Live Like a Girl with Dr. Mindy Pelz - Learning The Traditions of Food from Elder Women with Chef Jeff Weiss

Episode Date: November 11, 2024

Rooted in a background as an Olympic-level skater, Chef Jeff Weiss (one of the key chefs behind Dr. Mindy's new book, Eat Like a Girl) highlights the importance of health and nutrition, especially for women. Chef Jeff explores the mentor-driven path through culinary training, highlighting experiences from kitchens around the world, including mastering traditional Spanish charcuterie and appreciating the role of elder women in culinary traditions. This episode also delves into creating the perfect dining experience, the significance of ambiance, and the neurochemical joy food can bring. Emphasizing holistic dining experiences, personal health choices, and the passion underlying Michelin-star quality cooking, this script appeals to middle-aged women by focusing on wellness, tradition, and the artistry of shared meals. To view full show notes, more information on our guests, resources mentioned in the episode, discount codes, transcripts, and more, visit https://drmindypelz.com/ep261 Chef Jeff Weiss has cooked with James Beard award-winning chef José Andrés and Spanish-based chefs Daní Garcia and Adolfo Muñoz. He is one of a select few Americans to earn the prestigious ICEX culinary scholarship, which allowed him to live in Spain, learn the regional cuisines, and cook in the kitchens of top Spanish chefs. This made him the perfect collaborator on the omnivore recipes for Eat Like a Girl, and as a former competitive figure skater, he knows exactly how to fuel an active body. Check out our fasting membership at resetacademy.drmindypelz.com. Please note our medical disclaimer.

On this episode of the Resetter podcast, I bring you one of my chefs from Eat Like a Girl, Chef Jeff Weiss. Now, many of you, by the way, love the interview that I did with Chef Leslie. It has been one of our top performers. So if you haven't listened to that one, please go back and listen to that because we went all into the kitchen and talked about all the things you needed to really master cooking within your home. what you're about to hear in this episode is a professional chef that came up through the ranks

of incredible restaurant kitchens. In fact, he has been trained by some of the best. And in his training, not only did he get to learn from top chefs like Jose Andres, who is known for his incredible Spanish cuisine, but he got to learn. a whole skill set from women. And this is why this conversation is so important, because when I went to go put eat like a girl out into the world, and I started to dive into the culinary experiences that so many of us have either in our home or in restaurants,

I realized, check this out. I realized that so much influence has happened in the culinary world from women. And it's not just women's chefs. It's like ancient traditions, ancient recipes that are passed down from generation to generation. And Chef Jeff, what you're going to hear in this episode is he was blessed to learn from what he calls the Sabia, the women in Spain. He literally, he'll tell you the story. You're going to hear it. He was honored to go learn from these women that are sharing these long lineage of recipes from general.

from generation to generation, they invited him in to learn the magic of cooking through their eyes. And their specialty, by the way, was meat. So a lot of, he learned charcutory. He learned how to sauce meat, do different rubs on meat. It's a real beautiful story. And in this episode, you're going to hear about, get like a lens of what it's like to be a traditional chef.

What is that restaurant experience like for a chef? And we even dive into what is the restaurant experience and why is it so attractive to so many of us? That was a phenomenal part of the conversation. But if you're looking to take your culinary skills to the next level, this is the episode for you because you're going to learn from a professionally trained chef who has learned from the masters and has sat with the women that are passing down the history and the depth of connection that food can create for all of us.

So it's a really different interview than I've ever done before. Chef Jeff has owned many very successful restaurants. He's been a part of many restaurants that have been honored with Michelin Stars. He has written his own book on charcutory. He was an Olympic level pairs figure skating. I mean, this guy has so much. You can read all about it in Eat Like a Girl. and many of you are enjoying his recipes.

But in this episode, you're going to get a real glimpse into the knowledge that comes from a man who has sat with the masters. And that knowledge is now being passed on to you. So enjoy. Welcome to the Resetter podcast. This podcast is all about empowering you to believe in yourself again. If you have a passion for learning, if you're looking to be in control of your health and take your power back, this is the podcast for you. So, okay, so here's where I'm going to start this story is with your figure skating life.

Because when we went to put the book together, I've told you pieces of this. I was really clear that my specialty is nutrition. I understand it, but I am not a chef. So when I went to put, eat like a girl together, I was like, we need some professional chefs. And then it was like, the next step was like, well, we need professional chefs that could understand why women need to eat a certain way. And that's when your name came up. You know, it's, you know, my first question to you was, why do you want a guy for that?

And, I mean, I understand that, you know, for a lot of men, I mean, look, I'm, I'm pretty careful with my health. that I understand things about what a guy needs. But yeah, in my background, like, I was a Paris figure skater. I went to the Olympic Training Center year over year over year. I, you know, my Paris partner, I've had a few of them. They're your closest friend. They're your business partner.

They're someone, I mean, as a guy, as a paris skater, it's your job to look out for this girl. Yeah. You know, at that time, I'm, you know, five foot whatever as I was growing up. And you put this girl over your head and, you know, she's that much. higher up there. It was always instilled in me by my coaches and like, look, she's putting her trust in you. You need to make sure that you look out for her and that she's coming down on her feet and that you're, you know, you're taking care of each other, but that's the man's role is to take care of the girl. And that's, that's the paris skating side of things. Right. From the health

and wellness standpoint, I sat in on those seminars. And, you know, it's, it was, you know, for the, for the pair stuff, for the Olympic training center stuff, it was for, for, for everybody. It was nutrition. And so I was, obviously, in my own life, I look out for, you know, things that I need to do, but I've been exposed to what women need for more than I think the average man just because of, you know, the byproduct of being in those environments. And so when you came to me with this, with this project and said, here's what we're doing. We have to figure out what to cook and how to cook it. And I thought, well, I've been a paris skater. I know a lot about, you know, health and nutrition, whether it's for men or

women and I can cook. Yes, you can. So here we are. Well, let's go. You know what's really funny is you actually said two things to me that really hit me. Um, one is you said the job in Paris figure skating for the man is to make sure that you always protect the woman. And you just said a version of that right now.

