Houston chef's taco empire; how to stand out, why consistency and keeping it real beats trends!

A jet-black rose ravioli, a purple “lean” sauce with Houston swagger, and a taco journey that started outside a mechanic shop—this conversation cooks. 

We sat down at World Food Championships with Chef Machete, a Houston chef-owner who blends flavor, hip-hop culture, and sharp business instincts to stand out when the supply chain tries to make everyone the same. From candles and drama on the competition stage to tight prep and tighter margins back home, he shows how story and craft can turn a crowded category into your lane.

We get honest about the state of the industry: vendor consolidation pushing independents toward sameness, rising food costs that challenge every menu decision, and third-party delivery fees that quietly punish both operators and guests. Machete explains why he skips the big-box route to source directly from producers, how menu engineering protects quality, and where to draw a line with delivery apps to keep dine-in value intact. His pandemic pivot - The Taco Emergency, a late-night taco lifeline, shows the grit behind the brand and the speed required to survive shocks.

Culture ties it together. From Houston screw tapes to custom grills for his staff and an open kitchen where the machete is both tool and theater, he turns authenticity into marketing without feeling like marketing. We talk about team-building that allows owners to travel, collaborate, and learn, the discipline to cut toxic hires within 90 days, and the mindset to close locations that don’t fit before they drag the brand down. 

Rapid-fire questions reveal the craft beneath the show: herb prep done right, live-fire respect, leadership on the pass, and a love for visuals that move people to taste.

If you’re a chef, operator, or food-obsessed fan, you’ll leave with practical ideas on creativity under constraint, pricing strategy, vendor choices, and social storytelling that actually resonates. Hit follow, share this with a friend who loves bold food and bolder moves, and drop a review to tell us your wildest late-night taco order.

Follow Chef Machete at https://www.instagram.com/real_chef_machete/?hl=en on IG

Buy his "purple sauce" here: https://chefmachete.com/collections/buy-lean-sauce

Check out his spot in Houston, TX here: https://www.instagram.com/gordo_ninos_nasa/?hl=en

Welcome to the show! Burnt Hands Perspective

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:10

All right, we're here right now with live and direct World Food Champions in Indianapolis. Sitting here with my man Machete. What's up, yeah? Machete getting ready to cut it up. We're about to get it.

SPEAKER_02 0:21

We're about to get it.

SPEAKER_03 0:21

Welcome to the party.

SPEAKER_02 0:22

Welcome to the party. Thank you all for having me on, by the way, man. You are the party though, right? Oh, I bring the party.

SPEAKER_00 0:27

You didn't bring your grills today, though. I didn't bring the grills today. I was hoping for them grills. We're gonna have to turn the lights down. We're still rocking glitter though.

Live From World Food Championships

SPEAKER_00 0:34

Yeah, yeah. So we're gonna roll that b-roll anyway. While we're playing this thing, we're gonna edit that b-roll with them grills in there because you were down there yesterday just flossing. First of all, start with your dish. Unique, beautiful, executed ice. Rodge that uh we'll put that up there too. Right on, right on, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 0:50

Yeah, so you what you competed in pasta. Yeah, yeah. But you had a total different twist on it.

SPEAKER_02 0:54

Yeah, it is super insane twist. I did a black rose ravioli, stuffed it with some ricottas, a little lemon pepper seasoning in there, you know, because hey, you gotta throw some lemon pepper and a little everything sometimes. You know, made a champagne caviar

The Black Rose Ravioli Reveal

SPEAKER_02 1:06

sauce with a bele-a rose. It was it was beautiful. It was beautiful. The austeria caviar just came out.

SPEAKER_03 1:11

You said it was the Ave Maria.

SPEAKER_02 1:12

Yeah, the Ave Maria.

SPEAKER_00 1:14

That's a good name for it because the rose was black with squid ink. Yes. He made a really dark thing. And you had the red candles around, said all that. You weren't out there killing them. You're out there like it was you were putting a Dracula on them. That's right, that's right. I want to be dramatic as hell. You know, this is the championships, this ain't the game.

SPEAKER_03 1:29

I mean, you're very you're a very subtle person. I'm pretty sure. You're just so subtle anyway.

SPEAKER_00 1:34

I threw last night after everything. You went out, had a little time, now you're here today.

SPEAKER_02 1:37

Yeah, Indiana just showed me a good time last night as well. No, you showed up too, bro. I showed up a little fashionably late today.

