Late night conversations with old friends just never seem to get old, do they? We welcome back our dear friend, Chef Justin Lee to sit and hang out with us as I basically berate him with my life struggles in the past week. We had our first week of unofficial business at the new restaurant, and we thought it might be interesting to shed some light on what really goes on during the opening of a restaurant in real-time. Along with struggle bus diaries, it's important to note that our work is not just normal work. This is life. All of our personal problems or struggles outside of the 4 walls of our restaurant are not separate from our work because both are so closely knit together. We hope you enjoy this conversation with our friend, and hope we were either able to bring value to you or entertain you in any way shape, or form. See ya next time! FOLLOW US: @jonnguyentalks CONTACT US: jonnguyentalks@gmail.com

Restaurant Talks OFF THE CLOCK with Jon Nguyen

OPENING TRAN AN

It's never too late to do anything you want in life. Helen Nguyen started her cooking career at 33, after a 12-year career in real estate. Her story is just another example of how relentless hard work can transform passions into reality. From her upbringing to her career path, to even now opening her first restaurant in NYC, she's had to defy all odds to come out on top and she's done so with sheer will, determination, and unwavering courage. We can all learn from her story, but most importantly, when you see her going after something she wants, just get out of the way and admire the work you see. Enjoy the show and don't forget to subscribe. FOLLOW US: @jonnguyentalks CONTACT US: jonnguyentalks@gmail.com

SAIGON SOCIAL - Helen Nguyen

In the midst of this pandemic and while our restaurants are shut down, we are still sitting here talking about how we can be doing our jobs better. Because talking about how much all of this sucks won't help us coming out of this. So today we talk about how hospitality is not only part of our job, but it is life. We have to practice connecting with people on a human level and stop looking at people as transactions. That's not how you build relationships that will help you grow. Food and Drinks are only 30% of your restaurant or bar's overall success. Most people like to microwave their success and their relationships with people they think can help them, while I am making soup. It takes time to build success and it takes attention to detail to build meaningful relationships. We are working very hard right now and making no money, but hoping that people will recognize that we're just being good humans and it'll all pay off for us when we are back up and running like normal again. Have a great week everyone! FOLLOW US: @jonnguyentalks CONTACT US: jonnguyentalks@gmail.com

HOSPITALITY

Welcome everyone to ANOTHER shutdown. It's been a few weeks now, why don't you stay for a while. Happy belated Independence Day! Even though as we are relearning about our country's history, the word "independence" refers specifically to just one race of people. So as you can imagine, we are feeling a bit icky this year. Restaurants in Miami have shut down again, but we are still working. We are not slowing down our progress despite the irresponsibilities of others around us. We empathize with those businesses that rely on the in-house experience and we are praying for all of your survival. If you're not a resident here in Miami, may I kindly ask you to GET THE F*!# OUT OF OUR CITY! This is no time for vacationing and partying. Entitlement Kills. I miss my son and want to instill lessons upon him that I did not receive growing up. Stay creative, keep grinding, and show compassion to those around you within your community. This way of life will lead us out of this fucked up dark tunnel. FOLLOW US: @jonnguyentalks CONTACT US: jonnguyentalks@gmail.com

INDEPENDENCE

Welcome to our 1st annual Birthday Episode as I take you all on a journey through the highlights of my 37 years of life and how we even got to this point. This episode has no other purpose except to show you how a 37-year-old guy, who's been working in restaurants for 15 years, is single and has a son, has multiple businesses and 2 restaurants, and living in Miami lives and thinks. Hopefully, my story gives you a little better perspective on who I am if you even cared in the first place, and gives you hope that life ain't all that bad if you're able to put things into perspective and be more self-aware of who you are and what your true value is. Thanks for the continued support and thanks for keeping me alive for this long. FOLLOW US: @jonnguyentalks CONTACT US: jonnguyentalks@gmail.com

