00:01.76

vigorbranding

Today’s guest is someone who knows a lot about ingredients a lot about flavor trends and a lot about baked goods. He’s Martino Babila and he’s the founder and president of embassy ingredients welcome to show Martino and thank you very much for joining us. So.

00:13.47

Martino

Thank you Michael thanks for being glad to be on the show.

00:18.41

vigorbranding

Yep, So tell everyone you know a little bit about Embassy ingredients. What’s your mission and what do you guys? do.

00:21.59

Martino

So embassy ingredients is centered on the bakery trace so we supply ingredients to large scale bakeries. So we have a side of our business that makes flavors and a side that makes the industrial version you might say of a Duncan hides cake mix. So when you go off to your supermarket or to Dunkin Donuts or Starbucks you’ll find our ingredients and a lot of the baker that you’re going to be buying at those qsars or supermarkets.

00:47.54

vigorbranding

Fantastic I like in forktails we talk about food and beverage right? So restaurants you know cpg all of the like. But what’s really kind of cool about you and your businesses is you make the flavors and the reasons we go to restaurants reason we buy Cpg is because we like the way stuff tastes we like the way they prepare their food and you guys are. Kind of the secret ingredient if you will ah in in behind it all. So my first question I’ve known you for a long time but I actually found this out and did not realize it so I think this is fantastic and a great way to start I love I love stories. Um, you know I started my agency. Ah my first advertising agency when I was 27 I thought that was really young. Ah, but you took over your father’s company as owner and president when you were seventeen years old ah you know and when I was 17 I was probably getting in trouble for speeding with my my new driver’s license. So I mean I can’t imagine ah starting and running a company at that point in time. Can you can you tell tell us that story how how does someone start a company or take over a company at 17.

01:45.63

Martino

But it started actually 2 years before that my dad pulled me out of school when it was in grade eleven. So technically I never graduated high school and I started a company with my brother and I and my dad so the 3 of us started up a business that was mostly distribution. My dad had a hobby of. Bringing in these flavors from italy diluting them with simple syrup which is water and sugar and we used to sell them to bakeries up and down the street. All these small italian bakeries that were all over toronto. These toronto is a large italian community Two years later my brother went off and started directing television commercials. He’s in video art. He’s done pretty well though he’s ah he did the the graphics for the sphere for the u 2 concert. Yeah and my dad and I didn’t really see I eye on how to run a business because he wanted to have a business with no employees and the business was going bankrupt.

02:28.68

vigorbranding

Um, yeah, very cool.

02:39.68

Martino

So my dad left and I took over a $5000 a year business so that was our total sales or remember at that point and I had a j two thousand wagon to do my deliveries in so there wasn’t a lot of speeding going on in that j two thousand bag and I think if I floored that sucker it wasn’t going over 60

02:44.82

vigorbranding

Yeah, yeah.

02:54.12

vigorbranding

A.

02:59.43

Martino

Yeah, So so that’s how the business started I was the only employee basically got the orders in the morning made them in the afternoon delivered them again the next day got more orders we slowly ah slowly grew the business started making our own flavors started getting into bakery Mixes. Bought used equipment from a company that went bankrupt and we started blending our own cake mixes for these bakeries and then as we grew we started getting into more industrial customers and then our business model kind of evolved into dealing with the larger and larger bakeries and the big product Launches. So. And where I really learn how to run a business is that as a 70 year old kid I found that but persistence and Perseverance really are what is the personality trait you need as an entrepreneur like without that you’re not going to make it but then I went back to school in my forty s.

03:48.31

vigorbranding

Any man.

03:55.33

Martino

I went to a class called opm at Harvard and it’s ah nine weeks of schooling at Harvard is three weeks every year over three years that’s when I joined ypo because about 20% of but classmates were Ypr is and organization that we both belong to learn how to develop a business model learn how to really run a company rather than just ah, having a job in grunt work and building a business that way and really expanded the business after that and and that’s when we really broke into. Um, you might say we deal with all the largest bakeries in North America right now. So our products are going to be in your baked goods whenever you want to indulge. It’s probably something of mine is in something you’re eating during the week

04:34.64

vigorbranding

Um.

