Teaching Kids Culinary and Business Skills - The Fat Pastor Shawn Niles

Chris Spear:
0:01

This week my guest is Shawn Niles who goes by the name the fat pastor online. Sean started a church in 2015 in Yakima, Washington. But besides ministry, he also had a love for food. And in 2016, he went on the show Master Chef. While he didn't go as far as he would have liked with Chef Gordon Ramsay said to him changed his life forever. Today you'll hear how Shawn combined his two passions to better serve his community. This is Chris spear. And you're listening to Chefs Without Restaurants. The show where I speak with culinary entrepreneurs and people working in the food and beverage industry outside of a traditional restaurant setting is 31 years of working in kitchens, but not restaurants and operate a personal chef service during dinner parties in the Washington DC area. I think that Shawn has a great story. And I obviously want to let you hear him tell it. So briefly, I'll just say that today you're going to hear how Shawn started a program for at risk kids, teaching them business and culinary skills, which would ultimately culminate in them doing a three night pop up restaurant. And because of this, he also had the opportunity to go to Italy and work with Chef Masimo matura. This is another episode about chefs doing amazing things in and for their community, which I'm always happy to share. So if you have a story like Sean's please reach out to me, obviously you can find me on Instagram at Chefs Without Restaurants, or send me an email at chefs without restaurants@gmail.com. I just want to add that if you'd like to learn more about Chefs Without Restaurants go to chefs without restaurants.org. From there, you can subscribe to our email newsletter and get the link to our private Facebook group for food and beverage entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs. Hey, Chef Matt Collins, I'm pretty sure you're listening and I know you hate the word entrepreneur, so I made sure I used it twice here. This week's episode will be coming right up after our word from our sponsor. As a lifelong bourbon enthusiast, I've always been captivated by its rich complexity and fascinated by its history. Bourbon was the first spirit I tried when I was old enough to drink and only wish I'd started with the good stuff. That's why I'm excited to introduce you to Heaven Hill Bottled in Bond Bourbon. Born from the Shapira family's unwavering passion since 1935. This bourbon is a testament to quality and tradition. Heaven Hill distillery goes beyond the bottled in Bond Act of 1897, aging this bourbon for seven years, three more than required creating a richer, more sophisticated flavor profile. When you select this premium bottled in bond bourbon, you're also ensured that you're getting a bourbon that's been made in a single distillation season, and that it's been bottled at exactly 100 proof. This commitment to excellence is evident in every sip. But don't just take my word for it. Heaven Hill bottled in bond won the double gold at the 2023 world spirits competition in San Francisco, New York and Singapore, as well as the 2023 Triple seal award from the tasting Alliance. Discover the award winning heaven Hill bottled in bond for yourself. Whether you enjoy it neat, on the rocks, or as the cornerstone of a cocktail, it's a bourbon that stands apart. Heaven Hill bottled in bond delivers a flavor profile that's unmatched. Available nationally at your local retailer. Embrace the premium quality that Heaven Hill bottled in Bond brings to every sip. Heaven Hill reminds you to think wisely, drink wisely. Hey, Sean, welcome to the show. Thanks so much for coming on.

Shawn Niles:
3:16

Hey, thanks so much, man. It's good to be with you guys. So

Chris Spear:
3:19

I like to dive right into things. No beating around the bush. I know you online as the fat Pastore which is an interesting name. Like, I think that's probably a good place to start because it leaves in your backstory. So where did that name come from?

Shawn Niles:
3:34

Yeah, so I was a pastor for about 20 years. In fact, when I started this whole thing, I was a pastor who decided to start a food blog. And I thought, you know, I gotta do something fun. And the fat pastor just kind of came to me one day. And I'm like that, that seems like a good starting point. So created a food blog on social media. And it was kind of a big hit. People thought that was a fun name. And it's always fun to correct people and remind them that I'm the fat pastor, not the character from Austin power. So

Chris Spear:
4:04

just a couple letters of difference there. And if you say it really quickly, yeah. So are you done? pastoring? Is that a thing of the past?

Shawn Niles:
4:12

You know, I think it's a part of me, I think it's something that I always want to carry. You know, I get to really put a lot of myself into the people that I get to work with and the people that I serve. And so I want that to be reflected in the food. So being a pastor being a Christian, I guess I should say, is probably the most important to me than any titles and go with that. And so I'm just going to be who I am in whatever setting I'm in whether I'm working in finances, God forbid, or you know, doing the doing food in the food world. And yeah,

Chris Spear:
4:42

so where did the food come from? Because it seems like you were probably on a career trajectory to do something very different. But now obviously, you're here and we're talking about food. So how did that happen? You know, it's interesting.

