Donut Stop Believing

Rick (00:04):

It takes a bit of a blend of art and science to get baking just right, and having extra eyes, ears, and hands can make a big difference along the way. That’s where A.B. Mauri North America comes into play. We are the team behind industrial and artisan bakers that help optimize success. We’ll discuss more on this episode of The Oven Light, so let’s get going. Flip the switch. Welcome back to The Oven Light, everybody. I’m your host, Rick Olshack. Our last podcast, if you recall, we featured Chief Chocolate Officer Dan Abel Jr. from Bissinger’s Handcrafted Chocolate, a national brand based right here in St. Louis, Missouri. Today, we’re back with a continued quest for impactful stories of our region, baking, food, chocolate. This time we’re going to talk everybody’s favorite treat. We’re going to talk about donuts. On this episode, we welcome the new CEO from Mellow Cream Donuts, Springfield, Illinois’s own, Chad Larson.

(01:03):

Chad, welcome to The Oven Light.

Chad (01:05):

Good to be here. Thank you. I wish I had a cool title like chief chocolate officer.

Rick (01:09):

I know. It’s kind of cool, isn’t it? Well, we can work on that. All right. So hey, we typically start the podcast with a series of kind of fun, kind of quirky, fast questions. We’ve nicknamed it different things recently, but we’re going to go back to the original. It’s called the Hot Pan. You ready?

Chad (01:23):

I love it.

Rick (01:23):

Favorite donut style and why?

Chad (01:26):

Oh, well, mellow cream, obviously.

Rick (01:28):

Yes.

Chad (01:29):

Simple. First of all, I tell people all the time, you have to like dogs and donuts. If you don’t like dogs and donuts, I’m not sure we can be friends.

Rick (01:35):

Wow. I like it.

Chad (01:37):

My favorite donut is pretty much any donut. When I grew up, it was a chocolate cake donut with clays. That was my favorite. I’d go to this little donut shop with my grandparents. We owned a donut company, but my grandparents always went to this other shop and I’d have their chocolate glazed donut and became my favorite. I know. Tell them a little bit about that.

Rick (01:53):

That’s a great one though. Okay. So you’ve got that chocolate glazed donut, cake donut. What drink, hot or cold, perfectly pairs with that donut?

Chad (02:01):

Well, bourbon, of course. I know it sounds funny, but I –

Rick (02:04):

What time of day is it Herring as we take? I actually

Chad (02:06):

Did that with some friends. I did a bourbon and donut pairing, and you’d be shocked at how good they go together. It was a lot of fun.

Rick (02:15):

We’ve talked plenty of alcohol on the oven light before, so we’ve talked some bourbons. That’s awesome. All right. So how about this? Give us one of your favorite donut stops or maybe the city of a place you’d like to explore because they’ve got a nice donut population.

Chad (02:29):

Yeah, really great question. When my wife and I travel, we generally go to a donut shop in every city and we’ve done donut tours where you actually have. There’s a company out there that does donut tours around these large cities. And our favorite one is Philadelphia.

Rick (02:44):

Oh. We really

Chad (02:44):

Enjoyed federal donuts.

Rick (02:45):

You think cheesesteaks, but –

Chad (02:47):

Yeah, no, we love federal donuts. Really, really good.

Rick (02:49):

Okay. Excellent. We got to try that when you’re back in the city of Brotherly Love.

Chad (02:53):

Start with a B, it’s Middle Eastern spice and they have it in all their cake donuts. And then donuts are basic flavored with that. And then the glazes or toppings they put on have the additional flavors that you get.

Rick (03:04):

That sounds fantastic. Quite

Chad (03:05):

Good.

Rick (03:05):

And they

Chad (03:06):

Fried chicken there too.

Rick (03:07):

Okay. Wow, this is good stuff. Another reason to get back to Philly. All right. Finally to non-donuts, croissant, bagel, or English muffin. Which do you pick?

Chad (03:16):

Tough one. Definitely. Definitely a bagel.

Rick (03:19):

A bagel. And what kind of bagel?

Chad (03:21):

I like them all. I like anything with peanut butter on it.

Rick (03:25):

Really?

Chad (03:25):

Yeah.

Rick (03:26):

Okay.

Chad (03:26):

Cinnamon raisin, peanut butter.

Rick (03:28):

You want to toast it, don’t you or no? Of

Chad (03:30):

Course.

Rick (03:30):

Okay. A little PB. Do you put a little PB and J? I’ve done that. Not J, just PB. Okay. All right.

Chad (03:36):

Little melted with a glass of milk, cold.

