Episode Notes
In this delicious episode we will be exploring the creative mind of Chef Pete Blohme, who shares wonderful advice on life, as well as creating a business: Don’t just work to make a living, work to make a difference.
Panini Pete, as many people know him, has headlined with Guy Fieri on his Live Road Show performing in 25-plus Road Shows and he has also been featured on several Food Network shows such as Diners, Drive-Ins, Guy’s Grocery Games and The Great Food Truck Race with Tyler Florence, as well as CMT’s Sweet Home Alabama.
Pete has been in the restaurant business for a long time and in 2006 he opened Panini Pete’s Café & Bakeshoppe in Fairhope, AL. Since then he has been building a restaurant company and hospitality brand that today operates four award-winning establishments on the Gulf Coast.
Pete is also the host of the Raw Ingredients podcast, as well as the author of Spatula Success. He is a founding member of The Messlords, a group of passionate chefs that travel the world cooking and entertaining American troops, and also co-founder of the PR Foundation that works to help veterans, adults with developmental disabilities, and no-kill animal shelters.
You can find him on Facebook and Instagram as @ChefPaniniPete.
Visit him at www.chefpaninipete.com where you can get a signed copy of his book Spatula Success within many other exclusive products.
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Nicky Mondellini is an internationally known artist with more than thirty years of artistic career. Her voice is heard in commercials on television, radio and digital platforms worldwide. She has been the host and producer of La Pizarra since 2020.
Her work as an actress includes more than a dozen telenovelas, and drama shows, classical and contemporary Spanish plays, shorts and feature films, and the hosting of morning shows in Mexico and the United States, as well as on camera commercials, and promotional and corporate videos.
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Transcript
Announcer: This is La Pizarra, a place where we explore creative minds in the entertainment industry on both sides of the mic and the camera. Here’s your host, Nicky Mondellini.
Nicky Mondellini: Hi there. Welcome to another episode of La Pizarra. My name is Nicky Mondellini. I’m very happy you’re joining me today because I have a very special treat. It’s a treat indeed when I talk about his beignets or his signature paninis. We’re going to be exploring the creative mind of Chef Pete Blohme, or Panini Pete as many people know him. Pete has headlined with Guy Fieri on his live road show performing in 25 plus road shows. He has also been featured on several Food Network shows such as Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives or Triple D, like many people know it.
Also on the Guy’s Grocery Games, Guys Big Bite, and the Great Food Truck Race with Tyler Florence, as well as CMT’s Sweet Home Alabama. Pete has been in the restaurant business for a long time and in 2006, he opened Panini Pete’s Cafe & Bakeshoppe in Fairhope, Alabama. Since then, he has been building a restaurant company and hospitality brand that today operates four award-winning establishments on the Gulf Coast. Pete’s first book is called Spatula Success, which we will talk about in a moment.
He is a founding member of the Messlords, a group of passionate chefs that travel around the world cooking and entertaining American troops, as well as the co-founder of PR Foundation that works to help veterans, adults with developmental disabilities, and no-kill animal shelters. Pete is also the host of the Raw Materials podcast, which delves into the culinary world, and all of its wonders. Before we go on with the interview, I want to remind you that all of the episodes of La Pizarra are available on nickymondellini.com/podcast, where you can also sign up for our monthly newsletter, and you will find the transcripts for most of our shows.
Don’t forget to give us a five-star rating, if you please, so that other people can find us and benefit from the great advice and all the tips that are given here by our experts in different fields of the entertainment industry. Hey, Pete. How are you doing? Welcome to La Pizarra.
Pete Blohme: Nicky, so glad to be here. Thanks for inviting me and having me on your show.
Nicky: Well, this is wonderful, because I’ve been wanting to interview you for a while, we have so much to talk about. You’ve built a wonderful, successful business. You started as a teenager, and well, we have your book, so I gave a little bit of that preamble in the presentation but I want you to tell us a little bit about how you got started because you weren’t really thinking about the food industry as a real job. For you, at first, it was a summer job when you were a teenager.
Pete: Yes, very well read there, you know your stuff. It was something I did, starting at 14 working in the business for job, for money. If I wanted to wear Levi’s and Nikes and not Walmart or Kmart, then I had to have money because my parents had a budget and then I had to enhance that. It was great to work and have some money. I love that aspect of the business. It was hard work but it was intense and it was social and a lot of people working together but it was just what I did.
I played sports and I worked on a golf course in the summer in the grounds crew mowing and cutting and raking and shoveling. When I got ready to get out of high school, I was like, “What am I going to do now?” I didn’t have anything that I was just driven to. I wanted to be a marine biologist and train dolphins when I was a kid from watching Flipper episodes but that didn’t really stay.
Nicky: Oh, I loved Flipper. My God, love that show.
Pete: I was contemplating joining the service, the military. My dad was weird because he was against that, “Don’t call the recruiter.” My dad served in the Marine Corps for three years. I thought he would be pro but he’s the one that first talked to me about the business as a career. Unfortunately, still to this day, not enough young people think about our industry as a career, because between restaurants, hotels, travel tourism, I’ve worked on cruise ships, I’ve worked in so many– it’s so diverse and there’s so much opportunity, and you can work anywhere in the world you want.
