Introducing Chef Paul: Ignite’s New Denver-Based Chef

In this episode of Culinary 360, we introduce Chef Paul, Ignite’s newest Denver-based chef, and explore his journey through more than 40 years in the restaurant industry.

From working in kitchens across Colorado to leading culinary training programs, Paul shares how his experience shaped his approach to foodservice. Now at Ignite, his role focuses on supporting operators beyond equipment—helping them think through processes, training, and practical solutions that fit their kitchens.

This conversation offers a closer look at the transition from operator to advisor, and how chefs can continue making an impact in new ways.

👨‍🍳 Our HOSTS

Robert Simmelink
Director of Culinary Services — Phoenix, Arizona
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Ryan Devereaux
Corporate Chef — Kent, Washington
Follow Ryan on LinkedIn

Paul Schutt
Corporate Chef — Denver, Colorado
Follow Paul on LinkedIn

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🍳 Our COMPANY

Looking to find out more about a piece of equipment? In search of new ideas to develop your menu? Or just not sure where to start when it comes to your foodservice operation? We’re here to help answer your foodservice equipment questions!

Learn more at the Ignite Foodservice Solutions Website

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👨‍🍳 DISCLOSURE: 

Views expressed in the Culinary 360 Podcast are individual opinions and they do not represent the employers of each host or guest, or the firm with which each host or guest is associated. Our podcasts are for educational and informational purposes only and should not be deemed or viewed as advice or recommendations.

Transcript

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loved the idea of when I was like trying to do a cooking demo and a piece of equipment, but then they're asking me, well, what do you think of this with like, labor and like, what do you think of this with like the menu idea of how we can do this, this and this. And you're like, this has nothing to do with the equipment. Like, this is a great idea. You do this, you can do that, you can do that. And you're like, oh my God, that's such a good idea. Thank you. Especially when there are people just coming into the industry or just taking over a new role in K12 or anything like that. They're just full of questions and like being able to be that support from them is really nice. And then also offering equipment. Well, everybody, welcome to another episode of the culinary 360 podcast. I'm one of your hosts, Chef Robert. I'm chef Ryan, and today we want to introduce you to Chef Paul. What an honor to have him. Chef Paul is the newest ignite chef based in Denver at our kitchen there. And today we're going to find all about Paul and a little bit about him personally and professionally. And so all welcome to the culinary 360 podcast. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you guys. Thank you. It's it's been a pleasure getting to know you guys over the last couple of weeks, and I'm excited to see where we go today with this podcast. I've been in the restaurant business for just about 40 years. I started cooking when I was 16 years old. I started washing dishes with a bunch of hippies up in evergreen, Colorado. So I started started there and just kind of moved into doing line work and over time always had the opportunity to when I was thinking about going to culinary school, an opportunity to become a manager kind of came along and just kind of kept climbing that managerial ladder. So being a sous chef at different restaurants in Boulder and kind of making my rounds throughout the Denver area. Nice. So you're born and raised in Colorado? I was born in Wyoming, but my folks moved to Colorado in 1973. So my mom is still up at that same house. So yeah. And Ryan, you have you have the evergreen connection to. Right. We're next door neighbors, actually. We grew up together. Yeah we are. Ryan went to different high school, but we're miles apart just a few miles apart up there. Actually, believe it or not, so small world. Yeah it does. So you're about three weeks in here to ignite. So we're been onboarding you in Denver and Phoenix and also up there in Kent, Seattle, Washington. Was your favorite person to train with? Who? Oh, it had a. Choose wisely. Choose. Of course it was Robert. It was. I spent two really close weeks with Robert. It was the correct answer would have been Carl, when you when you first got to the office from my first day. Carl. Yes that's right. Onboarding with Carl. That would a that was a magical moment. Afternoon any time with Carl's magical Ryan do you got any tissues there. You've got a little bit of stuff on your nose there you might want to wipe off. I just I just have to just talk about Carl real quick and how much I appreciate him and just everything that should buy me another year at that. I think that should be good. Yeah, yeah. Carl's not here. Although I'm in his office. He's not here, so it's good. So we could probably won't listen to this one either. What? So how did you find out about the job and what brought you into the ignite fold? And you know what? What attracted you to wanting to be part of the Sparky team? Let's see, I, I came across the job posting almost a, I don't know, about nine months ago. Thought about it. I'd been doing some other work for some other manufacturing companies, and I really enjoyed the. I really enjoyed the opportunity going in and helping folks as far as their equipment goes, kind of get their get their equipment set up and kind of be in the knowledge and the the