Sizzling Stories of Sustainability: A Deep Dive into Seasonal Cooking and Local Agriculture

Imagine your palate embarking on a voyage where every flavor tells a story of community, sustainability, and creativity. That's exactly the kind of sensory adventure you're in for as Jeffrey Schlissel, the cuisine virtuoso and barbecue 'Kingpin,' joins us at the table. With nicknames like 'Bacon Cartel,' you know this conversation is going to sizzle with insider knowledge on the smoked meat industry and Jeffrey's heartfelt dedication to seasonal cooking—a practice that not only tantalizes taste buds but also supports the heartbeat of local agriculture.

What does it truly mean to dine with the seasons, and how has it reshaped the restaurant scene in the wake of COVID-19? We chew over the substantial influence of harvest cycles on everything from a dish's nutritional value to the vibrancy of local economies. As we peel back the layers of the food industry, you'll learn about the challenges restaurants face with practices like artificially ripening tomatoes, and how chefs have the power to revolutionize consumer expectations by celebrating the natural diversity of produce. It's a candid talk that serves up a generous portion of food for thought on the importance of farm-to-table relationships.

To cap off our culinary convergence, we slice into the intricacies of designing a seasonal menu that keeps diners coming back for more. While uncovering the importance of color, texture, and flavor harmony, we also stir in a discussion on accountability within the food sourcing process. You'll hear firsthand about the growing trend of transparency in the industry, and why knowing the origin of your meal matters. So, set your table and ready your forks; this episode isn't just about what we eat, but how and why we choose to eat it, with insights from those cultivating change one plate at a time.

Don't miss Jeffrey at the upcoming Organic Food and Farming Summit on April 19 for the Summit workshop – "Plating the Harvest: Embracing Local at Restaurants". Grab your tickets now! 

https://www.thewalkintalk.com/walkin-talk-podcast

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:07

Hello everyone and welcome to our latest episode of Fresh Take brought to you by Florida Organic Growers. 2024 Organic Food and Farming Summit Summit passes are currently on sale. Find out more information about the summit and get your tickets at wwwfoginfoorg slash summit. And now on to the show.

Speaker 2: 0:25

Welcome food aficionados, to another delectable episode of Fresh Take. I am your host, lana Shahabedin. Join us as we embark on a culinary journey, exploring the art of crafting seasonal menus and the joys of incorporating locally sourced ingredients into our culinary creations. Today, I have the absolute pleasure of welcoming Jeffrey Schlissel, chef and host of the renowned Walk Talk podcast, to our virtual table. From farm fresh produce to artisanal delights, jeffrey brings a wealth of expertise and passion for celebrating the bounties of each season through his podcast and culinary endeavors. Get ready to tantalize your taste buds and discover the secrets behind creating unforgettable dishes that highlight the flavors of the local harvest. Welcome to our show, jeffrey.

Speaker 3: 1:15

Thanks for having me very much. So glad to be here as well, talking about one of my favorite subjects.

Speaker 2: 1:21

Yes, I'm so excited about this topic today and really couldn't pick anyone better for this. I think we've had so many discussions so far on local food and I'm really excited to have you on the show. So I know your background is very much deeply rooted in culinary and culinary world, and so I'm so curious to know what was your start as a chef. What was there a moment in your career where you thought this is what I have to do?

Speaker 3: 1:54

Oh, my God, that was probably when I was 12. I was, you know, reading a magazine that my mom had. I was thinking it was Family Circle and I said, hey, can I go ahead and cook this? And my mom was like you want to do what? So, after she picked her jaw off the floor, um, we went to you know the supermarket and I couldn't even buy it. There was a sherry wine was one of the ingredients in it, so I couldn't even buy one of the ingredients at 12, obviously, and um, I started cooking, but I was. I had been cooking, for at that point I was like making eggs and doing other things in the kitchen since I was probably like five or six. But when I truly started getting down or falling down the rabbit hole was when I was in my 12 years old and and on um, I've always wanted to be a chef or worked in the restaurant industry. I always wanted to be creative and and use my hands, and that was my creative outlook.

Speaker 2: 2:47

That's amazing, yeah, and I think we've had that conversation as far as even my own history wanting to become a chef at such a young age as well, and it just being. You know my family having their own restaurant business and telling me that's it's a really tough gig. So I know that you, you know you graduated from Johnson and Wales. You've been a personal chef and you had award winning plant based foods and barbecue. So you, you have also gotten some acclaimed nicknames the kingpin and bacon cartel. Where did those spark from?

Speaker 3: 3:22

So I worked for a broadliner at the point in time and we were always looking at food when it was coming in and if a customer had a complaint we would actually bring the food out and look into. Was it a supply chain issue? Was the cold chain was broken? Was the fault that the end user didn't know how to use the product? And we always have these what they call baking cuttings, and they'd bring bacon out and they would show like all these different now, mind you, bacon, these different defects quote unquote defense that they talk about. They don't hamper the ability of the food, it's just more of aesthetics. As far as the eye is concerned, most of the time there's only two that really hamper the flavor profile, which would be a glandular and that could be seen with the naked eye or like a blood vessel.

