Food Competition: Chefs Lance Cook and Jason F. Lynn Turn Up the Heat

Step into our kitchen-counter studio, where the heat is always on high and the plates are as sustainable as they are scrumptious. Chefs Lance Cook and Jason F. Lynn join us with their sleeves rolled up, ready to dish out stories from the culinary competition frontlines. It's a melting pot of adrenaline, artistry, and green ingenuity, where every sizzle and chop is a step toward a more environmentally friendly future. Brace yourself for a buffet of wisdom on preparing for a culinary contest that's as much about protecting our planet as it is about palate-pleasing.

Our conversation takes a turn towards the chopping block of professional growth, where feedback is the secret sauce to a chef's evolution. I peel back the layers of my own stint in culinary showdowns, revealing how critiques can be a dish best served constructively, to hone one's craft. Meanwhile, Chef Lance spills the beans on his new role and the upcoming thrill of a

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 1:04

Hello Food Femmes. This is the Walk Talk podcast where you'll find the perfect blend of food fun and cooking knowledge. I'm your host, carl Fiodini. Welcome to the number one food podcast in the country. We are podcasting on site at Ibis Images Studios, where food photography comes alive and I get to eat it.

Speaker 1: 1:23

First things first. Last week well, I ate very well. We had three chefs in studio. Thank you, chefs Josh Bernstein, stephen Hicks and, of course, the Jefferson Starship, the chef, jeffrey Schlissel Y'all brought the goodies and man speaking of goodies, the Porch Meadery and Market. So glad we linked up on that dinner collab. Y'all got to go back. Listen, watch, keep an eye out.

Speaker 1: 1:49

Thank you, peninsula Food Service for supplying the proteins for today's production Chefs in the Central Florida area. Peninsula is the largest distributor of Creekstone Farms beef in the Southeast USA, complete with a fully staffed butcher shop to solve help solve your kitchen. Inconsist, yeah, consistencies, yeah, that's right, baby. Check out their dry-aged program too. Okay, so our guests plural guests, man, you know it's two weeks in a row, bunch of chefs in this place. Tell you what our guests this week? Chefs Lance Cook and Jason F Lynn. There was an ACF-sanctioned cooking competition this past weekend. These guys are culinary studs. Stay tuned. Chef Lance and Jason are on deck. Jeff, my man, the man, aw yeah, it's free shift time. You know what that means? Pop the clutch, my brother, and make it happen, oh yeah man, there's a special treat.

Speaker 3: 2:50

So we had a meeting in Miami, met this wonderful company called Rack Porcelain and they do dishes, and they sent this beautiful dish and John was like hey, what are you going to do with this? Can you do dessert? And I was like no, I was going to do a taco. So there was an extra added feature today. It was coffee cake. We're going to do a tiramisu riff on that one with some coffee toffee brittle, and then we're going to have a tiramisu mousse in the middle of that as well. And then we're going to pay homage to school lunch. We're going to be doing a short rib, kimchi, mozzarella, corn dog.

Speaker 1: 3:26

I never had that in school, neither did I.

Speaker 3: 3:28

So I'm just kicking it up a notch.

Speaker 1: 3:30

As.

Speaker 3: 3:30

I've been told chef-ivising it, yes, and then we're going to do some stuff for May 5th it's Cinco de Mayo. We have a little lingua, so a little smoked tongue in the house, and then we have some mole chicken that we're going to do some stuff to as well. And I can't wait to get to these pictures too, because these are going to be really nice pictures. Smoked tongue, smoked tongue.

Speaker 1: 3:51

I felt the collective audience just shut the episode off. But you know what? I'm going to try it, John.

Speaker 2: 4:04

I think is going gonna give it a shot too.

Speaker 1: 4:05

Uh, no, no, jason's going to, of course. Yeah, listen, I'm, you know, I'm down for whatever. So we're gonna, we're gonna make that happen. Um, what else you got?

Speaker 3: 4:10

um, we just have. So the the chicken is going to be different, two different ones. We're going to do a hoagie one and then we're going to do a uh entree with the molle chicken and the the corn dog mix.

Speaker 1: 4:21

That's from flossies. Yep, what's up, alex? Yeah, from flossies finally, yep, yep.

Speaker 3: 4:27

So I wanted to do something. And what was waiting for? That prime time? This was definitely the one where it was like, where the national day it's the national school hero day. So I was like, oh, let me just do something like would be school-ish, yeah, uh. So I wanted to, like I said, chef-fize it so the short rib is split in half, and then I did it that way and froze it well, I am.

Speaker 3: 4:46

I'm gonna grade you just as in same school all right, we'll see if you get oh okay, I thought you're gonna grade me, like I just happened in the past weekend on sunday you're gonna get another c today, okay I'm okay with that.

Speaker 1: 4:58

All right so all right, that works out really good. Yeah, I want to get into. I do want to touch on how the scoring system kind of works a little bit for these competitions. And so today there's three chefs all three of these fellas were in this competition in Hastings, florida, and you know, I've never I'm not a chef, right but I've never been in a sort of a competition like that and I'm sure there's like a lot of nerves you have to you're, you're being critiqued by peers and there's a whole, there's a whole lot that goes into it. And that is the focus where I want to go today. You know, it's the more the pre getting into it and we can touch, obviously, on the event itself. But I want to get into that, like what's in your head? How are you feeling? Is it pre-fight? You know like you get nerves, you know, whatever.

Speaker 3: 5:47

Anyway, Lance is the professional. Well, okay, Jason and I this is the first time we went into an- ACF sanction, so you guys are a couple of newbies.

Speaker 1: 5:56

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 5:57

Yeah, we popped something on Sunday.

Speaker 1: 5:59

I'm surprised Lance even came on the show. Well, he's going to school us. That's why you know kind of a Lance.

Speaker 4: 6:05

Why don't you chime in and give us some of your background? I looked at.

Speaker 1: 6:10

So it's funny because I was going to bring this up. I have Chef Lance's bio.

Speaker 4: 6:16

And.

Speaker 1: 6:16

I'm, like you know, halfway through. 45 minutes later I'm like oh, my God. I can't even do this anymore. Is it Superman or is it Lance? Accolade after accolade after accolade after accolade. Oh, my goodness, all right, so without further ado. Chef, jason, chef, lance. Welcome to the show, welcome to the program. How are you?

Speaker 2: 6:38

Good, I'm good. Thanks for having me. I wish I was there in the studio, you guys are making me hungry.

Speaker 1: 6:43

Oh dude, there's a lot of great stuff here. He saw pictures too yeah yeah.

Speaker 3: 6:46

I sent porn pic, food porn pictures to both of them. Lance goes, were you trying to make me go five hour drive?

Speaker 1: 6:53

yes, yeah, we're doing, man, that coffee cake is right. Yeah, good coffee cake, good job. Yeah, thank you. And the brittle too, man, that's gonna go on the plate.

Speaker 3: 7:01

Yeah, yeah, wait till you try the ganache all right, um, all right.

Speaker 1: 7:07

So, listen, I had nothing to do with, uh, with the participation in this, in this last event. Why don't you, jeff, go ahead, kick it off baby oh so hastings, is this really small town?

Speaker 3: 7:17

there's only about 1300 people. Um, I heard on Saturday they had over 2000 people there, so they had the lawnmower race. This town is, like it had one light in it, like a traffic light, I'm not kidding you, and it was they. What they did was, uh, it was the potato cabbage bacon festival and not many people know this, but at one point in time in the United States, this was the potato capital of the world in Hastings Florida.

Speaker 4: 7:45

Yeah, I did not know that. That's fascinating.

Speaker 3: 7:47

Yeah, In fact the building we were in was the Ford motor company building where they actually built Ford motor cars.

Speaker 1: 7:53

No kidding.

Speaker 3: 7:53

Yeah, and they're trying to revitalize that whole area and it's beautiful. It's got a lot of bones to it. They're really nice. You know you're in Florida, but you're not in Florida, it's South Georgia. Let's put it that way.

