A vida dos chefs fora dos restaurantes: Carmen Correia at TEDxCampos
very kind to me since i arrived even before i arrived i facebooked him and he wrote back right away we can't wait to see you and you're very well very welcome to come here in brazil so thank you so much for that uh he also invites me on the last speaker of the night is that right so is it okay if i have a little bit of fun with you and not be so serious i am going to give you some information i did some research as well with the ted talks i was told to start off with a very shocking statement because i don't know you very well yet i can say that to the very end if that's okay so alicia pay attention to the very end um i was gonna tell you a bit about myself uh what i do for business and why was i even invited to come here to share the day with you um i'm a celebrity book a celebrity chef agent and what does that mean i make money for chefs anything outside of a restaurant so culinary students i help share how to get a restaurant off the ground i help chefs get published in their own cookbooks i show chefs how to sell the cookbooks uh the publisher's job is actually to print the book it's your job to sell it so i share with you how to get those clients banks sponsors and how to pay for that book and how to get it off the shelf and then uh to sell around the world uh the other ways that i make money for chefs is their endorsements so you'll see chefs not just for food and wine you also see them doing endorsements for bmw for tourism we just did a tourism exchange with the french chefs montreal to the new york chefs some of the chefs from alberta uh are sort of cowboy country uh down to houston and texas so the chefs are used for a lot of different things it's not just food and wine it's not just agriculture it's for environment um transportation tourism as i mentioned before so that's where i come in between and so how did i start this business i'll give you some history oops i was going to share with you uh five food trends that i did visit i just came back from new york about last week when i come back from a major city center like i'll be coming back from here going back to canada they'll be all asking what are the five trends in brazil that you experienced there so i'll share with you the last ones i experienced in new york i'll tell you who chef network is innovation industry and i can ask you for a big favor at the very end so please pay attention uh my background i was born on in a pig farm my parents is about 10 acres on the west coast it overlooked the ocean it was beautiful absolutely beautiful the people i went to school with um they were city kids so they didn't understand i was they ate very processed food and when i was growing up i was i would beg my parents to make me macaroni and cheese something very processed it wasn't until i was 16 when i realized why my parents didn't cook like that they couldn't read the boxes they couldn't read english so once i figured that out i started to buy the macaroni and cheese and make it at home and i was very disappointed the taste it tasted nothing like from scratch so that was a good lesson eating local inorganic recycling that's how i was raised it's so funny to see the trends of the chefs now having relationships with the farmers the farmers with agriculture that's how we were raised we respected land the farmers just as much as we did lawyers there was no level of uh you weren't a snob if you were a lawyer if you're a farmer you really respected each other's profession uh there was no entertainment on the farm the only entertainment was your free time it was definitely a very laborious farm my parents told me early on to respect the earth that was just a given there was so much labor involved in uh raising the pigs or talling the hay or weeding the uh the peas it was so labor intensive i wouldn't even think of wasting a little pee on my plate or the bread that my mother slaved over all day it just never happened so when i see other people waste food on the plate i just don't i think there's a huge disconnection of how much labor is involved in that cooking from scratch was just not only economical it was for flavor my dad to this day does not eat chicken from the store he says tastes like water he eats quail pigeon a whole wide range of bird and i learned very quickly that when i became a university student i would watch my other university friends cook and they would just take you know chicken breast for example that tastes like water and infuse flavors all the time where if you got a very good quality chicken the flavor comes from the chicken first then the spices to bring out that flavor very different cooking with cooking from scratch uh there was always an exchange of ideas so whether you were uh two ladies in the kitchen or you were two gentlemen they were making the dried sausages from the pig farm there's always exchanging new ideas and trying to get better better flavor better sharing that's when i first started to have that conversation with chefs are really engaged in their personality their passion and food their relationship their building with the farmers i found that quick connection right away i really like that in my in my uh background so who is chef network so about 15 years ago i started a speaker's bureau a lot of people don't know what a speaker bureau is a speaker's bureau is an agency that books authors presidents olympians a host of different personalities once in a while we get a celebrity chef and i really engaged in their personality i enjoy their personality very much though once in a while so celebration would come in and they do things for um increasing the salmon farming fishing in canada or the tourism from america to canada finding a voice with these chefs and then sharing that in the corporate world that's where i come right in between cni was born so now i have two offices one in toronto one in new york and over two thousand chefs that we take care of probably a third of them go out uh to events similar to this another third are within their own countries their own cities and the other third are chefs trying to vie to get that um stage presence and to travel the world sharing their message um well probably about five years ago the energy with food network um i don't sure what the food channel here is called but the energy of people watching the celebrity chefs uh it went crazy in our office about five years ago we had two offices one that did the hudson new york media other types of personalities we had a little boutique office called chef network and within five years it just went kaboom and that's what everyone called for and again it