Mark Bell's Power Project - EP. 266 - Chef Andre Rush

Episode Date: October 15, 2019

Andre Rush is a retired U.S. Army Veteran, and former White House Chef who rose to popularity after a picture of him cooking at the White House went viral on the internet. Chef Rush is jacked! Weighing in at 285lbs and arms that measure 24”, Chef Rush has cooked for the Clinton’s, Bush’s, Obama’s and the Trump’s, and currently is a freelance chef cooking for high ranking military officials, celebrities, and politicians. Subscribe to the Podcast on on Platforms! ➢https://lnk.to/PowerProjectPodcast Visit our sponsors: ➢Piedmontese Beef: https://www.piedmontese.com/ Use Code "POWERPROJECT" at checkout for 25% off your order plus FREE 2-Day Shipping on orders of $99 ➢Perfect Keto: http://perfectketo.com/powerproject Use Code "POWERPROJECT" at checkout for 15% off your order! ➢Quest Nutrition: https://www.questnutrition.com/ Use code "MARKSQUEST" at checkout for 20% of your order! ➢SHOP NOW: https://markbellslingshot.com/ Enter Discount code, "POWERPROJECT" at checkout and receive 15% off all Sling Shots FOLLOW Mark Bell ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marksmellybell ➢ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkBellSuperTraining ➢ Twitter: https://twitter.com/marksmellybell ➢ Snapchat: marksmellybell Follow The Power Project Podcast ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/MarkBellsPowerProject Follow Nsima Inyang ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nsimainyang/  Podcast Produced by Andrew Zaragoza ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamandrewz #PowerProject #Podcast #MarkBell

I think all of us here really, really love meat, but the one person that loves meat more than anybody is Mark. So how much meat have you had this week, Mark? I don't know. I do eat quite a bit of meat, especially after I've fasted. I remember one time I came home from the gym and probably just slaughtered maybe a tomahawk ribeye. I think it was gigantic. But, you know, I do smash a lot of meat in a given day. What I like about the Piedmontese beef, though, is a lot of, for me, a lot of times I have trouble because I do love the fattier meats. And so I still might go over my calories.

But with the Piedmontese, I don't know how they do it, but their, their steaks are a lot leaner, but they're still super tender. Yeah. I don't know how they're doing it over there. And then on top of that, they cook faster. How are they doing it over there? It's crazy. It's, but the thing is, it's so sick for people that are like having to diet and they still want to eat steak and they have to lower their fats or whatever. And they still want to eat that red meat. Well, Piedmontese is perfect because it's not as fat. I don't understand. It's crazy.

You're still getting a nutrient-dense food. You're getting a lot of protein. The other thing that's great about this company that I think separates it out from a lot of others is the fact that they're giving you a cook guide. And I don't know about you, but I don't know a lot about cooking, man. I just throw stuff in a pan a lot of times.

I just put salt and gun. But this is actually pretty awesome. You can actually make tasty food. I'm not too bad with the grill. Andrew, where can people find out more about Piedmontese and where can they get an awesome deal? Cool, yeah. Our friends at Piedmontese are hooking you guys up with an insane deal.

Head over to piedmontese.com. That's P-I-E-D-M-O-N-T-E-S-E dot com and enter promo code POWERPROJECT. If you can't spell that, well, maybe it's not for you. Enter that promo code for 25% off your order along with free two day shipping on all orders over a hundred dollars. You know, I've been on a ketogenic diet for a long ass time and I've experimented with all kinds of stuff. And even in like the mid nineties where I started was with

these keto strips, which sounds kind of weird because it's this thing that you pee on. And then you see how you registered ketone wise. I started out with the body opus diet many, many years ago. And I've tried all kinds of stuff. I've tried, you know, pricking the finger and all that. It's inconvenient and stuff. Have you ever messed around with any of this stuff?

I honestly haven't. I've heard of the strips. I've heard of pricking your finger, but I've never ever tested my ketone level. So like, why does someone, why would someone want to even test that? I think because the main reason why you would want to test it, and I'm not a fan of pricking the finger. And some people say, you know, the blood is going to give you more information than the urine and so on. And, but I really don't think it matters a lot, but I think the reason why you're going to test is because you want to learn about how you feel and you want to actually

know what's going on in your body. So if you get to a stage, you hear people talk about being fat adapted. If you get to a stage where you're producing a good amount of ketones, it will register when you pee on these strips and you'll be able to say like okay that this is probably the reason why i'm feeling a little bit better because i am producing more ketones if you don't produce ketones or it's registering that you're not you're going to have to make some changes in your nutrition because you're probably going to feel like crap because you haven't eaten carbohydrates in a couple days and you're going to start to feel lethargic and kind of lose energy. The ketones can help be a preferred source of energy,

especially for your brain, so it can help a lot with clarity. So you're going to want to kind of monitor it. You don't need to, like, pee on it five times a day, and you don't need to, like, you know, gather all this research and information on it. It's just nice to know. You're like, okay, well, I'm in a good standing. And then if you cheat on your diet, you can see how your body reacts to all that, too. and information on it. It's just nice to know. You're like, okay, well, I'm in a good standing.

And then if you cheat on your diet, you can see how your body reacts to all that too. Nice. If you have a big old carb meal, you're probably not going to register a lot of ketones. Andrew, where can they find out more about these? And plus, I forgot to mention, these are a lot cheaper option than pricking your finger.

So it's, and plus it doesn't hurt. Yeah. So if you guys are on a ketogenic diet, don't front and just say you're on a keto diet. Actually get your ketones tested and you can do so today by going to perfectketo.com slash powerproject. Use code powerproject to get 15% off these peace strips and everything else at perfectketo.com.

You know, I've been eating some Quest bars probably for the last, man, I don't know, maybe almost like 10 years it seems like i don't even know how long company's been around for but ever since they've been around i've been around and i've been eating them and i remember actually the first time i had a quest bar um one of the first quest bars i had i believe it was like an apple cinnamon flavor or cinnamon roll flavor i think was the one that i had and it tasted so different to me than what was out there. I've tried every protein bar that there is. And a lot of them would blow my stomach apart and I'd end up sitting on the toilet forever and I'd

end up having some issues with them. And most of them are always trying to mimic like a candy bar. They were always trying to be like a chocolate-coated something or other. And I really love that Quest Nutrition didn't do that because with the way that their bars are set up, most of the bars, especially in the beginning, you could travel with them with no problem. You don't have this like melty, gooey thing that you pull out of your backpack while you're traveling. So they've done a great job making some great products.

People got to check out the Quest bars. And if you never had one before, I don't know where you've been. I don't know what rock you've been hiding underneath because it's a huge company. Yeah. And you guys know we've been rocking with Quest since day one, since before they were a sponsor. They're a sponsor now. And it just makes so much sense that us two entities would collaborate on something. So if you guys want to get in on this, head over to questnutrition.com, enter promo code MARKSQUEST, that's all one word, at checkout for 20% off your entire order. All righty, Mark. All right.

We got through some really awesome – I mean, that was just great. We got through a really good day. Are we just getting started or what? Just getting started. Oh, my God. I had an opportunity this morning to and i don't a lot of people probably don't get this opportunity so i thought that was really cool i had an opportunity to cook with andre rush this morning and uh that was unbelievable we cooked at our

friend's kitchen here in sacramento our friend's restaurant rather camden and um i mean i learned i learned a lot of stuff on how to, how to cook up some meat. Uh, so a lot of it was simple too. You didn't go too fancy, which, uh, was helpful to me because I can get confused pretty easy. And then, uh, we came over here to super training gym and had another great opportunity to throw down, lift some weights. And then we did that wine pairing. Yes, we did. We, we paired up a bench press with a particular wine. We paired up a squat with a particular wine. We paired up a deadlift with a particular wine.

And then we just started having fun and getting drunk. Don't remember this. No. Yeah, you're right. I barely remember what else was going on. Hey, you know what? After working out with you, it's always great to have these opportunities when we have guests here to get a training session in with somebody because you learn a lot about

them just from the training session. And, you know, and Seema and I have worked out for a long time. We're both in shape and we're kind of looking at each other like, what's this guy doing to us? You know, we started kicking our ass. We were doing bench press and pushups back and forth. And obviously you have a huge passion in your heart for weight training. What is the deal with these 2,222? I still can't wrap my brain around. I like pushups and I feel like I'm somewhat proficient at pushups.

