Supermarket Stakeout with Chef Johnathan Rodriguez to Indian Cuisine with Chef Keith Sarasin

As the sizzle of competition fades from last week's episode, I'm thrilled to whisk you into a new culinary landscape where Chef Johnathan Rodriguez spices up the Food Network's "Supermarket Stakeout." Meanwhile, the food world buzzes with anticipation as Chef Jeffrey and Chef Pooch Rivera prep for the NRA show, and Jeff stirs up a feast in New Hampshire with Chef Keith Sarasin for an Indian wedding that's as colorful as the dishes he's crafting. Taste buds at the ready, we've got pastry chefs lining up to grace our future episodes with their sweet creations – it's a veritable buffet of gastronomic delights and industry schmoozing that you won't want to miss.

Turning the page to a more personal chapter, my heart swells with pride recounting how childhood dreams, kindled by the Food Network and my mother's unwavering support in the Bronx, have led to a momentous invitation from the very network that inspired me. The camaraderie and pressure-cooker atmosphere of "Supermarket Stakeout" come to life as I share the juicy behind-the-scenes tales. It's a narrative sprinkled with nostalgia, a dash of competition, and an ample serving of triumph that's bound to captivate and inspire.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 1:04

Hello Food Fam. This is the Walk Talk Podcast where you will find the perfect blend of food fun and cooking knowledge. I'm your host, carl Fiorini. Welcome to the number one food podcast in the country. We're podcasting on site at Ibis Images Studios, where food photography comes alive and I get to eat it. First things first. Last week we had chefs Lance Cook and Jason Eflin on the show. We dove into their ACF-sanctioned cooking competition that our own Chef, jeffrey Schlissel. Well, he participated. And which chef won a gold? Well, it was a fun, spirited episode. Go back, listen and enjoy Buon appetito. 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 help solve all your kitchen inconsistencies. Check out their dry aged program too. Okay, our guest this week is on Food Network's season six of Supermarket Steakout, airing May 15th. Oh yeah, we're talking about our industry brother and dear friend, chef Jonathan Rodriguez. Stay tuned, chef is on deck.

Speaker 1: 2:29

Here's some exciting news. I'm sending Jefferson and Pooch to the NRI show in Chicago this month. They'll be doing impromptu short-form interviews with industry personalities and meeting up with some of our partners, sponsors and friends. In fact, citrus America's booth will be home base. Come by and say hello. It's booth 5463. And I know that AJ and Brianna from Metro they're going to be there, along with Tina from Rack Porcelain. I wish I could make it. I cannot. Dirty, dirty, dirty, jeff. So you're in New Hampshire, you're cooking, you dirty dog, you and I'm starving over here and I don't know what to do with myself. What, what's up, man?

Speaker 2: 3:14

Oh, you know it's. It's great. We it's about 53, 63 degrees down or up here. It's beautiful. We're in the middle of traffic. Right now. We're headed to one of my favorite spots every time I come to Boston, which is Chinatown, and it has just the most intricate foods and just delicious foods. So that's what we're up to right now.

Speaker 1: 3:41

So, yeah, I mean you're doing some of that friendly chef-y, chef consulting work and you're helping our friend who shall not be named no, you're helping Keith up there right, keith Saracen with a wedding.

Speaker 2: 3:52

Yeah, he's got a wedding. It's a 200-person wedding. It's all Indian food, it's mocktails. It's literally starting at like like 11 o'clock in the morning they start getting fed and they go all the way until 8, 39 o'clock when we get done so for us it's about a 14 hour day, just that day. But we're also bringing in uh manish from new orleans. He's going to be flying up and he'll be in tomorrow and then we start prepping tomorrow and Saturday and then game on with everybody. And I get to see Robert Gonzalez on Saturday, which I'm stoked about. So I get a big nice hug from him and just congratulations. And Chef Nikki reached out on one of my posts and I got in touch with her, got her credentials and we'll be seeing when she can come down the show. So my next work is now chef steven, who was the winner to the spring baking championship. So hopefully we'll get both of those uh chefs on the air soon for everybody to listen to.

Speaker 1: 4:58

Yeah, that's awesome, man. Yeah, and you know what I? We got to get some of these pastry pastry people here. I tell you that, um, after last week with uh, with that crumb cake dude, um, I'm sorry but we need to.

