Giada DeLaurentiis: The Dark Times Made Me Strong | E21

there. Achieving Excellence is our goal and it's never easy to do we all have different backgrounds, personalities and surroundings. And we all have different routes on how we hope you want to get there. My guest today is Gianna DiLaurentis Gianna is an award winning celebrity chef and culinary icon. She has been a television star on the Food Network for 19 years where she has been the host or co host of 16 different shows including Gianna at home Gianna in Italy and Food Network

star. She has won two Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding lifestyle host and outstanding culinary series and has also won the Gracie Award for Best television host. She is the founder of the successful catering business GDL foods and is also the founder of grc.com, which for five years is still cooking products that feature recipes found on our website.

Gianna is a regular contributor and guest co host on NBC Today Show and is the best selling author of nine cookbooks including the New York Times number one best seller, eat better feel better, she added some incredible pleasure to have you on my show. Welcome to a Search of Excellence.

Hills and grew up there. We're going to talk about your grandfather in a minute. But I want to start with your parents. What kind of values do they instill in you? And what kind of influence did they have was growing up and as an adult?

four kids at the time. And she had been moved around a lot as a kid. So she wanted some grounding. And so we come from a big Italian family. And I think she loved being with her family. She loved just traveling with her mother and spending time with her dad and watching them work. And I think she was super inspired by that. And I think she also craved going out on her own, you know, my family really kept, especially in those days because there was such turmoil with famous families all over

Europe, but really in Italy. We know many stories about kidnappings, and all sorts of stuff. And so my family was a very tight knit. And my grandparents were very strict in the sense that my mom even was an older teenager wasn't really allowed to do much without them. And she wasn't much of a rebel, she kind of followed the rules. And I think family was probably the biggest and most important thing in her life. And my dad's life was a little different. He went to boarding school most of

his life. He didn't know his parents that well. But he did come from a pretty well to do family. And my parents getting together was not something that my grandparents were fans of. So I think for my mom, it was her the rebel in her at that point that came out, even though she loved her family so much. So we stayed close to the family to my mom's family forever, really, and even moved to the States with them. So I would say family is number one on that list of values.

One out of every five students in the United States is a victim of bullying over 3.2 million students of these approximately 160,000 and teenagers skip school every day because of bullying. Similar to your experience, only one in four teachers sees nothing wrong with it. And when they do see it, they will intervene only 4% of the time students who experienced bullying are at increased risk for depression, anxiety, sleep difficulties, lower academic achievement, dropping out of school violence

and suicide. We're going to talk about your grandfather in the introduction to cooking in a minute. But before we do, can you tell us about Jabba the Hutt and Star Wars in the effect that being bullied when you were eight years old? Had on your path to excellence and on your future?

Italian food at all time. There was no like, well, let's try going to McDonald's and seeing what a hamburger is like, or let's try to give Jada something other than a Nutella sandwich or pasta for lunch, which no kid did that when I was a kid. And it seems strange talking about it now, because things have changed so dramatically. But I guess the stats are still there. So maybe they have maybe they haven't, they get bullied for different reasons. My mother also insisted on cutting my hair

short. So I always had really short hair. I know you smile. But as a girl, it was really hard. It was really hard. My mom truly believed in old wives tale, which was if I cut her hair short, she'll grow up and have these beautiful locks. But we all know that's not true. So she was slightly naive, I think

at that point, too. And I think that made it very difficult for me, because kids would tease me about whether I was a boy or a girl, I had obviously a very different name, which by the way, I really disdained most of my life. And only in my later years have I accepted my name, and can actually hear people calling me that. So I think it was a factor of all those things that made me stick out. And, you know, I ate lunch alone, I got teased for my food. And yes, teachers didn't really say

anything. But I think it's, I don't blame them. I think they just didn't know any better. And maybe they didn't even know how to talk to me or communicate with me. And I think that's really what it was all about. But I will say this, it definitely gave me the drive to succeed, and to show them all that I wasn't all those things. And they called me Jabba the Hutt because Jabba the Hutt was a very popular character in Star Wars in those days. And I just happened to work very closely to

