More Than a Kitchen: Chefs David Reyes & Nelly Buleje

You spend long hours together, you get your ass kicked together, you celebrate wins, survive bad services, change jobs, lose jobs, and somewhere along the way co-workers become friends and sometimes family. But this industry also has a reputation for something else. We're pretty good at asking somebody if they need help on the line.

We're not always as good at asking if they need help and the problem has nothing to do with food.

Today, we've got two friends in the studio, chef David Reyes and chef Nelly Baleja. The timing of this conversation matters because Nelly's getting ready to leave Florida and head to North Carolina for the next chapter of his life. So, before he goes, I want to talk about friendship in this industry, mental health, camaraderie. The people who recognize when you're not yourself and what it actually means to show up for another chef. And because this is still walking talk, we're going to tell some of that story through food.

Both chefs are working with crab islands seafood dip today, but taking it in completely different directions. David is turning Mexican street corn crab dip with shrimp into fried tequitos, with salsa, falsa, mole, amarello, salsa, matcha, and corn, pickled onion and cilantro. Nelly is taking crab-brand gondip into a causa, ala, lemania, with crab avocado, pickled onion, quail egg, ahi, rogoto, and olives. Two chefs, two dishes, two different culinary perspectives, and two friends who were about to find themselves a few states apart.

So, before we talk about where Nelly is going, let's go back to where this friendship started.

“David, Nelly, how did you two actually become friends?”

Well, I arrived in Tampa first and I was working at high coup downtown.

We had just opened just after 2019, 2020. And down the street, there was a hotel and they had gone through, I think, one or two chefs when I first got here. And I heard there was a new chef, and I go, here we go. Got to meet the new chef. And, you know, we had done a lot of cherry events together. The GM and she used us and we hit it off. We hit it off for a lot of different reasons. We saw I that we first wore from Chicago, which, you know, you get a lot out of the way when you realize someone's from Chicago, you got a lot of commonality.

Yeah, you probably root for the same sports teams and, um, yeah, you understand a lot of things that happened in big cities. And it developed into a French very quickly. You know, we both have Latin backgrounds. You know, we both come from an industry, um, long standing with really proud stops along the way. Um, yeah, I think we had great careers and a lot of things to talk about.

“So, you know, it's funny the way that I think life has meant to bring everybody and put them in your path, right?”

And I moved down here three and a half years ago. My brother-in-law, Charlie, was actually the head by tender to bar in Chicago called Baranya. And there used to be this young kid that was fresh out of culinary school that would go in there and get it for a few drinks. It's hit down, right in them. And when I moved down here, my brother-in-law drove me down here from Wisconsin. And I was like, oh my god, Tampa, you've got to meet my boy chef David Reyes. He's this amazing chef, Boba Babba Babba and in my head of my God Christ here, we go another, another amazing chef, another, I know everything, another, uh, internet guy.

And it took us a year and a half before we actually met each other. But Charlie and David go back 20 plus years if I'm not mistaken. Back to, geez, when I get out of the service, 2005. So yeah, 21 years. He was, I'm pretty sure, well, actually I got some drinks from him before I think I turned 21. And that bar was, uh, I don't know, half a block away from my house growing up.

So I was very familiar with it. And the irony is that, yeah, they're related. And just to be clear, the sports teams you're talking about is the, you know, the cults, right, like you guys are called fans. Big time and anapolis fans. Sorry. Don't you? No. Oh, that wasn't the one. That's not what you're talking about. Unfortunately, it, it's the bears and the cubs and the bulls and the black ox and, okay, sometimes even the white sex.

Okay, hey, I'm a manager guy and the fire. Yeah. Okay. And there's always next to this. There's always next to this always next to this always next to this always next to this.

We live with hope. I, um, I was happy when when the cubs, no fans and I've nothing against any of these teams.

“But when the cubs were in that stretch of how many was 100 years on how long was it?”

Yeah, I'm all for like the history of it. You know, let's keep it going.

Yeah. Well, in 2005, uh, I was fresh out of the military and the white socks made a run into the world series. And I figured has a lifelong cubs fan that I was going to be, I was going to be the only option I was ever going to have to go to a world series.

So I went to the second home game, which ended up being an epic game, the seats I sat in with the last row and left field all the way in the top.

Like the last row, almost the last seat. And those seats have since been removed because they were so dangerous. But yeah, I made it to the world series in 2000. Well, when it attended a world series in 2005 and 2016, I was going to be denied.

“I went to every game of the world series. You know, before we get into the whole actual show, right?”

Yeah, that I've laid out here. You mean it's not a sports stock show anymore? No, it's not bad. I will tell you this. I think it was like 96 or 97. It's whenever, uh, it's whenever the marlins went to the world series.

I don't know, you know, we ate, I think, maybe it was a late, late-ish 90s. I acquired world series tickets.

