Cameras, Kitchens, and What Drives Attention in Restaurants: Chef Nelly Buleje & Leigh Wilson

New spots opening, established places finding you life.

“Chef's pushing harder, operators trying to break through the noise, and all of it moving”

fast. It's a real market, a hungry market, and if you're paying attention, there's a lot to learn from it. That's part of what makes today's show interesting. From Timpano, in Tampa, we have Chef Nelli, Balejay.

A chef with deep hotel roots, serious range, and the kind of background that gives you both craft and perspective. He's worked across kitchens, across concepts, across cultures, and all of that shows up in how he approaches food and hospitality today. We also have Lee Wilson from Creative Loving, and today we're kicking off a new segment

"What's hot in Tampa Bay?"

Yeah, you heard it here first.

This isn't noise, it's height. It's a real look at what's getting attention, what's connecting, and what people in the business should be tuned into right now, because food doesn't live in a vacuum anymore. It lives in a dining room, it lives on camera, it lives in conversation, and when all of that starts lining up, that's when things get interesting.

Let's get into it. Chef, welcome to the program. Thank you for having me. I'm really excited to be here today. How's it today today?

All right. It's been awesome. I had a great time. Right. I mean, it started yesterday.

We have a little history. We have a pre-game handful of days ago.

“And we spent about an hour on the phone, gotten into a lot of conversation, that should have”

been the podcast. Tell you truth. What's that said? I decided to come out to the restaurant the other day just to get some b-roll, cauchy and action, super excited about that.

One of the dishes you were making today, and I've been craving that dish since then, and here we are. So, thanks for coming out. You made two banger dishes, and I want to talk about them. What was that dish?

What was dish one? Which one that we did today was our brand Zeno with a sun-kissed tomato pesto, and finished off with a little bit of fresh micro basals. So that's crispy skin, real flavor, and a hell of an eater. So the sun-kissed tomato pesto, talk about that, because that's not a little bit different.

Yeah. So, I was challenged a little bit ago to use sun-dried tomatoes. I haven't cooked with sun-dried tomatoes in a really long time.

Never been really a big fan of them, but somebody gave me a challenge, and I said,

"You know what? Let me get at it." It's a really beautiful pesto. It's vibrant. It brings every flavor that you can think of.

There's earth tones to it. It's extremely herbaceous, and all of the flavors come together in the entire preparation of the pesto itself. We don't really cook it, but also we end up using the extra virgin olive oil that we brown the almonds in at the end to really bring the flavors together and have them come alive.

And it did, especially with a little bit of that vinegar in there, and it gave it the pop. Yeah.

“I mean, you know, dishes all have to be balanced, right?”

And when you're looking at an ingredient like a sun-dried tomato, it's really prominent and what its flavor is, right? So we put the fresh garlic, the shallots, and it's about 50-50 sun-dried tomatoes to herbs that go into it, and we have really live herbs. I have a decent palate.

It's not the best palate in the world, but it's all right. You made the dish. Goes in the back, gets shot, comes back out, so it took a spoon. It was pretty damn good. And you took a smell of the bowl, and you're like, "Now, it's missing something and

he's the vinegar." And you hold on, man. Wait, wait, wait, wait. Yeah, you put a little bit in. You do your mix.

Everything came out of you. Just to mix. And you're like, "Now try it." And I took the bite, and I was like, "You're right on." Yeah, that's exactly what it was missing.

Yeah, I mean, you know, the beautiful thing about cooking is that you use all of your senses, right? And especially your nose, right? And when we were when it was done, I was looking at it, and I was missing a little bit of that hint on the tip of my nose when I put my nose in there to smell it.

And I was like, "It needs a little bit of that vinegar to settle off everything." Right? So I double guessed it. You tried it. Again, and we were correct.

Dish too. Dish too is our ready-tory pasta, actually serve that at the restaurant in Tampano. Dish one is actually going to be on the menu in a couple of months. So we got a little preview of that, but Dish too came out about two to three months ago

on my menu update. And it's a ready-tory pasta, but what makes this dish really special is the more Nesauce that I used for it. And the more Nesauce is the beginning of a recipe that I actually learned from Julianne

Bujiali, amazing historic Italian chef, right?

