Growth & Grace

Wesley Knight 0:00
This is a KU NB studios original program. The following program is underwritten by Crawford management group and Chris glow and does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5 jazz and Moore the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education.

Music 0:18
Even better than that was the last time, baby

Leaha Crawford 0:35
we back and we back and we back and we back and we back. You. Hey, hey, hey, good morning Las Vegas. It is the fall. I hope you guys are out enjoying this weather. It is absolutely gorgeous in Las Vegas. My name is Leah Crawford. I am the host of growth and Grace Julian. We miss you. We miss you. We miss you. He is not here with us this morning, but he'll be back next week. Well, today we have a very special guest in the studio with us. You might know him. See him around town. Him and his wife have been in the valley now for well, I'll let him tell you, but I would like to welcome Mr. Smith. Chef Walker Smith, to the show. Hi. Chef Good morning. Chef Walker's I like it. Chef walkers, I'm sitting here looking at some seasoning he has, and I can't wait to taste it. I wish I would have tasted it beforehand so I could tell y'all how good it is, because I know how good their food is. But

Walker Smith 1:38
welcome to the show. Thank you. Thank you for having us. It's a pleasure to be here. Yeah, it

Leaha Crawford 1:43
is. And I hate you when I would tell your wife Hello, because I hate she's not here with us today.

Walker Smith 1:47
Yeah, she was under the weather. She really wasn't feeling well, the change in the weather drastically affected her for some reason this year.

Leaha Crawford 1:54
So, oh, wow. Oh, wow, yeah, because it did change. It has changed.

Walker Smith 1:59
I love it. This is my favorite time of year. I'm a summer baby, but I love the fall. I always have,

Leaha Crawford 2:05
always have, I understand this is my favorite season as well, especially here in Las Vegas. I love this I love this time of year. Let's talk about, first of all, let's talk about Sadie's kitchen. All right, so how

Walker Smith 2:15
long have you? Have you been in business in the valley? Six years. Six years. Okay? Total 22 because I started this as a part time, according to the government, as a

Leaha Crawford 2:27
hobby, okay, as a hobby, okay. I mean, you wouldn't make it no money. Okay, yeah.

Walker Smith 2:32
But I, because I was doing this part time in California, Southern California, as I worked for Pepsi full

Leaha Crawford 2:38
time. Okay, so work for Pepsi full time, doing the food on the side, doing the food on

Walker Smith 2:43
the side. And then 2018 I got the chance to early retire, and so we moved here to the valley. We're close to our grandkids. Of course, it was kind of a no brainer, and the cost of living cheaper, no state tax. And the biggest caveat was that we see our grandchildren now couple times a week instead of a couple times a year.

Leaha Crawford 3:01
So that's always good. It's a blessing. That's always good. So let's talk about Sadie's kitchen. So what talk to me about it? Because I know you guys care. Yes, okay, so

Walker Smith 3:12
and we say we have the seasoning. It started off as a way to honor my mother's memory after she transitioned. And about the same time, my goddaughter was graduating high school, and her mom had just had her hands completely full, because at the time, she was working for Panasonic, and they were leaving California, going to Georgia, and because she was in the upper management, she asked us, can you handle, can you help me handle stuff for for graduation, for graduation and so, and we did. Then a couple about a month or two passed, we got a call from somebody who attended her graduation party and said, We're throwing a party for our mom. Are you available? Okay? And I hadn't really thought about like putting my hat in the ring that way, but the numbness of my mother passing, the suddenness of it, starting to develop this passion for cooking. So I did that party. Then we got another call from somebody who attended that party, and it just kind of snowballed in about after about a year and a half, the lady who ran the kitchen ministry at our church in Southern California said she called me one day. She said, I need you to meet me at the kitchen at the church. And so I went. She said, How have you been doing all this cooking around me and not in the kitchen with me here at the church? Okay? And turns out she knew several people that I had done catering for and so she started the process of training me to replace her, because she she had since closed her restaurant after 30 years, her and her husband were looking to retire, and but she couldn't just vacate the ministry without somebody being there to be a. But what it was is it was a proving ground for me. I started learning how to do budgets, stay within the budget but still feed a lot of people. Because, of course, church budgets are vastly different. Their corporate budgets are private, but different. So it was I learned to cook the same good food I was cooking for 4050, people, for four or five 600 people, okay? Because on any given Sunday, church anniversary, Usher anniversary, Pastor anniversary, because of the size of the church, we fed anywhere from five to 500 to 1000 people.

