MasterChef Becky Reams Delicious Art
Becky Reams – MasterChef Season 3 SemiFinalist
Welcome to Episode 16 of This Is Yu Podcast.
This Is Carole Yu and Scott Stewart.
What were you doing from June through September 2012? Well, I was watching a renaissance woman who beat out 45,000 applicants to get to the top three of Season Three of the TV show Masterchef. We’re so excited to introduce Chef Becky Reams as our special guest today.
Becky explains how she turned Gordon Ramsey from naysaying critic to wholehearted supporter. We explore her roots in gorgeous food photography, for which she gives us tips. Then find out what top Hollywood TV shows for which she did the food styling. And finally we get inspired by her philosophy on moving forward, knowing she has a new chance everyday to show up.
Listen up listen up, After we talk to Becky, tune your ears in as we have a new segment on international food. We reach out to thank our listeners from around the globe by honoring their country’s national dish. Then (drum roll please) find out how you can win a $25 Amazon Giftcard!
Thank you so much to Becky for joining us for this podcast. Check out this dynamic renaissance woman on the This Is Yu Podcast page along with mouthwatering photos of her awesome food photography and creative dishes.
Now, our new segment merging our listeners from all around the world, and their local national dish. We have listeners from the continents of North and South America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Oceania. There are twenty countries from which we have listeners! We absolutely love all of you, and are super grateful that you listen in.
So, Scott we’re going to have a guessing game. I’m going to name each of the top ten countries that has listeners to our podcast, and you’re going to guess what that country’s national dish is!
The countries that contain the most listeners are of course, the
US – Hamburgers
Canada – poutine
Germany – Sauerbraten
Australia – Roast lamb
UK- Chicken tikka masala i
NZ – Meat pies
Sweden – Herring & Potatoes
Ireland – Irish Stew
Phillipines – Adobo
Mexico – Mole
France – POt-au-Feu (pot of fire)
We also want to shout out to the next ten countries, Kenya, Belgium, Italy, Ecuador,Jamaica, Brazil, Spain, Romania and South Africa. If you’re from one of those countries, let us know what you love eating!
Now, drum roll please! Our first podcast giveaway!! WooHoo!
Between April 22nd through May 19th, 2020 enter our giveaway for a $25 Amazon giftcard! It’s simple! All you have to do is go to Apple Podcasts, subscribe to and leave a review of This Is Yu Podcast. We will choose our favorite review, and announce the winner on May 19th on the podcast.
Give us your feedback on our podcast. Leave a message for us on the This Is Yu Hotline at 562-291-6037, It’s anonymous, leave a message with your thoughts. You can also direct message us on facebook or instagram, or email us at carole@thisisyu.com or Scott @thisisyu.com
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Catch ya later!
@ChefBeckyReams
Ep 16 – This Is Yu – Podcast – MasterChef – Becky Reams – Transcription START:
Carole
Welcome to Episode 16 of This Is You Podcast. This is Carole Yu
Scott
and Scott Stewart.
Carole
What were you doing from June through September 2012? Well, I was watching a Renaissance woman who beat out 45,000 applicants to get to the top three off Season three of the TV show Master Chef. We are so excited to introduce chef Becky Reams as our special guest today.
Scott
Becky explains how she turned Gordon Ramsay from naysaying critic to Wholehearted supporter. We explore her roots in gorgeous food photography, for which she gives us tips. Then find out what top Hollywood TV shows for which she did the food styling. And finally, we get inspired by her philosophy on moving forward, knowing she has a new chance every day to show up.
Carole
Listen up, Listen up. After we talked to Becky, tune your ears in. As we have a new segment on international food, we reach out to thank our listeners from around the globe by honoring their country’s national dish. Then, drumroll, please find out how you can win a $25 Amazon gift card. Welcome, Chef Becky to the This is you podcast low. Thank you. Thanks for having me. We’re so excited.
Scott
Yeah. Thank you so much for being on the podcast. Where super excited You’re here. We have a question. Strangely enough for you in doing research about you. We couldn’t find much information about your life before, Master Chef. What’s the deal like, Were you in jail or maybe spy from a foreign country? Can you give us a little bit of background on yourself?
Becky
All right. Of course. Uh, yeah. I feel like the internet didn’t exist very much
Carole
before. I was a master
Becky
chef early start in the social ways that it does now. I remember when I was on Master Chef. Actually, they had just started integrating social platforms into the use on television. So on my apron even had my Twitter handle. Because of that time, Twitter was like the only major social platform that was being used. So that’s kind of a funny side note, but, um, let’s see. Pre Master Chef. Yes. So I I grew up in Kansas City. Um, I moved out to California in 2006 to go to school, and I actually majored and commercial photography and I was a food photographer. So I was a food photographer for years before I stood cooking professionally. And the catalyst for cooking professionally, of course, was Master Chef. So pre that I was just shooting. And I worked for guests, which is a clothing company. You know, when I was there, lead retouch er in their photo studio. So I was a big, like techie person.
Scott
Can I stop you one second? There
Carole
s
Scott
So they do retouching. This is the first I heard of this. This is outrageous.
Becky
Hilarious. Yeah. No, it’s everyone doesn’t naturally look that way. I know it’s very shocking people here. Yeah. So I worked for them for, Let’s see, about four years up until 2012 which is when I went on Master Chef. That was kind of then after that, I quit that job and pursued cooking full time. But I was big photographer re toucher nerd,
Scott
Right? Right. That actually brings me up to another question I have here. What are a few of your favorite tips you can give regarding food photography? Just cause we know you’re so awesome. Your pictures online are amazing.
Carole
Delicious. Thank you so much. And I love that I get
Becky
this pretty often, and I love this question because I spent a lot of money on a toxic unification. So it feels great that at least I could still use a little bit of hat
Scott
to some
Becky
extent, a few of the tips. You don’t really need a lot to make a great food photograph. I would say one of the most important things you can get is a piece of white board, like a piece of foam core or like a heavy, sturdy posterboard. And you just want to shoot anything by the window so you don’t want to ever take food photographs at night. You always want to have big natural light, and you just position your plate that you’re going to photograph somewhere near a window. And then you use your white posterboard directly adjacent to the window to help reflect light back into the opposite side of the dish and then just use a really shallow depth of field, which means that you’re getting close to the food to the front part that’s facing your lens is gonna be a little bit sharper than what’s in the back of the photograph, and it’s gonna look really delicious.
