Chef Clayton Parrett: A Student for Life

livestock hunting and fishing. His family didn't have much, but they knew how to live off the land.

“Before he was even out of high school, Clayton was working around the slaughterhouse, processing”

animals, cooking cracklings, and learning where food actually comes from. Then life got harder. He left home young, lived with friends, worked 70 hour work weeks and took whatever kitchen jobs he could find. Eventually that path took him offshore. For nearly two years Clayton cooked on drilling operations in the Gulf, sometimes spending three weeks at a time on a platform, where there was no clocking out and going home. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, sleep, repeat. He says

those years hardened him, but they also taught him discipline, patience and perspective. Today after more than two decades in this business, Clayton is still chasing the same thing that kept the moving back then. Knowledge, he doesn't believe in mastery because in his words, there is simply too much left to learn, and maybe that's the real story. Not how far Clayton has come, but how hungry he still is. Clayton, when you look back at growing up in the Louisiana

“Swamps, what was being built in you before you ever understood where this life was headed?”

The biggest thing to be has always been community. It's striving together, growing together,

learning together, and it takes a whole church full to move forward. On our call, and by the way, we've known each other for a long time. This day has been coming for years. Yeah. Welcome to the show. I'm glad you're here. Yeah, appreciate. On our call, your words. Amen. You know, we didn't grow up with a bunch of money. Good family, good people, a lot of love. Surrounded by animals, fishing hunting, all that good stuff, right?

Call out the pleasures of life. Did you actually realize you might have had less than other

kids? Ultimately, as a child, that's, you know, a wonderland. You don't even realize it,

“but it takes a little bit of getting older and education to understand where you come from,”

but to me, it's, you know, nature gives you so much back that, you know, words can't really explain. So, I can almost identify with where you come from. In the 70s and 80s, my family was up and down both. And I ended up in rural, um, Brewer County, growing up ice. A lot of, like, basically, the Everglades. Exactly. So, it's very similar to what you had. And I was a kid, too. I was like, nine, ten, whatever, in that racket. It was snake hunting, looking for gators,

that, that's right there. When I would go visit family up in the Northeast, they looked at me like, well, the hell are you? Uh, this dirty dirty jeans and, yeah. Yeah. So, but the education that you get from that upbringing is so different. It's, it's life that I own. That's, uh, it's the true origin of life. Being in touch with nature, and everyone says we'll take a hike, but truly go take a hike and look around you and

go breathe. And it's, um, it's a different environment. Especially when there's a lot of animals that can get you. Yeah. Yeah. Like, you learned to watch out a little bit more. Patience. You left home pretty young. Um, you're telling me how, uh, early age sleeping on friends' couches. Um, but you still made yourself finish high school. While you were putting in the big hours at, uh, at work, you don't see young folks typically with a work ethic like that.

Where did that come from? That is, you know, ultimately it's, the determination is just

seeing what's around you. But, uh, it's, you'd have options. You have choices every day. And I have some good people in my life. I have some rough people in my life. And if you listen, your patient, you hear from opponents. And out for years, we were told, you know, work hard. You don't get anything. So, when you start to add all that up together towards the end, it's, if you start something you finish it over and over and over and over, it's, it's more of a piece of my mind that,

you know, I did start it. I am going to complete this. And I might take me years and years and years, but I will get this done. Speaking of Louisiana backwood, I think we should mention that, uh,

Okay, first of all, go tigers. Would you say go, guys? Go tiger. We go, go,

games. That's, keep hearing that. What is hi, guys? Okay, got it, got it. You got two of us in here. So, what do you, you, ex? Oh, hi. That doesn't even spell anything. Look, you know, at the end of the day, at the end of the day, so you get John and I both hear from from Miami. That's the you, baby. I, all right. So, before I, I'm, we're not looking to wrestle. Okay. Here. Lee Wilson, it's been a minute. Uh, we've been trying to work out the schedule and get you back

here for a little bit. And today is the day and not only that. Uh, this was like a trifecta kind of a deal here. Right. It was, and listen, I'm not mad at you. My man. Okay. Because I know the only region that came rest early, not because we've known each other for a long time. I get it. Like I totally completely understand too much Miami in the house and the lens of the sport. I am Gary Persever.

Clearly in stubborn. I'm not going to say a word. Mm-hmm. Mama raised me, right? Let me tell you what taught in Tampa Bay. Right now, it is all best to the Bay. All best to the

“Bay all the time. So, if you don't know, because you should, best to the Bay starts in May.”