Leaha Crawford 5:41
Oh, wow, so and that's different, because when you're cooking for that many people, the thing is the consistency with the food exactly it needs to taste the same. If I got my plate first, or if I got my if I was 1000 person, exactly, it needs to taste the same.

Walker Smith 5:55
And at the same time, I started taking classes at the Orange County School of culinary arts to kind of get the paperwork, the I learned some of the official stuff that I had learned being next to my grandfather at the grill and my mother in the kitchen, okay, who were pretty much the kitchen committee at our church back home in Cleveland, the kitchen committee. They were, they were the back then it was, it was the kitchen committee, yeah, now it's the

Leaha Crawford 6:19
ministry kitchen committee. There's a kitchen committee gonna make sure that y'all

Walker Smith 6:23
eat well. Because past the anniversary, you know my grandfather, he would pick us up from school like Thursday afternoon, we go down downtown to downtown Cleveland by buy a bunch of meats, and he take it. We take it to church. Friday, he and couple other deacons would meet and clean it and season it. And then Saturday, that while they were out in the back in the backyard of the church, on their grills, cooking all this meat, the laser in the basement, making all these sides and pies and cakes. And then Sunday, it was on a crack. That's that's my background. We're talking like 1011, 12, okay. And so when part of our model says a history or a heritage of good food, that's where it came from. That's where it

Leaha Crawford 7:06
came from. I love it, because even the steps you know you take the time to prepare your food like you clean, you know, you purchase the food, but then you have to clean the food when you get home, then you have to season the food and let this the food sit overnight, so that the seasoning can be deep in the food. So do you use those same practices now when you're catering, I

Walker Smith 7:24
do, and it's it's quite different than the process my grandfather and his buddies took. But that, that mentality of wanting people to walk away satisfied wanting to that's where my pitch, elevator pitch came from. My elevator pitch says this, have you ever been to an event and the food wasn't all that great, but the atmosphere was good. There was great conversation. Well, Sadie's, we want you walking away talking about the food as much as the event. That was the mentality my my mother and grandfather had. They when you sat down at a table that they had prepared, you walked away satisfied. You walked away talking about, wow. You know, I remember so many times people asking, Sadie, what did you put in this? What did you do to this? And and I've I've done, I've adapted the same mentality. I won't tell you outright, but you put apron on and come join me in the kitchen. I'll show you. And to this day, we talking almost 50 years ago. To this day, I can count on one hand a number of people that took her up on it and have taken me up on it.

Leaha Crawford 8:35
That's you. Wasn't so interesting that you talk about that, because you know when you're growing up. And I know because I grew up back east, and the same thing, you know, my great grandmother in the kitchen. And I didn't, I would sit around it, but I wouldn't put the apron on. And I kind of, sometimes I want to kick myself because they made everything from scratch. I'm talking about the biscuits, everything, the cakes, the pies you didn't buy, no, what you mean? You buying that thing on the shelf? No, we're gonna put these ingredients together and the food, I mean, but it was soul food. It was made with love. And you can taste the love, because I can tell when my grandmother was mad, I was like, okay, so you mad at us today because the food not good, but when she was happy and she was singing, I was like, we would clean. We would want to lick

