Bro-Thai Saucepreneur Brota Oroian stops in with chips on Max Ink Radio

you found Wisconsin's local music authority. This is magsync radio. We are local music.

Life isn't always a bowl of cherries and sometimes it hands you go angle. And so what do you do

you make Thai food, right? At 50, Broda is reinventing himself and not for the first time. A younger

Broda was involved in the Mad City music scene working at the Annex live music venue, booking

bands and bartending. And he was also an artist and painting was his passion and enter Broda,

the graphic artist, a respectable career. But at 50, you got to do what you love. So Broda went

on a journey to experience his roots and bring it back to create Bro Thai in Madison. Please welcome

Chef Dad and Sausler Perneur Broda Aranian. Broda, welcome to magsync radio.

Thanks, Rocker. Thanks for having me here, man. Oh, man. What the heck is Galangal?

All right. It's Galangal. Galangal. How could I pronounce it right, right? It's pronounced in

on Google. Sure. Well, you know, it's kind of like a mini, what is that? What would you call it?

Eggplant kind of, but they're really small. No, no, no, I'm sorry. We're talking about

Galangal as ginger, but it's different kind of ginger, right? It's not as sharp. It's made for

cooking. Whereas other kind of ginger, usually that's what you would have in drinks and things

like that. It's got more of a sharp flavor. That's where you would probably have if you had

ginger ale. Oh, yeah. All right. That makes sense. It was a chef yourself. Who would you give a shot

out to that is really exceptional in Madison here? Man, in Madison, I don't really know a lot of

names, but I do love eating and I do love to go out to eat. There is a place that just opened

up in Middleton, and I believe it's Peruvian. And they just kind of started out, but they do an

amazing brunch and everything that comes out of theirs art. No, I had the steak and eggs in there.

And you know what I'm talking about? You know what I'm talking about? It was so good in the

price point when I, you know, we went in, we sat down and it, right, it just opened, and it

is Peruvian. And I sat down and ordered. And the plate was huge. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I was like,

for, I was like, it was $19. Like, come on guys, you can raise your price. Don't tell them. Wow.

They have amazing fish. It must be tasty. Broda, you have a rich backstory. I mean, tell us a

little bit about yourself leading up to your recent journey. How did Broda get to this moment?

Well, start out with my mom. My mom is an amazing cook, and she's known for her egg rolls.

And so she's known for her Mama V's egg rolls, her name is Valaya. Uh-huh. And when we were kids,

she always put out this huge spread of food, because that's how Thai food is. It's always family

style. Yeah. You take out everything you didn't eat from the day before. It all goes back into

the plate. And then everybody just sits around at Indian style. Nice. And you just keep

challenge. Yeah. Now, we were spoiled American kids. So of course, my mom would make all this food,

and we'd never eat it. We'd always eat the cheeseburgers and craft like that. Right. It was

until I moved away that I really appreciate. Wow. And my mom, I would call my mom and ask her how

to make things. And what she would do, which I've had to change now is she would just give me a

list of ingredients. And then that was like the way to do it. Like, here you go. This is what's

it? Right. But the great thing about that is it teaches you to trust your palate and teaches you,

you know, to know and trust yourself and have the confidence to say it needs a little bit of more

of this. It needs a little more of that because you're like representing people and what they would

like to eat. But she was always an amazing cook and she was a huge inspiration for me. And then

when I moved away from home, I started cooking from my roommates and stuff. And it became a thing

where it was just like, Hey, if you guys just chip in some money, you know, we don't all have to

like very familiar with that. Yeah, you know, for sure. Well, it's easier to cook for a few more

people, you know, these kind of dishes. Yeah. You know, it's made for more. They kick in some

money. They don't know what they're right. I'm actually now you transition, you know, from music,

bartending to art. Yeah. And then, and then what happened at 50? What caused you to have to,

you know, take another you turn. I was working in corporate America. Yeah. And it was the classic,

you know, they sold. Yeah. I don't know if I was fired or laid off or whatever depends on who

you ask. But at that point, I didn't know what I was doing in life because I was confused. And I

thought, this is who I am. My job is who I am. Right. Because I see your identity. And I lost my

identity. That's what happened to me. And eventually, it took my wife and the help of others,

good friends, reconnecting to basically make me realize that that wasn't me. That, you know,

that was just, that was just my representative. Yeah. And me personally, I am an artist. Right.

And I like to create. I'm a creator. And I believe, you know, whether it's food or art or music or

anything, it's all about flavor. And how these things go together and how you present them.

So that's kind of like where it started. And, you know, from there, it's just, yeah, I skipped

around to all these, these different bars, bartending, the frequency, the annex,

the greater when they were around. And then one day, I just, I fell in love with my wife.

Yeah. And I decided if I'm going to stay in this business, it's going to fail for me because,

you know, I'm too much of a wild man. So, you know, I was like, I got to get some of this stuff

under control. I can attest. So, you know, it's like, so I took a back seat and I just trusted

myself to, I'm going to make this happen and have a new future and create a new life for myself.

Wow. That's incredible. Well, let's talk about your journey. Yes.

You and your family go to a, on a breathtaking vacation in Thailand. And then they scoot

home and you take cookie classes. Well,

All right, family, you guys go back to work. I'm going to just stay here.

Well, you know, what's funny is technically, I was already going there to four cooking classes.

Okay. And then with everything that happens, we decided, you know, as a family, maybe this would

be a good opportunity for us to heal and get to know each other again. And my kids can get to

experience my mom's culture and see what it's like for themselves. We love to travel with our

children. It gives them such a really outlook on everything and how they interact with people.

And I'm very proud of them. Wow. But yes, I so I told my wife originally, like, hey, I'm going to

go to culinary school in Thailand. And the reason is it costs thousands here. Right. Over there,

I was, you know, paying anywhere between 50 and 100 bucks a class. Wow. And then I got to pick

my own schedule. So I literally went through. It said, okay, I'm going to stay in Bangkok for a

week and learn how to cook all the fancy food. And then I was like, then I'm going to go up

up north to Chiang Mai. And I'm doing all farm to table and work on a farm. And then, you know,

actually cook all the stuff I pulled out of the field. Wow. And that was very educational.

Because one of the things I've made at a point of is to never learn the same dish twice.

I wanted to make sure it's like, you don't know how to cook this. I want to learn how to cook that.

Okay, we're going to do tofu today. Today we're going to do prawns. You know, so I always

switched up like whatever protein I was using to challenge myself. Because the whole point of

it was is I knew how to cook when I went. I didn't know everything. And you know, I only knew what

my mom had taught me. So it was very educational learning from a lot of different chefs.

And different ways. Wow. And they always made an example of me because I told them I'd tell them

my plan. You know, I was like, well, my mom's half-time. Boom, right away. Oh, your mom's

tie. You know, and then they would let they would use me to come up. And I would demo everything

for them. Like, okay, he's going to come up and you know, you're going to do the walk work. And

they taught me everything on the fly. And you'd be surprised. All the people I met were so supportive

when they found out I was going to open a food truck back in America. Wow. Like they got they

lit up and like that just sounds like a dream. And more people did that. The more I felt like

it is a dream. Wow. And I want to do that because I like making people laugh. And that builds

your confidence. Absolutely. And and I got gosh, that's authentic, right? Yeah. Yes. Wow. So

tell me about drinking during a monsoon. I mean, that sounds like it's all right. Yeah, yeah,

just hold on and drink. So one of those nights I was alone. And after my family had gone home,

what I had a tendency to rent a hotel room within walking distance wherever I was going to school.

And I would explore the area. Well, this one I'd picked one time in Bangkok. It was amazing

rocker. I stepped out front and it was all street food, but it was not set up when I got my room.

Wow. So I just walked out into stuff. And I mean, I mean, they're chicken foot soup. I mean,

all kinds of strange stuff. And again, it was one of those things. I knew some Thai. I tried to

talk with the locals. They take me in, you know, and they're like, Oh, you want this? You want

that? You know, and it impresses them when you try. Yeah. So the monsoon. So I was taking a walk by

myself after class one day. I had walked past this little outdoor restaurant a couple of times

with a little bar area. So I was like, I'm going to go in there and, you know, just have a beer.

So I have a beer and I order a bunch of food that I don't know what it is. And all of a sudden,

the rain comes in. It is. I'm wearing shorts, flip-flops, and a t-shirt. And rain there is different.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you can see it bouncing like a foot off the ground.

Going up is a going down. And so we got stuck in this place. And I was like, I'm not leaving

dude. I'm not getting wet. And so I had a couple of beers and I had some food and I was making small

talk with these guys across from me. While the sudden, I couldn't get any service. And I didn't

understand why, right? Well, one of the guys comes over and says, sir, I said, yeah, he goes,

cannot, what do you want? Exactly. You're talking kind of fast and they can't understand you.

