Chef Anthony Santos: What I Survived Didn't Define Me

Some remains wide open spaces in a whole lot of extra miles.

Last place you want your engine to give out is halfway to nowhere. Out here, low oil or a weak battery is just an ambush way to happen.

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These texture trained to help spot issues early and give you a run easy. Valveline, instant oil change wisely. Some people discover their purpose through opportunity. Chef Anthony Santos discovered his through survival. Anthony grew up in an abuse of home where violence was part of everyday life.

He watched his mother and younger siblings get hurt, stepped in to protect him and often became the target himself. At one point the abuse escalated so severely that his stepfather attacked him with a machete. Anthony was still a kid. Eventually at 15 years old, he left home.

One night with nowhere safe to go, he slept outside in the rain. At somewhere inside of all that darkness, food gave him something different. Anthony remembers watching his uncle cook for his mother and seeing her smile. Something he rarely saw at home, that moment changed him. He realized food could bring comfort.

He could create joy.

“It could make somebody feel safe even if only for a moment.”

So we walked to the rain to apply for a job at a Chinese restaurant and they hired him. That kitchen became the beginning of everything that followed. Today, Anthony Santos is a successful private chef, entrepreneur, mentor and culinary competitor. But the story isn't a mountain success. It's about what happens when a child survived something no child should have to survive.

And somehow refuses to let it become the end of his story.

Anthony has never told this publicly before.

So let's start where the story really begins. Anthony, when you look back at that kid growing up inside that house, what was he actually surviving? He was surviving abuse, daily verbal physically. He was surviving issues with himself. Just figuring out his own identity and trying to figure out his way in that lifestyle.

And trying to figure out what he wanted to do next. And that was going on for a few years. Nine years, nine years from when I was five till I was 14. And what age did you get the courage to start fighting back? So a lot of the abuse came because I did fight back a lot.

I was always like a bad boy. And when I saw it happening, I always challenged the authority because I didn't think it was right.

“And that's what got me into a lot of the problems.”

And that's what got me into a lot of the abuse was because I did fight back. I would stick up from my brother's sister, my mother. And that's what caused me a lot of the issues that happened. But I would say probably like eight nine is when I started saying no enough. And I started challenging him.

And that's what that's what really bothered him a lot was at a young age. I was challenging no grown man. At that age, your physical frame. You're not a giant, you're a kid. And somehow or another at that age, you still think,

I mean, you know what, I can do something. I can help. That is such a most difficult. Situation to be in for child. And for you to jump in, physically.

To me is a major, I mean, it's a big deal. What was your driver? Great question. I just knew it wasn't right. And I knew I had to do something even if I was going to get really hurt in the process.

It's really funny that I'm a professional chef now because the first things that he would hit me with were kitchen utensils. But they would bend when he would do it. Yeah, he would laugh. And then he would grab another thing and hit me and it would break.

But it was like the wooden spoons, the spatula's.

It's just hilarious because I never thought I would be.

You know, I would never, I didn't, I didn't know I was going to be professional chef. My mother always trying for me to be a lawyer doctor to get me out of that situation, you know. But I chose my own route. But yeah, it was, it was kitchen utensils that he, he strike me with first when I was really young. As the oldest of the family and as, you know, my mother was a single mother raising me.

I never had a real father in my life. I presumed myself that I was like the man at the home. So when I saw another man come in and then treat my mother to shrewd spankfully. It wasn't that hard to like step up because I just had a feeling in my soul that it wasn't right. So today, while we were cooking, you, you shared a little bit more of a story.

And it's actually, if something that was on the news and, and everything, the machete. That's insane. It was, it was, he was weirdly fascinated with like machetes on Chinese daggers, Chinese sword. He was very fascinated with weapons.

And when I went there, that's another thing that like made me never questioned anything because

I went to see his family and I saw how they lived over there. You know, concrete houses, dogs running around normally like all over the streets, but they normalize abusing their children and they all do it. When I was there at his family's house, I heard kids screaming and it was just like they were in the room getting hit. And it's okay to discipline your children trust me. I think everyone should be

disciplined if they deserve to. But there's levels to it, you know. And when we went over there,

“it just looked normal. And that was another thing, you know. And it was just like, that's how he was”

raised. As an adult in 35, you know, I've already forgiven the person. But maybe that's how he was raised. So he thought it was okay. So he just like did it to us. But no, it's not an okay in America. And it's not okay. I think for anyone. But yeah, it was crazy. But what happened was he was like hitting my mother. And I was sick of it and I came home from football practice. And I was just tired of it. Just years and years of just going to sleep, hearing them argue through the wall, screaming,

hitting, it was just very frustrating. To them, they were living their life. But to me, I'm a kid in the front room. I was in the front room of the house. If I can hear, hitting and screaming from their master bedroom in the back of the house, obviously it was a big thing. And obviously my brother and sister heard it too. But how they have treated this trauma is way differently than I have.

