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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Hello food fam.
This is the Walk Talk podcast,where 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.
Joining us in-house is ChefKurt Hicken, product specialist
(00:31):
from Peninsula Food Service, whohas prepared two stunning
dishes using Creekstone FarmsWagyu fillets.
And, for those who may not know, we photograph and film each
dish to showcase the incredibleculinary creations of our guest
chefs.
Follow along on Instagram atwalkintalkshow.
Our featured guest today isClint Scroggs, a dedicated team
(00:55):
owner, competing in theincredible Hogs for the Cause
cooking competition.
This event isn't just forcooking.
It's about making a differencein the lives of children
battling brain cancer.
Clint's team has been part ofthis heartwarming journey for a
decade, showcasing not justculinary skills but a commitment
to community and compassion.
With around 90 teams competingat the U of O Lakefront Arena,
(01:19):
they draw in crowds of 30,000 to40,000 attendees, all united
for a common cause.
Last year alone, thecompetition raised close to $4
million.
Clint's team brings a uniquetwist to their dead pork theme,
inspired by pop culture iconslike Deadpool and Taylor Swift.
What's that about?
Today, we'll dive into thechallenges and victories faced
(01:41):
by Clint and his team, from theexhilarating highs of culinary
creativity to the emotionalstories that drive their mission
.
But first, kurt, welcome to theshow, and let's get into those
delectable Wagyu fillets.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
Those dishes were fire dude, thank you.
Thank you very much.
Yeah, the Creekstone line justcame out with a new Wagyu
product about two weeks ago andjust now getting introduced.
It's just an amazing item asfar as an American Wagyu it's, I
believe, the only AmericanWagyu that's halal Marble score
is up to an 8.9.
(02:18):
So right up there with JapaneseWagyu and Kobe product.
Just an incredible product.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
What about the?
Speaker 3 (02:25):
dishes we did a steak tartare which was with the
filet mignon, and we did aseared filet mignon with a
little wasabi caviar and shavedtruffle mushroom mashed potato.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Where'd you come up with the idea for this?
Driving down the road, Kurt.
Those dishes were fire man.
Tell me about it.
What was the tartar about?
Speaker 3 (02:47):
started with the creek stone wagyu platinum,
which is the highest level wagyu.
That creek stone has marblescore eight.
Nine made it with a worcestershire cured egg and a little bit
of dijon mustard and tabasco tokind of keep that red color.
One big trick I do I alwayswant to make sure you keep the
(03:07):
meat very cold and then put thecrostini right at the bottom of
the ring mold, so rather thanhaving the crostini or the chips
or something sit on the side,it's part of every bite.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
When we got into the other dish, you made something
really interesting and I guessit's common in more elevated
chefs or whatever.
But talk about what you didwith the pearls.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
It's like they call them pearls or they'll call them
caviar, and you can make itwith fruit juice or red wine or
balsamic, as we did today, andso you take balsamic and you
heat it up to a boil and you addagar agar, which is a
non-animal based, vegan friendlygelatin, essentially, and you
(03:59):
heat that up to a boil, removefrom heat, but you have to have
olive oil that you put in thefreezer for about 30 minutes
prior to that.
Then you drop the balsamic intothe olive oil cold and by the
time it hits the bottom of theglass it forms a little caviar
pearl and then you just run itthrough a strainer and, like I
(04:20):
said, you can do that withalmost any liquid.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Kurt, you have a lot of experience.
You're doing food service salesright now for Peninsula You're
doing proteins, but you're apretty accomplished chef.
Real quickly, for those whodon't know who you are, where do
you come from?
Speaker 3 (04:39):
Originally from Illinois, started work in St
Louis but then moved to NewOrleans, worked with some of the
best chefs in New Orleans, thenleft there, went to culinary
school in CIA in Napa, workedwith Houston's restaurant all
across the country and then backand forth to New Orleans many
times and then out of thecountry into Anguilla and
(05:02):
Bermuda and Ecuador and had achance to learn many different
types of food from differentregions, and so it's been an
interesting life.
I don't realize how much Ilearned from people that I
worked with.
I was lucky to work with somegreat chefs in my time and just
great people, and it's nice tobe back doing food again.
(05:22):
I kind of miss it a little bit,but I don't miss all the
headaches that come along withit.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Well, yeah, at least this gives you a little bit of a
creative outlet.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
It's the best of both worlds.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
How are you digging being on the street though?
Speaker 3 (05:35):
You know it's nice.
I'm off on the weekends, I'moff on holidays.
I haven't had a Mother's Dayoff in 31 years.
It's kind of crazy.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
There's a whole different.
Yeah, a lot of people will saythat you, you know, you went to
the dark side.
You know, in the industry, thatis what your chef, brethren,
would say to you.
And what do you say to them now?
Speaker 3 (05:56):
You just never would expect to be able to live your
life.
You know how many and my kids,my older kids I missed out on so
much of their growing up.
And now I've got a new littleboy and I don't miss anything
and I'm there with him everynight.
I go to all his soccer and itjust it's a whole different
world and I love it.
I still get to be involved withfood.
(06:17):
Talk to the chefs that I sellto about food which I think
brings a lot to the table for meand them, and then I don't have
any headaches.
I don't care about who doesn'tcall, who calls off for work
today, not my problem.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
All right, let's get Clint on the phone.
We spoke the other day.
How are you doing?
I'm glad you got to cut sometime out to come on the show.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Thanks for having me.
It's an honor and a pleasure,and always happy and excited, to
talk about all the good workthat that whole organization
does for such a good cause,supporting the families and
patients that need it most.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
So before we get into this, let's talk a little bit
about where you're from, becauseyou did some back of the house
work in your time, but you moregravitate towards front.
You kind of got into this in adifferent kind of way.
Talk about it.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
So we really just came, you know, worked in
restaurants paying for college.
You know, after undergrad gotout of the industry altogether
and then it wasn't until, youknow, like it was always a
pretty good home cook.
You know, grew up in NewOrleans.
So you know, I've got that geneof like I can, you know, I can
get down a little bit.
And then in 2016, we started myown team for Hawks for the
(07:24):
Cause, and then it's been adecade since and just through
continual efforts and alsobackgrounds and coming up
through the restaurant industryhere in New Orleans, I always
say a lot of us met working forJohn Bash at August, so we kind
of got to cut our teeth throughthere and really understand the
theory that he took towards food, his approaches.
I'll kind of joke like, hey, Igot the John Best gene anywhere.