Speaker 3: 8:09

But, it was just a lot of fun to be up there the night before. They had an event, so they had one of the girls who actually is going to come on. By the way, she won the Dr Seuss. She was one of the finalists in the dr zeus bake-off. She's been on chopped chopped sweets, uh, and another show, so she was talking to her, but they had some really good culinary talent that was around besides art smith, which, uh, which is just great to see art smith and have the conversation with art.

Speaker 3: 8:34

Definitely, we started like sharp. We did like a five minute delay each one of us when, when we did the actual contest or the competition. What was really strange was this is this group is um, a category, kg, which is a really very difficult one because you're no electric At one point.

Speaker 3: 8:56

We didn't have fire, so we didn't know how we're going to cook. We didn't know if we're going to have ovens. Didn't have fire, so we didn't know how we're going to cook. We didn't know if we're going to have ovens. So the day of we found out we had an oven, we had fire, so we were able to do that.

Speaker 1: 9:06

We couldn't have battery operated on, that's right yeah, technically it was no battery no electricity, yeah no, no fans, no air conditioning so no running water, all right, but so how many people are in the competition?

Speaker 4: 9:21

Well, the garden hose had running water out back.

Speaker 1: 9:24

He's not kidding this is like my upbringing and just drinking off the hose outside.

Speaker 4: 9:29

I think Chef Lance wore the same pair of gloves the whole competition. That's why he got a bare metal hose. I didn't even see him change his gloves once Wow.

Speaker 2: 9:38

I used the water hose.

Speaker 1: 9:41

Okay.

Speaker 4: 9:42

The Chef Lance actually did it with one arm Tied behind his back, the KG category.

Speaker 3: 9:46

That would have been great to do that. A competition like that.

Speaker 1: 9:50

It was the three chefs all day.

Speaker 3: 9:51

Yeah, three of us. There was a lot of people actually watching.

Speaker 1: 9:56

Talk about the event, guys See if I was there I would have had notes. We were told there was going to be like 15 people.

Speaker 3: 10:01

See, if I was there I would have had notes, I would have had all this stuff. No, we were told there was going to be like 15 people there and there was more than that. I mean, half the national office was there, yeah. One of the new membership directors was there. Kivi from the office was there, yeah. So it was really cool to see all was the actual people that were there for the. They had a market like a. I think the whole block was blocked off and, uh, chef amadeus, one of our friends, was there too did you secretly hate each other, like right?

Speaker 1: 10:26

yeah, I know, y'all know each other.

Speaker 4: 10:27

No, I mean I went in with, I'm okay with losing the lance. I'm just being real here.

Speaker 1: 10:31

But because you were sending me text. If I said if I lose the jeffrey, I might be a little mad. Yeah, he sent the same text chef jason was sending me like hey, hey, I'm going to beat your boy, I'm going to kick his ass?

Speaker 4: 10:39

Oh yeah.

Speaker 1: 10:40

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 10:41

Oh yeah, it was, it was, it was a good thrashing, let's put it that way. But it's the fun because you know, listen, if you know, I'm 53 years old and I've competed in different events, but no one can tell. Tell me now, you've never competed with the ACF. Yeah, I did it. It's nerve-wracking because you have people that are your peers, that have been in the culinary industry, that are different. So you, you're graded differently. You know you walk in with 100. Everything you do, from the time you walk in, from the 100 to the time you get your medal, is what happens. You know, and it's just that that category is difficult because you don't have a heat lamp. You don't like he used are you gonna go there?

Speaker 3: 11:21

hold on, they might take my metal away no, you used an electric walk to use the bain marie to keep his mashed potatoes hot.

Speaker 4: 11:30

You said you weren't going to bring up the electric. Walk, jeffrey lance all right lance.

Speaker 1: 11:37

Okay, so clearly we're losing I'm losing control of the show right here, right here in the uh, right here in the living room, all right. So, lance, when you show up, you look at these two guys and you say I'm going to kick their ass.

Speaker 3: 11:49

Like in your head, that's what you're thinking. Right he was already thinking that when they made the announcement, Well, Lance already won before he got there, I mean.

Speaker 1: 11:57

Okay, Lance, walk me through it. How are you preparing for this? Because for me, I think it's very emotional, mental. You're getting prepared for a fight almost. Walk us through it. What's the feeling?

Speaker 2: 12:16

I want to start off by saying that you know the two guys there like, uh, you know Jason and Jeffrey. You know, hats off to you guys for putting yourself out there. You know that's a huge step just to be able to say, hey, I want to go into this competition. And I want to do it. Because a lot of people stop at that point and they say, hey, I'm not going to do it because I'm scared of the outcome. You know, I don't want to hear the critique and and so hats off to you guys.

Speaker 2: 12:38

Like that, I truly enjoyed, you know, competing with you too. And uh, it was, it was awesome. And so the more competitions you do, the more relaxed you are. But it's all about preparation. You gotta be prepared, and so practice your routine, no matter what the category is. And, like Jeffrey said, you know it's KG, so you can't use batteries, you can't use electric, you can't, you know. So you have to kind of look at your routine and say, hey, how can I change it up and accomplish a great product that the judges are going to taste? So?

Speaker 3: 13:48

what is KG. You know that's a category that they use, whatever the category.

Speaker 2: 13:52

Yeah, so it means sustainable, green and local. Okay, Right, and you know, with sustainability comes you know, hey, you can't use the battery operating, you know all that kind of stuff. And you know it definitely is more difficult than a normal competition. So even for these two gentlemen to go into a competition and then have these restrictions, that's not typical, you know. Typically it'll say you're given two whole ducks and you have to make four plates have at it, and you know, one pork loin with the chine bone removed, rib bones are still in it and you have four portions. So it's very specific on a lot of the competitions. Uh, this one just kind of took a different direction as far as the being specific so kg um sustainable.

Speaker 1: 14:40

They brought it back to like 18.

Speaker 4: 14:42

You know 70 right like there was a fire campfire literally butane fire okay, uh, and how did?

Speaker 1: 14:52

this is something where you're all are competing um, like individually, or all at once, simultaneously, I should say there was a five minute.

Speaker 3: 15:01

uh, they didn't want everybody to come up, so there's. Here's the thing. One of the judges had to leave by a certain time, so they wanted us to start with a 20 minute interval, so one laid down, obviously five minutes past each one. Then they critiqued us and then they gave the awards out. I have to tell you that Hari, who was the guest chef, he put this together.

Speaker 3: 15:35

He wrote this because originally, it was in the land Because he wants to showcase the American Culinary Federation and the farmers. So he was trying to do that. Kudos for them to doing it. I think it was like 2012.

Speaker 3: 15:49

It was the last one 2014 was the last one, so this has not been done in that long. It's been about 10 years, oh wow. So when they revamped it and kind of brought it from wherever it was, they reached out to Jason and Lance. And then they reached out to jason and lance and then they reached out to me and I'm like, yeah, no problem, I gotta be like what lance said. He's you gotta practice. It was my fifth time doing that, sixth time doing that dish. I did it friday night lance.

Speaker 1: 16:14

How many times did you do your dish?

Speaker 2: 16:17

zero. No, I'm just kidding, smack him. No, that was probably my fourth time making it okay competition.

Speaker 4: 16:26

All right, jason, um this first.

Speaker 4: 16:28

Yeah, yeah, first time, yeah yeah, I kind of I thought that I kind of, and so I just talk about me for a quick second. I was a little, uh, unprepared so I came in not quite prepared. Lance is like where's this, where's that? I'm looking at I'm like, yeah, I don't have any of that. I got my press and seal wrap. I look over at lance. He's got three brand new third pans lined up. You know standard breading procedure. You know your flour, your egg, your bread crumb. I'm taking a piece of press and seal my wife gave me trying to save a buck, and I'm dragging it out on the table and putting like a pile of flour. You know, I got.

Speaker 3: 16:58

You know I looked over, I'm using styrofoam bowls.

