Join Chef Justin Timineri, Pat, and NASCAR’s Ross Chastain as they get hands-on in the kitchen to whip up some delicious watermelon-inspired dishes perfect for summer! Chef Justin, from Fresh From Florida, specializes in showcasing the amazing foods that make the state of Florida unique. In this episode, we delve into Chef Justin’s journey, his inspiration, and how he became the successful chef he is today. Don’t miss out as the guys create some of the top watermelon recipes this summer!
Hungry for more? Check out the recipes made in this video and even more tasty dishes at the Fresh From Florida website here: https://www.followfreshfromflorida.com/recipes.
Recipes in video:
Watermelon Fizz: https://www.followfreshfromflorida.com/recipes/florida-watermelon-fizz
Florida Watermelon Caprese Salad: https://www.followfreshfromflorida.com/recipes/florida-watermelon-and-caprese-salad-with-tomato-cucumber-and-crispy-prosciutto
Florida Watermelon and Gulf Shrimp Chimichurri: https://www.followfreshfromflorida.com/recipes/florida-watermelon-and-gulf-shrimp-chimichurri
Chapters:
00:00:00 – Picking the right watermelons
00:01:37 – Welcome to JDI Farms
00:03:15 – Food Network Challenge
00:04:46 – Fresh From Florida
00:06:25 – Cooking for Team USA
00:08:25 – GAME! “This or That”
00:10:40 – Florida Watermelon and Gulf Shrimp Chimichurri
00:27:07 – Ross Chastain’s message to our farmers
00:29:36 – Florida Watermelon Caprese Salad
00:49:26 – Florida Watermelon Fizz
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we know that good food is good living and we have it all here in this state the farmers already do an incredibly awesome job it’s up to us specifically fresh from Florida to help our fishermen ranchers and Farmers not only get their product out there to Market but to make sure that everybody in the country understands what’s growing when and then how to Simply incorporate that into their diets hey y’all It’s Pat with likea farmer I have a great crew out here today starting with hey I’m the national watermelon Queen juul Singley Chef Justin from fresh from Florida your Florida chef and I’m elany Mason your Florida watermelon Queen and I’m Ross Chastain NASCAR driver full-time but today guys and girls we are at jdi farms my family farm so thank y’all for coming out absolutely we’re excited we’re going to go out we’re going to pick some watermelon we’re about to do a great episode on like of farmer so we need our product to go make some good food and make some good drinks let’s go do it so Chef how many watermelons did you say I would say at least three watermelons so let’s see who can pick the best one okay Ros and the ladies y’all pick the three fine I’ll pick a good one this look well I like that one I’ll take that bad boy man this one looks nice and symmetrical got that yellow belly look at that and these girls went quick that’s good huh you like that I take the one they left behind I’m excited who chose the best one though that’s what I want to know well we’ll see uh we’re going to have to cut them open and taste some too but they all look perfect to me well let’s go inside and let’s go get after it let’s do it hey y’all It’s Pat with like a farmer welcome to another episode before I introduce my guest today I want to continue to thank everybody for the support with the show as always continue to follow us on YouTube listen to us on Spotify Apple music however you’re listening to me on a weekly basis continue to support I can’t thank youall enough now today I’ve got a reoccurring guest Mr Ross Chastain Ross thanks for coming on the show today man I’m congrats on the success so far the car is looking great this year you’re looking great out there seems like you got a fast car but it’s watermelon season there’s nobody else I want on the show than Ross Chastain when it comes to watermelon season tell me how everything’s been so far yeah it’s been it’s been a great year on track we haven’t won yet but we’re we’re close we’ve had chances to win but I had to get down here get back home we’re here in my dad’s office at jdi farms Southwest Florida thank thank you Chef for coming thank you Pat this is uh it’s an honor to have y’all here and have this episode and uh create some some cool recipes here I’m excited and as Ross just said I’ve got Chef Justin timer with fresh from Florida this is a Florida chef chef has known me since I was a little kid he’s been with the department since 2006 so he’s pretty much watched me grow up and when it comes to cooking there’s nobody else I’d rather have on the show than Chef Justin thanks for coming on today absolutely super excited to be here of course and you know it is watermelon season so that is what is all about here in the State of Florida I’m excited and before we get into this because we have a we have a full show today I mean we’re going to be cooking we’re going to be having some food we’re going to be drinking a little bit it’s going to be a great show but Chef Jus I want to focus on you for a little bit 206 you won a you won a Food Network competition okay tell me about that a little yeah sure did I was just hired by the department in 2006 I came on and they said all right Chef you know here we are but we got one thing for you to get started out with we’re going to send you over to New Orleans to uh do a contest and cook against about 20 other chefs I’m like okay yeah no problem I got this all day and then they’re like oh by the way it’s a Food Network contest I’m like oh man so um but we ended up going down there and went in so took home the title of having the best domestic Seafood dish in the country and that kind of just kicked it off real good and it’s been on ever since that and what an amazing thing I get to do working with all the great Comm ities that we grow here in the state not only the amazing fruit and vegetables but of course all the seafood whether it’s from the Atlantic or the Gulf of Mexico this is a food lovers paradise and we live here I actually have a question for so 2006 your career took off in this in this role but how old were you when you knew you wanted to do this yeah that’s a really great question I was really young I would say five or six and that was because of family you know I would uh be watching my grandmother and my mom in the kitchen and you know at that time they would say get out of the kitchen but you know I just learned to kind of love that stuff and so I knew from a very young age I wanted to work with food I wanted to be in the kitchen and and so lucky I was able to follow my dreams and now I get to do what I love that’s awesome and Chef everybody knows now Ross and I just got into partnership with fresh from Florida I’m speaking for both of