Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 Good morning, Fort McMurray, wood, Buffalo, and the rest of the world. You've tuned into the Mac city morning show. I am your host, Elliot Pierre. And as per usual, we're going to start the show off the same way we start every episode off with a moment of gratitude. I know you can be doing a million things with your time. So the fact that you choose to spend it with us truly does mean the world to me. So thank you on that note, Tanner hit him with the intro.
Speaker 1 00:00:20 She caught me loves you're listening to the next city morning show.
Speaker 0 00:00:29 All right. And we're back. Okay. Today's going to be a fun one. As you guys know, I don't introduce my guests. I let them do that themselves because they can do a better job. So on that note, uh, can you please tell everybody at home who you are and what you're about?
Speaker 3 00:00:41 My name is Thomas Finn. Uh, me and Elliot met at a, uh, a gaming night that we had a little event at Earl's and, um, towards the end of the night and meats, fresh batch, dry ribs, and these guys were just pigging out over it. So, uh, I just came over and I'm like, Hey, does the food reviews? I remember you did something with Mitchell's cafe. Yeah. And, um, yeah, I just thought that, uh, I'd say hello and I'm on the show.
Speaker 0 00:01:10 There you go, man. So let's talk about Earl's. So what do you do at our roles? What's your official like?
Speaker 3 00:01:16 Um, I am part of the leadership, uh, group. I am a night coach and overall I just kind of shut the restaurant down. I kind of take a little bit of charge and do Cole finish. I do a little bit of grill. Um, and we got a lot of new people, but we would like more people to come in. So we'll apply. We'd love to have you, and I'll take you under my wing. I'll personally train you on whatever station we can get you on.
Speaker 0 00:01:40 I, so I have never worked in a restaurant or a kitchen, like nothing. So like, what you're saying to me is complete a little form. So I thought and sorry he got home. I know that there's waiters. I know there's cooks. I know there's the front people in the desk that like a hostess hostess. Thank you. And bartenders. I like, and I know like, okay, there must be like a manager of some sort that's as far as like the hierarchy in a restaurant goes to me, like, please explain.
Speaker 3 00:02:09 I've worked in many different restaurants. I started at Mitchell's. That's why when I first saw I was just kinda nostalgic over it. And um, so at the restaurant I'm at, it's like casual, fine dining. So you have specific stations, um, apps, Forno top-end, pans, walks, all that good stuff. Um, but it's kind of structured, like any kitchen, like, um, paramilitary organization. You have the regional chef head chef, then, you know what I mean? It kinda two chefs and divvies down from there. Right. Um, I find that it's a lot like, like a tank crew. Okay. You're very close to the people that you're working with day to day, every single day. And there is a little bit of a us versus them mentality where like, um, you really just want to promote camaraderie as much as you can. And it's really tough getting through some of these nights, but, um, sorry. Let's restructure the question.
Speaker 0 00:03:09 That's good, man. Like I'm learning. So you you've outlined that in the kitchen. There's not just cooks, like it's an assembly line worth of individuals and everybody has their hierarchy and their rank. So I didn't know that I figured there was like, I watched the food network. So I knew about goal dinner. Have you not seen Ratatouille? I've never seen Ratatouille
Speaker 3 00:03:29 Best food movies out there. No,
Speaker 0 00:03:31 But I've seen chef. I love the movie chef. So chef is good,
Speaker 4 00:03:35 But you haven't seen Ratatouille?
Speaker 0 00:03:37 No, I haven't got as a problem. I'll see it. I'll watch it this weekend. Is it that good?
Speaker 3 00:03:42 Yes. It's that good? It's the fine details of the movie that I really appreciate. Um, just like Remy, when he gets into the kitchen immediately, he falls into the, into the dish pit and sorry into like the recruit station. And, um, that shows you that you have to be clean when you come to work. Right. You have to make sure that your hands are washed and rats are dirty. So it's just like little nonverbal details like that. I really appreciate it.
Speaker 4 00:04:08 And, and it definitely shows the entire hierarchy of how a kitchen works. Like there's that one scene
Speaker 3 00:04:14 They're going through the list where they point out I killed the man with this thumb. Exactly.
