Christin Marvin: 0:08

If you are a chef that's curious about how to keep your knife skills sharp and your flavors fresh, then you've got to meet Pablo Valencia. Pablo Valencia is a chef and entrepreneur who's inspired by the old culture and old traditions and bringing the food of yesterday into today's light. Today, pablo and I are going to explore his culinary journey that began in his grandmother's backyard to his career as a chef and how he's now finding success as the owner of Scratching the Plate, where he brings the restaurant experience right to you. Welcome to the no Hesitations podcast, the show where restaurant leaders learn tools, tactics and habits from the world's greatest operators. I am your host, Christin Marvin, with Solutions by Christin. I've spent the last two decades in the restaurant industry and now partner with restaurant leaders to help them overcome burnout, increase retention, reignite their passion and drive successful businesses. I also work directly with restaurant leaders through one-on-one coaching and group workshops to help them identify their blind spots, build their confidence and overcome challenges in their business. If you're curious about learning more, visit my website at christinmarvin. com/ contact to book a 15-minute goal planning session.

Christin Marvin: 1:30

This podcast is sponsored by ScheduleFly. Schedulefly provides a simple web-based and app-based restaurant employee scheduling software, backed by legendary customer service. If you are using pen paper, excel or fancy scheduling software with tons of bells and whistles that you don't use, schedulefly is perfect for your business. When I was a regional manager handling seven locations, schedulefly was our go-to for scheduling. It's hands down the easiest platform that I've ever worked with, and their employee scheduling tool is awesome for shooting out mass messages about crucial restaurant updates. Visit ScheduleFlycom and mention the no Hesitations podcast to learn more and get 10% off. I hope you enjoy this episode. Hi, pablo, my friend, how are you?

Pablo Valencia: 2:23

I'm good. How are you doing today?

Christin Marvin: 2:25

I'm good. Thanks so much for being here. I'm so excited to share your story with listeners today. You and I had a chance to connect for the first time a few weeks ago at a City of Gastronomy event where you were doing a cooking demonstration. Cooking demonstration and it's funny because I've heard your name around town and had yet to meet you and come to find out. We kind of moonlight with the same one of the same chefs in town. Chef.

Pablo Valencia: 2:51

Giannis.

Christin Marvin: 2:52

So super excited to be able to connect today.

Pablo Valencia: 2:56

That's a common story about people like not really seeing me face to face but like they hear me kind of dancing around. That's kind of like why I guess some people call me the kitchen assassin, cause like I was just quiet and kind of just like did my thing and like moved on. But I mean it's, it's, it's got me pretty far.

Christin Marvin: 3:13

So I love that. Well, let's let's talk about the kitchen assassin. Where did this name come from and how long have you had it?

Pablo Valencia: 3:20

Oh well, I mean I probably heard it like like maybe like two gut seasons ago, but it was just kind of funny, like how it was just kind of brought up. I liked it. I can't say it's a sticking title, it was just kind of like a honorary thing that I heard and I chuckled at it because it's because it's kind of funny.

Christin Marvin: 3:41

I love it. You, we're going to get into your story just a little bit, but you just brought up a big, you know an awesome topic that I would love for you to highlight. Would you tell the listeners what gut is and your involvement and what it's all about?

Pablo Valencia: 3:54

Oh man, so gastric union of Tucson is awesome. I've been trying to get get with them probably since they started Cause, like they, they fascinated me with, with what I've been wanting to do since day one. Um, so their origin, kind of like uh, fascinates me. Um, yeah, you have to be invited and I was invited and, um, I've it's been an honor um, ever since. Like you get to play with, uh, the best chefs here in tucson.

