Celebrating Independence Day: The Flavors of America with Chef Thomas Parker
The essence of this podcast episode revolves around the exploration of American culinary identity, particularly in the context of Independence Day. We engage with WITM personality, Pooch Rivera, and Chef Thomas Parker, who showcases two distinct summer dishes, reflecting the diversity of American flavors. This dialogue extends to the broader query of what constitutes American food, as we traverse from fine dining experiences to festival fare, encapsulating the rich tapestry of cultural influences that define our culinary landscape. Additionally, we are joined by Jillian Chiles from Florida Farm Finder, who provides valuable insights into current agricultural developments. This episode serves as a reminder that food is not merely sustenance, but a profound narrative interwoven with our collective identity and heritage.
Mentioned in this episode:
Metro Foodservice Solutions
Kitchen and back-of-house systems for better flow and function.
Citrus America
Citrus America – Commercial-grade juicing systems built for speed and yield.
Auto Citrus Slicer Streamlines Prep
Boost efficiency and cut waste with SupraCut's automated citrus slicer for streamlined prep.
RAK Porcelain USA -Tableware
We use RAK for all in-studio tableware—clean, durable, and designed for chefs.
Aussie Select - Fully cooked, premium Australian lamb
Fully cooked, premium Australian lamb—ready to serve and packed with clean flavor.
Transcript
You've just stepped inside the walk and talk podcast number one in the nation for food lovers, chefs and storytellers.
Speaker A:I'm Carl Fiadini, your host, shining a light on the flavor, the hustle and the heart of the industry.
Speaker A:We're the official podcast for the New York, California and Florida restaurant shows, the Pizza Tomorrow Summit, the US Culinary Open at naflam, and the North American media platform for the Burnt Chef project, recorded at Ibis Images Studios, where food photography comes alive and I get the first bite.
Speaker A:Find out more info@thewalkandtalk.com hello, food fam.
Speaker A:It's July 3rd and we're asking what does American food really taste like in studio.
Speaker A:Chef Thomas Parker's plating Two summer dishes on the line.
Speaker A:We got Putra vera's feeding of 10,000 people at the Uncle Sam Jam in New Orleans.
Speaker A:We're going to go from fine dining to festival fire.
Speaker A:There's this is the flavor of America.
Speaker A:Plus, later in the show, we have Jillian Chiles of Florida, farm finder.
Speaker A:She's going to join us with an agriculture update.
Speaker A:You don't want to miss it.
Speaker A:Everybody eats and we only, we kind of all need to know what is going on out there.
Speaker A:Dude.
Speaker A:Chef, my man.
Speaker A:The chef Thomas Parker.
Speaker A:Welcome to the program.
Speaker B:Thank you.
Speaker B:Thank you.
Speaker A:Oh, dude, you did it again.
Speaker B:I try to do it every time.
Speaker A:You do, you bring the fire.
Speaker A:Talk about what you did today.
Speaker B:Couple dishes that I have as I gear up towards a summer menu in my restaurant.
Speaker B:Two completely separate dishes.
Speaker B:One, fresh local ingredients.
Speaker B:We have a Florida grouper, tons of fresh citrus, little succotash in it.
Speaker B:And then the cool part about that dish is we created an entire foam that is covers most of the plate and it really helps the acidity in the, in the sauce and binds it all together.
Speaker A:It was a citrus foam.
Speaker B:Yeah, citrus foam, fresh lemon all the way.
Speaker A:What happens is you eat this foam and it's refreshing.
Speaker A:So I don't know, maybe three or four times so far of the last couple of months, there's been some dishes that have come through here that are refreshing.
Speaker A:Like you take a bite and you're like, oh, my goodness, this is so nice.
Speaker A:It's fresh on the palate.
Speaker A:That dish was it for me today.
Speaker A:What was the second dish?
Speaker B:Second dish was classical French.
Speaker B:It's a roasted chicken breast wrapped in puff pastry boys and cream sauce on the base of the plate.
Speaker B:Confit garlic potatoes that we topped with a green pepper infused creme fraiche.
Speaker B:Topped that with a bourbon smoked trout caviar.
Speaker A:Pooch is going to join us later.
Speaker A:He's doing a barbecue event.
Speaker A:And my question is, what's American food?
Speaker A:Tomorrow's the 4th of July.
Speaker A:It's Independence Day.
Speaker A:Today we're having French cuisine, We're having elevated food.
Speaker A:But I think what you made today is ultra USA ribs barbecue.
Speaker A:Equally usa.
Speaker A:What is your opinion?
Speaker B:No, I agree.
