0:00
You know we know it takes a special track to do this.
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6 seconds
Itโ€™s just a fluid chef. Iโ€™m here to remind yโ€™all Iโ€™m sick with it. My name is hot. Itโ€™s ubiquitous meaning itโ€™s one
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and the same. Simple and plain. Iโ€™m all about my paper. The bacon chitter and pain. I got these lanes running for the border. The talent. Keep it flowing like itโ€™s water. But here we go. There we go.
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24 seconds
Creeping to a low speed. Is it him and his friend sitting in the nose? Play it cool.
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35 seconds
Welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome to another episode of the Taste Music Here Food Podcast Show. I am your host Ed
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43 seconds
Porter. This is the place for food, music, and culture and how they all connect. Today we have some very special
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51 seconds
guests, the S in the building tonight. Um, this is uh itโ€™s a itโ€™s a very I like when
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59 seconds
things come together like super duper organically and natural and how this all happened. The connection between myself
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1 minute, 7 seconds
and these two gentlemen um was exactly that. So before we get started, Iโ€™m going to attempt to pay these gentlemen
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1 minute, 17 seconds
the proper flowers they deserve by this intro. So here we go. Where the streets meet, the skillet, and culture gets
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1 minute, 24 seconds
cooked low and slow, todayโ€™s guests are stirring the pot in all the right ways.
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1 minute, 29 seconds
What started as a wedding favor became a bold brand thatโ€™s now rewriting the rules of spice. A chef with punk rock roots and a fine dining backbone linked
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1 minute, 37 seconds
up with longtime friend and fellow flavor fanatic to bring us Hereโ€™s the deal spice company where they are
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1 minute, 44 seconds
blending heritage heat and hustle straight out of Minnesota. From their crowd favorite 127 blend to a Midwest
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1 minute, 52 seconds
remix of Japanese Togarashi, they are creating flavors that speak volumes. And community is always the main ingredient.
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1 minute, 59 seconds
Letโ€™s turn up the heat with the duo behind one of the most exciting spice movements in the game, Mr. Tom Docman and Ross Ratu.
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2 minutes, 8 seconds
Yes, sir.
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2 minutes, 8 seconds
Okay, so you guys are a super duper cool spice company. And I
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2 minutes, 18 seconds
know thatโ€™s kind of weird saying from Minnesota and Spice, the two are like oxymorons because everybody knows that itโ€™s usually ketchup is spicy.
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2 minutes, 28 seconds
Unfortunately, unfortunately it is. But and hereโ€™s the thing. So I I was a fan of you guys before I met you guys. So I have I have
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2 minutes, 35 seconds
we had ongoing jokes about how much of you guys spices I have in my in my pantry. Um, that being said, this whole
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2 minutes, 44 seconds
thing exists to speak to to people like yourselves and and you know, kind of
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2 minutes, 51 seconds
draw the lines between all the things that make us us. So, letโ€™s talk about, you know, 127 and and how it all came
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3 minutes
about to get to the point to where you could uh dish the day-to-day chef duds to to the spice company.
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3 minutes, 7 seconds
Sure. Sure. So, uh, we, um, specialize in premium organic spices and we try to take our culinary background for 20 plus
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3 minutes, 15 seconds
years and create a a specific blend that can be used on just about anything, everything, breakfast, lunch, dinner.
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3 minutes, 21 seconds
And, uh, that one came about uh, and our I got a I got married with uh, Nicole and we made a spice blend and we made
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3 minutes, 29 seconds
all the food with it. Uh we also gave little favors away for everybody and you know they all came there to support us and we you know gave them a little
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3 minutes, 38 seconds
something to take home and enjoy more of our celebration together and people wanted more and more and more and
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3 minutes, 46 seconds
I was I was one of those I was like hey what is this I need anymore and we realized that you know there was something special about it thereโ€™s
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3 minutes, 55 seconds
something more in-depth in a higher education than just cooking you know Like in my culinary background, Iโ€™ve never been taught about spices and the
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4 minutes, 4 seconds
different flavor profiles or how good it can actually be, right?
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4 minutes, 8 seconds
And um working throughout my career, doing different things with barbecue, doing different things with um hotline
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4 minutes, 16 seconds
or meat department, certain kinds of press meets, and the whole development of that. I just started writing down a bunch of recipes, things that were I
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4 minutes, 25 seconds
learned, things that I didnโ€™t know about, and then things that actually came to the plate to serve people and people loved it and how theyโ€™re how much
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4 minutes, 32 seconds
they just enjoyed their moment or their celebration that they were at the restaurant with. And um then we kept
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4 minutes, 40 seconds
building 127 in the background and uh realized there was a plateau in the career and jumped ship and opened the spice company.
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4 minutes, 48 seconds
There you go. Just off of one blend.
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4 minutes, 51 seconds
You only listen, you only have to be right once. Thatโ€™s what a lot of people you have to just one time. Just one time. And then uh so tell me about you
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4 minutes, 59 seconds
guys. How far you guys go back and and and what made this a journey that you had to to get your guy? Sure.
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5 minutes, 6 seconds
Yeah. I mean, we worked at Travale together. Uh I started there in 2012, I think. Right around there. Okay.
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5 minutes, 14 seconds
And I think Tom started probably like 2014. End of 2014. 2015. Yeah.
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5 minutes, 19 seconds
Yeah. and you know kind of like grew a relationship there. It was kind of a cutthroat type of kitchen so you didnโ€™t really get to like really build too many
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5 minutes, 27 seconds
friendships. It was just more of work straight up and uh yeah just kind of throughout the years just kind of kept in touch and
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5 minutes, 35 seconds
then he started the company up and heโ€™s like hey if you ever uh want to help out or anything and here we are today. So there you go.
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5 minutes, 44 seconds
Yeah, just keep on keep on rolling making good stuff. So when when the idea hatched, so you knew you had something with 127. That was and thatโ€™s thatโ€™s the
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5 minutes, 53 seconds
day that you got married. Thatโ€™s thatโ€™s the day you got which is super cool.
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5 minutes, 57 seconds
Um when you when you knew you had something, but then you you had to it had to come into play. Okay. Like is this going to play in Minnesota?
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6 minutes, 5 seconds
Right. So not that you you know this is home base, so we got to kick it off here, right? So how do we make these
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6 minutes, 13 seconds
things approachable? Because I I can tell you as a as as a chef that that opened up a restaurant here from Iโ€™m from New York, those conversations were
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6 minutes, 21 seconds
had when we developed menus like, okay, thereโ€™s certain things we can do, certain things we can canโ€™t do, and certain things we have to do. And in
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6 minutes, 30 seconds
order to make things as approachable as possible, you know, you know, we tone down on some things and and you know,
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6 minutes, 36 seconds
balance is key, but did that come into play at all?
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6 minutes, 41 seconds
Um, yes and no. So I think with the 127 it was like a pretty big base of key flavors and also things that um really
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6 minutes, 50 seconds
when blended into like my childhood and growing up and you know I got grandparents were 100% Irish one 100%
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6 minutes, 57 seconds
Italian and then like Polish and Croatian so there was always these flavors that were always in our kitchens at all times and it has like a little
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7 minutes, 6 seconds
interesting kind of like a Italian blend backer to it. So the herbs and herbs that are in there are rosemary, basil, thyme. Um and then those help kind of comfort out the the like the savoriness.
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7 minutes, 19 seconds
Gotcha.
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7 minutes, 19 seconds
Yeah. So itโ€™s a really nice comfort blend. Itโ€™s Yeah. And I that was thatโ€™s the first one that I that I tried and that that was the gateway for me. So like like I tried that like okay letโ€™s get
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7 minutes, 28 seconds
Well, the no blenders are all the straight the straight spices. So like okay, you know, get the cinnamon and okay, this is really good cinnamon. But
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7 minutes, 35 seconds
the blends I think are super cool because they are again straightforward, but theyโ€™re the best of what you can get
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and theyโ€™re interchangeable. I think thatโ€™s the the coolest thing about them.