(07:47):
You know there's 14, 15ingredients and everything.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
So, yeah, a very avant-garde approach to you know
, traditionally going to likeCIA or something like that.
What was your motivation forgetting involved with Hogs?
For the Cause.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
It started out year one, rene and Becker you know,
just two dudes in a tentfundraising for one of their
friends who their child hadbrain cancer.
So for years it was the BenSurratt Hawks of the Cause
cook-off.
And in year three they moved itover to City Park and you know,
at that point it had become athing in New Orleans where
everybody said, wow, they got anew festival going, it's for a
(08:20):
good cause, it's all barbecueand there was nothing like that
down here.
So attended as a guest yearthree.
And then in year four a friendthat I used to work with in the
restaurant industry had a team,so I was a volunteer on his team
for a few years and then, afterI got done with grad school,
one of my buddies and I said youknow what?
We want?
To go ahead and start our ownteam, really flex our muscles.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
So you've got 90 teams competing.
That's a huge competition.
What was the process withcoming up with dead pork as your
theme?
Speaker 2 (08:53):
You know, when you see it in writing everybody's
like, wow, dead pork, thatdoesn't pass muster.
But then when you see the logo,everybody's like I get it.
So my buddy Justin and Iactually started the team.
We were both prior army, so wewere originally band of of hogs,
like band of brothers.
And then after watching deadpork in theaters, one of my
buddies and I just had like anepiphany of you know, ryan
(09:14):
Reynolds is like that same senseof humor, very tongue in cheek,
sarcastic theater, and thoughthow we can incorporate, you know
, some kind of swine-based thinginto that.
And Dead Pork was born.
And just again, I think it kindof fits our approach to
everything.
We tend to zig when others zag.
You know all of our dishes onour, you know on our competition
(09:34):
menus have pun-based names orjust you know, very
tongue-in-cheek with everything.
And then it also has the addedbenefit of it's from a logo
perspective it just pops.
You know we don't have to havesignage with all kinds of stuff.
I mean just a simple logo on aT-shirt and everybody knows
exactly who we are.
And then you know like weactually have a pretty good
merchandise program.
They come to us every year forshirts, hats et cetera, and we
(09:59):
just direct them to our websiteso we don't have to incur that
inventory cost.
So dead work has been really agreat brand and really helped us
just differentiate ourselves ina sea of teams.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
Well, here's a little nugget Ryan Reynolds, when he
played in Waiting, that wasbased off of Bennigan's, and
allegedly the Bennigan's thatthat movie was based off of was
the Bennigan's that I in factworked at in Hollywood, florida,
down on Sheridan Street.
The movie's incredibly accurate.
I'm just going to leave itthere, but the movie is stupidly
accurate.
(10:29):
I don't want to get intoBennigan's stories.
All right, dead Pork.
I mean, you guys are killing it.
The name is great Dead Pork.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
I love it.
You're competing out thereagainst a lot of teams.
What does Dead Pork dodifferently to stand out?
Good question, we're kind ofknown for being like the
habitual line steppers.
Like I always joke with thefounders, like there's going to
be a Dead Pork world, you know,someday.
So obviously branding plays abig.
You know a big, big part there.
And then a big.
You know a big, big part there.
And then just you know westarted doing goofy stuff.
You know like just poking thebear, so putting our signage in
(11:01):
the front gate where everybodywalks in, everybody sees our
signage.
You know we kind of infiltratedthe, the production aspect of
it and put our signage on thesound tent.
You know also like infiltratedsome of those folks and whenever
our name is called or we get astage call, all the lights go
off and it's all just red.
So you know, just trying tohave fun about it.
You know one of our guys is ina Deadpool costume with a snout,
(11:24):
with a megaphone, and you knowusually his phone going with
something and just borderlineharassing attendees and guests.
You know, just trying to getthem into our booth and then
that's also a big part of thesocial media presence and then,
like year one, takinginspiration from just being so
tongue-in-cheek.
Everything has a funny name ispun-based.
We brought our ribs back thisyear, and it's always ribs for
(11:47):
her pleasure, so just try todifferentiate ourselves.
There's a lot of really goodteams out there that probably
put out better food than us, sowe've got to stay competitive
somehow.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
How are you balancing this with your actual
professional life?
You're not in the actual foodbusiness per se.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
No, no, I always joke like I get to play restaurant.
You guys have to do restaurant.
Fortunately we've gotten prettygood at it over the last 10
years or so.
But invariably my job is 50, 60hours a week, so it's a lot of
midnight oil being burned.
Luckily, for Hogs is ourlargest event by far.
We do dinner parties quarterly.
So for a week or so once aquarter, I'm doing work until
(12:27):
midnight, one o'clock in themorning every day, and then for
about two months prior to Hogsis when we really start to ramp
up.
Hogs is in two weeks.
So you know I'm going to getoff my job today, go pick up
kids, play dad for a couplehours and then once they go to
bed I'm going to go right backto my office and start, you know
, game planning and goingthrough to-do list and packing
list, et cetera.
(12:47):
So you know there's a littlebit of Kung Fu to knowing how to
do it.
And just you know I have awhole shed full of stuff and go
in there and say, all right,it's probably going to be most
of all this stuff, and then justgetting better about it.
With experience I'll tell you itis one of the most cathartic
and best feelings in the world,because load out, load in and
load out at the plot is alwaysyou know it's 90 teams, you got
(13:10):
hundreds of cars and you knowplots that are way bigger and
more complex than ours.
You know plots that are waybigger and more complex than
ours.
You know we usually load out onThursday and then Friday we put
up our storefront before awardsare done on Saturday.
We are completely broken downand everything is in the trailer
.
Like I've had other teams comeup to me and say, like dude, how
did you do that?
Because that Sunday breakdownis the absolute worst, you know.
(13:32):
So to your question of like,how do you balance the?
Do you balance the full-timejob versus the nonprofit?
Getting better and moreefficient at it has helped out a
whole lot.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
The cooking.
I don't even know if that's thehardest part.
I mean, setting up and breakingdown is terrible.
We all know that that's a crapshow.
But what about the sponsorships?
You got to go out there andhustle up the money for these
kids.
How are you handling that?
Speaker 2 (13:55):
I am perhaps the worst nonprofit CEO on the
planet.
You know I'm not usually thehey, can I have a dollar?
Type person, but it does causeyou to.
You know, knowing what causewe're supporting and what we're
doing it does you know kind ofit inspires you to seek
partnership and not just ask fora dollar.
But hey, let's work together.
So we definitely couldn't do itwithout our partners.
Conseco's groceries down herethey pretty much bankroll us.
