Speaker 1: Hello Sunshine, Hey fam Today on the bright Side you
Speaker 1: know and love him from Queer Eye, Anthony Borowski is here.
Speaker 1: We're getting a little taste of his brand new nat
Speaker 1: Geo show. Plus he's opening up about the people in
Speaker 1: places that shaped his childhood, how he became an Emmy
Speaker 1: winning TV host, and he's even revealing what's hanging in
Speaker 1: his Museum of failure. It's Monday, February twenty fourth. I'm
Speaker 1: Simone Boyce.
Speaker 2: I'm Danielle Robe and this is the bright Side from
Speaker 2: Hello Sunshine. On My Mind Monday is brought to you
Speaker 2: by Laurel Paris.
Speaker 3: So what's on your mind today, Danielle.
Speaker 2: Well, on my mind, Simone was I was just reading
Speaker 2: this story in the New York Times. It's called three
Speaker 2: Lessons for Living Well from the Dying, And before you
Speaker 2: get upset, I just want to sort of reframe this
Speaker 2: because I think there's a lot that we can learn
Speaker 2: from death about how we can lead a more meaningful.
Speaker 1: Lifepletely agree, I'm I would never get upset about this
Speaker 1: topic because I am that existential friend that brings up
Speaker 1: death at the dinner table.
Speaker 2: So lfg okay, well in that vein, would you do
Speaker 2: anything differently. Now, if you knew you were at the
Speaker 2: end of your life, would you make any different choices?
Speaker 3: Probably? Yeah, I think I would.
Speaker 1: I mean, i'd probably like quit my job and go
Speaker 1: work for an NGO in a different country.
Speaker 3: Really yeah. Probably.
Speaker 2: Well, that's the one question that this article digs into,
Speaker 2: and the piece mentions that the one regret hurt over
Speaker 2: and over and over again is letting relationships with her
Speaker 2: People at the end of their lives wish they had
Speaker 2: made more plans with their friends, reached out to that
Speaker 2: old friend. Basically, they regret not prioritizing those relationships. And
Speaker 2: it made me think about my grandfather because at the
Speaker 2: very end of his life kept talking about his childhood
Speaker 2: friend Maury, who lived down the street, and we kept
Speaker 2: trying to get in contact with him, and they had
Speaker 2: lost touch over the years, but it was so interesting
Speaker 2: to me that that was the one thing he kept
Speaker 2: bringing up.
Speaker 3: That's really interesting to me.
Speaker 1: I don't know that I was expecting that to be
Speaker 1: the regret that people would think of the most I know.
Speaker 1: Did the article mention anything about things we can start
Speaker 1: doing today to ensure that we don't have these same
Speaker 1: relational regrets.
Speaker 2: Yes, The writers spoke with palliative and hospice care experts
Speaker 2: about what they've learned from their patients, and they offered
Speaker 2: this advice, and they're all sort of the platitudes.
Speaker 3: That we would think of.
Speaker 2: It's find joy in the ordinary, don't fret over the
Speaker 2: small stuff, and consider what you've left unresolved. So maybe
Speaker 2: there's a relationship you've always wanted to repair, something you've
Speaker 2: wanted to do or see, And if you have a
Speaker 2: wish that's within your reach, they say, go for it.
Speaker 2: Tomorrow is just not promised to any of us.
Speaker 3: Do you have any relationships that you feel you've left unresolved?
Speaker 2: Ooh, I do, Thanks for asking me that. My relationship
Speaker 2: with my grandmother is really complicated. And she's still alive.
Speaker 2: She's eighty eight years old. She's actually coming to La
Speaker 2: to visit. And I see so much of myself in her.
Speaker 2: She's one of the people who taught me how to
Speaker 2: love the arts and love different cultures and language and travel.
Speaker 2: She's so interesting and she has such a jouad a
Speaker 2: vive and at the same time, she's done some things
Speaker 2: that have really hurt my mom, and so I hold
Speaker 2: on to those and it's hard for me to have
Speaker 2: a relationship with her. I don't feel like there's been
Speaker 2: I don't feel like we've had the I'm sorry. And
Speaker 2: my mom keeps telling me that you can't wait for
Speaker 2: an i'm sorry from an eighty eight year old person.
Speaker 2: You have to like give that to yourself and and
Speaker 2: move on. But I don't know. I do feel complicated
Speaker 2: about that one. Do you have anybody in your life
Speaker 2: that feels complicated unresolved.
Speaker 1: I think there's some unresolved stuff with my own mom,
Speaker 1: But I've found that I think when I became an
Speaker 1: adult and a mother, I think she found it hard
Speaker 1: to let go of the parent daughter relationship, and I
Speaker 1: think it was hard for her to accept that she
Speaker 1: can't control what I do anymore. But I've found that
Speaker 1: just being extremely transparent with her and just saying like
Speaker 1: this is not going to fly. You know, you're not
Speaker 1: allowed to control me in this way anymore, or attempt
Speaker 1: to that actually like led to a breakthrough for us.
Speaker 1: So I think there's some more work to be done there.
Speaker 1: But you know, something that we've talked about in the
Speaker 1: past with just family members in general, not even speaking
Speaker 1: about my mom, but it can be hard if like
Speaker 1: you're willing to go to therapy but the other people aren't.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they have that age old saying that there's a
Speaker 2: person in the family that goes to therapy to deal
Speaker 2: with all the.
Speaker 3: People who won't. That's funny and very accurate.
Speaker 2: Okay, Well, the other thing they mentioned was don't fret
Speaker 2: over the small stuff. Do you find yourself stewing over
Speaker 2: like getting cut off in traffic or little things?
Speaker 3: No, not so much.
Speaker 1: I think for me, it's like I do get stressed
Speaker 1: out with parenting stuff, and I think I'm getting better
Speaker 1: about like letting go of that stress. I think also
Speaker 1: it's just like my kids are getting a little bit
Speaker 1: easier to manage with time. But you know, I just
Speaker 1: I just saw this video with Kristen Bell the other
Speaker 1: day and she was talking about this time Share gave
Speaker 1: her this really great advice, and I can't stop thinking
Speaker 1: about it. It's like, if it doesn't matter in five years,
Speaker 1: it doesn't matter. So I'm trying to apply that to
Speaker 1: my life a lot more.
