Confessions Beyond the Food
Confessions Beyond the Food is a podcast about working in the Food Industry. People who work in the Food Industry have grit and lots of stories to tell. W3 Sales, a sales & marketing company, will host this podcast with their confessions on how they have a new, fresh approach and invite guests to confess their secrets to their sauce.
Confessions Beyond the Food
How to Open a Restaurant with Bradford Thompson
Join us as we sit down with the extraordinary Chef Bradford Thompson, a James Beard Award-winning chef, culinary consultant, and CEO of Bellyful Hospitality. Born and bred in New York City, Chef Bradford shares his experiences of raising a family in the heart of Harlem, where his kids have grown up with a love for cooking and an appreciation for the art of dining. From the bustling streets of NYC to opening over 40 restaurants across the country, Chef Bradford reveals the challenges and rewards of the culinary world.
In this episode, Chef Bradford and Nancy explore what it truly takes to launch a successful restaurant, offering insights from every angle of the industry. Learn how to appreciate the art of service and go beyond being just a critic.
Whether you're a foodie, aspiring chef, or simply curious about the behind-the-scenes of restaurant life, this conversation is packed with insights and stories that showcase the true spirit of resilience and creativity.
Welcome to Confessions Beyond the Food. I'm your host, nancy Redland. Let's dig in and get inspired, okay, so welcome back to Confessions Beyond the Food. Today I have a James Beard chef. He's a consultant and he is a CEO of Bellyful Hospitality. That's right, so welcome.
Speaker 2:Jeff Bradford. Thank you, it's nice to be here.
Speaker 1:Oh, so where are you joining us from?
Speaker 2:Hot-ass Dallas Texas.
Speaker 1:Awesome, where are you from?
Speaker 2:I'm from New York.
Speaker 1:New York yes, in proper New York City, in New York.
Speaker 2:City. Yes, okay, and I'm here in Texas for a couple of clients. I get down here like once a month, so it's so nice to come down here in July and August. It's so refreshing.
Speaker 1:It is refreshing.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But I heard it's like really, really hot in New York City. It is.
Speaker 2:It's hot, human hot, but this is different. It's a different kind of heat.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's really hot, so, anyway. So New York City. So how long have you lived there? Just out of curiosity.
Speaker 2:I've been there on and off for 25, 26 years. That's awesome. Yeah, quite a long time yeah.
Speaker 1:So I mean how is it? I mean, you have family, right you?
Speaker 2:have kids.
Speaker 1:So how is it like raising kids in the city?
Speaker 2:We love it, I mean, and we meaning my wife and our kids both. My wife, you know, has lived in New York most of her life, um, in different parts of New York, but our kids are both born in Harlem and grown up in New York and they love traveling but they always love going. They still love going back home. Um, you know, they love everything New York has to offer, the challenges, the craziness, but you know, the museums, the eating out, the different neighborhoods, they just they love it. And you know, we all, you know, I like to say, we use the city, we go out, we go to different boroughs, we eat everywhere, we visit museums, use the parks, all that kind of stuff. So it's a great place to live. I mean, it's not easy, I'll be honest with you, it's not for everybody, but luckily, you know, my wife and I love it and luckily, our kids do now too. So every time we go away, they enjoy traveling and they always go. I'm ready to go home, or I'm glad to be back home.
Speaker 2:They like where we live, so that's awesome.
Speaker 1:So are they interested in cooking Very much?
Speaker 2:Yeah, they've been cooking each since they were, I mean, two, three years old. I've always kind of had them in the kitchen with me and they've both taken to it. My daughter's taken a lot more to baking, but they both cook. My son does more cooking than baking. He knows how to make proper cocktails. He's quite. They're both quite the host when people come over. You know they're making tea and infusing it and offering all kinds of stuff. But yeah, my daughter bakes almost nightly and it's beautiful.
Speaker 2:But the frustrating thing is that she's on Instagram or TikTok. But the frustrating thing is that she's on Instagram or Tik TOK and I have hundreds and hundreds of cookbooks and her, her godfather's a pastry chef. Her other godfather is a chef who has a couple of restaurants. I have all these books and everything and she just she goes online and finds things and she cooks without recipes, like she's. She's mastered a chocolate chip cookie. It's as good as any I've ever had. And I asked she doesn't have a recipe, it's in her head. She knows the technique and I'm like well, can we write it down? I always thought I'd have to write down so she could make my recipes. And here I am like, can you write it down so I can make it. So it's fun to watch that, like how they interact with food.
