Antonia Lofaso on Top Chef & Culinary Competitions, Hamburger America with Jimmy V, Bobby’s Brasserie B Burger

Hey everybody, welcome to Bobby on the beat,

“but before we get going, make sure you hit subscribe.”

We have a fabulous guest today, Antonio Lafaso. Chef extraordinaire, you see all over the food network, and she's got an amazing story. Antonio, thanks for being here. You and I went to the same color as school.

- Friends, yeah. - Friends, color, everything. - I actually. - Not the same year though. - No.

- I was in the very first class. - That's so easy. - You know, I don't know if I ever told you the story. I, you were the draw on the phone, and it wasn't because of food network or television,

but because I had come from the West Coast, and I understood what you were doing in food for the East Coast in a way that I was really proud of. Like it's idea of bringing Mexican flavors, like chili, all these things that the East Coast

didn't really ever. - Right, there was no Southwest in food at all. - None, and you were also doing it in a way that wasn't like your local shop on the corner that had this sort of like dish that you got

for $4, like it was a restaurant. - It was contemporary. - Exactly. And where people got dressed and had wine, and you didn't see even on the West Coast,

we didn't always see that style of restaurant

a door. - It just kind of falls into very, very casual. - Right. - And so it wasn't so much like when they called and they, or when I did the cold call

and they were like Bobby Flay went here, I was like, yeah. - It was more like, you know, he put mangoes and salsa for the very first time. - You're favorite.

- So I mean, I mean not. - Wait a second. - How come I feel like you're from Long Island? - I am. I'm from the East Coast.

- Yeah. - So I was born in Long Island. My parents moved to Las Vegas. - Okay. - We lived there for a couple of years.

I mean, we moved back to Long Island. Live there until I was 11. And then I lived in Los Angeles. - But when did you start cooking your restaurants and stuff like that?

- Like 2001, 2001, 'cause my daughter is just so young. - Okay, I wanna talk about what you're doing. 'Cause you know, it's like, it's XEA, right? - XEA, not even a real name. - XA, yeah.

- What does it mean? - It means that her, myself and her father did no real research on how names are actually spelled. - Right. - We need to get the obvious out of the way,

which was that your daughter's dad was heavy. - Have you ever talked about this, which is real?

- I never asked about it, like, on any kind.

- You never asked about it? - I've never asked about it. This is the first time that someone's actually

“in a, like, he was born around breaking rap, right?”

- I agree. We just, I never talk about that part of me. I think there's always, like, this assumption that, like, because we weren't married. Even though we spent 10 years together,

like, raising a child, et cetera. Do you know what I mean? It's just this sort of, like, you know, you were just his, this woman that he had a child with? - I mean, it's such a big part of your story,

because, you know, you have this child with him, and he dies suddenly at such a young age. - Yeah. - He was more instrumental in my life in the way of teaching me

that how big someone could actually be in life. I was at the very beginning of my career. Like, I was working for Wolfgang, I was making $7 an hour, and he was very instrumental being, like, you keep saying that you wanna do this thing,

just go do it, kind of, like... - What he did? - Exactly, yeah. - At a very young age, and had no pause. I was basically in the presence of someone

who had this greatness about them of no pause. You just go do the thing. Like, who cares if you're scared? None of that matters. What do you want to be the best at it?

And I was like, almost overwhelmed by that kind of talk. - Yeah. - At such a young age, and he used to say to me all the time, you know, like, you could be all over television. One day, you're gonna, and I was like,

I'm literally in Garma, J3, making Greek salads. Like, what are you talking about? - He saw it in you. - He saw it in me, and he also said, "Why don't you see it in you?"

“And also, why aren't you working towards that every single day?”

- So he pushed you. - Pushed me in a way that almost, it started arguments between this, because in my mind, I was like,

"Why are you being so critical of me?"

And he's like, "I am your best friend. "I am your biggest advocate." - I think I see the potential to go do it. - Correct. And I was like, this is frustrating me.