Speaker 0 00:04:20 Okay. So I'm going to watch this movie this weekend. It's a cartoon. I'll watch it with my little boy. He'll kill. Obviously love it. Okay. So let's backtrack in regards to, how did you get into this now? You're working at Earl's now, but Mitchell's before what's your, your journey in, in food.
Speaker 3 00:04:35 Okay. So we can go to journey and food a little while later, but the story of how I got into Earl's was just a buddy of mine. See me on the street, walking my daughter down the street. And uh, he's like, holy crap, man, you have like a little sister. I'm like, no, it's my daughter. It's like, you need a job, but I'm like, yeah, let's do this. Right. He was like, I'll get you into Earl's. And I'm like, fantastic. Earl's was a little daunting because it is like fine casual, fine dining. Every single time. I've just been in like sandwich joins food trucks. Um, each DROS, uh, worked in an Italian restaurant. I've worked some other really crappy places that I'm not gonna mention cause have to be professional and all that. But, um, when I started Earl's it was just, wow. It was like, okay, let's get thrown into the fire. And I got sat down by my general manager is like snakes have been messing up a little bit. Can you cook a steak? And I'm like, I worked at a meat department. I can, I can cook a steak. I got a base knowledge of these cuts and like, okay, that's all I need to hear. Don't fuck up. And from there it was just thrown into the fire and
Speaker 0 00:05:36 Well, you go, yeah, I want to go on record. Earl's is my favorite restaurant, like hands down. Like I have different restaurants that I like certain different things, but Earl's is the best, like everything, in my opinion, I compare to Earl's and everything should just be called. Earl's really like, if somebody is like, oh, do you want to go to Moxie's? I'm just like, ah, if describe the restaurant you're going to, I always describe it as like, yeah, it's basically girls. Yeah. It's like to me the gold standard from like the burgers to the steaks, to the appetizers, like you guys crush it Adderalls hands down.
Speaker 3 00:06:11 So it really does come down to that teamwork though. Cause like, um, I described kitchen work as a dance, um, the flow of the kitchen on a perfect night. If I can put up a steak at the same time that dry ribs and whatever, and um, a full combo put up at the same time, if we're all coming out at the same time. Yeah, no worries. But I'm not at the same time. I will say we're dancing. We're dancing. That means that the kitchen's flowing and everybody's doing their job and everything is
Speaker 0 00:06:40 Dancing. So are you, where are you
Speaker 3 00:06:41 From originally? I'm from Sioux St. Marie Ontario, a little small steel town in the great lakes region
Speaker 0 00:06:47 Of Ontario. And so what got you here to
Speaker 3 00:06:49 Fort Macquarie? Um, my mother is a school teacher and so there wasn't any work in Ontario and she's, uh, she was, uh, like an EIP teacher, like early kindergarten kind of stuff. And uh, we came up to Fort McMurray without knowing where we were going to live. Like she had a place rented out, but like we, we heard it through the radio. We heard it through somebody saying something and we knew there was work there. So it was just kinda like, okay, we're going to do it. Yeah, it was, it was, I don't get to talk about that very much. It was very
Speaker 0 00:07:18 Scary. No doubt. And how long ago was this?
Speaker 3 00:07:21 Uh, nine, 10 years ago. You have Greyhound span? Greyhounds. I don't really know much about sports, but I do know Graham. I know. Um, so how
Speaker 0 00:07:31 Old are you? Okay, so wow. That would have like, that. Those are like your, your years where you're trying to figure some stuff out. You don't have a friend group cause you just moved here. What school did you go to?
Speaker 3 00:07:45 I went to holy Trinity Catholic high
Speaker 0 00:07:47 School. Oh, okay. How do you like holy Trinity?
Speaker 3 00:07:49 Uh, actually the first person that ever said hello to me. Uh, John Higdon. He, uh, yeah, he's a great friend. And uh, now I got him working at RL, so it's like, I got him and his brother and it's like, two of my oldest friends are,
Speaker 0 00:08:03 Oh yeah. Every single day we just filmed. Nobody's seen it yet, but we filmed like 11 episodes at holy Trinity. A few weeks back, I think this week or next week they'll start coming out. But yeah, that's a, that's a cool school. Like it didn't exist. I grew up here that did not exist as a school, uh, growing up, but it is, it's something else. Like the theater, the gym. I always look at the library. That's like encapsulated in glass. I'm like, what is this like eczema?