Scott
That’s a great pro tip there. Can you tell us a little bit about your cameras? Did you have super high end cameras? Did that make a difference with what you were shooting?
Becky
Not really. I mean, yes and no. Yes, I do have a nicer camera, hadn’t shoot with the cannon. And it’s a five d mark three and I’ve had it for forever. So it’s not even the latest model. I mean, I haven’t really bought new camera gear and so long as it’s not my primary career focus anymore. But I used that camera. It’s great. It’s really about having an awesome lens. So if you do shoot with Canon, you know you want to get the L Series lenses. I love anything that’s a 2.8 aperture or wider because you have a little bit more opportunity get. Like I was talking about that shallow depth of field in that beautiful Boca in the background, which is where, you know, subjects kind of fall off focus and create this beautiful organic pattern. But quite frankly, now, I mean a lot of stuff on my instagram. I shoot with my iPhone because the iPhones air so excellent, and it’s for that. It’s really all just about positioning and composition and light. You can take a great photograph with almost any camera if you have great light. So it’s really about trying to find a great environment to shoot versus trying to find the perfect piece of equipment to use
Scott
and just focus on getting the actual item toe look beautiful in natural light. It makes your job so much easier.
Becky
Exactly, exactly.
Scott
And they’re also must be an element to, as you said you were working with. Guess and you were doing retouching for them. So you must have some pretty pretty good skills in photo shop or light room.
Becky
It’s true, and I’ve used both those programs, and I still do use them in that environment. It was such a specific kind of work, you know, we were doing a lot of clothing manipulation and color correction, that kind of thing. So I will say that the big take away from working at guests for me is color correction, so I can look at almost any photo and tell if it has a color shade one way or the other. If it’s leaning a little bit too green or magenta and And that really affects food photographs to because if you take a photograph of, say, like pancakes with melted butter and syrup and it’s it’s very like warm right? So this is emoting like ideas of warmth and morning time and whatever. But if you’re shooting in the evening or under fluorescent lights and it has a green cast or a blue cast, it totally throws off kind of the idea of the image. So you need to be able to correct that, to make it more of a warmer yellow light to make it feel more natural. That’s a really good Tim’s like that would make a difference. Yeah,
Scott
so you’re sort of visually manipulating people’s emotions with color?
Becky
Absolutely. That’s what every artist does its photography food. We’re all manipulating people’s emotions.
Carole
I know that you also do private catering and our personal chef. So what’s the most insane event that you’ve ever had to do for a high profile client? And basically we’re looking for gossip here,
Becky
Um, are such a good question? Let’s see. I will say at a certain level when you get above, I think a certain financial level, and there’s a certain amount of people that are controlling parts of your life in like this billionaire space. Everything becomes a little bit crazy because people have toe flex their power and really unusual ways because they’ve lost power in so many little in significant parts of their life. Like if someone isn’t if they’re not making their own bed or like making their own breakfast or dropping their own kids off at school, it’s like you lose control of so many things. So all of that, which to say that a lot of my clients are crazy. Ah, so I think it’s a sliding scale of what high My expectation now. So my expectation of crazy is kind of like a baseline so has pretty above and beyond that. Let’s see if I can think of a specific can’t really give you any names. Unfortunately, N D A’s air like real big part of business,
Scott
but maybe just sort of on the broad scale of things like this. One time I did a party where there was a walrus and like that kind of thing,
Becky
wouldn’t that be cool? I don’t have any walrus stories. Unfortunately, I have
Scott
a zoo, huh?
Becky
Nothing at the zoo. It’s not the most pleasant place to eat a meal. Aromatic elements you don’t want to be around.
Scott
Everything sort of has a fish. Kind of a smell. Flavor to it.
Becky
Yeah, very earthy there. Let’s see. I had to cook Thanksgiving one year for a family of eight, which isn’t crazy, Um, but they had. So they wanted every single thing, and they gave their kids free reign, which this is also another big thing with ultra rich families is that they don’t really put any restrictions on their kids. And so the kids all got to choose every dish that they wanted. And then, of course, they wanted all the classics on top of that. So I ended up making over 25 different dishes for a family of eight, which, of course, is acid nine, because there’s no way they’re going to eat it all. And they also don’t really want to eat leftovers, even though they think they dio. So it’s just weird thing where you can, like, see the end result of what’s happening, but you can’t really get them to sway off the path. So it was just It was just insane. It was just like the longest three days of my life of making all of these different dishes. And they were thrilled. You know, everyone was happy and pleased, but it was just so over the top. It was kind of like saying,
Scott
It sounds like one of those stress dreams that we all have where you see things unfold before you and you can’t really do anything about it. You’re trying to talk and amounts working, but nothing’s coming out.
Becky
No one can hear you. You’re just like swinging your arms in the air and people are going about their business. Yeah, I have a lot of those That’s interesting.
Scott
What? The dreams.
Becky
There’s no control.
Scott
Yeah, well, I have this recurring stress dream whenever I get stressed out that I used to work in restaurants and I work in the restaurant, but it’s like I’m serving the whole restaurant and there’s like 300 people that just sat down and the questions in my head or he Where’s the rest of the wait? Staff shouldn’t be more people in here helping me out, so it gets it gets kind of crazy.
Becky
Yes, that’s the worst. You know, I was a waiter to when I was younger for a while, actually. Think for four years. And those That was probably not to say that my work now is not very stressful. But at that time in my life, it was the most stressful thing in the feeling that someone asks you. Oh, have you been to your table? Such and such yet? And then you’re like, No. And you didn’t know you were
Carole
sat and then you find out three minutes later that you
Becky
were sad and you’re like,
Carole
Oh, my God, You run over there
Becky
and they’re, like, already mad. And it’s like You’re Thanks. I hate that feeling.
Scott
And then you gotta blame it on the waiter in the next section. Yeah, that was picking up a table for Phil here. Well, what can I get? Yes, exactly
Becky
why you some free dessert.
Scott
What class? At Johnson County Community College in Kansas propelled you forward?