SPEAKER_00 1:42

Tell me about your chefing. Tell us where you're at. What's going on, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:45

Man, I'm a chef and owner of Godo Nino's. We're uh we're a Tex Mex type style restaurant. Humex, we call it, you know? Okay, Humex meaning Houston.

SPEAKER_04 1:52

Oh, yeah. Yeah, we're fashioned.

SPEAKER_02 1:54

You're in Houston. Oh yeah, yeah, we're from Houston. So, man, it's uh we're known for our tacos, our pastor tacos. Okay. Yeah, especially Houston, trust me. It's big. What's your nationality? What's your background? It's bad, it's bad. My mom's from Detroit, my dad

Humex Roots and Houston Identity

SPEAKER_02 2:09

from you know, from Detroit too. Let's go, let's go. 313. That's there. Cool, man.

SPEAKER_00 2:13

Good for you. So when you when did you start working in the food uh in this competition, bro? Did you start with this this year or did you been a year?

SPEAKER_02 2:19

This is my first year.

SPEAKER_00 2:20

Okay, you came in slaying right out there.

SPEAKER_02 2:21

Yeah, came in, baby. Came in.

SPEAKER_00 2:25

How long you been a chef, man? But talk to us about that.

SPEAKER_02 2:28

Man, professionally your journey. Yeah, man, it's it's kind of a weird story. I uh everything in life brought me back to cooking. You know, I've been cooking since I was a kid. You know, my mom, my mom was an indoor cook, my dad was the outdoor cook, you know. So I learned a little bit of that, and just every single job I did in life just probably kept bringing me back, kept bringing me back. I was a merchant marine for years, you know what I'm saying? I was a chief steward on ships. Okay. I did that. I've been a professional ship for about 13 years now. So yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 2:52

Lucky 13.

SPEAKER_02 2:53

Lucky 13.

SPEAKER_00 2:54

Let's get it. What's the hardest thing you're finding, man? Because the restaurant industry is constantly changing. Yeah. Um, you know, taco's a thing, you're saying you're the best taco, right? You go back 15 years now, taco wasn't a thing. That was called taco bell.

SPEAKER_01 3:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:06

Now, now every everything that was cool back then is turned into a taco now, right? So even if you had uh tuna back where we're from, pepper tuna, saree tuna, yeah. Just turned into a taco now, right? Yeah,

Industry Shifts and Vendor Squeeze

SPEAKER_00 3:20

crazy. So you have to be strong and competitive to do that. So, how what do you feel about the change in the movement of the restaurant industry right now? I mean, are where are you at in it? What's your feeling?

SPEAKER_02 3:28

It's it's like you said, it's a constant chain. It's actually depressing, man, because looking back from five years ago, it wasn't like it is now, because we're constantly changing the food costs, we're constantly seeing prices rise, you know, old vendors that we used to love going out of business, you know. So for me, it it's it, you know, it's not challenging enough, but it's just enough where it's like, man, I wish we can regain some of that old style back.

SPEAKER_00 3:50

What I'm noticing, dude, is you it's funny you say that. It's a great point he's talking about. Because back in the day when we had to do this, right? We had we had small vendors which had small vendors, which had small vendors, producers, purveyors, all that shit. We had it was all small. Yeah, yeah. Now it's almost like back in the 90s, early 90s, late 80s, when we used to hear our parents talking about the Walmart, all these chain plates that are taking out the small people. So it's not it's not a question. You got places like restaurant depot now we have to compete with. And you have the big package uh uh people who are who are giving us, purveying us the the foods, right?

SPEAKER_02 4:24

Yeah, you're right.

SPEAKER_00 4:24

So is that like that there or do you have a good selection of smaller purveyors in in in the world?

