know that that thosechanges do come with it, and you
have to be willing and and putyour best foot forward every day
(22:36):
and experiment with differentthings is it worth it?
Speaker 3 (22:41):
it is absolutely well , she's got a brand, that's but
you created, the brand wasalmost formed out of social
media and network TV right.
Well, it came from before that,though, because she had already
realized it and they wereplanning on it, but she's a
smart restaurateur.
When I did consulting for myprevious employer, and still to
(23:02):
this day, you always hear what'sthe first thing that owners get
rid of I'm not making money,they get rid of marketing.
It's the first thing thatowners get rid of I'm not making
money, they get rid ofmarketing.
It's the first one, and that'sthe dumbest, stupidest move,
because when you get rid ofmarketing, how are you going to
have people in your seats?
Because the most expensive seatin your entire restaurant is
the empty one.
Yeah, absolutely, and that'sfree advice, by the way.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
And very good advice.
Yeah, there's a generalshort-sightedness.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
Did you just see the hand little golf clap from
Silent?
Speaker 1 (23:33):
John.
Well, there's a generalshort-sightedness from companies
at large.
I've seen companies cut theirmarketing department, their
sales department, Like what areyou doing?
That's what gets you out thereIn today's world, everything is
a video, everything is a post,and if you're not, or a story or
something, and if you're notdoing that, you're, you're
(23:58):
behind everybody else who is,and I don't care what your sales
team looks like.
You know physical sales teamlooks like.
You can do a lot.
Obviously you're still knockingon doors and you're still
getting in front of your client,but the reality is, all of the
social media is working whenyou're not and you need it to
happen, yeah, and what does itcost you?
Speaker 2 (24:13):
I agree with and I want to make people think, oh,
you have to hire somebody thatcan invest.
You know, in order to do that,we hired someone for the period
of time that we were going tolaunch and, you know, spread the
news that we had been on theshow and, eventually, that we
won.
You know, I still manage all mysocial media myself.
(24:35):
I do have someone that helps me.
You know, creating videos, thethings that take time, that I
don't have the time to do, butfor years it was just me
creating the content.
We, you know they started.
Ricardo does the same thing.
He creates his own content too.
It's about being authentic.
I read a lot, you know, becausethe trends in social media has
changed so quickly, so I'malways immersed in.
(24:58):
You know, whether it's anewsletter that I'm subscribed
to and I receive on a dailybasis to read on.
What can you do?
You know trends and topics thathave to do with marketing and
social media.
Because I'm a chef, I'm not amarketer.
Now, I'm not.
I wouldn't consider myself aninfluencer.
That's a full-time job.
I don't have the time to putmyself out there and create
(25:21):
amazing content to become aninfluencer.
At the end of the day.
I'm a chef and I run a business, so I always experiment with
what information I put out thereon social media.
That's time, we can afford thetime.
Speaker 3 (25:36):
I think that's the number one thing with chefs is
it's the time factor, it's howmuch time do I have to do this?
But they also think they don'thave the time to do it when they
have.
Every one of their employees ison the line looking at their
phone.
Might as well take the phoneout and take a video.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
Yeah, and that's something that, for example,
that's something that we havedone.
If you are going to use yourphone and take video, post it,
tag us, you know, become a partof our own community.
They post on Chef and Tag Chefand the Baker, or tag me, and
then I choose do I want thiscontent that an employee posted?
And more than likely, you know,90% of the time I do repost it,
(26:13):
or, if not, I teach them.
Hey, you know, next time Iwould love to put it on my page,
but can we do something alittle bit different that it's
more brand on brand with how Ipost things?
Speaker 1 (26:26):
Back in the day when I was in the restaurant business
and you know the period of timewhen I was, you know, front of
the house server, right, if, if,if that were today.
Because I had, you know, I wasfortunate to have built a pretty
strong call party clientele.
You know, friday, saturdaynight everybody comes to ask for
you, whatever.
(26:46):
If that were today and and Iwas a bartender or server,
something like that oh mygoodness.
I can't even like and I don'tsee a lot of that.
I see some bartenders who, youknow, take advantage a little
bit of social media, but I don'tsee any servers really doing
that and I feel like that issuch a huge.
If you're a good, if you'regood at what you do and you
(27:10):
already have like a nicefollowing of people, if you
enhanced that, oh my goodness,you, you would be.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
you would be the one in town making all the money and
to validate your point, we'relosing the art of serving at a
table and I think if more peopleout there expose their craft, I
think it would motivate youngerpeople to say, oh, I can have a
career in this, because we'redefinitely losing that.
It's not something I want tosee in our industry, that we
(27:39):
lose entirely.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
Well, that was part of the conversation Ricardo and
I were having which was.
You know where is the service.
You go to a restaurant andyou're obviously you know price
points are up everywhere andcosts are up everywhere and at
the end you know three people goout to eat and it's $250.
(28:01):
And that never was, unless itwas a very elevated, high-end
place.
Now it's like your local pub.
You're spending $200 on a on acheck it's crazy.
Whereas where's the service thatmatches the, the?
You know your bill and it getsdicey.
Obviously, I get it.
A lot of my friends ownrestaurants.
(28:21):
A lot of my friends are chefsin those restaurants.
I, I see it, I get it.
You know we're all trying tomake it happen, but I'll tell
you what the front of the housereally took a hit, really took a
hit.
Your service, the servicelevels, are not what they were,
you know pre.
You know 2019.
Speaker 3 (28:36):
Well it's called it's .
Most of these.
It's a combination of differentthings, whether we're trying to
get the right person to be thatserver, and it's also the
guests that are coming in.
They demand a certain well.
You have to, you have to earnrespect, but you can't demand it
right, that's, that's for sure.
But I think the flip side ofthe things, too, is that not
only did we lose service, but welost the experience straight up
(28:59):
, and that's one of the reasonswhy I came up with the farmer's
credible dinner, because Iwanted to get back to the theme
behind why we went out, becausemost of the time we would go out
, it was.
It was because it was a youknow, think about it back in the
day.
It was a tropical steakhouseoff of griffin, right?
Speaker 1 (29:14):
oh my god, why would you go to?
Speaker 3 (29:15):
that it was a destination for, like a birthday
and anniversary yeah that waswhen going out to eat was going
out to eat.
Then it became because it was.
Life got so hectic every day,then day, let's go out to eat, I
don't want to cook, let's goout to eat here.
Where are we going to go?
We've lost the whole convolutedof what things are supposed to
be in the restaurant industryand we have to get back to that.
(29:37):
And there are chefs that aredoing it.
Chefs aren't.
It's tough because, like yousaw it at the show, how many
robots did you see at the show?
Speaker 2 (29:46):
Several.
Speaker 3 (29:47):
Not just literally fry robots Right.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
Picking up the fryer.
Speaker 3 (29:50):
That was the burger one, yeah yeah, so that was when
you first walked into it.
So there was, just so everyonerealized, 760,000 square feet
for pooch and I to run into.
Rosanna and and her husbandRicardo was like by accident
twice.
No, no, no, no, no, no no, nono, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
It was meant to be.
It was a happy accident.
It was, it was meant to be.
Speaker 3 (30:13):
But right across the right across the way from where
citrus America was and dumpingthe fryer out.
And then there's that one youwere talking about that is
literally in the front thatpeople were ordering their food
and doing it.
Speaker 1 (30:28):
I just want you to realize that they have the AI
co-host too.
Just watch your step.
I'm just saying, watch yourstep, Watch your step.
Speaker 3 (30:36):
Okay, well, you know what I got it, but they're not
going to be able to cook.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
All right true story, but I'm going to get that
burger.
That's fine, get them, get themfor me.
Speaker 3 (30:44):
I don't want to turn to burgers anymore.
Speaker 1 (30:46):
I've got more important things to do than that
I'm madly in love with it.
I'm just joking, um, I you know.
So I'm on, um, chef, uh, chef,rosannacom, one in and like,
your food is gorgeous, thank you.
Thank you, your food is sobeautiful and so I can't I kind
of really can't wait to jumpinto some of these, these
(31:06):
empanadas and the other stuffmeanwhile, john's looking over
your shoulder, looking, I knowhow beautiful they are.
