Fuzzy Things in the Corner of the Kitchen
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Fuzzy Things in the Corner of the Kitchen
Light The Stove! (Reinventing One's Self After Failure)
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What happens when your dreams of running a successful restaurant shatter, leaving you to pick up the pieces? Join us as we share the candid stories of courageous chefs and restaurant owners who faced business failures and job losses, yet discovered opportunities for growth amidst adversity. Through personal narratives, we delve into the emotional impact of losing a cherished business and the identity crises that often follow. We promise you'll gain valuable insights into the importance of accountability, learning from past mistakes, and finding strength in mental health challenges.
Our exploration continues with the rollercoaster journey of a restaurant owner who battled the harsh realities of rapid business growth during a pandemic. Facing online criticism and operational chaos, they learned the hard way not to let others define their self-worth. Witness the transformative power of innovation as they carved a niche in the catering market, turning setbacks into stepping stones. This episode is a testament to the resilience required to stay vigilant over company operations and employee conduct, while maintaining loyalty and a clear perspective on business relationships.
Finally, we venture into the high-pressure world of wedding catering, uncovering why so many businesses shy away from these tumultuous events. Through a relatable and, at times, humorous narrative, we discuss the unreasonable demands, unpaid bills, and family dramas that caterers endure. Whether you're in the culinary field or not, these stories will encourage you to embrace change, learn from failure, and push forward with determination and creativity. Listen in for a dose of candid conversation and unwavering inspiration.
What should we talk about for the next episode? Do you have any questions? Please, let us know!
Hey guys, welcome back in, Welcome back our fellow fuzzies. I'm Chris. Over in the other shady corner is going to be Julie, and we got Kevin in the other corner across the kitchen. So we're all here ready to roll. And Kevin, Julie, what are we talking about?
Speaker 2:today I'm in the intense corner. Yeah, you know what, just leave me in the intense corner, I'll be fine. I will always bring intensity. Uh, today, you know, so a lot was going around, right, and there's like a lot of businesses going. You know restaurants going out of business, or you know unemployment with in our industry. Oh then it's pretty high unless you're going to take like a shit job and you're going to go work for some horrible people or whatever. So I thought today is the day of of reincarnation, right. So we're going to dive into evolution. You know how are, how are you evolving? But it's not going to be from a therapist standpoint, it's going to be more like from a fucking chef standpoint. I saw, I think that that's going to be great, you know and owner yeah, I was gonna say yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:One that usually says oh you know, yeah, here's the new thing, true, but I'm not.
Speaker 2:I'm not a typical owner, that's, that's a. I had a whole podcast later for that. But I thought you know, like the owners back in the 70s and 80s, but that's a whole different one. But you can take anything that we talked about. This is life for chefs, this is for cooks, this is for owners, this is for people who you know had a business and, for whatever reason, it failed. A lot of businesses fail or you know, it's not always. Oh, the owner sucked. It could be you had one customer and you got fired because that customer paid you. Real well, it could be the economic right. It could be you didn't market. It could be you were in the wrong place at the wrong time. You could, whatever it is. So the podcast it.
Speaker 3:Um, it also could be somebody that got fired and now they have to reinvent themselves because they're older and they may not be able to get a job, but they may have to start something new. So it's kind of like an evolution.
Speaker 1:I think you can do that without the caveat of being older too. I mean a lot of people. I think it's a good experience for a lot of people that are like in their 20s and stuff to fail something, to get fired whatever, because it does kind of force you to open up your mind a little bit more and try new things, to open up your mind a little bit more and try new things.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, just because you failed does not mean that it's not going to work. We all hear the old cliché Colonel Sanders did 900 and something restaurants. But if you failed, if you have failed, you know that that 905 people whatever it is, 900 plus locations that Colonel standards went to, was 900 ish. Failure People telling them no, it's not going to work, I'll just do my own, whatever and that. And for people who failed, that takes on a whole new meaning because they know the trauma right, we'll call it trauma of of of it not working, whether you're told no, whether you have a business, and then you, it failed, you got to lock the doors from the last time. So, yeah, I think that this is a great kind of from a personal perspective, from a career perspective, you know, but the reinvention, the evolvement, you can't just if you are super successful.
