Chefs' Chat

In this episode, G. Frank Russell Technology Center Culinary Arts Instructor Chef Jay Hancock and Indigenous Underground Chef Erica McCier share their professional experiences and promote the upcoming Charity Dinner Series in our community. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:01

Welcome back to the leading listening and learning podcast here in Greenwood School District 50. I'm joined today by two very special guests and have been really looking forward to this one. Chef Hancock here with uh RTC, our culinary arts instructor, and then Chef Masir from Indigenous Underground have joined us here on the podcast today. I'm actually going to allow them to do their own introduction, even though they need no introduction, because I'm sure everybody has had a chance to meet them in the community. But uh throwing it first to Chef Hancock. Glad to have you on the podcast here today, Chef.

SPEAKER_01 0:32

Thank you so much for having us. Um so my name is Chef uh Jay Hancock, and I'm in my ninth year, finishing up my ninth year here at RTC, and I love it. I love getting to influence the next group of kids, the next group of students that are coming in and getting to expand their horizons in food. Um and hopefully they go on then into the restaurant industry because we have such a great restaurant industry here in Greenwood and the surrounding counties. Um, and then going on to some of the great culinary schools in our area as well. Um coming out of I'm married for 17, almost 17 years, be 17 years in August, three little girls. Um, so part of teaching get lets me be home to be with them. Um so love that. Uh have an associate's degree and bachelor's degree, master's degree in business from Clemson. Um and uh yeah, get to be here at RTC. That's awesome. Chef Masseer.

SPEAKER_00 1:22

Hi, my name is Chef Erica Masseer in Abbeyville. Everybody knows me as Chef Trudy, which is the nickname that I grew up with. So I have some people who come in to the restaurant and say, Hey, who's Chef Erica? And I say, I am, and they say, Well, who's Chef Trudy? And I say, I am. But I am the owner of Indigenous Underground in Abbeville. Um, this is Indigenous Underground's fifth year of being open. Prior to opening Indigenous Underground, I was also a culinary arts teacher. I taught culinary arts at the Abbeville County Career Center for five years. Um wasn't sure what made me want to try going back into the restaurant industry again, but I figured I'd give it another try. Indigenous Underground is actually my second try at being, um, I don't guess I need to say try. It's my second time being a um restaurant owner. Um back in 2015, I was at the Belmont Inn, a historical inn in Abbeville. I own what was then called treats at the Belmont. But um at the time I had three children under the age of 18, and I was a single mother. And I really thought I was gonna lose my mind. I I I learned um great things about being a business owner. That was a great experience for me, but not the best experience for me at the time because I learned that it's not good to be a single mother and try to run a high-end restaurant. I never got to see my kids as often. I miss, you know, all kinds of games. And so I decided this is not for me. My children are more important. So after my youngest graduated from high school, I decided, hey, let's give this crazy ride another chance. So that's when I decided to open Indigenous Underground. I am a um Landa University alumni. I studied visual arts with a concentration in graphic design, and I also have my master's in the art of teaching. So I taught um for 10 years at J.S. Wright Middle School prior to me going into the culinary career. And um after that I developed kidney disease. And what made me start um my journey, my culinary journey, was that three days a week I was going to dialysis and I was watching the Food Network thinking, oh my goodness, I could do that. I was like, I I know that I could do that. And you know, just a bit bored with life because now everything has come to a pause. You can't work, you're doing dialysis. So I picked up my phone and I typed in culinary schools near me. Greenville tech popped up and say, I'm going to culinary school. Went to dialysis Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Tuesdays and Thursdays. So, you know, when people hear my story, you know, you kind of get that, oh, I'm so sorry to hear that. But what I get from it is look at how God steps into your life and make things your weaknesses or your down, your down and trodden moments, your necessary moments. Because if it wasn't for that, I never would have been a restaurant owner. I never would have been a South Carolina Chef Ambassador. I am with the South Carolina Chef Ambassador class of 2024. And of course, you know, you're a chef ambassador for life. And I have met so many amazing and creative chefs throughout this journey.

SPEAKER_02 5:22

Well, your story hopefully is going to be an inspiration for young chefs that may be coming into the profession and just that stick to it-ness that you had, that perseverance that you had, it can definitely lead to big things and have heard so many great things about not only your story, but then also about your restaurant as well. So we definitely appreciate you uh being on the podcast and then also participating in the charity series once again. And Chef Hancock, uh, that's actually the purpose for our podcast today. So this charity series is something you actually started last school year, and this is gonna be your second annual one coming up this school year. So gonna throw it back to you and just share some things about what you learned from the first year and some exciting things we have coming up for the second year.

