From Humboldt Park to Haute Cuisine: Chef David Reyes on Survival, Soul Food, and Building Culinary Culture

Chef David Reyes shares his remarkable journey from Chicago's Humboldt Park to culinary innovation at St. Pete Distillery, revealing how experiences in European Michelin kitchens and family traditions shaped his cooking philosophy.

• Growing up in inner-city Chicago during the 1980s amid violence and danger
• Learning foundational hospitality principles at grandmother's table where "nothing was missing"
• Transitioning from Army medic to culinary school despite family skepticism
• Training in French kitchens where bread was thrown at him for being undercooked
• Working stages at legendary restaurants including Alinea in Chicago
• Developing restaurants across America as a concept chef
• Creating award-winning dishes sometimes without tasting the final combination until service
• Building culinary programs at St. Pete Distillery featuring local Florida ingredients
• Crafting innovative spirits including bourbon aged in Florida's unique climate
• Planning for future development of a community-focused restaurant centered around live fire cooking

Join us at St. Petersburg Distillery for tours and taste their award-winning spirits. Follow Chef David on Instagram

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Chapters

• 0:00 Learning the Hard Way in French Kitchens
• 6:00 Early Days in Chicago's Inner City
• 12:31 Grandmother's Influence on Hospitality
• 20:27 Military Discipline in Culinary World
• 27:08 European Culinary Adventures
• 38:18 Building Restaurants Across America
• 49:10 Innovation at St. Pete Distillery
• 54:55 Craft Spirits and Future Vision

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:46

I think, okay, that's enough. So I take the bread out, I put it in a basket, I put it in the pass and the chef takes it. He looks at it, he squeezes it and he whips it at me and it hits me right on the chest, bounces out and he says in broken English, did it hurt? And I said no, he's like that's because you didn't cook it enough.

Speaker 2: 1:15

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 and the official podcast for the New York, california and Florida restaurant shows, the Pizza Tomorrow Summit and the US Culinary Open at NAFM. We're recording on site at Ibis Images Studios, where food photography comes alive and I get to eat it. Email us to learn more info at thewalkandtalkcom.

Speaker 2: 1:44

Today's guest Chef, david Reyes, brings a story rooted in resilience, passion and relentless creativity. Growing up in Chicago's Humboldt Park neighborhood, david found early purpose in the kitchen, inspired by his grandmother's unforgettable hospitality. After serving as a medic in the Army, david shifted gears and followed his love for cooking, traveling through France, spain and Italy to sharpen his craft. His journey took him through stages at legendary kitchens throughout the Chicago area. Love for cooking, traveling through France, spain and Italy to sharpen his craft, his journey took him through stages at legendary kitchens throughout the Chicago area To building restaurants from the ground up across the country. Today, chef Reyes is driving culinary innovation at St Pete Distillery, blending his fine dining roots with an exciting new frontier Craft Spirits, rooftop restaurant projects and expense experiential dining. His story is one of grit, vision and a deep love for bringing people together through food. Man, I'm excited we had something today in this kitchen that was happening. Glad you enjoyed it, man. Chef, welcome to the program.

Speaker 1: 2:46

Finally, Finally, we are here.

Speaker 2: 2:48

Right, we've been talking about this for years, for years and a half a dozen times today leading up to this. You know, for people out there who think they want to start a podcast or get into broadcasting and whatnot, let me tell you something it isn't easy. Nothing is easy. It's fun, don't get me wrong. The, the lights, the cameras the action yeah, a lot of prep, a lot of prep, and then you get the giggles and what happens? It falls apart six times in a row like oh my gosh.

Speaker 2: 3:20

and that's the fun part indeed. And for those if you don't know what I'm talking about, normally I run through opening monologue with the precision of a I don't know what, but Surgeon, a surgeon. But today, no, today was. Today was fun. Just say it like that. I'm probably going to laugh throughout this whole, this whole episode. All right, let's, before we jump into you know who you are, where you came from. Let's talk about the food baby you brought the heat today. What do you got?

Speaker 1: 3:51

Two dishes I've had a lot of fun with throughout my career. The dish that we featured first, the mango soup, is something that when I came across it I was a young cook carving my way through kitchens in Mexico and the immediate thought was this is good, but I think it could be better. Throughout my career it's had a lot of evolutions and I featured it on plenty of menus in different formats and you know today's was the latest. Glad you enjoyed it. It definitely represents a lot of the flavors that I'm comfortable with. You know the beauty behind using subtle acids in combination with a lot of other subtle flavors to make sense out of a nice dish.

Speaker 2: 4:32

I thought it was wonderful because you did you know I say it a lot oh, you know you taste the layers, but you do, and it's really great. You know the citrus, the ceviche, like everything just really really tied together wonderfully.

Speaker 1: 4:45

Yeah, you know, the latest addition to that was influence from cooking at Haiku and concentrating on a lot of Asian ingredients fish sauce. I absolutely love fish sauce. There is it's such a broad spectrum fish sauce and it's largely misunderstood. So you know, that was one of those subtleties in that mango soup that made a lot of sense, that brought a savory factor to the table. The second dish was our award-winning dish that we brought to the Tampa Bay Wine and Food Festival, which was a lot of fun, happened two weeks ago Talk about an event that brings the culinary world together in Tampa. That's done a great job of doing that.