I think also though, too, in my mind, I was like, as a chef, and as you know, being around the greatest chefs, there's a level of progress that needs to happen before, all of a sudden, you become the greatest chef on the planet.

- Does it work overnight? - I think in his mind, like, you know, he also was someone who was like, tomorrow. Like, why didn't this happen yesterday? - So you were with him like the early 2000s,

like in the height of his career? - Oh, my God, 1998. - Okay. - Yeah, this was like-- - And then, right, and then the early 2000s--

- Early 2000s? - It was like being around his aura at that point. - He was someone that, when he walked into the room, like, all the air left the room. - Of course.

- Yeah, when he said something to you, it was to the deepest parts of you, what you might have been thinking, what you might have wanted to ask. - Like, he knew how to zone in immediately,

like, on whomever it was at he chose in that moment and say something either magical or like, cut you off at your knees. In the moment, it felt like I was losing myself,

as a full grown adult female,

“actually what I was doing in that moment”

was just kind of absorbing everything around me, being confused a little bit by it, but also remembering all of it and then using it sort of later in life. - And so Zeya's, how old though?

- She's 26 today. - Unbelievable. - And she's in music, right? - She is in music production. - Okay.

- So she wants to, she's used a lot of his stuff, like all of his old tracks and stuff like that, to rebuild songs that she's working with with artist in Atlanta. - Oh, they're sampling his stuff.

- They're sampling his stuff. - That's amazing. - Yeah, they're sampling his stuff and also sampling Zeya's, like, really into all different kinds of music.

And that's why I love about her. And he was the same as that quite, like if you ever saw his list of music, it was like, "Jony Metro." - And Frank Sinatra.

- Everything, right? - It was anything and everything that you could possibly imagine. It was obviously hip hop, but it was everything. - And then through all of this,

you stayed the course you wanted to be cooking. - And wanted to be cooking. One of the things that we started

about all the time is that he always felt like

everything that I fixated on was like, very petty, right? He was like, "You're young."

“And the truth is, you fixate on these things”

because you've never lost anyone at a young age and sort of changes the way that you think and the way that you look at life. And I was so offended by that. I was like, "So someone I love has to die

in order for me to understand how life works." And he was like, "Yeah." And he ended up being that for me, which was like the most ironic wild thought. - What was that, like, 2011?

- He died in 2011. - But listen, I mean, when you say you don't really talk about it often, it's just a huge part of your life. - Yeah, it will be.

- I mean, I was reading some of your chronological life. And so in 2012, you come up with this cookbook. - Oh God, yeah. - Wait, but the funny part about the whole thing. - You're picking up some really good things.

- But when you listen, you listen to stories like this and we, like, from your past. - Yeah, you're like, what? - And also, and also, like, who you are today? - Totally.

- The busy mom's cookbook is not what I would have named it. - I mean, what are you, like, living in Connecticut, like, on the farm somewhere? - I mean, give me a break. - I'm going to tell you something really quickly.

You have the same exact thing that I just spoke about. You find the little thing or the big thing, right? In someone's conversation and something they've said, something that you've read about them.

And like, it's the poignant thing that you find and you ask about. And I knew coming here, like, this conversation was going to be this. No, I'm just saying, you have the same exact thing.

And so I love that. - I'm not a professional interviewer. I mean, what I do is I read stuff. And then I want to have a conversation. And wherever it goes, it goes.

Like, the one thing I never want to do is make anybody

uncomfortable about what they're talking about. - No. - I'm never, like, we have to talk about this. - It just kind of happens. - You're very disarrayable.

- In the greatest of what? - Thank you. - No, this was a compliment. In the way that you ask very, like, questions that are

“make people very transparent, like, in the best way.”