Shawn Niles:
4:54

I think for a lot of people, we ended up you know, thinking that our passion and our career choices, you know, are two totally different things. have grown up, I love cooking, my dad came from a food background, and was actually a mechanic. And so he ended up learning a lot of things from his family, but he worked on cars. But when we got together in the kitchen, it was always so much fun. I'd wake up on Thanksgiving morning and run in and help them Stuff the turkey and make the sides and do all that. So it was a huge connection point for my dad and I. And I think that was my kind of my starting point. And so I always love trying new foods grew up in a family where we didn't always have a ton of time to make extravagant meals and have a lot of TV dinners, you know, and you know, did the real basic stuff. So whenever I had a chance to go out to eat, I was always looking for something that I'd never had before. So that was really cool. That she really loves what happened when we sat around the table to be able to feed each other as Bill talked about food and enjoy food. That kind of led into me wanting to explore with creating my own food. And that was really kind of the starting point. Yeah,

Chris Spear:
5:54

I just want to jump in really quickly. Because this is something I've talked about with other guests is like, I don't know, I feel like people aren't sitting around the table as a family anymore and eating and that could be its own episode. But I mean, do you what do you think about that, because I still try to have a meal with my family every night. It's incredibly difficult with all of our work schedules and everything. But you know, if we're not sitting around the table, eating meals together, sharing food experiences, taking that time to connect, like what does that ultimately mean for people for the love of food and all of that?

Shawn Niles:
6:24

Well, it's all across the board, right? I mean, this whole entire world that we're living in is so digitally, digitally driven, that it is easy to miss the important things that are right in front of us. And so I think sitting at a table, being able to look at your family in the face and enjoy your food, talking about the food and and talk about everything else is such a big deal. It's so good. It's so important. And I've never had a bad conversation around the table with good food in front of me.

Chris Spear:
6:49

It's a good place to start, right. Yeah, yeah. So I mean, obviously, a lot of people have loves of things like say food and cooking, but it doesn't translate over into a career. So when did like how did that grow for you? So you know, you're a pastor, but you also have this passion for food. They don't seem like a natural fit. So where did the now transitioning into food as a career start?

Shawn Niles:
7:14

So, you know, going into ministry, I lived in a few different places. I moved from Yakima, Washington, where I live now moved from there to New Jersey, ended up meeting my wife, I moved in with a medical doctor from India who would cook for me about every other night, and I started having Indian food for the first time. Yeah, come on, had no Indian food. So I had no idea what I was getting into. And I'm like, this is mind blowing how good it was. And then from there, I moved in with the gentleman from Italy. And so he would cook pasta every night, and we go back and forth on sauces and talk about how we did it. My wife is from Trinidad. And so when I started dating her, her mom would make Trinidad food every night that I was there for dinner, and was learning and watching what she was doing. I'm blown away by again flavors that I never experienced before. So it just was this kind of natural progression in my life that I really wasn't paying attention to. I just learned that I love to cook. I love sharing food with people and as a pastor, sharing food with people was such an important part of what I did, because I found that that was a great way to relate with me. So we got married and moved to Hawaii. I lived in Hawaii, live with people there who love sharing their foods, same thing. It's like this natural progression that I wasn't even paying attention to. But I was learning everywhere that I went, came back home to Washington and started a church in 2015. About the same time my niece called me and she said Hey, you said that one of your bucket list items is to cook from Gordon Ramsay before you die and Master Chef tryouts are happening this weekend. In Portland, you gotta come. And I'm like, okay, yeah, why not? Let's let's try it. So long story short, I tried out for Master Chef I made it onto the show, and found myself cooking from Gordon Ramsay. And it was the craziest thing because I actually did not make it past the waiting for challenges. The Gordon really fought for me it was the other two judges that ended up voting me off. And Gordon looked at me at the end. And this was for me, this is the turning point. Gordon looks at needing a shot. It's clear that you were born to serve your community as a pastor. But it's also clear that you were born to cook and man that did something inside of me. It was like something shifted in that moment. I came back home and I'm like, maybe I'm not looking at this the right way. Maybe I've got something here that I need to pay attention to. And everything kind of you know, went from there. We found ourselves doing part time food. And now Gosh, that was 2016 that's when we film 2017 is going to air. We're now in 2024. I've been doing sued ever since.

Chris Spear:
9:37

Wow. So your life would have probably been very different. Had you just not taken that advice and gone on the show? Yeah,

Shawn Niles:
9:45

absolutely. Yep, I am. I'm a big proponent of writing down your dreams writing down your goals making sure that in fact there's a there's a verse in the Bible that has always been really important to me in the Old Testament, where one The guy who's talking and he says, Write the vision down and make it clear so that the one who reads it can run with it. And so that's always been a big deal to me. And so I took that seriously, I wrote down the things that I wanted to do, it was in 2009, that I wrote down, that I wanted to cook for Gordon Ramsay before I died. And six years after that I was scheduled for him.

