From New Orleans to Con Amor: Chef Taylor Dillon on Mexican Food, Identity, and Building with Purpose

place in it. Because food has always been bigger than geography. It's about respect,

“technique, obsession, time. Chef Taylor Dylan grew up in New Orleans, trained in elite”

kitchens like Danielle and Jean George, New York, and somehow found himself completely pulled into Mexican cuisine. Not casually, either. We're talking books, repetition, rind, and corn from scratch teaching himself, mixed themalization, and chasing authenticity because he genuinely fell in love with the craft behind it. Now he's built Konomorn, alongside his wife Kayla, and the story behind it is bigger than just opening a restaurant.

Within the span of about a year, they got married, open a restaurant, and built a business

together from the ground up. We're also joined by Lee Wilson, director of marketing for

creative low-fing Tampa Bay. For another segment of What's Hot, Tampa Bay. Because this conversation really reflects where the Tampa Bay food scene is heading right now. More personal, more intentional, more chefs. We'll need to tell their story through food. So today we're talking about identity, culture, learning credibility, and what it takes to build something that actually means something. Taylor, when you look at everything that's happened over the last couple of years,

“does it feel like it happened fast? Or does it feel like every step took forever to get here?”

Let's get into it. I feel like it's combination of both and feel like sometimes the day's dragged on, and then before I knew it, we were getting into service and prepping for what needed to be done next and opening day. Welcome to the program, my man, what you do is real. And for those who don't know you yet, you're new to the market here. You're about us. Let's talk about what you did today in the kitchen. You did two dishes. You did duck,

and then you also did steak taco. Start with the duck. Get into that. The duck is my transition away from winter time into summertime, light fresh, light on a stomach. We did a mullet verde, which is not a traditional mullet, when they do dry till easy stuff like that. I went on a more fresh route, fresh Palano, fresh to

“I'm a jalapeno cilantro. Alongside that, paired the duck with a cherry compote,”

for decals with a brandy, and I did a fresh micro cilantro salad with pear and a chocolate balls on the glaze. When we were filming, I mentioned to you that pears remind me of my grandmother. And that's special for me. So, when chefs actually come through here and can conjure up some sort of nostalgic feeling with food, we really appreciate it. I know I do, and I'm speaking for John, he does too. So thank you for that. The duck was fantastic. Thank you. Absolutely. But here's

the kicker. It wasn't even the star dish. It was badass, but it wasn't even the star dish. You came through with these tacos today, man. I got to tell you, we've had enough people on the program that have done tacos, and you know what, everybody's done a great job. By the way, I'm not going to talk about anybody. If their dish wasn't great, I'm just not going to, I'm not going to promote it so much. But everybody has done a really terrific job with the

product that they bring to dishes that they do. Brother, that taco, that taco that you did today, was stupid delicious. Everything, everything was. The smoky marinade, your in-house masa. Dude, everything was fabulous. Right on, you mentioned in your answer in a question. It happened pretty

quickly. The lovely wife is sitting right here. You guys are doing amazing things, and your

resume is pretty enhanced. John George, Danielle. What did you take from those experiences to bring here into your new restaurant and tab a bay, by the way, freshly married to, you guys got a lot going on. Yeah. I'll say from my experience, I started in New Orleans. I got made into a cook. I feel like that's where I made my bones, where I learned volume, just hard work, their repetition, and then those advanced places in New York where the competition is just elevated,

as well. I feel like I hone my skills from all that, you know, I took what I liked and when I didn't like from places. I liked the pride of my work that they teach up there. I like the attention to detail things of that nature, the kitchen etiquette, working clean, working fast, loving what you do. What I didn't like from my experiences was kind of like the harsh reality of me and the kitchen. You know, yes, I learned a lot from my experience. I owe a lot of great shifts,

thanks. But I'm just doing what I love to do on dough. I'm presenting who I am in the kitchen.

and that's not like most couples. I don't feel like we need our space. I feel like we don't

“almost don't even like it. We both love food. We love going out and having fun. And we're”

taking that and doing it right at the restaurant. I feel like we've made the restaurant our home. Just last Tuesday, a couple of days ago. I was like, there's a couple of days ago,

single to mile was actually the year mark of our, our marriage our first year. It was our anniversary.

