August 29, 2025 • 31 mins
In this episode, Tudor speaks with Chef Andrew Gruel about his journey from a Food Network enthusiast to a successful chef and entrepreneur. They discuss the importance of culinary education, the challenges of running a business in California, and the impact of local politics on entrepreneurship. Andrew shares insights on the changing landscape of chain restaurants, the quality of food post-pandemic, and the significance of being aware of what we consume. The Tudor Dixon Podcast is part of the Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Podcast Network. For more visit TudorDixonPodcast.com.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to the Tutor Dixon Podcasts.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
So one thing you guys might not know about me
is that I used to be a huge Food Network junkie.
But it was like old school Food Network when Paula
Deane was there and Rachel Ray, and there was that
other woman who like made food with half ingredients you
could get at the grocery store and then half fresh ingredients.
And I was addicted to it before I had kids
(00:24):
because I had time to watch the Food Network. And
then I had kids and I didn't have time, and
I saw this chef who was on social media all
the time and talking about healthy food. I was like,
this guy sounds awesome, and he and his wife would
make food together in their kitchen. It was like my
dream to be able to have that kind of life,
to be that kind of chef. And now I get
(00:46):
to have him on the podcast. So Andrew Grule, thank
you so much for being.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Here, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
I appreciate it absolutely.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
So how did this, I mean, honestly, how did you
do this? Because obviously I am just somebody who likes
to watch this stuff, and I will I will admit
you are one of the judges on some of these shows.
And I am not as big a fan of this
show where you have to like challenge someone else to
cook against you because it's so stressful. But I was
(01:13):
a huge fan of watching like Polyadine make the worst
possible fattening food ever and then trying to make that
in my kitchen. But you're healthy, and I love watching
what you do too, So how did you?
Speaker 1 (01:24):
How did you get there?
Speaker 3 (01:26):
You know, it's funny. Actually I agree with you. I
love the dumping ster cooking shows. That's what got me there.
But I'll go back even further. The dump and ster
cooking shows that got me hooked were those ones on
PBS right, Young Kind Cook, Shakpapen, Julia Child, the like
really really low and mellow and almost seemingly uncomfortable because
they were just slowly walking through a recipe. So when
(01:47):
I was sick, you know, from school, when I was
like seven or eight years old, I started watching those
and I got like absolutely hooked, and I started faking
being sick just to watch the old PBS cooking shows.
But I didn't actually think cooking was going to become
a career for me. I loved it. I love the culture.
I loved the kitchen. I started working in restaurants when
I was like fourteen, fifteen summer jobs and then beyond
(02:09):
went to a small liberal arts college to study something
totally different, but ended up spending more time in the
kitchen than I did in class, and I realized, wait
a minute, maybe this is the path that I should
be following and kind of learning this world of food
and hospitality and beyond.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
So I find that interesting because we have a lot
of parents who listened to the podcast, and we've had
some people on who have said, you know, when your
child has a passion for something, even if it's something
that you think, oh, this is not a career, this
is not going anywhere, kind of lean into letting them
explore that passion. One of the moms that we had
on her son became like a big gaming executive producer,
(02:46):
and people were like, what, he's always on games and
telling her not to let him do that, and then
that led into this and you have to me, what
you've done is kind of like crack the code of
something impossible is to be a capitalist in California with
your own businesses that are selling food because California is
(03:07):
so everything is a challenge for you there, but you've
done it.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
Yeah, it is. It's like you know, swimming upstream or
you know, training with weights on, training for running with
weights on. I mean, training with weights is natural. And
you know that. Thanks for bringing up that point about
kind of teaching your kids that, you know a little
bit of history. I went to like a real small
private school in New Jersey where everybody is really like,
(03:30):
it's very academic, and you're being trained to be either
a lawyer or a politician or a doctor. Right. And
when I left school and went to college and then
left college, my sister was like, what are you doing, Andrew?
And she kind of stayed in that group, and she's like,
everybody's joking about how you're you're a cook, right, Like
that was the joke that I was a cook. And
(03:51):
just recently I went back and gave a keynote to
the students there now and explained to them my arc
and my journey because it was exactly the opposite of
kind of what we were training to do. But my family,
my parents always supported me no matter what I wanted
to do. They know I was kind of quote trying
to find myself. The key to it is still understanding
like your general education, because I wouldn't have been able
(04:12):
to accelerate through my career as ultimately a chef and
in going back to business school if I didn't have
those like fundamental that one oh one kind of class,
you know, understanding how to write, how to communicate, how
to do basic math, how to reason, all of that stuff.
That's what I tell everybody nowadays, is like, just make sure,
especially because I've got four kids, make sure you understand
those those the fundamentals of education.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
That's a point that I don't think we hear that
often because we are used to the American dream, and
I would say that this is you are living your
American dream. And I think that's amazing because that's what
this country is all about. But so many of our
kids in neighborhoods where they're not getting a great education,
the schools are rated low, they're reading is And in
Michigan we probably you probably have the same thing. In California,
(04:57):
we have a really big problem with kids that aren't
able to read and their parents can't read either, because
they went through the same system that passes you along
and once you have a generational deficiency in literacy, it's
really hard to come out of. But you have gotten
involved a little bit in politics on the local level
to kind of give people these opportunities and say, hey,
(05:19):
we're going to push back on some of the stuff
that it's just genuinely messed up.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
Yeah, and from a local level, I've been talking about this,
harping about this. If anybody's going to get involved in politics,
it's like, you've got to start on a local level.
I say, it's an MBA into politics because what you're
going to get in regards to like pushback and even
like the community rage is going to be amplified on
a local level. So if you can handle that, you're
good thereafter. You know, it was funny, were not funny actually,
(05:48):
but the previous city council member here in Huntington Beach,
t u Ortiz, who was a professional MMA fighter. You know,
he was on a city council for three months and
he resigned. He's like, I'm not dealing with this. When
I told somebody that I was joining city council here
in Huntington Beach, they go, you're talking about a guy
who was paid to get punched in the face for decades.
Three months in city council. Are you sure you're ready
(06:08):
for this? And it certainly is interesting. However, you have
the opportunity to, especially in a place like California where
you're dealing with like the school board and the ways
in which kids get to school and how they you know,
kind of navigate and operate within their community, and so
many of these things are integral in the way in
which they grow up and whether they're going to kind
of go down a bad path a good path where
(06:30):
you can re establish like those roots in a local
community which have been ripped out over the past, especially
over the past five to ten years, which is really
the goal of kind of the communists is to unmore
us from society. So that's why it's been important for
me joining city council.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Yeah, I just actually and I saw that you were.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
You spoke with Alex Marlow recently and it just had
him on the podcast and we kind of had this
discussion about it's really challenging for the average person to
get involved in politics because it is such an attack.
But for you, I wonder have you felt comfortable doing
this because you have businesses and this is something I
ask kind of on a personal level too, But I
(07:10):
know a lot of people who listen are interested in politics,
but they might be a local business owner or you know,
maybe they are someone else influential in the community, and
they're concerned if I step out and I admit I'm
a Republican. And I don't know if people feel this
way on the Democrat side. I think it's different on
the Democrat side because Republicans are so demonized.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
Do you ever feel like that could hurt your business?
