Chef Lauren Covas on Food, Fame, Hospitality, and Building a Brand That Feels Real

Henry Kaminski Jr.: What's going on, guys? Welcome to another Brand to Table podcast episode. I'm your host, Henry Kaminsky Jr.

, your go-to for restaurant branding and marketing. Today we got another guest, guys, that I am super excited to introduce. I've been following this young lady now for God, it's been a couple months now. And she just one day after the next impresses me with all of The shit she's got going on.

She's just like she's just one of those movers and shakers that you get inspired by just by following them on social media. So without further ado, I wanna introduce Chef Lauren Kovas to the show. What is going on? I'm doing pretty awesome.

Did I pronounce your last name correctly? Lauren: Yeah. How are you? So excited to be here.

So yeah, there I mean there's a million ways, but Covis i I always say imagine it being spelled with an I, but yeah, s chef Covis. Yeah. No, no. We get it's been butchered, but I mean it's pretty easy.

Henry Kaminski Jr.: Okay. All right. Awesome.

I wasn't too far off. All right, so here is your one hour to just flex your ass off because you have you have some resume. So for those folks that may not know who Chef Lauren is, let's give him a little bit of a backstory, shall we? So how did you get started in the industry and how the hell did you get on TV and you know take me through the journey?

Lauren: Ha ha ⁓ okay, so cooking's all I've ever done. Food is my jam. It's my life. ⁓ grew up in a big Portuguese household.

Food was the center of everything. and I 14 worked at a place in Jersey, a bagel place called Hey Daddy Bagels. It was on 36. and ⁓ in ⁓ Atlantic Islands.

Henry Kaminski Jr.: What town? Okay. Lauren: And it was Saturday.

My dad would drop me off at like 5:30 in the morning because you had to the bagel shop opened at six. And the guy working the grill the one day, because I was working the register, cut his hand, and he had to go in the back. And there was like pork or leg and cheese sandwiches. And I was like, I got I got it.

I can flip the sandwiches. I go and do it. I was like, ⁓ my God, I love this. I love the high energy.

I loved how busy it was. So from there it just rolled. I worked at Angelica's and Seabrate. ⁓ pretty much 14, 15, 16, 17 until I went to Culinary school.

⁓ Ray, Ray ⁓ gave me a job. My sister and Angelica were good friends, and then I started washing dishes, prepping, working the back, cleaning a shit ton of garlic. And I loved it. Went to culinary school.

And the school I went to was doing a culinary. Great program. Six months on, six month internships, super hands-on. ⁓ the classes, so like if you took butcher shop, it started at 5 a.

m. If you took bake shop, it started at 3 a.m. So you it was very much a trade school, like it puts you in it.

⁓ I think to be in this industry, you need to be a little bit quirky and Little off your rocker and a little different. ⁓ I'm someone my ADD is so bad I can't sit behind a desk and work behind a computer. So, like, and the busier I stay, the better it is for everybody. So I'm always looking for like what else.

⁓ but yeah, I the food business has taken me all over the world. I've gotten to work in great places like Vegas, ⁓ Miami, Vermont, ⁓ TV is a perk of it, something that I've always wanted to do. I mean as a kid, the Food Network was always on in our house and you'd have like Emmer Legossi cooking show, bam, and yeah. And I would watch Rachel Ray.

I loved all of that. And I'm I'm a huge ham so put me in front of a camera and I'm ready to go. Henry Kaminski Jr.: Bam, bam.

Yeah, yeah. So talk to me about how you got on what it was it was top ⁓ what was it? Not top chef, it was Chopped, chopped, chopped, yes. Lauren: No, so I did chopped for Food Network.

⁓ yep, someone sent me an application, was like, I think you'd be great for this. And I was like, can't hurt to fill out the application. So I sent it in. They called within the week.

⁓ it's a nice, it's a simple process and they interview you and make sure you be good on camera. And then I went in, it's it's filmed in Chelsea Market actually upstairs on that ⁓ f big floor there. They do a lot of food network stuff there. ⁓ it's one long day.

If you win, it's sixteen hour day on camera and ⁓ Henry Kaminski Jr.: Right. Okay. Lauren: I will commend the show.

They really hold true to you do not see what's in the basket beforehand. You are sequestered in a room where the other people that are competing, it's just you guys hanging out. There's no phones. There's no engaged like it's a real competition.

They tell you, if ⁓ you cut yourself, we'll have these people that dressed in black come and they maintain your pan or just lower the heat so it doesn't get ruined. But we have a medic and all that, but time doesn't stop. but I love competition. I'm a there's a lot of competition in my house.

We're very competitive. So ⁓ I have two boys that never stops here. But yeah, I did that. ⁓ won it, was really my first platform to advertise my business on once I started my business in Monmouth County.

⁓ before that, I had owned a couple of restaurants in Newark and in New Brunswick. ⁓ did great. The problem was the recession hit, and as we all know, business, the economy plays a very big part in that. ⁓ so I closed my doors and I had my first son, and then I was we decided to make our family grow to two, moved to Monmouth County, started catering people.

realized money was where parties were and I could manage kids and me and still play the ro role of mom and be in the kitchen and do all that. So when I won Chop, that was the first time I could really start saying like advertising. ⁓ And that was a good platform. It worked and people, you know, people really it's an adaptable show that everyone loves that they watch and they you it's family oriented.

So that's how I always get ⁓ my God, we watched all the chops. What episode were you? Henry Kaminski Jr.: Mm-hmm.

Mm. It was. Lauren: and then I did in 2019 I did supermarket stakeout. They reached out.

⁓ that's cooking in a parking lot with Alex Cornishelle. ⁓ that was great. ⁓ I won that as well. And yeah.

Henry Kaminski Jr.: Just crushing it. Lauren: I I but I don't walk in blind. So like for chopped, we we practiced.

My house became a studio. This my island that I am in all the time, my kids would go to the grocery store with my husband. They would pick three items each in their bags, and they'd pick a theme, and they'd come home and we'd set a timer. And listen, you wanna get some weird shit, have your kids shop for you and Henry Kaminski Jr.

: Mm. Lauren: I learned how to make a vinaigrette out of candy and take the sugar that you normally put honey in a vinaigrette, cook down the candy, take the sugar and use that. So like it I was going in. I would never go in not prepared.

⁓ Henry Kaminski Jr.: Mm-hmm. Lauren: we would watch it on I would go online and watch episodes on YouTube and I would screenshot the pantry because you don't see it beforehand. And I would screenshot the pantry or when they open the fridge and say, okay, they always have milk.

They always have ricotta. They always have this. So whatever's in my basket I can take and make it. So I that's how I went in.

So that really helped. ⁓ you know, you gotta be prepared for any kind of competition. It's not just love. Henry Kaminski Jr.

: Mm. Huh Yeah, yeah, totally. And you're one of the two percent that would actually do that. And I think that's you know, who's taking screenshots of previous episodes and like doing all that homework?

I don't I don't see it. But ⁓ real quick, I don't wanna I don't wanna fly over it. What episode of Chopped were you in? So people can go check it out after the show.

Lauren: Yeah. Yeah. ⁓ it was called Tortell it was called Tortellini Trials. It was in twenty s twenty seventeen.

So yeah. Yeah, we did that one. Henry Kaminski Jr.: Okay.

All right. Cool. Cool. Cool.

So okay, cool. And then what was the sweep one? Lauren: Supermarket stakeout was in twenty nineteen, right before COVID actually aired ⁓ it aired during COVID. I filmed it in February ⁓ in Arizona.