Speaker 4: 17:00

In the, the green category I got plastic spoons, you know, so I definitely got some education in that category especially all right.

Speaker 1: 17:08

So what? I think what? All right. So, just so the audience understands, um you, it wasn't that it was necessarily a competition between the three of you like a first second place you're, you're competing against yourself from, like you know, gold, silver, bronze or not even, uh, placing and getting like a zero goose egg. So the reality is all three of you uh, you know, of course, lance you know, yes, he got to hire.

Speaker 3: 17:31

One lance lanced you guys pretty good, he got us he silvered us.

Speaker 1: 17:35

He did, he totally silvered you all over so uh what ended up? Happening here. Is you all place, though, like, which is really great. Yeah, I told um, I gave jeff a very specific instruction don't come home without gold. You know you're, you're out there, you're. You know you walk and talk, you're right, you're doing your thing. And he was mick and you dare, he was mickey from rocky. You're a bum, I he's like. You know you came home with, like this, this bronzy colored looking thing. Like what the hell is this?

Speaker 4: 18:02

it really looks like a copper metal jason's wearing his but I'm actually yeah

Speaker 1: 18:09

I am wearing mine. You know, I got john, you gotta, you gotta take pictures to him with this.

Speaker 3: 18:12

I literally walked into the studio today and then he's like where's your, where's your metal? I'm like I'm not bringing my metal. He's like what? Why?

Speaker 4: 18:18

not so speaking of metals though, lance, when you shared your photo proudly displaying, you know, the placard they made for you at the cook-off. And then in the background I see like 10 000 metals hanging. I see the copper looking, I mean bronze, the bronze looking one. And then I see many of the shiny ones that we all want are you throwing the uh?

Speaker 1: 18:35

are you throwing, like the uh, the bronze ones away now yeah?

Speaker 3: 18:38

you just throw them in the trash. That's what I said.

Speaker 2: 18:40

Coming in the house, no, he's melting them down, getting the money for him but I will tell you this, you know, so I I have I've competed probably 20 plus times, and I will say where I've learned the most from is my three bronze medals, and one of them was a wax competition. It was cold food preparation, where you actually have to um, it's hot food, uh, prepared hot and presented cold, so you have to glaze it with aspic and all that. And so I hadn't done that since, you know, when I graduated in CIA in 96. And so I said I want to jump back into it, I want to do this. And so again, it's taking the fear out of it and saying, hey, whatever happens, happens.

Speaker 2: 19:17

And um, you know, I learned a lot through that process. And I had general toward master chef, you know, come over to my table and critique it, and he said I'm gonna be brutally honest. And I was like that's what I want you to be. I want you to be brutally honest because that's the only way I'm gonna learn. And then, you know, another bronze medal was when I did chef of the year a couple years ago and I had a comey. We practiced probably for two months every single monday. So good us. And you know, when it came down to it, she froze and she got stage fright and she says, chef, I got to go and I was like right now she's like yep, I got to go. And so I learned some things through that process. I still got a bronze, you know which is which is good. And, um, you know, uh, I learned some things and said, hey, what would I have done differently and approached it in a different way. So you know the three bronze, they actually mean more to me than than all the goals, sorry.

Speaker 4: 20:07

Thanks, lance. That makes me and Jeffrey feel better All the goals.

Speaker 3: 20:10

It's true, though I want to go on record. I just I was happy enough, walking out of there with a medal.

Speaker 1: 20:14

Yeah, me too.

Speaker 3: 20:16

You know, you, you, you definitely, when you put yourself out there and you're, you're doing what you do every day. And it's funny because the judges asked me like, what was your theme? I'm like I wanted to cook the food I wanted to eat, bottom line, and whether I got a medal or not, I knew, walking away, that that's my food. You know. Hats off to, by the way. Happy tales, vicki Webster. She reached out immediately when Chris put out there that he was looking for something and we had a Cooney Cooney pig. Ironically enough, it was the one I actually fabricated, so that was cool. Then, when she got the bacon for us, and then the secret ingredient you guys are going to love this one Sour oranges.

Speaker 2: 20:55

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 20:56

It was perfect for mine because I had bourbon in mind with smoked maple syrup, and I just kind of oh man for mine because I had bourbon in mine with smoked maple syrup and I just kind of, oh man, it was so perfect for that bronze man you know it was.

Speaker 4: 21:06

He squeezed it over the tart it didn't tarnish the bronze metal.

Speaker 1: 21:08

You didn't tarnish it, it's nice.

Speaker 3: 21:10

Yeah, here's the other reason why I'm happy I placed these two gentlemen are going to go for their master chef and to be in that. You know, competition, just competing, but competing with people that are going that right way, that's huge well, that's what I'm saying.

Speaker 1: 21:29

This whole, this whole critique being critiqued, uh, aspect right. And then, if you're competing and you know, like you've got, you know, lance cook, and and and chef jason over here, you, you know, I said it before, they're culinary studs and the reality is every, each one of you and Lance included, I'm assuming, but each one of you get the butterflies going into this.

Speaker 2: 21:52

Oh yeah.

Speaker 1: 21:53

Because no, for sure, Right, I mean it's you're there was no sanitation, you're going to have your peers, it's not just because you have the judges right. The judges are chefs, and then the three of you are judging each other in some aspect as well. Oh, they were judging me way before the competition. We judge you every week. You know what I?

Speaker 4: 22:09

mean, I was texting Lance a couple weeks out. We're both ACF guys. This guy's got to fail.

Speaker 3: 22:20

We're going to trip him unplug his brand new butane burners and I pulled them out of the box and one didn't turn on. I was like are you kidding me right now? Right out the gates, right out the gate I just took the torch, put the thing on and they're like, oh, you got the big torch. I'm like, yeah, and it lit. So you, you got to be ready for anything when you're doing these competitions. There was no, no art. There was no hand sanitizer.

Speaker 4: 22:41

Well, hey, let's be. Let's talk about one topic too. And it shows, like I said, how little I know. Is that Lance? You know he has all his beautiful little pint containers with his perfect brunette washout as he approaches and and Jeffrey's got like half the product in his cooler. You know you guys got the prime piece. Anyway, I'm a little upset about that. Anyway. But going on, I'm over here prepping all my me's, I'm peeling potatoes, I'm choppy, choppy, cutty, cutty. I'm actually cooking. These guys are just dumping containers into pots and pans.

Speaker 4: 23:09

Wow, Wait, wait, wait wait, wait, no, I get it, I get it.

Speaker 3: 23:14

Who was making the most noise when Chris was trying to explain what the ACF was, you were pounding no you two were pounding your meat.

Speaker 3: 23:22

I was pounding cabbage, everybody was pounding. Yeah, I was doing cabbage, so I was literally facing the judges, because I thought we had to face the judges when you were doing it. So I had my braising pan in the back to braise the cabbage, because once that was on, I didn't need to be in front of it. So I'm sitting there making a brinoise potatoes. I'm mashing my potatoes for the extra. I'm going the extra mile because I didn't want to have food waste and I went first and I was afraid to throw anything away.

Speaker 4: 23:49

Right, because it was also the category Exactly Sustainable, like when I said when Lance said you shouldn't have styrofoam bowls, I'm like, oh my bad, I'm throwing them in the trash.

Speaker 3: 23:59

The best part of mine was I had we called Pactive after our first farmer's dinner and they gave me a whole bunch of samples for compostable stuff and that's exactly what I bought and I even showed Kari. I'm like, look, it's compostable. I didn't want to get dinged for that.

Speaker 1: 24:13

I'm pretty sure I'm going to call Chef Chris Tanner.

Speaker 4: 24:16

You're going to see him this week. Hopefully he doesn't listen to this. Well, I'm going to. He listens.

Speaker 1: 24:22

I'm going to get with him. I'm going to make sure you guys never hurt anyone again.

Speaker 4: 24:26

No, but let's be real, this is who they want. They want some new blood. Right, we might be like in our 40s and 50s, but we're still new blood.