reference for them in regards to that one company that I worked for. So, there were several of my associates had recommended that I check out the ignite position and checked it out. And I think back in the fall I had applied at another job, actually. And I believe, Robert, you had called me, you wanted to schedule an interview, and I had to kind of turn that down at the time because I had taken that other position. So, you know, that's what brings me here. The last couple of months, somebody had recommended it once again. So it kind of followed the the path that the universe was laying out for me and gave it a shot. So here I am. Yeah. And so last when you were down here in Denver, I'm sorry, I'm in Phoenix. When you were down here in Phoenix, I just happened to have scheduled a skills class for one of my school districts, and it was focused mostly on knife skills. And that's something that you had done in your previous job at the nonprofit. Could you tell everybody a little bit about, you know, maybe a little bit more about the skills class that you had taught and how you were able to take that information into the class that we had here in Phoenix? Yeah, absolutely. Let me start with talking a little bit about the nonprofit. It's it's an organization that's dear to my heart. I've been associated with them for almost 15 years. I was the executive chef for them, the name of the nonprofit, his work options. I was the executive chef for them about 15 years ago, left to explore some other opportunities. And while I was away, I was invited to be on the board of directors. So I served on the board of directors for a number of years. Really close, close friends with the director, the executive director, Julie Stone, just an amazing woman. And back in the fall, an opportunity came up to be the executive chef again. So I jumped on that opportunity. And you know, Pork Options is a job training program. We help folks who were maybe just as involved or may be experiencing homelessness, or maybe experiencing any kind of other obstacles that may come up in their life. So we were providing a five week intensive culinary training program, but mainly what we focused on was accountability. And we also provided some of the wraparound services so folks needed help with transportation if they needed help with with housing. We had students who didn't know where they're going to be laying down that night when they were done with class. So we would help them get into a shelter and help them get some stable housing, and then also help them navigate the world of government, you know, subsidies and everything else that is available to them. So not only did we teach them a valuable skill which included accountability and attendance and responsibility, but we provided those wraparound services and those students, after they graduated had access, have access to those wraparound services for the rest of their life. So the next couple of years, if somebody has a rough time and they need to get a bed, if they need some some help with transportation, they can call the folks at work options and they'll help them get all that started. So one of the things that I did, it was a job. It was a culinary training, culinary training program. And the first Monday of their their session, they would spend the day with me doing knife skills. So we would we had a platform called Ruby that would was a video training program. We would put them in front of a video for about 45 minutes, and then we take them into the kitchen and we would start teaching them how to handle a knife. And we started with some real basics. I think what you and I started with, Robert when we had that group in last week, is we would give our students a we would give them just a bench scraper so that they were comfortable holding the bench scraper like they would hold a knife. And then we also practiced the claw so that they were not losing a fingertip so that they could hold their hands safely and and not lose a fingertip. So we started I would spend six hours with them just doing the basics on knife skills. So by the time, you know, we'd start with the potato, accuracy wasn't a port and it was more about the motion of the knife rocking the knife to the cutting board, keeping your fingers safe, being aware of your where your the positioning of your hand so that you weren't losing those fingertips. And we would start with just dicing a potato and I would work my way through a basic mirror carrots, onion, celery. And then we would move on to a little bit finer dice. By the end of the day, we were doing brain of potatoes and tomatoes and some other vegetables as well. So it just really gave everybody an opportunity to feel comfortable and confident and help build their confidence as they started their journey through our culinary program. You can't. I at least I forget how much of it's just muscle memory. I just, I, I don't even think about anything when I pick up a knife anymore. I just, I just pick it up and, you know, I instantly knife over here, my steel over here, you know, take care of that. And just, you know, I don't even think about it. It's just it's just just happens. Yeah. It's automatic. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. And so I think that's one of the bigger things too, that, you know, you just have to do it a lot and it becomes it becomes that muscle memory. And you know that's second nature right? Yeah. You just you you just become safe then too because you're, you just always know how to know where to go. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And then it was it was pretty cool. It was pretty cool. Starting with these folks who really hadn't been in a kitchen before and kind of watched their confidence built. You know, you could see how nervous they were handling a ten inch chef's knife. We taught them how to walk through the kitchen with it, how to get it off the cutting board, how to walk, how to wash it, all of that. And by the end of the day, they were they were they were feeling really good and they were feeling really confident. So that was kind of cool to kind of see that really quick development. Yeah. And then I mean, our school district, you know, a couple of the people really knew what they were doing. Some people they learned a couple of new things. And then we also because we did, they requested because this is what they used at the school, green onions, cilantro. And what was the what was the fourth item? Creed. Onions. Tomatoes. Tomatoes. Tomatoes. Yeah we did. So then I got in a couple of other things too. We had some after we went through those basic skills. Then I showed them more how to clean the seeds out of the tomato and do a really fine chop on that, or really small boom was and we also showed them how to shift, not the spinach leaves. And that was that was a new one to them because they knew they had done the chopping of the cilantro. But now also that that nice fine chiffon was a was a new one. So yeah. Yeah. So I can't wait to take this to other district. So all of you school districts who are out there listening to us, if you want a knife skills PD day in one of our kitchens, let us know and we will arrange that. And we'll even throw a pizza, pizza and salad party at the end. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, that was the best part. Having those, having all those lunch ladies throw pizzas around, they had a lot of fun with that. So that was pretty cool. Very nice. So it's been your favorite part so far minus that class from with ignite? I think it's just I think the favorite part is being with a group of people that are passionate about what they do. You know, it sounds like I'm blowing smoke up everybody, but, you know, it's fun to kind of walk in and see how excited everybody is every day and kind of see the new equipment and, you know, learning for me, learning the new equipment, learning some of the new programs and how that all works. But I think going back to how excited and passionate everybody is about the job that they do. So it's really refreshing. You know, from the time that I visited Robert in Arizona and met the sales team down there to the time I went up to the Pacific Northwest and met your team, right. It's it was really exciting. People were really anxious to share what they knew and kind of give me some insight into kind of lead me along here as I get started. Yeah. Nice. Yeah. People at ignite are fun. They are fun. Yeah, it's a fun group. Wait until we go to Mexico. You're going to love that. Yeah. Okay. We'll see how that goes. You never. You never think of Mexico as a cold place, you know? And then you hang out with Robert in his down jacket on the beach. Then you realize maybe Mexico is not that warm. Oh, it's it's only 70 degrees. I mean, you know, it's. Yeah, it's not really warm. I think everybody who wants to, you know, I was I was with Robert for a week in Arizona and his his rule is the air conditioner doesn't go on until it's 90 degrees. So you know where cruising around with the windows down. Just waiting, watching the thermal, the thermal, the, you know, the thermometer kind of climb up to 89 and then he's like, oh, it's 90. We can go now. So and you're just sitting in the passenger seat sweating like think. Yeah. He's like, oh my god. Oh my god. I'm right there with the new guy. I'm sweating like a pig with the boss here. Yeah, yeah. I've got the thermostat in the kitchen set at 80 right now today. And it's really nice. Yeah. And what's the temperature outside? Oh, my computer song is 78 degrees outside. And you have your thermostat at 80. Yeah. So the heat's kicking on. So I got the heat on so much. Oh, man. That's wild. So, Ryan, you missed out. We went to Clayborn for dinner while Paul was here in town. We did. That was absolutely amazing dining experience. Yeah. For those of you who don't know, Play bond is a a Thai restaurant here in central Phoenix. It's in an old house. And the the chef has been nominated for James Beard Awards. And the food is so awesome. And we had the the deep fried, the deep fried oyster mushrooms again. And that comes with like a hot, sour, salty sweet dipping sauce. That's just amazing. Yeah. So yeah, that place is really good. Yeah. Yeah, that was an amazing meal. It really was good. Yeah. We cooked some good food up here at least. So we did. We did, you know. And then, you know, I went to Katsu Burger up there and that was, that was pretty darn good. That was that was good. That was a great dining experience as well. You know, I felt like a good friend. That was sandwich was that was that David's recommendation? It was mine. Oh, okay. My hotel was right next to that. So yeah. It was. Were you at that nasty Hampton Inn? Yeah. It wasn't that bad. Really? Is that the what you stayed at? Yeah, that's the one that I checked out as soon as I checked in. It was fine, I guess. I guess I got some different standards in you. Maybe I might just keep my eye on you. Yeah, maybe they cleaned up their act. I don't know, I don't know, it wasn't bad at all. Okay. Yeah. I got to my room and I went right back downstairs, and I'm like, did you? I well, I actually called Hilton, and I'm like, we got we, I need help. And I went back downstairs and like, yeah, here Hilton's