⁓ and that's just the stakeout and that was that was a really good one. That was a great experience. Henry Kaminski Jr.: I bet.

I bet. I bet. So before we get into you cooking for the Portugal soccer team for World Cup, I want you to ⁓ take me back to where your love of food started from. I know you're Portuguese, I know food is very heavy in that culture.

my my grandmother was ⁓ Spanish from Spain, ⁓ she was ⁓ a Galician, so she's not too far from Portugal, so you know so. Lauren: Okay. Mm-hmm. Okay.

Henry Kaminski Jr.: Food is very big in my family too. So where did you get w where did you get that love of food? Was it just the minute you were a little girl, you saw you know you know you saw a grandma cooking, you saw a mom cooking and stuff or what?

Lauren: Yeah, well, I always say if you wanted to hang out with my mother and my grandmother, they were in the kitchen. we always had a garden growing up. My parents are from a very rural area in Portugal and countryside poor. And what I think I really loved even as a kid was when we did go to Portugal or I did see when I started seeing where your food came from.

I really found Henry Kaminski Jr.: And good. Lauren: such amazement in a whole pig and what you can do with a whole pig and how sort of make sure it's not ⁓ on my end I'm glitching. Yeah.

Okay. ⁓ the Henry Kaminski Jr.: You're good. You're good.

Yep, yep. Lauren: Taking a whole pig and showing how you could make sausage, how you could make a tasty, salty snack like ⁓ chichiron's, how you could make pork chops, ribs, how it feeds, how you use the fat as the lard to cook other foods, how you could salt meats and make it. So I saw the firsthand a farmer doing it, my grandparents blew my mind. And then what I loved was I was always in the kitchen with them and I'd stand at the sink.

Because if you walked in, you never just stood there. They would never just entertain, talk. To you, I think my mother would be like, Do you see those potatoes? Start peeling, or the greens are in the sink, start washing.

Like, you're not just gonna sit here and talk to us. So, for me, getting to see from start to end built this relationship of love. And also, it was the way my parents and my grandmother showed love to us. They would make these meals, we would always sit down and eat.

I mean, dinner was at the table, and at the table was bread, a salad. Henry Kaminski Jr.: Mm-hmm. Lauren: Two side dishes, the main dinner, a jug of wine, you know, the butter or the olive oil, like and I like you say from Spain.

Same thing, Italians, Greeks. Food is these people, like I call them the nonas, the grandmas, the Avaz, all of them, they didn't have a lot of money and they learned for what they had. Pasta. People are like, ⁓ my God, people are pot pasta makers.

It's cheap to make pasta because that's where they learned to make it in the countryside with salt, water, flour, and eggs and We've elevated it, we've made it better, but it I think it's the simplicity of what brought people to the table was the food. Henry Kaminski Jr.: Yeah. How would you say your cooking has evolved over the years?

You know? Lauren: ⁓ I've simplified now. I used to be like I I think going to culinary school, I went to a French culinary school. I learned a lot of the French ways, which is the staple of gastron like cooking, the cooking world, the French.

and I learned all the sauces and all this stuff. But I also love take a tomato and slice it with salt and olive oil on it. Like eat the real tomato. I where I've evolved now is simplicity.

Take a piece of fish, clean it, grill it with good oil, lemon, and salt, and really enjoy what the product is. ⁓ I used to think that I needed to learn how to do 10 different sauces and different things that ⁓ took the product and changed it, and now I've actually Henry Kaminski Jr.: ⁓ And who who has influenced you, would you say, over the years to take that route? Lauren: ⁓ I think I think the way food is being present I have kids now, so I have to think about what they're putting in their bodies, what what they're eating and how they're nourishing their bodies and I started seeing the big difference.

I mean, our food is where it comes from is really important. I have a I really, really believe in that. So I think that over when I had kids and I started seeing, now I don't want you to eat that shit. Let's eat it this way, you know?

So ⁓ food wise though, cooking, my grandmother and my mother, there's no better chefs. they are amazing. Then and the thing is when you ask for a recipe and they're like, just like this. Henry Kaminski Jr.

: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Lauren: What do you what what does this mean? Tell me how much.

But I understand how people ask me like when you did that, those pork chops, how did you do them? And I was like, well, this much salt, this much smoked paprika. Writing a cookbook was not easy because you needed to measure it all out. And I was like, ⁓ like a three count.

Henry Kaminski Jr.: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Yeah. You're not an only you're not the only one there. I I know a lot of chefs that been on the show that say the same exact thing. They ⁓ I just said it'd stop recording, but we're good.

I think we're good. ⁓ nope, she left. She's gotta come back on. There she is.

So she's getting there. There we go. There you just got the boot. ⁓ Thank God for editing.

Yeah, we're all good. We're all good. ⁓ we can edit that stuff out. Don't worry about it.

⁓ all right. So I'll go back ten seconds. So you're not the only one when it comes to not not loving the whole measuring out stuff. I had a lot of chefs on the show that say the same thing.

They they it's it's all touch, it's all kind of how you know Lauren: It kicked me out. It kicked me out. Right? Yeah.

See you. Henry Kaminski Jr.: what they're feeling at the moment. Yeah.

And so any local chefs that inspire you. I just 'cause there's so many out there that are coming up and Lauren: So there's a young kid who just I I really commend him. I I really love seeing his energy. Connor Hallipin.

He just opened up ⁓ I think it's called the Corner Store in Red Bank. ⁓ he used to own ⁓ we used to be partners. ⁓ used to be the chef at the block. ⁓ he worked for me out of school.

Henry Kaminski Jr.: ⁓ Lauren: And ambitious kid. And I really think his view on food is great. ⁓ I think he's a workhorse, which is amazing.

⁓ I think he really cares. He was at the block for years, he was ended up being the chef there. ⁓ and then he opened up buoys, I think it was called, in ⁓ Manisquad. And they it was him and a partner.

Now he did this ⁓ corner store, which is really nice. Henry Kaminski Jr.: Mm-hmm. Interesting.

Interesting. Lauren: ⁓ yeah, young kid, I think and I think ⁓ another kid who not kid he's a guy, Ches, ⁓ he ⁓ he opened up B Two, the original B Two when it was here in in ⁓ Red Bank. Really like I really liked working with him. Henry Kaminski Jr.

: Okay. Any North Jersey spots you're a fan of? Lauren: How north are we talking? Henry Kaminski Jr.

: Like up but I say Bergen County, you know, Pis ⁓ Morris County area, like, you know, or even Hudson County. We could go there 'cause I think you you'll have some favorites there, I think. Lauren: Yeah. ⁓ there was one Italian place and I the name I'm trying to think of my head right now.

It was two sisters that opened it. ⁓ no, that was Montclair. They were phenomenal. It was an old bank and they opened up a kind of a farm to table, which I really, really liked.

I wanna go to ⁓ Mashimuro's ⁓ Japanese place that opened up. That looks amazing. Henry Kaminski Jr.: Yeah, it's a yeah, yeah, yeah.

I have another one for you if you ever want to go. Sushi by sea. It's in Ridgefield. They do I it's my third time there.

It's an omakasi spot. It is outstanding. I mean, you leave there with phone numbers, you leave there with friends with people you never thought you would be friends with. Yes, yes.

It is phenomenal. And Jay treats you like, you know, you're Lauren: Okay. We sit at one big table together? Yeah.

Henry Kaminski Jr.: Come into his home for the first time. It it he's just a phenomenal human being. He's he's been on the show, he's a couple episodes before you.

So if you want to check it out, we could you know b be my guest. But man, what ⁓ what an experience. You know, you just you were just like, as soon as you said that, I was like, I got another spot for you. Lauren: Yeah.

