Florida Foodie

Executive pastry chef Josh Cain credits his great aunt with fostering his sweet tooth.

“For me, chocolate and sweets is something that I didn’t realize until I got older, that I did this a lot with my great aunt,” Cain said. “My grandmother was cooking, but my great aunt was the one who always made all of the desserts and I was right there, helping her out.”

Cain later graduated from Johnson and Wales culinary school in North Carolina to pursue his career as a pastry chef, eventually making his way to Caribe Royale in Orlando.

While Cain makes a variety of sweet treats, he has a deep passion for chocolate.

He has become known for creating elaborate displays out chocolate, such as a 32-foot-long model train and an 11-foot-tall replica of a Saturn V rocket.

“I actually make molds as well,” Cain said. “So if I want to make something out of chocolate, and I maybe I want it to have certain details, I’ll create my own molds. So I use silicone, I use different thermoforming techniques to make different plastic molds and stuff like that to create what I want to out of chocolate.”

For the model train, Cain said he used 1,600 pounds of chocolate.

The chef said the most stressful part of making these massive confections is moving them.

“The biggest thing with that is it really, that’s when everybody comes around and gets in your way,” he said.

Cain added that he works to make sure his large-scale displays will last, some as long as eight years.

“I build these things really substantial so that they can last the test of time,” he said.

While his enormous creations are a quite the sight, Cain is bringing something even more unique to Caribe Royale; a proprietary chocolate formal that will only be found at the resort.

“In October, I was I had the chance to go to France and the company I was with, they approached me. They said ‘Hey,would you be interested in formulating your own Chocolate?,’” Cain said. “I pitched it to my boss. And he’s like, ‘That sounds amazing. Like who’s doing that around here?’”

The chef described the trip as a fully immersive experience.

“It’s really cool. So we start the process, we work on the flavor profiles, we take those and then we kind of start a formula,” Cain said.

The formula then went through several revisions before he landed on a product he was happy with.

“The one that I actually landed on was it had beans from Venezuela and Madagascar. It has a really nice flavor profile and what I was trying to do is tie in what happens in Central Florida, what grows in Central Florida, and some of those notes,” he said. “So they have a lot of fruity notes, red berry kind of notes — kind of like Plant City strawberries — citrus notes, the honey that goes along with that. So I wanted to kind of tie that into my chocolate so it really brings it all home for what we have in Central Florida.”

In addition to this special chocolate formula, Caribe Royale is also expanding its chocolate-making facilities.

“I’m working on expanding that to make it where we can do actual classes and bring guests and they can pay to take these classes and come see what we do and create these things,”

On the latest episode of Florida Foodie, Cain explains more about the different kinds of chocolate and how he uses them in his work. He also shares some of his favorites from Caribe Royale.

Please follow our Florida Foodie hosts on social media. You can find Candace Campos on Twitter and Facebook. Lisa Bell is also on Facebook and Twitter and you can check out her children’s book, “Norman the Watchful Gnome.”

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Wess St. Victor started making barbecue the same way many people do, right in his backyard.

“What happened was my backyard — love my wife, she just kept buying me different types of smokers, different types of grills,” St. Victor said. “So it got to the point that my backyard started looking like ‘Sanford and Son.’”

At the time, he was working as an exterminator, but St. Victor was also bringing his barbecue to friends and family.

“A couple of guys at work told me, they’re like, ‘Why are you killing bugs? You need to be doing barbecue,’” he said. “That’s when this whole thing got started — like testing out different things at work. For the Fourth of July, like not like 95% of my church was in my backyard.”

St. Victor eventually took his barbecue on the road, creating St. Vic’s Smoke Shack.

“We started out — my son and I started out — at just a couple of pit barrels at a gas station,” he said. “Then from that point on we progressed through getting a food truck and we’ve been running the food truck for a little bit over seven years.”

Through his food truck, St. Victor built a loyal following of customers.

