Food Becomes Memory When Craft Meets Heart

A plate can be beautiful, but the real magic is what it makes you feel. That’s where we go with Chef Jeremiah Cardinal—a cook who treats cuisine like an art you practice daily, not a badge you wear. From early days flipping burgers at sixteen to corporate chef heights and then a leap across the Atlantic, Jeremiah traces how Germany and Finland broadened his base while Poland’s top kitchens reshaped his standards. He shares the trial he failed on the hot line, the cold station he earned, and the mentors who turned service into disciplined teamwork—film review, precise roles, and relentless attention to the last five percent that separates good from unforgettable.

We dig into technique without jargon: why a pacojet makes sorbets and ice creams impossibly airy, how a beetroot sorbet can anchor a chilled soup, and why shortcuts show up on the spoon. Jeremiah breaks down what “controlled chaos” actually means on a Saturday night and why protecting standards isn’t snobbery—it’s hospitality. Guests aren’t buying garnish; they’re trusting you with a moment. That belief led him to start Entre Nous, a private chef service built for intimacy between you and me. He explains how personal clients, family-style dinners, four-course menus, and holiday drop-offs bring restaurant-level craft into homes, minus the noise of a dining room and the stress of timing everything alone.

We also map the shifting Virginia Beach food scene—more creativity, global influences, and a few local spots pushing boundaries with breads, seasonal menus, and bold specials. Along the way, Jeremiah’s mentors appear like guideposts: the cook who made kitchens feel like paradise, the sous chef who welcomed questions, the exacting chef who demanded better even when a dish looked fine. The takeaway is simple and generous: food is an art that disappears, but the memory lasts. If you want that kind of cooking at your table—or just want to hear how a craftsperson builds it—this one’s for you.

Enjoyed the conversation? Follow the show, subscribe for more chef stories and kitchen wisdom, and leave a quick review to help others discover us. Got a food memory that never left you? Share it with us.

Chapters

• 0:00 Meeting Chef Jeremiah Cardinal
• 1:52 Food As A Practiced Art
• 4:04 Europe: Germany, Finland, Poland
• 8:50 Learning High-End Techniques In Poland
• 12:16 Trial, Failure, And Earning The Cold Line
• 15:36 High-Pressure Kitchens And Standards
• 20:08 Founding Entre Nous Private Chef
• 24:10 The Local Food Scene Evolves
• 28:17 Services, Clients, And Pricing Mindset
• 32:02 Origin Story: First Spark At Sixteen
• 36:00 Career Path To Corporate Chef
• 38:38 How To Find And Hire The Chef

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:07

Hello everyone. I'm Al Neely with Listen Up Podcast, and we're in season four, and we are in a season where we're talking about the arts, the culinary arts, and we are fortunate enough to have Chef Jeremiah Cardinal with us. Say hello everyone. Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_02: 0:25

Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_00: 0:26

It's a lovely studio here for real. I like it. Oh, thank you. So and your food's awesome as well. I I met uh Chef Cardinal at an event at the Z in Virginia Beach. Yep, the Z Theater. Yeah. And um immediately, well, I love food, so immediately I was smitten by your desserts. Right. Yeah. They were pretty awesome. Um now let's talk about your experience and how you got here. How long have you been a chef?

SPEAKER_02: 1:04

So uh I've been a chef professionally. Um, I would definitely say probably about 10 years. You know, they say that you're not a chef until another chef calls you a chef. So uh, you know, as much as I wanted to call myself a chef, you know, it wasn't until I had like a very impactful inspirational chef actually call me one. So then so I would probably say 10 years since 10 years since that day. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 1:32

Part of your bio is just a little bit, I'm definitely want to talk a little bit about how you view what you do as an art. Right. Right. Yep. And um just talk about what food represents to you as an art. Right.

