[MUSIC PLAYING]
SAM ZIEN: So thank
you for having me.
And I appreciate
Francesca's intro.
I'm not trying to make
people leave their jobs.
That's not the goal.
It was for me.
So let's see.
I was never somebody
that grew up
knowing what he
wanted to do in life.
No doctor, no teacher, no
accountant, no bus driver,
no clue, like
literally, no clue.
My father would take me
to see big band music.
I'm from Vancouver, Canada.
And the intermission,
we'd stand.
He'd have a cocktail.
And we'd just be in the lobby.
And he'd say, oh, there's
Joe Smith, my friend,
and there's Harry whatever.
And I was always
saying, what does he do?
What does he do?
What does he do?
I was hoping to hear something
that would catch my ear
and I'd be like, that sounds
like an interesting job.
I could do that.
Well, that didn't work.
And when it came time to
graduate from high school
and go to college, I did exactly
what one of my brothers did.
I went and took a
marketing program.
And then I went into advertising
because that's what he did
and it seemed like
a reasonable thing.
Seemed sort of creative,
and I felt like maybe I
had slight creative leanings.
And then I started
to get bored with it.
I got engaged to
my now wife, which
makes it sound like there was
another wife along the way.
That's not what I meant.
We've been married a long time.
And we moved to Toronto.
I worked for an
advertising agency
that wouldn't hire
me in the beginning
because I didn't
have any experience.
And finally, I said
to them one day,
we've had three interviews.
I'd love to be here
and you're telling me
I don't have any experience.
So let's do this.
Hire me for three
months and don't pay me.
At the end of three months,
if you think I'm useless,
you say goodbye.
I haven't cost you a cent.
But if at the end of three
months you think I'm useful,
then you start paying me.
And not only do I
know the business,
but I know your
particular business.
I know where the copier is.
I know how to get to
the client's offices.
I know what goes on here.
And they said, well,
let's think about it.
They took the weekend.
They called back and they said,
OK, we're going to hire you.
So they hired me
without paying me.
And at the end of three
months, they said,
this has gone really well.
We'd like to hire you
now and start paying you.
I said, that's very cool,
but one of your clients
just made me an
offer and I said yes.
So I start there on the
weekend or next week.
So now, I was the employee.
Now, I became the
client and it was great.
It was a marketing position
in a sporting goods company
in Toronto that got
sold to a French parent
company in Montreal.
They wanted me and my wife to
move to Montreal and neither
of us speak French.
And then-- this is
30-ish years ago--
not speaking French in
Montreal was a bit of a hassle.
It really limited
what you could do.
AUDIENCE: Outside of Montreal--
SAM ZIEN: Anyway.
I love the French.
And I like the real French too.
[LAUGHTER]
So I said no.
I said no.
And that's how they feel.
The real French look down
on the French Canadians.
And the French Canadians
are pissed about it.
But so we chose not to go.
And I go, now I can do what
I've really wanted to do.
I want to be in film.
Not in front of the camera, I
wanted to be behind the camera.
So I got a job as a
production assistant
at a production
company in Toronto.
And remember, Toronto
is a huge home
to tons of movie, film,
and television in Canada.
Big industry, but it also looks
like a bunch of big cities.
So you pick Toronto,
you pay Canadian wages.
The dollars are less up there.
The production crews
are just as good.
And it looks like New York
or Detroit or whatever.
So I did that.
It was just the worst
job in the world,
being a production assistant,
because it's literally
the worst stuff they can
think of to make you do.
Oh, the actor's dog just
took a crap over there.
Can you get that?
We need some dry
cleaning taken in.
We need this cable walked
four miles down the street.
It was just awful.
So I did that.
It was not nearly as
glamorous as I hoped.
And in that time, my advertising
brother called up and he says,
one of our clients, place
called Penguin's Frozen Yogurt,
is doing really well.
How do you feel about us
going into the frozen yogurt
business?
I was like, yes, in two seconds.
And we're going to do it in
Phoenix, even more exciting.
[LAUGHTER]
Get out of that horrible,
horrible Toronto weather,
go to Phoenix, do something new.
So I started off
marketing, then ended up
in an advertising agency, then
end up in the movie thing.
And then before I go to frozen
yogurt, I quit the movie thing.
I deliver pizzas in
Toronto for a few months.
We go to Phoenix.
We open up a Penguin's
Frozen Yogurt.
It's going great.
Some guy that has the rights
to Penguin's in Tucson
wants to buy the Phoenix market.
He buys it from us.
We just break even, don't
really make any money.
Now what do I do?
Now, I have nothing
to do and I still
don't know what I want
to do when I grow up.
So now what?
So I did what many
people do when they don't
know what they want to do.
I went into real estate.
It's an admirable profession.
I hated it, but I did it.
I got my license in Arizona.
And the day the license
came in the mail,
we decided to move to
California because we
had some family in San Diego.
We came here, got my
California license.
It was much more
difficult than Arizona.
If you're going to get your
license, go to Arizona.
It's easier than it
is in California.
Sold houses for five years,
couldn't stand a second of it.
Hated it.
I said to myself, something
good will come of this one day,
I honestly believe.
Finally, I sold a house to a guy
who started a biotech company--
worked for a biotech company.
Sold him a house.
Called me up a
couple years later.
He goes, I'm starting
my own biotech company.
Can you help me with
a commercial property?
I said, yes.
I didn't know anything
about it, but my manager
told me he'd help me.
And in that process, he says,
I like working with you.
We get along.
This is a good relationship.
Come work for the
biotech company.
I go, what am I going to do?
I don't know anything
about biotech.
He goes, you'll be the director.
You'll be the
facilities manager.
You know real
estate, construction.
It'll work out.
It'll be fine, blah, blah, blah.
So I go to work for
the biotech company.
I love it for five years and
then I start to hate it again.
It was the classic
three bears thing.
I could not find anything
I was comfortable doing.
And this is not rare.
I don't know how many
of you in this room
grew up knowing you wanted to
be a geek and work at Google.
I mean, when I grew up
there wasn't Google.