Speaker 2: 5:13

We need to start doing desserts here, just saying yeah, I, I would not just be doing them, I would love to have other chefs to come in and do them, especially if that's the forte is pastries, so I can learn yeah, you know clearly, uh, clearly that, but I will tell you that, um, my whole house enjoyed that crumb cake everybody yeah, I, I saw you posted that you ate three pounds of the crumb cake you.

Speaker 1: 5:40

You saw it Like. You saw that it was a massive. It was a massive, massive, just chunk of of crumb cake, you know, not to mention the brittle and everything else. That man, I just enjoyed the hell out of that.

Speaker 2: 5:53

I'm glad you did man yeah.

Speaker 1: 5:54

I mean listen, you can always get a gig somewhere.

Speaker 2: 6:02

I'm sure that you can. You can do pastry man, you can bake, you can bake baby. Yeah, I appreciate that. It was funny because we're going over design for the book and we're picking and choosing which recipes we're going to be using and I've never, ever, and I'm not kidding in 40 years have never written down my tiramisu recipe and I was just about to pull the trigger. So might be the next book okay, all right.

Speaker 1: 6:23

Well, I mean, I think we should probably. Maybe we want to work it out a few times, and I was just about to pull the trigger, so it might be the next book?

Speaker 2: 6:28

Okay, all right. Well, I mean, I think we should probably. Maybe we want to work it out a few times. You know a couple of variations.

Speaker 1: 6:31

Oh you want to be the taster. Yeah, Aren't I that. Isn't that what I? I mean, I've kind of built everything around it here. What are we talking about?

Speaker 2: 6:38

Yep, yep, yep. And, by the way, on the news, the news that you said about the NRA. Funny enough, both Pooch and I have registered. And Pooch and I were talking last night and he's like, oh yeah, I've got some emails from people. I'm like, what did you do to get emails? Who did you contact? And for some reason I had a lag in my emails. I've got 24 emails waiting for me today for NRA people that want to meet with us when we're there. So that's really, that's going to be a huge thing for everybody.

Speaker 1: 7:06

So I'm really psyched about that. Let me tell you, jeff, man, I am so stoked about this NRA thing. This show is going to be bad. So I mean, we, basically we registered as content creators and media and, yeah, we're in baby, and and it's going to be a beautiful, beautiful show. We have a lot of friends who are going to be there and uh, yeah, it's going to be a ton of content, man, ton of content, ton of contacts and, um, let's roll. Speaking of let's roll, um, all right, without further ado, let's get Chef Jonathan on the.

Speaker 1: 7:42

Yeah, you, that's you. Let's get you on the program. Thank you for coming out.

Speaker 4: 7:46

Thank you for having me. This is the home away from home, they say.

Speaker 1: 7:50

As they say yeah Well, look dude at the end of it. Where were you overnight? What did you do?

Speaker 4: 7:56

What did you do, boca Raton? So I got to get a last minute call and then drive myself three hours and 15 minutes Last night. Last night.

Speaker 1: 8:07

Yeah, you saw a couple of properties.

Speaker 4: 8:08

Saw a couple of properties that definitely the company's involved with and they definitely want to take over, which is beautiful. Can't announce the properties, but they're definitely by the marina, which is beautiful, you can announce the properties, but they're definitely by the marina, which is beautiful.

Speaker 1: 8:22

You can announce the company that you work for, if you like uh.

Speaker 4: 8:25

So I work for schulte hospitality and um you know we definitely manage a big, large group of uh resorts and hiltons and marriott's throughout the the property. So it's a definitely a a really nice avenue for our company because we're now focused strongly on the food and beverage world and it's giving opportunities for multiple chefs on our platform to be able to showcase and give the best ingredients to their performance.

Speaker 1: 8:51

All right. Well, you know, we just want to make sure Sheltie here is, you know their name getting called out. We appreciate what they do with you. Obviously you're a friend of the show, you know. So you're doing what you're doing and we love it. But let's talk. Let's talk food network food network.

Speaker 4: 9:07

Yeah, food network is uh something that's uh very personal actually. Um, not to throw a sentimental right, but uh, as a kid you know my mom was very big about that stuff. She would be watching it and she's like oh, jonathan, one day I would love to see you on there. I'm like all right, mom, stop with the TV thing. This is a dream, ain't nobody going over there? We live in the Bronx Calm down. We live in New York City and the surroundings is not where you want to be. Nobody's coming out of here, everybody that's from New York. They know it's the. You can survive the concrete jungle and you can survive anywhere, you know. So it's really cool. But you know, in that forte, you know, I grew up watching all these great shows and you know, really, you know, inspired me in a way that you know, my mom was so involved with. You know so, um, you know, fortune loss, mom. You know, um, you know it's going to be weird, it's going to be almost two years, it's going to feel.

