Chef Felicia Lacalle: Addiction, Faith & Rebuilding Her Life

Chef Felicia Lekayae began cooking beside her mother absorbing the Mexican and Cuban traditions that shaped her family long before she understood that food could become a career. She was expected to become a doctor or pursue another traditional profession. Instead, she chose the kitchen. At 17, she entered the industry through burns, she went on to graduate from Johnson & Whale, spend more than a decade at Roy's and work away

up from pastry into one of the toughest kitchens in Tampa. Talent, however, never protected her

from life. As many people in this business, she endured divorce, single motherhood, financial hardships, failed partnerships, addiction, betrayal, and losing businesses she poured everything into. There were moments of incredible success, including national recognition at Hemingways, and winning the 2018 International Cuban Sandwich Festival. There were also moments when she lost her direction and had to rebuild from the ground up. Each time she got back up,

not perfectly, not without scars, but with faith, perseverance, and an unwillingness to let the worst chapter become the final one. Today she's a partner at Guiote, Tequila Dia,

where her Mexican heritage, professional journey and years of experience have finally come together

into one restaurant that truly feels like home. This isn't a story about opening another restaurant. It's about surviving yourself. It's about recognizing destructive patterns before they destroy you. It's about learning that success isn't reaching the destination. It's becoming the person capable of handling it when it finally arrives. Chef, when you look at Guiote today,

“you see another restaurant, or do you see the life you nearly lost, finally coming together?”

I see the life that's coming together. For sure. It wasn't easy. No. We talked for about an hour on our pre-call. You gave me the whole story. I asked for it.

You did. I did. And you delivered on it. This is the story of so many people in the industry.

I don't want to say that it's because of the industry that this happened, but the fact is this happens to a lot of people in the industry. For many, they don't get back up after being knocked down. You continue to drive forward in spite of whatever it is that's happened to you. I felt like I had no other choice at that point. I had three boys who were looking up to me and I was seated in the live faces that I couldn't let them down.

“And that's what kept me going and that's what kept me pushing, getting up, knocking the dirt off,”

and let's go. It doesn't start there. It doesn't start with the kids because before the kids, before children, before some of these responsibilities, you know, you're a Latina. And when you have family members who are lawyers or doctors or people who are professionals, they expect that you are going to do that. You're going to follow the path. So you were preparing for a career in medicine and you were like, nah, I'm going to be

chef. I want to work in a restaurant business. How did that go over? What did you get to courage from to do that? The courage came from my aunt. She was in law school herself and she stopped me in the straight one day and we were talking as she was leaving and she was like, hey, is that what you really

“want to do? Is that something that you're going to wake up every day and feel love, joy, passion?”

And I was like, no, just like the one more you're going to do it. It'll do what you want to do. You're 18 now. Go for it. When I heard that you're 18 now and I was like, oh, you're right. Okay, let's go. The world is mine. Yeah, 18. Everybody thinks they're a champion at 18. Yeah. I thought I knew it all. But you still needed to face the adults, the parents. How did you do? How did they deal with that? My mom. She was kind of like on the

she was supportive but not supportive. My grandmother was like, well, you're going to college anyway. So, okay. And my grandfather was like, ah, I don't think so. But in the end, which was really weird. And ironic, he was the only one who was sending me money while I was in college to survive, to get through every single month. Leave it to Grandpa. Yep. Give me a quick description of your heritage because you have a little bit of a mix going on. I do. So, my

grandfather was Mexican born in Mexico and my grandmother was Cuban of her parents being born in Cuba,

What do above you have versus tacos? Yeah. Yeah, that's a rough one. It's a hard one to swallow.