Rick (03:39):

I like it. Okay. With a glass of milk, that’s good. All right. Now that we’ve preheated the oven, if you will, let’s jump in a little bit further. So let’s go back about two decades. And I mean, it’s tough because you’re only 21. But you spent some time as a quality manager at Mellow Cream Donuts, and now you’re the CEO of this company. But in between, you spent time at Don Foods, Sterling Foods, Palermo’s Pizza, people know pizza. Tell us about that career path that got you here, and now you’re back into donuts again. And you talked about it as your childhood too, you had a link.

Chad (04:14):

Well, I grew up. Yeah. My father got out of the Navy and when I was about two and a half or three years old, he started a bakery. So I know I look like I’m 22, 23 years old.

Rick (04:24):

Just out of the service. Yeah.

Chad (04:25):

Yeah, 55 years old, and I’ve been doing donuts and baked goods for almost 52 years of that now. So it’s part of my DNA. And the path to get there, it’s not simple. I did Dunwoody Institute in Minneapolis. I used to have a baking program there. I did one year there, and then I did American Institute of Baking Residence Course in Manhattan, Kansas. And then came out of there and started as quality for Heinz and then Pillsbury and General Mills and others.

Rick (04:54):

And is that Hines as in Heinz? Like

Chad (04:55):

The ketchup

Rick (04:56):

Company. They had a

Chad (04:56):

Bakery division.

Rick (04:57):

Yeah,

Chad (04:58):

Way back

Rick (04:58):

In. What did they make?

Chad (04:59):

Mostly my plants did subway breads for doctor, I think it’s Doctor and Doctor or something.

Rick (05:05):

Yeah, that’s it. Doctor Associates, right? Yeah, Dr.

Chad (05:08):

Associates.

Rick (05:08):

Yeah. I remember that. A

Chad (05:09):

Lot of years ago. But yeah, so we were just talking about it in the vehicle and I think that a lot of young people think they have to get all these fancy culinary degrees to be bakers and you can take a different path. And I think just getting in and getting your hands in, and people love baking because it’s all over Netflix and these shows, all these baking competitions. It’s part of who we are as a country. And people smile when they hear about donuts or –

Rick (05:32):

Absolutely.

Chad (05:33):

Whatever.

Rick (05:33):

How do you not light up when you hear a donut? Everybody’s got a story

Chad (05:36):

About their favorites.

Rick (05:37):

They do.

Chad (05:38):

Being part of that’s cool.

Rick (05:40):

That’s very cool. All right, so let me ask you this. Your family purchased Mellow Cream Donuts back in 2019, and then COVID happened right after. Was that a little bit of a, oh my, how did this happen? But then you can fast-forward a little bit and here it is seven years later and you’re running the show. Congrats.

Chad (06:00):

Yeah, thank you. Well, my dad, brother and I, and a couple friends purchased it in 2019. And we had a clear understanding of what we needed to do with my dad being involved in the business as long as he was. And then my background in that business and others and getting a lot of turnarounds, frankly. Mellow Cream’s a great established business, been around for a long time. And I think it just needed some fresh thoughts, changes a little bit. And for the most part, it wasn’t too complicated. They were right on the cusp of figuring it out and we just had to do a few trimming here and there. And not people, products.

Rick (06:34):

And

Chad (06:34):

Just get it kind of streamlined a little bit and get the right customer base and get the right philosophy around that. And it was pretty simple.

Rick (06:39):

Well, can you give us a quick little snapshot of the origin story for Mellow Cream? It goes back, right? It’s got a great story. There are actually some retail stores. I know those have kind of been licensed out now, but –

Chad (06:50):

Yeah, so it started as a retail shop in 1932 in Springfield. Kelly Grant Sr. started, bought the company on April 1st and went home and told his wife.

Rick (07:00):

April 1st. Boy, that’s an auspicious date.

Chad (07:03):

Yeah. It tells his wife I bought a bakery and she’s like a donut shop. And she’s like, “Is this April

Rick (07:08):

3rd?”

Chad (07:09):

Kind of the story. But yeah, so then Kelly Grant Jr. bought it from his father, and then Kelly Grant Jr. brought a partner in Dave Waltrip, and he ran it until we bought it in 2019. And then my father and I worked there for a while. I started there and then introduced my father to them. And then he came in and took over sales and I went on and did other things. He stayed on and that’s how we kind of got the opportunity. So the shops are still there. They’re licensed in agreement with us. They use our products and branding. There’s six total, five in Springfield, one in Lincoln, Illinois. And they’re a very small part of our business. Our business is primarily in store babies.

Rick (07:42):

But you’re well-known in Springfield. You say Mellow Cream, people know it.

Chad (07:45):

Anybody who’s been there or

Rick (07:46):

Lived

Chad (07:47):

There knows mellow cream. Yeah. I have friends send me pictures and they’re like, not long ago, I had a friend traveling through North Carolina, the airport, and he sends me a picture of somebody carrying Mellow Cream boxes.