SPEAKER_02: 1:52

Yeah, so uh food for me is is everything, you know. Um uh I always found it very, very uh crazy and inspiring that you know it is an art and you know you do have to practice an art. And I do uh I like to use that word practice a lot because it's almost like medicine, you know. Once you're a doctor, you know, you don't just stop there. Like you have to keep growing and practicing and trying new things and stuff. So for me, it is an art that I practice every day, you know. Because, you know, if I were to stop for you know four or five, six months, there's gonna be some things that I lose. And it's just like, you know, you got Kobe Bryant there on his on the wall, you know, Michael Jordan, anything. If they stop something, you know, you lose it. So um I'm thrilled to be involved in it, to to practice it. And um, you know, I have a talent and I've been trying to hone my skills. And you know, at the end of the day, you know, it's it's a piece of art where you know you create it, you cook it, you manipulate it, you you can add color, you can add, you know, acid, you can add savory, you can add sugar, you can add anything, all of it, and then you create it, and then you eat it, and then it's gone. You know, you can't hang it up after uh, you know, you can't hang it up on your wall, you know, you you can take pictures of it, but you know, it after that it's gone, you know.

SPEAKER_00: 3:11

Yeah, but once you've had an amazing dish, you never forget it.

SPEAKER_02: 3:14

So you never forget it. You know, and it's just like people, you know, you forget what people do, you forget what people do this, that, and all, but you never forget what how people make you feel. And you know, when you eat something and it's impactful and you can feel it, you know, that's uh that's that that that that that's what you're trying to achieve. You know, you want people to remember that moment, you know. It's just kind of like for me with like my mom, you know, some of the things she used to make. If I can ever get some some kind of flavor that's close to that, it just brings me right back. I'm like, oh man, I remember that time, you know. So yeah, it's yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 3:50

Yeah, I I understand. I I often go through that through the holiday season where I'm trying to recreate my my parents' food. It's hard to do sometimes. Yeah. But um, it definitely brings us back to a memory. And and talking about that, you were actually traveling throughout Europe, right? And you were learning the craft I did, yeah. Where were you where were you cooking and training in Europe?

SPEAKER_02: 4:19

So I was fortunate to cook in Germany, Finland, and then lastly in Poland. And um, yeah, so uh I was a corporate chef here in America for a uh for a really well-known uh restaurant. Uh and um I was uh I had gotten to a point where you know I'd I was I was pretty much at the very, very top as much as you could go, you know, like I was corporate, I was going around, you know, t teaching people what to do for this location and listening to this location and I don't know, organizing all this stuff and everything. And um I got bored, you know. I had worked for the company for uh for probably like 12, 13 years, you know. I grew up there and uh, you know, all through culinary school and everything, and I just wasn't learning anymore. And I was getting bored, I was getting stagnant, and uh I ended up um meeting uh a woman and uh yeah she was from Europe and uh you know, so I had taken the the plunge and I went there for a couple months, uh kind of put out some resumes, went to some uh restaurants, um came back, worked, went back, actually worked there for a couple months, came back, worked, and saved some money, and then I actually moved out there. And uh her job, um, she was an engineer, and we were uh traveling to different countries and whatnot. And uh so I had the opportunity to cook in Germany, and then we uh were in Helsinki for a little while, and uh I cooked at uh at a at a spot there, but then lastly, when um we were in Poland, I think we were there for probably about four years, and uh I ended up working under uh Michelin chef Michal Kucier and uh also David Kilmanek and um at uh two different Michelin restaurants and dude it was awesome. And uh you want to talk about uh being it brought me like right back when I was like a freshman in college. Like I thought that I knew stuff, they were showing me completely different different things, you know. And uh it was awesome. It was awesome, it was awesome.

SPEAKER_00: 6:40

Finland, Poland, Germany. Where else? That was it. Just three, yeah, those three countries. Yeah. Let's talk about the diversity of each of them. Let's talk about Finland. Uh-huh. Finland was fun. Okay, that's yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 6:56

Finland was fun.

SPEAKER_00: 6:57

What was that experience like?

