Monday, May 18, 2020 - The Future of Hospitality

Video Subtitles:

how it affects so many of us it's pretty
incredible how how many people's lives
revolve around hi Internet happy Monday
good to see everybody hi Mafalda good to
see you
so today yeah I'm talking about
hospitality and I figured I'd wear the
shirt that represents my favorite
hospitality company ever in the history
of Radley's for me experiencing
hospitality this is the house of pure
Aloha once I figure I'd go for the the
Hawaiian look the tropical look on
Instagram but yeah just a lot of
conversations happening over this
weekend and really over this whole week
hi Michelle Aloha Michelle do you know
this shirt do you know Hopa do you know
the house up here Aloha uncle clay out 9
Hina
he's pretty incredible he is definitely
a mentor of mine and you know if I would
have known I was going to be talking I
was they'd be wearing this shirt and
talking about about hope Oh Michelle
please please please learn about Hopa
learn about how Sapir aloha they have a
location in Aina Haina and aina haina
shopping center right next to the food
land they make shaped eyes so uncle clay
was working a seed shop crack seed shop
there for years and years and years
decades actually and he's very famous in
that area especially among the children
because he's just 100% unadulterated
pure Aloha and when you go there you of
course get some yummy treats too and joy
but then you also get a enormous dose of
Aloha and you know the spirit of
community the spirit of family and his
grandson his nephew actually graduated
in entrepreneurship from USC and return
to back home this was back in 2011 I
believe 2010 or 2011 came back home and
helped uncle clay completely revamp his
whole business where they're no longer
doing you know the I seeds with the
leaking powder and and and you know like
the the sugary syrups that usually see
with shaved ice they started making all
the shape ice from local fruits and
vegetables sourced from farms throughout
Hawaii and they are completely
successful they make really nutritious
treats they still give those enormous
dosages of Pere Aloha and community and
family and actually about two years ago
I believe they expanded to the Ala Moana
Center so you know I know right now
things are a little a little shaky there
but I think they are still doing like to
go order so you could definitely connect
with them so you have Michelle you'll
have to visit it's an incredible
experience and today I'm talking about
the experience of hospitality and the
experience of going to a restaurant
because we can't evade this topic
anymore we can't evade the truth that
the experience of dining is completely
changed now and you know some can argue
that it is because of this pandemic you
know if you read you know articles about
restaurants shutting down you'll see the
pandemic as the direct reason for for
shutting down and some you know other
people are starting to write and these
are these are words coming from the
restaurant the restaurant tours
themselves or the chefs themselves are
starting to say
okay so maybe the pandemic was the you
know it was the light that sparked it
all to happen but the reality is is that
hospitality was not stable you know the
way it was before and this is something
I've been talking about throughout this
entire pandemic in these live videos hi
Jim good to see you Aloha so the shirt
I'll show you guys if you can see it
says hopeful love so that's like their
slogan Hopa stands for house appear
Aloha because that's the house of Allah
how you go there eat some dink shave ice
and get some pure Aloha from uncle clay
but this is this logo right here is
actually like their secret handshake of
sorts so you make it with your hands
like this so that's that's actually
what's on my shirt is this and it's the
house of pure Aloha if you can see it
you see it you see the roof so here's
the roof and then the Aloha that's right
right below that it's a house of pure
law right oh my shirt I love it and how
this is the secret handshake is that you
you make it with two I love yous in
American Sign Language this means I love
you I love you and you put them together
and it makes it but the real magic is
and unfortunately I'm not going to get
to feel that real magic right now is
that you can connect it and share it
with others so if you want to you're
welcome to to make - I love you symbols
and we can connect them on our screen
right there and together we create so
many more houses appear Aloha hope the
love everywhere it's incredible I love
it
so it's a little explanation and maybe a
little further explanation about the
word Aloha I'm sure everyone around the
world has heard that word it's such an
exotic beautiful word people know it
means hello and goodbye in Hawaii if you
visit Hawaii you definitely become
accustomed to that word but that word
means so
much more than just hello and goodbye
it's it's you know literal translation
means to exchange breath the hop is your
breath it's like when you say it
properly you should say it with your
soul say it with your heart
Aloha and so to exchange your breath is
to like exchange your souls and connect
your souls and what's really incredible
is when you're just casually saying
hello and goodbye even to a stranger
you're like saying let's consent let's
connect souls so there's another little
great tip that about Omaha you know
there's so many other words around the
world that embrace similar meaning so
you know it's not just just Hawaii that
has that privilege of experiencing and
living Aloha but you know you have words
like namaste and even love the word of
love if you really want to dig deep into
what that word means to us as a society
can mean so much more than just a
greeting or just yeah I get really
excited about a little house so pure
little everybody much love to everybody
so yeah back to the subject I was
talking about about the future of
hospitality and this was all stemmed
from you know several conversations that
I've been having with clients of ours so
you know to its business models that we
supply tea to businesses who are usually
like the local tea readers of the
community so they'll have a tea shop or
tea house themselves and then they will
supply wholesale to businesses mostly
restaurants cafes so the pandemic has
definitely hit our business and that's