Speaker 3 (31:11):
He was.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
He was pointing at the looks like apple cobbler or
something like that, but, uh,maybe not.
Something like that looksfantastic.
Um, all right.
So social media I we got offtrack for a minute.
I want want to go back tosocial media.
How, how do you, what effort ifyou were going to give advice
to a chef, a restaurateur,somebody who has?
(31:33):
Listen, there, there's a lot ofstale eateries around town.
Stale, and I think you knowwhat I mean.
It's just flat, they're not.
You know, they're not changingtheir menus out, they're not
updating anything.
It's stale.
Some of them know it and someof them don't.
But if you were going to giveadvice to some of these
(31:54):
establishments and those people,how do they take social media
by the collar and make it workfor them?
Speaker 2 (32:05):
So I think it starts with prioritizing it, and you
know to your point what you weresaying, that that's the first
thing people cut out of budgetsagain, something you can do for
very little or even for free.
So sometimes you know we'verecommended to our industry
peers.
If they don't have someone, weare hiring Gen Zs and
(32:28):
millennials at our restaurants.
They're the prime segment thatunderstands it even better than
I do.
I do a lot of social media.
Grab one of your servers.
It could be a bartender, itcould even be a cook.
We have a customer and friendin Maryland that their lead cook
went viral on TikTok justposting making birria at their
(32:52):
restaurant.
Take advantage of somethinglike that and that's the person
maybe that they're spearheadingfor whatever amount of time and
then you put boundaries.
We're going to do it on Mondaysfrom this time to this time and
then see where that takes you.
You know, social media is a goodplace to experiment what works
(33:13):
for you.
But if you have, whether it's,you do a lot of LTOs or you
change your menu a lot, thoseare great things.
To highlight your staples.
Or you change your menu a lot,those are great things to
highlight your staples.
People forget that if you havean identity, people are going to
come to your restaurant becausethey want to eat that, whatever
that is, and those are thingsthat should be highlighted in
(33:37):
social media.
It could be.
You know how do we make it?
Why is this dish special?
You know?
But I would recommend thatDesignate one person that could
take this project on for yourrestaurant or business and then
let them run with it.
Speaker 1 (33:53):
What I want to know and I said this earlier to Evan,
I said that John and Evanshould do still and video
how-tos on your on yoursmartphone for food 100.
You know uh, just basic stuff,just to have the best, um, you
(34:14):
know um content that you can inin just trying to promote
yourself.
Speaker 3 (34:20):
You know uh well, not only that, they can actually
help out other people that wantit, like chefs.
And don't make me back in theday.
It was like flip your phoneupside down.
That's, that's the way to takethe video.
Now it's like can you do it, or?
Speaker 1 (34:30):
not.
Well, here's the thing.
Um, I don't even think John hasto talk.
I think he well silent.
John is his uh street name.
Speaker 2 (34:39):
Not everybody has John.
With that amazing photography,for sure he's special.
Speaker 1 (34:45):
Yeah, he doesn't talk a lot, but he does great work.
Yes, but in today's world youcan set it up to where you can
do voiceover.
Well, you can even do voiceover.
Speaker 3 (34:53):
Not John.
Somebody else can do the voice,yeah.
Speaker 1 (34:55):
Well, you can hire me , I'll do your voiceover, you
know.
Speaker 2 (35:06):
And then, don't forget, we also have tools today
that did not exist a few yearsago.
We use ai as well, especiallyto write our captions, and it's
it's a time saver.
Of course, we go back and editand probably shorten it.
Sometimes, you know, it spitsout a lot, um, but it's another
great way to just get somethingout the door and post very
quickly I, I love AI for thatreason.
Speaker 1 (35:28):
For us, for me, when we're publishing, it saves me
hours.
You have to go back in and youhave to change some stuff around
, you have to make it yours, soto speak, but man does it save
time.
Speaker 3 (35:42):
Everyone thought I used AI to finish my book.
I was like no.
Speaker 1 (35:45):
Didn't you use AI to do the whole thing?
No, no, okay, I'm only kidding.
No, I did not.
Aren't you using AI to cookyour?
Speaker 3 (35:52):
meals no, no recipes.
I'm actually having AI developthe recipes.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
Because I look up some of the stuff you're cooking
and I'm like Dolphine, yeah,dolphin.
And and then picture you showsup and there's your recipe.
That's what's weird.
Speaker 3 (36:05):
So it's funny, we're talking about content and I did
a behind the scenes and I wantedto get a little more entrenched
in the video and I've neverdone it.
And I have an 11 year old andyou just mentioned.
You know, get your millennial,get your.
Speaker 2 (36:18):
Gen Z.
Speaker 3 (36:19):
Well, I don't know what they are, like the alphabet
one, or I think, whatevergeneration.
Speaker 2 (36:22):
Now they are.
Speaker 1 (36:28):
It's the alphabet one .
I think I don't have ageneration.
Speaker 3 (36:29):
Now it's the next one .
It's a letter, let's put itthat way.
It's a whatever generation,martian dude, I don't know.
So I'm like so I go to dosomething in her room.
I come back and she's fiddlingwith it and I go, what's wrong?
She's like, well, this one kepthere and then moved here and
she was like all professionalthe way she was talking to me.
She's like it didn't make senseto me.
But you know, then I redid itand I looked at it.
It's fine.
So I was like oh, I got the 11year old's approval, so let me
go ahead and do it.
So there's you.
(36:50):
That's what we need to do is goto your because, listen, you
said it earlier carl, you saidearlier your kid.
That's all they're doing islooking at the phone oh my god
every second.
So they, they know, and mydaughter's like the wicked fast,
she'll look at something likeboom, like boom.
I'm like, how did you like that?
Speaker 2 (37:06):
not even it's only like a second yeah, that's what
they do all the time, yeah, andthey can filter content very
quickly because that's whatthey're used to doing.
So they'll know very quickly oh, this picture is good, this
video is good, and if not, theyknow how to pass it along so
that's what you need help withjohn, because john and I were
talking earlier about the.
Speaker 3 (37:26):
You know he's got beautiful uh photography that he
posts on his ibis imaging andthat's his go-to ig and he's
like but I don't get traction.
I'm like, yeah, you got to dosomething different.
You got to stand out and like,just give it to an 11 year old,
yeah well, I do have a one.
Speaker 2 (37:42):
One advice which I think it's appropriate with what
we're doing right now is tohire interns.
We have great universities inthe area that we're in and if we
have listeners out in the worldand or other states, look up
your local university.
They have great marketingprograms and these are kids that
(38:03):
need experience and that wantto experiment, and that you
don't have to pay them a lot.
So we do have an intern fromUSF, from one of the marketing
programs there, and it's hugehelp.
We collaborate.
I see the content, I approve it.
Change let's use AI for this ornot.
And then they make the postings.
(38:24):
Ask me how long it takes her tomake a reel, versus how long it
takes me to make a reel that'sa good conversation, I can
totally appreciate that I'm noteven gonna tell you what it took
me to film and edit, becauseevan evan's already edited the
two minute film that we did onmetro.
Speaker 3 (38:40):
I know he's in there.
He works fast he's alreadythere.
Speaker 1 (38:42):
I'm watching him.
He's probably doing yours.
I'm saying he's in there.
He works fast.
He's already there, I'mwatching him.
He's probably doing yours.
I'm saying he's probably ontosome other project from some
other whatever.
But, so the, the.
The reality is I.
I wake up super early, I get uparound three, 30 in the morning
.
Yeah, and that's when I do mysocial media stuff.
So three 3435, I'm doing it forlike an hour and a half a day,
two hours a day, every day, justto stay relevant out there with
(39:05):
content.
Speaker 3 (39:06):
Do you know that, now that your phone just heard that
you're going to get all theseads now directed towards you for
like later?
Yes, cute, sweet.
Yeah.
No, I get it, make it easier onyourself.
Speaker 1 (39:16):
It's still not going to get dwarfed by the amount of
cheeseburger ads that get put onthere.
Speaker 2 (39:22):
That's what it is.
Speaker 1 (39:26):
That's how I get down , rosanna.
What, um, what's next for you?
What do you guys?