“A lot of folks was like our flavors are very different from what you were accustomed to with barbecue because we introduced a lot of like our Caribbean heritage in our barbecue,” he said.

In October, St. Victor decided to make the jump from a food truck to a brick-and-mortar location. St. Vic’s Smoke Shack now sits at 1858 North Orange Blossom Trail, near the intersection with Princeton. The area is seeing a lot of development as Orlando’s Packing District grows up around the area. John Rivers, the owner of 4 Rivers, is also opening his 4 Roots farm nearby.

While the area is expected to grow rapidly, St. Victor has said the transition to a permanent location has come with some “hiccups.”

“We moved into a new area( where) nobody really knows us. You know, it’s not what it used to be over there (along Orange Blossom Trail) but we are building up,” he said.

St. Victor credits his success so far to building relationships with his customers.

“I have developed a relationship with most of my customers,” he said. “We know each other’s names, they ask me about the kids about the wife. I know about them and their children and so on and so forth. So it’s — essential you’re building a family.”

St. Victor knows a lot about family, as he and his wife are parents to eight children. He credits his wife with keeping their household running.

“I am extremely lucky. I married a wonderful woman. So not only does she balance 95% of all that stuff (the household), she also homeschools all of them as well, too,” he said. “She runs the whole house and will take pressure off of me for me to go to work — because I also have another job and they run this business.”

On the latest episode of Florida Foodie, St. Victor talks about working with his children at the business. He also talks about what makes his barbecue stand out from the rest.

Please follow our Florida Foodie hosts on social media. You can find Candace Campos on Twitter and Facebook. Lisa Bell is also on Facebook and Twitter and you can check out her children’s book, “Norman the Watchful Gnome.”

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Food Network star Guy Fieri made a stop at his Winter Park restaurant Chicken Guy! on Wednesday, announcing a big expansion of the businesses footprint.

The mayor of Flavortown had several pieces of business to attend to while making his visit.

“I live in Northern California, I also have a house in West Palm Beach — So, I’m going to be spending a lot more time in Florida,” Fieri said. “This (Winter Park location) is the beginning of the growth. We wanted to make sure that we had this thing dialed in and really know all the ins and outs of what we’re doing and how we’re doing it to make sure that what we’re going to give people on a national level was going to be outstanding. But we have 80 franchises that are already ready to go. It’s going to go loud and fast.”

Florida Foodie co-host Candace Campos was there and got the chance to talk with Fieri and his business partner Robert Earl about the franchise and its future growth.

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Katherine Franco has experienced food insecurity in her own life.

She spent the first ten years of her life in the Dominican Republic, where she said members of the community always watched out for each other and ensured no one went hungry.

“And then coming here (to the U.S.), my mom didn’t have much,” Franco said. “(It was) just my mom, her two kids — we were having issues with housing. My mom had to work overnight, all the time. It was just like, we would get what she could give us.”

That experience of going without pushed her toward helping others in need.

“I want to be able to build a space where people who are struggling from food insecurity can have access to these healthy foods because there are so many things that take into effect when you’re not properly being fed,” she said. “Like mental health issues — being overweight comes with a bunch of other issues. So I just want to be part of the movement that brings that resource to people that really need it.”

That desire to help others led Franco to start the Neighborhood Fridge. The fridge sits behind the Laundromart, 5065 Edgewater Drive, and is accessible 24/7.

“The goal was to target underserved communities,” Franco said. “And then I thought of like, ‘Who do I know that owns a business?’ And I thought if my friend Sean (Nelson). I was like, ‘Oh, my gosh, a laundromat would be great.’”

Nelson and his family own the laundromat and agreed to host the Neighborhood Fridge.

“We need to try and give back as much as we can and not just think about ourselves,” Nelson said in February when the fridge first opened.

“The goal was to target underserved communities,” Franco said. “And then I thought of like, ‘Who do I know that owns a business?’ And I thought if my friend Sean (Nelson). I was like, ‘Oh, my gosh, a laundromat would be great.’”