why you're seeing me on these videos and
you're seeing me trying to do more
retail and more engagement directly with
the community versus you know
conventionally what I would be doing to
grow tea lettuce
boarding these businesses that are
distributing and supporting restaurants
and cafes in their community and so
restaurants and cafes are not open with
the exception of certain communities
throughout the US including the one that
I live in so this is very relevant to me
because a lot of these thoughts and
ideas around ok restaurants are open
let's go eat you know I'm a big eater I
have you know a group of friends that we
regularly dying together and I myself
I'm having to like contemplate what like
how excited really am I about going to
dine out again am I hurried to do that
if I am what restaurants am I going to
prioritize to go to next and how long is
this gonna last what is the future of
this this experience going to be so it's
a lot of you know daunting questions and
then you know talking to my clients who
are directly connected to these
businesses that are either having to
make the decision of not being able to
open again or making really hard
decisions about how they're gonna
operate when they open again has led to
a lot of hard conversations and I've
talked about this in my live streams
before and you know have some pretty
incredible friends who you know have
come and shared their insights with us
here through this medium that's either
being open at half capacity which is the
protocol that most states are are
enforcing when they're reopening or only
being allowed to be open for pickup or
delivery also both those situations
throw
and the whole business model of
hospitality specifically fine dining you
know so I'm talking here mostly about
fine dining I'm not talking about fast
food I'm not talking about but you know
like the majority of what has like kind
of developed over the past decade as our
restaurant experience is what they call
a fine casual dining or a casual fine
dining so it's like elevated experiences
like when you go to our restaurants sit
down at a restaurant and be served by
someone you're you're expecting that the
chef is going to be using unique
ingredients they're going to be offering
unique experiences to you experiences
that you may not have in your home
usually so this is like a special thing
but on top of all of this because it's
almost become a commodity experience we
also expect it to be affordable because
we're gonna do it often you know before
the pandemic happened it was common okay
so this is just my story my anecdote I
don't know your story some of my friends
have very different stories than this as
far as go my glasses fell off it's
really sunny here I got to keep him up
have a different story of eating out
almost every day sometimes two times a
day at different places for me I was
eating out maybe like three to four
times a week and I felt like that was a
lot for the past three months I've only
eaten out I think just one time actually
so very drastic change for for all of us
but prior to the pandemic the experience
of going out to eat even fine dining
even if it's casual fine dining was
almost a commodity experience that we
kind of expected to have regularly we
expected it to be valued at a at a price
that would be excess
in our budgets so what that left is a
very unstable unsustainable business
model for these restaurants to operate
within which was relevant to me in my
business and my clients business and it
was like what really kind of kept us up
at night you know prior to the pandemic
was that you had all of these incredible
restaurants and he's like foodie cities
popping up all over the place and none
of them gave a damn about tea and just
like made us so frustrated that there
was so much value in the hospitality
experience yet very few of these
restaurants really valued tea and the
reason was was not because the chef's
didn't see it you know I could have a
chef or a mixologist or you know a
famous bartender sit down or a wine song
sit down at my tea table and they got it
first cup of tea they sipped and they
got it where the issue was wasn't that
commodity mentality that's you know when
they took that experience and they try
to fit it into their business model
they're like this is not gonna work
first of all where the heck are we gonna
find the time to train our servers to
execute this elevated experience that we
could actually make you know some type
of sustainable profit from and then then
the next thing was like our servers have
such a high turnover rate you know if we
train them one time then you know we'd
have to be training them all the time
and that's a huge problem like just that
the turnover rate itself you got to
question any industry or any business
that you're involved in if you're seeing
a high turnover rate like why is that
happening
there must be something off you know it
could be a toxic work environment but I
mean really from my experience of what I
heard is like even though that could
have been like specific
like one example because it was very
common for toxic environments to exist
in kitchens and restaurants but more
importantly that's the career of a
hospitality service worker is constantly
having to change jobs to get those
promotions to to get that better
opportunity you know so your your your
kind of Restaurant tours expected high
terminal rates not just of servers but
also look chefs you know so because
these people like there wasn't like an
ownership or a pride in the work that
they're doing you know there was just
this necessity to take care of
themselves and take care of their
futures so you know not to say that
there's any hard feelings it's it's not
you know a competitive environment like
that is just people looking out for
themselves and it means that the system
as a whole was not supporting those
people as individuals and so yeah the
system's broken and it's been broken and
just recently some articles have come
out and I did talk about the article
before in the New York Times with the
chef/owner of shit I'm forgetting I
never dined there and I'm not personally
familiar but she was quite famous and
her restaurants quite famous and I mean
she was one of the first ones to come
out and publicly say I'm not planning on
reopening and I'm not just going to