And I feel like, I guess if I wanted to, I could figure out a way to do 500 push-ups a day for a while, and then I'd probably like lean off and probably stop doing them. You're doing over 2,000 every single day. What is this for? How did you work up to that capacity even? So I do 2,222 push-ups every day. It takes me about an hour and 15 minutes. I'm going to move

your microphone this way just a little bit. You're all good. You can keep chatting. So I do them every morning, get up at three o'clock in the morning, meditate, roll over, do them all at one time, 125 at a time or more. Rest for about 30, 40 seconds, then repeat. So the 222 is a specific number. It's 22 vets commit suicide a day. I caveat that with the 2,222, not only for the vets, but the active duty, which now is the highest suicide rate it's been since the war. Also with their spouses, the kids, just everyone. It's about that feel-good feeling about spirit and awareness.

Or even with the 222, i use it for just your cause you have a personal cause or something that's bothering you whether it be cancer leukemia or or something personal or just you and personal so i said use it use it to your advantage that's great that you're you know calling attention to this because you know a lot of these uh men and women that are struggling, I mean, it must be, it's got to be a tough thing. I mean, you survive, you survive a war or you survive, you know, some of these events that are going on around the world and you defend the country and then you come home and maybe it's just the transition back to being a civilian. It's got to be really, really difficult.

And a lot of people that are in the military, not just men, a lot of people that are in the military probably always had kind of a hardened mindset. So they might be sad. They might be this. They might be that. But they're like they don't need help because they're a soldier, right? Exactly. Is that what's going on? I was one of those people.

Oh, you were one of those people. I was one of those people. Oh, you were one of those people. I was one of those people. I was that hard guy. But being that hard guy was the reality check of it when I was called out by one of my principals, a general, who kind of called me out. Because you can only hide it for so long. You can only do so much for so much time. You can only do so much for so much time. And long story short was now speaking to literally tens of thousands of military members over the last year and telling me it's okay to be vulnerable.

It's okay to seek help or it's okay to talk to someone. I mean, that right there is undeniably like one of the most, the best thing I've ever done in my entire life. I've had I've been shown so much support from so many different people from all over the world that advocates with it. You know, me being that big guy and people look at me and say, wow, he's saying this and he's saying this about this, about that. And now they're like, OK, chef. OK, I got it. I'm doing pushups with you. I'm doing this with you. I get to speak to just as many from the army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard. Um, and it's all about us helping and support each other, not only military. So don't get me wrong. I, I speak to spouses, kids, which I use that same format and platform for cyber bullying and bullying, uh, because people understand this new generation is hard on the kids.

They are the future. So they actually take it. I mean, the youngest known case was little Samantha who was six years old, who, how is that even possible that a six year old even know about things like that? And with the bullying part of it,

I go speak to a lot of schools. So, I mean, it's a, it's a big thing. And so it needs to be addressed. If it's not that, and if someone has a personal cause, use it to that. You know, bullying is a pretty interesting thing.

I mean, think about like when I was a kid and there was bullying going on, it was like most of the time from what I saw, it was kind of like a private thing. Like there would be three or four people in a group and they'd snicker and they'd laugh at somebody that walked by and they, oh, look at that kid. He walks funny or he's got weird hair or like he got ripped up clothes or whatever. And I never really I personally haven't really seen a lot of like, you know, physical bullying or someone going up to someone and actually just telling him like, I think you look ugly or I think you look stupid. Like I've never really I haven't really seen a lot of that. I'm sure that that happens, too.

But cyberbullying is pretty crazy because you're sending maybe possibly sending a direct message to somebody or posting something on social media about somebody. And then it's calling attention to something that, like you said, this girl's six years old. It's calling it maybe you have maybe you're a little heavier than the other kids, and maybe people draw attention to that. Now you're just a little kid. You're not even thinking about whether you're heavy or whether you're cute or whether you're ugly or whether you're this or whether you're that. You're not thinking about any of that stuff.

And now you see someone clearly wrote it out to you, you know, in a case of, like, cyberbullying. That's true. It's pretty damn brutal. And on top of that bullying it's true it's pretty uh it's pretty damn brutal and on top of that it's listed there and it stays there for everybody to see so when you get to school it's like oh did you see so-and-so says this about so-and-so and then meanwhile that kid over there is already like they're they just got you know brutalized the whole night you know everyone reading it commenting on it and then they got to show up to school and see it in person

it's terrible it doesn't. It can stay there forever. It's like it literally is so much worse than, like, bullying is never good, but it's so much worse than what kids went through in the past. When it comes to these soldiers and you're drawing attention to suicide, suicide awareness, what are some procedures someone could go through if they are struggling with something like that? They can reach out and there's programs and stuff like that. They have tons of programs, you know, individualized programs for the military.

That's that's the point about is trying to get them to that point is is that stigma that goes along with it with the military. You know, they say PTS, you're dangerous or you're this or you're that or whatever. I'm one of those guys who've had PTS for a very long time and I use that and say that

so that's why I personally go out and talk to so many on a personal basis. In the last week, I've just... So you use it as almost an advantage

in kind of a healthy way. Exactly. I'm going to use some of these bad memories. And you give them different resources because there's more resources besides just that internally military. So right now in the military, if anything happens, they have to report it. If you go to them, they have to report it. There's

other outlets where you can go where it's not reported. You may just want to talk to someone. I've had, oh my God, I've talked to hundreds and hundreds of people who just needed an outlet. They just needed someone to tell them that it's okay. Just needed this or needed that on that level from males to females, the kids, the women abused, yada, yada, homeless. It doesn't even matter. They just wanted that. Hey, it's going to be all right. Yeah. I think this is great. And I think that a lot of people listening could probably use some help that, and they're not even maybe aware of it because they're kind of suppressing. And I'm not even just talking about military, but sometimes you go through tough times in your relationships. And sometimes you just go through

tough times. Maybe you're still dealing with something from the time you were a kid and maybe you should reach out to somebody that could, that could help you. But it's, it, that's the hardest part is kind of like taking that first step forward. How did you have the ability to build up to that amount of push-ups? That's ridiculous. Doing 125 push-ups in a row is brutal. Yeah, for a normal person. I'm extraordinary. No, I've always been an overachiever.

I always loved health and fitness. I always loved my body. I had the opportunity, which I was smart enough to study it when I was younger. I mean, when I say study it, I mean feel like my body for if you if you have to cough, you're going to cough. If you're sick, you're going to take medicine if you did it. So I did this exact same thing on that aspect of of growth, of inner growth, you know, intestinal fortitude. of growth, of inner growth, you know, intestinal fortitude. When I did my push-ups and started off, I found out that every time I maxed out the Army PT test, I would overachieve it.

So when I started doing push-ups, I was doing like 500 at a time. And that was just easy for me. Then I did to 1,000, which was easy. And I had to try to get guys to go with me. They couldn't keep up. And I'm like i'm gonna keep going i'm gonna keep going so now i've done over 400 000 push-ups just for that a cause and awareness you know but that like i think one thing when a lot of people listen to you and a lot of people even see you at the point where you're at now um they start to think like oh my god that's not possible but they forget like

the build-up i think that's that's one of the big things. Like you didn't start off at 2,222 a day, even though like where you started out was a lot, like you've been working out for a majority of your life. What, like how long have you been working out in general? Oh, wow. I've been working out since I was a kid. I mean, I was an athlete. I ran track. I played football. I was, you know, I fought. I was a fighter. I did so many different things. And in those different platforms, you have to adapt. You can't use the same training for each and every last one. But when I got my niche, which again was at an early age, this, what I, what we did today is what I've always done. It's always been my longevity. It's always my go-to and I've always lived by it. And it always been my longevity. It's always been my go-to.

And I've always lived by it. And it's kept me going the entire time. So now during the 2022, and a lot of people have tried me, and everyone has failed. So I'm okay with that. You've built up a really powerful mindset. And, you know, what is your mindset on a daily basis? Are you trying to think about, like, because the workout that we did was really intense.

