Chef Rosana Rivera: Puerto Rican Roots and Food Network Fame

Experience an inspiring culinary adventure with Tampa's very own Chef Rosana Rivera, as she takes us through her remarkable journey from corporate sales to owning renowned restaurants. Discover how her Puerto Rican heritage and passion for cooking led her to a successful appearance on national TV with Bobby Flay, and how this life-changing experience propelled her career. We also reveal some unique Father's Day grilling ideas, including a mouth-watering smoked chicken dish and a coffee-encrusted two-pound ribeye, along with a fascinating dive into the culinary uses of the exotic tropical fruit lychee.

Hear firsthand how Chef Rosana transitioned from informal family catering to a formal culinary education, providing rich insights into the dynamics of working alongside her husband, Ricardo. The excitement of competing on a Food Network show and the meticulous casting process offer a behind-the-scenes glimpse into their professional and personal lives. This episode is packed with practical advice on leveraging television exposure to boost business growth, making it a must-listen for aspiring chefs and restaurateurs.

Gain valuable tips on the critical role of social media in the restaurant industry, featuring strategies for content creation and management. Learn from Chef Rosana and Ricardo about the importance of authenticity and consistency in soci

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 1:04

Hello, food Fam. This is the Walk Talk podcast where you will find the perfect blend of food fun and cooking knowledge. I'm your host, carl Fiodini. Welcome to the number one food podcast in the country. We're recording on-site at Ibis Images Studios, where food photography comes alive and I get to eat it.

Speaker 1: 1:23

First things first. Last week on the show we had Michelle Miller, aka the Farm Babe, where we got into some very zesty convo about misleading labels. To GMO or not to GMO that is the question. Go back and listen. Our guest this week is Tampa local Chef Rosanna Rivera. From entrepreneur to restaurateur, she's done it all. Plus, chef Rosanna has been featured in dozens of magazines and articles, not to mention the granddaddy of them all, meeting Bobby Flay and her husband, by the way, on national TV. Stay tuned, chef Rivera is on deck.

Speaker 1: 2:03

Jefferson, we are deeply embedded in this social media rat race. You know we're putting in the hard work and you know we're trying to claw our way up. Today we're going to get into how something like winning a TV show competition, a national one, can help improve your visibility and, ultimately, your business. By the way, we've been using our Metro mobile prep cart and it is badass. We have a video coming out today. Chefs, if you're planning on reorganizing your kitchen, be sure to contact our friends at Metro, your partner in organization and efficiency, jeff pop the clutch baby Pre-shift. Let's go.

Speaker 3: 2:44

Yeah, that's what we're talking about. Father's Day coming up so I wanted to do something to pay homage to being outdoors. It's nice and a lot more warmer in Florida, but other places around the country they're defrosting over the spring and all that, so it's time to start grilling. So I did a riff on a coca-cola. Coca-cola is very traditional like a stewed or braised chicken dish and it goes right from the get-go. But I actually smoked the chicken first, then added in the bacon, onions, wine and then then braised the chicken. That way we have that being served with a little bit of potato puree. A little bit of contrast in that as well. And and let me just tell you, john and Rack Porcelain Dishes they just did a phenomenal job with that today.

Speaker 3: 3:27

And then we have the two pound ribeye that's right, two pound ribeye. And then I encrusted that with sweet water coffee and let it sit there for at least a day, just to get real nice and gel together as far as the meat was concerned. What day? Just to get real nice and gel together as far as the meat was concerned. What happens when you do that in your refrigeration? It's a dehydrator. So it actually dehydrates, causes that bark to get crispy and crunchy on there so it penetrates the meat. So it's absolutely just full flavored of coffee, especially coming from sweet water coffee. Larry does a great job over there with his roasting abilities. And then we served that with bone marrow butter compound with a pecan.

Speaker 1: 4:05

Talk about that for a second.

Speaker 3: 4:06

Yeah, that was a little bit bone marrow. You had to take some butter, get it to room temperature, had some macadamia nuts, added those pecans blueberry and then put it all together on top and let it crust over about 400 degrees to get that really nice flavor profile. And then we served that just on its own, sliced up some and then used a red wine reduction and then just hit a little bit of the au jus in there too as well, and it was pretty stellar actually.

Speaker 1: 4:36

I can't wait to eat.

Speaker 3: 4:39

I love how today happened.

Speaker 1: 4:40

Yeah, well, you know, at the end of the day. So the audience doesn't know, or maybe some of them do, but typically we cook first and then podcast. And I don't know, a few months ago we started kind of, you know, experimenting with this podcast, first, cook, after, and it's, it's not bad, you know, I like it. But I tell you what you know as we're sitting here doing the show and you know, my stomach is like saying hey, what's going on? Like, what are we? What are we doing here?

Speaker 3: 5:07

You know, not, John Johnny. Well, you know what Good for you guys.