Speaker 2: I love in that video that Melissa McCarthy goes, oh,
Speaker 2: I wish Share gave me advice.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's such a classic Melissa McCarthy Zinger so good. Well,
Speaker 1: when I think about the value of meaningful relationships, I
Speaker 1: think we have a lot to learn from our guests today,
Speaker 1: Anthony Parowski, whether he's transforming the lives of everyday heroes
Speaker 1: as the resident food and wine expert on Queer Eye,
Speaker 1: or traveling the world with celebrity guests taking them on
Speaker 1: a culinary journey across the globe on his new National
Speaker 1: geographic show, No Taste Like Home. I think Antony just
Speaker 1: has this knack for genuine connection and making people feel
Speaker 1: at ease, and that's one of the reasons why I
Speaker 1: just love watching him and following his career. So I
Speaker 1: watched his new show, No Taste Like Home with Michael
Speaker 1: and we were both like.
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, this is so good.
Speaker 1: It's like it's like a combination of like travel shows
Speaker 1: like Parts Unknown, you know, Anthony Bourdain's Parts Unknown, but
Speaker 1: then it brings in this like genealogy and family history
Speaker 1: re element and he's He's got some really great guests
Speaker 1: on the show, like our girl Isa Ray.
Speaker 3: They went to Senegal together. This is so cool.
Speaker 2: First of all, he is the most lovable, likable person,
Speaker 2: like completely, He's so in His energy is so infectious.
Speaker 2: So to see him travel around looking fabulous because he
Speaker 2: always has great outfits with his great taste with other
Speaker 2: awesome celebrities and like see the world and taste food
Speaker 2: through his eyes and his mouth and his ears.
Speaker 3: I can't wait for this the show. It's like lightning
Speaker 3: in a bottle.
Speaker 1: It's like if you're looking for something that's just gonna
Speaker 1: put you in a good mood at the end of
Speaker 1: the day.
Speaker 3: This show is exactly what the doctor ordered.
Speaker 2: Oh I'm so mad I missed this interview, but I
Speaker 2: can't wait to listen to it.
Speaker 1: All right, ch'elle After the break our conversation with Anthony Parowski.
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Speaker 2: Paris delivers expert back beauty that empowered or is confidence.
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Speaker 3: Welcome to the bright Side, Anthony.
Speaker 4: Thank you for having me. Simone.
Speaker 1: I'm so happy to have you here. Okay, we have
Speaker 1: to talk about no taste like home. You were born
Speaker 1: for this show.
Speaker 3: You are so.
Speaker 1: Magnetic on camera. You went to Senegal with Isray, You
Speaker 1: went to the UK with Florence Pugh, Germany with James Marsden.
Speaker 1: I mean, talk about a dream job. International travel changes
Speaker 1: me every time, and I'm curious how this show changed you.
Speaker 5: I mean it changes like understatement of the Century. I
Speaker 5: think I just traveling in general and diversity, exposure to
Speaker 5: question my belief system, my values, to see what values
Speaker 5: present themselves in other cultures. I think there's just something
Speaker 5: so healing and taking yourself out of your comfort zone
Speaker 5: and being a little uncomfortable and just being like exposed
Speaker 5: to different things. Like it's not yes, the food is
Speaker 5: obviously fascinating, and it's you know, at the core of
Speaker 5: how I, you know, relate to other people and show
Speaker 5: my love and it's it's incredibly important. But I think
Speaker 5: just travel in general, is it does it changes you
Speaker 5: as a person and to feel like a citizen of
Speaker 5: the earth and to understand how the world works is
Speaker 5: so attractive in people that I meet, and it's something
Speaker 5: that I think I kind of like strive for and
Speaker 5: I'm just drawn towards And.
Speaker 1: I can imagine traveling the world with these array changes
Speaker 1: you as well.
Speaker 4: One hundred percent.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, there are no words to describe just
Speaker 1: how incredible she is. I loved your episode with her
Speaker 1: in Senegal and the way you just like slid right
Speaker 1: in there with the Senegalese aunties.
Speaker 5: The thing is like, throw me in any type of
Speaker 5: kitchen or room in general with any type of auntie,
Speaker 5: grandma or a mom, and I'm like a.
Speaker 4: Moth to a flame.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 5: I have to win their affection and their respect, even
Speaker 5: if I have to be extra self deprecating and play
Speaker 5: like the clown or the good student or the doting sun,
Speaker 5: whatever it is, I'm up for it. I just like,
Speaker 5: I don't know just powerful women are just so incredibly
Speaker 5: attractive to me?
Speaker 1: Are what are the conversations, the moments, the places that
Speaker 1: are just hard to shake from this experience, There's.
Speaker 5: So many, but because you mentioned Isa, like, oh, there's
Speaker 5: just there's so much in that episode alone that we covered.
Speaker 5: But it was my first time in Senegal and to
Speaker 5: land in San Luis, this beautiful coastal town and old
Speaker 5: fishing village, to learn that their number one value is
Speaker 5: sharing this concept of tadanga where you take what is
Speaker 5: yours and you stay in your lane, and to learn
Speaker 5: that the fishermen there. I believe it was fifty percent
Speaker 5: of what they fish they can use, they can use
Speaker 5: to sell to me, money for the family, twenty five
Speaker 5: percent they consume for themselves, and twenty five percent is
Speaker 5: meant to give to somebody who has less than you
Speaker 5: and where that's like a standard cultural practice that's like
Speaker 5: not written into law, but it's just custom and it's
Speaker 5: respected across the board, I think, especially just with the
Speaker 5: US and what the hell is going on in the
Speaker 5: dumpster fire that we're in right now. Even though I'm
Speaker 5: an optimist at heart, it's just eye opening and it
Speaker 5: just puts everything in perspective and it's like life goes on.
Speaker 5: There's a whole entire world going on there and people
Speaker 5: just doing their best to make ends meet and to
Speaker 5: continue living their lives. It's just like it's for me.
Speaker 5: It's like it's a drug. It's inspiring, it's everything. I
Speaker 5: really mean that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Wow, that concept is so beautiful of just sharing
Speaker 1: being embedded into the very fabric of like the business.
Speaker 1: It's almost so it feels abstract to me because it's
Speaker 1: so radically different from how we live our lives.