“You know, and I'm the oldest. So I've had to like stick up for them, etc. So what happened was”

when I came home from school, he put his hands on my mother again for the million time. And I spoke

to my uncle on the phone. This is back when house phones were a thing. We didn't have cell phones. And house phones would ring. It's so funny because now we're in 2026. I haven't heard a house phone ring and so long. But I started my uncle on the house phone and uncle was like, hey, man, you know, when I come to Florida, we're going to take care of that. You know, quote, unquote. So I was like, he's like, can you handle that? I said, yeah, for sure. He was listening the whole

time on the other headset in his room. Obviously, he got mad. He came. He came. I heard him slam a door. Then I heard him take the sword off the wall, the machete. And he kicked my door down. And then he swung the machete at my leg. I have a scar on my left knee because the tip of the blade touched it because I moved my leg as fast as I could, but it was enough, fast enough. Even when the tip hit it. And if I were to not move my leg even that fast, I would have no

leg because he sliced the whole bed off. And the springs came up and jumped up in the air. And it was back. And then after he did that, I guess the neighbors heard noise. And I don't know if my mother called the cops with someone called the cops and the cops came. And then they stayed for a very long time. And then obviously, news publication came as well. DCF. And everybody. And there was a whole thing. It was absolutely nuts. And, you know, he was charged with

aggravated child abuse with the deadly weapon. I don't want to pretend that I can match the understanding of what your experience was in my head. That had to change you. Obviously, you're about 15 at the time. And something like this is going to scar you. You're going to get baggage from from from this. You're 35 now. What is it that you remember? What did you pull

“from this experience that you take with that you're taking with you today? And how you live your life?”

So when I was younger, I had to do a lot at therapy. After that whole situation, I will publicly say I did try it off myself. I put a knife on my neck. That was crazy, but I just was like, I felt trapped. They were trying to send me to the school in Texas. And he was trying to send me away because he knew that I was the one fighting him. And obviously, you want to take whoever challenges you and get them out the picture. So they were trying to send me away to the school

for bad kids in Texas. And I was like, oh, hell, no, I was just going to the kitchen and just do it myself. My grandfather did it. I was like, okay, I'll just do it myself too. So my try to didn't work out. My neighbor was a cop. He arrested me and I got very corrected. And then after that, I went through like anger management. And I passed, obviously. I'll be honest with you,

what it did to me was just give me this burning fire inside of me to just always want to prove

so many dark things like a share here. But you know, the one thing he told me is like, you're just going to be like your grandfather. You know, and that bothered me. And so if you have any respect for

your wife and for me, you would never say something like that. And it is just a dark person.

You know, every time he would strike me, he would smile and laugh like it wasn't enough. I would be bleeding. You know, with every strike, and he would just keep going. And he would just look me dead in my eyes while he did it. It was sick. He was sick person there. Walk and talk media is proudly supported by rack porcelain USA, creating durable, beautifully designed tableware for chefs and hospitality professionals. Learn more at rack porcelain.com. You know, and he tells my brother and sister now

that he's not that same guy, but it doesn't matter. You don't ever change like that. You're just your sick for life. Maybe now you regretting. Now you're just this wholesome person, but congrats. You gave me PTSD for the rest of my life. You know, I've done therapy. I've paid a lot of money. I've done a lot of very extensive therapy. You know, I'll tell you one thing, my career. I've done

so well, so well and God bless. You know, and I've, I'm, I've never had an issue with career. I've

never had an issue making money, but I've had an issue with my personal relationships. You know, it's so hard for me to keep a relationship. And it's definitely due to like my triggers and PTSD. You know, sometimes all date women and like dull, dull, yelling stuff at me or like dull trigger me and it goes right back to that stuff. It's just really hard to like keep a relationship. And I've, I've left a lot of girls in my life because I just didn't think that they were good enough

“because that boy that slept outside, you know, would he be okay with me dating this person?”

Is this, is this what he would be proud of? And if the answer was no amount, you know, and I, I've tried to live my life trying to save that 15-year-old boy. And a couple of years ago at their past that Anthony had enough so enough, he saved. You don't have to save him anymore. And that was a big turning point for me. I was like, you know, you're right. I don't need to. He's good. And I started like releasing that and I stopped just trying to like prove myself and trying to be

in like what's called fighter flight mode. When you're a fighter flight mode for 15-plus years, it does something to you, you know. And I just stopped doing that and I just took a deep breath. I was like, okay, cool. All right, we don't have to do this anymore. You're not that guy anymore. And then now, you know, with cooking, I express myself in such a loving way because it was what

I never received what I was younger. And done a lot of therapy and I've done a lot of work on myself.

