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
From Line Cook To Food Rep: How a chef's disipline built a better sales career
We trace Jimmy’s leap from teenage line cook to respected food rep and unpack how servant leadership, speed, and accuracy keep restaurants running when the market and deliveries don’t play nice.
Scallops, yields, and coaching culture all get the blunt, practical treatment.
• chef-to-rep journey grounded in accountability and timing
• servant leadership as the core of effective food sales
• coaching drivers and setting key drop standards
• substitutions that work when the product is scarce
• pricing, yields, and how to compare by usable ounces
• scallops and water content affecting sear and quality
• competition among vendors and realistic loyalty
• kitchen culture, passion versus anger, standards under pressure
• learning by asking, not hiding behind YouTube
• ending with taking care of people to sustain the craft
Your food reps can make your life hell or heaven, listen to this episode for some blunt talk on how to treat your customers and what it really takes to be successful in the food industry right now!
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All right, so this is Jimmy Babbs, the legend, the man, the myth. We're talking to him today. And he comes from us from the other side of the world, the food rep. The salesman. The salesman. The asshole. Yeah. The one everybody loves the day. The guy who's a hero one minute and the enemy the next. In the same fucking sentence. That's right. That's right. Right. So we sit here and it's good to talk to the guys like you because you're an outstanding dude. I'll tell you that right now. Thank you. We can talk with our, we can talk. Um we talk, we have the shit side of the storm, right? So we have uh we have some good stories, you have good stories, but your your biggest story though, we got to talk about is how why, how, and hell did you become a food salesman when you started as a chef. Where'd you start? How and where's your history as far as culinary world? God, man.
SPEAKER_03:So it started um Okay, that's good.
SPEAKER_00:Now moving on. No, I'm just yeah.
SPEAKER_03:So I was like what year was I was 15 years old. I wanted some money. Um uh a friend up the street uh was a waitress at a little uh breakfast place called Mr. B's Family Restaurant. And uh Mr. B was the owner's name. And um I went in as a dishwasher. Um, all I knew how to cook was what my mom would cook on Sunday breakfast. That's all I knew. Eggs, bacon, eggs, bacon, just all that, all that bullshit. And um about two weeks into the gig.
SPEAKER_00:That's good at 15 still.
SPEAKER_03:You're still cooking something at 15, okay. So two weeks into the gig, man, I'm loving it. I'm making money, I'm washing dishes, it's easy. I wasn't really big into sports, so I needed some money to buy a new glove, you know, to you know, because dad won't get any. You had to go out and get it yourself. Sure.
SPEAKER_00:And um, I wanted to anyone with gray hair today had that experience.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I wanted to save money for a car. It was a car up the street. I really wanted it. It was a little 260Z. I wanted it, so I had to get some money. I had to get a thousand dollars. And um, so I started working in this place about two weeks into two or three weeks in. Um, Abby, who's the server, who was my best friend's sister, came to me and she was like, Rick is not here. I'm like, okay, what do you want me to do? She said, You have to cook. And I will drop the toast and the English muffin, but you have to cook the sausage, the bacon, the eggs. I'm like, all right, I'm not, I was never a type that was scared us. I'm like, okay, let's go, let's do it, let's have fun. There's no pressure. Let's go. You know, just do the best you can. Long story short, about 11 o'clock came. Mr. B walked in, we did 80 covers. Perfect, everything was great. Um, he was like, where's Rick? Rick ain't here. Jimmy cooked. He was like, I had no idea he could cook. Long story short, and uh getting a position there. Worked there for about six months, and I'm like, I really like food. It's fucking easy. My brain just goes with it. It's easy. And um, I was like, I started to to look at salaries of a chef. You know, just just looking, and I'm like, huh. I can get paid to do something that's really fun, and it's not hard. It's easy, you know, it's it's just timing, it's just doing it. And um, there was a European chef named Joseph who ran a deli. I don't know if this was the biggest blessing or the b the biggest curse, because if when I left school, I had to be at Joseph's at 2.20. School let out at 2.08. So I had to ride my bike, and I remember the first time I was late, I literally had to sweep his parking lot where he pulled his car out. It made me sweep. I did I learned how to turn carrots and potatoes and rutabagas.
SPEAKER_00:Sure.
SPEAKER_03:For a long time after that. Bags and bags and bags and bags. Just total punishment for Rutabagas, too. Yeah, but he taught me the whole brigade. He taught me everything.
SPEAKER_00:Um accountability. Yes, yes. Kitchen accountability. It's look at me in the camera, everybody. And then from there, kitchen accountability is a lost thing, so get it back.
SPEAKER_03:I went from there um to Scale it well in Portsmouth, which was a very busy seafood restaurant. When I say busy, it's five to six hundred covers every Friday and Saturday. That's crazy.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:The old people would know what scale to whale was.
SPEAKER_00:And you were cooking.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, so I was a line cook there for about three months, and then I was the write-up in the paper, all that youngest chef and tie water at 18. I took over that.
SPEAKER_00:So that that's back in the day where you say that like it's like it's so far away, but now with the internet and stuff, it's hard. But I missed the days of having all the the write-ups in the newspapers and the magazines and being able to put these back to the Visions magazine. And be able to be able to put these things on the wall, frame them, they were really good write-ups. And it we don't do that much anymore. We barely even have the newspaper anymore, you know? Correct. So back then we had the walls of trophies, and I have a lot of them, right? Right. But but right now it's hard. You have to almost print off what was written on the internet about you if you want to put it up on the wall. It's kind of sad. Yeah. Because it's uh it's just another time of time gone. So when you you worked your way through that, chefing it up, dealing with food reps, dealing with purveyors, seeing the whole realm. What made you step out of the kitchen and into that? How long ago? What where did you start? What was your deal?