Are you trying to think about each day you're just going to, like, crush every day or, like, how are you getting this stuff done? Because you do a lot. You know what? That's a great question. I just said that I just talked to about 3,000 airmen and then a couple days prior I talked to about 1,000 Marines going into training, and I didn't use the word crush.

I used the word destroy it. Destroy every day, everything you do. I don't care what your job. I like that. I don't care who you are, who you think you are, because it's so much a diversity and resiliency about, you know, you could be born with a silver spoon or whatever it's called, or you could come from the homeless. So these guys come from all different diversity

of backgrounds. They have to adapt and overcome. And I tell them, if you're the garbage man, be the best garbage man you can be, you know, and change lives, you know, give back, be impactful. A lot of people kind of, they have that stigma where they just, okay, this is where I'm going to be. I don't have any other goal and there's nothing more for me. I'm just going to sit back and just wait till I retire and die. That's not a that's not an option. There's a lot. There's a lot of ways of, you know, impacting people's lives. And I think sometimes people just forget the simple stuff, you know, holding the door for somebody.

Exactly. Telling somebody they look good today or telling somebody that, you know, you like the shoes they're wearing or something. There's little tiny comments that you drop, there's little tiny compliments that you can give somebody. I mean, they're free for us to give. You know, every now and then I'll put a nip it up on my social media with a picture of myself and I would like say something like, what are you complaining for? You woke up this morning, say hello, Say good morning. And I'll get an overwhelming response of just, you know, thousands of people saying good morning. I'm like, okay. I will say good morning back to each and every last one. But, you know, those things are important.

You know, sometimes we take things. We're in this world now where everyone is kind of overly complacent. You know, complacency is everything. Your entitlement. overly complacent. You know, complacency is everything. Your entitlement, that whole entitlement thing is killing me in this day, in this world today where, like I said, it doesn't take much. Just say hello. Say thank you. Say, hey, have a nice day. You never know what happened. Yeah. I think one thing is like when you're talking about that, like that's what I think is like I have a lot of relatives in Nigeria still, like a lot of relatives that are trying to come to the United States.

And when I think about that, no matter what happens, like I got to be so grateful that I'm here in this great country. Like no matter what situation I'm in, I have it good because I'm here and I can like there's any everything's possible being here. So it's it's yeah. What you're saying is totally it's totally relevant. Like you really have nothing to, I don't know, get down on yourself for. It's true. Yeah. Who instilled some of this in you? I mean, it's, I, I understand, you know, the military background and so a lot, a lot of great things are going to come from the military. A lot of great disciplines will come from the military, but were mom and dad, were they pretty strict? Dad was extremely strict. Dad was, as soon as I could, I got out of diapers, I think dad put me

to work. So I- You weren't getting a free lunch from him. I was not getting a free lunch. You know, he was a tough man, but I love it now because my work ethics have not changed since then. He put to work you know at the end he was like girls go to school guys go to work you know and I was like what you know and I worked I worked hard and a lot you know like dad I'm six I was like I was five and a half actually uh he said I don't care uh but um even when I switched over to cooking he I didn't tell him because that was that stigma like oh my god you know my mom I used to secretly cook with my mom and now you know he was like you know Dre you're gonna go off and do this and this and so forth and I had the opportunity to do it but I love what I was doing

at the time and you know in in my mom to her dying day uh which she didn't let me know that she was dying pushed me out the door and kept telling me just going. So that coin I gave you actually was dedicated to my mom on the front. Everything she would say to me, like never give up. You can do anything. Keep going. Um,

that was from her right when she passed. So the long story with my mom passing was she didn't tell me my sister called me. I was doing something, um, for Gary Vee, uh, in New York. Um, it called me. I, something um for gary v uh in new york um called me i went to him and got there uh saturday she can walk talk breathe uh long story short was she passed the

next week um and then the next week after that was a birthday she was buried and then the very next day i became viral again uh i mean not in a little way like a big way this was buried. And then the very next day, I became viral again. I mean, not in a little way, like a big way. It was a Saturday, then Sunday I became viral. I was mad as hell because I'm like, I want to mourn, I want to mourn. But at the same time, I realized it was my mom saying, keep going. Don't stop what you're doing. You've come too much.

You've given up so much. And so with me, with a lifelong journey, I use the word and I say to myself, my mom did this for me. I sacrificed everything with her to give back. And me giving back means everything to me. So it kind of happened simultaneously. Maybe, you know, maybe your mom's doing right. And to kind of keep your mind focused on exactly you know rather than you know mourning right what did your mom pass from my mom actually passed from a botch surgery oh man it was uh three months prior she was walking talking everything and then when i finally saw her she couldn't walk couldn't had lost 60, 70 pounds, just in pain. And then that's when I found out because she was leaving messages.

But by that time, she couldn't speak at all because the doctor went in and punctured and went through her thorax. through her thorax. And as an elderly person, which is, you know, about the early care in this world is that sometimes it goes, you know, unnoticed, but when it happened with her, her body just deteriorated. Oh, you have a big family and you learned a lot of great cooking lessons from your mom. What are some favorite things that your mom used to cook up that you remember? Oh, man, from the South Mississippi, we were all about that round table type of deal. That's when I first met my brothers and sisters every time. But, you know, from the sweet potato pie, pecan pie, pecan pie, wherever you're from, dumplings, collard greens, of course, just, you know, that southern deep home food that had that spirit

that went along with it so that's what i uh encompassed in all of my meals i do now whether it be five star whether it be cooking for the homeless i tell people when i speak all the time when they ask me about you know what did the president what did the president and i said you know i said well my my my level when i cook for someone on that level is this high at 100%. But when I cook for the homeless or kids, it's at 110% because they'll never get it again. They, you know, those principles, they have it all the time. That's their lifestyle. These people, they may not have the opportunity.

So I give them 100% of that attention. And what are you talking about in meeting your brothers and sisters for the first time? They lived in other areas or something? No, they live in the same house. Oh, just everyone was all over the place. No, I just didn't like them. But we got to that table and mom and dad sit down. All of a sudden, it's like you meet them for the first time because everybody is laughing, everybody.

And it's like you meet them for the first time because everybody's laughing everybody and it's over food you know i tell people food is to the heart where you can start wars and uh end wars and uh make friends and i mean it's it's so much more behind food that people don't understand and and now i hate the commercialized commercialization of it because it's so so much deeper yeah do you think that triggered everything for you like to get into all this in the first place the fact that it did like maybe you were pissed at your brother or your sister but it brought everybody together um well no not really i mean i love my brother and sister you know i was younger so i was a younger kid you know my brother went out to the be an officer in the navy my sister's an officer in the Navy. My sisters are officers in the Air Force now. And we all are givers, you know, education system. And it was just likely, I think it was just embedded in us to do such.

I mean, I'm doing it on my scale, which is a pretty high scale, which I love to have an opportunity to reach so many people. You know, you just mentioned like your brothers and sisters were in the military. Was your dad in the military at all or no? No, no. My dad didn't even have a high school diploma. He went working when he when he what he stopped working at like, I mean, stopped school when he was like maybe seven years old. Yeah. You know, to support his family, to help. Right. I mean, literally seven, I mean, seven great, seven great ideas. Um, and, uh, from there he learned and did everything and built his entire empire from that. So for you going into the military, was it something you wanted to or was it like your brothers and sisters, older brothers and sisters went into it?

I didn't tell anyone. Um, even my brother who I was at, was already in the military. I, military, I was always my own path. I didn't want anyone to try to convince me or guide me to something. I did 100% of everything. Even my brother asked, why didn't you tell me? I said, because you're going to try to get me to go into the Navy. It's nature. I wanted to find out for myself.

I was scheduled to go to the Olympics for track and field, And I wanted to go into the military. So that's what I did. Wow. Didn't you say you ran 100 meters under 10 seconds? Under 10 seconds. 9, 9, 9, 8. That is insane. And then also you benched 700 pounds before.

Yes, yes. That was 700 pounds. There's not many people who have done the combination of those two things. That's unbelievable. What do you think it takes to be a celebrity chef? Like how did some of this come to be? How did you end up being in this spot? You know, it was a long story, but long story short, it was when I was at the White House.

