75 Part II: Leading the Escoffier Institute: Chef Kirk Bachmann’s Culinary Legacy and Vision

Episode Description: Welcome to this inspiring episode of the Voice4Chefs podcast, where we’re joined by Chef Kirk Bachmann, Campus President and Provost at the Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts in Boulder, Colorado. With deep roots in the culinary world, Chef Bachmann shares his journey from growing up in a family of master bakers in Germany to becoming a leader in culinary education.

In Part II Chef Bachmann explores the importance of finding your "why," a concept that resonates deeply in today's fast-paced world. We also delve into the transformative power of culinary organizations like the American Culinary Federation, Disciples of Escoffier, and the International Association of Culinary Professionals. These organizations shaped our guest's career and introduced them to a community of like-minded chefs and practitioners of the craft.

Our guest shares a touching story about meeting Jean-George and the significance of carrying a copy of Le Guide Culinaire wrapped in a rubber band for 30 years—a symbol of dedication to the craft that embodies what the culinary world is all about.

Whether you're a seasoned chef, a culinary student, or just a food lover, this episode is filled with inspiring moments and valuable insights into the world of culinary arts. Tune in to hear about the profound connections that drive our guest's passion for the industry and the pivotal experiences that shaped their journey.

Key Highlights:

• Culinary education and inspiration from South Seattle Community College.
• The importance of finding your "why" in the culinary industry.
• Navigating the challenges of the restaurant business and the healing power of podcasting.
• Stories from the American Culinary Federation, Disciples of Escoffier, and International Association of Culinary Professionals.
• A moving encounter with Jean-Georges and the legacy of culinary greats like Escoffier and Thomas Keller.
• Our guest’s proudest moments, including graduation ceremonies and the importance of supporting local farms and restaurants.

Call to Action: Support the culinary community by visiting local farms and restaurants that prioritize farm-to-table practices. Appreciate the hard work that goes into restaurant economics, and always aim to leave more than you take.

Website: https://www.escoffier.edu/
                  https://oneclick.bio/escoffierschools

Season2

Transcript

Kirk Bachmann: 0:52

Ultimately, Michael, I got involved with teaching and never thought I could do

Michael Dugan: 0:56

it. Please share

Kirk Bachmann: 0:58

Yeah, it was an opportunity. My, my family sold the business and I had an opportunity to go back up to Portland and become a teacher. And I, I thought I had, I loved my education there. I think I can teach. I don't know. I'll never forget the very first day. Who inspired you there? Can you shout out, give a shout out to anyone who inspired me at the school when there were a lot of people, I think the major inspiration for me at that school was a gentleman by the name of Nick flu. She's no longer with us, but Nick was a front of the house guy. He was a wine guy, sales guy ended up being the president of the school. But what Nick had, well, and Nick was a big guy, six, four, just a massive human being, a great presence. He loved taking care of people.

Michael Dugan: 1:46

I love it. Oh God, I love it. He made people

Kirk Bachmann: 1:48

laugh.

Michael Dugan: 1:49

And so do you, by the way. I know this in your soul. That's all

Kirk Bachmann: 1:52

Nick. It's all Nick,

Michael Dugan: 1:53

right? That's amazing. I was going to say, President. I mean, that's amazing. Yeah,

Kirk Bachmann: 1:57

yeah. I learned a lot from Nick. Yeah, yeah. And, there, there were so many people. There was a young man that went through school with me. His name was George Thompson and George was a laborer, right? He was a mechanic. He was, but he was one of the most gifted artists I'd ever seen. And we learned this as we started going through school. Like I'll never forget during Easter. One of our assignments was to decorate eggs and all. And George shows up with this stuff that looks like it'd been done by a laser. It was amazing. And then chefs, like there, there was a chef there, an Austrian chef named Franz Poplar, who was a competition chef and he noticed George and he took George to, to Germany a few times to create centerpieces for him. Franz, it's a fun story. Franz, towards the end of my education, Franz came up to me and said, I'd like you to train with me and we'll go to Germany and we'll compete. And so I called my father and said, Hey, Chef Franz would like me to go to Germany with him and compete. And my dad says, what does it pay? And I said, well, dad, it doesn't pay anything. He says, I'll see you next week.