Starts out with nominations. It is the longest running best off competition in the Tampa Bay area. It's been going on for over, I think, 37 years now. So long before my time. It is the biggest one in

Tampa Bay. It is amazing. So start with nominations. And then the top nominees go on to the voting

round. And then at the end of the voting round, we have a winner. And two runners up. And it's all very, very, very hush hush until the party happens. And the party is where it's at. It is the hush hush of Tampa Bay. And we have one of our very fine restaurant tours and chefs in the house today, who is going to be sampling at the party, along with many, many, many other chefs. Many of them have been on this show. And in fact, many of our winners and runner-ups have been on this show.

I think that's out for you can standing. Mm-hmm. So what you're saying is, the one teaser out of this whole thing is the fact that this dude, Maman, is actually participating in this whole thing. He is accepting awards. He is picking up a multiple awards. And he's not the only person in this house picking up awards. What do you mean? I mean, the walk and talk podcast might be picking up an award, too. You're

just going to have to come to the party and see. I mean, if you want me to go to the party, go to do not bait me to go to the, I'll be there, John, you're going to go, right? We're going to be there.

“You should totally be there. Everybody should be there. It's open to the public. You just buy”

tickets and go and come party with us. It's one of the base things that we throw all year long. Okay. Okay. Look, we're going to, we're going to, we're doing it. What's the date for them? October 7th. And it's at the Coliseum in St. Pete this year. So the, the seminal hard rock hotel in Casino is my presenting sponsor. We love them. It's normally at the hard rock, which is super fun, because then you can get a hotel and you can hang by the polls the next day. And then you

can call in quote unquote sick to work. But because you stayed up until four o'clock in the morning at the poker table, but they are expanding their non smoking casino this year. So we have decided to move it back across the bay. Like it was many, many years ago into the historic Coliseum of St. Pete. And we've got the city of St. Pete involved. We're getting other cities involved.

“There's a rumor that some mayors might be there as well. Yeah. Oh, you mean Lia Cuino?”

Oh, okay. There'll be some food mayors there. There'll be some some other mayors too. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Hey, listen, I'm totally down for this. And by the way, you know what you just said

a second ago, I'm, you know, John is too. I'm speaking for me right now. I know he is.

This is exciting. It's very exciting. I want to be very big deal. I know. I want to be a part of an award. I mean, we love this. Yes. Yeah. And just let's let's clarify something, right? Because we are audiences all over the place. When we say the greater Tampa Bay area, what is that geography? That is covering all of Penelas, all of Hillsborough. We've got Pasco County. There's parts of Polk County and there as well. We definitely cover stories like Joe Dodd and opening up a new

King of the Coop out here. So it really does encompass, like we'll cover stories up to, you know, North Lake Crystal River and whatnot. Like, so you really do have like the greater Tampa Bay area. And this is, this is the who's who. This is the culmination. This is the list. And it stays up all year long. So anytime you're ever like in the mood for something different. Like, I want

So you can just go to Best of the Bay and look out Middle Eastern and you're got a food guide

“right there. Yes. 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. Who's picking all of these things? The public. So that's the amazing part about this

is that this is truly court of public opinion. It is all based on votes. I have over eight million impressions on my website. So like hundreds of thousands of y'all turn out to vote for the entire time, the entire month of July and August, because voting is voting is a month, nominations are a month, voting is a month. And I mean, the competition is just cut through. Let me tell you. We have people calling us that are like, did I win? Did I win? Who won? Who beat me? Who did

it? What do you mean? Like, it is nuts. And I love how serious people take it, because it means so much to them because it is like, it's a truly a recognition of all of their hard work and their heart and soul that they put into their business and they put into their kitchen and they put into their customers. Because it's a wide range of things. I promise I'm excited and we're going to

be there. No question. Done. Yeah, eight million impressions. That is impressive. And we might or

might not have Mr. St. Dennis Phillips, our Lord and Savior, Tampa Bay weather coming. He is cool. I follow that guy. He is amazing. I think he is like the calming voice of all of the craziness during hurricane season. So with Dennis Phillips, it's not freaking out. I am fine. I use the coconut

“method. You know, I mean, look, okay, so like from Miami, we had Brian Norcross. That's what we had.”

