Blaze Your Own Trail - From Burned Out Chef to Global Movement Helping Chef's Thrive with Andres Hinojosa

Episode Date: September 29, 2026

In this episode, Chef Andres Hinojosa shares his inspiring journey from a challenging childhood to becoming a successful chef and mentor. Discover how adversity shaped his life, his passion for food, and his mission to empower other chefs to succeed. Key topicsChef Andres' childhood and early influencesOvercoming adversity and personal challengesThe founding of Dinner with a Chef and Chefpreneur UniversityThe importance of excellence and service in the culinary artsStrategies for aspiring chefs to succeed and monetize their passionThe role of faith and purpose in personal and professional growthSound Bites"God uses all things for our good""Adversity can be your superpower""Success leaves clues"00:00 Welcome and introduction to Chef Andres01:04 Growing up in San Diego and discovering a love of food02:58 His mother’s accident and a life-changing childhood04:27 Moving to Iowa and finding faith through hardship06:14 Taking on adult responsibilities at 1408:00 Marriage, family, and growing up quickly10:45 Turning adversity into purpose12:26 The moment he chose to believe15:53 Early dreams and finding direction17:29 Encouraging his mother through difficult nights19:38 Meeting Danielle and starting a family22:20 Adversity as a potential superpower23:12 Dinner with a Chef and Chefpreneur24:12 His grandmother’s influence and culinary beginnings25:26 Leaving demanding restaurant hours to start a business26:23 Helping chefs build personal chef businesses29:51 Learning excellence and service in luxury hotels33:06 The vision behind Chefpreneur University35:43 Real-world expertise versus online coaching hype39:09 Three tips for becoming a better cook40:00 Use quality ingredients, keep it simple, and season well44:11 Three tips for starting a chef business45:12 Find proven success, persist, and make a plan49:20 Turning vision into strategy50:23 Closing reflections and where to find Chef Andres52:11 Final sign-off    Are you an Entrepreneur, Coach, Author, Podcaster or Creative?Join my FREE Group Coaching Community where we have live calls, Q&A and more! Our Trailblazer Ecosystem also enables you to network with other entrepreneurs and creator hub eliminates multiple subscriptions and logins creating a one stop shop to take action! Join here: https://trailblazerecosystem.com/ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello, everyone and welcome to the Blaze Your Own Trail podcast. My name is George Mendoza. I'm your host, and I'm joined by a very special guest today. His name is Chef Andres Hinajosa. Chef, how are you doing today? Good, man. How are you? Thanks for having you on.

I'm doing so excellent. I mean, look at this beautiful location that we're at. We had some great Thai food right before we jumped here. It was good. Studio, and it was faster than fast food. Yeah, I remember. It was actually pretty crazy. Pretty wild.

It was pretty wild. pretty wild how fast we got it. So my favorite part of the show, as you know, being a listener of the show, and thank you so much about three years ago. You had me on your show. I think it was well overdue to have you come on the Blazorntrell podcast. So my favorite part of the show is really taking a rewind and, you know, getting that deep context into our guest story and journey. So for the audience, let's kind of take that rewind. Let everyone know where you're from, You know, what kind of kid were you and what types of things did you get into? What kind of kid was like?

That's a difficult one. All right. Well, a little bit of background about me. Again, first of all, thank you for having me on the show. I'm really, really privileged and honored to be here. So born and raised in San Diego, California. My dad's from South America. My mom is a white gal from Iowa.

So very interesting background there. But I was a little bit of a strange kid growing up. My past used to always said run around the auditorium talking to myself. Probably still do that to this day. but yeah, no, just kind of grew up simple in that sense. But yeah, started loving a passion for cooking throughout the years of kind of my heritage with my grandmother growing up with us in the house. So as a kid, I guess you would say, I kind of just developed really a passion for food

and family. So I don't know if you want me to go deeper on some of the pain points there from when I was a kid, but I'll give you that as a start. Yeah, love it, love it. And man, when I tell you folks that you're listening, if you're hearing the sound in my voice, you want this man to cook for you someday. I've been fortunate to try so many of his dishes, whether that's, you know, through our church, through connect groups, or just through different events. And I have not had a bad dish yet. And we've known each other now, what, four years somewhere going on, going on four years, which is pretty wild.

So let's talk a little bit. You know, this show is all about blazing trails. and it's all about your story and journey. So yes, I do want to get some deep context. Like, let's dive into what are some of the circumstances? What are some of the situations that you've gone through in your world? Just so the audience has some context into who you are, your character, you know, some of the adversities that you've had to face.

All right. So first and foremost, a lot like you, Jordan. I have faced some pretty big adversity since I was young. My mother almost passed away when I was 11 years old, got in a severe car accident. and was supposed to die. Miracle, all glory to God, that she's still walking and talking today, but she was in a coma for quite some time. And she didn't live with us for almost a little over two and a half years when I was young.

So the time I was about 11, again, I won't give you the whole backstory because that might be pretty long, but my parents actually divorced early on about a year before she got in a car accident. And we were living in San Diego at the time. And we, you know, for anybody who lives in California in general, especially now, it's very difficult to make it as a single parent or a single mom especially. So she was working three jobs, trying to make ends meet. And like I said, you originally from Iowa. So she was like, you know what? Instead of trying to swing an ear and basically suffer, I'm going to move back to Iowa. She got a great job there. So we kind of uprooted myself, my mom and my sister, my oldest sister, Cynthia, who was older than me by five years. We moved to Iowa. She got a really great job there. And of course, it was a lot easier for her to pay the bills. And we were only there for a year. So I was already going through a little bit of a culture shock going from San Diego to Iowa. Very different places, but very, very different places.