Speaker 1: 5:27

I noticed that John did have to go through with you too. I don't think they do. Oh no, they do. They completely understand? They see the behind the scenes, do they really? No, they don't. They don't see the real. You know, what we need to do is, like put some real live cameras 100 of the time and then, and then they're gonna know, and they're gonna know, they're gonna see that john works his butt off. All right. So this, this, this two poundpound piece of meat that was ridiculous. I know it's obscene. It's sitting right there, it's a few arm lengths away, and I'm fixing to just hang up the headphones and just get out of here.

Speaker 3: 5:53

I hear you and you can't forget about the T-bone.

Speaker 1: 5:56

No, you can never forget about the T-bone, and the T-bone has papaya in there.

Speaker 3: 5:59

And no, you can never forget about the T-bone. No, and the T-bone has papaya in there, and then lychees are in season.

Speaker 1: 6:02

So talk about the lychees. Those are like so for the foodies, right? They look like marbles. Yeah, little pearl marbles.

Speaker 3: 6:09

They're also known as dragon's eyes because of the way when you bite into it it has the pit in the middle of it like a stone fruit. Where does it come from, lycheee? It's indigenous here in Florida. It's subtropical, but it's known to be in. Yeah, leach the nut.

Speaker 1: 6:23

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 6:23

So it's from the lychee tree, right, and it's got a real good texture. When they're ripe they have a real sweet texture, but if they're not, they have a little bit of sourness to them, and so I got lychee poppers, which is like the caviar and you put it with the papaya that I made with the salsa.

Speaker 1: 6:39

Growing up in South Florida, you know Richard. Okay, so Richard, you know he and I have been friends since like 1983 and you know his family's they're he's Japanese. They had a lychee tree and it was humongous and you know we would be off weekend or whatever. We would climb the tree, sit in the tree and just crack lychee nuts and eat leachy nuts right fresh from the tree and wow, that was just an amazing. You know, and this is like a, you know, pretty rural area Well, 83.

Speaker 3: 7:11

Yeah, there was probably nothing, yeah.

Speaker 1: 7:12

It was well, it was just the orange groves and the dairy farms and stuff like that out there, cattle ranch, all that, and so that was just that kind of living. It was really great, really, their cattle ranch, all that and uh, so that was just that kind of living. It was really great, really great. That's my experience with, uh, you know my, my fond memories of ichinote.

Speaker 3: 7:26

you know, the funny thing is when I look to see and try to like, compare what in june, what was? Not only the holiday coming up, but what was in season in florida lychee, papaya they all popped up and I'm like I've never done lychee in a steak or on a steak and never done papaya, even though papaya is known as a meat tenderizer and be beautiful. So I just put two together and let me see what it's going to be like and it actually works really well. That wasn't the that.

Speaker 1: 7:51

Uh, that that wasn't the salsa, was it that was at the? Yeah, the papaya salsa. Yeah, that was fantastic.

Speaker 3: 7:56

The onions came from my garden, because the onions are now finally there, your secret garden. Yeah, the garden is also going to have next actually this month garlic June. I'll have garlic coming in. I had tomatoes, so I threw that up. My neighbor has the papayas, so put it all together.

Speaker 1: 8:12

Well, as usual, foodie people photos are coming. You know, john, of course, you know what to expect Beautiful stuff Today. It's a little bit of a treat, right, and I'm going to bring, I'm going to bring Chef Rosanna on here in a second, but you know she's going to, she's cooking too, and you know. So it's not going to be just Jefferson's food today. It's extra, and I think I'm happy, I think that's fantastic because I heard empanadas. Yeah, man, well, these are the bobby flay empanadas.

Speaker 3: 8:48

Okay, these are the ones that beat that dude okay right so, uh, thank god there's a camera right on her right now, because she's got a smile like a little kid, so do I all right um, chef rosanna, welcome to the program thank you so much for having me.

Speaker 2: 9:06

I mean, you're giggling, this is we do that you know.

Speaker 1: 9:10

Like I said before, remember we all of the pre stuff that you saw leading up to this. It's to get you in the right frame of mind. That's what we do.

Speaker 2: 9:17

I can see it now. Yeah, that's what we do, I love it, it's our.

Speaker 3: 9:20

this is the green room prep, that's green room prep.

Speaker 1: 9:23

Exactly, we get you ready for the shenanigans that go on in this show. Let's take a second, if you could. How about an airplane view of who you are and where you come from? And how did you make it here? How did you get here?

Speaker 2: 9:40

today, you know what?

Speaker 2: 9:41

I mean the car right there so I'll take you on a very quick journey. You know starting, I'm born and raised in puerto rico, from the countryside, so that's on the southwestern side of the island, very small town. Um grew up in a background where food is essential in in life and the center of our home and surrounded by all sorts of trees, of everything that you get in the island. I come from a family of farmers. I moved to the States around 2001, to New York. That's where I started my career in hospitality not being a chef yet and that was rough. You know just the culture change for me of coming from a small town to now being in the biggest city in the world and with the same company I asked for a transfer to Miami. So that's what really brings me to Florida.

