Dan Churchill - #006

0:00Jake Dearden: Dan Churchill, welcome to the podcast. Mate, so honored to be here, dude. First of all, tell me about your day.

0:08Dan Churchill: This thing? Mate, we had training camp up in Malibu with Hunter and Jake Williamson and all going to plan. Easy 75 minutes in the trails and then, yeah, classic me, rolled the ankle and here we are. It's looking hefty. It is, mate. It is a patchwork job and we're meant to have Phoenix next week. So I don't know if I'm going to be racing, to be honest, but we'll heal it up. You know, I said in 2025, I had a lot of speed bumps with the injuries. Obviously not ideal to have this now in 2026, but adversity breeds, you know, good challenges for you to learn from.

0:46Jake Dearden: Of course. And yeah, considering you're on crutches there, maybe you're not competing next week, But what you have got next week is you're going to be chefing up.

0:57Dan Churchill: I am, mate. I'm actually going to be making sure you're flipping burgers with me in Phoenix with Center. It's going to be fun, dude. There we go.

1:04Jake Dearden: So if anyone doesn't know, Dan is the biggest fitness chef in the world. Genuinely, you are. You're not only that, you're an insane athlete. You've ran marathons. You've done hyroxes. You're chasing. Some pretty hefty goals. What are you chasing at the moment? What are the goals like if we put numbers on them?

1:28Dan Churchill: Yeah, so put numbers on them. We're always going to be working towards a sub-60 Indo Pro for High Rocks. So for me, I've got Worlds with Erik Inman doubles in Sweden. But leading into that, my hope was to work my way down to like a sub-60. So Q1 and Q2 is that. And then Q3 and Q4 is all Ironman focus. so athletically i think high rocks to you know first six months and then second six months is all around iron man insane and have you got an iron man booked in yeah i'm doing panama city which is like the week after the new york city marathon which is always going to be an interesting one because i think you guys know like new york city marathon you've run it like it's unbelievable are you running new york city marathon i run it every single year right so and it's going to be the week after the week before before all right okay so i either forego for the first time in like eight years running the new york city marathon which is the smart thing to do to run the iron man um or i just you know savage and double down but to be honest i probably will

2:34Jake Dearden: lean towards doing let's face it you're gonna double down you're gonna do a lot that's just the type of guy you are no that's cool and if it doesn't play off it it makes for great content It makes a great concept, mate.

2:47Dan Churchill: One hell of a story, we always say, yeah.

2:49Jake Dearden: So I want to start with where did the food obsession,

2:54Dan Churchill: I'd probably say, start? Mate, it's crazy to think this, but I probably lie on my fact that I've got two brothers in the middle of three and poor mum had to feed three rugby player, you know, boys in Australia. And then dad was just like, this isn't going to work. And, you know, after watching Jamie Oliver, like every Sunday night, he realized that we were just, for some reason, glued to the screen about learning cooking. So he put together the -

3:23Jake Dearden: All three of you.

3:24Dan Churchill: All three, all five of us, mom, dad. It was honestly the one thing we all did every Sunday was watch Jamie. It's sick, dude.

3:30Jake Dearden: What was the show? The Naked Chef. Right, okay.

3:33Dan Churchill: So remember his original, like one where he was cooking to like a story producer in his kitchen. Do you remember that?

3:39Jake Dearden: No. Oh man.

3:40Dan Churchill: It was like his OG, you probably went to life. it's like his og show um and it just made me really realize there's one i loved the family orientation around food like we got my family together but then i just loved cooking and so you know from that cooked multiple meals a week with the timetable put together and then um you know growing up playing rugby i was just always interested in health and fitness and being active in performing so i kind of didn't go down the route of a professional career in chefing yet i actually went down the route of um exercise science post high school but i always had a passion for still cooking at home even if it was basic home cooked meals like it was always

4:24Jake Dearden: for the family yeah would you be the main one yeah 100 so like mom and dad got to the point

4:30Dan Churchill: where dad was working so he'd cook and he loved to cook but he only cooked like one or two meals a week uh and we were tasked to cook at least once a week as a as a as the brothers were but i ended up doing three because i just loved it so much and you know is whether it be following a recipe or learning a cuisine or understanding an ingredient or a technique um and and don't get me wrong like first first time starting out like tying a shoelace i sucked like i was terrible and mom and dad would just be like this is great realizing this is like when i'm 11 years old and they you know it was it was terrible but through consistency and like what i always say is like cook the same meal over and over again to get better at it um yeah man turn into like the best blessing in disguise for mom and dad because they had one or two or even three less

5:17Jake Dearden: nights a week they had to cook for the family that's sick when you was uh when you was a teenager what was your go-to meal what if you could like blow us away with a meal what what was that meal

5:29Dan Churchill: that you perfected so like it's yeah i i say this and it sounds like okay but there's a romance and technical prowess to a spaghetti bolognese that i have cooked like thousands and thousands of times to understand that would be the meal to impress not because it's the most lavish meal i can do some obviously amazing things now being a professional chef but back in the day one it was sentimental because it was the first thing my family and I like were consistently critiquing of mine but two it was the one that really made me fall in love with cooking consistently because Italians are romance with love they love cooking they live to eat and I fell in love with that and you know if you were to say what's the most technical thing you would do it'd probably make a sweet potato gnocchi with a certain brown butter sauce and some porcini mushrooms and things like that that would be amazing but i still go back to my spaghetti bolognese which is which is like there is some technique to it's not just slap it all in a pot i can say i was actually going to ask

6:34Jake Dearden: that so just on like a little side note how much is perfecting a meal down to the ingredients and how much is it down to actually how it's made oh this is great it's kind of like um

6:50Dan Churchill: look you you i can give you and i the same ingredients and that's important because if i had worse ingredients than you say i had the same ingredients but like less quality that is going to affect the meal but if we had the same ingredients uh you can you can cook something down for longer so remove more moisture you can give more surface area to say a protein to get it more of the maya which is deeper roasting flavors um you can balance with seasoning so salt pepper learning to add acid at the right time or sweetness the right time and that's all stuff that you learn as you go from adding more reps in so i would say like you know with with a spaghetti bolognese most people maybe cook the onion add the garlic and and like it's less about being really intentional at the moment for me it's like i add garlic on a low heat then gradually add olive oil because what that does is one it removes the moisture from the garlic without any form of moisture in at first because it's a dry pan but then what you do is you add the oil gradually not are you frying garlic in oil and then it permeates only a small amount it actually allows the oil to naturally evolve in that flavor of the oil as it grows then you add your onion keeping a really low heat and allows this beautiful sweetness to uh be created by the caramelization before adding in your beef same process really grounding it up until you have just the beautiful golden edges and so on and so forth like the intentionality behind the process with the same ingredients can

8:26Jake Dearden: lead to vastly different results i'm drooling you know how to sweet how's your spag ball i think i've not made spag ball since i had to make it in gcse's school okay i think uh so we had to we had cooking lessons food tech whatever yeah yeah between the ages of 11 and 13 where it was like forced yes and then you either chose to do it and go on with it or didn't i did sport instead uh and i think one of the last meals was like that was like the

8:58Dan Churchill: finale okay that was it bring it home so what would you do today if i came around you're like man i'm cooking you dinner what are you what are you making me i know it's basic but i think i do

9:08Jake Dearden: steak but i think again because you cook it all the time because i cook it all the time it and you'll probably argue this but steak is one of the simpler dishes it's not got much skill it's just got you've just got to be good at timing in my opinion yes

9:27Dan Churchill: it requires a bit of dedication to a basic skill yeah and then you've got you've just got certain