There weren't geeks.
And I mean that in the
nicest way possible.
I didn't just wreck this, did I?
Come on.
You guys all know it.
You can't not work here and--
OK.
So I go, something
good will come of this.
Now, I'm in the biotech company.
I can't stand it.
Can't stand it.
And now, I'm at home on Sundays
with the "San Diego Union"
help wanted general ad section
in front of me, cup of coffee
in one hand.
And now, I'm going
down the columns.
Help wanted general.
I'm looking for a career.
Help wanted general--
accounting, advertising,
automotive, banking, brake
alignment, bookkeeping,
candy making, cookie
thing, dance instructor,
delivery driver.
I mean, I could do
the whole alphabet.
And I was waiting for
divine intervention.
I imagined one day
my finger would
hit a job title or description.
I'd get a little chill.
It would be God talking
to me, saying, Sam,
this is what you should do.
And I'm going to tell
you, it didn't happen.
It doesn't happen like that.
I might as well have
been throwing darts
against a board with
job titles on it.
So now, I'm sitting in
my biotech office one day
and I'm mulling over this.
I'm very upset.
I can't figure this out.
I'm miserable.
I'm unhappy.
And I say to myself, I'm going
about this the wrong way.
I'm literally trying
to take my square peg
and cram it into a round hole,
and that's not the thing to do.
So what if somebody walked in
my office door and said to me,
OK, you can go do
anything you want
for a living, no
regard for making
money, what people thought,
providing for your family.
What's the thing that
you would want to do?
Answer it quick, Sam.
And my answer
instantly was I wanted
to go back to Tokyo where
I'd been a year before.
My brother-in-law
went on business.
I went for my 40th
birthday to myself.
And I know what you're thinking.
He's already past 40?
[LAUGHTER]
Joking.
So I want to go back to Tokyo.
And I'm a fairly practical,
pragmatic person.
So at that moment,
I start trying
to figure out how to get myself
back to Tokyo for a career now,
not just a vacay.
I could become a pilot
or flight attendant,
but I don't really like
to fly all that much.
I get sick on planes.
And God knows, I
don't want to have
to be nice to a
group of strangers
for like 14 hours at a time.
And have you seen
how people treat
flight crew on an airplane?
They're basically snapping their
fingers and they're rude as F,
and it's awful.
So I don't want to do that.
I could teach English
as a second language.
I come from Canada.
I believe I have a
pretty damn good command
of the English language.
I do speak the Queen's English.
But the idea of
coming home and saying
to my wife and three sons,
we're moving to Tokyo,
we're going to live
in 14 square feet,
we'll sleep standing up because
laying down is overrated,
it's going to be great--
that wasn't going to work.
And literally, that moment,
as I'm thinking this,
I'm also thinking about
a horrible newscast,
local newscast I'd
seen the night before.
Like wait a minute, what if
I did a kind of travel thing?
Because when I came
back and told people
that I spent most of my time
in Tokyo alone, certainly
during the day, my
friends were like,
I don't know if I
could do that, dude.
You can't read the language.
You don't know what the food is.
You can't get the signs.
You can't understand.
But for me, that was
kind of exciting.
I thought, maybe
I could do that.
And within about 15 minutes,
I had thunk up a perfect job.
I would go to foreign locations.
I would shoot some footage.
I'd put together a
little travel series.
I would come back and I
would air three or four
minutes a night on a
local news channel.
(NEWSCASTER VOICE) Stay
tuned all next week
while our travel guy shows you
the ins and outs of Tokyo--
or Hong Kong or
Bali or whatever.
It was a great idea.
I quit my biotech
job, say goodbye.
See ya, suckers.
I'm out of here.
I was so excited.
Pulled together
this little crew.
Nobody's getting paid,
but we're getting a trip
to Tokyo and Hong Kong
to shoot demo footage.
I'd managed to convince the Hong
Kong tourist board and a hotel
association in Japan to
sort of underwrite the trip.
Nobody gets money,
but we get flights
and travel and accommodation.
It's great.
All excited, things
are going beautifully,
until a month before
we're supposed to go,
and 9/11 happens.
And I always tell this part of
the story the exact same way.
I say, that day
changed thousands
of other people's lives
much more significantly
than it changed mine.
But it still changed my life
because after September 11
of 2001, nobody was
buying a travel show.
Nobody was getting on planes.
Nobody was buying a
travel show, especially
from a guy who barely
had ever traveled
and certainly had never
been on television.
What was I thinking?
Well, I was thinking that
I wanted to be happy.
That's what I was thinking.
So now, September
11 comes and goes.
It's literally the week after.
I'm sitting now in that
same spot on the couch
where I'm going
through the newspaper.
And my wife goes to work and she
says, what are you going to do?
I go, I don't know.
I don't know.
I wanted to encourage
people to travel,
do something they hadn't done.
And I liked that idea, but
what could I do with that?
So one day she goes to work.
I'm watching KUSI.
And on comes the
worst cooking segment
I've ever seen in my life.
I'm telling you,
it was horrific.
The chef, who could probably
kick my ass all over a kitchen,
was as boring as they came.
But he didn't need
to be exciting.
He's in the back, cooking food.
He's wearing his chef whites.
The anchors couldn't
pronounce creme fraiche.
It was idiotic.
It was boring.
The camera stayed on this
pot of butternut squash soup
for like a solid
30 plus seconds.
I go, this is awful television.
Somebody should do this better.
And then bing, there's
the light bulb.
And I go, crap, I
should do this better.
My wife comes home that day.
I go, I've got it.
She goes, what?
I go, cooking show.
Instead of short
travel segments,
I'll do short cooking segments.
She goes, I think that's a
fantastic idea, just one thing.
I go, what?
She goes, you can't cook.
[LAUGHTER]
I go, well, here's the thing.
Instead of watching a
cooking segment thinking that
looks good and complicated, but
now I'm hungry, let's go out,
people will watch and go,
that looks good and easy.
I'll be my own weakest link.
I can make that.
Now, my wife in all of
this, you have to understand
is the real genius
because in her mind,
there was no way that the travel
thing was ever going to work.
