Jerry Fraser: 35 Years Sober and the Oyster King

This transcript was generated automatically and lightly edited for readability. It may contain minor errors, and speaker labels are not yet added.

The word resilience comes to me, right? I am where I am today. I'm resilient because of stuff you go through over the journey, right? I'm not saying not throwing stones.

There's no wrong or right. I got 11 and a 12-y old. So, you know, that scares me a lot. But also, I don't want them to go through stuff I went through.

We use that word old school. We are old school. Kids don't like to hear it. In our days, uh, we would work 16 hours a day and we did it and we didn't call up in the mornings and say, "I don't feel too good." You know, we went to work.

Yeah. Every day. Y teamwork for me is is so important. \ All right, so we got Jerry on um the Oyster King.

Is that what it is? Well, some call me that. Yeah, mother shucker. Shucker of all mothers.

Oh, that's true. Shucka Khan, you name it. I've \ been around. I've been around, Paul.

Don't worry. So I I don't actually know Jerry that well obviously from the um you know being around with the oysters and stuff but he's very well known um especially in the hospitality game and does a um fantastic job always got a great personality and I reckon about um I reckon two months ago 3 months ago I was chatting with him down at Embassy there um and said come on the podcast he's like no problem like more front than probably most others and then uh we haven't seen each other since and then I ran into him what last week yeah last Yeah. And he goes, "Well, it better be before I travel." So, we got And the best thing about this, I was telling someone the other day, he got his old diary out handwritten, which none of us have anymore. And he goes, "What time?" And you know what?

Two nights ago, he text me. He's ahead of me. I could have all the tech and EAS in the world. I just, are you ready?

Where is it? Yeah. Well, I had to make sure cuz I wasn't too sure where the where the venue was. You and you did tell me, "Hey, it's just around the corner." Y and I just moved and all that.

Actually, when I seen you, it was it would have been like nearly the first day I was here, something like that. And uh yeah. No, so Jerry's on uh don't know too much about him, but uh just starting to learn a little bit. So tell tell us about what we're just talking about.

So you're about to travel? Yep. Just about to go off on Sunday, fly up to Kununurra to see the boss, my my beautiful Pearl as they call her, Fiona. Um she's a school teacher, school educator uh for young young children.

So she's up in a place called Perolulu which is quite a famous Yeah, that's cool. Quite a famous uh remote Aboriginal school. Yeah. So it's um if you most people know where the Bungle Bungles is.

This is called Pernolulu. Uh I been a couple of times to to visit because it's school holidays. Uh Fiona will either come down to Perth or we'll go over east to see our sons. Yep.

Or I fly up and uh we spend a couple of weeks together. Yeah. That's amazing. So world.

So just talking out there before I learned heaps in about 4 minutes getting a coffee. Um, your sons, we'll touch on in a minute. They're pretty cool lads as well, but with with your partner, um, obviously long distance, the bit of travel. Um, and you said it's a bit of a different relationship just the way it's structured now, but you've been together 35 years.

Well, we first married 35, known each other for 38. So, yeah, it's amazing. Yeah, she's an amazing woman. Yeah.

I I appreciate that so much. I divorced 2 years ago and my ex is a beautiful woman. um and all that stuff. But it's a I love hearing that you know when someone's together that that time and then like you said these days it's like it is what it is.

She's doing what she loves which first thing you said which is awesome. No, this is a dream job for her. She loves it up there and uh she's very good at what she does. Yep.

And uh she's taught at many schools here in Perth. Uh she's a Perth girl and uh we met in London 38 years ago like earlier and uh we got married in London. Yep. And uh it was actually Fiona who uh I call her my rock, my pearl.

You know, she's um my background is that uh I was born in Scotland, but I was raised in Peru in the Andes of Peru. So my old man was in copper mining. Wow. And then I went to boarding school in England.

Yep. And then I went to university in Florida. And then uh I did my degree. I'm a geologist by trade, but I ran an oyster bar while I was at uni.

Did you? Yes, I did. how that's how I got into sort of oysters. How how old were you then?

Well, I would have been about 20. So, yeah. Yeah. And and sorry, where was that again?

That was in place called Tampa, Florida. Oh, in Florida. Florida. Yeah.

So, that's where the oyster story started. That's where the story started. And planted the seed. Yeah.

I I used to love going to oyster bars. Y I love the vibe. I didn't know much about oysters. So, and I thought the oysters in Florida were pretty good, but uh later on I found out they actually are not that great.

Uh maybe I shouldn't be saying that but uh no uh Gulf of Mexico oysters aren't the best. Yep. And um so it was a little like a hobby job. Um it paid uh I got paid illegally which was great.

I was allowed to drink what I wanted, eat what I wanted and listened to southern rock and roll which was great. Jimmy Jimmy Jimmy Buffet formula in those days were great formula. So my last two years of uni were were pretty full on but I was a wild guy. I and my wife can tell you that I was a pretty pretty crazy dude.

Y um and uh probably too many stories for today. Definitely. Far far too many. Far too many.

But it was um it was my trip to to a cousin's wedding in London in 1983. You're Osborne. Yeah. So, so that's where I uh I met \ Fiona later on.

Uh I just come back from Spain and I helped a mate run a a restaurant in Spain in ' 88. Yep. and came back to London again and worked at a very famous famous seafood restaurant called Bentley's which is was the well probably still is number one seafood restaurant in UK. Wow.

Very cool place. Fivestar. Unbelievable. And um I met Fiona there.

That's how we met and uh we hit it off. I think I think the Aussie sort of sense of humor and the Scottish sense of humor very similar. Yeah. You know, we don't take ourselves too seriously.

Yeah. Yeah. And um you know banter watching great banter great banter and feed loves oysters and shampers and uh I was in my party days last time you know well that had to be by default it \ just sort of came together you know and we hit it off and um and then you know we sort of uh I \ guess dated I don't know if that's the right word but uh we lived together for a while y and um I I I sort of realized this was the the woman for me uh you Uh she a little bit younger. She's 12 years younger than me actually.

And and uh that was it. I proposed in a restaurant. I I actually got on my knees and uh was the was the ring in an oyster? I'll tell you what, it was it's a funny thing.

Fee's um favorite champagne is Veuve Clicquot. Yep. So, we were at a well-known restaurant. And I had gone to see uh the the waiter who was going to service that night uh earlier, and I I said, "Get me a champagne bottle from a Veuve Clicquot.

I want you to cut a little groove in it, and I'm going to put the ring in there. Then, when you come to the table with the bottle, pop it, and then change switch the the corks." Yeah. Just switch the corks and say to Fiona, "This is I think you have think this belongs to you." And that's what we did. Wow.

So, yeah. And the waiter switched the corks, put the cork in Fee's hand. We had another friend of ours sitting at the table. Uh they weren't too sure what was going on and then I just dropped to my knees.

Yeah. How crazy is that? Yeah, that is unreal. That's crazy.

So Fee couldn't say no. So it was great. So uh we got married in London. We had bag pipes and uh kilts.

All my kilt and uh my family were living in Peru at the time. So they came over. Uh Fiona's family from Perth. They all came over.

I had sort of family from Scotland. Y uncle uncles and aunts they came down and made some mind from uni came over. So it was a it was a big party great wedding day. Just something that resonates with me.

Um, so in 2010 I proposed to my ex-wife now, but uh and it was at the top of the Eiffel Tower like how original but it was in the Jules Vern the restaurant and I carried I actually got a ring made and I carried it all the way over in Mashew blah blah blah travel cuz we went to Croatia and all as well and um and then at the point I was going to do it do the same thing I end up doing laps and I was gone for ages and I had these big sweat marks dinner plates and I come out after being in the bathroom you know like in the movies and you think you're going to drop it Yeah. So, I had the ring. I got on the whole restaurant and um I had these big sweat patches. There's photos of it.

And uh yeah, it was it was amazing. It was pretty cool. But um I love it. Trying to do a bit different.

And then we we had eight course meals. We went home, went to sleep, and the next morning she woke up. She goes, "Oh, I had a dream that the ring was fake." And it actually was because I got it made and I wanted to get a proper one made when she got back. And I'm like, "Fuck." \ They know everything, don't they?

The intuition of the woman. Don't worry. They sus it out. real quick.

But uh yeah, we you know um that's 38 years ago. My god. Wow. So we got married and and then you know we've got two sons.

I talked to you about Cam and Cal. 30 and 32. 32 is Cameron and 30 is Cal and both living on on the east coast now. Both grew up here in Perth.

Uh went to Ellen Brook Primary and then went to Guilford Grammar. Yep. And then they moved on and did their own things. Mhm.

Um, so you're saying uh who's who's 32? 32 is Cameron. He's the eldest. Um, he's a sexologist.

Sexologist. That's what you're saying. He did his masters actually down here in uh Curtain University. Yep.

And then he went over. Well, he was here for a while and he was doing um a lot of work with uh disabled young men, taking him out to pubs and bars and meeting ladies and Oh, yeah. using the right uh terminologies and content and all that. And now uh he's uh he gets flown into a lot of universities and a lot of sporting clubs.

Y you know um a lot of codes to talk. Jerry was saying before basically like and this is this pretty big topic these days is about the whole consent you know like you saying 13 14 15 year olds onwards and just understanding it. I think the education piece around it I'm guessing. Um cuz when he when he said that what he does is occupation honestly might sound cool but I didn't actually know what it meant what it was like you don't these days but but he's uh pretty popular over east very knowledgeable he's he's a key guy to go to it's flown in that's pretty amazing he's got podcasts as well he has he has he has it's called the Cam Fraser so t h e c a m f r a s e r so the cam phraser you can check him out and uh He does a lot of talking and so now when we do the post and do all this, we'll have to link up with him and um Yeah, he'll he'd like that.

Yeah, it' be wicked. Yeah, that's awesome. My young one, Cal, he's um he's my gentle giant. He's 6'6 rugby player.

Wow. Big boy. Yeah. Yeah.

But so gentle. He's he's a beautiful guy. Um he's um a coffee roaster over on the east coast. So he's he's coffee roasted over here and then he went to Melbourne for 5 years and coffee roasted there.

Y and met his his future partner um Alex. So um that's all happening. Awesome. And uh he's moved now to a place called Lismore, which is quite well known because of the floods and all that, but he lives outside in Rock Valley and he's joined a new uh a new coffee roasting house called Quilla.

Yep. So they've got two or three cafes which he's getting involved with. Oh, nice. So he it's it's passion.

He loves coffee roasting. He loves whiskey bars y and he loves vinyl music. That's those are his passions. That's his formula.

That's his formula. He just loves music and uh um you know for a 30-year-old he's he's into music from every genre, you know. He's he's very knowledgeable about it and uh he sends me little podcasts and stuff and little music. Yeah.

So yeah, those are the those are the boys. We love them. I've got a grandson. His name is Fergus.

Yep. So he's five now. That's Cam and Eddie's Eddie's. um uh young boy.

Um Eddie is my daughter-in-law. She's a singer songwriter. So she used to sing at Five Bar when I was working there. Yeah.

So I worked at Five Bar for about 5 years actually. And Eddie was the singer \ there on a Sunday. Yep. And then when my son came over from America when he finished um Yeah.

Nice. I say I I I tell them I I played Cupid, but they say no you didn't. said, "Well, you came kind of." Well, I was there, you know, and Cam came to visit me and Eddie was working with me. So, yes, I take claim to that.

He said together, but yeah, the oyster world. I know. Yeah. The oyster world.

So, last night I was with someone over in Apple Cross and we were around the corner, but you were at canteen last night. I was. Yeah. Yeah.

I nearly called it crazy night, but I had to uh go into the city for an art exhibition. Yes, that's one of my uh residencies is uh the Wednesday night can and my other residency on a Friday night is embassy where you and I meet up once in a while. Yep. Um you know uh I'm doing 10 venues at the moment.

So God just just while we're on that and I'll put in here and there. So talk to me. How long you known Simon for? Obviously he owns Embassy and uh well I I've known Simon for probably about 30 years.

Nearly as long because uh we all started at WA club. Yep. When he Well, that's where he had his smoking land. Churchills.

I don't know much about that. It was a unbelievable venue. I mean, you need to talk to Simon about it and he'll tell you. That's where we met.

I'll be trying. Don't worry. And do that. He'd love that.

Um, and we had a we did an oyster night every Thursday night and it was fullon. Uh, it was downstairs. Uh they had a pool table there and uh you know cigar smoking as usual drinking your red wine whisies and we had oysters and became very well known. That was sort of after I'd done sort of 5 years with a guy called Warren me.

So when I arrived here from London 30 years ago I got involved with Warren with his restaurant here in Subi called the Fish House. Y which was the old Vic Hotel. Oh okay. Yeah I might have heard someone talk about that.

Yeah. It was a very very So I was only I only been here since 04. So I Yeah. No, this was 1997.

We opened it. Yep. And uh became I think the number one seafood restaurant in Australia at the time. Wow.

Yeah. Definitely in on the map on the map. Yeah. It was a great venue and uh we had the best seafood in town.

So just on just on that also, so you come from London, you come here back then like you're at the restaurant. Was that doing oysters? Yeah. So in London I was that kind of kicked off here.

Yeah. So I did everything in London. We ran Bentley's Oyster Bar. I worked at three or four Savoy Hotel as well in London.

And we did everything we did from oysters to smoked salmon to poached salmons to crabs to, you know, all all the seafood. Yep. And um Oh, they good. It was great stuff.

I mean, it was very very well known. And um when I came over here to Perth, I just sort of fine-tuned it just to oysters because when I arrived here, there were no oyster bars in Perth. Yeah. Okay.

Everyone bought their oysters from a factory. You know, you'd go to Kais or you go to Sea Lanes and you'd buy oysters from them. Yep. And when I arrived here, I I I I just couldn't believe it.

I said, "No one shucking fresh oysters." And no one really knew what shucking was all about. So, and shucking basically is is is a live performance where you get live product and you open it in front of the front of your guests, you know, and and serve the freshest item on the menu, I think. Uh every time. Yeah.

Every time. So, this is what happened. And uh I uh came over didn't understand why there were no fresh oysters or oyster bars. And then uh I got involved with this guy called Warren me who had messed on the bay down in Mosy and \ was building this new seafood restaurant in Subi called Fish House.

That's when I came on board and I designed the oyster bar and it became a huge hit and then people started to say who who is this guy shucking fresh oysters? Let's go see him. So Friday afternoons was huge in Subi. I mean that's when everyone actually back then you've just hit something that's not you know known it's a niche market.

Yeah definitely and it got interviewed by you know and and and articles written by well-known people like Verity James and Rob Broadfield and all these people wrote articles about this Shucka Khan who is this guy and that's the beginning of the uh this sort of twist of craze that's been happening. It's getting bigger and bigger now. Do you ever bring that stuff back up even on your socials or whatever like that? I've had quite a few interviews with uh with with \ obviously newspapers and podcasts.

Uh there's a few podcasts out there um about my background. Y um because I I'll tell you all about it now. Um I I haven't uh touched alcohol or drugs or anything like that for 35 years now. Y uh I was a pretty wild alcoholic.

I think you told me that when I met you. I think I think I have spoken. Good boy. Yeah.