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So like even the the novice could uh could could use that as Exactly.
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7 minutes, 54 seconds
period or as a base and then build upon that too. So thatโ€™s how we like to kind of sell it usually like as far as you know how am I going to use this when I get
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8 minutes, 2 seconds
home. you know, everybody that comes up and buys a spice is like, โ€œWhat am I going to do with this?โ€ And itโ€™s itโ€™s that thatโ€™s our job is to make it easy
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8 minutes, 10 seconds
for you and like really like give you something that you can just catapult off of.
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8 minutes, 15 seconds
Yeah. Itโ€™s just that then itโ€™s great. But if you want to, you know, add more and more, absolutely. Yeah. It just keeps on getting better.
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8 minutes, 22 seconds
So, okay, cool. So, weโ€™re going to play a little game. Oh, great.
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8 minutes, 27 seconds
All right. So, weโ€™re going to play a little game that we call here. Oneโ€™s got to go. Sure.
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8 minutes, 32 seconds
Very simple. Weโ€™re gonna Iโ€™m gonna ask you a couple of give you a couple of options and you have to eliminate one forever. Oneโ€™s got to go. Bye-bye.
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8 minutes, 42 seconds
I can do that. You ready? You guys ready for that? Letโ€™s go. All right. All right. Cool. All right. So, here is oneโ€™s got to go.
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8 minutes, 50 seconds
All right. Very simply, as a chef, this is what we got. We got
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8 minutes, 57 seconds
really There we go. salt, heat, acid, fat. Oneโ€™s got to go.
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9 minutes, 5 seconds
Fat. Fat. Yeah. Is that Are you talking spices?
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9 minutes, 8 seconds
You talking Iโ€™m just talking period. If you got If one had you had to cannibalize one of these things from cooking for from here to eternity, youโ€™re going to use the
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9 minutes, 15 seconds
youโ€™re going to kill the the vehicle for flavor. Okay. All right. So, I wasnโ€™t I wasnโ€™t Okay. Oneโ€™s got to go.
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9 minutes, 23 seconds
Um, which one? And you both get a you both get an option. So, uh, Iโ€™ll take salt.
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9 minutes, 27 seconds
Weโ€™ll take salt for sure.
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9 minutes, 29 seconds
Okay. Thatโ€™s what I was looking towards as well. Okay. I didnโ€™t get that. Yeah. I I would go heat.
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9 minutes, 37 seconds
And the reason being everybodyโ€™s had some uh some food that
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9 minutes, 44 seconds
at least was salted. Well, but but you got to have the fat. The acid is a must. Itโ€™s a must. Itโ€™s a guaranteed
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9 minutes, 51 seconds
must. If I had to cannibalize one of those things, it would be heat.
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9 minutes, 54 seconds
So, why did you choose salt? Iโ€™m curious. um just through the background of learning about our spices and just um other cultures and how to make food.
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10 minutes, 3 seconds
Thereโ€™s so much salt in other ingredients and you can almost like interpret and change the flavor profile of certain things with just spices alone.
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10 minutes, 12 seconds
So yeah, you can you can almost mimic the reactions of salt, especially with the addition of acid of something, you know, for sure. For sure.
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10 minutes, 21 seconds
Very sneaky. Yeah. Okay. All right.
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10 minutes, 22 seconds
Itโ€™s these things that we learn through the spices.
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10 minutes, 27 seconds
Why to me? But why to you guys? Why is acid a must? Why why do you think again you just stated it
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10 minutes, 35 seconds
because of the lack of stuff? If you had to omit salt, acid is one of those things that you can kind of manipulate.
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10 minutes, 40 seconds
Yeah, exactly. with other things to make, you know. So, not being feel like it can be added in such a way that you donโ€™t notice that itโ€™s even
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10 minutes, 47 seconds
there, but it adds something that you you just itโ€™s something that just pops and gives such a like wide range of
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10 minutes, 56 seconds
flavor profiles that just kind of helps out everything.
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11 minutes
Thatโ€™s actually a good point, too, because the one thing thatโ€™s not heavily in your spices is thereโ€™s a ton of salt anyway. So, so yeah, we fall into a low salt categ.
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Yeah, youโ€™re low sodium for sure because Yeah, normally itโ€™s itโ€™s a good 75 85% salt% in most uh blends.
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11 minutes, 16 seconds
Yeah. Yeah, we can um add more spice and have a more concentrated spice blend um or any kind of sort of that. But
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11 minutes, 24 seconds
everybody has salt at home. They have sea salt, they have kosher salt, they have you can do lime juice, you can do soy sauce, you can do wor you can do hot
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11 minutes, 31 seconds
sauce. Thereโ€™s so many things that or cheese they all add a salt content to it. Uh where you know let that let that
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11 minutes, 39 seconds
be up to the provider whoโ€™s making their food for their family. Absolutely.
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11 minutes, 43 seconds
So like we talked about I think you know food and music are usually paired together like seamlessly all the time.
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11 minutes, 50 seconds
Thereโ€™s always you go to any restaurant from here to Timbuktu and thereโ€™s something playing because it gets weird when people have to hear their own thoughts. Thatโ€™s just what it is, right?
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11 minutes, 59 seconds
It can make it or break any night. Thatโ€™s for sure.
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It it damn sure it can. So, speak to me about in in your guysโ€™s life, what what is the
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12 minutes, 10 seconds
playlist that is going on to, you know, do your daily things? Like, so when youโ€™re creating when youโ€™re in the in
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12 minutes, 17 seconds
the kitchen, youโ€™re creating these spices. Is there a specific playlist?
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12 minutes, 20 seconds
Does it go with the flavors of the the blends youโ€™re making? Are we are we you know, like are we are we going are we raging when we doing something spicy?
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12 minutes, 29 seconds
Iโ€™m just saying like for me, you know, music is the ultimate mood shifter for whatever you want to feel like. Thereโ€™s
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12 minutes, 36 seconds
a song to go with it and a food usually too. So, sure.
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12 minutes, 40 seconds
Um I know sometimes weโ€™ll do if weโ€™re like doing a catering or if theyโ€™re doing the 127, weโ€™ll do like Italian uh
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12 minutes, 47 seconds
podcast music or um Italian cooking. I think itโ€™s called the Hey Mambo.
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12 minutes, 53 seconds
Yeah, that sounds pretty good in the background. Uh but I donโ€™t specialize in a lot of music. Uh Ross is my music guy.
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13 minutes
He does all the music, does the speaker, puts in the right place, makes you got Okay.
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13 minutes, 6 seconds
Feel vibe. So yeah. So I mean usually like dayto-day in the kitchen. So it just kind of depends, you know, you
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feel different different vibes different days. So you know, whether itโ€™s like a cool coffee house play playlist one day or raging out to 90s like club hits.
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13 minutes, 25 seconds
Okay. uh like literally three days ago we itโ€™s like letโ€™s just blast it and we were the only two in the kitchen just
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13 minutes, 32 seconds
just really like getting a good kind of groove and vibe of of uh just the whole thing. So, okay, Ross, if you could pair one of the
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13 minutes, 42 seconds
blends with a song or an album, what would it be?
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13 minutes, 51 seconds
Yeah.
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13 minutes, 52 seconds
First off, whatโ€™s your favorite blend currently?
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13 minutes, 55 seconds
I know itโ€™s like itโ€™s like picking a child. I get it. We all have our favorites, though.
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14 minutes
I would probably go with either the taco. No, no. Either itโ€™s one.
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14 minutes, 5 seconds
All right. So, all right. All right. All right. Itโ€™s like Yeah. Itโ€™s like picking a I get it. We wonโ€™t tell anybody. Just the rest of the people.
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14 minutes, 13 seconds
Yeah. I gotta go with Taco. Itโ€™s um So, we created that one.
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14 minutes, 17 seconds
really with like basic roots kind of tied with it, like okay, what would they do where tacos
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14 minutes, 25 seconds
were originated? Like, you know, mortar and pestle type of that that type of like getting down to the roots of it.
