Slow Baja - Chef Chad White On TJ And Trail Feast

Episode Date: July 7, 2025

Renowned for his eclectic urban style and Baja-Med cuisine, Chef Chad White is fluent in life and food on both sides of the border. Born in Spokane, WA, he received his culinary training while serving in the US Navy. After a stint cooking at the famed Hotel Del Coronado, Chef White moved to Tijuana and opened La Justina Gastro Pub. After an acclaimed run at La Justina and a stint on Top Chef, White returned to his hometown of Spokane, Washington, and opened Zona Blanca Ceviche Bar, High Tide Lobster Bar, and TTs Old Iron Brewery and Barbecue. He was a James Beard regional finalist in 2020.Trail Feast, his latest venture, combines rugged exploration with fine dining. Guests can explore challenging trails, enjoy custom culinary experiences cooked over an open flame, and relax with expertly crafted cocktails. It’s the ultimate blend of adventure and indulgence. To receive notification about the Slow Baja Trail Feast event please email me here.This podcast mentions Overland Expo, La Justina, and Trail Feast

Does somebody have to clap or do we... No, we're good now. Marker. Nice. Nice. Nice. Hey, this is Michael Emermary. Thanks for tuning into the Slow Baja. This podcast is powered by Tequila Fortaleza,

handmade in small batches, and hands down my favorite tequila. Well, if you've been listening to me for a while, You know, I'm an absolute minimalist when it comes to Baja travel. But the one thing I never leave home without is a good old paper map. And my favorite is the beautiful. And I mean beautiful Baja Road and Recreation Atlas by benchmark maps. It's an oversized 72-page book jam-packed with details. And now you can get it from me at slowbaha.com.

That's right. You can get it in the Slow Baja shop. and in fact, you better get two, one for your trip planning at home and one for your Baja rig. And if you love maps and you can't get enough of them like me, let me tell you about two sites

I am absolutely obsessed with. Eastview MapLink and LongitudeMaps.com, whatever you're looking for in Maps, it's there. From the entire benchmark collection to Baja Wall Maps to custom maps, you'll find it all at longitudemaps.com or EVMaplink.com. You know, I've long said it.

Ask your doctor if Baja's right for you. Well, if you've been hankering to get down to Slow Baja with me, you've got to check out the Adventures tab at Slowbaha.com. All my trips are there, from my famed fall vintage extravaganza to my winter and summer expeditions, which are open to trucks of any age. You know, on a Slow Baja expedition,

your meals are always included, really does take the sting out of camping. And when we get off the trail, let me tell you, we have the happiest of happy hours. If good dirt roads, private campsites, ranch stays, great food, and great people sounds like you're kind of fun, well, you've got to check out the Adventures tab at slowbaha.com. But don't delay. These trips are small, they're highly immersive, and they will sell out. And folks, just so you know, I am always here for you for your Baja trip planning questions.

One question, 100 questions. The easy way to get me is slowbaha.com slash contact. And if you'd like to go to Baja and you don't want to go by yourself, you don't have a vintage vehicle, my winter trip doesn't work out for you, I am happy to talk to you about organizing and leading a private guided tour. I've done it. I've loved it. The pictures are over there at slowbaha.com slash adventures. And you can check them out. And if you've got some questions, let's talk.

From the Shieldman recording booth at Slow Baja Studios, thanks for tuning in to today's Slow Baja podcast. My heaping dose of gratitude goes out to Azure O'Neill. Azure runs all the programming, all the educational programming at Overland Expo, and she figures out where people like me are going to park their rigs in the creator area or the DIY showcase. And at Overland Expo in SoCal, the brand new show that we had in the winter, Azure put me right next to Chef Chad White. And she's like that. She knows that people are going to get along and they're going to have some fun. And she likes to connect people.

And I just have to say, Azure, thank you for that. Chef Chad is effing awesome. We hit it off immediately. It was pretty crummy weather. I pulled out a little Fortaleza. He had some food to feed me. And it was a little match made in heaven during the SoCal Ovaland Expo, getting a chance to see Chad again at Overland Expo, Pacific Northwest. Again, he was feeding me.

And again, I was sharing the poor laissez. Pretty good match. We got a chance to sit down and talk about his life, which is pretty danged, interesting. He joined the Navy right after 9-11 and worked his way up through the ranks, cooking. And pretty soon found himself cooking for the... the admirals and got an externship at the Hotel Del Coronado, the Dell, the Hotel Del. Amazing spot for you, San Diego's. And through that, here, there, what have you, ended up on top shelf and also was doing a lot

of cooking south of the border and a lot of hanging out southward in Tijuana. And he was a chef at La Hostina, which was an amazing spot, really, truly one of those cool spots in in tijuana at a very cool time and chef chad white couldn't have been nicer to spend a little bit of time telling me about his life here on slow bah on what he's doing now which is trail feast and i can't wait to have a collaborative slow baha dinner out at some gps coordinates or maybe maybe we're just going to have a post-it note in a benchmark map that you're going to get in the mail and you're going to have to drive out to that spot to have dinner and camp out and brunch the next day so that that's Without further ado, it's Chef Chad White.