I needed a great job. And he was, he was that soothing voice. But since, you know, now, Central Florida, that's the guy right there. Dennis Phillips is a man. So that wague, let me tell you, first of all, perfectly cooked because if my steak isn't still moving on the plate, I don't want it. And then you top it off with my favorite thing in the whole wide world. Just caviar. I love the caviar is having a thing right now. And you pair that with that steak that is so perfectly cooked.

Oh, my God. It's perfection on a dish. And if you're, if that is the direction that you are going, we're going to be having a very different conversation next year for best of the bay for best steakhouse. And top one hundred chef real quick, before we get into the rest of your story. What was that an A, what to talk about that day? So there is all these different classifications across the world. And there's a lot to talk about when you're trying to sell somebody

a steak. One of the coolest pieces is when you get to the higher classifications, they start reading that you go from one to a five in Japan. The most of your countries are one to five. Here we do a select commodity up to a pineapple. So that piece is from Mizaki. It's at a southern region down in South Japan. It rates at a five. And then there's an extra step they take where they test the meat itself for. It's known as a BMS. And you can rate from one to a 12. The steak that we

had today rates at a full 12. So it's the purest form of Japanese beef that you can actually collect.

“You've actually made friends with folks in Japan. Were you getting product straight from origin?”

Yes. That's not typical. No. That's a that is a synergy relationship. I got friends and New Zealand at cello's land. When you're in this community, you meet so many different

walks of life and you never know what they do. So I'm just like a good open conversation.

I mean, it doesn't hurt that you're at the fanway. That's it. That is probably top five. Most beautiful hotels on Florida. It speaks for itself. We're going on 100 years that building is stories. Yeah. And I'm not putting a grade or a number to that. But I'm putting it in a nere like with, you know, the dances are or the built more in Miami. You know, stuff like the breakers, things like that. It's in that sort of category. That's it. That's um, you know,

it has its own identity. And so it's a once in a lifetime, go see it. You spend some time off sure. I went to me by offshore. We're in Florida. You're from Louisiana. We're on the Gulf. Not only do you get the beautiful warm waters of the Gulf and all the beautiful fish and shrimp and everything that's in there. But do you get oil rigs? Yeah. And being that you are a culinary guy,

your feet are people. You're sharing with me your experience while you're on this rig. And

“just like the the sheer mental capacity that you need to have in order to do that. Because for me,”

if I'm stuck out, you know, 50 miles, 100 miles offshore through all the weather, through all of the alone time, the work, all of that stuff. And you're not getting off unless somebody comes to pick you up, meaning like the Coast Guard. Yeah. Do that's serious mental stuff right there. That's uh, it's a commitment that I was, um, and I guess not getting your feet wet. It's, um, when you sign up, it's, you go get certified. You go get know your stuff together.

You get a quick car to international, you know, license to get out there. And then when you sign off, that's what you're signing off for. I mean, everybody has a different, you know, each field has its own rotations and how long you're there for. But it's, um, most of our sides. We're 21

“days and then you get a nice, weak back wherever you live that, uh, you know, you shipped over to an area”

and go home, you come back and then you're on that rig. You probably sit around 18 hours a day, just working in those kitchens. When you're isolated in that way,

what do you learn about yourself? I always go back to patients. I know it's, there's times

where, you know, we talk about regulation emotions, you know, trying to control yourself, control, you know, how you think about things. It's structure, you know, routine daily routines. It's finding comfort and small things as opposed to trying to figure out outside of your box mature when we stuck in. You know, I'm just thinking if it were me. And I'm going to be stuck somewhere for, you know, 14 days, 21 days, whatever. That helicopter ride out to the rig. That has to be

probably the most in thought, uh, surreal period of time for that particular trip.

That's probably one of the easiest things. It sits as simple as, like you would go to their

port. And you get on, you have your stuff, you get up, you go. And it's, it's almost like a connection piece when you lose the connection to, I guess we'd say the real world, just like going offshore and about, oh, you get to the docs, everything's fine, you get on that boat, you can feel a little bit of movement, but there's the, almost like a disconnect. When you leave that land, you stop seeing land, you're an open water. That's the filling that's weird.