wasn't just for food and wine festivals it was launching new cars new banking systems uh people understood that chefs were not becoming just celebrities which i tend to not like that word i prefer brand ambassador they're brand ambassadors for food and lifestyle that's what they are oh the easiest way to remember what chef network does is we make uh revenue for chefs anything outside of a restaurant it's the easiest way to remember who we are some of the trends that i've been coming across no detail is nothing new it's just a saving of waste of a certain animal but what i found out in new york is uh one chef in particular he's now ordering his herbs from uh the whole entire herb so for example for chive he would take he would only order from the farmers if you can get the root the bulb the stem the bulb the flour the whole entire thing it made his cooking way more intensive it's so delicious if you ever get a chance to go to new york the restaurant's called show sho so herbs to vegetables very interesting so i think the trend when i so i spend so much time with chefs i see them spend time with uh the butchers um those types of farmers but now it's changing very very differently to um oh plants that have nutritional value not nutritional value but vitamin value very interesting uh this way this gentleman uh sean her god he's 36 years old from australia he has the restaurant in new york city if you ever get a chance it's fabulous and tell him that i sent you he's fabulous we were nibbling in these flowers the whole dinner was a very very powerful intense flavor much more than the bulb in the stem the other trend that i'm noticing too is the niche restaurants and why those food trucks are surfacing everywhere um people are looking for the best grilled cheese sandwich or the best pizza or the best burger uh niche restaurants are definitely popping up that's why the whole uh following of the food trucks are going insane in the u.s right now another niche the best chocolate cake in the world that's the sign on the door when you walk on spring street new york city my sister and i walked in and we had a bite and it really is the best one i think you have one here actually in sao paulo yeah it really is the best chocolate cake ever it's very impressed this is just a little place in toronto um they just have eight grilled cheese sandwiches to choose from and it's packed every day it's very tasty another restaurant i went to uh he just specializes in pork chef todd english the only thing i didn't like is the tables were shaped like um crosses from a church a little just unnerving didn't enjoy that uh hooked it's also getting into retail so as opposed to going to your grocery store to buy everything one stop shop now you have different shops throughout the week so just down the street for me just open up hooks so it's uh fish that you can buy sustainable fish and it's only caught by the hook not the net it's very expensive very delicious and very busy another one is everything is becoming carbonated ice cream pancakes butter everyone's putting bubbles in it just to uh i guess entertain the customer it's not editing the flavor this is really interesting uh i do have the best job in the world i truly believe that i get to work with the chefs but the other side of it is i get to work on the consumer side so the largest grocery stores in the world or the largest producers of mozzarella cheese or the big pasta companies they're not all evil out there they do want to do well their challenge is customers that purchase from them it's really hard to watch for example i'm going to tell you the grocery store a very very large grocery chain i'm sure you know they have a section of locally raised meat and it's a small little boutique area in the grocery store and i just heard they signed a 20-year deal with an american cattle farm kettle producer i was so hurt i thought why not canadian beef or one at a local producer for half of it and they said that little section the organic section's lost uh money for the last five years so they just signed on the 20-year deal with uh cargill beef in the u.s that's hard to watch but you know it's all consumer driven so it's a really hard argument they want to be profitable but they're also uh you know rewarding what the customers are asking for it's tough to watch uh the changing of the wording another thing that happened to me before i came here i went to uh immediately italian consulate very interesting how the whole trend is going with uh eating local and eating uh getting to know your farmers around you people who are importing into your countries are very aware of this trend so beware they're actually working against a lot of the messages i heard tonight one of the things they changed was their wording of uh import they're changing that word to heritage food so they're saying things like italians have been making cheese for a thousand years you want to buy the heritage cheese that we've uh developed so changing their word from import to heritage and they're fighting against all the local things that you're trying to achieve salt fat all those words are being removed in marketing i'm not even sure why i think it's the consumer as a consumer i'm one of those consumers fat is flavor for me salt you know depending on what your love what your level is it brings up the flavor so those wordings are changing vitamin intake the food that you're taking in all has to benefit you in some way so they're very knowledgeable the proper wording that they're using pharmaceuticals are probably forty percent of our business and people don't think that when they think celebrated chefs and craft foods or anything else but the pharmaceuticals are driving a lot of decisions out there so as you talk about buying local organic you have to involve the pharmaceuticals because they're watching and they're making big decisions it's also very scary to watch and so pharmaceuticals are not just marching in with a big huge banners they're actually hiring farmers hiring chefs and they're making more of an entertainment message so just have to make sure of who's delivering that message innovation seems to be the key to success in all the businesses i deal with whether you're the largest grocery store in north america or you're the farmer like my mom and dad it's their innovative ways that are really changing everything uh cheese producers in canada uh another wonderful thing that's happening little boutiques got together because uh they belong to a larger let's say oh i think there's 100 cheese producers in a small area in quebec they all join together and they've changed the government rules it's already