Cooking Up Conversations with Chef Geno Bernardo

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
You're listening to Studio twenty two.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Welcome to Studio twenty two. I am independent film writer
and producer and CEO of Double Down Pictures, Will Meldman.
I am here with my co host as always, Brock O'Hearn.
You can find him on HBO with The Righteous Gemstones
and Euphoria. You can find him on NBC with The

(00:29):
Young Rock. There aren't many places you won't find him.
Brock O'Hearn, how are you.

Speaker 1 (00:33):
I'm doing good, brother, excited to be here and excited
for this one. This is a good one. Man.

Speaker 2 (00:38):
We are joined today with the executive chef at the
Summit Club in Las Vegas and owner of Gino's Restaurant,
Gino Bernardo. How are you?

Speaker 3 (00:49):
I'll doing great, guys man, thanks so much for having
me on. It's gonna be a blast.

Speaker 4 (00:52):
Man.

Speaker 3 (00:53):
I'm really excited. Man like me and we'll talked about
this in Hawaii when I was for his father McKenna,
and I was like, you know, why don't we do something?
And like at first like she was, I don't know.
Then it triggered and it was like then it's like, yeah,
let's do it right. So I was just like I
was like you know what I mean, like food conversation.
You know, it's a great mix.

Speaker 1 (01:13):
This is gonna be in my top five for the
rest of my life, I think. Dude, this is definitely
something a little different for us, but exciting. Man. We're
grateful to have you on and due honored to have
you cook for us. And yeah, man.

Speaker 3 (01:25):
Absolutely we'll shoot man.

Speaker 1 (01:27):
We're going to dive into a little bit of your
your life where you started your career history man, and
then what we're what we're what you're making tonight.

Speaker 3 (01:36):
Let's do it. You know what I mean, It's been
a callinary journey for me.

Speaker 1 (01:38):
For me, I'm curious, do you have like a core
memory with cooking or was there like a first introduction
to cooking where you're like, yo, I love this early on.

Speaker 3 (01:47):
So when I was a kid, like a bambino, a nino,
you know what I mean, my great grandmother she got
me into cooking. My mother sucked at cooking, and my
grandma there was average, right great grandmother that like really
like like I was just fascinated, Like she would hand
me raveo for some reason, like I would have leaned,

(02:08):
like I would have leave the kitchen. I would always
like you know, and it wasn't like back then, you
know how I grew up in this you know, eighties
and seventies and everything like that. It was guys like
kids got kicked out of the kitchen, you know what
I mean. You know, you know, she wasn't like an
entire family the women cook, you know what I mean,
you know, the grandmother's cook and knowing this cook. But
I was just always I was fascinated by it, and

(02:28):
I always was attached to her, like she she can
make the greatest peanut butter and Joey Stead I didn't care,
you know what I mean. But I was always into
like learning that craft and for me as an attack
he take growing up on a churty shure, like on
both sides like that would be that was DAW's family,
you know what I mean. On Sunday we would like
literally Sunday dinner, you know, And I just loved it

(02:52):
and then got you know, once started high school, and
I've always I've always worked in restaurants always a whole life.

Speaker 2 (03:01):
Do you think that feeling of you know, kind of
the family being gathered around and that feeling of being
together was that kind of a big part of it.

Speaker 5 (03:09):
Yeah, I mean yeah, I mean yeah, like you like whenever,
whenever you're possibly have that family connection, you know, then
you know, like you know then you know, my parents
get divorced and you know they did a.

Speaker 3 (03:21):
Family switch and everybody with that. But I've always I
always had my great grandmother, you know what I mean,
you know missus Mattey, Laura Mattay, you know what they're
intrusting with war in Sitaly. But like, yeah, it always
brought us together, you know, Thanksgiving, Christmas, piece of set
of fishes, you know, like yeah, every Sunday, you know,
either side of family, you go to somebody's house, you
know what I mean, you talk loud and eat a
lot of food.

Speaker 1 (03:41):
Yeah that's awesome man, I mean food to even my
family as well too. It's it's always kind of my
favorite holiday and my family's Thanksgiving. Yeah yeah, like the
women my mom, my aunt, my grandma, my sisters now
too can cook like nobody's business and bake also like
they're they're incredible. And it's just something like when you
have a good meal, you know, it's something just clicks.
You know, it's like one you feel good, there's comfort there,

(04:03):
right and then people are opening up, you're having a
good time, you're catching up around the table, and like
something like that with Thanksgiving, for example, is like we
get to do that once a year, right, where we
get everyone together. But that's that's really cool man, that
you're able to in my way of looking at it,
like I wish I was better at cooking, right, and
then I can obviously get better me out and take
some notes tonight. Yeah, but yeah, man, the ability to

(04:25):
bring people guys, like, it's like it's like you can
speak through your food, you know, you can bring people
together and tell a story through all of it.

Speaker 3 (04:31):
Man.

Speaker 1 (04:32):
And we're storytellers, right, we all are in our own right,
and you're you're doing it with food. Man. It's it's awesome.

Speaker 3 (04:37):
It's many many years to get to where I'm at,
but there's nothing better to be like at a dinner
table with friends or family, holiday or no holiday, and
it's just like it's magic. Like even like when we
were in Hawaii, right, all those dinners and everything like that,
it's just easy going. For Dad's birthday, yeah, you know,
and it's like you go and you talk, you know,
and then it splits off and then you've changed your

(05:00):
and everything like that, and the food's coming and everything
like that, you know what I mean. I was, I
was like like a duck, you know, the ducks going
cruising and then we do it, but the feeder go
like at that.

Speaker 1 (05:12):
Larious.

Speaker 2 (05:13):
One of my you know, one of my best memories
with my father growing up is you know, because my
older brother was away at boarding school for a little
bit and I was living in San Francisco with him.
Every Sunday night we'd order takeout Chinese from like a
dive Chinese restaurant, and it's like that tradition has stuck

(05:33):
with us like a whole lot.

Speaker 3 (05:34):
Man. We do it every summer, rights exactly, every Tuesday,
every Wednesday night, we do you know, Chinese takeout and
it's like bedded in the moment family.

Speaker 2 (05:42):
It's like a meal based tradition.

Speaker 3 (05:44):
Yeah, totally power food. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (05:47):
What was your first job where you actually were getting
paid to do what you love? Right?

Speaker 3 (05:51):
So there's two stories, right, two great stories. So my
first first job, I was I think I turned fifteen
and uh I worked. I went to McDonald I worked
at McDonald's. Right back then they were still was still
scratched cooking, you know what I mean. It wasn't like
Jesus pounded, right. So I worked at McDonald's in.

Speaker 2 (06:07):
It like work in the stove, yeah yeah, working it.

Speaker 3 (06:09):
Yeah, so like I don't know, like I was. There
were some chicks working there and just like like it was.
It was a place to go, you know what I mean,
the punch My friends were working there, and then uh
I didn't that and then you know, I washed dishes
in the summertime a Jimmy's on the Jersey tour. But
my I worked at Pizza Hut And this is like

(06:30):
like Pizza Hut, you know, like another cool place in Minna,
and my talent to work at Everybody worked there, right,
either you're a server or a delivery guy. But so
I started right and I was the pizza assembly guy, right,
so the tikey would come in, you made the pizza
pot and then you put it through. They had the
convection belt and everything like that with the cool cat
was the guy that took the pizza out and like
cut it and served it right. Like he was like

(06:52):
the you know what I mean, Like well, everybody loved
like the girls loved him and everything like that. Even
he was you know what I mean, I want you
know what I mean? Right, So I like I was
doing great at that and like I was like, yo,
let me try so like I was doing it, you
know what I mean, when he wasn't like he would
help me out. So like one Friday I switched with
him and we didn't tell the manager. Was there anything

(07:12):
like that? Way Friday night back in the day, pizza
I was, you know what I mean, right, So I'm
cruising along and everything like that, cool going and everything
like that. Then the hit comes right and then I
can't keep up right and Pizza's like backing up, facing up,
back you up, and I'm going like this, yeah yeah right,
pull on and image GM comes by and he goes,
what is going on? I'm like, I got it, I

(07:35):
got it. Pizza like falling off, backing up like and
then so like right right there, he goes, you gotta go.
You're fired, No way a warning, nothing like this was
like listen if you saw the mess. I didn't even know,
but that, like you know, that was like and that
was the only job I was ever fired from. Now

(07:56):
is the executive chef of a property for just every land? Yeah,
I understand that, you know, you got to you know,
kids and young chefs have to tree regardless if it's
if it's pizza or McDonald's or a three star minister
in restaurant. You just can't. You just can't let somebody
do something that they haven't been trained to do.

Speaker 1 (08:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (08:15):
Yeah, speaking of training, Like, did you go to school
for culinary arts?

Speaker 3 (08:22):
I went to Johnson Wells and Providence, Rhode Island, right,
And that was way before the food That was a
year before the Food Network.

Speaker 1 (08:29):
I went.

Speaker 3 (08:29):
I went to culinary school, like I thought, you know,
and get a job and work at hotels and you
know what I mean, maybe one day open up a restaurant.
Put it was, it was, you know, afore I got
a four year degree. I got my two years in
culinary and I got a bachelor's in business. Oh that's great. Yeah,
So like I did you know, I did two years
of culinary and I did a food and beverage right,

(08:49):
so I got you know, I got my bachelor's. But
after I didn't think I would, like, I got so
burned out, Like I was like, ah, you know, like
I didn't know if I wanted to be a chef,
and uh, I went to front of the house, you
know what I mean. I was a manager, you know,
hold the hands and all in Boston.

Speaker 2 (09:05):
Well, how important I'd like a follow up to the
education question, like how important do you think education is?
And getting a degree is in the culinary arts for
the aspiring chefs out there.

Speaker 3 (09:18):
I mean, listen, there's two ways to think about it, right,
if you grow up like I did, have to go
to culinary school, but it gave me a foundation, yeah right,
And it's what do you pull out of that school? Right?
I did a lot, but I could have did so
much more. There was so much more learning that I
could have done. But also it was college, you know
what I mean. I was a nineteen year old kid,

(09:39):
definitely nineteen year old kad I joined the fraternity Ato Okay, well,
like you listen, a bunch of culinary kids whatever. I
support and I love Greek life. I think it means
a lot to so many different you know people. But yeah,
but it was also it was college, you know what
I mean, Like, well as big campus, there's business there's

(10:01):
a question and everything like that, right in that team,
you know what I mean. I don't know, you know
what I mean? Like sure, yeah, so but I you know,
and I think, but then also I know I have
a lot of chef friends that are executive chefs that
you know, old restaurants or big time and within the
culinary world, and theyated and pursue the culinary route. They

(10:22):
just got trained and they studied harder.

Speaker 2 (10:24):
So speaking of that, right, And it's kind of the
unique thing about America, right, It's like you can kind
of go the traditional college route, or you can go
a more kind of European route, which is either a
vocational school or just jumping right into a job.

Speaker 1 (10:40):
Right.

Speaker 2 (10:41):
And so what would be the path for people out
there that you know, don't want to go to college
but want to be a chef.

Speaker 3 (10:48):
I think like the first if you really really want
to be a chef, right, I would definitely definitely say
go to wherever you would go to that there's a
hot restaurant, there's a local restaurant, go and see what
it's all about, because it's not. It's not all what
it's cracked up. Usually a lot of hours you're working
in heat, and it's it.