SPEAKER_02: 6:58

Um it was it was really, really cool. They uh they eat a lot, a lot, a lot of fish, a lot of locks. Um, yeah, and uh I actually ended up learning a really, really cool recipe for that. I still make the stuff at home, locks, man. I I won't go to the store and pay off, pay all that money, man. It's so easy to make it at home anyway. Um, but uh, but yeah, lots of uh lots of locks. And I was when I was in Germany and when I was in Finland, I was uh I only worked at like a bistro. So uh it wasn't like anything kind of fancy. I was just kind of trying to take what I could get, you know. I actually even worked at a uh Brazilian steakhouse at one point, um, a Brazilian steakhouse in Europe, just because I had to have something, you know. And uh because a lot of people were scared to hire me because I couldn't speak the language, you know. And uh that was that was that was the biggest thing for me um was uh the language barrier. I even tried to get a job at uh at a um uh uh a language uh school because I was like I can teach American or I can teach English, not American, I can teach English. Uh, you know, I speak English. I couldn't speak the other side of it, so I couldn't get hired at that spot, man. And it was it was it was tough. But yeah, I was working at a bistro, it was just like some cool sandwiches, um uh some uh homemade soups, uh lots of sausage, lots of fish, lots of potatoes, lots of herbs. Um yeah, and then that that that that was pretty much it.

SPEAKER_00: 8:30

Um that was the that's the extent of what you think their influence is. The food because you I wasn't food is an expression of your person, your culture, um what's available to you, right? You know, right, right. It's an expression of all those things.

SPEAKER_02: 8:48

Yeah, so when I was um when I was in Germany and Finland, it wasn't anything crazy, like it was just like bistro, pubs, like I said, a Brazilian steakhouse at one point. Um, and uh so it wasn't until I spent like a lengthy amount of time, like when I finally landed up in Poland, where like I could see like exactly what was going on, like what were the popular foods, what was local, what was coming. And um that was where I learned like most of like all my crazy like high-end the techniques, um and uh different methods of cooking, um, all different ways to like do me simply and and to have things set up, um, different equipment, you know. Like uh I had never even known what a packo jet was until I went to uh Mihao's restaurant. What is a packo jet? Uh a packo jet is where you you make ice cream and you freeze it and like they call it beakers, and um it actually you put it in into like this uh machine and it uh it has almost like a drill with like a blade on it, and it actually pumps air and whips the ice cream and it uh it fluffs it up and it just makes it like the craziest texture. You can do that with uh lots of different frozen ices for uh garnishes. Um we even ran a soup one time where we did uh beetroot sorbet and it was a cold soup for the summertime. Um, and we did like a nice little canal of uh beetroot frozen beetroot soup in the uh in the soup. It was the wildest thing ever. But uh yeah, like I had never known what that was, you know, until I until I had gone there. So the the the the Germany and the Finland thing was cool, but that was like any kind of job that I could probably get here, you know. Okay, minus the crazy people, the experience, the language. Um, so I owe everything that I have pretty much to straight up, you know, Miho when I was when I was over in Poland. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 11:00

So talk about Miho.

SPEAKER_02: 11:05

Mihaw is a really, really cool guy, man. He was tough. He was tough. And um uh I think part of the reason why he ended up letting me stay at his restaurant and hiring me was because he told me a story when he was in culinary school and he didn't speak a lick of English. And he went to uh um to one of the top culinary schools in London, and he told me that he didn't speak speak English and he had to learn and had to catch on and do all that stuff. And um it was kind of similar to my experience because you know I didn't know any of that language, and you know, I had gone there and tried out, and I actually didn't make it the first time. He told me that I couldn't, I I didn't cut it. You had to try out, I had to try out, it's called a Sage, and it's very it's it's common for really high-end restaurants. You know, you come in, you work for free. They see if the crew likes you, if you like the crew, if you're a good fit, you know. Um, so I went there and the language barrier was the big thing for me, and I couldn't do it. I was on the hot section, and uh I wouldn't say I failed miserably, but I failed. And uh were you making on the hot section, though?

SPEAKER_00: 12:17

I'm sorry. What types of things were you making in that section?