SPEAKER_01 6:01

Yeah. So uh super excited to have this for the second annual uh charity dinner series. Um, our RTC Lunchbox uh food trailer um came out of uh the COVID era. And when uh Dr. Costner was our director here and he asked me, Do you want a food trailer? I said, Yeah, I'd like a food trailer. And so um the maintenance department here uh under Scott Duncan did a great, great job putting that together. Um, and then when we got ready to open up, I was talking with my advisory uh group of restaurants in the community and uh TJ Jenks at Montague's, he said, Have you ever thought of doing this? And it was the basic idea of this charity dinner series, uh having restaurants partner with us to serve restaurant food off of the trailer by my students and to have the revenues go out and support the community. Um and so kind of developed that idea, went through a couple of different drafts and um and then launched that last year. And um we kind of we made it so each restaurant picked their own charity, each restaurant picked their own menu. We served off, uh I think we sold out almost everything uh on your week. We did. Um for Indigenous Underground's week, we sold out uh oh just about everything. Um it was so much fun. We also had had uh we learned some things on technical issues with the trailer because we we couldn't get the gas even going for the first 30 minutes. That's not good. You know, you you learn things and you learn how to uh to persevere and to but that was a great experience though.

SPEAKER_00 7:26

Well, I'm gonna tell you, Chef Jay, he he panicked.

SPEAKER_02 7:31

To put it lightly, right? Yeah, he panicked. Yeah, I was having an aneurysm that day.

SPEAKER_00 7:36

But you know, um, it was it was just I don't know. It was crazy because we were running around trying to find propane tanks, trying to figure out what was going on, and just to be able to sell out of everything because we didn't think that we were going to end up even opening it.

SPEAKER_01 7:55

Yes. And then we sold out of everything with the even with a shortened time. It took us 30 minutes to get it going. Wow. And it and we don't, I still to this day don't know what happened. It just started working. But then when we got back from that, I called maintenance up and like, this cannot happen again. So they put um two new regulators on it. So if one regulator fails, we can just switch to the other regulator and it's just a it's just a uh a dual regulator set up now, so I can just swap the tank over because the tank had plenty of gas in it. Right, something wasn't flowing. Right.

SPEAKER_00 8:25

So uh he's determined for nothing to go wrong this year.

SPEAKER_02 8:29

It's interesting what you learn though, when something does go wrong, then you can come back and be like, oh, I knew how to troubleshoot this if the if in case it does happen again.

SPEAKER_01 8:36

Yeah, and I think that's what you have to do on a food truck, and even in the restaurant business, you're always troubleshooting something because you never know. And that's the thing the kids that my students have to learn is that you never know what's gonna happen. Exactly. And so the food truck really gives a practical experience to that. So last year we partnered with um Indigenous Underground, we partnered with Break on the Lake, and we partnered with Monagues. We raised almost$3,000 for the three charities. Um, and so 50% of the revenue goes to the charities, 50% goes to my students. It allowed me this year in my program to reduce the fees that the students paid and allowed me to buy a pair of kitchen safe shoes for each kid as well, without charging them an additional fee. So uh, you know, trying to get them more professional, more ready for um for the real world. Um, and and have that pair of shoes, and some of them are using that pair of shoes to go to their job. You know, and so they they they haul the shoes back and forth to take them to their job so that they can go get money, earn money at McDonald's or Chick-fil-A it. Um, I got one that needs to come talk to you at Indigenous Underground Bailey that was asked that you interacted with on uh on Facebook the other day. Okay. Um you should hire her. Um shameless plug. I I need someone. Well, I I uh I love getting to recommend my students in the community. Absolutely things like that. So we had a great time last year. This year, um, we swapped out some partners. Um, and so our first event on Monday night is gonna be granite, Granny Hans and Landis. So um super excited that we're gonna do a meet and three off of off the trailer with her. Green beans, mac and cheese, rice. We're gonna fry the fried chicken there on the trailer um with her secret spice recipe. So she's uh she's gonna have the spice recipe mixed up ahead of time for us. So uh um, and then hamburger steak with uh pepper and onion gravy, uh, dinner rolls, banana pudding, uh, and then she's gonna bring tea and lemonade and Arnold Palmer's as well. Um, supporting the food bank on Monday. So super excited, Food Bank of the Lakelands, uh, and the great work that they're doing out there um on that. And then next week, uh the 27th, is gonna be Ninjas Hunter Crowns week. And so for that week, we're doing a Smash Burger with fries, uh, which if you've had my, you know, the food off the trailer, we do a lot of smash burgers off the food trailer. Great, though. They are. Oh, yeah. Um, and uh a lot of fun to do. Um, so we're doing smash burgers and fries, we're gonna do a bacon blue burger uh with bacon jam and blue cheese. Um, we're gonna do a black-eyed pea gumbo over white rice. We're gonna do the soul rolls, which we sold out of so quickly last year. So we're gonna do a few more soul rolls this year.

