Chef Michael Hogan

I learned so much talking to Chef Michael Hogan about the world of competitive cooking! 
Listen in and learn and laugh!  

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hi, it's Lucy Chapman. Thanksfor listening to another edition of Here's More.
You know, we talk about thingson the air, and sometimes you'll
are left with wanting a little bitmore and you can't put you can't say
Here's More any clearer than leaving youwith wanting a little bit more food.

(00:21):
Right. You hear me talking aboutfood all the time. So that's why
I've got a special edition for you. Chef Michael Hogan is in studio with
me today and we're going to talkall kinds of food. Mike, welcome,
Hi, Lucy, Thank you forhaving me. I appreciate it.
How long have you been a chef? We're going to talk about you,
But how long have you been achef? Officially? Five years all right,

(00:42):
so we're going to cover a fewyears before that, and then we'll
start talking about those five years.You didn't start out as a chef.
You're you're from the Omaha area mostlyoriginally Yep. Grew up in which part
of town just off twenty eighth andLoveworth. Okay, so South Omaha,
boy, Yep, I'm still inSouth Oma too, so sob still off

(01:02):
time off twentieth and Martha now soMy grandmother was at Seventh and Bancroft,
So we were down in that areaas kids all the time. So I
know that area. Well, sotell me a little bit about growing up.
You grew up in the South Omahamidtown area kind of we're kind of
called that midtown. Now, youwent to school. You did you think

(01:22):
you wanted to be a chef?Did you know at that time? No?
I didn't know that at that time, but you know, I went
to Saint Peter's Grade school and thenI went to Paul the six. I
was like a block from a house, you know, school was. But
but my mom, when I wastwelve, she told me, she says,
you need to learn to cook becauseyou're probably going to marry something doesn't
know how. And why would shesay that. Well, she wasn't so

(01:46):
wrong, but uh, but shejust said that a lot of girls don't
learn to cook anymore. You know. But this is this now, hold
on because this is my age.We're that we are the same age.
So she was in sense talking aboutme and my friends, and well,
so do you go that I thinkabout it? Okay, moving on,

(02:07):
So your mom said you need tolearn how to cook, so she would
leave directions at home to finish whatwe were gonna have for dinner that night.
When I got home from school orduring the summer, you know,
she'd had me get that stuff readyand then I would put it in the
oven and or whatever we had todo. And then when they got home
from school, her and my stepdad, when we got home from school or

(02:28):
from work, I'm sorry, dinnerwas ready. So do you think that
that's when the idea was planted inyour head? And you might not have
actually really grasped it, but youkind of liked it cooking. So fast
forward a few years. I actually, when I was sixteen, I got
a job at JB's Big Boy,remember the coveralls and the Hamburger. Yes,

(02:52):
I started out as a dish washer, and then I moved up to
a cook and I had fun cooking. And then when Jab's Big Boy closed
down, I followed the manager toBrandeis brand Ice Food Service at the South
Roads. And you know we did. We took care of the Columbian fathers.
Uh, there are retreats, andthen you know, we made soups

(03:13):
and made actually made the soups forthe crossroads and the West Roads. And
I would deliver those to them,and and you know, so that's where
I got more of my cooking sense. And then then that restaurant closed down
there and and uh, I wenton to other things I did. I

(03:34):
worked in a hardware store. Onetime. I worked at a well we
called I call it junk mail.But it's all that mail that you don't
want. But you don't say junkmail when you work for this company.
Oh you're the guy. But Iworked for them, and you know,
but I always cooked. I meanlike I would just pull things out of
my refrigerator and just put it together, you know, like the leftovers and

(03:54):
just put things together. And andso you know, that's that's kind of
where all that cooking started was,you know, from my mom in the
Big Boys. And you know,I didn't really get back into the restaurants
because I was like, I don'twant to cook other people's recipes. Did
you know, I know a littlebit about some of some of your journey

(04:14):
into where you are today. Doyou think that you kind of maybe developed
your style of cooking or was justdeveloping, like starting at JB's and then
as you left that and you gotinto other jobs, did you kind of
miss it. Did you kind ofjust play around with recipes? It was
that I just played around, andI you know, my mom was a
good cook. I mean she,you know, she was somehow she made

(04:39):
liver and onions taste good and andwe did the hamhocks and beans. You
know, those are all the thingsthat she used to cook all the time.
You know, you know the youknow the sos. You know it's
yeah, yeah, which is ayou know, the dried beef and gravy
on the toast stuff punishing. Yeah. So I had to think about that

(05:02):
for a minute. But you know, and she's just always cook and you
know, I watched her and Ihelped her, and I think she really,
you know, got me that senseof cooking into me. Working at
Big Boys just gave me that restaurantexperience and stuff. And then I just
went on and did stuff. Iworked for some hospital supply companies and and

(05:24):
other things, and and then abuddy of mine he started a first aid
and safety supply and I started workingfor him, and I was with him
for twenty two years, and thenin twenty one he sold the company to
Sentos, and I was working forSentas for the last few years. Doing
the same thing. But back intwo thousand and eleven, when her mom

(05:54):
was pregnant with my daughter was pregnantmy my daughter's in the studio. So
when when her mom was pregnant withher, she says, you know,
you're getting something to do. Youknow, I'm going to be kind of,
you know, moody and stuff.And she bought me one of those
little bass pro looks like a minirefrigerator smoker and did uh. It didn't

(06:18):
last long. I mean, itwas like it was too small right away,
you know, because I was alreadycooking and like, I can't get
a full brisket in there. Ican't. And I just happened to say
to her, you know what weneed here is just a store that specialized
in just barbecue. That's it.And I don't know. I was like
three days later and there's this addon TV about this barbecue store off one