Speaker 2:And this generation is just obsessed with food. You know social media, like everybody, anybody who's on social media follows at least a handful of food accounts. And you know it's this weird voyeurism where people like watching food be made or you know dishes with a twist or that look a certain kind of way. But her, their generation, all her friends, like they know ingredients, they know the cool restaurants. How do you guys know all this? And it's you know it's mostly social media, but they're they're very educated in terms of what they've eaten, where they've been, especially you know kids in the city where they go for their birthdays.
Speaker 2:It's it's kind of it's cool and it's also it's just it's kind of hard to process sometimes, like how do you know so much at 14 or 12 years old and you're telling me where you want to go for dinner or what kind of food you want to eat today? And it's like I at that age I couldn't even. You know, I didn't know from meatloaf and mashed potatoes. That was like. You know, I didn't know all these Thai and Southeast Asian flavors and dishes and they're like rattling stuff off. So it's it's fun. It's really fun to go out to eat with them.
Speaker 1:Well, you train them.
Speaker 2:well, I mean, you're out and about around the country. You cook for everyone, so you go home and you're like okay, kids, yeah, and they hear the stories of kitchen life 20 years ago, when it was different than it is now. So they think that's very entertaining also.
Speaker 1:Oh well, that's a whole other podcast.
Speaker 2:Yeah, think that's very entertaining also. Oh well, that's a whole nother podcast. Yeah, it really is. They've. They've probably heard more stories than they should have at this point.
Speaker 2:But I remember when they were little um, I mean they were five or six or whatever and I was I was upset with them at something. I wasn't really yelling at them, but they're like, oh, you're yelling at us, you're always yelling at us. I'm like I've never compared to how I was as a chef, never compared to how I was as a chef, like I've never yelled at you. I've never raised my voice like that and like, no, you're yelling at us. I said you know what, let's do something. And I called a friend of mine who used to work for me and I was, and I just handed the phone. I said can you explain to them what daddy yelling is like? And so he started telling them stories. They're like, oh my God. So that was kind of funny.
Speaker 2:But yeah, they know all sides of the restaurant business. But it's made them really great diners when we go out to eat. They really they appreciate good service. You know my daughter likes to see the kitchen or you know she'll say do we know anybody here? Can we go say hi to the chef. So they've experienced that. So it's great. It's not just like serve me and I'm going to eat this food. They really understand what it takes to create that experience and they've seen it, you know, from both sides. So it's really nice to know that they'll be able to influence their friends in a way. And you know, tip well and be polite to your staff and all those kinds of things.
Speaker 1:And to serve others. I mean I think that's something that every child you know in their teenage years or college years. You should wait tables or work or wash dishes or wash dishes you should serve others and um, it's a great way to learn. You know what it takes like it really is patience and yes yeah so um that not many people have these days no, it's true like yelp. They're all like Yelp reviewers.
Speaker 2:Right yeah, everybody's a critic.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so well, today we're going to kind of talk about kind of what it takes to start up a restaurant, because you've done a couple of those.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm up to 40 something now 40?. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Wow. So what was your? I mean, what was the first one like that you did? I'm just curious.
Speaker 2:Well, my, it's interesting, my whole career, or the important stages of my career, have kind of been accidents. I I started cooking um. I was in college, finishing up, and I was working at a Tony Roma's um, like washing dishes and prepping, and it was kind of a a job. It was either that or start coaching and like be a graduate assistant. Both made no money. You know, I had just finished playing football. I love football. I thought that's what I wanted to do and I said, well, if I work in this restaurant, the pay is the same, the hours are the same, I don't have to wear a suit and I get free food. So I said, let me try this out and I did it.
