Foodie Love at F&B@Sea Event in Miami

Embark on a culinary adventure that's bursting with flavor and sprinkled with industry secrets as we recount our time at the F&B@ Sea show, where we savored Creekstone Farm prime ribeyes, courtesy of our culinary expert Jeff. The episode is a smorgasbord of food tales, including a near-mythical Balmoral butter with ouzo marmalade that, despite our best efforts, remained tantalizingly out of reach. We're dishing out a taste of the camaraderie and innovation that fuels the kitchen, and teasing an exclusive feature with Chef Jennifer H. Booker, whose insights are simmering with anticipation.

Stirring the pot further, we welcome Pooch Rivera to the table for a raw and heartfelt conversation about the melting pot of cultural diversity in the culinary world. From poignant personal backgrounds to the rich tapestry of experiences shaping today's food scene, we don't shy away from the hot-button topics of race and identity. Plus, we're reminiscing about the taste and transformation of Miami's food landscape, leaving us hungry for what the future holds in this ever-vibrant city.

Finally, let's toast to the future of dining as we explore the plant-based revolution cruising across the seas, and marvel at the culinary technologies revolutionizing how we cook. From poke bowls that challenge the palate to the sushi robot that rolls with precision, we're all abo

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 1:04

Hello, Food Fam. This is the Walk Talk podcast where you'll find the perfect blend of food fun and cooking knowledge. I'm your host, Carl Fiatini. Welcome to the number one food podcast in the country. We're podcasting from down in Miami. It's hot, it's spicy and we're here for the F&B at Sea show. Thank you, Jackie Pressinger.

Speaker 1: 1:28

First things first. Last week Lisa Leventhal was on the show. If you're into barbecue and whiskey, you missed a great episode. You should go back and listen. I urge you to go back and listen. All right?

Speaker 1: 1:40

So Jeff cooked up some Creekstone Farm prime ribeyes yesterday last night. We're going to get into a little bit of that. More on that momentarily. Peninsula Food Service we love you. Thank you for supplying the proteins for today's production Chefs in the Central Florida area. Peninsula is the largest distributor of Creekstone farm beef in the Southeast USA, complete with a fully staffed butcher shop. To help you solve all your kitchen inconsistencies, Check out the dry age program. Yeah, Dry age baby. Oh, my goodness, I love it. So we had a. We had a an insightful and spirited episode about the food industry with the chef, Jennifer H Booker, last night, and I have to. I got to edit it. We got to make sure that it's going to come out proper and pretty and beautiful. So stay tuned for that. It's going to come out proper and pretty and beautiful, so stay tuned for that. When I say spirited, it's spirited, but very true. A lot of truth, All right, it's the perception. Right, Totally, Jeff. Baby boy, there's a clutch, Pop it and go.

Speaker 3: 3:03

This is day two and it's going to be a little bit better than the actual experience last night because we were right in the middle of it. It was wonderful as a chef to have other people that you respect and they come in to taste your food Pooch sitting across the table from me right now and Jennifer and everybody that came in yesterday to showcase the cooking that you do, and you do it day in and day out. But I think for chefs we have to step it up another level when we're talking with chefs, obviously, but it was a real hoot to have them in and I wanted to do something really special. So the ribeyes the peninsula gave us to do with the prime oh my God, charred those really nice.

Speaker 3: 3:42

I actually used a little wood chips in the grill so as it caught fire and smoke, so I had a little bit a little hint of smoke into it as well. But we did a more of a mojo kind of rub mojito I had a little mint in there, but not as much as I would want to because I didn't want to take away from it. And then we had, um, some other latin spices, because I want to feature me being from miami, and we're here literally in downtown miami. And then we did elote with the ptsd sauce, we did um mashed potatoes, stuff on everything yeah, put that stuff on everything, yeah, and then that's a good way to pc it.

Speaker 3: 4:19

Yeah, thank you, man. I appreciate that I couldn't think of that one last night, I do yeah I appreciate that. Anyways, we had a mashed potatoes sweet potatoes, um, but a white sweet potato, um, and then we did chinese broccoli chard, which was really good I enjoyed everything I really wanted to, okay, so let me just back up.

Speaker 2: 4:40

Wait, wait wait, hold on, no stop.

Speaker 1: 4:41

Hold on the butter. Well, hold on Angel's Envy.

Speaker 3: 4:46

Yeah, okay.

Speaker 1: 4:47

So there was bourbon flowing.

Speaker 2: 4:49

Lots of bourbon flowing.

Speaker 1: 4:51

There was a lot of bourbon flowing and, you know, with all the chef brass that was here, we also had Assam here Chef brass and crass.

Speaker 3: 5:02

That's right, and we had.

Speaker 1: 5:03

Assam. Wait, can you describe the butter that was not used? Can you do that? Can you give us that? Yeah, I can definitely describe it. I cannot believe I did this Because you know what I feel like it would be great. I mean, I don't know, but go for it.