SPEAKER_02 4:30

Yeah, so like me personally, I don't I don't use um I don't use Cisco or anybody like that. We go straight from the middleman, we go straight to the actual uh veterinary. Really? Okay. Yeah, we have our own staff, our own team that kind of journeys out there and then pushes it out, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:42

Yeah, right. So so what I'm worried about sometimes when I was talking about the growth of this, right? How my my affair sometimes, dude, is the big package, right? So let's say if there's a city or something that has a restaurant depot or something like that, every time that comes in, another one falls off, a smaller one falls off. A bigger, someone bigger trying to compete with restaurant depot or something like that, will buy out the little people so they can stay competing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Therefore, now you're only stuck to two or three purveyors. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right? So now 5,500 restaurants in the city are using the same three purveyors. We got to get more creative as chefs now because we're all using it. All the same shit. Yeah, yeah. So how are you gonna make your ingredient different now, right? Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 5:20

Creativity. Exactly that part. Saturday fucking Dracula shit. And my lean sauce. Have you ever seen everything? It says lean. You got that lean, bro. You seen it? You seen that? You got the lean sauce. It's all purple sauce we put on our on all of our tacos, all of our

Creativity Under Constraints: The Purple “Lean” Sauce

SPEAKER_02 5:34

food. What is it? What's it? It's a dairy-based sauce. I can't really say, but it has Paul Wall's tears in it. Paul Wall's tears. That's what makes it purple. So you got them. Did you get them in for the onion? Oh, that's my dog. Yeah, it's like a little vodka here and there. Show them an onion. Yeah, yeah. Hit them with the onion. Hit it with the onion.

SPEAKER_00 5:49

Hit him with the onion. Give me that teardrop.

SPEAKER_02 5:51

That's great. Yeah, man. Nice, nice. Stuff like that is how you get the creativity, you know what I mean? Sure. And we even we even put in drink bottles how we sell it. So oh, right. Yeah, there's no doubt.

SPEAKER_00 6:01

Okay, we gotta get some of that. Okay, we gotta get some of that. If you have one for the so we can food, I know. But you know what you do? Send us a little clip of that. We're gonna put it out for all you people watching. You know, if you're if you're listening, you can't see it, but you can damn listen to us talk about it. That's right, that's right. But uh, as far as the uh YouTube stuff, we'll put that on there. I want to see. I know, yeah, yeah. And put your link up there. Yeah, it's good to be. Because I already know your food is banging, Rod. Just watching your hair work and cook and how you present yourself, your chef coats on time, your your grill. You had a grill made. Talk about the grill you had made for the house.

SPEAKER_02 6:26

Yeah, you had a custom grill. I had a custom grill my jeweller potion. Shout out to Potion, man. Uh, he was like, got me one that says world food on the bottom champs. It was sick. It was a broad today, man. Yeah, we're gonna start. Like I said, we're putting it up here.

SPEAKER_00 6:38

That was it was hot. So if you got the hook, if you got the hook on the grills, I know some people. Oh, yeah. I know some people at the one.

SPEAKER_02 6:44

Let me know. He'll send you all the packages, get you molded up, you can ship it out in a week. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, he's cold. He's cold. Okay. I'm gonna have to get we're getting grouped.

SPEAKER_03 6:52

I know, I know. BHP with the fist, we need our fist at the middle.

SPEAKER_00 6:57

Yeah, that'd be hard. I like it. I love it. I love it. So where are you going from this? How long have you had your restaurants?

SPEAKER_02 7:01

Uh I started going to these in 2018. Uh, started doing at a mechanic shop, doing dollar tacos. Really? And then kind of got into the whole hip hop scene over there in Houston. So you're a hip hop head? Oh, hell yeah. Yeah. Big time, right? Big time, man.

SPEAKER_00 7:14

So you you you grew from that. So you're doing mechanic tacos. First time I hear that. Yeah, yeah. Farmers markets. You're at a goddamn mechanic

Brand, Cost, And The Delivery Dilemma

SPEAKER_00 7:23

shop. Yeah, yeah. Mechanic tacos. It reminds me of that kids watching that movie Turbo with the snake. Oh, yeah, turbo. You got the taco trucks at the mechanic shop. Yes, but you're right there. I'm in the zone. So you went from there. What when you took the risk to open up, were you nervous? Or did you just say, Fuck it, I go for it because you didn't know better?

SPEAKER_02 7:41

Man, it was during the pandemic. Uh everything kind of just started shutting down, you know. Our our whole gig was it was street food. I want to bring street food back to Houston. So that's why we started doing the taco carts. We did bars, you know, we would go to nightclubs out staying outside. We had like three different ones at a time. Just making money at nothing. Banging, slang in the block, you know what I'm saying? Bleeding the block. It was crazy. But uh, and then COVID happened, and we lost our whole shinding, you know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_00 8:01

So really, so they shut you down because no one else was allowed to socialize. You weren't allowed to be on the block. It's supposed to be have fun and eat, you know. You couldn't hand the vid out for everybody.

