July 25, 2024 • 62 mins
How did a viral budget challenge during COVID-19 skyrocket Cassie Sharp to social media stardom and lead to the creation of her very own cookbook? Join us on the Walk-In Talk Podcast as we sit down with this culinary dynamo to explore her incredible journey, from experimenting with non-authentic Italian dishes to mastering the art of food photography. With Jeff providing invaluable mentorship, you'll hear about summer recipes like a zesty watermelon gazpacho, a delectable open-faced chicken sandwich with smoked Gouda and pickled onions, and an innovative snapper dish with watermelon-tomato kimchi.
Cassie opens up about the emotional roller-coast of content creation, sharing insights into her perfectionist tendencies and the supportive online community that encourages her growth. We explore the nuances of creating visually enticing food content, from leveraging Pinterest for initial guidance to colla
Elevate your dining experience with RAK Porcelain USA! As the exclusive tableware brand for the Walk-In Talk Podcast, RAK combines exceptional craftsmanship with innovative design. Whether you’re a chef, a restaurant owner, or a food enthusiast, RAK’s high-quality porcelain products will enhance every meal. Discover the artistry of food presentation and make every dining occasion special. Visit rakporcelain.com today and see how RAK can transform your table
Get ready to innovate and organize your work space with Metro ! As the industry leader in storage & productivity solutions, Metro is here to transform and organize your kitchen
With their premium solutions, you'll experience the Metro difference. Metro's sturdy and versatile shelving units, workstations, holding cabinets, and utility carts are designed to streamline operations and maximize your productivity.
Don't settle for imitators! Metro products last lon
Walk-In Talk Podcast now sweetened by Noble Citrus! Bite into a Juicy Crunch tangerine, 40 years perfected; seedless and oh-so-tasty. Or savor a Starburst Pummelo, the giant citrus with a unique zing. Don't miss Autumn Honey tangerines, big and easy to peel. Noble - generations of citrus expertise, delivering exceptional flavor year-round. Taste the difference with Noble Citrus!
Here is a word about our partners:
Citrus America revolutionizes the retail and hospitality sectors with profitable solutions:
- Our juicing machines excel in taste, hygiene, and efficiency.
- Experience fresh, natural, and exciting juices as an affordable luxury.
- We promote a healthier lifestyle by making it effortless to enjoy fresh, natural ingredients.
- Join us in transforming the way people enjoy juices.
Elevate your beverage game to new heights!
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.
Our podcast offers a behind-the-scenes look at the industry. Don't miss out on upcoming episodes where we'll continue to cook up thought-provoking discussions on important topics, including mental health awareness.
Be sure to visit our website for more food industry-related content, including our very own TV show called Restaurant Recipes where we feature Chefs cooking up their dishes and also The Dirty Dash Cocktail Hour; the focus is mixology and amazing drinks!
Thank you for tuning in, and we'll catch you next time on the Walk-In Talk Podcast.
https://www.TheWalkInTalk.com
Also rate and review us on IMDb:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt27766644/reference/
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
hello food fam.
This is the walk and talkpodcast where you will find the
perfect blend of food fun andcooking knowledge.
I'm your host, carl fiordini.
Welcome to your favorite foodpodcast.
We're recording on site at ibisimages studios, where food
photography comes alive and Iget to eat it.
We've got a special guest hereat the studio today.
(00:29):
But first things first, be sureyou catch last week's episode
with Chef Brian Jacobs ofLiberty Smokehouse.
He and Chef Justin are goodpeople and their food next level
baby, all right.
Today's guest is social mediasensation Casey Sharp.
You've seen her home cookingskills on TikTok, ig and all the
rest.
She blew up during COVID withmillions, millions of followers
(00:54):
and very entertaining foodcontent.
Well, now she's got a cookbookcoming out in a couple of weeks.
We'll get into that.
Plus, cassie will be working onsome dishes alongside of
Jefferson today.
Stay tuned, cassie is on deck.
I'm into quality made smokedfish dips and spreads, and I
know you are too.
Check out our friends over atCrab Island Seafood Company.
(01:15):
One of my favorites is the CrabRangoon.
Visit them atcrabislandseafooddipcom.
And you know what?
Let me tell you something.
That Crab Rangoon is special.
I dot com, and you know what?
Let me tell you something thatcrab brown groom is special.
I actually made a pasta theother day and I put the
leftovers ahead in it.
It's really great, all right.
So, jeff, you were like the.
You played mentor today withcassie, and I just want to say,
(01:37):
obie, chef kenobi, pop theclutch and jump into pre-shift
and may the sauce be with you,baby, let's, let's roll I
appreciate that, all right.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
So we wanted to go based upon like what you were
talking about last week, when wehad the barbecue, when Brian
was on, when Justin wanted tokeep that watermelon kind of
theme going, and when you askedwhat am I going to be doing?
So I figured might as well pullsomething out.
Where it's still summer, it's95 degrees out, 95% humidity and
it's like an oven, so you'vegot to have some cold soup.
(02:07):
So we did this gazpacho, whichis like the Castilian style, but
instead of making ittomato-based, it was watermelon,
and then layered it with somemint and some sweet peppers,
cucumber, red onion and themaraschi pepper, so it had that
sweet and spicy kind of mix.
There it was cold.
Yeah, we'll get to that in aminute.
(02:29):
And then the next dish was youknow when, when you have a
roasted chicken from either youmade it yourself or you went to
the market or Costco or Sam's,what are you going to do with
the other half if you have itleft over?
So I wanted to do somethingwith a chicken sandwich.
So we did open faced a littlesmoked Gouda sourdough cause I'm
still getting, uh, trying toperfect my sourdough.
I did the sourdough smokedGouda pickled onions.
(02:51):
We had some bourbon maple syrupglazed bacon you can't go wrong
with that and then, uh, theroasted chicken on there with
the green, the micro greens.
That was pretty spectacular.
And then we had a candy pecanstoo, which I know I'm not going
to get the the little containerI brought because john's already
claimed it I think it's allgone already no, no, john's got
(03:12):
a couple.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
He's got like five left it was a full, it was a
whole full it was full, it waseight ounces and it's gone.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Yeah, I only used like less than an ounce.
And then the.
The main dish was the riff thatI kind of did when I was in one
of my restaurants.
It was a snapper withwatermelon, tomato kimchi and
that went really well and it didsome graffiti.
Eggplant roasted those off andthen, uh, did some this?
Speaker 1 (03:38):
this, his new, our new companion, is just so what
we have in the uh in studiotoday, along with cassie, is a
puppy that shall go unnamed asthere is no name yet.
That's that fresh, that new ofa puppy in house, in studio, and
he's a cutie patootie not as afruity patootie, but he's
definitely a cutie patootie yeah, well, he's definitely cuter
(04:00):
yeah, he is definitely cuter.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
No offense, sean, but he's definitely cuter than
foodie Badoody.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Yeah, sorry brother.
So put that stuff on everythingsauce that you do.
Where I am taking that quarthome, we need to put that in a
jar and we need to label it.
We need to do that.
And when you start selling itand I believe there might be
some places for this now- Well,I heard today that there was a
(04:27):
peach.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
if I'm not mistaken, john, there was a peach jam that
just came up, and now a Meyerlemon marmalade with lavender
and thyme.
That seems it needs to go in abottle too.
But that tangerine, I think, isthe first dibs, right?
Yeah, as he's shaking his head.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
yes, yeah, you got to go tangerine first, but you
know know, with something likethat.
Speaker 4 (04:49):
I feel like there should be.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
It should go out in threes.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Yeah right, I mean, that's, that's what we do here
anyhow, so it should be, shouldbe in threes yep, we got meemaw
sassy sauce, the ptsc, and thenwe can do the tangerine once
it's ready for tangerine seasonyeah, quentin, well, right from
citrus.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
I was thinking that, or you can do the peach, the
lemon and the tangerine as atrio oh, just the jam, Ah gotcha
.
As a trio.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Yeah, Well we'll have to do that next year, john,
we're getting head shake overthere.
Yeah, I'm amazed.
Yeah, seriously, I guess it'shis new companion.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Yeah, dog's good for you, bro, so all right.
So the sandwich was great.
I'm all in on the sammy yeah, Iknow you are right, and the fish
was good too, but I was reallyenamored with the sandwich, and
even more so than the sandwichwas the fact that our guest
today you know that we did thiswhole today was all different.
(05:42):
You know it was if.
For.
You know, we did this wholetoday was all different.
You know it was for good, youknow I'll I'll usher Cassie on
in a second, but but ultimatelythis is what she does.
She's not a professional cook,she's a home cook.
And today what we did was wedid a challenge, basically in
the same fashion as kind of whatshe does on on her, her
(06:05):
channels, on Tik, tok andInstagram, and we had to pick
five ingredients, you knownumbered pick out of a bowl,
random, and and luckily she hadthe bread, the chicken and then
a few other ingredients.
We'll get into it, but I wasreally more interested in that
today.
You always do great, thank you.
You always do great, thank you,always Like you're.
(06:26):
We don't give you enough.
I don't think we tell youenough how wonderful it is the
job you do here.
Thank you, the food andeverything.
Today you were a littleoutshined.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
Well, of course I'm just saying, I am just she's
used to being on camera, I think.
So yeah, well, of course I'mjust saying she's used to being
on camera.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
I think so.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
Well aren't we at this point now.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
Not as good as she is .
Speaker 3 (06:49):
Well, it's different.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
She's got that thought process that needs to go
for that social media.
She's doing well with it,obviously.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
And she'll talk about how her fans and her base is
going to look at things that shedoes, especially today, Jeff
shut up.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
All right, cassie I'm kidding Cassie welcome to the
show.
Speaker 4 (07:11):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
You're very welcome.
This has been like an odyssey,like a short adventure, and I'm
going to let you kind of frameout the last maybe 36 hours, 24
to 36 hours, right.
Speaker 4 (07:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
Go ahead and take a minute and give the airplane
view of who you are and how yougot to millions of followers on
the old TikTok and whatnot.
Yeah, and then we're going toget into your trip here and then
what we did today.
Speaker 4 (07:38):
Okay, you want me to do all of that, or you want to
start off with the.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
Airplane view.
Speaker 4 (07:44):
Airplane view Got it Okay to do all of that.
Or you want to start off withthe airplane view?
Airplane view got it okay.
So I started tiktok and socialmedia content creation back in
2020 and it's just been a wildjourney.
I didn't really know what Iwanted to do at first.
I just was kind of surroundedby the right people in the space
.
Collaboration was a hugecomponent to just taking off and
(08:08):
getting to the level that I amnow, which is I'm so grateful
for, and so I started.
I was a kinesiology major incollege and so I started trying
to incorporate what I hadlearned into content.
So I would do, you know, guess,the sugar and fitness
challenges, and it was good, butit wasn't great.
(08:28):
I wasn't super happy.
Like, long-term, if I were tolook at the picture of social
media, I would have been like Ican't see myself doing this.
For a long time.
I'd always wanted to do cookingstuff, but I didn't know how to
cook.
So that was where I was kind ofcoming from, and it was right
around the time that I movedinto my first apartment so end
(08:51):
of 2020, early 2021.
And I had kind of ventured alittle bit into the healthy
cooking scene and I was messingit all up.
I mean, like it's really hardto cook with alternative sugars.
I don't know if you guys haveever done that, maybe it's just
my lack of experience, but so Iremember one time I made a
(09:15):
brownie with alternative sugarand it was rock hard.
My friends were literallybeating it on the table and they
called it the 10 commandments.
So that was fun.
So I really went into this sceneof cooking on social media with
like a low bar of expectationand I, I joined this.
(09:36):
I moved into my first apartmentand my mom kind of was sitting
with me and I I kind of told her, like I don't really know how
to take care of myself, like Idon't know how to cook you know,
for myself, I've never reallyhad to do that before.
And so she said, well, you know, and she wanted me to budget
too.
So she, she handed me $10.
She handed me a $10 bill andshe said, all right, make dinner
(09:58):
with $10.
And so I said okay.
And I said but you know what?
We should film this.
My content creator brain, I hadalready been doing it for about
a year now, and so we filmedthe process of me making a very
non-authentic Italian meal as Iwas sharing with Carl.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
Everyone in the comments section.
They were right.
Speaker 4 (10:25):
Carl, as an Italian, was a little offended also by my
lack of understanding andknowledge of Italian cooking.
But it was a $10 challenge, itwas a budget challenge.
You know, we're just workingwith what we got my first time
cooking like ever, and it went.
It did really well.
I went to the grocery store andI I saw that like okay, it had
(10:46):
gained maybe like a few millionovernight.
It was great.
And then I was seeing like, oh,every hour it was gaining a few
million and it was just likesnowballing.
It was, I mean, truly anincredible experience and that
was when I realized I could dothis, I could make content about
learning how to cook.
So that's kind of where Ipresent myself to you guys today
(11:07):
, as a wannabe chef, a home chef, a self-taught chef and I use
the word chef lightly, but I'mhappy to be here and I'm just
happy to get any opportunity tolearn happy to get any
(11:29):
opportunity to learn.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
So you, jeff, today, and I saw a difference in his
personality, like his approach,like just his presence was
different.
Today he did put on his mentorhat, right, yeah, choke, if you
will, jeffrey, but but so Inoticed that and I saw how you
gravitated to that really welland I can see there might be and
(11:51):
I'm just going to dangle it outthere there may be some future
content.
Speaker 4 (11:55):
Could be.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
With this right Because you were.
You seem very eager to learnand, of course, jeff is more
than happy to hear himself talk.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Okay, no, I'm kidding , so I noticed that.
Speaker 4 (12:04):
Yes, I'm kidding.
I noticed that.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Yes, I'm not going to .
I learned from the best.
He's sitting right across fromme.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
Right, john, just went.
True story.
We do a talk show.
This is what we do.
Speaker 4 (12:16):
It is walk in talk.
Yes, Indeed.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
So walk us through today.
Walk us through the fact thatyou learned some, and by the way
you executed, you know Jefftaught you a chiffon.
Cut on the, on the, on the mint, and Jeff walks away for like
10 minutes and she decides tolike hey.
I'm going to do it.
I thought her fingers were allcoming off.