And actually, these are two of the things that I actually always bring up the cookbook as an example to people that you are the director of your own life, and that you are the ones that make the decisions, regardless of how many people are in the room,

thinking that they know better than you do. And that was my moment. Was that book? Because I had no, that is not at all what I wanted that book to be. Everyone who has ever met me, if you actually

see the original cover of the book, I'm in a weird, like, bangle necklace. Do you mean stirring a pot of sauce with, like, the perfect side eye? Do you mean of, like, and I was like,

that, like, everyone who knows me is like, that doesn't even look like you. It doesn't even represent any part of you. - Well, I have a lot to talk to you about. And so, I made you a snack.

- That's a snack, that's a snack. - One of the things I do know about you 'cause we are friends is that you like your burgers cook more than most people, which I'm all for. We can talk about that.

So I made it kind of medium well-ish. - Thank you. - Well, now it's been resting. - So maybe since it's exactly where I want it. - Okay, perfect.

(laughing) Take a bite. Let me show you how we made it. Bobby on the beat. - All right, we're gonna make a burger

from my French restaurant in Vegas, Brasserie B. This is the Brasserie B burger.

So first, let's make some sauce.

mayonnaise, dejan mustard, ketchup, and chipotle puree. Looks it all up with some salt and pepper. We'll save that for later. Then we're gonna start with meat, 80, 20, 80% beef, 20% fat. Lots of salt and pepper.

Make a little well in the middle of it. Cast iron pans, so you want that good crustiness on the outside. And we're gonna get all the garnish ready. Some red onions, some tomato, ice for lettuce, the only lettuce for a burger in my opinion.

Get that nice crust on the outside of the burger in two kinds of cheese. And we'll be here in America, so it's a French American restaurant. Hit that steam magic, a little bit of water in the pan, cover it, and look at that cheese melt.

It's everything. A couple of slices of crispy bacon, then we just shallack it with the red onion, tomato, and the lettuce, toothpick, or skewer on top. And there you go, Brasserie B.

Bobby on the beat. - Perfect, I mean, I've eaten it at Brasserie B. - Yes, you have, I've watched it. - So you're the first person I'm eating with on this podcast. - Really?

like why are you letting people eat by themselves? - And it makes pets. - Well, and also, you love a burger. - I do love a burger. So I was like, all right, I have a burger with Italian.

- Two things, I wanna talk to you about,

in terms of food, which is that I always say

that I want my burgers and my steaks cooked medium. The first time I set it out loud, it created havoc. And what I'm learning now is that a lot of chefs agree with me

“because you have to let the fat start to melt.”

- Correct. - Otherwise, there's no flavor, and it's just raw. - Imagine a tomahawk or rib eye and a thick cut. We're talking about like 24, 28 ounces. And fine, even if you let it sit out,

'cause that's what we do in the restaurant, so you know you let them sit like on a sheet tray so they're tempting. Even that doesn't matter, someone orders it rare, it's not gonna get the fat

where you need it to be, and then make it rare at the same exact time. It's just not gonna happen. - It doesn't happen. - But now, that's like I are coming out of the woodwork.

- I agree with you, Bobby, I'm like, I know, but I had to say it and take it on the head, but what about iceberg lettuce? You like it, you don't like it. - I'm not an ingredient, stop.

I think that there's a time in a place.

Like, I wanna wedge from my burger. I want iceberg from my BL team. Do I want iceberg with shaved parmesan, Rijano, and balsamic on it? No, I wanna rougla for that.

- I get it. I'm in a place where the ingredient is. - But you're not like, I will not eat iceberg lettuce. - Oh, we're not. - Yeah.

- There's a couple things that I'm like, I will not eat. - Like what? - Also, your girlfriend thinks the same exact thing. - What? - I hate kubey mayo.

- I don't like kubey mayo. - I don't like sweet mayonnaise. - I don't like kubey mayo. - It reminds me of Miracle Whip, sorry for whoever loves that. - I totally agree, I don't like it.