Speaker 1 (11:08):
It's stress.

Speaker 3 (11:09):
It's stress, and it's when you're getting yelled at and
you know, and the money is not good and it's
long hours, but it's a passion. You know what I mean.
If you work in a restaurant within that first year,
either you're gonna love it or he either you're gonna
quit or you're gonna pursue it like i'd be. That's
what it's all about, you know what I mean. And listen,
there's so many different levels of restaurants and and colon

(11:32):
a right, you know listen, working here, right, I mean,
I mean a guy that Denny's cook right in the
morning time, like that's what I go I go after
someone that work that could cook eggs right, Oh good?
That could You know. I don't need some fancy you know,
almost superstar chef. They're not gonna last right there. I
neither got a kid that works at Denny's or knows

(11:55):
how to make eggs right. And then you know you
have lunch. You know, someone's aspiring to be a young
chef like that and dinner time like you need that,
you need that we call Swane you know what I
mean that You know what I mean. They want to
be they want the best to the best. And in
the club life, it's different when I was on the strip,
you know, I opened up you know, Palm's Hotel. I
had a you know, mistress star restaurant called Noba Italiano

(12:17):
and uh you you you got the young, the young,
young hunger guys, you know what I mean. But I
have a name here at Geno, so like I still
attract those guys with other clubs around around the world
and country. It's off, you know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (12:31):
Yeah, I can't imagine how competitive.

Speaker 3 (12:33):
Is yeah, especially this city. Oh yeah, yeah, thinking about it.

Speaker 1 (12:37):
Yeah, you mentioned a little bit earlier that you said
to you there's a point where you thought, you where
you're getting a little burnt out, right, Like what what was?
What was you get burnt out?

Speaker 3 (12:46):
Its longevity, right, you know what I mean. It's long
hours and you know you're working, you're working, and you're
not really moving up Shane, you know what I mean.
So like during that time, my uh, my mentality is flipped,
you know what I mean. A bunch of us moved
to San Diego there from Jersey to go after culinary school.

(13:08):
After culinary school, I lived in Boston in twenty five
and we moved to like ten of us, you know, managers,
we moved to San Diego. We wind up in ib
and everything like that, you know. Then then Pacific Beach.
But then like I was like, you know what, I'm
gonna absorb the culture of California, you know what I mean.
I worked off fishing boats. I worked at any restaurant.
I was a mercenary. You know what I mean. You

(13:30):
want to hire me, you could hire me. These are
the days that I could work Monday, Wednesday, Friday, I'll
be there five. And I had multiple jobs and it
kind of like it got me smarked again, you know
what I mean. And it got me hungry, you know
what I mean. But I think like with any career,
anything you do, you definitely hit here's a bottom, you
know what I mean. You just got you know, because
you you see other people and you think you're better

(13:51):
than that person. But yeah, you know, you know, and
I was lucky. I'm not like I was really really lucky.
I got a break, you know what I mean. I
met a chef in Sandy, and when I when I'm
before I moved out to Sandy, I got a big break.
And after that break, I've never let it go. Yes,
I worked twice as long.

Speaker 1 (14:10):
I love that you're saying that, man, because I talked
to that with friends all the time, especially in Hollywood.
You know, you're sitting around and you got to catch
a break. You got to get lucky sometimes, man, and
that's kind of sometimes the only way to make it.
But it's what you do with that, right, what do
you do with that? You're still showing up, You're doing
all the work. One of my friends said one time,
he's very successful. He said, it's hard to get to
the top. It's even harder to stay there. So you

(14:32):
catch a break, but like not some people get that
and then they only get their ten minutes of fame.

Speaker 3 (14:35):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (14:37):
Yeah, but it's what you do with those opportunities that
make all the difference, man. So that's that's freaking awesome.

Speaker 3 (14:42):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (14:42):
Did you ever see your your life going the path
that you've had now based on no passion?

Speaker 3 (14:49):
No, no, Like you know, I was the kid that
you know, no one's all fifty my neighborhood and all
like how I grew up, you know what I mean,
that's another story we never do with that. But I
was just that kid, you know what I mean. I
was old and uh, you know, I just thought, yeah,
are you not fifty yet?

Speaker 1 (15:05):
Are you fifty?

Speaker 3 (15:06):
Turned fifty two in April.

Speaker 1 (15:07):
Oh no way, yeah man, well you made it.

Speaker 3 (15:10):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I crossed the line, you know, but
no I saw you know, I felt it. You know
what I mean. I worked harder, you know, read more,
I you know, went dined out more. You know what
I mean. I stayed later, you know what I mean.
I got there earlier on my dive, you know what
I mean. You know, it's like a sport in a
lot of ways. Man, you know what I mean, It's

(15:30):
competition every day.

Speaker 2 (15:32):
So you mentioned Novae and having a Michelin star. I
mean that is every chef's dream, right, I mean what
went into that besides obviously all the hard work and
everything taken to get there, but like take us there.

Speaker 3 (15:46):
It's uh being the coach, the wife, be in every
position possible, you know, and developing a team, you know
what I mean, and making sure that we fulfill everybody's
everybody that comes into the rest or on dream. You know,
I trained the cooks, I trained the servers, trained the
gm you know, I'm the I got them, I'm the voice.

(16:08):
You know, everybody else is gonna follow me in any restaurant.
Ever since I took over and it's it's every day, right,
and every day we're playing for the National Championship, the
World Series, or the Super Bowl when he hit the
Family Cup, right, or Olympic gold medal. If you're if
you're practicing preseason and we're gonna lose, you know what
I mean? You know, it's it's tough every day it's

(16:32):
game day. You can't you know, listen, there's off nights
and everything like that. But you know who's suffered, you
know what I mean, guest suffers, right, yeah, still like
as a chef, and I was fortunate enough I was
mentored by a chef called Michael Cornick mkut. He was
my manager, right, he believed in me, right even though

(16:53):
like you know, he hired me and everything like that.
And so we opened up a restaurant before the Palms
and before before Novae at the Bombs Pop Spring, same group,
but like a year earlier, and he hires me, and
I swear to guy, guys, I am like, you know,
you know what I mean, so bad, like not cooking,
like I can still cook it everything, but like he

(17:13):
then like he became it. He's like grilling me, how
many cups are in here? How many ounces is this?
Why is this?

Speaker 1 (17:19):
Like like you know everything.

Speaker 3 (17:21):
Everything and I know it, but I just was so nervous,
like I was. I was nervous and he was. He
was a you know James Beard winner two times like
you guys sick right, you know Michelin Star you know,
work for let us entertain you like in the early days,
you know. So I go home and everything like that
every night, like rattled, like oh, not defeated, but just
like goddamn like reading again like I know this ship,

(17:44):
you know what I mean. I just got tongue tied, right, yeah.
So one day he just like with my upbringing, my
jerseyness and me like he can just piss me off
one day and I'm like I'm gonna you know what.
So I looked at him. I go listen BB King
don't read music, and look how famous he was, and
like he stopped and he goes. From that day on,

(18:05):
it just clicked for me, like you just clicked like
like and then I never never nervous around him, and
I like, you know, I stood on my own two
feet and get told to listen you know what. I
know what I'm doing, but like that, like I had to,
you know, like it's like the little bull challenging the
big bull, you know what I mean. Like I had
to say, hey, this is my this is my restaurant.

(18:26):
You're gonna be my mentor. I'm gonna teach you. You
know that I could do it, you know. Yeah, And
that's the whole thing about coln Air. It's respect.

Speaker 1 (18:32):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (18:33):
It reminds me of two characters in a show called
One Piece on Netflix.

Speaker 3 (18:37):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (18:37):
Yeah, there's two chef characters, ones a mentor, ones like
the Prodigy And that's great.

Speaker 1 (18:43):
But even that too, Like you're talking about him being
a mentor, right, like he What it sounds like from
from what I'm hearing, is that he was. He was
giving me some tough love right the same time. But
what you did is you rose to the occasion and
then you're like, I know, I get this right.

Speaker 3 (18:57):
And then that's how it was tough, you know what
I mean?

Speaker 1 (19:00):
Yeah, yeah, but you're tougher, bro.

Speaker 3 (19:01):
Yeah, exactly. You know. It was definitely a good time,
you know. Yeah, let's get into the first course.

Speaker 2 (19:06):
Yeah, absolutely, all right.

Speaker 3 (19:08):
So we're you know, you know, we're gonna go We're
gonna start with a little time, right, So shark couderie. Right,
Italy have a star cuierie Spain char Curi. But this
is just you know what you would see at the
restaurant at Gino's or you would see, you know, we
have a comfort station at the summit. It's called Jerry's
after Jerry wire Job figure friend of mister Melmans, and

(19:28):
just the whole discovery land. And what we have there
is like a working charcouterie board. Right. So our cooks
are young ches, so they're you know, slicing it up
and everything like that. So we have different cheeses from Italy.
We have Goba ghoul, we got Perjutto, we got you know,
we got Teleggio, we got Pomeagano re giano, we got
some mountain cheese. But this is you know, this is

(19:49):
something that you know, you would see traditionally, you know,
like when you sat down. You know, you have villages
of Italy, you know what I mean. This is a
village dish, you know what I mean. Anywhere in Italy
there's always a mound, there's always a cheese, and there's
always some type of projudo with salami and it's always
left out, you know what I mean. And you just
come and.

Speaker 2 (20:10):
Snack's love that. What do you recommend?

Speaker 3 (20:13):
How? So you got the bread, so this is this
is local bread. This is corcuza. So this is like
a flatbread that's been cooked over over charcoal. You know,
you take a piece, you eat it, you know, take
some cheese. This is a wine jam and that's lemon
lemon lemon.

Speaker 2 (20:28):
Wow, what's wine jam?

Speaker 3 (20:30):
So this is just red wine, right, the musk of it,
and then we reduce it down for a long period
of time and then we freeze dried it and then
we chop it up. Very cool.

Speaker 2 (20:39):
M m oh yeah.

Speaker 3 (20:41):
Right, So that's a that's a telegio like a kind
of like a breed, but it's gonna have a little
little a little more pungent.

Speaker 1 (20:50):
Awesome.

Speaker 3 (20:51):
So I got a question. You said it earlier. You look,
you guys love to cook, right, and I think that
that's awesome, right. I think when it comes down to
even as a you know, home chef or someone that
you truly a passionate about cooking that dish because you
want to cook it right. And you know that's what
I say to everybody. You know what I mean, Like, listen,

(21:13):
if you I can give you a recipe right, and
it could be so challenging for somebody, you know what
I mean, Like, Oh, it's it's all about that. You know,
it's three things right. You have salty, have pepper right,
and you have the ingredient right, you know, to mask
it with all this other crazy stuff. It's no sense
to me, you know what I mean, four or five

(21:33):
ingredients on a plate. Enjoy it, right. But if you're
passionate about like you know, you know you're gonna you're
gonna eat if you if you get a steak, you're
gonna cook it to the way you'd like it anyway,
you know what I mean? If you eat, if you
eat a steak media rare to medium, you know you
know when that time is right. Everyone's like, oh, how
do you how do you know? How do you know?
You just know? You know what I mean. I was

(21:54):
always like, you know, I worked at grills, you know,
nine steakhouse back in the days, Moorings in New York,
you know anything like that. Everyone's like, oh, like, I
still don't know what this means where, Well I don't.
I don't get it. I just know that if I
took a steak to medium, every steak is going to
be medium. Then if then after that's medium, well you
know what, then well done is a fine well done

(22:17):
is well done? That person doesn't like me.