And so I was just trying to get used to it. And then boom, this car accident happened. In the summer, you know, I was out of school, of course. It was, you know, kind of our summer break. And so all that to be said, I wouldn't say my journey started there, but that's really, I would say, if I can interject, obviously, all glory to God. My Lord and Savior is really when I knew of God. Obviously, I grew up in church when I was young.

But this is really where I felt like I got to really know that he was real. I got to know him. I didn't know of him, but I knew. And so from there on out, like I said, two and a half years wasn't living with her. I was living with my grandparents in a small town in Iowa, camera, Iowa, 250 people. This was literally like two bars and a post office. This literally was in the town. How many lights?

There's one traffic light. There's no. Stop signs. Stop signs in a baseball field. So again, it was a huge culture shot for me. But as I live there with my grandparents, good people, both of them have passed since. But I really started learning about hard work and things like that. And so really kind of instilled a lot for me.

Now, the real growth happened when my mom kind of came out of her coma, came out of a living rehab, and she has a lot of brain damage and things like that. So she came not really knowing who she was, not really knowing who she was at the moment, even in the past. I didn't know we were to a degree. It took a lot for her memory to come back. She still struggles a lot with her memory now. But, you know, kind of coherently, she acts like a, you know, like a preteen.

Sure. You know, so unfortunately, she doesn't think like an adult. However, so it was really difficult when she came back and we moved with each other. So I wanted to kind of dig a little bit into that is when we moved on her own, I had kind of assumed the role at 14 years old at this point. I was going to have already turned 14. and we moved on, you know, kind of in a low-income housing area, and I became the man of the house. So eventually had to forge her signature on checks to pay bills, went grocery shopping on my bike,

kind of had to learn how to be an adult. And so you have a man, like almost instantly. Almost instantly. And so like your story, like, honestly really inspires me and what you've gone through. And I believe we all have a story. But I've heard you say many times, like, you should be dead in jail, whatever, right? And so kind of similar with me in that sense, I was, this is not for me to self-glow or any kind of prideful way that I'm saying this,

but I never was attracted to drinking drugs. And I think part of it consciously and subconsciously, I really had to be there for my mom. Sure. So for me, it was more of like, if I'm not going to be there for her. Yeah. She doesn't have anybody. Like, I'm who she has.

Well, you're already carrying all this weight. How could you carry some other weight or they maybe takes your mind off of the focus that you had at that moment? Exactly, exactly. So I had to really grow quick at 14 years old. Like I said, I was a man of the house. I remember even like, I'm not really proud of this, but I did say a few cuss words to some of her social workers that would kind of abuser verbally come into the house. I'd have to kind of be like, get out of here. I had to break up some men trying to take advantage of her at times when I've come home from school, like crazy stuff. And so all of that resonates again with my story on how God was there every step of the way. Like, Literally, he was like my dad. I would talk to him every single day. And but again, in the natural, by the time I was 16, 17, 8, you're 19 years old. I married my beautiful wife Danielle now.

We've been there 20 years and have five beautiful daughters. But I married her at 18. So we were very young. And some people were like, oh, it's so young. And I'm like, at that point, I had four or five years of a real life experience, responsibility, overseeing my mom. So it didn't feel like I had a place for me. Ph.D.

You're a poor, hungry, and, determine, you know, and you learned the value of hard work from your grandparents, and you had to put in daily reps, right? You had to do the groceries. You had to essentially act like the parent, another parent, 100% essentially, right? So you were ready mentally. You may be maybe not, you know, by America's standards of you got to have a job, you got to have all your stuff together. Yeah. But who has all their stuff together? Nobody. Nobody. Nobody. I still don't buy my stuff together. But, you know, that's, that's really. That's really. the deeper part of kind of my upbringing and, you know, the journey obviously continues to this day

in a lot of ways. But, I mean, that's, that's in a nutshell, kind of those deeper points. So that's the first, you know, 18 years, right? At 14, take it being responsible and having to do things that, frankly, let's face it, it's 2025 as we're recording this episode. And there are people that hadn't had to do half of the stuff that you did. You know, so, so, so, so kudos to you for a, sticking it out because, you know, it would have been very easy to give up, knowing the circumstances, it's been very easy to be like, I'm going to go live with some buddies, I'm going to go move with another relative and not have to carry the way to that. So I want to honor you by saying, hey, you did the right thing. And I know that your mom, even though she may not be the semblance of herself, I know deep down she

loves you and she cares about you. Big time. I appreciate that. And I don't even like people saying that. I are saying it. I appreciate the shout out on that. It takes a lot of honor and courage. I mean, there's a lot that I appreciate. There are people that wouldn't have given that much of themselves. And you sacrifice a lot, right? You sacrifice this formative years and did some very, very hard, very adult things that, again, there's plenty of people I know that are way more of a knucklehead than you were at 14 and they're in their 30s. That is true.

That is true. So again, it's not about loading, but it is about, you know, like you mentioned, God had you there for a reason, for a plan, and for a purpose, and it was to do that in that moment. And I think that's the key is, like, the glory just goes to him. Obviously, he did not cause my mom's car accident and all this nonsense, but as the Word of God says, it uses all things for our good. And honestly, like, I would not be.