surrender my failure to this pandemic
the this was a messed up system even
before all this happened and and we need
some change right and then I was talking
with one of our clients who pretty much
exclusively supplies restaurants so
they're very popular brand shout out to
Joe Joe T in Miami Florida he's been
hustling it hard found the opportunity
to grow his brand through food service
through selling tea mostly iced tea so
if you're living in Miami or have spent
some time in Miami I'm sure you've seen
that brand
on the ice tea dispensers because yeah
Jojo is an incredible job of developing
influence within the culinary scene of
Miami which is huge there's a huge
tourist destination lots of different
great food options there in the city and
so yeah this this is totally relevant
for him you know his entire business
infrastructure and foundation was
completely gone and so he too is also
having to figure out how do I evolve and
figure this out and you know just just
if anybody's concerned he's doing great
he's very optimistic and he's doing his
way out resilience you know it always
comes back to this this word of
resilience so I'm grateful to hear that
he is keeping his hopes high and
continuing his hustle and his work but
he brought to my attention kind of this
like unspoken theme that's starting to
rise up within the fine-dining world
related to not scapegoating the pandemic
for the failures and our hospitality and
he brought to my attention a chef named
Daniel hum and he runs Eleven Madison
Park which is a three three Michelin
star restaurant credible restaurant I
think been open since 2006 I have heard
of this restaurant before I think it is
like the top rated restaurant and they
do have a good tea program I do remember
reading that they they they do invest in
their tea and and their tea service but
that's the top this is the top
restaurant in the world and so Jojo
brought to my attention
Daniel making a very public statement of
saying this has got us this has got to
change and he's openly admitted that he
has no intention of reopening his
restaurant as he had it opened before
and in
fact he has completely flipped what he's
doing out of this restaurant and you
know I'm I'm not too sure what he did is
the ultimate future it's like this
temporary solution and it's incredible
that he's made these sacrifices and
making it work out for what he's doing
but just some some back well so what
he's doing is he's converted his kitchen
into a community kitchen modeling it
after like soup kitchens and after you
know general like food security
nonprofits and he's cooking three
thousand meals a day that get
distributed to frontline workers and
other people in need and other food
insecure communities so this is
incredible like just three months ago
this restaurant was exclusively serving
the most elite and wealthy people in the
world by reservation only months in
advance
prepaid invincible - so like to eat at
this restaurant you have to prepay
before months before you were even to
dine there and now he's distributing
free food out what you know it's an
incredible sacrifice that he's put up it
hasn't resolved the ultimate issue so I
think what he said he had like a hunt
some stories say he had close to 300
employees working for this restaurant
for this Eleven Madison Park and so he's
actually had to furlough all of them and
now he's only hiring I think up to like
20 employees to produce these three
thousand meals a day because it's all he
can afford and these employees are only
making minimum wage so you know is it
really the the solution I don't know I
mean it's an incredible solution for
right now in this immediate time and of
course is going to serve them well in
their PR and in their public image
as well as being a leader of this change
that he proposes so in all of the news
articles about this change that he's
done to his own kitchen right now and I
think that Jose Andres is also doing a
lot of work like this too like using
their kitchen and their infrastructure
and their network like their supply
chain network to provide food for people
in need you know even and all of the
articles he's like asking for support
from the government to fund this which
is also like an immediate solution for
now and so you know I think that's an
incredible idea and if the government of
whichever government that is does step
up to help with it I think that it's a
noble thing but it's in my opinion it's
not the ultimate solution and in all of
the articles and all the interviews that
the chef has done he has stated that a
change is needed he says that this is so
this is just New York their numbers New
York has 26,000 restaurants and 350,000
workers within those restaurants so
that's just New York that's a huge
market I you know I I could take a
little time to to pull the numbers from
the rest of the country but I'm just
looking at this article and this is just
New York so if you just look at those
numbers that's that's enough to see that
this industry which you know in an
another study pulling among chefs and
restaurant tours in New York they as
they estimated that something like 70%
of those 26,000 restaurants are not
going to reopen or are not going to
survive reopening once all of this goes
back to normal
so I guess you can extrapolate out that
70% of 350,000 workers are not going to
go back to work that is huge that is
like really huge and you but this is a
thing though like they're not going to
go back to work to a work that didn't
really appreciate their value and this
is
very similar to the thing that you know
I've been saying for years about
protecting indentured labor you know not
to say that hospitality workers here in
the United States are indentured there
they're nowhere near an intern but from
some perspective there is some relations
so before you know before we get to off
track I did want to look up the word of
indentured because I use that word and I
want to make sure everybody understands
it myself included so indentured to by
and someone such as an apprentice by or
as if by in dentures in dentures as a
noun is a document or a section a
document that is indented a formal or
official documented usually or document
usually executed in two or more copies a
contract finding one person to work for
another for a given period of time often
used in plural so I guess looking at the