Speaker 2:I was there for like six months and taking classes and the guy on the grill this guy his nickname was Skates and like really fast, talked a lot, but you know, real great personality, very outgoing. He worked the grill and he was really good. And we were in service one night and I was in the back. I was like peeling potatoes or making apple pies or something, and like three police officers walk in the kitchen, they handcuff him, they take him out the back door like he had violated parole or something. And this is in the middle like you couldn't make it up right and in the middle of service and the manager's like, come here, come here, brad, come here. And he hands me these tongs. He's like, do you want to work over here? And I was like, yeah, sure, why not? This seems like fun. And you know, it was a raise in pay and I was on the line with the cool guys. I was like, yeah, sure, I'll do this. And that's that was kind of where it started. And you know, like again, it wasn't involved cooking, but it was.
Speaker 2:There was a process to follow and I remember the guy who used to work next to me, this guy, luis. He always had the good weed, he was like quiet, he had like three jobs and he was the guy everybody kind of learned from. And I worked for like a week or two next to him and he started grabbing his camera and he would make food for himself during the night and no one knew. But he would like take the marinated chicken we're supposed to be for the barbecue chicken and he would like toss it in cornstarch and he would like get some soy sauce and starch and he would like get some soy sauce and he would do like stir fry chicken. I'm like where's this food coming from? And he was just making it on a station to eat because he would just eat during the night, and so he showed me how to make stir fry chicken. I still remember, um, ironically, at Tony Roma's that's where I learned how to make like it was like a general so style chicken and he marinated it in pineapple juice and dredged it in cornstarch, threw it in the fryer and like did this whole thing? I was like, wow, that's cool. So it's like I started seeing, like what you could do with food. You know, outside of the here's. Here's. The formula of Tony Rome is what you do. Um, and that's when I started getting interested and that was kind of how I started cooking. So, um, and then fast forward.
Speaker 2:I was at um Leverhaus in 2008 before the big crash, and Lehman Brothers was across the street in Midtown and it was like our biggest lunch client and the day Lehman Brothers went down, we went in for lunch. The next day there was three people in the dining room. I was like, wow, this is, this isn't going to end well, and within a month the owner sort of sold the business and told us at the last minute it's like I'm going to close and just tell them we're taking a break and it's over. So I was at a point in my life I was about to turn 40. We just found out my wife was pregnant and they closed the restaurant. And I was like, wow, this can be a defining moment or, you know, a disaster. And I just didn't really know what I was going to do. I just didn't feel like taking another job. I knew that that was like you know, all my friends are like oh my God, where are you going to work? What are you going to do? And I was like I don't know if I want to take another, like this is false sense of security with a job.
Speaker 2:And I got a call from a friend, Terrence Brennan, who had Picholine and Artisanal at the time and he had just taken over a space. And he calls me up and I was literally cleaning my desk out. He calls me up. He's like, hey, I'm really sorry to hear about Leverhaus, what are you doing? I'm like I'm cleaning my desk out. He said can you meet me downtown tomorrow? I said sure, so I go down to meet him and we meet in this restaurant and we sit down and we like have coffee. And he's like so I'm taking this place over on Monday and I need help and I could use your help. I'm like, okay, I don't know what that means, but sure, and I knew him, but we had never worked together.
Speaker 2:And so I show up on Monday and he hands me a piece of paper. He goes here, you go, and I'm like, okay, that's cool, I go, that looks like a nice menu. He goes, yeah, he goes. I don't know anybody here. So fire whoever you want. Let's start pre open by Thursday for the Tribeca Film Festival. I was like, what the hell are you talking about? Like I and I'm standing there and he's like I'll be back in a couple hours. So somehow in a week, in less than a week, we we turned over the products, we cleaned the storeroom, we started figuring these recipes out. We ended up firing like three or four people.
Speaker 2:He sent a couple of people to help and I helped him open this restaurant and spent like four or five months with them and I was like, wow, this is really. This was cool. Like, this was like you talk about SWAT team. This was just figure it out, take. And then what I learned in that process everything I knew besides cooking, being around restaurants and openings, how to organize, how to delegate, how to figure shit out on the fly. It was like, wow, this is, this is kind of fun, this is a rush. And then he didn't need me anymore and like so it was. It was kind of that yo-yo of like this is really intense. And then it's like, okay, we're good, I'm not going to pay a consultant anymore, I'm got my staff. And then someone on that job referred me to somebody and I, over the course of you know 10, 11 years doing this, I've I've done 40 something openings, now all by word of mouth, being referred by a contractor, a kitchen designer or another chef or whatever it might be. So, yeah, and I've, in the process, have kind of found this niche of mostly new restaurants.