Speaker 2: 10:34

And I worked in corporate world for about eight years while I was here and I had just something inside. Food was my calling and not something I ever took seriously. So I kept gravitating towards it until one day I said, okay enough, I'm going to see where this takes me. I started doing private chef for families and little by little started growing the business and that's when I enrolled in culinary school, put myself through culinary school and started officially incorporated my first business 18 years ago this month. So the started that journey of being an entrepreneur and you know, cooking for other people and defining what that business was like. Around 2012, I met my other half, whom you have already met, and we opened our first restaurant together these two young entrepreneurs just going at it through life and we opened a French restaurant in Patisserie. We were very successful at it. It brought us a lot of notoriety here in Tampa.

Speaker 1: 11:47

Picante right.

Speaker 2: 11:48

Yeah, it was called Picante in Hyde Park Village, and when that chapter closed, we moved to our second restaurant, which was inside of a food hall called Silo Mexican, and that's when we received the call for Bobby Flay, and that was in 2019. So we went through the show. We're going to talk a little bit about it later, but it's not something you can reveal until they tell you that you can, and that happened in December of 2019. And we'll talk a little bit more in detail later. It exploded, but three months later the whole world shut down and with that our restaurant shut down and we changed formats. So that brings me to today, four years post-pandemic. We have two businesses. One of them is Chef Rosanna. What came out of the show and pandemic was becoming my own brand, and with that I do luxury catering and events, and along with Chef Ricardo, then I have a chef and the baker, which is more your daily sustenance savory foods and a lot of bakery.

Speaker 1: 13:41

So when you were, you said that you came to Miami in a corporate capacity. What were you doing then?

Speaker 2: 13:50

I was in sales and marketing, you know, and creating conventions and hospitality and events for trade shows, essentially so handling that part of being in a trade show and it could be X, y, z, you know, sometimes it was a luxury jewelry trade show, but sometimes it was a luxury jewelry trade show, but sometimes it was something else. So it was managing and putting together all the hospitality component of it. Um, and I used to travel to latin america a lot with the same purpose putting together conventions so that's interesting.

Speaker 1: 14:21

You were, you, you actually, you were inadvertently, you were in the business already or connected to the business very much, absolutely yeah and then the desire from within. You know, and that's some, that's from family and heritage and everything kind of drove you into the uh, into the realm of hey, I want to go to culinary school um, definitely, you know, in in puerto rico we hustle.

Speaker 2: 14:45

You know, growing up in an island you have your career, but it's very acceptable that you have a side job. I think you know Florida has something similar with the cottage law, but over there you can just open anything. So growing up my mom and I used to cater and things that people don't cook at their house.

Speaker 1: 15:06

It can't all just be mofongo no house. It can't all just be mofongo no, no, it can't all just be mofongo.

Speaker 2: 15:09

Everybody can make their mofongo. So we would specialize on the things that people didn't make and, honestly, a lot of French items, believe it or not. So a lot of appetizers, different things that people wouldn't necessarily make at home. Anybody makes arroz con gandules or lechon, so it wasn't that, it was what was different, what you couldn't get in the island, essentially, but that was very easy to do there without being formal, without going to a culinary school or opening a formal business. In here it's a different story. So I wanted that formality, I wanted that education and confidence, and that's what led me to. If I'm going to do this for the rest of my life, I want to do it well.

Speaker 1: 15:54

How did the Food Network know about you? How did you get that call? Is that something where you submitted and then they found you? How did that?

Speaker 2: 16:05

You can apply to the show and I think now with social media it's a little bit easier to find on these shows who's the casting agent. I want to say a few years ago maybe it was a little bit more obscure. Unless you're subscribed to getting newsletters from a casting agency and if we have anybody listening and you want to go into a show, that's a great way. Just search for your favorite shows, who the agent is and normally on their website you can apply if it's the season, if the season is open. But in our case we got an email and I thought it was a joke, a scam, so I left it in my inbox for about a week until one night I said let me Google and see who this person is and she popped up on LinkedIn and I said, okay, this is the agency. Then you look up who this agency is and then I realized, oh wait, they cast all of Bobby Flay's shows. So this is not a scam and I responded to that email.

Speaker 1: 17:03

Did you immediately start sweating?

Speaker 2: 17:06

I did Ricardo. No, you know he's a ham, but I get anxiety when I'm in that, you know spotlight's on me.

Speaker 1: 17:14

Well, I was speaking with Ricardo for maybe 15 minutes and he's the most laid back cool cat I think I've ever met. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2: 17:21

He is zero ego, but he's very confident in that realm of TV. So it was good to have him, you know, to boost my confidence in that, because you're out of your element. You know, as chefs we're used to hiding in the kitchen. That's our safe space, and all of a sudden you're throwing to the spotlight cameras on you. It's not as easy.

Speaker 1: 17:45

Yeah, and how this all works right. I mean, first of all, in in on that show. You nationally got to beat bobby flay, but I think, more importantly, you got to beat hobby. Yes, right, I, I for me, I think that's because if, if, if I were in a situation like that, it was me and my wife and and I got to beat my wife like that and and I think I would just I would walk around a mile high every day.

Speaker 2: 18:10

I don't know.

Speaker 1: 18:12

It's gotta be. It's gotta be almost better than than beating Bobby. Oh no, no nothing beats Bobby beating Bobby.