Speaker 3 (07:34):
Well, it did hurt my business initially, right, So I
was kind of quietly in the shadows for years. And
then when I was doing all the Food Network stuff
and other TV, and then and you know what's funny
is is like I grew up obsessed with politics and
learning about it, and like, right, I was like president
Young Republicans Club and Youth and Government model you in
it was volunteered for state senators all while I was
(07:55):
growing up. This has been a passion of mine. I've
really bit my tongue on this. In the restaurant industry,
I was always focused on policy more from kind of
a high level, nonpartisan perspective. But then when the pandemic,
kid was like enough of this, right, like it all
came out and it was like, cancel this guy. Oh
my god, Like people's words were falling apart. I can't
believe this guy's conservative. And because you know, we had
(08:17):
forty plus restaurants at the time, so like we had
a pretty deep ace of fans nationwide. We grew it
as a franchise and which I ultimately had to sell.
But I'll tell you what. The first thing, and I
remember going to my wife and I was like, man,
should I pull back a little bit? And she's like,
heck no. She's like, we're doubling down, like we're in this,
like there's no forgiveness. Right. She was the one who
(08:39):
actually kind of smacked me in the face and was
like nope. And that's why it's key to have a
strong family unit. But also when we did, our sales
went up so much. Interesting to those people is like,
if you start kind of wiggling and trying to play bolls,
you cannot play both sides. You don't have to be
a jerk about it, but you need to be resolute
(09:01):
and firm in your position and confident with in what
you believe, and people will respect you more. And because
of that, the people on the people you know, I'm
not saying this universally, but the people who are telling
you they're going to boycott you never went to your
business to begin with. I mean that's kind of a guarantee. Yeah,
you might have like an anecdote here or an anecdote there,
and then you point to that one person, but by
(09:22):
and large, those people don't go to your business, and
the loudest people do because the people who are genuinely
concerned are going to be disappointed and they're still going
to go to your business just quietly. So as long
as you're not a jerk about it, your sales will
go up. So what's hilarious is when I got now,
it was like like we embraced everyone, but then we
used it for the good, right, Like, that's the idea
(09:44):
is you want to use it for the good. You
don't need to. You can disagree, but you don't need
to be a jerk about it in a public business setting.
But then when I got on a city council, everyone's like,
we're boycotting this business. You already boycotted my business. You
can't boycott something more than once. You've been boycotting my
busin for five years and then when I got on
city Council and everyone went bold on these kind you
(10:05):
know next door Facebook groups about how they're boycotting us.
Our sales doubled again and they really need to go up.
We're up thirty five percent year on year, week on week, everybody.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
Do you think that kind of says secretly about people's
politics too in California, because we keep hearing that people
in California are not buying into some of the radical policies,
and maybe they're kind of secretly like keep going.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
That's exactly it, and it's the only way that they can.
You know. It's like they're you know, they're they're just
cloistered and they are ready to blow and they want
to get their feelings out. So they go visit a
conservative business. Yeah, maybe that's it. But so I tell
those people who are concerned about it, it's like, look,
just be resolutely, be firm, and trust me, you're going
(10:51):
to lose some customers. You can never please everyone in business.
It's just impossible. Uh, if you want to make it
your business that you're going to be completely moderate and
down the middle, understand, your moderacy is considered right wing
by the left. So silence is violence, like a If
(11:11):
you're going to be moderate and try and avoid the
political issues, you need to understand you're still going to
get boycotted by the left. That's how insane they are.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
Let's take a quick commercial break. We'll continue next on
the Tutor Dixon Podcast. If you are going to be
a business owner in today's environment, that you also have
to be engaged in the local politics. You have to
because if you are not. I mean, this is what
we saw with my dad's business. He had never been
interested in politics at all, and I look back now
(11:41):
and I think a lot of the struggles he had
was because he was just not engaged in the political process.
And that there's also kind of this longstanding people who
have been in politics for a long time. They're almost
offended if you're not asking them to be involved. So
it's a weird thing. But you've got to be aware
of every day for an aspect of how your business
is going to be, especially in a purple state or
(12:03):
a blue state. I think you have to be really
hyper aware of how politics can affect capitalism.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
That's such a great point. And that doesn't mean you
have to go to every single networking meeting and right
then you know, schedule go to every city council meeting.
But I mean just a five minute peruse on any
community Facebook page nowadays will pretty much give you a
cliffs notes version of what's going on and then just
understanding the way in which it kind of works through
the you know, kind of the calculus of city operations.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
Yeah, I agree. I mean, meet with your state House rep.
Meet with your state Senate senator. These are just take
five minutes and say hey, this is I just want
you to be informed is what I'm doing in my
business and what our goals are, and just want to
be sure that we're on the same page.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
Because these I think that they're.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
More likely to come to you and say, hey, I
want to tell you this is coming down the pike
and you might want to be aware of this rather
than getting completely blind by some I mean even here
in manufacturing in Michigan, we obviously we make cars here.
There's a lot of chromers here. They chrome metal, and
we had a person from the EP or the egle
(13:15):
as our environmental agency, come to some of our cromers
and be like, yeah, we're changing your process. It's like,
wait a minute, could you give us a little warning
on this. But if you're involved, they're more likely to
come to you early and say there's something coming down
the pike.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
It's going to change.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
That is such a good point being involved in politics
and knowing your local politicians. You're right, you know, state, Senate, House,
whatever it is, even committee, city council. They I used
to think that they were scary, and I'm like, I
don't want to bother them. Oh my gosh, is there
a chance I can meet them? They want to talk
to you. I mean even me, I'm on a very
(13:49):
very local level, Like I want to talk to everybody
because I need that real world feedback. I'm sick of
the charts. I'm sick of the graphs. I'm sick of
the surveys. It's the anecdotal evidence that actually matters right now.
So they want to hear from you. Get involved.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
So let's get to a restaurant that recently had the
public get quite involved in their business, and that is
Cracker Barrel who went out and said we're changing the logo.
And I think it's kind of funny because you can
look at this two different ways. You can look at
this as they should fire this ceo right away, or
perhaps they should say their business has to have gone
(14:23):
up in the last few weeks. Maybe this was like
a secret genius thing. I don't think the CEO meant
it to be, but I mean this could be like
the best marketing employee ever to get people on the
road traveling to stop at a cracker barrel.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
Now that they changed their logo.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Back, but you made a post saying they've also changed
their food over the past few decades. So tell us
what you think about what's happening in some of these
chain restaurants.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
Well, I'll start by saying it's funny everybody thinks business
is like tinkering with a brand and a logo and
like typography and these things that you can deal with
on fiver for fourteen ninety nine. You know, a brand
is so much deeper than that, and it's not about
the logo. So we're talking about the logo, and the
point I was making is it's so much deeper than
the logo. And I think it also goes to show
(15:07):
that whoever the firm was, and whether it was the
CEO working through somebody else, that they were focusing on
the logo as emblematic of these changes goes to show
their elementary thinking. Because the reason Cracker Barrel has gone
downhill so much over the years, and I've seen it
as a customer, is because in twenty eleven they were
bought out by private equity along with hundreds of other brands.
(15:29):
Right there was this massive gold rush in fast casual
and casual dining where private equity was trying to buy
up as much revenue as they could to either you know,
kind of fix it, sell it for the parts, flip
it work through another private equity firm, or just increase
the asset value of their own portfolio hoping one of
them would hit. And the way in which they do
that is that they bring these legacy brands on board
(15:49):
that are well liked, known, love deep deep, legacy brand,
and then they slowly start to pull back on the
in house cooking. They start to offsite most of it,
copack everything, and whether it's a franchise or company or
licensed own stores, the copacking also gives them an opportunity
to establish additional revenue which then they can create into
another company. So, for example, if I'm making all my
(16:11):
sauces in house and I've got four employees that are
devoted to making those sauces. Well, now I ship it
out and I have an off site company create those sauces.