\ Well, I Fiona was my is my rock and it was Fiona who said, you know, this is it, mate. You we were married one year and Fee said, "I can't I can't carry on life with this. You're not going to I don't want you to be the father of my my kids." Yeah. We didn't have children then, but the first year of marriage and I just said, "Okay." Um, you know, you hear about the light bulb moment and that was Yeah, that was that was it was actually Boxing Day and I remember it well.

I remember leaving the house and uh going out. I I I'd had had a Christmas day. I I drank three bottles of Jack Daniels Christmas Day and I had a party at my house. This is in London.

London. Yeah. And I was apparently very rude to a lot of my friends and my sister-in-law. And uh yeah, so I don't remember much about that evening, but apparently it's, you know, it's London, 25th of December.

It's very cold. And they found me outside in the garden with just a pair of, you know, shorts and a t-shirt and I nearly died of hypothermia. Y So they got me back in the in the house, an apartment. I lived in a two-bedroom then and they got me back in and uh and I slept the night, I guess, in one of the rooms.

And then the next day, Boxing Day was my was D-Day. Y it was a light bulb moment. And um Fiona and Jenny had packed us suitcases and said, "We're going back to Australia. We've had enough." Y said I've had enough.

So just just just a little bit there. So obviously I do this podcast um roadblocks risk and resilience right and you most of it's always business but what comes with business and life and evolving and growing is that personal stuff and we all you know we all have them right like I've had them as well but it's so cool to understand that and that's a big pivotal point and probably why you are where you are today right and um absolutely you've hit this roadblock and you could have went you could have made a different decision you could have went and got back on the piss you could have gone \ it wasn't my fault not not hold a mirror up which I actually talk about heaps now. I've had to do that for the last two years. Hold a mirror up and um and and when you do that and you take 100% accountability, it just changes everything.

I you know, Paul, I had 20 years of party and I was a party. No, boy. Party animal. Party big time and I knew how to do it.

Y and it was just Yeah. Um it was that moment, you know. Um so it's not even just losing Fiona. It would be like your body you could you might not be here, you know, all that stuff, right?

Don't think I would have made the age of 40. Yep. Uh, that's the truth. Yep.

A lot of people say that, but I can tell when you say it. You knew. I was at a point when I didn't know where to go and Fiona made that decision for me. So, so how how old were you then?

Well, I would have been uh God, I'm just trying to think how we got married when we were 36. So, it would have been about 37. Yeah. Yeah.

So, I I say I'll say this out loud. I joke about it a bit, but us guys take a lot more to maturities actually compared like I I don't think there's a guy that disagree with me. I think it until we hit 40, I think we haven't really got \ and it's true. It's, you know, and it it it, you know, you have that moment when you think, you know, what am I going to do?

What do I do? Yeah. And I did. And it was Boxing Day in London and it was uh it was cold.

There was nothing open except the pubs on that day and I'd gone for a walk and I took uh a walk down to the pub and I didn't go in. I just stood outside the pub and one of the guys who was at the party at my house the night before y saw me there and everyone kept saying, "Hey, Jerry, come on in. Come and have a have a drink." Cuz they do that for, you know, for Boxing Day lunches. You have a quick drink and then you go home.

Yep. And I just stood there for probably a half an hour not knowing what to do. And uh Eddie, my mate Eddie, he he he's from Tunisia. Yeah.

Do you remember him well? And he said, "What are you doing out here?" I said, "I'm not too sure." He said, "You're not going to go in, are you?" He said, "You didn't behave too well last night, did you?" I said, "I really don't remember." He said, "No, you didn't." That's a good mate, too. Yeah. I'm going to cook your lunch.

Come back to my place. So, he just round a corner and he he'd actually lost his wife and son through alcoholism as well. So, um, you know, wow. He, yeah, they left him and, uh, he was at a he was at a point in life, I guess, when he didn't know which way he was going to turn on, but he took me back and he cooked he cooked me a little Tunisian lunch.

We sat and we looked at photo albums of his family. We were there 5 hours just chat. Wow. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. I know. I know.

It's kind of weird. And then I said, "Okay, I'm going to go. I think I've made my mind up now." No, I made my mind up. I remember telling I said that listen it sounds cliche that uh light bulb moment but it it did it something switched on and I said you know I don't want to lose this this woman um she's been standing by me for you know uh a year of marriage and 3 years before that as friends I walked back to the apartment and uh the fiance and Jenny was sitting there still waiting for me suitcases still there ready to go and she said and and and I said, "Yeah, tomorrow I go see my GP." And that's how it all started.

And so I went and saw my GP. And he said, "Do you want to go and do group therapy?" I said, "No, I want one-on-one. I need a one-on-one counseling." No around. Yeah.

I just want to talk to someone. Huge shift. Yeah. Huge shift.

And yeah, the counselor was uh, you know, a reformed alcoholic himself. And that's how it all started. So I started my journey. That is so journey.

Thanks very much for sharing that. It's cool. and and we could us younger ones can all take a lot out of that like I've you know been in similar situations and you know it's that light bulb and mine mine probably took there's always variables right but you you knew that woman was for you and um and that kicked your and made that shift but like you know it's the obviously you come back to Australia after that and look at your story and you love life and you and you're proud to go hey I haven't touched any of that for that long but you know you're in bars every week well this is what I don't understand cuz I I work in hospital and I'm I So you don't you don't drink at all? No.

No. 35 years I haven't so good. And you and you're living and breathing every day. Yeah.

I know. But you you get more enjoyment now. And I can tell when you're in there, you're you're old school. You're in there early.

You're prepped. You're warming up the room. You're talking to people. You got the personality.

Like you got all that stuff. And I think that gives you more better feeling than any drugs, alcohol, any Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Now I I understand what hospitality is about now.

you know, it u in the old days when I was at, you know, at Bendy's in those days, it was about partying hard, working hard, but parting and we all work hard. That's actually what causes it a bit like I could put my hand up there, you go hard, but then you need to let your hair down. Oh, yeah. And you end up like this.

So, just just quickly on it like the loose days. I've been in a bit myself. I was ex Navy and like what what I worked out after getting out in ' 07 is we'd run a muck and I got out early because of it cuz we just run a muck too much, right, in the defense. And what what I worked out is a lot of people that go to the fence naturally is because they want to get away from home.

They want to they're that you know different different cat as you could say but we all get together and we might have not everyone but broken families whatever. So you end up with this bond and community but then you end up like back when I was in like a lot of people were leaving and going to mining and that but there's so much partying going on and like talk drugs and all that right I don't talk about it much but I never I grew up with it. I never touched it till I come to WA in the Navy. Right.

Okay. and um drunk piss and like it was just like you know yeah it was pretty bad and I was meant to do six years got out in four and a half but yeah it's uh the the loose days you got to hit this you got to get your ass kicked a bit don't you well I did you know and and like I said Fiona did kick my and she just said you know it's it's not you're not going to be the father of my kids y that resonated huge cuz I I I you know I loved my cousin's kids and all that you know and they were great and I was always around uh and uh was always a good uncle. Yeah. But even my cousins were sort of I I guess hesitant if to babysit, you know, don't let Jerry babysit cuz he drinks too much.

I didn't I thought I was a social drinker. I didn't know I was an alcoholic, you know. And and I'll tell you this now, it comes from my father. My father was an alcoholic, you know, Scotsman.

He drank a bottle of scotch a day and he hid it. I I didn't I didn't see it. Yeah. Wow.

Yeah. I never hid it. Yeah. Uh Fiona would find, you know, bottles everywhere.

I thought it was cool. Y you know, and growing up in Peru, we only know what we know. We only thought You only know what you know, and you don't know what you don't know. Yeah.

I mean, I was drinking rum and cokes when I was 14 up in Peru. Y and uh it was party time. And Peru, as we all know, is uh is a big drug capital of cocaine. So, it was around all the time.

run a mark. Just go back on a um positive note like I I picture we're talking about like what you do now and what you've done over the last 30 years the journey how how well that um gives you that feeling to outweigh anything else and everything's feeling even even drinking in that like me last couple years you're drinking it's all coping mechanism but the positive ones like you shucking an oyster and whenever you see an oyster shucker you know they're going to be fresh because you wouldn't have a job otherwise. Absolutely. And then um I just pitched you at embassy and you're getting around and people haven't even come in yet.

Like that feeling must be amazing now. So when you're handing the oyster over and you're shucked like that bit there every time must be Yeah. It's um it's a it's a weird feeling, you know. I I really enjoy watching people eat oysters and enjoy the product.

Um cuz you like them or you don't really is Oh, there isn't. No, there's no in between. No. You know, and my pet hate is cooked oysters and most people know that.

So if anyone says, you know, Jerry, I love Kilpatrick's or do you do Kilpatrick's? I'll say no, don't swear it. Yeah. \ And it's a it's a running joke.

Even at the embassy, the chef Y Charlie, he'll come out and say, "Jerry, do you need any bacon for the Kilpatrick's today?" Does he? It's a running joke. And he'll do it tomorrow. And and and by the way, Charlie is an amazing chef.

They've won awards lately. And like they've been going what, year and a half now. He's had Embassy open. And you could go in there now and the meal is as good as it was day one.

And um the quality and the standard there by Theresa and Simon and and Charlie and the team are absolutely fantastic. Absolutely. I mean we're not here to to you know give them the kudos, but it's a great but it is though. Yeah, it is.

It is. No. Well, believe it or not, it was me who gave Simon the CV of Charlie CV. Oh, was it?

Yes. Not many people know that. Sorry, Charlie. I didn't want to tell everyone, but it's out now.

Yeah. So, Charlie mine. Where's he come from? Well, Charlie's ex Frasers.

Oh yeah. He had he was the head chef of a restaurant called New Normal which was here in Subi. Oh, was it only for about a year? I think it closed down.

It was uh not because of the food. No. Unbelievable restaurant. Unbelievable.

Yeah. One of the top restaurants I've ever been to. Um he had a sue chef by the name of Chris Malone who's a good friend Charlie's and a good friend of mine. Uh the two of them were unbelievable and it was an unbelievable place.

And then he went to work with um the sneakers and jeans group. So, pirate life and all that. Yeah. And I used to go visit Charlie.

We used to see each other at Fi Bar. Um his his wife uh Karen used to work with me with the her sister Susana. Yep. Probably nearly 25 years ago at Sea Restaurant.

Oh, see. Before he even met her. He hadn't met her yet. And I keep telling him, you know, I think I did the introduction.

The Cubid. So, yeah. Charlie and I are really good mates. We we we have a lot of banter.

He's from New York. How old is Charlie? I think Charlie turns just turned 50. Yep.

Yeah. I think I think at the end I always ask the guest uh two questions. One of them is like who should I get on next? Maybe there's a couple of people here.

Yeah. Charlie's Charlie's a wizard in the kitchen. Yep. But doesn't like to come out of the kitchen too much to meet people.

A lot of chefs are like that, believe me. Um I like Yeah. They they they show their wizardry in the kitchen. They're magic.

Magicians. Yeah, there are magicians in there, but they don't like coming out and talking. They're a bit shy. Yeah.

How good is it that you get someone like that if we could? Yeah. Okay. There's a couple.

I mean, I work at quite a few venues, so there's one or two chefs that like to come out with me and have chats and we do little bits for Facebook and Instagram. We talk to each other with a little bit of banter. I mean, that word banter is coming up everywhere now. But I love banter.

We're Aussies, right? We got to have fun. You got to enjoy what you do. You're right, Paul.

The thing is with hosp, you know, we can't take ourselves too seriously, but we have to keep an eye on the youth. Uh, it's hard sometimes. It's it's very difficult. I do quite a few charities.

Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I get involved with quite a few and um I'm very much in favor of uh mental health.

You got to keep it up. So, am I actually that's love that you talk about. Well, I've got a big one coming up. Uh big big charity gig coming up.

Well, I do it every year. It's called uh healthy mind menu. Y and it's for hospitality. So, we do a big one down at the Ritz Carton with about six chefs.

Yeah. We come on board and uh we work with Wayne Tio. It's a it's an unbelievable That's awesome. Yeah, it is.

But we need to keep an eye on the kids because um I work in, like I said, many many venues and uh a lot of these youngsters um Yeah. they need they need someone just to to look up to. Y and uh bit of guidance. a bit of guidance.

Yeah. Um do you think uh like I reckon I'm in the middle generation where it's shifting a lot. Like I I'm a bit old. I can be really old school, grow up, work hard, you know, 10 15 hours, all that stuff.

Resilience. The word resilience comes to me, right? And the young ones I I'm all all for like, you know, not be not probably being like we were years ago. But the problem, the challenge is I am where I am today.

I'm resilient because of stuff you go through over the journey, right? And do we have that these days? that that resilience. But you need it in life because you need a bit of confidence.

You need to back yourself and you need resilience. Like you can't just buckle. Yeah. And I'm not saying not throwing stones.

There's no wrong or right. I got 11 and a 12-year-old. So, you know, that scares me a lot. But also, I don't want them to go through stuff I went through.

So, there's this balancing act as a parent these days. Right. Well, it's it's very true. Uh Paul, you know, we we we use that word old school.

We are old school. Uh kids don't like to hear it. They say, "What do you mean by that?" And I said, "Well, you know, in in our days, uh, we would work 16 hours a day." And it was survival mode as well back then, I reckon. \ about it.

You know, we just did it. Had to do it. Had to do it. And we did it.

And we didn't call up in the mornings and say, "I can't don't feel too good, you know." We went to work. Yeah. Every day. Yeah.

You know, and we did it. We But we had teams. Team Te teamwork for me is is is so important that you get on with your people, you know. If it's not the right fit, then move on.

Yeah. You know, uh, I tell the hospital. Really, really good that you say that. Yeah.

Don't waste your time. No. Go find The longer you stay on that train, the longer the walk back. Go find your passion.

You know, I I'm a geologist by trade. I mean, that's what I studied at uni, but it wasn't my passion. And my old man told me that. He said, you know, if you want to be wealthy, stick to geology, but it's a lonely profession.

He said, and that was 40 years ago. I was going to say, not many 40 years ago would say that. It' be it' be like, go save, why pick a fence? No.

He said, go and enjoy yourself. If you like rock and roll, you like people, you like Hospa, stick to hospitality. He told me, "Oh, that's so good." And I And then I slipped into the oyster world. And that's how it all happened.

Um, you know, I did a year of geology in Peru and and I had fun, but it wasn't wasn't the way. It didn't like fire in your belly. It didn't give me that fire. So, I got there's a couple of questions in my head.

I knew they were going to come out. So, when when you're at embassy, actually, it doesn't matter where you are. Um, talk to me about the type of oysters and local here. Okay.

Well, listen. Australia has great seafood and then we might actually crack one. Yeah, I got a couple oysters there for you to have a taste. When I when I arrived here, like I said, 30 years ago, there wasn't any fresh oysters and I was I was sort of baffled, but then I thank God I got into the business with uh with with Warren Me.

We did the fresh oysters. We finally and there's many farms here in Australia. So, um I was actually the first person to put an Albany rock on the Australian map. Is it really?

Yeah. Yeah, I was. Yeah. 30 years a 29 years ago.

Oh wow. So they didn't No one knew about them. Uh and it was a little farm. It's a hobby farm.

