The Restaurant Guys' Regulars

Kim Chauvin and Her Wild American Shrimp! *V*

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The Restaurant Guys' Regulars

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This is a Vintage Selection from 2005

The Banter

The Guys read some fan mail and discuss the reviews a couple of unusual restaurants–would you prefer drawbridges or beds?

The Conversation

The Restaurant Guys welcome Kim Chauvin who tells us all about the American shrimp industry and the superior product of fresh, wild shrimp. She also talks about the hardships of hurricanes and as well as and life in the family business. 

Inside Track

The Guys hit it off with Kim Chauvin and even got invited to her boat blessing! They were impressed with the hearty stock shrimpers are made of, particularly during hurricanes.

 Francis: Your husband stayed on the boat. What is it like to ride out a category five hurricane on a boat? 

Kim: Well, you have to realize it really wasn't a five hitting where we were. 

Francis:  Um, okay. Category three, then. I don't walk outside when it's thundering, okay? 

-Kim Chauvin on The Restaurant Guys Podcast 2005

Info

Mariah Jade Shrimp is part of David Chauvin Seafood Company

https://www.davidchauvinsseafood.com/

https://americanshrimp.com/suppliers/mariah-jade-shrimp/


Mariah Jade Shrimp is a mobile dock.

David Chauvin's Seafood Company is an unloading facility of shrimp, ice house, fuel dock and a supply house for commercial fishing vessels and recreational vessels. They sell shrimp and other seafood to consumers. Located in Dulac, Louisiana. 

Bluewater Shrimp Company is a processing facility and unloading facility located in Dulac, Louisiana.

Kim Chauvin's Seafood Company is a brand new company to an older facility that they are sprucing up. It’s an unloading facility of shrimp and fish, ice house, fuel dock and supply house for commercial and recreational fishing vessels. They sell many different types of seafood at our facility to many consumers. Located in Grand Isle, Louisiana. 

The Ninja New York Review by Frank Bruni

https://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/26/dining/yelping-warriors-and-rocks-in-the-broth.html



If you'll be in New Orleans on July 22, join us for a LIVE show with Jeff "Beachbum" Berry and Annene Kelly at Latitude 29! Tiki talk and tiki drinks. Email theguys@restaurantguyspodcast.com for more info. We hope to see you there!

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Mark:

Good morning, mark. Morning Francis. How are you this morning? I'm ACEs.

Francis:

You seem to have a little more pepper this morning. Yes, I have that. I think that has to do with the fact that you ate a quarter pound of m and m.

Mark:

Well, you know, you know one of our guilty pleasures is candy. Yeah. You and I love it. One of, one of the big moments here at the radio station. Yeah. They got toone in the candy machine for a little while. It's all gone though. I don't know where it went. You need a life, man. Really? Toone, you know, come on. My, whenever my father would go to Europe when I was a little kid before Toone was available in this country. Mm-hmm. He'd always bring back one of the, like one of those big bars of Toone. You know, it's funny, the thing about chocolate

Francis:

is where, where you get chocolate from is very different. Even the Nestle company. Oh, absolutely. A big company, if you buy Nestle chocolate in Europe, it tastes different. It's very different than the chocolate we have here. It tastes different and they actually, they, they say that American chocolate is, for the first time more Americans prefer. Bittersweet chocolate, dark chocolate. Mm-hmm. Than they do, than prefer milk chocolate, which is actually

Mark:

just a couple years ago, Toone came out with the, with the dark chocolate Toone bar. Oh yeah. It is. I gotta tell you, for, for mass produced candy that you can buy on the shelves of most, most grocery stores, extra dark toone is yummy. I'm all in, man. Sorry. I'm all in. So there you go. For those of you who think the restaurant guys are pretentious and stuffy, we're not snooty. Every once in a while we have a little lerone. Okay. My mic is good. Uh,

Francis:

we for, but we are a little snooty and, uh, and to pat ourselves in the back, we've been getting email through our, our webcast, which are approaching 50 thousands in people. Are we crazy? Yeah. What's wrong with all of you? So, one of the interesting things about it is we're in this little radio station in Central Jersey eating Toone, um, and doing great here in the Central Jersey listening area. Um, but we're also. Pretty widely spread around the world. And one of the very interesting thing is to get the emails from you all around the world. Please keep sending them. We love it. Um, here's one. Uh, hi guys. I just started subscribing to the podcast and I love the show. I am an executive chef at Seward Windsong Lodge in Seward, Alaska

Mark:

that's far away,

Francis:

as well as president of our local public radio station. Your shows are a refreshing window into the restaurant world. I'm sorry

Mark:

it's not far away from Juno, but it's far away from New Brunswick, New Jersey.