9:34Jake Dearden: rules that you've got to do for example and i've been doing my research so how i do my research with uh food uh i was i just did a marathon block but i was heavily dieting for it and i was doing a lot of cross training on the bike and when i was cross training i was i normally watch youtubes and i'd normally watch your youtubes motivational stuff but i was on the bike so much i'd finished everyone's youtubes and because i was so hungry i just got obsessed with food videos so it's like how to perfect a steak how to cook the best chicken uh fyi cooking the best chicken a lot of people poach chicken which i find crazy wow for the like the best chicken breast but anyway that's what i learned by the way but um like simple rules with steak i've i've come across is uh don't pepper it before it goes into the pan because pepper burns so you just want to salt and then if you want to pepper your pepper after or pepper when it's on a lower heat um you gradually as well like you don't season with garlic beforehand because of the same reason you kind of add the garlic in on the side um time in on the side stuff like that uh that's but i think i think i can do all right obviously not to the standard of you because i've witnessed you cook a steak and it's incredible the crust but but but it was unfair rules it was unfair rules so i just want to clear this up nick bear and dan churchill had a steak off and i got brought into a judge at the time i ate steak but i wasn't a steak connoisseur and i was under a lot of pressure i basically got blindfolded and i had to try these two steaks and say which one was better nick had a barbecue he had his own wood he had his own for flavoring everything he was using a thermometer that he could stick in and check the temperature nick cheated apparently cheating according to Dan and Dan did it properly inside on a pan and when I tried them I was literally blindfolded I tried them I picked Nick's we were in Nick's facility at this time as well so I'm just saying that I was sweetening the deal I wasn't an athlete with BPN either so I was just potentially sweetening the deal

12:05Dan Churchill: but But looking back, Nick's steak, it was meant to be medium rare

12:11Jake Dearden: and it was medium. And the conclusion we came to was I actually like medium steak over medium rare.

12:20Dan Churchill: Well, I'm glad it's out there. I'm glad it's out there. Good on you for owning it, my guy. No, Jake's a good sport with the whole thing. That was a funny day, bro.

12:30Jake Dearden: That was a funny day.

12:31Dan Churchill: That got me really excited for what your future held, particularly with obviously the team.

12:35Jake Dearden: Yeah, no, no, it's cool. And we've not looked back since, obviously. We've met up quite a few times since us. But I'm really fascinated with cooking. I want to get better. I'm someone who wants to be able to cook really nice meals, especially when you're in fitness because you do so much eating and you do so much cooking yourself because, again, when you want to be so on it and you want to stay on track, You want to know exactly what's going into your food. So my next question to you would be, and we struggle with this a little bit when I do my research. When you're going to a restaurant, I feel like they love butter.

13:18Jake Dearden: They love oils. They love everything. And for someone who's, if you are counting your calories, how do you get around that? Do you just face that? Because that's what makes it taste nice. So when you go to a nice restaurant, it's gonna taste nice but the reason it's tasting nice is because they're excellent chefs but they're also using a lot of fat and a lot of salt and a lot of things that have high calories yeah dude

13:47Dan Churchill: like there's like if you go into a restaurant kitchen you'll find they've got these these buckets not buckets but like these essentially little hotel pans that contain like all these cubes of butter and depending particularly on the cuisine you know french maybe even italian your palate is just drawn to love the combination of fat and salt you know fat salt acid you know even bit of sweetness to depending on the degree and we play into that as chefs like we we are known to like okay finish things off in certain ways to just really accent that um sensation on the palate because fat coats the mouth and so then it primes everything else that's coming it's like this beautiful like you know like when you have something fatty it's like around the mouth it's like fully uh expressed it's like every sense is genuinely um you hit on and that's just naturally

14:43Jake Dearden: from like the way we finish sauces and things like your your aim is to make this food as addictive

14:48Dan Churchill: as possible 100 as nice as possible 100 so when i now look at food and i've seen this and i've grown up with this in the restaurants it's like how do i get the same feeling same sensei imagination without the the traditional means like without the additions of shit amounts of butter and like high amounts of salt and um you know the the the what we've been conditioned to love now like changing that palette and that's the challenge i'm i'm i'm facing with like it's like when i season food i'm liberal with acidity which is a much better version of uh using salt and fat right but if i go too much with acidity i over um go one way with the food so yeah i guess in traditional sense like when you come into a restaurant you're paying for a dish we want it to taste delicious so most restaurants particularly in the french and italian cuisine will include butter to finish off the sauce and obviously high amounts of salt

15:49Jake Dearden: as is natural interesting and like you say it's quite a challenge to replicate that at home especially when you don't realize they're putting that much amounts of butter in and you're on a healthy diet and trying to do that but one thing i love about you is you still cook with butter you cook with less butter and but you you don't kind of say that's a bad food i feel like i don't know if if this is true but you don't really have bad foods like do you deem any food as as bad unless it's ultra processed and you've got trans fats in there are you looking at any food thinking that is not going in my dish yeah dude i i'm really glad you picked up on that i feel

16:35Dan Churchill: that in what i do um one lead by example but two like not to really alienate people and or food for that matter uh i i steer clear of fried foods in particular so i don't really do

16:48Jake Dearden: that um if she was if she was to fry food would you do it in a healthy way yeah there's certain

16:54Dan Churchill: there's certain oils now which are seed oil free and done really ethically that can be fried at high smoke points um which are which are great like you can still use those and obviously you know you're making it for for example a chicken schnitzel or like a parmi or something like that you can you can make that dish in a much better version because the oil that's being cooked at at a high heat is much better for you and the environment what kind of oils would you be

17:19Jake Dearden: looking at would it be like a pure olive oil or would it be like i've heard avocado oil i don't

17:24Dan Churchill: know yeah avocado's decent you get an astringent flavor it's also expensive there's like there's certain um there's what there's what you can get uh seaweed oil like coming out which is really really good yet like a lot of the a lot of the restaurants use it there's a company there's two companies one's like zero acre farms they have a really good oil that is now at food service level where a lot of restaurants are using their oil to fry food. So Zero Acre Farms one. There's also another one here in LA. For the top of my head, it's off. But they're more of a at-home product, a little bit more expensive.

18:01Dan Churchill: But essentially, you can get an extra virgin olive oil. If you get a high-quality one, which is great, it's got less exposure to compounds and they're the things that oxidize at a high heat. So if you get a good quality, I'm not talking about like paying astronomical amounts, but if you get a good quality extra virgin olive oil, you can cook it at high heat. And in doing so, it will not oxidize, which means it won't get the chemicals that we have previously sought were actually bad for us. So like a Cobra Mastate, which is a great one, fantastic olive oil to get, extra virgin fry in that. So like if I'm frying, which I rarely do, I do lean into those types.

18:41Dan Churchill: And then when I'm cooking, yeah, like i've recognized that for every like when i cook with even restaurants or at home you don't need the amount of fat they're putting into the food so you yeah i love cooking with butter i love a grass-fed butter obviously i still need amount of work you and i put in like we need to have the calories to support our needs the fat the grass-fed fat um so i think my job is to is to one like cook with what i believe is the best thing for everybody which is whole foods first and then show simple means and choices that you can make to support yourself. So yeah, it's the right seed oil-free oils.

19:20Dan Churchill: It is the extra virgin olive oils. It's the grass-fed butters. And then just doing so in the right amount, the right moderations.

19:29Jake Dearden: Going back to the cooking with oils. Yeah. Would you ever recommend cooking with butter? I know it sounds like it's an animal fat. it's uh does when obviously it burns but does it become toxic when like some of the oils do you

19:45Dan Churchill: know do the compounds change yeah yeah yeah i love cooking butter i absolutely love it so like

19:50Jake Dearden: as in like frying with not frying but like like you say if you've got eggs yeah using butter

19:56Dan Churchill: instead of your 100 like i'll use insert if i'm going to try and get a certain type of effect in my scrambled eggs i will 100 use a is some butter and so what i look for is like perfect case like you don't want to get to the point where the butter is burning and that's just learning to control your heat a lot of people have this problem of like the two extremities of cooking you either have the temperature off or you have it on high heat there's never that's you it's never something in between right so i always say like you should start with like a medium high heat So if like the dial was, you know, zero to 12 as a clock, medium high is like a, you know, a seven, eight, nine.

