[00:00:00.000]
[00:00:12.916]
(MUSIC PLAYING)
[00:00:15.898]
[00:00:20.475]
- My plate is an empty canvas.
[00:00:22.000]
And I can draw from it.
[00:00:25.620]
I fell in love with the symphony of it,
[00:00:30.030]
the way and the dance of it.
[00:00:32.450]
I just wanted to do something with food,
[00:00:34.410]
but I was not too sure where which way I was going to go.
[00:00:38.070]
And now this is where I am.
[00:00:41.135]
- What the immigrants are looking
[00:00:42.510]
for today, a better life for the family, for the children,
[00:00:45.360]
that was back then in 1956 for us.
[00:00:49.440]
We went into a refugee camp, a political refugee camp.
[00:00:52.800]
And I realized that we would not go back to see Grandma.
[00:00:58.040]
And so I think at that moment my passion for food
[00:01:01.940]
was born almost then.
[00:01:04.519]
I wanted to retain those memories, those flavors.
[00:01:07.990]
And throughout my life, I would bring them with me by cooking.
[00:01:12.890]
- When I came into the building, it was really humbling.
[00:01:17.600]
Grey is located in a Greyhound station that
[00:01:20.690]
was built in 1938 during the Jim Crowe era
[00:01:23.810]
so it is a segregated building.
[00:01:27.080]
I know the people who were in this space going
[00:01:29.780]
to ride the bus, sitting in that little tiny back waiting room,
[00:01:33.180]
did not think that someone like me would be a co-owner
[00:01:36.350]
or be in this space at all running it.
[00:01:39.350]
- I started cooking when I was 17.
[00:01:42.140]
And then I came to Four Seasons Chicago.
[00:01:44.540]
And I was 10 years with them as executive chef
[00:01:47.480]
in three properties.
[00:01:49.490]
But my father always said the higher up you go,
[00:01:52.740]
the further removed you get from what made you great.
[00:01:55.350]
And at the end of the day, this is what we do.
[00:01:57.780]
We cook.
[00:01:59.079]
(MUSIC PLAYING)
[00:02:03.071]
[00:03:09.383]
- So Mom, what do you think?
[00:03:10.550]
This is to see you as the matriarch.
[00:03:14.240]
Hear your story.
[00:03:17.240]
- I never thought that I would do what I
[00:03:19.970]
did how I did it when I did it.
[00:03:22.640]
If I had to do it over again, bet your ass
[00:03:25.137]
I'd do it over again just for you and Christos.
[00:03:27.095]
[00:03:30.894]
- Yeah.
[00:03:31.394]
I got it.
[00:03:32.390]
[00:03:46.217]
- I didn't care about money, because I
[00:03:47.800]
knew it was going to make it, because I believed in myself.
[00:03:52.090]
Why shouldn't I do what I love?
[00:03:54.255]
- Are you listening?
[00:03:56.155]
[00:03:59.005]
That's got to go.
[00:03:59.850]
Don't you dare take food that doesn't belong!
[00:04:01.725]
[00:04:06.410]
You got tonight's special up there yet?
[00:04:08.060]
- Yeah, it's all set.
[00:04:09.280]
- He said tomato wine.
[00:04:10.610]
Wrong answer.
[00:04:11.330]
Tomato basil.
[00:04:12.620]
[00:04:15.580]
All you need is just a touch.
[00:04:17.250]
- OK.
[00:04:17.769]
- And go from side to side instead of over the salmon.
[00:04:20.850]
(MUSIC PLAYING)
[00:04:23.240]
[00:04:28.976]
Megan, what do you need?
[00:04:30.080]
- Spinach pie!
[00:04:31.820]
- Got your spices everything, liquor, white wine?
[00:04:35.710]
[00:04:40.057]
(SIGH)
[00:04:41.030]
Tonight is a burger night, you understand?
[00:04:43.690]
Don't screw up tonight, because guess what?
[00:04:45.845]
You're going to McDonald's.
[00:04:46.970]
(MUSIC PLAYING)
[00:04:49.360]
[00:04:53.670]
Coming to work every day, loving the restaurant,
[00:04:56.940]
loving people, and loving to see my kids happy,
[00:05:00.540]
that's all I care.
[00:05:01.835]
(MUSIC PLAYING)
[00:05:04.260]
[00:05:10.090]
I didn't have a life.
[00:05:12.150]
And to keep it afloat, I went in from 8:00 in the morning
[00:05:15.580]
and I'd go home at 10:00, 11:00 at night,
[00:05:18.360]
not seeing my kids because I couldn't afford to stop.
[00:05:23.913]
- There's no doubt that there is still a glass ceiling for women
[00:05:26.580]
in all kinds of industry, and especially
[00:05:28.500]
in the culinary world.
[00:05:29.430]
You know, over half of the graduates of culinary schools
[00:05:32.370]
are women, yet less than 7% of women
[00:05:35.280]
own restaurant businesses in this country.
[00:05:37.530]
- I was doing stages and apprentices in France
[00:05:41.100]
when I got eight rejection letters
[00:05:43.530]
from eight chefs that said, "We don't take women
[00:05:47.190]
in our kitchens."
[00:05:48.030]
That was only 20 years ago.
[00:05:49.990]
So I was ready--
[00:05:51.360]
when I became an executive chef, I was ready.
[00:05:53.940]
And I could hold my own with all these guys.
[00:05:56.140]
Kind of like being on the streets and street fighting
[00:05:58.830]
in a kitchen.
[00:06:00.480]
- I can tell you the story of going to Paris once,
[00:06:05.250]
for a client that wanted a wedding cake,
[00:06:08.070]
and walked into an all-male kitchen where they looked
[00:06:12.060]
askance and said, "Oh, my god, what is this?
[00:06:15.310]
Who are you, a woman?"
[00:06:17.610]
And when we were finished they were in thralls.
[00:06:20.430]
They tied a bottle of champagne and toasted us.
[00:06:24.000]
And I think that's what women have to do.
[00:06:26.140]
They have to prove it all the time, unfortunately.
[00:06:29.370]
- I grew up in Southie, last of seven kids, no money.
[00:06:32.640]
I remember reading Gourmet magazine.
[00:06:34.770]
And that kind of was the armchair travel for me,
[00:06:37.230]
because you were reading about Provence or Italy,
[00:06:40.110]
and you were just dreaming about it.
[00:06:42.720]
So I went to Italy.
[00:06:44.220]
I think I was 22.
[00:06:45.360]
And I learned how to cook from this woman, Mita, in Tuscany.
[00:06:50.748]
Didn't speak a word of English, and I
[00:06:52.290]
didn't speak a word of Italian.
[00:06:55.470]
She taught me how to make bolognese sauce,
[00:06:57.830]
gnocci, you know, went to pick the basil, everything.
[00:07:01.890]
She was so self-sufficient.
[00:07:03.120]
I mean, I've never seen that.
[00:07:05.070]
What I loved about it was you didn't have to have a title.
[00:07:08.610]
And everyone respected them--
[00:07:11.060]
the nonna, the mama.
[00:07:12.497]
(MUSIC PLAYING)
[00:07:15.299]
[00:07:17.640]
- Women excel in cooking.
[00:07:19.410]
This is what we do naturally.
[00:07:21.210]
And behind every great French chef
[00:07:25.860]
was a grandmother or mother.
[00:07:28.110]
You look at individuals like Bocuse and Girardet,
[00:07:31.510]
and they always learned to cook from their mothers.
[00:07:35.040]
They learned to cook from their grandmothers
[00:07:36.990]
in their own family restaurants, and bistros, and inns.
[00:07:42.470]
- In a little town outside Pula, the town that I was born in,
[00:07:46.040]
was a courtyard.
[00:07:47.120]
And in that courtyard was my grandmother, my grandfather's
[00:07:49.940]
sister, I have brothers.
[00:07:51.670]
It was a real family courtyard.
[00:07:54.140]
And all the sustenance, all the food that we ate, most of it,
[00:07:59.120]
was either grown or harvested.
[00:08:01.280]
We had the grain, the olive oil.
[00:08:03.310]
I was a little helper, and I'd run around.
[00:08:05.060]
"Go get me this, go get me that."
[00:08:07.160]
I consider myself almost a conduit for a culture.
[00:08:11.930]
I carried the Italian tradition from my native country
[00:08:15.320]
to America.
[00:08:16.355]
- "Ciliegine," so they say, right?
[00:08:18.370]
- "La ciliegine."
[00:08:19.430]
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:08:20.510]
- Then you hear a bunch people say,
[00:08:22.170]
"I just want to cook like my grandmother or my nonna."
[00:08:25.790]
It seems to me that the goal should
[00:08:27.800]
be for every chef, male or female,
[00:08:30.560]
to be cooking like a female chef.
[00:08:34.220]
- People will say, "Well, you know, if you want to cook,
[00:08:37.250]
if you're a woman just do-- you know,
[00:08:39.140]
cook pasta or just do something very rustic."
[00:08:42.480]
They don't look that woman could be a Jean-Georges
[00:08:44.570]
or Thomas Keller or-- they don't look at that like this.
[00:08:48.145]
(MUSIC PLAYING)
[00:08:50.570]
[00:08:55.910]
I'm looking at Anne-Sophie Pic.
[00:08:57.650]
I'm looking at Elena Arzak-- these great chefs
[00:09:00.600]
that are female in Europe that have three Michelin stars.
[00:09:04.605]
Et voila.
[00:09:06.269]
(MUSIC PLAYING)
[00:09:09.023]
[00:09:11.320]
- Last year, we celebrate 25 years of the Michelin stars.
[00:09:16.520]
And for us, it's an honor.
[00:09:18.600]
(MUSIC PLAYING)
[00:09:20.982]
[00:09:24.571]
You will see that there are more men than women that are famous.
[00:09:29.100]
But for me, this is a social question.
[00:09:31.250]
This will change with the time.
[00:09:33.200]
Sometimes I was the only woman in the kitchen
[00:09:35.990]
or there was one or two more.
[00:09:37.980]
But the focus and the purpose was the same--
[00:09:41.090]
doing as good as possible.