(06:39):
hundred and fifty six and and Dodge, and I went out there and started
talking to him, and he says, you know, you should become you
should become a certified judge. AndI'm like, I don't know if I
want to become a certified barbecue judge. He goes, well, he says,
it'll teach you to cook better becauseyou'll know what expects as far as
barbecue and stuff. And so Idid that. I became the judge,

(07:01):
and then I became a board memberof the Greater home Omaha Barbecue Society.
A judge for a year and ahalf and then I was like, I
can't sit here and meet for twohours anymore. I'm getting a fat,
you know. So I got intothe competition part of it and brought a
youth smoker for our first time,and you know, it was a it

(07:23):
was a mess. I suppose,well the first time that was all through
Greater Omaha Barbecue Association, well society, it was yees. So so yeah,
I was through that. I meanthey used to have a big presence.
But I became a certified judge forKansas City Barbecue Society and and I
was a member for them, anduh, you know, we just kind

(07:44):
of grew from there. But Istarted doing the competitions and we we didn't
really need big awards, but wegot several awards in different things. So
we never won a championship as faras barbecue, but you know, we
got awards in Barbara brisket and porkand chicken and you know ribs, and
you know that's when and once youget the fever, once you get a

(08:05):
medal or something, it's just it'sin you. It's just in you.
And but you know, things startedgetting too expensive. You know, the
big boys were starting to come inwith you know, their big trailers and
big trucks and and their wagrou brisketsand they're you know, do rock pork,
and it was getting too expensive,and so I kind of backed off
and started doing other things. Sowhen you when you were still doing the

(08:30):
barbecue competitions, how did Omaha supportyou? Did? You have a lot
of support from from the community comingout. So when I was doing the
barbie when I started doing the barbecuecompetitions, I did twelve contests like my
second year, and those were allaround Omaha. And now they're just they've
all kind of disappeared, you know, they're just the contests, the contests.

(08:50):
Okay, Yeah. Do you thinkmaybe because there just wasn't enough participation
because of it? Wes, becausethat because the teams are getting bigger and
spending more money, they wanted towin more money, and and well that's
in my opinion, But these thesenonprofits couldn't raise enough money to do that.

(09:11):
What about getting something? And Iknow we're gonna move on because you
moved on from barbecue, but whatabout getting a smaller system back into place
like you started at to get someof these up and comings, some of
these guys who love to do itlike you loved to. Well, there
there was a I don't know ifthey're still around. There was the Midwest
Barbecue Society, but they did alot of stuff up in you know,

(09:33):
Iowa and you know, northern Nebraska, and they were doing some of that.
I haven't really heard much from them, so, but I don't really
keep up on them because I'm notreally doing a lot of barbecue anymore.
I just love barbecue. It's good, it's good. So so you moved.
You saw that was kind of comingto an end, at least at
the level that you wanted to beat. Yeah, you anue, I

(09:54):
just couldn't get the sponsorship. Soso there was the as jc's used to
have a thing called them All Beerand Bacon Festival, which you know.
So I entered that a couple oftimes and I I won it twice and
we got the bid to go tothe World Food champions for the first time

(10:16):
in twenty sixteen, and I tookmy son. No wait, wait wait,
you can't move on, and soyou tell us what you want.
It was what what got you thewin? Uh? I have to know
these sorry. Well, the oneyear that I won, it was a
pork belly taco oh with a jalapenoslaw. Yeah. Yeah. And the

(10:37):
second time I won, we dida bacon brownie. Yeah, you know
what. I think I had someof those. I think you brought those
up last time we talked. Ibrought them up. Yeah, And that's
yeah exactly. So now you canmove on now that I know what you
won with. I have to knowthese things, so that the company I
got us into the first year,our first year of the World Food Championships

(11:01):
twenty sixteen, which was an Orangebeach, Alabama, and I had some
friends that had a fundraiser helped meget down there, you know, because
it's kind of expensive, and Ihad no idea what I was getting into.
I had no idea, And Itook my son, who doesn't cook

(11:22):
very much. He cooks more now, but at that time he didn't,
and we just didn't know what wewere doing. But we had one dish
that did well. Our baking cornbread. And instead of using yellow cake
mix, which you know, rumorhas it that Famous Daves uses cake mix

(11:43):
in their corn bread. I hadnot heard that rumor. But thanks for
that, and I gotta go.But I instead of using a yellow I
use a spice cake mix. Becauseit was in November. Oh wow,
And so are you giving away secretshere that you don't want to give away?
No, okay, no you can. I'm trying to protect you.
No secrets, okay. And thenuh, and then for some reason,

(12:07):
the pork belly taco didn't come outright. Oh no, we couldn't get
it rendered out right, and itjust yeah, so it flopped. But
so so we weren't last, butwe weren't anywhere we need to be.
So And the way the World FoodChampionships worked at that time is there was
ten categories and you qualify for oneand if you get in the top ten,

(12:31):
you move on and you have achance to win money. So it
just depends where you finish. Soyou know, may top ten, you're
done, you know. And sowe were done, you know, hung
out for a little bit and watchedsome other people and stuff. But now
this was the first one that youhad entered, the first one we had
entered, so so you weren't youwere disappointed, but you thought, okay,

(12:52):
well, yeah we were. Whenwe saw the overar scores, we
were kind of disappointed, but wekind of knew. I kind of knew
that it was going to be lowerbecause of that. But when we looked
at the scorers and looked at theyou know, the carn bread that we
had made, it was you know, it was sixth out of so.
I mean, we were close,you know, for our first year.

