Episode Transcript: Ah, the truth is, it was when the pandemic hit that I really started thinking about doing this because before that I was working in a five-star hotel in Boston and doing a job I hated every day, managing servers, bartenders that were really difficult and that wasn't what I really loved, which was cooking. And when the pandemic hit, I kind of put things in perspective and decided to launch my own thing, which had to do with cooking. That's what my passion is. You've done an incredible job at cooking. I mean, you're here and gives this hospitality feel. Where did that come from? Thanks. Thanks a lot. That comes from my grandma, actually, Audette Morin. She's an unbelievable woman. Every time you walk... through the door in her house, you just get this warmth feeling from her, from the get go. When I was a child, she made us feel like, everybody she would make feel like the most important person on earth, which is what's from her pancakes she made or just the small details that she would always notice if you need it. So that's where I get it because I remember when I was young, I would notice at the gas station, somebody doing a great service. And I was like, hey dad, this guy, he really has it. and I would have this sensitivity and when I grew a little bit older, when I would have friends over to my house, I would treat them like my grandma would treat us, you know, I would make them feel taken care of and warm, you know. How have you found success doing it on your own terms? Going to private events and or just living life on your own scale? How has that been and what is the feeling? compared to what it was working for someone else? That's a great question. I think I'm just now learning to find what the real success is for me. And that is directly linked to happiness and feeling well with myself in the present moment. So I've always somebody that was very perfectionist and very, you know... exigent like I really asked a lot of myself and out of others so working for somebody else would always feel like I'm giving myself too much and like I'm over investing in somebody else's business and I wasn't I was never getting the recognition I wanted because I would just give it all out and then I would have nothing left for me and I found out you were talking to me about getting burnt up I found out from you earlier today that This is exactly what happened to me earlier the first year in my business, which I was being very successful, but the success didn't have the same feel to it than it has now today when I will leave this RBMB later tonight. And I know I will have done a great job, but by respecting myself and, you know, been working a little more wisely about how I invested. So, yeah, I think the success for me is doing it so that I can stay mentally healthy and mentally well in the moment that I'm in whether it's with my guests or at home. Everybody needs to recognize reality and mentality becomes one and the truth is then you start doing it on your own terms. Every single time you walk in it's your own expectation and if you're Perfectionist that type a yeah, you know, you're gonna do the job. Yeah, exactly every time that you leave Yeah, keep that in your pocket Every time you come to a house Anytime you have to shove up in front anybody you're showing your creativity. You're showing your empathy You're showing your compassion. You're showing the loyalty and the second that you leave everybody's left with a moment Yeah, it took me a long time my friends realize what you just said about you know taking this home with you and giving your pat in the back, you know, the first year I was successful, but I wasn't doing that. That was the part, the biggest part of all of this that was missing. And this is the part that's success for me is when you're able to pat yourself in the back and say, I did my job and, and I'm, and I'm, this goes beyond making a dinner, you know, it's, it's a human connection and it's something that's just so beautiful, you know. It is. What do you think about every time you sit down? Nguyen, what's your first thought? Are you critical? At first I was always critical. The first year I was always critical and now I'm just, I'm taking it all in. Every time I leave, you know, I'm just like, wow, man. I just think about all the positiveness that I've done because I know what I did is beyond just, even if the meal, I know the carrots could have been a little less cooked, let's say, and it's this one detail I keep in my mind. This is not at all this perspective that the guests has because they've just been every time I walk in the house and I leave the guests, they've been blown away because they see I've given them my hall and I'm giving them my life stories behind it, behind every dish in the menu. And, you know, that's what makes it meaningful is the hospitality and the creativity and all of it. So I know that if a little execution thing doesn't go as I would have personally wanted. It's useless to bang myself on that. I notice it and I'm like, okay, next time I'll do better. But then I'm like, well, you did a great job. Max, where can people follow you on Instagram? On Instagram at ChefMaxNoel. Same thing on Facebook at ChefMaxNoel as well. ChefMaxNoel.