Chris Spear:
10:20

And you had no idea how that was gonna happen. You just kind of put it down at something, but there was, but you didn't have any plan to kind of make it happen yourself.

Shawn Niles:
10:28

I liked the idea of TV stuff. I thought it'd be really fun to be on TV, but you know, be it from a small town in Yakima, or 100,000 people. I'm like, I'm never gonna make it on TV. So it's just kind of on a whim.

Chris Spear:
10:40

So you come back from the show? And then what did that look like? So now the spark is there, you know, you're thinking about wanting to incorporate food with ministry? What was that natural progression for you? Like, where did that start?

Shawn Niles:
10:56

Well, the first thing that we did is we, so it took about a year before I can talk about it. And so anybody that I was on the show, and right before the show came out, we were experiencing a lot of real serious violence in our city. And so I went to this as a pastor, I went to this meeting where everybody was gathered together to talk about it from the city, you had steak place in the church, be the chief of police, you have the Prosecuting Attorneys, you had the mayor, yet everybody on the stage going, Hey, what are we going to do about this. And I was sitting there listening to them talk, and then pretty soon they opened up the mic. And people came forward, and everybody's just pointing fingers and going, it's your fault. It's your fault. It's your fault. It's your fault. And something clicked inside of me as I was watching this kind of unfold, and people were, you know, understandably, really concerned, and angry. And it just kind of hit me it was like, Man, the problem is not the problem. It's that it's not my problem. And until it becomes my problem, I'm probably not going to do anything to fix this thing. That's got to be a community perspective, right? And so I'm just processing this, and this guy gets up and starts talking. He's like, man, we have a youth program that we need help. He's like, if you want to make a difference in Yakima, from serving these kids, like these are kids that are, you know, at risk. And he's like, we've got, you know, computer lab, we've got a boxing ring. He's like, we got a kitchen that nobody's using. Oh, you know, I wonder if we can do something. And so we ended up creating a program that we called Urban kitchen. And Urban kitchen was a program that we designed to be a four month program where kids come in twice a week, and they learn business and culinary skills. And at the end of the four month program, they get to run their own restaurant pop up for three nights. And they graduate with Chef code, chef knives. And that was the first thing that we did, and we had no idea whether or not it was going to work. But we had amazing community support. And it went crazy. We graduated five classes ever since that first year.

Chris Spear:
12:54

Wow. So were these kids? Did these kids have any interest in cooking when they came into it? Like, how much coaxing did it take to get them started in the program? Well, you

Shawn Niles:
13:04

know, it was really geared towards you know, if this is something that you're interested in, come check it out. We're willing to work with anybody and everybody, but you know, we'd like for you to, you know, kind of want to do this, because it's gonna be kind of serious. We're gonna really work with you. In order to do this, we were in the health department who came in, and we're training the kids. Um, and so honestly, like, we had kind of back and forth with the kids a little bit, because there was a pretty high expectation. But overall, we saw such a cool shift in these kids in that first class, especially like, I always think about that first class, because that was our starting to lay. On the last night, I had a kid who was 10 years old, he turned 11 on one of the nights of the pop up. And so he's just served. He's done an amazing job. Like, all the kids were awesome. They've over the course of a weekend, they'll serve like 180 people. And so he's walking back to the kitchen, and he's got a little sweat on his brow. And I looked at him, we'll call him Oscar. And I was like, hey, Oscar, I'm really proud of you again. And he turns around, he looks at me and he goes, I never been proud of myself before. And turned around and kept walking. And I'm like, Man, that's, that's it. That's why we're doing this thing. It was so cool. And so we've had lots of stories like that. But you know, Oscar is one of my favorite examples of that.

Chris Spear:
14:15

That's really awesome to you know, I think at that age, especially my son is 11. You know, and I don't think kids are really doing things like that, you know, there may be proud for sports, or they do well in school, but to really, you know, take ownership of something different. And to see and to see the work pay off. Absolutely.

Shawn Niles:
14:36

Well, and we really do have like you were talking about going back to the you know, sitting around a dinner table. We're not investing our time as a country. We're not investing the kind of time into kids that we really need to. And so the moment they start believing in these kids, they're ready to do anything and show you what they got. But we somehow we stopped communicating that we believe in them, and then they ended up going off and doing a whole bunch of the for another stuff that isn't so great, but man, they want to show you what they got these kids want to show you what they got.

Chris Spear:
15:05

What did you learn from the first class into subsequent classes? Like, you know, what are what are some things you got better at as the time went on?