Yes, Chef, on today's Slow Baja. Hey, Chad. Nice to see you again. See you too, brother. Oh, man. Thanks for feeding me last night. Yeah, my pleasure. We're here at Overland Expo Pacific Northwest.

I met Chef Chad, basically camping on his front porch at Overland Expo, SoCal. and I'm just taken by some of the stories you were telling me about, as a, I hate to say it, you're a white guy. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know if anybody's listening to this, not watching, but you were a chef in Tijuana, yeah? Yeah, yeah, I opened up a restaurant in Tijuana on Revolutionum. I believe it was 2013 called La Hustina. Kind of a well-known famed place. It is, yeah.

Celebrated. I don't know if it was famed, but it was. celebrated. Celebrated for sure. We, you know, we got featured on eaters, uh, munchies with Javier Plecencia and we've had quite a few really cool chefs come through and work with us. And, um, since I left the company, they've, uh, moved on to a second location in Via Waterloo, um, under, uh, chef Javier Garo's, uh, direction and, um, what an incredible experience. Yeah. So what I want to share, the part that I didn't out of the story was how did cooking come into your life? I mean, what, what, what made you decide

this is phenomenal? I mean, you fed me a couple times now. I can vouch phenomenal. You've got the skills, but what, what was the, where did the drive come from? Yeah, I mean, the quick and fast story is that I had graduated high school in 2001 and I was working at the double tree hotel. and I woke up one morning and it was 9-11 and I'm sitting there with my stepbrother and just in complete shock about what was going on and I felt like it was my duty to go and serve our country and I jumped up and went to the recruiter's office and joined the Navy and I was what you would call a pleasure to be in class. I wasn't, I mean, brilliant, I think. I think I'm a smart guy, but I did not apply myself as I probably should have in school. And my ASVEP score was pretty garbage. And so the only job that I qualified for that actually had a rating to it or I could go to a secondary school was to be a cook.

And so that's- Everybody has to eat, man. Yeah. I don't know if anybody told you that. Yeah. And in the beginning, it was just that. It was like, man, I got to feed these f***ers. Pardon my language. You can say anything.

That's a podcast. We might believe it. We'll see. And, yeah, then I, I started to fall in love with food. And it wasn't until after, like, a conversation that I had with my mom. And there was this, like, aha, light bulb came on a moment where, you know, she was like, I was talking to her. I was like, hey, I'm pretty sure I'm done with the Navy. And she's like, I don't think that's how it works on.

You'll be breaking big rocks and little rocks and Leavenworth if you just piece out. And she's like, I don't, not sure what you're just, connect is and I was like what do you mean she goes you've been an artist your entire life you paint draw you love music all these things you're just an artistic human being how are you not connected to the food and at first you know my argument is well I'm not cooking good food I'm in the navy yeah you know and she goes just because you're in an environment doesn't mean that you can't have a positive you know outlook on it right just you're going to have to tread through some muddy waters before you can get to some like clear seas and sorry to make that analogy no it's good

yeah good and i i didn't quite catch on what she was saying and she goes what do you plate food on i said a round white plate and she goes what do you paint on a white canvas and she goes don't you see your new canvas is a white plate paint on that with food like really focus on the art side of it first and then you'll learn the flavor and so i listened to her and she She followed through and sent me a bunch of cookbooks that had more pictures and words. Okay. She knew me pretty well. And that was the start to my journey in culinary arts.

Wow. Yeah. Wow. Mom, she knows you. Yeah, she's a bright woman. She knows you. Yeah. That's amazing.

I mean, what's the line from Apocalypse now? He's cooking the Navy and he sees all that beautiful marbled beef, 100 yards of marbled beef, and they just boiled it. They boiled it. And it was just gray. Beautiful beef. Beautiful beef. Enough Apocalypse Now references.

So pick it up from there. You were cooking in the Navy. Did anybody notice your artistry? Or was it just, hey, Ensign White, shovel that stuff out. Ensign would have been great. It was more like Seaman recruit, White. I joined as an enlisted member as an E1 and worked my way up to E4,

which is a third-class petty officer. I was on a couple different commands because I had some injuries and things like that, so I had to go on a limited duty and whatnot. But everything from Arley-Birk-class destroyers to working on the submarine base in Pointe Loma, then being a part of a VS-35 S3B Viking Squadron on NAS, North Island, to then becoming ships company on the USS Ronald Reagan, which was a nuclear aircraft carrier, a super carrier, if you will. But yeah, I worked my way up from being, you know,

just general mess cook. So then working in the chief's mess, moving up to captains, or not Captain's mess, but the wardroom, cooking for officers, then spending some time in the captain's mess, and then finally spending some time in the flag mess with the admirals and their staff.

And then I did it. I had an externship due to how square-day-way I was as a sailor, and the externship was at the Hotel Del Coronado in San Diego. Nice. And on day two, they offered me a job. And it was kind of that perfect timing. My wife at the time was ready for me to be out of the military. I was looking to advance my career.

