November 11, 2025 • 46 mins
In this episode, Furqan speaks with David Castro — a former chef turned restaurant consultant and the founder of Food Hub, a restaurant software redefining how kitchens work. After studying gastronomy at the Basque Culinary Center and working at acclaimed restaurants like Pujol in Mexico City and Cocina Hermanos Torres in Barcelona, David saw a pattern that most chefs ignore: Restaurants fail not from lack of passion — but from lack of systems.
Today, through his global consulting work and Food Hub, he’s helping small independent restaurants gain the kind of structure and consistency once reserved for big hotel groups. Not to replace chefs — but to give them what they’ve lost: headspace for creativity!
They talk about: Why most kitchens run on chaos instead of systems How tech can give chefs more creative freedom, not less Lessons from consulting projects in the Galápagos, San Diego, and Cancún What every chef can learn from building systems that scale A conversation about structure, creativity, and the next generation of hospitality innovation — built by chefs, for chefs. If you’ve ever felt that restaurant life could be smarter, calmer, and more human — this episode will show you how chefs like David are building that future. Fugitive Chefs is your window into alternative culinary careers and bold food innovation. New episodes every Tuesday. Follow, rate us on Spotify, subscribe & comment on YouTube, and share with someone who dreams of cooking differently. Hosted by Furqan from the Fugitive Chefs Podcast Furqan’s Instagram: https://bit.ly/4dtiyTv Podcast Instagram: https://bit.ly/43ndATO Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3F6j25A Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/43vBtbT Connect with David Castro LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jose-david-castro-zabarain-37459421b/ Instagram: @foodhub.io
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
So hello everyone, and welcome back to Fugitive Chef's podcast,
the show about chefs and food, people who have left traditional
kitchens to create new models ofcreativity, of business and of
their own life and work balance.So today's guest is David
Castro, a former chef turned restaurant consultant and the
founder of Food Hub, which is a SAS.
SAS, for those who do not know, it's a very tech term.
I think it's software as a service from what I understand
(00:21):
his business and he basically helps restaurants build better
operational systems. So David's career spans from
everything from starting here atBasconnity Center, where I'm
recording from now and working at kitchens to food joints.
And now he's tackling this very important question that every
chef eventually faces. How do we fix the system from
the inside out? So from people who've been
inside, how do you make tools that that fix the system?
(00:43):
And that's actually what attracted me to to speak to
David. I saw his post on LinkedIn.
I recommend everybody to follow him.
He makes these small tutorials, small videos, very personal,
very, very, very real from what I see.
And they share, they share a lotabout your everyday
calculations, everyday management on on how to be
somebody who's more efficient. So yeah, with all that
(01:04):
introduction, welcome to the Welcome to the podcast, David.
Thank you for calling. I appreciate the invite.
As I was telling you before, it's important to have this
spaces to share so that people understand that in this
industry, you don't need to be acoup.
You don't need to be only a chef.
You have skills that you can addvalue to other areas and of
course bring change to and more appreciation to what a chef
(01:26):
needs, you know? Yeah, exactly, exactly.
I precisely the team you're trying to hit with the podcast
and yeah, nice to know that it connects with your with your own
personal journey, David. So first of all, I would love to
know before we dig into what is food hub, what you're doing
right now, where you're right now.
Let's talk about how did you start in food?
At what point did food as a cardio come into your mind?
How was your yeah early connections to food like?
(01:46):
Yeah, so it started very early in my life.
Honestly, I was a very hyperactive kid and my mom will
like try to put me into summer camps to like just put my energy
somewhere else. And one of those summer camps,
one time she put me in a cookingin a cooking summer.
(02:08):
What happened? She noticed that when I was
cooking, I was calm, I was focused.
I was like 5 years old at this point Still.
I still remember like that summer camp, I still remember we
made some empanadas, we made some like tortillas that I think
that was the first kind of interaction with cooking for me.
From that I just fell in love with it, honestly.
(02:31):
I remember instead of watching cartoons or instead of watching,
I don't know, video games, I waswatching cake balls.
I was watching just like food channels.
I was writing down recipes. I was trying them out.
Of course, some of some of them were awful.
Some of them were better. But I feel, I feel that was the
(02:51):
first interaction with food in my life.
My parents later on when I was around, I would say 1412, they
decided to sign me up to an actual certificate to become
like a pastry and pastry. I'm the lingerie chef, OK.
(03:14):
I went to a course, it was like 7 months long.
I was doing it while I was stillin high school and that was like
the first professional certificate that I got, I would
say as a, as a kook from there. I mean, I was just very clear
for me since that first interaction that I wanted to
(03:38):
like, dedicate myself to culinary aspects.
But it's also very cool, right? Because not many parents I know
who would be like very supportive of kitchen as a
career. So for your parents to see like
send you there in high school, because I know many parents
myself like focus on high schoolin India, for example, grades
are super important. It's very, yeah, very much about
get the grades. So you'd know any other
(03:58):
distraction in that case. I feel they saw something very
young into you. And it's cool that you, you got
to, yeah, see at such a young age, get some sort of
professional education into intopastry, right?
Yes, yes. I mean, I was very
entrepreneurial also. And I remember in primary school
I was selling cookie. I was selling like ravioli
cakes, cupcakes. I was the guy like if you wanted
(04:20):
to make like a celebration, you came to me and I like gave you a
cake or even professors will like order and stuff and people
and. This is Mexico, right?
Yeah, this is in Mexico. I remember people Remember Me as
like just selling always around food, like they always used to
Remember Me like that. I would say the moment I decided
(04:41):
to seriously pursue this career was when I went to the US in an
exchange year. It was like my second solo trip
and I was there for 11 months. It was like an exchange program
and I was hosted by a couple of families.
(05:02):
And what happened is that like my family from Colombia and from
Mexico, and we're very rooted around the table, like cooking
and having a lot of like social interaction around food, right?
But in US, it was like a shock for me because like, families
there don't really cook. They eat out a lot.
(05:22):
And I decided to do that job formy family being like the person
cooking and the person bringing everyone around the table.
And I fell in love with that. I mean, from that moment, I was
17, from that moment on, I started looking for
universities. I saw the CIA in New York, I saw
(05:43):
basketball night center. And honestly, like the moment I
saw Vascular United Centre, I just, I was like, I want to go
there. I know the option, I want to go
there. I'm going to go through the
application process. This was like my junior year of
high school. And what's it about the program
like, Because this is also very interesting because a lot of lot
of chefs, I mean, depends on your budget, depends where in
the world you are, depends how accessible these things are for
(06:05):
you. What is it that that attracted
you all said? You know why I want to go to
Spain? Is it the location?
Is it what did you did you know people who had studied over
there or what was it for you? At my first job, I worked with a
chef who started with Lucy Azar in San Sebastian.
I was 16. I was 16 at the time.
I was literally a lion coop. And I'd say he had a lot of
(06:25):
influence in me making that decision also because I mean,
you know how gastronomy is living in San Sebastian.
It's right. It's in the, it's in the blood.
Like everybody like knows something about food, something
about an ingredient. Like people are super proud of
their culinary and just their cultural heritage around food,
(06:49):
right? And that was number one, I would
say #2 I would say in terms of price and value.
Last Culinary Center had like a very good offer because they had
the chefs. They had like a new program
designed not only for for you tobecome a cook, but it gave you
more, a bigger scope for you to be in the culinary airspace, but
(07:16):
not necessarily open a restaurant and be a chef, right?
They just gave me a lot of opportunities and I really like
that. And #3 I would say it was just
international. It was just like I expected to
be in a place with a lot of inputs of a lot of people from
(07:37):
many places. And I saw this in Vascular Nerve
Center. It's something that I feel that
if you want to be a good chef, if you want to be a good cook,
at the time, I felt like you should understand other people's
cultures. And I think that in Vascular
Nerve Center, this was the case and I met people from China and
the people from India and they people from many, many places.
(07:59):
And that's something that wasn'tlike intensive for me to go to
basketball essentially. Yep.
Right. And how was it?
Because it's very interesting you said about gastronomy, you
know, because most people go to culinary art schools.
I mean, the, the offer they giveat CIA also is a very culinary
focused degree. And so are many, many career
paths to become a chef. And as the one at BCC is a is a
degree in gastronomy because of the fourth year or the third
(08:20):
year, you can specialize into food service, you can go into,
to, to R&D, you can go to being into culinary vanguard.
But for you today, from where you stand, how much of that
education has been useful? Also your perception because
this is something because I've not studied over there, but I
still work at the same same company.
For me, it's very interesting because still I feel as somebody
(08:41):
who works at Basket Center and Ihope nobody working there is
listening. Hopefully as it is in English, I
think my listeners will not be so many from Basket Center, but
I'm sometimes very often questioning that.
Of course, the culinary side is very, very strong.
And I mean the the word culinaryis in the name.
All the patrons are all the people who are in the in the
board are all chefs are all chefs like Arsaka, Kellar,
(09:03):
Pedro, Soviana, Noni Alois, etc.And everybody when they graduate
the graduation, some ceremony isin a chef coat.
So this makes me feel that they are yes, preparing you for this
360 gastronomy that everything is the kitchen is not the
beginning and end of everything.But there are many careers out
of there. And I know that every year more
people passing out of BCC, Very few of them are actually ending
(09:24):
up working at kitchens or staying in kitchens for the next
five years after graduating. How do you see that perception
into the influence of the chef jacket or the influence of of
the whole cook mentality? Like do you think that is a is a
good representation of other careers out of gastronomy or I
feel personally, the cook is a very overpowering.
I don't know if it's good for the brand or if it's easier to
(09:44):
to sell as a course. How do you see that reflection
after being after having left the the the the program?
