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FNC 38 - Dan Adams
(Intro)
Hey! Welcome to Food News & Chews. We've got a great day. Get your hand
out of that meat grinder. Oh, it's not turned on.
This is a neat piece of equipment and there's a lot of neat stuff here actually.
Yeah.
1403 Versailles Road.
Yeah.
This is C-Worth Superstore, Dan Adams is with us. He's going to give us
the roadmap on how to set up a restaurant. Anything you need for restaurants
it's all right here.
Alright, we'll be right back.
(Music)
Hey! We're back with Food News & Chews at Dan Adams' C-Worth Superstore.
Yeah, it's a playground for me.
Oh, let's walk around and see this stuff. It's totally cool. Hey! We have some
good things going on. Is there a pizza cooking in there?
There was, beautiful oven.
This is awesome stuff. Great story about local foods.
Mmhmm.
Our friend Tina Garland with the Department of Agriculture in Frankfort, those
are the Kentucky Proud people and all that stuff and they are bringing USDA
money into schoolsâ
Sweet.
âand Cardinal Valley was featured the other day about how they are teaching
kids about fresh foods and stuff. It was really awesome in bringing in food.
Was there a large increase in money they spent?
Oh, it was an incredible thing here. In 2010, school districts spent $10,000 on
locally sourced foods across the state. It went up in the most recent school year
to $460,000!
That's great! That's like a local hero story.
Yeah! That's like we're winning the war Jeremy. But, if you thought the world
was safe, let's cluck! Let's cluck on China.
There's beer right here.
Do you think it might work? Hahaha. Anyway, oh yeah, China. It's very interesting.
News reports all the time right now on China and food. But guess what? Politics
are involved. Who knew?
Mmhmm.
Here's what is happening. They just approvedâ some group in Washington
just approved allowing Chinese processed poultry to come into this country
from four processing plants.
So, not raw but processed.
Yeah, they had been allowing raw but it had to be Canadian and American birds
to I guess live birds.
To China?
Yeah, it's really confusing.
And then processed?
Not processed but sent back. Raw birds were allowed but they had to be labeled
as but had to be American & Canadian birds. Now, they're going to allow cooked
meat butâ
To come from this country?
To come into this country from four processing plants. People are going nuts over
it because of all this kind of stuff butâ
There are different standardsâ
Yeah.
âUSDA here is kind of strict you know compared to the rest of the world and there's
different safety issues and food concerns so food from another country could be a little
bit risky.
Yeah, now they say that the cooked birdsâ the processed ones don't have to have
the country of origin labeling. So, if you go into a fast food restaurant and order a
chicken noodle soup or nuggets you better be kind of careful aboutâ get your
fortune cookie first.
Right. Exactly.
Hahaha. What's going on out there?
That's kind of interesting. Maybe all of this could have been because grain prices
here and maybe a shortage and we are trying to source from other countriesâ
No...
â or just the globalization of the food chain.
âthere you go Jeremy. I know you sound like Barry White today but you're not
nearly as old, okay. But here we goâ it's politics. Chinese were banning beef
from the US because of Mad Cow stuff. They were putting huge tariffs on it so
what they are trying to do is open up the markets because they are more concerned
about China liking usâ
Okay.
âand us liking China.
Okay. Gotcha, soâ we'll sell you the chicken and we'll buy chickenâ
We'll keep doing all that and it keeps prices highâ
Friendly.
âand all that kind of stuff and then we're friendly. That's part of the reason that
we're dealing with all of this...
Mmmhmm.
âbut we'll watch and see because people are up in arms it was all over the news
and all this kind of stuff. Gut researchâ want to hear my latest on guts?
Look at this stove.
Tell us about it.
Well, it's a stove.
Oven. Really? I don't know what it is.
What do you have on food news again? I'm sorry. This is a toy.
Gut news.
The Gut News.
Oh, this is a great study. Vindicates me on diet. They say that the microbes
that live in your gut determine weather you're fat or thin.
