Chris Valdes cooks with a point of view, and it starts with where he comes from. In this episode, the Miami chef and TV host breaks down his Five Rules for Using Food as Identity. He talks about cooking with your story at the center, why success only matters if you share it, and how taking care of your body is non-negotiable if you want to stay in the game. There is a through line to everything he says. The small moments matter. The daily rituals count. The goal is not the highlight reel, it is building a life that feels good to live, one meal at a time.
What I love about Chris is how grounded it all feels. There is ambition there, real drive, but it is anchored in generosity and perspective. He is not chasing the next big thing at the expense of everything else. He is paying attention. He is taking care of himself. He is making space for other people. It is a reminder that you can build something meaningful without burning out or losing the plot. That kind of clarity is rare, and it sticks with you.
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Introduction
Hello, and welcome to Five Rules for the Good Life.
I’m your host, Darin Bresnitz.
Today, I chat with Miami chef and TV host, Chris Valdes, who’s here to share his five rules for using food as identity. He talks about how the best males are never eaten alone, how taking care of your body is an essential ingredient for a healthy career, and that the good life isn’t just red carpets and big moments, it’s elevating it every day. It’s a great conversation for those looking to stay in the game for the long haul. and how having an open mind to what comes your way is a great way to live your best life.
So let’s get into the rules.
Welcome & Opening Question
Chris, so nice to meet you. Thank you for taking the time out of your busy week in Miami to sit down for a chat. Welcome to the show.
Hey, thank you for having me. I’m so excited.
Food has always been at the center of your family and your life. How has it shaped who you are?
Growing up in a family restaurant and always being of service to others, of always being in the industry of sharing food as a way of a language of love, seeing that right since the moment I could remember, it just adapted me to giving that back to the community, giving that back to our clients, giving that back to just anyone I come across, using food as a love language, which is part of who I am.
On Latin Cuisine & Cultural Influence
It’s been so amazing to see Latin culture and cuisine take center stage, especially in America over the last few years. Why do you think that is happening right now?
I think because in Latin American culture, we’re just taught to share. We don’t mind not only sharing our dishes, but mixing it with everyone else’s dishes. So for example, here in Miami, you could go to a restaurant. It’s a fusion between Peruvian food and Asian food, Mexican and Japanese. We’ve just learned that not only can we share our food and our recipes and our culture and our history, but we can mix it with yours and we could tell two stories at once. And it’s like this big party of celebration of everyone’s culture.
The Cookbook & Storytelling Through Food
You shared a lot of these stories in your cookbook, One with the Kitchen, which is celebrating its fifth birthday with so many recipes and so many stories in your life and career. How did you select the ones you wanted to put on the pages?
It was a bit hard because first of all, I’m always hungry since it was food nonstop. Most importantly, I was just tapping into memories, memories that I had from childhood, memories I had from family celebrations, special moments. In our culture, every important moment is attached to food. I just went back there and like, okay, and how could I add a twist to this? Memory, twist, add to the book. Memory, twist, add to the book. And I just put some of my favorite recipes.
Aside from them having a story, I think I also wanted to include unity in there. The dish that I use in the cover of the book is a pavlova. It shows the story of what food is supposed to do. Pavlova is very popular in Peruvian culture. Many don’t know that it originated in Australia. And now everyone here, at least in Miami, enjoys pavlova. And I think I can speak for many parts of the USA or even outside, because when I recently went to Paris and London, every other restaurant had a pavlova on their menu. It’s just done beautifully. That’s what food is supposed to do. It’s supposed to just be shared and let people put their little spin on it.
The Five Rules
Being able to connect with cultures and people and countries through food is one of the reasons why I love this world so much, which is why I’m so excited for you to share your five rules for using food as identity. A lot of the times people aren’t going to be able to travel to someone’s country of origin. They’re going to meet them at the restaurant. They’re going to meet them at a home. They’re going to find their food where they are.
But being able to cook dishes that are intrinsically linked to who you are is a big part of your rule number one.
Rule #1: Cook Where You Come From
Rule number one is cook where you come from. Your story and your dish is supposed to say a little bit about where you come from, your culture, your technique, what drives you as a chef or as a cook. Many people, sometimes they get very fancy and they forget to put the most important part to the dish, which is you, which is what makes you unique and being in this world.
Whenever I have the chance to incorporate myself into a recipe, I always make sure that there is extra, especially when I’m serving at home. It doesn’t mean 10 ribeyes or eight lobsters. It just sometimes can mean a bigger salad, more pizza, and it’s a fundamental part of your rule number two.