20:34Dan Churchill: So like learn to be a little bit more patient and control your heat. With butter, like if you add butter to a pan, as it starts to bubble is the perfect time to generally add something, particularly eggs. So, you know, I love cooking with that. Does it get to a point where like, yeah, if you burn it too much, it's going to start to get bitter and oxidize in a bad way. but you that's it's actually more of a case um for the flavor that it is the health effects um but you obviously still can have detrimental effects if you continue to burn something so much so yeah wait the key things are medium high heat let it bubble and then add in your scrambled eggs

21:14Jake Dearden: okay and then this is just what this is one for me personal one personal one pans yeah non-stick pans obviously they're like the demons at the moment is that actually true or is it bullshit like is a good non-stick pan okay or do we need to have basic because it just makes it

21:36Dan Churchill: cooking with less oil easier totally i look i think there's a lot of problems out there when it comes to the media and like things to be said and then all of a sudden someone takes it and then explodes it on something because it's great clickbait look obviously there's a lot a lot of mass-produced pans that are non-stick that are not good for you but if you look into the labellings of a lot of products you can see that the people use like the cheap stuff obviously is not is not ideal for your health like if you're going to start cooking with certain things like that they're exposed to like not bpns or not but not be uh oh my god um i know what you mean oh my god oh my god oh my god i say bpn because it's just off my tongue obsessed with bpa essentially bpa apologies so the the stuff that we don't want to have is only typically in the cheap product non-stick pans can have detrimental effects if they are i've seen in a cheap state but you can also like i always say invest in one good pan that you should use universally at like our level you don't have to have a full suite of things um one product there's a company called hex clad that does a really no hex clad sorry there's a company called heston that does a really good job um of creating a really solid pan that is great for individuals of product sturdy easy to wash and like that's just you need to invest in good things like that so that you can take care of but non-stick is something that if you choose the wrong product it can be detrimental if it's the if it's a good quality one you're typically fine okay do you work with non-stick i work with non-stick

23:18Jake Dearden: yeah yeah it's just it's so much easier so much easier to clean it's so much and the the only thing that i do is i don't mix anything with a fork yeah or anything with a metal end like apart from like a whisk that's not got sharp ends like i'll just use the plastic totally

23:34Dan Churchill: thing is what mixes whatever they call yeah spatula like that's a great point like typically what happens is particularly cheaper side is when you start scraping the pan with something metallic which exposes underneath like that's the problem so you know keep keep it like use a spatula a plastic spatula or wooden spoon like try to refrain from anything metallic that's going to scrape the pan and also ruin it and prevent the non-stick as well okay that was a big tangent

24:00Jake Dearden: we'll go back on to so your story about obviously growing up yeah you was the guy that cooked yeah in your household how what happened when you moved out yeah so i moved to i moved in like a suburb a

24:16Dan Churchill: few suburbs down the way i was doing my master's degree i was a strength conditioning coach and i registered that like athletes despite what i thought they were getting the best advice at the time this is you know quite a while ago they just didn't understand what nutritionists were saying to them like they'd tell them what to eat in numbers but they didn't know what that meant practically i knew what i meant both nutritionally numbers wise and practically because i cook but also learned the research based on the master's degree that i did and so i started to put these recipes together and that essentially these players would go take it home cook for their friends and come back and say i did a great job i'm like awesome repeat repeat repeat adhere to the team actually ended up doing really well and won the premiership um but i don't think it's went down to the nutrition solely you can put it out that much but the camaraderie around that was really interesting because we saw like the athletes get really competitive with each other i started to look into why people don't cook as a like why athletes don't cook or why they don't look at their nutrition properly and it just came down to finding they were it was intimidating so then i started creating a book that was unintimidating called the dude food which was um empowering the modern man and it got guys cooking more and that was awesome um it also taught me a lot about myself when it comes to like self-publishing a cookbook and business and selling and operations um but i realized that like all along since i was 11 years old cooking for the first time like my passion was was in food it really was like how i can really make an impact and leave a legacy in this world and so what i did was i pursued the book route i started building out fundamental basic content on a website um i then realized well if i'm going to do this i need jump into kitchens and actually learn so you know after training i'd go work in restaurants for free and um started working my way up like learning the basics of washing pans to mise en place and

26:14Jake Dearden: prep and knife skills etc when when you did this did you go to any restaurant or was it like the

26:21Dan Churchill: nicest restaurants in your neighborhood yeah just ones that were like i initially did a what's called a stard i did a stard at a really nice catering restaurant what is the stard stard is is where you go and you just work for free observe and maybe do a few things so like you could go a lot of chefs who are really good still start they go they'll go to new york from say i don't know um netherlands and go i want to start in 11 madison for a week and you work to free you and all you do is observe and maybe help and from that you learn so much sometimes it turns into a job in my case i i did like four to five restaurants over a week or two week period so i'd learn from different chefs different cuisines different techniques the whole time so my acceleration of learning and was is actually quite rapid um and it was fantastic because i found myself learning something i loved but then applying it on the plate and so i could then start talking a bit more technically but still easily about dishes that were helping people with their with their like goals and their goal setting in performance or just weight loss or well-being and that really exposed me to like a point where i hadn't seen anyone do this yet i hadn't seen anyone apply like call it relatable content material that was value-add in the world of nutrition and that's kind of like where i was 22 years old i'm like i'm gonna go deep on this what year was this 14 years ago 14 yeah so like there's nothing out there 20 2012 2013 2012 2012

27:57Jake Dearden: this is when like everyone just used to spam the word calorie deficit and that's it yes like you need to be in a calorie deficit calorie deficit calorie deficit yeah and that is it that's all the information that you you had i didn't know any way of how you got there um obviously there was people putting out a couple of years later uh if it fits your macros and stuff like this

28:20Dan Churchill: uh but yeah that's cool that's cool dude it was it was early and like i guess that's like i learned that that was legitimately feeding my soul like i loved it so much and so i just went deep in that and i learned how do i build a brand around this what do i need to do to like grow that um and i've

28:41Jake Dearden: just been grinding ever since that's sick i want to touch on you said that obviously you was getting work experience basically in kitchens is it as intense as what people make out oh yeah like is it that serious i remember listening to god and ramsey he was saying like they used to place bets on people like leaving before 24 hours and stuff like that i don't know if he's obviously hypen it up so much to the extent but like uh is it intense and is it full on yeah and is that at every kitchen or is it just at the best kitchens all the kitchens that are understaffed or yeah

29:18Dan Churchill: look the the chef world's a tough industry right like you know the old school way was like cut your teeth you know what i went through you'll go through nowadays you realize that that's not going to work anymore so my the kitchens i have and work with it's just like we don't have that team like my mentality is look after staff support them um but they've got to still get the work done do you know i had pots and pans around my face as a sous chef like that still happened when i was growing up and in the kitchen like that just happened um and it was like quite an aggressive place if you got stuff wrong then 100 it was like you would be you would be told you are a piece of shit effectively like you are you would be alienated and it's it's because those people were pushed in the same way and they think it's how because they got to where they were it's how it puts the best out of them like if you've seen the bear the bear brings anxiety in a good way to me because it reminds me of some times in my life like it really does um what gordon's talking about is absolutely true like these moments actually happen i would say like as we've progressed as i said earlier like we don't have that much anymore like you i don't see it as much i think the kitchens are much better like don't get me wrong some kitchens are gnarly but i would say more so we're seeing a much more family tight-knit relationship between people and some things just aren't accepted anymore and you just don't they don't fly um but yeah it's i i would then if i step back and say one of the best jobs you can do to learn about the world and other industries is being a chef because you learn about pre-planning systemization discipline doing the same thing over and over again habitually you know like an execution in a team environment you're looking after your station the communication between that like dude there's so many things in a restaurant

