I'm in the kitchen with Charlie Bigham. So what have we got here, Charlie? My brand new pan-fried pad thai noodles. Noodles? But you're Mr Fish Pie Guy. Guilty. And while ovens rule at roasting... The pan is king of noodling. Whether it's pad thai, yakisoba or laxer, finding that perfect texture is a bottomless noodle rabbit hole. But all I have to do is stir it in the pan for six minutes, right? Bingo! Try the new Charlie Bigham's Asian pan-fried noodle range, handmade in my kitchen. Pan-fried in yours. So today we're talking about identity, culture, burning credibility and what it takes to build something that actually means something. Taylor, when you look at everything that's happened over the last couple of years, does it feel like it happened fast? Or does it feel like every step took forever to get here? Let's get into it. I feel like it's a combination of both and I feel like sometimes the day's dragged on and then before I knew it we were getting into servers and prepping for what needed to be done next in opening day. Welcome to the program, my man. What you do is real. And for those who don't know you yet, you're new to the market here. You're a badass. Let's talk about what you did today in the kitchen. You did two dishes. You did duck and then you also did steak taco. Start with the duck. Get into that. The duck is my transition away from wintertime and december time. Light, fresh, light on the stomach. We did a mole verde which is not a traditional mole when they do dried chilies and stuff like that. I went on a more fresh route, fresh pilano, fresh calipeño, cilantro. Alongside that I paired the duck with a cherry compote for deglaze with brandy. And I did a fresh micro cilantro salad with pear and a chocolate balsamic glaze. When we were filming, I mentioned to you that pears remind me of my grandmother. And that's special for me. So when chefs actually come through here and can conjure up some sort of nostalgic feeling with food, we really appreciate that. I know I do. And I'm speaking for John. He does too. So thank you for that. The duck was fantastic. Thank you. Absolutely. But here's the kicker. It wasn't even the star dish. It was badass, but it wasn't even the star dish. You came through with these tacos today, man. I got to tell you, we've had enough people on the program that have done tacos. And you know what? Everybody's done a great job. By the way, I'm not going to talk about anybody if their dish wasn't great. I'm just not going to promote it so much. But everybody has done a really terrific job with the product that they bring, the dishes that they do. Brother, that taco that that taco that you did today was stupid delicious. Everything, everything was the smoky marinade. Your in-house masa. Dude, everything was fabulous. Right on. You, you mentioned in your answer to the question. It happened pretty quickly. Your lovely wife is sitting right here. You guys are doing amazing things. And your resume is pretty enhanced. Jean-Jour is Daniel. What did you take from those experiences to bring here into your new restaurant and Tampa Bay? By the way, freshly married too. You guys got a lot going on. Yeah. I would say from my experience, I started in New Orleans. I got made into a cook. I feel like that's where I made my bones, where I learned volume, just hard work, their repetition. And then those advanced places in New York where the competition is just elevated is where I feel like I honed my skills. From all that, you know, I took, I took what I liked and what I didn't like from places. I liked the pride, my work that they teach up there. I like the attention to detail things of that nature, the kitchen etiquette, working clean, working fast, loving what you do. What I didn't like from my experiences was kind of like the harsher reality of being in the kitchen. You know, yes, I learned a lot from my experience. I owe a lot of great shifts. Thanks. But I'm just doing what I love to do on presenting who I am in the kitchen. As far as me and my wife go, as a couple, I mean, I feel like we spend every second together. And that's not like most couples. I don't feel like we need our space. I feel like we don't almost don't even like it. We both love food. We love going out and having fun. And we're taking that and doing it right at the restaurant. I feel like we've made the restaurant our home. Just last Tuesday, a couple of days ago, I will say there's a couple of days ago, Sink of the Mayo was actually the year mark of our marriage, our first year. It was our anniversary. So we took it and we threw a huge party at Connemore and it went down. Sink of the Mayo. I mean, this is so apropos. That is your anniversary date. I mean, how fitting is that? That's pretty awesome. Hey, man, I'm going to have a, I'm going to, let's open a Mexican restaurant. Okay, cool. Oh, by the way, you know, we got married and yeah, it's a Sink of the Mayo. You can't, I mean, I don't know if you can write that. You know, you're talking about you and your wife. You open this restaurant together and you're also building a marriage. A lot of people are going to go, oh my God, me, I would never be able to work with my wife. Lover to death, right? But I don't want, I couldn't do it. 0.0% possibility of that ever happening. What has this entire experience taught you about trust