Speaker 4: Correct.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I can hear the optimism in your voice as
Speaker 1: you speak. And I also whenever I watch you, I
Speaker 1: just am. I marvel at your ability to connect with
Speaker 1: people and this like deep well of empathy.
Speaker 3: That I feel like you have.
Speaker 1: And I'm curious, where did that knack for connection come from?
Speaker 3: When? When did that start?
Speaker 5: Well, to quote my therapist, if it's hysterical, it's probably historical.
Speaker 3: Sounds like a good therapist.
Speaker 5: She's Carol's the best. I don't think she likes it
Speaker 5: when I use her full name, but awareness, I think
Speaker 5: that I mean the connection for me when I look
Speaker 5: back on like childhood memories and like the positive ones,
Speaker 5: because I came from I would say, arguably like a
Speaker 5: pretty dysfunctional household. The best moments that we had were
Speaker 5: always at the dinner table or when my mother was
Speaker 5: cooking and we were all kind of in her periphery.
Speaker 5: Like that's where that human connection happens. So my tide
Speaker 5: to food definitely comes from there.
Speaker 4: But I don't know.
Speaker 5: It's like I traveled with my dad this summer and
Speaker 5: we went on a hiking trip, and like I thought
Speaker 5: I was obsessed with people, but like with him, it's
Speaker 5: just it's so pathological, Like he'll talk to any Uber
Speaker 5: driver and tell him his entire life story within three minutes.
Speaker 4: I just love people. I don't.
Speaker 5: I've been on a journey of figuring out how to
Speaker 5: like just be comfortable and like really enjoy being on
Speaker 5: my own. But it's I love getting to know people,
Speaker 5: whether it's you know, personally, professionally, friends, relationships, all of it.
Speaker 5: I just like I adore hearing other people's stories. I
Speaker 5: feel like we're just meant to connect to other humans. Yeah,
Speaker 5: during this short amount of time that we have here,
Speaker 5: it's like it's what inspires me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I could not relate to that more. I'm the
Speaker 1: exact same way I grew up. I grew up in
Speaker 1: only childs for most of my life, and I found
Speaker 1: that and I also moved around a lot, so I
Speaker 1: found that connecting with people, whether that was through humor
Speaker 1: or vulnerability or trying on different identities, you know, it
Speaker 1: just became like a part of me and a part
Speaker 1: of me that, as you said, can you know, be
Speaker 1: the cause of a downfall. Let's say, like if you
Speaker 1: lean into that too. But it also is like so
Speaker 1: life giving to.
Speaker 5: Men, the trying, like you said, trying different identities, there's
Speaker 5: like a Taylor Swift line about like you're trying different
Speaker 5: lives on. Yeah, I've never really thought of that, and
Speaker 5: I think that's something that definitely moving around a lot,
Speaker 5: I can relate to that. I went back and forth
Speaker 5: between Canada and West Virginia when my parents split up
Speaker 5: twice and got back together, and so it was kind
Speaker 5: of like I never really felt like, I don't know
Speaker 5: the experience, but I feel like it's kind of relatable
Speaker 5: to like an army brat syndrome of like moving around
Speaker 5: in that sense and trying to to assimilate, especially when
Speaker 5: you're an immigrant coming from another country. It's like you
Speaker 5: shed the clothes, you pick on whatever is there just
Speaker 5: so that you can fit in. You figure out how
Speaker 5: to become a chameleon. And I used to like be
Speaker 5: hard on myself for that part, but at the same time,
Speaker 5: it's like that was the best that I was doing
Speaker 5: at the time, just to figure out how to just
Speaker 5: how to like assimilate, and in the end, you end
Speaker 5: up I think, finding out who you really are, because
Speaker 5: there are parts of it, like in any relationship that
Speaker 5: you take on that you take with you, and there's
Speaker 5: other stuff that you shed that you're like, Okay, this
Speaker 5: is like this isn't serving me anymore.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well you mentioned that you are the son of immigrants,
Speaker 1: and as I was watching this show, I was I
Speaker 1: was like, man, I would love to see you do
Speaker 1: an episode about your own family history, like you be
Speaker 1: the subject of one of these episodes and No Taste
Speaker 1: like home, what do you think you would discover or
Speaker 1: is there anything that you want to discover about your
Speaker 1: own family history?
Speaker 5: I thought that I knew so much about myself and
Speaker 5: my family going into this, and I realize with you know,
Speaker 5: obviously what you're dealing with, Uh, with No Taste, It's
Speaker 5: like we have a research team. They spend three to
Speaker 5: six months on every single episode. You can tell like
Speaker 5: they do a deep die.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's impressive.
Speaker 5: And it kind of made me realize like why, Like
Speaker 5: there's so much that I don't know, Like why the
Speaker 5: hell's cabbage so prominent in Polish cuisine? Where the hell
Speaker 5: did perogis come from? We definitely didn't invent dumplings, like
Speaker 5: we use crapes and so many things like that's clearly
Speaker 5: French influence, so like where did that come about? And
Speaker 5: then in terms of family history, I mean, I know
Speaker 5: that both my grandfather as Catholics, were in concentration camps.
Speaker 5: I know my father's mother fought in the Warsaw Uprising
Speaker 5: in the Warsaw Ghetto during World War Two. There's like
Speaker 5: his great uncle was a secretary to the Polish Prime Minister.
Speaker 5: That's like kind of like our everyone's got like the
Speaker 5: whole like royal family tire, like the famous Marie Antoinette story.
Speaker 4: That's ours.
Speaker 5: But there's not much else that I really know, and
Speaker 5: so I think that there's definitely a lot to uncover
Speaker 5: there because it's even making me think of Like with Isa,
Speaker 5: I was a little nervous in that episode because she
Speaker 5: mentioned like she goes to Senegal every year, and so
Speaker 5: I was like, shit, like we're gonna have to like
Speaker 5: really find out some stuff that she doesn't know. But
Speaker 5: to her point, she was like, when I come here,
Speaker 5: I go to my aunties, I go to relatives. Like
Speaker 5: you're sitting in people's homes and they're just stuffing you
Speaker 5: with food and love and adoration and catching up a nostalgia.