SPEAKER_02 8:10

So I so I switched it up. We started doing a late night taco run called Taco Emergency. Right. Call us at three in the morning, four in the morning. Oh my god. It's still an emergency. We call it the pandemic, though. So we made so much money during the pandemic, you know?

SPEAKER_03 8:26

So you you shifted to like nighttime. Oh, yeah. Like far out.

SPEAKER_02 8:30

Yeah, from like six to like three, four, we would do it.

SPEAKER_03 8:32

And you just ran tacos?

SPEAKER_02 8:33

Yeah, yeah, we make them, people call us up.

SPEAKER_03 8:35

You know how many times we said if there was a margarita truck that came through the neighborhood for moms instead of an ice cream truck?

SPEAKER_00 8:41

With a slingshot with a taco in there, we'll hit it hit it their window. Yeah. Let them know you're here to come out and get that taco. That's right. That's great. That's a light. That's a great idea.

SPEAKER_03 8:50

So that is oh, I love that.

SPEAKER_00 8:51

So what are your hours now?

SPEAKER_02 8:52

Are you are you kind of like a bar or are you more of a we're like a fast pace now? So we do uh 10 in the morning to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Okay. Yeah. That sounds a CCO I'm looking at you. I'm thinking, I'm thinking something a little bit later.

SPEAKER_03 9:04

Night time.

SPEAKER_02 9:04

We we did have that. We had one uh I think in this little area called Kema. We had that for about a year. We didn't really like the scene out there, so we sold it. Sometimes you gotta know when.

SPEAKER_00 9:11

So here's the funny thing. Getting back from the fun of the talking about the partying and all that stuff, that comes with it. But there also becomes a responsibility and an obligation to the food, right? To the ingredients. So no matter how much we talk about the fun part of it all and talking shit about everything and making it making light of everything. Bottom line is though, we have a passion for food that really it supersedes everything.

SPEAKER_01 9:33

Yeah, you're right.

SPEAKER_00 9:34

And when you gotta know when to pull out of stuff, you gotta know when the food's being affected, when you're when you become uh more of a business than you are, a passion. That's right. If that's not your stick, man, you gotta know what to do, right? You gotta be gotta be all before you fold, right? That's right. And you exactly you gotta protect your brand.

SPEAKER_01 9:50

That's right.

SPEAKER_00 9:50

So if you're in an area that's not doing right, or if the area doesn't accept you, or if maybe the area is just not ready for what you have, you have to make that decision at that time. And a lot of people don't understand that, and they try and stick it through because their pride gets in the way, and then it folds on the other hand. They don't have control of that. And that's when you start getting a bad name. So shout out to you for knowing when the fold. Hopefully that's the case. And if you didn't, let's just play it.

SPEAKER_02 10:10

Yeah, no, no, I did. I didn't, man. You know, I had to put emotions aside. Yeah. Emotions aside over everything. You know, I

From Mechanic Shop Tacos to Pandemic Pivots

SPEAKER_02 10:15

was like, you know what? So you're gonna do this, you're like you said, fuck up the brand.

SPEAKER_00 10:18

Can't fuck up the brand, it's temporary. It is fuck it up, it's not temporary. Yeah, fuck up the channel.

SPEAKER_02 10:23

No matter what.

SPEAKER_00 10:24

So every opportunity we have, especially as chefs, every opportunity we have is golden. We wake up every day, every morning, it's a competition. I love it. It's fun to hear to compete. It's fun to come over here and get your head out the kitchen a little bit and play the game. You gotta continue to do it. And even if you didn't take home the gold here, you gotta come back next year and get it. And that's fun. That's right. But but every day for us is a competition at home because we compete with our competition there. We compete with our employees showing up, we complete keeping them there and making them happy. We compete with the customers. We compete with uh making sure they're happy. We compete with fucking Yelp and TripAdvisor, all that other bullshit that we have no control over. You got people up there that just think they know everything, and maybe they do. I guess in their world it is everything, right? Everything was good but the DoorDash. You know what I mean? I didn't fuck with DoorDash. That stuff to me, people don't understand the markups that are going on with those. Oh, yeah. And I know convenience is huge. Super huge. And there's a place for convenience, no doubt. But when it comes to me, DoorDash calls me and then I hang up on them as fast as I can answer. Yeah. They might as well try and sell me insurance for my or a warranty for my job. Okay, you know what I mean? It's bad enough that we have to be in a position to mark up the way we have to now. And then they're gonna do nothing for nothing and mark it up way more than it takes to get that shit to your house.