Well, and I was all stoked about it. I was like, oh man, this is going to be great. And then when I, when people found out, I had them, I had to sell them. It was like, it's just, it was like, okay, like, people were throwing dollars. And I was like, I can watch it on TV. No problem. But yeah, that's it. Yeah, that's my world series story. When last thing about world series and the club is when the world series and Cleveland, I believe David, you were at that game, but it was. And I was the chef at Metropolitan at the nine, which was right down the street. And we held their after party for the clubs and because they went into so many innings.

They actually just came upstairs, grabbed all the food, grabbed the shamp out of the champagne and went right back in the bus. So it's funny when you think about the way the world works, right? Like two boys from Chicago.

Did you know what you're on it? No, no.

David and I have a two-year, two-year friendship, right? Yeah. Why did you guys realize that you can actually count on each other? When you're able to open up and go beyond a normal conversation, an a typical chef conversation, complaining. You know, once you get beyond that point, you know you can trust someone. And like I said, we had so many similarities in our background culturally as well. It was easy to open up and take conversations further and discuss things like mental health, like showing up for yourself. What are you doing?

How, you know, how do you deal with the everyday stress, encouraging each other to work on ourselves mentally and physically? All right. So here a couple of our models, right? OK. See what I did there? Yeah. I like it. Chef. We were talking about our pre-game here for the show and you, you know, you were like, I kind of darted some stuff out there and I said, what do you want to do? And you said specifically, I wanted to do something about mental health. Yeah. Why? Well, I think it starts with talking about it.

I think we have to acknowledge that this is a very exhausting career. You know, you answer to a lot of people.

“You are both psychiatrist, manager, lawyer. You're a lot of things to a lot of people. You know, you, you, you have to show up every day for a lot of people in order for the team to function well.”

You have to be strong. You have to be even keel. You can't, you can't be a roller coaster. Everything you're saying is 100% accurate, but you had something in mind. We didn't talk about what it was. And the reason I'm saying it like this is, if I'm having a conversation with the guest, potential guest. And you're not really, you know what I mean? You guys are part of the furniture now. Like you're, you're here, it's cool. You specifically brought that up. So that's weighing heavy on you. There's something in it that's driving you this week specifically to talk about it.

Is that, yeah, I think it was kind of brought on by the fact that, you know, Nelly decided to, you know, go in a different direction and move out of state. We've spent a lot of time together in the last two years of getting to know each other and kind of talking through some of the challenges, not only in the kitchen, but life, you know. Because you tend to have to check everything at the door when you go to work, you know, and you focus more on work. And so after hours when you're done with work and you're, you know, you've gone through all the mental exercises and checked all the boxes and you're good with that.

“You have to then now deal with life. And, you know, this past year, I spent a lot of time in design work and”

concepting, I've actually spent the least amount of time in a kitchen this past year, then in the previous 20 some odd years.

And Nelly's been a big part of that. Nelly and a few other chef friends in St. Pete and Tampa, you know, that we've gotten to know each other.

And to know each other on a different level. And to be honest, one of the goals I had coming to Tampa was to bring that camaraderie that I had in Chicago and other cities to Tampa. You know, to make sure that we were spending more time outside of work outside of the kitchen and sharing ideas and sometimes venting. Just the simple act of talking your problem through helps you. Um, you know, a lot of times as professionals and, you know, we tend to carry a bravado and, you know, have, have walls up protecting our integrity, our, our, our,

intellectual property that we, we don't, we miss opportunity to really talk. Support for walk and talk media comes from crab highland seafood dip creating chef driven crab dips made with real seafood and bold flavor. Learn more at crab island seafood dip dot com. There is a click. And I'm going to meet in the bad way. Um, there's a group of y'all here in Tampa.

And even, you know, I guess you could say it kind of leaks into St. Pete and the surrounding Tampa Bay area. It definitely does, yeah.

“And I think everyone was at our 200 celebration party all of you.”

Yeah. And it was awesome. You know, you're going to be like, if you look around the room on that day in particular,

there was never anybody that didn't talk to another person in that room that had some sort of history.

You know, we all were all very excited to see each other. It was one of the few opportunities you get there in a year. John and I were talking about this a few a few weeks back. And we, that was what was brought up. Even though people are friends, it's still, um, you're still talking about chefs who are competitors in terms of like restaurants.

All together, 120 plus people in that room. And there wasn't anybody being clicky or attitudes or any of it, man.

So what you're saying is so spot on, that's actually a beautiful thing.

So in line of what you're saying, to kind of like put an explanation point on that. A chef is super good as saying, I'm okay.

“I'm good at this. But how does a chef recognize a colleague, um, staff member?”

How do they recognize when somebody's not good? That's a great question. I mean, as far as I'm concerned, I think we have to take responsibility to check in on each other. You know, because we're not inherently overtly going to share a lot of what we feel we have to be strong in our positions. Checking in on each other, sending that just one off text.

