For Celebrity Chef Marc Murphy, food is more than a career — it's a way to take care of others. Having built a name for himself through restaurants and TV appearances on shows like Food Network's Chopped, Murphy is driven by the gratification that comes from supporting his team.
Reflecting on why he expanded his concepts (which now includes restaurants such as The Mainstay by Marc Murphy and Porchetta Sandwich Shop available at Citi Field) he explains that the business of food is addictive. That’s because of the great people in the industry and the opportunities he can help provide for them.
Watch now to learn about being on the Food Network, operating a pop-up restaurant, and the gratification that comes with having a business.
Reflecting on why he expanded his concepts (which now includes restaurants such as The Mainstay by Marc Murphy and Porchetta Sandwich Shop available at Citi Field) he explains that the business of food is addictive. That’s because of the great people in the industry and the opportunities he can help provide for them.
Watch now to learn about being on the Food Network, operating a pop-up restaurant, and the gratification that comes with having a business.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Welcome to Restaurant Influencers, presented by Entrepreneur.
00:09I am your host, Sean Walsh.
00:10This is a Tally BBQ Media production in life, in the restaurant business, and in the new
00:17creator economy.
00:18We learn through lessons and stories.
00:21I'm so grateful to Toast for believing in storytelling.
00:26They power our restaurants in San Diego, but I came to them with a crazy idea that
00:30I wanted to have the best storytellers in hospitality come on a show so that we could
00:36share the secrets beyond the four walls of the restaurant.
00:39The restaurant business is a hard business for those that listen, but those that are
00:43fortunate to continue to stay in business do other things that open up other doors.
00:49We want to learn the secrets, and that's why we have Chef Mark Murphy on the show today.
00:53Chef, welcome to the show.
00:55Thank you very much, and you just mentioned you're from San Diego, right?
00:58I am.
00:59Well, why is this Empire State Building behind you?
01:02It's a great question.
01:03So this is my media studio.
01:06I'm projecting.
01:09Part of our goal is to realize that the things that we talk about, the videos we make, the
01:13interviews that we do, they extend beyond San Diego.
01:16We've connected with amazing people all over the world, and New York City background allows
01:21me to think big.
01:22Absolutely.
01:23I love it.
01:24It's my city.
01:26I've been here for over 30 years, so I love seeing it back there.
01:29I've never been in San Diego, unfortunately.
01:31I've got to get down there.
01:34I have a question for you about San Diego, but we'll tease that for later on in the episode.
01:40Chef Mark, you can find him on Food Network, all over Food Network.
01:45He has incredible restaurants.
01:46He's about to open up a brand new restaurant, a new concept that we're going to talk about
01:51more.
01:52My favorite random question, which is where in the world is your favorite stadium, stage,
01:58or venue?
01:59I mean, my son and I are huge Yankee fans, so Yankee Stadium has got to be it.
02:05I live on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.
02:07It's eight stops on the subway.
02:09It's the easiest thing to get to.
02:11And then I guess right after that is probably MSG, down, take the subway the other direction,
02:16go to 34th Street and get off this train, and you're right there.
02:20It's so amazing to live in a city where you can access things like this so easily for
02:24concerts or venue or for sports.
02:27It's just great.
02:28When you're in most cities, you want to go to a stadium or something.
02:31You got to get in a car.
02:32You got to drive there.
02:33It's not that easy to get to.
02:34It's impossible to get out of there after a show.
02:37It's just beautiful that New York City is so well set up for that.
02:40Beautiful.
02:41So we're going to go to Yankee Stadium.
02:42I'm going to talk to Entrepreneur Toast.
02:44We'll get some other brands involved.
02:46I'm going to rent it out, bring all of the best hospitality professionals to a one day
02:51event, TEDx style.
02:52We're not selling shit.
02:54We're just going to do a TEDx style speech, put you on the pitcher's mound.
02:58And I'd love for you to share.
03:01You said a quote in the New York Times, smaller works for me.
03:04I've gone from six restaurants and 650 employees down to just four.
03:08I feel like I can make money here.
03:12Yeah, I think that, you know, I grew my own company before I had for 16 years, I started
03:17Landmark and then I had Landmark at the Time Warner Center.
03:19I had Ditch Plains in the West Village, Ditch Plains on the Upper West Side.
03:22I had another place called Kingside and a hotel on 57th Street.
03:27And, you know, it actually when you go back to it, it's a lot.
03:32It's a lot.
03:33Your lifestyle, it's something you have to be young to be able to start and do things
03:36like that.
