Chef Ray and Chef Sarita: Mixing Love, Heritage, and Innovation in Cello's Culinary Journey

As we wrap up this flavorful exchange, dive into the nitty-gritty of running a small yet vibrant restaurant, from the complexities of seating arrangements to the refreshing stories of vacations that rejuvenate the soul. Chef Ray and Chef Sarita, not just partners in life but also in the kitchen, give us an intimate look at how they keep their love and menu fresh, stirring in a blend of creativity and shared culinary aspirations. It's a tale of passion, grit, and the art of cooking that will leave you hungry for more than just their next innovative dish.

Thank you Chef Ray, Chef Sarita and team Cello!!
https://www.cellolenox.com/

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Transcript

Chef James 0:14

Hey everyone, welcome to Chef Sense. I'm your host, Chef Massey, Alright. So today on the podcast this is awesome I've got Chef Ray, Chef Sarita from Cello in Lenox. Thank you both for finding time to be here, because this is awesome. I've got Chef Ray, Chef Sarita from Cello in Lenox. Thank you both for finding time to be here, because this is great.

Chef Ray 0:29

Thank you, we're going to go for a chat for this.

Chef James 0:31

Oh, okay, for what?

Chef Ray 0:33

Not weed and morals.

Chef James 0:34

Okay, there you go. Let me know I can follow behind you for the morales. I'm still searching for mine.

Chef Sarita 0:39

Yeah, me too.

Chef James 0:45

I can't show you no. No, we don't do that. I know that. Have you met?

Chef Sarita 0:47

John Wheeler Forager. I have not. I have not, is that? No, it's not Nicole's dad, okay, okay.

Chef James 0:50

He has the Berkshire Mycological Society here.

Chef Sarita 0:53

He does mushroom walks and stuff.

Chef James 0:55

He does yes and he's fantastic and I've connected with, actually got matzah takei in so I was able to shave that on ramen bowls, miso, what you know, your broths or whatever, but anyways he's a great resource if I don't have time to get out there. Anyways, what drove you into our amazingly insane world of the culinary arts?

Chef Ray 1:17

um, that's a long story okay um, I grew up young with a young mother and my grandmother made amazing food. Okay, so that you know, sat with me, yep, and my mom. I watched progress to make great food eventually when she was 17 or 18.

Chef Sarita 1:35

He said that to her in person yesterday. She was not doing a great job.

Chef Ray 1:40

So, I have a backcountry upstate New York food situation and she actually has a better story than I do.

Chef Sarita 1:50

I was born in Columbia in South America.

Chef James 1:52

I saw your menu too. How amazing. Thank you Really sorry yeah that one was super fun. Yeah.

Chef Sarita 2:00

So my parents were born in the same area but actually ended up growing up in completely different areas, which is interesting because my dad's side of the family is black and they're super mixed. Then my mom's- side of the family is more. You know, her father was a doctor. His ancestors are German. There's like a little bit of German and Italian on that side.

Chef Sarita 2:17

And my dad. You know it's like African, spanish, french on his side. So he grew up on the coast. So all of like the seafood, the coconuts, the coconut soup, the stews all that kind of thing um the bacalao that all comes from my dad's side and then I have a completely different culinary experience on my mother's side, but both my grandmas were amazing cooks, so okay that's, and was there like formal training for that?

Chef James 2:47

Or I mean you guys just worked your ways up in kitchen.

Chef Ray 2:49

I was formally trained. I went to CIA, unfortunately, because it costs way too much money.

Chef James 2:53

Yeah, it is, I mean great institution, but man, it sure is it was fun, I don't want to pay for it anymore.

Chef Ray 3:02

She's a great cook and didn't do that.

Chef James 3:07

Right, she's a great cook and didn't do that right, right, yeah, and I think you know I've always been one where it's, you know, an education is what you make of it. Exactly, you know, I, I came from the school of hard knocks, right, you know, and, and I I learned at a very young age. I came in about 91, 92 into the industry, but like it was all about being a sponge walking with humble feet, yeah, and they paid you with knowledge. Yes, they didn't pay you money.

Chef Ray 3:27

If you were willing to listen. No, no, you wouldn't. No, I mean, I was Still.

Chef James 3:31

You got a meal, though, yeah, right right, yeah, you know, get a, grab a breadstick.

Chef Ray 3:39

But you know it's something much.

Chef James 3:41

Eat some rice. I'm tied, well you know, and that's kind of the way it is. So, looking at Cello, do you guys want to go into your division? And you're just up on your year, right?

Chef Ray 3:51

Yeah, and so congratulations, that's a big deal. Yes, thank you.

Chef James 3:55

Yeah, do you want to go into that? A little bit Like the backstory of Cello and how that got.

Chef Ray 4:00

The backstory essentially is the fact that I worked at noodle for seven years Yep, I was the sous chef for two and the CDC for five years. Okay, and I left. I went to lantern to try to make Pittsburgh a little better. Right, didn't work out, it's hard yes. Yes, went to cantina. It wasn't great for me personally, but it's okay. Um, and I was just helping my friend at Bosque and some regulars texted me Just a text Do you want to reopen the restaurant? I was like, yeah, I do.

Chef James 4:40

It's very special and we had already been in conversation about working together.

Chef Sarita 4:46

We had talked about it before cantina and catering thing.

Chef James 4:51

And you guys are an amazing team, by the way. Thank you, yeah, absolutely.