[00:09:43.960]
- As a woman, of course it was harder for me,
[00:09:46.100]
because men thought women in the field was a joke.
[00:09:51.290]
But when you find a woman that could establish her own self
[00:09:56.840]
and don't care about what people think, you just go at it.
[00:10:03.290]
Customers that come in to you every day
[00:10:05.790]
are not coming only for your food, they're coming for you.
[00:10:10.480]
- She's quite the lady, a mother and a businesswoman.
[00:10:15.920]
- Val, you can sense her love of family.
[00:10:19.710]
And it reflects right into the way she
[00:10:23.970]
takes care of us as customers.
[00:10:25.403]
And I think she's just wonderful.
[00:10:27.810]
- Come on, guys, use your head!
[00:10:29.110]
There's 75 people coming for a party.
[00:10:31.260]
If you let them take two spaces up, we're screwed!
[00:10:34.200]
Just make sure they're for the function.
[00:10:36.090]
But do not let them park the way they want!
[00:10:39.660]
Oh, does anyone want to do dishes?
[00:10:42.480]
- It's like coming home because she's always
[00:10:45.090]
welcoming and hugging.
[00:10:46.500]
And she's just always there.
[00:10:48.220]
- Penne up, guys?
[00:10:49.380]
- Yeah, right now.
[00:10:51.120]
- Well, I sent you a text.
[00:10:52.260]
Did you not read my goddamn text?
[00:10:54.145]
I know you're busy.
[00:10:55.115]
I know it's a--
[00:10:57.630]
I know, baby.
[00:10:58.420]
I know.
[00:10:58.920]
But you know what?
[00:10:59.670]
I've got people up my ass, in my ass, and everywhere.
[00:11:02.760]
-When you meet her, it's like you've known your whole life.
[00:11:05.415]
You know what I mean?
[00:11:06.290]
She's just-- she's a caring, loving person.
[00:11:10.590]
- Everybody saw Val going to work every day,
[00:11:13.330]
seeing the smile, "How you doin'?",
[00:11:16.190]
but they never knew what a mess I really was.
[00:11:21.510]
I used to drive Reservoir from my house to come to work.
[00:11:27.140]
I'd stop at the reservoir, and I would look up and I'd say,
[00:11:32.050]
"Please, God, just give me strength."
[00:11:34.750]
(MUSIC PLAYING)
[00:11:37.462]
[00:11:39.270]
The minute my right foot went into this door,
[00:11:44.400]
I forgot about everything-- debt collectors,
[00:11:46.950]
I didn't give a shit who was coming to knock on my door.
[00:11:49.650]
I said, "Go screw.
[00:11:51.180]
You'll get your money when I have it."
[00:11:52.800]
I just blocked them out.
[00:11:54.340]
I didn't care.
[00:11:55.770]
All I thought was, I have to make it work.
[00:11:58.770]
I have to make it work.
[00:12:01.024]
(MUSIC PLAYING)
[00:12:03.509]
[00:12:08.990]
With a divorce, with kids, bills, loans, I became a bull
[00:12:14.810]
and I kept on going.
[00:12:16.493]
(MUSIC PLAYING)
[00:12:25.187]
- I have to tell you, I didn't think I was making a career.
[00:12:29.360]
At the age of 50, I had breast cancer.
[00:12:32.420]
And I was in chemotherapy here in New York
[00:12:35.510]
several times a week.
[00:12:37.440]
And so I felt I had nothing to lose.
[00:12:41.120]
And we always wanted to come back to Manhattan.
[00:12:43.580]
We knew the city.
[00:12:44.480]
And we loved the city.
[00:12:46.130]
And we found this wonderful space.
[00:12:48.480]
And so we now, as we say, live above the store.
[00:12:51.620]
[00:12:54.170]
New York City is a unique space,
[00:12:56.100]
because you have a mixture of ages, sexuality,
[00:13:01.090]
a lot of artists, a lot of young people.
[00:13:02.840]
And I always say, get younger friends.
[00:13:04.690]
It keeps you younger.
[00:13:07.120]
I also had a friend in New York who had a bakery.
[00:13:10.480]
And he said, "Nobody's doing beautiful
[00:13:13.360]
and delicious wedding cakes.
[00:13:15.160]
But if you can come up with an idea,
[00:13:17.290]
you could probably take over the city."
[00:13:20.980]
And so my first cake--
[00:13:22.870]
the ladies that lunch saw the cake.
[00:13:25.180]
And one ordered it for The Carlyle.
[00:13:27.490]
And as soon as The Carlyle had it, The Pierre found out,
[00:13:30.940]
The Plaza found out, and all the hotels said, "Hey, there's
[00:13:34.840]
a new kid in town."
[00:13:37.860]
And of course, they discovered it was a 50-year-old woman,
[00:13:41.280]
which made it even more interesting for me
[00:13:44.520]
and challenging for them.
[00:13:46.740]
- I got offered this job to come and be chef and co-owner
[00:13:49.740]
of the Spotted Pig.
[00:13:51.210]
I got brought over on a whirlwind weekend
[00:13:53.580]
with Mario Batali and Ken Friedman.
[00:13:56.040]
And Ken was like, "Oh, if you're the right person for the job,
[00:13:58.850]
Mario will give me the thumbs up or thumbs down
[00:14:01.230]
in about 30 seconds."
[00:14:02.860]
And I think he could probably see there I
[00:14:04.980]
was very focused in my career.
[00:14:07.600]
And he also noticed the burns on my arm,
[00:14:11.030]
and apparently he thought I was fearless.
[00:14:14.040]
About three months later, four months later,
[00:14:16.240]
I moved to New York.
[00:14:17.760]
- Now to those new allegations of sexual misconduct
[00:14:20.490]
rocking the food industry.
[00:14:22.110]
- Sexual harassment accusations against the owner of
[00:14:24.480]
New York City hot spot, the Spotted Pig--
[00:14:26.880]
- More women and more allegations
[00:14:28.770]
against Mario Batali.
[00:14:29.850]
And now the accusations are escalating.
[00:14:31.830]
Eataly, the Italian marketplace chain
[00:14:33.600]
where Batali is part owner has removed all of his cookbooks
[00:14:36.600]
and all of his products, including
[00:14:38.160]
his signature sauces which have his face on the label.
[00:14:41.130]
- The #MeToo movement, it is growing.
[00:14:42.860]
- This has been a very powerful movement.
[00:14:44.850]
A new ABC News Washington Post poll
[00:14:46.800]
revealing an estimated 33 million
[00:14:49.320]
American women have been sexually harassed.
[00:14:51.670]
(MUSIC PLAYING)
[00:14:54.080]
[00:14:59.390]
- With all the things that have happened with #MeToo,
[00:15:02.240]
I think lots of us in the industry
[00:15:03.710]
are having conversations where I started really
[00:15:06.560]
looking at my career and thinking back to things
[00:15:09.380]
that had occurred 30 years ago.
[00:15:11.438]
There was a hotel that was brand new, that was pursuing
[00:15:13.730]
a Michelin star, and I'd come from France
[00:15:15.800]
and had a great resume.
[00:15:17.720]
And one of the sous chefs on the other team
[00:15:21.410]
was very direct about his interest in me
[00:15:24.350]
that went beyond being a working colleague.
[00:15:27.620]
And on a daily basis, they started turning the lights off
[00:15:32.180]
when I would be in the walk-in.
[00:15:33.950]
And the sous chef from the other restaurant
[00:15:36.170]
would come into the walk-in.
[00:15:38.060]
And I would try to make myself as small as possible
[00:15:41.930]
within that space and try to get out of the space
[00:15:44.930]
as quickly as possible.
[00:15:46.520]
And everyone thought it was absolutely hilarious.
[00:15:49.550]
And after work, I would have one of the other cooks leave
[00:15:53.630]
with me because this fellow would be waiting outside.
[00:15:56.360]
I decided that what I would do is
[00:15:58.940]
I would go to work three hours before my shift started,
[00:16:02.720]
and I wouldn't punch in.
[00:16:04.970]
And I would go, and I would do all of my mise en place
[00:16:07.970]
on my own time so that my station was completely set up.
[00:16:11.900]
And then I would ask one of the other cooks,
[00:16:13.850]
if I happened to need anything, to go into the walk-in.
[00:16:17.180]
And then this situation came to the attention
[00:16:22.620]
of the executive chef of the hotel,
[00:16:24.380]
who is a very big name chef, who's now in Vegas.
[00:16:27.460]
And he called me into his office and wrote me up
[00:16:32.130]
and said I was antisocial and all I wanted to do was cook.
[00:16:36.630]
And I remember sitting there and being very clear
[00:16:39.780]
about saying, like, "This person is coming in the walk-in,
[00:16:42.480]
and they're touching me, and people are turning
[00:16:45.210]
the lights off, and this person's waiting outside when
[00:16:47.970]
I'm leaving work at night, and I'm not comfortable,"
[00:16:51.190]
and being told that it was my problem.
[00:16:53.580]
And I think of that now, and it's insane.
[00:16:56.730]
It was humiliating.
[00:16:58.140]
I lasted about two more weeks,
[00:16:59.970]
and I knew I couldn't stay there because something worse
[00:17:03.119]
was going to happen.
[00:17:04.680]
I would hope, at this point, if that were happening
[00:17:07.500]
to a young woman, that there would be zero tolerance
[00:17:10.780]
and that the person that was asked to leave
[00:17:13.079]
would be the person who was causing the discomfort,
[00:17:16.770]
not the person who was the victim of the actions.
[00:17:20.339]
Like, I can't even imagine-- like, me,
[00:17:22.260]
I can't imagine my voice ever saying to somebody,
[00:17:25.450]
"You need to be more friendly,
[00:17:27.780]
you need to let somebody fondle you more."
[00:17:30.390]
Like, that's fucking ridiculous.
[00:17:33.480]
[00:17:36.860]
- I switched over and I worked for a female,
[00:17:40.250]
and it was like a completely different experience.
[00:17:43.620]
It was like, "What do you want to cook?
[00:17:47.030]
What kind of cook are you?
[00:17:48.710]
What kind of person are you?"
[00:17:52.184]
- Mash, mash, rice, go!