You know, people have asked me all the time, would you rather have that not happened? Well, that's kind of a dumb question. of course I would rather not that not happened to my mom, right? However, though, it happened. And the fact of the matter is, though, it is such a blessing because it actually has shaped me to be the man I am today. And I think that's, I think that's with all of us. I mean, our environments, our atmosphere, what we live through, our experiences. A, if you're follower of Jesus Christ and you're listening to this or watching this podcast, like literally like your story, your test is your testimony, the things that we go through. We have that decision. I like what you said. It's like, I made that choice. What's weird about, that in that moment was I even you know as young as I was and I think that even when I'm like upbringing my children I know they go we go to church where you know we're we're believers obviously we're very you know Christ centered in our family in a walk and in our you know life but at the end of the day people have to experience God for themselves we can just say hey like God's real and it's like we expect everybody to believe that like you have to experience him for yourself

and so in those moments like as I grew up in church I remember like literally I I remember like it was yesterday. In fact, I was so, I wouldn't even say depressed. I was so like, I don't know the word like in a daze. Like I literally saw blurry. So the day that it happened, I'm sitting there, she got a light flight in an hour away to the capital city in Des Moines, Iowa, and I'm looking at the window, and I literally see blurry.

Like, and I'm not crying. Like, I was tearing up before, but I literally cannot see straight. Like, my world is falling apart. I mean, I'm an 11-year-old boy that's been told him his mom's going, you know, and then I was, for those of you guys, out there that are mama's boys like me, I'm a mama's boy. Me too. So like for sure. So for me, it was like, okay, how am I going to navigate this? Right? And I was so distraught. Literally, I couldn't see straight. And I remember a thought came in my head. Either I believe that what my

parents told me all along that God is real and he's with me. And I believe to choose that. Because at that, at that time, I wouldn't say that I really experienced fully God myself as an 11-year-old adolescent. You know what I mean? I was believing because my parents were telling me he was real. So I felt like I was in a mental crossroads, even in that moment, I can remember it clear as that. It's not much I remember six months past that. If I'm being honest, I think probably just from the trauma, who knows?

But I remember saying either I choose to believe what my parents told me it was real, that God is going to take my mom out of this, or where you are at God and you're not real. Sure. And by the grace of God, because of how much I loved my mother and my father for them to instill that he is real in my life. I said, well, my mom wouldn't lie to me about this, right? So I'm going to choose to believe. And from that day forward, I got to know God and I'm very real lovely.

I mean, it's funny you use the term all the time now and this, like, every time I'm with you, you're always saying, you can't make this stuff up. You can't. And realistically, when you see how God has come through for us in our life, like, you literally can't make it up. Yeah. Like, I'm telling you my story and it can probably be an HBO blockbuster just like yours. But the fact of the truth is is that it's everyday real life and God is everyday real.

And so I would say that like that is the honor and the glory I want to give to him. It's like, yes, I will agree that yes, I made the decision to choose to believe in him and put my faith and trust in him and step up for my mom. But at the same time, he's the only reason why I got through it. Like I wouldn't have been able to go through that without him. Like it wouldn't have. I probably would have. Who knows? Taking my own life.

Who knows what I would have done. So. And like you said, I mean, the other day, I don't really look at statistics. I'm a little weird when it comes to like skin. color and race and data and like what should be happening. I've never really looked at that from being honest with you. But the other day, I really just kind of was sitting there thinking statistically, okay, I'm Hispanic male, came from a single mom.

My mom, I was basically like the parent of the home. Like, I shouldn't be where I'm at today. I shouldn't be doing it on paper. On paper? Yeah. Like I'm like, on paper, we are cellmates. You know, 100%. Or we are buried six.

feet under or, you know, we're the people that most people would put us into that light, you know? Correct. And it is, it is by the grace of God. So, listen, I appreciate you being vulnerable sharing that. And so you alluded to what happened four years after your 14, you meet Danielle, who is awesome, such a beautiful woman. And you all have five beautiful daughters now. You know, when you think about that four-year gap and you think about meeting your wife, did you ever even think that, that you short answer no long answer i i mean you know here's what's weird about me like i said my pastor

was telling me i'd run around talking to myself i've always been kind of a dreamer a visionary i guess you'd say for lack of better term ambitious and like really just going in a beating obedient with what god has told me to do because i guess i i've never had to i've never been held back from i i hate to say this because my dad i love my dad but we you know at that moment when they separated i was and then eventually my grandparents, my grandparents. So I really didn't have that close of a relationship with my dad at the time. Like I did, but I didn't. And so like, but he wasn't a negative voice in my ear because he wasn't there.

And my mom, I was kind of the parent. So as a word as this sounds, the only voice in my ear was always God. So when I was dreaming big, thinking big and God was telling me to do things, I was just like, well, yeah, I'm going to listen. I'm going to listen to my dad, right? My spiritual father. Yeah, really my dad. So to kind of like go back to what you're saying, like, I did not envision necessarily

the life that have now. However, I knew that I really knew when I was 13 years old, God started to show me callings of that there's wealth and prosperity in my future, not even necessarily business necessarily at the time, but just showing me who I was going to become. And I was literally ministering. I mean, I don't really tell many people this, so I'm going to kind of exclusively say this in the podcast more publicly. And there was many times that a lot of people don't know. My grandpa, And my grandma didn't even know I was through this, if I'm being honest. But there was many nights that my mom would have these terrors. You know, she'd be screeching, crying in the middle of the night,

1 o'clock in the morning. I'd go to her room in our little two-bedroom, you know, in a four-plex little low-income area, wanting to say, hey, you know, like, why am I alive? Why didn't I just take me? Like, I'm basically retarded, and she would say these things about herself. And then, you know, you're sitting there as her son at 14 years old. day like hearing that from your mom. And I would start speaking to her, ministering or uplifting her, encouraging her for an hour, hour and a half. Sometimes I come back in my room, it was 3, 34 o'clock in the

morning. And then I'd go cry, but I wouldn't cry in front of her a lot. And I would just, I would just deliver God's word to her and tell her, you know, you have a purpose. God loves you. You're meant to be here. And so in those moments, I didn't realize that God was shaping me. I have now come, and it's even hard for me to admit this, because again, it doesn't have. out of arrogance, but I really believe that God has given me the gift of encouragement. I really, that's something that comes to. He has. I've seen it.