letting me check out and I'm going somewhere else. Oh no, it was, it was, it was clean and quiet. It was fine. Yeah. My wife's out. And she'll be like, yeah, I'm I yeah, I believe it. No Robert you don't have ODC. You're fine. You're completely normal. Nice. Okay. So when he wife kids what's your what's your personal life like. Let's get deep. I, I, I am not married. I have a son who's 23 years old. I think he's 23, 22. Just just graduated. He'll be out here in a couple of weeks to straighten me out. So nice. He always gives me a hard time because I can't remember his birthday. But yeah, he's proud of him. He is. He's involved in lacrosse. He's not a lacrosse coach. He he coaches some club. But he worked for a company called Score Break, which does kind of stats and to highlight films for coaches and for college programs. So he does sales for them. So he's he's been working with them for about a year and a half. He was going to do his MBA. But this opportunity came along. So he decided to pass on the the MBA program at this time and just kind of go and work. And he's been doing great. He had started a nonprofit called Play It Back Lacrosse, and which was an opportunity for him to kind of collect used and discarded lacrosse equipment and kind of introduce lacrosse to underprivileged communities. So he actually kind of kicked off. His first kickoff was in Africa. He went to Africa, he went to Rwanda as part of his MBA program, and he took a bunch of sticks and balls with him. And I've got some great videos of him teaching some of these kids in Rwanda how to play lacrosse. That's awesome. So he's trying to set up these programs with them. He's got some connections in Mexico, and he's still trying to get this thing kicked off. So it's been great. He's trying to help grow the sport and he's very excited about it. Lacrosse has been good for him and good for me as far as the parent go. So it's been it's been a great ride so far. That's awesome. Cool to hear. Thanks. Yeah. So you lived in evergreen? Went to school up there? Yeah. What other parts of Colorado have you lived in? I have lived in Boulder. Denver? That's about it. I have not done a lot of traveling in my career. All my opportunities were here. So I, you know, if you're familiar with the Denver area, I had worked at a lot of great Denver restaurants. I started at Cliff Young's way back when in the late 80s. Denver's one of Denver's premier five star, five fine dining establishments back in the day. And then I made a connection with a couple of folks up in Boulder, and I opened up Jack's Fish House here in Denver and Boulder. Zollo grill had the opportunity to open up my own restaurant. I owned a barbecue restaurant for a period of time, opened up the Capital Grill here in Denver, and just kind of had some great opportunities come my way. Yeah, that's really cool. Yeah, yeah. It was. I was a problem child in Colorado. I, I, I lived in Lakewood, Golden, Wheat Ridge, Denver, evergreen, my car. Nice. Yeah. That's great. So, so I mean it's kind of interesting to think about too, is like we all have been in restaurants and stuff like that and then coming out and like being a rep chef or something like that. Like what's your mindset kind of like that. Do you think it's, I don't know, how do I say this, like correctly? Do you think it's like a good job for a chef coming out of, like, retirement from the kitchen and, like, still being able to do this kind of stuff you do? Or do you think it's a little bit more challenging? I think it's I think it's a I think it's a natural transition. You know, I think what's really cool, I think when I talked to Robert, when I was doing the interview with the job in my career, I've had the opportunity to talk and to work with different people. You know, I've done school food service, I've done job training, I've done I've worked in the university settings. So I've, you know, I think I bring a background like that of being able to communicate, to talk to people and to coach them and, you know, pivoting out of the kitchen full time. You know, it's great. It's nice to not be in change of the stove, you know, 40 hours a week anymore. So it's good to get out. And I think it gives us the opportunity to be able to step out like we can we can kind of elevate and kind of get out of the the white noise. Right. We kind of rise above and help, you know, if it's if it's not of a piece of equipment, maybe we can make a recommendation on a, on a process or make a change and suddenly kind of make that suggestion. So I think that's, that's that's where, you know, I think my strength and what I really enjoy about being the rep chef and being in this type of a role is to kind of give that that insight and then also to kind of listen, right? You want to see you're always going to be learning, but kind of share some ideas. If you see something at someplace else and then share that idea with somebody, I think it's pretty cool to do that. Hey, Ryan. Yeah, definitely. Because you've you've been in this role. How long now? It'll be three years in June. Three years. Okay. And it was totally new to you. What do you think is the hardest thing to what was the biggest challenge or the hardest thing to understand with what we do? Man, at first I thought it was like super overwhelming. And I think, you know, like, you have to know all this different equipment, you have to know all this stuff and everything like that. Then it's like, okay, but the sales guys kind of take a lot of that away from you, which is really nice. But I think I was overthinking that way too much when I first started. I think the challenging part was