Really?
Hahaha. Oh, this is a good one. Jeremy, you're going to love this.
I thought it was the amount of food I ate.
Hahaha. No, fat mice have different microbesâ they put them in the same
cage and ahemâ do you know know they do to each other?
No.
They eat each others' droppings.
Oh, come on.
Hahaha. I'm kidding but here's the cool thingâ
This story is full of it.
..haâ the thin mice actually transferred their microbesâcause they share the
microbes thenâ the fat mice got thin.
So, I'm supposed to find some skinny dude and get some gut stuffâ oh man.
I don't want to think about that.
They might sell them at Williams & Sonoma.
Eat skinny people microbes, injected into myâto get skinny.
Or Urban Chicken Coopsâ you know cages that skinny people could engage
fat people.
Wow, we could go off on this one.
Oh, this is good though. It's an evolving story. This microbe thing is dead
serious about all that crap.
They say you know a lot of your intestinal bacteria helps aid digestion and metabolism
so, we're finding out more and more about all of that. Anyway, that's the food news
of the day and we're going to move on to Dan Adams and he's going to tell us all
about all of this.
Great stuff.
I'm loving it. Kid in a candy store right here. We'll be right back with Food News
& Chews.
(Music)
Jeremy! I'm all excited. We've got Dan Adams our great friend with C-Worth
Superstore and I'm going to start the interview with Dan because I want to find
out one thing up front. Who is your typical customer?
Our typical customer is the independent operators and churches, schools that
we do a lot of business with. Do a lot of replacement, okayâ
Sure.
âwith international franchises but our typical customer like Jeremyâ
Yeah.
âand all the people I grew up with and stuff in this business for over 40 years.
Yeah.
Well, where is your typical customer located? How far will you travel for a customer?
We have sales people on the roadâ have six of themâ go all the way to
Cincinnati to Northern Tennessee. Go all the way to Bowling Green and Louisville
E-town and all the way to Ashland.
Nice.
Wow!
We have two people inside of Lexington to take care of the customers so we're
very customer minded so they are taken care of.
You have a large territory.
We do a lot of business outside the state too, Sylvia.
A lot of the chefs have come throughâ or say a Jeremy went out West. We have
people that we've done stuff for in the Caribbean, New Mexico, Californiaâ
carafe and green slab we did for a chef in Tennessee. We've done things in Boston,
all over the place.
Well, if you take a look around here it is just an amazing kind of place.
Thank you.
Why should people come? Tell us about people coming to you, when should they
come to you?
It's a very important question. When you get a conceptâ a babyâ an ideaâ
Yeahâ. and you know a lot about this.
âWell, I've worked on several projects with Dan and having somebody, you
know, right there with you from the get go is really important.
Well, you're right Jeremy because you have to have a game plan.
Yeah.
You've got toâknow the territory you want to go to, the concept you want to do
the equipment package that you needâ if it fits to the location you're trying to go and
how much it will cost you. And in doing all of that you have to have to start with
somebody that is responsible enough to do that. We have a CAD program that
a lot of customers come inâ
That is the best thing I've seen so farâ not to interruptâ but when you're talking
about opening a restaurant the major expense is going to be in that kitchen area.
Oh, yeah.
And you're talking about you're revenue center is out in the front so you have to
maximize the space in the front and make a tight designed kitchenâ the Autocad
can get it down to the inch.
That's exactly right and by having a CAD design then you can go out and buy
your equipment from whomever.
Right.
Okay. I mean it could be from an auction, a flea market or C-Worth you know.
But you know at least you have a program design that you know what you're
going to buy instead of going out and buying all kinds of equipment and trying
to fit those items into your program which never easily works.
It's great. It's almost like having a map. You know, this piece goes here...
Oh, yeahâ very unique.
âand as long as you are sticking to the Specs and the design then you're going
to be fine. Walk in, flip the switch and go.