Pablo Valencia: 4:22

Uh, they are like they're all in those superheroes man, like every single one has uh their superpower and when, uh, when they all get together, it's it's it's it's it's cool to like see them kind of like uh, unite and see this like a brilliant minds. Uh, kind of like make a huge picture. Um, but they are part of uh UNESCO, uh, we were the first uh city in the us to be recognized by that. So that's that's really really cool. So, like, um, I really, really I want to support that and and continue with that. Um, that's it. That's the exact association that I want to be a part of and like the heritage cooking um is is a huge thing to me, because that's basically like where I came from and I didn't know how rooted it was in uh tucson um uh food background until like probably the past two or three years yeah and you start interrupting you pablo.

Pablo Valencia: 5:14

But you god does some pretty cool legendary events I've heard of like yeah, yeah, yeah, uh, uh, night fight, the, the origin of which I really wish I knew more of, but basically it's kind of like the back alley version of the Iron Chef and I can totally get behind that, like I really want to be in next season. But yeah, basically it's just the individual talent of Tucson coming together and together and, um, putting uh their best skills uh to work and uh they, they bring some of the coolest, uh secret ingredients. Um, yeah, like it's it's a blast.

Christin Marvin: 5:54

Are those events open to the public or they invite only? Okay?

Pablo Valencia: 5:58

yeah, yeah, um, uh, when um knife fight season comes around again, uh, they advertise it on Instagram, facebook and whatnot. Gary Hickey and Michael Elefante pretty much had that, and if you follow them, they will spot that stuff all day long.

Christin Marvin: 6:16

But yeah, love the restaurant.

Pablo Valencia: 6:20

And they're at really happening spots too, like the Monica, the playground Dante's the one that's on so like yeah, it's a really cool place to like see the culinary communities just like have fun and fight it out, you know.

Christin Marvin: 6:33

Great. So let's go back to your mention about heritage foods. How did you first get into culinary? What were some of those original inspirations?

Pablo Valencia: 6:42

Original inspirations, probably when I was a child, but like that was kind of like accidental. Really, how realize how important that actually was until I got into like my later, like I guess, teen years. But but basically what I'm saying is I grew up in a small town and my grandparents raised me, my sister, so like we cooked everything from our yard, we chopped nopale, we butchered our chickens. We did all that stuff ourselves from like kindergarten to like about sixth grade and it was amazing, like I didn't really understand what we were doing quite yet. I just thought that was a normal thing and then the world showed me that it really wasn't.

Pablo Valencia: 7:27

And cooking just like with pibs, like we used to dig holes and I thought it was a joke. When I was bored, my grandpa would have me dig a hole and me just being like a sarcastic kid, I was like fine, like being very, very mad digging this hole, but he would actually make an oven and we would uh make our, our beef in there, uh, for that night and uh, that always fascinated me. Um, so yeah, like just uh, small things like that, like like cooking old school, I'm using just raw, uh raw ingredient from the little yard to table like four feet away, um uh. Later on, when, um, I realized how like important that was, I wanted to continue it. But uh, fast forward later on in life, uh, first, first actual job in um uh in a restaurant.

Pablo Valencia: 8:16

I was a dishwasher um a great dishwasher, just horrible employee but uh but I made a really good living and uh, um, was it one one day a prep cook? Um, just uh, no call, no show. And chef gino, um, uh, he hardcore italian dude like the, the entire place was was italian. Um, it was, uh, the old father in, I mean, at the old father in um roma cafe. Uh, behind the old father in on, uh, aina, and old father back in like 99 and like was it 90, 91 or so, but anyway, um, yeah, uh, pretty quick, called out and um, chef gino discovered that I had a palate from then and then I moved to line cook and became infatuated with the noise, the stress of it and wanted to build kind of that background of it.

Christin Marvin: 9:05

So yeah, it's so common, isn't it that, uh, we get put into positions with zero training, and that's how our our journeys start yeah, yeah, exactly man yeah yeah, exactly so.

Pablo Valencia: 9:17

Um, I've been trying to run since uh in this field for for a very long time. I'll be 41 this year, so I've been in food since I was 16, so it's not too shabby.

Christin Marvin: 9:27

Yeah, yeah.

Pablo Valencia: 9:28

So like.

Christin Marvin: 9:30

Where did your culinary journey take you from there?