(13:15):
But you know, they take theat the time, they take the two
and they had them together and that'show you get your final score. Okay,
And so because you couldn't get thetacos to come out right, yeah,
so but you know, you learn, and that's the whole point,
you know. So you know,we we got qualified for the next year,
and and you know, we dida little bit better, but not

(13:37):
as well. And then we qualifiedanother year, and we kept going back,
kept just pushing forward. You know. It took different teams, and
you know, the second year Iwent and took my nephew the third year
was my nephew and my son.Twenty nineteen, I found another chef that
had been to the World Food Championships. She helped me out, and then

(14:00):
COVID hit. We had qualified fortwenty twenty, but then COVID hit and
they canceled it. So twenty oneI had some other people that I knew
from the World Food Championships, thissays, and they contacted me and said,
hey, Mike, we want tocook with you. We know you're
there. Well, we want tocook with you. Well, I was

(14:22):
actually Stephanie. She said she wantedto cook me, and she got this
other guy named PJ who who wasclassically trained, but he didn't want to
go through. Those two had beenin the World Food Championships. They'd been
in the top ten, but theydidn't want to do all the work,
so they wanted to cook with you. Not they didn't want to join or

(14:43):
to be a contestant. They wantedto be part of your team. Yes,
and they had been contestants. Yes, that's that's kind of were you
kind of taking it back by that? Well, I was excited about it,
you know, like you're calling me, you know. But they also
help some other teams too, sothat's kind of what they want to do.
They just want to be the souschefs, you know. But twenty

(15:07):
twenty one we did. We've alwaysqualified for the bacon category. I think
it's not that that's all I cancook, because I can cook almost anything.
But to me, bacon is thehardest one to do because it's so
versatile you can use it in anything. But we went with a bacon carrot
cake, which was one of ourdishes, and then the other dish was

(15:31):
a porkbellyon wan tong cup with anAsian slaw and had some hoison sauce and
some Blackguard honey on the top ofit. So you make up these recipes
yourself, yes, I mean obviouslyyou're not reading a recipe out of a
book or somebody else's online stuff,So you make up these recipes. So,

(15:52):
yes, I come up with alot of ideas, and I always
run them through Stephanie and because youknow, this will be the fourth year
that they've actually cooked with me,because we're going back in November again,
but but this will be the fourthyear that they've actually cooked with me,
and so I run stuff by them, and you know, so Originally the

(16:15):
Wanton Cup we were going to do. I was going to do a taco
and PJ says, make it aone time cup. So because the tacos,
ah, you don't want to goback to that. Yeah, well,
you don't want to repeat it thefirst one, so the one.
So he thought maybe a one timecup would be better. Yep. So
we just changed it, and Icame up with the recipe and and you

(16:38):
know, and we put it togetherand it scored ninety four of one hundred
points. Wow. And then wedid the bacon carrot cake, which was
which was good, but the judgesdidn't like it. Oh so everybody that
ate it said it was one ofthe best things they've ever ate. But

(16:59):
for some reason, the judges didn'tlike it. So we ended up tying
for tenth in our category. Iremember, you get the top ten,
you get, there's a tie.We lost the tiebreaker. You said you
were a judge, Going back,just for a second to the barbecue.
You were a judge in barbecue competitions, not just as a participant, but

(17:22):
also a judge. And I didthat one time in my life. I
judged a barbecue. And the reasonI'm asking you this is because you said
the judges didn't like the cake,but everybody else did, and going back
on your experience as a judge,isn't it possible, because as I said,
I only did it once, Butthis seems possible to me. Is
it possible that they tried your cakeat a point in the judging where for

(17:48):
some reason it just didn't mesh withthe other stuff that they'd already eaten.
Well, Doug could be part ofit. The other part of it is
taste. This subjective, absolutely,you know. So that's a big part
of it. And and the tiebreakerwas actually who scored high. It's on
the taste, So that was ButI had, you know, I had

(18:11):
people that worked for the World FoodChampionships that had tasting the bacon brownie and
they're like, did you make thatbacon brownie? I'm like yeah, and
they're like, oh my god,that was the best thing I ever ate.
Wait, what year was this?This was twenty one, So is
it possible that their taste buds wereaffected with COVID? It could have been
that I'm going to go, I'mgoing to make some phone call and said

(18:33):
this is why we didn't do that. So while but but at that at
that year, they also had asuper qualifier. So if you've finished high
up but you didn't get in thetop ten, they had an extra category,
which is called the Super Qualifier,and and so the theme for the
super Qualifier was sliders. And Isaid, Okay, here's what we're gonna

(18:57):
do. Because the park Belly WantonCup had finished so high, We're going
to turn that into a slider.I eat that, and we even everybody
listening to this is thinking, isthere anything she won't eat? Not really
go on, And we even friedup a Wanton chip and put in there
for texture and stuff. And sowe ended up getting an eighth place call

(19:21):
and so that qualified us for thenext year. Fantastic. So we went
back in twenty two, and wewent back in twenty two and we ended
up getting six overall in our category. So and so we're waiting for So
were you there in twenty three twentythree? ID just came back. That's

(19:41):
a whole nother story because I almostdidn't make it. Do you know yet
about twenty four? Is that somethingthat you would I'm already I'm already qualified.
Okay, so you're already qualified.So you're gonna be there five years,
four years in a row, fiveyears in a row. This will
be my eighth year. Oh omaha, publics math ops mathrefu goes want public

(20:03):
see does pretty good? You didtoo? Right? No? You went?
Did you go to? You saidyou went to? Well? I
went to uh Saint Peter's and thenwe had to paul a six. But
paul the six closed in eighty threeyears their last year, So I went
to Central for my last year.Okay, see that little ops in't you?
Yeah? Yep? So we canall be joking about it. Okay,
so eight years you're already going backin twenty twenty four, and you're

(20:27):
already thinking about some of the thingsthat you're going to do the day we
left. So the day we leftlast November, it was the day I
started thinking of things and I comeup with a lot of crazy ideas and
then I'm thinking, Okay, Ican't do this in an hour and a
half. So you know, sonow they kind of changed it a little
bit. So you're only doing onedish now, but you have an hour