You can also grow. You come in entry-level, people give you a hard knocks, “Ah, it’s hard work and low wages.” In entry-level, it’s not the greatest compared to some trades if you’re going to work in assembly line or welder around here, things like that but the sky’s the limit. I know people that have started off as a bellboy and housekeeping. There’s a couple in Gulf Shores and they have a multi-million dollar hotel company now. For me, when it was presented to me as a career I said, “Wow, I never thought about that but I do like it.”
That was the taste, that was the start. Went to a community college to study hospitality management. Ended up going to the CIA, got my degree, and went to a culinary school and got a little more specific because I love the back of the house. My original degree, I did great in the restaurant and the accounting classes, but then when it got to English and speech and your regular core college class, I was like, baah, I’m out.” Just went from there.
Nicky: Let’s specify the CIA, not the one people think about.
Pete: I’m from the other CIA, the Culinary Institute of America, which was the first CIA?
Nicky: It was the first CIA. Wow.
Pete: Yes, right after World War II, they opened in New Haven, Connecticut. I think in the early ’70s, they moved to where they are now in Hyde Park, New York. Amazing facility, amazing school. We have a campus in San Antonio, and one in Napa Valley, and one in Singapore.
Nicky: That’s where you fell in love with just the art of cooking and–
Pete: You walk through those doors and your life changes forever. To learn that high level, that foundation of real, real cooking, how to build flavor. Then also the business aspect of it. We were exposed to culinary law, we were exposed to culinary French, restaurant business, hospitality, supervisory development, a lot of aspects of our industry, as well as table service and formal service. In the mid ’80s, when I went there, it was very rooted in classic, there were a lot of old European chefs and everything was yes, chef, yes, chef, yes. pretty military yes.
Nicky: Has some of that changed nowadays? Do you think it’s more relaxed, or where has it moved to?
Pete: It is extremely more relaxed. There were aspects of our industry that were tough. In the entertainment business, drugs and alcohol and things and depression can be really rampant when you go through these ups and downs. Our industry had a dark side because it was not only permissive and tolerant, almost encouraging some of that in certain environments where it was just work hard and party hard, and that’s got a lot better.
The way people run kitchens now has gotten a lot better, it wasn’t just fear and intimidation and go, but the standards have also lowered too. It’s so much harder today to get young adults, adults even in their 30s, to come in and just be there on time and look sharp, and be ready to go and have high standards, and a sense of urgency and understand teamwork. Everything wants to be faster, quicker. Just throw in a pot and heat it up.
At the school, I’m on the board there so I still see– I go up there at least once a year. We have different meetings so I see a lot of what they’re doing and they’re really providing a high-quality education. The facilities are amazing. The industry is really expanding. Now they’re doing a lot of– you get four-year degrees there now, wine studies, other things. In some ways, it’s gotten better. In some ways, I think everybody– I think we all agree the world is a little more casual than it used to be.
Nicky: Definitely, yes. Then when you get social media and everything else in the mix, I guess you have to be quick and fun and quirky to call attention and to promote the restaurants and have everyone go down there.
Pete: That’s a big challenge these days that you didn’t think about when you’re young and coming up is, because of social media and you have to have a brand, you have to have some brand awareness. If you don’t exist on social media, then it’s hard to exist in business.
Nicky: Yes, for sure.
Pete: The good thing is you don’t have to be tech-oriented. You don’t have to be good at social media, even though some people are great at it, sometimes just being there and being present and being yourself is enough to at least keep you in the minds where they think about your restaurant when it’s time to go eat or whatever.
Nicky: Exactly. Then also you get a lot of people sharing their experience at your restaurant. It’s like, “Oh, my god, I just had the best beignets ever,” like I did when I was there a few months ago because they are so good. That’s word of mouth. You put it out there and people from a lot of different states they’ll know about it and that’s just amazing.
Pete: Well, I think that’s important too to be aware of in our business. When you’re doing things you gotta have that, well, I completely– when we opened Squid Ink, one of our properties, so we have five right now. I have Panini Pete’s, the original, in Fairhope, Sunset Pointe right up the road, more high-end, more seafood. We have a new place called the Waterfront in Daphne, which is another big bayfront property with some cool coastal cuisine. We have Ed’s Seafood Shed in Spanish Fort, classic Southern fried seafood, predominantly.
Then I have this gastro pub in Mobile called Squid Ink that’s really funky. We just won the most innovative menu in town for the fourth year in a row. When I went in there, we designed the menu. This was the first restaurant that I went overboard on my budget in plating and plateware because you have all these cool, funky shapes and sizes and earthenware. Not only are they fragile and they break, but they’re expensive, but your food is more Instagram-worthy.
You have to think about the looks of the drinks and the garnishes. For years at Panini Pete’s, Nicky, as you know, I’m back there doing everything from scratch and homemade mozzarella, fresh-cut fries, and house-roasted meat. I’m putting all this quality on these paninis, but I’m putting them in a plastic basket with paper, and it gets want-want. There’s a restaurant down the street that’s doing so-so food with China and glass and forks and everybody’s like, “Way.” I’m like, “Man, you need to present your stuff well as well.”