Rick (07:56):

That’s the best, isn’t it? And they’re going

Chad (07:58):

Home to their family to take donuts to them.

Rick (08:00):

Boy, there’s nothing like. I’ve done it many a time, more so with Voodoo Donuts and a few others, but when Randy’s donuts out in LA. On a podcast recently, we had Nick Faluco, heads up innovation for Palermos, and I’m sure you know him, and we talked a lot about pizza, but you spent some time your formative years as well at Palermos before you came back to Mellow Cream. What did you pick up in the pizza business? What did you like about it? And what can you use to transfer it out of the sweet goods side?

Chad (08:27):

As you get into leadership, it’s pretty simple. Two factors. It’s people and process. As long as you can lead people and process, you can be successful. So in the pizza business, it really was just coming back down to the fundamentals and how do we get more through less? So it wasn’t like we were no bodies off the lines, just we need to put more pieces by the people we had in front of them. And that was the equation. When you look at pizza versus bakery, it’s a little different because as you’re topping pizzas, those ingredient components are a higher cost than the bakery process. Oh,

Rick (08:56):

We know that. Your

Chad (08:57):

Labor’s probably 30, 40% of your cost, probably a little over than that, net 30% range. But in the pizza world, it’s five to one. $5 of your components or your materials versus one to the labor. So you’ve got to –

Rick (09:10):

Pepperoni’s not cheap, is it?

Chad (09:11):

No, the

Rick (09:11):

Cheese

Chad (09:12):

Isn’t the sliced vegetables and all those pieces. So you really had to flip the script on how you control that process and make sure that the people understood how to control the

Rick (09:21):

Process

Chad (09:22):

Versus the other side where you’re controlling labor. So either way, it’s an equation of pieces by people.

Rick (09:27):

All right, we’re going to switch racks here. So you’ve got several degrees. You’ve got an MBA from DeVry University. So what’s the deal? You got thousands of students across the country that go to DeVry, but there’s no mascot.

Chad (09:41):

Yeah, no.

Rick (09:42):

What the heck?

Chad (09:43):

That’s why guys are always like, “What school do you follow?”

Rick (09:46):

I

Chad (09:46):

Really don’t. I don’t watch sports hardly.

Rick (09:48):

Yeah. Who do you root for when it comes to college football season?

Chad (09:50):

I don’t. I hunt.

Rick (09:52):

Okay.

Chad (09:54):

That’s prime time hunting and fishing season for me.

Rick (09:57):

Well, what did that university do for you? What did DeVry do?

Chad (10:00):

Well, so my undergraduate was in technical management. So I focused really primarily in what am I going to be able to apply to my job? Because I was doing this later in my life. I did the baking degrees, AIB and Dunwoody prior to that, and I used those through quality and R&D in the bakery industry through Heinz, Pillsbury, all these companies. But when I got into leadership and business, I needed to look at how do I take those tools I have there so I can talk the talk, but I got to build on that to be able to talk the business side of it. So I did the MBA and when they asked you, do you want to do an MBA and concentration in accounting or whatever? I said, no, no, I’m doing it in general because that leaves me more open-ended on what I do for my elective courses.

(10:36):

And I said, I’ll always have highly paid, highly competent accountants working for me. So I went into a general format and did an MBA with a general concentration, but I did my electives towards project management and I did a secondary master’s degree in project management, which I believe gives you the tools around strategy and understanding. And I leaned a lot into statistics and understanding how I apply those things. So the tools it gave me in my toolbox, as I was saying earlier, it gives you the ability to ask a better question to solve a problem. I’m not the smartest guy in the room just because I have degrees. It just means that I have a different line of questions and I’ve had the discipline to walk through that process to get those.

Rick (11:13):

Love that. All right, so we’re going to stay on this path of learning as well. So you’ve gone through the whole Six Sigma Greenbelt process. Talk about that experience and what did that do for your career? We had some of that at Anheuser-Busch during my days.

Chad (11:26):

Yeah. Well, I got paired early on in my career, I was working for a company called Turnbull Bakeries in Chattanooga, Tennessee. And a gentleman by the name of Dave West, who was a black belt Six Sigma for DuPont, got paired. He was doing consulting and looking at how we improve just using Simple Xbar in our processes. I started to learn through him and he introduced me to Six Sigma and sparked my interest and gave me the idea of how you can apply math, which I love math. We were talking about that in the vehicle about some of my crazy thought processes around math. And it really gives you tools to predict things within processes. And I’m trying to teach my daughter that a little bit and some of our people at our company, how do we use those tools? And of course, AI is astronomical for that.

