Pennsylvania Legacies #228: Food for Thought

Josh Raulerson (00:01):

It is Friday, November 15th, 2024. From the Pennsylvania Environmental Council, this is Pennsylvania Legacies. I’m Josh Raulerson, and this will be our last episode for the month of November, as we’re taking a short holiday break for Thanksgiving. That means the conversation you’re about to hear is going to have to tide you over for a few weeks until our next episode. With that in mind, this week, we’re serving up an extra helping of ideas on a subject that is well suited to the season, and that is food: what we eat, where it comes from, how it’s produced and prepared. Really, it’s our most immediate connection as human beings to the larger world of living things and systems in which we exist. And of course, for an environmental organization in one way or another, food relates to almost everything we do. The same is true for Christopher Galarza. He’s a Pittsburgh-based chef and author who’s become a national figure in culinary sustainability, from designing energy efficient and low emitting kitchens for clients like Google, Microsoft, and Carnegie Mellon University to consulting for restaurants and food service providers looking to eliminate waste and improve working conditions to partnering with farmers and educating consumers.

Josh Raulerson (01:12):

Chef Chris has organized his career around building just and regenerative food systems. His latest venture is a new certification program modeled after the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED ratings to establish needed sustainability standards for the hospitality sector. He’s also made a name for himself as perhaps the industry’s leading advocate for induction cooking, which he views as not only a more environmentally friendly alternative to gas stoves, but as an all-around superior kitchen technology. We’ll find out how touching on all of these ideas and more in the course of this longer than usual episode, which we are offerings a special Thanksgiving Feast of conversation on Pennsylvania Legacies. So loosen your belt and tuck in as chef Chris Galarza joins us at the table. Chris, welcome to Pennsylvania Legacies.

Christopher Galarza (02:05):

Thank you for having me. This is exciting.

Josh Raulerson (02:07):

Why don’t you start by introducing yourself. Talk a little bit about, you know, your career in the food business. What brought you to Pittsburgh and what you’ve been up to since you’ve been here?

Christopher Galarza (02:15):

That’s an entire show right there. So let’s start with how I got to Pittsburgh. So I actually, so I grew up, I guess we could just start from the beginning. I grew up in New Jersey, and we grew up very poor. At times we were homeless for sure, suffering for food insecurity. There was a lot of crime, a lot of gangs. All all the, all the things you expect from big city, New Jersey, <laugh>. I grew up in Newark, and food was that thing that I really focused on, I glommed on. It was really, it kept my attention and kept me focused on the things that I should be focused on rather than getting in trouble. Don’t me wrong, I was a teenager. We all got in trouble, but food was that thing that kind of kept me outta the streets. My stepfather and my mother noticed that I was starting to get into trouble.

Christopher Galarza (03:03):

So then they decided to move the family down to Florida, and then he got me a job as a busboy. And then I got to see how food was prepared for the first time and for real. And I was just fascinated. And I was an awful busboy, <laugh>. I was always in the kitchen talking to the chefs, asking them questions, getting in trouble for not being out in the front. Eventually the chef was leaving. He asked me if, you know, if this is something I wanted to do, he’d be happy to teach me. And I said, absolutely. So I went and followed him and eventually started cooking around 16 or 17 years old and never really looked back. It was a way to channel my energy because it was long hours, and it was a way to really explore the things that someone with ADHD and I know a lot of people will, will definitely relate. Keep your attention.

How I got to Pittsburgh is that I hated Florida <laugh>. I hate the heat. I love the cold. Like right now we’re recording. It’s about 32 outside and I love it. I’m that crazy neighbor that’s shoveling snow in shorts. So, so yeah. So I applied to every culinary school I could think of that got snow, and I said, I told myself, I don’t care where it is, the first place that calls me. If it’s good, if it’s bad, that’s where I’m going to go. So just let fate take me. And the first place I called me was the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. Okay. And the second place I called me was the French Culinary Institute, which is where like Bobby Flay and all those like big chefs went. And I turned them down, went to Art Institute. The school ended up getting shut down after I graduated for fraud.

Christopher Galarza (04:39):

So it was truly just trial by fire. It was truly just let fate take you. And it was the best decision I could have made. Came to Pittsburgh met my now fiancé. Had I got to work in some cool places, including Monterey Bay. I, I graduated culinary school with, with a bachelor’s. Went down with the Greenbriar for an apprenticeship where I got to work with master chefs, culinary Olympians, get to see what we, we read about a lot, which is, you know, the upper echelon of food, the ultra fine dining, the, you know, people who make this their, not just their careers, but like their everything. And I got to see what true excellence looks like at that level. And then I came back to Pittsburgh. I ended up taking over as acting executive chef at Monterey Bay. Ended up going into a bunch of different places before I landed at Chatham Eden Hall at Chatham University. I was brought on to be the chef for this new campus. It was a sustainability campus, and sustainability was always something I had kind of a passing interest in. Ever since culinary school. I had a professor who coincidentally enough, ended up going to work at Eden Hall the same time I started, but she introduced the concept of sustainability. And I thought, huh, working with farmers, working in a regenerative way to support the, the environment. What a quaint idea. Right?

Josh Raulerson (06:04):

And this was, what, five, 10 years ago?

