Chef Sherief Shawky: From Egypt to Unox, A Journey Built on Opportunity

Summer means wide open spaces in a whole lot of extra miles.

Last place you want your engine to give out is halfway to nowhere. Out here, low oil or a weak battery is just an ambush way to happen.

“That's why every oil change at Valveline,”

instant oil change includes an 18-point maintenance check. These text are trained to help spot issues early and give you a run easy. Valveline, instant oil change wisely. Every chef has a story. Some began in culinary school, some began in a restaurant,

and some began halfway around the world. Today's guest grew up between two cultures, spending part of his childhood in Virginia, and part in Egypt after his parents divorced. What started as a family pizza re-a-job,

eventually turned into a culinary career that would take him through some of the industry's most demanding kitchens, alongside award-winning chefs, high-volume restaurant groups, hotels, country clubs, and eventually one of the world's leading food service equipment companies.

But this isn't just a story about cooking, it's a story about identity, about pressure, about burnout, about the moments that force us to rethink the future we've been chasing.

“Along the way, Sherif experienced many of the realities”

that hospitality professionals know all too well. Long hours, physical exhaustion, personal sacrifice, and the emotional weight that often comes with life inside professional kitchens. Today he serves as corporate chef and team leader

for North America at Unox, helping operators, chefs, and organizations across the continent rethink what's possible through technology, training, and culinary leadership. He's also an ambassador for the Burn Chef Project,

working to bring greater awareness to mental health challenges that continue to affect our industry. But underneath all of that, he's still a chef. He's still a student. Still someone who believes that food remains

one of the most powerful ways to connect people. So today we're talking about the journey. The kitchens, the mentors, the leap into corporate leadership, and what happens when opportunity shows up

and you're always willing to say yes.

Chef Sherif, let's start at the beginning. When you spent part of your childhood in Virginia and part in Egypt, looking back how to growing up between two cultures, shape who you became as a person, and the chef.

Great question. I mean, what shaped me as a person growing up in the United States and in Egypt is learning multiple cultures, but yet seeing how everybody treats food and culture and people completely differently.

Here in the States, growing up majority of my life here, it showed me that everybody here is always on the go. When I grew up in an Egypt, I grew up I went there when I was five or six, and I had no idea what takes back.

All I knew was I had my dad next to me and I had my brand new bike that was shipped that I looked forward to. And as soon as we landed, it was me to buy my grandfather that I've only maybe seen ones and my grandmother and all that.

And my dad leaned up to me and he was like, "We're gonna have a good time. Don't worry." To me, I took it personally because I wanted to be better than anybody, but at the end of the day I learned religion, I learned food, I learned how to maneuver

different personalities at the same time. Before I forget, Carl, thank you so much for having me. I walk and talk here in Tampa. It's a pleasure being here, and so you can be able to see

“what my brain, what I think, and transit into food.”

First of all, what you did today in the kitchen, like we don't have celebs that come through here. Everybody's high-end, and you fit that mold, you're cut from that cloth. The dishes were absolutely fire.

Talk about what you did for the first dish. Well, thank you so much that you think it was fire, right?

I never like to take praise, but I want to say that it's

it's all about to be humble and be able to speak what I've learned into my dishes. But seared scallops was our first dish that we did. Beautiful, euthent scallops, bacon, lardons, braised chippelinianians with a little bit of veal stock,

charred brussel sprouts, pickled cauliflower, and a little bit of summer corn. And obviously, the microgreens, what, put it all the way to the top. Well, let me just tell you first, yesterday I went on a mission, and I met with the driver from Lemardi Seafood,

baked up the scallops, and from there, I went to go meet Marvin over a cohabaclub. We actually went to Tempano, and we had a cocktail over there, and an appetizer, as we passed off the microgreens. And then we actually met John, we met with Chef Nelly.

He sat with us for the little while. Great conversations. Chef, you saw how fast the turnaround on images when these dishes go back to John and photography. You see how fast they are.

And it takes fabulous.

The way it looks on film is just amazing,

and I know you saw that. I did, and I know the first thing that I complimented was the veins of the bull's blood.

“And that to me was just like, that's what I strive for.”

Like me growing up in kitchens and creating dishes, wasn't just about if it tastes good or if it looks good. My pleasure that I got out of the kitchen was walking through the dining room and someone like, man, this is so good. I will come here every single day.

And for me, I mean, it has pork in it. And 85% of the dishes that I cook have pork. Do I try it? I probably try the first time, but would I eat it over and over now? I mean, it's part of my religion.

Have I tried pork? Mom, if you ever listen to this, yes, I have. But at the end of the day, it's all about what's in the heart. You know what I mean? That's for me, but that was one of the challenges

that I had to get used to that I ever think out the using pork or break-in-down hogs or cooking with bacon, lardons or anything, no. I mean, mom cooked a breakfast with no hog. Do you know what I'm saying?

It's true, but I'm putting it out there like that. A little ice cube for everybody. Yeah. Look, man, I'm not mad at you because I'm there to pick up the pieces. All right, literally, the pieces of pork.

I want to pick up the pieces. I get appreciate what you're saying. It's hard to take a compliment and it's hard to, um, it really is hard to embrace that. Maybe not for everybody. But I agree with that.

So it's John for that matter. I'll talk for him because he doesn't speak. But, um, and it's not because of the equipment either. Long and short is you came here today as humble as could be. And you, you hit home run after home run and you have a great personality.

And I can see why you, you know, you've gotten to the place where you're at.

“Because personality, obviously you have to have your skill set.”

You don't have a skill set. You're not in the equation, right? Personality gets you over the finish line. That is, that's a very true statement. I mean, piggybacking on that is, is humble, right?