What are you guys cooking up?
What's what's?
Speaker 2 (39:31):
so much I know.
I think I tell ricardo, I thinkwe're serial entrepreneurs, we,
our minds never stop.
But I think that's the dna ofall chefs that we know, and us
as chefs, it's our brain doesn'tstop the good ones.
We're always pushing, we want todo something more.
We want to do more, we want tobe better.
So we have a lot of things inthe works.
(39:54):
I can tell you that.
You know, since pandemic, we'vebeen looking to going back to
having a brick and mortar.
You know our location is aghost kitchen and it's going to
stay there.
That's our backbone.
But what we're looking to do isgoing back to having a small
format and, you know, abeautiful space that people can
come in and buy pastries or asavory item.
(40:16):
On my end, with luxury catering.
You know I'm in a very happyplace.
I'm always either traveling tocook for a client or, you know,
doing a lot of fun things in ourTampa Bay region, which I truly
enjoy, and every event isdifferent.
So I think that appeals to thatbrain that is always looking
(40:38):
for constant change.
Speaker 3 (40:40):
Or making paella at Saver.
Speaker 2 (40:41):
St.
Speaker 3 (40:41):
Pete, yeah, I can go there.
That's how we met.
Yeah, paella, literally that'show we met.
Speaker 1 (40:48):
So obviously you're doing the catering thing and
you're doing these events.
What I think we should do is doa walk and talk collab and we
do a Latin, because it would begreat to do a Latin theme.
I know a little bit about Latin.
You don't know anything.
Smidge, you don't know nothing.
(41:09):
She, this is I'm forgetting you.
Speaker 2 (41:11):
You're out, she's in.
Speaker 1 (41:12):
Right, no, but we do that.
We do, um you know a chef,rosanna, um, uh, media
collaboration where you knowwe'll do what five, maybe five
courses we'll.
Speaker 3 (41:27):
We'll knock off one, maybe two.
Right, you gotta do six.
Huh, we can do six, up to six.
Speaker 1 (41:30):
I don't want to do more than six, right but anyway,
what we do is we, um, you know,we bring a lot of our industry
friends and you know otherpeople who are in our kind of
genre, right right, and we havea blast.
And then we bring the crew, wefilm everything and we pump it
out and have a great time.
A lot of sponsors get involvedin that.
You know brands and companiesand whatnot looking to get
(41:53):
involved in it.
We should do one together.
Speaker 2 (41:56):
I agree, let's do it.
I'm game, let's start planning.
Speaker 3 (42:01):
We already said that back in St Pete.
Yes, we did.
Speaker 2 (42:05):
And then Ricardo has to make dessert.
That's the only caveat, becauseI don't do desserts hey look,
we're down.
Speaker 1 (42:11):
I'm down for all of that.
Speaker 3 (42:13):
John probably wants flan though.
Speaker 1 (42:14):
But here's what I need.
Speaker 2 (42:15):
Oh his eyes open, by the way.
Speaker 1 (42:20):
I saw somewhere somebody did a smoked flan and
it looked amazing Like stupid.
Speaker 3 (42:24):
I'll do it Stupid.
I would try that.
I would.
Speaker 2 (42:27):
I want that in my life.
One of the dishes that we weredoing at the NRA show with Alto
Sham was flan.
Speaker 3 (42:33):
But not smoked though , right.
Speaker 2 (42:34):
No, yeah, you couldn't have open fire yeah.
Speaker 3 (42:37):
Yeah, so Rationale was talking about how they
wanted to smoke the meat priorbecause they have a smoking box.
They put in the rationales andthey specifically said you
cannot have open flame in themccormick center so that makes
very, very fortunate.
Speaker 1 (42:48):
My wife is cuban and, uh, my mother-in-law is always
making a flan and, oh my god,I'm so spoiled with that.
Speaker 2 (42:55):
Yeah, that's so good wow okay, it looks like you just
missed that.
Yeah, you're gonna have tobring what he wants flan.
Speaker 3 (43:03):
Okay, I'll get you fl .
Speaker 2 (43:04):
You won't be allowed in this studio next time.
Wow, here's what I need tohappen.
Speaker 1 (43:08):
Hold on, hold on.
I have to.
Amy Guy, I know you'relistening what I need you to do.
Amy, can you text me and remindme?
Speaker 3 (43:15):
Because we're all going to forget everything I
just said.
Really, you're going to use it.
It's extremely smart.
Speaker 1 (43:28):
My eight-year-old is almost ready and I'll be putting
her to work soon.
Speaker 3 (43:33):
But until that happens I'm kind of, you know, I
can't wait until she's ready towork, because then you and I
are not his person.
Speaker 1 (43:38):
Oh man, no, she wants to work.
Daddy, can I come?
I'm like, no, not yet, not yetToo soon.
Speaker 3 (43:44):
You would have to be on your best behavior, I know.
Speaker 1 (43:47):
I don't want to do that.
It's going to ruin my wholereputation.
Speaker 3 (43:50):
Every Thursday is going to be horrible now.
I've got to have my kid with methese production day.
Speaker 1 (43:58):
For us, it's a drizzle of 11th grade.
We try to have fun.
Speaker 3 (44:04):
I thought it was more like 12-year-old, not 12th
grade or 11th grade.
I thought it was like11-year-old For you, yeah, oh,
okay, for me I'm a little bit, alittle more, okay, yeah.
Speaker 1 (44:16):
Oh my God, All right.
So Instagram, what's yourhandle At Chef Rosanna Rivera?
Okay, john, what's your handle?
Speaker 2 (44:27):
No, no, no Say it in the mic, use the mic.
Speaker 1 (44:28):
It's there.
I got it for you.
Ibis Images.
That's his voice, folks, wow,you actually got him to actually
speak.
I'm going to stop putting themic there.
I should have given that toRicardo, he was going to sit in
the other room.
Speaker 3 (44:42):
Oh look, he said just go ahead.
Yeah, that was it, just goahead you dirty.
Speaker 1 (44:45):
All right, chef, I we sincerely appreciate uh, we
sincerely appreciate you andhubby coming with us today
showing up here.
We're now going to go and eatyou are gonna cook, we're gonna
eat.
We're gonna get some footage ofthat.
Stay tuned for the bts, becauseit's going to go and eat.
You are going to cook, we aregoing to eat.
We're going to get some footageof that.
(45:06):
Stay tuned for the BTS, becauseit's going to be badass, chef.
Speaker 2 (45:12):
Thank you for coming.
Speaker 1 (45:14):
Jeffrey.
John, I'll get you some flan,don't worry, baby, we got you
All right.
We are Metro.
Baby, you got to get that Metroand, by the way, chevrozen
brought a bunch of Metro.
She's got a Metro box andeverything.
I'm really I love it.
Speaker 3 (45:32):
Yeah, it was really nice to see that.
Speaker 2 (45:33):
I'm the biggest non-paid Metro fan.
Speaker 1 (45:36):
I love it.
Speaker 2 (45:37):
Oh my.
Speaker 1 (45:37):
God, we're going to Metro unite.
All right, we are out.
Hello, food Fam.
This is the Walk Talk podcastwhere you will find the perfect
blend of food fun and cookingknowledge.
I'm your host, carl Fiodini.
Welcome to the number one foodpodcast in the country.
We're recording on-site at IbisImages Studios, where food
photography comes alive and Iget to eat it.
First things first.
Last week on the show we hadMichelle Miller, aka the Farm
(00:32):
Babe, where we got into somevery zesty convo about
misleading labels.
To GMO or not to GMO that isthe question.
Go back and listen.
Our guest this week is Tampalocal Chef Rosanna Rivera.
From entrepreneur torestaurateur, she's done it all.
(00:52):
Plus, chef Rosanna has beenfeatured in dozens of magazines
and articles, not to mention thegranddaddy of them all, meeting
Bobby Flay and her husband, bythe way, on national TV.
Stay tuned, chef Rivera is ondeck.
Jefferson, we are deeplyembedded in this social media
(01:12):
rat race.
You know we're putting in thehard work and you know we're
trying to claw our way up.
Today we're going to get intohow something like winning a TV
show competition, a national one, can help improve your
visibility and, ultimately, yourbusiness.