Speaker 3 00:08:28 I got a story for you. So, um, so it was a theater to theater school and um, the English class, I was always in like the lower, lower grades. I wasn't super good at school. It kinda got like a learning disability at some reading. Um, so, but I love theater. My dad's a, an English major, um, developmental psychologist and he was really big on theater and he just always promoted that. So cool. Um, they showing Hamlet, it was the guy that's like to be. You're not to be that as a question and stuff and um, kind of a sad story. I have a base memory of it, but not too much. Yeah. And, um, Benedict Cumberbatch was starring in this theater performance that they were just playing on the screen. I skipped class to go watch this all day long, just watching theater. And uh, after that I decided I'm going to go out on a little meditative walk.
Speaker 3 00:09:20 I'm going up to the cliff side out, I think would pass the ballpark. Right. There's like a peninsula. So if you don't really know what I'm talking about, if you're not from Fort McMurray, uh, there's a cliff side, a little make out mountain and a straight cliff, rapid waters. It's beautiful out there. I used to meditate on this one specific spot. That's not there anymore due to erosion. Um, but it was like a little drop off, a little patch that you can sit down, maybe as big as this table right here. And I would smoke a lot of weed and have my beats by whatever headphones. And I would just listen to music really loudly. And I'd just sit out there for hours. Yeah. So after school I was doing that and I had bear spray with me. So I get nervous. Cause I, if anything comes, I won't be able to hear it because it's so loud. Of course. So I take the safety off. I place the next to me and I'm like, because of the weed, I'm a little bit paranoid. My hands always like jumping. Okay. I'm nervous that I'm going to trip the bear spray and I'm going to fall off the cliff. And then the headline is boy listens to him.
Speaker 0 00:10:25 Yeah. That's hilarious. Have you ever encountered any animals while you're out there?
Speaker 3 00:10:31 I did see a mountain lion. Wow. Just got a pair of glasses, one out on the trails and by crew trail enough, I, uh, reasonably got that name. Yeah. I could see him. And I thought that it was a deer at first and I'm like, deers don't have tails. Right. We don't have tails that are that long. I call 'em the forestry department. Yeah. And they're like, yeah, Nope. They've been spotted all the way in Saskatchewan due to the BC fires.
Speaker 0 00:10:59 Wow. Yeah. It's one of those things. It's like a little kid. I lived in the trails. Like I toboggan in there in the winter, like in the summer you'd walk through it like biking. I just ran. I was a big trail runner. I lived in those trails. And then as I started getting older, I was just like, wait a second. There's a lot of animals in these trails. And I never took it for granted or I never, I took it for granted is what I should say. And that was an adult. When I'm walking through trails, I'm just like very much more conscious and the amount of animals that I've seen now that I'm paying attention when I'm in, there is a lot. But as a kid, zero attention was paid. But if you're just sitting there meditating with headphones on, Ooh, you will know what's coming. It'll sneak up. Oh yeah.
Speaker 3 00:11:47 Yeah. We're in, we're in their
Speaker 0 00:11:49 Living room. That's right. That's exactly it. All right. Tanner. Just signaled to me. He's got his questions ready for the maxi minute. I don't know what he's going to ask you. Tanner hit him with the maxi minute.
Speaker 4 00:11:59 Alrighty. Question. Number one. What is your favorite thing that you cook
Speaker 3 00:12:06 At home? My favorite thing to make is broths and stocks. One day, me and my brother would love to open up a red sauce joint and I would specialize in the soup of the day.
Speaker 4 00:12:16 Question number two. What is one dish you've tried that you strive to recreate?
Speaker 3 00:12:25 I'll bring this up. I haven't tried to make it before. I'm nervous to cook it. What's this
Speaker 0 00:12:31 Tripe.
Speaker 3 00:12:32 Oh, okay. You know what tripe is? Tanner.