Speaker 3: 4:14

But generally speaking, I looked at it and said, well, god, why are they making such poor quality products? And it was more of a commodity thing and just get the pigs fed. And that sent me down a rabbit hole of learning about pigs and, you know, getting with the farmers and meeting them and watching them raise their, their pigs, and then the end result of buying one of the bellies and seeing the belly, different species and what they do. It kind of sent me on this whirlwind of looking at bacon and redefining what bacon is. And if you, you know, being from Miami, I couldn't. I wanted to be the bacon mafia, but somebody already had that. So I was thanks and I figured I grew up during the eighties, during the Scarface time period, and I'm like, oh, that's the cartel. Okay, there we go, that's what we're going to do. Iconic right.

Speaker 3: 5:05

Right. So we went with that and we started venturing into the smoked meat and then, from smoked meat, working with the broad line I was working with, we had a lot of customers that were looking for plant-based because that's a huge explosion in itself based, because that's a huge explosion in itself. Um, so I ventured into going into plant based, and I mean six, seven, 10 years ago. That was a, that was a four letter word for us in the restaurant business. You know, oh, there's a vegan here.

Speaker 3: 5:35

And you would scramble and just go like, oh, get them fried rice or pasta primavera. We really we really did an injustice to people that were vegan at the point. I think we still do. Being a chef and you want to be creative and seasonal and I really want to emphasize seasonal there's a two-pronged attack. One, you get to be creative when it's dealing with plant-based and two, the seasonality of it really helps your ROI, meaning your return on investment or your profitability, is concerned.

Speaker 3: 6:07

There should be no reason why we're getting and this literally just happened to me about a month ago. I was developing a menu and I went out looking for the products and I found Blood Oranges. It was right around October and I'm like, oh, this is perfect, this would be great for our shoot for a company I work for as a consultant for their social media. And I looked as I picked it up and it was from South Africa and I went, nope, not doing it, can't, I'm not going to bring myself to it, because that thing traveled too far for me to like when was that picked? You know how fresh is that product sitting there? So it lends itself to where.

Speaker 3: 6:49

I just don't want to do it. I want to move on from it. So plant-based grew, smoked meats grew you know the kingpin when you run the cartel and that's the way things moved. And I had my own restaurant in Palm Beach and unfortunately my sister-in-law passed away from COVID and we had to move to Tampa to help my brother-in-law raise his kids and shut my business down with doing the private chef over in Palm Beach and moved over to the West Coast and I got hooked up with Carl Fiodini with the Walk Talk podcast and media and that's where the rest is history can talk, podcast to media, and that's where the rest is history.

Speaker 2: 7:28

Wow, I mean, your, your background is so inspiring and I think the fact that you, even walking into both worlds of plant-based and and bacon, you know what a what a paradoxical thing to to be kind of an expert in both of those things, and so I think that in itself is is speaks, speaks loud volumes in terms of your culinary. You know technique, your work ethic, and I'm wondering you know what inspires you to cook, what's, what's in it for you that makes you feel really good about it?

Speaker 3: 8:02

You know and I do talk somewhere around the country about plant-based, about food, about mental health and and being a chef, because our industry is um, for the lack of better terminology it's in the dark ages, as you know, the hours we work and you know, god forbid, you work 12 hours. Guys are like, oh, you've got banker hours, and that that in itself should be changed. Now I think where I've morphed from my cooking and my inspiration is more, you know, craveable. How wonderful would this world be that if you got a job where you cook the food that you loved and you inspired other people. And I think the inspiration for me is having that communal table, that family meal time with my staff when I was in the industry, in the restaurants, getting to know my staff, mentoring my staff, you know, giving them the tools to become creative and kind of ignite their fire of their creativity.

Speaker 3: 9:10

That, to me, is where I really kind of amp up, but, at the guest's perspective, is giving them things that their palate has never seen before, uh, tasted before, right uh tasted before uh, I was deemed, uh and it's still kind of attached to it's another nickname the mad scientist, because some of the stuff I come up with is way off key that sometimes that I'm like I don't know how to do this, I gotta, I gotta hire or I have to look for somebody to help me figure out this.

Speaker 3: 9:42

What I have, my end result is result is um and it's a lot of fun that whole path to, to getting to the end result as being something beautiful that people are just, you know, wowed like. For instance, uh, we came and developed a baking cart, uh, bacon laundry, and it was literally um, wood planks that you would use for a charcuterie board. We had pegs going up and then line going through it with these little clips and the wooden clips hung the bacon and, for lack of better terminology, it was bacon sushi and it was grilled romaine. It was everything we wanted to be interactive, and that's one of the things I felt that now, being now four years after COVID, I think we lost a lot of the experience and the memories that we do with food. Now it's just get me fed, feel my body, let me get out. We lost a lot of the experience.

Speaker 2: 10:34

Absolutely, and I think cooking is a true art form that many people take for granted Just putting together a quick meal at home. Sometimes we're not afforded the time to really think through all the steps that it takes to get this food from farm to plate and every single person involved in the supply chain, let alone figuring out some of the other things that they could be considering, such as something you alluded to earlier, which is cooking in season, and this is, you know, the big topic of our episode today, and I want to shed light a little bit more on this in terms of what actually cooking seasonal means. What is. Can you explain to our folks listening, who are not familiar with that term or phrase, what that actually encompasses and why it's?