I mean, one of my, forget all the compliment talk back and forth. You know, the back slaps and all of that. We know that you do a great job in, in, in who you are and what you do. But when did you realize professionally that, um, and I'm actually good at this?

When I graduated high school in Egypt, and my dad saw me downward, uh, with the face time in my mom and my dad was like, "All right, where do you want to go to school?" My immediate reaction was like, "Denise dates." I see it in my dad's eyes. He's like, "Wow, my son is all grown and he's leaving."

But at the end of the day, he, he, he had me from a majority of my life. And I felt like it was very important for me to like, "Okay, let me go see what the other side of the world has." So when I came to the States, I had two options.

I either come up how Egyptians always come up where you graduate college,

your dad buys you a house, and everything's handed to you, but culture. It's not, it's not that I'm spoiled or anything, but just how everybody needs you grows up. And coming here is, is where, when I landed and I met my mom, I've never met my, my little brother at the time, he was only six months old. And my mom's got remarried, and remind you, my mom was never a chef.

My mom was, um, vice president of, of Western Union, um, internationally. So she traveled, like, I'm traveling today, non-stop from India to the Middle East, et cetera, and then when she came, when she retired, that she went into, um, we'll go over here back in the day, which was what was far go. And long story short, she got into a little incident.

So she couldn't work, she didn't work there anymore. And then she got married, and then she decided, like, hey, let's open up a restaurant. Now mind, you, my mom, from heart, she's, uh, she's a great person. She's, um, I have a lot of

her. She's overthinkers just like, I am. She always thinks we're in a case scenario,

but in heart, she's wonderful. She's super, super wide and pure. And she always cares about the people around her before herself. I took that from her, but, um, to finish this is, it's, it's that, she always cooked with her heart. And you can see it. So when she decided to open up a piece of, uh, it was a new ones with New Jersey, right on Rutgers campus, it was called Polys Pizza. And she sat me down. She's like, hey, you're in the States, you want a car, you want this,

“you want that, you need to work. My head, I'm like, a work, you know, I didn't work in Egypt.”

You know what I mean? Like, so I go work at the Pizzerian. She was like, all right, pick a station. I'm like, okay, it's the middle July. It's super, super hot. A C's not on, doors open, back doors open. Pizza, both ovens are on almost 600 degrees. And, um, she's like, all right, start. Okay, what do you want me to start with? Well, ask the guys. So, uh, there was three people, Omar, Louise, and Eddie. Those were like,

those salt taste stuff. So, I started off with salt taste. Two months, three months go by and

it's like getting easier and easier. And then my stepfather, um, pushed me to learn how to make pizzas. And in my head, I'm like, I don't want to do this. And my, in my brain doing all this, I wasn't going to school for culinary. My main goal was international business. It was already enough for my dad to hear that, oh, you're not going to be an angel like me. Support for walking 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. Or like his sisters and all that everybody's in doctors. And I was like, yeah, not for me. So, I go doing international business. I do that

I first two semesters. And we go and I go and take accounting to, when I was like, yeah,

“this is not for me at all. So, uh, I told my mom and she's like, I told you, you should go into”

culinary school. I'm like, culinary school. Why can't do that? She's like, why not? I said, because my dad's not going to prove. And then she sat me down. She's like, listen, I'm going to tell you two things. Take it or leave it. Like, all right, she said, you either going to do what you love, or you're going to do what people want you to do. And you're going to be miserable. So, I took that to the grave. I'm that's still in the back of mine every single day. So, I was like, yeah,

all right. So, I learned how to make pizza. I injured myself. I, I, we had a big 50 gallon harbor mixer. We used to shred our own cheese. And you see the guys just go in there, grab a piece of cheese. I'm like, gag and do what I go in there. Boom. There goes three of those three of my fingers. Cut, I'm not really cutting them, but I lost a good amount of skin. And my mom was right there.

“My mom was faint. I burned a couple of pizzas. You know, do stupid mistakes. All that type of stuff.”

But at the end of the day, she told me she said, go apply for carnage school. So, I went to apply to carnage school at Middle-Sex County College in Edison, New Jersey. And I was doing great. I was striving. And at the same time, every time my dad calls out school, go, and I was great. You know, I didn't break the news to him yet. I was scared. I legitimately, I was super scared because not not because I'm doing anything wrong, but I don't want to disappoint him.

But go there and I go into school for semester second semester and boom, I'm like,

the dean, right? Dean comes up to me. She's my friend, my mom's friend, and she's like, you're doing phenomenal. I'm going to have you skip a couple of semesters. A couple of classes. You know, she doesn't think I need them. All right, cool. She's like, I want you to go apply for an externship. I was like, ready? She's like, yeah, she's like, I want you to go work out a place called the Frog in the Peach. All right. And back in the day, the frog in the Peach and New

Runswick, New Jersey was one of the first restaurants in New Jersey. I got a three star New York Times awards. And it was underneath Chef Bruce. He was half Canadian, half French. So I go there and I start working and everything someone teaches me just gets easier and easier. So long story short, I start going on the station at the frog in the Peach and Garmaget and the guy calls out and Chef Bruce looks at me. He's like, you got this? I was like,

Chef, I got it. Are you sure? I'm positive. I took notes and notes on pictures, how to set it up, how to cure the tuna for the tartare, et cetera, et cetera. And from that moment on, I was like, yeah, this, the kitchen likes for me. Speaking of pizza. Yeah. We had pizza today. Five year or all, I can say, right. I kind of set that up, right? I mean, once I heard your story on our pre-call and you were talking about pizza and everything, our local official pizza,

for walk-and-talk, is a company here called by the chef pizza. And, you know, chef beater is phenomenal. And I told him that you were coming, told him all about you. And he was so excited. He was like, oh man, hi, hi, hi. And he was like throwing pizzas at me. Like, take all of this. Yeah, I mean, we got five pies. I know. It's only four of us. I know. Anyway, the long and short of it is, I love pizza a lot. And I know you do too. And I just, you know, I just wanted to make sure

that you knew that there's some depth here on the show. I mean, okay. No questions about that pizza was absolutely fire. Or nowadays, 20, 26, they were saying it's gas. Totally gas. So you've actually had a pretty interesting career. You've worked for some pretty big name chefs.