Speaker B:I think ribs, burgers, dogs.
Speaker B:That screams fourth of July.
Speaker B:I don't necessarily know if America has a cuisine though this country.
Speaker B:It's a potluck of all the different countries combined.
Speaker B:I mean, look at us here in Tampa.
Speaker B:You can go and get a fine dining in French meal.
Speaker B:All the Cuban, Spanish, Mexican heritage that's here.
Speaker B:You can have picadillo three different ways from three different countries, all here in Tampa.
Speaker B:But, yeah, I. I wouldn't say America has an exact cuisine, I think.
Speaker B:And that goes for all the countries around the world.
Speaker B:I think.
Speaker B:We like.
Speaker B:There's traditional Italian dishes, there's traditional Spanish dishes, but you can't tell me you can't go to Italy and get a taco anywhere.
Speaker B:There's got to be a taco somewhere in Italy.
Speaker A:I don't know about that.
Speaker A:So here's the thing.
Speaker A:I brought this question up because I feel like joking.
Speaker A:I brought this question up because I feel like we have so many cultures that are in the United States.
Speaker A:It is all usa, baby.
Speaker A:Because if you're from France and you're bringing that here, and this is traditional French, like, cheffy chef cuisine, but it's here.
Speaker A:That's usa, man.
Speaker A:If you're talking about, you know, homemade pasta and, you know, Italian food and.
Speaker A:And what was brought from there, here, but we're producing it here.
Speaker A:Well, they live here now.
Speaker A:It's usa, baby.
Speaker A:That's what it is.
Speaker A:That's my point.
Speaker A:It is all here.
Speaker A:It is different here than it is over there.
Speaker A:You know, you can ask any.
Speaker A:Any chef, European chef, and they'll probably say that, oh, no, no, no, no.
Speaker A:It's not the same.
Speaker A:It's not the same.
Speaker A:So, yeah, what's done here is probably in the spirit of what's happening over there, and it's probably damn close.
Speaker A:But it's going to be different because at the end of the day, it's being produced by somebody here.
Speaker A:Is it good?
Speaker A:Is it bad?
Speaker A:That's not my point.
Speaker A:Point is we are a melting pot.
Speaker A:We are a patchwork of different cultures that come together over food.
Speaker A:That's the beauty of America, by the way.
Speaker A:Thomas, can you say pick a deal one more time?
Speaker B:Pick a Deal.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:I just.
Speaker A:I wanted to pick a.
Speaker A:Pick a dwello.
Speaker B:Is that what I said?
Speaker A:It was close or something like that?
Speaker A:No, you laughed.
Speaker A:He said, pick.
Speaker A:Pick a deal.
Speaker A:Pick it.
Speaker A:Pick.
Speaker A:He did not.
Speaker A:You laughed.
Speaker A:I wasn't here.
Speaker A:Such an action.
Speaker B:I was laughing because he brought up.
Speaker A:I'm American.
Speaker A:There you go.
Speaker A:When we're coming into a holiday, when we're coming into a time, you know, we have Independence Day tomorrow, Fourth of July, do you plate differently?
Speaker A:Do you deliver the goods, the food in a different way?
Speaker A:When it's a holiday versus, you know, a regular Saturday night?
Speaker B:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker B:Think of what the Fourth of July embodies.
Speaker B:Backyard barbecues, potlucks.
Speaker B:Everybody's bringing a dish, you know it.
Speaker B:It's a little bit more family style, family oriented.
Speaker B:Go up, help yourself.
Speaker B:So versus the technical fine plating, you can be a little bit more messy with it, and it's okay and it's.
Speaker B:It's expected because that's what that is.
Speaker B:That's what.
Speaker B:That's what barbecue ribs are.
Speaker B:That's what bratwurst and burgers are.
Speaker A:All right, I'm always down for a bratty.
Speaker A:But if you were going to have a dish that represents the Fourth of July, what is that dish to you?
Speaker B:Smoked ribs.
Speaker A:Why all the way.
Speaker B:That's.
Speaker B:That takes me back to my childhood.
Speaker B:My dad, every 4th of July, memorial Day, Labor Day weekend, he loved the host because he knew he could fire the smoker up or get on the grill and just have fun.
Speaker B:That was his fun.
Speaker B:He wasn't an amazing cook by any means, but when you saw him over a grill, you saw that passion in him, and that was where he did his best work.
Speaker B:That's where our best family meals came from as a kid.
Speaker B:So he'd get on the smoker, smoke the ribs, grill them, barbecue them.
Speaker B:Loved it.