Speaker 1: 5:24

So what I wanted to do was dig into my past and bring out some things that I was very comfortable with and I shared with you something very intimate that I don't think I would say to a lot of people, and now we're going to put it out on a podcast. A lot of times and I don't know how this is going to sound, but a lot of times I'll formulate a dish and I won't taste it until we're serving it, and I know a lot of the components will make sense. I've had them in different combinations in the past and this is one of those dishes. This is one of those dishes where I'm like in my head it all just makes sense. It tasted real good, every component tasted real good.

Speaker 1: 5:59

It wasn't until the day of that we're doing samples of these bites for the public that I put the whole thing together and I was so happy. I was really excited. We had played with the plate up, didn't even taste it then, and then we we took it on stage, put it together and we won. So it was. We were very proud of it.

Speaker 2: 6:19

There's a lot to unpack with that. I think that once you hit a certain place in your chefdom, you you kind of know what's going to work. I mean, you should be tested, I mean everything should be tested. Yeah, I'm not discounting that at all, but you're going to know like this is going to pair well with that and this should go well with this and yada down the road, right, right, but then at the end of it you're winning competitions like that.

Speaker 2: 6:45

That's where it gets a little, that's where it's funny, that's where it gets a little bizarre.

Speaker 1: 6:49

It does, and it's not the first time it's happened, it's, I don't know again, I don't know how that's going to sound, but it's. It's not the first time that it's happened. It's, you know, been multiple times during special specialty dinners. You know a wine pairing or a drink pairing, and you know I conceptualize this whole thing in a, in a bite, in a morsel, and it all just makes sense in my mind. Really, don't wait. I don't find out that it works until the day of and luckily it does.

Speaker 2: 7:18

The only people that that's going to bother are the people who come in second, third and fourth. Do you understand, right? Yeah, yeah, I could see that. So if you're listening second, third and fourth, you know, there you go. Like you know, don't eat your heart out, right? Well, that's enemies I don't want to make any enemies.

Speaker 1: 7:35

No, yeah, that second dish I got to tell you the the core of it is one of my favorite dishes. To prepare that to me. When I first tasted it was complete surprise. I was in Puerto Vallarta, I was working at a really nice hotel and one of the sous chefs brought forth this dish that he had prepared with his family and it was basically a snapper wrapped in banana leaf with plantain. That was the core of the dish. Right, I added bacon grease to that and, like a few other elements, that became a restaurant dish. That's the core of the dish that we serve today and that we won that competition with. So there's a lot of a lot more to it. It's not something that I just dreamt up. You know, there's some history there. So, yeah, we were very proud of it, but I literally had not tasted the whole combination until the day of and you saw the photography brilliant, absolutely brilliant.

Speaker 2: 8:30

I'm I can't wait to post geeked about, yeah, what I saw. So let's talk humboldt park, yeah, and 1980s. That's where you're from. Can you describe that?

Speaker 1: 8:40

yeah, you know, those are the kind of things that you don't realize are exceptional until you're far from it. I remember, early in my career, I was at a table with the owner of a hotel that I was working at and he asked me the question tell me about your upbringing, tell me about growing up? And I said well, I grew up in an inner city of Chicago, deep on the west side of Chicago, on the northwest side of Chicago, and growing up I didn't spend a lot of time outside. I wasn't allowed to.

Speaker 1: 9:12

There was a lot of things going on in the neighborhood that were unsavory and I guess my parents wanted to protect me from shootings, stabbings, listen, the fact that I brought up, that I saw my first dead body at like six years old, that I looked up and everybody had was wide eyed and incredulous. I thought to myself well, that might be a little weird, you know, that might be odd. And there was other things that you know, looking back, coming up, you know, in grade school, and having shootings outside across the street, and thinking to myself, well, I guess that's going to cut recess short, not really focusing on the fact that there was a shooting outside, you know, or a drive-by and things like that. You know, unfortunately, were kind of normal and you know again, you don't realize how exceptional they are until you look back. That certainly helped shape the way I approach what.

Speaker 2: 10:05

I do, Chef. Growing up in your city is a little different, and while I can identify with a little bit of what you have going on there me growing up in Brooklyn for five years as a child I've seen my share of stuff. It sounds to me, though, this really had something to do with the shaping of who you are now and who you became.

Speaker 1: 10:28

Yeah, it certainly. You never forget things like that. You know it makes it so that you can, you can find a commonality with any group. You know, growing up inner city, you're surrounded by people that you know, sometimes a few generations into that neighborhood and that style of living, and you know you're comfortable with that. You're comfortable, you can make things relative. Then, transitioning into this world of fine dining and finding a way to relate to guests that have a much higher expectation, a much higher you know, let's say, education, class, whatever you want to call it, and finding commonality, there has been something that I've, I think I've strived with. You know I've, I've always been able to relate to anybody that I'm, that I'm working with or talking to, and whether we're talking about fine watches or things that happen in inner city, chicago Roots and hospitality is really what you're getting into and if you look at it, you have the rough upbringing on one hand, but on the other you have your grandmother.

Speaker 2: 11:36

Why don't you go ahead and explain a little bit how maybe she might've softened the edges for you a little bit?