really remembering everything about different pieces of equipment and what they do exactly, and what how to make it fit in other people's restaurants or schools or things like that the right way. The cooking part was a different challenge for me too, because kind of like what Paul was saying it was it was flat tops and ranges my whole life and convection ovens. So learning how to take what I cooked in convection ovens and using it in a copy oven and then, even like fryers, I was I viewed these fryers a few times. Right. But not like a whole bunch doing brunch, you know? So I think that was the biggest challenge for me was kind of just learning how to cook out of the equipment and do it right and correctly, and then also just the sales meetings of the first demos and things like that. I felt so robotic of like, this is this oven and it does this, this and this and this and do this. Now it's more a casual you coming into the kitchen and I'm like, hey, how are you? What do you want to cook? You want to hang out. Just cook food and be chill. And like Dave, feel more comfortable now you know that. I'm sure when they first came in, and then, you know, we're not really. I really looked at it at the beginning to of we're salesmen. So I was trying to sell stuff to people and not necessarily fit their needs of what they need with the equipment. So that changed my perspective of like, what a sales job is, I guess, especially with the role that we have. Right? Because all you're really doing is offering solutions and you're trying to find out what their challenges are, not only what they're telling you, but there might be other things that just aren't coming up in the conversation at the moment. And so you're digging a little deeper and really trying to figure out what is what is best for them. Yeah, and I loved the idea of when I was like trying to do a cooking demo and a piece of equipment, but then they're asking me, well, what do you think of this with like, labor and like, what do you think of this with like the menu idea of how we can do this, this and this. And you're like, this has nothing to do with the equipment. Like, this is a great idea. You do this, you can do that, you can do that. And you're like, oh my God, that's such a good idea. Thank you. Especially when there are people just coming into the industry or just taking over a new role in K12 or anything like that. They're just full of questions and like being able to be that support from them is really nice. And then also offering equipment. Yeah. Well I think you mentioned well, I know you mentioned to me that you had helped out another manufacturer and you were doing demonstrations for them. And after we did a few presentations here for customers and interacted with them, that this was a lot different of a role than you thought, because we are just talking to them and offering them solutions and letting them make make up their mind. We're not we're not beating them over the head trying to sell them something. You know, it's not that used car salesman mentality of, you know, I'm going to hook this one today. No, it's you know, we're you know, that's part well part of the spark 360 is that long term relationship. Yeah. That's what I really liked about it. I think, you know, you and I had that conversation about kind of getting away from some of the previous scripts that I had and then just being able to hang out with Ryan. Last week, we walked into a couple of those school settings, and just watching him just kind of ease in, and we had some, some folks that worked really thrilled about the equipment that was installed in their kitchen that wasn't ours. We didn't well, it was our equipment, but we didn't install it. It was kind of forced upon them. But Ryan was like, well, here, cool. Let me just show you how this works. We'll just turn this on and let's just steams broccoli and just kind of see how it goes. It was it was much more organic. It was it was really nice. It was, it was. And then there was no hard sell involved with that. He's like, you know, if you guys have any questions here's my card. When you're ready, give me a shout. Well yeah I'll come on over and we'll get this going. And I still get scared going and doing that stuff. Yeah. Like I've done it for almost three years now. And I was even telling Paul before going to the schools, I'm like, oh my God, man, I always get so nervous going in and doing this. Like, I just feel like so uncomfortable sometimes, like walking back there and just being like, hi, I'm Ryan, what can I do for you with your hands? Yeah, exactly. You know, we're we're not we're not salesmen. So it's not always easy to kind of walk in. And I think we know what it's like to have somebody walk in your kitchen with spec sheet and be like, hey, we got to sell our green beans this week. If you guys are too busy. Yeah. You know, you don't want to be that guy, you know? Yeah, I know you're in the middle of your rush, but check out your sweet corn I have. And I know that you have a barbecue restaurant, but we have a sale on green beans, so, you know. Great. Thank you. Can I interest you in ordering some strawberry shrub? No. I'm good. Yeah. You do. Brunch. Would you be interested in ice cream? No, not at all. we're really happy that you're part of the team. I'm excited especially. It was a lot of fun hanging out with you last week and just getting to know you. That was a good week. Yeah. We spent a lot of time in the car, that's for sure. On their first day we did. Yeah Robert did I did as well. So yeah, we we we spent a lot of time driving around. But it was good good good to get to know you guys a little bit and then see your different approaches as we visited other, you know, other organizations and other schools. So it was good. Yeah. It's kind of nice to look at it that way though too. Like different. Everyone has their different regions, right? And different clientele. And everybody has their own different personalities where we all run our kitchens, just completely different. There's not like a set in stone way of you have to do it this distance, this way. It's like yourself in your kitchen how you want get people in and make them excited to be there. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. That's, that's that's been some of the most exciting stuff that I've heard from you guys is just, you know, it's your kitchen kind of do what you need to do. Yeah. Get it set up, bring you what you need to do. And you know, when you're doing your demos, stick with the highlights and but go from there kind of freelance a little bit like you said, Ryan, start talking to the customer and figure out what they're doing. If they don't want to see you do in prime rib, if they don't want to see you doing tater tots in the in some of the equipment, you just move on. Let's find out what they do want to do and go see if I have some of that in the refrigerator and get them excited about what we offer. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And I can sell a piece of equipment to a Mexican restaurant doing, I don't know, sushi. I don't, I don't know, you know, why that would be something I would come up with. Who the hell does sushi out of an oven? Well, guys, it was nice working with you at ignite. I didn't go ahead and started flying for new jobs after Carl. Here's that. I think, you know, we've all been in this business long enough. And I think, you know, when I was working for that under the manufacturer walking into somebody's kitchen, I would kind of do that. I would kind of do the final training and kind of do the sign off on it, and I'd look at the equipment and I would just ask myself, why is this? This isn't the right piece of equipment. This just isn't right. So I think that's what's unique about our position with the three of us as we kind of we could talk to the customers, kind of figure out what they're doing. And, you know, it's we're kind of apparent to say, you know what? Maybe we need to maybe we need to look in a different direction. Yeah. You know, we ultimately want the sale. We want to make the customer happy. But, you know, we want them to have the right equipment. Yeah. And I think that's a really good point that you bring that up to. And we have so much to offer with all the different types of equipment that we actually do get to rep to where it's like exactly what you said. No, that's not going to work in here. Like you do not need this oven at all. Don't spend thousands of dollars on something you're just going to have sit there. Then it's going to hold your sheet trays later. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah. So that's kind of a nice part about this too. It's like, no, you don't need an oven. You need a mixer. Spend the money on the mixer. Exactly. You're a dough company. I crack myself up. Well, at least someone laughs at you. Yeah. Thank you. You guys aren't laughing at me, though. You're laughing with me, right? Yes, of course we are. We are laughing with you. Yes, yes, what's the first thing that you're going to cook in your new kitchen without like, Robert being there or, you know. Yeah. No, I think, you know, I'm going to do some overnight cooking. I'm going to give that a shot and do some cold smoking and get some roasted chicken and some of the units here. So kind of see, see where we're at. Like I said, fine tune my timing and my temperatures and some of my settings. So I'm confident so that I can talk to the customer tomorrow and just know that foods cooking behind me and it's going to be it's going to be spectacular. Yeah. I always I always remind the customers when they come in, I'm not selling the food. So if it comes out burnt and it doesn't taste good, it's not it's my fault. Not the equipment. We're selling the equipment. Exactly. Yeah. And I think I think that's the hard part for us to sometimes is, is to kind of dial down the food, you know, we want to kind of have some fun and flex their muscle. But it's more about the equipment and it's more about the kind of result of the the product was we put it in the oven and how it how it's all going to perform. You're going to make the case of Diller's and the Pico de Gallo. You know, I think I'll do the case of Dilla. I'm not sure if I'm if I'm up for doing the Pico de Gallo yet. I'll see. But we'll see. We'll see who comes in. I'm just we're talking now. Takes 10s I know, I know, I got to find the parts I came in today and my, my was all over the kitchen, so I got to find the Dyson kit now. So as we're speaking, I'm getting emails about more folks joining us tomorrow, so I'll find out who's coming in. And good for you. Probably crank crank up the salsa tomorrow. Nice. And so like I had a bunch of pico de gallo left over and I just threw it in container and threw it in the freezer. And I did a barbecue for ASA training the service agencies last week. They were in town training in my kitchen and learning from the factories, and I did with the barbecue that I did, I made beans, and so I just used all that pico in the beans and it worked. It came out really good because now I have in there, I just let everything simmer. And yeah, it added a lot to the to the beans. Nice. Cool. Nice. Yeah. Did you do the beans overnight. Did you do them in. No, no. One