Chef Christian Blouin of Hootch & Banter Restaurant Talks Covid-19, Kitchen Culture and Culinary Inspiration

Chris Spear : 0:00

This is Episode 37 of the Chef's Without Restaurants podcast. On this episode we have Christian, the executive chef of Hootch and Banter restaurant in Frederick, Maryland. Christian is the first restaurant chef we've had on our show. Obviously we talked a lot about the impact of COVID-19 on the restaurant industry. We also touch on kitchen culture, continuous learning and culinary inspiration. Thanks to this week's sponsors Tyler Wright. Danny Spletter, Ron Krieger cafe Bueno, little fig bake shop, Maryland bakes and the savory spoon catering company. If you want to support the show, our Venmo name is CHEFWORESTO s. If you enjoy the show, have ever received a job through one of our referrals have been a guest been given complimentary chefs without restaurants swag, or simply want to help it would be much appreciated. Feel free to let us know if you have any questions. Thanks so much and have a great weekend. Welcome everyone. This is the chef's without restaurants podcast. This is Chris and today I have Christian the executive chef of Hitchin Banta restaurant in Frederick, Maryland. Morgan, Christian.

Christian Blouin : 1:13

What's going on? Man? How are you?

Chris Spear : 1:14

Good, good. Great to have you on the show. You've been our number one requested guests to have.

Unknown Speaker : 1:20

I think that's hilarious, but I've been on for a while, but we could work it out these weird times. Yeah. So why don't you tell everyone

Chris Spear : 1:26

a little bit about yourself, your background, how you got into cooking and what you've been doing?

Unknown Speaker : 1:31

Well, I've been at hooch for, I guess, almost four years now. I've been the executive chef there for the three in May. So weird anniversary since we're not working right now. But uh, you know, I went to culinary school around here. I've been out for about 10 years, worked my way up from restaurants in Frederick. I went to school in Columbia. I actually heard one of your other podcasts where I can't remember who it was but he actually went to the same culinary school that I did. He did not have the same enthusiasm about culinary school as I do. He did not like it said it was a waste of money. But I went to Lincoln tech in Colombia. And I don't know, man, I've just been slinging food ever since. I worked my way to this job. My original dream was actually to have a food truck. Several ideas for that. Somehow I ended up in in fine dining, and I actually couldn't be happier, of course until the government shut us down. Yeah.

Chris Spear : 2:26

Yeah, I had a dream of having a food truck too. You know, it's so weird because in Frederick, we've only had them what, like three years now? Yeah, it hasn't been that long. I moved here from, you know, outside of Philadelphia where food trucks were like a normal thing. And I thought, Oh, yeah, I'm gonna come to Frederick. This seems like such a cool place to have a food truck. It's like, Oh, no, they're not legal.

Christian Blouin : 2:44

Like, what? It's 2007 they're not legal here. It was so weird to me. Yeah, they were really behind behind the times on that. Honestly, all the breweries opening up and everything. That's really what I think kind of opened up the ability to have food trucks in in Frederick

Chris Spear : 3:01

Definitely, I mean, I don't think it's responsible to have people day drinking or whatever drinking all the time and not have any food options. Buster true. Plus, I mean, it's just it's just good business. You know what I mean? They're all over the country now. So. So did you have experience in fine dining? Did you work any really upscale places?

Christian Blouin : 3:20

So I pretty much mean my first job in the kitchen. I was 17 years old, and it was at a waffle house. You know, cooking eggs from the seven to three shift. And, you know, I really fell in love with it then. But, you know, I bounced around after high school after construction. I worked in a restaurant, I've worked front of house and back house and all that stuff. And I found myself actually delivering textiles for like five years for Santos. I don't know if you're familiar with the Yeah. And I was in a lot of kitchens, and I just missed it. And I actually hurt myself and realized that I didn't really have a career path or a craft if I was going to be, you know, driving a truck every day. You know? I mean, so I was like 2627, I enrolled in FCC s coronary program to try to get back into it. And I didn't like the way that they ran it and like the teacher, and all that. So then I got out and I went to Lincoln. And then I just popped myself into restaurants. I decided I was gonna do it. I was gonna dive in headfirst and go in. My family thought I was crazy as making $9 an hour, all of a sudden, you know what I mean? Like, making salads and garbage and just kept moving up from there.

Chris Spear : 4:30

You went to culinary school a lot later than most people. I mean, I think one of the things we hear is don't go to culinary school, but I think a lot of that comes from, if you're 18 years old, you don't really know what you want to do for sure. Like maybe don't go and also don't go to one of the big schools where you're going to pay one to $200,000 but it sounds like you had a better idea that you are looking to get into and stay in this industry.