31:08Jake Dearden: environment that play out in life genuinely like that is one thing that i don't think i'm in a position to do it now but like i would love to do is just go get some work experience in a kitchen i feel like it's one of them skills that once you learn how to cook and learn the fundamentals of whether it's just seasoning or whether it's you know learning how to cook things and the timing and things like that like it just makes your whole it's a hack for life you've got it for life it's like it's like relating it to a lad bodybuilding when they're younger and getting strong like you might lose that muscle but as soon as you get back into it you pick it up straight away and it's like

31:47Dan Churchill: muscle memory dude 100 i'd love to see jake in the kitchen so if to be fair if there's any

31:53Jake Dearden: kitchens out there in manchester uh maybe bolton a little bit closer uh i'll i'll come do start

32:00Dan Churchill: with pots and pans then you get your knife work in and then we'll move you on to how's it go how long do you actually need until you're like a an okay well you actually get put onto the food first

32:11Jake Dearden: oh because obviously you're like you say washing up first i feel like you're going washing up you're

32:16Dan Churchill: washing up you gotta learn the dishes then you gotta do prep work so prep work is like where you use a lot of the basic knife skills you may like eventually learn how to break down an animal which is really important um but like yeah i'd say like doing the can we do that can we do that

32:31Jake Dearden: yeah of course what do you want to do start with start with poultry start with the chicken what are you laughing at it just sounds a bit weird break it down

32:42Dan Churchill: you literally like all right chef break it down break it down break it down break it down yeah

32:48Jake Dearden: We can do that. That's the slang.

32:50Dan Churchill: It is.

32:51Jake Dearden: So we'll start with the chicken. We'll do a bit of poultry. Obviously, I've seen the price of cows. They keep coming up on my TikTok. Not TikTok. I don't have TikTok. But Instagram where it's like, I got all this from buying a cow. And it's like 37 fillet steaks and 54 sirloin steaks and stuff like that. So maybe, and it's like five grand for a cow. How much is a typical cow? obviously probably changes from regions to regions 100 different regions different breeds

33:21Dan Churchill: um but what i will say is you can like one good thing to do is if you have the you have the freezer space if you can go in with a mates like bunch of mates and buy like just pick up a cow pick up a cow and then you get you literally what you can do is you can buy a cow and then the local butcher breaks it down for you it's cheaper because you're buying it at a like you're buying everything so you have all these different cuts you know all these like secondary cuts primary cuts like even sometimes you get awful depending if you want it some gamey uh depending on what kind of animal you have mate it's it's really really cool we can like we can break down a lamb we can we can we can do

33:56Jake Dearden: some funny games yeah let's do it i'd love to do it break down the whole lambs the only problem is i've not got any storage we'd have to find like an american friend that has like a an american big fridge freezer because we just don't have fridge freezers like that in the uk you just don't have yeah we just don't have them everything's bigger over here so uh guys we'll find someone yeah again if there's a friend that wants some meat and we'll we'll cut it up 100 and uh it'd be cool that that'd be fun yeah so obviously chopping up things like you say chopping up actual animals

34:26Dan Churchill: what's after that so then you go into like well i'd say to become depending on like where you're

34:31Jake Dearden: at in terms of you can you ask where you want to go or like yeah definitely like the goal is to be

34:37Dan Churchill: able to make a meal 100 and depends on how big the kitchen is because the kitchen can have different stations for example my most recent kitchen had we had grill saute gamage and then also we call hot apps so you could literally go around and learn each of those stations and then be able to cook a meal if you want sometimes the kitchens are much bigger than that where you have more than four people and you have a huge amount of different stations so i think best thing to do is learn your nice skills do your prep and maybe look down and learn how to break down proteins but then like i'd start with the line i think a line cook is such an under meant like underrated skill to learn because you're learning how to cook something how to add sauces how to break how to even like reduce sauces to an extent like to then baste um you can see where seasoning occurs i think line cook if you can get to line cook you're pretty you're crushing

35:33Jake Dearden: it sick and how long would that roughly take how long does that take to learn i reckon your stripes

35:38Dan Churchill: if i said to you go in i want you to do this for say would you reckon like three times a week is

35:46Jake Dearden: realistic maybe so we're doing a full-time job full-time job and we're working i reckon you can get there within when i say full-time job like 40 hours a week yeah okay so 40 hours a week i reckon

35:59Dan Churchill: you could probably get there within six to seven weeks okay yeah depending on your skill set

36:06Jake Dearden: yeah okay some people can pick it up even quicker yeah perfect well might have to take a little little break a little hiatus from from crushing it to uh chef school what's this space exactly exactly no it's interesting i actually forgot to tell you i have been a chef in my past life what when i was 16 what do you got i left school and i went working at kfc mate you are a kfc aficiano what'd you do you fry or yeah i was i was i was a cook wow so you perfected the art of frying chicken yeah they still never told me the secret uh seasoning they didn't give you the 11 secret

36:52Dan Churchill: spices no damn it tell me through your technique you want to hear this uh it was just basically

36:59Jake Dearden: you had a sheet in front of you and it had like instructions one to ten and you just followed them instructions basically so it says like you know you you so with the chicken at kfc you obviously have to wash the chicken first so it comes out uh it's all perfect chicken like the the best quality you could actually have. In the UK. In the UK it is, yeah. You wash it, then you bread it first, first time. And then you then wet it again. Then you bread it for a second time. And then I think the second time's in like a spicier one. And you have two different ones for the spicy stuff and then for the normal one, like the original recipe.

37:43Jake Dearden: and then after that it then goes straight into the fryer and then you press a button depending on how much you've got and it fries for like nine minutes and then it's actually pretty good in the uk so like chicken's not just left for ages like they've got like a lead time of like if it's sat out more than 30 minutes like they've been it yeah it's actually pretty cool like i would still eat kfc yeah after working there the only thing that was a bit crazy was people used to uh use the wraps as frisbees and like just throw them across just throw them at people but obviously that's

38:20Dan Churchill: not happening with your app so no no definitely not definitely not but uh no it was pretty cool

38:26Jake Dearden: um a pretty cool experience i actually left that uh because i got an apprenticeship but another reason was because i started growing a little bit of stubble when i was 16 yep and they were like you need to shave that or you need to wear one of these masks. And these masks were like, it wasn't just covering your beard. It was like covering your whole face. I was like, my time's done. I think I was earning£3.79 per hour as well. So that was... That is criminal. Yeah,£3.79. So yeah, it was a good experience. And then, yeah, moved on.

39:02Dan Churchill: So the start of your whole athletic endeavours began with you and KFC. and thank God for that beard net that you're not allowed to have.

39:09Jake Dearden: I actually went on as well. And I don't know if this will surprise you or not, but I was obsessed with nutrition. And instead of like hiring a personal trainer or nutritionist, I thought I knew better. So I thought I'm going to enroll on a nutrition course. So I did one called MNU in the UK. It was like the best evidence-based one out at the time. and I spent a year doing a nutrition course alongside my civil engineering that I did. And it was one of the best things I've ever done. I think it was two and a half grand to do it. It was like a full year and I learned so much. I didn't learn anything about cooking, but I learned everything about nutrition and it was really cool.

