Dan Serafini: [00:00:00 ] this is, this is like the opposite of what you're supposed to be doing during COVID. I guess we're all being next, next, next Monday, I guess where I'll be.

Okay. And. I'll be in, Riviera Maya, Mexico. Yeah. Well, you know what I'm going to, I mean, I'm staying at a place called the one eco resort, which is top, top, top, top shelf, you know, something it, and th the, the, it is phase. It is, level three Mexico, but only for Mexico city, Guadalajara Acapulco, all the major cities.

When you're on one of these resorts, they're only allowed to fill up the 25% occupancy. Yeah. So, so my fam I'm going for free, by the way. You know, I, I, I go every year, a couple of times a year, Mexico, Jamaica, Saint Lucia, you name it. but so basically what I'm getting to, it would be a mistake for you not to contact me if you're ever interested in traveling to the Caribbean, because.

My family owns the most reputable travel agency in the tri-state area. We're internet based. It's called simplicity. It's called simplicity, travel.com. There we go. Hopefully this will be a podcast and you can plug that

it for you, Sam, for friends and people that I know. You know, what, if you book a regular room, which is still stellar, the probability of getting upgraded to a presidential suite is, is, is almost a hundred percent. You know what I mean? Because nobody buys those presidential suites or the ocean view suites.

So guess what you slide right in there because you booked through simple simplicity travel. So that's one of my jobs by the way. Yeah. That's why, that's why that Jamaicans love me because I'm more than one job just like that. yeah. Yeah. So, that's where I'll be next week with, with my brother, just my brother and I, yeah. First time ever traveling alone with him. You know, that

Sam Knoll: [00:01:52 ] could be interesting.

Dan Serafini: [00:01:55 ] Oh yeah. So, I mean, I, I speak a little quickly, you know, I know you probably want to get this on this, the last interview of the evening, right.

Sam Knoll: [00:02:02 ] It doesn't matter. There's no time limit of it, of any sort, you know what I mean? Again? And this is the restaurant reality aspect of this, you know, as I said, we went to culinary

Dan Serafini: [00:02:15 ] school together. Sure. I have

Sam Knoll: [00:02:17 ] been out of the food world since Oh two Oh three.

Dan Serafini: [00:02:21 ] Oh, wow. Wow. What are you doing? What are you doing now?

What are you? What have you been doing?

Sam Knoll: [00:02:29 ] Internet marketing consulting. I did. I was a digital director for a big, huge division of a biotech

Dan Serafini: [00:02:36 ] company.

Sam Knoll: [00:02:37 ] I got out of the cooking business. I, I cook every day.

Dan Serafini: [00:02:42 ] I love it. Passion.

Sam Knoll: [00:02:45 ] Yeah. And, and I would eat out every day if I could. That's just too much pricey, but

Dan Serafini: [00:02:49 ] Oh yeah. Yeah. It's fun.

Sam Knoll: [00:02:54 ] But I know you got out of it too to some degree.

Dan Serafini: [00:02:58 ] Oh, sure.

Sam Knoll: [00:03:00 ] I have no idea. It would be interesting to know how many people from our graduating class. Are you still working in the restaurant business? I know a good number are.

Dan Serafini: [00:03:09 ] But a good number are, but I wouldn't have to say about, you know, what generously con conservatively, I should say, 50% got out and I would say, you know, you know, something, you're not going to be the old school executive chef with the big paunch belly, you know, French guy.

He's not gonna do it anymore. You know what I mean? That doesn't really exist anymore. I worked for some of those kinds of chefs before in my life, but, but, you know, and plus the money's just not there. It's not there. It's impossible to have a family and be in the restaurant business. I found that out, by owning two restaurants and what's, y'all going through in a little bit, you know, you just can't do it unless you're ma you're married to a woman that shares the same business as you, but then you got to get the whole family involved, you know,

yes. Yes.

Sam Knoll: [00:04:05 ] There you go. Your outline,

Dan Serafini: [00:04:07 ] you

Sam Knoll: [00:04:07 ] know,

Dan Serafini: [00:04:09 ] base basic outline and it's fricking crazy.

Sam Knoll: [00:04:13 ] Let's do it. I, I I'd really, that's the whole idea here is we want to hear what your story is.