Christian Blouin : 4:54

Oh, yeah, for sure. I mean, and then also, there's also two schools of thought whereas there are plenty of chefs have just worked in restaurants since they were teenagers. And they're great chefs. You know what I mean? They learn from other people, and then they, they go and read, that's the biggest thing you don't mean still have to read every day, you still have to try to expand your craft. And there are some people, they're just naturally talented like that. I think I learned just as much after culinary school in restaurants, working my way up on a line than I did when I was at school. Like in school, you get a basis and a knowledge. But when you get into the restaurant and you start getting your muscle memory down, and your touch and your feel and your all your senses start to come into play, and you learn from watching other people that have done for a long time.

Chris Spear : 5:36

Yeah, and with any industry, you get out what you put into it, you know, you'd already said you got to read every day. I'm a firm believer in that you know, whether you go to school or not, whether you're working at a amazing place or not. Staying on top of learning and growing your craft i think is incredibly important. So you're the third chef at hooch and banter since they've opened.

Christian Blouin : 5:57

Yeah.

Chris Spear : 5:58

Do you feel like there's been an evolution of the cuisine there, or is it pretty much the same? Like how have you seen that change?

Unknown Speaker : 6:08

Um, I think that all the chefs that have been there have been really good chefs. I think I was more ready for this particular area, just cuz I've grown up in Frederick. I've been in Frederick since I was 15 years old. I know what people eat, you know. So, but there's definitely been an evolution. The guy before me, Rory was absolutely incredible man, he actually started a food truck. But he did a little bit more Southern cuisine. I think that mine's a little bit more American, heavier, heavier accent on seafood. And, um, you know, we all try to source as local as possible, and do those kinds of things. So I definitely when I first took over, I had some ideas that I've been mulling around for a couple years. But I did have to gain my competence. It took me a good six, eight months before I really felt like my food was like, up there where it should be, you know what I mean? And then it's just the constant struggle of reading and pushing forward and listening to Other people's ideas when you have other people around you that have good ideas and going for barrier. And Frederick's a

Chris Spear : 7:07

place where I feel like you can't get too fancy in my opinion is kind of like you have to have this highbrow lowbrow kind of combo. Yeah. I mean, you obviously have a restaurant like Volt, but, you know, I don't know how many people locally are the ones going there. I think it's bringing a lot of people from out of town but if you want to be one of those Yeah, the Frederick local, I think a restaurants you have to find that groove. I think we're lucky

Christian Blouin : 7:29

and I see it. A lot of people coming in and said, people are just trying to get out of the city now and around DC and they're coming in Frederick, just because, you know, Frederick has a lot of attractions. They've done a lot of work around. So we're getting a lot of influx there. But people tell us, you know that we remind them of restaurants down there. I made a conscious decision, though, going back to what you said, to give a little bit larger portion. If you look at my portions, they're always a little bit larger. I take a hit by a couple percent on food costs for that. But like you said, in my opinion, we're in Frederick so I'm doing you know French techniques. I'm on American food, but I'm gonna give you a little bit more on your plate because we're in Frederick Maryland and I think people what they're paying $35 per entree, they want to be full and have a little bit to take them to you know what I mean?

Chris Spear : 8:11

Do you have any favorite menu items?

Christian Blouin : 8:15

I feel like I can't even remember my long oh it has and you know what's so funny too is I was just getting ready to like, let's phasing winter stuff out and bout to come into springtime. Like we got ramps right now and burrell's and all this peas all these beautiful spring stuff that were just totally missing out like it's dry drives me insane. Um, I think spring is actually one of my favorite times a year for food.

Chris Spear : 8:37

I said the only thing I don't miss is shelling a ton of fava beans. That job sucks.

Christian Blouin : 8:42

Well, that's the that's the beauty of getting to be executive. You don't have to necessarily do the fava beans anymore. You get somebody else to do for you. Various those are two very tedious things to do.

Chris Spear : 8:54

I didn't even really write a spring menu. You know, for my business I try to have like, essentially for seasonal menu Use and I can always pull from last year's, but I was looking at updating it and what's it look like? We weren't even I wasn't even gonna be working this spring. I'm like, I'm just gonna jump right into summer menus, like start thinking about what's my summer menu look like and not even waste any time on any new spring dishes?