Speaker 2 (22:21):
E brock and I you know, obviously love to grill,
and you know, medium to brock is going to be
different than medium to me.

Speaker 1 (22:30):
Right for me, I like medium rare you get you
get a really experienced the meat, right exactly. But it's
what I do is if I'm at a nice place,
especially any kind of steakhouse or anything like that, I'm
always doing medium rare. But if I'm going somewhere it's
a little sketchy like then he's or whatever medium.

Speaker 3 (22:45):
That up. Yeah, that's the whole thing, you know. And
then you know, and the other crazy thing is right
that I love is like, oh you're a chef. I'm
afraid to cook for you. You know what. I just
want to know, you know what, whatever you put in
front of me, I will eat every you know, with
a slice of bread, you know what I mean? Like
that's you know, because as a chef, you know, like

(23:06):
and that's the as a chef, Oh you must go
home and cook all the time. And I'll go I'll
drive home and shot on McDonald's. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (23:14):
Anyway, I was talking about that with a buddy, a
buddy of ours, Morgan. He's a DJ, right, he's around
music twenty four to seven. Yeah, so when we go
to the gym or do something active or whatever, he's like,
no music, turn it all off, right, It's it's you
got to check out every now and again. You have to, yeah, yeah,
otherwise it's too much dec iced.

Speaker 3 (23:31):
To cook for DJ am Yeah and Jeff. You remember
Paul Oakerfold. Yeah, so Paulold was classically trained as a
chef in London. He went to culinary school. Kidd god,
we had all the DJs there, so that did the
word did the poms right? But yeah, so he was

(23:52):
so we did. Uh we did a lunch at the
Palms like DJ Okenfold and Chef Gino at my restaurant.
Like we got like like it was it was packed
and like he made his recipes and everything like that
from from his culinary experience and some everything like that.
But jazzy Jeff was jazzy Jeff was really really into
culinary really like.

Speaker 1 (24:11):
They would like this just like a side passion.

Speaker 3 (24:13):
You wouldn't like that's what like you know, that error
was where when I moved to Vegas in two thousand,
like they were I was. I was like in all
of them, but they were more oh your gino, you
know what I mean, you have to follow, so like yeah,
so you know, there became the chef's celebrity right there.
There became a celebrity staff Wolfgang, Emerald Luga, you know,

(24:37):
Mario Batally, you know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (24:39):
I was going to ask you about that, like when
did that enter the scene And you know, obviously we
were just with Chef and and Brock and I did
the podcast with Chef, so like how did that kind
of affect?

Speaker 3 (24:52):
So so that was I've known. I know, I knew
about Chef. I known Chef, I met Chef, but you
just said it like that totally like going and cooking
at his house with his father's birthday, Like I was
like a kid in the candies. I swear, like the
first hour I got there, before everything, I couldn't stop
looking around. I'm like this guy is this guy ship?

(25:14):
Like he started the chef right, he took the chef
out of like those old pictures and everything like that
and made the rock star right, made them important the
front level. How he did it man, like I hate it,
like with Emeralds, you know what I mean, with Bam
with the Food Network, and then you know Wolfgang Puck
and he brought Charlie Charlie Trotter here and he like

(25:36):
Mario Battalion with the Deels and everything like that. Yeah exactly, yeah,
you know the orange crocs and everything like that. That dude
is that dude is legendary, you know what I mean,
like put in so many different pasts and like I
went to the Originator's house and the crazy thing is
like I'm looking at it all the nostalgia. I'm like
there's cookbooks and everything like that. And there was a

(26:00):
actually Zach Allen worked for Mario Batally and we went
to culinary school together and Narre's a picture just thought
on a board, you know what I mean, on a board,
Like when Zach was like, you know, a young chef
and everything like that, we're Mario Batally and I took
a picture and I sent it to him like look
at this jackass like text back holy ship and you

(26:21):
remember that pick But yeah, that guy, that guy like
created uh something that no one ever thought. He said,
great chefs and everything like that, you know, what I mean.

Speaker 1 (26:35):
But you said, right, he came from rock stars and chefs.

Speaker 3 (26:40):
Rock stars like a top top dollar, you know what
I mean.

Speaker 1 (26:44):
And you know, change the industry man.

Speaker 3 (26:46):
Yeah, and then especially like so you know, right behind
us is you know the beautiful Las Vegas sprip. You
want to talk about changes. And you know, when it
was the ninety nine cent you know, all you could eat,
you know, shrimp and everything like that, it wasn't about
the food. It was about the gamb When it was
about the you know, the shows and everything like that.
And now it's about you don't even have to people

(27:07):
don't even come here and gammel anymore. You know, we're
goan to go to show. We have every we have
every other, we have every amazing every great chef of America,
you know Europe worldwide that has an outpost here, Yeah,
that has a restaurant here.

Speaker 2 (27:22):
How do you think the city is going to handle
the super Bowl in a couple of weeks.

Speaker 3 (27:26):
I think we're ahead of schedule, meaning that we just
had F one. So we so we had f one,
I guess we the city definitely figured out, you know, transportation,
how to you know, to move people in this city.
So I think it's gonna be. I think it's gonna
be amazing and brings so much. I mean, I just

(27:51):
can't believe, you know, twenty I've been here twenty four years,
that we have a football team, and we have a
hockey team, and we're we have to super Bowl.

Speaker 2 (27:59):
It's all.

Speaker 3 (28:00):
And the great thing is that I'll be you know,
fifteen fifteen miles from the Strip, I think we are
or something like that, and we're at the Summer Club
all the way up in the mountains in the summer
and the highest peak, at the highest peak, with the
with the greatest restaurant and the greatest news and the
greatest members, and we'll be packed. We will be packed.
The golf course will be packed. Everybody that comes to

(28:21):
Vegas wants to come to the Summer Club. And you're like,
we'll have We'll have like you know, it's huge party,
you know what I mean. And the biggest, the biggest
super Bowl party outside of the United States is that
El Dorado. We turned something into that. It is the
greatest super Bowl party outside of America.

Speaker 2 (28:41):
I have one as well. Perfect transition. Yeah, where when
and where did you first get involved with Discovery and
meet my dad, and how did that kind of drink?

Speaker 3 (28:53):
Here? Here's the greatest story of all time, right, one
of my I think, my greatest coinary story ever. So
I leave, I leave Vegas, right, I leave Las Vegas.
I go back to New York and I'm gonna go
marry my child to sweetheart, my college sweetheart. Right, and
you know it's just time. Right, Georgia Reloof loses the
Palms Hotel. Right, you know if that was like after

(29:15):
like doing the whole reve you know, etonomy and everything.

Speaker 5 (29:18):
Like.

Speaker 3 (29:18):
So I go to New York. I work for a ship,
a famous chef called David Burke. Right, he's row right now, right,
A's twenty restaurants. Go back to New York, and I
become his corporate chef. Right.

Speaker 1 (29:30):
Cool.

Speaker 3 (29:31):
Yeah, we have Chicago, New York, you know la sits everywhere, right,
and I'm bouncing around right and still you know, I
love my wife, and it was you know, it wasn't
all roses, you know what I mean. Like I moved
into New York City. We lived on Bleeker and Thomson,
one bedroom, she added, you know what I mean. And

(29:53):
I'm working NonStop, and I really I didn't. I didn't
hit my stride. It was just one of those things,
is that that I know that I will never be.
I can't put my thumb print on any one restaurant.
I could go in right and and change it a little, right,
but when I leave, it goes back to whatever that

(30:14):
chef wants to do. I don't do it. So, uh,
my best friend is at El Dorado, J Becken. He's
there a year before me, mister mister Beckman director, he
was the golf pro. And uh, he calls me up
and he goes, I got you know, I want you
to talk to Mark Human. So Mark Human runs.

Speaker 1 (30:34):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (30:36):
It's an inside joke. We always call each other miser.

Speaker 3 (30:39):
So uh, I'm like, and I'm on the kind of
ounce with my girl and everything too. I'm like, I'm
not not feeling it right, So uh, I feel like
you want to come out to Cabo. So they fly
me out there. Right. She goes out like a works
It's like it was like perfect. She goes on a
work trip, right, and I fly to cor and uh,

(30:59):
I go down there and I meet I meet mister
human Mark right, and uh, you know we're cooking and
everything like that, right, and uh, they offered me the job, right,
So I'm like, break up with your girlfriend, you know
what I mean, like like devastated, right, like this childhood
like this is years and years. But it didn't work.

Speaker 2 (31:17):
So you weren't going to move her out there or anything?

Speaker 3 (31:20):
You guys.

Speaker 1 (31:21):
Yeah, you learned a lot about somebody in a one
bedroom party.

Speaker 3 (31:25):
And then move to uh move to call right, Yeah,
the cobo a week, week and a half, right, and
uh Melman finds out that we have a new chef
and it's me and he goes, this is what he
was really like, there wasn't that many is when he
really tied into a lot of clubs, like from operations

(31:46):
to everything.

Speaker 2 (31:47):
Less of them easier to get around.

Speaker 3 (31:48):
Yeah and around. Yeah he lived out on Jay and
uh and Mark, did you hire a chef without knowing?
How the hell does this happen? Like like really like
real like yeah, and then like Mark comes up to me,
is like holy shit, you know what I mean? So
he sends me to l A like I gotta go.

(32:09):
I gotta go to melwochy okay, and I go and
I cook, like I gotta cook for him for like
five days, right, And this is early on, like women
for Monica and everything like that. And I know Monica
like through a lot of non mute, like she's from Buffalo,
and like we had this great connection and I knew,
like I knew I was gonna win your father over.
It wasn't like and it took like two days. That's

(32:30):
how I got it. So like I'm hired, you know
what I mean, I'm hired. You know. The next thing
I know, and I'm like, holy shit, you know what
I mean. Like you guys are for real, They're like
working for real.

Speaker 1 (32:40):
That's awesome, bro, I mean, dude, that's that's just a
testament too. Like discovery is already incredible, right, but have
you come in and take the culinary experience to another level.
That's like something that dude, that'll I'll go back to
a city for the right restaurant and I'll travel back
just for that. So if you're adding that value on
top of the massive value that's already there, yeah, it's

(33:00):
a game changer. Man. No, No, what dude you're talking about.
You're talking about getting nervous in front of the m K.

Speaker 3 (33:06):
Right, But that's what you know. That was the trials
and tribulations that I came to get to there, you know,
so it's like no big deal, you know what I mean.
I was like, and then the great thing is like, well,
like I got a connention in l A and everything
like that. My meat guys out there, my parbayers are
out there and everything like that. I'm like, I get
everything shifted and everything like that. And you and I

(33:28):
and I have I have somebody come and you know,
help me out and everything like that. He's like, what
going on and everything like that.

Speaker 2 (33:34):
But I was going to ask about that, Like I'm
a big fan of a chef's table on. Yeah, and
a big thing there is how they supply their ingredients,
right for these big chefs. It's like, how important is that?

Speaker 3 (33:48):
Because so I've seen I think what you're saying is
the most realistic and the most truthful thing that you
really have to come to as a chef. If you
want to stay true, you have to work with you've prevved,
you have to have you have a niche. Right, So
for me, I called my pervators, I called the farm.