How small are you when you're on the platform? And you're just 360 degrees, just a long water. Like, yeah, if you're like a baby, you're like a baby. And that's, uh, there's a good comedian that I watch every now and then, but he says, if you think you're in Florida, zoom out, and I was just safe gone south. Do you think you're big until you get there? And that's, that's just a blank slate of, you know, blue skies and whatever else is around you. Did mention that, those years working

that platform, it did harden you. It did turn you into something that has inner strength. Do you take that experience and apply that to anything in your life today? 100%. That's, uh, minutes is for any given chef. And now there's some, there's some jobs out there

“that, and when you're running 80 hours a week, you shove the restaurant down, you have to turn around and”

get right back up. It's, it mentally breaks you. You know, I don't think anybody's ever been like, hey, I love waking up and running 20, 30 hours. But it, you get this form about you that it's, I have something that I have to do. And it's, I'm responsible for these. So then you start to build habit. Once you build that habit, it becomes a little bit easier as you go along with it. And then from there, you refine that and you hold that in and it's, you know, it becomes a way of life.

This episode is brought to you by Tri-Mark, the largest food service design equipment and supplies provider in North America. Tri-Mark works directly with operators, bringing design build expertise, supply sourcing strength, project management, installation, and servicing together to power smarter hospitality kitchens. Learn more at Tri-MarkUSA.com. And your entry point to food was in the spirit of survival. That's not enjoyable. That's not

And you, you know, you go through the motion, you learn what you have to learn. And

“knowing who you are today, you love this industry, you love food. At one point in time,”

did you go from, oh, man, I need a, I need a good paycheck to, yeah, man, I love this business. It was the moment that I learned to fail. And that's, that's, that's not the thing to say. Most people don't teach you. I had some good mentors that kind of taught me in a different approach of this. It's the moment of saying, it's okay to not come through with this, you know, but you still have to try. And it took until, you know, I was 15, 16 years in and every day, you have something

to go as wrong. You know, we run around fires all that, but living pressure wise, and you know, there's the mental beat down of, you know, and I good enough for this dish. Once you learn to fail and realize it's okay, and that, you know, it's, I want to try again. And we're going to keep trying. We're going to keep trying until, you know, I get what I'm looking for. And then once that's there, then I can move forward. That's when I started to develop, because it's, you live a little bit,

get more careless with what you're doing. You still got the structure. But it's, when I only if it's a steak, maybe I want to do more than just a steak. And maybe, you know, it's going to

suck at first, but once I get what I'm looking for right, and then whatever's in my head is coming out,

I have the technique. I have the skill, the discipline. And now I just want to, you know, play with this food and see what happens. And most of the time, it actually comes out pretty well. I think that happened today on one of the dishes, a couple of tops. Yeah, let's, there's two, so you did three things today. Why was the steak? And then you did two beautiful dishes. One of them was this colorful, like just, it looked like

something that should be hanging on a wall. All right, like artwork. That's it, artwork. You know what, it doesn't matter if I explain the chef, please.

I mean, their first piece, it's 100% Louisiana. It's every little bit of nod to touch

“that I remember as a child. And that was one of the questions is what did you do in Louisiana?”

Explain yourself. And I was so we made, um, on the very bottom, was a person in tall. And I'll remember, um, we go deer hunt and person in trees everywhere. You pick about you eat them, they're beautiful. Uh, the next piece was a set sum of gel. That is, I've made myself six so many times with that sum of just eating them raw and too much that off. Uh, the next piece, um, let's provide it.

Show gun farms. Got me. These beautiful little tenderloins that came off of one of the wild boar. So we took that wild boar. Um, it's considered a forest, but kind of like a pot of meat. I blended field bees. So back home, we call them purple whole bees, uh, between Louisiana Mississippi. But I ended up blending them back to that boar, put them together. And then we wrapped it in a coal fat, which is a little bit more of the pork on top of that. And then pan roasted that.

So you get this nice crispy little skin and then paired those two together. Top of it. You have a little citrus twill that I'll little sue Mac touch to it. So that way you just get the full Louisiana vibe. I enjoyed the hell out of that. Uh, I think with a little alteration, that turns into a bootan. No? Yes. Yep. That thinks so. Yeah. I know that. I think if, uh, you cooked it down a little bit further, um, there's some rice, some stock, um,

a little bit more spice. Yeah. Make a little putty little heat down, believe it could be there.

“I'm not saying you should do that, uh, but I'm not saying you shouldn't, but I think you should.”

I, I like them. I don't know. They kind of sounds a little good. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that looks like I don't know everything. I only got introduced to Bootan about three years ago. Okay. But I fell in love with that. It's freaking amazing. And anytime that I can find it and get it, I, I do it. Oh, but it's, and then, then, once you've learned how to make that, get your friends over. It's, it's a whole, that's a reward system failed.