Speaker 2:On your first go around, which happened to me, I blew it, didn't manage it. It was a big party, it was nice and fun, we did a ton of money and it failed. A lot of stuff happened. A lot of stuff didn't happen that should have happened and a lot of stuff that shouldn't have happened happened. Everybody was my friend, everybody's going to be sticking around. Everybody's going to be hanging around. You've got a super successful restaurant lined up a door every day and when I had to lock the doors for the last time, it felt like my heart broke. I lost my like, I lost a kid and I was depressed and it was really, really depressing. I went into a funk for like six months. It was horrible because I was known as the person with that successful restaurant and when you lose it, that whole restaurant takes on. That's your identity, that's who you are, that's how everybody knows you. And when it fails, all of that emotion that you were riding high on just does a 180 and you tank. So what happens is you're faced with a choice. You can run with a tail between your way I mean, I went four or five hundred, six hundred thousand dollars in debt. You can run with a tail between your legs and just be like, ok, that didn't go work for somebody. Or you can evolve Right.
Speaker 2:And the worst part of it is that you have to go back through everything that happened, no matter how painful it is. You want to go put your head in the sand, but you've got to realize where your fails were where you failed at and you've got to own up to them, right. You got to be accountable to yourself. And you're going to be like you know what I'm going to do it again and how am I going to do it again. I'm going to do things that are different and how am I going to do that? Right?
Speaker 2:And so what that does is that that starts you thinking, just because you fail after your first time or whatever you really take that internally, a lot of chefs have a lot of restaurant owners, a lot of people who've done this. They actually have suicidal thoughts, right. And just so you know that, in the links we're going to, if you're ever feeling like that, in the links you're going to find the uh link to the national suicide hotline. So you don't want to throw it out there. It's not worth it. The dark days will pass, they will pass. You just got to slug through them. But it does get better and I say that with all sincerity. Been there, done that. So it does get better.
Speaker 3:So well, I just wanted to say that at a time you're at that, basically you know something happened. Either you got fired or something didn't work out. You have to take stock like, okay, what are my skills, what do I got? If you're not going to go the job route, then you have to create something. And when I said earlier about older people, it's definitely when you're in your 20s and you get fired or whatever, you do have a lot more options. When you hit a certain age number, the options are a lot thinner and so that's why a lot of older people you know yeah, that's what they do, and so I think for everybody, whatever their situation is and however old they are.
Speaker 3:they have to take a look at their skills and they're like what do I got? And it's really hard when you're in that dark place to look at the good, because you're kind of always hearing the negative. Look at the positive things.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, and having been there, it is incredibly hard to look at the positives your restaurant, your business sale, catering, whatever you're doing in the food service, any business actually and you've got to face your old customers. You're still living in the same neighborhood, you're still people still know you. I mean, all that weight becomes fucking tons of weight on you, right? You're emotionally devastated, you're financially devastated, all this stuff. It doesn't matter why it failed. It failed. You had to lock the doors and now you feel like you don't have anywhere to go. You've lost your sense of you. And that's what happens a lot when people anybody goes and opens their first business, it becomes them. You put your heart, your soul. You got fucked over, your customers fired you, you got bad reviews, your employees fucked you over, you had somebody steal from you. You weren't watching, whatever, whatever, whatever. It is Right. There's a fucking million reasons, but it failed. There's only one thing to do You've got to fucking. You've got to fucking deep, dive in on yourself, find out where it failed, pick your ass up, dust your jacket off and get to fucking work, because that's the only thing you can do. You can't wallow, right, and I know, and I know it wallowing and self pity and all that other emotions that that that they're feeling right now. And if you've done it, you know the fucking pain. It's fucking hard as fuck to to be like I'm going to go do it again, right.
Speaker 2:But when you're our age and you know I'm 52, I did this when I was 45, 44. So I wasn't young either 42. And I wasn't young either, right. But when you're in a location you're over 40. Now I'm over 50. But when you're over 40, it's fucking hard to get a job. And it's true, half your age at half your price. That happens all the time. We know it, I know it's against the law, I know it's Title VII, I know all that shit, but you don't get the job. That's all that matters, anyways. So what are you going to do anyways? So what are you going to do? You have to reinvent yourself and you really have to. It's not about reinventing your business, it's not about. You know, you've got to work inside, you've got to reinvent and you've got to evolve.
Speaker 1:Well, I think something you said earlier like rings true right here and it's really important, is that you were talking about the fact that when you lose that, it feels like you lose a part of yourself and you don't really have your identity because you associate your identity with your business, and I think that's a problem that we do in our society in general. And I mean, you are bigger than your your work, right, you're more than what you do for a living. But all of us, when anybody comes over and asks you like hey, how you doing, like, like what's new, whatever, like everything's always just work, work, work. It's just the way we, what we do in like the American society. So I think part of failing is also finding yourself again, and I think that's a key point to moving forward as well.