04:42.92

vigorbranding

Yeah I heard you say it before and that’s that’s amazing like there’s probably everybody in in the country at USCanada and I think South America said too that they they taste your products you’re you’re you’re in there. You’re in their bread or their their cupcake or their.

04:53.66

Martino

And Natural America. Yeah.

05:00.66

vigorbranding

They’re muffin somewhere right.

05:00.74

Martino

And we’re also some global launches with some retailers so we produce the product mostly North America sometimes we export it internationally. So there’s some of our products that are going all over the globe and global launches.

05:15.55

vigorbranding

That’s Great. You know I think it’s It’s really Interesting. You brought up about I’ll say either Ypo or I’ll just see entrepreneurs as a whole the folks I talked to on this program are all like presidents or or ceos of of companies. A lot of them are entrepreneurs. Um. Everyone seems to have by and large the same store I think I think a lot of people just think oh you know? Yeah yeah, you were highly Educated. You came from money. Ah you were handed this opportunity and that’s quite the opposite like pretty much everybody has that same thing in common that they they grind it out. They they started at the bottom they had an idea. They didn’t have any money they they just they they just pushed and I think that’s the that is the secret sauce and and absolutely every one of these great like ah stories I get to hear you know everybody just kind of pushes and pushes and pushes and and doesn’t give up I mean I’m sure you faced a lot of ah adversity. Ah, can you talk a little bit about some of the things that that you bumped up against.

06:11.56

Martino

Well, you know what I had 0 money when I took it over and at 17 you can’t even legally book get a loan from the bank because I wasn’t eighteen yet. So my only line of credit was a credit card that the bank manager was able to give me I had no help from anybody including my family actually. 1 thing that 1 thing that drove me a lot in terms of adversity was my dad’s parting words when he left was I’ll be bankrupt in six months so the thing is if I don’t think he meant it that way but that inspired me to never throw in the towel. Ah and and that’s part of my personality is.

06:45.48

vigorbranding

Um.

06:50.75

Martino

I I will never give up I just just before this podcast I just got off a call with one of our largest customers and we’re trying to work on a big new program with them and at the end of the phone call I tell them well 1 thing you’ll notice about embassy we’re very persistent and he just started laughing and he goes yes I’ve noticed that.

07:08.87

vigorbranding

That’s fantastic Hey you got to be a bulldog.

07:09.69

Martino

To this day. Yeah to this data and what if if there’s one trait that will make an entrepreneur successful or any business leader successful is persistence.

07:20.27

vigorbranding

Yeah, yeah, we call it being bulldoggged here I mean we we all ah, that’s our mascot and it’s sort of our attitude you got to just be. You know you got to be bulldoggged about stuff just don’t give up and keep pushing forward. So that’s that’s awesome advice. Um all right? So let’s jump into the business thing here. Let’s talk about. Ah, the clean labels in the 80 s and 90 s people didn’t care about additives preservatives artificial colors as long as the finished products tasted good and that’s no longer the case right? So how how much of a challenge has that been to keep up with the demand for cleaner ingredients.

07:49.18

Martino

Well let me give you an example on the flavor side back in the 90 s I’d say 80% of all the flavors were sold were artificial and 20% more natural I think right now it’s about 80% natural 20% artificial

08:03.90

vigorbranding

Me.

08:06.83

Martino

And that also has gone to the color side. Um, the challenge. There’s a challenge there. There’s a cost increase in some cases but not always ah but at this point here after doing it for so many years. It’s quite simple to switch a product from Being. An artificially flavored and colored product to at least the natural flavors. The colors are more of a challenge. Ah, but that also could be done now. But that’s the most costly part is the is the color side. Um in terms of clean label in terms of what you’re Eating. We actually have fun in that like like.

