December 5, 2024 • 41 mins
Are you ready to dive into the exciting world of cooking? Join us for a captivating chat with renowned chefs Tony Van Hang and Scott Craig. Tony will wow us with his love for food and incredible skills, presenting dishes like goat cheese and broccoli stuffed chicken breast and crispy skin Gulf snapper—each a true work of art, beautifully showcased through John's photography. Then, we’ll switch gears with Chef Scott Craig, who shares his journey from the intense kitchen competition to guiding the next wave of chefs. His documentary, "All Ships Rise," isn’t just a film; it’s a heartfelt project that highlights his dedication to the culinary world and mentorship.
But that's not all. We’re also excited about the U.S. Culinary Open happening in Atlanta this February, where Chef Scott Craig is likely to compete! We’ll explore the thrilling realm of culinary competitions, where the journey often means more than the awards, and the relationships built can be priceless. Hear Scott share his experiences preparing for events like the US Culinary Olympics and the unexpected challenges that test resilience in the restaurant business. We’ll also discuss the staffing hurdles many are facing today, especially in exclusive clubs, where Scott has found a supportive community. As the industry deals with rising costs and the need for fair pay, we’ll look at ways to keep cooking an appealing career choice for those passionate about it. This episode is packed with valuable insights into both the art and the business side of cooking.
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The following brands and companies help us continue supporting the food industry - have a look below!
Thank you for listening to the Walk-In Talk Podcast, hosted by Carl Fiadini and Company. Our show not only explores the exciting and chaotic world of the restaurant business and amazing eateries but also advocates for mental health awareness in the food industry.
Our podcast offers a behind-the-scenes look at the industry. Don't miss out on upcoming episodes where we'll continue to cook up thought-provoking discussions on important topics, including mental health awareness.
Be sure to visit our website for more food industry-related content, including our very own TV show called Restaurant Recipes where we feature Chefs cooking up their dishes and also The Dirty Dash Cocktail Hour; the focus is mixology and amazing drinks!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Hello Food Fam.
This is the Walk Talk podcastwhere you will find the perfect
blend of food fun and cookingknowledge.
I'm your host, carl Fiodini.
Welcome to the number one foodpodcast in the country.
We're recording on-site at IbisImages Studios, where food
photography comes alive and Iget to eat it.
Here's a humble request to giveus a follow on Instagram at
(00:29):
walkandtalkshow, please, andthank you.
Pooch Rivera was with VinceHayward of Camellia Beans and
won the Louisiana RestaurantAssociation Philanthropy Award
last night.
Congratulations, vince.
In studio today we've got thechef, tony Van Hang from Regency
Oaks.
He's cooked up some amazingdishes.
John man, the photographyalways bad ass.
(00:54):
These plates are beautiful.
I am excited.
The food is still here.
I have to eat it.
I got to get into it.
I'm super excited.
It was a goat cheese andbroccoli stuffed chicken breast
and a crispy skin.
Gulf grouper.
We're going to talk about it.
Chefs and food buyers, I'lldare try Aussie Select's fully
cooked, pasture-raisedAustralian lamb.
(01:14):
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By the way, we have this productin-house and we will be cooking
it up soon and getting it outthere on video and also
photography.
Cannot wait for that.
It's going to look great onthat racked porcelain baby.
(01:36):
You know what I'm saying.
So you know, when most peoplethink of artists, they probably
picture painters, sculptors,musicians.
You know that sort of creativegenius.
They work their whole lives andfor generations.
But you know, there's one artform out there that's a little
bit more fleeting, one thatdisappears as soon as you take
(01:57):
the first bite.
And our guest today, chef ScottCraig, is the master of that
kind of transient artistry.
Is the master of that kind oftransient artistry as a
celebrated club chef who'scompeted at the highest levels
and potentially at the upcomingUS Culinary Open.
At the NAFM trade show inAtlanta at the end of February,
there's going to be 11 otherincredible competitors with
(02:18):
Michelin stars, james BeardAwards and Food Network
victories under their belts.
Scott has made a career out ofelevating the dining experience,
turning the simple ingredientsinto edible works of art.
But what's even more impressiveis his commitment to mentoring
the next generation andsharpening the future of the
culinary industry.
(02:39):
This is a guy who's truly leftthis mark, even if his dishes
don't stick around forever.
Before we welcome Scott on theshow, I just want to Guy, who's
truly left his mark, even if hisdishes don't stick around
forever, before we welcome Scotton the show.
I just want to.
I really, tony, you did anamazing job today, thank you.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Thank you, carl, I appreciate that.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Absolutely.
Do you want to just realquickly jump into what you made?
Speaker 2 (03:05):
Yeah sure, we made a goat cheese and broccoli stuffed
breast of chicken accompaniedwith some sweet potato
mousseline and a citrus tarragoncream.
And also we made a um, a crispyskin on golf snapper right with
uh pea puree and some garlickyspinach as well with that and
I've finished foam I tell youwhat you know there's so much
green.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
When I saw the ingredients I was like man,
that's gonna be a lot of green,but it was gorgeous.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
The pictures are are phenomenal yeah, I mean, of
course, john did a great job.
He has a job taking the thephotos of it.
Uh, you know, to me, you know,monochromatic colors, it's, it's
, it's great.
And just different shades ofthe same color.
It's really stands out.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Well, you're making my life better by being in
studio and just kind ofpreparing these dishes and
allowing us to participate inyour world.
Man, I'm just saying Okay,absolutely, thanks, excellent.
There's a documentary out thereAll Ships Rise.
It's about Scott Craig Chef.
Scott Craig Chef, are you withus?
(04:05):
Hey, it's great to be with you.
Thanks for having me.
That documentary was so welldone and awesome.
Good job, man.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
I appreciate it.
I can't take any of the credit.
Wtwh did a really, reallywonderful job.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
I wish that every guest had a documentary.
You know what I mean.
I was able to pull a lot ofinfo from there and, just you
know, kind of get a feel for whoyou are and what you do.
The picture that they paintedof you is is incredible.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
I appreciate it.
If I have one, then I'm sureeveryone will have one shortly.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Thank you.
I appreciate it, I guess.
So Right, but how did that cometo be?
Speaker 3 (04:49):
What was the, what was the genesis of that
documentary?
Yeah, I've worked with withWCWH Media for a little bit,
working with the Chef to Chefconference, with Platecraft.
You know writing some articlesand I think it was just kind of
an evolution of the work thatwe've done together.
You know where we hope to, youknow help take the industry and
you know the the things thatwe're very passionate about
within the industry.
You know mentorship and youknow kind of the state of it and
leaving it better than we foundit, and I think it was just,
(05:12):
you know, just the next step inthat evolution.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
And you know, there's this, what seems to be a union
between competitive cooking andmentorship, at least I see from,
maybe, your perspective.
Competitive cooking andmentorship.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
At least I see from maybe your perspective
Absolutely.
My very first competition inWashington DC was where I met my
first mentor and subsequently,through you know, the next 23
competitions or whatever.
You know I met so many peoplewho were impactful to me and
mentored me over the years,whether it was judges or chefs
that I ended up going to workfor.
(05:46):
And then, you know, you pay itforward right.
A lot of people invested in meand then at a point you know you
can only go out and compete somuch.
You begin to live vicariouslythrough the people who work with
you and you want to see themget out there and be successful
and that's what it's all about.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
How are you identifying a potential entity?
Speaker 3 (06:09):
I think it's easy.
I think they kind of identifythemselves.
It's an attitude they're hungry, they are always looking for
the next challenge, they alwaysrise to the occasion and you
know, typically, you knowthere's some people that you
have to kind of pull along andthose other people you just let
them off the porch and you knowthose mentees that have gone on
(06:31):
to do so well, you know, as inmanagement, and you find these
people sometimes you see in themwhat they don't see in
(06:53):
themselves and they're not readyto take the next step or, you
know, enter into the next phaseand you kind of have to push
them.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
And you kind of have to push them in a way where they
might exit the business becauseyou see in them something that
they don't see.
Do you run into that as well?
Speaker 3 (07:12):
Yes, there's certainly been that throughout
the years where, as mentors, thebest thing that we can do is
kind of hold up a mirror andshow people what you see in them
, the best of them, what they'recapable of achieving.
Yeah, there's been some overthe years that took a nudge, you
know.
Maybe their confidence wasn'twhere it could be.
