Growing up in a Caribbean family inspired Wesly-Jean Simon Wesley to open a restaurant celebrating his rich heritage. Join us for a mouthwatering conversation with this Haitian Caribbean American entrepreneur from Brooklyn, New York, as we explore the delicious world of Caribbean culinary art and culture. We'll also discuss how Wesly's restaurant and brewery, Zanmi, serves up authentic Caribbean dishes.
You may not know that the Caribbean has given us hot chocolate and the origins of rum! In this episode, we'll dive into the incredible contributions of Caribbean culture. As we chat with Wesley, we'll learn about the challenges he faces in running multiple restaurants in an expensive city like New York and his ambitious plans to showcase Caribbean food on TV shows, news outlets, and podcasts.
Finally, we'll discuss the importance of apprenticeships and the need for speed and agility to truly be a chef. Wesly's story is a testament to his determination and passion for preserving and sharing the authenticity of Caribbean culture with the world. So, prepare your taste buds for a tantalizing journey into the flavors and stories of Caribbean cuisine and culture.
Connect with @carryonfriends - Instagram | Facebook | YouTube
A Breadfruit Media Production
Growing up in a Caribbean family inspired Wesly-Jean Simon Wesley to open a restaurant celebrating his rich heritage. Join us for a mouthwatering conversation with this Haitian Caribbean American entrepreneur from Brooklyn, New York, as we explore the delicious world of Caribbean culinary art and culture. We'll also discuss how Wesly's restaurant and brewery, Zanmi, serves up authentic Caribbean dishes.
You may not know that the Caribbean has given us hot chocolate and the origins of rum! In this episode, we'll dive into the incredible contributions of Caribbean culture. As we chat with Wesley, we'll learn about the challenges he faces in running multiple restaurants in an expensive city like New York and his ambitious plans to showcase Caribbean food on TV shows, news outlets, and podcasts.
Finally, we'll discuss the importance of apprenticeships and the need for speed and agility to truly be a chef. Wesly's story is a testament to his determination and passion for preserving and sharing the authenticity of Caribbean culture with the world. So, prepare your taste buds for a tantalizing journey into the flavors and stories of Caribbean cuisine and culture.
Connect with @carryonfriends - Instagram | Facebook | YouTube
A Breadfruit Media Production
Everyone, welcome to another episode of Carry On Friends, the Caribbean American podcast. I'm excited because my guest today is Wesley-Jean Simon Wesley. welcome to the podcast. How are you?
Speaker 2:I'm good. How are you doing?
Speaker 1:I am doing wonderful. So why don't you tell the community of friends a little bit about who you are, caribbean country you represent and the work that you do?
Speaker 2:Well, my name is Wesley-Jean Simon. I'm Jean Simon with you, from the French Caribbean. I represent the Haitian community in culinary art in Brooklyn, new York. So I'm currently on Selmy restaurant here in Brooklyn on North Shrine Avenue and in Soho on Spring Street, and we just opened a brewery with crafted pizza in Brooklyn, again on North Shrine Avenue again. So we try to grow more in the community and present more Caribbean food, better culture, better food, better life.
Speaker 1:All right. So what was the last place you opened? a pizza.
Speaker 2:It's a brewery and pizza, so we brew our own beer in the neighborhood. Yes, and we do crafted pizzas. So we try to accommodate the community. Like you know, we do a chicken pizza, we'll do a hair and pizza, we'll do a pinot pizza and a gruyo pizza. So we try to represent all the culture in the Caribbean and give them something on the pizza.
Speaker 1:That is amazing. All right, so before we get into that right, tell me about what life was like for you growing up in a very Caribbean Haitian family community and what led you to get into the culinary arts.
Speaker 2:Well, i basically grew up in a big Caribbean culture in Jersey, so I went to high school in Jersey and I moved to Brooklyn about 15 years ago. My biggest influence is just that I like culture, i love culture. I'm from Haiti, you know. It's all music, song and dance and we all always been a happy people.