Speaker 5: You're not actually out there in the streets sort of
Speaker 5: like exploring the culture, getting to like understand how everything
Speaker 5: works there and the same is the case for me
Speaker 5: when I go to Poland. It's like we go from
Speaker 5: one relative to another's and it's just like pickled hairing
Speaker 5: after pickled haring, until you're just like a pickle.
Speaker 1: You know. Yeah, well we everyone has a story, right,
Speaker 1: and like everyone's family has a story. But to your point,
Speaker 1: we kind of we kind of take it for granted.
Speaker 1: We don't often take the time to really do the
Speaker 1: deep dive and understand whose shoulders were standing on.
Speaker 5: And it's which are like ESA's words of you know,
Speaker 5: at the end of the episode with the Griot, with
Speaker 5: this person who travels from town to town and like
Speaker 5: recites your whole family history through oral tradition, like what
Speaker 5: a what a beautiful thing. And I think a lot
Speaker 5: of people, I mean, there are a lot of reasons
Speaker 5: why people don't, but I was thinking even the James
Speaker 5: Marsden episode where we were in San Antonio, I wouldn't
Speaker 5: say that he was embarrassed about it, but he was
Speaker 5: very humble about like mine's chicken fried steak, Like I
Speaker 5: had a single mom, she had to feed the kids,
Speaker 5: and like that was like cheap and cheerful and like
Speaker 5: filled our bellies after like practice sports games.
Speaker 4: And that kind of stuff.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and as we start doing a deep dive, we
Speaker 5: kind of learn that the history of just meet in
Speaker 5: that part of Texas where his family emigrated to from Bavaria,
Speaker 5: from Germany. The German immigrants were anti slavery and the
Speaker 5: freed slaves. They kind of sort of like joined forces
Speaker 5: because the Germans were excellent butchers, they couldn't cook for shit,
Speaker 5: and the freed slaves were excellent pit masters, and both
Speaker 5: of those forces joined into what is known today as barbecue,
Speaker 5: which is the most iconically American thing. Nothing is really American,
Speaker 5: it's all everything is on the shoulders of immigrants, right, Yeah,
Speaker 5: And then taking a journey to Bavaria and noticing like duh,
Speaker 5: of course chicken fried steak is a very close relative
Speaker 5: of schnitzel, which is beloved here. So with anything, like,
Speaker 5: I think the messaging there is sort of like, I
Speaker 5: don't care how simple or how humble, or however your
Speaker 5: emotional tie is to what a dish is. When you
Speaker 5: start to do a deep dive, you'll realize that it's
Speaker 5: so much more complex, and there's such a wealth of
Speaker 5: knowledge of what was going on culturally, socially, politically when
Speaker 5: you start to do that deep dive. So I just
Speaker 5: encourage people to like and even myself and my friends
Speaker 5: to just like get curious. Start asking the older people
Speaker 5: you know at your family reunions who are like off
Speaker 5: sitting in a corner while you're like socializing with your cousins.
Speaker 5: It's like, get those stories. Tell those stories. We have
Speaker 5: to continue to tell them, especially if you're the child
Speaker 5: of immigrants or even two generations away, because if we don't,
Speaker 5: sorry to get like all into like current affairs, but
Speaker 5: it's like, if we don't tell those stories, we start
Speaker 5: to repeat the same patterns that we start to see
Speaker 5: in corporation leaders up on stages making like certain hand
Speaker 5: gestures and shit, and seeing that like we have to
Speaker 5: to to make sure that we don't make those same mistakes.
Speaker 5: It's like we have to continue preserving those stories in
Speaker 5: those traditions.
Speaker 1: Yeah, curiosity is everything, everything everything. Yeah, It's been a
Speaker 1: driving force of my career. When I think about the
Speaker 1: dishes that define my childhood, you know, I think about
Speaker 1: my mom's wild mushroom soup. I think about my mom's
Speaker 1: apple cobbler, a recipe that's been passing.
Speaker 4: Wild mushroom soup talking me through it.
Speaker 3: Oh, it's so good.
Speaker 1: I wish my mom was here so she could do
Speaker 1: this justice. But it's like several different types of mushrooms,
Speaker 1: some dried, some not dried, and you blend it up
Speaker 1: and you add cream, and the soup looks terrible antony,
Speaker 1: it looks like concrete, but it is so rich and delicious,
Speaker 1: and the final touch is a bit of sherry.
Speaker 5: Wait did you go foraging when you were a kid? Like,
Speaker 5: what was the deal? Why the love of wild mushrooms?
Speaker 3: You know what? I did not go foraging.
Speaker 1: I think I think this story is like not as
Speaker 1: romantic as I think it is. I'm sure my mom
Speaker 1: just discovered it like through like Emerald, probably because he
Speaker 1: had us in a choke hold.
Speaker 4: I mean, yeah, agreed, same, But.
Speaker 1: Now now it becomes MyH of course, you know, yeah,
Speaker 1: of course that's like that childhood memory, you know, that
Speaker 1: thing that you have that you can look back on,
Speaker 1: and the thing that your mom made for you with
Speaker 1: love and also like wild mushrooms.
Speaker 4: Suit, the sherry is perfect.
Speaker 3: I'd love to send it to you.
Speaker 1: Also, the recipe We've got to take a quick break,
Speaker 1: but don't go anywhere. We'll be right back to our
Speaker 1: conversation with Antony Parovski. And we're back with TV host
Speaker 1: and culinary expert Anthony Perovski. Okay, we're going to take
Speaker 1: a jump here. I've read the story of how you
Speaker 1: were cast on Queer Eye, but it's so wild I
Speaker 1: almost don't believe it.
Speaker 3: I want to hear it from you.
Speaker 1: What did you don't believe everything you read? I know
Speaker 1: that's the thing. I have to fact check it with you.
Speaker 1: Would you tell me the story of how it all happened.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 5: I didn't talk about this for a few years because
Speaker 5: I felt like it was kind of too fresh, and
Speaker 5: I had this like weird fear when I got the
Speaker 5: job that I was going to lose it somehow.
Speaker 3: Really like an imposter something.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's kind of like that.
Speaker 5: I try not to use it because Martha Stewart recently
Speaker 5: was asked about imposter syndrome and she was like, I
Speaker 5: don't believe in imposter syndrome.
Speaker 4: Like that is the most boss answer ever. I'm like,
Speaker 4: forget about it.