Yeah. Flow from my heart. You see it with your coaching students. You see it with people around you. How many, you don't see how many hugs this guy gives people and he's always saying, hey, I love you, I care about you. You know, that just doesn't come from us. We are flesh and bones.

We don't have that. And so that's God's gift to you is you know how to make people feel better. you know how to look at somebody and you can tell when they're off and you you're able to tell them that and you've done it to me. I've seen you do it to so many people and that is a gift because not everybody has it. I feel like I'm an encourager. I'm a motivator. You know, I try, you know, I do all kinds of crazy things, but I do it all out of the thoughtfulness for people. Like how do I make people better? Yeah. Yeah. So, we're kindred spirits in that way. And, and so I love the fact that you said, hey, like this is, This was deposited in me a long time ago, and it's no question that that's still what you're doing.

You know, and you see it the way that you love your daughters, the way that you treat your wife. You see it all over the ways. And so let's talk a little bit about you get married at 18. That's early. Natalie and I got married at I was 23. She was 22. Still very young parents. So when, when, how long after you were married did you have the first, your first daughter, Tia?

When, when did that happen? All right, good. But so for everybody out there listening and watching this, we did not get married because we were at a wedlock. Okay. So a lot of people think that when you get married to 18, it's like, ah, shotgun wedding. Sure. It was not that. So we got married to 18.

And again, just to kind of even finish on the part I was saying, you asked me if I knew I was going to be that. No, but when I did get married to 18, people think, or I'm not too scared or afraid. But again, for me, at that moment in my life, I was like, I've already gone through so much. I felt that time was on my side. I skipped first grade, which is kind of weird. said I was super smart when I was in kindergarten. They wanted me to put me into second grade. So I had time on my side.

So I felt like I'm not going to waste time. I found Danielle, which is the love of my life. God brought her to me. She's an amazing woman. I'm trying not to cry on this podcast, just thinking about my wife and how much I love her. But like literally like,

I just felt like, why waste time? Like I found this amazing woman. She's a gift from the Lord. Like, let's go. So we got married at 18 again. And then, uh,

it wasia, But we got, you know, we were, you know, had Tia when we were 21. So it was actually three years later. So we weren't that crazy to be like, hey, at first kid at 19. But yeah, the whole journey started. So our oldest is Tia. And yeah, we were 21 years old. 21, right?

In Chicago. She was born in Chicago. And you had, at 21, you already had so much wisdom from the adversity. And people hear me say this. I post about this. But adversity gives us strength. And it truly enables us to see through a lens that other people can't look through. Do you believe that?

A hundred percent. Right? Because we've lived these experiences that you can't make it up. You can't not make the things up that people that go through hard things go through. And it just helps shape and mold you to a way that you look at other situations like marriage or like going after things. It's like it's not scary anymore. You know, you're not afraid to do it. There's not a lot of fear there because you've already done such things that most.

people will never experience in their life. I love that. I mean, I'm really excited about, have you been talking about your book? A little bit. I don't want to make a big drop for you, but the name of it, right?

The power of adversity, like, life changing. Well, and actually, like, I'm not saying change the name of the book, but I'm saying,

like, I think I'm really in agreement to 100% with what you're saying, because I believe that adversity actually could be a superpower. Yeah. It could be something that can completely wipe you out,

or it can be your superpower. 100%. And I would encourage everybody listening to this, again, as we're recording this in 2025, like here right before you're going to release this, which I can't wait to read it. But like, the fact of the matter is, it could be your superpower or it could be the thing that takes you down. And so like, let it be the superpower. It's harder. It's easier to say, you know what, I'm just going to let it take me out.

But I couldn't agree with you more on that. Like it's legitimately has shaped so many areas of my life. And a lot of got to really come in and actually mold me to, to do the things that he's called me to do. And I think that's the key. Yeah. And so, you know, I introduced you as chef Andres. I didn't even ask you what you did because if I introduced someone as chef,

you guys know what he does. But you do so much more on that. So I do want to give you an opportunity to share, you know, and then we're going to dive back into the story. And I really want to get down to the roots of what made you so passionate about food. And I believe I know this story. I believe it was your yaya, but I want you to share that with the audience in a second. But first, let's talk a little bit about your businesses.

So you have dinner with a chef, which you started in San Diego. It's a thriving business. I want you to give some context about that with our audience. And then you have Chefpreneur recently launched the Chefpreneur University. You're doing so many amazing things, helping people in a world where it's so dark. They don't get paid well. They don't get treated well. So give us some context on, you know, why did you start the first business dinner with a chef?

and then what made you inspire to start coaching these people who I know you had a big heart for. All right. Great, great question. So again, thank you for allowing me to share that. So I'm going to kind of tie in my yaya a little bit at the beginning and then we can dive more and do that later. But so as Jordan was saying, my yaya, my grandmother on my dad's side from South America from Chile, because my dad is Chileo. So she lived with us when I was young. So, I mean, she didn't even know what like canned chicken noodle soup was.

at the time when she came to the United States. She didn't know what that was. So she was always cooking something, always having the kitchen. So ever since I can remember, I literally love food. Now, to answer your question about the businesses, I went through my entire culinary journey

and my background through high end hotels, Ritz Carlton, four seasons, went to culinary school, graduated culinary school, literally like, I think it was maybe two weeks before I turned 18. I graduated. I doubled up on classes again.