Speaker 2:I don't love doing the Gordon Ramsay come in and fix the broken restaurant because it makes great TV, but it's super stressful and it doesn't stick. There's always oh, that's not how we used to do it, or my cousin's the owner and I'm going to do what I want to do. So I've found a way to come in to new restaurants very early on way before they hire a chef, and be that voice of the chef. Take the designers and the architects and make sure they're building something that's operational, keeping the owner focused and clarifying their concept. Bringing in the team I work with the branding people, the wine people, the service trainers and really keep the restaurant on concept, make sure it's the right kitchen and then develop the menu for them and then do the training and maintenance going forward. So it's nice because I'm always at a different phase of that process with various people. So there's days I'm in the kitchen for a period of time. There's days I'm meeting with designers, working construction sites, making sure things are installed properly. So it's really a fun process.
Speaker 1:So do you still get that rush every time? Yeah, every time, because you can't.
Speaker 2:Everyone is different. And there's like one of my confessions, I guess I would say because there's probably many but I still miss that feeling, that five minutes before service, when there's an espresso in your hand and it's a full reservation book and you're standing there and the pass is clean, and it's just like that anything can happen moment and you feel as prepared as you can be and then within an hour, something's happening you weren't prepared for and I just to me. That's what I always loved so much is how quickly can we figure it out? Or how quickly can we dig out of being in the weeds? How quickly can we figure it out, or how quickly can we dig out of being in the weeds? Or you know, how quickly is a cook going to go down and need help? Or tell you they were prepared and they weren't prepared, like it's just to me. It's like kind of reading people at that time and seeing that person is going to be in trouble, I can tell. Or this crew is ready. Like it's just, there's an energy to it that you can't replicate and it's exhausting and it's really stressful, but there's nothing, there's nothing like it and it was just.
Speaker 2:I just always remember that that couple minutes before service, you know, like the stainless steel is perfectly clean and everything's lined up and the napkins are all folded and and you know, and the, like I said I I used to have the the when I was at the Phoenician, like the coffee guy knew at like 4.52 to have an espresso for me on the pass and just like everybody was ready and within an hour somebody was just falling apart. It's the best, it's like the best feeling. And then you know, at the end of the night, that feeling at the end of service, like your feet are tired. You know I was working the pass tired. You know I was working the past, my voice was hoarse, you're hungry, whatever, but it's like so rewarding to know that like 180 or 250 people had an amazing time or you made their anniversary or their birthday or whatever it is. It's nothing like it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, wow, I love how you describe that, like the experience that you provide someone.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and a lot of cooks don't realize that, like it wasn't until I was a chef and you know the way. Hey, chef, can you say hi to this table? Can you go to this table? And you go in the dining room and, like, you leave, leaving the dining, leaving the kitchen for the dining room, goes in the dining room and then it's music and dim. You know candlelight and soft lighting and the buzz and all that. And you go from this bright, hot environment, you know, with a bright light, everyone's yelling and everyone's on edge. And you go outside and then it's like this calm, this dim of the dining room, and you go out there and like, and you walk by in a chef coat and you could be a dishwasher. But if you're in a chef coat, everyone's like what's the chef? What's going on? Who's he going to see, who does he know?
Speaker 2:And there's a power to that, you know. But there's also there's a responsibility when you see that in people's eyes, like you know, the Phoenician was a good example because it was so expensive, like we knew that this person might've been waiting all year for this birthday celebration. Like they're not eating here once a week or once a month. So there's an incredible amount of pressure when somebody's trusting you with, like I'm celebrating my birthday or my anniversary or whatever life event, they're putting it in your hands to make sure that they have an amazing time, and you know.
Speaker 2:So. That's why when you, you know, when you go in the dining room, when you see that you come back in the kitchen and it's like stop for a second. Just imagine like your whole paycheck being spent for this meal tonight. You're plating their lamb and this meal cost which is also the screwed up thing about restaurants but this meal might cost what your paycheck is. So when you start putting it in perspective, like, yeah, let me take a second and make sure it's cooked perfectly, so yeah, there's a joy to that, though, Do you see like a common thread between chefs that have that kind of I mean responsibility and I'm relating to their success?