Michael Dugan: 3:08

Oh my gosh. What happened though? Come on, what happened? I'm dying. I love learning about competitions and yeah, Franz

Kirk Bachmann: 3:17

Poplar did really well. So I don't know if you know anything about the culinary Olympics. Is he, I was just reading about it. Yeah. Yeah. That's what it's called. it, it happens every, you got to

Michael Dugan: 3:26

share with our listeners and your listeners. Think

Kirk Bachmann: 3:29

about why wouldn't we

Michael Dugan: 3:30

have

Kirk Bachmann: 3:31

a culinary Olympics, right? Oh yeah. There's a lot of culinary competition around the country. You just have to look for it. Right. I've done a little bit myself and, but the culinary Olympics is this opportunity for countries. around the world to come together every four years, takes place in Germany and there's all kinds of categories, right? Hot food, cold food, hot pastry, so on and so forth. George went with Franz and he wasn't on, I don't know if. He was on the U S team, but you couldn't be on a U S team. You couldn't be on a military team. You can be on a regional team. You can be on a state team, wherever somebody gets sponsoring. Right. But it's very regal. The pageantry is amazing, right? Just like the Olympics, right. That we're experiencing right now in Paris. So the chefs march in and that's what I love. about this industry. And that's what I love about what Augusta Scaffia did for us. Think about we're in these beautiful jackets and there's a reason for these jackets, right? They say, depends on who you talk to and where you are, but they say that the military had nothing to do with the culinary at the time, but they say that the military garb that Napoleon put his soldiers in was so beautiful and it was double breasted, right? And the reason it was double breasted is that after they, We're staying from war, if you will. And then they came into the towns, Napoleon wanted his soldiers to be very presentable. So they flipped the jackets and that Escoffier was in the military for a long time as well. Why? And he brought that to the kitchen. And if you do any, if you do any research at all on the French revolution, you learn that in the early days, the French There was a reason for clogs, right? Clogs were on chefs so that they could stand a little higher than the soot and the fumes that were coming from the ovens, right? They'd elevate themselves a little bit so that they could breathe. And the reason they had little caps on their head was because that soot would go to the ceiling and then fall on their heads, right? So everything about What we do aprons and baggy jackets and such was all to protect chefs in the heat of the kitchen. Right? Wow. And then when the bourgeoisie revolted it during the French revolution, most of the aristocracy. They were fearful of being poisoned, right? They all had personal chefs that they trusted. They also had clergy that they trusted, right? Whether that was Christianity or Lutheran or whatever it was. So they, in, when the revolution took place, they wanted to hold onto these cooks. So they disguised them in the wardrobes of the clergy. And that's where the chef toke was. Came to be. And again, even if I'm making all of that up, Michael, it's no, it sounds beautiful. Such a good story.

Michael Dugan: 6:20

Yeah, it's a really good story. Now I'm going to be Googling after this. I'm going to be like, wait a minute. There's many stories, but

Kirk Bachmann: 6:28

all

Michael Dugan: 6:28

kind of lead

Kirk Bachmann: 6:29

to

Michael Dugan: 6:29

the same path. Yeah. Well, I love the idea of the chef coat and you could get it dirty on one side and you can flip it. I never even, that never even came to my mind.