my name. And so they just figured, well, I can't say her name. So I'm just going to describe her as this unattractive, very large animal thing in Star Wars, which was very popular at the time. And I think that for me, I didn't know where I belonged. It was very difficult for me to figure out who my who I was and what my identity was. So I think that's why I threw myself into food and cooking. Two things

happened to me. So I sympathize with what you went through it. It does make you stronger, and it does create drive. Let's talk about your grandfather, the biggest part of your childhood and I want to give everyone a little bit of family history here. Your maternal grandfather

was named Dino DiLaurentis. He was a very famous incredibly successful Academy Award nominated movie producer, who produced more than 600 films in 60 years including Serpico, which was released in 1973 and starred Al Pacino and Conan the Barbarian which was released in 1982 and starred Arnold Schwarzenegger, your grandfather's father, your great grandfather owned a pasta factory outside of Naples where

they made pasta and sauces. Your grandfather and his seven siblings would go to door to door selling them when he was a young child. It wasn't the kind of factory that makes cars in Detroit as you said it was a building where they lived in part of it and a pasta the other part and when they finished making the pasta they hung it on the roof to dry on clotheslines. His experience in making the pasta and selling it stuck with your grandfather. And after he became a successful movie

producer. He opened up a gourmet grocery store called DDL Food Show. You were 12 years old when it opened and you'd go there after school and spent a ton of time there. Can you give us the details about what you did there, how often you went and how important this learning experience was to your future. And it's Having a passion for something at such a young age are important on our path to excellence.

the customers coming in. And seeing this massive space, with all different sort of stands very similar to what Italy has today, where you get bread at one section, and you get pasta to another and then you'd have a butcher. And that's how it would work. And also the fact that my grandfather brought all of his friends from Italy, that he grew up with pizzaiolos and butchers and everybody you can imagine, he actually imported them and move them to Los Angeles and to

New York. And I think it was just the energy of these Neapolitans there, the fact that they spoke broken English, but it was just so sensual. And it was so romantic. And I think customers want to walk in and feel like they were transported to Italy somehow. And there was such a light in people's eyes and their mouths would just drop with amazement, and I think and the food and the aromas that were coming out of that place.

And I think it was a combination of all those things that I realized, whatever I do, I want to be around this, a combination of everything, not just the food, but even the people and the excitement that they had, and the shock and awe and wonder that was coming out of them. And I think that I was attracted to all of that somehow. And so I would just do whatever it took. But take out the trash hand people things, ring them up, whatever I could do, because I was a kid, I would do so I could

hang out there. And it was pretty impressive. And I watched my grandfather when he would be there when he was there, just kind of talking to everybody and, and shaking hands and being very personable. I was not very personable at that age, I was very, very shy. But I loved watching it. I think it's one of those moments in your life where I realized somehow, this is the world I want to be in. And I'm gonna make that happen. But I don't know that I knew anything more than that.

little rough for you. Because back then when you came from an Italian family, the tradition was that they like the men to be the ones to go to college, your grandfather used to say to you, why don't you just get married, and have kids? Those were the cultural norms at the time. And they've changed a lot, obviously, in the last 30 years. And even though you came from a wealthy family, you paid for

college yourself. When you graduated, no one made a big deal out of your accomplishment, despite how many monumental it was. We're going to talk about what you did after you graduated UCLA in a minute, but before we do, he tell us how important education is, as well as what we study in college to our future success and as what we learn outside the classroom as important or more important than what we learn inside the classroom.

value in it. It was just the cultural norm of where my grandfather came from. And the world he came from Europe just didn't push kids to go to college, all over Europe. It wasn't just Italy. I think they just didn't see it that way. But I felt like I was the eldest of the four kids of my siblings. And I felt that without an education, I wasn't sure there was much more for me to do. And honestly, Randall, I just, I admired my aunt Rafi so much.