us I mean we’re super pumped excited give us a little background on freshman flid I know it started in 1990 and I know the big reason on Fresh from Florida is to promote everything we have agriculture here in Florida Ross and I know this with the experience we have with our family farms there’s no better marketing that anybody can do than the farmer can do because we need to have marketing initiatives in this state for our products tell me a little bit about what absolutely you know the farmers already do an incredibly awesome job growing the things whether it’s the farmers the fishermen or the ranchers that are here in this state right but so it’s up to us the Florida Department of Agriculture and specifically fresh from Florida we are mandated by the Florida legislature to help our Florida fishermen ranchers and Farmers not only get their product out there to Market but to make sure that everybody in the country understands what’s growing when and then how to Simply incorporate that into their diet so next time they’re at the grocery store they’re going to look and see oh I know it’s watermelon season in the State of Florida I know that these are going to be fresh and the best melons anywhere so I can go ahead and plan around that I can plan to buy a watermelon and maybe I’m going to look at some recipes so all those things come together and we know right that good food is good living and we have it all here in this state so it just works out really well Chef you’re such a great face for this state when it comes to agriculture because it’s not just here in this state that you’re advocating 2012 you’re at the Olympics advocating for fresh Florida and you’re in London at that time right tell me how that was yeah so uh got to go to the London Olympics and um you know I showcased Florida dishes in the USA house so that’s where the American athletes you know they have such an incredibly I know you know this Ross regimented um you know training and all these things they have to do to compete right so they get very little downtime so when they do they can go to the USA house and that’s where their family and friends can come they can enjoy good food so being able to bring Florida food all the way to London give some of them Comfort to them and and some of those American flavors was really just phenomenal so so many really cool things that we get to do at Fresh from Florida to really bring that awareness of what’s growing rent in the state I have a great team up there I think that was a dig on me when he said athletes and you should know this Ross and he wasn’t talking to me when well I mean Pat we’re we’re here to educate and maybe you can learn a little something today from Chef there you go outside of just being Chef Justin you’re a great father too Chef I mean like I said I’ve known you for years and I feel like you put that on the Forefront of just being a great dad home life when it comes to being a great chef like you I mean is it just pretty much hey dad’s cooking dinner night I mean tell me about being a chef at home with your family yeah you know I I love cooking and that’s my passion so even if I’ve cooked all day and doing events and stuff and I’m not at a restaurant I’m not cooking every single day but I cook quite a bit I’m always home cooking for my family because you know like we said that’s good living I want to make sure they’re getting the right things and you know I not only um you know I need to model this life as well so I don’t only cook fresh from Florida I live the fresh from Florida life and that shows in my kitchen I love that before we get into what we’re going to do today with all these great products we have on this table I want to play a little game that I like playing on the show Ross has played this game before and Chef you haven’t played this game this is going to be a this or that okay all right Ross you’re first and I got to keep it with the Watermelons are you going when you’re eating a watermelon are you going salt or no salt Pat what kind of a question is that when you are eating a fresh from Florida watermelon that’s grown by one of these Farmers you don’t need to put anything on it I don’t need salt I don’t need taheen I don’t need anything else just give me straight watermelon the answer I would expect from a great farmer himself like Ross Chastain now Chef you’re up next when it comes to uh cooking at the house yeah would you rather be on the grill or would you rather be on the stove top oh on the grill for sure what’s your favorite to cook on the grill um I love to marinate some chicken thighs and get them nice and crispy on the grill and then cut them up and serve them and make some barbecue sauce and get friends and family over to the house and everybody enjoy and eat because that’s what life is about what about the salt the salt on the watermelon no if I’m eating watermelon just straight up I want it natural just like it is and then only time I’ll add salt is if we’re actually making a recipe with it but this was intended to be eating eaten just like it is and to me that’s the best way to do it I agree and I have one more for you Pat if you don’t mind for so when you go to the grocery store to buy your freshman Florida watermelon are you buying the whole watermelon are you buying it pre quartered half cubed are you pre-cut love that question I really do okay so I’m going to give you two different scenarios if I’m going to the beach and we’re having like a beach day I actually like buying it whole believe it or not now if it’s a quick dinner and I’m running home I’m getting it just already cubed up in the package I got to give a shout out to all the grocery stores here in Florida especially Publix we all love Publix here I mean they do a great job when it comes to marketing and branding when the fruit is already in the store because what you just said you can buy it a million different ways when it’s in the store why don’t we get to why we came here today so Chef Justin I’m going to give you the mic and I want you to teach Ross and I something okay so today we are going to make Florida watermelon and Gulf Shrimp chimmy chury this is a fun simple recipe that anybody can do at home and of course we’re using some of Florida’s favorites right of course our hero the dish is the Florida watermelon but we’ve also got some Gulf Shrimp we’ve got some really good flavor so again Light fresh delicious summertime recipe that’s going to be satisfying for everybody involved and especially when you bring Seafood in I think it’s going to make it really nice so I’m excited to get started on this recipe yeah let’s do it okay so I think the first thing we want to do is go ahead and get our watermelon