And that was 18 years ago maybe I want to say. And I've taken it, and I've developed it, and I've made different changes to it. And we serve that with, we've added white truffles to it. Right? So it's a white truffles where Nesauce fire roasted mushrooms.

I have a beautiful broiler in the restaurant that gets up to 1,400 degrees, and we put

So they get a little bit of a charm, and they get that little smokiness on them, right? And then we thought to日本 Chetta, and then we had a spirit for that vibrant. So I mean, the dish just comes alive. It's all about balance, like I said earlier, right?

“You need to find a little bit of that and everything.”

I've never said a refreshing bite with something that had truffles on it.

But for me, it was, it was you take a bite, and it was just beautiful taste. It had the funk, but it was wet, and I don't explain it. It had a brightness to it, and it was super easy to eat. I would eat six pounds of that. That's awesome.

It's not true, I didn't bring Leon yet, but she's shaking her head. Yeah. It's the truth, man. That's a banger dish. 100% banger dish.

Thank you. I appreciate it. But you know, you're in restaurants now. You're at Tempano over in Tampa. You guys are Michelin Rick and you guys over there, but you don't come from restaurants.

You come from hotels.

“What's it like making the jump from big hotel to smaller, smaller space, restaurant?”

It's night in day, I'm going to be 100% honest with you. Everything from the culture, from how your day starts, to what you're able to do in a massive property. Before I moved down to Tampa, I was overseeing 11 outlets and 16 kitchens. I still made it a concept of every day to talk to everybody that I worked with to make

sure that I built the right culture, the right rapport, and I made everybody want to come in and believe in the mission and believe in what we were doing. The difference is going to a brick and mortar, standalone restaurant is I get to share much more of my intimacy and my love for food and for the kitchen and really get to focus on developing the team that wants to be developed and not only the app, but I get to go out and talk

to all my guests on a Friday, Saturday night, I'll hit 80 to 90% of all the tables in my restaurant for a reference point. Audit. He made deep eye contact with me the entire time. He said that sentence, it was almost awkward except it was so beautifully said and honest

that I had to just embrace it, I'm just putting it out there. So you were just talking about how when you were, you know, 11 venues, much larger space. But at your days, you started when you were 13.

What do you want to stand now about being a shaft that you would have never understood in

your twice? That's a really good question, right? I think that when you're in your, when I was in my 20, that was more about conquering the world, how do I push to limits? How do I do this? How do I, explode on the scene? And how do I do that versus today? It's just much more about sharing my love and passion for food and bringing people together through the food,

being able to do that was the food that touches the tables. You know, I think that's a really big difference, right? The my whole purpose of, I've always cooked because I love to cook and because cooking is important to me is individual because I grew up with it as my culture. Cooking is what brought the family together. Mexican, Guatemala and Peruvian, Chicago, hotels, corporate work, all of that is layered

into what you just said. That's what brings that out of you. Yeah, no 100%, right? I mean, I've been very unfortunate. I've been blessed, right? I've had the opportunity to work all across the United States, I've been able to travel everywhere, you know, growing up in, as a first generation Latino with my parents, having housing in their native countries, I've been able to travel as well. It all sums up and gives you a

little bit of a different perspective, right? So all of that brings you together, right? And I'm fortunate that I was able to find what I love to do, right? And, you know, people

making a laugh on this table, love to find what you love to do and you're never

work a day in your life, that's not true. When you find what you love to do, you're going to work twice as hard as anybody else because it's just that natural fire and that passion that comes together and builds throughout the years and throughout the experiences of being able to be everywhere. It's rare that you find a free ride. It's just you have to put the effort. If you don't put the effort, you might attain something. You might get somewhere, but at the

“end of the day, I think you really need to take your stripes. You need to, and I just said this”

last week, but it's true. You have to drag yourself over the calls. You have to learn. You have to be humble. You have to learn to be humble. And all that stuff happens over time. It's not, that isn't something most people are equipped with, you know, coming out of, being a teenager into your 20s and trying to learn something. Typically doesn't exist. You've got to get, you're going to make your scars. Yeah, 100%. And you have to learn how to take them the right way, right?

