Shownotes
The culinary industry is more than just creating beautiful dishes; it's a world where passion meets vulnerability, where creativity collides with chaos, and where the very people who nourish others often struggle to nourish themselves. What happens when we finally start having the conversations that matter most?
Don't you wish you had a place to go where you can drop your apron and just be you? Well now there is: Join The Chef Life Brigade Private Member Community by clicking here
In this inaugural Chef Life Radio Live event from the Mule in Asheville, North Carolina, we gather as a community to address the elephant in the kitchen: mental health, addiction, and the culture that's been shaping our industry for far too long.
From Rock Bottom to Rising Up
Chef Paul Cressend shares his raw, unfiltered journey through 27 years in the industry—from the dive bars of Nashville to the fine dining establishments of Charlotte, and ultimately to his recovery and rebirth as an entrepreneur in Asheville.
His story illuminates the reality many of us face: the functional addiction that seems acceptable until it becomes the very thing holding us back from greatness.
Paul's path through rehab, farm work, and eventually building his own private chef business, Pauliboy Enterprises, demonstrates that there's life beyond the destructive patterns we've normalized in our kitchens.
The Hurricane That Changed Everything
Hurricane Helene didn't just devastate western North Carolina physically—it stripped away the facade and revealed who we really are as a community. In the aftermath, something beautiful emerged: neighbors feeding neighbors, chefs supporting chefs, and a renewed understanding of what hospitality truly means.
Breaking the Cycle of Silence
Jennifer Hough joins the conversation to offer an outsider's perspective on the intensity that defines our industry. Her observations about the dopamine addiction cycle, the instant gratification nature of kitchen work, and the way we've learned to dismiss genuine appreciation reveal uncomfortable truths about how we operate.
The discussion tackles head-on:
- Why "thank you" becomes meaningless when you hear it constantly
- The connection between kitchen culture and addiction patterns
- How the brigade system, while effective, can perpetuate unhealthy dynamics
- The importance of having conversations before it's too late
Eight Minutes That Could Save a Life
Research shows that eight minutes of genuine conversation with someone who cares can literally change brain chemistry and pull someone back from the brink of despair. It's a simple concept with profound implications for how we show up for each other.
"This is our mess, and I consider myself part of the problem, but that's why I want to be part of the solution."
Building Something Better
This isn't just another podcast episode, it's a call to action. Whether you're a seasoned executive chef, a line cook finding your way, or someone who simply cares about the people who feed our communities, this conversation offers hope and practical steps forward.
The path to change starts with acknowledging where we are, sharing our stories without shame, and committing to being present for one another in ways that actually matter.
Ready to be part of the solution? This conversation might just change how you think about leadership, community, and what it really means to take care of each other in this beautiful, brutal industry we call home.
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Stay Tall & Frosty and Remember to Lead from the Heart,
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Transcripts
Adam M Lamb: Well
Speaker:welcome everybody to the very first chef life radio live event here
Speaker:at the meal and, I wanted to talk a little bit about why we're
Speaker:here and what we hope to achieve.
Speaker:I've been doing the podcast chef life radio since about 2006.
Speaker:And it started as a drunken love letter.
Speaker:So I was living in Canada with a woman who would become my wife.
Speaker:And of course it didn't have a work permit or anything.
Speaker:So, I thought, Oh, what do I do with my time?
Speaker:Oh, I know I'll do a podcast as if I knew what
Speaker:the hell that was about.
Speaker:And I just got done working for a year and a half at this
Speaker:beautiful resort, one of the oldest resorts in North America
Speaker:called the Homestead in Virginia.
Speaker:And, It's been the first time since I've been a sous chef
Speaker:since, I don't know, 20 years.
Speaker:I got a call, in the middle of the night.
Speaker:And, this guy says to me, Hey, hey dude, I just took over this resort.
Speaker:I really need your help.
Speaker:and I'm like, okay, in what capacity?
Speaker:Oh, well, you come be my sous chef.
Speaker:I'm like, I haven't been a sous chef in 20 years, man.
Speaker:And at that time I thought my life was taking a
Speaker:completely different direction.
Speaker:I thought, I was going to be on stage and writing books and giving
Speaker:speeches and stuff like that.
Speaker:and so I turned to my wife Jennifer and said, What the fuck?
Speaker:Like I thought my life was going this way and now all of a sudden
Speaker:it's starting to go this way.
Speaker:Is this, is this universe just fucking with me?
Speaker:And, she said, well, you'll never know unless you go on an adventure.
Speaker:And I said, what do you mean by that?
Speaker:She said, well, it's always a yes until it's a no.
Speaker:I said that it got even me more confused.
Speaker:and what she explained was, is that when something shows
Speaker:up in your life, you can either continue to follow the
Speaker:thread or you can just bail.
Speaker:And by continuing to follow the thread, you'll find out whether
Speaker:it's a yes or whether it's a no.
Speaker:And so what I knew was within seven days, I was interviewed,
Speaker:processed on property in uniform in my rental apartment ready to go.
Speaker:And so I said, well, shit, I guess this is a yes.
Speaker:Which didn't make any sense at the time because, my wife was living in
Speaker:Florida and I'm living in Virginia.
Speaker:I'm like, this doesn't feel right.
Speaker:what I discovered in kind of stamping my feet a little bit and
Speaker:being a little bitch, Jennifer said, listen, why don't you just be where
Speaker:you're at and have what you have?
Speaker:Just be where you're at.
Speaker:Pour yourself into it.
Speaker:I love you.
Speaker:I'm not going anywhere.
Speaker:Everything's gonna be fine.
Speaker:Just fully be present.
Speaker:And what I discovered was that I had kind of a, Hidden superpower
Speaker:that I'd never discovered before.
Speaker:As you're a chef, or as you become a chef, and you start
Speaker:managing people, you recognize that, heavy sits the crown.
Speaker:Like, you bear everything.
Speaker:And, it wasn't until I became a sous -chef again that I
Speaker:was relieved of that duty.
Speaker:That I recognized that one of my superpowers was to just go
Speaker:around and have conversations with people all day long.
Speaker:So typically 125 staff members, 7 kitchens, 12 outlets.
Speaker:I spent most of my day running around from outlet to outlet
Speaker:after the chef had come through and pissed everybody off.
Speaker:And then I would come in there and just kind of chill everybody out.
Speaker:And so that's why I discovered it'd be having a
Speaker:thousand conversations a day.
Speaker:So I had a lot of affinity for those folks that I was missing.
Speaker:And so I started this podcast.
Speaker:As I said, it was a drunken love letter, back to
Speaker:the people that I missed.
Speaker:And along the way, I recognized That maybe this mode of communication
Speaker:might have a different use.
Speaker:So, I started with a question which was, Two chefs given equal
Speaker:skill sets, why do some cooks follow one and then not the other?
Speaker:And they always say, Oh, well, it's because he's a great leader here.
Speaker:She is a great leader.
Speaker:And I never knew what that meant.
Speaker:I'm like, that doesn't really tell me anything.
Speaker:I need to know their ways of being so that I can model that.
Speaker:Like, do they turn left?
Speaker:Do they turn right?
Speaker:Do they do this?
Speaker:Do they do that?
Speaker:If I can see that, then I can model it.
Speaker:And in my own mind, become a better leader.
Speaker:And so I've been on this journey ever since then of
Speaker:trying to discover what it is that makes really powerful.
Speaker:culinary leaders because I'd spent most of my life
Speaker:working under shitty ones.
Speaker:So, those of you in the audience who've been there probably can
Speaker:recognize that statement because unfortunately most of my life I've
Speaker:learned by not doing the same thing that others had done because they
Speaker:just shown up as being either very autocratic or dismissive or worse.
Speaker:and I was lucky enough to have been graced with the feminine.
Speaker:In my career.
Speaker:So my very first executive chef job, I had a sous chef.
Speaker:That was a woman who bailed me out so many times.
Speaker:It wasn't even funny and it seemed like everywhere I was,
Speaker:there was a woman of consequence in a position of authority so
Speaker:that I got to really appreciate the difference that they make
Speaker:in an environment, especially in the hospitality industry where,
Speaker:and so I think it's kind of hysterical that most folks, when
Speaker:they think of chefs now, they think of, you know, men in authority.
Speaker:When in fact, it's a, just the process of making food for someone
Speaker:else is a very nurturing process.
Speaker:So some might say it's a very feminine act.
Speaker:Now, I probably get, that when we were in caves, you know, the women
Speaker:took care of that kind of stuff while the men were out hunting.
Speaker:I don't know when it switched between it being something that was
Speaker:specifically for the feminine and now the men have horned in and the
Speaker:women got to play second fiddle.
Speaker:you'll find that I have some very strong opinions about mental health
Speaker:and wellness in our industry, about, equality and, equality of opportunity.
Speaker:If not equity, like it's still one of the last meritocracies
Speaker:in the world and you work hard, you should be able to rise.
Speaker:And yet there's still kind of a white wall of silence that
Speaker:goes on with some institutions and some chefs where it makes
Speaker:it very difficult for people of color or people of different
Speaker:identities to attain positions of authority, but be that as it may.
Speaker:So I moved here in about seven, eight years ago.
Speaker:And I was working outside of the city.
Speaker:So, my wife and I moved into a house in Alexander, and after we
Speaker:closed on the house, I left to do a three -month stint in Austin, and
Speaker:she moved into the house by herself.
Speaker:So, most often, even though I'm living here, I'm
Speaker:doing gigs everywhere else.
Speaker:And then the hurricane came, and, you know, a year plus,
Speaker:couple months, and I had lived in Florida for 25 years and
Speaker:experienced five hurricanes, and it didn't occur to me until I
Speaker:came up here that Florida's flat.
Speaker:So when a hurricane comes, all you need to do is hold your breath and
Speaker:it's over in four and a half hours.
Speaker:Here, When a hurricane Helene came that Thursday, I was downtown
Speaker:having a glass of wine with a friend of mine and I saw the shops
Speaker:closed up and I'm like, come on, what do you have been through?
Speaker:Come on, I've been through hurricanes.