Yeah. No, I think that what when you just said it and the way you described it is what every business owner wants. You were like, it felt like home, like my living room. Like I felt so welcome and warm there.

Like that's the presence that you want to build in any of these establishments. Henry Kaminski Jr.: Yeah. No, it it's so important.

And I think nowadays the competition is so thick. I mean, you can't go three miles without bumping into four restaurants, five restaurants around here. I and I and I know down by you in Shrewsbury and that Month County area, they're popping up like crazy too, you know? Lauren: Yeah, you either have a very high end, ⁓ or you have that kind of fast food casual feel.

So it's like, you know, yeah. ⁓ so I think Gabriella's is great, the block, ⁓ Barrel and Roost, you get a great burger, great piece of grilled salmon, like you can bring kids in there, their pizzas are always good. ⁓ Rayla's, Asbury has a great food scene. Pascal and Sabine, really good.

French. Henry Kaminski Jr.: Yeah, like a sandwich shop type of spot. Yes.

Okay. Okay. I had never heard of that one. ⁓ I've been to Porto a bunch of times.

It's the typical spot. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. ⁓ all right, got a couple more questions for you. Actually, I got a lot more questions for you, but ⁓ let's talk about this huge opportunity you got going on.

So I remember when we were trying to plan this episode recording out, I was like, I'd love to add you in the studio, but you know, blah blah blah. Lauren: Yeah. Yeah, pizzas and stuff. Yeah.

Henry Kaminski Jr.: Long story short, you were like, ⁓ well, I'm gonna be in Miami for the World Cup and I'm gonna be cooking for the Portugal team. You have to share that story with us. How the hell did that come along?

Lauren: not actually cooking for the Portugal team, but we're doing affiliations with FIFA and the Federation. ⁓ so the World Cup, what happened? So, you know, the Super Bowl for us is huge. ⁓ And goes hand in hand with the American Super Bowl?

Food. And so Guy Fieri does this thing, and I was watching it because I was trying to get part be part of it ⁓ for work reasons. When ⁓ they were in California, he does a huge tailgate. ⁓ And Henry Kaminski Jr.

: Okay. Lauren: I was sitting here literally having a glass of wine on my computer, like looking up stuff, and I was like, you know what's so funny? The World Cup is the soccer is the biggest sport in the world. As Americans, we think, ⁓ football, baseball.

But soccer is the number one sport that pulls all different countries together. And this is huge that the World Cup is coming to America. How much traffic, how much Henry Kaminski Jr.: Yeah, yeah.

Lauren: different businesses that you don't even realize. And I was like, how would could we be part of it? Being Portuguese, super proud Portuguese person, you know. ⁓ so when I did an ⁓ I did Tap Airlines holiday party and I reached out to them, the woman who booked it with me and I asked her, Do you guys doing anything for the World Cup?

She goes, Well actually we're the leading flight the the only air company that they're using for their travel purposes. And I was like, okay Henry Kaminski Jr.: Makes sense? Lauren: There's something there.

And I was like, you know, what I'm trying to do is get into the arena and do a tailgate. Problem was Americans, there's so many people, so many cups, so many things they could do. They're not allowing a lot of tailgates. They're not doing these huge parties there in the stadiums for safety reasons and trying to fill as many seats.

So I was like, Well, let's see if we can get an activation thing. And the Portuguese community is a very small community, actually. You know, we have Delta Coffee, we have Ciara. Henry Kaminski Jr.

: Yeah. Lauren: Market, which is one of the biggest Tringon Fu one of the biggest importers. So I started reaching out to people. ⁓ One of the gentlemen, Tony Kinkalvis, he owns a Heart and Hustle podcast.

He actually brought the Tribeca Festival to Portugal. I reached out to all of them and they're like, this is great, but yes. So I was like, I want to get a vendor event going. And we wanted to do it to lead up to the World Cup.

So we're doing something called the warm-up. We rented out a huge facility in Winwood, which is right outside of where they're doing it. They're doing it at the Hard Rock. the hard rock arena.

Henry Kaminski Jr.: Yeah, yeah. Lauren: 700,000 people come in. in the Portuguese, you know, like in Philly cheesesteaks.

We have it's ⁓ called a bifana or a prego. And the prego is with steak, the bifana is with pork. And I took kind of the American idea that I saw for the Super Bowl, ⁓ the showdown, and I said, let's do a Portuguese sandwich showdown. So the best guy who makes the bifana is Mr.

Bifana, and he's in New York City. And I reached out to him and I was like, Do you want to do like a little sandwich conversation? Competition and he's like, explain it through through him all the details. He's like, this sounds awesome.

So we're doing like a little token that you vote because every food show that I've done, like through Food Network, when I do Miami South Beach Food and Wine, there's always a contest to get vendors involved. So, and my thing is, I really am a big believer in community. One hand wash is another. We cannot grow as a business if we do not use our resources and reach out to other companies.

So showcasing. There's enough room for all of us. Showcase what you got. I'll showcase what I got.

Bring people together. Get people talking, that conversation about food and stuff. So it's all about Portugal. ⁓ so we're in all those last World Cup.

Henry Kaminski Jr.: ⁓ yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's it I'm hearing a lot of great things. ⁓ yeah, I think Portugal could take the whole thing.

A lot of people are saying that. It you know, so w y you never know. I was talking to ⁓ so my son plays soccer, he's eight, and ⁓ there's a couple Portuguese kids on the team and you know, dads are always chewing my ear off. So my my buddy Joe was like, ⁓ you you you gotta ask her what her favorite food is.

You just gotta ask her. Lauren: Gonna be big. It's a huge event. Be nice.

Yeah. Henry Kaminski Jr.: I was like, all right, I'll make sure I ask her what her favorite food is. ⁓ because Lauren: I like peasant food, I call it, but for ⁓ for the Portuguese, ⁓ there's nothing more enjoyable for me.

It's called cozido. It's ⁓ It's fish boiled with potatoes and greens. It's off the farm. You put olive oil, you chop up garlic.

It's one of my favorite things. It's one of my comfort things. ⁓ I'm also a very big tin fish girl. I love like tuna in good olive oil or sardines.

I put them over salad, bib lettuce with chickpeas. I'm a very old school soul when it comes to food. Henry Kaminski Jr.: can see.

I can see. Yeah, he was rattling off all these different dishes. So we're we're gonna go, we're gonna go to the Ironbound this weekend because they have a big Portuguese festival, obviously. ⁓ yeah, yeah.

So we're going down to one of my clients down there at Dega Grill. I don't know if you've ever been. ⁓ great spot, been a client of mine for like 15 years. I love those guys down there.

Lauren: Yes, it's fortunate it's our independence ⁓ weekend. Mm? Yep. Yeah.

Henry Kaminski Jr.: But it's so different. So when I go with my family, it's one thing. But when I go with another Portuguese family, it's a whole nother experience.

Yeah. And then going with him and his family for the freaking festival, that's just gonna be that's just gonna be a shit show. Lauren: Well another experience. It's gonna be there's gonna be a lot of people down there.

You gotta get the sangria in the cork container. Pop the straw. That's just strong, so be careful, but it's good. Henry Kaminski Jr.

: ⁓ my goodness. Either p does Portugal play this weekend? Or is it pr okay, the six okay, okay. So it's Brazil Lauren: ⁓ they're in Houston on the sixteenth.

It's a it's a it's a warm-up game for for the starters. So the the first game is going to be Jul ⁓ June twenty seventh at in Miami ⁓ against Columbia. Henry Kaminski Jr.: That's right, that's right.