And what has come up from Fast Like a Girl, I went on all these podcasts and the best podcasts were the one where men would interview me. And they would ask questions of curiosity. of how do I help the females in my life? And I learned that men wanted to be included in the conversation around women's health. Sure. So when you said that, that I know, you know, I've come from this, and then we'll get into learning from the elder women in Spain. It was just, you know, a beautiful way to bring your culinary skills into this lens in which you've been paired up, no pun intended with women. Hey, nice job. So can we start with?

just so people understand your pairs background. Because we're not talking like you were just down. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You were a, we got pretty far. Yeah, you got pretty far. I started skating when I was four years old. My mom took me to the local mall for those from the Bay Area, San Mateo, Fashion Island, back in the day. Wow.

And I sat down in the middle of the ice and I started to cry. That was my first exposure to figure skating, go figure. Don't know where we went from there, but I did lessons. And many years later, I started doing pairs. You did pairs, went up the ranks as you do. And eventually got to a point where, yeah, we were competing at Skate America. We were representing the United States. We were, I forget what year we were Olympic alternates.

Like it was a pretty significant climb in skating that, you know, from the typical, just the recreational, all the way up through the ranks to representing your country and standing on a podium and hearing the anthem. Like, okay, that's, that's something. We were on ABC Wild World of Sports back in the day, the whole thing. Wow. And did you have the same partner the whole time? No, so, you know, as happens in paris skating, you know, as you're growing older and, you know, whether one, you know, one girl, you know, the girl gets too tall and you, you know, it doesn't work anymore because one has a growth spurt or, you know, it's someone, there was, even when my,

my partners were injured, I usually, I, I, I'm a, I'm a loyal person by nature. So I can think of one partner where I stuck with her, even through the injury and we kept training. And a lot of times an injury means the guys are a hot commodity in figure skating. Okay. And so guys would, if someone got injured, then they moved to the next guy. I'm, I stuck with my partners. And, you know, so yeah, I mean, overall, we, we with a couple of different partners, I think I had one, two, three, four, five over my career.

Okay. Of more than two decades. And we got, you know, we got really pretty far. That's amazing. And the other thing I said to you in that first call was I said, are you familiar? with the rhythms of a woman's menstrual cycle and how you have to train differently, have to eat differently. And you said you guys actually paid attention to that. We, as much as a guy can, you know, let's get like, yeah, I mean, absolutely. Like there are certainly,

you know, when you, when you're, when you're, when you're training and you're getting older and your, you and your partner are getting older and these things become a reality through puberty and all that stuff. You know, there's, there are certain things that you need to do like, you know, you're going train harder or less hard because there's there's health issues involved with that with whether it's that time of the cycle or whatever and you know and also there are there are nutritional aspects to that as well that i mean you know this is relatively new information in the sports world even today yeah yep yep and so back then it may know we it was just generally known from what i can remember that you know yeah they're the you know if if she

my partner would need to have, you know, have different foods at that time. And that's just, you know, that's what it was. Yeah. And it was less of an explanation of it, just, hey, that's what we're going to do. Which is amazing. And that's what my dream is for right now is that we start all talking that language. So, okay, then you got that when your career as a Paris figure skating skater ended, you went into culinary.

I did. I, well, I wound up coaching for a while in between and while I was, well, I started out, going to a college or hospitality management. My coach is a phenomenal person named Tracy Prusack, who is one of the most respected coaches, not just in figure skating, but in sport in general. Wow. And, you know, so she's the one who really instilled in me

the idea of taking care of the partner and taking care of the girl. And, you know, when you're lifting her over your head, that, you know, whatever happens to me happens to me, but she comes down on her feet. And that was, so Tracy was the one who, you know, has been my mentor and coach. And there are those out there who'll be watching who will know that name.

And so I wound up, I was lucky enough to be able to coach alongside Tracy with a lot of her students over the years when I was transitioning from a competitive athlete and then coaching and then also doing my schooling on the side. Right. And through coaching, you know, you get another aspect of the sport. Yeah. And that's then from there, and I got into cooking. And, you know, it's an interesting thing when you go into the cooking world and you're, you know,

I had a very good mentor on the chef's side as well. but you're starting from the bottom. You're, you know, here's someone coming up from an Olympic level, you know, athlete, top of the game. And you're walking in and, you know, saying, I'd like to peel onions now. And, you know, and, you know, getting the, going through the typical, I'm not going to call it hazing because that's not really what it is, but you're, you know, you're the low man on the totem pole.

Yeah. And it's time to learn again. So that thing in the bear where, what was that one episode? I think he went to Noma. Uh-huh. And he had to do one thing. All day long. Like, yeah, if you would, like shine the forks or something all day long.

That's reality. Oh, that is absolutely reality. And it's the reality of a few things. One, it's the reality of what those operations need and that's just how it is and somebody's got to do it. But two, it's also, it's funny. I just went back and watched the karate kid and the whole like wax on wax off thing. Like I had to, for an example, I had, every day I had to do a case of onions. and every day I had to cut him a different way.

Right. And, you know, the first day, it took me all day to do a case of onions, just to regular slice it. And I can tell you all these stories, like my mentor, he's around the corner. He showed me how to do it. He's around the corner working and I'm cutting, and he can just yell. I can hear you doing it wrong. Oh, my God.

It was very, you know, and we laughed at all the time, but he was right. And so then over time, very much like the karate kid. like you have that case of onions, you go from having all day to do it to now it took me 20 minutes, what's next? Right. And then you eventually progressed to the kitchen. And that's, that was my training and it was very much in that style of appreciating those little things like the shining the forks or whatever.