39:58Dan Churchill: Mate, I think it's like, when you think about a lot of the questions we all have about just life in general, a lot of them come down to like what we put into our body, how we treat our body so it's like even if you don't apply that to say professional environment you're applying an investment to yourself dude like you don't have to question a lot of the fundamental things around food like in nutrition because you just learned it over a full course of a year and i often say it's like people ask me questions like what should i eat it's like i wonder if people actually had a course that they could go to more consistently because that would be

40:31Jake Dearden: it's one of those investments you've definitely got to be interested in it and like obsessed with though because i also invested in so i did school and then i got an apprenticeship so i was technically doing a b tech but i thought i was smarter than what i was so i was like i'm going to enroll on an a level and i'm going to pay my way into doing a mathematics a level so just one a level and i thought i'm going to do this alongside my civil engineering as well and i paid at the time i think like again like a thousand pounds to enroll in a course and i got sent a textbook and no videos no nothing just this textbook i got sent in the post and it was like this online learning it was a massive textbook and i opened the first page i think i must have got to like page three closed the page and then never opened it again and i'm still gutted about the money that I've lost and invested in that because it's still sat somewhere I just give up on an a level I thought I was better than what I was and I just don't have the dedication but I'm not really interested in I don't know equations and shit like that I yeah so you

41:43Dan Churchill: solve other you solve other life's problems mate that's what you do maybe maybe I don't know you

41:50Jake Dearden: show how to go I just run I just run far yeah they say I just want to be very scump

41:56Dan Churchill: right that's crazy that is unbelievable like i love the fact you just because a level what is a level a levels what's a level tom like yeah so it's like below university but when you leave

42:10Jake Dearden: school i don't know if it's still like this but you're either smart enough to do a levels yeah or you're not smart enough and you go and do a b-tech okay but with an apprenticeship you do you generally do a b-tech in a way because you're learning like on the job now it's actually spun around because a levels generally for like nine your typical nine to five jobs and your b techs are more vocational so they fall like plumbing they fall bricklaying and things like that and engineering but the tables have kind of turned when i was in school like you was applauded if you wanted to work a nine to five if you said i want to be an office worker you was applauded and if you said you wanted to be a bricklayer people pointed and laughed and they were like you're thick but now the bricklayers the plumbers they're earning so much more than the 95 office workers like tables have turned so much so much um just because of manual work like the the value of it so i look i kind of love it that i got to go and witness that but yeah there were some mad people at that college doing btex so uh yeah it wasn't your smartest people but uh again life experience is there that's it so obviously like you said you you mentioned that briefly and i don't think people may not understand this about you but you've owned a restaurant have you owned more than one i've had charlie street i've been involved in

43:36Dan Churchill: a bunch um so yeah can you just tell that story a little bit like how you got into actually opening your own restaurant sure dude yeah so after like being a sous chef head chef and exec chef and whatnot and before and then i moved to australia i moved to the states you know like i i really felt as a chef and building a brand one of the things that i missed was being involved in restaurants and so i had been a part of them in australia didn't own them outright and when i moved over i was like i need to do this so in new york i was like this is how am i gonna do it what i'm gonna do and first thing in mind is just like the thing that keeps coming back to me is like keep it casual keep it easy so i ended up you know getting much mates together and doing this thing called charlie street which was an australian cafe in soho um and it was great like i had

44:25Jake Dearden: breakfast down had like awesome coffee and when you say australian cafe yeah what's the kind of local like what's that what's the goal to my avocado on toast with a couple of post eggs surely all right okay so that's the one that's coming from australia yeah yeah okay yeah so that's gone global now oh it is a bougie breakfast 100 like that's why slap that 30 bucks later that's

44:47Dan Churchill: what it is like it's crazy but like we we used to do that all the time in oz and you go to the

44:52Jake Dearden: you go to the uk now and like that's a typical girl breakfast 100 think of every yeah you get it like i don't know i don't know if that's the right terminology whether you can say girl breakfast but like like it's the in this the bougie thing it's the in thing really good to send instagram

45:08Dan Churchill: particularly with a beautiful couple of post days it just like opened up it's the instagram pick it is it is but you know like it was also like i recognize there was a safe haven for a lot of people we had it for you know five and a bit years and we built a really solid community like we had people like you know make their life part meet their life partners there meet business partners and it was awesome experience and then covid kind of shut the door on that a little bit um and so i took over as the exec chef at the one hotel in brooklyn bridge but you know i think learning about all these things like people talk about the restaurant side and think about as a chef i think about it from learning how to build a brand the constraints of retail and like learning what i did from that um we launched a cpg product that didn't work out and so you learn about that you learn about like where you it's almost like all these things that you you know make mistakes and fail on allows you to give experience elsewhere so now i have people ask me about you know retail spaces and stuff i'm just like well what's your fixed cost your first fixed cost is your rent and they tell me their rent i'm like you have all these formulas we now know with retail what your um genuine revenue should be i'm like can you hit this target like it's you know i i really i love one of the things i've really loved about my life so far is that i've had a crack and And it's allowed me to learn so much about the failures that I've had that I can then share that with people so they don't make the same mistakes I've done.

46:35Dan Churchill: And it's really amazing. Like it's a really cool feeling to tell a mate don't do something because you're going to lose a lot of money. Or do it and learn so you can then also pass on the advice to someone else.

46:47Jake Dearden: Would you say it's tough in owning your own restaurant? Like is it a tough business to get into? Of course.

46:56Dan Churchill: Otherwise you'd do it now probably.

46:57Jake Dearden: I know obviously like you say COVID was probably a blessing in disguise for you because it forced that to that kind of part of your life to end. But do you feel like you'll ever own a restaurant in your life again? Like maybe like a retirement project, something like that?

47:10Dan Churchill: There's a project I've got right now actually in Costa Rica. Costa Rica?

47:15Jake Dearden: Wow, that's tropical.

47:15Dan Churchill: Yeah, very tropical. So my missus is very happy for when wintertime in New York's on. But that's got a restaurant that I'm, you know, involved with. and like i foresee what i do foresee is you know a lot of these resorts and hotels are popping up and they're getting interest in health space they need like a chef that's understands the health space isn't just like a classic chef and so we can bridge that gap and so like yeah i can see that continue to be something we entertain i think what you learn though is like where you're best suited and what we found out from these events and opportunities is you know with everything i've going on i can't be the person always in the restaurant operating um that's not what i'm best suited to support the brand or anymore but i'm always willing to do stuff and that's the problem it's like i'm my one of the biggest challenges is i'll always get involved when i when i see a problem and sometimes it's best to kind of like let the team handle that and not having to get involved and that's that's a that's a that's a challenge right so um i i love i love the idea of continue to be involved restaurants it is a tough business if you find the right type of business for them it can be very fantastic um but yeah i'd say in general from staffing to the cost to like cost of goods like the percentage of profit the end of it is it's why we see such high turnover like there's just constant turnover of restaurants wherever

48:41Jake Dearden: you go yeah interesting it's very similar in like the gym space as well that's why a lot of people say oh why have you not tried opening up your gym uh your own gym and things like that and although it would be incredible one i'm blessed to have access to a gym already uh and two like i see not being very profitable um but that set you up you're not owning that and making that potential mistake or like i wouldn't even call it mistake because you've learned so much from it you now are like the ultimate fitness businessman in my opinion and i don't know if that doesn't come across as very good but like uh what i'm trying to say is like you're very savvy with everything that you do you've got multiple streams of income uh you're doing so much how do you operate so like you seem to be doing so much and i don't even know how you keep up with yourself like how Is it good time management?

49:41Is it obviously you've learned over the years?

49:45Dan Churchill: Yeah, mate. I think you will first off, you've got to have the right people around you to support you in your endeavors and that's a team, that's relationships. You know, like I really feel that the team I've had over the years have enabled me to do a lot more. And that's like people from my content team to like, you know, like everything that we do from that side of the business is in so many ways the heart because it's allowed us to work with companies and in a deeper way rather than just what we see as a surface level of social media and as someone who's crosses over in fitness and nutrition i i know i can play a pretty important role with uh supporting communities and people in the space understanding what's the right thing to eat because i walk the talk but also i'm able to like back it up for my credibility so i think what i've learned most importantly is put the right people in places around you when you can afford it continue to find ways to support them as you find brands to work with one would you do it for free not that you have to but would you work with the company for free do they add value just like you add value to them from a brand perspective so they do they lift you up um they get you excited to work for them outside of the funds and then of course like the the finances have to make sense to support and respect your time and your team's time um but i learned very early on in this social media space that one thing that everyone wanted was content and i evolved my business around helping brands learn not only to get more content create more content but how to execute on a strategic level around content and so that's allowed us to you know have deeper relationships with these brands and support them on a level that they haven't had the um the eye the like the eyesight for um whilst also then feeding the beast of what i do in in like the youtube and long form space which is a huge avenue for us you've got so much going on like it's

51:55Jake Dearden: genuinely impressive like again the the brands that you work with they're all aspiring they're all aspirable brands they're all the best brands in the space that they work in um so that's a credit to you obviously being able to choose them but then wanting you as well um the the amount of work that goes into you documenting not only your journey but then documenting other people's journey and dipping in and out and teaching them how to cook uh seeing how they train for things and you having that curiosity for every sport is it's sick to see so if people don't know go over to dan's youtube watch his stuff because he's literally whatever sport that you're interested in dan's probably met up with an athlete at the top of the game in that sport and he's kind of swapped skills he's learned a little bit from them throughout their training and he's taught them or solve their nutrition problems.

