Ep 62 Podcast Recap w Michelle Heberling | Mike Up In Your Business Podcast

All right, welcome to Mike Up in Your Business. Got special guests with me, Jeremy and Amy. So we're gonna talk about today's guest. I have a nice wave there. We have Michelle Heberling, who I hope I said her name correctly, who is the founder of Suppers On. You can check out our website, supperson.com. And Jeremy is able to score her for an interview for us. Because how do restaurants, caterers, how do they adjust to the COVID pandemic? I think what Michelle shares is a pretty interesting approach. So listen on in.

Yeah.

So Michelle's story I thought was fascinating. I loved how, I loved her energy to get started. The fact that she approached every circumstance with optimism and opportunity, I think was one of the main reasons she was able to navigate.

Yeah, that really speaks to the kind of person she is, doesn't it? I mean, uh, and the story then too of her son with this, you know, this injury, life-changing injury, um, and she still has that kind of ability to, to engage and, and pivot and, and keep going. She's— her story was really inspirational. What a cool concept, right? These, these amazing backyard, take-me-somewhere-else kind of places. That's what we needed. That's really what everybody wanted at COVID— in COVID times, to be transported out of that mess. And she managed to find a way to do that. It was so cool.

I wonder if there's an opportunity for business when you hear people say something like, I just want to go on a vacation in my backyard. Like, like phrases like that, almost that they're saying it in an exasperated way.

Yeah.

And I, I'm not, maybe that's how she thought of it. Maybe people just were exasperated. I know she has people specifically ask. I wonder all of us as business owners, if we can just listen for those, those pain points of our customers that they say almost quippy, and that could turn into a business opportunity.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

What would you take away, Sloan?

Kablon?

He called himself Kapork, by the way. I mean, he's like, he goes, yeah, I go by Kapork because he made that pork roll. And he's like, no, no, I actually don't like it. So we took it off.

We're not doing Kapork.

Every food that you cook every week will be my new nickname.

Yeah, yeah, I love that.

It's Jake Kaskert Steak. Um, yeah, I mean, I talked to Michelle for— when I did the pre-interview, probably an hour and a half, and I could have talked to her for like 3 hours. Like, she's awesome. I think, uh, hearing her, it gave me hope because what she said was she's seen so many restaurants in her town, um, that are, that are failing or have closed, and so the community has really pulled together. And she said that's the lifeline right now is like they're, they're all working together because they see they need to support each other in order to continue this going. So, uh, people in the community are making, um, I don't want to say goals, but, uh, commitments to, uh, you know, be patrons of the businesses per week and things like that. They're using the vendors from the fisheries that, that go out and do the fishing, and it's like, it's just this really awesome community.

I love that everything she was doing was locally sourced. You know, and, and she had relationships with these people and she was supporting their small businesses and everything that she was doing. That was so inspiring.

That guy who was—

he had the fish or the fish, the crabs. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

He's like, I, I have to dispose these. I mean, lost money, lost— waste of a resource, right? And she's like, I'll have them sold by the time I get there.

Yeah, she stepped up and did it. That's so great.

And I think a big takeaway too is like no matter how many regulations that they create to try and keep these businesses down, she found a loophole. Like, there's a loop, there's a way to work around it. And, uh, I, I think that that's really inspirational and really cool what she did.

Yeah, I loved her morphing ability. And she kept the big picture in mind too. She's like, I want to franchise this one.

Yeah, like, and before she even said that, I was like, this sounds like a franchise, this could be a franchise. Yeah, it totally fit the bill. I mean Oh my God, I would love somebody like that right around here that could do that.

Exactly.

Jeremy.

Yeah, she was like me.

Jeremy.

Yeah, I can send you the book.

I have everything. Yeah, yeah, that's awesome.

Yeah, but it's just great that she has that model. And I, I wonder— she didn't speak to this, but I wonder if the fact that that's playing out in her head, that this needs to be a franchise model, as she evaluates local suppliers and does the things she does I can only assume that there's consideration for that. How does this scale beyond just—

Right. How does somebody else build this out just like this? Yeah. I like that.

And also too, she, uh, cause her and I touched on a little bit about how, okay, pre-pandemic, your business was this. Post, it was this. Or actually during, it was this. And now post, is it going to go back or are you going to keep going with the same? And I think that's where the franchise came from. Yeah, yeah, so cool.

All right, well, let's move on to— you got a little gamage for us? Oh yeah, you get a little more competitive now. That's me. And just so everyone knows, uh, Kelsey will be on our group calls, but just for consideration of time and other projects she's doing, she's not gonna be on these calls for a bit.

Yeah, she said she wasn't doing these calls for a bit. I'm like, what the hell? You act like you're like the president of a company or something.

I know, I know, she has like other responsibilities.

I know, what the heck?

We'll see if she listens to this episode.

I laughed like E.T.

All right, I'll see if she says anything about that. Um, so the— it's a food quiz. We got to do food.

Okay, of course. I'm always good for food. J-Bolognese.

Oh, that's good.