I don't know. How many years ago did you
finish your degree? Finish three years ago.
Three years ago, say that thing that you're saying around that
they have the chefs that sponsored the school and that
they promote the school with theimages of the chefs.
(10:06):
I think it's just like a marketing tactic, honestly.
And also it's speaking directly to their target audience, right?
Because when you start in the vasculinary center, your level
of consciousness around not consciousness, but understanding
around gastronomy and the world of gastronomy is very narrow.
(10:26):
Then this was my entering into the vascular center.
I mean, because like when you enter there, you're like, I
wanna like be a Michelin star chef.
I want to innovative stuff. I want to make people feel with
my food, have a complete sensorial experience.
That was like, maybe it's different now, I should say,
(10:47):
because now social media and like just the interaction with
food is different. People have like more inputs
around it. But at the time, 2017, this was
a very good marketing tactic to speak to their card audience, to
sign up for the program, right? I should say that what
(11:07):
Bassettner Center gave me, it's this mindset and this paradigm
shift around what it means to bea chef, what it means to be a
coup, what it means to work in hospitality.
It just gives you like a very broad scope around the potential
of you being like a professionalin this industry, yes.
(11:28):
Yeah, makes sense. I mean, I completely understand.
I mean, I think it's, it's very correct what you say about the
whole whole idea of marketing, narrowing it down your audience
as much as possible. And then of course getting them
into the course and then showingthem, you know, there are more
possibilities. You don't need to be the next
Davis Munoz. There is more more carriers out
there which which you can explore with your knowledge of
the culinary side of things. And tell us a little about what
(11:50):
kind of restaurants did you workin before you go into your
current career setup? Like what was the first few
restaurants, what did you learn from them, and what have you
kept from them into your currentbusiness?
Yeah, so I work in not so many restaurants honestly.
Like I, I work in Bodegaon, Alejandro.
It's I, I'm sure you know, it's a little, yeah, 80 pack
restaurant in the Parte Vieja and San Sebastian.
(12:15):
That was a tough job, honestly. Like I, I used to work there
maybe 20 to 14 hours, 2 hour break and we would start at 8:00
AM, finish around 12. Summertime.
It was like crazy cuz like we were just four people in the
kitchen, four people, sometimes 3 and we would serve like 80
(12:36):
people like Menudo Gustacion, sometimes a la Carta.
It's it's like, what did I learnfrom that?
I would say the menu, how they designed it was very simplistic
and it was very rooted in the product.
They didn't, they did not overcomplicate like the
production process or the plating.
(12:56):
It was very simple, very fruitful and respectful to the
ingredient. Yeah.
I mean, that's pretty much what I learned at that experience.
I also learned the toughness of being a cook because like, the
kitchen was like, so when you goto the restaurant, you go down
right in the part that, yeah, and it's already humid.
(13:19):
And to go to the kitchen, it's another level down.
Yeah. And and The Who at that
restaurant did not work very well and the drains didn't like.
I don't know if I can say this but.
You can, yeah. I mean, for for those who don't
know, it's it's the restaurant run by Exo Group, which is the
group behind Mughal. It's also a lot of clients.
When I was working in Mughal, weused to send them like they used
(13:39):
to say, where can we go to eat next day?
And we used to mostly send them to Alejandro.
But yeah, you, you keep going. I don't think they're listening
to the podcast. All right, all right.
I mean, I should say not that not the best conditions to work
at. I I like, I was like the floor
was wet all the time. It was hot and the labor intense
was high. Like the intensity of the labor
(14:01):
was high. I actually got injured.
I mean, I'm, I'm, I'm like a, I mean workaholic in a way.
I used, I used to like go there in my break.
I will go to the gym and then from the gym I will go back to
my, I will not rest. It was like 8:00 AM and I got
injured because of that. I didn't, I did not let let my
(14:22):
like body rest completely. I was just like blindly
motivated, you know, it was my, my first professional
experience. I wanted to do my best and I
mean, I feel that sometimes whenyou're that naive, people take
advantage of you, right? Because I mean, they take
(14:44):
advantage of you, but you also learn a lot.
So it's like a. Definitely, yeah.
It's a give and take at the end of the day.
A give and take. It's a trade you need to do.
But I should say from that experience I learned what I just
shared and I also learned just the importance of having cuz I
(15:05):
would say the chef and the people there were very motivated
and very supportive around the service.
We really were a team. We had great familia all the
time. I really appreciated that
experience. That was one restaurant.
Next restaurant I worked at Cosina Monosores in Barcelona.
(15:25):
Complete completely like black and white.
Yeah. Black and white casino monosores
is probably the best kitchen I've seen in I mean in like a
restaurant scale size type of kitchen, right?
It was just like the kitchen wasbigger than the whole like each
(15:46):
section had their own walking and their own freezer.
They have like a central kitchen.
They had like 3 stations. The way it was designed, it was
super easy to give service because like service will come
for the first 3 appetizers in the next three and then maybe
the next three and then desserts.
(16:06):
It was like a, it was like an L It was designed like an L in the
kitchen and it was just like a perfect workflow.
Some dishes were finished in the.
We call them Islas Island. Yeah, yeah.
Just like little kitchen segments in the middle of the
hall. Some dishes were finished there
as a show cooking. It was like a great business
(16:29):
model because the chefs there also had like a lot of followers
on social media. From them I learned the leverage
like social media can give you for the success of your.
They will get like everything sponsored.
It was insane. Like the fish, the crab, like
most of their proteins were sponsored.
(16:50):
They would not pay for it just to use the brand of a company.
I mean they were very profitablebecause of that.
I mean, of course the G or somebody had like, I mean they
had a lot of employees, but theyalso had a lot of as a youth,
right. I think it's something that it's
very frequent in Michelin style restaurants, right?
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah, to make the operation feasible, they need more hands
(17:12):
because the processes in the kitchen need a lot of detail in
it. I also worked at Fujio in Mexico
City. I should say this was a
restaurant in where I saw the most precision and the most
there was super discipline around how things should be.
(17:33):
Like if if the sauce was not a specific texture, they will
throw it away. If the Bernard's was not
consistent, they will throw it away.
Even even if you have like 90% of it perfect, if it was not
like perfect, they will throw itaway.
It was super. Yeah.
It was just like the culture there.
It was, it was like a very serious environment, I should
say. But something very noticeable
(17:55):
around Peugeot is that at least 60% of the people working there
were 30 years again, again, going back into operational
feasibility for Russian and profitability, I should say,
like Peugeot, if it was like a real restaurant with real
employees, it would not be profitable because of the amount
of like hands that they need to to be able to deliver the volume
(18:19):
that they deliver and the quality that they deliver.
Because something that was very shocking about Fujio is that
everything's prepared from scratch the same day.
OK, except for some sauces like the mullet, but everything
arrives like at 4:00 AM a drop. They bring everything fresh.
(18:40):
They only prefer for that day. And they don't store like they
they don't really have like storage and pujo in the kitchen,
which is crazy to think they have like a like a small walk in
and where they store like stuff for to make some salsas, but
that's pretty much it. And the Oja Santa, because they
use a lot of Oja Santa in there in the tortillas.
(19:05):
Yeah, I should say that was experience.
Of course, I made a lot of connections there.
I actually met one of the I met one person, a Korean friend.
He actually was a very importantrole in my professional career.
I was sharing a little bit of why, but I should say that the
(19:27):
most valuable thing that I got from working on those
restaurants is just meeting the people who work there, making
genuine connections. Because I mean, you're in the
same boat, right? You're working the same hours,
you are just doing the same task.
You you truly make connections with people there because, I
(19:48):
mean, you're going through it together and that's what's
meaningful when working. Of course, people might have
different experiences than mine.I never had like a bad
experience in the kitchen. But I should say that's what I
the good thing that I got from from working at at reference
that our missions are level. Yeah.
Yeah. I mean, it's crazy.
I mean, what are you speaking about?
And already we see, we already see through your conversations
(20:10):
of like we know so far that you've studied at the Bascarin
Center. You you studied before that
while while living in Mexico, your early exposure to food
itself as a as a profession. And then now you speak about the
restaurants that you worked at and and while you speak and
explain them, we already see that how you're seeing them in a
very different way. I don't think everybody who
walks in into a mono store rest sees the brand deals or sees the
organization of the restaurant, how it helps it yeah, smoothly
(20:32):
work. But was there a certain point
that you remember that you were working at these kitchens,
having these passive thoughts of, of this could be done better
or there are one, there's one use case done better than the
other one. At what point did you think that
this could be your profession today?
Like what was this? What led to this transformation
journey? So when I finished all my
internships in bathroom night center my third year, I had to
(20:56):
stop my education because of COVID and Trump.
I I start my education and I hadto be here in Mexico because of
COVID. What happened during that year?
I opened my bakery. I opened a bakery.
I was like a entrepreneur of a bakery here with the dog kitchen
and delivered to restaurants andfew years and people.
(21:18):
I live in a neighborhood where we have 900 houses worth my
market literally and people willappreciate because it was COVID.
You're getting like good qualityred and I would deliver the
quality there for that. Why did that project fail?
Because from my experience in like working like, I should say,
Michelin star restaurants, I knew how to, like, operate
(21:39):
properly, but not necessarily how to manage and scale a
business, right? OK.
It was me doing everything. It was me doing everything.
And I never had the vision of like, gating.
I never had the vision of like systematizing.
It was just me doing very artisanal processes because I
believe that was the way to likecreate the best bread possible
(22:02):
for my client. I was sold to that idea.
It come to a point where it was a bottleneck and I was just
working too much hours. I was waking up 4:30 AM working
until 10 PMI. From production to marketing to
dealing with clients delivery, just like processing next day,
(22:25):
next day or preparing for the next day production.