Kirk Bachmann: 6:38

Well, think about a chef owner today that might be in the back, cranking out a bunch of meals. And then. Go to the front. yeah, absolutely. They need to look presentable. Right. So my wife calls it a costume, but yeah, I love it. When I was the vice president of education for Le Cordon Bleu for many years, I really supported competition because it challenged our chef instructors. It, and it was fun, right? Yeah. Against a criteria other than our own. And so I felt like if I asked chef instructors to do that, I had to do the same. So yeah, I, when I had time, I competed and what I loved about competition was that you may not think this, but the judges who are always Chefs and maybe your peers, they're really pulling for you. They're really pulling for you. They're so positive about a technique, maybe a new technique that they haven't seen, and you always learn something. I remember the first time I ever competed, I received a silver medal. And. Man, I'm sure I cried and I have that medal somewhere. And I, which competition was this? It was a American culinary federation competition in Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin of all places. I lived in Chicago at the time. So it wasn't that difficult, but there's competitions all over the place. There's competitions at the coast. There's competitions in Texas. There's barbecue competitions all over the country. Right. Yeah. Yeah. And I, some people take it super serious, right? I mean, really serious, but it's one of the most famous competitions in the world. I mentioned Philip Tessier is the Bakuda Or, right? So every two years ago, every two years, countries from around the world, regions now nominate and dedicate at least one team, right? One. primary chef and then a commis chef, right?

Michael Dugan: 8:43

Right.

Kirk Bachmann: 8:44

And they have X amount of time to, to execute a very challenging dish. And it's named after Paul Bucuse, one of, you know, the most famous chefs ever to live. And what I love about it is that It, it challenges people to go well beyond what they think they can do, right? And the United States has a lot of backing for the BOKU now, mostly through the work of Daniel Ballou and Thomas Keller and Gavin Kaysen and others, Philip, that got involved. But historically, France, Germany, Switzerland, the Scandinavian countries, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, They put a lot of time and energy into competitions like that. And they do quite honestly, right now they're at the top of the hill. They're the countries that are winning competitions almost every two years. Well, don't chefs in

Michael Dugan: 9:37

Europe kind of start at 10 years old?

Kirk Bachmann: 9:39

Well, like my, like, like my dad or anyone in a vocation right in Europe, it's very natural. 12, years old and you, if you're not going to go the university route. You are going to go the vocational route. So whether, and that includes being a doctor, if you're going to become a doctor in Europe, you're going to start studying very early. We got to catch up. Yeah. Well, we do a lot of really great things in America. Education is available to a lot of people, but there's something really special about tradition, right? There's something really special about learning from others. And that's what I've always found fascinating about education. So a student comes to school, maybe they come to school with us. And. They get exposed to so many different people who have other life experiences and they bring those into the kitchens and the classrooms and the hallways of our school. So it's not just, it's not just learning how to grill, but it's learning how to walk around in the kitchen, how to communicate with people. If you have something hot in your hands and create a community and talk about what you want to do in life. So many students come here with an idea of what they want to do and they leave. With a completely different idea of what they will do. Right? So big fan of education

Michael Dugan: 10:57

in any form. So let's get into this. I've been thinking about this a lot. Can you share a couple successes of your students? Where have they gone off to? What have they done when they came through Escoffier and they kind of worked themselves through things? I'd love to know about someone who didn't have any experience that went on to, to do something in the culinary world, but I'd also love to hear about a couple of them if you could give an example or two.

Kirk Bachmann: 11:24

Well, and I already mentioned one, Kristin Kish, right, who was your typical student like Katrina Markoff who tried traditional education wasn't for her and she sort of figured it out. But, you know, on, on a more. level. There's one story, one individual that really always touches my heart. His name is Trenon and Trenon is a, he's a retired army captain. He's still very young. He went into the army at a very young age and retired a captain and served our country. And. Had always wanted to become a pastry cook or chef, right? So he found us from the Southeast part of the country and he found us and he came to school here. And he and I just, I'm running the business, so I'm not always in the kitchens and such, but Trennan is a pretty eclectic and electric sort of personality as am I, and we were bound to find each other. And we did. When I just followed his path through and he volunteered for every opportunity that came up, every single opportunity. And Trennan made his way through the pastry program. He did some really cool things. Like working with different chocolatiers in the area. And then he called me up and said, I think I want to come back and learn the other side. Came back and he's here now currently learning the culinary side. So Trennan's ultimate goal, and I'm going to have to force him to spend some time in the industry, but Trennan would be an incredible teacher. Wow. He's just, he teaches his classmates anyway, without any formal guidance and such. So that's a really beautiful story. there's several stories. Here's another one. There's a chef, his name's Andre Natera. He was, remember when I talked a little bit about going back to teach in Portland? Yeah. So this was in the nineties, right? And so Andre was in my first class that I ever taught. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And Andre was great. He's one of those guys you just remembered. He was a good student. Yeah. He's a little edgy fast forward, years go by and I'm doing some work in the industry. and I remember being on the phone with the Accor hotel group. It's a big hotel chain around the world and the brand that you might recognize as Fairmont. So I'm on with all these people who are about to build this beautiful Fairmont hotel in Austin, Texas. And so we're going around the room and people are introducing themselves. And then they come to Andre Natera and he gets the microphone. And he says, hello, chef Bachman is Andre. I hadn't heard from him in 20 years, right? There was this beautiful sort of memories and all of that. So he's the chef. He was the opening chef. Yeah, of the Fairmont. He had a great, he's had a great career. Wow. So Andre's been on my show