Francis:

Keep up the great work, and if I'm ever in Jersey someday, I'll stop by your establishment. Eric, Eric, thanks a lot. I'm not, I'm not gonna leave the light on for you, but if you're ever coming down, let us know. Now. Another email we got, in the same week, is from, uh, Tsuji in Tokyo, uh, and this is from Tsuji in Tokyo. Hi, my name is Tsuji and I live over in Tokyo and love your show since I stumbled across it a week ago. I've been busy the past few days listening to all of your previous shows on iTunes. I was listening to one of your shows where you mentioned the ninja themed restaurant in New York City. And guess what? It's the same as the owners of the Ninja Saka restaurant in Tokyo. Saka being a neighborhood in Tokyo, I was there for dinner back in February and it was also subterranean with the drawbridge that comes down after a secret password is mumbled, yada, yada, yada. I love the drawbridge. Come on. Wait. Staff all dressed up in ninja outfits, et cetera and so forth. Um, the entire experience was identical to the one you sub you described, except that here in Tokyo, the big difference is it's not pretentious. There are no a hundred dollars tasting menus. It's kind of a casual. Dining bar, basically. The one in Tokyo is for a gag. It's for

Mark:

fun. It's for fun. That was the whole idea. For

Francis:

those of you who missed that show, there's a restaurant in New York City called Ninja. Hype. Um, and, uh, ninja is a theme restaurant, which is full of hocus pocus. And, but the dinners, there's like the menus tasting menu started a hundred,$150 a person. Yeah. I wish

Mark:

Ninja were a little bit more stealth. Oh my goodness.

Francis:

And it's

Mark:

terrible.

Francis:

Yeah, it's terrible. Uh, and it got a horrible review in the New York Times. You can go look that up in the New York Times. Oh,

Mark:

got it. Got literally

Francis:

crushed. And the thing about horrible reviews in the New York Times. Sometimes the horrible ones are more fun to read than the other ones, unless, of course,

Mark:

I gotta tell you, I love, unless of course it's

Francis:

your restaurant.

Mark:

I love to read one of those scathing reviews where, where the waiter comes in and says, uh, yes, our, our cake is made with Verona chocolate. Yeah. Where's the Verona chocolate from? Instead of Verona, instead of Val Ronna chocolate instead of Val Ronna, which would come from the valley of the Rone.

Francis:

My favorite all time lines, was Frank Bruney. The New York Times when reviewing the New York version of Ninja, said that you show up and they offer you the simple, straight way, straight to your table or through the secret passageway, which is a bunch of garbage. And, and Frank Bruney recommends another way, which is right out the back door because it's a mess.

Mark:

Come on you. If I'm going to ninja, I'm taking the secret passage away. Okay? Okay. I want rolling ninjas. I want people. Chopping my tomato with their hands. I depo.

Francis:

I desperately want to go to the Ninja Restaurant, but we're so busy through Christmas with our two restaurants. And if you hasn't, haven't tried Catherine Lombardi and you do live in Central Jersey, uh, or in New Jersey at all. Catherine Lombardi's a great Italian restaurants. It came out beautiful. Brooklyn Italian. It came out beautiful.

Mark:

It's, it's come out very well,

Francis:

but we're a little busy to get to the Ninja Restaurant, and I'm so afraid it's gonna close and go outta business before we can get there in January. So we hope it stays alive until then. Okay. I have another restaurant. That actually got two and a half stars on the Star Ledger, which is a New Jersey paper. it seems like the reviewer, Cody Kendall, who's a great reviewer, whom we, we mm-hmm. Have a lot of respect for, seem to like it. I can't imagine that. I would not. Hate this place. Um, uh, but who knows? Let's, let's let, who

Mark:

knows? No comments on the food. And we, because we Oh yeah. Francis and I haven't eaten there. Oh, no food. So I, so I can't tell you anything about the food in this restaurant,

Francis:

but let me, let me tell you. Theme restaurants. Mm-hmm. I have a problem with theme restaurants. Themes belong in parks. Um, but they do get two and a half stars. And I'll, and I'll give you the name of it. It's called, uh, RO, and it's in South Orange. Uh, and you can check it out on the ledger, but here are a few things from it. Tiki torches, wave of flamboyant. Welcome in front of Ro. I got a problem with that right there. Tiki torches in South Orange, New

Mark:

Jersey. Is it Tiki torches or flamboyant Welcomes that you have a problem with. Tiki

Francis:

torches. Tiki torches in snow in South Orange. I got a problem with. Um, but here's the big draw. Upstairs is the champagne loft where the real relaxing is done on beds. Replete with pillows. Allah, south

Mark:

Beach. Now, for those of you not from the northeast, this whole bed restaurant craze seems to have, seems to be catching on. And I can't really figure it out. Here's the

Francis:

deal. they put a bed upstairs in the restaurant and you can go upstairs and there's an actual bed that you can lay on with pillows and have your champagne or your wine or whatever, but or your tapas. Or your crackers? Listen, I throw my girlfriend outta bed for eating in bed. Okay. In case you're not allowed to eat in my bed. In my house. Why would I want a bed in the restaurant? You know what? I don't understand. I mean, you can't even do the fun things sometimes is

Mark:

about, is about 15 minutes out of New York City. Mm-hmm. Why does a bedroom community need a bedroom restaurant? Please explain that one. What, what's the thrill here of, of, I mean, I get a little ooky going into, into a hotel room where people have stayed on the, beds and now I'm gonna go into a restaurant, the bed where other people are eating on the beds and yeah, I

Francis:

don't get it. Check this out though. But if you're looking in it, if you're looking for a place to kick back and feel more with it than the average restaurant, Varo could suit you. You're also able, able to linger. The bar stays open a half hour later than the kitchen. That's not really with it, you know? You know what I mean? Was it like 11

Mark:

four hours later than the kitchen? You get home in time for the late show? You know,

Francis:

I don't get it. And also voros more about being there than anything else.

Mark:

You know what I love though, being where there's, there's a picture in the ledger of the restaurant. Yeah. Everybody's at table's. Nobody's on the beds,

Francis:

of course.'cause you're really ridiculous. Isn't an adult. Yeah. It's

Mark:

a little creepy. Being in a restaurant on a bed. On a bed. Okay. It's too creepy for me.

Francis:

Please come to stage left. And Catherine Lombardi restaurants in downtown New Brunswick. We have only chairs to offer you no beds. And, uh, we'll be talking in a moment with a couple of Louisiana, uh, shrimp fishermen about what's going down with the American shrimpers in Louisiana, uh, some of the best product in the world, some of the best shrimp you've ever had, and there's some interesting stuff going on down there. You'll be back in just a moment. You're listening to the Restaurant Guys, And we have with us a couple of special guests today. Charlie and Kim Chauvin, third generation Louisiana shrimpers and owners of the shrimp company, Mariah, Jade. Uh, you may not have ever eaten American shrimp and you may not know it, you may not realize that. Almost all the shrimp you buy in your market is from abroad and pretty much dumped on the American market. You've probably never had fresh shrimp and that's a shame'cause there's nothing like it. The, the non frozen shrimp that you're likely to buy in your market was frozen at one time, and it's just been thought out. Trust me, I used to think that wasn't the case, but it really is. There's nothing like fresh shrimp. There's nothing like American, Louisiana, fresh, fresh shrimp. And our shrimpers were in a little bit of trouble before the hurricanes of this year, and now they face even greater challenges. And to talk about that situation we have with us. Kim Chauvin on the phone. Hi Kim.

Kim:

Hi, how you doing? Hi,

Mark:

Kim. Welcome to the show.

Kim:

Hi. Thank you. Thank

Francis:

you. Did I, did I get that, uh, analysis of the situation fairly accurate?

Kim:

Uh, yes. Yes. We had our big problems with, dumping by the six countries that we have a, that we went to the ITC for. Mm-hmm. Can you

Mark:

help? Can you help talk to our, our listeners, they may not know what dumping is,

Kim:

um, which is six countries, try to bring in shrimp to the eu, which was denied because of the antibiotics and chemicals on the shrimp

Speaker 4:

uhhuh. Mm-hmm.

Kim:

Therefore, it was all thrown into the United States market. Due to, um, there wasn't enough testing going on in in the past, which we are trying to correct at this present time to have it tested more increasingly by the FDA.

Francis:

Well, let's talk a little bit about the differences between American Gulf shrimp that's, that's harvested from the ocean by people like you and, uh, and the shrimp that's coming in from the market. Now you guys get your shrimp by, well, going out into boats into the ocean and catching shrimp. Isn't that right? Correct, correct. And the shrimp that's coming in from, from foreign places and being dumped on the market, how is that shrimp caught?

Kim:

Uh, in a pond? It's actually in a pond that they drain and, uh, have the shrimp come out on conveyors. Uh, it, it's a little different because they have no taste,

Mark:

because it's not the ocean.

Kim:

Well, uh, there there's no taste. It's, it's a bland shrimp

Mark:

uhhuh,

Kim:

uh, compared to the. shrimp that we have in harvest. And, and this is not just from my say so. The customers that I have across the United States have sent me emails saying, oh my goodness. Mm-hmm. This is what shrimp is supposed to taste like. And,

Mark:

and there's no question about it. It it is, and it's not just flavor, it's also texture. You can really tell when you get a fresh American shrimp, the difference in taste or even frozen American shrimp or even a frozen American shrimp. That's true. The difference in taste and texture Between those and the imported shrimp is, it's a completely different thing.