Speaker 3: 5:16

It was. So I started off with the idea of doing Balmoral, and then to fortify or rich, enrich it, I did whipped brie, butter, pickled onions, shallots, rather to be specific, ouzou, ouzou, marmalade, tarragon, steak seasoning was in there too, as well lemon zest. So there was this whole layer of next level levelness to go on top, to finish off that. The funny thing is you guys were having that conversation when, when you edit it, you were like we had an hour conversation. You guys were eating and we've, I think, pooch and I were like, finally, you know, it's time to eat. I think it was like 10 o'clock or something like that. It was ridiculous. And then he and I were like sitting there eating. We're just about to get done with the last bite. I look over, I go butter and he goes oh my god.

Speaker 2: 6:06

I go dude, the was amazing, put that stuff on everything, but I literally I had to drench everything in it, even my corn.

Speaker 1: 6:15

It was so good, dude.

Speaker 2: 6:16

I can't wait for you to have that out.

Speaker 1: 6:21

So I've had the corn, I've had the corn. The corn's fantastic. There was no way to do a podcast and me eat the corn last night. I can't do it, man, I can't.

Speaker 3: 6:28

He's got a certain amount of floss Exactly, he has to make sure he's clean.

Speaker 1: 6:32

Or else I can't pronounce right.

Speaker 3: 6:34

For corn.

Speaker 1: 6:36

No, not just for corn. There's certain things when you have to like dig in to eat it and you, you know, you you've got stuff all over the place. Barbaric, it's barbaric now. Yeah, oh, go, brush your teeth to go. We're trying to do a thing here like I don't have time for all that to you know. So I avoid certain foods. Um, before we, before we actually podcast, or also I can't pronounce right yeah, during the actual shoots on Thursdays you normally whoops.

Speaker 3: 7:03

during shoots on Thursdays you actually end up having that happen to you you don't want to eat because we're either going to be doing the podcast now that we kind of switch things. It's sort of it's.

Speaker 1: 7:12

It's in line. It's in line with um when y'all are cooking and you don't eat, and you're just tasting but you don't eat. I mean like last night when I work right, right. So it's the same for me. When I'm when I'm working, I don't want to eat. Yeah, you know, other people can enjoy themselves. That's what it's there for. I'll eat mine cold Like y'all do. It's just what. It is that same cloth, cloth, yeah.

Speaker 3: 7:38

But here's the thing we had all these people in yesterday and it was the camaraderie. That was really cool. It didn't matter there's what four spots on the table, because you had set up the table. There was not much there. And then, you know, pooch and I ate at the counter. There was somebody who ate over there, we didn't care.

Speaker 1: 7:57

That's what we are. I said I'd like to eat over the garbage, can please?

Speaker 3: 8:00

Well, it was right over there, it was right there, I call can.

Speaker 2: 8:03

I'll eat over the can you were the closest to it.

Speaker 1: 8:07

Yeah, so listen people, audience. I don't know when I'm airing, I'm not sure how long it's going to take to air the episode. We did, but I but I have to tell you, and we also had Chef Darren over here.

Speaker 3: 8:20

From the.

Speaker 1: 8:20

Henry From the Henry and his song, and I have to tell you it was very, very hot.

Speaker 3: 8:33

It was insightful, insightful.

Speaker 1: 8:35

Spirited, very spirited, is a nice way to put it, but like truth, it's perception, bro bro yeah and I don't really want to drop too much, I just want people to know that.

Speaker 3: 8:46

Um, I think we we did a lot yesterday I think what was talked about in the way it was talked about, to bring it up, to bringing that out, I think needs to be brought out more, but in a different way definitely I have so you know, in the monologue, and forgive me, dear friend.

Speaker 1: 9:02

Uh, I didn't bring you up in the monologue, I'm sorry.

Speaker 2: 9:04

So we have the pooch rivera hello in studio, welcome from miami, welcome. I think that, um, that's what you get when you get multicultural and multi-generational people in a room that are all part of the industry, and it's blood, sweat and tears and people are going to express their pain, and people are going to express their story and, thank god, we have an opportunity to a platform to do it on. You know. So I thought it was a beautiful thing. You know it really was. I think that, um, you know when, when alcohol's flowing and people are really feeling good and and I don't mean that in a bad way I mean I think it was great. It's issues that need to be hashed out, whether it be worldwide or whether it be in the industry, and I think it's great, I think it needed to happen, I think it's going to bring this podcast to a different plateau and I think that it's going to. I think it's beautiful.

Speaker 1: 10:43

There was. There was a lot of different. Uh, let me just break it down. Um, pooch, you're from Louisiana. What's your? What's your, what's your background?

Speaker 2: 10:54

Uh, father is Afro Caribbean, I guess you would say that, which is means, I guess, in this world, a black man, um, and my mother is a Creole, but my mother is a redhead green was. Excuse me, may they both rest in peace. But, um, red hair, green-eyed creole lady, you know. So, um, to some people that's a white lady. To some people, they know her heritage and where she came from. So you know it's, it's. It's been easy for me to chart the waters of the world, but also the culinary industry, as racially ambiguous. Right, and it's hard for people to do that when they have a lot more melanin in their skin and people just need to express that, yes, right.

Speaker 1: 11:35

So what I'm trying. And Jeff, where are you?