SPEAKER_03:So um 2002, I thought I had pretty much I was a corporate chef for a hotel firm also. Um some places, you know, Calcutta's Red Maple In Three East, all that stuff. Um I thought I had did everything I was bored with the area. I was like, it's time to vote. So at the same time, my dad was not doing well. But I had this grandiose idea that I'm I'm leaving. I'm I'm gonna go to a big city, and I got an opportunity to interview for a corporate special chef position at the Buckhead Life Group in Atlanta. Okay flew me down, met him, looked at all the restaurants, accepted the position. Flew back. Went home. And I'm like, oh boy, I can't leave my dad the way he is. I literally can't leave. So I called the guy back up and oh my god, he was it wasn't a good conversation. We're friends now, um, but it wasn't a good conversation. So a friend of mine was a food rep, and he's like, Jimmy, listen to me. Work with me one day, and you'll love it. He goes, he's an ex-chef. He goes, all we all we do is help people throughout the day of what they need of what we already know. So the product knowledge we've already got.
SPEAKER_00:So product knowledge is a huge thing. It's coming from the world. Now that that's my next question. Do you feel that coming out of the world with all that product knowledge going into the world has helped you be a successful food rep? And two-part question. Sure. How many of those people you see coming into your industry now do not have the culinary background, but they got the sales background? What's the difference between the two?
SPEAKER_03:Um, well, we're in food sales and other sales, but we're really not salesmen. To be good at this job, you're not a salesman, you're a servant. You you are ready to go at any time when you need something. Because when you need it, you're not waiting.
SPEAKER_00:Well, uh, you know, the reason why I deal with you is because you speak that way and think that way. You don't realize how many other people in your industry don't feel that way.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, so if I do a lot of peer-to-peer stuff at at work. Also, I did with my past life too, the past job um of just the day in the life that I remember teaching a class, the day in the life of a chef, which I mean as a salesman, what you do from the time you wake up to the time you go home. And one thing is home is your enemy. So I'm gonna say it. There are a lot of people in this industry in my side that will go home at 12, 1 o'clock and sit and wait for an order. I get home at 7 p.m. every evening. I leave the house at 7.15. I act like there's a big orange cone in front of my door when I walk out. I open the door and I kick that fucking cone down because we gotta go. Because my chefs are ready. They they're not gonna wait. If I don't give them an answer, somebody else is going to. And I'm correct.
SPEAKER_00:And we will find it. Yes, we will find the answer. If I ask for something, I'll give you, I'll know my reps pretty well, and I'll know what part of the day they're in, and I'll give them that grace. But if I don't hear back from them, you'll know this. I'm on, I'm moving on. I'm going, gotta go on. I gotta get with my answer.
SPEAKER_03:I've learned this about you. That's no offense to me. You just gotta get it done. That's it. Yeah, that's that's fine. Um, I've learned in this industry, you have to be 100%, you gotta be accessible all the time. If you don't know the answer, you better find it now. Um and be correct. Because if I convince you to do something and it doesn't pan out, pan out the right way, yeah. You're up my ass.
SPEAKER_00:You know, you say it's it's good you say that because you know how many fucking reps that I've fired because they led me on to believe something it was gonna be just off word of mouth. And I designed a whole menu specials, wine pairing, staff training. And when the product shows up late and frozen, and there's nothing I can do with it, and I gotta kick it the fuck out the door, it really pisses me off. And that'll get me fucked, that'll get somebody fired quick.
SPEAKER_03:Absolutely, you know, and it should.
SPEAKER_00:Sure.
SPEAKER_02:It's true.
SPEAKER_00:So if someone's gonna tell me I'm getting fresh uh Osobuco coming from this farm here and this da-da-da-da-da. Right. And it was fresh when they killed it and put it in the freezer, right? But when you came to me, it was nothing of what you said, right? It wasn't on time, it was late, and there's nothing I can do with this, right? Period. Right. Because I'm not cooking it anyway. However, you know what I mean? Right. So you just spent money for nothing. Or wasted a lot of time on something else because I've got to do that. Absolutely. You know, absolutely. Yeah. Going into a Friday night with wrong information is not easy.
unknown:Right.
SPEAKER_00:It's not a it's not a good pill to swallow.
SPEAKER_03:Right, right.
SPEAKER_00:And some reps are coming. You know, and and then, you know, you guys gotta deal with everything because what's worse than some reps sometimes, and I'm just gonna say it here because I hope they're listening, is the fucking disrespectful nonsense drivers, the delivery guys who bang their carts off your walls and drop things off that are supposed to be in the fridge and they're putting them out back just because they don't want to be there. There are so many people like that that you know, you guys take a heavy rap for a lot of that. Right. You know, right. So what do you feel about that shit?
SPEAKER_03:I mean what I feel about it is it's in my situation, I feel like there's an open door policy to to have a coaching lesson with that driver. In other words, like in the beginning with you, we told him where to put things. Yeah, yeah. You have to do that every place you go. And especially with these things called keydrops. So key drops are they don't deliver at 11 or 12 or 1 or whatever. They deliver at three or four in the morning.