But getting out there,competing, you know, doing the
preparation, practicing and thengetting out there and yielding
(07:34):
a positive result, move theneedle in the right direction.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
There's hardly anything that you can find.
That's disappointing, as yousee somebody and they're a
diamond and they just don't havethat drive or they don't have
the vision and you have to letthem go.
That's happened to me a numberof times.
It actually put me in a placewhile that was happening where I
didn't want to mentor anymore.
I didn't want to put in theeffort because it seems like it
(08:01):
puts you in a bad place in yourown mental state.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
I remember early on, that was for years.
I've said it to my mentees, youknow, as they're ready to move
on into their own kitchens.
You know the greatest mistakesthat I've made in the past at
times is wanting it for someonemore than they want it for
themselves, to kind of acceptthat.
You know everyone has their ownpath and everyone has their own
(08:25):
set of motivations.
Who want to excel.
You know those are the peoplethat you, that you get behind
and put your efforts into, andthose that just you know are
looking forward to the days off,you know, to go fishing with
their kids.
That's just as important andit's recognizing that and making
sure they have it.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
I think we've all learned that part of it over the
last maybe four or five yearshow important it is to spend
time with the family and take aneyeball or two off of the
office or the kitchen.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
Absolutely yeah.
I mean, COVID was kind of agame changer for a lot of us, I
think.
But you can't get the time back.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
You can't get it back .
And then you realize whatyou've, what you've actually
given up.
That's the amazing part, thatthat's kind of what I saw coming
out of the pandemic.
It's that time is gone.
And now what do you do?
You know you don't want to cryabout it.
You want to pick up your boot.
You know, pick yourself up bythe bootstraps and and and make
the make a go of it.
You want to pick yourself up bythe bootstraps and make a go of
it, and at that point you'regoing to make some choices.
(09:26):
But I want to transition Chef,I want to get into the
competitive aspect of cookingand I want to know what you find
compelling about that.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
Sure, I mean, back in the day, I think what got me
into it was not going toculinary school or getting my
culinary degree or anything likethat, and so coming up through
apprenticeships, competition,gave me a way to kind of
benchmark my skills and you know, what I found very quickly was
it was a way to refine my skillsand to network.
(09:58):
That network has been soimportant over the years for so
many reasons, but that's what Ithink kept me coming back to it.
You know there's always therush of getting a medal or
something like that, but it'sthe relationships made, it's the
journey.
All of those things have beenso rewarding.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
What's the correlation between the rush of
the competition and a Fridaynight dinner rush?
Speaker 3 (10:23):
Full tickets.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
Full tickets, tickets .
You know the pass is getting,you know overloaded and
everybody's.
You know I need hands, needrunners, need all these things
is it?
The same same feeling it's.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
It's very much the same and I would say you know
that's part of the value ofcompetition, as you know, as the
saying goes, perfect practicemakes perfect performance.
And you know all of the skillsthat you learn when you become a
successful competitor areapplicable every night on the
line.
It's, you know, keeping yourstation neat, it's making sure
(10:57):
you have your mise en place,everything's organized, knives
are sharp.
You know uniforms pressed andready, you're on time, you have
a sense of urgency, all of thosethings that kind of get
hammered into you in competition.
You know the things that makeyou a successful competitor,
make you successful on the line.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
We're in and around the same, in the same age
bracket.
Though I've never worked in thekitchen, they tried to bring me
in and I just I couldn't do it.
I had to always be front of thehouse.
Back then it was you're out allnight and you still show up for
your shift, no matter whathappens.
You're an actual working cheftoday.
Is that the same kind of thinggoing on out there now, or is it
(11:37):
everybody's kind of buttoned?
Speaker 3 (11:38):
up.
It's hard to say.
I mean, you know, certainlyearly 2000s it was kind of a
work hard, play hard mentalityCertainly had those days where
you know you're just goingmultiple days with no sleep and
you're going out too much andspending too much time with the
guys outside of work and stillgetting the job done.
(12:00):
I don't know if it's just thekitchen that I'm in, the people
that I'm around, or if it'sculturally, you know.
But I do see a change.
You know, I think it's a bitmore buttoned up, I think it's a
bit more focused, a bit moreintentional, and you know
there's not to say that there's,you know, not times to blow off
steam.
I think today is just a littlemore, perhaps a little more
(12:22):
driven, a little more goaloriented than it was in the
beginning.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
Well, it's one thing to go from line cooks and
underlings into the competitivenature of where you've been and
kind of what's coming up here inFebruary.
How is it that you preparementally to go up against
Michelin chefs and beard chefsand that sort of breed?
How do you approach that?
And you're no slouch yourself,I mean you're 23, you're 23
competitions and you've, youknow you've, you've won them,
You've, you've done a lot ofgreat stuff.
How do you, how do you, how doyou manage that?
Speaker 3 (12:54):
Yeah, I mean, I think it's.
It's the same as as being atwork, right it's?
You know, in DC we cooked forthree presidential
administrations and you knowprofessional athletes and
celebrities and all that.
You don't get nervous becauseyou know at the end of the day
you're cooking for yourself,right, you're kind of running
your own race.
It's the same in competition,you know, you don't really worry
about the person next to you somuch.
(13:15):
You overprepare and you execute.
Once the food goes out, it's onthe judges to determine who
executed at the highest leveland at the same time.
That's very subjective.
I think you go intocompetitions knowing that
everything's subjective.
You can put up the exact samefood two days in a row for two
(13:36):
different sets of judges andyield different results, and so
if you're there for the journey,if you're there to push
yourself, to refine your skills,to network a medal or how you
place or whatever it's just kindof sprinkles on the cupcake the
only pressure that should existis what you're putting on
yourself to perform and bebetter than you were yesterday.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
What's the difference , in your own personal lesson,
in winning a competition versusnot necessarily coming in last
place, but even coming in secondor third?
How does that?
What's the lesson there.
Speaker 3 (14:08):
I look at the bronze medals and those were some of
the best competitions I was everin.
I think about the people that Imet.
I think about the road tripswith my friends.
I think about the critiquesthat I received from the judges.
To be completely honest, thebronze medals were worth a whole
lot more than the golds.
You know showing up cooking andyou know they say great job,
(14:30):
you nailed it.
It isn't as useful as gettingthat critique and coming away
better than you were when youarrived.
Yeah it's about the journey.
One of my favorite medals was abronze medal.
Yeah, it's about the journey.
One of my favorite medals was abronze medal.
I was cooking with Team USA, agroup of people that I love,
(14:56):
that I would be in a kitchenwith any day of the week
massively talented individuals,and that day things just didn't
shake out the way we needed itto.
Things that were out of ourcontrol happened and didn't
yield the medal that we wantedin terms of representing our
nation.
But at the end of the day, whenI look back, man that was.
It was such an extraordinaryexperience that I wouldn't
change it.
I wouldn't change a thing, Iwouldn't trade it for anything.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
Folks out there audience food fam Chef was part
of the US Culinary Olympics.
And was that 2020, correct?
Yes, happy to show up, even ifwe didn't place, even if there
(15:45):
wasn't a medal, just to just thefact that you're competing on
that level for me would just beterrific.
I presume that for the team andand for yourself, it's probably
something similar.
Although, hey man, everybodywants to, everybody wants to
take home the gold or or placeright absolutely.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
You know it's, it's a weight.
It's anytime you have, you know, the flag on your jacket.
It's just, it's heavy.
It's a different kind of weightthan when you're competing
individually and representingyourself.
That's, that's tough and ourcoach has really hammered that
into us.
You know you're representingeveryone when you go out there.
You know whether you're fromNorway or or Canada, or Germany
(16:21):
or Italy.
Everyone's there for the samepurpose.
You know to represent theirnation properly and to finish on
the podium.
But just having the opportunityis incredible.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
I'm not sure that the average person, even the
average chef, knows the amountof practice that goes into the
US Culinary Olympics.
You guys usually train over atFord Harrison, harrison and
clearwater.
Right right, can you touch onwhat sort of training that you
guys do?
I know that a lot of theequipment the the same equipment
(16:52):
that is in.
Yes, okay, so the sameequipment that you're using
there.
You're, you actually have thatsame equipment in ford, harrison
and and you practice and it'slike the real deal happening
here in Clearwater.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
That's the goal.
You hope so.
You want to be as close as youcan be to you know what the
situation is going to be.