Michael Dugan: 14:19

Yeah.

Kirk Bachmann: 14:20

and I can share some other information with you later, but he's got a, he's got a podcast and a presence on social media called Chefs USA. And he does really well, big supporter of culinary education and he's a friend of Escoffier, but that's a beautiful story of someone who Kind of means a lot to me and I've kind of kept track of that person. There's another young man who graduated from here at Escoffier a couple years back. His name's Jordan and he had some restaurant experience and he landed in a couple of really fine houses here in the Boulder area for Bobby Stuckey. And today he's running a restaurant that's been open in Boulder for many years. It's right on Pearl street. It's super popular. He's kind of running the show. It's called salt. and that's Jordan. Just a tremendous human being. Boy, the list goes on. We've got just with Escoffier alone. We have close to 20, 000 graduates already. Oh my God. All around the country. Right? Another beautiful story is a woman. Her name is Bekai. And she and her family live in West Africa and she found us online and Bekai has her own culinary school in West Africa and she does beautiful things for local people there. But she wanted to learn a little bit more and online was the only way that was going to work for her. But last November, she and her husband made the trip from West Africa so that she could walk across the stage for graduation right here in Boulder, Colorado. I've had her on the show as well, and that's a beautiful story of someone who will be a friend of mine for the rest of my life. Oh my gosh, I love it. You need many more minutes for all the stories, right? Oh,

Michael Dugan: 16:07

I hear ya. Well, let's wrap up the storytelling part and say, what significance do you think storytelling holds in the culinary world? How do you weave it into Escoffier? Yeah,

Kirk Bachmann: 16:17

God, it's such a good, important, relevant. Comment question, right? And it goes back to what I was saying a little bit earlier, Michael, that all we're really asking our faculty to do today is to be facilitators of knowledge, flip the classroom, right? Perhaps provide your students some information. Could be a video, could be a book, could be an assignment, could be anything. Give it to him in advance. Give them some time to, to think about it and then listen to their feedback. To them when they ask questions or they try to peel it apart, right? Not all of our chef instructors are competition medalists, and they're not all Michelin star chefs, and they're not all, James Beard award winners, but what they are is passionate about students and education, and they're great. Storytellers and that those stories could can be as simple as, Oh, my gosh, I remember one morning when I walked into the kitchen and it was flooded and we had a banquet coming in of 75 people. And here's what we did. And here's what we didn't do. And students hang on that. Yeah. Storytelling is critical. It's critical. We tell the story of Auguste Escoff, who's a great storyteller, is Michel Escoffier. Oh my gosh. We need to get him on the show. We need to arrange that. He is such a storyteller, especially about his great grandfather, Auguste, right? Yeah. Yeah. It's, I don't know that we put it on the job description or anyone puts it on the resume, but you can tell very quickly if somebody applies for a job. And I'm even okay when people are super technical. Yeah, that's all fine, but you just have to be able to share a story and it can be, it could be very informal, like you were saying at the beginning. Sometimes we don't like scripts. We like to just right off the cuff and that's okay too, but

Michael Dugan: 18:15

story flying pretty high

Kirk Bachmann: 18:16

today.