So we took it and we threw a huge party at Commonwealth and it went down. It's a good to mile. I mean, this is so apropos. That is your anniversary date. I mean, how fitting is that? It's pretty awesome. Hey, man, I'm going to have a, we don't want to open a Mexican restaurant. Okay, cool. Oh, by the way, you know, we got married again. It's a single to mile. You can't, I mean, I don't know if you can write that.

You know, you're talking about your new wife. You open this restaurant together, and you're also building a marriage. A lot of people are going to go, oh my god, me. I

went, everybody will go over my wife, lover to death, right? I don't want to. I couldn't do it.

Impossible. Zero point zero percent possibility of that ever happening. What has this entire experience taught you about trust and partnership? I've seen that the way we are, we complement each other. She's able to pick up the slack where, you know, I don't have it all, all together there. And vice versa. You know, I could teach her things about numbers and some of the stuff in the front of the house, you know, mostly mechanical stuff like paperwork and stuff like that. But she's

the personality. She brings the vibe. She hires people that give the, the customers the experience that we want to give them, you know, because everybody I know loves Kayla. There's not a single person as anything bad to say about her. I mean, you know, I don't know, maybe. But she is able to execute who she is in the front of the house. From a previous job, her friends, everybody has come extremely excited to see her and she's been able to hire staff accordingly and have people

who do that for our guests, get mentioned in reviews, all that sort of stuff. I feel like we're just that we're, we're the dynamic duo. I noticed this own that you guys are. And even though you were the one cooking today, we're filming with you, um, obviously she's here to back you up. And there's little nuances that you communicate between each other with glances and looks and whatnot. I can see how in a restaurant environment, there's communication happening without speaking. I saw it

here. But I want to touch on, one of the things I know about you is your repetition. How you, how you actually work. Your workflow is cut, prep, work, clean. Every action that you're doing has a cleaning action attached to it. I mean, that's best because of some of these places that you found yourself learning, building your experience base from. I feel like one of the places I worked at Daniel, they said some, they had some models there that I really like. They said that a good kitchen is a

clean kitchen. It's that a quiet kitchen is a fast kitchen. Me person I feel like your station where you're working where you're at is a representation of your mind. And if your space is cluttered

“and it is dirty and there's stuff everywhere, that's how you're thinking is and that's how your”

execution is going to be. But if you have a place for everything, everything, you have a plan for everything. Your space is neat, you know, organized. That's how your execution is going to be. That's the representation of your mind. That's something I'll try and teach my cooks at the restaurant as well. John and I did a photo. Well, John is obviously the photographer. So I would, you know, we did a photo shoot at Camille in Orlando to Michelin restaurant chef Chef Tong.

This guy is a beast. He's a beast. Amazing work. This cat does like stupid, beautifully,

thought out amazing dishes. And what we experienced in one dish that we shot, John Shod, I was there, I remember whatever, technical. This man has an action with another action. Every single action is cleaning and there's a clock for something. He's a machine. But he's a machine. I mean, he's freaking, he's up there. I guess what? I'm watching you today, and you possess that. So I noticed these things. And I just think it's, you know,

obviously we're doing a podcast. We talk about stuff. And I thought it was a good point to bring up. You know, we see a lot of people that come through here. There's a lot of chefs, beautiful, chefs, great chefs. That's something I noticed. And I just wanted to commend you for that. I really

“believe that what you're doing at your restaurant is fantastic. And I think you're going to,”

you know, far beyond for me, it doesn't, I'm not the end, I'll be on anything.

you communicate with your wife, man, God bless you. Thank you so much. So you didn't,

you didn't grab cooking Mexican food. And you didn't have a traditional mentor in it.