Speaker 3: 11:37

What's your, what's your background, where was it raised, or what's your nationality, your ancestry? Yeah, eastern European mostly.

Speaker 1: 11:46

Okay, you know, mine is Italian and, at the end of the day, um chef jennifer, african-american gal from atlanta right and the, the, the four of us and and five with with chef, um, I mean you really have different, um real, very different cultures and we kind of came together at the table and talked about some you know very real things table and talked about some you know very real things and it was definitely real. It was very raw and very real and and I'm excited to uh to put it out. But before I put that out I wanted to make sure we have I wanted to do this first to kind of um, you know, to frame it, you know um to frame it, you know, because it was very it touched on a lot of hot topics.

Speaker 3: 12:41

Yeah, point blank.

Speaker 2: 12:42

There was a lot of third rail that normally don't get touched on on these type of podcasts, which is right yeah.

Speaker 1: 12:50

So, anyway, folks stay tuned for that. And, man, I tell you Miami, is it beautiful here or what? It's ridiculous Party in the club with the heaters on. Yeah, man, I tell you, Miami, is it beautiful here or what?

Speaker 3: 12:59

It's ridiculous. Party in the club with the heaters on.

Speaker 1: 13:01

Yeah, man, I tell you it's so different too. You know we're from here you know, jeff and I and I've been gone for eight years now. I've been up in Tampa for eight years, four and a half. For me, nothing is the same.

Speaker 3: 13:13

Nope, nothing. Nope, I mean the building we're in right now, this didn't exist. I mean there was what? Four buildings I can tell that are still here?

Speaker 1: 13:24

Yes, Right and you know we're on the 23rd floor To the right, on the balcony, you have the bay.

Speaker 3: 13:33

Actually, across the street is Bay Street. Yeah, I know Well, bayside, bayside.

Speaker 1: 13:37

Yeah, bayside, and then to the left. You know, you, just you, I can, I can, I can almost see the, uh, almost see the other coast from here. It's pretty crazy, um, but yeah, it's really, it's built up, it's gorgeous, I don't know. Uh, I love it.

Speaker 3: 13:50

I love it from here.

Speaker 1: 13:52

So, listen, I did this condo living, you know like I've done this for several years and I would never do it again. It was awesome in my in my twenties to be able to, you know, have that high rise experience and water be there, and it was really cool. But guess what? I would never do this again, never in my life.

Speaker 2: 14:09

It's inspiring. I think it's great. It reminds me of my Latin culture. It reminds me of uh, he did say that, you know. It just reminds me of being a kid traveling to venezuela. The architecture um, my grandfather also did bill bill. He was the major architect in venezuela, so there's a lot of emotions that come with it. Um, but it it's inspiring. I mean even, and even we can just segue into the fmb at sea. I mean it's crazy how cool it is to be in a tropical, spicy environment and see excuse me, see all these chefs and food people come together in a different environment than new orleans, you know, and in new orleans is usually thought of as that culinary mecca, and I'm loving learning and seeing and enjoying new people, new culture and and new things. I think it's great.

Speaker 3: 14:57

I can't wait to come back here, even just for a food tour yeah, I think the way that the actual event was done, because we've been through a lot um, you know my career with the acf and having all the different national conventions and seeing. I've never been to the nra show, but this show is really cool. Like you know, you walk into bacardi and it's just a guy sitting there with a girl. To the right, they've got a couple different shakers, it's different stuff and they've got three drinks and then behind there there's a black curtain, velvet black curtain, and then you go through that curtain and it opens up to this huge, massive room.

Speaker 1: 15:31

That's a speakeasy it's, I mean, a beautiful bar. The decor, everything they did inside of it was really great, plus the the DJ.

Speaker 3: 15:39

It was really cool.

Speaker 1: 15:40

I just want to say a shout out to Omar, that guy. Yeah, he wanted to make sure the drinks were flowing. He was what a gentleman.

Speaker 3: 15:49

Yeah, a hundred percent. You know what you felt like you were in his house, seriously, Represented their brand as well.

Speaker 2: 15:55

Bacardi was a class act, the whole thing was a class act. But the Bacardi speakeasy class act.

Speaker 3: 15:58

But the palm trees they put in there you felt like you were in like Vizcaya. You felt like you were in Vizcaya, in the middle of Vizcaya, walking through, and this was like just an open area and people were just sitting there with a bar and there was like that little car there.

Speaker 1: 16:10

Whoever came up with that?

Speaker 3: 16:12

Brilliant.

Speaker 1: 16:14

Did she? Yeah, well, she spearheaded that whole thing. Well, if that was, we'll find out, but whoever did?

Speaker 3: 16:20

if that was Jackie. Yeah, seriously.

Speaker 1: 16:22

JP.

Speaker 2: 16:27

But the whole thing even the guys at Jack Daniels that were representing how that particular marketing person, vivian.

Speaker 1: 16:30

Look, he's using my coaster right now. Explain it. Explain the coaster.