Michael Dugan: 18:16

We're definitely flying. Amazing. It's better than I could have imagined. Honestly, it's wonderful. Stories are beautiful. Stories are great. Have you ever, speaking of stories, does your school work at all, or are they involved with Toastmasters at all?

Kirk Bachmann: 18:32

Answer is yes. and I, some of the names will kind of escape me. There are individuals. That are involved in, and there's been press releases and different individual accolades for sure. Are you,

Michael Dugan: 18:45

Oh yeah, I've been doing it for 10 years. Isn't that toastmasters is what launched my podcast. Oh, that's great. That's great. Yeah. Great mission, vision, those kinds of things. And

Kirk Bachmann: 18:54

maybe we can do some things together. That would be kind of fun. If there's somebody really

Michael Dugan: 18:57

love it

Kirk Bachmann: 18:58

and special to you that we can bring on the show and

Michael Dugan: 19:01

definitely

Kirk Bachmann: 19:02

anything like that. Just like slow food or regenerative agriculture with farmerly, any of those sorts of topics and themes that we can put in front of students who then take those themes with them into the industry are really important. So Toastmasters has been around a long time, right?

Michael Dugan: 19:20

Oh yeah. They're in over 330 countries, I think. Isn't that something? It's crazy. We have a hundred and I'll get it wrong, but probably 140 clubs from Kent to the Canadian border, which is Kent, Washington,

Kirk Bachmann: 19:35

Washington. Yeah.

Michael Dugan: 19:36

All the way to the Canadian border. And, you know, I've been involved for a long time and the podcast piece, I'm now in a podcasting Toastmaster group.

Kirk Bachmann: 19:45

Oh, no,

Michael Dugan: 19:45

and I'm going to brag about this interview and interview. I have a Tom Douglas and just share one of my dreams. One of my crazy dreams is to go around the world, virtually in Toastmasters and inspire other people to start their own podcasts. And I'm going to tell the chef's story to do it.

Kirk Bachmann: 20:03

That's

Michael Dugan: 20:03

amazing.

Kirk Bachmann: 20:03

you really enjoy this. I can tell that you really, you're just super comfortable and you're just.

Michael Dugan: 20:10

It took a while. It didn't happen overnight. I'm sure. Syndrome, freaking imposter syndrome is tough for a lot of people and I'm a tech, but I'm also an extrovert. So I kind of have a weird mix, but I also studied to be a chef. So my mom was an artist and my dad was an engineer. So it's kind of like you get this weird mess. But it's a gift. It's such a special gift.

Kirk Bachmann: 20:31

Did you study formally for culinary school at all? I did.

Michael Dugan: 20:34

I went to South Seattle community college. It was one of the top schools at the time. I went

Kirk Bachmann: 20:38

very familiar,

Michael Dugan: 20:39

very

Kirk Bachmann: 20:40

familiar. Yeah. Amazing. That was

Michael Dugan: 20:41

in the Portland area, right? Yeah. We had a year long waiting list. Yeah. Yeah. And I got in six months somehow, and I went to this thing called the winter wonderland buffet. Okay. And it was basically foods from around the world that were prepared. By all the students, they had a chocolate pastry program and a regular program and they had carvings and they had chocolate carvings and ice carvings done by the pastry shop. And oh my God, it was amazing. And I was hooked. I mean, I was just hooked.

Kirk Bachmann: 21:09

Yeah.

Michael Dugan: 21:09

And so I did the whole two years and then I got a bachelor's in hotel restaurant administration.

Kirk Bachmann: 21:14

That's great. Yeah. And

Michael Dugan: 21:15

eventually I was in Napa Valley and I was assistant manager. And one day. There was a drive by shooting and I was the manager on duty and I broke down. I had a mental breakdown and I gave my notice two weeks later and I left the business. And so it's part of my soul. It's like podcasting for me is healing, you know, culinary artists. It's all healing. So that's part of, that's part of my why, right? And that's why I love it so much. It's very addictive as, I mean, connecting people all over the world and having these conversations is so unique.

