Alright need some, we got the two bad boys right there.
We got the two maples right here.
One sweet Thai chili.
Thank you very much sir.
Enjoy.
I need a reload, I need a reload.
Hi my name is Aaron Ratner and I'm 21 years old
I'm the chef and founder at The Blue Chicken
(energetic hip hop beats)
It's actually a salted blue corn waffle cone
and the blue chicken is actually a play
on the University of Delaware mascot,
the fighting blue hen.
(marching band instrumentals)
It's a great, portable way to have chicken and waffles.
Well done Thank you.
I graduated culinary school two weeks ago in Napa Valley
so I literally, we spent two more days out there
after graduation, and they we moved right back
to the East Coast where we got ready for
The Blue Chicken.
So, here I am working at Smorgasburg working the summer.
It's gonna be a lot of fun. Gonna be hard work
but we're gonna love it.
Smorgasburg is the biggest weekly food festival
in the United States.
Smorgasburg was a dream of mine because
being able to see all of these people come to one place
and be happy and be surrounded by great food
is really amazing to me.
Smorgasburg has about 100 food vendors at it
and every year, maybe a dozen new spots open up
and we have hundreds of applicants every year.
Mostly from aspiring young chefs,
we become this launch pad for these
new, interesting food businesses.
In October I applied for Smorgasburg,
wasn't expecting to get anything back
but about a week later I heard back from them
and they told me to fly in for an interview.
It was really nerve-wracking, I was really nervous
but it was a lot of fun.
Of course we look for an interesting food idea
but we also look at the entrepreneur.
How motivated he or she is,
how they thought about marketing,
how they thought about their product
and kind of what their dreams are.
And really Aaron checked all those boxes for us.
About a week later after that,
I got an email from them saying I was accepted
to Smorgasburg. So, that was really exciting and
now here we are today with The Blue Chicken stand.
So today working with me I have chef Dev.
Chef Dev actually went to culinary school with me.
Honestly, I'd take one with a little bit more heat.
We can take on a little bit more heat.
Less sweet, more heat baby!
He moved to New York with no job, no apartment.
He's currently living in my basement.
He was all in it for The Blue Chicken
and here he is today helping us out.
I've actually never even been to Smorgasburg
never seen anything about it,
and actually coming here and seeing it,
I saw how many people there was.
Dev, one classic coming.
What? You have a classic coming.
Classic, right here. Alright, good.
Still waiting on the- My bad, I'm sorry.
I probably started cooking when I was ten years old.
We had a large family so
whenever they'd come over for the holidays
my mom would cook a meal for everybody.
So I started to work with her and
over the course of the years I started cooking for all
family meals instead of my mom.
When I was 17 I joined the Great Neck Lives On fire company
basically my brother was already a member
and at the first meeting he volunteered
me to cook for the next company meeting for 100 people.
And at the next company meeting we put out
food for 100 people,
and seeing the smiles on everyone's face made me know
that that's really what I wanted to do,
I wanted to cook for people.
He just loved cooking.
So, I'd say it's his defining feature,
his joy of the kitchen.
So in the last seven years,
I worked each summer
in the concession stand with my high school
E-Comm teacher, and I really saved up all that money
to open up The Blue Chicken.
Over the course of the last seven years
I probably saved about $10,000 dollars and so
all of the money that went into The Blue Chicken
is my personal money, so that's really exciting.
I didn't take from my parents or anything like that.
We're proud of him, I mean this is all him.
He worked really hard, this was all his business
his money up front, he ordered everything,
put it all together, designed it, it's pretty amazing
that he's able to come in here and compete
with everybody here.
The Blue Chicken is really all about family.
From day one my family was very encouraging
of this whole project.
My brother has really helped me out
with all the graphic design.
He created our logo and our menu
and all of that great stuff.
He's baby Aaron my entire life,
I don't know when he became Aaron,
Head Chef at a food stand here at Smorgasburg.
So yeah, I'm a little surprised that he was able to grow up
but he did it.
Yeah, we were worried but as I see him the first day
he's doing really amazing, I'm really proud of him
and he's gonna do it.
Where we have no idea what to expect.
We have no idea how many orders a day we're gonna do
but we're hoping people are gonna love our product
and it's gonna be a long but fun summer.
Our first day was awesome. We are sold out.
It was an amazing day, we can't wait to continue
the rest of the season at Smorgasburg.
Come out and visit.
(upbeat hip hop instrumental)