Speaker 3: 11:29

important With trade with different countries, but I feel that we should be very cognizant of what we're bringing into the country, especially if it's a product that we grow here, because then it's, and especially, for instance, if it's coming from a country that's going to be cheaper, we're pushing that farmer that's a local farmer, to that our own community out of business. So not only we're losing the taxes locally for our local economy within our state or counties, but we're also taking money out of people's hands to feed their own family, let alone our families. And I think the biggest topic is dealing with sustainability and looking seasonality at things is, if we lose the farmers, we lose the land. If we lose the land, we don't have food. We have to then rely upon other countries. That's a national security problem for me and that's what I preach about. You know going to your local farmer, going to your independent, going to your farms and getting to know your farmer, because you know you're. You're still keeping that money inside the community, but, more importantly, you're keeping land and security for our home country and that's a big thing and it sounds weird to say that, but I think it's important that I need to touch on that.

Speaker 3: 12:55

But as far as seasonality goes, what's the opposite of fresh? It's spoiled. So when you look at things as seasonality, why am I going to get something that is a thousand miles away Because it's out of season, in Florida, for instance? You know, florida has a very small peach season and a lot of people don't realize that, but I love Georgia peaches, but I don't want to get a peach from California during the peak of the season. That where it's not. Because, number one, I'm paying more money because, let's face it, when gas prices go up and oil prices go up, so does the logistics as far as carrying the food from one of the country to the next. Um, so there again lies the problem of how fresh is that product?

Speaker 3: 13:41

We, we have a thing in the industry called pinkies, and it's not a nice thing. It's the tomatoes that we normally get, five by five, five by six. These are all how we get them in bulk pack, or even bulk pack, let's say, in a case. The problem with those tomatoes is they're green and they're gassed to get them red so they don't bruise by the time they get on the shelf, and they're gassed to get them red so they don't bruise by the time they get on the shelf and they sit there, and they're able to sit there for three, four, five, six days before the ethanol starts wiping them up where they have to get rid of them. And I think that's in itself a problem, because why again are we getting things so far away? So you look at the profitability so far away. So you look at the profitability. You look at the flavorability how craveable is your food at the end of the day when you're not doing something?

Speaker 2: 14:31

that's seasonal, yeah, and the taste, I think, as from a chef's standpoint, is something that I think is also overlooked oftentimes in the restaurant industry.

Speaker 2: 14:43

Men, on across all restaurants, especially in Florida, you know they. They have all sorts of things that are featuring so many different types of cuisines, considering the diversity that we have in this state, and it's something that you know. You touched on the really critical points of the environmental impact, the economic impact. There's even the nutritional impact in terms of accessing the peak nutritional value when produce are picked ripe from the tree. That people often are not aware of either, and even someone like myself who has that background in nutrition, that wasn't taught to us, you know, in school when we were talking about all those things. So there's a lot of, it seems to me, a dynamic list of benefits that are really important in sourcing local. Something that I find that chefs often don't talk about too is that taste, the flavor profile, the difference in just the different things that you experience in your mouth right when something's ripe, versus not ripened and sprayed with all those chemicals. It's a completely different experience.

Speaker 3: 16:03

A hundred percent. It's a completely different experience. A hundred percent I mean when you so. I'm a farmer advocate and that's really come about in the last three or four years, which is shame on me as a chef, because I've been in the business for over 40.

Speaker 2: 16:16

And you know well exactly.

Speaker 3: 16:20

And you look at like we put an order in and the order comes in and we take advantage of that food coming to the back door so we can process it and get it into the hands or the stomachs of our guests. I think you know, when you become a farmer advocate and you're a chef, I think if you're not growing something in your house that you can eat, then you're missing out. Something in your house that you can eat, then you're missing out Because I mean, I could tell you I had a cucumber that I harvested and it was in my cooler, my refrigerator at home for like three weeks and it was. I cut it and still it was fantastic, full of flavor. And again, when you're, when you're having something like that and you look at it, you look at that's the taste that you remember but we're not getting. And that's because we're doing these mass production and getting these products to market, because we're trying to feed the need of the individuals. You know, I don't know when it shifted. Here's another thing that we as chefs we need to talk about. I don't know when it shifted where. When I first got in the industry, we had zucchinis and squash that looked like J's and S's and they weren't perfectly straight. What happened? I know we now call those B grades, but that's the 40% of the food that's being mulled back into the ground because it's not perfect for retail.

Speaker 3: 17:42

Why does things have to be perfect? Why can't we utilize things that are bent? And why do we have to have a crisp, clean. Who's plating that? Why can't we think outside the box and utilize what the end result gave us, that the farmer gave us as chefs? We have so much power as chefs to the consumer that we can guide them along. We don't have to have biggie sizes, consumer, that we can guide them along. We don't have to have biggie sizes. We don't have to have.