But what it was
going to do, it was
going to get me out
of the biotech company
where I was very comfortable.
I was safe.
And it's like, I was in
my bed in the morning,
the covers around my neck.
It was cozy.
I didn't want to get up.
I needed something.
I needed a life kick in the ass.
She knew the travel
thing wouldn't work,
but then two, three months
later, there I'd be.
Now, I'd be forced
to find something.
So travel goes, cooking comes.
She's still thinking
the same thing.
I call the crew, I go, boys--
because it was only men.
There would be women
today, I promise.
I've worked with a lot
of really talented women,
but it was only guys then.
I go, we're not going
to Tokyo or Hong Kong.
We're going to
shoot in my kitchen
and make a little cooking thing.
We shot, put it together.
I'm telling you,
you're going to see it.
It was my "Gone with the
Wind," my "Godfather"--
I like that-- my "Godfather."
So we'll watch it.
And just know, there's a
little stutter for those of you
in the room.
People watching this after
the fact will see it fine.
So now, understand is Sam
the cooking guy before he
was really Sam the cooking guy.
And I want you to try
and notice the mistakes.
You'll see the shadow
of the camera guy's head
on one of my cabinets.
[LAUGHTER]
There's a shot out the window
and there's a big C stand
that they use to hold equipment
that had tarps and junk on it.
And I can't find
my whisk in this.
The guy says, let's
cut that part out.
And I go, no, it feels
kind of authentic.
We'll leave it.
So this is me before me was me.
[LAUGHTER]
[VIDEO PLAYBACK]
- Hi, I'm Sam, the cooking guy.
Today, we're going to make
lemon teriyaki salmon.
I call it rainy day salmon
because back home, we
used to make it on
rainy days all the time.
And it takes no time at all.
We start very
simply with one pot.
We're going to put the following
seven ingredients into it.
Soy sauce, 1/2 cup.
1/4 cup of sake.
If you don't have
this, you should
because it's great to drink and
it's excellent to cook with.
1/3 cup sugar, teaspoon of
mint ginger, clove of garlic,
juice of one whole lemon--
juice going everywhere--
a teaspoon of dry mustard.
We're done.
We're going to put this on
the stove for 10 minutes,
let it simmer.
In that time, we're going to
heat the oven, cut our salmon,
and we're almost set.
Really, it only needs to be
there for maybe 10 minutes
maximum.
You just want it to
thicken up a little bit.
Grab my whisk.
OK, hang on.
I can't find my whisk.
OK, we're not going
to use a whisk.
You just need to stir it around.
All we're going to do now
is we're going to baste it.
It doesn't get any easier
than this, honestly.
We're going to pop
this under the broiler.
Five minutes on this side, five
on other side, and that's it.
If you bring this salmon to
the table looking like this,
people are going
to be blown away.
[UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING]
I amaze even myself.
My mom would be really proud.
Rainy day salmon.
I'm the cooking guy.
I'll see you next time.
[END PLAYBACK]
So look, anything--
[CLAPPING]
Oh, please don't clap for that.
[LAUGHTER]
It's like anything.
The first time you do it,
you're maybe OK at it.
The 10th time, you get better.
It really took me a
while to find my voice.
AUDIENCE: Maybe your
accent was thicker.
SAM ZIEN: It was thicker, yeah.
It was.
It was 15 years ago.
[LAUGHTER]
I might not have said
any O-U words yet.
I'll get there.
So we take that demo
and I send it out.
I managed to put
together five names
of people in the industry.
My ultimate goal,
our local stations.
The idea was like, make
it once and sell it
1,000 times around the country.
But I don't want to
go to local stations
first because if they
hate it, they're not going
to watch it if I get it fixed.
By the way, hi.
You just came in late.
You missed a lot of
really good stuff.
I'm sorry.
Really good stuff.
And I've given out really
good prizes so far.
The next person's talk, you
might want to come earlier.
So I don't want to send
it to a local station
because they're not going to
watch it a second time if I
figured out that it blows.
So I send it to outside people.
Nobody likes it.
One guy from Tribune Media
in Chicago actually says--
can I swear?
I'll just say the letter.
He actually said, you don't
have an effing chance.
But he didn't say effing.
He said the whole word.
Can you believe that somebody
would say that to you?
Can you?
So I said, all right,
now I'm so pissed.
Now, I am going to send it
to a couple local stations
and see what their reaction is.
I sent it to two stations in San
Diego, channel 7, the NBC guys.
Was rejected by a really
lovely English woman.
And you know the Brits can
make anything sound good.
(BRITISH ACCENT)
Hello, Mr. Zien.
We got your tape.
It's lovely.
It's just not right
for us at this time.
OK, I feel good actually.
[LAUGHTER]
I don't know why I feel good.
A doctor could come in, you go
in with a pain in your knee--
(BRITISH ACCENT) Mr. Zien,
we had a look at the X-rays.
We've got to amputate your head.
Oh, OK.
Do you want to do it now?
You want me to come back?
What's good for your sched--
right?
It's crazy.
I also sent it to channel 6,
which then was a Fox station.
I get a phone call back a
month later from a guy named
Alberto Pando, the vice
president of programming.
He says, so here's the thing.
I got your tape.
I put it in.
I watched it.
He goes, I really liked it.
He goes, you're kind
of like a little odd--
what you guys watched.
That made me odd.
Goes, you're a little odd, but
we'd love to talk with you.
So I go in.
They put me on TV twice a
week doing a 90-second segment
on their morning news,
Monday and Friday.
Unbelievable.
Here's the first one.
Here's the first one.
So I go that first day.
I'm going to be on
at like 10 to 8:00.
The guy comes in
about quarter to 8:00.
I'm in the green room,
which-- they're never green,
by the way.
And he goes, we've got
to bump you a little bit.
And I go, uh oh, here it comes.
They watched it again.
They realized I'm a fake.
They're not putting me on.
He goes no, no, no.
We just need to
put you 10 after.
And I think he could
see how nervous I was.