Francis:

Well, let's talk about how that, that foreign shrimp is made. That's aquaculture shrimp. In other words, like you said, they take a pond, they drain the pond, they fill the pond up and they feed the shrimp. It's a shrimp farming operation, which is a cheap way to make shrimp. But you know, like wild animals have more, more flavor than than domesticated animals. wild shrimp have more flavor than than shrimp grown in these ponds and. When you grow shrimp in these ponds, they can do a lot of damage to the environment. Right. And in addition, you know, like you said, to keep the shrimp healthy in, in an unnatural way, they throw in a lot of antibiotics. And the shrimp don't have a lot of flavor.

Mark:

And, and a lot of people aren't educated about this. And that's, that's one of the reasons we're doing this show right now, right, is to educate people and let them know that there should be a difference in the price of these two things. There's a, there, it's much more expensive to go out into your small family boat and, fish for shrimp than it is to. You know, have this aqua farm, and grow shrimp there.

Francis:

Now, now, uh, I had read some old, some outdated statistics, but that in 2000, the price of pound, the shrimpers down in the Gulf were getting was three bucks a pound. And then I read by 2003 it had had gone down to a buck 85 a pound. Where, where is it now? Uh,

Kim:

I think it's right at two. Mm-hmm.

Francis:

And what's it cost and what does it cost to go and get shrimp out of the gulf?

Kim:

Uh, what's

Francis:

your break even?

Kim:

Well, what it is is that you have to catch a lot of shrimp, right,

Speaker 4:

in

Kim:

order to hecken to break even. But we've done something a little differently from most fishermen in the United States. We've taken ours on a retail level. We're putting it on the internet. Um, what people are getting. It's straight off of our vessel

Speaker 4:

Uhhuh. Mm-hmm.

Kim:

Straight to their kitchens.

Francis:

Now how do you, now this is an interesting thing, and I wanna talk about, I wanna talk more in depth about what happened. I wanna talk about the hurricanes down there. Mm-hmm. Um, but you have, and one of the reasons we asked you to come on the show is because you have decided to market your shrimp as a premium product. And I think that's the way a lot of American ag, agriculture, and fisheries are gonna survive.

Mark:

It's, it's the way a lot of small farmers are surviving. They're, they're surviving by doing things more direct. and there are more lines of communication open. Direct for, for any fisherman or farmer now to go direct to Fisher. So how

Francis:

do you get your shrimp to a consumer? Do they go to a website and order it? What, how does that work and how do you ship it?

Kim:

Actually, our, we've been in the, in the media quite a bit just due to the dumping case and about the wild American shrimp and, uh, just all the things that have gone on in our industry. So we've had that little edge up where people have. Evidently Googled my name, Uhhuh and have found me Uhhuh, uh, which is a great thing because that's what really pushed me to get it on the internet because I would guarantee what they're getting they've probably never had before.

Speaker 4:

Absolutely. Secondly,

Kim:

that the taste is going to be phenomenal over anything out of any grocery store they've ever had.

Francis:

if you haven't had American shrimp, you really are in the. For a, it's completely, completely a different product. And you, if you're buying in this local fish market, local supermarket, you probably have not had American shrimp. Now you, you ship just frozen or you ship fresh and frozen.

Kim:

We will be doing fresh and frozen. Right now it's just frozen. It's frozen within 30 minutes off the deck. Mm-hmm. You know what I'm saying? Off of our boat is frozen 30 minutes. I only keep it so much time, which would be maybe about two weeks, and I get rid of everything

Francis:

you if, if you, for your Christmas holiday, for your New Year's party to get some real wild American fresh shrimp or frozen shrimp if you're a foodie. Absolutely will blow your guests away. You'll never,

Mark:

you'll never go back

Francis:

and totally different than when you get in the market in that little platter. I can't recommend enough that you try the American shrimp Now, um, Kim, you come from. Uh, Chauvin, Louisiana. Is that correct? Correct. So that bears your name, doesn't it?

Kim:

Uh, yes, but, uh, that's more my husband's side of the family.

Francis:

Well, I was gonna say that sounds like you got a family that has some deep roots down there.

Kim:

Uh, yeah. They, we've been down here for quite a long time. A lot of, uh, descendants from, I think Nova Scotia came down here. We've been here for some time.