We'de like to formally apologize to all of you for skipping a day last week and leaving yall hanging without a show, but we have a semi-valid excuse. I'm opening a restaurant right now, so things might get a little weird from here on out, but I promise you, we are dedicated strongly to bringing you consistent, valuable, and hopefully entertaining content. Today's episode we bring back our dear friend chef Nick Montgomery of Konbi, LA. We wanted to check in with him and his restaurant and see how they're dealing with everything going on and how they're keeping their staff safe and inspired each and every day. These conversations need to happen more often and more open because we can all use more and more perspectives in order to help us navigate through these uncharted circumstances. Nick, as you'll hear, is not as optimistic as I tend to be, but judging by how their restaurant conducts their business, as long as we are focused on the right things, then over time our results will overshadow any pessimistic views we might have on the world as we know it. Enjoy the show and pleas don't forget to SUBSCRIBE and leave a nice comment. FOLLOW: @jonnguyentalks EMAIL: jonnguyentalks@gmail.com

KONBI REOPENED - Nick Montgomery

Opening a restaurant is difficult. Finding time to schedule guests on a podcast twice a week while opening a restaurant is VERY difficult. So today's episode, we decided to bring you into our very 1st training session with our staff for our new restaurant. I'm pretty certain most restaurant opening training sessions aren't like this, so we hope you enjoy this behind the scenes listen to what our restaurant is like and the story behind everything we do. This is TRAN AN. FOLLOW: @jonnguyentalks EMAIL: jonnguyentalks@gmail.com

STAFF TRAINING

Ever wonder what it's really like to live as a cook in NYC? Well, today we take you into a part of my own story with my good friend, and former cooking mate, Justin Lee. We take a little break from the usual conversation format that we have and just shoot the shit with our old friend and reminisce about how it was like cooking and living the life in NYC. This was our reality as we saw it in our little bubble of restaurants that we worked in, with 1 ultimate goal in mind and that was to open our own restaurant. I was lucky enough to finally realize my dream, and Justin is just starting to realize that dream with his new project, Fat Choy, but our raw conversation of all the inequities and dysfunctional behavior of choosing this profession in the hardest city in the world is a conversation ALL aspiring chefs and cooks should pay attention to. It's not just about the love of food and cooking. You'll learn that you've got to love the life you have to live in order to make it out alive in this industry. ENJOY THE SHOW!

FAT CHOY - Justin Lee

It's not very often we get to have a direct relationship with the actual manufacturers of the Asian products that we use. And it's not very often we think of these Asian ingredients to be of the highest quality and standards. Well, our guest today, Danny Tran, co-owner and founder of Son Fish Sauce is trying to change that narrative. His story teaches us that as the more we look for opportunities, the easier it is for those opportunities to find us. Life took him across the world back to Vietnam, and many failures until the fish sauce business found him to expand its reach to the world. Danny's perspective on Vietnam and our culture is contradicting to how our elders view it, but hopefully, through the quality of his product and his passion for exposing the richness of Vietnamese culture through its native products, we can all appreciate the value of what Vietnam brings to our world in cuisine.

SON FISH SAUCE - Danny Tran

Join us and have a Vietnamese Iced Coffee or "Ca Phe Da" with us as we continue our conversation with Chef Thai Dang. We conclude our conversation with Thai as he dives deep into who he really is as a business owner, chef, and person. His drive to be the best and his ambition to be the change within his community is truly an inspiration to us all. His story is a testament that not only does hard work pay off, but understanding the importance of being the hardest worker is even more valuable. And with that comes a clearer more acute vision of your purpose and who you really work for. FOLLOW US: @jonnguyentalks CONTACT US: jonnguyentalks@gmail.com