“That means you've been mentored properly. Which one of these mentors changed you the most?”

And what I mean by that is, and I know it's easy to be like, hey, you know, my mom, my dad,

Their teachings. They're still with you today. So I can't just pick one because if I pick one,

“I'll be a little selfish. I would say breaking it up into stages of my life. And I'm going to”

start off with Chef Bruce. Chef Bruce, I know I was, I wasn't the greatest to start off with.

And he always told me he's like, remember, whatever happens in the kitchen, you do to a chef

is going to come back to you as a chef. I never believe that. And I promise you it happens. You know, like they say karma, karma is real. So I was one of those guys were, you know, my first chef that chef Bruce, I was five minutes late. And he never let it down until two weeks later, until I was the master of herbs. And he always pushed me. He's like, once I did herbs, he's like, well, you're going to be on pastry. And I was like, man, I don't want to be pastry.

Why? I came in and learned so I'll tell you. He's like, trust me. You, you'll thank me later. So I learned after the frog in the peach, I went to a hotel. Didn't really learn much of the hotel,

“but I learned volume. That's why I want to go to a hotel because when you're in culinary school,”

it's like, you have to do a hotel experience. So I did that. And then I worked at cheesecake

factory for a little bit. I learned how the real grinder works of going in at seven in the morning, not leaving your station until four, great experience. But the highlight of my career is when I had the opportunity to work with Chef Shariaard. It was, um, so it, how to work it was that me and my stepfather, Montezila. And it came to a point where I was like, you know what? I'm not working at the pizzeria. I'm moving out and I did it. I was like, I'm going to go move in with a couple of my friends

and I'm going to do what I have to do. So I did so and I went online and I applied for Chef Shariaard at I picked theaters in Fort Lee and I interviewed as a line cook. And when I first met her, she sat me down and she was like, what do you want out of this? And I told her, I was like, I want to learn, I want to grow and that most importantly, I just want to make this as my career. And she was like, all right, well, I need you to prove it to me. It's just like any other chef.

So I worked every single station you imagine it three months later, I become her sous chef. After that, I become executive sous, fast forward a couple of years. She's like, I want you to go open up restaurants and she took me to go see Chef Michael Simon. But what I learned from Chef Sharia

is to suspend my ego, always. She's like, when you come into the building, leave that ego outside.

So Chef Sharia told me to prove it to her, work hard, keep my head down and take my blinders off. Then I left New York City. My stepfather got diagnosed with Parkinson's and my mom and them left Jersey to go to North Carolina and it had been very randomly. They left in March for a couple of weeks. So yeah, we're going to go visit our family in North Carolina. I was like, all right, you're going to come. No, I'm staying here and we got a blizzard at that time in Jersey.

So I'm over there shoveling snow and they're sending me pictures. It's like 78 degrees outside. I'm like, wow, what a great, you know, what a great place to be at. And then she's like three days later, hey, we just bought a house. Oh, what do you mean we just bought a house? She's like, yeah, we bought a house where we're going to sell the pizza and we're moving to North Carolina and I was like,

“you guys are, I'm not. And then my mom was like, she's our crime. I'm like, why are you crying?”

She's like, because I want you to be with us. But I was like, what am I going to do there? It's like, I have New York City word, you know, you can make a name for yourself. I'm going to go to North Carolina and do what? She's like, come visit. So I went and visited it and it was just like, country. Now, let me, let me do is now I'm in the Carolina's country and the Carolina's are different. But for me, coming from New York City and going to Charlotte, everything to move to open land,

we don't see that in up north. You don't see, you know, cows and all that roaming around in the field and the highways right there. So I told her, absolutely not. So for me, I listened to, what Chef Sherry told me. He's like, sometimes you got to be selfish in your career. So I said, yeah, I'm going to be selfish and I'm going to put my head down and I'm just going to ride the grind of New York City in Jersey. This episode is brought to you by Tri-Mark, the largest food service

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Then I went from there. I opened up some restaurants with Sherry and met my wonderful,

“beautiful wife in Dowery Beach, Florida, opening up the IPEC theaters there. Then I left IPEC and”

then I worked with Chef Jamie Lynch in Charlotte. I opened up a couple of restaurants with him. I left there. Went to a country club and here I am now with UNOX. Big names. Big names. Yeah, Sherry Yard, three-time James Beard winner. Chef Jamie Lynch. I mean, these are these are huge names. What a young chef like yourself at the time. Coming up like that, your ego had to probably have been pretty gigantic. And I pre-call you mentioned, you know,

learning how to leave your ego at the door. What was that moment in your career? Or humility

taught you more than talent actually could? This story is one of my top because it's always in

the back of my brain. It was a New Year's Eve and Chef Max Knows Bill was the executive chef at the time at Fort Lee, New Jersey. And I learned a ton from him. But I was in my head. I was like, man, I did a great job. I held this building together. This is a net. You know, I got all the prep done, this isn't that, and conservates and I gave Chef Max and attitude in front of the staff. And because I thought I was, you know, I had all, I thought I had all my ducks in a row to say the least.