SPEAKER_00:When nobody's there and you trust them to have a key to your fucking restaurant. Yeah. That's a hard thing. It took me many, many. It should not be though. It should not be. No, it shouldn't be. But it's not that I trust that they're gonna go and steal or anything like that. Right. It's I'm gonna trust that they're I am so particular with my ingredients. You know, if something belongs in the fridge, I I don't know their time, the temperature controls and their and their danger zones, and I don't know where the hell they've been. I don't know how long their truck has been sitting outside. Or if they got here at three in the morning, did they take a nap in the truck and they got my key and they're I don't know that stuff. So there's a lot of things I don't know about it. So the key drop to me was always scary because I never knew what the hell they were doing when they once they dropped. You know what I mean? It's not so much about are they in here stealing your stuff. I'm not worried about that. You know what I mean? That's that's easy, that's easy to find out.
SPEAKER_03:I personally think nowadays you can let that guard down and know that the freezer stuff's gonna go in the freezer to cooler stuff's gonna go into cooler to dry, it's gonna go into dry. And it's gonna be exactly the way you need it. Yeah. Every time it's a good thing. That's the way you transfer. Yes, because we're we're coaching. Yeah. And and look, our drivers are the best in the business. I know people say that they really are.
SPEAKER_00:Your drivers do a good job. There's no doubt. You can definitely tell the difference. I'm not gonna call any other companies out by any means, but there I've thrown drivers out of here. Right. And a matter of fact, there's one back there right now, I know who he is, who keeps slamming the fucking door while we're recording, where it clearly says don't do that.
SPEAKER_03:Directly on the door when you walk down.
SPEAKER_00:So he's literally doing because he's he's a fucking moron. Right. And I want to go out there right now because I'm telling you right now, if I wasn't spent money on recording this, I'd probably tell him to get the hell out of here.
SPEAKER_01:Calm down, dude.
SPEAKER_00:He's a moron. You're a moron. I hope you hear me. But he's here right now. As we're talking about it, he's slamming.
SPEAKER_03:I've got 11 more stops to go out of here.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I mean the towel in the door.
SPEAKER_00:That's just the type of guy he is. He doesn't give a shit about nothing. Right. You know what I mean?
unknown:Right.
SPEAKER_00:He doesn't care if your packages are broken, busted. He's like basing in churra, kicking the damn box down here.
SPEAKER_01:Shaking it, throwing it on your porch, right, right, right. Delivery, that's okay.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, so I think in our world, just being accessible um is very important. Uh, being current, keeping up with the times. And to me, from the chef background, that's fun.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:You know, no, because I'm not touching it and feeling it like you are every day now. Right. But I am seeing through all the training we have is all the new products as soon as I can. Okay. See what I mean? So that's kind of cool. That's kind of cool.
SPEAKER_00:Well, you you also know what you're talking about. So that's the thing. I only surround myself with reps who literally have been in the field, and it's not because they're in the field that I'm being biased. Have you been in the field? Okay, you can come here. I know it by talking to them. When I'm asking them their product, when they have product and catalog knowledge, or they know what they're talking about, or they know what it is you're looking for. When when you're looking for a certain cut of meat, they may you may not have what they're asking for, but you know, you, you know, this this hanger stake might work in this application, or this culat or something might take up for that hanger we don't have, try a cool art. Something like that. You know, that that's what I'm looking for. And and that's what I think most chefs are looking for. No nonsense people who can redirect the narrative when the narrative ain't going in your favor. You know what I mean? Do it now. So if I if I need Romanesco and you can't get it, you can tell me something off like a purple cauliflower or something. You can offer something, and I either say no or yes, but to offer nothing comes from lack of experience in the kitchen, you know, and lack of care. Correct. You know, I if I talk to a if I talk to a food rep and I ask them, Do you guys carry castor sugar, for instance, right? No, we don't. Um, but just run this really fine sugar through a processor, bring it down as much as you can. Okay, good. That's somebody who knows what the hell's going on. They've been in the industry, they can help push through it, and they know that you have a sugar finer, right, but it's not castor, and we can maybe make castor out of it. That's your next option. Right. Or I go to another rep, but at least they have the intel and knowledge to be able to say something.
unknown:Right.
SPEAKER_00:You know what I'm saying? Absolutely. And that's that's where we look at when we're looking at our um our people, you know, that that are reps. And I think any reputable chef or any chef who has a has a uh a love and passion for the actual ingredients themselves are gonna have a connection with that reps. It's so fun. It's fun, yeah. And and talking to reps like you, you know, me and you don't see smother uh each other as much as we have to because we don't have to. Correct. You know what I mean? We have an understanding, you know what you're doing, I know what I'm doing, I know what I want. Right. My chef de cuisine who orders knows what he wants. You guys speak, and when I have an issue, I call you, and it's typically fixed within minutes, right?
SPEAKER_03:Yes.
SPEAKER_00:Uh, there's other reps out there who constantly cause the problem, don't answer the phone, and they're the reason why the whole fucking problem is.
SPEAKER_03:Well, here's a question for you. And in in the case, let me hear it, Jimmy. Do you think it do you think that you can get them better by you giving them a coaching lesson of, hey, listen, man, you've got to be faster. You've got to be more um, do you think, or do you, or would you rather just call me and be and be done with it? It's it's see my point like the comments. So it all depends. That's an individual answer.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. So that that that answer relies on the individual themselves. Are they are they up for constructive criticism or is everything a defense, which is typically the case most of the time?