(34:09):
I'm in tune with it, right, It's not like listen everybody,
and I'm not dogging and I'm not downplaying. But Cisco
and US foods are there for a reason for the
commodities fom solis and everything like that. But when it
comes down to two things. I talked to fishermen still
from San Diego to me, to ranchers, to even got

(34:29):
even even people in Mexico that you know, what's going
on with the avocados, what's going on with cerd cross.
But you have to if you want to call yourself
a chef, you have to be in tune where it
came from. Right. It didn't come from Cisco, didn't come
from US foods, you know what I mean, came from
a farm, right, and what what what what does that
farm believe it? You know as a right? And that's

(34:50):
a lot of a lot of chefs don't get into that,
you know what I mean. When I was trained and
everything like that, if you wanted to become a sous chef,
I gave you you and you got a salmon, you
got a chicken, and you're going to file at. You
had to fabricate each every one of them, and you
had to get proper amount. You know, a filet is
out of that to yield on a salmon, right, you
had to say, all right, what's my yield at the end,

(35:12):
right minus waste carcasstory right, what's your yield? And can
you rush this chicken?

Speaker 1 (35:17):
Right?

Speaker 3 (35:17):
You can't do that? Why am I going to promote you? Why? Right?
What's right? So everybody takes all you know? Fill a
comes in that. No, I'm a butcher, you know, I'm
a file at. I know how to break down carcasses.
I know how to grow a tomato. You know. But
where I talk to the person, I know the center group.

Speaker 1 (35:37):
That's so cool to hear because what you're saying is like,
not only in the kitchen making the food. You know,
everyone's job. There's you know, every job in front and behind,
and that's what's going to get you ahead and make
you you know exactly yeah right, like it gets.

Speaker 3 (35:51):
You to different no matter Like I can go into
nine restaurants any in any city, any country, any language,
and I look at the menu and I can work
that station.

Speaker 1 (36:01):
That's amazing.

Speaker 3 (36:02):
I could work that stage. I don't care if it's
a walk station and or anything like that. I don't
care if it's making burritos. We're making this, dude.

Speaker 1 (36:08):
That's just a testament to you and your craft, right,
and your passion and actually like this is why you
are here at something and you have genos and you've
got your career behind you through rights because you put
in the time, you put in the effort, you put
in the energy from day one essentially, right, and you
didn't give up on it. And then like it's different,
Like people can have a good career at it, right,

(36:29):
but it's you're going to be lacking in certain areas
like and I'm just thinking you know out loud, really,
but like when it comes to that too, like how
important and how often are you innovating? Right? Because food
there's so many different ways to make a dish, right,
and then to even find a new ingredient from from
Wisconsin or whatever or from like you know, whatever it
may be that you're you're flying in. How often do

(36:50):
you do you try to innovate?

Speaker 2 (36:51):
Right?

Speaker 3 (36:52):
My world, My life revolves around food, wine, and curious.
I mean I'm always I'm always ound about, I'm always uh,
I'm always uh looking. And now listen, you know what
the great thing is when I was young Colin area, right,
you want to know like if there was a restaurant

(37:14):
was popping and everything like that. Right now you can
go on the internet, right, yeah, and you can find
everybody's recipe and everything that is like super super cool.

Speaker 1 (37:23):
Right except for Coca Cola. We don't have the secret recipe. Man,
that's the only one left.

Speaker 3 (37:27):
So I thought this was the so good man, I
thought this was the coolest. So so I read I
research and everything like that. I thought this was the
coolest thing that that I've seen in a while.

Speaker 1 (37:39):
So read that that's awesome. Yeah, well there you go.

Speaker 2 (37:43):
Yeah, the day whiskey.

Speaker 3 (37:48):
So I'm gonna put that on our special card everything
like that.

Speaker 1 (37:53):
That's great, Like.

Speaker 3 (37:54):
I got like it was just so like like all right,
let's talk. We can still have fun with and everything
like that. You know, Like I worked for a company
that's the one percent of the one percent of the
one percent. Yeah, our members all over traveled everywhere, eating everywhere. Yeah,
and understands business and understand what what value is. Right.

(38:17):
So that's why I'm always thinking, you know what I mean,
I'm always like trying to improve it for the next thing. Right.

Speaker 1 (38:23):
Yeah, but even that too, like think about you're gonna
do that, You're gonna you're gonna include that in the menu, right,
and what's gonna happen like to you, I'm next time
someone asks me what I'm gonna have to eat, I'm like,
I'm gonna have some The soup of the day is whiskey,
and I'm gonna have to make sure that's just a
funny jokes.

Speaker 3 (38:39):
Like how can we sell whiskey? We're gonna so whiskey
this way? You know what I mean, is whiskey.

Speaker 1 (38:44):
Right with h That's hilarious, dude, that's great man.

Speaker 3 (38:47):
Yeah, So it's just like that's you know, that's what
my passion is all about, you know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (38:52):
But that's cool, man, because like that that for for
me too, is like I love adventures, right, I love exploring,
I love traveling, I love meeting people. And even this
podcast we get to dive in with people like you
get to explore the world in life not only through food,
you know, but but I can't even imagine the amount
of experiences in the rooms you've had and you've sat

(39:12):
in and you've been around, right in the conversations you've
had because of this, right, Like, and this is what's
bringing everyone together, man. And what you're saying too is
like it's funny to me because as a as an
actor as a producer, you know, like you're working in
the film industry. I go to a movie and I'm like,
it's almost hard for me to sit back and not
dissect it, right, But you're doing that with food right everywhere.

(39:33):
So now when I'm going out, I'm like, I gotta
I can think of different ways. And one of the
things you said to me too, but you said a
mercenary chef, bro can't get down the I'm like, that
would be a great show.

Speaker 3 (39:44):
So but like when it comes to like for me, right,
if I go out for dinner, I think this in general,
for any restaurant for me, everyone's like, oh, you must
critique the food. I really don't critique the food that was.
I think if if all four of us sat down, right,
all the whole meal can't be bad, right, You're like,
it just can't be, Like it's an it's impossible, right.

Speaker 2 (40:06):
For all four dishes.

Speaker 3 (40:07):
It's all four dishes to be bad, right. Just what
happens is that service is bad, then everything starts to
be bad. Then you start nippicking. You start to nippick, right,
like oh you know, so it's like that's where I
really excelled as a chef because I could work the

(40:28):
front of the house just as good as the GM
and the server. I understand it. Yeah, sequence of service right,
not to fuck up my food?

Speaker 1 (40:38):
Ye get that.

Speaker 3 (40:39):
And because listen, you go to a restaurant, right, we
go to a restaurant, we pay. We're talking anywhere now
is between one hundred, one hundred and fifty average person.
I haven't drink and everything like that. If service sucks,
then all the meal sucked, right.

Speaker 1 (40:53):
Then it's overpriced.

Speaker 3 (40:54):
Then it's over priced, Like why do you give me that?
That's bullshit and everything like that. So I think it
comes down to, like you know, and that's what that's
what Discovery Land. We're service in Warrington. We care even
though you're you're still a member and you're I don't care.
I don't care. Yeah, listen, you want your stories. I'm
a I could be an ansel. I can't be. I mean,

(41:17):
but no, like like you hear those stories and everything
like that, Like what's what's a chef? Like I'm I
could be the nicest guy or you can turn me
into a devil, like you're you're messing with me. My
name right, my name, my bu right? Like that's the
other thing they're like, like I was always saying everything
like that, like I've uh sometimes beat the horse down,

(41:37):
so like I beat it down and everything like that.
Like if Melman came in, would you be doing that? Right?

Speaker 1 (41:43):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (41:44):
Merman comes in, right, and you think I'm gonna give
him a shitty meal? Right?

Speaker 1 (41:48):
Probably?

Speaker 3 (41:49):
No, never, you know what I mean. So like you
gotta think like the like the like we're cooking for
the owner every goddamn date, like you're on your cell phone.
It's not that he doesn't see her that, but it's bullshit,
you know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (42:02):
It's principal too.

Speaker 3 (42:03):
Yeah, but it's also like yeah, it's.

Speaker 1 (42:06):
But it's it's also like you know, you learn a
lot about somebody too. Like for example, the example everyone
I think always gives is is how does that person
treat the waiter? Right? How do they treat treat the service?
You know, it's and they could versus how they treat
the owner or the chef or whatever it may be.
But it's like if somebody's going to treat them like shit,
then it tells you someone's character, right, But your character
is like treat everyone like their Mike Melvin, right, And

(42:28):
then give them that experience. And I mean one of
my first jobs coming out of high school. I mean
I worked at Trade first and in their conditioning, but
then I went into sales with but in retail, which
is funny, bro is what it was, And I ended
up going to working at True Religion. You're selling three,
four or five hundred dollars pair of jeans, right, that's
a lot. It's a lot of money. But what I

(42:49):
learned is exactly what you're saying, is if somebody comes
in there and they're thinking about spending even one hundred
and fifty hours on when Levi's are twenty bucks, right,
it's that experience that I'm giving them that made the
difference of my sales. Right. And if I came in
and and made them feel good, I'd tell them they
look good and make them laugh, and they haven't experienced
one there. Every time they put those genes on moving forward,

(43:09):
they're going to be stoked, right, Yeah, it's their way
that they feel when they're wearing them. They know they're
going to look good, but then they also feel good.
But if I went in and treat them my shit,
or didn't give them a service or whatever, probably not
going to come back, probably not ever gonna buy anything, right,
But it's exactly to put your plan. You know. It's
like you come in, you get an experience, you treat
people respect, and then you offer a great product from that.
It's that's how you win.

Speaker 3 (43:30):
Heavy restaurant in America, Mom pops to every penny's on
a dollar.

Speaker 1 (43:35):
Yeah, it's not.

Speaker 3 (43:36):
Everyone's like, oh, we're making all this money. No, dude,
cheer ready, this cast something in the restaurant, right, you
break it, you gotta replace this, you know what I mean?
This this food right, all might fall on the trash
and everything like that. The other thing that I cast
dot sometimes would not staying like I teach and I
preach it. I make sure that you're not endless money.
Right at the end of the night, I'll go through

(43:57):
the trash. I have no problem taking that and putting it,
you know, putting it out. What's in there? You know,
why is there? Why is their spoons in there? Why
is their napkins in there? Someone's got to pay for it, right, yeah,
So if you don't, if you don't take the ownership, right,
and that's what I've done, you know, and I'm lucky,
Like no mean realize that. And you know, I have

(44:18):
a restaurant.

Speaker 1 (44:19):
You know that, but you're saying that too. Taking ownership.
That's the exact sign of a leader, right, That's what
it takes to be a leader and to be that
example for everyone else. So anyone underneath you see you
doing it, they're going to follow by example, right, and
if they're not, well, see alright.

Speaker 2 (44:34):
So we had a production assistant for Showtime on HBO
for Ray Donovan and they basically were doing exactly what
you said, right.

Speaker 3 (44:44):
They were very wasteful.

Speaker 2 (44:46):
I'm not going to name anyone or anything, right, but
they're like, oh, it's showtime, they can afford it, right.
And in CBS on Showtime, it's like it's a conglomer, right,
And it's like that attitude is like a cancer and
it team right, and it's like that is just like
a complete lack of respect for your work, your team,

(45:08):
your everything. And it's like, you know, you can be
lucky to be in a position where sure, we don't
like we can replace something, right, but it's it's more
about the attitude and the intent in the right, it's like.