Speaker 3: 18:07

You know what's the season right now? That's up north. The fern greens, the I can't think of it the chives, the garlic chives that everyone goes hunting for, and we don't have those. I'm not going to get them. They're not for my estate. Why am I going to go forging for those? And the other thing, too, is why am I going to go to a restaurant that serves haddock when I'm in Florida? Is there something wrong with the fish that we outside of the Gulf of Mexico or the thing called the Atlantic Ocean. So I think we want to theme restaurants for people up north so they can have a taste back home. Go back home, no offense, go back home, come to Florida, move to Florida, be at Florida to experience Florida cuisine. Let's not hide behind other things. If you want to do like a po' boy, then do it cajun, but use the fish and use the seafood, use the the vegetables that are here in the state of florida and make it florida.

Speaker 2: 19:04

You know, cajun or florida creole or whatever you're going to do with it yes, yes, I'm a huge proponent for that, and I think what's sad that you also mentioned is that this imperfect ugly produce is what is? You know the terms that you see. Also, aside from, you know grade B it's. For us to think of food that way is also very kind of shameful, because I think you know there are people across the world, and even within Florida and the United States, who are going hungry to bed, and if we can't get across, you know that all food, no matter the shape and wonkiness of it, is still beneficial for us, and that's that's something that I think we need to really heavily address. And we find that obviously there's different availability of ingredients throughout the year, but also through different regions in Florida. So I want to know how do you navigate the availability of ingredients and how does that, you know, contribute to the seasonal menus that you put together?

Speaker 3: 20:14

I eat a lot of humble pie, to be honest, and I'll give you, for instance, we just had Bo Jackson on the podcast and I think one of the greatest things for me to do is actually cook for Bo. Bo and I actually had some history together. I had actually cooked for him when he launched his burger in 2017. And, what was really cool to see him again, we worked together at that event in 2017.

Speaker 3: 20:41

This event on Wednesday, this past Wednesday it was I was cooking for him and 11 other people and originally, when I was going to get the menu together, I put Grouper down. Okay, not even thinking, not even realizing it was February when I wrote it and I completely forgot. I went to go get grouper and guess what? Grouper's out of season. So you have to eat some humble pie and go. Hey, by the way, that menu I just sent you swapping out the fish because it's Corvina. Now, corvina is local, it doesn't have a season, it's not going to cost 1895. It's going to be more sustainable. You have to express that to some guests because they get upset, but you talk to your farmers Every time I do a menu. Now we're launching this new venture for dinners. They're going to be called SDS the Secret Dinner Society. For dinners, they're going to be called SDS the Secret Dinner Society, and what this is is a five course meal and an undisclosed location, and you get all the information, up until about an hour before, of where the location is.

Speaker 3: 21:48

So an hour before you get a text. You have to be ready to go. Obviously, you get a text and you then head over to that location. Generally speaking, we're going to know we're geo-fenced in, so it's not going to be like you're going to be in Palm beach and it's going to be in Tampa and it's. You got three hours to drive over.

Speaker 2: 22:07

It's nothing like that.

Speaker 3: 22:09

There's more information that will come along with those, but that those menus will be first discussing what the farmers have, what's plentiful. When I worked in the industry with my broadliners whoever your produce company was and there's a lot out there, whether it had been a corporate or independent guy you always call them and be like hey, what do you got? That's local. Who are you buying from that's local? When I lived in Palm Beach it was. I remember one time we were buying stuff at the hotel I was the chef at and the GM walked around the corner and he felt the produce and he's like hey, your produce, it's really warm, how long has it been out? And it wasn't a very nice tone, by the way. It was a very angry tone and I'm like well, because it probably just got cut at two o'clock and it was brought over here by four, so you can't get fresher ingredient than that.

Speaker 2: 23:01

Wow.

Speaker 3: 23:02

And that's what's great about having again the craveability of your product, the name being on your product.

Speaker 2: 23:15

I mean, how much of a chef are you if you're not going to get the best of the best? Yeah, yeah, and I want to dive deeper into these technicalities. So, the practice of cooking in season and the process that you take to be able to source these local seasonal ingredients Is there something that you have learned over the years that has helped you in terms of, you know, starting this kind of journey and if so, you know what? Could you tell someone listening out here that's pretty new to wanting to source locally.

Speaker 3: 23:48

Talk to your vendors. There's this wonderful thing that we all carry around in our pocket that used to be a flip phone and only called numbers. Now there's a high powered computer and it has this thing called Google and you can pretty much Google any time period of what's in season when you're developing menus. But I think the important thing is you have to keep cognizant of changing your menu four times a year. You know, like climbing Mount Everest, it's going to take, you know, years to do that.

Speaker 3: 24:17

But if you put your head down and have proteins that are available, you then just take certain ingredients out and then put ingredients back and maybe change some sauces to keep it fresh. And then the other flip side of it is well, how do I stop having my guests tell me well, why'd you take that off? I'm not going to come back. Then, good, Don't worry about them not coming back, because they're not going to appreciate your menu changing. They're going to get stagnant and in 20 years when they go, you know, become part of the circle of life. You don't have anyone else coming into your door because you've stayed stagnant for 20 years. Guess who's going to close.