SPEAKER_01:Most people are very defensive nowadays, anyway. So when people I don't want that. When people everything offends them.
SPEAKER_00:So it's okay to be wrong. If if you stand up for something, not even in a in a derogatory way, not even being mean or being whatever you want to call this shit. If you're not even being offensive, you're just blunt. I'm just blunt. Right. Look, a little bit. This, this, this, this, and this. They get upset, they get offensive, they get they get offended that you talk to them like that. How dare you? You're not their boss. Da da da. And in and essentially, yes, I am your boss because I'm not. You work for me right now. You may work for them, but you work for me. Because how about this? Get the fuck out. Right. Now go explain to your boss why his account is no longer here.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. Right. Who's the one? I'm gonna say something. Yeah. Actually, I love your point, and I think it goes deeper. You're actually not my customer. Your customer's my customer.
SPEAKER_00:True. Same way.
SPEAKER_03:Your customer is my. I have to make sure you can please your customer with the products that you're asking for.
SPEAKER_00:And that's exactly rooks both ways. I'm looking at you. You are the quarterback for the play. I need this play to go down. You're the quarterback. You need to send me and deliver the fucking football so I can make the pass. Now fucking do it. You know what I'm saying? My customer needs this, and I need to give them what they came here for. And if I can't give them what they came here for because your ass didn't bring it, I'm in trouble. You know what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_03:Yes. And we both look horrible.
SPEAKER_00:Right. Yeah, we both look bad. Right. So well, luckily we we'll never get there. No, we we do good. Now, you know what else is funny that a lot of people don't realize is the battle that goes on amongst behind the scenes with the different companies and their reps and vendors. I'll be sitting at the bar like yesterday. I was sitting at the bar with one company, and then he walks in and I'm like, all right, it's gonna be a rumble. Fuck them up, Jimmy. Let's do this. And and you know, I'm trying to egg it on as best I can.
SPEAKER_03:You are laughing. I went back there. I laughed my ass off. I'm trying to get him to fight. I want to see a fight. The funniest thing, and no offense to who was here, but no offense, and this is the way I look at all competing reps. I look, people go after my accounts all the time. All right. I welcome it. It's not like I'm saying I'm the baddest guy to ever walk, but I don't worry about it. I cannot worry about it.
SPEAKER_00:I have way too much going on. Let me tell you why you can't worry about it. Especially here in this area. Okay. You guys have allocations. A lot of them are run concurrent. So there are certain things that you cannot provide me that someone else can, vice versa. Sure. It's the way it is. Sure. I can't just go buy everything from one company. Though there are a lot of reps who think I should, right? Sorry, you don't offer what I need, right? And that's the end of it. So now because you may only have or they may only have three or four items I need, unfortunately, that's not enough to make a damn package. Right. So I need to give them a couple things more. It's just the way it is. Right. But when you're in a when you're in a good situation and there's a good loyalty between a rep and a and a purveyor and a chef or owner, right, you're you don't have to worry about losing that because you're always gonna look out for you.
SPEAKER_03:I didn't worry about that with you.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:But just don't he's like, I don't need to fight today.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I I'm not uh actually I'm going to back to talk about an order guide we're building to help them order faster and better. Perfect. I'm not worried about two items that are gonna be missing that you know they're gonna charge.
SPEAKER_01:They may come back for come back for anyway.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so there's certain things I need that you know they have, and there's certain things that I need that you have. End of story. That's just the way it is. You know, then we go to the other ones, the more uh the more small um boutique style of these vendors that you guys can't even touch. Right, and they can't provide what you guys provide, and that's bulk on other things I need. So that's right. It just works the way the fuck it is, man. And every place what has to happen is guys guys and girls, because there's a lot of female, right? There's a lot more female food reps now than there ever has been, which is good, yeah. Really, and yes, and I like it because they they're out there driving and and they get shit done. Yes, too. You know what I'm saying? I think it's been such a man-dominated field for so long. Yes, that a woman comes in and whatever she's going through, no disrespect here, but whatever it is she's going through as a woman that feels they need to fight with the man again, good. I don't, I'm not complaining because I think it's all great.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, you're talking about it on the positive side. Okay, I thought you're trying to go from like what what cycle you're in of the month and how much of a bitch you're gonna make. That's where I thought you were going. You don't have to deal with. Well, yeah, you don't know.
SPEAKER_00:Typically when a woman has to be a little bit more than a child. No, they have to prove themselves more. It's a male-dominated thing, yeah. So it's a male-dominated thing. That makes it and they're and they're out there hustling. Yeah. So I'm all for it because I'm I'm here for that. You know what I mean? I'm supportive of it. I love it. Yeah. So, and I'm not saying it because you need to outwork a man by any means. I'm just fucking happy that someone's working. Wants to work. I'm just happy someone's working. And you happen to be a woman. So that's great. You just happen to work. So I don't give a fuck what's driving you. Wouldn't it be funny if just do it?
SPEAKER_03:If if they could literally just see everything you go through every day. It I mean, they they pick up the pace instantly. Yeah. I mean, I know what it is because I've been through never freaking.
SPEAKER_01:Well, that was the other part of your question. Like, what's the percentage of reps that that were chefs or worked in or like had that background?
SPEAKER_03:That's a good question. Um I'd say 25%.
SPEAKER_01:Okay.
SPEAKER_00:I'd say 25%. But that's a good percent. That's a that's a foundation.
unknown:Yes.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that's good.