Those lead to more things and learn to your capacity to do more and grow. Right. So then would the, would that make sense that? When we're cooking in the kitchen, it's the little things that make a big difference. Oh, there's a very famous saying that comes from a very famous chef. I believe Marco Pierre White was the first one to say the saying. And he says, perfection is a lot of little things done right. Ah, yeah.

Or a million little things done right. Yes. Perfection is not a thing. It is many things. And if they're all done right, then you've met that goal. Oh, amazing. And that's, yeah, absolutely. Like, we made, you know, earlier today, we made the salmon dish.

Yeah. So, you know, it's getting the brine right. And then it's getting the glaze right. Yeah. And it's cooking the fish right. And then it's getting the glaze on the fish right. And then by the end of it, we were all standing around the stove picking at the salmon because it was so good.

Right. It was only so good because all the little things were done right. Ooh. I think that's like a, I love life philosophy and I love looking at other areas. Micro macro. Yeah. And it's like, that's really interesting. It's like the day you get.

the days right so you can get the months right. You know, it's, and then the months are right so you can get the years right. I really love that. So, okay, now you're in the culinary world and where, where, where, did you start in a restaurant? Yeah, so I was very fortunate to fall into my mentor's restaurant for a couple of years and, you know,

getting yelled at for cutting onions wrong when he's not even looking at me, but he knew, he was right. Yeah, right. And then, you know, eventually I got into Cornell University. I got into the hotel school, and I'll never forget it. I showed up, Steve, my mentor, Steve Chan, very well-known chef in the Bay Area, and I got the acceptance letter from Cornell. And I come to the restaurant, I'm like, because he was always a big proponent, like,

he felt because I had some skill in the kitchen, not a lot, and he let me know that, but enough that he said, you know, culinary school isn't the best move for you. You need business school so you can. And so I showed up with my letter from Cornell University saying I got in. And he looks me up and down and he goes, that's great. You're not ready. Oh. And what do you mean?

He goes, you have more to learn here. And so I said, well, I could defer for a year. He goes, yeah, do that, defer. And so you know what I did? I called up Cornell University after getting accepted and going through the rigorous process. Hi, poopie. And I said, you know, thanks for letting me in. Can we do this in a year?

Yeah. They let me. I said, my mentor, they totally understood. You didn't come say hi, hello. It's a good story. I know. It's a good story. And so I stuck around for a year.

Best thing I ever did. And he kicked my butt for a year. And then I went to Cornell and went from there. Wow. Okay. And then where along your path, the other parts of the story that I learned, or that as we were trying to put together, this incredible culinary team for the book,

was that you studied in Spain from the elder women. So I was very fortunate that, Part of at Cornell, I was Jose Andreas, the famous chef who is an incredible human being. And everything you've heard about him is 100% true. He is that guy. That's amazing. And he, I got to cook in his kitchens with him. And then eventually he recommended me for a scholarship to cook in Spain for a year.

And lo and behold, I got in. And so I was one of the only, you know, 12 people in the world. Wow. So cook, got to go to Spain, cook at a bunch of famous restaurants. But I, my first chef who I trained with in Toledo, which is where they grow the safferson, He looked at me one day. It was kind of slow. And he said, is there anything that you haven't seen in Spain that you want to do?

And I said, you know, I have a background of butchering, charcuttery. And I would love to go to the countryside and learn how to do that there. And he, the next day he came in, he goes, okay, tomorrow you're getting on a train and you're going to go to my friend Carlos Tristancho's place. And you're going to stay at his, he owns a five-star resort. You're going to stay at the hotel, work in the one Michelin-Star restaurant. And I know, you just loving this. It's a good story.

And you're going to just wait to the part where you take care of the pigs. Don't worry. You're a dog whisper. Exactly. And so, and he said, you're going to, every weekend, we do the Matanza where we, Matanza is a very famous, it's like the party where they, where they harvest a pig. It's, it goes back, you know, millennia. But they'll basically, all the kind of the wealthier folk from Madrid take a helicopter out to Carlos's place.

It's a big party. It's a weekend thing. And then we make chorizo. We do all the things with the pig that traditionally they would do. Okay. And it harkens back to these traditions in Spain when in poorer times before refrigeration where you have what are called the sabias, which are the wise women. And they work with the matanzeros, which are the butchers.

And so they go from town to town, farm to farm. And they say, okay, hi, you know, we're going to harvest your pig. and they get paid to, you know, harvest one to however many pigs. Okay. And they break them down. The men are outside breaking them down. The women are inside. And the meat gets passed and the women do the, you know, they're called wise women for a reason.

They carry all the recipes and the tricks and the secrets for making all the, the recipes like the chorizos, the sausages, the, the other, the braises and all those sorts of things. And so I got to study with. some of the last sabias and matanceros, who works exclusively with this where I was, that every, every, you know, every week they would come in, and, you know, like three of the women are named Carmen and three of the men are named Jose, because that's just how it is.

And it's, I wrote about this and I wrote a cookbook when I came back to America called Chaucutaria the Soul of Spain. It won a James Beard nomination. You can go on Amazon and buy it. And it, it was the first book that was ever written about this with photos because they, they said, look, you know, most people don't understand what we do, so we're a little nervous about you taking photos.

I was going to want, I wonder, or just about handing this, this treasure off to you. It was an incredible honor that they said, look, we trust you. Right. You'll tell our story. And that's, that's what, you know, my, my, my agent, my, my publisher were kind of laughing because, like,

my ugly face only shows up in that book like twice. Because the book is not about me. Right. The book is about this tradition, these stories, these people, this history. and the fact that really no one's ever talked about it. Interesting. And are they, when they were handing the wisdom down,

because this is another thing that you and I've talked a bit about today, is that in our culture, we, as women get, especially, get older, we toss them aside. And it's horrible. And I'm trying to, I really, actually, when you break down what happens to a female brain as she goes through menopause, our brain actually is the most productive in our postmenopausal years.

and there's so much wisdom in the elder women even here. You're like, for that's the opposite. Well, probably. You said that. Not me. Yeah. But there's in just general and culturally, there's so much wisdom that so many elders can give us. So I can't even, like, as you tell the story, I'm sort of envisioning, like, here you are this, like, how old were you?