Christian Blouin : 9:15

Well, yeah, exactly. That's kind of where my focus has been over the last few days when I've been thinking about like, say, we can come back in May, even if we decide if we can only do take out for a little while. I'm gonna start looking at things that are going into summer, you know what I mean? Exactly. Because the springtime stuff is it's such a short window, you know what I mean? That, you know, it's about time to roll into the new stuff.

Chris Spear : 9:37

And it's also hard to even get product right now, even if you're at home. So there's not a lot of r&d. You know, I'm looking at all these cookbooks and thinking man, I want to make that I want to make that. And then you have to kind of justify a trip to the grocery store. like okay, well, is it worth going out to Wegmans or common market to get morels or something like that to try this my dish?

Christian Blouin : 9:56

I don't even have that around me. I'm out here in Waynesboro. There's a Walmart in a Martin's but I mean they really they just don't have much of a selection. I couldn't even find yeast until I think two days ago I got my hands on some yeast. And so I'm gonna start making some breads and stuff like that but I couldn't even do that kind of stuff because I just couldn't even find it. It took me forever to find flour because Walmart here was just wiped out of like anything like that.

Chris Spear : 10:19

I only have it because a friend in town who's a chef brought me some yeast. She brought me some yeast and some flour. So I got about 20 pounds of flour actually, but my yeast is running low. So I might have to start making sourdough starter.

Christian Blouin : 10:34

There you go. There you go. I've seen a lot of that I've seen a lot of the one. That is one nice thing during this whole, you know, quarantine thing is you're seeing a lot of people go back to recipes that you know their grandparents have for banana bread and stuff like that and people are just people are at home cooking for their families again, which is nice to see I've definitely I'm guilty of you know having my girls and going and getting fast food or something Like that real quick to bring home and lately during this, I've been cooking for them, you know, just go out every night. So

Chris Spear : 11:06

yeah, I see it more as enjoyment again, you know when I was working not that it wasn't enjoyable but you know when you have a day off it's kind of like I don't necessarily want to be cooking at home like I've been cooking already. But you know like last night I made some Filipino chicken adobo. It's like, yeah, you know, I got nothing else to do. I might as well make this and grab a beer and stand out and I did it all on the grill last night. And I was fine. And tonight I'm ready to cook dinner again. So kind of having fun with it as long as I have the ingredients for it.

Christian Blouin : 11:35

Yeah, it's gone. Hope to see Andrew on here. I was gonna make some pizza do later. I'm gonna make some pizza for my kids tonight. I think

Chris Spear : 11:40

trying to get Andrew back on the show. He and I our schedules have been running kind of opposites. So well, he's still running, you know. So he's still running back. I actually am going to have him as a guest on the show because we were talking the other day I went out to the truck, you know, his business has changed significantly. And he's made some changes that I think are going to continue even when This is over. I think this pushed a lot of people to examine their business models and what was working and what wasn't. And I think some good things came out of this for him business wise, like how he was operating. You know, we talked about getting him on the show to kind of talk about this, you know, everyone's had to kind of pivot a little bit, especially if they were going to stay open and really evaluate how they were running their business.

Christian Blouin : 12:22

Yeah, I mean, pizza. That's it. That's a good one. You know what I mean? A lot of those things and food trucks right now. You know, the usually they were getting the disadvantage for the longest time and now you know, they're, they're killing it. You know, they're the ones keeping people fed right now, if you look at the restaurants, they've all kind of slowly dropped off. I think lazy fish is still open. And tsunami just opened up, which is incredible that they were able to just open up in the middle of this.

Chris Spear : 12:45

I went, I went and got lazy fish takeout the other night and Pong was in there. And I asked him how it was going and he said he had done like, 230 rolls around in the day before something which is amazing for me.

Christian Blouin : 12:57

Yeah, I mean, people were waiting for that play. I've been waiting for Place to open. It's almost worth me driving in town just to get some.

Chris Spear : 13:03

Yeah, talk about the tough hand dealt there, having just gotten approved to open your restaurant and you can't even open it the way that you want to. You got to start doing the takeout thing though, because now you're paying rent on this restaurant in downtown market look. Exactly,

Christian Blouin : 13:19

yeah. And then I'm sure it's not cheap. It's where viticulture needs to be. But I mean, yeah, good for them. Like I said before, when we were talking earlier, I don't know when they're going to be able to let us sit down in restaurants again, you know, and if they and when they do, what's the what's, how many people are we going to be we have a tiny building, you've seen the restaurant, you know what I mean? How many people are we gonna be able to sip it so that we might have to remodel what we're doing, which would be unfortunately, we'd have a whole separate kitchen upstairs essentially wouldn't be used, you know what I mean? So it's scary.