Becky
Um, not much. I went Teoh It was It was a community college that I went to after high school because I was still trying to decide where I want to go to college and I played softball competitively when I was younger, and so I kind of had the opportunity to either go to these schools on scholarships for softball that I had been offered or go a different direction. And I just wasn’t I didn’t want to play softball for the rest of my life. So I have decided against that, but hadn’t really decided much else beyond that. So I went to Johnson County Community College, which we called juco If you’re in the nose. Yuko Juco went to juco for a year just to get undergraduate classes. I figured that way I could at least knock out some undergrad classes to transfer when I did choose. And so I just, you know, it was like basic stuff English science, math, like art history and then transferred those two brooks when I went toe photography school.
Carole
So why did you How did you decide that you wanted to come out to L. A to go to Brooks?
Becky
Brooks is actually in Santa Barbara, so actually moved to Santa Barbara and I lived there for two years. And then I moved to L. A. Just to start working because Santa Barbara is a very small community, and there isn’t much of, like many career opportunities there outside of just horseback riding and like working in a restaurant. Wonderful. I love that city for that exact reason, actually.
Scott
So if you opened up a drive thru horseback riding restaurant, you really not get out of the park.
Becky
I’m writing this down right now. I moved out here for for School. I had decided on Brooks as a photography school. It was like one of the best schools in the nation for fine art photography. And it was something that I had also been doing a lot of in high school and had won some awards and stuff and just really loved it. And I loved food and I left photography. So I was like, Well, I got choose one of those things. The photography one felt like a little bit more of a the good direction, which ultimately that did not end up being the case. But it’s fine.
Scott
It’s interesting how certain types of photography disorder resonates with who you are. Yeah, and who you are at a certain point in life, too, because that can always evolve and change as it has with you,
Becky
absolutely. And I think that at my core I do believe I’m an artist and I’m a very hands on person, and I feel my most myself when I’m physically creating things. I absolutely love cooking. I love the aspect of getting turned, nurture someone in more than one way, while also for me, cooking is really a moving meditation, and I think that similarly and photography you’re getting to create something that’s capturing a moment in time for someone to really enjoy, which is very similar to cooking. I think about when I cook a meal for someone and serve it to them. It’s kind of an art piece in one moment in time that then disappears. So it’s a very like temporary art installation in the way, and I think that’s kind of a cool way. Thinking about it.
Scott
It’s like a pop up art piece
Becky
is it’s very dear,
Scott
only it tastes better.
Becky
It tastes. Hopefully, it tastes better. Yeah, exactly, unless it’s a really cool heart.
Carole
So let me ask you, what type of cuisine have you never cooked? Why and will you change that? Um, I have
Becky
never cooked Well, there’s a lot, really traditional African or North African food. I just don’t know enough about it. I think it’s incredibly interesting cuisine, but I just don’t know enough about it. And I don’t want to butcher it. Traditional Chinese food like Mandarin I haven’t cooked that very much. I dabble a lot with Thai cuisine and Japanese food, cause I kind of understand those ingredients better, and I understand the way that they work together. A lot of Chinese cooking is about technique, and I don’t necessarily have the capabilities of doing that because you need a huge walk. But funny enough. When I owned and opened lately, which was my breakfast restaurant downtown, it was in Chinatown was in Chinatown, right? It wasn’t tied down, right? So I I mean, I met so many lovely Chinese people and we bought a walk from a restaurant across the street, and it was a traditional
Carole
carbon steel. It was carbon steel. I’m
Becky
trying to think of the name that they used for it because it was a it was a whole unit. I mean, it was massive, the Bt use on this thing when you would turn the flame on the walk would become 500 degrees in a matter of seven seconds. So powerful and it was incredible. Food would cook in two minutes. We would like we would do Ah Faro Grain Bowl. So would be far. Oh, and then we do egg. Of course it was for me. It was a play on like a fried rice, but it was incredible, and you could just never make delicious fried rice and anything other than a 700 degree walk. In my opinion, because it’s just that’s literally where the flavor comes from. If you try to do it and your skillet at home, it will never be the same. So for that reason, I don’t cook as much Chinese food as I would like, because I think it’s a really fascinating cuisine. But I guess that’s my long winded answer.
Carole
That’s interesting, because I cook mostly Chinese food, and I probably need to get that walk from you know, I feel like I just didn’t shade on you the entire Oh, no, no, no, no, totally. No, because you know I’m the home cook, So I I actually I’ve never tried doing that. Using a 700 degree walk, and it would be really interesting to find out how that changes the flavor. You get so much caramelization so quickly, you know, right?
Scott
I think we’d have to put some insulation in our kitchen Thio going
Becky
and probably get a hood system to write because it creates a lot of smoke on your
Scott
website. You have videos of yourself. Have you ever thought about being the next Gordon Ramsay?