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14 minutes, 32 seconds
And so we, you know, sourced a special grinder that took a year and a half to get here from Denmark and um, you know,
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14 minutes, 39 seconds
creating our own chili powder versus like buying one. So, we tasted 38 chilies one day and literally couldnโ€™t feel my mouth for the next week.
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14 minutes, 49 seconds
Itโ€™s always good.
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14 minutes, 49 seconds
It I mean, but it like it really gives you that kind of education for yourself.
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14 minutes, 53 seconds
So then you can really give it to everybody else, you know, where like you come up to us at a fair or whatever and ask us about something, weโ€™re going to give you all the information that we
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15 minutes, 2 seconds
possibly know about the sourcing of those products and that. So that that oneโ€™s really special to me. Um, okay. Itโ€™s very versatile.
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15 minutes, 9 seconds
So, playlist, Iโ€™m sorry, album or song to go with the top.
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15 minutes, 14 seconds
Uh, so song would probably be, man, thatโ€™s really like tying it down.
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15 minutes, 23 seconds
Iโ€™ll probably do the chef uh chef movie soundtrack along with that one. Okay.
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15 minutes, 29 seconds
So, John Fabro, itโ€™s a great movie, by the way. Itโ€™s a great movie.
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15 minutes, 32 seconds
Yeah. I mean, itโ€™s itโ€™s one of those things that actually got me back into cooking. So, they listen that they got that one right. So we weโ€™ve all like weโ€™ve all seen the movies the the the the
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15 minutes, 40 seconds
restaurant movies and like we donโ€™t do that like thatโ€™s not thatโ€™s not how itโ€™s done. Like nobody does that like but thatโ€™s this one got it right.
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15 minutes, 48 seconds
Yeah. They they really like kind of took it to the root.
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15 minutes, 50 seconds
Well they had Roy Choy was the you know Exactly. Itโ€™s like Yeah. He kept it he made sure that it was it was done right. So thatโ€™s one of my favorite ones for sure. Itโ€™s one of my favorite movies for sure. Okay.
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16 minutes
Thatโ€™s a great answer. Great answer. All right. So letโ€™s letโ€™s letโ€™s talk about culture. So the unique thing about
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16 minutes, 6 seconds
spice, so spice has a history globally as far as being like the representative
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16 minutes, 14 seconds
of regions, people and spaces based on, you know, spices. At one point in time, it was currency. Right.
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16 minutes, 21 seconds
Right. So this was only the rich and wealthy had access to spices, right? And so yeah, overseas to trains, planes.
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16 minutes, 31 seconds
Absolutely. So talk to me about the Togarashi specifically because that is thatโ€™s a a a Japanese but this is a has a Midwest twister for sure.
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16 minutes, 42 seconds
Yeah. Yeah. Um so working at Travale uh I met a couple really good um people. Uh Dong was one of them. Heโ€™s from Vietnam.
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16 minutes, 50 seconds
Uh Josh Disher really good guy. Um also from the islands.
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16 minutes, 54 seconds
Thatโ€™s also the name of the money in Vietnam. Dong. Yeah.
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16 minutes, 59 seconds
It really is. He is a true he is a true person and true uh we would used to make uh fur constantly and he would teach me the way
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17 minutes, 7 seconds
his mom would teach him and um just never knew never educated myself on uh that cuisine or really fully
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17 minutes, 16 seconds
diving in. Never worked at a place that would actually showcase right like the the the premium that they can do and how simple ingredients but how it
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17 minutes, 25 seconds
develops over time in cooking. So, I picked up uh Togarashi education from Travail and just kind of seeing how they
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17 minutes, 33 seconds
use it, what they use it on, and then, you know, I was like, itโ€™s super unique.
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17 minutes, 38 seconds
I I donโ€™t know much, so Iโ€™m going to educate myself and then Iโ€™m going to pass that education on to the Midwest.
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17 minutes, 44 seconds
And we were like, you know, Thai bird chili, thatโ€™s not thatโ€™s not the Midwest flavor profile. Not at all.
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17 minutes, 51 seconds
Uh so we changed it up. Um we added more citrus peel. So we actually hand peel dehydrate all the oranges ourselves.
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17 minutes, 58 seconds
Each jar gets about four oranges per jar, which is heavier on the the citrus side, but very fresh, very fragrant. And then we lowered it down to a red pepper
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18 minutes, 7 seconds
flake. Still pretty hot for Minnesota, but itโ€™s good introduction of what it could be and how it how it develops.
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18 minutes, 15 seconds
Yeah. And itโ€™s a nice round flavor, too.
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18 minutes, 17 seconds
Like itโ€™s um Right. I put that on potato chips. Nice.
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18 minutes, 21 seconds
Fry some fresh potato chips. Thatโ€™s thatโ€™s a hit. Oh, yeah.
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18 minutes, 25 seconds
Thatโ€™s a hit right there. Yeah. So, tell me how you balance tradition, authenticity,
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18 minutes, 34 seconds
and being able to introduce those types of new flavor profiles to a local audience. And then, you know, letโ€™s be
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18 minutes, 41 seconds
frank, like weโ€™re weโ€™re not just selling to motans now. We weโ€™re, you know, weโ€™re weโ€™re across the state, coast to coast. We ship all over.
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18 minutes, 49 seconds
Well, actually, and Brazil. I sold I sold a couple 127s to a gentleman in Braz in Brazil which was just last night which is pretty fun
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18 minutes, 58 seconds
very open going international listen look you got to do it you know whatโ€™s coming next right you got to so just think about all
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19 minutes, 7 seconds
the Brazilian steakous that thatโ€™s going to be for sure you know Iโ€™m just saying all they need is one thatโ€™s it the gateway drug all you need is one job
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19 minutes, 14 seconds
itโ€™s the gateway drug so the first oneโ€™s on me actually Iโ€™ll send it to you so thank you exactly So letโ€™s letโ€™s talk
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19 minutes, 23 seconds
how do you you know when again youโ€™re I I think when you set out to do do things
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19 minutes, 30 seconds
the way youโ€™re doing it you were kind of tailor making it for for a certain pallet right but what you ended up doing
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19 minutes, 37 seconds
though to be honest is you created your own version of certain things to fit not to fit actually to itโ€™s its own class
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19 minutes, 45 seconds
now honestly so thereโ€™s a thereโ€™s a certain lane that you carved out for yourself by doing what you did. Whether
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19 minutes, 52 seconds
you know it or not, this this is uh that flavor profile. Iโ€™ve had tons of Togarashi. Thatโ€™s its own thing. Well, thank you for saying that.
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20 minutes, 1 second
Itโ€™s good. Itโ€™s good to hear. Itโ€™s um you know, weโ€™re weโ€™re always developing.
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20 minutes, 4 seconds
Weโ€™re always trying stuff out. I think itโ€™s pretty much um honoring the culinary background and the culinary training and the different jobs and
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20 minutes, 12 seconds
different u menu items to really kind of like celebrate that and put all that education into one jar or one flavor or
20:21
20 minutes, 21 seconds
one region of the world. So taco, we try to figure out everything that Mexico exports to the world and how do we make a blend out of that?
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20 minutes, 29 seconds
And then like Ross was saying like mortar and pestle, thatโ€™s how they normally grind stuff down to use it in their day-to-day. And that um grinder that we bought is the closest thing that
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20 minutes, 38 seconds
we can do it. Um very traditional, right?
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20 minutes, 41 seconds
Um itโ€™s pretty much a donkey in the back with a with a big stone. More like shoulders burning.
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20 minutes, 49 seconds
We hang ground the first 100 pounds and that was the last time. Free gym. Free gym. Truly.
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20 minutes, 57 seconds
All right. We earned our strengths for that.