“Yeah. That's a win. No matter what, yeah. It was a win. It was definitely what. But there was definitely”

a lot more Cuban in the house than there was Mexican for sure. Those are very different cultures. Did any of your ancestry push you towards food. Hey, what do you weigh ancestry? Did the spirits of your ancestors push you into food? Like, where did you love food? Like, where did that come from? And don't you say, oh, it came because my grandmother and my mother has to be something more than that. Oh, there is a story. So, my mother, I don't know if you remember telling me earlier

that my mother was a graveyard shift at the post office. So, whenever mommy would come home and she'd pick me out from the baby sitter, she'd put on PBS. Hi, Chair, watching Julia

“child's TV. And honestly, that's what started my peak and interest into cooking. As a child”

watching that and watching just like, that's a little French lady. Well, she wasn't little. She was

huge, but she's a lady of the TV. And it was just always sparked my interest from there. And

my mom helped me when I was in the fifth grade and doing all the cooking for the little projects and school and around the world and you visit all the different cultures and making a black forest cake that was from Germany that I had to do. And mommy helped me and it was all from scratch. So, it started when I was a child, you know, and then it just blossomed into me becoming a teenager and taking over cooking at home. I'm never get over the fact that people have the opportunity

to get into medicine or law or some other, you know, some other big profession and they choose to work in the kitchen. I have a hard time with that. That's not the first for that. And every time

it makes me crazy. Not in a bad way, just like, it's amazing. Yeah. You had to cut your teeth.

You started in burns, but really, Roy's was your like, a mother. That's where you learned. Amazing. It was, it kind of put me in a perspective of my God, why don't I just go to college for, you know. I mean, you learned the fundamentals, look at me wrong. Johnson and Wells was amazing, but being at Roy's just taught me taught all of us, integrity, earning respect by honing in under your skills, focusing, treating people with kindness and

being fair and having this sense of Ohana and sense of family that we had to take care of each other and help each other on the line. And just push each other up. It was, it was definitely a big, very, very, big, tight bond of family. What campus were you? In the Miami campus? I was born there. Yeah. Yeah. That was a hospital. That was in the Miami general hospital. No way. Look at that. Yes. I knew it was a hospital, but you being born that that's pretty cool. Yeah,

it way back. Yeah, it was a long time. It was very long time ago. Yeah, no, it was a long time ago, but yeah, it was a hospital and I was born there. And I was to have to see it close. Me too. It was fun. Oh my God, it was so much fun. But, but Roy's, yeah, Roy's was a

“Roy's was a big part of my career, a big part of my life, honestly. So with that, there's highs”

and lows. We all have hills or mountains to climb. What mistakes kept repeating themselves throughout your career? I'm not having enough confidence in myself and the work that I do, not speaking up. About what? Just speaking up and having a place in the kitchen, not speaking up and having confidence in my work. Are you talking about like, you know, coming up in the, you know, 2,000 still kind of old guard females in the kitchen? Yeah,

to pick up, is that what you're talking about? Yeah, very much so. And mind you, for a while, I was the only female in that kitchen for a very long time, but it really didn't feel that way there. It was just more throughout other places that I had to fight for that.

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and the.com. I mean, that was industry-wide. I mean, I recall I was in produce at the time. I started in produce in like 99, 2000, some of them. Yeah. And hardly ever saw females on a line in the kitchen. If anything, they were pastry and you know, that's where they were. Yeah. Touch in the corner. Checked in the corner, not typically GMs or anything like that. But I do remember seeing I was there during that like transition into females taking lead positions.

I mean, I was there. I saw it. And um, because today you don't really think twice about it.

People who've been in the industry long enough understand what I'm saying here what we're talking about.

People coming up now don't. And they're accustomed to just seeing, you know, female executive

“chefs, female GMs, female owner is the whole thing. Which is great. Like this is what it should be, right?”

Absolutely. What's some of the experiences that you had to do with? Oh, God. Sexual harassment. That was number one. Being be-littled. Not having the same respect as a male chef would. And um, thinking that I didn't know how to run a kitchen. Yeah. I'm going to say this. I know this exists. I know what you're saying is truthful.

I saw it felt it. But I'm from the business too. And executive chefs,

well, light that with everybody. Like, I had those same experiences to be little-ling. I've had sexual harassment too, not from, you know, like executive chefs. But there's tons of it. There's tons of all of that happening to everybody in the business. I don't know if it's happening. I'm not in the industry today. I'm not- I have a work in the restaurant in 20 years. Plus, you're 20, you've got, since geez, wow, a long time. Yeah, 20, six years. You know, but

what's it like today in the field? What's it like in the line? What's it like in the back of the house, in the front of the house? There's still- it's all kids run on these restaurants, so it still has to be there. I can only speak for the things that I've created. Um, working in the kitchen and creating a culture.