Kirk Bachmann: 21:51

You just said something that's really important. That's starting, that we're beginning to try to answer more frequently than ever before. And that is why. That's the why. I didn't know my why when I started. A lot more than they ever did before. Right? That's great. Well, I just think, maybe it's a younger generation, but I just think social media and the speed with which information is made available to us is absolutely staggering and stunning. So if a teacher says to a student to review this book or follow this recipe or whatever it is, they have to be prepared with why do I need to read that? And it's not a bad question. It's not a bad question, right? I'll give you a perfect example. For many years, the standard uniform of the jacket and the black pants or checkered pants and the clogs has been in culinary schools and many properties where you might work. and then all of a sudden there's a beautiful clog brand called dance, right? They're not cheap. They're very, I have them really expensive, right? But dance a few years ago started coming up with some really. Beautiful different colors, and maybe a black clog with a beautiful flower in the back or just something like that. Right. And it wasn't easy for me. To get some of my administrators to understand or answer the question, why can't they wear a black clog with a little flower on the back? Okay.

Michael Dugan: 23:35

We make the

Kirk Bachmann: 23:36

rules, right there. Cause guess what? They're going to go back into the industry and they're going to wear whatever they want or whatever the house suggests they wear. Right? So we still have decorum. We still have keep the bar as high as possible. In terms of what the highest level of standards that they might run into when they get into the industry, but I also like to be playful with the students and while those are beautiful, 225 clogs, I'm going to go ahead and let you wear them.

Michael Dugan: 24:05

I got them and I got hooked on them because it's support to, if I remember correctly, they have tremendous support.

Kirk Bachmann: 24:12

Yeah, yeah, yeah. For your back when you're standing on your feet all day. So it's

Michael Dugan: 24:17

worth it. It's worth the investment, but it is expensive. So I'm just going to move forward a little bit here. I'd love to know, and I know our listeners would love to know you have been involved in a lot of culinary organizations, American Academy of Chefs, Disciples of Discoffier. And international association of culinary professionals. Can you talk about one of those or just share a little bit about that experience and how it came to be and what it's like to be involved?

Kirk Bachmann: 24:45

Yeah, I was probably, I mean, I was a sponge early on, right? I just wanted to get my hand on. Anything taught me more and more connections. Right. And P the American culinary federation was probably the first, my father introduced me to someone who was involved with the American culinary federation in Colorado back in 1988. And he was the president of the local chapter at the time. And I didn't really understand it, but what made sense to me is that there was a an organization of like minded cooks and chefs and practitioners of the craft and so on and so forth that 20, 000 strong back then, maybe more. And that every state or many states had smaller chapters that all kind of fed into this national thing. And then, oh my gosh, there is a certification track that you can judge yourself against a set of standards, right? And, Oh, wow. I think in many ways I was motivated, challenged perhaps that my father had achieved such a high level in, in, in this craft. And so when I found the American Culinary Federation, you know, it, I just, It was kind of a brotherhood. It was kind of, I was in a fraternity in college and that was all kind of cool and stuff. And I love the kind of the history behind all of that, but the American Culinary Federation, wow. So I can do this and then there'll be these letters behind my name that say that I'm a certified executive chef. And it was really, it was just really important to me. It was important to me to be able to demonstrate To others who had achieved that already that I had this level. Right. And so today there's, I think, 14 different levels starting a CC, a certified Comey. What I love about it is that it's a set of standards that's agreed upon. They're relevant. They make sense. And you have the opportunity. To be associated with others that have achieved that, right? It was probably harder Years and years ago because we didn't have the internet so you had to schedule time to be with a good point You couldn't just email in your application and all that. So it felt like it was a harder journey, I guess So when you got that certificate, I can remember the first time I got I think the first level I achieved So you can be a member of the american culinary federation and never get certified And you could be a member of the american culinary federation And get your academic institution accredited, right? Programmatically accredited. All that stuff was super important to me. So the first level I think I achieved was called certified working chef. and it was mostly cause I didn't have all the years of experience, but when I got that certificate, Michael, I went down to the local frame shop and I got the most beautiful. I love Nate. I had elk and deer and duck flying all over the place. That's awesome. And I put that up in the restaurant and I was just so absolutely proud of it. And some organizations too, like the disciples of Escoffier. What's that about? I love the name. It's about, yeah, it's, well, there's several. It's a whole nother podcast we can talk about. Yeah, yeah, sure. We're going to wrap up. The requirements, but more than anything, it's about inviting people who have a love for food. And it's not just the disciples recognize people in the front of the house. As managers, they didn't recognize wine experts. They recognize farmers. Farmer Lee is a disciple of Escoffier. Oh, wow. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so it's all about food. It's all about our industry. You don't have to win a certain medal or graduate from a culinary school. You are invited into the family of the disciples of Escoffier by Michelle or me or others. That's beautiful. And it's a beautiful celebration for your family, for your colleagues, pageantry, it, that to me is, it's a, it's an incredible honor. We were in New York city earlier this year. We inducted a few people into the disciples and we were at one of John George facilities, interviewed a chef that worked at Jean George. Wow. This place was so amazing. John George was real busy. We had hoped to induct him as well, but he had just opened up something in Asia. And so he just got back. He got back that night and he came to the event towards the end. He had a copy of Legue wrapped in a rubber band that he had been carrying around. He said for 30 years He undid the rubber band and put these frail pages in front of michelle and asked him to please sign This copy of legee his great grandfather's works and that is What this industry is all about that. And it's not for everyone, right? That's my world, right? That's my world. If I was a, if I was an artist and I saw a Rembrandt or a, or something that just moved me, right. I can appreciate that. If I was a major league baseball player and I was moved by things that Hank Aaron did or Willie Mays or Babe Ruth, I get that. But in my world and those around me. It's about Escoffier. It's about Karem. It's about Thomas Keller. It's about Gavin Kaysen. It's about Kelly Whitaker, Bobby Stockett. That's the stuff that just, it just makes me happy.