And then being open, you know, and looking for people and taking that opportunity at 10, 10, 30, PM, hey, meet me for a call for your meet me for a drink or meet me for, you know, just a chat. Take that opportunity. I know you're tired. I know you've probably got an early day tomorrow, but take the opportunity to make some time. You know, go visit, go visit another chef in his kitchen and check on him.

“Now, when a chef is struggling, and you know it, what are showing up for that person actually?”

It's a heavy question. And I've been holding back my tears since we started this episode, right? And it's, um, it's, it's, it becomes the, let me listen to you. Let me understand what it is that maybe you're looking for, right? It's the, I'm not just going to throw all this advice at you. It's, um, getting a real understanding of what it is that we need from one another and being there for whatever that may be. Whether it's that 10, 30 PM text message or that six a.m. text message, or that middle of the day, hey, you've had a minute for a phone call.

Really embracing what it is that that individual is going for. You know, before David and I became these great brothers that we are today. Um, I think one of the moments were when the, I forgot where he was, the hurricanes came in and David was everything was closed. David needed a board up his house and he's like, okay, what are you doing, man? Are you good at your safe and he's like, no, I got a board up the house. I want to go to, um, home deep also and so and so and so I'm making it in the hand and this was what the day of the day of the hurricane and I got to my Jeep. I went over there and, and I gave him a hand.

Four out of five hospitality professionals have faced at least one mental health challenge during their career stress burnout anxiety.

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 in breaking the stigma email you ask Canada at the burnt chef project calm for donation details and mailing information or learn more about the mission at the burnt chef project calm. I don't know what was going on in the day of its births whole life, what was going on anywhere, but I went there, I showed up for him. I think that when you look at it, when you say, what does it mean to show up, right? It's, it's so many facets and there's nothing too many new or anything too large that doesn't count for something and really helps you.

It helps the other individual realize that they have someone else care for them. So I'll add to that. During that time, I was one of probably most difficult times of my life.

I was dealing with a heavy loss after a few years that I really hadn't dealt with hit and I was getting a divorce and then we had to do hurricanes come through like it was tough. There's really fucking tough and so showing up in the lot. I would have bet money that today we were going to be hoot and holler. I literally believe I was going to have to rain you two in, but this is important stuff.

“It's been heavy here the last month on this show. I think this is probably the healthiest thing possible.”

What I've been learning is having these conversations like this, it's good for people. I'm not going to get into the off air talk that I've had with some of the other chefs that have been through. Everyone of them was like, I can't believe I did that and I feel really good that they shared another word sure. This is 2024 we're talking about. Ed, Ed no cooks. I was working from five in the morning to one in the morning because we were the only hotel that was open.

“I'm talking to a traveler. Yep. So he gives me a call. Can you tell? I showed. Were you the only one? We cooked dinner and breakfast with just I think a server became a cook that we had a dishwasher doing fries.”

You know, when you called and you were like, actually you sent me a note and you were like, hey man, I got a good idea. I think for an episode and we finally got an call and then you were like.

This is how I heard it, right? That's now what it is, especially today. It's now what it is that I don't think you're like, all right, let me tell you something. I've got I've got chef Joe, you know, I've got chef David. It's me. It's going to be like that. I was like, okay, wait a second. I'm going to control this. How is this going to? How is this going to be executed? But then when we got to talk in and we realized that Joe couldn't make it. And you were like, no, no, no, it's still going to be me and David. Is that okay?

And then we started a little group chat. We started talking and David's with the with the mental health question. And then I started like, okay, wait a minute. This is going to start shaping. And it realized that it was going to be this today. Truth be told, have we gotten really good at mental health awareness or is it something else that we just come to a place where we're just comfortable talking about it now.

“I don't think we've gotten really, really good at it. Right. I think that relationships have started to change in the industry, right? And and as silly as it sounds after COVID-19, it kind of shaped the way even us in the industry, right?”

I don't want to say it softened us, but it gave us a completely different perspective that I feel we didn't have prior to that. And I think that as that's happened, it's shaped how our relationships would become much more human. Versus just a professional aspect of it, right? Much more personal. And when that happens, it gives you the ability and vulnerability to be able to be honest with your colleagues, with your friends.

Because they're much better at it than us. They have the full awareness of it, right? They understand that it's okay. I mean, if I told my mom that I was feeling depressed, she should really, she'd be like, well, turn the light on and get outside. You need vitamin D. You're not depressed with that doesn't exist in this household.

“I think we're learning to evolve with that, right?”

Well, they can't, but hold on a minute. What's going on here right now? What never happened 20 years ago? There's no way. There isn't there isn't the chance that.