Speaker 3: 16:34

So we walk up and we're directed, just going. Oh, there's a bar there's, and we're we're directed, just going. Oh, there's a bar, there's a bartender. We're going to go this way. And I didn't see to the left, when you walked into this little area of jack daniels, they had like a fake library in the background behind the guy and he was like he had this white shirt on, these brown kind of overalls. You felt like you're being sent back into the 1800s, 1900s and all of a sudden you hear this guys want to, you want a coaster? And I was like is?

Speaker 2: 17:02

that the hottest new drug on the scene.

Speaker 3: 17:05

I was like what? And there's this dude sitting, kind of like he's got that old bartender, or like not bartender but barber and he's got the pencil mustache the handlebars, rather, and he's got his sleeves rolled up and he's got the the same kind of, you know, over the um, what do you call it? The, uh, suspenders suspenders.

Speaker 3: 17:27

Thank you, suspenders and he's got this old machine that presses. And she looks at you and they're already. Hey, carl, come on over here and let me get you a coaster with your name on it. Before you know it, they took this out and they're pressing it and he goes here. You go and we're like, oh my god, this is amazing, what a great another great piece of marketing, yeah so you take that back with you and it was just the experience, and there's a lot of things here.

Speaker 3: 17:48

By the way, I don't know if you guys realize this. I didn't hear. I heard this like as we were leaving. I guess Jackie was talking and I said Bacardi, and she goes oh, if you want to order your ship, you can go to that right over there and they can develop your ship for you.

Speaker 1: 18:02

I'm like huh, I mean, that's why I put down a down payment.

Speaker 3: 18:07

Oh, you did Okay.

Speaker 2: 18:10

One cool thing that I know and we're going to go hit that today at the convention center is the fact that you have the port of calls trying to promote themselves, which is so cool. So they're promoting themselves to the ship you know the big ship liners to get them to go to their port of call, whether it be I think they were saying some places in Yugoslavia, croatia, all up and down the west coast of the United States, all throughout the Caribbean just new and innovative places. So I think that's cool. I think it's just great that this is the second year they're doing it and normally you think of conventions and food shows as not as really just trying to get people to buy things and be part of the new.

Speaker 2: 18:49

It had a different vibe. It had a way different vibe, something that I want to be a part of again. And come back to it's I have now. I avoid food shows. Everybody's like were you at this, were you at that? I'm like, no, I never go to that stuff. This is someplace I want to be again. It's just smart. Let me just stop you.

Speaker 1: 19:04

I'm going to stop you in your tracks. First of all, your personality is tailor-made to go to trade shows. Well, thank you, sir, the NRA show coming up between you two, we've got to figure that out. You need to represent at the trade shows.

Speaker 3: 19:26

See you, chicago, I'll see you Could be both of us.

Speaker 2: 19:29

Oh, you mean the National Rifle. I mean whatever my personality is prone for that.

Speaker 1: 19:35

Yeah, it's good. That's it. Yeah, it's good, um, but yeah, I know we, we need and you know, walk and talk media needs to really dive into the, the shows more and we've come to a, we've come to a place, um, you know, in the timeline and the history of of what we're doing, where it's, it's now it's now it's go time.

Speaker 3: 19:53

Yeah, I think one of the things that I saw with this particular one is that the different vendors and what they were showcasing and the one that really blew me out of the way out of the things that I saw with this particular one is that the different vendors and what they were showcasing and the one that really blew me out of the way out of the water plant-based, the one with the tuna and the salmon.

Speaker 2: 20:09

Oh, with Antonio plant-based caviar, which I thought was like how oxymoronic. And then you try it and you're like, holy moly, Like this is this is so good, and yes, you know. And then you try it and you're like, holy moly, like this is so good, and yes, you know to be able to cater to everybody's needs and wants, and dietary thoughts and the new things, everything's posh and hip. I think it's just brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. You've had me at holy moly.

Speaker 1: 20:34

Holy moly.

Speaker 3: 20:35

Nobody had guacamole, though, I know, but you know what's funny funny and that's a good segue, because one of the guys we met was Pashi. Pashi, I'm so impressed. That product, what an innovative product that's.

Speaker 2: 20:45

Antonio, right, so you were thinking.

Speaker 3: 20:48

I'm talking about when it was the shrimp that was shaped like the shrimp and it was fried. The girl was from Mexico. Reminded us of Fiona, no, that's where they had the poke bowl and they had edamame and some peppers standing up and they had salmon and tuna that were.

Speaker 2: 21:03

Oh, you're right that was plant-based.

Speaker 3: 21:06

Then they had the shrimp, they had the chicken and they had the chicken wing or something else.

Speaker 1: 21:10

That shrimp. Good Lord, everyone, the whole world. I stand corrected. You're right, jeff.

Speaker 3: 21:15

Yeah for the first time. But no, that was really cool because here me being a plant-based chef and I love that and what they're doing in that product, especially on the ships, it's a no-brainer, why do you not have it? And then we had the guys from Kapow, or I think they changed their name Future Foods, the ones with Rob Hodge that we went to.

Speaker 3: 21:37

And they were really good too Right. And then we met the Panna Chesia which is. I just looked at her name. It was really cool. I didn't even know this was her name. Janessa is her name.

