[MUSIC] >> Hello and welcome back to Barstools and our knife talking about hospitality industry then now and in the future. You know, we've been on a hiatus for the holidays we called it. But it's February so let's get this show back on the road. Let me introduce myself and my fellow guest, my fellow stars for those who are new to the show. I'm Professor Nathan Dodge, joined by Chef John Noble Massey. And do we call you celebrity? Professor Brian Connick, coming up. >> I think we should. I think we should. >> I have a new celebrity I want to say. You know, I see you guys all the time but this is with them on the air in a while. How are you guys doing? >> Pretty good, Dodge. Pretty good. You know, I got this baby girl growing. I got a three month old to house now and you know, her first would probably will be Eugene Dodge. That's, you know, that's a matter of all. Yes, I know. Donnie, have I got you? >> She's going to say daddy. I mean, what? >> Yeah. >> Look at that. It's going great. We're off to a good start this semester. Very quickly approaching South Beach wine and food best. Lots of activations there. So if you haven't gotten your tickets, get them now if you're students and you haven't volunteered. Sign up. >> I know we've got definitely a new cool thing going to happen at the South Beach food and wine festival. >> Brian, you want to talk about some Bacardi updates and maybe, you know, Cecilia? >> Yeah, yeah. We've had a lot stuff going on, you know, again, as Professor Dodge said, we're on a little bit of a hiatus but obviously with the new semester here at FIU Chaplain School, we've been kind of busy as can be. Yet the joking is true. We've been in the news a lot lately with Bacardi Center of Excellence and all of our innovations. We had our newest member of the FIU bartenders guild. Her name is Cecilia. She is an artificial intelligent bartender and guys, I got to say, you know, she's pretty impressive. She mixes drinks and tells bad jokes as I say but we've been really blessed to have a lot of great media coverage and I was, had the good fortune to being on national news yesterday, on Fox and Friends in the morning. And that really kind of took off. Well, let's believe that was in Australia. That was in, so, you know, that term floated international. I think we're really hit and it goes in the UK. It was in Scotland and so forth. So what a great way to bring innovation to our students and really kind of show them to look at things a little differently, you know, and how we're looking at now. If you haven't had the opportunity to see Cecilia on the news, you will, as Chef Matthew said, you know, check her out at this year's South Beach Wine and Food Festival. She will be at the Bacardi, excuse me, the FIU tent and our good friends at Bacardi are sponsoring it as well. So they'll be helping us out and come enjoy a few of our very special award winning Bacardi Cocktails. But, you know, guys, it's been, you know, it's only what three or four weeks now into the semester. And we're not stopping. We're just getting started. You guys know I like to say. We are. And, you know, one of the things you mentioned, just some of the coolest stuff that we're doing, some of the innovative stuff. One of the classes that we have are called pods. They're programming on demand. They're really quick, one credit classes. And one of the classes called Varyld of Arr with Professor Stephen Vaughn Oson. It's going to be both graduate and undergraduate classes. Talk to your advisor about joining. It's only, I think four Saturdays from nine to 145 lunches included. And really, you're going to learn all the ins and outs of how liquid goes from the barrel and ends up in a bottle on the bar from distribution to everything. So definitely check out that pod for this. He's got a hell of a lineup of special guest speakers too, Dodgy. I mean, a hell of a lineup. Yeah, and he does it both on campus and it's also at the Southern Glacier's Wine and Spirit's Headquarters. So definitely talk to your advisor if you are a student. If you're not a student, talk to our admissions department about becoming one. We've got a pretty cool guest today. So we're going to do some programs. Yes, right. So no better way to start off this year of podcast with our current guest. So I'll do a quick introduction here. Guests, gentlemen, ladies, please join me in welcome, Chef Kimberly Brock Brown. Chef has a vast experience in the world of food and beverage and hospitality. Was recently elected the national president of the American culinary federation. So for those of you that aren't aware of that, we'll share a little bit more about that. We'll hope to hear more about that from Chef Brown. And it has several certifications with the American culinary federation, certified executive pastry chef. So near and dear to the pastry chef that I am, and is part of their honor society, the American Academy of Chefs as well. So please join me in welcoming Chef Brown. Yeah. Um, great. How are you all doing? Is the two lakes a happy new year? It's never too late. Yeah, happy new year. Happy new year. I'm honored to be here. Thanks for asking. So, so let's get started. All right. The simple question is, you know, I did a little bit of Google snooping. Went on your website, went on your Instagram. But let's talk about you. Let's talk about really, you know, your journey from Chicago to where you are today. Wow. So, um, I started my culinary career young. I think I graduated from L Central as an ACF apprentice. Oh, I was like 12 or 10 or whatever, because I, you know, I just had a birthday, but