Speaker 2: 18:20

But I think you know, ricardo and I are definitely partners in life and in business. So when we we got so we didn't necessarily both apply at the same time. I think at that point in time that we're probably looking for a female and my name came up having some recognition in our area. So when I finally answer the casting agent and she listened to our story they don't assume that you own your business or that you're the main chef so that you go through all these questions. And when they hear the story now I own a business with my husband and he happens to be a chef something clicked on their side. You know what? What?

Speaker 1: 19:00

just he just, would he be willing and I'm like, of course he would be willing, you know to be, I get that from him too yeah well, the show, and I get like if I were, if I were the agent, and I'm looking at the and I'm looking at the, the paper, and I'm like, oh man, my gears are already spinning like this is great tv.

Speaker 2: 19:18

You know, that's beautiful, yeah so they crafted this episode and you don't know if it's you know, until you know that it's gonna happen that way. But what they presented to the producer of the episode and then eventually to the network is we have this couple out of Tampa, they cook together, they have a business together and they're competing. So they created if you look up the show, it's a couples episode. So at first I thought this was going to air in Valentine's probably, and it didn't. It ended up airing in Christmas, during the holiday, and then they brought in another couple to be the host, you know going challenging Bobby, which is Ali Tila and Jet Tila, and they're amazing Another, you know, great couple story. So they made everything about the episode to be very inclusive, to be very much about our heritage, both being from Puerto Rico. So it was just a lovely, honestly just a lovely experience.

Speaker 1: 20:17

Okay, so you do the show, you win. And granted, it was, you know, ground zero, for you know, for COVID and the whole thing. It still changed your life.

Speaker 2: 20:33

It did Absolutely. And I, you know, I want to say these shows give you a platform to jumpstart your career, maybe get ahead, but you have to make the most out of it and I have made the most out of being on the show and everything that comes with it. You know it's a marketing power. Bobby Flay and they do a great job at giving you that platform. You know he presents the show as a show for chefs and that is very real. But when you come back from it, you do have some time to prepare and and you know, ricardo and I sat down and we made our own personal financial investment in promoting it, in doing a, you know, hiring a pr agency into drafting press releases. You know the things that you do for your own business. So we really wanted to take the opportunity that was given to us and make the most out of it.

Speaker 1: 21:37

And I think that's the. So that's where things get super interesting. Obviously, you know we're a we're a food media company and we're not that social media is our driver. You know we're a food media company and we're not that social media is our driver. You know our content for Apple and Spotify and you know that's our driver. But of course, we have to play in on social media in order to get just a little bit extra eyeballs on what you're doing.

Speaker 1: 22:20

It's an incredible amount of work. We're running late today because we had a cooler go down. An AC unit went down. You know, and you know hey hashtag. You know chef life and I'm like I don't totally get it. You know, like I totally understand, and then you show up here not even breaking a sweat. So I mean, this is what we do. So the life in the kitchen incredibly difficultateur life. Jeff, you know very it's in almost impossible. And now you guys, how you really went into overdrive on your social media life is I, because I remember I we had never met, but I remember seeing you back then you know when, when you, when you beat bobby, and then seeing you on linked LinkedIn and seeing you all over the place. You know I beat Bobby and I was like, wow, that's pretty bad-ass.

Speaker 2: 23:10

Yeah, thank you. You know it's. It's been a four-year journey, you know, just to give our listeners a little bit perspective. I think before I went on the show, I had probably in the range of 1800 followers, and my biggest platform is Instagram. Um, now, four years later, almost five. Uh, I think I'm about to hit 40,000. So it does give you the platform, but I normally I'm I'm an introvert and I'm very shy. So, putting the tag there, these were all recommendations from the investment that we made. It's like you have to be. You're your only loudspeaker. Nobody's going to be that loudspeaker for you, and I went through about a three month period where, like, my life is going to be out there. You know, making my own Instagram page. Before then it used to be private, you had to request me, so you know that that those changes do come with it, and you have to be willing and and put your best foot forward every day and experiment with different things is it worth it?

Speaker 3: 24:20

it is absolutely well, she's got a brand, that's but you created, the brand was almost formed out of social media and network TV right.

Speaker 3: 24:31

Well, it came from before that, though, because she had already realized it and they were planning on it, but she's a smart restaurateur. When I did consulting for my previous employer, and still to this day, you always hear what's the first thing that owners get rid of I'm not making money, they get rid of marketing. It's the first thing that owners get rid of I'm not making money, they get rid of marketing. It's the first one, and that's the dumbest, stupidest move, because when you get rid of marketing, how are you going to have people in your seats? Because the most expensive seat in your entire restaurant is the empty one.

Speaker 3: 25:00

Yeah, absolutely, and that's free advice, by the way.

Speaker 2: 25:04

And very good advice. Yeah, there's a general short-sightedness.

Speaker 3: 25:09

Did you just see the hand little golf clap from Silent?

Speaker 1: 25:12

John. Well, there's a general short-sightedness from companies at large. I've seen companies cut their marketing department, their sales department, Like what are you doing?