I mean, honestly, my heart
was moving in and out
of my sweater.
So he took me into
the control room
where I could see
the studio behind me.
I could see the big
board and all the TVs
and stuff they look at.
And it calmed me down.
And then I went in.
So this is me.
This is January, February
March, April, May--
May of 2002.
[VIDEO PLAYBACK]
- And that's where the
cooking guy comes in.
- Hi, I'm Sam, the cooking guy.
And today, we're going to make a
very delicious barbecue chicken
pizza.
The difference is, we're not
going to use this to make it.
We're going to use these.
Put your oven, 450 degrees.
Get it good and hot.
I like to start with a 10-ounce
Italian crust, bought it
from the store.
We're going to take and we're
going to brush barbecue sauce
on the crust, just about--
oh, I don't know-- about 2
tablespoons' worth of it.
On top of that, we're
going to put maybe 1/4
cup of smoked gouda cheese.
I've got 2 cups of
shredded chicken.
I bought a deli roasted
chicken at the supermarket.
You can make your own.
This is much easier.
I've mixed it with a couple
tablespoons of barbecue sauce
as well.
This is going on top.
Spread it around
with your hands.
Don't be shy.
That looks good.
Thinly sliced red onion.
And don't freak out.
The kids liked it.
My kids love this.
Top of that, mozzarella.
Put a bunch.
The oven's ready, 450.
Let's put this on a pan.
This is going to go in for
about 10 or 12 minutes.
Bingo.
When it comes out, it's
going to be awesome.
OK, it's been 12
minutes exactly.
Let's pull our pizza out
and see how it looks.
See, that's just perfect.
Put it on here.
We're just going to cut it
because that's what you do.
You can use one of those
pizza wheel cutters,
but I just like to
use a regular knife.
I think the last
thing I'm going to do
is I would throw just a
little fresh, chopped cilantro
on the top of this.
We'll take one bite just so
you can see I eat my own food.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Maybe we won't take one bite.
It's awesome.
I'm the cooking guy.
I'll see you next time.
- Very, cool.
- There he is.
- We want to welcome Sam,
the cooking guy, to the show.
- Thank you.
[END PLAYBACK]
SAM ZIEN: All right.
So they asked me, where did
you learn to cook, your mom?
I go, my mom is a great cook.
I take the tape and I send it to
her, a VHS, and send it to her.
She calls me up and she goes--
I go, hello?
She goes, I was a good cook?
I go, what?
[LAUGHTER]
She goes, I watched the tape.
You said I was a good cook.
I go, no, mom.
I said you're a great cook.
She goes, you said
I was a good--
I'm not arguing with my mother
about what I said on TV.
So a year after these segments,
we win two Emmys, a local Emmy.
Same statue, but it can't
be seen by more than 50%
of the country.
You win Emmys for 90
seconds of television.
It's fantastic.
I was like, hey, what?
You can win Emmys for a
commercial's length of stuff?
So then it becomes
a half-hour show.
By the way, this whole
year that I'm doing this,
I'm not making a cent.
They didn't offer me money.
I didn't ask for money.
It's not that I'm
independently wealthy,
but I knew I needed them
more than they needed me.
They actually kicked
a guy, a chef, off
of their channel to put me in.
And I don't think it
was because I was free,
I think it was because
I was different.
I wasn't the same.
So then, it becomes a half-hour
show that was produced,
shot, edited by channel 6 and
the county television network,
shared.
After a year, that
won two Emmys.
Like holy smokes, this
Emmy thing is fun.
[LAUGHTER]
The general manager of
channel 6 at the time
takes me in his office.
I'm eventually making money.
By the time the
first year ends, I'm
making a couple hundred
dollars each time these things
air, so like 400 bucks a
week, which is excellent.
And when the half-hour
show-- he sits me down.
He goes, here's what
we're going to do.
We're going to pay
you the same way.
Every time it airs,
you're going to get this.
First time I get a paycheck
after the half hour
show starts airing, there's
no half-hour money on it.
I call the payroll
people and they go,
oh, he just needs to tell us.
We'll get it going.
I call him up.
I say, hey, blah, blah, blah.
He goes, I never said that.
I go, wait, sorry,
you never said what?
He goes, I never said I'd pay
you for the half-hour shows.
Well, I stood in your office.
You were at the flip chart.
You did the thing.
We had the whole conversation.
Al was there.
He goes, I never
said I would pay you.
I go, oh, OK.
Hang up the phone.
Now, I start finding out that
this guy-- this is this guy's
MO.
Says one thing,
does something else.
Pretends to be religious.
He's a religious guy.
His denomination doesn't matter,
but he wore it like a jacket,
except he was a piece
of you know what.
Say one thing, do
something else.
I said, I won't work
for this guy anymore.
But I know if I walk
up to him and say
I'm going to quit
in two weeks, he's
going to say, tell
you what, quit now.
You're done.
And I didn't want to just
go quietly into the night
and not have people that were
following my segments on TV
just think that I'd quit.
Because social media
15, 14 years ago
wasn't really like it is now.
I didn't have a huge following.
So I decided I would take
myself off the air myself.
So one day-- it's a Friday.
And just as the
segment's ending,
I'm sitting there
talking to the anchors.
And I go, guess what?
Big news.
They go, what?
I go, next Friday.
They go, yeah?
I go, is my last day.
By the time I got home,
there was an email,
don't bother coming back.
But at least I got
to say my last day.
So now, along comes
the Discovery Networks
to do a show.
Would you be interested
in doing a show?
Of course I would.
So we shot something
called "Just Cook This"
with Sam the cooking guy.
And they go, but
Discovery Health
is the network it will air on.
We like to do healthy stuff.
What would your angle be?
Because it's not like you're
known for health food.
I go, it would be this.
Here's a pizza.
Here's lots of cheese and
pepperoni, stuff like this.
Don't eat the whole thing.
The guy laughed.
[LAUGHTER]
And he bought it
and I had a show.
It was kind of that.
Until Oprah came along and
bought, literally bought,
the Discovery Health
number on the dial
everywhere and turned it into
the Oprah Winfrey Network, OWN.