(20:48):
and a half to do it.But you can't prep anything. Oh,
so you've got to have a dishthat's not going to take a long time
press, so you have to makesure that you can do everything then and
get it turned in. And it'snot like chop when you put your hands
up. You have to actually takeit up to the table with your presentation
and five samples for the first dish. So do you watch because one of

(21:12):
the things that I cannot watch Americanbaking shows is because of that whole throw
your hands up in the air.It just for some reason, it makes
me insane. So I watch theBritish baking So do you watch a lot
of British or do you watch alot of baking shows and baking compat I'm
not a good baker. I don'tbake very well, and that's not what

(21:32):
actually is it. Well. Ican bake, I just can't decorate.
You know. Sometimes my daughter she'saround, she hells me to decorate cupcakes.
She's good at that. But I'myou know, if I doing some
kind of dinner party or something wherethey want a cake, I call bakery.
You know, But in your circle, because I'm sure that you know

(21:53):
other chefs, you hang out withother chefs, that's probably not unusual.
You're either a chef or a pastrychef. There are a few that are
both. They can do both,but mostly, you know, you go
to school, you become either youknow, the chef on this side,
or become a you know, abakery chef, you know, well,

(22:14):
pastry chef they call it. Yeah, I would think that you would kind
of have to focus because they areboth very intricate and very time consuming,
and and trying to learn them bothwould be kind of hard. And speaking
of learning, since you have beenare you a professional chef now? Correct?
Because amateur you don't get paid professionally. You do enough, sure,
you're thinking, yeah, but it'dbe nice to make a little more.

(22:37):
Yeah, I need to make alittle more. That's part of the issue
right now. Right But since youhave been a professional chef, you have
cooked for many people in the Omahaarea and surrounding areas and outside of Omaha.
How has that affected your life?Not just cooking, but just the
people around and the experiences that you'vehad and the travel. How's that affected

(23:00):
your life? It's a you know, you get to know a lot more
people, and cooking is kind ofmy mental stability. If that makes sense,
it does? You know, Idon't like the cook Wait what,
I don't like the cook for justme? Okay, you know so so

(23:23):
well, you know, and that'sthe thing. And then the competition.
You know, when I'm trying toget ready for the World Food Championships,
I'm looking for that one bite.I'm not looking for. So what I
do I can't a restaurant couldn't dobecause I'm putting everything it can in that
one bite. You know, restaurantsthey have to make it, you know

(23:44):
different. You know, they havea different bills they have to pay and
and everything else. I'm taking onebite and I'm going to a contest and
praying that. You know, somejudges are like, there's the best thing
I ever ate. But you know, I bring stuff to people and I'm
like tasted, and if they say, oh that's good, I'm like,
Okay, that's not good enough.It's gotta get back because I want them

(24:06):
to say, oh this is reallygood, or you know, the look
on their face or whatever. SoI've seen some of the pictures you've put
on Facebook of the stuff that you'vebeen trying, and oh, we need
smell a vision and we need tasteof vision. We definitely do it.
Looks really good, and you've hadsome pretty good success with that, just
getting some opinions in that area.That way. Yeah, I do have

(24:26):
people comment. I have people thatsay, stop posting stuff, you know,
unless you're sharing with it. Andthen I say, you know,
I actually say, they say,everything you do look so good. I'm
like, you don't see what Ithrow away. So it's a good thing
about social media. You only puton there what you want people to see,
right, so so it's not actuallyreality. But but uh, you
know, but uh, you know, I just, uh, I just

(24:49):
kept cooking them, like we didtwo Culinary Fight Clubs, you know,
where we won the Taster's Choice andthat was a trigger influencer for two and
a half years. So you know, people have started taking notice. And
and you know, since you know, twenty one, we got six in
our category in bacon. That's baconas important, not baking, because we

(25:11):
are established. I'm not that bigof a baker bit. But uh and
then this past year, you know, which is a whole lower story.
We'll get to that, but youknow, people are starting to take notice
now, and it's because I'm notreally working my full time job for Sentas
anymore. I'm out there promote myselfbecause of you know what happened, which

(25:34):
we're we'll talk about here in alittle bit, you know. So,
so people are starting to taking notice. We have this month's issue of All
Magazine. There's an article about meand that there's a cookbook from the World
Food Championships that's out. It's actuallygonna be I heard it's gonna be on
Amazon in June. Then you canbuy and it's all bacon and burgers.

(25:57):
That's all that's in it. Sothey're going eventually do other categories, but
this is the first. You'd haveto be in that one. Yeah,
of course. Well, actually,I don't care what's in the back.
We made the cover. So ourbacon pizza that we did in twenty one
is on the cover. Oh wow, or twenty two, twenty two is
on the cover. So that's quitean honor. So yeah, I was
like when they were promoting and saying, hey, we're gonna have this cookbook,

(26:19):
and I'm looking like somebody copied mypizza, and then I'm like,
oh, that is our pizza,you know. So so and uh,
you know, so did really welland so we're really we're really happy.
But I was going to ask youwhere you kind of see yourself in the
going forward with this? Where doyou kind of see yourself? But before

(26:40):
I get to that, you've hadsome it's a few setbacks in the last
couple of years. Well especially well, yeah, last couple of years.
Twenty two, before we went toWorld Food Championships, I was diagnosed with
a little grade prosst cancer. Ididn't know how bad it was at the

(27:00):
time, but when I went toWorld Food Championships that was on my mind.
You know, it's like, youknow, I have pros say cancer,
how bad is it? And thenyou know, after they did the
biopsy and everything, they found outthat it was just a lower grade.
So it's kind of just sitting there. It hasn't moved. It does affect
some parts of my life, butit just it's not growing, so we're