Shawn Niles:
15:14

Organization for sure. I mean, really tried to figure out what works and what doesn't. I think we went in guns blazing. And we're like, oh, let's teach you how to fly a whole seven, you know, we're like, oh, that might be a little too much. There's a lot of fun, nobody got cut. So that was good. So organization really narrowing down what are the most important things that we can teach these kids in the limited time that we have, trying to really understand our goals and make those goals manageable. So it wasn't like, hey, we want kids who are going to run a five star restaurant, when they're done with this four month program, that's not manageable. But we do want kids who maybe they can go home, and instead of opening up a can of soup, maybe they'll create something from scratch, that is simple. But it's a lot better for them a lot better for their families, and it makes them feel like they can be proud of something that they accomplished for their family.

Chris Spear:
16:02

Did you find any issues with buy in from the families because, you know, obviously, parents are buying groceries, you know, quite often, child you know, it's learned behavior, right? Like you, what you're doing is passed on down by your parents. So you know, if you go back all excited about cooking healthy food and fresh food, but your parents are still, you know, big fans of buying premade stuff that you just microwave or whatever, there's some there's some challenge there. Did you see anything like that? Well, it's

Shawn Niles:
16:28

all you know, it's, it's financially driven to because we're working with, you know, families who may not have a lot of options. And it's just, you know, within their budget to buy those foods that are unfortunately, I mean, real chef, you get this, this is one of the most frustrating things we deal with is it is so easy to buy cheap food that is not good for you. So that's that's kind of the fight, if you will, the balance of trying to figure out how to give them good tools and understanding that they only have so many options at this point to

Chris Spear:
16:59

now did you work with other agencies, organizations in your community to kind of give like a whole approach because things like that there's education pieces, there's, you know, whether it be food assistance programs, like there's synergy with a lot of other organizations, did you work with other groups?

Shawn Niles:
17:16

Yeah, so we were mainly concerned with working with, you know, groups that were servicing kids. And so the first program that we worked with was the youth Police Activities League. Unfortunately, that program has come to an end. And so we're no longer working with them. But that opened up opportunities, we did run a restaurant for a little bit. And so we were able to have the class at our restaurant. Now we're building a relationship with our school districts, which is really exciting. They've seen the success of our program, they're going, Hey, maybe this is a great way for us to come alongside and help you guys kind of grow this thing in a different way with the support of the school districts, this is a big deal.

Chris Spear:
17:53

So what does that look like? What are you looking to do with the schools? Well, it

Shawn Niles:
17:57

looks like we're probably going to be able to utilize one of the local high schools kitchen when we launch our next class. And so that's really, really cool. Because it makes it a lot easier for the kid there's, it's a low barrier player, right? Like they can go from their class right into the kitchen for some of these kids, which is really, really good. They don't have to figure out a way to get to another location, whether it be an after school program or the restaurant. There's already that easy entry point right into the kitchen. So that's really cool. And then having the backing of the of the school district, we have more access to people who are willing to volunteer, even from within the school district and see you come alongside us for that as well. That's pretty cool.

Chris Spear:
18:42

Do you know if kids in that area like in Yakima, or their cooking classes in schools, whether it be like middle school, high school, like Are you do you know anything about what the culinary education is like in the school system right now,

Shawn Niles:
18:56

the only thing that we have right now in this area is a program through the college. It's called Wi Fi tech. And Wi Fi tech is kind of like, in between high school and college program where kids can learn different trades. And so there's a really cool guy that is shepherded up with kids in the YB tech, culinary program. And he's, he's doing some cool stuff, but he's only got him for the school day, you know, they're not doing the same things that we are, but he's doing a real like hands on, like learning approach, you know, day by day with these

Chris Spear:
19:29

kids. Like my son of both my kids actually have twins, they're in middle school right now. They're both taking foods class and they're in sixth grade. And it starts with very foundational, you know, incorporates a lot of math and things like cops like scaling from a half cocked, you know, a quarter cup to a half cup and how to do all that in the first couple weeks, just doing basic things like that, but they're getting into reading nutrition labels, and you know, like, visualizing how much sugar is in a two liter bottle of Coke. So you've got all these you know, spoons of sugar and you can see Yeah, but I think it's really good because I didn't have anything like that when I was their age, and that they're able to, you know, at a young age, and then they move into knife skills and actually preparing dishes in their classes. And it's an elective for them. I mean, a lot of kids are doing other things, but I thought that was really great that it, you know, sixth grade, they were able to get some of that stuff. And, and I think things like, measuring weighing scaling recipes is always going to be beneficial stuff, even if you're not going into the culinary field as a career.

Shawn Niles:
20:26

Absolutely. You know, that's, that's just good life stuff. For people who are just cooking at home, because they want to cook at home, you know, I Is that like the evolution of homemade now, because I know, you know, for me, it was HOMAG. Right?

Chris Spear:
20:37

Yeah. So mine was when I was in middle school, it was for, you know, you had four semesters, and you had only you had one of cooking one of sewing one of computers and one of woodshop. But you know, so it was a very short, very short, you know, like two months of that. And that's all you did, but now that they're getting full half year classes of this, and it's every single day, so it's, you know, it's five days a week for them one full period for half the year. So they're getting a pretty good overview and the food and cooking, but not just the cooking, you know, it's all the other stuff, which the kids don't necessarily always love. Like, you know, we're Oh, it's cooking, but it's math. Right?

Shawn Niles:
21:17

Right. Yep. Yeah, I actually found that I got better at math through cooking, because I'm terrible at math. Yeah,

Chris Spear:
21:24

same same. What about funding for your programs, Where's that coming from?

Shawn Niles:
21:29

As community. So we, when we did the popups, at the end, we do charge a ticket price, and the people from the community can come in and join, it's not a big ticket pricing, so it doesn't cover a lot past our expenses. Funding does come from the community. So we do fundraisers, and ask people to buy in.

Chris Spear:
21:49

So what's next for you? With this program,

Shawn Niles:
21:53

as you know, we're getting ready to launch another class, we're excited just to kind of see how it continues to grow. Um, we love keeping it very intimate, we don't need more than like, 15 kids at a time, because we want to build those relationships. Most of the time, I feel like the relationships are almost more important than anything else that we do. And that kind of leads to the reality that I think that a lot of people in trades can do this very same thing. And so if you're a barber, or if you are, you know, working as a mechanic, you know, I think there's any different number of things that you can do. I feel like you can take what we've created with this program, and you can replicate it. And do that in just about anything, because really, at the end of the day, it's about building relationships with these kids, we're not expecting them to go professional, when they're done with the program, we're giving them an opportunity to see if this is something that might stick for the rest of their lives by giving them really good tools, whether they go professional or not. So

Chris Spear:
22:48

if you share this info with anyone in any other areas of the country, like is this something that, you know, like, let's say I wanted to adopt something like this where I live? You know, yeah. Are you open to sharing that info with people?

Shawn Niles:
23:00

Absolutely. No, we're totally open to sharing it. And it's, yeah, absolutely. We've got so many programs, or we've got so many things that we do just in the culinary world, that we haven't necessarily pursued that. And but we're happy, we're really happy to share this with people who would love to replicate this in their community. It's really not that hard. It's just a matter of whether or not people are going to be able to commit the time and put it into these kids. Well,

Chris Spear:
23:26

I think you have to break it off into smaller chunks, because what you see is you know where you are today is obviously not where you started. So someone looking at that might think, Wow, this is overwhelming, but also remembering that like what you're doing right now is not where you started. And you have to kind of say like, Okay, what, like, what's one thing you can do? You know, where do you start, and then it just kind of rolls from there, hopefully?

Shawn Niles:
23:48

Well, we had a great team. I mean, that's the other side of it is the team. I should have talked about them from the beginning, because they honestly would be nowhere without the people that I started this with. One was my head chef of projects that I was that I've done. She still is my right hand. She's amazing. And she actually works in the school district now. So she was like my head chef for the program. She was she was the one who was contributing to their learning. Every single day, I was the fun guy, I was the guy coming in and encouraging him and having fun with them throwing challenges out, just being the fun face. And she was the one who was really working with the kids. And that showed Julie, and the other gentleman that joined us is a pillar in our community. You know, if you've had apples from Washington State, there's a good chance this guy had his hands on him. He's just about to turn 80 years old. His name is David Allen. And he said, Man, I want to invest in these kids. So I want to lead the business side of this. And so he developed the business side of the program, where he's teaching these kids anything from budgeting, to planning to marketing to any number of things they bring in people from all around the community, to sit with the kids and talk to them, let them ask questions and kind of brainstorm with me is an amazing man. And so that's why we were successful is I had people on my team that were willing to, you know, take a piece, take a chunk, if you will, and really go after it. Did

Chris Spear:
25:10

everyone come on at the same time? Like, did you kind of assemble your team before starting day one with the kids like you already had them in place?

Shawn Niles:
25:19

Yet? Absolutely. In fact, that was the first thing I did. After that meeting at the church that I told you about. I called them up right away. And I said, Hey, let's sit down, I got an idea. So we sat down, we brainstormed a little bit, and we went from there.

Chris Spear:
25:32

Wow, that's awesome. I applaud you for doing this. Because it's a lot of work to give your time and energy and share your talents with anyone. And I'm sure working with children is not always the easiest. I've, I've worked with my own children, I've worked with other children for things. And I think it takes a special talent to do that. You

Shawn Niles:
25:54

know, it's patience, for sure. But it's honestly, it's like I said, like, these kids are so ready to show you what they've got just because you believe in him a little bit. And so we just found the more we encourage them, the more that we loved them, the more they were willing to work and to to go for this.