But when you're off site, you have to add preservatives
and chemicals and all these other FDA and USDA required
elements and ingredients. Now I get rid of those four employees,
which decreases my labor costs, and I ship those products
in and then I start doing it with every single
(16:34):
thing on the menu and ultimately doing either frozen kind
of slopping PLoP or bagging the box type cooking. And
that's what's happened over the past fourteen years to Cracker Barrel.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
So we find this. I find this very interesting.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
I'm going to talk to my mom about this after
I do this podcast, because we have been talking for
ever since the pandemic. It seems like food has changed
so many of the rust that we went to regularly.
My mom's like, I've not had a good meal, and
she keeps saying, did my taste buds change after COVID,
And I'm like, I don't think so.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
I swear this food is different.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
And it's just you go there and you spend money
and you're like, I could have made something way better
at home.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
But that's not that's not how it used to be.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
That is exactly so when I'll tell you what. So
it started in like the twenty eleven to twenty fifteen,
like restaurant gold rush. It was amplified, exacerbated and blown
up during the pandemic. Right, So the infrastructure was there
with a lot of these co packers. And I know
this because we actually have franchise, right, So I had
restaurants across thirteen different states, and they could not produce
(17:41):
some of my products on site. So I was out
there shopping co packers that would do it organically without
the preservatives. By the way, couldn't find any, but I was.
I went deep into that copacker world and the the
you know, the goal was consistency, standardization, plus then you
can actually co pack it and determine and sell it
for retail. Everybody during the pandemic started doing this because
(18:03):
I remember reaching out during the pandemic back to a
couple of these people that are like, we're full, We're full.
I'm like, you're beyond capacity. We're two years beyond capacity.
Especially because these larger multi unit chains were doing it.
But as I mentioned earlier on the chemicals and what,
you know, whatever, I'm not using chemicals as a pejorative here,
because somebody on X is going to be like, well,
(18:23):
technically all of the just chemicals, the you know, kind
of lab creat.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
But you don't even have to explain because I don't
care about those people. I mean, now I'll get yelled at,
like there's people she doesn't care about. I don't care
if you're going to rip on what I have to say.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
I just always need to disclaimer this, you know, kind
of the lab created food items and simple things. A
lot of them are just preservatives. But preservatives are like
salt and acid. So ultimately it's going to change the
flavor profile. MSG is you know, kind of technically one
of those preservatives that's going to significantly change the flavor profile, right, Karagian.
These kind of emulsifiers, these artificial mulcifiers xantham, it's not
(19:01):
even the same. It's like, actually, it's beyond apples to oranges.
It's more like steak to grass in my opinion. So
that's what.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
So it changes the flavor.
Speaker 3 (19:12):
It significantly changes the flavor, the flavor, the mouthfeel, you know,
and also a lot of restaurants think, now you can
extend the shelf life on these products, so they keep
them a lot longer, which doesn't mean you're going to
get sick. But anything as it oxidizes decreases, it loses
its potency and freshness and flavor. So I'm not suggesting
they're serving you something bad. I'm suggesting they're serving you
(19:34):
something that's muted in flavor as well. Well.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
I think it's interesting that you bring up MSG, because
even as a kid, I can remember people talking about, Wow,
I can eat certain foods because they have MSG, and
then I get this migraine. So that was like connected.
That was the first time I heard something that you
ingest being connected to something that affects your health.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
And now I think with the.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
Maha movement, we're hearing a totally different version of this.
It's like, Wow, we're at actually consuming a lot of
chemicals and they are likely affecting our health.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
And we you know, the whole movement with RFK.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
And everybody saying wow, he's really talking about childhood diseases,
and we're seeing a lot of a lot different interpretation
of whether it's important to be aware of what we're ingesting,
and gosh, even this morning, I will say, you know,
I want to say, God bless the families out in
Minnesota and what they're dealing with with the school shooting
(20:28):
and the poor. I pray for the poor families that
lost their loved ones and the families that have the
students that were injured and they're recovering.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
It's just devastating.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
But this is the first time I have ever seen
the Secretary of Health and Human Services the next day
go on national TV and say, you know what, We're
going to start looking at some of the chemicals that
are going into people's bodies. And that is not just food,
but we're talking about some of these medications that we're
told or safe. But somehow, as we continue to ingest medications,
(21:00):
we continue to have a higher mental health issue. And
I think that we are at a point where we
have a government, Like you said, getting involved in local
government is so important, but we have people who have
been involved who have been kind of like shut down
in saying this stuff may not be good for us.
What's it like from your perspective, because I know for
(21:21):
years you've been saying, hey, let's get these chemicals out
of our food. What's it like from your perspective to
see this administration saying we're going to look at what
you're consuming.
Speaker 3 (21:30):
This conversation has really been that kind of was originally
the genesis of my culinary career. So I went to
college and I had horrible stomach problems. Going from high
school to college. I was a big I was an athlete.
I was a distance runner and swimmer, and you know,
my stomach was so bad that I actually had to
stop running when I got to college, right, and it
(21:50):
was just you know, fast forward. It was ultimately all
the It was the food, it was the process food.
I had certain types of allergies. But I'll tell you this.
So I get to college and I go to the
school doctor and I'm like, yeah, these stomach problems are
so bad because I was far away from from where
I lived. And they say, okay, well we're gonna send
you this. So I go to do an initial kind
of you know, basic triage. We can't find anything. And
(22:11):
I'd done this through high school as well, but I'm like,
it's getting worse. They send me the school psychologists. School
psychologists like, oh, you have anxiety disorder. Here's some valume
here's some xanax, right, and I'm like, I'm not like
I was the goodie two shoe athlete. I'm like, I'm
not taking any of that stuff. They're like, no, no,
it's the neurotransmitters in your intestines that are overreacting because
(22:32):
of your anxiety. So I'm like, okay, this is weird.
Then they send me again to the school psychologists. They're like,
we've got it. You need to go on antidepressants. I
was not. I was like a happy kid, right, This
was not This was strictly my stomach issues, So like,
we're going to put you on. First it was like Paxel,
and then it was Zoloft, these crazy antidepressants, right. And
I remember I took the antidepressants for like six months.
(22:54):
I'm like, this is doing nothing for my stomach, but
it's making me feel crazy, right, So I stopped it.
And then it was like ten or fifteen years later
through my culinary arc that I had this kind of
aha moment in learning food systems where I started cutting
out seed Oil's processed foods all this guess what six
months ninety five percent.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
Better Aha moments, Maha moments now exactly.
Speaker 3 (23:16):
Yeah, I was going there, but but just that that story, right,
which is like very personal to me, and I don't,
I don't. I actually just recently started talking about it
because I thought it was kind of weird to begin
with and embarrassing that their immediate reaction was these mind
altering drugs for a stomach problem and not oh my gosh,
look at what you're eating.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
This is like, I feel like I'm having an AHA
moment right now because I've had so many times I
look back, and you just reminded me. I remember when
I there was a time when I didn't necessarily enjoy running,
but I was a runner, and I would get like,
I guess it was pleurisy, and it would cause me
to have struggled to take a deep breath, and they said,
(24:00):
it's anxiety. You've got to take meds and I didn't.
And then and I remember being like, that's insane. I
am not anxious, I am not depressed. I refuse to
take this medication. But not because I was smart about it.