Speaker B:Every aspect of.
Speaker B:Of that day, having the friends, the family over.
Speaker B:Dad's out there getting drunk and smoking some ribs.
Speaker B:Chief in his Winston's.
Speaker B:And yeah, he was in his glory.
Speaker A:So whenever dad's on the grill, you know you're getting fed.
Speaker B:Well, absolutely.
Speaker A:You know, it's funny for me because it's a little different.
Speaker A:I grew up eating the best homemade Italian food from my family, many of which were from there, from Italy.
Speaker A:So I was very spoiled with the food.
Speaker A:And as I get older, you get older, and the older folks get older, too, and they cook less or they pass on, they move on.
Speaker A:And what ends up happening is you start to embrace and you kind of fall into the hamburgers.
Speaker A:Hot dogs, sort of thing of it.
Speaker A:Now, I'm always going to pick pasta.
Speaker A:You know, like, hey, what's your favorite pasta?
Speaker A:Red sauce pasta.
Speaker A:That's.
Speaker A:That's my favorite.
Speaker A:That's my go to any day, anytime.
Speaker A:But if you're talking about like Independence Day hot dogs, like, I have to have hot dogs, and that's what I want.
Speaker A:And I want that more than any pasta, any steak, anything.
Speaker A:Just what it is.
Speaker A:I don't know where that came from other than as I grew up and came of age to go to barbecues other than my families and you start seeing those things.
Speaker A:What do you think?
Speaker B:I mean, there's nothing wrong with a hot dog.
Speaker B:I was just having a conversation with my wife a couple weeks ago.
Speaker B:I threw some dogs on the grill.
Speaker B:And there's something about just charring a dog over an open flame, taking that first bite.
Speaker B:And like you said, it's a memory for you.
Speaker B:It takes you back to that place, that time.
Speaker B:Like it has that effect on everyone.
Speaker A:So the thing about a hot dog for me.
Speaker A:Will I eat a chili dog?
Speaker A:Absolutely.
Speaker A:Will I eat something that's like.
Speaker A:Like something from Chicago?
Speaker A:Chicago dog?
Speaker A:Yeah, man.
Speaker A:I'm going to eat it.
Speaker A:But when I say that I want a hot dog, what I really want is I want the hot dog.
Speaker A:I want a lot of ketchup and a little mustard.
Speaker A:And that's what I.
Speaker A:And that's what I like.
Speaker A:I don't know why people, like, raise their eyebrows like, ketchup on a hot dog?
Speaker A:Yeah, ketchup on a freaking hot dog, man.
Speaker A:What are you talking about?
Speaker A:You know, there's people that are hell bent on no ketchup on a dog.
Speaker B:Yeah, my wife.
Speaker A:Oh, okay, you're married to one, huh?
Speaker B:I'm married to one.
Speaker B:And it's funny because I'm just like you.
Speaker B:I want a lot of ketchup and a little bit of mustard.
Speaker B:That's my ideal hot dog.
Speaker B:And every time I see her scowling at me as I'm slathering the ketchup on the dog and she's over there just lathering mustard on hers, and I don't know what you're doing over there.
Speaker A:So when I lived in New York as a kid, it was mustard was for a knish.
Speaker A:Because you have a lot of, you know, let's.
Speaker A:The street food hot dogs and a knish.
Speaker A:Those were the two main ones back then.
Speaker A:Knish, mustard, ketchup on a hot dog for me.
Speaker A:And then I was like, why you like the mustard, though, on the Knish.
Speaker A:So that's when I started putting it on the dog.
Speaker A:And that's just the way it is.
Speaker A:And anybody who wants to fight me on that, bring it.
Speaker A:Because you know you're not going to tell me different.
Speaker A:And 80% of the time I want yellow mustard.
Speaker A:Frenchies style.
Speaker A:Yellow mustard, absolutely.
Speaker B:Let me ask you something while we're on the topic of hot dogs.
Speaker B:And do you.
Speaker B:Do you stop at the street vendor to get a hot dog?
Speaker A:Hell yeah.
Speaker B:It's one of the best dogs you'll ever get.
Speaker B:But I don't care how disgusting it is.
Speaker A:So yes, yes, to answer you 100%.
Speaker A:It's not the same as how it used to be.
Speaker A:I am a dirty water hot dog guy.
Speaker A:I don't mind them now that they're on the spinning little grill or whatever, that's cool.
Speaker A:Or a flat top, that's fine.
Speaker A:But I like it.
Speaker A:The old days, I want it out.
Speaker B:The dirty water.
Speaker A:Yeah, 100%.