That is that the late game, 10 o'clock? No, it is, it is, it is. ⁓ good, I'll be flying. Lauren: Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. And then if they win, you know, they the goal here is they'll win. They'll get up here and w I mean July.

I God bless you for living up in North Jersey because I could tell you right now, with MetLife and all it is gonna be insane. Henry Kaminski Jr.: So I have tickets to the France Senegal game on Tuesday. And I'm in Sparta and I have I have a parking pass, but I have to leave my house at like 10 in the morning.

The game's at three. That's how cra that's how crazy the traffic is. And it's ⁓ I just don't want to miss anything. They have so much stuff going on, like in the beginning, but Lauren: How about?

Yeah. Henry Kaminski Jr.: Exactly. There's a whole festival in the parking lot, but it's not a tailgate.

You can't again, to your point, you can't tailgate. They won't let you do it up here either. So, you know, but I'm taking my son. It's a one in a lifetime thing, you know, you know.

⁓ but ⁓ Lauren: Yeah. Yeah. ⁓ yeah. I I went when I when the last time they were ⁓ the World Cup was in America, I went Ireland versus Italy in the old, you know, the old Met Lave.

⁓ my dad took me and I will tell you right now, I remember it I was nine or ten, I remember everything. Henry Kaminski Jr.: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah. I d you know, listen, thank God he's turning nine this year because any any like younger, I don't know if he would've remember, you know. Lauren: Yeah. Well it's a it's the hype.

You'll see the energy. It's I'll have a blast. Henry Kaminski Jr.: Yeah, it's it it's gonna be it's gonna be crazy.

He's he's still bringing his ball. He's thinking Bop Ace is gonna sign his ball. I'm I'm not gonna burst it, I'm not gonna burst this bubble. We're pretty damn close.

So you never know. You never know. ⁓ but let's get let's get back to some business here. one of the things that kind of ⁓ attracted me to you was your personal brand.

Right. And I think to make it in any industry. Lauren: You never know. You never Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Henry Kaminski Jr.: You have to have a strong personal brand.

And I want to know from you, ⁓ was this something like intentional or is this something just more organic that you are building on social media? Because you have a very, you have a very polished presence ⁓ on on social media. You like the kid and you like the, you know, you like to show the behind the scenes stuff. That's that's not what I mean.

But when I say polished, I mean like you really know how to present. Lauren: ⁓ please. Henry Kaminski Jr.: And you really know how to share your authentic ⁓ your authenticity, right?

So I wanna know how intentional that is versus you just saying, you know what? I gotta create content this week. This is what we're doing. Lauren: ⁓ no, so ⁓ it was either first of all, I everything you see is totally me.

What you see is what you get. ⁓ Yeah, yeah, no no no. Henry Kaminski Jr.: Yeah, yeah.

I don't see it staged by any means, no. Lauren: By no means anything like that. So when it started, when social when Instagram really started, someone says you gotta post stuff if you want people to people are making their decisions on who they're hiring for a balloon company for a party from Instagram. And I was like, you know, in the marketing and the advertising, if I take out a five by seven in a magazine, it's not getting across to as many people that are doing this.

And when when I saw that I posted something on the story. Okay. 800 people saw it. It didn't cost me anything at the time when it started.

And I was like, okay. And then people like text and engage. And I was like, ⁓ I have a direct line of communication with people that are seeing what I'm putting out there. and I thought it was amazing how fascinating people thought cooking is.

Like, isn't it? And it's so funny. Sometimes I say something like I'm like, it's not that hard, it's not brain surgery. Like, I'm not like opening up someone's Skull and fixing something.

I'm putting some steak on a grill and slicing it up. But people are so it's it's something that it's in your house every day, and they're engaging in it. And so I really loved that factor of it. I loved being able to.

Henry Kaminski Jr.: Yeah. Yeah. Lauren: Be able to reach you that way.

⁓ and then what happened was, what do you want to watch? What do you want to see? You wanna see what I'm making? Well, this is my dinner.

People were asking, like, do you really cook at home? I'm like, I really do. We cook dinner. I cook dinner almost every single night.

And then like girlfriends or people like at the school would be like I don't even know how to do that. And I'm like, well, I love to teach. This is a good platform. I could teach and show you.

It doesn't have to be fine dining. We can make orzo and throw some grilled shrimp on it, crumble some feta, some fresh herbs, use good olive oil, and make dinner that everyone's gonna love. People ask when I, you know, how do you get your kids to eat? Bring them in the kitchen.

Let's make taco night, salad bar night. So I always feel there's this little gut piece of me sometimes that I feel like I sold out of this big dream of being a New York. Henry Kaminski Jr.: Mm-hmm.

Lauren: Chef on the line, running a restaurant to don't call it Susie Homemaker, like you know, bringing it back to the mom recipes. But then I realized I could have both. I could have my business, I could show you how it works behind the scenes, and I can also show you how to come home and cook dinner for your family and and entertain, which that's what I really like to do, is I love to entertain. Henry Kaminski Jr.

: Yeah, yeah. That's so funny you said you bring that up because I kind of was going through something similar where I could ⁓ you know, I've I've said to myself numerous times in my career, like, you're this close to just blowing up, you're this close to creating this big agency, you're this close to, you know, making this really bigger than you ever thought you could build it. And then I look back and I say, well, maybe I don't want to do that. And maybe that's okay.

Maybe I wanna be present with my son. Maybe I want to be more, you know, you know, around the home. And like my wife travels like crazy because of her work. And I couldn't imagine both of us doing that.

Who the hell's gonna raise our kid, you know? So like I just I thought about like I thought I had a similar feeling, like, you know, I'm 45, I'm not getting any younger. You know, is this it for me? But then I say to myself, I am so enjoying my life right now more than I ever enjoyed it?

What is w that said? Lauren: There's something just quality of life. At the end of the day, ⁓ so this is like my favorite, my famous tagline, anyone who knows me. There's no U-Haul behind the hearst.

And I get it. I want to build something. Listen, I want to take over the catering world. I want I would love nothing more than have a a food network show.

Unfortunately, all they do is competition shows now. They don't do like the old school. I think they should because there's no platform because YouTube and Instagram and TikTok has taken the platform of what I used to watch, Emma Legassi on Food Network, and I'd put it on the TV. Now I'm scrolling to see that.

So I could build that, and that's what I'm trying. Trying to build. ⁓ but yeah, and I will tell you this right now. I a content day is a content day.

So all that food comes out of my pocket. I shop for it. It's what we're eating at home. There's no secrets here.

I don't, you know, I if you see me make those pork chops, that's when we're having for dinner. Like, so there's a there's a solid investment in there into that. ⁓ yeah. Do I set up two or three lights?

Do I do my hair and makeup and change my shirt and put it? Of course, I don't, I'm not I'm not. Henry Kaminski Jr.: Sure, sure.

Lauren: Someone who ever does anything half fast, so I don't want it to come across staged, but at the same time, I want to come across professional. And if you hire me to cater one of your events, you hire me to come in and do a dinner in your house, or you buy my cookbook. I want to be authentic on all those levels. Henry Kaminski Jr.

: Right. Yeah. Let me ask you this. Where do you think some of the chefs these days are are getting it wrong on social media?

Where do you th where do you think they're they're they're they're maybe going about this the the wrong way? Lauren: So I don't think it's chefs so much as I want to call them food influencers. It's the problem with social media is everyone has an opinion, like everyone has an asshole, because everyone can hold a camera up and Henry Kaminski Jr.: Okay, we could go there.