(12:12):

It just goes through it so much faster. I don’t have to remember all the formulas, but that greenbelt was my catalyst to learning more around that. And then I’ve actually considered doing a black belt because then I thought about teaching. It’s just kind of another thing.

Rick (12:25):

Okay. So Mellow Cream, very much a generational business, family business. And you just mentioned your daughter, Sam. Do you want to talk about that? Is there a little bit of – Like a

Chad (12:34):

Proud dad moment?

Rick (12:35):

I know. That’s what I’m trying to ask you. Yeah, give me hyper, hyper.

Chad (12:38):

My son, I

Rick (12:38):

Don’t want to

Chad (12:39):

Snub my son.

Rick (12:40):

He’s awesome.

Chad (12:40):

He’s in the army and doing his service for our country, which I think is awesome.

Rick (12:43):

Tell him thank you for that.

Chad (12:45):

Yeah, he’s almost done. He’s going to do hi three and a half year gig and get –

Rick (12:47):

I heard Fort Knox recently, right?

Chad (12:49):

Yeah, he’s just there on deployment

Rick (12:51):

Right now

Chad (12:51):

Doing some training. But he’s in Fort Knox, but normally in Texas. But our daughter, Samantha started this about five and a half years ago and has earned her stripes on the production floor and did sanitation. And now she’s leading our continuous improvement training learning piece of our business. So she’s doing great. I’m teaching her a little bit about why statistics are important and trying to get her spark her interest in it. She’s not a math person. So math for her is challenging. But I told her, look, the beautiful thing today is, like I said before, AI, you

Rick (13:20):

Don’t

Chad (13:20):

Have to know the math.

Rick (13:21):

It’ll be

Chad (13:21):

For you. And furthermore, you have Excel and you know so much tool.

Rick (13:25):

But she certainly has the passion, the curiosity and the personality for it.

Chad (13:29):

I think, yeah, of course. And she’s got the drive.

Rick (13:31):

So

Chad (13:31):

She gets a little bit of that from me, I think. Her mom’s got it too. She gets up every morning and handles the farm stuff. That’s definitely important to her. And she’s really learning more and more about how to apply those tools and ask the right questions.

Rick (13:45):

That’s great. All right, we’re going to turn our tables back to the hot pan. So you’ve already teased a little bit. Let’s see what your answer is. When you’re not working, what do you like to do?

Chad (13:55):

Well, what do I like to do or what do I do? There’s two parts there.

Rick (13:58):

Yeah.

Chad (13:59):

No, I do. We have some land and I hunt and I love to fish. Obviously you’ve seen my office. I got big fish in the background and I love to hunt as well on our property. I deer hunt. And then we have a farm. We have a lot of animals. So my wife and I have chickens and ducks and geese and turkeys. And

Rick (14:16):

By the way, they’re all named.

Chad (14:17):

They’re all named

Rick (14:18):

Every

Chad (14:18):

One of

Rick (14:18):

Them.

Chad (14:18):

Every

Rick (14:19):

One of

Chad (14:19):

Them. Do they wear name

Rick (14:20):

Tags? Is that a thing? No. Okay. It’s not a thing. Shout out to me. Hello, my name is – Davey and

Chad (14:23):

Davey, that’s our geese.

Rick (14:24):

Favorite.

Chad (14:25):

Tom, Dick and Harry are

Rick (14:26):

Three turkeys. He’s not lying, folks. This is legit. All right. So where in the world is your happy place? Now get specific, location, setting, even down to time of day.

Chad (14:37):

So the last hour of the day on about November 11th at sunset and sitting in my tree stand on the south part of my property is just watching the sunset to the west and it’s kind of coming over my shoulder to usually the side of my shoulder.

Rick (14:54):

Temperature’s not too cold by then. Not too

Chad (14:56):

Bad. No,

Rick (14:56):

It’s

Chad (14:56):

Decent. Usually pretty cool, but not freezing. And just listening for noises and watching the birds. And everything slows down. The world goes around you and it just slows down.

Rick (15:07):

Well, November, December. I think we’re all looking for some cooler temperature here. We’re in the Midwest. Right. We’ve had what, 120 heat index is the high this week? Crazy, crazy. All right. So I will tell you that you told me a little bit about this sporting goods place. I mean, certainly who doesn’t like Dick’s Sporting Goods out of Pittsburgh? But you have a hankering for the sporting goods chain called Shields. And I had never been to one until I visited the one up in Illinois. Why do you like it so much? This one up in Springfield and they’ve got stores all over the place, right?

Chad (15:37):

They do. They do. They’re wonderful. Well, first of all, I’d say like any really good retail store, the staff starts with the people. And I’m telling you, they are genuinely, they care, they’re good people. They always ask, they’re willing to stop and talk to you. But then the variety of selection and the quality of the products that they sell, they sell. Frankly, I shop for probably most of my clothes there, honestly. And then obviously I walk around. I was walking, my son was back in last year for Christmas and we’re walking around the store and everybody’s stopping me and talking to me. And he walks through, he goes, “It’s like you’re the marry. Everybody knows you.”