[00:17:54.370]
- OK, I got it.
[00:17:55.068]
- Eggplant parm, girlfriend.
[00:17:56.900]
My strengths are my staff.
[00:18:00.080]
They inspired me because, without them,
[00:18:04.270]
I couldn't have Val's.
[00:18:06.270]
We're good.
[00:18:07.155]
You're good, you're good.
[00:18:08.197]
Keep it going.
[00:18:09.740]
How I first got involved in this business
[00:18:14.110]
was when I was very young, my dad and mom
[00:18:17.560]
had 12 seats in a little diner.
[00:18:22.070]
I used to go there and sit at the first stool,
[00:18:25.520]
and I would just watch him interact with customers.
[00:18:29.330]
And he would just give it all out to them.
[00:18:32.300]
- Yeah, once in a while I would see
[00:18:33.860]
her, little (SPEAKING GREEK), a little tiny girl running down
[00:18:39.080]
to see her mother and her father.
[00:18:40.940]
She loved being there trying to work.
[00:18:43.480]
[00:18:46.700]
- The diner was an interesting place
[00:18:48.490]
because all kinds of people came in there--
[00:18:51.440]
wealthy people, blue collar workers,
[00:18:54.020]
college professors, students.
[00:18:56.900]
And they all loved coming there because it wasn't
[00:19:00.800]
just the food, the way they were talked to with respect,
[00:19:04.670]
they were listened to.
[00:19:06.100]
Val connects with people that same way her father did.
[00:19:09.680]
[00:19:12.300]
- He's the one that showed me that when you give
[00:19:15.900]
with your heart, it comes back.
[00:19:19.020]
There was no obstacles between him and work either.
[00:19:22.470]
He came as an immigrant, did not speak,
[00:19:24.765]
didn't know how to say "Hello" in English.
[00:19:27.860]
But because of his hard work, he provided for his family,
[00:19:32.670]
he worked hard, and he did well.
[00:19:35.087]
(MUSIC PLAYING)
[00:19:37.422]
[00:19:40.691]
We called him the ambassador to Val's.
[00:19:43.740]
He would sit at this first stool,
[00:19:46.210]
and he would talk to people and literally say,
[00:19:50.290]
"Hey, do you like this restaurant?"
[00:19:52.840]
The customers would say, "Oh, I love it.
[00:19:54.790]
I love it."
[00:19:55.500]
They didn't know he was my dad.
[00:19:57.240]
And at the end of it, he'd say,
[00:19:58.920]
"I want to buy his dinner.
[00:20:00.330]
I'm Val's father."
[00:20:01.220]
[00:20:03.920]
My father wanted me to learn Greek.
[00:20:07.670]
So from eight years old, I'd go to Greece from June,
[00:20:12.300]
the minute school's finished, until Labor Day weekend,
[00:20:16.100]
we'd be back home.
[00:20:17.080]
[00:20:19.770]
My last trip was 1976.
[00:20:23.460]
I was 16.
[00:20:24.270]
What the hell do you know at 16?
[00:20:27.570]
I picked up the phone in Greece.
[00:20:28.948]
It was funny.
[00:20:29.490]
I said, Dad, "I'm getting married."
[00:20:32.760]
He said, "Good girl."
[00:20:34.620]
He said, "You found a nice Greek boy."
[00:20:36.490]
[00:20:39.698]
We get married.
[00:20:41.500]
We come back to the States.
[00:20:44.050]
And we started to work and help Dad, help Mom.
[00:20:49.460]
Things changed.
[00:20:50.190]
[00:20:53.150]
At that time, George, my brother,
[00:20:56.180]
had never worked a day of his life.
[00:20:59.040]
I think he was 18.
[00:21:01.880]
Val was the worker.
[00:21:03.230]
Val was.
[00:21:04.550]
Val worked a lot, you know, and George, you know--
[00:21:08.230]
well, he'd work, but not that much.
[00:21:11.060]
He kind of had it a lot easier.
[00:21:13.550]
- Well, the Greek families are what's called,
[00:21:16.370]
in the lingo, a closed system.
[00:21:20.030]
The parents tell you what to do, and the kids listen.
[00:21:24.890]
Very strict as far as the roles go.
[00:21:27.950]
The male dominates.
[00:21:30.452]
And then you have the American system,
[00:21:32.990]
which is an open system.
[00:21:34.550]
And there is this desire for more equality.
[00:21:37.720]
It's hard to reconcile those two cultures.
[00:21:40.855]
(MUSIC PLAYING)
[00:21:43.450]
[00:21:46.090]
- At that point of my life, my father was successful.
[00:21:50.870]
He had five pizzerias.
[00:21:53.050]
He had buildings.
[00:21:54.820]
He had plazas.
[00:21:56.800]
And he had a son and a daughter.
[00:21:59.120]
[00:22:02.620]
Well, the son got married, and they manipulated
[00:22:08.870]
my mother and father.
[00:22:11.770]
And my brother was handed the business
[00:22:16.960]
that I worked from a young child.
[00:22:19.720]
(MUSIC PLAYING)
[00:22:22.430]
[00:22:35.620]
From that young age, I had a vision.
[00:22:38.840]
I had a vision just to keep working.
[00:22:42.250]
I have nothing, but I will make something.
[00:22:45.280]
(MUSIC PLAYING)
[00:22:48.100]
[00:22:51.400]
- The Culinary Institute of America
[00:22:53.080]
was launched in 1946 by two women.
[00:22:56.230]
But ironically, they didn't even accept female students
[00:22:59.230]
until 1970.
[00:23:01.670]
- How do you do?
[00:23:02.660]
This is Eleanor Roosevelt speaking.
[00:23:05.440]
Now there is one word that we're going to use
[00:23:09.800]
over and over today, Mrs. Roth.
[00:23:12.320]
I think we ought to get it straightened out
[00:23:14.660]
right away exactly how the word should be pronounced.
[00:23:19.310]
How do you say C-U-L-I-N-A-R-Y?
[00:23:21.110]
[00:23:23.690]
Europeans usually say "cue-linairy."
[00:23:26.930]
And we in America are more apt to call it the "cul-inairy"
[00:23:31.160]
or the "cul-inairian" arts.
[00:23:32.780]
(MUSIC PLAYING)
[00:23:35.210]
[00:23:36.668]
- Went to the Culinary Institute of America
[00:23:38.840]
where there was still a lot of older instructors
[00:23:41.930]
who were used to, kind of, the male students only.
[00:23:45.940]
I actually had one instructor who told me,
[00:23:47.690]
you know, "You should still be in Mississippi
[00:23:49.220]
barefoot and pregnant right now.
[00:23:50.300]
You shouldn't be here at the Culinary Institute of America."
[00:23:52.800]
- Culinary, right now, is where the finance world was
[00:23:55.580]
in the '80s.
[00:23:57.920]
The rules were all created by men.
[00:24:00.440]
The industry was dominated by men.
[00:24:02.870]
Women were really treated like outsiders.
[00:24:06.920]
- A lot of the traditional culinary world
[00:24:09.440]
was based on a European model.
[00:24:11.190]
So I think that's one reason, perhaps,
[00:24:13.820]
that the industry has been male-dominated, male-oriented.
[00:24:18.590]
In the time of Escoffier, he really
[00:24:20.840]
established the brigade system which
[00:24:23.000]
was kind of based upon the idea of a military structure
[00:24:26.720]
so that you had sort of a leader and then branches of leadership
[00:24:30.050]
coming down from the top.
[00:24:31.550]
But there was one chef who was in charge.
[00:24:34.200]
- I am the president of Central New England or Joseph Donan
[00:24:37.880]
Chapter of Les Amis d'Escoffier.
[00:24:40.190]
It's the Friends of Escoffier, the man who basically
[00:24:44.240]
organized classical cuisine.
[00:24:46.850]
My dad, Stanley James Nicas, he was the president
[00:24:50.060]
for a number of years.
[00:24:52.970]
My dad had a great respect for people
[00:24:55.850]
who didn't let things happen to them, took charge of things,
[00:25:01.760]
and made sure that things would get done.
[00:25:03.800]
(MUSIC PLAYING)
[00:25:06.608]
[00:25:09.420]
- I didn't have a clue what the Escoffier Society was.
[00:25:12.560]
Your dad just called at 12 o'clock on a Friday lunch.
[00:25:15.670]
"Val, Val, I just want you to know I'm going to induct you.
[00:25:20.030]
And I was like, "Induct me, Stanley?
[00:25:22.020]
In what?"
[00:25:22.940]
- He didn't wait for those people
[00:25:24.530]
to say, "You know, I'd like to be a member of the society.
[00:25:27.200]
What do I have to do?"
[00:25:28.337]
He would go to them and say, "You know what?
[00:25:30.170]
This is where you should be."
[00:25:31.880]
- And Stanley, to me, was a father
[00:25:35.750]
that took me under his wing.
[00:25:38.630]
I just loved the guy.
[00:25:41.504]
- Les Amis d'Escoffier did start as a man's club.
[00:25:47.580]
There are a few chapters in the US that are not allowing women.
[00:25:51.760]
I would suspect that those would change.
[00:25:54.770]
This is the brigade at The Pierre Hotel on Fifth Avenue
[00:25:58.970]
and 61st Street in New York City.
[00:26:01.220]
This was a photo from 1930.
[00:26:04.260]
This is the brigade that would run the kitchen.
[00:26:07.910]
Here and across are all females, which is actually fairly rare.
[00:26:13.085]
[00:26:15.090]
- It was very classic.
[00:26:16.610]
It was commis.
[00:26:17.720]
It was chef de parties.
[00:26:18.980]
It was poissonniers, entremetiers, sauciers.
[00:26:22.610]
You know, Cook One, Two, Three, Four, Five.
[00:26:25.530]
It was a brigade.
[00:26:26.660]
It was a French brigade.
[00:26:28.310]
- Being a chef in France was equivalent
[00:26:29.960]
to being a rocket scientist.
[00:26:31.550]
They had little commis, little boys that were probably
[00:26:34.390]
12 to 14, that were just dropped off by their parents that said,
[00:26:37.130]
"Discipline 'em.