Speaker 2:And moving to Brooklyn, i used to live in Crown Heights in a more of a Jewish neighborhood, so I felt uncomfortable. Whenever I walk outside, i couldn't find nothing to eat And I wanted to live in a better community where I can walk outside, speak queer or speak some type of patois and enjoy my people and my culture. Because, after being in college, being in Jersey, living amongst everybody else, i wanted to come home. So I decided to move to Flatbush about seven years ago. So, when I walk outside my door, there's jerk chicken, there's different type of roti, there's, like you know, haitian beef patty, there's Jamaican beef patty. So on my way to work as an executive sous chef for Hard Rock Cafe, i had to grab something to eat on my way to work And I wanted to eat my culture before I indulge into everybody else's culture's food. So that's the reason why I love my Caribbean people and I love my neighborhood And I wanted to basically open my restaurant in my neighborhood so I could let them taste a part of my culture.
Speaker 1:You know I am so excited for you and excited that you are on this podcast, because, as we get more globalized and everyone is getting to know our culture, on one hand this is part of the work you do right You're creating meals for us, but you also want people outside our culture to experience our food. So how do you balance the authenticity of our culture with sharing that culture with the world? How do you balance that?
Speaker 2:But let's just dig into jerk chicken, right? You know, if you go to Jamaica you could get a jerk chicken sandwich.
Speaker 1:I know that.
Speaker 2:So just picture if we could get a jerk chicken sandwich. What is a pizza? It's a dough. You know you got to get a closed bread, like you know got to open tenders so you can actually paint anything you want on that tenders. So I don't take away from the jerk, i do not take away from the meat itself or the taste or the seasoning. I give you the same thing. But you know you just sit it on the pizza with cheese. If you want to get cheese, you want the cheese. You want the red sauce, you don't want the red sauce. You want it with white sauce, you get it with white sauce. But you still get that same taste of jerk when you bite into the pizza You feel like you're eating jerk on a pizza. So I did not take away nothing.
Speaker 1:Well, it's not so much for you non Caribbean folks when they do things of the culture, like you know, even Haitian dishes, like real, like how, how we expand folks to enjoy, or cuisine, but not necessarily. I don't know what's the word, because I see it all the time on the internet and I know you've seen it where people complain.
Speaker 2:I can tell you all about it. Like you know, i have an Instagram and I had a few videos that's been going viral. So when you reach a million view, that's when you start seeing, like the people coming out of the woodwork. Like you know, we posted something about, like you know, a Haitian spaghetti which starts, like you know, with hot dogs. we do ours hot dog deep fried first, then we take it out of the oil, then we put it in a red sauce, then we do it with spaghetti and everything. This video got 1.7 million view And now you see everybody coming out of the woodwork Oh, haitians, don't make this, haitians, don't make that.
Speaker 2:This is Italian and you've got people all the way in Italy It's like commanding ordinary talking about, oh, italian. then you got the other part of the island talking about Italian and the pastor You guys claim pastor. the Chinese have been pastor. So basically, what I always tell people about food there's no new meat under the earth unless we haven't discovered it's gotta be under the ocean. There's no new rice, no new wheat, no new bread you inventing or anything. Food is belong to the humanity. So if I'm a Haitian, i wanna develop something better and feed my people and introduce them to something new. I'm not breaking away from the culture. I'm not doing nothing but a culture, but enticing them to try a different culture, the one that doesn't travel to see different culture, but make them feel it in a comfortable space. So if I'm doing pizza, just picture from Haiti I'm doing pizza. pizza is not from Haiti, that's not that in a pizza shop in Haiti. But if I wanna put the grillo on top of the pizza, so I'm making you feel welcome, so you could have that grillo taste on top of something new, so I'm introducing that to my culture.
Speaker 2:I read an article about three months ago and ranking in food in the world, like which country is number one, number two, number three Haitians actually came out to number 58. And our food is great. the whole Caribbean knows we got great food. The whole Korean knows Jamaican banging on food. But when you see those ratings, because the rest of the world don't know our food, so they don't know how to grade us, so there's no way you're gonna tell me the French can cook better than us. They don't grow nothing in France. We all know that. they do not grow anything in France. This is why I mean I'm not attacking the French.