Becky
Definitely not Gordon Ramsay. I I love. I love doing video work, though. And, um, gosh, Gordon Ramsay. He’s He’s a pro like Gordon Ramsay is a master. I have so much respect for him. I mean, obviously, I was on Master Chef. So that was my my riel interaction in meeting the guy on people always Dokka. Now Caroline Treat can relate to this for their like, Is Gordon really that mean? And like, so intense, etcetera, etcetera and, ah, it’s like he is. But at the same time, it’s fully warranted, right, because this is someone who has spent his entire life building up a reputation for having to work really hard, work himself through the ranks. It’s just and he really does care. And even when he’s yelling at you nine times out of 10. It’s true. He just might be a little bit more intense about Ethan. Right in what you would like to hear,
Carole
right? Yeah. You know, your your experience with Gordon Ramsay was a little different than mine, because I think on Master Chef Junior he was actually way pulled back. And he didn’t want to really make Children cry, pee their pants and cry because he has a big
Becky
heart, like he genuinely has a really big heart. He doesn’t hate people. He’s actually a very loving and endearing person. Physics, kids. Exactly. The guy can’t quit having kids, but it’s, um yeah, he’s He’s amazing. He’s great on camera. He’s funny anyway, So I admire that guy a lot for me. I would not be Gordon. I don’t have. I have not spent my life honing my craft and France And what not to do that. However, I do love doing video work, and I love teaching people. I love sharing knowledge. I think that sometimes in this industry there’s a stigma around wanting to be better than someone else or not wanting to share your recipes. Looking inferior, you know there’s a it’s a you know, the whole system is based on the regard. I mean, for goodness sake. So it’s like to work in restaurants, they your highlighted at a certain level for your skills or your leadership abilities. And so to take that and sort of dismantle that it’s a challenging thing to do. But I’m hoping that now that has kind of started to dissipate a little bit. And we can all understand that cooking should be something that is really fun. And we can share our knowledge. And I would love to be able to share any kind of knowledge I have about cooking and doing little cooking videos. Is is a fun way to do that,
Carole
right? Well, definitely during this time of Corona virus, so many people are getting into breads and cooking at home, and people are doing a lot of content of, you know, just taken with their shaky iPhone and people. I think, like you said, they’re they’re starting to realize it doesn’t have to be a perfect you know, shot on Ah, red camera kind of video. Yeah. So let me ask you So during your initial interview, cook on, Master Chef. You were really determined, but Gordon Ramsay gave you. Ah, no. Yeah. So what did you feel during that moment? Course I felt
Becky
massive rejection. But I also felt weirdly at home with having to prove myself. I think my entire life I’ve had to prove myself. And there’s always, like a little bit of pushback. And I’ve always been someone that im extremely determined, very hardworking. And I will I will get the two out of three. If that makes sense, like the analogy there, like, I might not be able to convince everyone all at once. But if you give me an opportunity, I’m gonna fight and work my way to the top and I’ll show you kind of thing. You know, I’ll prove myself to you. So in an interesting way, I kind of have thought about this before. And I wonder if I did better on the show because I felt like I had something to prove versus if I had gotten all threes. If that would have changed my mentality, if I had gotten all yeses. Excuse me. If that would have changed my mentality going into it, I don’t really think it would have, but it certainly I certainly, like, had to work harder because of
Carole
it. At what point during your Master chef journey, did you feel that you turn Gordon into being supportive of you to, um, I I’m not sure. Here’s
Becky
why. I’m not sure it’s been so long that I don’t remember the order of the challenges. So I can’t remember if, like one challenge was maybe before another one. I will say I think it was from mystery box challenges because I tended to do pretty good at mystery box challenges, which was specifically where we had to work under pressure and a short amount of time to create something out of nothing kind of think on our feet, right? And I I’m pretty good about working on my feet and making something out of nothing. So I think that during that time I think I was in the top 35 times in a row. I think at that point, that’s where Gordon kind of maybe shifted his thinking. Maybe I did have something to offer. I would say that was the first time I changed his mind,
Scott
and he did are for you a job at any restaurant when you left the show, did you take him up on that offer?
Carole
I did. It’s kind of kind of a weird
Scott
story. That sounds good. Weird is good.
Becky
A little juicy. It’s a little juicy. He I did. So we we talked after the show, which was cool. And he was like, Yeah, there’s Ah, let me connect you with my executive corporate chef, which is her name was Andy Van Willingen at the time, which I think she still works with him, but I’m not sure. So she there was a new restaurant that they had kind of just opened in L. A. And if you recall or you probably already know this, there isn’t really a high end Gordon Ramsay concept in L. A. The kind of the closest one would be Vegas. There isn’t really a high end concept here. And I wasn’t I didn’t really want to move. It wasn’t really in a position to move yet. There wasn’t really a great opportunity for me. I will swear like he didn’t say, Hey, there’s a great opening at my New York restaurant. Would you want to go? And I wasn’t really prepared to move anyway. So I went to the new restaurant here in L. A, which was at the grove, and I think it was called Blue Cow. Yes, something like that. Sort of fast casual.
Scott
Yeah. We had gone to that restaurant before, Okay, We actually went with the master chef. Some of the master chef, junior kids.
Carole
You know, we went for Dar’s birthday, and actually, Luca Luca even came and showed up. Oh, that’s cute. Yeah,
Becky
I love that I was before he moved to Texas. Right? So I went and stotch there, and I just did not love the environment. It was not what I was looking for at the time, I was looking for more of a fine dining environment where we’re creating, like, really cool things and really doing beautiful dishes. And the food was very fast casual, which is there’s literally nothing wrong with that at all. But at that point in my life, I didn’t want to be like making french fries and, like, I don’t know, pan fried sea bass or whatever.
Scott
It didn’t really lend itself because we ate there also, but it didn’t. It sounds like it didn’t really lend itself to the real strong creative side that is inside you.
Becky
Thank you. Yeah, I would agree with that. So I kind of came in. You know, when I started, they were gonna offer me a su chef position, which, looking back now, it’s kind of insane because I didn’t have any real time cooking experience in a restaurant, so that wouldn’t have really worked out. Anyway, I think they had five sue chefs, which is an enormous amount which already tells me that they’re not taking their regard system very seriously because that means that everyone’s kind of just has, like, labels like this person, just as inventory. And this person just does lunch shifts and whatever. So I didn’t know if it really was the right environment for me to learn what I wanted to learn. And when I was starting, a lot of the line cooks were just did not seem happy. They did not seem driven. They were deciding, going through the motions. And so I ended up passing on that job, and I went and worked at Providence for about eight months. And then from there I transitioned to raid in Stark Bar, which is at LACMA, and that was at the time under chef Chris Morningstar, who was so intense still is, but not to the degree he was at this time. He was just a lunatic but extreme, like a mad scientist, right
Scott
on the good side of the lunatic,
Carole
a good
Becky
side of like throwing shit at you in the kitchen. Exactly, and that was a really great experience for me. I was there for two years. It was like, insanely difficult. I can’t even stress that enough. I would cry when I got home a lot at night stuff. It’s just really intense. But also it’s because I was just learning so much so quickly that you almost don’t even have time to catch up with, like, what’s happening. You’re just learning so much information and trying to hang in there. And so that was a really great experience for me to kind of get the worst case scenarios of what really difficult find out in kitchens could be like. And then I worked at the church key after that because I had a friend who was a sushi chef there and they needed extra help and then kind of launched my business after that. My life through the restaurant industry in L. A.
Carole
Right, I think we also ran into you afterwards. I think you were doing all of the food prep at a Kiss FM event for all of the master Chef kids. Yes. Yeah, I think you were there. I think I remember running into their
Becky
totally And you know what? That’s room. So that’s interesting. So this was still kind of I should back up. So this is a little bit of how I still was kind of working with Gordon Ramsay cause I was working as a food stylist, so I would do our occasional food styling work. And that came because Did you know Sandy Birdsong?
Carole
Course. Yeah. She was a vegan chef that trained the kids.