cut we were just out in the field we had a really good time it is really amazing out there Ross to see what goes on behind the scenes where our stuff comes from you know a lot of kids grow up and they just don’t know they go to the grocery store and they’re like oh is this where you know but it’s so important folks if you got kids out there bring them to a farm let them see let them understand and it’ll serve them a lifetime so chef and I appreciate you saying that and I think that was one of the bigger reasons why we started the like of farmer show and that is number one to celebrate our Farmers but also educate the people I mean I truly believe there’s some people that think the grocery stores just grow the food and it is very important and the State of Florida does such a great job with campaigns like fresh from Florida to teach people where it starts and how it finishes so I appreciate that super cool stuff so let’s go ahead and get started on this recipe we want to go ahead and cut our watermelon now the way I like to do this and there’s a million different ways to do it right and everybody kind of has their own way and some people can be very particular but so I’ve got my nice knife what I like to do is I like to take off the top and the bottom right off the bat and this kind of will give me a flat surface to work with I can put my watermelon up it’s not going to roll anywhere it is good to go now from here again we are just going to follow the natural curves of this watermelon and to me one of the coolest things about Florida watermelon is yes I’m about to peel this one all the way down to the the middle right but the coolest thing is that you can use all the parts of the watermelon maybe except for this green part I could peel this with a peeler and use this rind and make some pickles there are so many cool things you can do so and that’s a huge thing nowadays with food is do not waste right you buy something you have a plan to use it if I buy whole watermelon I’m only going to use about half of this in our recipe today you better be sure that this other half is going to go in the fridge or I’m going to go ahead and cut it up and it’s going to be ready for use later no waste all right so I’m going to take my knife and I’m just going to follow it down the natural curves of this a little bit of sawing motion and then it’s just going to peel look at that Chef when when it comes to your watermelons are you a seed or a seedless guy if you had to choose uh yeah you know I like the flavor of the seeded ones um I also like the ease of the seedless ones too so you put a Florida watermelon in front of me and I’m going to be happy and I’m going to work with it whether it has seeds or No Seeds but I know a lot of people can be particular about what they like but Pat can you do it that skillfully no chance I never can get it this close to the rine and there’s no chance but if I were to ever try I’m always going to have my fresh from Florida apron on though I mean I feel like I look I definitely look better than you in it are you saying you’re going to make a mess yeah 100% all right we’ve got our floreda watermelon mostly peeled now we can go ahead and start working with it I just like to put my knife in here and go right down and I like to see the middle of it yes that is perfect just going to set this up I’m going to set this one over here and now see yall later right and now again I always like to work on my board with a flat spot so I’m going to turn this over and that way that melon’s going to stay there and I can use my knife and now I can simply go back if I see any more spots that I didn’t get I could just go back and trim those off no big deal all right now we want good siiz chunks of our watermelon to go in our dish we want to take a look at our shrimp we want them just about that size so they eat about the same so what I’m going to do is I’m going to go in and go ahead and make some slices across and remind everybody what the the final dish is going to be today yeah this is Florida watermelon and Gulf Shrimp chimmy Chuy delicious light fresh tasty very summertime and very Florida I’m excited I’m hungry yeah too that shrimp looks good as well so I’m just going to line these up again I’m making this easy for myself on the board so things don’t go away and then I’m just going to go back across and then when I turn this you one more cut and we have some beautiful chunks of watermelon that are going to be perfect in our dish and I can feel the consistency of these I’m already liking it and I got to go ahead and try mhm I don’t know if that was an offer but of course yeah Chef you’ve cooked all over the country M what’s where’s the coolest place that you’ve been that you’ve cooked oh man it’s okay you can say JD yeah this is pretty cool one one of the first things I did when I started was I did come down here it was a long time ago and that really last left a lasting impression on me for sure so um but you know travel and food are really great luxuries in life fortunate I get to travel around I love New Orleans um you know so really anywhere in the South but living here in the State of Florida my whole life there are still places that I haven’t gone but you know when I travel I like to go in and I kind of get away from the tourist spots I I go online and try to read some local blogs andig figure out what the locals are eating so I can go hit those spots love that yeah all right well let’s go ahead and get our watermelon in the bowl here I’m just going to add a bunch of these yeah not with the knife I wasn’t have you do some stirring and stuff all right that I can do so we got a good bit of watermelon in here this is looking good and then uh let’s go ahead and talk about our chimy churry sauce so I pre-made this uh in my blender or my uh food processor so this is a lot of garlic fresh herbs like oregano and parsley I threw a couple little uh Florida bell peppers in there that I desited these are really great and sweet right so the garlic the oregano The Parsley red wine vinegar and then of course some seasoning I like using a seasoning Blends we’re going to be using the Everglade seasoning throughout the day here so as you guys can smell this a really good fragrance sauce it’s going to give some good life to the shrimp and stuff so we’re going to set this aside I’m going to go ahead Chef you mentioned Everglades I just want to go on and say yeah I mean Everglades on anything out there is just unbelievable totally when I moved to North Carolina I was worried that I wasn’t going to be able to get it I bet and then I realized that there’s Publix grocery stores in North Carolina I could get it there nice I don’t know what’s