[00:26:38.250]
Make 'em chefs."
[00:26:40.820]
- Most of them were young men who
[00:26:43.160]
had a big ego and whose mothers had felt,
[00:26:46.593]
"Well, if he's not going to be a doctor, he'll be a chef."
[00:26:49.010]
(MUSIC PLAYING)
[00:26:51.360]
[00:26:52.300]
- So that very traditional model created a lot of male chefs
[00:26:56.320]
who, of course, were inspired and nurtured by their mothers,
[00:26:59.200]
grandmothers, aunts, other family members
[00:27:01.480]
who did the traditional cooking at home.
[00:27:03.150]
(MUSIC PLAYING)
[00:27:06.072]
[00:27:12.420]
- I think the Greek culture, we always like to feed people.
[00:27:16.110]
My mom making spinach pie, my father roasting a leg of lamb.
[00:27:20.760]
So being that way at home,
[00:27:24.330]
I brought it into the restaurant here.
[00:27:28.490]
- Definitely having all these recipes me from the older
[00:27:32.300]
generations-- from my grandparents, my grandmother,
[00:27:35.220]
my mother, that's how young chefs grow.
[00:27:39.370]
They gain knowledge from their grandparents in the kitchen.
[00:27:42.520]
They're from northern Greek villages,
[00:27:44.170]
so basically they didn't have much up there.
[00:27:46.450]
They had to produce everything they had
[00:27:48.560]
out of what they had on the land.
[00:27:51.100]
And I try to use the most wholesome and simple
[00:27:53.800]
ingredients that I can to a dish because that's
[00:27:56.420]
how I was brought up.
[00:27:58.180]
- When you can find these fresh ingredients
[00:28:01.510]
right outside your home,
[00:28:04.780]
you can make honest and clean food.
[00:28:07.750]
That's how I call it.
[00:28:09.400]
We have to take all the processed
[00:28:11.140]
foods out of our life.
[00:28:12.830]
In ancient Greek, they used to eat
[00:28:15.370]
a lot of beans, a lot of grapes, a lot of fish, wine.
[00:28:21.410]
Based in my research from the ancient Greeks,
[00:28:26.620]
starting from there, going to my grandmothers,
[00:28:31.370]
that's the nature in my cuisine.
[00:28:33.570]
(MUSIC PLAYING)
[00:28:36.020]
[00:28:38.470]
- Alice Waters said it best--
[00:28:40.420]
"If we celebrated food for what it should be celebrated for,
[00:28:43.900]
women would naturally rise to the top."
[00:28:45.850]
(MUSIC PLAYING)
[00:28:48.778]
[00:28:54.160]
- I arrived at Chez Panisse in July, 2003.
[00:28:57.400]
And it was basically like a pilgrimage.
[00:29:00.690]
It opened new doors for me.
[00:29:02.590]
You know, when you have those connections with food
[00:29:05.050]
it's very personal.
[00:29:06.520]
And you just kind of stop and you have this moment.
[00:29:09.155]
And it's very--
[00:29:09.780]
[00:29:12.710]
it's a very loving connection.
[00:29:14.710]
To use local farms, I think it's really important
[00:29:17.350]
to support local agriculture.
[00:29:19.630]
It's going to taste better, and it's good for the environment.
[00:29:22.650]
You know, it's less carbon footprint
[00:29:24.220]
than buying lamb from New Zealand.
[00:29:26.980]
And even go one step further to having a restaurant on the farm
[00:29:31.940]
and to have it all be self-sustainable and symbiotic.
[00:29:35.760]
(MUSIC PLAYING)
[00:29:38.568]
[00:29:39.510]
- My mom, everything that she cooked at home was very fresh.
[00:29:43.230]
Some of the item were coming from a garden in Brittany.
[00:29:46.380]
Some others were just the farmer market every day.
[00:29:49.980]
So understanding the purity of the ingredient,
[00:29:53.130]
you understand where the food come from.
[00:29:54.960]
The food is the core of the ecosystem,
[00:29:57.630]
so we have that responsibility as chef and as human
[00:30:00.900]
to do that.
[00:30:02.890]
- The food industry is really going through a revolution,
[00:30:05.980]
and it's being led by the female chefs.
[00:30:08.320]
(MUSIC PLAYING)
[00:30:11.242]
[00:30:17.580]
The Time magazine article in November of 2013 ran,
[00:30:21.330]
the title of which was "The Gods of Food."
[00:30:23.760]
And they looked at the most influential people
[00:30:25.890]
in the food world
[00:30:26.820]
of all time and neglected to mention any female chefs.
[00:30:31.068]
- I mean, I thought, this surely is a sensational piece
[00:30:33.360]
to sell magazines.
[00:30:36.090]
Because how embarrassing to just put out a story that says,
[00:30:41.103]
"Well, there weren't any females."
[00:30:42.520]
I mean, to have that editor come back
[00:30:45.250]
and to even be interviewed by Eater
[00:30:46.960]
and just completely double screw himself was like--
[00:30:50.223]
I think that's what made people be like,
[00:30:51.890]
"Are you kidding me?"
[00:30:52.765]
(MUSIC PLAYING)
[00:30:55.684]
[00:31:24.078]
- I mean, there's a lot of brilliant people
[00:31:25.870]
that should have been in there.
[00:31:27.162]
I'm glad I wasn't in that article
[00:31:28.840]
because there are women chefs, and there
[00:31:30.760]
are women who've been in the kitchen a lot longer
[00:31:34.720]
than I have who deserved more press than David Chang.
[00:31:39.460]
- I was like, "Oh, that's Dave Chang" and, you know, René.
[00:31:42.280]
And you know, I love them very much.
[00:31:44.990]
And I'm good friends with Dave, so I didn't really
[00:31:47.530]
kind of think of it like that until people had started
[00:31:50.470]
kind of saying, "This is really wrong.
[00:31:53.430]
Why are there no women on there?"
[00:31:55.120]
And so, you know, it did kind of make me think.
[00:31:58.110]
- Just cooking and working.
[00:32:01.090]
And who knows if you're ever going to be successful,
[00:32:03.830]
because there's a lot of us trying really, really hard.
[00:32:06.790]
- Exactly.
[00:32:07.705]
- And only a few, like, you know, are making it.
[00:32:11.740]
I think there's more conflict, I think
[00:32:15.040]
for a woman to make that decision to really dive
[00:32:18.260]
in to this profession.
[00:32:21.520]
- I think that the women that do, like,
[00:32:23.200]
dive into it full force are very successful.
[00:32:25.800]
[00:32:30.900]
- In the '80s, we started to have a family.
[00:32:35.660]
Joanna was born, my daughter.
[00:32:39.940]
My husband and myself, we opened pizzerias.
[00:32:42.610]
We opened five pizzerias.
[00:32:45.178]
[00:32:47.810]
Then Christos came along.
[00:32:49.460]
[00:32:52.880]
My husband-- great man, loved him to death.
[00:32:56.810]
He didn't want anything that I wanted.
[00:33:01.880]
I just couldn't take being ripped apart
[00:33:04.910]
between kids, family, husband.
[00:33:10.370]
I needed to find me.
[00:33:12.020]
[00:33:14.720]
So I was 29, two little kids, and in the Greek culture
[00:33:21.268]
you don't say you're just getting divorced.
[00:33:23.060]
[00:33:26.890]
I went to Mom and Dad's house, explained to them that I have
[00:33:32.520]
to get out of this marriage,
[00:33:35.460]
and they looked at me and said,
[00:33:40.110]
"You've been in it for so many years, you have to fix it."
[00:33:44.310]
I heard what they wanted, closed the door, and I went on my own.
[00:33:50.580]
[00:33:59.562]
- Unless you have a partner, husband
[00:34:03.370]
or wife, that works with you, then you can share the burdens.
[00:34:08.140]
- We had 30 years great together in business,
[00:34:10.719]
and it grew, and you know--
[00:34:12.489]
but he wanted to retire, and I was just
[00:34:14.620]
in the beginning of the TV and the books,
[00:34:19.030]
and I said I'm not going to retire in Italy.
[00:34:21.820]
I couldn't have.
[00:34:23.020]
It would have meant putting me in a prison
[00:34:25.900]
to be away from all of that and I
[00:34:27.580]
knew that I wouldn't have been happy as an individual.
[00:34:31.909]
- I met my husband at culinary school.
[00:34:35.480]
It was a sum of, at times,
[00:34:37.850]
being all right with sucking at your life.
[00:34:41.040]
I think that's like--
[00:34:42.800]
I think there's some times where you just
[00:34:44.659]
have to be able to know that you're going
[00:34:46.389]
to be that parent that's late.
[00:34:48.380]
It's not awesome.
[00:34:50.270]
It really isn't, and you're going to disappoint people.
[00:34:53.580]
- It's such a 24/7 job.
[00:34:55.460]
You know, I used to be the last person that I took care of.
[00:34:58.340]
And I've learned that I need
[00:35:00.290]
to take care of myself first as well,
[00:35:01.865]
[00:35:02.150]
because I'm not going to be as good for everyone else
[00:35:04.430]
if I'm completely depleted.
[00:35:05.940]
So I think that I've seen--
[00:35:07.830]
I haven't missed a lot, but I think that--
[00:35:12.000]
well, I mean, you know, except the birth of my third child.
[00:35:15.240]
But, you know, my wife went into labor early, and I was--
[00:35:18.120]
I was in Puerto Rico.
[00:35:21.520]
- If I was to have kids, I would need
[00:35:24.040]
someone who was very supportive and very independent, I think.
[00:35:28.270]
There's always going to need to be one parent that
[00:35:31.440]
is going to work a lot.
[00:35:33.280]
And I would obviously be that parent.
[00:35:35.650]
And I would be away weird hours.
[00:35:38.350]
So I would really need someone who was super understanding
[00:35:42.070]
and that was willing to, you know, do that.
[00:35:46.570]
- My support system in my life of Val's Restaurant
[00:35:51.130]
was my mother and father.
[00:35:53.200]
They took care of my kids from the minute
[00:35:55.540]
I left the house in the morning, wake up 6 o'clock.