Speaker:This ain't gonna be nothing and went home that night and woke up
Speaker:in the next morning and went out to the back, back porch and saw this
Speaker:enormous tree just start dancing.
Speaker:And I thought for sure it was going to come down on the house.
Speaker:And so, I wasn't prepared for what I can only describe as the violence
Speaker:of the storm as it coursed up and down the valleys in the, Swannanoa.
Speaker:And we're about a half a mile from French Broad River and two miles
Speaker:from a little town, Marshall, right?
Speaker:we're right down the river from Marshall.
Speaker:My
Speaker:world got really, really small for about four or five days.
Speaker:My wife was out of town, it was just me and the dog, and
Speaker:pretty soon we were confined to like the space around the sofa.
Speaker:And that's where our lives existed for four or five days
Speaker:until the power came back on.
Speaker:Meanwhile, my wife is in Florida, or in California, going through all
Speaker:the feeds and getting all worked up, wondering why she can't get a hold
Speaker:of me, and I'm just like, kind of very, very small in that moment.
Speaker:And it took something out of me, like, I would say that
Speaker:prior to that, I was full of bravado and ready to try almost
Speaker:anything, and that storm kind of left me wondering what role
Speaker:did I fit into the community?
Speaker:Now, previous to that, I'd been with a worthy organization here in
Speaker:Asheville called Journeyman, that group mentors, Boys age 12 to 18
Speaker:into becoming men of integrity on that would look like twice a year,
Speaker:taking them up to a mountain and stripping away all their possessions
Speaker:and then doing a sacred theater, and enacting their own hero's journey.
Speaker:And that, to me, was a really, really powerful experience, and
Speaker:helped me integrate into a community that I really wanted to
Speaker:be a part of, meaning Asheville.
Speaker:And as I explained before, most of my work experience had been
Speaker:outside, so I was trying to figure out how to land what I do here.
Speaker:And so I was welcomed into that organization.
Speaker:And I remember how good that felt, you know, being in service
Speaker:to boys, you know, typically it'd be maybe 12 to 16 boys
Speaker:and 60 men on this mountaintop.
Speaker:and they're brought in, in the middle of the night
Speaker:after they've been sitting in a clearing for four hours.
Speaker:And as the sun starts dipping down, all of a sudden they
Speaker:could hear the drums beating and the drums keep beating and get
Speaker:louder and louder and louder.
Speaker:And then they're brought into this circle.
Speaker:initiated elders.
Speaker:And so there's a lot of mysticism, not only in that act of standing
Speaker:for these boys, but I think that's rooted here in Western North Carolina
Speaker:in the oldest mountain range in the world, with a history of
Speaker:indigenous culture that goes far back than, any of us really consider.
Speaker:So after Helene, I was trying to figure out what to do, like how
Speaker:do I, again, kind of reintegrate myself into the community.
Speaker:And it just so happened that another men's meeting... I hadn't been out
Speaker:for a year after the hurricane.
Speaker:I'd just gotten through a really significant back surgery.
Speaker:And so, I'm like two years out of it.
Speaker:And I see an ad for a men's group organization that's gonna
Speaker:be meeting at the Mule, which I'd never been to before.
Speaker:And I got here and walked inside and I turned around and I saw the
Speaker:stage and I knew, This is a place where I wanted to do this live
Speaker:podcast show that I've been thinking about for a long, long time.
Speaker:during and after Helene, you know, most of the housing that
Speaker:was lost was, you know, low -income to middle -income housing.
Speaker:That was all our dishwashers, our servers.
Speaker:I remember a newspaper article with a guy from, General manager
Speaker:of Mellow Mushroom downtown saying like, yeah, we can open up.
Speaker:We just can't serve you because there's nobody around.
Speaker:There's nobody to fill those positions that we didn't
Speaker:really pay attention to.
Speaker:But having grown up in the industry, I recognize that
Speaker:those who are in service to us very often kind of fall.
Speaker:Out of our site, the dishwasher's in the pit and he's doing his
Speaker:job, and he's the last thing we think about until, of course,
Speaker:he calls out and then we have to work in the dish pit.
Speaker:So, I thought, what a unique opportunity to take what I do,
Speaker:which is do this podcast, bring it home to Asheville, North Carolina,
Speaker:to the Mule, and use it as a way to not only promote some of
Speaker:the things that we're doing here as a hospitality community, but
Speaker:also, to talk about some of the issues that have been going on.
Speaker:And I'm pretty sure that there's going to be some solutions and
Speaker:things that we've discovered here in conversation that is going to
Speaker:serve other communities out there.
Speaker:So it's part promotion, part support, and all hospitality.
Speaker:So I'm really happy that you guys are here.
Speaker:So thank you very much for being here.
Speaker:And since it's the first thing, the first show is, never as
Speaker:much as you want it to be and sometimes less than what you
Speaker:hope, but that doesn't matter because we're here together and
Speaker:that's the beginning of community.
Speaker:So thanks.
Speaker:I appreciate what for whatever reason you came out.
Speaker:I'm grateful that you're here.
Speaker:and with that, I want to invite up, Paul Crescent Jr. Paul, he's got
Speaker:a really interesting story for us.
Speaker:Paul, sit down.
Speaker:Make sure that your mic is on.
Speaker:Go ahead.
Paulie Cressend:Hello.
Paulie Cressend:Adam M Lamb: Yeah, there you go.
Paulie Cressend:Hi.
Paulie Cressend:Adam M Lamb: So, Pollyboy Enterprises.
Paulie Cressend:Yeah.
Paulie Cressend:Adam M Lamb: Sound
Paulie Cressend:Okay.
Paulie Cressend:Make it loud.
Paulie Cressend:Adam M Lamb: Polly,
Paulie Cressend:Yeah.
Paulie Cressend:We
Paulie Cressend:Adam M Lamb: were having a little conversation, earlier, and I thought
Paulie Cressend:it was important to bring you up on stage because you're one
Paulie Cressend:of the reasons that we're here.
Paulie Cressend:I mean, not you personally, but certainly, why not?
Paulie Cressend:Sure,
Paulie Cressend:Adam M Lamb: So, give us some idea of, where you've been,
Paulie Cressend:what you've been doing.
Paulie Cressend:originally I, grew up born and raised
Paulie Cressend:in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Paulie Cressend:not a fan of hurricanes, but been through quite a few as
Paulie Cressend:well, it's the hurricane season.
Paulie Cressend:Yeah.
Paulie Cressend:very familiar with it.
Paulie Cressend:Anyway, My chef career, cooking career started in Nashville,
Paulie Cressend:Tennessee, back in the late 90s, about 27 years ago.
Paulie Cressend:I earned my chops there.
Paulie Cressend:I just started hanging out at dive bars and sports bars.
Paulie Cressend:And then I was thinking about, you know what, I'm going to try cooking.
Paulie Cressend:And me and some friends started having house parties.
Paulie Cressend:Adam M Lamb: Right.
Paulie Cressend:I was cooking gumbo and red beans and rice, like, I'm
Paulie Cressend:not sure how I knew how to do it, but being in my grandmother's kitchen
Paulie Cressend:as a little kid and the oldest grandson, helping her out constantly
Paulie Cressend:kind of just stuck with me.
Paulie Cressend:And people were telling me, man, this is really good.
Paulie Cressend:This is crazy.
Paulie Cressend:This is like what we have when we go to new Orleans
Paulie Cressend:It reminds us of new Orleans.
Paulie Cressend:It's like you should work in a restaurant, you should
Paulie Cressend:go to culinary school.
Paulie Cressend:And Eventually, like I said, I started working in those sports
Paulie Cressend:bars and dive bars just to get my feet wet and see what, you
Paulie Cressend:know, see what the grind was all about, see what the buzz was.
Paulie Cressend:Kind of felt good that I was doing something different and I had a
Paulie Cressend:little bit more independence and I had a little bit more of, power.
Paulie Cressend:direction of where I want to take my life because I was in my mid
Paulie Cressend:20s at that time and I still was kind of Flipping around ideas.
Paulie Cressend:I didn't even go to culinary school.
Paulie Cressend:I went to modeling college and
Paulie Cressend:Adam M Lamb: modeling college
Paulie Cressend:graduated Professional model, but not like the runway
Paulie Cressend:miles, you know, like catalog and prep work and stuff like
Paulie Cressend:Adam M Lamb: that, right?
Paulie Cressend:Oh,
Paulie Cressend:Adam M Lamb: you see your hands.
Paulie Cressend:Yeah,
Paulie Cressend:Adam M Lamb: your lower calf, right with the
Paulie Cressend:sock on
Paulie Cressend:Get the collar
Paulie Cressend:Adam M Lamb: Come
Paulie Cressend:So that was kind of like the turning point for me.
Paulie Cressend:And that's when, the food network became big.
Paulie Cressend:Anthony Bourdain's first TV show came on there and that
Paulie Cressend:kind of just grabbed me.
Paulie Cressend:And of course, like he said, you know, he's like, Don't don't become
Paulie Cressend:a cook so you can get on tv and that's exactly what I tried to do
Paulie Cressend:And then he said, you know, you're probably not gonna it's probably
Paulie Cressend:not gonna happen And you know, I realized he was totally right, but
Paulie Cressend:I wanted to get better I wanted to move on and I wanted to see
Paulie Cressend:what fine dining was all about I started working with some fine
Paulie Cressend:dining restaurants chef operated and owned places in nashville a
Paulie Cressend:couple of these places Folks were like, Culinary Institute of America
Paulie Cressend:graduates, French Culinary Institute, International School of Culinary
Paulie Cressend:Arts or something like that.
Paulie Cressend:They're very well -established places and, so they, they taught me
Paulie Cressend:a lot and I learned the rules.
Paulie Cressend:I learned, what they were taught in culinary school, basically.
Paulie Cressend:So I did that for a while, and I ended up moving back to
Paulie Cressend:Louisiana for a change of scenery.
Paulie Cressend:I, I can get into it later, but there was in Nashville, the,
Paulie Cressend:the culture and I guess, well, everywhere the culture kind of
Paulie Cressend:started to get to me where it was always okay to go out and
Paulie Cressend:party after your shift was over.