(14:18):
They donate the food for Hogsitself, which, again, worst
nonprofit CEO ever.
I'm always like, hey, I don'tfeel comfortable doing this.
And they're always like, dude,stop making it a thing.
So huge thank you to them.
Vino is where we're doing ourdinner parties.
Now we just got those goingagain and we're beyond excited.
And then some of the other onesyou know Crescent City Meats,
american Seafood all those guyslike we just could not do it
(14:41):
without it.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
Just a quick shout out to Jerry over at Crescent
City Meats Absolutely Good dude.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
Pooch made the connection and they donated a
brisket and then they infused itfor a bulgogi preparation that
we did for our last dinner partyand, just you know, completely
wowed with that generosity withsomebody I've never even met, so
but yeah, I mean that kind ofgenerosity.
It helps us keep our costs downwhen we do events, which in
(15:06):
turn just means more money goingtowards kids with cancer, you
know.
And then there's just some ofour other stuff, like a lot of.
A couple of our guys are in thewine industry, so they always
get to pull a couple tasters andwe get to use those for dinner
parties.
Also, hogs has somepartnerships that we get to have
fun with too.
Their official beer sponsor isthe Miller High Life Pony, so a
(15:28):
seven ounce glass bottle, andthey are the number one driver
of Miller High Life Ponies inthe country.
So just appreciate all thepartners that we have Always
looking for some new ones.
It's the best part of it isgetting to work with.
You know, just great people Dosomething fun and do something
cool.
So if anybody wants to partnerup, they're here.
Our website is deadporkorg, oryou can just reach out to us
(15:50):
directly on Instagram.
Those DMs are always open andwe out to us directly on
Instagram.
Those DMs are always open andwe have a team that checks our
Instagram every day.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
You were talking about dinner parties earlier.
I understand that you just dida Wu-Tang themed dinner party a
week or so ago.
What was that about?
Speaker 2 (16:06):
That dinner party has grown and evolved.
We were doing that at theSouthern Food and Beverage
Museum and the first one wasjust almost like a proof of
concept, like, if I had to grademyself, it was like an 85 out
of 100, you know, just purely adifferent way of fundraising
versus a pop-up where you, youknow it's uncertain from a
profitability perspective.
So, pulling from restaurants, Iwas like, hey, I'm going to do
(16:27):
a five course prefix tastingmenu.
We partnered up with La Cremaand Kendall Jackson and, you
know, just like, pulled peoplein and it was more a proof of
concept to not only SouthernFood and Beverage but also, you
know, internally with the team,everybody's like dude, you don't
have the gusto to pull this off.
And we did, you know, justthrough, sheerly like everybody,
get on my back and we're goingto make this same thing work.
(16:48):
So it's evolved.
The first one, you know beingintrospective, coming out of it,
I was like I feel like we justdidn't have a voice.
It was good food, it was a goodcause, but it wasn't, you know,
it just didn't have a realsense of what we were trying to
do.
And then, you know, it got methinking when you do restaurant,
(17:14):
your menu and your ambiance andyou know, your whole setup like
kind of has a voice in whatyou're trying to relate, I guess
.
So, being introspective, I waslike hey, why don't we have a
little bit more like a theme,and then that theme can help us
create that voice.
So all that's to say over theyou know, the number of dinner
parties that we've done.
Last time was Wu-Tang, justbecause I was like hey, the
group, me, for our team isactually Wu-Tang, 36 members,
like 36 members on the team, andthen just doing fun stuff that
(17:37):
we really enjoy.
So we've done a yacht rockbased one where it's just, you
know, like I wore a gravat andboat shoes in the kitchen.
You know we've done like 90stheme.
What are some of the other oneswe did?
We did Mad Men, which was fun.
Unfortunately, everybody gotannihilated because it was like
Death Mart Marginis.
So, yeah, we have one coming upin June.
That'll be just a pridecelebration and then I'm kind of
(17:59):
thinking maybe sometime in thefall I don't know the exact date
but that one's probably goingto be outcast.
You know, you got to do fishinggrits and some other stuff, but
Wu-Tang was fun because we gotto do just a real like
Asian-based kind of menu.
And then you know, same thingwith our competition food, all
of our menu items have reallyfun pun based names and we get
the channel.
Just, you know, flex thatcreativity.
(18:20):
It kind of gives us a directionto go towards.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
Well, I came to bring the pain hardcore to your brain
.
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
I'm just saying Our entree course was if you want
beef, then bring the ruckus.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
There you go.
You got to protect your neck.
You know what I mean, clint.
You've been doing this now fora decade.
The cause itself is terrific interms of hogs for the cause and
what they're doing.
Obviously, you're talking aboutchildren, and you know children
with with disease, it's a hardone.
This must be rewarding onmultiple levels.
You must have met amazingchildren, amazing families along
your journey so far.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
They always do so.
The Friday of hogs.
Hogs is Friday night and thenall day Saturday, and then
Friday afternoon there's acaptain's meeting where they run
through, you know, just rulesthe road, here's competition,
here's, et cetera.
And then one thing they alwaysdo is bring out a family that's
been impacted by pediatric braincancer, and then that family
(19:22):
comes and talks about hey,here's how Hogs has helped us
through this journey, and if youwant to go in a tent and see a
bunch of fat bearded dudescrying their eyes out, that's
where to do it.
But it pulls at everybody'sheartstrings.
When I started the team in 2016,I didn't have kids.
It wasn't until my daughterjust turned five and it wasn't
(19:43):
until she was probably like ayear old where it really kind of
hit Like what if that was mychild.
So you know, I mean itabsolutely makes it all worth it
.
All the you know the gray hairsand countless hours after the
kids go to bed and you knowweekends missed because we're
all fundraising or doingsomething else.
You know all the dad points aregoing to call in to make sure
the wife can watch three kids.
But it just makes it so much,you know, so worth it.
(20:05):
I actually talked to Zandy, theCFO from Hogs before this, just
for some quick facts.
And they've done 13 million tofamilies in these I think 17
years that they've been doingthis and that covers everything
that's just not included byinsurance travel, hotels, meals,
you name it.
Last year we actually hit$4-plus million in fundraising.
This year the goal is $5million.
(20:25):
They're actually in the processof building what's called a
hog's house, so effectively,think of it as a house with a
whole bunch of almost like amini hotel there in St
Petersburg Florida.
They have two existing, one inBaton Rouge, one in New Orleans.
They estimate roughly $3million in cost savings passed
on to families who would have totravel in for treatment for
(20:46):
their kids by building thesehogs houses.