03:38It's very funny because when I got I still own the building in Tribeca and I just do
03:42private events here and I obviously do this new concept, which you were just mentioning.
03:47It was funny because I called my air conditioning guy who I built this restaurant.
03:52I'm in it right now, actually.
03:54And it was like 18, 19 years ago.
03:57And I remember this guy, Richard.
03:59He had this company. It was him and his brother.
04:02They had a van AC company.
04:04They installed the air conditioners on the roof.
04:06They used to maintain my AC all the time.
04:08And this was like, as I said, 18, whatever, a long time ago.
04:12And then when I was getting back up and running, I called them.
04:15I said, listen, I got to ramp this again.
04:17I get the system back up and running.
04:18I got to do 10, 10 ton air conditioners on the roof.
04:22I want to get new ones. And I go, how are you doing?
04:25It's good. Good, good.
04:26You know, I got a kids like this.
04:28Good, good. What's the business like?
04:30He goes, well, I got 22 trucks now, hundreds of employees.
04:35And I said, how's that going?
04:37He goes, oh, man, it's a lot of headaches.
04:38I said, now let me tell you the truth.
04:41Be told when you had the one truck, you and your brother,
04:43were you making probably the same amount of money you're making now?
04:46He goes, yeah, probably.
04:47But I got a lot more headaches.
04:49You know, sometimes bigger is not always better.
04:52That is a magical story.
04:54I absolutely love it.
04:55And it's one of the reasons that we do this show.
04:58You know, we're living in 2024.
05:00We're able to have a conversation.
05:02Produces for Entrepreneur Magazine have partners like Toast.
05:05But we get to share the secrets, you know, the secrets of the restaurant
05:09business, the secrets of the food business are difficult.
05:12You know, can you share what have you learned about the business of food?
05:18I mean, you know, going back to that, that end is like the business of food
05:22is first of all, it's it's addicting. It's a lot of fun.
05:25We we there's a there's great people in this industry.
05:29That's why I'm still here.
05:30And this is why I think most of us do it.
05:32It's you surround yourself with great people.
05:34And that was probably one of the main reasons why I end up growing my company
05:38when I started, when I did all the other stuff is, you know, you have a great GM.
05:42You have a great director of this and that.
05:44And and you're like, well, I can't really give them a raise.
05:46I only have this one restaurant.
05:48So what if we open another one?
05:49I can move him up to the director of operations and we can grow that.
05:52We can grow that because you don't want to you want to help these people out.
05:55You want them to be able to, you know, raise their family,
05:58have have kids and all that stuff.
06:01And and it's and it's very gratifying.
06:03I mean, that's what being a business person is.
06:05Right. It's it's gratifying being able to have a bunch of people
06:09that are working with you, but also you're paying them.
06:12They're they're they're supporting their wives, their husbands, their kids.
06:16It's it's a great feeling to go to work.
06:18And you're like, wow, this is we're really contributing to society
06:21and in a large way here.
06:23That's one aspect of it.
06:25And the other aspect is you have people coming in your restaurants
06:28that are having a great time.
06:29They're celebrating birthdays, graduations,
06:32first date, second dates, weddings, anniversaries, bar mitzvahs.
06:37We're we're involved in all those people's lives.
06:40And, you know, so there's just so many facets of the restaurant industry.
06:43And one of my friends who actually went to school business school told me once
06:47he goes, you know, the restaurant industry is the dumbest thing in the world
06:50when you look at it from a business perspective,
06:51because when you look at a business plan and you have pillars of business, right,
06:55you have H.R., you have customer service, you have manufacturing,
06:59you have inventory, you have just the restaurant industry
07:02is the only one that has all of them.
07:03So there's all those areas for things to go wrong.
07:06So it is it is you really you really got to be really hardheaded
07:10and really stupid to want to get in this business.
07:12But it's so much fun.
07:13And we and but the other thing that it does is,
07:16which is what I also another aspect that just there's so many different aspects
07:20of what's great about it, but it is it also it's an entry level job
07:24for most immigrants that come into the country, right?
07:26If you're an immigrant, you probably first job you ever had
07:29was probably a busboy or a dishwasher, right?
07:31And then you can start there and you can work your way up.
07:34And that is that is something that you can feel really proud of.
07:37It's Father's Day just went by.
07:39I got a text from this guy, Herman, who was who was an old guy
07:42who used to work for me years ago.
07:44He started as a dishwasher.
07:46He moved here with his wife from Colombia.