(12:42):
I honest to God, I was like myhead was tilted to the side as
I'm watching and I was likeholding my chin and I was like
oh my goodness.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
Hey watch the fingers , watch the fingers and.
But she, she did a great, shedid a great job.
When you came out, it was done.
Yeah, I'm going to, I'm goingto let you a little secret too,
when somebody says, watch yourfingers, put the knife down.
No.
So one of the biggest thingswhen I was going and going
through my apprenticeship andgoing through the ranks of being
becoming a chef and just beinga cook.
I'd worked in this one place, atbiscayne wine mart mart market.
It was on 125th and stefan wasthe chef and teddy falco learned
(13:18):
from him.
So teddy was one of my mentorsand I learned from him.
One of the things that his wifewould always do is like watch
your fingers.
As soon as she walked away, Icut myself because she implanted
in my brain watch your fingers.
So I learned every time sincethen when somebody says be
careful when you cut.
And now I just put my knifedown and I walk away just a
split second, maybe grab a drinkof water, but as soon as you
(13:40):
put that thought in your mind,guess what's going to happen?
You're going to cut yourselfyeah, put the knife down.
Speaker 4 (13:44):
I've just learned to tune it out smart, smart.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
I mean I just I saw the tip of that finger boy and
it was just so close to that.
I'm just like, oh my goodnesswhat did I tell her?
Speaker 4 (13:55):
I said the way you're going to learn is after the
fifth or sixth time you getstitches you'll be fine I
haven't had to have stitches yet, but I I have cut myself a few
times.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
Knock on wood, not too hard though.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
So walk us through how you decided that you took
over production today.
I have.
Speaker 4 (14:14):
This is my studio now .
Speaker 1 (14:16):
This is my house, no, but go ahead, walk us through.
I want to hear you talk aboutthe experience of you know, not
that this is a professionalkitchen, because it isn't, you
know, but Jeff brings thatelement into what we're doing.
Right, let's get into that alittle bit, because I know that
you, the whole day today youwere like I saw your eyeballs
(14:39):
were huge and it seemed like youwere absorbing so much.
Talk about that experience.
Speaker 4 (14:43):
Yeah, I mean I am so excited to be in a room filled
with people who are aspassionate about cooking and
food as I am, or more, you knowI'm, I don't know, but I do know
that I, I was so entertained bythe food photography component
(15:07):
of all of this, because it'sbeen something, you know, I and
I know we're going to talk aboutthis a little later but just in
producing my cookbook, whichwas a very do it yourself
process, everything was, I mean,except for the binding and
printing of the book, it was medoing the work.
I mean, I, I was directing thephotographer.
(15:28):
I don't think that thephotographer that I used to take
the pictures for my cookbookhad ever really had that much
experience with photographingfood.
So, you know, I was just goingoff of Pinterest pictures.
You know I had like aPowerPoint presentation of like
every dish that it was going tobe in my cookbook, in the order
(15:49):
that I wanted to photograph them, and kind of some reference
images, and then I just kind oflet him do his thing.
He, he did.
You know he knows how to doobject photography or and he did
, he did a good job.
But then I see the process thatyou guys go through and I am
flabbergasted.
I mean, it was truly incredibleto watch.
(16:12):
I'm inspired and I think it'sso important as somebody in this
space to surround yourself withpeople that inspire you.
I want to go home and make somechanges because if you look at
my social media account, you'llsee a bunch of thumbnails of
people that I've met, of youknow me maybe you know in the
(16:35):
middle of cooking and maybethere's text on the screen and
that's.
You know my entire Instagramhomepage.
You know it's my, my profile,so there's not a lot of food in
the food influencers.
You know social media profile.
So I'm looking at this and I'mlike I want to absorb as much of
(16:58):
this as I can.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
Yeah, but wouldn't you say that it's you and your
personality, right, how youapproach the food?
Almost in your case, I feellike the food is secondary, even
though for you the passion isin you, it's number one.
But it's, it's your, it is yourpassion in your physical
mannerisms.
I think that bring, bring inyour audience.
Speaker 4 (17:23):
Yeah, I would.
I would say that, yes, but sothe my struggle is that every
single image on my social mediaprofile looks the same.
So that's where, cause, youknow, my, my main style of
content is cooking with fiverandom ingredients.
So I have a bunch of randomingredients cards and I fan them
(17:43):
out like a deck of cards, youknow, and I'm holding them and
I'm picking an ingredient fromthat.
So every single, and then, andthen, you know, in my video
it'll show up on screen thistext that says five random
ingredients.
So every single beginning, youknow, thumbnail, is five random
ingredients text on screen, withme picking a card.
So it all looks kind of likeit's the same video and I would
(18:06):
love some variety in that sense.
So that's where it ischallenging, because, yes, my
audience wants to see me, butthey also are interested in what
I'm making, and so there'sthere's I guess it's a it's a
tough line to walk, cause I Ithink it's good to showcase what
you made and like today, youknow, and I'm sure we're going
(18:27):
to get into this too but I madesomething in the kitchen and and
I think if I had been in myhouse I would have not been very
impressed with the picturesthat I would have taken of it.
But we took it into the studioand John worked his magic and it
looked like it had been made bylike a Michelin chef.
(18:47):
You know, and I'll take creditfor that.
You know, I will take on be theMichelin chef, you know.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
You're a Michelin chef.
You're a Michel, you know,you're a Michelin chef.
Speaker 4 (18:58):
And you're a.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
Michelin chef and you're a Michelin chef.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
Yes, exactly, michael Kalantis just dropped dead,
yeah.
Speaker 4 (19:06):
So I mean it was truly incredible watching just
the process.
And, oh my gosh, john hasshelves of plates and bowls and
cups, and-.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
Forks, knives, spoons and placemats.
Speaker 4 (19:22):
You would have never.
I've never seen so manydifferent placemats in my entire
life.
And he's saying, oh yeah, likea lot of them he's gotten
thrifting and at you know someother stores and it's nice to
see that, like I could do that.
It's not like he's going tosome you know photographer, only
(19:43):
you know store Like it's it'ssomething that anybody can do.
So your job is somethinganybody can do, John.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
What it comes down to is is learn, and I'm talking
for him because he's playingwith the dog.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
But he doesn't talk either, but he doesn't talk.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
anyway.
It's a 30-year-plus, you know,odyssey into film, right
Photography, stills and all ofthe learning about not just
equipment, not just lighting,not just you know how colors
work and don't work together,all of all of the details in it.
(20:21):
Plus you have to be creative youknow, and and I think that's
where a lot of people maybe missthe mark because the creativity
levels the factor.
You know, you see a lot ofpeople's stuff online and, yeah,
we're all kind of working,we're all taking a picture of
the same dish, basically right,but everybody's stuff is very
(20:43):
mechanical, it's very just.
It's there but there isn't anydepth or layers.
And you know, thank goodnessthat our iphones and android
phones have, you know, know,filters, and you know, because
if they didn't, we'd all bescrewed Right.
Speaker 4 (20:58):
Right, right.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
Actual photographers do it a whole different way and
you know we're blessed to have,you know, this guy with us
because he takes you know, thecrappy food that Jeffrey makes
and you know he takes you, hetakes your beautiful dishes and
then it's enhanced times athousand.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
Listen, every time I see the first shot.
Even when he took the pictureof the sandwich my sandwich, not
her sandwich Oops, when youlooked at it I don't know how
many feet away from it I'm likethat's just gorgeous.
And you were like how can youmake any detail?
It's not the detail, it's justeverything he does.
And every time somebody comesin here, my first thing that I
(21:37):
tell chefs is like by the way,it's probably going to be your
one dish is going to an hour andthey're like what?
I'm like it's an hour becausethere's x amount of shots that
he takes just to build the, thefront, the reference, and then
he'll add stuff.
Like we were talking about thecompartment plate that you guys
will see when we do this onewith the fish.
It had like a three compartmentplate to it and he started
(21:58):
putting stuff around it to forthe ancillary items, like he
normally does, and he's like no,this is we have.
We have structured chaos on theplate.
Then we're going to do chaos,chaos around now.
This is not going to look good.
And he scrapped it and startedtaking pictures.
So it's not just.
You know, anybody can do it.
It's a lifetime of like a chef,we were saying to me he's like
you know the science behind it.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
Well.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
I didn't.
I learned the science behind itbecause I was always the one
that was asking the questionswhy?
Speaker 1 (22:26):
To kind of circle back on what you said, cassie
yes, you can learn to do it bydoing it, you know, and having
your successes and failures, andnot to beat yourself up on the
things that you don't, that youdon't appreciate.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
It's not failure.
It's first time in attempt andlearning, yeah, but it's our
perceived it's our perceivedfailure.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
It isn't that it is a failure, it's our perception of
what it is.
So if and what I mean by, justto be clear, you know, if, if I
went to go do a photo shoot,right, and I execute the photo
shoot and I look at it and I'mlike, oh, that's absolutely
terrible.
No, you would oversaturate.
Yeah Well, I would, definitelyI would look at it.
Yeah, I got to do your highfive, I would, I would.
(23:06):
I would look at that and gothis is a failure, but this is
going to propel me to do better,right.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
But what I'm saying is that most of the time, like
we're, we're talking aboutsourdough and I brought my
failure and one of them that wasdone better.
Speaker 3 (23:20):
And I did a presentation.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
one time we were doing something here and I went
back and I did the failure again, but it wasn't about my bread.
I can remember it's on my, onmy social, and I think you, you
and I had talked about it.
I think if we show theimperfections or what we didn't
do, that didn't turn out the waywe we wanted it, then people
were like, oh, I see what he didwrong or I understand now, like
I didn't.
I didn't grasp the concept ofher, her, spaghetti, her her
(23:46):
noodles her noodle dish that shedid God, and that's what.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
that's what the cringe part was.
It's noodles Is.
That's what made it cringe.
Yeah, Not much anything elseelse.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
but you know, maybe if you said macaroni you've been
better you'd have been fine,that you would have been
embraced, all right.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
But here's the thing but it's because she called it a
noodle dish and everybody wasjust on fire in a negative like
they.
They lit her up, like you knowwell, what's your thousand?
Speaker 2 (24:10):
comments torches and pitchforks.
What's the difference between anoodle and what is the what's?
Speaker 1 (24:14):
here.
No, no, hold on, let me look atthe point torches and
pitchforks, but that it justenraged the algorithm and it and
it just and shot it up.
A minute ago you said, hey, uh,you know I made a mistake.
I brought the mistake onshowing the error and we don't
really do that on the show.
Here we.
(24:34):
We put out a very polishedproduct.
Oh, you should have taken apicture of the coconut cream.
Yeah, I know, I was gonna bringthat showing the error and we
don't really do that on the show.
Here we put out a very polishedproduct.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
Oh, he should have taken a picture of the coconut
cream.
Speaker 4 (24:38):
Yeah, I know I was going to bring that up.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
But listen, I'm the first one.
When I mess something up, I'mthe first one to say it.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
And you're the first person to throw it away real
quick.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
Well, it was disgusting, I got to chime in
here.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
Uh-oh, whoa, he's actually talking.
You might want to introduceyourself.
What's your name again?
So here's the thing.
Speaker 4 (24:57):
Non-talking John.
Speaker 3 (24:59):
And I'm sure Jeff can attest to this.
Anytime you have somebody whosays to you, wow, that looks so
easy, you know immediately thatyou're doing it good.
So if somebody who hasn't doneit sees it and it looks easy to
them, that's just a testament towhat you're doing.
Brilliantly said yeah.
(25:19):
Yeah, that's it.
That's all I got.
Is that it Really no thanks?
Speaker 1 (25:24):
He comes in, drops a sage bomb and then he splits
Unbelievable.
But yeah, I mean, I think whatmy opinion on how you execute is
it's showing You're showingeverything you know, from start
to finish good, bad, the ugly,whatever.
Like you're you're, you'reputting it all out there and,
(25:44):
you know, maybe we need to startdoing that a little bit.
Speaker 4 (25:45):
Well, that's what I was.
I was telling Jeff that youknow, in terms of that coconut
cream, can we talk about thatfor a minute, Okay, so?
Speaker 2 (25:53):
I don't mind, it was a new experience.
Speaker 4 (25:55):
Listen, I think there is something to be said.
I was I was mentioning earliercooking with alternative sugars,
but I mean alternative milkstoo, you know like, and creams,
like it's tough, and so withcoconut cream, you know he had
mentioned this idea.
Do you want to say what it wasgoing to be?
Speaker 2 (26:11):
Yeah, so I was going to do a gazpacho and I wanted.
I bought a coconut milk creamso for whipping and I thought,
oh, this would be perfect.
I have lemongrass growingoutside of marasaki and I had
mint, so let's go ahead and makea infusion of it so I can
dollop on top.
Got it, brought it over here,went to go mix it up.
It started to thicken and thenit curdled it, it split, and I
(26:35):
even said it just before.
I'm like, oh, I wonder if thiscan be over whipped.
Guess what?
Everyone?
It can be over whipped.
Speaker 4 (26:42):
I saw it.
When it looked good to be fair,I did.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
Went just went over the line because I didn't think
it was thick enough.
Speaker 4 (26:48):
And it I mean it was out on the counter for no more
than 30 seconds before it wasdown the drain, you know the
counter for no more than 30seconds before it was down the
drain, you know.
And then I mean it's anunfortunate part of recipe
creation, as something that I'velearned is that you make
mistakes and you're like well,can't put that in my cookbook,
you know, can't put that on myblog, and I just I think the
(27:10):
world needs to see that, becauseI think everybody just assumes
that these chefs and you know,anybody who makes even cooking
content online is just perfect.
Every time, you know, they getA pluses across the board.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
Are you inadvertently saving the world?
I mean, ultimately speaking,you look at social media.
There's so many positives withsocial media, but then there's
the negatives, you know, andthere's no shortage of those
either.
There's the negatives, you know, and there's no shortage of
those either.
In the end, though, you'retalking about, you're talking
about just everybody'sperception of perfection and how
everybody puts perfection.
(27:48):
You know, even though they live, you know their home life is a
dumpster fire, or you knowthere's nothing good in their
life but, man, they didn't knowhow to put out some really
pretty content that proves, ortries to prove, differently than
what's actually happening.
