My Interview with Sam Zien of the Sam LiveCast Where there's ALWAYS food but it's NOT always about Food and where it's always FUN!
So in order to teach someone how to cook you need to be a trained Chef right? Wrong. With appearances on The Today Show and several cook books to him name Sam Zien, fondly known as Sam 'The Cookng Guy' with his simple but beautifully done recipes for the 'Average Joe' blows this theory out of the water!
In probably one of my favorite interviews yet I got to chat with the self taught cook who filled me in on how a guy from Vancouver made his to San Diego and started teaching people how to cook. We also talk about what it's like working with your family, some of his favorite things to eat and why it's important to do what you love.
How does a guy from Vancouver make his way to San Diego and start cooking?!
haha! Funny story. Well I went from Vancouver to Toronto then bought a yogurt shop in Phoenix but it was too damn hot there! and we said fuck it! Let's mover to wehre we have family and the weather is awesome! We end up in San DIego and I don't know what the hell to do. So I did what people do when they don't know what to do...I sold real estate and I hated it! So one client I sold a house to asked me to be his facility manager. I did that for eight years and I hated that. As you can see, there's a pattern here. Like the story of the three bears, I couldn't find the right fit!
So when I was sitting at my desk one day I thought 'What would I do if nothing else mattered. And then I came up with the idea for a travel show based on a trip to Tokyo I took with my wife's brother. I mean he worked during the day so I ran around by myself. People asked me 'How did you do that by yourself and not understanding the language?!' That was an adventure to me and I wanted to encourage others to do the same. So I thought it would be cool to make a travel show like that.
So, then what?
I quit my job and had a crew ready and then... 9/11 happened. That day changed thousands of people's lives; much more than mine. But still, it affected me. It really changed things for me. There was no way people would be interested in a travel show now and I couldn't back to my job but I was still on the idea of helping people do something they didn't think they could do. So food and cooking came to mind. And again keep it simple not watching a Chef that you think, 'WOW that looks good but complicated so....let's go out and eat! So I sent out a demo and well...people hated it! But there was this one guy in San DIego who said 'Your quirky and likable. Let's do this!' I really believe that you only need one person to believe in you. You don't need twenty people, just one.
CONVERSATION