So just a great cause.
And my buddy mike and I werefortunate enough to attend a
grant presentation to a singlemom and her child with brain
cancer and just you know seeingher like well up, knowing that
you know she didn't have toworry about paying her mortgage
that month.
So just you know, the socialworking, social worker team that
(21:09):
all excited, brings them grantopportunities and then it's a
question of you know knowingwhere they can make the most
impact to patients and theirfamilies.
So, yeah, it's, it's always a,you know it tugs at your heart,
but, man, is it ever worth it?
Speaker 1 (21:23):
That sounds so amazing.
Speaker 3 (21:24):
You know, clint, it's really an interesting story and
I love to hear that somebody'sdoing something with kids.
You know, I'm a dad myself andit just it's awesome to hear
somebody takes a jump into afield like that.
Now, do you guys only help thekids in the New Orleans area or
Louisiana, or is this anationwide thing?
(21:46):
How does it work with you?
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (21:49):
Nationwide?
That's a great question.
So yeah, they've done grants toevery single state in the
country.
There is a network of socialworkers that brings
opportunities to Rene and Beckerand the Hogs team and then they
go through that vetting.
Obviously it's a year-roundthing for them.
Becker, their CEO, is afull-time employee there, so
just kudos to them on how theyoperationalized it.
(22:11):
Again, it was two dudes in atent at the fly behind the
Audubon Zoo doing one whole hogto raise money for Ben Sauer Jr.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
Do you have like a success story, somebody that
touched you and you becameinvolved in their healing
process or therapy?
Speaker 2 (22:30):
Not per se, I'd say you know, my most intimate
experience was that opportunitywhere I got to meet a mom and
her child.
I actually saw them at Hogsprobably two years ago and they
remembered me.
And you know now that littleboy is, you know now, like a 200
pound.
He's got to be 15, 16 years oldnow, like I'm pretty sure he
could throw me over the tent.
But you know it is seeing theparents and families who come
(22:55):
out every year, even just twohogs, and you know they won't
remember my face because I'm ina sea of guys out there.
But every one of us knows whothose you know those parents,
those patients are, you know,especially when they say like my
kid is here because of the workyou did, you know everybody
gets immediately dialed in withthat family.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
A sea of bearded fat dudes.
I would fit right in with allof that.
You said it earlier.
I need to be part of thissomehow, kurt.
I mean, that's a great question.
The fact that you know, is it aregional thing in Louisiana?
It's.
It is nationwide, and I wouldurge everyone to kind of just
jump in and help.
(23:33):
If you have the means, youshould just jump in and do it.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
Yeah, absolutely.
If anybody who isn't fortunateenough to make the trip to New
Orleans for the two-day festival, you can donate directly on
their websitehawksforthecallsorg slash donate
.
Or if you want to support usdirectly, we can go deadporkorg
slash donate.
Speaker 3 (23:50):
Now, Clint, besides the donation financially, are
you able to donate your time?
Could another chef come therefrom another region and help and
be part of the cause inphysical nature?
Speaker 2 (24:06):
A hundred percent, a hundred percent.
We have the team that was nextto us last year it was Tori
McPhail and some you know very,very good chefs.
You know James Beard awardwinning chefs who have since
moved away from New Orleans andthey come back and volunteer
their time.
So if there's anybody listeningwho would love to get down with
us, or you know any other team,reach out.
We would love to work with youguys.
Speaker 3 (24:26):
Yeah, I would love.
I would love to talk to youabout that in the future.
I, like I said, lived in NewOrleans seven times.
I have a strong tie to thecommunity and I would love to be
part of this.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
Kurt, if you're serious about going next year,
Walk Talk will sponsor you to go.
Speaker 3 (24:42):
I'd love to.
I think it would be an amazingthing to be part of interesting
and, of course, I always love tobe in that region anyway.
So, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
And you're going to be with dead pork.
Speaker 3 (24:52):
And that'd be great.
Yeah, I'd love to talk to youmore about what I can bring to
the table.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
Clint, what was the story with Taylor Swift?
Speaker 2 (24:59):
We've done the only competition barbecue menu based
on Taylor Swift in like inhistory.
It was one of those.
Again, we zig when others zag.
Taylor Swift was all the rageand you know, kind of embracing
the whole dinner party theme ofwe want to go with something
that's a little bit different.
You know we want to have like atheme and she was all the rage
(25:20):
so we decided to do dead pork.
The eras tour rebranded likeour whole thing for, you know,
the better part of a year all ofour dishes were like based on
her songs.
I am not a huge swifty, but myspotify wrapped last year would
argue otherwise just because itwas so much like r and d.
But we did all of our branding,all of our promotions, you name
(25:41):
it.
Anybody listening like go toour instagram.
One of the pin posts is themenu reveal from last year.
That probably took me athousand hours or something, but
just, you know I wanted to havefun with it and it was actually
kind of fun.
There were very few people who,like, rolled their eyes and
said, oh, but the number ofpeople who came out and
supported us and you know, likethe little friendship bracelets
(26:04):
which are a thing you know, justrandom people walking up saying
like I saw your instagram aweek ago, I bought tickets to
come to hogs so I could give youthis friendship where he said
income support you guys.
So yeah, it was, you know, aone-time thing, but I'm glad we
did it.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
Well, I'll tell you what.
I have a nine-year-old daughterand it's Taylor Swift, day and
night in my house.
It's a.
I've had enough.
Actually Listen.
Clint, I sincerely appreciateyou being on the program today.
Can you put out your Instagramagain, please?
Speaker 2 (26:36):
Yeah, instagram is at deadporkorg D-O-T-O-R-G, and
then our website is deadporkorgas well.
Speaker 1 (26:44):
Excellent and you and I are going to talk more and I
want to be involved in the wholehogs thing.
John, as always, what you didtoday with the photography, you
make Kurt look good.
I'm just saying amen to that.
But seriously, kurt man, you'realways hitting home runs here.
You know like you're this is.
This is going to be a monthlything for you.
Speaker 3 (27:01):
I'm just saying he's going to move closer, that's all
yeah, move closer to the mic.
Speaker 1 (27:05):
That's what we're saying.
That's that's what we're sayinghere the whole stinking time.
How do we find you, kurt?
Real quick.
Speaker 3 (27:12):
Don't, I don't know you guys, you messed me up.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
I'm going to put your .
I am leaving this in.
I am not cutting this out.
Kurt, You're stuck with that.
I will put in your Instagram onour site.
Hey, we are out.
