0:00

Right justin middle of the field forty five

0:02

fifteen bring Russ in front of a leading.

0:04

Lions in his way.

0:06

I am Jeff jonihack Witz.

0:07

Is not DONI go upcur

0:11

What was like playing for Coche?

0:13

Good done?

0:14

I don't want to answer any questions like that.

0:16

Sixty one yards?

0:17

What's Sunday stroll for? Justin field?

0:25

Yes. Bears et Cetera brought to you

0:27

by Miller Lte with the voices of the Bears

0:29

Jeff Joniac and Tom Thayer.

0:32

Welcome back to the Bears et Cetera Podcast.

0:34

We're episode fifty one, halfway

0:37

through January already and gearing up for a

0:39

memorable off season as the Bears are

0:41

interviewing offensive fordner candidates and

0:43

delving deep into their game plan for the quarterback

0:46

position with Super Bowl winning Bears guard Tom Thayer.

0:48

I'm Jeff Joniac.

0:49

Good to have you along as we begin a now once

0:51

a week's show through the off season, save

0:54

for any breaking news, of course that may occur between

0:56

now and the start of training camp. And we

0:58

are sponsored by Miller Official

1:00

Beer of the Chicago Bears.

1:02

It's like Mither time Chicago.

1:03

We have a special guest to kick off the program

1:06

special guest down fifty one. It's our

1:08

Dick, butkis episode for a guy who was

1:10

born and bred like Dick

1:12

on the South Side. One of the premier chefs

1:15

in the world, right here in Chicago, our very

1:17

own Joe Flamm, culinary

1:20

director for Sincere Hospitality overseeing

1:22

Rosemary and Blvd. Steakhouse

1:25

in Fulton Market District. Winner

1:27

of Top Chef Season fifteen. His

1:30

career is amazing. We're going to get into

1:32

that. His love of the Bears and the White Sox

1:35

also deeply rooted in this man and

1:37

his world is blending with the sports world as

1:40

we speak right now.

1:40

Joe, how you feeling, buddy.

1:42

I'm feeling good, feeling good, Excited

1:44

to be here.

1:44

Guys, Thanks, thanks for joining us. I know you

1:46

have a busy schedule running everything. But before

1:49

we get into all that, we got to get your thoughts

1:51

on your beloved. We got to talk about the

1:53

Bears and you know, hey, it's

1:55

gonna be an amazing offseason

1:58

and I know every Bears fan feeling

2:00

a little bit anxious about it

2:02

all.

2:03

How are you feeling about it?

2:04

Yeah, I feel anxious, I feel excited.

2:06

I think these are normal feelings as a Bears

2:09

fan, but I think, you know, I

2:12

really like Kevin Warred, I really like Ryan

2:14

Pole. So you know, I think at this point you got

2:16

to say, we trust our guys, right, we trust the two

2:19

guys who were there to spok to do the

2:21

job. I think, you know,

2:24

I felt better about it before that Packers

2:26

game, and then I felt better about

2:28

it before I watched the Packers go to Dallas

2:30

and absolutely destroy the Cowboys.

2:35

It's just kind of that was the scary thing

2:37

to me there. But I think it kind of forces your hand

2:39

one way, because you're now saying, you

2:41

know, we thought the Packers weren't going to be this right

2:44

a couple of years ago, we're like, Okay, you know, they're

2:46

kind of going down. Everybody's treading down at our division.

2:48

Detroit went through the roof Green Base making

2:50

a run. Now it's say it, Okay,

2:53

the table stakes are just

2:55

as high as they've always been. So if we want

2:57

to compete in this division, we got

2:59

to be ready for it. We have to have,

3:01

you know what I mean, the weapons to do so.

3:03

So the Bears lose to green Bay seventeen

3:06

to nine. In green Bay, they beat

3:08

Detroit at home, and they should have beat Detroit

3:10

on the road. That kind of gives me some encouragement

3:13

going into the offseason, thinking, Okay, you're

3:16

a reachable, you're an attainable improvement

3:18

a way from going in and competing

3:21

in your division.

3:23

How do you feel about the way the Bears ended

3:25

things.

3:25

I think it's tough. I hated the way that last

3:28

game went. I hated the way it was called. I

3:30

thought Justin looked really uncomfortable

3:32

that whole game. I thought, you know, I think a lot

3:34

of us thought like he was going to come out and be wildly

3:36

aggressive. Right, there's nothing to lose. We don't have

3:38

a playoffs spout to lose, Like, just let them

3:41

go out there, let them rip it, let's be super

3:43

aggressive with the defense, and let's

3:45

just go after Green Bay. And it felt like they played

3:47

a game where they were trying not to lose. And

3:50

then when you watch the contrast of Jordan

3:52

Love to Justin Fields, I think that's where

3:55

it felt really scary to me, because you're watching

3:57

this guy who looks real comfortable in the pocket,

3:59

is making decisions, making quick

4:01

throws, not holding onto the ball too long, and

4:03

you're watching Justin, you know, getting

4:05

crushed over there. So it's just like, that's the part

4:07

that scares me. It doesn't feel super

4:10

far away, but I'm just worried

4:12

the part where it is far away might

4:14

be justin.

4:15

Thanks Jeff, this is not just some chef.

4:17

This guy knows football, so I love it. I'm

4:19

not gonna I'm not going to ask your answer.

4:22

Do you have a specific opinion

4:25

about the quarterback position? And

4:27

I don't, you know, I guess you can give me an explanation,

4:30

but you know, it's it's one of

4:32

the biggest topics in the

4:34

NFL football world outside the head

4:36

coaching consideration of the rest

4:39

of the league.

4:40

I think it's tough. You know, we're number one pick

4:42

two years in a row. So you're either going

4:44

to say we're going to trade the number one pick

4:46

two years in a row and we're going to go

4:48

all in on Justin again. Or

4:51

are you going to say, hey, we see what the

4:53

competition is, we know what we have,

4:55

and we're going to take a gamble that

4:58

maybe there's something better out there. And I think that's

5:01

kind of the two roads right now, right because I

5:03

think it's like, we have the cap space, we have the picks,

5:05

where we're going to be whoever it is, you're

5:07

going to be able to build a rend them, you know what I mean, whether it's

5:10

there's a heavy wide receiver draft in that first

5:12

round, the wide receiver's going into

5:14

free agency this year, nuts, you know what

5:16

I mean. So I think it's like being able to pick

5:18

somebody up. You know, It's like I think I have

5:20

a sick fantasy where it's like Mike Evans and

5:22

Dj Moore out there and it's like, you

5:24

know what I mean, Like, you

5:26

know, it's just like who cares who throws to him

5:29

at that point, right? You know what I mean, Just get the ball

5:31

up in the air. Somebody will break it down. But

5:34

it's hard. You know. They keep saying consistency,

5:36

but I just I have a hard

5:38

time believing if you're the GM, you

5:40

know, this season, you know, is a huge

5:43

season for you where you look at

5:45

that number one pick and you say

5:47

you're going to trade it away and not say,

5:50

hey, like maybe

5:52

you know one of these kids out there is what

5:54

they are supposed to be.

5:55

When did it kind of crystallize for you that you

5:57

were a Bear?

5:58

I mean, you know, Litten, but I was born

6:01

four months after the Bears won

6:03

the super Bowl, though, you know what I mean, I've never

6:05

seen a Bear super Bowl in my lifetime. My

6:08

dad's a Bears fan. I'm a Bears fan. I grew up in

6:10

a house, you know. He had all the posters on the

6:12

wall the weight room that were you know, the back

6:14

the Black and Blues Brothers and the Junkyard

6:17

Dogs. It was it was instant, you know what I mean, there

6:19

was no other option. My dad's a Cubs fan, I'm

6:21

a Socks fan. We agree on almost nothing,

6:24

but there was always the Bears. That was

6:26

always a day, one day of just you know what

6:28

I mean, like Sunday's watching the

6:30

Bears, and it's just it's it's always, it's

6:32

been forever. I always I always loved the big

6:34

guys growing up, you know what I mean. I was a you know,

6:36

a big guy. I was alignment. So it's like I

6:38

loved Olin Cruitz. He was

6:40

he was always one of my favorites. I love the way

6:42

he played. He was mean, you know what I mean.

6:44

He just seemed like a real son of a bitch out there and

6:46

I love that. The guy, like the guy who

6:48

if he was like God, anyone else's team you'd probably hate

6:50

him. I love the Erlocker era, so like getting

6:53

to watch like Aurlocker play you just you

6:55

know, for me, I was like, oh yeah, we just had the

6:57

greatest middle linebackers always

7:00

forever, you know, and it was just unbelievable

7:02

to watch. And I think he was Him and Devin

7:04

Hess might have been two of the most excited guys

7:06

I've ever seen wear a Bear's uniform in my lifetime

7:09

at least.