of the programs I flew home the night before so I didn't have time to prep, so I had to get canned beans. And luckily I've got that cook and hold in my kitchen at home. So I picked up a couple of pork butts and and roasted them in my cooking hold at home. And then I brought them back in the next morning. So which piece of equipment so far is your favorite? You know, I, I really like the flexibility of the converge. You know, I really like that with the being able to, you know, have the multiple chambers go and being able to kind of, you know, to steam and to kind of do some high series, some high grilling that that is the size of that equipment and the fact that it's event list, that's, that's really, you know, that's a really cool piece of equipment. So I'm really excited about that one. I can't wait to get the the pasta machine fired up. You know, it's it's pasta, but it's simple and it's so cool to be able to kind of make fresh pasta like that. I've already got a friend who's opening up a restaurant in Boulder, and they've already kind of they've they've committed to buying one of these units. So I'm excited for my friend Josh to come in and kind of play around a little bit and work with him, and then also show up some of the other opportunities that we have in our kitchen as they expand their operation. Yeah, it's a it's a great way to get somebody in here. Yeah. It is so easy. But it's so Ryan, we made pizza dough for that school event for the for our lunches. And we had to go. 67% hydration. I always have to go. I can't do the 63 or 65 hydration. I always have to go more. It's it's just nothing more. Same thing with the pasta. I have to go I yeah, I have to go. Yeah. 32% hydration on my pasta. Yeah. Arizona's not the wettest place there is. Yeah, that's for sure. Wish we can give you some of the water up here. Yeah. Just weekend. It was like like almost seven degrees, 70 degrees all weekend. It was beautiful. Beautiful outside. And now it's like 40 degrees outside and raining. Yeah. We're good. We're going to get snow here today I think so. Seriously. Oh good. Yeah. We're still in spring. Yeah yeah that's crazy but and but Sarasota looking like Robert. No it's going to be 95 tomorrow. 85 and sunny every day. Yeah. Bring your leg. Bring your light jacket. I told you that that first job I had, I was working for a bunch of old hippies up in evergreen, and. And we could listen to our rock and roll music. We had to listen to Gregorian chants because the rock and roll music was bad for the vegetables. So, you know, we had we would have we would have Gregorian chants and kind of have, you know, so what's the owner left to me? And my friends would crank up the black flag then and have some fun with that. But I don't I don't know if the vegetables really notice the difference. And then all the vegetables rotted. For some reason it was crazy. They did. They did it. They did. Yeah. So what is what's on your schedule for. Let's see. So this is your first week back. This is your first week in the office. Your. Yep. First week. Fourth week with ignite. You've got a presentation tomorrow. And then what's what are you looking to accomplish the rest of the week and next? Well, the rest of this week as we talked, you know, we've been without a chef here for a couple of months here in Denver. So I need to kind of get organized and clean up a little bit. There's a fair we just moved into this office like nine months ago too, right? We haven't been in this space for too long. So there's still some construction debris, some organizing to do here. And then, Robert, you and I went over our scorecard today. So I've got to start reaching out and joining some organizations and get recertified on some stuff and continue working on the certification. So it should be a pretty exciting week, actually. You know, a couple of hours organizing, cleaning and then kind of tracking some tracking, some leads down and working on my continuing education here, going to see the office and try to make some new some new besties. Yeah. We'll see what happens here. Yeah, yeah. Because I got to tell Diana if. Yeah. Because if you go a couple of weeks without feeding them, they're they're going to become restless little beasts and they're going to actually be, you know, being like, hey chef, when you feed me, you know, I need some food. The press after after tomorrow I think the pressure will be on. So I'll start. You know you guys have been encouraging me just to kind of go out and shop and get some stuff cooking here. So we'll get a fat. Yeah, we'll get everybody fed. I get stuff to turn on the pizza ovens and get all that rolling burns and stuff, and just see how fast the ovens can cook. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Because I know, like the first, the first week I had my Balkan range every time I put a saute pan on there and I fired it up and I throw, you know, whatever onions, garlic, whatever in there, I turned around and thinking, I, you know, I got plenty of time. Burnt the shit out of everything. First week I was just like, wow. I was not expecting that oven to be that fast. And but, I mean, it was a great learning experience. And, you know, now, now I got a story because I burnt some shit. Yeah, yeah, I'm excited every day. But the challenge of this space to is it's so big. Is that my dry storms way over here, the equipment's way over there. So really have to be organized, have all my meat supplies in front of me and be ready to go. So there's there's no walking away from the stove or walking away from the burners here in a while. And you're lucky because you got the one. Rev. I