Oh, I was in my just barely 30s. Yeah, so you're like a young whippersnapper. I'm a young dude. Oh, they made fun. Let me tell you some, those savages, they're, they're, they, they, they, they hazed me a little. They gave me a hard time. They're like, you know, when you're, when you're, when you're making sausages and it's a rather phallic exercise. Yes.

And you're not making them and they don't look right. Yeah, in Spanish and in English, you're going to hear about it in ways that are probably not appropriate to talk about. But then again, it's just, it's a party. Yeah. And, you know, the other side of that, of course, is, you know, the women run the show, over there, the Sabias. And, you know, if you don't work, you don't drink. They hold the liquor hostage.

Smart. Uh-huh. Is that actually a culinary thing? Like, if you, if, what if you drink while you're, while you're cooking? I mean, this was not a, like, I wouldn't call this a professional kitchen per se. This was very much a party person, but like, also, you know, it's, so, you know, there's, I think Anthony Bordains does it really well, is that, you know, those of us who work in kitchens and restaurants and there's a sort of pirate mentality.

of, you know, these are the misfits who didn't necessarily work out for a nine to five job, historically speaking. I mean, now you have people with architecture degrees and all these, you know, they're all, they like, they'll go into kitchens. Yeah. So, but historically, those of us who've worked in kitchens and it's just, we gravitate in that direction because it's less rules, less regulations, and in years gone by, you can do it with a drink in your hand.

Wow, yeah. And, and it's creation. You're creating. It is very much an artistic. enterprise, which isn't a surprise then that you may not know this, but quite a few figure skaters have actually gone the route of culinary. That's crazy, but it makes sense. I mean, you know, we've talked about the fact that my son is launching into chef life.

And he was very artistic as a child. So you sort of see that through line. And I would say that's what I love about cooking just in general is it is a form of art. It is. The other piece of it, and you and I talked about this, is everybody's really obsessed with the bear, including our family. And that last, the last episode on the bear really made me look at the art of cooking different, which is, it was where they bring all the chefs together. Oh, the funeral. Yeah, they're at the funeral and they're closed the restaurant. And then they talk about

these famous chefs get up and talk about why they love being a chef. And it came across to me as something that's very nurturing. It's like you're bringing together people around all different kinds, of scenarios, but you're connecting them via food. Yeah. I mean, look, I'll say this about the bear. There's been a lot written about it and said, like, I mean, anything that's on a screen, I don't care if it's a little screen or a big screen. Right.

It is going to be a somewhat metaphorical and sensationalized look into whatever that thing is, simply because it's entertainment. Yeah. Now, they did a heck of a job with this. and they really put a lot of realism and thought, and I really like the show as a whole. Right. You know, it is, there's some Hollywood going on,

but that being said, you know, chefs tend to, we do tend to wax poetic a little about what we do. And just because by nature of the fact that it is, there's an artistic side to it, and there's also, you ask any chef, when we make a recipe, whatever it is, the first thing we want after we tried it is we want someone else to try it. Right.

We want to give that to someone. Interesting. And it's partly, it's not showing off and it's not like, you know, it's not like I crave the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the out of boy that this is good. There's something in the act of giving this thing that you created to someone else for validation. and it's, I mean, it's validation. It's just the act of giving and hospitality. Love. There's some love in there.

They always, we always say, hey, there's love in this food. Like, that's a, that's a real thing. You can tell when there's love in food and you can tell when there, there is no love in that food. Right. And it's a very real thing. And so to that end, there is a poetry to it all. Yeah. So what's interesting is that I think, you and I talked about this in the beginning.

I've been thinking a lot about the power of the environments. in which you eat your food. Okay. Because we have so much emphasis about our culture and like, oh, you got to eat this, don't eat that. And that seems to be what everybody thinks about with food. But I'm curious, especially since you've owned restaurants, helped restaurants, been in so many restaurants,

I've actually come to this conclusion that just as nurturing of the food, just as important as the food is the environment in which you are eating it. So with that in mind, then I look at something like the bear. I look at stories I've heard about the intensity of these restaurants where like the chefs are like going after them. And I'm thinking, wait, is that good for me to go and eat in that environment with that level, especially if there's a lot of bullying going on in the kitchen or a lot of chaos, do I want to go and eat in that kind of environment? What do you think of that? Well, there's a few things going on in that question, right? Yeah.

First of all, the environment in of itself in which we consume food, which, I mean, you're the doctor in the conversation, but certainly stressors affect how that food affects us. Right. You know, so if you're in a relatively calm environment, an enjoyable environment, versus one that is not calm and enjoyable, or even if you're just, you know, wolfing down a bowl of whatever in front of the TV. Right. I presume, correct me if I'm wrong, that those things, those things will affect us differently how we deploy those nutrients if we even get those nutrients. Right, right. And what else is going on our body, the cortisol levels and all those sorts of things, right?

Well, I mean, so we have two nervous systems, one that speeds us up and one that slows us down, and the slow down one is called the parasympathetic, otherwise known as rest and digest. So rest and digest were meant to go together. sense. So when I go to a nice restaurant where there is incredible service and a great ambiance and the food is great, like I can eat dessert, I can have an extra drink, I can do things in that environment and walk away and it is simulated into my body because the environment itself was nurturing. Makes sense. And put me in this parismpathetic state. So there's a big overarching word that we use in the business that talks about all this. And it's the big,

where it is experience. Yeah. The experience of that restaurant. And it's a really interesting word and it's an interesting way that that's utilized because obviously we want, you know, when I, when I make a Spanish restaurant, when I make a Asian or Thai restaurant, there's an overarching experience. I want the guest to feel an experience. And, you know, that really is the kind of one of the guiding guide posts for how that restaurant and

that dining and all the things that fall under the word experience, how that person is made to feel in those four walls. Right. Right. Sometimes, and there's some restaurants that intentionally try to make you uncomfortable or to challenge the guest and to make the guest question what's on the plate and what's going on, those tend to be the more kind of Michelin-y. We can get into those later, but like the Michelin Star places,

and the place that are actually trying to be almost like an edible art installation. Right. And that's a whole, that's maybe a whole different thing where the food is a component of that experience in the way that an interactive art or play is the same thing, right? Interesting. But that being said, you know, we come back to why does, why do we go out to eat? Why? We can make food at home.