7:09

Did you go to any Bears games?

7:10

Because I remember the first time I went to a Bears

7:13

game then it was a Bears Packers preseason

7:15

game and it was on my birthday back

7:18

in probably the early seventies.

7:20

Yeah, I mean we didn't go to a lot

7:22

of Bears games, you know, because Bears games were expensive,

7:25

they were hard to get into, and so it was I remember

7:27

the first time I went to Soldier Field was actually

7:29

my dad took me. You know, this

7:32

is like some real South Side So my Dan's

7:34

brother, of course, is a priest. So my dance

7:36

brother is a priest and he's

7:38

a missionary priest. So he was in town for

7:40

like a week, and so it was Notre

7:42

Dame was playing at Soldier Field, so we

7:45

went down to Soldier Field scalp tickets

7:47

late to get in sat like twelfth roll

7:49

behind Lou Holtz when Rick Meyer was the

7:51

quarterback. And that was the first time I was ever

7:53

inside Soldier Field.

7:55

I was at that game on the sidelines,

7:57

and I think that's the one that Rick

8:00

Meyer had a really good day in the hit and the

8:02

bean l Cook said Rick Meyer

8:04

is going to be a four year All American

8:07

and a Heisman Trophy winner.

8:08

At the end of the day. They might have been playing Northwestern

8:11

or something.

8:12

I remember it was like Rick Meyern. I was like, Yeah,

8:14

this guy is awesome. If the Beers could get this

8:16

guy, this would be the guy. This would solve all

8:18

our problems. Well, obviously I

8:20

wasn't right on that.

8:22

Who have you met in terms of sports

8:24

personalities over the course of your career

8:27

as a chef?

8:27

You know, first real nice restaurant I worked at was

8:29

Table fifty two in the Gold Coast and we

8:32

used to do we used to do it was like a fine

8:34

dining Southern restaurant. On Sundays

8:37

we would do fried chicken. It was the only day of the week

8:39

we did, like these fried chicken dinners with mashed potatoes

8:41

and it was like forty two dollars fried chicken. It was ridiculous,

8:44

right, But it

8:46

was like Tommy Harris

8:49

was on the Bears then and like that. So

8:51

this was the seven eight

8:53

era, and these guys would come in

8:55

and everybody be really dressed up in this restaurant. These

8:57

guys would roll in after a Sunday game and

9:00

flip flops of Jim shorts, you know,

9:02

being the size of the doorway and

9:04

come just crush and I was like, this is

9:07

the best, Like this is just

9:09

just really really cool. At

9:11

that same place, Eli Manning

9:14

ate there one time and it was one of those

9:16

crazy things and I think, like growing up, you know, you see

9:18

these quarterbacks out there and you see all these huge guys

9:20

around them, and then you see these quarterbacks

9:22

in real life, and that's always the thing

9:24

that shocked me. It's like, how just monster

9:28

these guys are, you know what I mean? The first time

9:30

I saw like Brett Farber, I was like, Oh, this dude's

9:32

like huge, Like this dude's

9:34

not like you know what I mean, You're like, oh, why can't they tackle

9:36

this guy? It's like, well, because he's sixty three two

9:38

twenty five, and you know, I mean, you know,

9:41

I mean for me being from Chicago, one of my biggest

9:43

welles was Jordan. I

9:46

got to cook for Jordan a couple of times Labroad.

9:49

But one of my favorite people honestly. I

9:51

worked at a place and Ozzie Gid used

9:53

to come in all the time and

9:55

he would sit at the chef's counter and I was just

9:57

a cook at the time, and he was

10:00

I mean, he'd have us go at all night, like he would

10:02

just tell stories, Like he would tell stories

10:05

about like him and Joey Korra and

10:07

the minor leagues and like you know,

10:09

Border Texas towns, like getting

10:11

in fistfights at like Honky Tonks

10:13

because like, you know, Joey Korra was like

10:16

all the ladies at the bar were talking to Joey Korra

10:18

and he would just like get in a fight with like six regnat

10:21

dudes. He's like he's like Joey Corey would just beat

10:23

the shit out of all of them. He's like he's the toughest

10:25

guy you've ever met. So it was like that was one

10:27

of my favorites. He would just tell stories forever before

10:29

he became famous.

10:30

In one Top Chef, did you ever have a

10:32

favorite restaurant in your

10:34

life before you

10:37

know you had everything thrust

10:39

upon you that you have had.

10:40

Yeah, I mean I had a couple. You know, there's

10:43

one in the west Loop called a Vec was

10:45

always one of my favorites. That was mine of my wife's

10:48

first date. That one

10:50

was always, you know, really special one to me.

10:53

Lula Cafe up in Logan Square just

10:56

you know, an absolute jab And

10:58

I mean for me, like the real like you know, the

11:01

og spot. For me, I grew up like

11:03

eighty fourth in Saint Louis. I grew up in Ashburn, so

11:05

it's like I grew up two blocks away from Vito and Knicks,

11:08

So it's like.

11:08

That for me is like you know, home

11:11

preparation for football, whether you're a player

11:13

or you're a broadcaster, you

11:16

spend a lot of time watching tape

11:18

and kind of you become

11:20

familiar with your opponent and what they

11:22

do well and what they don't do well. When

11:24

you go into a restaurant before you

11:28

you know, ran a business of your own, were

11:30

you always taken mental notes about

11:33

serving, preparation, taste or

11:35

delivery and the kind of same things

11:37

that I would be paying attention to watching

11:39

football.

11:41

For sure, especially when I traveled, you know what I

11:43

mean, especially if I went like if I went over to Italy

11:45

or if I went to Croatia, I would bring, you

11:47

know, a notebook with me and I wouldn't bring it to dinner, but

11:49

at the end of the night, I'd go home and I just I'd

11:52

write, you know what I mean, I'd be like, Okay, you know,

11:54

went to this cafe this morning.

11:56

I like the way they served their espresso

11:59

with a little spark clean water and they put it on a tray

12:01

and that was really nice. And like I noticed this

12:03

little thing, or like I had this dish

12:06

and I like this about it. Didn't like this about

12:08

it, but I think it's a good idea, Like you know,

12:10

come back to it and just kind

12:12

of just kind of like track what

12:15

was happening so I could go back and look at

12:17

it. And I still, you know, and even now

12:19

with kind of the chefs I have under me, when

12:21

they go out, you know, or if they go on a trip

12:24

and they come back, I'm like, Okay, what did you eat? Where did you

12:26

eat? Oh? You made it this place? What did you like about

12:28

it? What did you see there that was really good? You

12:30

know? What did you see there that was kind of a strange

12:32

to you, you know what I mean, what service thing

12:34

did you think was a nice touch? And

12:37

just like so we're always kind of

12:39

the same way for you guys. You know, you're always having football

12:41

conversations, right, You're always thinking about,

12:43

you know, how do we improve It's the same idea where

12:45

it's like I want you know, I'm

12:47

always thinking about it. And even if

12:49

I'm in a restaurant, I can kind of turn it off and be like,

12:52

Okay, these aren't my problems, But

12:54

it doesn't mean I can't not see it, you

12:56

know what I mean. Like if I can hear your ticket printer,

12:59

I can hear that take a printer going off, And I'm

13:01

looking around the room and I'm like, okay, this is Shit's

13:03

about to hit the fan in this room, Like you know what i mean,

13:05

I'm counting the servers on the floor. I'm looking back at the

13:07

kitchen. You have a your down a line cook,

13:10

you have eleven tickets on the board. You get two guys

13:12

cranking it out, you got two servers both working

13:14

eleven table sections. Like this is

13:16

about to be We're gonna be here for another hour and a half.

13:18

Waiting for stuff.

13:19

You're like a coach. You're like a coach.

13:22

Did you ever have the occasion to go to Fair

13:24

Brother's Restaurant in Joliet.

13:27

No, no, I have. You know,

13:29

it's funny. I worked at a bar out

13:31

on the line of like where

13:33

Juliette hits Mookina hits New

13:35

Lennox. It was like Schoolhouse

13:37

Road in twenty maybe

13:40

those intersect out there. I think it is King in Highway

13:42

twenty. My buddy's dad opened

13:44

this bar and he just

13:46

you know, yeah me. I was like nineteen, and he's

13:48

like, yeah, you're just gonna do all the stuff. And I was like, yeah,

13:51

sure, I love it. You know what I mean. I'm laid tile,

13:53

I dug out beer garden, changed

13:55

kegs, whatever you need it. And it

13:57

is like, you know, people don't know

13:59

about South suburbs. It's a whole

14:01

other world out there. It is just like it

14:03

blew my mind. It's wild. It's such a mix of people

14:06

out there. It was fun as hell, but

14:08

it was. It was a wild time my mom

14:10

and my brother.