Nicky: Well, yes, but I’m also a big believer of you can be won over by that first bite, right?
Pete: Yes.
Nicky: People start talking about it and no matter, it can be on newspaper, but if it’s really good, people don’t care.
Pete: Absolutely, the flavor has to be there, the quality has to be there. You see Philly Cheesesteaks that couldn’t get any less casual, and there are people wrapped around the building to get this cheesesteak, like you said, wrapped in newspaper or little tacareas, little trucks. You’re absolutely right there. You got to back it up with quality.
Nicky: Oh, no, you definitely have to back it up. Tell me now about how you had this wonderful experience of being from the first time on Triple D, Drive-ins, Diners, and Dives, and before the restaurant. Tell us that. I think that’s a wonderful story about how Guy Fieri discovered your first restaurant and then how you started expanding from there. I think that’s wonderful. That’s a lot of good things that coincided, but also a big opportunity that you went with and you knew how to make more of it because not everybody would have the vision to make that grow. Tell us about that.
Pete: Yes, I think that’s so important for people to realize how many opportunities hit us every day that we just miss, we’re just not paying attention to. I don’t mean big, massive things. It could be just a small thing, helping somebody out, answering that phone or that e-mail or cleaning something up, doing sometimes little things that don’t seem really valuable, but they are and they lead to additional things. That door that gets you through to get that big part is the 10th door down the way.
It was one little thing, picking up something from the post office for somebody and dropping it in an office where you met somebody that led to this, that led to that. At least that’s my philosophy in my book, Spatula Success. When I got that call, first I thought it was a prank call. I thought it was one of my friends kidding me I’m getting a call from the Food Network. It was like an audition process that I’m sure you’re familiar with. It started off with a long interview, and then it was basically, “We’ll call you back in four or six weeks, or we won’t.”
Are you going to get a callback or are you not going to get a callback? I relate because both of my kids-
Nicky: Exactly.
Pete: -study musical theater and they’re aspiring actors, so I can relate to that. I tell them all the time, your job is just to be ready, and your job is to audition, audition, audition, and maybe once in a while you get a gig. For me, it went from a November call till March till I knew I was going to be on the show. There were four calls about six weeks apart. Then it was like, “Oh, my God, it’s a go.”
I was so excited. I likened it to– for me, I said, “You look what Guy did. He won a show, Next Food Network Star, and now he’s got this show.” You watch American Idol, The Voice, all these things, and you see people get a little opportunity, and some do amazing with it and some don’t, and somebody maybe didn’t win it, but they were third or fourth. Then how do they take it to the top?
Talent is certainly involved, but it’s more than just that because there’s more talented people sitting on the couch watching them, sometimes, that aren’t out there doing it. I knew right away, I’m like, “How do I bring value to what I’m doing and how do I try to get this small bit of exposure to expand?” Till now it’s been like 15 years. I just actually got a call yesterday from the Food Network. I’m going next in about a week to go shoot a show up in Tulsa, a new show that Guy is producing. This is hot. This is hot off the press. A new show they’re producing, and I got invited to go be a judge on the show. This is another level up from not just being a competitor or a featured chef, now I’m going to be one of the judges on the show.
Nicky: Oh, my goodness, that’s amazing.
Pete: It’s about that. It’s delivering the goods, it’s bringing value, and doing whatever it takes, obviously within reason, to bring value to what you’re doing. You know you have talent, but there’s a lot of other people talent. What can I do to hustle to bring value? When I do events with Guy and show up, and it’s a lot of these celebrity chefs or even worse, guys like myself that are celebrity chefs regionally and been on a lot of national exposure, but I don’t have my own show or anything.
Nicky: Well, no, but you are. [crosstalk].
Pete: I see myself as a clearly–
Nicky: You went on the road with him. You did a lot of things.
Pete: I’ve done a lot. I’ve done a lot. I’ve traveled the world cooking for the troops, but I still stay very modest and humble, and I get in there and roll my sleeves up and work because our business is making people happy, putting out good food, helping out. It’s washing dishes, it’s doing whatever it takes. I think that’s important that you look for those opportunities to go, “I’ll be there, I’ll help, let’s go.” I’ve tried to teach my kids that. Bring value. It’s writing little notes.
I know whenever he does a production, whether he’s a PA or he’s doing a gig, he’s just finished some theater work, I guarantee he’s going to have 10 handwritten notes that he’s going to give to the producers and the directors and different people and say thank you for the opportunity and let me know if anything I could do. Those little difference makers have gone. How do you make the most of your opportunity? How do you be somebody they want to work with in the future?
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Now you can open Descript directly from SquadCast and start editing video and audio right away. Check out all the details at squadcast.fm.com/?ref=lapizarra. This super-long link is in the show notes. Once you click on it, you can try SquadCast for free for seven days, and you can decide which plan best fits your needs. SquadCast has other advantages like the possibility of having up to nine people in a recording session or in a virtual meeting. You can download your mixed and mastered audio files with Dolby sound quality. Try it out with a link in the show notes.