Wasn't sure if I was going to stay in and maybe go to the White House and cook or if I was going to take a chef job. And I took a giant pay cut to become a chef in the real world. And that kind of started my next chapter of my culinary career. Wow. Well, let's have a sip of that Fortaleza that we've been enjoying. Thank you, Guillermo. And pick it up from there. I mean, you're at the Hotel Dell, another famous place, but also I'm imagining also semi-institutional-like in their kitchen. You know, coming from the military into that, it wasn't as structured. Okay.

In fact, some might say I had too much structure. Okay. Transitioning from military life to civilian life as a, in a leadership role, was difficult. I was in HR a lot. Cander apparently is not allowed. But it was great. I learned, I mean, a lot of the things that I do today

that I'm recognized for incredible, like, cuisine and flavors and techniques was learned as a foundation, at the Hotel Del Coronado. I worked underneath a chef named Jason Schaefer. He had just transferred to the Hotel Del to open up 1,500 Ocean from Per Se in New York. Okay. So I had an incredible mentor and chef training underneath him. I think he might be the only male in my life that has made me cry besides my father.

We're going to pick that up in a second. You mentioned per se. Yep. I'm not sure everybody's going to catch that. reference you want to talk a little bit about that and so just to kind of describe the guy that made you cry where he might have come from yeah folks who haven't seen uh the bear it might not get inside of uh uh high stress kitchens high high high culinary world is it's very fast pace there's a lot of stress that's involved and you know um it's it might just be food to some people um but it's

very criticized when you make some mistakes, right? Life or death to others. It really is. Even though it's just a meal. This chef that I was working underneath, he came from Perse. Perse is owned by Thomas Keller, who is a famed French chef here in the United States. He revolutionized French cuisine in the United States and has recognized all the over the world. He has multiple Michelin stars. And Jason Schaefer was his opening

sous chef for per se. I just want to get a little background. Yeah. So when you think about... To put in perspective for what was coming your way. Yeah. It was, I was not ready for it. I mean, in terms of structure and being in a military-eyes kitchen, like I was ready for that. But we had a conversation in the dry storage one time after I screwed up a bunch of sticks. He asked me if I was, if we were at a backyard barbecue and then pulled me off the line, threatened to kick me off the line indefinitely if I didn't get my shit together. And he was harder on me than anyone else in the kitchen. I believe it was because he saw potential in me. But yeah, only grown man to make me cry, like an ugly cry.

But, man, I learned so much from that, man. He has a restaurant in Colorado, in Windsor County called Chimney Park. And I had the pleasure of actually dining there last year on the way to Overland Expo Mountain West. Gotcha. And he pulled me down to his wine cellar. And he has a picture that I framed for him and had all of our team sign. as he was leaving and I was looking to try to take over the command. And it listed all of the incredibly vicious things that he said to me on the line.

And it was a good laughing moment over a glass of wine in his cellar recently. And so he took it to heart. He did. Yeah. Yeah. So pick it up. You know, of course, I'm a little bit aware of your history and you were on a big show. and that's kind of an interesting thing.

How did that fit in? Where do that come into your life? And what is it like being on a cooking show? And we're going to get to Tijuana soon. Yeah. Well, prior to going on a TV show, I was getting a lot of accolades and attention in San Diego. And I partnered with a guy named Brian Malarkey,

who was on season three of Top Chef. And we opened up a restaurant called Gabridian, which was a Portuguese-style seafood restaurant. in a Portuguese town in San Diego called Coyntloma. And when you're on top chef, or after you've been on top chef, they ask you like who are people that would be really good for the next seasons and things like that. And so I believe how I was asked to go on to it was that Brian had mentioned that I was, you know, a good person to be on the show.

so they had contacted me and I kind of got fast rolled into it. I didn't have to go through all the big hoops. I did have to do some of the interviews and and whatnot. But it was

a really cool opportunity to go on the show. It was very scary. I had all these restaurants. I didn't want to go on the show at all to be honest with you because I was worried that if I went on the show and I failed, that people would be like, oh, he's a joker, we're not going to go to his restaurant. So a little bit of, you know, imposter syndrome, if you will. But, you know, the limited amount of time I've seen you, you're not, clearly not an extroverted performer either.

I'm sure you can turn it on if people are looking for that. But I'm assuming on a show about, you know, cooking and chefs, and the personality, there has to be a level of performance besides what you're actually cooking. At all times. Yeah. Yeah. And if they're not finding that performance out of you, they tend to enhance it. So pitting each other, pitting chefs against each other, causing problems, or maybe throwing a wrench in what the original plan was to create more drama.

Because obviously, rating sell, right? And so drama, people want to see drama. They want to see people freak out. And our season... What season was that? It was season 13 of Top Chef. Our season, when I showed up, and it's our first moment seeing Padma and Tom,

and they're listing all of these chefs and their accolades, James Beard, award-winning, not just nominated, guys that work for chefs with Michelin Stars, working at restaurants or commanding restaurants that I only wish I could go and dine in. And here I am, like, yeah, I've got five or six restaurants, I'm an international chef at this point. But I'm scared to death that if I call on this show and I screw up,

like my career is over. And then I hear all these people and their accolades and I'm like, I'm absolutely fucked. There's no, I have no chance in health in this. I'm in way over my head. On this first episode. And it worked out. It worked out really good.