14:11

It's it's every single day

14:14

job, you know, there is I always tell

14:16

people there's no year over

14:18

the hump or everything's downhill from

14:20

here because you're putting

14:22

together. You're putting together a

14:24

group and a team of people, just

14:27

like a head coach would bring a coaching

14:29

staff and a team together. So I

14:31

just think that the effort and the work

14:34

that goes into the everyday operation

14:37

of a restaurant sometimes people

14:39

don't realize it when they open the.

14:40

Door and they get great fried chicken for

14:43

whatever. The price is right.

14:45

And it's you know, it's one of those things I always tell,

14:47

you know, when people are like, oh, I'm you know, a friend,

14:49

they're thinking about getting into it or whatever, you

14:51

know, I always tell them, and I'm really straightforward about

14:53

it, like I'm not trying to talk to anybody in this industry.

14:55

I'm not trying to talk about but it's like I'm just trying

14:58

to be honest about it. I'm like, it's

15:00

not a great job. It's a really

15:02

hard job. It can be a very thankfus

15:04

job. I'm like, if you can wake up tomorrow and

15:06

you can imagine doing anything else, go

15:09

do that. It's a better job. I love

15:11

this. I don't want to wake up tomorrow and do anything

15:14

else. I cannot fathom it, you

15:16

know. I go so it's a great

15:18

career for me because I love it, but

15:21

it's not a great job. So if it's just something where

15:23

you're like, oh, I think I kind of want to do this, it's like, man,

15:25

do anything else.

15:27

Well, one thing just to analogize that is

15:29

when the latest version of the Stars

15:31

Born movie was made between Bradley Cooper

15:33

and Lady Gaga, Bradley Cooper

15:35

went to Eddie Vedder from Pearl Jam and asked

15:38

him about how do you become a musician

15:40

to play this role? And Eddie Vedder says,

15:43

don't do it because you're not going

15:45

to be good at it. It's too difficult of

15:47

a role of playing the guitar and singing.

15:49

You know, you run that fine line. You don't want to

15:51

discourage people. But if someone has their

15:53

mindset to go and take that task

15:56

on, they just have to

15:58

realize from a top sh how

16:01

difficult of a day to day operation it

16:03

is.

16:04

And I think, you know, you guys do something

16:06

at a super high level, you know what I mean, time

16:08

you played at the highest level, and it's like the

16:10

amount of you know, like sacrifice

16:13

that goes into it. There's no real shortcuts

16:15

for that, you know what I mean, there's some people who are wildly

16:17

natural talented in all things, right,

16:20

but it's still it's like usually those people are also

16:22

like some of the hardest working

16:24

people in the road. And so I think it's just one

16:26

of those things where it's like, yeah, you can do

16:28

this. There's nothing wildly special about

16:31

me, but it's just it's a hell of a lot of sacrifice

16:33

and hard work.

16:33

Oh yeah, you guys put on some unbelievable

16:36

displays of creativity

16:40

and passion. And I'm sitting there at Rosemary,

16:43

which is one of my favorite

16:45

places ever to go, and I'm

16:47

sitting there at the counter on a couple of occasions

16:50

just watching, you know, for an offensive lineman,

16:52

it's elephants on parade. Right, everything

16:54

is like in synchronicity, and these big

16:56

guys are just moving. That's the way the kitchen

16:59

is, and that's not easy.

17:01

Everything's happening at once. It's non

17:04

stop. And that's the same way to call a game.

17:06

It's you're dialed and it's non

17:08

stop, right, And I think.

17:09

People, you know, look at it and they see

17:11

you know, they see where you are and not where you came from.

17:14

Right, So it's easy to say, like, oh, yeah. You know, you

17:16

guys just show up in call Bears game, right,

17:18

that's just you know what I mean, you just decided

17:20

it one day, Hey, Like you saw that ad on Craigslisted.

17:23

He said, yeah, I'll throw my hat in the writ. You know, you

17:25

know, just a couple of guys called place, and it's

17:27

like, I think, you know, it's the same thing even,

17:30

you know, it's like as much as like especially

17:32

now, it's like they could google any of us and they can

17:34

figure out, you know, our whole career charactory and

17:36

what we've done where we've worked with all of it that

17:38

goes into it. And people, you know, they still walk

17:40

in the restaurant every day and they're like, oh, so did

17:42

you cook before this?

17:43

Oh my god, Joe.

17:45

It's like Joe, it's like, I haven't done anything

17:47

else for the past twenty years, Joe,

17:50

I don't have any other skills whatsoever.

17:52

Hand to God, this happened more

17:54

than we care to admit. Tom and Jeff,

17:56

are you guys going to be at the game on Sunday? Oh,

17:59

yeah, it happened.

18:00

I mean I'm not joking.

18:01

Yeah that I don't know.

18:03

We might call it. Yeah, yeah, you know what I mean, oh

18:06

my gosh, let's just watch this

18:08

one out in the garage at Thayer's house, and you do have

18:10

a couple of pops.

18:11

Unbelievable.

18:12

This is the Bears et cetera podcast, episode

18:14

fifty one. Game Day snacking calls

18:16

for good foods. Chunky guacamodle made

18:18

with has avocados, tomatoes, onion, cilantro,

18:21

and a squeeze of lime juice. It's the perfect

18:23

snack to watch while the Bears win.

18:25

Score some today at your local grocery

18:28

store. Game Day is guak

18:30

Day and our special guest on episode

18:32

fifty one Joe Flamm Joe,

18:36

what got you started?

18:37

I got started in this industry when I was fifteen,

18:40

sixteen years old, and I just you know, I needed

18:42

a job like anybody else high school kid and

18:44

needed a job. I started. I

18:46

was a bus boy at this place and my sister worked

18:48

at and then my buddy, his dad ran a

18:50

place out and pay the sites. He was like, hey, when

18:52

you turn sixteen and you can drive, I can get

18:54

you a job there. And it was a little better job, but I

18:56

didn't have to work with my older sister, so that was appealing

18:59

as well for me. It was instant I fell in love

19:01

with restaurants. First. I was like, this is

19:03

the best, Like it was the place where I just felt

19:05

I felt like home, like I found my people,

19:08

I had found, you know, a place where I felt

19:10

really comfortable. I started really coming out of

19:12

my shell. And you know, I just I

19:14

loved everything about it. I loved the late nights, I loved

19:16

the hard work. I loved you know, meeting

19:19

people and talking to people and just

19:21

the chaoss of it all. You

19:23

know, it was completely insane. You know, I didn't

19:25

know any chefs. This place was like a neighborhood

19:28

bar grill that it was like you know what I mean. There

19:30

were there were dudes who worked in the kitchen

19:32

who were like we had guys who were there six months

19:34

a year. They would go back to Mexico. The other

19:36

crew would come through for six months a year, and

19:38

like that's how that kitchen ran there. And they just rotated

19:41

them in and out. Like it wasn't you know, chefs,

19:43

it wasn't white hats, wasn't anything like that. But

19:45

it made me, you know, fall in love with it. And

19:47

so my plan at the time was, you know, the guy

19:50

who owned the place was a lawyer. So

19:52

I was like, all right, well, if you want to open a restaurant, you got

19:54

to go be a lawyer and make a bunch of money and then you could,

19:56

you know, buy a restaurant when you're fifty. So

19:58

that was my plan. I was to you know, go to

20:00

school for you know, accounting, get

20:03

my degree, go to law school, become a

20:05

lawyer, try to make a bunch of money, and try

20:07

to buy a bar and grill when I was fifty.

20:09

Your timeline was elevated

20:11

significantly.

20:13

Yeah. So I was about two and a half years and to

20:15

an accounting degree, and I decided, you

20:18

know, I had spent about seven months cooking

20:21

for this place, and I just like

20:24

really then fell in love with the cooking aspect of

20:26

it. I had grown up cooking. I always loved food, but

20:28

I had never done it professionally. In this place, you know,

20:30

it was kind of one of those where they were like, oh, hey, we need

20:32

somebody to work at pizza station. You know how to do that?

20:35

And I was like, yeah, yeah, I know how to do that, not knowing how

20:37

to do that at all, and just kind of, you know, fake

20:39

it till I made it. So I spent about seven

20:41

months there, and you know, I'd left

20:43

to work in an office and because

20:46

I was like, yeah, I need to start to get you know, my real career

20:48

going. And all I could think about was cooking.

20:50

I was like, man, that was the best. So

20:52

I literally one day I just googled. I was like, how did

20:54

Emeralagassi become a chef? And

20:57

so I was like, oh, we went to culinary school.