Walker Smith 9:21
the plates. You know what? It actually translates into the it really does. Case in point, they my oldest son is 34 now, when he his twin, when he turned 21 we had a birthday party for him at the house, and he invited family friends, he was looking forward this one particular young lady, she seemed like she had disappeared from the party, because we were out in the backyard, and she's she's standing at the counter in the kitchen. She has a plate of food, and there's a tear going down the side of her face. She said, This food is life changing, and so that's where our our pledge comes. Came. From changing lives one meal at a time,

Leaha Crawford 10:03
because good good food, good food, good food changes ever because a good meal, you get to tap in your feet and then snapping your fingers and dancing at the

Walker Smith 10:13
changes your countenance. It changes your step, and you can tell when someone has put themselves into how we used to say it back in the day, you put your foot

Leaha Crawford 10:24
in put your foot in it, put your foot in it, put your foot in it. But

Walker Smith 10:27
it's about it. For me, it's about the passion. I don't know if my mother ever envisioned incorporating the business, incorporating what she did, but she cooked. She cooked for people. She cooked because her her gift was cooking. I'm sorry, her talent was cooking, but her gift was hospitality. It was not uncommon for there'd be 1520 people at a house every Sunday, after dinner, after church.

Leaha Crawford 10:54
It was so it's so funny you say that because I have family about family here, and that was the case, you know, house full, and it's and when this woman cooks, because I, the last time she cook, she didn't call me, so Henrietta, I'm gonna get you. But when she cooks, it's a house full of people. Because when that's it's just the you can feel. You feel the love and the food and the food, like I said, when you either you took out the first or if you get the last, if you take it home and you take taste it tomorrow, the next day, it's still good. I mean, it's still good. Well, you are listening to growth and grace. I am Leah Crawford. I am here with Chef Walker Smith, and we are talking about Sadie's kitchen and the catering and just making some good food. The website is Sadie's kitchen llc.com, again, Sadie's kitchen llc.com and the contact information is 951-870-9389,

Leaha Crawford 12:00
again, 951-870-9389,

Leaha Crawford 12:07
now, Chef, I'm going, I'm going to shift a little bit. Okay, all right, because I'm looking at these seasonings, because I am so funny thing, because my, when I was going through some things, I would tell people the kitchen was just a room in the house that they put there, that I passed through to get to get to the rest of the house, because I passed a whole bunch of restaurants on the way home where I could have a smorgasbord and not have to clean the kitchen, because I came from where you never have a dirty kitchen. Kitchen's always clean, immaculate. And my friends would laugh because they said I had one of the best seasoning cabinets, because I have everything seasoning wise for the food to be good. And my handy man used to laugh at me, because when I started cooking a couple years ago, he was like, Man, this food ain't gonna be good. This food is not gonna be good. He said he tasted it. He was like, Oh, my God, you can cook. I was like, Yeah, I can. I can, is I can? So seasoning because I have, like, I said, I have everything from herbs, spices, everything. Talk to me about the inspiration behind these two seasonings, because you have two here. I'm looking at,

Walker Smith 13:08
yeah, the blue label one is our regular season that has salt. The white label is the salt free version. Let me see what you got in there.

Leaha Crawford 13:16
Let me, let me look at, let me look at those ingredients. Y'all, because I'm gonna read these ingredients, because I also come from a place where they tell you, if you can't, if you can't pronounce it, you don't need to eat it, okay? Garlic, onion, paprika, cumin, pepper and not, I don't never, I never heard of that one, anato, another.

Walker Smith 13:34
That's, you know that in carne asada, have you ever knows how, how deep red it is, right? It's from the spice Colorado. It's like the Spanish cousin to paprika. Okay, so

Leaha Crawford 13:47
I can read all this stuff on here, so I guess I can eat that. No, that's my that's my rule. No, if I, if I can't, if I can't, if I don't know what that word is, I'm not. I don't. If I can't, I don't want to eat that.