and partnership? I've seen that the way we are, we compliment each other. She's able to pick up the slack where, you know, I don't have it all, all together there and vice versa. You know, I could teach her things about numbers and some of the stuff in the front of the house, you know, mostly mechanical stuff like paperwork and stuff like that. But she's the personality. She brings the vibe. She hires the people that give the customers the experience that we want to give them, you know, because everybody I know loves Kayla. There's not a single person has anything bad to say about her. I mean, you know, I don't know, maybe. But she is able to execute who she is in the front of the house from her previous jobs or friends. Everybody has come extremely excited to see her and she's been able to hire staff accordingly and have people who do that for our guests, get mentioned in reviews, all that sort of stuff. I feel like we're just that, we're the dynamic duo. I noticed the zone that you guys are in, even though you were the one cooking today, we're filming with you. Obviously, she's here to back you up. And there's little nuances that you communicate between each other with glances and looks and whatnot. I can see how in a restaurant environment, there's communication happening without speaking. I saw it here. But I want to touch on one of the things I know about you is your repetition, how you actually work. Your workflow is cut, prep, work, clean. Every action that you're doing has a cleaning action attached to it. I mean, that's because of some of these places that you've found yourself learning, building your experience base from. I feel like one of the places I worked at, Daniel, they had some models there that I really like. They said that a good kitchen is a clean kitchen. I said a quiet kitchen is a fast kitchen. Me personally, I feel like your station, where you're working, where you're at, is a representation of your mind. And if your space is cluttered and it is dirty and there's stuff everywhere, that's how your thinking is and that's how your execution is going to be. But if you have a place for everything, you have a plan for everything, your space is neat, organized, that's how your execution is going to be. That's a representation of your mind. That's something I try and teach my cooks at the restaurant as well. John and I did a photo. Well, John is obviously the photographer. We did a photo shoot at Camille in Orlando. It's a Michelin restaurant chef tongue. This guy is a beast. He's a beast. Amazing work this cat does. Like stupid, beautifully thought out, amazing dishes. And what we experienced in one dish that we shot, John shot, I was there, I don't know, whatever, tagging along. This man has an action with another action. Every single action is cleaning and there's a clock for something. He's a machine. But he's mission, I mean, he's freaking, he's up there. But guess what? I'm watching you today and you possess that. So I noticed these things and I just think it's, you know, obviously we're doing a podcast, we talk about stuff. And I thought it was, I thought it was a good point to bring up. You know, we see a lot of people that come through here. There's a lot of chefs, beautiful chefs, great chefs. That's something I noticed and I just wanted to commend you for that. I really believe that what you're doing at your restaurant is fantastic. And I think you're going to, you know, far be it from me, I'm not the end, I'll be on anything. But I see success based on your food that you put out and how I saw you work today and how you communicate with your wife, man. God bless you. Thank you so much. So you didn't, you didn't grow up cooking Mexican food and you didn't have a traditional mentor in it. What did that learning process actually look like when you decided to take it on seriously? So for Mexican cuisine, it wasn't an opportunity. I got offered an executive chef position at a restaurant and it was a new opening restaurant at like four weeks out to get the job done. And both of the guys were from California and even like from the tasting, you know, I knew a little bit about Mexican cuisine. I just didn't want to, you know, for lack of better terms, half-asset. I went and got some mascarina from the store, made my own tortillas and used those for the plate up for the tasting, for the job. And, you know, they said that stood out to them. Walk and Talk Media is proudly supported by Rack Porcelain USA, creating durable, beautifully designed tableware for chefs and hospitality professionals. Learn more at rackporcelain.com. So they had another chef that worked in their company and he was Mexican and he did give me a little guidance. He told me about the guys who did the next to model and stuff like that. But the rest was really just me just getting obsessive. And that's how I am. When I'm into something, I'm really obsessed over it. Lots of studying, lots of research, diving into books, going out to eat. And there's a high presence of, you know, high-level Mexican restaurants in New York, Alex DuPak has MP on. Enrique Alvarez has two of his restaurants up there. So like I said, I just got into the books. So even one of the gifts for me getting the job with them, they gave me one of Alex DuPak's books on tacos. And so I just, what kind of, what's