Chris Spear:
26:13

And what's Bite Club? I know you have Bite Club,

Shawn Niles:
26:16

Bite Club was the next thing we did, we started Bike Club, because we're like, oh, this, you know, this thing was kind of cool. But you know, it'd be nice to make some money if we're going to do this too. And so we, we thought, hey, let's let's launch it underground dining club. I seem to be all the rage at the time, you know, you're seeing all these underground dining clubs and movies on Netflix, and people talking about this illegal way of, you know, serving food. And I'm like, Oh, I wonder if we could do it legally. Because, you know, being a pastor and, you know, doing something illegal, you know, didn't really seem to jive. You know, we, we started given that our health department calls and saying, Hey, how can we do this? And they're like, We don't know, we honestly have no idea. But we had brought them into our urban kitchen program. And they're like, you know, with this program, we do it for the kids, we love what you're doing, we're gonna help you figure this out. And so they really committed to us to help us figure out how to have a dining club, that would be a members only dining flow, where we would also be legal at the same time. So we were operating under wraps. And so we launched this thing we launched. Gosh, I think it was August 17 of August 16 of 2017. And we had 15 people show up for an event that we did in the back of a winery. And we started a five course meal. It was an absolute shit show. I don't know if I can say that on the podcast. But it was, that's exactly what it was. But it was awesome. And you know, it came together. It was more of a shit show behind the scenes than it was in front of the people, thankfully. But you have, you know, me and some of my friends that got together to do this. And we're like, we're not professional chefs, man. We're just really banking on the idea that maybe we can give people something that we're excited about. And they'll get excited about it too. And it took off. They really it took a little bit before it really began to like skyrocket. But it took off and people were like, this is cool. We've never seen something like this before in Yakima, Yakima for a long time has been considered a culinary wasteland and right about the time that we were getting started. A few other restaurants, really exciting restaurants were getting started. And so I think there was this really cool fire in people that was like, man, we're finally getting some good food around here. And so we started that. And then within a year, maybe two years, we got contacted by the World Food championships. And they said, Hey, we love your name Bike Club, like this is really cool. What do you think about you know, franchising with us, basically, and helping us develop a program for the World Food championships, that we have like a competition element to it. So Bike Club, classic, we call it where we were doing fine dining, wine pairings, you know, five course meals, it kind of morphed into the second part, which became our bike loop throwdown competitions, where we'll bring in celebrity chefs, usually chefs from another reality show. And we'll bring them in and pit them against local chefs. And they'll go over the course of three rounds, the fight against each other, and then the best chef wins. And it's really fun. It's a blast. So the World Food championships adopted that and they launched it for the first time this last year at the 2023 that we have seen.

Chris Spear:
29:17

And you with your culinary I mean, you've never formally gone to like culinary school, correct? Yeah, yep. And Hadley, you cooked in restaurants, like what's your actual culinary training and kind of like, skill set abilities, if you will? Yeah,

Shawn Niles:
29:35

this is what gets me in trouble sometimes with some people because it's like, I haven't I haven't paid my dues, if you will. And, you know, it's all been very organic. It's been having the opportunity to work with some amazing people. First of all, just the people that I you know, spend time with traveling around the country living in different places. There is really there's nothing like homegrown food. And I feel like that's really impacted my culinary point of view. And so I consider what I do global comfort food. And it's really because of those people that poured into me. But throughout the time, I've worked with some awesome people, I was invited to go and stay with Boston matura for a week in Modena and 2022. And we got to learn from him. And man, that was an absolutely amazing experience.

Chris Spear:
30:22

How did that happen?

Shawn Niles:
30:24

So they actually had heard about our culinary program for the kids. And it was right, you know, as COVID was just starting to get started. So 2020 was when they reached out for the first time, and they said, Hey, we heard about your program like Masimo, this is like his heartbeat is making a difference in the world. And we think that you would be a really cool person to come and spend some time with him and get to meet him and learn from what he's doing. And we're sure he wants to meet you. And so kind of was like, a process from there of just getting ready to go and you know, waiting for them to tell me when we're going to do it. It was a very small group of us of people for lots of different sectors of philanthropy, social justice, things like that. Or other chefs, Curtis Evers from Chicago, the Michelin chef in Chicago, he was on that trip. And so lots of different people. And we ended up going, like three years after they first contacted me, I think it was 2019, when they first reached out and set a date multiple times, but COVID kept there on and off. And it's finally got to go in May of 2022.

Chris Spear:
31:34

That must have been an absolutely amazing experience. And he seems like such a great guy, I got to meet him. Jesus was probably like, 20 1314 at a culinary culinary convention. And the amount of time that he just like took to talk to me, you know, like, I'm, in my opinion, like nobody, right? Like, there's a million world famous chefs there. And we're just like, hanging out talking about produto and his restaurant. And you know, he just seems genuinely interested in people. And we'll take the time with almost anyone to just hang out and chat with you.