“I mean, granted, there's a lot of flirtatiousness that happens in the kitchen. Uh, you have to”

grow the thick skin. In my opinion, um, Roy is the top-mean growing thick skin. And after some time, I really didn't bother me. The sexual harassment part, you know, it's like whatever you guys are being guys. But now I know in my kitchen, there's none of that. There's, you know, it's a happy joyous vibe, where, you know, there's a little flirtatiousness here and there, but I'm like, hey, like, there's a line that needs to be drawn. And you need to respect.

There has to be a line. Yeah. I mean, I remember distinctly. You know, it was front of the house guy. And as servers, I would have female servers come up, start rubbing my shoulders, grab, you know, behind you, put their hands on your chest and do it all these things. But you wouldn't think of it.

“I never thought of it as, uh, anything in bad nature. Yeah. And I granted it's female to me.”

It's different, I guess, a little bit. But at the end of the day, um, I don't know if that exists today. Like you don't touch it, not a person. I see it. I don't think it's, you know, just depends on the person also, you know. You had to have a wake-up call in your own life. And you were pretty open about addiction and surrounding yourself with the wrong people. What was it that pushed you to change or self-reflect? Going through a divorce, losing my house, my grandfather passed away,

becoming a single mom, having to move back in, all that happened at once. And, um, I had to stand in front of the mirror at that point, because I knew I was going to go down the wrong road. I was hanging around with people doing a lot of things that I should not had been doing, hurting my body, hurting my soul. Um, and I had to stand in front of the mirror naked and pray to God and ask for forgiveness for all the things that I had done and I had done

to myself. Um, and I knew that that wasn't the end goal for me. That's not where I wanted, I saw the light, but I didn't know how to get there. And the getting their part was what I was so impatient about. And I had to take a step back and forgive myself and, um, pick back up again.

to do. In my, in my own life, you know, you, if you can't look at yourself and say,

"Oh, wrong here. Oh, wrong there. You're never going to grow. You're never going to change."

I mentioned this on our call when we spoke. You kind of blew my mind when we were going over all of this. Because you kept talking about God and you kept talking about faith. And I know this road, you know, that was on that same, that same path. Um, faith seems to disappear because you get wrapped up, or I should say, we get wrapped up in things. And it starts to to fade out until you hit the wall. All of a sudden, back and focus, I go, "Hey, wait a minute,

through all of these things that have happened to you. How has your relationship with God evolved

“throughout all of this? Where are you today?" Honestly, let go when that God”

let go in my God. And believe that I am highly favored, especially with everything that I had gone through and survived in parts of stories that people don't even know about me

that I had to go through with my kids alone. And they were asking for help. He always was there,

I don't know. Let me tell you something, that room times that I didn't even know how I was going to feed my kids, and a job would just pop up. I was doing meal prep at the time and like, hey, I need meals for the next two weeks. I'm going to pee right now and I'm like, "Oh my God. Oh my God." But um, and those times, and then now to where I'm at, now I'm my relationship with God has just been amazing. It's being disciplined and disciplined and keeping my word with him and um, keeping my

faith sharing the love. I'm just going forward. It's so easy to forget. When you're wrapped up in the fast life, so the thing about restaurants is it's a fast life. And it is. Whether you're front or back of the house, whatever part of the house you're from, it's the fast life. And it's, oh, it's midnight, we're all getting off and going drinking and, you know, whatever you're putting in your nose, you're putting in your mouth, whatever you're doing, you're doing it.

God disappears. Yeah, he doesn't. No, but uh, but the idea in your head or what is it, whatever, just, it's just not there. It's a door that shuts. Yeah. But there's moments. Now in my life,

“where I'm like, "Okay, I can't forget about that." No, you have to, you know, one of those things”

things stuff happens to you. Yeah. Except if you have to, you have to just kind of like, except that there's bad things that are going to happen. And you move forward with it and you don't let him out of your sight. No, I don't know that. It works for me. I'm like, as they work for everybody, it should. But, you know, at the end of the day, you know, people have their ways, but uh, you made the right choices.

