Commercial Kitchen Chronicles

EVERY TECH THINKS ABOUT GOING OUT ON THEIR OWN. BUT ARE YOU REALLY READY FOR WHAT COMES NEXT? No boss. No guaranteed paycheck. No one else to blame when things go wrong. Being a great HVAC technician doesn’t mean you know how to run an HVAC business. And sometimes, the hardest part isn’t fixing the equipment. It’s keeping the company alive. For Ramon Perez, the journey started when he found out he...

🏆  What does it take to become one of the best commercial foodservice equipment technicians in the country? This week on  Commercial Kitchen Chronicles – The Original Foodservice Equipment Repair Podcast , we're joined by Kyle Burkholder, Branch Manager at Clark Service Group in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and one of the industry's rising stars! In 2026, Kyle accomplished something incredibl...

Six Figures at 21: The Next Generation of HVAC/R with KyleDoesHVAC 21 years old. Two years in HVAC/R. Six-figure income. And responsible for helping maintain more than 1,100 compressors. Meanwhile, there are technicians who've spent 20 years in the industry and still haven't reached that level of income. So what's Kyle Coleman doing differently? Is it hard work, the right opportunities...

You don't have to know everything to belong in the skilled trades. But are we doing enough to help the next generation succeed? In this episode of  Commercial Kitchen Chronicles , we head to Ontario, Canada, to sit down with Clara, better known as  @HVAC.Clara , for an honest conversation about life as an HVAC service technician, breaking into the skilled trades, and building confidence one se...

Are we actually developing skilled technicians, or are we just rushing people through training to fill empty service trucks? In this episode of  Commercial Kitchen Chronicles , Pat Finley sits down with 26-year HVAC veteran, instructor, and newly published author  Josh Pickel , better known as  “Professor Pickel,”  for a conversation about training, technician development, leadership, and what it...

A clogged drain might look like a simple service call, but there’s a whole lot more happening underground. On this episode of Commercial Kitchen Chronicles, Pat sits down with Dylan Bradley, aka The Sewer Slug, to talk about building a career in plumbing, drain cleaning, sewer diagnostics, and underground repair. Dylan’s path into the trades wasn’t planned. After earning a bachelor’s degree in beh...

At 28 years old, Mitch Noto is already a licensed HVAC contractor, business owner, technician, installer, and the creator behind Total HVAC. In this episode of Commercial Kitchen Chronicles, we sit down with Mitch to talk about what it's really like building a career in HVAC while taking on the responsibility of running a business. Mitch grew up around the trade and eventually stepped into the...

What does it really take to prepare the next generation of HVACR technicians for the field? This week on Commercial Kitchen Chronicles, Pat sits down with Matthew LeMaster, HVACR instructor at the University of Arkansas – Pulaski Technical College, to talk about what happens between the classroom and that first real service call. Matthew didn’t originally plan on becoming an instructor. After work...

Commercial refrigeration is changing fast—but the fundamentals still matter. In this episode of Commercial Kitchen Chronicles, Pat sits down with Chris Thomas of Heatcraft Refrigeration Products for a deep dive into refrigeration, technician training, troubleshooting, system charging, controls, and where the industry is headed. Chris brings more than four decades of HVAC/R experience, from residen...

WE MADE IT TO 200! Commercial Kitchen Chronicles officially hits EPISODE 200! What started as a way to talk shop and shine a light on the foodservice equipment repair industry has somehow turned into 200 episodes of technicians, manufacturers, trainers, business owners, skilled trades conversations, questionable opinions, trash talking, and plenty of completely unscripted moments. For Episode 200,...

What actually makes great HVAC training? It isn't memorizing a PowerPoint, following a checklist, or teaching technicians to become parts changers. Great training should teach technicians how to THINK, troubleshoot, ask questions, find reliable information, and understand why a system is doing what it's doing. This week on Commercial Kitchen Chronicles, Pat sits down with HVACR trainer, co...

Are we really struggling to find the next generation of technicians… or are we struggling to TRAIN them? On this episode of Commercial Kitchen Chronicles, I sit down with Ty Branaman, CMHE — Head of Training for The GRIT Foundation, Field Trainer for Kalos Services, Love2HVAC edutainer, Aether Training consultant, and the one and only Banana Man. https://www.love2hvac.com/ www.youtube.com/@love2hv...