You know, you're a hot shot. Yeah, to say the least, yeah, I thought I was, you know, I was the bomb.com on the line. Like this is my restaurant. But I mean, it humbled me because he came in there house this house. I mean, I just looked at him and I just turned all the way back and seen him cooking. And he's a big guy. He's I'm six, five years at least six, he's big big, he's intimidating, right? And so he sends me home. He's like, get the fuck out of here,

go home. I was like, okay, right. So what did I do? I went, I told my mom and my mom was like,

“so what'd you do? Well, I told, I was like, you know, in my brain, I think my mom, I thought my mom”

was going to, you know, be like, yeah, don't worry. You know, he's the bad guy. My mom was like, you deserve it. She's like, uh, you better be there tomorrow morning early, even if you're off. I was like, what? She was like, yes, she's like, you picked this path to it. So in my hand, I was like, all right. So I went home when I was in deep thought. I was like,

I've never got sent home in my life. I've never got ran up. I was chef max. I've got ran up.

I got sent home. And the cherry on top was when I messed up in order for, um, I forgot what the movie was, but it was a big movie. It was a big, you know, blockbuster. It was huge. And I think I hit a couple cases, a little more too much on Cisco. And next thing, you know, the truck comes and like, I was like, yeah, I got 26 pounds on my 26 pounds. Whoa, what do you mean? So I go out there and I try to finish and, you know, hey, we don't need this. Hey, we don't need that. And chef

Matt comes in here and he's like, bring that invoice. I come to my office. All right. Go in the office. He closed the door. He reads the invoice. He stands up. And he throws that computer against the wall so fast. And my face just goes white blank. And he's like, you're going to have to fix this mess up. I'm like, fix what mess up. Then he starts yelling and screaming. I get up and I leave. I literally walk like, I'm about to get on my car and walk out. Guess what I call to get my mom.

My mom was like, you better turn, turn your behind right back and go man up to your mistake.

“She's like, these are the opportunities that will make you or break you. And always remember”

that do your work as you own it. Don't do it just for a paycheck. So I took that and

I never made those mistakes ever again. And I always till today, leave my ego at the door.

No matter what the praise is, I don't want it. If it did you go back, did you go back a hundred and 10% I went back and I continued for two years after that. But not okay. It gets great two years. When you went back into the when you back, when you went back into the restaurant, after you decided to split, would a chef tell you? He brought me into the office and he apologized. He was like, I got out of hand, but you deserved it. And I was like, I agree with your

chef. I always said, yes, chef. I didn't know what to say. I mean, what am I going to, I don't want to make an up and excuse to get kicked out again or something. You know what I'm saying? Other than yes, chef. For me, it hurt because, you know, when you think you have everything under control and then you in front of your staff gets sent home, it hurts the ego. It really hurts it.

that is a burner. That is, yeah, it is. It's true though. I mean, that's why I tell the two chefs

that I have with me and I'm blessed to have them, Jeff and Jordan, before I even hired them, I was like,

“you need to know something. We already worked with you. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Suspend your ego and”

Q&AK is my keyword every single time I talk. If you would ask them, they'll tell you, communication, keep the kitchen clean and think outside of the box. See, you ended up at Uenox, after all of after all of this experience and learning and getting your ass kicked and the whole thing, how did you know you reached a point where something had to change? Who? Oh, yeah. Because that's a big change. You're going from the kitchen to a man like an equipment manufacturer and on this,

and that's like there's a sales component to that. So now you're doing something where most chefs are introverted, they leave the restaurant, go have a few drinks or whatever and it's a whole different life than being in sales for a professional company, but you went to the dark side. How did you

“manage that? Well, before we say I went to the dark side, I experienced the dark side. I am”

your father. You went to the dark side. I did, but what led me to this was when I got married, I got married in July 7th of 2022 and I was working with Chef Jamie Lynch. I was the regional calling director for the group and they hosted my wedding. Everything was on them. Super super thankful for it. But in the middle of that, I injured my back. I slipped too disks. I was trying to do whatever Chef thought I said it was just to thug it out and just push through it because we're

busy. I always put work ahead at that moment. I never did family and then work. So I always did work

ahead. And when I married my wife, funny story. When I was getting serious with my wife, the first two questions she asked me was like, are you sure you want to get married? 110 percent and random things. She said, what is your credit score? I was like, wow, never, never, never thought that someone would ever ask me what is my credit score, but I'm going to tie this in length and you'll see. My wife is, how do I say, she's very good with money. I'm the complete opposite. I like to spend that

like nice stuff. Not saying that my wife does it, but my wife is more of the smarter aspect. She completed me, right? So when I got married and I heard my back, she, she sat me down because I was miserable. I, I don't like drinking and I was drinking also every night at home. And I wasn't myself. She, I'll come home when we start fighting. I'm miserable. I'm slamming stuff. I'm yelling out my staff on the smallest stuff. I'm just not me. And she, she told me she's like, hey, we need to talk.

“And I got that text of like, oh boy. So I went home and she's like, you need to figure this out.”

She's like, you need to find a new job or fix your back. And my head, I was like, all right, that's when everything clicked. So I went to Chef Jamie and Patrick and I told me, hey, my back's pretty messed up. And Patrick and Jamie, I go see the doctors. I went and saw the doctor and went to a specialist. And they started injecting me a bunch of steroids and shots in this physical therapy. And so I went on leave. So all that stuff, I used to have long hair. I used to have a man

bun. I promise you. And during that whole time, one of the things that I was like, I need to start fresh.

Once I got my first injection, I went to the boroughs I take it off. I went home. My wife was like,

wow, what a change when I went to him. Jamie, Jamie the second after. He was like, what happened to you there? I was like, I need to start fresh. But through all that, I mean, it pain puts you in a very dark place. But at the end of the day, I take it as a learning curve. I took advantage of it at some point. Once it all clicked and realized that I'm going to take this for advantage of how I can control pain, how I can control my relationship, how can I control the uncontrollable, right? Because one of

my favorite phases that I've learned in kitchens is control what you can control, control your control rules. Lock and talk media is proudly supported by Rack Porseland, USA creating durable, beautifully designed tableware for chefs and hospitality professionals. Learn more at RackPorseland.com. Don't worry about other stuff that you have no involvement in. Right. So that happens. I,

gateway out. I was maybe 31 when I went to a country club. So I was super young. And you put yourself

“to pass your pretty quick. Yeah. And when I went in a view, there was like, you sure you want this?”