It's not anymore because Twiggies bought it and he's resurrected the farm to be one of the best in Australia. Is it really? Yeah. So it's a great oyster.

It's a different oyster. It's a WA Rock oyster from Albany. Yep. And then we have, you know, your South Australian.

I'm a Smoky Bay Coffin Bay person. So you're a South Australian uh oyster lover. They're probably the most common, the Coffin Bays and Cedunas and all that because the Sydney ones and that are a bit more creamy. Well, Sydney rocks are the profile is very different.

They're buttery. They're very buttery, very earthy, mineraly, quite metallic. What about you personally? What's your in Australia?

Are you biased with the Albany? No, I'm not biased, but uh I love Albany, but I also my favorite oyster comes from St. Helens in Tasmania. Tasmania.

I live there. I've been there. So, there's a little farm in Tazzy. We don't get them over here in place.

My auntie owns a place in San Helen. Well, we mean to have a chat then because I when we go when Fiona and myself go over there, we go to uh uh Lease 65 uh owned by Craig Lockwood, old friend of mine. Probably the best farmer in Australia, I think. And that's in Moulting Bay in St.

Helens. So when we go to Taz, we always make a trip to see him. Is that right? Yeah.

And I've done a few events over in in Melbourne, Sydney, and in Adelaide using his oysters. Tazzy oysters are wicked. They're the best. I lived in Hobart for a few years and I went down south to the Oyster Farm.

My dad took me down there. Actually, never really lived with my dad all my life, but we moved over there together. I was in a bit of trouble when I was 18 and I went over there for a few years before I joined the Defense Force. And um the the best thing I did do with my dad there is travel around and um fishing or cuz he's he's mad fisherman and all that.

Uh trout fishing. Yes. First fish uh first trout on a fly rod in Tasmania on the Huan River. Huan Creek River uh south of Hobar.

But the oyster farms and going down and fishing around them or unbelievable the water and the water and that of Tasmania is unbelievable and the air Paul it's my favorite place to go is Hobart. It's my one number one Fiona and I love Tazzy. The best food culture in Australia I think is in Tasmania personally. I've been for years but yeah and the number one restaurant for me in Australia is in Hobart.

What is it? It's called Pepina. Yeah. Pina.

It's in right in the middle of Salamanca there. Yeah. In Salamanca. owned by a very famous chef called Masimle who is very well known over in Taz and on the east coast not so much over here but he's been over here to do some classes but uh that restaurant is unbelievable it's a beautiful place but I just love Taz I love Taz my my my mate he's a chef he was a chef here who's in the Navy and he the other day I told him he was just in Tazzay actually went down a trip and then he obviously knows who you are and I said I had you coming on and he's like oh the voice is getting wicked and he's mad He just got back from Tazzy and being a chef, everywhere he went was wine and food and he's like he went with his wife and they got a motor home, you know, and drove around and he go it was it it was the bomb.

I've been for years, I think, since 2019 or 17 or something like that. Yeah. He reckons it was amazing. Everyone says that.

There's not one person that comes back from there and says it's not fresh. Everyone says, "Oh, it's too cold." I said, "What do you mean too cold? Put a jumper on." Nice and fresh. It's exactly It's a beautiful, beautiful part of the world.

Uh and I and you know what? I love Adelaide. I People said it's very quiet. I said, "No, no, no, no." It's got great food culture.

It has. And and I enjoy Well, I'm a foodie, so you know, I go for the food and they got some great wineries around there and I've been to many Fiona loves a good good, you know, a good sparkles and a good uh, you know, good reason to go with the oysters and they've got some great stuff over there. What's your go-to wine? Are you a wife seafood?

I don't drink as you know but if I had to suggest I always when London it was always French you know French uh shablies and stuff but over here I think your rezlings your relings go really really well with oysters and sav blancs those seem to be the ones that really go well it's good to know but nowadays you guys apparently apparently you've got some great great wines over here WA as well you know do you ever have the non-alcoholic stuff I've tried it didn't like it didn't like it like the Same with beer, non-alcoholic beer. So, Jerry, try it. I I just don't I drink ginger beer. I love my ginger.

Yeah. How good. Yeah. I just love it, you know.

I love that little bit of peppery stuff, you know. Yep. But, um Yeah. What What What oysters have we got here?

Well, we got some Coffin Bays today. We're just going to just show you real quick. We're going to we're going to have a couple oysters each just to show you how fresh they are. These are Yeah.

Coffin bays. So, one of the favorite farms y that we use, as you know, I just love Coffin Bay, right? Coffin Bay. Smoky Bay.

Yeah. Well, Smoky Bay is one of my favorite areas. Yeah. There's a famous farm in in in Smoky Bay, which when we travel, Fiona and I go see the the the Holmes family.

Colleen and Jeff Holmes. They've got a beautiful farm in Smoky Bay called SA Premium Oysters. Yeah. Yeah.

And there they've got the a viewing platform number one in the Southern Hemisphere. I tell people I think I might have went there. Is Is that where they got Is there a van or something there as well where you you buy out of? Can do.

Yeah. Yeah, I think so. Yeah, cuz I drove over about 3 years ago with the wife. It's unbelievable.

The kids and we stopped in there and it was um Yeah. I mean, you know, to to be able to drive through the air peninsula and just stop off and eat oysters anywhere. How good. How good is that?

Seriously, doesn't get much better. Doesn't get much better. And if you know, you know, and being in the business, you get to know who the farmers are. \ For me, it's very important to know who the farmer is.

You know, I like that. It's like when you go to a winery, you want to know who the wine maker is. Yeah. And and the bit story.

Absolutely. There's always going to be a story. Y and um my my oyster story fits in with so many others uh you know, in in in in Australia with the farms and all that. They said, "Jerry, just come and visit.

Put the waiters on and come out in the water." How good, man? How good is that? You can't do that anymore. So, you're not just at the table, you're in there before it even comes out of the water.

Go into the shucking shed or you go out on the water. And I prefer to go out in the water. That's unreal. And uh you know, like I said earlier in in the in the conversation when I arrived here that no one knew what shucking was.

Y and now everyone's got oysters on their menus. Y it's unbelievable. So the oysters are there fresh in. Yep.

Coffin bays. Decent oyster knife. You know, we talk about knives, but when I do master classes, I always, you know, talk about the knife. Yep.

I wear a rubber thimble. Everyone says, "What we got there?" We got So, we got some nice Coffin Bays. Yeah. So, we're going to just shuck them very gently.

So, the knife goes in. And then I just do a little pop. Boom. Yep.

And we try and keep all the juices in because uh still very fresh. And that basically is your fresh oyster. Just What do we look for when we open them up? Well, I'm looking for color.

I'm looking for the the natural ocean waters inside. It's still leaking there a little bit from the adductor, which is good news. Yep. Um still alive in my hand actually as we talk.

Yeah. Wow. So, it's going to be ready for eating. So, in hospital, we don't use the word alive and dead.

We try not to. Yeah. Freshest item on the menu and ready for eating. That's what I say.

And then very gently, I'm going to cut the adductor, which is there. And we just gently cut it. Oh, and we turn it over. And there it is.

And that just happens to be my uh alarm clock saying time to eat. So that is a fresh coffin bay. Yep. And you got a little lemon wedge there.

Nice. So you're very welcome to to be the first to go for it. All right. And I will join you.

Now these are full on. I got Now I'm with you. Cloth for you. Cloth for you.

Cloth for me just in case. Now I'm here with the man himself. Is there is there \ you shouldn't do? Is there like Well, you don't you don't swallow hole.

You don't? No. You chew first and then you swallow. Oh, so you got to do it now.

You got to do it properly. Yeah. All right. Whatever.

Oh, Rome. So, I I have what's called naked on the half shell, folks. So, naked means there's no lemon, no vinegarettes. Just straight out the shell.

Paul's got a little lemon, a little citrus, just cuts the salt water. That's all it does. So, you'll taste salt ocean. Yeah.

Iodine flavored. Yep. And then a little bit chewy. Yep.

But soft. Yeah. Yep. And the adductor muscle is sweet.

That's that little muscle. Yep. There we go. Cheers.

Cheers. Get shocked. Get shocked. Oh, you know now, oh, I would not be able to have an oyster without chewing now that I've been told by myself.

You got to chew. I I don't I do sometimes and I don't. But now it'll stick in my head and I'll be like, "Two two chews and it's gone." A look at that. Put your shell in there.

That's the evidence. That was amazing. Now we can do another one. But if you want that You've had a taste.

You want another taste? Okay. Am I going to say no? Fresh in.

very gently. When I do the master class, I just tell people they got to be very gentle. It's you don't get prizes for this the quickest. Yeah.

So there's no speed in this. It's quity presentation. Presentation. Yeah.

So you can check and see what's going on. Have a look. I tell the \ kids just to be very careful when they do shuck. Yep.

I've got master classes coming up soon. Actually, folks, have you doubts? Where do you hold it? Well, they're going to be held, believe it or not, at the servo servo in Leederville.

Oh, is that right? Yes. It's part of the Nom Nom Festival. Yeah.

which is a famous six week festival in Leederville. And I'll be doing master classes. I got four of them at Servo. So, um it's at the end of it's called, um yeah, Nom Nom servo master classes with Jerry Fraser.

End of I think it's the end of uh July and beginning of August. Yeah. So, there's a few classes there. Hey, we use that as our thumbnail, Jerry.

Love it. Look at that. Oh, how good. Let's go for it.

Get shot. That is so good. Now that's fresh. That is fresh.

People like them on ice. I understand. Now I'm a quite a room temperature person. I I just think it brings out the umami more.

I was going to ask you that earlier when you brought them in. I thought maybe some people like them very cold, but like wine, you know. So like that extra exactly what it is. I I need that little bit of chill.

I think it feels fresher than me. I reckon that's bang on though. That wouldn't be really, would it? I mean, this is not quite room.

This has come out of my fridge. So, still is quite chilled. I serve them on I like to serve them on ice or or like I do at at Embassy. We serve them on iced or or frozen little pebbles.

Yep. So, it's a pretty cool idea. But crushed ice would be the best way to serve oysters. I've got another one here for you just in case.

Yeah. So, we'll have three each. Yeah. Have three each and then uh that's that's our zinc intake for the day.

Yeah. Good. \ So, very high in zinc, very high in omega-3, very high in vitamin B12, folks. And believe it or not, very little calorie, very little cholesterol, very little fat content.

Very actually very healthy. Very healthy. Yeah. And they have to be fresh.

You can't buy them from supermarkets where they're all frozen and defrosted and served to you. Look at that. Get shot. Get shot.

Hey, good. So, but pretty much that was so good. Yeah. Thank you.

Yeah, I know. I know. And and I'll be honest, uh I know Jerry's pretty approachable and all that, but I'm really privileged and uh really lucky that I get to sit here and sham your oysters in my office or on the podcast. We don't usually do this, but I thought, "What the hell?

Let's do it, mate. Why not? Let's have some fun." Yeah. Love it.

And listen, um my journey has been I've been very privileged to to be on this fantastic oyster journey. You know, I know I put a lot into it, but people have been very sort of receptive as to what I do. Um, I tell people I'm not really I'm I'm more of a entertainer. Yeah.

Because I like I like to talk and I love chatting to people. I love I get energy from other people. Y and everyone says, you know, Jerry, when are you going to do that? Rword the retire.

And I said, what? What? Said I'll never retire. Y I said, when I do retire, it's going to be through that big oyster bar above us.

That's when I'm going to retire and I'll go and join them. They're all waiting for me then. So, I'm 71 years old and I'm still going to keep going. Fiona says, "You got to slow down." I said, "Yeah, I understand that.

I can slow down." But for those who don't know, I did have a little incident last year. I had a heart attack. I was driving a car and I crashed in the tunnel. So, yeah.

Well, I don't like talking too much about it. Yep. Because people Thanks for sharing that. People know that I've had a something cuz they see photos of me in hospital and drinking coffee and stuff.

What what's gone on now? So yeah, that that's the story. So I have sort of slowed down a little bit. 10 restaurants.

Is that slowing down? I don't know. So So just pacemakers in Jerry and the pacemaker that called me. Okay.

So besides yourself, there was no one else hurt. No one was hurt. No. And nothing again.

Everything's really good. Everything's good. So So let's let's flip it on its side then. As much as it was in the tunnel, it could have been worse.

Well, I tell everyone it could have been a lot worse. Well, it's kicked your ass a bit and I bet you're a bit more mindful now as well and got to slow down a bit. You got your pacemaker like Yeah, I'm slowing down. Um I'm only doing four to five hours at each venue.

Four hours you What were you doing before? Well, I was push Well, I was doing uh 16 venues. Yeah. And I was doing two a day sometimes, you know.

Oh, yeah. No, I was pushing it. I was pushing it. But yeah, as you said, I was very lucky because it was the tunnel.

Um and they said, "What do you mean?" I said, "Well, it wasn't on the freeway. The tunnel only goes one way. 80 60 40 one way. That's true.

Yeah. If I've been on the freeway, I don't know. I wouldn't be here to talk, I don't think. Very lucky.

So, I was very lucky. And Fee says, you know, you got a second chance now. Just uh embrace it. Yep.

And uh I I understand what that means. One of one of them life things, right? Another \ light bulb moment. Hey, you know, cuz let's be honest, you keep going hard, you won't get to enjoy it as long as you want.

Like, you know what I mean? I I' I've realized that, you know, I I I And we we want you around Shak as long as we can. I want to I want to hang around for a while. Not the tunnel.

Yeah. No, \ not exactly. I mean, when I do drive through the tunnel now, I you know, can I go back to mainlands that way and I I sort of pass the the place where it all happened and I it's kind of weird. It is a little bit weird, but so can I segue to somewhere which I I did want to bring up with you.

So, a young lady I've been talking to lately, Bianca, which you know, uh she works with Brooke. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yes.

Yes. So, uh actually I was, uh I was with her yesterday and the day before and she knew you were coming on. Did she and um and she actually texted me this morning or last night and said, "Good luck with Jerry, but uh I I only met Brooke at Embassy once. You couldn't do it." And she was there the other week and I was actually giving Simon \ I'm like, "What's going what's going on with Jerry?" I love giving Simon \ and we're having a bit of banter about it, but I was talking to Brooke and I don't know her, but then I was talking to Bianca the other day and also Tyler and Tyler's like, "Why don't you get B uh Brooke on as well, right?" So, I mentioned it to uh Bianca and she she mentioned it to Brooke a few days ago and she's like, "Yeah, I'd go on." Tyler's like, "Why don't you do a duo with used to?" But what I didn't realize out of when I was talking to Be the other night is you actually taught them at her house and I didn't know all this, right?

Well, no one really knows the stories behind all this. It's about 3 years ago. So, tell us a bit about that because it's a bit of a it's a there's a legacy piece here. You know, Brook's younger like we're talking about how much you're doing and Well, it all started probably 3 years ago.

Yep. So, you're already on here, Brooke. All right. But we'll have to get you on person.

So, I actually uh talked about eight girls, you know, at a restaurant, a friend of mine's restaurant. Uh that's where we did the sort of the introduction, Peasants Paradise in North Bridge. Yep. And uh we brought the girls in.

It was about eight girls and uh Brooke and Bianca and a couple others. There's Kelly. I think the three main ones. Well, Kelly wasn't there and in those days.