Christopher Galarza (06:06):

This was 2015. The campus hadn’t even been built yet. And then we went to work, started designing this, this, this dining program, working with the designers on the kitchen. We built this kitchen. It, and this campus ended up being the world’s first fully self-sustained university campus. And it housed America’s first all electric campus kitchen. So I got to go into a kitchen that was all electric, and it was weird at first <laugh>, right? I wasn’t totally bought in. My client wanted me to do this, and I was like, are you sure? Like, gas is king, isn’t it? And she’s like, this is what we’re doing. And I said, why not? You know, this is, this is a living lab kind of campus, so let’s do it. And it changed my life. I fell in love with sustainability, fell in love with how chefs can interact with the food system, how we can be a catalyst for positive change, not just change in general. Really fell in love with how induction works and how it benefited my operation, how it benefited my health, how it benefited my staff, how it benefit, how, just how like this little pebble could just get tossed into a body of water and that ripple effect. And how just simply swapping out this equipment can have this crazy effect in the entire ecosystem of the hospitality industry in a positive way. Yeah. It changed everything.

Josh Raulerson (07:29):

So, let, well, let’s back up and get into that mindset before this transformation for you. Yeah. And just to understand like, what is the culture in the culinary world around gas? Like, why is that the default choice? How deeply ingrained is it?

Christopher Galarza (07:42):

So it’s the default choice, because that’s who we were trained on. Ultimately. I, I don’t know any chef that truly has put any thought into why. Right? Because if, if it’s tradition, then that’s not right, because you’ve only been cooking on gas for a hundred years, right? If it’s, you know, a sense of it’s better, then that’s not true because induction’s better, right? It’s just what they’re comfortable with. And that’s the thing, right? And I don’t blame these chefs. Not, not, not at all. Right? Because you have to understand what it’s like to be a chef. We are working in an environment where people have access to all different types of cuisine at any given moment. They can see what the best chefs in the world are doing. They’re, they’re more educated on food than never before. So we have this crippling demand of our consumers that are wanting more, more interesting, more, you know, exotic ingredients, more technique, more everything. And then we have our staff who need to be paid more. Our vendors whose costs are going up and we have, our consumers don’t want to pay more, right? And we have this really tiny razor thin margin. We’re working around 3 to 5%. And now someone wants to change how we do things, and they’re like, I’m barely making it as it is. Like, how do you expect me to just change everything and then manage that, that, like, I can’t put my job on the line like that.

Josh Raulerson (09:04):

It’s not an insignificant upgrade cost, right?

Christopher Galarza (09:07):

No, not at all. What it is, it’s also not an insignificant change to how you operate either. But that’s where we come in, right? That’s where we’re designing education, right? Is to help them understand how this is beneficial. Because ultimately, I don’t come from a place of environmentalism because I believe that’s, if you do the right things, environmentalism is a byproduct of that. Right? What I come from is economics. I, I believe that is the common language that we all speak.

Josh Raulerson (09:37):

It’s not for nothing that it’s the same Latin root for economy and ecology. Right?

Christopher Galarza (09:42):

I, I like that. I didn’t, I didn’t know that. But yeah. And like, so food and economics are the two things that we all speak every language, every culture. We all speak that. So when we, when I go and speak with chefs, the things that I talk to them about is, you know, wouldn’t you want a kitchen that’s cooler? Wouldn’t you want a kitchen that’s higher performing? Wouldn’t you want a kitchen that reduces your costs on energy, on gas, on chemicals, on labor, on water? All of a sudden you’re like, okay, now you’re making sense. Right? To do things for environmental reasons is great, but if, if the business can’t survive, they can’t do it. So there’s a lot of pushback from chefs. One, lack of education, and two, the fear of the unknown, their margins are too thin to just hope for the best.

Josh Raulerson (10:31):

Okay. Well, we should probably start with the business case. The, the pro the positive side, and then we can back into the, the why not gas maybe. But even before we get to that, maybe a primer on how induction cooking actually works, like the science behind it.

Christopher Galarza (10:46):

Absolutely. So the way induction works is you have this copper coil that sits about an inch or two underneath this really durable glass, right? I have to say that because most people think, oh, you can’t survive in a kitchen. It’s glass, it’s going to shatter. But this is temperate ceramic glass that could withstand temperatures of beyond 1400 degrees Fahrenheit. I don’t know of any oven in your kitchen at home or in, in a restaurant that’s going to get that hot. It’s really tough. The way it works is that it sends the electrical current through this copper coil as it’s going round and round. It creates this oscillating magnetic wave called an Eddie current that, or the Eddie current excites the Ferris molecules in the pan. And it gets them really excited.

Joshua Raulerson (11:24):

And it has to be like a particular kind of cookware, right? It’s not just any pan or—

Christopher Galarza (11:28):

Is it, if it, if it attracts a magnet, you’re good to go. So if you’re using all copper, not going to work. If you’re using all aluminum, not going to work, right? But oftentimes what they do is they, is they weld an iron bottom to it and then it works great. Cast iron loves induction. So if you’re at home thinking about maybe making a switch, but you’re like, oh, but I got this cast iron that, like my grandma passed down to me from her grandma, and it’s a family, it’s going to work great. Don’t worry there. But yeah, so then it’s this electrical, sorry, this oscillating magnetic wave excites the ferrous molecules, creates this molecular friction that heats the metal up. So, easiest way to think about this is your, your microwave at home. You turn on these little microwaves, go into your food excites the, the water molecules.

And that’s what heats your food up from the inside out. Imagine that. But for metal. And you can imagine how fast it works. So how fast does it work? We’re able to boil water significantly faster. We’re able to cook food significantly faster. And the numbers behind that are gas at best, we’re talking about 35% efficiency. There was an analysis done by the food service technology center and they said, what if there’s a 50% efficient range, you can cook about 38.6 pounds of food per hour. That’s a lot of food. Induction can cook 70.9 pounds of food per hour, nearly doubling your throughput. Right? So that’s how you begin to make the business case.