Speaker 1: 25:23

That's what gets you out there In today's world, everything is a video, everything is a post, and if you're not, or a story or something, and if you're not doing that, you're, you're behind everybody else who is, and I don't care what your sales team looks like. You know physical sales team looks like. You can do a lot. Obviously you're still knocking on doors and you're still getting in front of your client, but the reality is, all of the social media is working when you're not and you need it to happen, yeah, and what does it cost you?

Speaker 2: 25:53

I agree with and I want to make people think, oh, you have to hire somebody that can invest. You know, in order to do that, we hired someone for the period of time that we were going to launch and, you know, spread the news that we had been on the show and, eventually, that we won. You know, I still manage all my social media myself. I do have someone that helps me. You know, creating videos, the things that take time, that I don't have the time to do, but for years it was just me creating the content. We, you know they started. Ricardo does the same thing. He creates his own content too. It's about being authentic.

Speaker 2: 26:31

I read a lot, you know, because the trends in social media has changed so quickly, so I'm always immersed in. You know, whether it's a newsletter that I'm subscribed to and I receive on a daily basis to read on. What can you do? You know trends and topics that have to do with marketing and social media. Because I'm a chef, I'm not a marketer. Now, I'm not. I wouldn't consider myself an influencer. That's a full-time job. I don't have the time to put myself out there and create amazing content to become an influencer. At the end of the day. I'm a chef and I run a business, so I always experiment with what information I put out there on social media. That's time, we can afford the time.

Speaker 3: 27:15

I think that's the number one thing with chefs is it's the time factor, it's how much time do I have to do this? But they also think they don't have the time to do it when they have. Every one of their employees is on the line looking at their phone. Might as well take the phone out and take a video.

Speaker 2: 27:30

Yeah, and that's something that, for example, that's something that we have done. If you are going to use your phone and take video, post it, tag us, you know, become a part of our own community. They post on Chef and Tag Chef and the Baker, or tag me, and then I choose do I want this content that an employee posted? And more than likely, you know, 90% of the time I do repost it, or, if not, I teach them. Hey, you know, next time I would love to put it on my page, but can we do something a little bit different that it's more brand on brand with how I post things?

Speaker 1: 28:05

Back in the day when I was in the restaurant business and you know the period of time when I was, you know, front of the house server, right, if, if, if that were today. Because I had, you know, I was fortunate to have built a pretty strong call party clientele. You know, friday, saturday night everybody comes to ask for you, whatever. If that were today and and I was a bartender or server, something like that oh my goodness.

Speaker 1: 28:33

I can't even like and I don't see a lot of that. I see some bartenders who, you know, take advantage a little bit of social media, but I don't see any servers really doing that and I feel like that is such a huge. If you're a good, if you're good at what you do and you already have like a nice following of people, if you enhanced that, oh my goodness, you, you would be.

Speaker 2: 28:56

you would be the one in town making all the money and to validate your point, we're losing the art of serving at a table and I think if more people out there expose their craft, I think it would motivate younger people to say, oh, I can have a career in this, because we're definitely losing that. It's not something I want to see in our industry, that we lose entirely.

Speaker 1: 29:19

Well, that was part of the conversation Ricardo and I were having which was. You know where is the service. You go to a restaurant and you're obviously you know price points are up everywhere and costs are up everywhere and at the end you know three people go out to eat and it's $250. And that never was, unless it was a very elevated, high-end place. Now it's like your local pub. You're spending $200 on a on a check it's crazy.

Speaker 1: 29:51

Whereas where's the service that matches the, the? You know your bill and it gets dicey. Obviously, I get it. A lot of my friends own restaurants. A lot of my friends are chefs in those restaurants. I, I see it, I get it. You know we're all trying to make it happen, but I'll tell you what the front of the house really took a hit, really took a hit. Your service, the service levels, are not what they were, you know pre. You know 2019.

Speaker 3: 30:16

Well it's called it's. Most of these. It's a combination of different things, whether we're trying to get the right person to be that server, and it's also the guests that are coming in. They demand a certain well. You have to, you have to earn respect, but you can't demand it right, that's, that's for sure. But I think the flip side of the things, too, is that not only did we lose service, but we lost the experience straight up, and that's one of the reasons why I came up with the farmer's credible dinner, because I wanted to get back to the theme behind why we went out, because most of the time we would go out, it was. It was because it was a you know, think about it back in the day. It was a tropical steakhouse off of griffin, right?

Speaker 1: 30:53

oh my god, why would you go to?

Speaker 3: 30:54

that it was a destination for, like a birthday and anniversary yeah that was when going out to eat was going out to eat.

Speaker 3: 31:01

Then it became because it was. Life got so hectic every day, then day, let's go out to eat, I don't want to cook, let's go out to eat here. Where are we going to go? We've lost the whole convoluted of what things are supposed to be in the restaurant industry and we have to get back to that. And there are chefs that are doing it. Chefs aren't. It's tough because, like you saw it at the show, how many robots did you see at the show?

Speaker 2: 31:25

Several.

Speaker 3: 31:26

Not just literally fry robots Right.

Speaker 2: 31:29

Picking up the fryer.