I don't waste time. I just keep going. I just go. So from there, I mean, I went through and God has blessed me with all types of positions and really high-end hotels and being usually the youngest one in the kitchen. Okay. But at a certain point, like I said, over time, at the time I had, we have five daughters, but at the time I had three daughters, and I was just thinking tired of work in 70 plus hour of work weeks. I mean, I remember, you know, FaceTiming my wife to say

good night to the kids or even good morning during my lunch break because when I left the house, they were in bed. When I come home, they were in bed. So it was a very challenging life. And although I was making good money as an executive chef, I just, I just was getting so sick and tired of feeling like I was seeing the way staff, the servers, the cooks more than my family. So I set out to be an entrepreneur with my first business,

dinner with a chef, and it's a personal chef company. So we go into your own, you're giving an amazing dining experience in the comfort of your own home, basically bringing the restaurant to you. And I started that all the way back in, I think 2013. So it's been,

you know, it's been about 12 years since I started that. And it's grown so much. And then over time, really, I won't again go into the entire story. But in short, I really felt like, man, if I was able to do this, there's other chefs that probably want to do this. And at the time when I started my personal chef business, there was nobody really helping. Yeah. A couple organizations here and there.

But honestly, there was no like boots on the ground type of real help, like real coaching. And so in 2018, kind of Sheparder, a podcast was born and took on some students and grew it. And now, you know, here in 2025, we've helped over a thousand people on our paid programs. You know, we have over 6,000 members on our Facebook group and really been able to help chefs, really break away from those kitchen chain jobs that they had all their life, the work, the hours, and kind of, I like to say, cut out the middleman for the lack of better term, and give the chefs straight to the client, right, and give them an amazing experience. And so honestly, like, it's a huge fulfillment of mine to do that, because it allows me to really,

A, I know where they came from, a lot of them. And it's not just chefs that were in the industry. I mean, we coach anybody from people who have a passion for cooking, but we're a corporate job for 30 years. And they're just like, they're so sick and tired of being in a cubicle. And they're like, I want to follow my passion, which is cooking. So we give them a different outlet. So, you know, that is a huge, I would say a huge, honestly, more like a ministry to me.

Now, obviously, it's a for-profit, you know, organization. But we really do. Like, we're talking about encouraging them and really motivating them and helping them cross that gap and bridge that gap from where they are now to being entrepreneurs, aka chefpreneurs, in their own personal chef business. So that's kind of the... Yeah, and I love what you said earlier. You're like, hey, I don't like to waste time. And so what I took out of that is you like to collapse the timeline. And what's interesting about that is you may not have thought about this, but it's the exact same thing you're doing for these chefs.

Is you're collapsing the timeline for them. Why? Because you don't like to waste time. Why should they waste time and work and slave their lives away of getting paid nothing, not getting valued, and not being able to see their families. You have such a big heart that it's almost like you started it because you don't want to see them go through the BS that you went through. Correct. And they're already in it when you're meeting them. And if you can even give them that small glimpse of hope that there could be another world for them, that's worth it enough for you. Is that true? 100%. And I see the letters. I see the text. I hear. people speak at your events and man, these folks love you because you literally are changing their

lives, not only in the form of revenue, but in the form of care, in the form of a coach, in a form of a mentor, they look up to you. Yeah, they all want pictures with you. They all look at you like you're a celebrity, right? And where did you get that excellence from? Was it from the writs? Was it from, you know, cooking for celebrities? And, you know, he won't glow it about this stuff, but this guy's cooked for some of the top celebrities, some of the top business leaders in the world. And you don't just get those jobs at a happenstance. It just doesn't happen because you hoped for it.

It's because it's one of the gifts that God's given you is the ability to be excellent in all the things that you do, whether that's serving to church, leading a connect group, it's serving your clients. It's even treating a guy to lunch, right? It's all about excellence for you. So what I want to know is when did that start? I mean, so probably when I was that kind of 13-year-old boy living with my mom, I used to record on VHS. It's kind of crazy to say that now.

Great chefs of the world. It was on PBS for many years. And it was real professional chefs. This was kind of like just maybe Emeril was maybe coming out, you know, chefs have always been kind of not in the limelight until some of the food. network stars have come out, which was even a while back. But it started there, I think, it started there. And then it really got enhanced when I started working at these luxury hotels. I mean, they kind of like, for lack of a better word, beating in your brain. Sure. And then I got to give a shout out on this podcast to Jason White. He was my mentor at the Ritz Carlton in Chicago.

He used to push me very hard. In fact, like, sometimes I'd like break down in the walk in one time, like pretty much cursed at him. And I've never back talked to any of my superiors, but I was so aggravated because he would push me so freaking hard. And all these other chefs were like, he would still like, he would reprimand it, but he wouldn't be as hard on him as me. And he was like, because you're worth it. Like, you're actually worth it. Like, you're going to be better than me.

So I have to really make you feel it to get you to that point. So long story short, I mean, it really was the luxury hotels. That guy, I mean, like, have this mentality of servitude. I think excellence in servitude are one and the same. Like, yes, you want to look clean and, and that's all part of serving, right? because of the way that you're looking and the way you present yourself. However, it's really about how you make people feel like kings and queens. So even in dinner with a chef in my personal chef business, when I first started that, legitimately as if it was like the Holy Spirit is an audible voice,

I used to always just kind of walk into people's homes. I was like, okay, I'm walking in as if I'm serving Jesus. I don't care how they look. I'm going to have that heart. I'm going to want to give that my best, right? And give them your best isn't always just mean filet mignon, lobster, and caviar. It actually means for you to love all And people just want to feel special. So that's, that's honestly what you do. And when you were saying taking shortcuts, not only do we do that with chefs and chef preneuer,

but really dinner with a chef with a personal chef experience, it's like we're giving you a shortcut too. You're not leaving the home 100%. You're not having to go to some restaurant. They're going to wait an hour to be seated in the reservations and have horrible service and okay food. Realistically, we're going to skip all that where you don't have to do any of the cleanup.