20:59

I was like, what's culinary school? So then I found

21:01

a culinary school. And then so about

21:03

two months later, I was like, you know what, I'm

21:05

gonna drop out of college and I'm gonna go to culinary school.

21:07

So I dropped out of college and just

21:10

went all in on it. I you know, moved back to my

21:12

parents' house and on the South side, lived in the basement

21:14

and just was like all I did for you

21:16

know, culinary school is like fifteen months. It's that, you

21:18

know, like real college. And I

21:20

started there a week later. I started at table fifty

21:23

two, and you know, five days a week, I went to

21:25

school from eight to four. Six days a

21:27

week, I went to the restaurant. You know, I go straight

21:29

from school to the restaurant. I worked doubles on the weekends,

21:32

and you know, that was my first

21:34

year and a half as a cook. It was just

21:36

like all I did was you know, cook

21:39

like it just you know, I was terrible. I

21:41

was you know, I just was burnt everywhere.

21:43

I used to carry super glue in all my pockets

21:45

so I could glue pieces of me back together when

21:47

I cut myself so many times and

21:51

just kept coming back, just kept coming back.

21:53

And I was like, you know, I think I was so

21:55

surprised they didn't fire me. And I think they were

21:57

so surprised that I didn't quit that they

21:59

just you know, let me stay for two years, you know,

22:01

and until I finally figured out how to actually cook

22:03

a little bit.

22:04

You know, Joe, there's a little restaurant in Ola

22:06

Walu, Maui and it's called Leota's

22:08

and that's the name of the grandmother of the

22:11

family that owns it, and they

22:13

specialize in little pies and sandwiches.

22:16

And when my mom taught me to cook, she

22:18

would put all the ingredients in a bag

22:20

and send me home with it, knowing that

22:22

I would have to call her a couple of times, and it would

22:24

increase the amount of times I talked to her in

22:27

Rosemary.

22:28

That's the name of your grandmother. Is that true?

22:31

Yes, So it's Rose was my my

22:33

dad's mom, Marrish grandmother, and

22:35

then Mary is my mom's mom. Uh,

22:38

Mary's Mary's you know. The idea was

22:40

Rosemary because Rosemary, the herb

22:42

grows all along the Adriatic coast right

22:44

through Italy through Croatia, and in

22:46

both Italian and Croatian cultures it's

22:48

a sign of, you know, good luck and good fortune. So like

22:51

when I got married, there was Rosemary in all

22:53

the vases on the tables. Like it's kind of like an old

22:55

school thing, but I thought it'd be cool.

22:57

It's just kind of a nod to them to do this.

22:59

The two work and says, you know, rose get

23:02

married, and you know, my grandma Mary is ninety four

23:04

now. But it's like we still you know what I mean, like

23:07

for the holidays and stuff, we're still doing Feasts

23:09

of the Seven Fishes. We still make reveolis

23:11

for Thanksgiving, and you know, and she doesn't cook

23:13

anymore. She's not like getting in the kitchen, but

23:15

you know, she's still like she'll throw the apron on and

23:18

then she'll kind of get her a little, you know, seat and

23:20

just like overwatching everything and you know what I

23:22

mean, And I got to tell her all the numbers and

23:24

you know, and then it's like her asking me

23:26

about how much money I spent on fish and thinking

23:28

I'm lying to her and not telling her enough, you

23:30

know what I mean, And she's she's ninety

23:33

four. But it's like, you know, this year, it's like the price

23:35

of scalps went them. So she's like, well, how

23:37

much would the scalp? So I was like, well, they were like two hundred

23:39

and twenty five bucks for a gallon of She's

23:41

like, well they were three twenty last year. Yeah

23:44

they were, but like I didn't even remember that, but

23:47

it's like, you know, I'm like, yeah, they were, like you

23:49

know that the that was last year,

23:51

like you know, the market was tighter. And she's like all right,

23:53

well, better not be lying to me.

23:55

Were they the influences in your

23:58

cooking life or is

24:00

it something that you know, you kind of

24:02

took a road by yourself

24:04

and then you developed into the chef

24:07

that you've become.

24:08

I mean a little bit of both. I think they were. You

24:10

know, my grandma made me fall in love with traditions.

24:13

You know, they're coming from a big family, and I

24:15

just saw, like, you know, it was such

24:17

a cool thing of like having these cooking

24:20

traditions, and I just assumed, you know, kind of everybody

24:22

had these, you know what I mean, everybody was doing their

24:24

their Christmas Eve, the feasts of the Seven Fishes,

24:27

making ready at least from scratch with Thanksgiving.

24:29

And you know, the older I got, the more special I

24:31

realized all these things were, you know, that time

24:33

I got with her where we're you know, cleaning squid

24:35

on newspapers in the mud room, you know,

24:38

like getting them ready, Like

24:40

how special and unique that was. And I loved,

24:43

you know, even before I got into you

24:45

know, cooking professionally, like me and my grandma

24:47

would cook all the holidays together because I

24:49

just loved the tradition of it. I loved everybody getting

24:52

together and I just thought

24:54

it was amazing. I never wanted those things to go

24:56

away, and so that

24:58

was kind of a big, you know, motivator

25:01

for me. But as I got into the professional

25:03

chef world, they were very much

25:05

like, you know, like what in the hell are

25:07

you doing? Like what why

25:10

are you dropping out of college to like,

25:13

you know, cook, Like why don't you

25:15

get a degree, why don't you get a law degree and then if you still

25:17

want to, you know, go play chef, you can, you

25:19

know what I mean, go play chef. So

25:21

so there wasn't a lot of encouragement

25:24

in the early years. It was a lot of you know,

25:26

Christmases and Thanksgiving where people were

25:28

very excited that I was cooking, but also you

25:31

know, all my aunts and uncles being like, so, you

25:33

know, when are we gonna when are we gonna go back and finish

25:35

that degree? You know what I mean, Like what are you gonna really

25:37

do? Like when are you gonna stop you know what I mean? Messing

25:39

around? And you know, so it took about

25:42

It was probably about, you know, I think seven or

25:44

eight years into my cooking career, and

25:46

I think I was at my first Sioux chef job and

25:48

I was working at Girl and the Goat and they were getting a lot

25:50

of press and it was really big. I remember

25:52

I was driving somewhere with my dad and he's like, he's

25:55

like, so you're you're pretty serious

25:57

about this cooking thing. Huh, You're gonna this is

25:59

like what you're going I was like, I've been doing this

26:01

for seven years, dad, you know what

26:03

I mean, Like what do you what do you

26:06

think I was gonna do? You know, Like I was

26:08

like, yeah, man, He's like, okay, well

26:10

I still think you should get a degree.

26:11

So was there a chip ever put on

26:14

your shoulder by a fellow chef

26:16

or somebody that had been established

26:19

in this business?

26:19

Said young man, I don't know if you got

26:22

it, you may.

26:22

Want to think about something else, or are you just

26:24

naturally gifted at it.

26:26

I'm definitely not naturally gifted

26:28

at it, you know what I mean. I was definitely never the

26:30

best cook in the kitchen, you know. And my best

26:32

friend owed three restaurants in Detroit, and he was

26:35

one of those guys where he

26:37

is a phenomenal athlete. He's just one

26:39

of those people if you teach him how to do anything,

26:41

you know, he'll be better at better at

26:43

it than you by the time you're done. And

26:46

so it was just he was my station partner, and

26:48

so he was the push,

26:50

you know what I mean. This dude set a ridiculous

26:53

standard of like this is how we work. So I

26:55

was always always playing catch up with him,

26:58

and you know, I worked around a ton of really

27:00

talented people and just kind of coming

27:03

through it like one I had the thing in the back of the

27:05

mind of everyone in my family telling me to go back to school.

27:07

So I was like, I can't fail. There's no back

27:09

on this, Like I'm all in on this.

27:11

This is the only road, like I am going.

27:14

The one that really put a chip on my shoulder,

27:16

though, was I remember. I went and

27:18

I, you know, I've been cooking for a while

27:20

and a sooux chef two great places, and I went,

27:22

I applied to me a sooux chef at this Italian restaurant

27:24

I really wanted to work at. I went through the

27:26

process, did a taste, and go all the way down. Chef

27:29

calls me in and I'm like, you know. I call my buddy

27:31

on the way there. I'm like, hey, Joe, I'm like, I got you

27:33

know, chef called me in. I got this job.

27:36

I'm like, this is awesome. I can't wait to work at this restaurant.

27:38

Blah blah blah. I go in there, I sit down

27:41

and he goes, hey, man, I came down

27:43

to you and another guy he worked for us before.