52:54Jake Dearden: So it's kind of like a win-win. And I think it's a really good model that you've kind of come across. And it's cool. I genuinely love watching them. And they're really watchable, if that makes sense. But like I say, you've got that, you've got other things, investments and things. How do you manage your time when you've got all that stuff going on? You've got so many emails to reply to, messages to reply to, but then you've got to fit your training in because you've found your passion obviously you've got two passions that are like rivaling each other and you've had these from a young age where you love being the best you can be when it comes to physical performance but you also have the business side and you you have a passion for cooking how do you balance these alongside your family obviously you've got um a beautiful wife fiance she wouldn't mind that would she

53:51Dan Churchill: absolutely not no no no so say why Jake's getting the brownie points there we go um and then

53:57Jake Dearden: obviously just like your chaotic life of traveling um have you got a dog as well my best mate he's maverick he's a legend yeah yeah I remember um but yeah how would you how

54:09Dan Churchill: would you fit it all in so i think the first thing we do is have a plan so every sunday night i write out my training plan that's non-negotiable so that allows me to understand my time it also allows me to understand when i need to eat if i'm going to be going to a meeting should there be something

54:22Jake Dearden: around there that i so you're that specific you're like hour by hour i wouldn't say hour by hour but

54:27Dan Churchill: i like i definitely document my training because it's like it's almost like the cornerstone of my day so my day is really it's not governed by my training i just need to have my training in place to then set up the rest of my day and so from there i have maddie who's an unbelievable he's been working she's been working with me for a very long time she helps support my scheduling um and then you know i have my meetings with the team with respective projects and and over the time i've allowed i've learned to delegate to give them empowerment so there's certain projects that i barely touch until i need to um then there's times where i am more heavily involved in things and we allow the time for that to happen.

55:09Dan Churchill: So like there's one thing we do really well is Monday is generally a call day. So it allows me to always be just present on calls and meetings and more admin. Tuesday and Thursday are typically more shoot days. So it allows me to be solely creative and that's been a really effective strategy because it also allows like to have a day in between to redo pre-production if we are shooting. um and and and i i also recognize that having being away from my computer it's like if you're away if you're shooting mate you can't talk to people so like if if i'm in a kitchen i'm not on my phone if you're working out or if you're talking to a camera they can't reach you so you have to have people to support you in that endeavor i learned that pretty quickly because

55:51Jake Dearden: communication to me is really important you are on it like you reply straight away yeah you're always checking in like i love it and i'm the complete opposite i'm just so bad i'm just so bad i open up my phone i see so many messages i'm like i get like that anxiety feeling and i'm like i'll just put that back yes yeah and i don't mean to be rude and ignorant and some people take it like that but like when you are so busy and you've got other stuff going on like it's just yeah sometimes it's it's overwhelming yeah it is overwhelming it's super overwhelming bro and but it's good that you're on it and like you say you've got help in that area as well so yeah do you have someone that helps with the messages or yeah like same with uh not with

56:38Dan Churchill: messages um but like social stuff i do for my newsletter i do like you know all the incoming and inbound stuff for that same with youtube like building community is built on comms and i I'm big on that. I've taught that. I've said that over and over again, make people feel loved and supported. So communication, organization,

57:01Jake Dearden: kind of like your two pillars. Two big pillars. Yeah.

57:04Dan Churchill: And you'd be surprised what people can get done in a week if they, one, plan it out, and two, like they genuinely love what they're doing. Like I fucking love what I do. And so I'm grateful for that.

57:18Jake Dearden: Yeah, it never feels like work. even though it's hard work it never feels like work no like you finish every day like oh i'm so glad that's dumb but you're also like that was sick totally dude i think that's one of the first

57:32Dan Churchill: things i really appreciate about you is like you you're very you're very grateful you're very grateful individual for everything and you've like you're very humble but unbelievably grateful your um which is like a good tell about one your family how they brought you up and like you're the people that are around you more than anything and also you learn how you learn a lot about someone by the way they treat not me but the people around me who may know me and you you're really good at that like you're really good at making someone feel absolutely center of attention even though they're often not because like for you and i people come and hang out with us right so like

58:10Jake Dearden: Tommy I fucking love Tommy like you always that that's one thing again like not to lick your ass but like you appreciate I think we're very similar in that like you'll say hello to everyone in the room you're not just coming here saying hello to me you're right Tommy you're right Cameron guy over there like you you're literally asking about Tom's day you're asking about what he's doing and you do that with every person and it grates me I don't know about you but it grates me the people that just goes directly to whoever they want to speak to and they block out all the other people. Yeah, you want to make everyone's day, I think.

58:46Dan Churchill: It's kind of like karma, really.

58:47Jake Dearden: If you treat people nice, if you treat everyone nice, then you're not going to be treated badly.

58:52Dan Churchill: No, exactly, mate. No, no. It's very, it does be all to me, one of the biggest things and challenges in life I see, is like why we see, it's very easy to be nice. Very easy. it's very easy to be nice and on a selfish note like if you do say good morning to someone or have a great day it makes you feel better like i don't know what people don't understand about

59:15Jake Dearden: that like people who walk around especially like london you see it all the time like and i say good morning to people and they look at you like you are an alien like what like he's just said good morning to me i had one the other day like the other week and i think not the other week it was like last year and i was cycling and you know you've got to stop at lights i actually stopped at lights i didn't go through the red light i was like next to another cyclist in london i was on my lineback by the way he had like a proper bike nice nice nice locked in yeah and i just said good morning and he looked at me turned up fuck off you prick

59:56Dan Churchill: wow wow what jumped up his ass i was like what

1:00:03Jake Dearden: and he thought i was taking the piss but i said good morning he's just so shocked that someone

1:00:08Dan Churchill: would be so nice to him that's what it was i was like what is this guy i don't i don't know what's

1:00:13Jake Dearden: that he was an older gentleman probably around 50 60 oh he was definitely shocked yeah and i I just don't think people say good morning. I'm like, but it's nice to be nice. And it makes you feel good as well. It does, mate. Yeah. I like that. No, it's cool. And for the grateful thing, like, I don't know about you, but I got brought up. I, I say this, like when I was 16, if I ever dreamt of what my life could be like, this is better than my dreams. Yes. I get to compete. Yes. It's tough. Yes. Training's hard, but I get to travel the world, meet amazing people, and I'm so grateful for it. And I know it could be taken away from me tomorrow, like it could with us all.

1:00:59Jake Dearden: So, like, why are you not grateful to the people that you meet and grateful for the opportunities? Like, some people tell me, you need to start saying no more. And we actually said it on the YouTube. We were like, after I didn't get the result that I want, I need to start saying no more. I need to start saying no to all these distractions. But I then watched the film. Have you watched the film? Yes, man. Yeah. Well, that got me hyped up. I was like, I don't, I don't want to say no. I'm going to make my own rules. I'm going to say yes. He's going to say yes, dude. I'm going to say yes. So don't suggest anything crazy.

1:01:36Jake Dearden: Cause I might say yes, but I'm not, I'm the least craziest guy on the planet. I'm literally boring as fuck.

1:01:40Dan Churchill: Let's stop getting him in the restaurant. Yes.

1:01:43Jake Dearden: Yeah. But like at the end of the day, if it's like if you're saying yes to something that's not hurting you you know you're not going out drinking you're not going out on a big night out like you're maybe doing a little bit more travel but you're traveling with brands you're doing run clubs you're doing this that yes they are distractions but they're inspiring other people you get to meet cool people like i get hyped up by every single person that i meet that i meet like it's telling me about the training for a 10k they're training for a marathon whatever they're training for like it's like yes that's sick i then go and do my training i'm like that like i'm in it with other people it's not just me that's sitting on this bike being bored as fuck like there's other people doing this and we're all doing it together and it's cool and that like hypes me up and there's nothing better so like i think i don't know i think that's the old athlete mentality say no to everything say no to all your distractions you need to be hyper focused on what you're doing but at the end of the day you can't take it for granted no one's going to be in this sport forever so you might

1:02:50Dan Churchill: as well say yes to the things that come your way well let me ask you this dude i really i think this is a good one if you could swap with someone in the world their life with your life taking into account not just their profession but the fact that you wouldn't you'd have completely new friends everything else around you name someone you would do that with thinking about the fact that yeah you could enjoy their profession their money but you would miss all your friends so take them to count would you honestly do it and i've asked this question to people and some people

1:03:26Jake Dearden: surprised me but would you do it no no not at all not at all because i yeah i'm not a money orientated person i i i couldn't care less like the money i make it goes straight back into investing into into doing a podcast yeah doing a podcast mate the the amount of money i've invested into this i like my bank account is like hurting hurting like yeah subscribe subscribe dipping under yeah i don't know what you're subscribing to but uh but yeah i think i might have to start making an onlyfans to make this work nice nice um say yes say yes yeah subscribe to that it'll be coming out soon but uh yeah like but it's because we're doing sick stuff like it's the experience and at the end of the day like money comes and goes like when you all this is done what you're going to remember you're going to remember us having this good chat us going out for dinner and that's what i want to bring it back around to like food for me is one of the best things in the world number one it's an art i love going to any nice restaurant on and seeing what is being made and trying it because you never have the same thing twice and there's it's just something crazy about it i'm kind of obsessed with it call me a food snob i don't care like i will i like nice food um but i also like sharing that with people and i think it's the best thing that you can do sharing food with people having everyone's happy when they're eating and it kind of makes bad times better and it makes good times better like there's there's no downside to having nice food so that's why i'm so interested in you because you have found this from like a young age like you say it was the first thing you came across you were like food brings people together and i yeah i just think it's sick

1:05:29Dan Churchill: mate it's a universal language where i can put a bowl of ramen in front of a lovely japanese lady not speaking the same language verbally but she can understand every single thing that i'm thinking and you know at the end of the day it's like we eat when we eat we do slow down um i i recall the reason why my family was so close in those times where despite having different age groups and adolescence all those kind of things we were centered around the kitchen and table so i think the idea of a way to finish a meal or finish a day for me is always like with mates over a meal or with my lady over a meal it's it's like you sit down your your your conscience of the people around you is just so intentional um and and for me that's a gift that i get to be a part of when i have people come to the restaurants or or you know anything that i can do like when someone right shows me a photo of the meal they cook from one of my cookbooks with their family i'm like oh my god like i was a part of that moment and and that's to a point grateful because that is a special feeling it's an unbelievable feeling that's sick and i want to finish i'll come to finishing with uh some quick fire questions hit me first one when you go and eat out

1:06:51Jake Dearden: do you judge other people's foods like are you like the ultimate food critic and i know this

1:06:56Dan Churchill: isn't just a yes or no but like uh so the the reason why i'm slow to answer is because if the chef invites me out and wants my opinion i will 100 be critical but if i'm going out with friends going with melena no i'm there to enjoy myself relax and chill out because so you're not

1:07:16Jake Dearden: like i'm gonna go and have a word with this chef he's doing this wrong no you always always thank

1:07:22Dan Churchill: the chef so when you go up maybe the bathroom's close to the the counter you always go and say thank you because like you can say thank you the front of house which you should always do um because the teams no matter what whatever reason is is you know the service can be slow whatever it is there's always a reason for it but the back of house don't get like the face value

1:07:42Jake Dearden: so always go and say thank you to the chef team that's sick favorite cuisine italian absolutely went into that a little bit further favorite dish i think honestly honestly like the

1:07:54Dan Churchill: i think i've used the word romance a few times but there's something about cooking with your hands and the art of pasta making and gnocchi and pizza and like that thing is just beautiful like i grew up on the idea of loving open flame cooking so cooking with like proteins and vegetables over open flame but italian always comes back to me i love pasta um everything from bucatini to spaghetti spaghettini you know oricchietti like all of it man like i love every single pasta and it could be the fun way about it what it reminds my childhood just the thought of italy through it because i'm obsessed with italy it's my favorite cuisine i love that cooking on an open fire then

1:08:40Jake Dearden: or cooking on a pan? And I think I know the answer to this because I watch YouTube. Open flame. Open flame. I thought it was the opposite. Or maybe that's just steak.

1:08:50Dan Churchill: Steak, I prefer. Well, steak is unique in the sense that if I have the right steak, it's definitely an open flame. If I have a certain steak, the reason why you haven't seen me do a lot of open flame cooking right now on my YouTube is I don't have access to like a backyard because New York is kind of adverse in that. but if we're in australia or we're here or something like that bro you would like if we're in nashville i'd create a bonfire some hanging hooks some chickens hanging like a tomahawk steak some eggplant some veggies like dude it would be a vibe like when we did when we cooked on

1:09:25Jake Dearden: santa monica pier open flame sick that's that's interesting because i remember you saying and it was a valid point you was like most restaurants cook indoors with a pan because you're controlling more factors and you're going to get a better seer of the steak yes 100 but the fun in open

1:09:47Dan Churchill: flame cooking by building a fire creating the heat control um and just salt and pepper is is

1:09:55Jake Dearden: that that moment to me is fun yeah you're remembering that yeah next one moving on to fitness if you could only do one for the rest of your life are you going to choose running

1:10:07Dan Churchill: are you going to choose lifting weights uh i would say due to my i wouldn't say obsession but interest in longevity probably lifting weights interesting because i can lift weights to build my strength i can walk around still through cardio um but you can't with running you can run and not lift weights and i feel like it's gonna be more detrimental

1:10:33Jake Dearden: out of everything that you've done what you're most proud of i'd say probably like physically

1:10:39Dan Churchill: probably leadville i think that was just personally like with having asthma and like that as a challenge at altitude and my altitude sickness um obviously running 100 miles at nine and a half thousand feet minimum like that that's a challenge in itself but i i think more of the comeback like i i rolled my ankle one year and dedicated myself another year to come back and do it and i did so um and just the people around me was it was a sick moment what is your best

1:11:08Jake Dearden: habit that you could give someone that's watching this my best habit is probably my dedication to

1:11:16Dan Churchill: my morning of solidarity.

1:11:18Jake Dearden: So a morning routine.

1:11:19Dan Churchill: Yeah. Like it's more like just making sure it resets me every day and like it's nothing like woo-woo or spiritual. It's like I make a coffee and if I have access, if I'm at home, I have my red light and I read a book. And that moment just I've done something for myself that day and I do that every single day. Everything else, you know, good day, bad day, I've still done something for myself which is still a tick in the box. too often what happens is we do these days where we don't do something for ourself not one thing and it it really like you get to the end of the day it's like what have i done for myself and like you feel like you've you've missed something i don't get that because every single day i've at least made my coffee sat down read my book had mav next to me um and and just for 20 minutes i've i've i've been dedicated to myself which i think everyone should do not that routine necessarily but just something for themselves.

1:12:13Dan Churchill: I like that.

1:12:15Jake Dearden: You seem like a pretty perfect guy. Oh, mate. For what we've been talking about.

1:12:18Dan Churchill: Go ask Milena.

1:12:19Jake Dearden: Well, this might come through to her. What is a bad habit that you can't kind of kick?

1:12:29Dan Churchill: I'm just listing off the ones in my head that Milena continues to tell me that I do. I'm trying to think of like a not obvious one. Like, you know, I wear the shoes in the house when I shouldn't.