You don't have to do any of that. You can just really enjoy your family or guest and create memories, as we say. And so like really that that level of excellence really was kind of ingrained into me in the luxury hotels of my career. And then again, just I really believe the heart that God gave me. I just, um, hospitality. I just love serving people. Love it. Love it.

And yeah, when you can collapse the timeline for people, meaning get them to their destination and less time, less frustration, everybody likes that. That's why we invest in things like Instacart. That's why people invest in fast passes at the theme parks because speed is way better. And not everybody can afford it, but I look at all of that as an investment. You know, it's why they created the two-year MBA, right? Some people want the degree, but they don't want to take all the time necessary to get there. So they've created something that can get you there quicker. So I love the fact that you're doing that.

And another thing that you recently launched is something called Chefpreneur University. So where did that come from? You know, obviously you have a passion for helping chefs, but what made you want to create an actual, you know, education system for these chefs? Was it about getting them to results quicker? Was it about having them be less frustrated at getting all the wrong knowledge that's out there on the internet? Because, again, we can go on YouTube and we can go down these rabbit holes, or we can get the information, the information we need, when we need it, on demand, and have mentors and coaches. So what was it about that? I don't think you ever shared that story.

Yeah. So I mean, realistically, so we've had courses. We had our master class. We've had some online courses. And university was really designed to kind of give a notion even perceptually, if I'm being honest with you, of like an amazing education in the business of being a personal chef. So, yes, we are not an accredited college or university in a sense of like, you know, financial

aid from the state and all that stuff. but we wanted to really set out a platform to have the most extensive in-depth training on basically starting or launching, growing and running a personal chef business successfully. So I said, you know what, I'm going to use it to my advantage to create like a private university that is step by step, taking you from where you are to being a successful personal chef and having your own personal chef business. it was really just wanting to be the largest. I mean, as we're recording this, I've kind of done my research. It's not like an official thing that I can say necessarily, but I don't think anybody else has this extensive of a program on building a successful and profitable personal chef for business as we do in chefpreneur and the

chefpreneur universe. Yeah, well, I mean, you have over a thousand students have taken your coaching and training, and what that tells me is that you put in the reps. Yeah. And the only way we get good in life and my clients and my listeners hear me, it's about the reps. You got to put it in every day, not just like once a week or once a month. Like you're in the trenches. You're with them.

And everything that chef teaches is based on tried and true results that he's gotten in his own business. Correct. You know, because there's a bunch of knuckleheads running around selling, everybody's an AI expert. Everybody's a coach. After COVID, it's like, stop it, people. If you have it put in the reps, stop going out and see. selling people and just taking their money. It's not the right thing to do.

No. We got to have a little bit, a lot, really, of integrity and be that practitioner that you say that you are. Yeah. Is that frustrate you? Because there's a lot of numbers that you run into that are selling wolf tickets to people. And then literally, they get a wolf instead of knowing how to cook. 100%.

Honestly, it's the truth. Like, where I think we're always combating, like, everybody's an online guru coach now. What's crazy is I didn't set out to be some online business marketing guru guy. Like, I legitimately coach and mentor people on real service-based business in your area as a personal show. That's it. But since I have to promote and we run ads and we have social media and we're always having to combat this guy as a scam. And you get it so much now. However, I think like you said, the reps and the proof is in the pudding.

What are the actual results that you're providing? And that is something that university, that's what we love about the university as well is because a traditional university, no bashing here on like state universities and stuff. But realistically, a lot of the education you get from there sometimes can be very obsolete. Yeah. Right. And so we really try to update not only like constantly, but as we learn me, we're always adding to the university education. And because it's real hands on real world stuff, it's not like here's a textbook, follow the textbook, and then it's outdated in three months. It's like, no, it's a constant evolving thing. So I couldn't agree with you more. It's very frustrating. And really, I think it does a disservice to the people who truly are experts that can help people to coach and mentor them because it kind of puts them all in the group. And unfortunately, a couple bad apples can ruin the whole bunch. And I don't get frustrated a lot. I mean, I try to stay pretty, positive in a beat. But when I have clients come to me and they're like, leery at hiring me because they got ripped off for 50 grand, and then they take one hour session.

with me and they say that that was worth the old 50 grand they wasted. That's very frustrating. That makes me get, get a little angry inside and I ask that to turn that and say, you know what, well, you know, maybe they really need the money. You know, I kind of still go to the positive side for those people, but let's just stop it, folks. If you don't know it, don't go teach it. You know, like actually put in some time, energy, and effort. I mean, come to my, I let everyone in my group coaching for seven days for free. Come, a little plug for that. Come, and I'll teach you the right way how to market and how to sell and how to be a decent human out there. Yeah.

Instead of just making stuff up and just throwing stuff against the wall and hoping that some poor person is going to come invest their last paycheck into it. And then you run off with their money. Yeah. It's not the right thing to do. And so there's a lot of folks who listen to this show, you know, we guys blessed us. I was telling someone recently, like we used to do 30 downloads a month. Now we're in the hundreds of thousands of downloads.

And so I know that they're all. are folks that are going to listen to this that either they, maybe they're a home cook and they would love to cook, right? Maybe they are a sous chef and they want to kind of get to that next level or maybe they just heard the word food and it makes them feel good. I don't know. There's people out there that would love some tips from you. And as a person that cooked at a high level for a lot of high level people and that's coaching at a high level for, I'd love to get tips on both. So what tips would you give for that, you know, person that has a passion for food like you did with your yaya and they're like, man, what are three things I can do to

elevate my game in the kitchen? What three tips can you give for them? And then we're going to go into the ones that say, I have a real passion where I want to monetize my expertise. Everybody tells me at the cookout. Everybody tells me that you should do this, right? So let's let's do that. We're going to give six tips, guys, and give you a double portion today, pun intended, of some recipes for success in the kitchen. And if you're a chef that wants to be a chef that wants to actually monetize. I'm going to, at the end of this, we're going to get some links to chef's website so you you guys can hook up with him.

He'd love to get on a call with you and help you. Okay. So you're putting me on the spot with the three tips in the kitchen. I love that. But I'm going to go by with what I live by. Okay. So number one, number one thing, I would say tip in the kitchen, just use the highest and best ingredients you can find.

If you cook a dish, that's just tomato and onion and olive oil. And you have the most ripe, perfect, delicious summer fresh tomatoes and a beautiful onion that's completely fresh, maybe just picked from the farmer's market. And a very high quality of olive oil with beautiful, delicious, you know, mauld on salt or like a sea salt, like it's not going to taste bad. People are going to say, wow, that's an amazing salad. It wouldn't really guide it all the work with the ingredients. Okay. So number one, don't try to use some, you know, 39 cent of pound tomatoes that are like half green and then expect the tomato. of solid, it turn out good. It won't. Okay, so number one, use the best ingredients. Number two,

keep things simple. I think that a lot of people overdue, like, complexities to make it think that the food's going to taste better, and it's really not. Like, I always tell people, even when I was in the hotel training, even chefs up and coming and teaching them philosophy on cooking, I used to tell them, keep it simple, but also, like, the proper technique is what I mean by that. Keep things very simple. But if you're going to cook something, cook it properly, use the proper technique, because at the end of the day, if you try to get too fancy with what you're doing,

A, you're probably going to screw it up. B, it's probably going to be a let down at the end of the, you know, when you taste it, you're like, I thought that's just going to be more elegant than that. No, my grandma used to make a very simple, like rice pilaf that was amazing, but it was using, again, good ingredients,

great rice, that the technique was proper. And then the third, okay, is use salt. Okay, I know this is going to sound funny, but we were just doing, I just did a luncheon right for us.

Yeah. this last weekend. I made this really yummy salmon salad with like this homemade kind of yogurt, green goddess dressing and, you know, keeping a light, keeping it fresh, keeping it healthy, trying to lose some weight and get healthier. And, and, you know, Marlowe was like, what did you do to the salmon? Why was the salmon so good? And I'm like, I seasoned it with salt.

Well, what else? I cooked it properly. Like, I cooked it medium, medium rare, really on the verge. Like, medium, medium, rare. And she's like, it just melanched in my mouth and it tastes so delicious. I'm like, she's like, you didn't put any other spot. I'm like, nope, just salt. So don't be afraid of salt.

You know, a lot of dishes you can enhance. And people will say, hey, you know, it's on another podcast, listen to some of my stuff on my channel, and I'll tell you about some of that stuff. But salt, get by good quality salt, really good quality sea salt, something that has a lot of flavor. I don't believe salt's that bad for you.

If you have the good stuff, iodized salt, stay away from it, it's hard. Well, it's very highly processed, but good salt. So, again, to recap, the best ingredients you can find, the proper technique by keeping it simple and doing it right, and then just season your food with salt. And you're probably going to be well in your way

to making some of the best food to rely. Love it. I just saw a meme. One of my buddies, he's a big comedian influencer named Ben. He lives in Augusta. He did this meme on Facebook, and it said, I went into my cupboard,

and can somebody please tell me why the 100-year-old pink Himalayan Sea Salt is about to expire? I mean, how funny is that? Yeah, it's pretty funny. 100 year old paid Himalayan sea salt with the expiration date of tomorrow. Yeah. How it says, give some content. Is it really 100 year old sea salt?

Because when you, when you sell any product by, you know, by like the U.S. government inspectors and all that, you have to pertin. Okay. You have to. But it's like, is it really like. Probably not a hundred year old. No. Not a marketing.

I mean, it's probably a marketing gimmick. I mean, who knows? Who knows? If they were around 100 years ago and they were the ones that picked it, maybe. I doubt that was the guess. But the fact of the matter is, it's salt. It's probably not going to go anywhere, obviously. But, I mean, yeah, expiration.

I thought that was hilarious. So now let's shift gears a little bit to the business. And then as we wrap up here, of course, I want to make sure you give some plugs of where people can find you, where people can find your podcast. And we're going to get everything down in the show notes. And folks, you want to, if you're an up-and-coming chef or someone that wants to learn the business, after the episode, do not crawl to the show notes. I want you to run because this guy's a real deal.

And I've seen the impact he's created on people's lives. And I want to make sure you connect with Chef Andre. So let's give three tips to the folks that are out there. You know, they're wanting to really, maybe they listen to this. And they're like, that's me, Jordan. Like, you're talking to me. I'm the guy that everybody says, I should be a chef one day. So what would be the three things?

And if you kind of dive back into your original story of when you started the business, what advice would you give them on where should they start besides obviously hiring you and all your workshop just pretend that stuff didn't exist yeah like what would what advice would you give your former self today three tips on where to start so tip number one i mean realistically honestly i know i'm not just talking about my programs and my stuff here like you said aside from that but it really is to like success leaves clues you have to find somebody who's already done it and be successful and like a lot of things are not like we're not really reinventing the wheel all the time. Sure. What there is, I believe in life in business, especially is just like, again, I'm going to use some chef terms here. I think most businesses have recipes. Like, yeah, most businesses have recipes that win. And then each kind of business and each type of business in each market and niche have specific kind of more hunged in recipes. Like our Shepner method is a hungen in recipe for building a successful personal shop business. But I would say success leave schools, tip number one, like look for someone

who's done it. Yeah. That has done. it properly and and with success. And if they're Lord willing, if they're willing to help you or for you to shadow them or learn from them, like run towards them and say, teach me. Right. So that's number one. Number two, my favorite scripture, especially as an entrepreneur, is Galation 6.9. In fact, I had this as my screensaver on my phone for many years, especially early on in the business when it was like very challenging. And still going through challenging times in business now. I mean, it doesn't change. I mean, it's ever evolving. But, you know, that scripture says, do not grow weary of doing good for in a proper time we will reap a harvest if you do not give up.

So tip number two, don't give up. A lot of people think it's the most intelligent people that win in life and in business. It's usually the most ambitious. And what I mean by ambitious is not in the sense of greed or just want to conquer everything. No, it's the ones that just don't give up. We've all seen that meme where it's like the guy or the little gold diggers dig in the, you know, for the gold and then he's, you know, two inches away from the gold. Start turning around. He starts turning around.

And that's a lot of us in a lot of different areas. In fact, I'll quote Alex Romozy here because I am a fan of his, but he always says like, whenever you're going through a hard time in your business or an adversity side of it, stop and think about this is where other people will give up. Love it. And so I'm just going to keep going. So number two, don't give up. And I would say number three, have a plan.

plans normally still don't work out the way you want them to, but at least having some level of strategy and vision of what you want to accomplish. Like I always tell my students when I'm coaching them, like even on my mentorship sessions that I have with them, it's like the first question I say is, okay, I want to know a little bit about you where you aren't. But the second thing I want to know about you is where you want to go.

Yeah. And we don't just go up to our phones, our iPhones or Android's in that case. I have an Android guy. Not for long. We're selling that sucker. But you can't just go up to your phone and say, hey, take me somewhere.

Like where? You have to put the address in. You have to Google Maps or whatever in order to get there, right? Yeah. So if you don't know where you want to go, right, even find somebody to help you, maybe it's again a coach, maybe someone to give you clarity,

but figure out, you don't need to figure out all the details, but a general direction, a general vision. The Bible talks about that, writing down your plans. You have to look at it from, what do I actually want to accomplish?

If I don't know that, then technically you can't get there. I mean, it's really simple. So, those are the three tips. Successfully's clues, don't give up, and obviously have some level of vision. Love it.

Love it. Yeah. And I think plan and strategy, they're, they kind of run this like almost parallel to each other. I'm a great strategist, but I hate planning. Yeah. You know that about me. Well, you're a vision. But I have, I cast vision.

And I am very, I am very strategic, but no one knows it. And that's when I think that can be dangerous in a good way. Because everyone else thinks you're goofing off and you have. have, you're like, what is this guy doing? And then in my head, I've already thought 30,000 steps ahead. And I know, and I'm thinking with the end in mind, and then I bring that back to the beginning. Correct. And everything circles back. That's strategy. Planning is more systematic. And you just said, not structured. You just said the formula there, you have the vision and you're looking ahead. And then you're taking a step back and that's what you create the plan from. So again,

it's going back to that. If you have that vision and know where you want to go, then you've got to backtrack How do I get there? It's about, and those are engineering. It's very, it's all it is. I'm not an engineer, but I can reverse engineer a little better than most people that I know. Yeah, and that I think is one of my gifts. And honestly, I didn't really realize it until, you know, I started doing business in Europe. And my brain got kind of blown away with all the different hard work and all the social strategy and lobbying and all these different things.

I never thought I'd be involved with. But that's when I realized that, man, I'm great a strategy, you know. And it's helped be so much. in the states because most people aren't strategic. Most people don't know if they're going to do tomorrow, and I'm already thinking about what am I going to do six months from now, you know, and then I work my way backwards. So, man, I want to say it's been an honor and a pleasure to host you.

I know that our listeners are going to get so inspired, not just by your story and by your journey, but what you've been able to build. I mean, if you look at the sheet of paper, and you should be not here, you should be bitter. you should have a way worse life than you have. And so I know you're going to give all that honor and glory to God, but at the same time, you've had to put in the reps.

Okay. And so, you know, a lot of us, we let pride and ego get in the way, and you had every right to do that in your life. But you decided to blaze a trail. You decided to say, you know what, despite everything that's happening in my world, I'm just going to keep moving forward. And you have done what your advice has been given,

the recipes you've given, you've followed them and you've made this such a beautiful dish of life. And so I just want to say it's an honor and privilege to have you on the show. It's an honor to call you a friend and a mentor in a lot of ways, whether you know it or not. And thank you so much for coming on, a blaze your website podcast. And folks, make sure you run to the show notes. We're going to put all the info on chefpreneur, dinner with the chef. So if you're an individual and you like food, then you probably want to hire him. you're an individual and you like to cook, you're probably want to hire him. And if you're

an organization, a resort, a hotel, and you need to partner with the amazing company that can bring the best food, the best service and hospitality, you're probably going to want to hire him. So basically, just hire chef. He's amazing. You're not just going to love the food, but his heart and everything that he does. I think that's your secret ingredient. It's your heart. And it's so cool, man, to know you, to be a friend of you. And I can't. out way for people to listen. Well, I appreciate that. I appreciate that very much, Trent. Thank you for having me. I'm very honored and blessed to be here. Yeah. Until next time, guys, we will be doing more solo episodes, more guest episodes.

And I just want to give a big shout out to our sponsor who's provided this amazing state-of-the-art studio. Make sure you guys go in the show notes, City Gate Studios. We're doing big things in 2025 and beyond, and we'd love for you to be a part of it. We're going to have a link where you can actually contribute to the mission that we're building here and until next time make sure you're glazing your own trails out there camera oh i didn't hit unrecorded that's a wrap though man and that's bro you gotta hear his story i don't know how much you caught at that real this knucklehead been through the gamut