Paulie Cressend:Oh yeah,
Paulie Cressend:Adam M Lamb: yeah
Paulie Cressend:So I became an alcoholic and a drug addict.
Paulie Cressend:And, I was still getting the job done.
Paulie Cressend:I was making it and happening, but there was a wall.
Paulie Cressend:I couldn't go further than where I was
Paulie Cressend:Adam M Lamb: people
Paulie Cressend:wouldn't let me learn more or become more than what I
Paulie Cressend:was because they didn't want me to become a liability to their business
Paulie Cressend:because I was, you know, I was more interested in the party after work.
Paulie Cressend:Adam M Lamb: So you're saying that the people that you work
Paulie Cressend:for understood that you were a liability and would only let you
Paulie Cressend:go so far because they knew.
Paulie Cressend:At some point you were going to burn it and they
Paulie Cressend:didn't want to be around
Paulie Cressend:when
Paulie Cressend:Adam M Lamb: that bomb went off.
Paulie Cressend:And I was pretty much, yeah, I was self -destructing
Paulie Cressend:slowly but surely, burning out.
Paulie Cressend:Adam M Lamb: I don't know anybody else in this room
Paulie Cressend:that's, it was like that.
Paulie Cressend:And, my dad and my step mom had, moved
Paulie Cressend:to Northwest Louisiana.
Paulie Cressend:They opened up a business.
Paulie Cressend:I had some cousins that they were sharing a business
Paulie Cressend:with and they took it over.
Paulie Cressend:So I moved there for six years.
Paulie Cressend:Again, I just wanted to start over.
Paulie Cressend:I felt like I was turning a new leaf, started working with
Paulie Cressend:some of the best restaurants in Shreveport, Bossier City area.
Paulie Cressend:Some of these chefs, I wanted to go to Europe and train like in Italy
Paulie Cressend:or France and get a job there.
Paulie Cressend:But I found a chef from Sicily who opened up his own
Paulie Cressend:restaurant and he spent a million dollars on the kitchen alone.
Paulie Cressend:Adam M Lamb: So
Paulie Cressend:I snuck in there as fast as I could.
Paulie Cressend:I waited for like a month for this guy and he finally called me back.
Paulie Cressend:He's like, I see you have like, you got like 12 years
Paulie Cressend:of experience in kitchens.
Paulie Cressend:You want to come hang out and tell me if you like this?
Paulie Cressend:And I was like the only guy in the kitchen who was fluent in English.
Paulie Cressend:Everybody was speaking Spanish or Italian or both at the same time.
Paulie Cressend:And I was, so this was like, The international experience I
Paulie Cressend:wanted the culinary experience and this guy has been cooking
Paulie Cressend:for 50 years and he was kicking my ass and, I was loving it.
Paulie Cressend:one thing led to another.
Paulie Cressend:I started hopping from job to job to job.
Paulie Cressend:And, then I moved to Charlotte in 2015.
Paulie Cressend:Adam M Lamb: Right.
Paulie Cressend:Again, I'm running from problems.
Paulie Cressend:I'm running from my own self.
Paulie Cressend:Right.
Paulie Cressend:Can't get away from that, obviously.
Paulie Cressend:got to Charlotte, started working with some big wigs, some very nice
Paulie Cressend:people who I'm still friends with, and they offered me, you know, they
Paulie Cressend:said if you ever come back, if you need a place or a job or something
Paulie Cressend:like that, you'll give us a call.
Paulie Cressend:So, I was still working through, all the kitchen positions.
Paulie Cressend:it didn't matter to me what kind of job I got.
Paulie Cressend:I just wanted to learn as much as I could.
Paulie Cressend:And luckily by graces of the higher powers that be, it's
Paulie Cressend:like the one thing that I
Paulie Cressend:always wanted that is like, I just want to keep learning more, you
Paulie Cressend:know, better and better and better.
Paulie Cressend:And the memory, my memories, it never left my memory.
Paulie Cressend:Like everything I learned was just like sticking to me like glue.
Paulie Cressend:Adam M Lamb: Right.
Paulie Cressend:Especially how not to be and how not
Paulie Cressend:to lead a kitchen, right?
Paulie Cressend:And how not to, people like dirt.
Paulie Cressend:Adam M Lamb: Yeah, don't be a dick.
Paulie Cressend:Yeah.
Paulie Cressend:Adam M Lamb: Just don't be a dick.
Paulie Cressend:same thing, right?
Paulie Cressend:You know, and there was times, especially the first job I had in
Paulie Cressend:Charlotte, I stayed in that kitchen, who was dominated by women, owned,
Paulie Cressend:the restaurant was owned by the pastry chef, she was, you know.
Paulie Cressend:75 percent of the kitchen was women.
Paulie Cressend:They were all fantastic.
Paulie Cressend:They were all badasses.
Paulie Cressend:They're all tough.
Paulie Cressend:I mean, they're, yeah, they're like, you know, we, they would get cut
Paulie Cressend:and burned and, you laugh it off.
Paulie Cressend:and I would sit there and be like, do you want to put a
Paulie Cressend:bandage on that or something?
Paulie Cressend:And they're just, you know, growling at me, you know, like,
Paulie Cressend:Adam M Lamb: get
Paulie Cressend:out of the way.
Paulie Cressend:Adam M Lamb: they have to be tougher than us.
Paulie Cressend:Yeah.
Paulie Cressend:Adam M Lamb: Right.
Paulie Cressend:they can't show any weakness whatsoever or
Paulie Cressend:everybody will shit on them.
Paulie Cressend:Or at least that's the way it used to be.
Paulie Cressend:And, I learned, like, the nurturing part, that part, you
Paulie Cressend:know, it's like, I want to feed people, I want, I want people to
Paulie Cressend:enjoy food, and I want, you know, them to know the story behind it,
Paulie Cressend:and maybe, you know, where did it come from, where, where did
Paulie Cressend:this dish come from, where did...
Paulie Cressend:Adam M Lamb: Listen, we just met, but what I can tell
Paulie Cressend:about you right now is that you're a very sensitive person.
Paulie Cressend:And the reason I know that is because of what you
Paulie Cressend:chose to do with your life.
Paulie Cressend:Right.
Paulie Cressend:Anybody in the audience who's been in this industry, I can
Paulie Cressend:say emphatically to you that you are a kind, considerate, sensitive
Paulie Cressend:human being, because no other person would be drawn to this
Paulie Cressend:industry, except for us, you know, to subvert our own needs.
Paulie Cressend:In service of someone else that says something.
Paulie Cressend:I don't necessarily know if it says something good.
Paulie Cressend:but I do know that, you know, I've seen a lot of people doing the
Paulie Cressend:pee pee dance on the line just to get that one more plate out before
Paulie Cressend:they have to go to the bathroom because they're thinking about someone
Paulie Cressend:else as opposed to themselves.
Paulie Cressend:And what I know is that taken to an unhealthy degree, putting
Paulie Cressend:yourself at the bottom of the totem pole, you end up
Paulie Cressend:there
Paulie Cressend:Adam M Lamb: for a while, right?
Paulie Cressend:Right.
Paulie Cressend:Adam M Lamb: So what brought you to Asheville?
Paulie Cressend:It was the 21st of October in 2017.
Paulie Cressend:my mom came here to evacuate Hurricane Katrina.
Paulie Cressend:she and a roommate, had land in, or, her roommate had a
Paulie Cressend:house, a property in Weaverville.
Paulie Cressend:They liked it so much that they stayed.
Paulie Cressend:They went back and salvaged what they could, brought it up here.
Paulie Cressend:My sister, little sister, she showed up about six years later,
Paulie Cressend:met a boyfriend, now have a, they have a 11 -year -old daughter,
Paulie Cressend:my niece, and, You know, then I was thinking, well, it's only
Paulie Cressend:two hours away from Charlotte.
Paulie Cressend:I want to change the scenery and see what Asheville's like.
Paulie Cressend:And I, when I got here, What I thought it would be like was
Paulie Cressend:nothing like what it would be like.
Paulie Cressend:Adam M Lamb: what'd you think it was going to be like?
Paulie Cressend:I thought it was going to be like Beverly Hills.
Paulie Cressend:Really?
Paulie Cressend:I thought it was going to be like the Beverly Hills of North Carolina.
Paulie Cressend:Bougie.
Paulie Cressend:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Paulie Cressend:And you know, I just, I heard it was like the Paris of the South.
Paulie Cressend:Oh shit.
Paulie Cressend:I didn't, I didn't know anything about the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Paulie Cressend:I was still like just consumed with.
Paulie Cressend:And so
Paulie Cressend:Adam M Lamb: what struck you when you first got here?
Paulie Cressend:the actual reason I came here was to
Paulie Cressend:go to rehab and get help.
Paulie Cressend:I went and worked in, Candler on a farm for the first nine months.
Paulie Cressend:I was after rehab.
Paulie Cressend:It was a really nice place.
Paulie Cressend:So I learned how to do farming and manage some greenhouses They
Paulie Cressend:wouldn't let me get in the kitchen.
Paulie Cressend:They said, we're not putting you in the comfort zone.
Paulie Cressend:We're not putting you in there.
Paulie Cressend:Adam M Lamb: get journeyman wouldn't either because they said, no,
Paulie Cressend:though that's your safe place.
Paulie Cressend:You don't
Paulie Cressend:Adam M Lamb: get, you don't get to have your safe.
Paulie Cressend:Yeah, we're going to train you.
Paulie Cressend:We're going to put you on it.
Paulie Cressend:We're going to give you a job that you never had before.
Paulie Cressend:And then we're going to learn how to do farm work
Paulie Cressend:and, sleep here, work here.
Paulie Cressend:You're going to get paid minimum wage, but, we're going
Paulie Cressend:to get you back on your feet so you can go back out into
Paulie Cressend:society and start working again and do what you want to do.
Paulie Cressend:I thought the first impressions, I think, were just...
Paulie Cressend:Like outside.
Paulie Cressend:Wow.
Paulie Cressend:I mean, for the greenery and the people were saying that, you know,
Paulie Cressend:it's kind of like a rain forest and the mountains kind of there.
Paulie Cressend:Adam M Lamb: Yeah.