Speaker 3:It also helps if you have people around you supporting you. You know, if you don't, if you have people around you saying you're no good, you got fired because you're awful, it's even harder. You need a support system.
Speaker 2:But that will come. When your business fails. All of that will come. People that you thought would stand next to you will not be standing next to you. They won't, they won't, they will not. They will turn on you. They always do. You do get the. I knew it would never work out. You know you get called every name in the book and oh, there's a. You know couldn't even hang on to a successful restaurant. What a piece of shit. All that come. You get absolutely swayed online and personally, professionally. Yeah, it happened, it will happen. It will.
Speaker 3:Your ex-employees started attacking you online.
Speaker 2:Even yeah, and you don't owe them anything. Oh yeah, it was a shitty place to work, so they all hop on the bandwagon, whatever, but it took me years to to come in. Now I don't give two fucking shits what people fucking think about me. I could care fucking less, but I always wasn't like that. Julie, like you've seen me through most of it right, five years I didn't want to even breathe the name of my restaurant or any look at any of those old social media posts because it was traumatic. And the backlash was even more traumatic. But you get to a certain point you're like, fuck this, fuck that I am not placing my self-worth on the fucking opinions of a bunch of fucking assholes, and that was really the breakthrough. And you're like fuck it. You know what. I'm going to do it again. And I did.
Speaker 2:And it was the pandemic and we became really successful with a whole new name, with a whole new concept, started making money. And then you know we had I had to close that one. Was it because during the pandemic there was no food right For restaurants? It was all going retail, all the warehouses, all the broad liners they're like Cisco and us foods and all them other people. They just don't didn't have it. It was the supply chain was a disaster. So we closed. And when I closed that one, I was like, well, that sucks, fuck it, let's move on to the next one. That that didn't work. So we waited.
Speaker 2:Year started, coming out of the pandemic, started a little catering company, you know, doing this and doing that, going to like the doctor's offices for 10 or 12 people. And then we started. I started branching out. This company had a lot of firsts we're not going to go into that and then it rolled into a very niche part of catering that nobody really knows about and we did great, employed a bunch of people and we got fired.
Speaker 2:It was all. We didn't do anything wrong, nothing wrong. Here we are right. It was a a political move. It was a move to save money on the part of the company that we were hired by, and they found somebody cheaper. So they're just like you know what? We found somebody cheaper. We wish you well. So okay, all right, all right, all right, yeah. So now I'm just like fuck it. You know, we got fired, it's over like that's it right now. I just face it head on, but I realize that the mistake coming from growing so fast. With that we grew really fast. I mean just light speed, fast and the the takeaways are that you know, don't put all your eggs in one basket.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know what? Yes, that's true, I mean that's pretty, you know. I mean that's out there. But I want to get into what happened right in growing so fast. And I just want to tell everybody out there growing fast is not a good thing. We went from three people to a ton in less than a year. Systems we were building, trying to build systems as we kept growing, and the growth didn't stop. They'd more and more and more. But if you say, oh, let's go tell our only customer that we're not going to grow anymore, that would mean you were going to get fired Hindsight. Well, we were going to get fired anyways.
Speaker 2:But one of the main things is for restaurant owners and chefs and everybody else. I'm going to tell you that you're rolling out real good. You're banking cash. You've got great customer. You are up at the top right. Don't for one second think that a lot of those people are going to be with you and they're not going to turn on you. And I'm not coming from a place of bitterness, because I wish everybody well and I have no bitterness toward the people, but I'm going to tell you a lot of those people you forgave a lot. One of them, for instance, I really believed in the guy. I went to him some money. I paid for his car because his car was absolute garbage and he needed to get to work. So I paid like 600 bucks to help him rent a car. He was an alcoholic, we knew it. He was an alcoholic, we knew it. He was getting better.
Speaker 2:And as we started going through whitening growth. I didn't pay attention. Well, the IT guys came up to me and said hey, I want you to listen to some phone calls that this guy was doing. So I listened to him slurred speech, go into his office. He's sitting at his desk, passed out. You can just smell the booze. And I'm like are you all right? And I'm like so we had a quick chat. I'm like you know, I don't know what's going on, but this is not good. Fast forward. I end up firing him because I had to. He got sexual harassment complaints lodged against him, so I let him go.