By the way, we've been usingour Metro mobile prep cart and
it is badass.
(01:32):
We have a video coming outtoday.
Chefs, if you're planning onreorganizing your kitchen, be
sure to contact our friends atMetro, your partner in
organization and efficiency,jeff pop the clutch baby
Pre-shift.
Let's go.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Yeah, that's what we're talking about.
Father's Day coming up so Iwanted to do something to pay
homage to being outdoors.
It's nice and a lot more warmerin Florida, but other places
around the country they'redefrosting over the spring and
all that, so it's time to startgrilling.
So I did a riff on a coca-cola.
Coca-cola is very traditionallike a stewed or braised chicken
(02:09):
dish and it goes right from theget-go.
But I actually smoked thechicken first, then added in the
bacon, onions, wine and thenthen braised the chicken.
That way we have that beingserved with a little bit of
potato puree.
A little bit of contrast inthat as well.
And and let me just tell you,john and Rack Porcelain Dishes
they just did a phenomenal jobwith that today.
(02:30):
And then we have the two poundribeye that's right, two pound
ribeye.
And then I encrusted that withsweet water coffee and let it
sit there for at least a day,just to get real nice and gel
together as far as the meat wasconcerned.
What day?
Just to get real nice and geltogether as far as the meat was
concerned.
What happens when you do thatin your refrigeration?
It's a dehydrator.
So it actually dehydrates,causes that bark to get crispy
(02:51):
and crunchy on there so itpenetrates the meat.
So it's absolutely just fullflavored of coffee, especially
coming from sweet water coffee.
Larry does a great job overthere with his roasting
abilities.
And then we served that withbone marrow butter compound with
a pecan.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Talk about that for a second.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
Yeah, that was a little bit bone marrow.
You had to take some butter,get it to room temperature, had
some macadamia nuts, added thosepecans blueberry and then put
it all together on top and letit crust over about 400 degrees
to get that really nice flavorprofile.
And then we served that just onits own, sliced up some and
(03:31):
then used a red wine reductionand then just hit a little bit
of the au jus in there too aswell, and it was pretty stellar
actually.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
I can't wait to eat.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
I love how today happened.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Yeah, well, you know, at the end of the day.
So the audience doesn't know,or maybe some of them do, but
typically we cook first and thenpodcast.
And I don't know, a few monthsago we started kind of, you know
, experimenting with thispodcast, first, cook, after, and
it's, it's not bad, you know, Ilike it.
But I tell you what you know aswe're sitting here doing the
(04:06):
show and you know, my stomach islike saying hey, what's going
on?
Like, what are we?
What are we doing here?
Speaker 3 (04:11):
You know, not, John Johnny.
Well, you know what Good foryou guys.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
I noticed that John did have to go through with you
too.
I don't think they do.
Oh no, they do.
They completely understand?
They see the behind the scenes,do they really?
No, they don't.
They don't see the real.
You know, what we need to do is, like put some real live
cameras 100 of the time and then, and then they're gonna know,
and they're gonna know, they'regonna see that john works his
butt off.
All right.
So this, this, this twopoundpound piece of meat that
was ridiculous.
I know it's obscene.
It's sitting right there, it'sa few arm lengths away, and I'm
(04:53):
fixing to just hang up theheadphones and just get out of
here.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
I hear you and you can't forget about the T-bone.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
No, you can never forget about the T-bone, and the
T-bone has papaya in there.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
And no, you can never forget about the T-bone.
No, and the T-bone has papayain there, and then lychees are
in season.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
So talk about the lychees.
Those are like so for thefoodies, right?
They look like marbles.
Yeah, little pearl marbles.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
They're also known as dragon's eyes because of the
way when you bite into it it hasthe pit in the middle of it
like a stone fruit.
Where does it come from,lycheee?
It's indigenous here in Florida.
It's subtropical, but it'sknown to be in.
Yeah, leach the nut.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
So it's from the lychee tree, right, and it's got
a real good texture.
When they're ripe they have areal sweet texture, but if
they're not, they have a littlebit of sourness to them, and so
I got lychee poppers, which islike the caviar and you put it
with the papaya that I made withthe salsa.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
Growing up in South Florida, you know Richard.
Okay, so Richard, you know heand I have been friends since
like 1983 and you know hisfamily's they're he's Japanese.
They had a lychee tree and itwas humongous and you know we
would be off weekend or whatever.
We would climb the tree, sit inthe tree and just crack lychee
(06:06):
nuts and eat leachy nuts rightfresh from the tree and wow,
that was just an amazing.
You know, and this is like a,you know, pretty rural area Well
, 83.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
Yeah, there was probably nothing, yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
It was well, it was just the orange groves and the
dairy farms and stuff like thatout there, cattle ranch, all
that, and so that was just thatkind of living.
It was really great, really,their cattle ranch, all that and
uh, so that was just that kindof living.
It was really great, reallygreat.
That's my experience with, uh,you know my, my fond memories of
ichinote.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
you know, the funny thing is when I look to see and
try to like, compare what injune, what was?
Not only the holiday coming up,but what was in season in
florida lychee, papaya they allpopped up and I'm like I've
never done lychee in a steak oron a steak and never done papaya
, even though papaya is known asa meat tenderizer and be
beautiful.
So I just put two together andlet me see what it's going to be
(06:50):
like and it actually worksreally well.
That wasn't the that.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
Uh, that that wasn't the salsa, was it that was at
the?
Yeah, the papaya salsa.
Yeah, that was fantastic.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
The onions came from my garden, because the onions
are now finally there, yoursecret garden.
Yeah, the garden is also goingto have next actually this month
garlic June.
I'll have garlic coming in.
I had tomatoes, so I threw thatup.
My neighbor has the papayas, soput it all together.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
Well, as usual, foodie people photos are coming.
You know, john, of course, youknow what to expect Beautiful
stuff Today.
It's a little bit of a treat,right, and I'm going to bring,
I'm going to bring Chef Rosannaon here in a second, but you
know she's going to, she'scooking too, and you know.
(07:36):
So it's not going to be justJefferson's food today.
It's extra, and I think I'mhappy, I think that's fantastic
because I heard empanadas.
Yeah, man, well, these are thebobby flay empanadas.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
Okay, these are the ones that beat that dude okay
right so, uh, thank god there'sa camera right on her right now,
because she's got a smile likea little kid, so do I all right
um, chef rosanna, welcome to theprogram thank you so much for
having me.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
I mean, you're giggling, this is we do that you
know.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
Like I said before, remember we all of the pre stuff
that you saw leading up to this.
It's to get you in the rightframe of mind.
That's what we do.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
I can see it now.
Yeah, that's what we do, I loveit, it's our.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
this is the green room prep, that's green room
prep.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
Exactly, we get you ready for the shenanigans that
go on in this show.
Let's take a second, if youcould.
How about an airplane view ofwho you are and where you come
from?
And how did you make it here?
How did you get here?
Speaker 2 (08:44):
today, you know what?
I mean the car right there soI'll take you on a very quick
journey.
You know starting, I'm born andraised in puerto rico, from the
countryside, so that's on thesouthwestern side of the island,
very small town.
Um grew up in a backgroundwhere food is essential in in
life and the center of our homeand surrounded by all sorts of
(09:06):
trees, of everything that youget in the island.
I come from a family of farmers.
I moved to the States around2001, to New York.
That's where I started mycareer in hospitality not being
a chef yet and that was rough.
You know just the culturechange for me of coming from a
(09:28):
small town to now being in thebiggest city in the world and
with the same company I askedfor a transfer to Miami.
So that's what really brings meto Florida.
And I worked in corporate worldfor about eight years while I
was here and I had justsomething inside.
Food was my calling and notsomething I ever took seriously.
(09:50):
So I kept gravitating towardsit until one day I said, okay
enough, I'm going to see wherethis takes me.
I started doing private cheffor families and little by
little started growing thebusiness and that's when I
enrolled in culinary school, putmyself through culinary school
(10:11):
and started officiallyincorporated my first business
18 years ago this month.
So the started that journey ofbeing an entrepreneur and you
know, cooking for other peopleand defining what that business
was like.