CA PHE DA - Thai Dang

From the outskirts of Saigon, in the countryside of Dong Nai, Vietnam, that is where our story starts. Chef Thai Dang and his family had to overcome unthinkable odds just to be able to escape communist Vietnam. And with every step in their journey, there were harder hurdles to climb just to survive. This story of am immigrant family coming from nothing and finding success through businesses in the U.S and then producing one of the country's best Vietnamese chefs is truly amazing. Please join us as we go back in time and find out what the foundation is behind the success and career of Chef Thai Dang. It is definitely not your average rags to riches story. FOLLOW US: @jonnguyentalks CONTACT US: jonnguyentalks@gmail.com

HAISOUS - Thai Dang

Come eat rice with us! That's basically what our guest is serving up, along with an ever-changing menu of deliciousness, with his new pop up project out in LA called AN COM. Today's guest is Nguyen Bui, formerly of Rustic Canyon and a rising chef talent in our industry. Usually, we have guests on who've already gone through hell and back to get to where they are today, but today we talk with Nguyen, who is just starting his journey to find his own voice in this business. We get the perspective of someone who's making that transition in real-time, and with such talent and pedigree, we get to understand what's going on behind all his decisions in his path. We talk about navigating through the web of uncertainties of this business as well as the web of authenticity that is Vietnamese cuisine, and how to truly evolve cuisine. We hope that this episode serves as precursor to what Nguyen plans to do with his talents and realizes his own dreams in this business. Enjoy the show! FOLLOW US: @jonnguyentalks on IG and twitter CONTACT US: jonnguyentalks@gmail.com

AN COM - Nguyen Bui

EMERGENCY CHANGE OF PLANS. With such turmoil and social injustice in this world, we felt like as a show of hope, resiliency, and overcoming struggles, what kind of show would we be if we didn't shed light on ALL of that going on right now. I've never been one to speak up on racism or social injustice. I've never been mistreated by the police or any law enforcement officer. I don't have much wisdom to share regarding this issue, and I certainly don't have many answers. But one thing I can do is take care of those closest to me and do my best to take care of the community surrounding me the best way I can through the platforms I have to show support. There can only be love and compassion to lead us to progress because hate and blame will just keep us spinning around in the same circles. Instead of asking around for "when will this hate end?" let's all just be the change within our communities to show everyone that we can all be outliers to the narratives being written right now. #blacklivesmatter

GEORGE FLOYD

PART 2 of our conversation with my greatest teacher, Tien Ho. We reveal the core motivation behind this podcast and how it relates to our relationship with Tien. We pick up his story right as he's starting his journey with Momofuku and developing his voice, and the struggles that came along with that. Through all the planning and any preparations he could have made, nothing could have prepared him for what his life had in store for him as he pivoted fortuitously towards a career in the corporate world becoming a C-Level executive for several companies after his time in restaurants. This is a story of the continuous search for knowledge and owning your own identity. Enjoy the show and please remember to subscribe. FOLLOW US: @jonnguyentalks CONTACT US: jonnguyentalks@gmail.com

MENTOR - Tien Ho

This is our most SPECIAL episode as we get to chat with my greatest mentor and biggest influences in my life both professional and personal, Chef Tien Ho. This is PART 1 of our 2 part conversation with Tien, because we felt this conversation deserved its own week. We get to go deep into Tien's past and learn about his humble beginnings and what he and his family had to go through in order to immigrate over to America. In this episode, Tien reminisces about the days of cooking on the line with now culinary giants in America's restaurant industry. Even the greats had to start somewhere and his story is seemingly not so different from anyone who's just trying to find their voice and learn their ways in their 20's and 30's. His thirst for knowledge is what led him into the legendary kitchens of old school Cafe Bolud and eventually Cafe Gray, and no amount of adversity could keep him from learning the skills he felt he needed in his life. Please just sit back, enjoy and try to absorb as much wisdom as you can from the stories we uncover from the early life of the great Tien Ho. FOLLOW US: @jonnguyentalks CONTACT US: jonnguyentalks@gmail.com

APPRENTICE

Lessons through story-telling in the restaurant industry and life.