Felt 20 times, but when you learn to make Bootan, uh, it's, uh, yeah, that can be my meal for life. Yeah. I mean, I got to thank Bootan for that one. Uh, Bootan was the, uh, my pusher on the Bootan. Let's talk mastery. They're shaps who focus on a thing, a method.

You don't subscribe to that. Right. Mm. I, I will never say I don't appreciate anybody in this

field. You know, it's, I, if you've been through this field and you've worked your way there,

and it's just my philosophy. And there's, there's, there's masters out there that have seen that under their skill, if it's one item, sure. But the overall term mastery to me, it just, there's so much more for me to learn. And I, it's a hundred and ninety five countries. Yeah. It's, everybody has their own deriital version of something, and that's, that's going to my path and what I want to know. So you're saying it could be dangerous to a chef

because it stymies their overall growth. Okay. You know, if, if you have a passion, let's say pizza, by all means, if, if you go through that, and that is it, and that's all you ever wanted to do, and no, I, I am poor. You've hand like that. That is a hundred percent. You can master pizzas. I know. If you were looking to break through in culinary, and then not just as a work

“form, but just as a, you know, a student, I, I think there's so much more, I just think it's,”

you know, the study just continues and continues, and then there's development. So every year, we get better. We learn new things. We learn new things to cook with. That's kind of where I see I prefer to say I'm a student for life. I mean, I've mastered eating pizza, consuming it, and in the biggest way possible, you know, and I am a student of that for life, both master

and student equally the same. So first of all, let me clear this up, Clayton and I are both from

the same one-third of Louisiana, because very similar to Florida. I feel like when you move to Florida and Clayton back me up on this, when you move to Florida, it is a very easy transition because the level of Christy is the same. And just like just like Florida, Louisiana is broken up into three different parts. There is North Louisiana, which we don't talk about them, because there are look at stars closed at certain times, and some places don't even have look at stars. And then

South Louisiana, which is where we are from, which is anything from my parish versus of all parish, which is right next to Clayton's parish, because we have parishes and not counties. And we don't do the counties. And then there's New Orleans, which is a completely different world in and of itself, and mine as well be its own state. So as, as I say that Clayton,

“as a, you've worked in everything, basically, because that's what we do, right? We just, we go to work,”

we go to work, and we work hard, and we learn everything. So you worked from everything from like

slaughterhouses to the small restaurants, because we have some amazing small restaurants to the

greatest university in the world, LSU, and their convention centers. And then, you know, all the hotels and luxury hotels and everything. And we learn something from every little thing that we do, because that's how we're raised. What, what did you pull from, from each of those experiences and each of those walks of life? Cole, every time was completely minow a difference in aerial. So I didn't gain one particular thing for me, they're one of them. It's good or bad experiences,

you know, one fireman fireman fireman. He wanted me to keep going great, you know, am I doing great? Maybe maybe not. Coming out of Louisiana, though, it's, you know, they're old school. It's, um, we praise the Julia Childs, Cara. We praise the Paw Padoms, like, because everyone learned, you don't, you can have a culinary degree, it doesn't matter. You're still washing those dishes. You're going to start at the ground bottom. You're going to

spend two to five years there. And you're going to move and, you know, let's you prep a little.

But every single step, what I could say I did learn is, that always goes back to patients,

that I want and refinement. So you might know one thing, and you could read a recipe that's great. But how do you make that better? Walk 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. I don't know, because anybody, if any given person could do these recipes,

“but if you want to be a chef, you better be as good as your last dish. And that's why we were taught,”

you know, you work hard, you go in, you learn first, and then you can move forward. I think what are the beautiful things about that, too, is that we have in our culture, there is such a want and an open willingness from any of our elders to teach us the ways. My grandma taught me, my daddy taught me, you know, and there is the importance and this openness in a younger generation, too, to accept that. Because you can go from one side of the state to the

other side of the state, and you'll get 70 different variations on the same dish. And it's all

yearning to to learn the culture and like keep it alive. I think there's more similarities between

“Florida and Louisiana. First, I think we can both settle around that we don't like no roll tied.”

Absolutely not. Yeah, immediately now. Yeah, so we're okay. Okay, so, right? We're on the same. Okay, okay. And then we have to deal with hurricanes a lot. Okay. Chef, you go from living in the Louisiana hurricane, yeah. Alley.