And someone, Kate Bennett, who was a reporter along with another lady, she took a picture of me, which I didn't want because I kept ignoring her. But when the president came out and was going inside to the press room, she turned around and she took a picture of me. And she walked out, walked over to me, and she said to me, I'm going to make you famous. And I was like, I'm already famous. And she was like, no, no, no, look at your Twitter. And I'm like, I don't have Twitter. She said, oh, look at your this.

I'm like, I don't have that either. So I look at that. I don't have that either. I don't have any of that stuff. I wasn't that social media person. And when one of my guys turned around and did it and saw it, it was in the millions. And then it just kind of took over. The long story short about it was people say, so did you get famous off of a picture? And I was like, no, I got famous off of hard work.

Right. Right. I mean, everything you do is you have to take an opportunity and make it your own. you do is you have to take an opportunity and make it your own. If you're giving an inch, you know, take a lifetime. Don't just take a mile. Take a lifetime and just keep going with it. And that's what I do because people want to be around impactful people. And the things that I did always was organic. It was, you know, one of my favorite hashtags that I have is is be humble, stay humble. That humility is everything in the world. Some even other guys who went viral, but not like I said, in the last 15 months, I've been viral three times. But even other guys said, hey, chef, how did you do it? I said I was myself.

What was like the journey to like cooking at the White House? Like was were you cooking in the military before that and somehow got there? Yeah, I was in the military the whole entire time. So I work for a lot of people. I mean, I cook for a lot of people, even more so. I probably show 30 percent on social media. Others, 70 percent I don't even talk about because it's just so much and so massive. And I don't have time.

But that was about knowing and helping someone. So that's the only way I got into the wild. I did some and I helped someone. They gave me an opportunity. I knocked on the door and then from that it was open and I just used it to my skill set.

And don't get me wrong, it was hard. I was that lonely guy. I didn't fit in. I was different. I mean I was that meathead guy. I didn't fit in. I was different. I mean, I was, you know, that meathead who just, now when I say meathead, I said that. It's like, man, that cook eats a lot of our food. Yeah, exactly. And I'm still doing the same thing. Drinking all your wine. Yeah.

You know, I know, I remember as a little kid when you went over someone's house that had a nice home and it you know it was uh it was just you know it was clear that they had a you know a good amount of money i remember like always being like worried like i was gonna break something like i'm like all right i take my shoes off and like i gotta pretend to like be more mature than i really am for 20 minutes or something you know um did you feel that way in the white house? Like, that must be a weird feeling. Like, I would be super nervous trying to prep food for people in the White House. You know, it's funny you ask that question because I work with so many different people from chairmen, Joint Chief of Staff, I've done things for kings and queens, and I've never been nervous. You've had a good amount of experience, too, going into that situation with the White House, too, right?

Well, even when I was younger, seeing people, I was never a—what do you call them? I never even had to take pictures with anyone just because it wasn't just my nature. I was that guy. I came to do a job. Even in the White House, I didn't even look at it. I was going straight to where I worked. That was it. I didn't realize that I was supposed to admire everything about it until much, much, much

later because I was hired to do a job and I just did my job. That was my dad. My dad said, you're here to do a job, boy. And okay, I got it. What do you want done? And I'm the exact same way now. So when I do a job, even now, I do it a thousand percent. So maybe like combination of confidence and just focus.

Oh, yeah. Arrogance and confidence. No, I'm joking. It is confidence. It has to be. You have to be you. Honestly, you have to have a sense of confidence. And you also have to have a sense of arrogance because it's going to be people that's going to try you all the time. There's going to be people that's going to try to devalue your worth. That's the one thing that people need to know. You need to know your worth and what you're worth. Some people who have been in higher ranks than I am, they're like, hey, Andre. I'm like, no, that's sir.

And not being disrespectful, but people want to make it seem like they have their foot on your head, and you have to let them know it's not like that. This is a different world, a different time. I know my worth. I know my value. And I know what I contribute to myself, society, this world, so forth and so on. I like what you're saying there because I think a lot of people don't understand that people are trying to devalue you all the time.

And it's not because they're trying to like outwardly, they're not trying to attack you and they're not trying to like fight you or anything. Um, but it's just part of human nature, especially when someone's going to be hired to do a job. Anybody that's ever watched, I'm a huge fan of the show shark tank. They immediately take your, your evaluation of what you valued your company and yourself to be. And they chop it like in half. They're like, you ain't worth that. And those people have to try to stand there and stand their ground against these sharks. And I think that in life in general, I think people need to do that. They need to stick to their guns.

And you hear story after story of like, oh, this guy, you know, he passed up this gig to make, you know, 80K, and he held his ground and held his ground, and then, bam, he like made it and ended up, you know, with a huge success story. And it's true. You know, I 100% agree with that. And even now, I turn down so many things. And it could be something as simple, character. Character is everything to me. Loyalty is everything to me.

And, you know, I was going around your staff, which is magnificent, by the way. Thank you. I appreciate that. And I said to them, I think each one of us is you don't know how important it is to have like minded, like hearted a team. It is me doing this. I do everything solo. 100%. I fired lawyers. I fired this because they weren't in the right interest of what I wanted to be as far as giving back. And it became money. Don't get me wrong. I get the money part about it. But at the same time, it devalues what you really are worth to so many more with your cooking. Like, like you said that

your mom taught you a lot about cooking. So was there anybody who helped you get to the next level or continue to improve at that? You know, someone who was critical against what you were doing that helped you learn that? Or were you just like doing new things, getting the hang of it and moving on? I'm going to be honest with you on that part. I was in the military. I've done a lot of cooking. I've met a lot of people. And I'll go back.

I was a hard charger. I was, I worked for people and that was my only thing is to make, make them look good. But a lot of times people take that as a threat. They'll look at you as, you know, my first competition, I was a brand new private and I had a senior guy who was there and he saw me. I did something that he did. And immediately the next day he said, oh, you learned too fast.

I'm not showing you anymore. And he never showed me anything else again. And from that point, I was like, hmm, okay, I got it. So I picked my own book up. I put my own, studied my own things. And this is not like everyone. And it won't be like for everyone. But this is my story.

I had to learn the hard way. So I had to do a lot of things, maybe 98% of it on my own. From emotions to this or that. And even doing the things that I'm doing now, I do it on my own from emotions to this or that. And even doing the things that I'm doing now, I do it on my own because if people don't want to, um, I tell people my circuit, my circle doesn't get smaller. I get bigger and I push the ones out that doesn't belong in it to let the

other ones that need to be in it inside. Wow. Do you have anybody that works for you now? Um, I fired them all. I literally, I just, I'm,'m a uh i'm not a micromanager but i am a person that i know what i want i know what works yeah i've been doing this a very long time um all from every piece of my social media to everything is has to my voice and my words. I've had a lot of people

who've come in and say, Chef, Chef, Chef, Chef, Chef, so forth. So when I met, believe me, I've talked to some very high profile people. If they talk the wrong thing, I'll see you later. I just literally be like, Chef, what about? No, bye. You're wasting my time. I could be doing push-ups.

But they'll start off with the same intentions. And if they see more in you, which is a compliment, they will try to capitalize off of each and everything that you do, especially if you have a platform that is more than one lane and it can spread

out to so many different areas. And that's one of the reasons why I don't expose everything on social media. Because social media can break you or uh, and whatever. So me, it's all good. So when you get hired to do certain jobs, um, you must need to bring on some people or do you just do it all yourself? Um, certain jobs as far as like, if you got hired to cook for, I don't know, 15 people or something like that. I don't cook for anyone anymore. Okay. You know, that's part of that, you know, value part of it.

People try to ask me, you know, the only time I'll cook if I auction myself off, right? Oh, yeah. You told me about that. That's awesome. Or for Arnold, for the school all-star kids, or Fisher House. And I bring in really big bucks for that, right? That's part of that that self valuation. But if people say, hey, chef, can you come over and do 100 people? Of course not. I don't know people that just ridiculous. You know, I said, go tell Robert

Irvine to come over. Go tell Gordon Ramsay come over. Well, you know, well, think of the same way. It's not going to happen. But in retrospect, that if it's the homeless or if it's the military or if it's kids, I'm going to cook my butt off. Like a specific event or something you can get behind. I will cook for someone. That's easy for me. But not to an extent where I'm going to be a chef 24-7. No one does that anymore. No one is in that realm, which don't get me wrong, I love being a chef. It's the hardest job you could possibly ever have. You know, your friend at the camp we were at today, I mean, those guys, I commend them because I was there. You can do hundreds and hundreds of hours and your life is not your own.