in that stuff but shout out everybody so good yeah they got a great line my son likes the Everglades heat so appreciate them out there so we’re going to go ahead and add our Gulf Shrimp right on top of our watermelon here and then I’m going to start putting a little bit of our Chim Cherry sauce and then Ross I’m going to have you stir that up you kind of just stirred around and let all these flavors kind of come together look at that and so we’re going to have the sweetness of the watermelon and the and the shrimp and then a little bitin of this chimmy chury sauce it’s like driving a race car right there man it’s a circle yeah I’m only doing uh right turns though cuz I need to unwind I get that so Chef sometimes people ask me when I drive why I do certain things or my kind of my processes or my thinking yep and a lot of times I don’t have an answer it’s just natural some of this like making that sauce with did you find that recipe or was that one you’ve worked on over time you saw had an idea or saw some inspiration yeah and honestly a little bit of both you know um I I stumbled across this in my travels a little bit and I thought well how can I incorporate this into some things we do um in Florida so and then it’s a matter of kind of putting my own spin on things and kind of making it um into my process like you said so that it works for me and and the things that I do and that is looking good I can see all those beautiful herbs and that watermelon is is really looking good there Ross you have one last meal before it’s you’re just done okay you have one last meal what’s your go-to last meal there he goes I’m just taking it as is I don’t need anything else um gosh I couldn’t pass up a steak yeah I don’t know what cut though I’d be really indecisive for me I’m going with seafood so it’s probably going to be a nice uh little SA say maybe of some grouper or some Mahi or something like that and then um maybe a little Florida avocado or and and Florida sweet corn is one of my favorites too so something like that a little Seafood some fresh fruit and veg happy what about you medium rare ribeye CER fries broccoli sprinkle little cheese on the broccoli with a maker mark on a big Cube there he goes I don’t think you can go wrong with that one I’ve been thinking about that if you can’t tell I can tell yeah you ready I’m the indecisive guy at dinner like if we’re ordering at a restaurant if they start with me I’m pointing them to the other side of the table no please start over there and let me listen and I’m going to make a decision as it comes around when I go out to dinner everybody’s looking at me like oh what are you ordering that’s what we’re going to have love that so what’s next all right next I think we’re ready to Plate up P you want to hand me that white bowl there so we got our nice uh service Bowl here and now we’re going to go ahead and add this to our serving Bowl this is smelling good and it is looking good too such great flavors again Light fresh delicious right all those wonderful things and you know what you could make this ahead of time put it in your fridge and then come back the next day that’s right put it in a nice sealed up container taking it out on the boat would be perfect because really you don’t even need a fork for this you can go in rate with your hands and eat it if you want so just a fun dish you could do this as a side or if you just had some friends or family just coming over and you were serving some drinks or whatever you were doing this would be a nice accompaniment to that so we’re just going to get a few more of these on here and a couple of these nice big pieces of watermelon right on top just looking at this right now Chef is it’s making me just want it even more I mean that’s an unbelievable dish and the shrimp golf shrimp is that what you said y right here in Florida I mean you just no matter what we’re cooking every single day and night we can get it fresh from Florida absolutely how many trivia question how many Commodities do we have in Florida no idea it’s my fresh from Florida what do you think Chef um I it’s probably over 300 it’s over 300 I don’t know the exact number but it is over 300 that’s that’s a good bit and then so I have a little bit of uh fresh oregano you know we’re talking about growing things and and what’s in growing season but really one of the best things you could do to your food game at your house is has some fresh herbs growing on your patio so you can go out there pick a couple of them add them to your dish it’s really going to bring things up a lot of levels you know out in uh in front of my house in Tallahassee I’ve got oregano and rosemary going so I can just easily walk out there and not only use them for garnish but flavors in my dish so really good tip there grow those fresh herbs on your patio so this is almost done we’re just going to finish this off with just a little bit of queso fresco now this is a Latin Style farmer cheese you can absolutely find this in your grocery store it’s a crumbling cheese but if you can’t find it then feta cheese will work as well this is going to bring in a little salty and a little creamy element to this dish so we’re just going to put a little bit of this right on top to finish up our dish and there we have it our Florida watermelon and Gul shrimp chimmy Chuy of course this recipe is on our website at Fresh from florida.com so you could find that and many other recipes on there as well but the hero of this bad boy are these Florida watermelons it smells so goods and it looks good too right who’s going to go first chef first I think all right I’m going in I’m going to I’m going to kind of go for watermelon top I like it and shrimp at the same time P I’m next here we go look at that piece right there mhm I’ll go opposite I’ll go shrimp first man that’s unbelievable I don’t think I can stopped I need to make every episode a cooking show now hey y’all It’s Pat and I’m back to talk about my great partner fresh from Florida food tastes better when it’s grown closer to home that’s why when you look for the fresh from Florida logo where you shop you can rest assured that you’ll find the freshest best tasting and highest quality produce you can get in the field one day and at the store the next fresh from Florida produce goes directly from Florida Farmers to you and right now sweet Florida watermelon crunchy Florida sweet corn and juicy Florida tomatoes are all in peak season which means they’re at Peak Perfection with with flavors as vibrant as Florida’s landscape so if you want to step up your summer recipe with maybe a Florida watermelon and mozzarella salad or maybe you’re ready to fire up the grill throw some of that sweet