Bold Moves Podcast

From IT to Chef: The Bold Career Shift That Paid Off for Nate Strickland

• Mat Torres • Episode 18

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Discover how Nate Strickland made the bold career shift "From IT to Chef" that completely transformed his life. In this episode of the Bold Moves Podcast, Mat Torres chats with Nate about his courageous decision to leave the comfort of an IT job for the chaos and creativity of the culinary world. Nate shares how his military and law enforcement background prepared him for the challenges of running his own catering business, navigating risks, and redefining his identity as a private chef. From overcoming the impact of COVID-19 to building relationships with high-profile clients, this episode is packed with insights on resilience, personal growth, and making bold moves.

🎯 Key Takeaways:
- Embrace risks to unlock new opportunities and redefine your career.
- Learn how military discipline influences leadership and creativity.
- Understand the importance of adaptability in overcoming challenges like COVID-19.
- Discover how passion and persistence can turn a hobby into a thriving business.

Tune in to hear Nate's inspiring story and find out how bold decisions can lead to incredible transformations. Whether you're considering a career change or looking for motivation to take risks, this episode will leave you inspired to make your next bold move.

#careerchange #privatecatering #cookingjourney #cheflifestyle #boldmoves

CHAPTERS:
00:00 - Intro
01:18 - Bold Moves Podcast Overview
01:48 - Pivotal Life Moments
07:32 - Chef Career Background
11:19 - Taking Risks in Cooking
12:59 - Jumpstarting a Culinary Business
18:17 - Building a Culinary Team
19:50 - Understanding Sous Chefs
21:42 - Culinary Institute of America Insights
23:58 - Income for Private Chefs
26:42 - Working with Celebrity Clients
29:40 - Risks Beyond Arizona Move
34:25 - Impact of 9/11 on Chefs
43:58 - Costs of Private Events
47:15 - Handling Special Requests
50:25 - Food Cost Considerations
52:50 - Military Discounts for Services
53:52 - Quickfire Culinary Questions
55:43 - Final Thoughts
56:38 - Outro

Also check out: https://www.boldmovespodcastaz.com


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Video clips made with Taja AI: https://www.taja.ai/?via=mathew

This is the Bold Moves Podcast, where real people share the decisions that changed everything. Hosted by Matt Torrance. All right, so we are back with the Bold Moves Podcast, and I've got a very special guest. I've got Mr. Nate Strickland. Now, Nate is a private personal chef, which is very cool. And I just want to give you the opportunity just to kind of say hi and, you know, introduce yourself. How are you doing, Matt? Like you said, I'm Nate Strickland. I'm the executive chef and owner of AZ48 Catering, which is kind of the umbrella part of our company, and then Experience by Chef Nate, which is our private chef side, which I do all the in-home cooking for. Okay, very cool. And it's funny, you actually came recommended by MJ. MJ is a sail shark, as we all know. He's a pretty cool dude. But you guys are playing golf together, and I guess you guys mentioned the podcast, and you wanted to jump on. And I appreciate you coming out and getting on the show. It's a pleasure to have you on here and start talking about some of the stuff you do. I appreciate you having me. Like I said before, this is my first one, so a little nervous, a little newbie, but yeah, looking forward to it. Cool. It's all good. Yeah, so just kind of give you and the audience a little breakdown of what we do on the show. So Bold Moves Podcast, we talk about bold moves that we take in our life, like risks that sometimes they turn out great, sometimes they don't. But we kind of just talk about really like the good, the bad, the ugly, how they made us and how they helped us grow and how they helped our business. And have an opportunity just to kind of talk about the business too. But yeah, so I kind of just want to get into it and just kind of talk about your business and how we got there and, you know, talking about what is one dramatic or pivotal moment in your life that just kind of sticks with you and something that just really made you just kind of like stop in your tracks? Well, you know, I think for a lot of people, COVID. I mean, COVID, especially in the food business, COVID, you know, changed everything. The restaurant industry took a ginormous hit. The catering side and private chef side took an enormous hit because people weren't having gatherings. Companies weren't hosting events anymore. So it just sends shockwaves, you know, with restaurants shutting down and us not being able to do anything. You kind of get stuck and you're like, well, what do I do now? You know, I can't do anything. I can't cook for anybody. And that's my livelihood. That was my business. And I had, you know, that relied on me and depended on me. And it made it was a very tough time and very scary time. So did you did you start doing the personal chef stuff before or after 2020? Long before. So I've been a chef for quite a quite a few years. And back in when I'm from Wisconsin and back there, I did worked in restaurants, ran kitchens, did some catering and private chef work out there. And then when COVID hit, you know, I had to make a big pivot. OK, so when COVID hit, like what kind of pivot did you did you take? So Wisconsin, I found myself in a unique situation with Wisconsin because Wisconsin decided that not only were they going to sort of do a lockdown, they went full out. I mean, they just shut the state down. You couldn't do anything. The gatherings were like 20 people or less. And they were actually fining people. If they found out you had 21 guests in your home and one of your neighbors or whoever wanted to rat you out, they were fining people, not just businesses, but actual regular folks were getting fined for having friends over because it didn't meet the state standard. So Wisconsin took it to a whole new level. And I was at a point where I didn't I've, you know, had no choice but to look at other options. And my mom, who's lived here for 25 plus years, said, hey, Arizona is wide open. Your kids are grown up. Why don't you move down here? And I didn't really take me too long of looking at it and thinking about it. I'm like, yep, OK. And I just shut everything down back there and packed up and moved down here. December of 2020. Wow. Started over like completely from scratch. No name recognition, no business, no idea of the market, which is extremely scary. You know, I had no time to do any demographic research or whatnot as far as this area is concerned. So I really took a bold move, as you would say, to pack up and move and come down here and try and basically start again from nothing. Wow. So it's Wisconsin. Is that is that where Governor, is that Tim Walls or is that? No, Tim Walls is Minnesota. Minnesota. OK. We're right next door. And we have a very similar