27:45

You never worked for us, he

27:47

goes, So we went the other direction. So

27:50

I end up taking a soux chef job at

27:52

another Italian restaurant down the street. And

27:54

so the second I stepped the foot, my foot

27:57

in the door there, I was just like, let's go, like

27:59

we are so we are going to push hard. We

28:01

are going to make sure. You know, I'm like, my time here

28:03

is going to be you know, spent the best way

28:05

I can. And I ended up being you know, taken over.

28:08

You know that was at Spiage. I ended up taking over Spiage

28:11

as a chef and you know, being the chef there for

28:13

five years and keeping a Michelin Star for five

28:15

years. We're the only Italian restaurant in Chicago

28:18

ever to have a Michelin Star. So

28:20

it was like one of those where it's just kind of like,

28:22

you know, we really you know, it was like fine,

28:25

like you know what I mean, you guys don't want me. I'm going here

28:27

and I'm going to show everybody I belong to be here.

28:29

Oh my god.

28:30

It's just like an athlete you had to turn in your

28:32

cookbook, time had to turn in his playbook.

28:34

Yeah yeah, but you know the

28:36

thing also to analogize

28:38

again, you know, you talk to your dad.

28:40

You said, I've been in this for seven years.

28:42

This is going to be my career path the average

28:44

life expectancy of an NFL player's

28:46

two point three years or maybe.

28:48

Two point it's up to three point one.

28:50

Now, okay, three point one.

28:51

Is there a realization can you recognize

28:54

it early in their career

28:56

of who has it and who doesn't?

28:58

Well, I think, you know what, I'm sure it's the same way you

29:00

know you probably feel about looking

29:03

at players where it's like, you know, when I was

29:05

twenty two, when I was coming up and I was

29:07

in a kitchen, I was like, oh, everyone around

29:09

me is so talented, and this is you know, we're

29:11

all so amazing, Like we're all going

29:13

to be chefs in ten years, right, all of us

29:15

are going to have restaurants, And you

29:18

kind of have that mindset, right, like we're all still going

29:20

to be doing this in ten years, twenty year, study years. And the

29:22

further I got down that road, the older I got,

29:25

the more you realize how

29:27

great the falloff is, and

29:30

you know, like how much of this is

29:33

just about you know, perseverance

29:35

and sticking around and keeping staying in the

29:37

fight. And you know, now

29:40

being you know, twenty years in being

29:44

older, having opened my own restaurant,

29:46

having been a part of a lot of restaurant opening. Now

29:48

you have a lot more where it's like

29:50

I can talk to a young cooker, a young Sioux chef.

29:53

You see those ones where you're like, they're that

29:55

person special, like they're

29:57

gonna do things right, and you can see

29:59

that dry even them, and that pushing them.

30:01

And you know, sometimes people surprise you,

30:03

you know, I mean, there's always that, but it's you

30:06

know, I think it's like now it's a lot easier

30:08

to have the realization of like, just

30:10

because all these people are cooks doesn't mean they're all going

30:12

to be chefs. And it doesn't mean they have to be either.

30:15

You mean, my path is not the only path. There's

30:17

a lot of paths in this in this world. And it's

30:19

not saying it's the best path either, but

30:22

it's just so what I try to do is just

30:24

try to help them find

30:26

their path right and be like, hey, you can go

30:28

a lot of ways with this. I'm just trying to give

30:30

you a set of skills that, you know, what I

30:32

mean, is hopefully going to give you a living that you

30:34

really enjoy.

30:35

Hey, Joe, I never had a plan B.

30:37

Either it was NFL or

30:40

I don't know what else. If you had a

30:42

Plan B. Is there any time

30:45

throughout the course of growing the success

30:47

of your career you've made have gone to Plan

30:49

B?

30:50

Or was it like me where

30:52

there was no there was no other

30:54

option?

30:56

Yeah, I mean once I started cooking, I never

30:58

had a Plan B. The only time I think I really

31:00

going to start thinking about it was I was like a stay

31:02

at home dad during COVID for a year and a half

31:04

because all the restaurants, you know, were closed, and

31:06

I was trying to open Rosemary and so it

31:08

was all the stuff. And I remember, like, you know, I

31:10

was running a lot and I was just like running through

31:12

the woods one day and I was like, well, what if just like restaurants

31:16

never come back. I think, what am I

31:18

gonna do. My buddy had just got

31:20

on as like an FBI

31:22

special agent, and I was like, how

31:24

much work would I have to do to

31:27

convince these guys that I could be a part

31:29

of the FBI. I was like, no one would suspect

31:31

me at least, so maybe I could talk to a mid that you know

31:33

what I mean, Like, like you know what I mean? I

31:36

was like, I think the best thing I get going for me is that,

31:38

you know what I mean? I'm covered in tattoos, I look like an asshole,

31:40

don't look like a cop. But like you know, I think

31:42

I'd have to do a lot of work to get there. But that was kind

31:44

of the plan. Base.

31:45

When it's time to tackle some game day deals, then go

31:47

with a grocery who's been part of Chicago since eighteen

31:50

ninety nine, Jewelasco, the official grocery

31:52

store of the Chicago bears here with Joe

31:54

Flamm, the unbelievable

31:56

chef at multiple restaurants

31:58

in his career. But right now, rose Mary, do we call

32:00

it boulevard? Do we call it by the initial?

32:02

Well, if we call it, we call it boulevard, it's the

32:04

initial. Is what we call it? Bull? All right?

32:05

We called boulevard.

32:06

We got to hear about your experience on Top Chef

32:09

and what that did for you and

32:11

your publicity as a

32:13

top chef in this in this world?

32:16

What's it like?

32:16

What's it really like? What are you at liberty to

32:19

say what it's really like? And how

32:21

did you capture that? In Top Chef

32:23

fifteen in Colorado.

32:24

Yeah, so you know,

32:26

Top Chef is a wild one. It's I

32:29

got on the show because they came

32:31

to cast in Chicago. I didn't know they were

32:33

casting in Chicago. I didn't go to the casting I didn't

32:35

try out, and they they called. I was working

32:37

for Tony mount Tojana at the time, so they called

32:39

Tony. They knew him from other stuff, and

32:41

they said, hey, you got a chef in

32:44

Chicago. We're trying to cast season fifteen,

32:46

the Top Chef. We met a bunch of people. We didn't like

32:48

anybody. Do you know anybody we should meet? And

32:50

he goes, yeah, I got this guy working for me. He

32:53

goes, he got to you gotta meet. So

32:55

I get a call a couple of minutes later from Tony and

32:58

he's, you know, hey, Chef. He's like, hey,

33:00

the Top Chef producers are in town. They want to meet

33:02

you. And I'm like, for what,

33:05

and he's like he's like listen,

33:08

you know. He's like take a meeting.

33:10

And I was like, all right, fine, Tom and Tony,

33:13

yeah, yeah.

33:14

This is you know, Tony's the OG, you

33:16

know what I mean, founder of s Piaga, So you know what I mean.

33:18

It's like, he's my mentor, he's one of my best

33:20

friends. So Tony says, take a meeting. I take a meeting.

33:23

So I'm like, all right, cool, send them over, like

33:25

coming over. I talked to these people for you know, forty

33:27

minutes, and this lady's like and I'm like, they

33:30

don't want me on the show, Like they don't like

33:32

I'm like, I'm not interested. I'm like a regular just

33:34

southside you know, Chicago

33:37

ass person, like you know what I mean. I'm like every

33:39

other dude I grew up with, like,

33:41

And I was like, they're not going to be interested in this.

33:44

So I talked to him for forty minutes and this lady's

33:46

like, you gotta do it. He's like it's a long road,

33:48

but you got to do it. And I was like, all right, I'll try.

33:51

And so I was like, I'm not going to make it on the show. So

33:53

we go down this path. We go down this path. We do all

33:55

these things. You know, you have to do interviews

33:57

and you send them menus and videos and all

33:59

this. It takes months. I got to do a PSYCHICXAAL

34:02

exam, I do a physical exam,

34:05

all these things. So finally it's

34:07

like April nineteenth,

34:10

I get a call. They're like, hey, this is Stop

34:12

Chef. You're on season fifteen. You

34:14

need to be in Colorado. May

34:17

fifth you yet two and a half weeks

34:19

to prepare. You can't tell anyone

34:21

where you're going, so I have to come

34:23

up with a cover story. So I come up with the cover story

34:25

that I'm going to work at Tony's other restaurant in Florida

34:28

for two months because they need help down there. So

34:30

I told like him, I tell my wife,

34:32

I told my parents, but I can't tell my

34:35

crew. I can't tell you know what, I mean, my

34:37

friends. I you know, my brother was in high school

34:39

at the time, so I was like, I didn't tell him. I didn't tell

34:41

any of my siblings. I was just like, yeah, I'm going to work at this restaurant

34:43

down in Florida. Whatever. And then when you get

34:45

there day one, they throw in a hotel

34:47

room. They lock in there and they

34:50

come on the first night and

34:52

then they go through all your stuff and they take

34:54

all your stuff. So they take your phone,

34:56

your keys, your wallet, everything, and you don't

34:58

get any of that back till you're I'm filming two

35:00

months later.