“What did that learning process actually look like when you decided to take it on seriously?”

So for Mexican cuisine, it wasn't an opportunity. I got offered a executive chef position at a restaurant and it was a new opening restaurant at like four weeks out to get the job done. And both of the guys were from California and even like from the tasting, you know, I knew a little bit about Mexican cuisine. I just didn't want to, you know, for like a better terms half-asset, I wouldn't got some mass hurry in from the store, made my own tortillas and used those for the

plate up for the tasting for the job. And, you know, they said that stood out to them. Well, we can talk immediately. It's proudly supported by rack porcelain USA, creating durable, beautifully designed tableware for chefs and hospitality professionals. Learn more at rack porcelain.com. So they had another chef that worked in their company and he was Mexican and he did give me a little guidance. He told me about the guys who did the next amount of stuff like that.

“But the rest was really just me just getting obsessive. And that's how I am. When I'm into”

something, I'm really obsessive over it. Lots of studying, lots of research, diving in the books, going out to eat and there's a high presence of, you know, a high level Mexican restaurants in New York and they have Alex Tupek as MP on Enrique Elvera as two of his restaurants up there. So like I said, I just got into the books. You and one of the gifts for me getting the job with them, they gave me one of Alex Tupek's books on tacos. And so I just, uh, it would kind of

what's school in my own innocence. So it was Mexican cuisine personal for you from the beginning

or did you fall into that? It wasn't personal for me. I mean, I've always loved Mexican food.

I think it was more fell into it. Once I started to learn about the cuisine, I come to realize how much resonated with me and how much I actually liked it. Who's idea was this to open a restaurant? I don't know. I don't know if it was either one of ours. She's giving me the wink and a nod at it with you all day long. She's smiling and nodding her head, yes. I asked myself every day, who's idea was this? No, I was definitely mine.

I've been married for 11 years. We've been together probably 12, 13 years, so I'm like that. We still can't decide on going out to eat. All right. And I know that's a, that's a, that's a very cliche thing to put out. It's the truth, though. You guys are going to restaurant together. Was there any crossover on, hey, I want Mexican? No, man. I want Italian or whatever. Or did you both say, like, you know, that that, uh, you know, Eureka moment. Hey, Mexican.

She was there with me when I took on the job in a little after that time. We started to get closer because we had known each other for a while. And then I feel like we kind of started to take our relationship more serious. We love Mexican food. We went out to eat Mexican food all the time because she would go with me. I like I need to go, you know, research. Uh, but we see we go eat a Mexican restaurant all the time. And we left New York. Um, we just didn't see the same caliber. And we were,

you know, made us kind of sad. Fast forward, we both knew like we want to bring Mexican food to the side of Florida. My father would look at this situation. And he would, he would say to you

“to your face, he would go. You got a lot of bowls. That's what he would just just like that, okay?”

And, uh, you would say, Ron, Ron, what are you talking about? You have zero point zero percent Hispanic in you, your Belgian, your African American, who the hell are you to open a Mexican

restaurant? That's like amazing cuisine. That's got to be like ultra confidence.

What gave you that confidence? I love what I do, man. I love food. You know, I'm a chef at heart. And I feel like as such chefs, we have this freedom. You know, we're not bound to a certain cuisine just because of our economical background. Um, we go anywhere in the world if you give us a book and give us a recipe. We're not to leave our house. We're not to leave our kitchen. You know, I, I, I owe credit to the owners of the original job where I started to learn about

Mexican cuisine because they were extremely hard to please. I'd have every other dish, you know, one try. This is awesome. And I have dishes with it. Like you got one more chance before I tell you to try something else. So it, it really challenged me. So I guess the confidence kind of started there. If I could be happy, I could make them happy and then make the group that they were

and then bottom of Manhattan, you know, I had learned some decent level of it. And then ever

since then, it's only progress because they had a guy who sold the next mall to all New York there. They didn't have that here. So it was the next step. I got here. We just wanted to go out and get talk as we look for a next mall everywhere. Nobody had it. I, I just don't settle. I want, I want the next mall. I'll figure out how to do it myself. And then I was the next face. You actually