Speaker 1:No, no, no, no. But that's. You touch on something that I literally wrote down here, where I've heard it been said many times that Caribbean food doesn't plate well because that's how they're ranking it presentation, and I don't think that's true. Not forget, i don't think that's true, i know that's not true. So what do you say to critics who say, well, of course, caribbean food, haitian food, jamaican Trini, whatever food, it's messy, it doesn't plate well. What's your response to that?
Speaker 2:Well, it's how you take it. Like you, let's just say, right, a chef that's well trained, being the culinary school, you can present the meat however you want on a plate and make it look the way you wanna make it, but the essence of the food you cannot take away from it, the taste, the culture you cannot take away from it. But when you're looking at, like you know those, like you know high end chef, how to plate food, the food don't look like it came from any country, it's just a picture on a plate. So that's why they're saying it doesn't plate. Well, it's because they're repainting the picture on a plate but they're not taking away the taste from the plate. So when there's the Caribbean, food don't taste well. I have a picture in my phone that I don't share with people My take on grill.
Speaker 2:I did a eight ounce piece of, like you know, pork shoulder. I asked to be like I boil it down, make it like, do all the steps with it. Then I cut it down to size, make it look like a block. Then I deep fry at 500 degrees So you can get like a nice crisp around it. Then I sit in on a bed of sauce with the glaze on it. Then I use the plantain, i mash the plantain, i did some of that design with it, but a Haitian looking at it they'll be like, oh, that's not grill, cause it's not small pieces, but when you taste it it tastes exactly like grill. So it's how you present it on a plate.
Speaker 2:So the day before yesterday I was the judge of the Bobby Flay. We got to release it next winter And what they were doing they were doing jerk chicken. So Bobby Flay was doing jerk chicken And another chef from Florida that have a food stand was doing jerk chicken and the guy is white And he loved Caribbean food. He loved the people around it And what he did? he married the jerk chicken with Picles, the Haitian Picles cabbage, and he presented and he beat Bobby Flay with it.
Speaker 1:I could see how that works.
Speaker 2:But think about it. He beat Bobby Flay with it and he presented a certain way on a plate And I was one of the judges. I was shocked, Like when I walked into the stage, two white guy competing about jerk chicken. So how can you say you got a top chef like Bobby Flay Flating jerk chicken and he said Caribbean food don't play well, Why is it doing on a shelf?
Speaker 2:So it's just that stigma that people got in the back of their head, Cause most of our Caribbean food, cause the island is so hot, we don't do that much restaurant. Everything we do is outdoor. You hang out, So all the food basically become more street food than like in restaurant food, Cause we our door people, we under the sun people. So when people talking like that, when you came from Haiti, we know, with the hardship of the war, what's going on in Haiti now there's barely any restaurant, There's no movie theater, There's no culinary arts restaurants And people can lose that sense of like. You know we can do this. Well, My job in this community is to represent my culture and be like hey, we can do this too. We can turn a picture. Don't get it messed up.
Speaker 1:I feel the same way. It's like you remember the commercial Anything you can do, i can do better. Yeah, that's how I feel. I feel like we rise to the occasion. That's the culture of what we come from collectively. You know that We can do this. It's amazing, it's beautiful. You know, like I remember years ago there was a discussion friends and I were having that the concept of combining cocoa and milk to make hot chocolate was discovered in Jamaica, and so and people are like, no, that's not true. And the story behind it was that the enslavers, they couldn't stomach the cocoa, so the slaves, they added milk to kind of ease the flavor, and that's how it got exported and became hot chocolate. And it's almost as if the conversation is like a little place like that couldn't have made such a discovery.
Speaker 2:I think it's not even white folks. You know, in my position right now and what I'm doing, i can only mess my own thing up. I don't think nobody else can mess it up with me, so it's not like white folks. Thinking about our food is this it doesn't play well, it's our own people. That's actually lacking the way we played our own food.
Speaker 1:I agree. I agree because we don't always support, and I think it's the idea of what we see put out and what we are comparing our food to, but we just know that it tastes good. So it's this idea of it doesn't feel refined and sophisticated and we complain about it.