definition of itself is kind of
difficult so where does indentured as an
adjective
hmm so I mean I guess the definition
here makes it difficult this is a
merriam-webster maybe if I look at a
different source it'll be a little more
clear indented is the core word to set
something as a line of a paragraph in
from the margin to notch the abut make
jagged to order by an indent to divide
as to produce sections with irregular
edges so they match with none of those
words word but basically is like the
idea okay when the word indentured is
attached to the word servants then that
meaning becomes a lot more clear in this
sense but I don't want to attach it to
the word servants because indentured
labourers and injured workers cannot be
serviced they they could be salaried
paid workers but to be indentured means
that you're kind of locked in you're
kind of contracted in maybe not with a
contract itself but you're locked into
that position and so even if you're paid
and in some cases like we're living in a
big city like New York or San Francisco
where your cost of living is really high
even if you're getting paid a hundred
thousand dollars a year you could still
be indentured like meaning that you have
no ability for mobilization you have no
ability for getting out of that work and
that might be an extreme case because of
course you could always you know leave
the city and go to a place with the
lower cost of living which is happening
right here in Las Vegas so many examples
of people living the big cities to come
here to kind of find a new path which is
incredible that you know we have those
privileges because there are a lot of
places in the world like tea labor when
you're talking about endangered
indentured workers in tea labor there
literally is no place else for these
guys to go but in the context of the
hospitality industry I mean these are
intelligent educated skill
people that are adding an incredible
value to the economy and they're in
somewhat of an indentured position
you know why protect that why protect
those jobs versus how do we pave the new
path forward and so long story short the
whole intent of why I wanted to talk
about this today and bring it up today
is that this is the opportunity for the
new path for this new economy and I
don't think that we should be afraid of
doing it and I think that now it's not
just a couple of us crazies talking
about it
you know because I've been talking about
this stuff for years but this is like
the heavy hitters these are the main
players in the industry that are talking
about it and saying changes needed
unfortunately I haven't seen to this
time any sort of manifesto what does
that change look like what's it going to
feel like what's it what's the
experience gonna be like there's just
been like all the talk has been around
the system was broken the system was
broken so I think that we've hammered
that nail in we're good to go to move on
from that and talk about what to do
moving forward and the work that we've
been doing and our clients have been
doing is more relevant than ever in the
context of this conversation because
yeah we've been trying to sell tea we've
been trying to sell this heightened
experience which in the commodity
context was completely unnecessary and
so we've had those conversations we've
thought about the challenges of making
change in that system and how do you how
do you approach the managers and how do
you communicate with the managers to see
through those change because now is the
time to execute those changes because
the managers are looking for the change
you know all of the past when everything
was like super bustling and super busy
and super commodified
no one had time to think about change
they were so busy you know producing
this quantity this like mass experience
for everybody and you know now we do
have the time and so you know what I
predict is gonna happen is we will start
opening up restaurants will try because
you know there has been a small minority
of restaurants that have like
proactively said we're not even gonna
try to open up most restaurants are
optimistic that they'll figure it out
and I think that there's going to be a
lot of pain that happens when we open
back up and the economics don't work out
you know the only way the economics are
gonna work out like right away is if
like restaurants like triple their
prices right off the bat
and I don't know how as consumers if
your consumer and watching this how that
makes you feel are you going to be
excited to run back to the restaurant
you know to pay higher prices to support
that system that we all love so much
which yes you will or at least the ones
that value it will and that's all that
matters so if we focus on the segments
of the market that's going to value that
and support that and create the
experiences in the value that they want
they're gonna come you know so the
future of dining the future of
hospitality is gonna be super
high-quality it's gonna be a really high
quality high value experience that we're
gonna look forward to and value and
there may be some that are privileged
and that will prioritize that experience
where yes they will continue to dine out
three to four times or even more times a
week it's gonna cost them a whole lot
more money but they're gonna value that
but what's gonna happen to the rest of
us is yeah we're gonna we're gonna value
it more but we're gonna have to
prioritize other things in our life and
say okay this is a really special treat
for myself I am gonna
maybe once a week or twice a week and
then the rest of the time I'm gonna eat
from home or you know here's you know my
idea of what the solution is gonna be
we're gonna eat street food and that
could be a whole other topic that I look
forward to and you that could be
considered I mean it could be considered
it definitely is hospitality but it's
more distributed it's it's it's more
accessible and it's small business I
mean talk about small business so let me
go get my hot water I've got to make
some tea I've been talking to talking
too much already for some tea if you
guys have been watching and have any
type of reflections or ideas about what
I've been talking about please leave a
comment I would love to hear what she
think and actually in just a little bit
hi Gabby good to see you happy Monday so