Becky
Exactly. OK, so she’s amazing. So she was the food producer, And, uh So Sandy connected with me and she would send me, like, food styling work if I wanted it. Which, of course, I look sure in food styling with something that came supernaturally to me because I was cooking and then also in my background in photography. So I had a very good idea of like how things look on camera, how food can be photographed. And so I would do a lot of this stuff for TV. A lot of like, um, the Conan o Brien Show Access Hollywood, Queen Latifah show the view, all these kinds of things. Then occasionally, whenever Gordon would have, like, say, he would be doing a cooking segment for like Conan, for example, they would call me to come in style, his segments that I would put together the whole segment kind of prep ahead of time for him to come out and then that I would work with Andy and her team because she has, like, a whole corporate executive catering kitchen, just random things for him. So it was like I would work with their team to style it up on set and stuff. So I would kind of work with him on some of those projects. And the KISS FM project came from that because they were like, Hey, we’re doing this thing with Master Chef Junior, Could you go and help just sort of like be the culinary consultant on site to help make sure everything goes well. I was like, Yeah, of course. which was basically just food styling.
Carole
That sounds like it was really quite fun doing a lot of the different work for the show’s
Becky
Totally I loved it. I always thought culinary production with Superfund
Scott
and also just the amount of information that you learned in such a short period of time probably helped immensely.
Becky
Absolutely. And it’s Ah, yeah, it’s just I love that stuff, you know? I mean, I love learning. I love getting to be around lots of people. I love production in general. I think that’s I really loved being on Master Chef, not only because I was a contestant, but I just really love the aspect of production. I love seeing like how the cameramen working like the art director and how Brian would be directing. It’s just it’s all really fascinating to me. And so I could always see myself in any element of production, either in front or behind the camera. Really?
Carole
Right. Well, you So you just talked about production. So when you were on Master Chef, was the production portrayal of you truthful? And did it really reflect who you were? I’m
Becky
going to say no, because I know.
Scott
Has anyone ever said Yes, exactly. I’m like that person.
Becky
I don’t know. I would hope. I don’t think so. I don’t think so. It is a slippery slope that will say because yes, of course. I did say those things. Was I persuaded? Was I in the interview room for three hours? Yes, also, yes. So there’s certain things that, you know, story producers are there specifically to try to create a storyline that viewers are interested to watch. Right? So I was villainized on my season because I was, you know, very competitive. And at several points during the show, I said I was competitive, which I’m not ashamed of. I think life is a competition if I’m being really honest. So you know, you always have to want to fight for yourself. And I always want to be the best version myself and produce my best work. So it would have been a lie if I sat an interview and said, Oh, you know, I did my best. But I hope you know, we’ll just see what happens if I didn’t win. That’s okay. Like No, if I didn’t win, I’m gonna be very disappointed in myself because I want to win, so it’s very easy to take sound bites and put them into situations side by side with a sound byte of someone else saying, You know, that he’s really intense or something and then making it kind of look like I’m this malicious person. The reality of the situation was as we were all very close and we had, I mean, we all had a really strong connection. There was a couple on the show that maybe I wasn’t best friends with. That doesn’t mean I didn’t respect them and have fun with them. You know, post shooting that we would get drinks and have dinner together and last and etcetera, etcetera. So you’re just in a really high stress situation where you’re shooting every day and you’re not getting to see your family or the wear on you. It’s
Scott
almost a little bit like now.
Becky
Yes, it’s very much like, No, you’re very isolated. The only difference is is you know, I’m spending so much time to my phone right now, and, you know, we didn’t get to have our phones. And here on the show,
Scott
which judge on this show did you feel connected with your food the most. Or did it? It could have varied, I mean, from each time. But was there one judge that you sort of felt like they got what you were doing?
Becky
I think I’ll say yes. I’m going to say I guess, Gordon. I mean, he was I’m, like, drawing such a blank. Oh, my God. What was another judge? It was Joe Gordon and Graham Graham. Elliot. Um, actually, I think that I connected. I feel like I connected the most with Graham. And I think that maybe that might be the case for a lot of contestants to the Graham was kind of like the nice one, right? Because he was funny and he was a little bit more charismatic, I guess.
Scott
Sorry to interrupt. I was just gonna say, with the kids on Master Chef Junior when we were there, they called him the Teddy Bear
Carole
Bear. Oh, really? That’s
Becky
just so sweet. I love that. That’s so cute. Um, yeah, he thinks he’s getting dinner. I felt like he was the most willing to give me critical feedback aside when I would like, talk to him and be like, hey, what Or he would pull me aside, really? And be like, Hey, listen, here’s here’s what was really good. Here’s what you need to focus on or he would like, give me a little tips or he’d be like, Hey, just watch your network or like, Hey, he would kind of say like, Oh, what if you used you know, such and such? What if you used tapioca multi deck string? You could make it a lot lighter or he’d be like a next time. Try using green onions instead of chives and, like, handsome, finally and like throw it into the Braves. Or he would like, say little things to sort of give me ideas that the other judges didn’t dio.
Carole
Wow, that’s really interesting to hear that he would have done that. Yeah, because way would be. Do you
Becky
know I work nights so like we would have our cooking challenge right? And they would tell us on camera and like that data and then there would be maybe, like a five minute break where they had to reset, and so sometimes the judges would come in, like walk around or just sort of talked to us, just like goofing off like they would just be funny. And it was, you know, it was cool, but sometimes they would talk to us about food stuff because like I said earlier, they really did want us to succeed. And they recognize that even though, yes, we’re adults. We also had not had previous culinary professional experience. They knew that there was a growing curve that we had to reach by the end of the show, and they wanted to help us create better products. So I always really valued those little tips from Graham. And I would think about that whenever I would go into other challenges, and it would really help me toe expand my thinking. It sounds awesome and his food is so his food is like, so modern and gorgeous and just like crazy. He’s so creative. So I always really appreciated that,
Carole
right? So let me let me change gears here. You’ve participated in panel discussions with other dynamic women. What does it mean for you, for a woman to be dynamic?
Becky
Oh, I think being dynamic is being flexible. I think it’s being really opened. The learning. I think it’s being encouraging for other women to be successful in this business. I think that I get this funny nickname from some of my friends that I’m a Renaissance woman because I have lots of different things that I’m into. I just love being able to know lots of things. I love being ableto I guess you got to say, I’m I’m not a one trick pony. I want to be ableto shoot my cooking video and edit it and, you know, manage it on the social profile and all those kinds of things. Just because I enjoy that aspect of business. I like being able to do lots of things. And of course, that could be Yeah, it’s a double edged sword, sometimes to I would love to have a team of people, of course, are doing things like that for me, But But there’s a certain element. I think, of being a professional in trying to be at the top of your game. That means you need to be able to work under lots of different circumstances and and really be flexible. I guess just to come back to my original statement
Scott
traits do you have to have to be a successful restaurant chef versus a successful personal chef versus a successful master chef.