Speaker 1:Is that something that is instilled in every chef or no, I think it's a process.
Speaker 2:I think I mean, obviously people are different, but I think, as you come up, I came up in a different time also. I came up in a time where, like, shut up and do what you're told and hopefully you'll learn and take notes, and you weren't allowed to really question this generation and it's funny because it's changed me as a person but this generation now you got to tell them why and not that that's a bad like you really should have been that way. Um, but there was a sort of a process where you're not even a cook, you're just prepping until they allow you to go near the stove and then you're cooking and you're getting yelled at and just do what I say do my menu, do my menu. Then you become a sous chef and maybe you're doing the ordering and you're you're having menu discussions with the team and then you become a chef and you realize, well, I'm not cooking anymore, team. And then you become a chef and you realize, well, I'm not cooking anymore, I'm managing people, I'm managing costs, I'm trying to put creative seeds in people's heads to develop, because I don't have time, because I'm in meetings or all the obligations. So it's an evolutionary process that happens.
Speaker 2:And so when you get to that point you kind of have a choice to say, okay, I got screamed and yelled at, this is going to be my style.
Speaker 2:Or you say I'm going to learn those lessons, but I can do it in a different way because I want to. That's not the environment I want, and you make those choices in any career. You make those choices as you advance of who do I want to be, what kind of environment do I want to foster, and you see the results pretty soon. So if you become a screamer and a yeller, you know your kitchen's on edge and I'm not going to lie, I had that in me in the beginning. And then you realize, like, let me be a teacher and just share everything I know and get their ideas and be a better team and come up with things as a group. And then you feel, once you feel that environment being developed, then you attract people that want to be in that environment and then you attract creativity and then your dishes evolve and then you just you become this place where you don't want to leave.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and everyone is invested for the common purpose. Yeah and good. I've noticed a huge change, like in the last 20 years.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:From on the vendor side. You know it's a sale yeah, because I mean I used to get called and screamed at like crazy and my friends would be like is that really happening? I'm like yes that's that's. That's part of my job, and yeah, and so, but over time it's just so interesting how much more empathetic you know um the chefs are and and I don't know if there's more training on that just how to manage people, because I've always wondered like, did they have like, because I don't think chefs go into it knowing no or in the early days that you're gonna manage people that you you know you don't realize that yeah
Speaker 2:and they don't teach you that in culinary school?
Speaker 1:so I mean, I don't think.
Speaker 2:I don't think so. No, I think, don't teach you that in culinary school. Still, even in the state, I don't think so. No, I think it's on you to, like you, make those choices as a cook, where do I want to work? What skills do I want to acquire, you know? Do I want names on my resume? Do I want to learn technique? Do I just want to plow through? So you sort of make those choices and you begin editing your career as you go. But I think you reach a point if you want to be a chef, once you're in charge of people, you know, whatever you think you were going to do it's.
Speaker 2:I kind of equate it to having children, like when I'm, my kid's not going to be on an iPad, I'm not going to do this. And then, like, then it happens and you're like oh my God, now I know why my chef was like he was. Or now I know why the kitchen operates this way. So you know, you. You may start out like being a hard ass and have to soften, or you may start out trying to appease everybody, which you can't, and you stick to. This is who I am and I always kind of take it back because you know you're going to encounter a lot of egos still in this business and, like when you have that situation where, like, a sous chef won't budge or somebody gets stuck on a dish or whatever it is like, you have to really understand that it's not me, like even if I'm the chef, the chef owner, it's not me. This is the way I want it done. It's this is the way this restaurant does it.
Speaker 2:So you know you come across that with certain dishes that are, you know, quote unquote authentic. Or you know people like this is not how you do carbonara, this is how you do it. Well, that's fine if you live in this region, but in this restaurant, you know these dishes work through a filter of the people cooking the food, the people contributing the guests, what their expectation is, the ingredients you have available, and then this becomes your version of that dish. So you know this is X restaurant, the style we do carbonara. This is what it is and it may not be authentic to what you know if you lived in Italy or your family did this growing up. But what's important is it's done this way in this restaurant and it's done consistently, and then that's the expectation. When I go here. I don't order carbonara because they don't do it the way I like it. That's fine, but you know what you're going to get and that the consistency part is important Knowing who you are and then being able to do the same thing over and over again.