And by the way, so this there's nothing soft about any of this, I'm going to talk for you guys. So it's not about being a punk or, you know, punk and out or whatever. Just realizing that you can't just always hold everything and be an island that you can't live like that. And that goes for any industry. You just can't do that. And then when you talk about like high pressure work is the whole restaurant is high pressure. Yes, chefs and yes, the line, but the whole restaurant, the entire operation is a pressure cooker is all connected, right?

Walking talk media is proudly supported by rack porcelain USA, creating durable, beautifully designed tableware for chefs and hospitality professionals. Learn more at rack porcelain.com. You know, so at the end of the day, when you can count on somebody, like you two are really going to miss each other. Like this is a serious serious friendship. Yeah, for sure. And I know you guys are boys. But I, you know, like, you know, that's, it's a shame. It's sad actually.

“And, and I think that maybe why one of the other reasons that it was easy for David and instantly say let's talk about mental awareness.”

It's because we both met each other at, you know, I'm 42 years old and I've probably, I love Tampa. I love the time I've spent here in Tampa. It's been the best time, right? And I'll be back. But I will tell you that these last three and a half years in Tampa probably in the most emotionally and mentally challenging years I've ever had in my life, right?

I went through separation for the first time in my life. The first time I was married I was 17 years old.

And I've been raising kids in a family since I was 17 and two past marriages. So I, I've been a dad since I was 17 years old. For the first time in my life, I had nothing under that. All of my family's back in Chicago. I'm dealing with a completely different culture down here, but I love it. So I don't want to leave. But I'm going through all of those challenges. For the first time in my life, I didn't know what my worth, what my purpose was.

My purpose has always been be a dad, be a good brother, be a good husband.

And in 22 years, when that's gone, you have no idea of who you are as an individual. You're struggling in the industry. Why am I working so hard? What am I doing? And then you get fortunate to meet somebody like David, somebody like Joe, whoever's going to want it to be here with us as well, right? And they give you the confidence and trust to be able to be there for one another and walk you through it, right? And this, this for me, and the reason I said I wanted to do this with these guys, because I'm, I've been in the industry for 20 plus years.

I've never left us left the city and said I'm leaving three friends behind. You know, in the first part, I was here, David here today and Joe.

“Man, that's what I'm fortunate as hell, man, to be able to walk away from Tampa after three and a half years and say that I got, guys, that I'm genuinely going to miss.”

You know what I mean? Because in one way or another, they all help me get through a very emotional and challenging part of my life that I was in and they've made help make me a better person. You know, and, and that's why I was so adamant about wanting these guys and this is what I want, I'm like, hey man, this is the idea, you know, like, put the back to why it's when David said I think meant to help this is because we, we bonded not over the work trauma, right? We, we bonded over our personal situations and we've helped each other and continue to help each other every day be better.

David was just at the house on Saturday with Jack is the girl that Jack is the reason I'm moving to North Carolina, right? What are the main reasons, right? That's why I fell along with. You came down a visit, David was there, we were celebrating her birthday and I made a joke about it earlier, but I think we spent 30 minutes on a couch maybe just in tears the way we are right now having conversation because it's not every day. You get that opportunity to run into people and meet people and open up and have people be so inspirational in your life and be able to.

You know, David started a chat with first it was just three of us. It was him myself and Joe. It was an inspirational chat between us where we all talked about it.

He spent funny stuff to one another and then it became Joe went through some tough times as well. We're all going through it. We've all been through it over the last three years. David did and it was there. Then David added, if I'm not mistaken, was it Lee? Yeah, you know, he became a chat where he would chime in early morning and say something inspirational.

“That was relative to the colony field. And yeah, I think we all drew a little bit from it.”

It's one thing to have friends and it's one thing to have brothers and it's also one thing to have, quote unquote, the brother, when they're in the same industry. Did you really can? You can really dial in to the challenges that we face. When you know the other person physically, emotionally, passionately understands what you're feeling. I don't know. That's our different place. Yeah, absolutely. I was very fortunate to have a very unique mentor back in Chicago. She's also a chef. She was my first culinary school instructor.

She met 21 years ago. She's been a mentor to me in life. Oddly enough, she went through a separation right before I did. Everybody's kind of finding this new chapter in their lives.

“She helped me realize how important it was to take care of myself mentally. You're never a finished product. I think that was an epiphany.”

For me, it was realizing there was no finish line to what you needed to do to help yourself get through tough times, you know, including opening a restaurant. It's all going to be very challenging and the better suited you are and the work you put in and the better you're off you're going to be. You're interpretation of why restaurant people put themselves through the wringer, you know, why they do the hours that they do and just to live that chaos. I think we become fixated with the end result and it's a no matter what the end result is going to happen. We're going to be, you know, put out great food on time.

And sometimes we just have to show up that much earlier and work that much harder, but we're never going to be defeated.