Josh Raulerson (12:50):

Do you also have the same kind of precision control over temperature that you went with gas? Oh

Christopher Galarza (12:54):

Yeah. Like, oh yeah. Oh yeah. It stays within one degree. So if I to say, Josh, can you s off some short ribs and braise it on medium low, you’re like, yeah, sure, no problem. Right? But then the questions, there’s a lot of variables they’re introducing. How deep of a seer do you do as opposed to what I want? What is medium low? Is your flame orange or blue? When was, when was the last time it was surfaced? How big are the eyes of your, you know, of your range? Is the flame hitting the bottom of the pan or going up to the sides of the pan? A lot of variables. Is there a draft that can blow out if it’s too low? Happens a lot and you’re just pumping gas and nothing’s really—

Josh Raulerson (13:33):

Just a safety issue, right?

Christopher Galarza (13:34):

Exactly. So what induction does, now I can say, Josh, can you use sear off short ribs at 400 degrees for four minutes on each side and braise it at 180 5 for six hours? You have a level of consistency, it’s going to stay within one degree of that, right? So how many times have you, have you been to a restaurant on say, a Monday? And it’s totally different quality wise and consistency wise as if you go on a Friday, right? We’re trying to eliminate that, right? Because the most expensive thing in a restaurant, I don’t care what kind of restaurant, I don’t care what you’re serving. I don’t care if you haor if you’re just doing tacos. The most expensive thing in a restaurant is an empty seat. And inconsistency leads to empty seats.

Josh Raulerson (14:14):

So that starts to get at the question of like why this is a smart investment. ’cause Again, it’s not necessarily an easy one for a lot of restaurants make, right?

Christopher Galarza (14:21):

Yeah. We’re seeing on average about a 20% delta from gas to electric. But the payoff is about say, 20 months. Right? So let’s talk about what the savings are there and how does it, how does it justify that increased cost when you’re breaking down your gas range? So you’re working a sauté line. First off, you scrub off any food debris, you take the grates, you put them into a sink full of degreaser and hot water. You go back and grab the burners themselves and take a toothpick and go to every single hole. And the more burners you have, the longer it takes to make sure that there’s nothing obstructing the flow of gas. Then you put that in the degreaser, then you scrub down the whole unit with degreaser, scrub it down, rinse it off with hot water. Then you grab the drip tray that’s underneath those knobs, dump the contents, pull the foil, degrease that, wipe that down, replace the foil, replace the drip tray, go back to the sink, scrub all that down.

Now that it’s been loosened up with the greaser, then you dry that off, rinse that off, make sure there’s no chemicals on it. You don’t want to burn chemicals. And then you put it back light the pilot lights, by the way, the whole time the pilot lights are off. So another danger there. If you do it right about 20, 30 minutes. Right? And if you’re in those opera echelons, they’re asking you to not only do all that, but take a toothpick or a skewer and go to every groove You ever seen The Bear? The very beginning. He’s like sitting there that that’s real. Right? By the way, most accurate depiction of a commercial kitchen, I was going to ask in anything I’ve ever seen, including documentaries. If you’ve worked in a kitchen, it’s going to give you PTSD. Yeah. I want to, I want to meet whoever wrote that because they know what they’re doing.

Christopher Galarza (15:57):

So let’s flip to induction now. Now you don’t need the greaser. There’s less water you need because now you just need a towel with hot soapy water and wipe it down. You’re done. So 30 minutes versus 30 seconds. Big difference. And the water consumption, chemical consumption, the labor, right? And so that’s one aspect. So now you cook food faster, you decrease your chemical purchasing, you decrease your water consumption, you decrease your labor. Let’s talk about the heat that comes off of the gas stove. Your kitchen is going to be very hot. I’ve worked in kitchens where we’ve exceeded 130, right? Imagine running a marathon in a chef coat in 130 degrees Fahrenheit. Not easy. Yeah. I could tell you that there’s been many of times that in between rushes I would run upstairs and just throw up and then just come back down to work to fact of life.

In fact, there was a New York Times article that came out last August, 2023, talked about this specifically in New York City. So this isn’t just a Pittsburgh thing, right? This is an industry thing. And that’s because no matter how good your ventilation is, you can’t exhaust out radiant heat. And when you have big flames all throughout the kitchen Yeah, it’s a lot of radiant heat. So you go from a kitchen, it’s 130 degrees Fahrenheit. And in my kitchen at Chatham, we did an analysis when the outside temperature was between 85 and 90. Feel free to look it up listeners. It was to September 9th through 16th of 2019 in Gibsonia, Pennsylvania. The kitchen itself, doesn’t matter if you were cleaning, cooking, or just prepping, never hits 74 degrees Fahrenheit. So that’s a 60 degree drop. What does that do to your need for air conditioning?

Christopher Galarza (17:35):

For how big your ventilation needs to be? The temperate air that needs to come back from whatever you’re exhausting out: significant savings. Not to mention you’re eliminating an entire utility. Right? So that’s another big cause there. And if you have a wok, which despite what the naysayers would say, there is plenty of induction woks out there that are incredible. We have one installed in Microsoft. We have lots of ’em being developed in China right now. In fact, they’ve moved beyond the conversation of gas vs. electric. And they’re seeing how can we automate walks, induction woks. So one chef is managing five woks versus one chef per wok. What we find is that on average woks use about a quarter million gallons of water per year per walk. And that’s because you’re pumping out a hundred thousand btu jet engine underneath this wok. And you are, in order to keep the metal from warping over time, which will happen, you need to constantly have water flowing. It’s a lot of water, right? Nevermind the carbon cost of that. What is the cost of that? Especially if you’re on the West Coast.