Speaker 2:Like this guy, now I'm the most horrible person in the world walking around, you know, walking around telling people. The bottom line is this right, keep an eye on your company, keep an eye on your company, keep an eye on your people. Because right now I'm in a place to where, if, if that happens again, I'm not going to be so forgiving. Right, because that did a detrimental amount of of harms to my company. I didn't even know it at the time and everybody out there can be like well, this and this, and you know you should have did this. Yeah, I already know what we should have done hindsight. I had a guy that was going off for five hours going out and seeing some side chick and all this other stuff, when he wasn't in the kitchen.
Speaker 1:Anyway, there was a big disaster we had a whole sitcom worth of uh should go, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know what?
Speaker 2:so we're not going to go into that. But here's the deal. I lost track of my business. And how did I do that? Because I got stuck into the business and that's a big thing. You, that is so fucking hard not to do, right? You, any owner or a chef. This can apply to chefs in the kitchen.
Speaker 2:This can apply to a lead cook this really goes like micromanaging versus macro right exactly, and the first thing is well, let me finish this is that you get sucked into your is that you get sucked into your business. When you get sucked into your business, you don't focus on your business, man, you don't. You lose it, and then, okay, all right, so what's if you're a chef? So you're a chef, you can lose control of your kitchen. You absolutely can lose control of your kitchen. You believe in this and this and and but. This is so fucked up. Don't micromanage. People hate micromanaging. I'm not a micromanager, whatever. I wish I was a micromanager, because then maybe you know what I mean. Maybe every position of the company no, you can't.
Speaker 2:But I was so much in the business I didn't manage the business Right, so I lost control, and I think that every chef and every restaurant owner out there can relate to losing control. So let's say you bring in an executive chef. Do you want that executive chef on your line? No, no, you fucking don't. Because the executive chef is there to manage your, manage your money, manage your kitchen. How can he manage your fucking? It's the same exact. You can relay that that to what I just went through.
Speaker 2:We lost fucking a business, and then that's how executive chefs lose their kitchens. I mean, it's all relative. No matter where you are in the kitchen, no matter where you are in the building or in the industry, the executive chef starts working the line. Okay, so is he really looking out every single plate that you're fucking got? You're, you're in the weed, you got 50 tickets hanging. The executive chef goes and take the whatever because the owner wants them to save labor or what. He's short three cooks or whatever happens. I understand, I understand, the business is the business. But what happened? You put your executive chef that makes 90 grand a year on the line. Is he really watching your money? No, no, yeah, so take that.
Speaker 2:Go through all of your other position, right, go through all of your other position and there you have it. That is my new outlook. And there you have it. That is my new outlook. And just to let you know, I am now very much at the point to where, if I even sniff an issue with any, if I do another business, I'm pretty sure I will. Don't know, no, I will. If I remotely sniff any issues, I'm addressing them. Right then, right there. No question I will. If I remotely sniff any issues, I'm addressing them. Right then, right there. No question of that. Because we had a policy I don't give you a two-week notice if I fire you, so you don't need to give me a two-week notice. If you quit, just text me. I quit, I don't give two shit. What's a two-way street? I respect that. But if I sniff any issues with any single person that's employed or contracted, I will immediately take it up. Right then, right there.
Speaker 2:And you got to watch the managers too, because here's the deal the fucking managers that are in charge of the fucking doing the breaks and everything else. If you're not on top of it, they're going to fucking turn around and be like well, pay me $2,500 or I'm going to turn this in whatever I mean, it's just stupid shit you have with every single fucking person in your business, every single one Employees, hosts, cooks, chefs, bussers, customers, fucking vendors, your managers, your general managers, your executive chefs. You need to realize whether you're a server, whether you're a cook, whether you're a dishwasher, you're a hostess, you're an owner, you're a manager, you're a cook. Whether you're a dishwasher, you're a hostess, you're an owner, you're a manager, you're a chef, whatever. Here's one thing I want you to fucking always and you better put it in your fucking head. You better, you better act proper, because anything you say can be cut, chopped and altered and you can go fucking viral at any moment of anything you say. At any moment you get one good fucking soundbite.
Speaker 2:They put that shit on TikTok and now you're a fucking asshole. It doesn't matter that you fucking went and you lent that employee six hundred seven hundred eight hundred dollars. It doesn't matter that you fucking gave that one employee fucking two weeks off, paid because she was going through or he was going through some shit. My apologies, and this is not the same person. This is completely different and and we didn't go viral. But as I'm watching all the social media, yeah, for example. Yeah, so like you gotta act. You know, don't make yourself the fucking meme of the week, because you don't damn well know. You say one thing, they clip it and put it on there for a little bit of fuck. Take seconds of fame from fucking trash bag Jeff over here, you know? And now all of a sudden they get a couple clicks and they go viral the only viral video they'll probably ever have. But you're in the fucking shithole.