one. Wisconsin has a very similar governor in Tony Evers. You used to have Scott Walker was a great governor as far as, you know, he he became famous for busting the unions up back in like 2016, 2017, somewhere in there. And but no, they have a a different style of leadership up there now. And it has not been friendly to businesses, especially small businesses. Yeah. Wow. That's wild. So coming out here in Arizona since 2020 and then is most of your business, is it like high end people? Sure. Like in the valley? Yeah. I mean, to to be able to hire catering, the catering side is a bit more affordable, but the private chef side is a little expensive. It's it's basically having a restaurant come to your home, you know, and, you know, having all of the same luxuries and features, but not having to go out and not waiting on a reservation. You're not, you know, having to wait for your drinks from the bar or not. Everything is right there. So, yeah, it's a little bit more on the higher end side. We are definitely not the highest priced private chefs in the area, but I'm, you know, kind of I consider myself middle of the road. But, yeah, so I would say the majority of our clients are Scottsdale, Paradise Valley. But I have several here in Gilbert, Chandler, Mesa, some of my regulars. But, you know, a lot of our business and this really shocked me when I started here. I never thought of this. And actually, my first job was kind of funny if we get to that. But it's a lot of tourism. It's a lot of bachelor and bachelorette parties, people coming in from out of state. Phoenix is a big destination for that. And then, of course, you get spring training. We get the waste management open. You have all these. The Super Bowl was here. That was a great week. Yeah, it was a great two weeks. The National Football National Championship is coming here. So there's all these different events that are constantly happening happening here, especially in the colder months or colder to us, but warm to everybody else in the world. Yeah, there's so much tourism that comes here. That has been a big part of my business, which has been great. And I never saw that part coming. Interesting. OK, yeah. You mentioned it kind of like your first job. And I was kind of curious, like, how did you how did you transition in like into like the chef business? I mean, what were you doing before? Oh, so I was military. And before that, I was actually a deputy sheriff with the Milwaukee County Sheriff's Department. Oh, wow. I did that for a couple of years. The 9-11 happened shortly after 9-11. I joined the military and spent some time there. When I got out, I was as much as people think the military prepares you for the real world. It really doesn't. In some cases it does. But I was military police, wanted to work on a police department. But I had some or go back into the private or excuse me, city police force, had some issues with my back and my knees and whatnot and wasn't going to work out. So I went back to school. I drove a semi for a while while I was paying my way through college or subsidizing my way through college. The military paid for pretty much all of my college. But, you know, you still got to pay for to live. Yeah. So I was I was driving a truck for Harley Davidson for a while. Running local runs every day and then going to school at night and online and whenever I could fit it in. And I got my bachelor's degree, then my master's degree in I.T. security. Yeah. So I did I.T. for a few years and was bored beyond my mind. I mean, I like the work. The work was great. It was I like, you know, using my mind and whatnot. And it's a strong point for me. But sitting behind a desk, sitting in front of a computer all day from a guy who came from law enforcement in the military, sitting down is now her currently. Well, yeah. So I needed to be on my feet. I needed to be moving. And my stepmom and I who she's a big influence in my life for food. And she's a true her family is from Sicily. So she's a true Italian. This woman can cook anything with nothing. I mean, it's amazing. She can just grab stuff out of the fridge, out of the cabinet and makes an amazing meal. It's and she truly inspired me. I cooked with my grandma's when I was younger. So I had a little bit of a background with it. I've always liked doing it, but never really thought about pursuing it as a career. And she talked me into going and taking a couple of culinary classes just to break up the monotony. And so I did. And I kind of fell in love with it. And I left a very well, nice paying law enforcement or excuse me, I.T. job to start over and be a line cook in a restaurant and just work my way up. Interesting. OK. Yeah, that's that's crazy. Like. The I.T. security part, that's because there's some there's some similarities, I I didn't I didn't do I.T. security because I was in the military, too. I'm in the National Guard and like my first, you know, position for after commissioning was a signal officer. OK, so I had to go to Fort Gordon and learn like the I.T. signal stuff, which I was really basically just managing, you know, wasn't really doing stuff. But I still had to get my certification and it was boring. Yeah. Did not like, you know, I got it, but I just didn't didn't really like that part of it. But I like I like the software development part. OK, so that's kind of seen. I think that part would have been even more boring for me. The I. T., the security stuff I like is I got to do a little investigative stuff. Yeah. But like just writing code or doing anything like that. I'm like, no, I couldn't. That would really have I would have made it as long as I did. If I was doing that, I would have checked out. Oh, that's fun. Yeah, no, that's cool. Like, yeah, I always liked to cook and stuff. Never went the professional, you know, the professional chef route, you know, but that's that's cool that you did that. So I'm curious, like what was the risk that you took and why did it matter so much to you at that time? Like if you think about like the one risk that you took in your life, like what was it and what was on the line? Like what what why was why were the stakes so high? Well, I think it was a big risk of leaving the comfort of my hometown where most of my family was. All my friends at the time were and starting over, you know, coming down here to Arizona, knowing literally one person, my mom. I'm sorry, two people, my aunt and three people, my aunt and uncle were here, too, at the time there have since moved back to Wisconsin. But, you know, that's scary when you're you know, I was 44 when I did that, 43 when I did that. And, you know, I'm not a kid anymore. You know, it's it's it's scary to leave the safety and the comfort of the things, you know, back home to start over in a place that you've you know, you don't know. You know, I don't know the area. I don't concern about 115 degrees in the summer and how I'm going to deal with that. Am I going to miss snow? Yes, I do miss snow. But, you know, it