school of my own in a sense? So was Mexican cuisine personal for you from the beginning? Or did you fall into that? It wasn't personal for me. I mean, I've always loved Mexican food. I think it was more fell into it. Once I started to learn about the cuisine, I come to realize how much resonated with me and how much I actually liked it. Whose idea was this to open a restaurant? I don't know. I don't know if it was either one of ours. Well, she's given me the wink and a nod that it was you all day long. I mean, she's, and she's smiling and nodding her head. Yes. I don't know. I ask myself every day, whose idea was this? No, it was definitely mine. I've been married for 11 years. We've been together probably 12, 13 years, something like that. We still can't decide on going out to eat. All right. And I know that's a, that's this very cliche thing to put out there. It's the truth though. You guys open a restaurant together. Was there any crossover on, hey, I want Mexican. No man, I want Italian or whatever. Or did you both say, like, you know, that, you know, Eureka moment, hey, Mexican. She was there with me when I took on the job. And a little after that time, we started to get closer because we had known each other for a while. And then I feel like we kind of started to take our relationship more serious. We love Mexican food. We went out to eat from Mexican food all the time because she would go with me. I'm like, I need to go, you know, research. But we said we'd go eat at Mexican restaurants all the time. And when we left New York, we just didn't see the same caliber. And we were, you know, made us kind of sad. Fast forward, we both knew, like, we want to bring Mexican food to the side of Florida. My father would look at this situation and he would, he would say to you, to your face, he would go, you got a lot of bowls. That's what he was just like that. Okay. And you would say, run, run, run. What are you talking about? You have 0.0% Hispanic in you. You're Belgian, you're African American. Who the hell are you to open a Mexican restaurant? That's like amazing cuisine. That's got to be like ultra confidence. What gave you that confidence? I love what I do, man. I love food. And I'm a chef at heart. And I feel like us as chefs, we have this freedom. You know, we're not bound to a certain cuisine just because of our technical background. We could go anywhere in the world if you give us a book and give us a recipe. And we don't have to leave our house. We don't have to leave our kitchen. You know, I owe credit to the owners of the original job where I started to learn about Mexican cuisine because they were extremely hard to please. I'd have every other dish, you know, one try. This is awesome. And I have dishes where they're like, you got one more chance before I tell you to try something else. So it really challenged me. So I guess the confidence kind of start there. If I could be happy, I could make them happy and then make the group that they were involved with happy when they came to eat at the restaurant and could sell and do Mexican cuisine. And at the bottom of Manhattan, you know, I had learned some decent level of it. And ever since then, it's only progressed because they had a guy who sold the next of mall to all of New York there. They didn't have that here. So that was the next step I got here. I was, we just wanted to go out and get tacos. We look for a next to mall everywhere. Nobody had it. I just don't settle. I'm like, I want the next of mall. I'll figure out how to do it myself. And then I was the next phase. You actually produce and sell to restaurants. Yeah, that's how it started before I had any kind of deal or anything going on. I started making the masa at the house. I was like, well, why don't we let people know we're doing this? So I started going to restaurants and people were purchasing the masa from me. And we carried that on to the restaurant. Let's talk about your background for a minute. African American, Belgian. What kind of food were you eating growing up? Growing up, let me go straight. Just Creole cuisine, gumbo, Gemalaya, crawfish. I mean, you name it. Lee's Smilin. Of course. That's where we connected when we met. She was like, I'm Louisiana. And we're on my ear for it. I'm like, from where? I think shortly when we bring Leon, I think you guys are going to have to talk some like, some Louisiana talk. I'm just saying. So you have a unique culture where you come from your home. But then of course, you learned through being taught and mentored classical cooking, which has obviously that there's a French element, heavy French. Does any of that translate to what you're doing now, Economor? There are techniques that can translate to each cuisine, for sure. I want to say with my Creole background, the thing that translates the most to Mexican food, I think would be the depth of flavor and the uniqueness of the cuisine. Because in Louisiana, if you think of Creole food, you don't think about it. Anywhere else but Louisiana. When you say Mexican cuisine, you don't think about California. You don't think about New York. You think about Mexico. And I feel like they both, they have their own unique cuisines. They date back years and years and years. Mexico's a little older. It's the, I want to say the variety of flavors. And there's so many