Speaker 2: 21:45

Janessa.

Speaker 3: 21:46

So Janessa is Italian. She went plant-based 15 years ago and she couldn't find a cheese she liked, so she developed this. It's not chemicals or anything like that and it tastes just like a. You know, it's 24 months shelf-stabled parmesan cheese. I'm like what. So what did I do? I introduced rob hodge to her. They're actually showcasing today that they're going to do their plant-based raviolis utilizing her cheese, so they're cross merchandising. So I think that's brilliant, amazing.

Speaker 2: 22:16

Yeah, you know, people think about cruise liners and a lot of times, uh, I know that this is a big port of call in New Orleans, a big port of call for cruise liners, and you always think of the people who are just there for the buffets, you know.

Speaker 2: 22:28

And then when I think of buffets, I think of everyone can think of whatever buffet they want to growing up and and how they either loved it or hated it, and most of the time, people nowadays hate them. But the food on cruise ships, I mean it's, it's quickly turning into a. The food in restaurants on a cruise ship is the destination rather than the port of call, and they're getting now celebrity chefs to do things themed restaurants, really, really smart. You know it's, it's just, it's it's. You can be anywhere in the world and enjoy the same things that you would if you would go to ve, if you go to New York, if you go to New Orleans. It's, it's brilliant and it's really opened my eyes and I'm sad to say that I've never been on a cruise before in my life.

Speaker 3: 23:06

I was. I've been on one and let me tell you something it was. I want to go again. It's one of those things of year, it's also hot, but you know, I went during January and it was beautiful. You know, here in the in Florida we obviously we have Tampa as a port of call, we have Cape Canaveral, we have Orlando and then you have Miami. Guess where the cheapest place to get a cruise ticket from Miami hands down, it's the cheapest way to get out into the Caribbean or anywhere. You do it through Miami and it is literally I can't believe the difference. It's ridiculous. But I think one of the things that really, when you're talking about buffets is that live cooking demo. That guy from England that had come over and the other guy was from Germany, it was German manufacturing that induction burner.

Speaker 2: 23:56

Oh my gosh.

Speaker 3: 23:57

And it had its own built-in Battery system. Yeah, that to me was just incredible.

Speaker 2: 24:02

Not only that, the battery system, I'm talking about the ventilation, where you can cook and go with a wok, no hood necessary, no hood anything. Yeah, that was amazing.

Speaker 3: 24:08

And then they showed us like you can customize the outlay of it, even though it's portable, and you can literally break it down and move it and set it back up in less than a half an hour. You can put this like whatever you want in the front of it to cover it. That stuff is so innovative to me and, as a chef, I, we, we geek out on like new. That that's that's. And one of the things was when I first caught my eye, they had these, what looked like sushi on like spoons and I thought it was an anti-griddle and I'm like no, that would freeze it. This is why would you do that? It's not ice cream, that's sushi. When that drew me into having the conversation hey, what is that? He goes, oh, it goes from what?

Speaker 3: 24:45

negative three to 160 degrees celsius seconds there's something like that, and you're just like wait what? And he's like, yeah, and he showed us, he lifted out. He's like literally one person can set this whole thing up. I'm'm like that's amazing. That, to me, is the epitome of why we do these shows, or come to these shows, because, as chefs, we're always locked in our kitchen. We don't know what's going on.

Speaker 2: 25:07

I would love to encourage any chef just to come to these things too, because the camaraderie and the people you meet so cool. I'm glad to be the guinea pig for you guys to be able to learn these things and not have been to all these shows. It's just amazing. Gosh, I can't wait. I mean I got a date with the sushi machine today. The sushi robot.

Speaker 3: 25:27

I missed that one. I don't know where I was for that.

Speaker 2: 25:30

How were you doing?

Speaker 2: 25:31

I saw it, but it was a big crowd, but I'm going back. I told him I would come to see him today. It's automatic, but it's not what you're thinking about. Robot, though, but you put everything in and it just rolls the sushi for you, which is which, yes, you want to see. You know a lot of that when you said. This is right. I don't think that it's a four sushi restaurant. It's more for, like, ghost kitchens and for cruise liners, so you're learning how to make things efficient in small spaces, and it's I think it's for like wawa and buckies which could be actually.

Speaker 3: 25:59

Yeah, you're right, I never I mean think about it when you look at the skill level of a cook, right when we're looking for someone to hire, you can teach certain things. There's a skill level that needs to be added at a certain level. Sushi cooking or preparing is definitely a next level and it deserves and demands a different price point. You, you know what's weird.

Speaker 1: 26:22

Sushi chefs. They're in the kitchen. They're humping it like everybody else. It's absolutely different than other kitchens. Like a regular, kitchen.

Speaker 3: 26:34

We know somebody that used to work in one, and myself I was trained by a corporate sushi chef for a big name chef and I don't like the name then, but we did $1.5 million a year out of that sushi restaurant. It was ridiculous and the space was the size of the table we're sitting at.

Speaker 1: 26:51

Yeah, and I they don't make any money. Huh, uh.