I think that’s so important, definitely. It’s something that you mentioned here. Let me read it directly from your book. Okay, hold on, because I have it. I have it here. This is your book, by the way. People who are watching this on YouTube, they can see it, and if not, you can go and watch this on YouTube or go to Pete’s website. I’m going to link to everything in the show notes, of course.
Pete: Thank you.
Nicky: It says, “The little things matter. While many of us spend our lives waiting and hoping for the next big break to propel us into the future we’re dreaming of, the secret to living a life of abundance is found in the everyday grind. It’s the seemingly small decisions and actions that multiplied over time lay a solid foundation for building a successful and fulfilling life.”
Pete: There it is, right there. That could have been a lot shorter, but if I just condensed it.
Nicky: Well, no, because it’s a book. It’s okay in a book. It has to be long.
Pete: That’s so true. It’s happened to me so many times. I think I referenced that in the book, standing on the deck of an aircraft carrier in the middle of the Arabian Sea watching jets launch, and I’m on this massive ship for three days with some of my chef buddies, and we’re doing tens of thousands of meals and just having a blast and going, “How the hell did I get here?”
Getting that call yesterday from the Food Network to do another show and you’re like, it’s this massive foundation that’s from taking massive action on little things. For me, it’s just all these thousand little decisions and these little good deeds and these little times when you went over and you worked hard and you tried to be prepared and you went in early or you stayed late or you volunteered over here. Eventually, you get old and you got so many of those things that it builds up a foundation, so good stuff.
Nicky: Yes, and you’ve done enough good things to go around. I like your motto is dig deep, work hard, do good things, right?
Pete: Absolutely.
Nicky: Not everybody follows that. It’s like you reach success and you’re good and you just think, “Okay, I’ll keep working hard to maintain that success.” If you also turn around and look at all the people that have helped you and you try to give back, just help out or whatever. Just keep an open mind and an open heart, I would say, to keep things growing, and that brings success for everybody not just for yourself.
Pete: Yes. As you grow you realize– I have another quote that I think it’s my quote I wasn’t able to find it anywhere, so I think I’m the first one to do it. I’m trying to tag it, but I say now don’t just work to make a living, work to make a difference.
Nicky: That is the point.
Pete: I think if you do that it’s proven to me– it gives you so much more opportunities and you feel better, obviously you’re doing good things, and it’s harder as we grow. I started with this grinding and working in all these restaurants and working for other people and eventually getting my own shop and really working hard and going all in and going broke before we made money, and now it’s this multimillion-dollar company and real estate and other things that I’m doing and the Food Network stuff. It’s crazy to think about it, but I’m still the same guy. I have a different role I play now, but I still love to get out there and just have fun and do things and get in there and working with the crew, working with the customers.
Nicky: Yes. You are the face of your company. If you’re out there greeting people and you’re present and you’re helping and all that it just goes to show the quality of the business that you have been building. You’re not someone that is unreachable and said a few things and then brought in a bunch of people to keep doing your work and you’re standing in the background. No, you actually are there and you keep creating and reinventing things. Right now you opened the Waterfront. You said that’s your fifth restaurant around there, right?
Pete: Yes, or sixth. Is it fifth or sixth? 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Yes. Then we have a food hall we’re working on right now in Mobile that’ll be six, that’ll be open in the fall.
Nicky: Oh my gosh. Wow, because I was going to ask you, what’s [crosstalk]–
Pete: Three new brands?
Nicky: What’s your next thing, but you just keep bringing up all these things. It’s amazing to see you, you keep growing and getting all these ideas. That is the next one. How has the Waterfront been going? That’s the one that you recently opened.
Pete: Waterfront’s been phenomenal. It’s 7,000 square foot right on the bay. Amazing view. You look across the bay, you see the skyline of Mobile, big deck. We covered it with a nice roof covering and fence and misters. We took some cues from the name, the Waterfront, so I wanted to feature some cool iconic dishes that we have that people expect, but also to be able to bring in other dishes from maybe a northeastern spin on a lobster roll or a play on Peruvian ceviche or a play with Argentinian shrimp, and be able to bring in other ingredients and other techniques from iconic waterfronts where here sometimes people tend to go, “Oh, you’re selling salmon or you’re selling this and that’s not a Gulf fish.” They want you to be a purist, and you’re just missing out.
I rolled that into the concept and say, “This is iconic waterfront inspiration from all over the globe.” We have some Caribbean stuff and just little hints and little playing around with that stuff, but it’s been very good, very well received. We’re doing a lot of parties there now. We had a huge bash. Guy was in town filming some Triple D [unintelligible 00:23:23]. Just co-hosted an episode with him and did some cameos on another, so those will be airing later this year. That was a blast. We ended up hosting a big party at the Waterfront with this band from New Orleans called Cowboy Mouth and it was just crazy. We had about 350 people in there just going bananas and–
Nicky: My goodness.
Pete: It’s gotten a great sendoff and everybody’s excited about it. I think it has the potential within a couple of years to probably be our highest volume restaurant.
Nicky: Wow. Oh my goodness.