corn on it or maybe you’re looking for something simple like a Cheesy baked Florida tomato which is my favorite with a little bit extra cheese obviously go to Fresh from florida.com to get free and delicious recipes like these and while you’re there you might as well check out to see what else is in season and see how you can support our fresh from Florida Farmers and as always don’t forget there is sunshine in every bite Chef you’ve been doing this a long time and you know where it starts when it comes to this fresh from Florida food it starts with the farmers MH what’s one thing you would say to our Florida Farmers out there right now you’ve got the platform to do what would you want to say to the Florida Farmers what I would like to say to our Florida Farmers ranchers and fishermen is really a huge thank you so without them I couldn’t do what I would do and listen I’m not doing anything super special here it’s the Florida Commodities that make me look good the watermelon is so good so I know any dish I use with it or prepare with it it’s going to be extra delicious so I just want to say thank you to our Farmers fishermen and ranchers for all the hard work that they do to make sure that we have not only a delicious but a safe and reliable steady source of food here in the State of Florida but not only that this is food security for a lot of the country as well so thank you totally agree Ross coming from a multi-generational family farming operation like you do you’re one of the biggest advocates in NASCAR when it comes to the farmer I mean what’s what’s a couple of things that you want to say to the farmer out there cuz I can tell you every single weekend that you’re racing that car you’re doing it for the farmer and it’s it’s known I’ve been fortunate enough to come watch a race and every time I go out there I mean you’re as the is that the farmer that races I mean how do you feel about that yeah I mean it’s your biggest support group too right right I mean agriculture is what got me into the sport and so when I when I think about talking to Farmers talking to Family Farms across this country it’s it’s the thought that like Chef said thank you but with my platform we want to tell that story and that’s what freshman Florida and what we’re going to be able to do so much and so as we go this year we’re going to be able to tell more stories we’re doing that across the country inviting Farmers out uh we’re going to continue to do that so if somebody didn’t make the make our list this year submit next year because we want to tell their story and we want to shine a bright light on a and I have an incredible platform and we have an incredible uh sport in NASCAR that allows us to reach the country and and broader so um yes thank you but but beyond all that is keep going keep farming keep putting more plants in the ground come back next year um it’s been a great growing season this year for us here in South Florida but we’ve we’ve taken our licks in years past so um you know you we we ride the good with the bad mother nature is ultimately the end all thing that that dictates it um but we we keep showing up and I think that’s what anybody that’s still farming in today’s world in 2024 and that’s looking into the future look it’s it’s scary and we know it we know that everything about thinking about being an a and putting plants in the ground in the Years moving forward is scary but somebody has to feed this population and there’s a fewer number of people than ever uh that are responsible for it so um yes thank you but but just keep going we want to we want to encourage people to keep farming um you know we we have honed in as a family on watermelons and that’s where that’s our our lane we stay in and and as I travel this country I see so many families that you know some diversify and go into different crops some stay in their Lane and um it’s so cool to see that that Evolution and hear their story so it’s cool to see them pushing on well Chef Ross what a great first meal that was going into our second meal I mean I’m excited for this one Chef lead the way what are we about to make now yeah so I think for our second course we’re going to do like a watermelon and Capri salad so we’re going to have fresh watermelon basil mozzarella tomato cucumber and then we’re going to finish it with a little crispy Panetta or bacon so so we’re going to have this nice little bit of sweet little bit of savory a wonderful summertime style that you have got to try start us off Chef what well let’s go ahead and get going again first thing we want to do is get our watermelon carved so for this one again I’m just going to quickly cut off the tip here and then I’m going to go ahead and cut this one in half cuz I want to use the other half later but I want to leave the peel and the rind on there for later use right look how beautiful huh straight from jdi jdi farms Ross just do it correct yes sir is that where came from yeah yeah my dad uh before my dad there was a lot of different name variations of Chastain Farms Chastain Brothers Chastain and and son and brother a lot of stuff um and he wanted to be be different when he went out on his own he farmed with his dad my granddad Cari U when he was young and then he went out on his own and uh wanted his own name and then I some little shoe company I guess copied the the slogan but we don’t we we just let them use that just do it we let them use it you know it’s we don’t think they’re really worth the trouble I like it so I just made pretty quick work of that Flor of watermelon again I cut it in half laid it down on the cut and side so it wasn’t going to roll around on my board cut the other top off and then use my knife to follow the natural curvature of the watermelon until I have this beautiful beautiful peeled piece of Florida watermelon that’s ready to go and guys from here I mean we could do anything we can cut watermelon fries a dip in a little vanilla yogurt we can cut chunks just to cool off and snack on later or you know we can cut it up and puree it and make beautiful watermelon nectar to make any kind of spritzer or cocktail we want so the possibilities are endless at this point I think I found our fourth dish doing that we got to get some yogurt yeah that watermelon fries that you straight in that sounds unbelievable and it makes it really fun where you get a cool crinkle cutter and then all of a sudden your watermelon fries look like crinkle cut fries so it’s really a fun thing all right so let’s go ahead and move on got my watermelon down the board I’m going to go ahead and make some more cuts down here getting pretty good with that knife now not bad and then I’m going to set it down nice and flat