I mean, you know, a sourdough takes 36 hours to make, right?
And it starts on like feeding your sourdough for it to get
ready. It was just like AI was like
dealing with madness at that at that point.
And I got burned out. I got burned out.
And what did I learn from that? The systems are the key to, of
(22:48):
course, organizing, failing, being able to delegate properly,
documenting everything. I mean, I did not do it at the
time, but I had the chance to doit.
And this where my Korean friend comes in.
So I stopped the bakery around May 2021.
I was like sad that the, I mean,the business was going good, but
(23:09):
I was just turned out I couldn'tlike keep going.
I was just me, and I mean, I wasworking by myself.
It got lonely, right? It got very lonely.
So I wanted a little change. I wanted a little change.
And my third internship got cancelled.
This is an important data point.Because of COVID.
I was going to go to Japan, but it got cancelled.
(23:30):
OK. It was good.
So I had that little stitch in my heart of like, I want to go
to Asia 1-2. Yeah, yeah, Yeah.
So during this time, May 2021, I'm like D Ming people to see
where I can work. I'm D Ming bakeries in the
Netherlands. I'm D Ming bakeries in Spain
because I, I tell them to finishthe bachelor center.
It's like I have one year left. But in the meantime between May
(23:54):
and September of going back to San Sebastian to finish my
university, I'm like looking foropportunities to, to work.
So I text my Korean friend. He's back in, He worked in Puyo
for two years, but now he's backin Korea also because of COVID
and he won. He started his like guacamole
company, right? He started his guacamole
(24:15):
company. He's selling vacuum seal
guacamole in Korean markets. But I text him and I'm like,
hey, brother, like if you need help with some R&D like making
menus and stuff like that, I mean, I'm down.
Like if you tell me, I go there and we work together and he's
like, you know what? I'm actually thinking on opening
my restaurant. So I and it's going to be a
Mexican restaurant because like,of course, his background is
(24:38):
super funny because he was an architect.
He was studying architecture in Berkeley in California.
He tried, he tried a Taco and hewas like folk architecture.
I'm studying astronomy. I love Mexican food.
He quit Berkeley and he went to a university in Mexico to study
astronomy in Mexico. He started working in Pugo.
(24:59):
Crazy. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And he invited me to open his restaurant, Right.
And this is like the first eye opening experience for me
because it's like, wow, I can sell my knowledge.
I mean, he paid me like nothing.Like I think it was like 1000
bucks and like or 2000 bucks forlike a yeah, yeah 4 month
(25:20):
service. But I was like happy to go to
like Korea and help him open hisMexican restaurant because I'm
Mexican. It was like I'm in the Assadora
of my culture or my 29. So I.
I, I go there without a single idea on how to open a
restaurant, But like my friend hires me just to help him with
the menu, right? Even though like everything was
(25:44):
in Korean, I was, I was able to grasp the process of opening a
restaurant. It was super eye opening for me
because I noticed there are moreareas to consider, right?
In terms of like infrastructure,in terms of like like
operational efficiency, in termsof your many design, how you
(26:07):
structure your like the spaces in where you serve the fruit for
more profitability marketing side of things, storytelling.
He had like a partner. He started cinematography in
California. He was like insanely good at
storytelling. Like he will capture Mexican
(26:27):
culture so good. And he would just frame it in a
way that makes it extrudeous andKorean people would love it.
So So that experience was super,I should say eye opening as I
just mentioned, but I just learned a lot.
I just learned a lot and it gaveme the foundations to start my
(26:48):
consulting company. I saw literally the process from
having an idea and building a brick and mortar from scratch
first hand. David, I wanted to ask you like
what are you currently building like hearing all the
experiences? Like I would be very interested
to know, like what are you currently building at Food Hub
beyond the consultation, the tools you're making and
(27:09):
primarily I would say, what kindof problems are you solving
through, through what you currently do?
So from that moment on, we went also to Harvard to do a
research. There I learned a lot of like
statistic tactics to be more efficient in terms of building
systems experimentation. I mean, it was a totally
different research in terms it was like food science when I was
(27:31):
in Harvard. But I learned a lot of tools
that allow me to be more efficient and effective.
Right. OK.
After Harvard, we have been doing a lot of consulting in
many countries. We were in Galapagos, we were in
Guayaquil in Ecuador, we were inSan Diego, CA, we were in Mexico
City, and now we're here in Cancun, Mexico.
(27:51):
We helped a hotel open in Galapagos.
We helped a bakery open in Guayaquil, Ecuador.
We helped the restaurant open inSan Diego, CA.
We helped the restaurant open inMexico City, and we helped
Fitness Bar open here in Cancun.And now we're working with
boutique hotels with three restaurants.
OK, our services have been evolving a lot.
(28:14):
Firstly was the many design, operational and kitchen.
Now we are at a stage in where we have three main services.
As consultants, we create projects from scratch.
We innovate projects, which means improving the offer and
your operation and whistle, which means like creating like
(28:34):
systems structure to be able to copy paste your restaurant,
right? Like almost like a franchise
building your franchise model, right?
Yeah. What are we building from all of
those learning all of those projects?
We've identified the biggest problem in the restaurant
industry. I'm sure you're familiar with
it. Inconsistency.
(28:55):
Inconsistency is the biggest problem in the Russian industry
because of many reasons, right? Maybe your cooks are not work
well trained, Maybe your cooks, your sorry, your service, you
have a lot of turnover. So your service is not
consistent, right? The plating, some cooks put it
this way, some other cooks put it that way.
This is on, I mean, Michelin star, it's something different,
(29:18):
right? Michelin star, it's another
category of restaurants because they just have a lot of pants
and they just have people with alot of knowledge around culinary
processes. It's a total different model.
But for an independent restaurant owner, for a local
restaurant, it's super different, right?
Because you're literally operating with tight margins.
(29:39):
You're operating with people with not so much culinary
knowledge. It's just people who decided to
be a cook, decided to be a server and they're like doing
their professional career there.Sometimes they don't even have
education, right? They don't have a background in
culinary. They don't have a background in
any type of like university. I mean, not the case always, but
it's the most common theme in all the world.
(30:02):
I mean, maybe I'm exaggerating here, but I would say all the
world, right? So yeah, the main problem is
inconsistency. And why?
Because restaurants don't have systems and they don't know how
to build the systems properly, right?
You've heard before manual operations for my restaurant is
going to solve my inconsistency issues and that's not the case.
Like have you seen a cook readerread like a manual operations
(30:25):
ever in your whole career? No, no.
No, I mean no. It's something that it's not.
I mean, it can't happen, but right?
Some reference to. Yeah, but it's a habit at the
end of the day. I mean, you need to like really,
you need to be really behind somebody's ass.
And is it then worth spending that much time if the person is
reading the manual? I mean, it has to be something
(30:46):
more obvious than reading an SOP.
Right. I mean, some franchises, they
have their own internal systems,their own internal tech to
manage their operations, to train their staff, to control
their like daily execution to ensure that the standard, it's
at a certain level, right? We're pretty much building a
(31:06):
tool that would allow all restaurants have this level of
operational excellence, right? The design of this tool, it's of
course built from the experiencethat we had opening multiple
restaurants. And it comes from the experience
of noting, noticing the patternsof a successful restaurant,
right? I mean, you can just see
Chick-fil-A, right? It's they, they focus on
(31:30):
hospitality of fast food hospitality and fast food and
systems, right? They close on Sundays and
they're the most profitable likefast food chain store in the US,
which is the thing. They are not open 24/7, right?
Why? I mean, we just, we've been able
to recognize of course from studying, from opening, from
(31:52):
seeing patterns of what the sexual restaurants do.
And of course like to an independent restaurant owner who
is stuck in the operation, who is stuck in dealing with
turnover, who is stuck with retraining their staff, who is
stuck with dealing high like high profits.
It's hard for them to be able tobuild those systems, right.
(32:14):
And it's like a vicious cycle. It's like a vicious cycle,
right? Sometimes as an owner, you get
motivated, you start building systems, you create check paper
checklist. You try to train your staff.
Your staff like gets it a littlebit.
They start using the checklist, but then your staff leaves.
On average, 70% of Russian staffrotate.
So imagine like the vicious cycle that this is like how, how
(32:38):
would you be able to scale your restaurant?
How are you going to be able to organize your restaurant if
you're doing everything yourselfmanually, if all the knowledge
is in your head, If, if the current tools that exist are all
fragmented, right? Because like that's, I mean,
like an average restaurant owner, you go with him.
Like you pray that they have recipes.
That's the number one and like you pray that they have like
(33:01):
some sort of organization, whichis not the case.
And the reasons why they don't have that is because the reasons
I just mentioned, right, becauseof this vicious cycle.
So we're creating a tool that would allow you to get those
systems in a very seamless way and we're working very hard to
be able to do that. Like our goal is for a Russian
owner to get our tool and in onemonth time have all their
(33:22):
systems organized. Of course this tool have the
like a pre build architecture oflike the natural of restaurant
operations and that comes from our knowledge of building
restaurants. So it's going to be a tool that
is going to be very easy to use,easy to implement, but we're not
going to launch until we have a product that delivers.
(33:43):
That's super cool. I mean, I think at the end of
the day, as you said, it's it's it's less about control, less
about thinking the old school way where one person has to do
all of this. But I think making tech your
friend and using, using all that's going on in tech right
now to, to, to, I think I think a tool like this or a software
like this can help like the other people in the kitchen who
are not maybe the head chef or not maybe the owner become more
collaborative into things that they can do natural in the
(34:05):
natural flow of things. Maybe you could put systems
where where it could be a collaborative effort to do this,
you know, but in all of this, I see so that a lot of a lot of
kitchen staff is is young, but there's also a very aging side
to it. So on that case of things, how
do you see like the tech side ofthings and the human creativity?