Nelson and his family own the laundromat and agreed to host the Neighborhood Fridge.

“We need to try and give back as much as we can and not just think about ourselves,” Nelson said in February when the fridge first opened.

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As egg costs soar across the country, Mussette Gonzalez is keeping her prices right where they are.

“I haven’t changed my prices since I started,” Gonzalez said. “I didn’t get into selling eggs to make a huge profit.”

Gonzalez is the owner of Lé Koopé, a small egg farm in Clermont that she runs with her mother.

“We started with four chickens. My mother used to work for the Department of Corrections here and they had purchased some chicks for Easter for the families. Then the chickens could not stay on DLCs properties. So we brought them over,” she said.

From there, Gonzalez went about educating herself on caring for the birds.

“I read a book from Lisa Steele,” she said. “Her grandmother showed her how to raise chickens naturally, so that’s kind of my Bible.”

From those four birds, Gonzalez’s operation grew.

“I decided that we should start a company with what we had and what we had was land,” she said. “So why not just do chickens? Everybody eats eggs and I thought it would be something that would be sustainable.”

She prides herself on offering a multitude of colors with her eggs — from white to brown to blue and speckled.

“I want to get every color I can possibly get in the carton,” she said. “I don’t want to give two of the same color. I want to make sure everybody has a little bit of everything.”

Gonzalez and her mother now have about 500 eggs-producing chickens with 200 more that are not yet laying.

“It’s a lot of hard labor,” she said. “Especially feeding, which may be the hardest part.”

In addition to chickens, Lé Koopé also has ducks and quail. Gonzalez’s mother built the coops for all of the birds.

The pair now sell their eggs at farmers’ markets around Central Florida, with the help of the Farmacy.

“I started at Winter Gardens farmers with the Farmacy, which is my vendor. I started with them and I’ve been with them for at least five years now,” she said.

She also sells through John Rivers 4 Roots non-profit, as well as some direct sales to restaurants.

Gonzlez said she also has a long-term goal of getting a food truck to sell eggs to underserved communities but she has not yet been able to make that happen.

In the latest episode of Florida Foodie, Gonzalez shares more about what it takes to care for her flock of birds. She also shares how she protects her birds from avian flu and the difference in flavor between duck, chicken and quail eggs.

Please follow our Florida Foodie hosts on social media. You can find Candace Campos on Twitter and Facebook. Lisa Bell is also on Facebook and Twitter and you can check out her children’s book, “Norman the Watchful Gnome.”

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Florida Foodie is bringing you an update on Dino Ferri, the owner of Hotter Than El hot sauces.

Ferri now runs an international food market specializing in spicy foods called "Spice is Nice" in Sanford, Florida.

Candace Campos and Lisa Bell check in with Ferri and learn all about this next chapter in his career.

After the update, you can hear our original interview with Ferri.

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Bill Caldecutt is primarily an academic, working as a professor at Polk State University, but he also grew up working with his father doing pool repairs in New York.

“I think a lot of the things that are good about me — there are some good things — I think most of that stuff stems from the experiences that I had out working with (my dad) learning responsibility, dealing with people, learning how to do things, learning skills,” Caldecutt said.

Because of those experiences, Caldecutt wanted his own children to have the same opportunity. During the pandemic, Caldecutt got into baking, like many people did. This led him to an idea.

“So I thought what I did for a living doesn’t lend itself to that. So we invented something that would work for that,” he said. “So I kind of took this new baking obsession and tried to transform it into something that I could use to help out with my kids, let them get up in the morning, learn some responsibility, have some fun, you know, and do something really fascinating.”

From that idea, Bagel Boy was born.

On the latest episode of Florida Foodie, Caldecutt shares how he was able to keep costs down when buying equipment for his home business. He also shares where the name came from and all the different bagel varieties they offer.