SPEAKER_00:That's enough knowledge on the bottom level to be able to make other men around you kind of educated and held them accountable.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. And you use that to mentor and help help people that are your other people like learn. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_03:And there's a way to do that. You got to be very um productive in your delivery. That's a good way to put it. Oh. I like that level. You need to be more productive in your delivery.
SPEAKER_00:We use that here. Yeah. Sir, can you please be a little more productive in his delivery? You're boring us and you're putting his fucking show to sleep.
SPEAKER_01:You need to be more productive. Right. That's gonna be, yeah. That should be your that should be your t-shirts. You can get that on the bag. Production. Somebody's argument making it.
SPEAKER_00:So, what about all the, you know, I always hear this is one thing I've always heard about the food. I was a wine rep for a long, for a while. Okay. All right. So I sold wine for a while um back in the day. Okay. So it's kind of the same. So what about all these things I hear of these reps going on these, you know, winning these trips to go to Europe and die? Is that a true thing? Or is that a does that happen sometimes?
SPEAKER_03:Well, uh, 100% transparency. Um, I just came back from Cancun. Uh I want to I want to trip. I mean, it was only a three-day trip. It was great.
SPEAKER_00:Um so is that like back in school when you when you sold so many cookies, you got the bicycle?
SPEAKER_03:You got the or you got the bracelet, depending on what you sold. No, it it's it's just based on um your your growth against the year before.
SPEAKER_01:Your like you have set KPIs that you guys have to have.
SPEAKER_03:Yep, and you're your child, you're competing against yourself in a sense. Yes, compete, and and I don't need them to ever show me that because I do that automatically. Yeah, I write down weekly what I did last year last week, and I go after that number myself. And that's just the competitive side of that's integrity, though. That's that's how you roll. That's just the way I do it. I cannot go to sleep knowing that um, you know, I just have to work hard. I don't know what it is or why. I just have to. I feel like I ain't I feel like I'm a piece of shit if I don't absolutely come home destroyed. I don't know where it is. No, that's good. That's the time they're wired where that came from.
SPEAKER_00:That's just what you like, man. Some people like to serve, some people do heroin. Well, yeah, you like to work for it. So it's you know, let me ask you this with the rising costs of everything, the eggs, the dot that the whole shit. Yes, everything. It how you are you watching the news, seeing what's going on, so you know what argument you're gonna get into today. You know, like you go why is broccoli up this week and da da da da.
SPEAKER_03:Yes.
SPEAKER_00:When is it gonna get to the point where we can't make money off of it anymore? When you cannot make money, us as the owner. So we have we have to run it a 30, 29, 30 food, right? We have to do all that. It's getting to the point now if we're charging$75 for a basic plate of food.
SPEAKER_03:Never. And this is why. The consumer that goes to the grocery store understands what they're paying at the market. When they go to buy their food, they understand that you are going through the same thing. Don't ever listen to me when I tell you this, please. Don't ever think they don't understand that. Because they do understand that. And in your situation, um, your and a lot are they're smart enough to know if broccoli is doing this or broccoli is doing this, then you can move over to a different vegetable for a while until that comes. You it's it's it's the shell game. And and listen, in our world, I'll be 100% transparent about this. It's it's rough because we we have to buy it. We have to buy it. You have a choice. You gotta buy it. You've got a choice not to buy it. We have to buy it. So we have to spend the money on it. Um, so we can't go without you know certain items. We we we have a 99.8% fill rate for a reason. Sure. And that's because we our buyers care.
SPEAKER_00:The things you're talking about more for those people listening, I would go with uh halibut.
unknown:Right.
SPEAKER_00:Avocados, eggs, milk.
SPEAKER_03:Um high price.
SPEAKER_00:Those are the ones that fluctuate where you have to have it. You have to have avocados with all the Mexican restaurants you provide. You have to have eggs because who doesn't have eggs in a restaurant? You have to have all these things. And now the chef or the owners can shop between the who has the best. But I'll be honest with you, on this side of it, there's only a couple that have substantially different prices. Pretty much everyone's in the same ball game. You know what I mean? Right. It's almost like you all are working together or something. Right. No, bastards.
SPEAKER_03:No, what I think what I think what that is, is is it's just how the we're riding the market and the you can't charge but so much. You know what I mean? So and that gives you decision to know, okay, if it's$40 here and$39.95 here, I'm just gonna buy from the person I like. Yeah. You know what I mean? I think, but when it becomes$40 and$55, then you gotta make a decision.
SPEAKER_00:Well, it's a decision has been made. Right. If you're if you're if you're frugal enough to understand food costs and really care about them, the decision's made for you a lot. Right. So that that's what I kind of base it on. When someone walks in and I starts asking me why I'm buying this from this, just bring the price down. I can't bring it down that low. There's your answer. Yeah, right. It's we're if you want to see me here next month to buy from you, I need to buy this now today.
SPEAKER_03:Another thing is yields, chefs understanding yields that, yeah, this price might be this, especially lettuce, 40 pound against 40 pound. Well, then you got where it came from, what was the water weight, you know, what is the box weight, and then you literally break it down per ounce, and we're the same. Yeah. See what I mean? Yeah. So the yield on products and and beef yields, and you know, you get it. Um, but as my job, I have to show those yields. I have to prove those yields. Numbers. Yeah, I have to, and when you do that, then from servant to salesman.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Yes.
SPEAKER_01:Well, you thought you were talking about it before we started recording of you know, you're choosing how much of that cost to pass on. So you guys have to deal with that too. Yes, you can't pass it.