This is a really good question. Why do we get out of our nice comfortable home, get out of our nice comfortable clothes, put on other clothes, get in our car, drive to a place, sit in somebody else's place, and order food that we may or may not know exactly what's in it or what's going on? It's a really good question. Yeah, and sometimes we wait hours. Yeah, just for the opportunity to sit in that chair and have that food. Okay, so why do we do that? Well, these are the motivating factors, I guess, of, you know, whether it's being, you know, the social experience,

you're meeting your friends, your, you know, it comes, for me, it always comes back to that word experience. Yeah. What is the value proposition? What is the experience that my Spanish restaurant or my, my, you know, whatever, whatever, my Thai restaurant or my pizza restaurant, whatever, what is the thing that is getting that person that they say, I got to go there because.

Yeah. And or in the case of the grand Michelin restaurants that may challenge the conventions of the average guest, I got to go there because. Yeah. There are, there are folks out there who they travel the world and their, their goal that what they want to do is they want to die at every single one, two, and three, start. our Michelin restaurant. They want to check those boxes and have those experiences and say I was there. So why? I don't know that there's necessarily any one answer for that. I haven't thought on it.

I'd love to hear. Because I think through the lens of neuroscience. Yeah. And I think there's a neurochemical reaction that happens in a great dining experience. And that's what pulls you off the couch and goes to go to have that. It's like another hit of the drug. It's a hit of the drug. And the two drugs that you're getting are oxytocin and dopamine. So oxytocin, anytime you're bringing people together and gathering and connection, you're getting, you're getting that oxytocin. Like, we're getting oxytocin right now in a conversation. So when you go into that environment and there's people and there's smiles and there's like, you know, caring, like, I'll tell you one of the things I love the best when I get to a nice restaurant is when I get up to go to the bathroom and they folded my napkin.

They take care of you. Yeah. Yeah. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's like that concept is so cool to me. You feel valued. You feel there's so much you feel from all that. Yeah. So that's oxytocin. And then the food is giving you these dopamine hits, maybe a little bit of serotonin. And if it's a brand new restaurant, dopamine loves novelty.

So anytime you're in a novel situation, you're getting extra dopamine. Oh, that's so interesting. I mean, that we, as a chef, I'm going to just say it, a lot of us roll our eyes about like the new Insta, TikTok food. trend like oh the the the you know i got i got to go get my rolled croissant with the cream filling and like the one i love is like the cotton candy burrito i'm not knocking the cotton candy burrito shots out there god bless you make money like there's there's things with all that and you go i don't know that i'm ever craving that and i wonder i i the business brain to me says yeah okay someone's clearly wanting to go there and get that i know a lot of folks will

now that makes sense what you just said, that the novelty aspect, they're getting something out of it. What that novelty is, yeah, maybe it's, there's some FOMO going on, fear missing out, or the look at meism that you get from Instagram

and from being online, but if there truly is a dopamine hit of, you know, I got this novel item and look at, and here it is, that explains a little bit. Yeah. No, I really do think at restaurants, like the ones you created and cooked in,

there is a, neurochemical response, which that it has a, which is why you literally will get up off the couch and go and drive, get dressed, drive, and wait because it's like, that's what dopamine does. That's what oxytocin does is it drives you to be attracted to it. So it's really interesting. Mind blowing. Right. And with oxytocin, the fascinating part about that is that when oxytocin is high, cortisol goes down. So now you're taking a stressed out culture. and you're giving them an opportunity to calm their cortisol down. That makes sense.

And then if you calm cortisol, all of a sudden, you become more insulin sensitive. So people are actually having a better metabolic experience if the environment is nurturing and fun. And you haven't even put the food in your mouth. We always say the pineapple always tastes sweeter in Hawaii. Yeah. There you go.

You know? It's exactly that. It's exactly that. So when I go to pick a restaurant, I'm kind of looking for that whole experience unless it's just utilitarian. and it's like, I got to eat lunch. So that leads me to the restaurant question,

which is when I go to pick a restaurant, I'm like, okay, I type in code words like farm to table or organic, trying to find my way into, do they value what I value? Are there certain things as a restaurant owner that you say, hey, you want to look for these things to know you're in love. You're in a caring environment. I think what you started this with is important is you entered keywords that matter to you. And that's a start point is, you know, your values and the things that you look for in a restaurant

might be different from mine. And so the start of the conversation is, what do you care about? Oh, yeah. What are you looking for? Like, are you in your hometown? And like you said, you need a quick meal. You don't want a fast food burger. that doesn't meet your value of eating a certain way, you know, or, you know, maybe you, you know,

you don't want the mystery meat of, I don't know where this came from. Right. So I'm looking for something that meets my health goals and da-da-da-da-da. So then we go that direction. Or are you, you know, visiting another town, New York where there's a lot of good restaurants. Yep. And you're going, okay, I'm in New York. I'm here for however many days.

I really want to take advantage and see what's good right now. And then so going down that path of, you know, what, what's the hot place? Can I get in these days? And, you know, what sorts of things am I looking at me? I'm a little, I'm pretty high context. I'm a chef. I travel, literally, I travel for food. Yeah.