Please follow our Florida Foodie hosts on social media. You can find Candace Campos on Twitter and Facebook. Lisa Bell is also on Facebook and Twitter and you can check out her children’s book, “Norman the Watchful Gnome.”

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Sevarestt Allen, the chef and owner of Kitchen Savior, started learning how to cook at the age of 8.

“My grandmother is I say who kind of you know taught me the ropes,” Allen said. “(I would) kind of go in the kitchen with her and she’s like, ‘Sevarrest, watch the pots. Don’t let my food burn.’”

That was his introduction to cooking, but he did not always plan to pursue it as a career.

“So what happened was we were I was getting ready to get laid off from a job,” Allen said. “They did us a favor and told us, ‘Hey guys at this particular point we’re gonna lay you guys off.’ So, I was newly engaged and right around the time I was getting laid off was probably about a month or so before I was supposed to get married. So my wife, she goes, ‘You should look into going to culinary school.’ I’m like, ‘Well, why would I do that?’”

Despite his skepticism, Allen ended up attending Le Cordon Bleu in Orlando. Shortly after starting his education there, Allen also started working at Disney’s Yacht Club Resort.

“I got my job there and that’s where my legitimate culinary journey started because working there, you get to work with different chefs are from all over the world,” he said.

While working there, Allen helped the chefs develop a soul food menu. However, he said the moment he knew he had made it was when he was put in charge of a catering event for 1,100 guests.

“I remember the executive chef was like, ‘Hey, so that barbecue rub you make — we’re gonna keep that on hand,” Allen said. “That was when I was like, ‘Cool. I can do this.’”

Allen’s culinary career opened him up to a wide range of exciting opportunities, including cooking for musicians like Sir Paul McCartney and the Rolling Stones,

Allen had made the acquaintance of Eric John, the owner of Untouchables Catering. Through John, Allen had worked preparing food for the Republican National Convention in 2012.

John reached out to Sevarrest again when the Stones were playing a show in Orlando.

“He legitimately calls and he was like, ‘Hey, I got the Rolling Stones,” Allen said.

The band ended up being so impressed with the food that they invited him to come along on a leg of the tour.

“I’ll tell you, my wife was pregnant at the time — like (she might give birth) at any moment. So, I was like ‘Hey, listen. Do you mind? I might be gone for a week,” Allen said.

She said yes and Allen hit the road with the Rolling Stones.

Eventually, the chef decided to strike out on his own. He started his own personal chef, meal prep and catering business, Kitchen Savior.

In the latest episode of Florida Foodie, Allen discusses how he came up with the name for his business and how it plays into his personal faith. He also talks about his work with the Parramore Kidz Zone and the one person he would like to cook for most.

Please follow our Florida Foodie hosts on social media. You can find Candace Campos on Twitter and Facebook. Lisa Bell is also on Facebook and Twitter and you can check out her children’s book, “Norman the Watchful Gnome.”

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Jordan Eichenblatt will tell you that he is not the owner of Cholo Dogs.

He credits the business to Franco Furtero.

“We (Eichenblatt and his business partner Chris Delahoz) went on a trip to Mexico for one of our clients, and we came across this hotdog cart,” Eichenblatt said. “And he had the hot dogs, we’re talking to him and he said he’s moving to Orlando. We’re like, ‘We’re from Orlando.’ His name is Franco. We became friends and he said, ‘Why don’t you guys operate this for me?’”

And so, Cholo Dogs made its way to Orlando, while its enigmatic owner remains something of a mystery.

Eichenblatt’s story is less of a mystery, as a Central Florida native.

“I grew up in Orlando — born and raised. (I) left in 2009, went to college, went and kind of started my career and then somehow I’m back here on my dad’s couch in like 2012 and I’ve been here since,” he said.

Eichenblatt has definitely made the most of his homecoming. In addition to Cholo Dogs, he also co-owns a T-shirt company and an ad agency.