here and then I’m just going to kind of go back across till I have these nice nice little chunks so the watermelon is finally cut up what are we thinking next yeah we’re going to get this quickly into our Bowl again and then we’ve got a couple other ingredients that we’re going to go ahead and add as well let me bring my knife right back across this cut watermelon and for that’s a really good one and for this one you know I’m cutting them a little bit smaller and the reason why we do that is cuz we want to look at the rest of the ingredients that we’re adding to our dish we have these mozzarella pearls that are a little small our Bacon’s a little small we have these mini cukes that we’re going to use so we want to keep things about the same size so everything uh gives you that that right feel in your mouth so these are just going to go right in our bowl and then once I get going on these then we got a few other veggies that we’re going to quickly chop up Ross I got some cherry Tomatoes here and a little pairing knife if you want to chop some of those up and as you go or you could really just half them once they’re in half you can throw them right into that bowl there all right there we go y don’t worry Pat I got some stuff for you to do too Pat does this knife make my hand look big it does man this bacon is unbelievable yeah that’s good stuff that’s actually Italian Panetta um you can use thick cut bacon as well I went a little Fancy with The Panetta but you could tell because of the uh the flavor of it it’s good stuff and even uh a little bit of deli ham would be fine in this recipe if you didn’t have bacon around so and that’s the cool thing about a lot of these recipes you don’t need to go out buy a lot of crazy ingredients use what you have keep your cooking simple and fresh and that way you’re going to have the best time doing it Chef we’ve been fortunate enough to have um restaurant owners come on the like a farmer show is that something that’s ever crossed your mind about you know Chef Justin open his own restaurant one day um you know I guess you know from time to time I think about it was like oh you know and the reality is is that uh I I want to have a life I want to be able to spend time with my son I want to be able to travel I want to be able to do the things I love so um that that’s why uh this this job is is perfect for me because it’s just the right balance of all those things I get to teach um I get to cook there’s just so many amazing facets to this job it never ceases to amaze me you’ve been doing it great for a long time thank you so we got our our watermelon in Ross has got these uh cherry tomatoes going good and again I’m just going to cut this red onion I’m using the same technique I used the oven I used on the watermelon top and bottom get cut off and then I can nice and easily peel this bad boy and then we’re just going to dice a little bit of red onion here it’s going to give it a little bite how do you feel about the absolutely that thing up so I usually go in oh so you’re doing it okay that makes sense I got just kind of doing a a small Dice and then I’ll go back back across but don’t don’t try this at Home Folks make sure you’re looking down at what you’re doing I’m showing off a little B no looks the no looky L all right I’m going to get in on this one yeah you you get in there got it you got it keep your eyes on the prize Pat this is what you’re doing right here this is executive chefing at its finest here you see these guys I think I already messed up that’s all right as long as staying in one like line no it never does okay so this is how you do it I mean I’m doing yeah yeah then when you get to this chunky part right here and you line them all up am I doing this right yeah yeah put them all together you know really as long as they’re about the size you want there’s really no wrong way to do it I agree yeah and then like this and kitchen cooking in the kitchen is really about confidence the more you do it the better you’re going to get and that goes for all those tasks and I know Ross will agree with me about a lot of the stuff that he does as well a lot of that is repetition I mean you’re fine-tuning you’re doing those things but there’s a lot of ition um that’s required in there as well there is now a lot of times when I drive I get more confident the more I drive I can just say after watching us to cut this stuff up I’m not more confident than us going to go ahhe and say it so you go right right in here Ross on top of that watermelon yep and you as well Pat right on top of the watermelon look at that nice and we’re getting some really good colors into this dish and different textures and flavors as well sweetness of the watermelon we got that and the juicy we got a little acidity on these Tomatoes a little bite of the red onion and then next we’re going to add a little coolness with the Cucumber so I’m going to scoot right back in here real quick I’m just going to clean this up Chef growing up who if you had to choose one person that kind of inspired you to to be the the great cook that you are who would that have been yeah I would definitely say it would have to be my grandmother she was just amazing in the kitchen um everless and you know there’s a lot of generational difference is especially when I look back to what I’m doing now and what I remember my grandmother cooking but that’s the beautiful thing about cooking is I can take a lot of the stuff that she does and then I can kind of update it in some Modern Times And produce a really cool recipe with tradition and flavor that everybody’s going to be happy to cook so there just so much good stuff with food hey y’all It’s Pat and I’m here to talk about one of 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still uh using this very similar technique with these little pickling cucumbers now these are Florida cucumbers as well grown here delicious a lot of times I buy these little pickling ones cuz I don’t want to use a whole giant cucumber right and I don’t want it sitting in my fridge so these little ones are great great for snacking so again I just cut flat spots trim the ends and now they’re sitting on my board so I can easily work with them and then I’m just going to go back across and these will easily be done and can go right in here look at that I’m just going to do one more and then I think we’ll have just the right amount and then we’re going to start seasoning this up a little bit very simple flavors that we want to use and we don’t want to overseason but we want to get right into that kind of sweet spot you know again I I keep coming back from uh you know these cooking techniques and and the more I watch Nascar um too