SPEAKER_02: 12:20

At that point, we were doing uh we were doing deer, uh, we were doing steak, we were doing chicken, and I think we were doing like boar or something like that. And then there was like a couple vegetarian items, you know, pierogies and stuff like that. But uh, I mean, I don't know if you've ever heard like a Polish person or a German talk or something, but it's like crazy, intimidating, and like I'd be like, What'd you say? I mean, they weren't speaking in English, and I was like, Man, I cannot do this. So um, I actually didn't make it, and um, you know, I I I I was I was hard on myself, and I went through like my little like you know, sulking stage of yeah, of course, because I mean it's the top restaurant in the city, it was the number one in the city of Poznan, and I think it still is, and it was at the time we were number 14 in the country. Um, so it was a little bit later, I think like maybe a month later, um, they had somebody that uh was leaving. So they he called me back, and uh I was working at a uh I was working, I think I was working for David actually at Figa and another high-end restaurant. And um he called me up and said, you know, we have an opportunity for cold section. It won't be like the same time. You'll actually have tickets so you that way you can read. He said, I think it would be a really good fit for you, and I'd love for you to come and try it. And I was like, Oh my god. So I literally I turned right around, I went to the chef, I said, Listen, Anoush Fidel has just called me and they want me to go over there. I said, This is probably gonna be my last day. And he looked at me and he was like, I don't blame you. He said, Tell me how I said hi. And um the next day I went and I had a sit-down with with uh with Mihao, Chef Mihao, and uh we talked about what was gonna be different and um things that were important for me to that he understood me being a new guy, and you know, and I had odds stacked up against me, you know. So uh he said, don't worry about it, blah, blah, blah. So I went in there, I trained, um, I saw, they accepted me. I trained for like a week, and then I think it was like nine, ten days later, like I was on the, I was that was like that was my section. And uh yeah, man, I earned that section. I mean, it was the cold section, so you know, we did starters, desserts, you know, salads. Probably the easiest spot in the kitchen, but still like being a part of that crew and being surrounded by all the talent and like you know, just chef Mihao by himself. Like, like I thought that like I hit like won the World Series. Like, I was like, dude, I'm doing it. I'm actually doing it. I hear you, yeah. Yeah, like I'm I have the uniform now, right? Like, I like I remember getting my uniform, and like the there was this one crazy guy, Mossin, and uh he was the sous chef, man, and he was just so wild, man. And I remember uh at the end of the day, he said, Jeremiah, welcome to Anush Videlis, and then and I was just like, Oh my god, dude, this is I was like, Woo! Amazing. It was real, it was real, man. It was real. So yeah, it was um wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, awesome. Um, but uh but Mihao, very intimidating, um, very, very uh, I would say kind of militarized, you know. He would actually uh watch us on the cameras outside. He would watch us, we would see him pull up in his car and he would watch us for the whole service. And then at the end of service, he would actually come in, he would pull out his iPad, he would replay the service, and it would just be like a football game. He would be like, Look, when Bartek or when Bartek is over here and he's jammed up, I need you to come around and I need you to assist Martin. And when whenever you see, you know, Bob or Steve come this way, I need you to go around and I need you to assist over here. And he would tell the other people too, come here, come here. When when Jeremiah's over here, I need you to come around and you have to do this. Like he was just every little attention to detail was uh he was on it. He was on it. I remember one time I would I we had a uh a dessert that we were doing the whole week. I had been doing the dessert. He walked by, good job, good job. I like that. It looks good, looks good. One day he came in, he was like, What the F is that? That's unacceptable for me. Do it again. I need it. 30 seconds right now. Blah blah blah. I'd be like, what is going on? I've been doing it the right way for a whole week and now it's messed up. He's you know, he just wanted things to be a certain way, and if it wasn't the right way, he would let you know. He would let you know, he would let you know.

SPEAKER_00: 17:05

Yeah. I've um I've I've cooked for a while, you know, especially going through college. And um I've seen studies why do you th on how high pressure cooking is? It ranks, I think, just below being an air traffic controller or something. Why is it so intense, Jeff? Um, because it sounds like it was with Meow.

SPEAKER_02: 17:38

Yeah, yeah. It can be I mean it it it does get intense. I mean, if you're working at any place that's like worth its salt, you know, there has to be levels of intensity. You know, if there's not any kind of rush or some kind of small controlled chaos, you know, that's another thing that Mihao used to say. He'd be like, this is chaos. We need to control the chaos, control chaos.

SPEAKER_00: 17:57

Why is this so high pressure?