And sometimes, I mean, it's very's very rewarding but can also be very stressful um and to me if i tell people hey i talked to guys yesterday and i was like hey write a book you know do this do that think about the different options don't just put yourself in that one lane saying well i'm a chef i'm a cook i'm gonna cook okay think about something else. What else goes with that? On that note of what else, man, like when I was learning about you, I don't even know everything, but you're a sommelier, you're an amazing ice sculptor,

you're a chef, you're in the military. Like, first off, what like brought you to want to do all of these things and just like learn ice sculpting? And then also, are there other things that like we don't know that and just like learn ice sculpting. And then also, are there other things that like, we don't know? That's just like really dope. It's a lot of things that I do.

You know, I, I, I, sometimes it's hard because people always say, chef need to brag on yourself. I don't like bragging on myself. I don't like,

I mean, I'm bad. I know I'm bad. I don't just like to sit on in public, you know, but I've, I've learned over the've learned over the course of doing this, you know, that sometimes you have to flex. Sometimes you have to put it out and let it be known who you are, you know, for whatever reason that may be. And for me is for that awareness part of it.

And also for myself as well, you know, being solidified for it. I mean, I do so much. I mean, literally, I travel all over the world talking to thousands and thousands of people from country to country to military, which I'm honored and privileged, raising, you know, the last year plus $2.5 million with all these organizations, being a part of that, being a part of something that's bigger. You know, I received, you know, I was just here about a month ago. Head of Capital received a resolution for my advocacy for military, which was extremely humbling to have all those guys. When they read it, everyone came up to take pictures with me.

And I'm like, oh, they never do that. You know, unless it's some big time guy there. So I'm that big time guy now. And that's what fused me. But now I just kind of, I wait to see the next big thing. Wow. How do you feel about social media? You know, you mentioned it a little bit.

Do you think social media is doing more good for the world? Or do you think it a little bit you think social media is is uh doing more good for the world or you think it's doing more harm oh no i love social media i mean it regardless of the harm that it's doing that's why it's social media it's just like uh freedom to speak your voice or your rights or whatever people might just be consuming too much of it people can consume too much of it and what people put out is what they put out. If they want to put out that negativity into the world and you want to feed off of it, then whatever. But at the same time, it can save lives. It can help people. It does so much. You can't fault it for that. A lot of people are like, I hate social media. I'm not getting on social media. Why?

That's not me. I don't want to do it. What are you talking about you don't want to do it? What do you want to do? Are you on LinkedIn? Are your this place, that place? So like, yeah, I do that because that's that's social media. You're on a platform. People have to take it for what it's worth and look at it. You know, I'm all over. I have a great audience on LinkedIn and people. I just put content up and people like, so what are you looking for? What do you what do you want? What are you doing here? I'm, I'm here to entertain you. If you come, if you want it, cool. If you don't, that's fine.

Do I get into trolls on social media all the time or try to take me out of my box? Of course I do. And half of the time, um, a lot when you know, my pictures goes around, I, I, what I like to do, which is entertaining to me. Uh uh because if they say my name you tag you whatever and people talk uh if he said that to me about the french toast i'll tell him to to do this and this and i'll go back and i'll troll him like and do what else what else would you do you just eat that egg white and be quiet yeah and they'll laugh they'll laugh like all right chef you got me and i'm right you know so it's comical it's how you take it i'm kind of glad

to hear you say that because i think sometimes the older crowd can you know get a stick up their ass about some of the things that are new and that are happening like oh you know causing people a lot of problems and it can like i said people can over consume it it's not a not a great thing to over consume it um you're also a uh not uh not just an ordinary chef you also uh know how to whip up some awesome pastries what what are some uh like what are some of your favorite uh pastries um man i love pastries but you're not allowed to eat them anymore i don't eat pastries not even the ones you make i'm not even the ones i make dang i eat them by smell so a long time ago when i was i was going through that's depressing it is depressing actually uh and it

happened a long time ago i was i love pastry because of my mom you know so forth one day i was baking and i was making all these cookies and cookies and i just started eating them all like i said i eat a lot and all of a sudden, I was a night bake. All of a sudden, my skin started going up and down in front of me. I'm like, oh, my God, what is going on? It just started rising up and down, up and down. I went to the doctor and they were like, you had a sugar load. You had a reaction to the pastries.

Wow. And I'm like, oh, that won't happen again. And I stopped completely. But I'm a competitive pastry chef, so I've competed in the Olympics and a lot of competitions. I like every plethora of pastries. There's pastries for the Olympics? I didn't know that. There's Olympics for cooking.

That's amazing. Yeah, there's an Olympic for cooking. I've been that person. How do you make it to the Olympics to eat the food that the Olympians are making? I want to do that. I want that job. That sounds amazing. It's all that little food you'll see on TV, that static food that looks all pretty.

Some of it's edible. Some of it's just for show. It has categories that goes along with it. So, I mean, it means pretty amazing to see. Like I said, I never knew that you can do so much with pastries or even food. There's like a million different avenues and levels you can go and then talk about the health and fitness industry with food. That's a whole different body. What?

body what because here on on this podcast we talk about a lot about like learning new things you know and and doing new things is there anything like new that you're getting to that started to pique your interest and also like when you do approach new things like maybe when you when you figured you wanted to learn how to ice sculpt what does that look like for you like how do you approach something you've never done before uh how do i approach i um knowledge base first off i mean ice car was a terrible example because i i said i could do it and i didn't know how but i did conquer it uh knowledge base is everything to me knowing something and i tell people is it for a job or what you're doing or whatever, vet everything. 100%.

Vet the people, vet any call, just especially on social media. If you look in that perspective, you need to know a little bit about any and every person or everything that you're going into. Me, I approach it head on. I approach it with confidence, of course. I've never, ever had that part of me where it says i'm not qualified i'm not qualified we do that so much in life i'm not qualified you should this this this we'll try yeah just try and if you get denied hey at least you try you had 50 50 chance okay anything how about anything now are you picking up anything new these days? A lot of acting, a lot of acting.

So I do a lot of commercials. I do a lot of speaking, a lot of speaking. More so people don't even want me to cook. They just want me to come and speak. You know, I'm a pretty good speaker. I can talk to you a lot and tell you a lot of stories. But I love the part of it in L.A. I'm actually getting another place in D.C.,

but I'm getting a place in L.A. just because I have some projects coming up now on the acting side of it, commercials. Even my book is coming out next year. Nice. Oh, cool. You were saying earlier how for you, it sounds like working with other people doesn't always work out that great for you to the point where you had to fire a lot of people over the years and things like that.

But it also seems like you had to really put in a lot of good hard work for many years having different jobs. having different jobs. So how did you kind of make it through that part? Um, you know, like to be able to get to, you know, to work your way up to, to be able to work in the white house. And then it wasn't like you, you know, just cooked one day in the white house. You were there for several years and stuff like that. So how did you make that work? Even though it maybe doesn't fit, sounds like it doesn't fit your mindset. How do I make it? Failure. Failure, I tell people, failure is a necessity. You have to have it, and you're going to have it. I don't care how big or how small or what it is.

For me personally, it was my driving factor. I failed a lot. Even in the culinary industry, I knew I wasn't going to win when I competed all those times against all those guys because I didn't have the training. I didn't have the knowledge. I wasn't going to, uh, I knew I wasn't going to win when I competed all those times against all those guys. Cause I didn't have the training. I have a knowledge. I have a skillset. I look in a book they had, they went to school for 10 years, but I competed against them and I told them they're not going to win. Even when they won, I said, I told you, right? They didn't get what I was saying. I was saying that I won because I competed. I did it. Right. And it didn't get me. So I'll be back the next time. So now, like you said, it doesn't fit my category. So that's when that's when you know about that word growth. Right. Growth is everything. Some people, like I said, again, they try to become complacent in life and things and they just want to stay there. It's good to just have that one little savings account that's not, you know, incurring any interest on it. And it's a million bucks and then you're getting two dollars a month. Right.

people don't take chances. People don't put themselves out there. People don't understand that this world is limitless to, to the opportunities that they have. And just, if you just twitch just one little centimeter over your whole world can change. When, when did you realize that for yourself? Yeah. You're, you're working for other people, you know, and then you were like, you get to a point where you're like, I want to just bounce on out of some of this stuff and just really be free and do my own thing. I actually learned at a young age. I started my first catering business. Wow. Wow.

