Episode Eleven: The Byte - Chef Johnny V.
It was and still is, all about LOVE in Chef Johnny V's kitchen. Find out how his Grandmother played a vital role, for this larger-than-life individual, in teaching him what LOVE looks like in this byte-sized episode.
Transcript
I think because my grandmother was so loving,
Like so cool,
Was so loving,
And I think,
And I always laugh because of my weight,
I think I connected cooking with love early on.
And so the feeling of love while I was cooking,
I thought,
This must be kind of a good,
You know,
A good world to want to be in.
And you know,
I was a chubby child as I am a chubby adult.
So,
You know,
Somebody makes you a pie and you're a chubby kid,
You're like,
Yeah,
That's love,
Baby.
This might be a little bit of a personal question,
But I'm so intrigued.
Did you ever have this experience as a growing chef or a learning chef where an older chef dressed you down and chastised you?
I often worked,
And you know about how to make a pie,
And I was like,
Oh,
I'm going to make a pie.
I was like,
Oh,
I'm going to make a pie.
And you know about how you can work in the front of the house of a restaurant and in the kitchen.
Usually I worked,
I might work lunch in a kitchen at night on the floor.
And I think the fact that I had a front of the house knowledge that a chef I might work with recognized he could come to me and say,
Can you make this happen with the floor staff,
Gave me a little extra respect rather than,
You know,
A lot of,
Not so much now,
But in the old days,
As you know,
The kitchen staff never got along with the restaurant staff.
You know,
They'd be awful to the waiters.
And one year I actually got to work in Stratford in a restaurant right when I was coming out of college.
And they had a French chef who thought Americans were nothing to do with,
Didn't know anything about food.
And I was like a part-time manager in this restaurant.
And this French chef belittled everyone,
Including me.
And toward the end of the summer,
I was almost about to leave there.
The owner of the restaurant's had a family emergency,
Had to leave Stratford for the week.
And I became the manager for a couple of the shifts.
And everybody was upset because this Joe that ran the restaurant was so organized and so strong and everything,
That everybody was a little worried about him being gone.
So I was trying my hardest to,
You know,
Get everything set up and well,
The chef decided to come out and give me a hard time and bust the waiter's chops.
And I lost it.
I said,
I screamed and yelled at him.
I said,
I have taken your abuse for four months.
And you have to realize the entire staff today is upset because Joe is not here.
And rather than you giving us the support we need,
You are out here well.
His eyes just about popped out of his head.
He was so incredulous that I spoke to him that way,
That he stormed out of the dining room,
Went into the kitchen.
I think once the buffet was set up,
He left because it was,
You know,
Self-serve.
And literally two days later when I saw him again,
All of a sudden he treated me with such respect.
And I think eventually he said to me,
You know,
I realized the other day you were right.
And I think I apologize for the trouble I've given you all this summer.
And you know,
And I thought,
Wow,
Because he probably should have fired me,
You know.
But it was,
It was,
That was cool.
["The First Day of Lunch in New York in New York in New York in New York in New New York in New New New New New New New New New New New New New New New New New New New New New New New New New New New New New New I was working in a new restaurant in New York doing lunch.
And I was like,
It was a new restaurant that would do 10 lunches.
So very popular at night,
But they just,
You know,
Wanted to be open for lunch.
And the first day we opened the kitchen had this sort of slant that went down to a drain in the middle of the kitchen,
I think just to make it easy to clean.
Well,
Right when the order started popping in,
It was me and a cleanup guy.
I dropped a huge bucket of tomato soup that basically splashed all over the kitchen.
And we didn't have time to clean it up.
And I cooked that entire shift slip and slipping and sliding around in that tomato soup.
And I was,
I probably prayed.
I prayed.
I'll admit it.
I did some serious praying during those times.
So I remember I worked briefly in Nashville,
Tennessee,
And a big,
Very popular restaurant.
And every,
Just before we'd open for lunch,
The owner would show up looking like he just crawled out of a dustbin,
Often in his pajamas,
Because he lived close to the restaurant and would basically rant and rave like a lunatic for 20 minutes and then go back home.
And then we'd all work and was like,
Oh,
Okay.
Usually my last question.
I mean,
I really am just so struck and so just enamored by the story of you and your grandmother's kitchen and just food becoming love for you.
And to me,
That moment,
Those moments in your childhood were like miracles,
You know,
Because they showed your heart what direction you wanted to go.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's,
It's,
Um,
I always,
And I discuss with friends all the time.
I was so blessed to have a very happy childhood and you and I have both heard stories of very unhappy childhoods for kids,
You know,
For adults.
And I think that one of my challenges with my mom being pretty much parallel,
You know,
Crippled was as children,
I think,
Because my mom was in pain,
Like all of us kids probably put our emotions on hold a little bit growing up because we didn't want to upset my mother basically,
Or my father,
They had enough to worry about.
And I think when I was in my grandmother's home,
That tension wasn't there.
So maybe that was part of the connection of feeling a little freer and a little less afraid.
My dear grandmother snored like a rock star and we always stayed over.
We always stayed over two nights,
You know,
And she would always say,
Just poke me and wake me up if I snore.
Cause we slept in the same bed,
You know,
And Oh my God,
I remember we didn't sleep for two nights and we would wake her up from snoring.
And then as soon as she went back to sleep,
She snored again.
All of my cousins,
We've all compared notes,
Remember when we'd stay at grandma's and she would snore.
And,
But like I said,
She,
She traversed all the different challenges of a strong Christian woman could face with her grandchildren and her great-grandchildren.
One of the questions that I usually start with,
But I can ask now is,
Um,
How do you,
John,
Chef Johnny B,
How do you describe yourself?
How,
How,
What,
Who are you as a human?
That's a really good question.
Wow.
That's a good question.
What if you ask me if I was a dish of food,
What would I be?
If you were a dish of food,
What would you be?
Yeah,
I think,
I think my favorite dish,
Which could be the answer is called pasta puttanesca,
Which probably that's not a good thing to admit.
If you know anything about the origin of the word puta,
But I think I would be a spicy dish with lots of really full flavored ingredients.
So pasta puttanesca has olives,
Anchovies,
Capers,
Red pepper flakes,
Tomato,
Basil.
So hopefully a lot of delicious,
Very tasty ingredients come together.
You know,
Lots of layers and complexity.
Yeah,
Hopefully.
Yeah.
This has been episode 11 of Bite Sized Blessings,
The podcast all about the magic and spirit that surrounds us.
If only we open our eyes to it and whether you choose to listen to our bite sized offerings for that five minutes of freedom in your day or the longer interviews,
We're grateful you're here.
I need to thank Chef John E.
V.
For sharing his story today,
As well as the creators of the music used.
Sasha End,
Music L.
Files,
Philip Rice,
Agnies Balmagia,
Kevin MacLeod,
Raphael Crux,
Frank Schter,
And Rommel Pro.
For complete attribution,
Please see the Bite Sized Blessings website at bite sized blessings dot com.
And remember that's bite spelled B-Y-T-E.
On the website,
You can find links to other episodes as well as to books and music I think will lift and inspire you.
Thank you for listening.
And here's my one request.
Be like Chef John E.
V.
And create some love in your kitchen.
