Pursuit of Wellness - Michelin Star Chefs: Why Food Quality Matters w/ Phillip & Margarita

Episode Date: January 20, 2025

Ep. 167: What does it take to turn a single idea into 24 thriving restaurants—and grow into the best version of yourself along the way? On today’s episode of Pursuit of Wellness, we’re exploring the transformative power of passion, discipline, and creativity with two culinary visionaries. They share the lessons they’ve learned building their empire, the role wellness plays in their success, and how they’ve overcome challenges to stay connected to their dreams. Tune in for inspiration, practical tips, and a deeper look at the connection between personal growth and professional achievement. Leave Me a Message - click here! For Mari’s Instagram click here! For Pursuit of Wellness Podcast’s Instagram click here! For Mari’s Newsletter click here! For Margarita’s instagram click here! For Phillip’s Instagram click here! Sponsored By: Jumpstart your health with Lumen, the world’s first handheld metabolic coach. Measure your metabolism through your breath and get personalized guidance to optimize your nutrition, workouts, and more. Visit lumen.me/POW for 20% off your purchase. Upgrade your sleep with Cozy Earth’s bamboo sheet set for unmatched softness and cooling comfort. Visit cozyearth.com/pursuit and use code PURSUIT for 40% off. If you get a post-purchase survey, please say you heard about Cozy Earth from this podcast! This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Start your journey to better mental health and get 10% off your first month at BetterHelp.com/POW. This episode is sponsored by Rocket Money. Cancel your unwanted subscriptions and reach your financial goals faster with Rocket Money. Go to RocketMoney.com/POW today. Show Links: Make your reservation today at Sushi by Scratch Downtown Austin Check out all of the other Sushi by Scratch locations Find all of Margarita & Phillip’s restaurants online at: @sushibyscratchrestaurants @nadcburger @pastabaraustin @pastabarla @wolfandwheatatx Keep an ear out for the Not a Damn Chance podcast - COMING SOON Topics Discussed 00:00 Introduction 01:41 Pandemic challenges in California 03:04 Five-week pop-up in Austin 04:51 Joe Rogan’s role in their success 11:50 Deciding to put down roots in Austin 17:35 How their passion for food began 29:00 Balancing creativity w/ demands of running multiple restaurants 36:35 How they became 100% owners 44:58 Why chefs have a reputation for drinking 01:03:43 Restaurant recommendations & favorite experiences

Anyone who has success is no different than anyone who doesn't have success in their actual abilities as a human to function on earth. The only major difference is that when faced with a cliff jump, some people don't jump. This is the Pursuit of Wellness podcast and I'm your host, Mari Llewellyn. What is up guys? Welcome back to the Pursuit of Wellness podcast. Today we have a very exciting episode. We're talking to two chefs. They're actually married.

They are business partners and professional chefs. Philip Franklin Lee and Marguerita Callis Lee started Scratch restaurants to bring an immersive and entertaining tasting counter approach to the hospitality industry. They are a husband and wife duo both in their 30s. They own Sushi by Scratch restaurants, Pasta Bar, Austin and LA, Wolf and Wheat and not a damn chance burger. They are super prevalent here in Austin. I have been to the Sushi by Scratch restaurants twice now and have had such an amazing experience. It is unlike anything I've ever seen before. And today we're going to hear from both of them of

how they got into cooking, what they think about with their ingredients, how they approach cooking in general. We're also going to hear about how their restaurants really took off when Joe Rogan became a huge fan of them here in Austin. Get ready for us to just fully launch into the conversation. They are such a unique, interesting duo, and I learned so much from them. So without further ado, let's hop in and talk about food. You went on Joe Rogan and he's a fan of your restaurant. So give me the full rundown.

I went on his podcast like maybe a year and a half into knowing him. Pandemic happens, we have five restaurants in California. Pre-pandemic, we're killing it, it's going great. Pandemic happens, shut everything down, lay everybody off. Reopen in, I think it was May, back indoors. Then they shut down indoors, you move outdoors, and then you can go back, we're in California.

So then you can go back indoors, then you had to go back outdoors. Then come December, they made it illegal in the state of California to serve indoors or outdoors. I feel like I remember that. So you guys are probably like, what the fuck? Also, like we didn't want to let everyone, it was in December, right before Christmas.

It's like, how are we gonna fire anyone? Like we don't want to. People need money. Yeah. And so we basically said, we're not, how are we gonna fire anyone? Like we don't want to. People need money. Yeah. So. And so we basically said, we went around the room and we said, who is willing to relocate? Now some people were like, I wanna go home.

I, you know, pandemic, I'm afraid. There's nothing wrong with that. I felt and Margarita felt like we had an obligation to our family. Her dad works for the company. My sister works for the company. My brother works for the company. My other dad works for the company. My sister works for the company. My brother works for the company. My other brother works for the company.

My other sister works for the company. So it truly is a mom and pop shop. But so we get to the, you know, and we go look, who, you don't have to work, it's okay, but who's willing to work? We will find a state that's willing to have us. Enough hands go up. And we all got on a plane and we all came to Austin.

And it was very difficult to get the word out because all the local media was not willing to promote any restaurants. They just, they didn't, the media didn't think restaurants should be allowed to be open, even though Texas said you could. And they especially, like I got emails back like, we're not talking about restaurants,

and you're not from here. So we're definitely not talking about you. Oh, yeah. But on the other hand, honestly, the first couple weeks that we were here, I mean, all the all the chefs, every everybody just welcomed us in such a beautiful way. I've never experienced that. That's what it was like. I moved here six months ago, I've never felt more welcome somewhere, honestly. So that's the thing, the media didn't wanna tell anyone

that we were here, but everyone who was here was so incredibly welcoming. So what we ended up doing is, we have, in California, in LA, we've been around since 2013, it was when we opened our first restaurant, and we've been a cult classic. Never been on the, I mean, since Jonathan Gold passed, rest in peace, we've never been back on like

the 100 best restaurants in LA. Michelin stars, sold out every night. We're nowhere near the top 100 for some reason. We've never been media darlings, so to speak. But we have a strong following. So we reached out to our mailing list. That time was like 100,000 people in LA. And we said, hey everyone, as you know, we can't work.

We're gonna go to Austin. If you have any friends, please tell them to come check us out, support us. And Joe's wife got that email forwarded to her from one of her friends in LA who was one of our regulars. And so it does turn out that the very first reservation ever made for the Sushi Bar ATX pop-up was made by his wife.