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20 minutes, 59 seconds
Absolutely. So in in essence you you you put not only the knowledge base of and reverence for the spices and the
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21 minutes, 6 seconds
cultures but also your all your experience is in each bottle pretty pretty much 100%. And I like to say that itโ€™s a good melding of
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21 minutes, 14 seconds
Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. My in my humble opinion, I believe that so food and and and music, first off, are the
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21 minutes, 22 seconds
two easiest ways to emotion yourself in any culture, but I believe that theyโ€™re going to be the catalyst or the vehicles
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21 minutes, 30 seconds
to end all of the biases that we have in the world because in in my personal belief, if you have a
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21 minutes, 39 seconds
reverence for the the art and then you have a reverence for the people, itโ€™s hard for biases to live in that realm.
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21 minutes, 47 seconds
True. You know what Iโ€™m saying? So you you you doing all the studying you did for you know for like the taco slice. Yeah.
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21 minutes, 53 seconds
That you you have to have a reverence for the people got to pay respect what they did. And so you biases canโ€™t
22:01
22 minutes, 1 second
cannot exist in that realm. They just canโ€™t. Mhm.
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22 minutes, 4 seconds
The problem is even the biggest, you know, the biggest uh uh fascists in the world two times of the day that theyโ€™re not
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22 minutes, 12 seconds
thinking about segregation, itโ€™s usually with their stomach and with their with their with their ears, right? So they they eat food from all over the world, but they just donโ€™t have a reverence or
22:21
22 minutes, 21 seconds
have tie it to an actual person when theyโ€™re eating these things. And so this is actually a good itโ€™s a good education
22:28
22 minutes, 28 seconds
to enter a culture and you know itโ€™s the itโ€™s the gateway drug again. I think you you go down the rabbit hole when like
22:35
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you know what let me look at you know tagashi what they what they theyโ€™re typically used and how what they are and all the different things. And I I think
22:43
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itโ€™s a itโ€™s a cool thing that um you can you can give all of that info and knowledge in just a small bottle, you know, and uh thatโ€™s thatโ€™s so cool.
22:54
22 minutes, 54 seconds
You guys are chefs, so letโ€™s letโ€™s talk about letโ€™s letโ€™s give the pink elephant a name in the room. Okay,
23:01
23 minutes, 1 second
give me you guysโ€™ absolute worst shift day. Well, that when did that like Okay,
23:08
23 minutes, 8 seconds
you know what? This is something we all have them. I I I I can fill this room. I can fill this building up right now.
23:16
23 minutes, 16 seconds
Yeah. Give me what what is what is the absolute worst day that youโ€™ve had on the line? What is what does that look
23:25
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like? You can leave names out if you want to. I personally donโ€™t give a damn.
23:29
23 minutes, 29 seconds
Um well, I think Iโ€™ll take this one because I almost went to the hospital.
23:33
23 minutes, 33 seconds
Uh so, uh working at Travail, uh working meat department and also hotline at the same time. So, uh, at the beginning of
23:42
23 minutes, 42 seconds
the shift, uh, throughout the prep, weโ€™re downstairs and we come upstairs to then work a station and kind of entertain everybody. And I didnโ€™t know
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this at the time, but I was allergic to shellfish.
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Um, Iโ€™ve had Iโ€™ve had shellfish. Iโ€™ve had shellfish in the past. Iโ€™ve had all the soft shell crab, you know, sandwiches. Iโ€™ve had the lobster. Iโ€™ve
24:04
24 minutes, 4 seconds
had the cra like oysters, muscles, my favorite. And something changed somewhere in my lifestyle and or
24:11
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whatever. And I opened a freezer door to grab out the lobster bowl and instantly
24:18
24 minutes, 18 seconds
lost all my motor skills. Started sweating. Couldnโ€™t talk, couldnโ€™t explain what was going on. Uh getting
24:25
24 minutes, 25 seconds
like just pouring out sweat and I had to leave the hotline abandoned and tapped
24:32
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the owner and said, โ€œGot to go.โ€ And I was in I was in the I was in the dish pit like on the ground like wondering whatโ€™s going to happen next.
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And I got some benadryil and went back to work about two hours later. Yeah. Cuz youโ€™re a massochist.
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24 minutes, 48 seconds
Thatโ€™s thatโ€™s what we do. Oh, why not?
24:52
24 minutes, 52 seconds
Yeah. Yeah. I I listen I get it. So, okay. I Iโ€™ll cuz Iโ€™ve done Iโ€™ve done this before, too. Whenโ€™s the next time you tried to eat shellfish?
25:01
25 minutes, 1 second
You You tried to do it again. You did. Youโ€™re lying. You did.
25:03
25 minutes, 3 seconds
Not that time. The time before um I ate at Crave and I had uh salmon with row on top. Okay.
25:10
25 minutes, 10 seconds
And I believe that night I had a seizure and passed out in the bathroom. Oh, so you Yeah. Yeah.
25:15
25 minutes, 15 seconds
And then I went back to Crave the next day and ate it without the fish eggs and I was fine. So I gave it about 24 hours.
25:22
25 minutes, 22 seconds
Really roll the dice though. Yeah. Yeah.
25:24
25 minutes, 24 seconds
I was like it had to be the only thing that if it wasnโ€™t the row then All right. So itโ€™s not just shellfish like
25:31
25 minutes, 31 seconds
um I think thereโ€™s um Yeah. Itโ€™s also finish and swimming fish, I guess.
25:36
25 minutes, 36 seconds
Yeah. Yeah. So, I I I narrow mine down through trial and error because Iโ€™m a smart guy. Um down to crustaceations.
25:46
25 minutes, 46 seconds
Yeah. Like, so I can I can eat muscles, clams, oysters. I do those all day. Um but shrimp, lobster,
25:55
25 minutes, 55 seconds
uh uh scallops, crab, and undercooked eggplant has the same effect. Boy,
26:02
26 minutes, 2 seconds
donโ€™t ask me how I know that one has the same effect. And yeah, Iโ€™m talking like uh Will Smith and Hitch. Thatโ€™s bad.
26:09
26 minutes, 9 seconds
This is Yes. Thereโ€™s death on the other side of that. How about yourself, Ross?
26:13
26 minutes, 13 seconds
Whatโ€™s the I mean, obviously, nothing is traumatized.
26:15
26 minutes, 15 seconds
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you should have you should have went almost died. Yeah. Yeah.
26:19
26 minutes, 19 seconds
Oh, no. No, no, but he just chucked some Benadrol and went back to work.
26:22
26 minutes, 22 seconds
Yeah. Yeah. I was still probably Thatโ€™s fine. No big deal. Um, I mean, yeah, itโ€™s kind of hard to like narrow down one specific, but
26:30
26 minutes, 30 seconds
you can there was a night where it was kind of a ticket centric type of situation in the
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26 minutes, 38 seconds
ticket printer non-stop. Itโ€™s a nice way to say ticket centric.
26:41
26 minutes, 41 seconds
And I think yeah, I think at one point it was like 60 untouched tickets that were just there and it was just kind of
26:50
26 minutes, 50 seconds
a nightmare situation just drowning in prep, having to prep in the basement, you know, when everything was running out. So yeah, I mean thatโ€™s
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Is there a great Listen, is there a greater feeling than the last ticket? Like especially a night like that.
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I donโ€™t I donโ€™t care how long it took to took to get there. Thereโ€™s no greater feeling. Well, yeah, thatโ€™s the whole thing like persevering and like literally like pushing through like I am
27:12
27 minutes, 12 seconds
not going to stop. Similar to Tom taking his benadryil, you know, like thatโ€™s itโ€™s the mentality that we have of weโ€™re
27:19
27 minutes, 19 seconds
not going to finish until the jobโ€™s done or you know, at least completed to what we think it is.
27:25
27 minutes, 25 seconds
Um, but yeah, that those nights where itโ€™s like youโ€™re pouring that first beer for yourself after your shift and just can reflect, itโ€™s like
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27 minutes, 34 seconds
Yeah, itโ€™s insane. So that that is the one part of the business that no cooking show has grasped like that
27:43
27 minutes, 43 seconds
thereโ€™s this the grind the grind that that that grind. But hereโ€™s the other thing.