I still don't feel that old yet. So I've been in this business when I graduated out of culinary school in 1984 and basically had been cooking, baking ever since. So from one erase in Chicago, um, moving to Dallas to be with the older sister and trying to figure out what I wanted to do. Because I wasn't ready to go to college, couldn't find what I wanted to do. Wasn't it fused about the major that I, that I soldering, you know, going to university at Tennessee to be a food made, uh, who was a food management? I think it was as close as I can get to cooking. Because the term culinary was, wasn't something that was given to me or our new of, you know, even being a chef was not something that I knew of. The people that I watched on TV at the time, you know, way, way before, uh, food network was ever even thought of, uh, we know it was Julia Childs and the Galbengor main and they never wore a chef outfits, right? They were always very close. And so to, to think about being a chef back in those days, it was just like something I just, I just never thought of, it just never occurred to me. The liveboat moment didn't happen. Um, that that was actually a career thought, you know, something to do. As I always loved cooking my high school ring on the side, even though I was an athlete, I played sports, I put home it on the side of it. So I was always about food. I just didn't have the wherever thought. Nobody was, was able to express to me that, you know, cooking was an option as a profession, as a career. And, and now look at you, though. So let's, uh, let's get a little bit into that, you know, uh, Chef Matthew and I are both culinary school guys. Uh, I'm, uh, I want to be chef these days, but I've always loved, I mean, honestly, I've always loved teaching culinary, uh, both Nathan and John know that. It's one of my favorite things. It's just, my time these days is a little bit more challenging, but we are going to be welcoming a rather well-known resort group, uh, to campus this month coming up. And, uh, all of us, uh, here on two barstools and I'm going to be helping out and taking part of that. Uh, Chef Matthew and I are actually going to have the opportunity to facilitate a class on menu trends and menu development. So John and I were talking yesterday, getting prepped up for this particular interview. You live in one of my favorite places in the Charleston, South Carolina, areas. Uh, and I said, you know what? Let's, let's ask Chef tomorrow. And we both go, yes, absolutely. So, you know, Chef, what's kind of happened to your brain a little bit? And, you know, tell us about what do you see right now trending on menus, maybe in Charleston, but, you know, in your travels also, of course, is the president of the American culinary federation. What do you see in it? A lot of people are still fusing things because when they come to Charleston, like in the other major city that has, you know, a known for its cuisine, and aren't, you know, low-cunchy cooking, southern cooking seafood is because we're on the water. And so it's kind of hard to veer from that when people are coming here to eat shrimp and grits and crab cakes and frog more stew and low-cunchy boils. You know, but people are experiencing some other cuisines and they kind of melting and emerging it together, you know, so you can have a child child on top of something. I mean, I grew up with the child child and we ate it on our Navy Beans, our Lama Beans, our Cabbage, you know, and the other day I saw some child child with pork belly and a taco. And so you're infusing those cuisines and, you know, even some everybody loves a taco. Just where you go, where you gonna put it in the taco. You know, a friend of mine just had a burrito stuffed with smoked pork and collard greens. I mean, so you can fuse these two cuisines or three cuisines together and put people's comfort foods in there are things that you know of cell. And that seems to be what people are really getting into, you know, egg rolls, fried with collard greens, egg rolls, you know, stuffed with things that are comfort with mac and cheese and so forth and so on. I'm seeing a lot of that because people still want to eat what they like as far as, you know, the egg roll, the taco, the burrito, handheld stuff, be it from my cheese or for an appetizer. But they also still want to eat mac and cheese collard greens fried chicken. And so, you know, you got to wait for the cheese. This is almost dinner time for us here. Well, now we're getting hungry. Nathan, you had something you had added to them? Yes, chef. I was on the other side of your state this weekend. I was in Spartanburg. And, you know, every restaurant that I went to, we all these small plates.
everyone is big on the small plates, ensuring is that something that we're going to see for a long time or we go back to the normal entrees and getting away from that whole family style concepts. Yeah, I'm kind of mixed on that. I think the small plates are an idea way on both front of house and back at house because back at house as far as meaning the chef, the owner of blah blah. It's a great way to give you what you like and it's cost saving money measurement for them, right? Because I can give you your tasting, which we all want to taste a little bit of everything, but but if I can give you what you want to eat and I can get a small small portion and I can charge X amount of money, then that's a win for both sides because then you get the taste and whatever and take your way around their menu. My amics was not winning about. Yeah, you know, but I mean I've been getting