Everything's a learning opportunity. And that's a beautiful thing about what we do in our industry is that if you can't learn two things every day that you go into work, you're wasting your time. I always tell my team that's whether you're going to do something right or do something wrong, you're still learning, right? So, you know, you've got to take those wins and those losses and

going to make you great at the end. You're heritage for your from. I just, so I ran a lot of

“a bunch of places before, Mexico, Guatemala, Chicago, all these things. All of that is a part of who”

you are as a human being. You talk a lot about family and how the family and memory, all of that is tied together. How much of that is part of your culinary drive? 100%. You know, coming from a Latino family, right? And my mother had 11 brothers and two sisters. When you take a look at that, every celebration was was family, but every celebration was centered around food. And everybody shared the love one and brought this another and brought this. A certain uncle was

able to make this and and when you share that and you grew up with that and, you know, every memory is built around that, right? And I take that with myself, right? And even now, running a Italian restaurant, I mean, I'm, I'm by birth, half Mexican, half Guatemala,

adapted by, frankly, my amazing stuff, my amazing dad that adopted me when I was younger, right?

And then, growing up eating, proving cuisine, I'm in America running a Michelin recommended Italian restaurant, right? And how does that incorporate into what I'm doing by making sure that I deliver the same bold, balanced, amazing flavors that I grew up on? I'm not serving people to guide you in my restaurant, but I gave you a son kissed tomato pasto today that hit every, every aspect of a translation of what a picothecario was to me, right?

And, and food should take you back, food should be nostalgic. It's a reminder of a moment

“and a place that you were at. And that's what it is for me. So, when you ask me about my family”

and what it, it's 100% who I am today. And it's what I try to share with everyone.

Support for Walk and Talk Media comes from Metro Food Service Solutions, trusted by kitchens that need storage and workflow that actually does the job. Learn more at Metro.com. So, you're telling me you're not Italian? I've been mistaken a couple of times for Hawaiian or Filipino, not Italian. You know, I can see the Hawaiian. I can absolutely see the Hawaiian. Filipino almost. You're so close to that, but Hawaiian, that on for Hawaiian. So, there I was.

I'm at Tempano, a shooting b-roll across the street from the restaurants, so I can get some establishing shot, the sign, front door and all that. And I see Chef Nelly outside and he's talking to guests. And I see how he's talking. He's not just standing there, hand on his pocket or something. He's speaking and communicating with his hands. And I noticed it, chef. You said, you love to touch tables. You love to connect with the guests. What is it about that matter so much to you? I get to see

the rate, their appreciation for my craft for work, for what I've done, right? So, a lot of times when we work in the kitchen and, you know, we don't get that opportunity to go out and talk to the guests and we don't get an opportunity to see how we impacted someone's day. And I'm going to tell you what we do with food and being able to deliver that. We deliver experiences and you need to look at it like that. So, when I go out there and I get that opportunity to unpack

talk to the guests, what do they love? Maybe what they didn't love or I would like to try something different. I'm all about that, right? You know, I tell everyone if it's not illegal or more, I'll do it, right? And if you pay me enough, I might do one of the other. But, you know, seeing

“how happy people are when you're there, it's awesome. That's why you do this, right? That's why”

you put up with the 1214 hour days, six, seven days a week in a hundred degree kitchen, right? To get to see people smile and enjoy your loving, which food is my love language. So, being able to go there and talk to them and see how much they truly appreciate it. Just drives me to want to be that much better than next day. Lee Wilson. Hello. Welcome back. Thanks for having me. You set this up with Nellie today. Good freaking call. Who will thank you, oh? Yes, we're doing something pretty exciting.

I'll talk about it. That's so hot. I love how you're putting your early 2000s, Paris Hilton on. You can pry my millennial culture from my cold dead fingers. You know, I told you the ring to Von Dutch hat. I really did. I told you, I sent ring to Von Dutch hat. I still own it. I realized now if I would have held on to the majority of my wardrobe from that time, I could just pop up a tent at any flea and pay for rent in one day.