What does it take to build the service company you always wished existed? In this episode of Commercial Kitchen Chronicles, Joe Sharp returns for his third appearance, and as always, he doesn't hold back. From his days as a restaurant facilities manager to becoming a service technician, business owner, and YouTube creator, Joe shares the lessons he's learned from every side of the commerci...

The Evolution of Commercial Kitchen Service with Rich Griffin | 50 Years of Experience, Electrical Fundamentals & Technician Development What does nearly  50 years in the commercial foodservice industry  teach you? This week on  Commercial Kitchen Chronicles , Pat Finley sits down with  Rich Griffin , a respected industry veteran whose career has taken him from service technician, to business...

How the Trades Changed My Life | Jameson Lolos | Commercial Kitchen Chronicles Sometimes the path to the skilled trades isn't a straight line. In this episode of  Commercial Kitchen Chronicles , Pat sits down with  Jameson Lolos  to discuss a journey that started in a technical high school HVAC program, detoured through college and student debt, and ultimately led him back to the trades he was...

What does it take to build a 27-year career in HVAC while overcoming addiction, traveling the country as a startup and commissioning technician, and becoming one of the most recognizable personalities in the skilled trades? In this episode of Commercial Kitchen Chronicles, Pat Finley sits down with Bobby Armstrong, better known as Blue Collar Code, for an honest, hilarious, and inspiring conversat...

Your Past Doesn't Define Your Future | Lessons on Trades, Business & Wealth Building Can your past become your greatest strength? In this inspiring episode of Commercial Kitchen Chronicles, host Pat Finley and co-host Rich Ortega are joined by Michael Hess and Darin Branch for a powerful conversation about overcoming adversity, finding purpose, building a successful career in the skilled t...

From Navy Veteran to HVACR Technician: David Weeks (HVACR Panda) Shares His Story What happens when military service doesn't translate into the skilled trades the way everyone says it will? In this episode of Commercial Kitchen Chronicles, Pat Finley sits down with David Weeks, better known online as HVACR Panda, for an honest conversation about life after the Navy, entering the HVACR industry...

Commercial HVAC/R in the Real World | Featuring Joe Blanchard What does it take to succeed as a commercial HVAC/R technician in today's industry? How do you balance real service calls, troubleshooting complex equipment, and building a social media presence that educates and inspires thousands of technicians? In this episode of Commercial Kitchen Chronicles, Pat Finley sits down with HVAC/R tec...

From working on F-14 Tomcats in the U.S. Navy to running service calls around the Washington D.C. beltway, leading technicians, managing facilities, and ultimately moving into business development, Anthony Dileo has experienced nearly every side of the service industry. In this episode of Commercial Kitchen Chronicles, Anthony joins Pat Finley and Rich Ortega to share his incredible career journey...

From New York to Atlanta. From established business to starting over from scratch. What would you do? This week on Commercial Kitchen Chronicles, Pat Finley sits down with Brent Hall, founder and owner of Favored Mechanical Solutions (FMS), for an honest conversation about risk, entrepreneurship, commercial foodservice equipment repair, and what it really takes to build a service company people tr...

This week on the Commercial Kitchen Chronicles, Pat sits down with Jay McDonough of Restaurant Appliance Repair out of Kansas City, Missouri for a real-world conversation about what it takes to build a name in the Foodservice Equipment Repair Industry. 🔥 Jay started RAR at just 25 years old and has spent the last 11 years grinding through commercial kitchen equipment repair, refrigeration, walk-i...

What happens when Pat, Jason, and Rich get together with zero agenda and full permission to go off the rails? This episode right here 🔥 The crew is back for one of the most unfiltered Commercial Kitchen Chronicles episodes yet. We’re talking commercial kitchen equipment repair, HVACR, refrigeration tech life, service call chaos, career moves, burnout, leadership, the realities of the trades, and...

What’s REALLY holding service companies back? 🤔 In this episode of  Commercial Kitchen Chronicles , we sit down with 🎙️ Aaron Jacobitz from Refrigeration Heroesto break down the hard truths about  sales, team building, and growth in the refrigeration and foodservice repair industry . If you’re a technician, service manager, or business owner trying to level up… this one is going to hit 👇 We’re t...

From factory work in the Appalachian Mountains to Regional Supervisor in just five years… this is the kind of story the trades need right now 🔥 In this episode of Commercial Kitchen Chronicles, we sit down with Clay Hartzog to break down his journey from zero experience to leading operations across Virginia and North Carolina for Archway Service Group. No shortcuts, no fluff… just real-world grow...