Josh Raulerson (18:41):

Yeah. And water is not something we can take for granted.

Christopher Galarza (18:43):

Not at all, unfortunately. So that is a significant cost. All of a sudden at 20% delta, you’re like, oh my God, this is, this is crazy. ’cause Think about it, just with labor, if you can save 30 minutes a night cleaning up, what does that do to your labor cost per day, per week, per month, per quarter, per year. It more than pays for itself. Right. Plus all the other things. Nevermind if your kitchen’s cooler, your, your refrigeration isn’t cycling on an office much. Right. That’s more energy savings. So it’s a cascading effect that pebble in the body of water.

Josh Raulerson (19:15):

And this is also, I mean, a, a worker safety issue too. You’re talking about that much humidity and that much heat like that, that has an effect on your employees.

Christopher Galarza (19:23):

Yeah. This isn’t like a new thing, right? Like Anthony Bourdain wrote about this in 2000 in Kitchen Confidential. I forget the quote exactly, but he’s talking about, he’s painting a scene where behind you is a steam wall that just has, you know, all this moist heat, right? All this humid air. And then in front of you is this wall of dry heat and how chefs are passing out regularly being dragged off the line. So yeah, the health and safety aspect’s a big deal, not to mention what are you breathing in? Right?

You’re breathing in methane, ethane, benzene, carbon monoxide knocks all these things that are not good for you. And despite what some may say that Yeah, but there’s a ventilation system that’s going to suck that right out. True. But you’re still standing directly between that. You’re looking at the flame you’re cooking, so it’s going to pass through you before it gets out.

Josh Raulerson (20:12):

And you’re doing that all day, every day.

Christopher Galarza (20:14):

All day. And I can’t tell you how many times I worked 18 hour shifts. Yeah. I’ve, I’ve worked 30 plus hour shifts. These things truly happen a lot. And it’s kind of like a machismo thing. Like, look what I’ve done, but you’re doing so much harm to yourself. It’s something we need to move past as an industry.

Joshua Raulerson (20:32):

Indoor air quality is a big focus of yours.

Christopher Galarza (20:35):

And matter of fact, we are working on a first of its kind study partner with PSE physician scientists and engineers for healthy energy. So if you hear a lot, if you ever read into any studies on residential kitchen, air quality, there was a famous one that came out in January, 2022 that said that just from the equipment being off in your home, gas leaks to the tune nationally to the tune of about 500,000 cars on the road per year. Just off Imagine when you’re working it. So it’s a, it’s a significant issue. And we’re talking a 10,000 BTU burner in a commercial kitchen, and that’s like four that you have at home in the commercial kitchen. We’re talking 30,000 BTU at minimum. Maybe you got 12 or 16 burners, not counting grills, fryers, ovens. So there’s a lot more that could be leaking and a lot more that we’re breathing in. It’s a lot worse.

Josh Raulerson (21:32):

So I, we could go on making the case from an economic, from a business standpoint, just sort a practical logistical standpoint. What about the, the sustainability side of it? The larger the macro decarbonization angle?

Christopher Galarza (21:43):

Yeah. So like for those who are concerned about the environment, which we all should be, moving away from, gas is just going to eliminate the emissions, right? And emissions are a big deal. Like look, in our cities. New York, 70% of their emissions don’t come from transportation. They come from buildings. San Francisco, 77%. So although globally we’re looking at like, I think it’s like an even third between, you know, buildings and transportation. I forget what the other one is. In our population centers, it’s the built environment. So when the average EUI or energy use intensity of a commercial office building is 30, the average EUI of a commercial kitchen is 325. So we’re using 10 times more energy, emitting so much more. And every single one of these electrification policies across the United States, which there is 131 currently right now across 11 states, that is almost always exempting commercial kitchens.

So even by New York’s policies, which is to be net zero by 2050, they’re short of that goal despite local  97 and 154 and all these other things that they’re doing by 20%. That’s because they’re exempting some of the worst polluters. So what we’re trying to do with this study is see what does it truly mean on air quality in commercial kitchens? What’s going out the flu and what’s going into us? It’s never been done before as far as they can find. So it’s pretty exciting. And I know now there’s a few others, you know, our friends at Stanford is also collaborating with us on a lot of these. So it’s pretty exciting stuff and we’re hoping to have that study out hopefully sometime 2025 or 2026. You know, I believe this is going to be a field of study for years to come.

Christopher Galarza (23:30):

I think it’s going to be effective because it’s going to give folks an inside view into what, how kitchens operate. And it’s going to help craft policy, I believe. And I think that’s the main thing that we need to focus on, is the education aspect of it. That’s going to help in crafting policy, going to help in how we adopt these things going to help and how we work these things. Because if chefs don’t know how to use it, they don’t know that they want it. They’re not going to get it. They’re going to be forced to get it. They’re going to go for the cheapest option, it’s not going to work. They’re going to say, see, it doesn’t work. And then these policies are going to fall apart and then we’re going to be back to square one. Right? So education is everything. And the last thing I want is for people to make decisions, make policy decisions about kitchens who have more than likely never worked in one.