Rick (16:10):

Well, okay, that’s the next big question.

Chad (16:12):

Part of it is it’s kind of contingent on how much you buy there as well.

Rick (16:16):

You’re not going to say that you’re running for office. Are we going to use today as a platform for your launch? I think

Chad (16:21):

Eric Dell from ABA would be happy if I said yes, but the answer’s still no.

Rick (16:25):

Okay. All right. We’ll keep an eye out of it for though if there’s an interest. All right, so finally on this hot pan session, Springfield, Illinois, Home Door’s 16th US President, Abraham Lincoln, my favorite president. Do you have maybe some words of wisdom from Honest Abe that maybe you follow? Or is there any sort of ethic or something or a story or a snapshot that you’re like, yeah, he kind of captures something really, really excellent? Well,

Chad (16:50):

If you’ve never been to Springfield, you’ve got to visit. He’s one of those presidents that I think everybody resonates with because of that whole Civil War. To me, when I look at it. Well, the other thing in Springfield is got to stop at a millike. Don’t have a Millikren during the course.

Rick (17:05):

Shameless plug.

Chad (17:06):

Yeah, duh.

Rick (17:06):

Okay. And

Chad (17:08):

You go through the museum and you hear the story of what he went through. I think as a leader, I know I don’t always make the most popular decision, but it’s sometimes the harder decision is the right decision for the masses, and they don’t see it in the moment, see it down the road. And I think that’s the true tell of a great leader is they’re not afraid to go against the grain a little bit to some and make sure that you try to think of the bigger picture and how you help the people because that’s really what matters. Yeah, I think it’s a great story. And boy, it changed our country. It changed him. If you watch him physically, they show the progression of aging through a very short period of time that it put him through because he was going through these stresses.

(17:46):

It was amazing.

Rick (17:48):

Well, it brings to mind a couple of things. We talked about Ted Lasso on the way over here, but I think he said something – First August season. I know. Season four is coming. Season four. It’s never wrong to do the right thing, I believe was a quote attributed to a lot of people. But Abraham Lincoln, if I recall, I don’t know what the total number was, but he lost so many elections. Lost, lost, lost all the way. But then he persevered and kept on going and became arguably our greatest president. I mean, pretty great story. And if you get to Springfield, it’s beautiful. So

Chad (18:16):

Well

Rick (18:16):

Done. Yeah. I got to tell you a funny story because when my son, who is now 17, when he was a much younger guy, he was probably maybe seven at the time, we took him to Springfield and did the whole thing and we saw everything and we saw the gentleman that was playing Abraham Lincoln. And he came in and we sat with him and they’re making little kind of toys out of paper and almost like an origami type thing. My son’s like, “Can we make a paper airplane?” And he’s like, “What’s an aeroplane?” I mean, he was totally. Because they didn’t exist at the time. So he was in character and my son was just like, “Wow, that is so cool.” All right, so back to the work side, you’re really active in a lot of the baking associations. You mentioned Eric Dell from ABA.

(18:59):

We know Kristen from ASB, you’ve got BMA and Kerwin and others. Why is it important to have that kind of connection with these associations, these trade groups that can kind of foster everything we’re trying to do in the baking business?

Chad (19:11):

Well, it’s funny, I was talking to one of your gentlemen that works at your lab and we knew somebody, the degrees of separation in the bakery industry, most people say you’re at six degrees of separation from anyone in the planet. I’d say in the bakery industry, you’re maybe maximum two, maybe three.

Rick (19:26):

So the whole Kevin Bacon thing is out the window at six, right?

Chad (19:30):

Absolutely.

(19:30):

It’s much smaller. And I think in today’s world with social media, it’s different. But the associations, there’s two parts to it. One, my personal reason I’m so engaged is because I’m blessed to have this opportunity to do some give back. The industry’s been wonderful for me. I’ve made such great friends. Some of the best friends I have in the world are all in the bakery industry other than my wife, and she’s kind of in it through me. So I think that that’s a big part of what you get out of that is that connection. And I’m giving back at this point. But young people coming into the industry, if I could give them a piece of advice, I would say join the ASB. Join a group like that. You won’t be into BEAM or ABA right away. That’s down the road a little bit. But

Rick (20:08):

Get

Chad (20:08):

Into ASB, join the mentoring program. Get plugged into people like me or other folks out there that do the mentoring. And if you are an older senior person like me in the industry that has something to give to younger people, join that and join the membership or the mentoring program and get people engaged because I think we’ve got to bring the youth into this and this networking, this connection. As much as it’s more social media than it is people, it still resonates to the people’s sides.