The day of my first competitionwas in Germany it was 2012 as
an individual, and you know.
For that it was 18 months ofpreparation.
It's every day off, coming inearly for work and working on
pieces, the goal ofover-preparing.
(17:27):
So the day of the competition,I competed eight times in
preparation for Germany in 2012.
And you want the competition tobe easy compared to what you've
put yourself through before youarrive there.
And Team USA, it's somethingvery similar Long practice
sessions, it's brainstorming,it's very late nights, very,
(17:50):
very long days, an extraordinarycoaching team.
And that's the practice session.
The real work is the time inbetween the practice sessions,
when you're working on yourindividual pieces, Because you
don't want to be the person thatshows up without your homework,
you don't want to let theperson next to you down, you
don't want to let your nationdown, and so so much work goes
(18:12):
in between those sessions andthen, when you show up, you've
got to be on top of your game soyou get a quality practice
session out of it.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
Looking forward to February, and, in full
disclosure, we talked about thisyesterday, chef.
You're scheduled to compete inFebruary at NAFM for the US
Culinary Open, and it's a majorevent.
It's, you know, the the, youknow chef Nick and chef Polly,
who, who are putting thiscompetition on, are beautiful
people and they've been puttingthis together and working on
(18:46):
this project for a few years now, so it's finally come to
fruition.
As everything in the restaurantindustry goes, there's
curveballs.
It's supposed to be where youhave your assistant.
Tell us about the parameters ofthe assistant and what happened
.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
Sure.
So your assistant you know thisis 25, someone who's 25 years
younger, and typically this issomeone for me, it's someone
that you've worked withextensively, who you know knows
the program, who knows you knowkind of your standards and
expectations going into it, andit's someone that ideally you're
grooming to be a competitorgoing into it and it's someone
(19:24):
that ideally you're you'regrooming to be a competitor.
Yeah, my person.
For for this year somethingunexpected came up and they had
to had to go back home for anextended period of time take
care of some family matters.
So you know, these things comeup and and, uh, you try to
adjust and move on and we'll seewhere it lands it's akin to the
walk-in cooler going down oryou know something happens and
(19:47):
you don't have.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
You don't have gas for the, you know, for the ovens
and stuff Like this is like.
This is like standard, fairstuff, right, it is absolutely.
Speaker 3 (19:55):
I mean, you know, in Germany, with Team USA, our, our
centerpiece collapsed.
You have to put up acenterpiece and it collapsed in
the first 10 minutes.
Some of our food didn't make itinto the oven in time.
You know you still get theprogram out, you still do
everything you can to finish, tocross the finish line and give
it your best effort.
(20:16):
You're just on the fly.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
You know, I feel I always have a positive outlook.
I have to have a positiveoutlook or else I'm not leaving
my house.
You know what I mean, you know?
Do you know what I'm saying?
So, even in spite of the factthat these things are happening,
I'm, you know, I'm in yourcorner and I'm rooting for you
to to pull, to pull this off andget out there no-transcript.
Speaker 3 (21:10):
You know, 20, 25 years ago there was kind of a
stigma surrounding country clubcuisine.
That wasn't extremely up andit's nice, you know, to be able
to get out there and kind ofstretch your legs a little bit
and put up some fun food anddemonstrate what country club
cuisine can be.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
Well, there's a huge difference.
I mean, I've been fortunateenough to work with quite a
number of chefs over the years.
You know, into the thousands ofchefs over my span, my career,
you know you're talking, youknow, from an independent
restaurant to a corporaterestaurant, to a hotel chef, to
a country club chef, toinstitutional chefs, like
(21:47):
there's a.
There's such a contrast betweeneach one of those because
you're dealing with, withdifferent challenges, your
clientele, they're all different.
How do you approach that?
In my estimation and in myexperiences, I see chefs either
you grow up in that club and inthat club atmosphere and never
leave it, or a lot of therestaurant chefs end up, they
(22:12):
want to end up at the clubbecause that's kind of their,
you know, after their you know,30, 40, 50 year career, that's
kind of like their exit point.
How do you see that?
Speaker 3 (22:20):
Yeah, I mean, I think every segment of the industry
imposes its challenges In theclub world, especially with our
club, where we are, we're veryseasonal, our membership, we're
at the top of the mountain.
There's not a lot of places togo to outside of our club to
grab food, so we're veryaggressive.
(22:42):
We change our menus on a weeklybasis.
Our members have very, veryhigh expectations, as they
should.
So inherently there's a ton ofpressure there to be creative,
to change the menu veryaggressively and at the same
time to offer very high qualitywithout much time to, or without
(23:02):
any time really for, menutraining and speccing and you
know, menu rollouts and allthese things.
Everything's kind of on the fly, which is different from clubs
that I've been in before and youknow it might be different from
maybe a restaurant or hotel orresort or something like that.
I've worked at all of them, youknow, in some capacity and
they're all, they're allchallenging you know, every
(23:29):
place has its challenges.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
But for clubs, you know, that's that's kind of what
we, what we sell out.
If you, if so, if there's ayoung culinary in here listening
and they have an opportunity topivot left or pivot right, you
know, into from restaurantsversus clubs and whatnot, if you
were going to give advice, whatwould it be?
What direction would that?
Would you direction, would yousay, to go into?
Speaker 3 (23:47):
Sure, I mean, I think you know, first and foremost,
if there's a segment that speaksto you, you know that's your
assignment.
You know, explore that to thefullest extent.
I can tell you, for me in theearly 2000s, there was a time
when I said you know what I'mdone with clubs, and we happened
(24:09):
to be in a recession.
I was in Washington DC andrestaurants weren't hiring.
Ritz-carlton was on a hiringfreeze but clubs were still
going.
There was another time,mid-2010, 2011.
I said you know what I don'tknow if clubs are for me, and I
take a look around Again, we'rein a recession.
Clubs are still hiring andstill going.
So there's some insulationthere.
There's a little bit of jobsecurity kind of baked into it
that you might not see in otherplaces in the industry.
(24:31):
The hours can be while.
They're long, they can be alittle more humane than other
segments of the industry.
But more than anything, for meit's seeing the same people
every day, having theconversations that go for years
and years, the depth ofrelationships that we build, and
that's not for everyone, butfor me.
That's part of what drives meto stay in.
(24:52):
Clubs, are the friendships thatI've made over the years,
members that I still stay intouch with, from early on in my
career to now.
It's really rewarding.
It's fun to cook for thosefolks night after night.
It's like your family andthat's been a big part of it for
me.
Speaker 1 (25:08):
Why I've stayed in that.
Well, you know, Chef Tony isover here shaking his head.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
Hey, chef Scott, I totally understand where you're
coming from Speaking regardingseeing the same customer, which
is our residents right now.
So I see them day in, day out.
So they do expect a lot fromyou, right, you know, with many
changes.
But one thing they don't expectis the price increase.
I'm sure you experienced thesame thing at clubs, right?
Right, they don't want thechampagne taste on a beer budget
(25:37):
.
Speaker 3 (25:37):
It's tough.
I mean, I think that's kind of,you know, built into it as well
, right, Absolutely, If I paydues, if I'm paying dues, why am
I paying as much here as I amat the restaurant down the
street if I've already paid duesto be here?
And so you know it's incumbentupon us to provide some
education and help themunderstand where the money's
going and to be, you know,faithful stewards of our budgets
(25:59):
and all that.
But yeah, that can certainly bea challenge.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
Coming out of COVID.
Even during COVID at the time Iwas working at a produce
company we stayed busy with someinstitutional business, but
also the clubs.
The clubs were, you know, herein Florida the clubs were open,
by nature of the dynamic of thecountry club.
The residents, the members,they were still able to go and
(26:22):
eat and enjoy the facilities andat the time it was like to be
outside.
You're on the golf course.
So there was still food, therewas still culinary happening,
there was still some actionthere.
You know, if it's me to circleback to that question, I'd asked
you, I mean, if you're looking,you know, job security wise, I
feel country clubs are the wayto go, or a retirement community
(26:43):
.
Speaker 3 (26:43):
Or a retirement community.
Speaker 1 (26:44):
yeah, Well, regency Oaks, it's a retirement
community but it's like acountry club.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
Yeah, because we have a pretty healthy budget per se
and I am lucky enough to be ableto get some high-end product
in-house, do different thingsand be able to hold different
events once a week and once amonth or so, so that is really
cool.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
You're lucky, you have a gastropub on property man
we do?