So they have no idea how it’s going to affect. And this is a big deal because hospitality is one of the largest revenue generators for this country in Pennsylvania right now where we are, it’s a number two generator, natural gas behind only agriculture. So it works hand in hand. So we talk about Pennsylvania as we like, you know, natural gas, which is great. I mean, we do have a need for it at the moment. We just don’t have a need for it in the kitchen. So I’m not bashing natural gas to be clear, because it is important for the, for the state. But it’s really important to understand where it is in the hierarchy of needs. And it’s not anywhere near the top.

Josh Raulerson (24:48):

This kind of gets to your Business Forward Dining Solutions. That education piece. Do you want to talk about that?

Christopher Galarza (24:52):

Yeah. Yeah. So Forward Dining Solutions is a consulting firm that I started like most things in life by accident. Right. it wasn’t my intention to ever be an entrepreneur. I got asked to start a business by Microsoft and I wasn’t going to say no. They wanted me to be a part of their project to bring their chefs on board and help them get moving forward and how that even happened. Again, accident. I was working at Chatham, I get an email from Katie Ross at Microsoft and she said, Hey, we’re having this discussion internally about should we or shouldn’t we, you don’t work for any of the people we’re working with. You’re totally independent. We want to know your thoughts. What do you like about your kitchen? And as far as we know, you’re probably the only one in in in the country doing this.

So I was like, sure, happy to talk. And talked with them for about an hour. Told them what I liked, what I didn’t like, what I wish that the design considerations that they would’ve taken, shared them, my menus, equipment, all that stuff. And I was like, wow, that was really cool. I talked with Microsoft. A couple months later, I got an email from the lead engineer on the Microsoft project. He’s like, Hey heard you talk to my client and I wanted to thank you because they decided to go all electric. I’m like, oh, that’s really cool. And they’re like, yeah, well we’ve been trying to do this for three years. <Laugh> A one hour conversation with you, they’re on board. Would you like to do this for other folks? And I’m like because consulting’s what you do when you retire. But thank you though.

I appreciate it. And they’re like, well, we see this being a big issue and like, especially here on the West Coast and we don’t really know how to tackle that. There’s no chefs that are talking about that. I think you could be really valuable in this space. So I said, oh, I mean, if you think I can help, I’m happy to help, but I’m not leaving my job. And then starting in 2019, I got another email from Microsoft saying, Hey, I want to, we want you to be on the project, so just send us over your information. We’ll get you put in as a vendor. And I said, sure, here’s my information. Like, oh, don’t you have a company? I was like, no. They’re like, well, we can’t pay you. We have to pay a company, so could you. And I was like, sure, we’ll start a company.

I’m not going to say no to one of the largest companies in the history of the world. So I did that. And a week before my 30th birthday, I signed a contract, started working for Microsoft and the pandemic hit. And it gave me a lot of time to figure out what I wanted to do. And what I wanted to do was to give back to this industry that’s given me everything. Taking me from homelessness to owning a home. And I feel like the pandemic showed a lot of cracks in our system that we still haven’t recovered from. There’s a reason that there’s a workers’ shortage. It’s not because there are people sitting at home collecting Covid checks. We all know that that ended years ago. It’s because people had time and resources to go and do something else. And people realized, I don’t want to work in an industry that I am working with people who don’t respect me. I’m working the worst hours. I am working for little pay. I am working in extremely hot environments. I don’t feel very good all the time. I wonder why I’m going to go do something else. There’s a better way to do things. And I want the industry to realize that. Because if we could take advantage of this and take advantage of the lessons of the green Industrial Revolution, we can be even more effective. So this work has led me to consulting. I’ve consulted for the state of Pennsylvania. I’ve consulted for Google and Microsoft and small mom and pop restaurants is a, you ever eat at Square Cafe? Consulted for them. Love that place. Sherry is a dream to work with.

So, you know, working with my clients, I started working with my business partners on creating the next evolution of this, which is Eco Chef, which is a certification company. It’s an education company and it, it, it’s an accreditation company. And what we’re doing there is we’re standardizing how we design and build and operate commercial kitchens. We’re talking about air quality, the temperature of the kitchen, the health and comfort and performance and efficiency and all these things. Waste reduction. So what we’re doing is taking away the guesswork. We’re providing a roadmap that people can follow and be successful at it. So we can show the efficiency or rather the opportunities that are out there and maybe that we’ll see more mom and pop restaurants and less chain restaurants.

Josh Raulerson (29:03):

It’s kind of similar to like a LEDD certification. Is that a—

Christopher Galarza (29:05):

Exactly. We actually model a lot of it after lead. So if you do lead certifications and you look at our scorecard, it’s can be very familiar. One of my partners is, is an architect and he, he helped us design all of this. And he’s like, this is going to be the, that again, that common language that people are going to be able to see, understand, and pick up and run with quickly. And we’re going to be launching in January, and I’m happy to say we’re already having the discussions with some of the big certification companies. Like we’re endorsed by several organizations like the Building Decarbonization Coalition, the Global Cooks Safe Coalition, the American Culinary Federation, the EPA. We’re and, and we’re an Energy Star partner. So people see the need for this sort of education.

Josh Raulerson (29:46):

We’ve been talking a lot about gas and induction, obviously. There are many other sustainability issues that are in play in a commercial kitchen. What about like water usage? Can, what can we say about that?