Speaker 3: 24:33

Yeah, definitely. I mean, here's the thing you have. You have to be judged whether it be a guest in your restaurant, a fellow chef. You have to figure out where you are and that's the only way that's going to push you and drive you to be better.

Speaker 4: 24:46

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 24:47

You know, and that's the, that's why I wanted to compete against especially these two guys, because these, these guys are operational and then when you're, when you're thinking about going, either you're out of your mind because you're going for a master chef or you're.

Speaker 4: 25:03

Do you want to do it? There's what? 70 master chefs? Uh, yes, a high 70s lance. You know the exact number on that, like it's 78.

Speaker 2: 25:07

Yeah, it's between 71 and 74.

Speaker 3: 25:08

Last I heard it was 71 and then how many master plumbers are there? Like a quarter of a million so I mean, do you get to think about hey, that's my line, I know, that's why I yelled that out at this show.

Speaker 2: 25:20

I said, let's be real.

Speaker 4: 25:21

There's a quarter of a million master plumbers but there's less than 100 CMC certified master chefs. It's a big deal. And it's not about ego. It really is about the humility aspect that I always bring up. A guy like Lance has gotten where he's at because he can admit that he's gotten the bronzes. He's had those. It was rocky, you know. You can only get beat up so many times. You got to get back up. But some people, I think, stop. I think some people aren't okay with that critique. They stop and they move away from it.

Speaker 1: 25:45

Yeah, sometimes you just got to stop. Sometimes you just got to stop. You know what I mean.

Speaker 4: 25:48

No, yeah, but so.

Speaker 1: 25:54

But you got to stick with getting the punches and you got to be humble in it.

Speaker 3: 25:56

What you have. Yeah, well, and that's. I think that's his tagline, that's my cheesy signature.

Speaker 1: 26:00

It is it's another bro, it's not cheesy at all.

Speaker 4: 26:03

It's another truth, but this is in marriage, and in work and in life. It's everything. Forever the student. That's why we're here, right?

Speaker 1: 26:09

yeah, keep learning it was just another thing that we stole from him and used on the show right right for from jason yeah, we're just taking all your material buddy sorry, not yeah okay uh. So how about? How do we um hmm, because I want to do some some walk and talk uh, you know uh culinary competitions, you know, sponsored uh culinary competitions sure, as long as I'm not competing I'm just don't invite lance.

Speaker 4: 26:36

Lance can't come to the first competition well, maybe Lance can judge yes.

Speaker 2: 26:45

What do you think about that? I'm in to compete or judge Either one.

Speaker 1: 26:47

You don't get a medal for judging, you get to eat, though you get the pampered food there.

Speaker 4: 26:55

But, Lance is moving away. We should bring that up too. Congratulations to Lance with his newly appointed position. That's a big deal, yeah.

Speaker 1: 27:05

Absolutely. Congratulations, you bring that up too. Congratulations to lance with his newly appointed position. That's a big deal, you know. Yeah, and you got absolutely congratulations.

Speaker 2: 27:09

And you got some ambassadorships, some new uh, some new stuff going on too, man, yeah, yeah, yeah, I guess chef works that's. Uh reached out to me to be an ambassador. Hexclad, um, I'm gonna be on the food network on may 15th, um for one of the game show supermarkets, stakeout. It was a cool experience and I only did it, you know to, to see what it was all about and to see how it's produced and it was. It was intense, it was really intense. But yeah, I appreciate the congrats on the position. So I'm moving to North Carolina and I'm going to be the director of culinary operations at Forsyth country club in Winston Salem.

Speaker 4: 27:37

Nice.

Speaker 3: 27:42

Salem, nice. That's awesome. That's so cool. Yeah, absolutely so. Lance. Now that you've competed with the ACF and you went on to a food network competition, can you and I know there's non-disclosure agreements and stuff like that what can you tell us the differences between the prep for those two different competitions?

Speaker 2: 27:55

Oh yeah, completely different. So for ACF competitions, you get to know what the parameters are and you get to practice it as much as you want. You can practice it zero times or you can practice it 100 times. When you're doing a food network challenge, there's so many variables, so the one that I did is the one where you're actually cooking in the parking lot. You got to walk up to the grocery store and buy somebody's cart and their groceries.

Speaker 4: 28:18

I don't know how many people are coming out of that store.

Speaker 2: 28:20

Yeah, I mean you could get dog food.

Speaker 4: 28:22

You could get the vegan cart right. You're like, oh, I got the vegan or the gluten-free. Sorry, these are all for the show.

Speaker 1: 28:32

We're just kidding. This is all from our competition I don't think you guys should be cutting off Chef Lance here. Okay, Shame on you sorry.

Speaker 3: 28:40

well, he got silver well which is a step up over.

Speaker 1: 28:45

Bra, I'm just just put it out there.

Speaker 3: 28:47

Remember you have to. You have to still eat.

Speaker 1: 28:49

I do it's true, I do, but now. But I'm getting bronzed kind of food man like I, john, I realized I'm looking over at john the producer. I'm realizing that you know we're getting c-level stuff here on the show. We need to be getting at least B and up.

Speaker 2: 29:05

Lance can you tell us what was in the cart Lance.

Speaker 4: 29:09

Can you tell us that?

Speaker 2: 29:10

Actually, I can't talk about any of it. You can't tell us any right. No, just that I did it. I can start advertising that it's occurring, but that's about it.

Speaker 3: 29:20

Didn't you compete against somebody we might know?

Speaker 2: 29:24

Yes, yes, rocio Rodriguez, he's in Tampa, I believe.

Speaker 1: 29:28

Jonathan Rodriguez.

Speaker 2: 29:29

Our boy Great guy.

Speaker 1: 29:34

He's actually going to be on next week.

Speaker 3: 29:36

Oh, is he Alright? Well, we have to discuss. It was last minute. No, someone's going to come. Oh, that's awesome, all right. Well, we have to discuss.

Speaker 1: 29:40

Yes, yeah, well, it was last minute, it was actually.

Speaker 3: 29:43

No, someone's going to New Hampshire next week, on the 9th, so we might want to do it the day earlier. New Hampshire, yeah.

Speaker 1: 29:49

Wicked Well, tell that guy you know he should be making plans like that.

Speaker 3: 29:53

Oh, he's actually going to be coming down, and the one that you don't think exists, he doesn't. My imaginary friend.

Speaker 1: 29:59

It is your imaginary friend, keith Saracen. Keith Saracen, yeah, I mean listen, the fact that he liked a and it was, you know, it's not like it was a post where it's there forever. No, it was a, it was a stories right On Instagram and then it just disappears Like it never happened.

Speaker 3: 30:26

That's why I took a screenshot. Yeah, but you know why he did that, though. Who was the story about? I don't remember. Robert gonzalez, oh yeah, right, right, right, yep, yes, oh, by the way, a big shout out to robert gonzalez he actually made it to the semi-final. Actually, he's going to the finals for the spring championship, so congrats to him, a hundred percent congrats to him nicky and steven. So congrats to the three of them. Can't believe Alex got bumped, but that's the way things go, it does.

Speaker 1: 30:47

It's the way the cake crumbles, the brittle, the brittle. That was pretty sharp.

Speaker 4: 30:55

The brittle breaks. Oh, that could be the new Brittle Break Cafe. You could open a new restaurant. There we go. He's got a new restaurant going Right there.

Speaker 1: 31:03

Just like that. Wow, can we do it out of the house here?

Speaker 3: 31:05

Yeah, okay, 17 different flavors of Brittle.

Speaker 1: 31:09

Listen, I feel like that would work. I would go there. I would totally go there.

Speaker 3: 31:13

Especially the honeycomb.

Speaker 1: 31:14

I would eat it. You understand, you get it, yeah, yeah so, lance on your new role.

Speaker 3: 31:20

Uh, what's the difference between what you're doing now the current club, by the way, which is a gorgeous club to the one that you're moving to?