I travel and go, you know, we were just in Santa Barbara. Or we, when I go back home to the Bay Area, I mean, usually I'm hitting the haunts that are nostalgic to me. Nostalgia is a really big motivator for me. and I'm really big right now on nostalgic foods and flavors. Like, I don't, I don't go for the newest, hottest thing because just, for me, I'm just at a point where it doesn't impress me. If I'm not going to go and find the, the best smash burger that just opened, no.

If I want a burger, it's going to be really high quality meat. If I'm going to eat those calories and have to answer to my trainer, there's going to be a good reason behind it. The meat's high quality, you know, I can't get it anywhere else. Yes. And I have, like, there's about two places in, in this country that I will eat a burger. Oh, only two.

And one is back home. There's a place where I grew up and it's just fantastic. And I'm totally gatekeeping it. They are busy enough as is. Oh, yeah. They're, they're, like, my grandparents' parents went there. My grandparents went there. My parents went there.

Amazing. It's legacy. And then the other one, I have a good friend who's a butcher. and a chef and he's a total savant. Anytime he's making a burger, I'm eating a burger. I don't care where it is. I don't care what's going on because I can get it so rarely. And when he does it, it is so special.

Yeah. Interesting. So you know what I look for in a menu is I actually look at a menu and I say to myself, do I eat these foods on a regular basis? Good question. And if I don't eat them on a regular basis, I'm more inclined to go to that restaurant. If you don't have access to them and it's something that like, Like, you, it's a special occasion or just, you know, hey, gosh, I can't think of the last time I had beats or whatever, you know.

And that comes through the lens of health because it's not just like the dopamine, which I'll get because I have never eaten this before. But if you look at the microbiome, the microbiome wants you to feed it diverse foods. So like, I don't, like, we don't cook duck a lot. Yeah. So if I go to a restaurant and there's duck, like nine out of ten times I'm going to order duck. I love duck. Yeah. Maybe we just don't know how to cook it.

But I'm, it's really an interesting, I love that. It's a lens that works for me is to be like, sit down with a menu and I do not ask myself, what am I in the mood for? I ask myself, what have I not eaten? And then from there, I decide what I'm going to know. So your driver is in some ways, I'm not going to call it uniqueness, but it's, it's, you know, opportunity, kind of opportunity to have things that you wouldn't normally have access to or, so that's interesting.

Yeah, and variation. Like if you look at the actually, and I wrote about this a lot and eat like a girl, how when we look at all the different vitamins and minerals, you need to make hormones, and you look at all the different, like, thousands of different bacteria in your gut, all of a sudden you realize the worst thing we can do is eat the same food over and over and over again.

It's actually because now we have really created either a monoculture with our gut or we are missing the nutrients that we need to make hormones. But I think the same in the experience. Absolutely. It's interesting is with meal prepping and like a lot, like I do, you know, I've done a lot of work with just trying to, obviously, like, I've just, I put on, the last seven months I put on like 10, 12 pounds of muscle and ticking off like 7, 8% of body fat work with my trainer.

But you, early on, what I fell into was meal prepping the same foods because it's, It's safe. It's simple. And, you know, there's, as a chef, there's, you have your brain saying there's eating for prep, there's eating for your diet. There's eating for pleasure. And so for me, a lot of times, that's the question I ask myself when I go out is, is it, is this food for, food for pleasure?

Is this food for fuel? Interesting. And, you know, what? Both. Well, that is, the interesting thing is this is, and I'm not. I swear I'm not just tooting the horn of this book and the recipes and what we've done. These are foods I eat all the time. And I diversify it.

But like through working with this book and then all with my own work on my own, I eat relatively keto anyway. But utilizing a lot of these flavors, you have the diversity and variety that you can do so many different things. That's truly, I'm not kidding. I, at least five days a week, I'm eating same similar things, the recipes. I put in here just because they work. Right. And I actually, it's funny because you and I talked about this in the beginning. Like my whole thing was when I wrote fast like a girl, everybody started dropping weight.

They started gaining all these incredible results because they were avoiding food. But then I was like, but wait, food is medicine. We have to teach you how to eat food because so many women specifically were scared to eat the wrong thing for fear they would gain weight. The fear is big, man. The fear is so huge. And so it was like, how do we give the love of food? back to women. And when I, when we had these recipes, I think you know this, like we had,

I hired four recipe testers to test both you and Leslie's. And we just went, go to town. And the response I got back was like, holy shit, these are really good. That's awesome. And then when they actually went to go take pictures for the book, you know, there's like food stylist. Yeah. There was like a team of like 10 people for the photo shoot of food that lasted 10 days. and every single one of them was like, oh my God, this food is incredible. So just, I just want you to know that because I can't wait for people to have that experience. I'm excited. I mean, I said earlier about, you know, we put love in our food.

I got to tell you, there's love in this food, man. Like, even when we cooked today, we cooked it, you know, like just for a video and it was like put it together. And like, it was, there was love in that food. Yeah, and you can feel that for sure. Did you ever see the movie, like Waterford Chocolate? Yeah. It's so, long time ago, yeah, and where they're like crying while they're making the soup and then everybody eats the soup. And then everybody's crying.

Yeah. Like I think about that when I'm in a restaurant, when I'm cooking for myself or when, and you have me thinking about this through a recipe. Like when a recipe is made with love, there is an energy of love that now gets handed down in you making the recipe. So it's really cool. Okay. Michelin Star. I want to go down this path. You're going to get some trouble.