Because again, a lot of things can be tech.
Like, I mean, a Chick-fil-A or McDonald's can be, can be made
(34:26):
tech and standardized because they do not have to be creative
constantly. They, they're actually supposed
to be consistent. That's their order of, of
business. But how do you think can these
two sides of the game, like creativity and and tech coexist
or do you see the rivals of eachother?
How do you see that into into current restaurant systems?
It's, it's funny you say that because I feel that we also have
(34:47):
like this dichotomy of seeing creativity being something that
is against tech, right? We feel that tech doesn't allow
us to be creative. I feel the, I feel the opposite.
I feel the opposite, right. I was just going to go into
that. Our goal with this tool, it's
the following for chefs. We want to enable creativity
(35:10):
because why do a chef become less creative because he's too
worried on daily operations? What if you have a tool that
allows you to streamline your operation without you having to
worry about it? You're gonna, you're gonna have
more headspace to be more creative, to be more strategic,
to actually measure the things that push the restaurant
forward, right. And then for a general manager,
(35:33):
what's the most important thing as a general manager, bringing
the best customer experience possible to your guests.
Again, if your staff is well trained, they know the systems,
they know the pro call, and theycan be trained seamlessly.
Like you're going to be more focused in bringing a better
experience and not so worry about somebody like making a
(35:55):
mistake during service or, I don't know, not knowing how to
manage a customer complaint. They're always going to be
customer complaints. But you have a structure and a
training and where that's in place.
I mean you can see it in the best hotels in the world, right?
Ritz Carlton, like they literally have pre built systems
(36:17):
on how to deal with this thing at even to an extreme point.
And where like, for example, theRitz Carlton, they have like a
$2000 like sort of like safeguard to deal with customer
complaints to solve the issue. It's like they know the model.
They know how to bring great hospitality, great culinary
(36:40):
experience. And they know like that they
need to build systems to be ableto do that.
And that's what makes, I mean, and, and like the opposite of
like what makes a restaurant successful compared to what
makes a restaurant fail. Inconsistency is what makes it
fail. What makes it succeed.
It's consistency in their brand and their concept in the
delivery of the service. And I mean, going back to your
(37:05):
question, I think creativity is not gonna be something that is
gonna stop because of this tool.Our vision is that creativity is
gonna be enabled. Yeah, creativity only comes with
a call in mind or not necessarily.
Sometimes creativity also comes from chaos.
(37:30):
I mean, I would argue that most of us prefer having creativity
from from a calm. Yeah, I mean to to be, I mean to
also be consistently creative, you need to need a system.
It can't be just, it can't be just in case, just just by the
heck of it or just by chance something happens.
And that's, I mean, that's also creative that you by mistake end
up doing something. But then again, that won't let
(37:51):
you lead a successful restaurantbusiness, at least the economic
part. I mean, you could make a very
sustainable dish, but at the endof the day, if you do not know
how much it is costing you, if it's actually better to compost
it rather than creating that somebody with your egg shells, I
do not know. I mean, that's that's tools like
yours and systems like yours which would help it.
And I feel what I find very noble about your your idea in
this, in this, in this, in this tool that you're creating is
(38:12):
that it makes it democratizes a lot of this tech.
Because again, as you said, riskCarlton can't afford to have
these systems married can affordto have these systems.
But I feel the tools that you'recreating and people who are who
have lived it within the system and not doing as a consultant,
as as a tech consultant or as a future strategist.
You're doing it somebody who is you, who has faced these
troubles, who has come up with asolution for it and something
(38:33):
that can enable these smaller single owner restaurants or a
small, smaller hotel chains, youknow, so I find that really
cool. But talking to you about this as
well, like I'm, I'm I'm guest listeners who are listening to
this would be wondering like, how does how does David do this?
But I would love to know your take on how's life right now
compared to your. I mean, I know that right now
you're also doing your consultant work, which I guess,
(38:55):
I guess is very demanding. But when you see these two sides
of your, of your life, one is creating this tech tool, talking
to restaurants, maybe doing marketing pitches for it, making
decks for it, solving everyday issues with it or being a chef.
Would you say 1 path is easier than the other, requires
different skills? How how do you see yourself in
those two roles? I mean.
Of course, I have the chef's side, I have the entrepreneur
(39:17):
side. And honestly, it's, I've been
like incorporating a lot of tools that allow me to be more
efficient with my work flows andall the objectives that I want
to achieve in terms of my professional career.
I love progress, I love learning.
(39:37):
I definitely don't frame things as hard or as easy.
I think everything requires the time it requires.
I think that anything that you want to be able to value
requires time investment, requires focus, requires
intention. So to answer your question, I
(39:58):
mean of course some things I lack some knowledge around how
to do it, the technical side forexample, but.
I mean, I'm just like using all the tools and my network that I
have at hand to be able to achieve it in the most
meaningful and intentional way. As I mentioned to you before,
like, I don't want to like launch this like like a big way
(40:20):
until it has the results that wewant to for it to have, right?
So we're taking our time, we're building with intention, we're
building with focus and we don'twant to rush, we don't want to
like be like a marketing scheme and we sell this huge.
I mean, you see this all the time on social media, right?
(40:41):
Like this new AI tool that will change your life.
You sign up for the wait list, it's not even ready yet, right?
They make you pay. It's not even ready yet.
I mean, I mean, fair, fair. That's a good marketing, a
strategy to to validate your idea and but like, if later
you're not going to deliver on that and you just did that
(41:03):
because you noticed like there was a pain point and you took
advantage of that. I mean, that's not being very
transparent and very, yeah, honorable in your career, right?
So I mean that that will be the answer to my to your question.
Like what's yeah, what's hard oreasy?
Like for me, it's just about giving each pass the time it
requires without rush, being patient with it, learning
(41:26):
through the process. I mean, I kind of give it a
rush, right, Because I feel thisis something that will be
impactful for the industry. And that's like my my motivation
and the reason why I want to do this.
But like, I know things like time, good things like time.
(41:46):
Yeah, no, fair enough. I mean you've got to prioritize
at least as you said, it has to take the time it has to take.
But again, putting your priorities and knowing where
best you could do at that point.I think it's it's also like
being being ready, knowing the right time for it.
And also, as you said, like testing something before, just
making noise about it, adding pressure onto yourself, which is
not required. You can yourself mark your KPIs
(42:07):
and your own goals that you wantto reach and then make it ready
for public. So I find that very honorable,
as you said. And lastly, David, I would like
to ask you, like if anybody elsewho's listening to this podcast
as a chef wants to get into entrepreneurship or tech or
something related, what kind of advice would you give to them?
Like maybe some early lessons that you learned by by failing
at them or by struggling to, to get past those barriers?
(42:29):
What would you say to somebody who's has these these ideas?
Don't wait for people to teach you something when you can learn
it yourself. We're in an area and where all
the information is available to you.
Even with AI you can like learn so much faster.
Theory is something, reality is something else, right?
(42:51):
That's another advice I'm going to give.
Even though you might know a lot, if you don't put it to the
practice, if you don't put it toexecution, like you're not going
to know, Don't be, don't be. I mean, this is like a cliche,
but fail as much as you can. Take those risks because if
(43:11):
you're not comfortable somewherelike why are you there in the
1st place, right when you have alot of potential?
You might be you might be here and when you make the decision
to change, you might go down here, but it was your decision
and honor that right? Honor it and be disciplined
about where you want to go. Like it it like if you're going
(43:32):
to take a career decision and then don't invest in it, like
what the fuck are you doing? Like, you know, I'm sorry for
using those words, but if you'regoing to if you're going to like
decide to change something aboutyour career because you're not
comfortable somewhere, like invest in it, do the most you
can to be able to achieve that goal.
(43:54):
And if you fail, believe me, you're going to be somewhere
else. You're not going to be here.
You might be here, but like the outcome might not be the one
that you expected. And honestly, just trust
yourself, trust in your abilities, see where you can add
value. Like for me, early on, I noticed
that I had a very like a skill to be able to grab big problems
(44:20):
and bring in some other solutions, right?
I always had that vision. It repeated itself throughout my
career. Even with simple restaurant
operations like managing like, Idon't know, cutting, thoughtful,
I've noticed ways to do it bit more effectively.
And it's just noted. So I always have that in me.
I've noticed it throughout my career.
(44:40):
So pay attention to yourself. Also pay attention to your
skills, to your unique traits, because that's gonna allow you
to be successful in the way you're meant to be successful.
Yeah. Yeah, wise words, man.
I mean, it's it's it's very, it's very ironic.
Like all of all of the people who I asked this question
towards the end. And like this is just me
reflecting right now. As you said, like everybody says
(45:01):
the same that do not wait. Because a lot of a lot of you
out there who have interviewed on the podcast, have people
been, I mean, maybe we are not like the first ones who had this
idea to do something or we were not the first ones who thought,
you know, I could do something outside kitchens.
But we were the ones who made who made that move.
Because dreams without actions are just, are just dreams.
You can share and complain. Your reality is, is far from
what you would like it to be. But as you said, you have to,
(45:23):
you have to fight for that, thatdream or that reality that you
perceive in your future. So thanks so much, man.
I would, I would recommend everybody to like, I will drop
your links in the show notes andrecommend everybody to join
there. Hit the link and buy or join the
circle that we are creating. We are creating a community
basically where we have not justpeople like you because you guys
have already figured out how to,how to get, how to get where you
want to get. There might be a lot of people
(45:44):
out there who have these potential ideas who just a few
words from you from the last endof the podcast, the words that
you've said, maybe give somebodythe, the, the skills to or the
the guts to go out there and say, you know what, I'm going to
make this first step because David did it.