[00:36:00.850]
I would take Joanna to school, come back home, feed Christos
[00:36:06.480]
and take him to Yaya's house, who was my mom.
[00:36:09.290]
[00:36:13.340]
I didn't hold it against my parents
[00:36:15.890]
because I knew how bad they felt to give everything
[00:36:19.040]
to my brother.
[00:36:20.960]
They realized they were wrong to think
[00:36:24.050]
I couldn't handle the business because I was a woman.
[00:36:26.810]
[00:36:36.020]
...with the jumbo stuffed shrimp and keep it to the menu.
[00:36:39.466]
So how is the chowder?
[00:36:40.575]
I need chowder.
[00:36:42.120]
I always used my voice to expedite the orders.
[00:36:46.350]
So doing that for at least 12 years,
[00:36:52.830]
my vocal cords got tired.
[00:36:55.200]
And so now I have a graspy kind of voice
[00:36:59.070]
from using my voice in the business,
[00:37:02.670]
constantly talking, constantly giving orders.
[00:37:05.635]
[00:37:08.630]
But this is the business.
[00:37:10.100]
You've got to talk.
[00:37:11.060]
You've got to move.
[00:37:11.870]
You've got to do it all.
[00:37:13.940]
But now that we have the POSi I don't have to talk anymore,
[00:37:17.100]
which is nice.
[00:37:18.810]
I got toasted, right, guy?
[00:37:20.670]
Wesley?
[00:37:21.170]
[00:37:25.270]
- I was 7 when we opened up over here.
[00:37:27.960]
And then I was I think 15 when I first started actually working.
[00:37:33.030]
So between the years of 7 and 15,
[00:37:35.670]
I'd be riding my rollerblades around here,
[00:37:38.520]
throwing pieces of dough at, like, the dishwashers
[00:37:41.790]
and, like, the delivery guys.
[00:37:43.500]
She rarely had time to be able to say,
[00:37:45.610]
"All right, Christos, let's go,
[00:37:47.785]
I'm going to take you to your Red Sox--
[00:37:49.410]
to a Red Sox game."
[00:37:50.460]
And you could tell, you know, she wanted to be there.
[00:37:54.390]
She just felt that she couldn't with this business.
[00:37:57.540]
And is that to say, you know, I care less for her?
[00:38:01.370]
No, obviously not.
[00:38:03.000]
I understand the sacrifices.
[00:38:04.830]
[00:38:14.590]
Knowing what I went through, Christos watched me growing up.
[00:38:21.370]
And he didn't care for this field then.
[00:38:25.570]
He would always say, "Why can't you be home with me?"
[00:38:29.230]
But it's nice to see my son be there for me now.
[00:38:36.630]
And here's a picture of when we went
[00:38:38.730]
to the beach every 4th of July.
[00:38:42.210]
And we closed down for almost a week.
[00:38:44.760]
And that was like the best time for us to bond as a family.
[00:38:51.100]
- What do you think in terms of that fine line between giving
[00:38:55.510]
it your all in work and career and then being a mother
[00:39:00.040]
and trying to have a family and--
[00:39:02.680]
- I just, I loved it.
[00:39:04.990]
I missed being the mother that, you know,
[00:39:08.200]
I see other mothers taking their kids here and there.
[00:39:11.200]
I think I did a lot of that with you
[00:39:13.120]
even though I was always at the restaurant.
[00:39:16.510]
But I think now with me getting a little older and you kids
[00:39:21.040]
getting a little older, I think I'm
[00:39:22.600]
going to enjoy my life after, because now it's
[00:39:26.230]
my turn to enjoy you kids.
[00:39:27.925]
[00:39:30.602]
Pepper, Jimmy.
[00:39:31.970]
Pepper, Jimmy.
[00:39:34.860]
Are you done?
[00:39:37.360]
Gigi.
[00:39:38.820]
- I don't remember us sitting out here that much growing up.
[00:39:41.700]
- I worked, I don't think we sat out here much.
[00:39:47.810]
But I think it's now nice that I can enjoy it
[00:39:53.690]
with my grandbaby, my grandbaby.
[00:39:57.630]
But huh?
[00:39:58.830]
Yeah.
[00:39:59.330]
[00:40:02.400]
Yeah, that's yours.
[00:40:03.620]
- Gigi.
[00:40:04.280]
- Gigi?
[00:40:04.780]
Is that for you or Gigi?
[00:40:08.708]
I wouldn't want to seeing you go through what I went through.
[00:40:11.250]
[00:40:16.640]
- Growing up and seeing my mother work so hard and always
[00:40:20.660]
at the restaurant, it became more than just what she loved.
[00:40:23.720]
It was also a bit of a struggle.
[00:40:27.080]
And I don't think I realized the full grasp of it until today--
[00:40:31.940]
as a working mom and trying to run my own business--
[00:40:36.680]
what she went through, all the pressure
[00:40:39.290]
and stress that she was under.
[00:40:41.690]
But yet when I was growing up
[00:40:43.040]
I didn't see it because a lot of the times, she was still happy.
[00:40:47.690]
And we'd go on bike rides at like 10 o'clock at night
[00:40:52.100]
when she got out of work.
[00:40:54.080]
And we would plant together.
[00:40:55.725]
You know, we'd just--
[00:40:56.600]
she always tried to make up for it.
[00:40:58.210]
[00:41:03.250]
- Our society has a mentality where the man is the provider
[00:41:07.060]
and the woman stay at home.
[00:41:08.500]
But that needs to change.
[00:41:10.390]
For people that are pregnant or, you know, getting married
[00:41:13.690]
or all that, I think, often,
[00:41:17.320]
their boss or whoever
[00:41:18.640]
make them feel that they're wrong to do that.
[00:41:21.250]
"If you can't be at work 18 hours a day
[00:41:23.650]
and if you want to be, you know, have babies,
[00:41:26.290]
just go have babies."
[00:41:27.970]
- (SPEAKING SPANISH)
[00:41:30.015]
- I spent some time with Elena Arzak in Spain.
[00:41:33.580]
And, you know, she has beautiful children.
[00:41:36.173]
And it's beautiful the way we're talking
[00:41:37.840]
about balancing life, about, you know, going to work
[00:41:41.770]
and working very hard and traveling
[00:41:43.690]
and having kids and all that, everything is possible.
[00:41:46.900]
- In Spain, when the woman have her baby
[00:41:48.920]
they have maternity leave.
[00:41:50.020]
Then they come back.
[00:41:51.010]
And this has been happening in effect since always.
[00:41:54.910]
And, you know, it's good to keep these women because they cook
[00:41:58.960]
very well, and we prefer they stop for a while
[00:42:01.360]
and they come back, no?
[00:42:04.540]
- I ask Danny all the time,
[00:42:05.890]
"How do you balance your, you know, work life and home life?"
[00:42:09.580]
And he's always said there's no such thing for him as balance.
[00:42:12.640]
It's all about picking and choosing, being
[00:42:15.190]
in the right place at the right time
[00:42:17.230]
and when you are there, being all there.
[00:42:21.040]
Years ago, it used to be understood
[00:42:22.990]
that if you join a restaurant, you are committing yourself
[00:42:26.470]
to a certain lifestyle.
[00:42:28.330]
Ask to go on a vacation with the family and the chef
[00:42:31.150]
says, "No, I'm sorry," I have to work.
[00:42:33.370]
Would you be able to celebrate birthdays or holidays
[00:42:36.760]
on Saturday night because the family's getting together?
[00:42:39.640]
The answer was simply "No."
[00:42:41.320]
And now if you look at the flexibility
[00:42:44.080]
that these policies offer our restaurants,
[00:42:47.080]
people are actually able to start families and thrive.
[00:42:51.350]
- I'm 35 years old now and I've been
[00:42:53.020]
cooking for about 12 years.
[00:42:55.810]
And, yes, one day I want to have a career and a family.
[00:42:59.230]
And I do think it's possible.
[00:43:00.605]
[00:43:03.570]
Working with Mike is great because he allows
[00:43:05.580]
you to make those decisions.
[00:43:08.370]
The company really pays attention to,
[00:43:10.380]
you know, life outside of work.
[00:43:13.950]
- There is a push for comprehensive family leave
[00:43:16.770]
packages so that people don't have
[00:43:19.110]
to choose between having a family and being a chef.
[00:43:23.010]
And on the other end of the spectrum,
[00:43:25.210]
you have these newly minted culinary graduates
[00:43:28.160]
who are coming out of school and not
[00:43:30.120]
necessarily choosing the restaurant
[00:43:31.830]
path because historically
[00:43:33.990]
it's been a very hostile kitchen culture.
[00:43:36.840]
And it really is about the food industry recognizing
[00:43:40.470]
that they have to live in the real world
[00:43:42.510]
and deal with people who have real lives.
[00:43:44.830]
- I was probably in a kitchen for 10 or 12 years
[00:43:46.830]
before I even decided to have a kid.
[00:43:48.390]
And I gave birth a week before I turned 40.
[00:43:51.870]
And it was pretty jarring, because now all of a sudden you
[00:43:54.900]
got to take care of a little baby and work.
[00:43:57.960]
So I took two weeks off, I was breastfeeding and butchering.
[00:44:02.380]
You know, it was pretty demanding.
[00:44:07.160]
But I always felt like if I'm a success,
[00:44:09.710]
my kids will love me for working as hard as I do.
[00:44:14.420]
When you think about it, if you want
[00:44:16.160]
to keep women in the kitchen after age 30, 35, and 40,
[00:44:19.640]
and you want them to have a family,
[00:44:21.260]
put a breastfeeding room in your changing room.
[00:44:23.720]
Offer help.
[00:44:24.830]
Give CSA boxes to them so they don't
[00:44:26.930]
have to go grocery shopping.
[00:44:28.607]
Split the hours, you know?
[00:44:29.690]
Do you have to have one chef de cuisine and a sous chef?
[00:44:32.482]
Jeez, why don't we have three sous chefs?
[00:44:34.190]
Two of them are women and one is a man.
[00:44:36.880]
- People are going to like it.
[00:44:38.130]
Do you like the size?
[00:44:39.090]
You think this is a good size for an appetizer?
[00:44:41.900]
- I think it's good, yeah.