Speaker 1:What does that do for your company? Nowadays you also got to watch out for like deep fakes and shit. People can make stuff when you didn't say it they just catch a few things and they can just copy that over and make a deep fake out of it. Right, you know.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so what we need to do is provide more information on people, on how to get out of the situation.
Speaker 2:Got it, okay, that's all right. So we're going to bring it back. So Got it, okay, that's all right. So we're going to bring it back, so all right. Now that I gave you all the negatives, so we went into a whole bunch of stuff. Now let's talk about why we're here on the podcast.
Speaker 2:How do you reinvent yourself? How do you, how do you pull out of that bunk? Only you can do it. Dark thought, dark. You got to push them aside. You can do it again. Anybody can do it again. You have to reinvent yourself. You're going to come back stronger. You need to come back. I can tell you that there is something in every single person in this industry and that is the inherent will to fight. So we fight. You will have one or two people that will stand by you. You will you make them your generals and you fucking fight, you fight. You know what? Don't go down as the guy who failed. Don't go down as, even though we don't give a shit what people think, why not do it again? Why not? Who's stopping you from doing it again? Nobody, what?
Speaker 1:better way to rub it in their face.
Speaker 2:Yes, exactly. And if people want to think you failed, then let them think that it doesn't matter what people think. Take yourself up, dust your jacket off and be like that fucking stuff. That's all right, because now we know what not to do. As long as you learn. It's a lesson. If you don't learn, then it becomes a failure. That's it. Fight, fight for what you want. Yeah, you fucked, you fucked up. Yeah, you fucking screwed the pooch. Maybe you didn't manage it right. Maybe you only had one customer. Maybe you hired a bunch of friends and they fucked you over. It doesn't fucking matter. Or maybe, well, I mean, like I'm the owner, I I hold myself 100% accountable. That's it.
Speaker 2:Whatever happened, I should have watched it. I should have known about it. If I didn't know about it, then I was out of touch. That's still my fault. Own up to it. Take your wicking, take your spanking and fucking move on. Do it again. Go, do find your niche. They're out there. There's money on the table. Man, every single person out there. I'm telling you right now, there's money on the fucking table. You just got to go get it. How do you get it? That's on you. Where do you go. You should know where your industry, this industry dear, is being underserved. Are you going to go to burgers? No, why? Because you got fucking 100 chains, multi-billion dollars a chain with a brand marketing index of 98%. You know. Ask anybody in America 98 out of 100 people are going to know the word McDonald's. There are niches in this industry that nobody knows about. You just got to find them. They're out there.
Speaker 3:One of the things that people can do is to research. Maybe they could get more educated on a certain subject that they need to know more about. Every situation is different, but maybe you need to go to the library or get some books online. Make yourself better, more knowledgeable.
Speaker 1:Do people still go to the library?
Speaker 3:Yes, they do.
Speaker 2:This industry is built on relationships. This industry you know this industry you are going to find people that you click with. Naturally, you're going to find people that believe in you. You will have people that will be like man, you got fucked over, you can't do that again. You will have people that believe, but people will only believe in you if you are worthy of being believed in.
Speaker 2:If you are spouting negativity, if you're constantly, you get hit every day bumps and bruises in the industry, if you're like, oh, he really fucked me over or he really fucked me over and that really sucked, and I don't know what I'm. I mean, nobody wants to hear that shit. Suck it up. You know what I'm. I mean, nobody wants to hear that shit. Duck it up. You know what? Fuck that bitch, guy or girl, fuck that bitch. I'm fucking fuck. Fuck that guy, fuck that girl. Whatever, we're moving on, yeah.
Speaker 2:And then when people ask you right, oh, what happened? Tell them the truth. Yeah, it failed. Wasn't watching what I was doing. Take the power away from people. Just be honest. Yeah, you know what. And that's like I told you in an earlier podcast I'm terrible at running businesses. The last one wasn't on me, though. I mean, I know it's a hunter's fault, but we all do that, but anyways, what could I have done better? But it was on me, right, because I only had one customer. That's my fault. See, that's how that goes. People ask me oh, what happened? I only had one customer. I really thought life was going to be great and grand. And yeah, here we are. But reinvent it.
Speaker 1:Reinvent it, evolve, learn, web, grow, move on don't spiral out, spiral up you know, yeah, well, I mean, it's something that we're in the middle of right now, right yeah?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. We only had one customer and and that was my fault I'm the fucking owner. I even told you four months ago we should probably look for other customers and I still didn't do it. Well, fuck me, you know, yeah, who's the asshole? Hi, how you doing.