And it's definitely hard. I definitely have triggers. You know, I don't like sometimes I don't like to be touched. You know, sometimes I don't like to be spoken to in a certain way. Like with loud, loud noises. It's a lot of weird stuff that I've never spoken about publicly before. But when I get triggered, I have a like a safe space and I deal with it or I walk away or, you know. But I'll tell you guys something when I was younger. That was a savage. I was very angry all the

“time and that's why I did very well in football. I played football for high school. I got to”

like a partial scholarship for college and then I played semi-profile football and I did very well. And it was because that's where I could unleash my anger. And I took it out on a lot of people. And I took it out on a lot of people in my life. And you know, I I definitely regret it. And you know, I I forgive those other people and I forgive myself too. But when the streets raise you, you know, you don't make the best decisions. But I did the best I could with what I could.

I don't regret anything. At 15, you made the decision to leave home. And you do that to save yourself. Obviously, when you do that, you don't really have any words else to go. No money, no job. And first let me tell you that. When we had our rep call for the show today, I wasn't expecting

“that it was going to turn into a story, tell like this. It's important for you to know”

that we and I'm pointing to John and, you know, myself. I'm sincere in saying, you know, the fact that you're sharing this with us is a big deal. And I know these kinds of conversations aren't easy. I just want to say thank you for for that. Because it's not to be taken for granted or glazed over or anything like that. When you left home, you said, hey, I'm out,

because they hired me very young Windixie. They hired me as a bagboy at the same age as well. And then I also worked at, it's called Big Apple Bagels. And it's in Lindle Lake. And it's still there, actually. But I opened up that location. So I had actually three jobs and I played football. I hated going home. So I made sure I worked. And then when I left that house, I was graciously offered housing with my friends and that's all I did was work and hang out with

them and my friends were older. They were either like seniors or even older than that. I had

“like college friends that I would stay at their house. Are you or experiencing things you should not”

have been? Absolutely should have not been. You know, and you know what's cool is that I was going through all that and I saw drugs around me. I saw gangs. I saw all the stuff that you hear about

in like songs or, you know, pop culture. And I never once gave into that. Not once because I knew

it was wrong. And I was like, that's the weakest way to handle that stuff. That has to be the whisper from God that I should be. For sure. I have no, I have no, I have nothing. I have no one to thank other than God. You are the perfect candidate to fall into that lifestyle in the worst way possible. For sure, they were using next to me. Like they were using. I worked at Sonic. And my manager was smoking. I think it was like some, something called blues. It was like a hydrocodone or something.

“I don't know. Some pain medication. He was smoking it in the spoon. And I was like, why are you doing”

that, man? Are you okay? It was like, yeah, man. You know, just trying to get through the shift. And I was like, what a weirdo. You know, in my head because I've been through so much worse. I'm like, man, a no pill or drug could ever control me. You know, and like at that age when I was

really young, I was just, I had drug drier for me. And I just never part took into that when I was younger.

You know, it's, it's, we're going to transition into how you, what you did and working in the Chinese restaurant and all that. But before we do, you know, if you, if for anybody who's worked in the food service industry for any period of time, especially on the restaurant side, you would be so surprised to know how many people are heavily addicted to horrible substances

“and somehow they're functioning. Yep. Yep. They're functioning, like some of them are functioning”

drug addicts. Hardcoreless. Not like reckoning, like hardcore stuff. Yeah, cocaine, weed. That's, those are the, those are the easy ones. Those are these. Those are the easy ones. Those are these. I mean, I'm sure you're, but at some time in your life, you've seen, you know, a line cook somewhere who was, you know, track marks and just hardly standing there. I mean, I've seen how kick them off the lines and the moon. Yep. Yep. Yeah. I mean, a lot of chefs, man, it's a depressing

life for us, you know, because what we do is we cook for people, we give people the best experience possible, but we sit on a milk crate on the floor and we eat our meal. You know,

we sit there and we eat our food and it's just, it's a lot of give, give, give, but never like pouring

into our own cups. You know, and, and I'm grateful now as a 35 year old man that I started this mentorship because I'm pouring into a lot of these chefs that desperately need my help and it's really like fulfilling me as a man and giving me some purpose. And it's just like, man, you know, how to chef yesterday, I'm about to post the video after I leave here this podcast. He said, before I met you, I was struggling and I was it could not pay my rent, but not because of you

are making five figures a month. Thank you chef Anthony Santos. And wow, I like cried yesterday when I watched his video. So let me tell you something, man, you know, no matter what you go through in life, as long as you push through and you want it better than you want to breathe, you'll make it happen. You're starting point in the food industry, Portuguese kid, working in a Chinese restaurant. Crazy. Typically, you don't see a lot of non-Chinese or depending

on whatever the culture is, depending on the Asian culture, it's usually their family that's in the building. It's not like they're bringing in outsiders. It was a husband and wife. The husband was the chef and he was so good. Like, oh my god, he can cook like three walk stations with literally 13 ingredients at the same time. He was so good as he was Peter and then Kathy ran the front restaurant and she was so good at running the front and she, it would be only Chinese people in the

And they saw your teenage dripping wet young self stand in there and you're filling out an application

“and what happened. They said this guy is dripping wet in the rain and wants to wash our dishes.”