Chef Ray 4:56

So it was an offer and I said, hell yeah, let's do it. Get to support local farms. Good products make fun food every day.

Chef James 5:04

Yeah, you worked hard under bjorn. I mean you did, ray. I wasn't in there as much as I should have been. You were there, though I remember you. But yeah, but it, you guys and what you were doing there were an example to the entire region and let alone, I think, even challenging many other restaurants I think creativity, yeah, I think I don't want to give ourselves too much credit, but the restaurants are getting better around us.

Chef Ray 5:29

They should, and I love that and that pushes us, and it pushes us too. That's good.

Chef Sarita 5:34

Because sometimes, you know, it's easy to get a little bit lazy. It's funny because we're so motivated, we're so pumped, we're so like go, go, go all the time. Like go, go, go all the time, and then once in a while we're like that's a really good menu and then we get like a little lazy and then we'll go somewhere else that maybe wasn't so good before or they've had like some downfalls, and we have this like standout dish and you're like whoa, yeah, oh, this place is getting better, this was getting better. Like we can't afford to get lazy and we don't want to, so it like pushes us, which we hope in turn pushes everyone else around us.

Chef Ray 6:02

you you know, I think it does.

Chef James 6:04

I think it really well, Raise all ships, absolutely, and I think that's what's important about community. I think that you know, as a chef, my goal as I build a team is to build the best team around me that's possible, and there's going to be a number of them in there that are much better than I am.

Chef James 6:23

The important thing about community in that aspect is there's a level of respect and appreciation for one another that when you put these pieces, like you know, these gears together the Swiss clock is beautiful for a reason, but when you open it up and you really look inside, you see the inner workings and the magic that happens. And I think that when you can develop a team and have those drivers with each other like you guys do, so when you look at your menu, you guys are doing this, You're doing daily menus. I mean this isn't. We're not talking about seasonal, I mean it's seasonal.

Chef Ray 6:54

No, it may be nice Like every month or two.

Chef James 6:57

Make a change Once a week. Make 40% change. You're making changes every day.

Chef Sarita 7:03

Yeah Well, and with Taken Tuesday which we started to do during, you know, the off season, to try to get more people in the door so that to keep ourselves going. It is Sure, it's yours, we try to use as much of like produce around. So then, for Taken I was like you know, it's winter. There isn't that much stuff besides like dry goods and cellared stuff.

Chef Sarita 7:20

Right stuff right, and so how can we justify using stuff that's out of season and make it really fun and interesting and learn new stuff? Well, let's go and try all these different cuisines.

Chef Ray 7:29

Let's try all these different styles of food.

Chef Sarita 7:31

Let's make a colombian menu. Let's you know right.

Chef Ray 7:34

So this tuesday we have kfc it's korean fried chicken. Wednesday, thursday, we have a full new menu, and then friday we have a dinner that you're invited to, and then Saturday, back to the whole menu.

Chef Sarita 7:47

Well, the week before we went on vacation, it was taken Tuesday, and then we had the wine dinner, which was an entirely different menu, then Thursday, it was a completely different menu, and then Friday, saturday, we're like, oh shit, we gotta do whatever we can to use everything up in the walk-in before we go on vacation so those were totally different times.

Chef Ray 8:05

Every Saturday is literally like what can we make with what we have left? Yes, and then also how can we not let this rot?

Chef James 8:12

Right right.

Chef Sarita 8:13

Yeah.

Chef James 8:13

You know, and get that flip back around. Yeah, wow.

Chef Ray 8:16

And we look at the. I go on the walk-in every Saturday night and I'm like there's nothing left. What?

Chef James 8:20

happened. Yeah, now we really got to do this. Yeah, you know when you're doing your menus, I mean, like you said, you're having these TV dinner menu or throwback menus or a variety of things that, in a very respectful way, is not normal.

Chef Ray 8:37

Not at all In our industry.

Chef James 8:39

You know, in some areas in Europe abroad you'll find daily menus that are tighter, small bistros. But to do what you guys are doing I always say you can baffle them with bullshit or dazzle them with brilliance. I think that the ability that you guys are doing to dazzle people with your God-given talent and hit it on the plate, is amazing.

Chef Ray 9:00

Thank you, thank you.

Chef James 9:01

Because you know so many times as a culinarian right I mean, we're artists and you start the picture or you know you're doing this and that and it's like you get started with a couple of lines You're like nope, you know, wad it up, throw it out, start again. You're going back at it and you're putting yourself under such a substantial level of responsibility and pressure because you're utilizing product in your stores and you're also trying to include local farms. That's another foundation. That isn't easy because you know I think sometimes we're lucky with our farms here in the Berkshires because we have so many talented people. You know that can have a tendency to grow similar things, but you've got to kind of keep them moving in and moving through.

Chef Ray 9:45

Yeah, how has that been for you? There's certain farms that we love, that are very good to us. There's certain farms that have gone to the route of not selling to restaurants anymore. Okay, yeah, which is problematic because they're great farms.

Chef Sarita 9:59

It's problematic for us, not for them. Right right, it's great for them. They're making life easier for themselves.

Chef Ray 10:03

I appreciate that. So local stuff is a little harder. Yeah, thankfully we have Marty's, which you know collects it.

Life of Chefs and Farmers

Chef James 10:11

Yeah, yeah, oh Nick. So that's good, he's great.

Chef Sarita 10:14

And I did the same farm school program that he did. Yeah, I need to get that man too.

Chef James 10:18

Yeah, that's amazing, isn't it? The kids and the apprenticeship program for adults.