Chris Spear : 13:52

But are you guys staying in contact talking about plans like

Christian Blouin : 13:56

we are in our last plan was actually before As Hogan had announced that schools were going to be closed until April 3, I think he's extended it since then. But he had originally said April 30. So we had talked about that being a time where we were going to look at reopening. So at this point, we just have to figure out like, Are we going to decide to end up reopening for takeout until they let us see people in the restaurant? Or how do we want to ride this out? You know what I mean? So you can do?

Chris Spear : 14:26

Yeah, I mean, there's only so much of your menu, you can modify the takeout I mean, some restaurants are set up better for it. You obviously have delicious, amazing food, but I think a lot of your food. The plating is important, you know, the way it is in throwing in a container doesn't make

Christian Blouin : 14:44

cocktails, the Jeff does like all those things. Like it's an experience, you know what I mean? So, but we could I mean, we could, we could throw our sandwich menu on there, essentially like our lunch menu on there and go with that, do all those things. And then I mean, it would help you know, is revenue But it's not the same as what we were doing it. So that's more of a question is how do we get back to where? Where we were? Do we as an industry even get back there anytime soon? Like,

Chris Spear : 15:09

yeah, I you know, I don't know, it's something I think about all the time. Like, I have no idea what my business is gonna look like when this is over our people, you know, my whole thing has been stay home it's super convenient to stay home and eat dinner there. Let me come to you and I'm sure people are gonna be like, Nah, man, I've been in my house for two months, I want to stay home. Like, am I gonna be out of business? Because everyone's gonna want to go out, you know? So I'm really thinking about like, what the marketing looks like for a chef who does in home experience?

Christian Blouin : 15:40

Yeah, I do. I've heard a lot of naysayers, saying that they think that we, we aren't going to be the same and, you know, not us in particular, but just the industry isn't going to be the same. And I think that it may not be the same. The new normal may be a new normal, but I don't think it's going to stay that way. I think that we will end up back to one We were people enjoy going to restaurants, people enjoy going to bars, people enjoy going out and being social, we just have to make sure we figure this thing out and, and be able to get back there. And that's, it might take some time. But I think that eventually we'll get back there. But there are going to be a lot of people that fall on the wayside. And we have to make sure that we make a plan so that we don't you know,

Chris Spear : 16:23

that's crazy. You know, I'm not a germaphobe at all. And something I've done a number of times is I'll go to a restaurant sit by myself at the bar, and I've literally shared food with strangers, you know, sitting next to me, you're like, someone will say, Oh, you know, would you like to try this? I'm like, Sure, I'd have a fork and eat off of some string. And now you won't even shake hands with people. You

Christian Blouin : 16:44

may never shake hands again, which is Yeah,

Chris Spear : 16:46

so weird. So I think the days of sharing food with people I don't know are over.

Christian Blouin : 16:52

I guess perhaps I cannot see a scenario where you're in a kitchen, developing food and you have all your cooks around. You and you don't share a plate you know what I mean? I guess you know those people but I mean, I don't see a situation where people aren't doing that. That's part of the communal bond of cooking and creating, you know,

Chris Spear : 17:09

oh, yeah premium. Like I miss pre meals every night where you put up yeah, it's just thrown down and like the waitstaff are just in there fighting over every fork full of food. Yeah, no. Yeah, I hadn't even thought about that. That's probably gonna look a little different as well. What's your Do you have a favorite place that you're going to right now that does take out is anywhere you're going to or do not have limitations? I mean, you are

Christian Blouin : 17:33

Yeah, out here by me, man. It's, you know, it's rural Pennsylvania. So it's, you know, like, it's pizza in sub shops essentially, like all over the place. So there is a there's a, there's a pizza place behind me that it's called brothers pizza, and they make great wigs. So I mean, I get waves from there. I'm guilty of that, probably, at least twice a week at this point. Um, but I mean, when this all went down, I stocked up twice. I stopped myself. freezer and you know, I've gone to the store a couple times to get whatever produce I can find. For the most part. I've just been cooking for my kids at home. So it means a lot of mac and cheese. But I mean, like I've been, I've just been, I've been cooking at home for the most part. I'm not as familiar with the restaurants around here. We're in downtown Frederick, I would have been ordering from everybody. All the time. We've gotten even better than I've gotten now.

Chris Spear : 18:21

Yeah, it's a little hike for you, I guess.