SPEAKER_01 11:46

And charge you on your end the same percentage. That's right.

SPEAKER_00 11:50

So what people don't understand is a little fee they're paying on their end when they pick up that phone or get on the internet, rather, right? And then social media shit, they call that DoorDash or whatever community, whatever it is, whatever it is, right?

SPEAKER_01 11:59

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:00

Wh whatever that happens, they don't realize that they're being just a percentage of what they're paying for that. We're paying way more than that. And we have to jack our prices up. And if we decide if I decide I'm gonna go with that, now I have to jack my prices up to make for it on the dining room too. You're right. Yeah, you're right. It's universal, man, because our prices go up. They all do it. So I don't do, I don't mess with that stuff for the customers who come and sit down in the table. Yeah, that's where we're at. That's wrong. I like that. I like that. I want to give to them the best I can because everything's so expensive anyway, bro. It is, man. You know, level it, those volcano, uh, those doors hammers. Oh, yeah, doors hammered. Those things.

SPEAKER_02 12:32

If you go on his page, check it out, man.

SPEAKER_00 12:34

That was incredible, man. Yeah, yeah, thank you. So when I braze those out, those things are very expensive. They cost me cost me huge money, right? So the the markup on that, we're not making money on those.

SPEAKER_01 12:45

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 12:45

You know, we have to mark everything up equivalently, uh, equivocally to make sure we make the percentages.

SPEAKER_01 12:49

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:49

But you know, getting off that, going back to your style in tacos, it don't matter if you're making filet mignon or or uh the low

Hours, Locations, And Knowing When To Fold

SPEAKER_00 12:56

uh a taco pastor or whatever it is, yeah. Food cost is food costs. Food costs, food costs better. I mean, we gotta be you know, you gotta sell a lot more tick uh a lot more tacos than for say I have to sell um uh guanchale disc or something, you know, because the markups are different, right?

SPEAKER_02 13:09

Right.

SPEAKER_00 13:09

So how are you finding that? Is the competition in your area you're accepted, you say you're number one, you're voted number one.

SPEAKER_02 13:14

Yeah, yeah, with another competition out there with me. Dead facts. Dead facts.

SPEAKER_00 13:19

Where do you see yourself going here in the future, though?

SPEAKER_02 13:21

Man, uh I got a couple concepts I've wanted to work on, you know, here and there. You know, just to find the right time, the placement for it, you know. Yeah, and as far as employees? Employees, man. My team right now is golden, dude. Mine too, but it's the first team I've had ever, I think. They're solid as hell. Hell yeah, man. And I'm the same way.

SPEAKER_00 13:37

My hands are up to my team. My team's the reason why I'm here right now. Same. Big employees. If my team's weren't, and this was last minute. This was last minute comparison to last year. And if it wasn't for my team. I wasn't gonna came in September. If it wasn't for my two teams I have, there'd be no way this is happening. And if it wasn't for the team here, right here, we got to do that.

SPEAKER_02 13:54

Y'all solid too, man.

SPEAKER_00 13:55

This wouldn't happen either. So if you we all surround ourselves with the right teams, right? Middle, we're gonna be able to. If we were bums, they would have the team doing this, would be pissed, right? We all have to be solid. And that's why I surround myself with the restaurant. Everything we do is a trial. Uh, we try and take our time. There's no there's no haste. But man, when you get a bad employee and it's toxic, bro, you gotta get rid of them.

SPEAKER_02 14:16

Trust me, man. Sell them. Trust me, man. Sell them. I give them 90 days. I give them 90 days. I'm like, if you can't make it in 90 days, you out. Give them out, yeah. I get you a grill. Yeah, man. Oh, all my boys have grills. So they gotta wear them grills in service. Okay. They gotta wear them during service. Hell yeah. What do they sell? It's a uniform. No, some are gold, some are sellers, you know. That's a uniform, man. I like that. That's the best. Not yet. Not yet. Give it a moment. You're working on it. We couldn't get it, we couldn't get it back in time for a year. I was like, man.

SPEAKER_03 14:43

We need a we gotta we need to get a photo of that too. Oh yeah, grills up.

SPEAKER_00 14:47

Well, I think that and you know, like for people to learn. Christian, you're wearing a grill. I help you know this.