Speaker 2:And that's why it's hard as a cook or a sous chef. You go into a new restaurant with all these ideas and you really have to take the time to learn. Like, what is this restaurant? Why do they do things the way they do? And that's as a chef. When I would take over a restaurant as a chef, take a new job and like, all right, you're the chef here now.
Speaker 2:Instead of coming in and saying, all right, these are all the things I want to do, you've got to kind of listen and say why do you do this? Why do you make the burger this way? Why is the salad station here? What is the thought process? Why did this develop this way? And then, when you learn it, okay, that makes sense. I disagree, or that makes sense, we'll leave it alone. And then you go in and you start to put your touches on it, but to come in just shooting it up and then figuring it out. It's like you know you haven't taken the time to learn why they got where they are. You know because a lot of times there's reasons those things happen.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that's true in lots of different, you know careers. It's like when you come into a new position, understand it, sit back, watch and listen. It's hard, it's hard to do.
Speaker 2:You want to make your mark. You know you want to. And especially, you know the pressure, like if you're, if you're a chef taking over a restaurant, like within a week or two it's in the newspaper So-and-so took over this spot and people start coming up what's his food, what's his menu? Like he's been here for a week, like let them settle. And you know it takes months, weeks, a couple months, to get sort of comfortable and know like and first of all, can I keep the staff? You know most of the time no, most of the time it's like you're all great cooks, you all did a great job here. I'm sure you know we appreciate what you did, but you guys got to go. I'm bringing my team in Because you're going to get stuck with. That's not the way we used to do it. Or I don't like that dish, I don't like your style, like it's almost better to just come in and say thank you everybody.
Speaker 2:So yeah, change can be hard, but it's often really good you know you always look back and say, well, that was good, I needed that, but it's hard yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you have to take that leap of faith.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So I guess, like being a chef is one thing, and coming in and owning the kitchen. But, being an actual chef and owner. That's a whole different ball of flats because you're paying the bills.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a whole different ball of wax. Because you're paying the bills. Yeah, no, and I tell people that you know I've worked with chefs to help them open restaurants and say, well, I'm going to be the chef and the owner and whatever, I'm like you're short changing one or the other, because to truly be an owner, you can't I mean you can be involved, but you have to be hands off. You have to have like, because you're going to get pulled in directions. You can't you have. I mean you can be involved, but you have to be hands off. You have to have like, because you're going to get pulled in directions. You can't imagine so if you're the owner and you've got to go to an investor meeting or the bank or fix a water here, whatever it is, and you're like oh, I'm the chef also, well, now, who's doing the ordering and who's teaching the cooks, if you're out for a day or two or you have an obligation. So I always tell people you know, when you open, if you're an owner and you're opening, never put yourself on the schedule, never put yourself in a position of reliance for the staff. Have a chef, have a GM, be the owner and let the people all do their roles.
Speaker 2:Now, if you're an owner and you want to cook a couple days a week or you want to work in a, okay, that's different, very.
Speaker 2:You know, I work for daniel balut and he's otherworldly when it comes to being able to do many things well and and have the, the brain that understands the cost and the operations of a restaurant and the creativity and the guest experience and the managing the cooks.
Speaker 2:Not a lot of people can do all those things and even if you can, you know daniel's the owner, but he's got a CEO and a CFO and marketing people and all those things. So he chooses to be in the kitchen all the time and and as an owner and, like I said, very few people can do that, but he does that because he has an incredible support staff. If it's as a mom and pop or a smaller restaurant or a first-time owner, like I'm going to be the owner and I'll be in the kitchen, yeah, you probably can do it, but you're going to cheat one of those areas, something. You're not going to do something well and it's not fair to you or the team to not allow everybody to grow into the roles and let the restaurant develop. So that's the way I look at it.
Speaker 2:I need that advice all the time I've encountered that as a business owner. Now, you know, I have a handful of people that work with me, but I don't have a full-time staff. I have people that work with me and I do this, but I end up doing owner stuff and I still love being in the kitchen. So I'm doing recipe development. So, you know, should I be in the kitchen all the time doing development? I mean, that's kind of what they're paying for, you know, for me to be in the kitchen doing that, but I should have someone with me doing the clerical stuff. Then, you know, keep writing the recipes, taking photos, and sometimes I do.
