Chef Clayton Parrett: A Student for Life

Walk-In Talk Podcast

Chef Clayton Parrett shares his journey from rural South Louisiana to becoming a celebrated chef, emphasizing lifelong learning and the deep

Key takeaways

• Clayton views cooking as an endless pursuit of knowledge rather than mastery.

Main topics

• The influence of rural Louisiana upbringing on culinary identity

Notable quotes

"It takes a whole church full to, you know, move forward."

Conclusion

Chef Clayton Parrett remains deeply committed to growth and learning,

Transcript preview

Speaker 3 (0:20) Chef Clayton Parrott grew up in rural South Louisiana surrounded by sugarcane fields, swamps, livestock hunting and fishing. His family didn't have much, but they knew how to live off the land. Before he was even out of high school, Clayton was working around the slaughterhouse, processing animals, cooking cracklings, and learning where food actually comes from. Then life got harder. He left home young, lived with friends, worked 70-hour work weeks, and took whatever kitchen jobs he could find. Eventually, that path took him offshore. For nearly two years, Clayton cooked on drilling operations in the Gulf. sometimes spending three weeks at a time on a platform where there was no clocking out and going home. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, sleep, repeat. He says those years hardened him, but they also taught him discipline, patience, and perspective. Today, after more than two decades in this business, Clayton is still chasing the same thing that kept him moving back then. Knowledge. He doesn't believe in mastery because in his words, there is simply too much left to learn. And maybe that's the real story. Not how far Clayton has come, but how hungry he still is. Clayton, when you look back at growing up in the Louisiana swamps, what was being built in you before you ever understood where this life was headed? Speaker 2 (1:36) Biggest thing to me has always been community. It's striving together, growing together, learning together. Speaker 2 (1:46) It takes a whole church full to, you know, move forward. On Speaker 4 (1:52) our call. And by the way, we've known each other for a good long time. And this day has been coming for years. Years. Yeah. Welcome to the show. I'm glad you're here. I appreciate Speaker 3 (2:07) it. Speaker 4 (2:08) On our call, your words. Hey, man, you know, we didn't grow up with a bunch of money. Good family, good people, a lot of love. Surrounded by animals, fishing, hunting, all that good stuff, right? Speaker 2 (2:23) Call that the Speaker 4 (2:24) pleasures of life. Speaker 4 (2:27) Did you actually realize you might have had less than other kids? Speaker 2 (2:33) Ultimately, as a child, it's, you know, a wonderland. You don't even realize it. It takes a little bit of getting older and education to understand where you come from. But to me, it's, you know, nature gives you so much back that, you know, words can't really explain. I Speaker 4 (2:53) can almost identify. Speaker 4 (2:56) with where you come from. In the 70s and 80s, my family was up and down, both. And I ended up in rural Broward County growing up. A lot of, like, basically the Everglades. Speaker 2 (3:11) Exactly. Speaker 4 (3:12) Right? So it's very similar to what you had. And I was a kid, too. I was like 9, 10, whatever, in that racket. It was snake hunting, looking for gators, you know, that, that right there. When I would go visit family up in the Northeast. They looked at me like, who the hell are you? Dirty, dirty genes. And yeah. Speaker 2 (3:37) Yeah. Speaker 4 (3:38) So, but the education that you get from that upbringing is so different. Speaker 2 (3:45) It's, it's, it's life. That's, uh, it's the true origin of life. Uh, being in touch with nature and everyone says, go take a hike, but truly go take a hike and look around you and breathe. It's, um, it's a different environment. Speaker 2 (4:00) Especially when there's a lot of animals Speaker 4 (4:02) that can get you. Speaker 2 (4:04) Yeah. Speaker 4 (4:05) You learn to watch out a little bit more. Patience. You left home pretty young. You were telling me how early age, sleeping on friends' couches, but you still made yourself finish high school while you were putting in the big hours at work. You don't see young folks typically with a work ethic like that. Where did that come from? Speaker 2 (4:32) That is, you know, ultimately it's the determination is just seeing what's around you. You know, it's, you have options, you have choices every day, you know, and I have some good people in my life. I have some rough people in my life. And if you listen, you're patient and you hear from them, it's, you know, for years we were told, you know, work hard, you don't get anything. So when you start to add all that up together towards the end, it's. If you start something, you finish it. Over and over and over, it's more of a piece of my mind that, you know, I did start it. I am going to complete this. It might take me years and years and years, but I will get this done. Speaker 4 (5:15) Speaking of Louisiana backwoods, I think we should mention that Miss Lee Wilson from Creative Loafing is in the house. Speaker 2 (5:27) Oh, yeah. Speaker 4 (5:29) Welcome back. It's been a minute. Speaker 5 (5:30) Okay, first of all, go Tigers. Speaker 4 (5:34) What did you say, go Canes? Speaker 5 (5:35) Go Tigers. Speaker 4 (5:36) Wait, go Canes? I keep