SPEAKER_02: 17:59

Uh because uh it's a well, I know for for high-end places, like you know, you have a chef and their food is a representation of them. So if you're not representing the food that the chef wants it represented, then you're doing it wrong, you know. So you kind of wise, it's uh it it it's just it's important to the individual that's that that's running the show, you know, and it really should be that way. Um, because at the end of the day, you know, people are gonna talk about you, you know. If you're out there and you're not serving food that is matching up to the price point that people are paying for, you know, uh you're you're gonna fail. They're gonna they're gonna call you a donkey, you know what I mean? And nobody wants to be called a donkey in in the culinary world, you know what I mean? So uh I think it's just it's it's so high intense because it's just so important to the individuals. And you know, if you have the crew of of of the chefs that you're working around, they should all feel the same way, you know, and everybody needs to hold each other accountable, you know. I mean, I remember that there was some times, you know, where you're tired and you know you're not feeling it, and you know, blah, blah, blah. And uh you need people there to call you out because at the end of the day, um are you allowed to cuss on this show? Well, well, there's there's an old saying that you can't make chicken salad with chicken shit. You know, so if you're cutting corners, you're doing shortcuts, you're not doing things the way that they are supposed to be, at the very, very end, you're gonna notice, you know. Um, if you prepare something the right way and you prepare something with a shortcut, when you eat it, I mean, you can tell, you know. So uh the strive for perfection, I think, is why it is just so intense, you know, for things to be perfect, it needs to be perfect, you know, and uh standard. You know, you can't stray away, stray away from your standards. You know, you gotta be able to perform, you know.

SPEAKER_00: 20:04

Right, right.

SPEAKER_02: 20:05

Yeah, no days off, you know.

SPEAKER_00: 20:06

I hear you. Okay, chef. So let's talk about um entre nous.

SPEAKER_02: 20:13

All right, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 20:14

Okay.

SPEAKER_02: 20:14

Let's talk about me.

SPEAKER_00: 20:16

Well, all of this is about you. Now this is how we got there. So um, first of all, what was your reasoning for naming that? Which means that entrepreneur. Right. Yeah. So entre new. Between you and between us.

SPEAKER_02: 20:33

Between us, yeah. Between you and me, between us, and um, you know, my whole thing. Um I I've had the dream of starting a private chef service. I think I was like, I don't know, probably about I was like 25, 26 years old. I just remember the day I thought about it. And I was like, man, I want to do this. And um, you know, I wanted uh to have a connection with people. I wanted it to be intimate. You know, um, I didn't really like the idea of having a big brick and mortar building, and you know, you you see it in movies and stuff, you know, the walk-in breaks down and you know, servers don't show up, and you know, uh you the the the toilets get backed up or you don't have any water or the heat goes out. You know, I just didn't want to have to deal with all that. You know, I got my own house and my own car to worry about. I don't need to, you know, so I thought it was really cool to be mobile, go to other people's house, you know, and uh bring what I know to them, you know. Um now when I came back from Europe, I worked at a couple restaurants around here, and you know, I was so spoiled with how I was working at you know a new Schwidellas Me House place. Um, you know, nothing here could like really match up to it, you know. And um, and uh so I kind of like started getting resentful towards the gastronomic world. And, you know, I wasn't really is this really right for me? You know, should I be doing this, you know? And uh I remember uh, you know, my uh my fiance Tiffany, she um she's the one that came up with the name. I can't take any credit for it, okay? She came up with the name. We were sitting in the um in the uh in the living room and we're talking, and she was like, you know, you talked about uh starting your own private chef thing ever since I met you. And I've known her since, you know, I was probably like about 26, 27, probably. You know, she's known me since day one. And uh she was like, You've talked about this and this, and you're so unhappy right now. Like, get in the car, let's go to Princess Ann, City Hall, and let's go get your business license right now. I'm like, Well, what are you talking about? You know, and we're like, we gotta have a name, you know. And she was like, I already have the name, Entreneau. And I was like, Whoa, that sounds so nice. It kind of just came right off the tongue at the perfect moment. I was like, what does it mean? She's like, It means between you and me. I said, That's awesome. How did you uh how'd you come up with this, you know? And um, she's so good at that kind of stuff, man, dude. She is just uh amazing. So I call her the director of operations, you know. She's uh she's like my supervisor. Yeah, so uh successful man is uh frustrated woman. That's how we uh that's how we came up with it. Uh she was the one that poured gas on it and and and lit it up, you know, and then I just kind of just took the steering wheel. But um, yeah, it was just perfect, it just fit in. The timing, the the the atmosphere was right in the middle of the day. It was just I don't know, the stars just all aligned perfectly, and that's that that that's what we did. And I didn't know what we were gonna do. So uh, you know, um just kind of started talking to people. We created a little bit of social media. Um, I told some friends, you know, some friends hired me, then their friends hired me, and I did this, and then I did this gig, and just little, little, little things. And you know, now you know we're here going on our fourth year, and uh, I couldn't, I couldn't be, I couldn't be, couldn't be happier. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's it's been really, really cool, man. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 24:21