Yeah, and Cassie says no, no,no, no, no, I I'm going to put
(28:08):
it all out there.
So you're right.
So anyway, you said a secondago, like hey you know what?
I learned some stuff.
I want to bring it back to the,you know, bring it back home, I
think.
I think you left some stuffhere too that we might look at
internally to.
You know, maybe not emulate buttake from, and yeah, it's, it's
a passion of mine, actuallyshowing cause.
Speaker 4 (28:28):
I've struggled, I've battled with perfectionism.
If you read the introduction tomy cookbook, I talk about that.
I talk about how I reallystruggle with perfectionism and
I want it to be perfect everysingle time.
And I was noticing when I wasstarting to cook, you know, even
with the healthy cooking stuffand I would make this, you know
(28:51):
the 10 commandments um, browniesor whatever I, you know, my
friends are all laughing aboutit I'm like dying inside because
I'm like I just want to be goodat this and I can't, and I
don't know why I suck, you know,but this is going to sound off
topic, but I used to.
I used to do ballet and, um, Iused to be a dancer and
something that one of my danceteachers said to me one time was
(29:14):
the more that you are messingup, the more you're criticizing
yourself and the worse you'regoing to perform.
So if you hyper fixate on thefailures or the mistakes, then
you're going to get in your ownhead.
It's kind of like what you weresaying, right, if somebody
tells you to watch your fingersput the knife down, walk away,
(29:38):
because you are going to get inyour own head, and so for me, it
was turning off that part of mybrain that needed it to be
perfect and saying I want toshare the story with these
people and show them that theycan do it too, because I
(30:01):
represent the.
I am the social mediarepresentation of the average
Joe learning how to cook, and soand that's a joy for me and
I've had such a great timeshowcasing my learnings to these
people and I get peoplecommenting on my posts wow, I
(30:23):
really learned something fromthis.
Thank you so much for sharingthat.
Or people will comment and sayhey, I noticed that you did it
this way.
Try this instead.
You know, like one thing that Isaw was hey, you should freeze
your tomatoes so that you canpeel.
The peels will come off easier,or stuff like that, and I don't
know.
I just cringed, but it's, it'speople.
(30:45):
I've created, a community thatwants to share advice and wants
to learn advice.
Speaker 1 (30:51):
And you decide that if you boil them, they you know,
like if you cook them, they youknow, you put them in there.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
one you're talking about is tomato concasse.
So you make an incision on thebottom, you take the top off the
core where it connects, andthen you just drop them in for
30 seconds and they shock themyeah.
And then you just peel them off.
Yeah, they split and you pullthem off.
Speaker 4 (31:08):
I don't know what he just said, but I like it Sounded
good.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
I have some other points here that I would.
But I'm you.
You brought some things uptoday that I feel are in our
industry and our space.
As you said, it's profound, youknow it is, it really is
because at the end of it, youknow we're here, you get
(31:32):
comments galore and, and youknow we can all look at our
social media or go or look inthe comment sections of other
socials and everything, and yousee how the first thing people
want to do is scorch you.
That's the first thing theywant to do.
They want to tear you apart.
I never want that, I don't everwant that, and and so what we
(31:54):
put out and you can, there'splenty of what we do that you
can rip apart, but I don't, youknow, I feel like maybe it's
time for us to just show thewhole picture of it versus,
versus our little bouquet thatwe put out like the perfect
bouquet with you know that weaim to be perfect, not that we
are, I'm not saying that, butyou understand what I mean.
(32:15):
Maybe, maybe that's something,because you know, comment we, we
get a lot of likes and there'sa lot of back chatter in our
circle.
You know we get, you know,between john and jeff and myself
, a few others who were part ofthis thing.
There's a lot of side chats andit doesn't happen on on the
social, which is crazy to me,but maybe we need to give them
(32:38):
something to rip us apart, orsomething.
Speaker 2 (32:40):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (32:40):
Like I don't know how to, I don't know how to express
it.
It's different.
Speaker 2 (32:42):
So when we're posted, we're posting pictures or we're
posting about the podcastitself.
We're not talking about thebehind the scenes, we're not
talking about the coconut creambeing curdled or something like
that.
What I wanted to do say is likefor, for, for instance, being a
social influencer as a chef,and I'm going to talk to, I'm
going to talk for, a lot of thechefs out there and we talked
about it briefly when we wereconversing, when you were on
(33:04):
your way from texas to come intothe studio being a chef.
We hear social influencers,especially when they're dealing
with food.
They don't usually have the,the cred, the credibility, and
we kind of chefs in our ownright have the ego and we're
very whether it be jealous,envious or whatever it is.
We want things to be put outthere and emulate what's going
on in the in the actual industry.
(33:25):
There's one guy I follow, youngguy, and we've talked about him
and I don't remember his name.
He does a great job cleaning.
He does, you know, things outof off the cuff and beautiful
presentations and he gets doneand I go now do it 200 times on
a Saturday night.
That's where we kind of go in,but one of the things that you
emulate, that I find, and thatif any chef were to call me and
(33:46):
be like, how did you have thesocial influence?
I'm going to put this right outthere.
You have passion.
Passion cannot be taught.
If you were to come in myrestaurant, you said, hey, I
want to get a job and you havethat passion that you do when
you're producing and doing yourcontent and the passion you had
in here to learn.
You're hired.
So any chef that looks at themand says to an influencer that
(34:09):
doesn't have the passion, yeah,you have a right to then go
after that person.
But for someone that you get toknow, then you see they have
this passion and we're alwaystalking about it can't be taught
.
Then leave you alone.
Do your content, do the averageJoe content.
Be who you are and show who youare.
Congratulations, I mean, you'vedone something.
You've found the right mix andthe right seasoning and the
(34:30):
right dash of this and thesprinkle of that to be who you
are today.
Kudos, kudos.
Speaker 4 (34:35):
Thank you, oh kudos, thank you, oh my gosh, I'm like
tearing up.
Speaker 2 (34:39):
Don't, because here's the thing.
When I heard that you weregoing to be coming on, I'm like
what does she have to offer?
And this is honest to God.
I'm not.
I'm not a little pissed withhim when he cause.
Speaker 1 (34:48):
He was questioning.
So there's not again.
I'm not a photographer, right?
Nor are you a chef, chef, I'mcertainly not a chef he is a
master judge I am, I can eat, um, you know, but I I my, what I
feel I bring to the table is,you know, the vehicle.
I, I really put together thevehicle of this thing.
So when I, when I see somebodylike you actually reached out to
(35:10):
us, you know which was reallyawesome, by the way, thank you
and I was, and I was like a richbecause I get people always
send me notes, hey, I'll, I'lllet it be on there and I usually
dismiss them honestly.
But I looked into what you weredoing and I remembered you,
actually from a few years ago.
I mean, I've seen your, yourcontent before and I was like,
oh, this is actually pretty cool.
And I'm like, man, she's, she'sgot healthy.
(35:31):
You know, 13 million plus on onTik TOK and on another 180,
whatever it is a couple hundredthousand on Instagram.
And I'm like, wow, that'spretty great and I'm already
seeing, I look forward, you know.
So I, I look at what you haveto offer and I'm already piecing
together like, okay, we can dothis, we can do this, we can do
this, we can do this on aforward motion, not just for
(35:53):
this episode, like what we cando going forward.
So then I get excited.
Speaker 2 (35:57):
So I'll call John or I'll call you know, Jeff, I'll
be the last one and it dependsDebbie Downer.
Speaker 1 (36:03):
Sometimes no.
Speaker 2 (36:04):
If he doesn't answer the phone, he calls me.
Speaker 1 (36:06):
It's random and I do that to both of you, but here's
the thing he sends.
He's like and actually I talkedto him about it I was like you
believe this shit.
I was like, excuse the language.
I was like you believe this.
I was like she has a lot ofpassion.
She really loves with thisstuff.
I think she's going to be greaton the show.
Well, what does she have tooffer?
(36:27):
No man, no, no, no, no, no, no,no.
Just tons to offer.
But he didn't know.
Look you up first.
Even when I sent the linkactually I did, did you?
Speaker 2 (36:35):
yeah, I, I actually looked you dirty, I saw it, and
my question was what does shehave to?
Again, we're talking about herface value.
So now, what do you think?
I already told you.
Say it again when somebody hasthe passion that she does, then
leave her alone and let her dowhat she needs to do.
That's awesome.
And listen, I'm.
I'm the first one to say I waswrong.
I judged the book before it'scut by, that's covered, without
(36:58):
even turning the page thecookbook the cover man but
here's the thing we there's acertain she was on the food
network and she has her own tvshow that we do not like as
chefs.
We, yeah and when you seesomebody come out like that and
they say certain things that arewrong, you cringe and you just
go what the?
(37:19):
Because they don't, they don'temulate what we do as a
profession and that's what weget upset about, because our
profession we have, like youknow, we have certain things
that we go through.
There's a lot of turmoil.
We, we are perfectionists, sowe have to get that out of our
head.
And I tell my daughter andhere's for anybody out there you
(37:41):
have to look at yourself asbeing the biggest cheerleader
for yourself, because you have13,000 comments and half of them
are battering you because youdidn't do something right.
If you're going to go throughlife that way, then you're just
going to be sitting in a fetalposition.
You have to be that protector,your biggest cheerleader, going
forward, because that's the onlyperson you have.
It's you, and you have to bethat way and you can meet people
(38:04):
that are going to support youand mentor you to be better, but
you have to be that person thatgoes out to seek that.
Speaker 1 (38:11):
And that's the biggest thing.
I commend you, jeffrey, rightnow for this last piece that
you're talking about.
That was probably on this.
Out of 115 episodes, that wasprobably your most profound
statement.
Really, that's tremendous.
Thank God it was recorded.
Oh wait, we're not recording.
Speaker 3 (38:29):
I knew somebody was going to make that joke.
Psych, psych, all right.
Speaker 1 (38:34):
How has social media changed your life?
Speaker 4 (38:37):
Wow, that is a loaded question.
I think wow, I think just justoff the top of my head.
I mean it's taken me places andgiven me opportunities that I
thought I would never have.
Like who would have thoughtthat I would fly halfway across
(38:57):
the country to be on the numberone food podcast in America and
be sitting here with you guysand a almost Michelin star chef?
Speaker 2 (39:10):
That's her talk, not mine, not mine.
I want to go on record.
Speaker 1 (39:13):
Not mine, Everybody.
Look under your seat and grabyour star.
You know it's been incredible.
Speaker 4 (39:16):
I want to go on record, not mine.
Everybody, look under your seatand grab your start.
You're a visionary.
You're a visionary.
You know.
It's been incredible and I'velearned so much just by putting
my story out there.
So I think, like immediately,that would be my initial
response.
But I mean on top of that.
I mean I went from barelyknowing how to take care of
(39:37):
myself in 2021, the beginning ofthat not knowing how to cook at
all.
Sharing my journey and throughsponsorships and being a content
(40:00):
creator, I've been able tobuild a life for myself through
the support of my incrediblefollowing.
That has allowed me to buy myfirst home at the age of 23.
And I have a dog and anincredible community of people.
And I moved, you know, acrossthe country to to live in a
different state that I'd alwayswanted to kind of live in or,
you know, like I'd always wantedto move and experience a new
place.
Speaker 1 (40:17):
I mean you went from California to Texas.
I was avoiding that detail?
Speaker 4 (40:21):
Oh no, it's okay.
No, the only reason was becausethey don't like the
Californians.
Speaker 1 (40:27):
Yeah, but you don't seem like a typical.
I mean, you said you were fromSouthern California, right?
Speaker 2 (40:31):
Mm-hmm, yeah, that's like a different country.
It that's like a differentcountry.
It's a different yes.
But she already said y'all onthe phone the other night I did.
She said y'all, I embraced it.
Speaker 4 (40:39):
The minute I knew I was moving to Texas, I started
saying y'all to an annoyingdegree but yeah, no, and it's
been quite a journey for sure,but I'm happy to be here and
it's been just the mostincredible opportunities have
come from just sharing my story.
Speaker 1 (40:58):
Where do you find your creativity?
You do a lot of content.
Speaker 4 (41:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (41:02):
Right.
Speaker 4 (41:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (41:03):
And to do a lot of content, you have to have yeah,
okay, you could say I don't wantto hear passion.
We already know that it takes alot of energy to do content and
you know people who are not inthis space do not understand the
level of patience and know thispodcast.
Speaker 4 (41:22):
I was saying it's so important to be surrounded by
people that inspire you and, andso I'm here with you guys,
(41:48):
right, and I'm feeling inspired.
You were saying you notice kindof like a spark in me and then
it we feed off of each other,right, like Jeff and I were
feeding off of each other.
He was being his creative self,I was being my creative self.
There's a spark there, you know, and so I would say community,
when I've been by myself andwhen I've been, you know, when I
(42:09):
first moved to Texas and I waskind of trying to find my new
community, I actually startedsurrounding myself with people
who hated social media, likedidn't like, like they would
make fun of my like Cassie danceand like tease me for it.
But I think that it wasactually like rooted in
something, like they did notlike it, and I felt embarrassed
and so I I stopped makingcontent for a year because I was
(42:33):
like, oh, like, no, it's kindof weird, maybe it's kind of
over with and done with.
And you know I wouldn't saythat that was the only reason.
You know there were, there wereseveral reasons going into me
kind of pausing on that and kindof pursuing a more of a
corporate route of social media,kind of trying to understand
the other side of it.
But you know, coming back intothis, I I experienced some
(42:55):
turmoil in my in my life, myday-to-day life, and kind of
found myself with a lot of timeon my hands.
And you know, I'm with thisincredible guy who was like you
should go for this, like youshould go back to this, like try
it.
And he pushed me and he setaside so much time to help me
(43:17):
prep everything, like so hecould do all the behind the
scenes work so that when I wascooking I wouldn't have to worry
about cleaning up, I wouldn'thave to worry about putting
everything in the like littlejars and you know everything,
because with cooking content youhave to be really careful about
the way that you show yourselfpouring the ingredients and like
(43:38):
, yes, you could use a measuringspoon, but like that's not as
appealing or attractive, youwant to use like a glass bowl or
like a jar, you know.