(27:21):
not touching it. So the doctorsaid we could take it out, but
the after effects are worse than itbeing in there because it's not doing anything
right now. So, because onceyou start messing around sometimes you wake up
those cells and then it starts tospread. So I've heard things like that
before, so so and then lastyear twenty three, as a matter of

(27:45):
fact, it was a couple ofdays ago was the anniversary of my mom
passing away. She she got cancer, and it kind of shook me up
a little bit. But she shegot diagnosed with cancer in the end effect,
and the day after Memorial Day shepassed away. So it got real

(28:07):
bad. That kind of shook meup a little bit, you know,
because she's the one who she's theone you have to cook a wife that
was going to cook for you.Yeah, and and so so it kind
of shook me up a little bit. But we made a plan for the
World Food Championships, you know,and and uh and so September Fest had

(28:30):
come up, and normally I woulddo that barbecue contest, just to do
it because it's five minutes from ahouse, and you know, I had
a lot of friends down there,but this year I didn't take part in
it. But I went down thereand hung out with some friends. But
I had been outside all day andit was really hot that day, and
you know, I had a coupleof drinks, but you know, it
wasn't anything major. And all ofa sudden I wake up and I have

(28:56):
the MTS call my name. Ihad got dehydrated, passed out, and
I cracked my head open. SoI had to be cut on the back
of my head. And you wereat home at this time. Nope,
I was down September Fest. Ohyou're still down at September Fest. Ye,
so so uh so you took meto the emergency room. They put

(29:17):
two staples in my head and thensent me on my way. It didn't
make sense. Yeah, why thishappened. I just got dehydrated, passed
out and hit my head on theconcrete. So so uh so. Then
at the beginning of October, Ideveloped a case of food poisoning. Wasn't

(29:38):
my food for everybody to know,but I was out of town. Do
you feel kind of weird saying that? Sometimes people asked me that, So
I'm just putting it out there wasyour food. No, it wasn't my
food, but I was out oftown working. I was working with with
sentas to doing the safety stuff.I ate a at a restaurant I'm not

(29:59):
going to name home, because youknow, that's it happens. It happens,
but I don't even know if that'sit, you know, on my
way back to Omahaw because I wasin Grand Island, Carney. On my
way back home, I started feelingreally bad, started getting chills. You
know, it's still pretty warm thatday. I remember getting back to the
office getting my car rolling down thewindow. So I was cold and I
just could not get warm. AndI went home and you know, I

(30:23):
had some stomach issues and stuff.I called the doctor next day and they
said, it's probably a virus orfood poisoning. Just you know, alternate.
You're a set of medicine and ibyprofand don't just take one all the
time, you know, And sothat's what I was doing. And so

(30:44):
on October eleventh, I woke up, It's about five o'clock in the morning.
I'm like, something's not right.I just I didn't know what it
was, but I'm like, it'snot right. And so I took one
of my illuminum catering pans, youknow those throwaway ones in the bathroom,
and next thing I know, Iwoke up on the floor, had almost
completely crushed that aluminum pan, andI was had blood on the floor.

(31:10):
I had internal bleeding, and soI cleaned myself up, called nine one
one, opened my door in caseI passed out again. They took me
and I was in ICU for threedays. I had lost almost two units
of blood and they went and dida scope to find out where the bleeding
was. And uh, they foundout that I had some diverticulitis and the

(31:34):
ioprofen had got stuck by a bloodvessel and cause it to burst. And
the doctor had told me, he'slike, Mike, if you hadn't to
woke up, you would have bledto death. Oh my goodness. So
so did they know what caused thedive of ticulitis. Was it from the
food poisoning? No, it justit was just people. People just developed
My mom had it, you know, so but uh, you know,

(31:57):
so they gave me a transfusion.But then other thing they told me is
that food poison is still in yoursystem. We can have later and it
should not have been at that point, so they knew it was something pretty
strong. So they they gave metwo antibiotics, one in each arm because
they weren't compatible together. So soyeah, but then after I got out

(32:23):
of the hospital, I started havingpain in my shoulder and it was so
painful. I was almost in tears, and I'm like, did I break
something when I fell? And soI went back to the hospital and they
took X rays and like, don'tlook like anything's broken. And you know,
my regular doctor sent me to anorthopedic and and he says, I,

(32:47):
I think it's your rotary cuff.And I said, well, I'm
supposed to go to the World FoodChampionships on November six. Remember this is
October eleventh, and that's happened.And they're like, and my regular doctor
did want me to go either.And even when I was in the ICU,
I told the nurse practitioner, Ineed to get better because I got
to get the World Food Championships.And she's look at me like, you

(33:07):
just need to worry about what's goingon here right now, says I don't
think you're gonna make it. Soso my regular doctor, she didn't want
me to go to the World FoodChampionships because mihema clothe was low, my
ron was low. And then alsoI didn't think I was gonna make it
because of what have happened. Youknow, I had used up a lot

(33:30):
of my vacation and I didn't havethe money to go. And the week
before I was supposed to go,I had the Nebraska Pork Producers which you
know, I do a lot ofstuff with. They said, hey,
you know all the stuff for us, We need to help you. You
know, we need to sponsor you. I had some family members that gave
me some money, and then Ihad a gentleman that had always sponsored us,

(33:51):
but he sold this company. SoI figured, you know, what
was done. And you know,it was like he cold and said,
hey, let's let's do coffee tomorrow. It was November second, and I'm
supposed to leave on the sixth.And after we were done talking, he
has been enveloped for fifteen hundred dollars. So that made just so I'm like,

(34:12):
I'm going your meads are net oryour needs are net. Your needs
are met. The needs were met. So the next day I went to
my regular doctor because she was like, I'm gonna talk to you before and
I'll decide whether you're going to go. And I'm like, well, you
can tell me not to go,but once I leave here, and she
goes, well, I know you'regoing to go. So she goes,