Speaker 1: 11:43

Yeah, being surrounded by family was certainly an influence in my career. Early on, I had to decide what inspired me to be in the culinary world, what inspired me to be in the restaurant business, and I quickly identified, sitting at my grandmother's table, at something that I wanted to convey to other people, and that was a feeling of nothing is missing, because you would sit at her table and she would literally bring everything to you. Some things were in like little separate dishes, it was very Spanish style serving, and whether you wanted anything to drink, any utensil, it was an insult to get up and want something. She was insulted. She would be like what are you doing? You know, I'd be like grandma, I have to use the bathroom, relax, you know. So it was that feeling of there's nothing missing at this particular moment. The company was always good, of course, and my mother also conveyed that feeling as well, but you know, it certainly was something that I felt. That's what I want to convey to other people is this wonderful feeling of there's nothing missing, you know, getting up from the table and feeling absolutely satisfied, like you could have done nothing to make that better, and so that's that's. That is a very special feeling, you know, take into account.

Speaker 1: 13:02

You know, cooking with my mother, cooking with my father growing up, was also a thing. We didn't eat out much, you know I, I, I joke and say you know we'd be able to go to McDonald's if we got good grades. So I basically never went to McDonald's, so things like that. It was true, I, we really never ate out, we always ate in. It was, you know, we were, we weren't. You could say we had a humble beginnings. You know we my, my inner inner city, part of Chicago, you know it's, it was. It was great for me. I mean, I love the way we grew up, despite all the challenges.

Speaker 2: 13:39

When you're talking about Spanish heritage or Italian heritage, the first and second generations typically have a similar upbringing and into that third, everything starts to change. I feel like that, like your parents, my parents, our grandparents, they're built different. They were different, they were a different breed of individuals.

Speaker 1: 14:01

I'd absolutely agree. I mean the tenacity you know to do what my parents did come here as immigrants, establish citizenship, work their tails off, buy a house, buy another house, put kids through private school in that neighborhood. Like I look back and I think, man, I can't see myself doing that, Like I just you'd have to have a really good job. You know my dad never stopped working hourly. You know he wasn't never a salaried guy. My mother worked for the archdiocese of Chicago for almost half her life. You know cooking and cleaning and but to accomplish what they did I I'm forever grateful. You know, and I look back and I think that was really that's a lot of tenacity.

Speaker 2: 15:28

To me the essence of a show, a podcast broadcast, whatever I think, in the spirit of folks who become chefs or live in this food industry. The stories of the families, I think, are one of the most fascinating aspects of all of this, because what drives somebody to go into the food business is beyond me.

Speaker 1: 15:58

You want to know something really funny. When I decided that I wasn't going to go through and continue my medical career and I announced to the family that I was going to culinary school, a lot of my family members were so disappointed. They were like, why would you do that? Don't do that, don't change what you're doing. And it was funny to me because I didn't expect that. But you know, the more time I spent in the culinary world, in the restaurant world, I was like, oh, that's what they're referring to. Like it's tough, it's a grind, it's a. You know, at the end of the day it's a trade. Right, there's artistry to it and that's one of the things that I absolutely love. But it's a trade. You have to make sense out of everything.

Speaker 2: 16:36

When I talk about it. I say I did 10 years in the food business on the restaurant side. Like it's a prison sentence, right, because kind of it's kind of that. You know it is great when you're young and you're doing that work and you're making money and and it's a kind of a it's it's a bit of a fast life. You know, everybody goes out afterwards, you're up until six in the morning and you're doing all that stuff and there's like a camaraderie to it, it's fun, there's something to it and you learn a lot out of that. If you make it out on the other side, there's a lot of really positive lessons.

Speaker 2: 17:10

The problem is a lot of us don't right, and and you know it is a rough life, you know, if it were like I would tell my, my kids I would say, look, because they're still young, you're going to work at a restaurant for one year and you're going to do some stuff in the back and you're going to do some stuff in the front and then you're out. I want you to experience what it is to deal with the public when they're hungry. Sure, and because of it's the chain reaction that just goes all the way from the hostess to the server, to the bartender, to the line cook, to the GM, to the F&B director, to whoever it is. Everybody feels what the guest puts out there and it all stems from the guest and the service that you have to give to that guest, or else it would be easy. Who?

Speaker 1: 18:02

cares. Yeah, most of us spend the bulk of our career burning the candle at both ends, you know, and it takes a toll on a lot of us. I think it takes a toll on everybody. It's just whether what we do with it is what makes the difference. Right, and certainly I was very proud of how I started my career. A lot of things that I did before I got deep in the restaurant business came into play. Growing up around food, being surrounded by intense flavors, growing up eating home-cooked meals all the time All that played influence on the start of my career and I noticed that and I would step very carefully every step of the way. I wanted to make sure it was thought out, there was purpose, there was a trajectory. I never started something without the end in mind, the way I've kind of preceded everything I've done. You know I can't say it's all been perfect, but it's certainly been extremely interesting and fun.

Speaker 2: 19:02

Well, let's talk military discipline in the kitchen. You served as a medic in the army before you know getting into the into the restaurant world. Right, based on the on our, our pregame conversation, you know there were, you know there were some pressures that influenced again who you are today. Right, you gave up a career in in, in, possibly medicine, possibly medicine. Right, I was going to say that. Hold on, let me say that because that's where that's.

