Burnt Hands Perspective
This is a raw and unfiltered look into the state of the restaurant industry as a whole, powered by longtime friends Chef/Owner Antonio Caruana and former bartender turned News Anchor/TV Host Kristen Crowley.
Representing all aspects of the industry from the front to the back of the house we will dig into the juiciest stories and pull from decades of experience in one of the sexiest and most exciting industries in the world...the food and beverage industry.
From international chefs, sommeliers, industry pros, and so much more, this show will cover all of it without a filter. You turn up the volume; we'll turn up the heat.
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Burnt Hands Perspective
EP 36 - From Bobby Flay and James Beard to Aloha Snacks: Chef Jesse's Culinary Journey in Virginia Beach
What happens when a classically trained fine dining chef decides to trade white tablecloths for paper plates and still serve some of the best food in Virginia Beach? Meet Chef Jesse Wykle, the culinary mastermind behind Aloha Snacks and a true Hampton Roads legend who once took down Bobby Flay on national television with his signature lumpia.
We got the real dirt about food television competitions, where Jesse shares the surreal experience of competing against Bobby at 4 AM after a night of drinking with his wife in New York City. This story is priceless—from Bobby glazing over when hearing "lumpia" to bringing in a Filipino chef to teach him the basics, and ultimately inviting Jesse to his restaurant Gato after losing the competition. "I've never hung out with anybody," Bobby admitted, making Jesse's victory that much sweeter.
But beyond the glitz of Food Network fame lies a deeper conversation about what makes a restaurant community thrive. Jesse passionately advocates for breaking down the competitive walls between local establishments, arguing that Hampton Roads will never attract Michelin recognition until restaurants support each other rather than operating in isolation. "If James Beard is looking for a place to give someone an award, they're going to a place where multiple places have that quality," he explains, urging chefs to focus on building collective excellence rather than individual prestige.
Jesse also shares details about the upcoming Virginia Beach Strawberry Festival on May 17th, shutting down Laskin Road to celebrate local farms and raise money for EquiKids. Please go out and support this new festival location!
His advice to young chefs considering restaurant ownership is refreshingly blunt: "Either get out or realign it." This interview offers an unfiltered look into both the creative joys and brutal realities of the restaurant industry from someone who's mastered the art of working his way up, to work his way out.
Want to understand what makes Hampton Roads' culinary scene special and where it's headed? Listen to this episode, then head to Aloha Snacks in Virginia Beach to experience the casual culinary magic of a chef who wears Nike tennis shoes while preparing some of the best tuna.
You can find out more about this hidden gem of a spot here: https://alohasnacksvb.com/
And on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/alohasnacksvb
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All right, kristen, check it out. Listen, we got, we got a legend. We got a local legend.
Speaker 2:Local legend, one of my favorites.
Speaker 1:Mr Jesse Weichel, right here from Aloha Snacks, if you all know about that.
Speaker 3:You got two legends. Hold on.
Speaker 1:You can't, you can't cap out, you can't, you can't tap out of it.
Speaker 2:He tries to be understated. He's like he's moved on from the more famous chef world into this understated presence of being. That is you now. Oh, I'll say this Hold on a minute, a couple teaming me now.
Speaker 1:Now listen, you can't. If someone says you're a legend, you just roll it. You don't say, you don't, un-legendize yourself.
Speaker 2:Fair enough, you can't be un-legendary.
Speaker 3:Fair enough, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2:It's like you know once you slap someone in the face fine, it's all it's in love.
Speaker 3:Right, this is gorgeous, so I can't believe it we use the word legendary.
Speaker 1:Tell us what she started something at the beginning of this conversation, real quick, you just said it a minute ago. Um, you worked through. You worked your ways up to where you can actually be, where you are now right.
Speaker 2:Well, you worked your way up to work your way to a like the life you wanted. So the reason I I love you and I wanted to have you on the show is because there's a lot of underrated people in this area that people don't really know about or don't know their history in the culinary space, and you're one of those people.
Speaker 2:I think people love Aloha Snacks, the Virginia Beach. The food is great, but that's not where you started and people don't realize your actual trajectory of training and where you were in the chef world before that restaurant and that's I mean, that was part of the reason I wanted you to be here to kind of share that well, first, before you go deep, do this, explain what aloha snacks is, because there's a lot of people that watch us from all over the world and we have a lot.
Speaker 1:Actually, our following is is reaching well past our area. So give us, give us a quick rundown of what your vision and what your inspiration for aloha snacks got to tell you first, man, working my way up to work my way out. I mean, this business is not for everybody and not for the whole home.
Speaker 3:This thing is nuts. Sometimes I have you know. You wake up and you got these terrible dreams. You're like oh my God, the water's been running.
Speaker 1:Orders didn't come in Nightmare, is it?
Speaker 3:a dream, is it reality? I know you've had those.
Speaker 1:I had one last night.
Speaker 2:Mine are always not being able to get water to the tables. Actually, you want to know what it was.
Speaker 1:What was it? It came true, oh no. I had a dream that my frigging delivery people were coming in here and they couldn't get in and we needed everything because it was a big day. And I got here today and there was a frigging delivery driver outside waiting to get in Crazy.
Speaker 3:They come whenever they want, don't they?
Speaker 1:Yeah, don't worry about the invoice or what it says, because that doesn't matter. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:So you started okay.
Speaker 1:Aloha Snacks. Why the name? Why the inspiration? It's all a lot of tuna, a lot of Hawaiian, a lot of sea stuff. So we got you in there the other day. You have the musubi.
Speaker 2:Thanks to Kirsten.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I like the spam. I kind of a fine-tuned restaurant, fast, casual spin on Hawaii and everything that we love out there in the islands, Paying homage to the people and the places that we've traveled to, enjoyed the food and the cuisine and put it on a compostable paper plate Taking some of the arrogance out of the restaurant. We're wearing Nike tennis shoes to work and shorts and cutting up some of the finest tuna in the world. It's casual as all get out, but the food is not.
Speaker 1:The food is not elevated and we got our little pickup window, which I love exactly. So we we were talking before and we're talking about how the how such far reaches. Now it's much easier to get regional food. You know you, you have a lot of inspiration from hawaii, but it really in turn, I mean it is a lot of virginia beach cuisine really. I mean a lot of that over the years.
Speaker 1:That stuff is kind of melded together and uh, and you guys are really putting it out that way with a lot of I would say uh, pacific infusion right, is that right to say?
Speaker 3:yeah, I mean, it's um, it's like a melting pot in virginia beach, you know, and comfort food could be pad thai, and it's crazy that we've come this far.
Speaker 1:Whereas comfort food would be pulled, barbecue or something. Now it's pad thai and you've got comfort food items on your menu?
Speaker 3:Sure, I absolutely have, because it's comfortable. The pizza who doesn't want to be?
Speaker 2:comfortable bro we eat food to be happy.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no one goes to have a shitty time. No one wants to be uncomfortable. But see, you've got to go outside of your realm and be a little uncomfortable. Sometimes, you know, in a creative process that happens that could be Chesapeake. It is.
Speaker 1:But let me tell you something In the creative process, when a chef's creating food, a lot of that is uncomfortable because you don't know what direction. Then the comfortability comes into it.
Speaker 3:But it is uncomfortable. Chef, we had no idea that Aloha snacks would fly.
Speaker 2:I mean, we didn't know Right, so you just roll the dice. So how long has it been there now? How long have you had that restaurant? Seven and a half years, okay, it came from Zoe's Yep.
Speaker 1:Fine dining.
Speaker 3:You were a fine dining chef. The last dinner we did was, I mean, hillside sunspot.
Speaker 1:It was crazy and Schaefer ain't a joke anyway, that's already a. That right there. Just to match the food as a chef to that quality of wine is some of the struggles. We come with A fun one, a creative one, but you have to be creative and you have to think and you have to have skill to be able to match what's in that bottle.
Speaker 3:That's right.
Speaker 1:We can't make that bottle look shitty or make that bottle make our food look so much it can't be so much better than our food that we have to match what's in that fucking bottle, if not beat it. You know, amen, that's how I look at it. You know, the better the wine for a wine dinner to me is, the better the food I'm going to put out, so I can keep up to the caliber of that rating on that bottle and it's a marriage, you know, and not overpower it.
Speaker 3:And you know, I see y'all's wine list and I mean it's dude, let's crack some it's a little hard. He's like I'm ready Pop some bottles.
Speaker 2:We can have a glass of wine right now. If you want, we can totally do that. I love it.
Speaker 1:So let me say this you have a good resume, you have a good accolade, so tell us about it, tell everybody about it. People want to hear this shit. You were working with Bobby Flay and them guys, weren't you? You were on TV, you were on the Food Network and stuff. Correct me if I'm wrong.
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, it started with the James Beard House. I was the youngest in Virginia to be able to you know I was chosen to cook at the Beard House. You've done that. I think there's a pool or some names that they gravitate towards um, that kind of funnels you through, uh, the food network and whatever shows, right, they want you to go on um, and so that's how we got on the b bobby flay show so talk about that show man.
Speaker 1:We want to hear about this stuff. Um, you know, I mean, it was behind the scenes, it was kind of crazy, honestly.
Speaker 3:Um, just, I guess the casting you know well, they want to.
Speaker 2:Do they tell you to be a dick? Do they tell you to like they were, like you ever?
Speaker 3:smoke pot. I'm like. I mean, are you all the feds?
Speaker 2:What's going?
Speaker 3:on.
Speaker 1:This is a D-Bobby play show. That's crazy, I mean, why would they ask that?
Speaker 3:Right. And then, as we're going through, you know the menu and they were like, how about chicken parm? And I'm like, how about not?
Speaker 1:I was like I'm not making out chicken parm. In the last next I was like, sorry, I said poke, bulgogi, cheesesteak, you know, burgers.
Speaker 3:All that had been done and then I was like boom, olympia, and that was Bobby's kryptonite, his Asian food he just blanked. He was like what.
Speaker 1:You know what, though? I'd be with him in that, because I would kind of blank out on Asian food.
Speaker 3:I love to eat it. It's a spring roll, yeah but you do yours different.
Speaker 2:Yours is different than a traditional lumpia.
Speaker 3:We like the XL.
Speaker 2:You do like the real elevated version of it and it's not the traditional, just the beef beef, the ground beef, and you have a lot going in on yours is that what you made on the show?
Speaker 3:yeah, it's the local pork, is that so the lumpia that's on your menu, is that? That's what I went against bobby, so when?
Speaker 1:you're on the show with bobby. How was that? Was it? Was it fun? Was was a lot of jokes going on. We like to be. You're a humorous guy, you like to have fun. You like to all right so you want?
Speaker 2:the whole story was there.
Speaker 3:We gotta start about the night before because, my wife and I went up and we just raged. Maybe I was wound tighter than a $2 watch or whatever it was. But we went up that night and 4 in the morning rolls up and we're like dude, we kind of got to get dialed in for the show.
Speaker 1:So it's 4 in the morning. You're going on set and there's this cab driver, that dude.
Speaker 3:He was out of the Jetsons just flying. I mean he must have clipped two cars. I'm like this is it? I'm gonna die in new york city, perfect, yeah. So anyway, four in the morning rolls in um. I'm getting texts from food network, probably around six, yeah two hours, two hours of sleep and they're like telling me which shirt to wear. So we show up, we're film. We're filming in Harlem.
Speaker 1:Did they give you a bunch of shirt options to wear?
Speaker 3:No, no, we brought some, I mean whatever. I had, like this old Jamaican, like you know, tuna shirt. Whatever I was, like let's do it.
Speaker 1:That's so you. I had like maybe one button. You just left the plug.
Speaker 3:There's a chef contestant room and all the chefs are like just walking around. I'm like, oh my God, you know, this shit is real.
Speaker 1:Yeah. And then it's kind of like the movie. Were they the chefs on the show competing with you?
Speaker 3:They were like fill-ins too. They were like other chefs, like ready to just drop and roll.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And then it's like the movie Gladiator. You could hear Bobby was already filming. It's what a beast he is. He's already filming another show and like it was 7 or 8 in the morning and the crowd's like oh, and you're like oh, my God. I mean, the anxiety was.
Speaker 2:They had a live crowd out there.
Speaker 3:Oh, it's like a stadium seating.
Speaker 2:You had that for yours so that you could hear, and I had my wife up there.
Speaker 3:She's yelling at me the whole time.
Speaker 1:So you're getting nervous at this point. Now it's real. She's throwing things at you. I love you. Darling, she's going to be watching this. I love it.
Speaker 3:So whatever. Then we go up, I go against this other chef at New York City and they're talking about our intro and he was going to say something in Portugal and and I was like, because I brought my ukulele, they wanted me to. I wrote a song for Bobby, actually.
Speaker 1:So you have a lot of Hawaii. This ukulele is in Hawaii. You like Hawaii? Ok, we got it.
Speaker 3:So I rolled out there and I just like pointed at Bobby with the ukulele. They're like OK, this guy's a dud probably you know what I mean. This guy's out as it all trying to tell me about everything and that's not how I learn. I'm like a visual, tangible, and I was just like, all right, man, you're just going to shut the fuck up. I was like I cannot, I can't concentrate. He's like oh, you do you, We'll see what happens. I'm like okay.
Speaker 3:So then whatever they come out for me. I mean, it was like canned white beans and I'm like no one's eating that shit. And then it was dried white beans and I'm like you can't. I mean what do? We got 18, 20 minutes. I'm like I'm damned if I do, damned if I don't. And so I knew that old boy was going to go for a castellay and I was like I thought about doing a fritter and we ended up just kind of playing it safe, going with a little salad, had some guanciale croutons on there and I think that's for sure.
Speaker 3:But I did try to pickle the beans in like a little vinegar and sugar and I boiled them some bitches for like 19 minutes hard. I mean the pan was melting and that bean was hard as a rock. I mean the pan was melting and that bean was hard as a rock Still.
Speaker 3:So at the end of the salad dish after we had plated, I was kind of taking some of that liquid and just kind of splashing it over the salad, just a little acid, you know, on the fatty bean that we had, I had a fatty vinaigrette and some bitter greens and one of the beans fell on the plate.
Speaker 2:Oh, no, and.
Speaker 3:I was like trying to blow that bitch off. You know what I?
Speaker 1:mean For sure.
Speaker 3:So the guy came over whatever the dude's got a headset or whatever. He was like trying to run this food or whatever. He's like, what's that? I was like I don't know, take that off. So he just wiped it off.
Speaker 2:I'm like boom Perfect, Because if I had put those beans on there.
Speaker 3:They'd have been like who is this guy?
Speaker 2:Yeah, break a tooth.
Speaker 3:So then we went on to the second round with Bobby, and that's the juicy stuff you want to hear about. Bobby's short, bobby's not tall, but Bobby is super cool.
Speaker 1:I mean Just a wisecrack.
Speaker 3:So cool and you know, when we're like kind of standing face-to-face and he wants to hear about like whatever dish I have and they're like they want me to present on him and I'm like I don't know, it's Bobby dude, he might come up on me, Even if it's five foot four, I don't know.
Speaker 1:I'm six two.
Speaker 3:So I said Olympia and he just glazed over. He's like I don't even know what that is. So a Filipino chef. I go back over to my kitchen.
Speaker 1:This Filipino chef starts she rolls this motherfucking card out and she starts showing him how to roll Olympia. And I'm like, wait a minute, this is cheating this is bullshit.
Speaker 3:So my chef was like bro, it's his kitchen. I'm like look. I don't care at this point, I don't care if I win, lose, draw, as long as I beat the first guy, because I'd have been like, no, I wouldn't go there.
Speaker 1:You know, right, you got to challenge Bobby Winning would be great, but at least you get to the level Just hanging with him, yeah.
Speaker 3:So there was a lot of downtime. I mean, while we were sitting up there, they'd have to film a segment. They didn't like it. They'd have to re-film it. Bobby's just sitting there on his phone, just you know. God knows what employee walked out on him.
Speaker 1:I'm dealing with the same thing he was Googling.
Speaker 3:Lumpia. I would like to think he's dealing with the same problems you and I are dealing with which is like the hiring.
Speaker 2:No, I think he was Googling Lumpia. Yeah, he's probably Googling AI help. Yeah, what do I do?
Speaker 3:So I looked at Bobby and I go, and I don't know what possessed me to say this but I was like, so tell me more.
Speaker 1:Yeah right.
Speaker 3:Tell me more, bob. And he's like you know cookbooks, restaurants, staffing issues I film two shows a day. He's like it just never stops. And I was like that's cool. So I just kind of I didn't say anything and maybe like a couple minutes later I was like that's cool. So I just kind of I didn't say anything and maybe like a couple minutes later I was like, hey, I'd love to buy you like a beer and a shot afterwards or something.
Speaker 3:Just kind of pick your brain on. You know, you're like the Elon Musk of the restaurant business, you know how do you do it. And he goes a shit ton of assistance. I'm like fair enough, hire, well. So then the show goes on and we have a great time and I'll tell you more about that. But afterwards he came over and my wife's up there yelling and I know she was about to freaking, pass out and he goes hey, so what are you and your wife doing later? And I was like nothing, he goes, I want to have you all to gato. So he invited us over to his Spanish restaurant.
Speaker 1:Gato, that's amazing man, that's great.
Speaker 3:I was like you do this with all the winners, huh, and he's like I've never hung out with anybody.
Speaker 1:Did you beat him? I beat him, you beat Bobby Flay Beat him. Here we go, beat him with the lumpia. And his little lumpia roller didn't have what it took. Yeah, to get the Aloha snack action.
Speaker 3:And the Aloha snack features it still. So the judges from the first round end up being like kind of in my corner the second round, because they have like these restaurant judges, you know, and um, I think it was like sonny anderson's like what can we get you? I was like cold beer I need I need an equalizer.
Speaker 1:Let's go back to the night before 4 am right.
Speaker 3:So I was like cold beer. And then, at that point, I guess, I wound up with a ukulele in my hand and I started singing, bobby, a song like chili pepper paste, all up in my face.
Speaker 1:Nice.
Speaker 3:Aromatic static pork belly mace.
Speaker 1:Dude, he lost it. Spitting Dude, he lost it, he's spitting over here. Oh my God, I love it.
Speaker 3:So let me after you're done spitting fire With a ukulele, yeah, with a uke.
Speaker 1:After the fire spat you come back to the beach, right, and then now you have how did that boost your? That had to have boosted you up to another level in the culinary world. It had to help, as it all does for all of us. Anytime we get some sort of accolade, it helps us to the next level. That right there, that has to have been a huge, did you get?
Speaker 3:any more response from shows? Did you have any? What did you do there? A couple things happened. Coming back the next day, we had a wedding for Bruce Hornsby's nephew at the Hornsby house in Williamsburg. It was a Mac Daddy wedding 250 people. I was honestly getting a little teary-eyed on the flight back because there's so much culture Now, this was in November 2019, so right before COVID hit. And man, there was's so much culture.
Speaker 3:now this was in november 2019, so right before covid hit yeah and um, and there was just so much culture and you know, I've always wanted to be a michelin chef and man, they're never going to come to virginia beach. Um, and I'm just like man freaking.
Speaker 3:Virginia beach, that's what you know what I mean but you're in the same boat as me, bro it lasted for like one second because I mean we have the absolute best clientele, we have the best customers, we have the best farms, farmers, they work so hard and just I think you've got to be thankful for where we are. We're not in New York City. Our game in the culinary industry has just grown exponentially and, you know, very honored, we got a lot so exponentially and, you know, very honored, we got a lot. So I had a lot to be thankful for. That show was, uh, you know, definitely a pinnacle in my career. It wasn't a michelin star, but it was uh, well, no but it's huge.
Speaker 1:I mean, you put yourself on the map, but you also put Virginia Beach on the map, and one of our episodes that we're going to talk about again some point in time is is community over competition so let's talk about that real quick with him.
Speaker 1:I mean, I think it's very important to know, I always feel this Beard Michelin, these things don't come to a region unless the region itself is notable. So a lot of these people won't come here because of that. And I feel that in our area, as well as other areas that have a lot of great restaurants, great chefs, what the fuck is missing? And I feel that in our area, as well as other areas that have a lot of great restaurants, great chefs, what the fuck is missing? And I think it's community. The restaurants and the chefs aren't working together as a community. It's an individual competition that outweighs a community.
Speaker 3:It is definitely a competition in BB and they're like I don't want to see what you got. Going on, you can't see what I got. And an oceanfront restaurant. It's like some bullshit frozen crab stuff, flounder, and not only that, that's the secret ingredient, that's your secret.
Speaker 1:They're going to pepper, sear their ahi tuna and put a wasabi glaze over the top. We all know that. So, instead of the restaurants in any town, any area, there's so much competition individually that they're not paying attention to the locality. For instance, there's people if you do the best of competitions, people don't want nothing to do it because it's rigged. If you're noticed as this, for instance, 2024, I was voted best chef of the Year of Virginia from the restaurant hospitality.
Speaker 1:Commission now that, to me, would be something you would hear about. Not one person gives a shit about it. Again, like you, something was brought to Hampton Roads, where it usually goes to Northern Virginia, dc area, charlottesville right, it's out there, richmond it never comes to Hampton Roads. So here we are with this and it's almost like a competition, where people don't want to speak about it because it wasn't them or it's bullshit, or yeah right, there's no community of support here and I think we need to work on that.
Speaker 3:What's your community or your people? And look at this right here this is a mecca. You're like Kevin Costner dude in the Field of Dreams, dude, you built it they are here, dog.
Speaker 1:You built it. You built this bad boy dude. Look at this. Like you said before, now restaurants now restaurants.
Speaker 3:For sure, there's some jealousy aspects of it, you know it's like I worked in charlottesville on the downtown mall before I moved to um virginia beach and dude everybody. They would share sugar, employees, drugs, whatever they were like, just tight, that's they were tight.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean.
Speaker 3:That's the community. And you know, I'm not obviously not saying that you should share drugs at all, but I am just telling you that the restaurants were tight, that's what I'm trying to tell you.
Speaker 1:No, no, I get it. So that's what I mean. So the community in some places, Take that one out.
Speaker 1:Now we sell it, sell it, push it. So anyway, we have Listen, we have the community of people, right? Chefs, owners, restaurateurs. They're not working together and if you don't work together, you're never going to have those people get the interest to come here, because no one from any foundation is going to put their efforts into one thing. If there's one place here that is worth that star, if the area itself isn't worth the stars everywhere else, they're not going to come here. If James Barrett is looking for a place that they're going to give someone an award, they're going to go to a place where multiple places have that quality so they can come back and give another award. They're not going to come for one person.
Speaker 1:So if you think you're the one person who's going to change the world, one person. So if you think you're the one person who's going to change the world, you're not. It has to be a community. There has to be involvement in the community. There has to be culinary foundations of our own set up here. There needs to be a chef network. There needs to be, like I said, foundations. There needs to be things together that the community works as a chef community.
Speaker 3:We need a round table. We need to be talking Tomorrow's the draft. Right, we were just talking about the draft. We need to have, like an anti-draft of like don't hire this employee. You know what I mean Like without having to deal with, you know, without having to deal with any kind of repercussions from the labor board.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean.
Speaker 3:But I mean that's the real of it is. You know, there's so many fake resumes going around, just so they can still collect unemployment, you know? And I mean I don't even know why I mess with my email anymore, because they'll send stuff in and then they'll never show up.
Speaker 1:You have a successful name. Someone comes to me with an Aloha Snacks resume. They were cooking there for two years. I'm going to call you directly, check with the guy, make sure that's true. If it is true, I know because he worked for you, he's probably going to have some skill and know something because he gained something from you. Now, people with a luce resume fuck you guys, by the way, if you're watching this. So who I'm talking about? You walk out of my restaurant because you don't like something I said to you or you didn't get enough hours. I'm talking about the cooks, right, and they go and they want to be a chef somewhere else.
Speaker 1:Now, everyone knows luce resume. Everyone knows that if you worked for me, you probably work, and if you work for me for some time, you learned something. People know my name, I have a reputation, but they're not checking with me. They just take it because this guy could be the biggest shitbag there was, or girl could be the biggest shitbag there was, but because they worked for me for a year, they're just going to try and soak anything they can out of that person. Who cares what type of person this is? Who cares why I fired this person. They don't even give a shit.
Speaker 1:You know, this guy could have robbed me blind. He could have done anything. He could have done anything he wanted in my kitchen and they wouldn't even know. But because they're so desperate to have anything they can worth a fuck that they're not going to look into it. Like you said, an anti-draft would have been useful because I would have told them guys, nope, nope, they did this, this, this, this and this. They're going to do it to you. They ain't worth shit. And just because they worked for me for a year doesn't mean they weren't a pain in my ass for the year.
Speaker 3:Let's get a website and let's throw some names up. Here's the number one draft for not hiring them.
Speaker 2:It's like the Facebook group of like have you dated this guy?
Speaker 1:That's the big Facebook group here, so women put pictures of guys on there, have you?
Speaker 2:hired this person. The labor board would look down on this.
Speaker 1:They would the labor board would look down on this, or some human rights activist or somebody would be mad at this.
Speaker 3:But again, why the fuck?
Speaker 1:do we have to deal with this? You're going to protect them, but you're not going to protect us. You're not going to allow us to protect ourselves from hiring these muttonheads because you don't want to hurt their reputation. They hurt their reputation. I didn't. I'm just telling you what the hell this muttonhead did or didn't do, or whatever you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:This guy's taking pieces of filet out of the walking three times a week and bringing it home to feed his family. Or, you know, once in a while you get four lobster tails that just disappear and you know it's this person. You catch them. Why can't we say to the next person fuck that, dude.
Speaker 3:You know I'm saying dude, there's definitely somebody needs to write a book. I mean, let's do it. There's definitely some stories you know around hampton roads I have.
Speaker 2:I have a book in mind. I'm not going to divulge it on here, but I'll tell you when we're done. Yeah right, copyright, that first.
Speaker 1:Yeah but now let's go on you. You are involved with a lot of great things, talking about the community right, Because we can joke, we can be pissy, we can talk shit, but honestly there's a factual thing. You have a lot of good things happening in the community of Virginia Beach. Your name is attached to a lot of things, from politics to strawberry festivals, to bringing that stuff from the Pungo Farms to Virginia Beach Oceanfront, which is not close but it's not far, to Virginia Beach Oceanfront, which is not close but it's not far, but it's far enough to be able to bring it to the oceanfront where it is Pungo and Virginia Beach. From Virginia Beach Oceanfront is a good 20-minute ride.
Speaker 2:For sure. But you had a reason for doing that, absolutely Trying to bring it back 100% community.
Speaker 3:Talk about that man. That's what we want man, we want community, we want to be able to have our own events. On Laskin Road there's so many beautiful little shops. You know, I was just in Wayne Jones flowers. Um, he did my parents flowers at First Prez when they got married, you know, and he did mine as well. That's how long that guy's been in business um, and it's still there just some cool little places.
Speaker 3:So we want to bring a festival down there. You know like the vibe is, the culinary is an we're going to be a culinary arts in the artery district and so we're going to have chefs, we're going to have friends of the artery, you know from Chesapeake and Pongo, and we're going to bring them in. We're going to have some Mac Daddy competitions.
Speaker 1:And people don't know the value of a freaking Pongo strawberry. They don't understand the goodness of this fucking nugget.
Speaker 3:Dude, they're popping off right now. If you hadn't been getting any, oh, I've seen the fields I've seen some of the stuff online Cauliflower's going off Flanagan. You know some of them are pick-your-own.
Speaker 1:They're not picking quite yet, right, they're picking.
Speaker 3:They've been picking for two weeks. Okay, good.
Speaker 1:Let's go pick, yeah stuff I want to do.
Speaker 2:That would be so cool to be out there in the fields.
Speaker 3:Bullifer's got their little chef smackdown, so they're looking for chefs.
Speaker 1:We're just trying to create something cool and we're all about community Strawberry, melon, gazpacho or something, that's it.
Speaker 2:He's over on that side now. He's so distracted by the food he's hungry the strawberry caprese you know, with the burrata and the heirloom tomatoes, strawberry brodo for a piece of halibut.
Speaker 3:They're in food porn land right now, Strawberry pico. You know I'm all over it.
Speaker 1:Just sous vide some strawberry out with a piece of fish in the bag. Oh my God.
Speaker 3:Strawberry ice cream.
Speaker 1:Sorbetto let's get it, let's go. I want an ahi tuna, strawberry, taco or some shit.
Speaker 2:Oh, that would be fun. Do a little strawberry wasabi glaze. They're calling.
Speaker 1:See how this works.
Speaker 3:I was just joking because you were saying the glaze and the tuna.
Speaker 1:I'm funny. I know it's a joke, you're going to do it anyway.
Speaker 2:So when is the festival? May 17th.
Speaker 3:We've actually got some funding from Original Pongo Strawberry Fest. We've raised over $24,000. Ocean Storage is going to be the main presenter.
Speaker 2:Tickets no tickets Free event.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we got North End Bags Go on their Instagram, check them out. They just printed some really dope bags. It said picked in Virginia we got Shave Ice Get Lost Shave Ice coming out there. We've got all the cool restaurants, from Pacifica to Sorella's. Duck Dive's been doing great things, all great spots.
Speaker 2:Nick's yeah.
Speaker 3:You know. So, loja Snacks, we'll have our food truck out there. We've got bands.
Speaker 2:And it's an all-day thing. You guys are actually shutting Laskin Road down. Shutting it down. So if you do drive to and from the oceanfront in Virginia Beach, you're shutting down the whole street.
Speaker 3:Not the roundabout.
Speaker 1:Which has not been done, from the roundabout down to the statue. Is that what it is?
Speaker 3:From the roundabout to Pacific. Okay, great, so yeah, almost a quarter mile, so that's a great time.
Speaker 1:local driven. Love to have you all there. Indigenous stuff.
Speaker 3:And then this fall we're going to do like an oyster roast with some surf music. Perfect, you know we're going to tap the noblemen we always give back. So the big thing for us is, you know, trying to give some awareness to all these farms down in Pungo that are working so hard. And then there's EquiKids so just children with disabilities and veterans PTSD so just children with disabilities and veterans PTSD. So raising money for EquiKids and giving back and having a hell of a party.
Speaker 1:That's amazing stuff. So you know we can talk all day about this. What would you give to when we start our careers and we get into our cooking like you said when you were at Zoe's doing the wine dinners and we start out, we don't have the business acumen, we start out with the cooking and the cooking and we think we want to be owners, we think we want to move on with absolutely zero knowledge of what it takes right. What do you give to the people who are in that mindset right now? They're at the brink.
Speaker 3:They've put in the years of cooking.
Speaker 1:Get out Good advice.
Speaker 3:Save yourself. So when they want to get from that cooking, Do you see these gray hairs? Guys Focus in on this when you want to get out from the cooking. 43, looking like I'm 63.
Speaker 1:When you get out of the. That's your advice. It's not wrong. Either get out or realign it Get into something. Owning a restaurant. Coming from a chef to owning restaurants, you better understand you are making a lifelong commitment to something you never knew was fucking even possible. Well, you're right. It's totally, totally different.
Speaker 3:A lot of these kids are in culinary school and and I'm definitely not hating on cia or civ or whatever acronym you want to throw out there for cooking school um, but man, I'm really, when I'm hiring, I'm looking at your resume. I'm not looking at where you went to school and you're going to rack up so much money just get your. If you want something and to be proud and your mom and dad be proud and have a piece of paper on your wall, get an associate's degree. You know, I mean, some of these bachelors at CIA are like over $100,000. Man, you're never going to pay that back.
Speaker 1:You can't recoup. You can't recoup $100,000 by cooking. It's hard.
Speaker 3:Even at $20 an hour. Yeah, it's hard.
Speaker 1:You know.
Speaker 3:So you want to get out there and you want to grind and be intuitive, be inventive and create something that can be yours, whether it's a sauce, that's your branding. I mean, the entrepreneurship of this business is the only thing that's going to save you.
Speaker 1:And don't cook. My advice to this I see a lot of young people, including myself, back in the day. You cook to impress other chefs, or you cook to impress or compete with Instagram or social media. Fuck all that nonsense. Cook to impress your guests, because they're the ones who are putting their faith in you. They're the ones who are giving you or your establishment the money. They're the ones choosing you to come in there. You need to cook to impress them. Look at your room, read your people, see what it is they like, why do they trust you and hone in on that.
Speaker 1:Don't worry about what the chef down the street's doing, because he may not be worrying about you. He could be worrying about his guests and that's why his restaurant is full. Worry about what people trust in you and stop worrying about what people the chef down the street doesn't fucking matter. He's your competition in a sense. Really, he's not paying you. He's getting paid, paid. You're getting paid. Work for what's in your heart and bring it out on the plate. Then work from there and if you get enough of a following, you may have a chance at opening a restaurant yeah, I mean it would be like what do you mean?
Speaker 1:he's got soft shell crabs with the same strawberry glaze I have you know what I mean, and that does drive you a little bit right. Let's fry it, let's put it on a roll, let's eat it. We got right and he's doing the same shit.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly so don't worry about that so much. Worry about what you can do different. See what's going on. Don't compete with the guy down the road. Don't do what he's doing or she's doing. Look at what they're doing and figure out how to do it different, better and more fun and more exciting, and have fun doing it. Have fun doing it. You cannot have fun if you're worried about what someone else is doing. You know.
Speaker 2:We've said that Like a lot of that in the industry, I mean again we've lost it. Like we've lost a lot of the like sex, drugs and rock and roll of the industry Of people just really doing the job Because it is fun. It's fun to be out there. Every that makes you excited to be there, absolutely.
Speaker 3:We want to know how it tastes, we want to see their excitement. Yeah, you know, and that's what drives us. I mean, if you're not having fun in this industry, you're definitely like a lost puppy out there You're in trouble.
Speaker 1:I mean it's not all going to be great.
Speaker 3:People take it way too serious At the end of a shift. You know, all your line cooks, all my guys, we're all hugging it out. You know going, hey, it's all good.
Speaker 2:It's just that service rush I tried to kill you twice today, but it's all right. You said it right.
Speaker 1:People take it way too serious the executive chefs or the restaurant owners. They have the right to be taking it serious. You don serious to where you can't get stuff done, but you also have to respect the seriousness of where you are, of course. When you go home at night, fucking relax. If something goes wrong, figure it out. You don't have to go crazy over it. Don't lose your life. Don't go goddamn get hooked up on heroin because you can't handle your work. Fucking flow, just relax, man. Take a break, have a drink, have a shot of tequila, pass the Jager bottle around. If it gets that goddamn bad, you know what?
Speaker 2:I mean. Amen On tap, amen to that.
Speaker 1:So what do you think about the culinary scene moving forward? I mean, I know we have all the things we've talked about. We have accessibility to ingredients we've never had before. We have accessibility to the skills and talents we've never seen before with social media and stuff like that. We have culinary tools now that never existed. Something as simple as a fucking microplane that we never had. When I was young, these things didn't exist. You were talking about that hard bean salad, and the only thing I was thinking about is what I would do in your position, and while I'm thinking about that is I would literally take my microplane and I would grate these fucking beans over something nicely and consider it a fucking cannellini dust, and that, right there alone, would have created a flavor of a moami that you wouldn't have thought of. Just because of a microplane and a hard bean could change everything and you can now eat this hard bean and not even know what the fuck it is, and you can call it that and it'll be Bobby if it'll be.
Speaker 1:Bobby, but these tools that we never had before, you don't? I mean, we have little shin was now that we didn't even have back then, really China look, the health department still doesn't acknowledge sous vide cooking.
Speaker 3:So I mean, how far are we really? Um, they look at it as tdz.
Speaker 1:You know, time, danger zone, wonderland you know you can't and I'm like it's pathetic sous vide.
Speaker 3:It's been around since the 90s. Oh, what are we talking about earlier than that? Yeah, accessible to the 90s, you know um bro, you're exactly right.
Speaker 1:Mean there's certain things I do with a vacuum seal bag.
Speaker 1:There's things I do that my health department just rags me on, that I do with a frigging cryovac machine or a vacuum sealer you know what I'm saying To infuse flavors If I want to do a nice melon or a watermelon and I want to compress it. So if I do a compressed melon and stuff, I go, oh, you can't do that. What do you mean? I can't do that? Yes, I can, because I did and it's delicious and guess what, everybody loves it. You're a fucking witch. Get out of here, go stir your pot with your gruel okay, a fun police.
Speaker 1:Yeah, man, sorry, do you know?
Speaker 3:also that Virginia denied the $.
Speaker 2:Really, and radar restaurants.
Speaker 3:Really.
Speaker 1:That's amazing. Thanks, virginia. I'm not surprised, is that Yunkin?
Speaker 3:I mean, dude, I've loved Yunkin on a lot of things. I think that restaurants should be getting grants and I don't think there was any help with taxes and grants.
Speaker 1:I was looking at grants yesterday on the fucking website, on the government website, looking for any type of grants that I could do to help progress my staff. I want to help my staff out more. I want to create more avenues for my staff to be enticed to come to work. I want to give them more benefits. I want to give them more options. So I was on looking for grants yesterday that has anything to do with restaurants, staffing, bonusing, helping people progress into the next, maybe even insurances or education, anything I can offer my staff, not a fucking thing, nothing. However, if I want to get a grant for you know a mud sample of the grass outside, I could get that grant, though you know what I mean, because that really matters, because the architecture or the agriculture, it doesn't shit, that doesn't matter, you get a grant for it. But moving someone forward, there's no help in the restaurant industry.
Speaker 3:But moving someone forward. There's no help in the restaurant industry. None Well, I was bummed about the Michelin because, man, although my restaurant would probably obviously not be a Michelin-rated restaurant, I think yours would definitely be in contention for that.
Speaker 1:We'd have to change some of our comfort zone. It brings diners out.
Speaker 3:So diners would be, you know, more apt to travel from another state to come to not just. Dc, but you know Richmond and further south than that. I mean Charlottesville's got some great places, hampton Roads has some great places, tidewater, whatever you want to call it. We don't know what we want to be called. We're called everything.
Speaker 1:We want to give that type of service to our guests and we do the best we can here with it. It's do the best we can here with it. It's not the best we can. We can always do much better, but we're giving it to the actual what makes sense right now. It's hard to run a Michelin staff, a Michelin dining room, michelin etiquette when Michelin's not an option. It's a lot of money, it takes a lot of time, it takes a lot of training, it takes a lot of schooling, it takes a lot of schooling, it takes a lot of dedication. But if Michelin is not allowed to come here because your area isn't justified, then it's just a lot of everything and at the end of the day you get discouraged because you know it's not even an option.
Speaker 1:So you have to back off a little bit to give the best of the fine dining at the next level.
Speaker 3:Now Florida, georgia, tennessee, man, they pay the money Texas. So, now Michelin's going to overpass us and head on down south, and the money's needed because Michelin is not only about restaurants, and that's where people make the most mistake.
Speaker 1:Michelin is an area, it's a destination and the restaurants are a destination in that area. So your area has to be Michelin ready. You have to have hotels worthy, you have to have restaurants worthy. You have to have mechanic shops worthy. They judge and rate multiple things, not just restaurants. So the whole area has to be Michelin approved right. That's where the money comes in. So even that money doesn't directly go to every restaurant, but it goes to the area to uplift it for the Michelin guide on all subjects.
Speaker 3:To make it worthy of Michelin.
Speaker 1:The city has to be a Michelin rated city. It's not only about the restaurant. The restaurant is just a little segment that just happens to be the most popular part and the most interesting part of the Michelin guide. But they have tire shops that are in the Michelin guide. That's the whole point of it.
Speaker 3:That's how they started.
Speaker 1:That's how they started, so it's not only about restaurants.
Speaker 3:It was a road map. It was a road map while you're getting your tires on where to stop and eat.
Speaker 1:Sure. So the Michelin area has to be Michelin worthy on all levels. You mean the.
Speaker 2:Sunsations and the Hermit Crab sales on the beach aren't going to bring the Michelin.
Speaker 3:The t-shirts say 20 bucks is 20 bucks. Yeah, yeah, right yeah.
Speaker 2:It's not going to suck itself. All the good t-shirts are good ones. Yeah, there's a lot of good ones up there.
Speaker 1:There's a lot of shit down there, but I'm all for it and I think that anybody who wants to get a Michelin star or work in that type of environment. It is a totally different game. It's gastro, it's definitely molecular cooking. There's a whole different style. But it definitely could be done here, and I would love to rise up to that if the option was available.
Speaker 2:We have the talent here. We have the talent.
Speaker 1:We do have the talent and I can't put in the extra money when I know it's not even an extra fucking option.
Speaker 2:It's not going to come back to you as a business owner.
Speaker 1:It's not feasible, Right now my Michelin stars are my guests. That's what I focus on now and. I'd give them the best of what we, what they expect for where?
Speaker 2:we are right now. True, I agree, amen, amen, that's that, that's that, that's that.
Speaker 1:So we're gonna end it on that man, because we can keep on going and going and going, but people got to get back to work. Right now we're getting blamed for fucking people, showing up late, taking their break too long because they're listening to this, and it's wonderful.
Speaker 3:Well, I just look, I appreciate, look, I appreciate y'all so much, everything you do, chef.
Speaker 1:Thank you, man you too, chef Kristen, you and your husband, y'all have been supporting me since day one.
Speaker 3:Always, and just a shout out to all our listeners, all our followers, this restaurant, mine, other supporters, you know, and diners, you know. Just treat people right. I'd love for one week and then tell me how did that feel?
Speaker 1:Tell?
Speaker 3:me.
Speaker 1:Did you just sing?
Speaker 2:a little Britney, I did.
Speaker 1:Tell me more Now listen to me.
Speaker 3:Tell them where they can find you.
Speaker 1:Where can they get you Instagram social media websites?
Speaker 3:Yeah, Loja Snacks, Phoebe. Facebook's pretty much dying. I mean, rarely go on there. I wouldn't check that out. It's not updated, but yeah you know whatever, come down to the store, we'd love to treat you. You know some poke. We got a lot of cool things happening on Laskin Road and obviously there's some cool things happening out here In Chesapeake too, in Chesapeake the 757 is coming up.
Speaker 1:The freak Chesapeake, the freak's real to find us, because you already did, because you're watching us right now. We appreciate you. Hit like, hit, subscribe, hit all the things click them buttons.
Speaker 2:I don't, that wasn't.
Speaker 1:I don't know what that was you clicking?
Speaker 2:that's you clicking I'm like I can't tap anything it's all right, I'm whatever. All right y'all ciao for now, thank you.
