The SoCal restaurant show is live from West Rift Manhattan Beach, an autograph collection hotel. Manhattan Beach rides itself on its 40 acres of pristine recreational beach areas. And welcome back. It is this special 12th anniversary edition of the SoCal restaurant show. Wow. We're here celebrating for the Manhattan Beach Food and Wine Festival, which continues this evening at Manhattan Village, literally right down the street from where we are at the West Drift Manhattan Beach, an autograph collection hotel, which is the official hotel of Manhattan Beach Food and Wine. And all of the out-of-town chefs that are part of this actually are staying at this property. So it's fun to be able to get these great guests that all they have to do is come down the elevator. Now, as we're celebrating the 12th anniversary of the show, I definitely wanted to get some of our chef friends for the duration of the show. One chef I really have enjoyed following his career for all these years, and it actually predates the debut of the SoCal restaurant show is chef and restaurateur Eric Klein. He is currently the executive vice president culinary partner and executive chef for the Wolfgang Puck catering company. But I originally met Eric and he's sitting across from me and he will remember this. When he was the Soo chef at Spago Beverly Hills, Eric, that doesn't seem that long ago, but it was, and it is a pleasure to welcome chef Eric Klein to our 12th anniversary show, sitting across from me. Chef Eric, good morning, and you got a big day ahead of you. Absolutely. Thank you so much. Yes, I can. Can I believe it's been so many years and it's fantastic. We have grown, we have evolved and here we are again celebrating again and sharing everything what we know about and in the hospitality, the food and the service, you know, that's the most important thing. And of course, the most important thing friendship. Eric, absolutely, and those are always important prerequisites. Now, Eric, going back, the one credit that you have in your lengthy career and you are very well liked in the community and also very well liked and respected by your colleagues. But what still impresses me to this day, how many years were you the executive chef and partner of Spago Las Vegas? Let me, I don't have enough hands to count. But overall, I've been right now with Wolfgang for the last 30 years on and off. So I think, you know, as part of my life, you know, in the last 10, 11 years, I was in Vegas. It was a fantastic platform, a great painting if we can say everything came together, you know, moved over there to open something different and then Wolfgang say, don't fight it, come back home. You know, it's like the glorious sun always leaves and always Wolfgang say, oh, he's my adoptive son from all the mother and whatever. So long story short, I'm the big brother of the family, did the same thing, hospitality, create food, make memories, allow people to come meet like so many people and be a part of the community. It's the most important thing. So I think, you know, all these years and now back in LA and doing everything what Wolfgang want us to do and part of the catering and doing an odd job has evolved. We're a extension of Spago and all the brand of Wolfgang has built, and like he always says, I build a company with my two hands. So I think over the years it's been very, very fantastic. Well, Eric, you bring up several important points there, not the least of which is, is many celebrity chefs have not had the mandate and feeling that Wolfgang Puck has had over the years. And let me explain what I mean by that. Chef Wolfgang, I think, learned very early in the game that to grow his company, he had to bring his culinary partners along and make sure that they were well taken care of. They had responsibility, but also that they were rewarded economically in the same vein. And it sounds our listeners may think, well, yeah, you know, that's obvious, but no, it isn't. There are many celebrity chefs out there that in terms of building their empires, it's all about them. And it's not about the team. And as you've told me over the years with Wolfgang, he's very humble. And it is all about the team and bringing his talent along as they can and develop. And I think you're the perfect example of that. Well, thank you, Andy. And I think, you know, we're going to elaborate that conversation a little bit and take it to your point. Team, colleagues, pass on a legacy, me being 30 years in a company over 45 years of trying to have experience and knowing, you know, what do you think is new, is old, what's old is new, what you know, you don't know nothing. It's always shared what is the most important when the people to make our next disciple or somebody wants to join, you know, to have the chefs and teach them and show them, you know, all the techniques or anything, you know, I mean, we're very fortunate to have chef say, hey, you do it, make sure to do the same thing, you know, I may have the same philosophy where all my colleagues, my friends, my big sister Sherry, you know, we always say it takes the same amount of time to make something right or make it wrong. And I think the team building is the most important being part of the community, understanding and support everybody, education, allowing, I mean, yesterday I got a text message from Cindy Garvey, you know, and she's like, oh, Oliver wants to be a chef and he's going to school, I know, can you help him out and can you tell him a couple of drinks? And I say, absolutely, it's just give an inspiration for the people. But, you know, that brings something else where our business has evolved to be part of a larger team. And I think that is very important. Well, and just something I want to share with our listeners, during your long tenure at Spago Las Vegas, you were very much a part of the community, but it was very well known that you were running Spago Las Vegas and you were the personality for Spago Las Vegas. You know, it was Wolfgang Puck's Spago. We will not forget that, but it was Eric Klein in the kitchen. So, you had huge celebrities that when they came into town, they would call and not ask, you know, is Wolfgang going to be there? But no, is Eric Klein in the