Chef Sarita 10:24

Yeah, they do two separate programs.

Chef James 10:25

That's amazing they intertwine.

Chef Ray 10:27

Yeah.

Chef Sarita 10:27

I don't think they're doing anything right now.

Chef Ray 10:29

I've also been very lucky to work with her. Okay, yeah, because she's been a farmer in the Berkshires, so she has connections.

Chef James 10:36

Oh, okay, okay, very cool.

Chef Ray 10:37

So we can get local eggs from a farmer and stop by pick it up. We can get a whole cow from a farmer, yeah.

Chef Sarita 10:44

I work for Will and Amelia. Oh okay, oh yeah.

Chef James 10:48

And I adore them. Yeah, they're great yeah.

Chef Sarita 10:53

And I did dairy stuff with them and then also beef pigs, whatever.

Chef Ray 10:56

Okay, that's very, very helpful for the restaurant yeah Indian line as well.

Chef James 10:59

Shout out to Indian line. Have you done Holiday Brook as well? Shout out to have you done Holiday Brook, and they're great too.

Chef Sarita 11:04

Where?

Chef James 11:05

Holiday Brook.

Chef Sarita 11:05

I haven't been there yet. Yeah, okay.

Chef James 11:07

I mean, I've gotten, you know animals fabbed from them, you know in sections and was able to kind of use it through. But no, there's. It's not easy. Wow, that's a hard life, it is.

Chef Ray 11:19

I've always said, like, farmers have the hardest life because everything can get wiped out if something goes wrong with the weather.

Chef James 11:25

It's a gamble yeah, and restaurants are probably number two yeah, well it's interesting like yeah, yeah, it is I mean you dealt with issues through covid and staffing, and staffing is still very hard, right, right, yeah and what do you think you're? What are your thoughts on? Why are we dealing with this currently? I mean, I have my own, but what do you?

Chef Ray 11:45

think um. My thoughts are simply the fact that people got a free paycheck to stay home for a long time and now they have to go back to work. But there's ways around it, right, right?

Chef Sarita 11:54

I think the pendulum always swings right and it swings in one extreme like the old school more crazy, abusive kitchen culture to like being now extremely PC and polite. And you need something in the middle. You know you need. You need discipline, but you also need to be you also need to remember that we're dealing with human beings you know, so it's like it's gotta be somewhere in the middle and it's it's inching towards that right now, I think, but I think that's part of the problem. It's coming back.

Chef Ray 12:25

Everybody seems to want a larger paycheck, yeah.

Chef Sarita 12:28

I'm sorry, yeah, yeah.

Chef James 12:31

Well, and that's hard, like dealing with COVID. I think it's obviously something, in many ways, we've never dealt with before and it was very tragic. I think that it created an opportunity for people to have a much different income than what they were used to. I think it gave people an opportunity to reflect on their lives and go do I really want to do this? You know, I think we're also in a time in society where mental health has come to the forefront, but in that, like you were sharing, sometimes we swing in some ways where, at the end of the day, to be a chef, it's going to be hard. Yeah, it's definitely hard. I don't. I would love to see that soften.

Chef Ray 13:15

I would love to see it I don't know if it will, but it can't soften too much. I don't know if I want it to fully. It's not a softening. It's not a softening. It's not a job, it's a lifestyle. It is, it's a way of life, and it's so awesome.

Chef James 13:26

You said that, yeah Right, because, like even with my grandpa and our farm, we had a multi-generational farm in Northern California no-transcript and that's why I wanted to be a chef, because it's a way of life, you know, and it's kind of like being a boat captain, you know it's a way of life. This isn't. You know. You're everything to your crew. You know if it goes down, you're going down with it Absolutely, and so you know you also have codependent behaviors that come up when that happens right it's true, that can pull us in, and then, all of a sudden, we.

Chef James 14:04

it's like a submarine. When do you surface?

Chef Ray 14:07

Yeah.

Chef James 14:07

You don't know, never do.

Chef Ray 14:08

Right.

Chef Sarita 14:09

So it's hard, but I think it's hard to balance it too, like living together, working together, being you know.

Chef James 14:14

And that's a thing too.

Chef Sarita 14:15

I mean it's 100%.

Chef Ray 14:17

Oh, we have to. We have to literally force ourselves ourselves for four hours a week to not talk about work so ridiculous, because it's yes, nothing. Four hours is nothing.

Chef Sarita 14:26

We have to. We're like, okay, let's try like a little chunk of time we were ordering last night, figuring out menu.

Chef Ray 14:32

Last night we were ordering this morning.

Creating Unique Dishes as Chef Couple

Chef Sarita 14:34

I was texting marty's, I was texting our fish you ran to put away the order and I called my mom to find out if we could buy rhubarb from her.

Chef James 14:42

Okay, see, and that's and that's a great point for the listeners to understand, because we get a wide variety of listeners that aren't just in our field but are, like you know, see the the glam, the glitz and the fun of being a chef, and it is a beautiful life in so many other ways too. But you know you being a couple in this situation that the boundaries get even harder it also makes you know, I know I would have a heart.

Chef Ray 15:05

Yeah, yeah, it makes the food better like, because we're always going back and forth yeah yeah, it's beneficial to us overall, but like it, it definitely.

Chef Sarita 15:14

You have, you have to work, so we have. We have to work so hard on like yet, like you said, boundaries and also maintaining like okay, you know, not not getting too worked up about work stuff at home, not getting too worked about home stuff at work.