And so he was, he was doing allthat stuff for me and having
that encouragement and thenseeing, like, when my cookbook
came out and everybody at mychurch came up to me and they
were like, hey, congratulationson the cookbook.
(43:58):
You know like people are aroundme, are encouraging me to pursue
my dreams, and I'm seeing it asa possibility now, and so short
answer is passion.
But what's what's the passionrooted in?
It's your community, it's thepeople who are surrounding you
and encouraging you.
You know, cause if you're doingit by yourself, you can.
(44:18):
You can be a one man show, butyou might've even noticed the
content that I was making lastyear.
The spark wasn't in my eyes,cause I was doing it but I
wasn't being supported.
You know, now the spark is backand I'm surrounded by the right
people and the energy is thereand it's great.
Speaker 2 (44:37):
I just want to go on record to say one thing I was
amazed that you pick five.
When you mean five, you meanfive.
Speaker 4 (44:44):
Yes, I do.
Speaker 2 (44:46):
So I want to make clear that when I said to her so
no salt, no pepper, nope, ifit's the five ingredients,
that's the five ingredients andthat's what you make.
Speaker 1 (44:56):
Frame out what we did today which part the that part
all right.
Speaker 2 (45:01):
So we had all of the ingredients.
The menu that I did today.
I brought raw ingredient andmore for cassie to pick up.
Whatever like we're gonna do,kind of the what she does in her
content.
Now we we had 18,.
Someone said 20, 20, there were20, but there are 18 because we
ate two or somebody ate two.
(45:23):
And then she picked out, justironically enough.
I'm like, oh, you know, it'd begreat if you got the sandwich,
because we did the sandwich.
First one was like lemonmarmalade.
The second one was chicken.
The third one was like, oh myGod, this is going great, micro
greens.
And the other one's like, oh mygod she's if she gets the bread
.
I'm like, oh, wow, she's goteverything.
So then I go so, can you addcheese?
(45:45):
Can you add the bacon?
Nope, I'm like, oh.
And then you got pickled onions.
I'm like, wow, this is um.
And then, you know, you twotalked and we're like, hey, well
, I'm gonna take the picklejuice, put.
Well, I'm going to take thepickle juice, put it in the
chicken.
I'm like, well, the picklejuice is going to work, the
lemon is going to really work.
Yeah, this is going to reallywork.
In my head of going through theflavor profiles and you did
(46:05):
your little dance.
Speaker 1 (46:09):
And Carl is going to come up with his own.
And she also did the right cutstoo.
Yes, she did With the big chefknife.
Speaker 4 (46:19):
I did too.
Yes, she did with the big chefknife.
Speaker 1 (46:20):
I did, and without like the supervision of the
person who taught me.
Speaker 4 (46:22):
Yeah, he turned his back.
Yeah, he said no, I had to goto the restroom, he's he's like
he kicked you out of the nest.
Speaker 1 (46:26):
He's like no, you're on your own.
Speaker 4 (46:28):
Yeah that was fast yeah, we do that.
Speaker 2 (46:30):
We do that.
Speaker 4 (46:30):
It's quick turnaround kick it to the curb yeah how
was your experience todayworking alongside of?
Speaker 1 (46:39):
I want to.
You know, I don't want to say amichelin, but I want to say
like a me chilling, like youchilling, like it's a me
chilling chef how about that?
Speaker 4 (46:47):
I like that yeah I like that you can create merch
for that me, chilling, me,chilling.
Speaker 1 (46:51):
You're a michelin star.
We better, actually better.
I know I just came up with that.
Now we better copyright it.
We better get on that now, Iclaim that today and no one else
can have it.
Speaker 4 (47:02):
Say your name.
Say your name.
Speaker 1 (47:03):
Carl Fiatini.
Speaker 4 (47:06):
Yeah, I would say that my experience today.
Speaker 1 (47:10):
July 25th, I'm just saying 2024.
Speaker 4 (47:15):
I was so confused.
I was like there's a date now.
I was already welcome.
I was like there's a date nowwith okay.
Speaker 3 (47:19):
Welcome to our hell.
Speaker 4 (47:23):
What was the question ?
Again, experience today.
My experience was, I mean itwas amazing.
I had so much fun, um, justbeing surrounded by creative
people.
You know, you guys were socreative with me and we all fed
each other creatively and indifferent ways.
I mean Jeff was creativelyinspiring me with what to cook
(47:44):
and you were creativelyinspiring me with the kind of
video to make.
Carl and John was creativelyinspiring me in the kind of
images that we could take withthis.
So I mean the takeaway today islike it's dense.
There is a dense takeaway today.
Speaker 1 (48:00):
I'm saying jeff's dance.
Speaker 4 (48:01):
Yes, yes, I am okay yes, yes, just jeff was the it
that I was referring to that'susually how I just pretty much I
love your brother.
Speaker 1 (48:10):
I'm only kidding, all right.
So with all this food talk andyou know we're all making this
food content and differentcapacities or whatever, what are
you eating at home Craft macand cheese.
Speaker 4 (48:22):
I knew it no, but for real.
Speaker 2 (48:24):
My daughter loves you already.
Speaker 4 (48:27):
No, it's, it's funny.
I will cook for myself and Itry to make content surrounding
what I, what I'll cook formyself, because, again, I mean,
that's how I got started.
You know, it's like filmingwhat I'm cooking for myself for
the week and then I can.
I can eat the same thing forlunch and dinner every single
day.
I have an Eggo waffle everymorning for breakfast and that
is.
I love that.
(48:48):
I actually, for the 4th of July, I made like a strawberry
reduction sauce syrup.
I know right Sounds classy.
I was very classy and I was veryproud of myself.
So I was, I was putting that onmy waffles in the mornings and
it was delicious.
But yeah, I would say, you know, usually I just started the
(49:11):
series called meal prep Mondayand so I made like homemade
fettuccine Alfredo down to likethe actual making the pasta, the
macaroni, and I, um, and I madethe cheese sauce, and you know
all of that, and then I just atethat every day.
And then I made, you know, achicken noodle soup.
So then you know, noodle okaywell
Speaker 3 (49:29):
she made chicken noodle, chicken pasta soup.
Speaker 2 (49:30):
I'm sorry, no, no, no , that's that's where I was
gonna go with it.
That's where when you saynoodle, noodle has the
connotation of being like ramennoodle, Asian inspired Right
Asian Cause.
That's where, actually, that'swhere it actually started from
Right China with the exportationor the with with the Italy, not
Marco Polo, because everyonefound out it's not Marco Polo
who bought pasta back but it wassomebody else that brought it
(49:58):
back and introduce it to theItalians.
Speaker 1 (49:59):
That's where it comes from.
It was Gino, yeah.
So listen, what I was thinkingis I think it was Tony.
Might have been.
Might have been Gino Could havebeen.
What I was thinking is that youknow you're probably like binge
bagging, mcdonald's orsomething like that, but no,
you're actually cooking.
You're cooking.
Speaker 4 (50:13):
Yeah, I definitely do not eat much McDonald's.
If I go to fast food it'sChick-fil-A, but I live in a
small town so we don't have verymany options.
So you know, I could I havelike four restaurants that I
could go to like fast food andnone of them are McDonald's,
surprisingly.
Speaker 1 (50:32):
Well, I mean, it didn't have to be the actual
Whataburger and Outburger.
Speaker 4 (50:35):
There's Whataburger.
I mean it didn't have to be theactual Whataburger and
Outburger.
There's Whataburger.
I know which I'm not going tosay that I'm a little upset.
Speaker 1 (50:39):
A few weeks ago we went to, I went out to Oklahoma
and to Kansas and they werethere and I'd never had that and
I was like, oh man, I want tostop, we couldn't, didn't have
the time.
Speaker 2 (50:50):
Did you not eat enough meat?
Speaker 1 (50:51):
You needed more meat.
When I got home, I actuallycooked.
Speaker 2 (50:54):
He gained six pounds on that trip.
It was like three days.
Speaker 1 (50:58):
Yeah, true story, true story, but I eat meat.
I'm a meat eater.
That's what I do.
I don't.
What's your end?
Speaker 2 (51:05):
game, Like what you said dreams what's the dream,
what's the end game for you?
Like what do you want to do?
Speaker 1 (51:12):
What's the?
Speaker 4 (51:12):
vision?
I don't, honestly.
I got here and I said now what?
Yeah, no, I would say itchanges.
You know, because this is true,I was telling my managers I
don't know where I'm going to bein five years and I'd love to
say, oh, I have like a five-yearplan or a 10-year plan, but
(51:34):
things are just constantlychanging, with new opportunities
arising.
I'm not really sure, like Icould maybe be a host of.
You know a cooking show.
You know a Netflix show?
You know something like that.
I have a.
I have a feeling that it'sgoing to be more social media,
cause I just think, in generalsocial media, there's so much
more opportunity If you're yourown producer, you know, when you
start adding in the otherproducers and and overarching,
(51:58):
you know, networks, that's whereyou, I think, might not be
valued as much as you are, youknow.
So, giving yourself the power.
I want to be a boss, you know,and so I would love to have my
own network and I would love to.
Just, I would love to have astudio that I could cook in.
(52:21):
That's not my house, you know.
Separation of work and homewould be great, yeah, that's
fantastic.
Right, I know, as we're sittingin, you know a house to record
this, I mean a studio, and yeah.
Speaker 1 (52:33):
Well, no, no, no.
So it is a studio, if this is alegit studio, and it's also a
house and on, you know, onproduction days, we commandeer
the whole thing and we're veryfortunate and blessed that.
You know john and and his wife,you know she allows us, she
allows us to do this for rightnow and the
Speaker 2 (52:52):
dog.
Well, now new, and the new onethe new one.
Speaker 1 (52:56):
yeah, the puppy.
Tell us about the book.
Where did the inspiration comefrom for the book?
Obviously there's passion thereand the whole thing.
But what was the driver?
Speaker 4 (53:04):
Yeah, I have wanted to make a cookbook since I
started cooking.
So about four or five yearsI've been wanting to make a
cookbook and I got thisopportunity kind of dropped in
my lap randomly, like it wasactually in my junk mail, in my
email inbox, from this companyfrom the UK.
(53:24):
That was like hey, we want tomake a cookbook with you and I
kind of hesitated on it and Idecided to email them back just
to see what they had to offer.
And they got on a call with meand we got to talk out what the
whole process would look like.
And I realized like all theyears of me learning how to cook
(53:46):
and people commenting andsaying you should have a
cookbook and be kind of laughingit off Like yeah, that would be
great.
You know we're here now and sothat was kind of the inspiration
behind.
It was just just my experienceand like wanting to share.
I mean, like the title of mycookbook is trusting the process
.
It's something that is near anddear to my heart because over
(54:10):
time, as I've made these videosand showcased my failures or my
mistakes, I'll say trust theprocess, trust the process,
trust the process, trust theprocess.
You know I'm trying to followthe recipe and I'm like this
doesn't make sense and this islooking weird and like you know
why is this turning into a brownliquid?
It's supposed to be amarshmallow.
Like I'm confused.
(54:30):
Trust the process, you know,and, and so that's been
something that I've said.
So trust in the process.
And then the subtitle is FromBeginner to Gourmet, or it's A
Beginner's Guide to Gourmet, andI just I love the way that
that's put.
I'm still figuring out thegourmet part, but we're all
beginners in this together.
Speaker 1 (54:51):
I like to pronounce it gourmet, you know.
Speaker 4 (55:00):
You know, and I think that that would be more
accurate with you know, gourmetis kind of like me chilling, you
know me chilling star.
I'm not gourmet yet, but I cancall myself gourmet, maybe just
a gorm.
Speaker 1 (55:09):
Gorm, I'm gorm, what's up?
I mean seriously, we'retrending here today, buddy.
Speaker 2 (55:14):
What's the difference between gourmet food and food?
Speaker 4 (55:17):
You tell me.
Speaker 2 (55:18):
Nothing, it's the way it's presented.
Speaker 4 (55:20):
And that's that's where I struggle is is plating.
Like I mentioned this to Carlwhen he and I first started
talking.
I'm like I I can cook, but Idon't know how to plate things.
So, you know, I wanted to makesure that Carl knew before it be
(55:41):
on the record.
But I said I don't know whatI'm doing, but I'm figuring it
out and I think that that's aninteresting angle for the
podcast.
Speaker 1 (55:44):
I think it's an well.
That's just part of your wholeshtick.
Speaker 3 (55:47):
Yeah, that's what you do.
Speaker 1 (55:50):
You said it, you don't, you didn't know, this
wasn't a thing that you do, andnow you've you've kind of built
into it, you've built around it.
Now it's like you have acookbook out.
By the way, where do they getthe cookbook?
Speaker 4 (56:02):
Where.
So you can find it right now atthe link in my Instagram bio,
which is at C A S S.
I E S H R P Cassie Sherp.
There's a link in my Instagrambio.
It's also can be found at.
I think it's actually I want tomake sure I get the link
correct, but I think it'sfoundcom.
Okay, yeah, it's foundus.
(56:24):
Slash creators slash CassieSherp C-A-S-S-I-E-S-H-R-P.
So right now, I wish you couldjust look it up and be like oh,
trusting the process, process byCassie Sharp, but I don't know
if we're there yet.
Maybe on my next cookbook.
Speaker 1 (56:40):
It's going to get there?
Yeah, could be.
How do we do that?
You know, it's funny becausewhen we used to do the not that
we used to, it just has been awhile, but our YouTube content.
What was really cool about itis we would publish a video and
within an hour you could find it.
(57:03):
You can Google your name and itwould be there, which I thought
was incredible.
I mean, that's the.
You know the power of you knowthe Google machine.
It's really incredible.
You got to get back to that,maybe.
Maybe we should do some serieswith your Padawan over here.
Speaker 2 (57:19):
Well, and that's what I was going to talk about, that
was the content.
So that way she can learn notto cut herself.
Or the best thing that I do,too, is like, when I look at
certain items that are likemeatloaf, like comfort foods,
(57:39):
I'll Google Michelin star chefpresentation and I'll look
through what certain people aredoing and kind of like, oh, I
get it what they're doing and Ican see how they're plating in
the structure and everythingthat.