it’s you know it’s like we don’t want to overseason like you’re not trying to overdrive in these these corners and stuff it’s really about balance and finding that right spot and a lot of the way you kind of get there is by doing it and trial right yes yes absolutely I’ve people think that I drive NASCAR and race cars for a living I’m the best driver I’ve I’ve crashed more than everybody I know combined everybody I know in my life besides the other drivers I’ve crashed more cars and all the other drivers have too we we push it to the Limit um but we uh if you’re going to win you’re going to find that that happy medium of of sliding the car but not stepping over and crashing and to me again I I think that’s excellent because you know you’re not going to start cooking a bunch of dishes and every single dish is just going to come out right off the bat right there’s just no way it takes practice it takes repetition it takes confidence all those things come together takes imagination too yeah yeah and you you’ve used a lot of imagination while you I mean you created a move on yourself some call imag some call it other things but um that’s a polite way to put it hey one thing uh when when I started in nasar and the trucks uh in 2011 I went to to Bristol for a short story and I crashed in practice I qualified the slowest and I crashed two more times in the race um it pretty much couldn’t have went any worse do you have like a a dish that stands out like that stands out in my mind I remember a lot about that day that I did wrong do you have a dish early on Chef that you cook that you look back and you just shake your head at the mistakes you made yeah not necessarily willing to admit right not necessarily dish but um just kind of an incident uh I was I was in Tallahassee and I was working at the governor’s mansion they had a big dinner there going on it’s super fancy in there and they have these gold rimmed plates right and we’re plating up this a four course dinner there’s all these dignitaries in the dining room and then there’s all these people standing over us you know waiting for it so anyway I’m plating up this beautiful plate it starts to slide off the end of the the the counter I could see it and you know happening I’m like no and I couldn’t get it with my hand so it just kind of kicked in I I tried to catch it with my foot end up kicking the plate across the kitchen now you can’t even buy these plates you know they’ve been at the Governor’s Mansion for you know since Florida was you know established you know so anyway but but once that happened then I was like okay you know it’s not going to get any worse than this going forward right so so that was that all right so we got all of our good stuff in here yeah man yeah yeah get drizz in there and then uh really we talked about some fresh herbs we got to get some some basil in here so if we just want to pull some of this you guys can hand pull some of this basil and set it right in here no that’s good I think that’s that’s perfect okay yeah we’re just going to man smells smells so good slap get these fresh her slap a watermelon yeah that’s kind of like this just kind of get some of these oils and stuff going so I don’t want to do too much with this I just kind of want to hand tear a little bit of this in there there you go and then it goes sometimes I can’t tell if y’all are messing with me or no not at all I wouldn’t do that to you Ross before you suit up every Sunday and race just talking on Sundays is there like a go-to meal that you like to eat or what’s your go-to meal before every race watermelon watermelon yeah I mean you’re just eating watermelon all day oh no no no um chicken and rice it’s just a plain grill chicken and plain boiled white rice or even boiled chicken yeah just plain uh I I cut down on the SP says look we’re in there for 3 or 4 hours there’s no bathroom breaks I don’t want any uh pressure I’ll call it um I don’t want to have any feelings that I need to use the restroom there’s no no time to get out so um we hydrate a lot but we’re sweating a lot as well so that uh it’s I’ll lose a couple of pounds uh each race wow even though I’m taking in fluids I’ll take in um 48 to 60 ounces of water throughout a throughout a race um but I’ll still lose lose some weight so we’re going in with a little bit of our Everglade seasoning this is good stuff allpurpose seasoning you know I know a lot of you have a cabinet in your house that’s filled with these Dusty 20-year-old individual spices so you know you got to take a look at those it’s a much more modern approach to buy these really good seasoning Blends right you just want to look at the salt content when you do that but I always keep several Everglades I like a Greek SP SP a Latin spice an Italian and uh maybe an Asian and then I’m completely covered for just about any dish that I want to cook in my home so we’ got our olive oil in here our spice let’s see let’s uh Ross if you’ll add in some of that and Pat if you’ll add most of this we’ll save a little bit that from the top and those can go right you save a little bit for the top but but most all of that can go ahead and go in and then we’re just going to give it a stir where where about you know where this came from this this mozzarella yeah I I do not but I do know that there are some farmers in the state that are doing some really cool cheese so very neat stuff yep you want to keep more than that uh you go a little more in we’ll just save a little bit of her top yeah that’s perfect yeah all right we’ve got our final Bowl we can just set these to the side we’ll use this for garnish so I’m just going to give this just a nice toss here whoops without trying to make too much of a mess but you could see all the these beautiful colors and flavors coming together spiced up with just a little bit of nice olive oil again I use drizzling olive oil not cooking olive oil I have two kinds of olive oil in my house get this all together is looking good and then we’re going to go ahead and add this to our Bowl now again you can make this recipe ahead of time as well and store it in your fridge and then you can bring it out for dinner time pass this around the table and you’re guaranteed some good smiles and flavors all the good things in here Florida watermelon bacon oh my gosh so good and of course Tomatoes as well so we’re just going to add a little bit of this mozzarella back on top just to make it look nice and it does and then a little more of this bacon right on top boom that is looking nice and then we’ll just take a nice sprig of this fresh basil kind of put it in there just like that and maybe just go around with another nice drizz of this olive oil and we are good