Speaker 1 (45:22):
And not taking that opportunity for granted, right, Like.

Speaker 2 (45:24):
Because it's like you're making us all look bad, dude,
Like this is a huge opportunity for me, and I
want to do good at this job and I want
our team to do well, and you're making us look bad.

Speaker 1 (45:32):
Yeah, but that's what bullshit. Yeah yeah, it's absolutely working
on right now.

Speaker 3 (45:38):
So I just wanted to get to them a little
soaked and everything like that. So tomatoes, listen, tomatoes in
the summertime are amazing. But as we have culinary advanced,
we could cultivate and you know, do indoor tomatoes just
as good. I was the lighting and everything like that

(46:00):
to make sure that there's still at that after mere
rightness and everything like that. So we got these cool
like you're called Kouma Moto tomto tomatoes. They're grown in Florida,
you get them shipped here, so now they're at their
peak peak point.

Speaker 1 (46:16):
Right.

Speaker 3 (46:16):
So tomato loves great things. It loves salt, it loves pepper,
and it loves a lot of extra virgin olive oil.

Speaker 1 (46:23):
Is that more for the flavor complex or is it more?

Speaker 3 (46:25):
Well, so what it's gonna do is gonna take the
city out of the tomato. You know, Like for me,
as an Italian kid growing up, Like Jersey tomatoes they
would grow on a turnpike on the Parkway. Whoever, that's
how good? You know, it's the garden state, you know,
everybody all the Jersey we got what the trend in Newark,
well Ship, It's called the garden state because we had

(46:46):
good soil. Right. But what I'm saying, so, but now
I can't eat tomatoes because there's so much acid it. Right,
It's like certain wines, right, and we're gonna get to wine.
You know, the high acidity just you know, it kills
my stomach. But with the olive oil and the salt
and pepper, it draws, it draws it away and everything
like that. And then I put the basil in there,

(47:07):
Jennevie's besil, and it's gonna be nice and sweet. Right.
They're just on a platter, right, is Yeah, So I
put a little bosom. Yeah, and then we got we
got we talked about pesta, right, and then we'll be
getting pasta the greatest green thing ever ever made. Right,
you got basil, cheese and garlic, well was better, right,

(47:31):
and and pine nuts. What's the key to a good pesta?
To me? You don't overblend it? Right, and then I
also and then I also put like little cubes of
butter in there if you're gonna freeze it, just to
the butter like absorbed absorbs, dumb moisture. And then we
have barata. Right, you guys are familiar with muzzarell moots

(47:53):
you just got, but so barrata on the outside as
I open it, that's the mozzarella occurred, right, and in
on the inside is the cream.

Speaker 1 (48:04):
That's awesome.

Speaker 3 (48:05):
Now the other pet peeve right, all the knees is
just salt right and pepper now like I would. So
you go to other places, right, and they like, we
use really good balsamic, right, we use a balsamic olive
like right, we don't use the but the balsamic you know,

(48:25):
like you see sometimes like it it looks like like uh,
chocolate syrup. Yeah, because all these is well cheap balsamic
reduced down with a lot of sugar.

Speaker 1 (48:37):
Interesting, So just really quick, where can you get something
like or where would you recommend shopping for?

Speaker 3 (48:42):
So I would say any any any of your great
whole foods. Right, cool, if you're in any major city,
now Italy, you know what I mean? Italy? Like is
it you know Chicago, New York, LA and everything like that,
and that's it, you know what I mean. This is
so this would be a classic you know tomato dish
that you would see pretty much all over Italy and

(49:02):
everything like that. We talked about wine with this dish,
Like tomatoes and wine. It's like it's two bowls, two
rams hitting in each other because you have the acidity
of one thing right in the acidity of the other thing.
So if there was some type of wine, I would
say something like that has more food forward, like a pino. Right, Okay,

(49:23):
that's nice if you were gonna do it. But like
this is like so there's always you know, everybody does wine,
like wine dinner. It is just a great thing to do, right,
But like if they like and and out with the salmon, right,
I'll be like, oh, we're gonna do tomatoes, and then
they don't know what to do. I'm like, well what
are you talking about? You know what I mean? This

(49:44):
pino from Oregon will work great because you got such
a high, succidy, high city and the tomatoes, but the
fruit's gonna counter and everything like that. And also I'm
pluming Barada that has a creaminess to it.

Speaker 1 (49:56):
Yeah kind of, you can bounce it out. Yeah. Yeah,
It's just I can't even explain how and good this
tastes all together.

Speaker 3 (50:03):
It's exactly you know, it's simple.

Speaker 1 (50:06):
I got a quick question. Yeah, when you are able
to make this much good food and be around it
all the time, how do you not weigh five hundred pounds? Bro?
Because that would be my problem.

Speaker 3 (50:16):
Great question. So I'm an athlete, you know what I mean.
Grew up wrestling, soccer, you know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (50:21):
So I am that we talked about martial arts.

Speaker 3 (50:23):
Yeah, martial arts, you know what I mean. Yeah, but
you know there's you know, don't get me wrong, Like
I I go through times of phases and everything like that.
When I was working on a strip or any it's adrenaline,
you know what I mean. You work on a strip
or a busy, busy restaurant and you six under covers

(50:44):
and everything like that. Yeah, you're it's like you're you're
you're like a complying fighter and everything like that, you
know what I mean. And then when you get out,
you just can't go home. It's twelve o'clock and everything
like that. Then you start hitting the bars and everything
like that Convenius twenty four to seven, you know what
I mean? Yeah, yeah, you meet up with all and
then listen, that's the lifestyle. And you meet up with

(51:05):
all your chef friends and ever you're like that, you
at the bar, you know, then the drink's coming, Then
the stories are coming. Right. The fish was just big
and oh my god, when you're seven thousand covers in
an hour, you know what? So the story you know
that that one pound fish became a ten pound fish. Yeah,
you're talking about like this, like Jesus Christ, you know
what I mean? This server?

Speaker 1 (51:24):
What's that? What's that show? They're on the ships? Right?
What is it?

Speaker 3 (51:26):
The Oh? Yeah, yeah like that. But also as you
get you know, older, and you get wiser, you know,
health is important. Yeah, you know, dieting is important and
eating right is important. But uh, I'm really hooked a huge, huge,
f forty five person.

Speaker 1 (51:44):
Oh really yeah, man, I've done a couple of cars there, so.

Speaker 3 (51:48):
They're really really addicted to it, and like I feel
like like the whole thing is also just like I
feel like some things have changed, you know what I mean.
I'm getting up earlier right and I could work later,
and I'm more focused and everything like that because it's
easy to fall Like, so I just got back from Hawaii, right,
I'm gonna lie to you guys, and just got back,
so it's hard to get back in the gym. Yeah,

(52:10):
I'm like like this morning, like I really really like
had to get out of that as a you know,
and it's easy for show. Like if I had to
be there at six o'clock in the morning to do breakfast,
you know, jack rabbit right there, I had to go
to the gym.

Speaker 1 (52:24):
Yeah, man, oh yeah, that's part of it, thought. Yeah,
but it makes all the difference when you do it right. Yeah,
those that forty five classes are great. Yeah, like the
circuits they do. Yeah, they don't kill you too much
on one thing just to get that great workout and
then you go to the next one.

Speaker 3 (52:37):
And the cool thing is like it's forty five minutes,
but thirty minutes to workout.

Speaker 1 (52:40):
Yeah, because you're just enough rest in between.

Speaker 3 (52:42):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (52:43):
Yeah, that's right. And it fits my lifestyle as a
chef perfect. Man.

Speaker 2 (52:45):
Yeah, this is phenomenal.

Speaker 3 (52:48):
Right, it's simple, but like you see, like when you're
marrining to tomatoes and the salt goes into and the
peppers go into them.

Speaker 2 (52:54):
Like it's the monzarella is blown me away too, and
the pesto does kind of bring that out in it.
I don't know what I have, like.

Speaker 3 (53:02):
The garlic in there, the freshness of the garlic and
the pine nuts.

Speaker 1 (53:06):
Okay, yeah, I was. I was reading somewhere about when
you're first coming over to Eldorado, right, because Elderado you
can have a private experience, but then you could have
you're feeding a bunch of people right up to like
I think it said, and correct me if I'm wrong, right,
but up to like a thousand people, you know, at
a certain points, right, what is that.

Speaker 3 (53:20):
Like go from the restaurant business. And when I say
restaurant business, I mean like go to like a restaurant, right,
So at El Dorado, right, we're talking, you know, just
me as a chef, I was, you know, a restaurant chef.
You know, yeah, lunch or dinner. Right then I go
down there breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It's you know, one

(53:40):
one week you do like, oh it's all slow and
everything like that, but then after Thanksgiving that spaceship doesn't
stop very lady, yeah, right, and you just you gotta
you gotta work it. Yeah, you gotta work harder and
you just get you just work, you know what I mean.
But it but the one thing that I did learn,

(54:03):
and after the first the first thing I did was
you just got to be organized and you have to
have it. You have to have it. It's like a playbook.
It's like a coach and everything like that. You have
to have your playbook, right, yeah, but you have to
have good ches with you and good cooks that could
call you honible. Right, yeah, you know what I mean, Like,
all right, Melmoon's house just went to fifty instead of

(54:24):
his twenty or what are we gonna do? We have
the we have the game plan for twenty, but then
you know, here's the here's the other here's the game plan.
And then it's like it's being it's being organized, and
the whole other thing is god damn ordering you know
what I mean. Like there was there's times at Eldorado
It's like I one got one person, one lady, right,

(54:44):
and all she did for eight hours was met goddamn guacamole.

Speaker 1 (54:48):
Wow, just so much such demand.

Speaker 3 (54:51):
Eight hours And I'm talking like all right, oh, and
like you're not like I'm not price conscious or anything
like that. I'm like, all right, I ordered twenty k
of avocados. Yeah, yeah, have to halfway through the day,
like Jeffe, there's no more avocados. I'm like, what do
you There were twenty cases of avocados. But then it

(55:12):
goes like but then then I realized, like, all right,
avocado is a staple, right, it goes everywhere, right, it
goes to every place at Eldorado. Then it's like, oh,
we want guacamole. So then I'm like then I'm like,
all right, footy cases, you know what I mean. The
next that's no more avocados. What then there's one just
one person making sauce all day long. Wow, there's just

(55:35):
one person frying chips all day long at elder That's right,
because during that period of time, that's what it is.
It's chips, guacamole, and sauce.

Speaker 1 (55:43):
I mean I've never yeah, every time I've been down there, man,
that's where you start your meals with that, or you
just have it there just to have all the time.

Speaker 3 (55:50):
Yeah, but you wouldn't think like you'd be like, oh yeah.

Speaker 1 (55:53):
You're not thinking hundreds of other people also the same thing, Right,
we're thinking like oh dude, great, we're stoked, have some
chips and qualk, right, But when you scale it, yeah,
it's different. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (56:05):
And then that's that's because you're in a resort, right,
So I come from the rest restaurant mentality and never
do like that, like it's what keys like, oh.

Speaker 1 (56:13):
You know what, yeah, yeah, they're just.

Speaker 3 (56:18):
Like the whole week you got all on a friday,
a friday for the weekend, you know, because.

Speaker 1 (56:23):
What's what's a normal restaurant seat like one hundred people?