Say it. Just say it. Lauren: I'm sick of hearing this is the best restaurant. This is a hidden gem.

It's been there for 30 years. It's not a hidden gem. But because they're paying you now to come in and eat their signature dish, which listen, they're that's advertising. That's a there's a market for that.

I just feel that sometimes it becomes so non-authentic, so not real of what you believe. ⁓ I'd rather someone come in, eat their dinner, and not have everything perfectly staged with the lighting and the the music and just show. I ordered the chicken parn. This is what it looks like.

And turn the camera around, be a little awkward, take a bite. I feel like that influence of food makes me feel like I was sitting at the table when I see that we're going on a sandwich tour, and now you know that they were paid to go to these places. The value of what you're saying goes down in my book. ⁓ but I also get it because Henry Kaminski Jr.

: Mm-hmm. Lauren: us as small businesses, you know, you pay to boost an ad, you pay to boost something real just so that it gets traffic. If I do, you know, I did a thing with James Avery, the goal is I want to collab with you because I want your audience to follow me and I want my audience to follow you. I think that's the community that you want to build.

When you're following ⁓ the trends, you know. Yeah, James agree. Henry Kaminski Jr.: Yep.

Yep. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Love James, by the way.

He was on the show. He's great. He's great. Awesome.

Lauren: I th that's actually the problem when we get in the kitchen, neither of us shut up. So it just keeps going and going and going. And then finally, and the best is like we'll have the camera set up. And I have someone who usually takes notes so we don't forget things.

And they're like, I can't even tell you guys where we left off or conversation because you started talking about charring peppers, then you talked about this pan, but then you talked about the tongues. And if you charred the pepper, and I'm like, Yeah. Henry Kaminski Jr.: I love James.

Big shout out to you, James. Dude, you know, he is he you can see how passionate he is about everything he does, you know. And and I and I get the same I yeah, and I get the same vibe from you, which is which is why I don't think it's a coincidence that we're having this conversation today. And and listen, you are not alone.

I don't know how many people I've had on this show that have said the same thing about Lauren: Yeah. Yeah. He's a hard worker and he cares. Henry Kaminski Jr.

: the industry in this particular section of the industry, which is this influencer marketing piece. I know a lot of influencers that do a great job. I also know ones that I would never trust with, you know, a dollar bill, you know? one of the things I wanted to ask you, ⁓ it's just it ⁓ my God, it just, it just talking about that.

⁓ do you ever see ⁓ so Bobby Flay has a podcast. It was called Bobby on the beat. Lauren: Actually really like it. Henry Kaminski Jr.

: Yeah, I do too. And I'm pissed because he might be well, I know he was at the Knicks game yesterday because I saw a picture of it, but ⁓ he he it the episodes just stopped and I know he's traveling, so I hope he picks it back up. But in the early episodes, he would bring these influencers on the show and the quiz them. Did you catch?

Yes. Yes. I thought it was I thought it was brilliant. They were like they were getting fifties and sixties percents.

You know, they the and and Lauren: On food knowledge. Do they pass? Henry Kaminski Jr.: And some of them just had just some of them had ⁓ great answers.

Some of them were really well versed, and some of them just didn't know what anything was. And and it it was his way of just showcasing this in the most, I thought in the most delicate way, you know. Just use your use your ⁓ use your own common sense, right? I had large from Barstool on the show, right?

And he does a lot of food reviews. He's got a podcast called You Gotta Try This. And He said, you know, he said the same exact thing you said. He was like, you know, if you're trusting this person and you look at their following, right?

And you go and the food shit, but they're telling you that's awesome, that's on you. And I thought, I thought, fair. I think you're a hundred percent right on that. Lauren: It's also that you're going I don't know about you, but when us four go out to dinner, it's really not under three hundred dollars.

You know what I mean? So when I'm going out to spend money and I'm the worst because I don't look at the price because ⁓ what I want, I want. And you know, and if it's about the enjoyable part of sitting down, having a meal, start with a cocktail, have some wine, I want to split a couple apps. But if I go and I'm like totally recommended on, ⁓ that looked really good or it looked and then it's shit, I'm gonna be like Henry Kaminski Jr.

: Same. Same. Yeah. Yeah.

But you know, listen, you know, so I did something on on same. I you know, listen, I'll never leave because we manage a lot of restaurant review platforms and I will I w I refuse to leave anything less than a five star review. I just won't I just won't do it, right? Or Lauren: And I don't complain, I'll just eat I you know.

Yeah. I have reached out though, I don't mean to cut you off. I have reached out on a private thing where it's happened twice. The place was beautiful, had such potential.

And What they were missing was training their staff more so than the food, because the food was good, because it's also the environment, it's the experience, it's the drink, it's the greeting at the door, it's you know, everything. And I message and I go, I do not stepping on anyone's toes. I just want to let you know I would never post something on like a media channel bad breeding or speaking badly or good, because I know how hard it is, and we don't always have 100% nights.

You know what mean? There shit shit happens. And I was like, I just Henry Kaminski Jr.: Mm.

Right. Right. Lauren: want let you know that this is where I feel that you were missing the the bow with yeah yeah the more you're missing the mark on this and it's honestly so fixable and you could take your business to the next level they will amazing Henry Kaminski Jr.: The mark.

The mark. Now did they respond? Lauren: Yo, it was amazing. And I said, anyone who goes on and grabs your social media and is like that place fucking sucks.

Screw them. All they're trying to do is get views and likes and root things. They really don't genuinely care about the business or the business owner or making the community or that establishment better. Because, like I said, there's always room for improvement.

And if I'm doing something, you only you only get better by failing and you only get better by making mistakes. So if someone can help me get through a mistake, we're Show me where I can improve, that's a plus. They took it greatly, and I was, you know, and I actually never told anyone, my husband's like, you shouldn't say anything. I was like, but I know how hard they've been working, because the I knew the one place, and I was like, they need to know that if they fix this one little issue, or they trained, and training's a huge thing with staffing.

Henry Kaminski Jr.: ⁓ yeah. ⁓ yeah. ⁓ yeah.

I was a CMO for a big hospitality group out of Chicago. You know him, Fabio Viviani, hospitality. Lauren: He is one of my favorite human beings ever. And when I'm in Chicago, him and I are gonna do a collab.

Henry Kaminski Jr.: So if you need me to tee that up, let me know. ⁓ Lauren: ⁓ he he follows me. He messaged me.

It was the I felt like a little cheerleader. I was like, ⁓ my God. I said to my husband, I was sitting on the couch, ⁓ my God, he messaged me. He's like, I love what you're doing.

I was like, and I love him. I used I when I watched him on ⁓ Top Chef. Henry Kaminski Jr.: Ha ha ha.

Yeah. Yeah, so that's how we met. I I I put out something on Instagram. He's like, I think we could work together.

We partnered on this project together. We did, ⁓ my God, we're gonna go off on a little tangent here real quick. But we him and I, he was like, I have this really cool idea about doing this ⁓ like private estate dinner experience at my house and we'll charge a premium for it and they'll come to my house and we'll we'll do like ⁓ we'll do four meals a year. at the house.

And then you get access to all my restaurants, things like that. Lauren, we sold four hundred and fifty thousand dollars of memberships in four weeks. It was wild. And then, you know, obviously we went, ⁓ me, my wife went because I was his partner on that, and it was outrageous.

The food he was bringing in, the wine that he has, everything was just you could Lauren: Yeah. But he's not gonna do anything that isn't exquisite. Like he loves the food and he has that actual the Italian the the homemade mentality. Henry Kaminski Jr.