Speaker 1: 10:04

Has it really been?

Speaker 4: 10:05

It's going to feel almost two years, man, yeah.

Speaker 1: 10:08

I mean, I remember the phone call.

Speaker 4: 10:09

Yeah, it's, uh, you know, and but, um, you know, and it was definitely something that you know, I would just wake up and then, all of a sudden, my dad would be started, you know, pulling me. Hey, John, come over here, come watch this, you know, come try this, come try that. So, um, you know it's, uh, you know, have to take a an opportunity of a lifetime and, um, you know where I'm at in my career now. You know I'm very blessed and, um, you know, manifest through the process, uh, food network reached out, which was phenomenal and uh felt like a really strong win, you know.

Speaker 4: 10:42

So, um, you know, I wanted to do something and give back, but I also wanted to do something in remembrance of my mom and my dad and having that one-on-one watching those shows. So that's what it uh really draw to attention. I said, you know what I want to do, it, this is great. So they called me, they talked to my publicist and my publicist was like you want to do this and I'm like all right. And I remember I was like what the heck is supermarket stakeout? You know, us chefs we're pretty busy right, and me and the world are a little bit more busier time than I've had that I've ever spent. So it's really nice that, uh, you know, um, you know, I get to take a step back and acknowledge what the show was about. And chef Alex is the host of the show. Um, they have different random chefs that go on the show, which is phenomenal and, um, you know, just, you know, going and getting that experience was was pretty cool. Man, they flew me out to Arizona. It was great.

Speaker 1: 11:37

How many chefs are with you um for the shooting, like when you're in the competition so um, there was a total of five of us all together it was a total five of us, five all day. Okay, and are you allowed to reveal who they?

Speaker 4: 11:54

are um, yeah, everybody knows um exactly. I mean, it's all over right now. So you had Chef Lance who was on last week.

Speaker 1: 12:03

Who was on last week, right, so for?

Speaker 4: 12:05

friends and the family, right. And then you have Kayla, and you have Chef Ponder, who was involved as well, which he's done, like Chop, and he's done another show that he did win, actually, which was pretty cool. So he's a little bit more.

Speaker 3: 12:24

He's probably the most he's more seasoned.

Speaker 4: 12:26

He was the most season one. It was funny Cause I remember waking up and you know, getting there in the morning and they were like we're waiting for one person. This person is still not here and I'm like all this person's still not here and I'm like, all right, I thought I was the first one here, but apparently not. And uh, all of a sudden I see uh, kayla, I see Lance, um, and we're like, well, this person didn't seem to show up, comes to find out he was sitting at the passenger seat, like home alone it was. They would give it the tickets out.

Speaker 4: 12:57

And uh, he just turned around. He's like, hey, I'm chef, ponder how you doing. It was pretty funny actually. So, um, no, he he's like listen, man, uh, I know the deal, I know how it is his uh normal routine and, um, probably the season, the most season one out of everybody. And, um, yeah, it was cool, cool experience. So, um, we went there and then I can't reveal everything until the show comes out, of course, but it was just such a great experience overall and blessed to be part of that part of my life.

Speaker 1: 13:32

I feel like you're going to probably get some more opportunities too, right Over there For sure.

Speaker 4: 13:37

I think that once you get the leverage of your personality and they seek out I mean they were very driven about the personality and the competitive side I could tell you 100%, and this is no joke, I was on the wrong show. I was prepared for chop. Prepared for chop, okay, that's all I gotta say. I was prepared for chop, um, but it definitely threw a challenge, like a little corkscrew challenge for me. Uh, because they're, um, they were very, extremely literate, like, they were very literal, like on the particular um competition, like sketch that you have to do. You know, for example, if, example, if it was burger, like they're being specific, like they're serious, make a burger, um, you know, and again, you'll see, uh, how different I was.

Speaker 4: 14:26

You know, through the process, and you could definitely be like, that was Jonathan Rodriguez, he's definitely a different from everybody in that quarter turn, um, but you know, uh, it was cool man, it was a cool experience, it was hot. Arizona, um, not many fluffy people, I can tell you was in my area. I was the most fluffetized person in the area, um, so yeah, but you've been doing you.

Speaker 1: 14:48

You look great. What have you been doing?