SPEAKER_03:You can't pass. I mean, how can you pass the full cost at one time? You can't pass the full cost at one time because you can't afford to do it.
unknown:Right.
SPEAKER_03:You know what I mean? And then you go to selling none, right? Yeah. So that's not the answer. So it's a it's a teeter game, you know, it's a seesaw. You gotta learn how to ride that seesaw and not hit the ground. Right.
SPEAKER_00:You know, exactly. So when when it comes to arguing with chefs and stuff, do you get and you find yourself in arguments at all with anybody? Does anybody disagree? I don't argue.
SPEAKER_03:I give them, you know, I I think God, man, that's a hell of a good question. Because my arguments are not arguments. We have conversations, we have real conversations. Um in the chat.
SPEAKER_00:A debate, if anything?
SPEAKER_03:Yes, yes, there's definitely a debate. Um, but we always come to a very good end game. In other words, scallops. Fucking God. Right, right, right. Right. No, don't hit me. Um God damn it. U-tins, you know, we remember when they were$85. You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_00:The can.
SPEAKER_03:Now add$150 to that. And that's where they're at.
SPEAKER_00:But the customer still thinks it's$85 for us. They don't understand. Yeah. Why is it$38 for scallops? You fucking tell me. I was doing good selling a lot more cheaper. What are you talking about?
SPEAKER_03:Right, exactly. Exactly. Yeah. So then you get to the water content of the scallop. Is it a dry pack? Is it a true dry pack? Is it 7%, 17%? 24%. Who the hell knows, right? Well, you got to get that scallop. You got to sample that scallop. The chef, the chef part comes out. You got to pull it out of the can. You got to put it on a towel. You got to let it sit rest. You got to let it dry. You got to sear it in the pan correctly. You got to get sandpaper on it. And then you see what it looks like against the other scallop. And you go, okay, this looks this big, and this looks this big. This is why this is$5 a case cheaper. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Because it's 10% more fucking water in it. And you're so searing becomes a steam and you're boiling them now with the liquids releasing. And you're having an absolute conniption over Japan because now you're steaming. Now you're burning, yeah, it's just a pain in the ass. So you're not getting a good sear. So and then you get into the Japanese scallops where that's the big hit right now, which not bad. I mean, they're okay. I don't understand the difference between the two. I get they're from two different parts of the world, but why the price is so different and the quality isn't that much different on a U-10. Right. You know? So it's a little sweeter out of China, actually. Right. So what's up with that, man? What's the game? They just haven't figured out that they could rob us yet there. I think it's fine. It is good product. And but the thing is, they just why is it so much cheaper? Because they haven't figured out that they can play the game yet, or what?
SPEAKER_03:No, I think that it's just the amount that they can get compared to what the American product can get from the Boston and Massachusetts side. I think it's just you've got an area this big against an area this big. Yeah, yeah. I think that's the difference.
SPEAKER_00:There's a lot more scallop in them waters.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. Yeah. And you know that that that product was actually an American scallop at one time that was dropped off the back of a navy boat. Sure. Yeah. So it is these. Some brought it there. Yeah, now the what the now scallop is a filter, so it's gonna filter that water difference. So that's gonna be the taste and the color difference. Um but a very interesting product. It's it's it's not bad. Um it's actually good. I don't even want to say it's not bad. I'm not sure. No, they're good.
SPEAKER_00:The the only difference you can really tell is in their their texture, maybe, but really in the depth of the sweetness of this of the meat. You can tell I can blind it blind taste it out that way too. I see a little difference in the height. Yeah, the height is less, I think. Yes, yeah. So an American scallop has a much more height to it. Yeah. But then again, are those the the water-filled ones you're talking about? Are these true U10s or U8s or whatever they are? You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_03:I I mean I think they're true. I I believe in this in the scallop world, and I've been to a few scallop plants that you know, there are no games. There, they're people might say they're games, these guys are working their ass off. They're starting with a product, they're everything about a scallop is a lot of work, bro. It is a ton of work.
SPEAKER_00:Just opening up the damn shell that they're in all the way through, cutting them out. And me and you have worked with fresh scallops. We get it. They're great. I wish I could get shelves, fresh scallops. It's hard.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Well, it'll be nice if I have a plate. I know a guy. Do you? Yeah. Oh, you gotta get it. JB. Yeah, I know a guy. Yeah, yeah. We can't. I love it. No, I love working with fresh scallops, and that's a great, great, uh, that's a great thing. You open that up, yeah, cook it that on the shell, serve it in the shell. You can do some really good stuff with that. Smell the side. Oh, yeah. Rendered guanchali on there, a little bit. I'll make a little double day.
SPEAKER_01:Welcome to scallop talk.
SPEAKER_00:Scallop. Scallop.
SPEAKER_01:We just got real into scallops. Yeah, right.
SPEAKER_00:Scallop town.
SPEAKER_01:Sexy scallop time.
SPEAKER_00:So, what do you think about the whole thing that do you think about um as you travel around from restaurant to restaurant to restaurant to restaurant, you get a good bird's eye view of what's going on really in the industry? Um, I know what's going on. I'm talking to other chefs, so I know what's going on. But I really only know what's going on in my kitchens, right? Correct. So, my kitchen that you see all the time compared to others. Do you think that this whole woke movement and stuff is hitting kitchens the way that they're talking about it through your eyes? Or is that something that's still far reached from the kitchen?