different ways you can go with anything that you're doing in the cuisine. Same from my home and the same from Mexican cuisine. Classical French though, very complicated. A lot of touches, if you're putting out an elevated dish, you have to, and let's just say it's a busy establishment and you have a brigade, there's the whole higher archy of the kitchen. What you're doing here, you love it. But it's also, I don't want to say easier, but in terms of efficiency to put it out, it's less touches, right? Absolutely. I'm a huge fan of simplicity. I don't think you need to complicate things, especially if they all can speak for themselves, just like the, the masa. You know, I could cook that, I could make the masa correctly. If I make a tortilla out of it, I could serve it to you on a plate with lime and salt. And that alone would speak for itself. You don't have to add all these, you don't have to have 16 ingredients on a plate to make the food good. And that's actually, you know, that's, I don't want to say motto, but that way of thinking is heavy in French cuisine. You know, I've heard a French chef say, he said, if you want to make something good, take this one ingredient, take a carrot, and make a dish out of this. And what it speaks to is the simplicity. You don't need a bunch of ingredients to make something good. Support for Walk and Talk Media comes from Metro Food Service Solutions, trusted by kitchens that need storage and workflow that actually does the job. Learn more at Metro.com. So that's, that kicks off on May 14th, nomination start May 14th. And then afterwards, like less than two weeks afterwards, we kick off restaurant months. So it used to be restaurant week, it used to be Tampa Bay restaurant week. Now, but to give everybody, because we have so many restaurants to participate, we want to give everybody a chance to check more, check out more restaurants. It is the entire month of June. And because we have to do things over the top, there's two meat the chefs. So thanks to our partners with Visit Tampa Bay and Visit St. B Clearwater, we have a meat the chefs Tampa and a meat the chefs St. Pete, where I gather at least 14 chefs in a room, and they do all of these amazing samples, and you can go and you can try 14 restaurants in one night. And you get to meet the chefs behind the culinary creations. So they, I dragged them out of their kitchens and put them in front of people, and to make you talk to the people. That's scary. It is. I mean, for the people. Some to, you know, it can go either way. Yeah. Leah, are you seeing diners becoming more interested in chef telling personal and culturally layered stories through food? Is that what you're getting out there? I mean, creative loafing, Tampa Bay is, you know, more stuff that's happening before I do, which is crazy to me. You know, you'll send me a note. Hey, do you hear about the, you know, place number X is opening up. And I'm like, what the hell is that? I don't even know what you're talking about. I mean, you're, you're like a, you know, one eyeball forward and then here to the track. Yep. That's, that is my job. Yeah. I mean, we, we are known as the cool people to go to for all the cool things around town. So arts, music, entertainment, politics, food, drink, you name it. Like we, we, we talk about it and we touch on it. We even have our food issue. We do special issues. So we have our food issue coming out coming out in the middle of June on June 18th. And because I have a mouth and I don't stop talking. One of our editors was working on an article on the fruit float. Like she did, she discovered the fruit float, which if you don't know the fruit float, it's adorable. It's like this little, we say Piro, but everybody else, I think calls it like a canoe or something canoe. And, and, and it's this woman and she is phenomenal. She's adorable, super pretty. She's got an entire canoe full of fruit on the water. And she's got this little trolling motor that she just drives around the boating community selling fruit to everybody out on the community. And it's fresh and she cuts it right in front of you. And she, I've paid $20 for a pineapple before on the water, because let me tell you, it is delicious and refreshing. And she's got to heen and shimoy and everything else. So she became so successful that she had to add on more boats. So we were in the office and I was hearing my editor talk about this and stuff. And I was like, would you know about the taco boat and the hot dog boat and the coffee boat? And, and there was like a burger boat too. She was like, what? I was like, yeah, there is an entire food boat community out there. And, and, and if you've never had a fresh hot dog standing in the middle of the ocean off a sandbar, that hot dog just hits different. So I gotta tell you right away, from Miami, right? And, you know, we have sandbars. We have our beer can islands up there, you know, down here, rather. We have all that stuff. And no, 30 years ago, support for walk and talk media comes from crab island seafood dip, creating chef driven crab dips made with real seafood and bold flavor. Learn more at crab island seafood dip.com. I'm eating hot dogs at the sandbar and hall over. And I was going to bring, I was going to say this very thing to you, but you beat me to it. Yes. Yes. Fresh hot dogs on a