All right, so let's talk about blessed. Let's talk about the um food scene in our area here. So you've been here for pretty much my whole life. This is always home. So you've seen it. Always home. You've seen it from for years decades. Yes. So let's talk about it now. Uh-huh. What was it what was it like before, and then how how do you perceive it now?

unknown: 24:51

Uh huh.

SPEAKER_02: 24:52

Um, I I mean, I I I like how everything is right now. I mean, Virginia Beach is is growing. It is growing.

SPEAKER_00: 25:00

You're starting to see um I I think you're starting to see creativity. Definitely, definitely. When I first came here, it was you know, I'm uh my family's from the south, so okay. You you had that southern influence, but now you're starting to see influence from different chefs from from around um the country. Yeah. All right. Um and even some places from different areas around the world as you have the diversities of cultures move in the area. True, true. So I I've seen it grown, leaps and bounds, and I'm very um I kind of those type of things excite me about food and the culinary arts. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 25:45

Anything that you can switch something up, it's always fun. Right.

SPEAKER_00: 25:48

So what do you what have you seen take place around here?

SPEAKER_02: 25:52

Well, I'll I'll be honest with you. I really don't eat out too much. Okay. Um, but uh, but when I do go out, um, you know, there's uh there's a restaurant Eurasia around here. I love going there. You know, they just been there for a while. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. They just got uh Chef Will. Chef Will's been putting some uh some some cool little uh new things out on the menu. Whenever I go there, I always stick with the same thing though. I get the steak and eggs. I don't know if you've ever had it there. No. I'm telling you, it'll make you go through the phone and smack your mama. It is the best steak and eggs I've ever had in my life. Okay, that's that's in Portsmouth, right? No, that's it, that's it. Laskin Road, right? Uh Virginia Beach.

SPEAKER_00: 26:29

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm getting it confused with something.

SPEAKER_02: 26:32

Um, and then um I also like to go to uh I eat comfort food, you know. So I like uh Jesse's tacchiera. Um uh I I like to go into El Jorginho's if I want to do uh something semi-fancy and I want something heavy, you know, their their Italian food. Uh right. Um one of my favorite chefs though that I like to talk about, probably Brett McDaniel from uh Esoteric. You're talking about different types of uh influence and different ingredients and stuff. Uh anybody that's listening on on this show, if you want something really new and fun, go to that restaurant.

SPEAKER_00: 27:11

And I tell people about esoteric all the time. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've had events there. Um, really familiar with them.

SPEAKER_02: 27:17

Their baker uh Heather, she does a really, really good job too. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, so that's where I I I I really don't eat out too much, so I really couldn't tell you too too much. Um Zoe's, I like going there, but um, that's a home run. You know, Chef Polly does a real good job there. Um uh he always has like some cool fun specials and stuff. Okay. Um you know if yeah, I I I that's fine. Yeah, I don't have too much to say on that.

SPEAKER_00: 27:48

That's good. So you came back um from Europe excuse me. Um you went to culinary school at Tidewater. I did, yeah. And Virginia Beach University. That's what I call it. Absolutely. Um so Tiffany inspired you to go get your your your certification, your business license. Yeah, she's yep. And then uh here we are now. So just talk about the just the journey from how's it going now? What type of people are you serving? Uh what type of services do you provide?

SPEAKER_02: 28:29

Yeah, so so um I can do anything from you know casual, semi-casual, you know, family style to uh, you know, a four-course plated fine dine and dinner. Um now I've I'm coming on my fourth year now, so I've kind of gotten a little bit away from like, you know, doing the random spontaneous events where people just hire me for random days. And now I'm kind of getting into like the more personal chef where I've been cooking for uh families and individuals for extended periods of time, you know, either yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 29:07

Without without giving prices, would you consider it something like that expensive or um affordable?