today as March on Monday I decided I've
had some budget get this week going I
had an incredible weekend it was
actually like really my first weekend
like totally off during this whole
pandemic so did a lot of relaxing I did
do a lot of exercising so I wasn't
completely lazy I did a lot of running
yesterday I went on a hike with with a
good friend and and Bitcoin we climbed a
mountain and looked looked over the
whole view of the city I went for a bike
ride on this trip on Friday night for
everybody in Vegas I highly recommend
that experience before all this is over
and you know not to say that this you
know won't be over and won't be
happening again so I'm sure we'll have
lots of time to have that experience but
the weather is getting really nice this
week here in Vegas so it's the perfect
time to to go ride your bike on this
trip I live about four miles from the
strip so I just rode my bike from my
house on Friday for sunset I rode
through the our
district which was a pretty incredible
incredible experience seeing how that's
going and you know that's what's brought
on a lot of these feelings and ideas and
conversations and I'm having with my
friends because you know for good reason
these businesses want to open back up
and the community wants them to open
back up too but it really had me
thinking a lot of like how excited am I
about getting out to these restaurants
and but then you know I feel for the
restaurant owners and especially for the
workers you know I'm friends with a lot
of people that work in these restaurants
and like more so than just wanting to
have a career and wanting to have a
livelihood like they legitimately love
hospitality they love cooking they love
educating their customers they love
serving they just love that whole
experience and now that's that's all
threatened you know so it's really
having me thinking about how do we
evolve to allow these folks to remain
engaged with the work that they love so
much and it's necessary work as well so
yeah the Arts District and the strip is
well is super active right now there's a
lot of businesses that are open several
the businesses unfortunately can't
practice social distancing so you know I
don't know you know what kind of effect
that's gonna have on the pandemic more
so on the pandemic then on like the
community solidarity which is what we
need more than anything right now is the
community together and supporting each
other and feeling for each other and
unfortunately the whole subject of
social distancing and whether or not you
should wear a mask or whatever has
really become like a huge point of
contingency among that solidarity you
know so it you know that it doesn't
worry me a little bit I what course was
wearing a mask and was practicing social
distancing and I was noticing it from
several businesses and I actually bumped
into some friends and yeah because
everybody's out and about like wanting
to
it's great I think it's incredible how
about there there's just some
restaurants that just physically
couldn't practice the social distancing
you know I could tell that they were
trying and their employees already masks
but when you have so many people that
want to come and they're not wearing
masks or you know their idea as a social
distancing are very different than the
rest of the communities yeah so anyway I
just put my bowl so this is a beautiful
bowl made by Marie and not made in China
exciting news we are going to start
listing all of their products on our
website tea and it's people calm so
you'll be able to browse through their
products there and and purchase their
products there and they'll be shocked
from they'll be shipped shops they'll be
shipped from their studio in Albuquerque
New Mexico and another good thing about
them is they do commissions so if you
are owning a hospitality business where
you need to have you know where's they
can consign you know different work for
you with even branding in it I just love
this bulks it's like so colorful you see
all the different colored glazes I guess
on Instagram you can't really see it but
it's like pink and blue and green and
yellow and it's kind of sloppy looking
and very wabi-sabi and the the colors
are all kind of streaked inside I love
making my matcha in here because it's
really beautiful I have my water here
the whole time
so yeah be the manifesto or the path for
us to follow and I think that's really
what people need they just need to
visualize the idea you know we've all
kind of swallowed the reality that
things weren't working now we need to
know okay how to move forward and I
think that's the value of this manifesto
and so I posted about this on my
facebook this morning a personal
Facebook which by the way if you're
interested in being personal friends
with me you're welcome please come along
let's share I posted about this and you
know I'm friends with a lot of
hospitality people so I was just you
know trying to get there their reaction
from it and what they thought and some
folks said oh well you should are you
going to write this manifesto and I mean
of course I have lots of ideas they can
see your and talk for hours about all
the ideas I have but I think something
like this is so much better written as a
collective co-created especially among
the folks that are like in the trenches
that are engaged with this work you know
me myself I'll be really honest I'm
gonna be fully transparent right now I
have never been a service employee other
than an uber driver or the uber driver
for about three years here in Vegas
that's the extent of my service industry
experience I know a lot about food
because I'm food scientists and I'm like
worked in the food industry which is
definitely not service that's like
behind-the-curtain processing everything
and then I understand about the
hospitality industry because of this
business that I do which provides
services and education and you know
supply chain services to the restaurant
industry so you know I have that
perspective but I've never had my feet
on the ground and I'll be the first one
sitting at that that means that I really
don't know anything and relatively so
that's why I want to invite others
to to help me in co-creating this
manifesto and also if you hear of
anybody that is already working on this
especially that there's more they're
more qualified than me and I will go on