I had a great time. I learned a lot. TV is not for me. I'll be honest with you. I mean, I can put it on, like you said. But I want to be me and only me. And they try to get you to say things and act a certain way for television. And I feel like I have a personality that's good enough to stand out on its own.

I don't need to be, I don't have to pretend to be something I'm not. And I felt like there was a lot of that. But the competition was absolutely fierce. The guy that got kicked off first could have won the thing. Wow. And now there's two chefs on the show that have Michelin stars that were on my season, and one that just had the number one restaurant in New York. And he was my roommate, Kwame and Wanchi.

Wow. Yeah. Wow. All right, we're going to take a quick break to hear from our sponsor's Baja Bound. If you want to drive down to Baja, you've got to have some insurance. Baja Bound is what you need. And we'll be right back with Chef Chad White. Here at SLOBA, we can't wait to drive our old land cruiser south of the border.

When we go, we'll be going with Baja Bound Insurance. Their website's fast and easy to use. Check them out at Bajabound.com. That's Bajabound.com, serving Mexico travelers since 1994. A big thanks to those of you who've contributed to our Baja baseball project. You know, we launched our gear deliveries on my winter expedition. Michael and Matthew from Barbers for Baja, we're along for the ride,

and we got to deliver that critically needed baseball gear up and down the peninsula. It was really, truly amazing. And on my last trip, I got to go to the state baseball championships and see some of our alums playing, some recipients of the Baja baseball gear deliveries. And congratulations to Guerrero and Mule Ha, the Austenaros, and the Cardinalitos won silver and bronze at the state. championships, big stuff. It's really fun to be there and fun to see them. All right, well, please

help us continue this vital work. Make your tax deductible donation at the Barbers for Baja. Click, barbers for Baja.org, click the Baseball and Baja link. And I thank you from the bottom of my heart. I really do. It is so amazingly gratifying to be able to give these kids this chance to keep playing this sport. Keep them on the field. Keep them out of trouble. Please check it out. Baseball in Baja link at barbers for Baja.org. Thank you. I want to tell you about these new Rocky Talky radios that I absolutely love. Heavy duty, beautifully made, easy to program, easy to use. We had 28 people, 15 trucks on the Slow Baja Winter Expedition.

You can hand these radios to anybody from a 14-year-old kid to an 80-year-old, and they'll know how to use it. They are that well-designed. One charge lasted the entire week. We are never out of range. I happen to upgrade to the accessory whip antenna for my radio and for my sweeps radio, the Donovan Brothers. We were never out of contact. I can't say it strongly enough.

Rocky Talky Radio's RockyTocky.com. Check them out. Slow Baja approved. Here we're back with Chef Chad White and we're sipping a little Fortaleza Blanco. It's a pretty nice day here in Bend. Overland Expo Pacific. Northwest and we're getting into your life a little Chad. Tell me how we're talking about top shelf, top chef.

We're drinking top shelf tequila and talking about top chef. Exactly. Say that three times fast. Man. So how did it end? I mean, how does, I got to admit, I'm not a devotee of cooking shows. I've watched the first episode. of, you know, Francis Malman in...

Chef's Table? Sorry, I'm blanking on that. Yes, I've watched the first episode of Chef's Table, Francis Malman. And you know what? I don't need to see another one. I just want to see that one over and over and over and over and just say, why isn't my life like his? Oh, yeah.

And I do watch that, you know, twice a year, three times, four times a year, just to get a little check. You definitely need to watch the Norikio O'Ara one. Okay. I have. actually. That one is incredible. Poohole in Mexico. So yes, I did. But other than that, anyways, I'm not a big watcher of baking or chef competition,

so I am unaware of how it worked out for you. Yeah, so. Assume you didn't win. I did not win. I placed in ninth place, so a little bit better than halfway. We had a challenge that was called Beefsteak Challenge. and we basically have to cook this meal. Beefsteak was a meal that a lot of, like, wealthy people would do.

They would get really dressed up for it. They'd put on bibs, but then they'd eat completely with their hands. And it would be all large cuts of meats. And it was very kind of like... Carnivore-esque. Primal carnivore style. All right. And so in like real life, which is not top chef,

would go, okay, well, I'm just go get some big cuts of meat. They have bones on them and cook it all off, right? But they want to make it interesting. So there is, you have to, there's a requirement of you have to have seafood and you have to have vegetables and you have to, whatever. So I got picked to do seafood and we're cooking for like 300 people and we're shopping at Whole Foods. So, now granted, they probably let them know that we're coming in, blah, blah, but

they also want to, like, create some drama. So I get up there and all the halibut's gone, all the salmon's gone. Um, there's just tuna. And we have a budget. And tuna's like $45 a pound. And so I only get as much tuna as I could afford. And I create this. Yeah.