Dan Serafini: [00:04:21 ] And without a doubt,

Sam Knoll: [00:04:22 ] it's going to spark more questions

Dan Serafini: [00:04:24 ] from me during the process.  I

Sam Knoll: [00:04:27 ] will say those two years in culinary school was just kind of heaven

Dan Serafini: [00:04:31 ] for me. It was perfectly, yeah, it was amazing. It was, it was a vacation from life, especially my externship. Yeah. So anyways, sham, I was, I was born and raised in Venice, Italy, June, June 14th, 1973. I share my birthday with the U S army.

The the United States flag and our president. and, I was, I moved here January 4th, 1984, but when I was living in Italy, I. Everything was about food and having fun, going to school. Sure. I woke up, I went to school, got there around eight 30 in the morning. went back home around noon for about two hours, took a siesta or just play with my brother or friends, whatever.

We went back to school around two. And, came home around, six at night. My mom would, have been making dinner. So my brother and I would go outside and play. We would have free roam of the whole city of Venice. It's not like. What it is now, you know, I mean, even in the United States, I wouldn't dare.

I don't want to let my kids go out through the towns roaming, you know, I've got a 12 year old and an eight year old, and you know, 12 year old boy or you're a girl. and it's, it was completely different. I F I had free run with the whole freaking city. I used to. Fishing out of my bedroom window. I wouldn't dare eat the fish because of all the, of all the, diesel and all that stuff in the water, because it's heavily trafficked by, you know, and, and, and, we used to go through 'em.

You know, catacombs we'd sneak into the old, old, old churches and go into the, what you would call a basement half the time they were flooded with water and, and, and we would, you know, try to find treasures and all that from the 16 hundreds, it was great. It was crazy. And then, there was a big park I remember in the middle of Venice, and, and almost like a central park, but much smaller.

And, there would be a grass and little tiny lakes and whatever. Keep in mind, it's built on lots of little islands and some of them, some of them are fake islands, you know, that are floating. But, on, one of these largest islands, which is attached to st. Mark's square, you know, they, there was trees and all that, and we would go hunting with these makeshift glow guns, and we would kill South.

We would kill salamanders. All that stuff. And, we didn't have any video games. We didn't have any junk food. So, so we went out and got like per shoot, those sandwiches, little pramezini you would call them basically white bread with some prosciutto, some fresh Rugola, a little bit of mayonnaise and, and a little tiny sliver of provolone it.

And that's all, it takes some fresh Brown, black pepper. And. This was what I ate or, or, or, or even, you know, fried sardines. we would, we would pick up a basket of fried sardines instead of a basket of French fries as a, as a us kid would, you know, so these are the type of things I grew up on. So yes, I think it's, it shaped me, into the person.

I am. Guess what I did yesterday, yesterday, I went to Fairfield Sask. It's called SASCO. Beach and Fairfield, Connecticut. I came back and my friend and I came back with 250, clams, the middle neck plants I've got in my fridge right now. I should have, I should have, I should have brought some outside here.

I've got some wonderful hot sauce to go with them. Every two weeks. I come back with a couple of hundred clams. That's great. And you know what, I'm going back to my roots. Going back to my roots, it feels good on my one with the ocean. I do the same thing with fishing. you know, in the, in the ocean or in these beautiful lakes around here in New York state.

and, and, and,

Sam Knoll: [00:08:20 ] food food is

Dan Serafini: [00:08:22 ] food brings everybody together. I remember. as I was growing up in Italy, my parents would have dinner and have company over very, very often. And, my mom came from the Bronx. I'm going to throw that a little into direction. She moved there after college. She went there for vacation along with her good friend, Tony, Tony, female, Tony, and, my father pretended to be a gondolier because.

He really loved my mother. He he's, he's sorry. He's like, I got to pick up this check brand was a gondolier. Let them the gondola and pick Tony and my mother up and, anyways wooed them and, my mom ended up falling in love with him and, she came back to the States. And then move back over to Italy to marry him.

And, and, that's, that's how my brother and I were born. And, we lived there for, well, I lived there for 10 years, the first 10 years of my life. And unfortunately, sometimes marriages don't work and th