Speaker 2:If you're looking at the Italians, the French, the Spaniards, the German, they did not create no culinary art at all. That's still in Poma del Canto. So whatever they bring into their table to their house, it's coming from our culture, it's coming from Egypt, it's coming from Africa, it's coming from the Caribbean. Even Rum. They all try to claim Rum desktop. Whatever Rum wasn't created, it was in the islands. And you know, certain things like beer wasn't created in, like Germany, the way they act like it was created, it wasn't.
Speaker 2:So a lot of people don't even understand. We lost the essence of who we are, and I'm the biggest African black. I'm talking about 1804, when it's come down to Haitian people, we are now. We need to do better. We need to stand up and stop dwelling on the past. Let's move forward and show them who we were and who we are now. But our own people is not knocking the food, knocking the drinks, knocking the culture. Oh, why do you wear bright colors? It's in our culture. We invented Marigua, not New Orleans, you know. So the Caribbean invented so much and we bought culture too, like the funerals in New Orleans. It started back in Haiti, in Jamaica. We celebrate our people. So when you're looking at 1804, it started with Jamaica. When I tell people 1804 started with Jamaica, that was like I said that Haiti was the first week. I was like bookman from Jamaica Stop. The father of the revolution is from Jamaica. So the only problem we have with the Jamaican in Haitian is a both stop away.
Speaker 1:We're all cousins dropped off at little islands and that's it. But Like you live in Flatbush, i live in East Flatbush, exactly exactly. You know what I love about just this conversation with you. I really didn't even expect it to go this way and I think it's this mutual love for culture and or cultural expressions and you know, food is just one of those things, because we love food as a culture. It's the kitchen, the fireside, every occasion we have, what do we do Cook, what do we do Eat You?
Speaker 2:don't go to a Caribbean person without getting some food.
Speaker 1:Exactly, exactly. So what do you think? I guess food is like you said it's a universal language, but what specifically makes it extra special, as we are in the fusion of what's Brooklyn and bringing all of these cultures together, what makes it even so much more yummy and dynamic and interesting and communal with all of these flavors coming together? What is your perspective?
Speaker 2:When you come down with flavors. you know we invented flavor in the islands. We brought flavor to America. But let's go further. Christopher Columbus did not discover America, it came to the island. So what he was looking for? spice. So when we do our food we put spice. It's not spicy, we got blends of spice. When you do that jerk spice, you know how many seasonings you put in a jerk spice to get that flavor. No way around the world can come up with that type of combination and make it work.
Speaker 1:And you know why they did it. It was for the very basic thing It was for meat preservation. That's really the original intent of it. So out of all of that, it's the ingenuity of it. We give the world flavor.
Speaker 2:So when we brought the flavor from the Caribbean, we brought it to Brooklyn. We brought it to a place like Florida and, like you know, Caribbean community. in Boston or Atlanta We actually feeding more people right now per capita when somebody wants some good food, when they say good food, they're not running to my hat, no more. That's what I'm witnessing in Brooklyn right now. They're not running to my hat, They're coming to Brooklyn. So Brooklyn is, like you know, becoming a flavor hub for all things.
Speaker 1:Caribbean. Listen, i was just talking to a colleague and I was talking about how, many years ago, how it was a diss to say, oh, they're Bridgettonal people because they weren't from Manhattan, and now it's cool to be Bridgettonal, right? Guess what?
Speaker 2:That's what I told even Haitian people. They're saying, like you know, all the white men, the desk, hey, they're so bad. I said you know what man? let's just build our place, let's build our city, let's build our neighborhood. I remember, in the neighborhood we are right now, in Brooklyn and in Hawton, Three years ago, when we opened the restaurant, it was 11, three deaths. But we started doing community work. We started black industry, doing black bodies. We started, like you know, having, like you know, city council people coming in the area And, like you know, we have great food People coming from Manhattan. We're getting visibility from CBS, abc, like New York Times, and they're sharing that on word zero.
Speaker 1:That's amazing. That is amazing. I am. I mean, i'm so excited, audience. I do not know if you hear the excitement, because this is the work that we all talk about wanting to see, and Wesley's doing that. So let's shift a little bit to talk about how you went from having your first restaurant to now having what three business, or the third business open. What was that process like And what are the lessons you have learned And would you encourage anyone else to do as it comes to opening a business in the community?