hearing that. What is it? Speaker 5 (5:39) Tigers. Speaker 2 (5:41) Okay, got it, got it. And you got two of us in here, so it's G-E-A Speaker 4 (5:45) -U-X. Oh, my, that doesn't even spell anything. Look, you know, at the end of the day. At the end of the day, so you get John and I both here from Miami. It's to you, baby. All right, so before, we're not looking to wrestle, okay? Here. Lee Wilson, it's been a minute. We've been trying to work out the schedule and get you back here for a little bit. And today is the day. And not only that, this was like a trifecta kind of a deal here, right? It was. And listen, I'm not mad at you, my man. Okay. Because I know the only reason you came was for Lee, not because we've known each other for a long time. I get it. Like I totally completely understand. Too Speaker 2 (6:26) much Miami in the house and Lentz is a sport. I Speaker 5 (6:29) am very persuasive. Speaker 4 (6:32) Clearly. And Speaker 5 (6:32) stubborn. Speaker 4 (6:34) I'm not going to say a word. Mama raised me right. Speaker 5 (6:40) Let me tell you what's hot in Tampa Bay. Right now, it is all Best of the Bay. All Best of the Bay, all the time. So if you don't know, because you should, Best of the Bay starts in May. Starts out with nominations. It is the longest running Best of competition in the Tampa Bay area. It's been going on for over, I think, 37 years now. So long before my time. It is the biggest one in Tampa Bay. It is amazing. So it starts out with nominations and then the top nominees go on to the voting round. And then at the end of the voting round, we have a winner and two runners up. And it's all very, very, very hush hush until the party happens. And the party is where it's at. It is the who's who of Tampa Bay. And we have one of our very fine. restaurateurs and chefs in the house today who is going to be sampling at the party along with many many many other chefs many of them have been on this show and in fact many of our winners and runner-ups have been on this show i Speaker 4 (7:41) think that's out freaking standing Speaker 5 (7:43) so Speaker 4 (7:44) what you're saying is the one teaser out of this whole thing is the fact that this dude my man Is actually participating in this whole thing. Speaker 5 (7:57) He is. He is accepting awards. He is picking up multiple awards. And he's not the only person in this house picking up awards. Speaker 4 (8:05) What do you mean? I Speaker 5 (8:06) mean, the Walk and Talk podcast might be picking up an award, too. You're just going to have to come to the party and see. Speaker 4 (8:13) I mean, if you want me to go to the party, I'll go to the do not bait me to go to the I'll be there. John, you're going to go, right? We're going to be there. Speaker 5 (8:23) You should totally be there. Everybody should be there. It's open to the public. You just buy tickets and go and come party with us. It's one of the biggest things that we throw all year long. Okay, Speaker 4 (8:31) okay. Look, we're doing it. What's the date for that? Speaker 5 (8:33) October 7th. And it's at the Coliseum in St. Pete this year. So the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino is my presenting sponsor. We love them. It's normally at the Hard Rock, which is super fun because then you can get a hotel and you can hang by the pool the next day and then you can call in quote unquote sick to work. because you stayed up until 4 o'clock in the morning at the poker table. But they are expanding their non-smoking casino this year, so we have decided to move it back across the bay like it was many, many years ago into the historic Coliseum of St. Pete. And we've got the city of St. Pete involved. We're getting other cities involved. There's a rumor that some mayors might be there as well. Yeah. Speaker 4 (9:14) Oh, you mean Leo Quino. Speaker 4 (9:19) There Speaker 5 (9:19) will be some food mayors there. There'll be some other mayors too. Yeah. Speaker 4 (9:24) Okay. Okay. Hey, listen, I'm totally down for this. And by the way, you know, what you just said a second ago, I'm, you know, John is too. I'm speaking for me right now. I know he is. This is exciting. It's Speaker 5 (9:38) very exciting. It's a very big Speaker 4 (9:39) deal. I know. I want to be a part of an award. I mean, we love this. Yes. Yeah. And just let's, let's clarify something, right? Because we, our audience is all over the place. When we say the greater Tampa Bay area, what is that geography? Speaker 5 (9:55) That is covering all of Pinellas, all of Hillsborough. We've got Pasco County. There's parts of Polk County in there as well. We definitely cover stories like Joe Dodd and opening up a new King of the Coop out here. So it really does encompass, like we'll cover stories up to, you know, north of like Crystal River and whatnot. So you really do have like the greater Tampa Bay area. And this is the who's who. This is the culmination. This is the list. And it stays up all year long. So anytime you're ever like in the... mood for something different. Like I want to go Middle Eastern tonight. We actually have a category for best Middle Eastern restaurant. So you can just go to best of the Bay and look up Middle Eastern and you're got a food guide right there. Speaker 4 (10:39) Support for walk and talk media comes from Metro food service solutions, trusted by kitchens that need storage and workflow that actually does the job. Learn more at Metro.com. Speaker 4 (10:50)