35:01

Wait what why

35:03

So they don't.

35:04

Because they don't want because you aren't

35:07

allowed to have any access to recipes. So

35:10

whatever, you know, you know, you can't like google

35:12

a recipe real quick and be like, how do I make this cake

35:14

or whatever, So you have, you know, no internet

35:17

access. They don't want you to have contact

35:19

with the outside world because you have to sign a million dollar

35:21

NDA before you go to They don't

35:23

want you to be able to like text and be like, oh I lost. They

35:25

don't want you taking pictures of what's going on while

35:28

you're there. You basically how it

35:30

works is then every like three to five days,

35:32

you'd get a phone call and it'd be ten minutes

35:35

on camera, on speakerphone,

35:37

on a producer's phone, and you

35:39

can't say.

35:39

Anything, Wow, this is

35:41

stunning, Tom.

35:43

Did you have any idea this was the case? No,

35:46

this is fascinating to keep going.

35:47

Yes, you know, you'd get a phone

35:49

call every once in a while, but they wanted you just dialed

35:52

into the pressure. It was like there was no TV,

35:54

there was no books, there was no magazines nothing.

35:56

All you did was you film

35:59

and cook, do interviews, and so you

36:01

went every day for two months and if you went out

36:03

the first day, you were there for two months.

36:06

If you went to the final like I did,

36:08

you're there for two months. So no matter what

36:11

you signed a two month commit and your whole

36:13

life outside of that just went on pause.

36:16

So you just disappear for

36:18

two months, even if

36:20

you lost. Even if you

36:22

lost. So then they send you like a hotel

36:24

like way out in the burbs, away from where we're

36:26

filming. And then you got a bunch of chefs because

36:28

I got kicked off for a minute, right, So I got kicked

36:31

off for a minute, So I get sent to the other hotel.

36:33

And so now you got ten chefs

36:35

in a hotel who can't

36:38

work, have no phones,

36:40

nothing whatever. We just have

36:43

They're giving us cash every day. We

36:45

have nothing to do alimited todd So

36:47

it's just like it's like spring break, Like

36:50

it's just like complete insanity,

36:52

you know what I mean. Camp.

36:55

It's like you like walk in and you're just

36:57

like I walked in the first day and I walk up

36:59

and there's a somebody had taken a window off

37:02

of the like one of the rooms

37:05

so that you could walk into the room from the

37:07

pool area, so that you didn't have to walk around

37:09

to the door. So they just pop the window off

37:11

of the off of the wall so that we

37:14

could walk through there. And just you

37:16

know what I mean, they were making drinks in there, and you go back

37:18

outside and everybody's partying, and it was just like

37:20

it was an absolute just insanity.

37:24

So that's like where everybody else was. So then it was like

37:26

I finally made it back on the show, and

37:29

it was just it was insane, you know what I mean. It was like you

37:31

woke up every day, you had no time, You had no idea what

37:33

time you're gonna wake up, You had no idea what you were

37:35

doing. So it's just like you woke up every day to

37:37

cameras or it's just like somebody would knock

37:39

at the door and you'd open the door and there'd be four cameras there, and

37:41

you all right, I guess we're rolling.

37:42

It's hard knocks, right, it's hard knock.

37:45

And you get in the car and we'd be like where are we going today,

37:48

and they're like, can't tell you.

37:51

So you never knew what was going on, and you just

37:53

you know, I mean, it was like literal you know, we

37:56

used to call it emotional terrorism, like it was

37:58

just you know, like any time

38:00

something happened, you just became so suspicious

38:02

because you're like you'd like wake up and like something we'd

38:04

be moved in the kitchen. You'd be like,

38:06

oh no, something weird's gonna happen, Like

38:09

they're gonna make us cooking here, or you know what I mean,

38:11

like something. You know, it's like if something was off,

38:14

you're like, oh no, this is like part

38:16

of something, you know what I mean. Everything was part of something.

38:18

It was all like a setup the some

38:20

crazy challenge. So it was just like it

38:23

was nuts, you know. And so you go, you do this thing

38:25

two months, right, I go, I win. I'm

38:28

like yes, But then it's like you get back

38:31

and nobody knows you want nobody even

38:33

knows you were there, and you know,

38:35

it was kind of funny because it's like in real

38:38

life. I won Top Chef on

38:40

a Tuesday night at midnight

38:42

on top of the mountain and the aspen,

38:45

and then they took me off of there. They brought

38:47

me to interview and then they take you back

38:50

to the hotel and that's it, you know

38:52

what I mean. And it's like you can't go party with anyone,

38:54

you can't go out. You're still under lock and key. I still don't

38:56

have a phone, you know what I mean. I called my wife at two

38:58

am on a Tuesday to tell her I want one, and

39:02

then I get back and it's like, oh,

39:04

you know, you can't tell anybody because you're under

39:06

all these NDAs from the time

39:09

I got back, like end

39:12

of June in twenty seventeen,

39:14

and the finale aired March eighth

39:16

of twenty eighteen.

39:18

After it was all said and done, are

39:20

you glad you made the decision to

39:22

go or if you knew all

39:24

that stuff going in, what made

39:27

it harder for you to commit to it?

39:29

I think it was one of those things where it's like you're almost better

39:32

not knowing. I think it would have been harder because they kind

39:34

of lie to you, you know what I mean. They're like, oh, yeah, you're going

39:36

to make a phone call, You're gonna do some emails. Yeah,

39:38

I don't worry about it, Like we gotcha, you

39:40

know, Like, and then you get there,

39:42

they're like, yeah, you're not making a phone call for five days.

39:45

You're like, can somebody like text my wife

39:47

and tell her I'm alive. It's like I

39:49

got on a plane two days ago. Oh

39:51

my god, Like you know what I mean. So it

39:54

was kind of good not knowing all of it. And I

39:57

mean for me, it's like you know, I was so happy I

39:59

did it, obviously one so that's you know, like

40:01

one of the people was on the show

40:03

with me. It's like somebody asked me to go you happy you did

40:05

it, like you won. Of course he's happy you did

40:07

it, you know what I mean. But

40:10

even if I didn't, I would have been happy I did it. It was

40:12

such a unique experience. You know. We got to

40:14

travel some really cool places, I made some amazing

40:17

friends, and I mean, it's just, you know, it's

40:19

one of those things, it's like it's beyond

40:21

my wildest dreams.

40:23

So every year of my bare career, I would

40:25

go to training camp at University wisconsint

40:27

Platteville, which kind of in the middle of

40:29

nowhere. We didn't have cell phones

40:32

at that time. He didn't have a lot of time to communicate

40:35

the sense of accomplishment I had. When

40:37

I was driving home after

40:40

Plattville was over and I

40:42

retained my position, I stayed

40:44

healthy. I knew that I was driving

40:47

back to my house in

40:49

a starter's role. It

40:51

was such a sense of relief that it kind of

40:54

overtook you at times. It

40:56

had to be similar to that in

40:59

kind of the same sense, because you're isolated,

41:01

you're not talking to anybody, and then

41:03

a sense of accomplishment that you feel when it's

41:05

all said and done, it's going to do incredible

41:08

things for your career, just like

41:11

it did for my career.

41:12

Yeah, so, I mean it was I remember, like,

41:15

so the finale finishes right, and it

41:17

was like we were literally

41:19

on top of a mountain, so they had to get me to the bottom

41:22

and they were going to stop running the gondola sing. So

41:25

it's like if you if you watch the finale, you

41:27

like see that laugh acondo me like toasting champagne

41:29

and literally I am in that room for about

41:32

four more seconds and then

41:34

they run me into a gondola and the

41:36

gondola at Aspen is about

41:38

a half hour gondola rived down

41:41

right, So it's just me and

41:43

this woman Maria, who's my handler. Two

41:46

of us are now sitting in a gondola in the

41:48

pitch dark. Don't run a mountain.

41:50

This is just nuts. This is nice

41:52

and so and I'm like, I just on top chef

41:54

and I'm just like sitting there and I'm like I'm like

41:57

sitting there like this, and she just looks

41:59

at me. She's like, like, uh, do you

42:01

want to like yell or something. I'm

42:03

like, yeah, she like opens

42:05

all the windows on the gundoline and I'm like, you

42:07

know, like screaming and like so it was like

42:10

crazy. And then it was like, you know, like you said

42:12

time, like coming home, it's like, you know, I'm

42:14

sitting on the plane like like just like

42:16

blinking, like did this happen? Like

42:19

is this real? You know what I mean? Like it's just

42:21

like and now I'm just like and it's like I get on

42:23

the plane, I go back, and then it's like, you know, it's

42:25

whatever. It's Sunday. So I get home and then it's like

42:27

I go to work on Tuesday.