my own journey to find out who is
working on this and what's being written
and what's being shared because it is
far more effective for this type of work
to be done in Britain by somebody who is
in that industry directly versus myself
I'm just a very vulnerable person that
because they're enthusiastic about my
ideas so that's why I have no hesitation
and starting this process and kind of
launching it in creating this platform
where the folks that do have a stake in
it and I have a stake in it too because
my business has been directly threatened
by all of these issues so I have a stake
I would love to have people that manage
restaurants or own restaurants build
restaurant networks and restaurant
business models that directly fill this
pain and and see this need as well as
service employees themselves you know
I'd love to come together and I actually
want to use this platform what's
interesting about this platform is that
all of these videos that get created
automatically have a transcript made for
them so this could literally be a
conversation a casual conversation where
we talk and then we're able to extract
all of the ideas and text form from the
transcript of the video so you don't
have to write anything you know we can
just have a casual conversation so I
think what I'm gonna do moving forward
is once a week and perhaps this could be
on Mondays because today is Monday and
today's the day and so let's just do it
we during this platform various
hospitality professionals can come
together and we can start talking about
what this manifesto will look like and
this is like a manifesto of how
our food system is going to be
especially in regards to prepared food
you know the whole processed food thing
food industry big food they've got the
whole other animal and I'll get to that
that is like my number one core passion
but the issue that we are facing right
now is in regards to our prepared food
our food service our restaurants and
don't think that our fast-food
restaurants are not immune to this
they're they're facing some major issues
themselves and supply chain mostly so
these are huge corporate centralized
organizations and huge corporate
centralized organizations are far less
resilient then you know small businesses
so they're definitely not immune to
these problems so you know I think this
manifests don't need to address that
like how ok how much food do people eat
from fast food and let's not be ashamed
of that answer like let's just find that
answer and then move on from that and
say because even that food source is at
risk right now so how are people going
to eat even without that and how our
restaurant tour is going to continue to
provide their value and what about
everybody else what about that 70% what
was that number that I got from that
article 70% of the 350,000 workers in
New York City alone they're gonna be out
of work of course they can find other
work you know there could be a pretty
good portion of that 70% of 350,000
workers that are remaining super
passionate about food and want to
continue to offer that value to their
community what about them you know and
that's on this whole you know project
that's actually where I am the most
impact
gende is high you think good morning
good morning from Taiwan
speaking of Taiwan and what I'm just
talking about street food I got to make
like a street food dense it's gonna
become a thing it'll be like a whole
mean like America has been so missing
out on like the awesomeness of street
food so I'm just like talking as a
foodie like some of my actually all of
my favorite food experiences we're all
had like either on a street somewhere
like by someone's cart just like
scarfing down some like hot freshly made
yummy or like in someone's home that
just like casually you know was just
making something and and you know and
not only was the food great like when I
paid them the money for the food like I
like was like whoa this is great like
this guy's getting all of that money for
you know operating their business so
yeah Taiwan is an incredible example of
street food you know and that's always
the first argument I get back when I
mentioned the opportunity and enthusiasm
I have for street food is well how are
we gonna keep the food safe you know
that's the purpose of a restaurant and
we have the health code and health
department keeps everything safe I'm
gonna I'm gonna dig in I need it bone it
or what do we say eat the ducky moss or
shears or come by I don't know all of it
so be prepared from my speech to like
speed up like three times more so if you
thought I was talking fast before so
yeah they say how are we gonna make the
food safe you know if you let auntie
down the street make you know a big pot
of beans and we're all gonna go buy a
bowl of it for fifteen cents or 20 cents
how how are we not gonna have food
poisoning all the time and it's like
there's so much to that so Taiwan is a
really good example that I'm always
gonna fall back on to say okay so Taiwan
is like super clean they adopted you
know kind of the cleanliness culture
from from Japanese culture while still
maintaining to the rustic you know kind
of street food culture of China and
things are fabulous
I have never one time of all the time
that I eat Taiwan when I go there I eat
everything I don't question anything
even the stinky tofu like even if it
smells like it's rotten I eat it and not
once have I ever gotten sick so you know
like if the food is hot if the people
preparing the food have a culture of
Hygiene and mindfulness of their
customers this is a non-issue and so if
we're empowering people that have pretty
much spent their entire career working
in a certified kitchen in a restaurant
as a certified food server understanding
sanitation and washing your hands and
all of that you know I think they're
more than prepared to be making and
serving food to a local community and do
we know their own kitchen you know like
there is not a single food code in the
US where that legal so if you've ever
gone to someone's kitchen and they
charged you to eat food like that was
totally illegal black market food you
ate now like some counties have cottage
industry rules that allow you you know
some leniency in the food code they
won't come inspect you and make sure
you're doing things right but those are
limited just to packaged food food
