Chef Lawrence Duran : What I Learned Working 14 Years with Mark Wahlberg | DSH #1603

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Speaker 1 A lot of people think that, like, oh yeah, you have this amazing gig, you work for Mark Wahlberg, and you get to travel the world, but it's not really all that it's cracked out to be.

Speaker 1 Like, it's a job. We're on the road, and I, yes, I get to go to Australia or Germany or you know, Colombia, or whatever.
But he always says, like, it's a fanciest prison you will ever be in.

Speaker 1 And that's because we go to work and we go straight back to the hotel.

Speaker 1 And if there's anything on the weekend, if we have any downtime on the weekend, it's either to church or we go to dinner and then it's right back. But it's again, it's a grind, and I love it.

Speaker 1 It motivates me, it motivates all of us on our team, and it just pushes us and drives us to want more and do more.

Speaker 1 All right, guys, Chef Lawrence here, finally back in Vegas. You've been busy, man.
Yeah, it's been non-stop, man. It's been crazy.
But it's a fun one. It's a fun ride.

Speaker 1 Get to travel, do what I love, and

Speaker 1 with the family, basically.

Speaker 1 We've been together for so long. Nice.

Speaker 1 We're a team. How often are you on the road these days?

Speaker 1 Last year, I mean, it was seven months in Australia,

Speaker 1 three or four months, London and Paris. And then I think we did another one

Speaker 1 out here somewhere. But I mean, it's just, it's anywhere from eight months to 10 months out of the year just traveling nonstop.
Holy crap. Yeah, it's a hell of a lot.
But it's, again, it's fun.

Speaker 1 It's, you get to see the world and, you know, again, be with like people that you genuinely love. Yeah.
How was Australia? I'm going there for my honeymoon. It's awesome.
Australia is beautiful.

Speaker 1 We were

Speaker 1 the last four months, I mean, was the Gold Coast and gorgeous. We spent some time in Sydney, which is beautiful, but I think the Gold Coast was it for me.
It was beautiful.

Speaker 1 But out there, I mean, anything and everything can kill you. So it's kind of scary.

Speaker 1 I mean, you've got like these huntsman spiders that just kind of like walk up everywhere and they, you know, coming out of the sinks or up on the walls and stuff.

Speaker 1 And it's just like kids are playing with these spiders that are the size of your hand and you're like freaking out because you're not, you know, from the place. And so you have those,

Speaker 1 the world's deadliest snakes, the world's deadliest slugs. I mean, everything.
Did you have any sketchy encounters?

Speaker 1 Every morning I would walk out and there'd be like these big slugs and they're like orange and red and beautiful, but

Speaker 1 like I was just kicking them around or whatever and then I find out later on that they're like, you know, extremely poisonous. I'm like, holy crap.

Speaker 1 But I mean other than that, it was just like spiders like crazy just popping out of everywhere. Saw a few snakes, but as long as you stay away from them, you're good.
Damn.

Speaker 1 I don't know if my girl will like it out there, bro. She doesn't like insects too much.
Oh, they're everywhere. That's true.
But we're going to Brisbane.

Speaker 1 I don't know if that's near where Brisbane is beautiful. Were you there at all? A little bit.
We filmed out there for a little bit. Okay.
Yeah, beautiful place.

Speaker 1 Damn. And three months in France, you said? Yeah, I was like a little over three months, I believe, in France.
Yeah, Paris, and then London, and and then home. Yeah.

Speaker 1 And I'm assuming this is for Mark, right? Yeah, this is for Mark. So does he want the same exact meals even if you're in a different country? Yeah, same exact meals.

Speaker 1 You know, it's basically like Monday through Friday. You we I do the same meals for him and then weekends he kind of like takes a little break.
So I'll do breakfast and lunch on the weekends.

Speaker 1 And then we'll, you know, do dinner somewhere, kind of splurge or, you know, do something a little different to break it up a little bit. But yeah, it's, it's, he's very regimented, very consistent.

Speaker 1 And he's been eating the same meals for the past few years now. I respect that because this, especially on the road, because when you travel, it's hard to find what you're used to, you know?

Speaker 1 And for you, it might be hard to source those ingredients when you're out there. It's extremely hard when you're in countries that you just, you're not familiar with.

Speaker 1 Australia, Australia is very similar to here and in a sense where um they have some amazing uh you know cattle uh ingredient basically all your ingredients that you would find in or here you'll you'll find them in australia um

Speaker 1 germany was a tough one um they've got a lot of sausages and you know and

Speaker 1 just things that you're not familiar with so you kind of have to source things from different

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Speaker 1 Restaurants and whatnot, and that's where you, like as a chef, you have to kind of like branch out, talk to people,

Speaker 1 you know, know, figure out where you're going first, first and foremost, and then,

Speaker 1 you know,

Speaker 1 kind of like name drop, you know, that kind of gets you everything.