(34:32):
just make sure you're taking your ironpills and you know, making sure you're
you don't overdo it and stuff.So November sixth, I well that day
after I left the doctor, Isaid, I'm coming in the World Food
Championships. And it wasn't even amonth since I had the GI I believe.
But it wasn't just that that didn'tend your medical issues, No,
because like I said, I hadthat pain. And what had happened was

(34:58):
I lost mobility in my arm.I couldn't raise my arm above my chest.
I was still able to open upmy hand, but I couldn't raise
my arm. And they still thoughtit was a rotary cuffet at that point.
And so I couldn't really lift anything, you know. And and so
you know, I drove to Dallas, and my crew made sure that you

(35:21):
know, I was taking care ofThey followed the recipes. You know,
they wouldn't let me lift anything,you know, which I couldn't anyway,
But even carrying our trays up tothe table, you know, they carried
them up and then you know,they put them in my hand. I'd
set it down, but they wereright there to make sure I didn't drop
them. And they changed the rulesthis past year. So it wasn't the

(35:43):
top ten, it was the topseven. Oh and so, but also
they had master chefs that would walkaround master chefs and were master judges too,
but they saw a team that wasdoing some very good so what are
looking for? Techniques and things thatyou know, the other judges would never
see, and they thought they canmove up. They would move them up.

(36:07):
I got seventh place with my Wedid what we called a cronat,
which is supposed to be the crossbetween a croissant and a donut. I'm
familiar, so we made our versionof it and it got us in the
seventh place, but it put uson the bubble because they moved the one
up. So myself and another teamhad to do what they called the call

(36:30):
the Sam's Bike Club. And basically, you cook one hundred samples for the
public. The public votes for you, and you know, and the winner
got that seventh spot. You hadto cook for one hundred and it was
just one bite, but you hadto cook for one hundred. Oh my
goodness. So what they did wasis they had five items that you had

(36:54):
to pick. You had use atleast three of them, and so it
was animal cracker, pork rands,syrup. Those are the things you chose.
These are the five things. Onont know what this makes. So
so we did uh. There wasanimal crackers, pork randes, pancake batter,

(37:15):
syrup, and bag bacon, andso I was like, what are
we gonna make with this? Andthen another friend of mine said, you
know, you need to make likea Terrama Sioux. I'm like, oh,
that'd be great. And originally wewere talking about just crushing the animal
crackers. So we chose the animalcrackers, we chose the syrup, and

(37:35):
we chose the bacon. Now youhad to use three could you use all
five? You could use all five? Okay? So, but you only
you had to use at least three, okay. So, and then you
could, you know, whatever elseyou wanted to do, okay. So,
So this this other chef, hisname was Chris. He said I
should do Terrama Sioux. And thenmy my team member, my my chef

(37:58):
on my team PJ. Don't crushit, just break the animal crackers up
and then drills it with coffee.So I said, oh, okay,
okay. So I took it onestep further and we infused the bourbon into
the coffee. So and then Imade a cream cheese frosting and I cut
back the sugar so it was morelike a marscapone kind of thing. And

(38:22):
then I took the bacon and Iinfused the syrup we had to use,
and I added some some other baconthat you know, sponsors me, Billy's
Bacon off for Air Hope, Alabama. I infuse some of that with the
the bag bacon, and then madea caramel sauce with the syrup, and

(38:42):
we put that in there. Andthen a buddy of mine Vents who I
get balsamic oils and vinegars from andsome seasonings. He's like, what if
we take and we take raspberries andwe put the age balsamic in the raspberry.
And I'm like, well, you'redoing it. I'm not putting a
hundred I'm not putting balsamic on ahundred raspberries. So he did that,

(39:04):
and and so what we did iswe took the animal crackers, broke them
up, we drizzled it with thecoffee bourbon, then we put the cream
cheese on it, and then weput the bacon on it, and then
topped it off with the raspberry,with the with the balsamaic and so and
you lost with that. Nope.So so we went into the wars to

(39:25):
find out who moved up to thatseventh spot, and they called us,
but it was like six o'clock atnight, and Bacon's next Their next cook
was first thing Saturday morning. SoI'm like, what are we gonna what
are we going to do? Andso the year before we had made the
bacon bond bond and and it didreal well. And I says, you

(39:46):
know, these judges have never seenthe bacon bonbond, and we have all
this stuff back at the condo tomake it. So we just kind of
tweeked a little bit to make itbetter, a little different, make it
better because is you know, weknew how to make it, but now
we're able to elevate it because we'vealready practiced it. And so we came,

(40:07):
came in Saturday morning and then cookedthe bacon bon bond and because everybody
already cooked, it was just likea fine machine. And you know,
we turned it in. And thenyou have to sit when you get in
the finals, you have to sitand listen to the the judges critique your
food, you know, and Ididn't never have really any bad that nothing's

(40:29):
sitting as bad. But one judgesays, I can't believe you guys made
this confection in an hour and ahalf. Head, I don't know how
you did an hour and a half. And then another judge said, what
I like is that I can usethis for breakfast, I can use it
as a compliment, and I canuse it as a dessert. So it's
basically Canny bacon on the outside,chocolate ganache, bacon inside the chocolate ganash

(40:54):
more chocolate ganash. You know,we sent a refrigerator to set up,
and then we made a crumble ofpretzels, bacon, fat, toasted pecans
and bacon, but then on top, and then we drizzled with a homemade
bourbon caramel that we made and uhand some age masomic and and so the

(41:14):
judges loved it. Problem is iswe were supposed to use right bacon,
and so I did use rate baconand the crumble, but they never tell
you how much you have to use. But I used Billy's bacon on the
outside because it's sticker and it's gota better flavor to it. I didn't
know the guy from Right Bacon itwas going to be judging the bacon category,

(41:34):
so I think that might have hurtus a little bit. But but
at the end of the day,we got fourth in the world in the
bacon category. So I was happywith that. And it was just it's
my team and everybody else that gotus there, you know. So don't
you think it's a conflict of interestif the guy from uh, the bacon
company is one of the judges thatyou had to use, Well, he's
the sponsor. So you know,if you own a bacon company, I

(42:00):
guess you're a bacon expert. Okay, fine, fine, you can be
a judge whatever. So but youknow, we got fourth, and you
know, we got some money,which we were happy with. A good
friend of mine got first. Andthe way the World Food Championships is,
if you get first in your category, you come back at a later date
and compete against all the other firstplace winners for one hundred and fifty thousand
dollars grand price. And when isthat time for you? It's passed.