08:35.98

vigorbranding

You.

08:43.98

Martino

We’ve always tried to keep the junk out of our mixes only because you’re buying something that you want to indulge in doesn’t mean it has to be completely unhealthy for you and we’ve always thought about if it’s not needed inside the product. Why put it it so we’ve always looked at keeping a shorter ingredient deck. Keeping it natural and even there we’ve done a lot of very old natural products that we launched over the last few years

09:07.73

vigorbranding

So so you can’t have indulgence in clean labels right? I mean even though we’re talking cakes and cookies people. You know they they want to watch what they eat but they can still have clean labels right.

09:19.50

Martino

Oh absolutely actually some of my favorite products that you find in the store shelf that are indulgent and taste great. Our clean label. Um, so in the 70 s the technology wasn’t there to make them clean label. And give the conditions that you need in the supermarket. For example, if if you produce a big good Today. You have to make it freeze it and then it has to go to the supermarket and then the supermarket typically wants to thaw the product and have it on the shelf for up to eight days so that customers can buy bring it over and it still tastes good. In the 70 s the technology wasn’t there to do that. Naturally the technology is there now that using natural ingredients you can achieve that and you can actually make it tasted better than using an artificial ingredients.

10:00.40

vigorbranding

5

10:06.61

vigorbranding

Very cool. So I mean talking about trends um you and I met probably years and years ago and I would do the food and beverage trends presentation at ypo and ah for ah for anybody that’s listening would would care if they go to cheers at quench agency. dotcomthey can download our food and beverage trends presentation. It’s free. We have several years we always have the most updated on the website so that’s always there so that’s how that’s how you and I met and but the thing that we had in common right? away was was talking about trends and I know that you follow them very closely.

10:39.50

Martino

Up.

10:41.18

vigorbranding

Um, the way we always looked at it. There’s innovators who are really super early on a train then there’s early adopters early majority and then late majority and then obviously laggards We’re always obviously trying to be in the forefront. Um, when I do a Trends presentation. It’s like sometimes people are like well I’ve already heard of that. Well. If No one had heard of it before at all, it certainly wouldn’t be a trend so you want to catch that early edge of it. Talk about like how you look at Trends because you’ve told me before a lot of times your flavor profiles and things like That. You’re just listening you’re watching and and again I think you’ve always said too. You want to be on the early side of it because till you can get it to Market. Ah, if you know if you wait til the the the late majority will hell it’s too late I mean it’s ah you you know it’s It’s past it’srying.

11:21.79

Martino

Hey look even inside the company here at embassy we have a lot of the dates about trends and how do we do the market research. So our typical customer takes 12 to 18 months to launch a product from the time we present it.

11:36.65

vigorbranding

E.

11:39.22

Martino

Or they request a presentation which means that if you’re trying to grab a trend that’s already out there. They’re going to be at the at after the peak. So it’s about looking at the trends that are up and coming and.

11:52.15

vigorbranding

E.

11:56.11

Martino

That really makes us that the most successful products that we’ve launched have been with companies that haven’t done focus groups that haven’t done the mentel research in terms of these are because if you wait eighteen months after that comes out, you’re you’re getting the tail end of the trend.

12:14.11

vigorbranding

That’s right.

12:14.20

Martino

You’re getting already where you’re going to be losing money on it. The most successful launches we have is when you’re scouring social media. You’re looking at what’s happening at the local small bakeries when you’re going to the trade shows and you’re looking at the booths that couldn’t afford the the really good area in the middle.

12:27.60

vigorbranding

Ah.

12:32.94

Martino

And they’re right at the back corner and these entrepreneurial companies that are really hungry and come up with this novel little product. Ah those where you get the ideas for the really good trends and then you have to then you have to sort out all these trends that you’ve seen and all these ideas These people are having of which.

12:40.70

vigorbranding

Um.