Speaker 2:But, you know, as a business owner, I feel that kind of pull. So as I give people this advice, I'm like I should listen to my own advice sometimes. But it's tricky when you're managing and launching and trying to do your strengths well and manage what makes sense to delegate, and the cost is always worth it to delegate the things that are of less value to your time. So it's a tricky thing to figure out though.
Speaker 1:Yeah, when you figure it out like 100,. Will you let me know, because I'm trying to figure that out myself. So to try to put down the bag and manage the business. And I'm thankful that we have such a talented team and they're amazing at what they do and they've been empowered to live out their skills. So, um, I'm curious what do you like to do for fun outside of?
Speaker 2:I, you're not going to believe me, I cook for fun. I love cooking with my kids, I like cooking at home is relaxing because there's there's there used to be no pressure. My kids have educated palates and opinions now, so I'll cook and I don't like that. I'm making something else. But for the most part, like cooking at home to me is fun and relaxing. And, um, I love traveling. You know, I'm. I'm very fortunate that two of the things I love to do are cooking and traveling, and I get to do it as part of my job. Um, and you know I love, I love traveling with my kids. Now, being able to see things sort of through, you know, when they go somewhere for the first time, seeing through their eyes and and sharing that experience is a lot of fun for me. What else do I do? I don't know. My work is fun. To be honest with you, I'm I'm. I'm lucky when I'm home, I'm.
Speaker 2:You know, I like to be with my kids a lot, whether it's being involved in their sports or their activities. My daughter and I go pretty regularly. We go to a pottery place where you can paint pottery. They have the raw stuff and you paint. So we go there at least once a month. We'll go in there and that's just that's our kind of time together and we'll sit and paint. And it requires a lot of patience. It's, you know, really small kind of lines sometimes, so it's a little bit sort of tedious, but it's. It's a really fun way to just be together and you know, sometimes we talk, sometimes we don't, but just being together and like being creative and I and I um kind of encouraging that creativity from you know for my kids to have those outlets. My son loves to draw, you know he draws, he does legos, they they're both have a lot of creative outlets, so I like to kind of participate in that with them that's amazing.
Speaker 1:I mean that you're able to spend that time with your kids, have those conversations. I've heard that that's like as a I've got kids, you know, yeah, I mean you have kids, you know to.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's not even a conversation sometimes, it's just like sometimes something will come out, but it's like I don't want to put it just like but just sit, and if she has things to share, share them. And you know, when you don't pressure them, you know they get in the car after school like how's school today? It's fine. That never works well, but when you go and do something that's like disarming and you're just there and, like you know, she'll say stuff. Sometimes I'm like wow, where'd that come from? Um, and and you just kind of roll with it. So it's yeah, it's fun.
Speaker 1:That's amazing because I'm sure it's challenging being a traveling, you know traveling for your business and then creating that quality time with your yeah, so it sounds like you're doing a great job with that so well. Thank you so much for joining us today. So do you have any other confessions?
Speaker 2:Oh, my confession, my goodness, I don't know. I think what maybe something a lot of people don't know about me is how into yoga I am.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's a great confession.
Speaker 2:I found it about. I don't know. 15 years ago I had a cook actually who told me hey, chef, why don't you come to yoga with me? I was like okay, and I went with him and I hated it and then I didn't go back for a little while and then I had back issues and you know, counters and kitchens are made for people that are 5'9", 5'8", 5'9" probably, and you know, being 6, two, I'm like bent over a lot. So you know working the line, you know picking up saute pans and being hunched over like your posture is terrible.