27:49
27 minutes, 49 seconds
The muster the gall to come back tomorrow and do that same [ _ ] all over again. Itโ€™s itโ€™s almost addicting. 27:55 27 minutes, 55 seconds Itโ€™s like I can I can do this. Iโ€™m going to prove to you I can do this. Yeah. I donโ€™t need sleep. Yeah. I donโ€™t need sleep. 28:02 28 minutes, 2 seconds Yeah. I Yeah. I donโ€™t need sleep. Iโ€™m going to live off of uh of of now iced coffee cuz just cold coffee and uh like 28:10 28 minutes, 10 seconds and yeah, deli deli deli cup after deli cup of coffee and then you know whatever I can get close to the Walgreens across the street. 28:16 28 minutes, 16 seconds Absolutely. Thatโ€™s the um it it takes a special I always say it takes a special type of person to do what it is that we 28:25 28 minutes, 25 seconds we do and to keep doing it. And itโ€™s itโ€™s a go itโ€™s a game of golf. I I I said to myself like I always looked after it though like when it was 28:33 28 minutes, 33 seconds happening I never thought about this [ _ ] but the fact of I was just trying to to one up myself every day like especially after the hard days like I I
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28 minutes, 42 seconds
I want to turn this hard day into a good day.
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28 minutes, 43 seconds
Yeah. You have a the worst prep day of your life. Youโ€™re like absolutely thatโ€™s not going to happen today.
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28 minutes, 48 seconds
Iโ€™ll Iโ€™ll take this this check this [ _ ] out. So this must have happened I want to say n 97. 28:57 28 minutes, 57 seconds So in Aquar New York is itโ€™s Itโ€™s built in a historical building. So, he couldnโ€™t do much to the retrofitting 29:04 29 minutes, 4 seconds of the building. It wouldnโ€™t, you know, itโ€™s a landmark. And one it was a heatwave that summer and the Anel went off 29:12 29 minutes, 12 seconds like at 4:00 right before service. Pre prethe the theater. This is prime summer, right? All the scenes are happening. 29:21 29 minutes, 21 seconds Grounding already. 29:21 29 minutes, 21 seconds Oh, this. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, and and I donโ€™t know if anybodyโ€™s ever been any in the kitchen when the dust the anel dust goes off. where that shitโ€™s 29:29 29 minutes, 29 seconds at. Itโ€™s like sand. You know, you go to the beach, cleaning that. 29:32 29 minutes, 32 seconds Yeah. Thereโ€™s no cleaning. This shitโ€™s everywhere. And you you havenโ€™t seen this. 29:37 29 minutes, 37 seconds Go home, bust open a container of baby powder in in your house. And then thatโ€™s thatโ€™s as close as you can get to it. 29:44 29 minutes, 44 seconds Except thereโ€™s like 90 nozzles. Yeah. So So that [ _ ] went off.
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29 minutes, 50 seconds
Do you know that we opened the kitchen in 3 hours?
29:55
29 minutes, 55 seconds
Thatโ€™s That was insane. You know what? I donโ€™t know what food because everything got covered. So, it was like it was that was an insane moment. That was that was the
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30 minutes, 4 seconds
by far like, โ€œOkay, I donโ€™t think I want to do this anymore.โ€ And thatโ€™s thatโ€™s expectation that thatโ€™s installed in you like Yeah. Well, clean it up.
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30 minutes, 12 seconds
Letโ€™s go. Like, Iโ€™ll get a bucket. Letโ€™s go.
30:13
30 minutes, 13 seconds
That was the one day Iโ€™m like, โ€œYeah, I think I I think Iโ€™m gonna go to school with something else.โ€ Itโ€™s one of those days, man.
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30 minutes, 21 seconds
Rethink this. But the the the reason why I stated that because those same that same mindset you you poured into what
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30 minutes, 30 seconds
you do every day. So like we was talking before off camerara about the amount of hours and and uh the the the state stick
30:38
30 minutes, 38 seconds
tuitiveness that you have to have to take anything from a thought to fruition and you carry that into what youโ€™re doing today. So had you not gone through
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30 minutes, 47 seconds
those types of that type of war, you know, you would youโ€™re better equipped than the average person is what Iโ€™m saying. So definitely so that you
30:54
30 minutes, 54 seconds
know, kudos to that. So thank God for the stripes and the burns and the slices and the neardeath experiences with with the ingestion of lobster.
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31 minutes, 5 seconds
Letโ€™s uh letโ€™s talk about again what in which ways do you or are you thinking about how
31:14
31 minutes, 14 seconds
with the spice company that you are actually forging a bridge between cultures
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31 minutes, 22 seconds
not only in in in you know in the states that youโ€™re youโ€™re dealing in but in in everybodyโ€™s home. So like
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31 minutes, 31 seconds
you are basically you have the opportunity to and youโ€™re doing it whether you know it or not. You are now creating relationships with with people
31:40
31 minutes, 40 seconds
in food and people with with other people in their family through the use of certain spices and things that are
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31 minutes, 48 seconds
outside of their comfort zone. So even if theyโ€™ve never So okay like the geek in me I want to look at and see every spice in
31:56
31 minutes, 56 seconds
the 127. this just how Iโ€™m built, you know, because I think most chefs are that way. They like I want to know, right?
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32 minutes, 2 seconds
The novice is going to pick out the two or three things that that stand out to them and then theyโ€™re going to think that, okay, now I love these three things and now thatโ€™s their go-to.
32:14
32 minutes, 14 seconds
So that in in a sense, they have they have a relationship with that spice because of that connection.
32:22
32 minutes, 22 seconds
Is was that a purposeful thing or is that just one of those happy little accidents? Um I think you know kind of reflecting on uh the past 5 years that
32:29
32 minutes, 29 seconds
weโ€™ve been open and what weโ€™ve done and our backgrounds and um our family life like love like our love language is food
32:37
32 minutes, 37 seconds
as you mentioned like food art and music you know thereโ€™s no you can break down any barrier any language education
32:45
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anything like that itโ€™s always everybodyโ€™s everybody can talk to somebody else through food and showcase it and like the different ingredients um
32:54
32 minutes, 54 seconds
that was just kind of a one-off but itโ€™s just that complicated detail of scratch cooking and whatโ€™s the best and if itโ€™s
33:02
33 minutes, 2 seconds
worth doing it do it right right and if it was easy everybody would do it. So why not make it you know use our techniques that weโ€™ve learned along the
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33 minutes, 10 seconds
way and also make sure that people are sitting down and having dinner with their friends and family. You know entertain them, you know, after work,
33:18
33 minutes, 18 seconds
how was your day at work? Oh, it was long. Weโ€™ll eat this great food that we made. And then weโ€™re just kind of that dusting on top or that flavor profile
33:27
33 minutes, 27 seconds
that kind of gets the conversation going. And the gives you that nostalgia, too. I mean, it gives you that kind of core memory of eating with your family, you know?
33:34
33 minutes, 34 seconds
Thatโ€™s the main ingredient, though.
33:36
33 minutes, 36 seconds
That that that is the ultimate main ingredient. Yeah. It really is. Itโ€™s like youโ€™re um you thereโ€™s a thereโ€™s a
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33 minutes, 43 seconds
love ingredient. Thereโ€™s a you bottled love, right? So thereโ€™s a love for everything that you do and you put that in every bottle and then it translates
33:52
33 minutes, 52 seconds
because of the care that was taken. So I donโ€™t have to think about it. The novice doesnโ€™t have to think about, you know, they can just use it at their will and then it it permeates to everybody that they serve.
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34 minutes, 2 seconds
And I I just think itโ€™s a itโ€™s a nice itโ€™s a nice little rejuvenation wheel of thing and that itโ€™s one of those things that you know instant gratification.
34:11
34 minutes, 11 seconds
This is one of those one of those things especially when you guys do the trade shows and when you you know you did the state fair and you thatโ€™s like itโ€™s an
34:19
34 minutes, 19 seconds
instant thing like you can in real time see peopleโ€™s reactions and that has to be invigorating as well.