products so like if you're gonna you
know canned tomatoes or whatever you're
gonna do
you're allowed some leniency all this
much is so good it's so strange macho is
the funny thing like when you start
drinking it like when you first drink it
it may not be mmm so rich and amazing
it's like a delayed response
yeah so cottage industry only applies if
you are preparing some food and
packaging it to be sold to someone who's
gonna take it away and either further
cook it or consume it later if you are
plating a hot meal that is going to be
consumed on-site you have to have like a
proper restaurant license which is
anybody who has ever worked in the food
industry or in the hospitality industry
knows that that is a huge barrier to
injury and even food trucks so food
trucks seem like an ideal solution
they're exciting but those are even
still very expensive to get involved in
the business of and to to execute
because even with the food truck you
need to have a certified kitchen like
commissary kitchen and then your truck
itself also has to be certified to be
sanitary which is great you know it's
great that we're holding our businesses
accountable for keeping a sanitary
environment but some of the protocols
are just like way overkill and you know
could be executed in a much more
efficient and accessible way so I know
my street food dream is a big a big one
but I think that that's probably going
to be like the most important element of
this whole in manifesto is how to
distribute the value of all of these
displaced workers which now they're not
gonna be workers anymore they could beat
businesses themselves you know they
could be empowered and autonomous
businesses that thrive on their own and
create very unique value on their own we
love to see that so that is my goal so I
guess now I've kind of committed myself
to every Monday I'm gonna be doing this
so if you have been intrigued by
anything that I've talked about today
and why
to join this conversation please reach
out to me you can direct message through
whatever platform you're seeing me on
right now you can email me info at
telecom you can give me a call I'd love
to chat with you on the phone and you
know kind of see where you would like to
fit in this initiative you know I'd love
to involve others that have more
influence and power than me and of
course I'd love to give them the credit
for it like I just want to see this done
you know so I've even thought about this
would be something incredible to offer
to even like the James Beard Foundation
to get involved with with their
influence as I'm accustomed to a lot of
the established system is not down for
change so I am perfectly comfortable
paving our own path and being a crusader
for this movement so I am volunteering
myself to you know lead this path and
also humble myself when the time is
ready to I just want to see that change
I love great food I want to see people
eating more of it being more connected
with it being more conscious of how
important of a role food plays in their
life and then their health and then
their mental health and also create a
strong foundation and opportunity for
all of our food service workers
especially here in the United States
which is probably the hardest hit
segment of our population from this
pandemic yeah so please help me let's
make this happen
let's make some magic yeah if you have
any ideas of people that you think would
be interested in this please feel free
to introduce them to me share this video
to them let them know about me I'm the
crazy lady ready to you know make this
happen I don't mind being that person
cool I turned the link on so if you guys
want to join me and come talk you can
just go into your browser bit ly
/ t let t party and it will take you
directly into my zoo room where we can
chat and we can chat about this subject
or we can of course chat about anything
else how you want to you just want to
catch up and ask me how the weather is I
would be more than happy to do that
other industry news since you know this
has pretty much been in an industry
update India has extended its locked
down until the end of the month so
yesterday it was supposed to be lifted
but it was not so if you have been
anticipating in the business or you know
imports or anything like that from India
those will still be on hold until the
end of the month and who knows what will
happen after that another intention
setting an intention setting to more
actually that I wanted to talk about
today is Thursday May 21st is the very
first official UN International tea day
so as far as what I read online about
what is supposed to be happening on this
day is very similar to the international
tea day that we just celebrated a few
months ago where were meant to
acknowledge the workers of tea so this
is like the UN sponsoring this the UN
has announced this and it's a pretty big
deal so I do plan on doing something
really special and fun for you guys I
may or may not stream all day I don't
know I haven't decided what I'm gonna do
for you guys but I'm gonna do something
special you know to give honor and
respect to all the wonderful people of
tea that I have the great honor and
privilege to be connected with to share
with and of course to share with you so
and that I was also a tea talk stay so I
haven't confirmed with Sam what he wants
to do on that day but it will be an
extra special day so please be sure to
reserve some time to spend with me and
with our whole little tea posse on
Thursday which is the UN's first
international tea Day May 21st
the second intention I want and set with
you guys and let you guys know is a
little unrelated but I figured I've
built this platform now so I got to use
it and create some value for the world
with it and this is related to something
that I had started turning the wheels on
from even before the pandemic this was
inspired by an article I saw written by
active-duty military personnel that
aired his grievances about the current
state of the military and people that
enlist for the military and dedicate
their lives to the military the first
thing that they do when they swear in to
this work is a swear to protect the
Constitution yet in the current system
there is no type of Constitution
education or discussions or you know
even like a culture building around that
so my intention before the pandemic was