And I'm not bitter that she
had to have her own freaking
network and felt that her people
felt that my stuff was too
male oriented.
But it's not.
I mean, I think a lot of
guys watch my show, maybe
more than generally watch
straight cooking shows.
But still, the predominance
of my audience is female.
No, they didn't like me.
So that's fine.
Meanwhile, a publisher
comes along and says, would
you like to do a cookbook?
I'd love to do a cookbook.
Cookbook comes
out, the first one.
There's now three.
They go, we got you a
spot on the "Today Show."
That's fantastic,
the "Today Show."
It's great.
I go to the "Today Show."
It's in New York.
It's a big deal.
Matt Lauer had not been
fingered as a bad guy yet.
America was so
innocent in those days.
I do the segment.
I'm making chicken enchiladas,
white chicken enchiladas.
They're on the website.
They're in my first cookbook.
There's cream and
there's cheese.
And Hoda Kotb, in the
middle of this as I'm
putting cream and cheese
in, she goes, uh oh.
I go, what?
There's a lot of something
there, a lot of fat.
I go, well, if a recipe
says, serves six, it should.
Don't eat the whole
thing yourself.
Second I say that, I said, don't
eat the whole frickin' thing
yourself.
The crew laughs.
And I think, uh oh, is this
bad that I've said "frickin' "
on the "Today Show?"
Segment ends.
I'm walking down the
street with my wife.
I get a text from the "Today
Show," two important questions.
Can you come back
in three weeks?
My wife's like, what, what?
I go, they want me back.
She goes, they do?
Well, thanks for the support.
[LAUGHTER]
Yeah, they do.
I go, and there's
another question.
She goes, what?
I don't know.
It's not important.
She goes, what is it?
And I read it.
She goes, everybody
here wants to know
where your wife got her boots.
[LAUGHTER]
So here's the moral.
Just when you think
it's all about you,
it's about your wife's boots.
Anyway, I go back.
I go back.
And here's my second
time on the "Today Show."
[VIDEO PLAYBACK]
[MUSIC PLAYING]
- We're back with
"How Low Can You Go"
and how to make delicious
dishes on a budget.
- Now according to Sam Zien,
the four most common items
found in your kitchen
cabinets are these--
bread, peanut butter,
pasta, and tuna.
So Sam, who's the author
of "Sam the Cooking
Guy," just a bunch of
recipes, is here to show us
how to turn cheap staples
into new and exciting dishes.
And Sam, I know especially now
with the way the economy is
going, everyone is
trying to figure out
how to stretch the dollar,
how to make it work.
- We got all this stuff at home.
You might as well use it.
It's easy stuff, simple, quick
little things that you can do.
And it's not going to
cost you a lot of money.
- New ways to look
at old products.
- Don't make the same things
the same way over and over.
- That's what we're
trying to say, Sam.
- Yes, that's what
we've been saying.
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
- OK, right off the
bat, right off the bat.
Come over here.
Come here.
- All right, let's go.
What are we making?
- Kathie's giving
me the OK, Sam.
So we're making a tuna--
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
- We're making a tuna--
- Tuna's the second thing
we have in our house.
- Please, can I talk?
I watch this show everyday.
Everybody has issues with
a lot of chatter back here.
Pay attention one minute.
Oh, that seemed to work.
- I hope you enjoy your--
- Hoda, hope you enjoyed your
last time on the "Today Show."
I'm only kidding.
- Hey, it's been fun.
- And I've already
complimented you
on how pretty your dress is.
- I was lying about
your eyebrows.
I think they're shabby.
[LAUGHTER]
- OK.
Onion-- I don't even
know what I got--
cucumber, tomato,
Kalamata olives.
We're basically making
a standard Greek salad.
- All right.
- We take some feta cheese.
I love to buy the
block feta cheese.
I can hear the crew back
there going, this guy,
it's his last day for sure.
- They've been
around a long time
because they don't
talk to us like that.
[END PLAYBACK]
[LAUGHTER]
SAM ZIEN: So my
editor's with me there.
We leave.
We go for brunch or breakfast.
And there's no talk about
that being problematic.
[LAUGHTER]
There's no talking about
that being problematic.
He just goes, look, it's just
another good "Today Show"
appearance.
So the "Today Show,"
they send a car
to take you back to the
airport and I'm in the car.
And my wife, who's
now a few hours
ahead of me or behind,
she's now watched it.
And now people are texting her.
And she's texting me, oh my god.
I go, what?
She goes, I can't believe
what they're saying.
I go, what are they saying?
She goes, they're
saying you're a hero.
I go, a hero for what?
She goes, for telling Kathie
Lee Gifford to shut up.
I go, I never said shut up.
[LAUGHTER]
I said, please, please
can I talk one minute?
She goes, well, they think
you did something great.
I go, this can't go well for me.
So anyway, that was a Thursday.
By Saturday, Sunday,
it had been online.
It had been watched
like 50,000 times.
Now, it's at 1.7 million
or something like that.
I go to Seattle two
weeks after that.
And I get off the
plane in Seattle
and there's a text
from the "Today Show."
Hey, we'd like you to come back.
I go, great.
Can you call?
So I call and they go,
that segment was great
and it generated a lot of buzz.
We'd like you to come
in and address it
with them and we'll have a
coach here to deal with--
[LAUGHTER]
An etiquette coach.
So they had a good coach.
That was my third time.
It's not been watched very much.
It was awkward AF.
I'm telling you,
Kathie Lee Gifford
stood beside me and in
the middle of my talking--
so there was this little
conversation with the etiquette
coach and then goodbye,
and then I'm cooking.
And she's standing beside me.
She's rubbing my face.
She goes, are we
making you nervous?
She wasn't making me
nervous, it was just weird.
And then she takes her
fingers and puts them
underneath my armpit.
And she goes, oh,
you're sweating.
OK, A, I had like two
layers of clothing on.
So no, that wouldn't
have been possible.
B, I'm a Jewish male.
We don't sweat.
[LAUGHTER]
So it was just creepy.