[00:44:43.010]
- When I opened the first restaurant, I had one child.
[00:44:46.880]
I became pregnant, and I worked all of those nine months.
[00:44:50.210]
And from the kitchen, I went into the dining room.
[00:44:52.970]
Then I ended up with my big belly at the bar.
[00:44:56.000]
And ultimately my daughter came into the formula,
[00:44:59.240]
and I stayed home.
[00:45:00.153]
But I needed to go back to the business,
[00:45:01.820]
because this is what I loved.
[00:45:03.050]
This is what I needed.
[00:45:03.967]
We had loans we had to pay.
[00:45:05.910]
And I went to the pediatrician.
[00:45:08.005]
There were no psychiatrists then.
[00:45:09.380]
I didn't know about psychiatrists.
[00:45:10.880]
And I said, listen, I have this torment in me.
[00:45:13.580]
I have this uneasiness.
[00:45:15.320]
I have this beautiful child.
[00:45:17.860]
I'm a mother, I want to stay with her all the time.
[00:45:20.970]
And yet I have this business, and I'm passionate about it.
[00:45:23.910]
And I want to do that, and I need to do that.
[00:45:25.850]
And he looked straight in the eyes--
[00:45:27.230]
looked me straight in the eyes.
[00:45:28.522]
And he said, "Children want happy parents.
[00:45:31.370]
Make it happen."
[00:45:33.700]
- I wasn't ready to do this earlier.
[00:45:35.500]
I was a mother of three little girls, I lived in the suburbs.
[00:45:39.710]
It was very difficult to devote yourself completely
[00:45:42.190]
to a career like this
[00:45:43.750]
because it's a seven day a week, long hours--
[00:45:46.900]
I sleep with a pad and pencil next to me,
[00:45:48.940]
I make notes in the middle of the night,
[00:45:50.890]
something I might forget, something I want to remember.
[00:45:54.190]
It's very difficult to do that and raise a family
[00:45:56.980]
and be a full-time parent.
[00:46:00.190]
- When I did get divorced, 1992, I not only got the business,
[00:46:07.750]
I also had all this debt
[00:46:11.776]
of almost a half a million dollars.
[00:46:16.300]
My ex-husband declared bankruptcy.
[00:46:19.040]
Now it was up to me to either declare bankruptcy or go ahead
[00:46:23.270]
and just fight the fight.
[00:46:24.970]
It was like, no way in hell am I going bankruptcy.
[00:46:27.990]
So everybody came after me.
[00:46:30.620]
Bill collectors calling me, I had lawyers serving me papers.
[00:46:35.630]
My credit was terrible.
[00:46:38.810]
With all the creditors calling me, I had Liz, a manager,
[00:46:42.500]
she would always take my phone calls.
[00:46:44.540]
She would screen them for me.
[00:46:46.300]
And then she'd say, "These are the ones you have to call."
[00:46:49.370]
- There were no roadblocks that were going to stop Val.
[00:46:52.070]
- I'm going out!
[00:46:53.270]
- Her energy was unlike anybody else's I've ever worked for.
[00:46:56.740]
- Watch your backs.
[00:46:58.628]
- She put everything she had into it.
[00:47:00.170]
[00:47:03.320]
- 1990, when I opened Pizza Palace, up to 1996,
[00:47:08.930]
coming from nothing to something, I felt kind of happy
[00:47:13.070]
because I built it all by myself.
[00:47:15.420]
I had good girls working for me at that time.
[00:47:17.780]
[00:47:20.290]
And I needed to open something bigger.
[00:47:24.320]
I just drove through town,
[00:47:26.220]
looking at different opportunities that I could open
[00:47:28.760]
a little family restaurant.
[00:47:31.750]
Mr. Erickson, he used to build homes,
[00:47:34.550]
and he used to come up and buy sandwiches for his crew.
[00:47:38.560]
And he said--
[00:47:39.488]
- You know, I was sitting at the bar there and I said, "Val?"
[00:47:42.030]
And she says, "Yes, honey?"
[00:47:43.810]
I say, "You want a restaurant?"
[00:47:46.240]
And she says, "What?"
[00:47:47.630]
I says, "Do you want a restaurant?"
[00:47:50.130]
She says, "I always wanted one."
[00:47:52.340]
- He said, "I think your lucky day is today.
[00:47:56.180]
Crickets down the street just closed."
[00:47:59.330]
- They want somebody to go in there that they don't
[00:48:02.140]
have to worry about, you know?
[00:48:03.800]
And I thought Val was the person.
[00:48:07.070]
- He said, "All I want to know is it a yes or no?"
[00:48:10.820]
I said, "It's definitely a yes."
[00:48:13.350]
With no money, with bills, with two kids little,
[00:48:19.940]
I said, holy shit, what did I just say?
[00:48:23.600]
I said, "When do we begin?"
[00:48:25.610]
"Try to find money," he said.
[00:48:27.530]
"Once you find money," he said, "you come see me."
[00:48:32.036]
Oh, I needed money and I was reaching out to everybody.
[00:48:35.900]
I walked into this bank.
[00:48:38.540]
I went to give my hand, he didn't reach out.
[00:48:42.380]
"I was sent here by a friend."
[00:48:45.440]
He says, "There is nothing I can do for you.
[00:48:49.650]
There is no money that I can lend to you."
[00:48:52.700]
I got in the car and I left.
[00:48:55.460]
I was in shock.
[00:48:58.450]
- The primary obstacle for a female entrepreneur
[00:49:01.990]
in any industry is access to capital.
[00:49:05.350]
For women to get investor interest and the banks
[00:49:08.680]
to listen to them, the dollars from the investors
[00:49:12.940]
tend to follow the media buzz.
[00:49:16.920]
They're looking for, who is the next rock star?
[00:49:19.890]
And by and large, the food media
[00:49:22.410]
year after year nominates and awards men to those positions.
[00:49:27.870]
- I think this is an important subject to talk about, that
[00:49:30.790]
is often we are not given the chance that perhaps
[00:49:36.940]
male entrepreneur have.
[00:49:39.780]
- You know, women as competent as we are and whatever,
[00:49:43.610]
maybe the institutions yet don't trust the longevity,
[00:49:48.390]
the security of a woman leading a business
[00:49:51.570]
and ultimately returning the loans.
[00:49:54.770]
I was in a sense lucky that the business that I opened
[00:49:58.060]
was with my husband.
[00:49:59.950]
Whenever we needed some fundraising,
[00:50:03.000]
whenever I wanted an extension or whatever--
[00:50:05.490]
and I particularly recall one time my husband was really ill
[00:50:09.760]
and I had to meet with the bankers.
[00:50:11.810]
And I said, "Ill or not, you're coming,
[00:50:13.780]
because otherwise by myself it's not going to happen."
[00:50:16.420]
- I remember dealing with the bank.
[00:50:20.290]
And it was a--
[00:50:22.150]
you know, the check was there.
[00:50:23.900]
The check-- all I had to do was take the check from their hand.
[00:50:28.090]
But it was a bad deal.
[00:50:29.920]
And everything in my body told me
[00:50:33.430]
it wasn't something that we needed.
[00:50:36.250]
We needed the money, yes.
[00:50:37.780]
But we didn't need it under these circumstances.
[00:50:40.480]
I decided no, I wasn't going to take it.
[00:50:42.940]
Said, "We'll just figure something else out."
[00:50:46.690]
- I'm a kid from Southie,
[00:50:48.160]
in a housing project, zero education.
[00:50:50.320]
Who is going to give me money?
[00:50:52.330]
I had an angel investor who happened to be from Hyde Park,
[00:50:56.680]
and he lent me my first $50,000.
[00:50:59.740]
He just loved the idea that I was from South Boston
[00:51:01.990]
and I wasn't a criminal.
[00:51:06.390]
And then it just trickled down from there.
[00:51:08.270]
And Boston is an old network--
[00:51:10.200]
"I have a friend," "I have a friend," "I have a friend."
[00:51:12.750]
The fact that somebody went for it and gave me money
[00:51:15.870]
made me want to pay them back right away
[00:51:18.360]
and prove to them that I can do this.
[00:51:21.000]
- I had a black book.
[00:51:22.310]
And in the black book, I had everybody's name
[00:51:25.110]
that I borrowed money from.
[00:51:27.430]
So it was check, check, check, check, check, check.
[00:51:31.290]
I found a couple of friends that gave me
[00:51:33.870]
money through visa cards and from their savings.
[00:51:38.010]
That was the beginning of me putting everything together
[00:51:42.450]
to make the restaurant happen.
[00:51:44.530]
[00:51:48.090]
So that's when I said, I'm going to go to a bank.
[00:51:51.450]
He eats six days a week in my restaurant.
[00:51:54.870]
He knows how hard I work.
[00:51:56.730]
I'm going to go to him and just see what he can do for me.
[00:52:00.840]
And I went.
[00:52:01.710]
And this guy was my savior.
[00:52:04.850]
- I knew she had deep character.
[00:52:06.655]
She had a love for her business and a commitment
[00:52:09.300]
which doesn't come through in someone's FICO score.
[00:52:12.600]
Her credit was really challenging.
[00:52:15.150]
I think she was paying back some of her former husband's bills.
[00:52:17.880]
She had children.
[00:52:19.110]
And obviously struggling to make ends meet.
[00:52:22.530]
She was going to succeed regardless of the hurdles
[00:52:24.780]
put in front of her.
[00:52:26.190]
And I think she had a vision that sometimes
[00:52:27.990]
you need to have in this business.
[00:52:30.090]
You see yourself down the road as a success,
[00:52:32.220]
and you find a way to get there.
[00:52:34.170]
She knows how to get the most out of employees--
[00:52:36.480]
- Oh, good boy.
[00:52:37.727]
- (ALL SINGING) Happy birthday to you.
[00:52:39.310]
- --knows how to take care of her customers,
[00:52:40.320]
and she has this personality that just won't quit.
[00:52:42.920]
- Make a wish!
[00:52:43.657]
- I can tell you, most friends of mine who are bankers--
[00:52:45.990]
and they're senior people--
[00:52:48.007]
don't like banking very much nowadays because they don't
[00:52:50.340]
have authority to lend money.