to provide Constitution study groups
specifically targeting to you know
people interested in military or people
that have taken that oath that do want
to explore that more because I came to
find out there are a lot of people that
feel that that is something that's been
kind of passed over and skipped on in in
the military but now since the pandemic
has started I am finding a lot of my
friends and peers and people that I
respect to have themselves become
protectors of the Constitution
and so now I think that this is an
opportunity you not just for military
personnel but for everybody to have an
opportunity to engage with the
Constitution so I believe one day a week
I will dedicate the time here for
studying the Constitution so if that's
something that excites you maybe I'll do
that on Wednesdays now that I'm just
setting intention and yeah I think
Wednesdays are good middle of the week
so you know I'll of course be drinking
tea and I'll be encouraging all of you
to be drinking tea while we are doing
this study and and hopefully discussion
you know because I've came to learn that
the most valuable education involving
the Constitution is when it's like a
study group so it's like Bible study or
something like that you know so you know
we can focus on one portion for the day
maybe a small snippet and then spend the
rest of the time discussing you know so
I think that is something that is need
for the community as we are all becoming
much more engaged with our civil rights
and our identity as a community and as
individuals of this nation and what this
nation stands for so this is all very
non-political you can come with any type
of political platform that you are
currently on or you currently identify
with this has nothing to do with any of
that this is just purely looking it's
just like whenever I say a word like
indentured and I'm like okay let me go
look this word up and let me make sure
that we are all on the same page and you
know so the concept of protecting the
Constitution is something that I am
seeing among my peers on a daily now and
I think that's great I think it's
incredible like if you identify with you
know a protector of the Constitution and
someone that wants to stand up for your
constitutional rights like incredible I
just like I think that maybe whoever is
saying that may know what they're
talking about but others may not you
know
and so I think if we're all gonna start
walking on this path of engaging with
these types of conversations it's
important that we understand the context
of what's going on cuz what I want to
provide for this world is a platform of
truth and as I spoke in a very
philosophical light session last week
truth is not it in itself as a static
thing but our relation to it is not so
you know they we can't see truth from
one particular perspective we have to
learn how to embrace so many
perspectives and I think one way to do
that or a couple ways of doing that is
first having the tolerance of being open
to other perspectives but then sometimes
in order to understand someone's
perspective we you know that's the value
of having a common vocabulary or common
context in which we each perceive our
perspectives and individuals so you know
we we have all become protectors of the
Constitution which is awesome and I want
to help us become better at that and
become strong like building a stronger
capacity for truth so those are my
intentions three big intentions that
I've set for you one Monday's talking
about the future Hospitality writing the
manifesto of what that future is going
to look like to International tea day on
Thursday lots of surprises in store in
fact one of them I was talking with my
brother on is I believe we are going to
start having tea class packages
including tea so that we can do
basically tea tortoise together you know
through private zoom
so if you've liked the content that I
create here I mean this is just like the
free stuff that I just want to get out
there this is the community building
stuff I want to get out there in the
context that I want to build for all of
us to connect on if you've been enjoying
these experiences these new things that
I'll be launching on Thursday will be
much more in-depth and much more
educational so I look forward to that on
Thursday I'll be launching all of that
and the final intention is Constitution
study Wednesday's so there we go come
back on Wednesdays we'll be talking
about the Constitution and if you don't
live in the United States and you don't
identify with our Constitution I still
think that this could be a valuable
experience for you to one understand the
context in which this country works
under or is supposed to work under and
you know I mean that's it right to
understand the context of America and
why where we come from and you know I
think that this could be powerful even
for ourselves as Americans to better
understand our age identity as a
community in this world so yes even if
you're not American please join please
discuss and ask questions and give your
feedbacks because this is for all of us
to learn how to connect yeah because we
are a very globalized world now and it's
important for all of us to be tolerant
of each other's perspectives and the the
cultures and the context in which we
perceive and interact with what's going
on so no one has joined this live
experience and I've pretty much
exhausted what I wanted to talk about
today if you have any more questions go
ahead and throw them in I will be more
than happy to address them I understand
a lot of what I spoke on today was quite
controversial and for those that
work in hospitality or do own
restaurants could be a hard truth to
swallow but the faster we swallow it and
move on and paves a path for the future
the better we'll be so yeah feel free to
email me info at telecom I'll be happy
to open a discussion with you answer any
questions you have and yeah talk about
food talk about tea of course talk about
matcha if you want to but yeah I've been
one for over an hour now I appreciate
all of your time and all of your
engagements and willingness to listen to
my words and hope to see you
I'll be back tomorrow and yeah Wednesday
I guess that'll be the first time I'll
start this constitution study group so
yeah I hope you have a wonderful week
and experience lots of love thank you
purely hope