it's a risk from the fact of can I even survive here with, you know, can I start a business here or can I make a business successful? I've done very well back home. I know that market. I know everything about it. I don't know this. You know, this is it's like stepping on Mars in a sense, you know, because it's just untouched place for me. So, like, what did you do when you first got here? Like, how did you jumpstart your business? So this is almost a little embarrassing. I wanted to learn the area and I wanted to understand I wanted to understand the area better. So at first I took an executive chef position at a restaurant in Scottsdale. I knew a guy who knew a guy who knew a guy kind of thing. And I went into work for the owner, who is also a chef. And any chef in the world knows that the last person you ever want to work in a restaurant for is a chef owner. There are the worst people who are for because they want to micromanage everything they want. They like they want to own the business, but they still want to get completely involved in the back of the house. Yeah. And you can't have two executive chefs. You just can't. They can't coexist or very rarely can they coexist. So you need to be able to have that separation. So we butted heads a lot. It just was not a good fit. He had a great restaurant. And I can't remember the name of it now. It was named after his daughter. But he unfortunately went out of business not long after I had left, which maybe that was a blessing in disguise, I guess, that I left on my terms. And it was unfortunate because I really wanted to make that work. I hadn't been in a restaurant working in a restaurant environment in a while. So I was kind of excited to get back to that because there's there's some fun part of that, the speed, the pace, the high pressure environment is something I'm familiar with from my earlier backgrounds of law enforcement and military. So I like that part of it. But just unfortunate was a bad fit. And then I met another person who offered me the executive executive chef position at Superstition Springs Golf Course. for their restaurant. And I went in there and I tried and they, the place was, I don't know if I should be putting this out there, but the place was not in good shape as far as cleanliness. It needed a lot of work as to get it to up to what my standards are, which are, they're high, but I don't think they're anything above what the market share or the industry should be. And they wouldn't give me, it was at a point where it couldn't be done just by us. We needed to bring in a company to do a thorough hose down of this whole kitchen. It was bad. And they wouldn't give me the money to do that. It wasn't even that much money. It was like $1,500 or something. Like I almost wanted to pay for it out of my own pocket. And so there was some things going on there. It's owned by a larger company and it just, it became another situation where, okay, there's no way, there's no path for me to succeed here. So I said, okay, I can't do this. You need somebody that you can just tell how you want this run and not how it should be run. And I won't work like that. So I'm still was kind of blind to the area, kind of blind to the whole Phoenix market. So this is the embarrassing part. I started driving Uber. I'm like, what better way to drive all around the city and learn kind of the type of people that you get in your car or that you're delivering something to then to meet them firsthand and kind of see the areas. So that's where I started learning Scottsdale a lot better. I knew of Scottsdale, everybody knows of Scottsdale, but I didn't know the ins and outs of Scottsdale and kind of what we're looking at here. Because there's some serious demographic differences throughout Scottsdale. It's all Scottsdale versus North Scottsdale, Paradise Valley, which sneaks in there. And then when you get way up to the higher North Scottsdale, like Carefree area, now that's where all the athletes live and some of the other famous folk. So it was good to learn that and Phoenix as well. And people think Phoenix and just think, oh, don't go to the Avenue side, but there's actually some really nice areas of the Avenue side. So you just have to be on the right part of the Avenue side. So that was important because when I get a lot of requests, knowing where these requests are coming in from can help me understand of what they're going to be looking for before they even ask me what they're looking for. So that was good. And then I finally just slowly started my business up and like, let's see how this works and started getting a couple of requests and did a couple of jobs. And it just kind of carried on from there. And I just started doing more and more advertising. Yelp was a big thing to get me some early work. And then I just kind of took off and now word of mouth has been great. Just started a new social media campaign, which is exciting. So we're going to see how, you know, we've been growing very, very fast. Summers here are tough, because tourism is down. But, you know, now we're getting into our fun season. So do you have like a team or is it just you? It's primarily just me because I don't do large events. I choose. I don't want to do anything major. Well, I kind of cap it at about 150 people. I'll do bigger for some of my regular customers. I did a wedding for 170 for a family that is are very good customers of mine that I love. And, you know, I build a lot of personal relationships with my clients. So it's kind of nice. So I did it. They had an emergency wedding, basically, because somebody was within the one of the two getting married was very ill. So they wanted to kind of threw together a wedding really fast. And I said, absolutely. And we did it in one of the their backyards. And we're about 100 and I think it was 160, something like that, to a beautiful Italian dinner. They were thrilled. They loved it. And yeah, but generally we keep it smaller. Sorry, I get off track a little bit. I try to keep things smaller because my kind of motto is quality over quantity. I'd rather do smaller with amazing food with, you know, everything being fresh, everything being outstanding than just doing food for the masses. It just too much gets lost there between the time it's cooked, the time it's served, things sitting around waiting for, you know, 200, 300, 400 people to come through serving lines. It just that the food gets lost in that and or the quality of the food gets lost in that. So the private chef side, it's mostly just me on the cooking end of it. I do have a person that works for me from time to time who acts as my sous chef. He's a good friend of mine and he does great work. And we have a great rapport in the kitchen. So he knows what I'm doing. I understand what he's doing. He knows when to not talk to me and ask questions. No, we get along really well and that's good. And then I have some servers that I bring on for certain events and I have bartenders that I bring on for