- I don't like Fwagra, I don't like organ meats. Like I'm not a big, like liver, awful, like the smell of, I don't know what it is, like the metallic smell and flavor, like makes me more throw up. - I like uni as an ingredient. I don't like it as, like, I don't want it just on something,

I don't want it on something. - So you don't eat it, you don't work with your girlfriend's. - I don't order it, I mean, I will eat it if I have to. So like the respectful whoever's given it to me. - Yeah.

- But I like it whipped in butter and like drowned in pasta. And I like the salinity and like the ocean flavor of that. But I don't like it raw. - And chobies? - I don't love anchobies.

I love them as an ingredient. I love them in sauce fair days, I love them. - Dressing is the best. - I love your food, and the thing I love about your food is that it comes from you specifically.

Like you're very proud of your Italian American heritage and all that, and that food's amazing. - Yes. - And you're like, this is the kind of Italian food that I cook.

- Yes. - I'm not going around Italy going to small little villages and trying to be authentic from that particular place. - I'm authentic from Long Island, New York. - Yes, exactly.

And your food is always delicious.

I think the reason why scope is just like a perennial favorite of people, because I crave that kind of food all the time. - 100%. - It's incredibly comforting, there's certain things

that you're going to get, you're going to get acidity from tomato sauce, you're going to get crunchy things that are fried, like squid and stuff like that. And it's incredibly satisfying meal, and you deliver on it plus.

“Like I think about your squid and fried squid all the time.”

It's so cool to kind of look at it, and then you taste it, and you're like, this is delicious. How does it start when you're doing menu item? - For the most part, it's all very straightforward. You know what I mean?

That's how my, you know, I'm like, I'm going to make a chicken parm, but it's going to be the greatest chicken parm you've ever had because I know that in the mix, I'm going to use more local telly cheese

than anyone never should. And like all the small little things, specifically with the squid ink, I was having this whole thing about like a chicken and an egg, right? It's like when people, you know,

it's like the thing and the thing, right? And so, love that. I actually don't love like squid ink pasta. That's the, you know what I mean? I'm not, it's not one of the dishes

that I like gravitate towards for whatever. You know, I love the idea of the use of the ink. So when I started to think about like, well, if you put it in pasta, you know, into a dough, like why wouldn't we just put it into a batter?

And so it's like just those kinds of, you know, you lay it, I mean, I don't know how much you sleep. Like I don't sleep at all, exactly. So I like wake up in the middle of the night, and I'm like, yeah, Brooks the worst.

- Which is well. - She does not sleep. - It's the, I've texted her in the middle of the night. Like we day, day I meet each other, like weird videos. - I mean every time I, like, I turn over this dish.

- She's like, she's doing it. She's like staring at me. It's so weird, you know? (laughing) - That is the funniest thing ever heard all this so good.

- It's true. - You and Brooke are, like, such great friends. And I mean, now that she's my person, I love that you're in her life because you are, you're rational.

You really are a rational person and she, and she, she's very rational. - If she goes to the rabbit hole on something like, we all can do, I feel like you're her backstop. - Oh yeah, you know what I mean?

- Yes.

“- She can be like, am I overthinking this in the game?”

- She does that for me though, too. - Okay, well, you guys have each other, which is really nice. When Brooke and I started out as friends,

and at some point I'm sure she was like,

I'm interested in dating this guy. - Yeah, yeah. - Like what was your, what was your take on it? - When she said it, I immediately, to be in full, full honesty,

about it, I already knew that you guys were gonna be this perfect match. - Really? - Yeah, I did. - Why?

- I did because very few times in our lives. I think when two people get older, there's this very sort of like real thing that happens and you really actually know what you want in a partner. And just everything that I know about you as a person

and professionally, I was like,

“I think what would be the greatest thing for him.”

I already know what's the greatest thing for you is to have somebody who is like your best friend who you can sit there and talk food with. But at the same time, and also have this great career that she does,

but also want to come home and take care of you. And I do think that there's that version of her that does both, due to me in that sense. - Sure. - Yeah, that can like be out in the streets with you

and have the real dialogue because she knows all the things because of her own history and this business

that you don't always get to have

or you sit there and sort of explain to somebody or they get to see it over the course of many, many years spent. Where she's like, I already got the cliff notes. - Right. - And so you get that at the same time,

she is so like maternal and is so like loving and so like I want to take care of people, due to me in which I think would be wonderful for you. - So you were pro. - I was pro the entire time.