I create this dish that, and you can't just like cook a whole loined tuna and have people go into it with a fork and or their hands and pull a piece off. Right. It's just that type of, unless I like comb feed it or something. But again, there wasn't a good amount of ounces to be able to, you know, I felt like it was like a Bible story of like you got seven levels of bread and two fish, you've got to feed a thousand people, right? Like it was that kind of experience. And so I plate this very what pad might call dainty, pretty.

pretty dish that I used tweezers and microgreens on. And they're like, this is a beefsteak. This is like, I don't want to see this dainty blah blah. And so I ended up getting kicked off, not because the food was bad. Right. And at that moment, like, all these chefs were being kicked off for good food. Like, there was very few, like, absolute failures of quality. It was, didn't understand.

the expectation of the challenge, or you just had their least favorite dish. They didn't have catfish that day at Whole Foods when you were shopping. No, no. I mean, there was no whole fit. It was, it was so wild. No Brandzinos. Yeah. Well, there was Brandzinos.

Someone else had those. So I was, I already, he took them all. Well, pick it up. You survived. I survived. Did you get some takeaways from that? Absolutely. Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, just pivoting, right? I could have went down the shellfish road. I mean, there's always another method. I mean, when you're running through the grocery store like supermarket sweep, sometimes the thinking on your feet is difficult, right? And you really have to really have to just change the way you think about things and take a second to breathe and not, you know, fully freak out and stress out. And I think that show, like, they want people.

to freak out. And so I think they did a good job on setting the tone for it. I just didn't step up to the occasion. I have no hard feelings towards it. It was a great experience. Would I do it again? Probably not. Again, I want to be me. Well, we're here. We've taken kind of a circuitous route to get here, but I wanted to talk a little bit about your background. How did you get to Tijuana? So, I will do a quick story of this. So I've been traveling to Baja since I was eight years old. My grandfather's lived in San Felipe since the 70s. Wow.

I would argue that my grandfather is probably responsible for overpopulating San Felipe with white people. Not a proud moment for me I love my grandfather If you're ever listening to this Ramps I apologize But I love Baja for what it is

Right And I feel like he's tried to make it more of this Cold Sack America You know Residential environment right Rather than really what it is But obviously loves it because that's why he lives down there

full time and he has a couple of businesses and whatnot but getting to Tijuana um when i was the navy i married um my ex-wife her name is uviani she was from kuyuka benitez in guerrero um just outside of aquapulco and so i started to really fall in love with the culture beyond just the experience the very positive experience that i have had prior um and And then I applied that to a lot of my cooking. And then because my cooking had a lot of Baja and Latin American flavors to it, I started getting recognized by chefs who are across the border. The ones that you really care about.

Yeah, exactly. The cool kids. The cool kids. And they were coming into my restaurants. And then I was getting invited to cook at the Baja Culinary Festival and judge cooking competitions at Baja Culinary School. And then I competed in a competition with Javier Placencia and Diego Hernandez and Roberto Alcocer, right? And Javier and Roberto both have Michelin stars now in both in the States and in Mexico.

And the day before I was cooking at La Credencia with Miguel Angel Guerrero. and Monica Bateta. And the next day, I was competing against Miguel and Helguer. And instead of, when we won, instead of me going and partying with the guys that I won, I went back to Miguel and Helgaer's restaurant. And when I walked in, they looked at me like, what the hell are you doing here? And I was like, listen, guys, Miguel, you have welcomed me with open arms. I'm just some American kid who loves your food, loves Baja.

You've made me feel so welcome. Like, these guys are great. I don't know them very well, but I know you in the short period of time, and I just want to come and celebrate with you guys. And during that moment, they're all singing mariachi and, like, getting skunk drunk, and we're drinking mezcal with ral snake venom in it, like, all this stuff. And he asked me, would you be interested to go? on this trip that we're calling expedition Baja and he's like it's my buddies and I

we ride you know B&W Enduro bikes we take a big truck full of tons of wine and beer and tequila and mescal and we go from Tijuana all the way down to Cabo San Lucas and we fish and dive and we wine and we dine and we have a great time and I said it sounds like an incredible experience and I agree to go on the trip and it was a it was a 20-day trip. Wow. We started with like 15 guys and there was only like eight of us at the end of it. Wow.

Can you talk a little bit about the passion? I don't want to say on the other side of the border or in Baja, but there's a passion for life that I see when I'm there. Can you, am I right on that? Do you see it in the chefs that you've gotten to know there? There is an incredible amount of pride in their culture. and their history. The thing that we don't necessarily have in our country is the learning of where our food

has came from. And obviously food and culture in our country is very young, but it's very well-rooted in Mexico and in Bahá. And so different than here where I'm an American cooking Mexican food in the States, I'm being called out for racial appropriation, but cooking Mexican food in the United, Baja, I'm being thanked and praised for loving their culture and and and healthily exposing it to people who may not know much about their culture, right? Right, right.