Speaker 2:You can open any business in the community. You can open any restaurant if you want to. My advice do not open anything. You have no background. Do not open anything. You're not an expert. Stay in your lane. Stay in your lane. Don't think you got a background in finance and you don't have $2 million. You're going to open a restaurant. You will fail. You will hate your life, you will hate the business. You will be like why did I get my stuff into it? My only thing I did not have the money, but I have the experience. I had the expertise, so I'm worth four, five men in my business compared to somebody who has money but don't have the expertise, so you're gonna have to pay four, five men to do that type of job. So my best advice to anybody you can do whatever you want in life It's your prerogative and actually do it with blindness. But do not go outside of your lane. Don't paint outside of the line. Do something you do, you know how and you will be successful at it. Have some type of background in it, because if you try to get your way in the restaurant business, you will close. We usually call it green opening, green closing, because, believe me, it's hard. From what they're saying I've already.
Speaker 2:Yeah, i think it's the hardest business to open in the world. The restaurant business is the hardest business. I mean it's the best business, the finest business. It's feeding people, it's the love, the energy. But keep it going. The back end of it is the hardest spot, especially in the city like New York.
Speaker 2:There's a lot of rules and regulations. There's a lot of violation you can run into Even setting up a restaurant from scratch. Like if you don't have a hand wash taking a certain area, it's a violation. They'll shut you down. If you don't have, like, a grease trap and they're setting in a certain way on a certain fee, it's a violation. If you store your stuff, it's got to be six inches off the ground. Anything on the floor is a violation, because New York State is after the money. So for you to operate you got to be operating within the guidelines And that's one thing I always tell restaurant owners when, like you know, they want me to come and consult for them.
Speaker 2:If they're a black restaurant, a Caribbean restaurant, i'll do it for free, because I know you don't have the money. I'm not after your money. I'm in America, i know where the money's at, so I will come for free, i'll walk, then I'll do a walkthrough by myself. I don't want the only next minute. I don't want nobody, like you know, being biased of what I need to do as my knowledge and understand my experiences. Then when I hit them with three or four pages worth of violation, they're like yeah, that's what it takes to run a restaurant in Brooklyn. And I'm kind of seeing, like on my block alone, six restaurants closed beside hardship health department too, and we don't have the expertise. We try our best.
Speaker 2:Somebody said you go a great chef or you're a great cook. You're a great cook. Then next thing you know you got some tax money or somebody fall into your head. You open a restaurant, then next thing you know the steak come at me. It's a dream crusher. So it's really hard. Don't do nothing outside of your life. You got to have some kind of knowledge, like you. Being a podcast, i bet you listen to it a million times before you get into it. So you make it your life. So that's what I want people to do, you're right.
Speaker 1:It took me a couple of years before I decided to launch a podcast. From the time I wanted to do it to the time I launched, it was two, almost three years. There you go.
Speaker 2:So you have to at least get a. let's just get an associate degree in it Pretty much. You know there's a joke, like in the restaurant business, like every time somebody makes a mistake or has a big tap, a loss. Like you know, in the restaurant business somebody lost some tap of money And we'll look at each other like, hmm, so you just got another degree in stupid. You have to pay for it.
Speaker 1:No, but you know what? You just brought up an amazing point, because there are so many restaurant closings and you said it's one thing about the financing and the availability, but, just like the regulations make it really hard for small businesses or small restaurants to even survive. So I think you made up. You know that was just a good point, because I know a lot of us. We look out and say, wow, this restaurant is no longer here And you wonder what happened. But you're giving us some insight and why it's important for the community to support the restaurants in our community, especially the ones that you know are representing the culture. So now, what are you looking to do in the future with all these restaurants and business? I have to come and try it out, because you are so excited about the food. I'm excited about it already.
Speaker 2:Our biggest issue right now, really in the part, is we grow in so fast and I'm a very aggressive businessman, like in certain part. Like you know, if I find an opportunity I'm not going to let it go. The next thing I'm going to go. I ain't got no luck. I'm not that type of guy. If it is an opportunity, i'm going to jump on it. If it is something, i'm going to try my best. If I fail, i fail, try it on my feet, not on my back. So I'm that type of person and I think sky's the limit, because if I could look at the sky, i can reach out my hands and grab it. So I'm that type of guy. It's beautiful, it's a great thing We're doing right now in the community.