I said, oh, well, I'd like a beer. Well, he points at my beers and starts counting them. He goes,

well, you've already had three. And I held it up and showed him it's only five percent.

Alcohol. I was like from Wisconsin. So after this, he starts laughing. And he tells the

way you can serve him. He's fine. Right? Wow. And then why we're talking, we're talking across

the restaurant. He goes, hey, you want to come sit with us? And I said, yeah, I want to come sit

with you. Dude, it was the most amazing conversation. He bought me a dark beer. He goes, you like

that stuff? Yeah. Let me get you a good beer. And then they they were from the same region of the

country. My mom was from Wow. And so it's so it's very rare. And then so we started talking

and everybody in Thailand cooks. That is one of the things like it doesn't matter what you get.

The food is amazing. You get a pizza. That's probably the best piece that you've ever had. Wow.

It's just how they are. So as soon as you tell people you're into cooking around

there for school, oh, man, they were all over me. And they started sharing everything at their

table with me. Well, listen, we're kind of running out of time. So I don't

definitely want to talk about your business. You came back to Madison to start a business called

Bro Thai. First thing you do is have a sauce product, which we just taste it. It's totally amazing.

Oh, yeah. Sweet, hot, chilly, as well. Tell us about your endeavor. And you're going to get a

food truck. So tell us about your new endeavor. And to bring food here that you grew up with to

the streets of Man City. Well, the sauce was supposed to come last. That was kind of a fluke,

but it's good because it's kind of made things take off. Right now, we're in the process of

buying your food truck. It takes a lot of planning, especially the city has been very helpful.

We reached out to them when we were going through all the permits and stuff like that. And so

they helped us tell us what we were missing and things like that. And we're at the point now

where we're doing catering. I've done one catering job for a mass and property management.

Wow. So this is really new. Yeah. It's really new. And I did over 600 pieces by myself for

and tell us about tell us about this wonderful sauce that you made. Bro Thai. Oh, well,

this is called prick num plah. And what it is is some people in Thailand, they call it crack sauce.

Okay. Because because it's highly addicted. I know. I'm separated by glass. I can't get in there.

It's true. But all Thai food, you know, they break it down to four flavors. Right. So you got

your your sweet, your salty, your sour, and your spicy. Yeah. And without all four of those,

it's hard to call it Thai food. And when we were looking for real Thai food and looking at

different places, we realized, you know, there is Madison, there is a calling for real Thai food

in Madison. Right. And I'm not going down anybody because that's not nice. And I was like,

we're all in business, right? Yep. But there's been places I love. And then basically it came down

to you. Everybody was asking, where do I get a good egg roll? Yeah. And then that was my forte.

Before it started, all this was making egg rolls. So that is how it started. And then I started

making crab and goons. And then people were like, I can taste the crab. Yeah. It was like, yeah,

you can see it too. Yeah. So I put a lot of pride into everything I do. So something I learned in

Thailand is when you cook, it should make you happy. Yeah. And when you're cooking for people,

it should make them happy eating it. And that that really struck me that that made me feel like

this is something I want to do. I believe in all of that. And so you're going to come out with

some bro Thai winged pink sauce in the future here. Where can we find bro Thai sauce that's

out right now? And how can we look for the truck? And how can we keep up with you online? Well,

it's going to be very easy. So I have a website. It's a BRO-THAI.com. And right at the top, you can

order the sauce. And probably within the next two weeks, I'm going to be putting up the wing sauce

for sale also. And then our calendar is going to be going up where I'm going to be doing a weekly

meals where we're going to do like probably 30 meals a week, one day a week, we're deciding still

which day that's going to be. And then we're going to use that to segue into the food truck.

Wow. Sounds like you got your work cut out for you. Well, we'll have to get you back in when

you got some more time coming out and brother. And when you got the food truck in and we'll

we'll drive some man's out front. Yeah, there you go. The blinkers on. Can we just do a remote

from the truck? Yeah, there we go. Oh my gosh. Bro, thank you so much for taking the

time to come down and chat with us tonight. We really appreciate it. And good luck on your food

truck. I hope to you stand in line soon. Yeah. Hey, thank you, Rockefeller. Have me on. I really

appreciate it. And I just want to say one more thing. Thank you to my wife because without her,

I wouldn't be here to do any of this. Oh, man, that's so sweet. Thanks, Bruno. Thank you.