Christopher Galarza (29:55):

Yeah. Water usage. It’s, that’s a big one. Right. I was recently speaking at the American Culinary Federation’s National Convention last July. I was talking to the chefs about what we’re talking about now. And I stopped and I said, chefs, can you tell me what is the first thing we’re all taught as chefs to control our cost on? And everyone’s like food cost. And what do you, what do you look for that cost? In the trash can. Of course. What are you throwing away? I’m like, absolutely. Yes. What are you throwing away? That’s how you control cost. Now if we take, now if what we’re doing here in every seminar we’re talking about is almost exclusively about food costs. Right. Talking about how can we pinch these pennies? What we’re finding is that we’re really good at that. How can we, Hey, we have these vegetable scraps, let’s turn it into, you know, stock.

Or I’ve seen chefs actually say, Hey, we have all these carrot scraps. We’re not going to get carrot stock. What if we make like carrot marmalade? You know, what if we made pickle carrot relish or, you know, getting creative with it. I once took pineapple cos shred it down and pickle that. And it’s a great topping for fish tacos. Really good crunchy. It’s delicious. But we’re getting creative with that. And that’s great. Let’s take one more step back. How much water’s going down the drain? No one knew. How much water do you use in a given day? No one knew how much do you spend on electricity? No one knew how much electricity comes from because of your air conditioning. No one knew. How much of these efficiencies or inefficiencies rather are we seeing in our kitchen that is costing us money, but we’re so focused, hyper-focused on once in our trash can that we’re forgetting about all these other things that we’re throwing away.

We touched on a lot of them. Water consumption, energy consumption, air conditioning, all these things. Those are so costly. You know, they talk about, oh, we can’t make this transition to electric because electric costs more than gas pound for pound. You’re right. But when you’re using one commodity at 90% efficiency and the other commodity at 35, which by the way, I need to clear that up, 35% efficient for gas, that is at lab conditions in the hands of a professional, in the hands of a chef, it plummets to about 10 or 20%. So for every dollar you’re spending, 90 cents of it is being thrown away.

Josh Raulerson (32:12):

And again, not even accounting for leaks and just sort of ambient—

Christopher Galarza (32:15):

Exactly. So imagine trying to operate your business where you’re buying a hundred dollar’s worth of product and you immediately take $90 of that and you throw it away and you’re like, okay, I’m just going to cook with this. Right? Someone have to take the keys away from you. There’s no way you can operate a business that way. But that’s how we’re operating our utilities that way. So once we started talking about that, these chefs all like perked up and they’re like, hold on. How much are we thrown away? Right. Right. They got really interested. And it’s not because from an environmental standpoint, it’s because we’re making the business case. We’re speaking that common language. All of a sudden they’re like, cool, I don’t really have time to think about the fires in California, but I do have time to figure out how to make my business more efficient, more profitable because I’m getting killed out there.

Josh Raulerson (33:01):

And this is the whole thing with sustainability is getting your head around these externalized costs that you’re not thinking about once you incorporate that.

Christopher Galarza (33:08):

Your whole approach changes. Yeah. And then never mind like working with our farmers, right. We’re working with a local economy. And then once we start to explain this and how, how beneficial that is, right? At the restaurant, we’ll make a decision to buy local products and hopefully our local farmers are doing regenerative practices, which are better for the environment. But then we’re, because we’re spending our money locally, our local economy gets stronger. And then people are able to reinvest back into their local businesses in the area. Right. And that’s what the green industrial revolution’s about. Like that’s what my, that’s what my entire book was about. That, that accompanies the courses. It’s about this economic system where people are realizing that where they spend money can affect more change versus where the who they vote for once every four years. So if we start saying, Hey, we’re going to support businesses that are buying local products, that are creating environments for their chefs that are healthier, if they are admitting less, if they’re doing all the right things we want them to do, these businesses are going to, are going to go, how can we capture that market?

Then they’re going to start making these changes. And that’s how we begin to change things. We have the power. Let’s not, you know, there are a lot, a lot of people out there that may be feeling some type of way about the election. We have, we still have the power. We vote with our dollars every single day. You could sit there in the news and feel, feel sad and upset and all that fun stuff. But when you leave your house, every decision you make: where you buy your groceries. You can go to Giant Eagle, which is great. Cool. Or you can go to the farm stand and buy directly from the farmers. I mean, that’s going to help a lot more. Make the right decisions. You’re going to affect more change in a larger scale. And if you were to wait for the next election

Josh Raulerson

The idea of buy local. Eat local. That’s already pretty well established as like a marketing value proposition. Like people get that and they, they spend money accordingly—

Christopher Galarza (34:58):

And because of that, you’re starting to see more of that. Right? Chipotle, every market they go into, they buy their produce from local farmers as best they can. They buy protein from local farmers as best they can because they, they listened. And more and more places are starting to do that because we decided we want local products. So that is working brilliantly and that’s a great point to bring up.

Joshua Raulerson (35:22)

Then when you, when you talk about like really closing the loop, where this all takes you obviously is how you’re connected to other other industries. And agriculture is the, the only bigger one in Pennsylvania, as you mentioned. Food production is really a big part, big part of this. So apart like, apart from the, the marketing of local products and like, again, consumers are catching on and that’s something people are demanding. What about, is there a role for, for restaurants, commercial kitchens to play in the way food, you know, is produced locally (hopefully), regeneratively (hopefully).What does that, what does that mean?