Speaker 2: 31:27

yeah, I think the big difference is just the uh, the membership's a little bit bigger, so 975 members instead of 775 here. And then just the longevity the club has been around since 1913, has a ton of history and um, but about the same as far as volume and staff and stuff like that.

Speaker 3: 31:45

Are you still going to be on the line cooking because you took a different role, correct? Or is it still cooking?

Speaker 2: 31:51

It's still cooking. So, yes, the role is director of culinary operations, but it's still going to be very hands-on. I'll be doing demos, just like I normally do, and doing expediting and stuff like that. So very similar.

Speaker 1: 32:04

When you meet the team over there, you know your kitchen staff do you bring like a wall display of all the metals and whatnot. So they know who they're talking to. Like they know you. Like they know what they're dealing with. Not at all.

Speaker 2: 32:18

They already know they're the house.

Speaker 4: 32:20

Lance has two LinkedIn profiles just for all of his certifications. After his name he's got the first one and the second one just continues. I got friends that think I've done some stuff with my career and then I look at lance I'm like I haven't done anything, you know did you see how many like the, the little three-letter words, afterward the three letters I was gonna get to put on two letters.

Speaker 1: 32:40

I was going to say he has to put on two Shep codes. I was going to like usually I do, I read off all that stuff, but I was like man, there's no, you have to Google them, there's so many, there's no stop point. You know what I mean.

Speaker 4: 32:51

It's the whole alphabet. It's A through Z. On Lance's code.

Speaker 1: 32:57

There's only nine certifications. It's the certification. The entire opening monologue would just be me rattling off what your certs are.

Speaker 3: 33:03

Come on, man, god forbid, you get one of them wrong. Oh my God he's a CEC. A8. No, I'm not A8. No, I'm not that one.

Speaker 1: 33:11

You're going to have to delete this one. Delete the episode.

Speaker 4: 33:14

We love you, Lance. We've got to make fun of you.

Speaker 3: 33:19

You did mention wax.

Speaker 2: 33:20

Can you go over for some of the listeners that don't know what wax is, because I don't think carl knows yeah, when you are a member of the acf, the american culinary federation, you are actually automatically a member of wax, which is world association of chef society or cook society, however you want to look at it, and it's a internationally known organization. And so when you're getting a certification with ACF, like it's recognized nationally, you know within the States and all that kind of stuff, but when you're getting a certification with Wax, it's actually international. So I am a world certified master chef and at the time when I did it there was probably about 200 in the world. There's more now, but that's recognized.

Speaker 3: 34:40

If I go over to and that's who I competed against with Jason. Yeah, what do you mean with Jason?

Speaker 1: 34:51

He's like Batman with.

Speaker 4: 34:52

Jason, yeah Well.

Speaker 1: 34:54

The reality Jeff, world, master Chef, jefferson, I got a.

Speaker 4: 34:58

CDM, that's Certified Dietary Manager. I got that cert. I don't put that on my code anymore. You should. That's a big thing, it is.

Speaker 1: 35:05

But you know, jeff, you compete against yourself, man. All the time, you know, and that's really, and that's your bar, you know. Damn right, it is it isn't these other guys with all these different? You know certifications and gold medals and you know any of that stuff.

Speaker 3: 35:21

No, my certification is.

Speaker 1: 35:22

M-I-C-K-E-Y. That's right, that's right. My goodness, oh my God, my goodness oh my god.

Speaker 4: 35:29

Oh, all right. So well, let's get. Jeffrey is a member of a cartel. I didn't know I'm not a member of a cartel.

Speaker 1: 35:33

That's true too. But here's what stings. Um, I mean, it's all great news, lance, what you got going on like everything is fantastic, um, but I'll tell you what really stings. You're moving away and you're not going to get a vacation for a while and I'm, you know I was thinking like, oh man, let's get, let's get lance in here. You know I was thinking like, oh man, let's get, let's get Lance in here. You know. So, ultimately, when chefs come to the studio you know it's tradition now that they they cook a dish. You know John, you know he does his amazing food photography and we do the whole, you know, roll out the whole red carpet here, and we're going to have to figure out how to get you here, man. I don't know how it's going to happen.

Speaker 2: 36:11

Yeah, and we're going to have to figure out how to get you here. Man, I don't know how it's going to happen. Yeah, I'm completely down with that, so we'll have to work it in for sure.

Speaker 1: 36:15

Yeah, well, look, I mean, I don't want to put you on the spot, but why don't you pick a date now, while we're on air?

Speaker 2: 36:23

January 12th Perfect.

Speaker 1: 36:27

It's in, you're locked. Replicate the dish.

Speaker 2: 36:31

Their season in north carolina is a little bit different here. So, um, you know, they slow down in the winter because their grass goes dormant, obviously, and uh, their plate, you know, drops down a little bit. So, yeah, my season for slow time is probably going to be january, february, march well, that's actually perfect.

Speaker 1: 36:45

Uh, and I'm not kidding either if, um, you know, if we, if uh, later we should, we should try to at least ballpark a date and let's make that happen.

Speaker 3: 36:55

Hopefully we'll have a studio by then. Yeah, that sounds great.

Speaker 1: 36:58

Yeah, we're looking at doing a. So, yes, an actual complete production studio where we're going to have like a chef's kitchen. You know, john is going to have a giant, uh, photography playroom, Um, you know, the podcast room, uh, plus it'll be like an Airbnb sort of for chefs. You know, it's just obviously you don't pay anything, you just you just come and uh, we do, we got to do, and then you're off.

Speaker 1: 37:22

It's like, yeah, hell yeah, and Carl eats and Carl eats I'm building. You gotta understand, like understand this whole food media thing, that it's just so I can eat. I think so yeah.

Speaker 3: 37:37

Don't think it's exactly what it is. It's it.

Speaker 1: 37:40

I found a way to get the goods. I found a way.

Speaker 3: 37:46

We're laughing at John Oops. He didn't have canned ravioli.

Speaker 1: 37:54

He's like screw you, guys, guys, I'm out of here jason, do you want to go over the?

Speaker 4: 37:57

canned ravioli. Uh, yeah, so just initially, when we were discussing this competition and we were talking about what products could be used in the competition and they all had to be it was florida, correct, yeah?

Speaker 3: 38:07

florida. Well, yeah, so initially there was talk. It can only be a hundred miles from where we were 100 miles.

Speaker 4: 38:15

Yeah, so I was being sarcastic and saying so. If I want to bring canned ravioli, that's okay, and they said well don't you dare bring canned ravioli.

Speaker 3: 38:23

No, it can only be from pig wheelie, wiggly or something he said win dixie actually, yeah, that's what it was. I think he meant that so yeah, but what really happened was it was only the five major or six ingredients yeah yeah, then we can have other ancillary items wherever.

Speaker 4: 38:39

Yeah, I mean that happy tails pork was beautiful, so we had the pork. The bacon we had, the green cabbage was beautiful and uh, and what was the one I'm missing? The chinese broccoli.

Speaker 3: 38:47

Yeah, that was the only thing that they didn't have extras of, and thank god I brought extras, because he wouldn't have had any yeah.

Speaker 4: 38:53

So I'm like looking for this product and jeffrey had it in his cooler once again and I was like how is it that he's in the competition and he's holding the product? I'm like this is a scam. If he beats me, it's all crooked no, and I didn't.

Speaker 3: 39:08

What's funny is like we had this beautiful 10 bone french rack, um, that I denuded for the loin chops and I'm like, here this is only 10, and then I've got four extra that she had given me so we can have at least, uh, four portions out the door. I'm like, oh, that was great guys.

Speaker 4: 39:28

Yeah, but yours look prime. And they were vacuum sealed. They were like sous vide already, like he already has all this stuff ready to go yeah, he was.

Speaker 1: 39:35

He had prepared everything I had to know I'm peeling potatoes and you know I peeled my potatoes by the way, everybody, um, you know the chef lance cook, um, when you're at his status, he doesn't even have to say goodbye, he just, he just goes he just cuts out. No, he, there was a. We had a technical thing and he actually has to. Uh, he had to jump anyhow, so we appreciate that he was on the show.