07:48I think he worked with me for years.
07:51He became a line cook.
07:52He became a sous chef.
07:53And then I went to Tampa because I was in the Hard Rock Casino there
07:57and I was opening a restaurant with the casino years ago.
08:01And he wanted to move.
08:02I said, why don't you come down?
08:04We'll see if the Hard Rock will hire you as the chef.
08:06It was a management deal.
08:07He basically became the sous chef of this restaurant in the Hard Rock Casino.
08:11He's paid there a couple of years.
08:12Now he went off somewhere else.
08:14You've got two kids.
08:15And every once in a while, like on Father's Day, he sends me a text.
08:18He goes, Jeff, I just want to wish you a happy Father's Day.
08:21And, you know, that feeling of like, wow, man, this guy,
08:24I helped him get to where I mean, he obviously helped me a lot,
08:28you know, with the work that he did and everything.
08:30But it was like it was a beautiful story.
08:32And it's great to be reminded of that.
08:34And knowing that we touch a lot of lives
08:37and there's so many different areas of where we do touch people's lives.
08:40Can you bring me back to your story when you became executive chef of The Cellar?
08:44Didn't you have a similar someone that brought you along
08:47that paved the path that believed in you?
08:50Yes, I did.
08:51I had a guy named George Masroff, who who was a he's actually Egyptian.
08:56And he had he he was a chef of Tavern on the Green for years.
09:01He was an amazing he is an amazing guy.
09:03And he is he he was a consulting chef at a restaurant
09:08called Layla that I was opening up.
09:09I was a sous chef.
09:11Joey Fortunato was the chef and he was a consultant chef.
09:13And he worked with us.
09:14It was a Mediterranean, Middle Eastern restaurant.
09:16And he had a lot of background in that.
09:18So we he sort of mentored us and got us to where we need to be.
09:21And six months after that opened, he called me up and he goes, Mark,
09:24you're doing a great job there, but I got a job for you up here at Cellar in the Sky.
09:28And I was like, what?
09:29And yeah, it took a while.
09:30It took about three different meetings for me to convince me to go upstairs
09:33and go look at the place.
09:35And he brought me upstairs and he handed me a piece of paper
09:38after I turned the job down three times.
09:40He finally got me down there, took the elevator to the hundred
09:43seventh floor and I stand in the kitchen views of the Verrazano.
09:46The dining room's gorgeous.
09:47I was also going to deal with the bar.
09:50And he hands me a piece of paper with my salary written on it.
09:52He goes, this is what I can pay you.
09:53And it was literally double what I was making as a sous chef at the last place.
09:57And I was like, oh, man, I said, I don't know.
10:00And he goes, listen, I'll be here.
10:01I'm the director.
10:01He was the back of the house director of operations.
10:03He goes, I'm going to be here every day.
10:05If you have any questions, I'm here with you.
10:07We're going to do this together.
10:08You can do this. I know you.
10:09And and I was probably twenty six or twenty seven at the time.
10:12And I took the job and it was pretty it was great.
10:15It was really, really great.
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10:56That's incredible.
10:57Tell us. Tell us about three days a month.
11:00I love the I love the best.
11:02The first time I've heard three days of I mean, I have I have a buddy of mine.
11:06His name's Kyle. And Sarah, he's actually in the city.
11:08He's Mr. Restaurants on TikTok.
11:10And his his podcast is called Closed Mondays.
11:13And I'm like, Closed Mondays is a great name for a show.
11:15But I haven't heard of Closed, what, 27 days out of the week.
11:18Yeah. Out of the month.
11:20This is what happened.
11:21So as my career went on, I bought these restaurants
11:24and then things happened before COVID.
11:25I closed everything down and decided to keep the building downtown
11:29and just do a private event space.
11:30So it's been a private event space for almost two years now.
11:33And we do well. It's fun.
11:34We do corporate events and things like that.
11:37And people rent it out for photo shoots or they shoot commercials here.
11:41Sometimes I have a demo kitchen.
11:43I can shoot content here. I do all sorts of things.
11:45And because, you know, I'm on this show called Chop.
11:48People know me and I don't have a restaurant.
11:50So people are always like, oh, we want to eat your food.
11:52And it's like, OK, so I sort of decided, all right, why don't we do this?
11:55We're going to open it three days a month.
11:57It's going to be on a Thursday, Friday, Saturday of my choosing and one in a month.
12:01And we're going to do a four course menu.
12:03And we're going to not we're going to we charge seventy five bucks
12:06beverage on consumption.