But do accountants do this, do you know, does, I don't know. Plumber, you know, I've had, I've had individuals say to me over the years like, it's just food. It's, it's just a waiter a server. It's just flipping burgers. It's just that. I wouldn't play it on a food on a plate. And I don't know, but no, it's timing. It's your time. It's every guest in the buildings time. It's and it's all of that stuff matters.

“And nobody, and I should did it like to go to a table, like if you were talking for a front of the house, you go to a table and you have to tell somebody.”

What you want doesn't exist today. Sorry. You know, that's your income. No. And that trickles into the other tables. You guys in the back have a whole another set of challenges, but the printer gigas is like all of it. It's just, it's a lot of freaking pressure. It is. It is a trade. At the end of the day, it's still a trade.

But it's a trade that involves some, some level of artistry. The higher the echelon, the higher the factor of artistry plays in. So you're putting yourself out there. Because you put out there is an interpretation of who you are and what you've done and how well you can do it. So you try not to take things personally.

I always like to go to tables and tell people how proud I am that I don't take myself seriously, but I take the food seriously. So hopefully it'll show.

But yeah, it's a very challenging thing. You know, you go home. You're judged online. You're judged in person sometimes. You judge yourself and, you know, it couldn't, it couldn't amount it to be a lot of pressure if you allow it to be. And so, you know, that's why I think talking about that level of awareness is really important in this industry.

Did you guys expect this vibe today?

A little bit.

“Did you? Yeah, I think I'm the only one blindsided now.”

Well, it's a surprise. It's surprise. You know, I anticipated to be a little, you know, a little bit of this vibe, right? But I definitely thought we were going to be much more like when we were cooking. Right? And, and I think that that's a perfect, perfect example of why it's so simple in a industry to put this portion to the side. This episode is brought to you by Trimark, the largest food service design equipment and supplies provider in North America.

Trimark works directly with operators, bringing design build expertise, supply sourcing strength, project management, installation, and servicing together to power smarter hospitality kitchens.

Learn more at TrimarkUSA.com. Because we spend 10, 12 hours in the, you know, US, why do we work so hard? Why, why do we go in every day and do this? And, and I think that for a lot of us, right? A lot of us in the industry is a lot of us, especially in the kitchen. We've all been through something a little different. You know what I mean? We're, we're, we're the, the misfits that fall into a certain place, right? And, you know, we've experienced something in life.

“And I think a lot of the reason a lot of us stay in there isn't only because of the commodity that we build with one another, even though that's huge, right?”

That's huge every day somebody takes a turn, making family meal. A lot of people, a lot of people don't have that at home.

We bring that into the, we bring that in amongst the chaos.

We get to control as much chaos as controlled chaos as it is. We, we can control what's happening in that chaos. When that 10 hour shift is done and services over, you can look down and be like, you know, when I'm a badass, I like that up tonight. For that guy next to me or David on the line, David on the line next to me, shot over and gave me a hand and we banged that out together. So as much chaos as it is, it's such controlled chaos when it's done right.

That a lot of people don't even have that outside in the personal life. So when you go in and you get to do that and you can succeed and you can look down and know that my job was to produce these plates tonight. And I did them perfect every time. There's something about that that makes you say I'm going back tomorrow. I'm going back tomorrow.

Yeah, it's a great feeling. The opportunity to do it all over again every day, right? Take today's mistakes and turn them into the tomorrow's victories. I think in the last years, last two years in particular. I've also evolved the way I lead a kitchen, you know, through some of that mental clarity and mental and social awareness.

I've evolved the culture of my kitchen with that in mind, you know, being mindful of each other.

“We're not just robots showing up to work or you have to become a family.”

And, you know, through that kind of for family oriented mentality, you create a space where, you know, it's okay to have a bad day. You know, it's tough if you're going to have two bad days together, back to back. But, you know, the fact that someone's going to have a bad day today. So I'm showing up matters for other people, especially on your team. So you try to teach that, you know, you try to make room for people to go to their kids birthday parties.

Even if it's on a Friday, you know, I think taking that to another level is one of the keys to success in a modern restaurant mentality and culture. And, you know, I've said this many times, you're often not going to be able to pay someone what you think there were. You won't pay them what they think there were, what else is there? For them to be able to show up every day and want to grind it out with you, you know, and put out beautiful artistry on the plate. I've got to tell you, as I'm hearing you, and you shed also, Ellie.

And I'm just thinking back to like all of the, in my 25 years of working with chefs and other salespeople and sales teams and all of that. And you hear, and this isn't a bad thing when I'm going to say, salespeople, look at chefs like this, like how a chef wants to be seen, armor, rough exterior, tough.

Damn, like, if I were still in on that side of it, and I had a team, I would want them to hear this conversation. Because it just shows that like, just because you may not have time during the week to like sit with somebody or you're going to turn somebody away or whatever. It's not like you're being assholes. You guys are just people dealing with the things that people deal with. It's a little off track of what this conversation is, but like, because of my tenure in that.