Speaker 4: 39:59

He's a busy man. Did he tell you that?

Speaker 1: 40:06

Explain that explain that.

Speaker 3: 40:07

So we had a. We already knew setting this up. That lance had to go during a certain point in time, so we asked him to do the secret code word and we had a whole bunch of safe word. Safe word so it was press and seal.

Speaker 1: 40:20

It was this and that, so we decided on canned ravioli so he was like he was randomly, randomly, when he had to actually leave, he was gonna say hey guys, canned ravioli and then he, you know, we know that it was time while lance is off, which is.

Speaker 4: 40:35

Let me just talk about him real quick. So when we went to the cmc exam I be honest, I'm just saying this, I'm very real I wasn't exactly intimidated by anybody else at the exam and I'm not knocking anybody there, because I really didn't know anybody there other than the great lance cook.

Speaker 4: 40:48

So here here I am, coming into CMC, I'm looking at him, you know, and and anyway, throughout the experience I got to know him a really great guy, I mean, like he's very humble, no, ego very great guy, and so it was just it was good to get to know him, and and now I think that's half of it and sometimes it's not even about the environment or what are we doing, or what are we cooking, or what's the competition. It's literally the peer aspect, like you were mentioning. How do we look at individuals, how do people look at us? And I think we spend too much time on this in our life, sometimes worrying about what people think about us or what we think about other people, and it really is a competition within ourself, and that is really the best way to look at it.

Speaker 3: 41:27

Yeah, Right after we got done he was making some comments and I saw this thing with Gordon Ramsay and it was three things that when you're a chef, you should do. One of them was take it professionally.

Speaker 4: 41:38

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 41:41

What he meant by that is get judged by your peers and whatever they say to you, don't take it personally. Take it professionally.

Speaker 2: 41:45

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 41:45

The second thing you do have thick skin. Yeah, the second thing you do have thick skin?

Speaker 3: 41:48

Yeah, and it's not necessarily you have to have thick skin. Like I said at the beginning of this, when you compete, you're putting yourself out there to get whatever is being said to you. And I have a friend of mine, cleveland Brown, who is a manager for Kool and the Gang, taught me at a very young age he said when people ask you something or when you get advice from someone where you're not asking for it, you have the right to say whatever you want. But if you say, hey, how is this? Whatever is said to you, you have to accept, and that's key to it. You have to accept whatever is said to you and you have to grow from it. So that's why this food today is going to be killer.

Speaker 4: 42:25

This is a redemption food, yeah.

Speaker 1: 42:28

I'm going to be the judge of that. It's gold medal. That beef tongue is gold.

Speaker 4: 42:30

Is it gold medal?

Speaker 1: 42:31

We should have got a gold medal. Speaking of gold medal, today, this very day, we're receiving a delivery Big time packages Metro baby.

Speaker 3: 42:47

Well, there's one in my car. Yeah, you got that, but where's?

Speaker 1: 42:50

the other stuff.

Speaker 4: 42:51

He's got it again just like the competition he already had it, he always does?

Speaker 3: 42:54

I don't understand I gotta literally get a phone call yesterday. Uh, were you expecting a palette? I'm like, I was expecting a phone call yeah, they called.

Speaker 1: 43:06

They called me and I thought it was a scam call. It looked like. So I, I just kept like, just kept putting it to voicemail and they kept calling and I'm like, oh, my goodness, I'm like hello, and it was the—.

Speaker 4: 43:17

Southeast Freight. Yeah, metro's great, everything they make's great.

Speaker 1: 43:20

They're fit. Honestly, what an awesome bunch of people. Yeah, yeah, and so we have—what did you get, jeff?

Speaker 3: 43:27

I got the Chef Cart mobile cart it is. I call it the mobile chef toy because this thing has everything. It's a prep station on wheels. Then on top of that, you know remember how I brought those extenders for the legs of the table. This thing actually adjusts up and down. It has a cutting board built in and then you can put third pans and ninth pans and sixth pans on the actual.

Speaker 4: 43:48

You're bringing that out now.

Speaker 3: 43:55

I'm getting excited. Yeah, where's it at? It's in this show over. It's in the trunk of the car. All right, it's on wheels, and you can. We saw this at um the world food competition and I got giddy. I mean, as soon as I saw it I was like what is that? And they're like oh, this is. And I'm like. Then they had a competition where I think was john mcfadden and they and the Food Ninja dude. They were doing like a cutting competition who can cut faster? And they were just like whoop right, I'm like I want one.

Speaker 4: 44:14

I mean they got to be like a grand right. They're not cheap.

Speaker 1: 44:17

So, again, metro, yeah, amazing shelving. We're doing some work together, you know, between Metro and Walk Talk, and we're ecstatic and and are so. You know, john and I we chose, um, shelving, actual, actual racks speak. You know, john has all his tablewares and all the things that he uses for photography. I have all this equipment and whatever for the, you know, video and podcasts and all the audio. So, um, we're going to be using metro for that. But now, you know, I, I look at it, you know, and, along with with jeff, uh, you know what jeff is going to bring in here shortly.

Speaker 1: 44:59

This is all wonderful in the world of content creation you know it's more tools to create awesome content yeah especially for amazing companies like metro, and I just wanted to throw that out there because you know I I'm excited. I can't wait to do this thing, to to get here I mean for me, what?

Speaker 3: 45:16

what I was amazed about? Metro, it's what I always thought. Metro shelving, yeah you know, storage, that's it, that's what I want. But they go one step above. They do productivity so much more and they do that competition that they go in and that you can people compete to get them to come in to do the entire productivity so they can actually make you faster. That's why, when I was like, does that thing go up and down, like adjust for people's height? And they're like, yeah, I'm like whoever thought of that.

Speaker 3: 45:43

Thank you so they're really going the extra mile for the, the chefs of the world to make it easier for our backs, for our backs. Yeah, so just so everyone knows, we had an eight-foot table, two of them one behind us, one in front of us. Poor Lance, he's six feet.

Speaker 4: 45:57

He's 10 foot tall.

Speaker 1: 46:00

He has to be to hold all those medals, right, yeah?

Speaker 4: 46:02

that's why he's that tall.

Speaker 3: 46:04

So I'm probably a little bit shorter than you, maybe the same size as you as far as height. And we're like I'm like going with my legs spread out so I can go and I had these PVC pipe extenders. I didn't use them because I didn't want an unfair advantage. I only had eight.

Speaker 4: 46:21

You already had all the food ahead of time. What more advantage did you need? I didn't touch the food. I mean, if part of the category should be, does he have table extenders? You know when they're judging. You probably would have gotten a silver if they saw those PVC pipe painted Like he painstakingly made these things because he does so much of this. You know table extenders.

Speaker 3: 46:38

Honest to God when I was doing the, when I'd go out I'd have my tables, flip them up, and then I would put these things on instead of being and you had two sets.

Speaker 4: 46:45

I was even more impressed that he brought two and you're like you want to give some to lance and I was like, no, no, don't help him, he's already the favorite.

Speaker 3: 46:56

Yeah, well, listen, this, this category. Where we were, we didn't even have the running water, so that's a huge problem.

Speaker 1: 47:01

Lance reminds me lance reminds me hold on a second. I mean I, I did, I totally did what I said not to do um lance, reminds you. He reminds me of john mcfden. They're very similar.

Speaker 2: 47:11

Machine, yeah, a machine.

Speaker 1: 47:13

As far as like chef attributes man. Like they're just focused and they just run through it. Yeah, get it done.

Speaker 3: 47:19

It's funny. We actually had a talk like what we were doing, how our dish was to the audience, and then we had a talk once we served. We had a talk once we served. We had a talk to the judges, obviously, and the banter that was going on like I would look over, and as soon as I got done I kind of went out of the way and then went over and looked at Jason. I'm like you know what, I'm not going to tease him yet, I'll wait until he's done One part. Hari moved Jason and I out of the way because Lance was using the only oven.