And then I kind of go on my ownand kind of, oh, then I'm going
to go this way.
So, just, you know, don't thinkit's, I don't know.
Listen, use social media theway it should be used.
It's a background so that youcan actually learn and see what
other people are doing and youdon't have to reinvent the wheel
.
It's.
Oh, I got it, so let me see,and I'll put my own little twist
(58:02):
on it and turn on it.
Speaker 1 (58:08):
You know, Cassie, I was going to ask you what's next
for you, but I know what's nextfor you Walk and talk is we're
going to talk about that.
I think there's someopportunities that we could do
together to make a difference.
Speaker 4 (58:21):
That's the goal.
Speaker 1 (58:22):
A passionate difference, right?
I just want to say thank youfor coming out.
You flew out all the way fromTexas, all the way over there,
halfway across the state country, to this state.
And I appreciate that.
And to somebody who's not hereat the moment I didn't say his
name because you didn't.
I picked up what you're puttingdown.
Speaker 2 (58:42):
I need one of him, though.
I need somebody to come in andhelp and put stuff in Lots of
pants.
Speaker 1 (58:47):
No, at my house when I prep Plus.
John, you give resistance.
Speaker 4 (58:52):
To help you put your pants on.
Speaker 2 (58:54):
No, I need that soon At my age.
Yes, thanks, cassie.
Speaker 1 (58:59):
I didn't think you were that old, we got to roll.
Listen, john, you're awesome.
Everybody here is great Littlepuppy.
All right, we are out.
hello food fam.
This is the walk and talkpodcast where you will find the
perfect blend of food fun andcooking knowledge.
I'm your host, carl fiordini.
Welcome to your favorite foodpodcast.
We're recording on site at ibisimages studios, where food
photography comes alive and Iget to eat it.
We've got a special guest hereat the studio today.
(00:29):
But first things first, be sureyou catch last week's episode
with Chef Brian Jacobs ofLiberty Smokehouse.
He and Chef Justin are goodpeople and their food next level
baby, all right.
Today's guest is social mediasensation Casey Sharp.
You've seen her home cookingskills on TikTok, ig and all the
rest.
She blew up during COVID withmillions, millions of followers
(00:54):
and very entertaining foodcontent.
Well, now she's got a cookbookcoming out in a couple of weeks.
We'll get into that.
Plus, cassie will be working onsome dishes alongside of
Jefferson today.
Stay tuned, cassie is on deck.
I'm into quality made smokedfish dips and spreads, and I
know you are too.
Check out our friends over atCrab Island Seafood Company.
(01:15):
One of my favorites is the CrabRangoon.
Visit them atcrabislandseafooddipcom.
And you know what?
Let me tell you something.
That Crab Rangoon is special.
I dot com, and you know what?
Let me tell you something thatcrab brown groom is special.
I actually made a pasta theother day and I put the
leftovers ahead in it.
It's really great, all right.
So, jeff, you were like the.
You played mentor today withcassie, and I just want to say,
(01:37):
obie, chef kenobi, pop theclutch and jump into pre-shift
and may the sauce be with you,baby, let's, let's roll I
appreciate that, all right.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
So we wanted to go based upon like what you were
talking about last week, when wehad the barbecue, when Brian
was on, when Justin wanted tokeep that watermelon kind of
theme going, and when you askedwhat am I going to be doing?
So I figured might as well pullsomething out.
Where it's still summer, it's95 degrees out, 95% humidity and
it's like an oven, so you'vegot to have some cold soup.
(02:07):
So we did this gazpacho, whichis like the Castilian style, but
instead of making ittomato-based, it was watermelon,
and then layered it with somemint and some sweet peppers,
cucumber, red onion and themaraschi pepper, so it had that
sweet and spicy kind of mix.
There it was cold.
Yeah, we'll get to that in aminute.
(02:29):
And then the next dish was youknow when, when you have a
roasted chicken from either youmade it yourself or you went to
the market or Costco or Sam's,what are you going to do with
the other half if you have itleft over?
So I wanted to do somethingwith a chicken sandwich.
So we did open faced a littlesmoked Gouda sourdough cause I'm
still getting, uh, trying toperfect my sourdough.
I did the sourdough smokedGouda pickled onions.
(02:51):
We had some bourbon maple syrupglazed bacon you can't go wrong
with that and then, uh, theroasted chicken on there with
the green, the micro greens.
That was pretty spectacular.
And then we had a candy pecanstoo, which I know I'm not going
to get the the little containerI brought because john's already
claimed it I think it's allgone already no, no, john's got
(03:12):
a couple.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
He's got like five left it was a full, it was a
whole full it was full, it waseight ounces and it's gone.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Yeah, I only used like less than an ounce.
And then the.
The main dish was the riff thatI kind of did when I was in one
of my restaurants.
It was a snapper withwatermelon, tomato kimchi and
that went really well and it didsome graffiti.
Eggplant roasted those off andthen, uh, did some this?
Speaker 1 (03:38):
this, his new, our new companion, is just so what
we have in the uh in studiotoday, along with cassie, is a
puppy that shall go unnamed asthere is no name yet.
That's that fresh, that new ofa puppy in house, in studio, and
he's a cutie patootie not as afruity patootie, but he's
definitely a cutie patootie yeah, well, he's definitely cuter
(04:00):
yeah, he is definitely cuter.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
No offense, sean, but he's definitely cuter than
foodie Badoody.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Yeah, sorry brother.
So put that stuff on everythingsauce that you do.
Where I am taking that quarthome, we need to put that in a
jar and we need to label it.
We need to do that.
And when you start selling itand I believe there might be
some places for this now- Well,I heard today that there was a
(04:27):
peach.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
if I'm not mistaken, john, there was a peach jam that
just came up, and now a Meyerlemon marmalade with lavender
and thyme.
That seems it needs to go in abottle too.
But that tangerine, I think, isthe first dibs, right?
Yeah, as he's shaking his head.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
yes, yeah, you got to go tangerine first, but you
know know, with something likethat.
Speaker 4 (04:49):
I feel like there should be.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
It should go out in threes.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Yeah right, I mean, that's, that's what we do here
anyhow, so it should be, shouldbe in threes yep, we got meemaw
sassy sauce, the ptsc, and thenwe can do the tangerine once
it's ready for tangerine seasonyeah, quentin, well, right from
citrus.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
I was thinking that, or you can do the peach, the
lemon and the tangerine as atrio oh, just the jam, Ah gotcha
.
As a trio.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Yeah, Well we'll have to do that next year, john,
we're getting head shake overthere.
Yeah, I'm amazed.
Yeah, seriously, I guess it'shis new companion.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Yeah, dog's good for you, bro, so all right.
So the sandwich was great.
I'm all in on the sammy yeah, Iknow you are right, and the fish
was good too, but I was reallyenamored with the sandwich, and
even more so than the sandwichwas the fact that our guest
today you know that we did thiswhole today was all different.
(05:42):
You know it was if.
For.
You know, we did this wholetoday was all different.
You know it was for good, youknow I'll I'll usher Cassie on
in a second, but but ultimatelythis is what she does.
She's not a professional cook,she's a home cook.
And today what we did was wedid a challenge, basically in
the same fashion as kind of whatshe does on on her, her
(06:05):
channels, on Tik, tok andInstagram, and we had to pick
five ingredients, you knownumbered pick out of a bowl,
random, and and luckily she hadthe bread, the chicken and then
a few other ingredients.
We'll get into it, but I wasreally more interested in that
today.
You always do great, thank you.
You always do great, thank you,always Like you're.
(06:26):
We don't give you enough.
I don't think we tell youenough how wonderful it is the
job you do here.
Thank you, the food andeverything.
Today you were a littleoutshined.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
Well, of course I'm just saying, I am just she's
used to being on camera, I think.
So yeah, well, of course I'mjust saying she's used to being
on camera.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
I think so.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
Well aren't we at this point now.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
Not as good as she is .
Speaker 3 (06:49):
Well, it's different.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
She's got that thought process that needs to go
for that social media.
She's doing well with it,obviously.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
And she'll talk about how her fans and her base is
going to look at things that shedoes, especially today, Jeff
shut up.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
All right, cassie I'm kidding Cassie welcome to the
show.
Speaker 4 (07:11):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
You're very welcome.
This has been like an odyssey,like a short adventure, and I'm
going to let you kind of frameout the last maybe 36 hours, 24
to 36 hours, right.
Speaker 4 (07:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
Go ahead and take a minute and give the airplane
view of who you are and how yougot to millions of followers on
the old TikTok and whatnot.
Yeah, and then we're going toget into your trip here and then
what we did today.
Speaker 4 (07:38):
Okay, you want me to do all of that, or you want to
start off with the.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
Airplane view.
Speaker 4 (07:44):
Airplane view Got it Okay to do all of that.
Or you want to start off withthe airplane view?
Airplane view got it okay.
So I started tiktok and socialmedia content creation back in
2020 and it's just been a wildjourney.
I didn't really know what Iwanted to do at first.
I just was kind of surroundedby the right people in the space
.
Collaboration was a hugecomponent to just taking off and
(08:08):
getting to the level that I amnow, which is I'm so grateful
for, and so I started.
I was a kinesiology major incollege and so I started trying
to incorporate what I hadlearned into content.
So I would do, you know, guess,the sugar and fitness
challenges, and it was good, butit wasn't great.
(08:28):
I wasn't super happy.
Like, long-term, if I were tolook at the picture of social
media, I would have been like Ican't see myself doing this.
For a long time.
I'd always wanted to do cookingstuff, but I didn't know how to
cook.
So that was where I was kind ofcoming from, and it was right
around the time that I movedinto my first apartment so end
(08:51):
of 2020, early 2021.
And I had kind of ventured alittle bit into the healthy
cooking scene and I was messingit all up.
I mean, like it's really hardto cook with alternative sugars.
I don't know if you guys haveever done that, maybe it's just
my lack of experience, but so Iremember one time I made a
(09:15):
brownie with alternative sugarand it was rock hard.
My friends were literallybeating it on the table and they
called it the 10 commandments.
So that was fun.
So I really went into this sceneof cooking on social media with
like a low bar of expectationand I, I joined this.
(09:36):
I moved into my first apartmentand my mom kind of was sitting
with me and I I kind of told her, like I don't really know how
to take care of myself, like Idon't know how to cook you know,
for myself, I've never reallyhad to do that before.
And so she said, well, you know, and she wanted me to budget
too.
So she, she handed me $10.
She handed me a $10 bill andshe said, all right, make dinner
(09:58):
with $10.
And so I said okay.
And I said but you know what?
We should film this.
My content creator brain, I hadalready been doing it for about
a year now, and so we filmedthe process of me making a very
non-authentic Italian meal as Iwas sharing with Carl.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
Everyone in the comments section.
They were right.
Speaker 4 (10:25):
Carl, as an Italian, was a little offended also by my
lack of understanding andknowledge of Italian cooking.
But it was a $10 challenge, itwas a budget challenge.
You know, we're just workingwith what we got my first time
cooking like ever, and it went.
It did really well.
I went to the grocery store andI I saw that like okay, it had
(10:46):
gained maybe like a few millionovernight.
It was great.
And then I was seeing like, oh,every hour it was gaining a few
million and it was just likesnowballing.
It was, I mean, truly anincredible experience and that
was when I realized I could dothis, I could make content about
learning how to cook.
So that's kind of where Ipresent myself to you guys today
(11:07):
, as a wannabe chef, a home chef, a self-taught chef and I use
the word chef lightly, but I'mhappy to be here and I'm just
happy to get any opportunity tolearn happy to get any
(11:29):
opportunity to learn.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
So you, jeff, today, and I saw a difference in his
personality, like his approach,like just his presence was
different.
Today he did put on his mentorhat, right, yeah, choke, if you
will, jeffrey, but but so Inoticed that and I saw how you
gravitated to that really welland I can see there might be and
(11:51):
I'm just going to dangle it outthere there may be some future
content.
Speaker 4 (11:55):
Could be.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
With this right Because you were.
You seem very eager to learnand, of course, jeff is more
than happy to hear himself talk.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Okay, no, I'm kidding , so I noticed that.
Speaker 4 (12:04):
Yes, I'm kidding.
I noticed that.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Yes, I'm not going to .
I learned from the best.
He's sitting right across fromme.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
Right, john, just went.
True story.
We do a talk show.
This is what we do.
Speaker 4 (12:16):
It is walk in talk.
Yes, Indeed.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
So walk us through today.
Walk us through the fact thatyou learned some, and by the way
you executed, you know Jefftaught you a chiffon.
Cut on the, on the, on the mint, and Jeff walks away for like
10 minutes and she decides tolike hey.
I'm going to do it.
I thought her fingers were allcoming off.
(12:42):
I honest to God, I was like myhead was tilted to the side as
I'm watching and I was likeholding my chin and I was like
oh my goodness.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
Hey watch the fingers , watch the fingers and.
But she, she did a great, shedid a great job.
When you came out, it was done.
Yeah, I'm going to, I'm goingto let you a little secret too,
when somebody says, watch yourfingers, put the knife down.
No.
So one of the biggest thingswhen I was going and going
through my apprenticeship andgoing through the ranks of being
becoming a chef and just beinga cook.
I'd worked in this one place, atbiscayne wine mart mart market.
It was on 125th and stefan wasthe chef and teddy falco learned
(13:18):
from him.
So teddy was one of my mentorsand I learned from him.
One of the things that his wifewould always do is like watch
your fingers.
As soon as she walked away, Icut myself because she implanted
in my brain watch your fingers.
So I learned every time sincethen when somebody says be
careful when you cut.
And now I just put my knifedown and I walk away just a
split second, maybe grab a drinkof water, but as soon as you
(13:40):
put that thought in your mind,guess what's going to happen?
You're going to cut yourselfyeah, put the knife down.
Speaker 4 (13:44):
I've just learned to tune it out smart, smart.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
I mean I just I saw the tip of that finger boy and
it was just so close to that.
I'm just like, oh my goodnesswhat did I tell her?
Speaker 4 (13:55):
I said the way you're going to learn is after the
fifth or sixth time you getstitches you'll be fine I
haven't had to have stitches yet, but I I have cut myself a few
times.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
Knock on wood, not too hard though.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
So walk us through how you decided that you took
over production today.
