![Interview with Cara Wade [Butterface Lunchlady – TikTok] – Cambro Eats Episode 36](https://cdn-images-3.listennotes.com/podcasts/cambro-eats/interview-with-cara-wade-yP1WZkswjTd-X65W7gquyCc.1250x2560.jpg "Interview with Cara Wade [Butterface Lunchlady – TikTok] – Cambro Eats Episode 36")
Okay, great. Great. So jumping back to how how we connected or how we got a hold of you, obviously Tiktok's been growing insanely amounts, obviously in recent years, so I actually want to ask you first for folks obviously haven't seen your content and we'll have links to that if they're interested. What made you kind of share things in there?
Because again, you share content that's very kind of straightforward. You know, it's nothing, you know, out of the norm, so to speak. You're kind of giving a glimpse into into your world, into the things you do. Kind of what made you decide to do that? I love food and I love what I do, and I've always documented it.
You know, I've always had a running Instagram or whatever the thing of the moment is, and TikTok was really just the next phase.
Before COVID hit, I had all these plans to open a food cart, and so I had designed the Butter Face logo and had the name. And I just love my cute little butter face logo so much that I decided to make it the face of my TikTok. Once that became kind of the cool place to post content. And the rest is kind of history.
I just I love what I do and it's really fun to just share it as is with people. Yeah. Yeah. That. Yeah. Now, can can we ask about the name of the right know? How did that come about? Can we ask about that? Yeah. The food cart I was planning to open was going to be like low carb or keto focused, which, you know, was a lot of like heavy fat content and food.
And so it was kind of just a funny like play on words. Yeah. And the idea of a little stick of butter, but he has a face and you know, it's a little, a little bit provocative, which makes people go away and make people do a double take. Yeah, that's, that's very cool. Very interesting. Great. What so what's been kind of the the feedback from, you know, a variety of people from like student or some of the parents I'm sure I could I expect and you know, I'll speak for myself when I watch it.
You're not just again, when you're presenting the things you do, it really comes across really. You show how much you actually do enjoy the process of the food and you explain in detail. You talk about some of the challenges, whether an ingredient is out, how you have to make do. And he still kind of do all these things.
And it's, you know, without missing a beat, if you will, and you do share all these things out there. Yeah, I've had a couple kids who come up to the window and they're like, I saw your one Tik tok. I couldn't believe it was my high school dog. Yeah. So they seem to get a kick out of it.
And I think there's always a little bit of nerves when it comes to management or ad man, like, how is this going to come across? And they have been so supportive. Let's go. My school is full of just the kindest, most supportive staff. And I mean, that's great. Yeah, well, I think you definitely are a great ambassador for, you know, the support that obviously a lot of people don't really see besides day to day.
I mean, like I said, speaking for myself, I remember the lunch ladies when when I when I was in when I was in school. And again, I had no idea what the work that went on back there. It's like there's a hole in my ears. I've been out of space for the amount of, you know, kind of access you had to to what was going on back there.
So it's it's kind of interesting in the way presented really. I would tend to, you know, kind of better. A lot of people, it doesn't look drastically different than like an actual restaurant, people preparing food and all that. It's a lot of work. And obviously you're dealing with so many quantities day in and day out. Yeah. Thank you.
Yeah, it's like a little peek behind the curtain. Definitely. Yeah. So what is that you love about your job right now so much? Oh, I obviously, I love the kids. Like getting to feed all these kids. You said K12. We actually also have a child care center. Okay, so it's one year olds all the way through high school.
So probably my favorite part of my job is sneaking over to the child side and just kind of peeking in and watching, you know, the toddlers trying to figure, you know, they're trying to figure everything out. A lot of. Exactly. It's a mess. You know, if it's Sloppy Joe Day, that's where you're going to find me is peeking in to see the little kids eating it.
I love to hear kids saying like, I did it like this, but I tried it again and maybe they liked it. This time or. Yeah, but just exposing them to new things and knowing that even if they don't love it, that it's something that is becoming more familiar to them all the time. Mm hmm. And then, you know, for a food service job, I have really great hours.
I get to spend the evening with my family, and I get weekends and holidays off, which is unheard of in the industry. So. And I love to cook. Yeah, that's great. That's great. That's awesome. What? What again? I having been in the in the school for for a little bit now what are some of the trends that you see obviously coming out of the pandemic and kind of moving forward.
What what are you seeing some of the things that are really popular or some things that aren't so popular that are dying off maybe, or, you know, things like that? Yeah, we are, you know, in my eyes, very lucky. We don't face a lot of the same challenges or restrictions as a private school that I know a lot of public schools do.
And I don't know when it started. I know it definitely started before I was in elementary school that food was largely standardized and frozen and prefab things that were being reheated. But I noticed that in private and public schools, there seems to be a way of starting those like fresher options and just people in general being more aware that the food we serve our kids needs to be nutritious and appealing.
Right. And that, like perfect nutrition on the plate doesn't really mean anything if it doesn't end up in their bellies. So I think that you see a lot of different schools serving fresh salads and yeah, just those fresher and more kind of handcrafted items. And I think that's part of what I love about sharing my content on TikTok is hearing from other school cooks or camp cooks who are getting some ideas about, you know, one of the creative things I get to do is, is figure out the balance of I can't I can't make every single thing from scratch for 500 kids.
So what are ways that I can support myself and shortcut but still provide a product that is good and tasty and nutritious and feels fully homemade without running myself into the ground trying to, you know, do things from scratch to an unreasonable extent. Right. Day in and day out. Yeah. This is the yeah, it's. It's constant. Wow. Okay, great.
You know, one thing I'm I'm curious from your perspective, what are some of the misconceptions or things that that the public may not know about school food service that they you wish they they they knew a little bit more about. I think the biggest thing that people you know especially in my interactions with people in the TikTok comments and all that people don't seem to understand the implications of how much, how big, how many less quantity of stuff we're doing.
And people have just they just do this. Why don't you just do that and like there is no just doing anything 500 times. And I know, especially for public schools, that their hands are tied a lot and your lunch staff cares about your kids. And if something is not the way you would want it to be, I guarantee it's not because that staff in the kitchen didn't care about it.
It's very challenging and overwhelming and somebody with a lot of experience in the industry, it's challenging for me. I think a lot of schools are kitchens are staffed by people who don't have a lot of industry experience and just want to take care of the kids. If it's very complicated and it's very difficult and, you know, any mistake you make when you're preparing 500 of something is potentially 500 mistakes right now.
It's true. Yeah. Yeah. Very good point. Good, good, good. Well, excellent. This is a11 last thing about the whole ticktock experience. Did you ever imagine you could have 200,000 plus followers on on a platform? Well, look, I don't think I ever thought social media was going to be the thing, but I. Yes, I absolutely imagined I found like a very young age I would do.
You know, I loved watching the network. And from a very young age, I would do my own cooking shows in the kitchen when I was like microwaving a Pop-Tart or microwaving a hot pocket. But I would go through the whole thing of like, you simply cannot put the foil in the microwave. Yes, I obviously I couldn't have anticipated when or how, but I've always been drawn to food and to sharing it with people.
And yeah, I'm I'm a big Food Network head. Excellent. Well, I think it's it's really interesting and I think it's really eye opening to a lot of folks, the kind of the way you're sharing not only just the kind of behind the scenes, but in such a very open and natural and honest way. So people are really, like you said, they see the challenges and they see the the day to day, but at the same time, the end result for a lot of these things are just phenomenal.
And I think, you know, if people were to look at several of the piece of content put out there, they would really be it would be something else. I don't know if a lot of people would be able to step into into the shoes and in the school food service so quickly. Thank you so much. That's really great.
Well, thank you. I appreciate your time. Yeah. Thank you so much for having me. This is great. And we hope everybody follows you on TikTok. Yeah. Butter based lunch lady. Thank you for listening. For more information, please check out CambroEats.com. Until next time, stay hungry.
Because again, you share content that's very kind of straightforward. You know, it's nothing, you know, out of the norm, so to speak. You're kind of giving a glimpse into into your world, into the things you do. Kind of what made you decide to do that? I love food and I love what I do, and I've always documented it.
You know, I've always had a running Instagram or whatever the thing of the moment is, and TikTok was really just the next phase.
Before COVID hit, I had all these plans to open a food cart, and so I had designed the Butter Face logo and had the name. And I just love my cute little butter face logo so much that I decided to make it the face of my TikTok. Once that became kind of the cool place to post content. And the rest is kind of history.
I just I love what I do and it's really fun to just share it as is with people. Yeah. Yeah. That. Yeah. Now, can can we ask about the name of the right know? How did that come about? Can we ask about that? Yeah. The food cart I was planning to open was going to be like low carb or keto focused, which, you know, was a lot of like heavy fat content and food.
And so it was kind of just a funny like play on words. Yeah. And the idea of a little stick of butter, but he has a face and you know, it's a little, a little bit provocative, which makes people go away and make people do a double take. Yeah, that's, that's very cool. Very interesting. Great. What so what's been kind of the the feedback from, you know, a variety of people from like student or some of the parents I'm sure I could I expect and you know, I'll speak for myself when I watch it.
You're not just again, when you're presenting the things you do, it really comes across really. You show how much you actually do enjoy the process of the food and you explain in detail. You talk about some of the challenges, whether an ingredient is out, how you have to make do. And he still kind of do all these things.
And it's, you know, without missing a beat, if you will, and you do share all these things out there. Yeah, I've had a couple kids who come up to the window and they're like, I saw your one Tik tok. I couldn't believe it was my high school dog. Yeah. So they seem to get a kick out of it.
And I think there's always a little bit of nerves when it comes to management or ad man, like, how is this going to come across? And they have been so supportive. Let's go. My school is full of just the kindest, most supportive staff. And I mean, that's great. Yeah, well, I think you definitely are a great ambassador for, you know, the support that obviously a lot of people don't really see besides day to day.
I mean, like I said, speaking for myself, I remember the lunch ladies when when I when I was in when I was in school. And again, I had no idea what the work that went on back there. It's like there's a hole in my ears. I've been out of space for the amount of, you know, kind of access you had to to what was going on back there.