Speaker 4: 14:49

So, uh, I cut a lot of carbs, man and, um, there's a lot of cool chefs out there that you know you can, that you know they're teaching you how to utilize more of the food in a more healthier standpoint, right, so you know carbs are in everything.

Speaker 4: 15:05

You know nutrition is so important in people's lives. But I think when you actually take the science behind it and you like, break it down to the, to the science of where it makes sense to your body, you know, and celiac runs through my, through me, so it's like it's something that I love because you know, I under, I understand cause, I have a relation to it. So I, you know, studying that and studying the nutritional value of that and then trying to be a little bit more healthier is, you know, you want to see yourself, in the long run, keep growing and keep, you know, manifesting the opportunities in life so that you can keep, you know, experiencing this beautiful life that we're gifted. And I just, you know, seen so much death happen so fastly in my life, so I just didn't want to repetition the situation so quickly.

Speaker 1: 15:48

Yes, Well, I mean, it seems that you're on the right track. You're on the right path. I mean, obviously, we know each other a long time and we know each other really good. Really well, I should say. And yeah man, I mean I'm, I'm proud of you. You're holding yourself together with with the adversities that you know you've had over the last couple of years.

Speaker 4: 16:09

It's, you know, like I said, you know, you know it's, a person needs to have great people around, you know, and you know you, john, jeff, you know, um, keith, um, there's, you know, it's very important to have that circle of love and secureness. Um, nobody's Superman, nobody's super woman. You know, I think that the more you keep around good people, the more you can balance and grow together. There's no, you know, book to say that needs to be one person to succeed. Everybody needs to succeed in their own ways. But you know, whatever you could do to plug in those plays is where you have to. You know, really practice and preach, you know. So it's very important to me that you know what's really saved me and my sanity is really everybody.

Speaker 4: 16:57

Just, you know, keeping in contact and seeing how everybody do, and you know I'm trying to get better. I'm like, hey, how are you, how is everything? You know we get so busy in life and you know you got 24 hours Out of your 24 hours. You know what are we doing? 90% of us are all grinding. We're all grinding because we all see the same goal, but we all have a different path and goal. But we all have a different path and that's the honest truth.

Speaker 4: 17:23

And when you're thinking this and you're seeing things like you know, jeff, you know competing with you know, lance at the acf, I mean jeff, and I always say this and I'll never, you know, no matter he, he can always stop hearing this, but I always tell you, carl, personally, and you, john, um, very admiring, right, um, and I and I always throw that in there he's very admiring because he, at the age that he's at, where he's been in life as a chef, where he's grown, you know, he, you know, secures that understanding that you as a person, yes, you're going to go through things, but in time it's tough, you know, just keep focused, keep balance, keep energy, keep the manifestation going. You tell yourself exactly where your approach is. You know, and those videos, I mean, as funny as it sounds, jeff, I watch them as often as I can because you know people like me that are constantly moving. We need that positivity in that world.

Speaker 1: 18:16

Right, You're talking about Jeff's TikTok. No, I'm talking about Keith. That's what I'm talking about. No, I'm talking about Keith.

Speaker 4: 18:22

That's what I'm talking about.

Speaker 2: 18:24

No, I'm talking about I just literally put us off mute and I'm laughing because you just mentioned Keith again.

Speaker 4: 18:30

Yeah, so no, no, but for real man. I mean, I love you guys so deeply and I'm so proud where you guys are today and it's like to even see Walk Talk. You know how growth and I know it's about me, it's about Food Network and all that great stuff. But you know, give credit to what credit is due. You know you guys are a big part of my success as well and you know I couldn't be more prouder to be part of a family with you guys. I would love to do this every single day. True driven day. Uh, true, driven on a boat, you know, but unfortunately, carl's car, I'm boat sick, so you won't get on a boat with us everything's in the bay, in the bay um, but again, you know, whoever subscribes to walk and talk, whoever's part of walk and talk, be part of it, be part of the family, be part of the growth.

Speaker 4: 19:12

It's a phenomenal, phenomenal voyage and venture for where it's going to grow, where it's going to be. Um, you know, definitely, the manifestation is real. You know definitely, the manifestation is real. You know and it's you know. You look at all these companies Carl and I remember sitting down and we're talking about this and it's like podcast, do a podcast.