Hello food fam.
This is the Walk Talk podcast,where 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.
Joining us in-house is ChefKurt Hicken, product specialist
(00:31):
from Peninsula Food Service, whohas prepared two stunning
dishes using Creekstone FarmsWagyu fillets.
And, for those who may not know, we photograph and film each
dish to showcase the incredibleculinary creations of our guest
chefs.
Follow along on Instagram atwalkintalkshow.
Our featured guest today isClint Scroggs, a dedicated team
(00:55):
owner, competing in theincredible Hogs for the Cause
cooking competition.
This event isn't just forcooking.
It's about making a differencein the lives of children
battling brain cancer.
Clint's team has been part ofthis heartwarming journey for a
decade, showcasing not justculinary skills but a commitment
to community and compassion.
With around 90 teams competingat the U of O Lakefront Arena,
(01:19):
they draw in crowds of 30,000 to40,000 attendees, all united
for a common cause.
Last year alone, thecompetition raised close to $4
million.
Clint's team brings a uniquetwist to their dead pork theme,
inspired by pop culture iconslike Deadpool and Taylor Swift.
What's that about?
Today, we'll dive into thechallenges and victories faced
(01:41):
by Clint and his team, from theexhilarating highs of culinary
creativity to the emotionalstories that drive their mission
.
But first, kurt, welcome to theshow, and let's get into those
delectable Wagyu fillets.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
Those dishes were fire dude, thank you.
Thank you very much.
Yeah, the Creekstone line justcame out with a new Wagyu
product about two weeks ago andjust now getting introduced.
It's just an amazing item asfar as an American Wagyu it's, I
believe, the only AmericanWagyu that's halal Marble score
is up to an 8.9.
(02:18):
So right up there with JapaneseWagyu and Kobe product.
Just an incredible product.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
What about the?
Speaker 3 (02:25):
dishes we did a steak tartare which was with the
filet mignon, and we did aseared filet mignon with a
little wasabi caviar and shavedtruffle mushroom mashed potato.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Where'd you come up with the idea for this?
Driving down the road, Kurt.
Those dishes were fire man.
Tell me about it.
What was the tartar about?
Speaker 3 (02:47):
started with the creek stone wagyu platinum,
which is the highest level wagyu.
That creek stone has marblescore eight.
Nine made it with a worcestershire cured egg and a little bit
of dijon mustard and tabasco tokind of keep that red color.
One big trick I do I alwayswant to make sure you keep the
(03:07):
meat very cold and then put thecrostini right at the bottom of
the ring mold, so rather thanhaving the crostini or the chips
or something sit on the side,it's part of every bite.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
When we got into the other dish, you made something
really interesting and I guessit's common in more elevated
chefs or whatever.
But talk about what you didwith the pearls.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
It's like they call them pearls or they'll call them
caviar, and you can make itwith fruit juice or red wine or
balsamic, as we did today, andso you take balsamic and you
heat it up to a boil and you addagar agar, which is a
non-animal based, vegan friendlygelatin, essentially, and you
(03:59):
heat that up to a boil, removefrom heat, but you have to have
olive oil that you put in thefreezer for about 30 minutes
prior to that.
Then you drop the balsamic intothe olive oil cold and by the
time it hits the bottom of theglass it forms a little caviar
pearl and then you just run itthrough a strainer and, like I
(04:20):
said, you can do that withalmost any liquid.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Kurt, you have a lot of experience.
You're doing food service salesright now for Peninsula You're
doing proteins, but you're apretty accomplished chef.
Real quickly, for those whodon't know who you are, where do
you come from?
Speaker 3 (04:39):
Originally from Illinois, started work in St
Louis but then moved to NewOrleans, worked with some of the
best chefs in New Orleans, thenleft there, went to culinary
school in CIA in Napa, workedwith Houston's restaurant all
across the country and then backand forth to New Orleans many
times and then out of thecountry into Anguilla and
(05:02):
Bermuda and Ecuador and had achance to learn many different
types of food from differentregions, and so it's been an
interesting life.
I don't realize how much Ilearned from people that I
worked with.
I was lucky to work with somegreat chefs in my time and just
great people, and it's nice tobe back doing food again.
(05:22):
I kind of miss it a little bit,but I don't miss all the
headaches that come along withit.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Well, yeah, at least this gives you a little bit of a
creative outlet.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
It's the best of both worlds.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
How are you digging being on the street though?
Speaker 3 (05:35):
You know it's nice.
I'm off on the weekends, I'moff on holidays.
I haven't had a Mother's Dayoff in 31 years.
It's kind of crazy.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
There's a whole different.
Yeah, a lot of people will saythat you, you know, you went to
the dark side.
You know, in the industry, thatis what your chef, brethren,
would say to you.
And what do you say to them now?
Speaker 3 (05:56):
You just never would expect to be able to live your
life.
You know how many and my kids,my older kids I missed out on so
much of their growing up.
And now I've got a new littleboy and I don't miss anything
and I'm there with him everynight.
I go to all his soccer and itjust it's a whole different
world and I love it.
I still get to be involved withfood.
(06:17):
Talk to the chefs that I sellto about food which I think
brings a lot to the table for meand them, and then I don't have
any headaches.
I don't care about who doesn'tcall, who calls off for work
today, not my problem.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
All right, let's get Clint on the phone.
We spoke the other day.
How are you doing?
I'm glad you got to cut sometime out to come on the show.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Thanks for having me.
It's an honor and a pleasure,and always happy and excited, to
talk about all the good workthat that whole organization
does for such a good cause,supporting the families and
patients that need it most.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
So before we get into this, let's talk a little bit
about where you're from, becauseyou did some back of the house
work in your time, but you moregravitate towards front.
You kind of got into this in adifferent kind of way.
Talk about it.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
So we really just came, you know, worked in
restaurants paying for college.
You know, after undergrad gotout of the industry altogether
and then it wasn't until, youknow, like it was always a
pretty good home cook.
You know, grew up in NewOrleans.
So you know, I've got that geneof like I can, you know, I can
get down a little bit.
And then in 2016, we started myown team for Hawks for the
(07:24):
Cause, and then it's been adecade since and just through
continual efforts and alsobackgrounds and coming up
through the restaurant industryhere in New Orleans, I always
say a lot of us met working forJohn Bash at August, so we kind
of got to cut our teeth throughthere and really understand the
theory that he took towards food, his approaches.
I'll kind of joke like, hey, Igot the John Best gene anywhere.