Support for walk and talk media comes from Metro Food Service Solutions, trusted by kitchens that need storage and workflow that actually does the job learn more at Metro.com. Good luck to you, brother. And they said, here you go. No problem. And let me tell you it's all the way. I wanted it so bad at that age, but then after so they had buffet during the day. So if you guys ever been to a Chinese restaurant during the day, there's buffet and, you know,

you guys love it. You eat as much as you want. Well, those those metal third pans and nine pans

that are stuck on with, you know, sweet and sour sauce or whatever, those got to get cleaned. And yep, that was me. I had to clean it and wow. So like when I would walk in the door from, I would do football practice and then I would walk in and I would go right to dish. They would just start talking in Chinese right away and I'm like, oh, they're definitely talking about it for sure. You know, like, all right, they're making fun of me. But it's okay. You know,

I had my headphones in like I did over here when we were cooking and I just started cleaning and

that was it. And they, they respected me because one, I didn't like, I didn't slack off. I didn't talk back.

So like one of them was like, really nice. It was the guy that only did the egg rolls and he did like the fry stuff, you know. And like he was so, so nice because he didn't have much responsibility. But he liked me, you know. And he taught me, he used the one that taught me a lot of ways on how to cook. He taught me how to roll the egg rolls and he taught me a lot of stuff. But like he, his job, he didn't care. You know, it was like the line cooks. They were super serious and like

very stressful. But he, he showed me a lot of stuff. And he, he, he, he took me and he was very nice to me. But it was kind of funny to like see them treat me, you know, like, oh, go get this done. And it's just, it was such an interesting dynamic. And it was very humbling experience. So that being your entry point. And then in conjunction with, um, you mentioned how, when your uncle would cook for your mom and your mom would smile. She would be in a good mood. Be happy. Which you didn't see very often.

Was that your, was that the engine that kind of pushed you to go further in the business? I remember looking at him like cooking this meal on our counter and on our stove top that we were there every day. Like we cooked on there every day. My step that cooked, you know, printed adding food and he cooked every day. But when my uncle did it, and that saw my mother smile ear to ear, I was like, if you can make this woman smile like that, this is a super power that

I could have. I was obsessed with like super heroes growing up because I needed watch. I was here.

“Yeah, I needed one. You have to find one. So I was like, okay, here it is. Wow, you can make this woman”

smile. Then what could I do to the masses? So that looking back and reflecting, that was a pinnacle. That was a very pinnacle moment in my life. In that moment, I did not know. I was just observing and watching as like an audience. But now looking back reflecting, you know, years ago, I realized that. But now like talking to you guys today, yes, that was a humongous moment where I was like, okay, I want to do this. I have literally seen you, um, your body language. There's a, there is a switch

with you. And I've seen it flip back and forth today because this, this was not like we didn't plan this. This is a serious topic. Neither one of us expected that we were going to have this kind of, uh, this kind of conversation. So I can see your face when you go back and in, in, in your thinking. You've built an extraordinary tolerance for pressure and stress. And with that said,

“how much of that drive that people admire you for comes from your trauma?”

I'm, I'm going to say all of it. There's this fire that will just not stop burning in me. I can't even sleep. You know, I can't tell you how many dreams I've had just reliving all those moments again. You know, I don't wake up and tell people about it. But yeah, I definitely have relived almost every moment many times throughout my life. But I have this fire in me that will just not stop burning

that other people will be like, okay, you know, I've lived a lot of different lives. And it's just not enough. And I don't know if it'll ever be enough. But what I'm pursuing

“of what I'm searching for is a peaceful and happy life. So however I can achieve that, that's what”

I'm trying to go for right now. I don't care about materialistic things. I care about waking up in the morning and smiling. That's my biggest goal is being happy for a full 24 hours. That's my biggest goal. No money could ever give you that. No car could ever give you that. No materialistic item can give you that, you know. And from what I went through, it definitely made me the man I am today. And you know, I'll be honest with you guys. It's very touchy subject and very sensitive. But I'm grateful

for it. And I'll be honest with you. I would do it all over again because I would never be this guy.

I am today, if it was for those things happening to me. That's a huge statement. When somebody can get to a place where they can embrace their trauma, the bad experiences in their life, and recognize that that was part of their transition into being wherever they are today. And you know, obviously we're looking at this from a positive, you're an upstanding citizen and you know, in that regard, right? You're, you're, I don't know. The conversations that we've

had, you say a lot of smart, sage things. That comes from getting burned. That comes from forged, being forged through the fire, from the fire. You've heard that saying this has fall down seven times, stand up eight. That's a little bit more alive. And honestly, I think the

“key to success, and it goes to everybody, you have to, you just, in life to be successful,”

you will always get knocked down. I don't think you will ever stop getting knocked down.

The point where you don't get back up, that's when you lose. Well, that's at, in part of our conversation, you know, you've been, you've been breadcrumming, you know, faith in much of our conversations. And you mentioned something you said, uh, you questioned how God can allow horrible things like that. Like your experiences to happen. How have you reconciled that today? Where you are mentally, emotionally, today?

So I've attacked you on my own. All right. It's my favorite Greek god Poseidon. He's there. He's not doing much, but he's there. And then there's me with a cape holding my teddy bear. I have the cape because I'm saving myself. Petta talks about my childhood, I spoke to my tattoo artist, shout out Pocazoor, but I told him about my, my childhood growing up.

And he drew this on my arm. So I would always pray, you know, with tears,

throughout my life, when all this stuff was going on, I would always say, save me, save me, save me, save me, save me and, you know, no one saved me. You know, Christmas's came by where we did nothing in our neighbor's saw. And, you know, we had like, we would have random people just drop off gifts at our door and garbage bags. It's so humiliating, you know. And I always buried that said, please, God, like, get me out of here. Like, what did I do to deserve this? I did not have to be born.

I didn't ask the deal with none of this stuff. So, when I went to that church or Sharon, I took those actions, I saved myself. And yes, when you incorporate faith into that, a lot of people have told me over the years, like, oh, well, God gave you this strength to go do that. You know, maybe he did. I don't know, but I struggled with with God when all this was going on, and when I lived on my own, I did not have a relationship with God. I did not, I hated him. I'm going to be very honest with you

“I hated him with my whole soul, you know. And that's why I was surrounded around all these dark things,”

because that's what a lot of people in the streets do. It do a lot of very dark things because they're lost in life as well. And they're trying to figure out life too. You know, I didn't know. I was mad. I was like, I didn't have a dad, and I have no one to save me, and then this father figure just ruined everything. So, I went through life. And then as I got older, I realized, that God was there the whole time. And it takes a lot from me to say that, but he was,

he's preparing me for something big. And even though I'm 35, something big is still coming.

stuff to get to where I am right now. And right now, at this moment in time, my faith in God

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has access to the tools they need to thrive. Join the movement in breaking the stigma. Email U.S. Canada at the burntchefproject.com for donation details and mailing information or learn more about the mission at the burntchefproject.com. I have given my all to God right now. I have given everything to him. I've given him full control of my life. And I'm very grateful for everything he's done. It took a lot for me to get here. It took a lot.

A lot of lows, and a lot of very low lows. But too many good things have happened in my life, where there has to be a God, you know, and then some things have happened in my life where I'm like, okay, so many bad things have happened. How could there be if all these bad things happen?

“But again, that's why it's called religion. That's why it's called belief.”

But my faith has fluctuated throughout my life. But I can sit here and talk to you guys now and tell you guys that I am fully believing in God and I love God and very grateful for everything that's happened and trust me. It took a lot, a lot to get here. But very grateful, very thankful and without him, I wouldn't even be here talking to you guys today. I wouldn't even be here. So shout out to the Almighty. Amen. So before we talk about food, after all, we are a food platform.

But we're in industry platform, and these are the people that are cooking your food. And there's so many different personality types, and there's so many ups and downs,

and there's so many like, again, you know, you never know the story that's coming every week.

And I'm talking, I'm talking to you chef, you just never know who's sitting here and what is going to be shared. You cook a specific way because of how you grew up. That's everybody's story. Well, well, I learned from my grandmother. I learned from my mother. I learned from my grandfather. All of those things are drivers to people who end up in food. You have this as your driver, but you land it in food.

You're artistic. You mentioned you, you know, into art and you, you know, you're creative guy. So it's fitting. But hearing you talk for the last like several hours, you are an animal. And a good way. You have fire. You're not old. You're 35. You're not young either. But you have fire. And that's awesome. And you're still focused on the long and you're still focused up. And that's like really big as props to you, dude. And I mean, that's so sincerely.

Again, before food, this is a launch pad. I think for some other bigger things. If there's a kid out there, teenager, whomever, who might hear this or friend of a teenager or something, whatever, who's listening to this right now and they have their own abuse. What's the advice that you give that person to get the hell out of Dodge? Great question. Age is a huge factor in this. So if you're 16, you could, you could emancipate yourself. Okay, in the state of Florida.

“If you're younger than that, you need to tell someone that in this person that you tell has to be”

someone that can actually help you. Okay. There's a lot of situations where if you do tell someone that's like a family member, nothing ever changes and you're at life actually gets worse and gets controlled and then manipulate. Why? What happened? The people you tell are scared to say something. You make you out to be the bad person and they try to cover up for the abuser. I've seen it

little Anthony Santos. This is what I would tell you. Get your life together. Okay. Focus on credit.

If you're close to 18 years old, start studying credit. Even if you're not, if you're 14, if you're 13, study credit, study how banks give you credit cards loans because when you become 18,

“that's your freedom. That's how you get out. When I was 18, thank God by the grace of God,”

my grandmother when she passed away, she left me a check for $25,000. I paid my mother's debt, fixed her car up and then I bought myself a car. It was crazy. I don't even know I had the money. I just got a phone call from the Liberty Mutual or something and they called me and they said,

I said, "Hey, you have a check here. Your grandmother wanted away for you to be 18."

So crazy. How my grandmother did that. But yeah. And then get your finances together because that's your way out. And that's how you win in life. It's finances and you can manipulate credit in your favor. You can get business credit. You can get business credit cards. You can get business loans. You can start a car rental business. There's so many things you can do in the United States of America that can put yourself in such a great financial situation where your abuse

doesn't need to be your identity. It could just be of what takes you from point A to point B. Also, what I would do is I would invest in therapy. I wish I would have done therapy when I was younger. I thought the streets were therapy. I thought going out to the clubs at such a young age was going to heal me. No, it didn't. It just prolonged me having to handle it and deal with it. I would definitely invest in therapy. There's so many different therapies now that you can do

“whichever therapy works for you do it regardless. That's what I would do. And then another thing,”

I would invest in yourself. Make yourself better. Be healthy. Be happy. Life isn't worth living. Unless you're happy. And because of what happens to you, it's not your identity. It's not. It's just a part of your life. Don't make it your identity. Nobody feels sorry for you. Nobody cares. Don't let that be. What makes you limit yourself to what you can accomplish. You can achieve anything in this world. There's nothing that separates you from anyone else.

No one is better than any of us. It's just who wants a better. Who wants it more? Who wants to go after it? If you want to be the best chef in the country, go be the best chef in the country. If you want to be the number one makeup artist in the country, go do it. This is 2026. When I was going through this stuff, it was 2004. There was no social media. It was AOL dial up. You guys have everything now. You have YouTube. We're just on YouTube alone. You can learn anything and you

want to learn. You could be a traitor right now on YouTube. Okay. And like not even YouTube, now we have what's called Chad GBT, the smartest intelligence in the world. There's Claude, which can code you a whole program if you ask it. The world is your oyster. It is 2026. You don't need to be in any situation that you are in the Udon't want to. But they can't stay in the violet. Some do. Because that's their identity. That's all they know.

“You have to realize yourself they're worth more. Because you are your god's children. You are”

wanting a trillion chance of being born. If you are here on this earth, you are chosen. Don't live your life less than great. If your life is not great, go and make it great.

I agree with that. What the caveat. And my caveat is there's always going to be a negative always.

So me, my my thought on this is life is worth living for me. It's with faith. But let's just say you're not that guy or a guy or whatever. Life is worth living when you're striving to be happy. I don't know if we ever attain that. Once you get older and you figure out math and you start looking at, well, I've been around this many years. I got this many years left and I got this parent, grandparents, the past is away. All of these things happen and you're figuring out the

math of life. This episode is brought to you by Tri-Mark, the largest food service design

bringing design build expertise, supply sourcing strength, project management,

installation and servicing together to power smarter hospitality kitchens. Learn more at Tri-MarkUSA.com. Yeah, you have your own kids and sometimes that's the, okay, you get a breath fresh, you know. But at the end of the day, the math wins. Life beats you up. Life beats you up.