“produced and sell to, to restaurant. Yeah, that's how it started before I had any kind of”

dealer anything going on. I started making the most of the house on the level. Why don't we let people know we're doing this? So I started going to restaurants and people were purchasing the moss of for me. And we care that on to the restaurant. Let's talk about your background for a minute. African-American Belgium. What kind of food were you eating growing up? Girl, not loving it. I was straight. It's just Creole, cuisine, gumbo, jimmelaya,

crawfish, I mean, you name it the least Milo, of course. That's where we connected when we met

the season is like, I'm always the one we're on. I hear for our don't like, from wire. I think

at shortly when we bring Leon, I think you guys are going to have to talk some like, you know, some Louisiana talk. I'm just saying. So you have a unique culture where you come from your home. But then, of course, you're, you learned through being taught and mentored, classical cooking, which has, you know, obviously, that there's a French element. Heavy French. Heavy French. Does any of that translate to what you're doing now at going to more?

There are techniques that can translate to each cuisine for sure. I want to say with my Creole background, the thing that translates some most to Mexican food, I think, would be the depth

of flavor and the uniqueness of the cuisine because Louisiana, if you think of Creole food,

you don't take a body where else, but Louisiana, all right. When you say Mexican cuisine, you don't think about California, you don't think about New York, you think about Mexico. And I feel like they both, they had their own unique cuisines. They date back years and years and years, Mexico's a little older. I want to say that the variety of flavors and there's so many different ways you can go with anything that you're doing in the cuisine, from my home and the same for Mexican cuisine.

Classical French, though. Very complicated. A lot of touches, if you're putting out an elevated

“dish, you have to, you know, and let you say it's a busy establishment and you have a brigade.”

There's the whole higher archie of the kitchen. What you're doing here, you love it, but it's also, I don't want to say easier, but in terms of efficiency, to put it out. And so let's touch it, right? Absolutely. I'm a huge fan of simplicity. I don't think you need to complicate things, especially if they all can speak for themselves, just like the, the masa. You know, I could cook that, I could make the masa correctly.

If I make a tortilla out of it, I could serve it to you on a plate with lime and salt. And that alone would speak for itself. You don't have to add all these courage. You don't have to have to have 16 ingredients on a plate to make the food good. And that's actually, you know, that's, you know, I want to say motto, but that way of thinking is having in French cuisine,

“you know, I've heard of French Seth say he said, "If you want to make something good,”

take this one ingredient, take a carrot, and make a dish out of this." What it speaks to is a simplicity. You don't need a bunch of ingredients to make something good. Support for Walk & Talk Media comes from Metro Food Service Solutions, trusted by kitchens that meet storage and workflow that actually does the job. Learn more at Metro.com. What's hot, Tampa Bay? How are you doing, sir? Oh, my goodness. Lee,

baby, how are you? I am busy. Let me tell you, Tampa Bay is heating up. Why so? Not just the weather, too. We have so much going on right now in, in, in, in my world, and create a blue things world. We are gearing up for best of the bay, and if, if you don't know best of the bay, you've been living under a rock. Best of the bay is one of the longest running best out of competitions in the Tampa Bay area. We are celebrating, I think, 37 years this year, which is wild. We've got over 500

categories. There's nine groups in there. It is a, how to go to guide for anything you could ever possibly want in food, drink, services, good people, places, beauty and wellness, which is my jam.

less than two weeks afterwards, we kick off restaurant months. So it used to be restaurant week,