something like I mean, so this is my I just saw it in my birthday and so I wanted you went to the restaurant to the front homes and the menu was so huge. I mean, it was looking good though, but I wanted to try this. That that that you know, it's one of four appetizers and an entre. You know, yeah, like it. You know, so thank God I didn't pay for that. But anyway, yeah, but that's what people want to do. They always want to try it though. So I think it works out as a win for having a very menu in those small plates because people want to eat the way around the menu. You know, they want to just keep trying things. I get it. I get it. Johnny, boy, do you have a comment? Yeah, no, that was my that's one of my favorite ways to eat and I think I mean, I just love when when people are doing a top of something, I get a chance to try everything or or tasting some like that. You know, you know, and the same feels so full and I have to know like I just wasted my whole food experience because I didn't like that I'm trying, you know, but just where I just something wasn't good, you know, but you could taste a little bit of everything, you know, you know, okay, great. If a place has really good appetizers and a great selection of appetizers, I'm more than comfortable, you know, just having a couple of those and skipping the on-trety. And go straight to dessert. There you go. That's why we get along so well, Jeff. There you go. You know, one of the things that our colleagues, we've got some awesome colleagues that we work with. They wrote a paper, you know, a research study on the great resignation and and we're finding that that there are, you know, certainly in South Florida, every, every worth throughout the US. There are there are people leaving our business. At the same time, there, you know, there is a a huge, that creates that huge demand. At that same time, we've seen locally that that some LeColnery schools down here, Cordon Bleu had a location here, Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale, Johnson Wells's North Miami location. They all closed. We think that's nutty. I mean, it's just crazy given that there's such a demand for culinary help. And we've, you know, Professor Conner's endage and myself all beaten our heads against the wall trying to figure out what can we do differently to deliver culinary education that's going to be impactful, have people stay in the business and be cost effective. And so my question is, how might we tweak culinary education to deliver on that need? Oh my God. You know, it's not just there in your area. I had a ACF member ask me the other day if I could talk to you there. I think the president or wherever the title is who's in charge of their community college who wants to cancel out the ACF approved culinary program because they don't think Coney Arts is a viable, payable option for their students anymore. You know, it's like a dead-end career at this point. I'm just saying. And it doesn't pay. So they want to focus on another industry. Like what? Wow. Wow. So how some I could think that eating food and being surre-food is not a viable option for a career where everybody anywhere you go is going to eat. You know, how do you, how do you, you know, dismiss that? And so I think that we have to educate a lot of people about the importance of the safety of food, how we prepare it, how we do things to it. And it's got to be beyond, you know, the basic knife cuts and skills. Yeah, you need to know our basic skills. I'm off with that because you know, if I got to teach you how to hold knife and I'm paying you 20,000 hours, we have a problem of something else to talk about. So, you know, I mean, yeah, but how can you teach? Because everybody wants it now. They want it yesterday. And so everything you can give everybody in an eight hour course or in a six week class course because you just can't crash that much and get the education and the experience that you're going to need. So we got to find a way though to get people who are wanting to be in this business, but don't want to work, you know, instead work like balance. I want to be in this business, but I'm married with children and I don't want to come home in midnight every night. So finding ways to work around those hours that are in demand, I think it's going to be true. We just got to make, I don't know, the weekends or early morning of us, continuing to do it online. But how we reach students and our students are necessarily always 18, 19, 20, you know, we've got students who are in their late 20s, 30s, you know, who second corruption or finally doing with their passion, told them to do 30 years ago, you know, who are into this business. You know, and so finding ways to work our school, our education into their lives is going to be the key, I think, in sustaining this. I was going to say, John, just to follow up for his shift, but also a comment that we're seeing now to a good friend of ours as well as faculty member Dr. Orren Hertz on his podcast said that, you know, we're seeing now this new generation Gen V. Quite frankly, they'll have more jobs or more positions on their resume than in a few years than all three of us, four of us on this show right now put together. It's one of those things. It's just that kind of generational shift. But chef, let me throw this at you real quick, because Nathan brought up a kind of an interesting point regarding your career path and where you started and how you got into it. But you also went through the ACF apprenticeship program. And one of the conversations that we've all had, particularly