Rick (20:33):

I like the whole connection. And for whatever reason, it sparked a story. I remember growing up, you’re kind of out of college now, you’re renting an apartment somewhere, and my mom and dad were always like, “You got to use the amenities.” That’s where you’re going to meet people. But they weren’t wrong. There’s an opportunity there to make that connection. I think that’s fantastic. So how about other places maybe that you take inspiration from? Books, quotes, past, coach, anything like that that would maybe resonate with our listening audience? Yeah.

Chad (21:00):

So way back when I was a young man, I lived in Annapolis, Maryland. And I remember I was probably 19, 18. You

Rick (21:09):

Were a service age at that point.

Chad (21:11):

Young cadet from the Naval Academy was killed in a car accident. And his mother was on there on TV and talking about him. And she said, “My son’s…” It may not be his quote, but I heard it from her. She said, “My son, his values where I live as though I’m going to die tomorrow, but I learn as though I’ll live forever.” And I don’t know if that came from him or somebody else, but that to me, I am on this journey of learning my entire life. My wife has always given me a hard time as I’m reading about stuff and the craziest things. I was talking about time dilation and crazy math behind that. I just love reading and learning and I don’t read enough. I just don’t take the time to read enough. So YouTube University’s wonderful. It can give you a lot of the essence of what you’re trying to do.

(21:53):

But that to me, that learning journey, and I genuinely enjoy every minute I’m out doing stuff and the people I meet, the connections I have, and hanging out with you guys today and seeing your awesome company.

Rick (22:05):

Can you give us that quote one more time?

Chad (22:08):

Live as though you’ll die tomorrow and learn as though you’ll live

Rick (22:11):

Forever. Oh, there’s some good words of wisdom there. All right, we’re going back to the hot pan. This is going off the cuff because I want to hit some areas because I believe, I think we’ve had some conversations. We like to talk music and things that are activities that are out there. So all right, first album.

Chad (22:24):

Oh boy. My very first, my very first CD, I’m an early adapter. I had it in 1984. Does

Rick (22:33):

It feel like MJ? Do you think it’s Michael Jackson? What do you think?

Chad (22:36):

Footloose.

Rick (22:36):

Oh, that’s a

Chad (22:37):

Good one. Soundtrack the Footloose.

Rick (22:38):

Yeah.

Chad (22:39):

And I had my first CD player in 1985, I think, or 86. That was 84.

Rick (22:47):

Wow. Yeah.

Chad (22:48):

So 85 or 86, I had my first portable CD player that used a cassette to plug into a cassette player with a little

Rick (22:56):

Wire.

Chad (22:56):

You hit a bump in the cart

Rick (22:58):

And it

Chad (22:58):

Vibrates.

Rick (22:59):

And then of

Chad (22:59):

Course, I’m in childy ’80s. Well,

Rick (23:01):

I will tell you this, I never saw the second footloose that came out. I was just like, no, you can’t beat the first one.

Chad (23:07):

No.

Rick (23:07):

Okay. So let’s stay down this path, first concert.

Chad (23:11):

You know what’s funny? I was later in life, if I’m not mistaken, it was poison.

Rick (23:16):

Wow.

Chad (23:17):

I

Rick (23:17):

Would not

Chad (23:18):

Have guessed

Rick (23:18):

That. Okay.

Chad (23:19):

As a matter of fact, Leaford opened for him. As a

Rick (23:21):

Matter of

Chad (23:21):

Fact, they were filming the video for Every Rose Has a Thorn. And in the video, you’ll see a guy standing out there with a crutch over his head like this. My cousin and I are right next to him. You’re next to the crutch. I told my wife this and she’s like, I’ve never heard this. That close to stardom. She’s like, “I’ve never heard this.” I’m not sure about that. I dialed my cousin. I said, “Hey, tell me a little bit about every rose. We’re in the video right next to the guy with the crutch.” My wife’s like, “No way.”

Rick (23:47):

That’s hilarious. I bet you didn’t know. You can’t

Chad (23:49):

Tell it’s me. No. Just pans by real quick.

Rick (23:52):

Well, we’ve had original MTV VJ, Alan Hunter. Alan Hunter. Who lives here in St. Louis. St. Louis. Listen to him all the

Chad (23:58):

Time. I’m 80s and 80 all

Rick (24:00):

The time. Wonderful bride. Works at Washington University and is a great professor there. Okay, let’s continue down this path one more time. Favorite movie from the ’80s.

Chad (24:09):

Oh my.

Rick (24:10):

Is there one out there that maybe we’re flashing back a little bit today? It felt right.