And she did go to a little bit of architecture school, and she worked hard. She didn't have any kids. But I realized, I want to be something, I want to do something and I don't want to rely on my family for money. I want to make something of myself and I want to be dependent on myself. And I think that drove me to fight to go to college. And it wasn't that they were against it. They didn't see the

value in it. And so for them, I didn't even want to ask them to pay for it because I already knew that, you know, I had a younger brother, two years younger and I knew that for them. They would think well know your brother go to college, but you don't need to go to college. So I didn't even want to apply which the subject I never did, I just took a loan out, I filled out the paperwork, because I was a little older. Because moving here, I missed a couple of

years. So I was always the eldest of my class, and I was able to get a loan on my own. And so I never even explained it to them. And it was only years later that they asked me, how'd you pay for that? So I explained it, but even that to them was they didn't understand how do you get the government to pay for it? It just doesn't exist in Europe. It does now, but not at the time. And so I would say that I loved going to college, I really did. I felt like I gained a lot of independence going

there. And I had time to figure out, did I really want to pursue cooking, or was there something else I was interested in, I also got to meet a lot of people and I had so many opportunities that just helped me sort of grow as a person. And for me, especially being so close to my family, I felt like I needed somehow to be able to detach from them. And college gave me the opportunity

to really do that. I do think that colleges, the experiences outside of college are just as important as what you experience when you're studying. It really helps. A lot of people focus on maybe what they'd like to do meet people that really influenced the rest of their lives, and just learned so much about yourself. You really grow and learn about yourself for the first time in your life. And that is an experience I think everybody should have. It should be their right to have it.

at the time. And they had to work on the set of various roles from costume design to set design. And then you were given a small role on one of your aunt's films. But you didn't like that either. In fact, you hated being in front of the camera, and you hated everything about being on the movie set, other than the catering truck, which you thought was interesting and wondered how they did so much from such a

little truck. Despite their efforts, you were determined to set your own path, you decided to go to the prestigious and world famous 125 year old Cordon Bleu cooking school in Paris, we had aspirations of becoming a pastry chef. You're also the only woman in your class and similar to college you put yourself through and pay for cooking school? Can you tell us about throwing pots and rolling pans and the burns all over your arms? And how important it is not to quit when the going gets

rough? It? Can you tell us how important it is to pursue your own path in life, despite family or other outside pressures who want you to do something else?

doing there? Then when he wrapped his mind around the fact that I wanted to cook he then switched and said, well, then forget Paris. That's old news. And you go to China, and you learn to make Chinese food China is the future. And I was like, and I kept saying to him, I don't want to go to China. And I don't want to learn to cook Chinese food. And I do I even look like someone who could possibly have anything to do with Chinese food, no one would

even believe it. So I think that they were just confused by the whole thing. I think they also I was the first grandchild. So I think for them. It's like the first child who kind of grows up in America and starts to open their mind to what the possibilities are here and what people value here. And they just had a really hard time accepting that I wouldn't follow the traditional norms at the same time. Interestingly, I wasn't a boy. So it was okay. If I was

going to go off the rails. They were like, oh, let's just see what she does. It doesn't matter. Whatever she does, she does and it won't really matter. So expectations were low being a female. So that helped me out and I was able to do a lot of these things. But yes, I had to do a lot of them on my own terms and figure it out on my own. I will say Paris was rough. I thought it would be easier because I spoke Italian and French and Italian are so close. It was not easy. I was lonely. I

was so sad and depressed. I realized the weather in France is just horrible during the winter and I didn't realize how much I love the sunny California sunshine that I somehow was getting a lot of energy from that. And I was all alone. And I didn't know anybody and I didn't speak French and the school was all In French, so I was very rough for, I'd say, nine months of it. I wanted to come home every single day. And thank God I didn't, because I think it made me so much more resilient.

And I don't think I could have done all that I've done so far in my life had I not had that experience and gone through that darkness to get to the other side of it. But it was rough. It was really, really rough. until nine months in I was started getting friends and I realized how to get through the classes. And I learned to speak French and I got over the loneliness because I got a group of friends. But that was a giant leap.

that anymore. But at that time, you have to think that the chef's that cook there basically dealt with a lot of abuse growing up and they all worked in restaurant kitchens and restaurant kitchens were horrible places, they just were and they usually employed, if they even employed them young children from families that didn't have a lot of money. So it was sort of a white collar job. And a lot of people just sent their kids there. So they

dealt with a lot of abuse. So they turned around and went to these cooking schools to teach and were very unhappy people and just thought, Oh, these people are paying for this. Okay, we're going to show them what it's about. And you know, they were rough around the women. There were other women in my classes, but they were definitely tough on us really tough. And yes, they would throw things at US sauce, whatever. I had burns.