Pablo Valencia: 9:33

Oh man, we traveled a lot. So like I became like AGM and a manager of a lot of fast food restaurants, kind of like past that, like during high school, and so like I mean a little after high school and then started working for Caruso's later on, like 2009 ish.

Christin Marvin: 9:57

And that's one of the oldest restaurants in town, right.

Pablo Valencia: 10:00

Yes, correct, I think the second oldest restaurant too, I'm pretty sure the oldest on fourth or the shanty is one of the other but not very old One of the other. But yeah, after after Pima, went to Caruso's for a bit. I was probably there for about seven years, learned quite a bit about cooking for a mass amount of people and did it really well and wanted to just expand my skills and expand my knowledge, so left there, went to Dante's, learned all about Chef Tanner's skills. Tanner Fleming, he is a CDC over there at the Cornette, very good guy. Learned a great deal from him.

Pablo Valencia: 10:45

Chef Kenneth also I'm sure you guys know him very good guy. Um, learned, uh, uh, a great deal from him. Um, chef Kenneth, uh also, uh, um, I'm sure you guys know him, uh, iron chef Ken, yeah, um, yeah, he's a, he's a very good mentor of mine. Um, and yeah, learned, learned quite a bit from that point, uh. And then of course, it's one to like, uh, push harder and just learn, learn more. And, uh, and went to Wildflower, started doing Fox. Restaurants Became a little bit more uniform, faster, better sharpening my skills, basically, yeah.

Christin Marvin: 11:13

You and I talked about this when we met for coffee. But tell me, tell the listeners about that transition for you from local restaurants to going into kind of the corporate or chain environment. What was that transition like for you?

Pablo Valencia: 11:28

Oh man, like, well, to be honest, like I was a, I was a messy cook, honestly and and in a in a corporate setting there is no messy cooks. And like you fall in line and I really appreciate that Cause, like since my stepdad was a militant, like when, when I, when I did kind of have that growing up background part of me, it kind of fell into place. So like just just following the line, line drills, cleanliness, log books, all that stuff, the common sense stuff, but just to be like more routine.

Pablo Valencia: 12:02

Yeah, so you appreciated the systems that they had in place, yeah, and like how everybody fell in line there's there's a lot more camaraderie when it came to doing like the corporate mandated things. It wasn't so like mundane. So, yeah, that was. That was actually really greatly appreciated. And I try to like teach that as I go because, like that, that type of hierarchy, like yes chef, no chef, like like that that's there for a reason and we need to be like loud and proud about it and yeah, that's awesome.

Christin Marvin: 12:36

Where did you go?

Pablo Valencia: 12:36

after wildflower uh, actually we just started cutting and did our own thing. Uh, scratching the plate kind of became, um, uh, a flower, uh, um, it was. It was cool. Uh, it was like it was a thought at first, like it was every Wednesday. I would kind of like challenge myself I would pick three ingredients from the store that I've never cooked with. That in my mind, wouldn't really go together, and I made a meal with that. That was every Wednesday and that was just kind of like sharpen my ax pretty much.

Pablo Valencia: 13:09

Yeah what was your?

Christin Marvin: 13:10

inspiration for doing that.

Pablo Valencia: 13:13

Just to keep it hard, because I never wanted to be comfortable. Um the second, you're comfortable. I think you you plateau, and if you just constantly dissect uh profiles, um your own skills for that matter, like how much can you do at one time, or if you even can do it, um, and there's pretty much almost nothing that I can't do so far. So I appreciate that.

Christin Marvin: 13:36

My uh about did you go into that, knowing that you wanted to open your own business?

Pablo Valencia: 13:44

yeah, I mean, like I, I wanted to open up a concept like a brick and mortar would be nice, and that's in the future. Yes, um, the concept of what scratching the plate is is basically returning back to the table, like there's a. There's a scenario that I asked people like hey, when you were growing up, like what was your favorite meal? Like what was that? One thing that you just kind of close your eyes, think back like I don't't care how, how small it was, just what was it, and usually what. What ends up happening is that they they tell me about a meal, yes, but they tell me about the table, they tell me about their mom, they tell me about their dad, they tell me about the surroundings and they change their, their whole app, their whole being changes, like they enjoyed that experience.