Speaker 1: 19:34

My idea was.

Speaker 2: 19:36

Let's I want to get into medicine.

Speaker 1: 19:37

right when I left, there were so many things that came into play. One of them was staying calm right in the face of adversity. I remember one time in culinary school the instructor came up to me and we were in a very intense part of the class and we had to do things that all were very. It was important to be on time and be clean. You're being very. Everybody was observing you, the instructors were very observant. And he goes up to me. He's like you seem to be calm, why, and I go, well, chef, no one's going to die today, right, it's all just food. And he's like huh, Okay, he walks away and I thought well, it didn't seem exceptional to me, but I guess it is. And you know, that's the beauty of what we're doing, as intensive as it may be, you know it's it's only our egos that are really on the line. You know, if you do everything with love and intent, you should be all right.

Speaker 2: 20:40

You know what's really funny when I was younger I took a detour in life and got into things I shouldn't have been getting into. And when I, when I got out of that lifestyle, I was always looking over my shoulder. I would go to bed one eye open. You know the whole thing. And when I got, when I left, when I left a food business and I and I started this other, these other ventures, right, and when I was finished with those ventures and I got into, you know, the, the food distribution and sales part of the business, I would just go cold calling Like it was nothing. It was. I was new to, to outside sales. It was the easiest thing ever. And my, my sales manager, he said to me when to me he goes, you're not nervous about this at all and I'm like nobody's going to hurt me, like nobody's out to you know they're not going to get me. You know what I mean. It's okay, like this is the easiest thing ever. I don't have to worry about anything or anybody.

Speaker 1: 21:28

Sometimes the best advocate is what you don't know. You know it's and I that's come into play for me, so much you know it. There's been so many fads and fay trends in the culinary world and I've never really been heavily influenced one way or another. I pay attention and I certainly have used it when it, when it's made sense, but the fact of the matter is, nothing will ever replace great flavor. You know a great ingredients? There is no. You know I love molecular gastronomy. Like I say, I play in it. It's not a focal point of my my, my career or any one of my menus. It all just has to make sense. Every fat has come and gone and what stays is just good food done right.

Speaker 2: 22:15

The happiest things for me are the simplest. Oh, absolutely. It's usually in front of a sink and it's usually a morsel, a bite of something, and I take that little bite and I have that, like you know, thousand yard stairway and I'm just enjoying whatever it is that I'm eating there.

Speaker 1: 22:37

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 22:38

Come hell or high water around me, I don't even pay attention. I'm literally. The walls can be falling down and I'm just sincerely eating whatever that thing is Right. That's one of my happiest moments, Believe it or not. Like I love my kids, my wife, all that stuff it's great. But when, when you're talking about like a singular thing for me that's what it is I mean I fell into the right business, I suppose, for that.

Speaker 1: 23:38

Right, it is. It's a beautiful thing. I mean, simple food can can invoke memories, can invoke just passion and and you know it could make you cry A good meal can make you cry.

Speaker 2: 23:51

It started with me, and I'll tell you where. With a fresh mozzarella, as a kid, you know, they would come home. Somebody would, you know, go to the store, come back with you know, the wax paper with a you know nice, fresh, juicy mozzarella, break it out and I can hear the paper folding and opening, and then they would get the salt. They'd put a little salt, slice it up. There was always some tomatoes and basil and oil. And here you are over the sink just eating this. Is that a meal? No, it's just really awesome to eat. Right, you know? And yeah, it started there. I know that's where where it all began for me, but where it began for you, part of the way is through your travels, Right?

Speaker 1: 24:39

Yeah, I, when I got, when I left the military, you know I traveled a little bit, but I kind of left a bug and this, this want to get out of the norm. Once I discovered there was more to this life than just Chicago, I wanted to see it, all you know. So I did what I could to get out and using, you know, culinary school as a vehicle, under the premise that I wanted to go learn. You know, I traveled through Europe, southern France, primarily Southern France. The beauty of Southern France is it's an hour away from Italy and an hour and a half away from Spain. So my days off I would spend traveling in and out of other countries, which is easy to do when you're in Europe. And any opportunity I could, I would cook. I would take a stage, which back then was still a very normal thing to line up a stage, work somewhere for free, just to learn. And most of the time that I spent in Europe was under stages for two-star Michelin restaurants. One-star Michelin restaurants, literally. I would be challenged to the point where they would say you're going to work the dish and until you can speak enough French and show that you have the organizational skills to work garmanger, you're going to work the dish and I would basically take it up as a challenge learn every French word. I could immediately A couple of phrases. How do you say this in French? Saying that in French was key to learning a lot more. What is the name of this? All those terms in French were clutch.

Speaker 1: 26:16

So the first day I moved out of the plonge which is the dish pit, I I was on garbage and one of the primary jobs was in a combi oven finishing off bread or bread service. And here I am, the first day I'm finally out of the dish pit and I'm putting bread. They'd call to you know, bread service, and in French, everything's in French, you know. And I stick two pieces of bread in, shut the door, wait for it anxiously, like this is the first time I'm going to, I can't wait and I think, okay, that's enough. So I take the bread out, I put it in a basket, I put it in the pass and the and the chef takes it. He looks at it, he squeezes it and he whips it at me and it hits me right out of the chest, bounces out and he says in broken English he's good. Did it hurt? And I said, no, he's like that's because you didn't cook it enough. And I'm like, well, you could have just said it needs to be crispy, like, okay, got it. So you know, moving on, things like that happened all the time.