Walker Smith 13:58
Yeah, there's no MSG in that. Nice. It's, it's basically just spices and it's and it's, it came from being nosy in my mom's house. If you read the story on the side of the bottle, when I was saying that, people would ask Sadie, what did you put in this? How do you make everything so good in the store and when we were developing this during covid, we had always, had always had the season, but it was time to actually put it in a bottle. And I was, I had gone home to Cleveland, Ohio, and was looking for something different because, and I knew my mom had this mixture that she always put together, and it was kind of like in the back of the cabinet. So I was just being nosy. I said on the bottle that I don't know if I was just be it was, it was luck. I was just being Nourse. I was being nosy. And I found it, and I I took a small set. All of it. Brought it back to California with me and reverse engineered it. And it was because my mother, like you, said, from the first bite to the last, from the first

Leaha Crawford 15:11
funny, because we said that I didn't even read the bottle before we had the conversation. And that's what it says on here,

Walker Smith 15:15
from the first plate to the last. Yeah, you not only could you taste the love it, there was no variation in the taste, in the taste and the taste and then so, so, you know, God has his way of making sure that you are prepared for where He's taking you next. Because, as I was working with Miss Cecil in California at the church, that was that she had some of the same principles and working working habits like my mother. You know, the kitchen always stay clean. Where the you know, because even if it had been a month since the last time we've been in there, we knew exactly where everything was. There was nothing out of date in there and and we we went in there and cleaned before we did anything else, before one pot was taken out of a cabinet.

Leaha Crawford 16:13
Well, you want to know what so? And I think that that's like a part, like when I know when, you know when because my grandmother transitioned, and when she transitioned, it was hard and for us as a family and well, my great grandmother and I remember because the houses used to be so spotless. So when my grandmother would go out of town before she passed away, and we were living here, her house is always spotless, I would take a glass out, a clean glass, and just put it in the sink. And that was my that was my way. Let her know I'm here. I was here, right because, but I knew it would irritate to myself, because they like a clean kitchen, right? And now I laugh, because I have some of the same habits, and I wonder, I mean, kitchen has to be clean, and you clean as you cook. Yes, you clean as you cook. Because I have some friends. I'm like, did you have a war with the kitchen and the kitchen, one or nobody taught you to clean. You clean as you clean as you go. You clean as you go. You can't wash anything with cold water. And while preaching to the choir, that's then there's that right, then there's that, then there's that right. And and then. So, because I remember a time when I tried it, my mother put her hand in the dishwater, and it wasn't the dishwater used to be so hot where you have to, you know, you have to wash around it, because you got to figure out how to move around. So get your hands because, but I'm like, put it in the dishwasher. The water gets hotter than dishwasher. Just throw it in the dishwasher. But they didn't believe in that. You didn't use this. You washed everything by hand. You're

Walker Smith 17:40
looking at the dishwasher, you're looking at

Leaha Crawford 17:43
you're looking at the dish. And I've had it just in this and sometimes you can really see those traits, because I've had a dishwasher for years, and I think I've used my dishwasher maybe less than 10 times,

Walker Smith 17:53
and my mother kept a little glass jar had a little bleach in it, underneath the sink. Oh, I told I went in

Leaha Crawford 17:58
every but you wouldn't know what's so funny? I used to laugh and tell my my girlfriend, she's she used to say I thought, I thought they was trying to kill us by putting the bleach in the water. I was like. I was like, yes, they tried to clean our house. But I still do that. I still put, I still put bleach in the water.

Walker Smith 18:16
Now I'll defer and use at home. I'll use white vinegar. But of course, in our commercial kitchen is either bleach or there's a sanitizing solution called quad four. Well, you have to be able to test it. So like the health department comes in, they you have test strips. And so like whenever you have water prepared in the sink, they they have to be able to strip it for concentration level. So which is something I learned at Pepsi, because I worked in quality control. I worked in a bottling plant in Southern California, so I work where they actually made the product. So all the all the sanitation processes, I knew all that before I set foot in the commercial kitchen.