12:08And, you know, it's it's a beautiful thing.
12:10It's like people come in, people fly in from other states.
12:14They make reservations. They come in.
12:17And I get to meet these all these people that come in.
12:19So basically, we get to play restaurant three days a month here.
12:22My staff, we bring in people that usually work the banquets, the private events.
12:26And and we play restaurant for three days a month.
12:29And then after that, after the three days, we look at each other and go,
12:32we're never opening a restaurant again.
12:34We remind ourselves every month, every month.
12:37We remind ourselves three days a month.
12:39We remind ourselves not to open a restaurant again.
12:42Oh, my God. What is there?
12:44Is there a plan? Is there a certain three days or do you pick every month?
12:48Like the lottery?
12:49We have six months ahead.
12:50We we've blocked out the head. OK.
12:52And we only so what we do is we announce the next.
12:56So we have two months announced that we're doing the event.
13:00Yeah, we're the dates of the event. Right.
13:02So you can book those two months.
13:03Like right now, it's actually happening tomorrow in the next two days.
13:06So you can book that reservation and you can book the next one.
13:10But you don't know the menu of the next one.
13:11We we then publicize them on Monday.
13:15We'll let you know what next month's menu is.
13:17And we open up reservations for the month after that.
13:20So basically, we have the ability to move that around,
13:22depending on banquets or somebody wants to book it out or buy it out for something.
13:26So but we definitely we we definitely every three days a month
13:30on a Thursday, Friday, Saturday, we will keep it open for,
13:34you know, for for the for this pop up, which we decided to.
13:38The address is 179 West Broadway.
13:40So I call it Mark 179 because, you know, it's
13:43I didn't know what else to call it.
13:44And it was it works.
13:46You know, we have a little we have a little neon sign.
13:49We flick the switch on and stays lit for three days.
13:51And then we split the switch off and it's off.
13:53And it's then it's not Mark 179.
13:55And, you know, we have plans.
13:59I'm actually right now I've had a call with my team, all four of us.
14:04Right. And we're planning on maybe starting to offer.
14:10Other for other friends of mine, other chefs, like, for example,
14:13if you have a friend of mine in California who has restaurants in California,
14:17but let's say they're launching a cookbook and maybe they want to come out
14:20and it could be like a pop up by X X at Mark at Mark 179.
14:26So we could then, you know, they could come in publicly
14:28and maybe they could do the do a dinner and and do the same format.
14:33We have the whole we have the setup now.
14:34We know what the dining room looks like.
14:36We have the reservation system.
14:38We have the you know, we have all the Instagram stuff we do to publicize it.
14:43We have a great a great amount of very loyal customers that come every month as well.
14:48So then when they see that go out, if let's say there's a chef from California
14:51coming out and then they can also sell their cookbook at the end of the meal
14:55and they'll be here so we can sort of do it.
14:57They would come and do their food and they would just use our venue for that.
15:00It could be it could be a fun little thing to do as well.
15:03So I've just I've just started putting that together
15:06and I'm putting a document together for them to see how it works.
15:09And I'm obviously I'm going to go out to three friends at first and go, hey,
15:12will you do you have any feedback on how this would work for you if we did it?
15:16And and we'll go from there and hopefully, you know, come up next September.
15:21Obviously, we're not going to do it this summer, but, you know, September,
15:23October, November, we might be might do that depending on availability
15:27and you know how much we want to work.
15:29Collaboration.
15:30That's really, really cool idea.
15:32I mean, I think it only works because of the structure that you've set up.
15:37Otherwise, yeah, it's impossible.
15:39I mean, you could do a takeover of a kitchen, but it's logistically much harder.
15:44Yeah. And it's also, you know, this is good
15:46because it's not a restaurant all the time, right?
15:48So we're not disrupting anything, you know, from restaurants, right?
15:51Yeah. You know, closing a restaurant, all of a sudden you pissed off
15:53all your regulars. They're like, what the hell? I show up. It's closed.
15:56Like I used to hate that when I had restaurants.
15:58If somebody bought the whole.
15:59I remember I have a very funny story about the first time I was booking Time Warner.
16:04I had a 300 seat restaurant.
16:05I only took we didn't take reservations.
16:07Mostly it was mostly walk ins, 300 seats.
16:11It was a big restaurant.
16:13I mean, we used to do, you know, between 14 and 60 million in sales up there.
16:16You're right. Big place. Yeah.
16:18And I used to be like, no, we're not closing it for private events.