He passed out of this culinary school three years ago.
So why can't I? And that's the whole point of
this podcast. But David, I mean, thank you for
sharing your story. It's from kitchens to
(46:05):
consultancy to tech and what you're doing right now for
reminding us also that chefs canchange the industry from many
angles, not just by being insidethe kitchen.
So, so we will link as I said, everything and thanks once again
for being on the podcast. Thank you for the invite.
And once again, thank you for making this space to share our
stories. And I mean, we don't know what
our actions mean to other people, and we don't know what
(46:27):
our actions impact in other people's lives.
So doing this, putting it out there, like, you're gonna see,
like a lot of people are gonna like, start changing their
mindset. And I think that's the goal and
I hope this happens. Definitely man, Fingers crossed.
Thanks so much.
So hello everyone, and welcome back to Fugitive Chef's podcast,
the show about chefs and food, people who have left traditional
kitchens to create new models ofcreativity, of business and of
their own life and work balance.So today's guest is David
Castro, a former chef turned restaurant consultant and the
founder of Food Hub, which is a SAS.
SAS, for those who do not know, it's a very tech term.
I think it's software as a service from what I understand
(00:21):
his business and he basically helps restaurants build better
operational systems. So David's career spans from
everything from starting here atBasconnity Center, where I'm
recording from now and working at kitchens to food joints.
And now he's tackling this very important question that every
chef eventually faces. How do we fix the system from
the inside out? So from people who've been
inside, how do you make tools that that fix the system?
(00:43):
And that's actually what attracted me to to speak to
David. I saw his post on LinkedIn.
I recommend everybody to follow him.
He makes these small tutorials, small videos, very personal,
very, very, very real from what I see.
And they share, they share a lotabout your everyday
calculations, everyday management on on how to be
somebody who's more efficient. So yeah, with all that
(01:04):
introduction, welcome to the Welcome to the podcast, David.
Thank you for calling. I appreciate the invite.
As I was telling you before, it's important to have this
spaces to share so that people understand that in this
industry, you don't need to be acoup.
You don't need to be only a chef.
You have skills that you can addvalue to other areas and of
course bring change to and more appreciation to what a chef
(01:26):
needs, you know? Yeah, exactly, exactly.
I precisely the team you're trying to hit with the podcast
and yeah, nice to know that it connects with your with your own
personal journey, David. So first of all, I would love to
know before we dig into what is food hub, what you're doing
right now, where you're right now.
Let's talk about how did you start in food?
At what point did food as a cardio come into your mind?
How was your yeah early connections to food like?
(01:46):
Yeah, so it started very early in my life.
Honestly, I was a very hyperactive kid and my mom will
like try to put me into summer camps to like just put my energy
somewhere else. And one of those summer camps,
one time she put me in a cookingin a cooking summer.
(02:08):
What happened? She noticed that when I was
cooking, I was calm, I was focused.
I was like 5 years old at this point Still.
I still remember like that summer camp, I still remember we
made some empanadas, we made some like tortillas that I think
that was the first kind of interaction with cooking for me.
From that I just fell in love with it, honestly.
(02:31):
I remember instead of watching cartoons or instead of watching,
I don't know, video games, I waswatching cake balls.
I was watching just like food channels.
I was writing down recipes. I was trying them out.
Of course, some of some of them were awful.
Some of them were better. But I feel, I feel that was the
(02:51):
first interaction with food in my life.
My parents later on when I was around, I would say 1412, they
decided to sign me up to an actual certificate to become
like a pastry and pastry. I'm the lingerie chef, OK.
(03:14):
I went to a course, it was like 7 months long.
I was doing it while I was stillin high school and that was like
the first professional certificate that I got, I would
say as a, as a kook from there. I mean, I was just very clear
for me since that first interaction that I wanted to
(03:38):
like, dedicate myself to culinary aspects.
But it's also very cool, right? Because not many parents I know
who would be like very supportive of kitchen as a
career. So for your parents to see like
send you there in high school, because I know many parents
myself like focus on high schoolin India, for example, grades
are super important. It's very, yeah, very much about
get the grades. So you'd know any other
(03:58):
distraction in that case. I feel they saw something very
young into you. And it's cool that you, you got
to, yeah, see at such a young age, get some sort of
professional education into intopastry, right?
Yes, yes. I mean, I was very
entrepreneurial also. And I remember in primary school
I was selling cookie. I was selling like ravioli
cakes, cupcakes. I was the guy like if you wanted
(04:20):
to make like a celebration, you came to me and I like gave you a
cake or even professors will like order and stuff and people
and. This is Mexico, right?
Yeah, this is in Mexico. I remember people Remember Me as
like just selling always around food, like they always used to
Remember Me like that. I would say the moment I decided
(04:41):
to seriously pursue this career was when I went to the US in an
exchange year. It was like my second solo trip
and I was there for 11 months. It was like an exchange program
and I was hosted by a couple of families.
(05:02):
And what happened is that like my family from Colombia and from
Mexico, and we're very rooted around the table, like cooking
and having a lot of like social interaction around food, right?
But in US, it was like a shock for me because like, families
there don't really cook. They eat out a lot.
(05:22):
And I decided to do that job formy family being like the person
cooking and the person bringing everyone around the table.
And I fell in love with that. I mean, from that moment, I was
17, from that moment on, I started looking for
universities. I saw the CIA in New York, I saw
(05:43):
basketball night center. And honestly, like the moment I
saw Vascular United Centre, I just, I was like, I want to go
there. I know the option, I want to go
there. I'm going to go through the
application process. This was like my junior year of
high school. And what's it about the program
like, Because this is also very interesting because a lot of lot
of chefs, I mean, depends on your budget, depends where in
the world you are, depends how accessible these things are for
(06:05):
you. What is it that that attracted
you all said? You know why I want to go to
Spain? Is it the location?
Is it what did you did you know people who had studied over
there or what was it for you? At my first job, I worked with a
chef who started with Lucy Azar in San Sebastian.
I was 16. I was 16 at the time.
I was literally a lion coop. And I'd say he had a lot of
(06:25):
influence in me making that decision also because I mean,
you know how gastronomy is living in San Sebastian.
It's right. It's in the, it's in the blood.
Like everybody like knows something about food, something
about an ingredient. Like people are super proud of
their culinary and just their cultural heritage around food,
(06:49):
right? And that was number one, I would
say #2 I would say in terms of price and value.
Last Culinary Center had like a very good offer because they had
the chefs. They had like a new program
designed not only for for you tobecome a cook, but it gave you
more, a bigger scope for you to be in the culinary airspace, but
(07:16):
not necessarily open a restaurant and be a chef, right?
They just gave me a lot of opportunities and I really like
that. And #3 I would say it was just
international. It was just like I expected to
be in a place with a lot of inputs of a lot of people from
(07:37):
many places. And I saw this in Vascular Nerve
Center. It's something that I feel that
if you want to be a good chef, if you want to be a good cook,
at the time, I felt like you should understand other people's
cultures. And I think that in Vascular
Nerve Center, this was the case and I met people from China and
the people from India and they people from many, many places.
(07:59):
And that's something that wasn'tlike intensive for me to go to
basketball essentially. Yep.
Right. And how was it?
Because it's very interesting you said about gastronomy, you
know, because most people go to culinary art schools.
I mean, the, the offer they giveat CIA also is a very culinary
focused degree. And so are many, many career
paths to become a chef. And as the one at BCC is a is a
degree in gastronomy because of the fourth year or the third
(08:20):
year, you can specialize into food service, you can go into,
to, to R&D, you can go to being into culinary vanguard.
But for you today, from where you stand, how much of that
education has been useful? Also your perception because
this is something because I've not studied over there, but I
still work at the same same company.
For me, it's very interesting because still I feel as somebody
(08:41):
who works at Basket Center and Ihope nobody working there is
listening. Hopefully as it is in English, I
think my listeners will not be so many from Basket Center, but
I'm sometimes very often questioning that.
Of course, the culinary side is very, very strong.
And I mean the the word culinaryis in the name.
All the patrons are all the people who are in the in the
board are all chefs are all chefs like Arsaka, Kellar,
(09:03):
Pedro, Soviana, Noni Alois, etc.And everybody when they graduate
the graduation, some ceremony isin a chef coat.
So this makes me feel that they are yes, preparing you for this
360 gastronomy that everything is the kitchen is not the
beginning and end of everything.But there are many careers out
of there. And I know that every year more
people passing out of BCC, Very few of them are actually ending
(09:24):
up working at kitchens or staying in kitchens for the next
five years after graduating. How do you see that perception
into the influence of the chef jacket or the influence of of
the whole cook mentality? Like do you think that is a is a
good representation of other careers out of gastronomy or I
feel personally, the cook is a very overpowering.
I don't know if it's good for the brand or if it's easier to
(09:44):
to sell as a course. How do you see that reflection
after being after having left the the the the program?
I don't know. How many years ago did you
finish your degree? Finish three years ago.
Three years ago, say that thing that you're saying around that
they have the chefs that sponsored the school and that
they promote the school with theimages of the chefs.
(10:06):
I think it's just like a marketing tactic, honestly.
And also it's speaking directly to their target audience, right?
Because when you start in the vasculinary center, your level
of consciousness around not consciousness, but understanding
around gastronomy and the world of gastronomy is very narrow.
(10:26):
Then this was my entering into the vascular center.
I mean, because like when you enter there, you're like, I
wanna like be a Michelin star chef.
I want to innovative stuff. I want to make people feel with
my food, have a complete sensorial experience.