[00:52:52.140]
It all goes to some loan committee or some board
[00:52:54.660]
of directors that are autonomous and don't know
[00:52:57.960]
the borrower a lot of times,
[00:52:59.240]
don't know what the person's been through,
[00:53:00.990]
what they're all about.
[00:53:01.948]
It's strictly a black-and-white credit score, income
[00:53:05.150]
and expense ratio.
[00:53:06.750]
- He took me to different financing businesses.
[00:53:11.130]
And I found my first $150,000, which to me was like, whew,
[00:53:16.890]
a million.
[00:53:17.460]
[00:53:20.430]
I had good friends who all came down
[00:53:23.130]
here and worked for nothing.
[00:53:24.900]
One was a police officer.
[00:53:26.850]
One was a plumber.
[00:53:27.990]
One was an electrician.
[00:53:30.510]
All I had to do was feed them and put out a keg of beer.
[00:53:34.530]
They're the ones who helped me put this place together.
[00:53:38.830]
- I love the way that your mother started.
[00:53:43.900]
And she gave not only to her family and the whole society
[00:53:48.160]
around, and she didn't give only money or jobs,
[00:53:53.530]
she was like an idol for them, believe me.
[00:53:57.100]
If you ask people, I believe that this is the first thing
[00:53:59.960]
that they're going to tell you.
[00:54:02.770]
- I remember when I first started,
[00:54:05.210]
you know, we had 40 seats.
[00:54:08.140]
I didn't talk.
[00:54:09.400]
I just served.
[00:54:11.200]
It was fine.
[00:54:12.020]
But as you get into it, and as you get bigger--
[00:54:15.490]
I mean, we employed 10 people back then.
[00:54:18.250]
Now we employ 90.
[00:54:20.050]
So as you get bigger, it gets harder.
[00:54:23.110]
But your skin becomes thick because you can't
[00:54:27.340]
let people push you around.
[00:54:31.420]
Because of this business, you become stronger.
[00:54:34.410]
[00:54:37.940]
I have to protect not only me, I have to protect my staff,
[00:54:42.810]
because they make a living here.
[00:54:46.890]
- I started working for your mom Val in February of 1994
[00:54:50.000]
at the old Pizza Palace.
[00:54:51.467]
Everybody here is like my brother and sister
[00:54:53.300]
that I never had.
[00:54:54.820]
You know, even growing up, the last 20 years
[00:54:57.570]
I probably spent more time here than I have at my own house.
[00:55:01.020]
[00:55:23.960]
- I grew up as a foster kid, you know, moved town to town,
[00:55:28.080]
city to city.
[00:55:29.613]
And Val took me in when I was younger
[00:55:31.155]
because I needed a job, you know,
[00:55:32.555]
I needed to save money to go to school.
[00:55:34.180]
She really like showed a lot of respect for me.
[00:55:36.540]
- We are family.
[00:55:37.530]
We fight like family.
[00:55:39.420]
We love like family.
[00:55:40.852]
We do everything like family.
[00:55:42.060]
Like, this is family.
[00:55:43.560]
My husband is vacuuming.
[00:55:45.570]
He doesn't even work here, but he's vacuuming.
[00:55:47.730]
- He certainly is.
[00:55:49.493]
- So what made you come here today?
[00:55:51.810]
- Me.
[00:55:52.588]
(ALL LAUGHING)
[00:55:55.576]
[00:55:59.070]
- I did a lot of reading with cooking books.
[00:56:02.280]
I was just so motivated to make it work.
[00:56:05.430]
Even if someone asked me for something
[00:56:08.210]
and I didn't know how to make it, I was going to make it.
[00:56:13.230]
- When we opened I was 24 years old,
[00:56:15.340]
so I certainly wasn't a chef.
[00:56:17.130]
But in 1971, we hired an Italian American chef.
[00:56:20.310]
I became his sous chef for 10 years.
[00:56:23.400]
I realized that I had a lot to learn.
[00:56:25.560]
And then as we were going to Italy every vacation,
[00:56:28.132]
I would go in the kitchens with different chefs
[00:56:30.090]
that I admired in Italy and apprenticed.
[00:56:33.510]
Maybe the Americans would like the polenta that we make,
[00:56:37.320]
maybe they would like the risotto.
[00:56:39.420]
And I began inserting things that I would cook at home.
[00:56:42.850]
And before you know it, you know, you've got a following.
[00:56:45.760]
The journalists began to come up,
[00:56:47.520]
and in 1981 I became the chef.
[00:56:50.310]
And when I started cooking the risottos and the osso bucos
[00:56:54.060]
and the milaneses, I mean, James Beard came, Julia Child came.
[00:56:57.930]
[00:57:00.990]
- Julia Child, I believe, was an inspiration for two generations
[00:57:04.920]
of chefs now.
[00:57:06.240]
And she was on television, and it was just so exotic.
[00:57:10.020]
No matter what she was making, it was exotic.
[00:57:12.370]
- We're roasting this chicken today on "The French Chef."
[00:57:18.140]
- I cooked for her at her big 80th birthday.
[00:57:20.730]
I was the only woman there, and they made such a big deal
[00:57:23.730]
about it.
[00:57:24.270]
And I felt bad that, you know, there were so
[00:57:29.760]
many other great women chefs,
[00:57:32.250]
but maybe they were just busy at the time.
[00:57:34.735]
- Ladies, let's go!
[00:57:35.600]
[00:57:44.310]
- People are pushing for gender parity,
[00:57:46.860]
and they're mobilizing industries
[00:57:49.200]
to really look at the pay gap and any obstacles
[00:57:52.440]
to advancement.
[00:57:53.730]
It's really right now about making sure
[00:57:56.760]
that this conversation continues to happen.
[00:57:59.910]
- My former partner, he tried to take advantage of me.
[00:58:03.930]
He had told me he had to pull out and double the rent.
[00:58:07.350]
I don't take blackmail.
[00:58:09.570]
I have a great business partner now.
[00:58:12.270]
That's what I'm trying to say to Dara and to my other kids here.
[00:58:17.800]
"Don't be afraid.
[00:58:18.870]
Be yourself."
[00:58:21.300]
- When I did open the Spotted Pig,
[00:58:23.190]
my initial offering was 10% partner.
[00:58:27.390]
So it would be chef co-owner.
[00:58:29.280]
But after a couple of years, you know,
[00:58:31.080]
you kind of realize how much value you have.
[00:58:34.590]
So I went back to Ken and I said,
[00:58:36.030]
"Look, you know, this is going really well."
[00:58:39.480]
I asked to be equal partner, and he said yes.
[00:58:42.050]
[00:58:58.260]
- I hope that there will be an opportunity that isn't just
[00:59:01.140]
PR-driven, but an opportunity that's really embraced on,
[00:59:05.580]
you know, how can you create a redemption moment?
[00:59:09.760]
Why not give some proceeds to educational movements
[00:59:13.050]
and women's shelters, and foster change that's real?
[00:59:16.290]
That, to me, would really, I think,
[00:59:18.000]
go a long way for starting to unite people
[00:59:20.790]
instead of dividing people.
[00:59:22.980]
We did a workshop with our team this year
[00:59:25.230]
to talk about what's acceptable, what's not acceptable.
[00:59:28.510]
I look at other young women on my team,
[00:59:30.660]
and I don't want them to have the experiences
[00:59:33.240]
that I had when I was coming up in the industry.
[00:59:35.250]
Because there was nobody there to stand with me,
[00:59:39.210]
my voice had no volume.
[00:59:41.670]
There's so much going on a day-to-day basis
[00:59:44.250]
that it's about much more than cooking.
[00:59:45.985]
[00:59:49.460]
- Being the first female Iron Chef,
[00:59:51.210]
you know, that knocked down a bunch of barriers.
[00:59:53.210]
And I've gone out and done all the things
[00:59:56.930]
that most of the top male chefs have done.
[00:59:59.930]
I've created a brand.
[01:00:00.980]
- Iron Chef Cat Cora.
[01:00:02.660]
- Please welcome Cat Cora.
[01:00:03.910]
- Cat Cora!
[01:00:06.080]
- I started seeing food TV become big
[01:00:08.480]
and I thought, wow, that's a unique idea, you know,
[01:00:11.300]
because it didn't exist.
[01:00:13.393]
I went to culinary school thinking
[01:00:14.810]
I'll open a great restaurant and maybe I'll do a cookbook.
[01:00:17.690]
And that was really kind of your options then.
[01:00:20.990]
Now it's opened up to thousands of things you can do with it.
[01:00:23.743]
- The whole concept of working your way up the ranks
[01:00:25.910]
is like, that is kind of old school, you know?
[01:00:28.460]
That's why those statistics don't
[01:00:30.950]
show the women doing totally different sides
[01:00:33.542]
of this industry.
[01:00:34.250]
Like let's say they get into media--
[01:00:36.050]
that's what's really reshaping everything right now.
[01:00:38.360]
[01:00:54.180]
- Were you ever afraid of me not paying you?
[01:00:57.510]
- No, no.
[01:00:58.590]
- Never afraid?
[01:01:00.020]
- Never, never.
[01:01:00.990]
- You never gave up on me.
[01:01:03.420]
- I knew you wouldn't like the other--
[01:01:06.640]
- --default.
[01:01:08.400]
- I knew you would take care of me.
[01:01:10.140]
I said, you're the one.
[01:01:14.190]
Makes me feel good that I gave somebody a chance to do it.
[01:01:18.710]
- I couldn't have done it without you.
[01:01:20.440]
- And you appreciated it, though.
[01:01:22.800]
That's what I like.
[01:01:24.570]
- No one ever gave me that opportunity.
[01:01:27.220]
- Yeah.
[01:01:27.720]
- You did.
[01:01:28.600]
- Yeah.
[01:01:29.425]
- You believed in me.
[01:01:30.300]
- I believed in you, yeah, that's right.
[01:01:33.660]
[01:01:36.690]
I know it brings the tears for both.
[01:01:38.243]
[01:01:42.373]
Yeah.
[01:01:42.873]
[01:01:46.050]
You always told me I'm you're guardian angel, right?