12:52.48

Martino

I’d say 80% will fail and not really become a mass Market trend and then hopefully pick the right one to say this one’s got legs. Let’s really present it to our customers and when we have customers that don’t want to go to the focus groups because. A lot of those trends will fail in the focus group because we’re showing that the customer somebody. They’ve never seen before but when people are willing to take a chance and say this is up and Coming. We’ve seen great results coming out the other end.

13:15.24

vigorbranding

Who.

13:26.11

vigorbranding

Very Cool. So How how do you balance that? How do you bounce between ah a trending exotic flavor and say something that’s familiar like comfort food so you mean at the end of the day. Sometimes you just want a really good chocolate chip cookie or a blueberry muffin I mean how does that work like how much how do you decide how much of these exotics. Or how much of ah ah say a flyer. Do you take on some of these new flavors.

13:48.23

Martino

Yeah, it’s like the basics are easy to sell and they’re always going to be a mass market item and they’re going to get great sales out of them and you could tweak those a little bit so sometimes if you don’t want to take too much risk. You can do a tweak on a basic. And then you can get on a new trend with a tweak on a basic um or you can try experimenting with ltos so a lot of our customers will try with ltls like so it reduces the risk factor and they can see if it’s something that can go mainstream and they can make it go all year round. And they come in with a three month lto project but it’s it’s really listening to the noise in the media and going around to different parts of the world and seeing what’s trending there because the us is going to get the trends usually after Europe and after asia gets them it depending the community you’re trying to Target. And it’s really listening what’s coming out of there and trying to grab um to it at the right point.

14:48.74

vigorbranding

Very cool. So if if you can tell me what are some of the trends you’re tracking now like in terms of ingredients and maybe recipe development is there anything. That’s that you’re looking at that you think is pretty cool, exciting and new.

14:59.41

Martino

Well, the stuff that’s coming out sometimes it’s not as exciting as new as I would like it to be but sometimes yeah and and you know what every year we publish a little pit thing that we send out to everybody like at like and at the end of 2023

15:06.61

vigorbranding

But it sells.

15:17.84

Martino

What other transfer 2024 and it sounds like oh my my god embassy’s got a crystal ball though. The reality is is our customers are always launching 12 to 18 months out. We already know what’s trending for 2024 because it’s already in the pipeline. So.

15:28.84

vigorbranding

Who.

15:32.32

Martino

What’s really trending for next year is a lot of basics. It seems like coming out of covid everybody wants comfort foods. Ah everybody wants to get into what their what their grandmother used to make into that comfort and so on ah, there’s a lot of indulgence where they wanted a lot richer to though.

15:36.13

vigorbranding

Her.

15:51.67

Martino

So they want something with a lot of richness. So if if people trending wise are trying to get healthier in general like there’s a there’s a push right now where people are drinking a little bit less alcohol people are trying to get a little bit healthier but people still want to indulge so when before.

16:10.40

vigorbranding

Um.

16:11.62

Martino

A lot of customers would want. Okay, how inexpensive can we make this There’s a little bit more of a push for quality so that with the clean label push is also coming to push where if I’m going to consume eight hundred calories I want it to be worth the one hour on the treadmill I’m going not to pay for this. And it’s going to taste really good and there’s nothing wrong with indulging once’s in a wild no matter what diet or you’ on you have you need to indulge or also there’s nothing long term to going to happen. But when you indulge it better be good. You don’t want to have something that had 3 cost cutting projects done before it. And it’s being made as inexpensively as possible so people are trending more. They’ll spend a little bit more money but by a smaller portion and that’s one trend that I really am supporting because everybody would rather sell quality than something that doesn’t have that quality behind it.

16:55.82

vigorbranding

And.

17:07.97

vigorbranding

Yeah I mean that makes sense absolutely so I mean you started your business. You’re 17 you’ve you’ve obviously seen a lot of challenges 2008 covid and I’m sure there’s ah, a million in between. Um. Like what are some of the the biggest challenges you’ve gone through I know you’ve said that the the covid pandemic is your biggest professional accomplishment were there others before that you want to talk a little bit about that and go into the whole covid thing. What you did there.