Francis:

Well, now what is the life of a shrimper like? I mean, you know, when we talk about, we talk a lot about farmers, we talk to a lot about farmers and we talk about trying to preserve that way of life and it's a hard way of life. Yeah, I

Mark:

think, I think everybody's got the, uh, you know, Bubba Gump shrimp company is what they think about when they think shrimp. What's

Francis:

I know. So why don't you enlighten us? Yeah. With your family operation there, you have a small company. Is your whole family involved? How does it work? What do you do? My.

Kim:

My whole family is involved from my 9-year-old daughter to my 17-year-old son. I have a, I have a 15-year-old son also. My 17-year-old just purchased his first boat. He's been saving since he was seven.

Speaker 4:

Wow. To do

Kim:

this. He's been, we, we all worked together before the dumping. It was more to this, uh, way of life where, um. When we were, when my children were little, we would all GoBoard the boat and work. Um, and, and it was a lot of quality family time. There's no world, uh, interruptions. There's no telephone, you know? Mm-hmm. We have telephone, but it's not, you know. You don't have 10 people calling you at one time.

Speaker 6:

Not on a boat, I would imagine.

Kim:

Right, right, right. Well, you're out on a boat. Nice. It's your family.

Speaker 6:

Mm-hmm.

Kim:

Yes. You do a lot of stuff. But anyway, we work all together. And then when my children got older, we, you know, of course, stopped for school and my husband would go out with deck hands, which he brings two other men with him on the boat. Mm-hmm. Um, and in the summertime we would go and it was like our family vacation because we just had so much time to spend with each other. And it was really fun. We taught our kids how to cook. They know how to, you know. Wash clothes. I mean, just the whole, the whole nine yards. They knew how to do things for themselves.

Speaker 6:

But it's a lot of hard work when you're out there.

Kim:

It is, but you don't notice it when you're with your family.

Speaker 6:

Mm-hmm.

Kim:

It's more now my husband is having a really hard time staying out all, you know, during the summer because, you know, he's away from his family a lot. Mm-hmm. Except for my 9-year-old goes out there, she loves this stuff. It's like a biology class all in itself. Um, for her. And even my older boys, I mean, they love doing it. My 17-year-old just got more involved in it. Um, so the change came in like 2000. I. 2001 was, well, you know, we,

Francis:

I wanna talk more about the change when we come back from the news. We're talking with Kim Chave. She's a third generation Louisiana shrimper. Her whole family's involved in a shrimping operation down in Louisiana. And our American shrimpers are in trouble. And our American shrimp is some of the best shrimp in the world. And we need to take some action and we need to eat some good food and do good by doing well. We'll talk more about what you can do in just a moment and what's going on, especially in light of the hurricanes when we come back from the news. You're listening to the Restaurant guys, central Jersey 1450 to time is 1130. Our guest today is Kim Chauvin. She is a third generation Louisiana shrimper. She owns a shrimp company with her husband and her family called the Mariah Jade Shrimp Company. You may not have ever had really great American shrimp. It's much more flavorful than what you see in the markets, and you can buy it direct from an American welcome back, Kim. I. Thanks. Thanks.

Mark:

So Francis and I talk a lot about, uh, supporting the family farm and things like that. Realize that this is, this is, you know, a, a family business, a small family business. Now this is just you, your husband, a couple deckhands and your family. Is that true, Kim?

Kim:

Uh, two of the deckhands run the, the boat side. Mm-hmm. With my husband, he is the captain and he has two deckhands aboard the boat. On the home base side, it's me.

Speaker 4:

Mm-hmm. Uhhuh,

Kim:

I deliver, uh, around here. Also send off the shipment, you know, get what needs to be done, done.

Francis:

after we had, uh, dumping and dumping is where we had a lot of foreign countries are dumping very cheap aquaculture, mediocre shrimp on the market and really taking

Mark:

Vietnam, Vietnam, China, Thailand, a lot of places like that. Indonesia, India, uh, have kind of come in and, and. Taking the bottom

Francis:

outta the price, right? Put a lot of

Mark:

of these farm raised shrimp into the marketplace, dropping the prices a lot.

Francis:

So what I have here is, is you went to Nickel State University to study marketing and financial management and helped to start your retail business. Why don't you tell us about that?

Kim:

that was one of the first steps, Uhhuh. What happened was we had a few business leaders in. Around our, what we call parish. You guys have a county, uh, that stepped it to the plate and kind of took me under their wing and, uh, kind of guided me on what to do. So the first thing I did was took the class. It was a 12 week class that I had, uh, taken. And, you know, at, at first you kind of wondering, okay, how much is this gonna help me? it did a great, great thing for me. We have been blessed beyond belief in getting a lot of things done. Uh. I was able to go into this class and learn from A to Z what I needed to do, uh, to develop a marketing business, get on the internet and such.