Rule #2: Success Tastes Better When It’s Shared
Rule number two is success stays better when it’s shared. As a chef, if you have a talent or as a cook, share it with others. Share it with your family. Use this moment to bring people together. Share it with your staff. I go to the local culinary school every now and then, and I’ll teach them a class or two just because we’ve invested so much into our time, into our story, into our history. Might as well share that.
Mm-hmm. There’s a special feeling when you share your knowledge, when you share what drives you with others. Not only are you placing seeds of inspiration towards others, you’re doing the most fundamental thing you could do as a human being. When you share so much of yourself.
Rule #3: Take Care of Your Body Like It’s Part of the Recipe
Catering, being on TV, cooking for the community, it is easy to get burnt out and run down. Then you can’t provide for anyone. Your third rule talks about adding this to the recipe to make sure that you can keep going forward.
The third rule is something I learned the hard way when I was already burnt out. So it says, take care of your body like it’s part of the recipe. It’s the most important ingredient of the recipe. I feel that as a man and as a chef, we’re so trained to go, go, go. You’re not tired. Of course.
Little by little, I learned the importance of boundaries within yourself. What is my day off? What am I going to do on my day off? Am I going to be doing scheduling when I’m sitting in a sofa? No, you’re going to mentally just not do anything. You’re going to give this time to yourself. You’re going to use this time to rest and rest mentally, rest physically, because if not, eventually it adds up and it takes a toll on you.
Once you get into that little dark pothole, it’s very difficult to get out of it. And it’s also a long process. Take care of yourself. And I know it sounds cliche and repetitive. It wasn’t until it recently happened to me, it just taught me, you’re like a car. If you don’t take care of your car, you don’t put the water, the oil, and you don’t put gas, and eventually you’re gonna break. I could tell you that because I’ve burned three cars in my life, so.
Rule #4: Elevate Your Everyday Life
A big part of burnout can be chasing big moments, red carpets, celebrity, huge fancy dinners, looking forward to the moments that are coming up and not enjoying what’s right in front of you. By practicing your fourth rule, you can elevate your life every single day. What’s your rule number four?
My rule number four is elevate your everyday life. Find beauty in those random moments. For example, I like going on long walks and sometimes it’s on a gray day. Put your favorite music, light up a candle. When you go to a restaurant, say yes to the wine pairing. It’s just these little tokens of love and appreciation that you may give to yourself or to whoever’s around you to just remind yourself that it’s not always about the big moments. It’s also about what you do in the small moments that add to your big moments later on.
Rule #5: Trust the Process
Those big moments and those small moments do stack up over a lifetime in a career. It’s so hard to predict where you’re going to go when you start. Your fifth and final rule talks about how to navigate that long and winding road to when you finally found yourself at the end of it. What’s your rule number five?
My rule number five is trust the process. Immediately, my mind takes me back to someone in my team that’s been working with me for eight years. I always would go up to her and I’d be like, do you think that all of these things that I’ve been doing will one day add up? And she’s like, of course, they’re going to add up.
So now that I can look back at to my TV career, nine years, I just celebrated 100,000 subscribers on YouTube. Congratulations. The first platform where I started was on YouTube because I said, if there’s no platform for me, I’m going to create my own. Last week when I was celebrating that, I had a little moment to myself and I’m like, wow, all these little moments do add up. I started with a set of seven videos. I now have 207 videos.
The key... And this was my hard part is patience and timing. Patience. You have to be patient with the process. Patient doesn’t mean I’m going to sit my ass here and just wait for things to come. No, that means I’m trusting the process. I’m putting in the work. I’m getting the classes. I’m getting the lessons. I’m showing up to the big interviews, to the small interviews, to the big moments, to the small moments. I’m putting in my extra cooking techniques and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. All of these things add up.
Where to Follow Chris
Chris, I think it’s definitely added up for you. If people want to follow along with what you’re doing, reach out for you to cook for them, just see what you’re up to in your day-to-day community and culinary life. How can they follow? Where can they get involved?
Google, Instagram, everywhere, Chef Chris Valdes, and you’ll see everything I’ve done there. And I invite everyone, especially for just foodies. I speak the universal love language of just wanting to share food for the sake of sharing food because it just makes me happy and hungry. And those are two things that everyone should be, happy and hungry. And going to the gym.
Closing
Chris, thank you so much. And next time in Miami, I’m going to swing by and grab a bite of food from you.
Let’s do it. And I’ll take you to some of my favorite restaurants and we can grab a mojito while we’re at it.