Speaker 5: Meanwhile, the entire introduction to my first cookbook is about
Speaker 5: imposter syndrome. But whatever, but we grow, we changed, We
Speaker 5: evolved or we stayed the same. Who knows nature nurture,
Speaker 5: But basically with Queer Eye, it was the type of
Speaker 5: thing where I always wanted to be an actor. I like,
Speaker 5: that was like kind of what I had my sight
Speaker 5: set on. I moved to New York, I went to conservatory,
Speaker 5: graduated after two years, and then all these years went by,
Speaker 5: I worked as a waiter in different restaurants, and then
Speaker 5: I started working as a personal assistant to Ted Allen,
Speaker 5: Who'szog food and wine expert on Queer Eye.
Speaker 4: Not knowing that I was literally.
Speaker 5: Preparing myself for the role that I would eventually get
Speaker 5: because there was no word of the the show was
Speaker 5: still like a few years away from being rebooted, and
Speaker 5: so I had friends of mine who kind of suggested, like,
Speaker 5: you should like really consider the food space. And that
Speaker 5: was something that was like very sacred and personal that
Speaker 5: I never wanted to pursue in a professional way. And
Speaker 5: then finally someone reached out and they were like Queer
Speaker 5: Eyes being rebooted for Netflix. They wanted to be a
Speaker 5: lot more documentary style, like would you consider doing this?
Speaker 5: And I was like, shit, I'm like food in a
Speaker 5: professional way, I'm not a chef. I'm a home cook,
Speaker 5: confident at what I do, but like I have friends
Speaker 5: who are chefs, and it's like, you know. And the
Speaker 5: other part was like my sexuality was something that was personal.
Speaker 5: I was in a committed relationship at the time, but
Speaker 5: I kind of it was in a lot of rooms,
Speaker 5: I was just assumed to be straight and I didn't
Speaker 5: necessarily correct people either way. And then I decided to
Speaker 5: audition for it anyway because I wasn't getting any younger
Speaker 5: and I was tired of having literally three jobs going
Speaker 5: on at the same time, struggling actor, a personal assistant
Speaker 5: and waiter and a manager at a sushi restaurant. And
Speaker 5: I like went in. It was a big pool of
Speaker 5: us in LA the pool got smaller and smaller, and
Speaker 5: then they put me in a room with these four muppets.
Speaker 5: This was the first time that I had that chemistry testing.
Speaker 5: Chemistry testing is where they basically see how you gel
Speaker 5: on camera, and we were like completing each other's sentences.
Speaker 5: We were like really simpatico, like it was there was
Speaker 5: like a good connection there.
Speaker 3: Now, could you kind of feel it in the room?
Speaker 5: One hundred percent felt it, not only from the energy
Speaker 5: of David Collins, the show creator, running around behind us
Speaker 5: like excited, and I was like, oh, I'm like, this
Speaker 5: is what I've never been able to accomplish in any
Speaker 5: single audition. The year's coming too. I'm like, this is
Speaker 5: what it's like when it feels good. And so the
Speaker 5: next day they slashed like two thirds of us, gave
Speaker 5: us calls. We came back, they gave us notes. I'm like,
Speaker 5: what to work on, what to do more of, less of,
Speaker 5: and they narrowed it down to ten of us, and
Speaker 5: it was like they told us that we're going to
Speaker 5: do like a mock episode. They outfitted an suv with
Speaker 5: a bunch of go pros. They put me in the
Speaker 5: car with four other guys that I'd never even chemistry
Speaker 5: tested with, and they were really nice guys. And the
Speaker 5: four that I was in the car with, they were like, guys,
Speaker 5: pretty sure it's us. And I was like, in my mind,
Speaker 5: i was like, I'm like, they say they want a
Speaker 5: diverse cast. I'm like, we're all white, Like what's happening here.
Speaker 5: I'm the most ethnic one and I'm like a super
Speaker 5: white dude. I just have a Polish name. That's as
Speaker 5: close as we're getting to the diversity part here and
Speaker 5: we like went and did the thing and recorded, and
Speaker 5: then I went back to New York and then I
Speaker 5: got a call from an incredible casting agent at ITV
Speaker 5: who I adore, and she was like, look, you didn't
Speaker 5: get it.
Speaker 4: You didn't not get it.
Speaker 3: Which is the worst thing that you could as.
Speaker 5: She was communicative, because you have many hundreds of auditions
Speaker 5: I've gone for where they never even gave me feedback.
Speaker 5: Tell me I was shit, tell me that I wasn't good,
Speaker 5: tell me that my nose wasn't right, just telling me
Speaker 5: so that I can work on or maybe I don't
Speaker 5: have to work on it. And it's just I'm not
Speaker 5: what you were looking for, right, And so I was like, okay, great,
Speaker 5: and she's like, so we're going to wait a little bit.
Speaker 5: So we waited a few weeks and then she contacted
Speaker 5: me again and Ali, I just said her name Ali, whatever,
Speaker 5: it's fine, Well, I love her.
Speaker 4: Why am I being anonymous? Hey? Ali, Hey, Alie, we
Speaker 4: love you.
Speaker 5: And she was like, so we want you to come
Speaker 5: back to LA and you're going to audition against for
Speaker 5: new food Experts. And I was in my mind internally,
Speaker 5: I was like, no, they don't want me. I'm going
Speaker 5: to stay here. And my partner at the time thankfully
Speaker 5: looked at me and he was like, you, dude, like
Speaker 5: you need a perspective shift. He's like, you're going into
Speaker 5: this defeatus, Like they're all up against you, external locus
Speaker 5: of control. It's like all their fault. He was like,
Speaker 5: maybe they just haven't had an opportunity to see you
Speaker 5: and they saw something. If they're going to be flying
Speaker 5: your ass back to La, so just like go fight
Speaker 5: for it. And then my pathological competitiveness kicked in.
Speaker 4: I went in.
Speaker 5: We'd already had a group chat with the five of
Speaker 5: us because we had like a really strong connection. And
Speaker 5: I went in there and I did the thing, and
Speaker 5: I made some I remember what we did, like a
Speaker 5: mock episode, and I made pasta carbonera. Knowing that Tan
Speaker 5: doesn't eat pork because he's Muslim, like an asshole, I
Speaker 5: put panchetta in so it's just like bacon fat, you know,
Speaker 5: like smelling up the kitchen. And he was such a
Speaker 5: sweetheart about it and didn't eat it, but he was
Speaker 5: really gracious. And then I ended up getting the part
Speaker 5: like two weeks later.