sandbar, pineapple on a sandbar. This is the life I want to live. Yeah. Yeah. And the hot dog boat now is apparently, it's called naughty dogs, like nautical. Naughty dogs. I love it. It's adorable. So now the, now naughty dogs has become so popular that he has a second boat and he just pulls right up to you too. And everybody just starts flocking in that dog boat. And there's like a talk about too. And the talk about is great, but we always see the hot dog boat. So now we have expanded that entire article to cover floating food. So yeah, we absolutely are seeing the fact that diners are becoming more intellectually invested in the stories behind the food that they're eating. They want to know where it came from. They want to know where the chef came from. They want to know where the inspiration came from. You know, did you, where, where did you learn how to do this? And that's a cool, that's the really cool part about Beats The Chefs is you get like this unique opportunity as a guest to, to become kind of your own reporter and, and interview these chefs and, and hear, hear them talk. Because if you, if you get the unique opportunity and the rare opportunity to hear a chef talk about his love of food, it is a beautiful moment. And that's what diners are wanting. Like everybody's wanting the total package. I'm going to use chef Taylor as a case in point. Nobody would just know that he's from New Orleans. Nobody would know that he's of a mixed cultural background. Nobody would know. I mean, you almost look like you could be Latin, but now that there's a story line, hey, you are Cajun, you have a mixed cultural background, you're from New Orleans, and you open a Mexican restaurant and your food is awesome. I think that's a story to be heralded. You, you fit that bill. And here's the question for you now, Taylor. When somebody who either is a chef that's Mexican or somebody who's just of Mexican heritage tries your food and tells you, you're doing it right, what sort of validation are you getting? It's an immense feeling of euphoria, man. Can't really describe it. I've had a few chefs come in. I've had people come say they were straight from Mexico or people that are American, but they, their work brought them to Mexico and they lived there for a set amount of years and say that they feel like they're right back in Mexico when they have the food. It's a profound feeling. I really, I can't put it into words. So I can appreciate what you're saying. It isn't like I grew up with a camera in my hand. You know, John's been doing photography for 25 plus years. I picked up a camera, I don't know, a year ago. I mean, I've always been with you doing the stuff that you're doing, right? But I never touched a camera. I didn't know how to turn it on, you know? I would hold, I would go with John and hold lights for him and, you know, I was just there to help. So the fact now that I'm doing video and whether it's John or some other people who are in the business, in media, and they give me even the smallest, like Atta Boy, I'm over the freaking moon with that. It's an amazing feeling. What you're doing is much more relevant to an emotional, euphoric feeling when somebody, a chef, tells you, like a Mexican chef tells you, hey man, good freaking job. If I'm you, I'm sprinting to the biggest smile ever. For someone of Mexican descent, be satisfied with my food and tell me I'm representing Mexican cuisine correctly. You know, there's a lot of chefs out there with the new wave. They want to be, they want to get their Michelin star. They want James Beard. I'll take a, I'll take a personal Mexican descent to tell me the food's good. That's my award right there. You're around food a lot. We're in the business of food. We're in the business of media. We're in the business of sharing our thoughts and bringing the attention of chefs and restaurants and culture to the masses. How do you feel about what this is? Absolutely. I think the biggest litmus test is having someone, when you're putting a specific type of cuisine out there, a culturally specific type of cuisine out there, having people from that culture go to your restaurant and then return back regularly. That's huge. Like that's your, that's your gold star right there. That is your, I'm doing it right. I am succeeding in life. I am doing a good job. You've heard, I know that you're, I feel like we've even had this conversation before. Forgive me if we didn't. It was someone, chefs like Taylor oftentimes get flack for not staying in their lane. Right? Like, all right. Hey, you're, you're, you're from Louisiana. You're a New Orleans kid, right? Stick with your gumbo, dude. Like, what are you doing doing this? This isn't for you. Right? Stick with your mbalaya. You know? I believe one of the best compliments that you can give to any culture is to pick up the cuisine and respectfully recreate it and make it beautiful. I'm not saying change it, whatever. I'm saying to embrace it, cook it, and deliver it in the best way possible. I think that's the, that's the biggest, uh, beautiful, most beautiful thing you could do to a culture, whether it's yours or somebody else's, who cares? That's the biggest tribute you can do. Like, that's, that's honoring another culture and embracing the other, another culture. And that's kind of what the melting pot of