In spite of everything, you are where you are because of the road you took. It was never going to be

easy. It's not easy for anybody. No, right. So here we are. Yeah. Let's talk you've been saying much as for a second. Okay. Hemingways. National awards. I mean, who doesn't love a Cuban sandwich? Right. I can have one right now. Even though we just stuffed ourselves on, we're going to talk about that too. But, you know, we, tell the story about the, the Cuban sandwich is a national recognition. Well, um, I was asked, when I was asked to be a part of our mature works, I was asked to

represent Tampa and Tampa's home for me, especially me growing up in West Tampa. It was something

“that was very important to me. Like grew up eating Cuban sandwiches. Um, and I just wanted to make”

sure that, man, I did my job right. Um, it's a beautiful process of doing the pork right. You know, stuffing it with a garlic and the fresh sour orange and the layers inside the sandwich and the sauce and it just being mustard and no mayonnaise, no lettuce, no tomato. Support for Wacantok 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. And just, um, all the goodness

in the middle was delicious. Did you win this award with salami? I did. It did, huh? And that's

I love to eat it. Uh, I just, when I think Cuban sandwich, I think Miami, Miami style, the bread,

“just the, the no salami. Like, you know, that's kind of where I'm, that's where I'm at with it.”

But I will eat and enjoy the hell out of a traditional Cuban here in Tampa. Yeah, it's definitely a comfort food. So the process of winning, um, we were asked to, well, number one. I had this

amazing, um, marketing woman who was spectacular, who got us into everything that was manageable.

And we were asked to compete, um, 2018. And, um, I was like, there's no way we're in the middle of the park. This is an, an e-bore sitting and everybody's there and there's so many people that are new and here I am and you get on the block and, and everyone's, you know, there's some OGs in there. And, um, you know, they come around, they pick up your sandwich, they taste it and all of a sudden, you know, they're ready to go and here it is and you, and they, when they announced, I was surprised.

I mean, I wasn't surprised. I know the product that we do, but I was surprised. Um, it was,

it got us, it got us really far. It got us to being on this day show, being in the Forbes magazine, being in, um, the Delta magazine, being recognized in food and wine. Um, I got us, they got us really

“far for a Cuban sandwich for a Cuban sandwich. Can you believe that? I, well, so, I mean, I think,”

I just want to be clear. It's one of the best sandwiches made, right? Great. Okay, with that said, it's a sandwich, right? I know. But it carries so much weight. It does. So am I surprised? Yes,

but no. I don't, I don't know how to really, I don't know how to digest that. So yeah.

Let's talk some liacrino and teak, uh, highly, highly. So, so leaves like the mayor of St. Pete, on the food scene. You worked for Lea, you were at teak and that's a busy place. It's a beautiful place. Cool. Um, it's a really interesting spot. What did working at teak teach you that ownership couldn't work a life balance? How so? I mean, I had the means to have a work life balance. I was treated very well there. Um, they respected my work a lot. Um, and whenever I needed some

“PTO because it accrued, I would take some PTO off. And that's what, you know, that's what that taught”

me. I was like, okay, you know what? I'm going to enjoy life. I'm not going to, I was, you know, 45 at the time I was just 42. Yeah, 42 and um, you know, I wanted to enjoy life a little bit more of the smaller things. I can just hear Lee telling you, no, hey, you know, you got to take your time. You know, if you need to take, take, take the PTO, I can see him directing you to like that. And he did because he, he knew what was up when I was walking in and to teak and the kitchen

and what needed to be done. And he very much was an advocate of, you need some time off. I loved that there. I honestly then they were really so good to me. That's fast forward to Kyoto. Okay. Granted, you've granted you've been part of ownership before. What's different about being a partner in Kyoto than in previous situations? Because I knew this was coming. I didn't know who was going to be a part of it. I don't know who was going to be behind it.