42:28

And I got to act like nothing ever

42:30

has just gone.

42:31

I was just gone for me. I don't worry about it.

42:33

You know. It was just it was such

42:36

an insane ride. And

42:39

then you know, when the season started air, it just blew

42:41

up and it was so fodded just you know, yeah,

42:44

Chicago's so cool. It's such a Homer city,

42:46

right, we go so hard, we go so

42:48

hard, and I just love it. And it just

42:51

you felt that, you know what I mean, so

42:53

much when I was on the show, just like everybody,

42:55

you know what I mean like the city was pulling for me. It was

42:57

so cool, and it was you know, I

43:01

think I told Jeff this story once, but I had, you know,

43:03

like a like, you know, my Friday Night

43:05

Lights moment. I was like, you know, we're down to the bottom

43:07

three. And I was like, I had a Whole Foods and I was walking out

43:10

of the Whole Foods and I was like paying and this

43:12

guy you know, and I was like I just just got

43:14

finished paying. This guy's like he's like, great,

43:16

Joe, We're all rooting for you. And I was

43:18

like, oh, thanks. Every start

43:20

going outs and it was like so cool. I

43:23

was like, this is just bonkers, man,

43:25

this is just so wild. There's so

43:27

fun.

43:28

Busy Heart Seltzer the official Heart Seltzer

43:30

or the Chicago Bears here on the Bears et cetera podcast.

43:33

So you made a fish dish in your first

43:35

quick fire on the show. Would

43:38

you have made that again?

43:39

Yeah? I think so that one worked out really well,

43:41

so I would. I would run that one back. It

43:43

was a rent snapper I

43:46

cooked in the wood fired oven with fennel.

43:48

I think car car orange segments and maybe

43:50

olives. I can't remember if I did that too. Maybe a little

43:52

bit of Fenel.

43:53

Calling best dish you ever made on Top

43:55

Chef and has it or is it on any

43:57

of your menus at your restaurants?

43:59

The best dish I ever made on Top Chef

44:02

was probably I did this pasta

44:05

in the finale that was like it

44:08

was a grano arso flower, so a burnt

44:10

wheat flower, and I

44:12

made this farce for it that

44:15

was like a truffle pighead barse,

44:18

and then made a broto for it, so it was like a Tortelinian

44:20

broto. But they came out like just stunny,

44:23

like they were just like they had this

44:25

like like like river rock

44:27

looking like quality to it, and they

44:29

were unbelievable. And that's probably you know what won

44:31

made the finale, but it's not at a menu.

44:34

It took two days to make twelve of them,

44:36

really, you know, so it was like, you

44:38

know, it doesn't really work as

44:41

like a practical dish. It was like, okay,

44:43

this is you know what I mean, one of those things where

44:45

it's like this can't be a real play in the playbook,

44:47

but like you know what I mean, like if we're

44:50

down six and two seconds to go, we

44:52

could we can we can huk this.

44:53

One tell us about the bear Den.

44:56

That was funny. So, you know, me, Tyler and Bruce, they just

44:58

started calling us the bear Den because I think we're you

45:00

know, they put you in these rooms, they don't tell you you're sharing

45:02

rooms. And then all of a sudden, it's like I got three

45:05

roommates and we're sleeping on a Kia bunk beds

45:07

that were made for someone much not of

45:09

my stature. And

45:11

so that was, you know, just kind of a fun you

45:14

know, we were all grouped up together and we just had a lot

45:16

of fun with that.

45:17

Do you like the national attention?

45:19

Yeah, I think it's fun, you know what I mean. It's

45:21

like and I think it's also you know, I was telling

45:23

somebody those like, oh it's weird, you know, I like people

45:26

know you and it's like, well, I mean I grew up on the South

45:28

Side, like everybody knows everybody, you

45:30

know what I mean. It's just kind of the way

45:32

it is, so it doesn't feel weird. It's

45:34

just like, oh, okay, I just meet more people, you know

45:36

what I mean. It never feels to me like, oh, like, oh, you're

45:39

like famous. It's like I don't think so I think a few

45:41

more people know who I am, and like, you know, those

45:43

shows are fun, but it's like for me, it's like the

45:46

love is restaurants. That's

45:49

my thing over everything. So to be able to use

45:51

those to put our restaurants

45:53

out there and meet people on network, like

45:55

that's a blast. Like it's cool, you know what I mean.

45:57

I've had people in the restaurant because of

45:59

that, or you know, been able to do things that

46:02

I just, you know, never even dreamed of.

46:03

Who's your Super Bowl pick at this time?

46:06

I think the Ravens look really scary. I

46:08

think they look really really good, and

46:11

I think it's I feel

46:14

like it's going to be Ravens Niners, And

46:16

I think the Ravens are just going to be too much. They

46:19

just look really complete this year. And I

46:21

love Rokwan, you know what I mean. He used to come into the restaurant

46:23

all the time, so I'd love to see it for him. He's a

46:25

great guy. I don't know, I feel like they're gonna

46:27

be hard to.

46:27

Be like top Shelf, is there

46:29

a home field advantage? Do you become so familiar

46:32

with the kitchen and the pantry and everything

46:35

that you can do everything

46:37

as opposed to a neutral site

46:39

that a Super Bowl will have.

46:41

Well, it's it's like always cooking

46:44

in a neutral site, right, but nobody

46:46

has the home field advantage because it's like in the kitchen

46:48

changes so much and so and it's like

46:50

when we're in Colorado, so we're dealing with

46:53

you know, elements like we're cooking that you

46:55

know, altitude. We're flat laders over

46:57

here, right, that's not what we do, and so

47:00

it's completely different

47:02

ballgame doing that. You know, we cooked at one restaurant

47:04

that was fourteen thousand feet. When you're at

47:06

fourteen thousand feet, you know what I mean, Like

47:08

you know, the difference of playing in Chicago versus

47:10

playing in Denver. Right, So it's like that feeling

47:12

of it. So and it's like multiply that

47:14

by three and then

47:16

cook and so you

47:19

know, when you get to those altitudes, like you

47:21

know, they talked about like water boils at

47:23

a lower temperature, right, so you

47:26

could you know, and before I was

47:28

on the show, I didn't really get how that affected

47:31

things. But realizing that like, yeah, water's

47:33

going to boil at one to eighty seven at fourteen thousand

47:35

feet or whatever, it is, the problem is it's

47:37

like that water's not hot, you

47:39

could sit in it. So it's

47:41

like when you're cooking pasta, it's like this water isn't

47:43

really boiling, it's just evaporating. So

47:46

it's like to try to get water hot enough

47:48

before it operated to like properly

47:51

cook pasta or blanch vegetables

47:53

or do anything was like a total nightmare.

47:55

And it's like, there's no way to prepare for that unless

47:57

you've ever cooked at altitude those like there

47:59

was one chef there who she was from Colorado.

48:02

You know, she had worked at some higher elevation places,

48:05

so she had a little bit home field on that, but

48:07

still it was like, you know, the place

48:09

we were cooking that was such high elevation, like nobody,

48:12

nobody had ever done it.

48:13

Have you ever done any private cooking

48:15

for celebrities or politicians,

48:19

whatever the case may be.

48:21

I've cooked. I've actually I've cooked for

48:24

four presidents, which is pretty crazy.

48:26

Wow.

48:26

So I've cooked for HW

48:29

Bush, I've cooked for w I've

48:31

cooked for Obama, and I've cooked for

48:33

Biden, No kidding, Biden

48:35

Biden before he was president. He was I did

48:37

the last one of the coolest ones we did was

48:40

a luncheon at the State Department, and

48:43

it was the last State Department luncheon

48:45

for the Obama Biden administration for

48:49

Renzi, who was the Prime Minister of Italy at the time.

48:51

So they brought Tony Mountjano in because

48:55

Biagio was Renzi's favorite Italian restaurant

48:57

in Chicago was Brock's favorite Italian restaurant

49:00

Chicago, so they brought us in to do the luncheon.

49:02

You know, I mean, like plating your food on official State

49:05

department in China is a pretty wild feeling.

49:07

Wow.