Totally just came back around a hundred percent. It just came back. My wife was talking all about yeah. I just bought a skirt that I used to own about 20 years ago for three times the price. And I paid it. So, we're doing a new segment. So, Lee Wilson, if you don't know, creative loafing, she's their marketing and event director and we're also now starting a new segment

in to the food scene in Florida, Central Florida, Tampa, Orlando, whatnot. I found somebody who's more

“tuned in than me. So, basically, the cadence is going to be every two weeks. Lee's going to come in”

and she's going to have a handful of restaurants, eateries, hotels, the whole nine yards. Where to go? What's hot? What to do? And I am here for it. And I think today, even out, you're ready to go today, right? Oh, it's totally. Oh, my god. I love this. All right. Let's, let's real quick jump into that. What did you bring? I, okay. So, there's three things. Because it's not just about the restaurants or the hotels. It's also we have so many events going on right now. And

especially, so many events that are always centered around food and drink, we just had ours

are to kill in T. G. Take town, which used to be Margarita Wars. So, look out for that 2027. But it's, it's about the events too. And the events that we have coming up, the one, this is probably one of my favorite to attend. It's Tampa Bay Food Online. And it is amazing. There was a

“bunch of different events going on. Within that, you have to go check out the whole thing to go”

through all the events. There's like different dinners that happen. And then they have a breakfast with heroes where they honor all of the heroes of Tampa Bay and the police department of Florida Barman EMS. But my two favorites are the chef showdown, which Nellie is competing in for the second year in a row third. Oh, this is my second year. Okay. Second year in a row. And then

the grand tasting. And the grand tasting is it takes over the entire park of Curtis six and park. And

it's at all inclusive to get for that. And they have so many things going on. You cannot possibly physically eat and drink everything that's in there. I know. I've tried. I failed. But I've tried. It's so good. They have like, they even have last year. They had like an espresso martini station. And I think Nellie McGrowfernes just like lived there for the end for the majority of the day. Did you say it was a more entertaining week I'm running? So, that's something that like I'm

really looking forward to attending. I love it every year. I go every year. But the chef showdown is like really special. Because it's a little bit more of an intimate event. These guys bring their aging to this. They treat it like a WWE SmackDown. They're introductions. There's mariachi bands. There's confetti, if you can get away with it. There's girls holding sparklers. There's signs like everything for the, for the introductions. And they had different

different showdowns too. There's like battle barbecue, battle surfing tour, battle pasta, battle truffle. And there's some real tension amongst the amongst these chefs too. Oh, it is. It's not going to talk about any of that. Like, I'm not going to be the one to just spill beans like that. I won't do it. But I know because I talk to these cats. And I know what's the, I got all the tea. I'm not spilling it. I'm not going to do it.

There's some, you're not going to talk into it. It's great. So that one, I'm really, that's coming up next week. Really looking forward to that one. It's in April. Beautiful weather. Beautiful day, gorgeous park. The other place that I went to the other day. And this was a surprise was the new Oysterbar in St. Pete. So if, if you're an old St. Peter's bergian, you knew the Oysterbar. Oysterbar used to be on central outing. It was the main drag

there. Probably one of my earliest memories of coming of moving to Tampa, or Tampa's debut. Moving to St. Pete was going to the Oysterbar back in like 2007 to 2008 or something. And it was, you know, it was like, you just your standard one of the most Oysterbar right there. So they closed down a couple of years ago and you kind of hadn't heard anything from them. And then they popped back up and kind of like the grand central district of St. Pete. So it's been a different,

a completely different neighborhood now. Oh, my God. I love the Euroster. So they did a great presentation of that. We had this like lobster and yokey and like noky was like filled with little surprises of cheese too. So it was like pillowy puffs of flavor that just like exploded in your mouth