Speaker 3: 31:30

That was the burger one, yeah yeah, so that was when you first walked into it. So there was, just so everyone realized, 760,000 square feet for pooch and I to run into. Rosanna and and her husband Ricardo was like by accident twice. No, no, no, no, no, no no, no no, no, no, no, no.

Speaker 1: 31:48

It was meant to be. It was a happy accident. It was, it was meant to be.

Speaker 3: 31:53

But right across the right across the way from where citrus America was and dumping the fryer out. And then there's that one you were talking about that is literally in the front that people were ordering their food and doing it.

Speaker 1: 32:07

I just want you to realize that they have the AI co-host too. Just watch your step. I'm just saying, watch your step, Watch your step.

Speaker 3: 32:15

Okay, well, you know what I got it, but they're not going to be able to cook.

Speaker 1: 32:18

All right true story, but I'm going to get that burger. That's fine, get them, get them for me.

Speaker 3: 32:23

I don't want to turn to burgers anymore.

Speaker 1: 32:25

I've got more important things to do than that I'm madly in love with it. I'm just joking, um, I you know. So I'm on, um, chef, uh, chef, rosannacom, one in and like, your food is gorgeous, thank you. Thank you, your food is so beautiful and so I can't I kind of really can't wait to jump into some of these, these empanadas and the other stuff meanwhile, john's looking over your shoulder, looking, I know how beautiful they are.

Speaker 3: 32:50

He was.

Speaker 1: 32:51

He was pointing at the looks like apple cobbler or something like that, but, uh, maybe not. Something like that looks fantastic. Um, all right. So social media I we got off track for a minute. I want want to go back to social media. How, how do you, what effort if you were going to give advice to a chef, a restaurateur, somebody who has? Listen, there, there's a lot of stale eateries around town. Stale, and I think you know what I mean. It's just flat, they're not. You know, they're not changing their menus out, they're not updating anything. It's stale. Some of them know it and some of them don't. But if you were going to give advice to some of these establishments and those people, how do they take social media by the collar and make it work for them?

Speaker 2: 33:45

So I think it starts with prioritizing it, and you know to your point what you were saying, that that's the first thing people cut out of budgets again, something you can do for very little or even for free. So sometimes you know we've recommended to our industry peers. If they don't have someone, we are hiring Gen Zs and millennials at our restaurants. They're the prime segment that understands it even better than I do. I do a lot of social media. Grab one of your servers. It could be a bartender, it could even be a cook. We have a customer and friend in Maryland that their lead cook went viral on TikTok just posting making birria at their restaurant. Take advantage of something like that and that's the person maybe that they're spearheading for whatever amount of time and then you put boundaries. We're going to do it on Mondays from this time to this time and then see where that takes you.

Speaker 2: 34:48

You know, social media is a good place to experiment what works for you. But if you have, whether it's, you do a lot of LTOs or you change your menu a lot, those are great things. To highlight your staples. Or you change your menu a lot, those are great things to highlight your staples. People forget that if you have an identity, people are going to come to your restaurant because they want to eat that, whatever that is, and those are things that should be highlighted in social media. It could be. You know how do we make it? Why is this dish special? You know? But I would recommend that Designate one person that could take this project on for your restaurant or business and then let them run with it.

Speaker 1: 35:32

What I want to know and I said this earlier to Evan, I said that John and Evan should do still and video how-tos on your on your smartphone for food 100. You know uh, just basic stuff, just to have the best, um, you know um content that you can in in just trying to promote yourself.

Speaker 3: 36:00

You know uh well, not only that, they can actually help out other people that want it, like chefs. And don't make me back in the day. It was like flip your phone upside down. That's, that's the way to take the video. Now it's like can you do it, or?

Speaker 1: 36:10

not. Well, here's the thing. Um, I don't even think John has to talk. I think he well silent. John is his uh street name.

Speaker 2: 36:18

Not everybody has John. With that amazing photography, for sure he's special.

Speaker 1: 36:24

Yeah, he doesn't talk a lot, but he does great work. Yes, but in today's world you can set it up to where you can do voiceover. Well, you can even do voiceover.

Speaker 3: 36:32

Not John. Somebody else can do the voice, yeah.

Speaker 1: 36:34

Well, you can hire me, I'll do your voiceover, you know.

Speaker 2: 36:45

And then, don't forget, we also have tools today that did not exist a few years ago. We use ai as well, especially to write our captions, and it's it's a time saver. Of course, we go back and edit and probably shorten it. Sometimes, you know, it spits out a lot, um, but it's another great way to just get something out the door and post very quickly I, I love AI for that reason.

Speaker 1: 37:07

For us, for me, when we're publishing, it saves me hours. You have to go back in and you have to change some stuff around, you have to make it yours, so to speak, but man does it save time.

Speaker 3: 37:21

Everyone thought I used AI to finish my book. I was like no.

Speaker 1: 37:24

Didn't you use AI to do the whole thing? No, no, okay, I'm only kidding. No, I did not. Aren't you using AI to cook your?

Speaker 3: 37:31

meals no, no recipes. I'm actually having AI develop the recipes.

Speaker 1: 37:35

Because I look up some of the stuff you're cooking and I'm like Dolphine, yeah, dolphin. And and then picture you shows up and there's your recipe. That's what's weird.

Speaker 3: 37:45

So it's funny, we're talking about content and I did a behind the scenes and I wanted to get a little more entrenched in the video and I've never done it. And I have an 11 year old and you just mentioned. You know, get your millennial, get your.

Speaker 2: 37:58

Gen Z.

Speaker 3: 37:58

Well, I don't know what they are, like the alphabet one, or I think, whatever generation.

Speaker 2: 38:02

Now they are.

Speaker 1: 38:08

It's the alphabet one. I think I don't have a generation.

Speaker 3: 38:09

Now it's the next one. It's a letter, let's put it that way. It's a whatever generation, martian dude, I don't know. So I'm like so I go to do something in her room. I come back and she's fiddling with it and I go, what's wrong? She's like, well, this one kept here and then moved here and she was like all professional the way she was talking to me. She's like it didn't make sense to me. But you know, then I redid it and I looked at it. It's fine. So I was like oh, I got the 11 year old's approval, so let me go ahead and do it. So there's you. That's what we need to do is go to your because, listen, you said it earlier carl, you said earlier your kid. That's all they're doing is looking at the phone oh my god every second.

Speaker 3: 38:38

So they, they know, and my daughter's like the wicked fast, she'll look at something like boom, like boom. I'm like, how did you like that?

Speaker 2: 38:45

not even it's only like a second yeah, that's what they do all the time, yeah, and they can filter content very quickly because that's what they're used to doing. So they'll know very quickly oh, this picture is good, this video is good, and if not, they know how to pass it along so that's what you need help with john, because john and I were talking earlier about the.

Speaker 3: 39:05

You know he's got beautiful uh photography that he posts on his ibis imaging and that's his go-to ig and he's like but I don't get traction. I'm like, yeah, you got to do something different. You got to stand out and like, just give it to an 11 year old, yeah well, I do have a one.

Speaker 2: 39:21

One advice which I think it's appropriate with what we're doing right now is to hire interns. We have great universities in the area that we're in and if we have listeners out in the world and or other states, look up your local university. They have great marketing programs and these are kids that need experience and that want to experiment, and that you don't have to pay them a lot. So we do have an intern from USF, from one of the marketing programs there, and it's huge help. We collaborate. I see the content, I approve it. Change let's use AI for this or not. And then they make the postings. Ask me how long it takes her to make a reel, versus how long it takes me to make a reel that's a good conversation, I can totally appreciate that I'm not even gonna tell you what it took me to film and edit, because evan evan's already edited the two minute film that we did on metro.

Speaker 3: 40:19

I know he's in there. He works fast he's already there.

Speaker 1: 40:21

I'm watching him. He's probably doing yours. I'm saying he's in there. He works fast. He's already there, I'm watching him. He's probably doing yours. I'm saying he's probably onto some other project from some other whatever. But, so the, the. The reality is I. I wake up super early, I get up around three, 30 in the morning. Yeah, and that's when I do my social media stuff. So three 3435, I'm doing it for like an hour and a half a day, two hours a day, every day, just to stay relevant out there with content.

Speaker 3: 40:45

Do you know that, now that your phone just heard that you're going to get all these ads now directed towards you for like later? Yes, cute, sweet. Yeah. No, I get it, make it easier on yourself.

Speaker 1: 40:55

It's still not going to get dwarfed by the amount of cheeseburger ads that get put on there.

Speaker 2: 41:01

That's what it is.

Speaker 1: 41:05

That's how I get down, rosanna. What, um, what's next for you? What do you guys? What are you guys cooking up? What's what's?

Speaker 2: 41:10

so much I know. I think I tell ricardo, I think we're serial entrepreneurs, we, our minds never stop. But I think that's the dna of all chefs that we know, and us as chefs, it's our brain doesn't stop the good ones.

Speaker 2: 41:26

We're always pushing, we want to do something more. We want to do more, we want to be better. So we have a lot of things in the works. I can tell you that. You know, since pandemic, we've been looking to going back to having a brick and mortar. You know our location is a ghost kitchen and it's going to stay there. That's our backbone. But what we're looking to do is going back to having a small format and, you know, a beautiful space that people can come in and buy pastries or a savory item. On my end, with luxury catering. You know I'm in a very happy place. I'm always either traveling to cook for a client or, you know, doing a lot of fun things in our Tampa Bay region, which I truly enjoy, and every event is different. So I think that appeals to that brain that is always looking for constant change.

Speaker 3: 42:19

Or making paella at Saver.

Speaker 2: 42:20

St.

Speaker 3: 42:21

Pete, yeah, I can go there. That's how we met. Yeah, paella, literally that's how we met.

Speaker 1: 42:28

So obviously you're doing the catering thing and you're doing these events. What I think we should do is do a walk and talk collab and we do a Latin, because it would be great to do a Latin theme. I know a little bit about Latin. You don't know anything. Smidge, you don't know nothing. She, this is I'm forgetting you.

Speaker 2: 42:51

You're out, she's in.