Chef James 15:27

You know like backwards and vice versa. It's hard, it works, but that's awesome yeah, it does work.

Chef Ray 15:33

And yeah, like I mean we, we balance each other out.

Chef Sarita 15:35

Yeah, it's a lot of fun. Most of the time she was like I'm making pan fried cornbread with fermented jalapenos ramp ramps. That we picked, oh cool, we picked yeah. And then we picked nettles and garlic mustard yeah.

Chef Ray 15:49

And served it, and I never personally, would never serve that Like it would never come to my brain. I did a nettle butter.

Chef Sarita 15:54

Oh, I did a nettle butter on the cornbread. I was like ramping Wow.

Chef Ray 15:59

But my brain would never think of that. Okay, and her brain made that work and it's like crazy and that's awesome, and there's certain things my brain will think of.

Chef Sarita 16:07

Yeah, and I'm like what? And she'll do the same thing.

Chef Ray 16:09

What, no, no, no, watch, watch, watch.

Chef Sarita 16:11

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Chef Ray 16:12

I've learned?

Chef Sarita 16:13

Yeah, I've definitely learned. We've both learned to be like that sounds so wild, that sounds like it makes no sense, but I can't wait to see what it looks like, instead of holding each other back and being like no, maybe don't do that. I think that's going to be too weird. It's like no, actually, let's see it do it, do it, do it, do it.

Chef Ray 16:33

It's like push, push push back and forth. Well, because you almost have to, because the way you guys, yeah, like wow, you know, we barely engineer it until around three o'clock and then we pull it together yeah and then we throw a bunch of random stuff on our station to figure out what is best with every dish during service and and then.

Chef James 16:56

But honest to god, though, I mean the beauty of that raised both of you being under that kind of pressure and then coming in for dinner, like I have, and trying those dishes. You know people, for those listeners, you know you're. When you're doing engineering, you're usually like OK, here's, here's our list of what we want to take off, here's how we'll change it. You know, maybe we divvy it up in the kitchen or you're working. I mean, this is a very tight tandem team that people need to understand. And also, when you're building these menus, you're kind, you're from my.

Chef James 17:30

What I'm getting is it's kind of on the fly oh, it's maturity and palette has to be high so that you can hit the acid, the fat, the, the inner balance, like you were just talking about of all that together and being like, let's roll. Yeah, that's amazing.

Chef Ray 17:47

Every day. Yes, we have 10 customers order the same thing and each dish might be a little different, right, right, because we figure out a little better technique or a better movement for that Right, and almost every dish is plated a little bit differently.

Chef Sarita 17:59

Sometimes, we find a way. Sometimes we'll plate something. Sometimes we'll plate something and be like we nailed it.

Chef Sarita 18:05

And other things, either because it's a really playful dish, so it lends itself to that, or because we're not quite satisfied with how it looks. So we'll keep plating it differently. We'll even just use a different bowl, use a different plate, like wait, what do you think of this here? I don't know, put that under there, put that over there, wow, and we'll play with it as we go along. And ideally, you know, we find something that we like, or we're just happy to keep changing it up because it's fun.

Chef Ray 18:28

Yeah, the kudo I've made at every school differently. We literally have to. If I had to, if we had to do the same menu for you know, months, yeah.

Chef Sarita 18:46

It wouldn't be worth getting out of bed to. Sometimes we'll take stuff off the menu because we get this is like so ridiculous. But sometimes we'll have something that sells really, really, really well and everyone wants it. We get bored of making the same thing that many times, so we change it and people are like, well, why did you take that off the menu? I love it because we're sick of it because everyone ordered it.

Chef Ray 18:58

Now we want to make it different we get emails and texts like I want this recipe. I'm like I don't have a recipe yeah, I just, we just made it that day.

Chef James 19:07

So you guys, and again because you're moving so quickly, you're really using your school of ratios right like you're, as you're kind of like building and past recipes a little bit.

Chef Ray 19:18

Yes, yeah, sometimes okay, but it's also like just taste just the knowledge. Yeah, yeah like I said, it goes back to middle school. Guest test revise. Guest test revise yeah.

Chef James 19:27

Wow.

Chef Sarita 19:27

Okay, and we bounce stuff off each other. We have a similar pal, we like similar flavors, and so sometimes I'll be tasting something. One of us will be like I can't get it. Just right. It needs that one little thing, and we. The other day, I think it was with the pineapple custard which I couldn't get to sex pineapples.

Chef Ray 19:44

Oh yeah.

Chef Sarita 19:45

Yeah, and I kept tasting it and it was like it needed something to round it out and I went downstairs to the two-door and pulled out I had this sweet and sour syrup that I had made a couple months ago for a different dessert and I dumped the rest of it in there and it was like boom, nailed it Wow.

Chef Ray 20:08

And he'll do the same thing with something where it's like we're staircases, yeah, up and down the stairs all day because we'll taste something. And I'm like it's not right and I'll go downstairs and grab some things. And I'm like so not right and go back downstairs and grab more things, and you're just constantly because you're you're walking downstairs, right, yeah, okay.

Chef James 20:17

How was that for you to step back into cello again after a noodle? I mean that. I mean I always looked at it kind of like your second home.

Chef Ray 20:25

It kind of was yes, okay the way I saw you in there.

Chef James 20:28

Yeah, yeah.

Chef Ray 20:29

Okay, it's comfortable and it's different at the same time. Yep, yep. So I know the space, I know the movements. Yep, I'll still go downstairs and look for something that was there 10 years ago.