“with more cheese. And then plenty of lobster. I think it's nothing makes me more mad than like eating”

like a sliver of lobster. This was like whole heck and chunks of lobster in it. But the dessert. They, the lady shift dessert. I don't know who she is, but I need a meter. So I took my daughter of a nine year old. She wanted to order the carrot cake. And I was like, oh, when, right, we're

getting veggies. They brought out this carrot cake. And it was amazing carrot cake. But this, the

icing on top of it was this molasses cream cheese icing. Do you know, God, if I did not lick the icing off of this cake myself, it was phenomenal. It was made the best carrot cake of that. That's a big statement. You know, carrot cake is a funny thing, right? For people who

like it has to be wet. It has to be a wet carrot cake. And for that, I will eat all of it all just in general, all of it. Lock and talk media is proudly supported by rack porcelain USA creating durable beautifully designed tableware for chefs and hospitality professionals. Learn more at rack porcelain.com. As I understand it, there's a chef Jason from Popo. Yes. And that's a hot place right now. Oh my God, we love it so much. Popo is the place that anyone of my girlfriends

like in the Girl's Group, any one of the summer birthday that is our birthday spot. It is amazing. Not only are the flavor, they're really, really, really amazing food. The atmosphere is great, but you also, like, it's not a full play of food. Like, he does topist dial portions, which is perfect. Because we all like, we all share each other's food. We all like, all this eat like this much. It's great. And the bar program, they're a drink program. It's

beautiful. They have some really beautiful cocktails there. That sounds pretty hot right now. Oh, it's so hot. Oh, it's so hot right now. Let's see. Come on, Hilton. Popo is so hot right now.

“That's hot. That's hot. That's what I'm talking about. So here, I'm going to get a cease of”

existence from Paris, Health Head. Here's the thing. Okay, let's back up. First of all,

I'd love to have Chef Jason in house in studio doing this. I think it'll be pretty dope. Oh, challenge accepted. Right. Wait a minute. There's more to the. You got Chef Nelly here. Mm-hmm. To have a big food and wine. I think there's a little competition, right? Oh, yeah. Are you going up against Chef Jason? Yeah, I'm competing up against Chef Jason this year. We're battling, uh, we're doing a battle surf in turf. So it's pretty exciting. I'm excited.

Is this your first one? This is not your first competition. No, this is, so this is the second year that I've done the Chef battle here in Tampa, but I've been doing competition forever. I, uh, I was actually, um, Cleveland's iron chef, um, two years in a row there. Truth be told, this is the first competition I had ever lost in my career. Well, it's when I did this, the first one. So this is redemption. So Jason's got to be ready.

These chefs bring their A game to this. This is like WWE SmackDown. They have intros. They have fireworks, like all sorts of stuff in, in this battle. It's amazing. At the end of this, there's a line of action. These chefs, I mean, listen, by and large, everybody likes each other. But there's some serious, like, under the table stuff that

nobody knows about. I'm privy to a lot of that. I would never, ever spill the tea. I would never

divulge or share any of that. But I can promise you that this is real stuff. When these cats compete,

“it's real. And they don't want to lose. I think it actually should go into some WWE stuff.”

I would love to see the chefs pull the coats off. It just go at it. I would dig that. I would pay for that. I'm just saying. I'm putting it out there. You hear it out there. But who's it? So judges, who's judging? No, one of the judges is Chef Joe Dodd, from King of the Coop. Actually, who has recently found his new home. We just ran a article about this. Recently found his new home here in Pope County. I'd like to have him on the program, too. No, he's amazing.

So all of these things are going to kind of like coalesce into this segment. You know, what's hot? And you know, so. And Pope County counts, so far as I'm concerned. I know it's not like Tampa Bay, right? But it's it's right there. I think it's a greater Tampa Bay region. Like we we cover a lot of poll counting stuff when we're doing best of the bag. You know, you run out we still cover Pope County stories and stuff. So yeah, it's absolutely part of the greater Tampa

Bay region. Well, let's get you in the house. So what I think should happen also,

here's what I'm thinking. My mind is spinning right now. We get Chef Jason in here, from Pope

- Right, how do you like how I pronounce that? I'm okay, right? - Yeah, it's all right. - That's all right. - All right, all right, all right.

- All right, all right. - All right, all right. - All right, all right. - All right, all right. - All right, all right.