SPEAKER_03 14:53

I I already know this. Here we go. Um if I can say that any lighter. Here we go. Um, it's for you, like you've also kind of cornered on leveraging social media. Yeah. You have a big personality. So I think that helps. Like, with and you were hyping the crowd up down there. People talk to you, they gravitate. So when you're you know, giving advice to other people in the industry that maybe are just kind of starting that process, how did you go about like your marketing, like the grill? Like you just was it all organic? Did you just have your team help out?

SPEAKER_02 15:26

Me, all around me. I'm a Houstonian, you know, a bang screw, you know, and I jam that music, you know, that's that's my culture right there. So you know, everything I do is do for the culture.

SPEAKER_00 15:35

You know, your your followers, you got a good amount of followers on your good crew on there. And uh, and and like she says, that's not easy.

SPEAKER_03 15:42

It's not. It's not too far.

SPEAKER_00 15:44

So your personality really has to be number one. Yeah, that's it. Engage that. That engagement. Yeah. So best you mean. We have let's let's do the question thing with you. You gotta do the question? Let's see what you got. You got Spitfire, love these ten questions. Shoot them out as fast as you can, be as vulgar. Ten questions.

SPEAKER_03 16:00

Okay, somewhat rapid fire questions. So we're gonna go through them and we will uh I'll

Teams, Culture, And Firing Fast

SPEAKER_03 16:06

do my best.

SPEAKER_02 16:06

All right, you'll be you'll be good. I'm gonna do my best.

SPEAKER_03 16:09

All right, so you can answer in a you know, a few words. So a few words. All right, besides knives, go to kitchen tool.

SPEAKER_02 16:17

Oh, um, um man, that's a good one. Spatula, I guess. All right. My spatula's my everything. I do flips with it. Okay, do tricks with it. I'm flare. You can do a flare chef. Okay, flare chef. Yep. You can see your flaws, but you should have said a machete, bro. Oh man.

SPEAKER_03 16:33

Or machete. Rewind that machete.

SPEAKER_02 16:35

No, that's what we cook with in a restaurant. Yeah. You see him because my spatula's a machete. It's an open face restaurant. Yeah, it's an open face restaurant, so when you come up, you watch your food get made. Okay, cool. So, yeah, so we're sending a machete, he's chopping the meat, like he's lit as hell. So, we gotta go here too.

SPEAKER_03 16:48

All right, we gotta know it. Well, I totally buy my sister and all lives in Houston, so we're coming there anyways. All right. What puts you in the mood more? Smell or visual?

SPEAKER_02 16:56

Ooh. Visuals. Okay. I love smelling via visuals, though, for sure.

SPEAKER_03 17:03

All right. Worst position in the kitchen. Ooh.

SPEAKER_02 17:08

Washing cilantro. That's a good one. That is. That's a good one.

SPEAKER_00 17:13

That's what I'm saying. Actually, really cool.

SPEAKER_02 17:14

Oh my gosh, ice bath it getting dry.

SPEAKER_00 17:16

Flat Italian parsley's the same. Oh, yeah, yeah. Because it's cold. But the people not only that, but the people don't understand. Let me tell you the troubles of this, okay? Let me tell you the struggles of mise and plas, okay? So here's a fucking struggle. When you're flat Italian parsley, cilantro, anything like that, it's all good to wash it, but you gotta dry that shit before you chop it. We gotta make sure it all separates, it doesn't get bruised off, it don't get soggy. That's the problem.

SPEAKER_03 17:38

That was a good that was a very unique one. Best position in the kitchen.

SPEAKER_02 17:42

Best position? Executive chef. All right. Okay, I like that. Yeah, man.

SPEAKER_03 17:46

The uh favorite ingredient you can never live without soy.

SPEAKER_02 17:49

Soy zoz. I love soy zy.

SPEAKER_00 17:50

I thought you were gonna throw salon from the back in the soy zol. Okay. Soy soy.

SPEAKER_03 17:56

All right. What, if any, style of cooking intimidates you the most?

SPEAKER_02 18:00

Oh, live fire is crazy. I don't know. I do it, but you know, sometimes you never know if the win factor is wrong. Yeah, man. Too much job though. That's a good one. That's a good one.

SPEAKER_03 18:11

All right. Favorite fast food restaurant.