Speaker 3: 26:56

I, I didn't.

Speaker 2: 26:59

I was training. No one makes money in this industry.

Speaker 3: 27:02

You know even the big time people don't make yeah, he was the corporate one, so he developed a menu and everything like that for the chef, but he was also japanese trained.

Speaker 3: 27:10

So somebody's taking my 200 bucks a dinner, yeah, yep, but again, when you're trained at that level, when you have a robot that can do it look at what you just did you don't have to have somebody and pay somebody, you can actually have somebody there. Do the means for that robot, I guess, and do it. So, yeah, there's certain things that the industry needs, especially because we can't find labor sometimes and I think it's a call to action to anyone.

Speaker 2: 27:36

When you know, when they you know everyone has their predictions of, like you know, years of no everyone be jobless because robots are going to take it Maybe, but at the end of the day, you're always going to need a barber and you're always going to need a chef. You may not need a chef to make your fat burger, your pizza or sushi now we saw that yesterday or I did but you're going to need a chef. I'm not going to have a robot cook my anniversary dinner. I'm not going to have a robot cook my birthday dinner. They'll celebrate. Maybe we may end up doing that.

Speaker 3: 28:03

Where's the passion?

Speaker 2: 28:04

Me, George, you know, but I'm not. Where's the passion in that? So I think you can drive people in this industry to not be gloom and doom and say, well, be the best chef that you can be, Because someone's going to hire you to do their private. You know, birthday anniversary, whatever it may be.

Speaker 1: 28:23

I mean here. Well, picture it like this the year is 2050. And there are no more chefs. We've been, you've been replaced.

Speaker 3: 28:33

We've taken the red pill and we see what the matrix looks like.

Speaker 1: 28:36

You've been replaced by robots. At that point every single end-of-the-world robot movie ever made comes into fruition. But here's the deal the actual chefs, their leaders, the generals, and they put their brigades together and they go back and they destroy the robots and we take back culinary hollywood. If you're listening and I'm saying I mean you know but here's the thing about that and this is coming for

Speaker 3: 29:03

me, because I've never really I've never thought about it until you made the comment about yeah, the robot can do this and that the problem is when you have a machine doing certain things, it doesn't. It only knows what it's told. The thing about being a human and listening. And you're cooking and you hear the pan, I need to add more oil or I need to turn that. There's not a definitive recipes, there's just basically instruction, handbooks, but the the thing is you can follow the recipe to tea, but what happens when you don't have the product there and you don't have the knowledge to use that product? The machine doesn't know that. I want to substitute X because Karen and Ken wants to substitute the entire menu. Well then, how is that going to be built? When I used to work for the Broadliner, we had to come in with Mary Chef or the stuff that you use.

Speaker 1: 29:53

Well, instead of hiring uh kitchen staff and in front of the house, you just, you just hire it people to handle that.

Speaker 3: 29:56

They facilitate the uh and that's where I was going with this. That so, mary chef, is one of those when you got to think about. When you go to starbucks and they put in the thing, the heroes, the egg, sous vide eggs, they press the button and whatever amount of time bing, it's out's out and a go. How many times have you been at a restaurant, at a fast food or a Starbucks, and you got something? You walked out the door and it's ice cold. The machine didn't know. The machine was told exactly what it did. It produced because that's what the technicians did. The person that took that out should have. Is this done? Machines are never going to know if it's that hot.

Speaker 1: 30:27

I'm going to make a prediction that by 2050.

Speaker 3: 30:29

You're going to have Carl Fiedini attack the robots.

Speaker 1: 30:33

Stop cutting me off. No, but here's the thing by 2050, we are going to have the geek squad running all the kitchens. You know that's what's going to happen.

Speaker 3: 30:42

2050, that's 25 more years right.

Speaker 1: 30:44

Yeah, yeah, probably less than that.

Speaker 3: 30:46

I'm thinking of my age. I know I had to think so. That would be Billy Joel's age at that point.

Speaker 2: 30:56

Uptown girl. One thing that I was really impressed with as well is the Felicity Felicity the pasta brand, where I've never seen that before. Felicetti, felicetti Italia I was so impressed with that that you don't have to boil the pasta. Felicetti, felicetti Italia. I was so impressed with that that you don't have to boil the pasta, you soak it. It doesn't release any starches, it stays pliable and al dente.

Speaker 1: 31:21

Felicetti.

Speaker 2: 31:22

Felicetti, felicetti. That and pasta both blew me away. I never thought that I would have met that and seen that at any food show.

Speaker 1: 31:34

That pasta was really good. Yeah, it was. Do you want to?

Speaker 3: 31:36

talk about al dente.

Speaker 1: 31:37

Yeah, it was really good.

Speaker 2: 31:38

That had some good stuff and it can sit in a chafer for hours and not get mush. It's brilliant. It's brilliant, I mean, it brings back profit margins back to where they need to be for survival, basically at the end of the day in a restaurant industry.