this country is. And honestly, like taking who, who we are, like who Taylor and I are, uh, from, from a cultural standpoint, like being Creole and Cajun, that is what our people did. Our people came from, from all different walks of life. They came from the Caribbean. They came from French. They came from Canada. They came, there was a Native American influence in there. And that's how you got the Cajun and Creole cuisine is it was influential of all of the cultures that, that settled in South Louisiana and in New Orleans. And you can travel from one side of the state to the other and see all sorts of various interpretations of, of our culture. And honestly, I'm very appreciative that you didn't open a Cajun restaurant or, or a Creole restaurant because it is like our cuisine is very subjective. I feel like if somebody wants Creole Cajun food, they're going to go to Creole Cajun land. They're not, they're not thinking about any other state to go to. I feel the same way. I feel like if you, if you want a good bowl of gumbo, unless you know somebody who knows how to make it, just go to Louisiana. I wish that we had Pooch on the call today. You know, he's Mr. Deloitte. One of our, you know, teammates here. He's in, he lives out there. He's a decorated chef and he's a good dude. This is his conversation to be had and I stole it from you. You hear me? Do you hear me? I stole it right from you. No, but in all seriousness, you know, one of the things that you mentioned to me, and I thought it was pretty interesting is you don't see other Mexican restaurants as competition. That was a conversation that we had in our, in our prep call. This session of walk and talk media is made possible by Citrus America, delivering fresh Florida citrus and juice solutions to food service professionals nationwide. Learn more at CitrusAmerica.com. A lot of chefs are ultra competitive. You didn't come off that way in any respect. In fact, you embraced it. I can't, I can't see the miscompetition because, you know, I'm forever a student, especially Mexican cuisine. I'm not from Mexico. I'm not Mexican descent. So anybody who's doing Mexican food, especially if they're Mexican, whatever the case may be, I have nothing but appreciation for my job, nothing but inspiration from it. Mexican chefs who've come in at the restaurant, anything they have to say, I'm there with a notepad and pen, you know? So it's hard to look at them like competition when it feels like we're all on the same team. We want to represent this cuisine to the best that we can. A few weeks ago, we went out to your restaurant, Cone More, and it was for a sip and share through Creative Little Fink. First of all, I thought you were Hispanic. Like I'm looking at you like, all right, that's cool. I didn't think twice about it. I just a suit because you have a Latin look. I mean, I'm getting a nod from Wifey. And I didn't think nothing about it until I found out you weren't. And then I was like, oh my God, that's the story. Like this is the vein of this whole thing. But what I noticed from meeting you that first day, both of you actually, you're very gracious people. We meet, we're standing in the pass over there by the kitchen, and you were just like, you know, you're just like, you're standing over there by the kitchen. And you were just really asking me questions. And you were, I didn't expect that. Most people, you know, if I walk in the room, they clam up, don't ask me why. But you were very open-minded, you were talkative, you're, you know, asking me stuff. And I was, you know what, I really appreciated that. So you have a gracious personality. I think that is probably one of the, I think that's one of the secret sauces to success in hospitality. Absolutely. I, speaking on the competition side of things, I, and when we've talked about this too, I think, is the fact that you, you can be one of two different business owners. And I, and I, and I don't say chef or restaurant owners, because this applies to all business. So we see this a lot, especially with Best of the Bay season. Speaking to the competition of things, and this always comes about during Best of the Bay season, you know, no matter what type of business owner you are, whether you have a Mexican restaurant, or a French restaurant, or a roofing business, or you own a plastic surgery center, or you're a wedding planner. If you view the same businesses that are in the business of you as competition in a negative way, it affects you, like internally, then you start to internalize negativity and stuff. We as a community, and just as a community in this Tampa Bay area, have a duty to uplift each other. Um, you know, and it's so good to see when other businesses, like don't view each other as competition, and it's like, what do you need? How can I help you? How can you help me? There's four million people here in the Tampa Bay area. There is plenty enough to go around. You just have to figure out how to tap it. Four out of five hospitality professionals have faced at least one mental health challenge during their career. Stress, burnout, anxiety. These are everyday realities in kitchens, dining rooms, and bars across North America. The Burnchef Project North America is here to change that. They provide free, anonymous support, direct care, training, and self-care resources designed