49:08

Like one of my favorite pictures ever is there's a

49:10

picture of me and I'm standing in the hallway at the State

49:12

Department. I'm plating like one hundred and fifty plates

49:14

for lunch, and it's like me and

49:17

then there is like probably

49:19

ten people behind me, and it's like this

49:21

police that police secret service,

49:24

like FBI, like you know what I mean, just

49:26

like there's nothing but like eleven people behind

49:28

me with different badges and guns like watching

49:30

me plate like this really delicate little

49:33

you know, like roasted squash dish that I made,

49:35

and it was just like it's hysterical.

49:37

Eh, you probably could have talked shop your mom if

49:39

I'm not mistaken. Is

49:42

she still a lieutenant in the Chicago Police

49:44

Department.

49:44

No, my mom has been retired a few years now.

49:46

But yeah, she was thirty years on the job. She

49:49

was a lieutenant on the South Side.

49:50

Sounds like she would have been pretty tough, pretty tough.

49:53

Yeah, yeah, yeah, she still got it.

49:55

Well, Joe, we could continue talking

49:57

forever, but I just want to thank you for all your

50:00

time.

50:00

I know your time is valuable. We love

50:02

that you're a Bears fan.

50:03

You love the fact that it's ingrained

50:05

in your blood, and we love what you prepare at

50:07

Rosemary.

50:09

I'm a big fan of the Nyolchi Tommy with the

50:11

beef cheek.

50:12

Love, love the risotto, different

50:15

kinds of risotto, and the

50:17

croatia.

50:18

Is it la pingja bread?

50:19

Yeah?

50:20

That bread is insane.

50:22

I don't know how that happens, but that's

50:24

fantastic.

50:24

It's insane. You can't get enough of it, that's

50:27

for sure.

50:27

Well. I've always been, you know, really big

50:29

fans of you guys, and you know, like I've been listens

50:32

to Bears games on the radio since I remember can

50:34

remember, and you know from when the radio

50:36

the TV used to time up a little bit better, and we'd

50:38

have it going on the radio to the TV, or

50:40

if my dad would get so mad at the Bears at halftime,

50:43

he'd just, you know, like all right, we're going off to the garage.

50:45

We put the game on the radio because for

50:47

some reason, it's less frustrating but more frustrating

50:49

listening to the game of the radio. And

50:52

you know the amount of times where it's like working Sundays

50:54

coming through where it's like we'd have the Bears game going

50:57

on some prep kitchen basement, you know, I mean,

50:59

I Randolph for the Gold Coast. Uh,

51:01

you know, just screaming you know

51:03

what I mean at the radio with you guys. So it's

51:05

really cool to be on this

51:07

and uh, you know the first time you came in, Jeff

51:09

By, my old chef de cuisine, He's like, do you think

51:12

we could just get him to say, you know, Devin

51:14

Hester, he's unbelievable.

51:17

No, no, it's Devin Hester. You

51:19

are ridiculous.

51:21

That's what you gotta do us.

51:22

Yeah, yeah, that's what that was the callie want.

51:24

He said, you think you just stand on the counter and yell at

51:26

once for us? And I was like, maybe wait till the second time

51:28

he comes in, we can get him to.

51:29

Do it right.

51:30

Hey, I'll do it. You get you get a couple of drinks

51:32

in me, I'll do it for sure.

51:34

Yeah, yeah, there we go.

51:35

We gotta get Tommy out there as well.

51:37

H Again, we're brought to you by Middle of Light, the

51:40

official beer of the Chicago Bears. Taste like

51:42

Mill Time Chicago Joe continued

51:44

success. Best to you and your family and have

51:46

a great year, buddy.

51:48

Guys, absolute blessed. Thanks for having me on.

51:50

Awesome thrill So thank you

51:52

so much for your time.

51:54

Oh no, this was this was really cool.

51:56

Guys, Tommy, how much fun was that?

51:58

I mean, you know, we can talk to that

52:00

guy about all things. He

52:02

knows his sports, but there's

52:04

not enough time to talk about a career like that. He

52:07

is literally a top chef, and

52:10

not just because of the show.

52:11

You think of the highest accomplished athlete

52:13

that we've ever been able to talk to throughout our

52:15

career.

52:16

He is that in the food field. And

52:19

it's amazing.

52:20

Because I think we've only scratched the

52:22

surface of what we could. How we could keep

52:24

going talking about the Bears, talking about

52:27

the draft, talking about other football

52:29

teams, but there's a thousand questions

52:31

in cooking that I would love to be able.

52:33

To sit here and ask him.

52:34

The versatility of his ability

52:37

is which impressed me most

52:39

because we asked him a football question and

52:42

he went for ten minutes and

52:44

every single thing he said about

52:47

his football knowledge was

52:49

right on. And so that's the

52:51

first thing. Oh my god, that's impressive.

52:55

Game day snacking calls for good foods. Chunky

52:57

guacamodi made with has avocados, tomatoes

52:59

on silatro on a squeeze of lime juice.

53:01

It's the perfect snack to watch while the Bears

53:04

win. Score something today at your local grocery

53:06

store. Game day is guac day. All

53:08

right, Let's wrap things up as we look at the

53:10

Bears are are looking at some coordinators.

53:12

Obviously they need to find one,

53:15

and reportedly the interviews

53:17

include San Francisco passing game

53:19

coordinator Clint Kubiak, the son of Gary

53:21

Kubiak. He was an offensive coordinator

53:24

in Minnesota, Denver's quarterback coach

53:26

at Russell Wilson, Greg Roman,

53:28

the former Baltimore offensive coordinator

53:30

developing Lamar Jackson who won an MVP

53:33

with Roman. Kentucky offensive

53:35

coordinator Liam Cohen, who has ties to the

53:37

Rams where he was with that

53:40

football team over there on that coach, and Shane Waldron,

53:42

the Seattle offensive coordinator, Greg Olsen,

53:44

our old pal, the former Bears quarterback

53:47

coach at three who's had several stops

53:49

Detroit, the Rams, Tampa, Oakland,

53:51

Jacksonville, Vegas. So a lot of experience,

53:54

some young is a nice blend of options

53:56

here. I'm not aware of any others

53:58

that they have talked to or win. I don't know what

54:00

the timeline is, but again these are all reportedly.

54:03

It's a lot from that Shanahan

54:05

Tree.

54:06

Tom. That Shanahan Tree is

54:09

very much a part of this.

54:11

You know, Jeff, we could talk to about

54:13

one hundred different names and consideration

54:15

for the offensive coordinator position. But

54:18

to me, the decision on quarterback

54:21

is equally as important is the quarter

54:23

as the offensive coordinator, because

54:26

you have to get the evaluation

54:28

of the new offensive coordinator as

54:30

he looks at and studies what the Bears

54:32

have done in the past, how his philosophical

54:35

thinking of quarterback offense development

54:38

fits into how the quarterback position

54:40

is developing. So this is not just

54:43

a one and done decision.

54:46

This is a big impact decision.

54:49

How it affects the offensive

54:51

line, it affects the offense, it affects

54:53

the receiver position, and it affects

54:55

the quarterback position the most. So

54:58

I think there's a lot of thinking that goes

55:01

into every one of these candidates.

55:03

Do you feel a sense of optimism

55:06

versus a sense of dread, like,

55:08

oh god, we got a big hill decline?

55:10

I feel more optimism after watching

55:12

the first round of the playoffs than I did

55:15

before the playoff game started, because

55:17

when I look at what Green Bay went into

55:19

Dallas and did to them in how

55:23

you know, touch and go it was for

55:25

the last game of the year with the Green Bay Packers

55:28

and the Bears, I think about

55:30

what they did to Detroit at home and how they

55:32

should have beat Detroit on the road.

55:36

I think that the Bears are so close

55:39

to a competitive division opportunity.

55:42

That getting the decisions

55:44

right going forward plays

55:47

in a huge role in the future success

55:49

of the Bears.

55:50

I would do.

55:51

Nothing but talk confident, confidently

55:54

to my team in the process of the

55:56

offseason through OTA's how

55:58

close we are.

56:00

We have to take that next step no matter

56:02

who's here or who isn't here.

56:04

And so I think the message going

56:06

forward isn't you know,

56:09

how are we going to come out of training camp. No,

56:11

it's coming out of training camp with the intentions

56:13

of winning the division. My only message

56:16

from this point going forward is

56:18

about winning the division next year, and

56:21

I think that it can be honestly spoken

56:24

because of what I saw out of the playoff

56:26

games and going forward.

56:27

We're sponsored by Miller Lite, official beer

56:30

of the Chicago Bears. Tastes like Miller

56:32

Time Chicago. Tom There, I'm Jeff

56:34

Jonnieck, Thanks to Joe Flamb. Thanks for listening,

56:36

and please subscribe now to the Chicago Bears official app,

56:38

Apple, Spotify.

56:39

YouTube, or wherever you get your podcast. Bear

56:42

Down, Everybody,