Speaker 1 So if you're like, you got to go to a restaurant and be like, you know, I need, you know, this Wagyu steak or, you know, whatever vegetables,

Speaker 1 they're not just going to hand them to anyone. Really?

Speaker 1 I'm like, well, I worked for this guy and Mark Wahlberg.

Speaker 1 show them a picture. I'm like, oh, okay, whatever you want, whatever you need.

Speaker 1 So restaurants are the plugs.

Speaker 1 Restaurants are definitely the the plug when when you're out of out of the country interesting restaurants restaurants and hotels because we i mean obviously we stay in hotels yeah um so a lot of the hotel kitchens and hotel chefs are very accommodating that is interesting i never would have thought of that to like approach a restaurant to buy some of their food yeah it because i mean you know especially if you're in a country that where you don't speak the language um it can be very very tough and very confusing and a lot of people get very angry uh when they get confused or what you're saying basically um

Speaker 1 So again, hotels, staff, they're all accommodating restaurants, like I said, and everyone knows everyone when you're working with high-end clients or whatever. So

Speaker 1 yeah, in that sense, it's somewhat easy. Did you always start off in the private chef space or did you kind of?

Speaker 1 I actually started off in

Speaker 1 a company called Mario's Catering.

Speaker 1 And it was a good friend of mine.

Speaker 1 His name is Christian. I went to school with him and his dad actually owned

Speaker 1 restaurants and

Speaker 1 one of the biggest catering companies in basically all of the U.S.

Speaker 1 So

Speaker 1 Mario's catering,

Speaker 1 like a family to me, basically. They helped me

Speaker 1 on the up and up.

Speaker 1 They always knew that I had a passion for cooking or whatever. So they brought me to the kitchen, showed me the ropes, and put me on the trucks.

Speaker 1 Anything that I ever needed, they were always there for me. And

Speaker 1 they were actually the plug on how I met Mark. You know, Mario has been taking care of Mark's

Speaker 1 movie and TV productions

Speaker 1 basically since Mark first started.

Speaker 1 And so they were good friends. And I had no idea.

Speaker 1 I was always dabbling in food for a long time and in and out of restaurants, hotels, and kind of did my own catering thing.

Speaker 1 But I eventually went into construction and did did that for a number of years, still doing, you know, catering and cooking on the side or whatever.

Speaker 1 But after 13 years of construction, I get a phone call from my friend Christian. He's like, hey,

Speaker 1 we need a huge favor. You know, Mark just bought this house in Beverly Hills and

Speaker 1 he needs somebody to take care of the wife and kids while he's on the road. And for a minute, I'm like,

Speaker 1 like, no, you know, it's not really where I want to be. It's not really what I want to do.

Speaker 1 I'm comfortable here. You know, I've got a good thing going and

Speaker 1 uh it was kind of like a back and forth type of thing for a few days and finally uh i think it was like a wednesday and he was like can you just do it as a favor to us and we'll find another chef you know he he wants a female chef anyways to be you know around the family so you know this will give us a little bit of time to find somebody no problem i go in

Speaker 1 and um

Speaker 1 I go in on a Thursday and it was just the wife and kids and make food for them. They wanted

Speaker 1 a turkey chili. And so I made turkey chili for the family.
And at the end of the night, the wife comes in and her name is Rhea.

Speaker 1 She comes in and she's like, hey, you know, my kids and I really enjoyed your food. Do you mind sticking around until my husband comes back? Cool, no problem.
Mark comes back a week later.

Speaker 1 You know, comes in with the entourage and they kind of walk by the kitchen, you know, nod or whatever, and don't really say much to me.

Speaker 1 You know, cook food or whatever. End of the night comes around and comes in.
He's like, hey, my wife and kids really like your food. Do you mind sticking around for a while?

Speaker 1 You can't say no to Mark. You can't say no to Margaret.

Speaker 1 So here I am, you know, working from, you know, five in the morning to three in the afternoon at my construction job and then quickly showering at work, going to the grocery store, heading over to his house, and then I'm there till like, you know, seven, eight o'clock at night.

Speaker 1 Jeez. Did that for six months straight? Holy crap.
And finally, I'm like,

Speaker 1 it's like got to be one or the other. And

Speaker 1 they basically told me, like, yeah, whatever you want, like, you're in. Wow.
So, your food was not good. Yeah, you're here.
Or you could quit your construction job. Exactly.
I love that.

Speaker 1 What a story, dude. Yeah,

Speaker 1 it's been a journey.

Speaker 1 Again, like, I was with him for, I mean, yeah, for the first two years, it was just cooking for the family. And then

Speaker 1 I think it was like his road manager, E, that came in one day and was like, hey, Mark wants you on the road with him. You got, you know, some time to find another chef.

Speaker 1 And so I I did. I called up a good friend of mine who actually works for Mario's as well.
And we grew up across the street from each other, really.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 his name is David. He came in and started taking care of the family.
We were cooking together for a couple months. And then I went on the road and I've been on the road with Mark ever since.
Damn.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I cook solely for Mark. Every once in a while, I do stuff for the family.
But yeah, I cook for Mark and the other chef cooks for the family still to this day.

Speaker 1 I mean, we've been with him for 14 years now. One on 14 years.
Nuts, dude. So when he moved out here, you moved with him?

Speaker 1 yeah yeah our whole team basically moved that was a big change for you huh it was a huge change coming from california um you know it's very laid-back out there and weather's much different that's for sure um

Speaker 1 but i mean

Speaker 1 it grows on you you know this place is it's you know that it's not all what it you know it it's um what people you know uh

Speaker 1 kind of

Speaker 1 put it out there to be like it's it's you you have this image of this of Vegas being Sin City, and

Speaker 1 you know, if you're down the strip, it's it's basically like on the individual.

Speaker 1 Like, if you go down the strip every day and you're, you know, they're gambling or whatever, it can really take control of your life. I stay away, we only go there when we need to.

Speaker 1 Um, I have everything that I need within, you know, a five-mile radius or, you know, within 10 minutes from me, basically.

Speaker 1 And it's amazing. Restaurants, great restaurants, great food, great chefs, great, you know, hotels, casinos, everything is amazing here.
So, and there's tons of opportunity, which is, which

Speaker 1 is really one of the reasons why we are out here is because

Speaker 1 there are so many opportunities.

Speaker 1 But yeah, I love it. It's grown on me.
And

Speaker 1 is it home forever?

Speaker 1 I don't think so. I'm the same way.
Yeah, I think it's, you know, it's just a stepping stone. I'm here for the next couple of years and then it's off to the next place.
I'm the same way. Yeah.

Speaker 1 It's a transitory city, but it's got great value.

Speaker 1 You know, you get good value for your real estate out out here, yeah, and oh, yeah, good opportunity, a lot of conferences, good opportunities, good networking, for sure.

Speaker 1 But, yeah, in terms of like it's so funny how people react when you say, I live in Vegas, it really is. They're like, Are you okay? Like, you an alcoholic, yeah, right?

Speaker 1 You get that all the time. Like, uh, do you guys really like go to restaurants at two, three, four o'clock in the morning?

Speaker 1 Like, yes, you know, some people do, but yeah, the locals don't even live on the strip. Like, we barely go there, we only go there for business, you know.
Yeah, very true.

Speaker 1 Um, now I have this debate with my friends. I'd love to hear your opinion since you're a chef where do you rank vegas in terms of restaurants and food like in the country

Speaker 1 uh

Speaker 1 i would say there's a lot of great restaurants here i would say

Speaker 1 number two it's so diverse uh as far as like the the type of restaurants that are out here for me it would have to be new york like number one yeah 100 yeah new york has i mean everything and anything and

Speaker 1 the best of the best in my opinion.

Speaker 1 And that's in the U.S.

Speaker 1 But again, Vegas, you have a lot of great restaurants. But again, Vegas, you get some great restaurants that start up and then kind of die off.
I've seen that.

Speaker 1 And I don't, that's, you know, if you're going to have something great, be consistent with it. Right.

Speaker 1 And that's what I've noticed out here is like a lot of great, great restaurants will just, you know. Yeah, what do you think causes that? Because I had a favorite restaurant.

Speaker 1 I'm not going to say the name, but like, it was so good the first time. And then every time I went after that, it got worse and worse.
Now I can't even eat it. Yeah.
You know, it, I don't know. If

Speaker 1 for me, I would think that it's just people getting becoming too comfortable in their jobs or in their positions.

Speaker 1 Um, back of the house, front of the house, you know, stuff just dies out, and they, or you just get so comfortable, or you're just like, okay, well, I kind of want to move off to the next thing and you know, F the customers.

Speaker 1 Um, but it's those customers in your name that you know, people rely on. You know, if you don't have a create a great name for yourself and uphold that, then you're going to go downhill.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 So I don't know. It's just

Speaker 1 every place is different. And I've seen

Speaker 1 different restaurant groups out here will start up one. And then, you know, once that starts dying off a year or two, then they'll start up another one.
So it's kind of keeps things fresh.

Speaker 1 But again, you want consistency. And I don't find that to be in a lot of great restaurants out here.
Yeah. A lot of musical chairs at the casinos with the restaurants.
Definitely. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Where do you rank the Chinatown in Vegas compared to other Chinatowns? I haven't been to Chinatown. You haven't been? No.

Speaker 1 What? i have yeah i again i rarely ever go out i'm there every day bro it's so good everybody tells me like how are you in vegas and have not been to chinatown yet

Speaker 1 and i just i again i just don't have the time to go out or do anything and when i am home i'm like i want to cook for myself or you know

Speaker 1 just yeah that's a good point it's probably really tough for you to order food right because you have such a good skill of cooking let me tell you man I cook for myself only for the content purposes.

Speaker 1 And when I do, it's amazing. Like, I love cooking for myself because it's great.
But

Speaker 1 I eat

Speaker 1 a lot of fast food. Oh, you do? I do.
I'm not even going to lie, man. I'm shocked.
Like, Uber Eats and DoorDash. That's like, this is at the end of the day, like, you know, I cook all day.

Speaker 1 At the end of the day, the last thing I want to do is come home and cook for myself. And

Speaker 1 so I'm just... You're just so exhausted.
You're just like, quick a meal. Yeah, I find myself doing that.
You know, if I am at work or whatever, I'll make myself something extra. But

Speaker 1 home, I just, like I said, if it's not for, you know, the content creating,

Speaker 1 then I'm, I'm ordering something. Best fast food chain right now, in your opinion.
Oh, gosh. Um,

Speaker 1 man. Um, oh, what was that? Fr Fred Freddy's or it's some smash burger out here.
Um Smash Burger. It's, um, oh, gosh.
I love Smash Burgers.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it's, it's, it's a chain, um, and they have one out here. I have to look it up.
It starts with an F? It starts with an F, yeah. Huh.

Speaker 1 But yeah, there's just simple.

Speaker 1 Simple Smashburgers, you know, nothing crazy. Actually, you know what? I'm going to...
It's that and a new spot that actually opened up called Love

Speaker 1 Loves or something like that. It's another Smash Burger place.
You love Smash Burgers, huh? I love Smash Burger. Burgers are my thing.

Speaker 1 Like, yeah, Smash Burgers, especially, because it's just so simple. It's like, you know, the simple, good meat,

Speaker 1 American cheese. you know, a little onion, pickles, ketchup, mustard, and that's it.
I need you to send me those after that. Oh, yeah.

Speaker 1 I haven't found a good Smash Burger in Vegas yet. I love Smash Burgers.
That's, yeah.

Speaker 1 I go to In-N-Out, which is pretty good, but it's, yeah, I, again, from, you know, being someone from California, I've always loved In-N-Out, but

Speaker 1 for me, it's just like the fries aren't. Oh, I don't get fries there.

Speaker 1 No, I get a burger. Yeah, I'll do an animal-style burger all day, every day.
But yeah, Smash Burgers, that's that's my shit, man. Yeah, Smash Burgers are goaded.

Speaker 1 If I had to have a tier list of dishes, Smash Burger is A tier for sure. Oh, yeah, 100%.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 Do you have like a favorite restaurant or you don't even have time to go out and eat? I don't even have time to go out, man.

Speaker 1 Actually, this week alone, I've had a couple of friends have hit me up and are like, hey, you know, we're going to this Indian spot in town square. And I'm like, oh, yeah, I'm there.
And then.

Speaker 1 Work. Yeah, work.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Something's always coming up. And literally, like, at the last minute, something always pops up.

Speaker 1 And it's just like, now I'm like kind of known as the person that just like, oh, well, I'm not even going to call him because he's always like, you know, got something to do damn you're that friend now

Speaker 1 But I mean again like I love what I do It's a passion of mine and I you know get to do with you know people that I enjoy being around so you put the business first 100% that's the main priority

Speaker 1 Yeah, for me business is always gonna be first because I have a daughter and she is my main priority and you know she's a straight A student and so

Speaker 1 Everything that I never had, I want to give to her, especially more so since she's an amazing amazing kid. I'm not just saying that because she's my child.

Speaker 1 she really is a good kid she's uh you know plays lacrosse she was the captain of her team she's a 4.0 grade point average um you know she just got her license which is frightens the hell out of me right now but um ultimately she's a good kid and you know i have to make sure that my priorities are straight so that she has the best of the best well done man well that's that's a reflection of you you know what i mean in my opinion so you great parenting thank you well done um you weren't good in school though?

Speaker 1 No, I was absolutely not, man.

Speaker 1 I was like a straight F student. I dropped out.
Was it by choice or you just

Speaker 1 I just

Speaker 1 it wasn't by choice because I was actually I knew what I was I knew what I was capable of

Speaker 1 when it came to tests. I would easily ace test.
But I was just it was a lack of

Speaker 1 I don't know. It was like just not a lack of motivation.
It just I didn't I knew that that wasn't the place for me.

Speaker 1 And of course, you know, every kid's going to say that, like, oh, I don't want to go to school, this and that. But I really knew that I didn't want to go to school.
I hated school.

Speaker 1 Do I wish I could go back and do it all over if I could? I trust me, I would, because I wanted, I so badly wanted to go to college and, you know, do that whole, you know, frat lifestyle and all that.

Speaker 1 Because I saw a lot of my friends do all that and I missed out. But

Speaker 1 I wouldn't be where I am today had I not

Speaker 1 followed that path that I was on. And

Speaker 1 I'm not here to say that dropping out of school or, you know, getting straight Fs is the way to go.

Speaker 1 But,

Speaker 1 you know,

Speaker 1 this opportunity came up and had I not taken it, I probably would, you know, still be in construction and not saying that's not knocking that in any way, but this is a passion of mine.

Speaker 1 I'm actually doing something that I've always wanted to do. with, you know, someone who's huge and I get to travel the world.
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Speaker 1 You know, everything happens for a reason. You know, it really does.
But again, like, if I could go back to school, I would. I really could.
I really would. Yeah, dude.

Speaker 1 Some people know early on what they want to do, whether it's a trade job, be a chef, or be a these days content creator is like the number one thing kids want to do. It really is.

Speaker 1 I wish schools provided more of an outlet to explore opportunities like that at a younger age. Yeah.
Because like they make you sit till you're 18 before you can even go to trade school.

Speaker 1 And then some kids know before then that they want to do that stuff. Yeah.
You know. And for me, like, I, so I knew that I wanted to go to culinary school.

Speaker 1 And the only way that I was able to do that was to go to night school, get my AGED.

Speaker 1 And it was hell. Like, I didn't, I hated school.
I kept on, you know, I had to go to school at night, go to, I lied my way basically through culinary school until I got my GED.

Speaker 1 But I feel like back then,

Speaker 1 you know, that

Speaker 1 trade school meant everything. Now it's like, oh, you learn everything that I learned on YouTube.
Right. YouTube's a recipe.

Speaker 1 It really is.

Speaker 1 Yeah, now you can learn how to cook from TikTok. Exactly.
And so, like, when people ask me, like, oh, you know, would you recommend going to a trade school or like, you know, a culinary school?

Speaker 1 I'm like,

Speaker 1 I don't ever knock going to a trade school because I feel like there's opportunities there that you wouldn't or you can't, you know, get elsewhere.

Speaker 1 But there's also a big price tag that comes along with that. And so

Speaker 1 now I just kind of advise people like, hey, you know, look it up on social media, YouTube. Like that's.
You can find absolutely anything and everything there. Like,

Speaker 1 what are you going to do?

Speaker 1 I mean, you're going to learn the basics of french techniques like you can youtube that you know learn your your knife skills youtube it like don't chop your finger off that's basically what they tell you in school like it's it's simple as that i mean you do learn from some great culinary uh chefs uh or chefs that are in the culinary world but again youtube university man it's it's it's the way to go

Speaker 1 it would have saved me a hell of a lot of money that's for sure how expensive was culinary school uh i went to two different ones so it was uh like a total of 150. Holy crap.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 I didn't know it was like that. The culinary.
It's ridiculous. Because chefs don't make like crazy money, right?

Speaker 1 No, and that's the reason why I

Speaker 1 went into construction because you really don't. You start at the bottom.
It doesn't matter if you have that little piece of paper. It means absolutely nothing in the kitchen world.

Speaker 1 You start

Speaker 1 washing dishes, peeling potatoes, cutting onions. You start at the bottom.
Yeah. And you work your way up.
Yeah. And it takes years and years and years.

Speaker 1 And you can kiss having any type of social life. Goodbye.
There's no holidays you don't get birthdays you don't get anything like nothing wow um

Speaker 1 and

Speaker 1 i thought that would be kind of different in the private chef world but it's i mean ultimately

Speaker 1 it's the same yeah it really is like i um and it's it's more so because i work for such a hardworking individual who literally takes no days off. He could be on vacation and still, you know,

Speaker 1 making business deals.

Speaker 1 So it's that type of motivation that has kept me from taking time off throughout my entire, you know, being with him, basically. He is my motivation.
He pushes me.

Speaker 1 There's tons of doors and opportunities. He's not one, you know, to hand out anything,

Speaker 1 but there are opportunities. And all you have to do is ask questions,

Speaker 1 follow in his footsteps and learn the business trade. And there's endless possibilities with him.

Speaker 1 And I think that's kind of goes with anything in general.

Speaker 1 As long as you learn,

Speaker 1 you know, you pay attention and absorb things like a sponge, I mean, there's the opportunities are endless out there. It's just you have to apply yourself.

Speaker 1 But this is like the first time in

Speaker 1 years that I've had off.

Speaker 1 And I was actually supposed to be out

Speaker 1 where he's at right now at his house.

Speaker 1 at their summer house, you know, cooking for them. But

Speaker 1 my daughter needs my attention right now yeah

Speaker 1 just I've missed out on a lot of opportunities you know being in this field

Speaker 1 not saying that I have any regrets but

Speaker 1 not being able to be there

Speaker 1 for her games or you know certain achievements throughout her life it's just it's heartbreaking yeah so

Speaker 1 I'm finally at a point with Mark where I can be like, hey, you know, I need to take this time and spend it with my family. And

Speaker 1 please please go ahead. Do what you got to do.
Respect. We've got family first.

Speaker 1 And,

Speaker 1 you know, I know that once it comes down to the next movie, it's grind time. And so, like, I really, I've always,

Speaker 1 I've never put myself first up until recently. You know, it's always just like kind of trying to please others and,

Speaker 1 you know, do my job and do it to the best of my ability. And when you see somebody who grinds seven days a week, you know, starting at, you know, 2.30 in the morning and doesn't end until

Speaker 1 I've seen memories. Oh, it's true.

Speaker 1 It's very true. I've seen memes of that, that list, that infamous list.
It's extremely true. 2.30 in the morning.
2.30 in the morning. He's up.
He's saying his prayers.

Speaker 1 You know, he's in the cold plunge. He's drinking his coffee.

Speaker 1 So does that mean you have to be up at that time? Yeah. Yeah.
Holy crap.

Speaker 1 And when we're on the road,

Speaker 1 Like I'm the one not so much now. We have another assistant

Speaker 1 But I was the one that would wake everybody up. I would wake him up.
I was the first one up prepping for the day. I would hit the gym with him.
Jeez.

Speaker 1 Then make breakfast, then, you know, get meals ready for whatever we have going on for the day.

Speaker 1 And it's a grind. It's like, but that schedule is very, very real.

Speaker 1 It's consistent. every single day, seven days a week.
Wow. That's the earliest I've ever heard anyone make up that.
Because people sleep at that time. Exactly.
Like 2.30? Yeah.

Speaker 1 So when people are up you know at night he's he's in bed so when do you guys sleep um

Speaker 1 he so he's usually i want to say like in bed by like 6 30 7 o'clock okay he'll get eight hours of sleep every single day um when it comes to me um

Speaker 1 like when i'm home you know i'll stay up late or whatever but when i'm on the road i do my absolute best to prep everything do my grocery shopping at night

Speaker 1 um try to get in bed by like eight nine o'clock and then you know do

Speaker 1 you're only sleeping five six hours it's yeah so like for three months out of the, or the three months that we're on the road, it's, I get very, very little sleep, but

Speaker 1 right after, I'm like, I take a couple weeks off and I'm just like,

Speaker 1 yeah, reset for like

Speaker 1 days. Yeah.

Speaker 1 But, um, but it's, again, it's, it's a grind, and I, I, I love it. It motivates me.
It motivates all of us on our team. And it just, it pushes us and drives us to want more and do more.

Speaker 1 And it's, it's, it's great working for somebody like that. That's awesome.
Yeah. One of my questions was what you've learned from him, but it sounds like work ethic.
Oh, work ethic.

Speaker 1 Perseverance, right? Oh, yeah. 100%.
He's extremely driven, self-motivated,

Speaker 1 you know, came from nothing and built this empire, really. And, you know, it's just, it's motivating.
It's extremely motivating.

Speaker 1 And that's what, again, pushes everybody on our team to, you know, want to get to that next level, you know, because.

Speaker 1 Again, there's so many opportunities, so many doors, and it's just, it's up to you to strive for that. I mean, you can either be a go-getter or you can just sit back and he'll allow you to.

Speaker 1 If you want to take it easy, go ahead, but you're not going to get to that next level like the rest of us.

Speaker 1 But everybody on our team is extremely driven and extremely motivated. I love that.
Yeah,

Speaker 1 we're all there.

Speaker 1 It's a family. It really is.
Bring everyone up around you. 100%.

Speaker 1 That's so cool because he's had so much success. He could have retired years ago.

Speaker 1 And he still has the same drive at his age.

Speaker 1 That's crazy. That's very impressive.

Speaker 1 He runs circles around all of us.

Speaker 1 I'm 39, going on 40 this year, and he's like, just watching him makes me tired.

Speaker 1 I don't know how you do this, bro.

Speaker 1 Pushing 40 this year, you think that's going to be a big change for you?

Speaker 1 I hope not.

Speaker 1 The more that I think about it, I'm like, damn, 40. Like, where did the time go? And it's like

Speaker 1 I could easily just continue on and

Speaker 1 be

Speaker 1 in the seat that I'm in now, which is is like I'm enjoying my time off, but

Speaker 1 that's not going to make the money. That's not going to push me to the next level.
And

Speaker 1 pushing me to that next level is getting back up, grinding, you know, getting back in the gym, getting, you know, eating right again,

Speaker 1 forcing myself to go to sleep at a decent time, forcing myself to wake up at a decent time.

Speaker 1 Basically, you know, doing the things that I

Speaker 1 that I was taught by him,

Speaker 1 that's going to continue to push me and motivate me even more. So I'm looking forward to going into 40 and I'm going to

Speaker 1 going into 40, I'm going to actually push harder than I ever have because I feel like once you hit 50, it's kind of downhill from there.

Speaker 1 So I kind of want to take these next few years and just give it all I got and see what the hell I can come up with.

Speaker 1 you know, build some kind of brand, build some kind of business, you know, just get to the next level in my life. And

Speaker 1 I'm fairly successful.

Speaker 1 But there's, I think when you get to a certain level, you kind of want more. And when you've, when you're on that type of grind, you go and you go and you go and you just don't want to stop.

Speaker 1 And that's kind of where I'm at right now. I don't want to stop.
Because if I know if I stop, then

Speaker 1 it's just, I'm going to go downhill. And I don't know.
There's no growth. Yeah, there's no growth.
No, none whatsoever. Yeah, that's why everyone asks, like, do you want to be comfortable?

Speaker 1 I'm like, no. No.
There's no growth in that. Exactly.
Because if you're not... constantly working on yourself, you're actually going backwards because people are getting ahead of you.
100%. Yeah.

Speaker 1 I don't want to see people flying by me, you know, when I flew by them at one point.

Speaker 1 There's so many people that would dream to be in your spot, you know, so many chefs that want a good private client. I'm sure it's one of the hardest jobs to land.
It is.

Speaker 1 And what I found out speaking to other chefs out here

Speaker 1 is that it's seasonal here with certain clients, you know, because people...

Speaker 1 High-end clients don't want to be here during the summertime. So they have their, you know, summer vacation homes.

Speaker 1 So chefs out here, you know, have a good clientele of maybe four or five clients, and then they're kind of all gone for the summer. So you have to find, you know, new clients.

Speaker 1 And it's difficult, you know, and especially with

Speaker 1 certain clients, especially like in California, what I've noticed is that

Speaker 1 certain clients will have you on board for maybe six months to a year and then want something fresh and new. And

Speaker 1 that's what makes this industry extremely tough because it's like constantly finding you know a new client you're you know you got to save this money because you don't know what you're going to be this summer or you don't know where your client's going to be you know during the wintertime or whatever the case may be

Speaker 1 so in my

Speaker 1 uh for me personally like i i feel like very blessed and fortunate to have been able to been with someone or be with someone for so long you know almost you know going on 14 years i've I've seen everything and anything you know like his whole family grow up basically and it's become a family and I think that the family dynamic for him is such a a strong

Speaker 1 sense in his world because if you don't have family and trust then you don't have anything and it's those core individuals that again also motivate you but keep

Speaker 1 you know keep if you keep your your your people close to you then they're gonna be loyal and it's it's all loyalty. Everything is about loyalty with us and with his with him and his core.

Speaker 1 I've noticed that because he's had the same friend group for many years, right? Since yeah, he was like 11, 12 years old. Yeah.
They've all grown up with him. And you can't say that with many people.

Speaker 1 No, not at all. And these guys are still on, you know, go on the road with him.
They, you know, still, he takes care of them, you know. That's respect, man.

Speaker 1 Because loyalty is something these days that is hard to get with friends, right? Most definitely, most definitely. Like, it's very uncommon, I'd say.
Very, very uncommon. Yeah.

Speaker 1 And he's, again, he's a very loyal individual.

Speaker 1 He's all about trust and loyalty. And you break that and

Speaker 1 you're gone. Yeah.
I'm sure you've seen that firsthand. I think in major cities, everyone's trying to social climb.
So, loyalty is in the back of their head. They're not even thinking about it.

Speaker 1 Oh, they don't care about any of them. Yeah,

Speaker 1 so, but for me, it's it's important, man. Oh, yeah.
Like, I'll keep you around, even if, like, you're broke, honestly. Like, I got two of the, I'm getting married in a few months.

Speaker 1 Two of the guys on my, not trying to like, yeah,

Speaker 1 like, say they're down bad or whatever, but they're loyal. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Like, even though financially they're not where I'm at, like, they're super loyal and i value that stuff dude for real loyalty is everything man it doesn't matter who you are where you're at but as long as you have loyalty and you trust in those individuals that's that's family right there man you can't break you can't replace that dude definitely not like at least you could sleep at night knowing they got your back no matter what 100 yeah dude this has been really fun i've never had like a private chef on like i'm learning so much like this this world is it sounds really fun you get to travel the world yeah it's a lot of fun and A lot of people, what's crazy is a lot of people think that like,

Speaker 1 like, oh yeah, you have this amazing gig, you know, you work for Mark Wahlberg and you get to travel the world, but it's

Speaker 1 not really all that it's cracked out to be. Like, it's, it's a job, you know, like we're on the road and I, yes, I get to go to Australia or Germany or, you know, Colombia or whatever.

Speaker 1 But

Speaker 1 he always says, like, it's like, it's a,

Speaker 1 it's like the fanciest prison you will ever be in.

Speaker 1 And that's because we.

Speaker 1 We go to work and we go straight back to the hotel. And if there's anything on the weekend, if we have any downtime on the weekend, weekend, it's either to church or we go to dinner.

Speaker 1 And then it's right back. It's the same thing every single day.
So you, yes, I get to see Australia.

Speaker 1 I get to see all these great places, but it's through the view of a, you know, a beautiful hotel room. Right.

Speaker 1 You know, outside that window, it's, yes, I want to be out down there on that beach and swimming in that ocean or, you know, doing this or doing that. But.