And uh of the of the eight girls, we went back from the restaurant. We went to actually Bianca's house. Yeah. In in Apple.

We did it in the garden. And we we had two or three sessions there shucking and talking and understanding what the the whole process is. Not just the oysters. It's all about, you know, the engagement with people, which is so important.

Well, I think it's number one is the the hospital side of things. Any business, people's business. Yeah, absolutely. I'm going to be able to talk to people.

And um so the girls uh Yeah. Uh Brooke opened up her own business called that Oyster Lounge and that's when it all started. How long has she been gone? They've been gone about three years.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. That's when they they when I taught them all that. And uh there's only three of well two of them originals which is Bianca and Brooke.

Yep. And then Kelly's joined them. Y and now I think there's three new ones coming in. Yep.

Which she's getting busy, Brooke. Yeah. Well, she's uh been busy. Well, they all have actually.

You know, all the the shuckers that I've been involved with like you've got Neil Forbes who's called the Black Pearl. He's very very busy and I've known him for for decades now. Uh this young Carl who was my apprentice at me in those days. He's called the Shucker.

Uh he's still around. Then there's Tony Isles. Big Tony and I worked at mess together. He was a fish filler then and fish buyer for Warren.

Went to Coco and then he's been around. So he works at Endeavor Seafoods and he does a lot of private events. Usually he does the big pubs and stuff, you know, he does the Wit Foods and all that. So we're still very good friends.

And then the new guy on the block is um well there's a couple actually. The new guy on the block is a guy called Tom Betty from Shucks and Nibs. Y Tom and I work together and we do the Tom and Jerry show. Oh, is that right?

I know. I know. And we started doing the Tom and Jerry show when we went down to Taste the Great Southern. So, we went down with Lu and Coast which owns Albany.

Yep. Albany Rock Oysters and we uh we did some shows together. So, you've just segue to another a question I was going to ask you. A really really good mate of mine uh is George at Tilla Farm.

Yep. Have you been there? No. Haven't you?

cuz I I've had events there at my ex's 40th and I was one of the one of the first to eat there when he built it on his property and um mate mates had a Bryson they had their wedding there as well but they had oyster shers I couldn't remember who it was I don't know who it was I don't know who it was George does it himself yeah I know George has done a lot of it himself I met him he come and private cooked for us at a place down there yeah I did one event with George but it was with a whole bunch of other chefs oh was it it's a long time ago now it was with Yoda and all that crew that's all that crew George is such a legend. He's a good story. They're all legends down there. I love working with them.

Yeah. It's like a whole different community. It is. It is.

And the thing is when we we do this annual Taste of the Great Southern, which is down in Albany, Albany and Denmark now, because we've included Denmark. Oh, yeah. They they wanted they wanted a bit of action, so we gave it to them. We bring over chefs from the East Coast as well, which I love working with.

Yeah. They they bring over um Aoy Management, that's the name of the company that runs it. Uh they brought over two two chefs this year. Great chefs.

Loved it. Yep. And in my early early days when we opened Print Hall, I don't know if you remember Print Hall. Yeah.

Um that would be opened about 13 years ago, I think. Okay. When we launched it and they built an oyster bar for me in Print Hall. That's how they got me there.

Wow. Cuz I was freelancing at the time. Is it the same Print Hall now? Yeah.

It just got refurb. And I still do print once a month. I'm still there once a month. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. So I'm there once a month, which is great. So, I I've gone back to my old home, but I did a lot of work.

Actually, I think shout out. I'm going to try and get him on one day. Brian Ho, I think he done the refit. He's an old mate of mine.

Yeah, I've known Brian. He's in like similar circles like a heap of close friends of mine. And um God, he's a character, man. He is a \ Brian's been around a while.

You just mention my name to Brian. I will definitely say, "Oh, Brian, I'll be dragging him on some point as well." Brian Brian's great and I see him at printer once in a while. He was in the early days when they refurbished and all that cuz that's owned by the night owl group now. And then he had his big birthday there.

He does. He does. He likes He knows how to do it. He knows how to do it.

And and Print Hall still is cool. I actually went there the other night after a meeting in the city like 10:00 at night. Walked in, just had a beer. Haven't been there for ages.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Beautiful place.

Really cool place. Place I mean there's so many I mean people ask me, you know, Jerry, you do 10 venues. which is your play. I I don't I don't have a all different Everything is different and it comes down to the people.

I'm guessing it comes down to people. Atmosphere and demographics are different. Atmosphere is different. You know, Lyric Lane tonight, which is in Mailand's full house.

The owner just called me yesterday. He says, "Jerry, no more bookings. We're full." I said, "Yep, that's cool." So, a bad not a bad thing to do. You know, little wine bars I do around town.

You know, Birdie and Bassendine on a Sunday once a month. Bassendine wakes up. I tell you, we Yeah, we do 60 70 dozen oysters for our Sunday lunch. That's unreal.

Wild can without without telling me exactly like I I obviously know you do it love and passion, but obviously you got to make money off it as well. Is it good money? Well, is it comfortable or is it like really good or not care or like bit of truthfully? Truthfully, y it's not about the money.

Never has been for me. Yep. Um people say, "Oh, you know, you do weddings. Why don't you charge double what you you charge?" And I say, "You know what?

I want the bride and groom to think one day, geez, we had a great wedding. Jerry was there shocking for us." Y if I put my prices double what people tell me to do, some people can't afford that. And I don't want that. It's a brand.

It's the legacy. It's about the latest. Thank you. And I just want people to say, "Mate, the old boy was there shopping at our wedding." And I have to, you know, every day when I'm at a restaurant, people will come up and say, "Jerry, do you remember 10 years ago when you came to my house, shucked in the garden, or you did my wedding 20 years ago?" I said, "Well, where was it?

And are you still married?" Cuz there's been a couple Yeah. couple that have said, "No, we're not married anymore." But I said, "Yeah, that's the ratio of divorce. It's up there." But yeah, I try and remember as much as I can. Now, people say I have a great memory of faces and people.

Um, I think I do after I gave up all that uh partiness. The partyiness. You know what though, you do have a very good memory and and I always pick this up with people how well we can go back and fors in a story and like when we were talking earlier like and obviously you kicked off from when you were little and a lot of like sometimes I can't remember some certain stuff but you you got this whole you know your pivotal points you know. Yeah.

I don't know what it is. Going back to the journey piece, it's actually really cool because one of the main things that I get when I have someone on here, we're so fastpaced these days, right? I think you learn all that. Us young \ are still learning about the whole shift and light bulbs, but we're so fastpaced.

We don't take a moment to sit where we are. And that's actually the reason I started. It's like peeling back the layers and going why we are where we are today. Like I'm 43.

I think I'm just crossing the starting line. I love business and all that. Worked 10 15 hours a day the last 10, 15 years. All that kind of stuff.

divorce, but it's like you just got to take a moment. And a lot of people have sit there, they don't do that. They're constantly and I'm I'm just like, "So, let's let's talk about it." And they're like, "Something happened when I was 10. That's probably why I am like I am today." Like, and you start piecing it together and people like, "Thanks for that moment.

Little jigsaw you put together. It is right. And um you're right. It's it's it's moments of life that you do remember, you know, and people ask you, you know, I'm glad you brought things up that I I I speak about it, but I don't always speak about it.

You know, I think important things in my life at the moment are my wife and my sons and my grandsons. It's all that really matters. Yeah. And they say, you know, what what what is number one for you?

And that's number one for me, not the work. Um like I said earlier, I do 10 venues. I've got 12 knocking on the door. So, I pick and choose where I' I prefer working.

What a \ position to be in. It is. It is. It's an unusual position.

And And you're still talking that it's third on the list. And basically, it's filling your gaps between your boys and your partner. It's like your wife. That's And I love And it's something you love.

I love traveling. I do love to travel. I don't travel. Well, I used to do a lot of uh events outside of Australia.

Oh, did you? Yeah. Oh, yeah. I've done even after you come here.

When I arrived here, I went to Jakarta and did a twoe festival there. Wow. Then I went to Bali five times. I did five festivals there.

Been to Singapore. Done two festivals there. Talk talk to me about oysters over there. Yeah.

Well, I mean good fly in from all over the world. Do they have anything there like that? No. No.

Cuz you don't I was thinking that cuz the locals No, don't eat the locals. Shellfish. No, not at all. I went to Chicago.

I went to the Ritz Carlton in Chicago for two weeks. Nice. Flown over. taken care of.

It was fantastic. Believe it or not, I was feeding Duran Duran at the time. I was going to ask you that what celebrities what moments have you been different parts of the world. You know, I've been in situations where I've, you know, I some people know this, but when I was working in Oyster Bars in London, not Bentleys, but it was another one called Greens.

Um, in those days it was Prince Charles and Princess Dye came in and Oh, wow. I was I didn't I didn't obviously talk to them, but I was feeding them seafood. Yeah. That's a moment.

It's a moment. He's not a king. \ He's a king Charlie. Now, at the end of the day, um, everyone's VIP, I tell them.

Yep. Real human. When I Yeah. When I arrived here and I was working at MES.

Yep. Uh, I didn't know anyone in Perth, you know. I was just a shocker. Yep.

And uh, everyone kept saying, "Oh, don't you know who that is serving?" I said, "No, who I don't know who it is." He said, "Oh, is this blank blank?" I said, "Oh, wow. Okay. Who who's he?" And you probably famous person in Perth. Oh, yeah.

Uh yeah. And you're probably still friends with him now because of your personality relationship. He passed away, but yes. So still I'm friends with a lot.

That's what I mean. And I and I and all um you know I love hugs. I'm tactile. So I love giving people hugs and uh the handshake thing doesn't do it for me.

Yep. Um I just love giving people a hug and saying, "Yeah, everything's good." And like I said earlier, it's the mental health thing. You know, you just sit down with anyone and just have a coffee. You don't even have to talk.

just sit and just look and and if you want to have a chat, man, I'm always open to chats and I love to chat and I love to chat, don't get me wrong, I'm a big talker, but you also know that I have to switch off and let people talk. That is so so good. Like I'm probably that guy in our friends group as well. Like lads struggle with that stuff.

I'm pretty v cuz I don't if you want to be a good listener or be there for someone, you've also got to be vulnerable yourself. Like like you today, you've been pretty honest about and like I said, this space people don't even want to come on. when they're a bit scared or anxious and then 2 minutes in it's because I think it's about having that space. Absolutely.

And you got to be a bit accountable, bit vulnerable yourself and then people will open up. Right. Absolutely. And if you can do that, it's amazing because the amount of people that get anxiety like I'm not talking podcast, I'm talking about just in general waking up in the morning.

People that get anxious anxiety or they got to go or something's not working for them. Um it's easy for us to say it always works out in the end. But our mind is the most powerful thing. 95% of it I've said it heaps is subconscious which is from our childhood 5% conscious.

So it can be the most powerful thing in a positive way but it can also be the other and that's what gets our head stuck in the sand. Yeah it does. Um and it only takes someone to say good morning or hey do you need an ear? Hey absolutely and I and I tell people just just look people in the eye and say all okay y are you okay?

You ever want to have a chat? Y text me phone me I'm there. So, someone I had on here, and that's that's really good to know, J. That's that's awesome.

And you would see so many different people in hospitality, right? From young ones to old ones. There's no rule book with any of this \ right? Oh, no.

No rule book. And no rule book. Uh I had Mo on here from Happiness Co. So, him and Julian and Robbie, you know that you know, probably know the guys at Happiness Co.

Uh Julian's actually I'm getting him on here as well. Fantastic. because I I sponsored their gala last year and then we're going to do um it was going to come to a workshop but whatever I was going to do with Julie I want to record it because I want I want everyone I on board in my business to watch and like the selfcare and the mental health and really start to understand it because we all struggle at a certain point all of us. All of us.

And it goes back to the roads risks and resilience that we build. All of us do. \ And awesome bit about it though, even though at the time there struggles, that's actually what makes us that's actually what grows us outside our comfort zone. It's not it's not the winds and the easy days.

It's the hard days when you don't want to get out of bed or you something bad's happening in the you know. Exactly. That's life, you know, like we have to face it. We do.

The reason you're here is the big light bulb moment you had. Right. And and it will not leave your mind. It never will.

And I like about it because a lot of people know that my partner is Fiona and uh you know she's the pearl the pearl. They know what a hard worker she is and what a great educator for for kids that she's she is and still will be. Y and they know that you know we we've all had her ups and downs for God's sake. You know it's not uh it's not smooth smoothly running.

That's for sure. But hey that's part of life. It's part of learning. I just talking about Fiona, we were talking about it earlier and like there's I always say there's not much I probably couldn't do like work-wise and all that but go to like the age care system or the NDIS like all that system I couldn't do but what Fiona does being in the remote Jerry was saying um she's up there um and she might there's about 10 students and it's in the local communities up there remote communities and it's like you might have one student or 10 and I just kind of been around that stuff over the years you know working in mining and all that kind of stuff I I take me head off to it because I I I don't think I could do it.

And we need more people like her. Yeah, we do. It's all about changing the culture. Not changing, but evolving the culture and like supporting, educating, you know, and and the whole education piece.

Um, you haven't got everything you've got here. No. You know what I mean? And she's learning.

She's learning. She's learning, too. She's learning three new languages up there. Is that right?

Yeah. She's everything. And she goes fishing now in rivers and loves getting out in the four-wheel drive and driving through the river. And, you know, that's what she wants to take me to.

I was about to say, no, no, she goes up to the waterfalls and she goes into the gorgees and does trekking and she's it's a different life. Different life. She get to experience stuff though we don't get to. Like it be amazing.

Oh, absolutely. Absolutely beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. And uh the fauna and the flora are so different, you know.

Y and and you know um everyone says, "Wow, you must be pretty lonely." Well, she's I don't think she is lonely, you know. Um if anyone lonely, it's probably me at night when I go home and no one's there. But I work late at night until late. So for me it's not an issue.

How many nights a week? Well, I'm doing probably 5 to six. Oh yeah. Yeah.

Every night. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's when it all happens.

Yeah. You know. So, who's on a Monday, Tuesday? Well, I I mix it up.

Um Froth Brewery on a Monday. Froth. Yeah. Over there.

North Beach. Yep. Yeah. Gets pretty wild.

What night's that? That's usually on a Monday night once a month. Is it really? Yeah.

Okay. So, when when the weather changes, so September. That' be nuts. Yeah.

It goes nuts. Yeah. Yeah. Um and then we've got uh Ban Thai restaurant in Northridge Tuesday night.

Wow. It goes off. Does it really? We do we do what's called the street market.

Yeah. Cuz she she's got female chefs in the in the kitchen and they all come out and she has a garden and they have little stalls. Yep. And then we got a guy who does cocktails uh comes in or the or artisan brewing come in and they do the beer and then they just buy a ticket for half a dozen oysters or a drink.

The rest is rock and roll. Unreal. Unreal. And she's for me she's the best Thai curry in Perth.

The bum bum. Just remember that one. She's unbelievable. I love getting told good foods by good food.

She's good. Good atmosphere by the sound. Great atmosphere. Sells out.

It goes wild. It's all filmed. If I was to follow you around, say, on my van, which I am, and um how do I know where you're going? All right.