And so it's for like the third week we're open. We're only supposed to be here for five weeks. The first couple of days we had like no one show up. We did like three people, zero people, five people. Place only sat six people and we were only doing I think two, maybe three seatings a night. So 18 people a day was max. By the end of the, by the beginning of the second week, no, no, by the beginning of the third week, we had sold out the rest of the, our tenure, just word of mouth.

Was it okay. So I was listening to him and it wasn't your episode and this was years ago But he brought up the name of the restaurant. Yeah, and I was like, oh, okay We're moving to Austin like I'm gonna go there is do you think that like played a role in it? Like him just saying the name of it on the show. Yes anytime Joe plugs you on the podcast is pretty big You're sold out To sorry night. I want to say it was like January 13th or 14th I'm whatever the first second Saturday in January was It's a Saturday night. I want to say it was like January 13th or 14th. Whatever the first, second Saturday in January was, 2021.

Comes in, I know him from fear factor. I had never watched podcasts. I did not know he was the biggest person in the world. I had no idea what a podcast was because we've been working nonstop for like 15 years. I've been head down for 20 years. 20 years, head down, didn't care about anything else. He comes in with his wife,

his wife had made the reservations. He's not looking to be seen. He's not that kind of public person. He wants to go have a good time, be on a date with his wife, he wants to go home. So he's come, sits down. The way it is at the restaurant, as you know, is you're sitting arm's length from me, right?

And so, and this is, I'm wearing a mask back then, I've got gloves on, this is mid-pandemic. That was, yeah. Let's think of it for sure. I can't, yeah. He's there, hat down low, you know, just really there on a date with his wife, but as he starts eating, and I can see his expressions,

at which he has some pretty good expressions, and he's drinking some sake, and he starts to engage in conversation with me, you know, who's the chef here? I am, where's the Japanese dude? I'm not Japanese. How did you get into sushi? So we start, you know, a conversation,

and towards the end of it, he said, this really is the best sushi I've ever had in my life. How do I eat this again? And I said, well, we're here for two more weeks. I'd already told him the whole story, why we're here, everything. We're here for two more weeks. Unfortunately, we're sold out.

But if you want, I can put you on the wait list and I'll make sure you get in if anyone cancels. But otherwise, like you've lived in LA for 20 years, next time you come back, we've got restaurants there. He's like, you shouldn't do that, you should close those restaurants and move here. And I'm like, yeah, sure, but I can't do that. I have responsibilities, I have five restaurants,

I can't do that. And he goes, well, if you won't move here, you should at least extend another month. Come on, Philip, you know, there's no way, California says three weeks, you know it's gonna be three months minimum. And I'm like, yeah, you're probably not wrong. And he's like, I'll, you know, there's no way, California says three weeks, you know it's gonna be three months minimum. And I'm like, yeah, you're probably not wrong. And he's like, I'll tell you what,

if you just agree to this right now, right now, he said, agree to stay another month, don't think about it, just agree. And if you agree, I'll guarantee you're sold out. Oh, because he knew what he was gonna do. And I said, well, what do you mean? He goes, look, I'll post about it. And any seats that don't sell, I'll pay for.

You're like, I don't even know who you are. I mean, I know the name, I know who he is. I mean, but I didn't know about the podcast and that's, you know, I knew about UFC. I'm not a huge UFC fan, but I've seen it. I know Joe Rogan from UFC. I know him from Fear Factor, but I didn't know the podcast and that's the biggest platform, right?

So he- It's the biggest podcast in the world. Yeah. Yep. I might've been a little more nervous had I known. You're like, go back to LA. Like, hey, I'll give you a call if there's an opening. You're on the wait list. And so he takes a picture of me.

He says, he said, pull out your phone, open it up, the reservation's now. I go, I can't, I still got three more courses. So I go, look, at midnight tonight, I'll open up for the month of February. How about that? Here's the website, here's the thing, here's the Instagram handles. So at midnight, I open up a website on a random Saturday night. There's no traffic to the website because the website didn't exist. He goes on and makes himself four reservations for the month of February and then he posts

about it. Of course, he makes himself reservations first. Then he posts about it and within four minutes, February is sold out. This is a random, this is at 12.30 in the morning on a Saturday night. February sold out, and when we wake up in the morning, there's 25,000 people on the wait list. Oh my God.

And that's definitely when our lives changed completely. Wow. Marguerite likes to remind me that we are, that's when we became overnight successes at year 11. Yeah. I mean, I'm sure people do assume that because now when you go to your restaurant, I mean, I was there recently for the grand opening

of the downtown location. Some of the people you had there were, I mean, do you know Joshua Weissman? Yeah, of course. Obsessed with him. I saw some amazing people there. Everyone knows of you guys now. It's like, I mean, it's an amazing culinary experience.

I think I said to you when I was there, I've never experienced anything like this. It's so, it's like kind of educational. Like I'm watching you make the rice, I'm watching you make the dessert, I'm hearing about the fish and where it came from. So it really is fantastic. And I'm not surprised that he's such a big fan

because it truly is amazing. Thank you. I thought he was just like shouting it out because he loved it. Well then he continued to. We were so incredibly moved. We've had other celebrities post about us before. And never have we had that type of turnout.

We'll get someone with 40 million followers, they'll post about it. We'll get eight new reservations, right? We'll get someone with 90 million followers will post. We'll get a hundred new reservations. He posts, we get 25,000 reservations in a matter of minutes. Because he doesn't talk about just anything.

And I feel like, you know? He doesn't put out there what he doesn't really, really believe in. And so, but we were so moved, not just by the fact that Joe did that for us, which I mean, he knew what he was doing and we'll be forever grateful And there's a Christmas present under the tree every year that says Joe on it. He got it two nights ago at the

Have missed a birthday since what we were so moved by is that Austin showed up for us in our darkest hour When California said you're not welcome here in our darkest hour. When California said, you're not welcome here, you're not allowed to work here, Austin said, we wanna come check you guys out. So we made a public statement maybe like a month in that like, thank you guys and we will not, we will now be extending this until every one of you

gets into the restaurant because we're not interested in hitting and running. Even when California says we can reopen We'll go reopen those restaurants we're not shutting this down because we want to we want to we want to provide you with the thing that you now want and So literally we just kept every month. We just announced another month announced another month And I think like what three months later, we just ended up living here. We just moved here. Well, there was literally a day that we're sitting there,

I think we were at dinner and I go, I think we live in Austin. Yeah. Pretty sure we're staying, yeah. I think we live in Austin now, we should probably tell the IRS, you know. Right now, yeah, that's the first thing you gotta do. Register your driver's license,

you gotta do the whole thing. Yeah, I mean, I agree with you guys, I think Austin is full of amazing people. I think people here love food There's some great food here. I have a business in California as well. It's not a great place to run a business I feel like it's a lot more welcoming here. It's a lot easier here So yeah, I'm glad you guys came and now you have how many restaurants in Austin in Austin? Including the bakery, pasta bar? Four NADCs. Yeah.