Speaker 3:But you know, yeah, who's the asshole? Hi, how you doing.
Speaker 2:But you know a business can start just with one customer, a new business can start when you realize what the fuck you did and you fully admit to it and you move on. You make sure everybody is right and then you move the fuck on. You make sure that everybody's right, everybody, you're not wronging anybody. Four rules of business. And if you tell people your four rules of business and then they somehow they think they got slight of hand and you're like no, you just didn't fucking work. But they're like oh, you said this or whatever. Going back to it, is it just fucking do it again.
Speaker 2:There is business out there. If you're like a small, you know, like a catering company and you're doing hospitals and that's all you're doing, you're probably gonna get fucked over, you're probably gonna close Because you don't have your pulse on the industry, because you would have known that all the laws that are passing in the pharmaceutical industry and the laws regarding pharmaceutical and the catering and the free lunches and all that shit is I mean it's starting to get crazy. Plus, the pharmaceutical companies are cracking down. So your business is coming to an end. So go out, reach out, start talking to get crazy. Plus, the pharmaceutical companies are cracking down. So your business is coming to an end to go out, reach out, start talking to some folks, go find that, go find another niche. Do two things Branch out. We all know that corporate catering because of COVID, offices are vacant so they're not doing a lot of luncheons.
Speaker 2:There's other facets of this business that you can be doing, and I'm gonna tell you one. Why don't you go out and you do something better? All right, so in this area we have, like, a mexican restaurant and we have a chipotle that that nobody goes to anymore. Okay, so wouldn't you think that that's a business opportunity? If you go into where Julie lived, right, you are hard pressed to find a fucking good Chinese restaurant Like there's two, right. So why can't you go? Business opportunity Go to Wadi.
Speaker 2:You're right. So business opportunity. Why don't you go open up your style of Chinese? Because if you agree that the restaurants are terrible and they are, don't give them something fresh. Right that way, for a hot minute, there is a business opportunity. Just transition yourself, find out what's in your area, what's not in your area, and then reinvent yourself. That's just one way, right? Yeah, that's what I meant by research. Well, that's what we did. That's how we opened up that first restaurant, or that second restaurant during the pandemic. Nobody was serving that, nobody was serving the baked potatoes, nobody was serving the like Korean barbecue chicken that I altered the recipe for to fit the mass American palate.
Speaker 1:No cats or dogs were harmed in the making of that food by the way Right. That's right. Cats or dogs.
Speaker 2:Well, I mean you shouldn't make that disclaimer. We're in Ohio, so we don't want people to think there's a lot of stuff going on over here.
Speaker 3:But the other thing that set you apart is your meat. I mean most of the restaurants in the area in the bowls, and whether it's the Mexican or the, the, the Asian places. The meat is like stringy. It's like a restaurant that has really good grade of meat. People will pay for good food.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but what the thing is? It's in reinventing yourself, reinvent how you cook, reinvent how you operate. And I'm going to tell you, julie, that right now, that is the same chicken that every other restaurant gets. It's the same chicken. It's the same chicken. Two bucks a pound, even today, today's October 31st 2024. Two dollars a pound at Restaurant Depot Chicken broth. It's the same shit. You just have to cook it different. It's like okay, let me tell you. So I talk to restaurant owners, every single restaurant owner. Oh, my god, I want to fucking kick them in the dick or whatever they have, because I'm like dude, why are you following a path? You're following a very well-traveled path, right? You're going down a road that's got streetlights and street signs and it's paved and it's got a little median going down there. No, no, your ass needs to be going 90 miles an hour on a fucking dark, dirt road, that in the hills, that you've never traveled before in a car, with no headlights and no fucking windshield, and are you going to go off a cliff tomorrow?
Speaker 1:You don't know?
Speaker 2:We don't know. Are we going to dive right off? We don't know. Those are the paths you want to be on. I'm going to talk to all the chefs. You're a fucking chef. Are you fucking kidding me?
Speaker 1:I'm going to reiterate here Please don't drive off that cliff, yeah right, no, don't.
Speaker 2:Don't. That's more metaphorical. But I'm going to tell you for all the chefs out there, you're a fucking chef. You're known for being temperamental. You're cantankerous, you're angry, you're hostile, you're fucking moody. That's how all chefs are. So get out there, put that shit into some food, all those feelings, get out the fucking knowledge book that you've accumulated in your career and fucking get to cracking like we were going to do a segment later on. Right, all my recipes. I'm going to tell you and Julie was right there, right?