kitchen tonight because I want Chef Eric to cook for me? I mean, what an accolade, Chef Eric, particularly in a town like Las Vegas, that it's all about celebrities and headliners and glowing lights. So, I think, yeah, thank you so much for that. It's very kind, but I'm very humble. But one thing is, I always feel like the restaurant is like an extended living room from you invite you people and your friends to your house. And you can give them basically good service. You cook wonderful food, you know, same thing from the produce. We also use Melissa, you know, now here in LA for some items. It's very important to allow them to make memories for them. And I think, you know, if you take a minute to talk to somebody comes in who has a birthday or celebration and getting married, we have a star, a bedmiddler, selling the yarn, walking in, and you have rocks there, working rocks in, and you have so many other people. And then our locals coming in and you have like the person who wants to talk, you have Steve Wing coming, you have Larry Wuvo, all these wonderful people who basically have built Vegas. Yes, the colors of the community. Exactly. And they come in and I say, oh, yeah, you cook whatever you want. This is what I want. And it's amazing. You look inside the womb and you have like, oh my goodness, this is fantastic. So, I think, you know, it's always to take care of them. And, you know, even in LA, everybody, sadly, is so big. But at the end of the day, we're a great community. Everybody knows everyone. And I've always filled from all the restaurants with you at Fanny or at Spago or the Wolfgang Park catering when we do any on the museums, we do any on the locations we have from our corporate business, you know, from Sony and for many others and for the chargers. We treat the people in there because this people and the guests is going back to Spago and they say to Wolfgang, oh my gosh, Chef, I went to the chargers. The food was excellent. You know, this is fantastic. What you do? And then you bring Wolfgang over there and everybody says, oh, Chef, I was in your restaurant last night. Is this just a full on business and hospitality all along? Now, Chef Eric, before we run out of time and we're going to do another segment devoted to this in the future, but you just mentioned very quickly the association with the chargers. The chargers built a multi-million dollar training facility very close to where we are here in Manhattan Beach, it's in El Segundo. It's called the Bolt and it is a state-of-the-art training facility for an NFL team that I don't believe any team has built anything like this ever. And they call it a cafeteria. I would not call it a cafeteria. I would call it a cafe. The Wolfgang Park catering company was chosen to design and build this and operate it just in a brief minute. Tell us about that because Chef Eric, what a challenge. I mean, you do the Oscars, you do the governor's ball. I mean, that's pretty heady, but you know, this is the NFL. This is big business. Absolutely. And we're very proud of the team and everything came together. You know, our president, Pam Bronson, Megan Genevieve, VP operation, Eric Paulson. I have many other chefs who reports to me. Eric Paulson is like the original chef. I have Jake Leach, who is my chef now at the catering. And so many other teams in Gary LaDouina makes all the pastries, but we all sit on and we say, okay, now we have the opportunity and we're allowed to be a part of that wonderful team like we all talk about. And cooking food, healthy food, does not have to be boring. And so about qualities and everything. I mean, you know, the players come in and they have like, you know, six ounce of protein, six ounce protein for an afternoon and then dinner and everything. They eat their big boys and it's fascinating. And they look so much smaller in the TV when you see them and you look them up and you're like, Oh my goodness. And but at the end of the day, it's a simple things, you know, it's amazing. Somebody posted something with a quarterback was eating the cranberry orange muffin and he's like, Hey man, it's all about the cranberry muffin. You know, you have to talk about that. It makes my day and everything. Food is medicine. Hospitality costs nothing. You come, you have everybody coming from the bowl, from the coach from every single body, the client comes in, the owner comes in, the general manager, Joe comes in. I mean, it's just fascinating to be a part of that. And you know what? They are such a nice people. They are respectful, they are kind, the players that come in. They say, Thank you, sir. No, sir. Thank you so much. And it's fascinating to see that. And I cannot be proud of my more proud of my team. I have a chef over there, Jack is over there and Carlos is the general manager. So but the one thing I want to say and the most important thing, I need to bring you over there. So you can see also what we can do. And we can make sure you can be maybe coach Harris. Chef Eric, I am definitely going to take that, you up on that kind offer. We just need to make, you know, wait for the right part in the season because this is serious business. Ladies and gentlemen, no surprise, the success of Chef Eric Klein, really running the culinary side of Wolfgang Puck catering. But as he graciously says, he defers all of it to his team. You can see him tonight at the Manhattan Beach Food and Wine Festival for the grand tasting. Eric, again, thanks for the time. Thanks for getting here early because you got a big evening in front of you. Yes, absolutely. And I'm so proud to be. Thank you so much for everybody for the sponsor, Vesta, and all the food at Manhattan Food and Wine Festival. It's fantastic. And you and everybody to be a part of that. I am just excited. I'm going to cook great food and a little bit of Oktoberfest Field tonight, house-made pretzel, beer sausage, celery, rambula, a little different, two different kind of master. It's fun. This is what we want. And Chef Eric, always the accent on fun. You are listening to the SoCal restaurant show we're proudly presented by Melissa's World Variety Produce. We are going to be back with our concluding segment of our 12th anniversary show. Don't wander far.