Speaker B:That so good.
Speaker A:And it does wonders for your immune system.
Speaker A:I don't know what the hell is in there, but you never get sick.
Speaker A:I'm all about the chili dogs, by the way.
Speaker A:Oh, yeah, me too.
Speaker C:All about the chili dogs.
Speaker A:Me too.
Speaker B:I will say, do you ever put mustard on your chili dog?
Speaker A:So I grew up in Miami.
Speaker A:There's a place down there called Our Betters.
Speaker B:They've been around since the 50s.
Speaker A:Yeah, I've been there.
Speaker A:I do an moc mustard onion chili.
Speaker B:That's the best chili dog.
Speaker B:Mustard onion chili all day.
Speaker A:The place he's talking about, though, is, is they're legit.
Speaker C:And it's.
Speaker A:It's been around for forever now.
Speaker D:Hey, have you ever been part of a statewide movement to change a law that seems horrifically unfair to small producers in your state?
Speaker D:Well, now we can say that.
Speaker D:Really excited to report this week that the state legislation change tied to the Florida small poultry permit is completely wiped off the table.
Speaker D:They have withdrawn the resolution to change the definition of dress in the state.
Speaker D: th in Tallahassee at: Speaker D:And that will be at 9am I believe.
Speaker D:We are thrilled by the public's response.
Speaker D:We actually ended up shutting down the email address that was attached to this proposal.
Speaker D:We even partially shut down the FDAC server because of the overwhelming response.
Speaker D:There were a lot of people involved in getting the word out.
Speaker D:And we are so thrilled that our farmers are able to keep doing things to the USDA standard and that the state is listening to us in this process.
Speaker D:Please pay more attention to what's going on in Florida by following our feed.
Speaker D:And we are so happy to be a part of this.
Speaker A:Thanks for your time, chef.
Speaker A:Let's get Pooch on the phone, man.
Speaker A:I know he's.
Speaker A:He's over at the Uncle Sam Jam in New Orleans.
Speaker A:Pooch, you there?
Speaker C:I am, sir.
Speaker A:How are y', all, man?
Speaker A:If I was any better, I'd be you.
Speaker A:How are you doing, baby?
Speaker C:Well, I mean, I'd say if I was any better, I'd be like, you guys.
Speaker C:You guys are eating, you know, airline breast stuff or wild mushrooms and crude with a, you know, some sort of print.
Speaker C:Fresh, I believe I heard.
Speaker C:And then a smoked caviar.
Speaker C:Yes, that would be delightful.
Speaker C:It's a little too hot for that over here.
Speaker C:We, as always, this.
Speaker C:These type of things are full with stress and what have you just on your own team and everything you're trying to get accomplished.
Speaker C:But other people who are ill prepared in their own sanitation, as chefs out there, listen, anybody with a food truck and make sure your sanitation is up to par, because you're not only hurting the public, but not doing that.
Speaker C:You're hurting other chefs of people that are trying to get their stuff going and get inspected.
Speaker A:I mean, you're hearing it live.
Speaker A:How many.
Speaker A:How many people are you cooking for over there?
Speaker C:So we are cooking for the.
Speaker C:So kind of bring it back to this fourth of July here, But this is a ton of a time where we also honor our first responders and military, national guard, all of the people, because it's hurricane season, so us being that we, you know, you guys just got to know what a hurricane last year as well.
Speaker C:So you know how it feels even two blocks from your home.
Speaker C:It was really, really bad, but.
Speaker C:But here.
Speaker C:So we honor our first responders, and we do a lot of different things for that.
Speaker C:So we're looking for the first responders from multiple parishes that come around.
Speaker C:So we're cooking for 10,000 first responders and their families.
Speaker C:Cumulatively, let's say it's probably 7,000 first responders.
Speaker C:And then we feed their families too.
Speaker C:So which makes it about 10,000.
Speaker C:So that's what we do.
Speaker C:And that's what we've been working on kind of really, for the last three days.
Speaker C:So our booth is doing a pirog, which.
Speaker C:And we also tried to feed.
Speaker C:We don't want to feed them carnival food or festival food.
Speaker C:We want to feed them.
Speaker C:It's chefs come together together to give them the best of what they can give to the people that give us the best as well, you know.
Speaker C:So we are doing a kirog, which is basically a kind of a changing word for a boat.
Speaker C:So we're.
Speaker C:We're taking Dongfeng Bakery and taking their selects, setting them out, and actually putting oysters and shrimp in there with a barbecue butter and then kind of brulee, some cheese on top of that, and kind of doing those for the guys, just showing our appreciation.