Speaker 3: Isn't it fun?
Speaker 1: How life works, like you put so much energy and
Speaker 1: time into this dream of becoming an actor. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: then when you least expect it, quere I comes along.
Speaker 5: A completely different medium, Right, I get it. Some people
Speaker 5: are like, oh no, but like you got the entertainment
Speaker 5: industry job, like you got the thing that you were
Speaker 5: looking for, but it wasn't that wasn't it. And I've
Speaker 5: said this before, but it's like, I feel like I
Speaker 5: got the job that I needed and not the job
Speaker 5: that I wanted, because it led me to leaning into something.
Speaker 5: It was already my own internal low hanging fruit, my
Speaker 5: passion and my obsession for storytelling through food, which has
Speaker 5: now evolved into other different projects, whether it's cookbooks, public speaking,
Speaker 5: and now no tastes like home. Yeah, I just kind
Speaker 5: of like I stopped. I had to stop fighting myself.
Speaker 3: So where are you at with the acting dream now?
Speaker 3: Is that something that's still in your heart?
Speaker 5: It's apples and oranges to me, it's definitely still something
Speaker 5: that like I still have the itch. I've done little
Speaker 5: things here and there, like fun, meaningful projects. Sometimes it's
Speaker 5: just something that I really love And there's there's a
Speaker 5: really good one in the pipeline that I'm really excited
Speaker 5: about that. I'll tell you when we stop recording. But
Speaker 5: I'm about to see Yeah, but it's fun. But it's
Speaker 5: like it's it's it's definitely something that I still really enjoy.
Speaker 5: But I actually don't know because on one and it
Speaker 5: was a dream for such a long time that it's like,
Speaker 5: did I just not mourn the loss and it's my
Speaker 5: muscle memory or is it something I really want to do.
Speaker 5: I still think it's something I really want to do,
Speaker 5: but I think when the time is right, it's going
Speaker 5: to happen. Yeah, I'm definitely you know, knock on wood
Speaker 5: on the busier side right now and very grateful and happy.
Speaker 4: But yeah, I mean I'm patient.
Speaker 5: And what I've learned is like sorry for the culinary reference,
Speaker 5: but it's like I want to low slow burn in
Speaker 5: my career. I just want to kind of keep doing
Speaker 5: a version of this for a really long time and
Speaker 5: until I'm a wrinkly old raisin.
Speaker 4: And that's kind of the goal.
Speaker 3: And there's always room for reinvention. It's I'm never too late.
Speaker 4: Yep.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you light up when you talk about it. So
Speaker 1: I hope this dream comes tru free.
Speaker 4: Thank you, Thank you.
Speaker 1: From the outside, it seems like you've had this like
Speaker 1: midas touch with your career right like ever re overnight
Speaker 1: success is ten years in the making. But when people
Speaker 1: see you on the outside, like you said, you're busy,
Speaker 1: You've got all these you've got a pack schedule. But
Speaker 1: I know that there are failures. There are so many
Speaker 1: disappointments along the way. I don't know if you've seen
Speaker 1: this trend on social called museum of failure. People talk
Speaker 1: about like what's in their museum of failure. It's like
Speaker 1: a resume of failures, almost as opposed to a resume
Speaker 1: of successes. What would be in your museum of failure?
Speaker 1: What are the the missed opportunities that come to mind
Speaker 1: or the disappointments or failures along the way.
Speaker 5: I just want to clarify, like, and I know this
Speaker 5: isn't what you're leaning towards, but I want to be
Speaker 5: clear that when I say failure, I don't mean regret,
Speaker 5: because I genuinely even if sometimes I regret things in
Speaker 5: the moment when they don't work out, and I get
Speaker 5: like pissed off with myself in the end, like they
Speaker 5: truly are. I can't believe I'm quoting Kim Kardashian, But
Speaker 5: she's like everything is a is a lesson in life
Speaker 5: or whatever it is that she says, and I.
Speaker 4: Like really believe that.
Speaker 5: But I would say the one that I keep on
Speaker 5: because of, you know, my obsession and as a hopeless
Speaker 5: romantic is it's relationships. Yeah, like I get, you know,
Speaker 5: it makes me a little emotional thinking about it because
Speaker 5: it's like, I'm so grateful for all the ones that
Speaker 5: I have, but it's like I fall deeply and I
Speaker 5: try to give all of myself in every capacity and
Speaker 5: when it doesn't work out, and it hasn't worked out
Speaker 5: for a multitude of reasons, and it's never black and white,
Speaker 5: it's always complex. I you know, it's that thing of
Speaker 5: where it feels like a failure and where I kind
Speaker 5: of have to reconfigure my thinking and shift my perspective.
Speaker 5: Is that I realize that the hardest thing with any
Speaker 5: relationship ending, even with friendships, I would say, and even
Speaker 5: with family members, because I have family members that I'm
Speaker 5: no longer in contact with who are part of my
Speaker 5: immediate family growing up and they were there every single
Speaker 5: day and now we have nothing, and it's longing for
Speaker 5: all the things that never came to be. I am
Speaker 5: a nostalgic person. But it's all the plan. Whether there
Speaker 5: were plans that that you shared with this specific person
Speaker 5: or not doesn't really matter. It's also like my own
Speaker 5: imaginative brain and my heart and the stuff that I
Speaker 5: kind of envision for the future and mourning that where
Speaker 5: it's sort of like, so that's the closest thing I
Speaker 5: would say, where the thing that yeah, the thing that
Speaker 5: I have to actively work on.
Speaker 3: Yeah, thank you for sharing that.
Speaker 1: I know that's really painful to think about the things
Speaker 1: that you envisioned with someone that didn't come true. What
Speaker 1: do you envision from love in your life? Like?
Speaker 3: What what do you want?
Speaker 4: Damn, let's fucking go.