Shawn Niles:
32:05

He's the kindest man, I think I learned that before I ever really experienced him. I learned that from his staff, because they absolutely adore him. And there was one night where the first night I was there, actually, I was hanging out with the staff afterwards in the back of the kitchen. And they're like, We love him. He's seriously like the best person that you'll ever be around. And hearing that is so cool. Because I mean, you know, the restaurant industry man is filled with some pretty intense characters. And, you know, for somebody to be as adored as Matt as Masimo is by his staff is pretty, pretty dang cool.

Chris Spear:
32:42

Well, and to be at that level, you know, when you're talking about the best rest, you know, world's 50 best restaurants, Michelin stars, all that stuff. You know, one thing you hear is that it takes a lot to get to that place. And a lot of times that means managing with an iron fist and having, you know, this dictatorship mentality in the kitchen, but to see and hear that there are some people who can attain that level of professional success and accolades without leading that way is inspiring, and hopefully a model that other restaurants follow in those footsteps. Yeah,

Shawn Niles:
33:13

I mean, I've kind of seen, you know, the two sides of the spectrum, because Gordon Ramsay is known for that he is the face of intense intensity in the kitchen. And then the other side is Masimo. You know, just the kindest, most genuine like easygoing do. And I love them both. I think they both are absolutely incredible. I've seen different sides of Gordon that make me understand where he's coming from and why he is the way he is. I have mad respect for him. And he's still one of my culinary heroes. But I also seen the Masimo. And I'm like, Man, this is this is two sides of the coin. And they're both really, really good sides. But

Chris Spear:
33:50

also with Gordon, so much of that is Fox and the editing. Right? You know, I mean, obviously, he does a show like MasterChef Junior where he's with kids, and he can get through multiple seasons without screaming and swearing at children, right. So you know, there's like a level of self control. And you can be a very funny, generous person. I've watched BBC documentaries on him where he's painted in a very different light. I mean, I think if you take any show and put it on Fox, it's going to spin it into this very sensational, you know, it's good TV, right? That's what they do. They're selling TV. And it just kind of sucks because that's kind of painted our industry, I think in a certain light. And there's a lot of chefs who talk about, like, how it's been bad for the culinary industry to you know, always be representing this screaming mentality and we got to kind of step away from that.

Shawn Niles:
34:35

You know, it's good for people to be able to realize this as an issue and it's something that needs to be addressed because intensities, okay, you know, volatility is not and you know, I think that you're seeing now you're seeing Gordon kind of pull back in the Mastership juniors a great example of that. They're allowing him to be a little bit more I think, the the person that he wants to be and he wants to be seen as whereas You know, in the beginning, it was a really easy way to sell the show.

Chris Spear:
35:03

Mr. Trump Jr. Do you know any of the kids who have been on that show before?

Shawn Niles:
35:07

Oh, man, you know, I happen to be connected with a young man who is going to be on the season premiere this Monday night. My son Asher is going to be on the upcoming season of MasterChef Junior. Yeah.

Chris Spear:
35:24

How did that come about? Was he So was he interested in food and cooking alongside with you is that how that kind of grew.

Shawn Niles:
35:31

So when I was on the show in 2017, Asher was, well actually, so we filmed in 2016. So Asher was, you know, almost two years old, not quite. And they surprise me by bringing him and my wife down to support me. And so he ended up being in the audience while I was cooking. And so I was seeing him the whole entire time, they got shots of him on, you know, on the show, and so that was really cool, you know, having him be on mastership with me, at you know, year and a half. That was pretty awesome. And so I when I came back, I just was like, Man, I want my kids to be in the kitchen with me as much as he wants to. And so we're gonna figure this out. So from the time that I came back, really probably starting around about two years old, he was with me in the kitchen, doing something always doing something, whatever it was. And he's been doing that with me ever since he is nine years old now. And he loves cooking. He loves a lot of things. And so he's, he's, he's got a lot of different things that he enjoys. But cooking is one of those things that has been really special for him and I. And he always said, as soon as I'm old enough, I want to try out for MasterChef Junior. And so last year, when they were doing the tryouts we came in to the tryouts right at the very end of the process. And because I had been on the show, they love the story, they thought it was really cool. This idea that, you know, seven years later, here comes you know, the fat pastor son, the fat pastor, Jr. And he's gonna, he's gonna now be on the show and cook for see if we can take it further than his dad.

Chris Spear:
36:58

Well, I'll be watching and this show will this episode will air after he's already started. So you know, I'll intro bring everyone up to speed as to where it is and what's going on. But I look forward to being able to share that with the community as well. Because yeah, we're always there to support especially the younger generation of people in the food and beverage industry.