Christopher Galarza (35:55):

Actually I was just at a conference in Tennessee and it was all about regenerative agriculture. And that’s something that I knew nothing about until I went there. And it blew my mind how wasteful again and how harmful the way we produce food is. Our farms are able to do an incredible, like, incredible things like sequester carbon, right? Which is going to provide more nutrients to the food. So now we don’t need all these nitrogen fertilizers, all these harmful pesticides, all these things. I was hearing from people who had farms in North Carolina and they decided years ago to farm regeneratively. They were able to withstand the storms that came back-to-back, hurricanes, all their, their farm bodies got ruined. Thank God for the, you know, for the crop insurance. But they survived because the way that they were farming the soil was able to absorb all that water. Which only made those plants even better. So they’re able to do a lot more as far as the environment’s concerned, as far as sequestering carbon, as chefs, we have an incredible responsibility, but we are being kind of constrained. Constrained because of the market. Right. Again, 3% profit margin. The consumers want this, or we’re trying to pay our staff more and to buy from oftentimes local sources and to buy from regenerative farms cost more. So now your margins are even slimmer.

Joshua Raulerson (37:23):

Incidentally, this is a lot of this is down to policy decisions made decades ago in the way that farms are, you know, subsidized or not subsidized and the, the way the markets are structured.

Christopher Galarza (37:33):

Yeah, you’re absolutely right. But where I think is the lowest hanging fruit is education going back to education. Talking to chefs, educating them as to why this is better for their kitchen. Talking to designers, why this is better for the clients. Talking to consumers and saying, these are, these are the decisions we’re making as a business. We’re going to be making these kitchens healthier, but we’re also choosing to buy products locally. It’s going to cost more, but we need you to be in this with us. So in the fall, in the winter, we’re not going to have tomatoes because they’re not in season. Understand that when your salad doesn’t have a, you know, a tomato. And that’s something that my students had to get over when I, you know, when I was at Chatham. If you educate your consumers and if you tell them why you’re doing what you’re doing, you’re one, you’re building a relationship. And two, those who see it and those who get it will support you. They’ll support you no matter what. And that’s really important for a business. And then you’re able to say, okay, now I can justify the costs and now they understand when I go and purchase from these farms because I want to do the right thing. And now we’re, we’re beginning to incentivize farmers to do the right thing and never mind how we treat farm workers. That was one of the things that I really struggled with at this conference, is how bad farm workers really have it. Like I’d learned that there are only two states in the entire country that recognize farm labor as labor and are thus protected under, under the labor laws: New York and California.

Christopher Galarza (39:14):

I also learned that there were two bills across two governor’s desks in both Florida and in Texas that would require farmers to provide water to the farm workers. They were passed, they were vetoed. That’s how we treat our farm workers and those are the people that we’re buying from. So it incentivizes them because now they’re saying we got to make cheaper products because that’s what’s selling. So we got to cut costs and sorry guys, you don’t need water. Even though I think this year we’ve seen 140, 150, a hundred degree plus days in those states as chefs we’re complicit in that system. So it’s not going to be easy to change, but we have to try to change because it’s not just our lives on the line. It’s not just our livelihoods on the line. It’s also other people who are coming into this country to make sure we have food.

Christopher Galarza (40:05):

One of the famous stories I was told as a chef that I read rather that I read was from David Chang, famous chef out of New York City and he took his staff to Hudson Valley Farms. That’s where they produced foie gras. And they hung out on the farm all day. They closed the restaurant and cost him money, but they closed the restaurant. They went to the farm, they hung out with the ducks. They were feeding the ducks, they were hanging out with the ducks. And then they got to see the ducks get slaughtered. They got to see the foie gras get harvested. They got to see the duck breast get harvested and all that stuff. And they were horrified. They were like, why did you show us this? This is awful. He’s like, because the next time you burn something, you’re going to know the sacrifice of that farmer and know the ultimate sacrifice that that duck paid to make sure that you have a job, but to make sure that you have substance to survive another day on this earth. That is the responsibility we have as chefs.

Christopher Galarza (40:43):

And knowing that there are other lives on the line, not just the farmer, but also the farm workers. There is an incredible amount of responsibility there. And we have to do the right thing and we have to educate our consumers as to why it’s important. So they understand that we’re trying to do the right thing and talk about the marketing of it. Right. You don’t have to know what eco chef means, but if you walk into a restaurant that has a big eco chef, bronze eco chef, gold, eco chef, platinum, you know, it has something to do with food, something to do with the environment. You’re like, cool. Right. But when you get in there, that’s the opportunity for that team to educate you why that’s important. So all of a sudden in a landscape of restaurants, you stand out as that restaurant that is doing right by the planet is doing it right by your local economy, is doing right by your staff. And you build that, that loyal following that is everything to a restaurant is a loyal following. Again, the most expensive thing in any operation is empty seats. People come into town, they go, dude, you got to check out this restaurant. Not only is the food fantastic, but look at what they’re doing. Right? They eliminated gas, like their staff is paid more, they’re better healthcare, there’s cool down areas.

Josh Raulerson (41:52):

How, how do you do the piece of educating your diners? Right? Yeah. Like you always tell farmers, you have to educate, you know, your customers at the farmer’s market, like why this and why does it cost this? And you sort of have a venue for that in a farmer’s market setting, right? Yeah. But like, I don’t know, do you, do you have, do you train your servers to have these conversations with people?