I just was, you know, kind of defiant, like I'm
not doing that. And then fast forward, I would just
talk to my doctor a few weeks ago and I'm like, hey,
(24:21):
I'm getting to that point in age where I know
I have a few hot flashes, like life is changing,
and they're like, oh, for hot flashes, we recommend an SSRI.
Why why would you put me on something that I
can never get off of that has so many side effects,
like you know what.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
I'll do with the hot flashes. But that's the first response.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
That's what's crazy because I again, like you said, I
haven't really talked about this to anybody because it is
kind of embarrassing.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
And you're like, oh, I was I was told I.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
Have to be on these meds, but now I think
that what the thing the situation is so many people
that's the first go to and the pharmaceutical companies are
pushing this, and once you have somebody on this, you
have a lifelong patient. This person has to come back
every month and make sure they're okay so you can
continue to charge them.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
And I'm not.
Speaker 2 (25:10):
Saying that these doctors are bad, but I think this
has become a culture.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
And the crazy thing is you say, instead of.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
Looking at what you were eating, you were going to
the doctor and hearing.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
That you should be on a medication, and it's it's.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
Less normal for you to push back on that and
and go out and look at what you're eating that
you're demonized for saying food could be bad.
Speaker 3 (25:34):
Yeah, you're woo woo, right like you're you're you're kind
of like, yeah, that was it. And and it's funny.
And as I tell that over the years, as I
would like tell that story to close friends and family
members and trying to get them to change the foods
that they were eating, you know, they were just it
was like trying to break into the loover. It was.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
It was like a nut if you talk about it, Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (25:56):
And and what's great about our K? People always ask me,
they're like, are you happy with what RFK is doing?
He hasn't done this or what have you? And I said,
he he won in my mind before he did anything,
because the mere awareness and national conversation about these issues,
Like that's the hardest part. The mechanics of getting it
done is policy and politics, but the conversation to establish
(26:20):
the awareness about it. You couldn't pay somebody. You would
have to pay a marketing firm a half a billion
dollars to do it, and they probably couldn't even do
it nationally.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
Oh and you're absolutely right. Let's take a quick commercial break.
We'll continue next on the Tutor Dixon Podcast. I saw
you the other day. I don't I can't remember what
you were who you.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
Were on with.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
Maybe it was like Alex Clark or someone, but you
were talking about olive oil, and it shocked me. And
I feel like sometimes it's like, oh, I'm going to
go to the chef and ask him about cet oil's
But I really was kind of stunned, and I've been
stunned since because I just bought olive oil at the
store the other day. And I bought it because it
was like the pretty bottle. I don't know what I'm
(27:04):
looking for. I'm gonna admit I have no I assume
I'm getting something healthy because it the colors are bright
and it says organic, you know, and I'm like, that
must be perfect. But then all of a sudden, you're like,
there's this mafia that's bringing in sea olive oil filled
with seed oil, and I'm like, God, that's probably what
I got.
Speaker 3 (27:21):
Well, just buy US olive oil and it's fine.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
Seriously, that's I mean, I really don't know.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
I've known US.
Speaker 3 (27:27):
Olive oil and I go for the organic as well, right, Like,
that's just and I know that that label has been
kind of greenwashed a little bit, but I think it
still has some some strength if it's a US product
and the yeah, just the buy a US organic olive oil.
What I also tell people is go with the extra virgin,
like a cold or a or a cold press is best.
But if you get like a pulmus oil or even
(27:49):
like the light olive oil, sometimes that is a lower quality,
but you can still use it for cooking. It's great
for roasting and panseyering, et cetera. But a lot of
my extra virgin olive oils that I'll pay a pretty
penny for, and I'm talking like for twenty plus dollars
a bottle. I'm never going to spend fifty dollars on
a bottle olive oil. I always finish with that, right Like,
I always finish with that olive oil, so I never
(28:11):
even cook it, and you get the health benefits and
the flavor benefits.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
So I will just say I think that you should
continue to put out as much cooking content as you
can because I think it's like it just totally sucks
me in is and I think there have to be
people on my same algorithm that are just going to
constantly get it, because I think it's fantastic that you
cook a London broil and you're like, you know what,
this is only going to take five to seven minutes
(28:36):
in the oven. I'm just going to finish it with
this little cherry cherry sauce and it's going to be
really easy. And all I can think is like, oh,
it says London, and it must be foreign.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
I can't do it.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
So I am so impressed with what you do every day,
and I just love watching it.
Speaker 3 (28:51):
I appreciate that maybe I should rename it a refugee boil,
but you know it, for me, it's been And I
know there's a ton of like culinary content out there,
although those of us kind of more on the like
libertarian right don't like we don't have that content. Every
single platform is just like the same topic, just redone
over and over again. And my wife and I were like,
(29:12):
we're just leaning into this cooking thing because cook. My
wife's also trained chef, my kids get in the kitchen
with us. We obviously own and operate restaurants, which heck,
that could be a reality show in and of itself
craziness with four kids in.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
A restaurant idea.
Speaker 3 (29:25):
But we we you know, I try and express to people,
cooking is actually very easy once you learn some basics, right,
like just those fundamentals as I talked about, kind of
the academic fundamentals, the culinary fundamentals which are at which
is much smaller subset of information. And once you do it,
it's like playing basketball and the hoop is the size
of the court. It's really that easy. But we need
to get in the kitchen more. That's the problem. From
(29:47):
the early like the nineteen eighties to the nineteen nineties.
I think it really started in like the nineties and
beyond because I was a latch key kid. Both my
parents worked. Like my mother was, like you know, owned
her own business and she's still does. She's in her
mid seventies and she still works from like seven in
the morning until midnight. And it's unbelievable. She's such a
powerful woman, but she But like I grew up where
(30:09):
it was like the microwave generation, Sarah Lee on Christmas
morning and like microwave cinnamon rolls. And we need to
get back to being in the kitchen as a family
and understanding where our food comes from, and that goes
back to what RFK is doing is just establishing awareness.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
Then and when you watch your videos, you're like, oh,
this is such a cute family. And then your wife
walks in and you're like, his wife is smoking hot,
Like your wife is so cute. You guys are just
the perfect family. I'm you know what, you are a
nice looking man, but your wife is really beautiful. You
are very lucky, so and you guys seem just so happy.
So thank you so much. Tell people where they can
(30:43):
find your content, because I really do think that they
should be checking out what you're doing. It's just because
it's not only that it's great food and that you're
telling people how to make it.
Speaker 1 (30:52):
It is just really inspiring. It's really nice content.
Speaker 3 (30:56):
Yeah, So I'm on x at chef Rule. You can
go to dubdubdub dot americangravy dot com. Those have all
of our cooking videos and they kind of link out
and tentacle to all the other social sites. And then
I'm on Instagram at Andrew Gruel. Our restaurant is Calico
Restaurant in Huntington Beach, So Calico Dash Restaurant dot com.
So if anybody watching is in Huntington Beach, near Huntington
(31:16):
Beach or coming through Huntington Beach, if you come in
and mention that you watch this podcast, I'll take care
of your meal.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
Awesome.
Speaker 2 (31:22):
So I have to come in at some point, so
next time I am out your way, I'm going to
stop by.
Speaker 1 (31:27):
Chef Andrew Gruel. Thank you so much for coming on
the podcast.