Speaker 3: 31:53

So that group was actually a cater source when I was there in Austin and that's why I knew who they were. And I was amazed when I met them in Austin because I was like as a caterer, as someone that's going to do private catering, I never would put pasta in a dish because I knew in 20 minutes it would be manigotti if it was ricotta, you know rigatoni. So I like no, because the integrity, there's no way I'm going to do that. That is a game changer to me. When you have stuff like that artichokes from poshie and when you crack that thing open and you rip it open and it turned out to be salad was amazing as well.

Speaker 3: 32:26

The vinegar attitude. And it was just all shelf stable, ready to go, ready to go.

Speaker 1: 32:30

I'm not going to lie. When I had that little bowl of pasta, it really made me happy.

Speaker 3: 32:36

It's a true story. The spice was there, everything, and it was really good to have your authentic Italian chef literally handing you Eh Molto piacere, molto piacere. Good times, guys, good times. Always good to be here with y'all. Oh man, learn, learn, learn, learn. What about that waffle with the cookie stuff?

Speaker 2: 33:00

oh yes, golden malted, golden malted. I don't, uh, they blew me away. I can't remember everything. Blew me away, blew me away, but they, they blew me away too. I never thought that I would love waffles as much as what they showed me and how innovative and smart they do things and, yeah, it turns everything upside down and it's impressive. It was very impressive.

Speaker 1: 33:21

Man, that waffle was so good, Sticky but good.

Speaker 2: 33:26

It had that little ginger snap or whatever it was. I have no idea.

Speaker 1: 33:31

I want one now actually. Well, it opens at 11.

Speaker 3: 33:35

Okay, we will be there soon. They can open.

Speaker 1: 33:37

Bomb, rush the doors. Yeah, yeah, all right.

Speaker 2: 33:39

All right, One cool thing I do too. I woke up to the smell of empanadas and I was like well, somebody is in there. And then I was like no, it's the place 23 floors below us, Don't you just smell like that? Yeah, that's just me. I smell like bacon.

Speaker 1: 33:54

He smells like empanadas.

Speaker 2: 33:59

I sweat empanada. Yeah, it's so cool. Miami is such a diversity yeah. I love it so much, so, so much.

Speaker 3: 34:05

Welcome to Miami. Let me need this on Miami. You know Bob Black from from fse. He's been coming there for 50 years. I've known him for 10 plus years because being in the industry on the sales side of things, and to see mike from fse, that was really good for me. I just saw a lot of my old friends. Core group was there and so it was fun. But for me, innovation to it. Forget all the liquor that was in the room, but the innovation to it was just spectacular.

Speaker 1: 34:36

We're going to come back as often as they'll have us and we came in as media, by the way and again, this is the direction we're heading, which is so exciting. We're going through a metamorphosis 100%.

Speaker 3: 34:49

Here's the thing now. I know two brands that were here, so I knew Golden Malted, golden Malted, yeah, the Golden Malted brand. I knew that brand because I dealt with them. I knew Maple Leaf, so I knew three, sorry, and Bellagio was Scott. And right off the bat, when I saw Scott I'm like, oh, it's Scott, everything else wasn't. So one of the questions I asked Jackie was is it so much different from the hotel restaurant country club scene that they only focus certain groups to come into this? And she's like well, your press, you can ask that question.

Speaker 1: 35:20

And I realized, oh yeah, I forgot about that. It's so cool. And, by the way that, uh, that duck was pretty. Uh, oh, the new smoked duck, smoked duck breast.

Speaker 3: 35:30

Yeah, I mean, it's also injected with a marination, so it's still tender to the bite, and then the smoke is a natural smoke. It's not liquid smoke. The other one that did a liquid smoke, or smoke rather, was DuBurton, the one that we had the sausage, the Canadian bacon and they had the maple.

Speaker 1: 35:50

They were from New Hampshire. Yeah, they did a good job.

Speaker 3: 35:52

Yeah, that was wicked good. Yeah, wicked cool. They had slabs of bacon. I'm like, so how do you sell it to the cruise lines? We can sell it this way, we sell it this way, we sell it that way. And I'm like, and their a lot of opportunities out there. I mean, who knew that you're going to have plant-based cheese?

Speaker 2: 36:19

24 months. You know, maybe hopefully fmb at sea could, uh, maybe send us on a cruise the week before so we can kind of learn more and have a better eye on what's going on and know from the restaurateur, from the consumer, from all of the above to come back and ask some questions.

Speaker 3: 36:37

I know he's been on a cruise. Oh yeah, no, not been on a cruise. I have never been on a cruise. Have you been on a?

Speaker 2: 36:40

cruise no, I actually have in Greece, but it was a cruise ship, just to be. It was a ferry, but it was a cruise ship night.

Speaker 1: 36:50

So I guess I have been on a cruise, but not. Yeah, but not one out to like have right, you've been on a cruise, you've been on several cruises, yeah all right, so I've only been on one, so yeah, yeah, I think we need to hook up with.

Speaker 3: 36:59

Cruises are terrific. I want to know where we can get our ears pierced virgin remember virgin. Has somebody here that when you, if you're pressed, you get free ear piercing? I think at the convention. Oh and they got free tattooing, too. Yeah, yeah, they had the.