Shawn Niles:
37:16

Love that. Love that. It's awesome.

Chris Spear:
37:18

So what about people who are maybe listening to this, and they're looking to make a difference in their community, maybe they're feeling overwhelmed, because it does seem like a huge thing to take a bite out of a bite out of, especially if they're working a full time job. You know, like me, I have my own business. But I also want to do more things. What do you have for advice? Do you have anything you can offer people?

Shawn Niles:
37:39

Well, I don't I don't think you have to start something brand new. I don't think you have to get too out of the box. I think you just have to say what am I passionate about? And how can I bring people along? I think that, you know, people all the time, I'll get people who will say like, oh, I want to learn from you like I want to connect with you, I want to I want to come you know, saj under you. And I'm like, Well, you gotta come like I'm not I don't have time to come to you. But if you can come to me, then yeah, let's do it. And I think that's the big question is how do you bring into how do you bring people into what you're already doing? Our program works. And we're really, really grateful that we started a program that you know, that people can jump into that, like you said, there are people who may be too busy for that, um, to start something brand new. So how can you just bring somebody into what you're already doing, and allow them to to be a part of that and give a little, you know, opportunities here and there and build a relationship. I think relationship is the key. And

Chris Spear:
38:32

I think not being too over. I don't know overzealous with it. I think sometimes people have the best intentions, and they come into something. And then they want to fix something that someone else is already doing. Right? Like, it's easy to say, like, Oh, my church is doing this. And then you go in, and you want to offer advice in the best way possible. But it comes off as like, I know it all, even though I don't really know it all, you know, it's like being humble is that the word humble, and just maybe just offering your services to help before you feel the need to try and fix what someone else is doing?

Shawn Niles:
39:03

Absolutely 100%, you know, we can only we can only make a difference to you know, whoever we're in front of at the moment. And as much as I would love to be able to completely change the trajectory of issues in my city. I know that I can do that by myself, number one. And number two, I know that it's going to take me and a bunch of people saying that we want to make a difference. I can't do it all myself. It doesn't make sense to try.

Chris Spear:
39:27

Well, that's good. You know, I think that's good advice for people because I'm sure there are a lot of people who just want to do something and don't know where to start. And I'd say you know, start with your local community who who needs a hand what are what are these issues and it's easy enough to find the organizations who are already doing something and maybe just jump in, even if it's like volunteering one day a week or something?

Shawn Niles:
39:46

Absolutely, yep. There's lots of opportunities.

Chris Spear:
39:50

Do you have anything you want to leave our listeners with before we get out of here today?

Shawn Niles:
39:54

You know, I think the biggest thing that has really transformed my life is understanding that I can't fix a problem until it's my problem. And so if there's things that people are, you know, paying attention to what's going on in their city, there's really something that transforms inside of us when we're able to stop pointing our fingers and start, start cooking. That's kind of what we say it says, stop complaining and start cooking. And whatever cooking looks like for you make the problem your problem, if you really want to do something about it. And then you will love that. I

Chris Spear:
40:28

think that's a great expression. Well, I appreciate having you on the show. It's been great talking to you today.

Shawn Niles:
40:34

Great talking to you, man. Thank

Chris Spear:
40:35

you so much for your time. And to all of our listeners, as always has been Chris with Chefs Without Restaurants have a great week. Over the past 30 years, the world of the personal chef has grown in importance to fulfill dining needs. While the pandemic certainly up ended the restaurant experience that allowed personal chefs to close that dining gap. Central to all of that is the United States personal chef Association, representing nearly 1000 chefs around the US and Canada. USPCA provides a strategic backbone for those chefs, including liability insurance, training, communications, certification and more. It's a reassurance to consumers that the chef coming into their home is prepared to offer them an experience with their meal. USPCA provides training to become a personal chef through our preparatory membership. Looking to showcase your products or services to our chefs in their clients. partnership opportunities are available. And there's a new member special on all membership levels. Save $25 to $75 by using promo code "spring2024". Special veteran pricing and payment plans are available. Call Angela today at 1-800-995-2138 extension 705 or email her at aprather@uspca.com for membership and partner info. You're still here, the podcast is over. If you are indeed still here. Thanks for taking the time to listen to the show. I'd love to direct you to one place and that's chefs without restaurants.org. From there, you'll be able to join our email newsletter. Get connected in our free Facebook group and join our personal chef catering and food truck database so I can help get you more job leads. And you'll also find a link to our sponsor page where you'll find products and services I love. You pay nothing additional to use these links. But I may get a small commission which helps keep the Chefs Without Restaurants podcast and organization running. You might even get a discount for using some of these links. As always, you can reach out to me on Instagram at Chefs Without Restaurants or send me an email at chefswithoutrestaurants@gmail.com, Thanks so much