Speaker 3 (31:30):
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (31:31):
It's an honor absolutely, and thank you all for listening
to the Tutor Dixon Podcast. For this episode and others,
go to Tutor Dixon podcast dot com, the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts, and you
can watch it at Rumble or YouTube at Tutor Dixon.
Speaker 1 (31:45):
So join us next time and have a bleased day
Welcome to the Tutor Dixon Podcasts.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
So one thing you guys might not know about me
is that I used to be a huge Food Network junkie.
But it was like old school Food Network when Paula
Deane was there and Rachel Ray, and there was that
other woman who like made food with half ingredients you
could get at the grocery store and then half fresh ingredients.
And I was addicted to it before I had kids
(00:24):
because I had time to watch the Food Network. And
then I had kids and I didn't have time, and
I saw this chef who was on social media all
the time and talking about healthy food. I was like,
this guy sounds awesome, and he and his wife would
make food together in their kitchen. It was like my
dream to be able to have that kind of life,
to be that kind of chef. And now I get
(00:46):
to have him on the podcast. So Andrew Grule, thank
you so much for being.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Here, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
I appreciate it absolutely.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
So how did this, I mean, honestly, how did you
do this? Because obviously I am just somebody who likes
to watch this stuff, and I will I will admit
you are one of the judges on some of these shows.
And I am not as big a fan of this
show where you have to like challenge someone else to
cook against you because it's so stressful. But I was
(01:13):
a huge fan of watching like Polyadine make the worst
possible fattening food ever and then trying to make that
in my kitchen. But you're healthy, and I love watching
what you do too, So how did you?
Speaker 1 (01:24):
How did you get there?
Speaker 3 (01:26):
You know, it's funny. Actually I agree with you. I
love the dumping ster cooking shows. That's what got me there.
But I'll go back even further. The dump and ster
cooking shows that got me hooked were those ones on
PBS right, Young Kind Cook, Shakpapen, Julia Child, the like
really really low and mellow and almost seemingly uncomfortable because
they were just slowly walking through a recipe. So when
(01:47):
I was sick, you know, from school, when I was
like seven or eight years old, I started watching those
and I got like absolutely hooked, and I started faking
being sick just to watch the old PBS cooking shows.
But I didn't actually think cooking was going to become
a career for me. I loved it. I love the culture.
I loved the kitchen. I started working in restaurants when
I was like fourteen, fifteen summer jobs and then beyond
(02:09):
went to a small liberal arts college to study something
totally different, but ended up spending more time in the
kitchen than I did in class, and I realized, wait
a minute, maybe this is the path that I should
be following and kind of learning this world of food
and hospitality and beyond.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
So I find that interesting because we have a lot
of parents who listened to the podcast, and we've had
some people on who have said, you know, when your
child has a passion for something, even if it's something
that you think, oh, this is not a career, this
is not going anywhere, kind of lean into letting them
explore that passion. One of the moms that we had
on her son became like a big gaming executive producer,
(02:46):
and people were like, what, he's always on games and
telling her not to let him do that, and then
that led into this and you have to me, what
you've done is kind of like crack the code of
something impossible is to be a capitalist in California with
your own businesses that are selling food because California is
(03:07):
so everything is a challenge for you there, but you've
done it.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
Yeah, it is. It's like you know, swimming upstream or
you know, training with weights on, training for running with
weights on. I mean, training with weights is natural. And
you know that. Thanks for bringing up that point about
kind of teaching your kids that, you know a little
bit of history. I went to like a real small
private school in New Jersey where everybody is really like,
(03:30):
it's very academic, and you're being trained to be either
a lawyer or a politician or a doctor. Right. And
when I left school and went to college and then
left college, my sister was like, what are you doing, Andrew?
And she kind of stayed in that group, and she's like,
everybody's joking about how you're you're a cook, right, Like
that was the joke that I was a cook. And
(03:51):
just recently I went back and gave a keynote to
the students there now and explained to them my arc
and my journey because it was exactly the opposite of
kind of what we were training to do. But my family,
my parents always supported me no matter what I wanted
to do. They know I was kind of quote trying
to find myself. The key to it is still understanding
like your general education, because I wouldn't have been able
(04:12):
to accelerate through my career as ultimately a chef and
in going back to business school if I didn't have
those like fundamental that one oh one kind of class,
you know, understanding how to write, how to communicate, how
to do basic math, how to reason, all of that stuff.
That's what I tell everybody nowadays, is like, just make sure,
especially because I've got four kids, make sure you understand
those those the fundamentals of education.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
That's a point that I don't think we hear that
often because we are used to the American dream, and
I would say that this is you are living your
American dream. And I think that's amazing because that's what
this country is all about. But so many of our
kids in neighborhoods where they're not getting a great education,
the schools are rated low, they're reading is And in
Michigan we probably you probably have the same thing. In California,
(04:57):
we have a really big problem with kids that aren't
able to read and their parents can't read either, because
they went through the same system that passes you along
and once you have a generational deficiency in literacy, it's
really hard to come out of. But you have gotten
involved a little bit in politics on the local level
to kind of give people these opportunities and say, hey,
(05:19):
we're going to push back on some of the stuff
that it's just genuinely messed up.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
Yeah, and from a local level, I've been talking about this,
harping about this. If anybody's going to get involved in politics,
it's like, you've got to start on a local level.
I say, it's an MBA into politics because what you're
going to get in regards to like pushback and even
like the community rage is going to be amplified on
a local level. So if you can handle that, you're
good thereafter. You know, it was funny, were not funny actually,
(05:48):
but the previous city council member here in Huntington Beach,
t u Ortiz, who was a professional MMA fighter. You know,
he was on a city council for three months and
he resigned. He's like, I'm not dealing with this. When
I told somebody that I was joining city council here
in Huntington Beach, they go, you're talking about a guy
who was paid to get punched in the face for decades.
Three months in city council. Are you sure you're ready
(06:08):
for this? And it certainly is interesting. However, you have
the opportunity to, especially in a place like California where
you're dealing with like the school board and the ways
in which kids get to school and how they you know,
kind of navigate and operate within their community, and so
many of these things are integral in the way in
which they grow up and whether they're going to kind
of go down a bad path a good path where
(06:30):
you can re establish like those roots in a local
community which have been ripped out over the past, especially
over the past five to ten years, which is really
the goal of kind of the communists is to unmore
us from society. So that's why it's been important for
me joining city council.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Yeah, I just actually and I saw that you were.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
You spoke with Alex Marlow recently and it just had
him on the podcast and we kind of had this
discussion about it's really challenging for the average person to
get involved in politics because it is such an attack.
But for you, I wonder have you felt comfortable doing
this because you have businesses and this is something I
ask kind of on a personal level too, But I
(07:10):
know a lot of people who listen are interested in politics,
but they might be a local business owner or you know,
maybe they are someone else influential in the community, and
they're concerned if I step out and I admit I'm
a Republican. And I don't know if people feel this
way on the Democrat side. I think it's different on
the Democrat side because Republicans are so demonized.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
Do you ever feel like that could hurt your business?
Speaker 3 (07:34):
Well, it did hurt my business initially, right, So I
was kind of quietly in the shadows for years. And
then when I was doing all the Food Network stuff
and other TV, and then and you know what's funny
is is like I grew up obsessed with politics and
learning about it, and like, right, I was like president
Young Republicans Club and Youth and Government model you in
it was volunteered for state senators all while I was
(07:55):
growing up. This has been a passion of mine. I've
really bit my tongue on this. In the restaurant industry,
I was always focused on policy more from kind of
a high level, nonpartisan perspective. But then when the pandemic,
kid was like enough of this, right, like it all
came out and it was like, cancel this guy. Oh
my god, Like people's words were falling apart. I can't
believe this guy's conservative. And because you know, we had
(08:17):
forty plus restaurants at the time, so like we had
a pretty deep ace of fans nationwide. We grew it
as a franchise and which I ultimately had to sell.