Speaker 2: 25:01

Right.

Speaker 3: 25:01

So I think, I think, as a I love one of the biggest huge restaurant conglomerates which is Darden Foods. They they'd have this concept called season 52. And I love season 52 because, again, 52 weeks a year, they change the rest of their menu four times a year. They don't care that Mrs Johnson got upset that they took off that filet or whatever it is, because you know what. It's just not in season and it's not in our business model, because we're not going to have the accountability or the we're not going to look at the ROI as favorable. And that's the key element. When you're, you know, a young chef getting out and you want to get in there and you want to do your own cuisine, just remember, you still have to answer to the bottom line, which is mathematics, math and doesn't lie. Numbers don't lie. So if you want to get the best possible product, you better be sourcing the best possible seasonal ingredients to do that.

Speaker 2: 25:59

And speaking of that, how do you go about creating kind of those lasting relationships with your local farmers?

Speaker 3: 26:09

Oh man, become a voice for them. One of the things that we're trying to communicate with our podcasts and the chefs that are part of the walk and talk media is we want to hook them up with farms that are local and like, for instance, vicki Webster from happy trails or happy tails rather, she does a goat farming. I would love to hook her up with somebody in Tampa that would be the voice for her and say, hey, I'm getting my product from her. Or Amy Yee from Yee Family Farms in Delray that's Asian vegetables. I'd love to hook like Chef Ramos, daniel and I know they know each other, but Daniel becomes the voice for her and her farm. So then they're bringing together the community of what we're doing and all it is is, you know, facebook.

Speaker 3: 27:04

There's Julian Childs does a Facebook group called Florida Farm Finder. It's a big deal, or like a DILL D-I-L-L. Yes, and it's a phenomenal group. She has over 60,000, I think 75,000 people inside this group and it ranges from people that have moved from different areas of the country or people that have been diagnosed and want to eat healthier. That get on the farm finder and, hey, I'm looking for this, I'm looking for that, and you just see, boom, boom, boom, boom. All these people kind of respond and the farmers are there. That's where they begin is just having that ability to communicate and saying, hey, I'm looking for this product, how can I go about getting it?

Speaker 3: 27:50

I think the biggest obstacle for chefs and local independent farmers is logistics how to connect the farmer to the restaurant, because most chefs can't get out. They're working six days a week. They don't want to take that one day to. You know, go to a farm and pick up their stuff and then have to run it back to the restaurant or get up earlier because they got to be at the restaurant. So there's, we've got to figure something out where logistics falls into play, where we can get the freshest ingredients instead of buying it from California or wherever. Not saying that California is bad, I'm just saying local is much better.

Speaker 2: 28:25

Yeah, I think you hit the nail on the head when you said becoming the voice for farmers. I think there's a lot to be said about that, because there's over now, 47,000 farms just in the state of Florida and that's, you know, a huge opportunity for us to address these gaps in the food system where we don't really know our farmer and there's not a lot of opportunity to shed light or at least you know we're trying to shed light but oftentimes, oftentimes it's conversation that is skipped, and I think that these types of strategies and developing relationships with the farmers, between chefs, even between you, know us educational nonprofits. That's really critical, because they have a really tough job of being on the farm day in, day out, and it's also something that we have to keep in mind that we're also able to service them by being a voice for these farmers as well. So I love that you mentioned that and I wanted to touch on what you mentioned with Jillian Childs.

Speaker 3: 29:38

I actually, funnily enough- oh, you did, you just meet her.

Speaker 2: 29:42

You met her, I did, I just had dinner with her yep I just had dinner with her last week and it was a great conversation and we talked about you as well and this, you know, our frustration with unripened tomatoes and these. You know several things that we come across and on a daily basis that are just like why, why is this like this, you know, and it's something that we just have to keep talking about it, and that's, I think, the power in these podcasts that we're doing and just having space for these conversations. So, before I go into some of the places where we can find you and the work that you do, I wanna also see if you can guide us through a hypothetical seasonal menu that you might create.

Speaker 3: 30:32

I just created four menus, so 32 items on a menu for the podcast. Uh, so my, my podcast is we shoot for a local butcher shop and you know I try to make it where I look at what the national food day is. You want to coincide in that.

Speaker 3: 30:52

Obviously don't want to miss, you know, bacon day and um, because there's there's a food celebration going on anywhere else. Every day there's something going on. I know there's like national paella day, there's national french bread day, there's poultry day, there's you know all these different things. So you can look at that as a chef, as when you're trying to develop things you know we have right around the corner is the big St Patrick's day, which is, I call it, amateur hour for everyone. Um, so for me, I look at that as an opportunity.

Speaker 3: 31:27

Well, what can I do different? Everyone's going to do corned beef and cabbage. So what if I smoke my corned beef instead of boiling my corned beef? What if I use hot ambers to char my cabbage instead of using sauerkraut Instead of having whole carrots? What about carrot puree instead of having mashed potatoes? What about roasted potatoes? For different textures and crunch.

