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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What are you? What have you been doing?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

yes. Yes.

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

Dan Serafini: [00:04:07] you

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

and, and, and,

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

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

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

And, and, that's, that's how my brother and I were born. And, we lived there for, well, I lived there for 10 years, the first 10 years of my life. And unfortunately, sometimes marriages don't work and then ended up getting divorced and, you know,

Sam Knoll: [00:09:29] it was, it was, it was.

Dan Serafini: [00:09:31] Pretty. Yeah. Yeah. Except accepted and Italy.

you know, unfortunately a woman is a second class citizen and you know, this is a little down part to my story. I was very happy before I still am happy, but I'm going to tell you how it is. And the woman is a second class citizen and the in Italy and a man have all the rights. And it's also a very, very socialist country.

And, you know, like my father came over to the United States and tried to kidnap me, you know, I was horrible, but anyways, the U S law put that away. You know what I mean? He was deported all that stuff. Anyways, I'm jumping around here, but I'm sure you can put it all together where, you know, write this book.

yeah. Yeah. So, so anyways, I still am very, very fond of, the way I grew up.

I speak a hundred percent lonely. I've never forgotten my language. I've learned Spanish, because of the Italian. And now in the restaurant business through the past, 25, 30 years, it's coming in extremely handy and I'm teaching my son, all of this. It's his Spanish as the second, most important language in the United States, you know?

so we moved in 1984. I was 10 years old. English was my second language. My mother had taught me English as I was growing up in the United States, as I was growing up in Italy for the whole time. And that, you know, I didn't speak it perfectly, but I adapted to it perfectly. Yeah, I learned it very quickly.

I was extremely advanced in math and arithmetic geometry. We learned algebra when I was in second grade, you know, and, and the United States that does not happen, you know? so let's just move on to when I was 13, I got my first job. As soon as I was able to work. I got my first job at a restaurant called Capricho, or he stood on thing, run Brewster here.

I, I was a bus boy. I was the only Italian speaking bus boy, both owners and their whole family spoke Italian. And, you know, they used to call me test that he cuts so that, you know, he used to swear on me all the time and they used to release all their aggression on me. Meanwhile, I was polishing glasses behind the bar.

Find out. Beautiful restaurant, fine dining, a gorgeous, gorgeous restaurant. It hadn't been renovated since the fifties. and it was never renovated. but, but it was really nice, eh, very reminiscent of a, if you've ever seen the shining at a hotel where, where the bartender, that was a ghost, you know, kind of like that, you know, he was like polishing glasses, very old school.

Oh yeah. So anyways, there was a table in front of the bar because I was behind the bar most of the time, maybe this is why I love drinking so much.

There was a table there and, you know, the bartender would always pull out the Louis, the 13th cognac. Th at the time, back in 1986, they went for $86 a shot imagine, but he would take that cognac and put it on these table full of like eight guys. And they're all like swearing and lasting and all that. I had no idea who the hell they were.

Meanwhile, I had a good friend all over, who was another bus boy and every single Friday. Keep in mind. I'm in Brewster, New York, about 60 minutes North of New York city. Well Friday, these people would come and every single Friday Oliver and I would marry all the leftover calling yak that was left over in the Snapchatters and put them in a pint glass or something like that.

A couple of pint glasses we'd bring them down to the basement and drink it, even though it was so nasty to me. But now I touch an affinity for cognac. I love cognac. These gentlemen, they're not gentlemen. These pieces. These are. Where in your work, these were pieces of shit. This was John Gotti and his henchmen and they were eating there.

I knew you

Sam Knoll: [00:13:33] were heading somewhere with

Dan Serafini: [00:13:34] this. Yeah. Yeah. They were eating there every single Friday. and this happened for about a year and a half, and then they stopped coming for whatever reason. Maybe that's when Giuliani put them away. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. And, and, you know, I thought that was really cool, part of the restaurant business, but it definitely got me really interested in being in there and, you know, and, and I saw all sorts of stuff.

I mean, I, I don't know how, how I can say anything I want. Right. You can say anything you want. Okay. I mean, I've seen sex and walk in coolers. Basically the Anthony Bourdain's kitchen kitchen confidential is one of my favorite books and I'm sure you've read it. Yeah. A lot of that stuff that he saw, I actually saw.

Sam Knoll: [00:14:20] Yeah. That's that was the that's the most bizarre part of that book is we all saw it. It was

Dan Serafini: [00:14:26] amazing. It's so surreal. It's just, it happens all the time.

Sam Knoll: [00:14:33] so, so

Dan Serafini: [00:14:33] basically I worked there for a few years and then I, I, I ended up, I was heavily involved in the ROTC in high school. So I had to do a lot of drill meets all of that.

I love the army. I love the U S army. If I had stayed in Italy, it would have been mandatory for me to join the military over there. But. Oh, I really wanted to, to be involved a little bit more. I was a boy scout. I was a Eagle scout. and not that many people make it to Eagle scout. they're very rare and I love it.

I had about, 88 to one 90 average in all my classes got a Regents diploma. I went to college for a semester. Hey, you know what? I was given all the freedom of the world. I went to York college of Pennsylvania studying criminal justice, and I did not go to class at all. And I failed out. I was 18 years old.

I had no business being in there.

Sam Knoll: [00:15:27] it's funny though, as you do that, I'll tell you, my, my start in college was not all that different. You know, I went off and,

Dan Serafini: [00:15:34] and,

Sam Knoll: [00:15:35] and I think bottom line, I wasn't ready to be there.

I

Dan Serafini: [00:15:39] played really hard. I had a great time, but

Sam Knoll: [00:15:41] I sure didn't go to class, you know?

Dan Serafini: [00:15:44] Oh yeah. What I wanted to do. Plus plus it 18 years old. I mean, come on. We're still kids. Yeah. So I think girl develops a little bit, quicker than a guy. but really I wanted a, not so my oats, but, but, I wanted to experience life a little bit.

So, so I, I, basically I had, I have a good friend. His name is Mike. he's residing in Alabama right now. And, he was in Brewster with me. and we based basically we just quickly decided to join the us army and, and, we went to the recruiter against my mother's wishes. cause she's always told me never to join the army.

She's like, what are you doing? Going to ROTC in high school? And I said, Oh, you know, it's a good experience. I'm not going to be locked into anything. So I joined behind her. I joined behind her back. And she's, she she's from the Vietnam war era. And, anyways, that, you know, it was very scary life back then when, during Vietnam, I don't know if I, if I would have joined, had I grown up during Vietnam because I don't agree with a lot of the.

even, even where I was deployed. And I'm going to tell you that, in a few minutes, I don't agree with, the entangling alliances. A, a lot of them are BS as far as I'm concerned. you know, we, we, we don't belong in a lot of places in this world. but so I joined behind my mom's back and she was so upset.

Meanwhile, I was, I was, I was almost 200 pounds. That's what I weigh now, but, I'm pretty fit, you know, with, except with the exception of my, small cigarette habit. It's only when I drank really. so I, I joined up very overweight and, my friend Mike and I went in on a buddy system. To, Fort Jackson, South Carolina, and, in the period of, eight weeks, I lost about 30 pounds.

I was about 170 pretty fit. my mom came out to my graduation and she couldn't believe what she saw. And she told me how proud she was. She takes back everything that she's ever said, all that stuff. And, Yeah. So we all ended up going to AIT. Oh, before that at the recruiter, the recruiter said you've got some really great bad scores.

You can do whatever you want. I told him I was going, I wanted to be a cook. He's like, are you fucking kidding me? Do you want to be a cook? You can be an engineer. You can be this. You can be a lawyer. You can be whatever you can do, whatever you want. You want to be a cook, you know, a cook. there, there are soldiers that had the choice between.

Prison and go into the army and they take the army and guess what we make them cooks. Do you want, you really want to be that shit? You really want to be a cook. I want to be a cook. So we both went in as cooks. of course we went through a basic training, advanced infantry training, all of that. And then, we were sent up and our drill Sergeant.

Started laughing when we graduated because they pick where you go. And since I was, since I outranked my friend, Mike, because I was in ROTC and you get to join as a private first class is except, instead of a private, he went wherever I went. So we both got sent to the highest deployable. army base in the country, which was Fort drum, New York, the 10th mountain division, and this, 10th mountain division.

This is, about five miles, five miles away from Ontario, Canada. And, the 10th mountain division is basically the, the, the unit, the division that was basically, responsible for winning world war II. they want Italy and they

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Nội dung được cung cấp bởi Restaurant Reality. Tất cả nội dung podcast bao gồm các tập, đồ họa và mô tả podcast đều được Restaurant Reality hoặc đối tác nền tảng podcast của họ tải lên và cung cấp trực tiếp. Nếu bạn cho rằng ai đó đang sử dụng tác phẩm có bản quyền của bạn mà không có sự cho phép của bạn, bạn có thể làm theo quy trình được nêu ở đây https://vi.player.fm/legal.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What are you? What have you been doing?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

yes. Yes.

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

Dan Serafini: [00:04:07] you

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

and, and, and,

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

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

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

And, and, that's, that's how my brother and I were born. And, we lived there for, well, I lived there for 10 years, the first 10 years of my life. And unfortunately, sometimes marriages don't work and then ended up getting divorced and, you know,

Sam Knoll: [00:09:29] it was, it was, it was.

Dan Serafini: [00:09:31] Pretty. Yeah. Yeah. Except accepted and Italy.

you know, unfortunately a woman is a second class citizen and you know, this is a little down part to my story. I was very happy before I still am happy, but I'm going to tell you how it is. And the woman is a second class citizen and the in Italy and a man have all the rights. And it's also a very, very socialist country.

And, you know, like my father came over to the United States and tried to kidnap me, you know, I was horrible, but anyways, the U S law put that away. You know what I mean? He was deported all that stuff. Anyways, I'm jumping around here, but I'm sure you can put it all together where, you know, write this book.

yeah. Yeah. So, so anyways, I still am very, very fond of, the way I grew up.

I speak a hundred percent lonely. I've never forgotten my language. I've learned Spanish, because of the Italian. And now in the restaurant business through the past, 25, 30 years, it's coming in extremely handy and I'm teaching my son, all of this. It's his Spanish as the second, most important language in the United States, you know?

so we moved in 1984. I was 10 years old. English was my second language. My mother had taught me English as I was growing up in the United States, as I was growing up in Italy for the whole time. And that, you know, I didn't speak it perfectly, but I adapted to it perfectly. Yeah, I learned it very quickly.

I was extremely advanced in math and arithmetic geometry. We learned algebra when I was in second grade, you know, and, and the United States that does not happen, you know? so let's just move on to when I was 13, I got my first job. As soon as I was able to work. I got my first job at a restaurant called Capricho, or he stood on thing, run Brewster here.

I, I was a bus boy. I was the only Italian speaking bus boy, both owners and their whole family spoke Italian. And, you know, they used to call me test that he cuts so that, you know, he used to swear on me all the time and they used to release all their aggression on me. Meanwhile, I was polishing glasses behind the bar.

Find out. Beautiful restaurant, fine dining, a gorgeous, gorgeous restaurant. It hadn't been renovated since the fifties. and it was never renovated. but, but it was really nice, eh, very reminiscent of a, if you've ever seen the shining at a hotel where, where the bartender, that was a ghost, you know, kind of like that, you know, he was like polishing glasses, very old school.

Oh yeah. So anyways, there was a table in front of the bar because I was behind the bar most of the time, maybe this is why I love drinking so much.

There was a table there and, you know, the bartender would always pull out the Louis, the 13th cognac. Th at the time, back in 1986, they went for $86 a shot imagine, but he would take that cognac and put it on these table full of like eight guys. And they're all like swearing and lasting and all that. I had no idea who the hell they were.

Meanwhile, I had a good friend all over, who was another bus boy and every single Friday. Keep in mind. I'm in Brewster, New York, about 60 minutes North of New York city. Well Friday, these people would come and every single Friday Oliver and I would marry all the leftover calling yak that was left over in the Snapchatters and put them in a pint glass or something like that.

A couple of pint glasses we'd bring them down to the basement and drink it, even though it was so nasty to me. But now I touch an affinity for cognac. I love cognac. These gentlemen, they're not gentlemen. These pieces. These are. Where in your work, these were pieces of shit. This was John Gotti and his henchmen and they were eating there.

I knew you

Sam Knoll: [00:13:33] were heading somewhere with

Dan Serafini: [00:13:34] this. Yeah. Yeah. They were eating there every single Friday. and this happened for about a year and a half, and then they stopped coming for whatever reason. Maybe that's when Giuliani put them away. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. And, and, you know, I thought that was really cool, part of the restaurant business, but it definitely got me really interested in being in there and, you know, and, and I saw all sorts of stuff.

I mean, I, I don't know how, how I can say anything I want. Right. You can say anything you want. Okay. I mean, I've seen sex and walk in coolers. Basically the Anthony Bourdain's kitchen kitchen confidential is one of my favorite books and I'm sure you've read it. Yeah. A lot of that stuff that he saw, I actually saw.

Sam Knoll: [00:14:20] Yeah. That's that was the that's the most bizarre part of that book is we all saw it. It was

Dan Serafini: [00:14:26] amazing. It's so surreal. It's just, it happens all the time.

Sam Knoll: [00:14:33] so, so

Dan Serafini: [00:14:33] basically I worked there for a few years and then I, I, I ended up, I was heavily involved in the ROTC in high school. So I had to do a lot of drill meets all of that.

I love the army. I love the U S army. If I had stayed in Italy, it would have been mandatory for me to join the military over there. But. Oh, I really wanted to, to be involved a little bit more. I was a boy scout. I was a Eagle scout. and not that many people make it to Eagle scout. they're very rare and I love it.

I had about, 88 to one 90 average in all my classes got a Regents diploma. I went to college for a semester. Hey, you know what? I was given all the freedom of the world. I went to York college of Pennsylvania studying criminal justice, and I did not go to class at all. And I failed out. I was 18 years old.

I had no business being in there.

Sam Knoll: [00:15:27] it's funny though, as you do that, I'll tell you, my, my start in college was not all that different. You know, I went off and,

Dan Serafini: [00:15:34] and,

Sam Knoll: [00:15:35] and I think bottom line, I wasn't ready to be there.

I

Dan Serafini: [00:15:39] played really hard. I had a great time, but

Sam Knoll: [00:15:41] I sure didn't go to class, you know?

Dan Serafini: [00:15:44] Oh yeah. What I wanted to do. Plus plus it 18 years old. I mean, come on. We're still kids. Yeah. So I think girl develops a little bit, quicker than a guy. but really I wanted a, not so my oats, but, but, I wanted to experience life a little bit.

So, so I, I, basically I had, I have a good friend. His name is Mike. he's residing in Alabama right now. And, he was in Brewster with me. and we based basically we just quickly decided to join the us army and, and, we went to the recruiter against my mother's wishes. cause she's always told me never to join the army.

She's like, what are you doing? Going to ROTC in high school? And I said, Oh, you know, it's a good experience. I'm not going to be locked into anything. So I joined behind her. I joined behind her back. And she's, she she's from the Vietnam war era. And, anyways, that, you know, it was very scary life back then when, during Vietnam, I don't know if I, if I would have joined, had I grown up during Vietnam because I don't agree with a lot of the.

even, even where I was deployed. And I'm going to tell you that, in a few minutes, I don't agree with, the entangling alliances. A, a lot of them are BS as far as I'm concerned. you know, we, we, we don't belong in a lot of places in this world. but so I joined behind my mom's back and she was so upset.

Meanwhile, I was, I was, I was almost 200 pounds. That's what I weigh now, but, I'm pretty fit, you know, with, except with the exception of my, small cigarette habit. It's only when I drank really. so I, I joined up very overweight and, my friend Mike and I went in on a buddy system. To, Fort Jackson, South Carolina, and, in the period of, eight weeks, I lost about 30 pounds.

I was about 170 pretty fit. my mom came out to my graduation and she couldn't believe what she saw. And she told me how proud she was. She takes back everything that she's ever said, all that stuff. And, Yeah. So we all ended up going to AIT. Oh, before that at the recruiter, the recruiter said you've got some really great bad scores.

You can do whatever you want. I told him I was going, I wanted to be a cook. He's like, are you fucking kidding me? Do you want to be a cook? You can be an engineer. You can be this. You can be a lawyer. You can be whatever you can do, whatever you want. You want to be a cook, you know, a cook. there, there are soldiers that had the choice between.

Prison and go into the army and they take the army and guess what we make them cooks. Do you want, you really want to be that shit? You really want to be a cook. I want to be a cook. So we both went in as cooks. of course we went through a basic training, advanced infantry training, all of that. And then, we were sent up and our drill Sergeant.

Started laughing when we graduated because they pick where you go. And since I was, since I outranked my friend, Mike, because I was in ROTC and you get to join as a private first class is except, instead of a private, he went wherever I went. So we both got sent to the highest deployable. army base in the country, which was Fort drum, New York, the 10th mountain division, and this, 10th mountain division.

This is, about five miles, five miles away from Ontario, Canada. And, the 10th mountain division is basically the, the, the unit, the division that was basically, responsible for winning world war II. they want Italy and they

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