SPEAKER_02: 29:14

I I believe that it's affordable, you know. Um, of course, I wouldn't say that you know uh every single person in the Virginia Beach would, you know, be able to hire me. You know, I wouldn't say that, but um for the for for if you wanted me regularly, it it it does require a little bit of some capital, yes for sure. Um but uh but yeah, I wouldn't say that I'm knocking people over the head. And another thing that comes with that is that you know you're prov you're you're you're paying for a chef to come to your house too, you know. It's not like you're paying, you know, the line cook from I don't know, Golden Corral to come and prepare something, you know. Like you know, then there's a couple other chefs, you know, uh a tailored chef, chef Lynn, who is another private chef who's a really awesome mentor for me. He actually helped me uh when I first started this uh this company. He showed me exactly what he does. So, you know, um we've talked about it too, you know, that you know, we're we're trained chefs that you know this is what we do, you know, and we're not just coming from, you know, like I said, you know, golden corral and just coming into your house. So, you know, you do have to pay for, you know, what we know, our experience, you know. Um and of course, you know, we have our insurance and you know, our cost that it costs us to do things, and you know, at the end of the day, we are coming to your place, so you know, you gotta pay for you gotta pay for that a little bit, you know what I mean? So yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 30:48

Yeah, you talk about you're talking about the being here. Um when did you first realize that you had a passion for cooking? And and what was the I what was the aha moment for you?

SPEAKER_02: 31:02

I knew that I had a passion for cooking the moment that I had my first job. Cooking. Okay, yep, yep. Um uh I've been cooking for my family, my mom, uh friends and stuff before I had even had a job, you know. I was like 13, 14, 15, you know, just doing mac and cheese and you know, I don't know, okay, chicken and stuff.

SPEAKER_00: 31:26

What about it that made you realize that?

SPEAKER_02: 31:30

When I knew that I was gonna enjoy it, when I absolutely knew, without a shadow of a doubt, I got hired at Purple Cow restaurant. It was a burger restaurant right next to Surf and Sand Movie Theater on Laskin Road. Okay. It was a burger and milkshake joint. And uh me and my mom were sitting there and uh we got a burger before we went to go see a movie. And I said, You know, mom, I could probably do this. She said, Well, why don't you? And I said, I th I think I will. I think I will. I think I could work here. So the owner, his name was Steve Hatter, and uh he came over and uh he gave me an application. I got hired on the spot. You know, I was a little 16-year-old kid, of course they were gonna hire me. Um, and uh I was working with uh he was uh a student for Johnson and Wales. His name is uh Kelvin Diaz. And uh he actually works for a um for for one of the uh he works at a nice place around here. I can't remember what it's called, but Kelvin Diaz is the one that made it so much fun for me. He was he he had a chef's jacket on from Johnson and Wales. He had come into work, he he had like these sharp knives, he was cutting stuff, and uh he was dancing around. We had music in the in the back of the kitchen. Um, he was you know ringing the bell, stabbing the tickets, he was calling ever calling stuff out, there was fire going on. Um I was in paradise. I was in absolute paradise. Everywhere I looked, there was food, there was a cutting board in front of me. I had all these ingredients to make this food. He was teaching me, he was passionate, he was making it fun. If it was not for him, I don't know if my career would ever be the same, dude. I used to look forward to it if me and him worked together, man. Because I just looked up to him, man. He was just so cool, man. So cool. That's so awesome. Yeah, I wish I remembered what place he worked at. He works off of Princess Ann Road somewhere, like an old folks home or something like that. Um, a retirement home, sorry. Um, but he is the chef there, yeah, yeah. Awesome dude. I owe it to you, Kevin.

SPEAKER_00: 33:39

Okay, and as at 13. That was I was 16 years old then.

SPEAKER_02: 33:43

Okay. I was 16 years old. Yeah, I remember it. I remember it like it was yesterday. Wow.

SPEAKER_00: 33:48

Yep. Yep. And then uh where did you how did you move along to where you are now? Did you start working any other?