Speaker 2 (27:11):
What are you talking?
Speaker 1 (27:11):
about.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
We do yeah, and we are trying to elevate the food
in the gastropub and also forour regular dining room
residents as well.
So that's my main focus is todo that.
Dining room resident as well.
So you know, that's my mainfocus is to do that.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
Chef Scott, do you prefer members-only clubs versus
, you know, clubs that are opento the general public?
Yes, 100%.
Speaker 3 (27:31):
And why is that?
A couple of reasons.
I mean, you know one of the bigthings is culture.
You know our club, colostasiaClub.
I think one of the mostextraordinary things about it is
the culture.
You know it's a relativelysmall club compared to where
I've been before.
We have 350 members.
You know that stretches out to,you know, 900,000 folks with
(27:53):
spouses and kids and all thatstuff in the summer.
But it's such a healthy culture.
You know every member thatcomes in is vetted and it feels
so familial.
The members are the bestmembers that I've ever worked
with.
And I don't know that you can,you just can't replicate that at
(28:15):
a club that has a ton of folkscoming into it from the outside.
It's kind of baked into theidentity of our club.
They're very tightly knit, theyknow who they want joining as
members.
It's very casual, it's verylaid back, it's very respectful,
they're appreciative of wherethey are, they're just wonderful
(28:36):
folks, very approachable, andI'm not sure that we could
replicate that in a place thatjust kind of lets everyone know.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
Are you still running into challenges finding
adequate personnel?
Speaker 3 (28:50):
We aren't, because we work with HTBs and J1s and so
you know this time of the year,right now, we're staffing up for
May opening and so you know alot of our folks are coming out
of South Africa, mexico, europe,and you know we find that
there's a very, very healthypool of extraordinarily
(29:13):
professional, talented folks whoare looking for seasonal work.
I'll travel down to Florida inJanuary to finalize my staff for
the coming season, but we'revery fortunate in that respect.
I've definitely been in thatfight for years and years and
years in DC and Charlotte atlarge year-round clubs.
(29:36):
It's nice you can build a depthof bench that you can't in
seasonal clubs when you're atthe year-round clubs, but in
terms of just staffing the lineand getting great folks, we're
very fortunate in that way, whatdo you see as some of the
biggest challenges in culinarycoming into 25 and 26?
(29:56):
I think it's definitely what youtouched on with staffing, I
think before COVID.
I remember a group of respected, esteemed chefs that I've
looked up to for a while, havingdinner with them and talking
about staffing and trying tounderstand how we move forward,
how we meet our staffing needs.
You know this was 2018.
Once COVID happened, there wasa migration.
(30:19):
A lot of folks fell out of thefood and beverage industry and
just haven't come back.
Enrollment, you know, has beenaffected at culinary schools and
you know, I think that's thebiggest thing that I've seen.
Of course, we've got increasingprices Prices go up, come down
but staffing, that's been atrend for years and years and I
(30:40):
think it speaks to thisgeneration's expectations.
It speaks to the culture thathas, you know, kind of permeated
our industry for years and, youknow, I think it's incumbent
upon us to make the adjustmentsneeded to make sure that this is
an attractive industry foryoung people to come into and
you know they see it as a placewhere they can thrive.
But yeah, I mean, I thinkstaffing is kind of the number
(31:02):
one issue.
Speaker 1 (31:03):
This many years removed from COVID, from the
epidemic, that this is still atop five topic in discussions is
amazing.
When we got into 21 and 22 andeverybody's starting to go on
vacations and tourism started toskyrocket and there was a lot
(31:26):
of action and movement aroundthe country and abroad, I
thought this was going to goaway.
I thought the challenge wasgoing to just kind of dissipate
and, you know, be a footnote.
But it's not the people thatyou know that left the industry
and never came back.
I originally thought, like goodriddance, I figured those were
the slackers.
(31:46):
You know that in the end wecall them slackers, right?
I thought those were thosepeople but as it turns out, no,
there were some really talentedpeople, hardworking people that
just kind of.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
COVID, you know, the expectation of salary for line
cooks or for prep cooks or forutility staff has gone way up.
So I think that playsdefinitely a big part into the
staffing issues that we arefixing today.
(32:20):
I agree completely Completely.
Speaker 3 (32:23):
I know our wages.
When I was at Myers Park, Ithink 2018 to 2022, I worked
there a few times Our wagesincreased somewhere around 40
percent just in those four years, and that's to remain
competitive with the folks downthe street.
I think clubs specifically, youknow, have been challenged to
(32:46):
get wages where they need to be,even though the benefits are
good.
You know it's hard to sell kidson 401k, it's hard to sell kids
on paid time off.
You know they're looking at thesize of their paycheck.
Cost of living has gone up somuch.
You know, everybody knows thatCost of groceries, cost of rent,
and so you know, I think that'ssomething that we have to do a
(33:08):
better job of.
There was a survey that cameout yesterday from the Club
Management Association ofAmerica.
You know talking about.
You know how many clubs are inthe United States, how many
people are employed and what thepayroll is Not something I'd be
super proud of.
When you do the math and divideit all out, you know, if I'm a
kid and I've got the choicebetween going into this industry
(33:28):
and FedEx and I'm notparticularly passionate about
this industry I'm probably goingwith FedEx based on the numbers
.
That's something we need toadjust.
I don't think that's alwaysbeen the case.
I mean, I think this industryhas been a big tent historically
for folks who not only arepassionate about what we do, but
just for folks who want to beable to make a good living doing
(33:50):
something that they're good atand they enjoy the camaraderie
of the kitchen.
Maybe they enjoy the hours, forwhatever reason.
This was a place where theycould find that and I think
that's the differences.
Those people are the ones inlarge part who migrated away
because they can find, you know,a better return on their
investment somewhere else.
Thankfully, we do have peoplewho are passionate about the
(34:12):
industry still joining.
We just overall, have to makethis more attractive to grow our
numbers.
Speaker 1 (34:18):
Everything changed over the last 20 plus years,
with Food Network andculinarians being kind of held
up on a pedestal and whatnot.
Before this last couple ofdecades, you fell into the
kitchen.
Most people didn't go to schoolfor it.
You had troubles, you ended upin the kitchen, you ended up on
(34:40):
dish and then from the dish pityou kind of were pulled into.
I'd like to make a couple ofmore dollars.
So, yeah, I'll work the line orwhatever.
And then you, you, somewherealong that path, you found your
passion for the industry.
In today's world there's somany different options and, yeah
, I mean in in in the world ofAmazon and you know home
(35:03):
deliveries and everything it'sit is.
It's easier just to hop in atruck and deliver packages than
it is to 12, 14 hours on yourfeet on the line and dealing
with all that.
I mean you need to know youhave a passion before you get
into the building.
Speaker 3 (35:18):
Absolutely.
If you can stay home and be acontent creator, you might take
that path before you put on awhite coat and go into the
kitchen for 12 hours a day.
Oh, wait a minute, wait aminute.
Speaker 1 (35:30):
Wait a minute, hold on, you're talking to me, we're
old people.
You know we have our old andhere we are doing content.
Obviously it's quality content.
You know equipment and all thisstuff.
Oh, absolutely it isn't justlike iPhones and whatever, but
at the end of the day, like youknow, to find a path where you
(35:50):
can have cameras and microphonesand somehow make a living out
of that, it's mind blowing.
It is a mind blowing thingwhere, yeah, like, instead of me
, like you know, I'm fortunate.
I, you know, in my life I'vebeen fortunate, and you know, in
in my work and career andeverything.
But if I wasn't, I would bedoing the same thing as
everybody else.
I would be standing in the line, I would have been, I would
(36:12):
have done it differently, youknow not, and I don't know
necessarily it would have beenpositive, it just would have
been different.
So, yeah, I don't know man, I,I don't know, I, I don't get it
anymore.
Yeah, like, everybody works foramazon.
Now, you know what I mean.
It's just it's getting thetruck.
Get in the truck and leave thepackages.
It's too easy, right Right right, that's the answer, I guess.
Speaker 2 (36:34):
Is it, though?
Speaker 1 (36:34):
I don't know no-transcript grocers and
everybody, and they're mobbed inthere too.
I don't get it.
I don't get it.
(36:55):
All right, scott, I am lookingforward to shaking your hand and
and and meeting you.
How do people find you?
(37:18):
Are you big on socials?