But I think honestly, Randall that having dealt with all the bullying that I dealt with, when I was young, I just kind of got through it. I was yeah, I cried a lot. And I was upset. But I kind of just felt like that's just the way things are, when you go through it as a young child, you sort of just expect that, that those are the bumps in the road that you're going to have to deal with as you grow up. So I dealt with it. I wasn't proud of it. But I just dealt with it and I got through it.

And I think that experience definitely made me more resilient than I could have ever been in this life.

a minute. But before we do he tell us how you got those jobs, how hard it was to land them, how much preparation you did for them, and what the interviews were like,

food. It just, it felt like it was just an extension of what I was doing in France, which I really wanted to do. Because in my mind, I was going to be an executive chef at a French restaurant to at the time. So I really liked that. And I love the camaraderie I loved working in the different departments. You know, when you work in a hotel like that, there's so many different departments, you can move around in which in a restaurant, you're a little more

limited to certain areas. And there were a lot of different people there. I had a lot of fun bouncing ideas off of people cooking with people. It was just fun. Getting a job at Spa was very difficult. It was very competitive. Everybody wanted to work there. And so that made it really hard. So I became friendly with the pastry chef, I really wanted to do pastries. Originally, I went to Paris because I wanted to be a pastry

chef. I love desserts. I love sugar, but I realized, you know, you should do savory and you should do pastries. And so at the Ritz Carlton, I worked on the, in the fine dining room on the line on the savory line. I didn't do any desserts, there was never a position there for desserts or for pastries. So I became friends with Sherry yard, who was Wolfgang's right hand when it came to pastries. And over time I fostered that

relationship. And little by little by little, she called me one day and she's like, we have a position it's very entry level you will make I think I made $4.80 an hour, which is nothing, especially when you're trying to make your own living. And she said but you know, you could work your way up. So I left the Ritz and I just ran over there because to me that was the

career changer. I felt like if I had that on my resume, I could really really start to build a business for myself and so I worked there for a long while. Couple years actually but it seemed like it was like probably 10 it was rough schedule. You work 1617 hour days you basically get home at like one in the morning after closing because pastries You're always the last one out right because desserts close out the dinner. And I go back to work at around

11. So I had a really strange schedule that was rough for me. And you work all the weekends were all the holidays. It's a difficult job. But I learned so much and I worked my way up in the pastry department. And I just loved the energy. Wolfgang brought a wonderful energy to the room anytime he entered it, and I watched him taste food on the line, I watched him mingle with the guests there was I learned a lot about how to

become a persona in a way. I think I learned a lot of that there from my grandfather, but also from watching Wolfgang in the dining room. So that was rough, but it did help me to start my own catering business after that, where I felt like it was a good time to transition.

business doing that. Then, once you had a successful catering business, you were a little bit bored. Because you had gone to this amazing and prestigious culinary school in Paris and you were making fried chicken every night and you wanted to do something more creative. You had a friend who was a food stylist and Liu said to you, it doesn't pay very much. But if you feel like it on the weekends you can do these photo shoots with me.