on this show, it's with Chef Michelle Bernstein about a year or so ago, guys are a little bit longer. And Chef Michelle Bernstein, a big fan, she's a big supporter of FIU. She said, well, what about restaurant as culinary school? What about hotel property as culinary school? And I listened to one of your interviews, Chef, and you talked about your experience. Should we be going back to the future here? Should we be going back to the roots of apprenticeship and that would kind of lead to then a formalized culinary education? What's your take on that? I have always liked the benefits of an apprenticeship program versus just straight school. So don't get upset. But I just like the idea of the hands on and also the knowledge that you're going to get in the classroom and combining the two of them at the same time. You know, you just, it just brings home the point of what you're actually doing in the kitchen and what you're actually going to learn in the classroom. Because sometimes there are two different things. And even from working in different restaurants, you can see the difference and what this chef was going to do in their applications for ABC versus this chef and their applications for it. So if you could learn more than one way or why it is that it works this way and this humidity and this heat and this kitchen and this environment, or with these products that we buy versus these products that we made often scratch. You know, it's like I told an intern I had one time and she was poo-pooing at me because I was buying our tar shell. And I said, I'm sorry, nobody ever comes to this hotel because I got these fabulous tar shells. It's what I'm going to do with that tar shell. And I'm going to present it as what they're actually buying. You know, and so to get the hands on, you know, I have to explain to the whole reason why I would buy the tar shell because if I have you buy, you make the tar shell, you got to make the dough. Chill the dough, cut the dough, make the tar shells, make the tar shells, burn the tar shells, do it again. And then, you know, and by that time, I had the whole thing done and been to the next project. You know, and so you just have to figure out where you buy, where you don't buy, where you spend your time, where you don't spend your time. You know, labor calls and food calls going into all the above. And so if you can have a person figure out and get in their head early in their stages of the career, that, you know, what you're doing in the classroom is not always going to be the same thing what you're going to do in the, in on your job. They, they could be the same thing, but they could be totally different. You know, you might have all class period to make one cake, but that ain't going to be how it is when you're in my, when you're in my big shot, you know, you better be doing 50 cakes and knocking them all out. You know, and, and so to get that production experience, I guess, if you can get the production experience while you're getting the education from the books and, and then now it's from that instructor, I think that's a win-win. So if you put somebody in a hotel and you put somebody in a restaurant, I think that's just better for everybody. It's just a better, well rounded person. Yeah. Yeah. So that's one of the things that we really force in our curriculum is you have to work. And it's not just in the culinary side, it really is in the whole hospitality side. If you want to work in a hotel, you need to work in a hotel. But what I'm going to teach you in the revenue management class, or we're going to learn in an operations class, what you're gonna see.
when you're actually sitting at that front desk, getting yelled out by a customer's two very very different things. Whether it's events or culinary or any of it. Really, it is an eye-opening experience that first time a customer comes in and asks a question that you don't know 'cause it wasn't in the textbook and you have to actually figure it out without saying, oh no, but one of the other big things in our industry is sustainability. Where do you see our industry, especially in the culinary realm, addressing sustainability? What's going on? What are you doing specifically, anything? - Addressing the. Well, specifically, well, I talked to a lot of people, obviously, and I think people just need a lot of inspiration and encouragement about the future. Is this, I can mean in the myths on a very getting at this pandemic, when people were going virtual for the first time and like, what are we gonna do? How are we gonna work? Are we gonna have jobs when we graduate? People, like I've just said, people are always gonna eat. There's always going to be a job and opportunity in culinary arts. We just have to find other ways to be safe for ourselves and to feed people safely and to feed them good food that's gonna be sustainable for their livelihood, right? Because now people, more so than ever, I think are really concerned about, what they're eating and how healthy they can be. Or maybe it's because the generations, or the majority of us are of a certain age, and we were thinking about that, the healthier lifestyle, because we wanna be around for a little bit longer. So I think people have been concerned and people are so used to being on a white tablecloth, country club, and when that kind of got shut down, I'm like, "Well, what am I gonna do? What am I gonna do?" So it's thinking outside the box. And like a lot of people did, they recreated what they were doing, or they added two of what they were doing. And those people are very successful at this