Speaker 6:

And, and how's the business doing?

Kim:

Um, well, you know, everything starts to crawl, uh, in, in a crawl place and then you begin to walk. And that's exactly what happened. It took us a little longer, um, because we had to figure out, when you're dealing with food, there's a whole different thing when you're just dealing with, Nonfood products.

Speaker 4:

Right, right.

Kim:

Um, so you have to go through the health department. Mm-hmm.

Speaker 4:

You have

Kim:

to go through your state department, then you have to get, you know, um, regulations from all your federal parts. Uh, so we, we did a, a good bit of that, has all that set up.

Francis:

one of the things that's very interesting is in the march of sort of agribusiness and huge companies taking over American food production, they can always do it cheaper than the small farmer. Mm-hmm. Or the small fishermen, but. They often can't do it as well. And you know what, Kim was faced with is if she went to go sell her shrimp to a processor, it's gonna wind up in the same box of frozen stuff as, as shrimp from anywhere else. And, and you're not gonna be able to differentiate the product on the shelves. What you need to do out there, and what our mission is, is, you know, good taste is revolutionary. You have to be able to say, yeah, I don't want that garbage. Foreign aquaculture shrimp doesn't taste like anything. I want American shrimp. And, and that's exactly what you get from, from, and not just American

Mark:

shrimp, wild American shrimp. Yeah. Correct. Um, Kim, can you tell us a little bit about, now obviously you guys were, were devastated by Katrina. Can you tell us a little bit about how that, has affected your business and how that affected you? It's been a bad weather year for you guys down there. Yeah,

Kim:

it has been un phenomenal for us. Um, something we were never expecting. That

Mark:

un phenomenal, un phenomenal is a great word.

Kim:

I like that.

Mark:

Anti phenomenal. I'm, I'm adding that to my lexicon

Francis:

starting today. So, so tell us how, how did the weather, how's the weather affected you and your neighbors down there?

Kim:

Um, well, Katrina was more wind in our, in, in. Our fishing part of, of the community. Um, it devastated another couple fishing areas off to the, uh, off to the east of us. Mm-hmm. Which, when I say devastated, there's nothing left on the land. The boats are sunk or turned over and such. But over here we had a lot of wind damage and such. Our boats were fine. We did not get water for Katrina in, in our fishing area. Which everyone knows what happened with Katrina on that end of it in New Orleans, but Rita came and hit the Western end and hit the western side of another fishing community. And I'm talking there are no houses left.

Speaker 4:

Wow. On

Kim:

this land, just as in Venice. There are no houses left on the east side in Venice. In the central part of Louisiana, what happened was, is now this thing came off 150 miles off of our coast. We have a serious problem with coastal erosion. We have no barrier islands left.

Mark:

Mm-hmm.

Kim:

And it will take billions of dollars to put this back together. You

Mark:

said billions, right?

Kim:

I said billions and I really mean billions. Mm-hmm. Um, what happened to

Francis:

the, what happened to the barrier islands? They just,

Kim:

uh, coastal erosion. They've been doing studies since the sixties and it seems that we've, we've put money into it. We have a tax in our parish that puts money into it, which the state matches, which you go to get a grant, uh, to have it matched on the federal level. And every year we go there, we get pushed back.

Speaker 4:

Mm-hmm.

Kim:

Because it's not important enough evidently in Washington DC

Speaker 4:

Right.

Kim:

Um, but anyway, with the barrier islands. Missing. And such. I mean, we have people who t trawl where they could not trawl five years ago, right?

Speaker 4:

Mm-hmm.

Kim:

You know, so the water came in our levies that we had broken 33 places. We have houses that are 10 foot off the ground. They got three to four foot of water in them.

Mark:

And this was actually from Rita, not from Katrina.

Kim:

This is from Rita. Mm-hmm. Yeah. You hear a lot about Katrina, and that was devastating enough, but Rita was just as devastating.

Mark:

How far out of New Orleans are you guys?

Kim:

I am about an hour and a half. 50 miles. Mm-hmm. About 50

Francis:

miles now is, now is, is part of the problem now for you guys that the infrastructure's gone, that the places to land and sell your shrimp and, and all the support structures that, how's that been affected?

Kim:

We've had some that have totally been, you know, decimated. They're, they're like, there's nothing left but the cement on the ground. And then some of that's even broken up. Um, we have a lot more places in the central part of Louisiana. All we had to do was follow our hassa um, guides, which is your. State and federal regulations about what to do in case of a flood, uh, if any of your product has been hit with any of the water. Mm-hmm. You know, and, and which was destroyed and, and pulled off the market and getting in there and cleaning with bleach and, and hospital cleaners and such to where everything is back to normal. So we were able to come back and just took us a couple weeks to get that done. I, on the other hand, I'm a little different. I'm not a processor. Um, I, we took our shrimp out of our freezer, which we have online, and put it right back into our boat before the storm came so that we were fine. Oh, that's, that's great. We would lose absolutely nothing.