Speaker 2:Your eating habits are terrible, your sleep is like everything about it, it's like if you're not aware of how bad it is for you, and I just kind of felt like I did it a couple of times. I'm like you know what, I feel a little bit better. I felt like I was standing straighter and it was funny because in the beginning it was just physical. It was like I feel stretched and straighter and like this is probably good. And then eventually I started feeling like the calming effect of that you know it's a moving meditation, so like leaving yoga and feeling like, okay, I got my exercise. But also I felt like, okay, I feel a little calmer right now, like I can take a little bit more um, you know, less anxiety or whatever it was. And it was like I started understanding both sides of it and it took a while and you know it's funny. Now I do it and I and I do it pretty. I'm actually looking into um doing teacher training, because I I'd like to teach, just because of what it's done for me in terms of, like, my health and the way I approach working so much and that balance it's created. And it's not something that it's a lot of restaurant people you know there are people that do it cooks or servers to be able to have a class that really focuses on, like the muscle group that you're using in your work life to kind of counterbalance that and have that approach. And you know it's just once you start doing it you know, all right, I'm not going to go drinking every night. Maybe I'm going to go a couple nights now because I want to get up and do a class tomorrow, or I'm going to go in the afternoon.
Speaker 2:So gradually it sort of starts changing your mindset of finding the balance in life that we just tend to as restaurant people. We just go overboard with everything, like if there's food on the table, we're eating it all. If there's drinks, yeah, drinks till the last call. You know, if there's a party to go to, party to the end. It's just so hardcore. So when you start recognizing it and saying, okay, maybe I need to pull back a little bit and find, you know, do it. You know I'm never going to not eat, that's, my whole life is around food. But I want to be able to eat as I wish. So I need to find balance somewhere else sleep better, drink less, exercise, whatever it is, so that I can continue to, you know, pursue that passion line. So that's yeah, that's something that not a lot of people expect. You know when they.
Speaker 1:I was not expecting that, so favorite pose.
Speaker 2:Favorite pose.
Speaker 1:Yoga pose.
Speaker 2:Wow, handstand. I've finally been able to get a handstand. Oh, come on.
Speaker 1:We should do one, I'll do one. Well, I can't, I can't today.
Speaker 2:Yeah, probably not a good idea.
Speaker 1:Yeah, probably not a good idea probably not a good idea.
Speaker 2:All right, yeah, yeah we can do it.
Speaker 1:That's awesome Vinyasa, like hot yam.
Speaker 2:Hot vinyasa yes, yeah.
Speaker 1:Good, well, that's awesome. Well, thank you so much for joining us today it was fun. I'm going to ask you to come back again.
Speaker 2:Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 1:You're a fascinating person.
Speaker 2:You'll have to come. Giants practice last week and I have a friend that works for the team so I said we're coming out, my daughter can't make it, but she'd love to make you something. And she's like, yeah, whatever, whatever she wants to make. So she made chocolate chip cookies and she gave them to me and she goes give them to Miss Ashley, but they have to be for the team. I'm like there's a hundred guys on the team, they're not. She's like I want the players to eat them. I'm like all right.
Speaker 2:So I gave them to my friend and I said can you take these in the meeting room with a defensive lineman or whoever Can you take it in? She really wants to make sure they eat them. So they eat them. So she called me that night. She's, like you know, two of the defensive linemen like those are the best chocolate chip cookies they ever had. Where can they get them? So I told my daughter. I said, be careful, you may be baking for them during the season now.
Speaker 1:So that was pretty cool. That's awesome. I want her on my team, so she's awesome.
Speaker 2:I'm lucky to have her on my team, that's amazing.
Speaker 1:Well, thank you so much.
Speaker 2:Thank you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, thanks for joining us today.
Speaker 2:We'll see you soon, yeah on Confessions Beyond the Food.
Speaker 1:For more inspiration, follow our social media at W3Sales. Please like, comment and subscribe. You know all the things.
Speaker 2:We would love to connect with you. You and I come from different worlds. Go-go dancers to me are like in between strip clubs and nightclubs. You live my dream.
Speaker 1:Yes. Because when I graduated college, it was like that it had just come out like the shadow box dancers and I was like I really want to be a shadow box dancer, but it's too late because I had a job. So I was like I missed it.
Speaker 2:It's a very slippery slope, Because the next thing you know you're full on strip club and then the money's too good and then you're like, oh, I'm just doing it to pay for a bill. And then you live the lifestyle.
Speaker 1:See, I don't want anyone to touch me Like. That's why I love like. I love going to dance and like and like. Nope, I just want to dance on the highest platform by myself. I don't want anyone to touch me. Alex, if you heard that, you can include that in the podcast, right?