Chad (24:14):

I think there’s a few. So my very first rated R movie was National Ampoons

Rick (24:21):

Vacation.That’s a great one.

Chad (24:22):

Great one. Chevy Chase and that whole Ferrari scene is about why I probably fell in love with Ferrari. Sure. Not that I own one or never will, but it was pretty cool. Breakfast Club is one of those that always resonates. I could still watch that to this day and still parts that resonate with my child and youth. The five types

Rick (24:38):

Of kids. I mean, it is perfect.

Chad (24:40):

Absolutely. And the music in that movie is

Rick (24:42):

Just

Chad (24:43):

Fantastic. Yeah.

Rick (24:44):

John Hughes did it right, didn’t he? John

Chad (24:45):

Hughes did a lot of movies right.

Rick (24:47):

Yeah. Excellent. Okay.

Chad (24:49):

And Chicago.

Rick (24:50):

Okay.

Chad (24:51):

I’m kind of Illinois boys.

Rick (24:52):

And to go back to music, I just saw this past weekend, Pat Benatar opened up for Brian Adams. Brian Adams, his voice is unbelievable. Still does it.That

Chad (25:02):

Age of group.

Rick (25:03):

He’s 66 now and can really bring it the pride of Canada. Good stuff.

Chad (25:09):

We want to go to concerts all the time. Actually, I really, really want to fly out to Vegas and go see Metallica and The Sphere. Oh,

Rick (25:15):

Wow. We saw Kenny Chesney a month ago at The Sphere.

Chad (25:19):

I’ve been outside and never

Rick (25:21):

Been. Beautiful. You need to check it out. It’s just

Chad (25:24):

Awesome.

Rick (25:24):

And it’s unbelievable the technology that –

Chad (25:26):

My buddy saw YouTube when they opened.

Rick (25:29):

That’d be great. It’d be a great show. All right, so we talked about reading a minute ago. Do you have a favorite book you’re like, “Boy, that’s just one that I-“

Chad (25:36):

You know what? The Shack. It’s kind of biblical, but it struck me. I’ve read it multiple times. It’s one of those fear things. I actually cried reading it. It’s just so touching and just, it’s powerful.

Rick (25:48):

Why did you feel – Well, I’m a very spiritual

Chad (25:50):

Person anyhow. So I really think a lot about that and how blessed I am and the creation of where I am. And I probably heard my talks before, but having shattered my C5 and been paralyzed from the neck down and all these things that –

Rick (26:04):

Wait, we didn’t even get into this. Wait, what?

Chad (26:06):

That’s part of my hope. I was 40 years old and I was paralyzed from the neck down and broke my neck. And I look at life differently than probably a lot of people do because of that. And I talk about spinning the world. I make sure I understand how to make the world spin at my pace, don’t let it spin me.

Rick (26:23):

Boy, those are some incredible words of wisdom. But you talk about the hot pan, man, that thing’s flaming hot right now. That’s good stuff. Yeah. But a story of courage and survival and perspective I think is really good. It’s

Chad (26:35):

Interesting. Yeah, it’s a whole story. I can tell you.

Rick (26:38):

Okay. All right. Well, let’s jump back real quickly. Let’s talk about mellow cream one last time. Yeah. What’s on tap? I looked at the portfolio thing. Certainly you do a lot of frozen dough. I did see in there some sub rolls and that kind of piqued my curiosity, some fritters and all that. It’s

Chad (26:54):

Actually growing.

Rick (26:54):

Yeah. So tell me about what’s upcoming for you guys?

Chad (26:57):

So sub rolls, we’ve been making them for quite a few years. We made them just for local shops. They did sandwiches, but they’re a very high sugar sweet roll. It sounds kind of contradictory to everything going on in the world of health today and the eating habits, but it’s a really popular item and it’s super good. So it’s a sweet sub roll that you make sandwiches.

Rick (27:17):

Yeah, but it goes great with a salty ham and some cheese and all that. Oh,

Chad (27:21):

Fantastic. I love it with

Rick (27:21):

A – I mean, we know how our friends at King’s Hawaiian, right? I mean, they have a great product. Yeah.

Chad (27:26):

And Chiwa’s been doing it for well before we bought the company, so for a long time.

Rick (27:30):

Long

Chad (27:31):

Time.

Rick (27:31):

Any other products or things on the horizon? You mentioned fritters. Do you ever get into the cronuts and all that other kind of stuff?

Chad (27:38):

We have these requests occasionally. Some of those are a little more technologically difficult to make.