The best best way to find out where my calendar is is to get on the the website. It's www.theyester king.co. Soco. Yeah.

Yep. Get on there. There's a calendar. There's my life story.

You can follow me wherever you want. You know what's going on. The master classes. It's all there.

Oh, it's all there. It's all there. And the podcasts, the previous podcasts are on there. Are they awesome?

Yes. So, there's five of them. We'll have to hook you up on this one as well. Yeah.

Yeah, definitely. That's going on. We'll make sure we note that in the posting when we launch this podcast and the reels cuz I always put reels out first and then podcast. Absolutely.

Let's put it on on my website. Definitely. And Instagram is just Gerald Fraser. Yep.

So, Ge R. And Facebook is Jerry Fraser with a J. Yep. So, yeah.

So, I grew up in South America. That's why the J. Yep. Yeah.

Uh for Jerry, tell tell me um over your travels and over the years, tell tell us some not always the fun bits. When's the bits when you ask someone like that or you're nervous or something's gone wrong, bad always, you know? Tell us. Yeah.

Well, I'm going tell you a little story. Once I did a big event, well, I still do the and how do you get through it as well? Oil and gas expose here in Perth. Been doing it for 20 years, I think, or 17 years, I think we've been doing it.

And they're a famous three-day festival or expo. It's an expo. They're all coming in from all over the world. There was one year where I didn't order the oysters.

The the head chef did. And he ordered oysters from a certain purveyor. I can't mention names. It wouldn't be fair.

No, that's good call. So, the oysters arrived and they were from East Coast. They weren't from Albany. They were from the east coast, from Sydney.

Yep. And I arrived on the premises uh getting the oyster bar ready. And I told the head chef, I said, "Good mate of mine." I said, and he was new. He was from England.

And he brought the oysters in and I looked at him. I said, "Oh, mate, have you had a smell of these?" He says, "What do you mean?" I said, "We'll just smell." I said, "They're off." Now, this is what had happened. I looked at the bag that they came in. There was a there was a when we call there's a um a ticket on there and or a tag as we call it.

And on the tag, there was a sticker on the tag. It was from a different purveyor. So, what had happened, this purveyor that they they had ordered the oysters off had bought from another purveyor in Perth and it and I said, "Have a look at the harvest dates on these." And the harvest date was two weeks prior. So these oysters have been sitting around for probably because it takes about a week to four days to get here.

Is it I was going to ask you that. So we're talking harvest date to arrival date 3 to 4 days in those days and then they've been sitting in a someone's purveyor warehouse in a chiller y for 2 weeks. So tell tell us a little bit about that like from harvest. Yeah.

You can have them pretty quickly too cuz that's what you want fresh. But we want them fresh as fresh as how do they travel? Is it just chilled or are they iced or cold? No, never never iced.

Always in a chiller truck. Yep. So they're a certain temperature. So we don't want them too cold cuz it kills the meat.

So you want them between sort of I guess between 5 and 15°. You know, seven is pretty good. So you definitely never want frozen like that. You don't want freezing down.

You can't put them in a in a in a in a chiller that's too cold. Y So sometimes fridges in in restaurants and chillers are too cold. Too cold. Yeah.

I didn't know that. So rock oysters can live out on the out in the sun for quite a while. Yeah. Yeah.

They used to just put them underneath the houses in the old days in sacks and fish and bags and leave them there for a couple of days so they they they'd live. So what what where is the freshness start and stop? Well, freshness for me now this is for me is personal. So I always say if if an oyster if if I shuck an oyster like we just did now and it sits for 3 hours that's it.

That's my time limit. Oh after shucking. After shucking. So arrival time.

So harvest to arrival time. They usually give you a use by date of about for rockyes about 2 weeks. So if it's harvested, you can still use them two weeks later as long as the whole whole shell. Yeah.

Yeah. And day 13, 14, they still be really good. Like I wouldn't know the difference. No.

No. You wouldn't know the difference. You can even with rock oysters, you can even extend it through to 3 weeks. Y and you wouldn't know the difference.

I might because of uh maybe the lack of of oyster liquor inside the shell, but I can I can usually camouflage that. I I don't like using that word, but I can I can get away with it cuz I know how to do it. If an oyster has traveled from the east coast and it travels used to fly them in in the old days, but that doesn't happen. So, it's all been trucked over now.

So, they truck over takes about 2 to three days to get here. Um and they'll lose water on the way over. So they're they're still alive shellfish, but they're in hash bags, but they will lose water slowly as they're coming. So there has been times when I've had oysters at a at a restaurant, you know, delivered to me and they're they're quite dry and I have to call the purveyor and say, "Hey guys, just make a call to the farm and just see what's going on, you know, cuz these are a little bit on the dry side." So whether the farm has held back product, I don't know.

We don't know. You don't know. You don't know. So you have to really have \ faith in your purveyor.

Yeah. And purveyor means purveyor means your oyster supplier or seafood supplier. The middleman after the farm. Yeah.

So farmer Jerry Fraser or Shaka the best. So there's three of us. Yeah. So the farmer will do whatever he can to make the best product possible.

Y and then the purveyor will obviously supply all the venues. Do do you have do you have your set por here? Yeah. Yeah.

I do. I have I use uh a company called Fins. F I NS Finn Seafood. Known him for about eight, nine years now.

Uh we're good mates. Um I did in the old days use Lana, which was a very well-known purveyor. Still is. Sorry.

Still is. I still use them in in certain events, but um yeah, with Fins I have a good good relationship. So So I I cut you off before, but I learn I learned a lot just then. I love I love learning all this stuff, especially loving food and all that.

Um but go back to the oil and gas. Oh, yes. So that Sorry. No, no, that's all right.

This is what I'm good at. Well, that's what we were on. And and I said to the chef, I said, "Mate, we got to ditch them. 300 dozen." 300 dozen.

Yeah. \ Exactly. He said, "Well, what do you mean?" I said, "We got to ditch these 300 dozen. I want you to get on the phone now." Y call the purveyor.

Tell him what's happened. Y tell him Jerry is not. What was the time? When was the kickoff?

Well, this I was there at 10:00. Kickoff was at 12. And I said, "Yeah, 2 hours." You said you got to you got to call them now and just get oysters for one day. Y and then we can work out the next two days.

Yeah. And he said, "Well, we I said, "Yeah, you have to do it." Yep. I said, "This is a story, mate." I said, "You guys took over the purchasing of the product where in the past I used to do it." Yep. You know, and I used to go direct to Albany and they would deliver to me straight to the Perth Convention Center.

So, they were the freshest. Probably tried to save a little bit of money. Now, it's cost him an absolute and and it's going to not look good either. And poor guy, the poor chef, he I still keep in touch with him.

Yeah. But um yeah, that was one of the events which I thought, oh mate. So did you get you got oy? Yeah, we got from the same purveyor or did you disconnect another purveyor?

Yeah, cuz I I thought they're doing the shony. Y they did the shony. Yeah, it was like subcontracting out again. Like so there's four steps instead of three from the harvester.

They they got you know they went to another purveyor and bought from them and they bought all product. They probably didn't know cuz they didn't check. Can they just say, "Oh, I need 300,000. Can you send them?" So that original big amount.

Yeah. So the other purveyor, I said, "Oh, yeah. We got some old oysters here. No one's going to know.

Just put your sticker on it." And boom. And then and then the used by dates were different. So yeah, I check everything. So when a tag arrives, I keep the tags and I give them to chefs.

I said, "Keep the tags. Always got to have them just in case health inspector walks in and needs to see, you know, where your oysters are from." And on that tag, it's got harvest date, the farm. Is that right? Well, got all the info you need.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it's all and there's a responsibility in a duty care of yourself. Like mate, like tell like we're talking about challenging times.

What about um has there been people sick and all that kind of stuff over the years? Um I've had one or two people say, "Oh, Jerry, that oyster wasn't the best." I said, "Did you chew it and eat it?" They say, "Yeah." I said, "Okay, there's two things we can do." Yeah. If you have to go to a doctor tomorrow, I need to know. Um but I'm going to send out a couple more oysters for you now on the house.

Yeah. just to cover it and and and usually everyone's fine. I I've never had an issue. Um there was one moment when um I had worked in Singapore with an exe chef from Aussie.

Yeah. And he'd left Singapore to go to Saudi to open up a new racetrack up there in Dubai. Wow. And a new hotel and had booked me in to come and do the the launch.

Yeah. Uh it's few years ago now. And uh great chef. And and the week before I was supposed to fly, we had tickets and everything ready to go.

He says, "Oh, Jerry, we're going to have to cancel. We've had French oysters arrive here and we've had about 10 guests get poisoned by food poisoning from French oysters." Wow. I don't want you coming out here and tarnishing your name. How good is that?

Yeah. No. Great. Ashley.

Ashley. Great guy. So, yeah, that happened. I didn't get to go sadly, but um you know, could have been the other way around.

It could have for sure. So, how many different places do you reckon you've shoed in? I've worked in five continents. Yeah.

Sove I've done a little bit of I I got an opportunity in Vancouver to jump in behind an oyster bar. We were actually on holiday uh visiting friends. I spent we went up there actually to spend Fiona's 50th birthday at the Great Bear Lodge which is up in the wilderness of Canada. Y which is a little lodge that floats in a little lake up there and uh you have to fly in on a sea plane.

Yeah. Only 16 people allowed. Uh unbelievable. Well, my friends live in Vancouver that I grew up with in Peru and they took me to an oyster bar.

It was very famous. It's called Rodney's and the guy was shucking away. We were just watching and taking photos. Didn't know who I was.

And then the founder says, you know, you want to jump in there, don't you? Yeah. Don't I said, "Yeah, I wouldn't mind just shucking one." So, I got talking to the shucker at the time and um I just said, "Oh, mate, you know, I do a little bit of shocking back in Perth, Australia." He said, "Oh, yeah. Do you want to come in?" And yeah, so Fiona filmed it.

So, I jumped in and and shucked a few for for the group that I was with. Uh, that was a that was quite a magic moment for me. It was different, you know, running the Oyster Bar in uh helping to run the Oyster Bar in Florida was different. Yep.

It was a pretty wild day for me. Um, and that was the beginning again, was it? That was the very very beginning. And I wasn't even going to do oysters.

That wasn't the thing. I think Savoy Hotel London. London. Y was a a great moment when they they launched this new seafood bar and poached me actually from Bentley's to put me in there and this the Savoy was a number one hotel in Europe at the time.

So very well known. Wow. It was a Yeah, it was it was up market. Not bad on the resume.

Not bad on the resume. Absolutely. Uh very strict. So I I left after two years and went off and did freelancing.

So just just on that actually because you know you're pretty relaxed dude love the banner and the personality and all that but then there's a point like it's like in business right the 1% makes you different to everyone else right so when you when you're doing the shucking and all that all the places you've been there must have been different standards a lot right absolutely and you'd have your standard and we know where that sits but um what's kind of different like where what's Savoy was very military driven there was regimented very regimented uh they had a Swiss guy who ran the whole show he was very regimented. Y didn't really want you to talk to customers so much. Just do your job. Regimented.

Yeah. Yeah. You know, shut up. Yeah, pretty much.

Um and it wasn't what I wanted to do. I couldn't pitch you. I Yeah. Well, all the owners of restaurants here and that I work with, they want me to go out and sit down and have a chat.

You know, sit down with the serve them first, get the oysters out or go and meet them as they walk in. I love to meet and greet. I love doing that. It's what I do.

And it makes people feel comfortable and they say, "Oh, okay. Cool." You know, nowadays, I hate to say this, but you you don't get the greetings you should be getting. Yep. You know, you don't even get uh how was your meal?

Hope to see you next time. You know, y uh you don't get that anymore. And uh it's I hate to do this again, but it's the old school who do it. Yeah, it is.

You know, how's it going? Come on in. Take a seat. And I do that at all the venues.

the old school, you know, like we they lose it a lot. Even with my kids, I'm learning how they communicate. You can't fight it. They just communicate different.

They do. But if if I'd be stoked if my there's a couple little things even when I was growing up, my dad would tell me like, "Don't have your hat at the table." And it was to this. And you know what? I actually love them little bits that I got my kicked a bit my grandfather.

And so did I. Like it's going to be less with my kids, but they still need to like be big on the whole people skills sing like shaking hands, hug, whatever. And I'm like, love letting the walls down and the and the connecting with someone, right? It's um I think it's a big piece and we're losing a lot of it.

It's just changing. Is it right or wrong? I don't know. It's just the generation.

I'll open a door for a lady. Me, too. Yep. See, I done it the other night, actually.

And people look at me. Y I said, don't worry about it. Doesn't matter. I'll even I'll even pull a chair and let a lady sit down.

So, you you want to know the best. I'm very old school. That is so cool. And you know what I like about it is I obviously date a bit now being single again.

And it's like snail mail like in the mail. You do that now, people are amazed because it doesn't happen. I know. So you go open the door for a kick and you're like, you know, pull the chair out.

It's like even paying for a meal now. It's like they're blown away. They are blown away. It's not hard to be, you know, that in hospitality where, you know, you if you're walking around a restaurant, you got a couple of waitresses who young kids.

Yeah. I'll let them walk in front of me. I'll guide them to the kitchen. You they got plates.

So I'll say, "Yep, you go ahead." And they look at me and go, "Oh, okay. Thank you." Y and and they're blown away because it doesn't happen. It doesn't happen. Y and it's a different world now, you know, Paul.

It's it's an IT world. It it is tech. And I'm a tech guy as well, right? He understand.

Speaking of tech and AI, oh, don't stop. When were you racing F1? Now, listen. This is Simon's doing.

Me and Tyler were laughing at this. Uh Fridays. Well, tomorrow there'll probably be a new one coming out. Uh he's got into the AI.

Yeah. Big time with Andrew. Anthony, sorry. Anthony.

Yeah. So they got a little I think company in in America that do all the AIs. So now everyone loves watching the Oyster. I must have watched it five times a day.

Oh mate, everyone talks to me about it. You know, when you get 20,000 views in one night. Wow. Isn't that weird?

It's it it works. Yep. And everyone says to me nowadays, "Hey, what sport you going to do now? What are you going to be doing?" I said, "I don't know.

Talk to Simon. He sort of does it. So, you're actually going to update it? Oh, he will.

Simon s. That's cool. It's actually cool cuz you're old school and all this stuff. I'm old school.

And then you go and do that. Like I know it was really cool. It's it's wild stuff, you know. It's what's ever happening sportwise.

It's a World Cup at the moment, so I don't know what's going to happen. Ah, yeah. Nice. You never know.

You never know. Do you follow it a bit? Yeah, I do. I love soccer.

Yeah. I had Chris on here yesterday, so he he was creation. I married a creation, so I got a bit of a soft spot for that still. And uh when we had Christian yesterday, Crochia won actually as we're talking.

They did one one nil. Yeah. So um I think 54th minute or something they kicked the goal and well there's a lot of great teams out there. I mean Messi for me is still the greatest you know.

Yeah. He's already got five goals. But um you know my son my oldest boy you we talking about Cam he got a scholarship to go to America to play soccer. Oh you did?

When he was 17. Wow. So yeah. So he went off to How long did he go for?