I have.
Speaker 4 (14:14):
This is my studio now .
Speaker 1 (14:16):
This is my house, no, but go ahead, walk us through.
I want to hear you talk aboutthe experience of you know, not
that this is a professionalkitchen, because it isn't, you
know, but Jeff brings thatelement into what we're doing.
Right, let's get into that alittle bit, because I know that
you, the whole day today youwere like I saw your eyeballs
(14:39):
were huge and it seemed like youwere absorbing so much.
Talk about that experience.
Speaker 4 (14:43):
Yeah, I mean I am so excited to be in a room filled
with people who are aspassionate about cooking and
food as I am, or more, you knowI'm, I don't know, but I do know
that I, I was so entertained bythe food photography component
(15:07):
of all of this, because it'sbeen something, you know, I and
I know we're going to talk aboutthis a little later but just in
producing my cookbook, whichwas a very do it yourself
process, everything was, I mean,except for the binding and
printing of the book, it was medoing the work.
I mean, I, I was directing thephotographer.
(15:28):
I don't think that thephotographer that I used to take
the pictures for my cookbookhad ever really had that much
experience with photographingfood.
So, you know, I was just goingoff of Pinterest pictures.
You know I had like aPowerPoint presentation of like
every dish that it was going tobe in my cookbook, in the order
(15:49):
that I wanted to photograph them, and kind of some reference
images, and then I just kind oflet him do his thing.
He, he did.
You know he knows how to doobject photography or and he did
, he did a good job.
But then I see the process thatyou guys go through and I am
flabbergasted.
I mean, it was truly incredibleto watch.
(16:12):
I'm inspired and I think it'sso important as somebody in this
space to surround yourself withpeople that inspire you.
I want to go home and make somechanges because if you look at
my social media account, you'llsee a bunch of thumbnails of
people that I've met, of youknow me maybe you know in the
(16:35):
middle of cooking and maybethere's text on the screen and
that's.
You know my entire Instagramhomepage.
You know it's my, my profile,so there's not a lot of food in
the food influencers.
You know social media profile.
So I'm looking at this and I'mlike I want to absorb as much of
(16:58):
this as I can.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
Yeah, but wouldn't you say that it's you and your
personality, right, how youapproach the food?
Almost in your case, I feellike the food is secondary, even
though for you the passion isin you, it's number one.
But it's, it's your, it is yourpassion in your physical
mannerisms.
I think that bring, bring inyour audience.
Speaker 4 (17:23):
Yeah, I would.
I would say that, yes, but sothe my struggle is that every
single image on my social mediaprofile looks the same.
So that's where, cause, youknow, my, my main style of
content is cooking with fiverandom ingredients.
So I have a bunch of randomingredients cards and I fan them
(17:43):
out like a deck of cards, youknow, and I'm holding them and
I'm picking an ingredient fromthat.
So every single, and then, andthen, you know, in my video
it'll show up on screen thistext that says five random
ingredients.
So every single beginning, youknow, thumbnail, is five random
ingredients text on screen, withme picking a card.
So it all looks kind of likeit's the same video and I would
(18:06):
love some variety in that sense.
So that's where it ischallenging, because, yes, my
audience wants to see me, butthey also are interested in what
I'm making, and so there'sthere's I guess it's a it's a
tough line to walk, cause I Ithink it's good to showcase what
you made and like today, youknow, and I'm sure we're going
(18:27):
to get into this too but I madesomething in the kitchen and and
I think if I had been in myhouse I would have not been very
impressed with the picturesthat I would have taken of it.
But we took it into the studioand John worked his magic and it
looked like it had been made bylike a Michelin chef.
(18:47):
You know, and I'll take creditfor that.
You know, I will take on be theMichelin chef, you know.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
You're a Michelin chef.
You're a Michel, you know,you're a Michelin chef.
Speaker 4 (18:58):
And you're a.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
Michelin chef and you're a Michelin chef.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
Yes, exactly, michael Kalantis just dropped dead,
yeah.
Speaker 4 (19:06):
So I mean it was truly incredible watching just
the process.
And, oh my gosh, john hasshelves of plates and bowls and
cups, and-.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
Forks, knives, spoons and placemats.
Speaker 4 (19:22):
You would have never.
I've never seen so manydifferent placemats in my entire
life.
And he's saying, oh yeah, likea lot of them he's gotten
thrifting and at you know someother stores and it's nice to
see that, like I could do that.
It's not like he's going tosome you know photographer, only
(19:43):
you know store Like it's it'ssomething that anybody can do.
So your job is somethinganybody can do, John.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
What it comes down to is is learn, and I'm talking
for him because he's playingwith the dog.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
But he doesn't talk either, but he doesn't talk.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
anyway.
It's a 30-year-plus, you know,odyssey into film, right
Photography, stills and all ofthe learning about not just
equipment, not just lighting,not just you know how colors
work and don't work together,all of all of the details in it.
(20:21):
Plus you have to be creative youknow, and and I think that's
where a lot of people maybe missthe mark because the creativity
levels the factor.
You know, you see a lot ofpeople's stuff online and, yeah,
we're all kind of working,we're all taking a picture of
the same dish, basically right,but everybody's stuff is very
(20:43):
mechanical, it's very just.
It's there but there isn't anydepth or layers.
And you know, thank goodnessthat our iphones and android
phones have, you know, know,filters, and you know, because
if they didn't, we'd all bescrewed Right.
Speaker 4 (20:58):
Right, right.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
Actual photographers do it a whole different way and
you know we're blessed to have,you know, this guy with us
because he takes you know, thecrappy food that Jeffrey makes
and you know he takes you, hetakes your beautiful dishes and
then it's enhanced times athousand.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
Listen, every time I see the first shot.
Even when he took the pictureof the sandwich my sandwich, not
her sandwich Oops, when youlooked at it I don't know how
many feet away from it I'm likethat's just gorgeous.
And you were like how can youmake any detail?
It's not the detail, it's justeverything he does.
And every time somebody comesin here, my first thing that I
(21:37):
tell chefs is like by the way,it's probably going to be your
one dish is going to an hour andthey're like what?
I'm like it's an hour becausethere's x amount of shots that
he takes just to build the, thefront, the reference, and then
he'll add stuff.
Like we were talking about thecompartment plate that you guys
will see when we do this onewith the fish.
It had like a three compartmentplate to it and he started
(21:58):
putting stuff around it to forthe ancillary items, like he
normally does, and he's like no,this is we have.
We have structured chaos on theplate.
Then we're going to do chaos,chaos around now.
This is not going to look good.
And he scrapped it and startedtaking pictures.
So it's not just.
You know, anybody can do it.
It's a lifetime of like a chef,we were saying to me he's like
you know the science behind it.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
Well.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
I didn't.
I learned the science behind itbecause I was always the one
that was asking the questionswhy?
Speaker 1 (22:26):
To kind of circle back on what you said, cassie
yes, you can learn to do it bydoing it, you know, and having
your successes and failures, andnot to beat yourself up on the
things that you don't, that youdon't appreciate.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
It's not failure.
It's first time in attempt andlearning, yeah, but it's our
perceived it's our perceivedfailure.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
It isn't that it is a failure, it's our perception of
what it is.
So if and what I mean by, justto be clear, you know, if, if I
went to go do a photo shoot,right, and I execute the photo
shoot and I look at it and I'mlike, oh, that's absolutely
terrible.
No, you would oversaturate.
Yeah Well, I would, definitelyI would look at it.
Yeah, I got to do your highfive, I would, I would.
(23:06):
I would look at that and gothis is a failure, but this is
going to propel me to do better,right.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
But what I'm saying is that most of the time, like
we're, we're talking aboutsourdough and I brought my
failure and one of them that wasdone better.
Speaker 3 (23:20):
And I did a presentation.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
one time we were doing something here and I went
back and I did the failure again, but it wasn't about my bread.
I can remember it's on my, onmy social, and I think you, you
and I had talked about it.
I think if we show theimperfections or what we didn't
do, that didn't turn out the waywe we wanted it, then people
were like, oh, I see what he didwrong or I understand now, like
I didn't.
I didn't grasp the concept ofher, her, spaghetti, her her
(23:46):
noodles her noodle dish that shedid God, and that's what.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
that's what the cringe part was.
It's noodles Is.
That's what made it cringe.
Yeah, Not much anything elseelse.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
but you know, maybe if you said macaroni you've been
better you'd have been fine,that you would have been
embraced, all right.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
But here's the thing but it's because she called it a
noodle dish and everybody wasjust on fire in a negative like
they.
They lit her up, like you knowwell, what's your thousand?
Speaker 2 (24:10):
comments torches and pitchforks.
What's the difference between anoodle and what is the what's?
Speaker 1 (24:14):
here.
No, no, hold on, let me look atthe point torches and
pitchforks, but that it justenraged the algorithm and it and
it just and shot it up.
A minute ago you said, hey, uh,you know I made a mistake.
I brought the mistake onshowing the error and we don't
really do that on the show.
Here we.
(24:34):
We put out a very polishedproduct.
Oh, you should have taken apicture of the coconut cream.
Yeah, I know, I was gonna bringthat showing the error and we
don't really do that on the show.
Here we put out a very polishedproduct.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
Oh, he should have taken a picture of the coconut
cream.
Speaker 4 (24:38):
Yeah, I know I was going to bring that up.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
But listen, I'm the first one.
When I mess something up, I'mthe first one to say it.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
And you're the first person to throw it away real
quick.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
Well, it was disgusting, I got to chime in
here.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
Uh-oh, whoa, he's actually talking.
You might want to introduceyourself.
What's your name again?
So here's the thing.
Speaker 4 (24:57):
Non-talking John.
Speaker 3 (24:59):
And I'm sure Jeff can attest to this.
Anytime you have somebody whosays to you, wow, that looks so
easy, you know immediately thatyou're doing it good.
So if somebody who hasn't doneit sees it and it looks easy to
them, that's just a testament towhat you're doing.
Brilliantly said yeah.
(25:19):
Yeah, that's it.
That's all I got.
Is that it Really no thanks?
Speaker 1 (25:24):
He comes in, drops a sage bomb and then he splits
Unbelievable.
But yeah, I mean, I think whatmy opinion on how you execute is
it's showing You're showingeverything you know, from start
to finish good, bad, the ugly,whatever.
Like you're you're, you'reputting it all out there and,
(25:44):
you know, maybe we need to startdoing that a little bit.
Speaker 4 (25:45):
Well, that's what I was.
I was telling Jeff that youknow, in terms of that coconut
cream, can we talk about thatfor a minute, Okay, so?
Speaker 2 (25:53):
I don't mind, it was a new experience.
Speaker 4 (25:55):
Listen, I think there is something to be said.
I was I was mentioning earliercooking with alternative sugars,
but I mean alternative milkstoo, you know like, and creams,
like it's tough, and so withcoconut cream, you know he had
mentioned this idea.
Do you want to say what it wasgoing to be?
Speaker 2 (26:11):
Yeah, so I was going to do a gazpacho and I wanted.
I bought a coconut milk creamso for whipping and I thought,
oh, this would be perfect.
I have lemongrass growingoutside of marasaki and I had
mint, so let's go ahead and makea infusion of it so I can
dollop on top.
Got it, brought it over here,went to go mix it up.
It started to thicken and thenit curdled it, it split, and I
(26:35):
even said it just before.
I'm like, oh, I wonder if thiscan be over whipped.
Guess what?
Everyone?
It can be over whipped.
Speaker 4 (26:42):
I saw it.
When it looked good to be fair,I did.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
Went just went over the line because I didn't think
it was thick enough.
Speaker 4 (26:48):
And it I mean it was out on the counter for no more
than 30 seconds before it wasdown the drain, you know the
counter for no more than 30seconds before it was down the
drain, you know.
And then I mean it's anunfortunate part of recipe
creation, as something that I'velearned is that you make
mistakes and you're like well,can't put that in my cookbook,
you know, can't put that on myblog, and I just I think the
(27:10):
world needs to see that, becauseI think everybody just assumes
that these chefs and you know,anybody who makes even cooking
content online is just perfect.
Every time, you know, they getA pluses across the board.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
Are you inadvertently saving the world?
I mean, ultimately speaking,you look at social media.
There's so many positives withsocial media, but then there's
the negatives, you know, andthere's no shortage of those
either.
There's the negatives, you know, and there's no shortage of
those either.
In the end, though, you'retalking about, you're talking
about just everybody'sperception of perfection and how
everybody puts perfection.
(27:48):
You know, even though they live, you know their home life is a
dumpster fire, or you knowthere's nothing good in their
life but, man, they didn't knowhow to put out some really
pretty content that proves, ortries to prove, differently than
what's actually happening.
Yeah, and Cassie says no, no,no, no, no, I I'm going to put
(28:08):
it all out there.
So you're right.
So anyway, you said a secondago, like hey you know what?
I learned some stuff.
I want to bring it back to the,you know, bring it back home, I
think.
I think you left some stuffhere too that we might look at
internally to.
You know, maybe not emulate buttake from, and yeah, it's, it's
a passion of mine, actuallyshowing cause.
Speaker 4 (28:28):
I've struggled, I've battled with perfectionism.
If you read the introduction tomy cookbook, I talk about that.
I talk about how I reallystruggle with perfectionism and
I want it to be perfect everysingle time.
And I was noticing when I wasstarting to cook, you know, even
with the healthy cooking stuffand I would make this, you know
(28:51):
the 10 commandments um, browniesor whatever I, you know, my
friends are all laughing aboutit I'm like dying inside because
I'm like I just want to be goodat this and I can't, and I
don't know why I suck, you know,but this is going to sound off
topic, but I used to.
I used to do ballet and, um, Iused to be a dancer and
something that one of my danceteachers said to me one time was
(29:14):
the more that you are messingup, the more you're criticizing
yourself and the worse you'regoing to perform.
So if you hyper fixate on thefailures or the mistakes, then
you're going to get in your ownhead.
It's kind of like what you weresaying, right, if somebody
tells you to watch your fingersput the knife down, walk away,
(29:38):
because you are going to get inyour own head, and so for me, it
was turning off that part of mybrain that needed it to be
perfect and saying I want toshare the story with these
people and show them that theycan do it too, because I
(30:01):
represent the.