Chef James 20:52

Yeah downstairs, look for something that was there 10 years ago. Yeah, I'm like, oh shit, it's not here anymore. Yeah, the box greater, yeah, nice. So like my brain will not function to the fact that it's different, things in the basement.

Chef Ray 20:57

So I was like, hey, I know where it is and I go down there and I'm like, oh shit, it's not here anymore.

Chef James 20:58

Oh, that's funny. Yeah, wow, when you're like um kind of working through your stuff, do the farms move pretty easily with you. I mean, do they give you like a? They do the typical weekly.

Chef Sarita 21:10

We get some item list, some, yeah, yeah I was actually I was, you know, kind of annoyed about this the other day, which I get where the farms are coming from, because I worked at those farms. But I was saying like, oh, it's kind of a bummer that we're not prioritized because we're such a small account so oftentimes like oh, we're sold out of this, oh, we don't have this.

Chef Sarita 21:29

Oh, actually, you know we don't deliver to lennox, and so you know like sometimes we'll be like oh, all right, I'll just drive to town or we'll pick something up at, you know, like indian line, sometimes we'll leave stuff at the whale and we'll pick it up there and that works out okay or the you know they'll say if you hit this minimum, we will deliver to linux yeah so that can be frustrating sometimes is that we are such a small account that sometimes people are like, well, it's not really worth it for us to sell to you and we, but we make such cool stuff with it, you really do

Chef Ray 21:53

yeah, absolutely yeah. Something like I started at noodle at 2011, when I was 27, a very long time ago, yeah, and the farmers supplied us without a problem. But now there's csa's and farmers markets and, like I said before, it makes sense like yep, yep, make life simple for you yeah, and it's hard.

Chef James 22:12

The volume a and b, you know there's a difference between wholesale and retail. Yeah, so you know that's where, even like at the ranch there, if I was going to go get something, I could blow through because of the volume, right, and that's a problem for them because they need that retail percentage and it's a very good thing for them, you know, and it's hard, but yeah, I could only imagine.

Chef Sarita 22:35

I mean, a boat is amazing, a boat's amazing.

Chef Ray 22:36

They've been great to us yeah.

Chef James 22:44

They were great to me at.

Chef Sarita 22:44

Lantern in Pittsfield and they came over to Cello and they're so flexible, very cool and it's you know they came in over the winter and you know we got to show them like, look, we still like we love your stuff so much we still have like a couple vinegars from some of your herbs at the end of the season like here's the kimchi that we made, primarily with produce from them, and then also from Indian line and we're like here, you know, take a little bit of kimchi.

Chef Ray 23:03

This is made with your stuff at the end of the summer and they're even more happy now to yeah to supply us, which is yeah, we're at a point right now where summer's coming, so we have to use up all our vinegars and ferments.

Chef James 23:15

Okay, okay okay, nice, yeah, I, and there's some nice vinegars out there. Have you used minus eight? I have not, oh not.

Chef Ray 23:23

Oh, they're pretty killer.

Chef James 23:24

They're out of Canada, I mean. I know they're not local, but they have some really cool like ice vinegar.

Chef Ray 23:29

Yeah, oh, um they have vegetate minus eight.

Chef James 23:34

A couple of other. But you know I mean, but they're, they're cool, they're like there's like different vinegars that you can kind of tinker with to just add enough acid.

Chef Sarita 23:46

It's like, there you go. I mean, we love bannels, I love that's a good one that's.

Chef Ray 23:48

I'm a strange human. I want either like high, high class balsamics yep or dirty, dirty white vinegar like I love white vinegar for making pickles and vinegar oh, that's perfect.

Chef James 24:03

Like, because it's just like it makes sense to my. American palate Absolutely Very clean and straightforward. It does the job.

Chef Ray 24:10

Yeah, it does, absolutely.

Restaurant Seating and Vacation Stories

Chef James 24:11

Well, so when you guys are looking in, I guess sharing with the listeners too. How many seats do you have in your restaurant? I mean, we paint a picture.

Chef Ray 24:18

We have a total of 27. When we have indoor seating, only outdoor we add 10 more.

Chef Sarita 24:26

Oh, I didn't know that, and you know it's 26,. Right, we added an extra table.

Chef Ray 24:29

We added extra seats. Yes, yeah.

Chef James 24:31

And it's the open air concept. People can sit at the bar, and they can. You know you're just jamming right along there in the corner of the line where you guys are.

Chef Ray 24:38

Yeah, the only thing is our outdoor seating is not. You can't book it. Okay, we had a problem last summer. People were like it's raining, I want to come inside. I'm like, well, inside's fully booked, so we can't seat you. So now outdoor seating is first come, first serve.

Chef James 24:51

Oh okay.

Chef Sarita 24:52

Because you have to pick a seat.

Chef James 25:05

And so people wanted to sit inside, but it would be fully move on that exactly, yeah.

Chef Sarita 25:09

Yeah, that way, people, you know, and if someone wants to have a drink and hang out while they wait for a table. We have a table outside, that's fine. We were great.

Chef Ray 25:16

Yeah, we were flowering water last week yes, and birthday dinner. Yes, thank you. Oh cool, thank you for my dinner Birthday, yeah. So we showed up and the host was like we had a res and we're like well, the table's not ready and we were fine.

Chef James 25:31

Yeah, we got there like two minutes early, yeah and we waited 20 minutes.