“That's what I, that's what keeps coming to mind. Like, this is insightful.”

I hope so. No, no, no, no, and I hope so. It's insightful.

When, when you were at high cool, yeah, I would have never.

And we obviously over the years, we forget back then, but we've gotten friendly and talked. But like then, we didn't know each other. And you were as hard exterior as anybody else would have never ever looked at you and thought that like this was even a possible thing. I'm saying this because I think it's, I think it's important that people understand that the industry is changing. Look at this. It's changing.

Yeah, I think, you know, it has to, you know, to Nellie's point because the average employee is changing. They're much more emotionally aware. You know, you're not, you're not acting like this because employees are acting a different way. That can't be it. No, I think this is yourself or flexionals. Sure.

But yeah, I'm not sure.

Yeah, no, this is, this is getting better at dealing with the pressure and being honest with yourself.

You know, being honest with people around you and hopefully that encourages other people to be honest with themselves and people around them. And, you know, struggling in silence is a, is a very difficult thing to do makes everything much more challenging.

“I think this is really one of the, I mean, every every episode, I really believe is like a really good episode.”

Do you know what I mean? I feel that way. Yep. Yeah. But this is like, this is something different.

You guys are sharing something different. And it's not just a matter of like, hey, I have struggles and I got to the other side. Pretty good. Awesome.

You know, or hey, there's all these challenges and what do I do? Okay. Let's figure it out. You guys are showing the guts. The inside of a kitchen right here on the table.

Sure. Yeah. And I just, I feel like I just said this last week. You're going to help people with this. Like, this is going to help somebody.

You know, and I, and I really, I just think that's really beautiful. I think that's so awesome. I don't know what, I don't know what changed with the program with the show. But it's morphed into this.

And I feel like the episodes are so powerful.

They've gotten like this. Yeah. I'm happy. Gone. How many times, how many times have we had a conversation of like,

man, it would be great if what we're doing can make differences. And not just like, hey, what's your favorite dish? You know, we like to cook chef. Yeah. Oh.

Like, no. Man, I, I'm, you know, Thank you both for sharing. For sure. Yeah.

I'm not trying to, I feel, I'm much, I don't know. I get to hear myself later when I do this editing. But I can't, I can't tell you enough. How important it is that you're, that you're here. Well, I appreciate it.

And, you know, you've given a lot of people a voice. An opportunity to share an idea of feeling.

“A story, you know, and I think that's super valuable.”

Being at your 200s episode celebration was an honor. You know, and again, looking around at the room. I felt, I could talk to anybody in that room.

You knew that they were good people because they were there celebrating you.

And, you know, it was meaningful for everyone to have had a voice at some point. And, you know, I think taking the opportunity to acknowledge some of the, some of the underbelly of this industry and, and acknowledging that it is difficult and acknowledging that sometimes you do have to go out there and look for some help. And, um, we're show up for someone else, you know.

Support for Walk and Talk Media comes from Metro Food Service Solutions, trusted by kitchens that need storage and workflow that actually does the job. Learn more at Metro.com.

“I think that's important if you're going to stay in this industry.”

I think that one of the things that helped me along the way was coming across this quote from Carl was young.

The philosopher he said life begins at 40. Everything before that is just practice. And I'm like, all right, let's start life again, you know. I think I dropped the ball yesterday, a little bit. Channel 8, WFLA.

Yeah, so yeah. Yeah, daytime. They reached out and, you know, they wanted to put together a segment ahead. Chef Alisha on it because they saw the episode I was over the moon. I was like, wow, really? That's the coolest thing ever.

And, you know, I think it went well, like it's going to air tomorrow. But when they were asking the questions and I was like, and I did mention like, hey, it's the story tell. It's about the business, the industry. I don't think I captured this right here in my explanation. They would ask me that today.

It would have been this. This is what it's about. You're giving a lot of people the opportunity to share something super important. So don't tell yourself short. I've certainly appreciated being on here.

There's sometimes, you know, when I, there's been a few times where I've had cooks in restaurants that I'm not staying and I'm kind of consulting in. They tend to have a lot of questions. And when they, when they haven't met a chef that's well traveled or has a long history and does it for a living to the degree that I do. When they have enough questions, I'll just give them a link to your podcast.

The one I did the first one I did.

And I go, this will tell you everything. I can't answer more than that. Right. There you go. Nelly, what are you chasing in North Carolina? My personal happiness.

It's, um, and it comes in many ways. When I found myself cooking today, you know, even, you know, doing the Kalsali Menna is a proven dish that I put out today with the. I'm a jalapeno pepper crab dip that we were that that we were able to use.

“And I think that that's why when David and I and you were filming and we're in the kitchen, we're just laughing.”