Speaker 4: 47:46

We had, yeah, and I was oven. We had, yeah, when I was in lance's way and I was, I was trying to clean up, like get out of there and lance is still plating. I was being a little rude. Then I realized so I should step away.

Speaker 3: 47:58

So not in his way completely, but he had to come down the alley to get to the. He was thinking about tripping him yeah, I was.

Speaker 1: 48:01

You were like, that's why I was cleaning up, you were the 80s teen villain that would pop their collar on their polo shirt real, yeah, that was.

Speaker 4: 48:09

Yeah, I get it by the way, lance also had the shortest drive home no, we got to bring up the glass bricks though, because that was a topic remember. Lance brought the classic like 1980s bathroom square glass brick things that all of our.

Speaker 3: 48:22

Yeah, remember miami vice.

Speaker 4: 48:23

Yeah, he had a whole set I don't know, I don't know so, but so anyway, he had his plates built up on it, so so when you look in photos, it was his display and that's how he kept them he had a stern under there right.

Speaker 1: 48:34

That was an old school trick he was doing keeping them warm, not for nothing, but there's a reason why the guy's you? Know Silver yeah.

Speaker 3: 48:44

Well, you know, the funniest thing is when you kept on asking me did you tell Carl? Did you tell Carl? Did you tell Carl?

Speaker 4: 48:50

Oh, that you got bronze. Yeah, no, I'm like no, no, because I was like let's pretend that you got gold, or lie to him or something.

Speaker 1: 48:55

I mean, I kept asking. Yeah, he did and there was nothing.

Speaker 3: 48:59

How's it going out there?

Speaker 4: 49:07

And I'm like I'm right If you don't get like I literally thought I was going to get silver. It shows how much I know you get the bronze. And I'm standing next to Lance. I'm like, yeah, I got silver and Lance's gold. Right, it really shows how much I know about how it's, the rubrics and everything Anyway. And I they say Jason Linton bronze. And I'm like, ah, I thought I had the silver. So, literally leaving, I'm a little depressed and I hit the burger king drive-thru in hastings, and hastings is beautiful, but the bk was a little rough. You know, some are nicer than others you know that makes you feel better.

Speaker 4: 49:35

Right, I've been there so anyway, I got the whopper. You know, they got that weird mayo cream. That's supposed to be mayo but it's like watery and the tomatoes are like white. And anyway, I'm wearing my medal in the drive-thru. I'm not making this up, the same medal I'm wearing now. I'm pulling through the drive-thru and a woman's like what's up with that metal and I was like oh, I just I got bronze at this cook-off, blah, blah, blah. And I just felt really pathetic in that moment.

Speaker 1: 49:55

Because I'm at the bk drive-thru, I'm getting the whopper, add cheese versus right now, because you haven't taken the metal off since the event.

Speaker 4: 50:03

So anyway, like I said, bk drive-thru wearing my metal, feeling crappy, eating the whopper, feeling even worse, like when I was done I was just like, oh, now I'm taking the medal off.

Speaker 1: 50:13

I don't know what to say, because I would have been happy at the BK. I would have eaten the BK and be like you know what, man, I feel pretty good.

Speaker 3: 50:20

We didn't eat. By the time we left it was 3.30, 3.45 almost.

Speaker 4: 50:24

Yeah, I got there at like 9.

Speaker 1: 50:26

What you should have did is with the Whopper, you always get the order of chicken fries. Yeah, my wife gets those. They're good.

Speaker 4: 50:33

Yeah, it's just all that blended process. You never know what it is. Aren't they putting bugs in that stuff? Now, probably Isn't that what Tyson's doing. They're grinding up cockroaches like a Soylent Green.

Speaker 1: 50:42

No, I just saw a thing like that with Ramsey. I don't know if that's true or not. That's the thing.

Speaker 4: 50:47

Yeah, that's the thing you don't know. I saw that same plug where Ramsey's backing out no more Tyson love because they're putting insects in.

Speaker 1: 50:53

You don't know if that's real or not. I wasn't actually going to bring that up on the podcast. I was going to, but I couldn't find any actual, you know. So I wasn't going to bring it up, but you did.

Speaker 3: 51:04

It makes you wonder. Listen last year at I forgot his name now the chef that was doing it. He was presenting bugs.

Speaker 4: 51:12

So I made and we know we can eat these things chocolate-covered grasshoppers.

Speaker 3: 51:15

This stuff's been around for a long time I had to grind the kick.

Speaker 4: 51:18

But if companies are maybe milling and grinding and sneaking this in products, it's a whole different thing.

Speaker 3: 51:23

How about the FDA and USDA allow a certain amount of bugs inside the food?

Speaker 1: 51:28

Legally, yeah, that's always been like that cockroach falls. Most people don't right.

Speaker 3: 51:34

Most people don't know that.

Speaker 4: 51:35

No, that's like it was snow piercer. Here's my sci-fi nerd that movie snow piercer. They're all eating cockroaches. They just keep grinding them up and they make those black bricks. They look like my android cell phone and they're all just eating these black jello bricks. So that could be an option to the black jello brick at bk right the veggie brick, veggie brick.

Speaker 3: 51:51

So next week, is that what we're doing?

Speaker 1: 51:53

no, no black veggie brick. I'm gonna make that I don't subscribe to uh to any of this and um, yes, I want what I want and I want what I want it's funny.

Speaker 3: 52:03

At one point we had got done, we're cleaning up. We all had turned in our stuff. Lance looks at me, he goes. How do you feel I go, bronzy? That's, that's right. He did say that.

Speaker 1: 52:12

My intestines are a little bronzy right now. He goes. How do you know I go?

Speaker 3: 52:14

I just know it was just one of those things. It is what it is.

Speaker 1: 52:19

Jeff, I'm proud of you, man.

Speaker 3: 52:21

You've got to put yourself out there.

Speaker 1: 52:23

I'm saying you weren't wearing any walk and talk gear when you only got the bronze right. Yes, I did.

Speaker 4: 52:30

While we're talking about that, kind of just that general topic real quick. You said, jeff, I'm proud of you. There's one thing too you have to think about what Jeff does every week. What you guys do every week is you legitimately put it out there, you produce this product. I'm watching, you know, I'm looking into the kitchen right now. I'm seeing the me's, I'm seeing to get ready to put together. There are so many chefs that act like they have this clout or they think they're the greatest thing and they can't throw down, or they can't do it, or they can't produce it, or week after week they can't go out there and that's what you guys do, that's what chef Jeffrey does.

Speaker 1: 52:59

Let me, let me, let me just say something week after week after week. So here's what. Uh, jeff impresses me um so much when it comes to the creativity. You know, his execution sucks. No, I'm kidding the, the, the, the creativity. Like he comes up with these ideas real fast and then he executes and then you're like wow, I don't even know how you, you know well, he probably gets a little bit out there too.

Speaker 4: 53:25

Now there's a certain big agency he's definitely out there, there's a. There's a chef's group that's in america. I'm not gonna say their name. That's kind of against's definitely out there. There's a chef's group that's in America. I'm not going to say their name. That's kind of against, sometimes too out there, you know, if you get too mash up or a little too crazy.

Speaker 3: 53:36

It's true, a little fusion confusion.

Speaker 4: 53:39

Yeah, he's speaking the truth. I've been told fusion confusion many times and there are times that I'm totally just I'm an idiot. Why did I pair those things?

Speaker 1: 53:55

This is horrible, but I think we have to keep pushing those boundaries. I think it's right, right, right right. So I'm just saying um, I think we're we're real blessed to have you know jeff on the show and in capacity and what we're doing, because he just comes through with amazing, amazing, amazing stuff I mean?

Speaker 4: 54:03

I mean, no wonder he's got bags under his eyes and he's always talking about mental health and stress, because every week he's got to make you happy and come up with a new dish. You got to feed me.