certain events. So sous chef and you're like head chef? Executive chef. So like what is a sous chef to you? I hear that a lot because I watch Food Network and stuff. You know, I see sous chef. Like what is, what's their job? So the sous basically takes over for, can take over for the exec when he's not there and be the top person on running the show. When the exec chef is there, the sous is basically is my second in command, my vice president, as you would say. He does anything I need him to do when it's just two of us like that. He may help grab things from that, but he may help expo things, which expo means get everything, plate everything, get everything ready for presentation. So he does like, we do a lot of hors d'oeuvre events where it's elevated, what I call elevated hors d'oeuvres. And he makes everything in the end look very pretty and by my standard and how I want things to look. So I check to make sure everything is cooked right and good to go, set it out. And then he dresses them up, gets them out. Sometimes we flip that role and he'll be grabbing things from the oven, putting things in the oven, doing whatever prep to get things ready to go in the oven or whatever it is we're doing for that particular event. Where did you go to school for that? CIA, sorry, California Institute of America. Okay. And like how long was that program? Two, two years. Two years. Yeah. They have several different programs. I started to do the nutrition side of it as well, but ended up not, not by choice, just from timing standpoint, I wanted to get going on where I was in my career at that point. So, so did you like, have you always liked to cook? Like, were you like good at it and you just got even better or were you kind of like, ah, so, so, and it's just like elevated you? I like to think I was good at it. I don't know. You know, I wasn't as good at it as I am now, but I used to, when I was a little kid, I used to love making omelets. I would make omelets for my family like every weekend. We even had, I don't know how I remember the story because I was pretty young. We had a guy coming to paint our garage and I made up an omelet. It was like during the week when parents were at work and, you know, it's, I'm Gen X. So this is, you know, in the eighties when kids stayed home alone, can't do that anymore. But yeah, I made an omelet for this guy, took it out to him while he's painting our fricking house and, and, and yeah, fed him breakfast. Wow. That's, I just, I just, for whatever reason, love doing omelets and I was very good at omelets. I was still up, but that's kind of like, I don't know why that just kind of fueled it. And then my grandma and I would do certain things together or my one grandma on my dad's side, my other grandma, my mom's side, she would do other stuff. And I just learned. And I even learned from my grandpa, we did a lot of fishing. So I learned how to filet fish and how to do a fish fry. Being from Wisconsin, fish fries are like church to us on Friday nights. They're sacred. So, you know, it was just, it was a lot of different people really kind of inspiring me with different things. My one grandma was German, my other grandma was Polish. So it was different ethnic foods from different regions than my stepmom who's Sicilian. So I learned a lot of Italian and different, the different regions of Italy, which has different primary food items. So it's just been a lot of different people influencing me. Wow. Yeah. I'm curious. So like, cause you're, you're at that next level, you know, you're doing executive level stuff. Like you're a private chef, like for someone maybe who is just looking into it and wants to get into it. Like, is there, is there like decent income? Is it a lot of hours? What is that lifestyle like for someone who maybe just is wanting to explore that? So before COVID, executive chefs made a lot, or could make a really, really good living in restaurants. Since COVID, from what I've seen, I don't really look into it too much anymore. I did when I first came down here and was trying to figure out where I was going to take my career next. And the like salary for chefs just like got cut in half. Wow. Oh yeah. Just go be a private chef. Yeah. You'll do great. I would never do that because they will fail miserably. You have to start in a restaurant. You have to make your bones more or less. You've got to learn not so much about the food or, I mean, that's, that's parts important too, but learning the pace, learning the stress, learning how to get yelled at. And I'm not talking about getting yelled at from like a chef, a chef Ramsey on Hell's Kitchen type thing. Is it that really very rarely exists in most restaurants? It's more of a, from my experience, that's more of a television thing than a real life thing. Sorry if I just spoiled that for tons of people. He, and I know Gordon Ramsey is not really like that. He's actually a very nice guy. Um, and, um, you've got to learn effectively how to run a kitchen before you can just go and do this on your own. There are so many little things in it. And I, I wouldn't have realized that to be honest with you until I started doing private. Like, thank God I did this in this kitchen. Thank God I did this at this restaurant. Uh, thank God I learned from this chef, this trick, you know, or things like that. Cause you learn stuff in school, but you don't really learn how to be a chef in school. You learn certain things about being a chef in school, but you learn about being a chef, being in a restaurant, uh, without question. Do you have any, uh, like celebrity clients or any high profile? Um, I do several. Uh, well, not. Okay. I had several, uh, some that aren't in Arizona anymore. Um, but I have, uh, I have a few that, uh, you know, I'll keep to myself. I don't want to, yeah, I don't want to call them all. No, no, I respect that. Yeah. A few athletes, a couple other people. That's cool. Yeah. Are they like regular? Like, do you go all the time or? Um, so, uh, I don't want to say, yeah, yes, they are. I'm sorry. Um, I was going to say what, what sports they were in, but I don't want to do that. I'll say I have a hockey player who is extremely nice. Really, really great guy. Uh, haven't seen him in a minute, but, uh, really, really nice guy. Um, and I have, uh, a couple other ones that are, are really cool. Um, one, one in particular. Him and his whole family are just so extremely nice and down to earth and we'll sit there and just have conversations with me while I'm cooking. And, um, yeah, I love them to death. That's awesome. Wow. Like what, what is it like on your schedule? Is it kind of irregular for you? Like, cause obviously if it's like a dinnertime thing, you're probably out cooking dinner for them, right? I mean, how does that affect your, uh, we just had a social media post today about, uh, what my, do I eat fast food? And my answer is yes, I do eat fast food. And it's usually when I'm on my way to a job. Cause yes, I'm cooking dinner for people at