Leaha Crawford 18:57
But that's a very important point, though, because cleanliness, cleanliness and and, yeah, because I'm real picky, because if I walk somewhere and it's not clean, I'm not eating. And my mother used to laugh. She was like, you not. She was like, Oh, well, we raised you right? Yeah, it's not clean. I'm not eating. I'm not I'm not. And I look to see restaurants. If it don't smell right, I'll pass, thank you. I'll go. I'll pass something on the way home.

Walker Smith 19:28
Give me a salad. And the amazing thing is, my mother had this knack, this ability to come home from work and have everybody in the house eating good for 30 within 3045, minutes, I would come home, I was standing in the refrigerator looking at it, don't see anything. And she come home, fabulous meal. And now I get it my because my kids did the same thing. Pam, and I have six kids, and they would do the same thing. Dad, where'd you see this? Where was this at? I watched it. I. And then it just became part of, you

Leaha Crawford 20:02
want to know why? Because it's, it's because I funny thing, you You say that because I think children look for the quick, you know, the real quick, you know, microwave, something like that. And, well, air fryer now. Well, air fryer now. And I haven't gotten there yet. I haven't gotten there yet. I'm working on it. I have one, and I keep looking at it, looks at me, I look at it, and I'm like, we're going, I'm going trade glances. Yeah, we trade glances. I'm still old fashioned. It takes, it takes 40 minutes to do a chicken. I need my food. I want my food prepared a certain slow and I prefer slow cooking, like Turkey, wings and things like that. I'm on 200 and all day long, and the meat is falling off the bone when I I'm for the slow process. Slow cookers. Slow cookers. I love them because I think the food I like my meat, the I mean, when you can you don't need a knife. Everything's with a fork. Everything a steak with a fork. That's how I like my stuff. Yeah, I know I'm different, and I know that.

Walker Smith 21:05
And like I said, this, this process, this journey, has just been amazing. Because the while I was taking those classes at in Orange County back in the day, learning temperatures, holding temperatures, and all that, and that stuff just became ingrained in me. So now, now that we are, we have a full on commercial kitchen, you know, and it's, it's second nature now, and because, before you know, you know, that's why I knew that I needed to do something to expand on this vision that God was giving me, to take the heritage and the legacy that my mother and grandfather left and take it to another level. And so my wife, Pam will look at me sometimes, and you know, how were you still awake after, you know, 1214, hour day at Pepsi, and then I would go to classes at either because I work at the time, I work graveyard, I would go to class before I went to work or after. I took the kids to school. When I got home in the morning, take kids school, didn't go to a class, and then go home and lay down for a couple hours. But now that all that's paid off, all that's paid off, because here we are, 20 some years later, and we know we have a we have a full thriving business that started 55 days before covid. We opened our doors 55 days before covid started. Oh, wow. And haven't had to stop yet.

Leaha Crawford 22:30
Oh, wow. Oh, wow. So let me ask you this though the journey, Were there times, because we talked to a lot entrepreneurs, Were there times on this journey where you weren't sure if you were doing the right thing. Mm,

Walker Smith 22:44
hmm, especially when they came in. I will never forget October 17, 2018 the officials from Pepsi have flown in from New York and said, We're closing this plan and the and in here we're supposed to be like the number two plant in the state, okay? And they said, We're close. We're closing this plant. And Pam and I said, Well, what are we going to do? I had applied for the to the to the plan out here, there was option. There was option on the table to work at transfer to one of the facilities in Southern California, but then there was a third option, and I didn't even realize it at the time, by virtue of our collective bargaining agreement, because that was such a, what they call a life changing event, that Pepsi had to open the table for early retirement. As long as your age and your years of service met or exceeded a certain number, you qualify for full pension. And so after lot of prayer, some crying, some sleepless nights, we made the decision, we're gonna take the early retirement and move to Las Vegas.