Christian Blouin : 18:24

Yeah, I'm trying to do my part to stay, you know, stay at home. Like I said, I'm not going to the store a few times. I've had to experience bootlegging for the first time in my life where I have to go into Maryland to buy booze because there's no liquor sales out here in pa since the 16th. So

Chris Spear : 18:41

what there's no liquor sales at all,

Christian Blouin : 18:43

though, they're like the they're like the south where all of the liquor stores are state run. And so on the 16th or the 17th. I think it was the 17th because it was st Patty's Day, but they actually since their state run they shut down all their livers. So you can go to like A gas station you get like a six pack of beer, or you know, some wine. But good, you know, but it's crappy gas station wine, but you can't go get whiskey anywhere or anything like that. So

Chris Spear : 19:12

at least they changed it and you could buy a six pack like I used to live in Pennsylvania. It's been like 12 years and back. Yeah, you know, you could make a case and know that that was crazy stuff. And like, I just want a single or a six pack. I like now you got to buy a case. And like, I don't want a case.

Christian Blouin : 19:27

I don't want a 30 pack of bush. I like

Chris Spear : 19:29

variety. I don't ever want a case of anything. Even if I'm at a party. I'm doing mixes. Wow, I forgot about that. And I think the interesting thing is going to be the whole cocktails to go like they kind of opened this thing up. Are you going to be able to go back to that because right now restaurants are just Yeah, the Wild West and making cocktails putting them in quart containers.

Christian Blouin : 19:49

Yeah. I think about that

Chris Spear : 19:51

going forward. You know,

Christian Blouin : 19:53

that is very true. I mean, I guess I don't know didn't didn't have to live some kind of the governor lifted some kind of a I don't know how he did that he had to pass something special I believe to them to be able to do that. They just rescinded that once things go back to normal. I'm not I'm not sure. But then people are gonna be used to it. I mean, I think it's a great idea. I think I think it's a great idea.

Chris Spear : 20:12

Yeah, I think you guys should just open up and have Jeff making cocktails. You don't even need to have food just have a cocktail isn't some kind of food or

Christian Blouin : 20:21

actually, I guess maybe Tenth Ward is probably doing it some of you don't have so

Chris Spear : 20:24

yeah, I guess that also comes down to what kind of establishment you are because you all have different regulations, restaurants versus bars and tasting. Yeah, for sure.

Christian Blouin : 20:32

Well, yeah, we have to be serving food technically in order to be open at the bar for the most part. Um, but we generally we that's why we shut our bar down. Usually when the kitchen kitchen shuts down on the weekend at 10 o'clock, and the bars usually shut down by 11 1130 you know, our upstairs might be open later, except it's more of a late night crowd but in our kitchen stays open a little bit later there too. Mm hmm. Cool. Well, what

Chris Spear : 20:55

else do you want to talk to anything you want to get off your chest talk about in the food world. Anything our listeners should know about you or the restaurant.

Christian Blouin : 21:05

I think that you should check out hoochie banter on Instagram. Um, and as soon as we open even if it's just for takeout, I think just come support us. Help us stay open. You know.

Chris Spear : 21:15

I'm hoping to have some good old parties when this thing gets. Yeah, normal

Christian Blouin : 21:20

for sure. Well, not sure I get I can't wait to do another wine dinner. To be honest with

Chris Spear : 21:24

the wine dinners. I haven't been out to one but the food always looks great. I think they're probably always on nights I'm working or something.

Christian Blouin : 21:31

Yeah, we generally do them on Wednesday nights, except for the last one we did on New Year's just because it was New Year's, but, um, they're fun. Man. There are a lot of fun that you get to think outside of the box and do stuff that you normally would do you know what I mean? You got a group of people that are coming just to try whatever you want to do. They trust you. You know what I mean? So they trust your coursing and your Creek and all that. So you get to just really play and it's a lot there are a lot of fun.

Chris Spear : 21:57

On those nights. Do you have any other menu or is it just the Wine dinner menu.

Christian Blouin : 22:00

Yeah, so since we have the upstairs open, what we do is we, we sell the wine dinner out of 36 seats, and we do family style. So we'll set up two tables of 18 people. And then I'll pretty much prep everything I need to downstairs or whatever. And I'll just fire it all in our upstairs kitchen. And I'll take two guys with me. And so then downstairs, my suit will run the show downstairs. We just run a regular menu regular dinner service.

Chris Spear : 22:26

That sounds awesome. You guys have been so many awards for you know, best of Frederick for everything. It seems like there's been a couple years you guys have pretty much swept all the categories it seems.