had a friend in town a while ago and it was the first time I cooked for them, and I put chicken in my which stone oven burnt the shit out of it? Yep, just forgot about it. We were talking and I was like, what is that smell? Oh my god. Oh yeah. Yeah. Oh cool. So happy you cooked for me. Like. Yeah. Thanks. Would you turn the burners up to, like, number five and just walk away? Probably. It's an automatic two, which is even sound. You've got the automatic. So. Okay so that's great. Nice. Paul what's your favorite cocktail. My favorite cocktail. That would be just just bourbon on the rocks. That's it. Okay. Just, you know, when it's summertime, you know, we'd like to do a little. Do a vodka tonic, maybe, but vodka martini with the twist. But I'll just. I'll stick with the bourbon. Keep it simple. And Andrew strings pint glasses of. That's what he's drinking right now. Stretch straight pint glasses of Watkins wild. Room temperature. Andrew there in your office. He makes a really good old fashioned with bourbon. Oh, does he do that? Yeah. Yeah. The other thing too is because you do so much entertaining there in that office, think about doing some of your own infusions. And the combi works awesome for doing infusions because, like, I make lemon cello here every. Oh, cool. Every year. And I try to I try to get the Meyer lemons if I can't and get those and really it's just it's like 1212 lemon zest or the entire zest off the lemon, 1212 lemons to a liter of vodka and vacuum seal it and then cook it at 121 degrees for a half hour. I just sit overnight, I strain it, and then I cut it with simple sirup. And it's it's yeah, it's really good. So that's really cool. You know, you could do your own bidders, you could do your own other, you know, infused things, you know, go crazy with some of the, the seasonal stuff. Yeah. And then you know how that as the, the ignite cocktail for your for one of those Karl evening events. Yeah. That's a good idea. I'd never really thought about doing that. That's really cool. I'll have to look into that. And then we're gonna have to try that. That margarita ice cream too, that everybody's talking about, right? Yeah. So I'm excited to get that going. My friend that I had mentioned who was going to come in and play with pasta, he was really excited by that idea as well. So we're going to try to get that set up here, get him going on that for his next godsend. Paul, tell us a little bit about hobbies or being able to. What would you what do you like to do in some downtime. Yeah. Well I as I live in Golden, Colorado, which is at the foothills here. So we've got some amazing trails. So it's just it's nice to put a good book on tape on and get a couple of miles cranked out. Just do a nice mellow hike on the afternoon. I did that this afternoon. This last weekend got a couple of miles in and it's been a while, but I want to get back into fly fishing again this year as well. So I kind of put the gear up for a while when I had a bad knee, and a couple Christmases ago I had my knee replaced and I'm feeling better. So I'm excited to get back and go stand in the water and see if I can catch some fish. So we'll do some fish in and and do a lot of hiking. Very cool. Get outside and enjoy Colorado. Hopefully your summer is not like really dry this year because you guys really didn't get a bunch of snow. I know it's going to be it's it's going to be tough to fish this year, that's for sure. They're already they're already kind of warning us about drought conditions. So it's going to be it's going to be bad. It's going to be really I saw that they're training one. They're draining one of your reservoirs. Right. Because it's so there's too much evaporation. Yeah. There I'm not sure what the thought process is. I think the water level is so low that the water might be kept toxic. So I think actually starting this weekend, their opening it up for people to kind of come in and just start harvesting the fish, any fish that have survived. I think I read somewhere that over the last couple of years, Department of Wildlife is stocked the reservoir with like 8 billion fish. Well, there's not that many in there now, but they want they want to they want people to harvest the fish and take advantage of that opportunity before they completely drain the reservoir. Interesting. But it's going to it's going to be bad. They're already there's some reservoirs up in the mountains that are already making plans to kind of scale back their their boating programs and their docks. And then some of the the rafting companies are really nervous as well, because they're just not going to have that runoff. You know, I like Idaho Springs is like entire income for the year. Is that. Yeah, exactly. And everything. Yeah. The whole Arkansas River Valley. Right. So I'll saliva and all that. So we'll see what happens. You know, they might get a short season, but it's not going to be All right, well, thanks a lot, guys. That was a lot of fun. I'm really excited to be part of the ignite team. I'm excited to see what we come up with here in the in the future. And we'll see. We'll see. See you all soon. It's been fun getting to know you a little bit better. We all got to meet while you traveled around for your onboarding, but learned a few new things about you. Welcome to the team. Excited to be working with you. Yep. Excited that you're here to man. Looking forward to it. Glad that we got you on here so you can get introduced to everybody as well. Thanks for having me. Appreciate Well, that was another great episode of our podcast. I hope everybody enjoyed it. And don't forget to click and subscribe.