SPEAKER_02 18:13

Oh, man. Hell no, I'm saying that. Favorite fast food. I would have to say, uh don't say that wing stop Ross. No, I've never ate there. Oh, no? I've never ate there. I've never ate there. Um Favorite fast food. Man, I don't even know. I really eat fast food too much. Uh um Jersey Mites. Okay. I love Jersey Mice. Jersey Mike's good. It's fresh, it's clean, it's clean. I get the number 13. You know what I mean? I like it. All right. Jersey Mites.

SPEAKER_03 18:39

If your kitchen was a car, what kind of car would it be?

SPEAKER_02 18:42

Oh. Be a stew baker or something, you know?

unknown 18:46

Studebaker.

SPEAKER_02 18:48

A remodeled one or an old Janet.

SPEAKER_00 18:49

Old school, man. Rusty's heads get him.

SPEAKER_03 18:52

Through the floorboards, feet on the ground. All right. Pop the clutch or go into it. There you go. All right. Baking, yes or no?

SPEAKER_02 19:01

Baking, I'm okay at it, but no.

SPEAKER_03 19:04

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 19:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 19:05

Gloves or washing your hands?

SPEAKER_02 19:06

Uh, all of it.

SPEAKER_03 19:07

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 19:08

I'll do it all.

SPEAKER_03 19:08

Yeah, I got you. Do you know the owner?

SPEAKER_00 19:10

Do I know the owner? Yeah, yeah, that's bummer. All right. So what we mean by that is what do you think of that saying? How many people know the owner? Too many. How do you do the owner know, though? Oh, never. Oh, they don't know me.

SPEAKER_02 19:23

Somebody's like, let me speak to the owner. I'm like, speaking? Yeah. Like, oh, oh, oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:27

I'll tell them straight up, dude. If you if if they don't say my name, exactly. They don't know.

SPEAKER_02 19:32

My government name?

SPEAKER_00 19:33

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_02 19:33

No.

SPEAKER_03 19:34

Which I did see on the sign downstairs.

Social Media, Persona, And Organic Marketing

SPEAKER_02 19:36

Yeah, no, they put it up. I was like, man.

SPEAKER_03 19:38

So I got that secret. So I do know the owner now. It's okay. I'm gonna eat that. He's like out there with a Sharpie scratching that off.

SPEAKER_04 19:46

I love it.

SPEAKER_03 19:47

All right. And if you could cook with anyone, who would it be? I want to cook with you.

SPEAKER_00 19:51

My man. My man. I would love to, though. That would be great. We gotta make the entertaining. Let's go. Let's do it. I love it. We have a lot of things. We're going to use we're going here.

SPEAKER_03 20:00

So we have a lot of states to go to now. So we're going to have to on the on the burnt hands held tour.

SPEAKER_00 20:05

No fly out. That's even better. Oh, you can fly to Virginia. We can do it. We can do a live collab on the video. Yeah, that'd be live. Yeah, I got my video on for it. We'll come out with it. I got your video. Come on out. Yep. Let's go, man. Let's go. Let's go. All right. Collab on that. Collab on the video too. You know what I mean? That'd be cool. That would be fun. That's what this is all about. It's so fun. Seeing good like-minded people, I love it. Chefs working together and networking. You know, I go a year or two without even leaving my town when it comes to cooking. Yeah. And you forget what it's like, and then you become blinded. So all you people out there who are just blinded and you don't cook, you don't leave, and make time. If your team's not good enough to let you leave, fix your fucking team. Yeah, get rid of them. Get rid of them. If you can't leave and you can't trust your staff, fix that. Get yourself out there, man. Get out there, experience, and have these bonds and build these relationships with other chefs. You're gonna learn so much. You will know about each other. You get inspired by each other and keep on working it, man. So it's been an honor having you on here, bro. I appreciate y'all getting having a lot of here. Anything you want to say to the people. If you could say one thing to anyone out there in the struggle of this industry or anything, what would you say to them right now?

SPEAKER_02 21:08

Man, stay relevant and be consistent. Be consistent. Very good.

SPEAKER_00 21:12

Love you. All right, man. That's gonna be a wrap, bro. All right, buddy. Let's get a wrap. Ciao

Rapid-Fire: Tools, Taste, And Kitchen Truths

SPEAKER_00 21:16

for now.

SPEAKER_03 21:16

All right. See ya.

SPEAKER_00 21:17

Alrighty.