Paulie Cressend:Very rich soil, man.
Paulie Cressend:Wow.
Paulie Cressend:Yeah.
Paulie Cressend:taking my first ride Blue Ridge Parkway, you know, down
Paulie Cressend:there on the, on this bus and then just riding through there
Paulie Cressend:with the people that live on the farm just to go to town.
Paulie Cressend:It was like, you know, it's pretty amazing.
Paulie Cressend:It just, I felt a lot more at peace
Paulie Cressend:Adam M Lamb: when
Paulie Cressend:I started just seeing more and more of the
Paulie Cressend:town and then going downtown.
Paulie Cressend:my first job here was at corner kitchen.
Paulie Cressend:I didn't realize it was corner kitchen.
Paulie Cressend:The busiest kitchen in town after being out of the game
Paulie Cressend:for a year, hopping back in like that and starting 50 hour
Paulie Cressend:weeks that didn't last too long.
Paulie Cressend:But they were like I said, there's some of those folks there to or,
Paulie Cressend:I still keep in touch with, I've seen Joe and, you know, recently
Paulie Cressend:and everything's going well.
Paulie Cressend:I've been back twice since, the place reopened after the hurricane.
Paulie Cressend:I see a lot of resilience.
Paulie Cressend:I see a lot of similarities to reactions and actions from people
Paulie Cressend:here that people from New Orleans when natural disasters strike.
Paulie Cressend:I see, I like the way the community pulled together.
Paulie Cressend:I like the way that people are helping and reaching out
Paulie Cressend:and it was just amazing.
Paulie Cressend:It was more, of a wholesome feeling, you know?
Paulie Cressend:More of a, family outside of family kind of thing.
Paulie Cressend:Adam M Lamb: less transactional than most places, right?
Paulie Cressend:Yeah, like, when 2020 happened, people didn't know
Paulie Cressend:where to go, didn't know what to do, and I started writing stuff
Paulie Cressend:down, writing down a business plan, writing down a plan, I've never been
Paulie Cressend:an executive chef at a restaurant.
Paulie Cressend:I never had my own restaurant.
Paulie Cressend:so I wrote down what it would be like and what I think it
Paulie Cressend:would be like if I was to do this because it's like one of
Paulie Cressend:the only positions I never held and, and I want to do it.
Paulie Cressend:And 2021,
Paulie Cressend:2020, early 2021, I was at Rosa B's.
Paulie Cressend:it was there right when the doors opened in 2020 when you could,
Paulie Cressend:it was still like takeout only.
Paulie Cressend:Adam M Lamb: coming off COVID.
Paulie Cressend:yeah, coming out of COVID.
Paulie Cressend:And, started doing pop -ups.
Paulie Cressend:I started becoming, more and more acquainted with not
Paulie Cressend:only other restaurants, but restaurant owners, chef owners,
Paulie Cressend:all the independent restaurant owners and stuff like that.
Paulie Cressend:A lot, Air, you know, the Air Asheville people, and...
Paulie Cressend:Adam M Lamb: Asheville Independent Restaurant Association.
Paulie Cressend:Yeah.
Paulie Cressend:Adam M Lamb: Who we're connected with as well.
Paulie Cressend:And there was also a really great group that's nationwide
Paulie Cressend:called Ben's Friends, for all
Paulie Cressend:Adam M Lamb: Ben's Friends, one of the leading organization.
Paulie Cressend:It's a peer to peer self help for primarily alcoholics,
Paulie Cressend:but for sure it's got a big presence here in Nashville.
Paulie Cressend:Yeah.
Paulie Cressend:And, so that all connected, I get connected with all of them and then
Paulie Cressend:now it just becomes a community.
Paulie Cressend:It's like I go to these functions and instead of me lately,
Paulie Cressend:I've been talking to more.
Paulie Cressend:So it's been talking to restaurant owners and chef restaurant owners.
Paulie Cressend:Then I have actually been talking to like the cooks and the servers
Paulie Cressend:and the bartenders and it just more and more, like I said, from earlier
Paulie Cressend:on is remembering what I wanted.
Paulie Cressend:And you know, like, Twenty -seven years ago in 1998.
Paulie Cressend:Yeah, I want my own, I want to travel the world.
Paulie Cressend:I want to eat all over the world.
Paulie Cressend:I want to go out there and drink all over the world.
Paulie Cressend:I'm not drinking anymore, obviously.
Paulie Cressend:This is a very good mocktail, by the way.
Paulie Cressend:This is like, this is like... I'm in love with that shirt
Paulie Cressend:right now, but, so 2021, I just started cooking for people at
Paulie Cressend:their house, and just slowly start building a presence on social
Paulie Cressend:media, throughout the restaurant.
Paulie Cressend:People that knew me were, some people were letting me do pop -ups
Paulie Cressend:here and there, like at the hound.
Paulie Cressend:I did a pop -up at Bob anon.
Paulie Cressend:I started, people would call me and reaching out to me just,
Paulie Cressend:and it just kind of slowly kind of snowballed into This.
Paulie Cressend:Little business where I can, like, I, I can,
Paulie Cressend:Adam M Lamb: More of a personal chef than you
Paulie Cressend:Yeah, yeah, and I, like, I'm writing
Paulie Cressend:my own schedules, like, I
Paulie Cressend:Adam M Lamb: have
Paulie Cressend:I don't have a job to go to today,
Paulie Cressend:so I better find work.
Paulie Cressend:And I was like, well, what do I have to do?
Paulie Cressend:I have to market, I have to advertise, I have to... No one's
Paulie Cressend:here to help me do this, I'm just doing it all by myself,
Paulie Cressend:Adam M Lamb: Right, discovering it on your
Paulie Cressend:yeah, and I just realized, I'm learning
Paulie Cressend:a whole new set of skills.
Paulie Cressend:Adam M Lamb: Yeah.
Paulie Cressend:this is like, I realized now, you know,
Paulie Cressend:cooking is the part I do best.
Paulie Cressend:And that's only 25 percent of what I've got to do.
Paulie Cressend:Adam M Lamb: Because now you're a
Paulie Cressend:business
Paulie Cressend:Adam M Lamb: owner.
Paulie Cressend:So, it's been great.
Paulie Cressend:And, you know, next week I'm going to be visiting Mexico for
Paulie Cressend:the third time in five years.
Paulie Cressend:And I've been to like, I've been to like 15 countries in the past
Paulie Cressend:five years because I've brought myself to that point where I work.
Paulie Cressend:So I can go travel and that's like my main thing.
Paulie Cressend:I have a good support system around me and I found now mountain biz
Paulie Cressend:works, gave me a business coach.
Paulie Cressend:They've enrolled me in a program to help me find the
Paulie Cressend:funds, the lending people, the money to get a restaurant open.
Paulie Cressend:they have so many of my other now friends who also have successful
Paulie Cressend:businesses and restaurants in town.
Paulie Cressend:when the hurricane happened and everything, it was more,
Paulie Cressend:so I just kind of snapped back into survival mode.
Paulie Cressend:Adam M Lamb: Yeah.
Paulie Cressend:What do we do?
Paulie Cressend:We,
Paulie Cressend:Adam M Lamb: and
Paulie Cressend:we were, I'm a mile and a half away from here,
Paulie Cressend:and, my neighborhood was pretty much spared, except for some trees
Paulie Cressend:falling down and some road blockage.
Paulie Cressend:Adam M Lamb: Good.
Paulie Cressend:Like that little intersection where the Walgreens and
Paulie Cressend:the tunnel road and the Wendy's.
Paulie Cressend:I'm a mile away from that.
Paulie Cressend:I woke up at three in the morning.
Paulie Cressend:I'm looking across the street at these giant oak trees
Paulie Cressend:behind my neighbor's house and they're bending over sideways.
Paulie Cressend:I just thought they were going to come out of the ground
Paulie Cressend:and go straight through their house and then into ours.
Paulie Cressend:But none of that happened and it was just, yeah, it's still there.
Paulie Cressend:what are we going to do now?
Paulie Cressend:Adam M Lamb: so what are we going to do now?
Paulie Cressend:So now you're about building back your private chef business.
Paulie Cressend:You're working on business plans.
Paulie Cressend:Yeah.
Paulie Cressend:I had, plenty of events and private chef gigs, bachelorette parties,
Paulie Cressend:bachelor parties from October to December last year, all got canceled.
Paulie Cressend:I had to give back deposits.
Paulie Cressend:so I had no money coming in.
Paulie Cressend:I was just pretty much pushing out money that was there in the first
Paulie Cressend:place because I had deposits and had jobs to do coming up lined up.
Paulie Cressend:and like everybody else, I applied for a bunch of grants,
Paulie Cressend:a bunch of, funds to help.
Paulie Cressend:But since I didn't have a location for my business, I
Paulie Cressend:couldn't get FEMA because I live with somebody, my landlord.
Paulie Cressend:I live with my landlord, which is really cool because he was
Paulie Cressend:being really tolerant about the rent and everything like that.
Paulie Cressend:He's also in the industry, which is, another good thing to have.
Paulie Cressend:I had a wedding that day too.
Paulie Cressend:I was going to do a grazing table for a hundred people and all that
Paulie Cressend:food was in the house and, needless to say, we had a block party.
Paulie Cressend:We put bonfires in the street and I fed the neighbors for
Paulie Cressend:the next couple of days.
Paulie Cressend:Adam M Lamb: That's awesome.
Paulie Cressend:We shared meals together with people
Paulie Cressend:we never talked to yet.
Paulie Cressend:And it's just, you know, and it was a great way
Paulie Cressend:Adam M Lamb: to start a conversation.
Paulie Cressend:it was a great way to start a conversation.
Paulie Cressend:Yeah.
Paulie Cressend:You guys want something to eat?
Paulie Cressend:I got like sausages, a bunch of cheese, it's like, but yeah, you
Paulie Cressend:know, so again, it was really, remarkable and I, I will never,
Paulie Cressend:you know, as bad off as I thought it was and some of my, you know,
Paulie Cressend:people who've never been through that kind of situation before,
Paulie Cressend:you know, I was still, I have to remain grateful and that, that it
Paulie Cressend:didn't get any worse and that, you know, we made, you know, we did
Paulie Cressend:what we had to do when we had, we didn't have water for almost
Paulie Cressend:two months coming in and we didn't have electricity for 10 days.