Anyway, I've been there 12
times in total, every other time
not with them.
They've always put me
with somebody else.
But one of the upshots of
this is I get a phone call
from a producer at the Stern
show one day, who said, boy, we
just found that clip.
So here's just
the audio of that.
HOWARD STERN: What's this clip?
ROBIN QUIVERS: [INAUDIBLE]
HOWARD STERN: A cook telling
Kathie Lee to be quiet
today on--
ROBIN QUIVERS: Let me hear that.
HOWARD STERN: Whoever
this is, is a genius,
if this is for real.
Let me hear this.
The cook's name is Sam
Zien, Z-I-E-N, Zien.
And his website is
thecookingguy.com.
And he is my hero.
And I love this guy.
And I think he's a real man.
And too bad he had to do the mea
culpas back there afterwards.
He shouldn't have.
ROBIN QUIVERS: But he
still kept it light.
He's an entertainer.
HOWARD STERN: That is
the greatest single clip
that should be played
every day on this show.
[LAUGHTER]
SAM ZIEN: All right, my
moment on the Stern show.
And by the way, I'm a
huge Howard Stern fan.
Anybody else?
You got the new app?
Video, it's got video.
It's great.
Anyway.
So then the
publisher comes back.
They want two more books.
We do the books.
Look, the point of the story
for me is really simple.
I just wanted to be happy.
I say to people, the
guy that you see on TV,
and hopefully the guy you're
seeing now, is the same person.
There's no fake.
There's not one on-camera
persona and then another one.
There's just me.
If you like me,
great, watch the show.
If you don't like me,
don't watch the show.
And honestly, you don't need
to send me an email telling me
why you don't like me.
[LAUGHTER]
I don't need that.
I have a-- getting to be
a robust YouTube channel.
And with that
comes the comments.
You're this, you're that.
You can't do this,
you can't do that.
I watched that episode.
It sucked.
Then I watched that
one and it sucked.
And then I watched
that one and it sucked.
I mean, stop watching
me, for God's sakes.
[LAUGHTER]
But the concept of--
look, in the beginning,
I cut myself a lot.
I burned myself a lot because
I didn't know what I was doing.
It's that 10,000 hours concept.
You do something enough,
you get to do it well.
My third cookbook, I wrote,
cooking is like riding a bike.
The more you do it,
the better you get.
The reality is, everything
is like riding a bike.
The first time we all rode a
bike, the same thing happened.
We fell off and
we hurt ourselves.
And a day later or maybe that
afternoon, you finally get up
and you can ride a bike.
First time you make a
pineapple upside-down cake,
maybe you burn it.
Maybe you follow
the recipe to the T
and 350 for 55
minutes in your oven
is wrong because your
oven is not calibrated.
It's really 385.
Who knows what their
oven temperature
is unless you have a little
thing that will calibrate?
So what's the point?
The point is, when
you do something,
you should enjoy it
because you'll do it better
than anybody else.
That's true.
There's that book, "Do What You
Love, The Money Will Follow."
I say it should be
called "Do What You Love,
You'll Be Really Damn Happy."
And then maybe
the money follows.
And if it does, it's a bonus.
But literally on the
last day on this planet,
nobody's going to
remember the money.
You're going to remember
how you feel inside.
And that's really
all that matters.
The last thing I'll
show you is my now demo.
I wish it didn't stutter,
but it's my demo from today.
And now, after all these
years, I found out who I was.
That first demo you saw, I had
all my food all chopped up,
pre-prepped in little
bowls in front of me
because that's what cooking
shows did in those days.
You had all that stuff set.
And I didn't know to be myself.
I just knew to try and
be like everybody else.
It took me awhile.
I finally got it figured out.
And now, I'm happy.
It's me.
It works.
You like me, great.
If you don't like me,
please don't watch.
[LAUGHTER]
Unless you have
one of those boxes
that measures audience watching,
and then watch me and then
turn it off.
But don't email me.
Here we go.
[VIDEO PLAYBACK]
- Hey, I'm Sam the cooking guy.
And this is about
me showing people
how to make regular, everyday,
but really good food.
[CHUCKLES] Look at
them going already.
Little bit more
pepper for color.
And that's it.
Wow.
Man, is that good.
Tell me that doesn't look
beautiful and pretty and
amazing.
Look at the colors
in this scene.
That, you just put that out.
And I mean food that
anyone can make, anyone.
That's a burger.
Look at that.
This is a very pretty pizza.
Why do I now have to start
mixing my own dressing?
You can if you want to.
I'm here to teach you things
that you can do quickly
and simply.
1, 2, 3, 4 ingredients.
We've got the
raspberries in here
that went in frozen, the cake,
the peaches in heavy syrup,
a little bit of butter over
the top, and that's it.
Bingo, we're done.
In fact, they call it
a reality cooking show.
Whatever really happens when
we shoot stays in the show.
Oh, oh.
Hot, really hot.
Welcome back to the zoo.
[LAUGHS] Ready for this move?
Here we go.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Nice.
We're going to take them
and we're going to go--
Hi, I'm Rachael Ray.
And welcome to
"30 Minute Meals."
Oh god.
Whoa, whoa.
And unlike some
other cooking shows,
there's no fancy ingredients.
In fact, everything comes from
a regular, everyday supermarket.
So we had this idea.
We thought we'd do a
whole show about potatoes
because everybody
likes potatoes, right?
Ready bacon, one of my
favorite things ever.
We did pesto.
We did the goat
cheese, tomatoes,
the melted mozzarella.
This thing, two ingredients.
Come on, let's get going.
And the line that I use,
things that are big in taste
and small in effort.
Come on now.
This is crazy good.
You have no idea how
good these guys smell.
Cocoa powder on top,
and then the last thing,
a little bit more of
the powdered sugar.
That makes the cocoa
powder look pretty.
It's perfect.
We've done a good
job here today.
And unlike other
stand-and-stir cooking shows,
we don't just stay
in the kitchen.
We get out.
We really get out.
Today is Sam the
Cooking Guy out at sea
with the USS Ronald Reagan.