Speaker 4: 19:27

Let's talk about podcasts. You're like I think I want to do a podcast. Should I do a podcast? I'm like Carl, do the podcast please. You guys have no idea where you're going. Are you going to blow? Jeff comes out of nowhere. Boom, john, jeff, carl, you guys are phenomenal, you guys are the real deal and I really didn't want to come on the show to tell people that about me. I wanted to tell people this like you guys are the real deal, you're making the noise. People know, people see I go and I work for corporates, I work for different places. They're asking me now what walk and talk is. It's crazy and I wanted you to guys know this. Like this is crazy. Like people are asking me from marriott's, from hilton's, who is these people? Because they see that you're connected. So god could only give you the strength to keep doing what you guys are doing. But just understand that the path is going to come closer than you guys actually think or seeing.

Speaker 1: 20:16

So well, thank you, and um, I, I accept, I embrace all of what you just said, man. Um, when you want to talk about manifest, uh, manifestation, yeah, I'm all, I'm all about it, jeffrey. I mean, he was giving you some big props over there, uh, you and the ai, uh, keith yeah, and I really do appreciate that.

Speaker 2: 20:39

You know, we, we, we do this and we do it out of love. Heard the podcast today. It was, you know, phenomenal. It, it keeps us going and what we need to do for the industry because, again, I mean, we're still trying to figure everything out after covid and what, what's next for us. And, sorry, we're in the middle of boston, we're just about to pull into chinatown, um, so sorry for the street noise, but it's.

Speaker 2: 21:18

It's one of those things that you get to see and feel the energy of what this industry does. And you have people like Jonathan. And look, we competed the first year. I did Saver St Pete. We competed against each other, then the following year, last year, this year, rather, we competed together and you won. I have nothing but love and admiration for you. You've done everything and everything you've been through Like Carl. I'm going to reiterate what Carl said with every adversity gone through, to keep your head down and keep focused, you have to congratulate yourself because you didn't wallow in your own poop. You did what you needed to do. So you know, congratulations to that. And putting yourself out there to a national TV and doing what you did that's, that's what we call in yiddish chutzpah. That's like well, so congratulations for doing that too as well, man thank you, I appreciate that.

Speaker 1: 22:10

You know, I want to. You know, your wife is really, uh, probably the unsung hero of this whole thing, and I just want to put that out there yeah, shout out to my wife elizabeth, honestly, um, that is definitely my anchor, um, and that's 100 the truth man.

Speaker 4: 22:26

You know I I strong driven for whoever finds that special person. Make sure that person can balance you because, you know, without her life is a lot different. That's the truth. So, um, she's, uh, she's my true caper superhero on the back end. And you know, and again, you have. You have the kids and you have. You know. You know they're seeing what they're seeing now these days and you know they get to. You know experience a better lifestyle, you know, compared to. You know the way I was growing up, you know. So we still have the old school ways where we try our best to have them follow. You know the rights and the wrongs. You know there's too much poison sometimes in that world well you know.

Speaker 1: 23:10

So this, this whole impromptu uh, meeting you know down in boga, I really wanted you cooking today, not just because I wanted to eat you know, but I want you know at the end of it, you know I wanted to um, not test you, but um you know, have you here producing some food.

Speaker 1: 23:29

You know, obviously, john, you know, does a lot of shooting with you anyway, but I, I wanted to do something for the podcast, so we gotta have you. You know, at some point I want you to come back. Uh, maybe after, uh, your episode airs and you're gonna come back. You're gonna cook for the show, for sure, which is different than when we're doing, you know, restaurant recipes or one of the other things. This is a little bit more intimate in setting and it just goes farther, because we actually talk about why, how, the ingredients, you know, inspiration, stuff like that, and the audience appreciates that angle from the chef who's preparing the food.

Speaker 4: 24:11

I understand.

Speaker 1: 24:11

Yeah, absolutely Definitely will yeah so Jeff is up in like Boston, right, new Hampshire, boston, new Hampshire, and so I want to do this for Keith. Okay, he's listening, he's listening. So keith saracen, an amazing, an amazing chef, um, that has, uh, his most recent cookbook just came out what a couple of months back, right yeah, the fermentation one yeah, go ahead and plug it, keith can well, go ahead, I mean you're in the car, you're on speaker, go for it cheese can well go ahead.

Speaker 3: 24:48

I mean, you're in the car, you're on speaker, go for it. Thanks man. I uh, yeah it was. It was amazing to write my my sixth book, um, on fermentation. I feel like it. You know fermentation can be intimidating to anyone, so I wanted to build kind of a book that was a little bit more approachable, whether you're a seasoned vet or brand new coming into fermentation.