Two sushis is six. One pasta is seven. Wolf and wheat. Wolf and wheat is eight. Yeah. And not a damn chance is in that list. Yeah, there's four of those. I haven't been there yet.

Isn't that crazy? And I love burgers, so I need to go. You need to go. I'm like dying. I just heard it's Wagyu and beef tallow. Yeah, yeah, so we work with a local ranch that does 100% full-blooded Wagyu. So they're actually, the amount of meat,

beef we're going through now, they're basically harvesting whole animals specifically just for us. And so it's not like we're getting some factory or commodity, it's like we go through like they're harvesting, grinding, sending to us fresh. It's got to be called not a damn chance ranch. Not in my accent, but in your accent. I wish I'm trying to talk them into some sort of vertical integration. Yeah, the beef is

fantastic. And then we do the we do the fries in the tallow from the same beef. And we just do in the same way that like her desserts are like perfectly built and the sushi is like, we spend time like just this amount of the lemon, just this amount of breadcrumbs, just the burgers exact same way. And so Neen Williams, who's our partner in NADC, he and I spent almost two years perfecting this burger.

And it's just, it's a subgenre, it's a specific style of burger. But for the subgenre, actually as Joe says, they don't get better, they get different. At this point, there's not a way to make it better. You can make it different. It's perfection. It's very good.

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Definitely. How did you get into this field? Like, when did you know you wanted to do food? Um, I think I wanted to do food from the moment I was born. I feel like my family, I grew up in Latvia. Um, not everybody knows where that is. It's in the Baltics. It's between Lithuania and Estonia. Yeah, I just like my earliest memories are running around my great grandmother's farm. She had like chickens, cows. She grew sugar snap peas. And literally I was just like hiding in the bushes,

like eating all the peas. And she was like, oh my God, like don't eat all of them. Just like save some for us too. But I feel like that's where it started. That's the reason I think she has the best palette of anyone I've ever met, because she grew up picking berries and eating peas in the woods.

Eating real food. Not at McDonald's. You know, we all grew up with McDonald's, and so our palates are very different than someone whose palette grew up foraging for things in the woods. Totally, you don't have that fake, like, artificial palette, yeah.

Right, yeah. But I feel like, so when I moved to America, that definitely changed quite a bit. Cause some of the food, that was the only food that we could afford like pizza and things like that. And then eventually kind of coming out of that, in middle school was just reading cookbooks and just like you were, which is so funny, we were very aligned, and just making little treats

for my friends and I was very much focused on more of the baking side. I made like Rice Krispies treats, I made like, you know, biscotti, I don't know, it was very random. Although the day I decided I was gonna marry her, which was the first night I spent the night at her house, she made me the most perfect egg florentine for breakfast. Better than any I'd ever had in my life,

and that's when I knew. That's when I knew. This is my wife. I mean, that's a tough dish to make from my perspective. Yeah, yeah. And then so baking specifically, I mean, would you say that's like super different to cooking because it's such a science? I think that the way that I cook because I learned to cook as as a savory chef, I feel

like I don't really I mean, the principles like certain principles, of course, like you have to implement them. But I feel like with just my mindset when it comes to building flavors and building dishes is very different from just the standard, like, you know, this is the way that we make a chocolate cake. The average, the average, there was a reason that 90% of restaurants have the same or similar desserts. And that's because pastry chefs, unlike savory chefs, are always classically trained.

Because you can't go and wing pastries. You have to go and you learn, and this is how you make a Cremon glaze. This is how you make a sponge cake. But Marguerite didn't do that. She just innately is able to somehow do it. And that's why her desserts aren't like everybody else's desserts.

Yeah, you have these unique ingredients and flavors. I was looking at yours. They're so fucking good. Yeah, wolf and wheat, right? The bakery in Austin, you have like matcha flavor, matcha powder and beautiful flavors. Yeah, I love to, I think a lot of, when I kind of, when I taste things,

that's when it inspires what it's going to be. And I mean, and that's just how. Yeah, that's how I create things like I'm like, oh, wow. Roasted buckwheat tea. Yeah, that makes sense. Like that would be an incredible finish because, you know, and in certain cultures, roasted buckwheat tea is what you eat or what you drink at the end of the meal. So, yeah, so that's kind of, you know, like I'm, it's like when I eat something or try something, it's basically like,

it's just popcorn just popping all over in my brain. And that's when I'm like, oh, yeah, that and that and that and that and yeah. So because you didn't train under someone necessarily, you almost have the freedom in your mind to kind of get creative and go to places that maybe someone who was traditionally or classically trained wouldn't. I feel that way, yeah, for sure.

I'm very grateful because Philip was the one that told me not to go to culinary school, so. Did you go? I did for a few months, but then I dropped out. No way. So you didn't train under anyone either? Well, I did. I trained for about nine years under several fantastic real chefs. And so I started working. My godmother owned a catering company. And so I'm a high school dropout. I'm a drummer in a punk band.

And that's what I dropped out of high school to do, is just to go live on the road. And in between, but I was obsessed with food. And obsessed with cooking. And so I was sick of working at Jamba Juice and Baskin Robbins. So I go on tour, come back, have a little meaningless job. And so I wanted to cook.

And so I went to my godmother and asked if I could work for her. She introduced me to her chef. Her chef interviewed me, had me make family meal as my interview, and then said, I can offer you a job as a dishwasher. So I started as a dishwasher when I was 18. And I spent several years just working my way up

from dishwasher go on tour, come back, prep cook go on tour, come back, line cook go on tour, come back, line cook maybe I should start taking this seriously, maybe I, and then I quit all my bands and enrolled in culinary school and quickly learned that it was just a complete, complete, in my opinion, a complete sham. It wasn't, it was not worth a hundred dollars, let alone $50,000. And so

I dropped out of culinary school and I worked in, over the next nine years or so, I worked in several one, two, three Michelin star kitchens, and that's where I learned how to cook. And I think it was at year nine or so that we opened, back in 2013, we opened our first restaurant as chef owners. But it was 2010, maybe 11, that Margarita became my pastry chef

officially for the first time. And the way that she did, I really like this story, I got hired as the executive chef of the restaurant and they didn't have a pastry chef, so I was going to be doing all the dessert menu. And at this point, Margarita is a fantastic, like she can, everything she touches is unbelievably delicious.