17:32.82

Martino

Oh I guess the the big the last time before covid that was a great learning process every every crisis Trust me, you learned some new business skills. You never thought you had was 2008 financial crisis like and for about three months or sales went down 50% because none of our customers knew what to buy or if to buy anything and so on and it ended up just being a depletion of supply chain because what we found that that during a crisis people actually more sweets than in a non-crisis so business rebounded very fast after that.

18:05.40

vigorbranding

That’s right? so.

18:11.59

Martino

Um, during Covid The biggest issue was supply chain. Okay, that’s that’s probably with everybody else. It was a matter of how do we keep our customers supplied and how do we keep their operations going and how do they continue supplying their customers and how do we get the food of the table.

18:14.36

vigorbranding

Are.

18:30.63

Martino

Ah, for the people that need it. So That’s where the challenges were so it was a lot of prioritizing reformulting sometimes they use less of an ingredient that we use to use inside of a product we we we try to see. Okay, can we substitute it with other ingredients and bypass the shortage of this one ingredient So There was a lot of R and D work being done on that. Um, a lot of tough decisions like we had to abandon some of our expert Markets. We decided to focus in on our.

18:58.36

vigorbranding

My head.

19:06.70

Martino

Canadian and us and Mexican customers and abandoned some of the other markets a little bit more than we had were’re aggressively pursuing before we stepped back until supply supply chain caught up and now we were reengaging again.

19:19.45

vigorbranding

Did you feel like the supply chains are catching up. You feel like that’s getting better.

19:23.37

Martino

Supply chains are catching up in most parts. What’s happening now to us is global warming so supply chain seems to be catching up and then you get an email that there’s a drought in Africa so in the ivory coast.

19:40.34

vigorbranding

Myth.

19:41.60

Martino

So now you can’t get cocoa so you’re gonna everybody’s gonna be seeing if there’s anything chocolate on the shelf that’s going to probably go up 30 to 50% in price and in some cases you want to even be able to find it so the world cocos and chocolate supply just went down 30%

19:49.39

vigorbranding

Wow.

19:59.66

vigorbranding

The.

20:00.24

Martino

Because of one drought. So we’re finding a lot of the challenges that we’re having right now is all due to global warming and crisis happening in certain parts of the world and then mitigating the supply challenge of that ingredient that got affected.

20:15.21

vigorbranding

Incredible. Um, so I mean okay during Covid I mean there was the shutdown at home baking was a big trend Certainly that’s not bad for you but but it certainly you probably do but even better with the store bought bake goods and things like that is that correct.

20:28.63

Martino

Well at Home Beagle was terrible for us. We don’t have anything that is for the at home baker. Ah we only supply the large bakeries that will supply all your qsrs and your supermarkets.

20:33.69

vigorbranding

Um, ah.

20:39.14

vigorbranding

So you’re not in any mixes you’re just in the actual the finished product got it.

20:44.74

Martino

Yeah, we’re in we’re in the finished product. So covid even the work from home was now good for us because a lot of the sales like you can use. Ah, let’s say Duncan as an example like a lot of people will get a coffee on their way to the office and then when they get their coffee. They’ll also get a muffin.

20:56.47

vigorbranding

Um.

21:03.28

Martino

Or they’ll get a bagel. But if you’re not going to the office. You might not leave your house to get the coffee and if you’re not getting the coffee. You’re also not getting the muffin or bagel or donut So the work from Home. Ah. Also affected the business and where the customer shop because it went into the supermarket rather than the qsrs. So. It’s a matter of finding out where the new outlet is.

21:30.25

vigorbranding

Yeah, the work from home thing is still affecting everybody I know that it’s ah it’s just a whole different animal and there’s a lot of real estate out there. That’s sitting empty and it’s just ah, it’s changed how we are. It’s ah it’s interesting to see how this all evolves. Um, so.