Around 2012, I met my otherhalf, whom you have already met,
and we opened our firstrestaurant together these two
(10:35):
young entrepreneurs just goingat it through life and we opened
a French restaurant inPatisserie.
We were very successful at it.
It brought us a lot ofnotoriety here in Tampa.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
Picante right.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Yeah, it was called Picante in Hyde Park Village,
and when that chapter closed, wemoved to our second restaurant,
which was inside of a food hallcalled Silo Mexican, and that's
when we received the call forBobby Flay, and that was in 2019
.
So we went through the show.
(11:11):
We're going to talk a littlebit about it later, but it's not
something you can reveal untilthey tell you that you can, and
that happened in December of2019.
And we'll talk a little bitmore in detail later.
It exploded, but three monthslater the whole world shut down
and with that our restaurantshut down and we changed formats
(11:34):
.
So that brings me to today,four years post-pandemic.
We have two businesses.
One of them is Chef Rosanna.
What came out of the show andpandemic was becoming my own
brand, and with that I do luxurycatering and events, and along
with Chef Ricardo, then I have achef and the baker, which is
(11:55):
more your daily sustenancesavory foods and a lot of bakery
.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
So when you were, you said that you came to Miami in
a corporate capacity.
What were you doing then?
Speaker 2 (12:11):
I was in sales and marketing, you know, and
creating conventions andhospitality and events for trade
shows, essentially so handlingthat part of being in a trade
show and it could be X, y, z,you know, sometimes it was a
luxury jewelry trade show, butsometimes it was a luxury
jewelry trade show, butsometimes it was something else.
So it was managing and puttingtogether all the hospitality
(12:32):
component of it.
Um, and I used to travel tolatin america a lot with the
same purpose putting togetherconventions so that's
interesting.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
You were, you, you actually, you were inadvertently
, you were in the businessalready or connected to the
business very much, absolutelyyeah and then the desire from
within.
You know, and that's some,that's from family and heritage
and everything kind of drove youinto the uh, into the realm of
hey, I want to go to culinaryschool um, definitely, you know,
(13:02):
in in puerto rico we hustle.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
You know, growing up in an island you have your
career, but it's very acceptablethat you have a side job.
I think you know Florida hassomething similar with the
cottage law, but over there youcan just open anything.
So growing up my mom and I usedto cater and things that people
don't cook at their house.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
It can't all just be mofongo no house.
It can't all just be mofongo no, no, it can't all just be
mofongo.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
Everybody can make their mofongo.
So we would specialize on thethings that people didn't make
and, honestly, a lot of Frenchitems, believe it or not.
So a lot of appetizers,different things that people
wouldn't necessarily make athome.
Anybody makes arroz congandules or lechon, so it wasn't
that, it was what was different, what you couldn't get in the
(13:50):
island, essentially, but thatwas very easy to do there
without being formal, withoutgoing to a culinary school or
opening a formal business.
In here it's a different story.
So I wanted that formality, Iwanted that education and
confidence, and that's what ledme to.
If I'm going to do this for therest of my life, I want to do
(14:12):
it well.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
How did the Food Network know about you?
How did you get that call?
Is that something where yousubmitted and then they found
you?
How did that?
Speaker 2 (14:26):
You can apply to the show and I think now with social
media it's a little bit easierto find on these shows who's the
casting agent.
I want to say a few years agomaybe it was a little bit more
obscure.
Unless you're subscribed togetting newsletters from a
casting agency and if we haveanybody listening and you want
to go into a show, that's agreat way.
(14:48):
Just search for your favoriteshows, who the agent is and
normally on their website youcan apply if it's the season, if
the season is open.
But in our case we got an emailand I thought it was a joke, a
scam, so I left it in my inboxfor about a week until one night
I said let me Google and seewho this person is and she
(15:09):
popped up on LinkedIn and I said, okay, this is the agency.
Then you look up who thisagency is and then I realized,
oh wait, they cast all of BobbyFlay's shows.
So this is not a scam and Iresponded to that email.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Did you immediately start sweating?
Speaker 2 (15:27):
I did Ricardo.
No, you know he's a ham, but Iget anxiety when I'm in that,
you know spotlight's on me.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
Well, I was speaking with Ricardo for maybe 15
minutes and he's the most laidback cool cat I think I've ever
met.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
He is zero ego, but he's very confident in that
realm of TV.
So it was good to have him, youknow, to boost my confidence in
that, because you're out ofyour element.
You know, as chefs we're usedto hiding in the kitchen.
That's our safe space, and allof a sudden you're throwing to
the spotlight cameras on you.
(16:03):
It's not as easy.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
Yeah, and how this all works right.
I mean, first of all, in in onthat show.
You nationally got to beatbobby flay, but I think, more
importantly, you got to beathobby.
Yes, right, I, I for me, Ithink that's because if, if, if
I were in a situation like that,it was me and my wife and and I
got to beat my wife like thatand and I think I would just I
(16:28):
would walk around a mile highevery day.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
It's gotta be.
It's gotta be almost betterthan than beating Bobby.
Oh no, no nothing beats Bobbybeating Bobby.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
But I think you know, ricardo and I are definitely
partners in life and in business.
So when we we got so we didn'tnecessarily both apply at the
same time.
I think at that point in timethat we're probably looking for
a female and my name came uphaving some recognition in our
area.
So when I finally answer thecasting agent and she listened
(17:05):
to our story they don't assumethat you own your business or
that you're the main chef sothat you go through all these
questions.
And when they hear the storynow I own a business with my
husband and he happens to be achef something clicked on their
side.
You know what?
What?
Speaker 1 (17:20):
just he just, would he be willing and I'm like, of
course he would be willing, youknow to be, I get that from him
too yeah well, the show, and Iget like if I were, if I were
the agent, and I'm looking atthe and I'm looking at the, the
paper, and I'm like, oh man, mygears are already spinning like
this is great tv.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
You know, that's beautiful, yeah so they crafted
this episode and you don't knowif it's you know, until you know
that it's gonna happen that way.
But what they presented to theproducer of the episode and then
eventually to the network is wehave this couple out of Tampa,
they cook together, they have abusiness together and they're
competing.
So they created if you look upthe show, it's a couples episode
(18:01):
.
So at first I thought this wasgoing to air in Valentine's
probably, and it didn't.
It ended up airing in Christmas, during the holiday, and then
they brought in another coupleto be the host, you know going
challenging Bobby, which is AliTila and Jet Tila, and they're
amazing Another, you know, greatcouple story.
(18:23):
So they made everything aboutthe episode to be very inclusive
, to be very much about ourheritage, both being from Puerto
Rico.
So it was just a lovely,honestly just a lovely
experience.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
Okay, so you do the show, you win.
And granted, it was, you know,ground zero, for you know, for
COVID and the whole thing.
It still changed your life.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
It did Absolutely.
And I, you know, I want to saythese shows give you a platform
to jumpstart your career, maybeget ahead, but you have to make
the most out of it and I havemade the most out of being on
the show and everything thatcomes with it.
You know it's a marketing power.
Bobby Flay and they do a greatjob at giving you that platform.
(19:18):
You know he presents the showas a show for chefs and that is
very real.
But when you come back from it,you do have some time to
prepare and and you know,ricardo and I sat down and we
made our own personal financialinvestment in promoting it, in
(19:38):
doing a, you know, hiring a pragency into drafting press
releases.
You know the things that you dofor your own business.
So we really wanted to take theopportunity that was given to
us and make the most out of it.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
And I think that's the.
So that's where things getsuper interesting.
Obviously, you know we're awe're a food media company and
we're not that social media isour driver.
You know we're a food mediacompany and we're not that
social media is our driver.
You know our content for Appleand Spotify and you know that's
our driver.
But of course, we have to playin on social media in order to
(20:40):
get just a little bit extraeyeballs on what you're doing.
It's an incredible amount ofwork.
We're running late todaybecause we had a cooler go down.
An AC unit went down.
You know, and you know heyhashtag.
You know chef life and I'm likeI don't totally get it.
You know, like I totallyunderstand, and then you show up
(21:00):
here not even breaking a sweat.
So I mean, this is what we do.
So the life in the kitchenincredibly difficultateur life.