So there was, I was being welcomed with open arms and that that's what I'm getting to. That I think is what a lot of people don't understand. I think I'm going to go to Mexico and there's going to be all this danger and there's all these things. And the truth that matter is, like, the danger, to be honest with you, is all, it's propaganda. You know what I mean? It's not, it's not, there's dangers everywhere. You're talking about the perceptions, the propaganda that we're fed on a regular basis to, I guess, make us feel more comfortable with life here. Yeah.

But absolutely all the questions I always get, crime, cartels, what have you. And I said, hey, man, it's the potholes. Yeah. It's the potholes. Yeah. Yeah, it's, you know, it's very interesting. So many people and our country as a whole talks about how dangerous Mexico is. And at the end of the day, it's just fear, right? And we've been presented this scary thing that there's these cartels and they're out to get Americans. Well,

the first thing that I will tell you from what I've learned is that, cartels, majority of them, especially large cartels, are businesses. And they're in the business of tourism, obviously drugs and things like that. But they don't want to mess with the CIA. They don't want to mess with the FBI. They don't want to mess with ATF. And Americans or tourists in general from any place are their bread and butter. Why would they kill the people who are spending money in their nightclubs, in their restaurants, in their hotels?

That makes zero sense at all. That is terrible business tactics. Right now, are there some very low-level cartels that make some dumb mistakes? We have the exact same problem in the United States. High-level gangs? You know, you look at the crypts and the bloods and hell's angels and things like that. When you get higher up in it, they're not making the big, dumb mistakes, right? They're trying to make money and protect their turf.

And so it doesn't matter where you go and anywhere in the world there's going to be dangerous. Mexico is not dangerous. Did I see some political things happen? Yes. Did I live in Tijuana for four years and never have a single problem? Absolutely. I never had a problem. I mean, I think back when I was in the Navy and I was, you know, a drunk sailing.

and there was, you know, before a lot of the, like, laws that have changed in the last decade, was I getting shaken down for money by police if I got pulled over? Yeah, but a lot of that's changed, right? You get a ticket and you're told to go to the courthouse right now and pay it. There's just a lot of false hood to it. And I've been all over the place in Mexico, all over the place. And specifically in Baja, I feel safer sometimes walking from, fourth on revolution to 10th on constitution to my apartment than I did walking from J Street to Market

Street in San Diego. Exactly. In the East Village. Yeah. You know? Yeah. So it's all false in my opinion. Yeah.

So talk a little bit about those years you were in Tijuana. You're out late. I would imagine being a chef in a restaurant. straunt that those hours are kind of late night hours. Did you have some favorite spots? Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, so in Mexico.

Did I see you at Dandy Del Sour at 2 o'clock in the morning? Absolutely. 100%. I was actually on munchies on Eater. So Javier Placencia, he and I used to live in the same apartment complex. And I'm hanging out in my apartment. Might have been smoking some pot. And he just walks right into my apartment because I was left the door unlocked.

And he's like, hey, I've got the guys from Eater and Munchy's here. And we're going to be, you know, walking down the road and going to our favorite places. And we were going to stop through La Hustina. And you want to walk with us? And I was like, absolutely. And so there was a DJ with us. And there was this gal named Carla that was with us who was a chef. and we're, you know, walking through.

And, you know, we go into Danny Delsore and have a couple drinks. They went to, what's that famous hot dog place? I can't remember it. But so anyways, we go into the Mescaloria and we walk through it. And then the guys who sing those songs, they're there. And the black band Tijuana sound machine. Yeah, we'll get that. Yeah.

And then we go to, we go to La Cuala. We go to La Custina and we sit down and he was talking about how, you know, how Tijuana is like a melting pot of cuisine and that Americans can come over here and cook food and cook our food and we can get really excited about it. You know, and then we went to a couple other different places and then we ended up at Caesar's Hotel and I'm making the Caesar salad on camera and we're drinking mezcal and doing bone marrow illusions. and I look like I'm about to pass out because it's like five o'clock in the morning. But yeah, I mean, there's so many late-night spots, you know, obviously Las Ahumedoras, the Taco Alley, you know, everybody's there. Did you have a favorite taco stand or shop? I like Taco Nazzo. That's really personal.

Taco Nazzo up by the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, uh, the, uh, soccer stadium. That was my favorite and I thought they had the best threepas in town. But I also remember a time that Javier Placencia's ex-wife took me to Tacos Frank. And this was during the Baja Colournery Festival and we had Tacos de Ojos and I may have had too many of those tacos that night after a lot of drinking. And for some reason, I thought I was going to get in trouble with Javier, but then he invited me to cook at the opening of Finca Altazano in Valle. So I guess it was all right. Hey, so talk about, I'm going to let you get out of here because I know you've got a day full of stuff.

A little bit about the Valle. So we've covered a bit of tacos in Tijuana, Tacos Frank. You know, it is a personal decision who your allegiances lie with. won't press you on that. Yeah. But tell me a little bit about the Valle. Do you have a couple favorite spots there, friends who have places that you really respect what they're doing? Absolutely.

