the jurogan experience
do you think that people starting out
like if you've really never had any
experience cooking do you think that a
culinary school or some sort of a class
is the way to go or do you think you
should just start simply and slow from a
book or an online tutorial
i was talking to my buddy kyle kyle
man so kyle came down here with me i was
like yo i'm going to austin i'm going to
be there a day earlier i'm going to be
eating barbecue should come down here
and let's let's let's have some fun
and he came down he's got a couple of
restaurants up in san francisco bay area
he's he's an amazing chef and he's a
great travel buddy
and um i was just yesterday i was like
yo man what talk to me about culinary
school like what do you think what's our
opinion about that like because i went
to culinary school i dropped out i
didn't make it through
um he went to culinary school
if you want to be a chef i don't think
culinary school is necessarily the best
route if you want to be a chef of an
independent restaurant if you want to
work as a if you want to be a home cook
there's a lot to learn quickly from
culinary school i think that's like as a
as a non-matriculated kind of class by
class there's a great that's a great
opportunity taking some cooking classes
as a home cook you learn a lot
if you want to be a chef it's a hands-on
experience in the in the restaurant
that's going to get you there but i
think there's a lot there's if i think
there's definitely a use for taking
cooking classes as a home cook
you're not the only one who's told me
this this is that that sentiment has
been echoed by a lot of great chefs that
i've talked to said the same thing my
problem is also though
you know for a certain there are a lot
of culinary jobs out there and like you
know think about all the hotels and all
the cruise ships and all the corporate
cafeterias there's so many culinary jobs
out there and
if that's a goal if you want to work in
one of those jobs then culinary school
can be a great
road to give you the the needed
you know
that can be a great route to get one of
those jobs if you want to have a
standalone restaurant maybe something
more avant-garde maybe something where
you're where you're a little more
creative then culinary school might not
get you there and it and it can put you
at a disadvantage because you get you
know unless you like i got i was very
lucky i got a full scholarship the james
beard foundation gave me a full
scholarship to go to culinary school
and
so it worked out for me but for so many
folks like you go to culinary school you
come out with big debt
and then you can't afford to take a job
at a restaurant that's paying minimum
wage
because you need to pay back that loan
so if you get a job at a restaurant the
restaurant will essentially
give you a task and then if you show
effort and show that you have work ethic
and show that you're really interested
they'll slowly train you to learn new
techniques and cook things
i guess
and and this is this is like gets into
like a whole nother issue that's going
on right now
with
the labor laws and how they've really
kind of changed the way that
people in restaurants learn how to cook
and cooks come up in the business so i
kind of came up at in the as the last of
the in the world where the apprentice
system was still
kind of a piece of the puzzle if that
makes sense so i went and worked
at the bernadette super fancy french
restaurant i was like
you know 15 years old 14 years old and i
you know i chef was like i can't pay you
you know you're not legal to work but
you can come and work for free so did
you always know that you wanted to be a
chef
i i i love to cook um and when did you
start i started when i was very young i
got pictures of cooking with my mom
um very very young and she she kind of
supported me in that so we we had you
know like making pasta in the kitchen
and hanging the noodles off the back of
chairs and having you know
she was very very supportive of of my
interest
when i was
13 years old i got a job delivering
pizza at the pizzeria across the street
gino's pizza vincent
how'd you deliver them on a bike
walking and i had a harmonica i would
play the harmonica i thought i was the
coolest kid
that was not cool
meanwhile my partner michael who i ended
up opening a restaurant with michael
michael's you know who
we should talk about him too this guy's
he's a very cool guy very inspirational
he was uh he was a cool kid he was
delivering on rollerblades making twice
the tips
quick
he's getting around you know um
but delivering pizzas and then i was
working at this mexican restaurant
samolitas i was delivering mexican food
and i was like man these guys in the
kitchen are so cool like got tattoos and
the fire and like everybody says yes
chef and you know i just i was really
attracted to the kitchen and um i
started i started spending time in the
kitchen
and um
i was working at this vegan restaurant
mike mike was delivering he was yeah uh
so he was delivering vegan food and
other things on his rollerblades he was
like 14 years old yeah he was like
green machine selling weed he was like
son of a [ __ ] you just order you order
your like
your vegan vegan seven-layered dip and
you get a bag of vega at the time it was
like i don't know it was like the first
time that they had uh chronic they
called it chronic it's like fresh and
green
um
and uh
this this i was in love with this this
girl she was she was amazing my best
friend at the time
and her father was the maitre d this
fancy french restaurant he came in and i
was working in the kitchen because
whenever i wasn't delivering i was in
the kitchen i loved it you know i was
like learning everything i could and the
chef had just cut herself you know like
just cut herself
and she had to leave and they were like
we got to close the restaurant
and uh and i was like oh like there's
like two more dishes to go out and he
came in he was like i was the only guy
in the kitchen it's like busy
restaurants full he's like 14 year old
kid friend of his daughters he's like
you know you know you're you're the chef
here and i'm like yeah
like absolutely he's like you should
come i work at this
you know fancy french restaurant you
should meet the chef
and uh he got me an interview and i went
worked there so like 15 14 years old i
go and work go to this fancy french
restaurant i had no idea after school
and the chef meets me and he's like he's
late
he's like you're lucky because i was
taking a haircut
because otherwise you would be fired
already i was like oh my god i have no
idea what's going on
and he's like but you can come and you
can watch like you can't touch anything
you can watch after school on wednesdays
you come
and on weekends i started working there
and it was fun man it was super cool
what kind of tasks did they have you do
initially the first job was i got to
bring the fish from the refrigerator to
the guy that was going to cook the fish
like i could carry it across the kitchen
and then i got to clean calamari my dad
called me the calamari kid he was like
he had a whole whole song for me i was
like the squid kid um
i remember one time i went in and i was
like the chef was like you know
the calamari some of it has gone bad i
need you to smell every piece and i
walked in and he's like i was like chef
i smelled every piece of calamari he's
like i know luke in the mirror and i was
like my nose was all black from like the
squid i was like oh man
and then uh and then he had me clean
lobsters it was the first time i ever
cried you know you gotta like rip these
things apart so barbaric and i was like
i'm not doing that i start crying he's
like you can rip them apart or you can
be fired i was like oh my god
i was [ __ ] crying and you weren't
even making any money no i was like 14
years old crying over these lobsters
like apologizing to everyone actually
there was a guy man well he set one free
he took a he took a lobster he was like
i'm gonna set oh no it was for me
i think he put in the east river we were
a little drunk
it might have made it it was brackish
you might have made it to the ocean
and uh
and then and then i got to open oysters
i was an oyster guy for for a long time
and then eventually i made it up to a
hot app station which was like you know
it was like a big deal and but i was a
tri i had a bad attitude man i had a bad
attitude i met this guy roy choi he was
he was the he roy choi's amazing chef
from l.a he's got incredible he's got
he's he's a legend legendary character
now but he's
um still still a dear friend he he um he
was on the station with me and he
describes it he's just like this little
kid like
you know i came in from culinary school
i just wanted to learn and this kid was
just such an [ __ ]
i was just like you're an idiot you have
no idea what you're doing like stand
there don't touch anything watch don't
talk that's how you talk to him yeah i
was just like how old are you like 15
years old
like punched in the face i got punched
in the face a few times