Jeff, you know very it's inalmost impossible.
And now you guys, how youreally went into overdrive on
your social media life is I,because I remember I we had
never met, but I remember seeingyou back then you know when,
(21:22):
when you, when you beat bobby,and then seeing you on linked
LinkedIn and seeing you all overthe place.
You know I beat Bobby and I waslike, wow, that's pretty
bad-ass.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
Yeah, thank you.
You know it's.
It's been a four-year journey,you know, just to give our
listeners a little bitperspective.
I think before I went on theshow, I had probably in the
range of 1800 followers, and mybiggest platform is Instagram.
Um, now, four years later,almost five.
(21:52):
Uh, I think I'm about to hit40,000.
So it does give you theplatform, but I normally I'm I'm
an introvert and I'm very shy.
So, putting the tag there,these were all recommendations
from the investment that we made.
It's like you have to be.
You're your only loudspeaker.
(22:13):
Nobody's going to be thatloudspeaker for you, and I went
through about a three monthperiod where, like, my life is
going to be out there.
You know, making my ownInstagram page.
Before then it used to beprivate, you had to request me,
so you know that that thosechanges do come with it, and you
have to be willing and and putyour best foot forward every day
(22:36):
and experiment with differentthings is it worth it?
Speaker 3 (22:41):
it is absolutely well , she's got a brand, that's but
you created, the brand wasalmost formed out of social
media and network TV right.
Well, it came from before that,though, because she had already
realized it and they wereplanning on it, but she's a
smart restaurateur.
When I did consulting for myprevious employer, and still to
(23:02):
this day, you always hear what'sthe first thing that owners get
rid of I'm not making money,they get rid of marketing.
It's the first thing thatowners get rid of I'm not making
money, they get rid ofmarketing.
It's the first one, and that'sthe dumbest, stupidest move,
because when you get rid ofmarketing, how are you going to
have people in your seats?
Because the most expensive seatin your entire restaurant is
the empty one.
Yeah, absolutely, and that'sfree advice, by the way.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
And very good advice.
Yeah, there's a generalshort-sightedness.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
Did you just see the hand little golf clap from
Silent?
Speaker 1 (23:33):
John.
Well, there's a generalshort-sightedness from companies
at large.
I've seen companies cut theirmarketing department, their
sales department, Like what areyou doing?
That's what gets you out thereIn today's world, everything is
a video, everything is a post,and if you're not, or a story or
something, and if you're notdoing that, you're, you're
(23:58):
behind everybody else who is,and I don't care what your sales
team looks like.
You know physical sales teamlooks like.
You can do a lot.
Obviously you're still knockingon doors and you're still
getting in front of your client,but the reality is, all of the
social media is working whenyou're not and you need it to
happen, yeah, and what does itcost you?
Speaker 2 (24:13):
I agree with and I want to make people think, oh,
you have to hire somebody thatcan invest.
You know, in order to do that,we hired someone for the period
of time that we were going tolaunch and, you know, spread the
news that we had been on theshow and, eventually, that we
won.
You know, I still manage all mysocial media myself.
(24:35):
I do have someone that helps me.
You know, creating videos, thethings that take time, that I
don't have the time to do, butfor years it was just me
creating the content.
We, you know they started.
Ricardo does the same thing.
He creates his own content too.
It's about being authentic.
I read a lot, you know, becausethe trends in social media has
changed so quickly, so I'malways immersed in.
(24:58):
You know, whether it's anewsletter that I'm subscribed
to and I receive on a dailybasis to read on.
What can you do?
You know trends and topics thathave to do with marketing and
social media.
Because I'm a chef, I'm not amarketer.
Now, I'm not.
I wouldn't consider myself aninfluencer.
That's a full-time job.
I don't have the time to putmyself out there and create
(25:21):
amazing content to become aninfluencer.
At the end of the day.
I'm a chef and I run a business, so I always experiment with
what information I put out thereon social media.
That's time, we can afford thetime.
Speaker 3 (25:36):
I think that's the number one thing with chefs is
it's the time factor, it's howmuch time do I have to do this?
But they also think they don'thave the time to do it when they
have.
Every one of their employees ison the line looking at their
phone.
Might as well take the phoneout and take a video.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
Yeah, and that's something that, for example,
that's something that we havedone.
If you are going to use yourphone and take video, post it,
tag us, you know, become a partof our own community.
They post on Chef and Tag Chefand the Baker, or tag me, and
then I choose do I want thiscontent that an employee posted?
And more than likely, you know,90% of the time I do repost it,
(26:13):
or, if not, I teach them.
Hey, you know, next time Iwould love to put it on my page,
but can we do something alittle bit different that it's
more brand on brand with how Ipost things?
Speaker 1 (26:26):
Back in the day when I was in the restaurant business
and you know the period of timewhen I was, you know, front of
the house server, right, if, if,if that were today.
Because I had, you know, I wasfortunate to have built a pretty
strong call party clientele.
You know, friday, saturdaynight everybody comes to ask for
you, whatever.
(26:46):
If that were today and and Iwas a bartender or server,
something like that oh mygoodness.
I can't even like and I don'tsee a lot of that.
I see some bartenders who, youknow, take advantage a little
bit of social media, but I don'tsee any servers really doing
that and I feel like that issuch a huge.
If you're a good, if you'regood at what you do and you
(27:10):
already have like a nicefollowing of people, if you
enhanced that, oh my goodness,you, you would be.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
you would be the one in town making all the money and
to validate your point, we'relosing the art of serving at a
table and I think if more peopleout there expose their craft, I
think it would motivate youngerpeople to say, oh, I can have a
career in this, because we'redefinitely losing that.
It's not something I want tosee in our industry, that we
(27:39):
lose entirely.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
Well, that was part of the conversation Ricardo and
I were having which was.
You know where is the service.
You go to a restaurant andyou're obviously you know price
points are up everywhere andcosts are up everywhere and at
the end you know three people goout to eat and it's $250.
(28:01):
And that never was, unless itwas a very elevated, high-end
place.
Now it's like your local pub.
You're spending $200 on a on acheck it's crazy.
Whereas where's the service thatmatches the, the?
You know your bill and it getsdicey.
Obviously, I get it.
A lot of my friends ownrestaurants.
(28:21):
A lot of my friends are chefsin those restaurants.
I, I see it, I get it.
You know we're all trying tomake it happen, but I'll tell
you what the front of the housereally took a hit, really took a
hit.
Your service, the servicelevels, are not what they were,
you know pre.
You know 2019.
Speaker 3 (28:36):
Well it's called it's .
Most of these.
It's a combination of differentthings, whether we're trying to
get the right person to be thatserver, and it's also the
guests that are coming in.
They demand a certain well.
You have to, you have to earnrespect, but you can't demand it
right, that's, that's for sure.
But I think the flip side ofthe things, too, is that not
only did we lose service, but welost the experience straight up
(28:59):
, and that's one of the reasonswhy I came up with the farmer's
credible dinner, because Iwanted to get back to the theme
behind why we went out, becausemost of the time we would go out
, it was.
It was because it was a youknow, think about it back in the
day.
It was a tropical steakhouseoff of griffin, right?
Speaker 1 (29:14):
oh my god, why would you go to?
Speaker 3 (29:15):
that it was a destination for, like a birthday
and anniversary yeah that waswhen going out to eat was going
out to eat.
Then it became because it was.
Life got so hectic every day,then day, let's go out to eat, I
don't want to cook, let's goout to eat here.
Where are we going to go?
We've lost the whole convolutedof what things are supposed to
be in the restaurant industryand we have to get back to that.
(29:37):
And there are chefs that aredoing it.
Chefs aren't.
It's tough because, like yousaw it at the show, how many
robots did you see at the show?
Speaker 2 (29:46):
Several.
Speaker 3 (29:47):
Not just literally fry robots Right.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
Picking up the fryer.
Speaker 3 (29:50):
That was the burger one, yeah yeah, so that was when
you first walked into it.
So there was, just so everyonerealized, 760,000 square feet
for pooch and I to run into.
Rosanna and and her husbandRicardo was like by accident
twice.
No, no, no, no, no, no no, nono, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
It was meant to be.