specifically for chefs, servers, and hospitality staff. From therapy services to educational modules, they're answering the call for help in one of the toughest industries. It can't be done alone. Your financial support makes this possible, ensuring that every hospitality professional has access to the tools they need to thrive. Join the movement in breaking the stigma. Email uscanada at theburnchefproject.com for donation details and mailing information, or learn more about the mission at theburnchefproject.com. So then Taylor, guest comes in. They experience the hospitality. They experience your food. They experience Konamor. What do you hope they leave saying after all of that when they leave your restaurant? I feel like we want what any other restaurant owner wants. We want them to have a good experience. As I've gotten more into this, owning a restaurant, I realized it's not just about the good food. You have to have good food. It's not just about having good cocktails. You have to have those. And it's not just about having a friendly staff. You have to have that. It's every element. It's not like it used to be, you go out, all the food's good. You sit down, eat. All right, that was awesome when you leave. People want, it's more than that. People want a cultivated experience. And that's what we want our guests to have. We want them to leave and feel like they had a good experience. We've all been to a place or worked at a place where ownership were kind of a-holes. And in the end, the culture starts at the top and trickles down. So how the culture is is going to affect the output of the kitchen, the hospitality level of the front of the house. And all of that dictates what you just said. All of it is relevant to you and your wife or the owners now. So it is your culture that is going to trickle down into the staff that are going to be taking care of your guests. I mean, the door's a bit open for three months. There's a lot of work to do from where you were to three months, and now three months to, you know, 10 years. A lot of work has to get done. I think you mentioned you're not into following or chasing the accolade, the award. The award comes from holding on to the guest and building the reputation. Lee, in your experiences, personalities like this, cooking skills like this, work in Tampa Bay. Yes, absolutely. Building that relationship between owner, chef, front of house, and consumer is paramount to success. You have to connect with people. I mean, honestly, we're talking about, you know, like walk and talk media, for example. We have the same vision, really. Chefs come in, restaurant industry folks come in, farmers, manufacturers, distributors, all of the different sectors of the food industry sit in this chair. And we have these really interesting conversations, and we talk about a lot of interesting things. Important things to the community, to the business part of this at large. What do I really want? I want you to leave and go, hey, these guys are organized. They might have an equipment pick up here every now and again. But you know what, what they do is really great. And there's a service to this. We want you as the guest to feel the service. We want you as the guest in the studio to be like, you know, we were welcomed here. And this was a really great turnout. I can identify with what you're saying. And Lee, would you just backed up him saying, 100% Lee, what's hot Tampa Bay, baby? Meet the chefs, man. Come on out and get the tickets before they sell out. This is a small event. So once those tickets are gone, they're gone. So the food scene in Tampa Bay, because we're gearing up for restaurant month, is about to kick off. And I've got some amazing chefs lined up for these two events. I'm so super excited. And then not to mention the competition heating up with best of the day. You can go to vote.cltampa.com for nominations. And I will be hiding behind my laptop, answering thousands of emails that come in. It's always a fun time in here. So absolutely, like what's hot in Tampa Bay, creative loofing is just we're on fire. And now that we're locally owned, it's even better. And we're so excited to be partnering with you guys on the 200th episode celebration of Walk and Talk Media at the Tampa Club. I'm super, super, super excited to see that. I've said it a million times. I would throw parties if I knew people would show up. You're showing me the analytics of who's like, it's already like almost 50 people so far. 45, something like that. Yeah, it's you're over 50 people. We're at like 60 so my people don't know. Yeah, I'm over the moon with that. And that's freaking awesome. People stay tuned on what's coming up next with that. Guys, I sincerely appreciate all of you, John, of course, what you do amazing as usual, to come here today and share with us. Taylor, how do we have people find you? You can find us right on Instagram, man. Connemore.fl. Me and my wife have access to socials. Send us a message. Heard that. Ms. Lee Wilson. You can find us on Instagram at seal Tampa Bay and then meet the chefs, Tampa Bay dot com, vote dot seal, Tampa dot com, seal, Tampa dot com for the website. We're on the tiki-tok now. That's always a fun one. So you can find us on tiktok at seal Tampa Bay. Awesome. You guys are freaking amazing. And guess what? We are out.