21:44.10

vigorbranding

You know?? Ah well I’m going to go back to another another question so in in your on your website it says here if you’re an employee of of Embassy you get bakery treats galore all right. So that is a perk right? So if someone was starting Tomorrow. What would they find are there bakely treats. Ah bakekery treat school or waiting for them.

22:03.70

Martino

Oh absolutely like ah so how we work our quality department is that every time we make a batch of anything we test a batch and we actually make the finish cake so we have ah.

22:15.87

Martino

Endless amount of baked goods coming out of our bakery testing the products that we made that is free to take for any any of their employees to take home with them. Take it home to their family and so on and then depending on your job function. But any ah, any employee gets invited to this. We’re always developing new products in R and D and we’re always looking for people to taste the products and give us feedback so in some job Functions. You have to be eating sweets every day. So for some people is a dream Job. So.

22:47.35

vigorbranding

Um.

22:50.93

Martino

You get really good at tasting and not eating. Okay, so so because first you join embassy then you get what I call the embassy 15 ah, then you realize that okay I only had to take a bite out of that muffin I didn’t have to eat the whole muffin to taste it. Then you go back to just a bite and you get back regular but then you sometimes you get these really great. We just finished a project that just got approved last week is goingnna be a national launch later on this year at the in the us and.

23:11.16

vigorbranding

Ah, there.

23:25.27

Martino

It hit the sweet spot for exactly what I like I mean it was right down to bullseye for stuff that I have a weakness for it is the first time in a year that not only did I not taste I was actually actively asking r and d can you tell me when it comes out of the oven and make an next round for me. Ah.

23:43.28

vigorbranding

Ah, ah so now you’re gonna put on put on the 15 is that right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, never trust a skinny baker right? Then that end that what they say.

23:44.22

Martino

Boy yeah I put on the 15 but you know what when it’s that good. The 15 is well worth it. You know what? like I said it’s it’s worth every every calorie at one point. How offs absolutely like what 1 baker 1 time was patting his belly and said this is my r and d department.

24:04.33

vigorbranding

Ah, that’s fantastic. That’s fantastic, Fantastic all right? So I’m going to test you with some rapid fire questions here on your baked goods I Want to know your personal favorites. Okay, so pancakes or waffles all right I would agree with that spongecake or angel food cake.

24:17.72

Martino

Waffles. Okay, when I was 10 years old. There would be angel food cake Now let’s say sponge cake.

24:24.77

vigorbranding

Yeah I agree with that multigreen bread or white bread. Yeah same here donuts are danish.

24:31.50

Martino

Multigrain.

24:36.46

Martino

Oh nice east straight donut. Ah so good brownies and oh and there’s 2 There’s also 2 camps in brownies. There’s the kki brownie people and the chewy brownie people.

24:36.71

vigorbranding

And we’re we’re exactly in the same line here cookies or brownies. No.

24:53.73

vigorbranding

Um I see that’s that’s great. That’s great. Yeah I prefer the chewy browning myself I Totally agree with that and you know it’s funny. You had said earlier too about how.

24:53.74

Martino

And the world is split fifty fifty and I’m a chewy brownie person.

25:07.42

vigorbranding

You know when there’s issues with the economy suites go up. Um, you know we we worked in the ice cream category for many many years and that was absolutely the case you know you worry about like oh discretionary spending is going to go down. People aren’t going to spend money on grocery. They’re going to cut back just to the necessities. Ice cream is definitely a necessity. Any suite is a necessity when the when the economy’s in trouble. So that’s something we learned a long time ago I got 1 one last question I’m throwing a curve ballll here I’ve being a tang guy this is this is intriguing to me. There’s obviously dough which is you know in your breads and everything and I’m a italian I love bread.

25:41.50

Martino

Um.