Paulie Cressend:We managed and, My two roommates at the time, but one went to Charlotte
Paulie Cressend:because he had friends there and he didn't want to deal with anything.
Paulie Cressend:And the other one, the landlord went to the outer banks because
Paulie Cressend:he had relatives out there.
Paulie Cressend:So, and I had chefs from Charlotte come up here to do
Paulie Cressend:fundraisers and bring me into their activities, you know, so
Paulie Cressend:I gave me something to do too.
Paulie Cressend:I don't know really how to explain it.
Paulie Cressend:It's just that I want something bad enough It's just that what
Paulie Cressend:I originally wanted to do when I first got into the industry Was on
Paulie Cressend:pause it stopped because addiction took over and then I got better.
Paulie Cressend:I care.
Paulie Cressend:I just started up again where I left off.
Paulie Cressend:It's like my health and you know, it's like the mental
Paulie Cressend:part, the physical part.
Paulie Cressend:I feel like I'm 35 probably.
Paulie Cressend:People find it hard to believe that I'm close to 50, but I do too.
Paulie Cressend:My parents are like, no, no, you're not that old.
Paulie Cressend:It's a lot of work and I guess when you're willing to do the
Paulie Cressend:work, whether you like it or not, you're going to get what you want.
Paulie Cressend:And I mean, that's it.
Paulie Cressend:25 percent of the work I do now is actually cooking.
Paulie Cressend:Adam M Lamb: So how can we support you moving forward?
Paulie Cressend:This is doing it, man.
Paulie Cressend:If people are hearing, if, you know, if
Paulie Cressend:Adam M Lamb: first,
Paulie Cressend:the best part of my career or the best day of
Paulie Cressend:my career was the day that I quit doing alcohol and drugs.
Paulie Cressend:the second best day of my career was when I was able to
Paulie Cressend:realize that I see what people are doing in the industry.
Paulie Cressend:I see people opening restaurants.
Paulie Cressend:I see people managing kitchens, creating leaders in kitchens that
Paulie Cressend:are going off and doing their own thing and creating more leaders.
Paulie Cressend:And I'm looking and I was like, you know, I can do that.
Paulie Cressend:I was like, I want to do that.
Paulie Cressend:There has been more support now because I am being
Paulie Cressend:more vocal about it.
Paulie Cressend:And, you know, you can get your place, you get your
Paulie Cressend:position, you're just, you know, you're keeping your head down.
Paulie Cressend:You chop, chop, chop, chop, chop, get through
Paulie Cressend:the service, get ready, go.
Paulie Cressend:You know, it becomes more of a monotonous kind of thing.
Paulie Cressend:And some people become so used to that, that it's.
Paulie Cressend:And sometimes, you know, if you want to do that for 25
Paulie Cressend:years, go ahead and do it.
Paulie Cressend:It's fine.
Paulie Cressend:I'm just saying you don't have to.
Paulie Cressend:but yeah, the main thing is collected
Paulie Cressend:lots of resources.
Paulie Cressend:I have, people across the country, some people even in other countries
Paulie Cressend:that I'm connected with, like the Ben's friends there's people out
Paulie Cressend:in Colorado, people in California, people in New York, people in
Paulie Cressend:Florida, people in Louisiana.
Paulie Cressend:if anybody has any questions or wants to know more, hold
Paulie Cressend:Adam M Lamb: it.
Paulie Cressend:Yeah, this is my, my email is polyboy54 .gmail .com.
Paulie Cressend:and I'm also on Instagram.
Paulie Cressend:It's all Polly or Polly Boy Enterprises.
Paulie Cressend:same at Facebook.
Paulie Cressend:Paul G. Cresson and, Cafe Amelie.
Paulie Cressend:Named after my grandma.
Paulie Cressend:It's got to be the name of my restaurant when it opens.
Paulie Cressend:it's actually gonna be called Amelie now because there's
Paulie Cressend:too many cafe Amelies in the world in France and Louisiana.
Paulie Cressend:I don't want to be connected or confused.
Paulie Cressend:So it's anyway.
Paulie Cressend:Oh,
Paulie Cressend:I had stickers made the other day.
Paulie Cressend:Adam M Lamb: We need the stickers.
Paulie Cressend:There you go.
Paulie Cressend:Amelie.
Paulie Cressend:So, yeah, that's, that's, I mean,
Paulie Cressend:Adam M Lamb: Paulie Creston, y want
Paulie Cressend:to make sure that, we're giving Eileen and, Emily some.
Paulie Cressend:Business.
Paulie Cressend:So if you guys want to take a break and refill your
Paulie Cressend:glasses, we'll be right back.
Jennifer Hough:You're recording and everything?
Jennifer Hough:Do you need to hit record or is it always recording?
Jennifer Hough:Adam M Lamb: recording.
Jennifer Hough:Oh, gotcha.
Jennifer Hough:Adam M Lamb: Alright, this is the portion of the show that
Jennifer Hough:scares the shit out of me.
Jennifer Hough:because it's never happened before.
Jennifer Hough:Although I've had plenty of ideas of how to incorporate it.
Jennifer Hough:So, I'd like to welcome to the stage, my wife, Jennifer.
Jennifer Hough:So there's a couple of different ways we could take this.
Jennifer Hough:we could go for the horror show stories or, You know,
Jennifer Hough:Jennifer is not in the industry or of the industry.
Jennifer Hough:So after, I mean, it wasn't too long after we met.
Jennifer Hough:But wait, but wait.
Jennifer Hough:Adam M Lamb: That she says to me, it sounds like you're going to war.
Jennifer Hough:As I was preparing to get to work and I'm like,
Jennifer Hough:yeah, that's what it is.
Jennifer Hough:get to enjoy the fruits of the industry.
Jennifer Hough:Adam M Lamb: You and your folks, once, so again, her, she's from
Jennifer Hough:Canada and, we were up there for Christmas, I think, and I was
Jennifer Hough:driving back and I actually executed.
Jennifer Hough:New Year's Eve dinner completely by phone as I was driving back.
Jennifer Hough:Yes, he was driving back to the United States.
Jennifer Hough:Adam M Lamb: my Had everything staged.
Jennifer Hough:In the, in the garage on sheet pans, everything.
Jennifer Hough:I'm literally phoning.
Jennifer Hough:We're having this amazing prime rib and I have no
Jennifer Hough:idea how to cook prime rib.
Jennifer Hough:And he's literally sending me directions by tax and then he's
Jennifer Hough:sending them by phone and then he sent them in every way.
Jennifer Hough:It's hilarious.
Jennifer Hough:And it was the most delicious prime rib made by.
Jennifer Hough:Two people, one in absentia.
Jennifer Hough:Adam M Lamb: Right, exactly.
Jennifer Hough:I felt like you're, you're extension.
Jennifer Hough:Adam M Lamb: Yeah, now in all transparency, Jennifer
Jennifer Hough:is my fourth wife.
Jennifer Hough:but this relationship has lasted longer than all the rest of them.
Jennifer Hough:So, I guess I would start off.
Jennifer Hough:So, what's it like being married to a chef?
Jennifer Hough:Ah, that's funny.
Jennifer Hough:Well, as your last guest, Polly, was saying, it's like,
Jennifer Hough:it's an intense industry.
Jennifer Hough:And man, everything is intense.
Jennifer Hough:And I would say what it was, is it like being married to a chef?
Jennifer Hough:It's interesting.
Jennifer Hough:Cause I remember having a client myself who was a surgeon
Jennifer Hough:Adam M Lamb: and
Jennifer Hough:the surgeon would come home and he'd
Jennifer Hough:bring the war home with them.
Jennifer Hough:And there was an intensity.
Jennifer Hough:So he was wondering why with his wife, it wasn't going so
Jennifer Hough:well because everything had to be a certain way everywhere.
Jennifer Hough:and I would say being married to you, at
Jennifer Hough:the beginning, I mean, not as much anymore, but there was a
Jennifer Hough:certain, intensity about you, which has changed quite a bit.
Jennifer Hough:And then you came and you did some retreats for us.
Jennifer Hough:you were basically, our chef, like Polly does, our
Jennifer Hough:personal chef for the retreats.
Jennifer Hough:And I think that changed my relationship to you around.
Jennifer Hough:your industry because I watched you pour so much
Jennifer Hough:love into everything you did.
Jennifer Hough:And then you were mostly feeding, well, almost always all women
Jennifer Hough:Adam M Lamb: and
Jennifer Hough:they were usually the cooks in the house.
Jennifer Hough:So what got to happen is you got loved on big time by all these
Jennifer Hough:women and you got to love on them.
Jennifer Hough:And there was this reciprocal exchange of just.
Jennifer Hough:Total love going back and forth and there was some kind of weird
Jennifer Hough:light I remember going on and like just watching this light go
Jennifer Hough:on in your head or at least it seemed that way to me because
Jennifer Hough:I can't project on you but
Jennifer Hough:Adam M Lamb: I think
Jennifer Hough:After working in all these kitchens, it's so nice
Jennifer Hough:to just feel the love directly from people because when you're in
Jennifer Hough:the back of the house, you don't really get it fully all the time.
Jennifer Hough:And it was just, I could just see you remembering
Jennifer Hough:why you love to cook.
Jennifer Hough:Adam M Lamb: I think that's probably more to the point.
Jennifer Hough:And it's interesting because I asked you what it was like
Jennifer Hough:to be married to a chef.
Jennifer Hough:Oh, I haven't been married to other chefs.
Jennifer Hough:I've only been married to you.
Jennifer Hough:I remember how you used to get annoyed too when, you were foraying
Jennifer Hough:into your podcasting, which you've done, such a great job because
Jennifer Hough:you're so passionate and then you realize at some point, I don't
Jennifer Hough:know how you came across this, but I think it was after Anthony
Jennifer Hough:Bourdain's, death that You were really upset at the rate of suicide
Jennifer Hough:Adam M Lamb: in
Jennifer Hough:the industry, like really upset.