[01:01:50.440]
- You're my guardian angel, you're right.
[01:01:52.200]
[01:02:01.800]
- All I see is business, business, business.
[01:02:04.380]
So when you start small and you see customers,
[01:02:09.060]
they're so happy with you, you want to get a little bigger.
[01:02:12.990]
My first person that I asked was my dad
[01:02:16.560]
because he knew how this restaurant ran--
[01:02:19.980]
that in business, you stay small,
[01:02:22.980]
the big people eat you up.
[01:02:24.990]
You have to keep growing.
[01:02:27.600]
I called a good friend.
[01:02:29.590]
I said, "I need a bank to open Val's Function Room."
[01:02:33.460]
He said, "I'll bring him there."
[01:02:36.763]
I said, "You don't want me to go to the bank?"
[01:02:38.680]
"You're a big shot now, now I'm bringing the VPs to you."
[01:02:41.320]
The first guy that came in, I looked again, I go, "Holy shit.
[01:02:48.000]
What the hell is he doing?"
[01:02:49.845]
The guy five years ago when I needed the money,
[01:02:52.200]
he didn't even acknowledge me.
[01:02:53.790]
He didn't even look at me.
[01:02:55.570]
He didn't even say, "Good morning."
[01:02:58.910]
Well, guess what?
[01:03:01.360]
Karma is a bitch.
[01:03:03.680]
Five years later, who comes in?
[01:03:06.090]
Mr. (BLEEP).
[01:03:08.410]
"Mr. (BLEEP), I'm Valerie James, but I think we met before."
[01:03:14.740]
And he looked at me, and he said, "We have?"
[01:03:18.620]
I said, "You don't remember me, but I will never forget you.
[01:03:24.410]
I do not want your money today.
[01:03:26.930]
I want you to sit, have lunch, enjoy the atmosphere,
[01:03:33.100]
and have a good day."
[01:03:34.130]
[01:03:53.100]
Now us, doing a dinner like this here, it's unbelievable.
[01:03:58.770]
With Christos, my son, as the head chef,
[01:04:01.640]
and my daughter Joanna next to me--
[01:04:04.119]
- First course was a Petit Chablis.
[01:04:06.564]
The second course is the Riesling.
[01:04:08.520]
[01:04:13.726]
- I don't know why the the function room is not ready.
[01:04:15.976]
- Yeah, I know, honey.
[01:04:16.907]
But you don't need silverware here.
[01:04:18.365]
Yes.
[01:04:20.033]
Noreen?
[01:04:20.570]
- Yeah?
[01:04:21.070]
- Help Katie put that on and make it look pretty.
[01:04:23.270]
You're good now.
[01:04:24.360]
Now the room is ready.
[01:04:26.040]
I had a heart attack.
[01:04:27.130]
[01:04:33.540]
- The second pass h'orderve is going to be the gruyere.
[01:04:35.990]
It's going to be basically a pate achudu.
[01:04:38.060]
It's going to be a laminated dough with whipped gruyere
[01:04:41.660]
cheese in the middle.
[01:04:42.830]
- You guys know what to do.
[01:04:44.420]
Just don't be nervous, because I can see it all over you guys.
[01:04:48.130]
Really, you guys are going to kick it through.
[01:04:50.410]
- Yes, Val.
[01:04:50.950]
Yes, Val.
[01:04:51.650]
- All right, you ready?
[01:04:54.110]
This is good for you for culinary, right?
[01:04:56.040]
- Yes.
[01:04:56.540]
- Good.
[01:04:57.490]
I love you.
[01:04:58.153]
- We're in line for hugs.
[01:04:59.195]
Hold my drink.
[01:05:01.394]
Thanks, Val.
[01:05:02.157]
- I love you, honey.
[01:05:02.990]
Don't be nervous.
[01:05:03.880]
- I know.
[01:05:04.380]
- All right?
[01:05:05.210]
Who's coming to my table?
[01:05:06.355]
- Me.
[01:05:06.855]
- Me.
[01:05:07.180]
- Oh, good.
[01:05:07.760]
[01:05:12.940]
- Coming together as a family to host this dinner
[01:05:16.120]
makes me think of how my mother started out and all that she
[01:05:19.240]
faced, everything she had to overcome to get to this point.
[01:05:25.510]
The restaurant is secondary to the woman who built it.
[01:05:28.780]
[01:05:33.670]
(ALL APPLAUDING)
[01:05:38.071]
[01:05:41.500]
- I mean, this was a huge honor for us at Val's.
[01:05:43.530]
My mother, you know, she built this place 25 years ago.
[01:05:46.763]
And I don't think she ever thought
[01:05:48.180]
we'd be able to do this.
[01:05:49.410]
(INTERPOSING VOICES)
[01:05:52.988]
- You all did a wonderful job.
[01:05:56.555]
Val's is not known for this food, the fine dining.
[01:06:00.500]
But I think you did a beautiful seven course meal.
[01:06:03.820]
You did the wines with Joanna.
[01:06:06.070]
You put it together, and I think it was awesome.
[01:06:09.084]
[01:06:14.188]
- She's like, "Turn the heat up."
[01:06:15.990]
(LAUGHING)
[01:06:21.760]
- Family means everything to me, and I
[01:06:24.520]
carry that same philosophy in my restaurant.
[01:06:28.930]
I just love to see everyone happy.
[01:06:31.600]
[01:07:06.450]
- You ready?
[01:07:07.932]
(INTERPOSING VOICES)
[01:07:12.467]
- ...to have you all here.
[01:07:13.550]
- Health and happiness!
[01:07:15.260]
- Cheers.
[01:07:16.098]
- Thank you.
[01:07:18.240]
- Cheers, Mariella.
[01:07:19.280]
[01:07:21.300]
- So what do you think, my first film and it's on you?
[01:07:25.640]
- Yeah, you're going to make me cry now, just because I--
[01:07:30.640]
when you told me you wanted to do this,
[01:07:32.475]
I was a little taken by that.
[01:07:35.790]
Because every mother should work hard for their kids,
[01:07:40.050]
because that's what happens.
[01:07:42.570]
Life is a rotation of fathers and mothers
[01:07:47.160]
and grown children that become us.
[01:07:50.560]
And I remember when you were young you said, "Oh no,
[01:07:53.160]
I'm never going to be like you."
[01:07:54.717]
Well, guess what, my girl?
[01:07:55.800]
You are.
[01:07:56.440]
[01:08:02.140]
- Mom--
[01:08:03.540]
- I love you.
[01:08:04.210]
- Love you.
[01:08:04.710]
[01:08:11.184]
(BARKING)
[01:08:13.656]
- Gigi.
[01:08:14.156]
[01:08:26.080]
- I don't take "No."
[01:08:29.040]
When somebody says, "You cannot do it," I say, "Yes, of course,
[01:08:32.700]
I can do it."
[01:08:34.300]
- What can you do?
[01:08:35.050]
You can fail.
[01:08:35.850]
So you fail.
[01:08:36.870]
You learn from failure and you move on.
[01:08:39.460]
But what if you win?
[01:08:40.850]
So you just keep at it.
[01:08:42.270]
I think you can change the pattern of life
[01:08:45.090]
at any time you want.
[01:08:46.960]
- So it was for myself, not for money, but just
[01:08:49.470]
for that instant gratification, the satisfaction of creating
[01:08:53.859]
food and putting it out.
[01:08:55.260]
- My drive was, I've got to prove to Mom and Dad
[01:08:58.210]
that their decision was right,
[01:08:59.710]
that this was the best opportunity
[01:09:01.390]
they could of had for their children.
[01:09:03.729]
- Having a farm has always been the seed
[01:09:05.770]
in the back of my head.
[01:09:07.120]
And I just think as I start to get busier with my company
[01:09:11.350]
and we start expanding, we need to start just
[01:09:13.990]
making things smaller and keep things honest and real.
[01:09:19.779]
- My father was working at the Ritz Carlton as a carpet layer,
[01:09:23.170]
and he was doing all the carpet.
[01:09:25.069]
And my dad is a combat wounded World War II veteran
[01:09:27.670]
from France, from the European campaign, so he spoke French.
[01:09:31.340]
So he talked to all the French chefs during the opening,
[01:09:33.729]
and he said, "My daughter is just crazy about cooking."
[01:09:36.640]
And to a Frenchman, an American speaking French to him,
[01:09:39.928]
but an American that got wounded defending their country
[01:09:44.410]
and helping with the occupation and liberation of Paris,
[01:09:49.000]
it didn't get any better than that.
[01:09:51.109]
And that's what opened my door.
[01:09:52.720]
- Well, being from the South and being Greek American,
[01:09:55.000]
you know, it was a real big influence on my cooking
[01:09:58.030]
and how I actually fell in love and had a passion for food.
[01:10:02.800]
- I was living with my grandmother
[01:10:04.360]
for about three years before I got the job
[01:10:06.670]
offer to move to Savannah.
[01:10:08.080]
After she said, "I knew you were going
[01:10:10.350]
to leave one day," and the second thing she said was,
[01:10:13.240]
"Now you're ready for a restaurant."
[01:10:14.890]
So that was just that little bit of extra confidence
[01:10:18.640]
that I needed.
[01:10:19.870]
- A good way of expressing, you know,
[01:10:21.990]
ourself is to really do the things that
[01:10:24.250]
matter to us inside.
[01:10:26.350]
And maybe in our society, it's taking risk and to be brave.
[01:10:32.170]
And sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't work.
[01:10:36.100]
But I think it's very important to have a vision
[01:10:40.090]
and to carry the vision.
[01:10:41.280]
(ALL CHEERING)
[01:10:45.753]
[01:10:51.720]
- You just keep going.
[01:10:53.100]
Do not stop.
[01:10:55.290]
Everybody has struggles.
[01:10:56.460]
Every day there's a struggle in life.
[01:10:58.600]
This is not a struggle.
[01:11:00.480]
This is a will.
[01:11:03.290]
I come in here and it's home.
[01:11:06.540]
I feel that I've accomplished
[01:11:08.760]
what I should have done for my family.
[01:11:12.030]
Now it's my turn.
[01:11:14.060]