: ⁓ yeah. ⁓ yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

So funny story. We're in his garden and I see these peppers in his garden. And they are the like brightest and bright of colors. And I was like, I was like mesmerized.

I was like, Fab, what are these things? And I touch them and he goes, Jesus Christ, we gotta go to the bathroom right now. Let's go. You know what they were?

Carolina Reapers. Lauren: Wash your hands. You're gonna go like this and you're gonna be Henry Kaminski Jr.: Yes, that's exactly what he said.

He said, What did you touch? I said nothing. He goes, Good. Come with me.

Brings me into his kitchen and I'm washing my hands. He's like, make sure you get every crevice. He's like, cause if you touch your face, we're going to the hospital. ⁓ Lauren: Hey, so you go to the bathroom and you hold it, you're gonna really go to the house for You're gonna be like something's burning down there and it's not feeling right.

Henry Kaminski Jr.: So yes, yeah, yeah, yeah. But I so we worked together after that, we worked together for like three and a half years. I was a CMO and you know, he taught me so much about the industry and operations.

So I was like the marketer, I was the brander. I've always been that. But that experience gave me so much confidence, like on the ops side. And so when I when I didn't renew my contract, he was like, dude, you are bulletproof.

The shit that I put you through in the last three and a half years, he's like, you're gonna go out there and crush it. And he just wrote me this super long text. I saved it because it, it, it, it just, it helped me so much like get the confidence to be like, dude, this is your world. This is where you should be doing marketing and branding.

And, you know, to this day, we we chat, we text, and and you know, he's a great, he's a great guy in that sense. But I go on that tangent because operations. And I'm not throwing fab under the bus here. That was where we struggled the most.

We had the we had a great online presence. We had great marketing. But the operations between between the front of house and back of the house, it's it was a it was a massive divide. And we had to figure out a way to mend it.

And what his mission was was to go to all his locations across the country and mend that that bridge. Lauren: Well that's the thing, people think it's like back of the house, front the house. Well, one doesn't work without the other. You know, and you can go to a restaurant and I always say this, and the food is top notch amazing.

You get a shitty waiter or you don't feel taken care of, you're done. You're you're you shut down right then and there. If you sit down and they don't greet you in a certain amount of time or ask or your drink doesn't come or even if with water that's like simple, stupid little things, it's feeling validated. I'm coming to spend my money in your establishment, make me feel important.

That's why those local places that stay open for fifty years and you walk in and they're like, Hey Tony, because you made Tony feel like an ⁓ like he matters and that's the important thing. And if something does go wrong Henry Kaminski Jr.: Forget it. Yes.

Lauren: Because you made him feel bad, make him feel good, he might chuff it off. ⁓ you guys got swamped tonight. I gotta wait 10 more minutes for my entree, or the kitchen got backed up, something burned, they had to refire it. No problem.

I bought you a glass of wine. I'm all good, I'm happy. That's the difference in that customer service thing. And I think people come in sometimes so self-entitled that they shut you down if that's not being met right off the bat to even try your food.

Henry Kaminski Jr.: Yeah. There was a there was so I had Chef Ryan DiPercio on the show. He owns Botello.

And yeah, yeah, that's right. Lauren: I love Ryan. He's and Amber and Eagle down the street. They are great.

They have a great, great bar scene. And he's doing awesome there. Him and Corey, like really awesome. We him and I did the New York City Food and Wine Festival.

We did next to each other with Peroni. And ⁓ actually Andrew Campbell, one of another chef, he's up north. Him and I are gonna do something in end of July together. But Ryan's great.

Personality, that's a personality. Henry Kaminski Jr.: Yes. Sweet.

So we're. Is it yeah, yeah, yeah. Little guy, big personality, right? Yep.

So he's on the show and he said, You're never gonna hear a chef say this, but I don't want to butcher, butcher this. But he said, ⁓ great service will trump mediocre food, or something along those lines, right? Pitchforks when I tell you, Lauren, that that friggin' clip that I took from that that episode. Lauren: Hmm?

Yep. Henry Kaminski Jr.: Go look at my thing. It's almost over 250,000 views or something.

They murdered they crucified him, but then there was a whole nother brigade that said, you're absolutely right. So I want to get your take. I want to get your take on this. I want to go a little deeper with this with you.

What's your take on that? Lauren: Yeah. I've eaten mediocre food and gone back to the restaurant because when I walk in, if it's they pour me a prosecco cause I know that's the first thing I'm gonna order, or they greet me and they say, Welcome back, Lauren, and they remember my name, it does go far. It does make you or you walk in, the bar's full.

They look at you and they go, They talk to the guy at the bar, can you move over a seat? Because she I there's two of them. They make you feel important, they make you feel that they want you there. And sometimes the food is outstanding and sometimes it's you got real busy and I get, you know, it's a hit or miss.

Henry Kaminski Jr.: Yeah, yeah. I'm with you. I I am I am with you.

Lauren: Look at John George's restaurants. The number one thing that they go into training, listen, the line in the back of the house, I've worked in some great restaurants. Our brigade and our setup, we have the same system every day. So when you call for the quail dish, it's made the same exact way every time.

I don't have to change my model there. Henry Kaminski Jr.: Mm. Lauren: But when I go to a table, I have to change maybe how I present something by the way I'm seeing the table reaction.

Someone might walk in and they're having a bad day and they're just kind of giving you a short turn. You have to still keep it on. So the training for the front of the house has to be over the top because you don't know what you're dealing with. Back here, you call to quail.

Same setup, same cooking process. Unless it's a ⁓ special request, it's the same thing every time. So that repetition is where you practice and you get good. You're not putting a menu together that minute on the fly.

We've tasted it. We've made sure the seasoning's right. We cook the sauce the same way every time. We mise and plaster station the same way.

In the front, it always can change. Henry Kaminski Jr.: Mm. Hmm.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

So you you you gotta just you gotta have that sixth sense. You gotta have that that hospitality, you know, that that it's it's that, you know, right, right. So let me ask you this real quick, and then we'll get into some rapid fire stuff. ⁓ Will Gadera, in his book Unreasonable Hospitality, right?

He talks about hospitality. Lauren: It's not about you, it's about them. Yeah. Henry Kaminski Jr.

: Some say you could teach it, some say you can't. What's your take on that? Lauren: I think you can go into a place and learn their systems. I think the exquisite and the high-end stuff that you get, or I say that I'm gonna use myself as an example.

One of my biggest compliments I get is I come into people's homes and I transform the house into a party, to a feel, to a vibe. And my job is, first of all, my job is to help you make decisions. Because when I meet with a client, it's like, well, what do you think? And I was like, okay, well, what do you think?

Give me your three scenarios and I'll do it. But this comes from who I am. I grew up in a house. Where we hosted Christmas, we hosted Thanksgiving.

I saw the little details being paid attention to. My dad always explained to me: if you're gonna deliver a tray lasagna, you make sure that cover is perfect, no wrinkles, all tupped in. You make sure that sticker is right in the middle. It's the little details that go forward.

But that's been ingrained in me from day one. So all the training I've had, and I've been in front of the house. I in Boston, and ⁓ I opened up Mari with Frank Di Pasquale, and I had to train staff. When I saw these kids or these people come in and I was like, this is what we're gonna do.

You'd see the people who knew how to look at someone get up, go fold their napkin because it's the right thing to do, or push a chair and the little details. That's real hospitality. That's that little detail that goes above and beyond. You coming in and I listen, I worked at Boston, the Cheesecake Factory.

It's five days of training, okay? The kids who just they were robots. Breadbasket, here, butter. here because that's what they were told to do.