Jennifer Hough:Adam M Lamb: yeah.
Jennifer Hough:So I remember when Roadrunner came out and I told you I
Jennifer Hough:didn't want you to come with me.
Jennifer Hough:Don't come and see this movie with me.
Jennifer Hough:And you're like, well, why?
Jennifer Hough:Why shouldn't I be there?
Jennifer Hough:I'm like, no, don't fucking come.
Jennifer Hough:And you did anyway.
Jennifer Hough:And the minute the movie ended, I got out and I paced in
Jennifer Hough:the parking lot for an hour.
Jennifer Hough:Yeah.
Jennifer Hough:Adam M Lamb: Because it was just like, the one scene that really
Jennifer Hough:got me with the very end was, The friend of his that was a
Jennifer Hough:guitar player, when she said, I just don't think that he got
Jennifer Hough:that people loved him.
Jennifer Hough:yeah,
Jennifer Hough:Adam M Lamb: being in the industry for so long, you get so much
Jennifer Hough:smoke blowing up your ass.
Jennifer Hough:Yes.
Jennifer Hough:Adam M Lamb: By, diners, you know, anybody who's trying to
Jennifer Hough:get something for you that it becomes very, thank you becomes
Jennifer Hough:a completely meaningless word.
Jennifer Hough:that was great, chef, means nothing.
Jennifer Hough:Like, it just loses any power whatsoever because you hear it so
Jennifer Hough:often and you really, I started doubting people's, Authenticity
Jennifer Hough:when they were asking me, right?
Jennifer Hough:Did you ever get that experience where it's just
Jennifer Hough:like, Oh, that's the greatest.
Jennifer Hough:And the other part of it that I didn't understand until recently
Jennifer Hough:is putting like I speak to a lot of chefs all day long.
Jennifer Hough:And one of the biggest things that they keep telling me is
Jennifer Hough:that they feel undervalued.
Jennifer Hough:They don't feel appreciated, which is a fucking joke to
Jennifer Hough:have any layperson be able to appreciate everything that goes
Jennifer Hough:into it because they never will.
Jennifer Hough:They're not in my fucking clogs, they're not wearing my
Jennifer Hough:apron, but yet I made it their job to reflect back to me my
Jennifer Hough:value for a long, long time.
Jennifer Hough:And that's a mistake on my part because it wasn't fair to them.
Jennifer Hough:It wasn't fair for me to do that to them because
Jennifer Hough:then it all loses context.
Jennifer Hough:And when you're in a house with 15 women and you're doing
Jennifer Hough:breakfast, lunch and dinner, you can't get away from it.
Jennifer Hough:It turns into something else because to be frank, I'm kind of a big guy
Jennifer Hough:and there was always one person on the retreat who was triggered by me.
Jennifer Hough:I reminded her of the uncle who raped her or the father
Jennifer Hough:who dismissed her or what?
Jennifer Hough:Like all this shit would be fucking, but you could see it
Jennifer Hough:looking on this person's face and.
Jennifer Hough:Like, I could not do anything except just show up and be loving
Jennifer Hough:and here's some food, darling.
Jennifer Hough:Relax.
Jennifer Hough:And you're a little bit intense, too.
Jennifer Hough:So,
Jennifer Hough:Adam M Lamb: But eventually they would say things like, Oh, I never
Jennifer Hough:expected somebody, to be that kind.
Jennifer Hough:Someone so big that has tattoos that
Jennifer Hough:you're so sweet and kind.
Jennifer Hough:Adam M Lamb: because
Jennifer Hough:Brigade is like going to war.
Jennifer Hough:Adam M Lamb: Well, it's a French military unit.
Jennifer Hough:That's that, but that's the way that they designed that particular system
Jennifer Hough:to work and it works perfectly.
Jennifer Hough:Your original question to me though was what's it
Jennifer Hough:like to be married to a chef?
Jennifer Hough:Adam M Lamb: Right.
Jennifer Hough:And I don't know if that, that thank
Jennifer Hough:you thing is a chef thing.
Jennifer Hough:Maybe Paulie can speak to this, but I can say being married to you.
Jennifer Hough:Because people are thanking you all the time, B, you really are doing a
Jennifer Hough:good job, but sometimes I think when we do a good job, people thank you.
Jennifer Hough:But it's something you can do in your sleep.
Jennifer Hough:You kind of take it for granted because you could do
Jennifer Hough:that thing in your sleep.
Jennifer Hough:It's like it's so easy.
Jennifer Hough:And then when people say thank you, you know, over 30 years, it starts
Jennifer Hough:to get to be this thing where.
Jennifer Hough:Thank you.
Jennifer Hough:I've done it over.
Jennifer Hough:It's so easy.
Jennifer Hough:It's so easy to make people happy, but you know, and so you
Jennifer Hough:Adam M Lamb: don't think it's a thing.
Jennifer Hough:don't, you don't think it's a thing because
Jennifer Hough:it's your natural way of being.
Jennifer Hough:And one of the things that is interesting as your wife, not,
Jennifer Hough:and the, recipient of your food sometimes is that oftentimes I
Jennifer Hough:have thanked you for other things that aren't related to food.
Jennifer Hough:And I had noticed, that you actually in the past have not been
Jennifer Hough:terribly receptive to gratitude or very, receivy, you know, and so
Jennifer Hough:I don't know, what do you think?
Jennifer Hough:Is that part of being a, doing, what is that?
Jennifer Hough:Adam M Lamb: So, what I recognize that there's this thing about dopamine.
Jennifer Hough:So I would work really, really hard at creating
Jennifer Hough:a wine dinner, let's say.
Jennifer Hough:and have everything go off beautifully.
Jennifer Hough:And as soon as that last plate goes down,
Jennifer Hough:I emotionally do a fucking complete nosedive over the cliff.
Jennifer Hough:Like, I get depressed, I get, irritable.
Jennifer Hough:Like, when people come up and like, Oh my god, that was the
Jennifer Hough:most fantastic, yeah, whatever, get the fuck away from me.
Jennifer Hough:And it's because of the dopamine addiction because the
Jennifer Hough:dopamine is hitting so hard throughout that entire day
Jennifer Hough:and boom, boom, boom, boom.
Jennifer Hough:And when that last dish goes out, you recognize that there's nothing
Jennifer Hough:left to service and you just go.
Jennifer Hough:And the addiction to the dopamine to me was at the
Jennifer Hough:center of all my addictions.
Jennifer Hough:Like I wanted that fucking hit.
Jennifer Hough:I want it and to do anything that would like, What's the
Jennifer Hough:mechanism that's going to get it for is the, is it the phone?
Jennifer Hough:Is it the, is it the beverage?
Jennifer Hough:Is it the snort?
Jennifer Hough:Whatever the fuck it is.
Jennifer Hough:It's like, that is just a mechanism to get me to the dopamine hit so
Jennifer Hough:that I can be okay for a second.
Jennifer Hough:And then, eventually, you know, the bar's closed, now what do you do?
Jennifer Hough:And then you drop off the faces.
Jennifer Hough:I would drop off the faces.
Jennifer Hough:So you and I have talked about the land of
Jennifer Hough:restaurants and all that kind of stuff being the land of misfit
Jennifer Hough:toys to some degree, right?
Jennifer Hough:No,
Jennifer Hough:Adam M Lamb: no, it is.
Jennifer Hough:Sure.
Jennifer Hough:Adam M Lamb: Listen, the fact of the matter is that in a
Jennifer Hough:lot of kitchens, the average reading level is sixth grade.
Jennifer Hough:Right?
Jennifer Hough:You gotta people from different cultures with different sets
Jennifer Hough:with different educational levels and you have to communicate in
Jennifer Hough:a way that they understand it.
Jennifer Hough:So they're all moving in the same direction.
Jennifer Hough:It takes a great deal of skill, but I've like, I have a, I
Jennifer Hough:was working with somebody who's like, Adam, like you have used
Jennifer Hough:too many words, too many words.
Jennifer Hough:I'm like, no, no, no, no, no.
Jennifer Hough:I'm not going to listen because someone's education
Jennifer Hough:might be at a certain level.
Jennifer Hough:it doesn't necessarily mean that their comprehension is.
Jennifer Hough:And
Jennifer Hough:that has nothing to do with their intelligence either.
Jennifer Hough:Adam M Lamb: Exactly.
Jennifer Hough:I'm not going to talk down to them, but I want to
Jennifer Hough:be there where they're at.
Jennifer Hough:Yeah.
Jennifer Hough:Adam M Lamb: So, so,
Jennifer Hough:so the thing that I was getting to is around like
Jennifer Hough:the addiction, it's so pervasive in the industry and you get
Jennifer Hough:maybe, I don't know if it's like the land of misfit toys.
Jennifer Hough:Added to a very kind of addictive creative process that you can't
Jennifer Hough:really get anywhere else, night after night after night, and
Jennifer Hough:then you get the dopamine hit.
Jennifer Hough:And then afterwards, you always say everyone meets on the back dock,
Jennifer Hough:or they meet at the dock where the
Jennifer Hough:Adam M Lamb: best meetings are held,
Jennifer Hough:or they meet at the mule.
Jennifer Hough:Yay.
Jennifer Hough:they meet at the mule.
Jennifer Hough:Adam M Lamb: and
Jennifer Hough:they, and they do all this stuff, but like they're
Jennifer Hough:off and then they lost it.
Jennifer Hough:And so now they have a drink because they're trying to get that
Jennifer Hough:same feeling back or cocaine or
Jennifer Hough:Adam M Lamb: whatever,
Jennifer Hough:that happens a lot to all
Jennifer Hough:Adam M Lamb: I mean,
Jennifer Hough:yeah.
Jennifer Hough:Adam M Lamb: It's all a tool to get you to a certain place.
Jennifer Hough:So how do you change that in this?
Jennifer Hough:How do you, that is my biggest curiosity.
Jennifer Hough:How does one like, cause it's definitely more people having
Jennifer Hough:those behaviors than the average.
Jennifer Hough:Adam M Lamb: So I think a lot of it for me is just an awareness of the
Jennifer Hough:instant gratification nature of it.