It was a happy accident.
It was, it was meant to be.
Speaker 3 (30:13):
But right across the right across the way from where
citrus America was and dumpingthe fryer out.
And then there's that one youwere talking about that is
literally in the front thatpeople were ordering their food
and doing it.
Speaker 1 (30:28):
I just want you to realize that they have the AI
co-host too.
Just watch your step.
I'm just saying, watch yourstep, Watch your step.
Speaker 3 (30:36):
Okay, well, you know what I got it, but they're not
going to be able to cook.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
All right true story, but I'm going to get that
burger.
That's fine, get them, get themfor me.
Speaker 3 (30:44):
I don't want to turn to burgers anymore.
Speaker 1 (30:46):
I've got more important things to do than that
I'm madly in love with it.
I'm just joking, um, I you know.
So I'm on, um, chef, uh, chef,rosannacom, one in and like,
your food is gorgeous, thank you.
Thank you, your food is sobeautiful and so I can't I kind
of really can't wait to jumpinto some of these, these
(31:06):
empanadas and the other stuffmeanwhile, john's looking over
your shoulder, looking, I knowhow beautiful they are.
Speaker 3 (31:11):
He was.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
He was pointing at the looks like apple cobbler or
something like that, but, uh,maybe not.
Something like that looksfantastic.
Um, all right.
So social media I we got offtrack for a minute.
I want want to go back tosocial media.
How, how do you, what effort ifyou were going to give advice
to a chef, a restaurateur,somebody who has?
(31:33):
Listen, there, there's a lot ofstale eateries around town.
Stale, and I think you knowwhat I mean.
It's just flat, they're not.
You know, they're not changingtheir menus out, they're not
updating anything.
It's stale.
Some of them know it and someof them don't.
But if you were going to giveadvice to some of these
(31:54):
establishments and those people,how do they take social media
by the collar and make it workfor them?
Speaker 2 (32:05):
So I think it starts with prioritizing it, and you
know to your point what you weresaying, that that's the first
thing people cut out of budgetsagain, something you can do for
very little or even for free.
So sometimes you know we'verecommended to our industry
peers.
If they don't have someone, weare hiring Gen Zs and
(32:28):
millennials at our restaurants.
They're the prime segment thatunderstands it even better than
I do.
I do a lot of social media.
Grab one of your servers.
It could be a bartender, itcould even be a cook.
We have a customer and friendin Maryland that their lead cook
went viral on TikTok justposting making birria at their
(32:52):
restaurant.
Take advantage of somethinglike that and that's the person
maybe that they're spearheadingfor whatever amount of time and
then you put boundaries.
We're going to do it on Mondaysfrom this time to this time and
then see where that takes you.
You know, social media is a goodplace to experiment what works
(33:13):
for you.
But if you have, whether it's,you do a lot of LTOs or you
change your menu a lot, thoseare great things.
To highlight your staples.
Or you change your menu a lot,those are great things to
highlight your staples.
People forget that if you havean identity, people are going to
come to your restaurant becausethey want to eat that, whatever
that is, and those are thingsthat should be highlighted in
(33:37):
social media.
It could be.
You know how do we make it?
Why is this dish special?
You know?
But I would recommend thatDesignate one person that could
take this project on for yourrestaurant or business and then
let them run with it.
Speaker 1 (33:53):
What I want to know and I said this earlier to Evan,
I said that John and Evanshould do still and video
how-tos on your on yoursmartphone for food 100.
You know uh, just basic stuff,just to have the best, um, you
(34:14):
know um content that you can inin just trying to promote
yourself.
Speaker 3 (34:20):
You know uh well, not only that, they can actually
help out other people that wantit, like chefs.
And don't make me back in theday.
It was like flip your phoneupside down.
That's, that's the way to takethe video.
Now it's like can you do it, or?
Speaker 1 (34:30):
not.
Well, here's the thing.
Um, I don't even think John hasto talk.
I think he well silent.
John is his uh street name.
Speaker 2 (34:39):
Not everybody has John.
With that amazing photography,for sure he's special.
Speaker 1 (34:45):
Yeah, he doesn't talk a lot, but he does great work.
Yes, but in today's world youcan set it up to where you can
do voiceover.
Well, you can even do voiceover.
Speaker 3 (34:53):
Not John.
Somebody else can do the voice,yeah.
Speaker 1 (34:55):
Well, you can hire me , I'll do your voiceover, you
know.
Speaker 2 (35:06):
And then, don't forget, we also have tools today
that did not exist a few yearsago.
We use ai as well, especiallyto write our captions, and it's
it's a time saver.
Of course, we go back and editand probably shorten it.
Sometimes, you know, it spitsout a lot, um, but it's another
great way to just get somethingout the door and post very
quickly I, I love AI for thatreason.
Speaker 1 (35:28):
For us, for me, when we're publishing, it saves me
hours.
You have to go back in and youhave to change some stuff around
, you have to make it yours, soto speak, but man does it save
time.
Speaker 3 (35:42):
Everyone thought I used AI to finish my book.
I was like no.
Speaker 1 (35:45):
Didn't you use AI to do the whole thing?
No, no, okay, I'm only kidding.
No, I did not.
Aren't you using AI to cookyour?
Speaker 3 (35:52):
meals no, no recipes.
I'm actually having AI developthe recipes.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
Because I look up some of the stuff you're cooking
and I'm like Dolphine, yeah,dolphin.
And and then picture you showsup and there's your recipe.
That's what's weird.
Speaker 3 (36:05):
So it's funny, we're talking about content and I did
a behind the scenes and I wantedto get a little more entrenched
in the video and I've neverdone it.
And I have an 11 year old andyou just mentioned.
You know, get your millennial,get your.
Speaker 2 (36:18):
Gen Z.
Speaker 3 (36:19):
Well, I don't know what they are, like the alphabet
one, or I think, whatevergeneration.
Speaker 2 (36:22):
Now they are.
Speaker 1 (36:28):
It's the alphabet one .
I think I don't have ageneration.
Speaker 3 (36:29):
Now it's the next one .
It's a letter, let's put itthat way.
It's a whatever generation,martian dude, I don't know.
So I'm like so I go to dosomething in her room.
I come back and she's fiddlingwith it and I go, what's wrong?
She's like, well, this one kepthere and then moved here and
she was like all professionalthe way she was talking to me.
She's like it didn't make senseto me.
But you know, then I redid itand I looked at it.
It's fine.
So I was like oh, I got the 11year old's approval, so let me
go ahead and do it.
So there's you.
(36:50):
That's what we need to do is goto your because, listen, you
said it earlier carl, you saidearlier your kid.
That's all they're doing islooking at the phone oh my god
every second.
So they, they know, and mydaughter's like the wicked fast,
she'll look at something likeboom, like boom.
I'm like, how did you like that?
Speaker 2 (37:06):
not even it's only like a second yeah, that's what
they do all the time, yeah, andthey can filter content very
quickly because that's whatthey're used to doing.
So they'll know very quickly oh, this picture is good, this
video is good, and if not, theyknow how to pass it along so
that's what you need help withjohn, because john and I were
talking earlier about the.
Speaker 3 (37:26):
You know he's got beautiful uh photography that he
posts on his ibis imaging andthat's his go-to ig and he's
like but I don't get traction.
I'm like, yeah, you got to dosomething different.
You got to stand out and like,just give it to an 11 year old,
yeah well, I do have a one.
Speaker 2 (37:42):
One advice which I think it's appropriate with what
we're doing right now is tohire interns.
We have great universities inthe area that we're in and if we
have listeners out in the worldand or other states, look up
your local university.
They have great marketingprograms and these are kids that
(38:03):
need experience and that wantto experiment, and that you
don't have to pay them a lot.
So we do have an intern fromUSF, from one of the marketing
programs there, and it's hugehelp.
We collaborate.
I see the content, I approve it.
Change let's use AI for this ornot.
And then they make the postings.
(38:24):
Ask me how long it takes her tomake a reel, versus how long it
takes me to make a reel that'sa good conversation, I can
totally appreciate that I'm noteven gonna tell you what it took
me to film and edit, becauseevan evan's already edited the
two minute film that we did onmetro.