Speaker 1: 25:15

Yeah, I think that's really cool, man, and when you come down, I want to experience some of what you produce because it's beautiful. I don't know, you know I'm not, I don't have a lot of experience, you know, with Indian cuisine, but like I gotta tell you, um, you'll probably be my, my entry point, um into it, so keep that in mind. All right, but when you, when you do come down, we got to cook and and um and do some pretty stuff.

Speaker 3: 25:39

Yeah, you know, and the thing of it is is we got to go beyond butter chicken. There's so much more than butter chicken and not yeah, no, no, no.

Speaker 1: 25:46

I don't want you to start me with like the. Uh, you know the, the you know shallow into the pool, man, throw me in, you know.

Speaker 3: 25:52

All right, let's go.

Speaker 2: 25:56

Yeah, and he's being very reserved too, because he's just finishing up his latest book and that one is just going to be probably the most powerful book he's done so far. Wait a minute. It's something that's dear to his heart.

Speaker 1: 26:07

Well, hold on a second, Another book. You just put out a book.

Speaker 3: 26:11

Well see, Jeff just spoiled my entire announcement, so I'm not, he does that. I'm not supposed to announce it yet. Okay, so now it's cool. Uh yeah, I just finished my seventh book, and it's called Finding India. It'll be out in the summer next year, and the foreword is written by my guru, Dr Kuru Shalal. There's a ton of recipes in there from all over the subcontinent, and it's really my journey too. So it's man. I can't wait to put this out into the world. It's been 16 years to write this book.

Speaker 1: 26:42

Well, I mean. So number one. It's out, it's out yeah.

Speaker 4: 26:48

So it's out to the number one podcast of food in the world.

Speaker 1: 26:54

In the U S, in the U? S, but wow, All right. So, um, so, that's just congrats on that man, and it sounds deep. And and um, I'll, uh, I'll, I'll be when it does come out, I'll purchase a copy. And and I'll, and I'll be when it does come out, I'll purchase a copy and I'll dive in. Jeff, you do it all the time, man, you do it all the time. I love you, baby, I tell you.

Speaker 2: 27:16

I wonder if it's a Listen. You know, what would be great is if we could have some of these authors come on our show. We put their books on our website so that they could link and that way our you know, our listeners can go right to there to get the book.

Speaker 1: 28:13

I got. I got even a better idea. We can. We can even take it a step further. We can. We can actually break the news beforehand on all of those authors, and then it will. We'll. We'll be like heroes, we'll be superstars. I mean, it's going to be pretty, pretty badass. We'll be like the TMZ. You know what I mean? Oh no, keith took the phone and threw it out the window. Keith took the phone and threw it out the window. All right, john, go ahead and try to get it back. All right, so, jonathan.

Speaker 4: 28:43

Spoiler.

Speaker 1: 28:44

Spoiler alert.

Speaker 4: 28:46

So yeah.

Speaker 1: 28:47

When's your book?

Speaker 4: 28:48

coming out. You got a book, man, but we're going to do one.

Speaker 1: 28:51

We're going to do so just so you know. All right, and you'll, you'll be part of that. Um, walk and talk. There will be a book there.

Speaker 2: 29:00

There will be one, um, and I'm going to say there's probably I don't know maybe half a dozen of the chefs. Oh you, yeah, back, sorry, so what I?

Speaker 1: 29:11

what? Well, I figured keith threw the phone out the window. I figured he grabbed it and literally threw, threw it out the window. Yeah, somebody went out the window. That's all I know. Um, what I was just saying. Uh, I was just talking to jonathan and explaining how, um, there will eventually be a walk and talk book and I'm sure that it. You know, obviously there's going to be. It's going to be food based and there will be some other content and depth to it. But there's going to probably be about a half a dozen chefs who are going to make that book and obviously Jonathan, you know, being who he is with us, he'll be one of them.

Speaker 2: 29:53

That's awesome.

Speaker 1: 29:54

Yeah, and you too probably a little bit. You know, I mean Jefferson right.

Speaker 2: 29:59

Oh, I appreciate that.

Speaker 1: 30:00

Yeah, we'll throw you a couple of lines.

Speaker 4: 30:04

He's already done 786 recipes this year. Who Jeff?

Speaker 1: 30:09

Is that what it was?

Speaker 4: 30:10

I'm sure it was already over 400 dishes.

Speaker 1: 30:14

I thought you counted. He's done a lot.

Speaker 2: 30:16

I actually counted it, it's 206.