I started my first catering business maybe like 90, well, oh, my God, 15 plus years ago. And it was just me. And I came in to a bunch of senior guys and I was a new guy on the block. Didn't know half the stuff. Now, you know, a quarter of the stuff they know, but I said, I know what I want to do. I was, I worked for all these companies and they were paying me at the time, you know, $50 an hour as a chef, you know, which was great money. It wasn't enough.

Not for what I wanted, what I was giving. When I came in and told them what my thoughts were, they looked at me like I was crazy. You know, get out of here. Okay. I just did it. And my first client that I got just by accident, and I just started started my business was one of the most well-known clients ever. This is back when AOL was a thing and it involved AOL. And I'll never forget, I did

the event and I didn't know what to charge or how to charge it. I got out and his wife came and said, Andre, how much will you owe me? I said, I don't know. This is my first one. I got out and his wife came and said, Andre, how much will me? I said, I don't know. Um, I'm just my first one. I was honest. She brought me her book down that she wrote. And she said, never forget your worth. I got in the car and it was a check for $8,000, right? That was a lot of, it's not, I mean that money now, but back then it was a huge amount of money. From that, it just clicked.

Literally. That's when I said, okay, I'm not doing any bulk. You know, I'm not doing 100 people. I'm not doing 300 people. I'm going to keep it just like I am. I'm going to perfect that. And even now, the things that I'm doing is me all the time. You were talking about complacency and how, a lot of people you know they become comfortable

become complacent now for you in the past have you had times where you were just like comfortable you're like oh i'm chilling and if you did have that what is it that brought you out of that or what is it that made you be like ah this isn't me i gotta push forward have i had a time where I was just complacent? Yeah. Um, honestly, um, in the military, in the military, it was, I worked for a lot of high profile people and it was just,

I was trained to do the things that I was doing. Um, but it limited me so much, you know, with the clearances, with this, that, or how and how to reach. And it was just by circumstance that one of my principles came at me entirely wrong.

I was on top of my game. I was the best of my best of who I am. And all of a sudden, this man came to me with negativity. You know why? Because of my size. He looked at me and he judged me off of my size, which took me back to a thing that everybody's going to prejudge you regardless, no matter what your resume would say,

you can look at you like we laughed at about Lulu limit earlier today. They'll look at you and they're going to prejudge you. They're going to say, they're going to say if he's or she or she is this person or that way or that. But when he did that and said to me that I was trying to be intimidating and I was trying to imitate him and I was trying to do X, Y, and Z and I was like,

Whoa, it blew my mind at that point in time. I was like, and here's the thing. No one had my side. No one had my back because of his statue. That's when I said, I got it. I'm going to make this.

I'm going to make this better. And now I'm better than him. Now I'm bigger than him. Now I'm not complacent. Yeah. Okay. How are you running off of no sleep? I've watched you cook at 6 a.m. this morning.

Watched you train these guys to their you know couldn't even do a push-up anymore and now you're doing on this podcast and you got zero sleep last night uh that is true i didn't get it was the wine the wine did it the wine is pushing us through right Wine is pushing us through, right? You know what? It's that self-drive, that self-motivation. And I have to say it's you guys because you guys have me hype.

Mark, like you said, the team, I am 100%. I think I said to someone, I don't know who I remember saying it to earlier, but even, I never said it to you guys. I said the more we started working out, the more hype I was becoming. I said, I got to watch myself because I can get overhyped. I mean, literally, I'm just kind of like that super saying, you know, I love it. The more the anger you get, the bigger and stronger you become. That's me all the way. Have you been like this for like your whole life?

Just like you've just been working off of. I have actually, unfortunately, but yes. Okay. You like to eat a lot. And you kept mentioning eating chickens, like, which just sounds weird. Like people normally say chicken and you're always talking about chickens. How much do you eat? I would do four whole chickens.

I love chickens. I love chickens. Even though the egg because i do about 24 of those a day boiled eggs only uh three whole eggs the rest are whites the caviar and chickens see you coming they're like they they run we better get they they run um but the caveat is i am a chef so i do know how to make some good chickens and i know how to make it where it's tender. And I'll use a chicken like a snack.

I'll eat a whole chicken. It only takes me a few minutes because I'll just grab it, pull out all the bones. It's like magic. I think that chicken, like I realize there's chicken like everywhere. There's like buffalo wings and there's like KFC and there's all these kinds of places, right? of wings and there's like KFC and there's all these kinds of places, right? But eating like a whole chicken, I think a lot of fitness people, for some reason, are not thinking about that because people are always talking about expense. Like, oh, I don't want to buy that because it's expensive. It's like an entire chicken is actually really inexpensive. And, you know,

depending on your appetite, you know, you happen to eat four of them a day. I think most people, that might last them for a day or two. It is true. You're right about that. It's that knowledge base. You know, it's easier for people to go to one of these like Costco or whatever it is. Like I go to Restaurant Depot, I'll get a whole case of chicken, whole chickens, and it'll cost me maybe like 50 bucks. Right. But that'll have, let's say, 30 chickens inside. You know, that's a lot of chicken so a lot of protein that's a lot of protein exactly this turns me on so just to think about all that and i can fabricate it myself and i can make it to my liking how i want it tender and juicy and and just and just kind of like kill it but i also have a huge refrigerator in my place i put them in and kind of cycle me in and out. How do we prepare a whole chicken?

What do we got to do? So I have, oh my God, I have a peth rub. I have a smoker. I have a charcoal grill. I have a gas grill. What about just the oven? We'll stick to something simple. Okay, oven, which is even better.

I use some racks. I use bricks in oven. I'll fabricate it and open it up. Just put regular bricks in the oven? Yeah, well, you heat them up. You heat them up. Just put regular bricks in the oven? Yeah. Well, you heat them up. You heat them up. You put them in.

A couple different ways. Even if you're just going to put it in the oven on a sheet pan, you'll open it up and butterfly it, lay them flat. What I do is I use a Cuisinart or you'll use something to chop up garlic, parsley, whatever flavor profile you want, some olive oil. Get it, rub it under. So that way you're getting flavor in the chicken. In the chicken.

So you go under the skin, over top of the skin. This guy's got secrets. He does. He's got secrets. You know, rub it smooth. Rub it down. Put it in. Let it get nice and crispy.

You'll have a perfect chicken every time. Oh, my God. That sounds good. That does sound good. I'm really hungry now. That does sound delicious. What else does your diet look like? Everything.

I like vegetables. Like I said, I'm a carnivore by heart. Vegetables are a necessity or just kind of like on it because I pay for it, if I do pay for it. But superfoods, of course, always a plus, like I was saying earlier, with quinoa and amaranth, protein pastas. I'm simple but complicated because of my lifestyle. So I know how to make food taste great. You know, especially in our industry, as far as the health and fitness comes, when guys do come to me and I do support them and help them out, I change their whole mindset about how they should eat and why.

And then I kind of explain it to them, just like a new diet fast that's coming out. Everything is, you know, the fasting, the Keto's or anything. It doesn't matter. When you put it in perspective, it's all about your personal preference. Now, I think that's such a big deal, though, because, you know, when a lot of people think about dieting, when they think about the food they got to eat, they don't enjoy it because number one, they don't know how to make it taste good. So when they don't have a meal to look forward to, and Mark always talks about like having something that you look forward to every day, because if it's tough for you to eat that

food, then it's difficult. But if you're not, if you learn how to cook, you know, then your diet isn't a diet. It's just like for you right now, it's just a way of living, but you're eating healthy every single day because your food tastes amazing. Yeah, it is amazing. I mean, you know, I'm living proof. I'm Mark's living proof that you look at us. You look at us and like, what are they eating? Like they tell you, like, wait a second, that's not right. I'm not eating that. I'm eating some greens and a piece of dry fruit or I don't know, dry piece of chicken. I don't know. But, you know, But they say, wow, that sounds terrible. You've eaten it how long?