16:21We're like we're right.
16:22We're if you live down the street and you walk out of that door
16:25and you want to go to my restaurant, it was called Landmark.
16:28You probably know what you want to eat before you get there,
16:30because we had a very consistent menu that that chimichurri sauce
16:34better taste the same, that vinaigrette on that house salad
16:37better taste the same every time.
16:38But you also have to have to have room for people when they come in.
16:41But I didn't ever wanted to close it.
16:43So I had my first banquet person and we were open like maybe a month or two.
16:46And this is, you know, the Time Warner building, big building, pretty fancy,
16:50whatever some movie company comes to us.
16:52My banquet person says we want to rent to play a thing out for after a movie opening
16:57because there's a theater upstairs.
17:00And I said, no, we don't do that.
17:02And they're like, well, what do you mean?
17:04And she's obviously makes a commission on this, right?
17:06She's like, well, they have a lot of money.
17:08It's like a big movie company.
17:10And I said, no, we're not closing.
17:11And she comes back and she goes, listen, I told them, but
17:13they said they'll pay sixty thousand dollars.
17:15I said I said no.
17:18And she's like, what you want?
17:19That's crazy. I said no.
17:21And literally I kept doing that until I got to one hundred and twenty.
17:25And I was like, all right, I got to do this.
17:30Come on. That's a fantastic story.
17:32They had nowhere else to go.
17:34I was still pissed off.
17:35I'm like, oh, my regular customers aren't going to like me.
17:37But I was like, all right.
17:38One hundred and twenty pays the rent.
17:39That's why I'll do that.
17:40Oh, my God.
17:41That is an amazing story.
17:43Yeah. Yeah.
17:44So it was like, OK.
17:45And my banquet person just every time she came back with the price higher,
17:49I would be like, no, she's like, you're not.
17:51I was like, yeah, I am.
17:52I am.
17:54And then when it happened, she was like, oh, I'm glad we said no at 60.
17:58That is an amazing story.
17:59Can you share?
18:00Do you remember the first time you went on TV
18:02to promote your restaurants before Pre Food Network?
18:05It's very funny.
18:06I do. And I can't remember which station it was.
18:11I think I was for seller in the sky when I was a chef up there.
18:13I had never done TV before.
18:16And they PR company from there sent me to the studio.
18:20I had I can still remember I was making a pasta dish.
18:24Um, and I'm standing there.
18:27I got my shit together.
18:28Everything's there.
18:28And the host literally walks up next to me.
18:32And I can't remember who it is.
18:33So it doesn't matter.
18:35And they go, OK, we're going live in 10 seconds.
18:38And this guy, I think it was a guy, leans over to look at the name on my jacket
18:43and goes, Mark Murphy.
18:44OK, great.
18:45Four, three, two.
18:47I'm like, motherfucker.
18:48Couldn't have come and said hello.
18:50And how you doing?
18:51Like, it's chill.
18:52It's your first time on TV.
18:53Nothing.
18:54That was just like nothing.
18:55Launch ready to launch.
18:57But and then I was like, you know what?
18:58I don't care what people think about me.
19:00And I just did it.
19:00And I was afterwards.
19:01I was like, this is easy.
19:03I was I just didn't.
19:05By then, I was I've always been of the mind.
19:07I don't care what people really think about me or whatever.
19:09It sounds like it's a them problem if they don't like me.
19:12So I was fine with it.
19:13And then from there, I kept doing little things here, little things there.
19:17And then the Food Network used my space to shoot some stuff.
19:20I do stuff for them.
19:21And then all of a sudden I got.
19:22I remember I had an assistant at the time I went down and she gave me a DVD
19:27and said, you know, stick that in the computer.
19:29Watch this pilot.
19:30They want you to be on the show called Chopped.
19:32And I was like, oh, I guess so.
19:34And she goes, yeah, it'll bring people to the restaurants.
19:36You go do that show.
19:38So 15 years ago, we're still doing it.
19:40It's fun and it's a lot of fun.
19:42What have you learned?
19:43What's the biggest the biggest lesson?
19:45I mean, for me, it's what it just reinforces
19:49the amazing people that are in our industry because these people show up
19:52and their stories, the the heart wrenching stories, the beautiful stories,
19:56the the the that's that's one aspect of it.
19:59You know, you'll you'll get a kid who comes in.
20:01He's like a sous chef in L.A.
20:03And he's like, I I left New York City because I was in a gang and I escaped to L.A.
20:08I had been stabbed and then I became a dishwasher in L.A.