SPEAKER_03:Explain the local movement. What do you mean?
SPEAKER_00:The local produce, the local like woke, like not as much of an old school brigade style. Being nice and not yelling and all that stuff that you know the culture. Look, yelling to be an asshole is never cool anyway. I've done it when I was younger. A lot of chefs did it back in the day just because they can get away with it, but I don't believe it ever made anyone.
SPEAKER_03:Some of my people that used to work for me could watch this and chime in. There's the thing as a leader in the kitchen, everything is on the la how good you are the last plate. You have to be good every plate, every time, because if you're not, another restaurant is gonna be. Right. And chefs that are chefs. I'm not talking about the guy that works as Applebee and his mom calls him a chef. I'm talking about the chef that knows the brigade and knows what it means, right? Like yourself, that you understand what that means. And I think that employees that work for chefs get mixed up in thinking passion is anger. Yeah. No, you're right. Nothing is wrong with being being forceful about passion that you want to go out because your fucking name is on that. And that means something to you and to your to your diners. And it would be really nice, really nice if they would just say, you know what, chef, I get it. You're just passionate. You're not being an ass. Even if you are being ass, you're just being an ass because it's what we have to do right now, right? It doesn't mean you're you that they're any less. It just means this is what we need to do right now. You're not doing this correctly right now. Right.
SPEAKER_00:And so do it right now, and then we'll talk about later later.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yeah. So now there are some cooks that understand that they need that lesson, and they're the ones that really shine. They're the ones who go, you know what? You're right. I didn't do right. I didn't do that right. That pan wasn't hot enough. I didn't clean that shrimp right. You know what I mean? I didn't do the I didn't cut that beef right. You know what I mean? I just cut down a six down, uh six-pound uh pismo, tenderloin, and I got nine pieces. That means I'm gonna be light, so somebody's gonna a light piece of beef. I did that wrong. You know what I mean? Nothing's wrong with that, you know. Um so but to answer your question, there's a lot of tiptoeing going on.
SPEAKER_00:Is there? In comparison to my kitchen. I mean, I I'm not I don't tiptoe much, but I don't have to. My my brigade that comes to me and works for me is educated. They're they've been in the industry, they come to me because they want to work in a spot with someone like me who who has a passion. That's right. So I'm I'm fortunate enough to have that. I I don't have to be dealing with the lying cooks of the world and the assholes and the drug addicts, and I don't have to, I don't need them people to get by. I've already been that person, so I already know what I don't need. You know what I'm saying? Right, right. So I was that person back in the day, and then I grew in out of it and then became mature and understood accountability and responsibility, and it got me to where I am today. So I could just imagine right now, it's so hard for an up-and-coming kitchen manager slash chef or whatever you want to call them to deal with what's going on because if you don't own the place and you're just working there, you can't say anything to these people without them. I feel bad for them. Getting up so I feel bad for them. I feel bad for a kitchen manager who works for an owner, and the owner is not a chef, and he's not in the kitchen and they're not there, but they're relying on this guy, and they all know he's not a chef. They're not the boss of him. There's nothing they can do. He can't fire him. There's no respect. So the second you tell that person to stop being an asshole or grow up or stop being a pussy or let's get the fuck together here. Let's go. Let's get your shit together. They want to run off and cry. It's it's a hard world right now for our industry because this is what I tell everybody, Jimmy. Absolutely. And I'll tell it again out there for everybody. The problem is you can be as woke as the fuck you want. You can be as upset as you want. You can be as, you know, you can be uh as frustrated as you want, you can be as um uh caring and as empathetic as you want. But the problems in the kitchen have never fucking changed. Okay? You can be woke and deal with them differently now, but it doesn't change the problem. When a pan's on fire, you got a grease fire, when the fucking stack of tickets are out, when someone gets sick or someone cuts their hand in the middle of a rush, uh, someone drops a plate on the last plating of a of a something going over the past, and now the whole you when that happens, how the hell is that problem any woker than the way you want me to respond to it? You see what I'm saying? The problems didn't get weaker, the problems didn't get more soft and empathetic. The problem's still the fucking same as when we were yelling about him fucking uh 20 years ago, right? So how are the how are we supposed to stop? Consider the problem is different now, and we have to worry about her feelings that dropped it or his feelings that dropped it on the floor in the middle of a rush. That problem didn't change.
SPEAKER_03:So, how the hell is our reaction to it supposed to change? A pan of burnt bacon is still 33 slices of bacon that is burnt. Right.
SPEAKER_00:So, how do we well you next time don't let's not burn it again? Yeah, no, fuck that. Right. There is no next time. How do you burn bacon? Yeah, you know what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, it's funny when you really think about it. It is funny.
SPEAKER_00:There's a lot of things you can laugh at.
SPEAKER_03:Put it in, you pull it out, right?
SPEAKER_00:You know, I could sit here and laugh at all the things I've done, right? Or all the things people have done. Right. And I can laugh at my reaction, but it was all necessary at the time. That's what happened. Of course. Natural.
SPEAKER_03:You gotta go through the fail, dude.
SPEAKER_00:So I don't believe that being woke in the kitchen. There's different things. When you're talking about your employees, when you're being empathetic towards their situation at home, their home life, they're maybe they're sick, or maybe they're going through some things. That's different. Maybe their car blew up and they don't have a ride home, or maybe the Uber, they can't afford Uber anymore because they live on the other side of town. All those things are something different. That that's something more I can have empathy with and sit down with and talk about. But when you're dropping things out of carelessness and you're consistently doing the same thing wrong, or you're showing up late all the time, you are going to get the unwoke, wide awake fucking reaction to that.
unknown:Right.