Becky
Well successful master chef. I think that’s I don’t know that one because I did not win
Scott
that you did exceptionally well on the show. So thank you went from Gordon Ramsay telling, you know, to winning him over. I mean, that’s a huge success, as far as I can see.
Becky
Thank you. Thank you. Um, I will say my husband always tells me that I’m quick to recover, and I think that that’s probably the best trait that I can share with you and that you have to kind of have a short memory. You have to have a thick skin. Then you have to be well in tow, work really hard and also working really well under pressure without doubting yourself. I doubt myself, just like everyone else does that. I think at some point you have to just choose to be confident versus choosing to continue to doubt yourself. And if you are able to recover quickly from criticism or recover quickly from tough service or a tough event, and then just push forward just knowing that you have a new chance every single day, every single event to kind of show up differently and better. That’s your best. My best advice.
Scott
And it sort of lends itself back to what you were seeing about a dynamic woman being flexible.
Becky
Agree? Yep. Exactly
Carole
how is Cove in 19 Affected your business and the restaurant industry? And do you have any tips about how the public can help restaurant tours and their employees?
Becky
Yeah, it’s been devastating, right? Um, I I left. So I opened lately in 2018 and I left last year. I left the partnerships. I am not currently a restaurant owner anymore, but I see I have so many friends in the industry that do own restaurants, and it’s just been very, very difficult. And I’ll tell you, as someone who previously did own a restaurant and manages a staff is that that is the absolute hardest part about kind of what this pandemic has done to us is, it’s not necessarily about I’m not making any money anymore. It’s that you’re letting down all of your staff because you can’t employ them. So it’s trying to figure out how do I take care of these people? The single biggest thing that weighs on restaurant operator shoulders other than rent, like not getting evicted is really just their people. Their staff like you. Can’t you feel a very deep sense of responsibility for the people that you employed? Because you know, they come to work for every day they looked at you to pay their own bills, and if you can’t help them do that, that’s really an emotionally devastating thing to do. So having toe furlough people and temporarily closes, then really heartbreaking toe watch. I do think that this is gonna shed interesting light on the restaurant industry because it is a very unsustainable business in Los Angeles the way that it’s kind of set up. Now there are a ton of new restaurants that open all the time, but there are even more restaurants that are constantly closing because the overhead is so high. It’s so challenging toe get quality work because, you know we can’t afford to pay them as much because your emergency so slim because rent is so high. And I think that that’s going to become a more evolved conversation after this, because I think we’re going to see a lot of restaurants close and there’s gonna be a big shift in thinking It’s not really answering your question, but it’s just something that’s insightful. No, it is absolutely. It’s affected me personally as a cater in a private chef is just, you know, all my work stopped, and it’s an interesting thing about my work is that it’s all generated from just my clients and by clients who tell their friends that they need a chef. And I don’t have, obviously, like a salary. I don’t go into an office or anything like that. But I have tons of clients that just if they’re having a party great, they call me. But then, of course, whenever this happens, though, they can’t have a party anymore because they can’t have more than 10 people. So they have put it on hold. All of my events that I had booked out, which will say was probably eight. I think I had eight events booked out for March and April. All those got cancelled Gosha. And then, of course, I’m just not getting any new increase. So I would say typically, on any given day, I’ll get at least one inquiry, maybe to over the course of a week will probably get around 5 to 8. Uh, and so that’s you know, that’s a lot. And I’ve had zero. I had one, actually. I had one in Crete, but that’s for a future date, which is great. I mean, it’s for something this fall, but it’s just no one’s planning anything. I mean, nobody’s trying toe have dinner parties,
Scott
everyone sort of in that holding pattern, waiting to see what happens.
Becky
So in a weird way, it’s scary. But it on, On the other hand, I’m very much accepted it. I’m not going through each day like terrified what’s gonna happen? You know, I do believe that once this gets lifted that a lot of my work is gonna start to come back. But I do. You know, it’s just a just a waiting game. That’s all I can really do, right?
Scott
Exactly. I mean, everything’s just up in the air right now. Speaking of up in the air, I was really into drones for a long time, and I had three drones over time, and I had a YouTube channel where I went out and flew my drone, and I just love flying it up in the air. Now, apparently, do you have a drone story of sorts to tell
Becky
What’s so funny? Yes. My husband proposed any with a drone.
Carole
How did that happen? Do you hang off of the drone? Oh, my God. You guys. Yes. This is such a
Becky
silly story of I should preface. This was saying that I am a very suspicious person, naturally, not in a negative way. But I’m, like, a very, very pragmatic. It’s kind of hard to like pull one over on me to surprise me. I think my husband knew this. So he went to extreme lengths to hire people, to pretend as actors, to pretend to be working for Amazon. So there’s a trail that we go hike a lot. That’s kind of near our house, and it’s really beautiful, and it’s way above the city. And so when we went to the trail to go hike one day, there was this guy at the head of the trail with Amazon hat and, like, a lanyard greeted us. And, uh, okay, we’re doing this, um, this test program with Amazon for drone delivery, and
Carole
I had kind of briefly heard about
Scott
this
Becky
drone delivery thing already, so it already was hitting on like my little like this is so exciting. Like I get to be a test subject in this program. They’re like, basically, we used geo location, GPS, location from your phone to figure out where you’re at, and then a drone will drop your package directly to you so we can do it on this hike. We’re doing it for free. Were sending water or sending light bottles and cans of water to drop to you guys during your hike. Would you want to do it? And I was like, Oh, my gosh, that’s so weird. Like, Yes, Greg was so smart because he had all of these planned questions of trying to poke holes in the stories. He was like, Yeah, but why are you doing it here like this is kind of a private trail. Wouldn’t she be in Santa Monica? Smart and the guys that we were, but it was so busy that we were getting too much of a crowd. We couldn’t operate our our tests properly, and so of course I was like I said it. So I ran back to the car to get my phone because I cycle. I’m gonna instagrammed this is gonna be so cool. So we go on about our hike and we’re just running and we run up to the top of this hill, and Greg is like, Oh, hey, I ordered our water. I actually kind of got mad at him because we had only been running like a mile. I was like,
Carole
Why did you
Becky
already order the water? Like I’m not even thirsty yet, But it was just a funny thing. He was like, Well, that’s fine. So we see the drone coming over the hill and it has this long lanyard attached with a box at the bottom, and it’s like coming towards us. I’m videotaping it cause I think it’s so funny and like
Carole
Oh my God, this is something
Becky
cool. We’re getting water from Amazon right now and our dogs with us, and she’s going crazy. She hates that your own. So it gets really close and it comes and drops this box down like it’s literally right over our head. Grab disconnects it. And I remember at the time thinking it was weird. The box was not an Amazon box. It was like just a white box, and I thought Oh, they’re just doing a test there. You know, it’s just beta. I’m sure they’re gonna work all the kinks out later. Something is just so silly, you know, and he opens it up, and it’s a can of Lacroix.