Speaker 2: 37:12

What was that? Fake tattoos or Temporary tattoos? I got the.

Speaker 1: 37:16

Walk Talk logo on my shoulder Boy.

Speaker 3: 37:19

You stopped when the guy was pressing. You're like you have a Walk Talk logo.

Speaker 1: 37:22

I was wondering how we can do it.

Speaker 3: 37:24

Yeah, I know, the wheels were turning when we walked in on that one. That was so cool though.

Speaker 1: 37:28

I mean Pooch is using the coaster thing right now. It's cool.

Speaker 3: 37:31

It's a little I don't know I'm going to throw one out there for Pooch, because I think his favorite was let's have a Picnic. The manufacturer with the two young ladies.

Speaker 2: 37:39

I'll tell you what Jessica and Allison over there, and it's because two or three podcasts ago, we talked about facilitating for chefs and people who have recipes and products, and the ladies at Mighty Picnic were absolutely amazing so smart, so innovative and doing exactly what we're doing right now and trying to help other people make their products come alive. So these ladies are real smart. Check out Mighty Picnic, ladies and gentlemen. They are amazing, absolutely amazing.

Speaker 1: 38:09

So what's the best part of of the show for you, pooch?

Speaker 2: 38:15

utilizing my personality to build relationships. I've been always good at forging relationships and that is really where I'm learning that I need to be, you know, but uh, but also learning that the new thing, you know, the reason I've never been on a cruise is because a cruise always had a stigma for me, you know. It's like, well, it's just a certain demographic that wants to go something. They want to eat a lot, they want to drink a lot, and I'm like, well, I live in New Orleans. It's a gluttonous city already Like why do I need to go on a boat and be stuck with all those people? And then I learned yesterday and going to learn more today that it's not that and it's well wait a minute, it is that, however, however it's, it's like a, it's like a floating city, right?

Speaker 1: 38:59

So?

Speaker 1: 38:59

there's a lot of a lot of people on there on the ship, but you're, you're enjoying your own things, you know, and you know 90% of the. You know, when you hit your port of call, 90% of the people get off the boat and, you know, go off and and do whatever excursions, excursions and whatever little adventures that they're going to get into. And you're just out now, a good portion, uh, you know 10%, stay on the on the ship. They don't even get off and because, when everybody's gone now, you, now, you got everything for yourself, Right? So, yeah, there's the buffets, there's the 24-hour eating. The last cruise I went on I gained 15 pounds, no joke 15 pounds, it was like a 10-day.

Speaker 3: 39:40

I was not the chef. No, I want to let everyone know I was not, it was not, but I gained a dude.

Speaker 1: 39:47

It was bad Because it's 24 hours.

Speaker 3: 39:53

And for me it was just. Well, you only sleep like two hours, so you're back up at 3 o'clock anyways, Eating and eating, and they kept feeding me and feeding me.

Speaker 1: 40:00

And it was just, you know whatever.

Speaker 2: 40:03

I can't wait to take my kids. You know, to be honest with you, I mean, that's one of the coolest things.

Speaker 1: 40:14

I think that they're going to like that. They're there at the age of now where they're going to love to do all the activities. It's, it's monitored, it's safe. You know when you're actually when, when the ship is is approaching the, the port, wherever you're going, it's cool. You feel like a, you feel like a pirate. You know what I mean, because it's like and you see the, you know the blue water. If you're here in the caribbean, you get that beautiful aqua, awesome water and you just kind of your ship is approaching and you see, usually there's like some mountain in the background or you know, it's just cool, picturesque Village looking. Yeah.

Speaker 2: 40:42

One of the cool things that people always tell me about taking a cruise out of New Orleans is being able to take the curves of the river and then opening up from the Mississippi river into the mouth of the river, into the Gulf, in the Gulf of Mexico, and they're like that's just an amazing thing, to see Like you know it, just it's how the pirates actually came up and down the river, you know so it's so historical and it gives you goosebumps. They say you know cause? Just and Pooch.

Speaker 1: 41:05

I mean listen, I mean Arr, Arr, I mean our pooch the pirate. All right, we have to. We actually got to wrap up. Yeah, we got to check out.

Speaker 3: 41:17

We've got to get on over. Yeah, there's a lot of things to do. We got to check out.

Speaker 1: 41:20

We got to get a check in. I got to get coffee Get a freaking cafe con leche. I need a coffee, and on the way back I need to pick up some Empanadas. And on the way back I need to pick up some goodies here at the Cuban Bakery for the fam.

Speaker 2: 41:35

Nice Got to do what you got to do. Thank you Miami. Thank you F&B at Sea. Thank you Jackie. Thank you Peninsula. Love y'all. Thank you, peninsula.

Speaker 3: 41:42

That was a delicious meal last night.

Speaker 2: 41:44

Yeah that was amazing. You brought chefs together Peninsula. You brought chefs together baby.

Speaker 1: 41:48

Bringing chefs together every single day. That's Peninsula Food Service. Chefs in the Central Florida area. Make sure that you're going to call Peninsula Food Service. Oh yeah, All right, so we're going to hit the road. We are out. We'll see you next time.