“it used to be Tampa Bay restaurant week. Now, but to give everybody, because we use so many restaurants,”

so participate, we want to give everybody a chance to check more check out more restaurants. It is the entire month of June, and because we have to do things over the top, there's two meets the chefs. So things to our partners with visit Tampa Bay and visit St. Be Clearwater, we have in meet the chefs Tampa, and in meet the chefs St. Pete, where I gather at least 14 chefs in a room,

and they do all of these amazing samples, and you can go, and you can try 14 restaurants in one

night, and you get to meet the chefs behind the culinary curation, so I drag them out of their kitchens, and put them in front of people, and I make you talk to the people. That's scary. It is. I mean, for the people. So you know, it's, it can go either way, yeah. Leo, you're seeing diners becoming more interested in chef telling personal and culturally layered stories through food. Is that what you're getting out there? I mean, creative loafing,

Tampa Bay is, you know more stuff that's happening before I do, which is crazy to me. Just some, you know, hey, do you hear about the, you know, place number X is open and up, and I'm like, what the hell is that? I don't even know what you're talking about. I mean, you're, you're like, you know, one eyeball forward, and then here to the track. Mm-hmm. Yep. That's, that is my job. Yeah. I mean, we, we are known as the cool people to go to for all the cool things around town.

So arts, music, entertainment, politics, food, drink, you name it. Like, we, we, we, we talk about it, and we touch on it. We even have our food issue. We do special issues. So we have our food issue coming out, coming out in the middle of June on June 18th. And because I have a mouth, and I don't stop talking, um, one of our editors was working on an article on the fruit float, like, she just, she discovered the fruit float. What you, if you don't know the fruit float,

“it's adorable. It's like this little, we say p-row, but everybody else, I think calls it like a canoe”

or something canoe. And, and, and, and it's this woman, and she is phenomenal. She's adorable. Super pretty. She's got an entire canoe full of fruit on the water. And she's got this little troller motor that she just drives around the voting community, selling fruit to everybody out on the community. And it's fresh. And she cuts it right in front of you. And she, I've paid $20 for a pineapple before on the water. Because let me tell you, it is delicious and refreshing.

And she's got to heat and shemoing and everything else. So she became so successful that she had to add on more boats. So we were in the office, and I was hearing my editor talk about this. And stuff. And I was like, "Would you know about the taco boat?" And the hot dog boat, and the coffee boat. And, and there is, like, a burger boat too. She was like, "What?"

I was like, "Yeah." There is an entire food boat community out there. And, and, and if you've never

had a fresh hot dog standing in a middle of the ocean of a sandbar, that hot dog just hits different. So I can tell you right away, um, from Miami, right? And, you know, we have sandbars. We have the art beer can Islands up there, you know, down there, rather. We have all that stuff. And, now, 30 years ago. Support for walk-and-talk media comes from crab island seafood dip, creating chef-driven crab dips made with real seafood and bold flavor. Learn more at crab island

seafood dip.com. I'm eating hot dogs at the sandbar in hall over. And, I was going to bring that, I was going to say this very thing to you, but you beat me to it, yes. Yes, fresh hot dogs on a sandbar. Pineapple on a sandbar. This is the life I want to live. Yeah, yeah, and the hot dog boat now is apparently, it's called naughty dogs, like, nautical. No, not dogs. I love it. It's adorable. So now that, now, naughty dogs has become so popular that he has a second boat. And, he just pulls

right up to you too, and everybody just starts flocking on a hot dog boat. And, there's like,

talk about it too, and talk about it's great, but we always see the hot dog boat. So now,

we have expanded that entire article to cover loading food. So, yeah, we absolutely are seeing the fact that diners are becoming more intellectually invested in the stories behind the food that they're eating. They want to know where it came from. They want to know where the chef came from.

“They want to know where the inspiration came from. You know, did you? Where did you learn how to do this?”

And, that's a cool, that's the really cool part about what the chef says. You get like this unique opportunity as a guest to become kind of your own reporter and interview these chefs and hear them talk because if you, if you get the unique opportunity and the rare opportunity to hear a

like everybody's wanting the total package. I'm going to use Chef Taylor as a case at point.