But I'll tell you what. The first thing, and I
remember going to my wife and I was like, man,
should I pull back a little bit? And she's like,
heck no. She's like, we're doubling down, like we're in this,
like there's no forgiveness. Right. She was the one who
(08:39):
actually kind of smacked me in the face and was
like nope. And that's why it's key to have a
strong family unit. But also when we did, our sales
went up so much. Interesting to those people is like,
if you start kind of wiggling and trying to play bolls,
you cannot play both sides. You don't have to be
a jerk about it, but you need to be resolute
(09:01):
and firm in your position and confident with in what
you believe, and people will respect you more. And because
of that, the people on the people you know, I'm
not saying this universally, but the people who are telling
you they're going to boycott you never went to your
business to begin with. I mean that's kind of a guarantee. Yeah,
you might have like an anecdote here or an anecdote there,
and then you point to that one person, but by
(09:22):
and large, those people don't go to your business, and
the loudest people do because the people who are genuinely
concerned are going to be disappointed and they're still going
to go to your business just quietly. So as long
as you're not a jerk about it, your sales will
go up. So what's hilarious is when I got now,
it was like like we embraced everyone, but then we
used it for the good, right, Like, that's the idea
(09:44):
is you want to use it for the good. You
don't need to. You can disagree, but you don't need
to be a jerk about it in a public business setting.
But then when I got on a city council, everyone's like,
we're boycotting this business. You already boycotted my business. You
can't boycott something more than once. You've been boycotting my
busin for five years and then when I got on
city Council and everyone went bold on these kind you
(10:05):
know next door Facebook groups about how they're boycotting us.
Our sales doubled again and they really need to go up.
We're up thirty five percent year on year, week on week, everybody.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
Do you think that kind of says secretly about people's
politics too in California, because we keep hearing that people
in California are not buying into some of the radical policies,
and maybe they're kind of secretly like keep going.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
That's exactly it, and it's the only way that they can.
You know. It's like they're you know, they're they're just
cloistered and they are ready to blow and they want
to get their feelings out. So they go visit a
conservative business. Yeah, maybe that's it. But so I tell
those people who are concerned about it, it's like, look,
just be resolutely, be firm, and trust me, you're going
(10:51):
to lose some customers. You can never please everyone in business.
It's just impossible. Uh, if you want to make it
your business that you're going to be completely moderate and
down the middle, understand, your moderacy is considered right wing
by the left. So silence is violence, like a If
(11:11):
you're going to be moderate and try and avoid the
political issues, you need to understand you're still going to
get boycotted by the left. That's how insane they are.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
Let's take a quick commercial break. We'll continue next on
the Tutor Dixon Podcast. If you are going to be
a business owner in today's environment, that you also have
to be engaged in the local politics. You have to
because if you are not. I mean, this is what
we saw with my dad's business. He had never been
interested in politics at all, and I look back now
(11:41):
and I think a lot of the struggles he had
was because he was just not engaged in the political process.
And that there's also kind of this longstanding people who
have been in politics for a long time. They're almost
offended if you're not asking them to be involved. So
it's a weird thing. But you've got to be aware
of every day for an aspect of how your business
is going to be, especially in a purple state or
(12:03):
a blue state. I think you have to be really
hyper aware of how politics can affect capitalism.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
That's such a great point. And that doesn't mean you
have to go to every single networking meeting and right
then you know, schedule go to every city council meeting.
But I mean just a five minute peruse on any
community Facebook page nowadays will pretty much give you a
cliffs notes version of what's going on and then just
understanding the way in which it kind of works through
the you know, kind of the calculus of city operations.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
Yeah, I agree. I mean, meet with your state House rep.
Meet with your state Senate senator. These are just take
five minutes and say hey, this is I just want
you to be informed is what I'm doing in my
business and what our goals are, and just want to
be sure that we're on the same page.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
Because these I think that they're.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
More likely to come to you and say, hey, I
want to tell you this is coming down the pike
and you might want to be aware of this rather
than getting completely blind by some I mean even here
in manufacturing in Michigan, we obviously we make cars here.
There's a lot of chromers here. They chrome metal, and
we had a person from the EP or the egle
(13:15):
as our environmental agency, come to some of our cromers
and be like, yeah, we're changing your process. It's like,
wait a minute, could you give us a little warning
on this. But if you're involved, they're more likely to
come to you early and say there's something coming down
the pike.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
It's going to change.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
That is such a good point being involved in politics
and knowing your local politicians. You're right, you know, state, Senate, House,
whatever it is, even committee, city council. They I used
to think that they were scary, and I'm like, I
don't want to bother them. Oh my gosh, is there
a chance I can meet them? They want to talk
to you. I mean even me, I'm on a very
(13:49):
very local level, Like I want to talk to everybody
because I need that real world feedback. I'm sick of
the charts. I'm sick of the graphs. I'm sick of
the surveys. It's the anecdotal evidence that actually matters right now.
So they want to hear from you. Get involved.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
So let's get to a restaurant that recently had the
public get quite involved in their business, and that is
Cracker Barrel who went out and said we're changing the logo.
And I think it's kind of funny because you can
look at this two different ways. You can look at
this as they should fire this ceo right away, or
perhaps they should say their business has to have gone
(14:23):
up in the last few weeks. Maybe this was like
a secret genius thing. I don't think the CEO meant
it to be, but I mean this could be like
the best marketing employee ever to get people on the
road traveling to stop at a cracker barrel.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
Now that they changed their logo.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Back, but you made a post saying they've also changed
their food over the past few decades. So tell us
what you think about what's happening in some of these
chain restaurants.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
Well, I'll start by saying it's funny everybody thinks business
is like tinkering with a brand and a logo and
like typography and these things that you can deal with
on fiver for fourteen ninety nine. You know, a brand
is so much deeper than that, and it's not about
the logo. So we're talking about the logo, and the
point I was making is it's so much deeper than
the logo. And I think it also goes to show
(15:07):
that whoever the firm was, and whether it was the
CEO working through somebody else, that they were focusing on
the logo as emblematic of these changes goes to show
their elementary thinking. Because the reason Cracker Barrel has gone
downhill so much over the years, and I've seen it
as a customer, is because in twenty eleven they were
bought out by private equity along with hundreds of other brands.
(15:29):
Right there was this massive gold rush in fast casual
and casual dining where private equity was trying to buy
up as much revenue as they could to either you know,
kind of fix it, sell it for the parts, flip
it work through another private equity firm, or just increase
the asset value of their own portfolio hoping one of
them would hit. And the way in which they do
that is that they bring these legacy brands on board
(15:49):
that are well liked, known, love deep deep, legacy brand,
and then they slowly start to pull back on the
in house cooking. They start to offsite most of it,
copack everything, and whether it's a franchise or company or
licensed own stores, the copacking also gives them an opportunity
to establish additional revenue which then they can create into
another company. So, for example, if I'm making all my
(16:11):
sauces in house and I've got four employees that are
devoted to making those sauces. Well, now I ship it
out and I have an off site company create those sauces.