Got it. No, because we have a foodie family. When we travel, we are those people that are like, identify where we're going to eat along with, I mean, that's as high of a priority as anything else. So when it comes to Michelin Star, of course, we're going to try to find those. But some Michelin Star restaurants are like four years old,

10 years old. Some are Michelin noted. So is it really what it's all cracked up to be? It's an interesting. I've cooked in Michelin restaurants. in Europe, in America, it's, you know, it's a point of contention in the culinary community that, you know, what, what are the, what are the criteria for one star? Because, you know, a lot of times it seems like the criteria for a one star where you have one in Mexico that's a

taco shop. Yeah. God bless them. But then you have a, you know, a one star in New York and it's a full-on brosury. And it's like very much not tacos. I guess. it's there's there's there's a lot going on there that's beyond just you know not this the tacos are easy or that you know but it's there there's a weird it's hard to draw a line between the two right right and so or you go to japan and the one stars look like this and so you know look is part of whether it's michelin or any other award system i don't care who it is online or other is there a PR and marketing component to it if anyone says no to that they're either lying to you or they're trying to sell you something.

So there is a PR marketing component to it and that's, but that's part of it so that's fine. But on which part? Like you want, restaurants want to get it because now it's a great PR. Well, obviously it's a feather in your cap. Yeah. And it's something that you can, of course, market within, you know, for yourself

saying, I'm a Michelin Star chef, I have a Michelin Star restaurant and not for nothing. Right. To get that notoriety ain't easy. Right. Like you actually, you know, they don't just go around a hand it out like candy, you have to work for that and you have to be good for a long period of time to get that accolade. Interesting.

And so I'm not poo-pooing by any means the idea or the institution. Yep. It very much is a noteworthy and very special thing. Yep. But let's be real and let's talk about for a moment, like the whole picture. Because, you know, that's just, that's the nature of the game. game. I don't care what the award is. There's always a couple different sides to it you've got to look at. Yes. Okay. So then what I've also learned about Michelin Star is it's not just the food that

they're judging. They're judging the service. They're judging the environment what we're talking about. Again, we go back to that word. Yeah. The experience. It is. It's there are one star experiences. There are two star experiences and there are three star experiences. You go to the French laundry and you plop down that coin and you have that meal, trust me, you are having a three star experience. Yeah. More often, I can't think of a time that they would have ever dropped the ball. But for the most part, the expectation and the delivery that you receive is a three star plus experience because Thomas Keller is basically God.

Yeah. So, you know, that being said, it is 100%. Like, think of it this way. You go to a restaurant. I don't care where it is. You go to your favorite restaurant or even a restaurant that is not your favorite that you don't know.

And the food is great and the service is not even mediocre, bad. Right. Are you going back there? No. That's not a complete experience. There's a problem there. And therefore, you know,

should you get a Michelin star just because your food's good? No. I mean, I'm not the head of, Michelin, I don't set the rules, but my gut would say no. Right. Likewise, you go to a restaurant, whatever restaurant, and the service is incredible. Not for nothing.

Chick-fil-A's service, incredible. Interesting. And their food's not bad either. They're going to be wrong. They're like a fried chicken sandwich. But my point is, is that, you know, if the service is incredible, but the food is sub, is not Michelin Star, should they get a Michelin Star? Probably not.

So it's right that the criteria is beyond. just, hey, is the, is the food good or is the service good or is the wine list look like something? Right. There's a, there should be a certain metric for those things. That is, this is the line for this level. This is the line for this level and so on. We're, you know, not to get too political, but there are, you know, in recent years, they've come to question things like, are you, should the, should a component of those scores

and should the restaurant be graded upon whether they're, you know, from an environmental standpoint, doing things that are good or bad? Right. On a social level, are they doing things that are good or bad or not participating? And, you know, that's going to be a question for perhaps more intelligent people than me, but it's a very real question to say, are these things that do or don't make a great restaurant that should be noteworthy? Yeah.

And is all that factored into Michelin? Like, do they think about that, the environmental impact? I'm, I mean, they have a green, they have a green award now as well. So I would imagine if it's not part of the regular rating system, it's certainly part of the green one. Yeah. But, you know, for example, you have the James Beard Awards and you have these other awards within this country and beyond the San Pellegrino Awards. And I believe that they, they certainly take a long, hard look at the sorts of things that are compelling and important. within the social realm.

Right. And, you know, it's up for debate whether or how much those things should affect the overall judging. It's an interesting conversation. And I really do think what I'm gleaming from this is that when we do pick restaurants, thinking of it as an experience, not as a meal, would be really helpful. And then you're getting yourself in, you're getting the full neurochemical expression. Is it an experience that you feel comfortable and willing to pay for? Yes, right.

And you take part of it. Because at the end of the day, when you're going to a restaurant, I don't care what it is, on some level, it's called culinary arts for a reason. Right. There is a certain component of it, of the experience that is entertainment art and, you know, it's sort of performance art. We used to call it edible temporary art. very in a very snooty, you know. Actually, I think that's a way to define it. And it's, whether it's a pizza on a plate.

Yeah. Or it's a fine dining beef Wellington. Yeah. There's a component that's edible, temporary art that, yeah, maybe you're just there because you just wanted a good steak. Yeah. But there's a certain performance aspect of that. Yeah.

So. So interesting. You know. What do you think about pairing the art of pairing wine with it? Because now you've really taken it to another. level. And we love pairing wine. And we'll, we, if we sit down a nice restaurant, we'll do the wine pairing with it. And we'll sit and my husband and I all sit and

talk about like what we experience. So I'm curious what if you think it's at, does it heighten it? As a restaurant owner, I love it because, you know, show me the money. Like, yeah, I mean, that's at the end of the day, your margins on things like wine and then, you know, it's better than for food. So, you know, but that being said, like, look, again, there are people who travel around the world specifically for that experience of going to great restaurants and having fine wine. Yeah.

And being able to, you know, be fluent in conversation around that topic. Yeah. And it's, you know, I think, I think there's a dopamine response from a neurochemical standpoint of it heightens that experience, both from an alcoholic standpoint, but otherwise as well, right? You know what? I recently did some research on this. because wine, well, alcohol in general, but wine, it has a couple interesting qualities.