Speaker 3: 31:50

So I look at flavor profiles, I look at eye appeal, I look at how vivid the colors are going to be. Then I look at the textures what's going to be the crunch? Is it too much cream? Is it too much puree? You know where's the bite coming from. And then I look at like, for instance, obviously tomorrow, everyone who hopefully will realize it's pie day tomorrow. So every pizza joint is going to have a pie on sale.

Speaker 3: 32:14

So I developed a Reuben pie. So it's a pizza, so being tomato sauce and mozzarella and pepperoni, it's the pizza shell. It's going to be a mustard aioli, on the bottom, swiss and Gruyere shaved, beautiful smoked corned beef. And then I'm going to take that charred cabbage and put that on top, bake that off in the pizza oven and that will be a charred pizza, reuben. And then, you know, towards the end of the month we have Easter. I got to come up with some stuff there and you look at things and you look at investing in what goes, what berries go well with lamb and what's in season now. So you kind of cross-reference Blueberry, great. So I'm going to take a blueberry puree, bring that down, bring it in with some demi, which is a beef and rich beef stock which you should know because you're a chef, but the listeners won't. I take matcha and mint green tea and cross the outside of the lamb rack, freeze it. The reason why I freeze it is when it goes on the smoker, I can inhibit more smoke without cooking the product.

Speaker 2: 33:22

Wow.

Speaker 3: 33:22

So it's almost like that reverse sear when people dip it in the liquid nitrogen. I don't have that, so I take and put it in the freezer and then smoke so it inhibits more of that complexity to it. And then you know how am I going to serve that? I got roasted. You know how am I going to serve that? I got roasted. You know Brussels sprouts, I've got. You know English peas and so many different things I can play with. And then I break it down from there again, looking at textures, looking at pictures. I'm looking at elements because, again, I'm working with a photographer, I'm working like I'm a chef being in a restaurant because I'm trying to showcase here's fine dining and then here's your sports bar. I can get into both different meal, uh, restaurant styles or concepts from that, and that's kind of like where you go with it.

Speaker 2: 34:06

I mean, I'm not salivating over here or anything.

Speaker 3: 34:11

I was just prepping before the call. Um, I got like soda bread is out. I got it all measured and I'm like, oops, got to go on a call. I think one of the things I did want to touch on, though, is the problem with seasonality, and this is a huge problem. People look at things, and I wanted to touch upon COVID.

Speaker 3: 34:28

One of the biggest things that really got me involved with becoming a farmer, a advocate, is DaVista Farms, huge tomato distributor farmer. They own many, many farms from the East Coast of Florida all the way up to New Jersey. They had a plow in I don't know how many pounds of tomatoes, and RC, hayton, paul and Charlie over there had to plow a million pounds of green beans and everybody was like, okay, that's no big deal. Here's the problem with that, and here's the problem with that 40% going back into the ground. It's wonderful that we're repurposing and recomposting the product, but we're forgetting about the time, the energy, the natural resources that went in to growing those products and not being perfect for sale.

Speaker 3: 35:16

Retail side of things. Where what are we doing? We're we're burning through our natural resources, we're taking advantage of the land and, as chefs, if we're not utilizing the entire product. That's an issue for me on on so many different levels because, again, if we flooded the market with that 40% that was being redone or milled back into the ground, we wouldn't have a starving person in the United States, we wouldn't have these food shortages or these logistic issues that we have because things aren't perfect. So there's a lot of things that chefs, like I said before, we have a ton of power when it comes to the consumer.

Speaker 2: 36:02

Right.

Speaker 3: 36:02

And it's the marketing of how we're going to market, like we've blown this farm to table, fork to table and sustainability into this word that is now for me it's just become really bad words. I've been to restaurants where they're farmed. Excuse me, I got a quote. Air quotes farm to table and nothing in the place is farm to table at all.

Speaker 2: 36:26

Yep, we see that a lot of times too.

Speaker 3: 36:29

And I wish we could do the same thing that we do in truth and menu for fish and hopefully the department of beat the Bieber will listen to this, that's the health department when what I mean by that is if you're not serving, if you have on your menu grouper and you're serving swi, swi is not grouper, swi is catfish I serving. If you have on your menu grouper and you're serving swi, swi is not grouper, swi is catfish, I don't care if it's a cousin or not. Same thing with tilapia and snapper. Tilapia is not snapper, snapper, snapper.

Speaker 3: 36:53

When you're doing that, you get caught, you're going to get fined, and I know people that have been fined $25,000 because of truth in menu. If you're going to be and put yourself out there to be a farm to table restaurant, I want to see on your website all the farms you are working with. I want to be able to talk to those farmers, I want to verify that you're actually buying from them, Because, again, that's where I want my money to go is back to the community, back to the farms, back to where it needs to go, and I think that if more people did that, I don't think we would have the problem that we have, or as much as the problem, I should say.

Speaker 2: 37:30

Yeah, so transparency, I think, and accountability are the two biggest things that I think are missing from that distribution system, and actually we just had another chef, Chef Hari Pulapaka on our show to talk about those topics.

Speaker 1: 37:49

I love him.