Jennifer Hough:Got
Jennifer Hough:Adam M Lamb: it.
Jennifer Hough:Like the mechanism it's all in, in the hospitality industry to me.
Jennifer Hough:It's like, Listen, man, when you put that plate up in the
Jennifer Hough:window, you look back and you see that you can do it, you
Jennifer Hough:don't need anybody else to tell you that that plate is perfect.
Jennifer Hough:Yeah.
Jennifer Hough:Adam M Lamb: Right?
Jennifer Hough:Yeah.
Jennifer Hough:Adam M Lamb: It helps if someone, calms down, like, hey, dude,
Jennifer Hough:that fucking shit kicks ass, man.
Jennifer Hough:But the point being is that short term, that short turnaround.
Jennifer Hough:Yeah.
Jennifer Hough:Adam M Lamb: Friends in the audiences who do long -term business deals
Jennifer Hough:with folks, you know, you could spend all year working on somebody's
Jennifer Hough:taxes or whatever to get to a point of fruition where it's
Jennifer Hough:like, this is the end result.
Jennifer Hough:And after working on it for 12, 15 months, you're like, okay, like
Jennifer Hough:it's what it's supposed to be.
Jennifer Hough:you're doing all these covers per night.
Jennifer Hough:Adam M Lamb: so part of it is the nature of the beast, like
Jennifer Hough:understanding this is short term satisfaction versus long term.
Jennifer Hough:This is one of the only industries where you know, instantaneously
Jennifer Hough:or almost instantaneously when you do a great job.
Jennifer Hough:Yeah.
Jennifer Hough:Adam M Lamb: Other industries, I guess what I'm saying is
Jennifer Hough:it takes a lot longer to get that type of feedback back.
Jennifer Hough:And even then, sometimes it's muted.
Jennifer Hough:Like, I'm sure some people like you save them thousands
Jennifer Hough:of dollars and you know, you did a solid for this guy.
Jennifer Hough:And he's like, well, all right.
Jennifer Hough:And you got to suck that up.
Jennifer Hough:So I think part of it is just an awareness of
Jennifer Hough:like, this is what it is.
Jennifer Hough:And that's why for me, it's been so important to have other things
Jennifer Hough:in my life that are more long -term.
Jennifer Hough:The other thing that I noticed with you is
Jennifer Hough:when Anthony Bourdain died.
Jennifer Hough:And you got really, really upset at the rate of suicide,
Jennifer Hough:which I think it's the same as the military's rate of suicide.
Jennifer Hough:Adam M Lamb: Well,
Jennifer Hough:the
Jennifer Hough:Adam M Lamb: problem is, go ahead.
Jennifer Hough:and then I saw you want to do things like this.
Jennifer Hough:Like, I saw you, Yeah, sure.
Jennifer Hough:You've got a business.
Jennifer Hough:Yeah, sure.
Jennifer Hough:But there is something that the switch that flipped in
Jennifer Hough:that instant for you where you were like, we need to change
Jennifer Hough:the culture of this industry.
Jennifer Hough:this needs to be like, I need to be a part of the cultural shift
Jennifer Hough:in this industry and you could say all the things about why
Jennifer Hough:we're at the meal and which the meal is a great place and you
Jennifer Hough:could say that, you know, you're doing it for business reasons.
Jennifer Hough:You could say that too, but I know at your core.
Jennifer Hough:This is a much bigger deal than that.
Jennifer Hough:this is like, where do we go to have these conversations?
Jennifer Hough:Where do we go to have these chats?
Jennifer Hough:And to me, given what I do for a living, I resonate with
Jennifer Hough:that part of your heart where you're like, what can we do
Jennifer Hough:to change the very context in which this industry happens?
Jennifer Hough:And that's what I appreciate about how a switch flipped for you.
Jennifer Hough:Adam M Lamb: Now, what I can tell you is that it started
Jennifer Hough:before Anthony Bourdain died.
Jennifer Hough:But, it used to really fucking piss me off when I'm in my
Jennifer Hough:Facebook feed and there's a picture of a young chef and
Jennifer Hough:the line is, gone too soon.
Jennifer Hough:Can I get a herd?
Jennifer Hough:heard is what we like.
Jennifer Hough:You got that?
Jennifer Hough:Heard.
Jennifer Hough:Got it.
Jennifer Hough:How many, can I get it all day?
Jennifer Hough:Or whatever the fuck topic is.
Jennifer Hough:But, heard means, I got it.
Jennifer Hough:And it used to piss me off because it was like, How many
Jennifer Hough:motherfuckers are just standing around waiting for this to happen?
Jennifer Hough:Like, you knew the guy was in trouble, and you
Jennifer Hough:didn't fucking say anything.
Jennifer Hough:Like, when's the last time you had a conversation with him?
Jennifer Hough:is it okay enough for us to just stand around and wait for
Jennifer Hough:it to happen, knowing that it's almost, It's not an impossible,
Jennifer Hough:assurity, but it's like, you know, when people are at risk,
Jennifer Hough:well, that's,
Jennifer Hough:Adam M Lamb: I don't want to, I know when people are at risk and for
Jennifer Hough:me to just stand around and not do anything to me is unconscionable.
Jennifer Hough:Like, and then when Anthony Bourdain died, I almost fucking went insane.
Jennifer Hough:I'm like,
Jennifer Hough:right.
Jennifer Hough:Adam M Lamb: Motherfucker, because he was, he was out.
Jennifer Hough:Yeah.
Jennifer Hough:Adam M Lamb: Like we used to look at him as like a hero because he had
Jennifer Hough:got out of the fucking grind and was living this fucking amazing life.
Jennifer Hough:And what I didn't understand is once you build the fucking
Jennifer Hough:It must be fucking fed.
Jennifer Hough:Yep.
Jennifer Hough:Adam M Lamb: and he didn't know how to fucking get out.
Jennifer Hough:Yeah.
Jennifer Hough:Adam M Lamb: He had a chance twice.
Jennifer Hough:Yeah.
Jennifer Hough:Adam M Lamb: Good chance.
Jennifer Hough:Yeah.
Jennifer Hough:Adam M Lamb: And so ultimately it comes down to us
Jennifer Hough:Yeah.
Jennifer Hough:Adam M Lamb: As a junkie will.
Jennifer Hough:So it's like we become addicted to these patterns of behavior and
Jennifer Hough:ways of life to our detriment.
Jennifer Hough:And I got an email after Ann Burrell killed
Jennifer Hough:herself because suicide.
Jennifer Hough:Yeah.
Jennifer Hough:Adam M Lamb: She lost her, she lost her show on
Jennifer Hough:the fucking food network.
Jennifer Hough:And so she was making up that, oh my god, now I get to do what I've
Jennifer Hough:always wanted to do was improv.
Jennifer Hough:And so she had gone to an improv class, and her
Jennifer Hough:first night doing improv was the night before she died.
Jennifer Hough:and the thing about this is that I've watched
Jennifer Hough:you work with, there's one particular person that worked
Jennifer Hough:at, in Virginia with you, who still, and I love that guy.
Jennifer Hough:And I know you saved his life through coach.
Jennifer Hough:I just, I'm not even saying there's an answer, but I love that.
Jennifer Hough:That's in the background of everything.
Jennifer Hough:Like I get the inside scoop because I live with you that it's in
Jennifer Hough:the background of everything you do is like, let's empower people.
Jennifer Hough:And that's why you work one on one with people.
Jennifer Hough:And to me, that's like,
Jennifer Hough:Adam M Lamb: so
Jennifer Hough:that's the shit.
Jennifer Hough:Adam M Lamb: So two days after Amber L passed away, I got a text from
Jennifer Hough:somebody who I know, a fellow chef.
Jennifer Hough:Who says, I know her, this is fucking bullshit,
Jennifer Hough:I know she killed herself.
Jennifer Hough:And that information hadn't come out yet.
Jennifer Hough:and he was right.
Jennifer Hough:And he was like, I had never seen this guy this mad before.
Jennifer Hough:And I don't know if it was like being mad at Anne for making
Jennifer Hough:the decision that she did, I'm absolutely clear that there's no
Jennifer Hough:way any of us can absolutely know what was going on in those last
Jennifer Hough:few desperate moments of despair.
Jennifer Hough:Yes.
Jennifer Hough:Adam M Lamb: Which I can, even saying it's despair is bullshit too.
Jennifer Hough:Because I know some people like Hunter S. Thompson.
Jennifer Hough:When Hunter S. Thompson was ready to go, he was ready to
Jennifer Hough:go and no one was going to take him out except himself.
Jennifer Hough:Yeah, it wasn't despair.
Jennifer Hough:Adam M Lamb: He just chose to
Jennifer Hough:go.
Jennifer Hough:Adam M Lamb: I'm done.
Jennifer Hough:I'm tapping out.
Jennifer Hough:I would
Jennifer Hough:consider it a privilege to be able to say, you know, I lost.
Jennifer Hough:We never lost another one on my watch.
Jennifer Hough:Right.
Jennifer Hough:Adam M Lamb: Because to me, it's like, do they have
Jennifer Hough:access to the information?
Jennifer Hough:Do they have access to opportunity?
Jennifer Hough:Does their voice matter?
Jennifer Hough:Do they know that?
Jennifer Hough:Yeah.
Jennifer Hough:Adam M Lamb: Right.
Jennifer Hough:those are just the very few things that matter.
Jennifer Hough:Like, yes, your voice matters.
Jennifer Hough:Yes.
Jennifer Hough:here's access, here's opportunity.
Jennifer Hough:If you're looking for a road map, this might be it.
Jennifer Hough:It might not be true for you, but,
Jennifer Hough:Yeah.
Jennifer Hough:Adam M Lamb: But, just wait.
Jennifer Hough:Well, that's what I was thinking.
Jennifer Hough:Adam M Lamb: Just wait a minute.
Jennifer Hough:Just
Jennifer Hough:Adam M Lamb: take a deep breath.
Jennifer Hough:Yeah, that's what I was thinking about Asheville,
Jennifer Hough:and like how hard that time must have been when everybody,
Jennifer Hough:I can't, Polly feeding, like, A hundred people's worth of food.