Well he went he did his two degrees over there. So he went to uh a place if I can remember it's called Brutin Parker. It was in Georgia. Yep.

Baptist college. Mhm. Yeah. It was five Aussies who went.

Wow. Scholarships. Three from WA. So uh we took Cam over there.

He was only 17. He was a young kid. What an experience. What an experience that was.

So while we were over there, we went down to Tampa to visit my mates that I went to uni with. So I got some great photos and the boys met my mates. You know, it was really weird. Yep.

And uh and my mates are still party boys. Yep. You can imagine and I I wasn't but that didn't that didn't uh they still appreciate it. Oh mate, they gave me kisses and hugs and everything and then Cam after two years at this uni \ with two other of the Aussie boys.

It was cuz it's a Baptist college. It was too religious. Oh, was it? Yeah.

Cuz these guys are from Perth and they're they're LA, mate. You know, they're 18, 19 year old kids. Um they all moved to different universities and Cam went up to Ohio and finished. How how like talking about the journey like and a little bit on your son.

How much do you reckon that helped where he was today? Had that experience going over there like at 17 like big time. I I didn't travel to I think I met my wife and went to Croatia with her like at 17 and you know and to go meet your old man's friends. There's a whole you know your history left over there cuz we had to leave and that was heartbreaking for Fiona you know and her eldest boy.

It was hard. It was hard to leave him but you guys would be so proud of him now. Well, we're proud of both of us, the learnings and yep, you know, um and he learned a lot. Well, he he got two degrees in the end.

He was going to go he was going to go to UWA and do I think uh some sort of engineering degree, but he went to America cuz he had a scholarship and got a degree in commerce and psychology. Yep. And that's where the psychology part of it stepping stone now. Yeah.

Went did his sexology degree in curtain university. Unreal. So, yeah. Once again, as we're talking before about young ones in a or any any industry, I think the thing that is missing a lot is a resilience bit.

But you you're over there without your family, out of your comfort zone. What do you what do you learn real quick? Resilience, confidence, back yourself, you know, all the things that you need in life, right? People skills.

You learn very quickly, I tell you that. I was 11 when I went to boarding school in England. So, I had my parents in South America. I was dropped off at boarding school.

That's why not much an American school where I wore jeans and t-shirts and baseball cap and sneakers to a boarding school in England with grammar school which is shorts, long socks, black shoes, the whole proper tie, blazer, cap. I had to do it. Yeah, I did it. I did it.

I did. I spent seven years there. So, but there'd be things out of both worlds you would have appreciated learned and not like like just you don't know what you don't know. But being in both someone a lot of discipline when I went to school.

Yeah. wasn't too sure. I became a bit rebellious in my How old were you then? I was 11.

What? When you shifted schools? Yeah. Yeah.

Wow. 11. So, it's a changed my mindset. So, I I'd never done Latin before.

I'd never done uh chemistry, physics, you know. I didn't study those things when I was at the other school, you know, in in Peru cuz I was up in the Andes of Peru up at 13,000 ft American school. Yeah. And I went over there.

I had a strong American accent, you I wasn't reading the books that uh the kids in in in in England were reading at the time. You know, I was reading Hardy Boys. Wow. You know, that was my reading material.

And then uh you know, we had what was called RARI, religious instruction. I never had that before. Yeah. You know, you you had your recess times when you all lined up and got your little bottle of milk.

You know, recess. Everyone did. Free bottle of milk. Wow.

What the hell's going on here? Yeah. I didn't know. Saving Grace was my cousin who's the same age as I am.

He was a day boy at that school. Y hence I went to that school. My dad wanted me to go to school in in in England in the UK. And it was probably the best opportunity cuz his brother was uh living in a place called Norwich.

Mhm. And to send me there. It was a famous famous school. So how much of this stuff and the shift in the world do you reckon help teach you the people skill bit so you can adapt?

You do now, right? Like that's your strength, right? The whole people personality. First year was pretty full on.

It would have thrown you out of your comfort zone, right? Oh, first year. Well, you know, in Peru, I was I had my own bedroom. I went to boarding school and I was sleeping in a room with six other people.

Totally different. It's It was like chalk and cheese. You had your bed inspected every day. It was folded properly.

You had your shoes inspected twice a day. You had to go to chapel in the morning and then you had to go to chapel at night with your with your little hbook. How long did you do that for? Seven years.

Seven years. Yeah. But I became a school prefect. Yeah.

I did all the sports. I learned rugby and I learned grass hockey and I did athletics and I became very good at all of them. Uh first couple of years I was very high up academically cuz I studied and I got in Yeah, I actually did quite well. Y I think it was the third or fourth year I started being a bit rebellious.

You got in a bit of trouble. Sneak out and go to the pub, get a beer as you all did in those days. Then you get caught and you get put in the corner. Stand in the corner.

said you were drinking at 14 or whatn not said you know you had those little you got a bit rebellious and um you know I was pulled up a few times I got I got the strap a few times in those days that's what they did you know you either got a pimple on your ass or you got a ruler behind your knee you know uh those that was that generation that was that generation or you or if you were talking after lights out at night cold shower is that right oh yeah \ yeah I had a few of them \ imagine that is so it was a different life completely completely different life. But I would go home and visit the family. I think my mom was bit upset that I was sent to boarding school. She really missed uh you know the eldest one going away and I think still you know until the days they both passed away.

I think she was still a bit pissed off. How long was that if you don't mind me asking? Well I I went to boarding school in 1967. So 67 to 74.

Yep. So that's that's when I went to boarding school in England. But I would travel back and forth and visit. And then my my brother also went to boarding school when he was uh I think he was 14 actually when he went to boarding school.

He went to another place called Taton in Somerset. Then in 74 I went and did a couple of gap years like you Aussies like to do one I did three. Yep. That was my good old days.

18 19 20 travel South America. Y got into a lot of trouble and Yeah. You know going back to the whole people skills thing. We're talking about um where were you doing shaken oises in the very regimented seavoid?

Yes. Um so I think out of that you would have understood the whole regiment a bit from boarding school by the sounds that relates piece that together. You would have kind of got that you're good at both worlds by the sounds then because you you have to have things in you have to have your ducks in a row. Yeah.

You have to learn how to do that. Y I already had that sort of Yep. You know you've seen me. I come in early.

Yep. I don't mess around. You're on time. You're late.

Yeah. See, the thing is nowadays, uh, which is one of my hates, is that if you're scheduled to come on at midday, don't walk in at 5 to 12. Come in at quarter to 12 and find out what's going on. Get a briefing, find out, you know, what oysters are on the menu.

Uh, don't keep coming up to me cuz it's all in a briefing. In the old days, we go back again. We used to have briefings. Y you know staff would come in front of house and back of house and if you started at midday 11:00 you'd start you come in you clock in and you head chef would come out and say the dish of the day is so and so these are the ingredients and the dish let's have a taste you know Samia would come out with a wine have a little taste of the veno you're going to serve today there were incentives is that cuz then you can relate also when you're serving obviously there's nothing worse than a waiter or waitress comes up to you and you say well what what what's actually on the plate and I don't know I have to go see the chef Yeah.

Do you know one question I ask all the time and you're like where are your oysters from? And I reckon 50/50 they know. They don't know but most of the time like they don't know. It's like hang on I'll they'll say it but then they'll go I'll go check I'll go talk to Jerry.

I'll go I'll find out from Jerry. I'll go see chef. Um one of my this is a long time ago this happened. I used to go to supermarkets and when I go shopping and I look at the oysters that are in the display cabinets and they always used to know me at one Woolly's that I used to go to.

The oysters were all always labeled wrong. You know, if it was rock oysters, it'd have Pacifics. Is that right? Yeah.

I go in there and say, "Hey guys, wrong oysters again." And and \ I do it on Facebook now. So, I see a lot of restaurants posting photos and you can straight away or I either know they're pre-shucked or I know it's the wrong specy. So, I write to them. Yep.

Not all of them cuz I don't That's your That's your thing, right? But it pisses them off. Marcus Jerry again. Yeah, but they should do it right.

They should mate. It takes 2 seconds to make a phone call. To make Yeah, thank you. to make a phone call.

Oh, \ Let's call Jerry and find out if that's the right photo. Or if I'm working with a venue and they put a photo that's not mine of another oyster they picked out of out of random out of Google random and it's not looking good. There's a couple couple of venue I said guys takes two seconds to call me. Just call me.

I've got photos. I'll send it to you. Don't put the wrong photos up. There's one restaurant, I can't name it because I get into trouble, but there's one restaurant that is putting the wrong specy of oyster up on their Is that right?

On their post now. Yep. Today. And I've written.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. They they know they know, Jerry, we we know marketing. It's the marketing team that should be doing this.

Yep. I said, "Yeah, I know it is, but why don't they educate them and call you just two seconds? That's all it is." It's not like you're not helpful at all, you know, and that's that's your that's your world. That's my world.

Yeah. And and the oyster world is my world. Yeah. So So besides oysters, what other what's the other go-to food?

Well, I love food. Okay. I love you. Thai cuisine.

I love I love dim sum. I'm off to dim sum on Saturday with 10 other guys. We all meet up. Where's your go-to in Perth?

Uh for dim sum, we all meet up at the place called Canton and Ro Street. Yeah, that's where we do. I love curries. I like Canton.

Yeah. But um or I go to Authentic Bites for dumplings. Which one's that? That's on uh Newcastle.

Yeah, Newcastle. Yeah, that one. Yeah. And Barn's right opposite diagonally opposite for curries.

Yeah. So, you got to go there. Um I like since I've had Okay. Well, I'm diabetic, so I I've been on OMIC for 5 years.

So, I've lost a lot of weight and I and I've lost my appetite and a lot of things. That's that's what it's supposed to do. So, I used to be able to eat big steaks and t-bones and stuff. You can't do that.

It's just too much food. But I like going to a place like Brown Street Grill, which is in Bright Tank Brewery, Stewie Laws restaurant. I love the food there. I love the dips.

I know people say, "What? Dips?" Mate, you got to try the dips. Yeah. Flatbread and dips.

Brand straight. That makes makes my day. They know as soon as I walk in and I work there once a month. Yeah.

Chef, Marco, he says, "Oh, I've got the dip ready for you. When you're ready, you tell me." I said, "I'm ready." So, he brings it out. I take a photo, put on Facebook. I love doing that.

I don't like fried eggs. I love scrambled eggs. I love poached. Oh my my my my favorite brekie is a place called the Sarapan in South Perth.

It's a Malaysian. Wow. Small. I'm usually the only white guy in there.

They know me. Jerry, come on in. They eat oysters as well. I always drop off a little dozen to them.

And I always go for the same thing. It's a big menu, but I always go for the same thing. It's always a rotty with a bit of dahl curry sauce and two poached eggs on top. Latte coffee.

20 bucks. How good is that? Thank you very much for coming. Oh yeah.

So I do that out. Now I also go for with my friends. We go up here in Subi, believe it or not, to the red chair for Laxa. Where's the red chair?

Which one's that? It's up at Crossways shopping center. It's up the road. Yep.

So we go to uh go there and we have a we have a laxa. I love Laxa. You're really good there. Oh, mate.

The best. Are you a prawn or what? I usually go for uh seafood if we can. Yep.

Um but I I just enjoy I like ramens as well. Like a good ramen. Yep. Uh my my my old boy loves cooking.

That's probably where I I like a lot of the food and that as well. But he uh just before I split with the wife, he come over and stayed with us and bought this big walk and everything. He made a prawn luxer homemade and like he takes age. It makes a mess.

Wicked cook. Doesn't matter. Doesn't matter. But the food he he's actually he's a wicked cook.

It's one thing my real dad taught me. Um amazing prawn mark. It was like the best. So good.

I know. I know. And I love just catching up and doing it, you know. Um when I go to see the boys here at the embassy.

Yep. You know, they always know when I walk in, I get the big fries, you know, the big You saw me eating them the other day. So, they're not French fries. They cut them, you know, they're like logs.

Yep. And that's what I love. I love that. You know, and Simon eats half of them anyway, so doesn't matter.

Um, I'm a coffee man. I love I love going out for my coffees every day if I can. And I just meet up. How do you go coffee in person?

Well, I go to quite a few little coffee bars. Um, I like Bassendine. I like the 54 store. That's where I'm going after I see you.

Y I'm meeting an exche there for a coffee just to catch up. Yep. So the 54 store, one of my favorites in Basso. I like Bossman in Mount Lley.

Yep. In Highgate. Awesome. Yep.

I do like to go to little places like Humblebee in Mount Hawthorn. Yep. Mount Hawthorn. Uh La Mortaza in I don't know that one.

In North Perth. Yeah, I go there. Um Dieras as well in North Perth. Another one there.

I'm just trying to think where Tell me something. And I thought of this earlier when when you were talking about your son and coffee. Is there any crossover with oysters and coffee in any I have done it. I have.

Unbelievable. I thought of you and your son when you were talking about it earlier. Okay. Well, and you know your coffee and and Cal knows his coffee really well.

I've done master classes. I did one master class where we did six different courses with oysters. And for the dessert, I did a espresso foam, cold espresso foam on an oyster. All natural.

Is it good? Yeah. Mind-blowing. That's amazing.

I couldn't believe it. Couldn't believe it. What made you do it? Have you seen it before or No, I hadn't seen it before.

I'd seen a lot of granitas and stuff on oysters. Whiskey grrenitas. I've done all that. And I thought, you know what?

I love coffee. And everyone has a coffee at the end of the meal. Yeah. Said, "Why don't I put coffee foam, a nice coffee foam, strong, and put on top of an oyster and see what happens?" And everyone said, "Jerry, this is different." I said, "Yeah." And it was good.

Yeah, it was good. So, I I love doing that. Um, you know, it's it's just one of those things, you know, as long as it's not cooked. Yeah.

I don't No cooking. Not cook. Everyone No \ cooking. Take the piss.

My good friend Don Hansy, who is the food ambassador for WA. Yeah. So, we go on radio together. So, we used to do six PR.

So, he'd go on one week, I'd go on the week after. And, uh, in the old days, um, it's been about a year since we haven't done it, but um, he'd go on and talk about Oysters Kill Patrick. Yep. And he says, "Oh, yeah.

My good friend Jerry, he loves cooking oysters. And everyone would call the following week, you know. Oh, they all call me up. Jerry, he's on it.

He's doing it again. He's doing it again. And it was like last night as well. I I I had some uh a newcomer come and have oysters at canteen.

He owns he owns a catering company in Mandra. He knows he he's a friend of Dons as well. He said, "Jerry, I hear a rumor that you don't like cooked oysters." I said, "Listen, there's two words. I don't like the K word and I don't like the F word." He said, "What do you mean?" And I said, I don't like Kilpatrick and I don't like Frozen.

Don't you ever use those words in front of me. And there is a little reel going out actually on from the print hall where they film me saying, "Jerry, what are your ex?" And I say, "X? What the hell's an egg? Your dislikes." And I said, "Oh, dislikes?" Yeah.

I said, "Number one, cooked oysters." Yep. F and K. F and K. Don't Don't do For me, you ruin the bacon.

You ruin the oyster. That's how I see it. Yeah. And I've had people come into parties with uh I can't mention his name cuz he get upset with me, but he he walked into a party when all these foodies were there and he knew I was shocking.