Chef Ray 25:35

Yeah, if that, they brought us sparkling water, they brought us drinks that we ordered. Oh cool, okay, they have a little standing bar that you can lean up against and chit-chat so if you come in and you're a little late, which happens, you can sit outside and chill for a minute.

Chef James 25:50

Nice. Well, so in looking at your staffing too, you have just the two of you that are jamming in the kitchen, right? So everybody. And then you're in front of the house. You have Amanda and Cody. Yes, and Cody. He's a wizard on cocktails. He's doing a good job. When I saw him in there I'm like wow, you've really that's. You know, that's a nice tight, all-star team with the other two he just infused bourbon with bananas and star anise and a port float.

Chef Ray 26:15

I'm like what the hell's a port float? That's perfect, but I tasted it, I'm like oh, it makes sense.

Chef James 26:20

Yeah, nice, that's all.

Chef Sarita 26:21

Yeah, like my tequila drink is a tequila float or a mezcal float?

Chef Ray 26:25

And we have our prep cook slash dishwasher is Carmen's daughter, Gemalette, who Bjorn had Carmen for 13 years Wow.

Chef James 26:37

In the restaurant and then we took on her daughter. Okay, she's amazing, so you've got a good swing person. Yeah, okay, wow, okay, nice, now you guys went on vacation, right, you were able to step out, daughter. Okay, she's amazing, so you've got a good, a good swing person.

Chef Sarita 26:46

Yeah, okay wow, okay, nice. Now you guys went on vacation. Right, you were able to step out, was that yeah? Yes and we we did not, we actually did not talk about work while we were on vacation it was great.

Chef James 26:55

That's gotta be amazing.

Chef Sarita 26:57

We went camping in the redwoods um it's beautiful up there.

Chef James 27:00

It it was amazing, like Star Wars yeah.

Chef Sarita 27:02

You didn't see Chewbacca, did you? No, no, we tried we tried Wow. Oh, there you go.

Chef Ray 27:10

No, yeah, we were sitting at the table at our campsite with the fire going and she looked at me. She's like what's wrong? I'm like what do you mean right now?

Chef Sarita 27:21

She's like that's really good.

Chef Ray 27:23

I'm like oh, it feels really good yeah.

Chef Sarita 27:24

No, and I was like there was like the absence of the anxiety, the absence of, so I was like what am I feeling? I'm like, oh, an absence of negativity.

Chef Ray 27:31

It was just. We were just not that our life is negative, it's not.

Chef Sarita 27:35

It's just a lot yeah junk food and tons of hot dogs, mexican food. It's a spiritual place. It is.

Chef Ray 27:50

We came back to work and I was lifting plates. I'm like they feel light today.

Chef James 27:54

Everything feels light today.

Chef Sarita 27:55

My body's relaxed.

Chef James 27:56

This is amazing, that's awesome.

Chef Sarita 27:57

We were so energized.

Chef James 28:01

One of my great uncles. He actually had a redwood mill up there way back in the day and being out in the woods like that and with those redwoods, it's very magical.

Chef Ray 28:11

It's unbelievable.

Chef James 28:12

Yeah, yeah, wow, that's so cool.

Chef Sarita 28:14

And all the vegetation. I'm obsessed with the vegetation underneath, like all the redwood, sorrel and the trillium. Oh, yeah. Our campsite was. We camped at Jed and I Smith campgrounds.

Chef James 28:24

Okay.

Chef Sarita 28:25

That's like way, way up north.

Chef James 28:27

Yeah, that was probably close to where my uncles played. Okay yeah, not far from.

Chef Sarita 28:31

It's like 30 miles from Oregon. Yeah, that's exactly okay. Near Crescent City. Oh, there we go we got there and there's trillions and sorrel and ferns that are amazing and I'd been out there. I'd been to the Redwoods once before, but this was unreal because it was just more impressive and we spent a whole week, almost a week, camping there.

Chef James 28:55

Okay, wow, that's cool. What drives the mental machine? For you guys, adhd.

Chef Ray 29:03

Yeah, I don't know machine for you guys. What?

Chef James 29:04

because adhd like it's you're, just because the way you think and the way you guys move through these menus, it it's very special and it is abnormal and I mean that with the utmost respect.

Chef Ray 29:15

Oh, thank you, but yeah, there's no choice. We have no choice.

Chef Sarita 29:18

Yeah, yeah, we just have to do it yeah and I think I was always like my brain always functioned like that when it came to food before I realized that I could get into it, you know, as a life, yeah, it's a path, as a profession, whatever you want to call it. I think I always played with food you grew up with it.

Chef Sarita 29:36

Yeah, yeah, I grew up with it like this. I you know I've told ray this story before but like I remember being a little little, little little kid probably like three or four or something like that and sitting in Columbia sitting on the counter watching my mom make cheese make fresh cheese and she would take the curds and put them in the cheesecloth and hang it off the faucet and then have the whey in like a little tub underneath.

Chef Sarita 29:58

Oh, very nice, and she would give my brother and I the whey so like he was like oh, it's gross.

Chef Ray 30:01

I'm like oh, I love it. It was like salty and delicious. Tell them, why you dropped out of a preschool kindergarten. Oh yeah, I dropped out of kindergarten because the food wasn't good enough oh wow, I didn't like the food, so she left school and went to school. Okay, well, because my parents food was amazing.

Chef James 30:18

I grew up with incredible food, amazing food and so I was.