Christian Blouin : 22:37

Yeah, we've I mean, we've been in there and it's been nice but what's funny is I always tease Jeff because Jeff they love Jeff so much more. He always wins like actually like first place and best cocktail and stuff like that. And the food sometimes, you know, it's a double edged sword. Like when I first took over I was lucky that I had Jeff making the cocktail so that people come in and eat my food, you know what I mean? But now we're you know, we're on the same level but they definitely know better gloves, just cocktails. They like my suit a little bit less.

Chris Spear : 23:04

They do, but it's so great because I'm not from here and I moved here in 2007. And I was in the cocktails and there was like no places to get cocktails.

Unknown Speaker : 23:13

Oh dude watching him. It's incredible. Like we call him the bar chef man cuz you watch him. You watch him make the drinks, everything. It's a muscle memory, the thoughts that he puts into them or the wearing of the flavors, but then when you watch them make them to It's like watching an amazing line cook is just like fluidly moving around his line, you know what I mean? Like he's, he's definitely He's the best. He's the best I've worked with. He's incredible.

Chris Spear : 23:34

I feel honored that he made a cocktail of mine and put it on your menu there and I even had my name on it. In fact, I think yes. I think the first time I actually met you was the day I was sitting there trying the cocktail that he had made for me.

Christian Blouin : 23:46

Yeah, that is I remember that actually.

Chris Spear : 23:47

But that was a really cool experience, you know, to enter the Frederick best cocktail competition and have Jeff make the drinks and just say, you know, in his opinion that it was the best cocktail was quite awesome. Now that is cool. Jeff is Jeff is amazing. He actually

Christian Blouin : 24:06

lives down the street from me. We both live out here in Waynesboro, but we've been socially distinct since distancing. So

Chris Spear : 24:12

you guys got that commuter route going.

Christian Blouin : 24:15

Yeah. I mean, my Yeah. My 15 year old daughter goes to high school it was the main reason that I'm about here makes things a lot easier when I'm off. But it definitely is a terrible ride home, but had been night when you've been in work for 14 hours, you know?

Chris Spear : 24:27

Mm hmm. So do you miss the 14 hour days?

Christian Blouin : 24:30

I actually do now, the first week or so, man, my body felt better. You know what I mean? Like, legs felt good. Like, felt young again. But I mean, now Yeah, like because I mean, I sit here and look at the same four walls all day long. You know what I mean? Like, the silver lining has been great, because I've spent a lot more time with my kids that I would normally not get because I've worked so much, you know what I mean? So there's been a lot of one on one time with them. So that's the silver lining, but other than that, yeah, it drives me crazy here all the time. There's a reason that I chose a job and love a job. I work 12 to 16 hours a day. You know what? I wonder how

Chris Spear : 25:03

many of us are gonna have trouble getting back into that grueling physical? Yeah, actual you know, like that.

Christian Blouin : 25:09

So yeah,

Chris Spear : 25:11

you're gonna you're gonna lose some you're gonna need some spring training for sure before you go

Christian Blouin : 25:15

get some stretching.

Chris Spear : 25:17

Well, I'm gonna jump into the speed round on the fly here and ask you some somewhat rapid fire questions. We only say one or two word answers, although some of these can go long. And I'm not feeling like we're pressed for time and have to bang through these. So what are some of your favorite culinary resources? You know, where would you recommend people if they're looking to get into cooking? websites, cookbooks, anything of that nature?

Christian Blouin : 25:41

Oh, man. I mean two cookbooks that I take with me in every kitchen that I go into or Larousse astronomy, and Scotty A's original, but I mean, for the most part, honestly, I think I think Instagrams good tool. I think Google's a good tool. YouTube can be a good tool at times, it all depends on what you're trying to do that makes sense. You know what I mean? But it's all about reading. And it's one beautiful thing is, you can pick up a book, you know what I mean? I've got several cookbooks, some that I haven't even opened, because I'll just go to Goodwill sometimes and just buy books out of the cooking section, you know what I mean? Or the book section. Um, so you can open up a book and start reading and you have an idea spark there. Or if you have an idea in your mind, and you just go to Google, and then you just end up reading and reading and reading and reading and reading. And you know what I mean? Those are the those are the best things. So

Chris Spear : 26:31

yeah, last week, I made a kimchi focaccia, and it started because a shell that a chef had posted on Instagram, a photo of a kimchi bread that he made. I think we follow that same guy because I saw that when I saw yours, I was like, Can I see Chris's are dressing. It's Brad at Le and DC. He's one of my chefs. And it's one of my favorite restaurants. But I've never heard of that. So then I asked him a question about it. And then I went right to Google, and I googled kimchi bread to see if there was any recipe anywhere and like nobody had done it. From what Writing, but I did find a recipe for kimchi focaccia. So like to your point, I saw something on Instagram. And then I googled that thing on the internet and then kind of looked at a recipe there and then just did my own hybrid. So I was like, okay, that's how they did it. And then I took what I liked, but I brought a lot of my own flair to it change the technique a little bit. Yeah, just kind of the one thing kind of sparked the beginning. And then I just wanted to read a little deeper to kind of figure out how I would do it.