SPEAKER_02: 33:56

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, I worked at a couple, uh, I worked at a uh uh beach pub um when uh when that was down at the ocean front. Um I worked under uh chef Eric Amer at Mahima's when I was in culinary school. Um that was impactful. Yeah, yeah, that was uh that was really, really, really fun. Um I worked at uh the Weston Hotel. Um I was working under under Chef Nigel, and actually Chef Lynn was my Sioux chef there, who I just spoke about, who also has a private chef uh company. I worked under him, definitely one of the most imp impactful chefs that I worked under as well. I remember one day uh I was talking with Chef Lynn. We didn't even really know each other, and uh I had asked him a question about something. He said, you know, gave me an answer. And he said, Well, come here, listen, you know, don't ever be afraid to ask me anything. He said, if I don't know the answer, we'll both find out. And I just remember looking at him, he had his big old tall hat on, and I was just like, that was just so inspirational that you know, because Chef Nigel was kind of mean, and the Sioux chef, Lynn, he was just like, Hey man, you know, I got you, we'll figure it out together. I was like, that was really nice and impactful. Um, but when I was uh working corporate at the last job before I went moved moved to Europe, uh I was at Captain George's seafood restaurant. Yep, that's where I was. And um that was uh that was a really, really cool spot. I worked from from a line cook all the way to the corporate chef, and uh over the course of I think it was like 10, 12, 13 years or something like that. Um but yeah, that was an awesome place until you know, like I said, you know, I kind of just I got to the top and there's no more growing, you know. So that's when I had to dip out, you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 35:47

Yeah. So tell us how we can find you.

SPEAKER_02: 35:51

You can find me um on Google, you know, you can look up uh Entreneu, uh private chef service. Uh you can also look up uh on Instagram, um entrepreneu VB. Um and then there's also Facebook under Entrenew. Um and then if you want to, you know, look me up, you know, you'll just type in Chef Jeremiah Cardinal and I'll come up there. You know, I'm looking all fancy in my jacket and all, you know, okay GQ-ish.

SPEAKER_00: 36:20

Okay. And um you are available for what now? Because you said you were trying to limit what you were doing. I'm not trying to limit anything.

SPEAKER_02: 36:30

Okay, you know, I I don't have any limits, but just right now, the way that um this journey is taking me is I'm kind of getting more into the personal client base. Gotcha. You know, like uh, so you know, for example, I have one family that I've been working for uh for a few months now, doing three days a week. And then, you know, I also have a couple clients where I do pre-prep meals for them uh for the weeks. And uh yeah, so I'm kind of getting more into like the personal, and of course it's winter time, so uh, you know, as summertime comes up. You have the holidays coming up.

SPEAKER_00: 37:05

Will you do holiday events?

SPEAKER_02: 37:07

Yeah, so for holidays, um, I only do drop-off service. Um, so you know, you can uh go on my website or you can call me up and um request for uh drop-off service. I have a menu that I have for a um uh certain price. Um right now I have a meal for four to six, it's 250 bucks, and you get, I don't know, like three sides of salad, rolls, dessert, and some other kind of thing. I don't know. Um, and delivery. Um so I do that for uh for the holidays so that way I don't have to stay at one spot, you know what I mean? Yeah, um, so yeah, yeah. Um I do drop off service for the holidays, which is really, really cool. It's fun, you know. Yeah, it takes a lot of load off of uh of others as well, having somebody else in the kitchen, you got kids running around and stuff. I can just kind of drop it off and then you you know kind of just you know let everybody hit it and yeah. A little bit more casual, easy, right?

SPEAKER_00: 38:03

Yeah, right. Okay, thanks, chef. Yeah, man, thank you for coming in. So uh Chef Jeremiah Cardinal with Entra New. Yep. And um you can find him on you can Google him, YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram, and IG. Yeah. So thanks for coming in and talking with us. Yeah, I appreciate you having it sharing the experience.

SPEAKER_02: 38:26

Yes, it's been very pleasant.

SPEAKER_00: 38:28

Yes, I hope to do it again. Oh well, we can. Hey, I'm down. We you can break some samples and we can uh we we I will make sure that we do that for next time for sure. For sure. Yeah, right. Thank you. There we have it, everybody. Um, catch you next time on Listen Up. If you enjoyed today's episode, I'm gonna ask you to click on the links below. Follow, subscribe, become part of the conversation. And remember, listen up.