But it wasn't what she was doing full-time professionally. And so I write a menu for desserts, and she laughs at it. Okay. Not necessarily a laugh, I was just like, all right, well, that sounds cool. She didn't think it was very good. Okay. And so I said, well, if you think you can do it better,

you should do it. And so she did. I was like, you're on. And so she wrote a new menu and she made all the desserts. And I said, you now have that, now you don't have a, now you work here. You got the job. Yeah, the way that I cook is very improvisational

and intuitive and so just by osmosis, she's incredibly intuitive and improvisational but somehow able to just make like the best things. So Margarita, tell us about the dessert experience that you have curated. So we have about four different desserts on the menu at Pasta Bar. Pasta Bar LA, so we start with,

we do the same sourdough in LA as we do in Austin. And so we do Okinawa brown sugar caramel with Sobacha ice cream. We have crunchy puffed rice. I make Tonka bean, like almost like a little marshmallow. Table side, what we do, we take like a hot bingetang coal and torch the marshmallow like right in front of you. So it's like almost like a little Japanese sundae and a pasta bar Austin.

I do a caviar ice cream sandwich, so I make a smoked banana ice cream with a brown butter brioche cookie. And then we finish that with golden acetic caviar. And we have a little jewelry box where we have little chocolate bonbons, little, just little Mignardis for you to just like snack on, have a couple drinks, relax.

And what I think is really cool about like, so people think it's called pasta bar. So they think it's an Italian restaurant. And in a way it is, but it's not, just like our sushi by scratch restaurant, it's not a Japanese restaurant, it's a sushi restaurant, pasta bar is a pasta restaurant. Now, obviously we're using Italian techniques and we're using Italian approach. The one thing that has always struck me about Italian cuisine, very similar to Japanese in this way,

is that Italian cuisine is incredibly regional, meaning you only really use the ingredients and the sensibilities of your region. So once again, the idea is like, we're not gonna import everything. We're gonna use the sensibilities in the region and treat Los Angeles or Austin as the region of Italy. So like, you know, she's talking about

very Japanese-signed dessert in perhaps one of the most Japanese-populated cities. Los Angeles is incredibly Japanese-inspired, and a lot of the food when you're growing up in the late 80s, early 90s is Japanese. And so if you're making Italian food in LA, almost by default is supposed to have some Japanese influence on it,

because that's the sensibilities. And then you talk about Austin. And in Austin, yeah. Using oak, you know, smoking things with oak. Smoking things with oak. I also go to this incredible urban farm called Housebar Farms. So they grow, they have like fresh eggs,

they grow unbelievably beautiful herbs. That's where I get my fig leaves from. I use fig leaves religiously. It's like literally my favorite ingredient. Fig leaves and right now I just put a dessert on menu at pasta bar here in Austin based on all the beautiful mint and basil that they have in the garden. So we make a basil and mint semi-fredo but but like orange mint, which is like such a beautiful variety of mint. And then we do Thai basil, just regular Italian basil, infuse that. And then I make a black currant granita with a little bit of passion fruit. So you get like a little crunch. Because,

you know, you kind of, the way that I build dishes, you want to get like a little crunch, because the way that I build dishes, you want to get a little crunch, a little cold, a little creamy, and then we, yeah, so we finish it with also the local basil blossoms, and so yeah, that's like a little, almost like a palate cleanser. So now that you guys, I think you have 15 restaurants total, or is that higher now? 24 as of this 20 okay 24 and then it's become this giant business all of your family's involved

I can't even imagine the admin of having this many restaurants. How do you Keep your passion and creativity for the actual craft that you got into this for well it has a I feel like it has a lot to do with, um, like my mental state, how, you know, what my surroundings are, like, where am I placing myself? How am I taking care of myself? Um, because, you know, it's very, it's very easy to get caught up and like overly stressed, overly stimulated. You know, we also have a two and a half year old.

So, you know, you get pulled in so many different directions. So I feel like when I'm the most clear and like have that inspiration, like I'm not drinking. And I like barely drink. I drink wine. You know, like that's my big outing. Like when I'm not drinking, I'm eating incredibly healthy. So at home, I actually make like oxtail bone broth with like ginger and onion. And literally, that's what we eat all day or all day, all week. I'm like a big stock. That's what we that's what our daughter eats.

Healthy state of mind healthy food and Yeah, just like that. That's what makes me clear and that's when I'm like, oh, yeah. Oh my god, and then Like I feel unstoppable when I'm just like in that perfect like clear state I think wellness is such a huge part of that and creating a balance where you can still pour into the things you want to do. Because I feel like it's so easy to get lost in the noise of it all when you have a business and you forget why you love it and why you started it. Even with our company here at Bloem, like Greg and I, we work together too. My husband's the CEO. It was a lot for many years. It was all we talked about. It was all we did. We're finally at a point where we can have some time,

you know, to focus on other things, but it takes a long time to get there. How do you, Phillip, focus on your love for cooking at the same time? Well, I mean, I definitely could go the same sort of wellness route with the answer, but I think she speaks a little bit for the both of us. So, I mean, I think that we were at dinner

with our friends last night, we were talking about this very thing. And it is, Buddy of ours asked, how do you, he's like, I know there's business people and there's chefs, and very rarely are they the same person. There's usually a chef who's creative and a business person who is running the business. And not just for chef, that could be for any artist.

Has usually someone who monetized the artist while the artist can focus on art. But through just trial and error and living just through some huge life lessons. I mean, Margie and I own 100% of our restaurants. So, Neen Williams owns 50% of NAC, but her and I don't have any business partners and we don't have any investors.