Christian Blouin : 27:30

Yeah, that's and that's exactly it. That's what the beauty of it is. That's what the beauty of cooking is. We're all like, we're all taking like writing a song, man. There's the same chords and the same progressions. You just got to find a way to make those yours, you know what I mean? So we're all taking pieces out of the same song.

Chris Spear : 27:45

Yeah, it's interesting that when you have something unique if you do your version, it seems like a ripoff, but nobody cares about the old stuff. So like, if I'm making a kimchi focaccia, it's easy to say like, Oh, well, that chef inspired that or that shot did that but if I made chicken parm, no one would care. You know, yeah, I've always kind of wondered like, what is the time frame where something is like, okay to rip off or be inspired by without hate? Yeah, you're never like, if I made a really interesting lasagna tomorrow, nobody's gonna care because lasagna has been a thing for thousands of years. But you know, if you're inspired by one of the signature dishes from a restaurant people kind of give you credit

Christian Blouin : 28:21

for it. Just cooking. It is man. It's just cooking. Just he.

Chris Spear : 28:26

Do you have any favorite chefs either well known or locally or both.

Unknown Speaker : 28:32

So I mean, locally, man, like Jeff Beard at The Wine Kitchen is phenomenal. I worked with him closely A long time ago. And he's just you know, he's, he's incredible chef. I'm

Christian Blouin : 28:43

Chef said, You know, I follow me more famously, I guess, Chuck Hughes because he's from Montreal. He's definitely one of my favorites. Rick Bayless and Roy Choi are two of my other favorites as well. So I mean, I just followed That's one beautiful thing about Instagram and Twitter is you can just go and just keep following people. You know what I mean? Just just all day long. And you learn about new people and new foods and things like that, you know?

Chris Spear : 29:12

Yeah. Rick Bayless was one of those guys that I really found early on in my career. And I developed a love from Mexican cooking and just looking at the depths that he went to, you know, he closes his restaurant takes his whole staff down to Mexico to learn about a new region. You know, I really loved reading through those through those books and before cookbooks or coffee table books, like I don't think there's really any photos in his books. If you look at his books, they're like, yeah, 350 page books with like,

Christian Blouin : 29:39

recipes and things like that. Yeah, exactly.

Chris Spear : 29:42

Yeah. So one of the questions I've been asking recently is, knowing that you are going to be quarantined for a couple of weeks. What are some items that you stocked up on or wish that you stocked up on? Like, what is a well stocked pantry look like?

Christian Blouin : 29:55

I wish that I would have gotten more red meat. I also went Because of my hours before this was going on, I went one night like after I got off work to Walmart and they were wiped out in the protein section. And so it was a next time that I went as well. And that was in the afternoon and that was the Martin's. So I've gotten probably got four or five whole chickens and I broke them down and put them in bags and put them in my freezer I was able to get some brown turkeys and brown beef you know I got a chuck rose but that was the only red meat that I could find. I really wish that I would have been able to find like some good revise or something like that. You know, I haven't been able to find any of that. I made sure that I had lots of pasta and rice and I tried for flour and yeast to cook me for a while I finally got that. But those are you know, you need essential things to make sure that you have a starch or protein and as long as you've got you know I've got chicken stock always in my freezer. So you know as long as you've got some chicken stock, you can make a simple sauce and then you can make yourself something as long as you have the Things you know?

Chris Spear : 31:01

Yeah, I don't usually shop at giant but my mother in law does. So we went shopping yesterday cuz we hadn't been in like two weeks. And I was shocked they had whole beef tenderloin there and it was on sale for 899 a pound.

Christian Blouin : 31:12

Oh, wow. And then I get into the restaurant

Chris Spear : 31:14

right and they had a rib eyes like ribeye gross. I think that was maybe like 999 a pound. So you know, you get like five good steaks out of them into I was like, wow, I I've never even seen that. I don't know if that's something special that they're doing at giant right now. But I, you know, I might have to start buying tenderloin there.