Speaker C:We're also doing some boudin, but the boudin pretty much sold out already because that girl is like hotcakes.
Speaker A:Oh, my God, that sounds fantastic.
Speaker C:Thank you, sir.
Speaker A:Yeah, man.
Speaker A:No, I tell you what, I wish I had some of that here in the ac.
Speaker A:Of course, you know, of course.
Speaker C:Because there's nothing like, for instance, when you're doing an airline figure breasting crude.
Speaker C:There's nothing like some seafood and a barbecue butter.
Speaker C:Include as well anything in bread that can sop up.
Speaker C:You're using puff pastry, obviously, we're using fresh baguette.
Speaker C:But at the end of the day, we're taking cross cultures and everything that we've learned, whether it be in culinary school, apprenticeships from the brigade system.
Speaker C:Is coffee in France bringing you here to celebrate the American Fourth of July.
Speaker C:You couldn't do that.
Speaker C:Better than what?
Speaker C:Better city than New Orleans, you know.
Speaker A:Man, I'll tell you what, you're saying all the right stuff, Puji.
Speaker A:So listen, when people are getting in line and they're looking for food, what are they ordering the most of?
Speaker C:We are not really where the people are.
Speaker C:The actual concession people are.
Speaker C:We're kind of in operations.
Speaker C:So I guess you would say we're kind of craft service to the source, that kind of thing.
Speaker C:People can just come up, they have a bracelet and get many different offerings that multiple chefs are showing off, are doing for them.
Speaker C:I would assume that there's always snowballs, and snowballs are a big thing, especially when it's 90 degrees, 100 degrees like it is here.
Speaker C:And then, honestly, your festival foods got in New Orleans are a little bit different.
Speaker C:Everything's usually going to be topped with crawfish.
Speaker C:Crawfish, actually this season are still in abundance, even through this hot month.
Speaker C:And then oysters are in abundance, too.
Speaker C:So a lot of chargrilled oysters, udan, crawfish, and then crawfish nachos, crawfish, things like that.
Speaker C:Tacos of otter of every sort.
Speaker C:Lots of Vietnamese food, lots of Honduran food.
Speaker C:Lots of different cultures.
Speaker C:This year's a lot of Indian booths I saw.
Speaker C:So it's really a cross culture of celebrating America, like, culinary wise or through food, epicurean wise, but utilizing all the cultures that are kind of meshing us into what United States history is today.
Speaker A:You're saying it right, man.
Speaker A:Tell us more about Dong Phong and the Vietnamese.
Speaker C:So Vietnamese, about 50 years ago, after the war, New Orleans or India, Primarily New Orleans, but Louisiana has a culture, swamp culture that kind of coincides jungly, just like the agriculture was there.
Speaker C:And then it's a very Catholic city, which they were as well, because, you know, they were occupied by the Frank for a long period of time as well, thus them knowing how to make baguettes and all kinds of French pastries and whatnot, and even just having French class.
Speaker C:Most of the chefs, even though they're vegan, Vietnamese style, they're mostly French classically trained in Asia, one of the only countries that are still French classically trained as chefs out there.
Speaker C:But so there's just a very major, big influence of Vietnamese culture in New Orleans throughout the last 50 years, and primarily within the last, like, 15 years, big resurgence here of Vietnamese people who came back after Katrina and have really just kind of opened up the culinary world to their interpretation of Creole food, adding their style of pizzazz in there.
Speaker C:And it's pretty cool because, you know, I learned this at Bakus when I realized that people come, they're French, classically trained, and then they go back home, and then they come to a place like New Orleans and then get to redevelop that fusion all over again.
Speaker C:And it's kind of a double layer of fusion that makes things taste really good down here.
Speaker A:You know, I asked the question earlier to Chef Parker.
Speaker A:What is the most American cuisine that we have?
Speaker C:I think it's probably the hamburger, man.
Speaker C:That's a universal thing.
Speaker C:No matter anywhere in the world, people, there's always.
Speaker C:There's many different, you know, millions of interpretations of people's, you know, touches on hamburgers.
Speaker C:But there's something nothing like a good old just classic Americana hamburger that everyone from all over the world loves.
Speaker C:So that would be my choice.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Well, I'm.
Speaker A:I'm down for a nice burger too, man.
Speaker A:Especially for tomorrow.
Speaker A:Fourth of July, man.
Speaker A:You got the nice burgers, dogs, fireworks, some bourbon been.
Speaker A:I think you think we're doing good.
Speaker C:What more do you need?
Speaker A:I have two chefs on the line.