Leaha Crawford 23:54
Well, I'm glad you did. I'm glad you took that because sometimes and I think entrepreneurs shift and jump from business to business because it gets tough. They have a sleepless night, or they read, they meet one roadblock, and they give up. And I'm like, No, when you really,

Walker Smith 24:16
oh, they haven't. The robots, the speed bumps haven't stopped, the roadblocks haven't stopped. We still get they just change and and the more you grow, the bigger they get. But I

Leaha Crawford 24:26
would also now have the skill set to deal with them exactly.

Walker Smith 24:30
You have, the you have, the you have the knowledge, you have, the experiences, if you're paying attention, you have the experiences that that that got you to this point to fall back on and know that where that, that feeling in your gut, that thing that keep that gets you up out of bed, even though you may have only gotten the hours, a couple hours of sleep, but that that your WHY IS. It becomes more significant and more important than than the fear when Pam and I first got married, we are our marriage counselor, our pastor had us read a book called The Road Less Traveled is written, is written by a Christian psychologist named M Scott pack, and the basic principle of the book said, premise of the book was the that that love is the courage to overcome fear. It was redefining what true love is. And so when, even in that, when, when we, when Pam and I sat down and during that, that three month process, because typically when Pepsi would make that announcement that plant got shut down that day, we had three and a half months to make this decision. Oh, wow. We had to end the December. Three months we had to end the December to make this decision. And we sat down and reread that book. I

Leaha Crawford 25:59
love it. I love it. So the road less traveled. It's a very old book. Yeah, I actually, the first time I read it was in college. Well,

Walker Smith 26:05
we've been married for 37 years, so, yeah, I'm not gonna

Leaha Crawford 26:09
tell my age either, but, yeah, but the first time I read it, and I remember the very first time I opened it, I wasn't able to read it. Okay, I got through the first pair, I mean, like, maybe the first chapter. And I was like, Oh, that's too heavy. I didn't fully read it until later on. And you're right. Love conquers everything. If you love something, that's your WHY THE FEAR? Okay, that's what's, what's what? What are you trying to get protected from? Because the fear is about protection. What are you scared of? What are you waiting for? What are you waiting for? You know, because I just jump, jump. Let's go. Let's go. Let's do it all right, so you are listening to growth and grace. I am Leah Crawford, and I have Chef Walker Smith in here with me. We are talking about, you know, his seasonings, his journey, Sadie's kitchen. And I just want to share the website with you again. Sadie's kitchen llc.com, Sadie's kitchen llc.com, the telephone number is 95187093899518709389,

Leaha Crawford 27:12
now let me ask you, this, is there a catering job that's too small, or one that's too big? Or you'll take the 10 people, and you'll take the 1000,

Walker Smith 27:18
we'll take 10, we'll take the 1000. I love it and see what I was saying about growth in the process. When the Super Bowl was here, you know, our company was one of the ones, if it selected to be part of the Business Connect for the Super Bowl. But we were, we were ready. We were in position. We had, we had all the credentials we could check off every box I love that was that was required to even apply to be part of the business. Connect.

Leaha Crawford 27:44
I love it. I love it. Well, that brings us to the end of our show, as always. Thank you for coming on. Oh, I do want to add one of the seasonings is with salt. One of them is without salt.

Walker Smith 27:57
And by first of the year, we're waiting for the final approval on the label. We'll have a hot version.

Leaha Crawford 28:02
Oh, yeah. The are you in now? Are you in stores yet? That's, that's the, that's the other thing we're working on right now. Okay, so you want to know what when you get in the stores? I want you to come back on so we can talk about it, all right, so we can talk about the process of how you got there. It's a process. I know, I know it is, I know, I know it is, but it's worth it. It is,

Walker Smith 28:22
what am I waiting for?

Leaha Crawford 28:23
Oh, got you? Got you All right? Well, that brings you to the end of our show. I want to tell you guys have an amazing Saturday. It is football season. It is fun. Julian will be back in here next week. Remember, if you are going through something, remember you are growing through something you are not losing. You learning. Take the lesson. Take the lesson. My name is Leah Crawford. You've been listening to growth and grace. I will talk to you next week. Peace and blessings. You.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai