I feel like singing that. I don't know why, maybe it's because it's Friday. I'm feeling good. I've got a friend on this episode. Welcome to the podcast where we're absolutely sure we don't know everything. I'm your host, Cassie Darra. And you know this podcast. Maybe we're here to talk about things. We are on a short.

That we question life journey, life's purpose. But this is a very fun episode for me, not only because it's my friend, but because I think your journey is so fun and interesting to talk about. And it's it's so like it's so unique to like the experience of people are age, but also not that crazy when you like learn more about what you do. Okay, enough being ambiguous. I have got Matthew Francis.

That's a famous chef producer. You're a fucking author of a YA novel. And you are on this season of hell's kitchens, young guns. Matthew Francis, my friend. Thanks for being here.

I'm so happy to be here and just talk shit with you and just have a good time. Now we know each other from the bus these days. You are famous in my mind for making over 100.

I don't even know how many videos you made for tasty, but for those who aren't like immediately clicking tasty are those videos you see online where it's like top down and someone's hands making a bunch of stuff. And like what did what were the stats like one in three people in the world have seen a fucking tasty video like aliens have seen tasty videos, I think.

Yeah, it was like one in three when I was there. I'm sure now it's like every single human being and aliens. It's yeah billions and like yeah, the videos I made at the time had millions of views. And now I'm sure it's like I can't even you know, so it's like it's just beyond. I'm happy I was there for while I was there. Yeah, I learned so much and it was great. Yeah, so that's how we met and I just remember being like, Oh, I remember when you came in. It was a big deal because you were a fucking chef.

Like you had gone to some fancy school, which I know I know because I'm obsessed with the book kitchen confidential Anthony Williams book and he talks about CIA because I remember being like, what he went to the CIA and it was like, no, it's the culinary institute of America, which in y'all's world is a huge fucking deal.

Like you went to the Harvard of cooking school in America, right? Yeah, basically, I mean, you know, people make debate certain things, but it's like a real college. It could a real degree and it's also like one of the best culinary schools and it was my dream school as a kid.

And so when I finally got in and I got to go and it was like beyond all I ever could have imagined and I met friends that like had the same passion that has to meet for the first time.

It was just it was really, really beautiful and like I'm grateful that my college experience was like everything I could have ever wanted and more.

Yeah, I mean, it's definitely not a typical college experience. Like we're not talking about like fraternity and football games. We're talking about like four guas and like fancy feasting. I don't know, I was trying to make it all apps there.

Like you went to the Harvard of cooking schools and then you went to like the Harvard of digital companies, like you, you've remained, oh man, there's going to be so many food puns. I was going to say you've been like in the filet mignon of your life for a very long time.

And now you're a contestant on Hell's Kitchen, which like we'll get into, but I want to rewind a little bit and talk about like how you even got into food and cooking and ending up at a dream school like the CIA.

Well, for me, you know, my family always really loved cooking growing up. Like my dad did more like the savory things, you know, like grilling and made dinners and my mom loves to bake.

And so we were just always around food as a kid. And I was, I probably ate way too much food, you know, because I was, yeah, exactly. And I ended up when I was young, I was around like 310 pounds. Like I was like really pretty hefty and that's because I was eating good food all the time.

My family didn't care that we ate a lot and I would always watch like food TV. So it was just like all over.

And also I was like in the closet when I was young. So I think maybe it's some emotional eating.

But then, you know, later in life, like when I came out and I lost some weight, it was, I realized I still love food and I always have and always wanted to be a chef.

So CIA was always like the dream school. The first time I heard about it when I was was like I was watching our in shape America when I was like 7 or 8 and they said CIA and I was like a school for ninjas.

And I was like and so and then I like looked it up and and so yeah, that was always my dream school all throughout like high school and like, you know, I was that was my goal was to get good grades and get good scholarship to get the CIA.

And what's really fascinating though is like it's like I had it's interesting because I like waves of my life right like I'm sure you can like relate to that everyone can.

But like it was such a commission of mine to go to CIA and my family didn't have all the money like my parents went bankrupt like around the time when I was in high school.

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