You know, Roberto Alcocer with Malva, I think that his food is absolutely incredible. I mean, before you get to Valle, obviously, there's a lot of restaurants over there. Sabina with Lagerencia, some of the best saviche. and Mariscoes that you will have anywhere in Baja. And the fact that she's like almost 90 years old and working the car every day is incredible. I mean, just full of love and smile. And life, yeah.

Love and smiles. So happy. I mean, if I had to stand on a stool for that many hours, shuck and fresh, you know, oysters and clams and scallops and things like that, like I'd probably complain a little bit. And she is just out there just hustling and having a, a great time and you know we'll wrap you up in the warmest hug yeah um obviously you know finca altazano is a special place to me because i was invited to come and cook at their their grand

opening um and i've been i've been invited back to cook with them um cortisone de tierra diego you know opened me up in a warm embrace uh introduced me to baha along with haviere la esperanza with Miguel Angel Guerrero, absolutely incredible. Laha, Jair, food, absolutely incredible. But now you've got Bruma that's out there. Not bad. That's David Castro, yeah? Yeah.

Yeah, David. David. David Hussein Castro. That's what I was thinking. Sorry, I saw you getting hung up there. Yeah. Valle is such, like, an incredible space. I mean, I can't leave out, obviously, La Hustina.

that space is absolutely incredible. They've got this sign out in the vineyard that says you look good. And it's kind of like that Instagram worthy photo that's, you know, a neon sign in the middle of night. And they throw a party, a pretty gnarly party every day. And it's changed a lot since when I first went there. I mean, there was, I think probably, you know, 100 wineries back then. and now there's just hundreds of places to go. And still it feels very rural.

There's still some dirt roads. There's still some rural charm to it. Absolutely, yeah. Hey, let's change gears here and talk a little bit about what you're up to with your Jeep and your trailer, new trailer. New trailer. And what you're doing with that and cooking and overlanding and how all that goes together.

Let's talk about your 10-course dinner and what you're up to and why you're here, I guess. Yeah, so last May I started transition out of the restaurants that I owned and focused on doing off-road outdoor dining. I created a company called Trail Feast. You can find us on Trailfeast.com, or you can follow me on Instagram at Chef Chad White to find more information about it.

But we are an off-road outdoor dining experience. So we give people a coordinates, a location in the middle of the woods, typically on BLM land or dispersed camping areas or state land. And we give them a couple of routes to get there. One, that is for people who don't mind a little bit of redneck pinstriping on their truck. And then the other one is for people that might have a road. really nice fifth wheel that they'd like to keep its value up. And, and, you know, mostly paved road type scenario. So people arrive. We welcome them with cocktails often that are using

ingredients that we forge, or using fats from animals that were cooking to fat-wash mescals and do like a fat-washed mescal negroni or old-fashioned and things like that. Sounds horrible. And then they get a watch me cook. And I cook all primitive style over campfire. We do bushcraft to build our cooking vessels and things like that. And so we do two different format of dinners. We do one that is a whole animal, usually a whole lamb, done more like Mediterranean Baja style.

And then some sides and things that go with it. And we do it on a big iron cross, kind of like a pariah. Kind of like Francis Malman. Just like Francis Malman. That was referencing earlier. And then the other one is we do. I see a slow Baja dinner coming soon. Let's do it.

And the other one is a 10 course, fine dining experience without like the highbrow environment. Right. We're all sitting in chairs like this and we're eating around the campfire. But you're getting 10 different courses of composed dishes. And then the next morning we do brunch a little bit of a later morning because we get around the campfire, we kind of get shitted up. I tell a few fibs around the campfire. More like just stretches of the imagination.

I'm not going to lie to people, most of the time. Enough mess gal, you never know what will happen. Yeah, I mean, I get real creative with my storytelling. Yeah, and it's been absolutely incredible. Most of my business has been with other businesses who are looking to launch products in the environment, the products are being used. But we do have some consumer-based experiences.

It's great for Bachelor and Bachelorette parties. It's great for team-building exercises. It's great for just a group of people to get together and have an experience people meeting in the middle of Baja, in Mulejah, on the beach. Sounds terrific. Just pulling fish out of the water. Well, Chad, you've got me fired up.

I was fired up when I mentioned last time, which was a cold and gray and miserable weather-wise when we were first met in Southern California. It's gorgeous here. I can't wait to get out on the trail with you some time and bring some Slow Baja folks out to have your fabulous cuisine. So you just covered it. Best places for folks to find you. That's Chef Chad White on Instagram. And Trail Feast. Also on Instagram.

And then the website. website. Yep, exactly. www. www. com. Yeah, you can learn all about what we do. There's a lot of information on there.

If you have any questions, please reach out to us. We'd be happy to do something custom for you. I mean, it's just, it's a really good time. Nowadays, people are looking for experiences. We've all gone to all these great restaurants, and I've done in Meshlyn and Star restaurants. I've dine in street food, environments, all over the world. world and the experience has always been greater than the product itself and that's what we want to do is we want to provide something that is memorable for people to talk about for the rest of their lives

well i got to tell you the product you're delivering on the plate is is uh top notch as well what are you feeding me tonight uh tonight that's a good oh we have a bunch of smoked pork belly it'll be horrible yeah it's not going to be good maybe we'll do like The rack of lamb last night was spectacular. Was it good? I've been eating leftovers, just hanging around Chad's place, eating the leftovers. Sometimes things fall off the table. Exactly.