Today, we're starting our cool
kitchens on the Light Star.
It's time for the San
Diego County Fair.
Today, we're having
a ball inside.
Let's go.
Come on, everybody.
Let's not just cook with
the coconut oil from Fiji,
let's go to Fiji.
And we did.
So it only seems right, since
we're in the Mexican Riviera,
we do some Mexican
Riviera kind of cocktail.
This is my hometown,
Vancouver, British Columbia.
I love this place.
I grew up in this place.
I've been watching the
food on the "Today Show"
while in Vancouver.
And it's been nice, but
it was time somebody
did this, something that
everybody could make.
I say this is Canada's
culinary gift to the world.
And so that's it.
Lots of entertainment,
great food, tons of fun.
I mean, what more do you
want out of a cooking show?
Why hasn't somebody
thought of this already?
I have no idea.
What?
What?
Oh.
Somebody put the-- honey, The
Emmys are in the fridge again.
(WHISPERS) My bad.
So sorry.
Aw, geez.
[END PLAYBACK]
So that's a bunch
of years, but it's
being happy and comfortable
and really liking what you do.
And I get to wake up.
I mean, A, I don't have
a very far commute.
It's downstairs.
And I get to do all
kinds of fun stuff.
We've shot three shows with the
Navy, two on aircraft carriers,
and one on a fast
attack nuclear sub
that we got to spend 24
hours on each one of them.
And the Navy is amazing.
It's nothing but
practice, get your game
down perfect for
the moment when you
have to be able to do everything
without even thinking about it.
It's really spectacular.
There's nothing like being on
the deck of an aircraft carrier
with those things landing
right in front of you.
It's unbelievable.
And the only part that had
been sort of-ish lacking
is the restaurant thing.
And I get that
question all the time.
Sorry.
And finally, we'll answer it.
We're going to open a very
small thing this summer
in what will become the
new Little Italy food hall.
There will be six
restaurants in there.
Mine is called "Not Not
Tacos" because they're tacos,
but they're not
tacos in the sense
that they're carnitas
or carne asada
or pollo or chorizo,
nothing Mexican.
It will be things like
Asian salmon and pastrami
with crispy onions and
melted cheese and coleslaw,
an over-easy egg on top
and that kind of stuff.
So that's all I got, really.
FRANCESCA: Thank you so much.
Do we have any questions?
[APPLAUSE]
Questions, guys?
SAM ZIEN: We believe it'll be
June 25, last week of June.
But there's six places
that have to all be ready,
and the project itself.
They've closed off Date Street
between India and Columbia.
It's now a piazza, Piazza della
Famiglia, with a giant fountain
there, really beautiful
spot, beautiful location.
So all the rest
of this stuff has
got to be done
before health permits
and all that stuff happens.
But it's looking like it's
going to be a good thing.
Yeah.
It's fun.
Do what you love, the money
will follow or something.
Yes, sir?
AUDIENCE: --daily expenses?
SAM ZIEN: How did I
afford daily expenses
when I wasn't making any money?
Because I didn't.
That first year, I
didn't make anything.
The second year, I think
I made $16,000, which
averaged out to $8,000 a year.
OK, I'm going to admit it.
I was part of the
housing crisis problem.
[LAUGHTER]
The banking issue.
I pulled money out
of my house that I
wish I still had in my house.
But those were the
days when you could
get a loan from the bank to buy
a house with seemingly nothing.
You have a job, you
have warm blood, fine.
We'll give you a couple hundred
thousand dollars for a house.
That's what I did.
My wife worked.
And so that's not
completely true.
So my wife worked, that's true.
But I continued to consult for
biotech for a couple of years
after that.
So I made money that way.
I hated it.
I was miserable.
What struck me, as Francesca
was walking me around today
and we got to your tap room--
and I'm just curious.
I go, are there limitations,
have all the beer you want,
but after four
o'clock or something?
She goes, no, doesn't matter.
So I went from being
the facilities manager
to the director of operations
at the biotech company.
We're about 125 people.
I reported directly
to the president.
And I go to him one day
and I go, got an idea.
We had a small campus,
four buildings.
And I go, I'm going to
put a basketball hoop
in between the engineering
and the, whatever, biology
building.
And he looks at me and he
goes, well, what's that for?
And I go, it's for basketball.
[LAUGHTER]
And he goes, why are
you putting it there?
I go, because a couple
of people have asked.
I think it's a great thing.
You go blow off a little steam.
He goes, we're not putting
a basketball hoop in.
I go, I want you to
think about this.
It's good.
He goes, I don't want that
scientist spending all his time
playing basketball, not
being at the bench working.
I said, he doesn't
report to you.
He has his own boss, the
director of chemistry.
And think about this.
Two things are going to happen.
He spends all his day
time playing basketball
and now, we know the
guy does nothing.
And he gets fired.
We're getting rid of
terrible dead wood.
Or he's working on a really
complex chemical reaction.
He's having trouble
making it come together.
He needs to clear his head
instead of sitting at his desk
and looking at chemistry books.
He goes outside.
He plays hoops for 15 minutes
or Horse by himself or whatever.
It comes to him.
He comes inside and he
fixes it, and it works.
That's success.
Either case, it's success.
And he goes, oh, OK.
We're not putting a
basketball hoop any time
while I'm president
of this company.
That was the day I
said I need to leave.
I won't work for this guy.
It took me two years
to actually pull
the trigger on the whole
thing and figure out
because I didn't want to just
go to another biotech company.
But just look at how
far things have come.
Honestly, I don't think
that guy would do anything
different today.
He was like that.
And he knows how
I feel about him.
We've talked about,
this is ridiculous.
But hopefully you guys are in
a good spot, great company,
doing things that
you really like.
And if you don't, then quit
and just don't mention my name.
I had nothing to do with it.
[LAUGHTER]
I'll tell you something.
You know what?
So when I had the idea
to do the cooking show
and then I started looking
for a kitchen, remember,
I only knew what I saw on TV.
So I went looking for a kitchen
that looked like a kitchen
in a cooking show studio.