He brought a big piece of bacon in his mouth like a tongue, hung it there, and a bottle was just \ Jerry, I'm ready. Yeah. Famous food. Poke the bear.

Poke the bear. See, I'll tell you something funny about that. When I was, and this happens a lot, I think when I was a kid, I didn't like oysters. You know, they put you off and all that stuff.

But what got me into oysters is Kilpatrick. when I start, you know, was a say a teenager or 20 or I don't know what age I started liking them, but I used to like Kilpatrick, but I I love them natural now. And um I actually like, how do you say it? Minuette.

Minionets. Yeah. Little vinegarette. Yeah.

And I had them first ever at Rockpool and then me and the wife used to make them at home. My wife used to make them and I reckon that's such a deluxe taste. But the Kilpatrick's actually what got me into it. But what put me off Kilpatrick is not cuz it's cooked to your disgust, but um is people don't do it well.

They just throw bacon on and they just squeeze barbecue sauce or or tomato. There's no finesse or love. And like I love cooking from hot coals to full everything, right? And they carbonize.

There's no love. No, they carbonize them. They put them in the ovens and bake them black and you can't be eat you know my my father exfoliation as well and seafood fish. But he liked he's pretty plain fella but he obviously a lot of olive oil but garlic olive oil and put them in the oven.

Yeah, I know you don't like the cooking, but not not the Kilpatrick. I didn't mind that either, but now I don't think I've had a cooked oyster for years. Yeah. Well, the thing is when I arrived here, everyone ate cooked oysters.

I've never even heard of Kilpatrick since I arrived in Perth. No. No. No.

We don't do that in Europe. It was all Rockefeller and Tempura. Oh, Tempura. Yeah.

So, they did a lot of So, when I arrived here, I didn't even know what a Rockefeller was until someone explained it to me and and I looked at them. I said, "What do you do with them?" I said, "We just throw them in the oven and cook them or we put them on a barbecue." I said, "Okay, that's an unusual thing to do." Y and then, yeah, when I started talking to people and shucking fresh, most people had not had fresh oysters before. They cooked their oysters. Now, you learn a little trick that chefs will cook oysters if they're old.

All right. So, Monday morning when there's no fresh shellfish coming in, that's on the menu that day. Kilpatrick. Yeah.

Cuz you're covering covering up. You're disguising the flavor. Yep. And it's not saying it's off, but it's not fresh off, but Yeah.

They're not fresh. Yeah. And that's what they used to do. I always see oysters and lobster go hand in hand with scolops.

Them three there for me. And like I love seafood. Absolutely. You You're a lobster man.

Well, I like fresh fresh craze. Yeah. I only like them steamed or or grilled. And that's it.

I don't put stuff on them. Yep. You know, I I keep going on about muscles as well. I love muscles.

I love muscles. But why chili muscles? I know it's a famous dish. It is.

I love it, too. I know. Yeah. Yeah.

But why? Why camouflage those muscles? Very beautiful. Very true.

You know, and I get in trouble cuz Italians say, "Jerry, it's very Italian." You know, it's Frio. Yeah. I said, "Yeah, I know, but why? You got great muscles." Do you know who does Wicked Ones and I'd love to have him on one day?

I don't know if he will. Is Mario at Spritz? Well, he's a legend. He is a legend.

He's a legend. He's been around a long time. Yeah. Him and his business partner used to have a place in Netherlands.

I think they did in the old days, I was told. Yeah, but I always go in there with my boy or the family and um always says you got your caddies and like cuz he's Italian off the boat or his workers are definitely off the boat and they're all legends. You walk in now I always say you talk about hospitality and you know young ones not having that enthusiasm and and the hospitality that you should have take a leave out of his book. He's unbelievable.

The whole spritz he's the best to sing happy birthday like yes and he comes up to you at the tables and and and does all the fancy stuff at the table. You can't book. No line up. The 1 percenters lives and breathes it like he's he's he's the best in town.

They they are unbelievable. New venue apparently. Oh, is there you know more than me. I can't say too much.

Ask him across across the road. Oh, hasn't that gone through some people? Yeah, he's bought it. So, I just don't know.

I'm going to have lunch there and talk to him. Have lunch and say, "Mario, what are the rumors going on?" Birdie Jerry Jerry told me he got across the road. What's going on? I don't know what's going to happen there, but yeah, that's a rumor.

He he it's like he's just constantly like I think I'm a pretty motivated and energetic guy and he's just like I love I love it when I'm in there. Like I only three weeks ago I got a photo with my boy and him. I'm like get a photo with Mario just because of the personality in there. Not so much personality.

I pop in once in a while when I can. Yep. Yeah. I I love it there.

I reckon there's only a few really nice Italian places like like a bit like that. I know it's not fine dining there, right? From the day I've been there. It's the same food, right?

And and I get bored of menus, but the quality and everything's the same and it's authentic. You know what you're going to get every time. And you're watching the lads over at the pizza like they got to know the kids. Yeah.

But they got to know my kids like and like you know they're a bit some of them broken English. Like they're actually they're where they're from. And um like that there is what makes me go back and even if you did have a bad day. Yeah.

Right. Cuz you know every place does it doesn't matter. That's the difference. Right.

Because he's very good. I love him. Unbelievable. Yeah.

He's a great operator. He's he I mean that's that place is just buzzing all the time. He walk I know he had a lot of challenges I believe at the beginning when he was getting the thing built out the front. At the front.

Yeah. Cuz he and it got signed off. He had to get it redone. It cost him a bomb too, I think.

But he lives and breathes that place. They do amazing for you, isn't it? And he just redone the gelato play. They just ref 12 12 months ago years ago, something like that.

Yeah. He's he's a great operator. There's a there's still a few good operators around. There is.

Who who else comes to mind for like the hospitality side for you? A really good operator, chef operator is is Scotty Bridger, I think. Where's where's the Pear restaurant in in Leighton Beach? Okay.

He used to be at Bib and Taka. He's moved across the road now to Pear, which is a seafood restaurant. Voted number two in Australia. Wow.

I haven't been there. Oh, check it out. I've worked a few events with him already. He's a he's a unbelievable chef, but he's also a good mentor.

Y Yeah. For the younger chefs. So he's really he knows it's good to hear too. And the and the menu is unbelievable.

Yeah. It's different. It's very different from your normal seafood. Is it?

Oh, he cures and smokes a lot of meat. Yeah. Oh, go and just check it out. I will for sure.

The the Per Per and Co. it's called. And it's just right opposite the uh the old Bib and Tucker where he used to work. Yep.

Yeah. Uh one of my favorites. Um God, there's so many little places I used to go and visit. You know, I'm working at a lot of them anyway, so it doesn't really matter.

Yep. So for me it's a privilege just to go in and say hey guys how we doing and uh they say yep we're here for you what do you need you know so I love all that and and um so just touch back on the Savoy right recommended now let's go to an opposite I just want to answer that original question the different different environments and places that you could have been we know in Australia here we know in Perth that it's pretty they want you to talk and personality and all that and and beautiful venues here right we're very lucky here in WA I think we take for granted really what we got It can have its ups and downs, but venues, our our produce, our like even Southwest and everything. Load amazing stuff. Absolutely.

Even going north. Do you go north much? Um I've been to Broom a couple of times and shocked up there uh for the races and stuff like that. I've been to Xmouth.

I love Xmouth, but I went with with Fiona. Uh they've asked me to go back up there. Have they? It's come up there.

How? Yeah. Yeah. Well, Froth Brewery's up there.

He wants they want me to go and do a little event. I want to go up there soon because you can like this time. Well, we were talking about earlier this time of year now. Well, now it's and swim with the whales, you know, all that stuff.

Now is a beautiful time. We swam with the turtles last time we were up, which is great. You know, I didn't expect it, but yeah, all of a sudden. Woo!

Wow. I do a lot of work down south. Yeah. So, from How often you go down there?

I try and get down twice a year if you can. Um because I'm busy up here, I I can't really get So, great. The Taste of the Great Southern is a five day thing. Yeah.

Takes a day to get there, day to get back, and four day festival. What do you got to take with you, Anath? Well, I just take all my my oyster gear and that's about it. You know, sauces.

Um, they supply everything down there for you. Well, they have to really because, you know, you can't do your lemons and all that. All the minionets. I might take Minionette with me.

Um, and we just do Well, Tom and I go down together. So, Tom will do five or six events and I'll do five or six events and we do some together as a Tom and Jerry show. How good is that? Yeah, it's it's a lot of fun.

So, how is that is there a little bit of filming there and stuff like that? filming. How long's that been going? Absolutely.

Well, this is this is uh this was the first year we did it. Yeah. Yeah. So, we we've only just done it and but we're on board to do Tom and Jerry show again at the servo later in the year.

Yep. Yep. So, we're doing uh I think 120 people at the servo. Both of us in there as a Tom and Jerry show.

Tom's very proactive as well. He he you know his business is busy as well. He's called Shucks and Nibs. Yep.

So, he's out there doing it every day. Um, we're looking at, you know, getting some, you know, funny stuff for the show. You know, something just on that, something I want to do with you, uh, and a question I want to ask, but what I'm going to do is, if if it makes sense, do it as a real. How many, and it'll be a question before I give the answer.

How many oysters have you shuck by yourself in one one sitting night? 300 dozen. 300 dozen. By yourself?

By myself. How over what time? Probably about 8 hours. 8 hours.

8 to 10 hours. Where was that? It was a couple of festivals. Y So I did um a long time ago now.

Um it was called something the the Purple Moon or the Blue Moon Festival or something like that here in Perth and Billy Thorp was at that festival and I fed him and there was Brian Ferry and all that crowd. It was at the showgrounds. So that was that that day I shucked 300 dozen. Wow.

It's a big day for me. All right. So I'm just going to ask the question. Don't you don't need to answer it now.

So, I've just asked Jerry how many oysters he shucked in one event sitting and it was over 8 hours um a couple of um events and um and we will put the answer up and see what everyone have a guess. I'm going to have that into a reel and see how Yes, absolutely. Good stuff. So, so off the back of that actually I'm a bit curious like do you get you know people get carb tunnel but what happened what in your world what what's the challenges you've had?

The worst thing I've had is I've had I've had a knife go into my finger. Yep. So, injuries of Jerry. Yeah.

Injuries. That's the number one which was about 25 years ago. Yep. So, a knife went in through a shell.

I got two stitches, RP straight away, stitched it up, went back to the restaurant, which was actually in the fish house. \ Went back there, put a a chic park hotel or something. Was it did you say Vic Park Hotel? The fish.

No, no, fish. Yeah, the old Vic Hotel here in Subi. So, I was shucking earlier and then straight down. It was about 8:00 in the evening.

Then the knife went in. I was back at 10 finishing off the event. Probably the worst injury I've had is I actually blew the tendon in my in my elbow. So, just in here shucking too many oysters.

Is it just that actually gets used a little? Yeah, I just blew it. Yeah. And uh I was sitting I was shucking that and that was also at the fish house.

So, I was doing a lot of work there. Bit of a cursor at the fish house. I did a lot of work and I had a doctor sitting right opposite me when it all happened and she looked at me and said, "You've done some damage, haven't you?" I said, "I think so." She said, "You better go get a check tomorrow." So, does it annoy you now? Does it come back?

No, no, no. Those injuries don't come back. No. Oh, good.

What? You got to be careful with a knife obviously because it does puncture. Not so much cuts, but punctures. But the thing that does cut is if a shell splinters.

So, it shatters. Yep. And it shell is sharper than a knife. Yep.

It'll it'll slice you up pretty quick. Now, I get nicks all the time. I was going to say you must get them. I get little nicks here and there, but being diabetic, you have to be careful because you do bleed a bit.

I'm type two. I understand that. So, you know, so I'm type two as well. So, you just \ got to be careful.

I don't use gloves or cloths, but I tell everyone else when I teach them to either get a glove. Now, the new mining gloves are pretty good for for shocking because they're they're pretty hardy. Yep. Um the chain mail gloves, you can't really get them anymore.

I don't think I still have mine which the chain ones. Yeah, it's like a butcher like a boning butcher. I was a butcher when I was 15. Yeah.

Or worked in it and used to use one. Yes. Well, that's I relate to it. They're very good.

Y and um obviously uh cloths now. I I I teach them how to use a cloth now. You know, there's a certain way of folding it. You make a pouch out of it and you put the oyster in the pouch, hand over the top.

It's in my master classes. It's in the video. Dude, do you have any branding and stuff on all these? So yeah, you put your name on?

Yeah, my knives all have my name on them. So um I've got key rings coming out now with Oyster King or actually here. Actually, let me just see if it's the merchandise hasn't arrived yet. It's on its way.

Awesome. I'm just telling you be ready. So that's a key ring with uh Yeah. So those are coming out.

Yeah. Okay. So fridge man magnets are coming out. So you can put on where can we purchase them?

Well, we will do on my website. So I've got two sauces coming out very soon. So one's called Frasers Fire, which is a smoked chili, and the other's called Fraser's Gold, which is mango chili ginger. And that's just to pour on.

No cooking. Just a tiny bit on. You don't need no cooking. Yeah.

I've been using the sauces for quite a while now. The guy who owns the company said, "Jerry, you need to put your face on it." So my I have a manager now who takes care of all that sort of stuff. He said, "Jerry, we're going to we're going to fine tune." So, you're really getting your personal brand out there more. Well, he wants to leave the legacy properly.

He just says, you know, it's time. Everyone knows who you are. Let's just get things happening. That's why I could tell the moment I mentioned this like 3 months ago or whatever, like you were like, "Yep, let's do it." I could tell you on that and you know, obviously you being a bit older generation, but you really open mind and adapt adapt and evolve to what's going on cuz you can't fight it, right?

But it's going to benefit you. You got a wicked personal brand. Everyone knows you, you Well, they want to do baseball caps now. Wants to do t-shirts, you know.

What about apron? Well, we've got I've got my own apron that I designed, which you see me wearing. I designed that with a friend of mine who was a skirt maker. God, I think 20 odd years ago.

Y and um he'd seen me wearing the normal butchers sort of style bibbed aprons. And he said, "Pretty boring." I said, "Yeah, I know. That's what we all wear." Y and he said, "What's the most common item mom and dad will buy at a retail?" Like, cuz not everyone's going to buy an apron. Um, I think what we're looking at soon will be tea towels.

Yep. That's it's actually what made me think of it. It actually made me think when you were about folding it. I'm talking to Tom.

Yep. Tom from Shucks and Tom tea towels. Maybe that will be the way to go. I know Tommy wants to get a tie Tom and Jerry on it.

So, we're looking at that as well. We have to look at the obviously implications with uh, you know, Tom and Jerry. Tom and Jerry. Yeah.

So, if we can do something, maybe a Tommy and Jerry or the Jerry and Tom show. I don't know. Yeah, we're looking at that at the moment, but we don't tie. Just don't just don't also put a mouse and a cat on there.

Well, that's all we have to be careful what we're going to put. Maybe we put uh the mouse with my head on it and the cat with his head on it. Maybe something different. Yeah, you'd have to be pretty unlucky to uh I think you'd have to.

Yeah. Like a friend of mine got done for sauces. Yeah. Yeah.