That was like, maybe it's different now, I should say,
(10:47):
because now social media and like just the interaction with
food is different. People have like more inputs
around it. But at the time, 2017, this was
a very good marketing tactic to speak to their card audience, to
sign up for the program, right? I should say that what
(11:07):
Bassettner Center gave me, it's this mindset and this paradigm
shift around what it means to bea chef, what it means to be a
coup, what it means to work in hospitality.
It just gives you like a very broad scope around the potential
of you being like a professionalin this industry, yes.
(11:28):
Yeah, makes sense. I mean, I completely understand.
I mean, I think it's, it's very correct what you say about the
whole whole idea of marketing, narrowing it down your audience
as much as possible. And then of course getting them
into the course and then showingthem, you know, there are more
possibilities. You don't need to be the next
Davis Munoz. There is more more carriers out
there which which you can explore with your knowledge of
the culinary side of things. And tell us a little about what
(11:50):
kind of restaurants did you workin before you go into your
current career setup? Like what was the first few
restaurants, what did you learn from them, and what have you
kept from them into your currentbusiness?
Yeah, so I work in not so many restaurants honestly.
Like I, I work in Bodegaon, Alejandro.
It's I, I'm sure you know, it's a little, yeah, 80 pack
restaurant in the Parte Vieja and San Sebastian.
(12:15):
That was a tough job, honestly. Like I, I used to work there
maybe 20 to 14 hours, 2 hour break and we would start at 8:00
AM, finish around 12. Summertime.
It was like crazy cuz like we were just four people in the
kitchen, four people, sometimes 3 and we would serve like 80
(12:36):
people like Menudo Gustacion, sometimes a la Carta.
It's it's like, what did I learnfrom that?
I would say the menu, how they designed it was very simplistic
and it was very rooted in the product.
They didn't, they did not overcomplicate like the
production process or the plating.
(12:56):
It was very simple, very fruitful and respectful to the
ingredient. Yeah.
I mean, that's pretty much what I learned at that experience.
I also learned the toughness of being a cook because like, the
kitchen was like, so when you goto the restaurant, you go down
right in the part that, yeah, and it's already humid.
(13:19):
And to go to the kitchen, it's another level down.
Yeah. And and The Who at that
restaurant did not work very well and the drains didn't like.
I don't know if I can say this but.
You can, yeah. I mean, for for those who don't
know, it's it's the restaurant run by Exo Group, which is the
group behind Mughal. It's also a lot of clients.
When I was working in Mughal, weused to send them like they used
(13:39):
to say, where can we go to eat next day?
And we used to mostly send them to Alejandro.
But yeah, you, you keep going. I don't think they're listening
to the podcast. All right, all right.
I mean, I should say not that not the best conditions to work
at. I I like, I was like the floor
was wet all the time. It was hot and the labor intense
was high. Like the intensity of the labor
(14:01):
was high. I actually got injured.
I mean, I'm, I'm, I'm like a, I mean workaholic in a way.
I used, I used to like go there in my break.
I will go to the gym and then from the gym I will go back to
my, I will not rest. It was like 8:00 AM and I got
injured because of that. I didn't, I did not let let my
(14:22):
like body rest completely. I was just like blindly
motivated, you know, it was my, my first professional
experience. I wanted to do my best and I
mean, I feel that sometimes whenyou're that naive, people take
advantage of you, right? Because I mean, they take
(14:44):
advantage of you, but you also learn a lot.
So it's like a. Definitely, yeah.
It's a give and take at the end of the day.
A give and take. It's a trade you need to do.
But I should say from that experience I learned what I just
shared and I also learned just the importance of having cuz I
(15:05):
would say the chef and the people there were very motivated
and very supportive around the service.
We really were a team. We had great familia all the
time. I really appreciated that
experience. That was one restaurant.
Next restaurant I worked at Cosina Monosores in Barcelona.
(15:25):
Complete completely like black and white.
Yeah. Black and white casino monosores
is probably the best kitchen I've seen in I mean in like a
restaurant scale size type of kitchen, right?
It was just like the kitchen wasbigger than the whole like each
(15:46):
section had their own walking and their own freezer.
They have like a central kitchen.
They had like 3 stations. The way it was designed, it was
super easy to give service because like service will come
for the first 3 appetizers in the next three and then maybe
the next three and then desserts.
(16:06):
It was like a, it was like an L It was designed like an L in the
kitchen and it was just like a perfect workflow.
Some dishes were finished in the.
We call them Islas Island. Yeah, yeah.
Just like little kitchen segments in the middle of the
hall. Some dishes were finished there
as a show cooking. It was like a great business
(16:29):
model because the chefs there also had like a lot of followers
on social media. From them I learned the leverage
like social media can give you for the success of your.
They will get like everything sponsored.
It was insane. Like the fish, the crab, like
most of their proteins were sponsored.
(16:50):
They would not pay for it just to use the brand of a company.
I mean they were very profitablebecause of that.
I mean, of course the G or somebody had like, I mean they
had a lot of employees, but theyalso had a lot of as a youth,
right. I think it's something that it's
very frequent in Michelin style restaurants, right?
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah, to make the operation feasible, they need more hands
(17:12):
because the processes in the kitchen need a lot of detail in
it. I also worked at Fujio in Mexico
City. I should say this was a
restaurant in where I saw the most precision and the most
there was super discipline around how things should be.
(17:33):
Like if if the sauce was not a specific texture, they will
throw it away. If the Bernard's was not
consistent, they will throw it away.
Even even if you have like 90% of it perfect, if it was not
like perfect, they will throw itaway.
It was super. Yeah.
It was just like the culture there.
It was, it was like a very serious environment, I should
say. But something very noticeable
(17:55):
around Peugeot is that at least 60% of the people working there
were 30 years again, again, going back into operational
feasibility for Russian and profitability, I should say,
like Peugeot, if it was like a real restaurant with real
employees, it would not be profitable because of the amount
of like hands that they need to to be able to deliver the volume
(18:19):
that they deliver and the quality that they deliver.
Because something that was very shocking about Fujio is that
everything's prepared from scratch the same day.
OK, except for some sauces like the mullet, but everything
arrives like at 4:00 AM a drop. They bring everything fresh.
(18:40):
They only prefer for that day. And they don't store like they
they don't really have like storage and pujo in the kitchen,
which is crazy to think they have like a like a small walk in
and where they store like stuff for to make some salsas, but
that's pretty much it. And the Oja Santa, because they
use a lot of Oja Santa in there in the tortillas.
(19:05):
Yeah, I should say that was experience.
Of course, I made a lot of connections there.
I actually met one of the I met one person, a Korean friend.
He actually was a very importantrole in my professional career.
I was sharing a little bit of why, but I should say that the
(19:27):
most valuable thing that I got from working on those
restaurants is just meeting the people who work there, making
genuine connections. Because I mean, you're in the
same boat, right? You're working the same hours,
you are just doing the same task.
You you truly make connections with people there because, I
(19:48):
mean, you're going through it together and that's what's
meaningful when working. Of course, people might have
different experiences than mine.I never had like a bad
experience in the kitchen. But I should say that's what I
the good thing that I got from from working at at reference
that our missions are level. Yeah.
Yeah. I mean, it's crazy.
I mean, what are you speaking about?
And already we see, we already see through your conversations
(20:10):
of like we know so far that you've studied at the Bascarin
Center. You you studied before that
while while living in Mexico, your early exposure to food
itself as a as a profession. And then now you speak about the
restaurants that you worked at and and while you speak and
explain them, we already see that how you're seeing them in a
very different way. I don't think everybody who
walks in into a mono store rest sees the brand deals or sees the
organization of the restaurant, how it helps it yeah, smoothly
(20:32):
work. But was there a certain point
that you remember that you were working at these kitchens,
having these passive thoughts of, of this could be done better
or there are one, there's one use case done better than the
other one. At what point did you think that
this could be your profession today?
Like what was this? What led to this transformation
journey? So when I finished all my
internships in bathroom night center my third year, I had to
(20:56):
stop my education because of COVID and Trump.
I I start my education and I hadto be here in Mexico because of
COVID. What happened during that year?
I opened my bakery. I opened a bakery.
I was like a entrepreneur of a bakery here with the dog kitchen
and delivered to restaurants andfew years and people.
(21:18):
I live in a neighborhood where we have 900 houses worth my
market literally and people willappreciate because it was COVID.
You're getting like good qualityred and I would deliver the
quality there for that. Why did that project fail?
Because from my experience in like working like, I should say,
Michelin star restaurants, I knew how to, like, operate
(21:39):
properly, but not necessarily how to manage and scale a
business, right? OK.
It was me doing everything. It was me doing everything.
And I never had the vision of like, gating.
I never had the vision of like systematizing.
It was just me doing very artisanal processes because I
believe that was the way to likecreate the best bread possible
(22:02):
for my client. I was sold to that idea.
It come to a point where it was a bottleneck and I was just
working too much hours. I was waking up 4:30 AM working
until 10 PMI. From production to marketing to
dealing with clients delivery, just like processing next day,
(22:25):
next day or preparing for the next day production.
I mean, you know, a sourdough takes 36 hours to make, right?
And it starts on like feeding your sourdough for it to get
ready. It was just like AI was like
dealing with madness at that at that point.
And I got burned out. I got burned out.
And what did I learn from that? The systems are the key to, of
(22:48):
course, organizing, failing, being able to delegate properly,
documenting everything. I mean, I did not do it at the
time, but I had the chance to doit.
And this where my Korean friend comes in.
So I stopped the bakery around May 2021.
I was like sad that the, I mean,the business was going good, but
(23:09):
I was just turned out I couldn'tlike keep going.
I was just me, and I mean, I wasworking by myself.
It got lonely, right? It got very lonely.
So I wanted a little change. I wanted a little change.
And my third internship got cancelled.
This is an important data point.Because of COVID.