I was like, yeah, I mean, I can hard. He's like, I know you can offer a lot. But are you sure you want a country club? I was like, yes, this is what I want. So I went in there. I promised X, Y and Z. And I did everything. When I was, when I was still working with Chef Jamie, we were looking to upgrade some equipment in the kitchen. And one of them was combat ovens. We only had one in the back of private and Jamie was like, hey, I think it's time for us to get

something new. It's like cool. So I always knew, you know, the one that everybody knows, which is

rationale. And was very new. What Linux was. And, and I learned. And it was pretty, it was pretty, it was really great when we had it. We started in Charlotte. Then we moved it to Charleston. And then we opened up Tempest. They implemented Tempest. And now in every single restaurant, Chef Jamie has,

“they have oven boxes. So the person that sold us the oven boxes is name was Corey. He hit me up. He was”

like Charlotte's very small. So everybody knows when you leave or don't leave and stuff like that. So he kills me and he's like, hey, I heard a rumor. I was like, what's the rumor? You don't work with Jamie anymore. I was like, yeah, that's true. Where are you at? I was like a country club.

He's like, uh, you want out? I was like, what do you got? He's like, we got a corporate chef. I was like,

okay, tell me more. He's like, you know, nine to five weekends and holidays. I was like, sold, signed me up. And he's like, all right, cool. Send me your resume. I applied of everything. And then it was like, he was explaining it to me, y'all. You travel, you know, barely traveling, you know, go do shows and visit customers. I'm like, yeah, cool, no worries. So I went until my wife. And she was like, yeah, that's great. But you just started this new job. So I was interviewing with

Mike Dick, a restaurant group out of Chicago. And it was, um, it was an opportunity that we're trying to come to Charlotte at the time. And I interviewed and I did really great. And there were, I was in between, right? I was like, should I leave the kitchen or should I stay in the kitchen? So I sat down and I was like, all right, well, let me write it down, pros and cons. And the pros outweigh the cons when it comes to inox and and, uh, working back in an operations. And, um, I decided to go with

an arts now. I underestimate when they say it's a very slow process, right? I interviewed and March. Well, I'm in it though. First of all, don't think you're going to slide by with me and I bring it up to a man bun. Okay. Yeah. They don't think that we're not going to circle back to that. The only reason you got a professional job at unox is because you cut that man bun. Or else you were

never going to be this rendition. Well, of who you are today, yeah. But it ain't going to happen.

And listen, there's no disrespect to man bun. I get it. But those Italians are not going to go for that. Well, I wouldn't say they, they would have definitely went for it. But it was for me that I had my long hair since I was in Jersey, New York. And, and it carried a lot of memories with me. Good,

“bad, ugly, and I got married. And I was like, I think I need a change. But I had to ask the way first”

because you wanted me to come my hair. And she was like, do whatever you want. So when I cut it, I was like, I went at low low. So, but now speaking about it, I was just telling her, I was like, I think I want to grow my hair back out. She's like, you do? I was like, yeah, maybe a different look. But I don't know about all that. But real quick. So I, after eight, nine years of having a beard, when my kids were a little bit younger, they only knew me with facial hair. Like pretty thick facial hair. And one day,

I, I really just made a mistake in the shower. It couldn't fix it, man. That was like, oh, God, I got a really, I got to just take this whole thing off. Okay, all of it. So I went in, you know, with wishy face. And I came out, you know, clean, shaving. My wife had the crooked face, my daughter cried. My son looked at me like, he didn't even recognize me as it was awful. And coincidentally, then I was years ago. Yesterday, my daughter's sitting on a counter with me, has she's real close,

and she's kind of playing with me. She said, Danny, don't ever shave your face. She's reminded you don't do it again. Like, this really just happened like yesterday. Yeah. So, I mean, that was, um, yeah, I wanted to start fresh with the munt man bun. So I interviewed with doing arts and, um, in my interviews, I interviewed with the president at the time. I interviewed with the head of sales. And I interviewed with the corporate chef, uh, man and jerk of the world, Nicole Lai.

speaking to people. So my interview was which Nicole Lai was like, hey, tell me a story about yourself. Say, you got 30 minutes. All right. So like, you sure? He's like, yeah, so I told my story and I looked down on the car goes, like, oh my God, I am so sorry. He's like, no, no, you're good. He's like,

“all green lights for me. So my head, I was like, okay. Um, I think I got a good chance at this job. And then,”

you know, going getting your contract back and forward this is an ad and good. Got it up on my noticing and I left. And I looked at Jeff and Jeff and the other chef, uh, Jeff Jordan, I was a, hey, I'm going to give you guys a call. And they're like, yeah, sure, why not? Like, promise me, and my buy not be now. It might be a couple of years live, but I'm going to give you guys a call.

So I, uh, I left and I went to, um, I went to Winox and my first day was my first of uh, 23.

And, uh, two weeks later, it was an array. And that was when, um, reality hit me where I was like, oh man, that I make a good, a right move or not. Um, didn't know what to expect. Uh, all I know is that I told my wife, I was, uh, only going to be traveling for 30%. And, uh, ended up my first travel was like, almost six weeks. And, uh, she was like, well, what happened to the 30% I was like, well, I don't know. This is a rare occasion, um, but yeah, I mean, super, super blessed to be where I'm at now. And it's,

it's great. I want to trade it for anything. You've experienced some really difficult things in the industry, uh, including losing colleagues to substance abuse. Was that an eye opener for you that, you know, wow, like this is, this is a rough place and, you know, it needs to be addressed or approached in a specific way. Yeah. Um, yeah, I mean, when, when I experienced it in my first time,

I was, uh, I only heard about it in kitchens, but I've never experienced it in, um, in real life.