(42:23):
Well, next time, next time, next Year's my time the next year.
Okay. But that that actually bringsme back to that question, where
do you see yourself in a fewyears or ten years or fifteen years.
Well, I'm fifty eight, soin fifteen years, I know I'm doing
that math too. You know.I hope to keep cooking, you know,

(42:45):
I want to keep cooking. Youknow, I've started this this business.
You know, Chef Michael Hogan isthe business, and you know,
I've started this business. And mydaughter helps me out a lot. She's
she goes with me and helps medo dinner parties, and sometimes they're more
impressed with her than they are withme, you know. And uh and
she gets paid well, you know, so and she's getting a great people

(43:07):
education. She's getting a great educationof how to deal with all kinds of
people. So so I'm doing dinnerparties, I'm doing classes. I can
do private classes in the house,the dinner parties in the house, catering,
any kind of catering, corporate events. But you're going to keep cooking.
I'm going to keep that because it'smy mental and right now, because

(43:30):
I can't work for Synas because ofmy injury, I'm on kind of a
disability with them, And of coursedisability doesn't pay enough to pay your bills,
you know. But uh, youknow, so that's so I'm still
cooking and I have to because that'smy mental stability. So when I get
really down, I go into thekitchen. So it's not so much that

(43:50):
I like cooking, but it helpsme. It gets my brain going.
And that's where you know i'd comeup with I've come up some pretty weird
stuff. So if I just broughtyou, say, five random ingredients and
said, you know, Mike,I'm tired of cooking dinner. I can
never think of anything to make,so here are some things to use.

(44:13):
Could you make me something for dinner? Sure you could do that. I'll
do it to your house though,okay, because by the time I get
to your house, i'd be cold. Well that's that sounds like a kind
of a niche place that you couldoperate as well. Yeah, there's a
there's a few other chefs in Omahathat do the private dinner parties. I
might be one of the more expensiveones. But you know, I bring

(44:35):
the plating. You know, Ibring my own pots and pants. You
know, I have to hire somebodyhelp me. If she's not if my
daughter's not with me, then youknow, I have to hire somebody else.
But it's an event. It's notjust you know, here's your food
or whatever. I mean. Youknow, I serve as chef style.
I tell them, you know,how we're doing it. Now I'm giving
away my secrets, but I tellthem how I do. But then I

(44:58):
have, but then I have.I usually have a story about what they're
eating. So like, you know, three weeks ago, and this is
going to bring this whole I seeyou, Thane full circle. But three
weeks ago, we did a dinnerparty and they wanted a crispy skin skin
sea bass. So that's why wecooked for him. And you know,
they loved it. And but itwas one hundred and fifty dollars a person,

(45:21):
but it was a five course meal. But but I show up and
I and I told my I says, sea bass really isn't a bass,
and they're like, there's not.Says no, it's a giant grouper.
So people don't realize that. Butthen they're like, well that makes sense
because I like grouper too, Butsea bass is a giant grouper. It's
not a bass at all because it'smore of a fatty white fish, where

(45:44):
a bass is not a fatty fish. Yeah right, is that right?
Yeah? Yeah, I think it'smore fat I think it's not as fatty
as salmon, but it's it's afatty or white fish, but you know
it's my favorite. And what happenedis is, you know, anytime I
cook anything that has anytime I chopanything up, I save that and I

(46:06):
put in zebloc bag and I makemy own broth and stuff. Well,
I had made some crab legs andwe crapped and open and you know,
I saved the shelves and then Imade a seafood broth put in my freezer
and then it was perfect too.So we actually poached the the sea bass

(46:27):
in that broth after we got theskin crispy. So they were like,
this is just crazy. As amatter of fact, they just gave me
a review on Google. But afterwe were over, after everything was down,
we're cleaning up, this lady walksin and goes, I know who
you are, and I'm like,I'm kind of worried at this point,
I didn't do it, and shegoes, I thought I recognize you,

(46:47):
but when you started talking about theWorld Food Championships, she gos, I
knew exactly who you were, andI looked it up and I was the
nurse practitioner in the ICU when youwere there with the gi Lee. It
does come full circle then, SoI was like, Omaha is like the
biggest smallest town there is, youknow exactly, And you got to what

(47:08):
a great way to thank her withouteven knowing you're thanking her. I did
say, well, I have nosecrets from you, that's for sure.
But but you know, you know, she knew more about me than you
know, some of my own familiesa little bit. But uh, it
was really nice. You know,well, Michael, it has been an
absolute pleasure to get your story andto get to know you a little bit

(47:30):
better. And you're on the you'rein the magazine. It's out on the
stands now, Omaha magazine, Omahamagazine. I don't know. I know
it's in a lot of the doctor'soffices and offices. It's free, they
don't charge for it, but uh, you know it's uh it's I know
I've seen in different places, butthis is their food issue, so there's
it's mostly food in there. Butthen we're in there and it talks a

(47:52):
little bit about the story that youknow, we just talked about too,
and you know, it's a picturein there. It looks really good and
it's got a picture of the baconbondbond that we made, and well,
I'm holding it. But yeah,so before you leave, I know you
have a copy of it. Beforeyou leave, can you autograph that to
me and leave me that copy?Sure? Okay, thanks, I do
I think that this is this isjust the beginning. And I can say