Pete: That’s hard because Sunset Pointe is pretty lethal. Sunset Pointe is a busy, busy place.
Nicky: Yes. I still have to go to that one. Been to Panini Pete’s just have delicious beignets and paninis there, but I have to, and I’ve had the smoothie because you also have that smoothie and juice placed right next to Paninis.
Pete: What I ended up doing, I was fighting with myself. There’s a little area we call the Fairhope French Quarter where Panini Pete’s is. We’ve been there 18 years, 19 years, and a shop went out and this place came available, and I kind of was, “All right, we’ll get it.” We opened up this juice bar and tried to do a little fruteria as well. Everybody didn’t really get that in Alabama, but it’s been fun, but I was fighting with myself there too because I didn’t want people coming in, getting tables in the patio to just have smoothies, because that’s the restaurant turf. I’m like, “Well, maybe they can order one, but how are we going to do that? It’s a different register, a different business.”
I fought with myself for a few months on that. What we ended up doing recently was basically I absorbed that brand into Panini Pete’s, so it’s Panini Pete’s featuring Fairhope Squeeze, and so now it’s on our menu. It’s part of our product lineup. What I did was I gave up that spot and I just incorporated it into our bar to make that a coffee bar and smoothie bar so we could bring in another merchant in there. I was like, “No brainer.” It’s just expanding our offerings instead of fight with myself. Now I love to see smoothies and juices out on the tables and coffee drinks. It’s really cool. That’s the thing with business and your career is, you got to be smart enough to keep your ego out of the way and do what’s right for the business.
The place I was just talking about, Squid Ink, is in a former location of a Panini Pete’s. Panini Pete’s was my OG, that’s what I started with. Six years into it I opened up my second one in Mobile, and that was a great business launch to market. It was one of those downtowns that had gone south that was coming back. We had 20,000 people every day that would come down and work and then leave at five o’clock, so breakfast and lunch made sense. The weekends were really mediocre. You had kids coming down there drinking Thursday, Friday, Saturday.
That market started to evolve. People started moving in and a couple restaurants popped up, a better clientele. I was like, “Huh, I need to do something about this.” We converted Pete’s to Squid Ink. I own the property there, so it was an easy decision to go, I want to keep this, and I could figure out a way to do Panini Pete’s later. For a lot of people they’re like, “What happened to Panini Pete’s? I thought it was busy.” “Oh, he’s closing a restaurant.” Not only is it the name of the restaurant, it became my identity. Hey, there’s Panini Pete. I had to completely not worry about the ego of it and go, “This is a business decision. I want to do a fun, funky gastro pub with lunch, dinner cocktails.” We’re literally doing five times the business in this Squid Ink that we were at Panini Pete. It was a great decision.
Nicky: Wow.
Pete: The accolades with the food and what we’re doing there is great, but the food hall around the corner we’re getting ready to do is going to be the return of Panini Pete’s to Mobile as well, so Panini Pete will anchor the food hall.
Nicky: Oh, okay, so it will be there anyway?
Pete: Yes.
Nicky: Yes. Well, that’s great because you already started all of that, and people will remember it. You’ve got a great thing going on that it won’t be as hard to start because you already had all that. That people were talking about.
Pete: Yes. We’ve got a good following there. Play on your successes, go deep on what you’re good at, but always look to expand and keep yourself in check and understand what the market– A lot of young chefs that I’ll consult with and talk to, and one of the first things I talk to them about is cooking for your customer’s ego. You got to have an identity and you got to have your standards. You don’t just want to sell out, but you can’t just say, you don’t get me, you don’t understand my food, or you don’t understand my art, or whatever it is. Well, they don’t understand it. You’re not going to make a living, so you got to be able to play to the audience as well.
Nicky: Hey, let’s talk about your podcast, The Raw Materials. When did that come about?
Pete: Yes. We do this, it’s the Raw Ingredients, actually. [crosstalk]
Nicky: Oh, sorry. The Raw Ingredients not the raw materials, sorry. [laughs]
Pete: Raw ingredients of a recipe. It’s so funny, because literally it started, God, eight years ago. My business partner, Nick, was pushing me to do a radio show locally, and I really didn’t want to. One of my buddies, Keith, who now has a publishing and a production company, was talking to me about a podcast, and I’m like, “What is a podcast?” He’s like, “Well, you can do it anywhere you want.” He goes, “You’re going to do a radio show, really? Every Tuesday night at 7:00 or whatever, you’re going to be there in Mobile?” He is like, “You know better than that. That’s not going to happen.” He was the first one that talked to me about it, and he says, “You own it.”
I really didn’t understand it. I bought some gear and I said, I’m deep with the Messlords, I’m doing all this fun stuff. I’m traveling the world, I’m cooking with these chefs. I’m in these exotic places. I’m building a business. I could just do these recording things and you just put it out there” That’s what I did, and some of them were fun and funny and we were drinking and kind of goofy. Then at some point I went, “If I’m going to keep doing this I want to bring value, because I’m not the level of celebrity that people just can’t wait to tune in and hear me and other chucklehead chefs doing crazy things around the world.” It’s interesting, but it’s not that interesting, not for an hour or more.