34:26
34 minutes, 26 seconds
Yeah. Yeah. And then every conversation we have with anybody who comes to our booth or interested or looks at it uh we were talking earlier today itโ€™s almost
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34 minutes, 34 seconds
like an intimate conversation like what do you like to eat? What are your allergies or restrictions? uh what what do you have in your fridge tonight? What are you gonna make? What are you buying?
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34 minutes, 44 seconds
And then educate them like, โ€œHey, this is what I would recommend.โ€ Or maybe give this a smell so we aromatic jars so people can smell it. And nostalgic like itโ€™ll bring it back to grandmaโ€™s house.
34:53
34 minutes, 53 seconds
Itโ€™ll bring you back to summerโ€™s in Florida. Like thereโ€™s something about the aromatic and all the different sensories of spices that can bring you
35:02
35 minutes, 2 seconds
to a place of joy and then then you eat it. Like itโ€™s Yeah. I I always say that first off,
35:10
35 minutes, 10 seconds
thatโ€™s how thatโ€™s why when you go to open house, theyโ€™re baking cookies.
35:13
35 minutes, 13 seconds
Sure. Exactly. This this is all itโ€™s all, you know, itโ€™s itโ€™s warfare. You just you didnโ€™t know you was in this war.
35:19
35 minutes, 19 seconds
Uh and and I always say in our line of work and even in music, um weโ€™re just trying to
35:27
35 minutes, 27 seconds
recall a favorable memory or create a new one. And if youโ€™ve done that, you won because when I like that itโ€™s very true because
35:36
35 minutes, 36 seconds
you know, weโ€™ve all had meals where you canโ€™t remember anything about it. Nothing bad. Yeah.
35:41
35 minutes, 41 seconds
Nothing good, but nothing right.
35:43
35 minutes, 43 seconds
Nothing memorable, which is not really a good meal.
35:46
35 minutes, 46 seconds
When you hit on something where it it either hits a chord to where itโ€™s something that is emotional or it
35:54
35 minutes, 54 seconds
created a new one, like, you know what, you got to go have, you know, you got to go have this pasta. like itโ€™s this is this is I donโ€™t know what it is. And so
36:02
36 minutes, 2 seconds
you get to a point to where you have to a person has to convince themsself why not to like it. They donโ€™t even know why. They have to give and thatโ€™s a
36:11
36 minutes, 11 seconds
whole different thing. Thatโ€™s thatโ€™s a raving fan when you when you tap into something emotional. Thatโ€™s when you thatโ€™s the win cuz like I donโ€™t even know why.
36:20
36 minutes, 20 seconds
Yeah.
36:20
36 minutes, 20 seconds
You know thatโ€™s and thatโ€™s so ironically thatโ€™s what you hit with 127. So when people would just like I donโ€™t even know what this is. It just says it says itโ€™s
36:28
36 minutes, 28 seconds
a wedding favor. I just put this on everything in my house except cereal.
36:31
36 minutes, 31 seconds
Iโ€™m out of it. I need more. And thatโ€™s thatโ€™s that emotional tie is what like thatโ€™s what did it.
36:38
36 minutes, 38 seconds
And so yeah, thatโ€™s thatโ€™s the win. I think thatโ€™s the ultimate win. All right.
36:44
36 minutes, 44 seconds
This entire venture for you,
36:53
36 minutes, 53 seconds
where you are versus where you started and then what where youโ€™re trying to go.
36:58
36 minutes, 58 seconds
What do you think? What does the future look like for for the deal? Well, I can start and you can jump in. Yeah.
37:04
37 minutes, 4 seconds
Um started with just trying to figure out our own company. Uh still involved in food, still being able to make food
37:12
37 minutes, 12 seconds
at home and educate like weโ€™re now out of the back of the kitchen. I can be in front of people. Iโ€™m now like the server. Iโ€™m now the presenter of what
37:20
37 minutes, 20 seconds
what you can do and how to do it and kind of teach people different preparations, techniques. Um, and then
37:29
37 minutes, 29 seconds
uh what was I gonna say with that? Just kind of like we built we started with four
37:35
37 minutes, 35 seconds
spices. Um, started at this large trade show. Thought weโ€™re going to make it big. No oneโ€™s ever heard of us. Uh,
37:43
37 minutes, 43 seconds
started moving along that way doing some farmers markets. COVID hit, shut us down. Uh but we got picked up by a
37:49
37 minutes, 49 seconds
couple um key factors along the way that actually helped us build into more of a you know an item thatโ€™s now featured,
37:58
37 minutes, 58 seconds
never been done before, never really been showcased in this direction and really believed in what we were doing.
38:04
38 minutes, 4 seconds
Um then hanging out with Ross during co and uh I we wouldnโ€™t be here today without Ross. like heโ€™s he knows food, he knows
38:13
38 minutes, 13 seconds
flavor, he knows education, he knows how to read people, he knows everything, and he really keeps me in track and in the right lane at the right time. So, I
38:22
38 minutes, 22 seconds
wouldnโ€™t The company wouldnโ€™t be where it was without Ross, thatโ€™s for sure.
38:26
38 minutes, 26 seconds
Um, definitely helps me zero in on different flavor profiles. Does that make sense? How much are we going to put in there? Well, does it need to be in
38:34
38 minutes, 34 seconds
there or do you just need to put it in there?
38:36
38 minutes, 36 seconds
Right. Self-editing. Yeah, I Iโ€™ve learned that self editing, bro. Listen, that is the most important thing. Itโ€™s itโ€™s incredible.
38:45
38 minutes, 45 seconds
That that is a a great factor. When I was making this album behind me that we had a meeting and the meeting was about unnecessary ingredients like so no
38:54
38 minutes, 54 seconds
unnecessary ingredients and that includes people, places, and things. If it doesnโ€™t belong, donโ€™t put it in. And then and because
39:02
39 minutes, 2 seconds
and thatโ€™s a that self-editing is is probably the most important thing.
39:06
39 minutes, 6 seconds
Itโ€™s you know difficult. Yes.
39:09
39 minutes, 9 seconds
Even for myself I mean but I at least become aware and like trying to like especially with the spices. I mean itโ€™s hard not to put itโ€™s hard not to
39:18
39 minutes, 18 seconds
put 35 ingredients in a because you can cuz itโ€™s at your fingers itโ€™s all here. Iโ€™m looking throw some of this throw some of that.
39:23
39 minutes, 23 seconds
Throw some of this and itโ€™s like well restraint restraint. So the skill set is in restraint. Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. wisdom is known not
39:30
39 minutes, 30 seconds
to put it in a fruit salad. But the at the end of the day, not I I think the best things weโ€™ve ever had in life.
39:39
39 minutes, 39 seconds
Think about the best the the single best things youโ€™ve ever had in life, five ingredients or less.
39:44
39 minutes, 44 seconds
Like literally the the best things are are super simple. Itโ€™s just the best of those five ingredients.
39:49
39 minutes, 49 seconds
And then of course knowledge of preparation. So if that if that if thatโ€™s could be another ingredient, I I get it. Iโ€™ll Iโ€™ll let it fly. But and
39:58
39 minutes, 58 seconds
then when thereโ€™s ingredients, if you have something thatโ€™s in there thatโ€™s more than that, thereโ€™s reasons for it.
40:04
40 minutes, 4 seconds
So thereโ€™s like everythingโ€™s everybodyโ€™s playing a supporting supporting role. And sometimes the star is not the star.
40:09
40 minutes, 9 seconds
Weโ€™ve all had dishes or made dishes where like typically people think that the protein is the star. I we made this. Itโ€™s not even about the protein at all.
40:17
40 minutes, 17 seconds
Like thatโ€™s just a carrier. This this thisact period. Itโ€™s really about that sauce. And if you take that sauce out, the dish is a dud.