Speaker 4 00:12:35 It sounds like a fish.
Speaker 3 00:12:39 Oh, I went, I was, uh, landscaping for, um, Daystar church, which has an African church and they had a multicultural day. So it was finished. They invited me to, uh, to come to their public. And it was, uh, dishes from all across Africa, by all the aunties and uncles, nice homemade dishes and the best soup I've ever had in my life. And I just mentioned, I love soup was a, um, like a call of green, super spicy mushroom soup. And I ate it. I'm like, this is amazing. The mushrooms have this beautiful texture. It's not too chewy. It's not gummy. It's just right. Yeah. I go up for seconds and I'm like, oh my gosh, she loved this too. That was great. How'd you make it? And it's like, well you like tripe, don't you? Yeah. Oh yeah. Once I knew it was tripe, I couldn't eat the second dish. I wanted a second, but right, right, right. So I want to try to make a dish like that soup where you just love it and you love it unconditionally and you might not know what's in it. It might be pigs feed in there. I don't want to create a dish that people can just love unconditionally. Yeah.
Speaker 4 00:13:51 There we go. Question number three. What is the craziest order you've had to prepare
Speaker 3 00:14:01 Craziest in like it's super busy and it's crunch time or like, I can't believe somebody's ordering this,
Speaker 4 00:14:07 Whatever your definition is. Okay.
Speaker 0 00:14:13 I like it. Somebody with substitutions.
Speaker 3 00:14:19 I mean, sorry. I'm pausing. I just want to give you a good answer.
Speaker 0 00:14:26 Well, he's thinking about it. Yeah. There is a dish that I have cooked. Oh,
Speaker 3 00:14:31 I got kicked out of the taco truck. One time I was working at Viva let's tacos. Beautiful. It's not there anymore, sadly. But uh, towards the end of the day, we got an order for a hundred carnitas, which is just pork tacos right. At the end of the day. And like, I was just some little white boy and he's like, Tommy, get out Rodrigo. Right, right. Called his friend out of the crowd. And he was like, I need you to come in here. So unfortunately I did not get to make a hundred tacos in 30 minutes. That's hilarious.
Speaker 4 00:14:59 They got somebody with a little bit more background in it.
Speaker 3 00:15:05 They were speaking Spanish 24 7. I'm like polo chicken polo. I felt, I felt out of my element.
Speaker 4 00:15:12 Gringo. That's hilarious. I love it. Okay. Question number four. What is your dream restaurant today?
Speaker 3 00:15:19 I'm sorry. Can I go back? I'm gonna go back. I'm a crazy home cook recently. I found Prairie oysters at the meat shop and thick wood. Okay. I've never made Prairie oysters by decided if you don't know what that is. That's um, my, uh, my fiance was in the hospital. Uh, we're having another baby and she has some like health complications, blood pressure. Okay. So, uh, when she was in the hospital, I got to cook everything. I'm not allowed to cook when she's at home. Right. And I took the Prairie oyster. I poached it very lightly. I took it out because I was worried that if I cut it open, it's just going to spew everywhere.
Speaker 4 00:15:56 You gotta be careful. There's sensitive.
Speaker 3 00:15:59 Um, so I lightly poached them. I sliced them. I Mer needed them in soy sauce, brown sugar, pomegranate juice, and probably some blackened seasoning with some garlic and ginger and marinated that for an hour and a half sauteed. It made a stir fry. Pray Royster. If you're into liver has a subtle livery, bloody kind of flavor. But the texture is of petty. Okay. It's not like liver. People have a problem with the texture. Cause it's just off or whatever. But Prairie oyster might be a good alternative if the texture is not for you, but you like the flavor high in iron too. And I'd have Mary height. And personally, I don't like a super irony flavor. I also cooked beef heart and that was delicious. But Prairie oyster too much like liver for me. Yeah.
Speaker 4 00:16:48 That's crazy. All right. So that counts as a crazy day. I'm going to go off script here with the question. Uh, if you are willing to eat balls, why are you not willing to eat a second dish of a soup? You've already decided you liked.
Speaker 3 00:17:03 Okay. That's very good question again. It's the texture texture. When I knew it, wasn't a mushroom and I'm just chewing, chewing, chewing, like a mushroom.