Speaker 4: 30:21

I just gave you your yearly goal 476.

Speaker 1: 30:27

Yeah, yeah, I mean, and I got to eat all of it.

Speaker 4: 30:33

You know, you know, jeff, I ain't gonna lie, I was excited to come to the podcast today, cause I was like, oh, this is going to be great, just going to be there. And then Carl spoiled that part and said, oh, jeff's not here. Double whammy on me on that one.

Speaker 1: 30:47

John and I. So double whammy on me on that one. Yeah, john and I. You know there was a lot of stuff to do today, yeah so, thank you.

Speaker 4: 30:51

We're making s'mores now because we don't have you here. So I appreciate that I love s'mores With gummy bears inside, because we don't, you know, we don't have the protein.

Speaker 1: 30:59

Yeah, john and I were staring at each other, blinking like I don't know what do we do now, like there's Even worse. Yeah, and then Jonathan, jonathan, last night, chef Jonathan, the very gentleman who's sitting right across from me he sends me a note, I don't know, nine o'clock, 10 o'clock at night, something like that he says, oh, by the way, look, I can't cook tomorrow. I got to, I got to drive down to South Florida and I'm just thinking to myself, wow, that I get screwed today, just up and down, all different ways. John, you hardly eat anyway. Yeah, don't make a face. Oh, did you talk? Did you tell you what? So, um, what I'm planning on here is uh, so next week we got what is it? Selena, selena, selena, uh, coming on, cheese, the cheese. I'm figuring they're going to be bringing some stuff and we'll have fun with it. Then we're going to pick up on actual Jeff doing some work around here.

Speaker 2: 32:04

The menu is very strong for next week Very strong. There's a pizza involved. The menu is very strong for next week Very strong.

Speaker 1: 32:10

Okay.

Speaker 2: 32:12

There's a pizza involved. If you want to ask them for cheese, okay, and there's a spring roll involved too.

Speaker 1: 32:20

Oh, okay. Well, what kind of cheese do you want for the—what are you looking for for the pizza?

Speaker 2: 32:23

Like what—you know, I'm not—I don't want you to break it here you know, like you did, but if you could, no, I'm going to use the one that John used when they left at John's house after he shot and he made that delicious thing that he made. So John knows.

Speaker 1: 32:42

Okay, this is very nebulous.

Speaker 2: 32:44

Well, that's why I don't want to make the announcement.

Speaker 1: 32:47

Okay, but we know what cheese is. Is it on order with Selena? No, it will be Okay. It will. The announcement okay, but but we know what cheese is. We have. It. Is it on order with, uh, selena? No, it, it will be okay, all right it will be, it needs to be we just run everything by the seat of our pants over here and, um, wow, so uh. What you didn't see, jeff, is your cart from metro, and it's beautiful I did see it because here is a picture and I don't know, not the picture, the picture doesn't count, but what really counts?

Speaker 1: 33:10

okay, it's like it's a sturdy, beautiful, freaking cart. And you know what the? Uh john put up. Uh, put one of the shelves up too for metro, right? Yep, yeah, I can't.

Speaker 1: 33:21

Oh man, it's so good, so cool I gotta show gee's the picture of that thing, because that thing is falling, that little cart yeah, from metro shelf well, if you were here this week, we, what we would have done, is like put the food, you know, the plates and everything on it, made a nice little thing out of it. Um, you know, wink, wink, nod, what you know, whatever. So I still love you, man. It's cool I appreciate that man at least I know there's a keith.

Speaker 3: 33:45

You didn't just run off, you know you know, sometimes you need a really talented person to come pitch in for you. So like he's not here for me today, okay, I mean somebody's got to do it.

Speaker 1: 33:59

I mean I don't, like I said, the ai that they're putting out right now is so strong, it works it works oh my goodness, all right, what's?

Speaker 4: 34:13

coming up next for you, jonathan. So what's coming up next now is is that I'm going to start working. Well, spoiler alert I do want to work on a book. I do, so that's kind of funny.

Speaker 1: 34:27

So I'll let Jeff tell people what I'm going to do. Well, yeah, as soon as you come up with like some dates and just you know, kind of floated over to Jeff and we'll get it out.