And so, I have been forced over the last 13 years to be able to wear both hats simultaneously. And for a few years, I found it incredibly difficult because when we started, we started our first restaurant in a coffee shop. We moved it to our one bedroom apartment. We moved it from the one bedroom apartment to an actual restaurant space where there was a guy who approached us and said, I own a restaurant space. If you want to go 50 us and said, I own a restaurant space. If you wanna go 50-50, you can move your restaurant

from your apartment into the, and this was on Restaurant Road, Los Yenega, in Los Angeles, I shared a tandem parking spot with Nobu Masuhisa. I mean, this is like the best location you can have a restaurant in LA. And so, he was gonna run the business and I was gonna be the chef

and she was gonna be the pastry chef. And we just learned quickly through, if you're not okay losing, then you just never lose is kind of the idea. But we went through a lot with him specifically. A lot of the money disappeared, he disappeared. I was 25, so I didn't realize that I had personally

guaranteed everything in the business, yet I had no ownership because all the paperwork I had filled out had never been turned in to add me to all the accounts. There was a long time where it was like very difficult. I was forced to take over the business side. And as soon as you are dealing with the business side and you're realizing the money and the,

it's very difficult to even want to be creative. Because now you start looking at your, you were looking at your cooks like they're in your band and they're your brothers, and now you're looking at your cooks like they're gonna put you out of business. Yeah, their salaries. And now everything's a number.

And when you're looking, when you're viewing the world in numbers, it's very difficult to be creative. And so I went through a couple of years of like not being able to really be creative or do it for the right reasons. But that was well over a decade ago. So at this point now, I'm able to really focus on the business and focus on the art. And what I've learned when I taught myself was

you can't survive as a starving artist, right? So if you're making art that you think is incredible, but you can't sell it, you will eventually die of starvation. So figure out how to make art that people not only are willing to buy, but wanna get in line to buy. And make sure that that art is still as important to you as the art that you were starving making, right? So I was able to find a symbiotic relationship

between feeling very integral about selling the art while also being really inspired to make the art for the purpose of selling it. It's a tough line to balance. And I feel lucky in my relationship with my husband because he really is the business guy. He looks at the numbers. I couldn't care less.

Truly. I cannot look at numbers. I don't want to talk about numbers. I want to be here. I want to be having conversations. I want to be talking about branding and labels and creativity. My brain doesn't think that way. So I relate in so many ways. And I feel like anytime,

at the beginning of our business, I was super duper involved and it made it difficult for me to keep creating at the same time. Because when your brain is being split a million directions, it's like, how do you show up and give your most creative self when you're like stressed behind the scenes? Well, I mean, no one's good at anything until they practice it a lot.

And I think that's what you were talking about earlier, too. It's like building up the thick skin. That's what I feel like now. It's, you know, after so many years of like having to deal with very, very, very difficult, like just excruciating circumstances. I think like now, like certain stresses, you know, we can kind of, okay, like let's work through it, but also be present at what we're doing, like what's in front of us.

I had no idea that I was ever going to be the business side as well. But it just, you know, you you learn, you learn a new thing. And you just if as long as you don't give up and go home, you'll eventually get good at it. And you'll eventually learn how to enjoy it. And I guess it's almost a blessing in a way that that- It's 100% a blessing. That guy screwed you,

because now you guys are 100% owners, clearly it's working for you, it's become a family business, and if anything you have more control, and everything is like the way that you want it and clearly it's working. And we've went through three or four different iterations of having partners before. So we didn't get, we started as 100%.

Back in 2013 we sold 50% to open up in that space and then that went under. We then reopened the restaurant because we owned the rights to the name. and then that went under. We then reopened the restaurant because we owned the rights to the name. We then reopened the restaurants with a new 50% partner who then years later sold half of his shares to someone else who then eventually bought him out fully, who then eventually sold half of his shares

to someone else who then, you know, and then eventually we actually, a year after we became permanent with Sushi Bar ATX, a private equity firm bought that restaurant from us. And we were able to turn around and buy out all of our partners in all of our California restaurants. So we went from being 50%, 100% to 50% of now five restaurants to 100% of four restaurants. So we went from being 50% 100% to 50% of now five restaurants to 100% of four restaurants. And so at the time we had Sushi Bar LA, Sushi Bar

Montecito, which had a Michelin, had and has a Michelin star. And then we had another location in Los Angeles as well for sushi. We had pasta bar Chattamichelin star and So the idea was these guys were gonna buy this location in Austin Here's the playbook. They're allowed to run it a lot to do whatever they want And we would run sushi Barla the second sushi bar in Los Angeles and sushi bar Montecito They would run this one. And then very quickly we learned that

we were gonna need to distance ourselves. We didn't want people dining. They had the right to change everything and they had the right to use everything. And we didn't want people to dine there and think that was a representation of our restaurants. That became pretty clear pretty quickly to us. And it was disappointing, but what we ended up doing

is we then changed the name of all of our sushi bars to Sushi by Scratch Restaurants. Scratch Restaurants is our group. So it was always sushi bar, a scratch restaurants concept, pasta bar, a scratch restaurants concept. pasta bar, a scratch restaurants concept. Now it's sushi by scratch restaurants. Where does by scratch come from? Like why did you wanna go with that name?

Our first restaurant was called Scratch Bar. And the reason was there was really two things that we knew we were gonna do before we named the restaurant. We were only gonna have seating at the bar, we were gonna only serve what we make from scratch. So if we wanted to have prosciutto, I would have to buy a pig,

and I would have to break it down myself, and I would have to cure it, and I'd have to wait two and a half years. And that's what we did. That's when we had prosciutto on the menu. And made cheese, yeah. If I wanted Parmesan on the menu, I had to start with milk,

and I had to wait nine months before I could serve Parmesan on the menu, I had to start with milk and I had to wait nine months before I could serve Parmesan. I'm very, I have like a weird thing about being literal. Like I have a weird, like I have trouble understanding things because I'm so incredibly literal. And so I looked up the definition of what a restaurant is. And the definition of a restaurant is a place where people pay money to sit on premise

to eat food that was made on premise. And so quite literally that means that if I buy someone else's cream cheese and I buy someone else's bagels and I buy someone else's cured salmon and I make it for you at my place and you pay for it, it's not a restaurant, it's a delicatessen. By definition, not my definition. And there's nothing wrong with restaurants that don't make everything from scratch.

It's not, it's not, that's just, that's what I get off on. That's what we get off on is if we're going to do it, we're going to do it a thousand percent. I feel like it also really, I mean, obviously we talk about wellness a lot on this show and I feel like it really ties it. I mean, it's like good ingredients. It's good food. Like you guys really care about where it's coming from.

You care about the quality of it. Have you always been like that? Or is this something like, is it tied into the way you live your life too? Definitely, for me, yeah. She always has. I mean, I didn't know. I mean, I've been cooking with canola oil for 20 years.