But when you're off site, you have to add preservatives
and chemicals and all these other FDA and USDA required
elements and ingredients. Now I get rid of those four employees,
which decreases my labor costs, and I ship those products
in and then I start doing it with every single
(16:34):
thing on the menu and ultimately doing either frozen kind
of slopping PLoP or bagging the box type cooking. And
that's what's happened over the past fourteen years to Cracker Barrel.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
So we find this. I find this very interesting.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
I'm going to talk to my mom about this after
I do this podcast, because we have been talking for
ever since the pandemic. It seems like food has changed
so many of the rust that we went to regularly.
My mom's like, I've not had a good meal, and
she keeps saying, did my taste buds change after COVID,
And I'm like, I don't think so.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
I swear this food is different.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
And it's just you go there and you spend money
and you're like, I could have made something way better
at home.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
But that's not that's not how it used to be.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
That is exactly so when I'll tell you what. So
it started in like the twenty eleven to twenty fifteen,
like restaurant gold rush. It was amplified, exacerbated and blown
up during the pandemic. Right, So the infrastructure was there
with a lot of these co packers. And I know
this because we actually have franchise, right, So I had
restaurants across thirteen different states, and they could not produce
(17:41):
some of my products on site. So I was out
there shopping co packers that would do it organically without
the preservatives. By the way, couldn't find any, but I was.
I went deep into that copacker world and the the
you know, the goal was consistency, standardization, plus then you
can actually co pack it and determine and sell it
for retail. Everybody during the pandemic started doing this because
(18:03):
I remember reaching out during the pandemic back to a
couple of these people that are like, we're full, We're full.
I'm like, you're beyond capacity. We're two years beyond capacity.
Especially because these larger multi unit chains were doing it.
But as I mentioned earlier on the chemicals and what,
you know, whatever, I'm not using chemicals as a pejorative here,
because somebody on X is going to be like, well,
(18:23):
technically all of the just chemicals, the you know, kind
of lab creat.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
But you don't even have to explain because I don't
care about those people. I mean, now I'll get yelled at,
like there's people she doesn't care about. I don't care
if you're going to rip on what I have to say.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
I just always need to disclaimer this, you know, kind
of the lab created food items and simple things. A
lot of them are just preservatives. But preservatives are like
salt and acid. So ultimately it's going to change the
flavor profile. MSG is you know, kind of technically one
of those preservatives that's going to significantly change the flavor profile, right, Karagian.
These kind of emulsifiers, these artificial mulcifiers xantham, it's not
(19:01):
even the same. It's like, actually, it's beyond apples to oranges.
It's more like steak to grass in my opinion. So
that's what.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
So it changes the flavor.
Speaker 3 (19:12):
It significantly changes the flavor, the flavor, the mouthfeel, you know,
and also a lot of restaurants think, now you can
extend the shelf life on these products, so they keep
them a lot longer, which doesn't mean you're going to
get sick. But anything as it oxidizes decreases, it loses
its potency and freshness and flavor. So I'm not suggesting
they're serving you something bad. I'm suggesting they're serving you
(19:34):
something that's muted in flavor as well. Well.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
I think it's interesting that you bring up MSG, because
even as a kid, I can remember people talking about, Wow,
I can eat certain foods because they have MSG, and
then I get this migraine. So that was like connected.
That was the first time I heard something that you
ingest being connected to something that affects your health.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
And now I think with the.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
Maha movement, we're hearing a totally different version of this.
It's like, Wow, we're at actually consuming a lot of
chemicals and they are likely affecting our health.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
And we you know, the whole movement with RFK.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
And everybody saying wow, he's really talking about childhood diseases,
and we're seeing a lot of a lot different interpretation
of whether it's important to be aware of what we're ingesting,
and gosh, even this morning, I will say, you know,
I want to say, God bless the families out in
Minnesota and what they're dealing with with the school shooting
(20:28):
and the poor. I pray for the poor families that
lost their loved ones and the families that have the
students that were injured and they're recovering.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
It's just devastating.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
But this is the first time I have ever seen
the Secretary of Health and Human Services the next day
go on national TV and say, you know what, We're
going to start looking at some of the chemicals that
are going into people's bodies. And that is not just food,
but we're talking about some of these medications that we're
told or safe. But somehow, as we continue to ingest medications,
(21:00):
we continue to have a higher mental health issue. And
I think that we are at a point where we
have a government, Like you said, getting involved in local
government is so important, but we have people who have
been involved who have been kind of like shut down
in saying this stuff may not be good for us.
What's it like from your perspective, because I know for
(21:21):
years you've been saying, hey, let's get these chemicals out
of our food. What's it like from your perspective to
see this administration saying we're going to look at what
you're consuming.
Speaker 3 (21:30):
This conversation has really been that kind of was originally
the genesis of my culinary career. So I went to
college and I had horrible stomach problems. Going from high
school to college. I was a big I was an athlete.
I was a distance runner and swimmer, and you know,
my stomach was so bad that I actually had to
stop running when I got to college, right, and it
(21:50):
was just you know, fast forward. It was ultimately all
the It was the food, it was the process food.
I had certain types of allergies. But I'll tell you this.
So I get to college and I go to the
school doctor and I'm like, yeah, these stomach problems are
so bad because I was far away from from where
I lived. And they say, okay, well we're gonna send
you this. So I go to do an initial kind
of you know, basic triage. We can't find anything. And
(22:11):
I'd done this through high school as well, but I'm like,
it's getting worse. They send me the school psychologists. School
psychologists like, oh, you have anxiety disorder. Here's some valume
here's some xanax, right, and I'm like, I'm not like
I was the goodie two shoe athlete. I'm like, I'm
not taking any of that stuff. They're like, no, no,
it's the neurotransmitters in your intestines that are overreacting because
(22:32):
of your anxiety. So I'm like, okay, this is weird.
Then they send me again to the school psychologists. They're like,
we've got it. You need to go on antidepressants. I
was not. I was like a happy kid, right, This
was not This was strictly my stomach issues, So like,
we're going to put you on. First it was like Paxel,
and then it was Zoloft, these crazy antidepressants, right. And
I remember I took the antidepressants for like six months.
(22:54):
I'm like, this is doing nothing for my stomach, but
it's making me feel crazy, right, So I stopped it.
And then it was like ten or fifteen years later
through my culinary arc that I had this kind of
aha moment in learning food systems where I started cutting
out seed Oil's processed foods all this guess what six
months ninety five percent.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
Better Aha moments, Maha moments now exactly.
Speaker 3 (23:16):
Yeah, I was going there, but but just that that story, right,
which is like very personal to me, and I don't,
I don't. I actually just recently started talking about it
because I thought it was kind of weird to begin
with and embarrassing that their immediate reaction was these mind
altering drugs for a stomach problem and not oh my gosh,
look at what you're eating.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
This is like, I feel like I'm having an AHA
moment right now because I've had so many times I
look back, and you just reminded me. I remember when
I there was a time when I didn't necessarily enjoy running,
but I was a runner, and I would get like,
I guess it was pleurisy, and it would cause me
to have struggled to take a deep breath, and they said,
(24:00):
it's anxiety. You've got to take meds and I didn't.
And then and I remember being like, that's insane. I
am not anxious, I am not depressed. I refuse to
take this medication. But not because I was smart about it.
I just was, you know, kind of defiant, like I'm
not doing that. And then fast forward, I would just
talk to my doctor a few weeks ago and I'm like, hey,
(24:21):
I'm getting to that point in age where I know
I have a few hot flashes, like life is changing,
and they're like, oh, for hot flashes, we recommend an SSRI.