Right. I, I, I, I love the kitchen. I love learning. And that's a big part of my happiness. The last 20 plus years in industry, I've made that my number one focus is my happiness. Was this move, you know, I, I get to continue to attain that, but I also get to, I found personal happiness. I've, I've found what's, what, what, what I feel is home.

And what I feel is peace of my heart. And, you know, and I'm moving up there as well. You know, to be with somebody, you know, it's, uh, it's exciting, right? I've been in the industry for 20 plus years. I did buy a few 18, 20 years ago, right? But now I get to, I'm, you know, super grateful for the opportunities I've had during Tampa. Super grateful for my time at Tempana was to have a stock restaurant collection.

And if I were in a fun following in love, I probably would have been moving to rally noise curline and onto this next opportunity that I have. And I'm going to be moving to, um, midwood smokehouse in rally noise curline and learn from the best pit masters. Do buy a few. I'm going to not only be the executive chef, I'm not only going to be the chef, but I'm also going to be the general manager of the restaurant as well. So I'll be back on doing a little bit of, uh, add a little bit doing a whole lot of front of the house action and, and I love it, right?

And I love it and I get excited about it because I love communicating with people, right? I love talking to the guest.

“That's, that's what my next step is, right? It's, it's my personal happiness that I've put in emphasis on this time.”

All right, so you love for a great reason, right? And if you leave him for love, you know what I mean? You've got my blessing. Because, you know, every time somebody wants to leave, like, like, like, like, like everybody's leaving. And I'm like, you know, the house going on here. But you start getting friendly with people.

I'll be back though. I'll be back.

Well, before you do, before you come back, uh, John, um, barbecue, John. Sounds like we're going to have to do a special trip to North Carolina. John is, uh, he is Mr. Barbecue. He travels for Barbecue. Like, no matter where it is, I love that. Yeah, you're definitely going to have, you have your definitely going to have to come up.

It's awesome. Let me tell you, I mean, it is a beautiful smoker. It's Southern style barbecue that we do there. Um, the restaurant. It, if I'm not mistaken, the original restaurant just celebrated 15 years in Charlotte, North Carolina. There's about six different, uh, there's about six restaurants of the Midwest, Moe, Costa, all of North Carolina. And also in South Carolina, and I believe in Georgia, there's one as well. I'm not mistaken. So, uh, you guys, thank you so much for having me on the times you've had me on here.

It's been amazing. I think your platform is phenomenal.

“And that's why when I knew that I was heading out, heading out of Tampa,”

I, I wanted to figure out a way to, how do we do it together with you with the team, with David. David thinks once again for, you know, coming out here and being here with me today and Joe, when you hear this brother, I'm really grateful. Um, for how Tampa has opened the times to me and the culinary community as well, right, and great guys. And friends the way that I have now with all of you guys as well. David, so what are you doing? You have three different concepts that you're rolling in right now. What's going on?

Yeah, it really exciting. Um, we took the building that used to house the Hall on Franklin, which was, um, kind of a food hall.

And it's about 20,000 square feet and we divided it up into three concepts. The first concept is Hail Mary. It's a sports lounge.

Um, very chef oriented sports bar.

“We, we wanted to answer the question, where do I go to watch the game and still have some amazing food that doesn't necessarily have to be fried?”

Um, so it has very, very unique design features that I know we're going to win a lot of awards for. And then Uno-Mas is a Mexico City style takadia that has a completely wood-fired kitchen and the execution of the short list of tacos that I will have. Somewhere in the takadia is an entrance to a speakeasy that will also feature curated menu of food. And then boogie heights is a retros, um, retro nightclub. Um, a bar that will bring the neighborhood together and let it boogie. I will be there every step of the way every opening. I expect you to see you.

John, definitely. Well, before we split, we still have to talk about food, right? And that was well said and thank you for that. I was talking to Tom from crab island seafood and I was like, you know what we're going to do? We're going to do a little bit of a curve ball for these two. Because I know they're going to come in with, you know, on their high horses, look what I'm going to make because I'm making it. I know what I'm doing. And I'm like, all right, look, uh, here's the, uh, here's the curve, use some of this dip. Did you can cook with it? Maybe a cream cheese base, right?

“Were you mad at me or was this like something kind of cool?”

I thought it was pretty cool. I mean, it's a challenge. Um, how are you going to use an already established flavor? Um, and I think it was fun to, to get creative and elevate the product to a different degree. And I think Tom had fun watching us, you know, play with his food. So look, I get it. Not everybody wants to use pre-made products in their from scratch stuff. But I think it's a little easier to to swallow the sort of speak. When you know that the product is made by other chefs.