Speaker 5: I mean, I I wanna. I want to make sure
Speaker 5: that I feel loved and that I don't have to
Speaker 5: question it. And that's not about the person, whether it's relationship,
Speaker 5: family member, or friend, but it's also my own side
Speaker 5: of my own abandonment issues and all that kind of stuff. Yeah,
Speaker 5: where I just feel like safe and love and comfortable
Speaker 5: enough to be my own person. And the most important
Speaker 5: thing for me that I've learned. I think in the
Speaker 5: past decade, I've been going to therapy since I was seventeen,
Speaker 5: But the past decade, I'm realizing that I've kind of
Speaker 5: acknowledged the fact that it is so paramount for me
Speaker 5: to make sure that I feel seen for who I
Speaker 5: really am.
Speaker 3: That's all we want, that's all everybody wants.
Speaker 5: If I get mischaracterized or misjudged, And that's been a
Speaker 5: massive lesson having a public facing job where people make
Speaker 5: a lot of assumptions about you, and even in my
Speaker 5: personal life with people when someone doesn't see me for
Speaker 5: who I really am or my intentions. And I'm not
Speaker 5: saying that I'm perfect, and I make mistakes all all
Speaker 5: the time. But when I'm when I'm seen for who
Speaker 5: I really am, that's when I feel the most safe.
Speaker 5: And I have that with very close friends of mine
Speaker 5: who just like never question my intentions. Yeah, and there's
Speaker 5: there's nothing more beautiful. And that's like a warm cup
Speaker 5: of like brown tea in front of a fireplace, you know,
Speaker 5: on like a soft blanket, Like there's nothing that feels
Speaker 5: more comforting and nurturing than that.
Speaker 1: I look back on my life and I when I
Speaker 1: think about the times where romantic love wasn't present, I'm
Speaker 1: so grateful for the friendships that showed me that unconditional love.
Speaker 3: And you kid, you're a judgment of.
Speaker 5: Course, of course, yeah you can be. I call it
Speaker 5: my board of directors.
Speaker 3: Oh that's so good. That's so good.
Speaker 5: My good friend Anna taught me that one. She's like,
Speaker 5: if I have like a life situation, She's like, consult
Speaker 5: your board of directors. Yeah, that's my advice that no
Speaker 5: one asked for. It is like, make sure you have
Speaker 5: like a solid ass boarded directors. Those people are going
Speaker 5: to keep you in check, keep your ego in check.
Speaker 4: The ones who are going to be.
Speaker 5: Brutally honest with you no matter what, even if it's
Speaker 5: a little even if it's a little painful.
Speaker 4: Like that's what we should aspire to in our lives.
Speaker 5: It's less about the specific romance or the family or
Speaker 5: the friends, but it's like a mix of all those things.
Speaker 3: How big is your board of directors? You tend to
Speaker 3: keep it small or I would.
Speaker 5: Say it's probably about like I have like five or six,
Speaker 5: like a solid perfect size.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's also the perfect dinner party size.
Speaker 5: Nothing drives me more crazy than like making dinner for
Speaker 5: ten people.
Speaker 4: Is thank you, Mi Zerre six max.
Speaker 5: Unless it's like two different types of pasta, that's fine,
Speaker 5: but like dinner table conversations, you end up having multiple
Speaker 5: conversations going on simultaneously. I don't like going too restaurants
Speaker 5: unless it's like a work thing where it's like more
Speaker 5: than six people.
Speaker 3: Same because you like you'd lose, you lose.
Speaker 5: The plot, and then you have to focus on the
Speaker 5: person on your left for the first course and then
Speaker 5: on the right for the If you're following Tiffany's Book
Speaker 5: of Manners like, it just becomes a dumpster fire.
Speaker 4: No. No, it's too overwhelming.
Speaker 1: I'm so weird about my birthday. I'm like, no large
Speaker 1: parties six people max. Yeah, and I'll do like three
Speaker 1: separate parties of like four to six people. But it's
Speaker 1: the only way to connect, correct from my opinion. To
Speaker 1: wrap things up today, Anthony, I want to do a
Speaker 1: taste test with you. It's not your average taste test, okay,
Speaker 1: it's it's not hard to tell that you know your
Speaker 1: way around a set of dumb bells, right. I know
Speaker 1: that we both love our protein forward snacks, so I've
Speaker 1: brought a few for us to try today and rate together.
Speaker 4: Let's go.
Speaker 3: So I don't know about you.
Speaker 1: Whenever I'm shopping for protein snacks, I have to make
Speaker 1: sure that they pass the gag test, like, because a.
Speaker 4: Lot of them they just well, yeah, you know, it's
Speaker 4: like protein bars.
Speaker 5: Yeah, ninety nine point nine percent of them are mealy
Speaker 5: and like they leave your stomach feeling weird afterwards, and
Speaker 5: it's like I'm getting the protein, but I feel like
Speaker 5: a mess afterwards.
Speaker 4: What is the point. What's the point.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So I've brought some of my favorites and then
Speaker 1: some new ones that I haven't tried.
Speaker 4: Okay, I'm curious how many I know and how many
Speaker 4: I don't.
Speaker 1: Okay, So our right side bessies who listen to our
Speaker 1: show know how much I love my chicken chips.
Speaker 3: I'm obsessed with.
Speaker 4: Everyone.
Speaker 5: Look sit me cross eyed when I bring up these
Speaker 5: wilds same they gaslight us because it makes no sense.
Speaker 5: They're like, is it like, is it like poor cracklings?
Speaker 3: No, No, it's not.
Speaker 5: I know these intimately I have. I'm in a long
Speaker 5: term relationship with whoever runs their social media. They send
Speaker 5: me the new flavors when they try them out.
Speaker 4: Wild. May I open these? Yes?
Speaker 3: Please?
Speaker 1: We're cracking open some wild protein chips. This is actually
Speaker 1: like my airplane snack. If they have them in the
Speaker 1: in the airport, I usually buy these or I bring
Speaker 1: up with me. My two favorite flavors are Buffalo or
Speaker 1: Nashville Hot.
Speaker 4: Hey, you're a spice girl, I am.
Speaker 3: It was so good.
Speaker 4: You know what they slap?
Speaker 3: Here's through like four or five in his mouth. Okay,
Speaker 3: left Buffalo.
Speaker 4: I eat them like pringles.
Speaker 3: Have you tried National Hot?
Speaker 4: No, try National Hot? Okay They're not too hot.
Speaker 1: No, they're not okay, Yeah, but the Buffalo, I would say,
Speaker 1: is like a great entry point for anyone wanting to
Speaker 1: you know.