AUDIENCE: I'd think
that would ruin it.
SAM ZIEN: So here's what I did.
I took my real
estate background,
and I went to a lot of
the real estate offices
and I gave them flyers, the
tony, fancy ones, Rancho Santa
Fe, Del Mar, Fairbanks Ranch.
Do you have a client that
would like their kitchen
to be featured in
a TV show pilot?
[LAUGHTER]
It wasn't a pilot.
It was nothing.
It was a dream.
It was as close to
being a pilot as me
dreaming about having kids
one day when I was like 18.
I'm going to have kids one day.
It was that.
And I went and I looked
at a few kitchens.
And there's always something
wrong, too many windows,
not too many windows,
but ugly countertops.
So I'm sitting in my kitchen
one day, my older kitchen,
writing notes about
what I needed to do.
And there was a
moment, I'm thinking.
I look at my kitchen.
I go, this show's
for regular people.
I don't want a 2,000 square
foot kitchen in Rancho Santa Fe
home.
I want my kitchen.
So that made sense.
Cutting myself, leaving that
in when I do that on the show
made sense.
I heard that Rachael Ray,
one of her first times
on her show, "30 Minute
Meals," she cut herself.
They stop the tape.
They got the blood off.
They Krazy Glued it--
which you can do that.
It won't hurt you.
I've done it so many times.
They Krazy Glued her finger,
put a little makeup on it,
rolled the tape back,
and then carried
on like it didn't happen.
Well, if I drop
something or burn myself
or whatever, that to me, is--
I said it-- reality
cooking show.
But you have to specify
reality because there's
a lot of fake
reality these days.
You're not going to find 10
white supremacists with a 10
all-black church choir on the
same little island that have
to live together for 10 days.
That's not going to happen.
That's not reality.
That's made up stuff
that producers force.
This is realistic.
If my doorbell rings in
the middle of the show,
I might yell at whoever it is,
but we leave that kind of stuff
in.
And that's when people
will come up and go,
you make me feel
like I can cook,
like you've given me license
to screw up and make mistakes.
Well, that's what it is.
That's what cooking is.
Until you start doing it,
don't stay out of a kitchen
because you don't think
that you can make mistakes.
You can.
I make them all the
time, big ones too.
Lost a piece of the
end of my finger once.
The crew called it finger
halibut for months.
[LAUGHTER]
It was really good
until the end of it.
And we're like, oh, I do not
know where that piece of finger
went.
[LAUGHTER]
Seriously.
It was such a creepy,
horrible moment.
[LAUGHTER]
Good.
AUDIENCE: Is it
still the same crew?
SAM ZIEN: No, it's changed
so many times since then.
It really has, yeah.
But always, the people
have been great.
And when people have
taken the spot of somebody
else and they didn't know if
they could do that kind of--
it's very different
television because apart
from a very small
period of time,
it's one camera, which
is a bit of a dance
that you have to learn.
Three cameras--
three cameras here.
There are Food Network shows--
Tyler Florence had
a show, I can't
remember what it was called--
they shot the same
food three times.
One shot wide, you'd see the
whole kitchen and all of him.
The second one, you'd see
him from the waist up.
And the third one,
just his hands.
And he'd make that same
pasta carbonara three times,
far, medium, close.
And then an editor sits
with three separate lines
and builds it all together.
I don't like that.
I like a relationship
with one camera.
People say, I feel like
you're talking to me.
And I think that's
because of how we shoot,
partially me because
I'm weird, whatever,
but partially because
it's one camera.
I can look right at that camera
like I'm talking to somebody.
AUDIENCE: Yeah.
It's like the new sitcoms where
they do the single cameras
like "The Office."
SAM ZIEN: Right.
Exactly.
That's exactly what it is.
It really works for me.
I shot an infomercial
last February
and another one this
past February in Tampa.
And there were like six cameras.
And that's a weird
thing to get used to.
You really have to
know which one at which
times and there's a lot of this.
No, that one right now.
[LAUGHTER]
And you're looking here
and you hear the snapping,
and you don't want to
take your gaze off.
But it's fine.
It's fine.
Yeah.
All right.
AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]
SAM ZIEN: Oh.
When we started, my wife
did all the cooking.
The only thing I
did back in that day
when I said I'm going to start
a cooking show, the only thing I
did was grill.
And that's because I'm a guy.
We're supposed to.
We pee standing up
and we're supposed
to be able to grill too.
[LAUGHTER]
And I couldn't do things yet.
I couldn't grill.
I mean, I did it because
it was kind of my job.
And I would go take a steak
out or burger or chicken,
ruin it, bring it in.
We'd eat it quietly
without talking
about how much I had ruined it.
But now I, most of the
time, pee sitting down.
Too much information, but--
[LAUGHTER]
My grill game has
really been elevated.
There may be something to this.
Let me make a suggestion.
[LAUGHTER]
AUDIENCE: Spread
too thin [INAUDIBLE]
SAM ZIEN: That's right.
See, I'm as stupid in person
as I am on television.
Five years ago,
we started a thing
called "The Sam Livecast."
And it was actually
live, for anywhere
from 30 minutes to an hour and
a half, a couple days a week.
And it was great.
It was too long.
It didn't need to be live.
People don't need
to be watching live.
And we've changed it.
It's now an average of
three to five minutes.
We had almost 70,000
subscribers now,
that have really grown literally
in the past couple months.
We found a three- to five-minute
thing that really works.
And people like it.
Most of those short things,
you don't even see the person.
It's just like the
tasty things, the pot
from the top down and the
hands, and then takes it away
and comes back, cook,
that kind of stuff.
So there's more personality
in mind, talk through it.
You see me sometimes,
but we like
it and people seem to be
really liking it, so yeah.
And as my son, who shoots
most of my stuff now,
says F television.
[LAUGHTER]
He goes, dad, people
don't care anymore.
It doesn't matter.
They want the content.
Yeah.
FRANCESCA: Thank you
for coming, guys.
SAM ZIEN: Yeah, thank you guys.
[APPLAUSE]