Speaker 2: 37:50

I love him too, side note, but those types of things are really. It seems to be kind of the gray area, right, and some of these places that say that they're doing these things, that say that they're sourcing local, but it's it's. How do we prove that you know what? What kind of system is in place to have that be evident? And so I think that's a really good point that you bring up. And you know, I think the most transparent at this point that we can be is by listing the farmers and the farms that you're sourcing from on your menus. I've seen a few different restaurants and different food businesses have that, and there is a how do I say that word? Reciprocosity.

Speaker 2: 38:41

Reciprocity yes, where they reciprocate Right when on both websites or on both social media platforms, you see each of those partners listed. So in that type of way there is a clear distinction of okay, these two entities are clearly working together, sourcing and selling to each other. That's very clear to me.

Speaker 3: 39:05

I can rest happy yeah sourcing and selling to each other. That's very clear to me. I can rest happy. I also think when we're talking about being local and getting it from your farmer, there's a misnomer, a misconception, that it's going to be cheaper. Cheaper doesn't mean better. Cheaper means less. It means that could be more fillers, more pesticides, more chemical, less flavor.

Speaker 3: 39:28

When you're dealing with a farmer that's local, they're not getting subsidized. The state of Florida farmers do not get subsidized. So in 78, 79, when we had snow believe it or not, because I was around that time period in Florida none of the farmers got subsidized because they got frost, they lost their land. So a lot of people have to realize you're not going to get a chicken for $2 a pound. You're not going to get carrots for cheaper. What you're going to get is product that has passion and love, because that's what the farmer has given them. And you know when you're talking about farmers in general, the average age is 53 years old. The highest suicide rate among men in that age group are farmers and their children. As many of us have children, we want the best for our children so they don't get into farming. So we're seeing this mass exodus of people leaving the farms to do better. There is a slight influx now of more women becoming farmers and being involved in farming than we've ever seen before.

Speaker 3: 40:35

But I think the problem is is this misconception that it's local, it's cheaper. No, it's local and it's better, it's fresher, it's not coming across and being filled with junk to get it on your plate. And I think that's one of the things we, as farmer advocates, have to express that, yeah, your food cost is going to be a little bit more, but guarantee you 50 cents is going to raise your portion cost literally three cents, three cents and I think I think the cost topic is a really big one.

Speaker 2: 41:11

As far as you know, chefs that I speak to that are, I think, cognizant of the price.

Speaker 2: 41:18

You know the price of local food and think that they cannot incorporate it because it's too high, way more than what you would find in your typical US Foods, mr Green's, whatever the other distributors are that they're sourcing from, and so I think there needs to be a clear understanding that if you're dedicated to sourcing local, you have to be cognizant of the price tag, but that that comes with quality, like you said, it comes with the passion, the love and really high quality food that again, is higher in nutrition, better for the environment, better for the local economy. It all goes back, and so I think there's that circular economy and idea that we can kind of go back to. And I wanted to highlight some of the work that you're doing with the walk and talk, the different snippets that you have through that, with the restaurant recipes, the interviews, the podcast and highlighting some of the folks that you are having on your show. And what is that all about and how does that contribute to this conversation?

Speaker 3: 42:33

It's all about community. When Carl first came up with the idea to do the podcast, obviously we were right smack dab in the middle of COVID and then we met a year later he was already doing restaurant recipes and the Dirty Dash and those are basically your type of shows that showcase local celebrity chefs not that they're celebrities. So, for instance, Devon Kevin Ho over now Slate has been closed, but he was the executive chef over at Slate, never been on TV. We know Slate was a really phenomenal restaurant, Was just killing it and crushing it and things happened where the owner basically sold the restaurant and the restaurant closed, or actually the whole property and the restaurant closed. And we went to him because he's just that stellar of a chef. So it gives him an opportunity to have that spotlight.

Speaker 3: 43:25

Thomas Parker over at the Carol, who's now in Atlanta same thing, we wanted to showcase him. Jonathan Rodriguez, Michael Klontes, who's the first Michelin star chef in Orlando we had him on the show. So again, it's not only the people that are up and coming, but people that have gotten the prestigious award of like a Michelin. It was really just a hoot to have him on, because he's such a great person and a human to have on the show. But again it goes back to the community. How can we showcase all these great bartenders, all of these great chefs that are out here? Because not everyone is going to have that guy Fieri not, the triple D is not going to come to them or Phil Rosenthal is not going to come walking through your door.

Speaker 3: 44:07

Not everybody's going to have that. So this is kind of that fill for us, but again it's. It's also. It's great for me because I get to meet other chefs and see what they're doing. I get to play with different foods, different types of cuisines, see what they're doing. So for me it's also the ability to do that. But again it's also hey, chef, are you looking for goat meat? Are you looking for chickens? Are you looking for Wagyu? Are you looking for I've got sources now because we have 25, actually now up to 30 something different chefs under our belt, or farms, rather under our belt, so that we can take chefs and go, hey, you want really good chicken?

Speaker 3: 44:41

So that we can take chefs and go, hey, you want really good chicken. You know Circle C's over down, you're near Naples. Well, you got to go to the Cold Cruise Circle C's. Or you know, go to park and go see Colleen Huss or Jane Riviera for City Chicks, and so we've got all over the state that we can bring chefs and farmers together so that we can actually grow this community exponentially.