Speaker A:What are the biggest pressures between serving, you know, the singular elevated plate versus, you know, ground and pound at an event like Pooches at today?
Speaker C:I Think it's bigger pressure when you're doing elevated dishes.
Speaker C:It requires a team.
Speaker C:It requires people that they can.
Speaker C:They know they can depend on you, and you can depend on them to make every element of that dish the best it can be.
Speaker C:Here, I think it's just more when doing, you know, selling vending or through food trucks, and that would have you festival food, even just disaster relief food and things like that.
Speaker C:I think that it's really about nurturing people and feeding people, and I think it's just about.
Speaker C:It can be.
Speaker C:Obviously, you want everything to taste good.
Speaker C:You want everything to be cooked properly to sanitation purposes or what have you.
Speaker C:But at the end of the day, a lot of these people just come to volunteer, and they.
Speaker C:They enjoy working with chefs and learning and being able to say that they did work with accomplished chefs, but they love to volunteer and give back to these people.
Speaker C:And that, to me, is something that's more fulfilling and more.
Speaker C:Even though it was hard work and it's hot and it's stressful, it's still therapeutic to give back.
Speaker C:And I think when you feel everybody's soul together, doing that for a great cause, it's a.
Speaker C:It makes things way easier than a high, stressed, high volume, you know, Alaminute kind of a kitchen.
Speaker B:Yeah, definitely.
Speaker B:I think the.
Speaker B:I think each one of them equally has a lot of stress involved with it, but they're two completely separate aspects of stress.
Speaker B:Like what pooch is doing right now, it's just, go, go, go, go, go, go, go.
Speaker B:There's.
Speaker B:There's no stop.
Speaker B:You're feeding thousands of people with a small team.
Speaker B:On the elevated side of it, you have a larger team, but every second counts.
Speaker B:It's still go, go, go, but every step takes longer.
Speaker B:So every aspect, every movement, everything you're doing, it's gotta be timed precisely.
Speaker A:I meant that something that when you're doing one, you're almost wishing you were doing the other, right?
Speaker A:It's like, the other one's easier, but then you do the other one, and now you're like, nah, the other one's easier.
Speaker C:Well, I'll tell you what.
Speaker C:You know, Thomas describing that made me have fomo.
Speaker C:It made me want to be in that situation.
Speaker C:And I haven't been in that situation in last two or three years.
Speaker C:I've been in a fine dining situation where we're running service.
Speaker C:And on the last couple of years, my career as a restaurateur, I was usually washing dishes.
Speaker C:You know, that gave me the best excitement I could see.
Speaker C:Everything I understood what was coming back?
Speaker C:All the above.
Speaker C:I had full control of the issue from that aspect, and I wanted to show my people that I was, you know, that I.
Speaker C:Who I was at the end of the.
Speaker C:At the end of my career.
Speaker C:But at the end of the day, I.
Speaker C:That's.
Speaker C:I'm jealous of that.
Speaker C:Those moments that Thomas gets to have now with his staff, because to me, that's the biggest drug.
Speaker C:The biggest drug is the synergy.
Speaker C:It's going to war and everything clicking and the high fives and the hugs and the cigarettes and the.
Speaker C:And they're just, you know, joke.
Speaker C:His jokes afterwards and all of the above, whether it's going out to have beers or it's just having a powwow after, you know, kicking it, by the way, you know, in the milk crates outside those.
Speaker C:That's the adrenaline.
Speaker C:I truly.
Speaker C:And there's no.
Speaker C:It's worth the stress to get to that point.
Speaker C:You know, in my opinion, you know, it's.
Speaker A:When you're talking about that it helps to relieve some of the burnout.
Speaker A:You know, I. I was just thinking of this the other day.
Speaker A:You know, sometimes you finish with a shift at the end of the night, and typically you want to just get your side work done and get the hell out of there, but sometimes that doesn't happen, and you embrace the fact that.
Speaker A:That, you know, you're going to be stuck in that building for an additional hour and a half, two hours, and you kind of find yourself in this position where you're like, you know what?
Speaker A:I'm okay with it.
Speaker A:And then I got my boy over there and my girl over there.
Speaker A:People that, you know, even if you don't necessarily get along with them, you know, they're with.
Speaker B:You're in it together.
Speaker A:You're all in it together, and it's okay.
Speaker A:And it helps to.
Speaker A:In my experiences, that helped to kind of take the edge off of the burn.
Speaker A:The burnout.
Speaker B:Yeah, definitely.
Speaker B:It agreed.
Speaker B:The camaraderie that.