Wow, Abe.

Well, you were talking about what we cooked this weekend.

You made bolognese?

No, my husband did. I just ate it. I'm just here to eat the food. That's what my role is here.

All right, um, so the first one is which of the following is not a French mother sauce?

What does it mean to be a mother sauce?

There's 5 mother sauces, essentially, or everything else.

I think I saw this in, um, Oh, Jeremy, you had to have seen this movie. It was a really good movie with Judi Dench, and he's the Indian kid, and they move in across a Michelin-rated restaurant, and it's like 100 yards, 100 feet or something like that. Did you see that?

I did not see it, but I know which one you're talking about.

You would love it because it's so, it's all, it's based on like the Michelin star, you know?

Right, it was someone that was very classic and traditional.

Very classic, traditionally French, and then this young, Indian kid who's like using his mom's, you know, unique spices, Indian spices, but he elevates to this, this new chef game where he actually becomes one of these nouveau kind of— you know how the chefs become absolute like phenomenal, um, superstars? Like celebrities, celebrities, absolute celebrity. But it was like heartless at that point, and he ends up going back. It's a really good movie, but they do talk about um, these main sauces, like the, the ones you have to know how to do.

Yeah, hence the other sauce.

Yeah, Jon Favreau did a movie, I think it was called Chef. Yes, it was very, very well done. And what I love about him is, uh, when he does those serious type of movies, he— the vernacular is very important to him, and the way that people speak is very important to him. So it was very authentic with how Chef's talk and the way that they work.

Yeah, yeah.

So if you get a chance to watch that, that was, that was good.

That was a good one too.

Okay, but yeah, so there's 5 mother sauces. Which one on this is not? Okay, right. Okay, so A is tomato, B is velouté, C is demi-glace, and D is hollandaise.

Okay, okay, got my answer.

Okay, number 2: the term lagniappe from the South and the French term amuse-bouche are little quote-unquote bonuses served at what point during the meal? Is it after the second course, before the dessert, or before the first course?

Got it.

I've had things at all times, little bonuses. Hey, the chef made you something. Yeah, I've had that at all different times.

I know, the look on your face was— that was priceless. You like got excited. Um, so arguably the first formal restaurant was started in France by whom? Is it A, Escoffier, B, Boulanger, or C, Sawyer? Or it could be Sawyer. It's E-R. I think it's Sawyer.

Okay, I think I got that one right. And the reason is, I don't know, but I'm just listening to Jeremy's pronunciation of the names. One of them he nailed right away because then he would know, and the other ones he's like, I don't know, I'm a little bit unsure.

So, but maybe he's throwing us off. Maybe that could be—

he could be a tactic. He knows I'm not that smart.

I don't know.

All right, so, so question 1: which is not a mother?

Tomato. I say tomato.

I said hollandaise.

Uh, so you're both wrong. This was actually— it's not, not a trick question, but sort of. So demi-glace is not a mother sauce. Espanol is the mother sauce, but it's the mother sauce for demi-glace.

And what does it mean to be a mother sauce?

It's just there's 5 mother sauces that you basically make everything else from, basically, or like—

okay, okay, so they're the foundation sauces and everything's a variant of one of those 5, correct?

For the most part.

I mean, there's plenty of sauces you can make without those, but those were like in classical French, those are, those are the interesting—

okay, okay.

I didn't think of tomato.

Yeah, tomato is a mother sauce. Yep. And so espagnole is a mother sauce, and so to make demi, it's, um, half sauce espagnole, half brown stock reduced by half, and that's why they call it demi.

Ah, okay.

Um, okay, so number 2: when is an amuse-bouche or langnep served during the meal?

After the second course.

I said before the first.

Yes, Amy, you got it, before the first.

Well, I was so confused because then you've also had those ones that are like after everything because they're, uh, were you like cleansers?

You just nailed it. You just—

I got lucky. I got lucky.

You didn't.

You nailed it.

I really did. I got lucky.

Damn you. Oh, because I've had— yeah, I've had that where they come out like, oh, the chef prepared you a little something. Like, you get this little taster thing. Yeah, this is delicious.

What was the first word? John, not amuse-bouche. Um, it's chair.

Lagniappe.

Lagniappe. I've never heard that before. Have you heard it before?

I've only heard that, um, from this one Southern chef that I worked with, and he said it's like a— it's the term they use in the South. So you might— you go to, uh, when you go to New Orleans.

Okay, New Orleans.

And then 3 is, uh, the first formal restaurant arguably was started in France by whom?

The first guy said a Scoffet, or whatever.

I said the second guy.

Amy, you got it. It's Boulanger.

Wow, you were so confident in the name for the first fella.

That's because he's the father of modern cooking. So he did— he contributed a lot of other things, like he basically wrote the encyclopedia for modern cooking. But, um, in 1765, uh, that's when they say that this guy started the first, uh, actual modern style restaurant.

Very cool.

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Wishing you good times.

Wishing you— I like the hand circle— wishing you good times. Or washing a window.

Wax on, wax off.

Wax off.