- All right, all right. - All right, all right. - All right, all right. - All right, all right. - All right, all right.

- All right, all right. - All right, all right. - All right, all right, all right. - All right, all right. - All right, all right.

- All right, all right. - All right, all right. - All right, all right.

“read. It's no longer jelaponyls, right? You're now writing Mary Nara, right? It's the exact same. You get to read when you're walking in the prep in the coolers. So what I think would be really terrific here. Let me bring it back to some awesome.”

I think we could pull off. Lee, let's catch FJC in an house. And between you and me, nobody's listening. It's just the audience and stuff. We secretly have.

Are you down? Oh, a hundred percent. You want to do this? Well, I would love to do that, right, Lee? Oh, yeah, totally. Okay. All right. So it's so hot. Well, hello. I'm, I'm really in now.

“Are you going to say what to do with this? That's the show right there.”

All right. What are the dates for the, yeah, what are the dates for? To have a wonderful day.

I kick South next week, starting on Wednesday. It goes all the way through on Saturday. Saturday is a great tasting. My girlfriends and I always go. It's, it's a blast. It is so much fun.

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We're learning more about the mission at the burnt chef project.com. So for the festival, I have Putra Vera who's, you know, is team walk in talk. He's going to be in town and we're going to be there and I'm going to film. Pooch is going to interview and we're going to do the roundtable of chef study there. And I can promise you now, we're going to start some stuff. We're going to, we're going to, we're going to light some matches. I'm just, I'm putting it out there now. I'm excited.

And by the way, Pooch is a chef. He's in, he's from Louisiana. So he's our Louisiana New Orleans Connect.

So he has his own fire, if you will, like he's, he's a special breed of individual.

And he's going to fit in well with this debatress group of you people. I'm just putting it out there like that. Okay. Lee, I know that you're out there in a big way, right? You're doing everything creative, low thing.

“One way or the other. And now we're adding this other layer. What else do you got for the audience?”

Oh, what is going to be so hot in Tampa because they just opened literally yesterday, Kyoto. Let me tell you, that place is gorgeous. It's in the, it's, it's very unassuming. Like when you walk up to it, you wouldn't, you wouldn't really know because it's an old speak easy building at the, the very, like end of South Howard or towards like the water on the base shore side of things. But it is beautiful inside even every little detail would sought out with like the laying of the tiles and even like the bathroom design women pay attention to bathrooms and restaurants.

But the whole entire restaurant is like beautiful and intimate and it's dark and moody and it goes so perfectly with the food, the food. It's elevated Mexican cuisine and they have a lady chef too. I almost took offense to what you said. As if us men don't care about the facilities, of course we care about the, I walk out of places because of the facility. Okay. Well, that's good.

“I just want to be real clear that, right? Because, I mean, what can talk me, we're not part of the gender wars and all that stuff, right?”

But at the end of the day, like we want to clean bathroom too. But it's not just about cleanliness, it's also about like the design of the decor. But it's aesthetically pleasing. It has to be aesthetically pleasing. I'm as comfortable in a beautiful, well-thought-out restaurant as I am out on the woods. I'm just saying it.

I'm comfortable either way, but I want to clean. No matter where I go, it has to be clean. Yeah, I prefer the beautifully designed restaurant over the woods. I grew up with all sisters, so I definitely prefer the beautiful, beautifully aesthetic bathroom over the woods. I am a no woods guy. I will tell you from my own experiences in the restaurant industry. This is a nugget of truth for those of you who don't know that.

The female, the women's restrooms, are infinitely in worship, in the male, infinitely. And what I mean by that is, it's a disaster zone in most of these female, you know, the potty.

Well, we do more.

We have more to, there's hair and then make up and then, you know, and whole discussions, entire friendships develop in in restaurants with women.

Breakups happen in restaurants. Like the girl group gets together as a girl group convenes, the council convenes, in restaurants and you might have just met the council that night too. But there is a council convening in restaurant women's restrooms that will make decisions that will affect the rest of your life. This session of Walk and Talk Media is made possible by Citrus America, delivering fresh Florida citrus and juice solutions to food service professionals nationwide. Learn more at CitrusAmerica.com.