How do we get you?
Sure, you can find me onInstagram at ChefScottCraig.
Speaker 3 (37:21):
You can find me at ChefScottCraigcom.
There's a couple of differentways there.
Speaker 1 (37:22):
Excellent, and man you already know what you're
supposed to be cooking up andstuff, right?
Oh yeah, absolutely.
I'm not waiting until the daybefore.
Okay, all right, I'm justasking, just asking.
All right, we're going to.
You know, I'm going to get on acall with you and I'm going to
pick your brain about some stuffabout that.
But listen, I appreciate youcoming on the program today.
Chef and also Chef Tony.
Thank you, sir.
Yep, you guys are bothgentlemen.
Thank you kindly, john.
As always folks here in centralFlorida for your meats.
(37:43):
Let's check them out too.
Peninsulafoodservicecom.
Thank you kindly.
We are out.
We'll see you next time.
Hello Food Fam.
This is the Walk Talk podcastwhere you will find the perfect
blend of food fun and cookingknowledge.
I'm your host, carl Fiodini.
Welcome to the number one foodpodcast in the country.
We're recording on-site at IbisImages Studios, where food
photography comes alive and Iget to eat it.
Here's a humble request to giveus a follow on Instagram at
(00:29):
walkandtalkshow, please, andthank you.
Pooch Rivera was with VinceHayward of Camellia Beans and
won the Louisiana RestaurantAssociation Philanthropy Award
last night.
Congratulations, vince.
In studio today we've got thechef, tony Van Hang from Regency
Oaks.
He's cooked up some amazingdishes.
John man, the photographyalways bad ass.
(00:54):
These plates are beautiful.
I am excited.
The food is still here.
I have to eat it.
I got to get into it.
I'm super excited.
It was a goat cheese andbroccoli stuffed chicken breast
and a crispy skin.
Gulf grouper.
We're going to talk about it.
Chefs and food buyers, I'lldare try Aussie Select's fully
cooked, pasture-raisedAustralian lamb.
(01:14):
Enjoy flavors like agave,rosemary and tikka masala and
more.
Available sliced or wholeDiscover more at AussieSelectcom
.
Available sliced or wholediscover more at AussieSelectcom
.
By the way, we have this productin-house and we will be cooking
it up soon and getting it outthere on video and also
photography.
Cannot wait for that.
It's going to look great onthat racked porcelain baby.
(01:36):
You know what I'm saying.
So you know, when most peoplethink of artists, they probably
picture painters, sculptors,musicians.
You know that sort of creativegenius.
They work their whole lives andfor generations.
But you know, there's one artform out there that's a little
bit more fleeting, one thatdisappears as soon as you take
(01:57):
the first bite.
And our guest today, chef ScottCraig, is the master of that
kind of transient artistry.
Is the master of that kind oftransient artistry as a
celebrated club chef who'scompeted at the highest levels
and potentially at the upcomingUS Culinary Open.
At the NAFM trade show inAtlanta at the end of February,
there's going to be 11 otherincredible competitors with
(02:18):
Michelin stars, james BeardAwards and Food Network
victories under their belts.
Scott has made a career out ofelevating the dining experience,
turning the simple ingredientsinto edible works of art.
But what's even more impressiveis his commitment to mentoring
the next generation andsharpening the future of the
culinary industry.
(02:39):
This is a guy who's truly leftthis mark, even if his dishes
don't stick around forever.
Before we welcome Scott on theshow, I just want to Guy, who's
truly left his mark, even if hisdishes don't stick around
forever, before we welcome Scotton the show.
I just want to.
I really, tony, you did anamazing job today, thank you.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Thank you, carl, I appreciate that.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Absolutely.
Do you want to just realquickly jump into what you made?
Speaker 2 (03:05):
Yeah sure, we made a goat cheese and broccoli stuffed
breast of chicken accompaniedwith some sweet potato
mousseline and a citrus tarragoncream.
And also we made a um, a crispyskin on golf snapper right with
uh pea puree and some garlickyspinach as well with that and
I've finished foam I tell youwhat you know there's so much
green.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
When I saw the ingredients I was like man,
that's gonna be a lot of green,but it was gorgeous.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
The pictures are are phenomenal yeah, I mean, of
course, john did a great job.
He has a job taking the thephotos of it.
Uh, you know, to me, you know,monochromatic colors, it's, it's
, it's great.
And just different shades ofthe same color.
It's really stands out.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Well, you're making my life better by being in
studio and just kind ofpreparing these dishes and
allowing us to participate inyour world.
Man, I'm just saying Okay,absolutely, thanks, excellent.
There's a documentary out thereAll Ships Rise.
It's about Scott Craig Chef.
Scott Craig Chef, are you withus?
(04:05):
Hey, it's great to be with you.
Thanks for having me.
That documentary was so welldone and awesome.
Good job, man.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
I appreciate it.
I can't take any of the credit.
Wtwh did a really, reallywonderful job.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
I wish that every guest had a documentary.
You know what I mean.
I was able to pull a lot ofinfo from there and, just you
know, kind of get a feel for whoyou are and what you do.
The picture that they paintedof you is is incredible.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
I appreciate it.
If I have one, then I'm sureeveryone will have one shortly.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Thank you.
I appreciate it, I guess.
So Right, but how did that cometo be?
Speaker 3 (04:49):
What was the, what was the genesis of that
documentary?
Yeah, I've worked with withWCWH Media for a little bit,
working with the Chef to Chefconference, with Platecraft.
You know writing some articlesand I think it was just kind of
an evolution of the work thatwe've done together.
You know where we hope to, youknow help take the industry and
you know the the things thatwe're very passionate about
within the industry.
You know mentorship and youknow kind of the state of it and
leaving it better than we foundit, and I think it was just,
(05:12):
you know, just the next step inthat evolution.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
And you know, there's this, what seems to be a union
between competitive cooking andmentorship, at least I see from,
maybe, your perspective.
Competitive cooking andmentorship.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
At least I see from maybe your perspective
Absolutely.
My very first competition inWashington DC was where I met my
first mentor and subsequently,through you know, the next 23
competitions or whatever.
You know I met so many peoplewho were impactful to me and
mentored me over the years,whether it was judges or chefs
that I ended up going to workfor.
(05:46):
And then, you know, you pay itforward right.
A lot of people invested in meand then at a point you know you
can only go out and compete somuch.
You begin to live vicariouslythrough the people who work with
you and you want to see themget out there and be successful
and that's what it's all about.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
How are you identifying a potential entity?
Speaker 3 (06:09):
I think it's easy.
I think they kind of identifythemselves.
It's an attitude they're hungry, they are always looking for
the next challenge, they alwaysrise to the occasion and you
know, typically, you knowthere's some people that you
have to kind of pull along andthose other people you just let
them off the porch and you knowthose mentees that have gone on
(06:31):
to do so well, you know, as inmanagement, and you find these
people sometimes you see in themwhat they don't see in
(06:53):
themselves and they're not readyto take the next step or, you
know, enter into the next phaseand you kind of have to push
them.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
And you kind of have to push them in a way where they
might exit the business becauseyou see in them something that
they don't see.
Do you run into that as well?
Speaker 3 (07:12):
Yes, there's certainly been that throughout
the years where, as mentors, thebest thing that we can do is
kind of hold up a mirror andshow people what you see in them
, the best of them, what they'recapable of achieving.
Yeah, there's been some overthe years that took a nudge, you
know.
Maybe their confidence wasn'twhere it could be.
But getting out there,competing, you know, doing the
preparation, practicing and thengetting out there and yielding
(07:34):
a positive result, move theneedle in the right direction.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
There's hardly anything that you can find.
That's disappointing, as yousee somebody and they're a
diamond and they just don't havethat drive or they don't have
the vision and you have to letthem go.
That's happened to me a numberof times.
It actually put me in a placewhile that was happening where I
didn't want to mentor anymore.
I didn't want to put in theeffort because it seems like it
(08:01):
puts you in a bad place in yourown mental state.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
I remember early on, that was for years.
I've said it to my mentees, youknow, as they're ready to move
on into their own kitchens.
You know the greatest mistakesthat I've made in the past at
times is wanting it for someonemore than they want it for
themselves, to kind of acceptthat.
You know everyone has their ownpath and everyone has their own
(08:25):
set of motivations.
Who want to excel.