I am the social mediarepresentation of the average
Joe learning how to cook, and soand that's a joy for me and
I've had such a great timeshowcasing my learnings to these
people and I get peoplecommenting on my posts wow, I
(30:23):
really learned something fromthis.
Thank you so much for sharingthat.
Or people will comment and sayhey, I noticed that you did it
this way.
Try this instead.
You know, like one thing that Isaw was hey, you should freeze
your tomatoes so that you canpeel.
The peels will come off easier,or stuff like that, and I don't
know.
I just cringed, but it's, it'speople.
(30:45):
I've created, a community thatwants to share advice and wants
to learn advice.
Speaker 1 (30:51):
And you decide that if you boil them, they you know,
like if you cook them, they youknow, you put them in there.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
one you're talking about is tomato concasse.
So you make an incision on thebottom, you take the top off the
core where it connects, andthen you just drop them in for
30 seconds and they shock themyeah.
And then you just peel them off.
Yeah, they split and you pullthem off.
Speaker 4 (31:08):
I don't know what he just said, but I like it Sounded
good.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
I have some other points here that I would.
But I'm you.
You brought some things uptoday that I feel are in our
industry and our space.
As you said, it's profound, youknow it is, it really is
because at the end of it, youknow we're here, you get
(31:32):
comments galore and, and youknow we can all look at our
social media or go or look inthe comment sections of other
socials and everything, and yousee how the first thing people
want to do is scorch you.
That's the first thing theywant to do.
They want to tear you apart.
I never want that, I don't everwant that, and and so what we
(31:54):
put out and you can, there'splenty of what we do that you
can rip apart, but I don't, youknow, I feel like maybe it's
time for us to just show thewhole picture of it versus,
versus our little bouquet thatwe put out like the perfect
bouquet with you know that weaim to be perfect, not that we
are, I'm not saying that, butyou understand what I mean.
(32:15):
Maybe, maybe that's something,because you know, comment we, we
get a lot of likes and there'sa lot of back chatter in our
circle.
You know we get, you know,between john and jeff and myself
, a few others who were part ofthis thing.
There's a lot of side chats andit doesn't happen on on the
social, which is crazy to me,but maybe we need to give them
(32:38):
something to rip us apart, orsomething.
Speaker 2 (32:40):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (32:40):
Like I don't know how to, I don't know how to express
it.
It's different.
Speaker 2 (32:42):
So when we're posted, we're posting pictures or we're
posting about the podcastitself.
We're not talking about thebehind the scenes, we're not
talking about the coconut creambeing curdled or something like
that.
What I wanted to do say is likefor, for, for instance, being a
social influencer as a chef,and I'm going to talk to, I'm
going to talk for, a lot of thechefs out there and we talked
about it briefly when we wereconversing, when you were on
(33:04):
your way from texas to come intothe studio being a chef.
We hear social influencers,especially when they're dealing
with food.
They don't usually have the,the cred, the credibility, and
we kind of chefs in our ownright have the ego and we're
very whether it be jealous,envious or whatever it is.
We want things to be put outthere and emulate what's going
on in the in the actual industry.
(33:25):
There's one guy I follow, youngguy, and we've talked about him
and I don't remember his name.
He does a great job cleaning.
He does, you know, things outof off the cuff and beautiful
presentations and he gets doneand I go now do it 200 times on
a Saturday night.
That's where we kind of go in,but one of the things that you
emulate, that I find, and thatif any chef were to call me and
(33:46):
be like, how did you have thesocial influence?
I'm going to put this right outthere.
You have passion.
Passion cannot be taught.
If you were to come in myrestaurant, you said, hey, I
want to get a job and you havethat passion that you do when
you're producing and doing yourcontent and the passion you had
in here to learn.
You're hired.
So any chef that looks at themand says to an influencer that
(34:09):
doesn't have the passion, yeah,you have a right to then go
after that person.
But for someone that you get toknow, then you see they have
this passion and we're alwaystalking about it can't be taught
.
Then leave you alone.
Do your content, do the averageJoe content.
Be who you are and show who youare.
Congratulations, I mean, you'vedone something.
You've found the right mix andthe right seasoning and the
(34:30):
right dash of this and thesprinkle of that to be who you
are today.
Kudos, kudos.
Speaker 4 (34:35):
Thank you, oh kudos, thank you, oh my gosh, I'm like
tearing up.
Speaker 2 (34:39):
Don't, because here's the thing.
When I heard that you weregoing to be coming on, I'm like
what does she have to offer?
And this is honest to God.
I'm not.
I'm not a little pissed withhim when he cause.
Speaker 1 (34:48):
He was questioning.
So there's not again.
I'm not a photographer, right?
Nor are you a chef, chef, I'mcertainly not a chef he is a
master judge I am, I can eat, um, you know, but I I my, what I
feel I bring to the table is,you know, the vehicle.
I, I really put together thevehicle of this thing.
So when I, when I see somebodylike you actually reached out to
(35:10):
us, you know which was reallyawesome, by the way, thank you
and I was, and I was like a richbecause I get people always
send me notes, hey, I'll, I'lllet it be on there and I usually
dismiss them honestly.
But I looked into what you weredoing and I remembered you,
actually from a few years ago.
I mean, I've seen your, yourcontent before and I was like,
oh, this is actually pretty cool.
And I'm like, man, she's, she'sgot healthy.
(35:31):
You know, 13 million plus on onTik TOK and on another 180,
whatever it is a couple hundredthousand on Instagram.
And I'm like, wow, that'spretty great and I'm already
seeing, I look forward, you know.
So I, I look at what you haveto offer and I'm already piecing
together like, okay, we can dothis, we can do this, we can do
this, we can do this on aforward motion, not just for
(35:53):
this episode, like what we cando going forward.
So then I get excited.
Speaker 2 (35:57):
So I'll call John or I'll call you know, Jeff, I'll
be the last one and it dependsDebbie Downer.
Speaker 1 (36:03):
Sometimes no.
Speaker 2 (36:04):
If he doesn't answer the phone, he calls me.
Speaker 1 (36:06):
It's random and I do that to both of you, but here's
the thing he sends.
He's like and actually I talkedto him about it I was like you
believe this shit.
I was like, excuse the language.
I was like you believe this.
I was like she has a lot ofpassion.
She really loves with thisstuff.
I think she's going to be greaton the show.
Well, what does she have tooffer?
(36:27):
No man, no, no, no, no, no, no,no.
Just tons to offer.
But he didn't know.
Look you up first.
Even when I sent the linkactually I did, did you?
Speaker 2 (36:35):
yeah, I, I actually looked you dirty, I saw it, and
my question was what does shehave to?
Again, we're talking about herface value.
So now, what do you think?
I already told you.
Say it again when somebody hasthe passion that she does, then
leave her alone and let her dowhat she needs to do.
That's awesome.
And listen, I'm.
I'm the first one to say I waswrong.
I judged the book before it'scut by, that's covered, without
(36:58):
even turning the page thecookbook the cover man but
here's the thing we there's acertain she was on the food
network and she has her own tvshow that we do not like as
chefs.
We, yeah and when you seesomebody come out like that and
they say certain things that arewrong, you cringe and you just
go what the?
(37:19):
Because they don't, they don'temulate what we do as a
profession and that's what weget upset about, because our
profession we have, like youknow, we have certain things
that we go through.
There's a lot of turmoil.
We, we are perfectionists, sowe have to get that out of our
head.
And I tell my daughter andhere's for anybody out there you
(37:41):
have to look at yourself asbeing the biggest cheerleader
for yourself, because you have13,000 comments and half of them
are battering you because youdidn't do something right.
If you're going to go throughlife that way, then you're just
going to be sitting in a fetalposition.
You have to be that protector,your biggest cheerleader, going
forward, because that's the onlyperson you have.
It's you, and you have to bethat way and you can meet people
(38:04):
that are going to support youand mentor you to be better, but
you have to be that person thatgoes out to seek that.
Speaker 1 (38:11):
And that's the biggest thing.
I commend you, jeffrey, rightnow for this last piece that
you're talking about.
That was probably on this.
Out of 115 episodes, that wasprobably your most profound
statement.
Really, that's tremendous.
Thank God it was recorded.
Oh wait, we're not recording.
Speaker 3 (38:29):
I knew somebody was going to make that joke.
Psych, psych, all right.
Speaker 1 (38:34):
How has social media changed your life?
Speaker 4 (38:37):
Wow, that is a loaded question.
I think wow, I think just justoff the top of my head.
I mean it's taken me places andgiven me opportunities that I
thought I would never have.
Like who would have thoughtthat I would fly halfway across
(38:57):
the country to be on the numberone food podcast in America and
be sitting here with you guysand a almost Michelin star chef?
Speaker 2 (39:10):
That's her talk, not mine, not mine.
I want to go on record.
Speaker 1 (39:13):
Not mine, Everybody.
Look under your seat and grabyour star.
You know it's been incredible.
Speaker 4 (39:16):
I want to go on record, not mine.
Everybody, look under your seatand grab your start.
You're a visionary.
You're a visionary.
You know.
It's been incredible and I'velearned so much just by putting
my story out there.
So I think, like immediately,that would be my initial
response.
But I mean on top of that.
I mean I went from barelyknowing how to take care of
(39:37):
myself in 2021, the beginning ofthat not knowing how to cook at
all.
Sharing my journey and throughsponsorships and being a content
(40:00):
creator, I've been able tobuild a life for myself through
the support of my incrediblefollowing.
That has allowed me to buy myfirst home at the age of 23.
And I have a dog and anincredible community of people.
And I moved, you know, acrossthe country to to live in a
different state that I'd alwayswanted to kind of live in or,
you know, like I'd always wantedto move and experience a new
place.
Speaker 1 (40:17):
I mean you went from California to Texas.
I was avoiding that detail?
Speaker 4 (40:21):
Oh no, it's okay.
No, the only reason was becausethey don't like the
Californians.
Speaker 1 (40:27):
Yeah, but you don't seem like a typical.
I mean, you said you were fromSouthern California, right?
Speaker 2 (40:31):
Mm-hmm, yeah, that's like a different country.
It that's like a differentcountry.
It's a different yes.
But she already said y'all onthe phone the other night I did.
She said y'all, I embraced it.
Speaker 4 (40:39):
The minute I knew I was moving to Texas, I started
saying y'all to an annoyingdegree but yeah, no, and it's
been quite a journey for sure,but I'm happy to be here and
it's been just the mostincredible opportunities have
come from just sharing my story.
Speaker 1 (40:58):
Where do you find your creativity?
You do a lot of content.
Speaker 4 (41:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (41:02):
Right.
Speaker 4 (41:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (41:03):
And to do a lot of content, you have to have yeah,
okay, you could say I don't wantto hear passion.
We already know that it takes alot of energy to do content and
you know people who are not inthis space do not understand the
level of patience and know thispodcast.
Speaker 4 (41:22):
I was saying it's so important to be surrounded by
people that inspire you and, andso I'm here with you guys,
(41:48):
right, and I'm feeling inspired.
You were saying you notice kindof like a spark in me and then
it we feed off of each other,right, like Jeff and I were
feeding off of each other.
He was being his creative self,I was being my creative self.
There's a spark there, you know, and so I would say community,
when I've been by myself andwhen I've been, you know, when I
(42:09):
first moved to Texas and I waskind of trying to find my new
community, I actually startedsurrounding myself with people
who hated social media, likedidn't like, like they would
make fun of my like Cassie danceand like tease me for it.
But I think that it wasactually like rooted in
something, like they did notlike it, and I felt embarrassed
and so I I stopped makingcontent for a year because I was
(42:33):
like, oh, like, no, it's kindof weird, maybe it's kind of
over with and done with.
And you know I wouldn't saythat that was the only reason.
You know there were, there wereseveral reasons going into me
kind of pausing on that and kindof pursuing a more of a
corporate route of social media,kind of trying to understand
the other side of it.
But you know, coming back intothis, I I experienced some
(42:55):
turmoil in my in my life, myday-to-day life, and kind of
found myself with a lot of timeon my hands.
And you know, I'm with thisincredible guy who was like you
should go for this, like youshould go back to this, like try
it.
And he pushed me and he setaside so much time to help me
(43:17):
prep everything, like so hecould do all the behind the
scenes work so that when I wascooking I wouldn't have to worry
about cleaning up, I wouldn'thave to worry about putting
everything in the like littlejars and you know everything,
because with cooking content youhave to be really careful about
the way that you show yourselfpouring the ingredients and like
(43:38):
, yes, you could use a measuringspoon, but like that's not as
appealing or attractive, youwant to use like a glass bowl or
like a jar, you know.
And so he was, he was doing allthat stuff for me and having
that encouragement and thenseeing, like, when my cookbook
came out and everybody at mychurch came up to me and they
were like, hey, congratulationson the cookbook.
(43:58):
You know like people are aroundme, are encouraging me to pursue
my dreams, and I'm seeing it asa possibility now, and so short
answer is passion.
But what's what's the passionrooted in?
It's your community, it's thepeople who are surrounding you
and encouraging you.
You know, cause if you're doingit by yourself, you can.
(44:18):
You can be a one man show, butyou might've even noticed the
content that I was making lastyear.
The spark wasn't in my eyes,cause I was doing it but I
wasn't being supported.
You know, now the spark is backand I'm surrounded by the right
people and the energy is thereand it's great.
Speaker 2 (44:37):
I just want to go on record to say one thing I was
amazed that you pick five.
When you mean five, you meanfive.
Speaker 4 (44:44):
Yes, I do.
Speaker 2 (44:46):
So I want to make clear that when I said to her so
no salt, no pepper, nope, ifit's the five ingredients,
that's the five ingredients andthat's what you make.
Speaker 1 (44:56):
Frame out what we did today which part the that part
all right.
Speaker 2 (45:01):
So we had all of the ingredients.
The menu that I did today.
I brought raw ingredient andmore for cassie to pick up.
Whatever like we're gonna do,kind of the what she does in her
content.
Now we we had 18,.
Someone said 20, 20, there were20, but there are 18 because we
ate two or somebody ate two.
(45:23):
And then she picked out, justironically enough.
