From Taxi Driver to Multi-Millionaire: How to Build a Celebrity Personal Brand

So as you went through your career and you became, let's just put it out there, the extreme pressure of Iron Chef America translates to building trust and rapid decision-making in corporate leadership teams.

What is it like to be a great chef and to be able to do the things you've done when it comes to the Iron Chef? Yeah.

Well, I had the great privilege of having a lot of clients who are Michelin star chefs.

I'm the president and owner of the Five Star Butter Company, and I've been providing the best butter on earth to the top chefs in America since 1999.

And my clients have included Jean-Georges Van Gristen, Danielle Boulud, Bobby Flay, Gordon Ramsay, and many, many, many others.

And hanging out in these kitchens is what has made me into the chef that I am and has given me the... exalted standards that I have that have been influenced by my creating Battle Butter for Iron Chef America and being the judge of Battle Butter on Iron Chef America.

And hanging out with all of these amazing chefs over my 27 year career in food service has created this standard.

And this is one of my rules, set high standards for yourself and keep them.

And I set high standards for my own culinary life.

And I enforce them myself.

Nobody tells me to eat gluten-free, sugar-free.

Nobody tells me to eat gourmet food.

Nobody tells me that my chef in my kitchen needs to make every single plate worthy of Instagram every day.

Nobody tells me, I actually invented this rule for my own kitchen here at the Villa.

No products, only ingredients.

That's one of the most sophisticated rules I've ever seen in a kitchen.

No products, only ingredients.

I've actually never seen anybody write those words before, but I came out with those because I know what I want.

And that's part of being a leader is you need to know what you want and get it.

So I'm not a chef, right? I have a wife who cooks for me, and I'm proud to say that.

But when you say ingredients and no products, can you give me a couple of examples of what that looks like or what that feels like? Because in my head I have an idea, but I don't want to ask.

See, one of the first things that happened was when we bought our villa in Acapulco, and that was another case of if you're afraid, you must.

I remember sitting down at the table in the real estate office where the transaction was going to be completed, and I pulled out my – Montblanc special edition JFK pen in Harvard red to sign the contract and to write the check and writing the check for seven figures was a very scary thing for me because I had never written a check that big before for my own personal use.

And I, it was another case of, if you're afraid you must.

And then we, we bought this villa and, And one of the first weeks that we had a seminar here, we do a lot of seminars and retreats for our clients.

So as you went through your career and you became, let's just put it out there, the extreme pressure of Iron Chef America translates to building trust and rapid decision-making in corporate leadership teams.

What is it like to be a great chef and to be able to do the things you've done when it comes to the Iron Chef? Yeah.

Well, I had the great privilege of having a lot of clients who are Michelin star chefs.

I'm the president and owner of the Five Star Butter Company, and I've been providing the best butter on earth to the top chefs in America since 1999.

And my clients have included Jean-Georges Van Gristen, Danielle Boulud, Bobby Flay, Gordon Ramsay, and many, many, many others.

And hanging out in these kitchens is what has made me into the chef that I am and has given me the... exalted standards that I have that have been influenced by my creating Battle Butter for Iron Chef America and being the judge of Battle Butter on Iron Chef America.

And hanging out with all of these amazing chefs over my 27 year career in food service has created this standard.

And this is one of my rules, set high standards for yourself and keep them.

And I set high standards for my own culinary life.

And I enforce them myself.

Nobody tells me to eat gluten-free, sugar-free.

Nobody tells me to eat gourmet food.

Nobody tells me that my chef in my kitchen needs to make every single plate worthy of Instagram every day.

Nobody tells me, I actually invented this rule for my own kitchen here at the Villa.

No products, only ingredients.

That's one of the most sophisticated rules I've ever seen in a kitchen.

No products, only ingredients.

I've actually never seen anybody write those words before, but I came out with those because I know what I want.

And that's part of being a leader is you need to know what you want and get it.

So I'm not a chef, right? I have a wife who cooks for me, and I'm proud to say that.

But when you say ingredients and no products, can you give me a couple of examples of what that looks like or what that feels like? Because in my head I have an idea, but I don't want to ask.

See, one of the first things that happened was when we bought our villa in Acapulco, and that was another case of if you're afraid, you must.

I remember sitting down at the table in the real estate office where the transaction was going to be completed, and I pulled out my – Montblanc special edition JFK pen in Harvard red to sign the contract and to write the check and writing the check for seven figures was a very scary thing for me because I had never written a check that big before for my own personal use.

And I, it was another case of, if you're afraid you must.

And then we, we bought this villa and, And one of the first weeks that we had a seminar here, we do a lot of seminars and retreats for our clients.