“If you strive to be happy, whether you get there or not, I think that's the place where you're”

in a good place. The chase. Yeah, because if you, if you do get happy, guess what happens? You're going to fall from that. You might be happy for a month, a year, even. But when you fall from that, you only have down to go. And that's not healthy. That drop isn't healthy. I've cooked for the wealthiest people in this country. I've cooked for a billionaire, okay? And if you are a millionaire, cool, congratulations. Go be a billionaire. From me right now to a millionaire,

it's a very short stretch. But for a millionaire to a billionaire, it is a humongous feat, huge feat. I've cooked for billionaires, millionaires, cooked for very wealthy people, I've cooked for celebrities. And let me tell you something. The clients that had a pain, the impartial payments that make $40,000 a year or so much happier than those people. Living a life of purpose, living a life of self-awareness. I think the chase of just wanting to accomplish

“better and then always chasing that. I think that's how you stay happy and grateful and, you know,”

as long as you have a purpose in life and you're achieving that purpose and it's your true

purpose to yourself. You can achieve happiness. But if your happiness is making a million dollars,

I'll give you the million dollars. I guarantee you're going to cry tomorrow because you're not, you're just, what do you do after that? What do you do after that? But if you live a very purposeful life, if you serve God, you serve your wife, you serve your family, you serve yourself first before all that. And you live a true life. I truly believe and through the darkest times that I've lived, that's how you achieve happiness. Because that's how the moments that I've

fell happy as when I was giving the others. Speaking of happiness, let's talk food. Yes, you

“made a couple of really terrific dishes today. Let's get into, let's get into that, all right?”

Because, you know, you earlier in the kitchen, you claimed your creativity and your feelings for art. You played it some beautiful dishes today. Let's start with dish one. What was it? It was a charred Spanish octopus. It was beautiful. So when you told me to give you two dishes, I visualized in my head colors, then I thought of ingredients and then I thought of plating and it was really cool that I could visualize all these and then we picked the plates here

today. It was awesome. But yeah, I'm really into that. I'm into plating way more than I am cooking. Like, you know, everybody can cook rice in their own way. But let me see you presented to

me in a way that's going to make me open my eyes and be wow. You know, it's just amazing how

you can cook me a tomato and I can cook you a tomato. It'll look completely different. So speaking of picking the plates, it's like a candy store in there. Oh my god. Is that like the fun part? Yeah, I would love to just go in there and take about 50 of those. Please, just take them home. I think a bowl went in my bag actually by mistake. I saw that actually. I did. I saw that. That was funny. You brought it back. You brought it back. I did. That was a good

thing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's racked for someone by the way. Just put it out there. Um, yeah, man. I tell you what. We have, we have fun. I actually like to go in the back. You know, when John takes Chef back when whatever it is and there and I just look at the eyes. Everybody says the same thing like, oh my god. Wow. Like this is like a candy store. It's serious. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Octopus dish was beautiful. Um, you brought, uh, you brought three

tentacles. And you chose the right one to put on that plate. You're like, you actually said it to me. You know, you brought these three and I'm looking at them. That one. It's going to be that one right there. And I was like, okay, whatever. You know, okay, sure. But meanwhile, you do the process. We, you know, you do the cook, whatever. I'm your plate. Uh, John gets it back in the, uh, in the studio there. And um, starts to not the picture. So yeah. Get it. You picked the right one.

Dish too. That was my Rayby Wagyu and Japanese purple sweet potato with charred broccoli and then it had a red wine, truffle sauce with tofu for care called really good dish. Really interestingly and uniquely flavorful. A lot of umami in that dish.

“That's what you tasted. And that's what, that's what you were interested in is the umami of”

food. Let me just stop you for a second. Okay. Okay. Let me, let me put the brakes on this now. Okay.

Um, why you, yes, yes, every day, yes. Okay. Like I won't say no to state, especially a prime or like I love all of it. Every day. My doctor is going to be like, what are you doing? Why all that was spectacular? What really, what really got me today? What's the sweet potatoes? Dude. Chef, those were freaking delicious because it wasn't just like one or two. It was like a whole spectrum of flavors. All that once, but they didn't hit all it

once. It's like you get one now and then the second and then later it really fantastic. What was

actually inside? So it was the Japanese sweet potato butter and it was a black garlic.

Which adds a lot of umami flavor. Then it was mold and smoked sea salt. Then it was also a little bit of fresh garlic in there as well. And that was it. So your tongue is actually separated by different tastes. So sweet salty savory. There's different points in your tongue that detect different taste profiles. So that just that sweet potato alone hits about four of those. So that's why that hits you. And it hits you all at once, but the brain doesn't recognize it till later

and it breaks it down on by one by one. That's how you're like, oh, oh. I first was a little overwhelming. But then yeah, I love that. I love Japanese sweet potato. I love that it's a little glycemic. It

doesn't spike your blood sugar. I just love it. I always love it for such a long time. It

looks so beautiful on a white plate. That's why I hate chocolate to my bars. You know, I'm looking for the hopefully dark chocolate. Yeah, whatever chocolate it is. I'm looking for the spike. I am

“looking for that. That's good. That's all right. Well, here's the thing. I think you did the”

river today. I'm thrilled that you finally made it out here. And you know, we've we've talked for quite a while actually long time. But we connected reconnected at the art 200th episode celebration of congratulations. Thank you. And it was really cool to see you there to go from that point to today. It's it's really cool because you got to experience something that while there was a lot of people there, you got to experience something that and that everybody got to see. You know,

for the 120 plus industry folks that showed up, you were one of them, but dude, there is hundreds or more. There's a lot. So a lot of people didn't get to experience that. I'm thrilled that you that you did that you got to feel that because that was the connector, the DNA connector for what you did here today in general, the story share, the cook, all of it. And this is what the industry needs. So thank you. No, thank you. I I saw what you have going on and I saw how many

people actually love you and respect you. And I was like, okay, all right, I've been holding this in my chest long enough. You know, and I watched some of your videos and I was like, wow, it's like watching a movie. I was like the way he tells these chef stories. I was like, okay, if he can do these

“with other chefs, then I trust him to do this one more. So that's why I talked about this today”

with you. So thank you. No, man, thank you. Like, people walk around with cameras and their pockets today. Yeah, you got yourself on, but literally people walk around with video equipment. It's just the way it is today. And there's all sorts of, there's all sorts of content or entertainment, if you will, what makes me happy? Yeah, like, this is fun. And it's like, lowest form. It's a fun thing to do. Mike's an audio and cameras and all this stuff. But to have a person like yourself

you know, more than just like, what your favorite thing to cook is. Support for walk and talk

media comes from crab, high-lensy food dip, creating chef driven crab dips made with real seafood and bold flavor, learn more at crab-high-lensy food dip.com. To me, and it gives an outlet, not just

“for the chef sitting in the chair. Because there is, I believe, I don't know, because I'm on the”

mic every week. And I get to share things sometimes, and it's therapeutic. There's no question about it. It is absolutely therapeutic. When you say something like that, toss, bro, that's the biggest compliment you couldn't, you can give. Because it's not like, oh, sort of compliments the truth.

But it's a compliment. It's the biggest, it's a truth. Thank you. But it's the, it is the biggest compliment

for sure that you can give to somebody anybody who has, who does this. It's really, thank you. I'm not being hammy or whatever. I'm, you know, like, there's been a lot of changes here over the last year or so. All for the best. And it's only getting better. And this helps people. I have no question. There's no doubt in my mind. This episode, and what we did today on on film,

“I think it's going to help somebody. Damn it. I love that. I don't want to just make stupid”

content. There's a place for everything. But I feel like the thing, a lot of what we do here,

especially now. I don't know. We've, we've come into a different place. And I really love it. And

anyway, I just, I sincerely, and generally want to thank you for participating in, and all of this. And so, you know, and because we talked about your beginnings kind of what led you into the direction of the kitchen and the restaurant life, we really didn't get into the restaurant life. You have a whole career's worth of pretty interesting things that I want to get into. And I feel like maybe, uh, maybe in a month or so, we'll check calendars. And I want you to come back.

I like to have you back. And get into that. I want to get into like that part of it. You're definitely a multi, um, multi-part guest. If you're okay with it. I would love to come back, for sure. Yeah, I think there's a lot of the story that we haven't talked about yet. So I definitely love to come back. My birthday is August 30. So let's do it after that. I'm sure we're going to talk, uh, then by then, but if not, happy, happy,

think in birthday, man. Thanks, man. I'm turning 36. Yeah, you're a baby. What, uh, what, how do people find it? So you could find me on Google, Chef Anthony Santos. You could find me on YouTube, watch a bunch of my YouTube episodes, I have millions of views. You could find me on Instagram, Chef Anthony Santos. Hernandez, Jennifer, I mean, um, how do people find you? Do you have a mic, even?

Like how do people find you? Go to IBIS images on the Instagram @ibisibisimages on the Instagram

“check out this guy's photography. Will you? You people out there. You chefs. You need to hire this guy.”

Bring him in. You need him. He doesn't need you. You need him. And I'm just saying, all right, appreciate you guys a lot. God bless. We are out. Marketing is hard, but I'll tell you a little secret. It doesn't have to be. Let me point something out. You're listening to a podcast right now and it's great. You love the host. You seek it out and download it. You listen to it while driving, working out, cooking,

even going to the bathroom. Podcasts are a pretty close companion. And this is a podcast ad. Did I get your attention? You can reach great listeners like yourself with podcast advertising from libson ads. Choose from hundreds of top podcasts offering host endorsements or run a pre-produced ad like this one across thousands of shows to reach your target audience in their favorite podcasts with libson ads. Go to libsonads.com. That's l_i_b_s_y_n_ ads.com today.