Speaker 1: 27:20

There was when I finally made it past a few more stations onto the main station where you were cooking with the chef side by side, I remember it like it was yesterday. I'm plating my first dish and I'm thinking to myself man, am I killing it? This dish looks good. And the chef walks up right behind me and he looks and he takes the dish and he puts it on my chest. Mind you, we were in an open kitchen so everybody in the dining room could see what's happening.

Speaker 1: 27:50

And if you ever got like a smudge of something on you or anything, you'd have to go run to the changing room which was two levels down down the street because it was a hotel and change and then come right back.

Speaker 1: 28:03

And so he'd made me wear my first plate and I gripped the plate to my chest, nice and tight, and I'm like I guess it didn't look good enough. He's like it didn't look good enough. And so I ran with the plate to my chest down to the changing room to change and it's like, okay, you certainly learn the lesson. And it's like, okay, you certainly learn the lesson, you know you move on. You can't take anything personally, that's not the first time or the last time, and you know, it's things like that. How do you convey that? How do you convey that feeling to cooks that you're trying to teach? This needs to be an unforgettable moment, and you can't really shove a plate in their chest or throw bread at them, so you have to come up with creative ways on how to convey ideas wait a minute here, hold on, I gotta stop this for a second listen.

Speaker 2: 28:51

There's a difference between what that chef was teaching you right, because that's what he waited, that. That is such a a unique way to get your point across. But he didn't throw a knife at you. He didn't take a saucepan and hit you over the and I'm not saying they don't do that either, and I know that that happens too. But something like that, I think, is even today, should be absolutely acceptable, because there's nothing that proves the point, and I'm so glad that you explained it. In a kitchen like that, you get dirty. You gotta go, man, right, didn't he prove a point? You're wearing the dish, so it's not just that it was a smudge, no, you're wearing the whole dish. Yeah, like, wow, that is like set up such a metaphor, like that's beautiful, I think that's. I think everything should be like that.

Speaker 1: 29:48

Well, the idea was as good as you might think it looked, it could be better. And when I came back I paid attention and, sure enough, that plate could have looked a lot better. Listen, I've been in kitchens where I'm side by side with another cook or another chef or chef de partie, whatever, and you know I'm constantly being told move or move that, move this, and the next thing, you know, I'm burned. Like you know, a pot just grazed my arm conveniently to remind me that I was taking up too much space or I wasn't being aware enough. Sabotage, I mean, that used to be a thing where somebody would crank your heat. You're reducing a sauce for your station and somebody comes up right behind you and they want that position, so they're going to sabotage your station. That was a thing.

Speaker 1: 30:39

So how do you take all these violent happenings that happened in a kitchen and convey that to new cooks now in this day and age? So that's a very difficult thing to do. However, there's always a good way to do it and sometimes it's pretty funny. For example, this was years ago and I had a problem with a prep crew constantly leave empty boxes in the walk-in cooler and I'd say the next person to leave an empty box has to wear the box for the rest of the day on their head, no matter what size the box. And I literally had a couple of prep cooks wearing a box on their head for the rest of the day Guess what. Nobody ever did that again. It was fun, funny, but it was memorable. And those are some of the challenges that come with the territory. You know you can't throw a plate at somebody, but maybe you can put a box on their head.

Speaker 2: 31:32

Michelin restaurants anywhere on the planet. Not an easy place to be clearly, right, you were in Europe. I'd love to hear some of the names of the places that you were at.

Speaker 1: 31:50

And then where did you land when you came back? Stateside, one of the other very memorable restaurants still there. It's in a town called gosh. This town, it is called ted duchenne, I think ted duchenne. It's right above monaco, between monaco and nice, and it literally overlooks monaco. It's a hotel in there, god knows how long. The restaurant is called Le Chef d'Or, which is the Golden Goat, basically translates into Spent some time there, exceptional pedigree. They put out some amazing food and have taught some amazing chefs that are still in the industry.

Speaker 1: 32:21

I also worked at a restaurant in a small town near Toulouse called Cours du Ciel, which is Cords in the Sky that's what it translates into, because it was pretty high up in altitude. It was a city that had three layers of fortification that was built in 1200 by the count of Toulouse to hide the Cathars during the Crusade. So there was a lot of history involved there, and so I mean talk about exceptional experiences. We would take this I swear it was like a two cylinder little truck into the city to go to the markets, collect everything, and it literally came back so loaded that we would have to meet the truck halfway down because it couldn't make the truck up that we would have to meet the truck halfway down because it couldn't make the truck up and we'd have to push it up, like literally, it's, you know, revving it as high as it could and it's trying to make this. You know road that led up to the restaurant. We're pushing it.