Speaker 2:We're getting a lot of praise. The back end is very hard with finance and everything else. Like you know, payroll, like all the violations, what we got to do with the bills is winding up And New York City is extremely expensive. The rent is out of the freaking world. Now we have three. We want to find two in every day. So we were just busy like no, we got this one, we're opening this one, we're opening this one. So we wasn't paying attention to really focus, like me as a chef. Now I wanna stop, take a break and start doing culinary stuff. Like you said earlier in the beginning, i wanna start putting pictures on plates. I wanna do structure on chef tables, special events, like people can actually see Caribbean food can be played, can be represented in certain lights, cause I'm being invited to a lot of different like shows and competitions and everything else, so I can be playing Caribbean food like it was the best I'd invited. So I gotta start taking my time now to show, showcase.
Speaker 2:My next focus is about showcasing Caribbean food. Like you know, hit those TV shows like Bobby Flay, chef Tables, health Kitchen, whatever it is like I need to hit. Like you know, next week I'm doing the dish with CBS. So I gotta represent, like you know, haitian culture, the Caribbean culture, little Haiti, little Caribbean, how we have this great gem in this neighborhood and how can we invite the rest of the world to come see it. So that's what my next focus is gonna be on. So when people gonna see us on TV, see us on the news or on a podcast, we not try to like no blow up, make money. There's really not that much money in two or three restaurants when you have two or three partners. My focus is what I wanted to do first, from the beginning, so I'm taking back the basic. I wanna be a chef again, not a businessman. I wanna be a chef again. I wanna feed people. I wanna show the culture to the rest of the world.
Speaker 2:Like you know, we on Instagram people's fighting us from Tyrone. I'm like what the hell is Tyrone? I'm seeing people following us from Istanbul. I'm like, okay, istanbul, are you in the house? And they haven't come in under us. So that's Istanbul that never had Haitian food, that never had Caribbean food. And they're wondering now that, digging into our pages, like when I'm in New York, i know what to check out. It's not about Haitian or anything. It's about black food stepping up, just like African food is doing their thing right now. Nigeria we invented food.
Speaker 1:So that brings me to the other question that I have, the culinary arts. so most of us are home taught, home grown, and not many are encouraged to formally go to school and perfect this art. So what do you say to anyone listening, a parent, a godparent, whoever, to encourage folks to take their career to that next level? you know, consider culinary school, whatever it is.
Speaker 2:I don't have a culinary degree. What? Yes, i've been trained by newer chefs, so when you're looking at it, i was an apprentice. Ooh, i put my head down.
Speaker 1:So that's the next question How do more people get into apprenticeships then?
Speaker 2:I can tell you how to get to apprenticeship. But right now, to finish my story, i work with Chef. I work with racist Chef that throw a plate at me. But I had to learn. Yes, chef, just like you see on TV, when you're working with a chef, he don't need your opinion, you want his knowledge. Shop the hell up and learn. It's simple. There's no place for cockiness in the kitchen. There's no place for arrogance in the kitchen. Unless you're running your own kitchen, the chef don't need your opinion.
Speaker 2:The chef did not put everything on the line, open his restaurant, everything he owns, to hear your mouth, especially if his restaurant is successful. If you want to learn this art, you got to work for it. I got people that went to culinary school. They're working in my kitchen when I was working in the city. I find them in the two days. It's not for them. Going to school for culinary doesn't make you a chef. No one ought to go to school plate something. Do it at home. When you take six hours to make two plates doesn't make you a chef. Chef is agility, speed and the know-how. If you don't have the agility, you don't have the speed. You have the eye for it. You cannot be a chef. First thing in being a chef is speed and agility, simple. That's why chefs have very high tempered. They're drive with blinders. It's just like something clear. They're on automatic, they're rolling.
Speaker 1:You just used a term that you used previously and I meant to ask you to clarify it, and now you're bringing it up again. You said drive with blindness. Tell me what that means.