I was going to go to Japan, but it got cancelled.
(23:30):
OK. It was good.
So I had that little stitch in my heart of like, I want to go
to Asia 1-2. Yeah, yeah, Yeah.
So during this time, May 2021, I'm like D Ming people to see
where I can work. I'm D Ming bakeries in the
Netherlands. I'm D Ming bakeries in Spain
because I, I tell them to finishthe bachelor center.
It's like I have one year left. But in the meantime between May
(23:54):
and September of going back to San Sebastian to finish my
university, I'm like looking foropportunities to, to work.
So I text my Korean friend. He's back in, He worked in Puyo
for two years, but now he's backin Korea also because of COVID
and he won. He started his like guacamole
company, right? He started his guacamole
(24:15):
company. He's selling vacuum seal
guacamole in Korean markets. But I text him and I'm like,
hey, brother, like if you need help with some R&D like making
menus and stuff like that, I mean, I'm down.
Like if you tell me, I go there and we work together and he's
like, you know what? I'm actually thinking on opening
my restaurant. So I and it's going to be a
Mexican restaurant because like,of course, his background is
(24:38):
super funny because he was an architect.
He was studying architecture in Berkeley in California.
He tried, he tried a Taco and hewas like folk architecture.
I'm studying astronomy. I love Mexican food.
He quit Berkeley and he went to a university in Mexico to study
astronomy in Mexico. He started working in Pugo.
(24:59):
Crazy. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And he invited me to open his restaurant, Right.
And this is like the first eye opening experience for me
because it's like, wow, I can sell my knowledge.
I mean, he paid me like nothing.Like I think it was like 1000
bucks and like or 2000 bucks forlike a yeah, yeah 4 month
(25:20):
service. But I was like happy to go to
like Korea and help him open hisMexican restaurant because I'm
Mexican. It was like I'm in the Assadora
of my culture or my 29. So I.
I, I go there without a single idea on how to open a
restaurant, But like my friend hires me just to help him with
the menu, right? Even though like everything was
(25:44):
in Korean, I was, I was able to grasp the process of opening a
restaurant. It was super eye opening for me
because I noticed there are moreareas to consider, right?
In terms of like infrastructure,in terms of like like
operational efficiency, in termsof your many design, how you
(26:07):
structure your like the spaces in where you serve the fruit for
more profitability marketing side of things, storytelling.
He had like a partner. He started cinematography in
California. He was like insanely good at
storytelling. Like he will capture Mexican
(26:27):
culture so good. And he would just frame it in a
way that makes it extrudeous andKorean people would love it.
So So that experience was super,I should say eye opening as I
just mentioned, but I just learned a lot.
I just learned a lot and it gaveme the foundations to start my
(26:48):
consulting company. I saw literally the process from
having an idea and building a brick and mortar from scratch
first hand. David, I wanted to ask you like
what are you currently building like hearing all the
experiences? Like I would be very interested
to know, like what are you currently building at Food Hub
beyond the consultation, the tools you're making and
(27:09):
primarily I would say, what kindof problems are you solving
through, through what you currently do?
So from that moment on, we went also to Harvard to do a
research. There I learned a lot of like
statistic tactics to be more efficient in terms of building
systems experimentation. I mean, it was a totally
different research in terms it was like food science when I was
(27:31):
in Harvard. But I learned a lot of tools
that allow me to be more efficient and effective.
Right. OK.
After Harvard, we have been doing a lot of consulting in
many countries. We were in Galapagos, we were in
Guayaquil in Ecuador, we were inSan Diego, CA, we were in Mexico
City, and now we're here in Cancun, Mexico.
(27:51):
We helped a hotel open in Galapagos.
We helped a bakery open in Guayaquil, Ecuador.
We helped the restaurant open inSan Diego, CA.
We helped the restaurant open inMexico City, and we helped
Fitness Bar open here in Cancun.And now we're working with
boutique hotels with three restaurants.
OK, our services have been evolving a lot.
(28:14):
Firstly was the many design, operational and kitchen.
Now we are at a stage in where we have three main services.
As consultants, we create projects from scratch.
We innovate projects, which means improving the offer and
your operation and whistle, which means like creating like
(28:34):
systems structure to be able to copy paste your restaurant,
right? Like almost like a franchise
building your franchise model, right?
Yeah. What are we building from all of
those learning all of those projects?
We've identified the biggest problem in the restaurant
industry. I'm sure you're familiar with
it. Inconsistency.
(28:55):
Inconsistency is the biggest problem in the Russian industry
because of many reasons, right? Maybe your cooks are not work
well trained, Maybe your cooks, your sorry, your service, you
have a lot of turnover. So your service is not
consistent, right? The plating, some cooks put it
this way, some other cooks put it that way.
This is on, I mean, Michelin star, it's something different,
(29:18):
right? Michelin star, it's another
category of restaurants because they just have a lot of pants
and they just have people with alot of knowledge around culinary
processes. It's a total different model.
But for an independent restaurant owner, for a local
restaurant, it's super different, right?
Because you're literally operating with tight margins.
(29:39):
You're operating with people with not so much culinary
knowledge. It's just people who decided to
be a cook, decided to be a server and they're like doing
their professional career there.Sometimes they don't even have
education, right? They don't have a background in
culinary. They don't have a background in
any type of like university. I mean, not the case always, but
it's the most common theme in all the world.
(30:02):
I mean, maybe I'm exaggerating here, but I would say all the
world, right? So yeah, the main problem is
inconsistency. And why?
Because restaurants don't have systems and they don't know how
to build the systems properly, right?
You've heard before manual operations for my restaurant is
going to solve my inconsistency issues and that's not the case.
Like have you seen a cook readerread like a manual operations
(30:25):
ever in your whole career? No, no.
No, I mean no. It's something that it's not.
I mean, it can't happen, but right?
Some reference to. Yeah, but it's a habit at the
end of the day. I mean, you need to like really,
you need to be really behind somebody's ass.
And is it then worth spending that much time if the person is
reading the manual? I mean, it has to be something
(30:46):
more obvious than reading an SOP.
Right. I mean, some franchises, they
have their own internal systems,their own internal tech to
manage their operations, to train their staff, to control
their like daily execution to ensure that the standard, it's
at a certain level, right? We're pretty much building a
(31:06):
tool that would allow all restaurants have this level of
operational excellence, right? The design of this tool, it's of
course built from the experiencethat we had opening multiple
restaurants. And it comes from the experience
of noting, noticing the patternsof a successful restaurant,
right? I mean, you can just see
Chick-fil-A, right? It's they, they focus on
(31:30):
hospitality of fast food hospitality and fast food and
systems, right? They close on Sundays and
they're the most profitable likefast food chain store in the US,
which is the thing. They are not open 24/7, right?
Why? I mean, we just, we've been able
to recognize of course from studying, from opening, from
(31:52):
seeing patterns of what the sexual restaurants do.
And of course like to an independent restaurant owner who
is stuck in the operation, who is stuck in dealing with
turnover, who is stuck with retraining their staff, who is
stuck with dealing high like high profits.
It's hard for them to be able tobuild those systems, right.
(32:14):
And it's like a vicious cycle. It's like a vicious cycle,
right? Sometimes as an owner, you get
motivated, you start building systems, you create check paper
checklist. You try to train your staff.
Your staff like gets it a littlebit.
They start using the checklist, but then your staff leaves.
On average, 70% of Russian staffrotate.
So imagine like the vicious cycle that this is like how, how
(32:38):
would you be able to scale your restaurant?
How are you going to be able to organize your restaurant if
you're doing everything yourselfmanually, if all the knowledge
is in your head, If, if the current tools that exist are all
fragmented, right? Because like that's, I mean,
like an average restaurant owner, you go with him.
Like you pray that they have recipes.
That's the number one and like you pray that they have like
(33:01):
some sort of organization, whichis not the case.
And the reasons why they don't have that is because the reasons
I just mentioned, right, becauseof this vicious cycle.
So we're creating a tool that would allow you to get those
systems in a very seamless way and we're working very hard to
be able to do that. Like our goal is for a Russian
owner to get our tool and in onemonth time have all their
(33:22):
systems organized. Of course this tool have the
like a pre build architecture oflike the natural of restaurant
operations and that comes from our knowledge of building
restaurants. So it's going to be a tool that
is going to be very easy to use,easy to implement, but we're not
going to launch until we have a product that delivers.
(33:43):
That's super cool. I mean, I think at the end of
the day, as you said, it's it's it's less about control, less
about thinking the old school way where one person has to do
all of this. But I think making tech your
friend and using, using all that's going on in tech right
now to, to, to, I think I think a tool like this or a software
like this can help like the other people in the kitchen who
are not maybe the head chef or not maybe the owner become more
collaborative into things that they can do natural in the
(34:05):
natural flow of things. Maybe you could put systems
where where it could be a collaborative effort to do this,
you know, but in all of this, I see so that a lot of a lot of
kitchen staff is is young, but there's also a very aging side
to it. So on that case of things, how
do you see like the tech side ofthings and the human creativity?
Because again, a lot of things can be tech.
Like, I mean, a Chick-fil-A or McDonald's can be, can be made
(34:26):
tech and standardized because they do not have to be creative
constantly. They, they're actually supposed
to be consistent. That's their order of, of
business. But how do you think can these
two sides of the game, like creativity and and tech coexist
or do you see the rivals of eachother?
How do you see that into into current restaurant systems?
It's, it's funny you say that because I feel that we also have
(34:47):
like this dichotomy of seeing creativity being something that
is against tech, right? We feel that tech doesn't allow
us to be creative. I feel the, I feel the opposite.