Speaker 1: 33:15

And, by the way, that restaurant was in what would have been referred to as kind of like the castle, but it didn't look like a traditional castle. It looked like a very opulent building and where we would sit to eat family meal. If you listed that as a restaurant, you'd have people from around the world trying to eat there, because the view was exceptional. It was in the garden that we would use for the restaurant, but it would overlook the French countryside. You'd watch sheep kind of just pasture and move from one side of the hill to another, and I mean it was just gorgeous and we would have family meal there, you know. So everything was very inspiring there. You would wake up really early. You'd probably stage in the bakery making bread that was later going to get thrown at you and then you'd go home, take a nap. Do lunch service? Go home, take a nap, do dinner service.

Speaker 2: 34:11

You literally just live, eat, breathe culinary Before you get into Chicago, explain how somebody would work for free, just for the experience, because I think a lot of the people who go out and eat don't recognize that number one. But then number two, you've got the new class of restaurant folks coming through, you know, and I feel like they would. I think they would appreciate staging, but I think the insurances and the liabilities and everything kind of eats, that all up and and and just murdered it.

Speaker 1: 35:36

Yeah, you know, I think you could say it was about 15 years ago where the stage started to disappear in the culinary industry still alive and well in Europe, different parts of the world. But it's this idea that, in exchange for learning and having the unique opportunity to be part of a team for at least a short amount of time, you work for free, you know, and for me it was room and board. You know, the last restaurant I ever worked at in France was nice enough to give me a, a check on the way out and say, hey, thank you. They said hey, thank you. We wanted to make sure that you got at least some compensation, and so then I went to go live in London for about a month on that, you know, and literally staged in London because they were able to kind of give me a little bit of change before I left.

Speaker 1: 36:22

But anyway, that idea doesn't really exist anymore, at least not the way it used to. You can take on a stagiaire or someone that's kind of trying out for your restaurant, paying minimum wage, if they're willing to do that. But yeah, how do you convey this idea that, okay, you're going to work for me for free for about two weeks and then we're going to decide if we're going to hire you or not, based on what we see. And you know that's a hard idea to convey. And you know, even internships, I think, have to be paid now if you're out of culinary school. So that wasn't the case when I was in culinary school, you know.

Speaker 2: 36:57

But even if you didn't get hired, you were thrilled to get the opportunity to get the stage. Just to say hey, I have this as a badge Right.

Speaker 1: 37:07

Yeah, I take this into account. When I first came back from Europe, I walked into some really heavy hitting restaurants in Chicago and asked them for a stage. People like Paul Cahan I was lucky enough to run into back when he had Blackbird and did a stage there, spent a few weeks there and I did a couple of stages at Alinea, both of which were absolutely epic, because Alinea, to me, was the first time I had ever been in a kitchen in the U S. That reminded me of the, this, the essence of of what it is to be in an in a Michelin star kitchen in Europe. You know, because in a Michelin star kitchen in Europe you can walk in and you don't. You're not really sure who's leading the, that station, that area of the restaurant, because everybody can be mistaken as the chef. They're so just passionate and full of intent that you just not sure who's actually leading. Everybody's kind of on that same level. And so at Alinea I mean you have so many passionate people on on a team in a small space that it's. It's impressive that there's that much passion going into everything from dishwashing to picking through microgreens in the basement or doing all the things. I remember one of the first tasks I was given was to pick microgreens and then later that day I was breaking down Thai peppers, thai dried chili peppers, and I asked what are we making with this Sriracha? We're making our own sriracha. I'm like, how could you improve on sriracha? But apparently you can, and it was that nuanced. That level of attention to detail was exceptional and that was very inspiring to me.

Speaker 1: 38:52

The unfortunate thing at the time, they were going to open a restaurant called Next and I was game. I was for it, I wanted that position and I sat down at the table after my stage was done, after a few weeks, and Grant Atkins at the time he had a chef de cuisine His name is David Barron and they both talked about how I'm the ideal person that would join the team that they could see the possibility with. But then I come to learn that that job also paid about $30,000 a year and in 2012, that wasn't going to be enough to get married and have any sort of quality of life. So it was the hardest job I ever had to turn down. But lessons learned, I loved it. Things that I learned in the kitchen I still use to this day.

Speaker 2: 39:40

I don't have this in my show notes for today. The bear, yeah, I mean. What do you think? I mean? What's the? What are the connections?

Speaker 1: 39:49

I'll be completely brutally honest, Season one I watched got through it. I hesitate. I think I stopped after episode four because I'm like this is triggering, this is too close to comfort. I don't necessarily want to do that after I get off a long day. I haven't kept up with it, but I've gotten bits and pieces of it. It's very close to real life. You know, it's certainly like anything, even cooking shows on TV. There's things that happen. They just don't happen as often as you might, you know, see that conveyed in a show. But yeah, man, it was real and I love that. They really highlighted Chicago very well. They put it in a very good light, as it deserved, because I mean, that's a cradle for the culinary industry. I mean, people have grinded their teeth in Chicago and gone off to other parts of the country and done great things. It needed a little boost like that. It was cool.

Speaker 2: 40:47

Yeah, I don't have the level of experience at that sort of caliber restaurant, the level of experience and at at that sort of caliber restaurant. But when I I watched the first season and I also felt a lot of that, I don't want to say triggered, but I felt it like I was my anxiety, I was sweating, you know, watching some of that stuff and of course, with me it had more to do with the front of the house activity versus the back of the house. But, man, I'll tell you, like the show, when I, if I get moved by a show, I want to watch it. Yeah, all of it, you know what I want to. And I did, I binged that entire season, whatever, however many were there, I did it in days. Yeah, yeah, I did, I binged the whole thing.