I decided to evolve it. Originally I just called it Hot Off the Press podcast, which I thought was brilliant. Panini Press and I press sandwiches and everybody’s going to get it, but I was like, “Eh, I’m changing the name.” I rebranded it to The Raw Ingredients. I talk about what are your raw ingredients or what’s your recipe for success? I mostly interview restaurateurs and chefs, but I’ve also done some athletes and some business people, and I love it because like you who’s doing a podcast, being the interviewer and listening, it’s amazing how much you learn. Not just about business and opportunity success, but about the people that you think you know. You’re like going, “Oh my God, you know what? I can’t believe I didn’t even know they did this or they did that.” Just hearing their story, hearing their origin story, it’s just really, really cool. I love it.
I’m getting ready to start recording a new season. It’s just been great. It’s been a lot of fun and it’s branding. It’s a lot of things that people out there need to realize that, “Man, if you’re going to do it, go for it.” Now, do you think you’re going to make a bunch of money on it? You can maybe. I don’t do it for that initially because of the brand that we have, it helps to fuel that and it helps with exposure. For me, I just love it. I consume podcasts and when I’m interviewing somebody, I’m drinking all that in as well.
Nicky: That is on your website mainly, or you are on all major platforms?
Pete: Yes, it’s on all the major platforms as well. I have a link on my website, chefpanipete.com, and I typically share that and direct people there because that’s got more of my story and branding and all that other stuff. It’s on Spotify, it’s on Apple podcast, it’s on all those little platforms as well.
Nicky: Perfect, perfect. What would you say has been one of your toughest obstacles to overcome since you started with all of your business?
Pete: I’ll tell you, there’s a lot. Funding is huge. A lot of people get into it and one, they don’t realize that it takes money to be successful. I talk to chefs and they go, “I’m going to open this place and it’s going to be great, and I’m going to do five within the next three years.” They haven’t even opened the first one yet. I mentioned earlier, it was six years after I opened my first one until I did my second one. Don’t think right away back into it and go, “What do I want to make? What’s the minimum I want to make if you’re going to go open your own business?” Then back into it and go, “What are all my expenses?” Because your fixed expenses are crazy.
You don’t realize rent and insurance and linen and music rights and all these different things that you’re paying for. Then all the people you pay for, the whole pyramid gets inverted and everybody gets paid till you get to this, the very, very bottom. If there’s anything left, you get it. That’s one of the toughest things. I continued to go all in to grow my business. It was a long time before I started making what I felt like was really good money because when I opened my second one– okay, now I have these key employees that I have to raise up to and a manager and a sous chef. I’ve got to pay them salaries.
I’m making a little money now, boom, I got to step back and I got to be willing to sacrifice some of that to grow. Money’s a big thing and realizing that you’re probably going to have to make a lot of sacrifices. Then obviously depending on the career, there’s challenges with us is we’re a very labor-intensive industry. When you look at tech and how many people, and each individual can generate 350,000, 600,000 in revenue, whatever. You get into our business and it’s like $30,000 worth of revenue per person. It’s just crazy labor-intensive. You have to have a lot of people involved. You’re constantly training. It’s a stepping stone career. It’s not a career for everybody.
It’s a job. You do have turnover. If you get somebody, we do really good, but still, if you have somebody for a year or two, then you’re doing great. There’s a lot of places that constantly are understaffed. Location is important. The food supply chain has been crazy for us in our industry because everything’s gone up and things have been harder to get. Then keeping yourself, your priorities right. You hit these breakpoints in your career when you get to a certain level and it’s hard to break through, and you’re going, “Oh, I’m just struggling.” You have to look around and go, “Okay, what do I need to do to get past this speed bump?”
Whether it’s training you need, whether it’s somebody else, you need to bring on the team, whether it’s a level of technology, whether it’s a discipline in your careers. In entertainment, it could be everything, like I talk to my son, “Your job every day is play the keyboard, play the ukulele, sing, do accents, work out?” I don’t know. To me, I think like, you need to be prepared. What is it that you’re doing? You’re one of these phenomenal voiceover artists right now. How many years ago was it that that was not even on your radar?
Nicky: Yes, exactly. Not before 2006.
Pete: Yes. You got to adapt, and I think that’s important is keeping your finger on the pulse, adapting, getting mentors so that people can help you through that because whether it’s money, whether it’s opportunity, learning what you can learn to grow your business. For me, it was transitioning also into going, “Oh, if I could be the landlord and I can acquire the real estate as well, I have something for my retirement.” The Squid Ink building, I bought that on a wing and a prayer. It was funny because there was a lady that owned a restaurant there, and she was getting ready to retire and so now she gets this payoff.
I buy the building, she gets the money, and she didn’t own or finance, and she’s like, “This is my retirement.” I’m like, “Great. I hope it does the same thing for me that it did for you.” Well, in the meantime, now I’ve learned the business of real estate. Not just as a chef in a restaurateur that goes, “When I’m ready to hang up my hat, maybe I can sell the business and still be the landlord, or maybe I can sell the building and get a chunk of money. That’s my retirement.” Where now I’ve learned that the power of using real estate as a business too.
Now it’s already an income-generating property, and I’m learning how to manage that and how to leverage that to go deeper and to go, “Man, we’re going to open new restaurants, but I’m also diversified into these other businesses that come up.” Whether it’s writing a book, doing a podcast, things happen, man, when you’re paying attention.
Nicky: Yes, exactly. Wow. Well, it’s just wonderful to hear how you have been building your business and paying attention and just making it grow and taking advantage of the opportunities. I think that’s one of the biggest things that people can take away from this interview, as well as all the other jewels and bits of golden nugget advice that you’ve given. I’m going to put a link, of course, to your website where they can get your book and everything. This is going to be a bit tricky because of course you do many, many delicious things, but if you should say, or if you had to pick one of your favorite cuisines and then your favorite dish, I’m going to ask both. I know it’s hard, but put it up there.
Pete: That’s an easy one and a hard one. Cuisine, I love Italian food the best. I don’t even have to think twice about it. Italian is my favorite, it’s all about ingredients. There’s a lot of technique involved in any kind of business you have or especially whether it’s sports, whether it’s music, whether it’s cooking, whether it’s acting, those technique. Then there’s some cuisines that it’s so heavy laden with technique like in some French dishes and whatnot, or Japanese and Asian. With Italian, it’s great ingredients and don’t screw them up. Some of the best Italian food I’ve ever eaten, maybe three or four ingredients.
Now there is high-level cooking, especially go to Italy, but just when you have the [unintelligible 00:37:35] and the [unintelligible 00:37:36] and all these amazing dishes. As you know, with your heritage I love it. That’s my favorite. Now, as far as my favorite dish, that’s one is impossible. It’s like, today, what’s my favorite dish next week, what’s my favorite dish? There’s so many great meals that you have that not only are they delicious, but they take you somewhere. It’s like a song that reminds you of that place and that time. It just transitions. Food’s so powerful. We have it for birthdays and weddings and funerals and any kind of anniversaries. Food is a big part of it.
Nicky: Then food brings people together.
Pete: 100%. It’s very social.
Nicky: Is just such an important part of a family tradition, of a country. You have your typical dishes and all that. I’ll modify the question and let you off the hook a little bit.
Pete: Peanut butter and jelly sandwich. That’s what I eat more than anything. It’s still my favorite. I got the tattoo, the PB & J right here.
Nicky: Really? Oh my God. Look at that. You have to tell a story about all of your tattoos sometime because you have plenty of them. Now, so what is the first dish that you created, maybe when you were at the CIA, when you realized, “Oh, I have a talent for this. This is delicious.” Something that was a eureka moment for you.
Pete: I don’t know if I could pinpoint the exact dish, but there were certain times when it wasn’t like, “I have a knack for it,” but you just felt like suddenly some of the windows were opening and some of the mystery was being unlocked when you were starting to learn to develop flavor. You did it accidentally. You heard these chefs when I was in school– prior to going to school, I was working in restaurants and shucking oysters and frying chicken and having fun and doing good things and putting out what I felt was good food.
I worked in a great restaurant in South Florida called 15th Street Fisheries when I was in high school, and I still– I was there last time I was in Fort Lauderdale, a couple weeks ago. I went by the Fisheries to eat. The owner who has since passed away was the president of the Restaurant Association. He was a professor in hospitality, big mentor in my career. There’s a lot of things, these windows open up and I remember we were doing this sirloin steak that was herb roasted and seared with this ale and onion sauce. It was really a close to graduation at the CIA and I was just like, “Man, this is really so good.” It just came out so right. We spent a week in that restaurant working out front and a week in the back. Then we moved on to the next class. I was making this dish every day going, “Man, this is one of my new favorites.” Just the contrast of the sauce with the sear, the meat, and learning how to develop flavor, that was a big one for me that stands out that I remember because It was so much stuff we cooked.
Making a simple omelet. I could remember doing a French omelet and getting in trouble because when you had pantry cooking, you were cooking breakfast for the school so you’re learning pantry and you’re learning breakfast cooking, and all this stuff. It was a self-sustained school. You had all these different classes doing all this different stuff, and you always fed yourself. Then a lot of times if somebody was in a service class, they may have been assigned to eat in there, or if they were in a tech class.
Pantry cooking was all about– we cooked breakfast for the whole school. We’re in there doing our stuff and the chef didn’t like me too much. I was a little bit of a wise guy but I worked hard and I showed up and I remember every omelet going through there. I was like, “Man, this is beautiful. Oh my God, look at that one. Make sure you show the chef. He’s over there on the chef table.” I’m talking loud enough where he can hear me. I’m telling these kids and I’m doing these beautiful omelets. He was pissed off. He was like, “You need to just shut up, man. You don’t even know how to cook, man. Stop.” I make a pretty good omelet.
Nicky: Well, yes, you do, and pretty good beignets and paninis and other things. You just have evolved into so many different things. Well, if this episode is not making people hungry, I don’t know what will.
Pete: Go eat. Don’t cook, go eat.