I feel the opposite, right. I was just going to go into
that. Our goal with this tool, it's
the following for chefs. We want to enable creativity
(35:10):
because why do a chef become less creative because he's too
worried on daily operations? What if you have a tool that
allows you to streamline your operation without you having to
worry about it? You're gonna, you're gonna have
more headspace to be more creative, to be more strategic,
to actually measure the things that push the restaurant
forward, right. And then for a general manager,
(35:33):
what's the most important thing as a general manager, bringing
the best customer experience possible to your guests.
Again, if your staff is well trained, they know the systems,
they know the pro call, and theycan be trained seamlessly.
Like you're going to be more focused in bringing a better
experience and not so worry about somebody like making a
(35:55):
mistake during service or, I don't know, not knowing how to
manage a customer complaint. They're always going to be
customer complaints. But you have a structure and a
training and where that's in place.
I mean you can see it in the best hotels in the world, right?
Ritz Carlton, like they literally have pre built systems
(36:17):
on how to deal with this thing at even to an extreme point.
And where like, for example, theRitz Carlton, they have like a
$2000 like sort of like safeguard to deal with customer
complaints to solve the issue. It's like they know the model.
They know how to bring great hospitality, great culinary
(36:40):
experience. And they know like that they
need to build systems to be ableto do that.
And that's what makes, I mean, and, and like the opposite of
like what makes a restaurant successful compared to what
makes a restaurant fail. Inconsistency is what makes it
fail. What makes it succeed.
It's consistency in their brand and their concept in the
delivery of the service. And I mean, going back to your
(37:05):
question, I think creativity is not gonna be something that is
gonna stop because of this tool.Our vision is that creativity is
gonna be enabled. Yeah, creativity only comes with
a call in mind or not necessarily.
Sometimes creativity also comes from chaos.
(37:30):
I mean, I would argue that most of us prefer having creativity
from from a calm. Yeah, I mean to to be, I mean to
also be consistently creative, you need to need a system.
It can't be just, it can't be just in case, just just by the
heck of it or just by chance something happens.
And that's, I mean, that's also creative that you by mistake end
up doing something. But then again, that won't let
(37:51):
you lead a successful restaurantbusiness, at least the economic
part. I mean, you could make a very
sustainable dish, but at the endof the day, if you do not know
how much it is costing you, if it's actually better to compost
it rather than creating that somebody with your egg shells, I
do not know. I mean, that's that's tools like
yours and systems like yours which would help it.
And I feel what I find very noble about your your idea in
this, in this, in this, in this tool that you're creating is
(38:12):
that it makes it democratizes a lot of this tech.
Because again, as you said, riskCarlton can't afford to have
these systems married can affordto have these systems.
But I feel the tools that you'recreating and people who are who
have lived it within the system and not doing as a consultant,
as as a tech consultant or as a future strategist.
You're doing it somebody who is you, who has faced these
troubles, who has come up with asolution for it and something
(38:33):
that can enable these smaller single owner restaurants or a
small, smaller hotel chains, youknow, so I find that really
cool. But talking to you about this as
well, like I'm, I'm I'm guest listeners who are listening to
this would be wondering like, how does how does David do this?
But I would love to know your take on how's life right now
compared to your. I mean, I know that right now
you're also doing your consultant work, which I guess,
(38:55):
I guess is very demanding. But when you see these two sides
of your, of your life, one is creating this tech tool, talking
to restaurants, maybe doing marketing pitches for it, making
decks for it, solving everyday issues with it or being a chef.
Would you say 1 path is easier than the other, requires
different skills? How how do you see yourself in
those two roles? I mean.
Of course, I have the chef's side, I have the entrepreneur
(39:17):
side. And honestly, it's, I've been
like incorporating a lot of tools that allow me to be more
efficient with my work flows andall the objectives that I want
to achieve in terms of my professional career.
I love progress, I love learning.
(39:37):
I definitely don't frame things as hard or as easy.
I think everything requires the time it requires.
I think that anything that you want to be able to value
requires time investment, requires focus, requires
intention. So to answer your question, I
(39:58):
mean of course some things I lack some knowledge around how
to do it, the technical side forexample, but.
I mean, I'm just like using all the tools and my network that I
have at hand to be able to achieve it in the most
meaningful and intentional way. As I mentioned to you before,
like, I don't want to like launch this like like a big way
(40:20):
until it has the results that wewant to for it to have, right?
So we're taking our time, we're building with intention, we're
building with focus and we don'twant to rush, we don't want to
like be like a marketing scheme and we sell this huge.
I mean, you see this all the time on social media, right?
(40:41):
Like this new AI tool that will change your life.
You sign up for the wait list, it's not even ready yet, right?
They make you pay. It's not even ready yet.
I mean, I mean, fair, fair. That's a good marketing, a
strategy to to validate your idea and but like, if later
you're not going to deliver on that and you just did that
(41:03):
because you noticed like there was a pain point and you took
advantage of that. I mean, that's not being very
transparent and very, yeah, honorable in your career, right?
So I mean that that will be the answer to my to your question.
Like what's yeah, what's hard oreasy?
Like for me, it's just about giving each pass the time it
requires without rush, being patient with it, learning
(41:26):
through the process. I mean, I kind of give it a
rush, right, Because I feel thisis something that will be
impactful for the industry. And that's like my my motivation
and the reason why I want to do this.
But like, I know things like time, good things like time.
(41:46):
Yeah, no, fair enough. I mean you've got to prioritize
at least as you said, it has to take the time it has to take.
But again, putting your priorities and knowing where
best you could do at that point.I think it's it's also like
being being ready, knowing the right time for it.
And also, as you said, like testing something before, just
making noise about it, adding pressure onto yourself, which is
not required. You can yourself mark your KPIs
(42:07):
and your own goals that you wantto reach and then make it ready
for public. So I find that very honorable,
as you said. And lastly, David, I would like
to ask you, like if anybody elsewho's listening to this podcast
as a chef wants to get into entrepreneurship or tech or
something related, what kind of advice would you give to them?
Like maybe some early lessons that you learned by by failing
at them or by struggling to, to get past those barriers?
(42:29):
What would you say to somebody who's has these these ideas?
Don't wait for people to teach you something when you can learn
it yourself. We're in an area and where all
the information is available to you.
Even with AI you can like learn so much faster.
Theory is something, reality is something else, right?
(42:51):
That's another advice I'm going to give.
Even though you might know a lot, if you don't put it to the
practice, if you don't put it toexecution, like you're not going
to know, Don't be, don't be. I mean, this is like a cliche,
but fail as much as you can. Take those risks because if
(43:11):
you're not comfortable somewherelike why are you there in the
1st place, right when you have alot of potential?
You might be you might be here and when you make the decision
to change, you might go down here, but it was your decision
and honor that right? Honor it and be disciplined
about where you want to go. Like it it like if you're going
(43:32):
to take a career decision and then don't invest in it, like
what the fuck are you doing? Like, you know, I'm sorry for
using those words, but if you'regoing to if you're going to like
decide to change something aboutyour career because you're not
comfortable somewhere, like invest in it, do the most you
can to be able to achieve that goal.
(43:54):
And if you fail, believe me, you're going to be somewhere
else. You're not going to be here.
You might be here, but like the outcome might not be the one
that you expected. And honestly, just trust
yourself, trust in your abilities, see where you can add
value. Like for me, early on, I noticed
that I had a very like a skill to be able to grab big problems
(44:20):
and bring in some other solutions, right?
I always had that vision. It repeated itself throughout my
career. Even with simple restaurant
operations like managing like, Idon't know, cutting, thoughtful,
I've noticed ways to do it bit more effectively.
And it's just noted. So I always have that in me.
I've noticed it throughout my career.
(44:40):
So pay attention to yourself. Also pay attention to your
skills, to your unique traits, because that's gonna allow you
to be successful in the way you're meant to be successful.
Yeah. Yeah, wise words, man.
I mean, it's it's it's very, it's very ironic.
Like all of all of the people who I asked this question
towards the end. And like this is just me
reflecting right now. As you said, like everybody says
(45:01):
the same that do not wait. Because a lot of a lot of you
out there who have interviewed on the podcast, have people
been, I mean, maybe we are not like the first ones who had this
idea to do something or we were not the first ones who thought,
you know, I could do something outside kitchens.
But we were the ones who made who made that move.
Because dreams without actions are just, are just dreams.
You can share and complain. Your reality is, is far from
what you would like it to be. But as you said, you have to,
(45:23):
you have to fight for that, thatdream or that reality that you
perceive in your future. So thanks so much, man.
I would, I would recommend everybody to like, I will drop
your links in the show notes andrecommend everybody to join
there. Hit the link and buy or join the
circle that we are creating. We are creating a community
basically where we have not justpeople like you because you guys
have already figured out how to,how to get, how to get where you
want to get. There might be a lot of people
(45:44):
out there who have these potential ideas who just a few
words from you from the last endof the podcast, the words that
you've said, maybe give somebodythe, the, the skills to or the
the guts to go out there and say, you know what, I'm going to
make this first step because David did it.
He passed out of this culinary school three years ago.
So why can't I? And that's the whole point of
this podcast. But David, I mean, thank you for
sharing your story. It's from kitchens to
(46:05):
consultancy to tech and what you're doing right now for
reminding us also that chefs canchange the industry from many
angles, not just by being insidethe kitchen.
So, so we will link as I said, everything and thanks once again
for being on the podcast. Thank you for the invite.
And once again, thank you for making this space to share our
stories. And I mean, we don't know what
our actions mean to other people, and we don't know what
(46:27):
our actions impact in other people's lives.
So doing this, putting it out there, like, you're gonna see,
like a lot of people are gonna like, start changing their
mindset. And I think that's the goal and
I hope this happens. Definitely man, Fingers crossed.
Thanks so much.
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