Speaker 2:For me what it means with me When I wanted to open the restaurant, everybody knows I could cook Yeah, great cook. I got a chef job. I got a manager. Get your manager's job. But can you do it? First of all, you came from Haiti third of our country, from the slums. You don't have the money. How can you raise the fund to get it done? Who are you going to listen to saying you can't do this? you can't do that Because we grew up in a culture that nobody believed in each other, because that's what they put in their head, just like you're talking about.
Speaker 2:The jerk chicken, the plate and the Caribbean food cannot be played. We always seen the negative part of everything. So that's when you put your blinders on. I'm going to play it. I'm going to get it done. I don't care what you said, i don't care what my mom said, i don't care what my sister said, my friends, my ex-girlfriend, anybody. I'll lose relationship to get this started. If that's what you want for your dream, get it done. Stop talking to people, stop entertaining people crap, stop, stop. The focus should be on you Blinders Like you're like a horse running down an aisle Until you get to that goal. Don't stop running. Do not stop running, and I think that's how every Caribbean is supposed to be when they're doing something Get to the finish line. There's a saying in Creole that the world don't care how you make it. The world don't want to know how you make it, they only believe in results. At the end, give them results.
Speaker 1:Wow, wow, wow, wow. They only want the results, not the how. Ok.
Speaker 2:They don't want the story Yeah.
Speaker 1:They don't want the story And the victim always tell the story.
Speaker 2:at the end of the day, right Doesn't matter. There's 300 people behind this And he's an asshole. I'm telling a story.
Speaker 1:Wow, wow. This is just such an amazing, energetic conversation for me, because I feel the passion coming through And, like I said, i feel your drive and this desire to tell everybody that we can do better and we're doing better. And look look at what I'm doing. You are just saying that I don't care, i don't care.
Speaker 2:Whatever you're saying, i don't listen. You could be on TV, on radio, saying how Haiti got gangs, this, that I don't care, but I got a gang of food in my kitchen right now And I got a gang of people coming outside to taste my food. So if you want to look at those gangs, but there's other people that want to see the gang that I'm creating right now, the culinary gang, the positivness, the people that's willing to drop, the people that's willing to sit down at the table and showcase our culture. We are not what they portrayed us to be. We are not the slums. We invented peanut butter. Stop playing, and we've got to show you guys. We've got to do peanut butter all over again.
Speaker 2:So I don't have the time to listen to the negative. Like you know, with people around me, like friends and family. Oh look, if you want to listen, you don't run a business. Don't tell me I don't run a business. You don't even own a business. What do you own out of the farm? I don't tell you how to catch a train in the morning. Stop, i'm driving with blindness. If I f**k up, f**k it up.
Speaker 2:But everybody knows I wake up every morning and do it. I do 16 to 12 hours daily, doesn't matter if I'm at home with the business or I'm at home with the responding to email, doing this interview or anything. I'm driving my business every hour. I get a chance to. That's what we lack of in our community. We got two goddamn comfortable in America. We need to start getting so comfortable. This is not our country. We're going to take the money in this country and take it back to our island and celebrate. I always tell people I come to America with a suitcase full of clothes. I'm leaving America with a suitcase full of money. Nobody's going to stop.
Speaker 1:I mean, that's a great way to even end this conversation. So what would you tell anyone listening if they come to the restaurant and they want to try something And I know this is hard because all the dishes are your babies But if they would come to Zami, right, if they come there, if I come there, what's the one dish you would recommend that? I definitely carry on. You have to try it.
Speaker 2:You know, past three weeks, because I've been asked this question so many times. I learn how to answer it now, because most chefs never learn how to answer this question. So, as a black person, have you ever had Haitian food before?
Speaker 1:I have, yes, i've been to Haiti.
Speaker 2:So, basically, if you've been to Haiti, you had Haitian food before. Let's stay away from the typical north.
Speaker 1:Yes, the picuris and the Yeah.
Speaker 2:The gruyo, the cabbages? Let's stay away from it. Now I got some good octopus on the menu with some good potato bedding with oil crying there with a quill sauce. How about you try that? I got a nice duck to die for. I tell anybody I can put my duck against any duck in Brooklyn. Maybe in New York you could try the duck.