20:10I worked my way up and now I'm a chef.
20:12You know, you get those stories.
20:13You get like crazy stories like that.
20:16Basically, I think the restaurant industry saves a lot of people's lives
20:19because I think most of us, if we weren't in it, would be in jail.
20:22And and I think it's a great outlet.
20:26It's a great place to be.
20:27Obviously, there's negative parts.
20:28You know, there's obviously, you know, the the drugs and alcohol,
20:31which I think a lot of people succumb to.
20:33And but what I'm happy about that is I'm seeing more and more people
20:37with great support systems for people that do have issues in that sense
20:41that can stay in the restaurant business, because you would most of the time think
20:45if you have a problem with that kind of stuff, you can't be in the business at all.
20:47But that's not true.
20:48I I know firsthand that there's people out there that are that are very dedicated
20:53to helping people that are in this business, stay in this business
20:56with with whatever, you know, demons that they're they're
20:59they're fighting or working or working alongside.
21:02The other great thing I've learned on shop is what I like about the show a lot
21:06is that it's not only the characters that come on, but also
21:11the the idea that we are at the Food Network
21:15entertaining people.
21:17But we are also educating them.
21:19We're basically tricking them into learning stuff. Right.
21:21And I always use the example of, you know, it's just take an artichoke. Right.
21:25If you live somewhere, you've never seen an artichoke.
21:27You're watching Chopped. It's a little competition show.
21:29It's fun. It's cute.
21:31But you're watching four chefs that are probably pretty talented
21:34and have a good degree of knowledge.
21:37And they're going to turn an artichoke or steam the artichoke
21:41or blanch the artichoke or slice it thin and put it on top of a salad.
21:44Or, you know, there's we know there's a bunch of ways to use it,
21:47but somebody might not.
21:48So watching a competition show and all of a sudden at the end of the show,
21:52they're like, oh, shit, I know what to do with an artichoke now on top of it all.
21:55Right. And and I didn't want that guy to win, but oh, well, you know,
21:59so we're educating people as well.
22:02And while entertaining them and tricking them into learning some stuff,
22:05I think that's the way I feel about it.
22:07I heard you on an interview talk about a producer that you had early on
22:11that shared the secret that you believe that you amplified your storytelling,
22:17which was the descriptive words telling the viewer,
22:20explaining that they're not there to taste the food.
22:24Can you share a little bit about that?
22:25Because it's it's a beautiful thing that people don't talk about on video.
22:30You know, well, and it drives me nuts when I see people on television
22:34that are talking about food, not describe it.
22:36You get these people that are like, oh, that's delicious.
22:39And you're like, all right, great, glad you enjoyed that.
22:42But how about me now? I'm watching this.
22:44I can't taste. I can't smell. I can't do anything.
22:47So describing the flavors, the textures, the feeling of when you're eating something
22:51so important on camera, very, very important.
22:54And it's that's yes, that was Vivian, who was a producer
22:57at the beginning of the show for the first, I think, ten years.
22:59And she was always very, very
23:02honest about, you know, you have to describe what you're eating.
23:05The viewers can't taste it.
23:06It's very it's a very, very important part of the show.
23:09And I think that that's something that,
23:11you know, all of us judges on Chopped have really sort of become accustomed to.
23:15And I remember one time, actually, I was
23:19I was I was at the diner across the street with my kid.
23:22And I think I was having like a Greek salad, you know, from a diner with grilled
23:25chicken. We all had one of those.
23:28And I had just we don't usually shoot five days straight.
23:32We usually do four day weeks.
23:33And we're never usually on like more than one or twice a week.
23:36We rotate a lot. Right.
23:38And I remember for some reason there was like a competition or something.
23:41So we did five days straight.
23:42And I was on every day.
23:44And I sat down at that diner afterwards.
23:46I was having this salad and I was eating it.
23:49And I'm looking around going, I don't have to tell anybody what this tastes like.
23:52I'm so excited.
23:54I don't have to tell him how acidic that red wine vinegar is
23:57or the crunch of the chickpeas that are in the salad or the fresh pop of the red
24:01onion, you know, like and I'm sitting there with my kid having the salad.
24:04I can just eat the salad and not talk about it.
24:06It's such a but it was kind of funny after five days of doing that.
24:10How conscious I was
24:13of what we do on that show.
24:15It's kind of fun. That's awesome.
24:17Do you remember the first time that you started taking social media seriously?
24:23Um, who tells you I'm taking it seriously?