Your friend would do photo shoots for Martha Stewart Living and food and wine and some other magazines. And you started helping your friend as an assistant just for fun. 911 happened the world changed before then people were going out to dinner, which is the social way of enjoying food and family and friends. But after 911 People wanted to eat at home, he tell us about the food and wine family themed issue after 911 lunch with your family. Your grandfather getting the Lifetime Achievement Award

at the Oscars. And then the call you received from the executive named Bob Tishman who worked at the Food Network, which was then a fledgling cable network at the time.

are eating every day. I mean, it was cooking for the entire Howard family. And they all ate a little bit differently. A lot of them were constantly watching what they ate, which makes sense, but kind of becomes boring for someone like myself, I'm more artistic than that. And I felt like I was losing all of my techniques and all my ability

to create art. In other words, when this friend of mine called me, who was a pretty big food stylist at the time, I just thought, well, I could learn something, and I could be more creative and I can be more artistic. So yeah, I started for very little money doing it on the weekends, I had a lot of fun. I felt like I was being creative again. And I felt like oh, my soul was getting fed. And so I did that for a hot second. And then I got to meet a lot of creative directors of these

magazines. And so when 911 hit these magazines, one of the creative directors who I was friendly with reached out to me and she said, you know, we were thinking of doing a whole spread in the upcoming magazine about family and food. We really feel like this is changing the dynamics of how people entertain and spend time with their family. I thought, okay, I can do that. That's exciting. Maybe this will launch my career into food styling, which I really liked. I really, really liked

it. So I created a menu that was very simple. And because I was the only chef they asked that had more of a Hollywood background. They asked me about my grandfather. And so I told them, yeah, he's getting a Lifetime Achievement Award. So we thought, oh, wouldn't it be nice to do a whole luncheon, a DiLaurentis luncheon. So family style, and that's pretty much how it happened. And I created

these recipes. And I got my favorite photographer who I'd worked with for a while and to come help me style a little bit. And we all put it together and my family it was really awesome. And that magazine after being on I think it stands for a day. I immediately got a phone call from Bob Tishman and I honestly didn't even believe I didn't even know what Food Network was at the time. The only cooking shows I'd watch for on PBS. Those are the only cooking shows

I knew. So I didn't even understand what this phone call was about. I was like Is this a scam is some trying to scam me. So it took Bob Tishman a few phone calls to sort of get my attention and for me to do a little due diligence and figure out he was legit. And his whole idea was that they were looking for people who could inspire home cooks and Italian was a very big market for them. And they had at the time, Mario Batali. Mario was very Sheffy.

And he spoke that language and they wanted someone that was a little more family oriented. And they could do more simple recipes. And he liked the recipes. And he liked the family angle. So he asked me to put my self on tape and do a little demo, which took me about six months to do because I was busy with my catering business. And honestly, I did the acting thing for my family years prior. And I did get that and I was like, I'm not going to like it now. So why

would I want to do that? And there wasn't really, I made way more money catering, and private cheffing than I did doing television. So I was like, this is always anyhow, my brother, who has since passed, convinced me because he was doing movies with my aunt, and he convinced me Hey, how about I just follow you around with a camera, and we'll go to the grocery store, we'll do all the mundane things and see if we can get you comfortable enough to put something together. And he did.

Bless his heart. He did. And it made me comfortable being with him. And so I put this demo reel together, we put music on it, and I went to the farmers market and I tried to make it very cinematic. That was my whole thought as if I'm going to do this, it's going to be cinematic, which nobody else does. And we did it. And I landed everyday Italian. And it took me a couple seasons to get comfortable. Definitely it was a difficult and rocky road. But the rest, I guess is history as they would say.

And since then you've been the host or co host of 16 different shows, and are also a co host of the nation's number one morning show this practice made perfect. And what's your advice to the millions of people who are shy and think that being shy is hurting their careers? And what's your advice on how they should get over it? And for those working, who are insecure about what they're doing? How should they get over there insecurity?

comfortable and secure. And I sort of controlled my domain. And I was able to really learn how to manage that camera and how to manage that time. And be quick, like really quick on my feet quick thinking all of it. Because when you're on live television, it's difficult to stick to a script. And if you make a mistake, oh, well, that's just the way it goes. There is no redos. I have to say that that experience on the Today Show just changed my entire trajectory. I became so

confident in what I did. And I would also say that, you know, the people around me really helped as well. And yes, was I insecure about what I could do or what my potential was? Sure. I've always said, there's, there's millions of chefs that are probably way more talented than I am. But it's almost that mix, you need to have where you're talented, but you're also accessible. And you can teach, because that's really at the end of the day, my job is to teach people, right, and you have to