Speaker 4: It's like a good dry heat.
Speaker 3: Okay, have you tried these? These are peetos?
Speaker 4: No?
Speaker 1: Okay, These I will say are not as the macros
Speaker 1: aren't as strong.
Speaker 5: Here.
Speaker 3: We've got about four four grams of protein.
Speaker 5: Okay, okay, so these are petos A jam of junk
Speaker 5: food tastes. Its plant based, crunchy, cheese less puffs.
Speaker 3: I feel like I need a little more cheesy essence
Speaker 3: in there.
Speaker 5: Look, the flavor intensity is probably like a solid six
Speaker 5: out of ten. Yeah, but what I'm impressed with is
Speaker 5: the texture. It's light as light as it's light the
Speaker 5: way crappy junk food is. And it's airy and it
Speaker 5: doesn't feel too mealy, you know when they feel melli
Speaker 5: and there's like that grit.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's not terrible. Would I would five out of ten.
Speaker 5: He's going back to a har mag of these on
Speaker 5: a flight, I wouldn't complain.
Speaker 3: It's true. It's true. I would take that on a fight.
Speaker 5: They're not extremely high in sodium, which is great. Mm
Speaker 5: hmmm because that I always checked for. Yep Pa and
Speaker 5: lentil flour are good. I like it when they mix
Speaker 5: it with with fava bean as well, because just pee
Speaker 5: alone will like mess up your stomach.
Speaker 4: A lot of really good ingredients. There's no like weird
Speaker 4: fillery stuff. Wow, Oh you're teaching me things. I love this.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 1: Next we're getting into a no cow bar chocolate caramel
Speaker 1: peanut protein snack bar. I am a dairy free girly,
Speaker 1: so I only buy like plant protein.
Speaker 3: Okay, we're gonna try it by to this. Mm hmmm.
Speaker 3: I'm sorry. Now it's a no for me.
Speaker 4: No one's gonna accuse us of being delicious.
Speaker 3: It doesn't pass the gag test.
Speaker 4: It's that mealiness.
Speaker 3: I know. Can you make can you make a protein bar?
Speaker 4: I have tried the one.
Speaker 5: I feel like I'm one of these like TikTok shops
Speaker 5: right now. But the one that i've actually the taste
Speaker 5: is okay, but it has a shocking I think it
Speaker 5: has thirty or forty grams of protein in it and
Speaker 5: the lowest amount of calories, and for what it is,
Speaker 5: doesn't have a shocking amount of ingredients.
Speaker 4: Have you heard of David Bar?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 4: Are you know RX bars?
Speaker 5: Yeah, I like started our X bars, sold the company
Speaker 5: and now he started as David Bar and it's the
Speaker 5: bar on the market with the most amount of protein.
Speaker 5: Full disclosure, I've never had a delicious protein bar where
Speaker 5: I'm like, damn, Like I could really use that protein
Speaker 5: bar right now. But sometimes it's like I'm eating a
Speaker 5: salad I didn't have time to like cook salmon or
Speaker 5: whatever it is, and I need to get my protein
Speaker 5: and I like finish off with that because it kind
Speaker 5: of feels like a dessert. Yeah, that bar is really
Speaker 5: good because it gets like your protein fix and you
Speaker 5: stay full for longer. Okay, wait, can I tell you? Okay,
Speaker 5: since you like you like sweets dessert? Yes, have you
Speaker 5: heard of Gselle's Bakery No vegan, gluten free, dairy free,
Speaker 5: and something else free.
Speaker 3: It's here in La.
Speaker 5: Here in La they sell it. She has her shop.
Speaker 5: I don't know where it is. I've ordered it freeze dried,
Speaker 5: like freezer packed to New York. There's an oatmeal, peanut
Speaker 5: butter and jelly bar. There's a Keto chocolate fudge brownie,
Speaker 5: really good macro. She has a protein bar that I
Speaker 5: haven't tried yet. It's delicious and it's surprisingly like really
Speaker 5: good for what it is.
Speaker 3: Okay, I can't wait to try this, considering.
Speaker 5: There's no like like dairy fat and all that kind
Speaker 5: of stuff incorporated.
Speaker 3: I love cake so much. Cake is like part my identity.
Speaker 5: So it's your favorite, like birthday cake, describe it. I'm
Speaker 5: making you one and I'm bringing it to you tomorrow.
Speaker 1: Boom, Oh my gosh, Sweet Lady Jane. Their triple berry cake. Okay,
Speaker 1: that has like it's just white cake but berries in
Speaker 1: the middle, and then like that really light whipped cream. O.
Speaker 4: Love that.
Speaker 1: Also Susie Cake celebration cake. Have you had Susie Cake? Oh,
Speaker 1: oh my god, you have to try Susi Cakes so good.
Speaker 1: And then red velvet. Those are my top three. I
Speaker 1: have the diet of like an eight year old child.
Speaker 4: Oh, I love it? Are you kidding?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 4: It's all about balance. For me. It's vanilla and strawberry for.
Speaker 5: A cake of vanilla cake with like a good little
Speaker 5: like a crempat situation and just like a good strawberry
Speaker 5: jam or even fresh preserved strawberries like that.
Speaker 4: That's it for me.
Speaker 1: We covered so much ground today, Anthony, Thank you so much.
Speaker 5: Thank you so much for having me. This is we
Speaker 5: really did cover everything you really did.
Speaker 1: Anthony Barovski is an Emmy winning producer, TV host, culinary expert,
Speaker 1: and New York Times best selling author. His new show,
Speaker 1: No Taste Like Home is out now.
Speaker 3: On That's it for today's show.
Speaker 2: Tomorrow, we're talking to actor and reality star Denise Richards
Speaker 2: all about her new docuseries Denise Richards and her Wild Things.
Speaker 1: Join the conversation using hashtag the bright Side and connect
Speaker 1: with us on social media at Hello Sunshine on Instagram
Speaker 1: and at the bright Side Pod on TikTok oh, and
Speaker 1: feel free to tag us at Simone Boyce and at
Speaker 1: Danielle Robe.
Speaker 2: Listen and follow the bright Side on the iHeartRadio, app,
Speaker 2: Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 3: See you tomorrow, folks, keep looking on the bright side.