six, seven, eight o'clock at night. Uh, and you know, I'm cooking, I'm prepping all day or, um, doing whatever I need to do to get ready for an event. Um, and I don't have time to eat. And I have this weird thing when I'm cooking, I don't get hungry. Like when I'm cooking for other people, I just do not get hungry, but it's the right before and the right after I do. So, you know, I might prep all day and I'm like, I'm not hungry while I'm prepping. So I'm not eating anything. Um, you know, part of that is cause I'm testing things as I go along. So I am getting a little bits of here and there, but, uh, I don't get like full on hungry, but then all of a sudden it'll hit me. So either on the way to an event or on the way back from an event, I'm rolling through some drive thru somewhere just to get something quick and make sure I, I have some energy and blood sugar doesn't drop too low. What's, what's your go-to like? That was the question she asked today. Um, it's, uh, so if it's quick and in a hurry, I did number seven for McDonald's, two cheeseburgers, just cause it's quick. It's easy. It doesn't make a mess. Uh, I'm a chef jacket or, um, I can eat it quick and it's, it's hits the spot. I guess if I'm not in a hurry, Culver's. Oh, wow. Yeah. I love Culver's. Okay. Oh, good. Greasy butter. And so it's their Wisconsin company. So it's Wisconsin and, and, and the frozen custard is. Oh, interesting. Yeah. Okay. Frozen custard is better than ice cream. Yeah. Way better. Yeah. Um, were there, were there any other risks that you took or any, any big moves outside of that initial, like I'm moving to Arizona move? Like in my lifetime or. Yeah. In your life or in your, in your career? I think, you know, joining. You know, giving up the comfort of a, of a, um, you know, job with, in law enforcement to join the military was a risk. cause it was also a very hectic time, you know, post just, just after 9-11. Um, you know, we were just starting to go into Afghanistan and Iraq and start wars. So joining the military in a time of war, uh, or time of conflict, cause they were never actually declared wars. but um, yeah, that, that's, you know, that's an unknown now kind of thing. especially I was a little bit older. I was 22 or 23 at the time. Um, so I'm going into basic training with a bunch of 18 year olds. Yeah. Um, which doesn't seem like much now, but when you're back then, you know, that's, that's a, that's a big thing, you know? Um, so that was, that was definitely a risk. And, um, I was, um, engaged to be married when I decided, Hey I'm gonna join the military and had to get her on board with that. And then, you know, to, uh, we got married right before I went. So it was, uh, you know, that's a lot of stress and strain on a, on a marriage and ended up, you know, not being so great. So, um, yeah, but I would think that would be a pretty big risk at that time in my life. Yeah. What branch? Army. Army. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. That's, I can, there's so many people now like that were not around that in 2001 that, you know, I'm like, I talked to people that were born after that now and I'm like, wait, what? Um, yeah. Right. Yeah. And it's, it's, it's hard to, um, I think for, for some of those people to kind of wrap their heads around being in that moment and making that decision. Yeah. Because, cause I was like 18 when that happened and I, and I can, you know, I wasn't, I wasn't, um, you know, at that point to go and join at that point because I was, I was like severely overweight and getting a little bit more weight now. but I did lose the weight. I did join. Don't we all after out of the 40? it's it's over. Yeah. Um, but I, I remember getting calls from recruiters and, um, and, and I didn't at that time make that choice. I did it, you know, I joined 10 years later. but at that point, you know, stuff's gone, you know, stuff's not happening. So it's like, just, just a lot of respect for people like, like you in that moment who said, yes, like I'm, I'm going to go over there. I'm going to do stuff, you know? And it's just, it's just hard to, to kind of get people now to see that. Cause I, we're not in a position like that. There's not a big major thing that happened where like, you know, like at that magnitude and it's just of nine 11. No, I mean, you know, nothing because, and you don't even truly appreciate or respect it unless you actually saw it happen or, you know, not necessarily in person, but on TV and watching it unfold that morning. and I'll never forget that morning as long as I ever live. Yeah. And, and it's, and it's just, it's, yeah, it's just, it's just interesting because if we talk about like bold moves and like risks and everything, like no one knew what was going to happen after that. Like no one could see the next, you know, the immediate, you know, like that's, that's a risk, you know? And it's just, man, is there more coming was always the big question. What's, what, where are they going to hit next? How are they going to hit next? Cause there were all those fears, trains and, and semis, you know, getting parked over a semi getting over the Hoover dam I remember was a big thing. And hats off to our, our law, federal law enforcement, because they snuffed out a lot of things that people don't even know about or realize. Seattle was a big one on new year's that that same year that there was supposed to be a big thing on new year's Eve at the space needle in Seattle and the FBI snuffed it out. Yep. Wow. See, like there's stuff that we don't even know. And that the, just the common person has no clue. Like, yeah, that's wow. That's, that's amazing. Yeah. I, when I was in ROTC, you know, like it was a little, a little bit later, you know, cause I, I did a, an SMP program. It was like a simultaneous membership program. So like I joined the guard, went to basic training, came and then I was like an S1, I was like a, you know, human resources. but at the same time, I was doing ROTC. And then during that time, you know, they go through all the, you know, the vignettes, you know, they talk about all the different scenarios that happened and kind of train you to be a leader, you know, but it was just interesting to, to see some of the, the, here's some of the stories of in the first time and like not even having like appropriate like combat gear, you know, like people taking their, their flak vests and like putting them on the doors to, you know, because they, there were no up armored Humvees going in, you know, like they were just the, I don't know, the canvas side doors or something like, like just stuff like hearing stuff like that or plywood, like, you know, putting plywood on the side, like, like it's just, it just boggles my mind, you know, like just going, like having people go into that scenario like that. And we kind of take it for granted because like, you know, when I went in, like everything was all up armored and everything was all like, you know, you got all this, you know, stuff and, and