Here in Perth. Yeah. He copied another not the same source, but the same style. Wow.

and and he got called up. They're a big big company. When they got deep pockets, it ends up He says, "No, he had to change it. Just had to change the label.

Not even worth the energy or stress when you when you got big pockets." So, he did he he's he's selling the sauce, but now he's changed the label. But that's that's another story. Yep. Yeah.

I mean, Andy wants to do now, you know, when your visors in cars, you know, in the summertime where you put on the window screens, he wants to put my face on. That's actually That's really cool idea. Well, it's a cool idea because of that. This the car sits there for 3 4 hours.

Who do you here in WA as well? Everyone needs them weather. Y I saw a car yesterday with you know the the logos on there from their business and I thought yeah that looks pretty cool. Y I don't know whether you want to see Cherry Fraser's face on there.

I don't know. But at the end of the day it's it's it's having fun. Yep. You know having you know the sources I've already got couple of ladies want to buy 12 bottles each.

You know they know it's coming. you just probably a couple of last things before I go to the last bit of usually wrapping it up. But like you obviously got a beautiful community, hospitality and all that. So the o all you oyster shuckers, you all get along.

Yeah, we all know each other and you all know each other and we all know each other. We've all Well, Perth is quite small. There's not a lot of shakers on the east coast. This is a No, there isn't.

I've got one mate who's Dwayne who's over in Queensland, so he does beach and all that. He does quite a bit of but he's in the mining business, but he runs a does the side in Melbourne have got two or three there's a couple of venues that do oysters which are very well chefs do it a lot though if they have to don't they is that right or that's what's happening chefs will do most of the shucking in most venues y in Australia y but they don't come out so they're not live shucking if you know what I mean that's the experience right I think that's the magic you know it's the magic I tell people it's not so much about the oyster it's about the experience people love it a table there and oysters getting shhat it's fresh chat well you want to you want to ask them their story their life stories They're oyster stories. Where did you have your first oyster? Yeah.

Where was your best oyster? They'll always ask me. What's the one you have in the morning? Uh, what shot do you have with an oyster in it?

Well, Bloody Mary shooters. That's the English breakfast. What's your thoughts on that? Guinness.

Well, I don't do them, but um yeah, I've done them. I've done them. Don't worry. Probably done plenty.

Done plenty of those. And Guinness and oysters, Irish breakfast. Yeah. And they do Burman and oysters.

That's the American breakfast. You know, things like that. Yeah. You can play around with it.

Yeah. Yep. Are you going to um just say the next 5 years? What do we see?

Obviously, I think I've touched on a lot um you know um merchandise and all that. I think timing in that question is um impeccable. I what I do picture is what's wicked and I don't know if you do this. You obviously take photos everywhere you've been, right?

try to but like what would be cool and is like you going to these farms like premium and all that eventually you got all these relationships like imagine you actually having a little bit of a story or a video with them even if it was only 30 minutes like you've got some wicked that's going to go on the website the website we're going to go and do a bit of traveling journey yeah and go hit Tazzy again cuz we love Tazzy essay Fiona loves South Australia and we stayed at the farmer's house y you know and we we have a a lot of fun with a with and not many people can do that. That's why that's a wicked story. It's a different story. And not only because we love oysters, but we love them, you know, and they're humble people.

Yep. And most farmers are. Yeah. You know, and and they won't get out and be on content and share like I I wouldn't know about them unless, you know, talking to you.

You've got that you're that gateway, right? I'm I'm a pretty much of a the conduit to that. Yeah. Because uh everyone says, "Oh, we're going to Tazzy." You know, I've had three phone calls in the last week.

Jerry, I'm going to Tazzy. where do I go? And I just give him all the directions. I said, "Go see them.

If you're going to go to St. Helens, I need to know so I can tell Craig, you're popping in." So he knows you're coming. Y and he he when we talk, he says, "Oh, your mates came over from Perth. I saw them." South Australia the same.

Smoking Bay. Colleen will say, "Ah, your mates were over. They take they take, you know, photos and send them to me." Yep. You know, they're up there on the eating oysters up on that viewing.

Thanks Jerry for viewing platform. Yeah. Y so you Google or it's called the oyster experience SA premium oysters. I think that's the best tour in in Southern Hemisphere.

Yeah. Awesome. That's that's huge. Let's tag that as well when we Yeah.

Just have a look at it. Really good topic here. Uh what what do you call it? The platform or the view?

Yeah. It's called the viewing. It's called the viewing platform. Yep.

The oyster experience. 3k out in the water over over the top of the farm beds. Unreal. Yeah.

Yep. and they take you up and you walk up, you climb up and you shuck your oysters up on top. You sit there and watch the sunset come in. You won't beat it.

Other experiences are great. They do them in Tazzay. They do them in Coffin Bay. You go out in waiters and you sit on a table.

It's out in the water. Yeah. Yeah. And shuck oysters there and eat them there.

That's nice. Still nice. But just that tops it. That tops it.

The one in SA SA Premium tops it. Yeah. Smoky Bay. I love their oyster.

Fun fun fact about an oyster we haven't talked about. Well, something that we don't know. Most people don't know. It's the highest concentration of protein of any animal in the world.

They're filter feeders. So, hello. Vegetarians and vegans can eat them. And I've switched a lot of people over.

Oh, Jerry, we can't eat you. I'm a vegan. I said, yeah, I know you are. Yeah, but what's the story?

Um, that's number one. Number two is don't swallow whole. Chew chew chew. You got to chew them.

If you swallow hole, you don't get the flavor profile of an oyster. Believe me. I mean, if I gave you a prawn or a piece of meat or a scolop, what do you do? You chew it.

You chew it. Thank you. It's easy. Y So, get the flavors happening, guys.

People are off that usually when you're younger and you try one, it's the it's the texture until you get older and you get used to it. You get it's an acquired taste. It is. It is an acquired when you love them.

Oh, when you when you get the bug, you'll you'll understand. And the thing is, you'll have to understand something as well. When you have oysters with me or one of the other shakers, they're fresh. Mhm.

So there we call that shuck to order, not freshly shucked because every menu in town says freshly shucked. You don't know how old they are. Shuck to order. Shut to order means you order eye open so you know it's happening at that moment and that's the best.

You can't beat it. And I experienced that this morning. Probably the precious I've had. Unreal.

Good. Um, anything else you want to talk about before I ask you the last two things? No, I'm all good. Um, just so something keep on shucking.

Uh something I've been locking in now is in 6 months and I'll probably send you a meeting invite I done yesterday with Chris is just to recap. Absolutely. And um what have what I've learned on podcasts and I'm I'm new to this. I'm learning but is a lot of people get on it transaction and they're off like you know and I just love these stories and there's so many topics and there's probably other stuff we could have talked about so much but like in about 6 months cuz it's got to be a bit of time and uh take a couple of points out of this and probably a shorter version maybe.

I'm not sure, but we're booking it in now so it happens in even if we have to shift at the time, but at least we my team will send it out. So, we'll do that. And the other two things I ask is who's one or two people I could get on that just resonates with you from to have chats with to to get on here and do the same thing. Um, hospose, I don't care what this is the point.

It's not my world, it's your world. And that's where the compound network happens. There's so many hospitals out there I'd love you to have a chat with. Um, you know, even like Scotty Bridger, cuz I think he's a great mentor, great chef, chef owner, which is a different ball game when you're a chef owner.

You know, I love people outside my circles and that's awesome. Unbelievable. Everyone's got a journey. When Fiona's back down, maybe you should have a chat with Fee.

Yeah, definitely. I actually thought that earlier when we're talking, a childhood educator doing it up. You might hear some uh other stuff about Well, she might have one or \ two little stories about me, but uh she'll tell you them definitely. Um, well, we she'll probably be down here in October, so we could probably maybe think about that.

It's pencil something. Yeah, pencil something in. I'll have a chat. Well, she'll probably hear this anyway, but uh she'll uh she'll be keen.

There'll be a few others there. There was the first guy. Scott, was it Scott Bridger? Scott Bridger.

Yep. I don't know yet. Difficult man to get a hold of. Yep.

But I know a guy that knows him, so we might be able to Yeah. You just \ go down and have a little taste of his food first and just say, you know, and see how he operates. He's beautiful man. Yep.

Um, but there's other other chefs that are unbelievable. Uh, there's a guy I work with quite closely. Uh, Greg Harding, who I've worked with in many venues. Y uh, he runs venues.

I was about to say, what's He's up at 2J right now at the Vic Hotel. Oh, he Yeah. So, he's running that. I I'll do an event with him for the Avon Descent.

Oh, awesome. Which will be crazy up there. Yeah, that'll be nice. I'll probably need some time to think on just text you a few names because um, there's different players around Perth.

Uh, I don't mean players. I mean people I know who were in the uh hospital game. Do you reckon Simon will come on one day? Simon would be a good one to have on.

Y um he's been on a few. I know that Simon's a very interesting character. He is. I uh I know a bit about bigger than bigger than than her that one.

I I know him and Theresa story a fair bit. It was pretty funny. A couple of nights they've told told me. Um but like there's a whole there's a whole piece there, right?

He he loves it. He bought on Rockabby Road. loves the community and the local obviously well known cigars. Never knew he had the external businesses.

So yeah, he's he's connected with a lot of other things. He connects a lot of other people. Absolutely. And he's on the board of many many things, you know.

So the reason I do this is because I I got a list of 200 people, right? And I'm pretty confident I can get them because people skills. But what's better? It's like a compound network.

It's like I ask you and if you ask someone the chances are they'll be more engaged and off the back of you being on in say a few weeks we launch it. It's like cuz my network helped me build my business coming from mining and being in the mechanic world and that right helped me build the insurance business the last 10 years but I think the podcast and relationships going to give me more value than ever. And I mean that I don't mean everyone asked me where I'm going to make money and I'm like it's not about that. I love supporting mental health and I love connecting people.

And I'm like, if I do that, money will come later if it's meant to. Yeah. But um I agree. And the next to end end it with this question, and this is what I I love at the end, is what did you get out of today?

Well, um I I reflected back on many things I haven't spoken about for a long time, which is my my growing up days. You know, I really appreciate you sharing that. Um I enjoy sharing about my youth because not many people know where most people here in WA or even Australia just know me as the Oyster Man, the Shaka. Yeah.

They don't know my background, you know. They don't know where I'm from. I have an accent that doesn't really sort of put me in anywhere. Yeah.

Oh, yeah. You You've been that many bloody places. Are you Canadian? Are you American?

Are you a Kiwi? What are you? So, I'm actually a Scot by birth, you know, and I'm very proud of it. Just the sugar.

Yeah. But I I just say, you know, I've traveled and I I'm Cosmo Cosmopolitan. I just traveled everywhere. Y and I'm fluent in Spanish which blows people away because I speak Spanish to a lot of Spanish speaking people in hospital and they they it confuses them.

If you were a younger female when you spoke Spanish to me that uh you like it. Yeah. Yeah. So when I go to uh you know to the embassy there's a couple of uh Spanish speakers there and we we speak in Spanish.

That's cool. Everyone looks at us and says what are you doing Jerry? How come? I said well I grew up in many grew up in Peru you see.

Yep. And uh I love speaking the language. And I think speaking Spanish to the Spanish-sp speakaking community here in Perth, it's it's good for them that this guy, you know, this guy's he's he's a Scot. Well, is he American?

Where is he? But he speaks our language. But you're a local here. Doesn't matter where you're from.

Yeah. And I understand how they feel sometimes, you know. Yep. I get a I get a buzz out of that as well.

I really do. And as long as there's good coffee around, I love it, mate. Plenty other coffee bars I haven't mentioned, but yeah, there's plenty out there to look. Well, maybe we do a recap on that.

Well, we can we can go and have a little coffee somewhere along the strip. And you know, you know what I wouldn't mind doing maybe next time, and I'm going to try and do this a bit different. Um, I want to do a podcast in Barley with someone. I want to go down to there's a finance guy, Luke.

I'm going to get him on, but I'm actually going to go southwest and do it. So, so cuz there's not much gear, right? Like science portable still still do it, but maybe next time we can do it where you're doing a bit of shing. We're doing a little event or something on the recap.

Just get people together. That's what me and you love. And if I can learn anything off you with the whole people skills, I I love that stuff. Back to the It's something I learned about you today actually.

And I come up and shook your hand because everyone's a bit different. But to end it, let's have a Yeah. Yeah. Hey, hey, wait a minute.

Can the old boy get up first? Take it off. Absolutely. So good.

That's what it's all about. It is, mate. It was so good. So, thanks very much.

And Jerry's on. Um again, uh well, we're going to do it on a few times. I reckon we and it might be all the guests I've had on and we get it. Do you know what I mean?

Maybe it's a journey. Yeah. Or the end of the year we uh maybe the journey for the journey. Yeah.

And then maybe there's, you know, a couple people, you know, and they know. I'd like to do that. That would be cool. Yeah.

Get Simon in. You get Charlie. Charlie doesn't get out much, so I'd like to get Charlie out, you know. Maybe I'll hit um obviously I can hit Simon up for We'll do it at his mate.

He can block a bit off. If we can do a bit more cameras and and and drag maybe the couple in that I wouldn't have on by then and you're like, "Hey, come check it out." And we can all have a little different way to tell the stories instead of sitting around drinking piss as we did when we were young telling stories. We do it on a I think it'd be great now. I think it'd be great.

That's cool. That's I'm actually I'm actually about to do a I'm piecing together a defense one because all us boys tell stories all night and I'm like and they've been following this now and they hang a bit of \ on me and I'm like I I put a group chat together with five founding Navy guys I live with when I come here and I'm like guys can we do a podcast if you if I record and you don't like it I know they will be okay with it cuz they don't know what they don't know but I'm like guys we tell so many stories and it's a challenge getting out and I got out because I party too much and like there's all these different ones and we're all different people now and I actually reckon I'll end up into a miniseries because there's so many stories and then I'm going to have a few guests come in a little bit 3 4hour podcast yeah so same thing community I love it I love it yeah your hospital world I re be cool well there's a lot out there in the hospital world and they don't get to tell their stories y you know we don't take that moment well we have to and we do it's only a moment and and it's and and my life coach last year put me in tears actually one one thing and this is what this does is just give yourself a little bit of self-compassion. Not don't be hard on yourself. Give yourself some self-compassion of where you've been, what you've been through, and appreciate where you are today.

We've all been through it. Everyone's got stuff. Yeah. Good, bad, ugly.

Got stuff. Stuff. Thanks, Jerry. Pleasure, mate.

Thank you. It was so good. Oh, had a lot of fun. It was It was better than I thought it was going to be.

Good. I'm really happy with that, Paul. Thank you. And until the next one.

I'll see you probably tomorrow night. Uh, no. I got my kids. Okay.

What time you in? 4:00. Yeah. Well, I'm there about 2:30, as you know.

Yeah, always early. Actually, when I walk out of here on the way to get the kids, I might sneak in and say, "Get out of here." Just say hello. Just say hello. I I do do that at 2:30 because then I go get the kids.

Yeah. Yeah. No, that's cool. That's cool.

Um and speak to your wife. Yeah. No be Yeah. No, no, no.

Well, I'll see her on Sunday, so it's all good. Cool. All right, my friend. Sync to video time