They didn't they've never experienced hosting in their house and maybe doing it a little different or thinking outside the box. I think that's the difference in hospitality and being trained. Henry Kaminski Jr.: Mm-hmm.

Right. That's it. 100%. 100%.

All right. That was a great answer, by the way. That was great. That was really well said.

Really well said. All right. This is the fun stuff for social media. This is gonna get us all the views.

Trust me. All right. All right. Favorite Portuguese food.

Lauren: Yes. Okay. Leitão suckling pig. Henry Kaminski Jr.

: Beautiful. Most underrated ingredient. Lauren: Salt. Henry Kaminski Jr.

: Right. One ingredient you cannot live without. Lauren: Olive oil. Everything.

Everything gets olive oil. Everything gets finished with olive oil. I cook with olive oil. Henry Kaminski Jr.

: Let me ask you this. So where the hell were we at the Pizza Expo last year and ⁓ quarto olive oil was there? They were giving out samples of vanilla gelato with a shot of freaking quarto on it. I am obsessed.

Obsessed. Lauren: Mm-hmm. Result. People always just think olive oil is savory, but it can balance sweet out.

So think of an olive oil lemon cake. Citrus, you got the butter with the olive oil, you got the flour. It's it's all here. You always gotta hit salty sweet.

Henry Kaminski Jr.: Mm. Yes. Yes.

Brings me to my next question. Sweet or savory? Okay. Wine or espresso?

Lauren: Savory. ⁓ wine. I have a wine problem, okay? I love my wine.

Henry Kaminski Jr.: All that. Best re best recommendation for Portuguese wine. Lauren: ⁓ so there's a company they actually have olive oil.

It's my favorite olive oil, it's called Espanel, and they're from the Douro region in Portugal, and it is amazing wine. ⁓ any any actually total wine, the one in down here in Eatontown, but big companies, yeah. They have the Portuguese section. Actually, Portuguese wine now that Portugal has become such a hot camaraderie and the biggest country being visited, they have definitely, definitely opened up a lot of more ways to get Portuguese products.

Henry Kaminski Jr.: Where can you get it? Okay. Yeah, no, I I I I've seen it and I'm like, wow, I need to go more that route when I go to select my wines because they're really, really good.

I go straight for the Italian. Lauren: Really good. Especially red. I like a lot of reds that are big, bold, like kind of your spicy big calves.

You can definitely do that with the reserves in Espinel. Henry Kaminski Jr.: Yeah. No, I love it.

Okay, awesome. ⁓ most overrated food trend. Lauren: I love caviar, but right now we're on a level where they're just putting caviar on everything and it kind of loses its quality of that experience of really good caviar and caviar service, which I think there's an eloquent point of caviar. But yeah, that and shaving truffles on everything.

Henry Kaminski Jr.: Yeah. Mm. on those two.

A hundred percent. Lauren: Social media made the whole like truffle shave truffle thing and I got it. But to mark up your di you can mark up your dish twenty dollars. Henry Kaminski Jr.

: ⁓ like Yeah, easy, right? ⁓ most ⁓ underrated food trend. Lauren: Ooh, stop me under reading. Food trend.

Throw me an example. Henry Kaminski Jr.: I got one, but I want you Anything table side. Like you could get get very creative with that.

Lauren: ⁓ yeah, but And it's also a different experience. So there's a restaurant here in the Jersey on the Jersey Shore called Second Jetty. What actually I love about it is that you can walk off the beach in your flip-flops and your bathing suit cover up and have a phenomenal meal. But they do this thing there, which I actually feel is very underrated.

They showcase one fish, which usually is tuna, they do these spoons. Henry Kaminski Jr.: That's Lauren: And they always do them different. But if you have a signature item So there there to be a restaurant called Piero's.

⁓ they did bruchetta when you came in, like the garlic bruchetta. ⁓ David Burke bought their restaurant and made it the goat. I think they closed now, but it was But it was a novelty item that the restaurant owned up and they had. So like the spoons for second jetty.

Anyone who goes there knows, did you get the spoons? Did you get the spoons? It's so good. So I think underrated would be actually having one signature item that you are good at.

That's simple. It's simple. It's literally just chopped. tuna with a couple like simple sauces and seasonings that speaks amples of your establishment.

Henry Kaminski Jr.: Mm. I love it. I love it.

I love it. ⁓ favorite thing to cook at home? Lauren: I'm a griller at home. I love anything on the grill.

⁓ and any reason to put something on the grill. ⁓ but we are really big fajita family. You know, taco Tuesday, so skirt steak, pork chops, I'll slice it always up, put it on a tortilla and make a taco. I have two boys that are one's in high school and they don't stop eating, so everything can go in a taco.

Yeah. Henry Kaminski Jr.: Favorite thing someone else cooks for you? Lauren: Anything.

Do you know what a salad tastes like when someone else makes it and you didn't have to wash the lettuce? Like I could be at someone's house like this is the most amazing Caesar salad. I didn't have to do it. I didn't have to go.

⁓ no, I actually really enjoy going. If someone has me at their house and they put food out, I love to see what people put out. Henry Kaminski Jr.: Yeah, yeah.

Okay, cool. ⁓ one dish you'll never get tired of making. Lauren: Eggs. Henry Kaminski Jr.

: ⁓ How do you like your eggs? Lauren: Overeasy. Henry Kaminski Jr.: ⁓ Bi Same, same.

⁓ Biggest Kitchen Pet peeves. Lauren: And I could put an egg on anything. That's Portuguese too, though. We put egg on steak, we put on french fries.

I love egg on anything. Not drying the dishes when you put ⁓ back. Unloading a dishwasher and you don't dry the dishes. 'Cause because then they smell and the water's in there and what's the point?

Dry the dishes. Henry Kaminski Jr.: O You and my wife would get along. My wife's like, don't put that back in the cabinet.

Lauren: Yeah. I took out the actually this morning I took out the omelet pan to make my kid avocado toast, two eggs, and he lifted the pan and water came out of the pan and I was Henry Kaminski Jr.: ⁓ that's awesome. ⁓ God.

All right. ⁓ this this one'll throw you off. Sharp knife or perfect sauce. All right.

⁓ early morning prep or late night service. Okay. Lauren: Sharp knife. Early morning prep.

You only have successful service with good prep. Henry Kaminski Jr.: Mm. Fine dining or family style.

Okay. Most important kitchen tool. Lauren: Family style. Cutting board that doesn't slide across the table.

Yeah. People put a cutting board. Well, use your fingers, but you're honestly my knife is my most important. Henry Kaminski Jr.

: That's a full. That's a ball. All right. ⁓ if Portugal wins the World Cup, what are you cooking to celebrate?

Lauren: Mm-hmm. ⁓ I would do like a big backyard barbecue. The barbecue chicken, the we call frangu, shirashku, it's with a marinade with garlic and lemon and black pepper. on the grill, the spigot, the chicken goes nice and slow and turns around, and then big, big ribs we do on the grill with the same marinade.

Yeah. They call Costelas They're like this. Two hands to eat them. They're great.

Henry Kaminski Jr.: Like the dinosaur ones? ⁓ my god. I better get a f I better get a a DM like you're Lauren: Yeah.

Come on over. Well listen, we'll We'll schedule next time we'll do a certain thing. I'll do a suckling pig. The skin is like crack.

French fries, all that. Henry Kaminski Jr.: Cannot wait. I cannot.

⁓ my God. Sounds amazing. All right. So a couple last minute questions here.

