Standish913.com has been blessed to do an exclusive interview with...
"CHARLIE SHERMAN"!
Let's get into some exclusive questions...
STANDISH: What's an ingredient you like to use that most may not?
I love cooking with duck fat and booze. If I am frying something or searing it and it’s possible I am finding a way to incorporate duck fat and booze.
STANDISH: How did you get on the show "Guys Grocery Games"?
I was contacted by a production company for a baking show based off my social medias initially. They asked if I would be interested in applying. I did decide to apply but the shooting schedule was too long and wouldn’t have worked at that time since I owned a restaurant at the time and my babies were a lot younger then. So after a lot of thought I had to pass on the opportunity.
A little while later I was contacted by the production company again to see if I would be interested in doing something with a shorter shooting schedule. I was not really doing much pastry chef work at the time so trying something savory with a 3 day commitment was way more intriguing to me. For my audition tape I stacked cupcakes to tannerite and shot them to blow them all up. So the first time I met Guy Fieri he called me shotgun. I didn’t have the heart to tell him it was a 44 mag.
STANDISH: How did you feel about Guys twist on your episode of the games? (Not choosing your own ingredients is a huge plot twist!)
I honestly don’t watch cooking shows outside Alton Browns old school Good Eats so I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I binge watched SEASONS to prepare, which turned out to be useless. It was such an unnerving experience as it was. If I ever wanted to now how cattle or sheep feel I found out. You're sort of shuttled around and herded about and then you go in with some preset plan or notion of how it goes and realize you’re fucked. You don’t do your own shopping and you had to conserve because that basket was for the entire day. No new ingredients. You don’t know if you’re in for 1 round or 3 so you have to be very careful.
STANDISH: What's the most nerve wracking part of "Guys Grocery Games"?
The cameras were pretty off putting, but I think the judges were really the boiler point. You are cooking for some of the most prestigious names in the industry. Like here I am presenting a pork chop to Marc Murphy and I didn’t get a sauce on the plate. I grabbed one of the pans straight out of the oven in my mad dash to create a cohesive dish and the blisters and the burn hurt so much less than moment of standing in front of them all.
STANDISH: What is your least favorite thing to cook?
Anything with truffles or truffle oil. Unpopular opinion I’m sure but the smell is so strong and I just feel like it’s such an over utilized ingredient. I also don’t love making lamb, Another pungent odor. I’m a real scent sensitive person.
STANDISH: Do you have a favorite show you've been apart of?
Both were so different. The production level of Hells Kitchen is Wild. It’s crazy when you realize everything involved. Guy Fieri really was one of the nicest people I’ve met. I would say Hell’s Kitchen just because it’s more intensive. I still am in contact with people from both shows. You trauma bond quickly.
STANDISH: Who inspired you to start cooking & does anything still inspire you to this day?
Growing up I remember spending all the best times in my grandparent’s kitchen’s. The kitchen table was where all the conversation happened and feels most like family time to me. I find inspiration all over. I’m a visual person so seeing ingredients really helps it all to pop together in my mind. I love documentaries on food, science and history. Very nerdy but really some of my favorite menu items come from that.
STANDISH: Did you get any opportunities from being on Hells Kitchen?
It’s been great for my Private Chef career. Really opened a lot of doors for getting new clientele.
STANDISH: Who are 3 famous people you cooked for and would love to do it again for?
I have been very fortunate to have the opportunity to meet and cook for some very fascinating and influential people working at guest ranch in Wyoming, but a lady doesn’t cook and tell, mostly because NDA’s do not play. Some that weren’t on NDA’s, doing the signature dish on Hell’s Kitchen for Gordon Ramsey is one of my favorite experiences for sure. On the shows I did food for Antonia Lofaso, Marc Murphy, Robert Irvine, Guy Fieri, and Gene Simmons. The first sort of celebrity I worked for was a cake for Natalie Nunn Payne from Bad Girls Club. I remember waiting up to see it on her Insta. It was a replica of her purse.
STANDISH: Can you tell us what your worst injury in the kitchen was?
I was in the restaurant early prepping some pasta on my morning off for my line cooks. I took the baskets out of the pasta cooker, I was walking them to the sinks and being my day off I wasn’t dressed properly for the line, not wearing the right shoes I slipped on water. The metal pasta basket popped up and hit me in the forehead on my eyebrow over my right eye. It knocked me out. Luckily my chemical delivery guy was delivering and helped me up. The metal basket had cut open my forehead. I ended up with a concussion and 13 stitches. It was a Friday night so I took some pain meds and helped on expo until I got booted out.
STANDISH: What's something that isn't talked about often in the kitchen?
I mean not much is not talked about. Kitchen’s are a wild place. You spend endless hours with these people. It becomes it’s own little disfunctional family. You know everything about each other. The one thing that is never supposed to be said is how smooth it’s going. That’s a great way to fuck up a service.
STANDISH: Who are 3 people you've always wanted to cook for, dead or alive?
Julia Child- I would be terrified but I would love it. Her style of cooking is a big inspiration to me.
Marilyn Monroe- she was so quietly intelligent, I bet her stories would be phenomenal. Truman Capote- I love a messy bitch that’s a petty Queen. He was diabolical.
STANDISH: What’s on your playlist while you cook?
I love Johnny Cash, Frank Sinatra, George Straight, Billie Holliday, and 90’s/00’s pop, 90’s country, Patsy Cline, classic rock, Colter Wall, it’s a pretty eclectic mix.
STANDISH: What does a day in your life consist of, without cooking?
A large portion of my day is very domesticated. Making beds, cleaning, laundry, my puppy is needy as hell, grocery store almost daily, most days involve the gym, I love a murder documentary and coffee time, and doing job bids and updating booking sites and calendars take up a big portion of my free time. Then my kids take up a major portion of my day. It’s actually very mundane and monotonous. And ya girl loves an early bedtime.
STANDISH: Any advice for the younger generation of chefs?
It’s a labor of love. With all the changes the industry has seen you have so many ways to do what you love if working on a line isn’t for you figure out how you make it fit in a way you love. There are so many more opportunities now with social media, private options, meal prep and pop ups. It’s a brave new world for the younger generation that aren’t set in the ways of what it used to be.
STANDISH: What are your social links?
https://www.instagram.com/chefcharliesherman?igsh=bWYwNmgzcncxdXF5&utm_source=qr
https://www.tiktok.com/@chefcharliesherman?_t=ZT-8tJECcij6dC&_r=1
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