So it's it's kind of interesting in the way presented really. I would tend to, you know, kind of better. A lot of people, it doesn't look drastically different than like an actual restaurant, people preparing food and all that. It's a lot of work. And obviously you're dealing with so many quantities day in and day out. Yeah. Thank you.
Yeah, it's like a little peek behind the curtain. Definitely. Yeah. So what is that you love about your job right now so much? Oh, I obviously, I love the kids. Like getting to feed all these kids. You said K12. We actually also have a child care center. Okay, so it's one year olds all the way through high school.
So probably my favorite part of my job is sneaking over to the child side and just kind of peeking in and watching, you know, the toddlers trying to figure, you know, they're trying to figure everything out. A lot of. Exactly. It's a mess. You know, if it's Sloppy Joe Day, that's where you're going to find me is peeking in to see the little kids eating it.
I love to hear kids saying like, I did it like this, but I tried it again and maybe they liked it. This time or. Yeah, but just exposing them to new things and knowing that even if they don't love it, that it's something that is becoming more familiar to them all the time. Mm hmm. And then, you know, for a food service job, I have really great hours.
I get to spend the evening with my family, and I get weekends and holidays off, which is unheard of in the industry. So. And I love to cook. Yeah, that's great. That's great. That's awesome. What? What again? I having been in the in the school for for a little bit now what are some of the trends that you see obviously coming out of the pandemic and kind of moving forward.
What what are you seeing some of the things that are really popular or some things that aren't so popular that are dying off maybe, or, you know, things like that? Yeah, we are, you know, in my eyes, very lucky. We don't face a lot of the same challenges or restrictions as a private school that I know a lot of public schools do.
And I don't know when it started. I know it definitely started before I was in elementary school that food was largely standardized and frozen and prefab things that were being reheated. But I noticed that in private and public schools, there seems to be a way of starting those like fresher options and just people in general being more aware that the food we serve our kids needs to be nutritious and appealing.
Right. And that, like perfect nutrition on the plate doesn't really mean anything if it doesn't end up in their bellies. So I think that you see a lot of different schools serving fresh salads and yeah, just those fresher and more kind of handcrafted items. And I think that's part of what I love about sharing my content on TikTok is hearing from other school cooks or camp cooks who are getting some ideas about, you know, one of the creative things I get to do is, is figure out the balance of I can't I can't make every single thing from scratch for 500 kids.
So what are ways that I can support myself and shortcut but still provide a product that is good and tasty and nutritious and feels fully homemade without running myself into the ground trying to, you know, do things from scratch to an unreasonable extent. Right. Day in and day out. Yeah. This is the yeah, it's. It's constant. Wow. Okay, great.
You know, one thing I'm I'm curious from your perspective, what are some of the misconceptions or things that that the public may not know about school food service that they you wish they they they knew a little bit more about. I think the biggest thing that people you know especially in my interactions with people in the TikTok comments and all that people don't seem to understand the implications of how much, how big, how many less quantity of stuff we're doing.
And people have just they just do this. Why don't you just do that and like there is no just doing anything 500 times. And I know, especially for public schools, that their hands are tied a lot and your lunch staff cares about your kids. And if something is not the way you would want it to be, I guarantee it's not because that staff in the kitchen didn't care about it.
It's very challenging and overwhelming and somebody with a lot of experience in the industry, it's challenging for me. I think a lot of schools are kitchens are staffed by people who don't have a lot of industry experience and just want to take care of the kids. If it's very complicated and it's very difficult and, you know, any mistake you make when you're preparing 500 of something is potentially 500 mistakes right now.
It's true. Yeah. Yeah. Very good point. Good, good, good. Well, excellent. This is a11 last thing about the whole ticktock experience. Did you ever imagine you could have 200,000 plus followers on on a platform? Well, look, I don't think I ever thought social media was going to be the thing, but I. Yes, I absolutely imagined I found like a very young age I would do.
You know, I loved watching the network. And from a very young age, I would do my own cooking shows in the kitchen when I was like microwaving a Pop-Tart or microwaving a hot pocket. But I would go through the whole thing of like, you simply cannot put the foil in the microwave. Yes, I obviously I couldn't have anticipated when or how, but I've always been drawn to food and to sharing it with people.
And yeah, I'm I'm a big Food Network head. Excellent. Well, I think it's it's really interesting and I think it's really eye opening to a lot of folks, the kind of the way you're sharing not only just the kind of behind the scenes, but in such a very open and natural and honest way. So people are really, like you said, they see the challenges and they see the the day to day, but at the same time, the end result for a lot of these things are just phenomenal.
And I think, you know, if people were to look at several of the piece of content put out there, they would really be it would be something else. I don't know if a lot of people would be able to step into into the shoes and in the school food service so quickly. Thank you so much. That's really great.
Well, thank you. I appreciate your time. Yeah. Thank you so much for having me. This is great. And we hope everybody follows you on TikTok. Yeah. Butter based lunch lady. Thank you for listening. For more information, please check out CambroEats.com. Until next time, stay hungry.