Speaker 2: 45:09

Yes, and I love the name dropping and, you know, shout outs to all those folks that are really doing the work. And I think, same to you, jeffrey, you're. You know all of the, the passion that you have for being a farmer advocate is something that I think transpires and is going to be really inspirational for a lot of other chefs out there that are trying to also do. You know, private experiences, cooking classes and other things that you also have on your belt, you know, with Bacon Cartel and there's just so much that you're pouring into this and I appreciate you know, appreciate all that you're doing.

Speaker 2: 45:48

And one thing I really want to highlight is you're being a special guest on our panel for the upcoming summit that Fog is hosting in Tampa. It's going to be a chef panel called Plating the Harvest Embracing Local at Restaurants Plating the Harvest Embracing Local at Restaurants. We have a few chefs that are locked in to that panel, including Chef Hari Pulapaka, tony El Khoury, chef Lavon from Embassy Sweets. There's going to be a really great collaboration of these chefs, including yourself, to put together a menu. Is that right for the summit event?

Speaker 3: 46:24

Yeah, I'm actually stoked because, again, you know Hari is a wonderful individual. He and I, ironically enough, in 2019 with Keith Saracen, another friend of mine, we were on a panel about sustainability at that point and I was the side of the purveyor at the time. I was working for a broadliner, so my interpretation was what the at that time, what the broadliner was doing for sustainability and being green. Where Hari was talking about the seasonality of your menus, keith was also talking about seasonality and sustainability as far as the menus is concerned as well. We had an educator up there too, named Deanna, so it was really cool.

Speaker 3: 47:04

But for me, working with chefs and learning about the food, learning about especially where the farm, where we're getting the products from to do this menu, is really stellar for me. Because, you know, everybody likes the story. Everybody wants to hear where the food came from, what the farmer. So when we do these farmer craveable dinners as well, the farmer is sitting with you. So you want an experience. You want to know how long the farmer took to grow that Shanghai choy or to make that goat cheese, what she had to do, or so on and so forth. That farmer is there to talk and that's another revenue stream for that farmer, because that person sitting at the table never knew that farmer was that there to talk, and that's another revenue stream for that farmer, because that person sitting at the table never knew that farmer was that close to them, right?

Speaker 2: 47:58

Yeah, it's true, and there's something really special about bringing those people to the table, right, the ones that were doing the dirty work to pull out the weeds and bring the produce to our plates. So I think having the space for them to be there is so critical, and I think, even with the upcoming chef panel at the summit, the Food and Farming Summit we have a really great opportunity of educating the attendees, including farmers, how they can be a part of that space moving forward, and so I want to just open it up at the very end here, jeffrey, to see are there any other upcoming events that our audience should be aware of or upcoming podcast episodes that you want to shout out for those listening?

Speaker 3: 48:45

Yeah, so we, we have a really special guest every month. She comes on. Her name is Amy Drew Thompson. She is actually from the Orlando Sentinel. She's the food critic for the Sentinel. She actually went around with Phil Rosenthal to the different restaurants when he was filming in Orlando and we have her on there. So she'll be on this Friday. Every Thursday we actually drop a new episodes of the podcast.

Speaker 3: 49:12

I don't know if they're going to be as big of a star as you know Bo Jackson. Don't ask me how that fell into place, but it was really really cool to have him on. But we'll we'll have other different people coming on too. We deal with the world food championship, so we'll have other different people coming on too. We deal with the world food championships, so we'll have those celebrity chefs coming on as well.

Speaker 3: 49:32

But I think for us for coming up, for us, I know in April we're either going to be doing an SDS, where that's that secret dinner society, or we're going to be doing incredible dinner, farmer's dinner. Obviously, june, july, august we're not going to be doing unless we can find a farm that has air conditioning. Yeah, so, not so much water, because we can bring water anywhere, but as far as the what's coming up for us, yeah, just a bunch of stuff. To stay tuned, look at the walk and talkcom or go to bacon cartelcom. You can go to Instagram and see not only my food porn on there uh, bacon underscore cartel but Ida's images. That's John Hernandez. He does a lot of great stuff. He's our photographer, produced a producer. He is our MacGyver. Then there's a Carl Fiodini who's the host and he's got all over different social medias where you can definitely find us.

Speaker 2: 50:30

Perfect. Well, thank you so so much, Jeffrey, for sharing your wisdom and insight with us today. We'll be sure to share all of the resources in our about text for this podcast episode below, so be sure to check that out and listen to walk and talk for more inspiration and culinary delights. Thanks so much, Jeffrey.

Speaker 3: 50:50

I appreciate it very much. We're gonna have you on the on our podcast next, so definitely.

Speaker 2: 50:56

I'm looking forward to that too. And just like that we've reached the end of today's savory conversation with Jeffrey Schlissel. We hope you've enjoyed our exploration of crafting seasonal menus and embracing the beauty of locally sourced ingredients in our culinary adventures. Until next time, keep cooking, sharing meals and savoring every bite of your delicious creations.

Speaker 1: 51:22

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