you're thinking, oh yeah, you're going to get sent somewhere and they're going to give you all this stuff. And like, there was none of that. We weren't, uh, I know, um, we, in our flak jackets, we didn't have the, um, the heavy duty trauma plate. The military didn't have any more. They were out. We couldn't get them. My father bought mine for me cause they weren't cheap. Uh, and it's just a big steel plate that you put in the zappy plates. Yeah. The front one and the back one. And, uh, uh, my, my dad paid for mine cause at that time, um, we just didn't have them. Wow. And I was, we weren't high up on the totem pole because, oh, oh, you're not, you're not in combat situation. Like we're combat MP or combat trained MPs. That is actually, we're, we're, you know, their MPs are going into places before most other people are because they're securing the area so other people can come in and doing convoy escorts and all that stuff. So we're, we did all that. We're training for it. And, uh, yeah, we didn't have any of it. So a lot of our parents, uh, if we couldn't afford it or, or paying for ours and you don't make much in the military. Yeah. I think I was making, God, I was making like 13 grand a year. People don't even realize how low the pay is. I mean, yes, there were some other benefits. I was married. So I had, uh, a BAH, basic allowance for housing. Uh, I forgot what the food one was called. B-H-I? B-A-S, basic allowance for subsistence. Okay. Yeah. B-A-S. Right. And there was another one B-A-H or B-H-I. I don't remember what that one, uh, or something like that. I forgot what they all, there was three of them. I remember there was three of them. So I got some extra money that way, but that, you know, covered our rent, uh, cause I was stationed in, uh, Fort Lewis in Washington before it became joint base, uh, McCord, uh, joint base McCord, uh, Lewis McCord. It was just Fort Lewis at the time. And we lived, uh, there was no, there was housing on base, but not for, I, there wasn't, it was your wait listed for it. And it's kind of a good thing. I didn't want to live on post. Uh, so we had an apartment about 30 miles away in Olympia. Um, maybe it wasn't that far, but it felt like it was about 30 miles a long time ago now. So, uh, so that paid for our rent basically. And I don't even know if it covered all of it. Uh, my now ex-wife, she was a nurse at the army base, uh, hospital Madigan. And so she at least made some money, which was good. Uh, cause we don't get paid spot. At least back then. I don't know how much it's changed. It's been a long time. So I don't think it's changed much. Yeah. Right. It's for sure. Oh man. Wow. That's crazy. Yeah. That's crazy. Good times. Good times. Yeah. Yeah. You know, like it, I, I, I miss a lot of aspects of it. I miss the camaraderie. I miss, I, you know, I love the pressure and I think maybe that's what makes me a good chef, uh, or enjoy being a chef is cause I love the pressure. I love the chaos. Yeah. Um, my role is a lot of organized, organized chaos. My wife hates that. My wife now hates that. I love it. Like I thrive on it. I really do. Yeah. You know, it's funny, like as much as, you know, at times when you're, you're, you're saying like, well, I hate this or like, I can't, you know, I can't stand it. I wouldn't change anything. You know what I mean? Like I would, I would still make the decision that I did to join. And it just, there's, like you said, there's, there's something about the camaraderie and the things that you learn. It, it changes you, you know, it, it, I think for the better. Yeah. Um, but the respect level, you know, I, I can see a military person a mile away, you know, just by the way we carry ourselves, uh, the way we, I mean, the way we walk very, you know, uh, upright and attentive and not slouched or lazy or whatnot. We're constantly aware of our surroundings. You know, you can just spot a military person anywhere. I, at least I can. And, and I know people say to me all the time, you know, just by the fact that I still say sir and ma'am. And, you know, um, some people call that Midwest nice for me. It's just, it's who I am and how I am. My father was military. My father's kind of been in my family and it's the way I was raised. It's the way I raised my kids. And, um, it's just, I think the right way to, to be around people and to treat people. And just the way I talk and carry myself, everybody can say right at, well, the haircut does, you know, that too, um, every three days. Um, and, uh, yeah, so I love that, that the military instilled that in me has really helped me be better at what I do now than I ever thought, you know, I would get, you know, I didn't cook in the military, but being in the military has made me a better chef just because of every, all the other things that go into what it takes to be a chef. If that makes any sense. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know if you'd want to cook in the military. No, I wouldn't know cooking in the big vats of, uh, uh, you know, 150 gallon pots. No, thanks. I'm good. I'm good. Yeah. It wasn't bad. I mean, a lot of people think, Oh you're in gruel. No, it's some at Fort Lewis was terrible. Uh, mostly was, was not very good. The breakfast was good. You can't, can't screw up breakfast. Breakfast is really hard to screw up. Um, but would go up to, uh, McCord and eat at the air force base. Cause the food was 10 times better at McCord and they had better, they had better offerings. Like we'd get steak and lobster for like five bucks. Uh, which was another beauty part. Yeah. Air force bases, man. They do it right. Yeah. Food. Yes. Yeah, man. And their PT was a lot easier. Oh yeah. Well, I'm an obscenic. All my air force trains that are going to hear this. I think they have something where you can make up your own PT tests. You can choose your own. Yeah. I don't know if that's true anymore, but yeah, it used to be. And they rode bikes and, uh, uh, instead of running, we have us in the Marines that are run. Um, yeah, not in the Navy and not in the, uh, um, and not knocking them. They, Hey they have all the smart guys go in the air force there. That's, that's the smart people group. I always joke around with my Marine friends and say, I was, I was going to go in the Marines, but they told me I was too smart. So I went army. Uh, my, my dad, he was, um, he's a Marine. He wasn't, he went in the Marine Corps and went to Vietnam like for a couple of years. And, and I remember I was telling him, I was thinking about joining and he was like, join the air force. And I was like, yeah. And I, at the time I was too big for the air force. They wouldn't take me. And I was working my way down and army national guard took me cause you know, I was a little bit older. So that's where, that's where I went. But it was because I still remember too, I went to LA fitness and I was like going to get a personal trainer to help like get myself going. And the personal trainer happened to be an air force person. And I was