I, uh, I had one of our, uh, line cooks, um, when I was a hutch of Jamie, his name was, uh, JoJo, or Joey, uh, great line cooks, super super talented. He had a great heart, but he, um, he, he, he, he went through substance abuse, right? Um, and I'm, I am in no way to, you know, to, I don't know how to say, but there's no judgment, right? I mean, we're on a kitchen. We all do what we have to do, but at the end of the day, I care about my employees and I learn this from Chef Sherrian

“and Chef Charles and Chef Max that beat, treat the people how you want to be treated, right?”

And saying good morning, good night goes a very, very long way. How are your kids? How are you doing, et cetera, et cetera? So I built that relationship. JoJo joined us right after, uh, COVID and, uh, we picked them up from my restaurant that was closing and, uh, he was solid. He was, man, that guy, I could, he could cook. Any fish, anything. He was ready. Um, it came from New York City as well. I moved to Charlotte with his brother and, um, he, we started hanging out. I used to take, uh,

you know, certain people, hey, let's go grab, you know, dinner, let's decide. I knew he was doing,

he was coming off of, or just came from, uh, treatment. So I'd never wanted to take him off to a bar,

taking me that because I don't want to be, you know, the, the purpose of anybody relapsing. So I took him out with always, you know, call him, how are you doing? Do you need anything, et cetera, et cetera? I experienced this personally. Um, we have one of our family members is very big on substance abuse and I don't usually share this a lot, but I, uh, I'm only met them maybe four times in my life. And he's very, he's my mom's younger cousin and, um, he's been

in and out of jail his whole life. He has two kids, um, he's out now, but he's always been through substance abuse. So I know what it does, what, what, what a person would do to, um, get the face to say. So I told Joe Joe and I was like, hey, listen, if you ever need anything, make sure you call. He's like,

“yeah, I'm thinking of, you know, um, getting a girlfriend, I was like, I don't know if you should”

do that yet. I was like, finish, you know, your treatment, you know, you just passed two months. I was like, go for the six. Like, go for the six and then start seeking, you know, a relationship because support for walk and talk media comes from crab highland seafood

crab island seafood dip.com. If you go into a relationship from what I've experienced and

“and you're not a hundred and mentally, met, if you're not a hundred percent mentally,”

you're going to go into a bad spiral if your emotions get to you and you don't get your way. Not to mention, you're probably going to find the wrong person. I mean, when you're not in your correct frame of mind, you're going to just crush out on somebody who's who's going to bring it out of bad paths. A hundred percent, and at that point, you're looking to what do you guys like to do? What is your common denominator? And if the person says, hey, you know,

about that guy, right? And for me, it was like, okay, well, I was always praying in the back of my mind,

like, don't, you know, please don't realize, please don't realize. And so we get a, it was a Sunday service. And he, he was late and I called, no answer, I called, no answer, I called, no answer, no regard. Well, this is not him. He usually calls or answers or sense of text or whatever the case may be. And I was like, all right, I'm not going to overthink it. We're just going to do, you know, service. And then me being me, which I got from my mom was overthinker, I kept calling

and calling him, I'm like, this is not him. So I gave it to the next day, a Monday, I was off. And I reached out to his brother. I was like, hey, this is Chef Sharif, I work with Joe, just, just you know, I, I missed his, he missed the shift. And his brother was like, his brother was like, yeah, he, he probably relapsed till we back tomorrow. And in my head, I'm like, okay, I can't just go knock on his door, though a day goes by. And, and he, I text him as I get a news. No, not yet. I'm going

to reach out to the apartment complex so we can go do a wellness check. All right, that's Tuesday. I get a call Tuesday afternoon from his brother. He's like, uh, Jojo passed.

“And in my head, I'm like, man, what could I, you know, you always take the blame on yourself, right?”

Like, what could have I done? Could have I just went there and knocked the door down or, you know, I mean, like, and, and it hit hit me really, really hard. And I was just like, obviously, I'm a leader of a kitchen. I can't show my emotions to the team, not because it's not right, but as a leader, if, if I'm upset, the energy is going to carry throughout the kitchen, right? So I reached out to Chef Jamie and I told him, and he was like, are you okay? I was like,

I'll be all right. I was like, I'm more worried about what the staff and how they're going to perceive it. So James, like, I'm going to come to the restaurant. So he came to the restaurant. And we had a staff meeting, and we, uh, we addressed it. And Chef Jamie told me, he was like, are you all right? I was like, yeah, I'll be all right. In my head, it's very hard for me to admit to someone if I'm good or not good, even to my mom. Because I don't want to give every, you know,

I'm not that type of person. I'm going to put my, um, how do I say it? My worries or my, um, my problems on someone else, even to my wife. I, if it's really bad, I'll do it, but I'm, I'm,

I always keep it in, which, which I learned is not good. So, um, I, uh, I went to therapy. I, uh,

wasn't my first time I went to therapy once when I was in New York City. My mom doesn't know this. Well, this is going to be a conversation for later. Um, but yeah, I went to therapy and, and, um, Chef Jamie called in the family of, uh, we told Joe's family to come in. We helped out with the funeral. We told, we told, we told everything, you know, whatever we could done, but it's

“always, it was always in the back of my mind. Could I save them? Could I've done it?”