Nobody would just know that he is from New Orleans. Nobody would know that he's of a mixed cultural background. Nobody would know it. I mean, you almost look at you could be Latin, but now that there's a story line, hey, you are Cajun. You have a mixed cultural background,

“you're from New Orleans, and you open a Mexican restaurant, and your food is awesome. I think that's”

a story to be heralded. You, you fit that bill. And here's the question for you now, Taylor. When somebody who either is a chef that's Mexican, or somebody who's just of Mexican heritage, tries your food and tells you you're doing it right. What sort of validation are you getting? It's an immense feeling of you for you, man. It came out of the describe it. I've had a few chefs come in. I've had people come say they are straight from Mexico, or people at our American,

but they, they're work, brought to the Mexico, and they lived there for a set amount of years, and say that they feel like they're right back in Mexico when they have the food. It's a profound feeling. I really can't put it into words. So I can appreciate what you're saying. It isn't like I grew up with a camera in my hand. You know, John's been doing photography for 25 plus years.

“I picked up a camera. I mean, I've always been with you doing the stuff that you're doing, right?”

But I never touched a camera. I did not turn it on. You know, I would go with John and hold

lights for him, and you know, I was just there to help. So the fact now that I'm doing video, and whether it's John or some other people who are in the business in media, and they give me even the smallest, like, adaboy. I'm over the freaking moon with that. It's an amazing feeling. What you're doing is much more relevant to an emotional euphoric feeling when somebody a chef tells you, like a Mexican chef tells you, hey, man, good freaking job.

If I'm you, I'm sprinting to the biggest smile ever for someone of Mexican descent, be satisfied with my food and tell me I'm representing Mexican cuisine correctly.

There's a lot of chefs out there with the new wave. They want to be, they want to get their

Michelin star. They want to James Beard. I'll take a, I'll take a personal Mexican descent tell me the food's good. That's my word right there. Lea, you're around food a lot. We're in the business of food. We're in the business of media. We're in the business of sharing our thoughts and bringing the attention of chefs and restaurants and culture to the masses.

“How do you feel about what this is? Absolutely. I think the biggest”

litmus test is having someone when you're putting a specific type of cuisine out there, a culturally specific type of cuisine out there, having people from that culture go to your restaurant, and then return back regularly. That's huge. Like that's your, that's your gold star right there. That is your, I'm doing it right. I am succeeding in life. I am doing a good job now. You've heard. I know that you, I feel like we didn't have this conversation before. Forgive

me if we didn't do someone chefs like Taylor. Oftentimes get flat for not staying in their lane. Right. Like, all right. Hey, you're, you're from Louisiana. You're New Orleans kid. Right. Stick with your gumbo, dude. Like, what are you doing doing this? This isn't for you. Right. Stick with your umbrella, you know. I believe one of the best compliments that you can give to any culture is to pick up the cuisine and respectfully recreate it and make it beautiful.

I'm not saying change, whatever. I'm saying to embrace it, cook it and deliver it in the best way possible. I think that's the biggest, uh, beautiful, most beautiful thing you could do to a culture, whether it yours or somebody else's who cares. That's the biggest tribute you can do. Like, that's that's honoring another culture and embracing the other, another culture. And that's kind of what the melting pot of this country is. And honestly, like, taking who, who we are, like,

who Taylor and I are from, from a cultural standpoint, like being Creole and Cajun, that is what our people did. Our people came from from all different walks of life. They came from the Caribbean. They came from French. They came from Canada. They came, there was a Native American

of all of the cultures that that settled in south Louisiana and New Orleans. And you can travel from one side of the state to the other and see all sorts of various interpretations of our culture.