SPEAKER_00 10:57

Uh we learned our lesson. Did we have plenty of soul rolls? Plenty of soul rolls.

SPEAKER_01 11:02

And uh, my students will be rolling soul rolls all day, all day long, right there. Um, Southern Nachos with pulled pork on that. And they're supporting um Abbeville's New Grace Bags of Blessing. Um, so they do a weekend um meal program, backpacks of food, I think, is the uh is the way that that structures. And then we're gonna take a week off. I have to do the practical final with my students the week of the fourth. We have to pick a week that none of the schools are doing EOCs and ACTs and SATs and wind testing and everything. So uh we're gonna take a week off and do our practical final, which is a four-day practical final. And then um the 11th, we're gonna partner with sports break, um, supporting Connie Maxwell Children's Home. And the menu for them is gonna be a Whiskey River uh fried chicken wrap, um, shrimp tacos, Cajun chicken, grilled chicken uh sandwich, um, a grilled cheese, a grilled ham and cheese, and a grilled buffalo chicken tender grilled cheese. So kind of all built off the concept of grilled cheese there. And then a smash burger with pimento cheese and a fried green tomato. We're gonna serve fries, onion rings, and coleslaws that sides with with their menu. So super, super excited uh for these three. And and uh they're all gonna be in front of Hobby Lobby. Um, much thanks to Stockman Lands for letting us park there without uh without giving us any uh giving us any grief and trouble for that. So uh thank you very much to to Mr. Stockman for that.

SPEAKER_02 12:21

Um people as driving by, if they see that line, that's exactly where that line is. That's what we want to be.

SPEAKER_01 12:26

Um so super excited to be there. Um Publix was a great place to park last year, but Hobby Lab just gives that extra visibility for the passing by crowd.

SPEAKER_02 12:35

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 12:36

So um if there's any weather adjustments, we'll we'll announce those on Facebook and Instagram. Um I know we had one last year. We had to push a day for for rain dumped on us. Right, yeah. Um, but uh, you know, it's the next two Mondays look clearer so far. So um looking forward to that.

SPEAKER_02 12:51

Okay. Well, Chef Massier, can you talk a little bit about obviously you were the winner from last year. Can you talk to us a little bit about how about how you got connected with the charity dinner series and then the feeling you had once you were uh named the winner from last year's series?

SPEAKER_00 13:06

Well, um, what many people don't know is I kind of made Chef Hancock my mentor. Um, when I was teaching at the Career Center in Abbeyville, um, I was told, well, you need a mentor. And I'm like, Well, I'm the only culinary, you know, teacher in this area. And I can't remember who told me about you.

unknown 13:28

I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 13:28

I remember it would have been my second year, would have been my second or third year teaching. Uh maybe Crystal, maybe Crystal did at S E R L A.

SPEAKER_00 13:34

I think so. But I reached out to Chef Hancock because I was like, what is ProStar? You know, I came from teaching art, visual arts, and now I'm doing culinary arts, and they were like, You got to go to competition. I was like, wait a minute, what I gotta go out like, and and you got to do this and you got to do that. It was a big change from um, and and I had been out of the classroom for what, like 10 years. And coming back into the classroom and having all that thrown at me, I was like, I need to talk to someone who knows what they're doing. Trust me, this man knows what he's doing.

SPEAKER_01 14:09

I think it really good there in that when you started teaching, because that was a long time ago, and uh, you know, I was I was still learning my way through things, but you know, just I I love teaching. I love it.

SPEAKER_00 14:21

So my thing is, you know, just out of my gratitude, it's hard for me to tell. And plus, you know, I'm just so passionate about teaching, you know, especially when something is your passion and you just want to share that's right with others. So um I mean I'll I'm excited. I'm my crew is excited about doing this again.

SPEAKER_02 14:47

Right. They are like Is it more of like an excitement that oh we're gonna win again, or is it just an excitement, just overall excitement?