Pablo Valencia: 14:31

And that is what I want to bring back to everything. Like I want to bring that nostalgic feeling back to the table. Like I want everybody to just stop for one second, enjoy the food for, for, for what it was, for what it is, because that is what used to happen. Like people used to spend a week on a plate and the whole family would get around the round table, long tables and and and enjoy. Every single person had a had a role in that food making process. That's what I would love to get back to, um, because that's just like so rich to me, like that's so organic and raw, um, that you can't get past that experience because you will never have that again. I think, with the times now, that we're just busy and to slow down and to appreciate something like that is very rare.

Pablo Valencia: 15:21

And I want to be a part of that experience again.

Christin Marvin: 15:23

I love it and you're doing such an awesome job creating that experience for people. Will you talk a little bit about what Scratching the Plate does?

Pablo Valencia: 15:31

So Scratching the plate basically brings every aspect of a restaurant to you, um, even like, how hard it can be. Uh, what I mean by that is um, uh. For example, I've I've done a um, a uh anniversary dinner on a hiking trail in Gates Pass, a little ways down the path, with a table, a heater, a burner, two candles, and I would just walk off a few hundred feet. Come back every now and then I do that. I cook for people at their houses, like little micro weddings, micro weddings, um, um, yeah, like everything I do is is pretty much upfront. Uh, 99.5% of what I do is is made in front of you, cause I want you to appreciate how it's made, not just like it's there in front of you. Like I want you to appreciate the process of the product, not just the product itself.

Christin Marvin: 16:27

I love that. Hey there, podcast friends. I hope you're enjoying these impactful conversations and leadership insights I'm bringing you each week. Before we dive back into today's episode, I want to take a moment and reach out and ask a small favor. That would go a long way in supporting the show. If you've been loving the content I'm providing, please take a moment to leave a rating and review. Wherever you listen to your podcasts, not only does it make my day?

Christin Marvin: 16:59

but it also plays a pivotal role in helping the show grow. Your reviews boost my visibility, attract new listeners and encourage exciting guests to join me on the mic. So if you want to be part of my show's growth journey, hit that review button and let me know what you think. Thanks a million for being awesome listeners. And then, how does Heritage Foods play a role in that?

Pablo Valencia: 17:30

Yeah, headers, like because that's our region's flavor, our history. Like every section of the world has their story of food and ours is just fascinating. The more I learn about Father Kino, the more I learn about just how much Tohono O'odham has actually had a role in just this current now food culture. Like how we use the squash from thousands of years ago. That just blows my mind Like that's just what we do. Still, the chiltepin, like that's a regional pepper.

Pablo Valencia: 18:07

It's hard to get outside of this region and like to have something like that just constantly tastes good in so many different ways, cause, like I said before, like every single chef just has their interpretation of art and I love seeing how they can twist a nopale, how they can twist a squash, how they can twist this, you know, just that really cool thing. But yeah, heritage foods like that was my food. That was my food when I was growing up and and and and I was doing prep work when I was, when I was in grade school, and I hated it at the moment, uh, but yeah, um, uh, I was, um, I was carving squash and I was gutting chickens and uh, yeah, we were doing all that stuff when we were kids. So, like it, it plays a role to me, because it's nostalgic to me, because it makes me feel that feeling that people tell me about their favorite meal when they were a kid. So that's kind of probably why I'm trying to go to that. I love that.

Christin Marvin: 19:04

My husband and I have just been absolutely obsessed with learning what food grows in the desert and, like you, every time I learn more and more and more about the heritage foods and see the gorgeous squash and everything that we grow. I'm just in awe of it and want to learn more and more and more and taste the flavors, and we've been working really hard on growing a lot of things in our house. I know we were talking about that when we just got together recently, but I love going to the farmer's markets that are. I love that they're year round and, um just seeing what's available every single week.