But from the moment that I stepped into teak, I knew that I wasn't going to be there forever. And I wanted to go back to owning a restaurant again and doing what was me and who I am on a plate. And I prayed on it and when the opportunity came a float, I knew that my prayers had been answered. And I knew that I was going to definitely take this leap of faith and run with it. We know a lot of people that come through here, John. Do you see her face when she's

explaining this, though? This sincerity. John shaking his head.

I'm just giving you props on air. So that means, because you're in a different head space now,

“at the stage of your life, your career, is your food more personal?”

So much more. Right. It doesn't. It doesn't. It happened like that. It doesn't. It doesn't. Your life experiences change. How your food comes out so much? I can techniques. I'm not talking about technique. I was about to tell you a story about this book that I read when I was 15 called like Water for Chocolate. And it's actually one of my dishes on the menu. And at the end, the book talks about the end about how energy just transpires into your food.

And I feel like right now, where I'm at, in this space, nothing filled with love. Honestly, I feel like as a parent, we have my ex-husband and I, we completed this job of raising

three amazing beautiful boys who all have a path. There's a sense of completion and a sense of

wholeness. And that now I'm able to focus on me and me being there and putting on this love and people eating and saying, oh my God, this feels like I'm in Mexico and even chefs who come in and this is your, this is so, soulful. It's soul and love on a plate in a bite and it's just, and amazes me. What amazes me? So what you're saying is, Kyoto is your life on a plate. All of it. Working the industry with children.

“I had mine later in life and it's still hard. Like it's, you know, I think, I don't”

know, it's a feeling I should have done this. It would have been easier 15 years ago.

But nevertheless, working in the industry, putting in the hours, meaning the 70, plus hours a week, whatever, weekends, holidays, that is a recipe for disaster on all fronts. Today, you're an empty nester, a partner, you're entering into a completely different season of life because of the past that you've had and the experiences that you've had. How are you protecting the opportunity from the mistakes of the past?

Self reflection, just making sure that I don't commit the same mistake again.

“That's all it is, really. I think when you come to an age of accountability”

and recognizing where you're messed up and where your mistakes were at and not being naive and giving yourself grace and honoring yourself, that's where you come into the state of okay, I'm not going to mess it up. You shared something with me and I think this is probably one of the scariest things from my perspective. I want a family member, a mom or a dad, remarries and that person maybe isn't the best person and in your case,

you can say it. It was horrible. In your case, drug dealing and that sort of 80s lifestyle. When you fast forward to your own life and when you're an adult and you follow in the same path as a parent, as your mom, that to me, when you start talking to generational hang-ups, issues, things like that. I do deal with that. Therapy?

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Not wanting to just, I saw my mother suffer. She was never happy and she poured everything that

she had into us as her kids. But I didn't want that for myself. She sacrificed a lot of her and who she was for the wrong kind of love and I didn't want to fall in that space. Never. Never. And I have. And we find herself doing it. Oh, it's taking me some time too. Even now, the little bits, the last bit of, I'm done with putting up with a kind of shit. Yeah. I can absolutely appreciate that. I come from something similar, different, but same.

And it's not easy. And when you realize like you're following the paths of, like I said,

you're it's almost like it almost feels like it's an ancestral curse. It almost feels like it's an

“ancestral curse. Absolutely. You know, that's the best way to put it. No, it is. That's a good”

thing. And I was going to break the curse. And then like I'm not going to do this. Mm-hmm. No, I want stability. I want consistency. I want, I don't want my kids to see that. I don't want my kids to see that. Yeah, I don't share this particular. I'm not going to either right now, but like there's things that I've done that would be heralded as pretty cool and then in retrospect it's like, I can't, you know, not cool. Just just not cool. And now

that I have a young children, I don't breathe a word of any of it because that's how I fell into it. Not because my family wanted me to, you know, go down bad paths. But it was so like, non-shallot to be like, yeah, I did this. I didn't. I don't, I don't, I don't usher a breath of any of it. Because I don't, I want to be the, yeah. I want to be the break. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I feel you. I broke it. I definitely broke it. You know, I love to fact that through,

because this is, if you don't feel it, like as you're listening to this, this is a very strong moment here in the, in the studio. And through the whole time we've made eye contact through the emotional parts, but you just stared me in the face and you said that and you said it with a smile with authority. And I love it. Amen. Like that's a moment that's probably, this is a very strong beautiful moment. It is. And you know, what's also, what's interesting because who the hell is,