And you've been in businessâ because you said something about experience.
Yeah.
Someone who knows what they're doing.
50 years.
Yeah. And here it isâ having a map tells you the mechanicals that you're going
to be required.
Right.
So, there's no change order.
You know.
Mmhmm.
If the map is correct, the change order is not there and that's where a lot of business
expense overrunsâ
In any business.
âyou lose profit margins to go in and have extra money to go in and start up with.
When do you consider new or used or equipment for both of ya.
That's a great question.
That's a huge decision.
Good question.
You've got to weigh your options.
Because you have both actually. We talk a lot about reconditioned equipment on
radio shows and that and we do a lot of business here reconditioned. There's
a massive amount of people in my back of the house that go through every piece
and recondition it completely. We don't just wipe the stuff off. And we assure
the customers with a warranty with it. But, when do you buy used equipment
and when not? Sometimes people will buy used equipment when they are a
start up and lots of times they will buy things that are not refrigeration methods
sometimes. Because unless you buy a good refrigerator from a good resource
then you don't know if it is going to go down. We check our out constantly to make
sure the customer is getting a top notch refrigeration as well any gas line equipment.
This is industrial, commercial kitchen equipment. There's a lot of moving parts outside
of the surface plateâ a lot of things going on in there.
That's right.
And you guys are checking it out. I've actually purchased several used pieces from you guys.
You know it is the heavy duty stuff and you guys put the care into it, get it working
again and I have no problems with it.
And a lot people start out with reconditioned equipment then the finances start to come
in and they'll replace that.
Sure.
There you go.
Or there's a new conceptâ a new menu ideaâ they don't want to invest a whole new
piece in thereâthey'll buy a piece of reconditioned equipment, start that new menu
item up to see if it is successfulâ
There you go.
That's the great thing about Dan is we've tried some projects at the restaurant and
I've had Allenâ one of your guys over there and talked about, "Okay, this is where
the equipment fits." And he's even talked about the process from maybe dough
for a pizza and how it should flow and how it should move which is great.
And we go back to that experiential levelâ someone who knows both. Your
interest is in the customer and tailoringâ
Exactly.
âthe needs of the customer or if you are starting a new place or something like that.
How can you expand? Because there is just a burgeoning business out there in
restaurants.
And we teach our people, our staff to listenâ wholly listen to what the end user is
trying to create. When they can listen and understand it might not be the answer
the customer wants to hear but I tell them to speak truthfully. This is not in the right
positionâ you're going to be cross-section labor, it's going to cost you more money,
you need to switch these and try to do a better flow pattern. Labor is something
you always spend and you can not achieve back.
Right.
So, if flow patterns are not there you'll lose good employees as well time.
Yeah, having that person there is really important because there are times when I
have bought things maybe off-line or from just a storeâone thing about Dan or
one of his crewâ when I get something from themâit shows up at the back doorâ
they bring it inâthey put it togetherâ
Yeah, that's a very important point.
âthey show me how to use it.
Start it up, show you how to use it, make sure you are comfortable with it, bring a
manufacturing rep in to do more demonstration, take your old unit out and dispose
of it. You knowâ there's a lotâwe are more than internet service. We are at
your doorâ
You can't do that on the internet, can you?
âyou can't.
You're local. Hahaha.
Food companies will send it right to the door and that's it.
Yeah, you can buy a new stove but who's going to take away my old one?
That's the exciting thing for our viewers who are a mix of people. We've got
consumers, people who cook in their kitchen all the way to chefs, people who
cook in commercial places but this is important stuff for them to know as this
restaurant business is growing.
Our customers come inâ we have a 15,000 square foot showroom here.
Largest in the state. They can come in and actually understand what they are trying to buy.
Or how they are trying to develop and there is onlyâwe're the only place in the state,
Central Kentucky that I know of that has the chef apparel on site in all sizes and
different colors so that you could get it right then.