1:12:43Dan Churchill: i it could a bad habit could be i put like i wait till the weekend to do anything for um maybe the the like around the house or maybe it's more immediate for like my personal life and i leave like my because like i'm so switched to monday tuesday through to friday's work just locked in locked in and that can be an issue because as a habit it's like what if something needs to be more immediate it's middle of the week um but i just mentally like like you are with your phone i block it out because i don't want to touch it until the weekend um i also maybe a side one millennial would definitely agree with this one i've got an obsession with sport like i've got an obsession with american sport i've got an obsession with sport you know anything so like you constantly see me like reading chat blogs espn like what's going on in the epl what's going on in the championship go wrex them uh like all these different things and so i think you've noticed i've talked to you a little bit about sport before like i've got a i love sport how i

1:13:49Jake Dearden: don't even know how you fit that in like that's that's on top of everything else yeah maybe i'm

1:13:54Dan Churchill: just a simple guy i don't know where i get time for that but like even like a quick five minute squiz of like reading the latest in espn and seeing seeing something like it it i don't know that's it's a bad habit for sure because i dedicate a lot of time that could go to something else towards i don't know when i say a lot of time it's not quite not much time but like that's about time that i could dedicate to some more work or something like that or more importantly melena

1:14:19Jake Dearden: if you couldn't do what you do now what would you do and it can't be literally taking fitness out taking chef in our no food no fitness damn it what we could i be could i be like a

1:14:31Dan Churchill: all content creation okay shit okay um oh that would be cool you can't do sport so i can't be professional athlete okay so done that's gone okay i would probably be

1:14:51Jake Dearden: i asked tom this and he said drug dealer

1:14:57Jake Dearden: if it couldn't be a videography it'd be a drug dealer

1:15:01Dan Churchill: yeah good cash yeah it's good i wouldn't know but yeah yeah you don't work at all yeah it just does it all i i'd probably be um some sort of ancient history journalist or ancient or modern history like i really am fascinated by it so i'd probably spend time researching and then being able to write about it i reckon that's what i'd be if i wasn't because

1:15:27Jake Dearden: honestly that's the like so you like just to do you just have like night of the museum on repeat

1:15:32Dan Churchill: pretty much yeah yeah like i'm reading right now about like teddy roosevelt and like you know what he's done and like other presidents and is that why you've moved to new york because there's so much like history and so many museums i go past john d rockefeller's uh original you know um office every single day with maverick it's crazy like you go past the trinity church mate there's so much australia dude young country like even like it is even america to be fair america young country and It's still significantly older than Australia. Europe, holy shit. Like you guys are old. It's crazy.

1:16:14Jake Dearden: And then apparently Africa even older.

1:16:16Dan Churchill: Yeah. Well, we got Australia has, when I say Australia is young, the Australian with the white settlers to be discovered is young. But our native indigenous Aboriginals have been there, we know, for tens of thousands of years. It's crazy. i didn't know you was into history that's cool yeah well if it wasn't being a formula one driver or qb1 of the new england patriots or a sports journalist or an anchor of some sort it had to

1:16:44Jake Dearden: be probably ancient history this is just by prompted a question do you believe in any conspiracies

1:16:52Dan Churchill: you know i've actually been asked this before and i don't i can't i can't i think i like the idea of what i like i think of concepts of a conspiracy and go it's intriguing to hear their perspective but i can't believe it enough to say that i do believe it if that makes sense you're not you're not having flat earth no flat earth can yeah like i like the round situation especially when we you know you look at all the photos did we go to the moon yeah did we did we actually go

1:17:20Jake Dearden: to the moon did who killed jfk yeah and then just the big one like do you believe in aliens that's That's the one. Wow.

1:17:29Dan Churchill: Tommy, I think you somewhat qualify with an alien sometimes, don't you? I know. I'm too good at my job. Yeah, you're very good. You just continue to add more things.

1:17:37Jake Dearden: No one can hear him either. So like his witty comments that he's saying back to us, no one can hear it.

1:17:41Dan Churchill: You should get a little side. I'm going to set him up with Mike. Side producer Mike.

1:17:47Jake Dearden: Yeah. That's cool. And then last one that just always intrigues me, and I like to ask this, do you believe in retirement? and would you ever retire in a traditional sense that's probably the best question you've asked so

1:18:02Dan Churchill: far um at this point it's so hard to see retirement like as a traditional sense as a thing because i just love my job which is everything what am i going to do stop hanging out my mates and like teaching people how to cook like i may stop getting paid for it but does that mean i'm retired like i know the answer is no do i could i slow down a little bit yeah of course but i don't see the official concept of retirement um at least when i'm 36 odd and being like yeah i'm gonna do that yeah that's cool um nah i want to do i want to work for the rest of my life

1:18:45Jake Dearden: in some form and sense and i think that takes so much pressure off thinking about pensions thinking about savings all that shit which takes up so much stress and so much of your life thinking about like if you know and you're just in it i want to work to the day i die and it just takes away stress like that's hopefully what i can do obviously it's not going to be in the same thing but it's going to be a new chapter chapter after chapter you'll have new professions um i feel like it's very i feel like it's exciting as well like you don't know what you're going to be doing in even 10 years time none of us know what we're doing in 10 years time you don't know it could completely change so so the fact that you're looking however many years down the line and you're thinking oh i can't wait for retirement i think just believing in that is it it gives me sadness that i know everyone's different some people might just want to chill and do fuck all and do nothing but like it makes me sad that people aren't enjoying what they do right now enough that they can't see themselves doing it for the rest of their life no definitely not um which we're fortunate to have yeah yeah and i understand not everyone can be in that fortunate position but um i'd urge everyone to if you if you are thinking about you know jumping ships changing jobs whatever it is into a passion that you actually love i guarantee you'll probably be more successful in that passion because again it just gives you endless you're obsessed with it so it's endless energy and this energy comes out of nowhere i am the genuinely if you take fitness out of my life and you take the stuff that i'm interested out of my life i am the laziest person in the world.

1:20:36Jake Dearden: I'm not doing anything else. And genuinely, I'm so lazy. But as soon as you have a passion for something, it just gives you this fuel. Totally. It's free energy. Fires you up. It's like endless amount of calories. That's what it's like. Bring it back to food.

1:20:55Dan Churchill: I like that. I like that.

1:20:57Jake Dearden: And on that, I think we should end. Anything else you want to talk about?

1:21:01Dan Churchill: no i just it's been really cool to like i just say you know for those who don't get to know you at like the level i'm fortunate to know is like i think it really is important people understand is you as a human a great human like you really are and as i said earlier you've got amazing people around you and your support network who are great people themselves um but you're you are someone who is so grateful for every moment and so if people just like the instagram post or they watch a YouTube video and think like, you know, I'm liking this guy because of what he does. He's also an unbelievable individual aside from what he does.

1:21:41Dan Churchill: And I think we don't see, we don't get to know that a lot, obviously sometimes with what we do, you know, until you meet someone. But I just want to share that so people can genuinely understand like, oh, what it's like to like, what's Jake like? It's like, well, Jake's genuinely just another awesome bloke and he's exactly what you wish him to be. So good on you, dude.

1:22:02Jake Dearden: Seriously. Made me blush. No, that means a lot. Of course. That genuinely does. And I appreciate all the guidance you give me. Even just checking in, like I say, I'm shit on my phone. You're great on your phone. You check in all the time with me. And it's nothing to do with work. It's nothing to do with us meeting up. It's just you genuinely care about the people around you. and that's one thing that I'll learn from you and I appreciate like you've said how important your network is around you and the people that you spend time with. Again, like who wants to do this shit alone? Who wants to do life on their own?

1:22:44Jake Dearden: Like it's not where you go, it's the people you go with and if you can have fun with other people and look after other people, why wouldn't you? and that's that's that's cool but thank you i'm grateful um to have learned that from you appreciate it bro back at you