SPEAKER_00 14:54

Sometimes I think we're glad to get out the get out of the restaurant, right?

SPEAKER_02 14:58

The competition is always good, so I'm sure y'all aren't looking to lose this year.

SPEAKER_00 15:02

I think they are, you know, I just get excited in helping.

SPEAKER_01 15:06

Right.

SPEAKER_00 15:06

They're coming there to win. Exactly right.

SPEAKER_01 15:08

Well, I say sports break is out for you this year. So the the person at Sports Break who's doing the who's coordinating for them is actually a former student of mine. Um Josh Dabari was one of my first students when I started teaching. And now he's a lead, he's the night kitchen lead in the in the in the kitchen at sports break. And so he's taking the leadership of this and ownership, and he's like, We're gonna beat them this year. All right, bring it on the job, bring it, baby, bring it down.

SPEAKER_02 15:33

And I do want to point out for the people that are gonna listen to this podcast, when we're saying it's a competition, it's an all for us win. You know what I mean? It's not so much the restaurant, the community wins when we do this and the community wins. Right.

SPEAKER_01 15:44

I just kind of want to speak to that. But I do give a plaque out for this, the restaurant that has the highest grossing revenue for the day we do uh for the for the three weeks. Right. We do a plaque press release, you know, a little friendly competition. Oh, yeah, yeah. This is not a uh this is not a let's sabotage the the people, um, Gordon Ramsey style competition here. Um this is uh this is friendly, friendly fun in the community to benefit the community, to benefit the students. Um, and if someone comes out with a plaque at the end of it, all the better.

SPEAKER_02 16:14

Now, do you have any plans, Chef, before we close out the podcast, any plans of what you are gonna use the funds for this year, the proceeds?

SPEAKER_01 16:20

So we have a field trip planned. Um, and we are gonna be going down to um Edgefield County. We're gonna go down to Titan Farms and tour. They're gonna give us a tour of their peach processing facility where they process the peaches through this amazing facility. We got to tour it back in September as teachers. Um, and so we're gonna tour their picking and processing plants. And um, then we're gonna go down to Juniper and we're gonna have lunch at Juniper restaurant there in Ridge Springs. Okay. Um, all paid for um by things we've been earning over the course of the year, including the Charity Dinner series. It also funds our competition, um, where we're able to uh, you know, I'm able to take the kids out to dinner, the students out to dinner who go to competition, um, pay for things like boot camp, things for buses, pay for uh I'm a bus driver, so getting them, you know, having a bus is not a problem. Um as long as we can get a bus. Right. Things that, you know, I'm able to drive it. Um and so having being able to take the students on these trips without cost, and also being able to subsidize the uniform costs and the shoes. Right. So that that's what I'm using it for. Um, it just goes it goes back into the uh into the use, and we just keep cycling it through. Um allows me to do fun things for the students without having to come back to the parents and be like, hey, give me some more money. Right, exactly. So that's really the goal. I I'd like to keep bringing the fee money down to the end goal being it's a nominal fee to take culinary. Um I think there is a value in there being a fee because the students see a value when there's uh when it's free, there's less value attached to it and then there's less care taken. Right. Um, but bringing the I can see bringing those fees down even further as the if this trend is able to continue in the way that the um fundraising goes.

SPEAKER_02 18:08

Right. Well, we appreciate both of you being on the podcast today. Um, chef, just want to make sure you shout out where they people I know they listened to what the menus were for the dinner series, but if they want to go online or if they want to go on social media to find them, where can they find them at?

SPEAKER_01 18:23

So I have the um I have the first menu posted on our on my social medias, which are RTC Chef Hancock and RTC Lunchbox. Um that is on Facebook and Instagram. Um, I haven't put the menus up yet on my website, but I can do that. Um the uh my my website can be accessed through the G Frank Russell Technology Center website off of the greenwood50.org, gwd50.org website. You find the school website for G Frank Russell Technology Center. And then under departments, you go to Culinary Arts. I keep my website up to date. Um I have I'll put these charity series up there, but you can also email me and I'll be happy to interact with you that way. Uh Hancock J at GWD50.org. Um, if you're not a social media person, you can always shoot me an email and or check on my website there as well.

SPEAKER_02 19:09

Well, excited about the charity dinner series once again this year and excited that both of y'all were able to hop on the podcast today and uh talk a little bit more about how this is not only going to impact our students here at the RTC, but then also impact our entire community. So appreciate both of you being here and uh hope everybody has a great rest of the day. Thank you all again. Thank you. Thank you. Thank y'all.