Nicky: Go eat to a good restaurant and thank the chef and your servers and right–
Pete: 100%. Absolutely.
Nicky: Yes, absolutely. Pete, this has been such a hoot. I’ve enjoyed talking to you so much. Thank you for coming on the show and just sharing your experiences, your growth, and all your wealth of advice because I think several things that he have said here can be applied, definitely, to any career, creative careers, or anything. The most important thing is to do that, work hard, but also giving back and watch things multiply. I think that’s the best type of advice. What else would you like people to learn from this and maybe also people who have been thinking about going into the restaurant business? What would be your advice?
Pete: Okay. First of all, thank you for having me, Nicky. It was great. People look me up on Instagram, Chef Panini Pete, and Facebook, and chefpaninipete.com because scratch on the surface if you want to go deeper and order the book, learn more about that, or see more about my philosophy or what we do with the PR Foundation and the Messlords.
There’s so many things that I’m into and dig deeper because it’s all been done before, but sometimes you hear something that just resonates. Sometimes somebody says it in a way that just makes sense and it helps to inspire or trigger you to either get over that barrier you had, which may be just getting up out of bed on time and going. The barriers are either financial, they could be physical, they could be mental so dig deep into that stuff. Find out more that you can.
If you’re thinking about getting in the restaurant business, you better go work in a restaurant first and make sure, because it’s not glamorous. To me it is. I love it. I couldn’t do anything else but it’s not TV. Food Network is a blessing and a curse. I’ve been on a bunch of Food Network, I love it. It’s been crazy for our industry, but it’s also a lot of people watch that and go, “Oh, I want to have a cupcake shop.” They show up and they go, “Yes, I’m a chef.” I go, “Okay, great. Where have you cooked at?” “Well, I grew up watching the Food Network.” They’re 18 years old and they’re calling themselves a chef, and they really don’t know what they’re doing and they don’t know the industry.
It’s not doing little composed dishes for your family. It’s going, “Okay, we are going to cook this, like beignets. This is great and you’re going to make this dough and you’re going to learn this, but now, we’re going to make 800 of those today in the next two hours or whatever.” You’re like, “Whoa, man.” Production, the intensity. You either love it or you hate it.
Get out and work in a restaurant, and if you’ve been working in a restaurant and you’re thinking you’re ready to make the transition, find a mentor, find people that are doing a good job, or go work with people that you know, are doing a good job, that run good operations, that have standards, that have systems in place. You can’t just go fly off the seat of your pants. As you grow and scale, one of the things that you’re going to run up against is inconsistencies.
If you don’t develop systems– when I walk in a restaurant, I can see if the lighting is right, the sounds right, the shades are all at the same level. The bathroom’s cleaned. Everybody’s looking sharp in uniform and tucked up, and there’s all these little things your brain’s just taken into them. To create that, take standards, you have to have systems in place to develop these young managers and these young leaders into rock stars.
Nicky: Yes, absolutely. It’s all those details.
Pete: Beware.
Nicky: Beware and just really think hard and do it the right way. Don’t be afraid to start at the entry level and take your time, because it all takes time to develop.
Pete: Be patient. I think that’s a great point there because a lot of people look at what I’m doing now and don’t realize I didn’t open my first business till I was 42 years old. A lot of people get patient, they’re not a millionaire, and they’re 28 and they’re going, “Oh my God, I’m going to be a waitress or cook my whole life.” I’m like, “No, but you have to evolve, but it takes time.”
Nicky: Yes, absolutely.
Pete: Thank you so much for having me, girl.
Nicky: Well, thank you. Thanks again. As I said, I’m going to put all the links in the show notes. Well, I wish you much success with the Waterfront, continued success with the other one that you’re thinking about opening the sixth one, just everything that’s going on. Do keep us informed about that new show that you’re talking about, because that way I can follow up on our newsletter. Of course, people when they’re following you on Instagram, they’ll get the scoop and be able to watch that new show.
Pete: Yes. There’ll be some updates. I’m filming on the 10th. I don’t even want to say the name, the working title. We’re probably just shooting a pilot. They might be shooting typically, as you know, maybe a sixth episode and see what happens from there. I’m excited because it’s the next level for me. I’ve done a bunch of grocery– I’ve done over 20 shows on the Food Network, but now I’m like, “one of the experts.” That’s really cool.
Nicky: That is really cool. My God, congratulations for that. They couldn’t have gotten a better judge, as far as I’m concerned.
Pete: Oh, I can be judgmental.
Nicky: Yes, but you know your stuff. You know the ingredients, you know everything that goes into it, you know the right point, and when things really are good, you have that criteria so yes. You-
Pete: 100%.
Nicky: -can be a very good judge. Pete, thanks again. As I said, congratulations on all the new ventures. Thank you.
Pete: Say hey to everybody. Thanks, Nicky.
Nicky: I will.
Pete: Appreciate you.
Announcer: Thanks for joining us on La Pizarra. Want to listen to more episodes? Visit lapizarrapodcast.com or nickymondellini.com/lapizarra where you can sign up for our newsletter and get exclusive previews of future episodes as well as resources for your creative business. Tune in next week for another interesting interview.