Speaker 1 We're there for work and eventually come back here again, you know, on some type of vacation for myself. But it's it's a grind.
It's it's it's a lot. It's a hell of a lot.

Speaker 1 It's a bit of a tease, right? It really is. You're like right there within arms reach.
Yeah, it really is.

Speaker 1 But again, I wouldn't change it for the world, and it's it's been absolutely amazing, man. It's taken me to some great places.

Speaker 1 I've met some amazing people along the way, and get to be a part of a fucking really cool family, man. He's part of history, bro.
For real. I could tell.

Speaker 1 Has he ever had to lose crazy weight for like a movie scene? Yeah, yeah. He's,

Speaker 1 I know before I came along, he had to lose a heck of a lot of weight for the, I think a movie was called Gambler. He went dropped down to like 130 pounds.

Speaker 1 Um since I've been with him, I think the smallest he was was like 160, something like that, 160, 165, and that was for um

Speaker 1 uh

Speaker 1 the

Speaker 1 uh Father Stew movie where he was a boxer in the very beginning. Um

Speaker 1 So he had to drop a lot of weight for that

Speaker 1 that scene basically which was the first day of filming was literally all day just in the boxing ring under these hotlights. And I was actually in the ring with him too.

Speaker 1 Like we were sparring against each other, whatever. And

Speaker 1 then,

Speaker 1 so that was day one. And then that night we went to his favorite restaurant, Ebaldi, and Beverly Hills, and he ate pasta and everything.

Speaker 1 And it was literally just bulking up to get him to as big as we possibly could

Speaker 1 to kind of like fit his fat suit, if you will. Yeah.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 just seeing how

Speaker 1 he was during that time, like

Speaker 1 going from, you know, 160 pounds to eating everything and just being, I mean, it's fun to eat great food and, you know, stuff your face, but doing that every single day to gain as much possible weight as you can.

Speaker 1 I mean, doing it the healthy way, but still, it takes a toll on you and it's, it's hard on your body. It really is.

Speaker 1 And then having to drop it right after to go, you know, get ready for the next movie. So his body, you know, goes up and down.
And I've had to help him along the way.

Speaker 1 And it's, you know, you're full of all sorts of different emotions because, you know, you're just, you're either hungry or you're too full and you got to continue eating. Yep.

Speaker 1 So it's, it's a, it's a lot. It's been a lot.
Um,

Speaker 1 and I just got to give it to the guy, man. Like.
What he does on a daily basis, you know,

Speaker 1 putting through his body through the ringer,

Speaker 1 you know, reading multiple

Speaker 1 scripts at a time, day in and day out. So that way he goes, when he's on set, there's no pulling out papers or whatever.

Speaker 1 Like he's, he knows his lines, he knows your lines, he knows everybody else's lines. Like he's

Speaker 1 he's to memorize other people's lines too. Yeah,

Speaker 1 he is extremely,

Speaker 1 it's impressive.

Speaker 1 to see what he does when it comes to like the way that he

Speaker 1 like reads and prepares for for a role yeah it's not easy dude i i know with bay watch like a lot of those guys had health issues after because they had to like get so shredded i don't know if you watched that movie but like they were all ripped yeah and then

Speaker 1 then you go back to your normal life it's like fucking yeah you're tough you're done but with him again like he's in the gym every day it's like it's just

Speaker 1 it's motivating man it's crazy okay yeah hopefully this next one doesn't piss him off but greatest mark wahlberg movie of all time oh for me um

Speaker 1 He's got actually a new movie coming out. I don't think I'm able to say what it is, but

Speaker 1 that one's up there. That's up there.

Speaker 1 Lone Survivor would have to be good. Lone Survivor was a good one.
That's a banger. Yeah.
That's a banger. Yeah.
Lone Survivor was really good, man. Ted's a banger for me.

Speaker 1 That's a classic.

Speaker 1 He's got so many, though. Yeah, there's a lot of good stuff.
Like, he's on the Malrushmore of Actors. Like, no, no doubt about it.

Speaker 1 Dude's goaded. Well, dude, it's been awesome.
Where can people find your content and support you and everything?

Speaker 1 Chef Lawrence Duran, Instagram. I think that's kind of like all across the board with TikTok and Facebook.
So Chef Lawrence Duran.

Speaker 1 Yeah, man. I got a lot of cool content coming up with

Speaker 1 brands such as Traeger and Thermopro and Snake River Farms and Municipal. So I got a lot of good stuff coming up.
I've been home taking this time to really just film some content.

Speaker 1 knock some stuff out so that way when i'm on the road i can actually start posting getting it out there let's get it check them out guys and uh thanks for coming on on, man. Appreciate it, Jaratha.

Speaker 1 Thank you. See you guys.

Speaker 1 I hope you guys are enjoying the show. Please don't forget to like and subscribe.
It helps the show a lot with the algorithm. Thank you.

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