point in time. Some country clubs, they didn't shut down. They just started packaging up food and having little drive foods for everybody. And some places with all the tourism, then on here locally, they did the same thing to a school across Stryphanum. They had the parents on two days off the week, ordered their food, and on those drive-through school lines and picking up their kids, pick up the lunch and pick up your dinner, or whatever you want to do. So just thinking outside the box of what you, business, not business as usual, definitely not. And so how do you sustain and keep everybody healthy and happy and safe and productive? Was what people needed to do and look at. And I think that's just gonna be the key. - Yeah, and that's a perfect segue right there, too, Chef, is that, you know, Chef Matthew, obviously heavily involved with the ACF, myself and my culinary background, and I always kind of know about the ACF and what's going on. And I love the fact that we're entertaining, kind of partnering up with the ACF and this podcast because we do have a great audience. We never expected, but it was true that industry is really kind of tapping in to what we talk about and kind of gauging from the show. But for a few of our listeners that are not familiar with the ACF, if you can give us just a quick little, tell us a little bit about the history of the ACF and kind of a little bit about the future. If you don't mind, I think it's kind of important for our listeners. - Okay, well, the American Colony Federation is, I believe it's in our 93rd year of being the only professional, the largest professional organization of chefs, cooks, educators in America. And if you're a member of the American Colony Federation ACF, you're also a member of Wax, both World Association of Chef Society, which is a 110th country, 93 million plus members internationally of chefs, cooks, educators that meet bi-annually to have conferences like we do on a regular basis annually for educators, seminars, education, on a global event. And so you're talking about taking it to a whole new level, that's taking it to a whole new level where you can meet network and talk to chefs, maybe even do an internship, go work with some chefs in other countries and see what their skill levels are and what their cuisine is all about, learn something more, especially if you want to do it, try and cooking if you want to do, I know people have done it. When I went and visited abroad, the sun had just came back and working in Chicago, it was just like the funny, it was like, oh my God, it works both ways. But it gives you opportunity, which I think is just so key to network with other chefs being if you stay domestically here in America, well, if you go abroad, so education doesn't stop because we graduated, we all are continuing to learn and hone in our skills and our craft. And so I think that's just like the biggest thing we offer at ACF is that opportunity to network so you can grow, just continue to grow in this profession of culinary arts. And so giving people that opportunity through our online learning, when we offer free educational seminars, demonstrations, we offer this year, we're starting something different with one day sessions held around the country. The first one comes up and it's all about safety size, in Orlando I believe, with food and plating techniques and being healthy with the cuisines, whatever, there's also gonna be one in Dallas, focusing on pace reeds and all that. So we got some patient people lined up and some of his hands on, but it's eight hours of direct four or five chefs and they're teaching you, talking to you. And if it's hands on, it's hands on, but you learn and you see different techniques. And you're giving the network to other people who are like my day who want to do the same thing. So it's great all around that I had opportunity 'cause I don't know well if you really get that, that kind of bang for your book. And so even on a local level, chapter level, regional levels, we had opportunity for you to continue, I can say it in your career path or whatever that may be. - And Chef Crick will follow up there before I throw out of the chef's house, but I love it. I have the opportunity to teach in the culinary school for many, many years. I love it now when I see you on LinkedIn and other social networks where former students of mine are now certified executive chefs, certified executive pastry chefs, certified, and you know, let's talk a little bit about the levels of certification, but particularly for our FIU learners where we're not a culinary school, but we do have a robust culinary courses and with Chef Matti, myself and so forth. But how about a little bit about certification and kind of the value at that? 