Speaker 3 (56:25):
Yeah, yeah, so it's like that's you know, crazy.

Speaker 2 (56:29):
Yeah, but then you adjust, like you said, you changed
the playbook right out and then and then I'm sure
like depending on how many members are in town, you
got to work with members services, see who's in town,
what are the numbers, because like you said, in an
off season, you're probably not ordering the same no, you know,
not even.

Speaker 1 (56:46):
But how exciting is that that? That's there's nothing boring
about that.

Speaker 3 (56:49):
It was a high it was it was it was
like you know, it was that first year at Eldorado
was real high fro.

Speaker 1 (56:55):
All I know is the last time I go down
come over here, I'm like, yo, the guak is amazing, But.

Speaker 3 (57:01):
It was a high. You know, it's something I never
did before, you know what I mean. And you know
I got my you know, I got punched in the face,
you know what I mean, and that's when Yeah, yeah,
it was like it was a challenge, you know what
I mean.

Speaker 2 (57:12):
And big shout out to j Backman and Mark Human
down there there. Love those guys.

Speaker 1 (57:18):
And Mike Milman you know, but.

Speaker 3 (57:20):
That was like, you know, that was that was the
That was the place, you know what I mean. That
was the place in Discovery for a long time, right right,
we were you know that was that was Yeah, that
was the heart and soul, you know what I mean.
If you were if you were the chef or you

(57:41):
worked at El Dorado, you were you know.

Speaker 2 (57:43):
Well and think about like, you know, we were just
with Dante and now he too, Yeah, segment is right. Yeah,
Dante was down there doing sales for nine ten years
and you know he became like a big brother to me.
And you know now he's married and doing sales and
now he and battled just together.

Speaker 3 (58:00):
Right.

Speaker 2 (58:00):
It's like another big shout out to Travis Chamberlain. Yes, right,
like we always talk about how you know, Discovery is
like a big family. And you know, in Pops's episode
we were saying I kind of mentioned Travis and how
I was like seven and he was like seventeen when
we first met, and he was Zacha Kio and man

(58:21):
to go to McKenna and see you know him and
his beautiful three children, you know, and his wife Chelsea,
and like it's just so fricking cool that, like, you know,
see them and you think back to all the different
times and you know, now you're here, right, and we're
here together and to everyone, yeah, it's just And Brock's
been to so many properties too, like you know, man,

(58:45):
I'm getting all emotional.

Speaker 3 (58:46):
But but no, that's like you know what to I
am too, Like I think that this would your father
created is so special. But as a chef, right, So
when I first took the job here a seven years,
I've been here. I've been here at eight years. Right
at the summer Club, I was here when it was dirt.
I like got I cooked an eighteen wheeler, right, and
there was a cis a tenant, right, and no one

(59:10):
knew or no one knew what the summit was.

Speaker 2 (59:12):
I have a video of the first dynamite EXSI.

Speaker 3 (59:15):
Yeah, how much dirt we moved here. No one knew, right,
no one knew. Everyone said, oh, Melman, this is going
to be a failure, right, this place is going to
be it's not gonna work. Right, there's no way, right,
there's no fucking way and everything like that. Eight years
in this place, you can't you can't buy property, right,
you can sell your property for three or four times

(59:38):
more than what you bought for. So Melman is such
a forward thinker. And what we did, you know, and
what we were trained to do from his eyes, the
people that we put in place is we execute. We
execute the plan right, listen, we sell real estate and goverland.

(01:00:00):
But the amenities have to be so goddamn great that
when you show, when you show a client a prospect,
everybody has to do their due diligence, right, But you
know it's every aspect, yes, right.

Speaker 1 (01:00:15):
But but to that point too, like you said, it's
it's there's the amenities, there's the golf, there's the community
in here, there's every and then there's amazing property right location,
everything like, it's not you. You have to do the work.
You gotta hook them right. At the same time, I
don't know any place better than this man, you know
what I mean, Like there's no place.

Speaker 3 (01:00:36):
Each every discovery has its own little entity, right, there's
only a nook you every do like that. You have
members that are members in five six different places. Yeah, multiple,
multiple overseas now, right, you buys coming on and people
people from here are going down there and buying LUNs.

Speaker 2 (01:00:53):
Yeah, Scotland, Costa Rica.

Speaker 3 (01:00:59):
I mean like I wouldn't even know how to get
like like someone goes where, Like I'm like, Puerto Rico's next,
do you Puerto Rico's on there? We have a weird
about that. Yeah, James Island. It's like you build something,
people will come. But you build something great, you're gonna
get more. You're gonna get the thing. And that's the
one thing that like I always have to say, like

(01:01:21):
I was a chef on the strip, but my life
as a chef now I'm at the level. I'm at
the Summit, at the Sement. I have chefs now saying like, oh,
seven years ago, you're just a chef at the Summa Club.
Now they do now they see what like what goes
on and everything like that. They come over here. You
invite them over there to see the clubhouse. You see
my restaurant, you see the sushi restaurant. They're like they're

(01:01:42):
pulling in on Oh my god, whatever, you know what
I mean, Like, don't ever thought, don't ever think that
I was out of the game.

Speaker 1 (01:01:50):
But that's I mean, look at that man, like like
obviously Mike was at Mike Melman able to have this
incredible foresight right in this vision and then the ability
to get there. Right. You Also, even though you came
into Eldorado, you got to experience discovery and you had
massive workload, but you showed up, you did the work,
and you built. You built something with with discovery coming

(01:02:11):
here when you said it, you know, it's just dirt,
just ground. You took a chance on that too.

Speaker 3 (01:02:15):
Especially all right, so pasta guys, right ooh my favorite.
So it's pretty cool, right yeah, So we have to drive, So.

Speaker 1 (01:02:25):
This is like we gotta do this more often.

Speaker 3 (01:02:27):
This is Chalka. This is like one of my favorite
brands ever. Right, This is Kevi Telly, right, something I
grew up very family with. Right, Like, so Kevin Telly
would be rolled in, rolled in a fork.

Speaker 2 (01:02:37):
In your hand, right, I like, because it's like Penny
But yes, captured.

Speaker 3 (01:02:41):
Oh what I made earlier for you Today, I made
my great grandmother's famous lobster ravioli. It's gonna be simple.
It's gonna be a little little brown butter, a little
little mirror pont and well lemon. Right. We also make
it the club tag it Telly, which is my favorite
for bowling, as I could tell. But I wanted to

(01:03:02):
show you guys a difference. Right, So you cl yellow,
that is yeah, right, and this is a little more
off white. Right. So this is one hundred percent egg yolks.
That's all. This is egg yolk, pasta, egg yolk, and
double zero flour. This will use eggs, whole eggs. So
that's why you have the whiteness in there, because what

(01:03:23):
we want is the electicity. Right this we're not stretching
that much with pasta. We're stretching and we're stretching whatever. Rabbulia.
I want to keep it contained because I want to
This would be so it's a quick cook for al Dante.
This fresh pasta, you're never really going to get super
al Dante, but with the egg whites, with the white,
you'll get it. Right. So with a pasta, you got

(01:03:44):
to cook it to what it says on the back there.
You listen, there's there's instructions, because there's instructions, especially with
dry pasta. You want to cook it, right, yeah, but
you want to cook it to al Dante, right, sure,
right to the tooth right? So yeah, to the tooth.

Speaker 2 (01:04:02):
Okay, right?

Speaker 1 (01:04:03):
So that bro come on.

Speaker 3 (01:04:06):
So here's so in America, right, when we show al Dante,
that means bush to everybody.

Speaker 1 (01:04:12):
Right.

Speaker 3 (01:04:14):
No. So so my early culinary days, when I was
working at Novay, right, George Mloof every year would send
me to Italy to train and to explore.

Speaker 2 (01:04:27):
And for the for the audience, maloof George maloof Yeah.
He owner the.

Speaker 3 (01:04:33):
Owner of the Sacramento Kings, owner of the Kings, Yes,
and the Palms Hotel. So every year they would send
me to Italy to cook and travel and work in
certain restaurants or wateries or perjudo plans and uh. But

(01:04:53):
when I would go there, everything was true to what
Aldante means to the tooth right, And I really and
I understood because when a lot you know, when you
live in these these parts of you know, Italy, you're
not eating a lot of meat. You eating a lot
of pasta, So that shoe felt reverent like that, and
you're eating something hardy, you know what I mean, So

(01:05:15):
not eating something soft and wimpy, you know what I mean.
So you had that chee to it, right, So you're chewing.
So that's why al Dante to the tooth. So every
time I would come back to the after my chips,
I tell all my my chefs and everything like that.
Fucking we're changing and we're going to El Dante. I'm
gonna teach you guys what al Dante is, right everyone,

(01:05:37):
and everyone's like, that's a good idea. I don't care
what fuck I was in Italy. This is how we
got the game. We gotta eat this sp I'm representing
my where by fuck where I came from. Right, Yeah,
Friday night comes, we start, but come to rush. This
possible comes back, this possibly back, All these positives come back,
and I get it. Because Americans aren't used to that,

(01:05:58):
then they don't understand it. They think gets raw, but
it's not pasta. So when you get rid of Tony,
so the right and then next thing I just cooked.
But like listen, especially in Las Vegas. Maybe not in
l A as much, but Vegas we got we got
to build this connection. Who like these guys want to.

Speaker 1 (01:06:22):
I guess you got to know your audience a little bit.

Speaker 3 (01:06:25):
For me, I like to salt water because I'm not.
I don't. I don't have a heavy hand with salt.
And that's my first stage of salt. Right. That's another thing,
Like chefs gotta understand what salt is, so for me
to say, it boils quicker, right, and it gives a
flavor to water, right, But with salt is a tricky thing, right, Yeah,

(01:06:47):
that salt is like and then that that salted. And
if you do another dish, you're putting salt, salt, salt, salt, salt.

Speaker 2 (01:06:53):
You know.

Speaker 3 (01:06:54):
That's why a lot of chefs don't understand.

Speaker 1 (01:06:56):
Right.

Speaker 3 (01:06:56):
But when I'm making dish or I have a comments,
I understand the dish. I eat it from start to finish. Yeah,
I don't eat like three bites while that's the greatest pie. Right.
And that's why a lot of people say, oh the
dish is salty because you ain't the whole dish. You
ate the whole veal chopped dish. It got salty. Why
because you salt the the potatoes, You salted the veal.
You salted this, right, and then the sauce is salty,

(01:07:20):
so by the time things your salt palate because it
add salt.

Speaker 1 (01:07:24):
You little little water.

Speaker 2 (01:07:25):
After that, do you have any recommendations for people, like when.

Speaker 3 (01:07:28):
They rather I'd rather say, listen, you're here, salt pepper.
You're not offending. After I'd rather use salt pepper it
then send the vagazatas too salty. Right, Because if there's
an and a lot of dishes that you eat out right,
is there it's a components, right, so you have the protein,
you have the starch, you have the vegetable, right if

(01:07:51):
they're all salted by the time you eat by the
time and that's what another chef doesn't think about, or
a young chef doesn't think about, did you eat that dish?
Oh I I you know, I tasted it.

Speaker 1 (01:08:02):
I tasted that one bite. It could be great, but
the entire dish, but.

Speaker 3 (01:08:05):
The whole dish, you know, you know, and then it's
just like, oh my god, it's not salty. Well, yeah,
you didn't fucking sit You didn't spend eighty five dollars, right,
I need the whole dish. It at the end of
the night, you're you're gathering and you want to gallon
a wae.