Speaker 2 (42:09):

Absolutely. Absolutely. So for example, when I took over Monterey Bay, the first thing I did, well the second thing, the first thing I did was took away salt and pepper shakers because that’s my job, right? No one goes to their mechanic, gets their oil change and then gets their car back. It just adds a little bit more oil. Right? So I’m like, no, if they want salt, they got to ask for it. But I, I season my food. Right? But the second thing I did <laugh> was I, I talked and educated the servers on everything I was doing. So if I’m like, Hey, we have this albino salmon, it’s served with this, what’s albino salmon? Oh, it’s, you know, it’s the deficiency. Normally the way that we get the pink colors, we feed them their diet that’s heavy in this, this is an albino. It’s, it’s, it’s rarer, same flavor, same everything, but it comes in from these water. So when they’re asked these questions, they get, they don’t go, let me go talk to the chef. They know. Right? Every time I go to a restaurant and I have question about wine, question about, I love beer. So if I go, Hey, what’s on tap that’s local? They go that this beer’s from here, this beer’s from here. Depending what your definition is local. This is on the other side of the state. Right? This is actually in Ohio, but it’s actually right over the border. That knowledge I am so impressed with. Right. But it’s that communication with the front and back of the house. Right? So yeah, educating your servers, educating your managers, educating your staff. Because for example, when I was at Off the Hook, right? I was in charge of the Oyster Bar. I built that program there and I knew nothing about oysters, so I educated myself. So when people sat down and said, I don’t know, oysters are kind of intimidating. I’m like, okay, what kind of, what kind of food do you like? Do you like salty food, sweet food? You know, if you’re not sure about oysters, let’s start with a Kumamoto. It’s smaller, it’s a little sweeter. It’s not as salty because there’s 3% less salt in the Pacific Ocean than it is in the Atlantic Ocean <laugh>. And all of a sudden they’re like, I’ll try that. Right? And it, it’s, it’s, it’s that communication that, and then all of a sudden those people started coming back and they’re, they’re friends who weren’t interested in oysters. Like, give them that kumamoto, give them that cushy oyster, you know? And that’s just oyster. Right? Another podcast all about the most sustainable food on the planet, I, I believe is oyster.

Christopher Galarza (44:08):

But if you were to educate the people who are interacting with your guests, they are going to understand why you’re doing the things you’re doing. And if you’re, and if you have the time, go out there, right? But on a clean chef coat, go interact with the people that you’re serving. You know, talk to your manager, say, Hey, who had the most questions? I’m going to go up there and say, Hey, how was everything? I heard y’all some questions. Were they satisfied? You know, if not, I’m happy to answer them. Oh yeah. Okay, cool. This is so, so we got that from this farm. And actually this farm is owned by this farmer and he does this with his crops and he’s actually a really good guy. His, his daughter just went and did some type does and knowing that you’re in the community. Yeah. That matters. That matters you a big way. And I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone to a place like Traveled and I’ve had those interactions. I go, if I lived here, this would be my spot. And when I go to another city and like a client’s like, where do you want to go chef? I’m like that place. Right. That’s important.

Josh Raulerson (45:05):

And that’s where the voting with your dollars thing really gets traction. Like, because it’s more than just spending money. It’s like it’s a relationship.

Christopher Galarza (45:12):

It’s a relationship. That’s exactly right. That’s the best way to describe it, right. Because chefs have to realize that your guests, when they come to your restaurant, when they come to your kitchen, they have made a decision. Right? Money’s tight for a lot of people. They have, they worked all week for that money, sometimes two weeks, right. For that money. And they’re coming out to have dinner, lunch, whatever with you. You better show them a good time. And I can’t stand when I go and I talk with session, I’m like, oh, hold on, I got a ticket to take care of. I’m like, no dude. Like you wouldn’t have a restaurant. Yeah. If it wasn’t for that person saying I want to spend my money there because they can go anywhere else, but they’re making a decision to come to you. There must be a reason. Keep working at that reason. Keep cultivating that relationship. That could be an entire podcast series.

Josh Raulerson (46:06):

This is already turning into like a multi-part episode. I’m afraid we should probably wrap it up.

Christopher Galarza (46:10):

Sure. Yeah.

Josh Raulerson (46:10):

But chef Chris Galarza, thank you so much for being on Pennsylvania Legacies. This is great talking with you.

Christopher Galarza (46:14):

I appreciate it. Thank you so much. Yeah. And if anyone wants to learn more about what we’re doing, please check me out on LinkedIn, Chef Christopher Galarza, or check out ecochef.org. To learn all about the new systems that are coming out.

Josh Raulerson (46:26):

Great. We’ll have those links in the show notes for this episode and everything on the PEC website as well.

Christopher Galarza (46:30):

Perfect. Thank you so much.

Josh Raulerson (46:37):

That’s all for this time. You can learn more about Chef Christopher Galarza’s work and buy his book at forwarddiningsolutions.com. There you can also learn about the Eco Chef Certification program and much more. We’ll have the link on the PEC website pecpa.org. That’s pecpa.org, where you can also find all past episodes of the Pennsylvania Legacies Podcast, touching on everything from decarbonization policy and clean energy in Pennsylvania to stormwater management and watershed restoration throughout the Commonwealth. Our work to develop trails and outdoor recreation assets that in turn support a thriving outdoor industry across Pennsylvania, one of our best hopes for Pennsylvania’s economic future. All of that is pecpa.org. Find the Pennsylvania Environmental Council on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Blue Sky, and, yes, X. You can subscribe to our In Case You Missed It, monthly newsletter by visiting the website again pecpa.org. Thanks for joining us for this Pennsylvania Legacies podcast conversation. As I said, we’ll be back after the Thanksgiving holiday in December. Until then, for the Pennsylvania Environmental Council, I’m Josh Raulerson and thanks for listening.