Well, I've been eating it for the last five years. I'm surprised you're still alive. But yeah, it's all perspective. You don't have to go with that. A lot of people just want to go with the flow. If you see it on social media, you see it on TV, most likely you're going to follow it. And that's fine. No problem with that. Just follow the right people and things that's on social media you see it on tv most likely you're gonna follow it you know but that's fine

no problem with that just follow the right people and and things that's on social media that are influencing you are there any uh any cuts of meat that people are sleeping on you know like earlier today you guys had uh you seared and cooked a uh whole tenderloin and even that was new for me but i knew like a filet like okay that's gonna come out and be amazing but is there something out there that you're like man how come people people are complaining about not having a healthy meal like on the cheap especially why don't they look at this type of cut um well it's that's a great question it's so many different type of cuts it also goes on personal preference as far as it's fish i don't do a lot of farm-raised fish you know like the

whole thing is like the farm-raised tilapia where you know toppy is a bottom feeder just like catfish whatever whatever eating its own it's on poop yeah exactly its own poop um but the meats uh now the marketers are getting very smart the meat cuts that used to be extremely less expensive are becoming overly priced. You know, like, for instance, a flank steak or a skirt steak. And that's why I say you should buy in bulk. If you're going to go out and shop and you're going to these little places

where you're paying so much money when you can just go and buy it in bulk and freeze it, fabricate it, cut it into simple portions, just like a tuna on a day i mean pay like 100 bucks for that but that's about 200 200 plus dollars worth well if you went out and i served that to you you're gonna pay 75 for one portion or more 75 for one portion we had like 10 or something yeah yeah we did yeah i think you ate three. Maybe. I know your count.

Yeah. When you were telling him like, oh, it's your plate. You can do whatever you want with it. As far as like the potatoes and the sides and all that, I thought you were just going to grab another steak and just throw it on top of the other steak. Yeah. That would have been good. That would have been even better. Yeah.

Yeah. But doing it in bulk is just a smarter way of shopping. Everybody needs to realize that and kind of understand it. But unfortunately, a lot of people don't want to do that prep work or just fabricating. Like I said earlier about my go-to would be in Icon Meals and because of travel and whatnot. If you find someone on a niche, take it. If not, do it yourself. And what do you mean by fabricating?

I'm sorry. Fabricating. Unfortunately, when we did the tenderloin today, they had already cleaned it. Fabricating is just cleaning it from the fat, from the silver skin, or even with the chicken. When you have a whole chicken, you have to know how to fabricate, how to cut the bone in the middle, the breast, open the plates up, clean it out, and make it feasible for you to work with. There's sometimes just like stuff on the meat that you can't, like that tenderloin, that extra fatty part. Like it sounds great.

Like, oh, we'll leave the fat on there and it will taste better. But that fat is not easy to work with. It's something that would like maybe end up in a stew or could maybe put it in like a scramble or something. But it's not, you can't really do much with it. If not Wagyu or kobe that fat is irrelevant what's the uh what's the protocol like you know at the white house was it real you know was it real strict on what you can do and what you can't do um how was some of that and

then also too at that time like you know did you have a phone and have access to you know social media and like different things because i would imagine that would be you know did you have a phone and have access to you know social media and like different things because i would imagine that would be you can't just sit there and take selfies and it's not not that you would do that but they must have rules right oh they do of course people break the rules i'm not a rule breaker like that like i said i didn't take i didn't like to take pictures or i never asked people to take pictures now don't get me wrong i kind of regret it now because it's the history of your life going back over it, you know, looking at the things that you've done and you've

accomplished. I mean, now it's like everybody's just jumping on it or jumping in people's faces. Like it gets overwhelming where it's like, okay, relax, calm down. I've, I've seen the best of the best break their protocol just because they're like, oh my God, I'm such a fan of this person, that person. And it just, it just goes crazy. But protocol is hard. Of course, there are rules and regulations of what you can and what you can't do. And that's one of the things where I said that to me doing this is a million times more impactful. You know, I, I get to help people. I get to save lives. I get to change lives. I get to inspire, motivate. And in retrospect, they do the exact same thing for me in return. That's what fuels me to keep going. And believe me, I go 24 seven all the time. I was actually about to ask that, like your day to day,

cause you were mentioning to us in the gym, like how much you've been traveling. Is it ever slowing down? Like has it slowed down or it's just. You know what? Is, is I keep thinking it's going to plateau and it just becomes more and more and more and more. I mean, literally, I mean, it's a blessing. Don't get me wrong.

Yeah. I never, I never in a million years thought that it would be to this level just because of me being me and me doing what I want to do just because of people telling me oh you should do this or you should everybody's going to tell you I mean oh my god I've had so many people

even advisors even with people from social media who's like I'll do this who's one of your social media I run my social media I do this oh no no no who's behind it who's the content person it's just me just me doing what i do naturally every day and then there comes a time where you're gonna have to get out of your comfort zone me personally i'm an intro extrovert right uh um i'll rather just kind of be to myself alone on the side. Uh, but then when they say action, it's time to work. I tell people, I put in perspective, they asked me about, a lot of people ask me, well,

how do you get up and you keynote speak? How do you get in front of the camera? And I say, I act as though it's my very last time and my only chance. I only have one chance and I have to give everything I got into each and every chance. Some people that might make them freak out even more. It might just, you know, run for the hills. That is true. I think this is how you become a celebrity chef, though.

Like, you probably don't really necessarily even set out to do that. You just work hard. you just work hard you um sounds like you accepted a lot of jobs that um that ended up giving you a lot of great experience and then put you in a good position to now be a celebrity chef and then also um it's your personality you know and your size doesn't hurt you know and maybe like maybe in the military and maybe in other places in your life, your size maybe worked against you, at least just from people judging you, being judgmental towards you. Well, now someone takes a picture of you at the White House. This is the White House chef. Everyone's like, what?

That guy cooks for our country's leader? Like, oh, well, of course he does. Look at the size. I think it makes people feel good, and it's a good story. Like, this guy's got 24 inch arms. And so I think a lot? I'm like, that wasn't my job. My job was to do my job and I did it diligently. I wasn't thinking I put people, I put many people in front of TV shows and so forth. But I was always that person in the background because that's what my mind said.

I was a leader. I am a leader. I'm always going to do that. But I always told people, if I give you this opportunity, if I put you in positions up to you, what you're going to do with it. All of them fail except for one. And the one that did fail is the one I actually talk about now who took his own life. Right. And he had the most potential. And through that, I vicariously, you know, represent him and everything that he's did for his country and his wife and his kids.

And for me, it made me realize those things. So now with this platform, and don't get me wrong, you don't just have a picture taken and act as though it's going to be forever. The thing about that I tell people is like, oh, it's because of a picture. Like, no, all this because of hard as work. Yeah, hard as work before and after. Before and after. You have to have that foundation. You put all those things once you realize, like you said, Mark, you put all those things that encompasses you that other people see.

And then you use them to whatever you have to do to make it known. If anybody does say it's because of a picture, I mean, if you, if you think about it, like first off, you look the way you look because you've been working out for decades, you're in that position because you've been cooking for decades and you have the skill to be there. So if there was a different guy in that picture that that would not be the same.

Well, they, you know, it's funny you said that. Cause it actually almost someone actually tried to make it happen. They did the exact same thing right after. They literally did. And it was from someone extremely famous, high profile in the political aspect of it, because they want to try to divert it a little bit because it was so much hurrah. If you saw the memes and the things, it was kind of out of control. The Internet is a beast.

But the funny part about it was they tried to make it happen, and it failed miserably, you know? Yeah. Are you a political person? Am I a political? Well, in this world, I can't be religious or political because it'll cause such a divide with so many different entities. And I found out early on where people were trying to make me pick sides. Right, right, right.