24:27I don't know. Three hundred thousand followers on Instagram
24:29gives me some idea, the fact that you're on TikTok.
24:33I mean, we we do this show.
24:35We don't like the term social media.
24:37All we basically all it is is Internet storytelling.
24:40I don't care what the platform is.
24:41It can be Instagram, TikTok, YouTube podcast.
24:45None of it matters.
24:45All that matters is that you speak your truth.
24:47If you speak your truth, you're going to find your community.
24:50You're going to find your tribe. You're going to find your people.
24:52Well, it's very funny
24:53because I have somebody that helps me with my social media.
24:55Her name's Jessie Shoeback, and she lives in California.
24:58She was my first ever assistant 15 years ago, and we didn't work together.
25:02She left to move to California.
25:04Anyway, she started working with me again about a year and a half ago.
25:07And it's because I I'm OK doing it.
25:12I'm not that good at it, especially if somebody is doing something
25:14and they want me to do certain tagging and blah, blah, blah.
25:16And these these editing of these stories.
25:19I'm like, well, you know, I'm too old.
25:20I'm it's not that I'm too old for it because I can do it.
25:23I'm just not that interested in it.
25:24Yeah. And it's hard to be that interested in it.
25:27So interestingly enough, literally two days ago, I called her up
25:32and I said, I just I don't know what I'm doing.
25:34I have no idea what I'm doing.
25:35The social media thing's driving me crazy.
25:37I'm so sick of people.
25:39I scroll through it and I have like a guy
25:42screaming at the camera, telling people how to make scallops.
25:46I'm like, why are people watching this?
25:48Why is this important? Why am I important?
25:51Why do I bother doing this?
25:53Because I'm also we're in the talks.
25:55I was in we were we were we're talking to other social media influencers
25:59and me doing videos with them.
26:00I said, I don't know if I want to do this.
26:02I don't know what to do.
26:03I'm having a hard time.
26:04Like, should I just turn it all off?
26:06It's driving me crazy.
26:07I don't know what's going on.
26:08I'm like, I don't understand it.
26:10Anyways, she said, OK, Mark, calm down.
26:12It was like a therapy session to calm down.
26:15Let's go to your Instagram.
26:16Let's scroll through your feed.
26:17And we looked at Instagram and she goes out there.
26:20You're doing this in Italy and you're in France.
26:22And then you're promoting, you know, No Kid Hungry, Share Our Strength,
26:26trying to help kids out.
26:27You're promoting Mark 179.
26:29You're having, you know, lunch in Chinatown.
26:33You're doing this.
26:34She goes, it seems to me you're just enjoying your life
26:37and you're living your life.
26:40And that's what you're portraying in your social media.
26:43And I was like, oh, my God, you're right.
26:46I'm just like, I'm I'm I, you know, I
26:49I have this joke that I went to I went to therapy a lot.
26:52And I finally came out and they diagnosed me with a bon vivant.
26:55I have the condition of being a bon vivant.
26:58And it was right to be.
27:00Those are my conditions. Right.
27:01So I have those two those two things that I have to live with, which.
27:05But it's funny because it's still I just I'm I'm I'm fifty five.
27:09I've been working my ass off my whole life.
27:11And I'm trying and I've always enjoyed everything I've done.
27:14And I'm enjoying what I'm doing now.
27:16And it's just and it's sort of showing through Instagram.
27:18I guess I guess I was getting really scared of having to set up
27:22lights and cameras and doing doing cooking videos and showing people
27:26how to make how to peel an onion.
27:28And I'm like, and I've done those and I've done some of that,
27:31especially during COVID, because I had nothing else to do.
27:32So I was like, oh, let's get into this game.
27:34So what I'm actually planning on doing is doing
27:38I'm still going to go through with coming, doing some of these videos
27:41with influencers. I want to go on their thing.
27:45And I want to just be the guy who's going to be like, hey,
27:48how do you how do you like doing this?
27:50Well, what do you what is your audience? What's your feedback?
27:52What's your I want to just be like, I want to sort of
27:56interview them about how they do this.
27:59I mean, I also feel and it's interesting because I did this thing
28:03called Foodie Con in Miami at the Food and Wine Festival.
28:06And Lee Schrager from the I just interviewed I just interviewed Lee.
28:10So he calls me on the show.
28:12That's hilarious.
28:12So he calls me up and he goes, I want you to moderate a panel in Miami.
28:16I go, why do we need to moderate a panel?
28:18What am I going to tell you?