“who are we and what is the show when it cares? But the truth is, doing something like this,”

it's, it's, it's refreshing to the soul because you're sharing it and you're sharing with everyone. That's really beautiful. I mean, I think that's my, no, I agree with you. I agree with you. And sometimes it's hard because you don't want to, I didn't want to come here and cry. It was of my intent. And my tears are not tears of, you know, the tears of happiness. Yes. Yes. Here's a happiness of you've, you've crossed, you've checked the boxes.

You're not talking from a position of failure. Not saying that, you know, you were, I, or whatever,

you, you're not going to fall down again at some point. But the reality is, you're checking the boxes

and you're, and you're speaking from having some success in fixing your life. Yeah. That's awesome. Thank you. And how often does that happen? I mean, I mean, I guess it happens often enough, but you don't hear about it. No. Right. Oh, you typically, it's always like the horror story. And, you know what, in this case, it's not. No. No. I want to ask you a cheesy question. Where do you see yourself in five years? Oh, God. I know. I know. I know. On a, yeah, I, I, I was

got angry, sundown, sundown, I kind of, I know. I see myself in five years with my business partner

things that I wanted to do in life. That's where I see myself. I see myself enjoying the fruits

“of my labor. Because at some point, I have to hang up the coat. Not that I'm saying it's going to be”

soon. But at some point, you just have to hang up the coat. Get up with the tongs and the drawer. Yeah. Yeah. Speaking of tongs and speaking of coat and speaking of food. And, you know, like this

was such an amazing conversation. I don't want to forget actually John Xiaomi attacks. He says,

hey, man, you didn't talk about the food. So, uh, you're here because we're a food show and you're a chef and you have a restaurant and you make great stuff. Let's talk about what you did today. Ooh, um, so I did a little bit of something, not something, and a couple dishes that were reflective of the way I am. Uh, we did the Dock and Mulada, which not a lot of people are very familiar with what an animal that is. Would you call me an animal that? Oh my god. I don't know if I

should take a fence to this or not. No, not at all. Um, it's definitely not an enchilada. And there's a

difference because there's a chilaisauce and and Mulada. It's traditionally done with turkey or chicken.

And then, uh, a shredding and then they mix it with the, the Mulaisauce that was done from the, that was left over. Um, I'm modernized it by doing it with Dock comfy, um, low and slow and, a lot of love in there and some spices and herbs and, uh, and then, um, you take it and you shred it and you put it inside of this beautiful tortilla that you make by hand that's got all this

“flavor in there. Um, and we use some non-gimo masa, which is, to me, super important. You get to taste”

the true flavor of the corn and not something that's synthetic. Oh, and then there's this beautiful product of Selena cheese that we use. It's Wahagen cheese. It's pulled and it's this beautiful. And then, uh, we top it with a little bit of homemade creme. That's made with buttermilk and some cream, a little lime juice, just to give it a little bit of a kick. We pickled some onions and my onions with chilaisauce, cinnamon and, uh, clove and a little bit of apple cider vinegar, sugar and salt.

It's a toast shopper. I didn't think, um, it was going to be as popular as it is and it's been very, a very popular dish at the restaurant. Mark from Selena has been on the show, if I'm just a long time ago, but, um, he's a good dude and it's my great product that they make. It is. Yeah. I went to meet, uh, meet some farms one day and I was like, oh, there's Wahagen cheese that's made and then I fell in love with it. I mean, the saltiness of it,

this, you know, it's soft and it's just, it oozes and it's just perfect for what we do with the restaurant.