Speaker 2:You know we got ducks in the island. We love duck, but mine is like greasy, fatty. You got to strip the fat off. We drain the fat from the duck, then we make the duck, because you know we're from the island. Unless we're eating fat, we're eating fat. If we're not eating fat, we want to taste it. So if not, you could do the soft-shelled crab. You could do something else. Oh, i got a quill muscle with a spicy pepper sauce on it. You could do the muscles. But you know, in that we're from the islands, we eat all types of seafood. To begin with, anyway, i love my shrimp. There you go. You could do the quill shrimp's camping. Ooh, you see what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:There's something on the menu for almost everyone. I did not create this menu and act like oh, we're going to do the same 10 items that's in every to-go spots in Brooklyn. We got sandwiches, we got vegan options, we got everything. So we want the world to walk in and try our food. So if I'm trying to cater to the world, i need to cater to everybody. I cannot be stuck, like you know. Okay, we're going to do traditional way and just stuck with it, and that's it.
Speaker 2:And that's why most Haitian restaurants fail You in America. You're not in it. You cannot stick to the traditional way. You got to give the rest of the world that never had your food. So we got a sandwich called the Milo sandwich. It's marinated in jerk. That's a chicken breast tie marinated in jerk. Then we grill it, we put it on sandwiches some pickled peppers and onions, lettuce, tomato and some nice creole creamy sauce, aioli. So people are going to eat that with some seasoned fries. So we never had Haitian food and try to play it safe. So we got to slowly introducing them. So next time they had the restaurant, like yo, we had the sandwich. Man, i'm going to try to grill. So that's the newbies. But for somebody like you, be the Haiti, let's go outside of the box right now. Let's start calling somewhere else.
Speaker 1:I love it. I love it. I'm so excited. All right, so why don't you tell everyone where they could find you and follow you on the internet? and then I'll also make sure I put the links to the restaurants. And I want to try everything. It's like summer's coming Foodie time. We're going on a food crawl. I really feel so excited about the food. I want to try everything. So tell me where they could find you.
Speaker 2:Best thing about like, in other words, zami. Zami means friends in Creole And in French, so Zami means friends. So if you type you Google Z A N, m, i, zami, first thing that will come up is my restaurant. We managed to get to the top of the word Zami. So when people are talking about Zami, they're not talking about friends, no more, they're talking about my restaurant now. So it's so easy to find that stuff.
Speaker 1:Look at the synergy. It means friends, you're on. Carry on friends, we friends Yes.
Speaker 2:Yes, definitely. So when you type Zami NYC, that come, that's straight to our website. And if you go to our website it's going to link you up to the other restaurants. So the word friends, you just have Zami in Creole. Oh, you can type friends in Creole to Google. That will show you Zami. So we managed to get to the top of the algorithm to be more like searchable. So it's that easy.
Speaker 1:That is also a good lesson about marketing, seo, all of that amazing stuff that happens when you're running a business and how hard it is and how long it takes just to get that top ranking. So congrats to you and the team for making that And I am just really proud and excited. Love this conversation. I don't get to talk about food a lot. I love food And so you coming on this podcast to just, you know, talk about or cuisine in a way that's exciting And, like you said, like you know, normally we get excited about food. When I go to Jamaica, i don't go to Jamaica to the beach, i go to Jamaica just for the food.
Speaker 2:I'll tell you, i went to Jamaica for the first time last year, a month ago today. That's where I'm from, really. You from Mobile.
Speaker 1:Yes, i'm from Mobile And I um. So unfortunately, last year I went because my my father, passed away and my family, thank you my grand uncles. They were known fishermen And so every Saturday morning, when I used to go and visit my dad, a lot of people came and they would want that fresh fish out of the water, the marlin, everything. I was just so used to that lifestyle and just you know so my cousins made me lobster and they did um scallops and all of these things And I was just like fruits from the sea.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, yes, oh my God, yes, so you went to Mobile and I mean, i love food. That's all I do when I go home. I want to go to this place, that place, it's so I'm, i'm so excited. I I love this conversation. Wesley, thank you so much for being on the podcast and bringing me some food joy.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, yes.
Speaker 1:And, as I love to say at the end of every episode walk good.