(07:47):
You know there's 14, 15ingredients and everything.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
So, yeah, a very avant-garde approach to you know
, traditionally going to likeCIA or something like that.
What was your motivation forgetting involved with Hogs?
For the Cause.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
It started out year one, rene and Becker you know,
just two dudes in a tentfundraising for one of their
friends who their child hadbrain cancer.
So for years it was the BenSurratt Hawks of the Cause
cook-off.
And in year three they moved itover to City Park and you know,
at that point it had become athing in New Orleans where
everybody said, wow, they got anew festival going, it's for a
(08:20):
good cause, it's all barbecueand there was nothing like that
down here.
So attended as a guest yearthree.
And then in year four a friendthat I used to work with in the
restaurant industry had a team,so I was a volunteer on his team
for a few years and then, afterI got done with grad school,
one of my buddies and I said youknow what?
We want?
To go ahead and start our ownteam, really flex our muscles.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
So you've got 90 teams competing.
That's a huge competition.
What was the process withcoming up with dead pork as your
theme?
Speaker 2 (08:53):
You know, when you see it in writing everybody's
like, wow, dead pork, thatdoesn't pass muster.
But then when you see the logo,everybody's like I get it.
So my buddy Justin and Iactually started the team.
We were both prior army, so wewere originally band of of hogs,
like band of brothers.
And then after watching deadpork in theaters, one of my
buddies and I just had like anepiphany of you know, ryan
(09:14):
Reynolds is like that same senseof humor, very tongue in cheek,
sarcastic theater, and thoughthow we can incorporate, you know
, some kind of swine-based thinginto that.
And Dead Pork was born.
And just again, I think it kindof fits our approach to
everything.
We tend to zig when others zag.
You know all of our dishes onour, you know on our competition
(09:34):
menus have pun-based names orjust you know, very
tongue-in-cheek with everything.
And then it also has the addedbenefit of it's from a logo
perspective it just pops.
You know we don't have to havesignage with all kinds of stuff.
I mean just a simple logo on aT-shirt and everybody knows
exactly who we are.
And then you know like weactually have a pretty good
merchandise program.
They come to us every year forshirts, hats et cetera, and we
(09:59):
just direct them to our websiteso we don't have to incur that
inventory cost.
So dead work has been really agreat brand and really helped us
just differentiate ourselves ina sea of teams.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
Well, here's a little nugget Ryan Reynolds, when he
played in Waiting, that wasbased off of Bennigan's, and
allegedly the Bennigan's thatthat movie was based off of was
the Bennigan's that I in factworked at in Hollywood, florida,
down on Sheridan Street.
The movie's incredibly accurate.
I'm just going to leave itthere, but the movie is stupidly
accurate.
(10:29):
I don't want to get intoBennigan's stories.
All right, dead Pork.
I mean, you guys are killing it.
The name is great Dead Pork.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
I love it.
You're competing out thereagainst a lot of teams.
What does Dead Pork dodifferently to stand out?
Good question, we're kind ofknown for being like the
habitual line steppers.
Like I always joke with thefounders, like there's going to
be a Dead Pork world, you know,someday.
So obviously branding plays abig.
You know a big, big part there.
And then a big.
You know a big, big part there.
And then just you know westarted doing goofy stuff.
You know like just poking thebear, so putting our signage in
(11:01):
the front gate where everybodywalks in, everybody sees our
signage.
You know we kind of infiltratedthe, the production aspect of
it and put our signage on thesound tent.
You know also like infiltratedsome of those folks and whenever
our name is called or we get astage call, all the lights go
off and it's all just red.
So you know, just trying tohave fun about it.
You know one of our guys is ina Deadpool costume with a snout,
(11:24):
with a megaphone, and you knowusually his phone going with
something and just borderlineharassing attendees and guests.
You know, just trying to getthem into our booth and then
that's also a big part of thesocial media presence and then,
like year one, takinginspiration from just being so
tongue-in-cheek.
Everything has a funny name ispun-based.
We brought our ribs back thisyear, and it's always ribs for
(11:47):
her pleasure, so just try todifferentiate ourselves.
There's a lot of really goodteams out there that probably
put out better food than us, sowe've got to stay competitive
somehow.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
How are you balancing this with your actual
professional life?
You're not in the actual foodbusiness per se.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
No, no, I always joke like I get to play restaurant.
You guys have to do restaurant.
Fortunately we've gotten prettygood at it over the last 10
years or so.
But invariably my job is 50, 60hours a week, so it's a lot of
midnight oil being burned.
Luckily, for Hogs is ourlargest event by far.
We do dinner parties quarterly.
So for a week or so once aquarter, I'm doing work until
(12:27):
midnight, one o'clock in themorning every day, and then for
about two months prior to Hogsis when we really start to ramp
up.
Hogs is in two weeks.
So you know I'm going to getoff my job today, go pick up
kids, play dad for a couplehours and then once they go to
bed I'm going to go right backto my office and start, you know
, game planning and goingthrough to-do list and packing
list, et cetera.
(12:47):
So you know there's a littlebit of Kung Fu to knowing how to
do it.
And just you know I have awhole shed full of stuff and go
in there and say, all right,it's probably going to be most
of all this stuff, and then justgetting better about it.
With experience I'll tell you itis one of the most cathartic
and best feelings in the world,because load out, load in and
load out at the plot is alwaysyou know it's 90 teams, you got
(13:10):
hundreds of cars and you knowplots that are way bigger and
more complex than ours.
You know plots that are waybigger and more complex than
ours.
You know we usually load out onThursday and then Friday we put
up our storefront before awardsare done on Saturday.
We are completely broken downand everything is in the trailer
.
Like I've had other teams comeup to me and say, like dude, how
did you do that?
Because that Sunday breakdownis the absolute worst, you know.
(13:32):
So to your question of like,how do you balance the?
Do you balance the full-timejob versus the nonprofit?
Getting better and moreefficient at it has helped out a
whole lot.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
The cooking.
I don't even know if that's thehardest part.
I mean, setting up and breakingdown is terrible.
We all know that that's a crapshow.
But what about the sponsorships?
You got to go out there andhustle up the money for these
kids.
How are you handling that?
Speaker 2 (13:55):
I am perhaps the worst nonprofit CEO on the
planet.
You know I'm not usually thehey, can I have a dollar?
Type person, but it does causeyou to.
You know, knowing what causewe're supporting and what we're
doing it does you know kind ofit inspires you to seek
partnership and not just ask fora dollar.
But hey, let's work together.
So we definitely couldn't do itwithout our partners.
Conseco's groceries down herethey pretty much bankroll us.