Most fellas, they can't go if another person walks up next to them in the stall next to them. Okay, you get right back up, can't go, right? There is none of this herd mentality communication sort of role doesn't happen, doesn't exist. No, we're multi taskers. Wow.

Yeah, we got stuff to do. We're very busy women and we're very efficient. Okay, all right.

So basically what you're saying is it has to be, you know, designed, beautiful aesthetic.

I dare I say, like, somebody needs to go in there and make sure it's capped up every like hour. Okay, I'm just putting it out. I think we should explore that. Oh, I'm down. That's so mad.

Back when the internet was new, no back, you know, maybe 20 years ago. I wanted to have a website dedicated to people who didn't wash their hands. I wanted to do that. And I mean, like literally photos images call them out, put them out on blast. I believe in, I believe in that.

The only good thing that came out of COVID was like, people sort of wash in their hands. Like that was like, that was the thing. For a short while. Yeah, not anymore. I've done shaking hands.

Oh, it's a bomb. It's all like, and you might be lucky if we, you know, if I know you were cool, but it is gross. Tim Pano. Michelin recommended. 2025 or 2026.

How are you guys going up for that?

“You know, we're, we're looking, we're sticking true to who we are, right?”

We make everything in house from scratch, right? We're really looking at a way to gear up our branches and our lunches by being innovative. And continuing to educate the pallet here in Tampa. You and I had conversation about where the culinary scene is and where it's heading and where it's come from. And Tampa is one of those cities where it's been about five, seven years that it's really started to take off.

When you take a look at it, right? So there's still a lot of educating and gaining trust in the guests and the locals that are from Tampa, right? And, you know, when you say, what is it that we're doing? How are we gearing up? I think when you look at my radio tourie dish today, you know, we had the conversation.

The original radio tourie dish was phenomenal. It was the super high end. Me so roasted much room. Baba, Baba, Baba, Baba, delicious, right? Bait of seller.

I'm an Italian restaurant. It doesn't matter. I had zero white sauces on my, and then in my past those. And I challenged myself how am I going to make a dish that is equally if not better than all of the other dishes. I'm my menu, and we did it today.

“And I put it up, and I put it out here for you guys to taste, right?”

And it's now our number two or number three best selling pasta dish on the menu. So when we're looking at food in that fast, right? I'm looking at food in that way, right? And we're going to really continue to cure up our food and beverage programming while we're there. But still doing it in a way that's comfortable and recognizable for the guests.

And you have to bring it to the masses. And that means it has to be shot. It has to be seen. There needs to be video. There needs to be people need to talk about it.

And to truth is, like, you know, Michelin does a lot of great things. And they bring attention to restaurants. They bring attention to chefs. And it's a beautiful thing.

“Did you see the photography that came out of the camera today with this guy, John?”

It was amazing. It really was to be able to see how the truth we were able to capture what was put out on the plate today was phenomenal. And that's the beauty about today's technology. That's the beauty about being able to have a camera and a number of different devices, right?

But the amazing job that you guys today to show that are also phenomenal.

In my opinion, it's not going anywhere.

It's not going to stop. It isn't something where you're like, oh, like, I guess I'm not going to take pictures of my food. It's just the way it is. It's kind of embedded into the psyche. No, it's societal.

So with that said, you could do like John and, you know, these people out there. To a phenomenal work. Yeah, we do video too and all that stuff. But there's something about a still image.

That's captured in the moment with the right light. But the right shade shade? No. What about shadow?

That's sort of with the right shadow.

That makes that dish live forever. It literally lives forever. And it travels. And that dish goes all over the place. You know, and even somebody with their iPhone at a, you know, at the dinner table.

And all of a sudden it ends up on Yelper. Who would see other big one? I know. Open to you all over. We're wind up on Yelper, open table or whatever.

That's, that's you. That's you on the internet forever. How are chefs dealing with that?

“You know, I think there's, it varies on generations, right?”

You know, like I said earlier. I'm the last of the classically trained old school chef generation, right? And I'm 41. I'm not 55, 60, 65, right? But, you know, 41, right?