And then you come to Florida, Tampa, by the way, like this area, which never gives it an all of a

sudden, like in the last, and a handful of the years, it's like every year, there's hurricane snuff. And you got, you got banged up good. Yeah, we were, um, yeah, we had a full pine tree take out all our power and rubbed out some stuff out of the back to get about a month. As far as we're, you know, we went north for a little bit, it took the family up, um, you know, we know what's going to happen. So, that ourselves already came back and

“ended up moving over into the hotel for a little while and working out the hotel.”

That's, you, you pray that, you know, it's, it's not you and, you know, everything's safe,

but you never know what's going to happen. And sure enough, we got tagged pretty hard and

you know, luckily, the first, the first one I came through, you know, the ward didn't get us or board neighbors, they went under, but second one was all wind and power and it ripped up, all the backs out of our house. When disaster happens. And for you specifically, what's the separation between Clayton, the husband, dad versus Clayton leader executive chef? You know, it kind of, it's hard to, it's hard to stay separation, let out.

For a group of people, it's, you protect everybody. When disaster strikes, it's not just you, it's not just my family, and we raise our family the same way. It's everybody that's around you, is in the same same boat, you know, it doesn't matter who you are where you come from. It's for the next 24 hours, hopefully not that much the next two weeks, three weeks a month.

“We're, we're in a bind. And I, and the only thing that I've learned over my time is to”

our family supports our families. And it doesn't have to be blood relatives, you know, it's our community needs to be there for each other. I think it's hard when you have um, when you're in a leadership role, you have your family, of course. And then you have your, uh, your company life. And if you're in a leadership role in your company life, you have to give up yourself

and be there for people. It's almost mandatory. And I found it difficult to know scenarios to have to explain that to your own family. Like, okay, I am here. We're going to get everything squared away here at home. But I have to take a piece of me. And I have to apply it for these people.

I always felt that that is a very, um, difficult, tight rope to walk.

You know, everybody has these conversations as an our industry. And how it's, it finding a good support system, you know, that's, that's been the biggest piece to it all. You know, they bow white for the rest of my life. We come to terms that, you know, if I want to continue, you know, in this industry, there will be times, there will be days, and even with my children. And that is a good work. There's a bigger importance, you know,

when it's learning that little bit of self-giving, we typically, for the most part, get it back in return. You know, it's, it's not, it's not just thrown away. The most of our, the companies I've worked for have, you know, reinvested and put it back into me, a family. There's a better understanding when you, you know, you don't look short term, you look long term. And it's, if you're there for me, I'm there for you, kind of deal. And, you know, the family kind of

starts to see a little bit of it as well. And it's, you know, my children are well-loved at that hotel. You know, my wife's been there multiple times. We know it's it's almost a small family that works together. And if I need a break, they get a break. If they need a break, it's the vice versa. But, you know, it's, if we're there and we're working, we understand that we have the responsibility which is hard because in your home, it is like I'm not coming over Christmas.

I'm not coming home for Thanksgiving. But we do know at the very end of this, there will be times where I will have the my moment with my family and the people that I work with will also be there

Back to culinary. A lot of people see food, but what do you see? Chaos. My brain rolls. Might be the ADHD, but, you know, it's, it's so much more, it's so much more. There's a, let us say, way of life. It's, you know, you don't eat food in a business, it's early, but it's nice to have and it's nice to have good food. And it teaches you way more than you ever would imagine. So food is an education. 100%. It's more than just what you eat.

I don't know. I mean, it's an ecosystem. We live inside of what we're eating.

I know, it's, it's essential. There's, I mean, if you get towards the biology side of things

and you start understanding what lives in these waters and lives in the skies and what their essential functions are. And I know it's, it's way more than just food itself. I mean, you're still a relatively young guy in the career of things, even though you've been doing this for a long time. You're, you're into, you know, 20 plus years in the business, but you still

“got a ways to go. But you've spent your whole life chasing this, this knowledge thing, right?”

Our title school, yeah, you're not really chasing them, per se. But when you get to a point, when you either start, we're going to add a country club or you become a sales rep someplace and you're winding down, you know, like, you, it's, you know, part of your exit plan. What do you want to be remembered as in this industry? It's a really cool guy that knew a lot of stuff.