28:19He goes, yeah, I want you to moderate this thing, Foodie Con.
28:22I was like, all right.
28:23I mean, I don't know any of these people, whatever they are,
28:25but they're people that have millions of followers.
28:27And then the panel was all about.
28:30Everybody on that panel had gotten a certain amount of notoriety
28:34and then they were they were producing something and selling it. Right.
28:37So they're now
28:38they're selling something.
28:39I'm sure we're back to something.
28:42So they're doing something.
28:43So it was interesting to me to sit there and talk to these five people.
28:47I was asking questions like, is it lonely?
28:50It's you and a camera.
28:51Yeah. So now, truth be told,
28:55I'd like you to tell the audience, are you by yourself?
28:58Yeah. Like how many people does it take to shoot those videos
29:01and editing and all that process?
29:03Because it's the same thing with kids where I have kids,
29:07say your kids in basketball, right?
29:09And they're looking at Instagram and they see all of their friends.
29:13They're like, oh, my God, he's dunking.
29:14Oh, my God, he's doing this.
29:16He's dribbling by. Right.
29:17And these kids see.
29:18And I keep telling my kids and like, you know, they're only putting the good
29:21videos up. Yeah.
29:22Shit. When they falls down or misses or gets tripped, it's not.
29:26They're not showing that.
29:27So the same thing with food.
29:28It's like you see, you know, like Nikki Giovanni, who I think is brilliant.
29:32His videos are clean.
29:34They're educational.
29:35They're teaching in 15, 30 second things they're doing.
29:38He does an amazing thing.
29:39But don't tell me he's doing that.
29:40And if you're a young influencer, you want to do get to his level.
29:44He's not fucking doing that by himself.
29:45I don't think because I got to tell you, none of them answered the question.
29:49Yeah. How many people work with them?
29:51They wouldn't say anything.
29:52That's the I mean, to be honest with you, Mark, the thing that drives me
29:56is the fact that we're in this what we call a creator economy.
29:59And for me, business owners and entrepreneurs are the original creators
30:03like chefs are the original.
30:04Now we're just talking about Internet storytelling.
30:06So you've got people that are really good on video,
30:09but they don't know how to open up a restaurant.
30:11So maybe they want to open up a restaurant, but they have millions of followers.
30:14They need somebody that they can ask for help
30:17from somebody that's actually opened up a restaurant
30:20because it's a completely different deal.
30:22Yeah. And we'll just tell them, don't do it.
30:25Well, three, three days a month.
30:27That's the first thing you know.
30:28First thing you ask them is first thing you ask them is how much money
30:31how much money you're making doing these videos?
30:33And then they're going to tell you in the videos, keep doing the videos
30:37till it lasts. Don't tell anybody.
30:39I want to what a fraud everybody is.
30:43But by the way, actually, it kind of interesting is you're right.
30:45I think if I went to one of these people and said, hey, do you want to come
30:49and do a pop up at my restaurant?
30:50Yeah. I mean, they've given me their recipes.
30:53We would have to execute it.
30:54We'd have to do the service.
30:55We'd have to do everything because you're right.
30:57They don't know how to do that.
30:58But these guys, if that's about that, there's a huge value exchange there.
31:02You know, the value exchange, too, is that most of the creators,
31:05they don't know how to run a business.
31:06They don't know how to get a brand deal.
31:08You know, working with the brand you've worked with, how many I mean,
31:11countless amounts of brands that have worked that you've worked with,
31:13collaborated with, done short term projects, long term projects for you.
31:18What do you evaluate when a company comes to you and wants to work with you?
31:21What are you looking for?
31:23I've gotten to the point where I have to it has to be.
31:27It has to be good, not just flavor wise, but for the world, I feel.
31:33I just I just watched this morning, rewatched this morning.
31:38Jamie Oliver's TED Talk from like 2000, whatever.
31:43I don't know if you've ever seen it.
31:44It's 18 minutes long.
31:45No, I'll watch it.
31:45I mean, he does.
31:48He talks about school lunches.
31:50He talks about the health of our nation and talks about obesity.
31:54He talks about all this stuff.
31:55And I feel like we as chefs, we as people that are influencers
32:01or storytellers, we need to start getting a little bit more conscious
32:04of what we're doing, because I think that and actually I.
32:09Jesse, who I work with, I sent her the video.
32:12I said, I want this out.
32:13I want I want this going back out there.
32:15I want we have to figure out a way to tell the world about this, because I
32:20I go to Europe a lot.
32:21I'm half French, so I.