And what benefit is it? What about being in the White house and uh you know serving under certain presidents like um do you ever have a situation where maybe it maybe it's not you know straight up uh uh political but um you ever have a situation where maybe said something and like is against maybe the current party that's in office or anything like that and kind of learn like maybe i shouldn't have said that type of thing or have i ever said anything yeah or you kind of like see stuff like that happen uh i don't i don't say anything i mean i'm i'm pretty good at my job focused i'm overly focused i'm probably one of the most focused people and you know that you probably can meet as far as secrets or just

knowing uh what is what and and what my position is and how it stands. At the same time, I used to also be a security detail. You know, I used to go out and red zone moves and do this and that. So you have to switch up on your mindsets and things of the sort. People ask me all the time, you know, it doesn't matter. As long as I'm not being disrespected, as long as I'm not threatened, or whatever, I'm not getting involved.

People sometimes, and I'll tell you honestly, people say, how can you do X, Y, and Z? And I'll say to someone, where do you work? How long you work there? I've been there for about 19 years.

I say, quit your job. Quit your job, walk away. They're like, what? I've been there for this long. I said. So why are you saying it to me? Put it in perspective. If you have someone that you like or don't like or whatever, you still work there. If you hate your boss, if you love your boss or whatever, it doesn't matter. It's all about perspective.

And like I said, the Internet is a hell of a thing. So if people kind of lean into it too much, it can consume you. But if they use it for the right reason, it can build you. What do you have coming up next? Oh, my God. Traveling everywhere. I told you I'm doing a couple TV shows. I'm getting ready to move to L.A. at the end of this month.

My book is coming out. And, man, I have so much stuff I don't even know what's coming up next gotta look at that schedule right? I do have to look at the schedule I got some great things you know Living Legacy Awards and people honor me which is so humbling it keeps me going but I just I'm just

that person that's trying to make this place a better place like you and love each other do some push ups and support anything else over there andrew yeah i don't think we've mentioned it on the podcast yet but you run off of like two three hours of sleep a night right uh two hours two hours okay um it's funny because people hear about like uh oh there's been studies done that like 0.001% of population can live off of two hours of sleep.

Somebody admits it and then everybody calls bullshit. But have you gotten any testing done or anything like that? Yes. Okay, cool. That's great. I had plenty of tests, plenty of like take this sleep medications. I'm just that functional person. I don't know how much you said. What is the population one point it's it's something it's one of those things where like uh somebody down

the road will be like oh i think i have that like no you don't there's like a gene like but there is a gene yeah but yeah people will say like oh i think i got that no you don't i know that gene is actually called the incredible gene you gotta have to have 24 inch arms to have it. You got to do 2,222 pushups and had to have been 700 pounds in your lifetime. But no, I'm just that functional guy that can do that. And sometimes I even wonder about myself. Sometimes I even doubt myself, like not sleeping last night and not sleeping the day prior. And I'm just like wow something I think I'm

like how can I do this how can I how am I so energetic and how am I still running but like I said I use that a caveat that I'm feeding off of you guys now and I'll continue to do so and then with a thousand emails I have after this yeah what time do you go to bed I go to bed about about uh one o'clock or so uh get up at three uh and then i'll meditate for that 15 20 minutes and then that's when i do my push-ups for that hour and so yeah then i start my day that's late have you been like this for a really long time a very long time uh since the military uh yeah it just it just became an enormous for me. Like I said, don't get me wrong. I would not. I hope no one else is like that because it's terrible for you,

especially if your body is not equipped for it or adapted for it. Do you do you fall asleep occasionally? Like because you're you're up until one. So like if you have any downtime to like watch TV or do something, do you doze off here and there? So if I doze off, I'll literally doze off for maybe 10 minutes. And the bad part about that is when I wake up, I thought I've slept for three hours. And it's only been like 10 minutes or so. And it just recharges me and reenergizes me. So that's that, you know, good and bad.

You got a lot of energy. Might actually be a sand because like Goku barely sleeps. Yeah. recharging me and reenergizes me. So, uh, that's that, you know, good and bad. A lot of energy. Might actually be a sand cause like Goku barely sleeps. Yeah. So another thing that makes this guy a mutant is, um, I think you told me you ran two miles in like 13 something minutes and you weighed 300 pounds. Yeah, it was almost 300, uh, 13, uh, 1330. So I was always doing under 1400 before my quadriceps was blown. And even now I'm still, I can run. And that's a lot of kinetic energy. I tell people to understand it about being training and about knowing your body,

which is going so important is for every pound or every five pounds that I gain, I had to compensate for that. Some people just kind of let it go and they want to gain a muscle and, you know, because you got to have that flexibility. You have to have that endurance that goes along with it. So and it just doesn't happen by you running. You have to stress your body out, you know, pack on some more pounds or do something that's totally extraordinary. That's out of character with yourself to make your body say, I'm going into survival mode. So that's what my body basically does all the time. Survival mode. Yeah, that's the of character with yourself to make your body say, I'm going into survival mode. So that's what my body basically does all the time.

Survival mode. Yeah. That's the crazy thing. Like even this workout this morning, you know, we, or I was taking some extra rest. You were taking a little bit,

but he was like looking at us like, Hmm, okay. Let me just wait for these two so I can get my damn. Like what's wrong with these youngsters? Like your endurance for your size is something that I literally just blows my blows my mind. You know, people don't expect that. People have this idea that like a big guy can't have endurance, but you're the exact opposite. And, you know, I appreciate that because this morning I didn't feel like it was endurance for me.

I could have done a lot more just because I've been on the road for so long. But I'm glad I'm not because you guys took me to the ringer. So I appreciate that. But it was fun. I loved it. It made me rethink and saying that, you know, I can't wait to get to L.A. and kind of be stationary because I'm always overworked so many different places. So now I just want to get to a gym, relax a little bit, and just work out.

And then I think I'm going to, you know, you said enough time, I think I may even compete next year just so I can say that I did it. You know, just so I can get that rhythm. I mean, because I'm there all the time with, you know, at Olympia, with Arnold Classic, you know, the strong man. So might as well, you know, walk the walk. That would be great motivation for you. Yeah, of course. And others. And you love going all in, so.

I go all in. It was really funny during the uh the live stream uh earlier that we did on our other channel uh somebody was like he's breathing so hard after like two sets there's no way he gets in over 2 000 push-ups a day and then the next set and then the next set and i'm like oh by the way they're doing 50 push-ups in between each set and they just slowly quieted everybody down as you guys kept going and it's funny thing because like you know i could hear mark and inseam of breathing and i could hear you too on the microphone but it was like it wasn't even close yeah he was so calm and collected and then like like mark it sounded like you had like a plane

shooting out of your nose it was just like jet fuel i might have yeah yeah that's the thing people gotta understand man like you've been doing this for so long like people want to like jump into what you're doing but if like you can build up to something like this you just got to do it for years and years it is true like i said rhabdomycinitis is a it's a real thing you can hurt yourself uh and you know speaking of the breathing part sometimes when i i do my push-ups in the morning i breathe on purpose uh because i don't have any music i don't have any sound i breathe because um it's my tranquil place it's like and even i caught myself doing it when we're working out

today doing things i started breathing out because it reminded me of why i was doing what i was doing it's stimulating actually yeah here you hear your own body breathe. It's true. And you kind of get connected to, uh, like almost like your heartbeat in a way. It gets you kind of motivated, gets you fired up.

Yeah. Is that how you kind of deal with like the, uh, the negative side of the internet, you know, the haters, the bad comments that you just like, look at this.

It's like, look at, look at, look at my, like my arms. Like you, you want to hate on me they they love me they love to hate me so i'm good with that that's good you know at one point in time

because i'm a by nature i'm a i don't know not aggressive guy i'm very aggressive but by nature i i uh i process a lot of different things and sometimes people will bother me on there. And other times I have to think about my audience and, you know, about the kids that's following me or and sometimes I'll come back then because I know it's going to be young kids looking and waiting for what is he going to say? What is he how is he going to handle this? A lot of people do it. A lot of people, even the ones I handled it with, they'll join on my team or if they don't, so be it. Oh, it's awesome having you here today really appreciate your time you know thanks for serving our country and uh you know you're all heart man it was it was an honor to have you here we had a lot of fun today we did we had a lot of fun where can people find you uh people can find me um

playing but if it's on social media it's gonna going to be at IG's Real Chef Rush, one word, Twitter Real Chef Rush, LinkedIn Andre Rush, or I have a Facebook page, Andre Rush, Chef Rush, and chefrush.com. So strength is never weakness. Weakness never strength. Catch y'all later.