Jennifer Hough:I bet you it was like the universe said, okay, people are going to
Jennifer Hough:be like, this is like a gift.
Jennifer Hough:Right.
Jennifer Hough:I feel like Asheville is just coming back.
Jennifer Hough:I don't know if you feel that way, but it's just coming back.
Jennifer Hough:And I feel like this is something that can breathe life.
Jennifer Hough:this is such an amazing place.
Jennifer Hough:And I feel so excited.
Jennifer Hough:the hurricane, even though bless everyone who went through such
Jennifer Hough:a hard time and is still doing that, I just feel like the turning
Jennifer Hough:point that you made within yourself feels like a parallel turning
Jennifer Hough:point to everyone coming back.
Jennifer Hough:Do you know what I mean?
Jennifer Hough:Adam M Lamb: you know, I,
Jennifer Hough:I'm excited for the industry here,
Jennifer Hough:Adam M Lamb: And I'm not so yeah, I mean.
Jennifer Hough:There's a certain amount of tourist population that we, that hasn't
Jennifer Hough:recovered and, and volume of dollars.
Jennifer Hough:But to me, what means more to me than that is having a
Jennifer Hough:community that serves one another.
Jennifer Hough:Right?
Jennifer Hough:And I know that there's some very, very strong restaurateurs
Jennifer Hough:and chefs out there and they're doing wonderful things.
Jennifer Hough:And yet I'm like, how can we serve one another?
Jennifer Hough:How can we take care of, like, making sure that there's fair
Jennifer Hough:wages, that there's, fair housing?
Jennifer Hough:Like, there's all kinds of issues.
Jennifer Hough:The chef suicide thing like it's someone else is going to
Jennifer Hough:come along and fix that for us.
Jennifer Hough:It's not a big deal.
Jennifer Hough:You don't worry.
Jennifer Hough:Someone else will take care of it.
Jennifer Hough:And the fact of the matter is this is our fucking mess.
Jennifer Hough:Yes.
Jennifer Hough:Adam M Lamb: And I mean this generally within the community of
Jennifer Hough:chefs is our fucking mess, man.
Jennifer Hough:Yeah,
Jennifer Hough:Adam M Lamb: like the culture and everything that exists.
Jennifer Hough:It's our fucking fault.
Jennifer Hough:I consider myself part of the problem, but that's
Jennifer Hough:why I want to be part of the solution moving forward.
Jennifer Hough:Like saying, there is another way to do this or can be
Jennifer Hough:another way to do this.
Jennifer Hough:I mean, it's what I teach is what I coach, because I've seen
Jennifer Hough:the difference for myself and I've made so many mistakes.
Jennifer Hough:The point that I was trying to make about Amber L is that, I
Jennifer Hough:got this email over LinkedIn from the president of the Research Chefs
Jennifer Hough:Association who said, you think it's time to talk about this?
Jennifer Hough:I'm like, what are you talking about?
Jennifer Hough:He's like, well, our national conference is gonna be coming
Jennifer Hough:up next month, next year.
Jennifer Hough:And, some board members are thinking that maybe suicide is
Jennifer Hough:not a great topic to have.
Jennifer Hough:so in March, I'll be going to Denver to do the Research Chefs
Jennifer Hough:Association show, to do a topic called I Got Eight Minutes.
Jennifer Hough:Yay.
Jennifer Hough:Adam M Lamb: Which I just found out yesterday, which is a take off of
Jennifer Hough:the Simon Sinek, little snippet.
Jennifer Hough:he's got, He found out through his third party that one of his friends
Jennifer Hough:was having a really difficult time.
Jennifer Hough:Anyway, back to that friend, I said, hey, we're, I thought we're friends.
Jennifer Hough:How come you didn't tell me?
Jennifer Hough:And she said, well, I did like, what do you mean?
Jennifer Hough:Said, Well, I asked if you wanted to go out for a cup of coffee.
Jennifer Hough:He's like, well, it turns out that research proves that talking
Jennifer Hough:to somebody who cares, who can be empathetic with you for eight
Jennifer Hough:minutes will actually change your brain waves such that you
Jennifer Hough:might not necessarily feel so desperate after those eight minutes.
Jennifer Hough:And so they made a commitment to one another that if they're
Jennifer Hough:ever in a difficult spot, all they have to do is call up and
Jennifer Hough:say, Hey, you got eight minutes?
Jennifer Hough:And so the president just got up ordered all these buttons that
Jennifer Hough:says, Do you have eight minutes?
Jennifer Hough:Question
Jennifer Hough:mark.
Jennifer Hough:That's awesome.
Jennifer Hough:Adam M Lamb: And I was kind of weirded out by the fact
Jennifer Hough:that I was the first one he thought about when he came up
Jennifer Hough:like,
Jennifer Hough:Adam M Lamb: I never came in as like, I didn't think that
Jennifer Hough:this would be a topic that I would be so closely aligned with
Jennifer Hough:yet
Jennifer Hough:Adam M Lamb: that, you know, I'm happy to serve that.
Jennifer Hough:But, you know, I didn't think that my notoriety was going to be
Jennifer Hough:around, you know, mental wellness.
Jennifer Hough:suicide prevention, but
Jennifer Hough:I
Jennifer Hough:Adam M Lamb: guess
Jennifer Hough:yet you're on the aren't you on the advisory committee
Jennifer Hough:of of the what's the name of the,
Jennifer Hough:Adam M Lamb: I don't know,
Jennifer Hough:several other organizations.
Jennifer Hough:They're awesome.
Jennifer Hough:Adam M Lamb: Yes, there's the burn chef.
Jennifer Hough:So there's a project that's doing great work.
Jennifer Hough:There's chow out there.
Jennifer Hough:chow whom I love because they do these really odd zoom meetings.
Jennifer Hough:this hospitality organization, peer -to -peer.
Jennifer Hough:It's the only organization that, to my knowledge, that started out
Jennifer Hough:as a pure back -of -the -house, peer -to -peer support group.
Jennifer Hough:And now it's front -of -the -house, back -of -the -house.
Jennifer Hough:they do Zoom meetings once a week, and on Wednesday nights
Jennifer Hough:they do a men's -only Zoom meeting that is so fucking awesome, man.
Jennifer Hough:it's like being in a men's group, and it's in the hospitality
Jennifer Hough:industry, and everybody's talking the same language.
Jennifer Hough:It's like, holy shit, man, that's powerful stuff.
Jennifer Hough:Eight o Yeah.
Jennifer Hough:Eight o Eastern time on Wednesdays.
Jennifer Hough:Powerful
Jennifer Hough:Adam M Lamb: So, I guess that's what it's like being married to me.
Jennifer Hough:It actually is.
Jennifer Hough:You have a tremendous amount of passion.
Jennifer Hough:It pervades every area of your life.
Jennifer Hough:Even when we're doing the kitchen.
Jennifer Hough:Adam M Lamb: We're not going to bring
Jennifer Hough:the kitchen,
Jennifer Hough:Adam M Lamb: are we?
Jennifer Hough:It's like I love renovating kitchens.
Jennifer Hough:I've renovated two of my life, and I love it so
Jennifer Hough:Adam M Lamb: She doesn't know that I built 20 of them.
Jennifer Hough:It's a thing to renovate a kitchen together.
Jennifer Hough:I never worked in the restaurant industry.
Jennifer Hough:I was never a waitress.
Jennifer Hough:I was never a waiter.
Jennifer Hough:I was never any of those things.
Jennifer Hough:We won't hold that
Jennifer Hough:Adam M Lamb: against you.
Jennifer Hough:I was an aerobics instructor.
Jennifer Hough:So, that, that was my,
Jennifer Hough:Adam M Lamb: Back of the chain fondue day.
Jennifer Hough:That was my part time job instead of
Jennifer Hough:being in the food industry.
Jennifer Hough:I have, through you, I think this is the last way
Jennifer Hough:to answer your question.
Jennifer Hough:Through you, I have gotten to know the restaurant industry,
Jennifer Hough:and I have fallen in love with the restaurant industry.
Jennifer Hough:People I don't even know who are in such an intense atmosphere,
Jennifer Hough:but they're creators and they're, these are the people that are
Jennifer Hough:putting food in the mouth of the masses and it's such an,
Jennifer Hough:it's like teachers, you know, I mean, that's a whole other thing.
Jennifer Hough:We spend so much time in school.
Jennifer Hough:Well, guess what?
Jennifer Hough:We spend so much time eating.
Jennifer Hough:We literally take nourishment from people who we don't even meet
Jennifer Hough:that are putting things in our face that we completely forget.
Jennifer Hough:And to me, watching you on our retreats.
Jennifer Hough:Feed the people that are on our retreats and see
Jennifer Hough:the reciprocity when people actually face to face with you.
Jennifer Hough:I'm like, Huh, all the people in the back of the
Jennifer Hough:house are not getting that.
Jennifer Hough:They are not getting that.
Jennifer Hough:And so that's what I fall in love with.
Jennifer Hough:I have a big heart.
Jennifer Hough:I'm like, whatever you're gonna do to support the industry.
Jennifer Hough:I'm like, yeah, do that because I'm all for people having a
Jennifer Hough:great life and feeling fulfilled.
Jennifer Hough:Adam M Lamb: Thank you very much, Jennifer.
Jennifer Hough:Thank you very much, Chef Adam Lamb.
Jennifer Hough:Adam M Lamb: You like that, didn't you?
Jennifer Hough:Yes.
Jennifer Hough:Well,
Jennifer Hough:I wanted to thank everybody for coming out for the very
Jennifer Hough:first Chef Life Radio Live.
Jennifer Hough:It's been a lovely, warm audience.
Jennifer Hough:Great location at the Mule.
Jennifer Hough:Eileen and Emily.
Jennifer Hough:And don't want to forget Miranda.
Jennifer Hough:thanks for having us.
Jennifer Hough:Jacob, look forward to being back on the third Sunday of the month.
Jennifer Hough:Thanks.
Jennifer Hough:That'll be November 19th.
Jennifer Hough:So, thank you very much for everybody.
Jennifer Hough:Woo -hoo!
Jennifer Hough:Thank y