I've been cooking with the things that you cook with. Now, I never got into all like the, like I never got into using all like the different chemicals and I don't like xanthan gum and I don't like all it's funny that like a lot of fine dining shares a lot of ingredients with like manufactured candy. Like the foam and stuff? Yeah. Oh, what's foam made of? Well, that's soy lecithin. So that's not really what's found in candy,

that's more found in health food. So I do use soy lecithin. I was less about doing it because it was chemically. I was more about doing it because I didn't want to have a magic powder that turned it into something. I wanted to figure out how do you create that yourself. So I worked in a lot of restaurants where I learned how to use those applications properly

and then decided that in my restaurant I was not going to use any of them. But I was still gonna try to make cuisine at the same level. I've always just been a thing about, I like natural. I don't like heavy sauces. I've never been someone who has like crazy spice blends and my chicken doesn't taste like curry.

I like chicken to taste like chicken. I like chicken to taste like chicken. I like cauliflower to taste like cauliflower, but I want it to be the deepest, most unctuous, most delicious cauliflower you ever had in your life. And there's certain techniques you can do to make your cauliflower. You can turn the volume up to 20. Better sleep should be on all of our 2025 New Year's resolution lists. I think bedding is so important when it comes to getting good sleep and that's where Cozy Earth comes in.

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Write your story with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com slash pow. Today to get 10% off your first month, that's betterhelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash pow. Do a lot of chefs care about health or is it kind of like an unhealthy industry? I mean, I feel like now there's a lot more awareness about, there's a sea change in the industry all around.

Do they drink a lot? Yeah. Really? Like drinking's a big part of like hospitality in general. Yeah, drinking is a big part. Drugs are a big part. I mean, we were lucky enough to not be involved with any of the drug part, drinking part. Yes, for sure.

Why is chefs like I feel like that's the reputation. It's not so I don't think it's a symptom or a byproduct of working in the kitchen. I think of the type of person who wants to work 18 hours in the heat, oftentimes burning and cutting themselves is the same person who likes other extreme type of things. Yeah, okay. So it's just like, it's not like to be a rock star, you have to drink and do drugs, no. It's the same person who wants to live in a van

with a group of friends and drive around the country eight months out of the year, is the same type of person who wants to party. Yeah, you gotta be a little unhinged. Yes. So that's really where it stems from. But there is a big seed change. I mean, since we started, we've had a rule, just no drinking. Not since we started. We used to drink at the restaurant. When we really started.

And we encouraged everyone to drink at the restaurant. When we really started. And we encouraged everyone to drink at the restaurant. We had a restaurant called The Silver Bow. Part of the experience was, after dinner was over, I'd pull out this silver platter of all of these different cognacs and aged this and whiskies and beer and everything, and we would say, y'all don't have to go home. Y'all don't have to stay here, but if you would like,

we would love to have a drink with you. Now this restaurant was in a hotel, so people were getting trashed, but luckily no one ever got hurt. But as we started having more and more restaurants, we started having instances where I'd come in the next day, the kitchen was still dirty and the team was passed out. They had not gone home, they had not finished cleaning.

Now we have a hardcore zero tolerance. You do not drink at the restaurant, unless it's offered to you by me. And that's usually like on an opening night or something like that, but not normally. No. We'll all go out afterwards and we'll get fucked up if you want,

but not at the restaurant. Because on two separate occasions, I have had to fire head chefs for fist fighting each other in front of guests. Oh my God. Yeah. I know. And.

I'm sure you have so many stories like that. Like I feel like hospitality is wild. If you had to guess the common denominator, it's alcohol. Yeah. But we also, I mean, for us it's so important to take care of our team and now after regaining 100% ownership of our company, we have paternity leave, maternity leave,

we have special resources for anything you need. Everyone in the company has a 401k or the 5% match. Everyone's got benefits. Yeah, I feel like I haven't heard of that before. That's amazing. And we've never really, I mean, I guess we are telling people right now, but we've been doing it for years and we don't do it.

We do it for three years exactly, because the day we bought out our partners is the day that we just decided that the 50, if we started getting there 50% of the profits, I didn't ever wanna touch that money. Because the second you touch that money, I would not wanna give it away. So I decided that, you know what,

who's been my real partners this whole time, my real partners were the guys and the girls working their ass off every day. So that 50% that we just got back is gonna go to compensation packages. And I've always had this philosophy that I wouldn't buy a Mercedes until my staff was driving BMWs. And I wouldn't drive a Porsche

until my staff was driving Mercedes. And I won't buy a Ferrari until my staff was driving Mercedes. And I won't buy a Ferrari until my staff is driving Porsches. You know, they've got to have it before I get to have it. And a discrepancy of me with a private jet and them with the Pinto isn't possible. I don't like that. Yeah, I think that's really respectable. To take care of your team should come first, 100%. Because that's going gonna keep you growing

at the end of the day, right? And get you where you need to go. So Michelin stars, I know you guys have a couple floating around. What is the process of getting a Michelin star? Like what do you mean? It's a secret? That's 100% secret and God damn it,

it's an annoying secret. So you're just like throwing things at the wall, seeing what sticks. No, okay, so all right. So you're just like throwing things at the wall, seeing what sticks. All right, so what does it take to get a star? I have a pretty good idea. What is the process of getting one? Don't know.

What does it take? There is, it's not formulaic, but there is a level. And I spent all of my formative years in one, two, three Michelin star kitchens. And it is a holistic approach. When you say to another cook, well, 10 years ago, not so much anymore, I want this kitchen organized like a Michelin star kitchen.

That means something. That means that when you're gonna label something, you use scissors to cut the tape. Everything is written legibly. Everything is in see-through matching containers. Everything is, you could eat off the floor in the kitchen. Right, there was a mean, and typically, if you were doing that, you also cared about

what was going on the plate, and at that level, that whole holistic approach usually garnered you a Michelin star. I mean, the way that it works is you try to be the best and you put your fucking head down, and every day you remind yourself and you remind your team that every single guest who comes in tonight is a Michelin inspector, and every single guest is a VIP, and every single guest is gonna get the best thing

we're capable of giving no matter what every time. And if you do that for enough years and they hear about you and pay attention, they'll come in, you won't ever know, I promise you you won't ever know, and you will, it used to be that you would get a phone call, it was a famous phone call. The day before the Michelin Guide would come out, everybody's waiting by their phones to see if they would get a phone call, it was a famous phone call. The day before the Michelin Guide would come out,

everybody's waiting by their phones to see if they would get a phone call to say congratulations. And so in 2019, we did not get Michelin stars, but we were invited to the Michelin Gala, and we were awarded Michelin plates for two of our restaurants. A plate is a recommendation.