Chef Sarita 30:24

I was used to eating really great food and I was like this is trash well now, and that's just unbelievable, I mean it was not trash, for the record. It was actually really good food yeah like made from scratch, like all fresh, but it was a grandma's little tiny me was like nah, not good enough, that's so great such a pink slip see you later lunch lady.

Chef Ray 30:46

I'm the opposite, I'm lunch lady like chicken nuggets with honey and pepper. Yeah, I'll take doubles please. Yeah, right, the first hot honey yeah steakums, yeah steakums. I like steakums, like give it to me.

Chef Sarita 30:59

Hey, you bought me steakums. I still want to try them. I did. Yes, it's good.

Chef James 31:02

I've never had it.

Chef Ray 31:03

Yeah, yeah, that's a big yeah that is, you know it's good you know she's like in between, just like classy enough all the time and I'm like either like snobby or complete trash.

Chef Sarita 31:18

Yeah, I like to float in the middle.

Chef James 31:21

That way I can go up or down, you know, Wow. Well, that's pretty awesome.

Chef Sarita 31:24

I think it's a win-win for me.

Chef Ray 31:28

We made chicken nuggets from scratch.

Chef Sarita 31:30

Yeah, they were so good, that was for McChello.

Chef James 31:34

McChello, yes I mean seriously, man Like the creativity is off the hook.

Chef Sarita 31:40

We did all the sauce. It has to be.

Chef James 31:43

Wow, okay. Well, that's great, it's fun, man. So what do you now? You guys have your celebration dinner coming up, right, oh, 510.

Chef Ray 31:50

Do you want?

Chef James 31:51

to talk about that a little bit, I mean share kind of A little bit.

Chef Ray 31:55

We don't have much to talk about. The menu's not set completely.

Chef James 31:58

Well, the listeners should already know that by now.

Chef Ray 32:01

Yeah, yeah, we're doing to do kind of a party yeah. Yeah, sit down and eat good food and have fun.

Chef Sarita 32:09

We want to show our appreciation for the people that have shown their appreciation for us.

Chef James 32:13

You're good, thank you. Yeah, I see it. Wait, are you kidding me? Yeah, oh man.

Chef Sarita 32:17

We want to, yeah, we want. Our hope is that people you know come in. We'll be open for regular service for like the first hour yeah first two hours and then after that we hope everyone we've invited who is able to join us will come in mill about have some drinks hang out yeah maybe you know, get to know each other like yeah everyone spends a lot of time in that restaurant.

Chef Ray 32:36

It's cool when people get to meet and talk about it and then sit down and we'll do very casual live courses with some extras it's also fun because we have three tables that are regulars, that are coming on Tuesday and Wednesday and are coming back for Friday.

Chef James 32:52

Oh, wow, okay, Okay, very cool. Yeah, do you guys have any like needs? I mean, are you guys currently hiring for any staff, right?

Chef Ray 33:00

now. Yes, yes, we have to get ready for summer.

Chef James 33:02

Yeah, it's going to.

Chef Ray 33:03

We need a cook, we need two front of house and we need a cook.

Chef Sarita 33:05

We need two front of house and we need a part time dishwasher ideally a full time cook and maybe a part time cook depending, because we'd like to be open 7 days a week and we'd like to also have a day off.

Chef Ray 33:16

We intend to like the take it Tuesday did so well that we want to roll into Sunday and or Monday as like a little pop up thing and just roll with it. So it's set, ready to go, don't have to be there so much, okay, yeah.

Chef James 33:31

Otherwise.

Chef Sarita 33:32

You know, if we do a fried chicken pop, for example, because that one did so well, or like burgers, all that stuff can be prepped out ahead of time. We can prep it out ahead of time.

Chef Ray 33:39

Jeff and Lutt can help us prep it out and then whoever comes we end up hiring can come in and just pretty much, you know, set up, roll into service, break it down.

Chef James 33:50

Okay, call it.

Chef Ray 33:50

A day set a timer, yeah, okay, otherwise working 80 to 85 hours a week, which is not ideal. Yeah, I at 40, I don't want to do that anymore. I've done it before, I don't want to do anymore you know it does catch up to you.

Chef James 34:02

It does. Yes, it's, uh, it's unbelievable man, the. But you know, I think it's one of the the most beautiful industries in the world. In so many other ways, the people you meet, I mean, you run into similar characters across the country in kitchens, it's. You know, we're a merry band of misfits in some ways.

Chef Ray 34:20

I say D Jones, yeah, yeah, you know. Oh, we have Maddow coming in this week again. Oh cool, she's back for the summer rachel maddow.

Chef James 34:28

Oh okay, oh, very good. You guys got any words of wisdom for people that you know are wanting to come into the industry? I mean things to keep in mind, or you better love it yeah, yeah. If you don't love it, you're not gonna make it you're not, yeah, no, it's, it's got to be inside of you. You know, don't, don't be too rigid. I think it's a really big thing too.

Balance and Innovation in Cooking

Chef Sarita 34:46

I it's got to be inside of you. You know, don't be too rigid. I think is a really big thing too. I think it's why one of the reasons why we're good at what we do is because we're flexible and we talked about it. Certain techniques you have to be rigid about and you have to do it a certain way because it's just how it is. But in general, be open to like if you don't have this ingredient, use a different one.

Chef Ray 35:09

Change something.

Chef Sarita 35:10

Don't be afraid to mess around with stuff.

Chef Ray 35:13

Last time we looked up shiso leaves that were wrapped in beef.