- Well, thank you very much. - Pro the entire time and also. - I like that. Yeah, it's been great. (laughing)

- No, thank you. - Thank you for having my back. All right, so what about restaurants?

“- How are you feeling about the restaurant world these days?”

We have three restaurants right now, right? - I have three in Los Angeles. - You building more? - We actually just signed a deal and I can talk about it, I don't think it is Texas.

So I have awesome, I think I told you that. Summer of next year, possibly sooner. Like my partner's build quickly. - Scope. - Scope.

- Rantees scope out on the road. Like Dom is great, I love it to death.

Black Market is amazing, I love it to death.

- Just drive the differences. - So Black Market, we opened in 2011. It's, I call it like American Eclectic. It's a small bar, seats about, originally 100 people. Now it's 150 people.

It wasn't supposed to be food focused. It was supposed to be more be like liquor with bites. Full of red restaurant, but it has everything. I do everything from like Korean chicken wings to spaghetti and meatballs where people will--

- Stuff you want to eat. - Everything that you want to eat. And so Black, then we opened Scope a two years later, which is American Italian. - Oh, Black Market was first.

- Black Market was first. - Black Market was first.

“- I've been a lot of people don't know that.”

- They don't, they, a lot of people don't know that. - 'Cause Cope gets a lot more. - Like it's all the attention, Cope. And everyone also puts me in the Italian chef. And I'm like, it's, I had Black Market

where I'm doing Korean chicken wings and a version of Hamachi and crispy, very Asian, very Mexican, very Spanish, like there's a mixture of everything. And then in 2018, we opened Dama. And Dama, I actually wanted to open before I open Scope.

- All right, smash burgers or pubs top burgers. I want to show you a clip that I did that Jimmy Vee. - You know, America's food critic. - He went to a very popular place and was checking out Bobby on the beat.

- Hey, it's Jimmy Vee, America's food critic. At Hamburger America, this place has been hyped all over the world, but I don't know what to expect. I don't know if they're big burgers, little burgers, smash burgers.

I want that crave ability in it. So it has to be salty. It has to have a little bit of the greasy, but not too greasy, just a good bite that maybe drips down your arm

when you're eating it. Let's go inside and check this place out. Pretty cool, gives you that old time vibe. This smash burgers. So I have high expectation for a real good greasy tasty burger.

But it definitely gives you that old school vibe where maybe there's some milkshakes involved. - On your burgers, you're the best. - Is that the standard? - I think that's the go-to.

- So they really snatch them. Single onion sounds like the winner. - And what about the drink? - Is there something that will cause me to think about this in the middle of the night?

Say, "Only crap, I got to go back there." - I'm gonna go to coffee soda. - Cough, that's perfect, the coffee soda. I also fries, they just put a ton of stuff on there on the onions and mash it all in, huh?

Generally, I would think that, you know, I'd have a fried onion already fried on the side, but this is a technique that they're using. Seems like a lot of onion, but I'm sure it'll be pretty good for coffee with self-serve.

How good is that? That's excellent. - It's fantastic. - Oh, just-- - You have to try.

Is it 12 cheese or the burger in the middle? - It's kind of like a patty melt, right? - It's an already special. - Alrighty, I guess for the people that know, they know. It's grilled cheese with the burger inside of it.

It's exactly what you would think. Crunchy buttery meat, onion, the fries, are like that perfect nostalgic McDonald's fry from the 70's on showing my age.

- Jump in, share and share a like.

- Hey man, how are you? - How are you doing?

“- Jimmy, didn't the first time I've ever been here?”