You know those are the peoplethat you, that you get behind
and put your efforts into, andthose that just you know are
looking forward to the days off,you know, to go fishing with
their kids.
That's just as important andit's recognizing that and making
sure they have it.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
I think we've all learned that part of it over the
last maybe four or five yearshow important it is to spend
time with the family and take aneyeball or two off of the
office or the kitchen.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
Absolutely yeah.
I mean, COVID was kind of agame changer for a lot of us, I
think.
But you can't get the time back.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
You can't get it back .
And then you realize whatyou've, what you've actually
given up.
That's the amazing part, thatthat's kind of what I saw coming
out of the pandemic.
It's that time is gone.
And now what do you do?
You know you don't want to cryabout it.
You want to pick up your boot.
You know, pick yourself up bythe bootstraps and and and make
the make a go of it.
You want to pick yourself up bythe bootstraps and make a go of
it, and at that point you'regoing to make some choices.
(09:26):
But I want to transition Chef,I want to get into the
competitive aspect of cookingand I want to know what you find
compelling about that.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
Sure, I mean, back in the day, I think what got me
into it was not going toculinary school or getting my
culinary degree or anything likethat, and so coming up through
apprenticeships, competition,gave me a way to kind of
benchmark my skills and you know, what I found very quickly was
it was a way to refine my skillsand to network.
(09:58):
That network has been soimportant over the years for so
many reasons, but that's what Ithink kept me coming back to it.
You know there's always therush of getting a medal or
something like that, but it'sthe relationships made, it's the
journey.
All of those things have beenso rewarding.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
What's the correlation between the rush of
the competition and a Fridaynight dinner rush?
Speaker 3 (10:23):
Full tickets.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
Full tickets, tickets .
You know the pass is getting,you know overloaded and
everybody's.
You know I need hands, needrunners, need all these things
is it?
The same same feeling it's.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
It's very much the same and I would say you know
that's part of the value ofcompetition, as you know, as the
saying goes, perfect practicemakes perfect performance.
And you know all of the skillsthat you learn when you become a
successful competitor areapplicable every night on the
line.
It's, you know, keeping yourstation neat, it's making sure
(10:57):
you have your mise en place,everything's organized, knives
are sharp.
You know uniforms pressed andready, you're on time, you have
a sense of urgency, all of thosethings that kind of get
hammered into you in competition.
You know the things that makeyou a successful competitor,
make you successful on the line.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
We're in and around the same, in the same age
bracket.
Though I've never worked in thekitchen, they tried to bring me
in and I just I couldn't do it.
I had to always be front of thehouse.
Back then it was you're out allnight and you still show up for
your shift, no matter whathappens.
You're an actual working cheftoday.
Is that the same kind of thinggoing on out there now, or is it
(11:37):
everybody's kind of buttoned?
Speaker 3 (11:38):
up.
It's hard to say.
I mean, you know, certainlyearly 2000s it was kind of a
work hard, play hard mentalityCertainly had those days where
you know you're just goingmultiple days with no sleep and
you're going out too much andspending too much time with the
guys outside of work and stillgetting the job done.
(12:00):
I don't know if it's just thekitchen that I'm in, the people
that I'm around, or if it'sculturally, you know.
But I do see a change.
You know, I think it's a bitmore buttoned up, I think it's a
bit more focused, a bit moreintentional, and you know
there's not to say that there's,you know, not times to blow off
steam.
I think today is just a littlemore, perhaps a little more
(12:22):
driven, a little more goaloriented than it was in the
beginning.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
Well, it's one thing to go from line cooks and
underlings into the competitivenature of where you've been and
kind of what's coming up here inFebruary.
How is it that you preparementally to go up against
Michelin chefs and beard chefsand that sort of breed?
How do you approach that?
And you're no slouch yourself,I mean you're 23, you're 23
competitions and you've, youknow you've, you've won them,
You've, you've done a lot ofgreat stuff.
How do you, how do you, how doyou manage that?
Speaker 3 (12:54):
Yeah, I mean, I think it's.
It's the same as as being atwork, right it's?
You know, in DC we cooked forthree presidential
administrations and you knowprofessional athletes and
celebrities and all that.
You don't get nervous becauseyou know at the end of the day
you're cooking for yourself,right, you're kind of running
your own race.
It's the same in competition,you know, you don't really worry
about the person next to you somuch.
(13:15):
You overprepare and you execute.
Once the food goes out, it's onthe judges to determine who
executed at the highest leveland at the same time.
That's very subjective.
I think you go intocompetitions knowing that
everything's subjective.
You can put up the exact samefood two days in a row for two
(13:36):
different sets of judges andyield different results, and so
if you're there for the journey,if you're there to push
yourself, to refine your skills,to network a medal or how you
place or whatever it's just kindof sprinkles on the cupcake the
only pressure that should existis what you're putting on
yourself to perform and bebetter than you were yesterday.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
What's the difference , in your own personal lesson,
in winning a competition versusnot necessarily coming in last
place, but even coming in secondor third?
How does that?
What's the lesson there.
Speaker 3 (14:08):
I look at the bronze medals and those were some of
the best competitions I was everin.
I think about the people that Imet.
I think about the road tripswith my friends.
I think about the critiquesthat I received from the judges.
To be completely honest, thebronze medals were worth a whole
lot more than the golds.
You know showing up cooking andyou know they say great job,
(14:30):
you nailed it.
It isn't as useful as gettingthat critique and coming away
better than you were when youarrived.
Yeah it's about the journey.
One of my favorite medals was abronze medal.
Yeah, it's about the journey.
One of my favorite medals was abronze medal.
I was cooking with Team USA, agroup of people that I love,
(14:56):
that I would be in a kitchenwith any day of the week
massively talented individuals,and that day things just didn't
shake out the way we needed itto.
Things that were out of ourcontrol happened and didn't
yield the medal that we wantedin terms of representing our
nation.
But at the end of the day, whenI look back, man that was.
It was such an extraordinaryexperience that I wouldn't
change it.
I wouldn't change a thing, Iwouldn't trade it for anything.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
Folks out there audience food fam Chef was part
of the US Culinary Olympics.
And was that 2020, correct?
Yes, happy to show up, even ifwe didn't place, even if there
(15:45):
wasn't a medal, just to just thefact that you're competing on
that level for me would just beterrific.
I presume that for the team andand for yourself, it's probably
something similar.
Although, hey man, everybodywants to, everybody wants to
take home the gold or or placeright absolutely.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
You know it's, it's a weight.
It's anytime you have, you know, the flag on your jacket.
It's just, it's heavy.
It's a different kind of weightthan when you're competing
individually and representingyourself.
That's, that's tough and ourcoach has really hammered that
into us.
You know you're representingeveryone when you go out there.
You know whether you're fromNorway or or Canada, or Germany
(16:21):
or Italy.
Everyone's there for the samepurpose.
You know to represent theirnation properly and to finish on
the podium.
But just having the opportunityis incredible.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
I'm not sure that the average person, even the
average chef, knows the amountof practice that goes into the
US Culinary Olympics.
You guys usually train over atFord Harrison, harrison and
clearwater.
Right right, can you touch onwhat sort of training that you
guys do?
I know that a lot of theequipment the the same equipment
(16:52):
that is in.
Yes, okay, so the sameequipment that you're using
there.
You're, you actually have thatsame equipment in ford, harrison
and and you practice and it'slike the real deal happening
here in Clearwater.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
That's the goal.
You hope so.
You want to be as close as youcan be to you know what the
situation is going to be.
The day of my first competitionwas in Germany it was 2012 as
an individual, and you know.
For that it was 18 months ofpreparation.
It's every day off, coming inearly for work and working on
pieces, the goal ofover-preparing.
(17:27):
So the day of the competition,I competed eight times in
preparation for Germany in 2012.
And you want the competition tobe easy compared to what you've
put yourself through before youarrive there.
And Team USA, it's somethingvery similar Long practice
sessions, it's brainstorming,it's very late nights, very,
(17:50):
very long days, an extraordinarycoaching team.
And that's the practice session.
The real work is the time inbetween the practice sessions,
when you're working on yourindividual pieces, Because you
don't want to be the person thatshows up without your homework,
you don't want to let theperson next to you down, you
don't want to let your nationdown, and so so much work goes
(18:12):
in between those sessions andthen, when you show up, you've
got to be on top of your game soyou get a quality practice
session out of it.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
Looking forward to February, and, in full
disclosure, we talked about thisyesterday, chef.