It's, it's been a fun ride and it's going to contain me a fun ride and I'm going to ride it down to a, like, ain't walk anymore. It's some of my heroes, you know, the PC side and man retired in his kitchen. There's, there's so much that I've not done yet and haven't covered and the, I don't have any plans of stopping until the forces stop. Support for walk-in-talk media comes from crab, high-lensy food, dip, creating chef,

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“Were you serious about wanting to be top 100 stay houses?”

I am as, you know, we talk about the awards and our, our property and I'm not, I'm not 100% for an award, but I, as if they come great. I am, I want to showcase what my students would and our workers would are very highly qualified and trained people to do. There's one list that everyone can agree on. There's 101 best stay houses in the world. We have over the last four years have geared ourselves to be even considered for something like this.

So it is, it is a dream for our entire team right now that, you know, we're going to put together this global collection of beef, you know, it's, in the experience for them too, we're learning a lot. Especially international trade and some other wild things that we got ourselves into, but no, that's 100% our goal, you know, we want to be, if out of any of the list, that's the one we want to be on.

All right, hold up. We talked about this day enough. Let's talk about the second dish because

“that's second dish. That's second dish. That is a wild card. I think girl, I mentioned there was”

some wildness happening. That was one of them. So we used it in art theory. So trip ticket, it's pairs of three, you know, it's what, what, three things that you combine that almost separate themselves have different identities, but in the very end of it actually come together. So that dish, um, I had none of that should have worked out. Yeah, so we made an old school fridge. That took, um, the traditional croquet inside that croquet, and I used a U-competito.

We seasoned it very well. I had some amazing smoked gouda out of Holland and then we took

analyp. Uh, just a little bit of ground analyp. We tied that up. We deep fried it in a little bit of sunflower oil, uh, super crispy. When it came to the sauce, as we had no clue what we wanted to bury any of this with. So add a little bit of help from our CDC in our sous chef, but we ended up

don't want to overthink this. So we made a, uh, carrot curry, um, a puree out of it, made it into a

finer, a little bit of, uh, you know, beautiful little sauce that would blow in glyce. And then then it just kept rolling down from there that we did spinach. We had a nice, mere flaw that we put to it and, uh, blended it to little sticking off. And then the last sauce was our, um, little cherry peppers. Added a little bit of dry cherry to it, nothing else. Maybe a touch of salt and pepper, moan, each three of them and blended it. And you had three wild sauces that

once again still should work. I thought it was brilliant because you took old school Frenchy French and you smashed it together with, like, the wild west of the states. And out of it came this

really amazing dish, which I would order the absolute hell out of. Like, that needs to be a

“menu item. That might be on the top because I think we, um, I think all of us were a little surprise”

today. So I'm going to bring this back to the guys that let them go forward to. Just those sauces alone. I mean, I, I mean, I would like the, those were stupid delicious. It, sometimes overthinking things just, you know, getting in touch with nature, that's a, that's simple, easy element and

then, um, flavor. I learned flavor. Okay. So Clayton, we've known each other a while. And I know

that being on the top 100 stake houses, that's, that's great. That I love that journey for you. We could put it on pause. But it is not nearly as cool as being on the best of the bailest. Don't worry, we'll be there. And it's not nearly as cool as being on the best of the bailest. What is it? Six times? Just this year alone? Six times? We are beyond honored. And I will be there. I don't think there's a cooler list than Tampa Bay. Can you, can you make something like what you

made today? For me, if you won't. Just keep a little, like, a little doggy bag like under the table.

“That'll be the only thing that I eat all night long. It'll be great.”

I, I will definitely have more than just a dog bag. Okay. When we make sure you have a whole buffet of it. So that sounds good. If we're talking, they do not forget about me. All right, my, this is, okay. Side private stash. I want the private stash. We're taking over a kitchen somewhere at the end of the party. Okay. Sounds like, all right, now we're talking. Now definitely going to be there. Today was awesome. John, as usual, photography,

“bang and chef, photography, right? Oh, phenomenal. Oh, yeah. Okay. Wow. How do people find you?”

It could Facebook and get on LinkedIn. And if not, you know, come the old way. Come see me at the Fenway Hotel and Dunedin. I, I recommend that one. Miss Lee Wilson. How do people find you? In so many different ways. Website is seal team of.com. Well, you can find us on Instagram. Please follow us on Instagram and the TikToks that's the old Tampa Bay.com. And then go to the best of the Bay website, the OTV Tampa Bay.com to get those tickets now. They are going fast.

I missed you. I'm glad you made it today. We are hardbreak right now. Hey, we are out.