SPEAKER_00:You know what I'm saying? Because the reaction, the the problem you created is no different than if you would have created it 20 years ago. Right. So why do I have to act different towards the problem? It's the same problem. Right. You know what I mean? You create a problem, you get the reaction.
SPEAKER_03:Do you think some of the differences nowadays is when we were going through it and getting taught, it meant something when that chef taught you how to make the consummate for the first time.
SPEAKER_00:Absolutely. When you learned how to actually braise properly. Do you know I have a guy that's been working with me for a long time who still hasn't asked me how to make one thing, but he'll watch, watch, watch, and then practice, but he won't have the fucking balls. And I taught him how to do most of the stuff in this industry, and he and he still won't. And this goes on all the time. This happens all the time. There are people that are afraid to ask chefs now because they they think they're fooling the chef that they already know or they don't want to.
SPEAKER_01:Nobody knows everything.
SPEAKER_00:Of course. That's exactly what it is. They watch it on TV, and now you don't have to ask a chef because instead of asking the chef and looking like you don't know, you go to the bathroom and act like you're taking a piss and then YouTube what you're doing, so you don't have to fuck it up. My brain don't even go there. I catch them all. I catch them all doing it. You know, that's hilarious. You you think I don't have to go on things in YouTube? Of course. Of course. Of course, but you gotta stay it. Of course, I look in recipe books. Of course, I look back at my books from back in the day and and of course I reach out to chefs. Right. The only ignorant fuckers now are being taught that you don't have to do it. I guess it's the I don't know if it's social media or the accessibility to all this information to where you shouldn't have to ask. But people are learning how to do things going on YouTube, they're learning how to make a demi or or braise something, and then they're passing it off like they knew this already. They've they have so much experience instead of just asking the fucking chef or working with them. You know, look, we can all sit here and cook Italian food or braise meats or do anything like that. But my style of doing it is different, is what makes my braze different than their braze. My osubuco is gonna be different than their osubuco. You can watch on YouTube how to make it generally, right? But my cooking method is what you're taking. Right. You see what I'm saying? When you work for me for 10 years, seven years, six years, five years, you have picked up my style of my kitchen, of my method of what is going on and why people come here, right? Then you're gonna carry on with that. Yes, you learned how to cook osubuco, but you've also learned how to cook it my way, which fills my restaurant nine times out of ten. Right. You see what I'm saying? Right. So you may have learned how to cook osubuko your way, and it may not be hitting as good as mine, vice versa. Right. Maybe you can make it better than me. Right. But it the method of making it's the same. Right. But the extra twists we take, the extra timing, the extra charge.
SPEAKER_03:You might put finno in your braids, I might put carrots.
SPEAKER_00:Correct, right? Exactly. Or I may, I may uh brown mine longer, deeper. I maybe I figured out a lower temperature to cook it than you, and maybe I learned how to fucking render fats differently so they're not breaking up as much, and I'm getting more protein out of them. There's a bunch of things you're learning by watching me that you're not even learning. You don't even understand you're learning.
SPEAKER_03:That's funny you say that because when I used to do my beef stock, I would actually take ground beef and burn it to get that deep smoky flavor. Sure. That people were like, whoa. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:What is that? Just get that carbon, you got a carbon, get that carbon on it, you know. But listen, we're gonna we're we're starting to talk about food now as chefs, and that's my favorite thing to do. So I'm gonna stop now because another episode.
SPEAKER_02:Right. Sorry.
SPEAKER_00:We know you're busy being a food rep, and you're a damn good one. I will say that you work for a great company. I won't say that because I really do unless they pay me. Um but you know, it's it's you do a great job. We appreciate you. You have a lot of knowledge, you have a lot of industry knowledge. Thank you. Period. And that's why I like working with you. But I think it's good for people to listen to someone from your side of the house when it comes to this, because you're a person too, and you need a hug. You know what I mean? You need a hug, buddy.
SPEAKER_01:Sometimes you need a hug.
SPEAKER_00:Sometimes look, he's looking at me like I'm fucking crazy.
SPEAKER_01:Until he tells you, like fighting.
SPEAKER_03:I mean, I guess sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. I mean, it's it's okay. I mean, we get beat up every day. It's it's it's it's just what you go through, you know? Yeah, it's just part of it. You get beat up every day, too. So, I mean, it is what it is. Look, it's no secret for me. I work my ass off for my twin girls at home and my wife that's the bond advantage. She gets hotter, honey. I love you. She's absolutely amazing.
SPEAKER_00:That's and that's the beauty of the restaurant industry. No matter what part of it you're in, we're all kind of on that same common ground. We're all working our ass off for the betterment of our situations at home. And just like any blue table.
SPEAKER_03:Be honest, I work for my I love my company. I love the people I work for. Sure. They're amazing people. They get it. Um, I left one to come to the other. It's the best move I've ever made. No offense to anything. I didn't want to talk about it, but it just naturally came out. The people I work for now, they they're just they're simply hard working care.
SPEAKER_00:And we'll end it on that.
SPEAKER_03:It makes it so much fun.
SPEAKER_00:We'll end it on that. What he's saying is take care of your fucking people. Being listen to them, hear them, and they'll take care of you. And that's the end of that for today. So, ciao for now.