Speaker 3: 54:14

This is worse than any ACF lab co-critiquing chef. How about the guy on my right of me last night or the night before two nights ago? Let's talk about John. Can we do a dessert?

Speaker 1: 54:29

Sure, we can do a dessert. Yeah, whenever I called, if I called Jeff during the day, I'm like hey man, what's? Going on. Hey man, I'm like, uh, okay, what's up, he's just doing prep. I'm doing prep at the store because I'm gonna do prep and I'm like okay, okay.

Speaker 4: 54:45

Jeffrey's really the only one that works out of you three it's just like we're at a private club setting. You're the general manager, carl, you're, uh, the activities director, john, and uh you're the executive chef, jeffrey, doing all the work no, I'm not kidding, but really jason can come back anytime oh, you know, I'm just kidding of course, well listen, well listen. No, there's really no truth.

Speaker 1: 55:14

It makes sense, but there's no truth.

Speaker 4: 55:15

Carl opens his opening line right. He writes that what did he? Say Opens the laptop. What else?

Speaker 1: 55:21

What Daddy does? It puts it all together. And then, obviously Did you just call yourself Daddy. I did. We just lost everyone.

Speaker 4: 55:29

No everybody loves that listen so hold on.

Speaker 1: 55:32

I was just gonna be complimentary. No, daddy, I was. I was gonna be complimentary because the reality is none of this works, yeah, you know, unless unless these guys, because I, I can't do what they do no, you can't do.

Speaker 4: 55:46

Well, you can kind of do. He can do something. Yeah, yeah, he can definitely. I can't cook any jewish food, though you can't, it's just it's, you can kind of do it. He can do it, he can definitely do it.

Speaker 3: 55:53

I can't cook any Jewish food, though you can. It's like Menachem.

Speaker 4: 55:55

That's what I love when he brings in his heritage and nationality, which is cool, because you don't really see a lot of Jewish restaurants, right, like hey, did you see that new Jewish place that opened? You don't really real delis. No, people in florida think publics is a deli and I love publics, they're great and all. But I am from up north and this is a hot topic for me because I own a frank's deli and cafe in port st lucie and I wanted to give them mortadella, you know, liverwurst, like all this stuff, and their brains were going to explode because south florida wants ham, turkey roast, beef, you know their public's trained. Oh, maybe I'll get the italian today. Let's go the buffalo chicken deal. Wow, we're really gonna spice it up. You know I like the bus. So florida doesn't even know what a deli is. No, it's true, did public church? You huh said probably. Yeah, I don't like me, I'm public's cake stink too, I'm holding publicscom public hold on people are listening.

Speaker 1: 56:46

I'm holding up this doll. Just point where public where public'six heard you.

Speaker 4: 56:49

It's the Northern Yankee in me. I move down here and people are like Publix, it's the greatest place. They got cakes and hoagies and boo, boo boo. I'm like no, that's not.

Speaker 3: 56:58

You remember that place back when then it's called Josie's on 46th Avenue and Hollywood Boulevard. Yeah, that was a deli. You walk in and there was Johnny and Joey right there with his son and they were slicing the meats and they want chicken parm. You got veal parm. You want the brain.

Speaker 4: 57:14

There's not piles of cutlets breaded in some sort. It's not really a deli, no.

Speaker 1: 57:20

Man.

Speaker 2: 57:21

Oh well, Whatever?

Speaker 1: 57:22

Okay, kiss the public. Oh yeah, kiss the public. I don't think it would have ever happened, john.

Speaker 4: 57:34

John says, hey, kiss the Publix sponsorship goodbye. Well, I'm not a part of Walk Talk. I'm speaking on behalf of Chef Jason Lin, CDC, CDM.

Speaker 1: 57:41

Jason effing Lin over here.

Speaker 4: 57:43

No, publix, you have your points too, though, my goodness. I just want to say that we love Publix. No, publix is so. I secretly hate Publix because they are so. Their shelves are so fronted. That's the biggest thing I would say to young organizing people Make it look like Publix.

Speaker 1: 57:59

Make it look like Publix. Yeah, I mean you're more of a Dollar General shop.

Speaker 4: 58:04

You know some Bravo when you're looking at your storeroom as a chef.

Speaker 3: 58:06

when, when you're looking at your storeroom as a chef, when you're looking at your inventory, wherever it is, you always want to have it where everything's front and center. The labels are front and center. When you go home, you want everything front and center and your family's like why are you so anal about this? And it's like well, I know exactly where it is. And they're like it's just as ridiculous.

Speaker 4: 58:24

This is too military. It's hard to turn off. Sometimes you can't, and that's what's tricky.

Speaker 1: 58:28

I can tell that you were a Publix stock boy when you were growing up.

Speaker 3: 58:32

I worked at Publix when I was 14.

Speaker 1: 58:36

Yeah, the difference. I worked at Winn-Dixie so you can see the differences here. We don't care.

Speaker 3: 58:42

I actually worked at 164, which is the old Bennigan's Sheridan Street, the original one. Yeah, yeah, yeah, in the pole Funny story, I actually lifted up with another Publix worker. We had to lift up a car because the jack didn't go. It was a Datsun 210. And there was a flat tire. We had to change it. We had to lift up the car while somebody else put the tire on. Oh yeah, that was my old. I never got tipped because you couldn't tip.

Speaker 1: 59:11

I like to the car people, like during the holidays. But you can test them because once in a while they'll take it. So at Winn-Dixie it was like take it whatever. Yeah, you would be like, hey, like you put your hand out, you know.

Speaker 4: 59:18

Like, hey, I used to love Winn. It was the beef people back in the day, winn-dixie was the bomb, and now what?

Speaker 3: 59:24

Aldi right bought Winn-Dixie, all AP grocers.

Speaker 4: 59:27

Yeah, but no, it was Southeast Groceries, but then Aldi I thought bought them.

Speaker 1: 59:30

I don't know if they bought them all, but they bought a bunch, load of them Some they're going to convert to Aldi's and some they're going to keep Winn-Dixie. Oh.

Speaker 4: 59:36

I didn't realize that I always feel rich when I'm in Winn-Dixie, though, Like when I walk. Look at that Natty Ice on sale $1.99. Wow.

Speaker 1: 59:52

And you got all your All right, so, john, Don't forget, you got to have your Winn-Dixie card.

Speaker 4: 59:56

That's how you get the deals. If you don't have the card, they charge you the normal price. I know?

Speaker 1: 1:00:02

Well, it's the same at CVS or whatever.

Speaker 4: 1:00:04

Yeah, they're working us.

Speaker 1: 1:00:05

Yeah, oh, look at a good price. Wow, do you have your number? Now I've got to put my wife's number in there. She gets all the points.

Speaker 3: 1:00:10

What was the one that just Bed Bath Beyond was like that? Remember, if you had the coupon and then they'd put the expiration date on it.

Speaker 4: 1:00:16

I used to pick them up like on the sidewalk, walking in those bastards All right, All right.

Speaker 1: 1:00:24

Jeff, Jason, John, you guys are awesome, Lance, if you listen to this at all. Thanks for being on the show.

Speaker 3: 1:00:28

Canned ravioli Canned ravioli Canned ravioli.

Speaker 4: 1:00:30

Lance had to dip out.

Speaker 1: 1:00:35

AJ Brianna over at Metro. You all are awesome. Tina Davis, tina Davis and Chefs, chefs, chefs, chefs, chefs Peninsula Food Service Don't forget about it. Central Florida.

Speaker 3: 1:00:43

Also huge shout out to Tina Atkins, larry and Amy for coming out to support Jason and I from Sweetwater.

Speaker 1: 1:00:50

They went up there. Yeah, I love them.

Speaker 3: 1:00:52

They actually changed their dates to watch Jason and I compete.

Speaker 4: 1:00:55

No, kidding, I was looking for Jeffrey's entourage. That was some of it, but all right.

Speaker 1: 1:00:59

All right, listen, we got to roll, we are out. We'll see you next time.