telling him, you know, I was going to join the army and he just flat out said, well, he's stupid or something. I was like, come on. He gave me the recruiter card. And of course, you know, I followed up on it, you know, but of course, you know, weight standards, I was, there was nowhere close to, to doing that. And, um, yeah, yeah. It's just interesting. It's kind of funny how people that weren't involved always think that we all hate each other, like different, different branches. And we might, we might kid each other and shoot, you know, have nicknames for each other, chair force and jar heads and whatever else, man. But when you're, you're standing shoulders, shoulder to shoulder with them and we're, we love each other. I mean, there's, there's a deep respect. Uh, it doesn't matter what branch are. I don't know about space force. They came in after, uh, I don't know where the spec level is but the rest, you know, no, we all get along. And, uh, um, yeah, I worked with some great people from each, each of the four branches in different aspects and, uh, um, so much respect for them. Yeah. Yeah. We, um, cause I do public affairs and we work with like the air public affairs side. Everyone's in a while and sometimes they'll, they'll hook us up and let us go over there, their base whenever they're doing like, you know, some breakfast stuff or whatever. Yeah, Our troops over there to hook it up. So yeah, no, that's cool. Um, I'm curious. So like when you do your, your, um, your events and you know, you do like keep them like quality events, you know, like, are you able to kind of give like a range of what someone might be looking to, you know, to, to shell out for like an event for, for, for so like on a private dinner side. Um, so a lot of it, I have what I, um, I don't do standard set pricing. Like, you know, you pick this and it's this price because I try to make it as good of a situation for, uh, for my customers. And, um, if you have 12 people versus eight people, you know, I can bring the cost down a little bit. If you, the more people you have, I can bring the cost down a little bit cause it's more economical for me when I'm making my food orders. Um, and I want it to be a good experience. So again, I'm, I'm, I think I'm very, very fair on my pricing as a compared, I know what some of my competitors charge and I roll my eyes at it and I'm not going to call anyone out But it's like, how do you get away? I mean, how do you sleep at night doing that? I understand it's a business. I understand we want to make money. Um, but it's, as some of it's for me, it's more about the experience that I'm creating. Um, I get a lot of joy out of that and I know that sounds sappy and cheesy and whatever. I'll, you know, it, it's true. It really is. I, I, I, I love seeing what food does for people and how it brings people together, how it creates happiness, how, uh, families come and have a blast and they laugh and they cry sometimes and food brings everybody together. That's, think of any big event in your, in your life that you've been to. Has there been food there? There's, yeah, there's always food there. So I think people underestimate the power of food and what it can do. Um, so I, I try to create that experience for people without killing them on, on, on the Uh, but yes, it is business. I do, you know, I have my family to take care of as well and I have my, uh, bills to pay and everything else. So yeah, we do it, you know, um, but I try to, um, structure my billing the way, uh, based on what you're ordering. So, um, an average four course dinner for us is around anywhere from 140 to 175 a person. Uh, but there's a lot of varying factors in their holidays. Obviously there's a little more cost on a holiday. Um, um, which I don't even know what holidays are anymore as far as what it's like to spend with my own family, but that's fine. That's, I knew what I was signing up for. Uh, I actually like working on holidays. It's kind of fun. Um, uh, so yeah, anywhere from like 140 to 175 for doing an elevated hors d'oeuvre experience. It can be anywhere from, uh, if it's a really big group, I can usually get the price down to 35, 40, $50 a person, and then upwards of a hundred dollars a person, depending on what you want to do. So when we, we have big menus that people can make their selections from, kind of build their own menu based on what we offer. And then I love doing special requests. If somebody has a childhood favorite or something their grandma used to make, um, I actually have a really cool story about that if I can. Okay. So I had a, a, a couple hire me to do a wedding, a backyard wedding was like 15, 16 people. Uh, it was up in the red mountain ranch, uh, area. And I, I talked to him on the phone and they're, they're the, the groom is from Australia and the girl who's from Mesa, uh, originally, but has been living in Australia and I'm talking to her and she's got an Australian accent. So I realized that she was actually from Mesa. I found out, Oh yeah, I've just been living in Australia so long. I now have a Australian accent. I'm like, okay, cool. Uh, but they had asked me to do something called an Australian party pie. I've never heard of this. Never did know what it was. I'm Google, Google searching, trying to figure out what this is. And the guy had kind of told me what it was. Basically. It's basically like a pot pie, you know, but with a, with, you know, a little bit of a twin, a little more elegant than a, the standard, you know, uh, Marie Callender's chicken pot pie. And I have a friend who is a chef. Who's Australia. It actually is from New Zealand, but I called him and I said, Hey, uh, there's customer asking for this. Am I in over my head? He goes, ah, dude, no, you got this. It's super easy. And kind of gave me an idea. He said, here, I'll send you my recipe. Just do what you do with it. Which, which means in our, in our parlance is change it, take mine, but change it. Don't, don't steal mine, you know, make it your own, which we all do. We don't want to take other people's recipes and just sell them off as our own. We always put a twist onto it or do something a little bit different. Um, so I took his just to get an idea. I made a couple and I'm like, Oh man, this is really good. And I'm like, but I don't know what one really tastes like. I've never been to Australia. So I've never, you know, I never tried one. And so I was very nervous, very, you know, concerned about this. I make these, these party pies and, um, I go to the wedding and I serve them as their, the appetizer and the groom comes in like five minutes later, he goes, dude, this is better than restaurant quality. He's just, this is one of the best I've ever had. He says, you've never made these before. I said, nope, this is the first one. I said, first one for a customer anyway. He goes, Jesus, these are great. I'm like, thank God to my friend, like, I appreciate it. You know, and we just went on and, you know, I. It's nice getting those, those compliments, but I was kind of like lucky at the same time of, you know, there's some skill involved as far as understanding how things come together, but it was, it was fun to be able to do that, doing something I've never done before. And, um, you know, so I love getting special requests, but I have limitations too. I don't, I know what's in my wheelhouse. I know what's not in my wheelhouse. I don't do a sushi. I've gotten that request a ton to do sushi. I've just never been interested in learning how to do sushi. It's really not that hard. I could do it if I wanted to. Um, I've seen it done a hundred times, so, you know, I, I understand the basic concept of it, just don't have really any interest in doing it. I don't do Indian food. I don't do certain cuisines that just, they're not, I wasn't trained in them. They're not my specialty. Um, so I don't want to take something really good and screw it up. Yeah. This is really what it comes down to. Yeah. Well, that makes sense. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Is that, does that include, include the cost of food or is that the extra? No, no, no. That's, that's all in. Yeah. It's all in except for tax. And then, uh, I, and I'm in no way in my bashing costs or, uh, competitors or anything like that. But I know a lot of my competitors, they automatically add in gratuity. And a lot of restaurants do too. If you have groups of six or eight or 10 or more or whatever, they automatically in gratuity. That defeats the purpose of a gratuity in my world. I don't understand why places do that. I can understand if it's, you know, Oh, you know, our servers are getting shafted left and right. Okay. Maybe I can get that. But to me, the point of a gratuity is earning it. And I don't want one if I did not earn it. And so I'm not going to automatically add one in. And I tell my customers that right up front. I say, here's your price. Tax is not included and gratuity is not included. If you feel we earn one, you're welcome to, to add onto that, but that's up to you. And I'm dead serious about it. You know, I, uh, have we ever not gotten any before? Yes, because I, a lot of times I don't think people realize either that it's not part of it or that they've never had that kind of experience before, so they don't know what to, what to do. Yeah. Uh, but most times we get taken care of very well and I have some very good customers. Nice. Yeah. Yeah. I know that, that's, that sounds fair. I mean, like, I have a little bit of experience hunting around for like caterers, cause like I was in ROTC back in the day and I remember we would have, you know, these military balls, you know, once a semester, you know, I had to put together and it was a big, you know, formal thing. And I know, um, catering was part of it. And I remember having to like go through and, you know, find caterers and, or approve some, you know, lists and stuff. And man, for like 300 some odd cadets, you know, you're looking at a, you know, at when we did it, it was like, man, like a $15,000 bill. Oh yeah. You know, for, for that many. Yeah. For, I got asked to do one at Luke Air Force Base, right. I got asked to submit a bid for it through a friend who's very connected at Luke. And I saw the number of people I'm like, I said, this is, I would love to do this. And I, in my old life, I could have done this now. I said, I just don't want to do it. I want to do it because it's military. Um, and I'd love to give them a really, really good price. Cause I do offer a nice discount to all of my first responders and military. Um, so if, you know, anybody here just wants, wants to hire me and their first responder or military, or have it as a cousin that was in the military 20 years ago, let me know and I'll, I'll take care of you. Yeah. Cool. Um, and, uh, I really wanted to do it, but it was just, I knew it was outside of my realm of being able to provide, uh, the experience I want them to have. So I unfortunately had a pass on it. Yeah. Oh, that makes sense. So how do people get ahold of you? Like what's the best way to reach out if someone wants to? Yeah. So, um, our webpage, uh, AZ48catering.com. Uh, Facebook is AZ48catering, Instagram AZ48catering. There's contact buttons on all of those. Uh, or you can email us at info at AZ48catering.com and that's the number four and the number eight. Um, and you can, uh, call us at 602-736-7906. And I always like to like end our, our, our segments just like with some quick fire questions. Sure. Some, like some quick questions here. What is your favorite book, podcast, or resource that inspires boldness? Oh, uh, what were, what were the book podcast or what? Favorite book, a podcast, or just like any resource, like an online resource, book, magazine, anything like that, that just kind of inspires you to be bold. Um, there's a book by Vince Lombari, uh, former head coach of the Green Bay Packers way back in the sixties, uh, with a super bowl trophies named after. Uh, I don't remember the name of the book, but I have it in my, um, man cave. And that's a book I like to read a lot or I used to read it a lot. I still reference it from time to time. Just, just his, uh, mantra of coaching and treating his players. Um, it kind of is, it's inspirational for me, I guess, when I need to pick me up, when I feel like I'm, things aren't going the way I want them to work wise. I like to jump into that book. Okay. What's the best piece of advice that you've ever received? Uh, it wasn't directly to me, but it's a general one. It's, uh, you miss a hundred percent of the shots. You don't take Wayne Gretzky. Um, it just makes me realize I got to take the chance. Uh, if I don't take the chance, but I don't ask for the yes, I'm never going to get it. Hmm. And just one word, how would you encourage someone to be bolder today? Confidence. Nice. Pretty straightforward. Yeah. Yeah. It makes sense. Now, is there anything that we didn't cover that you want to cover before we wrap up? I don't think so. I get a little long-winded too. I'm sorry. I apologize. No, no, no. You're good, man. Um, sweet. Well, Nate's been, uh, it's been a pleasure getting on the show. I'm really glad you got to check out your story and some of the risks that you've taken. And we're definitely going to put the, uh, the links to your website and how to get a hold of you online so we can get people your way, because I think everyone should get a chance to some taste, some of the food that you make sounds pretty good. Great pictures on our, on our Facebook and Instagram. And, uh, um, always happy to send people more if they want to see some. So yeah, excited about our, what we do. Awesome. Well, that's going to be a wrap on this week's episode of Bold Moves Podcast. And until next time we are out. Thanks for watching the Bold Moves Podcast. For more episodes, visit our website and follow us on social media. Keep making bold moves.

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Mat Torres

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