be passionate. And I'm certainly passionate about my family and my culture and where I come from. And I think it's the mix of all of that, that creates a force. And I think that along the way, I had some great teachers that in places that really helped foster that in me, and I'd say for anybody who is shy, or feels that they haven't mastered it, you just got to keep going. You got to keep doing it. And the more you do it, the more comfortable you get. And talking in the mirror

really helped me as well. I know that sounds really cheesy and corny, but talking in the mirror and watching the way that you react. Because how are you going to how do I know that when I'm looking at a black circle and a camera, I don't know what the way I look and I don't know how I speak and I think that really helps to practice in the mirror might seem weird, but it really helps at least it helped me.

food industry. As of December 2021. There were 145,115 chefs currently employed in the United States of these 25.8% are women while 70.3% Are men and the United Kingdom only 18.5% of over 250,000 professional chefs are women. And we'll start by talking about your first restaurant named Gianna, which opened in July 2014. At the Cromwell, which was the first ever boutique hotel on the Las

Vegas Strip. More important than the location was the fact that you were the first woman to have her own restaurant on the Las Vegas Strip. There's a common perception among female chefs about how their likability with their peers and the public impacts their professional lives. On the flip side, the same has not been true of men were bad behavior has been accepted for long periods of

time. In the last couple of years, we've seen expos days that reveal that reveal cultures have ridiculous harassment, and in some cases, sexual misconduct by famous chefs like John bash, and Mario Batali, who have gotten away with this behavior. For decades, people have given a lot of reason for the culture and the sexism in the restaurant business. And for female chefs, people who work in the industry has said that they don't feel like a woman can handle the

pressure. And that's why it's a boys club, and why they don't let women in. You've made it as a pioneer, you're incredibly likable, you have a great outgoing personality, have an incredible smile, and you're incredibly beautiful. You're in the 1% of 1% of 1%. What's your advice to women who want to succeed in business? Or in any business where sexism is rampant? And how does chess monopoly and politics play a factor in their success?

misconception. I think it's an it's rampant and probably every single profession in the world, really, I think that we still, as women are seen as weaker. I don't know, I think it's gotten better over the years. But it's still something that women fight that women have to fight on a

regular basis. I also think that they make it seem a little bit like, if you make it to that top tier as a woman, you're probably going to be the only one up there, because there's no room for any others, which is isn't true either. And I think we have to believe in ourselves as women, and we have to fight. Now, having said that, it is a delicate game. I will say that. And it is I think what you said about playing a chess game and being very careful about your

moves. It's very methodical the chess game that you have to play in most professions in this country, as a female to sort of jockey your way to see when you can kind of be at the same level as a man is a tricky game. I never had any intentions of any of these things happening. I never planned it. Because people asked me that all the time if I had a strategy. And if I followed my strategy, and I said, I didn't have a strategy, I kind of just went on an

adventure. And I went to see what the adventure would lead me always believing that I wanted to make my family proud. And I didn't want to somehow tarnish their name. That is something my grandfather sort of instilled in me. And quite early on in my careers, please, I have created a very iconic name, do not disrespect it in any way in whatever you choose to do. So that has always been in the back of my mind. So I made decisions, mostly based on what would make

my grandfather proud. And I try not to make decisions based on money, because most of them never turn out well. And I am a bit of a risk taker, I think, opening jobs in Las Vegas and being given that opportunity. I was scared to take that opportunity. I built that restaurant from scratch. You can ask many male chefs on the strip, if they've built their spaces from scratch. And I will tell you that they will say no, because that opportunity doesn't

come around very often. So I think it was sort of a rare gift from the universe that I was given at that time to do that restaurant. And it was a giant leap of faith. Absolutely. And there were definitely people who thought I was nuts that they thought for sure I'd never make it. And you know what, Grandal there were times where I didn't think I'd make it. I mean, I got divorced after I built that restaurant. So it was definitely taxing. It definitely took a

toll on me and my family. But I think it changed my trajectory. Again, I think it really threw me into a pool of male chefs that I would never have been considered a part of. And it gave me such respect. You know, I think all of a sudden, they really, really respected me. And I'm not sure when I could have gotten that in any other way. Especially because of the way I look. And that I came from TV. I mean, most chefs don't open restaurants after being on TV.

It's the reverse I go on TV after opening restaurants for like 20 years. And so I think that everybody watched to see what was going to happen. And I think there were people who were rooting for me and people who just, they weren't. And my goal was to prove them wrong. And I did something a little bit different than what you find on the strip. And I think that was sort of the magic of why Java to this day, eight years later is still super popular.

lots of sides. You whipped up some pasta quickly take place of the turkey out problem was solved. And there was some criticism after you open your restaurant few negative reviews. You spent two days bawling your eyes out after that. On May 10 2007. You went on the Ellen show. And you were teaching her and Nicole Kidman, how to cook some of your favorite and most

popular recipes. And then things got a little catty between you and Nicole while you were making focaccia when she bit into it, the pre made focaccia would have been sitting there for a very long time wasn't fresh, the call called the tough and spit it out. And there was the first time you appeared live on the today's show when Matt Lauer spit out your food after taking a bite of your seared chicken, which was meant only for appearances and not to be eaten because it wasn't cooked

through. These are minor challenges. But right as your career was taking off as a celebrity chef, your younger brother Dino died after a short battle with melanoma in 2003. You're extremely close to him the two of you talk three times a day he was the person you turn to for everything good and bad. Can you tell us how you overcame this personal tragedy and how you've used your brother's death, to give advice to others about their health and on our

path to excellence? What's your advice to others how to overcome negativity and challenges we all face in our careers.

like it is the same. Sometimes we have we sort of miss judge what we see because especially with social media these days, we only post the the great things, but we there's so many down moments for all of us. And I think sometimes we forget that our perspective sort of changes. I think that all of those moments you described, made me stronger and made me more determined and to who I am. I think my brother's death was

probably the hardest. By far, I think when you lose a sibling that you're so close to at when he's I mean, he had just barely turned 30 It shocked my life. It just I couldn't believe that that would actually or could actually happen. And a piece of me died, I think with him. But I will say that I I promised myself that he didn't have the opportunity to see his goals and

his dreams come true. And that I was going to make sure that I would do it for the two of us or for the both of us, I would spread the message of what Melanoma can actually do to you and what the sun can actually do to you. And also I worked harder than ever, I just did, I was like, I'm going to become incredibly successful. For my brother's sake, I'm not going to

let his death go in vain. I'm going to just sort of somehow propel myself and use that platform also to help others realize that wellness starts from a very young age and that we have to really pay attention, pay close attention to who you are and how your body works. I think that's been my goal and probably will be my goal till the day I pass. And the one thing I look forward to when I do go is that I get to hang out with him again. That's the best part of all of this.

and going a step further? How important is extreme preparation going way above and beyond what would normally be considered great preparation. I'm talking about the kind of preparation that you spend 30 or 40 hours on for a single event or meeting.

do it endlessly. I mean, there's times in my restaurant where I go in and if the seats are dirty, or the tables are dirty, the floor is dirty, I'll start cleaning it myself. I'm not going to wait for somebody else to do it, I'll just do it. I think that that is important. When other people are watching you that they can see that you're in it with them. We're all in it together. And together, we can make this

unbelievable experience. And I watched that with Wolfgang, I watched it with my grandfather. I think it's ingrained deep in me.

billion per year. And a report by the World Health Organization estimates that at least 2.8 million people die each year, as a result of being overweight or obese. The number one cause of obesity is our diet, particularly the amount of fat and sugar in our diets, and not exercising enough to burn off these calories. You're a chef, you're in amazing shape. And the question you're most frequently asked is, How do you stay in such amazing shape and your answers genetics, portion

control fresh ingredients. But it's incredibly rare to have genetics like you. So for the more than 100 million people struggling with eating unhealthy foods, and being overweight in the United States. What advice do you have? How do people change their habits from eating unhealthy foods to eating healthy foods,

we're doing it. We're just we go through our eating process just sort of blindly. And I think it's really important, we wake up, and we really realize what it is that we're eating. And I think that it's not just us, but I think we need to push our lawmakers to sort of clean up the food that they're putting on our store shelves, because our foods polluted. I mean, it just is we've just destroyed our food source. I'm not saying that it

was done meaningfully. But I think that over the time, in an effort to feed all Americans meat and whatever else, we've destroyed our source. And I think that it's going to take all of us to convince our lawmakers that we have to change the laws of how we in this country. But for an individual, I think just one baby step at a time. So let's say you drink three sodas a day, a lot of people still drink a lot of soda, I'd say just cut out one

of those sodas at a time. Don't go cold turkey because it never works. Most people can't stick to that. But little by little scaled back on the things you already know are not great for you. And over time, give yourself time and be patient. But I think over time, you can do better, more water, less soda, and I think making better decisions on the foods that we eat. If you eat your three meals a day or two meals a day with fast food try to swap one out for something a little bit

later. Even if it's still fast food, make small changes to your diet and over time you will see a difference.

professional life. And when coming up with a balance can you tell us what you want your legacy to be?

share custody. So I tried to do it when I would have her. But that didn't always work out with my schedule, I traveled a lot. And a lot of times I bring her with me. Once the pandemic hit, I started to realize how much I enjoyed being home, and what I learned about my daughter. And so I switched my whole schedule. And nowadays, I get up a little later, I spend that whole time with my daughter in the morning, I take her to school everyday that I have her and pick her up.

Every day that I have her, I've started to realize that these moments are fleeting, she's getting she's going to high school next year, I've got what four years left of her if that, and she's out the door, and I only have one, and I feel better. And I realized I was going to my a million miles a second. And I've sort of since the pandemic, so now two and a half years, maybe I've really slowed my role. I don't say yes

to everything anymore. I tried to take more time for myself, and spend way more time just chilling with my daughter. Those have become the most important things to me. And I've sort of filtered out a lot of the other noise.

to raise money for them. I have a charity in Venice that I work for that helps homeless kids because there's a ton of homeless kids in our own neighborhoods, I've always believed in, yes, helping people around the world, but really looking in your backyard and seeing what needs to be done there. I do inner city gardens for the competent School

District. I do a lot of things that are involved children, food shelter, in my community, I think when you have been given this special gift, that you can have a platform and you become successful, it is our duty to help the generation but underneath us and help kind of pull them up and help them see a bright future. It's what feeds at least my soul. And I know it feeds a lot of people like yourself as well. It really

feeds your soul to give back. It makes me feel good in a way that other things don't.

their lineage forever. Your family lineage is the best thing I've ever done. And I encourage everyone, it doesn't matter if you're wealthy by the way you can talk about

Our last event for the Imagine ball was at Bootsy Bellows. Dave Chappelle was the emcee. My son was the only one there by the way is 14 years old. And it was the Dave Chappelle, Charlie Kaplan show where Dave is very inappropriate. And he was asking my 14 year old son, all kinds of very inappropriate questions about what 14 year olds do. I'm sure it's Dave Chappelle, and I'm looking at my son. I mean, the room stopped, by the way, and everyone's looking, but it was fun. It was a very good

experience. And I bought a package backstage passes for Post Malone, which is also very cool. So there was a good part I give a lot of money to charities. I gave a lot to my own charities. That was cool as well. But I definitely want my kids to see it and they do see it. I put a foster care student through Michigan and she was living in her car when she was 17 years old in East Lansing, Michigan. Her parents were in prison. She got a full ride to

Michigan. She graduated was a social worker as a mom, homeowner, coach, public speaker Speaker and she's now a member of our family. And she comes to all family functions. And it's great. I mean, my kids have seen that firsthand. And that's just been incredible for them. It's been incredible for us. More importantly, it's been incredible for my grandmother, who was raised in foster care. They're super, super tight. And it's just a great thing when you can make a difference in

people's lives. So I encourage everybody to go out and give back regardless of how much money you have. It's not about the money. It's about the heart and devoting the time.

moments you have here. Because for a lot of us, it's fleeting.