Christin Marvin: 19:34

Um last, uh, I just uh published an episode episode 23, with Gloria Padilla, who owns Chiltapica. Uh, that you did the um demo with at TCOG and I didn't know, tyler, and I didn't know what Chiltapines were until we moved here and now and then I learned about her and her product and her salsas and her spice mix, and now we're obsessed and we're buying every product of Chiltepine that we can find around town and the local grocers and it's just, it's such a blast playing around with those new ingredients.

Pablo Valencia: 20:05

I love how, like these markets just still just have like have like the raw ingredient here, like the temporary bean I can walk there and still get them and and they've been here for thousands of years too, like I. I love that, like we just can we consistently use our, our, our produce, and I want to continue that I love that.

Christin Marvin: 20:27

So you are so involved in the community and you've created so many great relationships over the years. Will you talk created so many great relationships over the years? Will you talk a little bit about why that aspect of community is important to you and how that helps you develop as a leader and a business owner?

Pablo Valencia: 20:42

Oh, man, cause, like I don't care how good you think you are, without new inspiration You're you're going to be like a dying flower because, like you constantly need new ideas, new, new inspiration, and that's what other uh other great minds do. So, networking, like talking with other chefs, like how did you become what you are like? Like like I know you're amazing, I want, I want to know your story, um, and just just sharing those words, sharing those ideas, like makes more than just a stronger culinary bond, like here in Tucson, but it creates this like a camaraderie, like at events that you take with you. Business relationships as well, like a large part of these restaurants are investments and if we didn't have those strong connections, we'd probably kind of just like dwindle out. So, learning from the old school masters, like how they planted a million seeds and and and and were successful at it uh, chef yano's, like he's a he's a good one to actually learn from, um, because he's he's done it several times.

Pablo Valencia: 21:59

Um, uh, people that just have like great showmanship, um, uh, gary hickey's like a great on stage, like he just knows like how to just be a great presence, a great chef, so like just just things like that. Like you can, you can take your, your interpretation of that artist and and and learn and grow and like that's what I want to push to is like just constantly learning, no matter how old you are. Just like, let's, let's teach, let's, let's keep going, because food culture changes like so fast, so fast. From 10 years ago, tucson was different, so like it's going to change every every single decade. So absolutely.

Christin Marvin: 22:39

How does that mindset translate into your food?

Pablo Valencia: 22:44

it, it, it forces you to keep reinventing yourself as, as, as an artist, whatever medium that that you choose to use, um, but you constantly have to reinvent your pictures. Um, why am I amazing? Uh, am I still amazing? So, like, just constantly sharpening your skills because, like, since times change, uh, uh, uh, the the science of food is is constantly changing. Like every single year I see a different contortion of what gastronomy can actually be. So keeping up with that is super important. Newer techniques like, yes, keep the old techniques, but yeah, some of the newer ways are just like. It'd be unwise for you to fall short of that because the world speeds up so quick and you just kind of fall behind.

Christin Marvin: 23:44

Honestly, I love it, you. You're such a curious chef and a curious person and I love that you are comfortable being uncomfortable, because that's where growth happens Right and where you discover new things and you have made a lot of mistakes in your dishes over the years and right.

Pablo Valencia: 24:00

And that's how you learn you make it better, so I love that.

Christin Marvin: 24:05

How, how do you develop yourself as a leader? I mean, we know this industry. Whether you're in a restaurant or you're, you've got your own business. The hours are long, you're doing a lot of work behind the scenes. Right, it can be a very unhealthy business, as we've seen. Right, there's substance abuse issues drugs and alcohol. How do you, how do you take care of yourself physically and mentally, beyond connecting with your community?