Speaker 1 (01:08:17):
Yeah. Yeah, just wake up in the middle of the.

Speaker 3 (01:08:20):
Understand what I'm saying. So I get it. So I
saw one component and then you know, we'll get to it.
So fresh raviols, just dip them in there. The water
is like a big bubble bath. Nice, it's Roland.

Speaker 2 (01:08:34):
How many times have you been to Italy?

Speaker 3 (01:08:37):
Twenty thirty twenty times? I'll be going since I was
a little kid, Okay, yeah, every Yeah, both family, both
sides of the family.

Speaker 1 (01:08:45):
You spend it. Have you spent extended time there?

Speaker 3 (01:08:48):
Like as long as I was there was four months.

Speaker 1 (01:08:50):
It's a pretty good amount of time.

Speaker 2 (01:08:52):
Yeah, that's pretty four months.

Speaker 1 (01:08:56):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:08:57):
What is it about the food there?

Speaker 3 (01:09:01):
Is it really like?

Speaker 2 (01:09:03):
Because obviously you hear about no preservatives. It's more fresh.
I mean obviously that's not fake, right, Like that's a
real thing at all. I feel that when I eat there, right,
I don't feel the super You're in the pasta right, right?
What what are some secrets about that that you can

(01:09:23):
kind of share with that's that you've experienced over the years.

Speaker 3 (01:09:26):
There's not a fucking grocery store anywhere real, Yeah, there's
not there's not an AMTM, there's not a shop. Right,
there's not a Kroger's, there's not a there's not you know,
any anything. Right, you're gonna go to You're gonna go
to the You're gonna go to the meek eye that
ye water to beast. You're gonna go to the lamb guy.

(01:09:46):
You're gonna if there's fish, there's fish. You're gonna go
get to tomato where the tomato guy came from. You're
going to markets, you know what I mean. It's all
organically grown, you know, raised the right way. There's no preservatives,
there's no you know, give you one milk, well you
know what the milk comes from.

Speaker 2 (01:10:02):
They got them town, you know.

Speaker 3 (01:10:05):
So that's that's where it becomes that where it becomes
so beautiful, well, you know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (01:10:10):
Absolutely.

Speaker 3 (01:10:11):
And then the other thing is listen, you're in Rome.
It's Roman food. You're not gonna you know, you're not
gonna have something. You're not gonna have additional forums. You're
not gonna have different from sicily, you know what I mean.
That's what that's what it's all about.

Speaker 1 (01:10:23):
For anybody that's interested in traveling or planning on traveling
to Italy? What what are like maybe one, one to
three Tucciucci.

Speaker 3 (01:10:30):
And they candled that show? Why why they cancel it?

Speaker 1 (01:10:35):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (01:10:36):
Did you watch it?

Speaker 1 (01:10:37):
No? No, I didn't. Now I'm going to bro Yeah,
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (01:10:40):
Guccio Tucci. He's like he rewrote it like he's like
Anthony Bardine, but Tucci like wrote about like the truth
like he's he's an actor. I don't know where your actors.
But he was like going, he went to he goes
to all these places in Italy.

Speaker 1 (01:10:54):
That's great. So so so follow himself.

Speaker 3 (01:10:56):
What to do? I would say, you know your there's
the Michelin guides and everything, but it's almso like you
know what, you gotta explore it, man, you gotta get dude.

Speaker 1 (01:11:05):
I went out there and the guy he I think
he passed away Hucci, Yeah but not him, but yeah,
but this guy. So they told us about this guy
that like staying once once a month or something like that.
He opens up his house and only seats four people
really like once a month or something like that. And
then you come in and you get this like unbelievable

(01:11:26):
like multiple course, uh meal that you can only get there.
But it's just like there's things like that all over
the yeah, or if you get invited, like I remember,
I had some friends out there and they invited me
to just to go to their family's house man have
dinner with them.

Speaker 3 (01:11:40):
That's the one thing that that's amazing and in any
culture outside our is that everyone's pretty much like come in,
come in back.

Speaker 1 (01:11:48):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:11:49):
Here it's like you know, but if I'm just like
cooking like for friends and family or we're just hanging out,
I like to always take the fleet and put a
little olive oil, little cheese, cracked black pepper. Right, it's
all like not a big sauce pur like pasta, Like
you don't need it to be too saucy.

Speaker 2 (01:12:06):
You know, the condiments are kind of building again, right, Yeah,
what is that chicken cutor that's a.

Speaker 3 (01:12:16):
Jersey chicken coulor that kid, that kid from the Giants,
the quarterback you had all his fame for a chicken colored.
I make the original chicken color. I grew up on
a chicken colt. I'll explain what the chicken color it
is because I'm pissed that this kid from the Giants
then he went like this with it.

Speaker 2 (01:12:33):
Is we need it. We definitely need the chicken cutlet story.

Speaker 3 (01:12:41):
So here we go the little WildStar every real least.
So it just paired it with a little mirror pa,
a little butter, brown little brown butter, a little white
wine and a watt of lemon. But so with the
mirror pap mierpas, carrot cellar and onions that I reduce down.
But he just gives it that crunch that you want.

Speaker 1 (01:13:06):
Man, it smells good.

Speaker 2 (01:13:08):
And this is the family recipe.

Speaker 3 (01:13:10):
Right, yeah, this is my great grandmother. A little lobster
wherever early with the egg pasta. So on the outside
you're gonna get the all Dante. Then as you go in,
it's gonna get a little softer. So on the outside
when I say how Dante, it has a bite that
does a chew.

Speaker 1 (01:13:25):
This is the Italian version of the American, not the American.

Speaker 3 (01:13:29):
So you got the character seller and so you got freshness, right,
and then you got lemon with everything like lemon. Right,
then you have the lobster that's inside. And then so
everyone says, I go chi, right, and so we I
use parmesan reggiano and I use a twenty twenty four
month re giano so typically so with read giano, that's

(01:13:49):
another story that we'll talk about, right, But it's basically salt, right,
It's like it's like Mexican. It's a table cheese, right.
So the process, the process of it that it has
lime and it's being cured for so long. Basically that's
the salt that I want you to taste, right, So
you see, you see what I'm saying, it's not salty.
No butter, the brown butter, I brown, the butter I get,

(01:14:11):
I get, I get a wet right.

Speaker 1 (01:14:13):
There's so many different like layers of flavor in this
thing like it, and there's there's just like it's still
so fresh, but it's light. It's light. It's not like
it's nothing's overburying, beaten one thing out or the other.
And then it's like.

Speaker 3 (01:14:29):
It's just good man, it's good dude.

Speaker 2 (01:14:32):
And I also I really do prefer an aldente pasta
a little harder, right, yeah, And like I also really
like country stuff with my food. That's why I always.

Speaker 3 (01:14:42):
That's why I think the beer popery. And it's also fresh,
right character fresh celery is fresh, you know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (01:14:50):
That's why it's just perfect.

Speaker 1 (01:14:53):
I mean visually it looks great.

Speaker 3 (01:14:55):
Pasta is a craft and I've oh you know, I've
always you know, since my childhood seeing my great grandmother,
you know, me pasta. It's always like so if I go,
if I'm Adam in a bad day or pissed off
or someone that, I'll just go and make pasta, you
know what I mean. Like, yeah, but uh, we you know,
you guys are lucky. Guys are in La like you

(01:15:16):
guys got Felix, Like, dude, you got some you got
some badass some guys that not a cook over there,
you know.

Speaker 1 (01:15:22):
Yeah, we don't got geno though.

Speaker 3 (01:15:24):
Nah, you come to the sum and you always have Gena.

Speaker 2 (01:15:27):
And shout out to Craig. We got we got Craigs
out now there.

Speaker 1 (01:15:30):
Yeah, yeah, I love Craig.

Speaker 3 (01:15:33):
He told me a lot. He's a very awesome restaurant tour. Yeah.
So there's a difference, right, You're he knows how to
work work the business.

Speaker 2 (01:15:47):
Another person that was close with Jerry Wintrob as well.

Speaker 3 (01:15:50):
Yeah, old school tider movies. Right, Oh yeah, right, there's
a dish called all yo alio alio Right, one thing,
two things garlic and olive oil. But how to make
the how to make this? Say here the years of cooking,

(01:16:14):
you know, I bullshit? There do my teacher? Why how
to get the olive oil at the right temperature? Right,
so it's nice and garlic key brown? Right, that's where
now smell it? Oh yeah, right, okay, that's the allioh right,
and you've wanted and your pasta right.

Speaker 1 (01:16:38):
So the pasta water you're thrown in there?

Speaker 3 (01:16:40):
Yeah, Now garlic when it gets to dis flavor, it's nicely,
nicely Carmela, right, Dennis Parsley. Then it's a little plumage
on a gianna.

Speaker 1 (01:17:04):
Jeez.

Speaker 3 (01:17:05):
Then I put the crack black pepper in there. You
don't need salt because everything else is salty.

Speaker 1 (01:17:11):
Hm.

Speaker 3 (01:17:12):
So you go to restaurants all over New York City
and he's saying, let me get some alio to talk
to me. Chef be like, get the fuck out of here.
There's time consuming because it's gotta be perfect. I tell
you the fuck off, because you gotta get to the
you gotta get the garlic to that consistency. This is alio.
But the garlics gotta get to that point. And it's

(01:17:34):
a hard thing to do and manage. So everyone's like, oh,
you got it? You got it? Oh, I want all
you know? How do you how do you mean you
can't cook it? Because it's it's precise. The garlics gotta
be at that pacific thing. It's not burnt, right. You
took the garlic to the most point where it becomes

(01:17:55):
you get on it. You get a little brown butter
in it, and with the olive wiel and the cheese
and the parcel. This is a difficult dish to make,
this isn't.

Speaker 2 (01:18:04):
You can tell that it's like normal ingredients cooked in
a different way. Does that make sense?

Speaker 3 (01:18:09):
But you have to You've got that.

Speaker 1 (01:18:14):
A little bit for will. But at the same time,
I don't want.

Speaker 3 (01:18:17):
To, but you know what I'm saying. So like the garlic,
you gotta get it to a point where it's just right.
And when to put the extra version olive oil there,
when to put the cheese, and how to put the
parcela in there. That's a dish. Yeah, wow, And I
look at it and I just know from my from
where I want because some of the garlic is a
little more caramelized, right, so you're gonna get that chew

(01:18:38):
something is a little more a little less wrong. But
it's how you toss it around and everything like that. Allio,
there's an allio. So every day, my great grandmother, this
is how it would be a piece of chicken that's
doing Friday in the morning time, and we have its flour, egg, yolks, salt, pepper,

(01:19:02):
and little chili oil, right, and homemade Italian breadcrumbs that
grandma made every day. That's it. One, two three. Then
you want to rest your pan fried in ninety ten
ninety percent Canola royal, ten percent extra virgin olive oil,
and you would just leave it out, and that's it.

(01:19:23):
This is the tradition. Right. Then all of a sudden,
someone you know, oh one hundred years ago, said, oh
you got a color it, let's put Marinara on it.
Let's put some mozarell. We got chicken farmers on There's
no way, no, but so chicken color. Right. So every
day we were coming home from school or you were

(01:19:45):
just hungry, and there would be a pile of chicken
colors and you knew it was good because see that
there's the oil, right, And then what you would do,
did you go gramm a piece of color? Right, there's
a little lemon on it and then here I'll cut
it up. We got to cut it. You cut in half,

(01:20:05):
and that's the traditional chicken color. Like this is a time.
This is like you want to talk about Italian American
how we grew up in it, how we grew up
on it. Every Italian family, you would go to, every
household and now would be there a good piece of
chicken color.