40:25
40 minutes, 25 seconds
And thatโ€™s and thatโ€™s try the sauce. Please try the sauce. Yeah. Like I drink this every day. You have no idea. This is itโ€™s like a a 16-hour demian. You have
40:33
40 minutes, 33 seconds
no idea. This is this is what itโ€™s about. So thatโ€™s the Yeah, restraint is thatโ€™s a thatโ€™s a great thing. So how about you?
40:40
40 minutes, 40 seconds
What what do you see the future of the company going?
40:43
40 minutes, 43 seconds
Future. Um so I mean just growth. I mean from where weโ€™ve come to where weโ€™re at
40:50
40 minutes, 50 seconds
right now. I mean, weโ€™re starting to kind of enter the education realm a little bit more. We did a few Zoom kind
40:58
40 minutes, 58 seconds
of cooking classes during co just to kind of keep it afloat and that kind of sparked something in us that was like, โ€œAll right, we can kind of keep this on
41:06
41 minutes, 6 seconds
the back burner, you know, now weโ€™re just trying to get as much as we possibly can out there.โ€ Um, but now that weโ€™re kind of growing into that
41:14
41 minutes, 14 seconds
five years, itโ€™s kind of morphing into an education while providing just kind
41:22
41 minutes, 22 seconds
of like you said like a culture. Like it really kind of gives Absolutely.
41:26
41 minutes, 26 seconds
It weโ€™re trying to just get the best possible product out to people just to give it a whirl, try it out for yourself, then you can decide.
41:35
41 minutes, 35 seconds
Absolutely.
41:36
41 minutes, 36 seconds
We believe itโ€™s I mean kind of has uh the skyโ€™s is the limit for us. So yeah, I mean kind of taking over that
41:42
41 minutes, 42 seconds
education type of realm and uh hopefully someday a brick and mortar and then we can do our own thing and
41:53
41 minutes, 53 seconds
absolutely. So Iโ€™m going to put this and maybe you guys havenโ€™t said it but Iโ€™m going to say it for you. So if you were to go out and to single-handedly buy all
42:02
42 minutes, 2 seconds
the spices that are in the 127 blend, youโ€™d go broke.
42:06
42 minutes, 6 seconds
So thatโ€™s fact. So say that% if you buy the quality of the spices that are in that jar, when you say you can make it at home, you canโ€™t make it.
42:12
42 minutes, 12 seconds
You canโ€™t. You really canโ€™t. You could you you you would go broke doing it and that would be the only thing you have in your house for one spice bottle.
42:18
42 minutes, 18 seconds
No fridge, no stove, no sofa, just spices. Thatโ€™s what you would have%.
42:23
42 minutes, 23 seconds
Um yeah. So itโ€™s the that also needs to be said I think more often because
42:31
42 minutes, 31 seconds
again theyโ€™re theyโ€™re the best of what you can get for each category and then blended to fit a certain flavor profile.
42:42
42 minutes, 42 seconds
In order for you to get that, to make that on your own, which you cannot, um it would take an astron astronomical amount of raw ingredient to do it.
42:53
42 minutes, 53 seconds
Like, nobodyโ€™s smashing or dehydrating four orange peels. You know, thatโ€™s not happening. Nobodyโ€™s doing it. Thatโ€™s just, you know, the the the level the
43:01
43 minutes, 1 second
barrier to entry is high is what Iโ€™m really want to say. So, kudos to that.
43:05
43 minutes, 5 seconds
All right. Before I let you guys go, we got to do play another little game just because I feel like weโ€™re a little bit more uh ready for it. Not this time.
43:14
43 minutes, 14 seconds
I I think so. I think this one this one. Yeah, this one you canโ€™t you canโ€™t lose. So, this is a lightning round. Okay. So, in this one, itโ€™s just
43:22
43 minutes, 22 seconds
a quick fire round. Iโ€™m going to ask you a phrase or question and you got to give me the first thing that pops into your mind and weโ€™re going to go back and
43:31
43 minutes, 31 seconds
forth with this. Okay. All right. So, lighting around. Okay, weโ€™re gonna start with you, Ross. All right.
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43 minutes, 39 seconds
Favorite comfort food? Pasta. Any pasta?
43:44
43 minutes, 44 seconds
Spaghetti and meatballs. I mean, thatโ€™s what wins me over. Good spaghetti meatballs. Thatโ€™s all day long. Thatโ€™s a great one. Yep.
43:51
43 minutes, 51 seconds
All right, Tom. Saltines.
43:55
43 minutes, 55 seconds
Just straight up dry saltines. Straight dry. Choke on life. Saltines.
44:00
44 minutes
Hey, if I if I need a hug and no oneโ€™s around, that sleeve of soul tunes is gonna be my fault.
44:07
44 minutes, 7 seconds
You know what? Okay, I I I can admit to this. So, and this Iโ€™ve never said this out loud to anyone before. Everybody else, close your ears. All right, so
44:16
44 minutes, 16 seconds
something about saltines and tea. So, I I I love tea like and I do my tea like like ice cream though. So, itโ€™s like
44:23
44 minutes, 23 seconds
sugar and cream, right? But, and this is going to sound disgusting, but I soaked the the saltines in the tea. Itโ€™s
44:30
44 minutes, 30 seconds
delicious. I donโ€™t know. Try that. Itโ€™s really good. Itโ€™s really good. I Itโ€™s really Itโ€™s really good. I Anyway. Anyway, thatโ€™s sounds horrible.
44:40
44 minutes, 40 seconds
Most underrated spice, Tom.
44:43
44 minutes, 43 seconds
Iโ€™d say clove. Uh, we got some gnarly cloves in our kitchen and when we grind them, it smells like chocolate. Like,
44:50
44 minutes, 50 seconds
itโ€™s thereโ€™s a difference between the clove. Weโ€™re not talking about regular cloves, though. This is It is.
44:56
44 minutes, 56 seconds
Yeah. Yeah. Um thereโ€™s a difference between the clove that you grew up with that made you have heartburn and made you dizzy and made you disgusted. Um we
45:05
45 minutes, 5 seconds
have some really high-end clothes and theyโ€™re very underrated. I wish I could use them more. Cloves. Uh Iโ€™m going to go with garlic.
45:15
45 minutes, 15 seconds
So fresh garlic obviously is like number one.
45:19
45 minutes, 19 seconds
Like thatโ€™s Canโ€™t use that. canโ€™t canโ€™t replace anything. Uh but really trying the high
45:27
45 minutes, 27 seconds
kind of level of quality for the our roasted garlic especially, but our minced garlic is a great substitute I would say.
45:37
45 minutes, 37 seconds
Okay.
45:38
45 minutes, 38 seconds
If youโ€™re in a pinch, okay, dream dinner guest. Dead or dead or alive.
45:45
45 minutes, 45 seconds
Okay. Does be famous or anybody?
45:52
45 minutes, 52 seconds
No, anybody. Your dream, bro. Iโ€™ll come back. You go first.
46:01
46 minutes, 1 second
Anthony board in. Itโ€™s a good one. Tony is a good guy. You knew that already. Yeah. Okay.
46:13
46 minutes, 13 seconds
Iโ€™d probably sit down with Marcus. Marcus Samson. Okay. You can make that happen. Yeah.
46:21
46 minutes, 21 seconds
I remember getting his book and first into culinary. Uh my chef at the time was like patient through it. Showed me all the different stuff that could
46:29
46 minutes, 29 seconds
happen. And at that time I was just washing dishes. I was like, โ€œWait a minute.
46:33
46 minutes, 33 seconds
Thatโ€™s thatโ€™s what weโ€™re going to do here.โ€ Yeah.
46:36
46 minutes, 36 seconds
Okay. Well, I better you know, get some books and Pretty cool. Okay. Ross, one kitchen gadget you cannot live without.
46:48
46 minutes, 48 seconds
Does this count? Knives. Well, obviously a knife. Youโ€™re a gadget, bro. But Mandelian after that. Either that or a microplane.
46:57
46 minutes, 57 seconds
Mineโ€™s microplane for sure. Yeah.