“And honestly, I'm very appreciative that you didn't open a Cajun restaurant or Creole restaurant”

because it is like, our cuisine is very subjective. I feel like if somebody wants Creole, Cajun food, they're going to go to Creole Cajun land. They're not, they're not thinking about any other state to go to. I feel the same way. I feel like if you, if you want a good bowl of gumbo, unless you know somebody who knows how to make it, just go to Louisiana. I wish that we had a pooch on the call today. You know, he's Mr. DeWirless, one of our, you know,

teammates here. He lives out there. He's decorated chef and he's a good dude. This is his conversation to be had. And I stole it from you. You hear me? Do you hear me? I stole it right from you. No, but in all seriousness, one of the things that you mentioned to me and I thought it was pretty interesting is you don't see other Mexican restaurants as competition. That was a conversation

“that we had in our, in our prep call. This session of Walk and Talk Media is made possible by”

Citrus America delivering fresh Florida citrus and juice solutions to food service professionals nationwide. Learn more at CitrusAmerica.com. A lot of chefs are ultra competitive. You didn't come off that way in any respect. In fact, you embraced it. I can't, I can't see them as competition because, you know, I'm forever student, especially Mexican cuisine. I'm not from Mexico. Not Mexican descent. So anybody who's doing Mexican food, especially if they're Mexican,

wherever the case may be, I have nothing but appreciation for my job. Nothing but inspiration from it. You know, the Mexican chefs who have come and eat at the restaurant, anything they have to say on the airport of no pad and pin. You know, so it's hard to look at them like competition when you feel like we're all in the same team. We want to represent this cuisine to the best that we can. A few weeks ago, we went out to your restaurant going more and it was for a ship and share

through creative little thing. First of all, I thought you were spanner. Like I, I'm, I'm looking

at you and I'm like, all right, that's cool. I didn't think twice about it. I just assumed you could you have a Latin look. I mean, I'm getting a, I'm getting a nod from, from the, from wifey. And I didn't think nothing about it until I found out you weren't. And then I was like, oh my god, that's the story. Like this is, this is the, this is the, this is the vein of this whole thing. But what I noticed from meeting you that first day, the both of you actually, you're very gracious

people. We meet, we're in standing in your, in the past, over there by the kitchen. And you were just really asking me questions. And you were, I didn't expect that. Most people, you know, if I walk on the room, they clam up, don't ask me why. But you were, you were very open-minded, you were talkative, you're, you know, asking me stuff. I, I was, you know what I really appreciated

“that. So you have a gracious personality. I think that is probably one of the, um, I think that's”

one of the secret sauces to success in, in, in hospitality. Absolutely. I, speaking on the competition, side of things. I, and when we've talked about this too, I think, is the fact that you, you can be one of two different business owners. And I, and I, and I, and I don't say chef or restaurant owners, because it's applies to all business. So we see this a lot, especially with us to the

basis. And speaking to the competition of things, and this always comes about during best of the

basis. And, you know, no matter what type of business owner you are, whether you have a Mexican restaurant or a French restaurant or roofing business or your, uh, your own a plastic surgery center or your wedding planner. If you view the same businesses that are in the business of you, as competition in a negative way, it affects you, like internally. Then you start to internalize negativity and stuff. We as a community, and just as a community, in the Tampa Bay area, have a duty

to uplift each other. Um, you know, and, and it's so good to see when other businesses, like, don't view each other as competition. I was like, what do you need? How can I help you? How can

you help me? There's four million people here in the Tampa Bay area. There is plenty enough to go

around. You just have to figure out how to tap it. Four out of five hospitality professionals have faced at least one mental health challenge during their career. Stress, burnout, anxiety. These are everyday realities and 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,

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 us, Canada at the burntchefproject.com for donation details and mailing information or learn more about the mission at the burntchefproject.com. So then Taylor, guest comes in. They experience the hospitality, they experience your food, they experience going on more. What do you hope they

leave saying after all of that when they leave your restaurant? I feel like we want what any

other restaurant owner wants. You want them to have a good experience. That's I've gotten more