Speaker 3 (38:40):
I know he's in there.
He works fast he's alreadythere.
Speaker 1 (38:42):
I'm watching him.
He's probably doing yours.
I'm saying he's in there.
He works fast.
He's already there, I'mwatching him.
He's probably doing yours.
I'm saying he's probably ontosome other project from some
other whatever.
But, so the, the.
The reality is I.
I wake up super early, I get uparound three, 30 in the morning
.
Yeah, and that's when I do mysocial media stuff.
So three 3435, I'm doing it forlike an hour and a half a day,
two hours a day, every day, justto stay relevant out there with
(39:05):
content.
Speaker 3 (39:06):
Do you know that, now that your phone just heard that
you're going to get all theseads now directed towards you for
like later?
Yes, cute, sweet.
Yeah.
No, I get it, make it easier onyourself.
Speaker 1 (39:16):
It's still not going to get dwarfed by the amount of
cheeseburger ads that get put onthere.
Speaker 2 (39:22):
That's what it is.
Speaker 1 (39:26):
That's how I get down , rosanna.
What, um, what's next for you?
What do you guys?
What are you guys cooking up?
What's what's?
Speaker 2 (39:31):
so much I know.
I think I tell ricardo, I thinkwe're serial entrepreneurs, we,
our minds never stop.
But I think that's the dna ofall chefs that we know, and us
as chefs, it's our brain doesn'tstop the good ones.
We're always pushing, we want todo something more.
We want to do more, we want tobe better.
So we have a lot of things inthe works.
(39:54):
I can tell you that.
You know, since pandemic, we'vebeen looking to going back to
having a brick and mortar.
You know our location is aghost kitchen and it's going to
stay there.
That's our backbone.
But what we're looking to do isgoing back to having a small
format and, you know, abeautiful space that people can
come in and buy pastries or asavory item.
(40:16):
On my end, with luxury catering.
You know I'm in a very happyplace.
I'm always either traveling tocook for a client or, you know,
doing a lot of fun things in ourTampa Bay region, which I truly
enjoy, and every event isdifferent.
So I think that appeals to thatbrain that is always looking
(40:38):
for constant change.
Speaker 3 (40:40):
Or making paella at Saver.
Speaker 2 (40:41):
St.
Speaker 3 (40:41):
Pete, yeah, I can go there.
That's how we met.
Yeah, paella, literally that'show we met.
Speaker 1 (40:48):
So obviously you're doing the catering thing and
you're doing these events.
What I think we should do is doa walk and talk collab and we
do a Latin, because it would begreat to do a Latin theme.
I know a little bit about Latin.
You don't know anything.
Smidge, you don't know nothing.
(41:09):
She, this is I'm forgetting you.
Speaker 2 (41:11):
You're out, she's in.
Speaker 1 (41:12):
Right, no, but we do that.
We do, um you know a chef,rosanna, um, uh, media
collaboration where you knowwe'll do what five, maybe five
courses we'll.
Speaker 3 (41:27):
We'll knock off one, maybe two.
Right, you gotta do six.
Huh, we can do six, up to six.
Speaker 1 (41:30):
I don't want to do more than six, right but anyway,
what we do is we, um, you know,we bring a lot of our industry
friends and you know otherpeople who are in our kind of
genre, right right, and we havea blast.
And then we bring the crew, wefilm everything and we pump it
out and have a great time.
A lot of sponsors get involvedin that.
You know brands and companiesand whatnot looking to get
(41:53):
involved in it.
We should do one together.
Speaker 2 (41:56):
I agree, let's do it.
I'm game, let's start planning.
Speaker 3 (42:01):
We already said that back in St Pete.
Yes, we did.
Speaker 2 (42:05):
And then Ricardo has to make dessert.
That's the only caveat, becauseI don't do desserts hey look,
we're down.
Speaker 1 (42:11):
I'm down for all of that.
Speaker 3 (42:13):
John probably wants flan though.
Speaker 1 (42:14):
But here's what I need.
Speaker 2 (42:15):
Oh his eyes open, by the way.
Speaker 1 (42:20):
I saw somewhere somebody did a smoked flan and
it looked amazing Like stupid.
Speaker 3 (42:24):
I'll do it Stupid.
I would try that.
I would.
Speaker 2 (42:27):
I want that in my life.
One of the dishes that we weredoing at the NRA show with Alto
Sham was flan.
Speaker 3 (42:33):
But not smoked though , right.
Speaker 2 (42:34):
No, yeah, you couldn't have open fire yeah.
Speaker 3 (42:37):
Yeah, so Rationale was talking about how they
wanted to smoke the meat priorbecause they have a smoking box.
They put in the rationales andthey specifically said you
cannot have open flame in themccormick center so that makes
very, very fortunate.
Speaker 1 (42:48):
My wife is cuban and, uh, my mother-in-law is always
making a flan and, oh my god,I'm so spoiled with that.
Speaker 2 (42:55):
Yeah, that's so good wow okay, it looks like you just
missed that.
Yeah, you're gonna have tobring what he wants flan.
Speaker 3 (43:03):
Okay, I'll get you fl .
Speaker 2 (43:04):
You won't be allowed in this studio next time.
Wow, here's what I need tohappen.
Speaker 1 (43:08):
Hold on, hold on.
I have to.
Amy Guy, I know you'relistening what I need you to do.
Amy, can you text me and remindme?
Speaker 3 (43:15):
Because we're all going to forget everything I
just said.
Really, you're going to use it.
It's extremely smart.
Speaker 1 (43:28):
My eight-year-old is almost ready and I'll be putting
her to work soon.
Speaker 3 (43:33):
But until that happens I'm kind of, you know, I
can't wait until she's ready towork, because then you and I
are not his person.
Speaker 1 (43:38):
Oh man, no, she wants to work.
Daddy, can I come?
I'm like, no, not yet, not yetToo soon.
Speaker 3 (43:44):
You would have to be on your best behavior, I know.
Speaker 1 (43:47):
I don't want to do that.
It's going to ruin my wholereputation.
Speaker 3 (43:50):
Every Thursday is going to be horrible now.
I've got to have my kid with methese production day.
Speaker 1 (43:58):
For us, it's a drizzle of 11th grade.
We try to have fun.
Speaker 3 (44:04):
I thought it was more like 12-year-old, not 12th
grade or 11th grade.
I thought it was like11-year-old For you, yeah, oh,
okay, for me I'm a little bit, alittle more, okay, yeah.
Speaker 1 (44:16):
Oh my God, All right.
So Instagram, what's yourhandle At Chef Rosanna Rivera?
Okay, john, what's your handle?
Speaker 2 (44:27):
No, no, no Say it in the mic, use the mic.
Speaker 1 (44:28):
It's there.
I got it for you.
Ibis Images.
That's his voice, folks, wow,you actually got him to actually
speak.
I'm going to stop putting themic there.
I should have given that toRicardo, he was going to sit in
the other room.
Speaker 3 (44:42):
Oh look, he said just go ahead.
Yeah, that was it, just goahead you dirty.
Speaker 1 (44:45):
All right, chef, I we sincerely appreciate uh, we
sincerely appreciate you andhubby coming with us today
showing up here.
We're now going to go and eatyou are gonna cook, we're gonna
eat.
We're gonna get some footage ofthat.
Stay tuned for the bts, becauseit's going to go and eat.
You are going to cook, we aregoing to eat.
We're going to get some footageof that.
(45:06):
Stay tuned for the BTS, becauseit's going to be badass, chef.
Speaker 2 (45:12):
Thank you for coming.
Speaker 1 (45:14):
Jeffrey.
John, I'll get you some flan,don't worry, baby, we got you
All right.
We are Metro.
Baby, you got to get that Metroand, by the way, chevrozen
brought a bunch of Metro.
She's got a Metro box andeverything.
I'm really I love it.
Speaker 3 (45:32):
Yeah, it was really nice to see that.
Speaker 2 (45:33):
I'm the biggest non-paid Metro fan.
Speaker 1 (45:36):
I love it.
Speaker 2 (45:37):
Oh my.
Speaker 1 (45:37):
God, we're going to Metro unite.
All right, we are out.
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