That's right. That's right.
And if you are a caterer or a chef in the restaurant industryâ
That's why he looks spiffy.
Well, I can come in and try things onâ you know you mail order something, it doesn't
fitâthe right sizeâ and also have a lot of friends of mine that cook at home that may not
be a chef but they want to wear somethingâ come in and get it.
Yeah.
That's right. Well, this is an exciting place to be and Dan I can't wait to walk through it and
see it againâ I see it all the time but Jeremy doesn't take me when he goes.
Hahaha.
He never takes me anywhere.
32 years of the industry has changed. We developed this concept here about four years ago
we wanted a nice, clean culinary affect. You do thisâ you come in and you see stainless
everywhereâwe have all kind of cutlery. We have the mercer cutlery that we stock now.
Mmhmm.
And we've got all kinds of commercial cookware so if you are looking for something
strong, come see us.
Thank you Dan Adams, it's been great to be with you.
It's great. Thank you all.
We'll be right back.
(Music)
Oh, oh, hi. Welcome to Food News & Chews.
You better stay out of my bacon.
No, I'm not staying away from your bacon.
Yeah, geezâ always after my bacon.
Your bacon.
My stuff, so we're talkingâ
Stuffâ yeah, what you got cookin' here?
âjust playing around and making a good burger, right?
Mmmm, man that's good.
I've got some Lyons Farm ground beef. You know this is actually Lyons Farm
short ribs and I took those and braised them down in red wine.
Can I sniff them?
It's really easy to do like your mom would make. Make a cut a like this,
throw it in the oven covered for several hours and it just starts to fall apart. I thought
it would be fun to take two different kinds of meatâ or three different kinds of meat
and stuff it into a burger, right?
Hey! Tell me about this. Do you call this like "Fusion Burgers" or something. It's
not just your mother's bacon cheeseburger anymore, is it?
I don't know what it is but everybody loves burgers and it's fun to play with and you can
kind of do lots of stuff with themâit's so approachableâ and nobody is really going
to be upset to try something a little bit different. Anywayâ
Well, I can't wait for you to tell me what that torture machine is all about.
Yeah, exactly, right? So, anyway, you want a good little bit of ground beef.
How much?
6 ounces is probably going to be great.
I bet you can tell what that is by just looking at it. I canâ we've done this enough.
So, roll it out then you'll want to cut those two in half.
Yeah. 3 ounces each.
Right. I'm going toâ
You've got a lot of other stuff here.
My little so called torture device Sylviaâ
Yeahâ I'm going to use that on you one of these days.
Mmmhmm.
Keep you under control.
Put Saran Wrap down in there and then put one of my meat patties down.
And this is what kind of burger is this?
This is Lyons Farm ground beef.
Yeah, Lyons Farm ground beef.
I've got a little burger patty here toâ put a little pressure hereâ see how it makes
it uniform.
How pretty!
Ah, these are pretty.
It looks like so much more than 3 ounces.
I know it does.
Like what you said.
So, take a good bit of short ribs here in the centerâ like kind of a big clump in the
centerâ equally distributed.
What is this hamburger craze going on out there? It really is, you know.
It's just delicious man.
Hamburger like inc. Everybody is into hamburgers.
Some crispy bacon in there as well.
Hohoho.
This is like Maytag Blue Cheese. Real stinky, really blue.
And real good.
Good and creamy, right?
Mmmm.
See that nice blue vein there?
Yeah. Man.
So, on top you want to put the other little bit of ground beef.
And this is moldy cheeseâ isn't' this interesting. I've learned so much.
I'm going to help this along by giving it a little bit of a head start, right?
So, now we're really going to put some pressure. It will be squeezing out the tops
and sides.
Oh, look at it spilling out.
But we've got a pretty good patty here. Notice how I use the Saran Wrap.
Double patty.
I use the Saran Wrap on it to help get it off.
Good.