You're scheduled to compete inFebruary at NAFM for the US
Culinary Open, and it's a majorevent.
It's, you know, the the, youknow chef Nick and chef Polly,
who, who are putting thiscompetition on, are beautiful
people and they've been puttingthis together and working on
(18:46):
this project for a few years now, so it's finally come to
fruition.
As everything in the restaurantindustry goes, there's
curveballs.
It's supposed to be where youhave your assistant.
Tell us about the parameters ofthe assistant and what happened
.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
Sure.
So your assistant you know thisis 25, someone who's 25 years
younger, and typically this issomeone for me, it's someone
that you've worked withextensively, who you know knows
the program, who knows you knowkind of your standards and
expectations going into it, andit's someone that ideally you're
grooming to be a competitorgoing into it and it's someone
(19:24):
that ideally you're you'regrooming to be a competitor.
Yeah, my person.
For for this year somethingunexpected came up and they had
to had to go back home for anextended period of time take
care of some family matters.
So you know, these things comeup and and, uh, you try to
adjust and move on and we'll seewhere it lands it's akin to the
walk-in cooler going down oryou know something happens and
(19:47):
you don't have.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
You don't have gas for the, you know, for the ovens
and stuff Like this is like.
This is like standard, fairstuff, right, it is absolutely.
Speaker 3 (19:55):
I mean, you know, in Germany, with Team USA, our, our
centerpiece collapsed.
You have to put up acenterpiece and it collapsed in
the first 10 minutes.
Some of our food didn't make itinto the oven in time.
You know you still get theprogram out, you still do
everything you can to finish, tocross the finish line and give
it your best effort.
(20:16):
You're just on the fly.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
You know, I feel I always have a positive outlook.
I have to have a positiveoutlook or else I'm not leaving
my house.
You know what I mean, you know?
Do you know what I'm saying?
So, even in spite of the factthat these things are happening,
I'm, you know, I'm in yourcorner and I'm rooting for you
to to pull, to pull this off andget out there no-transcript.
Speaker 3 (21:10):
You know, 20, 25 years ago there was kind of a
stigma surrounding country clubcuisine.
That wasn't extremely up andit's nice, you know, to be able
to get out there and kind ofstretch your legs a little bit
and put up some fun food anddemonstrate what country club
cuisine can be.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
Well, there's a huge difference.
I mean, I've been fortunateenough to work with quite a
number of chefs over the years.
You know, into the thousands ofchefs over my span, my career,
you know you're talking, youknow, from an independent
restaurant to a corporaterestaurant, to a hotel chef, to
a country club chef, toinstitutional chefs, like
(21:47):
there's a.
There's such a contrast betweeneach one of those because
you're dealing with, withdifferent challenges, your
clientele, they're all different.
How do you approach that?
In my estimation and in myexperiences, I see chefs either
you grow up in that club and inthat club atmosphere and never
leave it, or a lot of therestaurant chefs end up, they
(22:12):
want to end up at the clubbecause that's kind of their,
you know, after their you know,30, 40, 50 year career, that's
kind of like their exit point.
How do you see that?
Speaker 3 (22:20):
Yeah, I mean, I think every segment of the industry
imposes its challenges In theclub world, especially with our
club, where we are, we're veryseasonal, our membership, we're
at the top of the mountain.
There's not a lot of places togo to outside of our club to
grab food, so we're veryaggressive.
(22:42):
We change our menus on a weeklybasis.
Our members have very, veryhigh expectations, as they
should.
So inherently there's a ton ofpressure there to be creative,
to change the menu veryaggressively and at the same
time to offer very high qualitywithout much time to, or without
(23:02):
any time really for, menutraining and speccing and you
know, menu rollouts and allthese things.
Everything's kind of on the fly, which is different from clubs
that I've been in before and youknow it might be different from
maybe a restaurant or hotel orresort or something like that.
I've worked at all of them, youknow, in some capacity and
they're all, they're allchallenging you know, every
(23:29):
place has its challenges.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
But for clubs, you know, that's that's kind of what
we, what we sell out.
If you, if so, if there's ayoung culinary in here listening
and they have an opportunity topivot left or pivot right, you
know, into from restaurantsversus clubs and whatnot, if you
were going to give advice, whatwould it be?
What direction would that?
Would you direction, would yousay, to go into?
Speaker 3 (23:47):
Sure, I mean, I think you know, first and foremost,
if there's a segment that speaksto you, you know that's your
assignment.
You know, explore that to thefullest extent.
I can tell you, for me in theearly 2000s, there was a time
when I said you know what I'mdone with clubs, and we happened
(24:09):
to be in a recession.
I was in Washington DC andrestaurants weren't hiring.
Ritz-carlton was on a hiringfreeze but clubs were still
going.
There was another time,mid-2010, 2011.
I said you know what I don'tknow if clubs are for me, and I
take a look around Again, we'rein a recession.
Clubs are still hiring andstill going.
So there's some insulationthere.
There's a little bit of jobsecurity kind of baked into it
that you might not see in otherplaces in the industry.
(24:31):
The hours can be while.
They're long, they can be alittle more humane than other
segments of the industry.
But more than anything, for meit's seeing the same people
every day, having theconversations that go for years
and years, the depth ofrelationships that we build, and
that's not for everyone, butfor me.
That's part of what drives meto stay in.
(24:52):
Clubs, are the friendships thatI've made over the years,
members that I still stay intouch with, from early on in my
career to now.
It's really rewarding.
It's fun to cook for thosefolks night after night.
It's like your family andthat's been a big part of it for
me.
Speaker 1 (25:08):
Why I've stayed in that.
Well, you know, Chef Tony isover here shaking his head.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
Hey, chef Scott, I totally understand where you're
coming from Speaking regardingseeing the same customer, which
is our residents right now.
So I see them day in, day out.
So they do expect a lot fromyou, right, you know, with many
changes.
But one thing they don't expectis the price increase.
I'm sure you experienced thesame thing at clubs, right?
Right, they don't want thechampagne taste on a beer budget
(25:37):
.
Speaker 3 (25:37):
It's tough.
I mean, I think that's kind of,you know, built into it as well
, right, Absolutely, If I paydues, if I'm paying dues, why am
I paying as much here as I amat the restaurant down the
street if I've already paid duesto be here?
And so you know it's incumbentupon us to provide some
education and help themunderstand where the money's
going and to be, you know,faithful stewards of our budgets
(25:59):
and all that.
But yeah, that can certainly bea challenge.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
Coming out of COVID.
Even during COVID at the time Iwas working at a produce
company we stayed busy with someinstitutional business, but
also the clubs.
The clubs were, you know, herein Florida the clubs were open,
by nature of the dynamic of thecountry club.
The residents, the members,they were still able to go and
(26:22):
eat and enjoy the facilities andat the time it was like to be
outside.
You're on the golf course.
So there was still food, therewas still culinary happening,
there was still some actionthere.
You know, if it's me to circleback to that question, I'd asked
you, I mean, if you're looking,you know, job security wise, I
feel country clubs are the wayto go, or a retirement community
(26:43):
.
Speaker 3 (26:43):
Or a retirement community.
Speaker 1 (26:44):
yeah, Well, regency Oaks, it's a retirement
community but it's like acountry club.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
Yeah, because we have a pretty healthy budget per se
and I am lucky enough to be ableto get some high-end product
in-house, do different thingsand be able to hold different
events once a week and once amonth or so, so that is really
cool.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
You're lucky, you have a gastropub on property man
we do?
Speaker 2 (27:11):
What are you talking?
Speaker 1 (27:11):
about.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
We do yeah, and we are trying to elevate the food
in the gastropub and also forour regular dining room
residents as well.
So that's my main focus is todo that.
Dining room resident as well.
So you know, that's my mainfocus is to do that.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
Chef Scott, do you prefer members-only clubs versus
, you know, clubs that are opento the general public?
Yes, 100%.
Speaker 3 (27:31):
And why is that?
A couple of reasons.
I mean, you know one of the bigthings is culture.
You know our club, colostasiaClub.
I think one of the mostextraordinary things about it is
the culture.
You know it's a relativelysmall club compared to where
I've been before.
We have 350 members.
You know that stretches out to,you know, 900,000 folks with
(27:53):
spouses and kids and all thatstuff in the summer.
But it's such a healthy culture.