47:00
47 minutes
Yeah. Microplane would be a say itโ€™s interchangeable. It definitely depends on the day. But
47:07
47 minutes, 7 seconds
yeah, Iโ€™ve done all kinds of [ _ ] with a mitro plane. You could do Yeah. Why need to You donโ€™t need to cut anything. Yeah. 47:15 47 minutes, 15 seconds Running on down. Yeah. Facts. Okay. First concert you ever attended? 47:22 47 minutes, 22 seconds Uh Metallica. What What year was it? 9798. Whereโ€™d you see him at? Uh Target Center. 47:29 47 minutes, 29 seconds Itโ€™s a good concert. 47:31 47 minutes, 31 seconds Uh My Chemical Romance before they got popular again. So long time. Like 25 years ago. 47:39 47 minutes, 39 seconds Wow. Whatโ€™d you see them in? Uh at Envy nightclub. Oh, intimate. Okay. 47:46 47 minutes, 46 seconds I think it was Envy. No, sorry. Whatโ€™s the one on Maplewood? I remember the name of it. 47:54 47 minutes, 54 seconds Okay. Okay. All right. That has been the lightning round. So, I have a bonus question, though. My bonus question 48:01 48 minutes, 1 second would be if you could bottle up spice of who you are 48:09 48 minutes, 9 seconds as an individual, as a person in your life, each individual, what would the carrier ingredient be? And then what would you name it? 48:19 48 minutes, 19 seconds I think mine would be very technical and very um kind of like rule driven. I think thatโ€™s how I would represent my 48:26 48 minutes, 26 seconds culinary background and kind of how Iโ€™ve evolved into a adult. Uh more discipline, more um commitment into what 48:35 48 minutes, 35 seconds Iโ€™m supposed to be doing and how to do it. Uh carrier like like a base flavor. 48:47 48 minutes, 47 seconds I kind of like like the chili powder that weโ€™re making right now. Thereโ€™s, you know, nine different chilies in it, so itโ€™s complex, but they all work together. But thereโ€™s different they do different things at different times. 48:58 48 minutes, 58 seconds Uh the name of it Tomโ€™s blend. You know Tomโ€™s blend works. Big Papa. 49:07 49 minutes, 7 seconds Big Papaโ€™s Blend. Big Papaโ€™s Blend. Thatโ€™s my Thatโ€™s my apparent. 49:14 49 minutes, 14 seconds Um so yeah, I mean Iโ€™m kind of the polar opposite of what time is. So, Iโ€™m more of that kind of creative like kind of 49:23 49 minutes, 23 seconds shoot from the hip. What are we going to figure out? How are we going to kind of tackle this problem on the fly? Um, so I kind of have more of that 49:31 49 minutes, 31 seconds I guess versatility sometimes, but uh just kind of a more of a creative approach of things. Um, my base 49:40 49 minutes, 40 seconds ingredient probably 49:48 49 minutes, 48 seconds Iโ€™d probably go with like a chili powder as well cuz kind of because of the same thing is like just the way that it works 49:57 49 minutes, 57 seconds with things. You can really kind of let it kind of spread free and just do different things. 50:05 50 minutes, 5 seconds Okay. And what would you call it? He canโ€™t He just canโ€™t do Pop. His blend. Sorry. Your nameโ€™s taken. Um, Rorow Rose Blend. 50:13 50 minutes, 13 seconds Rorow Rose Blend. Okay. I like it. I like it. I like it. Okay. Please, please, please tell all the people 50:20 50 minutes, 20 seconds watching and listening where they can find and follow you guys for all the things. 50:26 50 minutes, 26 seconds Sure. Uh, so itโ€™s hereโ€™s a Decal.co. Uh weโ€™re also on Instagram at hereโ€™s the dealspice and then we hit up the 50:33 50 minutes, 33 seconds Minnesota local art fairs, festivals, farmers markets, and the Minnesota State Fair. Awesome. Awesome. Everywhere we try to be. 50:40 50 minutes, 40 seconds Yeah. Try to be everywhere. 50:41 50 minutes, 41 seconds Okay. And just for the knowledge being for for local people as well, how many stores you guys in currently? 50:50 50 minutes, 50 seconds Uh weโ€™re in nine stores currently. We got about three or four in the works behind the scenes. Uh but landed nine. 50:58 50 minutes, 58 seconds We had a few before, but they kind of moved different directions. Gotcha. And what stores are today? 51:04 51 minutes, 4 seconds Oh boy. Um uh we got the Argon moose up in Hugo. 51:09 51 minutes, 9 seconds Uh we got macaroons. [ _ ] macaroons. Table. You want to take this?
51:13
51 minutes, 13 seconds
No, you you mean you got you deliver to them?
51:16
51 minutes, 16 seconds
Um Westside Wines in St. Louis Park. Uh we got a Spring Lake Farm in Prior Lake.
51:22
51 minutes, 22 seconds
Uh, we have a Vivant knife shop in Edina. Definitely a good place to go. Yeah, you want to see the most.
51:28
51 minutes, 28 seconds
Check out those dudeโ€™s videos. That dudeโ€™s videos. Yeah, Vivantโ€™s fantastic.
51:33
51 minutes, 33 seconds
Uh, what else we got? Probably Ros and Lon and Rosedale. Uh, big supporters of all Minnesota made companies. Uh, really
51:42
51 minutes, 42 seconds
really likes us and we really like them and how theyโ€™re doing their stuff.
51:45
51 minutes, 45 seconds
Uh, Daytonโ€™s in Minneapolis in the wintertime.
51:51
51 minutes, 51 seconds
uh Pimento at um down in Minneapolis and then I think that might run them up. I didnโ€™t count. Oh, um Kathy McIntes in St.
52:01
52 minutes, 1 second
Bonnie. So, weโ€™re kind of hitting the kind of outskirts. Uh and then we focus on more of the familyowned mom and pop shops. Yep.
52:07
52 minutes, 7 seconds
You know, they are doing the same thing we are. Y they have a little bit larger platform but theyโ€™re also bringing in the smaller
52:15
52 minutes, 15 seconds
companies actually promote them and really know our our story to actually have the conversations with people.
52:20
52 minutes, 20 seconds
Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, first and foremost too congratulate. So five years is a big deal. So I donโ€™t know if you you know as you know Iโ€™m sure you do
52:29
52 minutes, 29 seconds
know a lot of companies donโ€™t make it to year five especially going through the pandemic. So thatโ€™s uh itโ€™s a itโ€™s a huge itโ€™s a huge feat. So,
52:38
52 minutes, 38 seconds
uh, only the skyโ€™s the limit for you guys. Um, I Iโ€™m a fan. I believe in what you guys are doing. Youโ€™re doing the right things for the right reasons. And,
52:47
52 minutes, 47 seconds
um, I Iโ€™m all about, you know, doing cool [ __ ] with cool people that do all the right things for the sake of just
52:54
52 minutes, 54 seconds
doing the right thing. So, uh, kudos to you for that. Follow these guys.
53:00
53 minutes
follow these guys and get to them and talk to them now because itโ€™s going to come a chance or a time when like I donโ€™t know whenโ€™s the last time you guys talked to the head of McCormick, but you
53:08
53 minutes, 8 seconds
canโ€™t. And so thatโ€™s pretty soon thatโ€™s going to be thatโ€™s going to be the the case. So if you when you go and see these guys out at any of the farmers
53:17
53 minutes, 17 seconds
markets or or the trade shows, talk to them. Uh get some knowledge. Definitely uh get some some tips and tricks and
53:25
53 minutes, 25 seconds
theyโ€™ll have it all. And check in with these guys. Follow them. Hereโ€™s the deal. spice and again thatโ€™s because of your dad right the name of it is stemmed uh how to get his point
53:34
53 minutes, 34 seconds
across as hereโ€™s a deal itโ€™s a very finly thing to say itโ€™s a very finly thing to say and I I
53:41
53 minutes, 41 seconds
get it I totally get it okay again this has been the Taste Music Here food podcast show Iโ€™m your host Ed
53:48
53 minutes, 48 seconds
Porter till next time take care guys

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