Speaker 1: 41:29

The plight of the sous chef was all too familiar. I remember in culinary school getting up at 3 am to make a baking and pastry class at like five. That was brutal. And then I had to go to the restaurant job that I had after culinary school was done. Like you know I think it was six o'clock or five o'clock I would go work at a restaurant called Red Light on the downtown near the United Center. Anyway, it was a brutal day. You know the funny thing here we are 20 years later and it's I'm still having 14 hour days.

Speaker 2: 42:05

I mean it's definitely relevant. So we fast forward from the travel, the experiences. Now you're building restaurants from the ground up.

Speaker 1: 42:14

Yeah. So that diverse background kind of led me to be a part of a lot of teams opening up restaurants. I found myself in the position of hey, you've done that, why don't you help us do this? Or why don't you help bring a more refined approach to, let's say, bar food are? Why don't you help bring a more refined approach to, let's say, bar food? So I found myself on teams opening up restaurants concepts around Chicago.

Speaker 1: 42:39

These were in the early 2000s and so and I again, looking back, that was pretty lucky, fortunate, because you learn a lot opening up a restaurant. You learn a lot about what not to do, you make a lot of mistakes and you know making mistakes on someone else's dime is pretty valuable. So you know, I kept restaurant jobs and I would help other people open up different restaurants or even help just be part of the concepting and tasting and testing and whatnot. I eventually found myself as a concept chef for a restaurant group out of Chicago. They had just sold Bar Louie and they were looking to concept a lot of other things that were cutting edge kind of high-end bars, different concepts, mexican, a steakhouse. So it was very diverse work and I was chomping at the bit to take it and that brought on and immediately hit the road.

Speaker 1: 43:35

You know, I think I spent two years the first two years of my marriage on the road for like 10 months at a time. You know, and you learned a lot because you go into different cities. Every city is a little different when it comes to like health code, and then hiring is different, job pools are different. You know, you get to learn that it's just a different expectation. So it was a lot of fast learning and that kind of helped shape what I did for the rest of my career.

Speaker 2: 44:03

How does that transition into the anatomy of a dish?

Speaker 1: 44:08

How does that transition into the anatomy of a dish? You learn how to take the anatomy of a dish and make it efficient. You know, make it so other people can help execute your work you make.

Speaker 1: 44:22

you take apart a dish to a very nuanced level and you break it down to. You know subtle sub recipes that need that consistency. So you know when. When you're talking, reproducing your efforts through other people on a on a very on a national scale, when you're doing, let's say, five different concepts at once, that's an extremely important thing to know how to do. Well, and a lot of what I did was literally recipe writing, breaking everything down to a level that was easy to understand and then teaching it.

Speaker 1: 44:55

I was actually doing very little cooking. Sometimes. It was a lot of teaching a little less cooking, and it certainly taught me a lot about the anatomy of a restaurant as well. You know taking the ideas in a restaurant, breaking them down, standardizing them so that they're much more consistent. So the anatomy of a dish to me has always been something I have a lot of fun with, you know, because I learned so many ways of doing it. And you know I wish I would have documented more the anatomy of certain dishes, like the one that we came up with for that competition. It really started around a table with two other chefs and just throwing ideas out and then sketching something that looked like a bunch of scribbles on a paper and then taking that and making a more refined sketch and then a more refined sketch, and then the next sketch had sub recipe lists and then the next sketch after that was much more words and a lot less images and you know it's something that it's beautiful when you see it happen.

Speaker 2: 45:51

You just defined walk and talk, media with that. There you go, yeah, I mean, am I right, john? Right, I mean it started with, like you know, crayola crayons and a three-year-old and we've turned it into something really special. Same scenario, same sort of anatomy. If you will, it's Tampa Bay, we're here. We didn't come from here, but we're here. Time is a funny thing. St Pete distillery Been around for about 10 years. Yep, you've been there for about a year and a half or so. You're taking culinary into a whole nother path.

Speaker 1: 46:29

Talk about it. Yeah, it's a unique setting. The distillery sits on a 30 acre lot. It's privately owned. It's the largest privately owned piece of property in St Pete. We intend to develop it into an important part of the community really, and part of that is some hospitality, whether it's restaurants, event centers, a place where the community can come together. Currently we do private events, we do something called the Dinner Series at the distillery, all with this idea of highlighting what we're doing at the distillery.

Speaker 1: 46:59

The St Petersburg Distillery has this very unique approach of highlighting Florida in general in all of its products uses. Every piece of cereal grain that enters that distillery comes from Florida, which is very unique in and of itself. We mill there, we bring up fresh groundwater, we filter it. Everything we make is with Florida in mind. So joining them, installing hospitality, putting together a program you know, hosting private events has been a big challenge and I certainly see a lot more possibility there. I wish we would grow a lot faster but you know everything will come in time Right?