Speaker 2:I don't know what I'm going to do until I light the stove. Yeah, I'll cut some protein. I don't know what I'm going to do until I light the stove. Yeah, I'll cut some protein. I don't know what I'm going to do. I'll cut blank. I'll cut pork and chicken breast and chicken thigh, right, or shrimp, or mahi, eight or nine proteins. I don't even think about it.
Speaker 2:I got my chef, so I have a ton of spices over 400. And I didn't start off that way. I light the stove, I put the oil in the pan. I've got 15 seconds before that oil starts to smoke. I've got to fucking dump, so I get the protein in. What's going with the protein? Well, I got to fucking. You know what. Is it Less than a minute to figure it out.
Speaker 2:Where am I going? What kind of cuisine am I doing? What kind of seasoning am I going to do? What kind of? How am I going to deglaze it? Is it a sauce? Is it not a sauce? Is it going to be like what, what, what, what?
Speaker 2:And every single chef needs to go to the stove. Get yourself some protein. Don't think about it. Don't think about it. Don't look at the spices. Wipe that fucking stove, stick your protein in and boom. You better start heading for the chef rat, the spice rat. You've got about less than a minute before that meat becomes. You know it's not. You know it'll just become trash. Right, get, spark that inner fucking chef in you.
Speaker 2:Man, open yourself up, go and just wipe the stove and make something. Is it terrible? Okay, it's terrible. Throw it out, start over, throw the pan in the thing. Get another pan. Go, wash your pan. I'll give a fuck what you do. That's how you reinvent yourself.
Speaker 2:Take that theory. Chefs are known for just creating something. Take that theory and what you do and apply it to your business. If you fall, if you fucking fail, it's not a failure, it's just a motherfucking hard, hard lesson. Yes, you're bruised and you're cut and you're beat the fuck down and you're in the emotional down and you're in emotional trenches and you think you suck and it's just fucking terrible and you're in dark days and you're depressed and you're moody and you can't think and the whole world's against you. Good, good, good. Now's the fucking time. You wipe the fucking stove, you put your pan on there, you put some oil in it and you fucking start over. And that's exactly what you do. You do that with your food. You do that with your fucking relationships right, because that's what they do, what we do, you do that you run that fucking.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, well, no, no, no, because the frying pan, yeah, so that's just thought to murder, death, kill, all chance have. But it's those cats, and that's the ones that don't do the wine and coke off the fucking. That's the one that don't do the wine and coke off the fucking hey don't you remember the good old days, don't you remember the good old days.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So, hey, kevin, you do it. So if they have to start something new, maybe a different kind of catering, what about catering weddings?
Speaker 2:I fucking hate weddings. I will not fucking cater a wedding. If you fucking paid me in full three times the amount, I will not do it. I will not fucking do it. Nope, hard pass, nope, not going to do it, fuck you, nope. There are caterers that do weddings. If you don't do weddings, let them do weddings.
Speaker 2:Because in the current climate today, I'm going to tell you right now, if I did a wedding and some fucking people came after me, I'd be fucking going out with an assault guard. I'd be like you know, bitch, you are fucking paying that bill. I, you know, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. You are not coming back on me because you know, yes, you do it right, yes, you do whatever.
Speaker 2:But the thing is that what I've learned, we used to do weddings A lot of them went off. Great right, margins are okay, margins are all right, okay, but after your staff and all this other shit, you know you got some money left over. It's the ones that come back and you got to sue and you and you didn't do the the fucking penalties right, and I wanted three drizzles and you only gave me two because they're looking for money to cut back and because you're the one bill that's not paid in full right. That's how, if they owe you $5,000, the couple you're one of the only bills that they can try to claw money back out of. Now, if you've done weddings and you're successful, good for you. For people that are, just like you said, julie, trying to get into weddings, whatever, whatever you know, you've just got to be very, very careful. I wish you the best. For me, I'll never fucking do one again.
Speaker 3:I said I suggested that just because I knew you would go off on it oh, nice, yeah, nice, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Wedding.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you want chick-fil-a or you want pizza hut well you know, and I mean, it's not just caterers, it's like the photographers, a lot of businesses I talk to nope, nope, won't do weddings. So there is definitely something.
Speaker 1:It's an extra stressful like event, because you know the the bride and her family are usually the ones I mean, or probably could be the husband too, I guess. But whatever the groom I mean, they're just they're stressed out and they take it out on everybody else.