Michael Dugan: 30:28

And that's the question I was dying to ask you because you're, Kirk, you're such a humble person. Yeah. Yeah. And I am humble too, so I recognize it. Yeah. I just love chatting

Kirk Bachmann: 30:39

with you and you've got a great is thrill. You have a great podcast

Michael Dugan: 30:41

voice by the way. That's what people tell me. I'm working on voiceover. Very

Kirk Bachmann: 30:44

soothing.

Michael Dugan: 30:45

It's very sooth. You have same,

Kirk Bachmann: 30:47

I think my friend, I think my heartbeat has gone down.

Michael Dugan: 30:49

'cause I You have the same because I see how you can put people at ease and I do. Yeah. Or

Kirk Bachmann: 30:55

sleep. Right. I could put 'em to sleep. no

Michael Dugan: 30:57

I listen to the show when I go to sleep sometimes. And I listened to it while I'm commuting. It's become my favorite show. Oh, I'm

Kirk Bachmann: 31:05

so happy that it gives you some peace. And I will say truth be told, I am, I'm pretty high strong. I'm very ambitious. I'm very, Oh, you got a lot going on. Yeah. And my kids call me a cat on a hot tin roof, right? I'm just always moving. But once a week, I'm able to get up at five in the morning and spend about three hours really is just zoning in. On who I'm going to speak with in a few hours, right? And I try not to do it too early or too late. Usually I have a pretty good idea of who I'm talking to. And then for that hour and a half, I am, nothing can bother me. I, so I'm sitting right here outside of what we call the K4 kitchen, kitchen four, which is our pastry kitchen. Okay. There's chef Sarah right there waving at me. So I put a sign in the window that says, Podcast recording and session. I've got a little on air. Yeah, it's fun. Right. But sometimes the students will come by and they'll try to make me laugh. Right. Kind of do I sit in kind of a glass bubble here and you can see there's my man right there. Marco Pierre White. Most people ask about Marco Pierre. I

Michael Dugan: 32:14

was going to ask him to tell me a little bit. I

Kirk Bachmann: 32:16

have a fun story about him as well. And yeah, so it's just, it is humble. It just, we're just trying to help people understand how to follow their dreams. Right. It that's awesome. So I could be a carpentry school and we'd do it exactly the

Michael Dugan: 32:30

same way. Right. Okay. And the last question, cause I want to respect your time. What has been your proudest moment as a president, as a chef or as a podcaster? All of them. Any of them.