Yeah, great. Maybe a little bit more palatable, um, which is, of course, as a case with those guys. I do want to thank Aaron from Testo. He was just, he came out to chill with us. I'm glad you all got to meet him in person. He's a great help. He's a great guy. And, um, and I'm glad he made it in, uh, Marvin from Cahava Club. You know, with the microgreens that he supplies for us. It was a really great day today. We did really cool stuff today. You guys have heard me talk about by the chef pizza now for at least a couple of few months.

Peter, Garcis, over there, chef, Peter, terrific dude. Um, you know, we tell him, hey, we got a bunch of chefs coming and you want to, you know, throw some, throw some food down. How freaking good it is, this pizza. That pizza break was pretty good. It was awesome. Like for real, like I'm not, yeah.

That was legit delicious freaking pizza. Yeah.

100% man, look, I'm going to die. I'm the thinnest I've been in 12 years. I'm out down if I'm not mistaken. Three pieces of pizza. And that's after I have a cattle with pumpkin seeds and a little cilantro in it. Let me tell you. You know, and it is delicious pizza, man. It's very well done. The sauce has a little sweetness to it that makes it different.

“Right, that's what stood out for me. The dough has a nice chew to it. Right. Um, it's, it was awesome. It was very unexpected and it was very well done.”

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 dot com. Every time that pizza's here in this studio makes me smile. Let's talk your dishes real quick. What'd you do today? So I took, um, a crab spread with Mexican street style corn and put it into a sort of flower tortilla that kitto with shrimp.

I made a salsa fata, which is basically kind of like a fake avocado sauce and that's why it's salsa fata.

Um, but it mimics the earthy flavors of an avocado salsa and, and then I made a quick mole amari yo, which is a yellow mole. I didn't say it like that in the monologue by the way, you did great. I was very upset, right? Yeah, bad. Okay.

“And then, you know, try to elevate the dish, giving it an interesting presentation and I think that was achieved.”

You know, my in laws, of course, are Latin. Nobody was home when I was doing this. I had no one to ask. And it was left to my own devices. You did well. You did well. Yeah. The Amarillo was perfect. Gracias.

Okay. And, and you, uh, chef. I thought it was fun, right? Um, I mean, you know, I had a look at it right and think to myself, how am I going to do something. It, uh, I instantly went to, you know, you hear crap salad. You think of that, right? Um, I've, you've done crap dips everywhere. I've been and I've spent my time in South Carolina and in the Midwest. And I thought about a traditional improvement dish, right? Right? Which is called the Galsali Menya, which is like a cold potato match salad with either traditionally served with like chicken salad or, um,

chicken salad. It has a little bit of avocado, it has carbohydrates and olives on it. And, oh, they, this is perfect. Let's take this beautiful crab with cheese that, you know, what, you know,

cheese, potatoes, they're always delicious, right? Now we're in Tampa, Peru, where everyone will look at it right, where the dish derived from.

“How do we, how do we continue to use it, make it a little lighter, make it funner and it worked out perfect, right?”

Um, with that beautiful little, um, onions of each other went right over the top of it, the Academy, you and the, uh, Ricotta Yoli right around it, right? Just, you know, fun dish to have on any summer day. I think you killed it on the presentation. No, both of you guys, both of you guys are a terrific job. Today was just like overwhelming with food. That's it was just, I'm, I'm living my best life. My doctor doesn't think so, but I'm living my best life conceivably. Today might be the last time you guys cook together for a while.

Yeah, that's, yeah, special that it happened here. I'm out. I didn't think about that until just now. Yeah. So that's the case. What do you want to say to one another before we leave the show today? I want to take the opportunity to remind him he used me $50. Like a true friend.

That's true. And I'm going to miss him. I'm going to miss him. I don't have anything to say to him anymore. See him when I see him, my man.

No, man. It's, you know, Thank you for everything. And I know that our friendship is going to continue and I look forward to seeing you in North Carolina. Come up and visit and, you know, obviously when we come back and visit Jack is family's all down here. So we'll definitely be back in Tampa quite often. But I think you as an enough to suffice who you are and what you've been through over the last three years, brother.

I appreciate that and I appreciate you and what you've meant to me in some of the hardest times. Everybody did really fantastic today. And thank you really for sharing that. For me, that's a blessing for this show and what we do. It's, this is what it is, man. This is the restaurant life. This is the friend.

The friendship's made in this industry. And that's awesome. I did want to thank Dina Moore, Maggie, Farron and the whole crew over at Daytime for having Felicia.

And I, you know, it's, but a freaking honor that was.

Will Brown is here.

Thank you for coming out. Will.

“John, as always, photography is spot on.”

And, man, I don't want to leave this like so somber. You two guys are awesome.

And we're coming up to the North Carolina. We're all going to do it.

“Yeah, we're going to come check it out. It's going to be badass.”

How do we find you guys? Chef David Reyes on Instagram. And Instagram at Chef Nelly Bee. We are out.