It goes plates, then bib gormons, then one star, two star, three star. In 2020, we get an email saying, can we have Philip's phone number? A week and a half later, Michelin announces that they have been bullied out of doing a Michelin guide this year in California. They're doing it in other places,

but California has called them insensitive because there's a pandemic. So they cancel the, the yeah a lot of Fucking ridiculous crazy, but then 2021 rolls around together and they reach out and they say we're doing a virtual one this year and We would like to come and interview you and and margarita and Lenin Len Lenin is my brother, blood brother, who was the head chef at Montecito at the time. We wanna interview the three of you and chef Nate,

who was the head chef at Pasta Bar in LA at the time. Wanna interview the four of you to talk to you guys about what it's been like to run restaurants during the pandemic. And I said, I'm in Austin, I, you know, I can come back. I'll fly back. Tell me when they said, No, no, no, don't fly. Zoom in. It's not a big deal. You're not getting a star. Just we're just don't get your hopes up. So okay, I'll zoom in. So Margarita happened to be in town. So Margarita, Lenin, and Nate are all at the restaurant. They're all staying next to each other

and they put a little bar stool with me on a laptop. So they're filming us, right? I'm a laptop. And they're asking us questions. What was it like? How did you, what did you learn? What was the hardest thing? And then they say, and we have one last question for you.

There's somebody on the phone who wants to ask you a question. And so- I was like, that's weird. Yeah. That's a weird thing. Calling question. So someone on the phone-

Like who wants to ask us a question? And so they hold up the phone. I can't hear what's being said because there's pandemonium now and one of the producers comes and says, congratulations, chef, you've been awarded a Michelin star. And I said, which restaurant? And she said, both of them. And I just broke down and started crying.

I'm sitting in my house in Austin, and my wife and my brother and chef Nate, who I should be hugging and crying with them, and I'm alone, and they're all together. And I mean, it was amazing. hugging and crying with them and I'm alone and they're all together. I mean, it was amazing. They didn't even use the footage of me crying. Imagine that. Yeah, I cried for no reason.

I gave them absolute solid gold, no I'm kidding. I gave you everything I had. But no idea, no idea why we got the stars, no idea. At that point we had four restaurants and to be honest, and I've told this to the, to the Michelin guy before, I said, we're honored, but we're so surprised. We had two restaurants we thought were shoe-ins, and you gave the stars to the two restaurants

we didn't think were ready. They're brand new, we didn't think they're ready. What are the two that you thought were gonna get them? Scratch Bar and the Original Sushi. So both of those had gotten plates the year prior, the two years prior, and both of those were in existence the year they asked for my phone number. And now there's two new restaurants that both get stars

and these ones don't get anything. So pasta bar got one. What was the other one? Sushi Montecito. You know, you hear all these like things from the movies and stuff where you drop the fork on the floor and then all of a sudden someone's there or you recognize the Michelin person

because they have a certain shirt on. So none of that's true. No. Well, I don't wanna say it's not true, but well, first of all, we don't have forks at our restaurant, so it'd be hard to do. Pasta bird does have forks. That's true.

We use utensils. Is all the pasta there, is it sourdough pasta? No, no, we, so I make sourdough. The pasta's not made from sourdough. Got it, okay, no. She makes a sourdough. I make sourdough. The pasta's not made from sourdough. Got it, okay, so yeah, I heard you have 58-year-old sourdough starter. I do. At your house.

I have one in my freezer as backup in case anything happens to my baby. But yeah, we actually got it when we first started. Like when we first, our first pop-up ever. Opening day of Scratch Bar in 2012, 12 or 13. Opening day, gentleman walks in and says, welcome to the neighborhood, I read all about it, I have a reservation tonight, I'm very excited.

I heard you guys are making everything from scratch. He said, my grandmother left me her starter when she passed. It's from Italy, it's like 45 years old, something like that. And it's just been in my freezer for years. I don't know what to do with it. I read about it and I felt inspired to gift this to you guys. Margarita has been now nursing that back to health. It took probably about six or seven years to really get good. Yeah, it's like, and also- Six or seven years.

Well, it took me eight years to actually create like Finalize the recipe for the sourdough literally like did he give it to you in that in the powder form in the dry form? No, he was just really getting you a job. We call them a deli cup. It's like the big plastic container. Yeah Yeah, okay. I can't even keep mine alive for a week. Mine goes moldy all the time. Hmm I don't know what I'm doing wrong. Talk to her. Yeah, you have a 58 year old salad. I read that and I was like,

I have to ask her some questions because I can't even keep it alive a week. Okay, well definitely. How often do you feed it? We feed it five days a week. Do you bring it with you when you travel? I used to. Now we have restaurants and we have staff.

Yes, you can lead it there. In terms of ingredient sourcing, like when I was at the restaurant, you were talking about sourcing fish from Japan and there's things from all over the place. How do you do that? So I work with a broker who has a spot at the Toyosu fish market.

And that's the same company I've been working with for about 10 years. And so at this point, well, for many years now, any of my chefs in any restaurant, you pick up the phone and you call, usually we text and we say, this is what we want. They already know the quality level, they already know what I'm looking for

and if something's not available at the market, they'll say, I don't have this snapper but I have this snapper. And so all the fish in Japan arrives Tuesdays and Thursdays to LAX via JAL, Japan Airlines. And so, and then from LAX, it goes to the rest of the country. Okay. How much is a whole tuna? This last week, I bought a 90 pound quarter of tuna.

That was $4,000? 90 pounds for $4,000, okay. I knew it was crazy price. 35 hunch, somewhere about that. About 40 bucks a pound, 35 bucks a pound. Okay, have you guys ever been to that fish market? Yeah. Oh my God, we saw the auction.