Francis:

And I understand you had to actually move onto your boat for a little while'cause your house was so damaged.

Kim:

Uh, we did move onto our boat. That is, that's a normal thing around here. But after

Mark:

we don't move onto our boats a lot around here in Jersey. Yeah. It's not happen.

Kim:

Well, our, our boat is like a 73 foot steel hall. All the accommodations of home.

Speaker 4:

Wow.

Kim:

Um, it, I mean, it has three bedrooms, uh, queen size beds. It has a bathroom. You know, you

Francis:

know, Kim, if I come down there, I want you to invite me to your boat for a party. That would be, that would be a lot of fun.

Mark:

Kim, we were just talking a little bit about, uh, obviously the effects of Katrina and, and even more so in your area, the effects of Rita. Are there areas that, that you, you're not supposed to be shrimping now that, that, uh, off the coast of Louisiana, that, that people have told you you shouldn't be shrimping in?

Kim:

No, no. What we did was. The day after Katrina hit, uh, we got on our phones because one of the things was the, the price of fuel shot up. Mm-hmm. So

Mark:

we remember

Kim:

before, I'm gonna pay$30,000 to put into my vessel.

Mark:

Mm-hmm.

Kim:

I'm gonna make sure that everything is fine, you know, to where I can sell the products.

Speaker 4:

Right. So

Kim:

we went in, I stayed on the phone all day that very next day, uh, and even went up to Baton Rouge, got in touch with, uh, EPA. Which is Environmental Protection Agency, FDA, um, DEQ, uh, department of Environmental Quality and Department of Health and Hospitals. We wanted testing done.

Speaker 4:

Mm-hmm.

Kim:

Uh, so that was one of the things that I did, you know, the day after we started calling and said, look, you know, you guys have got to come down here and test. We need, um, if we can get back to work, I could, I could fix what was wrong with my house, right.

Speaker 4:

And,

Kim:

and get things done here. I could do that, but I wanted my husband to get back out to work to where, you know, we can just get back to a semblance of. Normalcy as, as soon as possible,

Speaker 4:

right.

Kim:

Um, so they came down, they did a lot of testing. We requested tissue samples done. Uh, also within, you know, what was coming out of, of the media in New Orleans without any facts was that this stuff was really bad.

Speaker 4:

Mm-hmm. Uhhuh. And

Kim:

so, um, before I'm gonna feed it to my kids and before I want anybody else need it, I wanted to make sure that this was something that,

Speaker 6:

and what were the results of that test?

Kim:

Um, actually everything's fine. That's right. Everything is fine. That's right. The only thing that you have is the oysters. They are continually being tested because they're, they're not a movable object. Right. That stay sitting on the bed of the, uh, of the Gulf.

Speaker 4:

Right.

Kim:

So, um, that was the only thing, and the oyster fishermen and all those related, and it called a meeting. We went the week after Katrina hit, uh, into a meeting and they called for a halt, you know, like. Anything after Katrina, uh, you weren't supposed to be out there. And so they all knew that and that wasn't even being done.

Speaker 6:

But that's oysters, not shrimp,

Kim:

right? Shrimp is fine. Everything. We just got another report out December 9th saying that um, they have tested hundreds of samples of fish and shellfish, uh, and everything's fine. There's no concern.

Francis:

Alright, so we know that we can have our American trip for Christmas. I gotta ask you a question though. So did you ride out the storm on your boat?

Kim:

Katrina, I did not. Um, when it went to a five, I took my kids, my husband would not leave, which was really frustrating. And um, I. We took off, we went to Vidder, Texas,

Speaker 4:

Uhhuh,

Kim:

and it was a very, very hard thing to do, but I really felt like it was probably, you know,

Speaker 6:

out, you gotta protect your kids. Sure, of course.

Francis:

Yeah. But your husband stayed on the boat. He stayed. What is it like to ride out a category five hurricane? On a boat.

Kim:

Well, you have to realize it really wasn't a five hitting where we were. Mm-hmm. Um, okay. Category three,

Speaker 4:

I, I don't walk outside when it's thundering. Okay. It,

Kim:

it's something that we're used to though. You have to realize we are used to staying aboard our boats.