'Cause I really believe that our modern learners value that level of certification. - Oh, I agree. You know, I just had this conversation here the day, even a car mechanic or hairdresser has to get some sort of certification through the state, right? Certified some some on break, certified, you know, certification to get your hair done, your hair cut. You know, with your profession, a professional, you know, be the doctor lawyer, hairdresser, there's a certification, there's an education that you have to get. And it should be any difference than for those of us who are in the profession of cooking. You know, because what we do, hills or harms, hopefully hills are body. And so to be certified third party, that you know what you're doing with nutrition, the safety part of the food, and they're speaking food good for people to eat. I think having that certification has, it's just a help. I know it's helped me in my career. It's guided me indoors that I don't think necessarily would have opened for me, be it for me to go travel abroad, to be for me to be on my local TV station for about nine years running now. It just gives you credentials that the average Joe Shmo who's just cooking, not necessarily for profession, but it's the job of them right now. It differentiates you from other people because you will have that nutrition background. You will have that supervisory management background. And you will know just a little bit more about safety and sanitation because you've had those mandatory courses. And you refresh them every five years, if not earlier. So certification has just been so key. It's gotten me a better salary. And I tell people, just do the math. If you have certification, and there's 50 of you in your class graduating, and the other 49 do not have it, is that make you different a little bit more marketable? Maybe than the ones who don't have it? I would say yes. That means that you can then speak to your certification, your education level, your experiences because you have that certification, and you have that knowledge that you are up on your sanitation, which is so key in this point of time, is because beyond having a plexiglass, and having a spray bottle and hand wipes, how do we keep food safe, and how do we keep people safe with the food? And so to speak to that. And our certifications go, we have certifications now, and so many different other levels. You can get a certificate for cannabis, for those who are in states where it's legal, or for those who are just for medical purposes. People are eating it for health. People are smokeling for enjoyment. And people are, how do you do that, and still have a lifestyle, a profitable lifestyle? This is a business. We're working on our certification for vegan cuisine, because that's not going the way that trend is, not a trend anymore, it's a lifestyle for a lot of people in America. So how do we cook that? I can remember when I was still in school, and the chefs would get all upset, because we had a vegetarian order. I mean, who did that? Somebody just goes, "I'll taste some vegetables and give it to 'em." But it's not like that anymore. You know how upscale vegetarian cooking is? Oh my God, it's the same way now with vegan cooking. People are wanting to learn, people are going to vegan eating raw. So how do we, as an industry, adapt to that, and how do we teach our students that? So our food is ever, ever changing. You know, well, I can remember going from a food pyramid to now it's a plate or now it's a. What is in now a place matter something? You know, it's just evolving as we know, no, no more about these diets and special needs. And what we can, it can not eat. You know, I work now for a company that runs arenas. You know, this arena doesn't have it, but our arena will have gluten-cree on the menu. How many arenas do you go to that has gluten-cree stuff advertised purposely on their menus? Not really, because most arenas is hot dogs, ham, burgers, chicken, fingers, right? Not ours, right? We want more healthy, conscious food on our menus. And so to teach that to other people who are in that mindset that the same is the same is the same is the same is the same is in the point for a century. You know, you got to have education. So the certification really does help a lot. It just puts you on another level. It could not agree more, chef. And I love you bringing up some of the points that you just brought up about the areas where we are continuing to grow and do better. And I think those are all pertinent and things that we and our business need to do a better job. So I'm glad to hear that the ACF is making progress in those areas as well. You know, I mean, just speaking about progress, I mean, you're just such a huge role model for this next-generation of hospitality, culinary professionals. Huge kudos to you and all your achievements. I neglected to mention that in addition to your team as a chef and you mentioned that you were on TV regularly. But you're also an author. And I read your book here I am, which is wonderful biography. But it didn't have the finish of you achieving that goal of being elected president of the ACF. And so I'm waiting for the second edition of that book. Oh my god. Right. So you know you need to do that. Number one. And then just number two with all of your success, you've gotten lots of mentorship and advice along the way. What advice and mentorship life career tips would you give to our students listeners for those in the next generation that can hopefully share in that same success that you've had? You know, it's funny. I didn't grow up in this profession with one in seeking and knowing what a mentor was. That word was strange to me. I didn't have the official mentor that I went to talk to people about. I just had that chef who was open-minded or approachable, I think is the word I should use. Well, I could go and I felt comfortable to ask that what I thought was dumb stupid question, right? And so we didn't use that word a lot in the 80s. But that wasn't something that I was familiar with. I just knew I'm not going to talk to him because he's an idiot. She seems approachable and I might stay late at the class and talk to the professor to teach you to the coach. You know, so that was it. As far as somebody who I will, just somebody who I feel comfortable with in an earlier part of my career. I have had plenty of people ask me in the last few years