It's amazing. It's a beautiful product. Yeah, I can't, I still can't get over how to make a local

Wahagen cheese. Like, I know. It's pretty crazy. It is. Yeah. It is. I wish I had more options. Um, and then the other dish, um, was something a little bit more of the Cuban side. It was the, um, the sugar and wild boar, um, pork belly that we seared and added some spices, some sour orange, fresh sour orange that we squeezed in, some oregano, a little bit of cinnamon and there garlic and onion, um, in the stock and then we hit it with some muddung, which month that is

kind of like, um, it's a mulch beverage. I would say like a mulch soda. This episode is brought to you by Tri-Mark, the largest food service design equipment and supply 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.

Heavy and the caramel and kind of that mulch deep flavor deliciousness. Yeah, we're not talking cold 45, like mulch. No, no, no. It's a little bit different. A little bit different. Um, and then, uh, goes in the oven for about a few hours and then the Boniato mash that had a little bit of brown butter. Boniato has been a big staple in our

“diet for a long time. And I was, I was peeling it, like I was saying, I remember we were making”

Ahia go at home, um, or San Guachau, whenever you want to call it. And then, um, it had the,

And the pickled mustard seeds on top, um, which actually turned into like a little pickled mustard

“sauce with the orange zest and a little bit of fresh thyme and the cherry vinegar. I think it was”

great little pop for, to bring it all together. You fed me wonderfully today. Um, it was my pleasure. No, no, no, it was my pleasure. Yeah, and, um, my speaking for you, I guess, yeah. Oh, she was, he was, he was living on that pork dish. She was getting pissy because

I was getting first dip. That's usual. And I, you know, but in the end, he won, though, because he

had that whole plate to himself. True story. I allowed it. Oh, you allowed it. I allowed it. Yeah, no, we, we ate well today. We ate like kings today. Well, you're, well, it was my pleasure. Yes, it was an honor. It was an honor. No, it's sincerely both ways honor. And I'm looking forward to coming into the actual restaurant and experiencing the entire, um, uh, feel, if you will.

“Get ready to drink a lot of tequila in Moscow. Do you know, scared in me?”

You don't scare me at all. I'm down. Yeah, actually, I want to thank Pam for show gun farms for bringing the bore out for that dish. That was really cool fresh like that was literally cut. I think yesterday. Yeah. Yeah. And I want to give you actually I want to thank Veronica Rodriguez for putting Pam and I together. I thought that was really great. And it kind of came full circle with the product here. And I'm just, I'm glad we got to try it. I'm glad you got to try

it, Jeff and, and overall it was just terrific. It was, uh, it was a very ammunition. And it, it wasn't even gamey at all. It was a beautiful product. Well, it's not gamey, but you can tell that it was bore and not just a regular pig. Yeah. And that's the beautiful part about it. Like, I dig that so much. A lot. I used to like, you know, in my current life, I don't hunt anymore and nothing like that, but I do. And, um, man, what you could do with, with, with

bore is just made with the sausages or, oh, I got just so much to do. I bet there's, there was an earthiness to it, but it was delicious. It was, it was very well done. Yeah, absolutely. So great job, Pam. Thank you, Pam. 100%. Yeah. So before we wrap this up, I appreciate that you came out to our 200th episode celebration party a couple of few weeks back.

Thank you for having me. How bad I asked with them. That was amazing. It was the,

to me from Rome. It was the who's who of Tampa St. Pete. Yep, 100%. Everybody was there. Do you know what's funny? Lee Wilson. Well, Lee and Lee both, they're like, uh, we're doing this again, but we're going to call it the player's ball. Oh, yeah, I don't like

“by some next year. I think we're going to do it again. Okay. Yeah, players ball. The player's ball.”

I like that. You'll be invited. All right, of course. Listen, you did fabulous today in every single possible metric. Thank you. Thank you. Um, John, I know you did Paul, you know, like your, is this kind of, can he take pictures or what?

I know. I mean, it's the eye that he have the man, the man is amazing. And it's fast. It is

super fat, like unbelievable. He's quiet, but he's, he's, he's stealth. He's like an assassin. Yeah. How do people find you? Well, I think it's fine. I said, um, geota teculoria. They'll be Instagram, QU, IOT underscore teculoria with an A. We're also on Facebook. Same thing, geota teculoria. You are appreciated. Hugs to you. John is you're an okay guy. Listen, we are out. [Music]