Kirk Bachmann: 32:41

Yeah, there's a lot of proud moments. I would be remiss if I didn't say and I'll get emotional probably, but good.

Michael Dugan: 32:49

I'm already emotional.

Kirk Bachmann: 32:50

So I think you have to mention how proud you are to be a parent, right? Be a husband. Sorry. Sorry. Get emotional. It's okay. Because they're a part of all this. They're apart and I, my wife never asks me to leave it at the door. She doesn't. There's things that happen every day that are insane, right? And so I have four children and four grandchildren. Okay. I love them very much. That's my pride right there. Right. But I would, I'd be an idiot if I didn't say graduation is, and no in particular graduation, every graduation is so important. People come to us from all walks of life. Some have more than others. Others have less than others. But when they get into that beautiful hall, On the campus of Colorado university, Mackey arena. We're all the same. We're all the same. It's like a, it's like a soccer game in bath or in Spain, people are screaming and yelling for each other. And we have students speak and I speak and we have farmer Lee speak. And I have a beautiful friend of mine. Her name is Sylvia. She's a opera singer. And she sings, sometimes she sings in French if Michelle Escoffier comes. That's my proudest moment. And Michael, the microphone that day is mine. No one else's. Yeah. No one else's. I tell the story. I confer upon them, the students, the graduates, their degrees or their diplomas. And we take pictures with their families. We hug their families. We hug each other. That's hands down the proudest moment. There, there are, there's other pinnacle moments when you, when we have the department of education of the state of Colorado come in and let us know that we're just, we're operating on all cylinders or our national accreditor comes in and says, after a long review that we've have 14 strengths and we're just operating at the highest level. Yeah, those are all proud moments. A lot of work goes into all of that. I'm so thankful for the teams around me for that.

Michael Dugan: 35:03

Yeah,

Kirk Bachmann: 35:03

a graduation, the culmination of dreams, of plans, there's nothing that beats that.

Michael Dugan: 35:10

that's amazing. And that's basically going to take us out. But the one thing I want to ask you is how can we support you and your community at large?

Kirk Bachmann: 35:19

Yeah, I mean, I'm going to speak in general. It's a really good question. I wasn't prepared for that. But what I would say is put food first there. It's a really tough business. It's a really tough business, but it's beautiful. Visit your local farms, visit your local restaurants that are using local farms to, to serve you. Thank people. One thing that Kelly said yesterday, and I'm just going to repeat it. He said, appreciate restaurant economics, right? It's really hard. it's really hard. Provide contributing conversation, leave more. Then you take away.

Michael Dugan: 36:00

Oh, that is such a beautiful takeaway. It's

Kirk Bachmann: 36:04

my new, it's my new mantra from Kelly Whitaker. Kelly. Wow. That's

Michael Dugan: 36:08

beautiful. That was really thought provoking. Yeah. Yeah.

Kirk Bachmann: 36:11

Yeah. Sorry about the emotion there. I love it. Cause I'm a very emotional

Michael Dugan: 36:15

person too. And I just want to say when I started this podcast, I had dreams of people I wanted to interview. Jose Andre. Tom Douglas. I just interviewed Tom Douglas and then I met you and I'm just like the president of the Escoffieh Institute. He has his own podcast called the ultimate dish, which you need to check out, by the way, it's incredible. And I look at my why, and this is my why. My, why is to connect to chefs, culinary artists, and people who support the chef circle that are doing something incredible with their talents. They're giving back. They're doing amazing things. And I can't thank you enough for being on the show. I can't thank Kristen enough for reaching out. I will treasure this forever and you are truly a voice for chefs and thank you for being our guest. Thank you, Michael. I appreciate the connection. I hope we can stay in touch. Definitely. Definitely.