banning together the farmers band together the cheese producers it does work it does work our mission statement is uh to be successful make money like every other business to the powerhouse and innovation focused on the consumer an innovative organization helps its people see that there are many types of innovation and we can meet regularly with our best chefs around the world to engage in this conversation another reason why i find this job so lucky is all the different types of chefs i've been able to uh have a conversation with even the ones here yesterday and today i've learned a lot myself innovation it sounds like a big large word but it's not and people think innovation is like a large company it could just be a few people it could be a few people um i've seen uh inside of a restaurant the kitchen working late at night i've just seen little kids get together and just come up with an idea that maybe the owner didn't have time to think about see a lot of ideas uh sprout from there an innovator always faces a different opinion either within their own organization or their kitchen from outside there was another speaker here on the stage a few people like a few speakers before me to be innovative uh you really have to stand your ground it's not easy definitely not easy speaking to some chefs in the audience to lose your conviction under these circumstances is extremely dangerous i see chefs go out with lots of conviction and then quickly change their mind whether it's the consumer saying no i don't want to have local purple carrots i want my orange carrots so just educating your consumers is a big key what prevents innovation uh fear and complacency staying where you are out of fear of failing or fear of placing the wrong bed sounds like dating somewhat very similar it comes from the trenches not from the sky they're not innovation does not come from a big beautiful office it comes from the trenches uh it's not based on some great idea it's based on clear strategic purpose at the same time one must have the guts to encourage themselves and others around them that's one thing if you're going to be innovative you have to really encourage your your people around you i think you were talking about your team i really liked hearing you say team that's a very different language i like that very positive there are three types of innovation there's incremental breakthrough and quantum sounds fancy but i'll go over really quickly incremental innovation a grocery store is a great example so focusing on the existing products that you have if you have the restaurants right now uh changing the menu four times a year so that's just being uh incremental uh breakthrough innovation is to really change how consumers are thinking really wow them let's just try and save example um i haven't been to a grocery store here yet that's one of my first visits every time i go to a different country uh one of the things that happened in canada the grocery chain came up with their own private label and probably that's probably not uh so surprising but the private label they came out with was actually a better quality and less money that usually didn't happen hand in hand usually they come up with their own label and it's worse quality and low pay which we're fine with but they change their thinking quantum innovation is the big wow factor very very rarely happens you really change how consumers completely see a product or service the ipad is a great example i was talking to with uh some of my office i said why am i getting this ipad she said because it's fun it's not useful i'm thinking i don't need an i don't need another toy all my all my technology is for a purpose it's for a powerpoint or for skyping or whatever and she said no you're just getting it for fun i just couldn't wrap my head around that so ipad is very unique in that way that's why they built it for fun i want to have an invitation uh for anyone in this audience that comes to toronto or new york to give me a little uh email address just send an email with info chef networking.com the subject is brazil visitor and i'll make sure to get that right away so if you ever come to canada or to new york please let me know and i'll you'll be my guest they just all come at once i have a big canadian favor to ask all of you uh let's see yeah the organizers of ted told me that they're a great uh network of holiday people here in attendance and by the way i've been here for the last couple of days and you guys have been very very welcoming so thank you so much uh for this reason ask for your help i'm very successful in profession an innovator if you will i think one of the other chefs mentioned that his only successful relationship is with food so that's me oh you're actually reading that okay here's your shock are you ready for your shotgun so this is my personal dating card and i'm going to read it to you because it's very small i asked my assistant why they printed it so small and he said because he didn't want an old man to read it did you want me to read it uh the first one is a quote just underneath are you all reading it ahead wait for me wait for me the first note is the first note you have to pay attention the first note is no liars for whatever reason men have this need to lie and just i'm just exhausted and tired of it uh two pieces of valid government id the men are actually lying about their last names it's really impressive divorce with paperwork every man is married every man where you're separated or whatever they just don't have the paperwork to show it minimum sticks for your income i don't need your money i just want to make sure that your bills are taken care of that's the only reason it's there active facebook account that's a very interesting one um so if i'm out and about with a friend and a gentleman introduces himself to me i said oh i'd love to have a picture with you for my facebook and then right away when they back off i know that they have someone in their life that's the reason uh does not wear socks thank you he was 26 i can't believe that anyways that self-explanatory uh no kids i've tried it three times it just doesn't work not living with parents this is very popular actually probably 90 of the gentlemen i've ever met have been divorced and they go back to live with their mom and dad that's very popular i don't know that if that culture exists here in brazil but it's prevalent in north america uh vegetarians need not apply and uh if you adhere the above criterion by the way i have not found one person to fit that list uh please contact jeffrey which is my assistant and he sends me he pre-screens you before you get to me thank you very much