So I got the last of that, right? So, you know, before it was a much more hidden. It was a much more hidden profession, right? Recipes weren't shared. You weren't writing them down.

You know, and with the way technology is evolving. Support for walk-in-talk media comes from crab-high-lensy food dip, creating chef-driven crab-dips, made with real seafood and bold flavor, learn more at crab-high-lensy food dip.com. So, so when you look at the regardless of the generation that you are, there's so much competition popping up on a daily basis.

I mean, I can't tell you, I think I have three tailing restaurants popping up over the next two months within a mile radius of where I'm at. To be able to have our food shared via the web or whatever social media platform that may be, it really gives us an edge. It gives us an opportunity.

I get to show you, at home, in your living room, at the park, in the girls' restaurant, with all your girlfriends having a meeting as to where you're going to hang out next Friday. You get to look at me like, oh my god, we're going to chef-nally. We're going to have chef-nally's radiatory. Or we're going to go to the park and we're going to do the park meal.

I get to invite you into my restaurant, into my kitchen. I get to invite you into my mind without having to have you yet sit at my table. I think, Tempano has legs. It always has. And I told you story, I'm not going to get into it.

But I told you story 20 years ago from Tempano down in Forlora.

It's always been a great concept, even through its changes.

“It's special, it needs to be brought to the highest pentacle, right?”

What gets people in the door at your restaurant? You know, outside of the basic answer, consistency, right? It's, you know, that's a huge one. Consistency is massive, but outside of consistency, it's staying relevant, right? It's continuing to push those boundaries.

It's being able to get rid of mouth of the amazing experience, right? It's being able to, I have guests that come in because I take pictures with other guests that are sitting at my table. Oh my god, I don't know what the chef tonight or who came to my table. And they get to share that. And they want to come in and look for me because they know that that's an experience.

They're going to get at my restaurant, right? So, you know, it's making sure that the flavors are there. You know, that we're looking at not only trends, but lifestyle changes in how people eat and making sure that we're adapting to that as well. Do you know what's funny? I walk into any restaurant.

And if I have a camera rig, you know, gimbal and everything, everybody looks at it. Everyone, side eye, you know, like, let's take it to do. What's up with the camera, right? What's happening today in food? It's really groundbreaking.

I mean, if you go back to the, you know, 90s, 80s, nobody wanted to share information at all. Like, you know, everything was a whisper.

“Now, everything in your life is just everywhere.”

And you can't escape it when they're in the bathroom. When they gaggle of women is in the bathroom, doing the things that they're doing.

I don't know where we are in the world today.

Like, I recognize it now because we've been in it. And I guess I embrace it. We have a media company, right? We work with microphones and cameras and lights on it. Chef, how much of a restaurant success today is about the product itself.

And how much of it really is about being seen and talked about? That's a great question, right?

“And I think that they both come hand in hand with one another, right?”

You know, it's, if the product is amazing,

the people who enjoy that amazing experience are going to want to share that. I can't break it down by a percentage, but it's extremely, extremely important to be able to have the most balanced out well. It has to be importantly. Absolutely.

One does not exist without the other. They are 100% mutually exclusive.

“And that's why that's why I brought up one people see people with the camera.”

They want to know, where's this going?

Where am I going to find this? Why am I going? Like, that's the nature of it. Alright, look, today was really awesome. Chef, you can throw, throw down my men.

Let's do this. How do people find you?

“They can find me on Instagram at my, at Chef Underscore, Nellie B.”

I would have, I mean, what's Stampano? Tampano's is at Tampano High Park. On Instagram. Listen, I mean, Lee. How are people finding you?

On Instagram and now TikTok. We've just celebrated 7,000 followers on TikTok. You can find us at @cltampabay on Instagram, TikTok, the Facebooks, the YouTube's anywhere. Oh my god, I love a 10,000 graduation. Yeah, thank you.

It's a big deal. That's a big deal. Alright, listen, I'm looking forward to our next segment. We got a lot of more stuff coming up. We're going to do food and wine.

You're going to be on again soon. John, you're awesome. Oh, yeah, we are out. [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING]