February 14, 2025 • 22 mins
What does martial arts and Food Network have in common? Our guest Mark Dacascos!
Hear how he karate chopped his way to leading food battles as the Chairman of Iron Chef America, but he doesn’t cook?!
Plus, a coffee tip from Gilmore Girls he tried in real life. Find out what it is!
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I Am all In again.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Let's just.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
Luke's Diner with Scott Patterson, an iHeartRadio podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
He Everybody, Scott Patterson, I Am all In Podcast one
eleven productions, iHeart Radio Media and iHeart Podcast. We have
another episode of Luke's Diner one on one with Mark
A dec.
Speaker 4 (00:35):
Costcos very well pronounced.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Not bad, right, not bad?
Speaker 4 (00:39):
You got it.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
I am gonna tell you a little bit about Mark.
He's a renowned actor and martial artist with over forty
film credits including Brotherhood of the Wolf, Cradle to the Grave,
and Drive. He's best known for his roles as Wolf
Fat in the Hawaii five Oh and the chairman on
the Food Networks Iron Chef America. While he doesn't cook
(01:04):
or judge on Iron Chef, he brings intensity and flare
to the show as it's charismatic overseered to Costcos. Has
also starred in the Crow series and appeared Agents of Shield, Chicago,
p D, Lucifer Hallmarks, The Perfect Bride Films. Yes, Mark,
welcome to the podcast. Nice to have you.
Speaker 4 (01:23):
Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it. Scott.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Let me ask you this. Your father, Yes, is a
renowned martial artist. He is and he was inducted in
ninety nine or you were inducted, and so.
Speaker 4 (01:40):
My father, I believe that my mother were both inducted
into the black Belt Hall of Fame and then I
was last year.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Oh congratulations, thank you, thank you so much. My son
is a green belt white stripe. Oh fantastic tangs sudo. Yeah,
he's been going at it a couple.
Speaker 4 (01:58):
Of years, and he tried to practice on you.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Yeah, I kind of stopped that. He's he's ten years old.
He's hitting too hard.
Speaker 4 (02:06):
Now, yeah, yeah, big and strong.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
He's you know, he's not even seventy pounds yet, and
he's just like he's he's like a bar of iron, and.
Speaker 4 (02:16):
They know the targets to hit, you know, I.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Say too.
Speaker 4 (02:21):
As your voice goes up.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
So yeah, so you were raised in this discipline, and
so when did you discover martial arts? I mean right away, right,
your mom and dad had you in the dough sho.
Speaker 4 (02:36):
You know, in one way, I would have discovered it myself,
but I didn't.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Oh.
Speaker 4 (02:43):
My father was the founder of his own style. I mean,
his his base style was kadu kempo. He'd also boxed,
did some judo, and then he got into uh style
he's from Hawaii called Kadu Kempo. From Kadu Kempo, he
formed his own style which had more of a Chinese
and Filipino influence. My stepmother raised me along with my dad,
(03:08):
and she was my mom was his first black belt,
female black belt in his style, and those two raised me.
So I have pictures of me at four years old
doing stances in some moves that at six six years old,
(03:30):
mom and dad put my brother and I in our
first tournament. It wasn't like we said, oh, we want
to we want to go fight guys we don't know
in a stinky, sweaty gym on the weekend instead of
riding our bikes with everybody else in the fields. We
found ourselves in this big tournament and my brother was
on one side of this huge line of little kids
and I was on the other. And that's how we started.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
How did you go from this very very unique background
to Iron Chef America. I mean, do you come from track?
You know, It's like, no, I know you had a
big career in film and TV, but here you are.
You know, there's this big resurgence for you and Iron
(04:23):
Chef America everybody. Everybody knows you. Now you're the Chef's chairman.
So how did you get that gig?
Speaker 4 (04:31):
How did you Scott? I'm still trying to figure that out.
I mean, it's it's a crazy one. So you mentioned
the movie Brotherhood of the Wolf. So apparently that French movie,
period piece, French movie where I play Native American was
(04:52):
a movie that one of the executives at one of
the big corporations in Japan liked, and they happened to
have the original Iron Chef in Japan. They had that
franchise and it was coming to America and for them
to get the new chairman, they had approval or that
executive I guess had some power and apparently had some
(05:14):
approval on whoever the next chairman in America would be.
And because of the Brotherhood of the Wolf, because of
a French movie, I got on a Japanese list for
an American show. And when Food Network started to take
meetings for their new chairman, I was on the list
(05:35):
and they called me in. I spoke with them. I
was very upfront. I said, I've never taken a formal
cooking class in my life. I've never taken a cooking
class in my life. As matter of fact, I barely
even cook, but I do kick different, you know, one
vowel difference, but maybe it's you know, in the ballpark.
(05:57):
And we started talking about the Caro the chairman, how
he doesn't need to cook, and I said, you know
what we could do. We could play around if if
you invite me to the show, I could take my
passion for martial arts and that energy that I see
at martial arts tournaments, because you know, kitchen stadium is
(06:18):
a field for cooking. I could take that same energy
and you know, transfer it to Iron Chef. And so
we started play. The producers and director like that idea,
and we started playing with the character and giving him
some oof and you know, bring it up, bring it up,
do this, do that, until we final got what you
(06:40):
guys saw on on on the show.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Right, So what's your favorite what's your favorite dish that
you that you personally enjoy?
Speaker 4 (06:50):
Okay, I have to say so I've had that question
a lot in terms of who's my favorite chef? Right?
And I have to say every because we shot oftentimes
two shows a day, that's two Iron Chefs and brilliant
(07:11):
Challenger chefs. Unless of course, an Iron Chef did a
double battle, which that happened every now and then. But
in terms of food, five that's twenty courses of food
for me every day. So to single out one in
particular is very difficult because I have to say most
(07:33):
of them literally were off well, they were just off
the charts fantastic. They were fantastic. Yeah, I've had I
remember Iron Chef Garcis did these ribs and it was
early in the morning. It was our first battle in
the morning, and I try to only eat one or
(07:56):
two bites of each course, even if they're fantastic, which
they often were, because one I didn't want to get full,
and two I didn't want the wardrobe to have to,
you know, get me new clothes for the shows. It
would have been very easy to put on weight with
all the food I was being served, Oh real quick.
So Scott, this is the thing. The difference from my
(08:18):
life doing Iron Chef America, where they paid me to
sit and eat get excited about food. Have some of
the best chefs in America cook with some of the
freshest ingredients and I didn't even have to judge, right,
(08:38):
no comment. So twenty courses a day versus my life
in Taiwan when I was seventeen, where I was teaching
conversational English and German to business people to earn money
to pay my rent for my food transportation and kung
(08:59):
fu and Chinese class. Because of the no money, I
only ate once a day, every second day, and I
did that for six months. So every day that I
went to Iron Chef America brought up tons of emotion, appreciation, gratitude,
(09:20):
and how interesting an adventurous life can be. You know,
you make one choice or don't make a choice, or
don't do something, and things happen, you know. So every
day all that made me super grateful, for one having
a great job with incredible people that I was learning from,
(09:40):
and they were feeding me. I had foodst I had
food every day. It was crazy. And there's not one
day where I didn't sit there and look at these
brilliant judges and all these chefs and all this food
and go, wow, I am one lucky guy. I get
to eat. I get to eat great food. So all
that to say, ah, the food back to Iron cheff
(10:02):
garcis he made these ribs and I wanted to eat
everything on my plate. But I remembered I got another
show to deal and this and that. So after the show,
I told my wife, let's go to Let's go to
Iron Chef Garcius's restaurant and have that food, because a
lot of Iron chefs had restaurants in the city we
were shooting in New York. And she said we can't.
(10:24):
I said, why not because he doesn't have a restaurant here,
and he may not even remember the recipe, man, you know,
but it was that good that, I mean, all these
years later, I still remember it. I remember morimotos on
Iron Chef Morimoto making this one particular dish and the
sushi rolls when you cut it, it looked like stained
(10:47):
glass from a chapel, from a from a church. Amazing,
you know. And that was the interesting things. Not only
was the food delicious, but it it it looked, it
appeared the visions and the imagination to make these things.
It just visually it looked amazing. They it smelled. That
kitchen smelled amazing. With the exception of Battle Oval Halloween
(11:12):
Battle and I had I'm not even gonna say, who
meane this fried crunchy pork sphincter rings not onion rings
sphincter rings. I guess there's an audience for that. I'm
I'm not cultivated enough to like it yet.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
I don't even know where to go with that. Yeah,
sphincter rings, okay, that I would say, it's spicy, Scott.
Speaker 4 (11:46):
The camera was on me right there as the Shepherd's
describing it, right before I was starting to and I
already had an idea because of the aroma hits you
and cameras are on you, and I'm you know, right here,
and I'm trying to the character's position of being Switzerland, right,
So I'm crunching into this and I don't know if
(12:07):
it was just my imagination or the aroma or everything above,
but it was. It was a rough one.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
Yeah, yeah, let me ask you this.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
Then. You know this show Gilmore Girls, it's all about
comfort food, and.
Speaker 4 (12:31):
Yes, what is it on that show?
Speaker 2 (12:34):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (12:36):
I just tried not to knock into the furniture.
Speaker 4 (12:38):
No, you were you were great. And by the way,
the episode I watched you talked about putting nutmeg in
your coffee. I tried that yesterday. It's really good. That's
something you made up or is that a thing?
Speaker 2 (12:53):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (12:53):
No, No, that's that's in the script.
Speaker 4 (12:55):
Yeah, no, okay, but I mean, do other people do
that or just your character because i've before.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
No, I think it's a you know, it's a fairly
commonly practiced in the northeastern United States, maybe in the
Midwest too, Okay, I think in the West coast they
probably used pineapple. I don't know.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (13:21):
Well, I tried your nutmeg and know it was really good.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
Thank you, thank You're welcome. That's that's so from your childhood.
What would you say is the the comfort food from
your childhood? If you were to remember one dish that
brings you back to all those great memories from.
Speaker 4 (13:41):
Childhood, probably Ramen Simon in Ramen. Yeah, we had that
in Hawaii, and then I used to make it for
my mom and brother in Colorado. We didn't have it
anymore in Humburg, but as a kid, I remember Roman
(14:03):
Roman noodles.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
I'm in So, if you were to if you were
to come into Luke's Diner, yes, I have two questions
for you.
Speaker 4 (14:12):
Okay, what would you order?
Speaker 1 (14:14):
Where would you sit?
Speaker 4 (14:16):
Okay, okay, okay, okay. One, I'd sit at the counter
because your characters seem really cool and I'd want to
figure out because I haven't watched the whole all of
the seasons. I would. I want to know about where
Luke came from, what his dreams were, what happened to him. Yeah,
(14:37):
and two I watched that whole episode, and you guys
talk about the cheeseburger or the burgers and the fries,
but I didn't get to see them. So I would
order what I didn't get to see.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
Okay, burger fries, all right, fries A right.
Speaker 4 (14:53):
Get at the counter and I'd cut you up.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
There you go, man, I don't know. I don't know
if I could interact with you very much much because
it's always busier in a bad mood, right, So you
know we could have talked. We'll talk martial arts. Do
you know about time sudo? We'll want to talk a
little bit about that.
Speaker 4 (15:12):
I only know what from seeing I've never practiced any
I learned some.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
Very interesting techniques because I studied.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
A little bit.
Speaker 4 (15:21):
Did you study too?
Speaker 1 (15:22):
A little bit? Not a lot, not a lot, but
I but I but I dabbled, let's say, and there
was some very interesting concentration focused techniques that my teacher
taught me. Where you recreate the flame, you stare a
flame twenty minutes a day, wow, and then everything just
(15:46):
seems to you know, around it get hazies, but that
focal point stays clear, that flame.
Speaker 4 (15:54):
Where would you where did you watch the flame?
Speaker 1 (15:57):
I just, you know, I'd set it up in my
room and okay, you know, get in the lotus position
on the floor and light a candle and stare at
the flame. And because I was a professional baseball pitcher,
were you really Yeah? I did that for seven years,
and I wanted to be able to just sort of
(16:21):
block out the crowd and block out everything except the
catcher's knit and where he wanted me to throw the ball,
because the catcher would give you the signal, and then
he set up inside outside high you know, whatever it was,
and I didn't even want to notice the presence of
the hitter or the umpire or I just you know,
it's like a movie that you see that everything is
(16:42):
just you and the catcher communicating. He sets up his
mit where he wants it and then recreate the flame
inside that mit and then everything else fades away. And
it actually worked. Yeah, it actually worked. So it was more,
you know, what I got out of was more of
(17:03):
the psychological stuff, which was fascinating to me, absolutely fascinating
to us, and I've applied it to certain situations in life,
which very helpful.
Speaker 4 (17:14):
Yes, I love that.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (17:17):
So you were a professional baseball pitcher for seven years.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
Yes, yes, but I dabbled and I have some martial
arts stories and I'm not going to tell them now,
but but I got back into it with my son's
teacher because he's a renowned black belt. He's he's like
a nineteen time world champion. He's still you know, he's
(17:44):
forty two or something at.
Speaker 4 (17:46):
This He knows what he's doing.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
He did, right, But he's just so great with the kids.
He's so great with the kids, and he's got some.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
Great kids over there.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
He's got such talented kids. My son doesn't compete yet, okay, ten.
He just does it for the forms, right right, he
loves the form.
Speaker 4 (18:05):
Yeah, that's great. Good, good technique and breezing great.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
He's great at that stuff. And I think he's going
to start competing because mister B as they call him
at the karate school, he's always taking kids to the
world championships of the national championships and they come back.
World champions are national champions and you know they always
come back with five or six medals. You know, what
are you doing now? What are you currently up to?
(18:29):
What projects are you working on? Okay?
Speaker 4 (18:32):
I was in Mongolia for seven was in Mongolia for
seven weeks prepping a show which we opened in the
English language in Singapore live theater show called The Mongol Khan.
And I'm one of the leads of that show. And
(18:53):
I love being back on stage. We are bringing it
to Los Angeles and Broadway. We're not sure this year
or next year. We have dates in Japan going back
to London. So I'm back on stage after many, many years.
But I love it. Exciting.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
That's exciting.
Speaker 4 (19:13):
Oh, Scott, I love it. I love it. And this
particular show, may I show you our program? Sure, it's
done in two languages, in the Mongolian language and in
the English language. This is our Mongolian language cast.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
Oh boy, look at that.
Speaker 4 (19:31):
It's a period piece and this is our English language cast.
And I'm in the blue.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
Are you playing a Genghis Khan?
Speaker 4 (19:40):
I am playing. I don't want to give it away,
but I'm not playing the con ron Yuan. Up here
is our con I'm this guy right here. I am
playing second in command and it's a really fun character.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
Does Marco Polo have a cameo in the play? You could? Well,
that's exciting. So you're gonna be on Broadway, You're going
to London.
Speaker 4 (20:14):
Yes, So we're working on that and I'm doing a
couple of indies in between. Okay, so still moving, still working.
I still train Shakespeare and presence and voice with my teacher,
Patsy Rodenberg. She's out of London, and uh, I still
work in the craft, you know, trying to get.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
Mark de Coscas. Thank you so much. Look out for
Mark's new play, big production, The mongol Con, which will
be coming to Los Angeles and New York Broadway in
New York London, So go check it out here next year. Mark, Uh,
thank you so much for your time and good luck
(20:57):
with the films, the indies and and this wonder will
play that you're in.
Speaker 4 (21:01):
Scott, thank you for having me and protect your growing.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
I always do. It's the first thing I do when
I wake up. I Hi, buddy, have a good one.
Speaker 4 (21:13):
Thank you, Thank you.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
All right, hey everybody, and as again.
Speaker 5 (21:44):
Follow us on Instagram at I Am all In podcast
and email us at Gilmore at iHeartRadio dot com.
Speaker 4 (22:00):
H
I Am all In again.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Let's just.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
Luke's Diner with Scott Patterson, an iHeartRadio podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
He Everybody, Scott Patterson, I Am all In Podcast one
eleven productions, iHeart Radio Media and iHeart Podcast. We have
another episode of Luke's Diner one on one with Mark
A dec.
Speaker 4 (00:35):
Costcos very well pronounced.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Not bad, right, not bad?
Speaker 4 (00:39):
You got it.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
I am gonna tell you a little bit about Mark.
He's a renowned actor and martial artist with over forty
film credits including Brotherhood of the Wolf, Cradle to the Grave,
and Drive. He's best known for his roles as Wolf
Fat in the Hawaii five Oh and the chairman on
the Food Networks Iron Chef America. While he doesn't cook
(01:04):
or judge on Iron Chef, he brings intensity and flare
to the show as it's charismatic overseered to Costcos. Has
also starred in the Crow series and appeared Agents of Shield, Chicago,
p D, Lucifer Hallmarks, The Perfect Bride Films. Yes, Mark,
welcome to the podcast. Nice to have you.
Speaker 4 (01:23):
Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it. Scott.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Let me ask you this. Your father, Yes, is a
renowned martial artist. He is and he was inducted in
ninety nine or you were inducted, and so.
Speaker 4 (01:40):
My father, I believe that my mother were both inducted
into the black Belt Hall of Fame and then I
was last year.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Oh congratulations, thank you, thank you so much. My son
is a green belt white stripe. Oh fantastic tangs sudo. Yeah,
he's been going at it a couple.
Speaker 4 (01:58):
Of years, and he tried to practice on you.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Yeah, I kind of stopped that. He's he's ten years old.
He's hitting too hard.
Speaker 4 (02:06):
Now, yeah, yeah, big and strong.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
He's you know, he's not even seventy pounds yet, and
he's just like he's he's like a bar of iron, and.
Speaker 4 (02:16):
They know the targets to hit, you know, I.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Say too.
Speaker 4 (02:21):
As your voice goes up.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
So yeah, so you were raised in this discipline, and
so when did you discover martial arts? I mean right away, right,
your mom and dad had you in the dough sho.
Speaker 4 (02:36):
You know, in one way, I would have discovered it myself,
but I didn't.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Oh.
Speaker 4 (02:43):
My father was the founder of his own style. I mean,
his his base style was kadu kempo. He'd also boxed,
did some judo, and then he got into uh style
he's from Hawaii called Kadu Kempo. From Kadu Kempo, he
formed his own style which had more of a Chinese
and Filipino influence. My stepmother raised me along with my dad,
(03:08):
and she was my mom was his first black belt,
female black belt in his style, and those two raised me.
So I have pictures of me at four years old
doing stances in some moves that at six six years old,
(03:30):
mom and dad put my brother and I in our
first tournament. It wasn't like we said, oh, we want
to we want to go fight guys we don't know
in a stinky, sweaty gym on the weekend instead of
riding our bikes with everybody else in the fields. We
found ourselves in this big tournament and my brother was
on one side of this huge line of little kids
and I was on the other. And that's how we started.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
How did you go from this very very unique background
to Iron Chef America. I mean, do you come from track?
You know, It's like, no, I know you had a
big career in film and TV, but here you are.
You know, there's this big resurgence for you and Iron
(04:23):
Chef America everybody. Everybody knows you. Now you're the Chef's chairman.
So how did you get that gig?
Speaker 4 (04:31):
How did you Scott? I'm still trying to figure that out.
I mean, it's it's a crazy one. So you mentioned
the movie Brotherhood of the Wolf. So apparently that French movie,
period piece, French movie where I play Native American was
(04:52):
a movie that one of the executives at one of
the big corporations in Japan liked, and they happened to
have the original Iron Chef in Japan. They had that
franchise and it was coming to America and for them
to get the new chairman, they had approval or that
executive I guess had some power and apparently had some
(05:14):
approval on whoever the next chairman in America would be.
And because of the Brotherhood of the Wolf, because of
a French movie, I got on a Japanese list for
an American show. And when Food Network started to take
meetings for their new chairman, I was on the list
(05:35):
and they called me in. I spoke with them. I
was very upfront. I said, I've never taken a formal
cooking class in my life. I've never taken a cooking
class in my life. As matter of fact, I barely
even cook, but I do kick different, you know, one
vowel difference, but maybe it's you know, in the ballpark.
(05:57):
And we started talking about the Caro the chairman, how
he doesn't need to cook, and I said, you know
what we could do. We could play around if if
you invite me to the show, I could take my
passion for martial arts and that energy that I see
at martial arts tournaments, because you know, kitchen stadium is
(06:18):
a field for cooking. I could take that same energy
and you know, transfer it to Iron Chef. And so
we started play. The producers and director like that idea,
and we started playing with the character and giving him
some oof and you know, bring it up, bring it up,
do this, do that, until we final got what you
(06:40):
guys saw on on on the show.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Right, So what's your favorite what's your favorite dish that
you that you personally enjoy?
Speaker 4 (06:50):
Okay, I have to say so I've had that question
a lot in terms of who's my favorite chef? Right?
And I have to say every because we shot oftentimes
two shows a day, that's two Iron Chefs and brilliant
(07:11):
Challenger chefs. Unless of course, an Iron Chef did a
double battle, which that happened every now and then. But
in terms of food, five that's twenty courses of food
for me every day. So to single out one in
particular is very difficult because I have to say most
(07:33):
of them literally were off well, they were just off
the charts fantastic. They were fantastic. Yeah, I've had I
remember Iron Chef Garcis did these ribs and it was
early in the morning. It was our first battle in
the morning, and I try to only eat one or
(07:56):
two bites of each course, even if they're fantastic, which
they often were, because one I didn't want to get full,
and two I didn't want the wardrobe to have to,
you know, get me new clothes for the shows. It
would have been very easy to put on weight with
all the food I was being served, Oh real quick.
So Scott, this is the thing. The difference from my
(08:18):
life doing Iron Chef America, where they paid me to
sit and eat get excited about food. Have some of
the best chefs in America cook with some of the
freshest ingredients and I didn't even have to judge, right,
(08:38):
no comment. So twenty courses a day versus my life
in Taiwan when I was seventeen, where I was teaching
conversational English and German to business people to earn money
to pay my rent for my food transportation and kung
(08:59):
fu and Chinese class. Because of the no money, I
only ate once a day, every second day, and I
did that for six months. So every day that I
went to Iron Chef America brought up tons of emotion, appreciation, gratitude,
(09:20):
and how interesting an adventurous life can be. You know,
you make one choice or don't make a choice, or
don't do something, and things happen, you know. So every
day all that made me super grateful, for one having
a great job with incredible people that I was learning from,
(09:40):
and they were feeding me. I had foodst I had
food every day. It was crazy. And there's not one
day where I didn't sit there and look at these
brilliant judges and all these chefs and all this food
and go, wow, I am one lucky guy. I get
to eat. I get to eat great food. So all
that to say, ah, the food back to Iron cheff
(10:02):
garcis he made these ribs and I wanted to eat
everything on my plate. But I remembered I got another
show to deal and this and that. So after the show,
I told my wife, let's go to Let's go to
Iron Chef Garcius's restaurant and have that food, because a
lot of Iron chefs had restaurants in the city we
were shooting in New York. And she said we can't.
(10:24):
I said, why not because he doesn't have a restaurant here,
and he may not even remember the recipe, man, you know,
but it was that good that, I mean, all these
years later, I still remember it. I remember morimotos on
Iron Chef Morimoto making this one particular dish and the
sushi rolls when you cut it, it looked like stained
(10:47):
glass from a chapel, from a from a church. Amazing,
you know. And that was the interesting things. Not only
was the food delicious, but it it it looked, it
appeared the visions and the imagination to make these things.
It just visually it looked amazing. They it smelled. That
kitchen smelled amazing. With the exception of Battle Oval Halloween
(11:12):
Battle and I had I'm not even gonna say, who
meane this fried crunchy pork sphincter rings not onion rings
sphincter rings. I guess there's an audience for that. I'm
I'm not cultivated enough to like it yet.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
I don't even know where to go with that. Yeah,
sphincter rings, okay, that I would say, it's spicy, Scott.
Speaker 4 (11:46):
The camera was on me right there as the Shepherd's
describing it, right before I was starting to and I
already had an idea because of the aroma hits you
and cameras are on you, and I'm you know, right here,
and I'm trying to the character's position of being Switzerland, right,
So I'm crunching into this and I don't know if
(12:07):
it was just my imagination or the aroma or everything above,
but it was. It was a rough one.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
Yeah, yeah, let me ask you this.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
Then. You know this show Gilmore Girls, it's all about
comfort food, and.
Speaker 4 (12:31):
Yes, what is it on that show?
Speaker 2 (12:34):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (12:36):
I just tried not to knock into the furniture.
Speaker 4 (12:38):
No, you were you were great. And by the way,
the episode I watched you talked about putting nutmeg in
your coffee. I tried that yesterday. It's really good. That's
something you made up or is that a thing?
Speaker 2 (12:53):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (12:53):
No, No, that's that's in the script.
Speaker 4 (12:55):
Yeah, no, okay, but I mean, do other people do
that or just your character because i've before.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
No, I think it's a you know, it's a fairly
commonly practiced in the northeastern United States, maybe in the
Midwest too, Okay, I think in the West coast they
probably used pineapple. I don't know.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (13:21):
Well, I tried your nutmeg and know it was really good.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
Thank you, thank You're welcome. That's that's so from your childhood.
What would you say is the the comfort food from
your childhood? If you were to remember one dish that
brings you back to all those great memories from.
Speaker 4 (13:41):
Childhood, probably Ramen Simon in Ramen. Yeah, we had that
in Hawaii, and then I used to make it for
my mom and brother in Colorado. We didn't have it
anymore in Humburg, but as a kid, I remember Roman
(14:03):
Roman noodles.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
I'm in So, if you were to if you were
to come into Luke's Diner, yes, I have two questions
for you.
Speaker 4 (14:12):
Okay, what would you order?
Speaker 1 (14:14):
Where would you sit?
Speaker 4 (14:16):
Okay, okay, okay, okay. One, I'd sit at the counter
because your characters seem really cool and I'd want to
figure out because I haven't watched the whole all of
the seasons. I would. I want to know about where
Luke came from, what his dreams were, what happened to him. Yeah,
(14:37):
and two I watched that whole episode, and you guys
talk about the cheeseburger or the burgers and the fries,
but I didn't get to see them. So I would
order what I didn't get to see.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
Okay, burger fries, all right, fries A right.
Speaker 4 (14:53):
Get at the counter and I'd cut you up.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
There you go, man, I don't know. I don't know
if I could interact with you very much much because
it's always busier in a bad mood, right, So you
know we could have talked. We'll talk martial arts. Do
you know about time sudo? We'll want to talk a
little bit about that.
Speaker 4 (15:12):
I only know what from seeing I've never practiced any
I learned some.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
Very interesting techniques because I studied.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
A little bit.
Speaker 4 (15:21):
Did you study too?
Speaker 1 (15:22):
A little bit? Not a lot, not a lot, but
I but I but I dabbled, let's say, and there
was some very interesting concentration focused techniques that my teacher
taught me. Where you recreate the flame, you stare a
flame twenty minutes a day, wow, and then everything just
(15:46):
seems to you know, around it get hazies, but that
focal point stays clear, that flame.
Speaker 4 (15:54):
Where would you where did you watch the flame?
Speaker 1 (15:57):
I just, you know, I'd set it up in my
room and okay, you know, get in the lotus position
on the floor and light a candle and stare at
the flame. And because I was a professional baseball pitcher,
were you really Yeah? I did that for seven years,
and I wanted to be able to just sort of
(16:21):
block out the crowd and block out everything except the
catcher's knit and where he wanted me to throw the ball,
because the catcher would give you the signal, and then
he set up inside outside high you know, whatever it was,
and I didn't even want to notice the presence of
the hitter or the umpire or I just you know,
it's like a movie that you see that everything is
(16:42):
just you and the catcher communicating. He sets up his
mit where he wants it and then recreate the flame
inside that mit and then everything else fades away. And
it actually worked. Yeah, it actually worked. So it was more,
you know, what I got out of was more of
(17:03):
the psychological stuff, which was fascinating to me, absolutely fascinating
to us, and I've applied it to certain situations in life,
which very helpful.
Speaker 4 (17:14):
Yes, I love that.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (17:17):
So you were a professional baseball pitcher for seven years.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
Yes, yes, but I dabbled and I have some martial
arts stories and I'm not going to tell them now,
but but I got back into it with my son's
teacher because he's a renowned black belt. He's he's like
a nineteen time world champion. He's still you know, he's
(17:44):
forty two or something at.
Speaker 4 (17:46):
This He knows what he's doing.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
He did, right, But he's just so great with the kids.
He's so great with the kids, and he's got some.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
Great kids over there.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
He's got such talented kids. My son doesn't compete yet, okay, ten.
He just does it for the forms, right right, he
loves the form.
Speaker 4 (18:05):
Yeah, that's great. Good, good technique and breezing great.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
He's great at that stuff. And I think he's going
to start competing because mister B as they call him
at the karate school, he's always taking kids to the
world championships of the national championships and they come back.
World champions are national champions and you know they always
come back with five or six medals. You know, what
are you doing now? What are you currently up to?
(18:29):
What projects are you working on? Okay?
Speaker 4 (18:32):
I was in Mongolia for seven was in Mongolia for
seven weeks prepping a show which we opened in the
English language in Singapore live theater show called The Mongol Khan.
And I'm one of the leads of that show. And
(18:53):
I love being back on stage. We are bringing it
to Los Angeles and Broadway. We're not sure this year
or next year. We have dates in Japan going back
to London. So I'm back on stage after many, many years.
But I love it. Exciting.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
That's exciting.
Speaker 4 (19:13):
Oh, Scott, I love it. I love it. And this
particular show, may I show you our program? Sure, it's
done in two languages, in the Mongolian language and in
the English language. This is our Mongolian language cast.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
Oh boy, look at that.
Speaker 4 (19:31):
It's a period piece and this is our English language cast.
And I'm in the blue.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
Are you playing a Genghis Khan?
Speaker 4 (19:40):
I am playing. I don't want to give it away,
but I'm not playing the con ron Yuan. Up here
is our con I'm this guy right here. I am
playing second in command and it's a really fun character.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
Does Marco Polo have a cameo in the play? You could? Well,
that's exciting. So you're gonna be on Broadway, You're going
to London.
Speaker 4 (20:14):
Yes, So we're working on that and I'm doing a
couple of indies in between. Okay, so still moving, still working.
I still train Shakespeare and presence and voice with my teacher,
Patsy Rodenberg. She's out of London, and uh, I still
work in the craft, you know, trying to get.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
Mark de Coscas. Thank you so much. Look out for
Mark's new play, big production, The mongol Con, which will
be coming to Los Angeles and New York Broadway in
New York London, So go check it out here next year. Mark, Uh,
thank you so much for your time and good luck
(20:57):
with the films, the indies and and this wonder will
play that you're in.
Speaker 4 (21:01):
Scott, thank you for having me and protect your growing.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
I always do. It's the first thing I do when
I wake up. I Hi, buddy, have a good one.
Speaker 4 (21:13):
Thank you, Thank you.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
All right, hey everybody, and as again.
Speaker 5 (21:44):
Follow us on Instagram at I Am all In podcast
and email us at Gilmore at iHeartRadio dot com.
Speaker 4 (22:00):
H
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