Christian Blouin : 31:37

You have a real that's cheap. I buy them there instead of from, I think

Chris Spear : 31:40

it was 1199 of how the regular an 899 with the card but I was like, well,

Christian Blouin : 31:46

you're living pretty close to what we pay. But that's cheap.

Chris Spear : 31:51

That's still cheap. I mean, it's 1399 a pound I think at Costco because that's usually where I pick mine up. And you know, they have a really higher grade. choice at Costco. You know, I've rarely

Christian Blouin : 32:03

do I like before in a pinch when we've run out or we've sold for steaks and we expect or whatever we definitely, we utilize Costco a lot. I've used their ribeye in New York Strip before in a pinch as well.

Chris Spear : 32:14

I just hate going there right now because you're waiting in line for like, an hour. Now. I

Christian Blouin : 32:20

did. I was gonna say they only want a certain amount of people in the building at a time now, don't they?

Chris Spear : 32:23

Yeah, that was the thing about giant there was no one in the parking lot. We got in there was maybe 15 people in the whole grocery store. So I felt like very low potential contact there. And easy and easy out as much as I love places like Costco and Wegmans. Like, I don't want to go near either one of those right now.

Christian Blouin : 32:41

Yeah, I haven't been in at least a month anywhere except for the Walmart. Mark.

Chris Spear : 32:46

That's crazy. Yeah, gotta get back to normal life sometime soon. Yeah, the new normal, right? The new the new normal. So this is not a quick question, but we always ask our guests. What do you want To be remembered for.

Christian Blouin : 33:02

Oh, man, that's it. That is a tough question.

Chris Spear : 33:04

I know. And that could be personally or professionally or both.

Christian Blouin : 33:09

Honestly, I just want to be remembered. Being a good guy, you know what I mean? Like,

Unknown Speaker : 33:15

food aside, everything aside, spending a fair guy, you know what I mean? Like, fair guy in a good debt.

Chris Spear : 33:23

So does that translate to how you run your kitchen to?

Christian Blouin : 33:26

Uh, yeah, for sure. Like, I definitely try to I mean, we all have our, our moments, especially in high stress situations, like we get into, or something gets ruined that you've worked really hard on, you know what I mean? Or something like that, you all we always have those moments, but I try to use them as teaching moments. I always try to be fair, and I always apologize if I feel like I stepped out of line, which is what, you know, chefs that I worked for in the past. Not like that at all. You know what I mean? Um, but I feel like in today's day and age, you need to be more fair with people. So you know, basically you get a good beer crew, but trust you more if you're willing to be open and honest with them, including your mistakes. So,

Chris Spear : 34:06

yeah, I think for the better, we're seeing quite a shift in kitchen culture. And we talk a lot about that on the show with people and you know, what we need to do to get it where it should be.

Christian Blouin : 34:16

Yeah, for sure. And I actually Honestly, I mean, I'm 38. But I think that the younger generation of cooks coming up, are actually helping to fuel that because, you know, they're not really used to the way that like, say, you and I may have been treated or raised, you know what I mean? So, and because, you know, it's not okay. You know, some people think it's making the next generation soft, but I disagree. I think it's making them more open and willing to more cerebral, they think about things and feelings and that's, that's important in today's world.

Chris Spear : 34:48

Well, I equate it to parenting. I mean, you have kids, it's like, our parents used to spank us. Some parents used to hit their kids like pretty hard or use belts and stuff. You know, dads didn't hug their kids or sad love. Have you like, I think we've looked at all that and said, that probably isn't the way to raise a kid. And we only. So that's it. Similarly, this whole notion of like, well, I had chefs swear at me and throw pots and stuff at me. So I'm going to continue to do that like, no, at some point, we need to break that cycle.

Christian Blouin : 35:17

That's exactly it break

Chris Spear : 35:19

the cycle. And I don't think it's hurting the restaurant industry at all.

Christian Blouin : 35:23

No, I don't think so at all. That's, you know, it's making it stronger.

Chris Spear : 35:27

Yeah. Thanks so much for coming on the show. I'll send everyone your way. We do a lot of show notes. So I'll put links to the restaurant, your Instagram and everything on there. And people will know where to find you. And then, you know, I'm telling you, I'd love to touch base, you know, sometime in the next year, once we get back to normal and kind of talk to you about how things have changed. I want to do follow up shows with everyone and see. We're sure I think that's awesome.

Christian Blouin : 35:51

I did

Chris Spear : 35:52

see how things worked out. So thank you to our listeners. As always, you can find us at ChefsWithoutRestaurants.com and .org, and on Facebook and Instagram at Chfs Without Restaurants. Thanks so much and have a great week.