Speaker 1: 42:51

Right, no, but we do that. We do, um you know a chef, rosanna, um, uh, media collaboration where you know we'll do what five, maybe five courses we'll.

Speaker 3: 43:07

We'll knock off one, maybe two. Right, you gotta do six. Huh, we can do six, up to six.

Speaker 1: 43:10

I don't want to do more than six, right but anyway, what we do is we, um, you know, we bring a lot of our industry friends and you know other people who are in our kind of genre, right right, and we have a blast. And then we bring the crew, we film everything and we pump it out and have a great time. A lot of sponsors get involved in that. You know brands and companies and whatnot looking to get involved in it. We should do one together.

Speaker 2: 43:35

I agree, let's do it. I'm game, let's start planning.

Speaker 3: 43:40

We already said that back in St Pete. Yes, we did.

Speaker 2: 43:45

And then Ricardo has to make dessert. That's the only caveat, because I don't do desserts hey look, we're down.

Speaker 1: 43:50

I'm down for all of that.

Speaker 3: 43:52

John probably wants flan though.

Speaker 1: 43:53

But here's what I need.

Speaker 2: 43:54

Oh his eyes open, by the way.

Speaker 1: 43:59

I saw somewhere somebody did a smoked flan and it looked amazing Like stupid.

Speaker 3: 44:03

I'll do it Stupid. I would try that. I would.

Speaker 2: 44:07

I want that in my life. One of the dishes that we were doing at the NRA show with Alto Sham was flan.

Speaker 3: 44:12

But not smoked though, right.

Speaker 2: 44:14

No, yeah, you couldn't have open fire yeah.

Speaker 3: 44:16

Yeah, so Rationale was talking about how they wanted to smoke the meat prior because they have a smoking box. They put in the rationales and they specifically said you cannot have open flame in the mccormick center so that makes very, very fortunate.

Speaker 1: 44:28

My wife is cuban and, uh, my mother-in-law is always making a flan and, oh my god, I'm so spoiled with that.

Speaker 2: 44:34

Yeah, that's so good wow okay, it looks like you just missed that. Yeah, you're gonna have to bring what he wants flan.

Speaker 3: 44:42

Okay, I'll get you fl.

Speaker 2: 44:43

You won't be allowed in this studio next time. Wow, here's what I need to happen.

Speaker 1: 44:47

Hold on, hold on. I have to. Amy Guy, I know you're listening what I need you to do. Amy, can you text me and remind me?

Speaker 3: 44:54

Because we're all going to forget everything I just said. Really, you're going to use it. It's extremely smart.

Speaker 1: 45:07

My eight-year-old is almost ready and I'll be putting her to work soon.

Speaker 3: 45:12

But until that happens I'm kind of, you know, I can't wait until she's ready to work, because then you and I are not his person.

Speaker 1: 45:17

Oh man, no, she wants to work. Daddy, can I come? I'm like, no, not yet, not yet Too soon.

Speaker 3: 45:24

You would have to be on your best behavior, I know.

Speaker 1: 45:26

I don't want to do that. It's going to ruin my whole reputation.

Speaker 3: 45:30

Every Thursday is going to be horrible now. I've got to have my kid with me these production day.

Speaker 1: 45:37

For us, it's a drizzle of 11th grade. We try to have fun.

Speaker 3: 45:44

I thought it was more like 12-year-old, not 12th grade or 11th grade. I thought it was like 11-year-old For you, yeah, oh, okay, for me I'm a little bit, a little more, okay, yeah.

Speaker 1: 45:55

Oh my God, All right. So Instagram, what's your handle At Chef Rosanna Rivera? Okay, john, what's your handle?

Speaker 2: 46:07

No, no, no Say it in the mic, use the mic.

Speaker 1: 46:08

It's there. I got it for you. Ibis Images. That's his voice, folks, wow, you actually got him to actually speak. I'm going to stop putting the mic there. I should have given that to Ricardo, he was going to sit in the other room.

Speaker 3: 46:21

Oh look, he said just go ahead. Yeah, that was it, just go ahead you dirty.

Speaker 1: 46:25

All right, chef, I we sincerely appreciate uh, we sincerely appreciate you and hubby coming with us today showing up here. We're now going to go and eat you are gonna cook, we're gonna eat. We're gonna get some footage of that. Stay tuned for the bts, because it's going to go and eat. You are going to cook, we are going to eat. We're going to get some footage of that. Stay tuned for the BTS, because it's going to be badass, chef.

Speaker 2: 46:51

Thank you for coming.

Speaker 1: 46:53

Jeffrey. John, I'll get you some flan, don't worry, baby, we got you All right. We are Metro. Baby, you got to get that Metro and, by the way, chevrozen brought a bunch of Metro. She's got a Metro box and everything. I'm really I love it.

Speaker 3: 47:11

Yeah, it was really nice to see that.

Speaker 2: 47:12

I'm the biggest non-paid Metro fan.

Speaker 1: 47:16

I love it.

Speaker 2: 47:16

Oh my.

Speaker 1: 47:16

God, we're going to Metro unite. All right, we are out.