Speaker B:That you have in a kitchen environment, you know, it's.
Speaker B:I just had a kitchen meeting this past Tuesday, two days ago, and I told my whole staff, if you guys are slacking, if you're cutting corners, you're only doing it to hurt yourself.
Speaker B:And the other people, the other 10 people that's sitting around here, because we're the team.
Speaker B:We're the ones working together every single day.
Speaker B:And most days, it's all of us here doing everything we can to get the job done.
Speaker A:What's your earliest culinary memory of the fourth of July?
Speaker B:My dad, of course, he was on the grill.
Speaker B:He did ribs and chicken, and he was so excited because he found this new barbecue sauce line that the grocery store had just come out with, and they had, like, three different heat levels of the barbecue sauce.
Speaker B:And of course, my dad was one of those macho guys, like nothing hurt him.
Speaker B:So he buys the.
Speaker B:The most extreme one.
Speaker B:And that's what he does.
Speaker B:He only does the ribs in the most extreme heat.
Speaker B:Barbecue sauce.
Speaker B:And we're all eating these ribs, dying.
Speaker B:I'm probably like, I don't know, seven, eight years old.
Speaker B:Like, I. I'm crying.
Speaker B:I couldn't even eat the dang things.
Speaker B:And my dad's sitting there, over there.
Speaker B:Oh, yeah, these are good.
Speaker B:These are good.
Speaker B:No, no.
Speaker B:Saw him eat one rib and then he threw the rest away.
Speaker B:Yeah, he ruined fourth of July that year.
Speaker A:Same question, pooch.
Speaker C:Mine's kind of a taste of irony.
Speaker C:The ones that I miss, I missed the smell of.
Speaker C:I missed this.
Speaker C:It doesn't matter what specific time, but I missed the smell of gunpowder from fireworks and barbecue and charcoal brewing.
Speaker C:And then I miss being a kid.
Speaker C:And we'd be in the Pan Hill somewhere, like Burrito Key or Dustin, what have you.
Speaker C:And I'd be.
Speaker C:We'd call.
Speaker C:They'd call us up from the house that we rent and have a huge family.
Speaker C:So we probably had, you know, 40 to 50 people say it and, you know, quadruple Decker house on the beach.
Speaker C:And coming in, running in and not washing off with the hose, not doing anything, pissing everybody off, screaming at me, and running in the kitchen, grabbing whatever the food was, Ended up having sand in the food and chewing sand in my mouth.
Speaker C:Like, those are the fond memories of me just being a dumbass kid.
Speaker C:But those are just.
Speaker C:That's what I think.
Speaker C:Fourth of July.
Speaker C:I think being on the beach, I think being a bad kid.
Speaker C:I think gunpowder from fireworks, and I think the smell it, the smell from the grill, you know, that's just.
Speaker C:Those are the things that I say go.
Speaker A:I love that.
Speaker A:That was a good one.
Speaker A:I have one.
Speaker A: So this was probably: Speaker A:I was about 14, 15, something like this.
Speaker A:And my father was Mr. Fourth of July.
Speaker A:No one was going to outdo this man with fireworks in the 80s.
Speaker A:Back then, he would spend $2,000 on fireworks.
Speaker A:It would last for two days.
Speaker A:We had all the biggest, hard to get, illegal fireworks.
Speaker A:And the entire neighborhood, hundreds of people would drive through, they would come through.
Speaker A: So one year, this year,: Speaker A:And the garage is filled with all this stuff.
Speaker A:People are starting to come over, barbecue, the whole thing.
Speaker A:We had three Dobermans back then.
Speaker A:Fully grown, beautiful animals.
Speaker A:Family dogs.
Speaker A:I'm in my room, my father walks in, he says, hey, hey, Carl Carlo, where's your skateboard?
Speaker A:I says, And I'm looking at him, I'm like, what do you want my skateboard for?
Speaker A:You know, he's like 45 years old or something like this at the time, 40 something.
Speaker A:So what do you want my skateboard for?
Speaker A:Don't worry about it, you know, And I see he's got the leashes, the dog leashes in his hands.
Speaker A:And I looked at the leashes and I looked up at him and I said, dad, don't do what you're going to do.
Speaker A:I knew what he was going to do.
Speaker A:I said, don't.
Speaker A:Don't do it.
Speaker A:He says, ah, Kahlo, give me the.
Speaker A:Give me, give me the board.
Speaker A:Where is it, your closet?
Speaker A:So he goes against.
Speaker A:He gets my skateboard.
Speaker A:It was a Rob Roscoff, by the way.