Speaker 4:

Right. This

Kim:

is what we do because, uh, in the house your electricity will go off. Um, and my boat, it will not. We have a generator

Speaker 4:

right on

Kim:

this boat. Um, we rode out Andrew Uhhuh on the boat. When it hit into Louisiana. Now, if he, if he had not, you barely feel it.

Francis:

If he had not stayed on the boat, would the boat have been lost?

Kim:

No, the boat would've been fine. Mm-hmm. And, but after I tell you this, after he's seen the pictures of Venice

Speaker 4:

Uhhuh, he

Kim:

will never stay when it's coming for us again.

Speaker 4:

Right.

Kim:

You know, he, he was, I guess it was amazing to see what Mother Nature could do at the forces of nature. Could do. Yeah.

Speaker 4:

Uh,

Kim:

when you know, when you think you're safe. And you're really not safe. And I think a lot of it had to do with this. People were told this would not be, you know, this was similar to Betsy

Speaker 4:

Uhhuh in

Kim:

New Orleans. Well, some people only had six inches of water. I.

Speaker 4:

Right. For

Kim:

Betsy.

Speaker 4:

For Betsy,

Kim:

but we're talking 30 years later with no barrier islands out there. Mm-hmm. No protection for our coast.

Francis:

You know, one of the things that, I mean, you bring up a really great point and you, you know, the oceans better, you know the Gulf better than than anybody up here. Mm-hmm. Um. That, you know, bad environmental policy if you, you know, it was similar to Betsy. Yeah. 30 years later. And the difference is no barrier islands, we haven't done a good job stewarding the land. And so yeah, hurricanes happen, but how they affect people depends on how well we take care of the land that we're given. I mean, is that, do you agree with that?

Kim:

Yeah. But there needs, there, we have to put a lot of land back.

Francis:

Mm-hmm.

Kim:

Something has to be done about coastal erosion until, and we have done. Short term items and you know, you need money to do this thing. This

Speaker 4:

is

Kim:

huge and they've let it go so long. Mm-hmm. That, you know, to be honest with you, if another hurricane would come this way for the central part, we would look exactly like those who have been wiped off the face of Venice and Cameron and such. My house will not stand four or five coming straight at us.

Francis:

Do you think, do you think the, the American shrimpers, the gulf shrimpers, do you think the industry's gonna come back?

Kim:

Yes. You had some that were getting out anyway. Mm-hmm. Because they could not, uh, adapt. To the change. And then money-wise

Mark:

you mean? You mean adapt to the change in the, in the financial marketplace. Adapt to the, to, to

Kim:

Right. Adapt to retailing. Mm-hmm. Adapt to getting out. What it is is that it is hard work. It's very hard work to do what we do, but my husband loves it. It, it's, it's a part of him taking him out of this business would be taking apart of him, you know, away. And that would, I'm not into destroying anything. Uh. And I had looked at him and I knew he would be very miserable having to pull out of this. So we, I just sat here and figured out what I would have to do, what it would take for us to make it in this, Hey, listen and went after it. And I'm a very persistent person.

Francis:

Listen, I think that's really great and I think that, uh, what you guys are doing down there is phenomenal and the product that you make is superior. And what you all have to do out there listening to this broadcast is you need to have good taste and you need to have the good taste to recognize that the American Gulf Shrimp is a better product and worth a little bit of effort.

Kim:

Yes, it is. But I wanted to tell you guys one thing. We do have an uh, a boat blessing and you guys are invited to come down. It will be something you will never forget.

Mark:

Very nice. We'll be in

Francis:

touch and maybe we'll even do a live show from down there. Thanks for taking the time to come and talk with us, Kim. You're doing great stuff down there and we'll try and help anyway we can.

Kim:

Okay, thank you. You guys have a good day.

Francis:

Keep fishing for that American shrimp.

Kim:

Okay. Bye-bye.

Francis:

Bye-bye. You're listening to the Restaurant Guys, And our guest today was Kim Chauvin. She's an American shrimper. They've been shrimping down there forever. It's kind of the heart of Cajun country and I can't emphasize to you all enough, you rarely see fresh shrimp the shrimp that you buy in the market is not fresh. It's frozen shrimp that's been thawed. Um, and it's probably from an aquaculture, farm. Oh, most definitely.

Mark:

I mean, somewhere else there's just this very little, wild shrimp out there.

Francis:

And, and, and shrimp is, you know, sort of a vehicle for cocktail sauce. Mm-hmm. But really great live shrimp. We get it. We get it. On the wholesale market only occasionally, but when we do, my God, it's really amazing. Anyway, I hope you've enjoyed the hour listening to the restaurant. Guys. I'm Francis Shot. And

Mark:

I'm Mark Pascal.

Francis:

We are the restaurant guys, central Jersey 1450. The time is 12 noon.