25:41.55

vigorbranding

And then there’s there’s batter right in your pastries batter or batter or dough if you had to pick one or the other you can’t have anything ever again. Okay, all right I’d buy good dough. That’s bad. It’s forever where we’d split there well but basically you should.

25:47.63

Martino

I go for the batter know I got a sweet tooth I got a sweet do in the gold sauce suit.

26:00.84

vigorbranding

Yeah, you you you basically should so okay, a couple last questions here I you I know you have a really busy. You said you’re on the road for like three weeks four weeks busy trade shows what? what trade shows? Do you go to like what you know and where do you find that you’re observing some of the cutting edge, edge flavors and food trends are they international shows they more national or.

26:14.30

Martino

I.

26:19.82

vigorbranding

I Mean where are you going and what are you seeing and why.

26:20.36

Martino

Is it’s a combination of international and national shows like in the us you got the fancy food show you you have 2 of them and they happen in the states and again where we find value is all the middle of the show. You’ve already seen all that stuff.

26:25.42

vigorbranding

Access.

26:35.41

vigorbranding

Yeah, yeah.

26:37.99

Martino

Like you’ve seen it on your website. You’ve seen it on every website you you want to look at those are stuff that stuff that’s been in the stores already or is about about to be launched. We’ve already heard of it I like the back corners and that new company booth.

26:46.69

vigorbranding

Um.

26:54.48

Martino

Area where all these new entrepreneurs are exhibiting their cl which you’re looking at finished products and that’s a more international show. There’s a nuga in Germany so we go to a lot of the international ones too because that gives us trends that are happening over there. Might be mainstream but they haven’t come to the us or Canada yet. So that gives us maybe a outlook going. Okay, which one is transportable and which one is not in our industry show. There’s like id to be a that’s a bakery show just for our industry. There’s Ibe and vegas that app is every three years

27:15.21

vigorbranding

Right.

27:25.23

vigorbranding

Me.

27:32.54

Martino

And there’s some industry shows that are just for bakery that are happening in Germany and France.

27:36.65

vigorbranding

Very cool, very cool all right. My last question for you Martino if you had 1 final meal. What would you eat and why and it can’t be 1 of your products. No can’t be 1 of your products. No no, no, you get off the grid here.

27:47.44

Martino

Well has to be 1 of my products well can’t be 1 of my product. Okay, so I’m I’m italian so I’d like every nationality of food I’ll try anything and I eat everything but at the end of the day I’m italian it’s going to be italian food.

27:55.67

vigorbranding

I know.

28:03.50

vigorbranding

There you go.

28:05.86

Martino

And it could be anything from a great plate of pasta to and like steak Turk Tar the italian style not the french style. There’s 2 different first styles I’m on the italian side of course and then also like fish crudo like it’s thinly sliced raw fish.

28:14.54

vigorbranding

Big difference. Yep.

28:24.14

Martino

It’s like the Italian version of the sushi.

28:27.25

vigorbranding

Um, absolutely, that’s fantastic. Well done is there a special restaurant something in Toronto is there is your is your go to for you.

28:34.36

Martino

Well, but the my favorite high end rest right? and to toronto that does italian food is a place called the nico ah it’s they have amazing high end italian food. But if you’re looking for like basic pastas and everything else. There’s a a mano pasta that’s it’s actually the a location in the train station but they have great pastas and you get them. They’re cheap and they’re really good. Ah, toronto’s going to half a million italians so it’s it’s hard to select 1 restaurant and I go to a lot of different restaurants and.

28:53.46

vigorbranding

Wow! yeah.

29:08.57

Martino

But that many Italians foods the culture.

29:10.75

vigorbranding

That’s it. That’s right amen that’s perfect Martino you were wonderful. It’s always a pleasure talking to you and and I always enjoy when we we get to hang out. So hopefully I’ll get to see you soon and I appreciate you being being a part of this all right buddy talk soon.

29:20.71

Martino

Thank you by Michael.