Speaker A:I'm just saying.
Speaker A:He gets my board.
Speaker A:He goes outside, he brings the dogs.
Speaker A:I'm following him, I'm in tow.
Speaker A:And as he's a 270 pound man on my skateboard with the three dogs pulling him, he went about five feet.
Speaker A:I don't know if it was a little pebble that got stuck under the wheel or whatever, but the skateboard stopped.
Speaker A:He went up in the air and he came down on his ankle.
Speaker A:The ankle broke.
Speaker A:It was a clean break.
Speaker A:The entire bone.
Speaker A:Like all the bones that hold your foot to your leg, they were protruding out of his skin.
Speaker A:And I'm like, I'm like, holy crap.
Speaker A:And I'm looking at him and he's sitting there and I run over to him and he goes, I should have listened to you.
Speaker A:Yeah, he was.
Speaker A:It was pretty crazy.
Speaker A:Well, to finish that story.
Speaker A:Yeah, he went on the ambulance.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:We didn't do any fireworks and it ruined the entire Fourth of July that year.
Speaker A:But I saw that man do something and it boggles my mind.
Speaker A:He says, lean behind me.
Speaker A:Hold me up.
Speaker A:My back.
Speaker A:I'm holding him up by his shoulders.
Speaker A:He grabs his foot and he grabs his leg and he lines it up properly and he pushes the bones back into his back inside.
Speaker B:Oh, my God.
Speaker A:And I'm looking at him and I'm just thinking to myself, I got to do better in school.
Speaker A:I don't want any trouble with this guy.
Speaker A:Like, and you know any.
Speaker A:And he Ate it like a.
Speaker A:Like a.
Speaker A:Like a champ.
Speaker A:Unbelievable.
Speaker A:Anyway, that was my Fourth of July story.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker C:The only time in your life you were right was Florence Galar.
Speaker A:Well, you know, it's funny, because.
Speaker A:True story.
Speaker C:I keep that memory myself, too.
Speaker A:True story.
Speaker A:He would actually say that.
Speaker A:He goes, you know, man, I think back to that.
Speaker A:I should have listened to you, kid.
Speaker A:I should have listened to you.
Speaker A:I was like, yeah, I know.
Speaker A:Hey, Pooch man, I know.
Speaker A:You got to get back to it.
Speaker A:How do people find you on the.
Speaker A:On the socials, buddy?
Speaker C:At Foodie Patootie?
Speaker C:F O O D I E P A T U T I E. Also, you can always send me email@Roseraalkandtalk.com anybody that's looking to do sponsorships with us, partnerships, any of the above, feel free to shoot me that email and let's talk.
Speaker C:Guys, we got a lot of things in the burner, and we'd love to partner with you.
Speaker A:Have a wonderful rest of the day.
Speaker A:Have a beautiful Fourth of July, and I'll catch you on the other side, baby.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker C:Same man things.
Speaker C:Love y', all, man.
Speaker C:Kiss your babies, man.
Speaker C:Happy Fourth of July.
Speaker B:Take care, Boots.
Speaker C:All right.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Poochie is a good dude, man.
Speaker A:I.
Speaker A:He's doing a lot of stuff for us.
Speaker A:Also.
Speaker A:He's out there.
Speaker A:He's doing the Hustle.
Speaker A:Thomas, as always, man, you did.
Speaker A:You did terrific.
Speaker A:What are you doing for the weekend?
Speaker B:I'm working, bro.
Speaker A:I should have done that.
Speaker B:Yeah, we've got.
Speaker B:I'm throwing a Fourth of July pool bash at our hotel resort.
Speaker B:We've got live DJs coming to the pool bar both Friday and Saturday.
Speaker B:Some drink specials from Jim Beam and Surfside, of course, some of that barbecue food we've been about talking, talking about.
Speaker A:All day long here, man.
Speaker A:You're living the.
Speaker A:You.
Speaker A:You're definitely living that restaurant life.
Speaker A:All right.
Speaker B:How do people find you on Instagram?
Speaker B:Chef Underscore, Thomas Parker.
Speaker A:I love it.
Speaker A:Next time you come, we're bringing back some Aussie Select.
Speaker A:I want you to do a couple of dishes that have in my.
Speaker A:Right on.
Speaker A:Awesome.
Speaker A:Johnny boy, those pictures, phenomenal.
Speaker A:I like how you put them on a tv, too.
Speaker A:All right, listen, you guys are great.
Speaker A:Had a wonderful day today.
Speaker A:Can't wait till next week.
Speaker A:You won't be here, but we are out.