Pablo Valencia: 24:30

that is a hard thing to do, um, living a quote-unquote healthy lifestyle in in in an industry like this is is is not easy. Um, I guess, no matter what kind of like spectrum you are on the culinary scale, um, because, like um, I'll go through seasons where, like I, have like three events a weekend and I'm not eating for a large period of time. But the the important part is to actually recognize those uh durations of time to where you're actually not taking care of yourself and and really manage your time a little more, because you as a person are a lot more important than the business. Yes, that sounds silly to say, but without you there is no business. So, taking that five minutes to either A just work out, take a long bath, take a walk, just like self-medicate in a different way, I mean, yes, there are substance abuse problems, like all the time and in a lot of professions, um, and it's almost like mandatory in this one. But uh, uh, keeping a straight head and like knowing your priorities is is key. I think that was a big difference between young pablo and and older pablo. Is that um recognizing that, like you have a lot, a lot more responsibility and a lot more benefit to those responsibilities than you did when you were 20 years old, um, so being slowed down by either advice isn't is in the cards anymore, because you got to make this thing grow.

Pablo Valencia: 26:02

And the second you stop, it's, it's, it's going to stop. So, yeah, as as a leader translation, I tell people that, basically, like nothing is impossible, man, like nothing is impossible. Like I was homeless and I came back from nothing. So the stresses that you see, as you are younger, let's say you want to pursue this field, they're going to be hard there. You're going to want to stop on the regular, um, but nobody's going to dream your own dream, and it's, it's. It's going to be really, really hard, um, but yeah, you just don't, don't stop when you yourself is telling you to stop.

Pablo Valencia: 26:49

Um, nothing is impossible. Um, yeah, just keep keep doing things that make you feel very uncomfortable. Uh, because you'll succeed. Honestly. Um, because I've succeeded quite a bit, and I know that a lot of people can. I've seen great cooks come from nowhere, and that should be recognized too, and I know that they're sitting on the street, sitting on a line somewhere else. I'm out there. That's just phenomenal and I want to find them. I want to show them that, hey, there's still still these skills, there's still these teachings, like let's, let's go, let's, let's do this, because, yeah, like let's, let's go up, there's a lot, a lot more benefit than just sitting on the park bench, you know I love it for any anybody out there that is thinking about getting out of the kitchen and starting their own business?

Christin Marvin: 27:42

what advice do you have for them?

Pablo Valencia: 27:46

let your work speak for yourself. Um, be loud when you're supposed to be loud, but let your work speak for itself. Um, I'm sure, like we, we've all seen those uh was, like those uh pompous culinary, uh culinary students that that come straight out of school on the line thinking that they can set the whole place on fire and they end up doing but the wrong way. So, yeah, just this keep your head low, but but be confident even when you're not confident. Yeah, keep walking forward like there is. There's nothing that will stop you except the stress in your, in your own head. And if you can manage that, the line's nothing, the food's nothing, the plate's nothing At the end of the day, it's just food on a plate and that mentality kind of helps quite a bit. Honestly, I love that.

Christin Marvin: 28:39

I I work a lot with clients around managing, recognizing those negative thoughts and managing them, because those negative thoughts are the ones that cause all of our stress and anxiety, anxiety and depression and resentment Right, and so I love that.

Christin Marvin: 28:52

You, I love your mindset, I think you're you're super inspiring and you've been through an incredible journey and on an incredible journey, and I just thank you so much for being here and inspiring, and you've been through an incredible journey and on an incredible journey and, uh, I, I just thank you so much for being here and sharing your story with listeners.

Pablo Valencia: 29:09

Yeah, I can't wait to come to a knife fight and uh and check out what's going on.

Christin Marvin: 29:11

So will you tell the listeners how they can get ahold of you and find um scratching the plate?

Pablo Valencia: 29:16

All right, scratching the plate, um, instagram, uh, scratching the plate, all one word. Facebook, too. Scratching a plate, yeah, with any leaders that you know in the restaurant industry.

Christin Marvin: 29:42

And be sure to check out my step-by-step guide on how to retain your employees at my website at Christinmarvin. com. We'll talk to you next week, everybody.