“into this. I realize it's not just about the good food. You have to have good food. It's not”

just about having good cocktails. You have to have those. It's not just about having a friendly staff. You have to have that. It's every element. People aren't. It's not like it used to be. You go out. All the foods good. You sit down eat. That was awesome. That people want. It's more than that. People want a cultivated experience. That's what we want our guests to have. We want them to leave and feel like they had a good experience. We've all been to a place or worked

at a place where ownership were kind of adults. And in the end, the culture starts at the top and trickles down. So how the culture is is going to affect the output of the kitchen, the hospitality level of the front of the house. And all of that dictates what you just said. All of it is relevant. So you and your wife are the owners now. So it is your culture that is going to trickle down into the staff that are going to be taking care of your guests. I mean, the doors have been open for

three months. There's a lot of work to do from where you were to three months and our three months to, you know, ten years. A lot of work has to get done. I think you mentioned you're not into following or chasing the accolade, the award comes from a willing onto the guest and building the building the reputation. Lee, in your experiences, personalities like this, cooking skills like this, work in Tampa Bay. Yes, absolutely. Building that relationship between owner, chef,

“front of house, and consumer is paramount to success. You have to connect with people.”

I mean, honestly, we're talking about, you know, like one can talk media, for example. We have the same vision, really chefs come in, restaurant industry folks come in, farmers, manufacturers, distributors, all of the different sectors of the food industry sit in this chair. And we have these really interesting conversations. And we talk about a lot of interesting things, important things to the community, to the business part of this at large. What do I really want? I want you to leave and go,

hey, these guys are organized. They might have an equipment pick up here every now and again, but you know, what would they do is really great? And there's a service to this. We want you as the guest to feel the service. We want you as the guest in the studio to be like, you know, well, we were welcome here. And this was a really great turn out. I can identify with what you're

“saying. And leave what would you just backed up him saying 100% Lee, what's on a tap of a baby?”

Meet the chefs, man, come on out and get the tickets before they sell out. This is a small event. So once those tickets are gone, they're gone. So the food scene in Tampa Bay, because we're hearing up for restaurant month, is about to kick off. And I've got some amazing chefs lined up for these two events. I'm so super excited. And then not to mention the competition heating up with best of the day. You can go to vote.cltamp.com for nominations. And I will be hiding behind my laptop

answering thousands of emails that come in. It's always a fun time in the year. So absolutely,

like, let's hot and have a creative looping is just we're on fire. And now that we're locally owned, let's see the better. And we're so excited to be partnering with you guys on the 200th episode

I've said it a million times. I withdraw parties. If I know people would show up. You're showing

“me the analytics of foods. It turned out like almost 50 people so far. 45 something like that.”

Yeah, it's your over 50 people. We're at like 60s on that vehicle. No. Yeah, I'm over the moon with

that man. That's freaking awesome. People stay tuned on what's coming up next with that.

“Guys, I sincerely appreciate all of you, John, of course, what you do. Amazing. As usual,”

to come here today and share with us. Taylor, how do we have to people find you? You can find us right on Instagram, and conamor.fl.me and my wife have access to socials, send us a message. Herd that miss Lee Wilson. You can find us on Instagram at seal Tampa Bay and then meet the chefs Tampa Bay.com, vote.seal. Tampa.com, seal. Tampa.com for the website. We're on the Tiki Talks now.

That's always a fun one. So you can find us on TikTok at seal. Tampa Bay. Awesome. You guys are freaking

“amazing and guess what? We are out. Marketing is hard. But I'll tell you a little secret.”

It doesn't have to be. Let me point something out. You're listening to a podcast right now and it's great. You love the host. You seek it out and download it. You listen to it while driving, working out, cooking, even going to the bathroom. Podcasts are a pretty close companion. And this is a podcast ad. Did I get your attention? You can reach great listeners like yourself with podcast advertising from libson ads. Choose from hundreds of top podcasts offering host endorsements or run a pre-produced

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