Well, Chad, it's been a real delight getting to talk to you a little bit about your life on Slow Baja, and I can't wait to have an event with you out in the middle of nowhere. Yeah, thanks for having me. It's been, as much you've been kind and nice to me, it's about how cool I've been. You're pretty rad, dude. Well, we're going to leave it right there. Cheers. Saludos. See you in Baja.

Well, I hope you enjoyed that podcast. Yes, Chef. I'm in Chicago. You know, we watched The Bear. Yes, Chef. Chef Chad White. Wow. Doing cool stuff.

Can't wait to get everybody out in the dirt, watching them cook over an open flame, having some craft Fortaleza cocktails. That sounds like a really nice way to spend a weekend. If you like what I'm doing here, if you like what I'm doing, you got to drop a taco in the tank. That's the way.

that you keep this show going. That's the way you tell me. Thanks, man. Thanks for bringing me this stuff that keeps me going when I'm not in Baja or keeps me going on the way to Baja or the way back from Baja. Hours and hours and hours. I did a lecture at Overland Expo on So You Want to Start a podcast and I had to look up my own stats. 162 episodes. Can't believe it. Now there's a lot of hours of me telling you to drop a taco in the tank. So do it. Please. for favor. All right. And if you don't have any tacos, you know, I get it. I get it. I don't have any tacos either. So you can always drop a five-star review on Apple podcast or Spotify. That really does help people find the show as well. And that has to be good for karma or something, right? Yeah,

that's got to be good. We've got some new stuff in the store. They're not even on the store yet, but, or in the store yet, but they are in stock. I've got a bunch of new foam front. So if you're a foam front truck or wear and you want to rock a new hat. Well, keep an eye on the Slow Baja shop because we're going to have four or five new styles coming in before you know it. Also, I've got a super summery white Haynes Buffy Tea Pocket T, a Slow Baja logo big on the back, Slow Baja, small on the front on the pocket. You can rock that all summer and into the winter for you, SoCal, folks. So check that out. That'll be in the Slow Baja shop in no time. They are in stock already, but they'll be in the shop before you know it. And again, I've got a couple spots left on

the slow Baja vintage in October. That's October 11th through 18th. A couple spots there. October 11th through 18th. If you've got something cool, something old, 30 years and older. I'm going to have Sal Fish pouring the Fortaleza on that trip. That's right. The godfather of off-road racing, Sal Fish pouring the Fortaleza. And Kurt La Duke is going to be my sweep and my mechanic. So cheap guys, Bronco guys, scout guys. You land cruiser guys don't have to worry about that stuff. But Kurt LaDuke can fix anything. So if you got something and you want to get down to Baja with me on a vintage trip,

this is the trip to do it. Do not delay. Get on Slow Baja. Go to the shop. Hit that deposit. And let's have some fun in October on the Slow Baja vintage. And of course the winter trip, they've got a couple spots left on that. I think there's five or six open spots left on that trip.

That's next March. But you do want to get in soon because those trips are small and they do fill up. And, you know, there are only so many positions for you to get out and see the whales with me. All right. Well, if you like hearing me yabber on, you've heard the entire show. So I'm going to tell you about Steve McQueen and Mary McGee. And, you know, Mary McGee's documentary motorcycle, Mary, was nominated for Best Short Sports Documentary. It did not win the Emmy, but it was an amazing film.

I implore you to see it, Motorcycle Mary. It's on YouTube now. But Mary had a pal, Steve McQueen, and Steve implored Mary to get out off her pansy road racer and get out to the desert with him and his boys. And she did. And she kicked ass. And she rode with Steve and she rode with the Eakins brothers. And she had a great time. She was the first person to solo the Baja 500.

truly astonishing. But Steve, well, he loved Baja. And he said, you know, Mary, Baja is life. Anything that happens before or after? It's just waiting. You know, people always ask me, what's the best modification that I've ever made to slow Baja? Without a doubt, it's my Shielman seats. You know, Toby at Shield Man USA could not be easier to work with. He recommended a Vero F for me and a Vrero F XXL for my navigator, Ted. His Ted's kind of a big guy. was absolutely right. The seats are great and they fit both of us perfectly. And let me tell you, after driving around Baja for over a year on these seats, I could not be happier.

Shieldman, slow Baja approved, learn more and get yours at shieldman.com. You know, I'm all about keeping things simple, traveling light, and finding the really good stuff. And that's why I've been wearing iron and resin for years. It's not just clothes. It's gear that holds up in the dust. the salt, the spilled tacos, and still looks good when you roll into town. Made in small batches by folks who care, no flash, no fast fashion, just the kind of stuff that gets better, the more you wear it. Check them out at iron and resin.com and pick up something that'll last the next thousand miles.