Speaker 2:Right and yeah, the last wedding I I did, and I did this for fucking free. I said I will give you a wedding as your wedding present or I'll cater your wedding as a wedding present. I didn't charge a fucking dollar. I ate the cost of the fucking food of the servers, of the plates of everything right, all of it. This fucking bitch of the plates of everything right, all of it. This fucking bitch comes at me and says well, you didn't, you didn't, you know.
Speaker 2:After us comes the two families and I'm like the family cable and I'm like they went and they're like no, no, no, no. My family is sitting in the back. I don't know your fucking family. I don't know who in the fuck they are and why are they in the back? Why aren't they sitting up here where they were supposed to sit? This table's fucking empty. Well, no, well, they wanted to sit in the back because we're going through some shit right now between the family. And I look at her and I'm like and that's my fucking problem. And I look at her and I'm like look bitch, I'll walk the fuck out right now. I will walk the fuck out. I didn't know who them people are. I've never seen them fucking people. I nodded, not in your little fucking rehearsal that I did for free.
Speaker 2:And then the and then the groom started and I'm like look, dude, here's the fucking deal. You failed as a fucking wedding couple. You failed. You fucked yourself. Don't pin this shit on me. I don't know who the motherfuckers are at that back fucking table when they should be up here at this fucking empty table right here. Okay, you didn't tell me. They didn't announce themselves, so it is what it is. If you think your wedding's ruined, then fuck you. It's ruined. And I'm walking out the fucking door. I'm taking my shit. I'm taking the food. I'm taking the fucking shit. I will pack this up right in front of you in the middle of your special fucking day.
Speaker 2:And I'm walking out the fucking door and then, all of a sudden, the guy, the dad, the bat, comes up and goes no, no, no, calm down, everything's fine. I'm like, what do you mean? Everything's fine. I don't know you. Who are you? Are you the guy that's in dispute? I'm like why didn't you come up and tell me you're a head table? And now you want to go to your fucking kid and go bitch because you weren't served.
Speaker 2:Second, who the fuck are you, who are you? I'm like, who are you? And he's like, well, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm the other dad, you know. And I'm like, and so yeah, bombed the wedding. He was crying and then you know, he comes up and goes. Well, I'm not going to ask you for an apology. And I looked right at him like then, fucking don't, because you and your fucking wifey wife there tried to fucking embarrass me in front of 200 people by trying to call out that I'm doing something wrong. Did you tell them you got this for free? Or did they think you paid it? Because, let me, well, let me tell you something. As far as I know, I said me and your little fucking poppy pops back there we're talking he gave you $3,000 for wedding catering, am I right?
Speaker 3:Or am I?
Speaker 2:right and he goes. I just wanted to say thank you and I'm like, okay, okay, well, that's great. So am I telling poppy pops right now that he just donated three thousand dollars to you and and and wifey wife up there, or what anyway? So that went on and I'm like that's it, I'll never do that again and I haven't and I won't, and that's that and now we know. I know right, he's the fuck wedding.
Speaker 1:No, I'm just yeah, so anyway so probably don't ask Kevin to cater your wedding.
Speaker 3:And don't ask him why.
Speaker 2:And then and then, three years later, we're going to be getting comments hey, will you cater my wedding? Just because people are assholes. You know what I mean. That's funny, anyway. Okay, rant is over.
Speaker 3:I think we need to start wrapping this one up like a wedding with a big bow.
Speaker 2:Right, anyway, yeah, so I guess just final thoughts. Don't let the world.
Speaker 1:Get to you, man.
Speaker 2:Yeah, don't let the world get to you. No big fucking deal. The world moves on. They'll move on, you'll move on. It's not the end of the world, man. It's not. The days are only as dark as you fucking make them Look for the silver lining. You're not dead. There you go, move the, you know. And besides, what chef and restaurant owner doesn't love a little vindication? Right, prove it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, light the stove and start again.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm, yeah, so those are the final thoughts All right. Love it.
Speaker 1:Well with that intense, right.
Speaker 2:So you know what, I'm gonna go ahead and stay in my little intense corner. I'm gonna be here for a while. So if you guys ever want to get intensive I'm sure you guys know the hot subject because, let me know, just say something. I'll be like oh okay you're a trouble maker, julie.
Speaker 3:Yeah to me about this fucking shit.
Speaker 2:You're a trouble maker, Julie.
Speaker 1:I know right. Yeah, all right. Well, with that, let's go ahead. And you know we could stay on this afterwards, but we'd tell our viewers to say goodbye.
Speaker 2:All right guys. Thanks for tuning in. What do you do? Until the next intense podcast? We'll talk later.
Speaker 1:We'll scream at you later.