Speaker 1 (01:20:20):
It pounded and that's it and you can just have
that anytime of days.

Speaker 3 (01:20:25):
And then breakfast, lunch, your dinner.

Speaker 1 (01:20:28):
That's amazing that you got the charcoterie with this, Like
you guys are eating all the time, eating good.

Speaker 3 (01:20:34):
But it's simple. Everyone's like there it's lemon at the end.
Oh wow, the simple chip of colored. So the story goes,
this kid from on a giant like he's been like here,
this is a Jersey thing, right, Staten Island, Brooklyn, New Jersey.
All Italian families, every grandmother, how do you feed the kids?

Speaker 1 (01:20:57):
Right?

Speaker 3 (01:20:57):
Every dish had something to do with my culinary history.

Speaker 2 (01:21:01):
That's so cool.

Speaker 3 (01:21:02):
Man making pasta megan on Leo right, making the lobster
raviolis right, but its ship. The chicken cutlet to me
was everything in the world. You know what I mean,
it's not dry, she.

Speaker 1 (01:21:14):
Says, nothing, it's not dry at all.

Speaker 3 (01:21:17):
And it's out there all day. That's out there.

Speaker 1 (01:21:20):
You've never know that, Broe. Like, so you think food
sitting out it's gonna go bad, it's gonna go it's
gonna be This is like I can't explain.

Speaker 3 (01:21:27):
We talked about you were a bull the time, right,
how come like eggs sit out there forever?

Speaker 1 (01:21:32):
That's true, dude, Thank you for sharing this with us.
This is unreal, right, Yeah, I think I think we're
switching our podcast studior.

Speaker 2 (01:21:43):
Officially changed, but honestly, like it is really cool and
special that these dishes did kind of tell the story
of your life as well. And you know, I really
enjoy going through all this with you.

Speaker 3 (01:21:57):
And this is the first phase. The next phase is
you know, like I'm a big fisherman. Yeah, I mean
I think that is Uh, that's a that's a topic
in itself that you know, the next one we'll do.
We'll just do everything.

Speaker 1 (01:22:12):
Oh yeah, it's be great.

Speaker 3 (01:22:13):
You gotta understand every every culture, right, everybody lived on
by the ocean, right, Yeah, for sure, you know what
I mean. But you hear that, you hear that, pops, right,
that's when you know to put it in the next piece.
But that's it. Just think about it. You know you
went through the household. You you know, chicken coat sitting
there all the time, but you always know what you

(01:22:33):
can eat them when they see the oil, you know
what I mean, that's when they were well rested. It
drained out all the oil.

Speaker 1 (01:22:39):
Yeah, it's ready to go.

Speaker 2 (01:22:42):
Right after seafood, we gotta do dessert.

Speaker 3 (01:22:45):
Dessert, Yeah, that's where that you know what that you
want to talk about colinary and and I was like,
so I did culinary arts, right, so you do a
broad thing of corner arts, right, you do me, you
do twenty different things, right. I wish I went to

(01:23:07):
corner school from Bacon and.

Speaker 1 (01:23:08):
Pastry really just just right.

Speaker 3 (01:23:14):
If you make a cake, yeah, if there's a recipe,
you don't change the recipe. Yeah, bread is you know
what I mean? To make a loaf of bread, you
need X Y. Yeah, you can't put you can't put
anything else in there.

Speaker 1 (01:23:29):
Yeah, or ruins the whole thing.

Speaker 3 (01:23:32):
It doesn't work.

Speaker 1 (01:23:33):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:23:33):
Have you seen the Great British bacon?

Speaker 3 (01:23:35):
Yeah? Yeah, yeah, but it's a science.

Speaker 2 (01:23:39):
Yeah, and you can really tell that no way.

Speaker 3 (01:23:41):
It's a science, and that's where you get down to
the cups miligrams and you know what, we're the only
goddamn country that doesn't do you know, we don't do
the metricism and we do bounces and so like all
the recipes are like all my recipes are from Germany
or from even Italy. It's like it's all great.

Speaker 1 (01:24:00):
Yeah, yeah, well that's a whole different Yeah, that's a
whole other level. Bro, that's a whole other layer to
the I get it.

Speaker 3 (01:24:07):
Then I gotta I gotta put it up everything else.

Speaker 2 (01:24:10):
It's crazy that translations on Google.

Speaker 1 (01:24:13):
Yeah, go and chat GPT and like change this.

Speaker 3 (01:24:16):
Yeah, but no desserts and big in the pastry. Yeah
I could have went to that. Like cooking is cooking,
like you find a flare, right, but to make the
greatest bread, like it's a science like Nancy Silverton like
chief sucking.

Speaker 1 (01:24:33):
Oh yeah, fucking we love in l A. Yeah, it's
one of those places where.

Speaker 3 (01:24:40):
Chi Poka that is that is the greatest chef table
ever right at the fucking bar.

Speaker 2 (01:24:47):
Watching it and we're like we were going there now
yeah yeah, and then right.

Speaker 3 (01:24:53):
Across from there is uh Ludo's placed the little burger place. Yeah, yeah,
on the other side of the street, the other side
of the street where Chispaka is. No, no, no, he's
uh chuff ludo. But he has like it's a little
it's like a little French place. It's right across the street.

(01:25:13):
He makes the best burger.

Speaker 2 (01:25:15):
Okay, well I gotta go check that out.

Speaker 1 (01:25:16):
Then we'll do lunch there and then then.

Speaker 3 (01:25:18):
Yeah, right right, Chispoka.

Speaker 1 (01:25:22):
But you're saying earlier, right, you were saying, you go
to a restaurant like one, you got to have that experience,
customer service, all that stuff, because if one dish or
two dishes are off, you know, like whatever. But chist poet,
there's not one thing. Everything everything is perfect, just as
good or better than the next.

Speaker 2 (01:25:38):
That chicken soaked in the sauce and oil man, like
the bread there, even her mozzarella is like she flies in.

Speaker 1 (01:25:46):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:25:47):
So for me, it's like like when I go to
like I got, like I go to l A, I get,
I'll go to Venice and I'll go to Jusa.

Speaker 1 (01:25:54):
You got to get a list of restaurants for an
l Yeah, I'll give you the list.

Speaker 3 (01:25:57):
Yeah, animal is always great and uh I redid Delilah's
too when I worked for Pakistan while I redid Delilah.
You ever been a son of.

Speaker 1 (01:26:11):
L A?

Speaker 3 (01:26:12):
I redid l A. Yeah? John Taffer someone ever, his
name is John Wood Group Haugustan owned fifty of them,
got it so they had the other the other resc
of the Italian restaurant.

Speaker 1 (01:26:25):
Yeahs still pretty high.

Speaker 3 (01:26:29):
Yeah, yeah, fucking it's great chicken fans, big deal.

Speaker 2 (01:26:34):
What about for people listening in like New York Miami,
Like what are just a few you can.

Speaker 3 (01:26:40):
Just give it New York. So New York is tough, right,
that's uh, that's yeah, that city. That For me, it
would be Pleasant Peasant, which is an old school at
Talian restaurant, only cooked on wood, only cooked on wood.
It's ever changing, you know what I mean. Like that's

(01:27:01):
the whole thing. Like with within cities, it always changes,
you know what I mean? What about Miami? Miami, I
would have to say Joe's is a classics is never
going to change. Burn Burn Steakhouse maybe, right. You know
New York, you know you have Peter Luger's pizza, you know.

(01:27:24):
For me, which you guys are going to be like
holy ship. He just said it and I'll say right now,
the best pizza in the in the country is Connecticut?

Speaker 1 (01:27:33):
Really? What's' what is it?

Speaker 3 (01:27:36):
It's called pepe Okay Arizona. No, no, no, no, that
he has a good pizza, is it? Chris Chris Bianco
is a great pizza. But the best for me is
Pepe's or Sally's and New even Connecticut's going a pizza,
It's just different. It's dinner. They have a white clam

(01:27:58):
pie or you know, oh wait wait, John zon Bleaker,
How can I forget John's on Bleeker who one of
the best pizzerias and and and in New York City
from But for me San Francisco. Yeah, how guy me?

(01:28:18):
Get off the get off the plane, take the take
the train in right, go to Ferry Building, get hog
with the oyster bar, get a dozen, get a dozen oysters.
Go out the left, go to fucking slant the door.
Go to slant the door, go up to go drink,
Go to perbacco real quick and a couple of piece
of salu me. Then go to a sixteen right or
I speak, you are and you know San Francisco. I

(01:28:40):
love San Francisco to me? Is is it? You know?
Chicago too. I mean, they're great cities, but they're like
they're always changing, you know what I mean, And especially
like I haven't. I haven't really, I haven't traveled that
much after COVID. So let's say, I like, I know
the institutional restaurant should be there, but I don't how
like they came out of how they came out of it.

Speaker 1 (01:29:03):
Yeah we lost a lot in La Yeah. Huge, yeah. Yeah,
So I mean, yeah, you got a point there. But
that's at the same time though, you know, it's it's
keeps it interesting, right when you find a new place.
Like when I was like, do you ever go to
Son of a Gun? That was like, that's in San
Francis scoo, La.

Speaker 3 (01:29:20):
La, I got sending to La Let.

Speaker 1 (01:29:22):
Yea, Yeah, let's do it. Bro. Thanks for the res yeah. Man,
for a chef that has obviously gone above and beyond
that's made some incredible food, You've had an incredible career.
I'm just saying, like, even in general, what's the best
way that we could compliment you as somebody that just
enjoyed an incredible meal, right, Like, whether it's in the
restaurant or just I just.

Speaker 3 (01:29:44):
I just think, like, you know, for this particular thing.
For me, it was a conversation and to educate really
like to educate you guys as podcasters, you know, as
as entrepreneurs in your in your field. De you know,
our job is my job is intense. Yeah, yet and

(01:30:07):
that there's a passion, you know what I mean, you
guys have that and I see it in your guys'
eyes and you know, known you for a long time
and you know you as well. I think I think
what we can do do this is education. Yeah man,
you know, I think you know, if there's a young

(01:30:27):
chef out there that you know, happens to see this,
you know, to where I got took many many years
and hours and and dedication, you know, but listen, there
is that one great thing that happened. If you get that.

Speaker 4 (01:30:42):
Shot, take that fucking shot, five that ball all the
way down the field, that's it, like you know, like
it happens, you know what I mean.

Speaker 3 (01:30:54):
You know, it's just it's friendship, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:30:56):
Yeah, we appreciate it, man, I love it. Deal. Thanks
for the conversation of your time, man, like incredible bro.

Speaker 2 (01:31:04):
Yeah, thank you, Gino, and special thanks to the Summit
Club for having us man. Yeah, you know, we appreciate
your time.

Speaker 3 (01:31:10):
Yeah, it was awesome.

Speaker 2 (01:31:11):
Thank you for watching Studio twenty two.

Speaker 1 (01:31:13):
Don't forget to like, sharing, subscribe

Speaker 2 (01:31:15):
And follow our socials at Studio twenty two Podcast

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