What keeps you hungry at this stage of the game in your career? Lauren: ⁓ ⁓ my mentality is always there's bigger, better. There's always somewhere to grow. ⁓ I think it's just the way I was raised to to Immigrant parents that work their asses off from nothing to a beautiful, amazing, successful career in life.

And they've always taught me, roll your sleeves up and just put the work in and it'll pay off. I know what I want at the end. I want my name in lights. I want to be a chef.

You know, I small goals is what I said for the big picture. My goal five years ago was to have a cookbook published, not by myself. Did that in three years. Next goal was to hit a hundred thousand followers.

on social media did that. So I set small goals and I always say if you don't enjoy where you are right now, you'll never realize how hard you work to get to the goal. So I always look back and all the growth, but there's just the world's your oyster. Let's just keep going.

Henry Kaminski Jr.: What are you most proud of so far? Lauren: Cookbook was a really big proud moment. It was something I did for my, I said if I sold one or no copies, I would have still done the three years of work and everything.

It's a tribute to my family and the recipes. ⁓ if you it sounds cheesy, but I'm most proud of my two kids. I did something right there. You know, career career in all is amazing and it it drives me, but it's only driven because of them.

Henry Kaminski Jr.: Mm. I love it. No.

What what what do you think what do you think one mistake you made in the past ended up making you a better person? Lauren: I got fired from a job and I took it really bad. I internalized it and and and I thought I was never gonna grow from it. And instead of taking it as I was right it wasn't a right spot for me.

I wasn't doing I wasn't changing who I was to accommodate other people. ⁓ it was making me small. I didn't realize that till later in life that sometimes being told no or this isn't gonna work. If I learned earlier, it's okay, let's Henry Kaminski Jr.

: Mm-hmm. Lauren: one thing you learned and move forward. I kind of was someone who couldn't take the word no and when I got fired from one job, which I I'm a perfectionist, you know, I've always tried to have everything perfect all the time. And I didn't meet those expectations.

I took it out on myself. Where now I've realized a lot of those no's and failures have made me be able to grow and do better. Henry Kaminski Jr.: That's that's awesome.

You know, one of that that that hit me because ⁓ when I had a I had a business coach a few years back, his name was Dean Graziosi. And ⁓ he said to me, I was going through some shit, and he said to me, Henry, the way you're talking to me right now is how you talk to yourself, huh? And I said, Yeah. He said, Would you ever talk to your six-year-old son that way?

And I said, Absolutely not. He said, So why are you teaching why are you talking to yourself that way? I'll never, ever, ever forget that. Lauren: My kid and I my both my boys like golf.

I like golf. So we take them out on Sunday and we do like a family day. And my younger one gets up at the tea box and he's like, I saw Kai for get stuck. And I said, imagine, dude, like if right now you were like, I'm the shit.

I'm gonna rock this ball, pa-pa-pa. I go, your brain is so much stronger than you think. And he goes, Okay, mom, fine. And I go, no, you can't just say fine.

I go, you gotta actually believe it. I said, you gotta like really feel it. So by the second hole he got up, he hit a rocket. And I go, hmm, that was pretty good.

He goes, I know. I told myself, hit the shit out of it. I was like, right? Henry Kaminski Jr.

: ⁓ Lauren: It's true though. Like and and we are the examples of them. Like I always say, I work very hard because I want them to see that nothing came easy and you get a bigger reward when you work hard. Henry Kaminski Jr.

: Hundred percent. Hundred percent. Last but not least, where do you want your legacy to be? Lauren: that I really always made f people feel seen when they were with me.

I think that's really important. I feel sometimes we get in our own way, but when you're with somebody, I want you to tell me your story. I have a a thing in my office that says, go everywhere, eat everything, talk to everyone. And it's because I really think that we all have our own story and we all come from somewhere and you all we all want to feel wanted and special.

So when people were with me, I want to make sure that they feel that way. Henry Kaminski Jr.: That's awesome. Lauren.

What a pleasure. This is so much fun. I know. Listen, it was like we were following each other for a while and I was like, who's gonna I have to reach out to her?

Like it's not gonna this isn't gonna happen by itself. Lauren: Thanks. I'm so glad you asked me to do this. I love doing stuff like this.

Yeah. It's all it's also hard on like I've a couple different people and stuff I follow and I you know the algorithms and all that bullshit. But I feel that if you can get with audiences that really care and want to talk about the importance of certain things, it you you that's the whole thing is spreading the word. Henry Kaminski Jr.

: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I have some really cool ideas and I think you would be a a great fit for one of them.

We could talk offline about it. I kinda wanna leave the audience kinda hanging a little bit here because I think it's gonna it's gonna be awesome. I have some really cool like social media collab ideas that are gonna nobody is doing this. And that's why I was like, I we have to I have to do it with the right people though, otherwise it doesn't work.

But we'll talk about it. But ⁓ Lauren: Yeah. No, please. Yeah.

Okay. All right. Henry Kaminski Jr.: Real quick, before we ch before we jet, ⁓ where can people learn more about you?

Where can they follow you? And aren't you giving away tickets or something? I saw somebody. Lauren: We are we're doing a giveaway.

So if you buy tickets and you attend the the warm up and you join us down there, ⁓ which there's people flying in from all over because, you know, people are investing in this. ⁓ two free tickets to the World Cup against Portugal, against ⁓ Colombia at the Hard. So yeah. Henry Kaminski Jr.

: It's freaking insane. And how could they get the tickets? Lauren: ⁓ on our site. So Instagram is probably my biggest platform.

We do TikTok and stuff like that. No funny dances though. And Instagram, all of our stuff's on there, but cheflaurencovis.com.

There's everything from our catering to merch to the cookbook to recipes we post. I usually try and put out a recipe a day that you can cook at home or what we're working on. We got a lot of good things coming this year. It's still to come.

It's still early in the year. Henry Kaminski Jr.: No, it's ⁓ it's halfway it's you know, it's ⁓ we can call it halfway done, but it's it we got so much more runway to go. Lauren: Yeah.

So much ⁓ we we got a lot working on over here. I don't sleep. There's just there's just post-its everywhere. Henry Kaminski Jr.

: Don't go and don't go. She's she's s she's holding up post it for you guys that are listening. She's Lauren: This this is how my life works when I think of things. My son was in the car with me and he's like, What do you mean?

I go, paper, glove compartment, pen, write this down. And I just say one word. It was like potato. He goes, What?

I go, Don't worry about it. I just don't want to forget it. Henry Kaminski Jr.: ⁓ thank God for the reminders app on your phone.

⁓ my God. That is my best. That is my best friend. I swear to God, it is free.

It's free. Lauren, don't go anywhere. We got to do the outro and then I want to chat with you before you before you leave. Guys, there you have it.

Another episode. And but this one was a lot of fun, guys. I don't know if you guys felt that or not, but this was a great, great conversation. Lauren brought me back.

Lauren: ⁓ Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Henry Kaminski Jr.: To some of the early days in my career.

And she really said some things that really touched me. And I I hope it touched you as well. Cause that's what this show's all about, guys. It's to inspire you, it's to get you thinking, it's to ⁓ challenge some of the assumptions that you might have in life and in this business, and when it comes to marketing and branding, and you know, is this is this is why this platform exists and this is why I'm doing what I'm doing.

So Make sure that you drop a review. Make sure that you share this with somebody. Make sure that you, you know, follow along because we have ⁓ some some more amazing guests coming on the show. But I also have some really cool things that I would love to get you guys involved in.

So stay tuned. I appreciate you guys so much for supporting the show. And I'll catch you on the next episode real soon. Love you.

Lauren: You have to ⁓ upload it now?