Speaker 1: 47:39

So the dinner series is sort of a placeholder for the future and what we want to do on the 30 acre lot. You know we have in mind to be to, to to install this community oriented restaurant where everything surrounds a hearth oven and everything is cooked with fire live fire, you know. So that should be something that hopefully will come up in the next couple of years. But the dinner series is kind of an opportunity for us to flex our culinary muscle and our creativity, you know, and, and so we take the product that's being made and we work with, we work it into recipes and we do a six to seven course tasting menu that's paired with unique cocktails. Sometimes you're going to eat your cocktail and drink your main dish. Some cocktails are very whimsical. There's a lot of components, there's things that'll be done table side. So it's a unique opportunity and it's only 20 people at a time. So our intent is to kind of garner enough attention so that when we go to construct that brick and mortar restaurant it already has a reputation.

Speaker 2: 48:52

Do you have aspirations for any glory? Are you looking for any beard, or are you looking for any Michelin? Is it?

Speaker 1: 49:00

that level. It's one thing that I've learned in my career is you never start with that. I mean, yes, it's nice, recognition is always great, right? If you're doing what you love to the best of your ability, the attention will come. Shoot I, when I returned from Europe, michelin wasn't even in Chicago yet. You know. So to see the Michelin guide come through and start rating restaurants in Chicago and you certainly like, okay, that's cool. But is it a goal of mine? No, not necessarily. You know I, I, I certainly admire those restaurants, admire what they're doing, and you know, I know, having been in Michelin rated restaurants, that it takes much more than just food or a chef. It takes a multifaceted approach that has to be well thought out, and until I'm ready to do that a hundred percent, then you just do what you love.

Speaker 1: 49:52

You got to get the buy-in from every single person in the house, everyone, from start to finish, from the dishwasher all the way to the host, to hostess. It has to be from start. The definition of a Michelin star is something worth going out of the way for, right? So if you're not ready to do that, then you're not. You have no business playing in that game, right? So our intent, my intent right now, is to showcase what I'd love to do If we garner enough attention. Great, I love it. But to say that that's my goal, no, that'd be a mistake.

Speaker 2: 50:29

You brought a couple of bottles of goodies. We didn't break into them yet. What did you bring?

Speaker 1: 50:34

So I brought two of my favorite things we're making, and one of them is a long time coming. It's a four-year straight bourbon, 90% corn, 10% rye. It's been barrel aged in new American oak for four years. Aging in Florida is definitely very different. The result of it is something very smooth and that's what you'll find with this bourbon.

Speaker 1: 50:57

The other thing that I brought is my other favorite an agave spirit. What an agave spirit is is basically, if we were in Mexico, it'd be a tequila. If we were in Mexico, we'd be going for tacos after this too. So, without question, right, so an agave spirit. The agave came from Mexico, was distilled at the St Petersburg distillery, aged in second use oak old whiskey barrels. Basically, we introduced some charred wood chips to enhance that flavor and that color.

Speaker 1: 51:26

The risotto is this beautiful sipping spirit that I absolutely adore because it reminds me of the way tequila used to be made. Right when we fire roasted the pineapples at the root of the agave plant and you know, you fire roasted them to soften them up and get the juices out, and then what you fermented had this smoky tinge to it that was akin to some might say mezcal, but it was tequila. It's the way it used to be made right. It was as clear as vodka, but it had a nice little smoky finish to it. And that's what you get out of this agave spirit you know, so I absolutely love it.

Speaker 1: 52:01

I'll put it up against any other agave spirit or tequila.

Speaker 2: 52:05

You just, you just took my question away. I was going to say how is this comparing? How are both of those products comparing with? You know, some of the heavy hitters that are out there.

Speaker 1: 52:13

I think the the bourbon has found its spot as being this overwhelmingly just, smooth, beautiful, well-crafted bourbon that Florida should be proud of, and the agave spirit is just unexpected. It is so, so unexpected and, frankly, you know I'm a big fan of tequila. I have a small tequila collection and you know, again, this reminds me of the way tequila used to be made. Despite not drinking, I still have a memory of taste buds and I still use my taste buds. But yeah, it's impressive and anybody that is a fan of tequila definitely falls in love.

Speaker 2: 52:50

What you're saying really is you shouldn't be drinking this out of a solo cup.

Speaker 1: 52:55

Listen, I'm a big fan of drinking out of whatever the heck you want, right, but it just tastes better in a heavy rocks glass. True story.

Speaker 2: 53:05

Good, that's a true story, Chef. You're awesome man. What you did here today was terrific. We're thrilled you came out. How do we find you on socials?

Speaker 1: 53:15

Well, I'm at ChefDavidReyes on Instagram and Facebook. The distillery is St Petersburg Distillery, both of which will always feature the latest of what we're doing and how to get there. You're going to give us a tour sometime, right? You know? The funny thing about that is we just started tours. We used to be a production facility only, so we just started tours, and it's definitely worth the drive, definitely going out of the way for to come get a tour and you'll probably see me there.

Speaker 2: 53:43

Yeah, okay, we're going to put that together again. Thanks for coming out today, john. Let's get these pictures rocking and rolling. Baby, I feel like you're getting better every week. Maybe, right, it's hard to improve on perfection. He still doesn't talk. We've been doing this for two and a half years. He still doesn't talk. All right, guys, listen, love you both. We are out.