Speaker 4: 34:35

Yeah for sure, jeff's could put 250 recipes in that one. No for sure. So, no, this, this book, actually, that I want to do I've been thinking about it for a very long time and I'm talking like over five, six years and finally put the science together to acknowledge what I want to do. Um, and it's pretty much going to be more on my voyage. So, like all the way from when I was young to where I'm going to be at. So it's going to be. It's going to take me, like another like two or three years to like finalize everything, because I really have a goal set and know, know exactly what I want to hit at, you know, from here to three years. So you know, but that's something that I've already started like typing up my stories and started putting all recipes that have that memory. And you know, what I want my you know audience to be able to connect with is more of an emotional support.

Speaker 1: 35:26

This is going to be your culinary journey through family.

Speaker 4: 35:31

Correct. It's going to be exactly so. It's definitely going to be like an emotional deposit for each recipe and that recipe that person is going to feel and it's cool because that particular recipe is going to be something that everybody is going to familiarize with, but they do different, so it's going to be our unique way. So it's giving you that front table to sit at our dinner table. And I got a really cool title, but I can't shout that out because you know, no, no, don't do. My boy, keith, is making 20 bucks this year and I'm not playing around. I'm not playing, though. We love you, keith, um, but no, for real. Like it's definitely going to be my voyage. It's going to be like you sitting at our dinner table and I'm Puerto Rican-Italian, so it's definitely going to have a really cool twist. I thought you were Italian-Puerto Rican, yeah that's true.

Speaker 1: 36:16

That is true, I'm Italian-Puerto Rican. No, no, no, no, no. You just said it You're Puerto Rican-Italian.

Speaker 4: 36:25

I see where the the way I say it. John gave me a wink yeah, puerto Rican, that's probably going to be my next voyage. Then I got a couple of other things that I'm working with and really focusing for Salimar. Salimar, we definitely took the opportunity to grow that audience. We've reached such a high caliber to where we are now positioning you know salimar to be, you know more of a stronger rooftop. We've won best rooftop twice in a row.

Speaker 1: 36:56

You know, and you know we have so salimar, for for those listening, it's salimar, so it's s-a-l. Space, y, space, m-a-r. Salimar. And and a funny story about that, right, because that means what Sea and salt? And where were you right before Salimar? Sea salt, yes.

Speaker 4: 37:20

I was the Italian version, though. You know I ran sea salt in St Pete and we got best restaurant when I ran that baby.

Speaker 1: 37:27

Yeah.

Speaker 4: 37:27

So you know it felt good. It felt good in every bone in my body. That's why I met carl. Ladies and gentlemen, just to let you know, we got covet together. We definitely got covet. It was the most romantic thing. But I got the emmy award for covet because I got 12, I think 12 times after carl. So yeah, academy award for most covets for that year I got it twice but we got it at the same time, exact time, and you know what's the worst part?

Speaker 4: 37:49

carl saw me that day before and then, all of a sudden, we both got covid. Both ended up in the hospital. Yeah, both. It was crazy and I was like, oh, how you doing he's like I'm in the hospital. I was like, oh, wow, so am I me too.

Speaker 1: 38:00

Yeah, we were shooting, uh, we were filming, yeah, for walk and talk, um, you know, and uh, it was a, it was really good you know, shoot and then next day I'm like, or a couple of whatever, I'm like man, I don't feel so good and actually you know I'm in the hospital and then you'll find out that he's literally with it. Yeah, it was. That's crazy man.

Speaker 4: 38:21

Crazy story, man yeah. It was a couple of years ago, blood brothers.

Speaker 1: 38:25

Yeah, we're vid brothers, bro. Get the IV Gosh, all right. Yeah, don't do it. All right, okay.

Speaker 2: 38:38

Jefferson, uh, when are you coming back, man? I will be back, uh, the 14th, at night, uh, about eight o'clock, nine o'clock, and then I've got two days, three days and I'm off to Chicago.

Speaker 1: 38:49

Oh yeah, when you're back, we've got a lot of cooking to do over here. Just saying before you split yeah, oh man, I can't wait for this NRA thing. It's going to be badass. Yeah, you and Pooch bro, it's going to be a thing. Make sure you hook up with Tina at RAC. Oh yeah, definitely. And AJ and AJ and um AJ and AJ and Brian and Jay over at citrus America right. Don't forget those guys, nope, hell, no, all right, um AI, keith Saracen, man, you're awesome.

Speaker 3: 39:25

Appreciate you. Thank you too, buddy.

Speaker 1: 39:27

All right, listen um. Thank you too, buddy. All right, listen um. Peninsula food service chefs out there, central florida. Man, if you're not using peninsula, I don't know what you're doing. All right, so we are out. We'll see you next time.