Rick (27:42):

They’re not

Chad (27:42):

As easy to produce on a standard traditional line. So you’d almost have to create a line-specific form. But we always have new flavors we’re looking at. I’m a purist in a sense, and I know my company, everybody’s looking at these new trends and I watch the flashing in the pan. I kind of think – Do

Rick (27:56):

You buy chocolate anybody? Dubai chocolate anyone? Yeah, I

Chad (27:59):

Wish. No, we don’t have anything really major earth-shattering because what sells every day? Glazed donuts. Glaze rings, that is our number one seller. It’ll always be, it’s like pepperoni pizza. It’s going to be the number

Rick (28:09):

One. Vanilla ice cream, right? Still is the top seller.

Chad (28:12):

Always going to be the

Rick (28:13):

Top seller. So

Chad (28:13):

To get real crazy, and a lot of times you’ll see in the donut world because we sell it in store bakers, there’s only so much cabinet space, you’re just going to cannibalize something else. So does it make sense? If it’s something a customer needs or wants, we’re going to work on it, of course. We’re going to look at what the opportunity is and try to do what we can for them to make sure they’re satisfied and we round out their portfolio the way they want it. But some of them are just going to be one-offs that just don’t make a lot of sense.

Rick (28:35):

And I’m not asking yours, but in general, what are the top five selling donuts that are on the shelf? For the ones that usually people gravitate towards. You already mentioned glazed.

Chad (28:45):

Yeah, glazed

Rick (28:45):

Ring

Chad (28:46):

Donuts is going to be number one. Then you’re going to jump into long John’s usually.

Rick (28:49):

Filled or not filled?

Chad (28:51):

Usually unfilled chocolate.

Rick (28:53):

That’s my wife.

Chad (28:53):

Bavarian.

Rick (28:54):

Yeah.

Chad (28:54):

And then you get into the Bismarcks and you’ll go raspberry Bismarck filled and then Bavarian. And we do what we call, we do a long John what’s called mellow cream filled. So it’s a white fluffy, but we

Rick (29:04):

Make

Chad (29:04):

The fluffy filling ourselves.

Rick (29:06):

Yeah. It’s not a typical icing. I’ve had it. It’s fantastic. It’s outstanding.

Chad (29:10):

Yeah,

Rick (29:10):

It’s

Chad (29:10):

Fantastic. It’s by far the best. I know I just say this because ours always felt that way.

Rick (29:13):

Well, of course you are, but no, I’m kidding. It is outstanding. It is really good.

Chad (29:17):

We produce that on demand for our –

Rick (29:20):

And you should see how these donuts get filled. It’s the coolest. It’s the coolest device. Yeah. All right. What else is out there in the top five or six in the – I

Chad (29:27):

Pretty much covered them.

Rick (29:28):

I mean, of course

Chad (29:28):

You get the cake donut

Rick (29:29):

Category.

Chad (29:30):

So plain cake, vanilla.

Rick (29:31):

I’m an old-fashioned guy.

Chad (29:33):

And we talked about that and there’s not as many. They’re still popular, but it seems to be dropping off little by little. I think that’s an age group. I don’t think the younger folks resonate with that quite as much for –

Rick (29:43):

So are you criticizing my age here? The young folks? The same age

Chad (29:46):

Probably. I know. You might be a little younger than me.

Rick (29:49):

No, I’m a little older than you, but that’s good. Okay. So any final words of wisdom or anything like a calling card you want to like. Chad Larson, Millow Cream Donuts, remember to do this. I On the way out.

Chad (30:00):

I love dogs.

Rick (30:02):

I love it. You talk about that. You talk about starting in a place and kind of building and coming back to that. Dogs and donuts, Chad Larson, Mellow Cream Donuts.

Chad (30:10):

August 27th is National Dog Appreciation Day or Dog Day. So watch our social media LinkedIn. We’ve got a whole thing we’re already working on around that.

Rick (30:18):

I love it. We’re

Chad (30:19):

Trying to get more vital data out there. People use that tool now as kind of resonating with do they like this brand or not? So we’re trying to get that going.

Rick (30:28):

Is it okay to share a donut with your dog?

Chad (30:30):

In moderation and try to avoid chocolate. They can eat chocolate

Rick (30:33):

Just in

Chad (30:34):

Moderation,

Rick (30:34):

Like

Chad (30:34):

Anything. Donuts are great. Just don’t eat too many.

Rick (30:38):

Okay.

Chad (30:38):

If you drink too much water, you can die.

Rick (30:41):

Yeah, exactly. Well, I tell you what, we’ve had a great episode that concludes the oven light for today. We have to thank Chad Larson for Mellow Cream Donuts. What a great engaging show. Enjoy getting a chance to know you a little bit more, and that’s it for now. The switch is off. Thanks for listening and we’ll see you next time. We hope you’ve enjoyed this episode of the Oven Light. Until next time when we discuss more about the wonderful world of baking technology, trends, and more, the switch is officially off. Goodbye for now. See you next time.