So, now I can takeâ get all out, lay them all outâ but this is ready for the grill.
Is this like one burger for one bun?
That would be one for me, yeah! You don't get any.
Wow. That's a lot of ingredients.
Don't forget to season your meat. Salt, pepper really well. We'll go grill with it
and cook it off.
Alright, let's do it. Let's go.
Salt.
Yes, salt. Whenever I grill meat I typically don't put pepper on there. Everybody
says salt and pepper, yeah.
Why?
Something about the grill and the peppercornâ it kind of chars it a little bit. Gives
it a little bitter flavor. I like to at the end grind some pepper on it.
So, smart! Hey! I'll tell you where you are really smart. Dan Adams, who we've been
talking to here todayâ
Yeah.
âbasically built this kitchen for us, didn't he?
Oh, he was instrumental in this one but also our new concept we're coming out with
we're openingâ it's a Cuban concept.
Oh! We're so excited aren't we?
He's kind of got in there and given us a good design. It makes it so much easier
because we don't know the kitchen and we don't know how things fit. AutoCAD gets
us what we need so we can open in a couple of monthsâ so.
It's going to be exciting folks. Okay, got the salt going, got the grill going.
And this is the boring part. One thing about grilling is I don't play with it that much.
This is tricky.
Let it grill on one side then flip it over.
And howâ how do people cook burgers safely.
Safely?
Yeah.
Is that a weird thing?
One thing people do too much is they flip it too much.
They flip it too much.
Well, I also heard you are not suppose to smash them.
Never smash them. All the juice goes out of it. Never, ever smash a burger.
So at this point we pretty much got to let go because we want all the good
stuff inside to get warm 'causeâ
The cheese and bacon.
âthat short rib was cold.
Yeah.
So, it's got to get warm, the cheese has to get a little bit melty. So, we'll let it go
about 4 minutes on one side. Flip it and go about four minutes on the other.
And that fixes it? I mean is it ready?
I think that would be good enough for me. It's going to be about medium and that's
for me.
I'm getting better. I'm getting better about that.
So, we'll just let it cook.
Okay, let's do.
Do a little flip here, right?
Okayâ ooh. Looks good.
I can see some blue cheese starting to ooze out of there soâ we'll let it go another
four or five minutes on this side then it's burger time dude.
Oh, man. Now Jeremy, how would you dress that? I mean you can ruin flavors by
having too much.
I would dress this out? I mean it is already soâit's already got a lot of good stuff
with it soâ
You don't want to mess with it too much.
It's like kind of whatever your favorite condiments are, right? I don't know.
For me, I would probably go for some tomato, some mayonnaise, maybe a little
bit of mustardâ and I've got to have some onionsâ maybe some fried onions.
Mmmm.
Oh yeah, that's just way over the top.
Oh, way over the top but we'll try it.
Yeah, we're going to try it.
We'll try anything.
Alright, I want a bite.
So, check that out, man.
That is beautiful. I want a bite.
So, you've got a little bit of short ribs sticking out a bit, a little baconâ
That cheese oozing out.
I just made it classic. A little lettuce, tomato and onion, right? So, we'll top
this thing off and look at that monster burger man. Isn't' it ridiculous.
We could press down a little bit but I'm going to cut this thing in half so we can
see all the magic inside.
Look at the juices running all through it.
Saw through it and tah-dah.
Is that gorgeous? Alright. Jeremy, saw me off "that" much.
No way, you've got to eat the whole half. We'll just kind of cut this into pieces.
How can you not eat a burger like this, right?
Ready, here we go.
Yeah, I'm good. Take a big bite, okay.
Ready?
1â
Cheers.
â2, 3. Mmmmmm. Jeremyâ
Ma'am.
You are paying for my weight loss program.
Hahaha.
That is so good. Mmm. We'll be back with Food News & Chews. Anything else
you want to add to this burger?
Man, no, it's perfect.
We're going to founder on thisâ we'll see you next week.