Chef Sarita 35:18

They have a little smear of beef on the inside and they're folded in half.

Chef Ray 35:21

And they bread it and fry it.

Chef Sarita 35:22

Not bread it, they batter it, they batter it and fry it.

Chef Ray 35:27

We have kohlrabi tops downstairs and ground beef, so let's do that instead yeah yeah, interesting, there's no rules.

Chef James 35:34

There are basic rules, but there's also no rules but I think when it comes to somebody you know, people that have a high talent and a very mature palate, yeah, sky's the limit, it's experience you live and you learn and you cook.

Chef Ray 35:49

That's all there is to it. I've dealt with a lot of younger people, like early 20s, who thought they knew it all for whatever reason, and they didn't, but they knew a lot at the same time. So hunker down, eat whatever you can and make it work in your head. It's not a hard science. Yeah, it's a balance. That's all there is to it.

Chef James 36:14

It's a balance and sometimes I worry, you know, about that level of grit. Yeah, you know it takes a lot of grit. It does and determination, yeah, relentless determination you wake up, you walk into work.

Chef Ray 36:26

You're kind of dead. You look around, you figure it out and hopefully by 5 o'clock you're ready to go. Right, you can have some nights.

Chef Sarita 36:36

You know some services where, at the end of it, you're like this is why I do this, this is the most amazing. It's like the highest, high. And you can also have services where the only thing keeping you going, the only thing keeping you from walking out that door, is knowing that at some point, the restaurant is going to close for the night at some point it's going to end at some point it's going to be over and that sucks and you have to accept that and you have to be able to deal with nights like that and also the really really amazing nights and you guys have each other and it's very special as a pair, but also that synergy.

Chef James 37:07

As long as a team can keep that connected, you will weather the storm. Yeah, you know, and that's amazing, so okay. So location do you guys want to share exact location and website so that listeners can.

Chef Ray 37:21

It's 37 Church Street in Lenox and it's celllenoxcom.

Chef Sarita 37:26

Yes, yes, cool. We update the menu online every day, not until about 4.30.

Chef Ray 37:31

So if you expect something that was the day before, look later.

Chef Sarita 37:35

Yeah, and we have the menu from the previous day outside of the door. So often people will walk by and be like oh, is this today's menu? It's like no, but it'll either be similar or it'll be completely different.

Chef James 37:44

It'll be something.

Chef Ray 37:47

Was it Wednesday or Thursday? We completely flipped the menu. Thursday, thursday it was like spring. We got back from California. Everything was green, things were growing and we were like, alright, we're gonna flip this right now. Yeah, like peas, asparagus papas, just you know, just do it right now.

Chef James 38:07

Yeah, like peas asparagus, papas, just, you know, just do it Well, and all the forage stuff and you were foraging yes, yeah, you have to.

Chef Sarita 38:13

We got back and we went you have a short season.

Chef Ray 38:15

You have to enjoy what you can. Yeah, he's like I only put nettles this big, so delicious and like.

Chef Sarita 38:23

We went and got a huge sack of them and then we picked dandelions and made dandelion vinegar out of it.

Chef James 38:29

Oh man, that's nice yeah. Chellalennoxcom and we have an Instagram as well.

Chef Sarita 38:36

Facebook too, which you know you don't get as much traffic through Facebook but we have a Facebook, we have an Instagram.

Chef Ray 38:41

The Instagram looks better.

Chef Sarita 38:43

We update stuff, we post fun things, do a lot of posting.

Chef James 38:48

It's great, she does a lot of posting.

Chef Ray 38:51

I don't. I'm too old for that. I know I'm like what? Yeah, exactly.

Chef James 38:55

I try to keep up with everybody.

Chef Sarita 38:57

Can I do an auto-send on that? Yeah, as I go. Yeah.

Chef Ray 39:03

No, I have no idea. If she leaves, I'm doing AI somehow.

Chef Sarita 39:07

That's a scary thing too, but it works it does really do some scary stuff.

Chef James 39:11

You're like you just wrote a menu and that's not absolutely horrible.

Chef Ray 39:15

I know.

Chef James 39:17

It's unreal. Don't stay away from me.

Chef Sarita 39:20

I know, I see what it creeps you out. Yeah, it's weird.

Chef James 39:25

We're going to lose eventually.

Chef Ray 39:26

Yeah, ai battle. Well, not well, we're going to lose eventually.

Chef James 39:28

Yeah.

Chef Sarita 39:29

To the AI battle. Well, either Flippy, well, not the food I mean we have that AI can't make food, so, yeah, I don't know if I'll see Flippy with tweezers in its three fingers.

Chef James 39:36

I hope that never happens. The fire basket, it's just yeah. The burger flipper walk on the wall. Yeah, but well, thank you both for being here.

Chef Ray 39:46

Thank you so much.

Chef James 39:46

It was a real pleasure and the Berkshires, you know, is very lucky to have your kitchen, your restaurant, here doing what you do. No one is doing what you're doing and it's an inspiration and thank you both for your passion. Thank you, serena, you're wonderful and just I mean so driven, so talented, and Ray, the Berkshires has been lucky to have you since 2011. Thank you, I know that because I was fortunate enough to send everybody I could to go see what you were doing. You've been there for a long time. You guys are unbelievable. All right, thank you, thank you so much.

Chef James 40:25

All right, everyone, that is a wrap. You can check us out if you like that. Subscribe Also the Instagram Chef Massey. Let's keep it simple, chef Massey dot com. Have a good one. Bye for now.