“(I like) anything creative and fun that puts a smile on people’s faces. We have an awesome team — our ad agency is called HIFIVE — we have an awesome team there and everyone’s essentially a part of everything that we do. We bought a company called Orlando Shirts that was (started) by two sisters,” he said. “Life’s too short to not have a fun job.”

The fun with Cholo Dogs got started in 2019, according to Eichenblatt. However, the business hit a pretty significant hurdle early on.

“Boom, COVID hit. And so it was just like, kind of figuring out what to do after that. I mean, we were only open — it seemed like forever — but September 2019 to February 2020,” he said.

The Cholo Dog team ended up starting their own outdoor food truck event called Parking Lot Party to help bring customers out again.

“You could probably fit about 15 cars in the parking lot where we had it and we had about eight food trucks and every single one sold out in the pouring rain and then we did it the next month and pouring rain again, sold out,” Eichenblatt said.

The event proved to be a success and helped the business weather the worst of the pandemic. Since then, Cholo Dogs has been able to get itself into some prominent locations, in the Amway Center and, coming soon, a location in Exploria Stadium.

On the latest episode of Florida Foodie, Eichenblatt talks about “slinging weens” all around Orlando. He also shares how some of the hot dogs got their names and the April Fools pranks Cholo Dogs have pulled.

Please follow our Florida Foodie hosts on social media. You can find Candace Campos on Twitter and Facebook. Lisa Bell is also on Facebook and Twitter and you can check out her children’s book, “Norman the Watchful Gnome.”

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Chris Chen, Phil Nguyen and Mike Cho all met in college as members of the same fraternity.

“After graduating, we hung out a lot. We went to eat at different places. And you know, our brotherhood went further than UCF,” Chen said.

After college, Chen and Nguyen began working in corporate jobs, but they weren’t happy with it.

“Chris, and I just started talking — (I) wanted to do a restaurant, he wanted to do coffee — and it just kind of progressed from there,” Nguyen said. “And when we added Mike, that’s when the fast-casual concept started. And we kind of grew it into what Viet-Nomz is now. But originally, we were going to do just, a regular sit-down coffee shop and fast-casual Vietnamese wasn’t really a thing back in 2016.”

After coming up with the idea, the three business partners quickly made the leap to turn their dream into a reality.

“It was pretty scary,” Chen said. “We left our jobs kind of without any concrete future. You know, time was kind of ticking. So we were just trying to look for any place that was empty and a lot of places wouldn’t really take us seriously, because we were like 24, 26 years old.”

The three all grew up around restaurants that their families owned. This prompted their parents to show some concern when the trio wanted to get into the industry themselves.

“They told me ‘Don’t open a restaurant,’” Chen said. “I watched them struggle and work really hard every day. So I was born into that life and I knew how hard it was. But after college, I worked in other places and ultimately, I was kind of like, ‘You know what I think... I think I want to do it.’”

The group of entrepreneurs managed to find a small location in Winter Park. Two years later, Viet-Nomz expanded into their second location in the Waterford Lakes area, which was a big upgrade for the trio.

“Our first location is only 1,000 square feet. So we were really limited. So our ideas that we had, we actually made a workout Waterford which is like 50% bigger,” Cho said.

The three have now expanded to three locations across Central Florida — Winter Park, Waterford Lakes and Lake Mary.

They believe that one of the keys to their success is the accessibility of their menu.

“I think one of the great things about Viet-Nomz is that someone who’s never had Vietnamese cuisine, we’re a great restaurant to start with,” Chen said. “We pretty much highlight all the popular Vietnamese fares.”

On the latest episode of Florida Foodie, Chen, Nguyen and Cho share how they worked to develop their menu using their families home kitchens to cook. They also talk about how they dealt with the pandemic and share some of their favorite menu items.

Please follow our Florida Foodie hosts on social media. You can find Candace Campos on Twitter and Facebook. Lisa Bell is also on Facebook and Twitter and you can check out her children’s book, “Norman the Watchful Gnome.”

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