(14:18):
They donate the food for Hogsitself, which, again, worst
nonprofit CEO ever.
I'm always like, hey, I don'tfeel comfortable doing this.
And they're always like, dude,stop making it a thing.
So huge thank you to them.
Vino is where we're doing ourdinner parties.
Now we just got those goingagain and we're beyond excited.
And then some of the other onesyou know Crescent City Meats,
american Seafood all those guyslike we just could not do it
(14:41):
without it.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
Just a quick shout out to Jerry over at Crescent
City Meats Absolutely Good dude.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
Pooch made the connection and they donated a
brisket and then they infused itfor a bulgogi preparation that
we did for our last dinner partyand, just you know, completely
wowed with that generosity withsomebody I've never even met, so
but yeah, I mean that kind ofgenerosity.
It helps us keep our costs downwhen we do events, which in
(15:06):
turn just means more money goingtowards kids with cancer, you
know.
And then there's just some ofour other stuff, like a lot of.
A couple of our guys are in thewine industry, so they always
get to pull a couple tasters andwe get to use those for dinner
parties.
Also, hogs has somepartnerships that we get to have
fun with too.
Their official beer sponsor isthe Miller High Life Pony, so a
(15:28):
seven ounce glass bottle, andthey are the number one driver
of Miller High Life Ponies inthe country.
So just appreciate all thepartners that we have Always
looking for some new ones.
It's the best part of it isgetting to work with.
You know, just great people Dosomething fun and do something
cool.
So if anybody wants to partnerup, they're here.
Our website is deadporkorg, oryou can just reach out to us
(15:50):
directly on Instagram.
Those DMs are always open andwe out to us directly on
Instagram.
Those DMs are always open andwe have a team that checks our
Instagram every day.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
You were talking about dinner parties earlier.
I understand that you just dida Wu-Tang themed dinner party a
week or so ago.
What was that about?
Speaker 2 (16:06):
That dinner party has grown and evolved.
We were doing that at theSouthern Food and Beverage
Museum and the first one wasjust almost like a proof of
concept, like, if I had to grademyself, it was like an 85 out
of 100, you know, just purely adifferent way of fundraising
versus a pop-up where you, youknow it's uncertain from a
profitability perspective.
So, pulling from restaurants, Iwas like, hey, I'm going to do
(16:27):
a five course prefix tastingmenu.
We partnered up with La Cremaand Kendall Jackson and, you
know, just like, pulled peoplein and it was more a proof of
concept to not only SouthernFood and Beverage but also, you
know, internally with the team,everybody's like dude, you don't
have the gusto to pull this off.
And we did, you know, justthrough, sheerly like everybody,
get on my back and we're goingto make this same thing work.
(16:48):
So it's evolved.
The first one, you know beingintrospective, coming out of it,
I was like I feel like we justdidn't have a voice.
It was good food, it was a goodcause, but it wasn't, you know,
it just didn't have a realsense of what we were trying to
do.
And then, you know, it got methinking when you do restaurant,
(17:14):
your menu and your ambiance andyou know, your whole setup like
kind of has a voice in whatyou're trying to relate, I guess
.
So, being introspective, I waslike hey, why don't we have a
little bit more like a theme,and then that theme can help us
create that voice.
So all that's to say over theyou know, the number of dinner
parties that we've done.
Last time was Wu-Tang, justbecause I was like hey, the
group, me, for our team isactually Wu-Tang, 36 members,
like 36 members on the team, andthen just doing fun stuff that
(17:37):
we really enjoy.
So we've done a yacht rockbased one where it's just, you
know, like I wore a gravat andboat shoes in the kitchen.
You know we've done like 90stheme.
What are some of the other oneswe did?
We did Mad Men, which was fun.
Unfortunately, everybody gotannihilated because it was like
Death Mart Marginis.
So, yeah, we have one coming upin June.
That'll be just a pridecelebration and then I'm kind of
(17:59):
thinking maybe sometime in thefall I don't know the exact date
but that one's probably goingto be outcast.
You know, you got to do fishinggrits and some other stuff, but
Wu-Tang was fun because we gotto do just a real like
Asian-based kind of menu.
And then you know, same thingwith our competition food, all
of our menu items have reallyfun pun based names and we get
the channel.
Just, you know, flex thatcreativity.
(18:20):
It kind of gives us a directionto go towards.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
Well, I came to bring the pain hardcore to your brain
.
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
I'm just saying Our entree course was if you want
beef, then bring the ruckus.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
There you go.
You got to protect your neck.
You know what I mean, clint.
You've been doing this now fora decade.
The cause itself is terrific interms of hogs for the cause and
what they're doing.
Obviously, you're talking aboutchildren, and you know children
with with disease, it's a hardone.
This must be rewarding onmultiple levels.
You must have met amazingchildren, amazing families along
your journey so far.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
They always do so.
The Friday of hogs.
Hogs is Friday night and thenall day Saturday, and then
Friday afternoon there's acaptain's meeting where they run
through, you know, just rulesthe road, here's competition,
here's, et cetera.
And then one thing they alwaysdo is bring out a family that's
been impacted by pediatric braincancer, and then that family
(19:22):
comes and talks about hey,here's how Hogs has helped us
through this journey, and if youwant to go in a tent and see a
bunch of fat bearded dudescrying their eyes out, that's
where to do it.
But it pulls at everybody'sheartstrings.
When I started the team in 2016,I didn't have kids.
It wasn't until my daughterjust turned five and it wasn't
(19:43):
until she was probably like ayear old where it really kind of
hit Like what if that was mychild.
So you know, I mean itabsolutely makes it all worth it
.
All the you know the gray hairsand countless hours after the
kids go to bed and you knowweekends missed because we're
all fundraising or doingsomething else.
You know all the dad points aregoing to call in to make sure
the wife can watch three kids.
But it just makes it so much,you know, so worth it.
(20:05):
I actually talked to Zandy, theCFO from Hogs before this, just
for some quick facts.
And they've done 13 million tofamilies in these I think 17
years that they've been doingthis and that covers everything
that's just not included byinsurance travel, hotels, meals,
you name it.
Last year we actually hit$4-plus million in fundraising.
This year the goal is $5million.
(20:25):
They're actually in the processof building what's called a
hog's house, so effectively,think of it as a house with a
whole bunch of almost like amini hotel there in St
Petersburg Florida.
They have two existing, one inBaton Rouge, one in New Orleans.
They estimate roughly $3million in cost savings passed
on to families who would have totravel in for treatment for
(20:46):
their kids by building thesehogs houses.
So just a great cause.
And my buddy mike and I werefortunate enough to attend a
grant presentation to a singlemom and her child with brain
cancer and just you know seeingher like well up, knowing that
you know she didn't have toworry about paying her mortgage
that month.
So just you know, the socialworking, social worker team that
(21:09):
all excited, brings them grantopportunities and then it's a
question of you know knowingwhere they can make the most
impact to patients and theirfamilies.
So, yeah, it's, it's always a,you know it tugs at your heart,
but, man, is it ever worth it?
Speaker 1 (21:23):
That sounds so amazing.
Speaker 3 (21:24):
You know, clint, it's really an interesting story and
I love to hear that somebody'sdoing something with kids.
You know, I'm a dad myself andit just it's awesome to hear
somebody takes a jump into afield like that.
Now, do you guys only help thekids in the New Orleans area or
Louisiana, or is this anationwide thing?
(21:46):
How does it work with you?
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (21:49):
Nationwide?
That's a great question.
So yeah, they've done grants toevery single state in the
country.
There is a network of socialworkers that brings
opportunities to Rene and Beckerand the Hogs team and then they
go through that vetting.
Obviously it's a year-roundthing for them.
Becker, their CEO, is afull-time employee there, so
just kudos to them on how theyoperationalized it.
(22:11):
Again, it was two dudes in atent at the fly behind the
Audubon Zoo doing one whole hogto raise money for Ben Sauer Jr.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
Do you have like a success story, somebody that
touched you and you becameinvolved in their healing
process or therapy?
Speaker 2 (22:30):
Not per se, I'd say you know, my most intimate
experience was that opportunitywhere I got to meet a mom and
her child.
I actually saw them at Hogsprobably two years ago and they
remembered me.
And you know now that littleboy is, you know now, like a 200
pound.
He's got to be 15, 16 years oldnow, like I'm pretty sure he
could throw me over the tent.
But you know it is seeing theparents and families who come
(22:55):
out every year, even just twohogs, and you know they won't
remember my face because I'm ina sea of guys out there.
But every one of us knows whothose you know those parents,
those patients are, you know,especially when they say like my
kid is here because of the workyou did, you know everybody
gets immediately dialed in withthat family.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
A sea of bearded fat dudes.
I would fit right in with allof that.
You said it earlier.
I need to be part of thissomehow, kurt.
I mean, that's a great question.
The fact that you know, is it aregional thing in Louisiana?
It's.
It is nationwide, and I wouldurge everyone to kind of just
jump in and help.
(23:33):
If you have the means, youshould just jump in and do it.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
Yeah, absolutely.
If anybody who isn't fortunateenough to make the trip to New
Orleans for the two-day festival, you can donate directly on
their websitehawksforthecallsorg slash donate
.
Or if you want to support usdirectly, we can go deadporkorg
slash donate.
Speaker 3 (23:50):
Now, Clint, besides the donation financially, are
you able to donate your time?
Could another chef come therefrom another region and help and
be part of the cause inphysical nature?
Speaker 2 (24:06):
A hundred percent, a hundred percent.
We have the team that was nextto us last year it was Tori
McPhail and some you know very,very good chefs.
You know James Beard awardwinning chefs who have since
moved away from New Orleans andthey come back and volunteer
their time.
So if there's anybody listeningwho would love to get down with
us, or you know any other team,reach out.
We would love to work with youguys.
Speaker 3 (24:26):
Yeah, I would love.
I would love to talk to youabout that in the future.
I, like I said, lived in NewOrleans seven times.
I have a strong tie to thecommunity and I would love to be
part of this.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
Kurt, if you're serious about going next year,
Walk Talk will sponsor you to go.
Speaker 3 (24:42):
I'd love to.
I think it would be an amazingthing to be part of interesting
and, of course, I always love tobe in that region anyway.
So, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
And you're going to be with dead pork.
Speaker 3 (24:52):
And that'd be great.
Yeah, I'd love to talk to youmore about what I can bring to
the table.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
Clint, what was the story with Taylor Swift?
Speaker 2 (24:59):
We've done the only competition barbecue menu based
on Taylor Swift in like inhistory.
It was one of those.
Again, we zig when others zag.
Taylor Swift was all the rageand you know, kind of embracing
the whole dinner party theme ofwe want to go with something
that's a little bit different.
You know we want to have like atheme and she was all the rage
(25:20):
so we decided to do dead pork.
The eras tour rebranded likeour whole thing for, you know,
the better part of a year all ofour dishes were like based on
her songs.
I am not a huge swifty, but myspotify wrapped last year would
argue otherwise just because itwas so much like r and d.
But we did all of our branding,all of our promotions, you name
(25:41):
it.
Anybody listening like go toour instagram.
One of the pin posts is themenu reveal from last year.
That probably took me athousand hours or something, but
just, you know I wanted to havefun with it and it was actually
kind of fun.
There were very few people who,like, rolled their eyes and
said, oh, but the number ofpeople who came out and
supported us and you know, likethe little friendship bracelets
(26:04):
which are a thing you know, justrandom people walking up saying
like I saw your instagram aweek ago, I bought tickets to
come to hogs so I could give youthis friendship where he said
income support you guys.
So yeah, it was, you know, aone-time thing, but I'm glad we
did it.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
Well, I'll tell you what.
I have a nine-year-old daughterand it's Taylor Swift, day and
night in my house.
It's a.
I've had enough.
Actually Listen.
Clint, I sincerely appreciateyou being on the program today.
Can you put out your Instagramagain, please?
Speaker 2 (26:36):
Yeah, instagram is at deadporkorg D-O-T-O-R-G, and
then our website is deadporkorgas well.
Speaker 1 (26:44):
Excellent and you and I are going to talk more and I
want to be involved in the wholehogs thing.
John, as always, what you didtoday with the photography, you
make Kurt look good.
I'm just saying amen to that.
But seriously, kurt man, you'realways hitting home runs here.
You know like you're this is.
This is going to be a monthlything for you.
Speaker 3 (27:01):
I'm just saying he's going to move closer, that's all
yeah, move closer to the mic.
Speaker 1 (27:05):
That's what we're saying.
That's that's what we're sayinghere the whole stinking time.
How do we find you, kurt?
Real quick.
Speaker 3 (27:12):
Don't, I don't know you guys, you messed me up.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
I'm going to put your .
I am leaving this in.
I am not cutting this out.
Kurt, You're stuck with that.
I will put in your Instagram onour site.
Hey, we are out.
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