Carole
Oh, that’s that’s, like, so funny. I love again. I’m not
Becky
thinking logically. I’m just thinking
Scott
all this stuff I love
Becky
exactly. Right, So dump. But it was a trick can. So he opens the hand, and inside is the engagement ring. Whoa! And he proposes. And I was just I like, lost. It was so crazy.
Carole
That’s so romantic. It’s really good,
Becky
you know? So silly. It was so grandiose, but it was very him. He’s very, like, very creative.
Carole
You’ve said that your husband Greg, calls you a Mustang because your wild and stubborn did I tell you it’s on your instagram. Okay. Oh, that’s
Becky
right. Okay. Right, right. You
Carole
said that your husband Greg calls you a Mustang because your wild and stubborn and nearly impossible to break and that you said he’s kind of right. But the thing is like any great horse trainer knows you can’t break the horse with force on Lee with patience and understanding. So how is Greg been scoring so far?
Becky
Really good. He’s very patient. Very understanding is very supportive, which is cool. I’m much more intense than he is. And I’m like a very high energy all the time. And he is much more calculated and controlled, which is great for us, because I can. We need that balance.
Carole
So you catered your own wedding. How maney arms do you have?
Becky
All right, I did get around wedding. I just couldn’t imagine not doing it. I think it’s such an opportunity for me to cook for all the people that are most important to me. And I will say our wedding wasn’t massive. We had about 50 people. It was manageable. It was also a way for us to help mitigate costs a little bit, too, because if I’m being honest, I just don’t have $50,000 to spend on a wedding. And I just couldn’t rationalize that personally, So I just wanted to be able to I knew that I would enjoy the food Mawr if I made it. I knew that my guest would. I knew that it was, um, a cost viable option for us and I just cater so much other stuff. It seems silly not to. And I will say I personally was not cooking in my wedding gown on the day
Scott
I was looking for the pitchers,
Becky
Trust me, I went into the kitchen a few times to try to help played up and all of my staff or just, like,
Carole
get out there.
Becky
They were, like, literally shoving me out of It was really hard. It was really hard for me not to be there. I won’t. I won’t lie. But I have. Yeah, some people that I work with a lot who are wonderful. And they did. They did all of it on the day on, which is cool. So
Scott
as I alluded to a little bit earlier, my mouth always waters. When I see her food, How would you describe your style of cooking?
Becky
Oh, thank you. I guess I would just say super fresh, really bright, very Mediterranean, I think, living in California it’s just it almost goes without saying we have so much awesome produce and so many incredible food vendors to work with that. It’s just really fun for me to cook with bright, colorful, beautiful produce because it’s every time I go to the farmers market. It’s like an adventure. What I’m gonna find, you know, find a purple ninja radish. I’ll find flowering purple bok choy. You just find all these crazy things. And so I kind of use that as my inspiration, and then I’ll create a dish around that. So if I find a really interesting ingredient, I don’t think about you know what a traditional preparation might look like. And then how I can do a riff on that and then integrate a start your protein, You know, saucing all that kind of stuff, but every light
Carole
using all your creativity. Yeah, well, we’re coming to the end, but we have a lightning round of quick fire questions with eight questions that we have. Don’t think about it too much. Just one or two word answer. So number one something people misunderstand about you. I
Becky
have a huge heart. And just because I’m very direct does not mean that I mean,
Scott
the first band you were really into,
Becky
Spice girls. Oh, wow. Listen, it was a long time ago.
Carole
Best book you ever read?
Becky
Um, also east of Eden by John Steinbeck.
Scott
What’s something you are deeply grateful for now,
Becky
my family
Carole
favorite meal. Come on. Um no hard for a chef, Roman. What
Scott
time will you wake up next Sunday morning?
Carole
Probably 10. Who was your favorite friends? Character?
Becky
Who? Um, de Phoebe. Phoebe,
Scott
Your favorite place on earth.
Becky
Oh, my favorite place on earth. I’m gonna say Maui.
Carole
Okay. Well, thank you so much. Becky. We really enjoyed speaking with you. Oh, my gosh. Is my pleasure
Becky
is so much fun. Thanks for having me.
Scott
That was wonderful. For all your insight, in your knowledge, on everything. Thank you so much.
Becky
Of course, that come back any time.
Carole
And where come our listeners check you out and find you on the Internet?
Becky
Your best chance is gonna be on Instagram or my website, which is Becky reams dot com. And that links out everything else. Jeff, Becky, reams is my handle on Instagram.
Carole
Excellent. Thank you. Thank you so much.
Becky
Oh, my gosh was my pleasure. We’ll talk to you guys. See?
Carole
OK. Bye bye. Thank you so much to Becky for joining us for this podcast. Check out this dynamic Renaissance woman on the This is you podcast page, along with mouthwatering photos off her awesome food photography and creative dishes.
Scott
Now our new segment merging our listeners from all around the world with their local national dish. We have listeners from the continents of North and South America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Oceanic. There are 20 countries from around the world which we have listeners. We absolutely love all you guys and are super grateful that you listen in.
Carole
So, Scott, we’re going to have a guessing game. I’m going to name each of the top 10 countries that has listeners to our podcast. And you are going to guess what that country’s national dishes?
Scott
Obu. I’m excited, Carol and hungry.
Carole
Ok, good. So the country that has the most listeners to our podcast is the US What is the national dish for the US?
Scott
I’m going to see bacon and eggs.
Carole
No, again. You want Try again. Sometimes. You asked for this, actually, multiple times a week. Spinach, fudge, bananas, savory, savory. Think several savory more waffles. Okay, Burger. Hey! All right, that’s it. Ok, now this one you should know because you are from that country. Canada. What is the national dish for Canada
Scott
Fury
Carole
How about something with something that goes with French fries? Boutin? Oh, yes. Now what is protein?
Scott
It’s a magical fairy concoction that makes you smile deep down inside. And it goes well with beer.
Carole
That’s true. But I don’t know that most of our listeners know what poutine is. Poutine is a French Canadian meal. It features three ingredients. What’s the 1st 1? Beer. Okay. Fries, cheese, Kurds and gravy. Now, I have no idea. What are cheese? Kurds?
Scott
They’re made out of beer.
Carole
Okay. All right. So we’ve got poutine has made out of beer, fries, cheese, kurds and gravy. The next country that has the most listeners is Germany.
Scott
Oh, I know this one. Alligator.
Carole
This’d is something that in it has the word in German. It’s sour. Brockton.
Scott
I’m going to say sauerkraut.
Carole
Alex. It’s a German pot roast dish which can be prepared using a variety of meats. So Saleh brown, they usually use beef, but sometimes they use venison, lamb, mutton, pork. And in some cases, they actually use horsemeat. Okay, The next one. I think you should get this. This is from oceanic. It is Australia.
Scott
Kangaroo cane. Toad shark.
Carole
Roast lamb was declared Australia’s national dish in a major poll off 24,000 Aussies. Okay, next one is a tricky one. U K
Scott
That would be the United Kingdom, Alex.
Carole
And what do you think is the most popular national dish? Their
Scott
fish porridge. Poor jen fish.
Carole
Look, that’s a good idea, actually, Chinese have something called which is poured and fish together. Oh, yeah, this is the UK and what kind of immigrants live in the UK? A lot of immigrants that living Hurry, close. Very good. It’s chicken tikka masala is the most popular national dish. Do you know what it is? What’s in it? Beer. Oh, gosh. I think they do drink a lot of beer in the UK, don’t they?
Scott
Yeah, they do.
Carole
So beer with aromatic chicken, golden pieces of chicken swimming in an incredible curry sauce. So it really shows how Britain absorbs and adapts outside influences. Now, this one you should know because this is where my family comes from. Mincemeat pies, meat pies. Yea, meet by So our family comes from New Zealand. So every Christmas Eve, my mother goes up to a New Zealand bakery and buys three kinds of meat pies What’s your favorite? That she usually has chicken chicken curry to mince pies with cheese made Spies with cheese are hamburger meat, and it has a piece of cheese laying on the top two. Lamp I. So it comes piping not with crispy pastry and chock full of, ah, glorious savory filling. This is the seventh most popular country that listens to our podcast. Sweden. Ah,
Scott
meatballs for my Kia Love those
Carole
guys. They have something called herring and potatoes.
Scott
Oh, that’s got to be so good.
Carole
Now the next one is Ireland. That’s would be lucky charms. They’re they’re magically delicious. I’ll make a bridge and runaway Irish stew. It’s a thick, hearty dish of mutton, potatoes and onions. Undisputable Italy. The national dish of Ireland. The next one we have comes from Asia. It’s the Philippines. What is their national dish?
Scott
Oh, this is easy. Planting adobo. That’s what I meant to say. They sound so much. The same
Carole
double consists of pork or chicken, sometimes both. It’s stewed or braised in a sauce usually made from vinegar, cooking oil, garlic, bay leaf, peppercorns and soy sauce. So really, it’s kind of a stew almost so like Ireland the knife. One that we have is Mexico free. Hollis. What is a free Holdings
Scott
K. So enchilada burrito.
Carole
Those air Good. But this is a sauce. Salsa? Ah, try again. Self A Verde. How about something that has chocolate in it?
Scott
Morally
Carole
sauce a sauce? Have you ever had more? Lisa? I
Scott
have. I’ve had very good Molise.
Carole
What does it taste like?
Scott
You know what, Carol? I’m going to see. It tastes a lot like chocolate
Carole
says it’s a 10 tal izing sauce made from sauteed onions and garlic, combined with exotic spices and herbs. Ground nuts such as almonds, pumpkin seeds or sesame seeds and chilies simmered with dark, bittersweet chocolate. Last one, France,
Scott
this would be they. Ah, they French fry there they like it. A French fry.
Carole
Is that Italian or French? Except it’s
Scott
right on the border.
Carole
It’s poto fair poto. Full photo faux. I don’t know. You speak French. How do you pronounce that? Beer photo fa is pot of fire. Basically, it’s the same as what we had in Philippines and Ireland. It’s a stew, but this time they always have a marrow bone, oxtail, beef, and then they put it with vegetables like carrots, turnips, leeks, celery and onions.
Scott
We also want to give a shout out to the next 10 countries Kenya, Belgium, Italy, Ecuador, Jamaica, Brazil, Spain, Romania and South Africa. If you are from one of those countries, let us know what you love eating
Carole
now our first podcast giveaway, who between
Scott
April 22nd through May 19th 2020 enter our give away for a $25 Amazon gift card. It’s simple. All you have to do is go toe apple podcasts subscribed to and leave a review of our podcast. This is you podcast. We will choose our favorite review and announce the winner on May 19th on the podcast.
Carole
Give us your feedback on our podcast. Leave a message for us on the This is you hotline at 5622916037 It’s anonymous. Just leave us a message with your thoughts. You can also direct Message us on Facebook or instagram or email us at Carol at. This is you dot com. Carol is spelled C a r O L e. At this is you spelled y you dot com or Scott at this is you dot
Scott
com. We’re always trying to improve and would love any constructive criticism. And, of course, all the constructive compliments specifically to me. Let us know what you’d like to hear us talk about or any suggestions of guests. Also,
Carole
we all want to belong to a community and connect. And we want to offer up our ears and our hearts to you.
Scott
Our home base is www.ThisIsYu.com
Carole
Instagram is @ThisIsYuOfficial
Scott
And last but not least, our Facebook is This Is Yu VIP Community
Carole
Catch you later.
Scott
Thanks for listening, guys.
Carole
Bye bye.