Why why would you put me on something that I
can never get off of that has so many side effects,
like you know what.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
I'll do with the hot flashes. But that's the first response.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
That's what's crazy because I again, like you said, I
haven't really talked about this to anybody because it is
kind of embarrassing.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
And you're like, oh, I was I was told I.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
Have to be on these meds, but now I think
that what the thing the situation is so many people
that's the first go to and the pharmaceutical companies are
pushing this, and once you have somebody on this, you
have a lifelong patient. This person has to come back
every month and make sure they're okay so you can
continue to charge them.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
And I'm not.
Speaker 2 (25:10):
Saying that these doctors are bad, but I think this
has become a culture.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
And the crazy thing is you say, instead of.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
Looking at what you were eating, you were going to
the doctor and hearing.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
That you should be on a medication, and it's it's.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
Less normal for you to push back on that and
and go out and look at what you're eating that
you're demonized for saying food could be bad.
Speaker 3 (25:34):
Yeah, you're woo woo, right like you're you're you're kind
of like, yeah, that was it. And and it's funny.
And as I tell that over the years, as I
would like tell that story to close friends and family
members and trying to get them to change the foods
that they were eating, you know, they were just it
was like trying to break into the loover. It was.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
It was like a nut if you talk about it, Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (25:56):
And and what's great about our K? People always ask me,
they're like, are you happy with what RFK is doing?
He hasn't done this or what have you? And I said,
he he won in my mind before he did anything,
because the mere awareness and national conversation about these issues,
Like that's the hardest part. The mechanics of getting it
done is policy and politics, but the conversation to establish
(26:20):
the awareness about it. You couldn't pay somebody. You would
have to pay a marketing firm a half a billion
dollars to do it, and they probably couldn't even do
it nationally.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
Oh and you're absolutely right. Let's take a quick commercial break.
We'll continue next on the Tutor Dixon Podcast. I saw
you the other day. I don't I can't remember what
you were who you.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
Were on with.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
Maybe it was like Alex Clark or someone, but you
were talking about olive oil, and it shocked me. And
I feel like sometimes it's like, oh, I'm going to
go to the chef and ask him about cet oil's
But I really was kind of stunned, and I've been
stunned since because I just bought olive oil at the
store the other day. And I bought it because it
was like the pretty bottle. I don't know what I'm
(27:04):
looking for. I'm gonna admit I have no I assume
I'm getting something healthy because it the colors are bright
and it says organic, you know, and I'm like, that
must be perfect. But then all of a sudden, you're like,
there's this mafia that's bringing in sea olive oil filled
with seed oil, and I'm like, God, that's probably what
I got.
Speaker 3 (27:21):
Well, just buy US olive oil and it's fine.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
Seriously, that's I mean, I really don't know.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
I've known US.
Speaker 3 (27:27):
Olive oil and I go for the organic as well, right, Like,
that's just and I know that that label has been
kind of greenwashed a little bit, but I think it
still has some some strength if it's a US product
and the yeah, just the buy a US organic olive oil.
What I also tell people is go with the extra virgin,
like a cold or a or a cold press is best.
But if you get like a pulmus oil or even
(27:49):
like the light olive oil, sometimes that is a lower quality,
but you can still use it for cooking. It's great
for roasting and panseyering, et cetera. But a lot of
my extra virgin olive oils that I'll pay a pretty
penny for, and I'm talking like for twenty plus dollars
a bottle. I'm never going to spend fifty dollars on
a bottle olive oil. I always finish with that, right Like,
I always finish with that olive oil, so I never
(28:11):
even cook it, and you get the health benefits and
the flavor benefits.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
So I will just say I think that you should
continue to put out as much cooking content as you
can because I think it's like it just totally sucks
me in is and I think there have to be
people on my same algorithm that are just going to
constantly get it, because I think it's fantastic that you
cook a London broil and you're like, you know what,
this is only going to take five to seven minutes
(28:36):
in the oven. I'm just going to finish it with
this little cherry cherry sauce and it's going to be
really easy. And all I can think is like, oh,
it says London, and it must be foreign.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
I can't do it.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
So I am so impressed with what you do every day,
and I just love watching it.
Speaker 3 (28:51):
I appreciate that maybe I should rename it a refugee boil,
but you know it, for me, it's been And I
know there's a ton of like culinary content out there,
although those of us kind of more on the like
libertarian right don't like we don't have that content. Every
single platform is just like the same topic, just redone
over and over again. And my wife and I were like,
(29:12):
we're just leaning into this cooking thing because cook. My
wife's also trained chef, my kids get in the kitchen
with us. We obviously own and operate restaurants, which heck,
that could be a reality show in and of itself
craziness with four kids in.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
A restaurant idea.
Speaker 3 (29:25):
But we we you know, I try and express to people,
cooking is actually very easy once you learn some basics, right,
like just those fundamentals as I talked about, kind of
the academic fundamentals, the culinary fundamentals which are at which
is much smaller subset of information. And once you do it,
it's like playing basketball and the hoop is the size
of the court. It's really that easy. But we need
to get in the kitchen more. That's the problem. From
(29:47):
the early like the nineteen eighties to the nineteen nineties.
I think it really started in like the nineties and
beyond because I was a latch key kid. Both my
parents worked. Like my mother was, like you know, owned
her own business and she's still does. She's in her
mid seventies and she still works from like seven in
the morning until midnight. And it's unbelievable. She's such a
powerful woman, but she But like I grew up where
(30:09):
it was like the microwave generation, Sarah Lee on Christmas
morning and like microwave cinnamon rolls. And we need to
get back to being in the kitchen as a family
and understanding where our food comes from, and that goes
back to what RFK is doing is just establishing awareness.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
Then and when you watch your videos, you're like, oh,
this is such a cute family. And then your wife
walks in and you're like, his wife is smoking hot,
Like your wife is so cute. You guys are just
the perfect family. I'm you know what, you are a
nice looking man, but your wife is really beautiful. You
are very lucky, so and you guys seem just so happy.
So thank you so much. Tell people where they can
(30:43):
find your content, because I really do think that they
should be checking out what you're doing. It's just because
it's not only that it's great food and that you're
telling people how to make it.
Speaker 1 (30:52):
It is just really inspiring. It's really nice content.
Speaker 3 (30:56):
Yeah, So I'm on x at chef Rule. You can
go to dubdubdub dot americangravy dot com. Those have all
of our cooking videos and they kind of link out
and tentacle to all the other social sites. And then
I'm on Instagram at Andrew Gruel. Our restaurant is Calico
Restaurant in Huntington Beach, So Calico Dash Restaurant dot com.
So if anybody watching is in Huntington Beach, near Huntington
(31:16):
Beach or coming through Huntington Beach, if you come in
and mention that you watch this podcast, I'll take care
of your meal.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
Awesome.
Speaker 2 (31:22):
So I have to come in at some point, so
next time I am out your way, I'm going to
stop by.
Speaker 1 (31:27):
Chef Andrew Gruel. Thank you so much for coming on
the podcast.
Speaker 3 (31:30):
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (31:31):
It's an honor absolutely, and thank you all for listening
to the Tutor Dixon Podcast. For this episode and others,
go to Tutor Dixon podcast dot com, the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts, and you
can watch it at Rumble or YouTube at Tutor Dixon.
Speaker 1 (31:45):
So join us next time and have a bleased day
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