Speaker 4 00:17:13 Yep. Fair enough. Can't argue with texture. I like how you said, like I'm going to go off script. Like we have a script. I have five set questions and that was not one of them. So it was, it was a little off script. Alright, go question number four. What is your dream restaurant to eat at?
Speaker 3 00:17:33 I miss Viva Los tacos. I really miss people list tacos. Um, Harley, Rodrigo, Stephanie, I worked with Stephanie at Earl's one of the best she's the morning lead, but she could easily be head chef or a sous chef. No Pennsylvania. Stephanie. You're awesome. Um, yeah, Viola's tacos was really awesome. Dream. See, I don't really S sorry. I take it back. Maddy. Matheson's meat plus three located in Fort Erie, Ontario.
Speaker 0 00:18:00 Okay. That's the show.
Speaker 4 00:18:02 Yeah. And your final question. What is your children's favorite dish that you make them
Speaker 3 00:18:10 Noodles and butter?
Speaker 4 00:18:12 Can't you can't, you
Speaker 3 00:18:13 Can't beat noodles and butter, man.
Speaker 4 00:18:15 It's a solid dish. Never had it. You've never, you've never just put butter on noodles and then some shredded cheese and ate it. Never,
Speaker 0 00:18:26 Ever had. It
Speaker 4 00:18:27 Sounds like somebody has had wealth their entire life.
Speaker 0 00:18:32 I've never had that. Anyways.
Speaker 4 00:18:34 Good questions. Those have been your five questions.
Speaker 0 00:18:38 Like I, is that a, that's a thing, obviously you both have eaten it. So you just take like you, you boil noodles, you bring them
Speaker 4 00:18:46 Out, you drain them. Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:18:48 You put some butter. And once again, for everybody at home, I'm not a cook. So there's that I've only recently started to cook in my late, late years. Um, you
Speaker 3 00:18:56 Just, I brown the butter that's
Speaker 4 00:18:59 I put a little bit of garlic salt sometimes.
Speaker 0 00:19:01 And then you just like, let it sit, you mix it up. And then you just,
Speaker 4 00:19:05 You're putting in a ball, throw some shredded cheese on there and good to go.
Speaker 0 00:19:09 It sounds delicious. I've just never had something that simple. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 4 00:19:14 Like I'm like, it's like a five to 10 minutes stack. It's like, it's as long as it takes for the noodles to boil. Hmm.
Speaker 0 00:19:23 You know what? I'm trying to cook, but like get good at which it's impossible. Well, I don't want to say it's possible. The movie chef, that grilled cheese sandwich, it makes easy. Ugh. I've been trying to perfect it. Like, and every time I cook it, it's like,
Speaker 3 00:19:36 Yeah. Cheddar or video.
Speaker 0 00:19:38 It's like $50 worth of cheese. Like when you buy it. Like, I remember when I didn't, my wife saw the bill, she was like, what the hell? I'm like, listen. Yeah, it's going to be worth it. And every time I cook it, it is worth it. But it never looks the way that they make it look. And I've watched a lot of YouTube videos, but I can't nail that.
Speaker 4 00:19:55 It's probably cause the one on the movie is like a movie prop to look.
Speaker 0 00:20:01 No, no, no. That's real. A hundred percent real. Yeah. Food truck guy. And I've seen him cook it, um, with John Fabro on his show with bill Burr and like they cook it and it looks like it's supposed to look a lot of cheese. I think five, like you said, lot of butter and sourdough bread
Speaker 3 00:21:00 Support two or three of them and just really give your money to them. Cause people are struggling. It's going to get hard. And in the next 10, 20 years, I can imagine it's going to get harder.
Speaker 0 00:21:08 There we go. Good. Shout out. All right. And Fort McMurray, wood, Buffalo, and the rest of the world. Thank you for tuning into another episode of the Mac city morning show. I hope you're having a great day and we'll see you tomorrow. Peace,
Speaker 5 00:21:23 Another Mac city morning, show Dawn.
Speaker 6 00:21:38 Talk about quenching your ugly thirst.