There's nothing that anyone can do for somebody that isn't ready to save themself. Yes, there is zero percent. And you know, it's the, the hard part is that the weekend before we all hung out. We had a great time. We went to the mall. I had them all over at my mom's house. We had a great meal. My mom is, my mom was very big of habit. Bring your friends over. Let me cook for them and send everybody home with food and, and, you know, for me, it's just a matter of second,

God, tomorrow is not promised. And my next thing is to it is that I always tell people that you've

never know what tomorrow carries. And I'm, every time I wake up in the morning, I'm super, super thankful that God gave me another day. Even if it's not a full day, but it's always in God's hands. And that's how I always live by, but, but back to that, I mean, that's why after all that, I was like,

being in dark places? Hundreds and per cent, more than once. When I had my back, my wife had to move the pistol away from the side of my bed from me. Because I didn't know I was in so much pain. It was like, what should I do? So she was like, Ian, let me hide this from you, right? And that's me scary. Because I haven't been there any year. And I don't want my wife to think of damn. This, this unraveled really quick, you know? And for me, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's not pride or anything,

but it's, it's tough, bro. It's like, I'm trying not to get emotional, but it's, it's, it's, it was

“hard for me to, to be on here now and admit to this, but that's why when I found an opportunity,”

with a burnt chef project, I helped on an ASAP. And for me, it was just like, the cherry on top is that I asked you an ox. I was like, hey, do you guys mind if I do this? They're like, no, we're all about it. So for me, it was just like, all right, when in the situation, I get to give back to the community, I get to speak. I get to, I mean, when you become an ambassador, you take all these courses on how to detect it, how to save it, how to do it. So it helps when you see someone. I mean,

89% of the time when you go a person, no, no, I'm fine. All right. Well, here's my number. Call me if you need anything. And, and once you get to know one day, two day, you hang out with them.

They usually open up. If they trust you. And if they don't trust you, you will never get it. But

for me, one thing that always in Chef Sherry wrote it to me, I'm one of my birthday cards when I opened up that Ray Beach. She said, you have something very, very special about you that you have people just gather around you for no reason. And I never understood it. And I never, I never knew, but a lot of your mentors and a lot of people that guide you on life and notice something about you that you were discovered years after. And one of them was that is that

I'm good with people. I can communicate with people. I can teach people indirectly, even though I hate teaching people. Like, I hate training. And you can tell my chefs will tell you like, I tell them, I was like, I don't like doing this, but they're like, you're really good at it. Yeah, I guess. But I mean, it was, it was, it was a, it was a definitely an eye opener. And it's a relief that now that we have something here in the States that can anybody can have access to it.

“It's 100% free, which is dope. I think that would, the Burn Chef project does is phenomenal.”

And you know, we're very fortunate to have a special relationship with Burn Chef, North America, with Tom and Colleen and Jamie and them. And you know, I think that was one of them. One of the byproducts, the great byproducts of the partnership between Unox and walk-in talk, is that there's this common factor of Burn Chef and what that stands for.

You know, we're industry people first. And, you know, we've kind of landed in this

this food space with media and because we have an outlet and because we have an audience, I mean, the least that we could do is to help promote something like this. When we know, I mean, I definitely, I have family members who are a mess. And you know, obviously I've worked with enough people who were, you know, hitting walls and, you know, training off the tracks. So for me, I get it. And I love it. I mean, it's really great that, you know, that you're here,

and that you're an ambassador, and you're being open, you know, with your life, and you broke some

“stuff here. Sorry mom. Yeah. You know, that's hard. Yeah. It's me. Why don't you tell me?”

Why don't you just do it? You and at a million other people.

Four out of five hospitality professionals have faced at least one mental health challenge during their career. Stress, burnout, anxiety. These are everyday realities in kitchens, dining rooms, and bars across North America. The burnt chef project, North America, is here to change that. They provide free anonymous support, direct care, training, and self care resources, design specifically for chefs, servers, and hospitality staff. From therapy services to

educational modules, they're answering the call for help in one of the toughest industries. It can't be done alone. Your financial support makes this possible, ensuring that every hospitality professional has access to the tools they need to thrive. Join the movement and breaking the stigma. Email you as Canada at the burnt chef project.com for donation details and mailing information, or learn more about the mission at the burnt chef

project.com. But yeah, I mean, at the end of the day, it's a terrific program.

I mean, a hundred and ten percent, there's, I mean, we need this in more than anything. Everybody realizes it, but it's specifically the hospitality industry. You said something that stuck with me. Food is the food is the common denominator that brings people together. After everything you're experienced, all the stuff we're talking about here today, actually, why do you believe that so deeply? Why do I believe that so deeply? Well, it goes back

to me growing up in Egypt. We, we always gathered for weekends, holidays, religious holidays,

everything was around food. And when I joined the, when I became a chef, I realized it, walking through the dining room, that people celebrate their engagements, their weddings, their

“their birthday parties, their graduations, all over what? Who? That's how everybody connects to”

one another. And my grandma used to say, you always need to break a piece of bread, obviously an Arabic, but I'm translating it. And English, you always need to break a piece of bread with someone to get to know them. So I took that literally into hard and every single way is that if I'm going to become a chef, I want to make sure when people eat my food, they can remember,

not necessarily me, but the bites of memories they have. Even now, and in my position now,

when we do demonstrations, or we do anything, and you get a crowd of front of you, why? Everybody, everybody wants food. Everybody either food attracts them visually, or because it's something like like, or even drinks. But that's how you can connect to level to level, but even I'll say, break the ice at some sort between one chef to another, or one customer to another, or from friend to friend, or if someone's looking to date. I mean, you don't go ask a girl, hey,

“you want to go a party? And you're like, no, let's go on a date. Well, what does a date include?”

Either getting coffee, getting drinks, or getting food. When when you go do a wedding, yes, it's all about the party, but at the end of the day, it's about the cake, about this, about that. When you're doing anything, I mean, here we all connected on the pizza, we connected about, you know, different dishes people prepared, and family meal in the industry, and at home, literally meal, I'm able to your family, but then family meal. I think what we do here at the

studio is fairly unique in that, I mean, we're here together for five, six hours. And we're doing the good work, you know, you're cooking your hard out, and we're filming, and shooting pictures, and we're doing the podcast, we're doing all this stuff. But to take a break, even for 10 minutes, and just to sit and enjoy food, whether it's, you know, badass pizza, scallops, whatever it is, that's special time. And that's where you learn people, and that's where you're like, hey,

“this is a good group of individuals, we should do this more, right? That's how you're kind of”

push it forward. Yeah. I mean, even even when you go for the Super Bowl, what, yeah, everybody likes to watch the game, but what does everybody else go there for? All the snacks. I know I do, you know, the buffalo dip, the, you know, the wings, et cetera, the pizza. I don't use sporting events to, you know, make myself, you know, a slob. I do that on my own accord. Well, I don't need, you know, a big game to have me eat that kind of food. 100% but I'm just saying,

back, I, no, you make your terrific point. But yeah, I mean, everybody kind of circles around, no matter what the occasion, there's food in the center. And if there's not, I don't want to be there. Not an S the truth. If you invite me to your wedding, and the food's bad, I'm going to be pissed. Like, legitimately, I'm not going to say anything. I'm still going to give you an envelope. It's great. But then I'm going to get in the car and I'm going to tell my wife, like,

what a bunch of cheap clothes. Like, they didn't come with the food. What are you doing? 100% I think you sit here for three hours and come on, you better feed me. No matter what

part of the world you go, you'll always be able to communicate, not necessarily by language,

but by food language, is that doesn't matter if I'm here, if I'm Asia, or if I'm in, in Europe, everybody, when you sit down and eat, you can communicate, good, bad. There's a language. And Chef Sharer always told me is that, is that, why is, when someone eats dessert after a great meal, 99% of the time they'll never forget the meal? Because there's a chemical reaction

endorphins super, super high so you're very happy. I never thought of that. Like, who would

“imagine planning a whole menu and you like, no, you must have at least three chocolate desserts”

on there? I never thought, but now knowing that there's a reason why, you know, Chef Sharer is a legend, not because she can bake or what she's done, but like, even the extra mile that it goes but like, they must get dessert and if they don't order dessert, just maybe we'll give them some petty forza, whatever. You know, so, even to whatever you think of it, have food or some sort of ingredients revolve in it. I mean, you've been doing this a long time, and if you're, if you're

younger, self, you know, the kid that thought he was going to be an engineer saw you now, executive chef, corporate chef, all those trials, tribulations, unox, all of it. What does he say? Wow.

I mean, I never thought in a million years, I'll be on a podcast, but be part of, you know,

the walk and talk media with you guys, or even having opportunity to be working with unox, but even with the chefs that I work with. I think it's all thanks to God and how I took every advantage to heart and didn't let anything fall through the cracks and being responsible and growing

“up and understanding that having a life is just more than bringing a paycheck. And that to answer”

why my wife asked me about my credit score, it is to show how responsible I am and how I'm able to be a husband one day. And I think that was a very valuable question, not to necessarily, I could have fledged it or whatever, but I was like, I never had anybody asked me that, but even looking at it now, there's certain jobs out there that ask you for your credit score. And if you don't have a good credit score, unfortunately, in the States, you're very limited, not necessarily

jobs, but living, housing, etc, etc. But I would say that thanks to everybody that pushed me and thanks to my family and thanks most importantly to God that was able to put me in these opportunities and take it the right way and be able to go from engineering and thinking that my dad was going to think that I'm an extreme loser to, hey, now coming and almost being in tears and seeing what I do and when I was still with Jamie and taken to the restaurants and hearing what people say about

“me is, I don't even know, I mean, I think that's what every parent wants to see.”

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 Citrus America.com. It's see their kids succeed and see them lead their own path and be them. But at the end of the day, I think it's a very powerful, very powerful that the opportunity that you get in the United States to say the least because being a chef and Egypt is not being like being a chef here,

being a chef in Egypt, they look at you like you're nothing. It's reality. Even though there's a lot of tourism and a lot of great restaurants, but it's not perceived as here, so I think that's why my dad was like, oh, you cannot be a chef. But now when he sees it, I'm successful, I have a house, I'm married and he's able to come stay with me and you know, I take him around and all that.

I think it's great. I mean, I never thought in a million years, but at the end of the day,

that's why when I coach my little brother, I'm hard on him. I'm hard on him because number one is as bad as Parkinson's, so it's that's, you know, they're but not really there. And I've been as father figure to say the least or older brother figure for a long time. I mean, I used to change his diapers. I didn't go to parties, etc. But I think that doing that and shaping them and him understanding that I love you to death, but you we need this, you need this top love to

grow up and and do so. I'm going to answer this question for you. Okay, okay. Your younger self would say, wow, you really matured. Wow, you've taken your experiences and you used the hell out of them for the best. And you know what, I'm so happy that you came and

Thank you guys very much. And you guys can find me on Instagram a chef reef 91. And you guys can find

“Unox at Unox Inc. LinkedIn, Sharif Shockey, S-H-E-R-I-E-F. Last name S-H-A-W-K-Y. Unox USA. Great. Thank you”

guys for having me. Have a good time. I had a f**k last. All right, wonderful. Thank you guys.

Same in. All right. So, John. John. Thanks, John. My man, photographer, extraordinaire. Do we have

“any pictures already? Anything done yet? Did you do any editing while we're doing all those”

words? No? Okay. All right. Unox, thank you for setting out the gang. I appreciate it very much.

Dude, you're welcome back here anytime. Allurea, I see you. I see you. All right. Thanks a lot. We are out. Later. [Music]