You know every member thatcomes in is vetted and it feels
so familial.
The members are the bestmembers that I've ever worked
with.
And I don't know that you can,you just can't replicate that at
(28:15):
a club that has a ton of folkscoming into it from the outside.
It's kind of baked into theidentity of our club.
They're very tightly knit, theyknow who they want joining as
members.
It's very casual, it's verylaid back, it's very respectful,
they're appreciative of wherethey are, they're just wonderful
(28:36):
folks, very approachable, andI'm not sure that we could
replicate that in a place thatjust kind of lets everyone know.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
Are you still running into challenges finding
adequate personnel?
Speaker 3 (28:50):
We aren't, because we work with HTBs and J1s and so
you know this time of the year,right now, we're staffing up for
May opening and so you know alot of our folks are coming out
of South Africa, mexico, europe,and you know we find that
there's a very, very healthypool of extraordinarily
(29:13):
professional, talented folks whoare looking for seasonal work.
I'll travel down to Florida inJanuary to finalize my staff for
the coming season, but we'revery fortunate in that respect.
I've definitely been in thatfight for years and years and
years in DC and Charlotte atlarge year-round clubs.
(29:36):
It's nice you can build a depthof bench that you can't in
seasonal clubs when you're atthe year-round clubs, but in
terms of just staffing the lineand getting great folks, we're
very fortunate in that way, whatdo you see as some of the
biggest challenges in culinarycoming into 25 and 26?
(29:56):
I think it's definitely what youtouched on with staffing, I
think before COVID.
I remember a group of respected, esteemed chefs that I've
looked up to for a while, havingdinner with them and talking
about staffing and trying tounderstand how we move forward,
how we meet our staffing needs.
You know this was 2018.
Once COVID happened, there wasa migration.
(30:19):
A lot of folks fell out of thefood and beverage industry and
just haven't come back.
Enrollment, you know, has beenaffected at culinary schools and
you know, I think that's thebiggest thing that I've seen.
Of course, we've got increasingprices Prices go up, come down
but staffing, that's been atrend for years and years and I
(30:40):
think it speaks to thisgeneration's expectations.
It speaks to the culture thathas, you know, kind of permeated
our industry for years and, youknow, I think it's incumbent
upon us to make the adjustmentsneeded to make sure that this is
an attractive industry foryoung people to come into and
you know they see it as a placewhere they can thrive.
But yeah, I mean, I thinkstaffing is kind of the number
(31:02):
one issue.
Speaker 1 (31:03):
This many years removed from COVID, from the
epidemic, that this is still atop five topic in discussions is
amazing.
When we got into 21 and 22 andeverybody's starting to go on
vacations and tourism started toskyrocket and there was a lot
(31:26):
of action and movement aroundthe country and abroad, I
thought this was going to goaway.
I thought the challenge wasgoing to just kind of dissipate
and, you know, be a footnote.
But it's not the people thatyou know that left the industry
and never came back.
I originally thought, like goodriddance, I figured those were
the slackers.
(31:46):
You know that in the end wecall them slackers, right?
I thought those were thosepeople but as it turns out, no,
there were some really talentedpeople, hardworking people that
just kind of.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
COVID, you know, the expectation of salary for line
cooks or for prep cooks or forutility staff has gone way up.
So I think that playsdefinitely a big part into the
staffing issues that we arefixing today.
(32:20):
I agree completely Completely.
Speaker 3 (32:23):
I know our wages.
When I was at Myers Park, Ithink 2018 to 2022, I worked
there a few times Our wagesincreased somewhere around 40
percent just in those four years, and that's to remain
competitive with the folks downthe street.
I think clubs specifically, youknow, have been challenged to
(32:46):
get wages where they need to be,even though the benefits are
good.
You know it's hard to sell kidson 401k, it's hard to sell kids
on paid time off.
You know they're looking at thesize of their paycheck.
Cost of living has gone up somuch.
You know, everybody knows thatCost of groceries, cost of rent,
and so you know, I think that'ssomething that we have to do a
(33:08):
better job of.
There was a survey that cameout yesterday from the Club
Management Association ofAmerica.
You know talking about.
You know how many clubs are inthe United States, how many
people are employed and what thepayroll is Not something I'd be
super proud of.
When you do the math and divideit all out, you know, if I'm a
kid and I've got the choicebetween going into this industry
(33:28):
and FedEx and I'm notparticularly passionate about
this industry I'm probably goingwith FedEx based on the numbers
.
That's something we need toadjust.
I don't think that's alwaysbeen the case.
I mean, I think this industryhas been a big tent historically
for folks who not only arepassionate about what we do, but
just for folks who want to beable to make a good living doing
(33:50):
something that they're good atand they enjoy the camaraderie
of the kitchen.
Maybe they enjoy the hours, forwhatever reason.
This was a place where theycould find that and I think
that's the differences.
Those people are the ones inlarge part who migrated away
because they can find, you know,a better return on their
investment somewhere else.
Thankfully, we do have peoplewho are passionate about the
(34:12):
industry still joining.
We just overall, have to makethis more attractive to grow our
numbers.
Speaker 1 (34:18):
Everything changed over the last 20 plus years,
with Food Network andculinarians being kind of held
up on a pedestal and whatnot.
Before this last couple ofdecades, you fell into the
kitchen.
Most people didn't go to schoolfor it.
You had troubles, you ended upin the kitchen, you ended up on
(34:40):
dish and then from the dish pityou kind of were pulled into.
I'd like to make a couple ofmore dollars.
So, yeah, I'll work the line orwhatever.
And then you, you, somewherealong that path, you found your
passion for the industry.
In today's world there's somany different options and, yeah
, I mean in in in the world ofAmazon and you know home
(35:03):
deliveries and everything it'sit is.
It's easier just to hop in atruck and deliver packages than
it is to 12, 14 hours on yourfeet on the line and dealing
with all that.
I mean you need to know youhave a passion before you get
into the building.
Speaker 3 (35:18):
Absolutely.
If you can stay home and be acontent creator, you might take
that path before you put on awhite coat and go into the
kitchen for 12 hours a day.
Oh, wait a minute, wait aminute.
Speaker 1 (35:30):
Wait a minute, hold on, you're talking to me, we're
old people.
You know we have our old andhere we are doing content.
Obviously it's quality content.
You know equipment and all thisstuff.
Oh, absolutely it isn't justlike iPhones and whatever, but
at the end of the day, like youknow, to find a path where you
(35:50):
can have cameras and microphonesand somehow make a living out
of that, it's mind blowing.
It is a mind blowing thingwhere, yeah, like, instead of me
, like you know, I'm fortunate.
I, you know, in my life I'vebeen fortunate, and you know, in
in my work and career andeverything.
But if I wasn't, I would bedoing the same thing as
everybody else.
I would be standing in the line, I would have been, I would
(36:12):
have done it differently, youknow not, and I don't know
necessarily it would have beenpositive, it just would have
been different.
So, yeah, I don't know man, I,I don't know, I, I don't get it
anymore.
Yeah, like, everybody works foramazon.
Now, you know what I mean.
It's just it's getting thetruck.
Get in the truck and leave thepackages.
It's too easy, right Right right, that's the answer, I guess.
Speaker 2 (36:34):
Is it, though?
Speaker 1 (36:34):
I don't know no-transcript grocers and
everybody, and they're mobbed inthere too.
I don't get it.
I don't get it.
(36:55):
All right, scott, I am lookingforward to shaking your hand and
and and meeting you.
How do people find you?
(37:18):
Are you big on socials?
How do we get you?
Sure, you can find me onInstagram at ChefScottCraig.
Speaker 3 (37:21):
You can find me at ChefScottCraigcom.
There's a couple of differentways there.
Speaker 1 (37:22):
Excellent, and man you already know what you're
supposed to be cooking up andstuff, right?
Oh yeah, absolutely.
I'm not waiting until the daybefore.
Okay, all right, I'm justasking, just asking.
All right, we're going to.
You know, I'm going to get on acall with you and I'm going to
pick your brain about some stuffabout that.
But listen, I appreciate youcoming on the program today.
Chef and also Chef Tony.
Thank you, sir.
Yep, you guys are bothgentlemen.
Thank you kindly, john.
As always folks here in centralFlorida for your meats.
(37:43):
Let's check them out too.
Peninsulafoodservicecom.
Thank you kindly.
We are out.
We'll see you next time.
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