- Okay. - Are you the mad scientist behind this whole thing? - From a mad scientist. We definitely don't do anything that's too extraordinary. We just, we're here to recreate

or create authentic American hamburgers. We don't try to reinvent the wheel. We're just here to preserve history. I'm making sure that you would take a bite of that burger to about you right now.

It tastes exactly the way it should. - Here we go. It's really freaking good, bud. - It's a good review. - No, no.

George Cheers, like fun is nice and squishy, but there's a little texture to it. It brings you back to that, the stuff with that. We were trying to achieve, you hit it. - That's cool.

- Yeah, we'd like to say it's the burger that you remember.

Especially in New York City, people would try to do too much,

put crazy stuff on top. We're just trying to make sure that you're eating burger that you're gonna want to eat tomorrow. - Hey, George, great job man. I really appreciate it.

Thanks and I'll be back. - I'll say bar. - Yeah, thank you, man. - Wow, that was really good, the burger, the bun. It was exactly the texture that I was anticipating.

Next time though, I would definitely do a double burger, not because of my govonne, but because it just needed a little bit more meat, it's a smashed burger, which is not my favorite burger candidly. I do like a regular-sized burger that's greasy

and gooey and chewy with the blood coming out of it. I shouldn't have probably said that. I could see why it's so popular. - Excellent. - Bobby on the beat.

I feel like the moment of the smashed burger has moment. It's time. A burger that has just smashed is just about crust. - That's kind of what I like about it. But that was too smashed.

I like the idea of a smash that you get the crust, especially like the crunchies on the side. And I like when they put the raw onion into it, into it and kind of like still gets a little-- - Yeah, they do that there.

- That was too much on you. - Okay. - That was like more onion than it was beef. - Right. - I don't really fit cut round because you already know,

like I have like a texture thing with, you know. So when people are like, this is a one and a half pound beef burger that's this big and like, I don't want that. I can't get my mouth around it. Be like it starts to disrupt the condiments that I want.

- You want more like a pub burger that has it's sort of in the middle. - Right, exactly. That's what I think he did. - Something to bite into, yeah.

- Like yours is like right in the middle. It's not smashed, it's not too thin. You don't need two patties. There's just enough like in the center, but you get that kind of crunch on the outside.

- It tastes like beef and it's still juicy. - Correct. - To me, that's all that's really important. Listen, it is what it is, everybody wants a burger. - But not all burgers are created, well that's the other one.

- I totally agree. - Top chef. - Oh God. - How well did you do on top chef? - I finale twice.

- Finality twice, if you did not quite win it all. - No, Brooke likes to bring it up. - Wait, you call it finale? - Yeah, you finale. - You finale, that's okay.

- Is that like, oh, it would, would that be like, I would like to bring it up 'cause she won once. She's the most competitive person in the world. - Yeah. - I know, I, but also what you don't know,

but we've told you 9,000 times is that we have a very rare case of like chef competition PTSD. - And any person who did that? - I came from top chef. - A hundred percent, that came from top chef.

We have, it doesn't happen, any person that you work with who's done top chef has the same psychotic conversation, need to win if we don't, our lives are over. Like there's just something that switches on.

“That's like this will be the worst thing ever if we don't win.”

There's an incredible amount of crossover now between people that have been on top chef and the food network. - It's a puppy now. (laughing)

- Literally a puppy now. - Well, well, what's happened is, bravidos and have a lineup of food shows. - No. - So they have this very popular show

where lots of people go on and compete. And if you do well, like good things can happen to you there. Food network has obviously an entire lineup of food shows. And those shows need to be filled by people that are good at this job.

- Look at everyone who's won anything big on your shows. You know what I mean? - No exactly. - There's a lot of top chef, even on triple threat. I have Brooke, I have Michael Vultaggio,

I should never did top chef.

- She's the anomaly. - Yeah. - She's an anomaly. - And I never did it either. - Well, I couldn't.

- Well, but also you are, no, no, but I know what you're saying. - But I'm saying like, there is something called exclusivity. - Right. - So I have a contract with the Food Network,

doesn't allow me to go do top chef on Broadway. But my point is that hundreds of years of competition, the reps that you have, is the same thing that we see come out of top chef in a very short period of time. - But they're looking for people on the,

so up and coming, more than anything else on top chef.

“That's what makes it fun because also you guys”

were willing to basically do whatever it takes to win. - The mind kind of jumbled that top chef did to you was, the only thing I can compare it to is like the bachelor or the bachelor at, right? 'Cause you've been pulled out of your life.

You have no contact with your family. So the human response, like we shut down very quickly and we're like the only way out of here to get back to our families is to win this thing and then I get my life back.

- I was asking to go to the bathroom to like, I was doing an event and I was like, can I use a bathroom that would like go pee? - Well, but meaning like I was so condition to like ask someone to get up to go somewhere,

to ask someone to go use the restroom, that it was like this weird thing that happened to me weeks after I got home. And so they condition you to really believe

that this is the most important thing

that you will ever do in your life. - All right, the lesson I want to talk to you about is like your life now. - Yes, I love it. - You love it.

- What do you love about it? - So many things, like I feel like for some of it, you know, place where you can say right now you love your life. - It's like the most freeing statement.

It's like the most like relaxing statement.

“I mean, here's the thing, I've always loved versions”

of my life. I've always loved different things that have happened in different decades, right? All the different decades that we all live. - Right now, I don't know, just everything feels.

- What is it? What do you think about it? - My relationship with Greg. - With Greg. - With Greg.

- It's just like everything that is comforting to me. My home, do you mean my parents, my siblings, my dog? You know what I mean? All of my family, my daughter, like my friends. Like I said this to you, right?

When it's like, you know, I have the greatest life. Like I get to go and do food television in a way that some people only dream about. Imagine being like tired to your bones from the life that you have like, that you've prayed for,

you know, and that you've never thought in a million years

“goes back to the beginning part of our conversations”

when I was like a young, 20-year-old, listening to one of the greatest, you know, like musical minds that was has ever been like gifted to us. Tell me why move, move, go, go. And I could not understand it and now I'm living it.

I find you to be like an insanely great talent. Thank you. Because the first thing I look for is the word genuine. And also, I like people who can do what we do, which is cook for living really well.

Yes. And you do that. To me, you have the basics of all the things that I want. And then everything else is all about you. It's like you have this amazing ability

to get excited, get other people excited, make people feel good, make people feel pressured, and make people to do their best. That's why you're a wonderful mentor. And I kind of feel like just recently,

you've really kind of hit your stride on the network. And I think like, I don't know how long you want to be on the network or how long the network wants you to be on it. None of us know that, okay?

But it doesn't, none of that matters.

“What matters is like, you've hit this stride,”

where you're going to be a commodity for this industry period. That is the nicest compliment that I've ever received. I do feel like for the first time, you ask me, why I'm so happy now. It's the first time my stride is mine.

And all the things that come up, I'm willing to say yes, no, if you don't like me, I'm probably not your cup of tea. And that's actually okay with me right now. If you don't want me to do your thing,

that's probably because we see things differently. And I'm good with that right now.

And I've never felt that before.

It's actually a full circle conversation for me started just earlier, which is that you talked about being able to narrate your own story. And now you're doing it. And it feels the greatest that's ever felt.

And also I also live in the scarcity, which is like, and I can all go away tomorrow. Yeah. And when it does, I'll still be fine. All right, well, I love talking to you today.

My only request is the next time I'm in the dog house who broke you, you have my back. (laughing) She will tell you, "Oh, get in the dog house, that's fair."

And Tony, I want to thank you so much. This has been so fun. If you like today's episode, make sure you hit subscribe. Really appreciate all the engagement

and it continues to grow and grow and grow. The more you like it, the more we'll keep doing it. So have a great day. We'll see you next week. Bobby on the beat.

(upbeat music)