(48:15):
this because we're close to the sameage, so I'm not age shaming you.
I read something the other day abouthow I think Ray Kroc was fifty
two when he first started McDonald's,and then there was a couple of other
older people that started, you know, a little bit older, which it's
it's inspiring to know because we kindof sometimes get the idea that well,

(48:37):
well I'm too old to do thator I'm too old to do this,
and you kind of said, nowI'm to do whatever we're out. Well,
I was in the first aid insafety business for twenty five years.
This would be my twenty fifth year, and I you know, I when
I saw that, you know,my former employer was things were looking kind
of bleak. He was looking tosell it. I started. That's when
I went to Metro and took theculinary classes, you know, and not

(49:01):
because I mean I already had abunch of awards, but I was like,
a good cook is always learning.Well, would you what would you
give? What advice would you giveto somebody who is twenty two or fifty
two that is thinking about I wouldgive you two different reasons. So if
you're younger, so if you're inhigh school and you're thinking about doing a

(49:22):
culinary career, Metro has a programwhere you can start taking classes while you're
in high school. Oh really,and so and so a culinary culinary arts
degree from Metro is, if fulltime, is a two year program.
So if you're coming out of highschool at eighteen, by twenty twenty one,

(49:43):
you have a degree, you know, and hopefully you're not just taking
a degree. You're working at arestaurant. And I'm not talking the fast
food restaurant because you're not going tolearn how to cook anything in there,
but some of these other restaurants learnto cook while you're going to school.
Once you get out of school,every restaurant, every kitchen, not just

(50:05):
in America but across the world islooking for somebody to cook. So you're
young enough you can go travel,learn these different cuisines you know, and
get your worth up there. Youknow, the more you learn, the
more your stock is worth. Thatis that just sent shivers down my spine.
What an opportunity for a young personjust starting out to be able to

(50:27):
just travel literally travel Europe and travelall over the world in different restaurants.
Even if you don't go overseas.You know, there's opportunities around the country.
You know, you can you canlearn Cajun cuisine and Louisiana and you
can go to California use a differentcuisine. You can go to Boston and
learn the seafood. I mean,you just can learn all those things.
And you know, I haven't workedin a restaurant since I was in my

(50:52):
twenties, but but I know alot of the chefs that around town and
they tell me their average lifespan fortheir chefs for you know, two to
three years. So you learn thatand then they move on so that they
can get you know, bigger andbetter. But but you know, so,
yeah, what would you tell somebodythat's fifty two that maybe you did
that you would try you would getthem to maybe avoid this or that.

(51:16):
Don't think that just because you cancook, you can open up a restaurant,
because especially at the a age offifty eight, because if you open
a restaurant this age, it's therest of your life. And I like
doing what I'm doing now because youknow, if I'm going camping or she's
got a function or something, Ican say yes or no. I can
pick and choose what I want.If I want on vacation, I can

(51:38):
do that. But if I ifat fifty eight, I open up a
restaurant, you're married to it andthat's the rest of my life. And
then it's like I don't get toenjoy my life, you know, so
so but that you know, butwe you know, our name used to
be Spice your Life, Rub yourMeats because we start out in the barbecue,
and we changed it to Chef MichaelHogan because I've entered, you know,

(52:00):
some of the Connory students at PavilionSouth. You know, I'm working
with the Nebraska Pork Producers doing someevents and you know, and we just
needed to come forward with it.So so when I was trying to for
out what to call it, somebodyfrom the World Food Championships mentions me and
says, you know, the obviouschoices Chef Michael Hogan, and that website's

(52:21):
available, so the next day Ibought the website, you know. So
that's how everything's just kind of fullcircle. And that's the story. So
well, Michael, your story isamazing. I appreciate you spending an hour
with me and with the listeners thatcan get that story. And it's just
it's a story of somebody right herein Omaha. It's just highlighting people from

(52:45):
all walks of life, in alldifferent areas and all different professions. And
I think that you've gotten me startedon doing something now this and getting other
people in just to get their stories. So you're still inspiring. I thought,
may you're gonna say, I wantyou to come teach me to cook.
No, you know what, It'sfunny. My mother was a fabulous

(53:07):
cook. She could cook anything andbake too. She could do both.
She won pie ribbons and stuff.And both of my sisters can make pies
and have won ribbons in the fairs. I, on the other hand,
no ribbons. I can cook,but not like they can. So I
didn't get the cooking gene. SoI don't need any lessons because I already

(53:28):
know it's not gonna go well.So thanks, but no thanks. I'll
just keep buying the box stuff.Or I'll just take some stuff over to
your house and say here, cookthis forrming. I'll pick it up in
an hour. I'll pay you.But thank you again so much for joining
me today and hanging out and withyour daughter Aria. Thank you so much

(53:49):
for being here too. She helpsme with cooking, but she doesn't want
to be a cook. She wantsto be the boss. Oh you know
what, I like her even more, all right, thanks again, Michael.
Chef Michael Hogan website. Uh,Chef Michael Hogan dot com. And
you're available, available for private partiesjust anything to do with cooking, and
we can do so. We justhave to have a minimum on certain things.
So but yees, Chef Michael Hogandot com. Chef Michael Holgan on

(54:12):
Facebook, Chef Michael Holgan on Instagram. Pretty easy to remember. Really want
to impress your friends. Have aprivate dinner party with Chef Michael Hogan and
they will be talking about it foryears. Yes they will. I know
that because you did. You didone for Gina. I did it with
for a friend of for a friendof Gina. She was there. I
knew there was some connection there andwe still hear about it. Yeah,
so it's true that good Chefmichael Hogandot com thank you again for hanging out

(54:36):
with me today. Thank you,Lucy