about, you know, being their mentor. And I like to say that I have no problem talking to teaching anybody. I have no secrets as far as that goes. You know, somebody has to teach me and so I have no problem sharing it. I mean, when we're going to take it to the grave, whatever a little bit I know, I will be happy to share with somebody else. You know, and if I don't know, then I know people who I could probably call up and ask, "Hey, you got this. What about, what did you do?" Whatever. You know, and that's what you really want. You want that never from network of people. You ain't necessarily have to be the smartest one. But you got to have options to go and ask the question too. All right. And so, and being a mentee is hard work on YouTube because it's got to be a two-way street. I shouldn't be calling you all the time. You shouldn't be calling me all the time. But if I call, if you call me and I tell you this, this, that, and then, you know, you don't follow up, you don't do this, this, this, that thing. That's kind of like, uh, what would be the point? You know, why, why you have me spending my wills over here? If you're going to call me and I say, "Left," and you go, you know, "Right." And so it's both ways. And it's something that should be like, maybe a schedule or set for everybody to be on the same page and to work around people's schedule. But if I was busy, and if I got things to do, you know, but, but I love that deal of mentoring. And, and, and, you know, it's nice to be diverse with it. You know, don't just think too, I tell them all the time when you know, when I talk to students, don't, when you go to the conference or something, you know, branch out and meet other people. Don't be in this little click, walking around all the time. You already know Joe Smow, Blow, whatever, whatever. Meet some new people and be approachable. If they don't say, "How do you?" you can say how to them, but stick your hand out in camaraderie and friendship and be open. Don't walk around with this little crowd. Smile, make that first move. If that person doesn't make the first move towards you and I've had to learn that trust the bleak because I can be quiet and shy. I know it's hard to believe now, but I can be quiet and shy as a next person because I'm comfortable and I can sit back and watch all day long just sitting back and people watch. But I have learned that you can miss out on some things being by yourself. Take the blind dissolve and just get in it, just get in the middle and search yourself where you need to be assertive too. So reaching out to people, letting people know who you are and then asking how you may be a service to them, I think it's key as well. Not just always taking, but what are you giving? Those are huge, huge piece of advice. We appreciate that so much, Chef. So on behalf of my colleagues and myself, I want to thank you for an awesome conversation truly. We could go on for hours talking with you. Yes, well I could go too if you ask those questions. Let me oh my god. We may just have to have you back for a part two segment, but for now I'm going to turn it over to my thank you so much and I'll turn it over to my colleague Brian. Yeah, Chef, that was great. Chef Brown, that was also great. I love you know, now I'm all inspired again and I miss you know being in the kitchen guys. So but we have a lot of great things going on just to kind of wrap this show up. It's great to be back. Chef Matthews always a pleasure to see you, Dodge. And now, but I'm closing thought hey gang, there's a couple new things to you to check out. This semester, particularly for our FIU learners, for those of you that are following us on Instagram. Now Professor Christina Molison, an amazing job as we all know with the bartenders guild at FIU and they are just always crushing it because of the popularity of that student organization. There's also now of course the wine guild. So check us out at the wine guild and because of Chef Matthews, amazing key and coffee and non-alcoholic course as well as our amazing partnership with Levazza coffee. We also now have the coffee guild that makes us happy inside too. And right now as we speak, they're actually doing a co-collaboration with the coffee guild and the bartenders guild. They're actually doing some Irish coffee tonight. One of my absolute favorites. So fantastic. All right Nathan, Eugene Dodge, any closing thoughts my friend? Besides being a member of the Lollipop Guild, no, I think that's about all that I got. I do want to thank you Chef Brown. That was awesome. Please, if you are a student and you need a one credit class, check out that barrel to bar pod and Chef Johnny Boy, anything from you? No, just that that's I'll second reminder for a sovi wine and food fest and sign up if you have not already. There are still lead positions. There's still a value position we'd love to have you. I'd love to see you on the beach. Fantastic. You've had Chef Brown, any closing thoughts from you, Chef? Wow. You know, ACF is here for you. If you're serious about one to be a professional in this industry, please check us out, ACFchefs.org. I'm on social media everywhere I think. And so is ACF. So please, we'd love to have you. I love that. That's perfect. Way, way, way, way, way to close. Of course, any other information you need about the Cardiff Center of Excellence, feel free to reach out to me at bconnerco and
[email protected]. Hey, and if you want to meet Cecilia, we'll see you on the beach. With that note, gang. Thank you, guys. Thank you.
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