to go we got our Florida watermelon Capris salad with Florida cucumbers and tomatoes and mozzarella and bacon simple delicious ready to go I feel like we need to try it right yeah yeah recipe number two yeah give it a try salty sweet refreshing crunchy healthy another 10 out of 10 I got one of your long onion Cuts back great dish for number two and now we will move on to dish number three all right so we’ve had two food recipes we’re going into a drink recipe you know both both food were 10 out of 10 for me but you have to vote Ross I’m going to vote what are you going with on the two food ones the shrimp I don’t remember the full name but the shrimp yeah yeah I’m going to I’m not going to lie I think I ate half of that bowl of bacon so I’m going to go with the second one cuz that bacon was a great touch nice I mean so thank you for that chef and remind us again the first recipe was yeah the Florida water melon and Gulf Shrimp shimmy Cherry okay and then the Florida watermelon and Capri salad good stuff and we got votes from from everybody so you got to break the tie yeah well I think we’re about to be three for three for the day there we go and I’m thirsty I do I want I want to go back cuz it’s so cool all of this stuff that we’re making here today it’s all fresh from Florida you can get it right we are so lucky to live in this state so nice go to any grocery store and buy all this and you get a homecooked meal like it’s nothing that’s right it’s all out out there now we’re moving on to what I’m excited about the the drink recipe yeah we’re going to make a little watermelon Fizz here and again super simple recipe as they all are we’re going to get some flavor you know the Florida watermelon of course is the hero of our dish and now I’ve got a couple little bar things that I’m using here but there’s no alcohol in this drink whatsoever so you could serve this you could also uh add some if you wanted to some other time it’s great both ways but today we’re going to make it delicious with our Florida watermelon so let’s go ahead and get started I’ve got just my little Shaker here and I’ve got something to pulverize with and I’m going to cut a little bit of florid to watermelon to get it in here now I had already made some nice watermelon nectar back here as you could see it it separates a little bit so you want to kind of shake it up again I took my fresh Florida watermelon and then you can add it to either your blender or your food processor and puree it down right and then run it through a little screen a little Sie and then you come out with this beautiful watermelon nectar can be stored in your fridge later and again so many things we can make this from iy to ice pops to drinks to cocktails this kind of stuff sitting in my fridge all summer long I’m excited to try this so I’m just going to go ahead and take some of this fresh watermelon and we’re going to add it to the bottom of our shakeer here we’ve also got a little bit of fresh mint we smacking this and then we’re definitely smacking this going in I like it I never knew this got to get those oils going lemon juice going in I’ve got the last of the little bit of season of uh Florida orange juice right here we’re going to put some of that in so we got our muddling sick and we just want to kind of crush up this watermelon down in the bottom of there and that’s going to give us more of that amazing watermelon flavor and you’ll see that they do these kind of techniques in nice fancy bars around the country um and it’s good and it’s really going to make sure we get out this all this beautiful Essence all right now that we’ve got that done now that we can go ahead and top this off with ice so we want the this nice and cold now Ross you’re the watermelon guy and there’s I’m sure there’s some great drinks for watermelon but I’m an orange guy so I in my opinion I think better drinks come from the orange but I guess we’ll find out today that’s okay you’re allowed to be wrong okay now we’re just going to kind of cap this up and shake it you guys want to yeah shake it up dude I’m this I actually wanted to be this my fun fact of the day growing up I wanted to be a bartender still want to own my own bar one day on the beach yeah so let me show you my I like it yeah get him go but basically we want to do this technique until your hands yep until your hands can’t take it anymore and you have this layer of frost on the outside dedication all right pretty good all right we’re going to bring our cups back up here on the board we got some nice fancy ice here I’ve been working on this that we’re going to going to go ahead and add to these a big Cube and then we’re just going to go ahead and pour over a little bit oh wow it’s like a science experiment isn’t it it is Now remind everybody again Chef what is this called this drink yeah this is a Florida watermelon Fizz and we haven’t added the Fizz part yet we’re going to do that last so we’ve got our watermelon juice in here watermelon nectar we’ve got a little bit of lemon juice in there as well our fresh mint we’re also going to garnish this up with a couple stocks of fresh mint in each one as well I can kind of get that in there let’s see here and [Music] then we’ve also made just a little bit of garnish I use my melon baller to kind of scoop out a little bit of watermelon already on there that’s looking pretty good and then we’re just going to go ahead and top these with just a little bit of fizzy water on top and there we have it our Florida watermelon Fizz delicious and refreshing that’s for you that one’s for you and there we go cheers boys cheers boys cheers from the Watermelons and cheers fresh yeah you know what thanks for having me on the farm what an incredible experience not only to be here on one of the most amazing Florida watermelon farms around but to be here with you guys and thanks for helping me cook no we’re we’re super excited to be officially a part of the Freshman Florida team and take this message out to each of our platforms each all of our audience let you come out to hopefully some races soon yeah get to see you some more love it um some more watermelon queens and keep telling the story of fresh from Florida across all Commodities as I broaden my Horizon and and I’ll say I’m going to learn along with a lot of people about all the different Commodities and and fruits and veggies and and everything that comes out of freshman Florida hey three guys three advocates for agriculture appreciate everybody tuning in and as always continue to follow like comment share subscribe do whatever you got to do to be like a farmer Cheers Cheers Cheers boys mhm oh yeah n [Music]
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