And one of the things is when done in small doses, it brings cortisol down. So if we think about this, now you're sitting in this nurturing environment with, in this experience of love of coming to you in food. Hopefully love. Hopefully love. And it's, and you're, and you've got, you're using food as a tool to enhance a connection with another human or many other humans at the table. You're drinking a glass of wine. You're bringing cortisol down. Like, for me, I think that's health. I think all of that is health. But you take wine out of that experience. And now you've got people that are like alcohol right now is really being bashed as being unhealthy. And I actually brought this up on Diary the CEO when I was on the podcast. He asked me what I thought of alcohol. And I said, well, I think there's an upside and a downside. Of course, the downside, it's a poison. It's not great for your brain.

But when in the environment we're talking about with good food, good friends, good conversation, the neurochemical change that's happening in all of that is healthy. And so it's a net positive. Yes. And it's one of those things that one of those numerous things that can lead to the overall net positive. That's right. That's right. So I love where we're going with this conversation is because when you go to eat, are you going to eat for a meal? Are you going to have an experience?

And when you put it through that lens, then all of a sudden, price starts changing, too. Because you're like, oh, if I was going to a play or I was going to a basketball game where maybe I'm going to pay $1,000 a ticket or a concert, we have no problem paying for that because we're like, that's an experience. And $42 beers while you're doing it. Yeah, exactly. But then you go to a restaurant. I don't want to pay so much.

Yeah. And it's like, but it's the same experience. It's the same neurochemical reaction in your body. That's interesting. And I feel like, again, I'm on a mission to bring food back as this medicine, but it's also the food environment that can be medicine. And paying for it and looking at it through the same lens as a Taylor Swift concert, what might cost you $2,000 a ticket. I was going to say, yeah. Tate is doing okay with this ticket prices.

She's doing pretty well. She's beating the French laundry pretty hard. That's right. That's right. So I just think we have our values around where we speak. our money is really, we spend our money in places that don't promote health. And restaurants like Valencia Gold and the other restaurants that you have owned, started, worked in, I just think it's medicine if we do it right. I love that. I bet. I mean, and I hope, I know you're about

to like start a bunch of new, new restaurants. But I'd love for you, think of that. No, we, we, we, my business partner and I, who he's an incredibly intelligent marketing mind and brain. And it's anytime we talk about doing any restaurants and investing our time, our money, it's always a holistic conversation of not just, hey, we're going to make cool food. Hey, we're going to make a cool bar. It's how does this fit into the neighborhood, the community? What is, you know, what is what is, what is the why? Yes. We need to answer the why in order to get to.

And part of it is, that holistic experience of promoting this full, again, the full experience. Yeah. And that's it. That's everything. You know, they also, the five love languages, they just came up with a new love language and its experiences. Well.

So, and I keep telling people. Mine is pizza, steak. And yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Well, again, I just, several things that I want to just reflect back to you. One, spending the day with you today. Like, so much fun.

So much fun. And you're, the thoughtfulness in which you put these. recipes together like down to the oil that is in an Asian recipe, slanting recipe needs to be more consistent with what an Asian culinary style would be compared to the Spanish. Right. Just, just incredible. But I'm also really excited about all the other projects you've got going on because you've got your hands in a lot of things.

Hopefully you do announce a lot of them soon. It's going to be pretty fun. So if people want to follow you. Yeah. Where do they follow you? Mainly, I use a lot of Instagram at at Chef Jeff Weiss. Okay. Uh,

J-E-F-F-W-E-I-S. Uh, I mean, I'm on, I don't really use the TikTok too much. Yeah, I can't go on there. Yeah, I just, I, it's like,

it's like junk food for my brain. I just, I can't. Yeah. Mostly Instagram and then our various restaurants as they open and our other concepts will, we'll, you'll see the announcements are coming out pretty soon. So if they join,

like I follow you on Instagram. If they follow you. So that's amazing. Okay. Last question I ask everybody. Oh God. This is going to be really good. Oh, God.

I'm very curious what you're going to say. What's your definition of health for you personally and how do you know when you're healthy? That's a great question. I know I'm healthy. My definition of health is when I look good naked. I stole that line for American beauty. That's not fair. I'm like, that can be an answer. No, it's when I'm able to get up and go out and do the things I want to do. and not necessarily worry about whether, you know, my body is telling me, if my body's like, go for it, dude, you're good. And now I'm healthy.

Like, whether that's, you know, I don't have a headache that day because I, whatever, I, you know, I had a drink last night, but like, you know. Now you can't do what you want to do. Right. I mean, I really don't drink hardly at all. It's mainly just because I don't like how it makes me feel for the most part. Right. Because I just, I really don't do much of it.

So that's really for me, my definition of health is, being able to do the things I want, when I want with the people I want, and just enjoy all that. Yeah. And part of why I've been asking this question is I think everybody's like, I want to be healthy. And they're like chasing this target. They don't even know what it is. And it's very personal. Yeah. I think also the answer to being healthy is don't piss off your trainer. Yeah, probably. Because he watches my Instagram stories and like, I see you ate at that place last night. Like, no, I didn't. Is he going to make you my finger? I had a glass of water. And so, he watches. Some meat.

Probably a good. Go push the sled. Oh. Amazing. Well, I can't wait to see what you do going forward. And I really, really feel honored. No, no. I'm honored that you called me up and said,

I want you to help represent what I'm doing. And I trust you to make these recipes that are going to taste good and follow the beliefs that you have. I mean, I'm a guy. And you trusted me to be able to talk, you know, about women's health and, and kind of, you know, bring these recipes into that world. So I'm honored. Well, thank you. And I hope, I mean, my agent and I keep saying, I'm like, I just end the publisher too.

I'm like, this book is going to really touch people. Yeah, I think so. Yeah. It's going to be really fun. Yeah. So appreciate you. Right back at you. Thank you so much for joining me in today's episode.

I love bringing thoughtful discussions about all things health to you. If you enjoyed it, we'd love to know. about it so please leave us a review share it with your friends and let me know what your biggest takeaway is