I'm like, oh, you know, it'd begreat if you got the sandwich,
because we did the sandwich.
First one was like lemonmarmalade.
The second one was chicken.
The third one was like, oh myGod, this is going great, micro
greens.
And the other one's like, oh mygod she's if she gets the bread
.
I'm like, oh, wow, she's goteverything.
So then I go so, can you addcheese?
(45:45):
Can you add the bacon?
Nope, I'm like, oh.
And then you got pickled onions.
I'm like, wow, this is um.
And then, you know, you twotalked and we're like, hey, well
, I'm gonna take the picklejuice, put.
Well, I'm going to take thepickle juice, put it in the
chicken.
I'm like, well, the picklejuice is going to work, the
lemon is going to really work.
Yeah, this is going to reallywork.
In my head of going through theflavor profiles and you did
(46:05):
your little dance.
Speaker 1 (46:09):
And Carl is going to come up with his own.
And she also did the right cutstoo.
Yes, she did With the big chefknife.
Speaker 4 (46:19):
I did too.
Yes, she did with the big chefknife.
Speaker 1 (46:20):
I did, and without like the supervision of the
person who taught me.
Speaker 4 (46:22):
Yeah, he turned his back.
Yeah, he said no, I had to goto the restroom, he's he's like
he kicked you out of the nest.
Speaker 1 (46:26):
He's like no, you're on your own.
Speaker 4 (46:28):
Yeah that was fast yeah, we do that.
Speaker 2 (46:30):
We do that.
Speaker 4 (46:30):
It's quick turnaround kick it to the curb yeah how
was your experience todayworking alongside of?
Speaker 1 (46:39):
I want to.
You know, I don't want to say amichelin, but I want to say
like a me chilling, like youchilling, like it's a me
chilling chef how about that?
Speaker 4 (46:47):
I like that yeah I like that you can create merch
for that me, chilling, me,chilling.
Speaker 1 (46:51):
You're a michelin star.
We better, actually better.
I know I just came up with that.
Now we better copyright it.
We better get on that now, Iclaim that today and no one else
can have it.
Speaker 4 (47:02):
Say your name.
Say your name.
Speaker 1 (47:03):
Carl Fiatini.
Speaker 4 (47:06):
Yeah, I would say that my experience today.
Speaker 1 (47:10):
July 25th, I'm just saying 2024.
Speaker 4 (47:15):
I was so confused.
I was like there's a date now.
I was already welcome.
I was like there's a date nowwith okay.
Speaker 3 (47:19):
Welcome to our hell.
Speaker 4 (47:23):
What was the question ?
Again, experience today.
My experience was, I mean itwas amazing.
I had so much fun, um, justbeing surrounded by creative
people.
You know, you guys were socreative with me and we all fed
each other creatively and indifferent ways.
I mean Jeff was creativelyinspiring me with what to cook
(47:44):
and you were creativelyinspiring me with the kind of
video to make.
Carl and John was creativelyinspiring me in the kind of
images that we could take withthis.
So I mean the takeaway today islike it's dense.
There is a dense takeaway today.
Speaker 1 (48:00):
I'm saying jeff's dance.
Speaker 4 (48:01):
Yes, yes, I am okay yes, yes, just jeff was the it
that I was referring to that'susually how I just pretty much I
love your brother.
Speaker 1 (48:10):
I'm only kidding, all right.
So with all this food talk andyou know we're all making this
food content and differentcapacities or whatever, what are
you eating at home Craft macand cheese.
Speaker 4 (48:22):
I knew it no, but for real.
Speaker 2 (48:24):
My daughter loves you already.
Speaker 4 (48:27):
No, it's, it's funny.
I will cook for myself and Itry to make content surrounding
what I, what I'll cook formyself, because, again, I mean,
that's how I got started.
You know, it's like filmingwhat I'm cooking for myself for
the week and then I can.
I can eat the same thing forlunch and dinner every single
day.
I have an Eggo waffle everymorning for breakfast and that
is.
I love that.
(48:48):
I actually, for the 4th of July, I made like a strawberry
reduction sauce syrup.
I know right Sounds classy.
I was very classy and I was veryproud of myself.
So I was, I was putting that onmy waffles in the mornings and
it was delicious.
But yeah, I would say, you know, usually I just started the
(49:11):
series called meal prep Mondayand so I made like homemade
fettuccine Alfredo down to likethe actual making the pasta, the
macaroni, and I, um, and I madethe cheese sauce, and you know
all of that, and then I just atethat every day.
And then I made, you know, achicken noodle soup.
So then you know, noodle okaywell
Speaker 3 (49:29):
she made chicken noodle, chicken pasta soup.
Speaker 2 (49:30):
I'm sorry, no, no, no , that's that's where I was
gonna go with it.
That's where when you saynoodle, noodle has the
connotation of being like ramennoodle, Asian inspired Right
Asian Cause.
That's where, actually, that'swhere it actually started from
Right China with the exportationor the with with the Italy, not
Marco Polo, because everyonefound out it's not Marco Polo
who bought pasta back but it wassomebody else that brought it
(49:58):
back and introduce it to theItalians.
Speaker 1 (49:59):
That's where it comes from.
It was Gino, yeah.
So listen, what I was thinkingis I think it was Tony.
Might have been.
Might have been Gino Could havebeen.
What I was thinking is that youknow you're probably like binge
bagging, mcdonald's orsomething like that, but no,
you're actually cooking.
You're cooking.
Speaker 4 (50:13):
Yeah, I definitely do not eat much McDonald's.
If I go to fast food it'sChick-fil-A, but I live in a
small town so we don't have verymany options.
So you know, I could I havelike four restaurants that I
could go to like fast food andnone of them are McDonald's,
surprisingly.
Speaker 1 (50:32):
Well, I mean, it didn't have to be the actual
Whataburger and Outburger.
Speaker 4 (50:35):
There's Whataburger.
I mean it didn't have to be theactual Whataburger and
Outburger.
There's Whataburger.
I know which I'm not going tosay that I'm a little upset.
Speaker 1 (50:39):
A few weeks ago we went to, I went out to Oklahoma
and to Kansas and they werethere and I'd never had that and
I was like, oh man, I want tostop, we couldn't, didn't have
the time.
Speaker 2 (50:50):
Did you not eat enough meat?
Speaker 1 (50:51):
You needed more meat.
When I got home, I actuallycooked.
Speaker 2 (50:54):
He gained six pounds on that trip.
It was like three days.
Speaker 1 (50:58):
Yeah, true story, true story, but I eat meat.
I'm a meat eater.
That's what I do.
I don't.
What's your end?
Speaker 2 (51:05):
game, Like what you said dreams what's the dream,
what's the end game for you?
Like what do you want to do?
Speaker 1 (51:12):
What's the?
Speaker 4 (51:12):
vision?
I don't, honestly.
I got here and I said now what?
Yeah, no, I would say itchanges.
You know, because this is true,I was telling my managers I
don't know where I'm going to bein five years and I'd love to
say, oh, I have like a five-yearplan or a 10-year plan, but
(51:34):
things are just constantlychanging, with new opportunities
arising.
I'm not really sure, like Icould maybe be a host of.
You know a cooking show.
You know a Netflix show?
You know something like that.
I have a.
I have a feeling that it'sgoing to be more social media,
cause I just think, in generalsocial media, there's so much
more opportunity If you're yourown producer, you know, when you
start adding in the otherproducers and and overarching,
(51:58):
you know, networks, that's whereyou, I think, might not be
valued as much as you are, youknow.
So, giving yourself the power.
I want to be a boss, you know,and so I would love to have my
own network and I would love to.
Just, I would love to have astudio that I could cook in.
(52:21):
That's not my house, you know.
Separation of work and homewould be great, yeah, that's
fantastic.
Right, I know, as we're sittingin, you know a house to record
this, I mean a studio, and yeah.
Speaker 1 (52:33):
Well, no, no, no.
So it is a studio, if this is alegit studio, and it's also a
house and on, you know, onproduction days, we commandeer
the whole thing and we're veryfortunate and blessed that.
You know john and and his wife,you know she allows us, she
allows us to do this for rightnow and the
Speaker 2 (52:52):
dog.
Well, now new, and the new onethe new one.
Speaker 1 (52:56):
yeah, the puppy.
Tell us about the book.
Where did the inspiration comefrom for the book?
Obviously there's passion thereand the whole thing.
But what was the driver?
Speaker 4 (53:04):
Yeah, I have wanted to make a cookbook since I
started cooking.
So about four or five yearsI've been wanting to make a
cookbook and I got thisopportunity kind of dropped in
my lap randomly, like it wasactually in my junk mail, in my
email inbox, from this companyfrom the UK.
(53:24):
That was like hey, we want tomake a cookbook with you and I
kind of hesitated on it and Idecided to email them back just
to see what they had to offer.
And they got on a call with meand we got to talk out what the
whole process would look like.
And I realized like all theyears of me learning how to cook
(53:46):
and people commenting andsaying you should have a
cookbook and be kind of laughingit off Like yeah, that would be
great.
You know we're here now and sothat was kind of the inspiration
behind.
It was just just my experienceand like wanting to share.
I mean, like the title of mycookbook is trusting the process
.
It's something that is near anddear to my heart because over
(54:10):
time, as I've made these videosand showcased my failures or my
mistakes, I'll say trust theprocess, trust the process,
trust the process, trust theprocess.
You know I'm trying to followthe recipe and I'm like this
doesn't make sense and this islooking weird and like you know
why is this turning into a brownliquid?
It's supposed to be amarshmallow.
Like I'm confused.
(54:30):
Trust the process, you know,and, and so that's been
something that I've said.
So trust in the process.
And then the subtitle is FromBeginner to Gourmet, or it's A
Beginner's Guide to Gourmet, andI just I love the way that
that's put.
I'm still figuring out thegourmet part, but we're all
beginners in this together.
Speaker 1 (54:51):
I like to pronounce it gourmet, you know.
Speaker 4 (55:00):
You know, and I think that that would be more
accurate with you know, gourmetis kind of like me chilling, you
know me chilling star.
I'm not gourmet yet, but I cancall myself gourmet, maybe just
a gorm.
Speaker 1 (55:09):
Gorm, I'm gorm, what's up?
I mean seriously, we'retrending here today, buddy.
Speaker 2 (55:14):
What's the difference between gourmet food and food?
Speaker 4 (55:17):
You tell me.
Speaker 2 (55:18):
Nothing, it's the way it's presented.
Speaker 4 (55:20):
And that's that's where I struggle is is plating.
Like I mentioned this to Carlwhen he and I first started
talking.
I'm like I I can cook, but Idon't know how to plate things.
So, you know, I wanted to makesure that Carl knew before it be
(55:41):
on the record.
But I said I don't know whatI'm doing, but I'm figuring it
out and I think that that's aninteresting angle for the
podcast.
Speaker 1 (55:44):
I think it's an well.
That's just part of your wholeshtick.
Speaker 3 (55:47):
Yeah, that's what you do.
Speaker 1 (55:50):
You said it, you don't, you didn't know, this
wasn't a thing that you do, andnow you've you've kind of built
into it, you've built around it.
Now it's like you have acookbook out.
By the way, where do they getthe cookbook?
Speaker 4 (56:02):
Where.
So you can find it right now atthe link in my Instagram bio,
which is at C A S S.
I E S H R P Cassie Sherp.
There's a link in my Instagrambio.
It's also can be found at.
I think it's actually I want tomake sure I get the link
correct, but I think it'sfoundcom.
Okay, yeah, it's foundus.
(56:24):
Slash creators slash CassieSherp C-A-S-S-I-E-S-H-R-P.
So right now, I wish you couldjust look it up and be like oh,
trusting the process, process byCassie Sharp, but I don't know
if we're there yet.
Maybe on my next cookbook.
Speaker 1 (56:40):
It's going to get there?
Yeah, could be.
How do we do that?
You know, it's funny becausewhen we used to do the not that
we used to, it just has been awhile, but our YouTube content.
What was really cool about itis we would publish a video and
within an hour you could find it.
(57:03):
You can Google your name and itwould be there, which I thought
was incredible.
I mean, that's the.
You know the power of you knowthe Google machine.
It's really incredible.
You got to get back to that,maybe.
Maybe we should do some serieswith your Padawan over here.
Speaker 2 (57:19):
Well, and that's what I was going to talk about, that
was the content.
So that way she can learn notto cut herself.
Or the best thing that I do,too, is like, when I look at
certain items that are likemeatloaf, like comfort foods,
(57:39):
I'll Google Michelin star chefpresentation and I'll look
through what certain people aredoing and kind of like, oh, I
get it what they're doing and Ican see how they're plating in
the structure and everythingthat.
And then I kind of go on my ownand kind of, oh, then I'm going
to go this way.
So, just, you know, don't thinkit's, I don't know.
Listen, use social media theway it should be used.
It's a background so that youcan actually learn and see what
other people are doing and youdon't have to reinvent the wheel
.
It's.
Oh, I got it, so let me see,and I'll put my own little twist
(58:02):
on it and turn on it.
Speaker 1 (58:08):
You know, Cassie, I was going to ask you what's next
for you, but I know what's nextfor you Walk and talk is we're
going to talk about that.
I think there's someopportunities that we could do
together to make a difference.
Speaker 4 (58:21):
That's the goal.
Speaker 1 (58:22):
A passionate difference, right?
I just want to say thank youfor coming out.
You flew out all the way fromTexas, all the way over there,
halfway across the state country, to this state.
And I appreciate that.
And to somebody who's not hereat the moment I didn't say his
name because you didn't.
I picked up what you're puttingdown.
Speaker 2 (58:42):
I need one of him, though.
I need somebody to come in andhelp and put stuff in Lots of
pants.
Speaker 1 (58:47):
No, at my house when I prep Plus.
John, you give resistance.
Speaker 4 (58:52):
To help you put your pants on.
Speaker 2 (58:54):
No, I need that soon At my age.
Yes, thanks, cassie.
Speaker 1 (58:59):
I didn't think you were that old, we got to roll.
Listen, john, you're awesome.
Everybody here is great Littlepuppy.
All right, we are out.
Popular Podcasts
1. Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
2. Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations.
3. Crime Junkie
If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people.