So we went to Japan last year for about, what, we were there for a month and a half, two months? I we were there for month and a half two months I was there for a month and a half. I think you're there for a month. Yeah, and um, yeah, we woke up at like four in the morning jet lag the shit like which which by the way, uh This is what everyone who's going to go to Japan and wants to the fish market You will naturally wake up at 4 a.m. Your first couple of days there. Oh, so just go in the beginning Yeah, yeah, don't adjust and then start waking up at 4 a.m. Smart, okay, smart. Go like land and then go the next morning

because you wake up at 4 a.m. Right, okay, smart. And is it craziness, people just yelling? There's a lot of yelling. You can't buy anything at the auction. No, you can't, you can't. It's an auction for, it's being, all the fish is being sold to the fishmongers

are getting at that point. But it's such a cool experience just watching all of that. And where you stand now, you're behind a glass wall and they have microphones on the floor and then speakers in there. So you can hear, but they control the volume. Did you guys get a ton of inspiration when you were there? Yeah.

For desserts and stuff too? Oh yeah, oh yeah. The way that I'm doing toro now, I've been aging my, I've been dry aging my akami, the red tuna, the lean part for probably eight years now, but I always serve toro fresh. I never wanted aged toro. And when we were in Japan,

we were invited to take over a really famous little seven seat sushi bar. And I was able to, for the first time, make my sushi in Tokyo for pretty much a completely non-English speaking clientele. I show up to start prepping a couple days early and the chef goes, okay, I got you this, I got you this, I got you this, I got you this.

He goes, seven seats, I'm doing two seatings on two nights, so 28 people. He's like, I'm not gonna buy you a whole side of tuna. He's like, but I've been aging this one for you for two weeks. And I was like, in my mind I'm like, no. But the second my knife goes into that tuna, I almost got goosebumps just the way that it felt.

I've been cutting tuna for 15 years, but the way that the knife entered in, the level of tackiness of the oil, I was like, this is special. And I took a bite and went, oh my goodness. Incredible. I mean, that tackiness was definitely there. I've never had aged Tora before.

It was really cool. You guys have a lot of unique flavors, I feel like. And definitely there. Like I've never had aged Tora before. It was really cool. You guys have a lot of unique flavors, I feel like. And a lot of things I've never had. The dessert was incredible. Remind me what the dessert was called again. Um, so it was a Tonka bean custard, uh, with yuzu and passion fruit granita. And then I do fresh passion fruit seeds. And then we finish it with, uh, shiso blossoms and Thai basil, Thai basil leaves. It was insane. Everyone was looking at each other like, what was that?

It was wild. Thank you. It sucks because every restaurant we've ever had, I usually get like 15, 16 tries for best dish and then the first dessert gets served. Well, I gotta make it fucking good. Every time. She was her moment.

Every time people are freaking out about dinner and then we get to dessert and they go, I don't even remember what I had for dinner. No, every moment was special. I actually brought my friend Taylor with me because she loves food. She actually is an aspiring chef. And when we heard about the grand opening,

I was like, I gotta bring Taylor, she's gonna love it. And she was obsessed. She had such a good time. You must have regulars all the time, right? Yeah, we've probably got about two dozen people who've clocked over 100 visits. Wow. We have people who fly to every single,

I know if we're opening a new restaurant that within week one, I'm gonna have these five couples are going to have traveled to this city solely for the opening. You said Josh was in the room? Josh was after me. Josh was after you.

When I was leaving I saw him. Got it, got it, okay. I'm such a big fan of his YouTube channel. Yeah, he's awesome. Yeah, he's a funny guy. He actually just did our podcast with us. No way. Okay, wait, podcast is called Not a Damn Chance.

Not a Damn Chance. Love it. Yeah, and the idea is that we're just really sitting down with people who are at the top of their field. What we really wanna know about is the mindset. And not the mindset on how do I work hard. How do you deal with debilitating circumstances?

How did I pull myself together and say, fuck you world, there's not a damn chance that you're gonna take me out, I'm going to win. That mindset is what Nina and my whole thing is about. And so we wanna sit down with people and learn about those moments. Because I feel like anyone who has success is no different than anyone who doesn't have success

in their actual abilities as a human to function on earth. The only major difference is that when faced with a cliff jump, some people don't jump. And of the people who jump and they break every bone in their body, some people then jump again. And it's those people who are at the top, top, top. I so agree with you on that, by the way. I mean, my whole career is based on

the worst moment of my life. I lost 90 pounds and I went through so much in 2017 and it got me here. If I didn't go through that and continue pushing and say I'm gonna turn this around, I wouldn't be here right now. So I love that concept, I think that's amazing. Okay, I have to ask before we go, what are your favorite restaurants in the world outside of your own world? My

favorite restaurant is probably central. In Peru, Margarita, what's your favorite restaurant? I think it has to be sushi, sushi, Sakura in Kyoto. Last year we went there. That's up there. That is very much up there. It was honestly, that was the most magical sushi experience I've ever had. It's unbelievably beautiful. The counter where you sit, so they have a beautiful garden. They have a huge window.

Imagine you're sitting here and this whole wall right here is their backyard. It's glass. And it's just the most beautiful, like, zen-like manicure to a tee with little streams and fountains and things and unreal. And it's beautifully lit. And the chef, you know how I make the sushi and I put it in front of you?

He makes the sushi and then he puts his hand out and you reach over and take it out of his hand. So it was the husband and wife. Was it their son who? Yeah, and their son was in the kitchen and it was just. It was just one dude? Yeah.

But now we're bonding. And bonding is such a big part of why restaurants can be so great. And really what we want to try to offer in our restaurants. Many times guests, by the time they leave or by the time they leave their second time, they're coming behind the counter,

they're getting a hug from the team. Like it really is supposed to be like that. Every night at the restaurant, anytime anyone's like, I'm going to Japan, I'm like, my favorite sushi restaurant in Japan is in Kyoto called Sushi Sakura. Totally, no, those are the best meals when you have that insane memory

and you're connecting with people in different countries. I think that's amazing. Guys, thank you so much. This was incredible. We've never had chefs or restaurant owners on the show, so it was such an honor to sit with you. Can you just tell everyone where they can find you, your restaurants, anything they should know?

You can follow at Philip Franklin Lee or at Margarita Callis Lee. Both of us link to all of our restaurants, but also it's at Sushi by Scratch restaurants. We are not involved with Sushi Bar at Pasta Bar LA, at Pasta Bar Austin, at NADC Burger, at Wolf & Wheat. But if you really wanna find us, come to our restaurant. I will put a link in the description box of this episode

if you guys wanna go book with any of these restaurants. As I said, truly a magical culinary experience, unlike anything I've ever done. You guys are amazing. You're both so talented, so creative, and I'm so glad we met. So thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. The content of this show is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not a substitute for individual medical and mental health advice advice and does not constitute a provider-patient relationship.

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